Saturday 30 March 2019

SG Nova Roma - Chapter 2.7


7 – Entering Destiny One

(Spera – Bridge – Day 37, 1603)

Spera had entered Galaxy Destiny One early in the morning. Vale and Teldy had commanded the first two shifts. Three minutes ago, Jennifer Hailey had relieved Teldy. She was sitting in the command chair, watching the telemetry from the sensors. ~Only one Gate in range, but its better then nothing.~ When they had begun the crossing, Spera had been fully stocked. And even now, they had several weeks’ worth of supplies left. But it couldn’t hurt to get a lay of the land. If they were in an area where resources were scare, they would have to come up with plans to deal with it.

“Alex, drop us out of FTL.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Patterson said. “Dropping us out now.”

The ship dropped out of FTL and the countdown clock popped into existence on several screens. ~Five hours, we’ll have to be quick.~ Hailey activated her radio and contacted Colson. NR-2 was on-duty for this shift. And because Hailey was running backend from the bridge, Alison Porter would go with them instead. Colson said that he would gather the team in the Gate Room, after which he cut the channel.

Trying to distract herself, Hailey got up made her way to the forward section of the bridge. They had reconfigured the bridge during the crossing. The consoles were designed so that they could swap functions without needing any physical modifications. The two L-shaped consoles at the front of the bridge were Science One and Two now. As for the three consoles directly in front of the Command Chair, those now were now the two Flight Control stations and Tactical-slash-Communications. Tactical was in the middle, with the Flight Controls flanking it on both sides.

Hailey sat down behind Science Two and waited for the MALP telemetry to appear. It hadn’t been easy, but they had managed to tap their probes into the consoles. Originally, they had only had one MALP. But in the weeks since, they had managed to put together two more. She leaned back and hoped that things were going well in the Gate Room.

(Spera – Gate Room – Day 37, 1610)

Alec Colson made sure that he had all his gear. When the roster of NR-2 had been drawn up, there had been an issue. Jennifer Hailey was a Major in the US Air Force, but the rest of the team was civilian. So setting up a chain-of-command was a problem. But NR-2 needed a second-in-command, in case Hailey wasn’t available. After some discussion, Alec had gotten the job. Which meant that now, he was in charge of the team.

“Nervous?” Porter asked.

“Yes,” Colson began. “It’s odd. I used to run a multi-million dollar company and I never fretted. But leading a team of four people and I’m scared to death.”

“Did leading that company include travelling through a wormhole and visiting a planet billions of lightyears away from home?”

“Good point.” Colson said with a smile.

Xander Henderson gestured to Colson. While Colson and Porter had been talking, Henderson had dialed the Gate and send MALP One through the wormhole. Now the probe’s feed was coming back to Spera. Colson looked at the screen. The planet was a desert. ~Just like the first planet Destiny’s crew visited.~ But that planet had white sands, while this planet appeared to have red sand. There were also small patches of grass scattered across the image. From what they could see, the planet orbited a single star.

“Looks like the sun is setting,” Porter said.

“Okay, here we go,” Colson began as he walked towards the Gate. “Weapons at the ready.” ~I can’t believe I just said that.~ He drew his sidearm and stepped through the Gate.

(F1Z-008 – Desert – Day 37, 1611)

Porter had been right. The sun was indeed setting. Despite this, it was still forty degrees centigrade. ~We have to be out of here before the sun rises again, or we’ll be cooked alive.~ The planet was called F1Z-008 by the computer. All the planets in the previous galaxy had started with a E and the computer had apparently decided to start the names in this galaxy with a F. He scanned the area around the Gate, but there was nothing there. As he did so, the rest of the team came through the Gate and down the ramp.

“Is it me, or is it really hot here?” Aranov said.

“Nope,” Bennett began. “It’s really hot here. And its night now, so daytime would be really bad news from a biological point of view.”

“Yeah,” Colson said. “We need to get moving.” ~But which way?~ He decided to keep it simple and pointed straight ahead. “For now, let’s head straight. We’ll take it one hill at a time.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Aranov said.

The team walked away from the Gate. Alec thought that – despite the heat – was actually a nice world. The desert continued as far as the eye could see. But something about it seemed off. ~What am I missing?~ He reached the top of the next hill and whistled. Standing in the middle of the sands were the remains of a small town. The hill he was standing on now was part of a ridge, which had hidden the ruins from the MALP’s camera. The rest of the team joined Colson on the hill.

“Whoa,” Aranov began. “Where did that come from?”

“Well, you’re the archaeologist,” Colson said.

“Good point,” Aranov said. “Let’s go take a closer look.”

The team began heading towards the ruins.

(F1Z-008 – Desert, Town Ruins – Day 37, 1735)

The town did not have much technology. There was no electricity, no computers and no indoor plumbing. But they had found several printed books. They were not in the best condition, but they were still readable. The real problem, however, would be translating them. The books were not in any known alien language.

~And I doubt that these people will have heard of English or Russian.~ Aranov thought.

He was standing in the remains of a house. The place had simple, wooden furniture. Which, he wrote in his notebook, meant that the planet either had forests somewhere. Or the locals knew how to use the Gate and imported wood from off-world. Another thing the furniture made clear was that the locals were humanoid. The shapes of the items didn’t make sense for none-humanoid people. Besides the books, he had also taken several candles and some of the table ware. The latter was made from metal and was dusty and rusty.

He made his way out of the house and looked around the town. There were several houses, a saloon and a stable. In the middle of the town was a large well. The stable had the remains of some kind of beast of burden. Two of them had been fitted with a saddle. Nikita took out his camera and walked into the saloon. He had already taken plenty of photos, but he wanted another look at the place. ~I wonder if there are more towns.~ He made his way to the bar and began looking for any clues.

“So, how do you like the place?” Porter said as she walked it.

“Well, we have a humanoid race. And from the looks of the place, they were at about the same level of technology as the Wild West,” He paused as he spotted a piece of paper in one of the cabinets and grabbed it. “And from the looks of it…” He studied the piece of paper. “…this is not the only town they have.”

He handed the piece of paper to Porter. It was a map of the region. The Stargate was marked on it, as was the town they were in now. But the map showed two more towns. There was, however, a problem. The two towns were many clicks away and it would take two hours to get there on foot. Aranov activated his radio.

“Aranov to Colson.”

=/\=Colson here. What’s up, Nikita?=/\=

“I’ve found a map with two more towns on it, but they are too far to hoof it there. We’ll need one of the Jumpers if you want to get a closer look at them.” And he figured it couldn’t hurt to see what the Jumper’s sensors made out of this place.

=/\=Sounds good to me.=/\= Colson said. =/\=I’ll make the call.=/\=

The radio went silent. Nikita looked around the saloon. There was an upper floor with several rooms, which he presumed had been available for rent. While Colson made the call, he decided to take a closer look upstairs.

(Spera – Gate Room – Day 37, 1740)

Vale watched as Jumper One made its way through the Stargate. The wormhole closed two seconds later. He had overheard the conversation between Colson and Hailey, but had not spoken up. Hailey was running this shift, so he wanted her to make the call. And she had decided to send the Jumper. ~Knowing more about the locals can’t hurt.~ And they still had no idea who had build the berserker drones and the command ships. ~Maybe the locals have more information on them.~ He left the Gate Room and headed for his quarters.

“You have really settled in.” A female voice said.

He turned to see Octavia the Elder – well, the image of Octavia the Elder – smiling at him. The artificial intelligence that ran Spera had not shown itself since they had arrived. But now it was projecting an image of his mother and walking next to him. ~This is no coincidence. We enter a new galaxy and she shows up? No, there is something going on.~

“Indeed we have,” He began. “It’s a bit cramped. But it’s home.”

“Yeah, the Ancients based me on the Seed Ships that travel ahead of Destiny. And as Alec suspects, they kind of build me on the cheap,” She paused. “Well, except the Relay Factor on the lower decks. In their arrogance, they did indeed presume that they would never need me as an Alpha Site.”

Vale nodded. Spera had just confirmed their theories about herself. ~Some people would label me crazy for talking about a ship this way.~ Not that he cared. Maybe it made him a hopeless romantic, but he preferred to think of Spera as a lady. And a living, breathing thing with a personality of her own. Of course, the AI made it easier to do so.

“Not that I mind a good chit-chat every now and then, but…”

“…Why am I here?” Octavia-Spera smiled. “I can see why General O’Neill put you in charge. You care about your people and you don’t do nonsense. And you are right, I am not here to chit-chat.” She paused. “We have just entered a new galaxy. It took Destiny just a tick over a year to cross this galaxy. But more importantly, I wanted to tell you that this galaxy is not uninhabited. I can’t tell you how long it will you take you to get there, but there is an area ahead which is densely populated. The problem is that I can’t tell by which species. Because Colonel Young and his crew boarded after the ship passed through the area, there is no detailed information on it. Just long-range scans.”

“So, besides several possible wars…” Jackson and Miller had send their findings to Spera by means of the DSI-Network. Which meant the report was also in the computer’s memory. “…we now have a major mystery to deal with it. And there is also the issue of who or whom built the control ships and the berserker drones. Because my instinct tells me that if we don’t figure out who made those drones, it will come back to bite us in the rear.”

“Sounds like a totally accurate sum of the situation to me.” Octavia-Spera said. “Good luck.”

And with that, she faded away. ~She’ll be back.~ Vale entered his quarters. The walls had been upgraded with sheets of wood, which had been painted white. It didn’t make the room any bigger, but it felt larger. He sat down on his bed and reached underneath it. First, he pulled out a wooden folding table. It wasn’t very big, but it was big enough to hold the second item he pulled out. Said object was a laptop that Vale used to write his reports. He put the laptop on the table and got to work.

(Spera – Bridge – Day 37, 2104)

The clock hit zero and Spera jumped back into FTL. While their first stop in this galaxy had not yielded any resources, NR-2 had brought back plenty of items from the planet and a load of questions. Aranov was hard at work turning the space between the Bridge and the Airlock into a large Science Lab, where they would try to find some answers.

And it was not the only room being set up at the moment. The rest of the rooms in the Wraith expansion had finished growing and were now being decorated for their functions. ~Like the rest of this ship, they won’t be luxurious, but they will work.~ As she sat in the command chair, Hailey got the feeling that Spera was more ready for whatever lay ahead then her crew. So she leaned back and waited for Spera to tell her what that was.

Monday 25 March 2019

SG Nova Roma, Chapter 2.6


6 – What the Lucian Alliance Has Been up To

(Outpost 7 – Commander’s Office – 24 September 2017 / Day 30, 1217)

Yarnok Zinar was sitting in his office and sorting through a huge pile of paperwork and folders. Things were not going well for the Lucian Alliance. The War with the Tau’ri was still going. Several years ago, they had attempted to destroy an Tau’ri outpost called the Beta Site, only to find it had moved. They had attempted to find it again, but to no avail. And a recent attack on the Alpha Site had ended in defeat. Worse, he had just gotten a report from one of their spies.

Before, the Tau’ri had two ships in this galaxy, the George Hammond and the Odyssey. But in response to this failed attack, they had decided to salvage a third ship called the Sun Tzu. Furthermore, they were also building a replacement for a ship called the Korolev, which had been destroyed by a race called Orii. ~This will not make the bosses happy.~

Besides ship battles, there had also been dozens of ground battles between Alliance people and SG-teams. The Alliance had wiped out several SG-teams, but the Tau’ri kept replacing them. And the Tau’ri had burned several large kassa crops. Kassa was an artificial – and highly addictive – kind of corn. So far, the war had been a heated stalemate. But with these two extra vessels, the balance might shift to the Tau’ri. ~This will make the bosses the bosses *really* unhappy.~

As for Zinar, he was the Commander of Outpost 7. Outpost 7 was where the Alliance was trying to dial with ninth chevron. To do this, they had gathered a large number of reactors and several hyperdrive cores. The output was gathered in one place and then channel through several buffers containing weapons-grade naquadah, boosting it many times. The power source was far from safe. Seven years ago, it had been days from completion when they had run a test. It had resulted in an explosion that had destroyed the outpost and killed most of the people who were assigned to it.

Zinar had been against the test. He and a small group of followers had left Outpost 7 several hours before. Still, they had barely survived the detonation. As a reward for saving some of the outpost crew, he had been promoted to Commander and was made leader of the rebuilding of the Outpost. It had taken three years to remove the radiation enough to make it safe to begin construction. The original Outpost 7 had been build in a year. ~They cut too many corners the first time around. Not on my watch.~ This time around, it had taken four years. But now, it was done. ~Here we go.~ He finished cleaning up the papers and walked out of his office.

(Outpost 7 – Gate Room - 24 September 2017 / Day 30, 1225)

As he walked into the Gate Room, Zinar saw his forces getting ready. He had one-hundred-and-twenty men and women – counting himself – to secure Destiny with. Then – much to his dismay – he spotted the bosses. They called themselves the Council of Senior Commanders these days. ~Blasted fools.~

Back in 2009, the Alliance had send an invasion force to Destiny. It had failed. And then, several months later, a faction within the Alliance had launched an attack against Earth. It had done some damage to key facilities, but not enough. So it had also been labelled a failure. After that, the Alliance Civil War had begun. It had been a struggle between several factions for dominance within the Alliance. The war had lasted for three-and-half-years and – at least in Zinar’s opinion – was the reason that the Alliance had not launched an all-out attack against Earth. In the end, several Senior Commanders had been ended up running the Alliance. The next three years had been spent repairing the damage done by the war.

And six months ago, work had begun for the war against the Tau’ri to enter its next phase. First, they would take Destiny and then they would launch an all-out attack against Earth. He reached his troops and his second-in-command handed him his gear and weapon. Most of the Senior Commanders were chauvinistic men, so it was hard for women to make their way up the ranks these days. So when he had needed a second-in-command, he had ignored them and given the job to a woman, regardless of what they thought. She had simply been the best candidate. Her name was Valerie Watson and she was a Captain in the Alliance.

“Ready to go, Commander.”

“Very well.” He turned to a technician, who was sitting at costume-build terminal that controlled the Stargate. “Dial Destiny.”

“Yes, Commander.”

The Stargate began dialing, while Zinar heard the sound of the power source slowly ramping up to full power. It was the sound of crackling electricity. He looked around the Gate Room. ~Good, loyal soldiers.~ His eyes went to the Council. The Gate Room had a lower level with a single entrance – where the force and the Gate were – and a U-shaped upper level-slash-balcony. The Council was looking at them from the upper level. ~Typical. They are away from the danger, while we get to walk into the fire.~ He looked at the Stargate, which was locking the seventh chevron now. ~Almost there.~ He checked his weapon to pass the time. But – as he expected – it was in perfect working order. Then the ninth chevron locked in place and the wormhole opened. But power source did not sound healthy.

“Okay, people..,” He began. “…here we go.”

He approached the event horizon-slash-puddle. ~One of the perks off being the boss is that you get to go first.~ Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the Stargate.

(Outpost 7 – Gate Room - 24 September 2017 / Day 30, 1232)

The last soldier walked through the puddle and the wormhole disengaged. Senior Commander Gerhart Zinar had done his best to hide his worry, but he didn’t like this whole mission one bit. The Alliance’s last attempt had ended in disaster. And the current one was being led by his younger brother Yarnok. ~He is not a fan of us either. Not that I can blame him.~ Most of the Senior Commander’s were pigs. As for Gerhart, he had become a Senior Commander by being ruthless.

And he knew it. But he also knew that he had to be ruthless, because otherwise the other Senior Commanders would eliminate him in a heartbeat. Furthermore, he knew that some of the Commanders and Captains were more cut-throat then the people in charge now. And it was his job to keep them in line. ~If we don’t attack Earth, we’ll have another Civil War on our hands.~ He was about to leave when he heard the technician behind the dialing computer curse. He made his way down to the lower level of the Gate Room.

“What is wrong?”

“The computer was acting strangely, Commander,” The technician said. “It froze for a moment, then there was an odd screen and then it….” He shrugged. “…It just went back to normal, sir.”

“What do the logs say?”

“One moment, sir,” The technician hit several keys and the logs appeared on the screen. “Oh, this is bad.” He hit more keys. “Somebody downloaded an unknown program into the network. And it came….” He pointed at the Stargate. “…through the wormhole, Commander.”

“That’s impossible. Radio signals cannot cross a nine-chevron wormhole,” He began. “And according to our intelligence, Colonel Young and his crew were in stasis. Even if they were not, the Tau’ri do not have the technology necessary.” ~Like I said, it’s impossible.~

“I don’t know what to say, Commander,” The man entered more commands. “The Gate Room is shielded, sir. No signals in or out. The only possible passage is the wormhole. And the logs check out, Commander. I don’t…..” The computer suddenly went dark. It stayed so for several seconds, but then came back to life. There was computer code running across the screen. “Crap, it’s a virus!”

Gerhart grabbed the cable that connected the dialing computer to the rest of the base and pulled it out. But it was already too late. He knew this from a sharp shift in the sound made by the power source. Before he could do anything else, the blast door above the only entrance came down. ~It’s in the system.~ He heard a loud click, which indicated that the door had been locked. The power source began making a really unhealthy noise. ~Time to go.~ 

He pulled the cable that connected the Dialing Computer to the Stargate. Then he made his way to the left side of the room and pulled a large lever. It triggered a safety mechanism that manually dialed the Gate to the nearest planet. As soon as the wormhole opened, Gerhart and the technician ran through the puddle. Two minutes later, Outpost 7 exploded for a second time.