Author's note: I just thought of a great idea while rewatching Stargate season 8, Mobius 1 & 2, the one in which SG1 travels back in time to steal a ZPM from Ra.
After they retrieve the ZPM and bury it in the tomb in order to be excavated 5000 years later, they also leave a message that says to take the ZPM and travel back 4000 years in the past, dig the tomb, and add the brought ZPM to the other one already in the tomb. Then they change the message to say to travel 3900 years this time around before burying everything again. Now in the future, they get two ZPMs and a message to take them both 3900 years in the past where they repeat the process. So the number of ZPM goes from 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128 and then they actually don't have enough space in the puddle jumper to take them all, but who care, right? At this point, they have enough of them to power Atlantis, for every ship in their fleet to have one installed, to power a planetary shield, merlin's transdimensional device, and much more.
However, here comes the question. Since all 128 ZPMs from various timelines are actually the very same one, does that mean that they all suck energy from the same pocket universe in subspace, or from different pocket universes?
Of course, the same principle can be used to make Jack O'Neill a very rich man ;D
Well, I hope you'll enjoy reading this chapter.
As always, thanks to my beta.
Standing in front of the Stargate, Aenea could not but to think of all the repercussions this magnificent device had caused throughout the ages. While the Alterrans were still very much alive and kicking in the Milky Way galaxy, more than five million years ago, the galaxy was almost devoid of sentient life. It was a perfect time for a technology such as a network of interconnected Stargates to exist since it allowed the Alterrans to connect countless worlds without anyone else mishandling the glorious device simply because there wasn't anyone else there besides them or their allies, whom they trusted implicitly. It was the easiest and the cheapest way to cross thousands upon thousands of light years from one planet to another, even to those far, far away on the other side of the galaxy. That was the time of the Alterran Golden Age, in which the race spread to countless worlds.
Then, things suddenly changed. The Ori spread a plague throughout the galaxy her non-ascended brethren had eventually succumbed to. Only a small portion of the once vast Alterran civilization was able to escape the plague by ascending or, if not, by leaving to another galaxy with Atlantis or with some other ship capable of intergalactic travel. She was among the lucky ones, those able to ascend even before the plague had started.
She and her husband both did.
The Alterrans were not a race that would give up so easily, though. Once they all knew the end was near, they put a plan in motion that seeded Earth with what would one day become the second iteration of Alterrans in the Milky Way galaxy. Her people created a device on another planet, Dakara. Then, through the gate, the activated device created a specific energy waveform that changed a specific primitive life form to be more akin to the Alterrans. In short, the device helped certain lifeforms to evolve more quickly from their current state, but also slowly and in a way that prevented the Ori virus from infecting and later killing them.
For the next several million years, everything went as they'd planned with the selected lifeform on Earth slowly evolving while one of their greatest discoveries, the Stargate, slumbered on all of the worlds it had been placed throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Little did they know that it would come a time when the Stargate would be responsible for the spreading of an evil race, the Goa'uld.
Aenea really didn't know how to feel about that. Her husband, Liam, was of the opinion that their people had done many wrongs and that one of them was to leave the Stargate network intact, the same as having left other pieces of their technology lying around the galaxy for the taking. Liam was of the opinion that they should have done a much better job at cleaning up the galaxy prior to their departure. It was one of the reasons that prompted his return to the mortal plane of existence so that he could rectify the mistakes made by his people. On the other hand, she thought that they could not have predicted such an untoward outcome, and hence the Alterrans were blameless. She could almost hear her husband replying, 'Excuses, excuses'.
Almost as if he were here.
"What's wrong?" she heard Jack's voice coming from behind her. "You're staring at that thing for ten minutes now."
She turned with a thin smile. "Oh, it is nothing. Just reminiscing about old times."
"When you say old times, you mean…"
"Yes, I mean very old times when the Alterrans were still in the Milky Way galaxy and when we were still using this rounded device to travel between worlds," Aenea responded while pointing at the stargate behind her.
"You give the term reminiscing about the good old times a completely new dimension, you know that, don't you?" Jack replied. It was a rhetorical question, so he continued immediately. "By the way, since I don't see the usual number of scientists scurrying around in all directions and doing things I mostly don't get, am I correct in assuming that everything is ready?"
Aenea looked at Jack, giving a small but meaningful sigh.
"Uh-oh. Is it that bad?" Jack asked.
"Well, as I often hear your people saying, it could be worse," Aenea replied, giving a hopeful smile. "It could definitely be worse than how it is."
She wasn't fooling anyone, much less Jack. "Okay, give me the whole story."
She turned to face the table where her pad with the relevant data was. By willing it, the data-pad effortlessly rose from the table and flew into her hand.
"You got to teach me that!" Jack said all excited. "Do you know how often I lay down on my couch to watch TV only to realize that I forgot to take the remote with me?"
Aenea chuckled, promptly replying with just a hint of sarcasm. "Well, I suppose that your reason for wanting to learn telekinesis is as good as any other I heard over the eons. However, Jack, as far as I know my husband left you the latest repository of knowledge that, among other things, contains the necessary training lessons you need to follow in order to gain such abilities. Or, if not, you even have the possibility of the knowledge that an Alterran expert had recorded to be directly downloaded into your brain. Although there are no guarantees that a download would give you the ability you so desperately seek, I believe that that is the fastest way to achieve your goal, which if I understand it correctly is to become even lazier than you're right now."
"It is not about being lazier. I train each day by running ten miles and by doing other calisthenics. The problem is that forgetting my remote every time I lay down on my soft couch in order to finally relax after a hard they of work filled with paperwork is starting to seriously get on my nerves. As far as training my mind goes, I already did the exercises as explained by that box Liam gave me, but I'm still unable to get my remote in my hand by just willing it. I have improved my telepathy quite a bit - even though I have no real interest in reading other people's thoughts, but apparently, it is a good thing to improve such an ability because it helps when you interface with Alterran technology - and for some reason I was able to heal Bra'tac with ease," Jack explained with a hint of frustration. Apparently, the ability that he wanted to use the most was among those that didn't come easily to him.
"Telepathy is among the strongest abilities in our kind, and therefore the one that comes the easiest to us. Conversely, your ability to heal is among the most difficult and advanced abilities our kind has ever developed. The way of creating the necessary form of energy that heals another on a cellular level through simple touch, not to mention the ability to first determine what kind of injury or malady one has, is quite spectacular and quite rare in our kind. I also believe that you're wrongly speculating that you did not have any training in that regard," Aenea stated.
"What do you mean?" Jack asked, uncertain. "I haven't touched any of the exercises related to healing the box has suggested,"
"You are forgetting the two prior times you had two distinct repositories download our entire knowledge into your mind. I can't be certain, but, in addition to you apparently being naturally talented at healing, the download must have made enough changes in your neural pathways so that now it comes almost reflexive for you to use that portion of your mind," Aenea explained.
"Well, it's not like I get how any of it works anyhow. So, I'll have to take your word for it and simply continue to peruse through that box Liam gave me until I succeed in my goal, which is to fetch my remote at will, no matter where it is in my house," Jack said. "Anyway, let's get back to the main topic, shall we?"
"Yes, we definitely shall," Aenea replied promptly, quickly thinking about what they were discussing prior to the conversation taking a strange turn. Thankfully, she inherited her race's ability to recall past events with crystal clarity as if doing a quick rewind. They were talking about the trouble they were having with the stargate. "Well, as you know, the first time we dialed the nine-chevron address, we were able to connect to Destiny and to send a probe to test if the ship was still intact and if there was breathable air present on the other side, which there was. However, the Naquadria in the planet's core quickly became unstable and we had to break the connection."
"That's the part I already knew. What I want to know now is how you solved the problem so that we can dial again, and this time for longer than one minute!"
"Yes, well… we didn't," Aenea replied, not too pleased with the answer she had to give.
"Didn't what exactly?" Jack asked, clueless.
"We didn't solve the problem because the problem cannot be solved. This planet is unstable, and more the gate is used, the more unstable it will get. I'm sorry but a few years ago some tectonic plates shifted and now every time energy from the core is used, the planet quickly becomes unstable. The process is also irreversible."
"So, what? We are scrapping the mission?" Jack asked, clearly not liking the direction this conversation has taken.
"Not if five minutes is enough to send people and resources through," Aenea replied. That was all the time they were able to squeeze by adding some strong energy capacitors.
"Wait! Are you telling me that what we can get is a five-minutes-long connection? Then what? We have to redial again?" Jack asked. Apparently, this whole thing wasn't going as it should, and his face was conveying his dissatisfaction.
"No, Jack," Aenea replied, shaking her head to let him know that the situation was worse than that. "We have five minutes and that is it. After that, you need to find another, more stable planet if you want to connect with the ship again."
"Well, then it's settled. We are scrapping the mission," Jack said, with finality.
"We shouldn't do that either. Ilium wouldn't have come to me and told me that we need to board the Destiny if it wasn't important."
"Ah, but you see, this is the part that I don't get. Why didn't he explain why it is so important to send people on that damn ship?" Jack replied. He was getting angry at this whole situation.
"I don't know. It is strange for ascended beings to interfere with the mortal plane on any level. What he told me is that he strongly advises us to send a joint team comprised of Edenians and Terrans to the Destiny. I'm sorry, but that's all he said," Aenea answered. She understood perfectly how Jack felt, and in part at least she felt the same frustration. However, just because they didn't like how the ascended Alterrans did things, it didn't mean that they shouldn't send anyone onboard the Destiny or that what Ilium told her wasn't in their best interest.
Jack took a deep breath, apparently needed in order to calm down. "So, it's five minutes then."
"It's five minutes in the best of circumstances. No matter how many calculations we make, in the end, nobody can be certain that the planet's core won't destabilize sooner than planned," Aenea replied.
"So, we are still risking the planet blowing up, is that it?" Jack asked. This was getting better and better.
"No, the planet is not going to blow up. We were able to add a failsafe to the system to prevent that from happening. If the core becomes too unstable, the failsafe will automatically kick in and the connection will be cut before the planet can go critical. We will also know beforehand when the core is nearing a critical point, so there's no need to panic."
"This means that we can't plan what to send through. Not exactly anyway," Jack replied, thinking hard about their current conundrum.
"We've come up with a system. If you approve, we are going to send what we think is the bare minimum of people needed while carrying backpacks filled with essentials. Then we begin sending floating carts with more gear. Again, what we think is more important goes first and then followed with what remains, together with more people of course. We do this until the connection is cut or if everything we planned to send has gone through," Aenea explained.
"And if I approve of this insane mission that is probably going to strand people on some ancient ship somewhere half way across the galaxy, how long until everything is ready to go?" Jack asked, clearly not liking the entire concept, but resigned to follow through nonetheless.
"Well, since we were ready the first time we dialed the ship, we don't need much additional preparation. Just to collect more gear that is readily available on this base, because there won't be any redialing." Aenea replied. Ever since their failed first attempt, everybody who volunteered for the mission has remained on standby. "With the go ahead from your side, we can gather everyone and everything we need in as little as two or maybe three hours."
Jack wasn't saying anything. He was clearly thinking if giving the go ahead was even a good idea. "Well, they are all volunteers. Who am I to stop them after they were told what the mission entailed, the risks involved, and yet, still willing to go. As the representative of the Terran Council, I'm granting permission for this mission to proceed. Do you allow this mission to proceed from your end?"
Both Terrans and Edenians were to be sent through the gate to a ship that could possibly break apart at any given moment. Therefore, in order for this mission to happen both sides needed to agree. Now that Jack had given the go ahead, suddenly Aenea found herself feeling uncertain.
Was she sending people to their deaths? Too little, too late for second guessing.
"Yes, as the representative of the Edenians, I concur that this mission should proceed."
"Well, then. Let's get this ball rolling," Jack replied.
It took three more hours to get everybody and everything ready, but the time to embark on a new adventure has finally come. And now that it was finally time, he didn't know what had possessed him to accept this mission in the first place. His previous job as the man in charge of Borealis had been a boring one, most days of the week. After the Leptinians had found out where the city-ship was, they had spent the rest of the war submerged at the bottom of a very vast ocean, and out of any possible harm.
For a military commander, that was almost like dying.
There was nothing for him to do other than to wait and devote all of his considerable amount of free time to administrative duties or on meaningless walks up and down the vast city, which wasn't exactly what he would characterize as his dream job. Then the war with the strange Leptinians ended and it only took to turn a few Leptinian systems into very dense matter, part of the newly formed black holes in place of stars. The Leptinians, or rather, the Leptinian Hive Mind must have quickly put two and two together and decided how a strategic retreat was the best - if not only - solution at its disposal.
Apparently, the Hive Mind was still of the same opinion three years later, as no Leptinians have been sighted since.
Since the war with the Leptinians was by all accounts over, suddenly having a military man as the leader of Borealis became even less important. Borealis would remain in the LMC galaxy for the conceivable future, but it would be under civilian leadership with just a military commander present and only in an advisory role, the same as it was the case with Atlantis. Borealis was needed in the LMC galaxy in order to further diplomatic relationships with the Tik'al. It was the reason why he wanted to do something else. Something more than to be just a military advisor on a purely diplomatic mission.
He had spent the last two years doing many jobs, including being the captain of a spaceship. The Terrans spent those two years mostly in peace. Therefore, he could say with certainty that that particular job wasn't his dream job either, since spending endless hours as captain of a capital ship that had been placed in orbit of Tollana in order to safeguard the planet from an enemy that never came, turned out to be even more boring than when he was in command of Borealis. Furthermore, he had gone through the whole Genesis Project, with his DNA ending up being rearranged. The result was increased vitality - almost as if he was twenty years old again - which was making his job of sitting in the command chair of a space ship, day after day, all day long, many times worse. He wanted an adventure and his current job wasn't giving him one. Then, unexpectedly, the opportunity to embark on a true adventure finally came. He was going to lead an expedition aboard a distant ship, the Alterrans had sent millions of years ago, currently somewhere half across the galaxy. It would be a joint mission with Terrans and Edenians working together.
Standing next to him, he could see Lora, the Edenian lead scientist, while she was talking to a young Terran scientist who, as far as he knew, had volunteered to join this mission because of his fascination with Alterran technology. After having spent years browsing through Atlantis' database and learning everything there was to learn - Alterran related - he had decided that he wanted to see how ancient technology looked like millions of years ago. As good a reason as any for going on a perilous journey like this one. Especially if compared with his reason, which was boredom. Eli Wallace was, supposedly, a Genius who after the transformation he went through with the Genesis project could rival even an Alterran. That was probably the reason why he preferred the company of Lora, who herself had gone through a similar transformation and was now for all intent and purposes a true Alterran. The Edenians were going through a similar project as the Terrans were. The Alterran race was once again alive in the mortal coil, and not just a few individuals, but many tens of thousands already converted and growing steady.
"Colonel Young, are all Expedition members ready?" Aenea asked from behind him.
He turned toward her and Jack, both standing side by side. "Some more than others."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack asked.
"Nothing sir," Young replied before turning and looking at the gathered group in the gate room and in one of the corridors that led to it. There were many people present. "It's just that, while everybody is here and is ready to embark, I see a few faces in the crowd I would guess are showing doubt."
"Doubt?" Jack asked.
"Yes, doubt. I think they were shaken up a bit by the revelation that this is the last dial out that can be made from this planet. It means we'll be alone for who knows how long and I see a few people wary about this whole mission."
"Did you ask them if they wanted to reconsider?" Aenea asked.
"Of course I did. I don't want people who don't want to be here on this mission. Nevertheless, they all told me how they are ready and willing. A few said it was just last minute jitters before the gate opens. None said that they don't want to go, which I think it's very strange," Young answered. Frankly, he thought there would be many who, once they found out there wouldn't be any more dialing from this planet, would have decided that maybe staying back home is a solid decision.
"Why strange, Captain? A lot of people here are from the military, and even though this mission is for volunteers only, military personnel usually don't back down when things get tough. The rest are scientists who, in my humble opinion, are nuts, to begin with. They are the kind of people who when there's a new discovery to be made they don't see danger even if it stands in front of their eyes, so…" Jack explained.
"Maybe you're right."
"So, let me then ask the same question again. Captain Young, are you and the rest of the expedition members ready?" Aenea asked again.
Young gave another look at the people whose lives he'd be responsible for, before turning toward O'Neill. "We are, sir."
"Good. Then let's dial Destiny," Aenea replied, before giving a nod to another scientist who was stationed at the console next to her.
Almost immediately, the gate began spinning.
"Okay, people!" Young shouted for everybody to hear him clearly. "As you can see, the gate is already spinning, which means that in a few seconds we will establish a connection with the ship Destiny. Since we were able to ascertain that there's breathable air on the other side the last time we dialed and since we don't have time to waste, the moment the connection is established, I'm going to give the go ahead. When that happens, I want everybody to follow me through the gate just as we planned. We don't have a lot of time and I want as much equipment as possible to take with us. So, no second-guessing or delays of any kind. We need to go through the gate as fast as we can, but keep it orderly. I don't want any accidents," Young concluded before moving at the head of the expedition and less than five meters in front of the gate. "Is that understood?"
A chorus of yeses had echoed in the gate room only instants before the ninth and last chevron locked into place. The gate suddenly connected, with the watery-like surface exploding forth and almost reaching Young before quickly settling back. Young gave a last look at the people behind him. The marines and navy officers were all wearing the mark III combat armor or the Edenian equivalent. It was also clear to him that they were ready for anything, easily deduced by the way they were holding their weapons at the ready. The rest of the people, both Terran and Edenians, were wearing a dark gray skinsuit with a honeycomb pattern ingrained in it, with a belt, backpack, and some even with an additional vest that would grant them a little more carrying capacity for their belongings and other essentials. Young knew the suit was armored and capable of forming a helmet in an instant in order to protect its wearer. Also, the skinsuit could provide enough breathable air for the next thirty to forty minutes depending on the person's size, even without any additional source of oxygen. The suit could keep a person warm in an extremely cold environment or cooled in an extremely hot one. Even most forms of radiation would be blocked for a moderate amount of time. The skinsuit was to be given to all navy personnel since it had been found that many had died needlessly in the Battle of Eden because of sudden decompression of the ship due to battle damage. If sailors had been wearing this suit at the time there would have been more than enough time to beam them aboard other ships before asphyxiation could have occurred. Although not capable of providing protection on the same level as the combat armor, the special material was able to stop a bullet from a handheld gun with relative ease. Even plasma or other energy forms like those of stun weapons from light weapons would be dissipated and partially absorbed in order to protect the wearer. This was possible because the suit was not only made of a tough material, but it was also technological in nature, with nanotechnology embedded into it. The suit could even display a myriad of information about the wearer, the suit's status or of the environment on the wearer's left or right forearm, based on their preferences. It was a marvel of technology that didn't necessitate people to wear cumbersome, armored suits, yet still capable of providing a modicum of protection for their people.
It was strange to see a bunch of scientist, engineers, doctors and whatnot, all wearing the same thing and only distinguishable by the different color of the suit's collar. These people wearing the same suits looked so weird in his eyes. Then he remembered that once the ship was secured, he too would have to wear the same skinsuit, and making him distinguishable among others only by the blue collar that signified his association with the navy's command hierarchy. He didn't like it. He knew the people who had designed the suit told them that the wearer's comfort had been of great concern to them and that people should be able to comfortably wear them all day long. However, he had taken the liberty of packing some additional clothing in the form of the to him more comfortable navy casual uniform made of cotton and large enough to not feel constricted in any way or weird places. He knew others had done the same by packing their own clothing. He saw several people doing it. Once they had settled, he would notify everybody that it was okay to wear such clothing at least while not on duty. Maybe in time, he would allow people to wear them even while on light duty, like when in your office or on the bridge.
Well, no matter how people looked in these strange new suits their scientists had come up with in order to better safeguard their lives, it was now time to stop thinking about it and finally embark on this new journey. A journey he hoped would turn out to be more exciting than his previous jobs had been.
"Let's go!" Young shouted, just as he himself began walking toward the gate. A few more steps walked with no hesitation and he was through.
Young exited through the gate with too much speed. He stumbled, barely managing to remain on his feet. He steadied himself before straightening up and giving a look around. The room was poorly illuminated and by taking a breath, he instantly understood how thin the air was. He quickly moved to the end of the room near the doors while scrutinizing his surroundings. Their first job was to make as much free space as possible for everything they were planning to bring, but he quickly came to the conclusion that there wasn't anything in here that could be moved anyway. He also needed to inform others that the exit velocity wasn't the same as the one they entered with.
"This is Captain Young. Be warned when you step through the gate that your exit velocity will be greater than the one you had when you stepped into the event horizon." He didn't even finish his sentence when two people came rushing through the gate. One managed to remain on his feet, while the other stumbled and fell. The other helped him get back up and together they moved away from the gate. Two more come, again stumbling, but nobody falling this time. By the time the third pair came through, they were walking much slower. They must have gotten his message and adjusted their walk accordingly.
"Is it just me, sir or the air is very thin in here?" Commander Scott asked. Since the scout drone had confirmed the presence of breathable air, nobody had their helmets hermetically sealed. "I can barely breathe in here."
"No, it's not just you. When the probe checked the place the first time we dialed there was more pressure than there is now. Which means…"
"Which means that we have a leak on the ship, sir," Scott finished.
Young turned toward the gate and saw as the lead scientist Lora and Eli just stepped through it. He rushed to meet them. "I need your help."
"What is it?" Lora asked, but she must have understood immediately what the problem was. "The air. It's too thin."
"Yes. I want you and all of the scientists to start working on the problem, the moment they step through the gate. My men will take care of hauling everything that comes through the gate to someplace else."
"I will try to access the console over there, and I'll have a few people going around and search if there is some central command system that can access the entire ship," Lora replied.
Unfortunately, Young knew, there was no one alive with the knowledge of how to operate Destiny or where important sections were located. The ship departed so long ago that not even Atlantis contained the specs of the ship. There wasn't even a plan to build Atlantis when Destiny was sent on its long journey, and when the Alterrans began ascending and with the disaster with the plague, Destiny's mission became obsolete and nothing more than a distant memory. "You do that, and do it quickly. I don't think we have much air left."
Young went back to Scott who was helping whomever or whatever was coming through the gate. The worst that could happen is for some cart to topple and block the gate. "How are things going on your end?"
"Nothing we can't handle, sir. We are just pushing the carts on both sides of the room or through the door into the corridor. People are smart enough to move immediately as they come out, so no problem there either."
"Good, that's very good," Young replied, but he was actually already in the process of checking the room to see how much space they were using and how much more they needed. Many carts were waiting at the base to go through the gate, and he would be the happiest if he were to receive them all, especially now that he was certain that the ship was in bad shape. A leak was proof enough in his book. "Try to push more carts through the door and into the corridor. If we keep up like this, in two minutes we won't have any space left in here."
"Yes, sir."
Scott was doing his job well, and he was doing it quickly too. It wasn't strange that he'd asked him to be part of the mission. He had worked with him before and he knew how dependable the man was.
The earpiece in his ear chirped. "Captain Young, the planet's core is becoming unstable. We estimate no more than two minutes before the failsafe engages and the gate shuts down."
It was the voice of Aenea he'd heard over the comm. "Send us as much as you can, as fast as you can. It seems the ship is in bad shape and we will need as much equipment as we can get to repair it."
It didn't take long for carts and people to start coming faster through the gate. They were now barely capable of getting them out of the way before more were coming. Two more times a pair of people came through in between carts. Young recognized the last two people and he knew no more were coming. All expedition members were present and accounted for. Now it was only a question of how many carts would make it through, pushed from the other side before the gate shut down.
The answer came only seconds later, as the connection abruptly ended. He was certain some carts didn't make it.
He moved back to where Lora and Eli were still working on the console. "Have you found the leak?" he asked, hoping that it was only one leak instead of more.
"Yes, we have," Lora replied, showing the location on the small display. "I tried to close the doors, but they are not responding. It must be a mechanical issue."
It was difficult to understand where those doors were on the ship since even one of their laptops had bigger screens than those on the consoles, and in order to see where they were, Lora needed to move the map the display was showing sideways.
"Scott!" Young shouted to get the man's attention. He succeeded. "You need to go to where this map is showing the breach is and close it. Take a few scientists with you. Lora will tell you who's best at this sort of troubles.
"Yes, sir! I'm on it," Scott replied.
Scott spoke with Lora, who pointed at two scientists in the mix of people in front of them. He went to talk to them and in less than a minute they were on their way out of the gate room.
Young didn't know what else he could do. Everybody was already doing something. Most of the people were gathering things, moving them out of the way and trying to bring some order. Others had already gone out of the gateroom and were searching the ship. No matter who built the ship or how long ago, there should be accommodations they could use. After all, even the Alterrans had planned to board the ship at some point. It seemed the expedition members knew what they were doing even without him micromanaging the situation. He decided that the best course of action was for him to wait and do nothing, knowing that if something needed his attention, people would come to him.
The next two hours passed in a blur of motion, with people moving in all directions while doing all kind of things. At first glance, it looked as if complete strangers were all running around like chickens without their heads, but Young knew they were all doing specific tasks in order to get settled aboard the ship as quickly as possible. Now, in the temporary command center, as they were calling the decently large room they had found with a working workstation in it, Scott, Lora, and Eli were giving him a recap of the situation. It was time to find out how bad things truly were with the ship.
"The doors leading to the docked shuttle are not working. We had to close the shuttle's doors instead, which, as far as we were able to gather, can be closed only from inside the shuttle, for some reason I don't quite understand," Scott reported, clueless why that was the case.
It was true. The idea of having shuttles docked on the outside was weird, to say the least. It makes any repairs that may arise that much more difficult to deal with. Having no way to close the shuttle's doors except inside of the craft was bordering on negligence. Maybe whoever designed Destiny didn't care about such things since he or she knew they wouldn't be the ones having to board the ship millions of years later.
"So, how did you manage to close the breach?" Young asked. He wouldn't want for some crewmember in a spacesuit to be stuck on the other side, waiting to die of asphyxiation.
"We sent a remotely controlled Cylon," Scott replied.
There was that option too apparently. He barely remembered that they brought Cylons with them, much less getting the idea of using one in such a way. To tell the truth, when people back home suggested taking a few with them, he wasn't all that sure if those tin cans would be of any use, except maybe for doing some remotely controlled repairs. Now, he knew better. "Good thinking, Scott."
"Thank you, sir, but it still isn't a permanent solution to our problem."
"How do you mean?" he asked and saw Scott giving a nod to Lora to continue explaining.
"Even with the breach sealed, there's not enough air left on the ship."
"You mean that the life support system doesn't work properly?" Young asked.
"That too, but that's not the bigger issue here. We can deal with the CO2 scrubbers not working. We have planned for it from the start because we knew they would be in poor conditions after such a long time, and we are already replacing the compound inside them with something we brought with us; the catalyst responsible for extracting oxygen from carbon dioxide."
"So, what's the problem then?"
"The problem is that the first time we gated to Destiny, the ship used all of its considerable reserves of air to fill the ship so that whoever came through they wouldn't suffocate. Since there was a breach on the ship, that air was slowly vented into space and currently, there are no more air reserves left to replace it."
Now he understood. "So, what's the solution? I mean, people are already feeling lightheaded and we need to use oxygen tanks from time to time if we want to stay lucid."
"We need to get new air, and not just a little to raise air pressure but enough to restore the reserves as well. We will need those as we restore sections of the ship that are now close to us because they are open to space," Lora explained. "And there's only one way to accomplish such a feat. We gate to a planet with breathable air and send people to collect as much of it as possible."
As far as things that were difficult to collect went, the air was one of the most difficult he could think of, especially since he knew they needed a lot of it in order to fill the entire ship and reserves. "And once we gate to that planet, how are we going to bring so much air back?"
"We use canisters under pressure. It won't be easy, and it will take time, but-"
"Umm," Eli murmured.
"What Eli?" Lora asked.
As Eli was standing next to her, he just turned his laptop to show her something. "Can we?"
Lora was apparently looking at something on the laptop before she smiled. "I don't see why not."
Young felt left out of the conversation, which was bad since he was – supposedly - the man in charge of everything and everybody. "Care to share with the rest of us?"
Eli gave the laptop to Young. It took him a while to understand what the schematic was showing. "And you think it will work?"
"I don't see why it wouldn't," Eli replied.
"I agree," Lora added.
"And how are you going to build this contraption?" Young asked.
"We brought a matter synthesizer with us, and since I already have the schematics half-ready, it should be short work of building one," Eli replied. His laptop was a special item and Eli was very protective of it. Lora had modified it so that, in the same way as many Alterran technologies worked, it could read Eli's mind with incredible accuracy. In order for the laptop to write something like code, or draw something like a schematic, the only thing Eli needed to do was to think about it. It made many of the things he did on a daily basis being done much faster, if not being done almost instantly.
Young almost forgot about the matter synthesizers. Those things were capable of building almost anything if given the right raw materials and fed with enough energy. The only thing they were not good at creating was compounds that tended to go boom, things made of energy dispersive materials – like their new skinsuits - and components that needed to be built on a subatomic or quantum level in order to work properly.
"Then let's get us some fresh air," Young said.
Scott was the first to come out of the gate and to step onto this completely alien world. He didn't know how he felt about that. At this precise moment, while the others were still on the ship, he was the only human standing on a planet in a one and a half billion light-years radius. Yet, he did not feel any exhilaration from it. He knew he should, but for some reason, he felt the same as when he stepped on some other planet in the Milky Way galaxy.
Behind him, Greer, Roberts, Eli and some Alterran scientist called Lora he barely knew, had just stepped through the gate. This time around, they were all wearing armor. The Terrans were wearing the relatively new Mark III combat suits - flexible, yet giving excellent protection - while Lora was wearing the Guardian's counterpart. She was looking like a slightly deflated crisis character. When he looked at her and at Eli, he didn't think of them as scientists but rather as soldiers. Not only did both types of suits turn anyone wearing them, even novices, into living weapons, but not even one member of the expedition would have been allowed to come on this mission if he or she did not go through the three months long and rigorous training regimen held on Haven. There was also no reason why they wouldn't since a part of the Genesis Project was to allow humans from Earth to withstand gravities on planets larger than Earth like it was the case with Haven. Their latest colony had a 1.45g gravity, which gave a person who normally weighed 200 pounds an additional 90 pound, which wasn't easy to carry for longer periods even under normal circumstances. It was even less when the need to carry some heavy object was added as a bonus, which, again, on Haven was by 1.45 times heavier than usual. Anybody could put two and two and quickly conclude that without the Genesis Project only athletes in their prime years could survive on such a planet for a prolonged period of time. Because of it, the Genesis Project had increased both their bone and muscle density so that Terrans could survive under similar conditions as those on Haven for an indefinite amount of time. Without it, colonization could simply not happen on such planets.
Giving birth and hoping for the child to survive, would be outright impossible.
The harsh regimen all members were put through before the mission began also took place on Haven, just like with all the Marine, Army and Space Navy recruits. In the beginning, none of the scientists liked it. Not the Terrans and not the Edenians, but in the end the results were what counted the most. By looking at Eli, he could say that in addition to being a genius he was now also somebody capable of taking care of himself or of others if necessary, even under dire circumstances. The additional nanites every member of the expedition was injected with and that were helping them heal injuries or fight infections was also a godsent, especially since they were to be sent on planets where no humans had ever set foot on.
Moreover, as case and point, this planet was a prime example of that.
All around them there was thick vegetation as if they had just stepped inside a thick jungle and with the humidity reaching barely tolerable levels. Just at that moment, something resembling a bug flew past him. The only problem was that he was sure the bug was at least five inches long and purple in color. He turned to look at the rest of the team. They were already working on the contraption Eli had designed and later built with the matter synthesizer.
In the end, it wasn't anything special what Eli had come up with, but that, of course, was easy to say in hindsight. What they were working on was a turbine Eli had built and that was powered by a Naquadah unit, their new version of Naquadah generator. Its size was smaller than the original generator Sam Carter had designed many years ago, and overall it looked like a glorified brick with two connectors on the sides and with a touchscreen on top. It was also capable of giving five times the amount of energy of the previous model of similar size. Naquadah units can be stacked on top of each other to increase the power output, while still retaining its compact and sturdy nature and ease of carrying. However, for this mission, one of these units was more than enough to power the turbine. Actually, using anything that used nuclear fission to generate energy was excessive to power what was not much more than a glorified vacuum cleaner, but they didn't have any better option, so this had to be the first nuclear vacuum cleaner in existence.
Eli was just about to attach the hose that was large enough for a person to crawl through it on one side of the contraption. The hose would go inside the event horizon of the stargate, and through it, the turbine would pump air on board the ship. Usually, the gate did not allow for air, or even water, to travel through, as it was a security risk. However, this worked only when the air pressure was the same throughout the entire surface of the event horizon. With the hose put inside the event horizon, they would achieve a perfect seal, and the turbine would create many times higher pressure on the event horizon, which will then allow the air to travel on the other side.
"I think we are ready," Eli said.
"Then dial Destiny and let's start pumping air into the ship. The countdown is giving us ten more hours before the Destiny goes back into FTL and we still don't know how to take full control of the ship," Scott said.
Without saying anything, Eli dialed Destiny with his remote gate controller. The gate erupted as it was its usual behavior and both Lora and Eli took the hose and the turbine and moved them in front of the gate. Eli put the other end of the hose barely inside the event horizon and then used some clamps to fix it onto the ground just in front of the gate so that it wouldn't move.
"I'm going through. I'll contact you when you can activate the turbine," Lora said, before stepping inside the gate.
It didn't take long for her to send the message for Eli to start pumping air. Eli pushed a button on the side of the contraption he had built, and the turbine slowly began getting speed. As the speed steadied, he then worked on a small slider that when moved increased the turbine's speed further and further. Eli touched his earpiece before talking. "Lora, how is it going on your end?"
"It's great. My calculations say it will take us no more than seven hours to restore the ship's air reserves," Lora replied over the comm.
"So, everything is working fine?" Scott asked Eli.
"Yeah, everything's going smoothly for now."
That was great, but now he didn't know what to do for the next six or seven hours, the amount of time he would have to spend on the planet. "Well, you and Roberts can stay here and keep an eye on that contraption of yours, while Greer and I are going to check things out around here," Scott said, immediately noticing the unhappy faces on both Eli and Roberts. They were going to stay here and babysit the machine with nothing else to do. On the other hand, he was able to see the smirk on Greer's face. "Well, see you later," he said, before moving away from the gate and deeper into the jungle.
Lora was so immersed in her work on the console in front of her that she didn't even notice when the captain came back in the gateroom. "Oh, Captain Young, I haven't noticed when you came in."
It was strange for her to address people by their last name. The Alterrans, and through Liam the Edenians too, always used first names and only used last names when there were ambiguities, as when referring to somebody when there was more than one person with the same name in the room. However, for some reason, Terrans used to call other people by their first name only occasionally and usually only when talking to close friends. Such behavior was strange to her because she thought of everybody in the expedition as allies and friends, and she thought that others should feel the same way. However, most of the Terrans were referring to each other by both rank and their last name, even those who knew each other for years, like Everett and Matthew. Instead, they were calling each other Young and Scott respectively. All this was new and very peculiar to her, and she was glad that at least with Eli she managed to change that. From the very first day when they met, she asked him if they could use their first names when addressing each other. She was glad that he had promptly agreed. Now, she needed to accomplish the same with the others too.
"I see you're still working on that console. It's been six hours, and except for the periodical shutdown of the gate and Eli's redialing the ship, I don't see any reason for you to be here. I think there are many scientists who could have waited here instead of you."
"Oh, it's no bother at all. I was able to reroute parts of the ship's main operating system to this console so that I can work directly from here, the same as from any other console. From here, I can also talk to Eli from time to time. I think he is bored."
"You're probably right about that. Who wouldn't be bored after spending six hours sitting in front of a gate while doing nothing except watching a glorified vacuum cleaner pumping air into the gate?" Young replied. "So, were you able to learn anything useful about the Destiny?"
"Well, I've learned a lot in these six hours. Although, useful wouldn't be the term I would use. The term I would use instead is… concerning."
"Concerning? Why concerning?"
"Concerning because it appears the Destiny has just finished a three-years-long-journey across the void between distant galaxies, and its energy reserves are nearing depletion. Our dialing the gate, as well as our arrival, has considerably aggravated the situation because the ship had to exit FTL travel three times now."
"What? Wait! Why is that such a problem? We have all the power we can possibly need. We could use the ZPM we brought to power the ship."
"Not at the moment, no. I don't know if there will ever be a moment, but at least until we gain complete control of the ship, trying to connect a ZPM to the ship's main power grid would be incredibly dangerous. At the very least we need to shut down everything for a short period first before connecting a ZPM, and only then we can ascertain that the two systems are fully compatible, which as far as I can tell, they don't seem to be. My kin d didn't invent the potentia until two million years after the launch of the Destiny."
"So, if we can't use the ZPM, what else can we do?" Young asked.
"Nothing," Lora replied simply.
"Nothing?"
"Yes. The best course of action is to do nothing, and leave the ship to do what it always does."
"And that is?"
"To fly into the sun in order to replenish its energy reserves."
"Umm… What are we talking about here exactly?"
"Commander, there is no ship we know of that can hold enough energy reserves to traverse billions of light-years. The only way for a ship to be able to do that is if it has the ability to replenish its energy reserves, and the only thing powerful enough to do that are stars. This ship's underside is filled with energy collectors capable of absorbing massive amounts of energy while the ship is flying close to a yellow star."
"And you're saying that the ship's shields are capable of protecting the ship from the heat?"
"For a short time, yes, they can. All our shields can survive that for a short period. As long as the ship isn't directly hit by coronal plasma ejection, there shouldn't be any problem," Lora ended with a smile.
"You didn't have to tell me this last part. Now am going to worry about coronal ejections."
"No need to worry. The ship's computer is more than capable of predicting such dangerous occurrences ahead of time. After all, the Destiny has done this in every galaxy she visited at least once," Lora explained. "However, there are things we need to work on."
"Such as?" Young asked.
"I was able to identify 137 breaches on the ship of various shapes and sizes, most of them as a result of weapons fire. The Destiny must have crossed paths with some hostiles during her long voyage."
"Yes, I saw a few such breaches myself. One of them is the one in the shuttle."
"There are many breaches much bigger than that one, but for now I would like to start with the smaller ones, hence easier and faster to repair, and then work our way toward the larger and more difficult to fix. The Destiny should have crates with raw materials in them or, if not, we can cannibalize parts of the ship's insides in order to get the needed materials. Then we can use the matter synthesizer to make what we need to close the gaps on the ship's outer hull. It is imperative that we do that because the ship is using the shield in order to seal off breaches and it's straining the already incredibly old shielding system. Not to mention it uses energy that it doesn't need to under normal conditions."
"Are you saying that the shielding system isn't working properly either?"
"Of course it isn't. The ship is millions of years old. The Alterrans who built this ship had placed an enormous amount of redundancy in it, but even with all the precautions, too many of the shield emitters have already burned out and the ship is trying to compensate for it with those nearby that are somehow still working. However, as you saw earlier, the shield was unable to hold the air inside the shuttle. When this ship was new, that would not have been the case, no matter how big the breach was."
"So, our priority is now to seal all the holes on the ship in order to diminish the strain on the ship's shielding system. Anything else we need to worry about?"
"Not at the moment, no. Well, there's no system aboard this ship that is at one hundred percent efficiency, but most of them we can't even attempt to repair until we gain full access. Like the energy capacitors on the ship that are working at only 35% percent of their intended capacity, or the fact that one of the engines doesn't work properly so that the Destiny had to shut that particular unit down or else the ship would have never been able to cross the last stretch of void in order to reach this galaxy."
"It gets better and better, doesn't it?"
"Those are problems that right now we can't deal with so there's no need to worry about them. I can't start sending people to make repairs on the engine or the capacitors when the ship can decide to return into FTL whenever it wants. For that, we need to gain full control first," Lora explained, just as the console in front of her beeped. The air tanks have been filled. She tapped her comm. unit. "Eli, we have fully restored the ship's air reserves. You can stop pumping air and all of you can come back to the ship."
"Alright," Eli's response came over the comm.
The air stopped from being pumped into the gateroom. Moments later, Roberts and Eli stepped through the gate while hauling the glorified vacuum cleaner and the brick that was the Naquadah unit. Lora immediately noticed the strange expression on Eli's face, but she didn't have time to ask what it was when she saw behind them Scott and Greer drag some large animal. By the looks of it, it was some kind of reptile. A very common lifeform in the Universe. Though, her people had never witnessed reptiles evolving into something more than mindless animals only driven by instinct.
"Greer killed an oversized velociraptor," Eli said before anyone else had time to ask anything.
Lora was looking at the dead animal. It hadn't been killed with a rifle. Greer must have used a knife instead, and from the expression on his face, he must have found the exercise endearing. Apparently, the Terrans using last names when addressing others wasn't the only difference between them and her people. If by chance she had stumbled upon such an animal, she would have used a stun gun to incapacitate it and then she would have left it behind to awake at a later time and continue with its life as if their encounter had never happened. Apparently, the Terrans liked hunting, and the use of a knife instead of a rifle suggested that they liked the hunt to be a challenge. At least it seems that Greer certainly did like it. Lora was learning more and more about these Terrans and she wasn't sure if she liked everything she had learned thus far. "Why have you brought this dead animal onboard?"
"I don't know. Maybe we could eat it for dinner," Greer responded while smiling.
She wasn't convinced that this was the real reason. This more looked like Greer showing off what he was able to catch than truly wanting to eat a dinosaur. She was sure that even he knew that the chances of this animal being edible by humans were slim to none. "I do not believe that you would like your body's reaction if you ate that animal."
"I told him that, but he wanted to bring it back onboard anyway," Eli added. "Well, if when checked it turns out that, after all, we can't eat that thing, we can always feed it to the protein re-sequencer and get a lot of protein bars out of it."
The Terran protein re-sequencer was actually a pretty decent invention, Lara thought. The matter synthesizer was capable of making whatever meal you wanted so long as the system had the pattern stored in its internal memory - as well as the dish and fork you'd use to eat it - and it had the right atoms available to be used as raw material. However, it couldn't be said that the very useful device was also a very efficient one. It used a lot of energy to do what it did, even when what it needed to make was nothing more than a simple meal. It was a waste to use it in order to make simple things, especially when onboard a ship with limited resources. Because of it, the Terrans had developed a device that takes any organic matter to make everything the human body would ever need, from carbohydrates, fat, proteins, and with added vitamins and minerals for good measure. The result of that process was what the Terrans were calling protein bars even though there was more to them than just providing proteins. They had everything the body needed in the right amounts. The best part was that the device used very little energy to work, which was ideal for long-term missions when you never knew when your energy reserves would be running low. It was also a much smaller device than the matter synthesizer, which allowed for away teams to bring it with them every time a mission was to last for longer than a couple of days. They could feed it grass or trees and the device would still cram up protein bars and some waste. The only problem she saw was that the resulting protein bar was disgusting. They would keep you alive, but nobody would take one just to have a tasty snack in the middle of the day.
"I still don't see why he had to bring this animal onboard," Lora added while looking at Young.
"I agree," Young replied. "Well, Greer. You brought it on board; it is now your duty to clean up after it. Whatever you do, I don't want to see any trace of it on this ship, smell included. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir," a slightly deflated Greer replied. He turned to Scott, "Help me get this thing to the kitchen."
Scott was already ahead of Greer. He took one of the carts they had brought with them and that was now empty. "Let's use this. I don't want to have to clean all the corridors from here to the kitchen of dino-blood. Not if I can help it."
"Good idea," Greer responded.
Both of them grabbed the animal and lifted it on the cart. Even with the combat suits she knew was giving the two of them additional strength, they still had to put some effort in getting it on the cart. The thing must weigh at least three hundred pounds.
"The poor creature never stood a chance," Eli added as he neared both Lora and the commander.
It was true. Even with the sharp teeth the animal had, it wasn't a match for the combat armor Greer was wearing. This animal could never have hurt him. The best thing the animal could have hoped for was to escape alive somehow. It appeared that at least Eli seemed like a reasonable person. She couldn't imagine Eli going through the jungle while hunting animals for no good reason other than personal pleasure in killing another creature. Well, apparently not all Terrans were the same.
The dead animal was gone, the same as Greer and Scott, which was a relief for her. "Eli, the two of us are going to try to find a way to get us full control of this ship."
"Sure, just give me half an hour to get out of this thing that I'm wearing and to wash up and I'm back," Eli said before storming out of the control room.
"Captain, if it is alright with you, I'm going to instruct the ship that we don't need to retrieve any more air. The ship should return into FTL almost immediately," Lora explained.
"Do it," Young replied.
She tapped on a few buttons, canceling the queued need for collecting air. It was enough for the ship to know that it was time to resume travel. The countdown quickly dropped to just five minutes. The ship was probably giving whoever inputted the change enough time to change it back if it was a mistake. It would be bad if the ship just jumped back into FTL without any warning.
Five minutes passed before she felt the strange sensation when the ship once again entered FTL.
It had been less than a day since they had boarded the Destiny and thus far, everything seemed manageable. It was a miracle the ship was still in one piece after so long. The ship also went through what appears to have been some nasty skirmishes against unknown foes. She wouldn't be able to access the logs until the ship was under their complete control. She was itching to find out everything the ship had gone through in the past several million years since its inception.
It was what she needed to do next. Find a way to get complete access to all of the ship's systems. Afterward, she would know everything there is to know about this ship.
Thank you for reading my story. Feel free to leave a review.