Rating:PG-13
Chapter 13 - Search
January 2005, Colorado Springs, SGC, Tauri
"We are receiving an IDC. It's SG-4."the Lieutenant in control room informed the members of SG-1 and Hammond. "They report finding the complete crew of the Alpha Site tied up near the stargate. Most of them have only minor injuries and will be ready to return to Earth in several minutes."
"And the Alpha Site?" Hammond asked.
"Completely destroyed Sir. There is nothing left. SG-4 thinks it looks like the complex was bombed from an Alkesh."
"Inform the medical teams to be prepared." Hammond ordered. "Major do we at least know how these slayers could pass the Iris?"
"I think I know how it happened." Sam nodded. "Do you remember Sokar trying to melt the Iris? Slayers did the exact opposite. From the measurement our sensors made before the Iris cracked, it's temperature seriously decreased in the few seconds after the gate activated."
"And that's bad because?" Jack wondered.
"Every material even titanium loses structural integrity when it's temperature gets close to zero Kelvin and metal also decreases it's size with temperature. The Iris simply couldn't withstand these conditions and I'm afraid we have no means to stop the slayers from repeating it. "
"I don't think they will attack us again." Teal'c stated. "They could have killed us but they didn't, probably because they found out people currently occupying SGC are not responsible. That shows a behavior based on honor. They won't attack us unless we give them a reason to."
"So all we're going to do is sit down and hope the slayers won't come to the conclusion that leaving us alive wasn't such a good idea?" Jack asked.
"The president is discussing this matter with other members of our government who know about stargate program as we speak." Hammond responded ."You know the politicians Jack. It usually takes days or even weeks before they agree on something. However I think the president doesn't wish further conflicts. The Tok'ra are sending a ship to Verona to prove slayer's accusations and if what they uploaded to our computers is true then we'll have to face the consequences."
"General I think that's what we're already doing. Bauer and NID messed up and we'll be the ones to pay for it. And Carter." Jack turned to Sam." Do we really have to waste time with transferring all those computers?"
"Sir, even though it seems they didn't leave here anything else except the informations about the two dead slayers and Verona, we can't be sure they didn't modify our programs. It's possible they installed a virus or a monitoring program into our system. All records about their visit were deleted and overwritten several times with random data and they breached our security protocols in a matter of seconds which means they are probably a very advanced race and the only way to be sure... "
"...is to replace everything that has a memory block. I get it."
"Not mentioning they took samples of all our equipment." Carter added.
"Samples of equipment?" Jack snorted. "They stole my cell phone!"
Two days later, SWC,Antara
Dawn and Vi were sitting in the conference room and studying the files Willow downloaded from SGC computers. Dawn was nervously tapping her fingers on the table and apparently not paying much attention to the text. "I'm sick of this crap. I should be on Verona's orbit right now, trying to find a way how to get the people out of the planet but what am I doing ? Reading useless info about these morons while Veronians are running out of food, water and clean air to breathe.",she sighed.
"You act like you were possessed. That's why Willow and Faith didn't take you with them." Vi replied.
"They could at least say where they are going. Everything I know is Willow possibly found a way to help the Veronians."
"She probably just didn't want to give anyone a false hope." Vi explained and turned her attention to her laptop again. "And if their reports aren't lies then these morons already managed to save several civilizations so you better continue reading."
"They should be glad Faith and Will didn't blow them up. Which was a mistake."
"So you would do it?" Vi looked into Dawn's eyes. "You would kill them even though we found out it was another General who ordered to send the bomb?"
Dawn just looked down without answering.
"Didn't think so. I realize you're angry because you had friends there but soldiers in SGC don't deserve to die as well as the Veronians didn't deserve it. It's never that simple and if you ask me I think that..."
Vi stopped talking when she noticed Dawn wasn't listening to her anymore. All Dawn did was gazing at the screen of her laptop, frozen and unable to move her eyes away from the picture she was looking at. Vi stood up and went to Dawn to see what shocked her so much. "Dawn this could be anyone."
"It's her. I know that." Dawn shook her head.
"The photograph has incredibly low resolution and if you bothered to read the description you'd find out these people are refugees from one of Apophis's worlds. It's not even the planet where we lost Buffy."
Dawn controlled the world's location."But it's close to it."
"Look." Vi turned Dawn to face her."Problem number one. We can't use stargate without Willow's freezing spell and even if we could, the Tauri will be probably better prepared then the last time. Problem number two. Tauri is a protected planet so if you use a ship, the Asguard will vaporize it before you say Hellmouth. Problem number three. Everyone on Tauri will immediately recognize you're an alien. Problem number four. Faith and the others will never agree with a mission based on a blurry photo."
"That's why we're not going to tell them. Even if there is just a fiddling possibility that it's really Buffy I have to try."Dawn stated with determination in her voice."And nobody will recongize we are aliens because their planet is very similar to ours. Almost too much when I think about it. So are you going to help me or not?"
Vi was watching the photo in silence for almost a minute and Dawn already thought she'll have to go alone when Vi took a deep breath. "I'll help you. Giles would kill me if I didn't. Though Faith is likely to kill me because I will. Give me an hour to prepare and then we'll meet in the hangar."
"Thank you. I don't think I can succeed just by myself." Dawn hug Vi, relieved she wouldn't have to go alone and the she left to her room to pack everything necessary.
Vi watched Dawn leave and went back to the computer. She entered a message for Willow that would activate a week later and explain where she and Dawn were heading. Vi had another reason to go with Dawn besides searching for Buffy. After Willow had downloaded informations from SGC Vi,Faith and Willow realized that General Bauer was the one most responsible for Verona and secretly decided he has to be eliminated. Because Faith and Willow were now the leaders of the fight against the Goa'uld, Vi had volunteered to be the assassin. She downloaded all available informations about Bauer into her PDA and left.
Several hours later, low orbit of a protected planet
An Alkesh dropped one of his bombs on a small island. The bomb detonated and set the forest on the island on fire which immediately started spreading. The Alkesh didn't continue the attack and just hovered 100 kilometers above the land for the next five minutes.
"Are you sure they won't shoot first and ask later?" Faith turned to Willow.
"I have no idea that's why I created a strong magical shield around the ship.It should give us time to explain."
They didn't have to wait long and an Asguard vessel left hyperspace above the planet and the communication screen in the Alkesh activated. "I am Thor, commander of the Asguard fleet. You attacked a planet belonging to the treaty. For that you will be destroyed."
"Wait!" Willow shouted and hoped the small grey alien will listen to her. "Check your sensor readings and you'll realize no people live on the island."
Thor inspected the information and nodded. "Then why did you attack it?"
"We need your help."
Several hours later, orbit of Tauri
Vi's transport ship left the hyperspace and cloaked. "Do you know the exact position?"
"Not really." Dawn informed her friend. "But we know the coordinates of SGC and the city is like thirty kilometers away from it so it shouldn't be to hard to find."
Vi nodded and flew the ship towards the planet when a Ha'tak left the hyper space only about hundred kilometers behind them.
"Well. I didn't see that coming." Vi stated surprised.
----
"General!" the Lieutenant in control room called Hammond. "We just received a message from Norad. They detected a Ha'tak in our orbit."
"That's exactly what we needed right now." Jack snorted.
"I'll inform the president. With the Alpha Site destroyed we don't have an enough equipped base where we could send our people but we should start the evacuation nevertheless. Alarm all personnel in the base Lieutenant. "Hammond ordered.
"I don't understand why Thor isn't already here beating the crap out of them for breaking the Treaty." Jack wondered."Come on Thor. Where are you ?"
----
"Maybe it belongs to the Tauri." Dawn suggested watching the ship.
"It doesn't. They still haven't the shields activated so I scanned the Ha'tak." Vi informed Dawn."Everyone in there has a symbiont which means we'll have to stop them before they attack."
"Give me one good reason why." Dawn snorted.
"I'll give you two. First. Buffy might be on the planet in a city near Chappa-Ai which is the place they'll certainly attack. Second. I'm not ready to sacrifice six billion people just because they have a screwed up military. It's not like something similar didn't happen on Earth. You're the one who remembers the Initiative so you should know better."
"Fine. So we'll use our ship and destroy it."
"A transport ship against a Ha'tak? Dawn you've been spending to much time watching B science fiction movies with Andrew. We'll have to transport to their vessel while their shields are down and put some explosives near the engines, weapons and the shield generator. The main reactor is too heavily protected."
"Do we have some of these Lunac orbs?"
"Something better." Vi stood up and gave Dawn a small package from her bag. "I'll take the weapons because from the three places the most guards are there. You'll take the shield and the engine."
Dawn nodded. She knew the content of the package. Semtex. Originally developed for metallurgy in Czech Republic this material proved to be the strongest plastic explosive ever created on Earth. She put it into her bag, took her ASW and followed Vi to the rings.
"Where are the Asguard when you need them?" Dawn shook her head.
Meanwhile, orbit of Verona
A bright white light flashed in the interior of Thor's ship and two hundred Veronians appeared inside. Willow smiled ready to do a happy dance but decided not to because it might scare away the Asguard commander sitting next to her. "It worked!"
"It's easy to modify our transports to pass a Goa'uld shield when we know all it's parameters." Thor explained.
"We are in your debt. Can you please take these people to one of your protected planets?"
Thor nodded. "I know a planet on the same technological level not far away from here. It will take tens of transports but my ship is fast enough to take care of that in several hours."
"Thank you. The Veronians would run out of water in three days and we were desperate. We wouldn't attack a protected planet to contact your kind if it wasn't necessary."
Thor watched her for a while and then gave her a small white crystal. "Next time use this."
Willow nodded and the Asguard transported her back to Faith.
----
The Lieutenant in SGC called Jack while Hammond was calling the president. "Sir. We just received another message. Norad detected a ring transport from a place near the Ha'tak. However our satellites don't show any ship in the base point of the ring transport."
"Cloaked?" Daniel suggested.
"Probably." Carter agreed. "But why would they try to hide when they know we don't have the means to endanger them? Lieutenant. Try sending a coded greeting. Maybe the cloaked ship belongs to the Tok'ra."
"No answer." the Lieutenant informed Sam.
"I can think of only one other civilization that uses Goa'uld technology and could be interested in our planet right now." Sam guessed.
"Oh no." Jack raised his arms. "Please don't tell me the ship belongs to the slayers. We should really tell Hammond to remove the ad from Galaxy Today that's saying Earth is a great place for unexpected visitations."
"I don't see why you are concerned O'Neill." Teal'c made his favorite eyebrow manoeuvre. "If slayers transported to the Ha'tak then they'll try to destroy it which might save us."
"Or the Ha'tak belongs to the slayers and they came to finish what they started Teal'c. I have a feeling we've just stopped walking in the rain and are now standing under the spout." Jack mused.
----
Dawn carefully continued walking through one of the Ha'tak's corridors. She had already placed a load of Semtex to the ship's engine and managed to remain undetected. Now she was heading to the shield generator. She spotted only two guards near the door talking to each other and not paying attention so she changed the mode of her ASW to zat gun and fired three times at each of them. The guards disappeared and Dawn could easily place a load of explosives to the generator. When she was heading back to the rings a group of Jaffa almost saw her but she was fast enough and hid behind one of the arches of the corridor. Dawn just hoped Vi had the same luck with the guards near the weapon controls.
When Dawn reached the transport ring Vi wasn't there yet but she didn't have to wait long. She saw Vi running towards her with bleeding shoulder and a large group of Jaffa on her heels.
"We have to get out of here!" Vi shouted at her.
Dawn nodded and activated the rings as soon as Vi got close enough.
Vi and Dawn safely transported back to their ship before the Jaffa could reach them. "You're hurt." Dawn studied Vi's shoulder.
"It's just a scratch." Vi waved her hand. "I'll be alright. Slayer heeling remember?"
Dawn nodded, laid her weapon on one of the seats and headed back to the ship's controls."OK. Let's blow the damned Ha'tak."
"I have a better idea." Vi stated with deep voice, her eyes glowing.
Dawn tried to run to the detonator but Vi took her arm, spun her around and threw her at the control panel. While hitting the panel Dawn broke cloaking field's controls and the ship decloaked.
The Ha'tak immediately opened fire at the ship obviously not caring their agent is still on board.
Vi came to Dawn and started to choke her. "This body is amazing. I can feel all the strength and potential."
Dawn tried to move Vi's hands away without success. She kicked her a few times but it didn't have any effect.
"You can not win." Vi laughed.
Dawn was almost losing consciousness when she suddenly felt incredible strength pouring through her body. She hit Vi and sent her flying across the room. Then she took her weapon and aimed at her. Dawn didn't want to kill Vi ,she just wanted to stun her with the zat.
Vi slowly stood up. "I know you're not a slayer. How did you do that?"
"I don't know and right now I don't care." Dawn pressed the trigger but in the same time the ship was hit by the Ha'tak and Dawn missed. She wanted to fire again but in the meantime Vi activated the ring transport and escaped.
Dawn ran to the detonator and pressed the button to activate the explosives hoping the Jaffa didn't have enough time to find them. She knew the Ha'tak's weapons will stay intact because the Goa'uld in Vi certainly removed Vi's bomb.She wondered how it was possible for her to defeat Vi. She didn't feel the power anymore. It lasted only for several seconds. The Ha'tak fired again and Dawn hurried to the controls and tried to keep the ship away from the plasma shots but she soon realized it was useless. The engine was damaged and the ship was slowly losing height and falling towards the continent.
----
"There were two other transports. From the Ha'tak to the cloaked ship a minute ago and then back after about forty seconds. The other ship decloaked and is falling towards our continent." the Lieutenant informed Hammond. "Sir! Norad reports they detected an explosion where the Ha'tak's shield generator is situated."
"General if the shields are disabled we can destroy the ship." Carter suggested. "We have a long-range ballistic missile reinforced with naquadah ready to launch."
Hammond nodded and went to make the necessary calls. In two minutes the missile was already flying towards the Ha'Tak.
"The missile will reach the ship in thirty seconds."the Lieutenant notified. "General! Norad reports the ship is activating it's engines. They're trying to escape!"
The Goa'uld commanding the Ha'tak noticed the rocket flying towards his ship and ordered retreat. Fighting with the Tauri was never the objective of his mission anyway. He was supposed to test the new shields and search for Ra's eye. The Jaffa he had send to Egypt with a cloaked ship had already returned and reported that Ra's eye isn't on the planet so he sent the message to Anubis and flew his ship towards a place suitable for entering hyperspace.
Thor was transporting another group of Veronians when he saw a message from one of their sensors he didn't notice before. A Ha'tak was near Tauri. Thor didn't want to fly into a possible battle with 200 civilians on board so he decided to finish the transport at first and then rushed to help his allies.
The Asguard vessel reached Tauri and Thor saw the Ha'tak ready to leave . He didn't hesitate and fired at the ship destroying it.
----
Dawn woke up inside the crashed ship having no idea where the ship was or how long she slept so she looked at her watch and realized she was out for more then one hour. The Tauri soldiers will definitely soon find the crash site.Dawn checked the sensors records and found out the Ha'tak had been destroyed by an Asguard ship which meant Vi was dead. Dawn wasn't sure how to feel about it. She had just lost a friend but on the other hand she was glad the Goa'uld in Vi probably didn't have time to send away info about SWC. She stood up, took her weapon and destroyed the ships memory blocks. She wanted to send a message to Antara but she noticed the communication equipment was fried as well as her transmitter and PDA so she took Vi's fittings.
Dawn left the ship seeing it was in a coniferous forest not far away from a road. The problem was three blue vans just stopped on the place nearest to the crash site and she also heard a helicopter above her. Dawn ran in direction away from the road and hid Vi's transmitter and PDA on two different places in case she got captured, remembering the coordinates. She continued running away from the road for several minutes, then stopped and turned around to see if she's being followed . Dawn didn't see anyone so she turned back...to find herself surrounded by ten soldiers.
----
John stood up hearing someone coming to the room where he was imprisoned. The steel door of the room opened and he saw two men holding a young girl dressed in black outfit who had her hands tied behind her back and a scarf placed on her head to cover her eyes. One of the guards removed the ropes and the scarf and turned to John. "You've just got yourself a roommate."
End Chapter.
A/N: I know putting both Dawn and John in the same room is a little illogical but I just wanted them to be together.
Please review.