Chapter 2: A matter of Conscience.
Space warped and blurred past him in a multitude of blue and white not unlike a trip through the stargate tumbling end over end or so it felt. Unlike a stargate trip instead of the bone chilling cold running through him Colonel Caldwell felt a searing heat pass through him, as if Daedalus had parked itself right next to a sun. During stargate travel you had no sense or your surroundings, no sensation in your body, just the faint hint of stars flying by at unheard of speeds. Colonel Caldwell had once asked LtCol. Carter about it after one such trip through the stargate after a lengthy ten minute explanation about dematerialization and other things that left him more confused than before he asked the question, Colonel Caldwell decided then and there to never EVER let a scientist ramble if he could help it. For reasons unknown to him all this and more passed through his mind as it tried to find something to relate this experience with he came up empty, Then just as quickly as it began it was over. Utter silence greeted Col. Caldwell as reality set in, for the longest moment the only sounds he could hear were his ragged breathing and the beating of his heart. Then realizing he needed to get a grip on the situation his instincts kicked in.
"What the Hell was that?" Caldwell asked a bit shaken as he slowly released the death grip around the armrests of his chair. Realizing his crew was a bit slow in recovering from their ordeal he shouted to get his crew back to the here and now.
"Status Report?" Like a jolt lighting it had the desired effect the crew came to their senses and focused their energies with renewed vigor to their stations. After several moments reports started coming in.
"Scope is clear no enemy contacts." Lt. Miguel responded after double checking his display. "I'm barely able to read the object, its power levels are dropping rapidly, within a few moments I won't be able to read it with our Radar or Lidar. Then after double checking his display again "sir weapons are fully operational." Lt. Miguel reported.
"Helm control and Navigation appear unaffected Colonel." Major Foster reported." I'm receiving status reports from all decks, no damage and no casualties reported.
"Colonel this is Novak in engineering thrusters and hyperdrive are fully operational." Novak reported over the loudspeaker.
"Very well doctor, do you and Hermiod have any idea of what just happened?" Col. Caldwell asked.
"Hermiod is still pouring over the data gathered from the Asgard sensor pallets." Novak reported. "He says it will take him some time to fully analyze it and formulate any theories as to what might have happened."
"Get it done quickly doctor I want answers, Caldwell out." he ordered killing the mike. Then shifting his attention to Major Foster "Foster get me Stargate Command." Col.Caldwell orded.
"Sir we'll have to clear the asteroid belt." Major Foster countered.
"Very well Major plots a course take us out of the asteroid field best possible speed." Caldwell ordered.
"Yes sir." was her terse reply.
In space Daedalus's engines flared to life as she shot forward heading for the nearest opening in the Asteroid field after about four minutes of dodging asteroids Daedalus cleared the asteroid belt.
"We've cleared the asteroid belt." Major Foster reported. "Contacting Stargate Command." after several moments of trying to contact Stargate Command she switched to one of the frequencies used by Nellis Air force base. When that failed she attempted to Raise AFSATCOM which also failed Finally she tried her last option at Vandenberg which also failed. Failing to raise a single station on Earth she reported the bad news.
"Sir I'm not getting any response from the SGC. Nor am I getting anything from Space Command or Vandenberg sir." Foster reported.
"Nothing?" Caldwell asked.
"No beacon signals and no acknowledgment of our hails sir." Major Foster reported. 'I am however reading abnormally large concentrations of tachyons surges in system."
""Tachyons?" Colonel Caldwell asked.
"Particles that travel faster than light sir." Major Foster said.
"I'm aware of that Major." Col. Caldwell said. "But how are they abnormally high?" the Colonel asked.
"I don't know sir." Foster responded.
"Colonel I may have an answer for that." Novak responded over the loudspeaker.
Engineering.
In Engineering Novak had been monitoring the abnormally large concentrations of tachyon particles shortly after she reported the ships status to the bridge. Ever the scientist she had initially been very excited by what she thought was a naturally occurring phenomenon, though something about it seemed vaguely familiar. After serval moments of study she began to notice patterns in the tachyon surges, activating a waterfall display she tried to isolate the various surges and was startled by what she found. Imbedded within each tachyon surge were radio signals, highly complex radio signals, next she tried to tally the number of tachyon surges to begin cataloguing them only to find the number ran into the hundreds.
"This is amazing!" Novak said excitedly to herself. Turning her attention to Hermiod she asked "Have you ever seen anything like this before?"
"I have not." Hermiod responded. "However the Tachyon surges are artificial in nature. They are being used to boost encrypted radio signals faster than light."
"Any idea where they're coming from?" Novak asked resuming her study of the various tachyon frequencies on her display.
"They appear to be originating near the vicinity of Earth." Hermiod answered.
It was then that Novak remembered what had seemed so familiar to her earlier, just before she had been recruited by the SGC she had read a paper published by Doctor Svetlana Markov. Doctor Markov believed that it was possible to boost radio signals by piggybacking them onto tachyon particles. Unfortunately her work never got passed anything more than abstract theory. If it hadn't been for the subspace radio's the Asgard provided to the SGC Its quite possible her work would have generated more interest into a new field of communication, but sadly the Russian Government didn't have the resources to continue research into that particular field.
Tapping into net that linked her to the bridge she had caught Fosters explanation of Tachyons and the Colonels awkward response.
"Colonel I may have an answer for that." Novak responded.
"Go ahead doctor." Col. Caldwell announced through her earpiece.
"Colonel, Hermiod and I have been monitoring the tachyon surges and we believe they are being used to boost encrypted radio transmissions to FTL speeds." She informed him. "And Colonel the transmissions are emanating from the vicinity of Earth." She added.
"No one on Earth has this kind of technology doctor." Col. Caldwell noted.
"I'm aware of that sir." Dr. Novak quickly replied.
"Can you break the encryption?" Caldwell asked.
"The coding is quite crude; cracking it will not be a problem." Hermiod responded from his station.
"Colonel Hermiod and I think we can break the code but it'll take a few minutes."
"Do what you can doctor, Caldwell out." The Colonel Said cutting the Mike.
"I absolutely hate it when they do that!" Novak said to herself before turning her attention to Hermiod. "So any bright ideas on how to break this code?" Novak asked with a smile on her face.
"I have been cycling through the Tachyon code since you first brought it to my attention." Hemiod admitted. "I have nearly broken it."
Hermiod's hands moved the various stones and crystals from one section of his console to another. "The Code is broken. " He finally announced after several seconds.
"You know you and me need to have a little talk about teamwork." A very annoyed Novak said.
Bridge.
"Colonel the Code is broken." Novak reported over the loudspeaker.
"Thank you doctor, and well done." Caldwell praised. "Keep an open channel to the Bridge, and monitor all sensor information as it comes in." Caldwell ordered.
"Yes Colonel." Novak reported.
Ok Foster lets hear it." Caldwell said to his XO.
"Yes sir." She responded. Her hands moved across her console as she matched the radio frequency and latched onto the net." Any second sir." She reported.
zzzz…I have a target lock!...zzzzz Alph……zzzzzzzzz….Alpha 4 break away, break away!...Distance to Target!...zzzzzz..Hull firing! White Star 13 break and engage rear targets, get them off the Warlocks!...zzzz… We just lost the Hecate! She's drifting! Protect the Victory and the Excalibur they're the only ones who can stop em. Nemesis and Juno are gone, Nimrod and Heracles take their place in formation!...zzz where the Hell's our support! Were being swept aside! They'll be able to position the Planet Killer once that's done!
"Holly shit! Did I just hear the words planet killer! Lt. Miguel barked out.
He like everyone on the Bridge had been listing in with rapt attention hoping to gain some insight from the monitored radio transmissions before deciding a course of action. But the words "Planet Killer" had sent a feeling of utter dread through the entire crew.
"My God, if it's true…" Foster whispered not knowing she'd spoken aloud."
"Hermiod, Novak are you monitoring?"
"Yes Colonel we are." Novak responded.
Caldwell could just make out a hint of a tremor in her voice apparently what she heard had deeply affected her, along with a good portion of the crew by the looks of it.
"What do you make of this?" the Colonel asked.
"I am reading several hundred ships within the Vicinity of Earth exchanging weapons fire, and one object I can not identify. It is however large enough to encompass a planet." Hermiod reported.
"It may very well be the Planet killer we heard about." Foster reasoned.
"One more thing Colonel." Hermiod said to get the Colonels attention.
"Go ahead Hermiod." Caldwell responded.
"I have done a sensor sweep of the system and have determined that none of the planet are in their proper orbit." Hermiod began.
Oh god please don't go where I think your going with this, Caldwell thought to himself.
"Based on your plants rate of cylcle around its sun as well as those of the other plantets in the system I have determined that we are not at our correct space time coordinates." Hermiod reported matter of factly.
"When are we then?" Caldwell asked trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut.
"With the way you humans measure time, approximately 262 Earth Standard years." Hermiod reported.
"Time Travel?" Lt. Miguel blurted out.
"It would appear so." Major Foster answered.
"Speculation can wait till later." Caldwell snapped as much to get them focused on their duties as to calm his racing heart, so far it wasn't working.
"Hermiod what's the Status of that planet killer?" Col. Caldwell asked.
"It is drawing closer to Earth; I speculate it will be able to hit the planet within a few minutes." Hermiod reported.
Colonel Caldwell took in everything within a matter of moments. Earth was in danger of being destroyed and her fleet was taking a pounding and would soon be swept aside. Though the Colonel had a choice whether or not to intervene His conscience only allowed him one alternative.
"Weps Arm all rail guns! Load tubes 1-4 with mark 8 tacticals 5-10 with Mark 7s. 8 – 16 with standard anti-ship ordinance. Caldwell barked coming to life.
"Yes sir!" was Lt. Miguel's enthusiastic reply.
"Raise Shields to Maximum, All hands man battle stations!" Caldwell calmly stated over the ships loudspeaker for all to hear.
The crew of the Daedalus having heard much of the Radio chatter intercepted from the Battle over Earth had taken it upon themselves to head towards their battle stations thinking (correctly) they would soon be needed. Once the Call to battle stations rang out over the ships loudspeaker Caldwell found to his delight the crew already manning it.
"Foster plot a small hyperspace jump between us and the Planet Killer."
"Course plotted waiting on your orders sir." she responded immeadiately.
"Take us into the Fight."
