Chapter Thirteen
Captain's Ready Room
USS Resolution
Captain Darien Parker sighed as he stepped into the ready room and saw the pile of pads filled with reports from every single department on the ship sitting on his desk for his attention. Getting your ship hurled into a completely different universe didn't reduce the amount of paperwork that you had to do - at least not to any appreciable degree. At least he didn't have to send reports to Starfleet Command at the moment. His report to Starfleet could wait until they got back to their own universe, if they ever did.
As he walked around to his chair Darien thought about Starfleet Command for a few minutes. Specifically he wondered if they were looking for them. By their reckoning they had been in this universe for more than a month now - way longer than their mission should have taken. He would think they would be – the disappearance of a ship was always rigorously investigated, the fact that it was a Sovereign-class starship – one of the newest, most advanced starships in the fleet – that had disappeared would make it that much more urgent in the eyes of the admirals. Another ship would be sent to investigate their disappearance, possibly more than one.
Darien just hoped they didn't get pulled into the fissures as well as there was no way to know which universe they would end up in, and there was no guarantee that a ship that was weaker than a Sovereign would survive passage through one of the fissures. Darien winced slightly remembering the damage his ship had sustained in the passage to this universe and the lives it had cost all that despite the fact that the shields had been up and the ablative armour deployed. Thankfully they had been able to repair the damage to the ship, but now they were stuck in another universe and he did not know if they would ever be able to get home.
After a moment Darien dismissed those thoughts from his mind as he picked up the first datapad which immediately caught his attention. The pad contained a report from engineering on the progress of adapting their engines and deflector array to allow them to enter hyperspace. The work was slow going as hyperspace used a subspace field in a completely different way, a way that was different to anything they had ever seen before but which had similarities to transwarp engines and quantum slipstream drives but was clearly distinctly different from both.
Before they had let it go Lieutenant Barrett had run scans on the hyperdrive of the Goa'uld Alkesh. It had given them some pointers though the subspace field a Goa'uld drive put out was far less complex and a lot less powerful than what the Resolutions warp coils generated for even low warp speeds. Despite the advanced nature of their technology it was readily apparent to Darien that the Goa'uld didn't understand the more complex elements of subspace physics, which would fit in with what they knew about the Goa'uld essentially parasitic nature, especially in how they stole knowledge and technology from others. Lieutenant Barrett indicated in her report that they would be ready for their first test hyperspace flight within two months, though Lieutenant Barrett indicated that she would like to test the modifications on the engines of one of their runabouts first before applying them to the Resolution.
A precaution Darien could well understand and approved of, to them hyperspace was a new and to them completely untested means of faster than light propulsion, he wanted it to be thoroughly tested before they applied it to his ship. After all their was no starbase just around the next star to go to if something were to go wrong and the ship were to take serious damage to critical systems.
After a moment's thought Darien picked up a blank datapad and made a note to order Lieutenant Barrett to go ahead with the modifications to one of their six Danube-class runabouts. Then put the pad down and picked up the next pad that demanded his attention.
The pad was formal written request from the Tollan Curia for assistance in rebuilding and upgrading their planetary defence network. He was inclined to agree to assist in the upgrades; his ship couldn't stay here indefinitely, the Tollan needed to be able to protect themselves from the Goa'uld should they return. The question was how far should he go with assisting them, should he help them build a full Federation style planetary defence grid consisting of planetary defence shields and ground based phaser cannons, or do something else. He wasn't really comfortable giving the Tollan access to Federation weapons, though they were mature enough to handle them wisely and there technology was comparable in most areas so the Prime Directive was not really an obstacle in this instance. Darien sighed after a moment deciding that this was not a decision he could make on his own, this one he would need the council of his senior staff to decide upon.
He was about to summon his senior officers to the ready room when the intercom went off.
"Bridge to Captain Parker," said Commander Urlet's voice. Darien tapped his combadge.
"Yes commander."
"Sir an Asgard battlecruiser has just come out of hyperspace and is heading in our direction on an intercept course."
"Hail them I'll be right out," Darien ordered as he stood up and rounded his desk thoughts of upgrading the Tollan's defences forgotten for now. What did the Asgard want with them?
He stepped out onto the bridge just as Lieutenant Wu reported that the Asgard warship was not responding to their hails.
"Scan them Mr Wu," Darien ordered, as he moved to the command chair that was hurriedly vacated by Commander Urlet. "See if they're damaged."
"Aye sir," Wu responded and punched in the appropriate commands. Then frowned as the scan results came back. "Sir sensors show no life signs onboard the Asgard vessel." Darien frowned and exchanged a confused look with Commander Urlet. Abruptly the sensors chimed a warning.
"Sir the Asgard ship has raised shields and is powering up its weapons systems," Beech reported.
"Red alert shields up," Darien ordered automatically. Immediately the main lights dimmed and crimson coloured panels began to flash as alarms sounded throughout the ship sending the crew hurrying to battle stations. The shields came up and the familiar thudding sound of the ablative armour being deployed over the hull immediately echoed throughout the ship.
"Asgard weapons systems are locking on," Beech reported. "They are firing."
A blue white disintegration beam lashed out from a point on the Asgard ships forward section. The beam slammed into the Resolution's forward shields illuminating them with a soft bluish glow as the energy was deflected back out into space.
"Direct hit shields are holding," Beech reported even as the ship shuddered under the impact.
"Return fire," Darien ordered as another blast slammed into the shields shaking the ship. "Forward phasers. Full power."
The forward phasers cut lose slamming bright yellow-orange javelins of phased particle energy into the Asgard ships forward shields. The shields flashed brightly as they absorbed and deflected the fury of the phaser beams and through the blue glow of its shields the Asgard vessel visibly trembled with the impact.
Startled and respectful now the Asgard ship changed tactics and noticed that its disintegration beams were having no discernible effect on Federation shields. Immediately the cruiser redirected power from the disintegrators to its heavy weapons. A moment later a pulse of blue light leapt from the centre of the cruisers forward section, a second bolt following almost instantly, then a third. The three pulses reached the Resolution almost immediately lighting up her shields like a nova and shaking the ship hard.
"Forward shields at ninety percent," Beech reported. "The Asgard weapon appears to be somekind of focused disintegration pulse similar in nature to the beams but more powerful a bit like a pulse phaser is slightly more powerful than a standard phaser beam."
"Quantum torpedoes full spread dispersal pattern sierra," Darien ordered as the ship rocked as another volley of three pulses hammered the forward shields.
"Ready sir," Beech replied.
"Fire." A full spread of five quantum torpedoes blasted from the turret launcher on the underside of the Resolution's saucer section. The salvo slammed into the Asgard ship almost immediately the explosions coming so hard and fast that for a second the Asgard ship disappeared in the glare of the blasts. After a moment the glare faded revealing some minor damage to the Asgard ships hull.
"Their forward shields are down to sixty percent sir. Their shields are regenerating," Beech reported as the Asgard ship retaliated with both disintegrators in both beam and pulse mode. Resolution shuddered violently and EPS relays blew out on three forward decks. "Forward shields at fifty percent. Secondary shield generators cutting in, shields firming back up to ninety percent," Beech called out over the wail of damage warnings. "EPS relays have blown out on decks three through five. Twenty percent power loss."
"Hit them with everything we've got," Darien ordered even as his ship was rocked by more Asgard fire. Beech nodded his hands dancing across his console.
The Resolution let rip at the Asgard ship, hammering its forward shields with phaser blasts, photon torpedoes and the occasional quantum torpedo. The Asgard battlecruiser literally seemed to stagger in space as its shields glowed nova bright beneath the punishing onslaught, the cruiser began pulling back slightly while attempt to shore up it shields as they struggled to hold off an onslaught powerful enough to pulverise a small moon. Arc's of energy began crackling through the shields as they faltered, sending searing ribbons of pure energy crackling over the hull scorching and beginning to burn through the cruisers heavy armour.
But the Asgard ship dished out the punishment as well as taking it, its disintegration beams and pulses continued to pound the Resolution's shields, quickly wearing down both the primary and secondary shields before either had a chance to regenerate. It was a battle of attrition between two titans a race to see who would break through the others shields first.
On the Resolution's bridge Lieutenant Wu abruptly called out having to shout over the roar of the repeated impacts and the occasional sounds of internal explosions as systems and EPS conduits blew out.
"Sir another Asgard cruiser has just come out of hyperspace. Sir they're firing upon the first ship."
Darien nodded he could see it himself. The second Asgard warship came in behind the first one and began firing with everything it had pummelling the cruiser's rear shields with its own disintegration pulses and beams. Simultaneously Beech unleashed another salvo of photon torpedoes. The first torpedoes demolished what was left of the warships forward shields - the last two torpedoes slammed into the hull and detonated. Explosions rocked the forward sections of the cruiser as entire sections were obliterated. The cruiser seemed to literally stagger back from the force of the impacts as glowing debris and burning gases tore out of the two massive holes in its hull.
"Mr Beech target an energy dissipater pulse onto the first Asgard ship and fire. I want to know who is on that ship and why they fired upon us," Darien ordered resisting the impulse to destroy their attackers. A glance at Beech's face showed Darien that his tactical/security officer would rather fire a quantum torpedo or two at the attacker but he did as he was ordered. A moment later the same coruscating blue-white energy pulse that had been run along the tractor beam that had captured Osiris' Alkesh lashed out from one of the phaser arrays and hit the first Asgard ship and immediately expanded into a shimmering corona of light that crackled along both the outer hull and the interior of the Asgard ship.
The damaged cruiser immediately lost all power and began to drift dead in space still trailing debris from the burning rents in its side. The second Asgard ship stopped firing at that moment.
"Sir the second cruiser is hailing us," Wu reported. "It's Commander Thor."
"On screen," Darien ordered. The image of Commander Thor appeared on the bridge view screen.
"Captain Parker are you alright," Thor asked immediately.
"We're a bit battered Thor but we're okay," Darien responded. "I would like an explanation as to why one of your warships attacked us without warning or provocation."
"The ship you are referring to was infested by the Replicators," Thor replied. "Upon gaining control of the Galishka's computer the Replicators learned about the existence of your ship and the level of your technology which to the Replicators made you an irresistible target. I came in pursuit as soon as I learned where the Galishka was going. I am gratified to see that I was not to late. Though you seemed to be doing pretty well against them."
"They are tough opponents," Darien pointed out.
"Indeed they are," Thor agreed. "My scans show no Replicator activity on the Galishka now and that no energy sources are active. I am curious as to what that energy pulse you just fired is?"
"It's an energy dissipater weapon," Darien replied. "Originally developed by the Breen Confederacy. Our version has much shorter range than the Breen weapons do."
"Still it is impressive," Thor said. "Captain Parker on behalf of the Asgard High Council I apologise for any damage the Replicators have inflicted upon your vessel. Do you require assistance with your repairs?"
"Not at this time Thor but thank you for the offer I will keep it in mind. I will send an away team over to the Galishka shortly to examine the remains of these Replicators I want to know all I can about them. Perhaps you would consider a joint operation."
"Of course," Thor responded. "Your energy dissipater weapon seems to be very effect against the Replicators. Perhaps we could negotiate a trade?"
"I will be happy to discuss a trade of technologies with you later Thor. In the meantime I have to see to the organisation of repairs and the treatment of our wounded. I will contact you when the away team is ready to transport to the Galishka."
"Very well captain I will speak with you later. In the meantime I will contact the Tollan Curia and apologise to them for this battle taking place in their space."
"Thank you Thor."
"You are welcome," Thor responded. "I will speak with you shortly. Valkastner out." Thor's image disappeared from the main view screen.
"Stand down from red alert. Damage report," Darien ordered waving his hand at the thin haze of smoke filling the air even as the ventilators began to clear it away.
"EPS relays have burned out on decks three through five and decks six and seven. Primary life support systems are off line. Inertial dampers are damaged but are continuing to function. Engineering responding to all reports of damage," Wu reported.
"Casualties?"
"Thirteen injured sir. Two seriously. Sickbay responding."
"What about our guests?" Before anyone could answer the turbo lift doors opened and a battered looking Daniel Jackson and Sarah Gardner stepped out onto the bridge. Darien rotated the command chair to look at them. "Are you alright," he asked.
"Yes," Daniel replied. "A bit battered and bruised but otherwise we're fine. What happened? Who attacked us? Anubis again?"
"No. We were just attacked by an Asgard cruiser under the control of – I believe Thor called them the Replicators." Sarah Gardner looked confused - she'd never heard of the Replicators before, mainly because the Goa'uld had never heard of them - but Daniel Jackson winced.
"Oh no not them again," he moaned. "Two encounters with those blasted things is enough for anyone. I assume you destroyed them from the fact that were still here and don't have little mechanical bugs crawling around devouring the ship."
"You assume correctly. At least both us and Thor think that they've been destroyed. The warship they were controlling is completely powerless and according to Thor there is no sign of any Replicator activity on board."
"Thor's here?" Daniel asked in surprise.
"Yes he followed the Replicator controlled ship here and arrived just in time to turn the fight in our favour. We're going to send an away team over to the disabled warship soon. Thor's going to do the same."
"Then there is one big thing that you really need to know about the Replicators," Daniel replied. "And that's that they are completely impervious to portable directed energy weapons they will just absorb the energy and keep coming at you. The only portable weapons that can destroy Replicators are projectile weapons."
"That's not a problem," Beech replied from his station. "In our database we have the specs for a number of projectile weapons for use on planets where energy weapons don't work. We can easily replicate some and the ammunition to go with them."
"Doctor Jackson as I said we are going to send an away team over to the disabled cruiser - the Galishka Thor called it - soon. Since you have experience with these Replicators would you mind joining the team?" Darien asked. Daniel blinked and considered for a few moments.
"Alright," he said after a moment. "I'll join your away team. When do we go?"
"Soon," Darien replied and glanced at Beech. "Mr Beech will be assembling his team shortly. If you go with him he'll make sure that you get issued with the proper equipment and are shown how to use it properly."
Twenty Minutes Later
The five members of the away team materialised in the central corridor on the central deck of the disabled Galishka. They were all clad in environmental suits as life support had been eliminated when the warship lost power. Four additional transporter beams flashed nearby and a group of Asgard - clad in the silver one-piece suits that were their version of environmental suits - materialised.
All nine explorers turned on flashlights as the interior of the ship was in complete darkness even emergency lighting had been eliminated by the energy dissipater pulse fired by the Resolution at the end of the battle.
The interior of the Galishka was in a very bad way. Smoke hung in the stale air from fires that had long since burned themselves out. Whole bulkheads had been blown to pieces by the internal explosions that had torn through the ship. Support girders hung at odd angles from the ceiling trailing fibre-optic cables that would have been sparking fitfully if their had been any power.
"The bridge is this way," Thor said softly from his position leading the Asgard team. They began moving through the ship - moving cautiously to avoid tripping on any of the rubble. Thor was both impressed and appalled by the destruction he witnessed – during their long battle with the Replicators he had seen the wreckage of many defeated Asgard ships, but this damage was different. In this case their had been no operational internal dampening fields to contain the explosions set off by the impacting Asgard and Federation weapons - the result was a complete and utter mess as the Humans said. Thor suspected that if the Galishka had been hit but once more she would have been sliced clean in half.
After a short while they came upon their first sign of the Replicators in the form of a pile of blocks that were the distinctive grey of Replicator blocks. One of the Federation officers knelt down and scanned the blocks with what was obviously a portable scanner unit of some type. Looking at the officer through the transparent front and top of the helmet Thor was shocked to see that it wasn't a Federation officer at all but Doctor Daniel Jackson - Thor wondered what he was doing here.
"Take a look at this," Daniel Jackson was saying. "If I'm reading this thing right the circuitry pathways on these blocks have been completely disrupted somehow."
Curious Thor scanned the blocks with his own scanner and was surprised by the results. Dr Jackson was right the internal kyron-circuitry that was the basis of the Replicator technology had been completely disrupted by the energy dissipater pulse. The Replicator in question would have immediately stopped functioning and fallen to bits. Looking around with his light block Thor saw more piles of dead blocks where Replicators had literally fallen to pieces when the energy dissipater pulse destroyed the very thing that was essential to their continued function i.e. the kyron pathways.
Hope abruptly flooded through him. If he was successful in acquiring the plans for this energy dissipater weapon from Captain Parker then it could be the saviour of his people as it could be the weapon that would end the war with the Replicators. With the Replicators destroyed they could finally focus all of their attention upon protecting the developing sentients of this galaxy from the Goa'uld and on finding a solution to the genetic degradation that was slowly destroying the Asgard race. Don't get ahead of yourself Thor, he told himself, there is no guarantee that the alien weapon that did this to the Replicators will be compatible with Asgard technology. After all scans of the Resolution show that Federation technology is very different to Asgard technology. But even if the technology proves incompatible it will still give us valuable pointers to creating our own version of the weapon.
"Let's keep moving," Lieutenant Commander Beech said. "We have a lot more ship to survey."
"That is true," Thor agreed. "Let us continue to the bridge."
"Please lead on." Thor nodded softly and began walking again leading the way towards the ship's bridge.
It took them another two hours to survey the entire ship. Everywhere it was the same, horrendous damage and piles of dead Replicator blocks. They were not able to access the forward sections of the ship - those were in vacuum and had been sealed off by internal bulkhead doors that had slammed closed automatically when the Resolution's photon torpedoes had blasted holes in the hull opening all the forward decks to space.
Shortly after his return to the Valkastner Thor communicated with the Asgard High Council and gave them his findings. To say that the council was excited about the possibility of acquiring the Federations energy dissipater weapon for use against the Replicators was an understatement. They fully realised that the weapon could turn the tide of their increasingly desperate war with the Replicators. After considering the issue the High Council ordered Thor to begin negotiations with Captain Parker about an exchange of technologies as soon as was possible.
Thor immediately hailed the Resolution and spoke with the powerfully built Human who commanded her and who now held the key to the salvation of the Asgard race against the Replicators. After talking for a number of minutes they agreed to begin technology transfer talks the following morning.