11 – Ashes
(E7X-811 – Ice Plain – Day 102, 2103)
NR-1 was walking across the nastiest, coldest plain
G’Yal had ever seen. Before he had joined NR-1, that would not have meant much.
But since then, he had been to plenty of alien worlds. The team had been on few
missions before Major Levine and his team had arrived. After, things had kicked
into high gear. The team had gone on dozens of missions, looking for resources
and pieces of the archeological puzzle that Doctor Aranov was trying to put
together.
“So, remind me why we’re walking again?” G’Yal said.
“Because NR-2 and NR-5 are using the two Puddle
Jumpers we have.” Alex Patterson said.
NR-2 was studying a ruin on E5S-157, one of four other
planets in range of Spera. And NR-5
was on E4R-225, where they were looking for edible plants. As for NR-1, they
had been sending back chunks of ice. That ice was being turned into drinking
water right now. Alison Porter was currently running a special scanner on the
ice plain. She made sure that the water was not contaminated with anything.
“That’s it for this chunk.” Porter said. “The rest of
the ice is loaded with contaminations.”
“Time to move on.” Vale said.
G’Yal pulled the collar of his coat up as high as it
would go. The Tau’ri winter-gear was good. But Nakai were not a fan of the
cold. Colonel Vale took the lead as they walked further away from the Gate. ~I
wish NR-3 and 4 were here to back us up.~ But the two security teams were on
E4Z-301. It was a harsh world with a nasty atmosphere. The reason they had gone
there anyway, was because it was a place where they could get some of the things
needed to make gunpowder and bullets.
“Anything?” Vale asked.
“All of this is ice contaminated.” Porter said.
“How much water do we have?”
“Several hundred liters, boss. Nowhere near enough for
the long term, sir.”
Vale nodded and they kept going. As they did so, G’Yal
wondered how far they were into this galaxy. It had been sixty-five days since
they had arrived. ~And a Tau’ri year is 365 Spera
days.~ Which meant that – if the Spera AI had told the truth – they had 300
days ahead, just to cross this galaxy. It had taken time for him to get used to
Earth days, but now he was.
Thinking of Earth, his mind drifted to the
developments that had taken place halfway cross the universe. As they had
announced, the New Asurans had set about restoring the Protected Planets
Treaty. The Lucian Alliance had fought back, but to no avail. They had lost all
twenty-four planets, along with many ships and personnel. And the whole Asuran
Campaign had lasted only four days, which made it even more of a blow to the
Alliance. After the Campaign had ended, they had launched a two day counterattack.
Said attack had ended in even more losses for the Lucian Alliance. So, this
morning, they had signed the Protected Planet Treaty.
And then they had been forced to retreat from countless
worlds. Between the loses at Earth and in the Campaign, the Alliance had been
decimated so badly that they didn’t have enough people to secure all their
worlds. The Alliance had been reduced to Lucia and seven other solar systems.
As for dialing the ninth chevron, the Alliance had its hands full simply
surviving. They were no longer a factor. ~And now wait for the other shoe.~
Because G’Yal’s instinct was telling him that this was too easy. Alas, only
time would tell.
(Lucian Alliance Homeworld – Hall of the Council – Day
105, 0817)
The Hall of the Council was no longer the Hall of the
Council. Gerhart Zinar had perished in the Campaign, as had all the Commanders.
And the new leaders – whom had become leaders by simply surviving this whole
mess – had decided to turn the hall into a hospital. The job of running this
place had fallen to Yarros Hinack. Hinack was a healer in his forties, with
graying hair, Caucasian skin and brown eyes. He was working on a man with
serious burns when the doors opened and Ingrid Morris walked in. Morris had
been elected Mayor of Lucia City, the capital of Lucia or – as most people
called it – the Lucian Alliance Homeworld.
“Is the report on the Tau’ri in ?” Hinack asked.
“Yes, and it will be the last report we will get on
them.” Morris began. “I’ve ordered all our spies back to Lucia. We need all the
hands we can get.” She paused. “And so far, nobody has had the guts or the
brains to countermand my order.”
“Let’s have a look.” Hinack said as took the report.
While the Tau’ri had not attacked the Alliance, they
had received aid from the New Asurans. Not only had they defended Earth from
the Alliance, they had given them the Tria, an Aurora-class
Ancient warship. Worse, they had used their technology to complete the
replacement for the Korolev – a warship they had lost to the Ori – in
only seven days. And now they were building another ship called the Prometheus,
which was also a replacement for a ship lost to Ori.
~ Apollo, Daedalus, George Hammond, Korolev,
Odyssey, Prometheus and Sun Tzu. That’s seven Tau’ri
warships, plus the Aurora-class Tria.~ It was a formidable fleet,
especially since the Alliance only had five Ha’tak-class ships left.
~And all those are needed to defend Lucia.~ The rest of what was left of the
were cargo ships, Death gliders and Al’kesh bombers. He sighed and gave the
report back to Morris. The Lucian Alliance would be picking up the pieces for a
long, long time.
And as if the enlarged Tau’ri fleet was not bad
enough, there was also the matter of the Tok’ra and Free Jaffa Nation.
Together, the two species had launched a campaign to help the worlds the
Alliance had abandoned recently. The goal of their campaign was to make it
impossible for the Lucian Alliance to return to these planets. And from what
Hinack had heard, they were being quite successful at that. Which put the Alliance
in even more hot water.
“We’ll be lucky to hold on to what little territory we
have left.” Hinack began. “Any other bad news ?”
“Well, there’s this….” She handed him another report.
“…and you’re not going like it.”
The report was about Goa’uld activity. While the Goa’uld
Empire had collapsed years ago, the Alliance still kept tabs on them. The
Goa’uld were parasitic species that survived by taken over humans, suppressing
the host’s personality completely. And they were very evil creatures. After
their Empire had fallen, most of the Goa’uld had ended up poor and destitute.
Others had ended up with just a handful of followers or guards, with the
luckily ones ruling a single planet. And the rest had ended up working for the
Lucian Alliance.
But now the Goa’uld working for the Alliance – and had
not been killed in the collapse – had begun to vanish. And so were many of the
poor destitute Goa’uld. So far, the ones with followers seemed to be
unaffected. But that might not last. ~Great, that’s the last thing we need.
Somebody trying to rebuild the Goa’uld Empire.~ If this was true, things were
about to even worse. Alas, only time would tell.
(Spera – Mess Hall – Day 105 / 8 December 2017, 1532)
Things were currently quiet aboard the Spera.
The collection missions had been successful and the ship was now well stocked.
Carl Grogan was sitting in the Mess Hall and eating what passed for lunch
aboard the ship. The crew was hard at work getting the two hydroponics bays
growing, but it would be a while before they had enough food. So, they were
eating dehydrated rations and food they had picked up along the way. ~Takes
like rubber, but it’s all we have.~ He washed the food down with a glass of
water. As he did so, Major Frank Levine walked into the Mess Hall.
“Major.” Grogan said, while standing up.
“At ease, Captain.”
Grogan sat down, while Levine gathered his meal and then sat at the
table. “So, how are the security drills going ?”
“Good. We’ve managed to increase our score by thirteen
points.” Grogan said. “I heard you had a close call on E4Z-307 yesterday.”
“Yes, one of the local volcanoes decided that it felt
like erupting while we were gathering plant samples. NR-5 and I barely got out
of there before the ash cloud swallowed the Stargate. On the bright side, we
got all the samples we needed before it happened.” He paused. “So, you think
anything will happen this shift ?”
“Well, we’ll find out together. We’re both on bridge
duty.” Grogan would man Tactical One, while Levine would be at Flight Control
One. “Between you and me, I hoping for….”
That was as far as he got before the intercom came to
life and Major Teldy announced there was an incoming wormhole. Which Grogan
knew was not good news, because the only team out off-world was NR-2 and they
were not supposed to come back until sixteen-thirty. Levine and Grogan bolted
from the Mess Hall, making their way to the Gate Room. When they got there,
they found NR-2 in rough shape. They were covered in dust and Doctor Bennett
was seeing to Jennifer Hailey, who appeared to be injured.
“Her leg is broken,” Bennett began. “Captain Grogan,
can you help me get her to the Infirmary ?”
“Yes, doctor.”
Grogan and Bennett carried Hailey out, while Levine
turned to Alec Colson. Colson was examining the MALP, which looked like it had
taken a beating. ~This is not a good sign.~ NR-2 had been on a mission to
E6R-103. And there had been signs that the planet had suffered some tremors
recently. ~First volcanoes’ and now tremors ?~ If his suspicion was true, this
area of space really didn’t like them.
“What happened ?”
“Turns out that the planet was less stable then we had
hoped.” Colson said. “There was a major quake as we headed back to the Gate.”
“Did you find anything ?”
“I guess you could say that.” Colson said. “There were
no settlements on the surface, but we found a valley.” Colson worked the MALP,
which made an unhealthy grinding noise, but then began to move. “There were
dozen of houses carved into walls, with wooden doors and furniture. We found
some writing, in the same language as F1Z-008.”
“We really need a better name for that race, other
then ‘the People of F1Z-008.’”
“Yes, we do.” Colson began. “But for now, we have more
important things to worry about.”
Levine nodded in agreement. So far, the ruins they had
encountered had been far apart. But there had been ruins on E4Z-307 and E5S-157
as well, which had been relatively close to one another in galactic terms. Adding
this discovery on E6R-106 to the list, it painted a picture of a much more densely
populated area. ~A Plain of Ashes.~ And they were going to have to cross it.
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