McKay had pulled in the best engineers he had including Miller, Lee, and Brody. The first task was to find the designs for the mini-drones. Each of the scientists was searching for any record on how to build the mini-drones. Four days in they had found no plans. McKay and Miller had split off to examine the plans for the drones to look at how to miniaturize them. On the fifth day, the Nemesis returned. Carter joined the team as Banks took charge of the nemesis for day to day duty.
A full week after Pacifica had entered into a time dilation field and no progress toward a solution had been made. The team was sitting around feeling desperate.
O'Neill stopped by the lab they were working in, "Ok kiddo's who is giving me the good news?"
Everyone looked at Carter who spoke up, "Sir we have tried every variation and search parameter in the Repository of Knowledge, with no luck. If they had plans for them they were not added in the database."
"Jeannie and I are still looking at how to miniaturize the drones, but we don't have anything yet," replied McKay.
O'Neill sighing, "Is there anyone who I can get that could help?"
"The smartest brains on the planet are in this room," replied McKay.
"No we are missing one," replied Carter.
"Who?" asked O'Neill.
"Alec Colson," replied Carter.
"He's taking a much-deserved vacation since he was cleared of all charges. I will contact him and see if he can join us," replied O'Neill.
Hlin joined the effort from the Asgard trying to provide any help. Two days later, Miller and McKay had spent much arguing over the power supply for the mini-drones, while Hlin and Carter had argued over why it wasn't found in the Repository. Brody was just trying not to get yelled at, and find something useful.
Colson arrived in the lab, "I hear I could be of help here?"
"Welcome back Alec! It's good to see you again," replied Carter.
"Thank you, Samantha. It's good to do something I can actually take credit for developing," replied Colson.
"So far we have nothing. We can't find any plans in the Repository of Knowledge, and we don't have any breakthroughs toward miniaturizing the technology ourselves," replied Carter.
"But the Ancients did build these?" asked Colson.
"Yes, I've seen them in action. We searched that site for any information we couldn't get very much and they were pretty much depleted," replied McKay.
"When did they build them?" asked Colson.
"Not long before they left Pegasus," replied McKay, "We figure they didn't have time to record the information on it."
"When they come back here to Earth, did they record any of their information here after that?" asked Colson.
"No they didn't," replied McKay.
"That's not true," replied Brody.
"Excuse me?" replied McKay.
"Merlin recorded information in his library," replied Brody.
"Merlin's library? We never went back to finish going through it," replied Carter.
"Should we send someone to investigate?" asked Colson.
"I'll talk to Commander O'Neill I can have a team there in an hour," replied Carter.
"I'll go with you," replied McKay, "Jeannie can run things here."
O'Neill gave an immediate go to investigate. An hour later the Nemesis was in orbit, and Carter and McKay were going through Merlin's library. Two other teams with those who could read Ancient were assisting. Carter had assigned a third and fourth team as security.
Several hours into the process, Carter discovered an index listing Personal Drones, "It says here the details of Personal Drones is located in volume 117 section delta sub-section alpha."
"Oh sure I'll go right there," snarked McKay.
"Hey I saw something marked 117 earlier," replied one of the researchers.
"Where?" yelled McKay and Carter.
"Right here, I have it," replied another researcher.
Carter and McKay rushed over to it. It was marked volume 117. Carter thumbed through it trying to find section delta.
"Here is Delta," replied Carter.
"Look that must be sub-section alpha," replied McKay.
Carter and McKay began reading through the sections, details about how to assemble and miniaturize the drone technology. Details about how to control them from a chair, and to build a platform for controlling them.
"Rodney do you have this?" asked Carter.
"Yes I need to get back to Altera and it should only take a couple of days using an ancient assembler to construct a design to mass produce these," replied McKay.
"I'm going to stay here with my team cataloging rest of this information. Major, take your team and escort Dr. McKay to the Stargate and see that he safely makes it to Altera, then report back here," ordered Carter.
"Good idea, I saw some interesting ideas Merlin had," replied McKay, "Let's go!"
An hour later McKay was back in Altera at an assembler. Miller and Colson were there working with him. The assembler could be exhausting on the user, they took turns. Colson quickly learned how to use it, and was being a great asset to help McKay and his sister. Dr. Lee was preparing a manufacturing area for producing the drones in mass.
Two days they worked on the design the first couple tests fizzled quickly, by the seventh they were turning test dummies into swiss cheese. Lee had just completed getting the lab setup for production. The Altera AI took over from there and began mass producing. O'Neill had stated he wanted ten thousand of the drones, as many could be lost hitting walls.
Thor reported to O'Neill, "I am still working on a way to de-activate the time dilation field from outside the field. I believe we may be able to use Col. Carter's time reversal to trigger it to drop. As the system is designed to turn off if there is an instability in the field."
"Keep me informed we will soon have the mini-drones ready," replied O'Neill
Col. Carter kept her teams going over every book in Merlin's library. It was proving to be a worthwhile endeavor. So far they had identified several new discoveries. Including the location of a place the Ancients called the vault, and discussions on how to change the quantum frequency of matter.
Thor took another two weeks before he had successfully been able to trigger a time dilation field to shut down. He was placing a time reversal field around the time dilation field and this would cause an instability in the field that shut down the field automatically.
Caldwell had been putting the Athena, Poseidon, Ares, and Apollo through test runs. Soon as the field would drop they would immediately bean the weapons into an airlock. They had been programmed to target those with the physiology of the mimic aliens. Thankfully they had information from the foothold situation years before. McKay had time to produce over one hundred thousand before Thor was ready. Each of the ships would carry a compliment in case additional ones were needed. Twenty-five hundred would be beamed into each airlock slowly, so they could then be activated. McKay programmed in the schematics of Pacifica including where and what they could not penetrate. The hope was that Sheppard was in the chair, and able to take command of them once they came online as well. Thor arrived in his DN-1103A named Vanir. The Nemesis returned and took up a support position around Pacifica.
Everything was now ready, O'Neill gave the word to start. Thor from the Vanir activated the time reversal field around Pacifica the time dilation field went down immediately. Athena, Poseidon, Ares, and Apollo immediately began to use a line of sight to beam the mini-drones to the airlocks available. Blasts could once again be seen around viewports on the station. However, scans failed to penetrate into the station.
Once the mini-drones activated they began whizzing around the station. The first few flew overtop of Lt. Scott laying prone outside of the dock where he had tried to stop the incursion. Drones were speeding up the stairwells to all of the decks fanning out looking for targets. In the first minute over two hundred aliens had been taken out.
Sheppard sensed the mini-drones and began directing a few toward to the chair room. They had not arrived yet when the door opened and in walked the captain followed by a dozen other assumed aliens. They were apparently aware of the mini-drones.
The captain spoke first, "Shut it down, or you and your friends die."
"He can't do that!" yelled Jon O'Neill.
"Don't do it sir!" yelled Masterson, as the captain turned and shot him at point-blank range.
"Your weapons are effective," replied the captain.
Sheppard shutdown the drones and they all fell to the floor around the station.
Caldwell heard over the communicator from the Ares, "We have an opening for teams to get through!"
The Ares began transporting in teams on their open line of sight. As quickly as possible they were beaming in additional teams when one cleared the area. Within five minutes they have twenty teams in one of the lower decks. Additional teams began streaming in. Teams contained stun weapons, and frequency blasters to disrupt the mimic's devices.
Aliens once stunned and bound up to prevent escape. Secondary teams began arriving and stripping them of all devices to prevent any kind of mass suicide like last time. All equipment was moved to an airlock where a ship would beam it a safe distance from the station in space.
Teyla with Greer and Odai found what appeared to be a large alien device, Teyla immediately called for additional support teams. They needed to take this device and hopefully shut down the disruption field blocking sensors and communications. Once five teams were in place, they made quick work of everyone in the room, with concussion grenades and stunners. McKay who had beamed in with a security team made his way to the room, to examine the device.
McKay exasperated, "I don't understand this technology. I'd need a lot more time to understand it, which I don't have. We're going to blow this pier off. Back there are doors can seal this compartment off. Put explosives over here, and it will separate this entire pier from the station. Then one of the ships can move it away."
"Ma'am?" asked one of the Lieutenants.
"Do what he says," replied Teyla.
"Commander Caldwell, we are going to separate a pier from the station. Please stand by to have this pier removed from the aree before destroying it," replied Teyla.
"You're doing what?" asked Caldwell.
"Dr. McKay says this is the only way to get the disruption field down now," replied Teyla.
"Understood," replied Caldwell.
"You take two teams and clear this pier of everyone including the mimic aliens," ordered Teyla.
Meanwhile back in the chair room, Sheppard remained with 45 caliber pointed at his head, and another one pointed at Jon O'Neill.
"Tell your people to stop fighting," ordered the captain.
"Look even if I did, they are trained not to do that," replied Sheppard.
"Then tell them our prisoners will be killed starting with you," replied the captain.
"That would just make them keep on fighting harder. They could stop for a moment and cheer," replied Jon O'Neill.
"Hey!" exclaimed Sheppard.
Jon O'Neill just shrugged.
Outside of the armory Adams and Varro were managing to hold their own. Countless bodies were lined up in the hallways. However, these were beginning to be a hindrance as the aliens were using them as cover.
"I hope someone is getting a plan together on fighting these things, not sure how much longer we can hold out here!" shouted Adams.
"As long as we need to!" replied Varro.
About that time, a large explosion shook the station. For those who could see one of the piers was floating off from the station. Immediately the Apollo moved in transported the section away from the station.
Teyla over the communicator, "Commander O'Neill, you have a go."
The mini-drones lit up but they did not resume flying immediately.
Sheppard saw the mini-drone lite up that was in the hallway. He knew someone else had to be controlling them. He needed to get back into the chair.
"Ok I'll do it, let me get back into the chair so I can get them to stop," spoke Sheppard.
Sheppard climbed back into the chair. Instance he felt a connection with Commander O'Neill.
"I thought it would be you," thought Sheppard.
O'Neill returned, "Figured you might be in a tight spot."
Sheppard sensed over one hundred drones ready to strike from around the corner.
Sheppard thought, "That is a beautiful sight!"
"Take care of the ones in the chair room then help me throughout the station," returned O'Neill.
Sheppard speaking out loud on station-wide, "Attention all Alliance personal, ...hit the deck!"
Jon O'Neill made a dive for the floor, as a hundred mini-drones swarmed the room. The mimic aliens were screaming in seconds as they were ripped apart.
Varro and Adams were firing as fast as they could, the aliens had massed an impressive assault from each corridor when they heard Sheppard's order. They ducked, as they did, they could see blurring yellow lights flying by and attacking their attackers from each corridor. They were deafened from the screams.
"What are those?" asked Adams.
"They remind me of the drone weapons," replied Varro.
"Mini-drones?" asked Adams.
Additional mini-drones were beamed into the station once the disruption field went down. This battle now dropped to a few short minutes before it was over. O'Neill turned complete control over to Sheppard to wrap up the last remaining and to search the remaining portions of Pacifica.
After multiple sweeps of the station, and making sure all the aliens had been found, they were placed in the makeshift brigs.
A command meeting had been called, with everyone involved from the battle.
"So we were in a time dilation field for three weeks?" asked Sheppard.
"Yes, we hurried as fast as we could to solve the problems," replied McKay.
"Next time be a little faster," replied Sheppard.
"OK, folks let's break this down on what we know," ordered O'Neill.
"What we all thought was the Ares docked and they began pouring off the ship as fast as they could. They must have spread out over the station as fast as they could. Several were already in the control room when we got the warning from the real Ares, and that is when everything hit the fan. We had no way to know who to trust. We had pockets of resistance all over the station, but it was the ones who infiltrated us that shot us literally in the back. I made my way to the chair room as fast as possible and took out their ship. I saw I was about to be overrun, and things were looking desperate, so I activated the time dilation field," replied Sheppard.
"That was a brilliant move. It gave us time to come up with a strategy and possible alternatives," replied O'Neill.
"Where did the mini-drones come from?" asked Sheppard, "I ask because we tried to find information on them in the Atlantis database."
"Merlin's library, he had many notes on things not in the Repository of Knowledge," replied McKay.
"Doctor Lam, what is the final casualty count?" asked O'Neill.
Dr. Lam lowered her head, "One hundred seventy-eight dead, and three hundred twenty-one injured."
"Sir I would like to recommend Lieutenant Masterson for a medal. I never would have made the chair room without him," spoke Sheppard.
"Many will be getting a medal. They won't be forgotten, not now that we have disclosed," replied O'Neill.
"What do we do with our prisoners?" asked Caldwell.
"I've spoken at great length to the council on this. We are going to return them to their planet," replied O'Neill.
"We are doing what?" asked Caldwell.
"Wait for it Commander. Thor will take the Vanir with Lya of the Nox. They will try to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Mimic aliens. We will return the prisoners in good faith. You will be standing by with the Athena, Poseidon, Ares, and Apollo a short jump from them. If things go south, you will jump in and settle things. If the Ares was holding against the number of ships they were, then with five DN-1103's then it should be like swatting flies," replied O'Neill.
"I have spoken to the Jaffa council, I will have another twenty ships prepared to jump to assist as well, at your command," replied Bra'tac.
"Dr. McKay I want you to assign a team, I want those mini-drones integrated into each ship, Altera, Pacifica, and the F-319's," ordered O'Neill.
"On it sir," replied McKay.
Thor and Lya arrived in orbit of P3X-118. Thor began beaming the mimic aliens to the surface of the planet at the edge of a city. The Vanir receiveded a hail from the surface.
"Keep scanning for any signs of cloaked ships, and put them on the viewscreen," ordered Thor.
"Greetings I am Thor of the Asgard, member of the Atlantis Council," spoke Thor.
"I am Lya of the Nox, member of the Atlantis Council. We have come in peace and return the surviving prisoners to you from your attack on our station. We would like to try to find a peaceful settlement to this dispute," spoke Lya.
"There can be no peace between our people, you are an infestation and we will eradicate you," spoke the Odai Ventrell on screen, with that the video cut off.
"Commander Thor, I'm detecting energy surges all around us, we have a number of ships decloaking," spoke an Asgard from sensor controls.
"Signal Commander Caldwell," ordered Thor.
"Our communications are down," replied the Asgard.
"Then they will arrive briefly," replied Thor.
Sixty ships decloaked around the Vanir, they began firing immediately.
"Return fire," spoke Thor.
Wormholes opened up as the Athena, Poseidon, Ares, and Apollo appeared through them. They took up a defensive V formation to concentrate fire, and stay mobile. Taking a circular orbit around the Mimic ships, they opened fire. The concentrated firepower was taking out ships at an alarming rate. Quickly other mimic ships began to decloak and attack. Wave after wave of ships came at the Alliance ships. Once a path cleared the Vanir took up a position in the formation. The mimic ships began to concentrate fire upon a single ship, whenever the first shield would get low, they would fall back in the formation and force the mimic's to target another ship.
"How many ships remain?" asked Caldwell.
The lieutenant from the sensors, "Sir it appears we have about two hundred ships remaining still."
"Two hundred? How many have we taken out?" asked Caldwell.
"About one hundred thirty," replied the Lieutenant.
"How many ships do they have?" asked Caldwell. Before he answered the Lieutenant realized he wasn't being asked.
Fifteen minutes later the last of the mimic ships fell.
"Thor do you detect anything further?" asked Caldwell.
"Our scanners are not detecting any further ships.
The mimic of Odai Ventrell hailed them again.
Lya spoke first, "Please let us reach a peaceful settlement. You have lost over three hundred ships and untold life. This is not what we wish."
"There will be no peace!" shouted Odai Ventrell.
Caldwell from the Athena, "We have prepared for your tactics. You will never again have a chance to strike at us as you have done. We will return and strike again."
"We do not fear you. You will all perish!" shouted Odai Ventrell.
"As Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet, if you continue to strike at the Alliance, I will return here with over one hundred ships like these I will not leave till your planet is gone, then I will hunt down every planet your kind exists on and do the same to them," growled Thor. Lya looked astonished. Caldwell was shocked. Thor cut the communication.
Later back in Altera, O'Neill saw Thor, "One hundred DN-1103's? Bluffing much?"
"Perhaps you should visit Othalla, much has changed," spoke Thor.
"Perhaps I should. You seemed to be a bit angry in dealing with the Mimic's," spoke O'Neill.
"The Asgard have been at war with the Replicators for years and then the Ori. Your people have saved us countless times. Right now the Asgard stand at the height of our civilization, thanks to the people of Earth. We will not deal with a petty war again," replied Thor.
"Remind me to not get on your bad side. The height of your civilization?" asked O'Neill.
Thor never got to respond. Appearing in the gateroom then, was Janus, "I have it!"