Chapter 30 – Something Always Goes Wrong
Two weeks passed with no disturbances, no action, and GC-1 was getting restless.
"I need to get out of this ship!" John exclaimed as he sat down at the dinner table GC-1 was sitting at. Setting his plate of food down, he looked up. "Does anyone else feel the same?"
The entire team nodded.
"Great! Now what do we do?" John thought hard as he ate a forkful of mashed potatoes.
"Why don't we go back to the planet where the Prometheus is? We never actually got a chance to look at it and I would really like to," Daniel suggested after swallowing some of his Whoosh.
"Great idea!" John said, while jumping up from the table. "I'll go ask Hoffman!"
The Colonel left the mess hall.
"Grand idea, DanielMatthewson," Dagón agreed as he drank some of the special light-blue liquid that a Machiá needs to sustain itself. "It shall indeed be a relief to get off of the ship."
"Yes, it will," Daniel said and bit into some fried chicken. "Do you always get missions while you're eating? I mean, so far, we've been called to duty a few times while in the mess hall…is that normal?"
"Indeed it is," Dagón said, frowning at the cup in his hands. "And my Uilkatria loses nutrients if I leave it out."
"Uilkatria? Uilkatria…" Daniel thought for a second. "Uilkatria means 'liquid that sustains life.' Your drink loses nutrients if you don't consume it right away?"
"Very good DanielMatthewson. You are correct."
"That's strange."
The table went silent for a moment.
"What do you think the General will say?" Alex asked, saying something for the first time all dinner.
"Well—" began Dude and was interrupted by Colonel O'Brien running into the room.
"We have a go!" he excitedly said. "When we're all done eating, we can get ready and go through the 'Gate! The General wants us to stay there for a few days and just take our time. We're going to bring enough provisions with us to last about three to four days. Let's eat and get going!"
"Yes sir," the table said and they began to eat excitedly.
"Just the standard pack, Dude, but with extra rations, cooking utensils and sleeping arrangements," the Colonel called from the 'Gate Room, telling Rick a list of what they'd need.
"You got it, man!" the Captain said over the intercom. "Have a radical time there!"
"We will!" John said and started to turn to watch the Spacegate create a connection with PV3-401.
"Colonel!" General Hoffman said over the comm as the shield swirled outward and the connection was made. "Report back every day at 14:00 hours. I expect you back on time this time!"
"Yes, sir," the Colonel said with a salute and GC-1 walked into the shield of the Spacegate, traveling to the other planet with the intent of having an adventure.
The world on the other side of the Spacegate was in the middle of its night when GC-1 got there. Walking up to the ridge at the far end of the field they had tried to cross previously before getting sidetracked, the team looked down and was startled. In the place of the ship that had been below them…was a huge black spot on the ground. There were bits of wreckage in the middle of it, charred and completely destroyed.
"What the hell?" the Colonel whispered. "Tell me I'm not dreaming this! Someone pinch me! Ow! Not literally, Dagón!"
"My apologies, O'Brien," the alien said, though Daniel detected a hint of a smile in Dagón's voice.
"It's not there," Daniel remarked, bewildered and horrified that someone had blown up humanity's most priceless ship. "Did anyone take extensive pictures?"
"GC-3 did. We'll get them for you. Their linguist hasn't been able to figure anything out." Alex looked at him with outrage in her eyes; not directed at him, he knew, but at the species who had destroyed the Prometheus.
"Who would obliterate such a vessel?" Dagón asked, clearly not happy about it.
"Them!" John shouted while pointing at three small ships rising from a crater a distance away from the team. "Androidian War Orbiters! Everyone, back to the 'Gate! Now!"
The team ran the distance back to the Spacegate as fast as they possibly could.
Daniel, who was out in front, dialed home as the others caught up. Just as the 'Gate connected, however, John suddenly stopped and turned around, Dagón stopping behind him. Closing his eyes, John raised a hand and appeared to concentrate. One of the plasma blasts that had been fired directly at them flew straight into his hand, absorbed.
Daniel and Dagón were witnessing the Colonel use one of his gifts.
Then, amazingly, one of the War Orbiters disappeared out of thin air, and the Colonel collapsed, Dagón catching him before he fell. The alien then hauled John into the shield to safety, pushing his jewel in the process.
"Come on, Alex!" Daniel yelled in dread as he ran towards the Major, who had tripped. Getting her up, they both began running again. Right behind them the two remaining War Orbiters gained; they were less than a hundred feet away, firing plasma at the two. Running became very dangerous as the small ships began firing at the Major and linguist. Dodging plasma bolts, they jumped through the Spacegate just as the Orbiter fired, hitting the 'Gate.
Reaching the other side of the Spacegate connection, Daniel was hurled out of the shield and landed roughly on something cold, his leg and ribs hurting immensely on impact. Beside him landed Alex…and that was the last thing that he remembered before the engulfing blackness.
"We need a med team to the 'Gate Room immediately!" Hoffman yelled over the communications system as he watched John and Dagón come flying out of the Spacegate, hitting the ramp with high speed from high up. The Spacegate, without warning, began to spark and smoke. GC-1 had come back half and hour after they had left, and they had brought hell's fury with them.
"Sir, we're experiencing a total overload of the power grid! I'm turning power off, dude! This could totally ruin the Spacegate and our sample of Faneocxil!" Dude got up off of his chair and ran to throw a switch. The sparking Spacegate stopped and the entire thing seemed to sag a bit without the usual power coursing through its wires.
Making sure that the Spacegate wasn't going to blow up, Hoffman ran down the spiral steps to the 'Gate Room level, Dude following as quickly as he could. Reaching the bottom before the medics, Dude took the unconscious John into his arms, trying to check for vitals.
"Dagón! Are you all right?" Hoffman asked, putting a hand on Dagón's shoulder.
"I am," the alien said, though his face was twisted in pain. Helping the alien up, Hoffman could see that his arm was hanging at his side at an unnatural angle.
"No, Dagón, you're not! Your arm's broken. We need to get you to the infirmary! Let's go!"
With that, Dagón and Dude left for the medical bay, a medical team bringing John on a stretcher.
Hoffman, staying where he was, went to talk to Lieutenant Rogers, who had began working on the Spacegate, trying to determine what went wrong.
"So far, sir," Rogers said while putting his hardhat on, "all we can see is the breakers are literally melted together and the power Orb, the Orb that protects our Faneocxil, is damaged. Our 'Gate won't be operational for a good 24 hours or so, sir. We're going to work through the night, but that's as little time as we can get this done."
The General nodded grimly. "Get going on it. You have 24 hours."
"Yes, sir!" Rogers said and went back to work, commandeering his group of ten mechanics.
Hoffman left the scene of the disaster to go to the medical bay.
"Where're Daniel and Major Croft, son?" the General asked Dagón, who was sitting on a hospital bed with a splint and sling on his arm.
"They were right behind us, General," Dagón said, his voice calm and not betraying the worry he was feeling inside and the physical pain he felt outside. "I do not know what happened to them. Dial back to the planet. I will go search for them."
"I'm afraid that won't happen for a day or so, Dagón. Our Spacegate was damaged while you were traveling. Once you reintegrated, it began to overload and it now needs repair.
"What happened when you went through the Spacegate?"
Dagón looked at the General with the gravest of expressions. "We had reached the other side and were intent on going to the Prometheus to study it. When we arrived at the position where we could observe it below a ridge, it was, indeed, not there. It had been destroyed. Almost nothing remained.
"Then, from a crater in the ground, arose three Androidian War Orbiters…the ones similar to those Goa'uld Death Gliders we have heard DanielMatthewson talk about. They began to fire and we commenced to run. Daniel got to the DOC first, and so dialed here. O'Brien and I were the first ones from GC-1 to enter the shield—amidst the chaos I believe I pressed my jewel. Daniel then, I trust, stayed behind until Major Croft got through. They couldn't have been a minute behind us. I request permission for a probe to be sent back to PV3-401."
"As soon as the Spacegate's fixed, Dagón, we will. We will, indeed…"