Four – Earth
With the Wraith believing that Atlantis was destroyed the expedition and the Athosians who had made Lantea their home had some respite from their threat. This along with a request for a debrief from the International Oversight Authority (IOA) meant that Dr Weir had to return to Earth and report what they had found in the Pegasus Galaxy. Because they had not been in contact with Earth throughout the year she chose to take and her senior staff including Dr McKay, Major Sheppard, and Atlantis Chief Medical Officer Dr Carson Beckett back to Earth to allow them to make their own reports and with the intention on bringing back a larger number of personnel.
Using the ZPM brought to Pegasus they had used the Stargate to return to Earth, they had arrived in the gate room of Stargate Command (SGC) just like the day the left. Dr Elizabeth Weir was tired and irritated, the last three days' worth of debriefings had not been fun. Since arriving at the SGC she had been grilled by the Civilian Authorities of the IOA for hours and now the American and Russian Militaries were having their pound of flesh, like the IOA they asked questions about Atlantis, its defensive capabilities and technology, the aliens they had encountered in Pegasus, their weapons, and capabilities and any of the technologies that they could bring back to Earth.
As a seasoned diplomat Weir was willing to listen to them but there were lines that she would not cross, and the military were pushing for something she would not accept. The question over the leadership of the military personnel on Atlantis had come up, twice a Colonel from the United States Military had been placed in command of the military personnel and both times they had fallen with Major Sheppard re-taking the reins and commanding the personnel based there. In her mind there was no-one else that could take the position. "Atlantis has a military commander, if Major Sheppard's rank is the issue here, you'll just have to promote him" she said crossing her arms smiling at General Hank Landry. "Allow me to remind you that I retain the support of the President and our International allies; you don't want to argue with me on this one."
"We'll take that under advisement" Landry said reluctantly Major John Sheppard's record with the United States Air Force before Atlantis was a colourful one. "Finally, Dr Weir there is one final decision that has been made on Atlantis that concerns this board. It is in regards to the so-called Master Chief and his Artificial AI Cortana which you describe as being…" Landry looked down at his notes "easily distracted and possibly unstable."
"Is there a question there General?" She said watching him, she had classed them under her position as Civilian leader of Atlantis, despite the Chief's obvious capabilities as a warrior.
"The question should be very simple Dr Weir, why were they left on Atlantis while you and your senior staff came here? From what I understand Dr Grodin was one of your best computer experts and now that he is unfortunately… not with us, Dr McKay returned to Earth with you, you have no-one to try and contain this AI who by your own reports has already infiltrated all of Atlantis systems."
"Peter Grodin sacrificed himself in an attempt to save every life on Atlantis." She said angry at his wording "show a little respect General." She said looking Landry straight in the face, she liked the man and respected him but Peter's death was very recent and he should be remembered with honour. "As for the people on Atlantis I have many capable people who have remained on Atlantis both civilian and military." She said defending her people "Cortana she is familiar with systems that work much like those of Atlantis." She explained "where they come from there are people known as the Forerunners who use very similar computer architecture, when she integrated with it, she also infiltrated our computers due to the links that exist which are necessary for Atlantis operations."
"It is an AI, not a "she" Doctor, it is a computer program." One of the officers a General from the US Military said.
"Actually "she" appears to be fully sentient." Weir said emphasising that she considered Cortana to be an individual. "Cortana embraces her existence she thinks and acts like an individual, from what the Master Chief said at least, she thinks constantly." Weir countered "where they come from AIs are common and sentient, if short lived beings." She explained
"Short lived?" Colonel Steven Caldwell, the commander of the Daedalus asked. He was sat directly opposite her and she knew that the Generals in the room wanted him as the new military commander of Atlantis but that was not happening, at least for now she liked him and looked forward to working with him as commander of Daedalus. When she had first boarded the vessel, it was the first time she had met Steven Caldwell, he was in his early fifties and was a career Air Force officer having been recruited into the Stargate program during the development of the BC-304 Project.
"Cortana is classed as a Smart AI, she is capable of thinking out of the box like a human is, she problem solves and is capable of adapting." Weir explained "but she is also limited, she has a limited lifespan probably close to seven years according to Cortana and the Chief before the AI think their way into madness." She explained she saw the military officers exchange looks "it is a concern to both us and the Master Chief but it is something that we are going to work on with them both."
"Which brings us to our other issue… the Master Chief." Landry said "by all accounts he, assuming of course he is a he, since you haven't seen actually seen a face" Landry pointed out "from your own and Major Sheppard's reports he is a killing machine who could most likely wipe out your entire expedition yet you have left him to have free rein over your facility?"
"General, you're right the Master Chief took on an entire Wraith Hive Ship virtually single handed" she replied Sheppard and Ford had held their landing site but the Chief had caused all the damage "an entire Hive Ship General, let that sink in." She said pausing for a moment looking around the table "for lack of a better term he is a Super-soldier and possibly one that is a superior killing machine to those that Anubis deployed against the SGC." She explained, she saw the worry that they had displayed turned to nearly abject fear "we have witnessed him take multiple stunner blasts and still fight" she continued to explain "he has successfully resisted Wraith attempts to feed on him all things that none of us can." Weir said "is this a concern, yes of course it is." She admitted "but General this man has gone to great lengths to support us in the short time he has been at Atlantis, we owe him a little bit of trust, they are even further from home than my expedition team." She said "and while you discuss your concerns over the Master Chief they continue to try and support Atlantis and the SGC."
"Doctor, you appear to have something extra to share" Landry said before anyone else spoke "please enlighten us" he said raising his hands with his palms open.
"Actually, Steven if you wouldn't mind, please?" The Colonel did not look impressed that he was bring brought into her sphere instead of the military one but did as she asked and activated a screen at the opposite end of the table from Landry. On the screen it showed the schematic of the Master Chief's ship the rear section of the Forward Unto Dawn, clearly half of the ship was missing.
"This is the wreck of the Forward Unto Dawn, the ship which Cortana and the Master Chief were found onboard." Caldwell explained "before the Daedalus returned to Earth the Master Chief requested that we take him there with the aim of transporting some equipment to Atlantis…" he said pausing looking at Dr Weir "in exchange he agreed to allow us to take other equipment back to Earth." He said finishing
"The ship looks like a wreck, useless to our efforts unless you think we can rebuild her?" General Chekov of the Russian Federation said "my government will struggle to justify the expenditure in rebuilding a ship in another galaxy."
"No, we won't be rebuilding it" Caldwell said glancing at Weir who nodded "the ship's structure is unfortunately compromised far beyond any attempts to rebuild it. From what my engineers have said even those that built it could not salvage it."
"What's important is what is in the ship" Weir said Caldwell manipulated the screen from his own pad and the next slide appeared. "This is one of the vehicles which was onboard the Forward Unto Dawn" she said "it is known to the Master Chief's people as the M12 Force Application Vehicle or Warthog" she explained as the screen showed a 4 wheeled all-terrain vehicle, with two seats in the front and a turreted heavy machine gun at the back.
"Onboard the Dawn we found three variants of this vehicle most were equipped in this configuration with a liquid cooled hydrogen engine. It is more efficient than most fossil fuel engines on Earth." Caldwell explained "if this engine hit the open market around the world, well it would put a lot of companies out of business…" None of them were business men but all understood the kind of push back that would be received from a development like that.
"But likely also create a new industry" Weir said trying to put a decent spin on the discover the whole point of the Stargate program was to bring things back that could improve the peoples of Earth's lives.
"A discussion for another day" Caldwell suggested Weir nodded "this vehicle can easily travel nearly five hundred miles on a single tank of fuel." He explained hammering home how efficient the engine was to the others in the room, it was truly impressive. "At the back there is a M46 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun. It fires ammunition from a belt storage which is stored in the bed of the rear of the vehicle. It is a dangerous weapon." He explained "the real-world application of this vehicle is probably limited, but the engine if it could be reverse engineered could make huge differences. Also the vehicle is small enough to go through a Stargate making it a possible scout vehicle or to provide fast fire support to a pinned down SG team. We took several back to Earth and six have been delivered to Atlantis."
"While we are here speaking the Master Chief is putting Colonel Everett's marines, the miliary personnel and select civilian personnel of Atlantis through the use of this vehicle." Weir explained making sure the Chief's contributions were being noted. "Major Sheppard believes that going forwards with a greater military contingent we can use the Warthogs as a mobile security force and to explore the city." The group of personnel looked like the admired the vehicle as a light reconnaissance vehicle, it would clearly be an asset to the Stargate program.
"The second variant is even deadlier" Caldwell said sounding impressed, Weir was not surprised that military equipment was impressing them, changing the screen the vehicle remained the same but the gun on the back was replaced with a far bigger longer cannon with several capacitors. "This is an M68 Gauss Cannon" he explained looking around the room "it's a railgun much like the weapons we are rolling out on the 304s, what is going on the new generation of F-302s and what we sent to Atlantis."
"How effective is it?" One of the Army officers asked, Earth's militaries had not begun exploiting the technology gained through the Stargate on Earth itself other than in the use of protecting the planet.
"That cannon could put a round through an Abrams Tank's armour" he said putting it in terms that they would understand "the round would go straight through the tank and come out the other side." Caldwell, Earth's current generation of railguns were less effective than this although effective in space on Earth in normal gravity they lost power significantly. Everyone looked impressed by the weapon. "Unfortunately, there was only one of this variant, and the Master Chief was quite explicit about it remaining on Atlantis, we'll be able to study it there." Caldwell explained "it is also another reason to look at the Forward Unto Dawn if any of her computer cores are intact and we can access them then we may be able to access this design and others." He said changing the screen again the Warthog remain but this lacked a forward section and added a cargo section.
"The final variant is a cargo and personnel transport it is capable of transporting five persons or equipment." Caldwell explained "there were only two of that variant. One has remained in Atlantis another returned to Earth. It may be useful in transporting a medical team to situations through the gates." He said there was not much to be said about the vehicle instead of having a weapon it had an extended cargo bay changing the screen. "There were also these two person ATVs, they are called Mongoose. Fast and manoeuvrable they could be used as mobile transports for SG teams that have a long distance to cover or used to get supplies to a team rapidly." He explained looking around "it uses the same engine type as the Warthog, we have left ten on Atlantis and we brought back more than a dozen of them, many are still within their storage containers never used by the original crew. The Master Chief mentioned an armed variant but none were still onboard the Dawn." He said "finally we detected three heavier armoured vehicles known as Scorpions, they appear to be Main Battle Tanks, unfortunately they are pinned into the hull of the Dawn and we will not be able to make them operational until we start taking the Dawn apart."
"Impressive, hardly going to cause waves unless we can somehow sell an engine that will put most companies out of business but impressive." Landry said looking over the vehicles then between Caldwell and Weir. "For Stargate operations I'm sure we can find a use for them, thank the Master Chief…"
"General, we're not done yet" Weir interrupted standing up from her chair and moving around beside the screen "Steven would you mind please?" She asked they had discussed what they would do before this meeting despite their several issues Caldwell agreed fully with her on this, but both wondered if the people of Earth would go for it. The screen changed to another this showing the wreck of the Dawn on one side and Atlantis on the other.
"On a greater examination of the Dawn's state Cortana has suggested a use for the wreck…" she explained seeing their interest "on the upper hull of the Dawn you can see these four multi-barrel turrets. These are railgun styled weapons like those seen on the Warthog variant, they are more effective than our current generation of cannons. The suggestion is we remove them and install three on Atlantis each with an ammunition reserve as Phase One of this plan." She said "they would give us a viable defence should there be a lack of Ancient Drone weapons like at present or if there were power issues." Atlantis since they had arrived in the Pegasus had constant power issues, more missions than she would like to admit to authorising were solely for searching for additional power sources.
"Phase One?" Landry asked curiously
"Yes, sir, you see Cortana has analysed the structure of Atlantis and determined how much additional force the city can take." Weir explained "also both she and the Master Chief believe in providing for us so one of the weapons would be removed and returned to Earth for analysis." She could the approving looks from the other people.
"I assume there's a Phase Two that follows One?" Landry asked, he felt like he was being railroaded by these two and as much as he did not like it, he did like that the commander of Atlantis and the commander of the ship which would be supporting Atlantis were getting on at least on some level.
"When Daedalus arrived at the Dawn, our sensors discovered she has nuclear weapons onboard." Caldwell reported
"Nuclear weapons!" Chekov asked startled "these people are several hundred years ahead of us and these weapons are still part of their arsenal." He said marvelling. "Why were they not used when the Wraith arrived?"
"Firstly, we believe the Chief and Cortana did not trust us, secondly the Dawn herself is far out of position to engage the Wraith and cannot move by herself." Weir answered she had originally suggested leaving them onboard the ship but Caldwell had refused to agree, if their plan to use the Dawn was to be realised all the cards had to be on the table.
"The Dawn is carrying three Hyperion M4093 Nuclear missiles." Caldwell explained having been briefed on the weapons by Cortana. "It's a multi-stage strike missile with a 1.9 ton warhead it is designed to deliver a nuclear fusion reaction against its target. It is a starship killer designed to strike ships far harder than the Gou'ld or Wraith ships we have encountered."
"Our ships already have nuclear weapons and…" Chekov said glancing at Weir "I would not think that you would want nuclear weapons on Atlantis?"
"No" Weir admitted, the weapons were impressive but she did not need that kind of power. The turrets were of a defensive nature, adding them to the weapons Atlantis already has, but these missiles could be used for a first strike.
"So, the plan would be to disarm the Dawn, and either use them against Wraith targets at the first opportunity or return them to Earth." Landry suggested "Colonel?"
"I do not think these missiles will be compatible with our launching systems but they may be deployable from a mission bay. We will have to have discussions with the AI." He said "the disarming of the Dawn leads us to the next step." Caldwell said "and in my opinion perhaps the most ambitious and dangerous part of this endeavour."
"Steven, this plan could make Atlantis energy independent" Weir said annoyed he had brought up the concern.
"But it's a plan that could cripple Atlantis if done wrongly." Caldwell said glancing at Landry who looked annoyed at being cut out of the back and forth between the two. "The Dawn has at least one functional Fusion Reactor which could be removed from the ship and installed within Atlantis."
"Right now, we spend many missions searching for ZPMs. The Dawn and Cortana's expertise we can remove the fusion engine from the ship and install it in this unused building near the ZPM core on Atlantis. She said pointing to an area on Atlantis. Converting this building into a reactor and fuel storage would allow us to tap directly into the ZPM power grid and provide Atlantis with constant and sustainable power." Weir said passionately, she believed in making Atlantis a place that was able to stand by itself and to continue to bring the city back to life.
"From what I have seen, we could provide fuel for the reactor, assuming they didn't have to run the shields constantly. Unfortunately, it could permanently cause issues with Atlantis using ZPMs, this reactor design, like the vehicle engine design is extremely efficient, but if we cannot put it back together it will cause issues with Atlantis power grid." Caldwell pointed out "whatever this ship used as a primary weapon needed a lot of power."
"Something more powerful than the nuclear weapons" Chekov asked he had a background in Russia's nuclear armaments so it was not too surprising that he took more interest in those than anything else.
"We believe it was likely a massive version of the railguns found elsewhere on the ship" Caldwell manipulating the computer screen again to show the Dawn but before she was split in half. The front of the ship was dominated by two split sections one above another "we believe this section, which has been lost, was essentially two sets of massive magnetic coils."
"How powerful could that be?" One of the officers wondered, Elizabeth moved from her position beside the screen back to her chair, she did not need to stand while the military men discussed how big the gun was.
"Probably strong enough to knock down a 303 out of the sky in one shot," he said naming the class of ship that had proceeded that of the Daedalus, there was only one of those ships the Prometheus. "That same shot would probably blow a hole in Daedalus' shields down if it did not have a ZPM. It would split the ship in half it struck the unprotected hull." Caldwell said glancing down at the desk in front of him the BC-304 was an impressive feat of engineering made possible by the appropriation of alien technology but the technology of the UNSC was five hundred years ahead of them and the power of their weapons was not to be underestimated. "From what Cortana and the Chief have said the Forward Unto Dawn was a small ship on the UNSC navy. But would have to design an entirely new type of ship to incorporate such a weapon."
"It is an interesting idea but what would we get from this endeavour? It sounds like we would need to spend significant resources to get this project off the ground. As Colonel Caldwell states this is a dangerous plan, you could permanently make it so Atlantis cannot use ZPMs, if something went wrong with the reactor then you could be defenceless." Landry warned looking at Dr Weir.
"Cortana assures us that the reactor if installed correctly will last twenty years at least before needs serious maintenance, she also said that while we would be tapping into the power network we should be able to build it without causing damage to the ZPM power network, only a significant attack and damage to the power lines would cause that issue. Twenty years, General, twenty years that Atlantis would be self-sustaining that we would have time to find and store ZPMs. During that time Atlantis could support hundreds of people, perhaps thousands, and become a true colony in Pegasus." Weir suggested "our smaller naquadah reactors will operate the turrets until the reactor is online and then Atlantis could sustain itself entirely." Weir suggested "as for what you'd get…" She said looking knowingly at Steven Caldwell.
"The Master Chief and Cortana have given up their claim to the wreck" he said looking around the table "personal equipment we salvage from the ship they may want and we will need them to help us operate the equipment but in essence we will have salvage rights." He explained "Now looking over the wreck of the Forward Unto Dawn there is enough armour to sufficiently coat an BC-304 entirely in that type of armour, or use it towards another design. The sub-light engines are also all intact and appear efficient. If we were able to reverse engineer the turret from the ship, combined with the armour and the engines we could possibly looking at the elements to build an entirely new design of Warship, one with superior capabilities compared to our current line of 304s." Caldwell admitted having seen the remains of the Dawn if they were able to take it apart like Cortana and Weir had devised then it could be a major win for Earth, and their future development.
"While the Warthog and Mongoose engines could put companies out of business here on Earth, the armour, railgun tech and fusion of the Dawn could create an entirely new industry." Weir said tempting them, the whole point of the Stargate program was to bring back technology that could defend and improve life on Earth.
"They could also create a new arms race" Chekov pointed out
"Not if we remain united with the agreements, we have made with the Stargate Program" Weir said "many nations have bought into what we are trying to do with the Stargate Program. Atlantis… the entire Expedition would not exist without our continued cooperation."
Alright, what will you need to do this, I assume it will be outside of Atlantis normal remit?" Landry asked looking at Weir almost deciding on the spot that the project was worth looking into, they would have to speak to the IOA before proceeding but Landry felt like he and Weir could force through such a discussion.
"We believe an entire project engineering team, some capable of working in microgravity while others would be capable of engineering projects on Atlantis itself." Weir said, finding the engineers was going to be the hardest part.
"The SG authorised engineering teams are currently building off-world bases here in the Milky Way. And we have no-one who is qualified to work on the wreck in open space for an extended time, it has never been done." Landry said thinking out loud for a moment "although there is possibly a way. I will need to speak with General O'Neil but perhaps this would be an opportunity to bring NASA and Roscosmos fully into the fold." He suggested looking at Chekov who thought for a moment and then nodded. The two space agencies were generally familiar with the military having black ops operations in space, they had even used a space shuttle to rescue SG-1 once from near Earth orbit but the pool of people in those organisations that knew about the SG program was still small, those that were aware been brought into the program after their initial experiences. It was a balancing act with the Space Agencies they were the public face of space travel for the people of Earth but they had been left far in the wake of the Stargate program. "You won't get everyone this trip Dr Weir but pending IOA approval we'll see what we can do then Daedalus will ship the rest of the team out on subsequent resupply missions."
"Your support is greatly appreciated General, anything you can do." Dr Weir said with a small smile knowing winning over Stargate Command was the most important part. She had the support of the American President and the IOA were her immediate superiors so she had confidence the project would go ahead even if a lot of their plans had military applications there were several things that they had brought back that could help move things along on Earth too.