Author's note: Another long chapter is here for you to read. Unfortunately, my schedule is pretty hectic right now, so, I don't have much more already written and ready to be posted. I'm hoping to soon catch some free time to write a draft for the next batch of chapters. If not, regrettably, chapters will start coming out slower than they are now.
Q&A:
Chronus1326: Well, the sphere is on its way back. Not much to write about that. It will be mentioned soon and a few things will be explained, but not in great detail, I'm afraid. Not until the time for the sphere to truly shine comes. And, yes, it is true that larger the scope of the story, with many galaxies to write about, it becomes easy to skip on a few things. Larger the story, fewer details you write. For now, I'm focusing on giving a good picture of the current state of the MW galaxy through various angles. Soon, the Sphere and those who will go on the offensive will get more in focus, while the MW will take a back seat.
The silver Ebon Hawke: the second book ends somewhere around the middle of the year 2011. The third book begins in 2014. As far as the intelligence report goes, well, some time ago I wrote quite a detailed one and then lost almost everything. The document got overwritten somehow with an older version, which royally ticked me off. I tried to write it again, however, haven't made much progress. Also, with the limited amount of time I have at my disposal, I prefer to write a new chapter for the story than devoting considerable time on the report.
Thanks to my beta, and hope you'll enjoy this chapter too
"I don't know, Sam. I don't think that's a good idea. I'm sorry," Jack said apologetically.
On the other hand, Sam looked angry, bordering to being pissed through the roof. "It was your idea, remember?"
"I know it was, but at the time I didn't think it would go the way it did."
"And in what way did you think it would go?"
"I'm not sure. I think I thought it would be… less than what it turned out to be. This is serious stuff. Not sure how to explain better."
"You're not explaining yourself at all."
"Look, I know the way our dreadnoughts were was bad. A single antiproton beam couldn't justify the construction of a two kilometers long behemoth and a tonnage far above its punching weight. But this - Gah! - I don't even know how to present this thing! It was better if it wasn't ready today, of all days. What would this ship's role even be?"
"Long range artillery-ship," Sam deadpanned. "Works for me!"
Jack sighed. The thing was ugly, there was no way around it, and he wasn't about to have it displayed in front of the various dignitaries the likes of the Nox or the Tollans. They would have a fit, without hesitation, thinking the Terrans had finally switched to the dark side. He wasn't sure how Thor would react and he knew the gray alien was more inclined to agree with his big-honking-space-gun philosophy than most. Actually, this could be the thing even he couldn't agree with.
Worse than that, since they had already built many dreadnoughts and only recently decided that now that the battlecruisers and heavy cruisers with their newly installed QDBs could harm the Vargas just fine, the dreadnoughts weren't that much more powerful as they should be for their larger size and increased complexity in being produced. That meant some rethinking was in order, a rethinking that would rather upgrade the existing ships instead of forcing them to design and then build completely new ones.
So, what the R&D freaks had done was to, instead of one relativistic antiproton beam, put a tri-barrel in its place, which was ludicrous to even think about while talking about an almost two kilometers long antiparticle accelerator. They would have probably made an antiproton Gatling too, but, thankfully, they had no clue on how to actually do it. A tri-barrel was now possible since the massive cannons didn't need to generate the antimatter on-the-fly as it was the case before. They now had the stuff coming out of the Clava Thessara Infinitas, thanks to Argos who had spent five million years generously making as much of it as the excess energy from the two stars would accumulate in the too small for comfort pocket universe. The tri-barrel could now fire one shot every 40 seconds instead of the previous three minutes. It wasn't much different than having three separate particle accelerators, though. They just shared some components in order to squeeze them all neatly one next to each other, hence saving on the already very limited amount of space - a hindrance always present aboard ships - which saved them from having to build a completely new type of vessel.
Such a change could have gone almost unnoticed as it was only a small cosmetic one – at least that was when observed from the outside - whilst the biggest differences were inside and hence hidden, but they were under strict orders to make the ship something much more than what it currently was. So, they decided that putting two on top, two starboard, and two port additional antimatter beam cannons of the smaller type, the same type that was being utilized by the defensive satellites, would be a great idea. Since the ship was now stacked with only guns that had a massive firing range, there was no point in putting other weapons with a considerably shorter one, right? So, they had removed everything else, then put inside the ship a massive Wraith storage system for as many long range missiles as possible and for drones with a special delivery system that looked like an ugly box with jumping capabilities or, if FTL wasn't available, a pulse gravitic engine capable of 10000 gees of brutal acceleration. Each system could deliver a thousand of the new hyper drones Mark III over vast distances where they could be spat out in droves through the ten available ports. The nutjobs in the R&D had also decided that having hangar bays for what they were creating was a waste of time, space, and materials, so they removed those completely. The end result was a ship looking like a long and somewhat smoothed brick with some oversized weapons ungainly attached on all sides except below it.
"If you didn't look at it and instead simply went through the ship's specs, you'll begin to salivate copiously in very short order. A long range platform that can fire almost constantly from at least one of the many antiproton guns it has isn't something to be frowned upon," Sam said, almost pleading.
"I'm not against what the ship has become! I'm against showing it in public. Ever! Did some of the Alterrans see it?"
Sam didn't want to respond.
"Sam?"
"Yeah?"
"Who saw it?"
"I don't remember his name," Sam replied, clearly not wanting to elaborate any further.
"Do I know him? What does he do for a living? What color are his eyes? Give me something to work with here!"
"The guy's heading the Edenian Council."
"And?"
"And he thinks we are nuts, alright!" Sam replied. "Look, I know the thing is uglier than a mud fence, or uglier than the east end of a horse headed west, uglier than a lard bucket full of armpits even – I don't know, I'm trying to come up with ways to describe how ugly it is, but I'm falling short of expressing it properly and with enough fervor. Anyway, the thing is fucking ugly, and we will probably have to hide it from our allies – and children - if we don't want them to be afraid of us. But, Jack, that thing in enough numbers can end even larger battles with a clean victory from a range where the enemy can barely see us and only by employing some fancy sensors."
She was exaggerating, but she also had a point.
"I agree. Upon seeing how they look, the Vargas will simply give up," Jack deadpanned, then thought of something. "What can possibly power all these weapons?"
"Actually, that's not a problem. For one, the new pulse reactors are giving more power than ever before, and two, since the weapons don't need to generate the antimatter themselves before firing, they are a lot less energy intensive. It somehow all compensates in the end, and the ship can also charge a ZPM on its own, even a tad faster than before."
"I can't believe that I'm contemplating ordering all of our dreadnoughts to be modified in the same way," Jack said while scratching his head in frustration.
"You know that one of our current battlecruisers with its QDBs can kill a Vargas ship almost as easy as an unmodified dreadnought can. The additional range of a single antiparticle cannon simply doesn't excuse an almost tenfold increase in expenditure in building a dreadnought over a battlecruiser," Sam explained.
"I know, I know. It also fits in our overall naval doctrine. The Defiants are the fast attackers. Go in fast and hard while evading from being hit. The heavy cruisers have the highest offensive strength per tonnage while retaining superior maneuverability against all known Vargas ships. The battlecruisers are the most resilient, with well-balanced offensive and defensive capabilities. Supercarriers can transport the most in terms of smaller craft anywhere we need. And now the Dreadnoughts would take the role of the long-range gunboats, those that always fire first delivering a nasty initial punch, all ships small enough to pass through a supergate. With a few hundred dreadnoughts, each with seven antimatter beams strapped on their hull, relativistic or otherwise, a volley can put almost fifteen hundred shots in the first three minutes of a fight! Okay, ugly or not, we need to have them!" Jack said eagerly. Now that he had worked the math, he felt a lot more enthusiastic than he did a minute ago… and screw how ugly the thing was!
"Now we're talking!" Sam responded, happy they were moving along.
"Then we put the ship classified as top secret, level 9, with clear instructions that while it is in any of our systems, it must stay under cloak so that nobody can see it. Like, ever! It's not just dignitaries from other worlds. Our people shouldn't see something like that either. Children would have nightmares, that's for sure, and parents would have to answer some awkward questions."
"Complicating much?" Sam asked. "It's not that ugly… right?"
He said nothing. Just glared at her.
"Okay, it is ugly… and intimidating… and something that only somebody completely insane would ever build. Okay, we are hiding it for as long as we can manage," Sam agreed.
"Up until the war is over and then we are putting them back in the Clavata Thessara Infinitas to never be taken out again! All of them!"
"Agreed," Sam said. "Which means that we are showing only the battlecruiser today, right?"
"Yes, we are," Jack said, but there was something still bothering him. "Remind me again why we are doing this? Didn't we say that we are going to limit our interaction with the locals in our galaxy? It seems to me that we are going back and forth on our decisions. This smells to me like Daniel's doing."
"We never said that we are going to shun all human races in the Milky Way galaxy. We are just not planning on making alliances or any kind of binding deals with them," Sam explained. "Talking is still fine."
"And what about the Tollans?"
"That's different. That's not an alliance request and they are in a different position than the rest," Sam asked.
"Maybe. It still came as a surprise when they asked," Jack contemplated. "And when the Langarans heard, they jumped on the Tollan-wagon in a heartbeat."
"We were contemplating adding the Tollans to our federation even before they asked, but we didn't want to be the ones to make the pitch. They are numbering in a little over ten thousand, but they are nonetheless still ahead of every other human race by a large margin. Once joined, they would still have their own planetary government, just like any other planet in our federation, yet they could benefit from selling their technology and services to the rest of the federation, making a very nice living out of it. Not to mention, them not having to worry about building their own defenses and navy" Sam explained, clearly very much liking the idea of the Tollans joining.
"The technology is the problem. We can't allow them to sell things like those over-the-top generators that caused the destruction of not one, but two planets in their system of origin and the extinction of the idiots who abused them. I'm not placing one of those things on Earth or any of our colonies," Jack said, with resolve. With the Fusion reactors Earth now had, they were able to produce 1.7 times the entire planetary energy needs, and even if Murphy put his paw and the worst came to pass, the only thing that could happen was a reactor meltdown. Not even radiation to worry about, as fusion was much cleaner that way than nuclear fission could ever be.
"Of course not. We limit what they can sell to other planets."
"If they go for it."
"If they don't, we don't approve their entry into our society. However, in this whole talk about the Tollans, you're actually forgetting that we are talking about the Tollans. Are you truly worried that they will sell technology that can go boom on other planets in our federation? They will probably celebrate when we tell them that we don't want them to share any technology that can be dangerous."
"True enough. If the role were reversed, it would be a different story. I'm actually worried about the wrong people here. Still, what about the request the Langarans made? They are not at the level of the Tollans. I'm also not sure how we are going to incorporate them. That is if we decide to do it."
"Easy. Actually, the sooner the better."
"Easy?" Jack asked. "How? And why the sooner the better?"
"We solved the problem of incorporating new worlds when we almost started treating Earth like a new one. We decided to give Earth a package with the necessary knowledge to further develop on their own, and then we left the planet to deal with it on its own. We do the same with the Langarans with the same package as well as to give them the federal rulebook they must abide by. The rest is up to them."
"You make it sound so easy. What about Genesis?" In his opinion, there were so many problems in incorporating other races into the Terran Federation that it wasn't even funny. One of them was that the Terran Federation was a new entity, only three years old, and it didn't need complications at such an early juncture.
"Genesis is the reason why the Tollans asked us to join in the first place. Only now they feel that we're their peers and worthy of joining. Both the Tollans and Langarans have diverged considerably in their evolution so Genesis wouldn't even work on them. Which is a good thing, too."
"Why is it a good thing?"
"Genetic diversity. By joining, the Terran Federation will have a much larger genetic pool, and that's a good thing. It allows for possible evolutionary paths not even Liam has contemplated at being possible."
"I get that, but don't you think that the Langarans will resent our lifespan of 250-300 years?" Jack knew they would.
"Some will, some won't. That's part of life. Besides, most of it can be mitigated by spreading readily available medicine. Even people on Earth who decided not to go through Genesis will soon have their lifespan doubled. We just need to make sure the serum we retrieved from the Aschen database doesn't contain the sterility component anymore."
"Why not use the serum the Aschen used themselves?"
"Jack, the serum they used is the same as the one they gave to other planets," Sam explained.
"What? How? Why? Wait! Why didn't I know about this?" Jack said, feeling somewhat confused at the moment.
"You must have got a memo about it quite some time ago – a year ago maybe. We also discovered three months ago that we can modify it to remove that particular feature of the drug. We then started thinking about introducing it on Earth for those who weren't going through Genesis or those that wouldn't get the treatment in time before reaching sixty-five. You should have got that memo too."
"Damn memos!" Jack spat the words with apparent distaste. If he knew about this, his last talk with Hayes would probably have gone differently. At least Daniel had the excuse that he didn't know about the progress they'd clearly made in recent months because the last three months he had spent being chased by monsters. He didn't have that excuse up his sleeve. "Still, memo or no memo, how did the Aschen use the same serum? Are they immune?"
"Not even close," Sam responded with a wicked smile.
"Oh, I am so not gonna like this, am I?"
"Probably not. Anyway, what we learned is that using the serum before turning thirty doesn't make any difference, not on a person's overall longevity anyway. So, what the Aschen did was to simply have children before turning thirty, after which they would take the serum, or otherwise live their entire lives without having any children. It was probably a way to limit their growth rate. Actually, some think that's exactly how they came to make the serum in the first place. It wasn't envisioned as a weapon, not at first. It became one when they met the Volians and decided to give them the same Serum. They only forgot to mention to have lots of children beforehand."
"It makes sense. For unemotional, amoral sociopaths, it fits perfectly," Jack finally understood. "If we are able to, let's say, refine their serum that means the Langarans should have their lifespan doubled, right? A hundred and fifty, give or take, is not the same as two hundred and fifty or three hundred, but it isn't that far off either."
"And the Tollans have their own medicine and technology. Did you know that Travell was ninety-one when we first met her?"
"Really? Would have placed her in her sixties at the most," Jack replied. The Tollans were different, he knew that. Analyzed remains found on Tollana told a peculiar tale about the Tollans that even they did not know. It seems the Tollans share many genes with the late Lanteans. It was postulated that the Tollans are descendants of the by now defunct Lanteans who had returned to Earth and had decided to live a simple life with the local populous, wherever they had decided to place roots. Further investigation showed how they must have inhabited a small region in today's southern Italy. They eventually died and their descendants were taken by some Goa'uld to another planet, after which, somehow, they freed themselves or maybe were abandoned by the Goa'uld after the Naquadah mines dried out. The way the Tollans had retained their cultural heritage and language, it is probable that they had spent very little time under Goa'uld dominion.
"They would probably benefit from the Aschen serum too, though," Sam added.
"So, I gather they are all ending up benefitting from joining the Terran Federation, but what is the Federation profiting in return? In addition to genetic diversity, I mean," Jack asked.
"In the short term, mostly we on a federal level benefit from the Tollans. Their scientists employed directly by the Federation could work on theories that frankly we still have trouble coming to grasps with. It is one thing learning about it from a database like the one in Atlantis, it's another to have someone who has learned that stuff since childhood explains it to you. In some ways, the Tollans are more advanced than even the Edenians or at least that was until the whole conversion into Alterra started. Now, as Alterrans, they can simply download knowledge from the Repository. The Langarans are also very smart people. Even after Genesis, the likes of Jonas Quinn are still a rarity on Earth. And the Langarans have many that are in his or in a similar league."
Jack knew that. Genesis didn't turn Earth into a bunch of brainiacs. The process mostly worked on changing their bodies to be more able to survive in harsher environments, a greater degree of adaptability, and increased longevity. There was a component that augmented their cognitive abilities, but it wasn't something that turned everybody into the likes of Einstein overnight. After all, as Liam had explained, Genesis was selectively evolving Terrans to an equivalent of a few hundred thousand years down the line. That wasn't such a big leap. The Alterra were a thriving civilization even twenty million years ago, which meant the Terrans still had ways to go. "So, to you, it makes sense to incorporate these two worlds into the Terran Federation?"
"It does. Mind you, it shouldn't be done overnight. We should first add the Tollans during a yearlong trial period, and that only because there's so few of them. The process should be more cautious and lasting longer for the Langarans. What does Daniel think?"
"He's all excited about the premise," Jack said, rolling his eyes. It was incredible the thing that made Daniel completely forget about the crap he went through in the months spent on Quiril. "I think he and Narim have all but shaken hands by now, which would make our discussion irrelevant in the extreme. We were talking about ships anyway."
"And we will continue doing so, but for now we need to go," Sam said as she noticed what time it was.
"Oh crap! Is it already that late?"
"It is," Sam explained, both moving out of Jack's office and on their way to the large hall where the presentation was about to take place.
Making long strides, the two made their way in record time, with the only reason why they didn't move faster because none of them wanted to enter the room winded and covered in sweat. After allowing Sam to enter first, already fast on her way toward the podium, he quietly followed inside where, he predicted, all or most of the dignitaries were already present and waiting. He immediately noticed Teal'c and Bra'tac. It was very difficult for him not to spot the two stoic Jaffa standing out in a crowd that was predominately comprised of humans. Maybe they didn't stick out as much as the Asgard and Nox did while standing in one corner but easily spotted nonetheless. He also noted that the third Jaffa that had been invited to participate, Zo'tan, wasn't there. Jack met the guy only once and all he knew about the guy was that he belonged to the conservative faction inside the JFN. The one led by Bre'lac. Teal'c informed him that it was highly improbable the man would attend because he vehemently believed today's event was one of those boasting occasions the Terrans did from time to time in order to show others their superior technology. He had it half right. The idea of the event was indeed to show other races their superior technology, but the reason behind it was to assure them and show them how the Terrans had finally developed the means to fight the Vargas so that they could sleep easier. It was to let them know that the days of the Vargas and their minions usurping their galaxy were coming to an abrupt end.
He didn't know everybody present, for that he would need Daniel. Or, as providence smiled upon him, he would have to ask another person that was approaching him and who probably knew every dignitary in the room.
He probably knew what type of underwear they were wearing and how often they changed them too.
"Klaus," Jack greeted the man simply.
"Jack," Klaus responded while standing beside him and discreetly scrutinizing the crowd.
"Okay, let's start with the fifty cent tour of the room," Jack asked. "Not sure who's who here."
"Antaeus of the Nox, Freyr of the Asgard, Narim of the Tollans, Jonas Quinn of the Langarans…"
"Stop making fun of me. You know I know them. Tell me about the less known characters in this story," Jack ordered, slightly irritated. Everybody knows Narim. No need to point him out.
"You see next to Jonas, on his right," Klaus said while looking in that direction. "That's Olim, an Optrican. The disgruntled looking one standing next to him is a Bedrosian named Voss. Try not to talk to him, he'll ruin your day with talks of Optrican oppression."
"What Optrican oppression?" Jack asked. As much as he knew, the Optricans were incredibly friendly and, more than anything, very patient with the Bedrosians.
"Mostly with talks about freedom of religion," Klaus explained.
"Freedom of religion? They believe in Nefertem being the creator of all humanity for crying out loud!"
"Since when did believing in false gods stop anyone. Actually, since I'm an atheist I could argue that everybody on Earth is equally deluded on the subject."
"Let's move on," Jack said, making it clear it was time to change the subject. "Who's next?"
"I think that's Ren from Orban," Klaus said, again looking at a certain person in the room so that Jack could know who he was referring to.
"You don't seem all that informed about the Orbanian guy," Jack said, narrowing his eyes. With Klaus, knowing why he did or didn't do something was very important.
"Not very interested in the Orbanians," Klaus said, looking deflated. "They are such plain people with no interest in subterfuge, backstabbing, playing the long game or whatever else I find interesting. If every race in the galaxy was like them, I would be out of a job."
"Give them time and they'll catch up with the rest of us."
"I hope so. If not, they are going to get hurt, and badly so," Klaus stated. "Anyway, next on the list, the Serrakin Obin. Tough guy to read. A little too much talk about the company he's working for and the market they want to corner, and very little about the survival stuff associated with the Vargas and their minions usurping our galaxy. Frankly, I'm not sure if the Hebridians understand the crap the Milky Way galaxy's in."
"Hey! They started to modify their ships and put weapons worthy of the name on them. They even have a few newly minted military ships to boast about. I say that's a massive change from their previously disinclined stand when it concerns anything military related," Jack said knowingly.
"I can concede on that point. However, at this point the guy thinking of cornering the market of galactic transportation of goods is a little too much on the optimistic side. I mean, with the Vargas capable of detecting a hyper-wake, what that Serakkin wants to do is frankly insane. He wants to build countless ships and send them toward all known worlds to deliver goods. If they don't get blown by the Vargas, then he will effectively bring the Vargas to any planet the whereabouts the Vargas still may not know. Terrific guy, right?"
Jack was taken aback. He would have to have a few words with the guy. "I think it's a racial failing."
"How do you mean?" Klaus asked.
"Think about it. Have you ever seen a Serrakin not smiling in the face of danger? And it isn't even that they relish danger like some adrenalin junkies. No. They smile because they simply don't realize the danger they are putting themselves and others in."
"Now that you mention it, they do seem to fail in grasping the gravity of the situation. No matter how many times and in how many ways we try to explain. Hell! They are probably beefing up their Navy more to make us happy than because they understand how it is the thing they need to do if they want to survive," Klaus summarized.
"Now you get it," Jack said, giving a glance at the next dignitary in line. "Well, that's a guy you don't see every day. If it is a guy at all."
"Yes, the new addition to the galactic scene. The Gadmeer."
"Name?"
"No clue. Wait, I recorded it," Klaus asked taking a recording device out of his pocket. He played what to Jack seemed as some irritating screeching sound. Though, the Gadmeer did turn around as if called upon. "See. He gets it."
"How are people even conversing with the guy?"
"Mostly, they don't. Not even our universal translators had any success thus far. The Nox, though, are able to understand them and translate for the rest of us. They are being smug about it too, I can feel it. The Gadmeer are also able to understand us, which pisses me off royally because they could probably make a universal translator that works for them too but for some reason, they haven't done it thus far."
"Who's left? Oh yeah, those two," Jack asked pointing with his chin at the two remaining unknowns.
"The one on the left is from Quiril, named Bagros. Don't know much about him. Quiril is in such a chaos right now, so, not much intelligence collected there," Klaus explained.
"Yes, it seems that crap keeps piling up on their planet, doesn't it?" Jack stated.
"I saw the recording, and I must admit, not sure what to think of it," Klaus said.
Jack had thought that the appearance of an invisible enemy that used energy weapons was the culmination of the trouble the Army would have to deal with on Quiril. However, it seemed they had been a little too optimistic in their predictions when it came to the trouble on Quiril. Until a few days ago, it all seemed as predicted, with the Army slowly cleaning acre after acre on their fast trek towards the South. The opposition was sporadic and even in those few occurrences, it was minimal. Predictions were already speaking of a few more months before the planet was more than 95 percent clean of any type of infestation, Crab, Hunter or Reaper.
Then he received a video showing a squad on patrol getting ambushed and the only thing he could think about was - when did the Vargas get their hands on the movie Alien? Even before the deployment of the Army on Quiril, studies had been made on the Crabs they were fighting. The disgusting yet simplistic creatures had a DNA structure much more complex than they should be having. They were dumb, they were only a mint above being pure animals, and nobody would make the mistake of calling them sentient. So, why was it that tests were showing their DNA, in some ways, is even more complex than that of humans? Nobody knew, until a few days ago when they had to quickly revise some conclusions and theories.
On the video, the squad was moving through the prairie, at night, chit chatting about various unimportant things in an attempt to make an otherwise very boring patrol job more interesting. It was clear that this wasn't their first patrol duty and with the Cylons slightly ahead of their formation, always vigilant, they probably felt quite safe. The Cylons sensors were very good at detecting things, therefore, it came as a massive surprise when one of the soldiers was tackled by a fast moving shadow.
What followed… were screams.
Then, the camera turned and there it was. The beast on top of the unfortunate soldier. It was keeping him pinned down while spraying some kind of acid from its mouth that would have put the replicators' ability to dissolve things to shame. The combat armor was melting and the soldier's attempts to hit the thing was met with a large pincer that cleanly cut off the soldier's arm just below the elbow.
A short burst coming from somewhere out of the camera's field of vision on the left blew half of the head of the affronting - and at the time unknown – alien clean off, with the body collapsing next to the still screaming soldier. Between the loss of a hand and the acid still trickling through the armored suit, he had all the rights to scream. Unfortunately, this wasn't an assault by a lonely creature. There were more of them, as the video was now showing several jumping at other soldiers and Cylons, creating complete chaos in the ranks of the patrol. Not only were these things dangerous, not only there were more of them than there were soldiers in the squad, but the sensors on their suits or those used by the Cylons didn't pick a thing until they were smack on top of them.
He could still remember how badly it had ended, Jack thought while replaying the video again in his head. In this particular case, unfortunately, perfect recall worked against him. A side effect of him becoming an Alterran. When reinforcements came ten minutes later, there was no one alive to save. There were half a dozen of the creatures dead, as well as seven dead soldier, which wasn't all of them. They did not just kill their people. When they'd left, they'd taken their bodies with them, most certainly to use for food or as incubators for their offspring. Admittedly, that had been a grave mistake on their part, because there were working trackers in the soldiers' suits. It had allowed them to pinpoint their lair with ease.
Even these improved monsters, coming straight from a horror movie the Vargas should know nothing about, were no match for a Hummingbird. The bird opened up with its miniguns from twenty meters above ground, spraying countless explosive bullets. After that, the troops deployed by a few Raptors went through the carcasses of the aliens and found the bodies of their fallen comrades. It wasn't that these things looked exactly the same as those creatures in the Alien movie, far from it, but the acid spitting thing and their approximate size were making chills go down his spine. Thinking that those things were somehow related to the Crabs was another thing he couldn't understand quite right.
Later, some xenobiologists had explained - or rather, they gave a wacky theory – that the Crabs were going through something they were naming Spontaneous Elitist Evolution. It appears the Crabs have the ability to evolve rapidly and forcefully if the need abruptly arises, and they could do so toward a particular evolutionary path that would improve their abilities proportionally with the abilities of the enemy they are fighting. It meant that this second iteration of Crabs was a direct result of the Terrans being able to defeat them with relative easy, hence the Crabs were evolving into something that was much better suited at fighting back. Not only didn't Jack like what a headache these Crabs were becoming, he liked even less the allusion the xenobiologists made that this probably wasn't even the final stage of the stubborn creatures. Their DNA complexity suggested more iterations were possible, with the final result something nobody could predict with any confidence. In many ways, what the Vargas did with the creation of the Crabs was incredibly ingenious. The initial simple form of the Crabs allowed them to mature and multiply easily and at a frightening rate. Yet, now that they had met an enemy that wouldn't so readily succumb to their sheer numbers and mechanical ruthlessness, they had the ability to evolve into something different.
Something that much more terrifying.
Quiril was now turning into a horror show to the point where they were contemplating relocating the surviving Quirilians to another planet and then turn the entire planet ablaze. Still, there were seven million surviving Quirilians, and many wouldn't want to leave their planet of birth, which complicated things greatly.
"Those disgusting things are forcing us to think of alternatives. Some way of isolating the Quirilians and then to unleash some hellish pathogen, nanite, or something else that would eradicate everything else living on that planet. The problem is that the way these Crabs are, they would probably be the only ones surviving and there's still the little problem of first gathering the Quirilians, isolating them, and getting permission to destroy their entire fauna."
"I don't think they would agree... and I'm not sure that's the right solution either," Klaus said. It appeared as if he was holding something back.
"What do you mean exactly by, not the right solution?" Jack asked, eyes already narrowed and full of suspicion.
"Perceptive as ever, Jack. Look, these things are disgusting and our people should start being more careful when dealing with them - that's a given. However, I think we should let the Crabs evolve as far as they can. We should engage them and force them to become the strongest they can be."
"Why?"
"Because the stronger the enemy you fight, the stronger you get. Also, at some point in the future, we will have to venture into the unknown in search for the Vargas. Thinking that we won't come across such monsters, fully developed and evolved, is naïve to the extreme. It is better to see where their evolution is taking them here where we have the upper hand than finding out what monsters they can become only after we are far away from the Milky Way galaxy," Klaus explained. "Think of it as a proving ground for our troops. Especially infantry since most of what we send to chase after the Vargas will be just that."
It made sense, yet, the scene he had watched in which many soldiers had died were giving him conflicting thoughts on the subject. More advanced Crabs meant more Terrans soldiers inevitably ending up dead, no matter how many precautions they were to take. "That's something we'll have to talk in detail during our next Council session. It is not something I can deliberate on in a moment." Someone had told him once that, the more a problem was complex, the more time he should take to deliberate, and this was the kind of conundrum he needed at least a few days to fester inside his mind before deciding.
"You're right," Klaus said, then he changed his expression in one of disapproval, but only for a fleeting moment.
Jack knew the change in demeanor was because of the person Klaus was currently looking at. "What is it?"
"The last on the tour is called Miran, and he's from Galar."
"So, why the contempt towards him," Jack stated.
"I thought you weren't using your telepathy, Jack."
"It isn't telepathy. It is plain observational skills. Your face twitched just as you said his name."
Klaus ceded, letting out a long breath. "Recently, I began following the escapades of two of my operatives, very closely. I already mentioned them before, Peter and David. Both guys are very much bent on cleaning the galaxy of slave trader scum."
"You did mention them to me a few times before, yes," Jack said. "They were working in the Twelve Colonies until that got solved, right?"
"Yes. Since that assignment ended, they've been very busy compiling a comprehensive list of assholes who are buying and selling slaves," Klaus began explaining.
"Don't tell me Galar is involved!" It didn't take a genius to connect two and two. "Seriously?"
"I think it's worse than that," Klaus added.
"What's worse than for an advanced society to be buying slaves? Wait! What is Galar even doing buying slaves? The planet must have a criminal underground that deals in human trafficking. There's no world that has such a large population yet free of it," Jack said, thinking how even the drastic measures they were employing on Earth were still not enough. Agencies around the world had almost Carte Blanche when it came to hunting down anyone involved in the human trafficking ring. They even asked and promptly received help from TIA agents to interrogate those who were suspected with the Terran version of a lie detector. If it was determined that they were lying while questioned about their involvement in the human trafficking trade, they would be subjected to other methods of memory retrieval, up until when nothing was left unknown. Agents in the field weren't going easy on them either. Not with the sellers and not with the buyers either. It was a well-known fact that all agents involved in the massive scum-cleaning operation were trigger happy.
Yet, they were still far from having achieved their final goal.
All this wasn't being done because of a drastic change in the overall morality quotient on Earth. Instead, it was being done to change the overall perception of Earth when compared to other planets in the Terran Federation. They needed to clean up their messes because, compared to Earth, all other worlds in the Terran Federation were almost crime free. As the First World, they needed to show that Earth was still the place where you wanted to be living. Many were moving to other worlds because of opportunities. The land was plentiful and hence cheap to buy, cities were newly built with the help from the Federal government as part of the stipulated colonization package, and they were beautiful and modern. So much so that many were drooling profusely just by looking at the promo materials being broadcast on Earth. Opportunities for work were also bountiful and taxes were non-existent. At least, that was until the population was to grow to a certain point. It was the reason why Earth needed to do as much as it could in order to show the people that, in spite of everything the new worlds could provide, staying on Earth wasn't such a bad thing either.
"I see you've hit the bullseye. There's no sense in a planet like Galar to be importing slaves in the hundreds or even thousands. Too expensive to ship them and sneak them onto a planet. For Christ's sake! People in the galaxy want to be paid in weapons-grade Naquadah and not gold or silver. Galar doesn't have that much of the scarce material. Much less to spend it on something like slaves."
"So, what am I missing here?"
"You're missing the fact that Lars, the slave dealer, has a way of brainwashing people, which is what the Galarans are truly after."
"Oh, for crayin' out loud. A planet that already has technology capable of messing with one's memories seeks methods for brainwashing people?" Jack stated. "Nice, very nice."
"If you add that the Galarans are pushing many worlds to join some kind of confederation of human planets, it makes you wonder what their end goal is," Klaus concluded.
"Didn't know about that part. Since when are they trying to create a confederation?" Jack asked. It wasn't his department, but this seemed like something worth mentioning on their Council meeting.
"Not long. It's still in its infancy and only smaller worlds have shown any interest in joining. The big ones, like Orbanians, Optricans, and Hebridians are not falling for it," Klaus explained.
"Unless they get brainwashed!" Jack concluded.
"Unless they get brainwashed," Klaus confirmed, somberly. "By the way, after the mission that uncovered the true motives behind the Galarans seeking slaves, David and Peter, they went to pick up a package for their employer. The cargo was a component needed to open a hyperspace window."
"Okay. Not sure where you're going with this, though," Jack said, uncertain. In a universe where hyperspace travel is the preferred - if not only - method of travel, selling a hyper generator or a similar component was nothing special.
"The component they picked up is brand new and if a Ha'tak is upgraded with it, it allows even an older Ha'tak to enter the zeta hyperband and to accelerate to speeds reachable only by the most modern Jaffa vessels," Klaus explained.
I took a few moments for Jack to put two-and-two together. Of course, such components could not be ordered at the local store. Actually, there was only one place where to get them. "So, this slave trader is getting stuff straight from the Jaffa."
"Bingo!"
"You know, now that you mentioned it, a few days ago Teal'c told me that Grai'ac is having trouble converting their production lines to produce the new Ha'til attack vessels. He also told me that a Jaffa engineer Bra'tac sent to help Grai'ac's faction has recently died there in an accident. I remember Teal'c being pissed about it because Grai'ac inferred that the accident was the engineer's fault and that his arrival, instead of helping speed up the upgrades, ended up further delaying things. Does it perhaps sound plausible to you that the true reason why Grai'ac's faction can't produce Ha'til is that some of their production is diverted to making products meant for the black market? And, in light of that information, is it also not possible that the engineer didn't make a mistake but rather had stumbled onto something that he shouldn't have? Something that maybe got him killed?" It was a lot of speculation on his part, and he didn't like speculating very much. But, somehow, it all fit into the narrative.
Klaus was looking at him quizzically for a few seconds. "You know, you may have the knack to work in my department. Such a level of paranoia, pessimism, and overall distrust are prerequisites to joining my top team."
"Yeah, well, you didn't deny it and said that I'm wrong in thinking the Jaffa conservative factions is screwing the rest of the JFN for profit, did you?" Jack said, narrowing his eyes.
"No, I didn't. And I won't either. It may be a lot of speculation, but I think you may very well be onto something."
"Oh, boy. Now I'm gonna have to tell Teal'c about this. I'm not looking forward to it."
"I guess you have no choice. Worse, there's not much you or Teal'c can do about it. Not without proof. Also, keep in mind that Peter and David's mission is top secret, so you can't tell him the details on how you came to that conclusion."
"That's why I'm not looking forward to that conversation. He will want to know all the details, for sure."
"On the other hand, it is in our best interest to stop the Jaffa from selling high-end products on the black market. I very much await the day when all existing Goa'uld ships in the hands of pirates or similarly shady people start breaking down because of the lack of spare parts. Nobody out there except for the Jaffa has the Goa'uld leftovers necessary in order to build new components."
"I'll talk to Teal'c after the presentation. We are already scheduled to chat some time afterward," Jack said, before looking at the third guy in the group of people they were discussing. "What about the third guy, the one who's now talking with Miran?" Jack asked.
"A Tegalan named Rolan from the Caledonian Federation. They, on the other hand, could fall for Galar's flattery and join their confederation," Klaus said with some concern. "Not sure how that one would play out, though. Galar and Tegal are on the opposite ends of the galaxy. Even their fastest ships are slower than those of the Jaffa, which means making a trip between those two planets could take up to a year in each direction. Not exactly around the corner, is it? With the gates down, there's no other way either. At least the other races make more sense to join their confederation since they are much closer."
"It is a long trip, but that is also a possible reason why they are going for a confederation instead of a federation. They must also be thinking that, in time, they will be able to upgrade their hyperdrives enough to make even such trips feasible," Jack asked.
"True enough. However, that's not my current concern," Klaus added.
"Of course not. If they want to make alliances, federations, empires or whatnot, that's their business," Jack explained. "That is, as long as there's no brainwashing or memory scrambling of any kind behind it."
"We'll keep monitoring the situation, as always. I'm not going to allow these people to get their hands on Lars' brainwashing technology. Or anyone else's brainwashing technology for that matter. Also, now that we know the Galarans are up to something bad, we will check the other worlds they are visiting to see if everything they are doing is above board. From Peter's report, it seems the Galarans are sending a lot of ships away from their system, and I think there are only two reasons for that. First, they are visiting less advanced races, and second, they are searching for Goa'uld technology."
"Not that there's much of the stuff left around, though," Jack stated. Among the jobs both the TIA and the Navy have undertaken was also the one of cleaning the galaxy of technologies mostly left around by the Goa'uld, at least if those were truly dangerous tech left lying around. They were going through all the planets part of the gate network that had been touched by the Goa'uld in some way with as fine a tooth comb as they could. Everything found that could be used for nefarious reasons was immediately disposed of.
Jack knew the day when the galaxy finally saw lasting peace was coming. It was a future in which most races could be left alone to progress at their own pace, without outside interference or outright threats. Some would still need help, he knew, which was the main reason for the formation of the Peace Corps. However, even for the Peace Corps to shine properly, a longer period of peace needed to settle in first.
"No, there isn't much left. However, the galaxy is a big place, Jack," Klaus said.
There was something missing in the just spoken sentence, but he couldn't grasp what it was. "Go on."
Klaus sighed. "The gate network consists of more than ten thousand worlds, but, Jack, that's nothing compared to the two hundred billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The Alterra built the gate network, and the Goa'uld exploited it to their heart's content in the last 16,000 years. However, as much as the gate network is a marvelous technology, it also makes you forget about the rest of the galaxy.
Realization struck. "Because of it, the Goa'uld never explored the rest of the galaxy."
"Not just the Goa'uld, Jack. I asked Aenea about it. After having established the gate network more than ten million years ago, they stopped any serious exploration. Your domain has more than ten thousand worlds in it. Why waste time going around seeking more planets? Not like real estate is at a premium."
"Which means we have many unexplored systems in our galaxy. And what the Alterrans did explore is old news now. Entire civilizations could have evolved and killed themselves three times over since then. You think we could be looking at a galaxy that is full of mysteries, is that what you are getting at?"
"Almost," Klaus responded.
"Almost?"
"What do you think will happened now that the gate network is down?" Klaus asked.
"Races will focus on building ships capable of interstellar travel and will begin exploring their neighborhood if there were maybe some habitable systems to be found or untapped resources to be grabbed."
"Yes, and when you say neighborhood, think of it more in terms of everything in a ten thousand light years radius from their homeworld. Everything reachable inside a few months of travel is close enough to be explored."
"Right. So you think humans could start bumping into some other races, is that it?"
"If we were able to meet races like the Re'tu. Reole, Stragoth and other just through the gate network, which is only a minuscule part of the Milky Way galaxy, then there must be many times more races in parts never before explored," Klaus asked.
"It makes sense. We always travel only between known planets already in the gate network system. Now things will be different. Hopefully, most races we stumble upon will be friendly."
"Not a chance, Jack. It is instinctual to put your race in front of other races. Most races that begin exploring the galaxy won't give a crap if they stomp onto some other sentient races. And as a general rule, humans are no different."
"If that's the case, we would have already had visitors by now, wouldn't we?" Jack asked. The fact that they hadn't been visited should point to that fact.
"Not as a rule, Jack. There are many species that like for their prey to fall into their web, rather than go seeking it out. Not everybody is a born explorer like we are or eager to make contact, no matter their level of technology. Ask the Nox," Klaus said with a hint of resentment.
Jack knew the man didn't like the Nox very much. Sure, better them than the likes of the Aschen, Goa'uld, or Stragoth, but for people who are as pro-life as the Nox claim to be, Klaus found it difficult to excuse the lack of intervention on their part during the time of the Goa'uld who had indiscriminately butchered countless races. He couldn't associate their pro-life attitude with their lethargic peace-loving nature, such nature that had apparently prevented them from kicking the Goa'uld's butt. Especially, since more and more evidence pointed to the Nox having some advanced technologies up their sleeves. They were the oldest race in the Milky Way galaxy after all. Older than the Alterra even. "Good point."
"A few months ago I talked to Aenea. She told me there were races in the Milky Way galaxy when the Alterra were still alive, five or more million years ago, but they were too primitive for the Alterra to communicate at any meaningful level. However, you know how her race is. There's no way they would have put a stargate on an already inhabited planet with the purpose of colonizing it. The most they would have done is to observe them from afar without interfering."
"Which means stargates are exclusively or at least mostly placed on planets where the Alterra found no sentient life present. Which also means that all those races they did meet but were too primitive could now be advanced enough to venture into space," Jack replied, understanding.
"Not many, but some. She told me that races do not progress at the speed we did. We also had a boost as a result of what the device on Dakara did. An evolutionary bump of some primitive race on Earth that not only created the second iteration of the Alterra but also propelled our evolution for who knows how many millions of years. Without it, we could still be some arboreal species, enjoying jumping from tree to tree. Just think about the Dinosaurs and you'll understand what I mean," Klaus said.
Jack thought about it for a bit. "The dinosaurs were already here during the Triassic, which means some 250 million years ago. They went completely extinct in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the event that took out some three-quarters of Earth's species of the time."
"Exactly! They were the dominant species for almost 200 million years, Jack! Can you even imagine such a long period! Yet, they came nowhere near sentience as we know it. Compared to them, we went from trees and eating bananas all day to a thriving civilization in less than five million years! Hell, crocodiles are no smarter than they were in the past, no matter how far back you look, and they are so lethargic that there's no way they are ever going to evolve into something more. It's a dead-end evolutionary path, only good for making handbags from their hide. On the other hand, in 200 million years of evolution, we expect us humans to all be long gone and cozy in the ascended realm, if not even something more than that. Something that we yet don't even know it exists," Klaus stated, sounding almost angry at the dinos for daring to evolve so slowly. "But I digress. The point is that the Alterra had witnessed races too primitive to interact back then and many are probably the same even now. Some could have gone extinct like the dinos did, too, but there could also be some that did progress into a spacefaring race. There's also a region of space that's never been surveyed by the Alterra and that could hold many surprises."
"Region? What region?"
"When the Alterra came here, in this galaxy, they quickly understood that habitable planets and those that could be terraformed with relative ease could easier be found in the various arms of our spiral galaxy. For example, the difference in the number of habitable planets in the middle of any of the galactic arms and near the center of our galaxy on average is between two and three orders of a magnitude. Since the chances of finding a planet near the center were more than a hundred times lesser, the Alterra didn't even bother searching there," Klaus explained.
Jack understood. "But a lower probability of finding habitable planets doesn't mean there are no habitable planets to be found at all, which means that we have a large chunk of the galaxy that has never been surveyed by the most advanced race that has ever lived in this galaxy. Wait! What about the Goa'uld? Wouldn't they have checked? I mean, they are scavengers who sought to steal technologies of others."
"You're forgetting that, until recently, the Goa'uld had much slower hyperdrives. In the time when Earth was in the hands of Ra, they were barely able to push into the Alpha or maybe later into the Beta hyper-band," Klaus stated.
"A top speed of ten light-years per year," Jack understood. The first band allowed travel only ten times faster than the speed of light. With each higher band, the speed increases by an order of magnitude up to the Lambda band that Liam had used the day he'd left and by doing so also made a revolutionary discovery. That hyper-band, the same as four higher ones, were thought to be unusable because of the prohibitive amount of exotic particles present there. Opening a hyperspace window was thought to be pure suicide. The following four bands were also thought impossible to enter up until past the Omicron band after which exotic particle, or any other particle for that matter, could not exist. The pi-band was the first of what were called subspace bands. Inaccessible for any matter, but perfect for signals to travel unimpeded and increasingly faster as bands went higher.
"It was a time when each Goa'uld controlled a certain region of space mostly by means of the stargate network. It simply took too much time to travel via ship. That is also the reason why the Jaffa fought the way they did. The only means of transferring large numbers of troops during conflicts was through the stargate, which means infantry capable of moving through treacherous terrain. It was also a time when going to check the center of the galaxy would have taken thousands of years. No ship the Goa'uld were making would have survived such a long journey. The last century saw the Goa'uld slowly upgrading their hyperdrives but the first major bump was when Apophis managed to develop a hyperdrive capable of reaching the epsilon band. With such a hyperdrive, the Goa'uld could finally cross the entire galaxy in a few years. This was also the time when true engagements between the Goa'uld began."
"So, to make the story short, we could still have many nonhuman races lurking in some dark places inside our galaxy," Jack summarized. "Still, how advanced can they be if we haven't detected any hyperspace wake anywhere near the regions populated by humans?"
"Very, I'm afraid. Look, it is much easier to build weapons in the form of plasma propelled at high speed than to develop technologies as esoteric as hyperdrives are. How do you even start developing a propulsion system through a dimension you can't even see, measure or know if it truly exists? Then, even when you do develop your first hyperdrive, it still takes you millennia or more to reach a hyperband that allows you to explore space that's more distant than a mere few hundred light years from your homeworld."
"Got it. While you can test various guns and see which one punches higher, working on hyperdrives involves a lot of difficult and by its very nature mostly theoretical physics," Jack answered. He was the right person to understand how doing a lot of confusing math with no progress could halt a race's progress in a field such as hyper-physics.
As Jack suddenly sensed some commotion near the podium, he turned to see what it was. Davis was moving in front of it with a tablet in hand while the rear view screen sprung to life showing the symbol of the Terran Federation. The symbol showed a group of gate symbols floating among the stars. Each symbol symbolized a planet in the Terran Federation. The known symbol for Earth closely resembling the letter 'A' was slightly larger than any other symbol. It was the Terran Federation after all. "It seems the presentation is about to start."
"About time. I have other work to do instead of spending time here watching a presentation about things I already know everything there's to know."
"Why are you here then?"
Klaus smiled. "Jack, you know what my job is. This is a great opportunity for me to gauge the reactions of the various people in this room. Hell, after this am going back in my office to re-watch the sensor readings recorded to see everyone's heartbeat and other indicators of their mood as the presentation progresses."
"You sneaky devil," Jack said, wanting to say something more, but it appeared Davis was about to say something.
"Hello everyone and thank you all for coming today," Davis began, waiting for a moment so that everyone could refocus their attention on him. "It has taken us more than anticipated, but thanks to relentless research and help from our closest allies I am proud to announce today that the creation of the means necessary to take the fight back to the Vargas is finally over. As you all well know, one of the biggest concerns that many here have voiced was our lack of the right means to face the enemy outside of our defended systems. At least, that was the case if we didn't bring an overwhelming force. Something we could rarely do since most of our forces are tied down to protecting our systems as well as the systems of other human worlds that do not have the necessary means to defend their worlds on their own. Because of it, the members of the Second Great Alliance came to the conclusion that a more aggressive stance at this stage would have resulted in too many losses on our side. Even so, if the war with the Vargas was only about fighting those currently present in the Milky Way galaxy, we would not have waited so long. However, the freeing of our galaxy of the scourge that came as invaders nine months ago is a very small part of the task we have ahead of us. After cleaning our galaxy of the unwanted alien incursion - which we pledge to do as swiftly as possible - we will have to venture into the unknown, into distant regions of the universe in search of our enemy, as well as seek potential allies who, as us, have had the misfortune of encroaching on the Vargas, yet potential allies with the necessary strength to oppose such a foe," Davis explained, pushing something on his tablet and changing the image on the display. It was now showing their latest development in the war against the Vargas.
"Let me now show you the main warship slated to spearhead this menace we are facing. I present to you the BC-315, the battlecruiser Armageddon," Davis said, leaving time for the people to get a good look at it on the large five-meter-wide display behind him. The ship was gorgeous. As expected, the incredible advancements in construction methods could easily be seen even on its hull. It now looked as if the ship was carved from one single block, smoothed and polished into the desired - predatory - shape. The method of construction resembled that of the Asgard and, as a result, their ships' style was similar, yet, it still gave the look&feel of the Terran previous ships. "The Armageddon is much larger than any other ship of its class the Terrans have ever built. At approximately one kilometer in length, the ship is large enough to hold an impressive array of weapons, most of which specifically tailored to fight the Vargas. But before we come to the weapon systems specifically developed to fight the Vargas, let us first start with the very heart of the ship."
The display changed, now showing a detailed 3D animation of its reactor, depicting in broad strokes how it worked. "The TNN-PRX01 Pulse Reactor is the latest in power generation improvements the Terrans and their allies have done in hope of giving our warships as much power as needed. We all know that no matter how advanced your engines, shields, and weapons are if a ship doesn't have an adequate power source, it is all for naught. During travel, your ship will be slow and during a fight, the shields won't be replenished properly. Not to mention the weapons not firing at the desired rate of fire or strength.
"The new Pulse Reactor takes fuel pellets – small quantities of fuel comprised of weapons-grade Naquadah or Naquadria into its main vacuum chamber where they are bombarded by a sudden pulse of neutrinos. The pulse is so powerful that the injected fuel, in its entirety, undergoes fission in an instant. This, in turn, results in nothing short of a nuclear explosion inside the chamber. Normally, this would be a problem – there's no easy way of collecting such sudden bursts of energy in the form of radiation and high-speed subatomic particles. However, recent developments in gravitational barriers are allowing us to surround the explosion with a very strong gravitational force that not only protects the rest of the ship from damage and hard radiation, but it also works as a lens capable of directing the released energy towards a receiver that serves as an energy converter. You may note that the instability of Naquadria doesn't play a role here anymore since the goal of the reactor is to create a nuclear explosion, to begin with. One as powerful as the injected pellets allow.
"The energy in the form of hard radiation is then converted into a single energy form that can safely be stored in the ship's main energy capacitors, as the ship's main energy buffer. However, this isn't all. As you know, a part of the fission process is the creation of high-velocity subatomic particles, which are funneled into a secondary chamber and then - when the reactor is under full power - bombarded with additional antiparticles to achieve a second stage boost to the generator. The second chamber undergoes the same detonation as the first one, which, again, through the use of a gravitational barrier focuses the energy toward a secondary receiver optimized for collecting the energy released from a matter/anti-matter annihilation process, which is much harder to do and the main reason why antimatter isn't used in the reactor exclusively. We all know how pure the energy form coming from weapons-grade Naquadah or Naquadria is, the main reason why the element is so precious to us all. The smaller matter/antimatter reaction is much easier to deal with inside what we are calling the reactor's secondary antimatter booster. The large pulse reactor installed on the Armageddon class has three such boosters installed, while smaller pulse reactors like those installed on the Damocles have only two or some even one."
Jack knew Davis wasn't going to give hard numbers on how powerful the pulse reactor truly was. However, they were capable of easily providing more energy than the Enhanced Neutrino Ion Generators and could be scaled down more than the E.N.I.G. ever could, allowing even smaller ships than their dreadnoughts to benefit from them. However, this wasn't all. Since it was shown that the newly developed energy converters - those that were receiving the massive energy influx from the reactor and that were usually the bottleneck of any energy generating system - were capable of converting triple the amount of what the reactor could deliver, the Terran came to the insane idea of putting the reactor under a time-dilation field when under extreme power demands. A sort of tertiary booster. They managed to create a 1.8 time-dilation field without the gravitational barrier exhibiting strange and rather concerning symptoms that could destabilize the whole system. However, this was all flagged as classified information and therefore many in the room did not need to know about the Terrans having the means to create a time-dilation field or that something like that was even possible.
"This new reactor is allowing us to power a much more complex defense system than ever before envisioned. The Armageddon currently boasts the seventh-generation conformal shield capable of blocking any known weapon," Davis said, even though it wasn't true. The Terrans had a few weapons that could still pass through it, but again, those in the room who didn't know that already didn't have to learn of it either. "On top of the primary shield, the Armageddon utilizes what we have named the Aegis Protection System or simply Aegis for short."
Again, the display changed showing a realistic 3D representation of the Armageddon being fired upon by a Vargas energy weapon. However, at the place of impact, just meters in front of the primary shield, a honeycomb-like patterned surface made of five dozen individual hexagonal blocks, each no more than five meters in diameter popped out, out of nowhere. It was a darkened region that prevented even light from passing through. The newly formed plane in front of the shield was stopping the incoming weapons fire. When the fire stopped, the barrier would vanish only to reform elsewhere when the weapon was redirected there.
"As you can see on the screen, through the use of some complex prediction algorithms, the ship is capable of casting a gravitational barrier in front of the primary shield where the enemy weapon is about to hit. In contrast to the primary shield, this barrier doesn't suffer from the effects of the Vargas energy draining weapon. The barrier is more than capable of stopping the Vargas weapon before it reaches the underlying primary shield."
Jack wasn't exactly sure how this all worked. He knew that they were creating gravitons with an artificially inverted spin that instead of a pulling force created a pushing one. The created thin layer that was filled with these artificial particles cast through the dedicated grav-emitters lasted only microseconds before disappearing. That meant that emitters needed to constantly cast newly created particles, particles that need a lot of power to be constantly created. It was also the reason why creating an entire bubble around the whole ship would be near prohibitive. If they did so, the ship's considerable energy reserves would be drained in a matter of minutes. The prediction algorithms were there to create as small a surface as possible, yet enough to stop the incoming weapon's fire. Five dozen hexagonal elements created a surface of merely six hundred square meters. In contrast to such a small-sized surface, the surface of the entire ship was close to two million square meters. It wasn't difficult to calculate the massive difference in the amount of energy needed to enclose an entire ship instead of only a small plane in front of the primary shield.
The ship also had a third defensive layer as its last resort. An energy field with a Material Density Enhancement Factor (MDEF) of 12.7 that made the ship's armor plating all that much harder to destroy. This, again, was classified information and not to be divulged during the presentation.
The display changed again, beginning to show the main weapon system. The new Heavy Plasma Lances. Davis was explaining how there were many improvements compared to the older plasma beams, mostly in terms of range, the rate of fire, and reconfigurability for stressing different types of shields better. He also knew Davis would skip talking about the newly developed system for their heavy weapon slots. A few people from the R&D department got into a heated argument about the right ratio of QDBs and Heavy Plasma Lances installed on the Armageddon and where to place them. Both weapons had their merits and downsides and many were arguing that the QDBs could only show their true potential against the Vargas and no other enemy. The argument was settled when a nearby scientists – whose name shall not be spoken at loud, else great misfortune would follow - came to a wacky solution. Why not make a system that swaps the weapon currently in use, with a different one stored in a dedicated Wraith storage system. Said weapon would still need to be shut down first, the shock absorption system and all control and power supply connections would need to be disengaged before the weapon could be dematerialized in its entirety. Afterward, a different one could be materialized in its place, with the power supply, shock absorbers, and control connectors once again reattached. The entire operation would take around five minutes, which meant it couldn't be done during a firefight. However, it also meant that a captain could decide which of the available twelve heavy weapon slots would have which weapon, QDB, Plasma Lance, or whatever else they come up with. A certain scientist – the same one that shall not be named - was currently working on a singularity gun that fired a miniature black hole at a massive speed. Possibly, the ultimate weapon – or a planet killer, if you will. Although, it seemed that the scientist did not know the meaning of the words 'ultimate weapon'. In his mind, there were always improvements that could be made.
Therefore, if Earth didn't disappear in an accident one of these days, there was a good chance of getting a third weapon in the not so distant future.
Davis wouldn't be talking about the new Mark III drones either. Bigger than their predecessor, more durable, and with increased penetration capabilities. He also wouldn't talk about the Ignis Offensive System (IFS). Six small pylons, positioned to give a complete 360 degrees coverage, could extrude out of the ship's shield and fire the original Alterran version of the weapon Anubis had recreated a long time ago. They didn't know how the weapon would fare against the Vargas, however, if the Vargas never met it before, it would probably give them a nasty surprise. The system didn't work on brute force alone. The fired lightning used the enemy's shields or other devices on the ship's hull to transfer destructive energy inside the ship and destroy it as much from within as from without. There were negative sides to the weapon, though. While the new plasma lances could hit the ground of a planet from geostationary orbit, some 30,000 kilometers away, the Ignis system could hit multiple enemies but only at a distance of a meager 200 kilometers. It also becomes much less effective if the target had shield sophistication that can stop the weapon dead in its track.
Jack also knew Davis would show the latest addition to the various weapon system aboard the ship. The weapon that would negate the advantage granted to Vargas ships by their armor.
"As the ship's secondary weapon, we have the Quantum Disruptor Beams that are capable of annihilating any form of armor or energy pattern if their composition is well known to us. The weapon creates an inverse quantum energy waveform of that of the material or energy particle the weapon is trying to destroy. When combined both are nullified, resulting in the enemy ship having their protective armor removed. And we do know what armor the Vargas use, which means we know exactly how to configure the weapon. During testing, it was proven to be the right weapon to fight them."
Jack saw how Klaus was watching the people in the room, meticulously scrutinizing their expression and body language. Those who understood what Davis was explaining, also had their mouth half open. They just understood that the Terrans were talking about a ship that had a couple of impenetrable barriers capable of stopping even the Vargas weapons, as well as weapons capable of making any matter or form of energy simply disappear.
It was annihilation on a quantum level.
As much as they were happy to learn that the Terrans and their allies now had weapons capable of beating the living crap out of the Vargas, Klaus thought that they had also understood one other thing if they hadn't known it already.
If the Terrans ever decide to go on a conquest spree, they were all screwed.
"I think we have shown you enough today that you can rest easier, knowing that we do possess the capabilities to face the Vargas head on and come out of it victorious," Davis concluded, and Jack wasn't sure if any of the people invited today would rest easy, ever again.
After all, humans could sometimes be bigger monsters that the Vargas could ever become.
The Optrican took the moment of silence to speak. "Excuse me, but no matter how powerful your latest ship seems, it still means nothing if you cannot come to our aid in time. You have the tools to fight the Vargas warships, but my world is situated far from any of your colonies, the same as many other worlds of the people present here today. The enemy could still reach our planets and bring great devastation with the loss of countless lives before you can destroy them or force them to withdraw. We know you have fast ships with hyperdrives provided by the Asgard. However, it could still be many hours before you can reach our systems."
"I agree that the sheer size of our galaxy and the vast distances between our worlds could pose a problem and because of it, we have worked on something that I was also planning on showing you later today, but I see no reason not to do so now since you have raised such a concern," Davis responded, tapping his tablet. The screen changed into showing something that resembled a space station. Not among the biggest, but still almost a kilometer tall and about a third of that in depth. However, it wasn't very wide. Less than a hundred meters. It almost seemed like some kind of sail floating in the emptiness of space.
"This is our prototype Jump Station currently being built in the Solar system. The station is capable of creating a rupture in space ten miles in diameter. Ships with a jump drive installed are able to use the station to transit to wherever else inside our galaxy where the Jump Station has set the destination coordinates of the rupture in space-time. Of course, in order to get the exit coordinates on the other side, there must be a ship or a beacon sending the relevant data. We are planning to use our warships in conjunction with the jump stations for fast deployment. The moment you notify us there are hostile forces on approach to your system, we can mobilize in less than ten minutes and jump just outside the hyper limit where there's a beacon."
As far as logistics go, this was the most revolutionary development they had ever made. The precursor technology used by the Colonials had two major drawbacks. It took a lot of time to calculate the destination coordinates and there was always the risk of accidents in the form of ships landing inside objects at the destination point. This greatly limited the feasibility of the technology. However, the Terrans had come to a solution to the problem. As opposed to the Colonials, the Terrans could easily send sophisticated signals through subspace that simplified the process of calculating the destination coordinates, in many ways, similar to the signal sent in order for two gates to establish a viable connection. With a beacon on the other end, there was also no chance of collision during jumps. However, there was still a major problem. The Terrans wanted the technology to allow their ships to jump across vast distances. At the very least to allow their ships to jump anywhere inside of their galaxy. Of course, if a ship was to make such a jump with its own drive, the drive would have to be the size of their hyperdrives or maybe even bigger, which was unacceptable. Never would the Terrans decide to remove their hyperdrives from their ships in order to put a jump drive. A different solution had to be found. As a solution, a small jump drive was added to their ships that, on its own, could jump the ship no more than a hundred light years away, yet it was enough because it had the needed components that allowed the translation through the rupture from departure to destination point. This component was enough to, in conjunction with a Jump Station capable of creating the necessary rupture, allow a ship to translate anywhere else in the galaxy.
The mere thought of a ship in trouble sending a distress call and having a task force on standby popping out as reinforcement the next instant was mindboggling. This was among those discoveries that would change the face of the Milky Way galaxy. Even small patrols comprised of the smallest, single units would be enough to protect the entire galaxy since aid was only minutes away. The transport of goods inside the Terran Federation would also receive a massive boost. In the future, all colonies, outposts, and deep space bases would have a Jump Station nearby, allowing ships to quickly travel between them. For commercial purposes, privately built ships could operate without even having a hyperdrive. The way the gate network had a long time ago created a revolution, in a similar way the Jump Network will create an even bigger one. The only drawback of the system was its inability to be safely used across galactic distances, hence unable to be used for sending ships between galaxies. For that, a supergate would need to be used instead. Positioning such a device near a black hole was also needed because of the power requirements.
"You said to notify you, however, inside the restricted zones there's no subspace. Because of it, the speed of communication is limited to that of the speed of light. It takes time for light that is carrying the knowledge of an incoming hostile fleet having entered our system to reach our planet. Then it takes, even more, time to send a distress signal to the relay station you set up, again, outside the hyper limit. Isn't this too much time lost before you can mobilize? Time in which the Vargas could progress much deeper into our system and ahead of you?" the same man asked.
"Once the jump stations are fully operational and with our ships already having faster sublight engines than our enemy, we believe there's no possibility of the Vargas reaching your planet before we do. That is of course if you call us right away," Davis explained, then smiled. "However, we are working on the delay in communication as well. We are working on creating a communication system that uses the two highest subspace bands we know from experience the interdiction device is unable to block. Those bands are very energy demanding and hence can be used only for short, in-system, distances, which is enough to reach a relay outside the hyper limit. It still needs work, but it is coming," Davis explained.
To the Terran amazement, they had noticed that Rodney's high-frequency energy transfer system worked well while powering the planetary shield even though the interdiction device was fully active. This was enough for a few scientists to quickly get to work in order to find why this was possible. The discovery that the Nox's interdiction device wasn't able to block the two mostly unused highest subspace bands gave them the idea of creating an in-system subspace communication system using the lower of the two bands, also not caring much about the high energy cost of using it for that purpose. It wasn't for communication purposes alone either why they were doing the research. Getting back subspace sensors inside their own systems was also something they were eagerly working on and that could give them yet another advantage against the Vargas when defending their homes was a concern.
"Real-time communication?"
"Not in the beginning, but close enough and much, much better than what we have now," David answered. The man seemed to be satisfied with the answers.
"So, what do you think?" Jack asked Klaus.
"I think that many are crapping their pants right now. I also think that many still don't fully realize the leap this ship we've created represents. They don't realize – or maybe they don't want to realize - how powerful this ship truly is."
"It is the reason why an alliance with any of the other human worlds in this galaxy is not a good idea," Jack added.
"Alliance? No, never! The absorption of other races inside our federation that we deem to be the right fit, that's fine. And even them only under the same leash as the rest of the worlds in the Terrans Federation, including Earth. No tech that can blow the planet because, sooner or later, Murphy will put his foot in the door even though uninvited and some planet will simply go kaboom."
"Yes. Place a big red button with the words 'DO NOT PUSH THIS BUTTON!' somewhere where people can pass near it, and sooner or later some idiot will push the button, I guarantee it."
"Exactly."
Jack sighed. They were digressing again and, frankly, there was not much for him to do here. Soon, the people in the room will be shown the real thing through the window. The new Armageddon class battlecruiser, the Enterprise, as it floats only kilometers in front of Starbase One. The ship would then depart for its first official mission, as the first ship of its class to be employed. Jack had been aboard the ship. The interior was even more spectacular than the exterior. Being aboard that ship was like being in some sci-fi movie on steroids, one with no budgetary constraints whatsoever. Hence, there was no point for him to spend the next hour or so looking at it with the dignitaries in the hall. "Well, you have your spying on people to do here and Sam is busy on the podium if by chance there's some technobabble that Davis wouldn't know how to answer. Not much to do for me here and any moment now Walter will find me to inform me of again having neglected my regular duties. Better to anticipate."
"Paperwork awaits, huh?" Klaus asked rhetorically. "Well, good luck."
"Thanks, I'll need it," Jack said moving towards the exit. He waved at Sam before entering the corridor. Hopefully, this presentation would have served its purpose, which was to show the restless races in the Milky Way galaxy that the war against the Vargas could be fought on an equal footing and maybe, eventually, even won. He didn't know how it was going to play out, but he knew they now needed to go on the offensive and push the Vargas and their minions out of the Milky Way galaxy. The news that the massive Furling Sphere was finally on the move had been well received by all members of the Alliance. Its ability to jump up to 17.3 million light-years would give them additional strategical options they hadn't even considered yet.
It was finally beginning and he could feel the anticipation bubbling inside him. However, he also felt worried about what they would find out there in a universe of almost endless possibilities. Or at least that's how Aenea was explaining it. The information of what had transpired with Liam's ship was also relayed from Cydonia. The news was bad. Even on a personal level, he has been cherishing the moment when Liam would come back. The day when he would rightfully yell at him for leaving them for so long. And if he was feeling the way he was, he could only imagine how Aenea or the Edenians were feeling right now.
As he entered his office, he immediately slumped into his comfortable leather armchair behind his desk, feeling drained of all energy. He thought how the depressive feelings in regard to Liam were now to be augmented by more negative thoughts related to the pile of paperwork waiting for him to do something about. He'd need at least three or four hours to finish it all, at which point it would already be 8 pm. Just enough time to beam back home on Terrania to have a few relaxing hours in good company with a beer or two drank in front of the artificial pond before going to bed. If Teal'c decided to stay for long enough, he was going to spend the evening with him in a relaxed discussion, only intermittently mentioning anything related to the troubles that plagued the two races they both were trying to lead and protect.
Jack sighed. It was time to get back to work.
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