Chapter 2
Three days later Odyssey still remained around P3X-474, the cloak engaged to remain undetected by whatever passed for starfaring races in this 'future' Universe – since they were in no condition for First Contact…not to mention First Conflict, if the race turned out to be hostile. Sam was doing her best to effect repairs but she was the only person qualified to really do this. Daniel, Cameron and Vala were working with her, but it was still slow going and since they weren't truly 'Engineers' she had to spend a lot of time looking over their shoulders. She irrationally wished that they hadn't chosen to drop off the crew, no use crying over spilt milk now.
Teal'C and the General remained on the Bridge to keep an eye on the sensors that kept a passive overwatch over a truly massive area of space - it still truly boggled Sam's mind sometimes, the sheer genius inherent in all Asgard technology.
"Is that it?" Daniel asked.
Sam snapped out of her funk at the Core workstation and ran the diagnostic. "Excellent. Yes, well done guys…you've just successfully restored a depleted shield matrix."
Cam pumped his fist in mock triumph. "Yeah!"
"Are we finished now?" Vala let out an exhausted breath that buffeted her long black hair that was hanging in her eyes somewhat.
"With the shields, yes, now we've got a bunch of minor systems that need work."
"Can't you just do that?" Vala whined.
"We are more than likely stuck in a completely unfamiliar Universe, and Sam is the only one who can fix this tub," Cameron narrowed his eyes at the former thief. "What if she, God forbids, ends up injured or killed by whatever this place throws at us…are we gonna use spit and glue to keep Odyssey together then?"
Vala mumbled something but her indignation visibly vanished and she conceded the point, before a speculative gleam entered her eye. "What about using that memory transfer device we got from Galara?" The Earthlings look at each other with raised eyebrows at that idea, visibly considering it. "I mean, we are in a desperate situation here, couldn't Colonel Carter share all her memories of school and learning all this technical stuff?"
"Huh…we don't have a Galaran memory device on board, but I'm sure the Asgard must have a similar technology somewhere," Sam began to consult the Asgard Core for a few minutes then declared. "Got it."
The musical humming effect of the Asgard Universal Constructor resounded, with a white flash in the empty space between the walls and the main Engineering console something that almost resembled a high-tech dentist's chair appeared, with an odd U-shaped emitter that would surround the head of the person and a large control station integrated to the left of the chair.
"For the record, the only reason I'm considering this is because of our situation," Cameron held up a hand, his face grave. No one blamed him. He had been an unwitting victim of the Galaran memory device, when he had been given the memory of committing a murder of one of the scientists developing the same technology.
"Colonel Carter." General Landry's voice broke into Engineering Control over the com.
Sam briefly manipulated the jewel controls on the console. "Yes, sir?"
"We've received a general distress call on subspace com."
"With respect, sir, we're not exactly in a position to offer help."
"I realize that, Colonel, however, the ship sending it identifies itself as the 'Earth Starship Enterprise'."
"Well, at least we know now Humanity is space faring in this future Universe, makes me feel a whole lot better about going 'home' with this tub." Cameron grinned.
"One step at a time, Colonel Mitchell." General Landry warned.
"I'm just saying I so don't want to spend the rest of my life on this boat, sir. I apparently already did that once, and I don't want to let history repeat itself."
"You and me, both Colonel. Do you have any objections, Carter?"
"The Hyperdrive should be good to go for now, but sir, if Earth is indeed space faring it might be worth checking out. We could sure use the help."
"I'll keep that in mind, Carter. I'll send a message back to them that help is on the way. They're only five light years away, we'll be there in a few minutes, and that's as slow as we can go."
"General, uh, I suggest you…" Daniel perked up suddenly as if remembering something. "We don't know how they'll react given that we are from another Universe…they might not even believe us. So perhaps we can wait on that detail or even fudge it over somehow with a truth, perhaps I can speak in Alteran to help with that."
"Relax, Dr Jackson, I've a hard time believing all this myself…very well, do what you have to."
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Captain's Starlog, supplemental. It's been almost four days since the incident in the Romulan minefield. Repair teams have been working around the clock. Nerves are definitely frayed.
Captain Jonathan Archer stared through the large front windows of tiny Inspection pod as it carefully cruised around his two hundred meter starship. It had been a tumultuous first year of their mission, and this was the first major damage to the Enterprise since she had left Spacedock. They'd had unfriendly run-ins with Suliban, marauding pirates, unknown aliens that liked to play Dr Mengeler with any sentient species they came across, to name but the most memorable and had come through all that with easily fixable damage. This was not the case now.
Jon's reverie was interrupted when the heavily damaged section of his ship came into view. It was like someone had taken a large chunk out of the forward saucer section, just ten meters to port of the Deflector array.
"It's incredible we're in one piece," Jon murmured gravely, eyeing the carbon scored, torn bulkheads.
"If that mine had hit another metre to the left." Chief Engineer and Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III breathed ominously, running a nervous hand through his dark blonde hair, steering the Pod to hover in place and looking at the damage with dismay. "We can't polarise the port bow plating until those breaches are sealed."
"What's your guess?" Jon's question was insistent and an almost prayer for a miracle from his best friend.
"Assuming we can find some tritanium alloy?" Trip's licked his own teeth in a thoughtful gesture. "Three or four months. And with this kind of damage the best I can give you is warp two, maybe two point one."
"In other words, we're a decade away from Jupiter Station. What about the transceiver array?"
"The subspace antenna's damaged. All we've got is short-range." Trip shook his head.
"We've answered enough calls for help over the past year." Jon rubbed his hands on the armrest of the co-pilot's chair restlessly. He didn't like to do this, but there was no other choice. "It's time someone returned the favour."
"You serious?" Trip looked incredulous.
"Archer to Ensign Sato." He tapped the Pod's com button on the control panel.
"Go ahead, sir." The spritely Com Officer's lilting voice emerged into the Pod interior.
"I want you to get started on a general distress call. Assistance required. Minor repairs. Don't go into too much detail." Jon definitely didn't want to broadcast into the clear that there was a ship that was easy fodder for anyone with a half decent weapon array.
"Understood sir." She replied.
"Archer out."
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A few hours later found Jon at the computer station in his small Ready Room, just off the Bridge. It was barely half the size of his room in his childhood home, but it was an amenity that no other Starfleet ship had for its Captain. So to his sensibilities this was the lap of luxury; yes, the room had exposed bulkheads that he had to bend under and even the occasional exposed conduit, but it had a nice couch too where he could kick back and enjoy his meals during a duty shift. The four professional hand drawn artist renderings of previous ships bearing the name Enterprise was the only aesthetic he had personally seen to with his privilege as Captain…and it certainly broke the grey blue spartan environment.
Squeak
Jon whirled in his chair and regarded the floor of his Ready room with a glare. Porthos heard it too and the Beagle barked in irritation and decided to abruptly demand some attention from his human. Jon, being the life long dog owner he was, readily gave the little dog a scratching and said, "Did you hear that? I don't believe it. Trip, told me he fixed that squeak."
The com chirped for his attention, Jon tapped the tiny terminal embedded in his desk. "Captain, we're receiving a response to the distress call." The stoic voice belonged to T'Pol of Vulcan. One of only two non-Terrans that served on Enterprise, the other being the ship's CMO, Dr Phlox from Denobula Triaxa. Of the two, only Phlox had been Jon's choice, Sub-Commander T'Pol had initially been 'forcefully' assigned by the Vulcan Advisory Council as a 'chaperone'; her true role had been to keep Enterprise on a leash so to speak. That role had lasted only until Jon had torn her a new one when she had kept vital information from him on the first mission. Now after more than a year of being his Science Officer and second in command, they had developed a healthy respect for each other. Jon had buried his bitterness against Vulcans and the Vulcan woman had seemingly done the same with her preconceptions about humans.
Jon entered the bridge; it was a compact command center, austere and spartan, mostly steel-walled, with a source of light from hidden panels overhead. There were no carpets or amenities, just various stations with bucket seats, and a maze of gauges, dials, little scanner screens and in the middle was the captain's chair – which he ignored and went directly to the Science station where T'Pol – with her olive toned features, midnight black hair, pointed ears and wearing the grey-black conforming Vulcan Commissar uniform, was working with cold, logical diligence. She wasn't a member of Starfleet, so didn't have the right nor inclination to wear Jon's uniform; a dark-blue jumpsuit, with its red geometrically drawn shoulder piping and shoulder patches with the Enterprise crest on one side and United Earth's Space and Probe Agency crest on the other arm.
"It's an unknown vessel." She replied. Jon winced, he'd hate to make First Contact under such circumstances, but he'd done the same with the Xyrallians, only this time the roles were reversed. He was the one needing repair now.
"Hoshi?"
The Japanese descended Com Officer with her station just forward of T'Pol's, held a finger to her earpiece nestled in that magic ear of hers and frowned. "Hmmm." She murmured thoughtfully tapping on her console and then gave a start of surprise. "Sorry for the delay sir, it's just that the language they're using is awfully similar to Medieval Latin."
"That is odd," agreed Jon. "Can you translate?"
"Despite the similarity there is a vast difference in the vocabulary and some phonemes…" Hoshi muttered, her fingers now practically dancing on her console as a pleasant male voice sounded over the bridge speakers. Jon could understand immediately what Hoshi was talking about…the language did sound familiar, in a way that nagged at his mind like an itch that he just couldn't scratch. Finally, a smile came from Hoshi and it was accompanied by the voice now translated in real-time via the Universal Translator.
"…this is the Terrani Starship 'Odyssey', responding to your distress call…this is the…"
"This is Captain Archer of the starship Enterprise. Thank you for responding." Jon replied, hiding his surprise at the familiar words, but he was sure it was just the UT. The thing was hardly perfect. There was a slight lag and then.
"How may we be of assistance?"
"We need help in repairing some hull damage. If you can rendezvous with us, we'd be happy to discuss any options for trade or assistance you can offer."
"…very well, if you will send us your coordinates…"
"We're sending it on a sub-channel, can you confirm?" Jon nodded to Hoshi, who expertly did just that. A few seconds later…
"We have your position; we can be there in a few time units…"
Jon turned and shot a quizzical glance at T'Pol. She ran a scan and another elegant arched eyebrow was raised in his direction – no. Enterprise's sensors could keep an active watch over two light years in every direction, yet this Terrani ship was nowhere in that radius – a Vulcan ship at Warp 7 could cover two light years in just over a day, never mind a minute…assuming the Terrani used a similar time measurement to Earth.
"…thank you. I look forward to meeting you."
"As do we. See you in a few time units."
There was a beep and the com was silent. "Hoshi, are you sure the UT worked properly?"
"There vocab and grammar could still be off, sir. But I locked onto the syntax for sure."
"So they could be here in a few minutes?"
"I believe so, sir."
"Then let's wait a minute and see." Jon crossed over to his chair and leaned against it. Giving glances at the ship's official time clock mounted on the walls and then to T'Pol who was both diligently monitoring sensors.
Six minutes later and…
"Captain," T'Pol had an eyebrow raised at the results her scans were showing. "A spatial disturbance just appeared ten thousand kilometres off the starboard bow."
"Viewscreen." Jon ordered immediately.
The visual feed at the head of the bridge abruptly changed to show a large mass of twisting purple energy against the inky black backdrop of space and something shot out at an insane relativistic speed before decelerating impressively and turning leisurely on a course toward Enterprise. The cloud of energy vanished into nothingness as suddenly as it had appeared leaving a ship behind.
"Magnify." Jon ordered towards Hoshi, containing his amazement at what he had just seen.
The view changed again to show a ship that was seemingly designed on a function over form basis and had little aesthetics. Its dark grey hull made it somewhat hard to see, but Jon came to one conclusion immediately.
"It's a battleship," T'Pol declared. "My scans are being deflected somehow, but there's a vertical launch torpedo battery along the main neck, turreted weapons arranged in a point defence formation all over the hull, and numerous energy weapon emitters in every conceivable firing arc, Captain. I also believe that the pods on either side of the main hull are launch decks for fighter ships."
He nodded in agreement; the pods were quite large and were way too big for just launching shuttles. "What did you make of its arrival?"
"It must utilize a form of Faster than Light other than Warp Drive," she deduced. "The spatial phenomenon had a subspace signature, several orders of magnitude greater than I have ever seen."
"And the ship itself?"
"I'm unfamiliar with the design and there are no matches in the Vulcan database," T'Pol replied stoically. "Its Sensor countermeasures are also quite effective, I doubt even a Vulcan ship could penetrate them, but its radiant energy profile is…extremely high. It could power the energy demands of Earth's American continents with no strain."
"They're coming to a relative stop twenty kilometres away, sir," Ensign Travis Mayweather, the dark skinned Chief Helmsman of Enterprise reported with a note of tension from his station directly facing the viewer. Clearly he didn't like what he was hearing or seeing one bit.
"Easy, Travis," Jon said steadily, though internally his heart was hammering. "They seemed rather friendly in their broadcast, so let's not retreat just yet. Hail them."
"I've got them, audio only," Hoshi said from her station.
"Greetings again, Enterprise. I am General Landry, the commander of Odyssey." The voice was different this time, slightly more gruff, and Jon got the impression that it belonged to an older individual. And again there was the familiar Earth name the Terrani used…
Jon stared at Hoshi, who frowned at her panel and shrugged helplessly.
"Thanks for coming," Jon said, putting that nagging feeling in his mind on the backburner and turning to the matter at hand. "As you can see, we've got some extensive damage. I extend an invitation for you to come onboard so we can perhaps discuss in person how we can help each other."
"We would be delighted, if you provide the appropriate energy transport coordinates…where we can safely appear in your ship, we can be there presently."
Jon blinked in astonishment. They actually wanted to go through a Matter-Energy Transport on a simple journey of twelve clicks. He had only done it once, and that was only because he had been a moment away from getting shot by Silik, the Leader of the Suliban Cabal. He recovered his wits quickly though.
"We're sending the coordinates for our Shuttlepod Launch bay. I'm afraid because our species has never met before, that I must ask you to submit to a Decon scan."
"Understood, Captain. We will transport over in ten minutes. Is that acceptable?"
"That's fine, General."
"See you then."
The com deactivated. "Hoshi, have Dr Phlox report to Decon to meet our guests."
"Aye sir."
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Jon stood next to T'Pol in the corridor just outside the Decon chamber, which like the Launch Bay was isolated from the rest of the ship to prevent the weird and wonderful bacteria, spores and viruses of the Galaxy from finding purchase amongst his crew. Currently it was playing host to two people from Odyssey that had arrived with a rather impressive flash of white light on the empty launch bay floor. He couldn't get a good look at them from the visual monitor outside of Decon, but they were bipedal nitrogen oxygen breathers, wearing dark green jumpsuits.
He stared at Phlox as he monitored the medical scans of the two inside the sealed off chamber.
"Captain…ah, tell me what species did these individuals call themselves?" the quirky dull orange skinned Denobulan Doctor frowned at the readout screen.
"Terrani…is there a problem?"
"Not a problem, exactly, one of them could stand to lose a little weight…the other has a few odd protein markers and an unknown metallic element in her blood that I can't identify."
"Does the latter pose a danger to the crew?" T'Pol asked.
"None that I can see, I just asked because the two people inside are a male human in his fifties and a female human in her late thirties."
"Human?" Jon asked flatly, trying to comprehend that and all the questions it spawned in his mind.
"I ran the scan twice and even had the computer run a self diagnostic, the medical sensors are in perfect condition, Captain." Phlox defended himself. Jon held up his hands to convey his apologies about his tone. He strode over to the viewing hatch and pulled it open. There in the chamber in full reality was something that shouldn't be. Enterprise was the pathfinder for humanity; there were no others, yet how can there be humans on that mysterious and powerful battleship?
Both the elder man and the woman turned at the sound of the hatch opening and their eyes met. Jon could see rigidity in both their bearings and the way they carried themselves…to the observant it screamed 'military', something that Jon had seen in Starfleet Marines and Earth's MACO forces.
That the woman was also quite attractive his mind noted next…yet her expression held a cool detachment that would make a Vulcan proud.
"Can they be released yet?"
"They lack immunities to certain common pathogens found on Earth and those we've become accustomed to in the past year, they'll need to stay for a day or two, until the inoculations I've given them can properly take effect. Until then your negotiations will need to take place here."
"That implies that despite being human, they don't come from Earth." T'Pol queried. "Perhaps from the Vega colony?"
"No, they don't have any of the common Vegan immunities either," Phlox disagreed. "Wherever they come from, Captain…it is not any known human world."
Jon pondered that revelation and then turned to more familiar waters. "Thank you, Doctor, how's Lieutenant Reed's leg doing?"
"He'll be fit to return to duty in two weeks, the metal spike from the Romulan mine did extensive damage."
"I hope you don't mind if I send him homework, I've got a feeling I'll be needing his input soon."
"A Padd of work and no more," Phlox ordered sternly before suddenly smiling and traipsing off back to Sickbay, humming a tune as he went. Jon pondered the eccentricities of his ship's CMO before turning back to the conundrum housed in his decon chamber. Time to take the bull by the horns, he thought to himself and tapped the com.
"I'm Captain Archer, welcome to Enterprise."
The older man walked up to the viewing window, his steely eyes surveying Jon before saying, "I'm General Landry. This is my first officer, Colonel Carter." Their mouths weren't in sync to their words; clearly the UT was still having trouble.
"Uh, I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, our scans show you are human…and we're the first deep space vessel humanity has sent out…how can you be here?"
Jon's first thought had been perhaps that they and their vessel was from the future. The Temporal Cold War was still in full swing. Enterprise had for a time since its launch held a Time Travelling infiltrator, an unassuming crewman named simply Daniels; whose job it was apparently to monitor events and make sure that they proceed according to the 'proper timeline'. The Suliban were also players in the Cold War, as they received orders from a 'faction' in the twenty eighth century – who could only communicate through Time. Not travel, like Daniel's thirty first century future Federation faction was able to.
But despite their mighty ship with clearly superior technology, the lack of inoculations put paid to that theory. Daniels had never had similar trouble. Then again his 31st C immune system could probably defeat the common cold for all Jon knew - Carter and Landry didn't have that.
"That will take some explaining," Landry shook his head. "We can share some portions of our database with you to provide proof, but…we're not from this Galaxy, nor the Local Group."
Jon's eyes widened as he tried to comprehend that. Humans beyond the Local Group of Galaxies?! That was insane…yet he reminded himself of that unusual FTL method they had, which could seemingly cross light years in moments.
"Go on."
"There was once an Ancient Race known as the Asgard, who measured their space faring history in hundreds of thousands of years. They were explorers, scientists, dedicated to furthering their knowledge of the Universe. At one point during Earth's Dark Ages, they sent an expedition to explore the Milky Way. They found Earth during the seventh century AD."
"At the time, the Vikings of Scandanavia were in ascendancy, but the Asgard held Earth under observation and study for a few centuries. They eventually decided to influence the Vikings into a more positive way and began impersonating the Norse gods using their extremely advanced technology." Landry paused for a moment. "With the rise of Christianity, the Asgard found their long term experiment endangered, and so they pretty much abducted entire villages of their 'Chosen' and people from various other 'Earth stocks' to get a pretty diverse gene pool going. They took them back to the Asgard home galaxy to continue the 'experiment'," Landry chuckled humourlessly. "They even terraformed and engineered a 'second' Earth for the Taken in a suitably similar star system."
Jon visibly considered this story for a moment. It was true that Earth's history had huge gaps in it, and primitive Earth could've been conceivably visited by aliens, just like they themselves had done last year with the Akaali. But to abduct entire villages? Clearly these Asgard didn't have compunctions about 'interfering' in lesser species. Landry spotted it and nodded towards Carter.
"The Asgard had maintained their surveillance of Earth, Captain Archer," Carter spoke for the first time in a pleasant sounding soprano. She held up an oval stone that glowed in her palm. "Perhaps you'll recognize them in their natural form." The oval stone suddenly flared and a transparent hologram of a rather familiar alien hovered in mid air…it was a Roswell Grey!
"They became interested in Earth again when you detonated the first atomic bombs, unfortunately their landing craft malfunctioned and they crashed in Roswell, New Mexico." Carter explained.
"Did the Asgard inform you of your true origins?" T'Pol queried.
"Yes, once Terrani Earth reached the correct level of development, when we achieved Hyperspace travel. They also shared everything that's happened to your Earth, although the information is only current to the Earth year 2007 – it takes a long time to travel between here and home. It's a pleasant surprise to see you've achieved FTL in the intervening time – although it's rather slow." She grinned to take the sting out of the comment.
"If…it's such a long journey, why are you here?" Jon asked next, trying to come to grips with the fact that these people considered Warp speed like an adult might look at the child's trike.
"Our presence in the Milky Way is an accident," Landry explained further. "As you've no doubt surmised the Odyssey is a warship. Well, we were at war, fighting alongside the Asgard and other allies against an implacable foe, and in the course of one of our battles a planet was destroyed. We were forced to engage our Hyperdrive in the gravitational and radiation wake of the blast…the result was our speed was amplified to such an extent – that we covered a journey that would take a hundred years – in less than five minutes."
"And you ended up in the Milky Way? That's a slight coincidence…" Jon observed.
"We ended up close, a few thousand light years z-plus the galactic plane." Carter explained. "We entered the Galaxy and started looking for the first habitable planet to set down and make some repairs. We received your distress call just as we had found one."
"I see," Jon said, he felt like he needed a few days to process this. And he couldn't wait to get his teeth into the Terrani database... Starfleet would be in for one hell of a report. "So what help can you give us?"
"We have the capability to repair your ship completely, the only thing it would cost is the energy used in the process," Carter explained.
"How is that possible?" Jon asked with a frown.
"All Terrani ships have Energy Matter Constructors on board; it takes pure energy and resequences it into whatever shape, form or element we wish."
"I saw a similar device on a Tarkalean vessel, Captain. It was capable of replicating almost any inanimate object." T'Pol reported.
"The Constructors are part of Repair Drones," Carter explained further, the oval stone in her hand came to life again and showed a sleek insect like robot with multiple arm appendages and made of a silvery metal. "We will of course, need the schematics of all your damaged systems and hull sections to program the Drones."
Jon could already see Trip salivating at the mere thought of taking a look at such technology.
"That can be easily done," Jon nodded; it wasn't as if they were in any position to refuse.
"We also offer to upgrade your ship's defences and a few other systems," Carter said next. Jon gave a start of surprise at the offer. "We couldn't help but notice you have no Shields, your hull energizing is ingenious though, something that would've been very handy to have during the war. The phased particle cannons are nice too, though their punch is a bit lacking…the same goes for your missiles."
"Why would you do this?" Jon asked, Enterprise could sure do with Energy shielding, Starfleet had been trying to crack that concept unsuccessfully since it's founding. Almost every hostile race they'd found in space had Shields, and it had put the Earth ship at a decided disadvantage every time particle beams were exchanged in anger. He had mixed feelings about the weapons…Enterprise was not a warship, but there was nothing wrong with the concept of 'deterrence', perhaps if his ship actually had some teeth to bare it would discourage the traditionally bigger wolves from picking a fight.
"You're our cousins, and family must look out for one another," General Landry nodded firmly. "And to be honest, we're making it so you can't refuse our only request in return."
"You want a home, on Earth," Jon deduced quickly.
"That is part of it," nodded General Landry. "Perhaps we'll even join your space program or Agency, eventually; our technology base would certainly go a long way to making anyone quickly regret messing with Earth. There are nightmares in the cosmos, Captain Archer, nightmares that even the Asgard with all their power struggled to deal with. Earth and our race will meet these terrors in the future, and that is all the incentive I need to proceed with this."
"We also would like access to your historical archive to get up to speed on the past hundred odd years. I also want your personal guarantee that Odyssey will remain as she is, Terran Earth can prod, poke and study her systems all they want, but she is to remain intact – being what she was meant to be…a potential spear to be thrust into the heart of any enemy."
"I'll need to discuss that with Starfleet," Jon eventually decided after a moment's thought and a glance to the stoic T'Pol. "But as Captain of Enterprise I can agree to the repairs, upgrades and granting you sanctuary on Earth, as I'm technically an Ambassador of Earth out here as well."
"Very well," agreed Landry.
"I'll have my Chief Engineer send over the schematics as soon as possible."
Landry and Carter nodded, retreating deeper into the Decon chamber. Jon slid the viewing slat shut and began walking to Engineering to get the agreement with Terrani started.
"Any thoughts, Sub-Commander?"
"They are not being fully forthcoming." T'Pol declared.
"Of course, they're not," Jon agreed. "I can see all the signs of the truth being used to gloss over more pertinent truths they don't want to reveal. But my feelings tell me they're not doing it as a cover for something nefarious…no," he stated looking in deep thought, "if anything I think they're reticent because of something else."
"In any event, we will have ample time to get to know them in the coming days."
"I'm looking forward to it." Jon rubbed his hands together eagerly with a smile.
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Sam stood in the Enterprise' cavernous Engineering deck and watched the oblong horizontal, pulsing red, Matter/Anti-Matter Reactor assembly with undisguised fascination. The M/A Reactor was something that many physicists in the Stargate program dreamed of building, but no technology had been encountered or developed by Earth that could conceivably lead to creating one. She herself had been involved in the theoretical exercise for such a thing – storing anti-matter was easily done with force fields, creating an environment for the controlled annihilation was also possible, but the mass production of anti-matter was the insurmountable hurdle, not to mention using the released photon energy and distributing it throughout ship systems in some way.
But Enterprise and this Earth had solved both problems, with the EPS grid, and their Concentric Fusion Reactors, that could double as anti-matter generators by colliding millions of deuterium particles at close to the speed of light…essentially creating both matter and anti-matter from nothing. Enterprise could generate her own anti-matter in the ships Fusion reactors (colloquially known as 'Impulse reactors' as they also generated the ships sublight motive flight) but not enough to be completely independent of Earth's mass antimatter generators. And relied on deuterium as a fuel for the annihilation reaction.
Engineering itself was of pure human utilitarian design, something that Sam enjoyed for a change. The deck was busy and tightly fitted, a place where a thousand adjustments had been bolted on where they were needed, from circuit breakers to flow quenchers, some just to see if they helped at all. Sam was also down here to oversee the twenty Asgard Repair Drones as they buzzed about inside and outside the ship doing the work they were programmed to with mechanical speed and efficiency.
The Chief Engineer of Enterprise looked at her with equal parts satisfaction at her expression, and the attraction and lust of a man with the shield of gentlemanly courteousness. Sam found Charles Tucker III no less pleasing to the eye either, and the fact that he could mostly keep up with her famed 'technobabble' made them get along famously.
"Wait a sec," his Southern twang was quite distinctive. "Are you telling me you can find a way for us to do away with dilithium altogether? Control the anti-matter reaction in some other way?"
"Certainly, now that I've seen the reactor schematics," Sam mused thoughtfully, staring at the large diagnostic LCD screen in one of the corners of Engineering, showing the assembly blueprints. "With a number of technical improvements here and there to a few components, especially your antimatter injectors and Warp field governors, I think we can get your FTL speed to a point where you can cruise safely at what you call Warp 5, with flank speed at six."
"You're kidding?" Trip shook his head in amazement. "But are we gonna be able maintain those improvements if we take damage?"
"We'll also be installing a Matter-Energy Constructor here in Engineering, so yes."
"That alone is something I'd give an arm and a leg for," Trip grinned with a near childish excitement. "We can manufacture all the spare parts we'd ever need. No need to go back to Jupiter Station or Spacedock."
Sam grinned and pulled out the data jewel she had fabricated on Odyssey before beaming over. It lit up and a gleaming blue diagnostic holograph of Enterprise flared in existence, a number of places on the ship coloured in an angry red, indicating the damaged areas.
Trip studied it for a moment. "You've isolated every hull breach, every damaged system. I'll be damned. We scratched the hull right here, a year ago." He pointed to thin red line on the ventral section of Enterprise. "I bumped it with the inspection pod."
"Our sensors are rather advanced," Sam shrugged.
"Just how long are these Repair drones going to take to do all this?"
"Three days," Sam said idly.
"Damn, a repair and refit back home would take five months, at least."
"Not for long."
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Jon sat at the head of the table in the Captain's Mess with T'Pol next to him and surveyed how his two guests tucked into their meals with relish.
"My compliments to your cook," General Landry said significantly. "Odyssey has a Mess hall, but the meals are all synthetic and pre-prepared, can't really afford to have a professional chef on a warship."
"A starship runs on its stomach," Jon commented lightly with a satisfied grin, taking a drink from his orange juice. "I'm curious about your FTL method, could you perhaps explain?"
"Colonel," Landry prompted.
Carter nodded and finished chewing on a piece of her steak before saying, "I'll begin with your own method as a reference point. You create a wave like distortion in the space time curvature and your ship essentially coasts on the depression of that wave. You're barely infringing on the boundary between real space and subspace."
"Our method, dives the ship completely into subspace, and even deeper into a tertiary space strata below that – colloquially known as Hyperspace. The ship also surrounds itself with a field that manipulates hyperspace at a quantum level – the stronger this field the faster the ship goes. Therefore the greater energy generation capacity a ship has, the faster it goes."
"Just how fast is the Odyssey?" Jon asked in amazement as he tried to comprehend the physics behind that. Subspace theory of course, postulated that there were eleven dimensions besides the 'natural' one of normal space, to see a ship which could actually go for a ride in those dimensions…
"We've never had to push her to flank, but her Intergalactic cruise velocity is eleven light years per second."
"You're telling me you can reach Earth from here in less than half a minute?"
"Indeed," Carter grinned. "For such short distances we actually have to put navigation on computer control, a human just can't react fast enough to drop the ship back to normal space before we'd overshoot our destination. It also has numerous tactical advantages, there's no way for another ship to scan or intercept you in Hyperspace, and you could also enter and exit Hyperspace intra-atmosphere of any planet if your coordinates are accurate enough."
"With General Landry's permission, we could even give you a feel for Hyperspace travel – we could extend our hyperspace field over Enterprise and tow you back to Earth in perhaps less than ten minutes."
"Thanks for the offer, but we are a ship of exploration and we've just come off shore leave." Jon chuckled, but he was nevertheless tempted, but he wondered… "If Enterprise had a Hyperdrive, how fast do you think she would go?"
"I can't be exact, but at a rough guess, sixty thousand times faster than light, eighteen billion kilometres per second."
Jon tried to imagine it…failed…tried again, having that sort of speed at his fingertips; the entire Galaxy was open to exploration with a Hyperdrive.
"It would require a rather extensive rebuild of your nacelles for that though."
"I think we'll stick with Warp drive for the present moment," Jon raised his hands to stall the eager Carter. She truly seemed to have a passion for science and technology. "The ability to consistently cruise at Warp 5 is more than good enough."
"Colonel Carter, can you scan normal space from Hyperspace?" T'Pol enquired.
"No," she shook her head. "There is too much distortion at that level of subspace strata. You can only scan extremely strong gravitic phenomena like Black holes and stars; anything smaller is essentially invisible."
"That doesn't really lend itself to exploration," Jon mused.
"That's true," conceded Carter with a shrug. "Unfortunately, Terrani Earth did not make First Contact with agreeable and logical aliens like the Vulcans." She nodded towards T'Pol. "We met a violent, expansionistic and parasitic race known as the Goa'uld. Our space program from its inception was designed to fight a war against them to resist their aggression. Our home galaxy isn't exactly a friendly place. Exploration really hasn't been a priority."
"That's a pity," nodded Jon. Thinking about what would've happened if Earth's First Contact had been with the aggressive and warlike Klingons. He shuddered at the mere thought of it.
"I wish to enquire about your medical technology, if that is permissible?" T'Pol changed the subject, having finished.
"Oh, is there any injuries to your crew you can't deal with?" General Landry enquired politely.
"No, but our Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Reed, suffered a severe injury to his leg when he attempted to defuse another Romulan mine that had latched onto our hull. He is recovering but it will be weeks before he is fit for duty, and even then his leg will be a burden for the rest of his life."
Jon saw Landry looking to Carter, who got a thoughtful expression on her face before she nodded to her superior.
"Colonel Carter will visit your Doctor and see what she can do."
Jon was surprised. "I thought you were the Odyssey's Engineer, Colonel?"
Carter chuckled ruefully. "I am," she sighed. "I'm also the Science Officer, and the closest thing our ship has to a Medical Doctor." See must have seen Jon's incredulous look. "We train ourselves to Cross specialize in various fields, so if a member of the crew is killed, almost anyone could take over with little disruption. Also a ship like Odyssey doesn't need to have a large crew to run it – ideally it would have two hundred, but if needs be a single person could pilot it. We assign crew depending on the mission."
"How many of you are there now?" Jon asked, thinking of the sort of dire circumstances which forged such a type of crew doctrine. Carter looked to Landry again who nodded.
"Six," she answered simply.
"Six?" Jon repeated numbly. Enterprise could function with a crew of ten, but only barely. Going into battle with anything less than full complement was tantamount to suicide.
"Indeed," Carter nodded. "General Landry is obviously our Commanding Officer, but he is also an Engineer. You have yet to meet Colonel Mitchell, but he is our Helmsman and Tactical Officer. Doctor Jackson is our Exo-Linguist and a Resident Diplomat. Vala is our…Infiltration Specialist and finally Teal'C, is a Jaffa Senator and Warrior – they're one of our allies – they're a warrior race that used to be enslaved by the Goa'uld, he defected to us and helped us gain his people's freedom."
"Interesting mix, I'd sure like to meet them."
"If you can give us more of the inoculations we received to send over to Odyssey, I'd be happy to give you a tour, Captain." General Landry invited.
"Can't wait." Jon smiled eagerly. Who'd have thought that when he set out on this mission he'd be meeting people from other Galaxies too?
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"Begging your pardon, Colonel Carter, but are you sure you know what you're doing?" Malcolm Reed, Armoury and Tactical Officer enquired. He had read the reports, the Captain himself had told him about it, even T'Pol, but here he was lying on a biobed in the large, bright and circular Sickbay of Enterprise, whilst a human woman from another Galaxy was applying some form of yellow orange energy to his injured left leg with an odd metallic device that fit snugly over her hand.
"That's the third time you've asked, Lieutenant," the blonde woman in her rather military style jumpsuit said, her eyes closed in concentration.
"You didn't answer the first two times, ma'am."
"That's because I have to concentrate on what I'm doing."
"You can relax, Mr Reed," Dr Phlox said excitedly, staring at the active bioscan readout. "Your cells are regenerating at an exponential rate. Do you see how the device is using synthetically produced mitochondrial energy of all things to stimulate the cell division?"
"Lovely," Malcolm said wryly.
"I could certainly use a device like this, perhaps…" The Doctor was practically drooling, Malcolm noted with amusement.
"This specific healing device would be useless in your hands, Dr Phlox," Colonel Carter opened her eyes and the energy turned off. "The element in my blood that you can't identify, it emits a specific frequency of energy that this device uses and converts into the mitochondrial energy."
"Ah, and as I don't have that element…" The Denobulan sighed disappointedly.
"We do have versions that work without needing the element, though," the Colonel pointed out. "I'll provide you with a list of what medical devices we have, look it through and get back to me."
"Thank you," Phlox was intensely gracious. "Although if it's not something that you feel comfortable discussing in Mr Reed's presence, just how did your gain a second element besides iron in your blood?"
"I don't mind any more…I was once host to a sentient symbiotic organism. This organism uses the element – naquadah - instead of iron in its own blood, when we were blended…that trait carried over to me as well."
"Fascinating," murmured Phlox, looking intrigued. "Was it these Goa'uld, that you were fighting a war against?"
"No, she wasn't, well, she was the same species but from a philosophically opposing faction, the Tok'ra. The Goa'uld are parasitical, totally suppressing the host consciousness…the Tok'ra share and blend, a merging of equals."
"I can't imagine having an alien organism in me," Malcolm shuddered at the mere thought.
"You can relax, Lieutenant, you'll never have to find out. Although since space is so vast, there might be something like the Goa'uld here in the Milky Way."
At this point, Phlox came over with small medical scanner and shined its blue light over the point where the spike had gone through. "Amazing, this tissue is completely healed, even the scar is gone. Try standing up. Any pain?"
Malcolm gingerly got off the biobed and put alternating weight on his left leg.
"None. Thank you, Colonel."
"You're welcome," she smiled brilliantly. Malcolm resolved to get to know this woman before they left for Earth.
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Having been declared fit for duty, Malcolm found himself back in uniform and seated across Commander Tucker in the Enterprise Mess hall a day later, tucking into a lunch and discussing the repairs and upgrades taking place to the ship.
"I tell you those Repair Drones are starting to make me feel a little redundant, I saw an entire transtator assembly replaced in fifteen minutes. It would've taken my crew a week. With this kind of technology in the pipeline Starfleet can build ships that maintain themselves. They wouldn't need Chief Engineers. Or Tactical Officers."
"A starship without a tactical officer?" Malcolm smirked. "I can't say I see the point. But I would relax. I spoke to Colonel Carter, the Repair Drones despite being very advanced still have to be programmed and are essentially mindless machines. Our cousins have apparently learned the hard way not to build things like AIs…they've had to fight against two distinct machine races in their neck of the Universe, in the end they were forced to wipe them both out."
"Thank goodness," the Commander mumbled. "How are the upgrades to the weapons?"
"You know I'm actually feeling rather safe on this ship now," Malcolm said with an air of realization, and pushed over a Padd. "The emitters for our phase cannons are now variable and dynamic, we can shift the phase of the particle beam as its firing if we wanted to. It can also fire particles in three different phases at the same time."
"Heck, any of the shields we've come across would struggle to stop that."
"In addition, they've been uprated to handle five hundred terajoules."
"Where'd the power for that come from?" Commander Tucker asked in askance.
"The Armoury is now home to a bank of supplemental micro-fusion reactors – so even if the Impulse reactors and Main power are offline, we could still fire the cannons."
"I see here there's also been work done on the Torpedoes." The Commander tapped the Padd, scrolling down on the list.
"Yes, each tube has been reconfigured with vertical magazines for rapid loading and gravitic accelerators," Malcolm explained pointing to relevant schematic. "The torpedoes themselves have microimpulse thrusters now, that means they can travel to their target at .4 the speed of light."
"That'll make intercepting them damn near impossible at ranges below one fifty thousand clicks, and am I reading this right…it's got force fields protecting the casing and anti-matter warheads?"
"Yes, it's essentially what Starfleet's in the experimental stages of already, a Photon torpedo. What about on your end?"
"Our Warp reactor's now got anti-matter injectors with variable compression; force fields for confinement and regulation of the annihilation reaction, I can go on and on, the bottom line is, Henry Archer's engine must get rechristened to a Warp 6 engine."
"What about those Shields I heard mention of?"
"One of the tertiary Storage bays has been emptied out, our new Shield Generator is now safely tucked in there, it still has to be connected to Main power, but the schedule says it'll be done by tomorrow."
"Enterprise is going to be a totally different lady after this," Malcolm grinned in near boyish excitement.
"Oh yes," Commander Tucker matched the grin. "A lady with a polite smile and a deadly gun if you don't stay on her good side."
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Enterprise Shuttle Deck
"Captain, it would so be easier to just have Odyssey beam us over."
Jon sighed as he stepped onto the upper mezzanine level of the shuttle deck, where the control room was located in addition to the catwalks that lowered directly onto the aft sections of the subwarp six seater shuttle pods. He turned to Colonel Carter, and her superior following in her wake.
"When there is a choice and time, I prefer the shuttlepods."
"Say no more, Captain Archer," General Landry grinned in amusement. "I don't particularly care for it either, though it's saved my hide quite a few times."
"After you," Jon gestured for them to proceed.
Next to climb down the catwalk and into the pod, was the three men who definitely had more than a passing interest in seeing Odyssey, heck, Jon shared it – curious to see the innards of a ship designed by their extra-galactic cousins. Travis, Malcolm and Trip all but raced down into the pod.
Jon descended and locked the docking hatch behind him and took the only open seat left just behind the small Engineering station to the left of the fore controls. The pod bay doors opened below them and the docking arm pushed down, giving the little shuttle a relative boost downward into the void of interstellar space. The atmosphere control fins slid out to both side and the impulse engines kicked in to one quarter acceleration.
Enterprise, now looking decidedly less damaged and almost completely 'ship shape and Bristol fashion' as Malcolm would say, passed swiftly above them, before disappearing from view as Travis guided them on an easy course towards Odyssey.
As the battleship came closer Jon could spot certain features on the dark hull of the ship more clearly, especially their Point Defence network…it amazed him that a ship this advanced had Rail guns – kinetic mass accelerators, to use the term T'Pol had given him. She had initially dismissed it as primitive, Jon had as well, until Carter stated what velocity they could fire the exotic explosive shells at. 'We learned early on in battling our enemies – especially the machine races – that sometimes old tech works better, because they are so set in their high technology world and thinking that they can't think of defending against 'primitive' weapons, or imagine using them either.'
Jon could see the logic behind that statement, he wondered if T'Pol could too.
Travis guided the pod to the large starboard hanger bay of Odyssey and the doors were already open and waiting for them. Just as they passed the threshold Jon saw the flash of an energy barrier – forcefield to keep the air in – he wondered if that could be somehow integrated into the other NX class ships that was due to come off the Spacedocks assembly lines, to supplement emergency bulkheads, perhaps in places where there were no bulkheads – in case a crewman got trapped beyond one during a hull breach.
"Wow, those are beauties," Travis whispered in awe, as he guided the pod to a soft landing on an open part of the large deck. It was only when Jon opened the port hatch and got out that he saw what had his helmsman in rapture.
Fighters.
Eight of them, arranged on either side of the bay, they had a drooping C-shaped wing design with a cockpit module mounted in the centre. Their hulls were even darker than Odyssey, obviously to stop the venerable Eyeball Mark 1 from easily seeing them in backdrop of space.
"You actually take these into combat?" Malcolm asked of the Colonel. Jon could understand what he meant; most of the hostile species they'd met would swat them out of space casually.
"Our use for them has diminished, but for a long time they held the line against the Goa'uld," Carter explained. "But they're in the process of being upgraded as well. They'll soon have shields, pulse guns, and anti-matter missiles…it also helps that they have a short range Hyperspace capability."
A heavy bulkhead door opened to one side and a tall, dark haired, fair skinned man entered the bay in a similar green jumpsuit to Carter and Landry's. He exchanged near casual salutes with his fellows and turned to Jon.
"Welcome to the Odyssey, Captain Archer, I'm Colonel Mitchell, but everyone calls me 'Cam.'"
"Thanks, permission to come aboard?" Jon asked, shaking the man's hand.
"Granted," nodded Mitchell.
"I hope everything is in order, Colonel?" Landry asked pointedly.
"We're making good time, sir. Repairs should be done by this time tomorrow, at least those that we can do while Odyssey isn't on the ground."
Jon blinked as his mind caught onto that little fact. "This ship can…land?"
"Sure," Mitchell said nonchalantly. "Never know when you might need to."
"Mitchell, can you escort our guests and give them the tour?"
"Be happy to sir, this way, gentlemen."
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A few hours later, Jonathan Archer stood on the somewhat spacious Bridge of Odyssey, looking out the fore shielded windows and gazed at his own ship, that at this distance was just about as big as his hand. His face was set in a contemplative reverie… especially considering what the technology and sheer knowledge on board the Odyssey could mean for Earth.
Jon felt just like when he was a child, painting starship models with his father, the fascination…the excitement, the rush of possibilities. But this time there was also a sadness clouding his mood; the Warp Drive that his father invested so much in, was going to soon be relegated as a secondary mode of FTL travel – something only done in short range scouting or exploration.
Then there was the large alien devices sitting in one of Odyssey's cargo bays, ten of them, which would put a whole new dynamic on interstellar travel. It still boggled his mind that such a thing was actually possible…Emory Eriksson, the inventor of Earth's Energy Transporter, and close friend of the family, would surely go giddy in his wheelchair to study those devices.
The Stargate.
Step through one on Earth, and a moment later, step out of another one on Vulcan.
And there was another kettle of fish that Jon had to consider. The reaction of the Vulcans to Earth suddenly getting access to a knowledge base that made their fifteen hundred years of spacefaring knowledge and history look paltry. He was sure that Starfleet and the UE government would share…to an extent, they were allies with the Vulcans after all, and they had helped Earth get back on its feet somewhat after World War 3.
Though he had a feeling that the UE wouldn't share as much as the Vulcans would like.
How's that for putting the shoe on the other foot? He thought inwardly with a grin. Admiral Forrest's face and reaction had been one for the record books too. With the subspace antenna fixed yesterday, Jon had spoken to the Admiral personally.
It had taken a bit of fast talking and sending an encrypted data packet with what scans they had of Odyssey, a small little tidbit of technology courtesy of General Landry – plans for how to modify any Starfleet transporter into a Universal Constructor, but it had finally gotten the point across to Forrest.
The Admiral had immediately called an informal meeting of the Command Council (sans Vulcan observers), and not four hours later, the verdict had come through.
Odyssey was to proceed to Earth at their earliest convenience, and arrangements were being made to conceal her in orbit around Mercury. General Landry and his crew would be given sanctuary on Earth and allowed to pursue whatever they wished for with their lives, although Starfleet would reserve the right to call upon them to help in specific emergencies related to Odyssey and her technologies. Jon had a feeling that it didn't matter though. Odyssey's crew would more than likely not be content to just sit on Earth and do nothing – not when there was an entire new neck of the Universe to explore.
Jon knew General Landry was a man who could get things done – if there was one thing he had seen of the man, then it was that he didn't beat around the bush unless he had to. Jon wouldn't be at all surprised to see him become 'Admiral' Landry of Starfleet very soon. Landry had already had a few choice words about the subject of Solar System security. 'A satellite detection grid is fine, but where the hell are the Defense satellites or a Home fleet for that matter? Orbital Weapons platforms? Earth is fully space faring and here you are practically advertising the planet in deep space? As it stands anyone with a decent weapon array and shields on their ship could make merry havoc in Sol.'
Jon had argued right back that Earth wasn't going to militarize Sol.
'I didn't say turn Sol into a "yes sir, no sir" zone, I said turn it into a place where even those Klingons would think twice about attacking. They know where Earth is thanks to that Klaang fellow you rescued.'
That argument had finally given Jon some pause. He recalled what Tos, the Vulcan deputy ambassador to Earth, had said just before Enterprise launched with its shakedown mission to return Klaang to the Klingon Empire, 'If we hadn't convinced them to let us take Klaang's corpse back to Qo'noS, Earth would most likely be facing a squadron of warbirds by the end of the year.'
Landry had also weighed in with, "Every new first contact you make is a potential enemy, but they can't hurt you badly if they don't know where to hit."
It had been enough to make Jon amend his unofficial First Contact procedures to just mention Earth by name. In retrospect with species like the Klingons and the others with axe to grind…it had been a bit naïve to hope that everyone out here was 'enlightened' or even had the same morality or values. They would see nothing wrong in attacking Sol to get what they wanted…if Earth couldn't defend itself, well then they deserved it…
Jon shook off that thinking.
"Captain Archer," came a deep rumbling voice. Jon started slightly and turned around to see the Jaffa, Teal'C, standing somehow both rigidly and fluidly, ready for action, just like the seasoned warrior he was.
"Oh, sorry, got sidetracked, this view is amazing…" You could see the long dorsal neck of Odyssey and its VLS battery up close. That they were filled with nuclear missiles with unheard of destructive yields, which could glass the surface of planet twice over, gave him a slight case of the creeps. After World War 3, and the recovery, humanity had never sought to improve those horrible weapons – not Terrani Earth – who had never had a WW3. "I always thought a warship wouldn't have windows."
"Most vessels in our Galaxy have them," Teal'C explained. "The Goa'uld, who my people were enslaved to, acted as if they were gods, and their ships were designed according to 'ego' more than practical function. The Goa'uld Mothership is pyramidal, six hundred meters in diameter with a few hundred 'windows' looking out to space."
"I suppose with shields, structural integrity isn't so critical."
That was another thing that had Jon vexed, any warp driven ship's hull design was an artful balance of elements – structural integrity during warp, aesthetics, and combat performance and had to have the strength to endure the natural hazards of space travel. Odyssey had none of that. Her only design philosophy was practicality, space was never 'warped' around her hull therefore, hull geometry vs. warp stress considerations was moot – since according to Colonel Carter, travelling through Hyperspace only needed a Deflector system and that was it.
"Have you given any thought to what you are going to do once you get to Earth?" Jon had clear impressions of what Odyssey's crew would most likely do with their new lives, but Teal'C intentions were still up in the air.
"I've been reviewing the records of your Earth, especially your Starfleet Academy…"
"You want to instruct there?"
"I was once a General commanding a vast army of Jaffa and a great fleet of Goa'uld ships, and have fought many battles…your people's experience in space fleet tactics is…limited, at best."
"I don't doubt that, but I consider it a virtue that we've never had to learn that."
"Indeed, peace is something I too strive for, Captain Archer, but ones vigilance must never wane; I have seen powerful civilizations fall just because of such complacency."
Mitchell entered the Bridge at this moment with his three guests.
"Captain," Malcolm said with a tone of amazement, "you just missed our trip to the Odyssey's armoury, can you believe they still issue armour piercing automatic projectile weaponry for their troops?"
"Really?" Jon reflected at that.
"One of the machine races we've had to fight – the Replicators – is completely impervious to any form of energy based weaponry," Teal'C explained. "They were the primary enemy of the Asgard."
"Yes, lucky for us, those technobugs couldn't initially think of adapting themselves to something as 'primitive' as a slugthrower or shotgun," Mitchell laughed.
"But they did eventually?" Trip enquired curiously.
"They evolved when the Asgard lured them all into a single location and used a Time Dilation field to trap all of them in one swoop. Inside the field, a few minutes would pass, while outside…a few thousand years would go by, giving the Asgard all the time they needed to find a solution to the Replicators once and for all… but it didn't work…why are you guys gaping?"
"Time dilation?" Jon blinked, just when he'd hoped this didn't involve Time travel at all…
"Sure," Mitchell shrugged. "The Asgard could do so, though they never used it…Teal'C, Daniel and Sam once went back twenty nine years into the past, accidentally. Teal'C and General O'Neill were stuck in time once, repeating the same eight hours in loop, for a relative time of six months maybe more. They also once went back over five thousand years in an Alteran Time shuttle we recovered, though we only know that because we found a video tape they left to themselves…" Mitchell laughed at their bewildered expressions. "Causality is an evil mistress, anyway, the Replicators evolved to mimic human form…your Earth had this movie…Terminator 2, know it?"
"Sure, it's a classic," Trip commented, still trying to get over the fact that something as fantastic as time-travel was just another day at the office for their cousins.
"Think of the T-1000, and you've got a good idea of their evolved form and capabilities," Mitchell said darkly. "We then had to turn back to energy weaponry…you saw the smaller guns with the crystal emitters in the tips?" The three Enterprise officers nodded.
"Those are Anti-Replicator rifles, they fire a modulating disruption pulse that permanently knocks out the ability of the individual nanites that make up the Replicator to maintain cohesion. They essentially just turn into a pile of harmless neutronium on the deck floor."
Jon could only think that he better send a recommendation along to Admiral Forrest, it would read, 'We don't listen to our cousins at our own peril, the nightmares they've dealt with, the adventures…we would be fools not to learn from them.'
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Enterprise Bridge
Jon perched on the edge of his Chair, and smiled at the viewscreen, now showing the Bridge of the Odyssey, with all its stations manned by its tiny crew.
"I hope your ship is in satisfactory condition, Captain," General Landry smiled.
"Everything checked out at better than Starfleet specifications, General. I can't thank you enough."
"Helping you is helping me and my crew." Landry was firm as he stated that. "Thanks for the hospitality on your end as well. I'm sure our paths will cross again in the future."
"I don't doubt it, General."
"If you ever need any help out here, just give us a call…you've seen how fast we can go."
"We'll keep that in mind. Thanks."
"Have a good journey, Enterprise. Odyssey out."
The channel closed to be replaced with the view of the impressive battleship as she suddenly accelerated and manoeuvred, pulling a turn that Jon knew Enterprise couldn't match at that speed. Purple energy blossomed in front of the ship and Odyssey's form blurred as it was sucked in by the Hyperspace window…which vanished again.
"Are we ready to get underway?" Jon enquired of all his senior staff, and received firm nods. He tapped the com. "Trip?"
"We're good down here."
"Warp five, Travis, resume our original course."
"Warp five," the Helmsman said taking a deep breath, his tone almost reverent.
His ship did a swooping turn and surged physically. There was a snap of light, and the viewscreen suddenly changed to a blurring crescendo of star streaks and colour, passing at an apparent velocity that was visibly faster than the crew had ever seen.
Sixty three million kilometres a second, it was an exhilarating feeling. It would soon be nothing more than a snails pace though.
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A/N: This sucker popped into my head. I know the clichéd, 'lost in another Universe', has been done before. I've never seen another fic that merges ST & SG in this fashion except for AJW's Destiny's Child. But can you imagine the changes and challenges that are ahead of Star Trek Earth now that the 'Galaxy' is open to them. The Suliban? The Xindi? The Romulans? The Klingons? The Dominion? The Borg? The Q? Not to mention the Temporal Cold War…I'll leave you to imagine the possibilities for mayhem and storytelling.