10: Dawning Alliance
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Two

The ship rumbled and shook, the barrier acting harsh and abrasive on all the subspace active components of the Ha'tak as the Del Shakka Mel slowly made its way across the barrier via normal space, a journey that would in hyper just take seconds taking them a week as they slowly crossed space.

It was not an easy journey, the constant unpredictable movements of the ship made sleeping, any kind of rest difficult. Eating became a chore as the food would literally just jump off the plate unless you were careful. Jaffa and Tau'ri reported to Enerina in droves for treatment as sudden movements of the ship caused broken bones and worse.

Even the ship was damaged, as crystals jumped from their sockets, sending random surges through the ships systems and slowly degrading performance as the crew frantically but safely tried to keep the Del operational, fighting a rapidly losing battle.

But they survived; their sub-light transit preventing them from being destroyed like so many ships had been, rushing headlong into the barrier unawares.

McKay blinked, shooting into full awareness as some drive; some instinct woke him instantly from his sleep. He blinked, the sheets falling from his body as he rose, his mind sharply analysing his surroundings as he tried to figure out what had changed.

"The ships stopped shaking" the words left his mouth, causing cheers to register across the dormitory before the truth had even registered in his own mind.

A few seconds later, his mind having caught up with his mouth, McKay rose, frantically throwing his uniform over the T-shirt and briefs he had been sleeping in, "We must have left the barrier behind"

"Yeah" Sheppard commented, a slightly condescending look on his face as he regarded the scientist, "either that, or we hit the eye of the storm"

"Well" McKay replied, strapping his boots on, "either way it will tell us something about the nature of this barrier"

"yeah, like where the edge is, or isn't as the case may be" Sheppard commented wryly, following McKay out of the dormitory, the sounds of activity increasing behind them as the other Tau'ri personnel slowly readied themselves for the new day.

"Exactly," McKay continued, "though even if it is just the eye, then it will give us time to get some observations and more sensor data, maybe even get the ship repaired"

"Repairs good, repair a very good idea" Sheppard jumped straight on the repair comment, he didn't like being in a half operational ship, no sir, he wanted his home fully operational and its weapons and shields ready to deal with any threats.

McKay was thinking g of other reasons, "yes, having the sensors fully operational again would give us the opportunity to fully probe the barrier, not that we'll get much information on the barrier itself but still…"

"you know" Sheppard commented, as they strode through the doors into the room that had hastily been set up as a lab, "I cant believe we actually just agreed on something, okay different reasons for it but we both said the ship being repaired would be a good thing, now how could that happen?"

"Well" McKay said, becoming distracted as he got a look at the data flowing from the ships sensor arrays, "We should forget it ever happened, cant dwell on a fluke…"

"What?" Sheppard asked, as McKay slowly trailed off.

"I think we can rule out having found an eye, sensors are clear of subspace anomalies as far as they can see on three quadrants" McKay glanced up at the pilot, "that fourth quadrant is behind us, of course"

"Of course" Sheppard replied wryly, he could figure out something as obvious as that for himself thank you, "anything registering on sensors the local fighter commander should be aware of?"

"Err…" Rodney glanced back at the screen, "several star systems, no signs of any power sources of any kind, no indications of any sentient life in sensor range…" Rodney's brow furrowed, "that's odd"

"What's odd?" Sheppard replied, instantly shifting in 'Major' mode.

"Radioactive debris is registering in one of the local systems" Rodney tapped swiftly at the computer, "barely registering I should say"

"Are we talking naturally radioactive or boom boom, you go bye-bye now"

Rodney glanced up from the screen, anxiously, "the isotope readings suggest artificial but at this range they are highly unreliable, I'd need a closer look"

"We'll, you best go have a word with Enerina then" John Sheppard replied, heading for the door, "I'll be prepping my bird for launch"

"Ahh Major" the scientists voice made John look up from his craft with a grin, which he rapidly hid, "Enerina is keeping the Del Shakka Mel here for repairs and to get more scans of the barrier, or at least its boundary since the barrier itself prevents a direct read, but she said if you agree that a pair of F-302's could go, loaded with…"

Sheppard cut in, finishing the sentence with a wry, amused grin plastered across his face, "the additional sensor pods" he tapped as the pod next to him on his fighter, then pointed across to the next fighter where Rodney could also see sensor pods loaded.

Infuriated by the implied insult, that he Rodney McKay was so predictable, he glared at the pilot.

"What," John replied to the look,"like Enerina was going to give any other answer, she has her crew and ship to look after first, the primary mission is secondary. She wasn't going to divert the ship whilst so many repairs needed to be carried out"

Appeased, Rodney asked "well, when can we go then?"

"As soon," Sheppard reached down to the bag at his feet and threw it over to Rodney "as you are properly dressed for the occasion"

"Well," the words slipped from Sheppard's mouth as he gazed through the window of his fighter upon the debris they were investigating, "I think we can safely rule out natural origin"

"What" Rodney glanced up from his readouts, then shot a glance out the window, "yes quite, whatever the debris is made of it's highly energy reflective, sensors are having a hard time probing it"

He glanced back down at his readouts again.

"Looks like hull armour" Sheppard observed, making Rodney glance up again.

Rodney frowned, tapping a close up of the debris onto his monitor, "I see what you mean, interesting"

Sheppard grinned, knowing Rodney could not see it from the back seat of the fighter; he had caught the slight edge to the scientist's voice, now for the real fun.

"You know" he added, nonchalantly, "that almost looks like the remains of writing on that piece of debris there"

"What?" Rodney snapped, his face shooting up from his screens once more "would you mind stopping with the observations? I am the scientist here, it's my job to analyse, yours to keep me safe"

Sheppard chuckled, arrogant scientist baiting was always fun.

Rodney grunted, looking swiftly over the large segment in question, "you're correct; it does look like writing, I don't recognise it though"

Rodney frowned, glancing down to make sure everything was recoding okay, then continued, "I think from the sheer thickness of the armour and its apparent effectiveness is dissipating energy…" Rodney glared at the sensor readouts as he spoke "we can infer whoever this belonged too did not have shielding as we know it"

"No" Sheppard replied, an edge in his voice, "how much armour do Ha'taks have? How much armour do Dauntless's and Prometheus's have? Armour, or lack thereof does not indicate whether you have shielding or not"

"Yes, but the quality of the armour…"

"That's an assumption, and a bad one at that" Sheppard reprimanded McKay, "we are always researching better forms of armour to increase our chances in combat, especially for the Dauntless II's with their minimum energy signature requirements, this could just be the same thing just more advanced, you don't know and shouldn't assume"

Rodney sarcastically spat back, "and since when did you become an expert in scientific procedure?"

Sheppard snorted, "Never. I just know a bad assumption when I see it; you learn that at the academy. Assumption in a military environment is the mother of all fuck-ups"

Sheppard frowned, "strangely enough, the chef at the local restaurant was always saying that too, especially after that incident on the train with his niece…"

He shrugged it off, "time we reported back, batch your readings and notes up ready to transmit"