SG Nova Roma, Chapter 4.06

 6 – Bits and Pieces

(Epsilon Site – Science Lab 1 – Year 3, Day 10, 1605)

Spera had left on schedule. After receiving a report from Chaser, she had set course for Sector 3325. As soon as they had jumped to FTL, Telford had been asked to come to Science Lab One. The New Asurans had been building a piece of technology there. And it had just been completed.

“What do we have here ?”

“A time machine,” Frank – the only New Asurans still on the base – said, “Sort of.”

“What do you mean ?”

“This machine will create a temporal passage, but it will be tiny,” Frank paused to press some buttons. “We will use it to send several nanites back in time, to Destiny.” He pressed more buttons. “Colonel Vale already gave us a message to program into them.” Frank handed Telford a note. “So, what do you think ?”

“Fixed it. You’d be surprised what you can do with alien nanites and a time machine. And yeah, it’s cheating. But who cares ? Lieutenant-Colonel Marc Vale.”

“You know that Vale is a full bird Colonel now ?”

“He is now, but if everything goes according to plan….”

“Right,” Telford nodded. “Fire it up.”

Frank engaged the machine. Telford already knew how this would end, because these were the nanites that would rescue Eli. They would then help Ginn and Amanda Perry survived, before becoming Ben. ~The weirdness that comes with the Stargate Program.~ But that was part of why he had joined in the first place. Telford smiled and watched Frank do his thing.

(Spera – Science Lab 2 – Year 3, Day 10, 1610)

Vale walked into Science Lab Two. Before this lab had been installed, Science Lab One had mainly been Nikita Aranov, Alison Porter and Jennifer Hailey’s digs. It had also been used a lot by Alec Colson, Cinara and Xander Henderson. The new lab had an archeological work station and an engineering one. There were also two general work stations that could be used by everybody.

Aranov and Cinara were working at the archeological station, while Colson and Henderson were at the Engineering station. The two other stations were being used other members of the Science staff.

“How are the new digs, Nikita ?”

“Waiting for stuff to analyze,” Aranov began. “We left all our samples and puzzle pieces behind at the Epsilon Site.”

“Well, we’re on our way to Sector 3325. If Varro and Eli’s hunch is right and the Zovaris did use that area to practice, we’ll have plenty of research to do.”

“I hope so,” Cinara began. “In the meantime, we have been testing the equipment. And everything is ready to go.”

“Good,” Vale nodded. “It will take us forty days to get there.”

“Is that with our without any stops along the way ?”

“The new and improved hydroponics bay will provide us with plenty of food. And the water tanks are loaded to capacity, so we should have enough supplies for a couple of weeks.”

Cinara nodded and then Vale left the Science Lab. As he did, he pondered the rest of Young’s report. Besides the theory, the colonel had also reported that Chaser was approaching inhabited space. And that these ships did not belong to any species they had seen before. Young had estimated that they were mere hours away from entering alien space. ~So there’s a good chance all Hell is about to break loose.~ So Vale headed for the bridge to see if these new aliens were friend of foe.

(Chaser – Bridge – Year 3, Day 10, 1805)

Chaser was approaching the alien ships. The rear section was a cylinder containing five sub-light engines, which were arranged in the same formation as they were found on a dice. It was connected to a sphere that served as the forward section. Two pylons – one to starboard and one to port – jutted out from the sphere and ended at a cigar shaped engine. The pylons went down at a forty-five degree angle and were long enough so that the engines were the lowest part of the vessel.

“FTL-Drives ?” Lieutenant Matthew Scott asked.

“Probably,” Dale Volker began. “Positioning them like that would keep any radiation leaks away from the crew.”

“Okay.”

Scott nodded and added that to his notes. They knew where the engines were, what was the front was and where the inhabited section probably was located. But, so far, they had no signs of weapons or defenses. Nor had they seen the ships move. ~They’re just sitting in orbit.~ Which meant that they had no idea just how fast these ships were.

“Here we go, people,” Young said. “Varro, how are we looking on weapons ?”

“On standby,” Varro said.

They sailed past the first alien ships. Scott and Varro both kept watching their new company. But the ships didn’t move as they headed deeper into their space. Then the sensors began to feed back readings from the planets they were passing. Between Varro and Scott, Lisa Park was studying these readings.

“Colonel, these planets have cities,” She said. “We’re detecting power signatures and life-signs.”

“Thank you,” Young said, before turning to Scott. “Are those ships moving ?”

“No, sir,” Scott said.

Young looked at the displays, but the alien ships weren’t giving them any clues about their owners. Chaser kept heading deeper into their space. As they did so, the ships did not move. But – hidden behind an advanced cloak – a scout ship was launched from the surface of one of the planets. A smaller version of the vessels that Scott and Varro had scanned, it was home to only two crewmembers.

The aliens had seen Destiny pass weeks before. But because it was empty, it had not been labeled a threat. The arrival of this second vessel, however, had rattled the planetary officials. So the scout had orders to follow the second alien vessel. Which was exactly what it did.

(Spera – Jumper Bay – Year 3, Day 50, 1207)

NR-1 was sitting in the front of the Jumper, while NR-3 was in the back. Vale was behind the controls. Because none of the moons had Stargates, the Jumper was the only way to get down to them. Sitting behind Vale, T’Zalo was slightly jealous. But the Ancient vessel refused to take orders from people who were not Ancient or Human.

“Here we go, people.”

“I wish I could fly one of these.” T’Zalo said.

“The New Asurans are working on it,” Porter began. “So you might be able to do so soon. And we all know you have the skills to fly this beauty.”

T’Zalo smiled at her. The Jumper flew out of the bay and headed for the moon. It was a small moon, which appeared to be two large ice caps that was separated by an equatorial zone. This zone appeared to more friendly to flora and fauna. Porter was sitting next to Vale and used the controls there and a her laptop to start gathering more detailed information. There was a beep and a map appeared of the temperate zone. A blue dot indicated there was something there.

“Is that an obelisk like the one on Eden ?” G’Yal asked.

“It looks like an obelisk, but much smaller than the one on Eden,” Porter said. “I recommend we land as close as we can, boss. Because if I’m reading this right, it’s on an island in a swamp. There’s a good chance it’s surrounded by quicksand.”

“Okay,” Vale said. “I’ll park her right next to the obelisk.”

The Jumper dove into the atmosphere. T’Zalo got a feeling that this would be a very interesting mission.

(Chaser – Mess Hall – Year 3, Day 12, 0754)

It had been more then a day since they had entered alien space. But they had not learned anything about this new species. All the alien ships they had encountered had been near planets. Rush and Eli believed that they were guarding the alien colonies. Young was sitting in the mess hall, eating breakfast. Which was when he realized that they were about to enter the next stage of this little dance. Because they needed to send a team through the Gate to restock on water. ~How will our alien friends react to that ?~ There was only one way to find out.

Which was why Lieutenant Scott had gathered a team two tables over. Besides him, the team had three other members. Doctor Nicholas Rush wanted to go on the mission, in case they found any alien technology. Lieutenant Vanessa James was the security for the mission and Tamara Johansson wanted to see if there any medicinal plants. The upgraded search filters had been doing well so far, so Young figured that the chances of them finding something useful were pretty good.

They finished breakfast and headed for the Gate Room. Corporal Barnes was behind the dialing computer, while Dale Volker was behind the Kino telemetry console. Volker had a Kino at the ready.

“Dial her up, Corporal,” Young said.

“Yes, sir.”

Barnes selected the address and the Gate began dialing. As soon as the wormhole opened, Volker send the Kino through. It showed them a grassland under an orange sky. The readings also showed that the atmosphere was the same as on Earth. Young gave Scott a look and the team stepped through the Gate. Then the Stargate deactivated.

“Stay here, in case this goes wrong,” Young said.

“Yes, sir,” Barnes said.

“We’ll hold down the fort,” Volker added.

As Young headed for the bridge, he wondered how long it would be before they would get some answers. What he didn’t know, was that behind Chaser, the alien scout ship had just decloaked. It had detected the wormhole and traced its course. The vessel had shut down the cloak to divert the power to its hyperdrive. It appeared on Chaser’s sensors for a moment, but then jumped into subspace and headed for the planet.

(Prime Hive – Fleet Headquarters – Year 3, Day 12, 0805)

Supreme Commander Ha-55-Z was reading the report on the second alien vessel. Ha-55-Z was the leader of the Fourth Space Fleet, which Scout Ship 417 – the vessel that had been following the alien ship – had been part of. But then the alien vessel had projected a major subspace distortion, which had baffled the crew of the scout. Ha-55-Z, however, had access to classified information that they did not. ~Rank has its privileges.~

His race called themselves the Hal’Iry. While they were a reptilian species – which procreated by laying eggs – their society was organized more like a beehive. The males were common, while females were rare and pulled the strings. Had a human seen them, they would have described them as an upright Komodo dragon. However, there were two major differences. The first was their eyes, which were feline. And they lacked the long tongue that species had. Instead, they had a normal human tongue.

Ha-55-Z put away the report and took out another folder. Throughout Hal’Iry space, they had found large alien rings of unknown origin and purpose. But there were plenty of theories on what they were for. And one of these theories was that they were some kind of advanced transportation system. ~Time to put that theory to the test.~ Scout ship 417 had already set course to follow the distortion, but he thought that was not enough. Officially, ground forces were not under the command of the Fourth Space Fleet. But he had been in command of the Fleet long enough to have built up friends in the right places.

He checked the coordinates, then opened a channel to Rk-19-B. 19-B was a Middle Commander in the ground forces of the planet where the subspace distortion had been headed. He would be able to send a group of soldiers to the area where the planet’s ring was located. ~And take it from there.~ Ha-55-Z activated the communications unit build into his desk and opened a channel.