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...
SeventeenWeir sighed, wearily looking down at the slowly disappearing pile of paperwork on the strange, almost fluid desk the Minbari had graciously provided for her use.
She knew, had known all along that the local races would have to fight and worse, they would have to lead the fight in this area of space but she had never counted on being in charge, of trying to keep these rather insular races together and in the fight.
She was just supposed to be the Diplomat, to talk the locals into assistance, she had not received any military training, to be honest, she had a certain contempt for the military, often considering their very presence a sign that there had been a failure to communicate, to talk.
Yet, here she was leading a military force that consisted of a mere four combat ships, six once Valour's Vengeance and Valour's Sword returned from their supply and Medevac run to Earth and she was forced to admit to herself at last, that she had been wrong.
Diplomacy wasn't everything, some people... some beings just didn't care for talk and it needed a strong military to deal with them. For her, it was a profound realisation and one that, she would later admit, made her a far better leader and politician because it allowed her to acknowledge that Military Action had its place, and being willing to use it for the tool it was.
Still, not only did she have to ensure that the Allies didn't become divided, not an easy task considering that each race had a history of keeping to itself, that alliances tended to just exist for a purpose, for the Then and There rather then a greater purpose and that as soon as they saw no reason for the alliance, the locals had historically shown no hesitation in breaking it off.
It didn't help that there was unrest amongst the Minbari, the return of the Shadows had brought fear to many and that was not a good thing, not when the Grey Council was seen by many to have formed a Alliance with the lesser races' of the Narn and League out of a knee-jerk reaction. That was a perception which Weir could understand, things had moved so fast that it was easy to see how people could think their government hadn't thought; that their government had just reacted.
It didn't help that word of the destruction of the Del Shakka Mel had leaked, and how easily the advanced ship had been destroyed too. It only added to the fear and confusion.
And yet somehow she had to keep the Alliance together and keep track of everyone's fleet strengths and ensure the search for the Shadow Fleet was maintained and keep her ships positioned to be able to respond to a major move made against any member of the Alliance .
She didn't have enough people, enough ships by far and whilst the Allied races had transferred a few hulls to her direct command temporarily, it wasn't enough. Yet, she knew she wouldn't have those hulls for long, the Drakh were striking too many places, causing too much damage and the war against the Centauri still took almost all the forces the Narn had, let alone the League Navy remnants trying to free there lost worlds.
She needed more ships, more people.
She knew she couldn't have them.
Dammit, what she wouldn't give for a Beliskner or O'Neill right now.
Her prayers were about to be answered.
xxx
"okay, so we wrangle, Paters a promotion and stick her in charge down there, she's got the skills"
O'Neill nodded, agreeing with his XO, to a point, "She's got the skills yes, but she hasn't had anywhere near enough time in grade. Any attempt to promote her will be nixed higher up and without that promotion those anal-retentive's at R&D aren't going to listen to her, you know that"
"Oh, big words General "
O'Neill shot Ferreti, now with a permanent limp, courtesy of a Staff weapon that got too close, a mild glare.
"You know, I could temporarily place you in command of R&D til Command can find someone properly qualified and ranked..."
O'Neill smiled at the look of horror on Ferreti's face and mentally marked a One up on his tallyboard.
Then, promptly vanished in a flash of white light.
Ferreti's jaw dropped, it had been a long time since he had sent that effect but he recognised it for sure.
xxx
"Thor, me old buddy, long time no see"
"Indeed O'Neill, it is good to see you too"
"So, I am going to take a wild guess and say," O'Neill paused, his mind flickering back to every time the Asgard had visited, and since he knew the SGC or RSS hadn't asked for help that left... "What can we do for you now?"
"On this occasion, nothing"
O'Neill's jaw dropped, was this a purely social visit at last?
"More, what can we do for you"
Apparently not, pity, he hadn't exactly had a lot of occasions these last few years to shoot the breeze with his friend, what with Thor never taking the time to visit and all.
"After all, you are responsible for the destruction of all the replicators on the Homeworld"
O'Neill blinked, "what? When did that happen? Was there a memo? If so, you know I don't read those things"
"You said it yourself; we should just shoot a great big rock at the damned thing and watch the impact'"
O'Neill glanced down at this friend, "didn't you say that the impact would blow some of the replicators into orbit?"
"Indeed, but then you destroyed the Aschen homeworld by encouraging them to dial into a black hole"
"Yea, about that, that was entirely self-defence, I mean..."
"Your actions and that of your people are not questioned in that matter. We know all to well that sometimes any race is forced to do what it must to defend itself"
"Oh, okay. So, you were telling me about destruction of you homeworld "
"It took me a while to turn those two ideas into a workable strategy and during that time, containment of the Replicator threat became very tricky, requiring a network of stasis satellites to be deployed around the entire star system. But, I have learned from you over the years and your use of black holes and projectiles offered an interesting solution"
O'Neill kept the comment about not remembering using black holes as projectiles before to himself, and instead smiled proudly at Thor, if this was going where he thought, then Thor really had learnt of him. SG-1... the old SG-1 would be so proud.
And Hammond... well, Hammond would have another ulcer.
Or two.
"It required every resource we had for several years and many Asgard were lost but eventually we were able to place a containment device around a black hole, losing forty ships in the process"
"Damn" O'Neill muttered, dismayed at the loss of so many ships and people.
Then he thought about containing a black hole, "damn, you don't do things by halves do you?"
Thor nodded, "Once the containment device had been suitably prepared, it was sent on a collision course for our homeworld, surrounded by a modified stasis field that allowed it to move at normal speeds despite the relative slowdown of time within the stasis field we were projecting over the system."
"We have no doubt that they tried, but the replicators hadn't been able to use the time-dilation device present on the homeworld to counter our projected stasis field, The black hole arrived at the homeworld and the containment field was switched off"
"Bye-bye replicators..." O'Neill shook his head, "Thor, remind me never to piss you off, okay?"
Thor's eyes twinkled and O'Neill knew his little friend was amused.
"So, it took you this long to show up to gloat?"
"It has taken this long for our race to recover enough for even a single ship to be spared. Too much resources were diverted from rebuilding to creating the Stasis satellite network, then the containment of the black hole" Thor's eyes were troubled, and O'Neill squatted down, reaching carefully over to hug his friend.
"Only two things really matter though kid. You and your people survived and you didn't give up everything you believe in to do it"
Thor nodded, it was scant consolation but it did have the virtue of truth.
"So, going back to the whole, what you can do for us thing, were you serious?"
Thor glanced up at his friend, and smiled.
