Wednesday 13 September 2017

SG Nova Roma - Chapter 2.3

3 – E2B-178

(E2B-178 – Near the Stargate – Day 8, 0922)

As G’Yal had expected, the planet was hot. But that was not what was on his mind. He was still surprised that Colonel Vale had asked him to be on his team. He was walking next to the Colonel, his weapon ready. The Tau’ri had given him a projectile weapon called a MP5SD. It included a device which removed the noise that normally resulted from firing it. He would never admit it, but he was actually quite proud of this sign of trust.

“E2B-178 ?” He asked. (He was speaking into his radio, which included a translator.) “Who named this world ?”

“The computer. Apparently it’s some kind of translation of the coordinates of this planet.”

“Colonel….may I ask you something ?”

“You want to know why you are on this team ?”

“Yes, sir.” He paused. “Some of the crew said that I was a…token alien ? They also mentioned two people called Teyla and Teal’c, who are apparently other aliens and also on SG-teams. So…”

“…you thought you should ask.” Vale said with a smile. “That is why you are here. You’re not a token alien, G’Yal. You’re good with a gun and you’re not afraid to ask or give your opinion. I’ve learned the hard way that you need at least one soldier like that. Back when I was still a Roman soldier in training, we followed order without asking questions and it ended badly.” He paused. “I was away, delivering a message to another unit. They were ambushed by a group of robbers and wiped out. Since then, I ask questions.”

“I see.” He looked at the desert. “You think anybody lives here ?”

“There are no footprints. So if they do, they haven’t been to this part of the planet for a while.”

They continued to walk. It took about twelve minutes for them to reach the oasis. (Major Hailey had given him a Tau’ri wristwatch and told him how to read it.) There was a small puddle, which was surrounded by some grass and six palm trees. But no animals or footprints. G’Yal took a pair of binoculars out his backpack and scanned the horizon. He spotted four more oases.

“If there is nobody here, we could send NR-5 to collect as much water as possible. The Puddle Jumper should be able to carry a good amount.” He paused. “Does that mean that it would actually be puddle jumping ?”

Patterson moaned and shook her head at the pun. Suddenly, Vale’s radio came to life.

=/\=Hailey to Vale.=/\= Hailey said. =/\=We’ve had a development here.=/\=

“Vale here.” He said into the radio. “What’s happening over there ?”

=/\=The count-down clock just popped up.=/\= Hailey said. =/\=It’s at forty-two minutes and counting down.”

As part of their programming to keep their mission going, Destiny’s and Spera’s AI’s both limited the time the crew could spend on a planet. On board Destiny, there were countdown clocks throughout the ship. But aboard Spera, there had not been a single countdown clock in sight. Hailey had suspected that Spera actually used existing displays to show the clock. Also, she believed that the AI had apparently needed time to adjust to the presence of its new crew. And from what he had just heard, she had been right.

“We’ve found several oases with water.” Vale began. “Tell NR-5 to take Jumper One and bring the supply of jerrycans.”

=/\=Yes, sir.=/\= Hailey said. =/\=Hailey out.=/\=

The radio went dead and Vale turned to Porter. “It will take them a couple of minutes to gear up and get here. Let’s start testing this water for poisons, bacteria and anything else that could kill us.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Porter said as she put down her bag. “Even if the tests are all negatives, I still want to sterilize it and run it through all the filters in water reclamation system, just to be sure.”

“We’ll do.” Vale said.

Porter set to testing the water. While she did that, Patterson sat down next to one of the palm trees. G’Yal then sat down next to her. “So, what is your homeland like ?”

“Wet. It rains a lot where I come from.” She leaned towards him. “May I give you a piece of advice, G’Yal ?” He nodded his approval. “Stop trying to bond so much. These things simply takes time.”

“How are the tests coming, Doc ?” Vale asked as he sat next to Patterson on the other side.

“So far, so good.” Porter said. “I’ve already got a few negatives.”

“What about the trees ?” G’Yal said. “Could they be of some use ?” He paused. “And is it me, or do they look at little too….normal ? We have trees called E’Rall trees that look just like that.  I know that this is my first mission, but shouldn’t alien trees be more…alien ?”

“We call them palm trees on Earth.” Vale said. “And I’m afraid that some things are kind of universal. Including trees. As for using it, the wood is simply too soft.”

“How do you know things like that ?”

“Homework. I read a lot of mission reports while we were on-route to the Hope Galaxy.” Vale said. “We have people on translating several of key reports into Ursini and Nakai. So you have some in your future as well.”

“Yes, sir.”

Then Vale’s radio came to life and McConnell announced that NR-5 had just come through the Gate.

(Spera – Mess Hall – Day 8, 1105)

The mission to the planet had gone smoothly. They had collected a lot of water and come back with three minutes to spare. When the clock had hit zero, the ship had jumped back into FTL. G’Yal was writing up his report on the mission in the Mess Hall. (It was the only room in the Wraith expansion of Spera which was finished.) He was writing it on a Nakai computer – the Tau’ri would have called it a laptop – which was writing the report in Nakai, Ursini and English at the same time. (He simply wrote the report in Nakai, while the machine did the rest.) He had just finished when Jennifer Hailey approached the table he was sitting at. She was carrying a tray of food.

“Lunch ?” G’Yal asked.

“Yes.” Hailey said. “Report ?”

“Done.” He closed the laptop. “But this mission was not really that exciting. We came, we collected, we went.”

“Trust me. Enjoy it while it lasts.” Hailey leaned forward. “Sooner or later, trouble will find us. And when it does, you will miss these ‘boring’ missions. Before I was at the Beta Site, I spent several years on a SG-Team. My team got into a lot of trouble and whenever we did, I really missed the quiet missions.”

“So, what on the menu today ?”

“Tuna sandwich with milk and an energy bar.”

“Milk ?” G’Yal frowned. “What is milk ?”

“You’ve never heard of milk ?” Hailey looked at him in surprise. Then she explained about cows and how they gave milk. “Didn’t you have livestock on Colony One ?”

“No, we had heard about it. There was some kind of livestock back in Nakai Home Galaxy, but none of them were brought along when the planets were colonized. And we never did find anything like livestock on any of the worlds we visited in our galaxy.” He shook his head in surprise. “Tau’ri drink cow juice.”

“Yes, we do.” Hailey said with a smile.

G’Yal got up and went to get himself some food. Cow juice, this he had to try…. As G’Yal went to collect his lunch, he did not notice Aranov and Colson watching from another table. The two of them had overheard the entire conversation. (They had already finished their lunch and were now working on their reports on the Wraith expansion.)

“What do you think it will be like ?” Aranov said. “Going through the Stargate for the first time, I mean ?”

“You’ve been through the Gate several times by now, Nick.” He leaned forward. “And you’ve studied alien artifacts before. You’ll do fine.”

“Thanks.” Aranov said. “But I still think it will be very different than anything we have done before. And considering what we have been through to get to this ship, I think that’s saying something.”

“Good point.”

“Speaking of different. I thought that our FTL-drive needed at least three hours of cooldown time between jumps ?” Aranov said. “But we jumped out and then back in less than an hour.”

Destiny needs three hours of cooldown time. But from what I’ve managed to wrestle out of the database, she has a Mark 2 FTL-drive. The basic technical data on Spera says she has a Mark 3 FTL-drive.”

“So, the new and improved model ?”

“I hope so.” Colson said. “Because if we run into those berserker drones, we’ll need every edge we can get. So…” He got his feet. “…back to digging in the database.”

“Good luck.”

The two of them headed out. As they walked out of the room, they passed G’Yal, who was busy vomiting into a nearby trash can. Apparently, Nakai and milk did not mix.

(Spera – Bridge – Day 8, 1657)

Jennifer Hailey leaned back in the command chair. Vale had covered the 0800-1600 shift. Since she was the second-in-command, it was her job to lead the 1600-Midnight shift. The job of leading the last shift – Midnight to 0800 – had fallen to Major Teldy. Since she was the only other Major aboard and Chief of Security, Teldy was the third-in-command. When Vale or Hailey was off-world, she would be the acting XO. She looked at the clock. Vale had ordered her to drop the ship out of FTL at 1700 hours exactly. Hailey got up and walked up to the Forward Helm Station, where Patterson was flying the ship.

“Drop us out of FTL and then check the Wraith expansion for damage.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Patterson said, before dropping the ship out of FTL. “No damage reports. Spera has apparently totally adjusted to the Wraith expansion, ma’am.”

“Ma’am.” Henderson said as he approached the chair from the rear section of the room. “I got the numbers on the FTL-drive.” He handed her a piece paper. “The minimum cooldown time is forty-five minutes, that is the big upgrade of this engine over the Destiny’s model. But the minimum amount of time in FTL is still four hours, ma’am. Shut them down earlier and you damage them.”

“Nice work.” She gave him back the paper.

“Actually, it was Alec who did most of the work.” Henderson said. “And I’ve got some diagnostics to run, ma’am.” And with that, he walked back to the rear of bridge.

“Porter, how many Gates do we have in range ?”

“Three.” Porter said. “But one of them is locked out.” She hit several keys. “From the readings, I believe that the planet used to be habitual. But there have been numerous volcanic eruptions since the gate was put there. The sulfur percentage went through the roof and now the atmosphere is toxic. And we don’t have any spacesuits….” Those had been lost with Nova Roma. “…so that is a big, fat no.”

“What’s behind Gate one and two ?”

“Gate one….” She hit some keys. “….is on an ice planet. It’s a small island in the middle of a frozen lake. The atmosphere is breathable, so we could send NR-5 on another water trip if they use the Puddle Jumper. Gate two….” She hit more keys. “….is on a green planet. The seed ship spotted grass and trees, but no life-forms bigger than bacteria. I recommend we send a team to collect as much wood as possible. And that they should wear hazmat gear. I have a feeling that we don’t want any of those bacteria on board.”

“For the record, why didn’t we wear hazmat gear on our mission ?” Patterson asked.

“E2B-178 was a desert, the bacteria count was way lower.” Hailey said. “Tell NR-5 to gear up for a trip to the ice planet with Jumper One and NR-3 will get us some wood.” She looked at the countdown clock, which was at three hours and seven minutes. “And tell them that are cleared to use Jumper Two.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Patterson grabbed her radio and began contacting people.

Sunday 3 September 2017

SG Nova Roma - Chapter 2.2

2 – Visit

(Pentagon – Homeworld Command – Day 8, 0758)

President Robert Mackenzie walked into General O’Neill’s office. He was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. Also, he had told his Secret Service agents to wait outside of Homeworld Command. O’Neill got to his feet.

“Mister President.”

“Jack, let’s do this.”

The two of them headed for the Communications Room. There were two chairs waiting for them. Along with two Ancient Stones and a communications device. They sat down. Mackenzie picked up one of the stones and looked at O’Neill. ~Okay, swapping bodies with somebody millions of light-years away.~ O’Neill put his stones on the device and he followed suit. His body felt weird for a bit and then…

(Spera – Briefing Room – Day 8, 0800)

…he was in a room what was clearly of Ancient design. He spotted a mirror and saw his reflection. The face of Doctor Nikita Aranov looked back at him. Alec Colson was also in the room, along with Colonel Vale and Major Hailey. As he looked around, he realized that he was in the briefing room. He was sitting at an oval table with six chairs. Colson was sitting next to him, while Vale and Hailey were standing. He turned to Colson.

“Jack, you in there ?”

“I am here, sir.”

“Welcome aboard the Spera, sirs.” Vale said.

“Colonel.” O’Neill said. “So, you think it’s appropriate to have a general appear as a civilian ?”

“Sorry about that, sir.” Vale began. “But the IOA representatives wanted an update on the refit. Colson and Aranov drew the short straw and had to go, sir. Well, that and everybody else was busy…”

“Shall we get moving ?” Mackenzie said.

“Yes, sir.” Vale said.

O’Neill and Mackenzie stood up, after which Vale led them out of the room. Mackenzie had a feeling that this was going to be a very interesting day.

(Spera – Bridge – Day 8, 0914)

Spera was indeed a very interesting vessel. The Wraith expansion was done. This was because on the third day of the mission, the ship had recharged in a star. They had channeled a massive amount of power into growth after this. This had allowed them to complete the growth yesterday. Now the crew was busy installing the gear and getting the new rooms up and running. It had not escaped Mackenzie’s notice that – even with the expansion – Spera was extremely cramped. They had just walked onto the bridge when there was an alarm. Porter was sitting at one of the Science stations. She turned to Vale.

“Colonel, we just broke the Master Code.”

“Excellent timing.” Vale began. “Doctor Porter, President Mackenzie and General O’Neill.”

“General, Mister President.” Porter said with a nod.

“So…” Mackenzie began. “…does that mean we have full control of the ship now ?”

“Yes, sir.” Porter said, while hitting some keys. “And we should also be able to calculate our position along Destiny’s course now.” She hit several more keys. “The computer says that it should take about a minute, sir. But we do know that we are a couple of galaxies behind Destiny, sir.”

The door opened and T’Zalo came in. At first, Mackenzie had been surprised at the sight of the Ursini and Nakai members of the crew. Especially since they were in the Nova Roma Expedition uniforms. But now he was used to it. (Because the New Asurans were so human like, they actually looked very natural in the uniforms.)

“General, Mister President.” He said. “Rumor had it that I can finally get to work flying this beauty.”

“You sure can, Sarge.” Vale said, before he turning to Mackenzie. “He is the best pilot we have, so I made him Chief.”

“Shouldn’t there have been a memo ?” O’Neill said.

“Makes sense to me.” Mackenzie said, getting him a look from O’Neill. “What ? You want him to promote to the worst pilot ?”

“There’s that.”

There was a beep, indicating that the calculation of their position was complete. Porter hit some keys and a projection appeared above her console. It should Destiny’s course. Porter zoomed in on a section and two red dots appeared. One at the top of the display – which was marked as Destiny – and one at the bottom, which Mackenzie figured was Spera. There were three galaxies between two ships.

“Let’s hear it, doctor.”

“This is Galaxy Destiny Three.” She let out a sigh of relief. “They made it across the void. But…” She swallowed. “…there is no way to know if Eli Wallace is still alive.” Mackenzie put his hand on her shoulder. She took a deep breath and continued. “We are here, in Galaxy Delta Alpha. Based on this, we are approaching the edge of this galaxy. There should be eight, maybe nine more stops before we leave it.”

“So now would be a good time to get the Beta Site reinforcements aboard.” Mackenzie said. “What do you need, Colonel ?”

“Well, we have plenty of people who are qualified to fly the Puddle Jumpers.” Vale began. “But, right now, Sergeant T’Zalo and Private Patterson are the only full time pilots we have. We need six full timers, preferably rated on Jumpers and F-302’s.”

“What about the other six slots ?”

“I’d like four extra security people….” Right now, the count was eight out of eighty. “…and two more medical people. We need two people to train as medical experts on the Ursini and Nakai. Some of our alien volunteers have First Aid training for their species, but I want more.”

“Okay, we’ll make it…” Mackenzie was cut off by a beep from the empty Science console next to Porter. He sat down at the console and hit several keys. “What ? I did my homework.” Mackenzie had read everything he could on Destiny and practiced on a duplicate console that the Air Force had built in his office at his request. “And we have two Stargates in range now.”

“Sergeant T’Zalo, drop us out of FTL.” Vale said.

As the ship dropped out of FTL, Mackenzie was suddenly back on Earth. He was standing in the Briefing Room at Stargate Command. But before he could say anything, he was back aboard Spera. He turned to Vale.

“How did the expansion take the drop out ?”

“Zero damage, sir.”

“Good.” He turned to O’Neill. “General, I believe we have some work to do.”

“Yes, sir.”

The two of them headed for the briefing room. Mackenzie had a feeling that this would not be as easy as advertised. But he had no intention of giving up. He had said that he would make it happen, so he would.

(Spera – Gate Room – Day 8, 0920)

Vale walked into the Gate Room and found Xander Henderson at the Stargate controls. He was already dialing the Gate, while also getting the MALP ready. At the moment, they only had one MALP. But Henderson was already working on piecing together more units. Destiny had flying cameras ball called Kino’s, which served as their MALPs. Alas, the Spera crew did not have any.

“What do we have, Corporal ?”

“Two Gates in range. One is locked out, so I took the liberty of dialing up the other.”

The Gate connected and Henderson send the MALP through. Vale looked at the screen and the telemetry coming in. The planet was a desert world with brown sand. There were, however, some palm trees in the distance. And the atmosphere read as breathable. Vale took out his radio and opened a channel. (It had taken some time, but they had managed to tie the radios into the Ancient communications system.)

“NR-1 to the Gate Room.” He said. “Repeat, NR-1 to the Gate Room.”

They had put together five SG-teams. Except that instead of SG, they were using NR. NR-1 was Nova Roma 1. The other teams were NR-2 through NR-5. Vale was in command of NR-1, which was the General Recon team. He had assigned Alison Porter to his team to cover the Science and Engineering angle. Next came Private Alexia Patterson, who was the team pilot. She also had medical training. Patterson was from the United Kingdom. She had causcasian skin, red hair in a pixie cut and sharp, blue eyes.

Rounding out NR-1 was G’Yal, one of the Nakai volunteers. Before he had volunteered for the Expedition, he had been a security officer over at Colony One. Vale had not counted him as part of the Security force, because he had wanted him of his team. And if G’Yal had been counted, he would have been gotten three new security instead of four. With G’Yal getting the last slot on Security Team Three, which would have left him one man short.

For the last slot, Vale had considered putting Hailey on NR-1, but he had wanted her to command NR-2. Which was the Science Team. Her teammates were Nikita Aranov, Alexander Bennet and Alec Colson. Next came Security Team One, which - led by Major Teldy - doubled as NR-3. Security Team Two – which was Grogan’s team – doubled as NR-4. This was why he had asked Mackenzie for a third security team. That way, he could deploy both NR-3 and NR-4 if he had to, while still having Security Team Three aboard the ship.

Finally, NR-5 was the Resource Team. Lead by Hetty McConnell, it included Andrea Jones and two New Asurans, Claus and Frank. Both of the New Asurans were botanists. NR-5’s job was to make sure that the ship had plenty of water, food, air and medicines. (By overseeing several operations on the ship and collecting things off-world.) It was not a very glorious duty, but it was key to their long-term survival.

The door opened and the rest of NR-1 one came in. They had salvaged the doors from the airlock. One had been installed in the Gate Room, so that it would be easier to secure the place if they needed to. The other was installed in the Infirmary, so that the quarantine room could be sealed airtight. (In fact, they had used it in a make-shift airlock of their own.) Porter and G’Yal were discussing the mission as they approached. Patterson locked the door behind them.

“So.” Porter said. “Are we flying or walking ?”

“Walking. The oasis is not that far.” Vale said. “Everybody ready to go ?”

There were nods and they walked through the Gate.

SG Nova Roma - Chapter 2.1

1 – Refitting

(Spera – Main Space – Day 1, 2317)

Vale inspected the stand he had just attached to the floor. As they had expected, the main deck Spera had been one large, empty space. There were lower decks, which held the communications relays and the fabrication/deployment area. Vale had declared those decks to be off-limits, except for maintenance. Above the deck with Gate were three more decks. Two decks up were the airlock and the bridge. The top and between decks were just empty space. Satisfied with the stand, he put the MALP remote – the model with a screen – in one of two specially designed slots. The other slot would hold the Mark Two Gate Remote that T’Zalo and Colson had developed. He put the Gate Remote in. Then he took a pair of cables and set to connecting the remotes to the main power grid. (There was a plug-in point in the floor.) The two remotes where then connected to one another.

“Now all we need is the diagnostic console and we have ourselves a Gate Room.” He said.

“Almost done.” Colson said, who was working on the diagnostic console. “I’m running the final checks now.”

“Diagnostics on the diagnostics consoles ?” Vale said with a grin.

They had turned the large space in smaller rooms by building frames of wooden beams with short metal pipes at each end. This was so they could be welded into place. Next, they had put fabric between the beams. There had been three layers of cloth, with space between them. They had then filled that space with a special foam the New Asurans had developed. It had hardened and made the walls as solid as they were going to get.

(Although – if they could get enough material and a supply of nails – Vale intended to add a layer of wood over the outer layers of fabric.) The Gate Room had two openings in the walls. One to the left, which lead to the Jumper Bay. And one directly across from the Gate. (They didn’t have enough material to make doors in all rooms, but that was also on Vale’s to do-list.) It was through this passage that Jennifer Hailey came in. And the look on her face was not encouraging.

“Why do I have a feeling you are not about to give me good news ?” Vale said.

“I have finished the math on the life-support.” Hailey began. “The number I got back was one-hundred and twenty permanent inhabitants, sir. Which means…”

“We cannot move Colonel Young’s crew here. Great.” Vale began. “Any good news ?”

“Nikita has started the program to crack the master code.” Hailey said. “He said that because this is the Alpha Site of the project, the code is probably not as complex as the one for Destiny. So it should be faster than cracking the original code was. Also, he figured that the reason this ship has only room for a hundred-and-twenty people, is because the official skeleton crew number for Destiny is one-hundred and twenty-five.”

“So the Ancients considered one-hundred and twenty the cut-off point ?”

“Yeah.” Hailey nodded. “Also, Porter has found the DSI Network interface. She’s already has the translation terminal up and running. So we can start sending things back and forth with Atlantis right away. And the refit work is on schedule. There should be enough room for all of the crew. But the rooms won’t be very big or luxurious.”

“So….what do you think we should do with the top deck ?” It was a small deck located above the bridge and then stretching back towards the airlock. “There have been several suggestions.”

“Well, I think we’ll need a briefing room. But we need all the space we have down here.” Hailey said. “And there should be just enough space left for a locker room, so that the teams can gear up there as well.”

“Do it.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hailey nodded and walked out, while Vale returned his attention to the Gate Room.

(Spera – Vale’s Quarters – Day 2, 0405)

Vale closed the door behind him. (It was not really a door, but a flap of fabric.) The refit was on schedule and he needed sleep. As Hailey had said, the room was indeed small and bare. His bags were against one of the walls. But he decided that he would unpack them later. He took off his shoes and coveralls. Then he got rid of his watch and lay down. He woke up four hours later. ~Better, much better.~ He rubbed his eyes and sat back up. ~Time to unpack those bags.~

He began unpacking his bags. The bulk of the stuff in there was standard issue gear, but one of the bags had personal stuff. There was a picture of his old Search and Rescue unit. Next came his old Roman uniform and sword. He took the sword from it sheath and ran his finger across it. The sword was still sharp. ~Hello, old friend.~ He smiled and put it back. The next object was a folder with several blueprints. He had one of the Beta Site, one of Nova Roma, one of Atlantis, one of Destiny and one of level twenty-eight of Stargate Command. Finally, there was a leather bomber jacket he had gotten from a World War Two veteran called Victor Peterson. Peterson had been one of his neighbors in New York. When he had died, he had left the jacket to Vale in his will.

“I wonder what you would say if you knew about this mission, Victor ?”

The old man probably would have volunteered for the mission, Vale realized with a smile. His room was just a few millimeters wider than the length of his bed. So he stood on his bed as he mounted the blueprints above it with tape. Next, he mounted his sword closer to the door. (He taped the sheath to the wall at an angle so that the sword did not fall out.) Finally, he taped the photo across from the sword. There was a locker from him to put his old uniform and the bomber jacket into. He put the helmet at the bottom of the locker. Finally, he put his three spare uniforms in there. The rest of the stuff would end up in the ship’s supply room, once they had it. He had just closed his locker, when there was a knock at the door.

“Enter.”

Aranov, Hailey and Porter came in. They all appeared a bit more relaxed than usual. Now that they were aboard the Spera, they could let their guard down a bit. Aranov was carrying a clipboard with a pile of paper.

“We’ve got a problem, sir.” He said. “We don’t have enough space.”

“How bad is it ?”

“We don’t have room for the hydroponics bay, mess hall, infirmary, isolation ward and kitchen.” He gestured at the room. “And you know that the quarters are not really roomy either.”

Vale nodded. Besides, the bed and the locker, there was no furniture in the room. He figured that his room was two, maybe three square meters. It had still not been easy to fit everybody on the two decks they had to work with. Vale scratched his face and walked out of his room, with the others following him.

“Okay, what’s the lay-out now ?”

“I made you some blueprints.” Aranov said. “They’re crude, but you’ll get the point.”

He studied the blueprints and realized that they had not wasted any space. The ship was simply too small. If they had made it here aboard Nova Roma, they would have been able to expand the ship. However, because they had lost the tower, that was not an option. And without these rooms, long-term survival would be a lot harder. Fortunately, they had realized that this might happen and had come up with a Plan B.

“Okay, break out the Rabbit Seed and plug it in.”

“Yes, there is something about that…” Porter said. “…we can do it. But it will cost us the airlock. We’ll have to start on the bridge deck, grow through the airlock and then up. So we won’t be able to dock with Destiny if we get there the old-fashioned way.”

“One problem at a time.” Vale said. “Get started.”

“You’re the boss.” Porter nodded and turned to Aranov. “Nikita, can you give me a hand ?”

“Sure.”

Porter and Aranov left. It would take several days to grow the expansion. But they had brought enough food and water for several weeks, so they would be fine. He turned to Hailey.

“Will we have enough power for all the equipment in the expansion ?”

“Yes.” She said. “The real sticky part is getting the expansion inside the FTL-field, so it doesn’t get ripped off when we go in and out of FTL. We’ll basically have to build an extra FTL module and tune it in with the existing drive. And any left over power will have to be channeled into the current drive as well.”

“If anybody can do it, you can.” Vale said.

“Thank you, sir.”

“If you need me, I’ll be on the bridge.”

Hailey nodded and Vale headed towards the bridge. There were two spiral staircases which connected the decks, along with a platform lift. The lift was too small to hold the Puddle Jumpers, but they had modified the unit into a means for moving wounded. He reached the bridge deck. The space between the bridge and the airlock was filled with supplies. They were on shelves and in lockers. Then he reached the bridge itself. It was separated from the rest of the ship by an airlock door, which opened as he approached.

“Nice.” He said

He had not been on the bridge yet. So he took his time exploring the place. The rear section of the room had three consoles, which were connected to a central device. This was not a console, but some kind of cooling and connection hub. There were a couple of steps down to the forward section. First came the command chair. It was a chair flanked by two C-shaped control panels. Vale ran his hand across the control panel. ~Nice.~

The chair was empty, so he sat down in it. In front of the Command Chair was a much larger C-shaped console. This console had three stations, each of which its own chairs. The left and middle consoles were the science consoles, while the right one was Flight Control. The Engineering functions were all handled by the three consoles in the rear section. Finally, there were two sets of steps flanking the Science and Flight Control set. These led to the most forward section of the bridge. There were two L-shaped consoles here. The right one was Flight Control Two, while the left one was a Tactical Station. This section also had two windows. These could be protected by closing a pair of blast shutters.

Vale leaned back in the Command Chair. Part of him still couldn’t believe that he was out here – in the middle of nowhere – in command of a spaceship, with some of the crew being aliens.

“You have come a long way.” A voice said. “In more ways than one.”

He turned to see his mother – Octavia Valerius the Elder - standing in the rear section. Vale got up and approached her. The woman who was standing there, looked like his mother. But there was something different about her. He tried to touch her, but his hand passed through her. And then he remembered that Destiny was run by an artificial intelligence. So why would Spera not have such a program as well ?

Spera, I presume ?”

“Always on guard.” Octavia said with a smile. “But yes, I am Spera’s Artificial Intelligence.”

“Not I mind the company…” Vale began. “…but, why are you here ? Destiny’s AI only showed up after we cracked the Master Code. And we’re still working on that.”

“Well, the Ancients whom programmed me figured that when I had to get to work, things would be pretty bad.” She said. “Since I am what you call the Alpha Site of the project.”

“Makes sense to me.” Vale said. “So…anything specific you wanted to talk about ?”

“No.” Octavia said. “I just wanted to say hello. But you will see me again, Colonel.”

And with that, she faded out. Vale smiled and walked out of the bridge. There were eighty people aboard Spera, but it was now crystal clear that the old girl had a mind of her own. Yes, this would be a very different mission.

Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter 16

16 – Spera at Last

(Stargate Command – Daniel Jackson’s Office – 3 July 2017, 2310)

Daniel Jackson was exhausted. He had just been on a mission to P2G-192, while had included a very long negotiation. The locals had been divided between three countries. It had been his job to oversee a fusion of the three nations. But that had been easier said than done. Now, he was finally writing his report on the outcome. (The treaty was signed and fusion was complete.) Suddenly, a knock made him look up. It was President Mackenzie, who walked into his office.

“I heard your mission to P2G-192 was as success, Doctor Jackson.”

“Yes, sir. I am working on the final report now.”

“It can wait.” Mackenzie grabbed a stool and sat across Jackson. “I need your opinion about something, doctor.” He reached into his pocket and took out a piece of paper. “I got a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Vale. He wants permission to recruit Nakai, Ursini and New Asuran volunteers into his crew. My first instinct is to turn down his request, but…” He leaned on Jackson’s desk. “…Vale asked some very good questions.”

“No offense, sir. But isn’t that what we pay him for ?”

“True.” Mackenzie said with a smile. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I want your opinion.”

Mackenzie gave Jackson the letter. He opened it and read it. And Vale had indeed asked some very good questions. It reminded Jackson of an argument he had once had with then-Colonel O’Neill. SG-1 had been off-world on a mission to a place called Euronda. Daniel had asked some hard questions, which O’Neill had not wanted to hear. But in the end, O’Neill had changed his mind and told him to ask his questions. The answers had not been pretty. But they had kept Stargate Command from supporting the wrong side in a war. (It had turned out that the people they had considered helping were basically fascists.) He finished reading the letter, then put it down.

“Well, I didn’t know if we are worthy of controlling Destiny…” Jackson began. “…but I do know that there are people aboard that ship who will die if we don’t rescue them. And that we can’t let the Nakai or the Lucian Alliance have it. If either of them get it, they will use its secrets to massacre millions.”

“Yeah, there’s that.”

“As for monopolizing Destiny as a race….” He leaned back and looked at Mackenzie. “I know the people aboard Destiny have had issues with both the Ursini and the Nakai in the past. But if these people were going to stab us in the back, they would have done it by now. Hailey finished the dial-in program a week ago. And they know how to fly the city by now. They would have killed our people and taken the city for themselves.” Jackson paused. “And the New Asurans have been holding up their end of the deal as well. They signed a treaty with us, when they didn’t have to.”

“Anything else ?”

“Well, we have to remember that we have no idea what exactly is at the end of the line.” Jackson said. “We have no idea what the message that Destiny is trying to decrypt is. We also need to remember that there is a difference between monopolizing Destiny and monopolizing the good that can come from Destiny.”

Mackenzie nodded. He realized that there was a major difference between the two. And that the second was a much more important issue then the first. The first was also much easier to fix then the second. Which was exactly what Colonel Vale was asking permission to do. He realized that his first reaction was how the IOA would have reacted. Mackenzie cursed himself, then nodded for Jackson to continue.

“Finally, we have a problem. Even if we manage to convince the New Asuran to let us build an outpost on a planet in the Hope Galaxy, setting up a supply line will not be easy. The original plan to dial-in with the reprogramming sub-routine did not work. And we both know that we can only dial Spera twice. This might be our only chance to increase the number of people aboard Spera. And until Vale gets his people aboard Destiny, we can’t use the Beta Site to dial the ninth chevron.”

“Good point.” Mackenzie said. “Now, I am going to talk to General Landry. And you should get to bed.” He smiled at Jackson. “P2G-192 might be a pain in the ass, but it won’t end if turn in that report tomorrow.”

“I’m not so sure about that, sir.” Jackson said.

“Bed, now.”

And with that, Mackenzie walked out. Jackson tried to continue working on the report, but a yawn made him realize that Mackenzie was right. So he saved the file, turned off his computer and went to find a bed.

(Colony One – Control Room – 25 August 2017, 0711)

They were approaching Colony Eighty-Two. And there was plenty of good news to go around. All the cities had escaped from the Home Space Nakai. Furthermore, they had managed to thin out the Fleet to five motherships and a handful of fighters. And in the end, those ships had been forced to turn around. At the same time, President Mackenzie – along with the team of IOA representatives and several other heads of state – had given him permission to go ahead with recruiting volunteers from their alien allies.

Finally, Doctor Jackson had managed to bypass the problem with the New Asurans not wanting them to set up an outpost on one of their planets. Instead, they had asked the Ursini and Colonists to create an outpost on their world. And they had agreed. Vale was glad to hear that piece of good news. But he wondered what good the outpost would do. So he leaned against the Engineering console and asked Colson.

“Well, l looked at the logs of the ninth chevron dial-in. And it’s a miracle the whole complex didn’t explode when Colonel Telford and his team went through.” He looked at Vale. “The folks back home have been working on it since we left. They have made a lot of upgrades on the place already. But if there is one thing we have learned during this mission, Plan A rarely works.”

“Yeah, there’s that.”

“So, Plan B is to use the Beta Site to dial the outpost and then dial Destiny from there.”

“Yeah, you did remind them that this whole software-override thing doesn’t work ?” Vale said. “We’ll be lucky if we can get aboard Spera and get one wave of reinforcements.”

“Yes, they said they were working on that.”

Before they could continue their conversation, a loud – and very annoying – claxon sounded. Colson killed it, while Vale ran to the Control Chair. As he sat down, Colson announced that they were two minutes from dropping out of hyperspace. Vale activated the chair. Then he waited for the clock to hit zero. The moment it did, he dropped the city out. Then he left the chair and ran down the stairs. Hailey and T’Zalo were now flying the city.

“Right on course.” T’Zalo said.

“Excellent.” He turned to Porter, who was monitoring the sensors.” Alison, what do we have on the long-range units ?”

“Checking.” She worked her console. A cluster of dots appeared on her display, along with a circle. Inside the circle was another dot. “One planet with a colony on it. And eighty city-ships in orbit.” She hit several more keys and the display zoomed in. “Everybody is here, and there are zero hostiles on scanners.”

“Life-signs and ZPM count, please.”

“Zero life-signs and zero ZPMs in orbit. One ZPM and thirty-two life-signs down on the planet.”

“Thirty-one volunteers ?” Vale asked. The last life-sign belonged to a technician, who had stayed behind to help with the evacuation of Colony One to the Hope Galaxy.

“Plus another ten from this colony.” Carossa said as she walked into the control room. “Six Ursini and four Nakai, including Mister T’Zalo.” She turned to T’Zalo. “Mister T’Zalo, front and center.” T’Zalo swallowed and left his console. “I am happy to announce that, by order of the Ruling Council of Governors of the Nakai-Ursini Alliance, you have been granted the rank of Senior Master Sergeant in the Fleet.” And with that, she put two small, golden discs on his shoulders. “Now, land this city, Sergeant.”

“You heard the lady.” Vale said. “Sarge.”

“Yes, sir.”

T’Zalo took his seat and set to landing the city. Vale smiled and watched as they approached the planet. The integration of his crew has just begun in earnest. But for now, they had other things to worry about.

(Colony Eighty-Two – Control Room – 25 August 2017, 1605)

The control room of this colony was different from the one back on Colony One. There was no Control Chair and the Flight Control console was much simpler. This was because she only had to fly on auto-pilot during the mission. The control room also housed a Pegasus Model Stargate. This was the Gate the other colonies had used to evacuate to the Hope Galaxy. At the moment, the people of Colony One were moving through it. The Gate was powered by the last ZPM and all the power city-ships could muster. Colony One and Colony Eighty-Two were wired in the old-fashioned way, while the city-ships in orbit transmitted power down. Hailey, Grogan and Colson were overseeing the evacuation.

“Is this the last group ?” Vale said.

“Yes, sir.” Grogan said. “We’re the only ones left.”

The last colonists stepped through the Gate. Five seconds later, they received a signal from the other side. Which indicated that everybody had made it. Colson cut the power and the Gate disengaged. Vale turned and gestured towards the door. The four of them made their way to a room they were using as a staging area. (It had been a mess hall before they had commandeered it, so it was big.) Despite taking as much as they could, they had lost a lot of gear when they had evacuated Nova Roma. But then they had picked up some stuff in the Hope Galaxy. And now, the Expedition was taking what they could from Colony Eighty-Two. So they were actually pretty well supplied and stocked.

“I still think it’s weird.” Grogan said.

“It makes sense to me.” Colson said. “What ? We’re one crew now.”

The Expedition now consisted of 49 Humans – or Tau’ri, as the aliens members had begun calling them – 10 Nakai, 17 New Asurans and 14 Ursini. But it was a little bit harder to tell them apart now. Because it had been decided that everybody would now wear the Icarus Base uniform. Well, sort of. The only difference was that the Icarus Base patch had been replaced by a Nova Roma Patch. The patch was a blue circle with a silver sword.

Around this was a red border with black letters. The bottom half had the person’s name and rank. In case of the civilians, the rank was replaced by either the title or position. The top half said: Nova Roma Expedition – Earth / Hope Galaxy Alliance. Making the uniforms for the Ursini and Nakai had not been easy. (The sizes had to altered.) But they had succeeded.

The room was a beehive of activity and making oneself heard would not be easy. So Vale put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

“Okay, people, I know it’s been a long and difficult road….” He began. “….and I know that we’re not there yet. But this is it. The colonies are empty. The autopilots have been programmed. The ZPMs have been planted by the defense ships assigned to this colony….” This had happened while they had still been on-route. “And we are about try and dial Spera.” If the Gate failed to connect, they would join the others in the Hope Galaxy and dial back to Earth from there. “You all know what it means if you board that ship. And the price that this Expedition might ask of its members. So I am giving you all one last to withdraw your anticipation…”

This was the point of no return. Once you were on that ship, your chances of seeing home – your friends, your family – ever again were slim. And everybody knew it. So he was giving them the option to change their minds.  But all he got in reply was silence. So he nodded. ~Make or break time.~

“…okay, let’s do this.”

The Expedition Team, eighty strong, began moving into the Control Room. Hailey went to the Flight Control console and typed in a code. There was a beep as the computer acknowledged the command and a countdown began. In one hour, the autopilot would engage and fly both Colony One and Colony Eighty-Two in orbit, where they would join the other ships. And five minutes after that, the Fleet would leave for Galaxy Destiny Two to do their part against the Berserker Drones. Next, she keyed in another code and waited. There was another beep and another countdown started. This one began at fifteen minutes. When it hit zero, the first ZPM would overload. The rest would detonate at one minute intervals after that. Finally, she moved over to the Engineering console. She put several commands and there was a beep. That done, she turned to Vale.

“Countdowns engaged, sir.” Hailey began. “Override program activate.”

“Good.” Vale said.

Vale walked to the DHD and began dialing. As he did so, Porter used a remote to line up a MALP. They had cobbled it together from parts they had found around Colony One. The final chevron locked and the wormhole formed. He nodded to Porter, who then drove the MALP through. One of the consoles lit up with readings and a video feed from a camera on the MALP. Aranov looked at the readings.

“The air reads as breathable and pressure is stable. I can’t see any hull breaches on the video feed.” He hit some keys. “I recommend we check the air scrubbers as soon as we get there though. And power is low, so we’ll have to address that as well.”

“Radiation levels ?”

“Minimal.” Aranov said. “We have a go.”

Vale nodded and stepped through the Gate. The MALP was right next to the Stargate. He took a spare remote from the MALP and drove it towards the hull. This remote had a small screen, so that he could it use to inspect the hull closer. As he did so – confirming Aranov’s initial assessment – the rest of the team came through the Gate. Finally, the Puddle Jumpers came through. Then the wormhole disengaged. And after all that had happened, they were on their way to Destiny at last.

END OF SEASON 1 – TO BE CONTINUED….