Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter 10

10 – Wavering Dedication

(Stargate Command – Briefing Room – 3 September 2016, 0800)

Jack O’Neill was extremely cranky. They had been able to confirm the readings the Defender had send over. There really was a vast alien tunnel network on the moon. And then the teams had come back…with Doctor Guskov’s body. It had been a massive blow to morale. As for the funeral….Colonel Vale had given a good speech. They had put Guskov’s remains in an empty supply crate, sealed it and launched it into the star. And that was just one of the things that had happened.

The New Asurans were – as much as Jack hated to admit it – proving trustworthy. They had given the crew of Nova Roma all the data on their attempts to dial the ninth chevron. (Along with some data on metal eating bacteria they had apparently been promised.) It turned out that they had tried to do the same thing as the crew of Nova Roma were planning to do. The eggheads had developed a special program which was supposed to fool Destiny to make it think the tower was on Earth. They – meaning Homeworld Command – had gotten to version 3.0. Alas, the New Asurans had tried for thousands of years before abandoning their effort. And they had gotten to version 207.8.

At the same time, this meant that they had another problem. Because it also meant that the Nakai were waiting for them three galaxies on. They would be able to skip the Nakai Home Galaxy itself, but they would still be in for a fight. And without Stargate access to Destiny, things would get….hairy. But the real problem was that – despite his and Colonel Vale’s efforts – the IOA had found out about this whole mess. And – just as Jack had expected – they had begun to waver in their dedication to this mission. And they had called him in to discuss the matter. But there was one piece of good news. All the high ranking representatives were too busy arguing to attend this meeting herself.

“Who’s blasted idea was this ?” O’Neill heard a male voice say as he entered the briefing room. “I’m a file clerk, not a politician or a soldier.”

“You think I like being here ?” A female voice countered. “I was working on the Mark Three naquadah reactor.”

The male voice belonged to a thirty-ish African-American man with short, black hair and brown eyes. He also had a week’s worth of beard growth. The man wore a blue coverall with the flag of the United Kingdom on one shoulder. Next to him sat a Caucasian female with blue eyes and red hair. She wore the same coverall, but hers had the flag of the United States. The chairs for the Russian, Chinese and French representatives were still empty. The two representative that were there stood up.

“General O’Neill, I presume ?” The man said. “I’m Reginald Jones, representing the United Kingdom.”

“And I am Doctor Ingrid Anders, representing….well…us, sir.” She paused. “I’m assigned to the New York research base, sir.”

There was a small research base in New York, which was manned by an international staff. O’Neill remembered that Anders was the ranking American scientist at that base. He looked at the two of them with a cranky look on his face.

“So, not only do they pull me out, I have to deal with the D-team ?”

“More like the F-team.” Jones said. “Apparently, even the D and E-teams are busy bickering, sir. And over half of this team didn’t even bother to show up.” He gestured towards the empty chairs. “I have no idea where the other representatives are. Hell, they didn’t even bother to tell us who they were.”

“Forget this, they can kiss….” That was as far as O’Neill got before the door opened and three people came in. They wore the same coveralls as the others. Two were Caucasian male and one was an Asian female. The female carried the flag of China on her shoulder, while the two males had the flags of France and Russia on their clothes. “…Yes ?”

“Sorry, we got lost.” One of the men said with a thick Russian accent. He had short, brown hair and green eyes. “Boris Grankin. And this…” He gestured towards the French representative. “….is Henry Valluy.” Valluy was muscled, with blond hair and blue eyes. “And Qui Han is our Chinese representative.” Han had brown eyes and black hair in a pixie cut. She the youngest of the three. Valluy and Grankin were in their fifties, while Han was clearly twenty-something.

“So, what are your day jobs ? So far, we have an egghead and a file clerk.”

“I was a cook on Atlantis.” Grankin said. “Valluy is a janitor and Miss Han is a nurse.”

“That does it, I am out of here.” O’Neill said as he got up and headed for the door. “You people are free to continue this farce, bye.”

And with that, O’Neill was gone. The three representatives sat down at the table. This was followed by a silence that was extremely uncomfortable. In the end, it was Valluy who broke it.

“Okay, this won’t do.” He began. “We can’t leave those people stranded on that ship. And that is exactly what our bosses intend to do.” He paused. “And they are going to use us as their scapegoats. So, does anybody have anything ?”

“I can brief you on the Lee Paradox.” Anders said. There were nods of approval. “Okay, Earth has had two Stargates. The first was located in Antarctica, so let’s call it Arty. While the second is one found in Egypt in 1928. That would be Sandy.”

“Right, that’s Stargate 101.” Jones said.

“Now, the problem is that when Destiny and Atlantis were launched, Arty was the Gate in use. And Arty has this symbol as the point of origin…” She took out a piece of paper and a pen and drew a circle with a line underneath it. “And it was also in use when Atlantis launched. Both Gates were programmed only to accept one address from outside their home galaxy, Earth. Which at the time ended with Arty’s point of origin.”

“But Arty got buried in the ice.” Han said. “Ra planted Sandy in Egypt. But from I understand, that only happened a few thousand years ago. While Destiny and Atlantis were launched millions of years ago. And yet we were able to dial into both using Sandy’s point of origin, the pyramid with a circle above it. So, how did Atlantis and Destiny get reprogrammed ?”

“Isn’t there something called correlative updates ?” Jones said.

“Yes.” Anders said. “The universe expands and thus the Gates move, causing their coordinates to change. The updates keep the network working by refreshing all the coordinates.” She leaned forward. “The thing is, as far as we know, these updates are limited to each galaxy.”

“But, let’s presume that Atlantis and Destiny are included in these updates, how did they actually get the file to those places ?” Grankin began. “Inside the galaxies, the Stargates themselves can be used as relays for the transmission. But how do you get the transmission from galaxy to galaxy ? Even if the Pegasus and Milky Way models can send transmissions over such a distance, the rest of the galaxies along the course have the Destiny model of Gate. And that model certainly doesn’t have the transmission range for sure.”

“That is the Lee Paradox.” Anders said.

“You know.” Valluy began. “There is something else. We know that the Ancients set Destiny on auto-pilot and planned to dial-in once it was far enough out. But how would they know it was far enough out, if they were not tracking its progress ? Thus they would have to send some telemetry back to Earth. Which brings us back to Boris’ question….How ?”

“So ?” Jones began. “What do we do ?”

“Well, we have nothing to lose.” Han began. “Let’s ask the New Asurans about this.”

“And what do we tell our superiors ?” Jones asked.

“I think it would be best if we tell them nothing.” Grankin said. “Otherwise, they’ll object and yell and generally make a nuisance of themselves. And then we’ll never get an answer. I say we wait until we have more information before telling them anything.”

“I agree.” Han said.

“So do I.” Valluy said.

“It’s the best plan we have.” Jones said. “And, as much as I hate to say it, it’s also the only plan we have. I think we should ask the New Asurans and stick to Boris’ suggestion.”

“Okay.” Anders began. “Let’s call it Operation LP. I’ll see if I can find General O’Neill and set up a visit to Nova Roma.”

There were nods of approval, after which Anders got up and headed out. She had a feeling that the General would not like this idea of them visiting the tower. But he would like the idea of abandoning the mission even less. So, in the end, they would be allowed to go. (Or at least, she hoped so.)

(Nova Roma – Main Science Lab – 3 September 2016, 1017)

Jennifer Hailey sat behind her laptop and stared at the screen. Two IOA representatives – called Anders and Jones – had arrived and written a file on Lee Paradox. They had then presented that file to the New Asurans and asked Gerhard for a reply. He had told them that he would have to discuss this with his superiors. Hailey had read the file and recognized it for what it was, a desperate gamble by five IOA employees who did not want to be sacrificed for political gains. The Lee Paradox – named after Doctor Bill Lee, who had been the first to put it on paper – was interesting. But in her opinion, the chances of there being something useful in the answer were not that good.

So instead, she was doing here best to do her part in helping to solve the mystery of the desert moon. They had send down teams to examine the place in more detail. They meaning the crew of Nova Roma and the New Asurans. There were photos, scans and samples of all sorts. The samples were being analyzed by a team led by Porter. As for Aranov, he was down on the moon, leading one of the collection teams. Which left Hailey with the pictures and scans. Alas, she was not making any real progress. While she had figured out some small tidbits, who these people where and how they had ended up here still eluded her.

“Having any luck ?” A female voice said.

Hailey looked up to see Anne Teldy standing there. She had been so focused on the work that she had not heard Teldy coming in.

“No.”

“Well, maybe some coffee will help.” Teldy put a big mug of coffee next to the laptop. “Even if it does taste like liquid rubber.”

“I’ll take what I can get.” Hailey said. “So, what do you think about this whole situation ?”

“Trusting a bunch of replicators ? I’m firmly in the this is a bad idea camp. But then again, I am the Head of Security, so that is kinda my default mode.” She grabbed a chair and sat down. “Be paranoid and all that. So…..what do you think of Colonel Vale ?”

“Well, he survived skipping 2022 years without going nuts. And he’s adjusted to things like aliens and Stargates. Not to mention that he kind of helped to come up with this whole Expedition.” She looked at Teldy. “Why do I have a feeling you have doubts ?”

“Look, I will admit that the guy has some things going for him. And that he would make an good CO for a normal Air Force posting, but this…out here…” She shook her head. “And after losing Doctor Guskov ?...”

“I know. But if we just turn around and leave, what will his death have been for ?”

Teldy leaned back in her chair. Before she could say anything, there was a beep from the laptop. The New Asurans had send a reply and the folks up in the Control Room had send a copy of it down here. Hailey entered her security code and the file opened. When she saw what was inside, she gasped. Sometimes it was good to be wrong.

(Stargate Command – Briefing Room – 3 September 2016, 1300)

O’Neill and Landry walked into the Briefing Room. The F-team had apparently hatched something. Not that O’Neill expected it to be anything even remotely useful. After all, up to this point, every IOA plan ever had been rubbish. As he walked in, he realized that this time, the whole team was here. He sat down and looked at the team.

“So ?”

“We’ve gotten an answer to the Lee Paradox from the New Asurans.” Valluy said. “And it might be a game changer. Ingrid ?”

“Right.” Anders said. “We’ve always presumed that the Destiny experiment has two major elements. A fleet of seed ships ahead of the ship, gathering resources and building Stargates, which they then drop on habitual planets. And Destiny herself.” She paused. “Turns out there is a third element to the whole deal. There is another seed ship behind the main vessel. Except this one builds communications relays and drops them between galaxies. Thus, allowing two way communications and solving the Paradox.”

“So, why haven’t we found these relays between the Milky Way and Pegasus ?” Laundry asked.

“Well, once we knew what we were looking for, it was easy to dig the blueprints out of the Ancient database.” Anders began. “It was in the same section as where we found the ninth chevron address. It turns out they are equipped with phase generators. These put the relays in a bubble that is out of phase with the rest of universe, which hides it and keeps it safe from attack. Because even if you know where one is, weapons fire will pass right through it without doing any damage.”

“And this changes the game how ?” O’Neill asked.

“Because it gives us a bone to throw our superiors.” Valluy began. “And while they bicker, the folks on Atlantis can use the data the New Asurans gave us to access this network. This network will allow us to transmit reports, files, make radio contact and more. We’re calling it Deep Space Internet. The DSI-network will give us more options then the stones do. And up until now, Nova Roma has been using a crude map based on what Rush reported back on Destiny’s course. But the DSI-network will give us a precise map of the course. And it should tell us exactly where Destiny is.”

Anders took over. “Which means we can calculate if Nova Roma can jump to Destiny or not. It would no longer be a gamble. And it appears that the New Asuran copy of the database did not have the blueprints of the following seed ship. But the copy we have at Atlantis might and that gives us a shot at a Plan C.”

“Might ?” O’Neill said. “Might.”

Han spoke up. “As I understand, the original plan for this mission was to fly the tower until it ran out of power. And hope that Nova Roma was at or close to Destiny after it came out of the last hop. But like Anders said, it would no longer be a gamble. As for Plan C, once we have the blueprints, we can see if this seed ship is suitable for habitation. And if it is, we could use it to reach Destiny, should Nova Roma not have the range.”

“That’s presuming Nova Roma can reach the seed ship.” Landry said.

“No, because we can do the math in advance.” Grankin began. “We’ll know if it can before the jump. And, as we all know, it’s this or turn around and give up. So we turn this into a report and send it to our superiors. But we also send a copy to Atlantis. While the IOA argues about what to do next, the Atlantis crew can get started.”

“Do it.” O’Neill said.

“Okay.” Anders said. “Let’s get something on paper.”

O’Neill and Landry got up and walked out. They made their way into Landry’s office. Landry sat behind his desk, while O’Neill sat across from him. O’Neill looked through the window to the briefing room, then turned to Landry.

“So, what do you think ?”

“I think that this F-team has more common sense then all of their superiors put together.” Landry said. “And asking about the Lee Paradox did work out. So they are good gamblers.”

“There’s that.” O’Neill said. “Of course, if it turns out that seed ship is not habitual, we’re screwed.”

The look on Landry’s face made it clear that he thought O’Neill was right about that.