Chapter 65: Small Problems
Attention focused on the various consoles in front of him, Thor looked up as the proximity alarm he'd set chimed, notifying him that Tyr had returned from the errand he had set. Crossing the command floor, Thor quickly sent permission for Tyr to transport on board. Moments later, two simultaneous flashes signaled the arrival of a second Asgard, along with a small, fabric covered lump. Blond hair poked from one end of the fabric cover, indicating that the lump contained Major Samantha Carter. She appeared to be asleep.
"Supreme Commander Thor, I located Major Carter as ordered and have brought her here. She appears to be in the middle of her resting cycle and I thought it prudent not to disturb her until we arrived," Tyr explained, after a short nod in Thor's direction. Looking up from his study of the sleeping figure, Thor nodded in reply, indicating approval for Tyr's decision. Humans required a proportionately larger amount of rest in comparison to the Asgard, therefore it was even more important that Major Carter not be interrupted.
"And O'Neill?" Thor asked, turning back to study the sleeping human.
"Major Carter was the only one alone," he said. "I thought it best to return with haste." Thor nodded, gaze still locked on the small mound in the center of the control deck. There was something odd about it, something Thor couldn't quite place.
Crossing the space between them, Thor lifted one corner of the fabric covering the sleeping figure and blinked in surprise. Still holding onto the blanket, Thor addressed his subordinate. "Tyr, an error has occurred. This is not Major Carter!"
Tyr's eyes widened and the alien blinked in surprise, his eyes widening still further when he came to stand by Thor. He'd never met the esteemed Major, but this hadn't been what he was expecting. "Supreme Commander Thor, I followed your instructions explicitly. Her DNA is an exact match for Major Carter. Observe!" Tyr exclaimed, hurrying to a nearby console and bringing up the information on the screen.
Thor dropped the blanket and moved to stand beside Tyr, where he examined the data, his own eyes growing even rounder. Blinking, but not taking his eyes from the data, he addressed his companion. "This is most perplexing."
So engrossed were the two aliens in the information on screen, they failed to notice the small bundle under the blanket stir until it let out a terrified shriek and scrambled backwards.
Still sleepy and confused from having just woken up, it had taken Sam several moments to realize that not only was she not in her warm safe bed at Colonel Jack's, but the beings in front of her weren't even human. And so Sam did the only thing she could think of doing, and put as much distance between her and the aliens that she could.
"Please don't eat me!" she begged, her back against the wall.
The aliens blinked large, round, black eyes at her, wearing identical expressions of interest.
"We will not harm you Samantha Carter," Thor assured her.
Sam narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You won't?" And then something else sunk in. "H-how do you know my name?"
Thor exchanged a glance with the other Asgard before replying. "I know a great many things," was all he said, his large dark eyes blinking once again as he regarded the human child in front of him.
Cocking her head to the side, Sam studied the two gray beings, and for the first time took in her surroundings. Emboldened by the calmness the aliens presented, and the fact that they'd so far been non-threatening, she decided to ask the questions starting to form in her mind. "Where are we?"
Thor merely blinked, his head lilting to one side, almost in an unconscious imitation of Sam's posture, one of curiosity and slight wariness. After all, Thor had never interacted with an undeveloped human. "We are on my ship."
Sam blinked, and then frowned. "Like on the ocean?"
Thor's eyes narrowed slightly. "We are in space."
Sam's eyes grew round. "Really? Like astronauts? Then why aren't we floating?" Sam took the opportunity to study her surroundings more closely, for the first time noticing the large view port off to one side. Forgetting any reservations she'd had earlier over her hosts, Sam jumped to her feet and hurried to the window, promptly pressing her nose against the glass to gaze in wonder at the star field presented to her. "Cool," was all she said, her single word of awe mumbled against the glass and her question forgotten.
While the young girl was preoccupied with stargazing, Thor exchanged a few words with his colleague. After a few moments, Tyr vanished in a flash of light. Thor quietly regarded the small human, not much taller than an Asgard, before making a sound much like the Asgard equivalent of a throat clearing.
Sam turned around at the sound finally tearing her eyes away from the panoramic vista of stars, and Thor inclined his head towards her briefly. "I will return you to your home in due haste, however, there is a… small problem I must deal with first," Thor told her, moving to a nearby console. His curiosity over how this child was a genetic match for the Samantha Carter known to the Asgard would have to wait. He did not think the humans possessed a sophisticated enough cloning procedure that would not leave traces, a feat the Asgard had not yet mastered. That left some other technology, and Thor suspected that the message he'd as yet been unable to reply to likely had something to do with it. But for now, other matters continued to take precedence, and he hoped that the mix up in taking the child would not cause any trouble in the diplomatic relations with the developing race.
Stepping away from the view port, Sam watched the little gray alien curiously. "Can I help?"
Thor looked up from the terminal and blinked, briefly considering the offer. He had made the decision to send Tyr to retrieve Samantha Carter, or O'Neill if she could not be located, to see if the humans might again be of assistance to the Asgard. However, given the lack of recognition on the young human's part, Thor surmised that either this Samantha Carter had never met the Asgard, or she did not remember. Thor did not think she would be able to help as he had hoped. On the other hand, even Thor's limited knowledge of immature humans warned that leaving one to it's own devices might not be the most prudent course of action. So, rather than brush off the offer of assistance, Thor thought "aloud" as it had seen the mature version of Samantha Carter do. "I must protect this Asgard outpost from the Replicators. However, thus far, the Replicators have been able to anticipate and defeat every attempt at thwarting their advance." As he spoke, Thor brought up a three-dimensional holographic display revealing a real time representation of the Asgard fleet and the Replicator one in relation to the threatened outpost. Startled as the simulation appeared mere feet in front of her, young Sam took a step back before her interest in the visual made her take a step closer.
Deciding that the young human was occupied with the grid display, Thor sent messages advising the fleet and council of the mix up with their human allies, his intention to correct it as soon as possible, and another giving orders to several ships in the fleet. The ships immediately moved into the positions Thor had given and Thor nodded in satisfaction as they complied, blinking as the Replicator ships again moved to counter any defense the Asgard fleet might muster, and preventing the Asgard from taking up flanking positions despite their superior numbers. In numbers, the Asgard outnumbered the Replicator ships two to one, but the Replicators had quickly proven that this contest had nothing to do with numbers. As the humans might say, the Asgard had their backs to the wall and it had been all they could do to run enough interference to get Tyr's ship safely on it's way to Earth. While Tyr had been gone, two more of their ships had been lost to the Replicators, thinning the protective barrier the Asgard fleet had created in front of their outpost. Thor watched in concern as the Replicators continued moving after the aborted maneuver and made an attempt to isolate another ship in the Asgard fleet. A few quick orders thwarted the counter attack, but only just. The two fleets moved back along invisible lines, neither side gaining anything, and resumed a pose of waiting.
"What's this one doing?" Sam spoke up suddenly, causing Thor to look up and regard her. The small human was standing in the middle of the display field, pointing at one of the Replicator ships, while planets and ships swirled about her. Thor regarded the ship Sam was pointing at. It wasn't difficult to see. She'd picked the one ship that not only was larger and shaped a bit differently than any of the other Replicator ships, but was the one that all the Replicator moved as if on an axis with, keeping that one single ship at the protected center. Any attempts the Asgard had made to gain access to the ship had been easily deflected, in fact had led to the first casualty to the Asgard fleet.
"We believe that ship contains the central processing core of the Replicator fleet. The other Replicator ships safeguard it most closely," Sam's face creased as she puzzled over what Thor had just said and Thor turned back to the console, issuing another stream of orders to the Asgard fleet. Sam's attention turned back to the display as the Asgard ships moved in relation to the last set of orders. The Replicators responded almost as if they had anticipated the move. Energy weapons discharged along one end of the line, as the two fleets engaged one another, the entire battle seeming to pivot around the ship Sam had pointed out. The weapons fire cut off abruptly as the ships broke apart and one of the Asgard ships fell back, its shields nearly depleted from the last engagement. Quick orders sent the rest of the fleet moving to protect the nearly defenseless ship and fill in the gap its absence created. The Asgard could not afford to lose another ship. Unfortunately, redistributing the protective grid of Asgard ships allowed the Replicator fleet to get that much closer to the outpost, and made the line of protection thin still further while most of the Replicator fleet remained undamaged. Likely, it had been the Replicator's intention all along to draw the weaker perimeter into battle.
"So if you got rid of that ship, the rest of the bad guys would go away, right?" Sam asked, her gaze once again fixed on the ship that seemed to be at the center of the battle.
Thor blinked, momentarily thrown by the simple terms the child had used. Obviously, young humans were quick to trust, and young Samantha had placed hers in the Asgard. "Yes, we believe if that ship were disabled, the rest of the Replicator fleet would… go away," Thor finished, after a slight pause. "However, all our attempts at weakening that ship have been unsuccessful."
"Well, every time you move, they move with you right?" Sam asked, moving to stand under the defensive perimeter of ships the Asgard had summoned to protect the threatened outpost, as if studying the Asgard ships.
"Yes," Thor answered, while keeping most of his attention on the monitors and view grid. The rest of his attention turned to curiosity, wondering where the child's thought processes were leading her.
Sam paced about under the floating ships in the display, seemingly unperturbed as she walked through one of the outpost's outlying moons. "So just get some more ships, and when they spread out, they won't be able to stay in front of the mother ship."
Again, Thor blinked, partially in puzzlement over unfamiliar terms, and partially in consideration. The plan had merit, but for one flaw. "Perhaps, but we do not have anymore ships, at least not within navigable distance."
Sam only shrugged, her view of the alien partially obscured by a semi transparent representation of an Asgard vessel. "They don't know that. Pretend like you do," she answered simply. Sam went back to her study of the holograms, tentatively reaching out a hand to poke at a ship and grinning when her hand passed through it.
Thor stood silently pondering. The Asgard, while advanced, did not consider imagination to be a particularly practical trait. However, what the childlike version of Samantha Carter had suggested had sparked something else in Thor's mind. His long nimble fingers flew over the controls, inputting data and studying the projections. The Asgard did not have any more ships near enough to be of assistance, at least not at the rate the Replicators were advancing. But like the child had suggested, the Replicators did not know that.
The results of his query complete, the data returned and Thor nodded in satisfaction. Up until now, the problem with dealing with the Replicators had been that the Replicators absorbed all of the Asgard knowledge and technology, only to use it against them in the next altercation. Essentially, using their technology against its creators. This time, Thor hoped to "turn the tables" as the humans said.
Thor was about to pull off the biggest bluff in galactic history.
It was not without risk though, and despite the higher probability for success, Thor knew that his next set of orders could mean either the saving grace or the defeat of the outpost. The loss of the newest outpost would be a major blow to the Asgard people, but Thor saw little choice in matter. As things currently stood, it was only a matter of time before the Asgard fleet was defeated, and they could not afford the loss of that many ships. The outpost would have to be abandoned long before that time.
Fingers again flying over the console, Thor sent orders and moments later the ships of the Asgard fleet moved to spread out over a greater distance, the Replicator ships moving to remain abreast of the opposing fleet. Suddenly, more Asgard ships appeared in the display, seemingly coming from the direction of the moon next to Sam. The little girl yelped in surprise as a ship flew through her middle and another skimmed over her head, making her duck and spin around to follow the ship's progress.
"But you said you didn't have any more ships," she said, her tone almost accusing while her eyes remained riveted on the unfolding display.
"We do not," Thor confirmed. He blinked, and nodded towards the new ships, which were filling in the gaps in protective grid arrayed in between the outpost and the invaders. "These are… pretend." Thor watched as the Replicators made adjustments in their positions, their line thinning. If he felt emotions, he would have breathed a sigh of relief. All the same, the deception would not last long. The Replicators, thanks to their integration of Asgard technology, possessed the same sensor and shielding technology. Therefore they also possessed the same weaknesses and blind spots. However, the Replicators had proven they were quite skilled at adapting, and they no doubt would see through the ruse given enough time.
Thor did not intend to let them have enough.
Orders flew to the Asgard fleet, and taking advantage of the thinner protective line, the real ships converged on the main Replicator ship. The battle was furious, but over quickly, the concentrated strike by most of the fleet quickly overwhelming the command ship with little damage to Asgard ships, essentially cutting off the 'brain' of the Replicator invasion force. With the control ship out of the way, Thor quickly sent orders for the Asgard fleet to move in on the other vessels, but as if sensing their danger, the remainder of the Replicator fleet disappeared in multiple flashes of light as they engaged their hyperdrives. Thor studied the display for a few moments longer, the Asgard ships maintaining their positions. When distant sensors confirmed the Replicators leaving Asgard territory, Thor sent a new set of order, and half the ships of the Asgard fleet disappeared. Thor held no illusion that the same trick would work again, however, it had worked this time and that was enough for now.
"Where did they go?" Sam asked, bewildered as the artificial ships disappeared from the holographic display. Thor looked up, for the moment having forgotten the small problem of the human child in front of him. He blinked, deciding how best to answer her. After all, her idea had just saved the Asgard from a spectacular defeat.
"They were merely a collection of photons and kinetic energy, projected onto the ship's sensor arrays," he replied, blinking at the crease of puzzlement that crossed the child's face. "They were not real," he explained.
Sam blinked back at him, and a slow smile spread across her face. "Cool. Hey, next time, do you think we could make the pretend ships bigger?"
Thor wasn't sure how best to answer, and quickly changed the subject. "Perhaps. But for now, I must return you to your planet," he said.
Sam brightened slightly. "Wait 'til I tell Danny and Teal'c about all this!" Her smile faded. "Does Colonel Jack know I'm gone?"
Thor only blinked.
A/N: So you are all still out there! Whew. I was worried! I'm glad you are all still there. And some of you guessed who was involved (the flash was probably a giveaway) though it did lead a few astray. I hope the chapter lived up to expectations, while poking a bit of fun at the Asgard, who while quite advanced, do make mistakes too! I blame myself really. I just couldn't resist the thought of the Asgard, too busy doing Asgard-y things of galactic importance, to respond to a request for help from Earth. So it comes back to bite them when they need a few more "dumb ideas". I couldn't help but wonder what if they went looking for more of Major Carter's "dumb ideas" only to beam up little Sam instead?
So anyway, as promised, a faster update. I wasn't going to post til tomorrow morning at the earliest, but all those lovely reviews, well they got the editing powers rolling so here you go! (you actually would have had it last night, but a certain editor (cough cough) fell asleep after working on another story.)