The Trinity

From bad to worse

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"My lord, the jump was successful."

Ba'al let out a sigh of breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

"We are at the predetermined coordinates."

"Excellent."

"We are not alone."

Ba'al looked at the screen, and a hologram appeared of what looked like a massive square -like vessel, easily as large if not larger than his powerful Ha'tak. The ship -if it called be called that- was square, had no curves no flare, no finesse. It was like a blunt object used primarily for war. It reminded him of his Jaffa; point it and let it kill the enemy. Ba'al's lips twisted in humour.

The vessel stopped emitting a strange green beam of energy and moved out of orbit and towards his fleet.

"It has discovered us and is attempting to scan us."

"Good, don't do anything yet. I want to see what its intentions are."

"Yes, my Lord." The Jaffa paused after a moment. "My Lord, they are hailing us."

Ba'al nodded. "Let's hear it, then."

A moment later and a distinct metallic voice came over the communication systems. It sounded completely emotionless, detached and very threatening. "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile"

The Jaffa turned to his God and inclined his head; he then turned the channel off and waited for further instructions.

"I'd say they were threatening us."

Ba'al couldn't agree more.

"Destroy it."

"Yes, my Lord…"

The Jaffa sent out the signal to the other ships, and in union they tuned as one, coordinated their attack, and opened fire. Great bolts of golden energy blew out of the canons and struck the ship's shields. The newer Ha'taks were designed to keep up the rate of fire for an extended period of time; in an all-out brawl they could match most other Goa'uld ships. This was no different.

The shields on the enemy ship failed and dropped; as it did the bolts of energy tore into the giant cube and found their way through to the engine, where it went critical and exploded like a mini nova.

"Target destroyed."

"Is there anything salvageable?"

The Jaffa paused, looked at his instruments and nodded. "Yes, my lord."

"Collect it and send it to Nerus, let him see what these Borg are made of." It never occurred to the Jaffa to question Ba'al, to ask why he didn't know. He was a God after all, all knowing, all seeing. Ba'al sat back in his chair and sighed. It was, he decided, going to be a long day.

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"Do we have any idea of where exactly we are?"

"It would appear not to be Kansas, O'Neill."

Jack's lips twitched.

"No shit, Sherlock," Jack said snarkily. Teal'c arched an eyebrow but said nothing back. Jack sighed. "He would've turned up by now."

"Who?"

"Thor. Little guy? Grey?"

Ronson gave a patronising smile "I know who Thor is."

O'Neill nodded.

"The Asgard have proven valuable in similar situations." Teal'c said in monotone. The Jaffa then looked at Jack who shrugged and said:

"Carter?"

"I'm afraid it doesn't look good, sir. Even if we were able to write a subroutine into the computer to bypass the buffer, we'd still risk the reactor going critical."

Ronson nodded in understanding. "Well, use whatever you need to repair the buffer. Cannibalize whatever system you deem necessary."

"With all due respect, Colonel, I can't."

O'Neill raised his eyebrows in disbelief, "Carter?"

Sam sighed and tried to explain in simpler terms. "Sir, I helped design the buffer module. I can tell you right now there is no possible way I can make it operational. Not with what we have on the ship. It's like... a light bulb that has burned out: You can't just fix it."

"Do we ... have any extra bulbs?"

"There is no redundancy for that particular system." Colonel Ronson responded with a look at Carter who nodded in agreement.

"So you're saying there's no redundancy," Jack looked at Teal'c, but his long time friend had found something of great interest on the ceiling of the room.

"Even if we were to plot a course for Earth, using maximum sublight thrust, it would take years. We don't have the supplies!"

Sam nodded in agreement. "Not to mention the relativistic effects."

Jack blinked in bemusement but said nothing. The last thing he wanted at the moment was a long winded explanation. Hell, all he wanted to know was could they get back and if not, how long would it take.

"That buffer has to be repaired," Ronson said with a grunt. Jack sighed; the man really had a habit of pointing out the obvious.

Everybody seemed to be ignoring him, which was starting to get on his nerves, so Jonas piped up. Jack looked at him with the 'look' he was getting used to seeing, but if what he had to say helped, well, all the better. "Actually, there may be another solution."

Jonas pointed to the screen. "According to the cartouche, there's a planet .38 light years from our current position." Jonas marked the glass star chart with a white dot where the planet in question was. "P3X-744. We've tried dialling it unsuccessfully in the past, but if it's on the cartouche then there had to be a gate there at some point."

"Perhaps it may be buried." Teal'c suggested.

"Well, if we can make it there and gate home, we can get what we need to repair the ship."

Major Gant shook her head in dismay. "We're still talking about a four month journey using sublight engines. We'd never make it."

"We use the hyperdrive." The group looked surprise as Carter said this, each looking at her with a confused glare.

"I thought we couldn't do that?" Jack asked the obvious and then winced when he thought about it.

"For a protracted period of time, no."

Gant nodded and agreed with her. " '744 would be a pretty short hop."

"The shorter the burst of energy required, the less the chance of instability."

"That's what I'm thinking," Jonas said, more to himself than anything, as really, no one was paying attention to him.

Jack looked at the Colonel and shrugged. "It's your call. But I don't see how we have much choice."

Ronson smiled and nodded. "Major Gant, plot a course for '744."

"Make it so." Jack said with a grin.

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DeLouise, the pilot, from Ronson's port said, "Now orbiting P3X-744, sir."

"Aye Port to Stowaway," Jack said excitedly. He winced when he thought about it afterwards.

"Good work, people!" Ronson complimented his team.

"Sir, computers are detecting a rapid energy build-up in the Naquadria cells."

"Shut down power to the reactor."

Major Gant shook her head negatively. "Controls will not respond, sir. Reaction is continuing uncontrolled."

Sam had appeared next to her and was looking down at the same screen. "The jump must have triggered a power surge that overloaded the reactor control systems. Sir, without the buffer we have no way to stop the build-up. We have a few minutes before the Naquadria reactor goes critical."

"Stand by to jettison the reactor module."

"Yes, sir."

"Wait a minute, if I'm wrong about there being a Stargate on this planet, we're losing our only means of getting home!"

"It would appear there is little choice." Teal'c said blandly.

"Bring shields and sublight engines on-line."

"We're not gonna be able to get very far away before it blows." Sam said grimly.

"Then we're about to find out just how good our shields are." He pushed a button on his chair and activated the comm to speak to the rest of the ship. "All hands, brace for impact!" He turned it off and spoke to Major Gant. "Reactor module separation on my mark. 3, 2, 1, mark!"

Gant pushed a button.

"Module jettisoned."

Ronson looked at DeLouise and said, "Get us clear! Full military thrust!"

"Yes, Sir."