Part II
Present Day"Damnit, it's moving, it's moving!" a SGC-operative nearly yelled. Daniel and Sam, moments before they had still been discussing the Falcon ("What's it made of? It doesn't show up on our scanners, so…" or "Do we know any species capable of building such a magnificent thing… eh, Falcon?" or "Can we communicate with it?"), came running into the control room.
"Where's it heading?"
"Earth!"
Daniel looked at Sam. "So… what should we do?"
"Sergeant, what's the Falcon's ETA?"
"At this speed… nine minutes."
"Right," Sam started, "Let's do this – we try to contact it, but if it doesn't respond back before it passes the moon, assuming it's heading towards Earth, we'll… try to destroy it."
"But how?" Daniel exclaimed, worrying that there might not be a way to stop the Falcon.
Sam looked at her watch. "We have approximately six minutes and forty-five seconds to figure that out."
Daniel sighed. "Better get to work, then."
Six minutes and forty-five seconds later, Heero approached the moon with great caution. No colonies, no sign of the Lunar Base – the only things in geostationary orbit around Earth were shuttles and satellites, much like the ones he had seen in the very few history books he had once read. Also, he had tried to get in touch with the Preventors, but without any luck – there was some odd static on his receiver at all frequencies, that prevented him from sending any messages towards Earth. As Heero continued trying to decipher the static, quite a few thousand kilometers up ahead, important decisions were made.
"We have a go," General Hammond announced as most of the SGC-personnel had assembled in the control room, watching the nuke with the Naquadah-warhead (or "Death Star", as Jack had nicknamed it) make its way towards the Falcon.
"Estimated time of impact… thirty seconds," a lieutenant announced, "Twenty… ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five…"
Damnit, Heero thought, as he saw a nuclear bomb heading towards Wing Zero, What the hell is wrong with these people? I didn't do anything to them… yet.
He made some swift evasive maneuvers, and the nuke casually flew past him… towards the deep ends of outer space. As Zero's pilot studied the bomb, he noted that the warhead of the nuke had been made out of an unknown alloy – something much like Gundanium, yet not completely the same.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say I'm back somewhere in the late twentieth, if not early twenty-first century… But that's not possible, is it? Time-travel is still a theory, however, judging at Earth's conditions and technology-development…Then, what was the alloy? Any alloy made in the past should be known in the After Colony era, right? Damnit, too many questions…and how's that decipherer doing?
Heero checked the device, and discovered – much to his annoyance – that Earth's people had been trying to communicate with him for over the past six or seven minutes.
That's why they send the nuke… they'd probably agreed that when I didn't reply before I passed the moon, they'd nuke Zero. I have to contact them… but it won't be so easy now. Especially not when they think I'm hostile…
"It missed!"
"What?" Sam nearly yelled, "How? That's not possible!"
"But it did, Major. Look at these readings, the Death Star is still active and flying right towards… outer space."
"Not on collision course with anything significant?"
"No ma'am."
"That's better news, if it would've collided with a star or worse, I think we would've noticed some of the effects…"
"And the Falcon?" General Hammond interrupted, "What's it doing now?"
"What I'd like to know," Sam added, "Is how the hell did it evade the nuke?"
"Eh, for the first question…" the lieutenant answered, "The Falcon has pulled to a halt and is now in geostationary orbit around Earth. As for Major Carter's question… NASA claims it did 'some very fancy tricks to avoid the damn nuke', or at least, that's what the first unofficial message from Challenger III said. We're still waiting for the official, and hopefully some images."
"Very well, lieutenant, keep us posted. The rest of you, dismiss-"
"Hold on, General," Daniel suddenly said, "I think it's trying to communicate with us!"
"It's trying to do – what?" Sam asked incredulously.
"Look at these readings!" the archeologist answered, "It's sending some sort of message, I think."
"He's right, General," the Major acknowledged, after she sat down behind one of the control room's computers, "I'm picking up a radio signal at a very high frequency. Maybe that's why we couldn't hear it before – we just… couldn't hear it."
"So…? You can pull some plugs and we'll be able to hear it?"
"Yes, Colonel, that would be pretty much it, in simple terms."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Pull the damn plugs alright!"
"Just look at that…" Budd Philipps, one of the astronauts currently inhabiting the NASA shuttle Challenger III, exclaimed, "What d'ya think it is? Looks like some kind of… bird to me."
"I don't know," his colleague, Tim van Buren, said – as stunned as Budd, "Houston said they relayed the message to Deep Space Radar Telemetry, so that they could handle it from there."
"DSRT? What are they gonna do with it? Shoot it down with their Hubble, or what?" Budd replied.
"You have a better idea? 'Cause I'm not…"
"Hell, Tim – I'm not saying Deep Space Radar Telemetry aren't good at what they're doing, but there ain't much they can do about it, right?"
"To hell with you, Buddy! There's no way I'm gonna interfere with some extra-terrestrial business. And I don't say this often – you know how I hate pulling rank – but as your superior, I order you to drop that thought. We're not gonna do it, Budd. And that's it."
Silently cursing, Budd retreated into the cockpit. That was his one moment of glory. For a few seconds there, he thought he'd seen his name in tomorrow's headlines:
" BUDD PHILIPPS – FIRST TO MAKE 'CONTACT' "
His name would've been famous:his lifelong dream forfilled...
But it's not over yet…
"Alright… it should work now," Sam said, entering a few codes in the SGC-computer, "I've recalibrated the high-frequency receiver, so if I replay the message we received just a couple of minutes… we should hear it correctly…"
There was a short silence before –
"… to Earth. I have no hostile intentions. Please respond."
"That's it?" Jack exclaimed, "That's all?"
Sam grinned sheepishly, "I think so."
"Major," General Hammond asked, "Where's the first part of the message? All I heard was '…Earth. I have no hostile intentions. Please respond.' Surely there was more to it than just that?"
"We can only find out if we respond, sir. Permission to…"
"Permission granted."
As Sam send back a message, various whispering voices could be heard from the remaining personnel in the SGC – "Was that a human voice?"
"This is Stargate Command to…the yet unidentified flying object in geostationary orbit around our planet. We welcome you to Earth, and apologize for the fact that we tried to attack you, but we have had previous visitors who weren't so keen on… not using weapons. Could you please explain why you have entered our solar system?"
Why did I enter their solar system? Because it's my goddamn solar system as well of course, Heero thought.
"Can you please tell me what day it is today?" he replied.
There was a short silence, before the female voice replied. "Today is June 25, in the Earth year 2002, but we highly doubt that'll do you any good. May I inquire why you wanted to know today's date?"
I traveled over two hundred years into the past… Next time I see Chang, I'll kill him. If I ever see him again, that is… Damnit, Yuy, focus!
As Heero thought his next step through, the SGC-personnel assembled in the control room was waiting with anxiety for the Falcon to reply. Seconds passed by, without the unidentified flying… object answering.
"How come he doesn't reply?"
"I don't know, Colonel, I really don't know," Sam answered.
"So," General Hammond suddenly said, "What do we know of this Falcon yet?"
"Well, for what it's worth – it's alive," Daniel said.
"It has no hostile intentions – yet," Jack added, knowing this could turn out to be either a disaster or a great opportunity to investigate the being.
"General Hammond," Teal'c said, looking at a green spot on a nearby monitor, "I believe the Falcon is entering Earth's atmosphere."
"It's doing what?"
"I agree," Sam said, entering yet another dozen of codes into the computer, "It's heading towards… damn, it's heading here!"
"Here?" the General nearly yelled, "What do you mean, here, Major? Here, as in the United States, as in Colorado, as in Colorado Springs or as in Cheyenne Mountain?"
"I can't be sure, it's either Colorado Springs or Cheyenne Mountain. In any case, we're screwed unless we do something fast," Sam stated, "Damnit, it must have been tracking our signal all along!"
"I concur," General Hammond agreed, "We have a DEFCON 2 on our hands, folks. Make all necessary preparations, meanwhile, I'll contact the Pentagon and the President. Dismissed."