Disclaimer: I never have and never will own the characters, Ideas or anything else based on these 2 shows. The TV studios that produced them, do. This story is also free as it is a pet project. Enjoy.
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Wireless/communication"
"Speaking in a different language"
Chapter 22: Breaking the wheel, part 4: Divine worlds.
Atlantis, moments later
"So you are saying that there are ancients on that ship?" Weir yelled as she once again interrogated the Janus AI. Only this time colonel Marshal was with her.
"The Tria. Yes, she survived, but her hyperdrive was crippled. The crew is using the vacuum extractor unit to reach near speed of light with her sublight engines. "Janus AI explained. "I however think that their original target system was... maybe not yet." He just smiled, stopping himself to not reveal more.
"What?" was Marshall's response, but Weir began walking out.
"Don't bother. He won't say anything he doesn't want to. No point to blow at this wind mill, colonel."
They exited the holo room. "Radek, I need you to do an extrapolation of this ship... the Tria you discovered on Midway. Has it already altered course for Midway?"
Radek, who returned to Atlantis due to this new discovery, sighed as he stopped his work at the computer station. "Difficult to say. Perhaps their course was parallel to Midway, perhaps not. If they already discovered us, I would say not. Perhaps we just send a ship there and ask them?"
"No." was Marshall's answer as he followed Weir up the steppes. "Command for the moment does not want to accelerate this first contact. Who knows what they will do... take over Atlantis? After all we did, over my dead body! And we have a mess back home. Do what you can, Dr. Zelenka." He turned to Weir. "We are expected on Erath. I hope you giving command for the time being to this Teyla person will not bite us in the rear."
"I learned to trust her. Besides, if we want a good productive cooperation with Pegasus humans, we need to do things like this as well."
The ring officer began dialling Midway as they returned down to the Stargate level. "Any news on the operation?" Weir got curious. And nervous.
"No. And it is bothering me."
Tritis system, same time
The orbit was now littered with debris of both fleets. However, while Ba'al lost a sizable chunk of his forces, he was victorious in the end. One of his clones was standing on the Pel'tak of his command ship, overseeing the operation as now several Ha'tak were descending into the atmosphere. He was enraged that the humans double-crossed him as well. Now the only thing that remained was to search the remains and see if something survived.
As his ship followed the Ha'tak's into the atmosphere and descended below the cloud cover, he began to see the results of the human raid. Most of Anubis base was flattened, with craters and dust clouds covering the former base. At least a quarter was now also swallowed by the lava river that erupted from the ground.
He pushed the lead Jaffa from the control console and began looking at the data. Radiation was thru the roof in most areas, but for some reason he could not explain, some areas were significantly less affected than others, including that the buildings were still standing... mostly.
"Begin landing troops in any area still accessible. Any survivors are to be brought for interrogation immediately. Concentrate on the research area and Kull production!"
As all but the lead Jaffa bowed and went to issue the orders, Ba'al went back to his throne. "What is it?" He asked the lead Jaffa, who was still not executing his orders.
"My lord... if we send the Jaffa down there, even their symbiotes will not be able to keep them alive for long in those... areas..." Ba'al's look stopped him from talking any more.
"Then pray the Kull area is still intact so in the future I'll send them and not you. Now, if you don't begin relaying my orders, you will be the first to go down there!"
There was no more hesitation.
New Terra, minutes later
As the gate activated, the security detail got ready while the iris closed the gate. In the control room overseeing the gate room, Gen. Landry was expecting this call. Like the ones before it.
"Sir, code is from new Kobol." the ring officer reported.
"As if the 8th chevron was not a dead giveaway solder." the general smiled. "Open the iris."
Indeed it was New Kobol, as Woolsey and the Colonial representatives arrived. Hank went to greet them.
"Mr. Woolsey. A bit early are we. This was not scheduled for later this afternoon." he shook his hand.
Woolsey had an exhausted look as he shook back. "The colonials were getting restless. More specifically 2 member worlds. Or should I say tribes at this point? Anyway. So Laura and I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. We continue the talks here while the Quorum members get their visit to Earth. Have the legal issues been cleared?"
"Yes, Greece, Turkey and all the countries with the ancient Greek ruins including the sites we know of where some of the old world wonders used to be, like Zeus's statue and Artemis temple, are cleared. Security and accommodations included." then he looked at the Quorum members. "As long as they behave."
"I'm sure they will" Woolsey replied half heartedly.
"If they don't, I don't mind you showing them the other side of Earth's hospitality, if you understand my meaning." Laura added, getting tired of their constant demands.
"One thing I have to mention." Hank interrupted the group before they could depart. "The gate at the Cheyenne Mountain is not there anymore. They will arrive at the Antarctica site."
The change in tone was noticed by Laura and Woolsey.
"Why? Has something happened?" Woolsey demanded to know.
"You will be briefed, but the short story is that Anubis launched an attack of his own. The gate destroyer weapon."
"So you removed the gate? A bit early for that too?"
"We got reliable information that the weapon has been moved to an Icarus class planet to accelerate the overload and he is using the dial multiple gates tactic."
"Nerus handy work?"
"Yes. Tollana, Earth and several member worlds will be without a gate for a while. Good thing Earth has 2 of them. Now if you please." he motioned to the Quorum to prepare for departure as the gate officer began dialling. Laura, Woolsey, Tory and Landry moved out of the gate room.
"Well, you have a nice... meeting. If those things can ever be nice." Hank said and began turning back when Woolsey stopped him.
"I think you should come with us for this, general." Woolsey pseudo ordered him. "I know you don't like meetings like these, but it comes with the rank".
Hank knew Woolsey was right. So he began escorting them. Laura interrupted the silence.
"Have you heard from your main force? I assume this attack on your gates is linked with that?"
"Can't say much here. The fleet admiral will brief you. Her or a pencil pusher, but rest assured, the mission was a success. Even if we lost more than we planned. Besides we have another situation in Midway."
Woolsey reacted with a bored reaction. "How? They are in the middle of nowhere."
"A situation that called Weir and Marshall back from Atlantis minutes before you arrived. An Ancient Aurora class was detected when Midway's sensors came on-line. With possible Ancients on it. Only Janus AI is not talking. Again."
"Really? Have they made contact?"
"No." Landry began explaining as they reached a transporter hub and entered a booth. It just completed a transport as a man in a hat exited the booth. "Detective? What seems to be the hurry?" the general greeted said man.
"Meeting on Earth with an informant. All I can say. Big case." was Millers response as he hurried past them.
"You just might catch the transport there right now, if you hurry." Hank chuckled and stepped in to the now vacant booth. "Now, where was I?"
"Contact..." Laura reminded him, even if she did not get half of what they were talking about.
"Ah, right. The council decided to postpone on that. Who knows what they might do. Demand Atlantis back. Besides, we have time. They are moving at 99,9% of the speed of light." He pressed the command interface. "Military HQ please." As a flash of light passed thru the room, the doors opened and they stepped out into the main hub of the military wing of the city.
Earth, Antarctica base, seconds later
The colonial group as well as other travellers arrived on Earth with security checking their identities on the spot. The travellers themselves were a bit confused, since some of them, minus the quorum, were on Earth before, so this location was not what they expected.
"Hello folks. Sorry for this little inconvenience, but war is war." Jack greeted them, who with nothing better to do after Cheyenne mountain gate was removed. He asked the military command for either something important to do, besides now only babysitting the ancient knowledge depository, or give him the day off. Boy did he regret saying that when they assigned him to a new babysitting duty. With his nemesis. If you ignore those pesky fish of course. Politicians.
The colonial quorum representative approached him, her hand extended. "Good day. I am Sarah Porter, current quorum representative."
"Ah, General Jack O'Neill. 2 L's. So, our long lost cousins, so to say. Your group is cleared for travel. They are expecting you already."
"You are not coming?"
"I'll be right behind you, just something personal to finish up first." O'Neill responded and nodded his head to the exit of the ring room where escorts were waiting to get them to a transporter booth.
As O'Neill waited for the gate room to clear, he saw the person he was waiting for. "Miller. Nice of you to drop by. Sorry we have to meet here, but... I will skip repeating myself. Come to my temporary office on this base."
As they left the gate room as well, they arrived at a small office where O'Neill currently was posted, until the gate issue is resolved. "So?"
"As we feared. My contact at Tycho panned out." He pulled his PDA and showed O'Neill the info he got from Johnson. "This, my poking around and the gunny's info plus your suspicions... we have a parasite problem. The human kind."
As O'Neill took the PDA and looked at the info, he looked at Miller again. "Kinsey and Simmons?"
"Well it isn't Teddy the detector that's for sure."
"Who?"
"Uhh, never mind. Anyway, if it is not them, it's whoever they left behind. Either that... or..."
"Or what?"
"Or, whoever set them up to fall."
O'Neill remained silent. That was a scary thought. "You think we caught them a bit too easy?"
"If you ask me, yes. Looks like a set up for them. I mean you on Earth have this saying. If it walks like a goose, quacks like a goose and looks like a goose..."
"Duck, but yeah, your right." O'Neill sighed. Simmons and Kinsey. This was not over, yet. And he could not go interrogate them without sounding an alarm somewhere with whoever is in the background. "Well, I'll go talk with Harry..."
"No. Gunny and the lawyer both say it is a bad idea to involve him."
"Look, I admit he has his issues, but Harry is on the level now..."
"And if he was part of the setup?"
Again O'Neill stayed silent. Miller continued. "There are only 3 choices here. Either he is willingly part of this set up, he was manipulated or just dumb luck he stumbled into it and it all fell into place the way it did. In 2 out of 3 scenarios it looks bad for him. Also inform your team... or what's left of them. They need to know."
"Yeah, yeah." O'Neill cursed at that logic. "I hate it when someone else is right about such things. Fine. Inform the gunny. I'll continue here. You'd better get back now." Then as they were about to part ways, O'Neill stopped. "Wait. Why not just inform me over the comm?"
"Can't risk it. Earth is one of two infested worlds. What if they are intercepting communications? Yours would be on the top of the list."
O'Neill nodded. Made sense. Who knows if he was bugged.
As Miller began leaving and O'Neill began mentally preparing himself for the politicians, he yelled after Miller. "And for god's sake, loose that stupid hat! It's not exactly raining inside." Then, as he began leaving for the transporter booth, he looked up at the ceiling. "Could really use your help, space monkey. Things are not working out as predicted... or planned."
New Terra, Military HQ, 10 minutes later
Laura and other 'guests', mostly military personnel were all gathered in Yao's office where they were briefed on the current situation of the military operation. While they were pleased with the success of the mission, the losses they suffered and the advancements Anubis made in the field of technology worried them. Even more now if Ba'al got his hands on the leftovers. That would be just shifting the problem from one dictator to another.
Laura was particularly proud when she heard how Bill salvaged the situation by doing what he did best. Command. Of course she also knew what politicians did best. Cover their rears.
"While commendable, admiral Adama's actions cost us dearly." a terran general spoke first. "If they had just retreated…"
"The mission was only half done at that point. He did a great job preventing our forces from routing…" an admiral commented back.
"We will discuss the repercussions of this later!" Yao established order, preventing any further bickering. "The Orion just arrived at the randevu coordinates. We'll let Adama and Hammond update us." She activated the comm station. On the main display both Hammond and Adama appeared on their bridges. "Gentlemen, job well done, even if one of you was only a guest. Glad your presence was advantageous for us." She saluted both men, Adama slightly more. After the salute was returned, she continued. "Now, your thoughts."
"Admiral. I know I don't have any real authority here, but we should go back." Adama spoke.
The common, if quiet, response in the room was if Adama was insane. Yao remained professional. "Care to explain why?"
Adama stepped aside, letting Dr. McKay and Sheppard join him. They landed on the Excalibur minutes ago. "I think Dr. McKay is the reason for this."
"Me? Why me? I never said to go back there, so…"
"I think what he means is that you said that the command ship burned it's hyperdrive out getting to Delmak so fast. If so it is our best chance to finish it off before they can replace the engines. Am I wrong, sir?" Sheppard guessed Adamas thinking process. As well as to stop Rodney's whining.
"Precisely. He is stuck there. This is our best chance."
Woolsey, who was like everyone in the room, listening intensely to this conversation, ever the politician, hat to ask the obvious question. "And how would you do that? Our forces are weakened, our ships depleted of both ammo and shields. Given time, days to recuperate, I would be for it, but I doubt you had such a time frame in mind."
"I think I am standing on the solution, right?" Hammond joined the conversation. "Our human made ships are depleted, but the 2 Aurora's are mostly still fresh. As well as the only ships we have that can handle that command ship."
"Yes. That is the idea. If you approve of it." Adama replied, waiting for an answer.
"Kicking them, when they are down? Not very sporting, admiral?" Yao asked more serious than jokingly.
"This is war. Fair battles are for idiots. The more unfair you make it for the opponent, the better off you are. People say that is not honourable. What is more honourable than victory?"
Yao now smiled and stood up from her desk. "You and allot of generals and philosophers would get along greatly. I agree. You have green light. I want you and any personnel you want to transfer to the Velocity. If anyone has any ideas on how to decrease any more losses we might take…"
"Emm, I might have an idea." Rodeny returned to the screen area with a PDA in hand.
"Dr. McKay, the last free ZPM is with the Apollo right now and the Mirage task force will not be back for hours." Yao reminded him, thinking he would ask for that.
"Yeah, no. I was thinking more of the power amplification crystal. We have 4, I could adapt the ZPM console on each ship to accept the crystal. Yes, each ship can only take one without massive modification, but this is better than nothing. We are in orbit of P1Z-11A, just send them thru the gate via jumper."
"If the Auroras can handle a crystal from the beginning, why not use a micro ZPM? The colonials have at least 3 spare ones." Woolsey asked Rodney while looking at Laura for approval.
"4, last we checked."
"Power amplification crystals are universally compatible with ancient tech. ZPM's of different sizes need modification to the power systems, mostly the station where they are inserted, if they are not the right size and thus power settings."
Yao sat back down. "And we know that Anubis knows how to make more of them. We only destroyed the resources he needs to build more as well as his building site. But that is only a small setback. According to Carter."
"Yes. No sources of yurantic crystals and lythuric ore to be found. Besides the planet we just nuked." Woolsey sighed, saying it more to himself than anyone else.
But Laura froze. She heard those names before. "Excuse me. Can you repeat those names?"
"Yurantic crystals and lythuric ore." Woolsey repeated himself. "Why?"
Both Laura in the room and Adama via communication link looked at each other.
"Is there something we are missing?" a general asked as most in the room saw their expressions.
"Those names. You heard of them before?" Woolsey more stated than asked.
"Some months ago, when we were still settling into New Kobol, we went thru all the parts of the city, the industrial sector included. There some containers were found. Most had spare equipment and parts, but 2 were sealed shut. In the inventory list they were marked as containers for these two materials. Since then Dr. Baltar had them transferred into the laboratory complex and opened them. We did not know what to do with those materials, but we have at least several tons of them. Baltar would know the exact figures."
"And knowing him, he is preoccupied with less important stuff! Why has he not forwarded the inventory list the Terrans asked for already?" was Adamas reaction. He was more and more losing his patience with the good doctor.
"A question I intend to ask him myself. I already asked your son to take over for him, since he is chasing his next item of interest."
"No." Yao interrupted Laura. "WE will be asking him. If SG-1's info is confirmed, we might be able to produce the crystals ourselves now. This is too big." she accesses her table console. "Security. Get me Dr. Baltar here ASAP. If he resists, talks back or... anything but walks, stun his ass and drag him here." She then looked at Laura. "Any issues with that?"
"No. I appreciate that."
New Terra, Research HQ, same time
Baltar and Rush were still at it. Their bickering. Their arguing. Their wide eyed expressions whenever they discovered something new about this Destiny program the Ancients had. Eli did the smart thing when he went with Ginn. Only he was just about to return to his lab, stopping outside after hearing the bickering.
"Remind me again why I returned?" he half hearted asked Ginn.
"You said you left your PDA with the notes on advanced holographic there."
"Yeah... I'm regretting it already."
"Ha, I said it! I said he would say that! Pay up buddy!" a loud female voice was heard from down the main corridor. As Eli and Ginn turned around, they saw Master Sergeant Greer and 3 other solders escorting 2 women in their direction. One of them was smiling as Greer gave her some credit chips.
"Well, I thought you were... you know. Bluffing. Oh, hey Eli. We need to talk to Rush, so best you get your... whatever while we talk with him."
"Oh, hey. Sure. What is this about?"
"Can't talk in front of our colonial friend. Some things are still classified for them."
"Oh, fine. Let's go then."
They entered the laboratory in question where the 2 scientists were still looking and admiring the information on the main display. Not that it meant anything to the solders that arrived. Or Eli and Ginn who got fed up with it a while ago. Or to be more precise the effect it had on certin individuals.
"Dr. Rush. We have a situation that needs... ehm. Your expertise." Greer drew the attention of the 2 scientists.
"Can't this wait? We are in the middle..."
"I don't care what you are in the middle of. Narim's orders."
Rush hated it. He would go and give that Tollan a piece of his mind... but talking that way to him was pointless. He was far more emotionally balanced than Rush himself and they both knew it.
"Well, since you are needed elsewhere, I can continue the examination of this information by myself. So please..." Baltar began saying as he could not contain his smile. Finally he was rid of an annoyance. Form his point of view. Of course he would never admit it that there are allot of scientists here that are as smart if not more so than him. And they all have a head start on him. His smile was cut short when 6 more solders, MP's appeared behind the original group.
"What's this?" Greer asked the other Master Sergeant.
"Orders from Yao. Dr. Baltar is to come with us this instant."
Baltar wanted to protest. What now? "I have to ask what this is about. I was given limited clearance by your council, so whatever this is, I will put a formal protest with my president..."
"She approved it!"
Baltar gaped like a fish. Did he piss her off again? He began thinking what he could have done this time. "But why? She is on New Kobol still, so why...?"
"She is here. The operation your admiral is part of is getting an update. Don't know all the details, but during the conversation it was learned that you posses some quantities of rare materials that are needed for some crystal construction. YOUR president got angry you hadn't forwarded the inventory of your colony to the Terran council... yet."
Baltar gulped. He did indeed forget. "What materials?"
Rush dropped his PAD and grabbed Baltar by his collar. He figured it out. "Yurantic crystals and lythuric ore? You people have Yurantic crystals and lythuric ore?"
"Oh frak."
"I take that is a yes." Baltar nodded and Rush let him go. "You are the dumbest scientist I have EVER met! You need to get your priorities sorted out!" Rush yelled and looked at the MP's, nodding. They took Baltar with them, no more protesting from him. Now Rush sighed as the reason Greer and co were here was still not explained. And even Eli and Ginn were getting curious.
"I take it back. Going back was worth it." Eli chuckled.
"Now." Rush turned his attention back to Greer. "Why are you here, before we were so rudely interrupted?"
Greer turned to the 2 women behind him he and his solders escorted here. "Meet
Jade O'Neill, another brainac for this little team."
Rush was not impressed. "What qualifies her for this?! I won't tolerate…"
Mary beat Jade to the punch here. "Told you. Your mom was soooooo right about him. A jackass. No wonder you didn't get laid much prior to your death from when I come from." Future Mary Stone snared, now seeing the jackass in real life.
"Excuse me?!"
"I'm Mary Stone, federation pilot… from the future. She…" nods to Jade… "Is Jack O'Neill's and Samantha Carter's daughter from another future. We arrive not too long ago almost at the same time. I think THAT qualifies her."
"That and the fact I saw Janus's temporal observatory close up." Jade added, wanting to see Rush's reaction. Another pin drop moment occurred. Eli broke it.
"This is getting better and better. You saw Janus's temporal observatory? Where is it? Can we gate to it? Can…"
"Whoa whoa there. We tried already when we got stranded here after your timeline deleted ours. Seems Janus in this time made his observatory inaccessible. And yes, we have the address, but we tried with a ship in our time as well, nothing to find there. Must be well hidden." She stops herself for a moment and inhales some oxygen. "Besides, even when we were in the observatory I only managed to unlock the basics."
Rush just shook his head. "No surprise. I doubt Janus would encode the crown jewel of his life so that any person that stumbles upon it can just take controls. And…"
"And I still got more time with it than you. With you like the rest of Earth being dead by Aschen bio weapon attack in our time. You included."
"Wait… wait. I read about that. You came from that future? But how…? What?" Eli tried to gasp the whole issue in front of him.
"Only Janus would know. I can only guess that this time-line is now becoming the prime one and all other time travels are being redirected here. Or now… or whatever." She stopped to prevent a headache to manifest itself.
"Speaking of…" future Mary nods to Greer who then takes a small data crystal out of his breast pocket. He hands it to Rush.
"What is this?" Rush asks.
"This is all your research you managed to do in the few years in the future I come from. Not much when you think of the fact that so many worlds died in that future."
Rush realized what that could mean. He went to his console and inserted the crystal. Eli and Ginn were right behind him.
"You should go as well." Mary encouraged Jade.
As Rush began reading the data, he got a curious look. "This data encoding looks familiar."
"It should. I use this coding." Eli remarked and joined Rush in the data analysis.
"Yep. You encoded this crystal after all." Mary smirked at Eli's response.
"Me? I did this?"
Rush stopped working and sighed. "Makes sense. I was dead as you said. And if so many worlds died, allot of other people died. Carter, McKay?"
"McKay at the hands of the replicators, Carter at the hands of the Ori."
Now Eli stopped working as well. "So the replicators awoke after all?"
"A war between them and the Wraith devastates Pegasus. The machines won in the end and exterminate everything else. They are only stopped by the Ori in the end. The colonials are wiped out by the Jötunn, who then continue to the Milky Way that is crippled by the infighting anyway. And when the Ori arrive… they have open season on everyone. With the little info we had, we never found out how they arrived, from where they came from and why they are attacking. The only thing we knew was that they hated the Ancients. It took them some time, but in the end we only had one safe place left. The same place we moved Atlantis to. On this crystal is all the info we managed to acquire on how the Pegasus replicators became such a threat, or more precise from where. As well as the location of our last defensive position. The last info is on when the Jötunn arrived, but not where. We only know it is somewhere in the large Magellan cloud. Doesn't really narrow it down. But makes sense since the cylons and colonials stumbled on some of them there."
The temperature in the room fell as the people heard of the catastrophe that needed to be averted.
"What about the great races? Did they not try to stop this?" Rush asked the obvious question.
"They did. But the Asgard and Furlings had their hands full with the Jötunn for a while, leaving the Nox alone to handle the PPT. Then the Pegasus replicators arrived in the Milky Way with the Ori only a few months behind them. Then the galaxy burned. And we humans were like bugs caught in the crossfire."
"Damn." Greer cursed. "And with 'us' crippled… we couldn't fight back, right?"
"Yes. But hopefully the gates not devastating our worlds and this little info will change the course of history."
Rush, who returned to the console, isolated 2 data blocks. "2 gate addresses? And a set of coordinates. Where do they lead?"
"The one in Pegasus we don't know. We never got the chance to get there, but we know the Pegasus replicators get far more dangerous after they get there. Even their little civil war did nothing to dent their speed." The others looked at her, indicating they wanted to know more. "The civil war? Yeah, the easiest way to explain it they went the cylon route. They are not completely unified. In the end the side who had a destroy all organics fetish won."
"And the other gate address?"
Mary smirked. "You'll just have to find out, won't you? The same with the coordinates."
Eli, still working on the data while listening to Mary's explanation, noticed something. "Wait a moment. These coordinates are in the cluster of stars where New Kobol is located!" He looked at future Mary. "What is there?"
"Take me there and I'll show you." She smirked back.
Phoenix and Valkyrie, same time, hyperspace, nearing P2C-211
Caprica was preparing the colonial raptor that was attached to the still active gate in the second hangar of the Phoenix.
As she was finishing her programing of the jump drive, the Phoenix CAG entered the cockpit. "How's it looking?"
"All done. Once we arrive, the Phoenix just transmits the target coordinates, the raptor accepts them and jumps in 10 seconds, gate and all. We will have to be quick in decompressing the hangar and getting the raptor into space, or risk damaging the Phoenix as well."
The CAG nodded. "I know. All fighters are secured and the hangar evacuated. What is bugging me is if we can jump an active gate at all… or if it will rip us apart? I mean, we are already moving an active gate thru hyperspace… this must be breaking some laws of physics… right?"
"I wouldn't know. I'm no expert." Caprica replied as they exited the raptor and closed the hatch. "But as I understand it the connection was not broken due to so much power being channelled into the gate from the other end."
They moved from the raptor to the hangar crew entrance. Well, one of them. "So the very thing Anubis is doing to overload it is allowing us to give it back to him, overload and all?"
Caprica nodded. "Yes. But the side effect is, as the chief engineer said, that the structural integrity had to be boosted. By like 300%, to prevent the stress of dragging an active gate thru hyperspace to not tear the ship apart."
They closed the hangar entrance and made their way to the bridge via transporter booth. "That explains why several decks are unpowered right now." the CAG realized the reason.
Orion, minutes later
The doors on the bridge slide open as McKay entered. There Hammond and Adama were already talking things over as Sheppard listened.
"Look. I'm a ground person. So I suggest you come up with the strategy on this one. You clearly have more experience in space combat than me or... well most people here." Hammond looked around the bridge to see if any of the personnel there would respond to that. None did.
"I appreciate that, but my knowledge of this ships capabilities are limited. My suggestion is to that as long there are no surprises you remain in charge."
"I tend to agree with this suggestion sir." Sheppard added his 2 cents. "The Orion uses drones while the Velocity backs her up with standard weapons. If needed they then switch positions after a few minutes. Speaking of which..." Sheppard motions to Rodney to join them. "Well, how does it look?"
Rodney, still occupied with his PDA, looked at him for a second. "Oh, yeah, yeah. Crystals are installed, we can begin the test."
Liking the answer, Hammond sat back into the command chair. "Well then. Doctor, whenever you are ready."
Rodney sat down at the engineering station and activated the power modifications he just did. The lights and screens flickered for a moment before stabilizing again. "Annnnddddd were done. Power output up by 31%."
"31%? That's all? A ZPM could do far more than that, Meredith!"
"Would you... Stop calling me that, Kirk! I said it would be something like that. and besides, this power up is permanent unless the crystal is overloaded or the power reactors it is enhancing loose juice. A ZPM would provide much more, but also sooner or later run out. Anyway. I'm done here and on the Velocity. So General, admiral, guests..." he looks at Ronon and Larrin. "and Kirk. I'm going back to main engineering now to..."
"Hold your horses doctor." Hammond stopped him. "A new update. Rush is going to the colonials, you, Sheppard and our guests back to Pegasus. We just got new info about 2 locations of curtail importance and the one in Pegasus will be investigated by you."
"But.. but... You may need my help. What if the crystal burns out or..."
"I think the engineers here will manage it doctor." Hammond then turned to Sheppard and saluted. "Good hunting colonel."
Sheppard returned the salute and extended it to Adama. "You too sir. To both of you." Then he went past Rodney and grabbed him by his uniform, dragging him out. Ronon and Larrin casually followed.
"Best you get to the Velocity then. Once all systems are green, we proceed." Hammond suggested. Adama nodded and left the bridge as well.
Earth, Greece, Athens, same time
Summer time. Warm climate. Good food. Nice people. Great city. Watertight security for the 'guests'. What more could one want? Well for Jack O'Neill, a granite wall to bang his head against would be nice.
This quorum was... like a group of kinder garden kids. Whiny. Entitled. The Acropolis tour was nice and all, but these were not normal tourists. All they were looking for were signs if this was humanities birthplace.
And it was driving O'Neill up the walls. Who did he annoy to get this assignment? No scratch that, who did he enrage... scratch that as well. Well someone had it in for him. He turned to the major who led the marine security detachment along with the Greek security team.
"So... How you boys holding out?"
"Sir, permission to speak freely?" O'Neill nods. "This bites. I mean do they want a diaper next?"
"I know the feeling. If only... oh, pipe down guys." O'Neill whispered to the major and the group guarding the corner of the locked down street as Zarek approached the group.
"I can't thank you enough for this, general. My fellow quorum members were getting insufferable at times."
"Interesting, cause your president adds you to that group. Your colony even more so."
Zarek smirked, expecting that answer. "Laura has good intentions for our people, but she sometimes lacks fantasy or perspective."
"And I guess bombing innocent civilians gave you your perspective?"
"Any other man would have been insulted at that, but I stand by my past deeds. Those were hard times after all. For my people a hard century. I did read about some of Earth's history, when I had a chance. Did your United States not rebel against its masters at one point in your history? Tell me where the difference is between your Washington and me?"
"I doubt he bombed children of redcoats." the major responded.
"Or get caught." O'Neill added.
"Do you have any evidence of that? It is over 2 centuries ago after all. I think both sides had blood on their hands. There is no such thing as a bloodless revolution." Zarek stopped for a moment and leaned against the wall of the building they were all standing by. "I regret many things. But all I did was for my people." He stepped away and walked back to the quorum group who were having a heated debate with several officials of the city.
"Was he trying to convince us or himself?" the major asked O'Neill, who just shrugged.
New Kobol, minutes later
Lee and Karl just arrived in the ring room as colonel Tigh and commander Nash were already present with all the regular staff needed to operate the gate activities.
"What took you Lee? Coffee break?" Saul asked about Lees late arrival with his usual 'charming' personality.
"Was in the gym colonel. So sorry for any delay."
"What are you wasting your time there? You're in the best shape in years? Want to impress the misses?" Saul smirked back. "Especially since she has to do most of the baby work at home."
"Look who's talking. We both do our rolls. As for the gym thing. I intend to apply at the Terran military command."
"As what? A reminder of a failed stone age civilization? Frak after all we have seen, we qualify as that."
"No colonel." Nash intervened. "I heard that the Federation is hiring anyone with combat experience or anyone with a military background. The technology gap is apparently quickly bypassed with their version of our old holo bands."
"Well isn't that nice of them. So, you going as a pilot? CAG again?" Saul turned to Lee again.
"No, ship commander. Or in their case captain."
Saul laughed. "Yeah right. Like they'll just hand the keys of one of their ships to one of us!"
"I think it won't be that easy, but if we join them it actually should be that easy."
The gate began lighting up.
"Incoming wormhole!" the gate room officer reported. It was Baltar, Laura, Woolsey and several other SGC personnel and scientist.
Saul, Lee and Nash saluted and greeted them.
"Madam president. Welcome back. Has something happened for your swift return?" Nash wanted to know.
"In a way. Bill is more actively involved in their operation that we all thought. But for the reason of why we are here. Gaius here..." she looked with a disapproving look at him. "will show these scientists and engineers where we have those crystals and ore we found but did not know what to do with them. Seems the Eye of Jupiter and the others like it are made from those resources. As for the rest... commander Adama. You and a squad of our marines and centurions will accompany the remaining terran experts to a set of coordinates they will give you." Laura nodded to Rush who went to the dialling station and put the coordinates into the computer.
"Wow. No wonder this address was not in your database here." Rush said as he and colonial officers there saw where this address leads to. The others joined them.
"The small Magellan cloud galaxy?" was Eli's look of interest. He eyed future Mary, whose identity was still a secret to the colonials. He whispered to her. "You knew this?" She just smirked.
"Makes sense. Nothing outside your small galaxy of origin was in the database and that counts as another group of gates but is still part of the same ring system." Rush realized the lack of data. "Dialling now."
Pegasus galaxy, Atlantis, same time
The team arrived back, leaving the jumper at the Midway station.
"Home sweet home!" Rodney exclaimed.
"Don't get too comfortable Rodney. We have a mission ASAP." Sheppard reminded him as he went to the upper floor to greet Teyla.
"Back already colonel? Everything well with the mission?"
"For now yes, but we have new info. So..." he turns to the rest of the staff in the command room. "I need 2 squads of marines, Becket and Ford in the gate room in five. I'll get the jumper, Rodney will prep everything else."
He began leaving for the jumper bay as Ford joined him for the walk. "Why not send one of our new hover MALP's?"
"According to our info this address will only work if the gate detects an organic with ATA gene. If it doesn't detect it, it redirect the wormhole to another address."
"Wow, some tight security."
"Yes. Plus the address was deleted from Atlantis database. So gear up. Don't know what to expect. Even our informant doesn't know, except that it can't fall into replicator hands."
Unknown location, small Magellan cloud galaxy, minutes later
Another gate room on another Ancient base. The gate was already active as the expedition arrived. The solders went to cover all the entrances, passing the hover MALP on their way. The all clear signal given, Rush and the other scientist arrived.
"A mark one city ship. Like our Olympus." Rush noticed the design. He, Eli and the other's went to the command consoles to see what they were dealing with.
"Everything is standard here." One scientist commented.
"Three small scale ZPM's in the power room, fully charged. Funny thing, they are not even tapped. The city is powered from somewhere else." Another scientist remarked.
"And that is not even the strangest thing. It ready that there are connections, both power lines and everything else leading directly to the bottom of this planet as well as to the north and south pole." Rush said as he scratched his head after looking at this data. "And it reads that there are docking ports at all of those locations. Including... Wait a minute! This can't be right!? Vacuum of space? How can there be vacuum at both poles and at the centre of the... planet? Unless this isn't a planet?" His eyes shot up to look a future Mary with an intense look. She just smiled sheepishly.
"Your look. Worth every second of it."
"And I think I know why there is vacuum there. Look." Eli pointed outside the main observation window. Everyone else looked and they saw it. The horizon. It was going up, not down. They could see the planet twisting upwards. With edges on each side. "Oh my god. This is a ring world, isn't it?"
"Took you guys long enough. A fraking ring world build around a red dwarf, to minimize construction time and cost." Mary announced proudly. "And it was our last bastion after the whole mess."
Rush, who had also gaped like a fish starring at the sight before him, sat back down. "That also explains the ZPM thing. The sun, the amount of energy this world would need is gigantic, but it can exploit the star all the time. The star is powering this world and the power is also charging the ZPM's back up."
"Yes, but at a slow rate." Mary nodded. "And they are needed to cloak this thing and even then it can't remain cloaked forever. Believe me, we tried, even with Atlantis boosting it. Also I almost forgot, welcome to new Heliopolis."
"New Heliopolis? Wait, the 4 great races met here?"
"Yes Eli, they did. The old one was abandoned for this one. The old one still had sentimental value, but all 4 races contributed to this one. In the end it was hardly used. You know, the whole plague thing. Happened only a century after it's completion."
Rush was back at work at the main terminal. The ring was massive, 0.8 AU in diameter, but was not needed to be larger due to the stars lower size and surface temperature. Still it was closer than the normal habitable zone, but the excess heat and radiation were soaked up and turned into power for the ring, allowing only as much sunlight to pass as it was needed for the life in the ring to prosper. The ring also had an automated night and day cycle, where an energy barrier that blocked all the sunlight on the rings side but absorbed it all on the sun side kept rotating around the ring every 24 hours while simulating a night sky. A brilliant design. Then there was the ring itself. It was separated into 4 areas, each being controlled by a station designed by one of the great races, all connected by transporter platforms. Outside were large docks and maintenance stations as well as weapons emplacements. This ring could defend its self. But the sheer amount of time and resource needed to construct it was something Rush did not want to think about at the moment. It was a great sanctuary indeed. Out of the way and hidden. But for the moment not much more. The ship maintenance and building prospects was nice, but this place was so out of the way that logistic would be an issue. But troop training, food production or colonization, those were good prospects.
During all of that Eli was still mesmerised by the sight before him. To see the mountain ranges and oceans twist upward on the horizon just did not make sense to a normal person. Even he had to admit this was cool. The ring supported all the habitation zones from Earth and planets like it. He spotted deserts, tundra planes, oceans... everything. In both directions. Of course at some point the sheer distance made it impossible to see the ring anymore.
The one who was also amazed but depressed at the same time, was commander Adama.
"Something wrong Lee?" Karl wondered. "I mean are you not impressed by this? Just think of..."
"What I think about is what the Gemeniese and Sagittarians will do when they see this. As religious as they are..."
"Frak. Your right. They'll claim this place for themselves. Declare it a holy world and crap like that."
"Exactly."
Rush stood up and got everyone's attention. "OK, listen up! We will split into teams. 3 will go to the transporter platforms and explore the other 3 command hubs. 2 will remain here. One in the control room, the other explore this hub. The remaining 2 will go via transporter platforms to this sections pseudo north and south poles. Let's explore and map this place out."
Pegasus galaxy, unknown location, same time
A similar procedure happened in the Pegasus galaxy. Only here it was a mark two city ship, a sister of Atlantis, parked on an Earth like planet. Nothing strange about that, with 2 exceptions. No ZPM power and allot of planeside shipbuilding capabilities. Plus the fact that they saw a massive gas giant in the night sky. This was a habitable moon orbiting that planet. And that planet also had a large asteroid ring around it. Fortunately for the moon, it was outside said ring.
McKay exited the jumper and hooked his mobile diagnostic PDA with the cities command station. "As expected. This thing is dead. Only emergency power."
"So where the ZPM's at?" Sheppard asked him the million dollar question as he and the marines joined him.
"According to this, they were taken by the Ancients during the last months of the war. They were needed elsewhere." McKay then went to do his magic. "So let's see... this place is one of 2 main project worlds that the ancients hoped would turn the tide of the war."
"And why did it fail... again?"
"This place was a large shipbuilding site. Or at least it would have been. The entire system, this moon included is saturated with naquadah, trinium and even neutronium. Would make sense. The Ancients hoped to be able to match the wraith shipbuilding capabilities with this."
"So what went wrong?"
"Delays. That's what. When it was operational, it was too little too late. So they grabbed the ZPM's to be used elsewhere. Including... Atlantis. The original depleted ones we found. At least one came from here. The rest is scrambled. I guess they feared the wraith would find this place, so the mined it. That is why only one with the ATA gene can get here."
"What about that other project. The one that was being developed parallel with this one?"
"Give me a sec... here... oh shit."
"What?"
"Makes sense why the replicators would go out of control if they found this place." Sheppard began looking at the data Rodney brought to the screen. He was no expert, but...
"The Asuran replicators are the weapons division project while this is the Indra logistical project. Am I reading this right?" That sentence made Sheppard's skin crawl. "So this is connected to the replicators. But why would this place..." he stops as everyone hears something from the corridor. A machine like sound. "That sounds strangely familiar, doesn't it Rodney?"
"Oh shit no. Don't tell me... we have to get out of here!"
At that point it was too late. The ring room was swarmed from all entrances. By the bug replicators. They came in by the hundreds.
But as the marines got ready to defend themselves, they stopped. A meter from the human perimeter. They just stopped. And waited.
"OK, this is weird. And me without my bug spray." Sheppard turned to Rodney who was already working on the console to get answers. "Any idea Rodney?"
"All I can say is that they were made to be the builders of the ships and weapons here. Makes sense, they are far more efficient at it than humans. Ah, found the code entrance protocol. Oh wow. Ha! This is too good! Everyone, you can relax."
"Relax? You kidding McKay!?" Ronon shouted back, ready to stomp something.
"Yes Conan. I am serious. These bugs won't attack anyone with the ATA gene. And we have all been given the treatment. Well all but our traveller friends, so you should stick close to us."
Larrin just took a step closer to Sheppard, weapon in hand. "Ah the lengths you will go to impress me."
"Not exactly my idea for a first date either."
"Wait, wait." Rodney put his PDA down and stepped to the bugs who backed away. "Return to your stations." Seconds later, they did as ordered. The gate room was cleared. Rodney had the biggest smirk on his face.
"What. The hell. Is going on McKay!?"
"As I said. Won't hurt anyone with the ATA gene. And I extended their command protocol right now. They will obey commands."
"And if the decide they don't like that and we end up with another problem like the Asgard have?" Sheppard reminded him of that scenario.
"Relax. These models have failsafe after failsafe in them. They have limited learning capabilities and limited network connections. No hive mind. No adaptability. No technology assimilation. No rebellious thoughts. In fact no thoughts at all. Whoever the idiots were that made the Ida galaxy ones must have added the subspace link technology to them. Anyway." he returned to the main terminal. "The command and control core is in this city ship. The Indra city ship and Asura city ship were specifically designed for these tasks. But while the original Asuras was destroyed during the war after the ancients abandoned the planet, this one remained. In darkness."
"And the ones the human form replicators have?"
"A copy of Asura perhaps? Who cares, they can build them by the dozens anyway!" Rodney continued to scan the database. "The good news is once we get our only spare standard ZPM here we can power this place back up reasonably well. The bad... the ancients were so paranoid that it will take me some time to decode everything. And I mean time. This is not one of those scenarios where you just annoy me and I find the answer later."
"So it is useless?"
"No, not entirely. The bugs won't build anything until I get past this mess, but they will fix anything we give them to fix. As long as we upload the original schematics for the item to be fixed." Rodney stopped in his thought process and looked at a bit bored Larrin. "Your ships. If you still have the original blueprints, we just scan them into the bug control system, you land them here, evacuate everyone off them and in a few hours... good as new!"
That peaked her interest as well. "Perhaps you are not as useless as I thought."
"Emm, thanks?"
"OK, but why do you need so much time if the human replicators can just take over like that?"
"Cause they are REPLICATORS! They have the entire ancient database and coding! Taking over this would be like snapping fingers for them!" Rodney replied, getting fed up with Sheppard smart assed personality. "I think we should ask Thor to send some of their guys here to take a look. Might help them in their war. I mean the ones they are fighting are leaps ahead of these guys, but the basics are the same. And these are housebroken anyway."
"Fine." Sheppard looked at the rest of the marines. "Spread out and check this place out. I'll dial Atlantis and tell them what we found."
"Hold on... Hey Sheppard. You remember that ancient ship, the Tria that Radek detected on Midway?"
"Yeah?"
"It was headed here. Again, makes sense. This place would be perfect for a bit of tuning."
"You said this project was abandoned? Don't they know that?"
"Who knows how long they were out there? They might have never received the info. Our problem here and now is not security. I mean this place is at the edge of the galaxy, far off any known wraith bases. Plus, remember those ship killer satellites? They were build here. Plenty of them in orbit as well."
"Also no power, am I right?" Rodney did not answer, but Sheppard knew it. "How is the Arcturus thing going? You and the other egg heads any closer to make that thing work without blowing the star system up?"
"Oh give me a break will you! I'm overworked as it is. We are no closer to finding a solution. And if the ancients couldn't find it, don't expect a miracle from us. If we crank the ZP reactor above 20% it gets unstable. If we can't find a solution, we'll just use plan B."
"And plan B is?"
"We build a recharge station on that planet and plug it into the power systems. Then recharge depleted ZPM's from that reactor while it is on low setting. Will take months to recharge at that setting, but better that than nothing."
"Right. Better get Atlantis up to speed now. Keep looking Rodney."
Velocity, minutes later
The board was green. Bill took the seat of the commanding officer. "Status?"
Stix who accompanied Adama on his request as his pseudo XO, adding to the original Velocity crew, who adapted quickly, reported that the ship was ready.
"Get me Hammond." The holographic display of the general appeared next to him.
"We're ready here."
"As are we. Let's go."
Both ships entered hyperspace, leaving the remaining terran fleet to continue their wound licking and preparations to return to New Terra.
Earth, Athens, same time
Zarek found a way to let the other quorum member do their thing while leaving him alone. He took a seat at a nearby cafe. He was given some credit chips to pay with. They were already accepted in most Earth countries that were part of the SGC initiative. Some alone time. That's what he needed. And a new plan. His original one to get the quorum out of his way and the presidency from Laura by hook or crook was down the drain. A long time ago. First the Discovery. Then New Caprica. Then the cylon rebels. Then New Kobol. Now Earth. One obstacle after another. He could do nothing now. Even here on Earth his actions from before marked him. O'Neill made that clear. He instantly disliked that man. Too much like the admiral. With an annoying personality to boot. All the things he did to help Laura were only for self-preservation. Nothing more. But by doing so he made things much harder for himself.
He also could not just go somewhere alone. Away from the quorum members who were still at it. That Geminese woman. So short sighted. Could not see the truth or an opportunity if it hit her in the head.
His guards were on alert all the time. But as he was taking another sip of the coffee, one of the civilian assistants assigned to their group sat down next to him.
"Mr. Zarek. How is your stay here on Earth so far?"
"Please, It's Tom. And good for now. As long as certain colonials don't sour the pot." Looking at the one black woman he had in mind.
The assistant just smirked. "Those kind of people are everywhere. Can't kill them. Can't live without them. Right?"
"Can definitely try." They both chuckled at that one. "So tell me, Mr...?"
"Smith. For the moment. I was tasked by a private group of people and entrepreneurs to open a dialog with you."
"You mean with the quorum, right?"
"No. With you. You see, we can spot people with vision. People with imagination. Your quorum lingers too much on the past."
"Amen to that."
The man takes out a card and gives it to Zarek. "We can be powerful friends. Friends who can help you get what you want. If you play ball."
The man almost whispered that last sentence out.
"I can assume this is off the books?"
"Sharp indeed. Think about it. And enjoy your stay." He stood up and left, leaving a bit confused Zarek behind.
"Future industries and Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile. Interesting." He put the card into his pocket as a marine approached him.
"What did that pencil pusher talk about with you?"
"Nothing, just if I was comfortable enough. No need for a diaper change." Zarek mocked back, clearly stating that he heard O'Neill and the marines back then.
The Phoenix, hyperspace, same time
They were approaching the planet. Their present ready with only minutes to spare. This will be a photo finish.
Kara and Caprica were on the bridge. Their work was done. All they could do now was watch the fireworks when they happen.