A/N: Once again, we don't own the universes we are writing of. Please review!

Chapter 15

Iconia Prime…

Jack O'Neill entered Merlin's office in Camelot. A few hours before, he and Sam had transported back to Iconia Prime from Jord, via the stargate. Now, Merlin wished to discuss some possibilities for Iconia before they travelled to Earth to confer with Sulu and The Commander..

"Good to see you again, Jack," Merlin said, shaking O'Neill's hand.

"Good to see you too, Sir." He sat down and said, "I hear Bra'tac popped the question to Lwaxana. We had an invitation waiting when we arrived back."

"Yes," Merlin affirmed. "I'm very happy for them, and pleased that Deanna will have such a distinguished and heroic stepfather.

"Sam tells me that a Betazoid wedding is somewhat unusual compared to a human one?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Merlin said, a twinkle in his eye. "It's been awhile since I've attended a Betazoid wedding, but the attire is somewhat minimal."

"Whose attire?"

"Guests and wedding party alike."

Suddenly, he had a sense of foreboding as he remembered Sam's laughter when she suggested that he ask Merlin about the wedding. "How minimal are we talking?"

"Nonexistent," Merlin informed him.

Situation room in the Federation Capitol…

There were seven people around the table. President Sulu, Jack O'Neill, The Commander, Merlin, Teal'c, Bra'tac, Martok, and Spock.

"Gentlemen," Merlin said when the meeting opened and Sulu recognized him, "I recently received a report from John Sheppard on Cardassia Prime. The Emperor has completely aligned with the Dominion. They are setting up facilities on the planet to produce clones of Jem'Hadar and Vorta."

"What about the reports that the Jem'Hadar have a chemical dependency?"

"It is not a simple addiction," Merlin answered. "Apparently, without Ketracel-white, a Jem'Hadar will not survive. They are genetically engineered to lack a certain enzyme that White provides."

"I've got a bad feeling about this," O'Neill commented. "That's what they tried to do with the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. It didn't work out too good for them, and I doubt it will for us."

The door opened as O'Neill was making his comment, and Daniel Jackson and the Romulan commander, Keras, entered the room. "Jurassic Park was a movie," Jackson explained, "based on a novel from the nineteen nineties, back on our Earth. It was about an amusement park where they cloned dinosaurs and used them as the attractions. They genetically engineered the dinosaurs to lack the enzyme lysine, so they couldn't get out of control. One of the scientists in the story insisted that Chaos Theory dictated that things would get out of hand anyway, and they did."

"Fascinating," Spock said, "and remarkably enlightened. Given the relatively backward behavior displayed by some of the political leaders of the time, I'm surprised a movie with such a message would be allowed."

"Thank you, Spock," Daniel said, "you have such an endearing way of putting things, especially as I was the last of the political leaders of the time."

"I did not intend to draw a parallel between you and the politicians of which I spoke, Doctor Jackson."

Daniel held out his hands as if to reassure the Vulcan and said, "That's okay, Mr. Spock. I'm not offended."

"That is most gratifying, as no offense was intended."

"Ya know what? Let's just drop it, okay?" O'Neill implored.

"Very well, General."

"Now that everybody is present," Sulu said, "we can officially begin. Merlin, what does Sheppard say the political climate is in the Cardassian sector?"

"It is not good, Mr. President. Madred has brought in several thousand Jem'Hadar, as well as the Vorta, Weyoun. The Vorta is acting as an ambassador for the founders, apparently, although it is my understanding that there is a female founder on the planet, but she is rarely seen.

"To be honest, Todd is probably not helping the situation any. Sheppard tells me that as a diplomat, Todd is probably worse than none at all. He plans things well, but then when it comes time to act, he frequently tends to act rashly, and Sheppard and Teyla have to try to pick up the pieces afterward. Jardis is better than her father, but she sometimes acts on impulse as well. For example, when she showed who and what she is on that first night."

"Do you feel that Sheppard is an honest judge of Todd?" Sulu asked.

"Sheppard has the most experience with him," Merlin said. "I think he knows him better than anyone else does."

"I think we can consider Sheppard an expert on the subject," O'Neill stated.

"It does sound that way," Sulu acknowledged.

They discussed the Dominion for a few more minutes, then Sulu asked, "Have the Borg put in an appearance recently?"

No one spoke for several moments, and O'Neill and Merlin both looked distinctly uncomfortable. "What has happened?" Sulu wanted to know.

"The Borg have not been near the alpha quadrant for some time, Mr. President," Merlin stated quietly, "however, they have attacked in the delta quadrant."

"They attacked Jord?"

"Yes, and they would have killed a lot of good people if it hadn't been for Guinan," O'Neill said.

"Guinan? What did she do?" Sulu asked.

"She stepped in and used her powers to get rid of a Borg cube," Jackson explained.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Sulu stated, "but isn't that against the law of the Q?"

"Yes," Merlin said, very quietly.

Sulu saw the look of sadness on his friend's features, and dropped the subject, but said, "I need to know, are the Borg likely to attack again in Jord space?"

"I doubt it very much," The Commander stated.

"Because of what Guinan did?" Sulu asked, delicately.

"No. The First had a very serious conference with the Empress of the Borg, and she has seen things our way."

"And what way is that?" the president wanted to know.

"She won't attack."

Sulu saw that he wouldn't get much more, so he let it rest. If the Q said the Borg would not attack, then he believed them. "What about Baltar?"

"Baltar got his butt kicked in his last attack," O'Neill told him.

"But he'll be back?"

"I wouldn't bother," O'Neill said, "if it was me, but ol' Julius isn't known for his sense."

"How long do you think he'll be?"

"It will take him awhile," The Commander explained. "He has to rebuild his basestars."

"Ok. Sulu said. "Recommendations?"

O'Neill told him of a plan he and Merlin had discussed.

When Jack was finished, Sulu looked inquisitively at The Commander. "Do you think they'll go for it?"

The Commander eyed his Iconian counterpart for several moments, before turning to his former helmsman. "We can ask."

Keras spoke for the first time. "It is a bold plan, O'Neill, and bold plans frequently fail. However, this subterfuge should succeed in sidetracking the Dominion."

"I think I can talk Adama into it," Jack said. "Yeah, I should be able to."

The next day…

"I don't like it one bit," Lee Adama objected for the third time. He and his father had transported to Earth late the night before, and now sat in the situation room with the same people that were there the day before.

Lee knew that O'Neill was the master strategist of the colonials, but this plan left those on Jord dependent on the Federation for their protection.

The Commander sensed what was wrong. "Commander," he said, "I understand your reluctance, but you need to understand that we're not going to leave the people of Jord unprotected. My great-grandson, Merlin, will send several ships to the Jordian system."

"Should Baltar attack again, he'll find himself up against the power of several Asgard ships," Merlin explained. "Their commander will be Thor, or as you know him, Sledge. We're not leaving your protection up to people with no stake in seeing you survive. Sledge is one of your own."

Bill turned to his son. "If we're not there, I can't think of a better commander in charge."

Slowly, Lee nodded, but then asked, "Why can't the Q simply do away with the Dominion?"

"It is very much against our law," Teal'c explained.

"Forgive me," Keras interjected, "but why would the law of the Q forbid them from protecting people in the manner in which they are able?"

"Because," Merlin explained, "the Q have powers that are able to unravel the fabric of time and space. It would be an easy thing for a Q to completely change the course of history."

"So your powers give you immortality, and powers which you are forbidden from using?"

"No, Keras," The Commander said, smiling. "We are not forbidden from using them. When we are dealing with Q only, or are in the continuum, we are able to do what we wish."

"For several interesting reasons," O'Neill put in, "our powers are limited only slightly when we are in Iconia Prime."

Daniel saw the uncomprehending look on Adama's face. "Suffice it to say, while the sphere is not the continuum, there is a connection."

"That just confuses me more," Lee said, "but I'll take your word for it."

"When we are dealing with other races, we have found that it is simplest to limit the use of our powers to only what we could do if we were not Q," Teal'c offered.

"But I've seen you do things that are way beyond what we can do," Bill objected.

"Such as?" The Commander asked.

"Flashing people across the galaxy for one," Lee supplied.

"Guinan's trick with becoming multiple copies of herself," Bill added.

"We can use our gateways and stargates to cross the galaxy," Merlin pointed out, "and as for Guinan, well, she's a very talented bartender. Granted, she could not become multiple copies of herself without her powers, but she could have served all of you easily enough. The only thing she really did there was speed things up a bit."

"No Q wants to be seen as something like the Goa'uld or Ori," Daniel pointed out.

"Does impersonating a deity carry a penalty?" Keras inquired.

"Perhaps it is because we lean on our own past, but we have never needed such a law. As Doctor Jackson says, none of us wishes to pretend to be a god," Merlin explained. "Such an act is completely abhorrent to us."

"Our mythology says that Janus did, in fact, pretend to be deity," Lee said, "or is that only a myth?"

"No," Daniel answered, "it's true, but he is the only one who has, and he was born Q. Maybe we should qualify the statement to say that no one who was born mortal would ever pretend to be a god."

"So you do have need of such a law," Bill observed.

"The point is," Jackson tried to get back on the original question, "that our laws prohibit us from using our powers to fight a war with non Q."

"Unless we could accomplish the same goal conventionally," Teal'c supplied.

"Right," Daniel agreed.

"So you want Galactica and Pegasus to head to the gamma quadrant because you don't think the dominion will recognize our power signatures?" Bill clarified.

"Exactly," The Commander agreed.

"But they will recognize them," Lee argued. "We use tylium, which is a form of liquid naquadah, from what your Doctor McKay has told me."

"It's not quite as refined, but essentially, it is liquid naquadah," Bra'tac agreed.

"And naquadah is similar to dilithium, correct?"

"Trilithium is almost identical to naquadah," Merlin answered.

"My point is," Lee said, impatiently, "they're all very closely related. If they detect our signature, which they will when we jump, won't they suspect that we're associated with the Federation?"

"They might," Daniel said, "but by then, you'll be a huge distance from where you were. They have no way to track you when you jump. Our power signatures allow us to be tracked, even in warp."

"You won't be alone, either, Lee," O'Neill said. "I promised your dad that I'd be there if you needed me. This counts."

"You're coming on one of the battlestars?" Bill asked.

"No. I'm bringing a city ship, Colorado Springs."

"Forgive me," Lee started to object, but his father stopped him.

"It's a city ship, Lee. Remember the myths about Atlantis?" He turned to Merlin. "Are they true?"

"Atlantis is not a battleship," Merlin said, "but Colorado Springs was designed, by Bra'tac and Thor, to protect Earth's stargate. It most definitely is a battleship."

"Growing up in the colonies, I heard lots of myths about Atlantis. Now that I've lived in the city, and even seen it fight, I can truly say that the myths are accurate," Jackson told them.

"So what is Colorado Springs capable of?" Lee asked.

"Atlantis times ten," O'Neill said ominously.

Colorado Springs…

O'Neill had attended the wedding of Lwaxana Troi and Bra'tac the night before, and he was afraid he'd never be able to face any of the attendees again. Now, he was preparing to give a tour of his city to some special people.

He entered the control room of Colorado Springs and walked into his office. The city had been vacant since the time jump, and was only now gaining a population. It could comfortably hold about fifteen thousand, but for the coming mission, there would only be one third of that.

While the city was somewhat different in appearance from Atlantis, the control room was very similar. He glanced down onto the main floor, and looked at the stargate. It was inactive right now, but once they were away from Iconia Prime, it would be turned on. It was a Pegasus style gate, rather than an Avalon one, so had no moving parts.

There was a the sound of a buzzer and a gateway opened up in front of the stargate, then two people came through.

O'Neill stepped down to greet them.

"This is Colorado Springs?" Bill Adama asked. His son, Lee stood slightly behind him and to the right, with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Yes," O'Neill answered. "We're in the gate room." He pointed up to the balcony on the right. "Up there is the control room, and back there," he indicated to the right of the control room, "is my office."

He led the way up the stairs to the control room, and showed them the navigations, propulsions, and weapons systems.

There was a skeleton crew present now, and he told his second in command, Walter Harriman, "We're gonna take out a jumper."

The group ascended to the jumper bay above the gateroom. Bill and Lee hadn't been in a jumper before, but they'd seen them on Jord. Consequently, they were surprised by the relative quietness of the little vessel when it launched through the gateway.

They emerged outside the city, at a height of about one mile. O'Neill swung the jumper around and they could see the exterior of the city. It was setting in a specially made lake designed to accommodate a city of this size. Jack brought the jumper down so they could see the docking piers. Rather than individual 'lilly pads', Colorado Springs had a completely circular outer ring, surrounding the city, which allowed for more space for armaments, and fighters to land.. There were open areas between the spokes, where they could see docks for oceangoing vessels.. One space was designed to be a recreational area, and had a ledge built under the water line that made a nice, gentle slope for swimming. The ring connecting the spokes at the outer edge, had massive arches underneath, where sizable ships could pass through, and if need be, they could be raised so even larger vessels could pass.

On the recreation pier, a tribute had been paid to the United States Air Force Academy. Several fighters, including an F-16 in the Thunderbird colors, were present. The Academy chapel had been reproduced as well, it's seventeen spires plainly visible from a great distance.

As they flew over the city, O'Neill pointed out the weapons installations, as well as the defensive systems.

"How stable is it in battle?" Adama wanted to know.

"Actually, you'd be surprised," O'Neill answered. "We took a page from Starfleet's, and added in a structural integrity field. Now, all of our city ships can reverse direction at almost full sublight, and you won't even hear a creak in the control room."

"What's the FTL used here?" Lee asked.

"Colorado Springs can travel in hyperspace like the rest of the Iconian fleet, or she can use a wormhole drive."

"Wormhole drive?" Bill wondered.

"Sam tells me it's similar to your jump drive."

By this time, Jack was keying in the gateway to return them to the jumper storage bay. When the jumper had settled into its slip, he turned in his chair and looked at the two Adamas. "I'll be honest with you guys. The Galactica and Pegasus are both great ships, and they can do a lot of damage to almost any ship out there. But we want to make them better, if you'll let us."

"What did you have in mind?" Bill asked.

"We'd like you to bring them here, and we'll update the equipment. We'll put in sensors that can scan an entire galaxy, weapons and shields that the Borg can't dent. I saw what happened to the Triton, and I can promise you that it won't happen again if we can upgrade the battlestars."

"Then we'd have to train our people in how to use the new equipment," the elder Adama objected. "Battle isn't the time to retrain." He stopped as he saw O'Neill's head shaking.

"There won't be any heavy retraining, Bill. I want to show you something you've got to see to believe." He turned his head up slightly and said, "Sarah, is Enterprise here still?"

"Yes, they are, General."

"Who's that?" Lee asked in surprise.

"Sarah is the AI that controls the sphere," Jack answered. "Thanks, Sarah. Take us to Enterprise."

They felt a transporter grip them, then they were standing on a large platform.

"Welcome to spacedock," a young woman said from behind the transporter console.

"Thank you, lieutenant," Jack said, noting her rank. "Is Riker around?"

"Yes, he is, Sir," she said. "I can call someone to escort you to him, if you'll please have a seat in the embarkation lounge."

O'Neill gave her a slight condescending smile and said patiently, "I helped design this spacedock. Just tell me where he is and we'll get there."

The lieutenant paled slightly, but nodded. "Enterprise is docked at section seven dock one-A."

"Thank you," Jack said as they headed out the door.

A few minutes later, they entered an area that seemed to be cut out of the wall of an enormous chamber. It appeared to be a corridor that stretched on for miles ahead. Lee turned and saw that it also seemed to go on behind unendingly as well. What was strange was that as they walked, the wall to their right was absent. Instead, they could see a giant cavern, at least five kilometers across, and who knew how many up and down, or side to side.

Lee wasn't afraid of heights, but the non-wall opening into that void was something he didn't like to contemplate. Jack saw him edging away from the opening and stepped up to it. "Notice how there's no echo as I talk? We're in a closed corridor." He reached up with his knuckles and tapped nothingness. They could hear his hand hit something that sounded slightly metallic. "This wall is transparent aluminum, six inches thick. It's probably the lightest construction in this part of the sphere, but it's used here because you can see through it." As he spoke, a workbee in a construction sled passed by, heading straight up, a few inches from the wall.

Bill stepped up to the wall, his nose almost touching it, and looked out at the ships in the cavern. "That one looks like Prometheus," he said backing away and pointing.

"I guess there really is a wall there," Lee commented as he pointed to where his father had almost stuck his nose. There was condensation there, looking for all the world like it was suspended in midair. It slowly evaporated as he watched.

"That's quite the material," Bill said slowly.

"Yes," a man said, striding up behind them. He was tall, with dark hair, and looked to be around thirty five. "Glass, or plastic, isn't as transparent as this. It's used because of the lack of reflections from things around it."

"Hello, Commodore," O'Neill greeted him. The general turned to his Colonial friends and explained, "This is William Riker."

"Admiral Adama," Riker said, shaking hands. He turned to the younger, "Commander Adama." He indicated the ship Bill had pointed out. "She looks a lot like Prometheus, but she's quite a bit larger. That's Enterprise."

"I'd like to show her to them, if that's alright with you, Will," O'Neill told the Starfleet officer.

"Sure," Riker seemed excited. "I don't get to show her off too much." He waved a hand, and they found themselves in a large cavern, smaller than the space where the ships were floating, but still quite large. In the distance, they could make out the walls, floor and ceilings, with some sort of yellow grid glowing on them, but they were floating free, in about the center of the cavern.

"This is the interior of the primary hull," Riker explained.

Bill looked around and commented, "Kinda sparse decor, don't you think?"

"She's pretty much powered down right now," Riker said. "Computer," he called. "Peacetime configuration."

Around them, the interior of a ship, very close in design to Prometheus,materialized. They found themselves standing in a corridor. "The interior of the ship is completely configurable. The primary hull acts as a carrier in battle, while the secondary acts as an independent battleship. The tertiary hull acts as a hospital."

As he spoke, Riker led them towards a door at the end of the corridor. When they arrived, it slid open, and the four entered a turbolift. "Bridge," Riker told the lift, and they started upwards.

"So how does that work?" Lee wondered. "Everything is just materialized when you need it?"

"Not exactly," O'Neill said. "On this ship, as well as Prometheus, the bridge is on deck one. The bridge, engineering, and the primary holo buffers don't change. When we configure the ship, we materialize most of what is needed. Decks, walls, clothing, fundamental furniture. However, non-essentials such as decorations are holographic in nature. When we reconfigure, we dematerialize the real objects that aren't currently needed, and store them in computer memory. Then, we transmit the files back to Iconia Prime, so if you have your great-grandfather's Stradivarius in your quarters, it won't be lost, even in battle."

"So aside from furniture and clothes, most of what's in a person's quarters isn't real?" Bill ventured.

"Makes it real easy to tidy up," O'Neill quipped.

Riker laughed and said, "Actually, most personal effects are quite real. Crew members want personal things with them."

"What's your point in showing us this?" Bill Adama asked.

Before Riker could say anything, the lift stopped and the doors parted. "This," the Commodore said as they stepped out onto the bridge.

All around them, they could smell salt air, and high overhead, a seagull squawked. At the sound of the door behind them shutting, Lee whirled, just in time to see it fade from view.

They were standing on the poop deck of an old wooden sailing vessel. They could hear waves lapping against the sides of the ship.

"What is this?" Bill asked as he stared at the sea and vessels around them. A raft with a stack of boxes floated by within their view, with a man poling it toward a distant ship.

"This is the bridge of the Enterprise," Riker informed him.

"It doesn't make sense," Lee exclaimed. "You can't seriously expect me to believe that this is how you control your ship."

"No," Riker told him, "we don't, but we could."

"How would you navigate in space?" the younger Adama persisted.

"Unfurl the sails and the engines start. The wheel steers the ship. The different ports of call are the star systems we can travel to. Very simplified, and the computer would do most of the tricky stuff, but it would work. Of course, I wouldn't recommend going into battle with this representation as the bridge."

"Could you, even?"

Riker thought for a moment. "I suppose the computer could translate the battle into pirate ships, and your weapons as cannons. I wouldn't recommend it, though. There are better ways." He smiled as he said, "Computer! Arch!"

The structure appeared behind him, and he pushed a few buttons and the sloop disappeared to be replaced by a sleek, very modern and sophisticated room. The color scheme was a tasteful brown, and there were very advanced work stations around them. The arch disappeared and the Adamas looked around the room. The bridge was divided into two levels, with ramps connecting them. The front wall was dominated by a floor to ceiling viewscreen which showed the interior of the spacedock. A workbee pulling a transport sled could be seen entering the cargo bay of an aurora nearby.

"This is the bridge of Enterprise-D," Riker told them. "Even though this is not the standard bridge for the E, we can use it to control every shipboard function."

"And it would be like flying the D?" Bill asked.

"If you didn't know any better," Riker affirmed, "You'd think you were flying the D."

"And the same technology could be used to make the Galactica feel like the same battlestar she's always been, even though the technology was upgraded?"

"Honestly," O'Neill said, "You'd feel some differences, but they'd be positive. For example, she'd be more responsive in a fight."

Bill considered for a bit, then said, "Before you do anything to my ship, I want to know about it."

"Fair enough," O'Neill said.