Ch 3: The giant mutters
"Your overconfidence is your weakness..."
/Star Destroyer Hull 1701's Detention Block/
"At least it's somewhat well in the way of amenities." Jack leaned up against the bulkhead of the detention cell, looking over at Daniel and Teal'c over on the other side of the small space, the two sitting on one of the bunks, looking grim.
It was one of the better cells he had been in, for sure. The bunks at least had pads on them, there were the ammenities for the unmentionables, the lighting wasn't too bad, and there were no sharp edges, though that was likely to keep Rebels from having a way to commit suicide.
"You just had to say it, Jack." Daniel looked over to the fritzy Col., looking at him harshly as he sulked on the bunk.
"Daniel, you were the one who said we were going to get captured before we even got into the ship. I blame you." Jack crossed his arms over his chest, as he stayed leaned up against the black wall. His sharp eyes got Daniel to look away in annoyance.
They hadn't been beaten by the Stormies, thankfully, though blasters were pointed back in their direction when 4 stormtroopers had come up and grabbed their radios, only to be beamed out a few seconds later. They nearly had met their end right there, though the captain had come on the comm channels and told them to put SG-1 in the brig.
Of course, they decided to preserve the secrecy of the layout of their ship, and had proceeded to stun them several dozen times from medium range with their alternate fire. Firm believers in Rule 37.
According to their watches, which had been left to them, it had been about 5 hours of snoozy time. Almost all of their equipment had been taken, the various scanners they had developed, Carter's Goa'uld crystal-based custom laptop, their vests and tactical packs, everything except the BDUs they were wearing, and their watches. And Jack didn't put it past them to have tampered with those either. Pesky Goa'uld, and double-pesky Imperials. He should have asked to punch a few holes in the ship to make sure they were all dead before coming in, that was what he was beginning to think.
Daniel began to open his mouth to say something, before his eyes went blank, and he stopped, shutting his mouth as he sheepishly nodded. He had, hadn't he? Alright, so Jack did have a point about that. He leaned back up against the wall, the light fixated in the bottom of the upper bunk casting harsh shadows on his face.
"You taunted the Dark Lord Murphy, Daniel, he doesn't like being taunted, you know." Jack scowled at his sometimes annoying space-monkey, but wasn't ready to knock his lights back out again. "Now I'm hoping that they figure out we're not rebels. I really don't want to be on this thing if Prometheus decides that it has to nuke it a couple dozen times."
"If they do nuke the ship, hopefully they'll use the new Mark 8s. Supposedly they have nearly a gigaton on detonation, which might be enough to kill this Star Destroyer if it goes into the breach right behind the reactor or into the hanger." Carter stood by the door, poking her rather uncheerful two cents into the matter. Everyone save for Teal'c winced at the thought of what the Prometheus might be doing, if it was even in their hands still. Those 4 stormtroopers had been beamed over without the Prometheus knowing. Hopefully Zats worked on even them.
"Thank you, Carter. Remember, these are smarter than the average Gould. They're probably watching us on camera. Nothing about our capibilities needs to be revealed." Jack looked around for cameras or other monitoring devices, hidden or overt. Nope, he didn't see any, but he didn't doubt that they were there. Hmm... but, this gave his normally low-gear brain an idea...
"Too bad they don't want to believe we're not rebel scum. The Goa'uld are going to be a nasty shock for them, if they can even get their ship fixed." Jack said it loudly, mouthing afterward, 'Start going on about Gould!'. This could work, if they could convince someone to come in and ask them what they were babbling about, they could stand a chance.
/3rd in command's personal office, 30 Earth Standard Minutes later/
He looked at the holographic representation of the imaging being currently recorded from their intruder's cell, and the transcript of what they had been going on about. Who in the hell were the Goa'uld? Why hadn't the Empire encountered them, if they had this galactic empire?
Who was Anubis, what was a Stargate? And who would name a planet Earth? Were those strange energy weapons they recovered 'Zat's? Who were these people? Or was it an elaborate rebel plot? They knew about the Deathstar, and.. wait, how did they know about the second one? His heart grew cold, when he contemplated the thought that the bulk freighters they had been escorting might have been captured, and the secret of the second try lost.
He rubbed the bacta-soaked compress over his right temple, his bleached brown hair soaked partially with blood from the attack before the jump, and the wild, near-insane ride that the ship had endured for 5 hours before dropping out, in this dark zone. The Captain and the XO had been lost when the command tower decompressed during battle, and he had taken over command, jumping the ship out of harm's way and out of battle, with the three transports that they had been escorting.
The Imperial Science Directorate said that switching to an Alternate Quantum reality was impossible, due to several problems, but...
The Chief Engineer was swearing up and down that the hyperdrive motivators were out of alignment, with reality, as if they suddenly didn't match up to the resonance of their location. And that green squid-like ship that had been on the edge of the battle, that dark psyonic scream that had terrified the crew... Something far diffrent than a turbolaser bolt had nearly killed the hyperdrives, and the normal drives, and the the corellian engineer had been screaming at him not to make the jump...
Looking back, either way was a bad idea, so he had taken the lesser of two options. And they were now lost, in uncharted space without the three giant freighters they had been escorting to Endor.
He needed some answers, looking at the quartet in the detention block, and the wild stories they had told between themselves, he decided to take a chance. They may be Rebel scum, but they were probably as lost as the lady Enterprise was. The poor girl needed a break from the constant battling she had been in over the past few months, needed a chance.
He needed to be able to give the crew hope, even if it was mutinying against a Rebel prize crew. They couldn't fix her on their own, no-one was answering on the hypercoms, and these four were the only people who had made contact. With everyone away from the slowly cooling hull, he had no way of knowing what was out there. Time to take a chance...
No-one had ever accused Lt. Cmdr. Sheridan of being a coward, or foolhardy. He wasn't going to start being either now. With the good captain and his XO dead, he was in charge now, and he intended to take charge.
Now where did he put his blaster and that spare thermal detonator he had lying around somewhere...
/SG-1's Detention Cell/
The team stopped talking when the door buzzed, the first sign that anyone had bothered with them since they had arrived. They all stood up and watched the door, Carter falling back, standing by the Col, both of whom were ready to burst into combatives moves as they waited for the door to open.
The swoosh was eerily familiar, as it rushed open, a shadowed figure in the opening, with a blaster carbine in one hand, and what looked like a thermal detonator in the other. SG-1 decided that it might not be a good idea to be attempting to wrest the blaster from the interrogator's hand, with that blast-o-joy in the other. They all backed up slowly, so as to give him room to come in without feeling threatened.
"Good. I was hoping that you would understand the general idea behind my armment." Sheridan slowly stepped forward into the harsh light of the cell, looking at the individuals of SG-1 turn by turn. The one they called Daniel, clearly some kind of historian, no other group still had those rediculous glasses in the empire. The strange Teal'c... talked about as a 'Jaffa' by the team, and apparently a near-human who had sided with them against these 'Goa'uld', and one of the 'system lord's right-hand men.
Then the Major Sam Carter... apparently the second in command, and chief science officer for the team, specializing in the estrotic fields... Most interesting, she was the polar opposite of the Imperial Navies policies. A woman who was a scientist, pilot, and the second in command all in one, a versitile, and apparently highly effective package. And the eye did not go wanting with her.
And the Col. Jack O'Niell. He made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but he led. Sheridan had to admit that, he was leading this team, and apparently had absolute obediance when he spoke definatively. The middle-aged man was an enigma, one who had made himself so, who could feed off of his own mystery.
"So, judging from the outfit, and the little color squiggles on your chest, you're the head honcho of this disaster looking for a place to happen." Jack looked over at the dirty-blond man, waiting to see his next move. He wasn't going to bother trying to disarm him now, he'd go suicide bomber if attacked. Better to wait, and try and convince him to let the team go.
"Yes, I'm the current commander of this ship. However, I want some answers as to who you are, why you boarded my ship, and as to just what a Stargate is, everything. Now, we can either do this the civilized way, or, I can get unpleasant, and borrow my regiment's interrogation droids. I'd rather not be unpleasant. The laundry systems are out, and this grey uniform is a pain to clean up." Sheridan spoke in a friendly way, genuinely hoping to avoid a more... displeasurable way of getting the information. After all, he had his predecessor's reputation to live up to.
"Sir, should we?" Carter looked to Jack, getting an approving nod from Sheridan, she knew to follow the command of her leaders, as did the rest of the team. Disciplined, and while having an odd familarity, and havoc-inducing relationship, he used the reference of his own ship for their work relationship. A family, even less likely to be Rebels.
"I think it should be safe. They're dead in the water, and Prometheus has this hurt ship covered nicely." Jack smugly crossed his arms across his chest, knowing that while he was in danger, at least Prometheus had this ship locked onto, and ready to make into small bits.
"Alright then, I guess we'll start at the beginning. Sam, I guess trying to explain what's happened to them would be the first order of buisness." Daniel looked over to the astrophysist, hoping she could best break it to them. He'd handle explaining about the Stargate, and parts of the background on the situation, and together Teal'c and Jack would probably explain the Goa'uld.
"Well, I'd say from various evidence, that you likely have either suffered a massive locational/temporal shift during transit, or you suffered a malfunction in your hyperdrive that transported you through the multiverse." At the increadulous look on Sheridan's face, she continued. "Would you believe me if I told you that there is a 6 series set of movies based around the rise and fall of your empire?"
"Say what!?"
"Carter, might not have been the best of ideas." Jack looked at her, before looking back to Cmdr. Sheridan, who was still blinking somewhat in shock.
"Well, either one is certainly possible. From external evidence, it certainly stands possible. You've got a hole punched clean through your lower surfaces less than 50 meters from your main reactor that's big enough to fly a starfighter through." Carter let that shock sink in as well, Sheridan paleing at that news, knowing at last how close they had come to disaster. "As for quantum traveling, it certainly is possible, we've encountered at least two occasions of it already, though this is most definately several orders greater in magnitude."
"So, you're saying that this is an alternate reality, where the Empire is nothing more than a fairy tale?"
"Essentially, yes."
"Hmm, I can see that if we ever get back, I need to knock some sense into a few egg-heads who think that traveling between quantum realities is impossible." Sheridan shook his head in annoyance, accepting that it might certainly explain why the hyperdrives were de-tuned, something that was impossible normally.
"Huh... okay, so, Daniel, the Stargate..." Carter was rather surprised at his acceptance. Maybe he had other evidence...
"Right... in our year 1928, about 80 years ago, we found an unusual artifact in a region of our planet known as-"
/3 hours later/
Sheridan had ended up on a bunk, somewhat shocked at the sound of it all on the surface. A previous evolution of mankind? Crossing the galaxy, and then some in 3 seconds? A race of god-pretenders?
SG-1 had left him alone, despite having the perfect opportunity to overpower him. This was a better one, a Star Destroyer on their side, fully crewed and trained... a dream come true, the miracle break after all. And, Cmdr. Sheridan seemed to believe them. He finally looked up at them, before standing up, and putting his carbine back into a ready position.
"I assume you have a way of preventing this 'Prometheus' from firing on us? And proving what you claim?"
Jack, Teal'c, and the rest all looked at each other, realizing that they needed comms with Prometheus.
"O'Neill, I have a spare radio in my bag. It may be able to reach Prometheus, and allow for negotiations to begin." Teal'c nodded his head to Jack, waiting for the answer.
Sheridan looked over to the two, who looked back at him. It couldn't hurt, and it didn't matter if they screamed for Prometheus to open fire, if they were right, they'd likely end up opening fire soon anyway, to prevent the Enterprise from trying to attack.
He called into the comms, asking for the prisoner's packs to be brought up. Thankfully, no questions asked, just obediance, as the Empire commanded. Now how to save the last bastion of the empire. The packs took a good 20 minutes to arrive, of tedious, slowly nerve-wracking waiting. The thought of a ship at point blank range with at least 100 gigaton missles was driving him crazy.
The packs all arrived, with everything in them. He watched as SG-1 sighed, going through them to make sure everything was alright, finding things to their satisfaction.
"I'd say that was one of our better first contacts, wouldn't you, Carter?" Jack looked over to her, as he slung his on his back, throwing Teal'c two double-A batteries to power up his radio. They were quickly clipped in, and Prometheus's chatter popped up in mid-squak.
"-eat, SG-1 DO YOU READ!? General Hammond has us on a 30 minute countdown to launch, please respond!"
Jack grabbed the radio from Teal'c, jamming the system to full power and activating the mike, talking fast. "Prometheus, HOLD YOUR FIRE! We've got the captain of the ship with us, and we're ready to beam over! The Star Destroyer has gone neutral, HOLD YOUR FIRE!"
Everyone was sweating, realizing how close they had come to sparkly oblivion now. Daniel and Sam exchanged glances, as Teal'c watched impassively, and Sheridan twitched nervously. The radio finally clicked back on, Prometheus responding. "Countdown canceled, SG-1. When we beamed over Stormtroopers, we feared the worst."
Sheridan got in close as Jack was about to respond. "My troops are alive?"
"Yes, they were just interdimensionally energized/slipped over to the Prometheus, and dropped off there. There will be no side effects other than feeling nausious." Carter stepped up now, as did Daniel. "Would you like to try? Our story is a lot easier to explain once we get over there, we have images and a better record."
Sheridan disarmed the Thermal Detonator, and his Carbine, putting them into his decidedly non-regulation belt holster. "But, be warned, this had better not be a trap."
"Got it, keep the guys with the guns off you." Jack nodded, before turning to Sheridan. "You'll have to temporarily surrender your blaster when we get over there, though. The whole 'letting an armed man in' thing and all."
"Right, I'm ready to see your technology in action." Sheridan hoped they were not planning their deaths, but then again, he had nothing to loose.
"SG-1 to Prometheus, beam everything within a 3 yard radius of the signal up." Jack clicked off the comms, before cursing. "Drat it, Carter, we have got to get some of the little gr-"
"Fwwwhhhooom!" The white light of the Asgard Transporter filled the cell, before it faded away, leaving an empty room.