Authors Note: Sorry about the delay with this. You will notice that there has been a change when Tanneth speaks that it is now normal speech just in bold face. This is because the characters I was previously using to indicate Goa'uld speech are not accepted anymore for some reason.
Chapter Five
The fleet of five Goa'uld Shalkra-class motherships hung silent in orbit of a dead world in a nameless star system, waiting for there next assignment to come through from there god Anubis.
A hyperspace window opened near the fleet and a tel'tac returned to normal space and moved unerringly towards the lead mothership. In moments the cargo vessel was along side the mothership looking tiny and insignificant next to the great warship that was many times its size. A slim stream of light abruptly snapped into existence between the cargo ship and the mothership. A denser pulse of light shot along the beam as someone transported aboard the mighty warship from the cargo ship. Then the transmission beam cut off and the cargo ship veered away and accelerated until it was clear of the fleet before opening a hyperspace window and leaving the system, its mission completed.
Tanneth along with his lotar materialised in the main ring room of the lead mothership. The two Jaffa waiting to greet him dropped to one knee and bowed there heads respectfully.
"Welcome my lord," the most senior of them said careful to keep his eyes aimed at the floor. It was not proper to look upon a god unless asked to do so. "We are deeply honoured by your presence."
"Rise." Tanneth ordered inwardly pleased by the humility and respect the two Jaffa were showing to him. It was such a welcome difference from his time in the ranks of the Tok'ra as an infiltrator for the fallen Lord Apophis when he had been forced to deal with lesser beings as though they were equal to him and had to deal with that shol'va Teal'c.
The two Jaffa immediately did as they were bid though they kept there heads bowed and eyes aimed at the floor.
"What are your orders my lord," the senior Jaffa asked.
"Is the fleet ready to depart." Internally the Jaffa shivered fearfully at the tone in Tanneth's voice that said there would be hell to pay if the fleet wasn't ready.
"Of course my lord. All systems are fully operational we may depart at your leisure."
"Excellent. Escort me to my quarters then lay in a course for Tollana."
"Yes my lord."
As the Jaffa escorted him and his lotar through the corridors of the mothership towards the quarters designated for him Tanneth thought about his mission. He was both gratified and irritated by it. Gratified that he was returning to Tollana to confront the Resolution with a force that she couldn't possibly defeat, irritated by the fact that he was not allowed to destroy her.
While there sensors had not been able to properly penetrate the Resolution's shields and been stopped cold by the armour they had revealed a number of interesting things about the Federation vessel that had so abruptly appeared over Tollana. They'd revealed a little about the nature of the shields. They were multilayered appeared to have some sort of regenerative capability and partially based on some kind of multispatial technology. The shields apparently didn't take as much power as a Goa'uld shield would but there strength was immense as evidenced by the fact that the Resolution had withstood every attack Tanneth had thrown at her without taking more than slight superficial damage.
Also an analysis of the beam weapon the Resolution had fired had been carried out. The beam was a phased particle weapon similar to there phase cannons but a lot more advanced and many times more powerful. The exact nature of the particles in the beam was unknown they'd never been encountered before and they seemed to possibly account for some of the beams awesome power.
The analysis of the shield and weapon information had been enough to convince Anubis that they needed to return, but with one provision. Anubis wanted the Resolution as intact as possible so its technology could be studied and copied and also so they could find out where this Federation was located. The existence of a group of humans and aliens with their apparent power and technology level was a serious threat that would need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
To ensure that the Resolution was captured Anubis was sending Tanneth with five ships from his own fleet not one of the fleets of various minor Goa'uld who had joined with him. While Anubis did upgrade the shields, targeting systems and weapons of those who joined with him he didn't bring them quiet to the same level as his own ships. Anubis was no fool he kept the best upgrades for his own forces which made it difficult for any of those who joined him from overthrowing him and taking his place.
Tanneth took consolation in that he had been told he could do whatever he liked to the captain and crew of the Resolution. Anubis just wanted the ship itself. He was already thinking up ways he could get revenge on Captain Parker for humiliating him. Maybe he would kill the captains entire crew and make him watch, then maybe he'd torture him to death, revive him with the sarcophagus to torture him again and again. And then when the captain's mind was broken kill him. Abruptly another idea came to Tanneth and he grinned evilly to himself. He would take Captain Parker as a new host. The human was an excellent physical specimen that was obvious just looking at him, and he would make a perfect host. His current host Hebron was only barely tolerable. Captain Parker would be a more than suitable replacement and whatever technological knowledge he had would only boost Tanneth's own power.
Smiling evilly Tanneth walked down the corridors of the mothership towards the quarters assigned to him. Yes this was going to be a good day.
USS Resolution
A Few Hours Later
Lieutenant Rakan sat before the main console in the astrometrics lab frowning at the chronometric readings displayed on the screen before him. This cannot be right, he thought studying the readings. If these results were accurate then there situation had just gotten even more difficult to get out of. According to these readings the Resolution had not just been displaced in universes by the quantum fissure but in time as well by three hundred and seventy-seven years. If it was the case it added a whole new set of problems to the quest to find away to recreate the quantum fissure that brought them here.
With quick commands to the console Rakan run another scan of the space-time continuum with the temporal sensors. The results came up and he groaned. They were exactly the same as the last time. With a sigh Rakan tapped his combadge. Captain Parker was not going to like this at all.
"Rakan to Parker." For a moment there was silence.
"Go ahead," Captain Parker's voice responded sounding a little out of breath. In the background Rakan could hear the chatter of Tameries - bird-like creatures native to Malora II the colony planet his captain hailed from. He's running in the woods again, Rakan thought.
"Captain can you come to the astrometrics lab there's something you should see."
"I'll be right there." Rakan tapped his combadge again closing the channel. Then he turned to the young Human ensign assisting him.
"Ensign go over our sensor readings of our passage through the quantum fissure. Look for a temporal distortion."
"Yes, sir." The young woman responded calling up the data on another station.
The doors to the astrometrics lab opened and a very bemused looking Darian Parker – still dressed in his running clothes came into the room. He walked over to where Rakan was working.
"What is it lieutenant," Darian asked. Rakan looked over at him as he came and stood besides him at the main console.
"Take a look at this," Rakan instructed. Darien raised an eyebrow but did as he was told. Ugh oh, he thought.
"Are these readings correct?"
"Yes sir. I ran the scan twice. In addition to being displaced across universes we've also been temporally displaced by three hundred and seventy-seven years Earth time." Darien sighed and rubbed his temples to ease the headache he could feel forming. Darn it. He hated temporal mechanics. He knew of no one who actually liked temporal mechanics. The future is the past. The past is the future. All that stuff gave him a headache. Like many a starship captain.
"Terrific. Just terrific. Not only have we been hurled into another quantum universe but now you tell me we've been hurled back in time as well," Darien moaned shaking his head. "What else can go wrong?" Rakan grinned slightly.
The sensors bleeped abruptly. Rakan immediately turned his attention from his commanding officer to the sensors.
"What is it?" Darien asked.
"Two groups of ships are approaching through somekind of subspace slipstream similar to Borg transwarp corridors or a quantum slipstream."
"Isn't that how the Goa'uld mothership left this system so quickly after we disabled her weapons?"
"Yes. This form of faster than light travel is a bit more efficient than standard warp drive. The speed a ship can travel seems to depend on its energy reserve. I've already passed the sensor readings from the motherships departure to engineering. Lieutenant Barrett is right now working on a means of modifying our warp engines to travel in this manner. The warp core produces allot more energy than the reactors the Goa'uld use. We could travel allot faster than them if we are successful in adapting our engines. Theoretically with the power generated by this ships warp core we could navigate from one end of the galaxy to the other in only a few hours."
"Interesting. Have Lieutenant Barrett send a copy of the data to my quarters. Maybe I could of assistance." Subspace field theory had always fascinated him ever since childhood. He'd been top of the subspace theory class at the academy. Starfleet's core of engineers had offered him a research position because of it. But he'd refused preferring an assignment in the fleet.
"Yes sir."
"Can you identify the approaching ships?"
"Yes. Six have energy signatures similar to the Goa'uld mothership but they're much smaller and do not appear to have any armament. The other three are completely different. They're travelling a bit faster for one thing which indicates a much greater energy reserve. Two are quiet small and have limited armament. The third is much bigger and very heavily armed. It's definitely a warship."
"Could these ships belong to the allies that High Chancellor Travell and Narim mentioned."
"Possibly. The first three ships will be here in about ten minutes. The other six five minutes after that."
"Contact the surface. Advise High Chancellor Travell of the approaching ships. Since the Tollan don't have any operational long range sensors at the moment I don't want them startled unnecessarily."
"Aye sir." Darien glanced down at himself seeing he wasn't exactly in the best clothing to go walking onto the bridge. Though he knew the two young female human ensigns on the bridge certainly wouldn't mind if he walked on dressed like this.
"In the meantime I'm going to my quarters to get back into my uniform."
High Chancellor Travell sat behind the desk in her temporary office off the main control room. Her main office was currently a pile of rubble like the rest of the Curia building. Once her people got back on their feet reconstruction would not take long with their technology - but the Curia building would be the last to be rebuilt they would concentrate on homes, schools, hydroponics facilities and hospitals first. Until then the government would operate out of the main planetary control centre.
The door chime sounded.
"Come in," Travell called. The door opened and Narim came in.
"Your eminence we just received a transmission from the Resolution. Their sensors have detected the relief ships approaching," Narim reported.
"How many?"
"Nine. Six are Goa'uld cargo ships i.e. it's the Tok'ra. Two are Asgard cargo ships, one is definitely an Asgard battlecruiser." Travell looked relieved that relief ships were coming, but a little nervous about the fact that an Asgard warship was with them. The Asgard were not likely to be very happy with the Tollan at the moment. They were probably only coming now because the Humans had asked them.
"It's good to know that there coming I didn't think that the Asgard would come. If Tanneth does return he's going to be in for a bit of a shock when he sees an Asgard cruiser in orbit."
"There probably only coming because the Humans have probably asked them to. Remember your eminence the Asgard do owe the Humans one for saving them from the Replicators."
"True. Have we heard from the Nox?"
"No your eminence. But according to the Resolution's sensors theirs heavy ion storm activity in the vicinity of the Nox homeworld. It's very likely that our request for assistance never reached them."
"The Resolution could tell that from here?" The Nox planet was nearly three hundred light years from Tollana well out of range of standard long-range sensors.
"Apparently they have sensors that they refer to as astrometric sensors. Their range is extraordinary and the precision nothing short of amazing. They primarily use them to produce highly accurate star maps. But they can be used for other things as well."
"I must remember to request a tour of that ship from Captain Parker," Travell said. "It sounds remarkable."
"Believe me your eminence it is." Travell smiled slightly at Narim's tone. She'd looked at the results of some of their short-range scans of the Resolution. The scan results were limited in the fact that they couldn't scan certain areas of the Federation ship - for example the engineering section - but what she had seen had already told her a little about the highly advanced level of Federation technology. From what she'd seen so far the Federation was more advanced even than her people - not by much but they were definitely more advanced in most areas and possessed some technologies that the Tollan didn't have transporters for example.
"We had better prepare for the arrival of the relief supplies," she said after a moment getting up from behind her desk. "Our people desperately need them."
"Yes your eminence."