SG Nova Roma, Chapter 4.16

16 – What Happened to Colonel Young ?

(Chaser – Infirmary – Year 3, Day 67, 1635)

TJ woke with a terrible headache. As soon as she opened her eyes, Private V’Lazo made his way to her bed. A Nakai male, he was the most capable of the Primian medical team they had picked up at Freedom Prime. In the time since they had left the planet, he had become the defacto second-in-command of the medical department.

“Glad to see you’ve woken up, boss.” 

“I’ve got to get to the bridge, the Colonel…”

“No, you don’t,” V’Lazo said. “You need to rest. I know you’re worried. But Matthew, Vanessa and Camille are on top of it.” 

“But…”

“Ugh ! No buts, if or maybes.” V’Lazo held up a hand. “What if our roles were reversed ? What would you do ?” Despite the situation, TJ smiled. ~They do say that doctors make the worst patients.~ And V’Lazo had said exactly what she would have said in this situation. “Also, I am happy to report that Eli and the others came back totally clean from the planet. No unknown viruses, bacteria or spores anywhere on or in them. All the tests came back negative.” 

“Good.”

“Now, rest.” 

“Yes, doctor.”

V’Lazo turned to another member of the team and whispered an order. The other member – Private Hy’avo, a male Ursini – nodded and made his way to an IV. It was only then that TJ realized that she was hooked up to one. ~Looks like a perfect stick, probably got it on the first try.~ Hy’avo replaced the bag of saline. Then he took out an syringe and injected something into the line. Soon, she felt herself floating away. ~Exactly as I would have played it.~ She smiled and then slept. 

(Chaser – Bridge – Year 3, Day 67, 1635)

Camille Wray was in the command chair. Scott was actually in command, but he wanted to be behind one the control consoles. Scott was in the middle, with James covering the left station and Greer on the right. Meanwhile, Eli had manning one of the side consoles in the back. At the moment, Chaser was heading for H4A-701 at maximum speed. 

After the shockwave, they had checked the telemetry on the planet’s Stargate. The sensors said the Gate was still there. And it was still there in the list of Gate addresses. But when they had tried to dial the planet, they last chevron had not locked. So Scott had come up with Plan B. Which was to get there the old fashioned way. ~What happened down there ?~ The radio came to life and Private V’Lazo gave Wray a progress report from the Infirmary.

“Good news, TJ just woke up,” She began. “She’s sedated now, but she’ll be fine.” 

“What about Brody and Ginn ?” James asked.

“They’re in the Gate Room, helping Volker with dissecting the telemetry the Stargate send back when it didn’t connect.” 

“Good, ” Scott said, while turning his chair around. “The more people we have working on this, the better.”

He turned back to his console and went back to work. They needed to get that planet as soon as possible and find their team. ~We don’t leave our people behind.~ One way or the other. 

(Biological Weapons Lab – Basement – Year 3, Day 67,1442)

It turned out that the countdown was tied to a lockdown protocol. It had begun with the main entrance, which had been magnetically sealed. Then all the windows had been secured by forcefields, before the system began closing doors and pumping the air out of the rooms. The only area not affected, was the basement. So the team had retreated back there. It had been close call, with the door to the basement closing a mere two seconds before the countdown ran out. Which had been just now.

“So, now what ?” Chloe asked. 

“Let’s see what’s happening in the control room,” Young said.

They made their way to the control room. The control room monitors showed the rest of the lab, but no views of the outside. Varro had seen that there were cameras on the outside of the building, so he sat down behind the controls and hit several buttons. Chloe watched as the screens changed to reveal the wrecked town outside the building. There was no sign of Eli or the others. ~At least we’re now sure they made it out.~ And the breach they had made in the force field, was still around. But that where the good news ended. 

Because there was no way for them to get to the Stargate. Which meant that – unless they came up with a way to breach the lab – they were fated to run out of food and water. ~Unless we run out of air first.~ Fortunately, one of the sections was a computer that calculated how much air they had left. It said that they still had enough air for three weeks. ~So, that’s not a problem.~ But they still had to get out of here.

“So, how are we getting out of here ?” Chloe asked. 

“Well, we’re not using the weapon,” Varro began. “It’s off-line and I can’t turn it back on. It looks like the breach triggered a safety protocol.”

“Yeah,” Rush said. “Probably more then one. We’re going to have to do something drastic to get out of here.” 

“What about the generators ?” Young asked. “Can you shut them all down ?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” 

Rush sat down behind one of the control panels and got to work. Soon, all but one generator were shut down. He tried to shut down the last one, but the console asked for a password. Which he didn’t have. So he would have to get creative. It took a bit of searching, but he managed to find a menu and a list of options and functions. Then he saw one of the functions and had an idea. He opened the screen and began typing.

(Chaser – Bridge – Year 3, Day 67, 1803) 

Chaser had dropped out of FTL and was now entering the solar system that was home to H4A-701. Or the area where the solar system containing H4A-701 used to be. All there was left now, were small pieces of rock and two dead hulks that had once been stars. But there was no sign of the bioweapons lab or the Stargate.

“What the…,” Camile said as she looked at readings. 

“The whole system is….” Eli began. “…just gone.”

Camile left the command chair and made her way to Eli’s console. She looked at the display and saw that even the biggest rocks were only half the size of the Chaser. But then she noticed a subspace signature in the middle of a cluster of rocks. She turned to Eli. 

“Is that the Stargate ?”

“Hang on,” Eli hit several keys and there were several beeps. “Yeah, the computer says it could be. But there’s something off about the reading.” 

“Sounds like we should take a closer look,” Camile said, while looking at Scott.

He nodded and set a course. Camile turned back to Eli’s console. She tried not to think about Colonel Young and the others. But she knew the chances of them having survived this were not good. Not good at all. 

(Biological Weapons Lab – Basement – Year 3, Day 67,1449)

It had taken a bit of doing, but Rush had found a way around the password that was keeping him from shutting down the final generator. He had tablet computer in his backpack, which had a password cracker on it. With a bit of fiddling, he had managed to connect the tablet to the control panel. Then the password cracker had begun doing its thing on the generator password. And now it was finishing the job. There was a beep and a light turned green. Rush flicked the switch for the last generator. The lights, controls and monitors died, There were also clicks as the magnetically sealed doors unlocked. Finally, there was a rush of air as the forcefields came down and atmosphere flowed into the building. 

“Time to go,” Young said

Before they could head out, however, one of the screens came to life. It showed another count down. The team bolted from the basement, towards the front door. Ten seconds later, the world blew up. 

(Chaser – Bridge – Year 3, Day 67, 1810)

Chaser had reached the place where the Stargate should be. But there was no Stargate. Instead, there was cube of metal with two holes in it. Attached to this cube was all sorts of machinery built for some unknown purpose. As Eli scanned the cube, he realized that the hole were not holes. Instead, they were the top of a missile silo. His scans also showed that both missiles had been launched. As he traced their trajectories, an idea formed in his head. 

“No way,” He muttered.

“Eli ?” Camile asked. 

He left his console and began checking things on the other stations. As he did, his surprise grew. Finally, he turned to Scott.

“They’ve got Soran probes,” He began. “That’s bad. That’s, like, really bad.” 

“What’s a Soran probe ?” James asked.

“In Star Trek Generations, the bad guy is this alien dude called Soran. And he has these probes that he can launch into a star, making them go supernova,” He paused. “It appears that they’ve figured out how to do that. Which is like…superbad.” 

“So what about the Colonel and the others ?” Camille asked. “Are they…”

She couldn’t bring herself to finish the question. And even if she had, Eli was still moving around the bridge, checking readings. So it was very likely that he would not have answered it anyway. Then he saw something on one of the consoles and bolted from the room. Camile gave Scott a look, then followed him. She found Eli in the Gate Room, where he was talking to Ginn, Brody and Volker. 

“Eli ?”

“I think I know what happened to our team,” He began. “And we can get them back, but we’ll have to hurry. And I’ll need Ginn and Doctor Perry to help me with the math.” 

“You go to the bridge, get started,” Camile said. “I’ll have Doctor Perry meet you there.” Eli nodded and he left with Ginn in tow, while Camile grabbed her radio and contacted Perry. As soon as that conversation was over, she turned to Volker and Brody. “Stay here, whatever Eli’s plan is, it might involve the Gate. If it does, I want you here to dial the second we need to.”

“You got it,” Volker said. 

Camile nodded and headed out.

(Chaser – Corridor – Year 3, Day 67, 1815) 

Amanda Perry walked onto the bridge. In the past couple of weeks, she had been getting up to speed on Chaser and Primian technology. And with her knowledge of hyperdrives, she was the defacto Chief Engineer of the ship. So she had been spending most of her time in Chaser’s engine room. She had heard about the team – including Nicholas – going missing. It had put knots in her stomach, but there had been nothing for her to do. Until now.

“Eli,” She began. “What do you have ?” 

“Lepton radiation.” He pointed to a section of his console, which showed a grave with a clear spike. “I’ve been reading SGC reports off the DSI, to pass time,” He paused. “And the only times they mentioned Lepton radiation…”

“Phase technology. The Ballard Crystal Skull and Merlin’s research device.” 

“Exactly,” Eli said. “That would explain why we didn’t detect the launcher and where the Gate went. And why the network keeps saying that the Gate is there, but we can’t connect to it.”

“The subspace link is intact, but the wormhole penetrate the dimensional wall,” Ginn said, while noticing something on the display. She frowned and hit several buttons. There was a beep and then a number appeared on the display. “Is it me, or does that mass reading look about the same as the Gate ?” 

“Yeah, I’m thinking this thing works like an elevator.”                                                                                                                                                             

“With the Gate being the counterweight ?” James asked. “But wouldn’t the Gate and the launcher fuse together ? When they reach the same ‘height’ ?” She paused, looking at Perry and the others. “What ?”

“No, you’re right. That’s why the Gate and the launcher weren’t in exactly the same position, ” Perry said. “But if Eli is right, maybe we can trigger the elevator and bring the Gate back.” She looked at Eli. “But the chances of them making to the Gate….”

“Look, I know it’s a long shot,” Eli said. “But it’s this or nothing.” 

“Do it.”

Perry nodded and the three of them got to work.