Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter 4

4 - Departure

(Nova Roma – Control Room – 21 March 2016, 0700)

The evacuation had begun on schedule. Marc was in the control room, watching as group of people materialized on what they had named the Arrival Platform. Said platform a round slab of metal at the bottom of a flight of stairs. The control room was at the top of those stairs. It was a pentagon-shaped room with controls panels that allowed them to run the entire tower. There had not been enough Ancient consoles for the job, so the place was a hybrid of Ancient, Human and Goa’uld controls.

But the crown jewel of the base was in the middle of the room. An interface – in the form of a special chair – allowing the tower to be flown. Nova Roma could not fly faster-then-light, but she did have excellent sub-light drives. If things went wrong on the other side of the planet, the plan was to use those drives to get Nova Roma to safety. Then they would signal the George Hammond for evacuation back to Earth.

Colson, Hailey and Aranov were amongst those manning the consoles. Vale would sit in the chair. For now, however, he was looking over Colson’s shoulder. Alec was operating Nova Roma’s Asgard Transporter, which was how they were emptying the Beta Site. He nodded and left the man to it. Micro-managing was not this thing.

“Sir ?” One of the other people manning the consoles said. “Our VIPs have arrived.”

Captain Carl Grogan had served on SG-9 and later on SG-24. Vale had recruited him from there to seed several more experienced people in his very green security detail. He had quickly proved himself and been put in command of his own team two weeks ago. His team also included Sergeant Dusty Mehra, a female veteran from Atlantis. And she was not the only lady he had drafted from Atlantis. Nova Roma’s security branch was led by Major Anne Teldy. Also recruited from there was Doctor Alison Porter. She was the second-in-command of the Science department. Hailey had offered her the leadership of the department, but she had turned it down. Marc made a mental note to ask her about why she had done so later, but for now, he had other things to worry about. He turned to Grogan.

“Give the Hammond the green light to beam them down.”

There was a flash and President Mackenzie and General O’Neill appeared on the Arrival Platform. They were both wearing military fatigues. Mackenzie saw the room and whistled. The military personnel snapped to attention.

“At ease.” Mackenzie began as the two of them walked towards the control room. “I like it. It’s like Atlantis, but it isn’t at the same time. It could use a Stargate though.” He gestured towards the far wall. “It feels….incomplete.”

“Alas, there was only one Gate to go around.” O’Neill said as they reached the top of the stairs. “Colonel Vale.”

“Mister President, General. Welcome to Nova Roma.”

“So, how are things going ?” Mackenzie said.

“We’re on schedule. The base will be empty at 0715 hours, we can dial five minutes after that, sir.”

“Good.” Mackenzie began. “That gives me ten minutes to take a closer look at this impossible chair.”

He sat down in the Flight Control Chair. Or – as Marc was calling it – The Hot Seat. Vale and O’Neill exchanged looks, but didn’t object. Mackenzie gave Vale a nod and the Colonel began explaining the workings of the Hot Seat. The President listened intently as Vale did so. After he finished, Mackenzie hit several buttons. A screen showing a panorama of the sky above the tower lowered.

“It’s amazing.” He said. “And this chair is a mix of Goa’uld, Ancient, Asgard and Tau’ri technology ?”

“Yes, sir.” Vale said. “But I’m surprised you’re calling it Tau’ri technology, sir. And not American technology, sir.”

“This chair was build using American ideas, Russian ideas, Chinese ideas and a whole bunch of stuff we retro-engineered from alien gear. The American label just doesn’t fit any more, Colonel. This chair is humanity’s work.” He paused. “Sorry, I sometimes get a bit poetical.”

“I get that way myself sometimes, sir.” Vale said with a chuckle.

“How does she handle ?”

“We’ve only taking her up twice to make sure the sub-lights work properly. We didn’t take her out of the atmosphere, but she handle like a dream. And if the math is right, she can clear the atmosphere in twenty seconds.”

“Sirs ?” Grogan began. “The Beta Site is empty. And we are ready to begin running diagnostics, sirs.”

“Then I’ll get out of this chair and let you get to it.” Mackenzie raised the screen and stood up. “It’s all yours, Colonel.”

Vale took the chair and they set to work.

(Beta Site – Gate Room – 21 March 2016, 0720)

Colonel David Telford stood in the Gate Room and looked at the Stargate. Even after all these years, the Ancient device still impressed him. He turned around and gave the technician who was here to operate the Gate a nod. She was one of five people – besides his sixteen member team – who were still here. The other four were guards outside the Gate Room. There was a pause and then the Stargate began to move. A low hum – which was slowly growing louder – indicated that the device was now drawing power.

“Thirty percent of potential and increasing.” She said.

“Stability ?”

“Ninety-five percent and holding.”

The power continued to increase. It ticked past forty percent, then fifty, sixty and seventy. But when they reached seventy-five percent of potential, the stability indicator began to fall rapidly. For every percent more power, they lost five percent stability. By the time they got to ninety percent power, the stability dial was down to twenty percent. Telford rushed to a nearby console and increased the cooling of the power source to maximum. The stability dial only climbed five percent. Telford cursed and moved to a panel with levers, which controlled a series of emergency vents. He opened all of them halfway.

“Stability at thirty percent and holding.” The technician said. “Power at ninety-nine point nine seven percent of potential, sir.”

Telford looked at the Stargate, it was still dialing. He opened the emergency vents all the way and the stability increased to thirty-five percent. They were balancing right on the edge here. The Gate had locked the eighth chevron and was now dialing the last one. Telford held his breath. This was the moment of truth. After what felt like forever….the ninth chevron locked and the wormhole formed.

“Wormhole established. Stability at forty percent.” The technician said. “Disconnect in fifty-two seconds.”

“Move, people !”

The team made its way through the event horizon of the wormhole. Telford grabbed his backpack with equipment and ran towards the Gate. As he got there, the last member of the team went through. They were down to ten seconds. Telford gave the Gate Room one last look, then stepped through himself. Five seconds later, the Gate switched off.