Chapter 17
Stranded
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**Dead Space (Location Unknown)**
*USS Odyssey (Bridge) [a few days later]*
"Colonel!" Major Marks shouted over the sound of a welder cutting their way through the hull of the Odyssey in an effort to reach the damaged systems behind the armored interior. The welder stopped working and Davidson appeared behind him in an instant as the entire Bridge crew went silent. "We're being hailed."
"By who?" Davidson asked.
"Colonel Viride," Marks replied as their sensors stopped focusing on the Ori and Marks swiveled the array around to focus on a solitary Baseship a few light-years away from their current position. "They came looking for us."
"Open a channel," Davidson ordered. In his heart, he was conflicted. They were risking their lives to save the Odyssey, but a Baseship was no more a match for the Odyssey than the Odyssey was a match for the Ori. That put the Italian Colonel in a very dangerous position.
"I can't," Marks said, his tone more than a little confused as the system refused to respond to his commands.
Hitting the radio in his ear, Davidson ordered, "Carter, give me back my comms, now!"
"What?" Sam asked, her own tone also confused. "I didn't do anything to them!"
"That was me, sorry," another technician informed them over the channel. "Give me another minute and I'll have the system back online."
"Why are they offline? I told you not to touch that!" Sam said as she, judging by her tone, glared at the other person on the channel.
"I was reinforcing the security measures in the system in an effort to…" the man began.
"It isn't a matter of the Ori hacking the channel, it's a matter of them tracing the subspace disruption back to our location. Reinforcing the firewalls accomplishes nothing!" Sam scolded the man. A second later Marks' terminal beeped and Sam added, "I hope this is worth it."
"Establishing connection," Marks reported before a bit of static emitted from the speakers followed by the Colonel's voice.
"… If you read us, please respond."
"It's broadcasting in a loop," Marks helpfully reported as the message repeated itself.
"This is Colonel Oliver Viride, authentication code Zeta One Epsilon Four, to Colonel Ian Davidson. If you read us, please respond."
"Can they hear us?" Davidson asked.
"Only if I open a channel," Marks replied with a shake of his head, "But I'm not even sure how they're reaching us. Subspace transmitters are beyond the Colonials."
"But not the Cylons," Sam countered as she walked onto the Bridge. "The Resurrection Ship proved that much. Logic dictates that the Baseships have a transmitter to reach the nearest ship. They probably just modified it."
"Sir?" Marks asked his superior.
Davidson took a deep breath then gave the order. "Do it."
*Captured Baseship (Combat Information Center)*
"Looks like another bust," Kimi said as the Baseship drifted through space.
"Prep the FTL coils," Oliver ordered.
"Coordinates locked and ready," Gabi said from her place at the navigational station. She looked a lot better after Doctor Cottle had given her a sedative to help alleviate the headache she'd had since installing a computer chip in the back of her skull. Apparently the Colonials' version of Aspirin had one hell of a leg-up on the best Earth had to offer. It didn't even have the side effects that made pain-meds so annoying to take.
"Wait!" Cassidy shouted with a triumphant look. "We're getting a response to our message!"
"Patch it through," Oliver ordered, a palpable air of excitement filling the CIC.
"Colonel, I ordered you to run!" Davidson said, his tone more than a little displeased.
"And we did," Oliver countered. "Then I gave my own orders and you don't outrank me. Not when we're not on your ship."
**Dead Space (USS Odyssey's Projected Course)**
*Quaero (Bridge)*
Dead space. That was all that Hermiod could see. After he was no longer needed on the Earth ship Daedalus, he had been reassigned back to the Asgard fleet. Now there were two of him. One of his bodies was in Ida running an op to investigate a strange signal. The other one was looking for the Odyssey. They were using a new ship the Asgard had designed just for this type of work. It had advanced sensors, even for them, a faster than average hyperdrive, and extremely long ranged communications, all at the cost of combat capability.
"We are intercepting an undirected subspace communication from a location not far off of the Odyssey's projected course. The translation software and encryption programing have confirmed that the message is from a Human vessel," the communications officer reported to Hermiod who sat in the command chair.
"Can we interpret the signal?" Hermiod asked.
His answer was a voice he knew well enough to identify. "Colonel, while I appreciate you not leaving us behind, the Ori aren't far from our location. This transmission is currently giving away or position and we're in no position to run, let alone fight. Our sublight engines are offline, shields are heavily depleted, the hull is damaged, the space frame is barely holding together, and a number of other systems are damaged beyond our ability to repair them. Get the hell out of here before you get yourselves killed!" Samantha Carter, the woman who had advised Supreme Commander Thor to sacrifice the O'Neill to save a colony from a Replicator attack, all but shouted at an unknown entity.
"Is the cloak still working?" another female asked, her voice unknown to Hermiod.
"That won't stop them from tracing the call!" Sam shot back.
"But you can send us your location and we can start moving raw materials to you from the fleet…" a third voice, this one male, began.
"What part of 'run' do you not understand!?" another male shouted in response to the unfinished suggestion. "The Ori will destroy your ship in one hit. Coming here is suicide! Get back to the Colonials and tell Adama to keep running until you find Earth. Explain the situation to General Landry and I'm sure they'll be given residency either on Earth or the Alpha Site. Just get the hell out of here before you get yourselves killed!"
"With all due respect, Colonel, we don't leave our people behind," the first male replied adamantly. "That's not strictly an American concept, and I'm not full-blood Italian. If there's a way to pull your ass out of the fire, we'll…"
"Sir, the Ori are entering hyperspace!" a third male informed them. From what Hermiod knew of Human vocal patterns, the man was worried.
"It's only safe to assume they've traced the signal," Sam said, her tone filling with a franticness that told Hermiod that the state of the Odyssey must truly be bad. "Cut the damn channel! We need to move!" Sam shouted at the 'assembled' men and women.
"We have lost the Odyssey's connection."
"And the other ship?" Hermiod asked. He had to admit that he was surprised that they had picked up both ends of the call. It made sense that, with the Odyssey apparently damaged, their array would be unfocused. The other ship would, therefore, either have to be horribly primitive, or also damaged.
"They are continuing to attempt to contact the Odyssey."
"Then they must be allied," Hermiod mused. He had spent enough time with the Humans of the Daedalus and had been on several trips to Earth. He knew from the SGC's records that there were more than just the Tau'ri in this galaxy that used a remarkably similar ranking system. It would be hard, if not impossible, to know if these Humans were part of the Odyssey's crew from such a brief conversation. "Can we locate the other vessel?"
"I cannot ascertain their location. They must be beyond range of our sensors."
"And what of the Odyssey?"
"The Odyssey's location has been pinpointed. However, their transmission indicated they would be moving."
"It also indicated the ship was unfit for hyperspace travel," Hermiod countered. "Prepare a course and ready the ship for capital ship engagement."
"You plan on getting close enough to be fired upon?" his tactical officer asked. To the Asgard, the emotion in their tones was plain as day. Hermiod could tell he was afraid.
"The Odyssey is damaged, and, as we have just witnessed, any attempt at contacting them over the subspace grid will reveal their location to the Ori. If they are cloaked, then we will give away their position unless we enter range of their short-ranged communications equipment. I will make the necessary modifications to our own ship to facilitate the successful connection to their less advanced system."
**Dead Space (Location Unknown)**
*Captured Baseship (Combat Information Center)*
"Did he just say 'lead us to Earth'?" Captain Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace asked. She had piloted one of the Raptors that had resupplied the Baseship before they set off, and, upon Commander Adama's request, she had been allowed to stay.
"What matters more to you, Captain? One word or the conversation as a whole?" Oliver shot back, the look on his face one of anger, despair, and helplessness. "Gabi… get us back to the fleet."
"You can't be serious!" Kirsten, one of the Odyssey's technicians, shouted in outrage. Her outburst was quickly followed by a multitude of others, and they were all justified.
"Let me make this perfectly clear," Oliver said in a level tone, his voice only as loud as it would be if he was addressing one person as opposed to shouting at room full of people. It was a tactic he used against the members of his own team often enough that they knew it when they saw it. To make you listen to him, he talked quieter than you. If you wanted to know what was going on, you would shut up and you would do so quickly. "I am not a monster. I would not abandon my family, friends, or allies if I had any other choice, but you have all served on the Odyssey for the past two years, and, in that time, you have stood beside each other through countless engagements. The crew is your family away from family, the ship is your home away from home. I understand that.
"What you fail to realize is that your CO has ordered our retreat and I am obligated to do that which is best for the crew of this ship. We may not know one another well enough to be a family, but we are, at the very least, allies united in a common cause; the Odyssey's safe return to Earth. Right now, the only hope the Odyssey has for surviving is the aid that Stargate Command can bring into play. The Jaffa would be as useless here as this single ship because a fleet of Ha'tak cannot engage an Ori Mothership with any reasonable hope for victory. That has already been proven beyond any and all reasonable arguments. The only people capable of helping us now are the Daedalus, the Apollo, and the Asgard.
"The Daedalus is away in Pegasus fighting the Wraith. The Apollo is incomplete and not yet ready to break orbit to engage a hostile force, let alone the Ori. There is only one force capable of saving the Odyssey now, and reaching Earth is the only way we have to achieve that goal. Having Stargate Command send a message to the Asgard is the only viable option we have at this point.
"Are there any objections?" Oliver asked. The silence that followed was the only answer he would get. The ship jumped into FTL and reappeared after a short moment of distortion. "Gabi, how close are we to Earth?"
"I don't know," Gabi replied honestly.
Oliver looked away from the crew of the now abandoned ship and looked to the scientist who had never failed him before. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"The Colonial coordinate system is garbage," Gabi replied. "All I know is that we're somewhere in the Local Spur Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. Beyond that, we could've passed Earth days ago and not known it. I can't translate their FTL coordinates into our own without a better computer than what I have available to me. Sam was handling that part of the jumps with the Odyssey's computers, so, at the very least, I'm sure we're on the right course, but, given that we're making jumps into micro-singularities and moving like a Gate-less wormhole, we could overshoot Earth. The risks involved in this from of FTL are why the Ancients abandoned the technology. The only race in known existence to have used worm-hole drives were the Furlings."
"Well then it's a good thing you were exposed to the Furling Repository of Knowledge instead of the Ancient Repository like we originally thought," Kimi said. She had intended it to be a compliment, really she had, but intentions and outcomes didn't have a very close relationship.
"The Furlings used a different coordinate system than the Colonials do!" Gabi countered irritably. "I understand how it works, but their navigational computers can't help me here. If I had one of our computers, something beyond the processing power of a damn tablet, I could translate the coordinates from Colonial to Furling then back to ours. We have two options," the short woman said with a huff, "either we find a super-computer in the Colonial Fleet with enough processing power to do what I need, or we need Sam."
"There's a Raptor requesting permission to dock and broadcasting a message with your name on the package," Cassidy informed them when a gap in the conversation gave her a chance to speak up.
"Granted," Oliver replied as he opened the message. He read over the text-only message and nodded to himself. "The Colonials finished their mining operation and moved on. If they're not waiting for us at the coordinates the Raptor just sent us, they'll be at the nest set provided by the next Raptor. Now," Oliver said as he turned to Starbuck, "I believe you have questions, Captain?"
**Dead Space (Location Unknown)**
*USS Odyssey (Bridge)*
The Odyssey, moving as slowly as she was with her damaged sublight drive, barely managed to leave the area they had just occupied before the Ori came barreling out of hyperspace, their weapons already firing. Weapons fire tore through the pocket of space the Odyssey had only recently vacated and harmlessly sped off into the distance before their effective range was reached and the energy orbs lost their lethality. Behind them, the Ori stopped firing as they found their target to not be where it was expected to be.
"I told you this would happen!" Sam snarled as she monitored the engines and Marks pushed them as far as he dared.
"Subspace event," Donnelly reported as he monitored the sensors that Marks had neglected in favor of making sure he didn't blow up their engines and the ship with them. "Three Ha'tak just dropped out of hyperspace. Looks like they're Alliance affiliated."
A ball of fire lit up the forward viewport as the Ori Mothership tore through the first Ha'tak and the other two took evasive maneuvers. The battle only lasted a second before the two Ha'tak retreated back into hyperspace.
"Subspace event," Donnelly said again as another hyperspace window opened and unknown ship appeared on their sensors. "Unknown contact…" Donnelly trailed off when the new arrival opened fire on the Ori Mothership. Large globs of blue plasma lanced out from the oddly designed ship, and, most shockingly, when the Ori returned fire, their shields held under the blast. "We're being hailed," Donnelly said, his voice distant and full of awe. So few races had the power to stand up to the Ori like that.
"Don't even think about it!" Sam nearly shouted when Davidson reached for the comms.
"They're not hailing us on a subspace frequency," Donnelly informed them.
"Let me see," Sam said as she left Marks to the engines and took Donnelly's station. When she looked up from the terminal, her eyes were watering. "It's the Asgard," she said in a voice full of so much emotion Davidson couldn't decipher it all. A cheer went up from the crew on the Bridge. One that quickly died when Sam shouted over them, "I'M OPENING A CHANNEL!"
"This is Colonel Ian Davidson of the Earth ship Odyssey. You are a sight for very sore eyes," Davidson said, his own voice on the verge of breaking.
"Greetings, Colonel, I am Hermiod. I was sent by order of the Asgard High Council at the request of General O'Neill," the distinctive voice of an Asgard replied.
"That's great to hear," Daniel said with an audible sigh.
"What is the status of your ship?" Hermiod asked, his voice annoyingly calm considering they were being hammered by the Ori.
"Carter," Davidson said and the scientist immediately launched into a full damage report.
Sam started talking so fast that Davidson only caught every other word, though apparently Hermiod understood her perfectly. In all honesty, the only part Davidson really understood was what he already knew. Then Marks started adding anything she left out and it was beyond the Colonel to keep the conversation straight.
"The Quaero is not a vessel of war. As a result, our shields are quickly failing. We will relay this information to Stargate Command, and then return with a larger fleet. Godspeed, Colonel," Hermiod said before cutting the channel and jumping his ship into hyperspace. In the void they left, the Ori immediately turned their attention back to finding the Odyssey.
"Now what?" Mitchell asked, the relief clear in his tone.
"We wait. We have enough power in the ZPM to last us a couple of months. All we have to do is wait for Hermiod to return," Davidson said with a sense of hope returning to his sense of being and brightening his perception of reality by a measurable degree.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**P4X-650 (Surface)**
*Alpha Site (Gate Room)*
"… One giant leap for mankind," Chino muttered under his breath as they stepped through the other end of the Stargate. The first half of the famous quote had been whispered before they entered the event horizon, and, even now, Chino still found it hard to believe that they were on an alien world.
"If you'll follow me," their guide waiting on this end of the wormhole said with a smile. She led them through the halls, into a hangar full of fighters that looked alien enough, then out onto the tarmac where they could take in the relatively untouched beauty of this world. "Welcome to the Alpha Site, gentlemen. I assure you, this is all very much real. I'll introduce you to the man who will be serving as your Commanding Officer during your stay with us later on today. As per your assignment to the Alpha Fleet, you'll be under the direct leadership of Command Chief Master Sergeant Brandon Taylor. The CCMSgt is currently inspecting the USS Ares which is preparing for the war-games scheduled for later this week. Until then, I'll show you to the barracks so you can store your gear, then give you a brief tour of the facilities here at the Alpha Site."
If the untouched nature outside of the base that was obviously built into another mountain wasn't enough to prove this was an alien world, what came next was. They stored their gear, ate in the mess hall, then were given a tour of a facility packed full of technology that no one Earth could've developed. Then they were taken to the dry dock.
"This is the USS Ares," the woman said proudly. "While the bulk of Earth's war potential is built on Earth, and indeed the ship yards in Nevada are the only ones equipped to build the 304s, General Ervin felt it necessary to expand our war capacity to counter the growing threat posed by Ba'al. This is his response to that threat. The Ares-class Invasion Carrier is unique amongst the ships of Earth's fleet. Instead of a Battlecruiser or similar analogy, the Ares is designed to engage the enemy on the ground as opposed the enemy in space. She carries in her bays tanks, troop transports, mobile artillery, aerial surveillance and attack drones, Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and All Terrain Tactical Enforcers as well as a larger compliment of fighters than the other classes that pre-dated her, and is designed to hold an interplanetary invading force."
"That's where you come in," a voice said from behind them. The assembled military personnel, upon seeing the man's rank, immediately snapped to attention and saluted their superior. "At ease," the Command Chief Master Sergeant ordered.
"Sir," Alcatraz said with a respectful nod. "Your reputation precedes you."
"As does yours, Erik," the living legend replied. "Interesting story indeed."
"Your name is Erik?" Chino asked, clearly surprised.
"And you didn't know?" the man before them shot back, clearly amused. "Secrets amongst comrades is never a good idea."
"With all due respect, sir, you should take your own advice," Jorge stated simply.
"Keeping you in the dark wasn't my choice, Jorge. In fact, it went directly against my wishes. I advised Stargate Command to inform you of the nature of your tour of duty before sending you to a base where stolen alien technology was being used to produce Human-alien hybrid technology. Didn't you ever wonder how something like the Pelican could be made by man? Or how a base in the middle of an endless storm could never be covered in snow? They tell you that they're advancements, and it's not a lie, but no amount of heat produced by a simple base would be enough to overpower the cold of Antarctica. The base, as I'm sure you'll eventually come to realize for yourselves, was protected by a shield capable of stopping the force of the world's most powerful nuclear weapons cold, but was designed to protect the base from orbital bombardment.
"We are at war," the man continued as he addressed what would be the last team added to his command before it was considered, and this was quote directly from the report, 'adequately staffed.' He had laughed at that. A ship that's designed to hold thousands of troops was 'adequately staffed' when the number of soldiers reached three-hundred? In whose books? "But, for the first time in history, we are at war with a power not of our own Earth. Aliens, ladies and gentlemen, are very much real, they are very much advanced, and they are very much a threat to our ways of life. We hold one thing over them that they will never see coming. They're terrorists, and we eat terrorists for a mid-day snack just because we enjoy the crunch."
'The Eagle,' and that was a name he felt he'd never outlive, paced before the assembled soldiers, explaining it to them the way he explained it to everyone. "The Goa'uld rule through terror and ignorance. They keep their slaves in line through fear and they control their soldiers by feeding them a bunch of lies. They call themselves Gods, a laughable concept, but we're educators, always have been." Here he stopped with a smile on his face. "We will gladly teach them just how mortal they really are. After all, even Gods will fall to the forces we will bring to bear against our enemies."
"HOORAH!" the assembled soldiers answered in unison. That brought a different kind of smile to the veteraned soldier's face. He could already tell he was going to like these new recruits.
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (Surface)**
*Stargate Command (Control Room)*
The advanced sensors grid that was both housed within and sticking partly out of the mountain had detected the Asgard ship on approach even before it had exited hyperspace. As such, General Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill was already waiting for the message they were bound to receive.
"This is General O'Neill in the SGC, welcome back to Earth, Hermiod," he said in greeting the moment the connection was established.
"Thank you, General. I am requesting permission to beam down to your Briefing Room."
"Permission granted." As soon a Hermiod appeared, Jack went up to the Briefing Room himself.
"General Landry will be joining us shortly. If you'll just have a seat," Jack said, motioning to one of the chairs.
"Thank you. You did get our message then?" Hermiod asked.
"Yes, and let me start by saying thank you. I know how big of a risk you took sticking around that long," Jack replied. "It's telling that even the Asgard have reason to fear the weapons of the Ori."
Jack was about to start pressing Hermiod for specifics when General Landry's voice cut him off. "I don't give a damn what the IOA believes is appropriate," Landry said sternly. "I will release Ambassador Shen from the brig when I see fit and not a moment sooner."
"But surely this is considered an overreaction on your part," Woolsey tried to stress.
"Ambassador," Landry said, his voice coming from directly outside the Conference Room, "she blackmailed a General in the United States Armed Forces and smuggled illegal contraband into a military facility. That's enough of a reason for me to hold her until she's ready to stand trial for her crimes. If you want her released, you're going to need a presidential order or a war. Take your pick." Without another word, Landry walked into the Conference Room and poured himself a cup of coffee. "I hear the Odyssey is damaged," he said without addressing what had just happened.
"Indeed," Hermiod replied as he produced an Asgard stone device from… somewhere. "Colonel Carter reports damage to every primary system, most of the secondary systems, and the both the hull and the space frame," Hermiod began before playing the recording of their conversation back to them.
"That sounds depressing," Jack commented.
"Indeed," Hermiod agreed. "Aside from the working life-support system, the Odyssey is in a worse condition than the Daedalus was after the Battle of the Void. To get the Odyssey hyperspace capable will be the most pressing matter as full repairs can be conducted once we reach Ida. While it will be possible to effectively protect the ship from more stresses by reinforcing the hull with a series of forcefields, this solution will only be a temporary fix. With the Ori present in the system, it will be impossible for us to repair the Odyssey on site. To do so, we would have to defeat the Ori. However, it would be simpler to move the Odyssey. To accomplish this, we will need to take a full complement of crystals to repair the damage done to the trays by the overload as well as replacement parts for several of the major systems. Once the engines and dampeners are operational, and we have reinforced the hull with the forcefields, moving the Odyssey to a secure location to conduct repairs will be far easier."
"We're really going to owe you one after this," Landry stated simply.
"You are mistaken, General. It is we who owe much to the people of Earth," Hermiod countered likely.
"Of course you do," Jack said in an overly sarcastic. "Seriously though, what's the plan?"
"We dispatched four ships to your galaxy when we agreed to help you. There was the Quaero, which was to locate the Odyssey, and two Beliskner-class Asgard vessels led by a fourth, O'Neill-class Warship in case such an incident should arise."
"That's great, but we all know that's not going to be enough to destroy an Ori Mothership," Jack began.
"It will be more than enough," Hermiod assured him. "Our newer ships are evenly matched with the Ori's own, but we do not necessarily intend on destroying it. We need only to hold it off until we can repair the Odyssey's inertial dampeners. Failing that, we need only to hold on long enough to beam over the supplies they need then retreat until the Odyssey is ready to move again. Hopefully we can accomplish the task before we lose any ships."
"If your ships are an even match, why not just destroy the Mothership and do us a favor within a favor?" Jack asked.
"I have no doubt that the Ori will send for reinforcements before we can arrive. The more ships they have, the less time ours will survive. We have not yet installed our newest technology on two of the ships that are coming. They are 'Junkers,' as the Goa'uld would say," Hermiod explained.
"What's a 'Junker'?" Landry asked.
"A Junker is a badly damaged ship that was patched together with the intention of holding on long enough to be a distraction for the more intact ships. They will be piloted by remote and can be used for kamikaze runs if necessary. Of the ships we are sending into battle, only the O'Neill-class vessel is fully intact, though it too lacks the most advanced weapons to have been produced by the Asgard in the past few months. Those ships are all currently engaged in front-line combat and unavailable for this mission. We had to pull the Clausus Cursor from the refit line to provide the necessary firepower for this rescue."
With a look that said, 'Now there's an idea,' Jack asked, "When do we start?"
"The other ships in the rescue fleet will arrive in orbit over Earth by early nightfall on the American West Coast. We will then replenish our supplies and leave once you are ready. Do to the nature of the rescue, the Quaero will take any supplies the Odyssey will need. This includes the medical supplies needed for the crew as well as the parts for the dampeners, hyperdrive, and sublight engines. In addition to those, any extra hull material you have available will be needed to expediate the repairs to the Odyssey's hull."
"We won't have that done by nightfall," Jack said in a more serious tone. "Getting the materials from Area 51 is as simple as sending them a memo and beaming it out, but the medical supplies will have to be requisitioned and the crystals will either have to be taken from the Apollo or crafted from scratch."
"That is understandable," Hermiod replied with a nod. "As long as the Odyssey is not discovered before we return to reinforce them, there is not a timeframe for this mission. However, the quicker you gather the supplies, the greater our chances of success."
"Then I'll get right on that," Landry said as he walked into his office and returned with his laptop. "Area 51 has been informed and will be standing by to lower their jamming field once your ships are in orbit. The medical supplies here in the SGC should be enough to handle anything that the Odyssey' own supplies haven't already fixed. As for the crystals and replacement parts for the Odyssey's engines… we're probably going to have to manufacture those by hand and on the fly. Knowing what, exactly, needs to be replaced would make things easier, but, given that we don't have that luxury, we're going to have to build the engines essentially from scratch."
"If you provide the components and schematics, I believe the Clausus Cursor's manufacturing facilities will be sufficient enough to produce the exact components."
"Consider it done," Landry replied before hitting his radio. "Walter, forward a full copy of the Daedalus-class' schematics to the Quaero."
"Message is away," Walter replied a brief moment later.
The stone in Hermiod's hand shimmed with a silver light and the Asgard 'hit a button' before the schematics appeared over the stone. "This will suffice," the Asgard commented.
"There's just one stipulation that we have," Jack said. Hermiod looked up to him and simply blinked. "The President wants me to go with you. He's a little uneasy about having our only ship left in this galaxy leave with things being the way they are. I convinced him to allow it so long as I'm onboard."
"Very well then, I shall return to my ship and contact the Asgard High Council to inform them of the change in plans. You may be present during this if you wish. I believe Supreme Commander Thor wishes to speak with you anyway."
"Great, when do we leave?" Jack asked rubbing his hands together. In the usual flash of light, both Jack and Hermiod disappeared leaving Hank alone in the room.
Landry wasn't even phased. He just took his computer back into his office then walked off towards the mess hall.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**Dead Space (Colonial Fleet)**
*Battlestar Galactica (Admiral Adama's Office)*
"But they're from Earth!" Starbuck stressed.
"Yes, we know," President Roslin replied. "We got the briefing from Professor Howard on their 'Stargate' and the state of the galaxy."
"It's a lot more to process than the little tidbit you're clinging to," Adama added from his place leaning against the wall with a glass of whiskey in his hand. "There are honest to the Gods aliens out there and their historical texts both outdate our religious scrolls and are founded on facts."
"What?" Starbuck asked.
"Professor Naco, in an exhausted and mildly drugged state, told Doctor Cottle half of the story. After that, Colonel Viride sent the Professor over to fill in the details. They've agreed to help us find us Earth, but not if the Cylons are still following us. We have to lose the Toasters before we get to Earth because the Odyssey is currently the only ship they have in this galaxy. Oh, and they have intergalactic FTL drives and a base established in the Pegasus Galaxy," Adama replied.
"We've been trying to come to terms with this since the briefing ended and that was before you set off in the captured Baseship," Roslin added with a shake of her head.
"That was two days ago," Starbuck said. That's how long it had taken them to get close enough to the Odyssey to communicate with them… just to be told to run away again.
"It's a lot to process," Adama said again, "and not public knowledge," he added sternly.
"We're still debating which aspects of the debrief to reveal to the public. The fact that the Tau'ri are from Earth is one thing, but the aliens and the fact that even they don't know how to get home? I don't think the people are ready to hear that," Roslin informed her.
"They said they can find the way if we get them a super-computer," Starbuck countered.
"We've already had that conversation too," Roslin replied with a sigh of defeat.
"The only super-computers left in the fleet are the main computers on Galactica and Pegasus. According to Professor Naco, our computers are barely advanced enough for her purposes," Adama added.
"Then they'll work?" Starbuck asked hopefully.
"Not unless we network Galactica and Pegasus together, and, even then, it'll take the computing power of both ships to pull off the calculations that are required, and that means we'll lose access to all of the system during the process. No DRADIS, no engines, no FTL… nothing will be left working but basic life-support. Then you add the Cylons to the mix and they'll not only be trying to hack our network, they'll also have free run of the fleet until we can undo the networks on the ships and respond to the threat."
"Frak me," Starbuck cursed.
"So say we all," Roslin solemnly agreed.