Chapter 2

Dead Space

***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***

**Dead Space (Location Unknown)**

*USS Odyssey (Engineering) [three days later]*

"How are those dampeners coming along?" Davidson asked as he stepped onto the Engineering Deck.

There was one thing that separated the Engineering Deck from the Engine Room aside from their locations, and, seeing as how they were literally across the hall from each other, that argument wasn't even all that valid. No, what separated them was their function. The Engine Room housed the ship's sub-light and hyperdrive engine controls and crystal trays. The Engineering Deck housed the ship's primary power plant, the main computer core, and the crystal trays for everything but the engines. It was also far more heavily shielded and had the added function of serving as a backup command center in the event that the Bridge was ever destroyed.

"Not good," Sam's muffled voice replied from deep within the complex maze of machinery and wiring. She crawled her way free of entanglement and stood to face the Colonel before continuing her report. "The damage was worse than we originally thought," Sam said as she tried to wipe grease off of her face but only succeeded in smearing it further. "We pulled out all the crystals and checked all of the wiring and I'm pretty sure we can't fix the problem without more parts."

"What's wrong?"

"Which answer do you want?" Sam asked with a grimace.

"The one that actually answers the question."

"The inertial dampeners work in two stages," Sam began as she pointed to one area of the room. "These crystals run what we refer to as the internal inertial dampeners. They serve the function of protecting the crew from the rapid rate of acceleration involved in everything from hyperspace travel to simple sub-light propulsion. The Odyssey is capable of moving at speeds great enough to kill even the strongest of organic species, as are most other spacecraft, and we use the dampeners to lessen that energy to manageable levels, but it's not a perfect system. Aside from organic species, the Odyssey is also capable of accelerating to speeds that would tear the ship itself apart, and I don't mean hyperspace travel either.

"Imagine the Odyssey is a paper airplane. If that airplane travels at sixty miles per-hour, it'll fall apart under the rate of its acceleration before reaching sixty miles per-hour because paper was never meant to move that fast. Now accelerate that same paper airplane to beyond the speed of light. It would be vaporized by the energy. Failing that, accelerate to the speeds we move at to avoid the Ori and pull one of Marks' famous dodging maneuvers, and, without that field, the ship would break apart. The Odyssey's sub-light drive, when being enhanced by the ZPM, is capable of accelerating the ship to roughly two-hundred-thousand kilometers per-second. Granted we never move that fast, but, even without the ZPM, the generators on the ship can still get us up to roughly… seventy-seven-thousand kilometers per-second.

"Then you have the hyperdrive and our generators can get us up to somewhere around six-thousand light years per-hour. Add the ZPM to that and we're moving at over thirty-one-thousand light years per hour. If we were to just accelerate to that speed, the hull would be torn apart without proper protection. To counter this, we use the hyperdrive to open a 'window' into a sub-dimension of space… Basically, we slip into a massless corridor of subspace where Einstein's Theory of Relativity doesn't apply…"

"You're losing me, Sam," Davidson interrupted.

"Right, sorry," Sam apologized as she thought of a way to say what needed saying. "Uh… back to the paper plane. We can use the sub-light drive to reach the speed at which we tear the ship apart, and that's while we're moving in a straight line. Add in the fact that we can actually turn and pull off maneuvers while at these speeds and the Odyssey would fall apart if we tried to outmaneuver the Ori. To compensate, we use the internal inertial dampening field to protect the crew, and the external inertial dampening field to reduce the stresses on the hull. Picture it as a second shield with the sole purpose of blocking kinetic energy from overstressing the hull. Make sense?"

"A shield to protect the hull separate from the shield to protect the crew separate from the shield to protect the ship as a whole," Davidson summarized with a satisfied nod.

"Good, now replace 'shield' with 'field' and imagine it's like a magnet. The ship is charged with a positive magnetic field to oppose the positive magnetic field that is inertial energy. Like polls repel each other so the ship resists the inertial energy."

"Why 'field' instead of 'shield?' I liked the shield analogy better."

"Because 'shield' is inaccurate. It's more like a field in that it…"

"Colonel," Davidson interrupted with a raised hand.

"Okay then, sticking to the shield analogy, the barrier needs to recharge. We can't put out a constant field… we can't maintain a stable shield anymore for reasons I can't explain, so we're trying to install a capacitor. If we can build up energy to sustain the shield for a short time then recharge the capacitor the same way we work the actual shields, then we might be able to move again. We'll be moving like the Wraith in that we'll jump a short distance and drop out for a short time to allow the capacitor to recharge then jump again. The difference is that, with the Wraith, it's a matter of the hull getting 'sick' and, with us, it's a matter of…"

"What's our status in terms of movement?" Davidson interrupted again.

"For now, we're restricted to minimal sub-light speeds and absolutely no hyperspace travel. The internal inertial dampeners are just fine, so we're protected from acceleration, but the external field isn't working so the ship is flying naked to the force of its own acceleration. I think the shield buffer overloading like it did caused a secondary overload, but I can't be sure… yet. Sorry, I wish I had better news," Sam said with a solemn look on her grease-smeared face.

"At least we're still mobile in some small way," Davison said comfortingly.

*USS Odyssey (Medical Lab)*

"I don't know what you are, son, but it's not Human," the doctor said as he checked the nonexistent burn mark on Tommy's stomach.

"What's the matter, Sookie? Don't you want my blood?" Tommy asked in his best, dark and mysterious tone. The doctor blinked at him before simply refocusing on the 'wound.' "You don't watch True Blood?"

"I've been to Pegasus," the doctor replied. "I know what a real 'vampire' does to its victims."

"Oh, yeah. The Wraith," Tommy agreed in a disgusted tone. "Of all the perversions of nature."

"You're one to talk," the doctor pointed out.

"Life's a bitch, and so was Nirrti. Enough said," Tommy grumbled as he pulled his shirt down to stop the doctor from examining unafflicted flesh.

"Yeah, but what she did to you…"

"Was still done against my will, no matter how 'beneficial' you think it might be to humanity. Don't pretend to understand things you know nothing about. I went through hell when she did this to me. Now, as you so adequately put it, I don't know what I am, but it's not Human."

"I didn't mean to offend you," the doctor said.

"Funny how that works," Tommy countered as he hopped down and grabbed the papers Oliver had sent him in here with. "The more you say 'no offense intended' the more offensive your next comment is going to be."

By the time Tommy finally stopped stomping around, he was, to his surprise, in the 302 bay. Much to his utter satisfaction, the bay was empty, the fighters were unmanned, and no one tending to them. The daily systems checks must be done already, so he found a nice, dark corner and sat down. From the pocket of his borrowed BDUs, because wearing six centimeters of ablative armor on a ship full of your own people was sure to be frowned upon, Tommy pulled a picture.

She had soft blonde hair, honey toned skin, ice-blue eyes, long legs… just the thought was enough to make him homesick. The picture? That was his own form of personal torture. He left her behind, so her face hurting him was only fair. That was the thing about being the first person in his family to go military. He wasn't like Jesse, a third generation soldier. He knew how it felt to have your loved ones, be they your father, mother, uncle, or other, constantly not be there. Tommy didn't. He couldn't. No one else in his family was willing to pull themselves out of the dirt they lived in. They wanted someone else to do the work for them. So he was the first.

She had been the reason.

And he left her.

"You know," Kimi said as she walked over and sat next to him, "if I didn't know you better I'd say you were sulking."

"I'm not in the mood, Kimi. Go play with someone else's head," Tommy replied as he tucked the picture back into his pocket.

"But I so enjoy playing with yours," Kimi taunted as she playfully punched him in the arm. "Look, Oliver's got us doing guard duty on the prisoner. I heard what the doctor said about you."

"Of course you did. Fricking assassins hear everything," Tommy muttered darkly.

"People have said stuff like that about me for years, Tommy. Calling me an assassin doesn't hurt me anymore. I know what I was, and I'm working to be better than that. You, on the other hand, are one of the few people I know who are still pure of heart. Just because someone's perverted your body doesn't mean that your soul's been altered. Only you can change yourself, Tommy. I learned that the hard way, and what I went through to get to where I am today nearly killed me. I had to…" Kimi trialed off, a hitch in her throat.

"If one of us is less Human than the other, it's me. I've killed for reasons I can't even justify to myself anymore, and I did it because people told me it was why I was born. They told me that Athena had plans for me, and I fell for it, but you, Tommy, your soul is still clean. You've never done the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Hell, you've never even done the right things for the wrong reasons. I envy you, Tommy. I really do. Don't let a delusion alien who thought herself a God playing with your genes ruin your life. You don't stop being Human until you decide you're not Human anymore. Just remember that," Kimi said before standing to leave.

She took three steps before Tommy asked, "Is it too late for me?"

"To make amends with her?" Kimi asked to which Tommy nodded. "Is she engaged to another man?" A head shake. "Then you're still in this fight, Tommy. Just don't give up until Hades shows his ugly face."

**Dead Space (Colonial Fleet)**

*Battlestar Galactica (Combat Information Center)*

After a quick and rather eventful stop at the Ragnar Anchorage, the Battlestar Galactica was fully stocked on ammo, munitions, and missiles and was now out in dead space leading the surviving Colonial Fleet to the safety of Earth. Every thirty-three minutes, the Cylons would make an attempt to eradicate the last remnants of Humanity and Galactica would hold them off until the civilian fleet could make their next jump to safety.

"Sir, we've reached the mark. The Cylons should be here any moment now," Dualla reported in a tired tone.

"Order the fleet to start jumping," Adama replied in the same, worn-out fashion.

"Aye, sir, civvies have begun jumping away," Dualla, often called Dee, said after relaying his orders.

"Good," was Adama's monotone response.

"DRADIS contact. It's the Cylons. In bound missiles… radiological alarm," Lieutenant Gaeta reported. The calm in his voice at such a lethal statement was a recent acquisition after so many situations identical to this one playing out. That, or the man was just that tired. They were all tired.

So very tired.

**Dead Space (Locations Unknown)**

*USS Odyssey (Bridge)*

"I don't know, ma'am, it just appeared out of nowhere," Marks was saying to the woman leaning over his shoulder as he frantically worked at his terminal.

A few moments ago an unknown ship had appeared in a flash of light and a burst of energy without any other explanation. There was no hyperspace event to prelude its arrival which baffled the navigator to no end, and, to make matters worse, the sensors couldn't decipher the energy spike released upon the ship's arrival due to the damage done to the system by the Ori.

"Do you know if they've detected us yet?" Gabi asked.

Professor Gabriella Naco, most commonly referred to as Gabi, was a young woman involved in the SGC's Research and Development division for seven years before simply dropping off the face of the Earth about three years back leaving most to believe that she had been abducted by the Goa'uld, killed, or quit the program. None of which were true, as it turned out. Marks knew her by reputation and Sam's recounting of her time as Gabi's mentor. He also knew that she was the one working on fixing their sensors sense she had, personally and almost single-handedly, created the smaller version of their ship-board sensors to be used on the F-302s. Needless to say, she was the most qualified person for the job, but Marks still wasn't sure what she was doing on the ship to begin with. Until five days ago, he was amongst those who thought she was dead.

It almost seemed… convenient that they had picked her up on their way to P3X-727. Then again, the men and women she had been with on that planet when the eight people in question were beamed up had given Marks the chills. He'd never seen an SG team be deployed while so heavily armed. The fact that they then needed to be picked up by a ship because the Gate was destroyed was also a very unnerving fact, one that had rumors spreading across the ship like a wildfire as to just who these people really were. Sam vouching for Gabi was the only reason the other engineers were willing to work with her, and she seemed nice enough, but the other people in her team…

They ate at their own table in the Mess surrounded on all sides by at least one empty table between them and the nearest other occupant in the room. The aura they put off was repulsive in such a strange way. If you were in danger, you'd want them near you. Their attitude spoke of absolute certainty of protection. If you wanted to sleep soundly without nightmares, you wanted to be on the other side of the galaxy from them. The way that the short-haired woman, in particular, looked at everyone, the way her eyes hungered for blood, was very disturbing.

"No, ma'am, it looks like they haven't," Marks replied.

"Cloak the ship." The order came from Colonel Davidson as he walked back onto the Bridge of his ship.

"Already done," Gabi said dismissively before realizing who was behind her. "Sorry, sir," she immediately corrected with a respectful nod. "It was the only logical move to make. We cloaked the Odyssey the moment the other ship arrived."

Davidson gave a single nod and sat in his chair. "Run a full scan and move us away from the other vessel." As the order was carried out, three more ships appeared followed closely by two more. Roughly three minutes passed before a sizable number of ships were sitting outside the Odyssey's view ports. After about five minutes of smaller ships appearing, another moment passed and a huge ship, about five times the size of the Odyssey herself, appeared alongside the rest.

*USS Odyssey (Bridge) [thirty minutes later]*

"What are they doing?" Vala asked in a bored tone.

"Just sitting there," Daniel replied with a shrug.

"Yes, Daniel, I can see that," Vala said with a roll of her eyes. "Why are they just sitting there?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Daniel asked before thinking better of it and shaking his head to keep her from answering. "We've intercepted a couple of communications and started deciphering their language. Other than that, they've launched fighter patrols then… nothing."

"Should we try to communicate with them?" Mitchell asked.

"I'm not sure that would be wise just yet. We're still scanning their ships, and trying to figure out who they are. I've never seen anything like those ships, not even in my ascended memories," Daniel replied.

"But they do speak English?" Mitchell asked.

"English? No. A known language from Earth? … Kind of. They're speaking a strange mix between Greek and Latin, which would make sense if they were actually from Earth," Daniel replied.

"How so?" Mitchell asked.

"When the Greeks conquered the early Latin-speaking countries, they actually adopted a lot of the cultural aspects of everyday life from the countries they conquered. Where the English explorers forced the Native Americans to learn their languages and believe in their religions, the Greeks actually did the opposite. By the time the Roman Empire fell, their population spoke a similar mix of the languages, believed in a mixture of their religions, and practiced a mixture of their cultural practices. I just can't figure out how aliens are speaking a similar dialect," a man explained from his spot in the doorframe.

"Professor Marcus Howard," Daniel said in way of introduction. "He's been helping me figure out the specifics of their language structure."

"The Odyssey has its own you?" Vala asked.

"I'm not part of the Odyssey's crew. Colonel Davidson was simply nice enough to pick up my team when we were stranded on a Lucian Alliance lab world after the Ori blew up the Stargate," Marcus replied calmly despite the severity of such a statement. It's not every day that you survived an Ori attack on a planet.

Mitchell whistled at that before saying, "Damn, what made them do that?"

"The Lucian Alliance were attempting to develop better shields for their Ha'tak. We were sent to steal the plans and sabotage their facilities, but the Ori showed up and things got… understandably chaotic," the tall man with dirty blond hair said with a shrug. "I've finished going over the recordings we have. There's not much to say that hasn't already been said."

"Thank you," Daniel said as he accepted the tablet computer that Marcus handed him.

"Do you need help with anything else?" Marcus asked helpfully.

Daniel, already busy reading the file on the small device, looked up. "Nope," he said in a kind tone. "You're very thorough," he added after glancing down at the report again.

"The modified translation software has also been uploaded to the Odyssey's mainframe," Marcus added.

"Really? Thanks," Daniel said with a smile. "You know, I could've used your help deciphering the Furling language back when we still had access to it."

Though no one noticed it, Marcus flinched at that. It was subtle, but it would've been noticed if anyone had been watching. "We had access to the Furling language?" Cam asked.

"What's a Furling?" Vala piped in.

"It was a few years ago," Daniel replied in a distracted tone. It was a matter of skill and practice that he could read the report and spin a tale at the same time. "The first time the Stargate was activated they dialed it manually and did it by accident, but they recorded it on camera. We copied the address and went to save the first man to ever use the Gate who ended up stranded there because the DHD on the receiving world was broken, he didn't know how to use it, and the people who sent him there couldn't duplicate the feat. He had been stranded on the planet they sent him to for decades and he had access to a device that was used by four alien races to communicate using the universal language of the universe, the elements on the Periodic Table of Elements.

"It was one of, if not the first meeting place for the Alterans, the Asgard, the Nox, and the Furlings, otherwise known as the Alliance of Four Great Races. It was that world that first told us that the Alliance existed and it was a while later that we first met the Nox, then the Asgard. The Furlings are the only of the Great Races that we've never met or had any interaction with. Most people think they're all gone, but no one can say where they went. We know they didn't ascend with the Ancients if only because they've never made theirselves known."

"Great news," Sam said walking onto the Bridge and interrupting their conversation, Davidson right behind her, "the inertial dampeners are back online. We're not sure how long it'll last, but the capacitor system is online and…"

She was cut off as another two ships appeared out of nowhere and started firing at the ones that were just sitting there. In the battle that resulted there were no shields, no energy weapons, and no fancy maneuvers. Only missiles and flak defenses to destroy them before they could impact the hull of the massive warship. The few missiles that targeted the lesser ships seemed to be the main concern, however, as the large ship did its absolute best to take out those while taking the occasional missile to her own hull, the thick armor shrugging off the lethal force with an ease that spoke wonders of its engineering.

The sudden change in the scene made the crew of the Odyssey spring into action out of reflex. In less than a second, the shields were up, the railguns were loaded and armed, the cloak was diverted to the shields, evasive maneuvers were implemented to take them away from the action, and a hyperspace course was being calculated.

*Battlestar Galactica (Combat Information Center)*

"DRADIS contacts, two Cylon Baseships. Wait… make that three DRADIS contacts. Two Cylon Baseships bearing down on the fleet and an unknown craft that's barely registering on our scans has been detected off to the side of the fleet," Dualla reported.

"Get the civilians out of here! Set weapons to intercept all of the missiles from any of the ships. As soon as the fleet is gone, jump us out of here, and, Dee, don't wait for my order," Adama ordered, somewhat unnerved by the arrival of this stealth ship that, undoubtedly, the lesser DRADIS systems on the civilians ships had failed to detect.

*USS Odyssey (Bridge)*

"What do we know?" Davidson asked as he sat in his chair.

"Scans indicate that the ships that were here first have humanoid life-signs while the newly arrived ships don't," Sam said reading Marks's screen over his shoulder.

"Target the unmanned ships. If we're going to blow something up, it might as well be something without people on board," Mitchell said. When everyone looked at him accusingly, he added, "What? I said if we have to blow something up."

"I don't feel like blowing up anything when I don't know the full situation. Carter, are we clear to jump?" Davidson asked, his tone of voice making sure everyone knew the conversation was over.

"Yes, sir, but I'm not entirely sure how far we'll get before the capacitors give out," Sam replied.

"Marks, take us into hyperspace," Davidson ordered. As Major Marks powered up the intergalactic FTL drive and dampeners, sparks flew from the rigged together system in engineering and the ship lurched forward into the forming hyperspace window only to drop out a few seconds later as the fail-safes kicked in, stopping the crew from being flattened as the inertial dampeners failed yet again. "What just happened?" Davidson asked in an annoyed tone.

"The capacitors are fully discharged," Sam replied. "Hmm… I expected them to last longer than that. I'll have to keep working on the system." With that, Sam walked off, a tablet in her hands as she walked the ship and worked on equations at the same time.

As she walked out of sight, the sensors picked up ships appearing all around them. After the Odyssey was cloaked and moved away from the point of the other ships' appearance, Davidson asked, "How long until the dampeners are online?"

"Roughly half an hour," Marks said after bringing up the diagnostic systems.

"Alright, if the last encounter with these people is anything to go by, the larger ship should appear soon…" Daniel began.

"That's assuming that it wasn't destroyed," Cam interrupted. Again several looks were thrown his way. "What? They were outnumbered."

Ignoring the comment, Daniel said, "When that ship arrives, we should open communications and hope for the best," with a look at Davidson to confirm the plan was okay with him.

"Why?" a new voice asked from the entrance to the Bridge, his tone asking, without saying, 'Are you stupid or mentally retarded?'

*Battlestar Galactica (Combat Information Center)*

"Sir, we detected a large energy spike right before that unknown ship vanished. We have two more ships to jump out then we can go," Dee reported.

"Tell those ships to hurry." Adama was worried that the unknown ship had found a way to follow the civilian fleet, though he would never admit it. As far as they knew, no one could track an FTL jump.

"All ships are clear, jumping us out now." There was a moment of distortion as space folded around the ship and the Galactica reappeared with her civilian fleet, the shepherd returning to tend to its flock. When the distortion cleared, Dualla said, "All ships present and accounted for. Minimal damage to Galactica."

"Launch the CAP, and start the clock," Adama ordered. A series of 'Aye sir's confirmed that the crew had heard him.

Walking with him to his office, Colonel Saul Tigh, Adama's Executive Officer, said, "Don't forget you have a meeting with the President in fifteen minutes. Colonial One will be docking in ten."

With a deep sigh, Adama said, "Great, more politics. I want active DRADIS scans of the area every five minutes. We couldn't detect that last ship until it was right beside us, and I don't want any more surprises."

*USS Odyssey (Bridge)*

"When that ship arrives, we should open communications and hope for the best," Daniel said with a look at Davidson to confirm the plan was okay with him.

"Why?" a new voice asked from the entrance to the Bridge, his tone asking, without saying, 'Are you stupid or mentally retarded?' "Because we happen to be in the same place two times in a row? That's hardly a valid reason to get between two warring factions. Earth has enough enemies to deal with before you go off and add another one. The last thing we need is another Ori situation."

"Why do we get blamed for that?" Vala asked indignantly.

"Because it was our fault," Daniel replied dismissively. "Who are you?"

The man, still standing in the doorframe to the Bridge, crossed his arms over his chest. "Colonnello Oliver Viride, Italian Special Forces. You're not answering my question."

"Doesn't really have to," Mitchell pointed out, his own stance one of aggression.

"The Systems Lords, Ba'al, the Lucian Alliance, the Ori, the Wraith, the Genii… the list goes one and can be made longer by listing the specific enemies involved in each group. Earth can name several very powerful races as their enemies, do you really want to add another one? Can we really afford to have another war on our hands right now? Are not the Ori enough of a threat to worry about? Do you really want to get us involved with these people when we don't have to be? This is why SG-1 has such a bad reputation. You don't think before you act! Earth can't take on another enemy right now!"

"He has a point," Davidson agreed before adding, "Whoever he is."

"Sir, with all due respect…" Daniel began, and so the argument took flight.