Ace In The Hole
Chapter 31
The vast emptiness of space is suddenly violently torn apart in a flash of energy as the Adaris drops out of hyperspace, effortlessly she glides into orbit above the moon of a huge bluey green gas giant.
"Report"
"We have successfully exited hyperspace Sir"
"I can see that lieutenant" Grainger grins at the young airman sitting next to him "Anything on sensors?"
"Negative sir..."
[Cairns to Grainger]
"If you are going to tell me that there is another problem Doc there will be trouble..." Grainger hears his friend gulp nervously over the radio.
[No... just a few minor glitches that's all... the Lagrangian satellites now fully integrated into the ship giving us full access to its ZPM and shields but I'm still having a problem getting power to the beam weapon... I'll figure it out]
"Is the new cloaking system ready for testing?"
[That was one of the easier systems to integrate thankfully... I'll get back to you soon as I sort this out... Cairns out]
"Send an encoded message back to Atlantis inform them that we have begun testing the new systems" Grainger says to the young lieutenant.
"Yes Sir" the officer skilfully types out and sends the message before looking towards Grainger once more "Message sent sir"
"Then lets put the new girl through her paces then shall we" Grainger grins.
"Got anything decent to drink around here?" Mitchell sighs as he drops down hard on the sofa opposite Sheppard.
"Will a beer do or are you looking for something stronger?" Sheppard smirks "I take it Daniel has told you then?"
"I don't know what I am more concerned about... the fact that he's been messing about with Earth's affairs" Mitchell looks up to the ceiling "Or the fact that Coolidge is plotting to be appointed Commander of Pegasus operations"
"According to Jackson the things that Alex has done back home have been positive... I ain't exactly happy about it... but... after he left I had a long hard think about it and honestly in the end... if it makes going public easier that has to be a good thing" Sheppard sighs.
"I still can't see what Coolidge is going to gain though?"
"He's begun lobbying the nations that have been informed about the program but are still currently not part of the IOA... Canada, Germany, Japan... I guess he's thinking that with enough support he will be able to pressure the IOA's council to do things his way"
"But why?... what does he gain?... as impressive as the city is there are other things just as important... the ZPM charger thingy, Nautilus... I mean as it stands the cities database has been copied already... so what's he after?" Mitchell takes a long drink of the beer Sheppard has handed to him "Prestige?"
"Could be I guess... its how ass holes like that think" Sheppard nods.
"I still find it hard to believe he wants to allow the large corporations unsupervised access to the city... the likes of Sony, Samsung... Apple tearing the city apart for technological advancements" Mitchell shudders.
"Oh it gets better... he is apparently suggesting that we allow the big oil companies off world mining rights as well" Sheppard grimaces.
"The IOA will never back that... we are trying to move away from oil not import more of the stuff" Mitchell just shakes his head.
"You'd be surprised... ten of the top twenty companies worldwide are oil and gas companies they have huge clout back home... financially they could cripple the planet... Coolidge has had meeting with over half of them already..." Sheppard merely rises his eyebrows letting Mitchell ponder his words.
"And?"
"That's just it... at every meeting he has had some form of jamming that has prevented Alex from learning more... All we know for sure is he is up to something and Atlantis is his main target." Sheppard rubs his eyes tiredly.
"Well I guess we will have to deal when the time comes..." Mitchell grins... but his grin drops when he sees Sheppard smirk "McKaye told you about those damn spider didn't he?"
"Oh yeh!"
Evan and Alex are sitting on the open deck of the south east pier watching Mark an Matthew throwing a football back and forth, there is still an air of unresolved tension simmering between them and with a large sigh its Alex that gives in first.
"I'm sorry" He turns to look Evan in the eye but Evan merely glances before returning his attention towards the playing children in front of him "Look I said I am sorry, I know you feel like I betrayed your trust... but..."
"I get it... I do... but at the end of the day I thought you trusted me Lexy... I thought we were friends as well as team mates?" Lorne almost winces as his own voice quivers slightly betraying just how upset he is.
"Evan... look I do trust you and you are a friend possibly the first true friend I have ever had, but you have to understand its..." Alex sighs trying to think of the right way he can put into words what he wants to say "When I say I am Atlantis... I'm not exactly sure you get what I mean... I see you roll your eyes like I am trying to just claim some sort of moral high ground but I don't really mean that" Evan merely shifts slightly and glances at Alex with curiosity. "I am me... Alex sitting right here with you now and because my active clones are also helping a few other people right now, I am also with Rodney helping him prepare the first run through of the ZPM charger, I am also with Dr Cairns on the Adaris and on Nautilus helping Dr Zalenka create a new side arm"
Evan merely looks at his quietly taking in his words.
"I am also monitoring sixty five experiments currently running within the city, I'm keeping an eye so to speak on all my sensors, balancing the power of 4 ZPM's... I'm controlling 3 maintenance bot's that are making minor repairs... I am also connected to the gate network itself which is currently feeding me information from over 1789 gates just in the local group, I am tracking seventy-four wraith hive ships via the Pegasus sentinel network" Lorne is now sitting quietly staring at the young man in front of him "Of course that is just in this galaxy... would you like me to continue?"
"I'm sorry" Alex just stops and stairs at Evan slightly stunned.
"Why are you sorry?"
"I never realised..."
"Evan" Alex finally smiles warmly "There is nothing to be sorry about... that's is what I am trying to explain... I am doing what I was born to do... I have three primary directives... Serve...Protect...and Guide"
"David!"
[The new beam weapon is online Colonel... ready to fire at your command... but please... just take it slowly Dom...Cairns out]
"Helm... lay in a course" Grainger can't help his grin, so far all tests run had proven the new upgrades were working as expected, cloaking device, shield's, drone's, all that remained was getting the Lagrangian satellites primary weapon up and running.
"Yes sir... ETA 3 minutes" The ship gracefully accelerates towards a large group of asteroids that form a belt in the centre of the barren system.
"We are in range of our primary target sir" The Lieutenant just turns to Grainger with a slightly amused look.
"Lock on to target...Fire"
A beam of pure raw energy lances out from the newly installed turret built into a recess under the ships prow, in seconds the almost 7 mile wide asteroid is sliced cleanly in half, Grainger grins like a five year old but as he turns to the Lieutenant beside him several consoles explode in a shower of sparks and the ship is plunged into darkness.
"What the hell?... What just happened?"
"Power is out across the ship... sir... we are on back up power only..."
"Life support?"
"Minimal sir... emergency power only Sir"
"Grainger to Dr Cairns... Dr Cairns do you read me?" Dom sighs jumping up from his chair "I'm headed to engineering"
"Yes sir"
With main power offline it takes the Colonel almost twenty minutes too make his way through the dimly lit ship, on route he comforts the crew he meets and tells them all to remain calm, but a sense of forbidding is clawing its way into the back of his mind as he finally forces the door to the engineering deck open, he lets out a breath of relief he hadn't realised he had been holding because as soon as the door is ajar he can hear Dr Cairns clearly cursing.
"David!... what have you done to my ship?"
"Me?" there is a bump from under the console and a few muffled swear words before Dr Cairns finally stands and dusts himself off "We are definitely in trouble this time Dom" Cairns grabs his pad and turns it to Grainger pointing to the schematic, the brightness of the pads display momentarily blinds him due in part to having to climb through the Adaris in almost complete darkness, his eyes take a moment to adjust, but once they have finally cleared he is still no wiser.
"What am I supposed to be seeing?"
"The beam weapon caused a huge feed back pulse... its burned out several major relays... power is not getting from the ZPM to the rest of the ship"
"What about our own generators?"
"The Adaris's three Naquadah reactors are fried beyond repair ...Sir" Lt. Weir says walking in behind him.
"Lieutenant" Grainger nods.
"Doctor the Naquadah reactors couldn't handle the influx of power from the feed back pulse... thankfully their safeties kicked in and they shut down before they had a chance to go into overload... unfortunately for us they are un-salvageable"
"Bet you wish you had stayed at home now?" Grainger says to the Lieutenant.
"Not really sir... I am glad Doctor McKaye thought I may be able to help" The Lieutenant says with a smile.
"Yes... well lets hope that between the two of you, you can fix this" Grainger says but a quick glance at Cairns face tells him that its worse than that.
"Dom... the power relays are fried... and by fried a mean toast... and to be totally frank with you there is nothing on the ship that can fix that... we just don't have what's necessary on board" Cairns grimaces at Graingers piercing glare.
"David... fix this!"
"I..."
"Sir... he can't... that is why I went to check the Naquadah generators" Weir says grabbing Graingers attention from the now quiet scientist. "We had hoped that the pulse had just fed back to the ZPM... the conduits would have fried but the ZPM is capable of just reabsorbing the energy... but the pulse also fed back into the secondary power grid... that is also fried as is the back up..."
"Are you telling us that we are stuck here... no defences... no way back... minimal life support and more importantly no way of letting them know?" Dom sighs rubbing the back of his neck.
"Don't worry sir... I am sure they will figure it out" Lt Weir smiles.
The quietness of the sunny afternoon is suddenly interrupted as the cities star drive begins powering up, Alex jumps to his feet glancing back to Evan.
"Get them back to quarters I will explain later" he points to Mark and Matthew who have both stopped dead upon hearing the cities engines powering up.
[Mitchell too Lieutenant Weir]
"Sorry Colonel I was just about to call you... I am on my way back to control now... Sir... Adaris has had an accident... and they have lost all power... relays across the whole ship have been burned out with no hope of repair ... life support is on but only functioning on minimal power... I thought you would want to depart asap"
[Colonel Sheppard and I will head to the chair room... can you put me on across the city?]
"You are on now Sir"
[May I please have your attention] Cam's voice can be clearly heard across the whole city and out post, people everywhere from control to the repair crews on the travellers vessels momentarily stop to pay complete attention.
[This is Colonel Mitchell... we have just received word that the Adaris has run into problems whilst undergoing their test flight... therefore Atlantis herself will be heading out to render them the necessary assistance... hopefully it shouldn't take long... they are in a quiet system not to far away... everyone in the city prepare for immediate departure... those outside... enjoy the show... Mitchell out]
Within minutes there is a scramble of people pouring out of the travellers vessels to get a view of the cities departure, knowing the city of the Ancestors can fly and seeing it actually fly are two entirely different things.
There is suddenly a loud rumble and the ground itself tremors as the city slowly begins to rise into the air, people stare open mouthed in wonder and amazement as the huge structure begins to accelerate higher and higher, faster and faster upwards until within less than a minute it is out of sight.
"Now that was cool" Mitchell grins at Sheppard as the control chair turns towards him.
"Mitchell to control... I'm jumping us to hyperspace now"
[Understood Colonel... Control out] Mitchell closes his eyes and a smile forms as he feels the city jump to hyperspace.
"You know... I thought flying a Jumper was cool... flying a city... wow" Mitchell grins opening his eyes expecting just Sheppard but he blushes when he sees that Alex is standing next to him.
"Thank you Colonel... not bad for a first timer" Mitchell just grins... but his grin slowly fades as he takes in Alex's look.
"What now?"
"We shall reach the Adaris in 3.4 hours"Alex states.
"So what's up then?... you already said that life support is still functioning... 3.4 hours... that should not be a problem..." says Sheppard his brow creasing in puzzlement.
"Sentinel satellite P71-JRD picked up a small wraith fleet heading in the direction of the Adaris's location" Alex sighs.
"At the speed the wraith travel at we should be in and out before they get close" Sheppard smirks but the look on Alex's face once more causes his guts too churn uneasily.
"They are travelling slightly faster than conventional hives... I'm not entirely sure if we will make it before they arrive Sir"