Chapter 23
Taken
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**P3X-727 (Orbit)**
*USS Odyssey (Bridge)*
"Well, you were right. We can't get a lock with the rings," Vala said as she came back to the Bridge from the Ring Room.
"Not all that surprising," Sam said absent mindedly. Wondering why the room had grown silent, she looked up from her terminal and realized they were all staring at her. "I've been going over the data we brought back with us. Whoever these people are, they're affiliated with the Ancients. We already know that they have some type of AI onboard. I think the AI might have put the ship into a state of lockdown after the Ori showed up. If the ship is in lockdown, then the rings are probably locked as well," she quickly explained.
"I wish we knew how to do that," Mitchell said throwing a playful look at Vala.
"Yeah," Daniel agreed, also sending a look Vala's way though his was a different type of look.
As Vala and Mitchell started to argue over her being a useful asset to the team, another alarm started to blare. Sam looked at the consul and swore again. "Shit! The Asgard Core just came online again!"
"How the hell did it turn back on?!" Jack bellowed. These new 'upgrades' only seemed to be getting them into more and more trouble, and the more trouble they got them into, the more Jack got annoyed with them! He was tired of metal floors and swirling blue tunnels! He wanted to go home to his cabin and fish! If only they could get home alive.
"It was some type of remote activation signal," Sam replied in a tone that was a fierce mixture of anger and pain. Working frantically she tried everything she could to shut down the Core again. Looking at the alarm sounding at the sensors consul, she swore, "Damn it! We've got three more Ori Motherships inbound. ETA, five minutes!"
"This just is not our day! We can't use the hyperdrive 'cause they'll just track us again!" Mitchell complained, punching the wall next to him in an act of frustration, an action he immediately regretted as his knuckles started bleeding and he could tell that he had definitely broken at least three knuckles.
"We need to take the ship out of phase again," Sam said with a worried look.
"Doesn't that take more power than cloaking?" Vala asked.
"Yes, but if they can detect us while we're in hyperspace I seriously doubt that the cloak will be able to hide us while the Core's active," Sam started before the alarm stopped and the Core shut down again.
"Great, now get us the hell out of here!" Jack ordered worriedly.
Activating the ship's cloak, Sam said, "Two things… One, it's too late to leave, they're already here, but we are cloaked so we should be safe. Second… I didn't do that."
"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.
"I didn't turn the Core back on, and I didn't turn it back off either," Sam explained. "Someone has remote access to the system."
"Who the hell would have the type of tech to remotely access an Asgard super-computer!?" Jack demanded.
"Probably the same people who have an AI," Sam replied worriedly.
"Who the hell owns that ship?" Jack asked, still on the verge of panic.
"I'm not sure, but I'm willing to guess we'll either find out soon, or end up dead. Obviously you all know which option I'm hoping for!" Sam replied in a full panic. When Jack opened his mouth to say something else, Sam interrupted him by shouting, "Please stop asking me questions for five minutes!" With a franticness not usually associated with, arguably, the SGC's most brilliant mind, Sam started inputting commands into the ship.
Taking a deep breathe Jack asked, "How long until they enter visual range?"
Looking at Sam's consul for her, Daniel said, "Any second now." As if on cue, the three ships came into view of the Odyssey and the ship's new sensors beeped to indicate that they detected a new radiation signature that registered as a scanning device. Now that had Jack impressed.
"Uh, Samantha. I know we're cloaked and all, but, with supernovas being extremely hot and the Odyssey being comparatively cold, couldn't they just look for a cooler bubble, which, you know, would be us, and shoot at it?" Vala asked. Mitchell, Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c all turned to look at their resident former Goa'uld with a look that accused her of being an imposter to which Vala replied, "What? I'm not a total waste of space."
That conversation was cut short, however, when Sam got up and ran over to another consul and continued her furious typing. They could all tell by her frantic haste that Vala had been correct, and that was a strange fact indeed. As she switched the cloak back over to the shields, movement outside the forward viewport caught Sam's attention.
"Holy mother of God!" Sam exclaimed, eyes wide in horror, before she lost the ability to speak all together. Turning to look out the window, the rest of SG-1 had similar reactions. Outside of the forward viewport, a truly impressive and frightening shape emerged from the mass of swirling gasses.
A truly massive ship shimmered into existence, obviously de-cloaking, and Jack found that his jaw had hit the floor. The monstrous ship was ten-kilometer along its z-axis, five-hundred meters tall at its tallest part with a few 'thinner' areas across the structure's y-axis, and anywhere from two-hundred-fifty meters wide along its x-axis to nearly seven-hundred meters at its widest part. With its smoothly curving armored plates, gracefully arcing lines, and awe-inspiring size, the ship was not only slightly larger than a Wraith Hiveship, just as Daniel had said it would be, it was nearly as beautiful as Atlantis with is architecture. Then hatches opened across the outer hull, and, from each and every hatch, emerged a giant. Fucking. Space gun!
The Ori's reaction to the behemoth in front of them was typical. They started unloading everything they had into it. That was their first mistake. With her jaw dropped to the floor along with everyone else's, Sam said, "Daniel was right. I'm detecting energy output levels beyond what a fully charged ZPM can produce."
"That doesn't do us much good if they're not friendly," Jack replied.
As if to emphasis his point, the oversized vessel's engines flared to life and the ship began to move. Even as her shield absorbed the beams of golden light that were slamming into the barrier, the monstrosity pointed its nose to the enemy and flew directly towards the Ori fleet. The Motherships broke formation and parted around the far larger ship as it charged into their ranks. That was their last mistake.
With a ship on either side of her and both of those ships no longer able to bring their main weapons to bear, the cannons lining the hull of the nightmare-made-reality fired. Half of the weapons targeted one of the two ships, her firepower split between two drastically inferior foes. Bolts of blue plasma slammed into the shields of the Ori like a great rain. Wave after wave of plasmatic fire impacted the unfortunate Ori ships until their shields finally collapsed under the barrage of raw firepower. Even the assembled fleet of ships from the Free Jaffa Nation, Lucian Alliance, and the two ships Earth sent weren't able to scratch the Ori's shields with the help of the Asgard, and here was one ship taking out two simultaneously.
The plasma rounds, unhindered, melted the hulls of their targets with an unsettling ease before something critical was finally breached and the two Motherships exploded, the lethal energy of their overloaded reactors washing harmlessly over their assailant. The sole remaining Mothership finished maneuvering back into a firing position and let loose with all that it had. Smaller weapons fire, beams, and fighters all swarmed the ship that had its back turned to the assault.
The turrets on the dorsal structure swiveled into position and returned fire, this time with dazzling blasts of golden flames. The plasma flak cannons tore into the fighters and took them down in droves, but this left the Mothership unchallenged.
Regathering her wits, Sam set a course and fired the engines before pulling up the tactical systems. With a single command, she diverted the extra power from the shields back into the weapons and opened fire. The Odyssey entered the fight with her beams announcing her opinion of the Ori and their crusade. Four beams slammed into the rear shield of the Mothership in the time it took for Mitchell too take the other seat.
Altering their course to keep them from crashing into a piece of debris, Cam reported, "Their shields are fluctuating." Another beam hit the Mothership's shield and the barrier collapsed under the directed fire. "Energy spike," Cameron said as the Ori Mothership turned away from its assault. "They're running!"
The hyperspace window tore open the fabric of reality and Sam shifted targets. With a feral look on her face, and a fire in her eyes, Sam fired the last beam at the window itself. As the Mothership entered the hyperspace window, the subspace tunnel destabilized and the ship was torn apart by the energy of reality resealing the barriers between it and the realm of subspace.
"Having experienced something very close to what that must've been like, I have to say that was cold," Vala said as the Mothership was atomized before their very eyes.
"I'm opening a channel," Daniel said a little breathlessly. When Jack gave him the 'don't you mean we're running?' look he added, "They targeted the Ori, not us. I'm opening a channel." With a nod, Jack gave him the go ahead. As the channel crackled to life, Daniel said, "This is Doctor Daniel Jackson of the Tau'ri vessel the USS Odyssey. We mean you no harm and wish to thank you for your assistance."
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (Surface)**
*Stargate Command (Control Room)*
It had been way too long. The Odyssey should've been back a long time ago. The Free Jaffa Nation didn't have any ships to spare to help in the search since their entire fleet was tied up in the defense of their territory, and the Tok'ra flat refused. The waiting was killing General Landry though he knew he had to stay strong or everyone else would give up too. The silence in the Control Room was broken by Walter. "Sir, we're receiving a sub-space transmission."
"Put it on screen," was Landry's gruff reply. One of the many screens in the Control Room changed. In place of the diagnostics window it had been showing, Colonel Davidson stood on the Bridge of a strange, yet familiar-looking ship. "Colonel Davidson, it's good to see you're alive and well. Where the hell is the Odyssey?"
The man's face visibly sagged as he replied. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know. The last time I saw her she was having trouble with her hyperdrive. General O'Neill ordered us to abandon her somewhere near the outer edge of the Obscured Galactic Spiral Arm. He kept SG-1 there to conduct repairs and sent us ahead to report the situation."
"Sent you ahead? Colonel, what ship are you on?" Landry asked in a confused tone.
With a small smile, Davidson replied, "The O'Neill-class Asgard Warship, the Clausus Cursor."
"They gave us a ship?" Landry said, completely caught off guard.
"It's more than that, General. Didn't you get our data package?"
Landry looked to Walter who worked his terminal then shook his head. "Apparently not."
"Alright, we'll send it again. Consider it a… preliminary debriefing on the situation since we dropped out of contact sixty-eight days ago. I think you'll find it to be quite the read. I'm also sending you what technical schematics we have access to. We'll be back in orbit in roughly twenty-two hours with a ship for the techs to start working on. The Asgard didn't fully upgrade the Cursor before they gave her to us. She's still more resilient than a 304, but she doesn't have the weapons the Odyssey does, and, trust me, that'll be your favorite part of the report."
As another terminal beeped to indicate that the packets had been received, Landry dismissed Davidson and went back to his office to read the new reports. The first page alone made it clear that this was going to be a life-changing read.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**P3X-727 (Orbit)**
*Paciscor of Nex (Computer Core)*
Organizing one's subconscious mind took time. When your subconscious was full of millions of years of useless information, the process mostly consisted of determining the worth of the information, organizing it, cataloging it, and deleting what's not worth keeping. Checking the ship's chronometer, Widget noted that it had taken him longer this time than it had taken the last time. That was to be expected. He used to do this as part of a routine established every galactic standard year. It had been significantly longer than that since his last Purge.
Shaking off the fog of being out of the loop for so long, Widget expanded his mind out of his confinement and let the electrical impulses of the ship's power grid feed power to his mind. The bank of servers in the heart of the Nex turned back on after having been shut down for the duration of the Purge. The heat levels in the Server Room shot through the roof as the city of towers came online. Once his mind was 'warmed up,' Widget opened the door that led out of his core programming and back into his 'body.'
The ship was, as he very well expected, in a bad state. Only half of the list left behind for the organic had been started, none of the projects had been finished, and… there were new life-signs onboard.
Appearing as a hologram in the Engine Room of the ship, Widget asked, "What did I miss?"
"The Ori came back," Sieon replied casually before asking, "How was the Purge?" as he worked at a consul.
"Where did that ship come from?" Widget countered as he finished checking over the ship and found a small, frigate-type vessel docked in one of the main hangar bays. "What did you do!?"
With an annoyed sigh, Sieon looked up from his work on the terminal before him and said, "I did what needed to be done."
"You're a horrible liar," Widget replied as he checked the ship's logs. "You hacked their systems?" he asked incredulously. "And why, dare I ask, did you do that?"
"They have an Asgard Computer Core. I wanted answers," the organic replied with a shrug.
"It was given to them!" the AI roared in accusation. "Can't you read?"
"I did read it…" the organic began.
"Then why are they locked in the Brig?!" the AI shouted. There was no answer to that, so Widget did as his programming mandated.
*Paciscor of Nex (Brig)*
The Brig was a large, dark chamber on the outer-most edge of the ship. Just to add to the overall depressing aura of the room were the uncomfortably small and foul smelling cells, and the fact that the only light in the room came from the six crackling energy fields surrounding their unfortunate victims, and if that's not enough to make your hair stand on end, the room is literally the first thing beneath the armor which means that, if the armor ever failed, you're the first to die.
The only heat entering the room came from your own body and the residual heat from the ship's inner sections seeping through the thick inner hull. The combination is just enough to stave off hyperthermia and frostbite, but leaves you very, very cold. Touching the containment fields proved to be unwise as they were all electrified. The room grew a little brighter as all six inhabitants were scanned with powerful sensors that analyzed them down to their ancestral DNA codons, not that they knew that.
"Carter?" Jack asked.
"What makes you think I know?" Sam snapped back, her exhaustion combined with their new situation only made her temper even worse. "Sorry, sir," she added a few seconds later. "It's most likely a scanner of some sort."
There was a horrendous groaning sound and the ship shook, followed closely by a gut-wrenching jerk that actually made Daniel throw up. "Sounds like the old gal's in pretty bad shape," Jack said mockingly.
"'Pretty bad shape?' Are we talking about the same ship that just destroyed two Ori Motherships without breaking a sweat?" Mitchell asked as he continued to nurse his broken fingers.
"Touché," Jack said after a slight pause.
"What the hell was that?" Vala asked, picking herself up off of the floor.
"It would appear that the inertial dampeners are not correctly calibrated," Teal'c mumbled.
"I thought we left all that behind us when we fixed the Odyssey!" Jack complained. "This is bad isn't it?"
Sam opened her mouth to respond, but what she had to say they would never know. At that moment, the rest of SG-1 could only look on in horror as their teammate disappeared in a flash of white light. "CARTER!" Jack yelled as her containment field shut off, darkening the room even further and adding to the depressing air. A split second later, they all disappeared to parts unknown.
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (En Route)**
*Clausus Cursor (Combat Information Center)*
'There's no place like home,' Colonel Ian Davidson, commander of the USS Odyssey and acting commander of the Asgard Warship the Clausus Cursor, thought to himself. After two months of a lack of sleep brought on by demanding situations, Davidson found himself wishing for one of the SGC's very uncomfortable bunks and solid concrete walls around him. Anything other than the hard metal of spaceships, the black of space, and the blue tunnel of sub-space.
However, his sense of peace was cut short when Marks announced that they were finally dropping out of hyperspace… only to find three Ori Motherships coming into sensors' range from behind the moon.
"OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! CAN WE PLEASE GET A GODDAMNED BREAK?!" Marisa, one of the crewwomen, shouted at the approaching enemy.
Davidson didn't waste time scolding her for being so unprofessional. He was immediately in battle mode. "Raise shields, arm weapons, get us between them and the planet, and get me a channel to Generals Hammond and Landry."
The crew's military training kicked into overdrive as everyone rushed to carry out his orders. The problem was, not all of them knew how to operate the Asgard's consuls, and so the eight who did found themselves in the uncomfortable position of running a ship in a situation that called for a full crew. Nevertheless, they did their best.
After running into a couple of people who were standing in the way, Marks finally got fed-up and shouted, "If you can't work an Asgard consul get off of the Bridge!"
There was a moment's pause before Davidson added, "If you're in the way you're a liability that I will not tolerate! Either get off the Bridge or get off my ship!"
"Colonel Davidson!" General Hammond said, startling the Colonel who hadn't realized the comms channel was live. "Colonel Davidson!"
"Colonel Davidson!" Ian could feel the cloud of groggy half-sleep leaving his mind. Opening his eyes he found himself sitting in his command chair in the Combat Information Center of the Clausus Cursor. Suppressing a yawn, Ian looked around and found it was Marks who was calling his name.
"What is it, Major?" Davidson asked while stretching his sore body.
"General Hammond is on the line, sir. He's requesting that you meet with both General Landry and himself in the SGC's Briefing Room in five minutes," Marks replied professionally.
"Five minutes?" Ian asked, thoroughly confused. Movement beyond Marks' head caught his attention. Looking out the forward viewport, Colonel Davidson saw a spinning landscape. The dark void of space was changing into a wondrous sight as the O'Neill-class Warship moved into position to take up geosynchronous orbit of the little-blue-ball-of-a-planet they all called home; the planet Earth in all her beauty. "When did we get back?" Davidson asked in surprise.
"We arrived in system about two-and-a-half hours ago. We were ordered by Homeworld Security to hold position in orbit over Mars until the sun set over Area 51. They'll be launching a series of shuttle craft up to orbit with supplies for the upgrade teams," Marks informed him.
"Why not just beam the supplies up?" Davidson asked.
"It would appear that, when the jamming field was lowered to allow the Asgard to beam up the supplies they needed to repair the Odyssey, an energy signature from a Naquadah Generator escaped the facility and made the news. People have always thought that Area 51 is the site of research into alien technology. After the signal was discovered, interest in the area was rejuvenated. There's too many reporters and geeks with equipment around to risk lowering the jamming field again."
"Makes since," Davidson mused. "Why didn't you wake me sooner?"
"Since they never actually asked for you, we figured we'd let you sleep. We all knew you needed it and the rest of the crew agreed it was best." At this, the rest of the CIC crew all nodded their approval and Marks went on. "We just made orbit so you haven't missed anything other than General Hammond calling."
"Thank you, Major. If you could give me ship-wide, I'd much appreciate it." After pressing a few buttons, Marks nodded to indicate he was ready. "Ladies and gentlemen, people of this crew… after weeks of struggle and the loss of some very good men and women from our family in the stars, we are finally home. As it stands, the bodies of the deceased will be returning with the Odyssey and their funerals will be planned by either the military, or their families. You will have your time to pay your respects, but right now, there are still a few things we have left to do.
"Homeworld Command needs to know what's happened to us, so expect debriefings by both them, and the IOA since they're bound to stick their collective noses where they don't belong. Now, I trust General O'Neill to bring the Odyssey back in one piece with the bodies of those we lost. That also means I want you all to get as much leave time as you can before he returns. I know it's been hard, but once the good General gets back with our ship, we'll be back on the frontlines.
"We all know that the Ori won't take a break, so we can't afford to either. Thank you all for your courage, your determination, your unfaltering resolve, and your will to go on. For these reasons, we made it home in one piece. I am truly honored to serve as this crew's commanding officer. You truly are the best of the best."
"Until you compare us to the rest," Donnelly piped in. His jib earned him a round of laughter from the crew and Davidson smiled. Their spirits weren't broken yet. That was good.
"Well said, Colonel, and good luck," Marks said before beaming the Colonel down into the waiting hands of two of the most powerful Generals in the entire galaxy.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**P3X-727 (Orbit)**
*Paciscor of Nex (Auxiliary Bio-Lab)*
When Sam rematerialized, she noted that she was strapped to a bed in what looked like a hospital. She immediately started struggling against her bonds, and looked down. Her wrists and ankles were being held in place by thick metal bands that were held down by a powerful magnetic field in the table. She screamed in frustration until the room got a little brighter. She looked up and found herself looking at a strange looking alien. It had a Human-like face with two eyes, hair, a nose, facial hair even… but it only had three fingers on its hands and its muscular structure obviously wasn't Human.
"Please stop screaming," the alien said in a tone that was sad. There was a bit of crackle to its voice though and Sam couldn't place why a voice would crackle. She looked at the alien and blinked, lying still half way between panicking and passing out. "I know you're confused, and I'm sorry that you're in this position. My name is Widget, and I promise you I won't hurt you."
"Okay," Sam replied meekly.
"Wow, you actually stopped screaming," the alien said with a soft smile. "Did you do it because you're shocked, or because I asked?"
Sam just looked at the alien for a moment. 'He's weird,' she thought to herself. "You asked," Sam finally replied.
"Oh, I like you!" Widget said happily. "Most people just scream louder when you ask them to stop. Oh, and sorry about the restraints," the alien continued as, with a click, the metal bands opened to allow her to pull her body free of them. "I know how I'd feel being transported from a prison cell to a laboratory, but the medical facilities were damaged a few days ago and I haven't gotten them repaired yet," the alien continued, a thumb cast over a shoulder presumably in the direction of the medical facilities.
"Why are we prisoners?" Sam asked as she sat up… only to feel very light headed.
"Yeah… sorry about that, my CO's a bit of a douchebag. In fact, he's the doucheiest douchebag who ever douched," the alien said then stopped as if he were thinking about something. "Is that right?" he asked the room at large. Sam looked around, realized they were alone, and became even more confused. "Sorry," the alien apologized again, "I'm still getting used to your language. I'm not even sure what a 'douchebag' is, I just know that you Humans use it as an insult in some capacity."
"Sadly enough, that puts you in the same category as most of the people who use the word," Sam mumbled darkly. "A douchebag is a textured balloon filled with water that's placed inside of the female reproductive organ and used to 'scrub it clean'," Sam explained without really understanding why she would tell the alien that.
"Ah, I see how that's insulting then," the alien said with a smile. "You've been separated from your fellow Humans, but I assure you that it's not because I'm going to stick a needle in you… unless I need to. Your physiological makeup isn't designed to handle the stresses you're currently under. If you don't sleep for more than twelve of your 'hours'," the alien explained with quotes around the word, "your body will begin to shutdown. I brought you here so that, should it be necessary, I can give you a sedative to help you sleep."
"You're brought me here to sleep?" Sam asked.
"It's either that, or you'll die from exhaustion," the alien replied with a shrug. "It's your choice, but I advise you to just lay down and rest. After you wake up and you can think clearly, then you can decide whether or not you want to continue living. Contemplating suicide is best done with a clear head which you do not have right now."
*Paciscor of Nex (Living Quarters)*
When Mitchell suddenly appeared in the room with them, a bandage wrapped around his broken knuckles, Jack asked, "Where's Sam?"
"I don't know, sir," Cam replied as he flexed his hand. "One of the aliens told me I was in a medical lab because their infirmary was destroyed by the blast that created the supernova. They patched me up, said that Sam was being treated for her 'medical ailments,' and sent me here."
"What medical ailments?" Jack asked.
"They were here when the supernova formed?!" Daniel exclaimed.
"Sam hasn't slept properly right in weeks, sir. She's exhausted and apparently even the aliens know it. All I got out of the guy was that they were taking care of her," Cam replied before turning to Daniel. "The alien said, and I quote, 'When you can harness the power of a star, surviving one becomes easy.' Apparently, while capable of surviving one supernova, the ship can't survive two. The star native to the system was destabilized by the detonation of the Ori Mothership's core so they jumped the ship into FTL before the repairs were finished to escape the second blast. That was the disorientation from earlier.
"Aside from that," Cam quickly cut off the barrage of questions, "I don't know anything."
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (Surface)**
*Stargate Command (Briefing Room) [an hour and a half later]*
"That's quite the story, Colonel," General Hammond said.
"You've been on your feet for a long time, Ian. You and the rest of the Odyssey's crew are being given at least a week of leave, if not longer, barring any serious emergency. I want you well rested, so go hit the showers and go home. We'll deal with the Colonials' pilots and this 'Admiral' of yours," Hammond ordered.
"Thank you, sir. I know the crew deserves it. They've been through a hell of a lot and come out relatively unscathed, though we did lose more people than I would've liked. Thank you again, I'll be on my way." Davidson left the Briefing Room and headed straight for the Mess Hall, he was starving and needed food before he worried about showering.
The two Generals left in the room got up and walked into Landry's office. Sitting behind his desk, the General let out a deep sigh and turned to his elder. General Hammond just shook his head in disbelief as he sat across from him, the door shut behind him. "Robots," Hammond said. "This poses a serious threat to galactic stability."
"How so?" Landry asked. "They're not as advanced as the Replicators."
"That doesn't matter," Hammond replied. "The Jaffa don't know to fight in the realm of cyberwarfare and if the Cylons hack their computers we'll have another super-powerful AI race on the loose. The last thing we need on top of the Ori is a race hell-bent on the genocide of the Human species as a whole. The Jaffa will be seen as a perversion of nature and a threat, and the Cylons will only need one of those two as an excuse to destroy them."
"Another enemy with which to do war," Landry said with a sigh. "Just what we need right now. At least we've finally got a good tech base to use."
"We may be getting stronger, but our enemies are growing in number and we still only have three ships, one of which isn't finished yet, one of which is still missing, and the third of which is needed in another galaxy," Hammond countered with a sigh. "This is bad, Hank. We're…" Hammond stopped speaking as a flashing light caught his attention. "… Being hailed," he finished.
General Landry shook his head at the timing of it all and pressed the button that secured his office. The doors were magnetically sealed, an extra jamming field came online, and the windows were covered by a holographic projection that would show an empty office if anyone looked inside. Only then did a burst of light illuminate the room and deposit a figure before them.
"Colonel," General Hammond said in greeting.
"Sir," a distorted voice replied as the figure snapped off a salute.
"At ease, Colonel. What do you need?" Landry asked.
Taking the time to remove the helmet from his head, Colonel Ry pressed a few buttons on his armor. A second later, the small projector built into the wall of Landry's office activated to show a schematic for a Ha'tak that went against all known designs. "We have discovered the location of the Goa'uld known as Ptah."
"The one who invented the Ha'tak?" Hammond asked. "Where did you find him?"
"During our mission to retrieve the designs for the planetary defense shield. It would appear that the Goa'uld had found a world with an Ancient research lab and used its knowledge to copy their designs."
"That explains a lot," Landry mused.
"Like how they lived long enough to develop a technology like that," Hammond agreed. "They just stole it from the Ancients."
"It also explains the vessels in orbit," Ry brought the conversation back to the projection before them. "These Ha'tak, with a three-to-one ratio against their favor, defeated a fleet of Ba'al Refits. According to John, Ptah harbors ill contempt for the Tau'ri. He rightfully blames us for the death of Ra, and mistakenly credits us with the defeat of Sokar. Since Apep was defeated by Anubis so long ago, those two have been his only friends and allies. It could possibly explain how Sokar had a fleet of Ha'tak with cloaking devices."
"It would also explain the flagship that Apophis fielded with them," Hammond agreed with a nod. "If Sokar used his influence as Ptah's last ally, it would make sense that he would have the most advanced ships outside of Anubis' ascended knowledge."
"What type of threat is he?" Landry asked.
"As far as we could tell, he had but one ship left when we finished our mission. While this was his flagship, it would appear that it was not yet complete. We have reason to believe it is still on the planet in question, but we do not have the forces to capture it," Ry replied.
"We already have Ba'al's newest flagship, I don't think we're going to need another, not with what we just got from the Asgard," Landry said.
"Can you destroy it?" General Hammond asked.
"Not with the forces we have," Ry repeated. "During the assault on Memphis, we suffered several casualties. Niptahkau trained his men well, and the Ta-tanen are not easily put down," Ry replied as the holographic display shifted to show a new weapon. "They use plasma caster weapons designed to mimic the standard rifles carried by our off-world teams. They have proven to have competent snipers as well. Their armor has likewise been modified to serve a purpose beyond ceremonial needs and simple intimidation. Several of the more elite soldiers are known to have personal shields and cloaking devices as well, and Ptah has kept himself well informed as to the going-ons of the galaxy.
"Our own forces are still conducting repairs to those vessels which were damaged during the orbital battle. Several the suits of personal armor were also damaged and are undergoing repair as well. There is also the matter of weapons maintenance and upgrading what can be upgraded. I have been advised against making any plans involving ships for the next month by the personnel manning the shipyards."
"So there's a Goa'uld out there who's serious enough about destroying us that's he's putting everything he has into making his individual soldiers better," Landry said with a huff. "And you thought the Cylons were bad."
"The Cylons are bad," Hammond replied sternly. "This is just another enemy added to the list."
"If I may ask, what is a Cylon?" Ry interrupted them.
General Landry shook his head at that question. "I'll forward you a copy of Colonel Davidson's report on what the Odyssey's been through in the past two months."
"Then the ship has been found?" Ry asked.
"It's a long story," Hammond replied.