(Planet 7 – Warehouse – 25 November 2016, 1412)
Jennifer Hailey sighed and looked at her laptop. She had been trying – for a couple of days now – to rewrite the program they had been planning to use to dial into Destiny. She had named it Destiny Alpha One. Her intention was reprogram DA-1. Instead of making Destiny believe their Gate was on Earth, they had to make the system believe that Destiny had been destroyed. Once they did that, they should be able to dial the ninth chevron and end up aboard the Spera instead. At least, that was the theory. The practice – however - was turning out to be a major pain in the neck.
“Any luck ?” Colson said.
She was sitting in the same room where the whole group had waited for the sixteenth. With a little help from the Asurans, they had converted the place into a major lab. They had also tied it into the DSI Facility. The Senate had not been happy when they had found out about it, but the people had supported Yorick. And so did the New Asuran Fleet. So there was nothing they could do about the new direction the New Asurans were taking. Not without getting lynched, that was.
“No.” Hailey said. “And we need this program to make it aboard Spera.”
The New Asurans had the Gate addresses of all 82 Colonist-Ursini worlds and had done the math on how much power it would take to dial from them to the Hope Galaxy. But even if they made it to the colonist world that was the closest to Spera, they would need the override for the final hop. And that brought up another problem. They needed a power source to do their leapfrogging between the colonies. But the Destiny model Stargates could not handle the output from a ZPM. So they needed another power source to make this work.
“Yeah.” He handed Hailey a cup of coffee. “The New Asurans are struggling with the power source as well.”
“Got any ideas ?” She smiled. “Don’t let this go to your head, but you are the best engineer we have.”
“At the moment, I’m also the only engineer we have. But thanks.” He gestured towards the laptop. “May I have a look ?”
Hailey turned the laptop around and Colson sat down at the table. He had barely begun when Aranov came in. The archeologist looked exhausted. He had spent the later couple of days at the DSI Facility, digging through the telemetry archives. His intention had been to find more information about the race that had inhabited the moon they had explored with New Asurans. Alas, it was like trying to find a needle in a massive haystack.
“Well, looks like we’re not the only ones having trouble.”
“I can’t find anything about whoever lived on that moon.” Aranov said as he grabbed a chair and joined them at the table. “I was hoping to find something useful about these aliens. But there is nothing.”
“I know how you feel.” Colson said. “The power source research is not going well either. It’s not like power sources grow on trees.”
“Grow….” Aranov said. “That’s it…..Wraith tech. We use Wraith tech.” Colson and Hailey looked at him as if he had grown a second head. “Punch up the schematics of one the colonies.”
“Okay.” Colson worked the laptop a bit, then turned it so that Hailey and Aranov could see. “What’s the plan ?”
“Now, the Nakai were kinda cheap when they build these outposts. They didn’t bother to terraform any of these planets. Nor did they give the colonists the technology to terraform the planets themselves. So all these places are towns inside domes.” He paused. “We grow a shell around the dome, making sure it is airtight. Then all we have to do, is add a Hyperdrive. And we have a flying city.”
“Let’s presume that works.” Hailey said. “We can’t fly those cities through Nakai Home Space without them being destroyed or suffering major damage.”
“Can’t we ? Atlantis once encountered a Wraith Hive upgraded with one ZPM and it was a monster. With more than one and little help from the New Asurans, we could grow what we need in record time.” Aranov said.
“And then what ? Wipe out the Home Space Nakai with a fleet of 82 city ships ?” Colson said. “How does that make us any better than the Nakai ?”
“No.” Aranov opened the map with the locations of the Colonist worlds. “We know that the Berserker drones are native to the second galaxy Destiny travelled through with our people aboard. Hence, Destiny Galaxy Two. But the last outpost on the list is in Destiny Galaxy One. Now, we know that replacing a Destiny model Gate with a Pegasus model Gate and then getting it to work with the rest of network is a major pain. That’s why replacing 82 Stargates is not a viable option. But if we can get all of them to one place….”
“We’d only have to replace one Gate.” Colson said. “And if we tie together all the power of the city-ships, they’d have more than enough power to dial back here. Not to mention we’d have a chance to permanently break the chain.”
“Break the chain ?” Hailey said.
“Even if we empty these planets, the Nakai will simply resettle them. That will slow down their progress, but it won’t stop their chase of Destiny. Once all the Colonists and Ursini are relocated to the Hope Galaxy, we use the ZPMs from the city-ships to destroy as many planets as we can in Destiny Galaxy One.” Colson paused. “A ZPM on overload will destroy a whole solar system. And we would have 246 of them, allowing us to create a void. There would be no place to build a replacement settlement. The supply chain would be broken.”
“As I see it, there are two problems with this plan.” Aranov said. “One, Spera would probably have to cross this void itself. And two, this plan does not deal with the berserker drones. Remember, we have to cross Destiny Galaxy Two as well.”
“We don’t need the city-ships themselves to create the void.” Grogan said. He had walked in while they had been talking and had overheard the conversation after the mention of Wraith technology. “Just the ZPMs. We can use the city ships against the berserker ships. Gather them all in one solar system and they will make too tempting a target for the drones to ignore. And even without ZPMs, those ships should have enough firepower to make them call in all of their ships. So we leave one ZPM in place, lure them in and then…BOOM ! No more berserker drones to worry about.”
“And who do we get the crews off the ships before our trap closes ?” Hailey said.
“Who says we need crews ?” Colson said. “We could automate the ships before we set the trap.”
“So….” Aranov began. “…now that we have a plan, who is going to tell the Colonel ?”
This left them all looking at each other in uncomfortable silence.
(Stargate Command – Briefing Room – 25 November 2016, 1930)
The official IOA representatives had tried to push Anders and company out. Now that things were slowly coming together, they wanted to step in and claim the glory. But President Mackenzie was not going to let that fly. And he was not the only one to object. So when the President walked into the briefing room, the original team was there. They were accompanied by Landry, O’Neill and Richard Woolsey. Mackenzie gave them a nod and sat down.
“Okay, we all know what we are here for and we all know the plan that Colonel Vale’s crew has put forward.” He paused. “So, thoughts ?”
“Well, for the record.” O’Neill said. “This has to be craziest plan we have ever had. Because we don’t have enough people to make this plan fly.” There was moans at that unintended pun. “Which means that we’re going to have to trust REP-LI-CAT-ORS to make this work.”
“There’s that.” Grankin said. “But they did sort of do this whole unofficial coup d’état against the Senate. Just keep our people there.”
“And are we really going to sit on our hands and let millions of people die ?” Valluy added. “Besides, we are millions of lightyears away. It’s not like we can stop them by saying no. Would you accept no if you were out there ?”
There was a moment of silence, which Mackenzie broke. “So….” He said. “…we are doing this. But if we pull this off, we’re going to need a long term game plan. Can we use the Beta Site to dial Spera and establish a supply line ?”
“No.” Anders said. “Major Hailey is working to override the normal ninth chevron dial-in sequence. But her program will only work once. After that, the safety protocols will adapt and lock it out.” She bit his lower lip. “And the New Asuran version will have the same problem, but…”
Han took over. “….if we can make a deal with New Asurans and get them to send their program to us, we can dial Spera once. Based on how the power source held up the first time, we should be able to send twelve people. Which is enough to send a six member medical team and send six new security personnel.”
“You do realize we’d actually have to give them something ?” O’Neill said.
“I understand your objections, General.” Mackenzie said. “But our alliance with the New Asuran is a fact accompli. And like Mister Valluy pointed out, saying no is not really an option. So, what could we give them ?”
“Seeds and animals.” Woolsey said, making everybody look at him. “According to the reports, the ecosystems on the New Asuran planets are rather simple. We could give them the means to do something about that.”
“Yeah, I don’t get that.” O’Neill said. “The Asurans do not need food or air, so why bother with the whole terraforming thing ?”
“True, but the Nakai and Ursini do.” Han said. “And remember, they want to emulate the Ancients. So terraforming the planets make sense to them. They probably see the whole thing as a science experiment. And their grand goal is probably to ascend. Which means that their cities would be left behind….”
“….and whoever resettles the cities would probably need air.” Mackenzie said. “General Landry ? Your thoughts ?”
“I agree with Jack.” Landry began. “This is a crazy plan. But as crazy as this plan is, it’s nowhere near as crazy as leaving Colonel Telford team and Young’s crew behind.”
Mackenzie nodded and leaned back. He thought that the General’s assessment was right on the money. And like he had told O’Neill, their alliance with the New Asurans was a fact accompli. So the rest of the IOA could yell and scream until they were blue in the face, but this plan was happening.
(Planet 7 – Field – 29 December 2016, 0807)
It had taken several weeks to set up the plan, which they had codenamed Operation Big Move. They had wanted more time to plan the whole thing, but the New Asurans had learned that the Home Space Nakai were launching their attack today. It would take the assault fleet three weeks to reach the first planet. The New Asurans were still gathering their crews, but the Nova Roma Expedition was ready to go. If they could get the first city moving, the Home Space Fleet would have to travel to the next target. That trip would give the New Asurans time to finish getting their crews together.
At the moment, however, the Expedition team was gathered on the field with the Stargate. The Puddle Jumpers and the supplies had already been send ahead by the New Asurans. And that was not the only thing. They had managed to heal Hetty McConnell’s leg and then brought Xander Henderson out of his coma. It had taken Henderson time to get back into shape, but now he was back at work. The only people who were not around, were the three shell shocked Expedition members.
Despite objections from several IOA officials, the alliance between Earth and the New Asurans was now official. The New Asuran Treaty had been signed three days ago. As part of the Treaty, it had been decided to send the shell shocked members back to Earth. Beyond this, they had also managed to make the deal for the New Asuran dial-in program. The program had already been send back to Atlantis, who had then send it back to Earth. Getting the seeds and animals to the New Asurans, however, was a bit more complicated.
The New Asurans would get nineteen military backpacks full of seeds, insects and blood samples of larger species. (There were eighteen New Asuran worlds now. But once the Nakai and Ursini arrived, they intended to colonize and terraform a new planet. Hence, they had asked for nineteen packs.) Using the Beta Site power source to dial the Hope Galaxy had required a major recalibration. Finally, Earth had wanted to establish an outpost in New Asuran space and use it to establish a supply line and serve as a fallback point. Officially, the New Asurans had refused this. But off-the-record, President Mackenzie suspected that they wanted to know the condition of Spera first. Then they would attempt to renegotiate the outpost.
But to Vale, that could wait. Right now, he had a colony to safe. And he had received a wave of reinforcements. The military backpacks had been carried by nineteen new expedition members. Seven of them had been the new medical team, which consisted of six nurses and one doctor, who was the team leader. Doctor Alexander Bennett had been on staff at Stargate Command for several years. There, he had gotten pretty good at reattaching severed limbs. Then – three years ago – he had been promoted to Chief Medical Officer at the Gamma Site. General O’Neill had handpicked him for the mission.
The next six members of the reinforcements had been security personnel. With their arrival, both Teldy and Grogan had a security team under their command again. Completing the reinforcements were six scientists. Added to survivors of the original Expedition, this meant that there were now forty-nine people in the team. Vale was in the front, with Bennett next to him. Bennett was a Caucasian Brit, with green eyes and short red hair.
“Nervous, doc ?” Vale said.
“A bit.” Bennett began. “I only went off-world three times. Once at the SGC and twice at the Gamma Site. And now I’m hopping galaxies.”
“I know it’s a huge change, doc. But if we thought you couldn’t handle it, you wouldn’t be here.” Vale said, getting him a nod from Alex. It was at this point that Henderson joined them. “How are you doing, Corporal ?”
“Good, sir.” Henderson said. “But being the boss is a bit odd.”
“Yeah, I know how that feels.” Henderson was another Brit. But he was of African descent, with brown eyes and short black hair. He had succeeded Victor Leyton as Chief of Maintenance. “Are we ready to dial ?”
“Yes, sir. The ZPM is plugged in and we have the address. So, just give the word.”
“Do it.”
Henderson nodded and walked to the Dial Home Device. While the corporal dialed, Vale looked at his crew. They were good people and he was proud to be their commanding officer. He was kept from further pondering by the Gate connecting. So he turned back to the Gate. As he approached it, he realized that this was a leap of faith. But sometimes that was part of the job as well. So he took a deep breath and stepped through.
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