S-1701
Ch-4: Light of Day
"Protect, serve, guardians of the people." Part of the Imperial service oath.
/USS Prometheus, 20 minutes after beamout/
Cmdr Sheridan sat in the currently guarded and mostly empty mess hall of the Prometheus, the strange small ship of these "Tau'ri." At least, that is what they said others called them, the name for them in the language of the Goa'uld, the name of a people who fought like the Rebels, but with just cause.
It was strange, to suddenly be on the flip-side of the coin, to be the Rebel with a cause. So far, the SGC could not pinpoint the Enterprise's start point with their technology, even with the impressive and mighty Asgard computer system that guided the ship. They hadn't even seen the local galaxy group that the Caltania galaxy was. Lost, that was a strange new word for him as well. You got lost on primitive planets, not loose entire galaxies.
He looked out the strange windows, standing before the four formerly captured Stormtroopers, currently in shirtsleeves, watching his battered ship, as the background slowly spun dizzingly. His... several days ago, he would have rather blown out his brains with a full burst from his carbine than think that, would have thought it tratorous. Now... he was responsible to it, and to his oath as an Imperial officer, to uphold justice.
But was the penalties for a... Captain, that worked for an independant world to serve, to protect? He had the defense of his oath for the course of actions he was considering, and the morals of the law. He never had liked Imperial leadership anyway, too violent, prone to rash action. The project they had been escorting supplies to, the Death Star that had met it's maker at the hands of Skywalker, the purges, all the dark acts that had occured... sure, it was less than a quarter of the whole...
The time for second-guessing was over with, and he had ten minutes still to decide what to do. The SGC had given him straight-up terms. Either his ship could surrender, or it could defect into their hands, leave the system, or they could go to hell in 100 gigatons of nuclear massacare.
He believed now. Seeing the ship, the strange materials, the crystaline-based optical computers, beaming over... he believed now. So, what was there to loose? Save for the crew and his life? What would they say if they decided he had sold them out? Could he face their wrath if they decided to go out fighting, to die on their feet, rather than live?
He turned around slowly, the light of the spotlights of the Prometheus reflecting off the hull of the Grand Old Lady backlighting his form, the feeling of lost glory sadly hanging around his form. "Gentlemen, it is not normal for a Captain of a ship of the line to consult the average Stormtrooper, but, I need to have a thought on what the average individual aboard the Enterprise is going to say to what I have in mind." His soft voice carried across the quiet of the room, as he looked at each in turn, wondering what they thought. A strange place indeed.
The four troopers looked to each other, the identical twin clones sandwiching a middle-aged correlian and the leader of the team, a Tattoine man. Seargent 1st class, from the service insignia patch he had sewn on his uniform. His tanned skin stood out in unusual contrast to the normal trooper appearance, as he looked between his men. "Sir, we'll keep an open mind. Now what is it you have in mind, sir?"
"We can't survive on our own, but at the same time, the empire does not exist out here, or anywhere near. Our primary hope is to ally with the local forces, these 'Tau'ri'. But, they will not help us unless we break away from the Empire, they fear it, apparently have heard of it and it's worst excesses. They're not sure how, but they have." He looked at each in turn as they listened to him, going through various thoughts and emotions. Fear, anger, irritation, surprise, shock, thoughtfulness.
"Are we absolutely sure they are not Rebels?" The Corellian pointed out the most obvious, and paranoid possibility, looking around at the strangish design of the SGC ship.
"Given that their technology branches well away from what we would consider the norm, or anyone else in our galaxy, for that matter, yes, I would have to say so." Sheridan had asked himself that same question when he had first met SG-1. But nothing could have explained away their technology, the strange windows, the transporters...
"Well, I never did much like some of the ideas of the empire anyway. Do they promise to rule fairly, should they win, to work for an equal solution for all parties? If so, I'm game to join up. Anything is better than my current retirement plan of getting sent back to the Jutland wastes." The leading Seargent looked over the newly minted captain with a strange grin. Strange indeed.
"From what I understand, anything just about is better than the current galactic rulers, these 'Goa'uld'. Enslavement under a false god." Sheridan pulled a seat out from the window table, gesturing for the troopers to follow suit. They reluctantly did so, the clones turning around partially to watch the door, ready to go hand-to-hand if anyone decided to break in.
"Then let us work to restore justice to this galaxy. Living is better than breathing vaccum."
Sheridan smiled as he picked up the beeper that the so-called SG-1 had given him for calling them, activating it. "They should show up shortly. And then we will see what this new day holds."
/1 hour later/
An hour, in which impossible things had happened. And some very interesting shake-ups between him and General Hammond. The old General was having a hard time believing that the captain of a ISD was willing to step away from the empire, and had nearly ended up annialating the Enteprise anyway, to be convinced to stand down by SG-1 and Sheridan's semi-bodyguards.
He'd have to remember to reward them somehow, maybe with having them as one of the liason teams to the SGC. They seemed eccentric enough to fit with the somewhat crazy personelle he had seen so far. Though he had yet to bring up that possibility to the SGC commander. No, they, and himself, were far more interested in 3 blips that had slowly drifted into sensor range. Huge blips, that he was unfortunately far too familiar with.
The transport convoy the Enterprise had been escorting before finding herself lost in space. Each was a Gallofree TZ-900, some of the biggest ever assembled. And completely and utterly lifeless, each and every one. When they got dragged along in the unstable hyperspace wake of the Enterprise, their civilian grade shielding hadn't been able to protect the crews, and the bridge crew of the Prometheus and Sheridan's team looked on in horror of the sight of the warped and misshapened bodies, nearly ripped apart from hyperspace radiations.
From examination the only good thing they had been able to say for the crew was that their deaths had been mercifully quick, and had barely a second to register that they were in pain before their brain fried. Luckily, though, their cargo was still intact. Parts and raw materials for the DS II. Enough to completely rebuild the Enterprise at least 5 times over. And then some.
"SG-1, can you determine if the life support systems are intact? If they are, we should be able to solve our problems with the Enterprise leaking air." Sheridan looked at the camera link to SG-1's boarding party, aboard F-1093927. Or, as Col. O'neill called it: Pudgeboat 1. The darkened bridge of the superfreighter was running on emergancy power as the space-suited team investigated, as had been the rest of the ship. Something had drained power, or malfunctioned, so it was quite possible that anything could be wrong with the ship.
General Hammond looked at him with a withering glare, but turned back to the camera view. They'd start discussing the who's and what's of their newfound relationship AFTER they figured out what to do with these massive 5 mile long superfreighters. Wait a minute... hmm... maybe the personelle transport one... yes that could work quite nicely, provided that the life support worked.
The camera wielder moved over to what Sheridan and his squad could tell was the enviromental station, which was blinking in various ways. It looked like everything was working, but the details were too fine until Daniel translated. "According to the master status, everything reads as good."
Sheridan sighed, knowing that the worst two of his problems were solved, short-term repairs of his ship, and someplace to put the crew where they wouldn't be missing that wonderful substance known as 'air'. "Well, good news is always welcomed, I guess, no matter where it comes from. General, would you be willing to make a trip back to the Enterprise to pick up a set of crews for these ships so we can fly them back and start evacuation procedures for the Enterprise and begin repairs?"
"What? We haven't even decided who will own them!" General Hammond was rather surprised that Sheridan would just even try something like that. Then again, technically...
"General, would you even know how to fly these ships? Or, what about my crew? The chief engineer estimated less than 5 days before we lost atmosphere altogether. If you want our help, the crew has to stay alive, and that means these freighters and the opportunity they represent." Sheridan pointed at the superfreighter hanging outside the window, drifting along slowly. "I know for a fact that you should be able to construct a makeshift spacedock using those things, we once ran into a pirate cell using a setup that would be viable."
"Say what?"
The troopers nodded amongst themselves remembering fondly taking that spacedock. One of the few times that the Enterprise had seen serious action against Rebels, that particular cell having actually committed certain dasterdly crimes that the Empire often said that Rebels committed. The Enterprise, Vengance, Acclimator, and Grand Master had all gone in after it, taking on close to half a million Rebels in a rather nice living space. Of course, they wouldn't tell the SGC that they actually were Rebels, since they were nervous enough as is around them.
"Sure, it would give you an outer system presence, besides just this one corvette that you have," Sheridan let the murmurs of annoyance die down before continuing, "and act as an outer defensive post, drydock which we can eventually expand, and as perhaps the new home of your 'Stargate', maybe with some kind of two-way transporter setup between the old SGC and here. This way, a foothold situation, as you call them, is contained, you have nearly unlimited expansionary space, and everyone is happy."
"Alright, SG-1, hang tight, we'll be back in an hour or so, with a crew from the Enterprise to start picking these ships up and bringing them back online to move to Neptune." General Hammond swiveled his chair back to the forward position as the helmsman began plotting in a course back to the Enterprise. A large frown was stuck on tight to his face as he looked ahead. Until the Enterprise and her crew proved that they would actually work for Earth, and the US in particular, he was going to remain skeptical, and highly suspicious of them.
"Sir! Why not latch onto them and include them in the hyper-field of the Prometheus? Since we're only going to Neptune, less than a lightyear away, she should be able to handle the strain." Carter called out quickly, knowing of what she had done recently using the hyperdrive. She moved in front of the camera, mounted on Daniel's helmet, hoping that the General would approve.
"You can do that!?" General Hammond and Captain Sheridan turned and looked at each other, surprised at their near identical timing and tone. Captain Sheridan mostly because he had no clue what exactly their hyperdrive was, having seen several diffrences between his and theirs, the biggest being jumping out from right beside the Enterprise, deep in Neptune's gravity well; and General Hammond because he didn't know you could tow in hyperdrive.
"Yes sir, we could probably tow all three ships in one go, if we can hook them together. We might need to overhaul Prometheus's drive afterwards, but it is possible." Carter looked around, wondering what all she would need for her plans.
"It should be possible, from what I remember of the class, but the need is not quite that pressing, all we need is one at a time, starting with the personelle one you're on. It's too bad about what happened to the crew and the people aboard, but we need it first." Sheridan watched the slow float of the superfreighter below them, as General Hammond turned between the helmsman and the video feed of Carter.
"How quickly could you set this up?"
"The alternate hyperdrive program should already be set up, sir. Just load it up, lock onto the freighter, and go." Carter started moving as quickly as possible, grabbing onto the frame of the ship in the background as Daniel started doing the same, as well as Jack and Teal'c. They knew better than wonder what Carter might be doing, just to follow her example and do the same thing when it came to ships.
"You heard the Major, latch us onto it." General Hammond turned to helmsman, watching as he searched quickly, finding the alternate drive protocols in a newly added application for the ship. With a few quick manuvers, he snuggled the Prometheus down into a recess in the ship, and nodded to the Operations officer, who latched the landing gear into it, then nodded back to the helmsman.
"We're ready to go, sir."
"Very well, jump us out." General Hammond settled down into his seat, waiting for the slight surge of acceleration and the minor disorentation of the hyperspace slipstream. After a few seconds he looked over to the helmsman, not quite sure what was going on. "Is there a problem?"
"The hyperdrive is powered up, sir but it's not generating a hyperspace window for the jump... Give me a second, and I'll boost the power sl-" The rest of what the helmsman wanted to say was lost as the Prometheus suddenly surged into hyperspace, catching the unprepared standees by surprise and knocking them over. And it ended just as quickly, the Prometheus crossing that lightyear in a few seconds as the slightly overcharged hyperdrive raced to it's destination.
"Need to work on your compensators a little..." Sheridan got back on his feet, pulling up the leader of the trooper squad with him. He looked ahead to the forward windows, seeing his... his now beloved Enterprise hanging, still wounded, in Triton orbit. Well, somewhat seeing it past the massive bulk of the superfreighter below them. O'neill was right, it is sort of pudgy... It would have made a better spacestation... "But very, very nice. Could you beam me back aboard, preferably somewhere in the engineering spaces, so I can hunt down the Chief Engineer, and get him ready to go on getting things set up."
"Alright, I fully understand the urgency, but I want you to take a SGC radio with you, and we will beam you back in approximately one of our hours to begin formal negotiations. We'll also beam up anyone in the room with you to begin docking procedures with.. Pudgeboat 1..." General Hammond shook his head at the oddity of the name, and vowed inwardly to never let O'neill name anything ever again. Ever.
Sheridan chuckled as he thought of what the name invoked. "Somewhat approprieate, but there has to be something better. Ever have a place where people gathered from all across the globe to discuss things, or just to exist together?" He turned to one of the aides, who handed him and the stormtroopers the standard SGC team radios.
"A handful, Babylon, New York, Paris..."
"Babylon... sounds like a nice name... Well, I guess that will be the name of our new station, Babylon. Should be interesting to see if we can work together, like your own civilizations." Sheridan looked between his men, as they all nodded ready. They could get their equipment back in an hour. And from the look of their captain, he had something special for them. "Transport us over."
The fhwoom of the Asgard transporters filled the room, and Captain Sheridan and his troopers were gone.