Author's note: I wasn't sure when this chapter would come out, but since my beta was extremely fast in checking my errors, I decided to post this chapter right away. In the past month or so I've managed in writing and rewriting a rough draft of what will be the next six chapters, and I'm pretty satisfied how it all came out. So, expect a lot of things happening in the following chapters.
Maybe I'll be able to polish them on a weekly schedule too.
Thanks to my beta, and hope you'll enjoy this chapter while reading it.
Teal'c walked inside the council chamber, giving a quick, measuring look at each of the members already present inside before stopping at Rak'nor who was in the process of giving his report. Seeing the council again was enough to make him purse his lips, with negative emotions welling up inside him once again. Every time he saw these people, he knew how far from their goal they still were. As opposed to the Terrans who also had a council, the Jaffa counterpart wasn't comprised of members with different responsibilities attached to them. Daniel Jackson was responsible for diplomacy, Jack O'Neill was responsible for everything related to their military and Rodney McKay worked tirelessly to make their research and development program as efficient as it could possibly be. Each with their own responsibilities, the Terran council worked as a single entity for the betterment of the entire Terran Federation and its people, no matter on which planet they were.
The Jaffa Council wasn't like that.
Inside their council, there was no one person responsible for diplomacy, or research, or for their military. Instead, members represented the many factions in the Free Jaffa Nation, which were now numbering twenty-five in total. Three more than a year ago. It also seemed as if Jaffa System Lords had swapped the now defunct Goa'uld System Lords.
Bra'tac was the council member that represented the Jaffa from the former territories of Apophis and Cronus, one of the largest Jaffa factions. With a population numbering in many millions and a great number of shipyards and warships at their disposal, their faction alone had a quarter of the total votes in the council. Some would believe that with a few more factions on their side, they would easily have the swaying votes in most matters. However, that wasn't the case. Only a few other factions like Ishtar's Hak'tyl and the faction in Ba'al's former territories led by Grai'ac had a similar view on what the Free Jaffa Nations should be like, and they had fewer votes in the council than many.
Their biggest opponent was Bre'lac who was leading the Jaffa previously under Yu, and he alone had almost thirty percent of the overall votes. Jaffa that were previously under Heru'ur were siding with Bre'lac on many issues, mostly because it would be against the Jaffa led by Bra'tac. Jaffa under Heru'ur and those under Apophis had fought each other for so long that even now, a time when the Goa'uld were a part of the past, animosities still lingered.
The end result was a council with two large groups on opposite ends, one led by Bre'lac and the other led by Bra'tac. Those two groups were polar opposites and there was nothing anyone could to about that. Then there was the rest with around forty percent of the remaining votes spread across more than a dozen factions of various sizes and spread sparsely throughout the galaxy, in many cases with planets from the same faction being tens of thousands of light years apart. Now that the gates were not working anymore, nobody knew what the full ramification would be. With such factions in the Council, it was a nightmare getting anything done, and even when a decision was finally made, it was dubious who was supposed to work on it since there were no council members delegated with specific responsibilities.
Teal'c stopped next to Bra'tac. He wasn't a member of the Council anymore. Instead, he was the person in charge of the Jaffa military and the direct liaison with the Tau'ri. Teal'c stood there while saying nothing, as Rak'nor was still in the process of giving his report. It would also be bad form for someone who wasn't a member of the Council to simply barge in and speak without being spoken to first.
"… the Tau'ri sent us a message informing us of their success. Since our diversion wasn't necessary anymore, we began systematically destroying the remaining Reapers in the system. They tried to flee, but it only served in delaying the inevitable," Rak'nor explained the events that transpired on his last mission. The mission had been to access the Reapers mothership in order to gain knowledge of their various positions across the galaxy.
"Were the Tau'ri able to determine where the Reapers are located?" Bre'lac asked.
"They informed us that it would take time to go through the recovered data. They will give us the results once they are done," Rak'nor replied.
"Yes, I am certain that informing us will be a priority to them," Bre'lac responded. There was definitely cynicism present in his reply.
"It seems that we are a priority, after all, Master Bre'lac," Teal'c interjected with a hint of a smile forming. "They informed me the moment they finished with their analysis."
"And what is the result of their analysis?" Bre'lac asked. He clearly didn't like Teal'c being present.
"Unfortunately, the Reaper mothership self-destructed before they could decipher the communication protocol shared by all Reapers," Teal'c replied. When he heard from O'Neill of the mission's failure, he wasn't happy. He was looking forward to a way to locate the Reapers and finally go on the offensive. "They were able to retrieve only pieces of the underlying code. Not enough to serve us in pinpointing their locations."
"Yes, I am certain that is what they told you," Bre'lac replied, again spitting venom against the Tau'ri.
Teal'c was too old and too experienced to enter another meaningless discussion with Bre'lac.
Unfortunately, another council member, Rel'kor of the former Baal's territories and one of their strongest allies, wasn't as experienced. "And why would the Tau'ri deceive us?"
"To keep us contained in our territories. Without the knowledge of where the Reapers are, we can only defend our systems. This means keeping all of our warships inside our territories instead of exploring the galaxy," Bre'lac responded.
He was being diplomatic too. What Bre'lac meant with exploring the galaxy was seeking new resources mostly in the form of planets the Jaffa could claim as their own. It wasn't enough that the Jaffa already had hundreds of worlds that they didn't know what to do with except needlessly forcing them to thin out their defenses in order to protect them all. There were planets with millions of people on them, like Chulak and Dakara, but there were also those that had only a few thousand Jaffa present on the surface, relocated only so that they could claim those planets as their own in the eyes of other races.
The Jaffa nation numbered in around four hundred million, or at least that was the number of those Jaffa registered as citizens of the Free Jaffa Nation. There were much more elsewhere in the galaxy, but those Jaffa it seemed didn't care much about the FJN. They were mercenaries hired by others, or some were entrepreneurs bent on exploring the galaxy on their own and doing whatever they wanted without having to answer to anyone. Teal'c knew that it would come a time when all Jaffa would have to come back into the fold. That will be when there were no symbiotes to sustain them. Then, except for the small amount of Tretonin that could be found on the black market, Jaffa would have no other choice but to return in order to get a dose of the essential drug or otherwise, die a painful death. Still, even by taking them into account, the Jaffa race still numbered in less than half a billion, the inevitable consequence of being used as cannon fodder by the Goa'uld. There were human races out there living on a single planet that had more people. The Galarans had more than two billion, the Optricans and Bedrosians were above one and much more were out there who lived on one single world in such or similarly high numbers. Instead, the Jaffa were needlessly spread across hundreds of worlds.
The Terrans had made a prediction of the future in which the Jaffa would split in two. They were saying that it was inevitable and that when it happened their side should pick a few dozen worlds rich with the right minerals and concentrated in a small region of the galaxy, and give the rest to the other factions. There, they could create a cohesive and strong nation, one that with the aid from the Tau'ri could quickly grow into a wealthy race, yet much easier to manage and defend because of their size and close proximity. Unknown to most factions in the Jaffa Free Nation, they were already preparing for that eventuality. Worlds had already been chosen and the right infrastructures were being built on them more than on other worlds. It was their plan to trade Dakara and the other rich worlds for those that were, above all, rich in Naquadah and other minerals needed by any advanced race. Those planets were also the best for their people in terms of comfortable ecosystems. They were far better than Dakara or other planets that had deposits of Naquadah on them but living there was far from pleasant.
"The threat of the Vargas, their minions, and mechanical creations threatens us all. Until our galaxy is freed, none can rest easy," Bra'tac responded as the voice of reason. "The Tau'ri want them destroyed as much as we do."
"Not as much as we do," Bre'lac retorted. "They have defenses capable of repelling attacks from the Reapers or other enemies with ease. We are those who cannot protect all of our assets if the number of Reapers continues to increase any further. This is exactly what the Tau'ri want."
"Even here you're to be proven wrong," Teal'c replied, moving to the console in front of Bra'tac. He placed a data crystal in its appropriate opening.
"Meaning?" Bre'lac asked reluctantly.
A hologram sprang to life, showing the schematics of a satellite. "This is the first of a series of weapons the Tau'ri have created specifically to battle the Reapers."
"I do not see anything special in this satellite. I do not see shields, the material used I believe is weaker than our current satellites and ships are made from, and both the energy source and weapons cannot be compared to our own. This type of weapon is weaker than anything we have. Why would we build them?"
"The Tau'ri have given us these schematics because they knew of our problems in defending all of our many planets. Because of it, they have come up with a satellite that we can easily mass-produce in our factories in great numbers and without taxing our production of ships because they do not use any special materials like Naquadah or other rare elements needed in the building of ships the likes of a Ha'tak. However, these satellites still have a longer firing range than that of the Reapers, they have a thick enough hull to survive longer than a Reaper, and have an auto-repair system that can make an even moderately damaged satellite fully operational once again with no need for us to repair them manually. Something very important to us when mass-producing our defenses.
"Yes, how convenient. The Tau'ri are giving us obsolete technology that cannot threaten them in any way and they are calling it help. If they wanted to help us end the Reapers' menace, they should have shared with us their most advanced weaponry instead, so that we can prevail against these machines."
Teal'c felt fed up by Bre'lac rhetoric. The man reminded him of another Jaffa that was against the Tau'ri many years ago. A Jaffa that went so far because of his hatred for the Tau'ri that he ended up betraying them all by joining the Ori. However, a thin smile formed on his face as he realized the involuntary mistake Bre'lac had made. Anyone could spit all they wanted at the Tau'ri and the majority in the council couldn't care less, but it was never a good idea to imply that the Jaffa were not good enough as warriors.
"Are you telling us, Bre'lac, that without the Tau'ri weaponry we Jaffa are useless as warriors? Even after the Tau'ri have dispatched of most of the Vargas and left only their minions to deal with, you are still insulting us by saying that we cannot fight them with the technology we currently own? Do you believe the Jaffa are so weak? Are you also making us be hypocrites? You accuse the Tau'ri of being unwilling to share their advanced weaponry, yet we the Jaffa did the same when other human races asked us for our technology in order to fight the Aschen more effectively," Teal'c said with faked, righteous indignation for everybody to see.
"You are not a member of this council! How dare you accuse me inside this sacred chamber?" Bre'lac spat back, but his rebuke appeared weak and most of all petty.
"Would it be different if not Teal'c but I as a member of this Council was the one speaking those same claims?" Bra'tac interrupted, with steel in his voice. Bre'lac wasn't going to so easily deflect the accusations against him. Not while Bra'tac was a member of the Council. "Answer me, Bre'lac? Do you believe the Jaffa are weak and in desperate need of Tau'ri weaponry to fight a foe such as the Reapers?"
"We do not," Bre'lac replied through clenched teeth. "We will prevail against any foe, no matter what technology we hold."
"Good. Then let us proceed with the reason why Teal'c is here," Bra'tac continued, clearly wanting for this meeting to continue in the right direction. "Teal'c, how is the production of the new Ha'til class vessels proceeding?"
"The shipyards on Chulak, Nan'rok, and Kalesh are ahead of schedule," Teal'c responded. Those were the three most advanced shipyards they had until the day when the other two planned shipyards were completed on two other worlds under Bra'tac's control. They were currently in the process of building the third batch of Ha'til ships with many more to come soon after.
The Jaffa under Bra'tac understood the need to differentiate between types of ship, which prompted the addition of an entirely new class of ships, one they were currently missing. The Ha'tak IV was powerful and with its strong shields and weapons, it was capable of fighting several strong opponents at once. However, the ship was still a multipurpose vessel even after all the changes done to its initial design. The ship still had large rooms filled with gliders and other capable of holding a large number of soldiers or tons of cargo. The Tau'ri asked a simple question that needed to be answered. Was the Ha'tak an attack vessel, a carrier or a cargo ship? The answer was all of the above, which meant it wasn't a specialized ship with a clear purpose in battle. This had two large downsides. The Jaffa needed a lot of time and material to build them as it was larger than strictly necessary to fulfill a single role, and its unavoidably increased size limited its maneuverability. Except for the Ha'tak, the Jaffa had only the Al'kesh as the second type of ship, but everybody knew the Al'kesh was an obsolete design, impractical to use in every conceivable military role. Weak weapons and shields made it good only at transporting a small number of warriors or goods, the reason that hastily prompted the development of the Ha'til class vessel. An attack vessel of around 200 meters in length, narrower, more maneuverable than a Ha'tak, and with most of its weapons facing forward as it was decided that an attack vessel quick at turning should have the ability to bring most of its weaponry to bear at once. With its smaller size, the ship's volume and mass were around eight times less than that of a Ha'tak. It also meant that it needed eight times less material and it could be built many times faster. The addition of the second class of warships that can be mass produced, one strong enough to survive in a fight against enemies like the Reapers or Hunters, would give them many more tactical options than what they had right now with only one class of ships that needed to fill all roles.
"And what of the other shipyards we tasked with the construction of the Ha'til?" Bra'tac asked.
"That is a question that needs to be directed at council member Bre'lac, as his shipyards are the ones heavily lagging behind schedule," Teal'c replied without holding back.
"Bre'lac? Explain this at once," Bra'tac added.
It did seem the man was turning redder with each passing moment. "The changes needed to be made to our facilities before production of the new Ha'til ships can commence are not easy to make. Because of it, I have asked Teal'c if production of some components we are incapable of producing to be done in other shipyards instead, at least until we finish upgrading our production lines. However, I have not received even one of the components asked."
Bra'tac turned to face Teal'c. "Is this true?"
"It is. Councilor Bre'lac asked for assistance in this matter. However, I did inform him that our shipyards and other facilities are already working at their maximum capacity and that if we give him the asked components we produced, then the completion of the ships built in our shipyards would be delayed. There would be no point in doing this as it would result in no improved overall production of ships. Even now we only have one spare set of components Bre'lac has asked that we can give without hindering our own production. He asks for a minimum of ten sets to continue normal production until his factories are able to produce the same components. Also, the delay in the upgrade process of their production lines is no news and I have promptly suggested a solution to the problem. Yet, Bre'lac has discarded it and this is the result."
"I will not give access to our shipyards and production lines to the Tau'ri. We will make the necessary changes on our own."
"It is not only your unwillingness to allow the Tau'ri access to your worlds, but also your unwillingness to send your people to the Tau'ri to learn what's needed to operate those facilities more efficiently. The Tau'ri have graciously agreed to teach our people in the ways of their engineers, which many from Chulak, Nan'rok, and even Kalesh have done. As a result, many are now better qualified at working in our own facilities. Not to mention many were afterward able to improve on several production lines without any outside help. That is why we are able to build Ha'til and Ha'tak ships even ahead of schedule."
"I will not allow the Tau'ri access to our facilities and my people are unwilling to go to the Tau'ri to be taught. We will manage without them," Bre'lac replied the same thing with finality.
Teal'c wanted to smack the guy until he gave a complying answer. Then he thought to simply leave him to his misery, but the problem there was that all of the Jaffa would suffer the consequences of his obstinacy when the needed ships were not built on time. He knew the Reapers were not having trouble with their building schedule. "Would you be willing to allow Jaffa from Chulak to come and help in upgrading your facilities and teach your people? I believe we could do without a few of our engineers for a short period of time."
Teal'c could see the man changing color. The conflict between agreeing to receive help from someone who he despised and the wish to simply say no even though detrimental to their cause. "That would be agreeable."
"Bre'lac, could you say it a little louder? My old ears do not hear as they once did," Bra'tac asked with a smirk.
"I agree to allow Jaffa from Chulak to come and help upgrade our facilities and teach our people on how to operate them properly," Bre'lac said it, much louder this time.
The entire room was filled with people smirking. It was an incredible blow for a man like Bre'lac, but at least it seemed that the man was capable of putting his pride aside for the benefit of his people.
There was still hope, Teal'c thought.
"Eli, please come in," Lora said into the communication device she was holding.
"Eli here," Eli's voice came back from the same device.
"Eli, the Captain here is starting to feel restless. Any particular reason for the delay?" Lora asked, at the same time giving Young a glance, followed by a kind smile.
"We should already have started. My restless disposition is, therefore, a quite adequate response," Young said, a little miffed.
They had just dropped in the middle of nowhere where they were planning to fix the ship's largest systems, those systems that needed to be shut down first. Among those systems, the most prominent ones were the engines and the ship's energy capacitors. Both could be worked on only when the entire ship was shut down and he wasn't particularly looking forward to it.
To make matters worse, they finally understood how some hostile aliens were able to track the Destiny. They were able to understand it after Lora had upgraded the ship's sensors to current Alterran standards. Now they were able to follow the alien's movements while they were transiting through hyperspace, at least if they were close enough. By tracking them, they were able to determine that the aliens were also able to track them in return while the Destiny was in FTL, they just didn't have the means to intercept them while partially pushed outside of normal space, hence capable of traveling at speeds impossible for our space-time. Two times now they had appeared shortly after exiting FTL - both times in less than twenty minutes - and Young knew this time wouldn't be any different. The previous times they had been mere tests to know how much time they had before their unsolicited arrival. This time it wasn't a mere test. This time they were shutting down the ship for real, and the clock was already ticking.
And Eli was running late, of all things.
"I'm done," Eli's reply came, the same instant as all the systems across the ship went down.
"We can see that," Lora replied. They all started sensing a certain buoyancy, with the artificial gravity now gone. Other systems were going down, too, one by one. "Good job. How many capacitors have you emptied?"
"Three, which makes ten in total," Eli's response was heard. "I'm waiting now at the main station until all repairs are done."
Seven capacitors were completely shut down because some of their critical components had broken down a long time ago. The other three, the ones he had just fully squeezed of even the faintest trace of energy, had been working below acceptable efficiency levels and in dire need of being restored. If they manage to repair them as planned, the ship's energy reserves would climb from the current thirty percent to an outstanding eighty-two. However, the task in front of them wasn't an easy one. First thing Young had learned was that some of the capacitors were as large as an average bus, and they were also spread out across the entirety of the ship. However, the largest ones were close to the energy collectors located underneath the ship. Anyhow, their distribution unfortunately complicated matters further. They were prepared, though, Lora had guaranteed it. They had surveyed each and every one of them and found what was wrong with each individual unit. Still, the time was trickling inexorably and if the aliens were punctual – and there was no reason to believe they wouldn't be - they would be here in less than twenty minutes. They could not know exactly since the power was down and sensors were out of commission until repairs were completed and power was restored.
"I've already given the go ahead to all teams," Lora told Young. "Now we have to wait and see how much we are able to repair in such a limited amount of time."
"Give me a view of one of the shuttles then," Young asked. "I want to see how the upgrades are proceeding there."
Only moments later, the console began showing a view of the shuttle from the camera placed on the helmet of one of the engineers. He was climbing on top of the craft with some glassy, dark spherical cap in hand. If Young didn't know any better, he would think the man was carrying some light fixture previously stolen from his home back on Earth. Instead, he knew the man was carrying the latest in shield emitters to be placed on top of the shuttle.
Time was of the essence, though, which meant no fooling around with the installation. Everything had already been prepared ahead of time except for the few things that needed to be done on the outside of the craft only after Destiny's shield was down. As the engineer approached the top of the craft, his - or her, he did not know - visor began showing a superimposed, yellow wireframe representing the emitter's preset position, the exact spot where it needed to be placed. As the man did so, the wireframe began blinking green. It meant that he had placed it in the right spot. He then pushed a small indentation on the side of the round emitter. There was no change to be discerned, but Young knew that behind the scene, literally this time, nanites were fusing the emitter to the hull and were burrowing a miniature hole through which the connection between the emitter and the inside of the ship was to be established.
It took no more than a minute for the green wireframe to stop blinking. Now it was just showing a green wireframe, denoting the installation had successfully been completed. The rest was up to the people inside the craft who still needed to finish the connection with the previously installed shield generator, the one that, together with the installed mini-hyperdrive and a set of stacked Naquadah units that served to power everything, was taking a good chunk of the available space in the rear compartment of the shuttle.
With the task accomplished, the engineer slid down one side of the shuttle. Once there, Young could see a few more engineers entering his field of vision, apparently all busy changing thrusters, plasma cannons and also in the process of attaching more shield emitters. Frankly, they looked more like those mechanics who were members of a racing team, busy changing the car tires in less than eight seconds flat or otherwise the team would lose the first place in the race. It was apparent there was no time to be wasted, and every engineer there knew that.
"They are working fast," Young stated.
"Wouldn't you while working on the outside of the ship while knowing that hostile aliens are fast approaching?" Lora asked rhetorically.
"Point taken," Young agreed. "It is still worthy of praise, though."
"Eli, how are the repairs going on your end?" Lora asked.
"Six capacitors are ahead of schedule, one so-so, and the other three are making the engineers' life miserable," Eli reported. There was clearly a hint of frustration present in his voice.
"It seems not everything is going as planned," Young butted in.
"I knew about the three capacitors he's talking about and I have predicted that not all would be repaired in the little time we have. Not everything will be repaired in the first attempt. If the engineers are unable to fix them in time, their task is to sever the connection with the rest of the ship. Then we will have as much time as we want to fix them on a later time. Though, another shutdown will be needed to reconnect them back to the power system."
"How are the repairs of the engine proceeding?" Young asked, eagerly. This was the last of the must-fix components on their list.
"Adrienn, how are the repairs on the engine's unit proceeding?" Lora asked over the comm. device.
"Estimated fifteen to twenty minutes," the to-the-point reply of Adrienn, an Alterran engineer, came back.
"Not going to make it," Young stated. Even under the best of circumstances, the aliens should be on top of them ten minutes from now. Knowing his luck, they were going to be here in half that time.
"The shuttles' modifications on the outside are done. Ten more minutes and the crews working inside it will have finished the connections and software diagnostics necessary to accept the newly installed systems as well. You will have your mini-warships as requested, Captain."
Young wanted to counter, but he knew she had said it in jest. In the months they had spent together on the Destiny he had learned that Lora liked to point out any and all warlike tendencies the Terrans had. And since he'd been the one to ask her to modify the two shuttles into something resembling attack fighters, he was her preferred target to be jabbed with such pointy innuendoes. The first reaction was to be annoyed by it, but in the end, she was right and he didn't mind hearing her opinion. It wasn't strange that on this mission the military personnel weren't Alterra, or Asgard, or much less a member of the Nox race. They'd agreed on the Terrans being tasked with it because the older races knew that the best way to successfully accomplish their mission when it involved fighting weird aliens was to place the right people in the right places. Nobody was offended when Lora was selected as the lead scientist. In the same fashion, the Alterra concurred that in military matters, the Terrans were far ahead of the Edenians or Asgard. Give the Terrans technology on par with other more advanced races, and the universe will tremble in fear, and rightly so.
Almost as much as when the infamous Felger starts working on a new invention of his.
"I assure you, sooner or later you'll be glad those two shuttles can protect themselves," Young said. There would soon come a time when he will ask Lora to start a pretty ambitious project of making a drone production line and to modify the ship so that the ZPM can be used to power the incredibly advanced offensive system. He knew the Alterran would roll her eyes, would huff and puff on how it is completely unnecessary to turn the Destiny into a veritable warship, but he was confident he could wear her down, in time. In the short time he had been on the Destiny, he also understood that it was better to discuss the matter with the Alterra, even if it took days, instead of simply ordering them. He was the mission commander and he had the authority to order her to build it, but he knew it would be done scornfully. Apparently, it was a racial thing, probably the result of the Alterra having a long lifespan and hence have evolved in such a way. They thrived on debates, even if it took days or weeks. If ordered to do something, they wouldn't be angered because of him asserting his authority. They would be angered because he'd stopped a debate before all avenues of discussion weren't yet fully explored and understood.
Apparently, there were differences between their two races. After twenty minutes, he wanted for any discussion to be over, even by giving in. He had plenty of those with his ex-wife. Though he had to admit, discussions with the Alterra were much better, for, if able to provide a rationale to his thinking, he could eventually win any debate. He hadn't been so lucky while debating with his wife.
"The set up provisional sensor system has detected a ship in the vicinity. They are here," Lora stated, as a result, shifting in her chair nervously. "Are you certain of this plan?"
"Too late now for second guessing, but, just for the sake of answering, yes, I'm sure," Young stated. "Are they close enough?"
"Yes."
"Then do as planned," Young said.
Lora worked, and with the help of the provisional system, set up just for when the main power was down, the sublight engines fired. The ship was slowly moving, but after it made a mere mile, the engines spurted three times in quick succession and then died completely. As a result of the abrupt interruption of the propulsion system, the Destiny took an uncontrollable downward pitch rotation.
The large ship was now tumbling through space, as planned.
The alien ship stopped its approach less than ten miles from the Destiny, currently matching speed and direction perfectly. Suddenly, from the ship, a much smaller craft, even smaller than one of their shuttles, exited on a direct course for the Destiny. The craft steadily synced with the awkward rotation of the larger ship in order to land.
"They've landed," Lora stated simply, waiting for the console to show more. "I am now detecting two alien life signs inside of the Destiny. They have breached the outer hull."
She said it with so much venom in her voice that it made Young doubtless of her highly angered state. By making a new hole in the ship, no matter if small or large, they had made an enemy of her, and they would pay. "Their movement?"
"One signal is moving toward the chair room. The other is moving toward Eli and the largest cluster of engineers working in the main capacitor room," Lora explained.
"The former would suggest they've already had the ship's schematics instructing them where the chair room is. Maybe they even boarded the ship before, who knows. The latter it means they have sensors capable of detecting our people."
"I agree," Lora stated. "Do you think they'll notice the doors are working? Or do you think they'll make new holes in them?"
"I don't know. Let's hope they are good guests," Young said, puzzled at what troubled Lora at such a time. "ETA?"
Lora looked back at the console. "Can't be sure. Maybe five minutes to reach Eli, and double that for the other to reach the chair room. And if you are about to ask how our people are doing, most work is done except for two capacitors and the engine unit. The first alien will surely reach its target before they are finished.
"Are those the capacitors that are troubling to repair?"
"They are. I am giving the engineers as much time as I can, but if they haven't completed the repairs by the time the engine unit is repaired, I'm ordering them to cut the two capacitors off. We'll work on them while disconnected from the power system.
"Agreed," Young stated, stretching a little. He was feeling a little stiff today. Too many hours spent on his chair planning the refurbishing of the ship. "Well, there's not much else to do than wait and see."
… in the meantime, in the capacitor room
Stacked neatly in the main power room, six capacitors stood. They were big, each easily three meters tall, five wide, and seven long. Of the six in this particular room, four were in desperate need of repairs. Eli had purged them of all residual energy before engineers could even come near them. Before the operation began, they have identified all components that have sustained significant wear-and-tear as well as the outright broken ones. Instead of trying to repair everything, since time was of the essence, they concluded that the best course of action was to replicate the components beforehand, and then switch them as quickly as possible when the power was shut down. Of course, they could not do that with every capacitor. There were components as big as or even bigger than a car that also necessitated maintenance. Those could not be swapped without lengthy work possibly lasting hours or even days. Trying to repair instead of swapping those components was also out of the question. Thankfully, those components didn't preclude the functioning of the capacitor. They rather influenced its overall efficiency in storing energy. They would do even without working at a hundred percent because, no matter what they did today, Destiny would never again be a new and fully functional ship. That is, not without spending six months minimum inside a veritable shipyard.
If the information coming from Lora was precise, and he thought it was, they would soon have a visitor knocking on their door. Funny. The moment he said that he had also sensed a foreign presence nearby. It might have been subconsciously done, the moment he thought about it. He had just reached out and sensed his surroundings.
Telepathy.
As explained by more knowledgeable people than he was, namely a bunch of Alterra who had the Repository of Knowledge downloaded into their brains, there were many types of telepathy. There was the type when you felt emotions in others, there was then the type when you could read surface thoughts, and there was also the type where you could probe someone's mind, intrusively, for whatever information you wanted to learn. There was telepathy capable of influencing people, or even such as to take full control of an individual even against his conscious will. And of course, there was the precursor of all of those mentioned above and that was the ability to simply sense the presence of someone's mind near you.
Eli was the oddball. He had been the oddball even before Earth knew about aliens. Humans tend to use three to five percent of their brain for the menial, everyday tasks necessary to survive. It wasn't much, but in his opinion, most on Earth were doing well on a daily basis with much, much less than that. He, on the other hand, had been using around 17 percent of his brain when tested some seven years ago. Nobody knew what that meant exactly, especially since it seemed that there wasn't any structure to the regions of the brain he was using. It was all a jumbled random mess, and scientists could only agree - in principle at least - how higher percentages were better than lower ones. So, he had been tested and tested and found even more of an oddball than how he'd felt during high school, a time when, while he was doing all the math in his head, others were sweating bullets while using scores of sheets scribbled on as an aid to solve the simplest of math problems.
Then, some five years ago, he had joined the Terrans as a math prodigy. It appears the people in charge of the stargate had been making video games and sites on the internet with puzzles meant to find special people capable of solving real problems that weren't placed on the internet just to waste a person's afternoon. They had come to his home and gave him a job that he promptly accepted ten minutes later. The benefits were such that his mother would get the best medical care while he was going to help defend Earth against aliens! He was still an oddball, but he had found a purpose in life, a place where his oddness was an asset.
Then Genesis came.
The Genesis Project was meant to improve your stats. In his mind, Genesis was like finally leveling up. Everybody who went through it got a massive boost to their strength, endurance and agility characteristics. These changes were also similar throughout all those who went through it. Though with the intelligence characteristic, things were different. On average a human went from using five percent of his or her brain to using fifteen percent after the treatment. And here was where the mess began because the change affected random regions of the brain. The result was that some people were remembering things better, other were suddenly capable of multiplying large numbers with ease, and others did not feel any change at all. There was also the problem that if he went through Genesis and the process was consistent, then he could end up with a diminished brain capacity. Thankfully, there were a few who scored above twenty and went through the process without any negative effects, which gave him the fortitude to go through it too.
And he leveled up at 38 percent brain activity. The highest score on Earth.
It also seemed that in some rare cases, a special skill would be added to your stats. In his case, he got 'Telepathic Sixth Sense' added. His highest score and specific ability to sense living creatures close to him, going so far as to discern who the person was before they even came into visual range, had prompted the Terrans to turn him into a sort of guinea pig to be tested, and tested, and prodded, and then tested a little more. Actually, one of the reasons why he had decided to come to Destiny was to shake those self-proclaimed experts in this new field called Psionics from bothering him. He hadn't understood back then how stubborn these people were. He did understand when two of them followed him through the stargate to this several billion light years distant and several million years old ship.
They would never leave him alone, he knew it. He would die of old age with one of them having hooked electrodes to his skull while monitoring what was going on inside that brain of his. They were also making him do tasks supposedly to measure if there were changes or not and to see if he had some other latent skill still not added to his personal stat sheet. It was true that since the initial change he had gained three more percent. He was now at 41 percent, with the last one percent jump having happened only last week. It was making the two Psionic 'experts' all giddy about it. He didn't know why and he suspected they didn't either. Frankly, nobody knew what was going on with him, not even the few Alterra he had asked. Some were saying that this is a normal reaction because they were forcing him to do mental tasks tailored to improve his abilities and, as they explained it, to reach his true potential. To him, it all sounded like pure bullshit, and there were also others who thought that doing multiplications in his head or stuff like that didn't do squat to change his brain usage. Whatever the truth was, though, he had to admit that it was becoming easier to sense others around him and discern who they were.
Just like now. He could feel many minds around him, but only one felt foreign to him. It was a powerful mind, not like when he sensed a dog or some other animal near him. No, the mind that he was feeling was complex. Complex as a Terran mind or maybe even more so, he couldn't be certain. He turned toward the door and saw it standing there. A tall, bluish alien.
Eli saw him, and the alien saw him back. They were staring at each other, the alien still outside in the hall while Eli was near one of the large capacitors, less than ten meters away. The alien had some weird pistol in his left hand, and a wristband with some gadgets on it on the right one, and a strange tight black suit that covered his body. The alien began walking, intent on coming inside the large power room.
The alien unceremoniously slammed with its face into a suddenly visible blue forcefield. The alien was looking at the frame of the door, probably trying to see where the emitters were in order to disable them. The alien then looked at Eli, letting out some strange and, most probably, very angry sound Eli could only categories as inhuman. To tell the truth, the alien almost sounded like a rooster.
It would have been better for the alien if he had the telepathic sixth sense skill among his other skills, whatever those might be, just like Eli did. If he did, he would have sensed another presence very near him. With the useful skill, the alien would have known that beside him there was a cloaked human, though he wouldn't know that it was wearing the marine version of the Terran power armor. Even with that skill, it would not have helped him one bit.
Eli saw as something grabbed the alien's hand that was holding the gun. Then, he saw several abrupt movements the alien's head forcefully made caused by nothing else than Greer using him as a punching bag. Three punches with a fist encased inside a power armor's glove, and the now bloodied alien wasn't there anymore, at least not mentally. It was bleeding, drooling and mostly glaring at a nondescript point on the floor completely out of it.
"Ouch. That had to hurt," Eli stated. He was hoping Greer didn't go too far. They needed somebody to interrogate and find who these aliens were after all. Somebody that hadn't been turned into a vegetable. Not his worry, though. His job right now was to deal with the capacitors.
"Eli, the engine unit has been repaired. I will need the power back in two minutes," Lora's voice came over his earpiece.
"Will do, Eli out," Eli replied, immediately moving toward one of the two capacitors that were giving them a headache and the chief engineer standing there and overseeing the repairs. "How are we doing?"
"Not good. We need at least half an hour to repair them," the engineer reported regretfully.
"Cut them off the grid. We need the power back online in one minute," Eli said. There was no time to discuss this.
The chief talked to one engineer and then went talking to another. Eli couldn't see what the other was doing but the first engineer took some cutting tool that easily burned the three inches thick superconductive cable connected to the capacitor. He was sure the other guy had done the same.
The chief engineer came back. "It is done."
Eli tapped his earpiece. "Lora, I'm reestablishing power throughout the ship now." He worked on the tablet in his hand, and seconds later, the ship came back to life. They wouldn't need the magnetic boots to move around anymore, and the air would soon become warmer and less stale, thanks to the re-engaged life support system.
"Thank you, Eli. Power has been restored throughout the ship," he heard Lora's voice through his earpiece.
His job was done.
… Lora and Young back on the bridge
"He didn't have to hit him so hard!" Lora protested.
Young was rolling his eyes. Five minutes ago he had watched through Scott's camera as the alien had entered the chair room. Scott was cloaked and the alien was blissfully unaware of his presence. The alien moved to the rear of the chair, quickly connecting some cables from his wristband. It took him about a minute before the alien put a strange and puzzling expression on his face. No wonders there since they had copied and then erased all data from the chair, all done more than a week ago.
In the meantime, Scott had sneaked behind the alien, still very much embroiled in trying to find out what was wrong with the chair. Scott had then decloaked, just before tapping twice on the alien's left shoulder. It seemed even these aliens had similar facial expressions as humans did when conveying surprise and fear, as that was exactly what they were seeing once the alien had turned and saw a six hundred pounds metallic monster standing there. The uppercut that sent it flying above and beyond the chair ended its general cluelessness, the same instant as his conscious thoughts, whatever those might have been.
"It isn't easy to limit the power of those powered suits," Young defended, although he knew very well that Scott could have gone easier on the poor alien. Hopefully, they would quickly learn enough about their alien physiology to provide it with first aid.
Lora was giving him a glare conveying her incredulity, but they needed to deal with other matters now. "We have power now and it is only a matter of moments before their ship realizes that."
"Be ready to raise shields on the first sign of threat," Young said before tapping his earpiece. "Lorenz, come in."
"Lorenz here," the voice came over the comm.
"Have you disabled their craft?" Young asked.
"Not exactly, Captain. Disabling their craft is a no go. Too many unknown systems," Lorenz's response came.
"We need that ship disabled. It could have a self-destruct capable of blowing a good chunk of where it is attached to the Destiny's hull."
"Already ahead of you, Captain. I placed small explosives below the craft. Our hull will have to be painted again, but their craft will be blown away. Do I have permission to proceed?"
"You have," Young responded. They needed the thing gone.
A light tremor was felt, just before Lorenz's reply came. "The craft is gone, Captain."
"Good job," Young stated before terminating the connection. He then turned to Lora. "Raise the shield and power weapons and engines. Get us moving on a trajectory parallel to the alien ship and inside our ship weapons' range"
"I have done as you've asked, however, Captain, I don't have to remind you that our energy reserves after the purge are at eleven percent, and we still need to find a suitable star, possibly far from here, where to recharge the capacitors."
In order to purge the energy from the capacitors before they could be serviced, Eli had shunned all that energy into the recently rebuilt shielding system of the Destiny. It meant that, as far as shields went, they were currently overpowered and ready to absorb whatever the aliens threw at them. However, the main reserves were dangerously low, and they needed to find a suitable star to recharge them, hopefully, charged to a much higher degree than before. Still, the annoying aliens would most certainly chase them and they would be in the same predicament during recharge as they were now, or it could be even worse.
"I know that we do. However, if we knock the aliens a little, they may have to spend some time here repairing their ship, during which time we could recharge the ship," Young explained as he sat in his chair on the bridge. He had taken control of the weapons now.
"I cannot fault your logic, Captain, except if for the risk of wasting our reserves if you fail in damaging the alien ship in any meaningful way," Lora stated.
"There is that to think about, yes. However, I am a very optimistic person, and the aliens still don't know what is going on," Young replied, but most of his attention was now on the slowly diminishing distance between them and the alien ship. Lora had put their ship on a tangent with the alien ship. They would pass it maybe a few hundred kilometers on their starboard side. Suddenly, the icon of the main cannon turned yellow. He had familiarized himself with the system and he knew that yellow meant they had entered extreme weapons range. It was a dynamic system in which the computer calculated the value based on the little information it had about the enemy and the capabilities of their weapons. Extreme range meant both that the alien ship had a chance of evading and that the fired energy bolt could have its containment matrix destabilized before impact.
As they continued pushing further, the alien ship fired first.
The impact was felt throughout the ship. The aliens had some powerful main weapon at their disposal. He did not have to ask, as his console was showing everything he needed to know about their shield status. He had seen as the shield matrix was far from being overloaded. With the newly installed emitters and the shield generator brought back to standard, it would take a ten times stronger punch to overwhelm it. The only other option for the alien was to hit the ship so many times that it depletes its considerable reserve. They were not going to spend that much time here; that was for certain.
The icon of the main gun finally turned green. Young put the slider up to seventy percent, the amount of power the engineers told him the weapon was capable of firing with the patchwork they had applied. They also told him not to use it more than two or three times in quick succession or their work could come undone. As the inputted targeting solution was accepted by the system, he pushed the firing button.
An orange bolt of destructive energy raced from the underside of the Destiny and impacted the shield of the alien vessel exactly in front of the weapon it fired from only seconds ago. The instruments were showing there was no penetration, however, the shield did sustain considerable strain. Destiny's sensors detected the impact and analyzed the enemy's shield complexity and modulation. In mere seconds the ship modified its main weapon to improve its penetrability.
Young pushed the firing button again, and the tri-barrel fired from its central one this time. The impact happened again in the same spot. This time the impact had caused increased stress on the alien shield and there was also a spurt of energy that went through impacting the hull beneath. Unfortunately, it did not harm their main weapon, easily discernable since another bolt came rushing back at them. The Destiny shook again. The analysis was showing that the aliens were trying to modulate their weapon as well in order to penetrate the shield. Young knew they would not succeed.
However, thanks to the second impact, the latest modifications to their own main cannon would change things. The third bolt raced from the Destiny and impacted the alien ship. Young didn't know if it was the sole doing of their weapon, or if they got lucky and hit it just as it was charging. No matter what the reason was, the alien main cannon blew up in a spectacular way, which was the important part.
The Destiny was sliding next to the alien ship, and Young selected the secondary weapons array, put it on full auto and raised the slider up to full power. He then pushed the firing button, which on full auto remained pressed down.
The many turrets on the port side began barking bolts of destructive energy as if there was no tomorrow, all of them configured for maximum effect. He turned to look at Lora with a smile, but it didn't last long. Lora looked pretty annoyed, and she was tapping on her monitor for some reason. She was apparently trying to tell him something. He glanced back at his monitor, and in the upper corner, he saw the energy reserves just went to 9.3%. The main weapon was a power hog, there was no other explanation. Three shots not even at full power took almost two percent of Destiny's precious reserves.
He quickly pressed the already depressed firing button again, effectively stopping the weapons from firing. "Plot a course for the nearest suitable star. Let's recharge our reserves, shall we?"
Lora worked on her console, and seconds later a slight tremor was felt. They were back in FTL. "Done. As you can see, Captain, although old, the Destiny is able to protect itself from threats. No need for the mini-warships you asked or anything else."
"Actually, I was thinking that we could maybe make a small drone production line and a launch system," he asked, knowing she wouldn't like it. No matter what, the drones were ideal to be added to the ancient ship. They'd need very little changes in it, except to make a hole from where to shoot them from.
"I was about to ask why would we ever need such an advanced weapon system on our mission, but then I remembered that you Terrans don't need a reason for adding more weapons," Lora said, her expression still conveying annoyance. "You realize that a production line for the drones is among the most difficult to make and that it has many components that are very difficult to produce. Furthermore, I don't believe we have the blueprints for the Mark III drones. Even for the Mark II, you need the high energy subspace band transfer technology your scientist Rodney McKay invented. This will considerably complicate production of all the components.
"Then make the Mark I drones. The original version. I don't need some increased destructive power, I just need them to be able to pass through their shield and disable them. I also need them because of the same reason as for why I wanted the fast attack ships. I want a way to shoot at an enemy even if it stands behind us with more than just a few small plasma turrets.
There was a beeping sound coming from the console. "The alien ship is broadcasting a subspace signal."
"Any way we can translate what the message says?" Young asked.
"We do not know their language. In order to translate, we would need to know at least that much," Lora added.
"That makes sense. With all the tech we have at our disposal, I sometimes forget that it isn't magic that can do anything."
Again, there was another beep coming from the console. "I am detecting a ship with the same hyper-signature as the alien ship we just fought."
"Where?" young asked.
"It is seven thousand light years from us. Their general direction is towards us, or maybe the other alien vessel, I cannot know. We are still too close to each other to differentiate our locations," Lora said noticing something else. "There's another one… and another… and another."
Lora had stopped speaking, now fully immersed in staring at the console. Apparently, there were more. Young let her a minute before asking. "How many?"
"Seven in a radius of seven thousand light years," Lora responded.
"Am I correct in assuming that's because our sensors can reach only that far out?" young asked. He didn't know for certain, but he knew their sensor could not detect a hyper-footprint everywhere in the galaxy. There were limits to what even their new sensor suite was capable of.
"Yes, seven thousand is the farthest we can detect other ships during their hyper-transit," Lora responded, still a little phased. Apparently, she thought there wouldn't be so many alien warships to worry about, and seven thousand light years radius meant there could be many times that number in this galaxy that was almost double the size of the Milky Way.
"So, I believe we were discussing building a small drone production line, yes?" Young said knowingly while smiling.
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