18 – How to Survive Blowing Up the World
(Remains of H4A-701 – Stargate – Year 3, Day 67, 1815)
Nicholas Rush was sitting on the ramp to the Stargate and watching Chaser. ~It is a pretty ship.~ One moment, they had been running for the door. And the next, a teleporter had snatched them up and dropped them next to the Stargate. The Gate had been activate and Colonel Young had been reaching for his radio when an explosion had knocked them all off their feet. As he gotten back up, the Gate and the area surrounding it had been covered in field of yellow energy.
And outside that field, the whole planet had exploded. The team had watched as 701 had shattered like glass around them. When the fire had died down, they had been inside a bubble. It contained them, the Stargate and a circular section of the field the Gate had been in. Varro had tried sticking his hand outside the bubble, but there had been a forcefield. Which was probably a good thing.
Above them had been a Hal’Iry installation that definitely had not been there on the planet. It had launched two rockets, one it each sun. The stars had then gone supernova. And once again, the team had been swallowed by fire. But they hadn’t felt a thing. And eventually, they had been in the black of space again.
It was only then that they had been able to think about how they were still breathing. And where that teleporter had come from. The latter had clearly not been part of Bioweapons Lab, nor the town surrounding it. Then Varro had noticed a small grate next to the ramp up to the Stargate. It was the source of the air they were breathing. This had led Rush to speculate that there was life-support equipment buried underneath the Gate. It was possible that the teleporter was also down there. But they had no way of ever knowing who had installed this gear or why. Not that the team was complaining, since it had saved their lives.
(H4A-701 – The Town of Hamova – 15 March 1953)
Zo-77-V sighed and rolled his eyes. ~Fleet idiots.~ Zo-77-V was a scientist, who had just been assigned to the brand-new Biological Research Lab Gamma-7. Located in the heart of the ancient town of Hamova, it had the latest medical technology and an extensive medical database. But it was not the thing that was bugging Zo – as his friends called him – at the moment. Instead, he was watching as teams of Fleet technicians was setting up a perimeter around the town.
And that was not the only thing they had set up. Above the alien ring, they had set up a Mark-VII phase-cloaked missile launcher. ~With twins warheads.~ Both were part of the Emergency Systems, which consisted of the Containment Systems and the Self-Destruct. The Self-Destruct also included a spatial warhead, which was buried underneath the lab. ~One big bang, and the whole town vaporizes.~ He was about to go inside, when his colleague Ge-81-Z approached him.
“How are things going, Ge ?”
“Well, we still have no idea what that alien ring does, Zo,” Ge-81-Z said. “But we discovered that there is a cave underneath. It’s not very big, but we might be able to do something with it. Anyway, I got to go write my official report. The bosses will not be happy.”
“Good luck.”
Ge-81-Z left, while an idea formed in Zo-77-V’s head. He had security clearance to order equipment, And he was going to use it. It was time for a little scientific rebellion. ~Who knows, maybe one day it’ll safe somebody’s life.~
(Chaser – Infirmary - Year 3, Day 67, 1823)
It was good to be back aboard the Chaser. Eli, Ginn and Amanda Perry had figured out how to trigger the phase cloak of the launcher. They had used the ship’s hyperdrive to release a particle pulse that reset the device. This had then given them the risky task of recovering the team before they froze to death, or ran out of air, or suffered some other horrible fate.
Fortunately, Chaser’s Ancient shuttle had been just the thing for the job. Piloted my Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer, it had collected them from what little remained of H4A-701. An odd side-note was that the Stargate was now functional again. Despite having – for all intends and purposes – having become a space gate.
Scott had docked the shuttle and the door opened to reveal a medical team waiting for them. While Young and company were rushed to the infirmary, Greer and Scott headed for the bridge. Chloe had just handed off their samples from the lab. And now Private V’Lazo was giving her a full check-up. As he ran a medical scanner of over her, Chloe did her best not to shiver. She knew that V’Lazo was a good guy, but she sometimes the memories of what the Central Authority had done to her came back.
“You’re none the worse for wear,” V’Lazo said. “No bacteria, no contaminations and no injuries.”
“Thank you,” Chloe said. “So, what do you think about our samples ?”
“Well, they’re going to keep us busy for a very long time. Even with help from the Epsilon Site and Atlantis through the DSI.”
“Good luck.”
Despite herself, she smiled at V’Lazo. Then her stomach growled, so she decided to head for the Mess Hall. ~The IOA will probably want a full report, but the paperwork can wait.~ Like V’Lazo said, they were going to busy for a very long time. So there was nothing wrong with having dinner first.
(Epsilon Site – Science Lab – Year 3, Day 85, 0800)
It had been over two weeks since the team had escaped from the Biological Weapons Lab. The Epsilon Site, the Delta Site, Atlantis and Stargate Command were all working on the information that had been brought back. Then – yesterday - Frank had asked Colonel Telford to meet him in the lab. As he walked into the lab, Frank was looking down a microscope. He looked up and gave the Colonel a nod.
“What you’ve got ?”
“Okay, we’ve been working on a cure for TJ’s ALS,” Frank began. “But, until now, our research was going nowhere fast.”
“Until now meaning that you’ve made breakthrough ?”
“Maybe,” Frank said. “The plan was to either upgrade the cure for Doctor Park’s eyes or modify the pathogen the Central Authority used on Chloe Armstrong. But that was before we had blood samples from Mister Wallace and the data from bioweapons lab in the mix.”
“And ?”
“I’ve figured out what we need to do, but I’m still working on the how. TJ has the same blood group as Mister Wallace, so we begin with a blood transfer to introduce naquadah to her bloodstream. Then we inject her with one of the Hal’Iry drugs called HE-17. That should cause the naquadah to bind to the genes we need to rewrite. Which should allow us to reprogram the Nakai pathogen to target only those. It’s the reprogramming that it still need to figure out.”
“Wait ? You found a cure for ALS.”
“I’m afraid it will only work for Lieutenant Johansson. We only have one vial of HE-17 and several of the ingredients are simply not found in the Milky Way Galaxy. And even for TJ, there’s only a seventy percent chance that it will work.”
“That’s seventy percent better then what she has now.”
He gave Frank a nod and walked out. ~Better leave him to it.~ In the meantime, he would send an update to Stargate Command and Atlantis so that they could pitch in as well.
(Atlantis – Control Area, Gate Room - Year 3, Day 85, 0935)
Colonel John Sheppard was in the Gate Room, grumbling under his breath. He was wearing his dress uniform, which he hated. But it had been ten years since the Wraith-Tau’ri War had ended. So the IOA had decided that there was going to be an official reception and that Sheppard’s team – aka Atlantis Reconnaissance One – had to attend. While Teyla Emmegan and Ronon Dex were already waiting near the Stargate, Rodney McKay was yet to show up. Sheppard turned to Radek Zelenka, who was manning one of the control consoles.
“Where is Rodney ?”
“Still pouting over losing his award,” Zelenka said.
“The award or the life-time supply of chocolate chip cookies ?”
The look on Zelenka’s face said that it was clearly the latter. As for the award, it was called the Golden Dynamite Stick and had been given to him as a reminder of the Project Arcturus Incident. Or – as it was commonly called – that time he blew up a solar system. But recently – eighteen days ago – Nicholas Rush had gone and blown up a BINARY solar system. So McKay had lost his award. And he was not the only one to lose an award.
Colonel Samantha Carter had been granted the Vorash Award for….well, blowing up the star Vorash orbited and destroying a Goa’uld armada. This award came with a life-time supply of blue jelly. And since the self-destruct had included a double supernova, Rush had been given this award as well. And since Carter would also be at the reception, Sheppard got the feeling that this was going to be a long day.
(Epsilon Site – Science Lab – Year 3, Day 97, 0417)
Telford entered the Science Lab. Epsilon One had just come back from a mission, so he had been awake and debriefing with the team when Frank had called. He had been very busy for the past few days. After losing Pelops, the Goa’uld had teetered on the edge of civil war. But then a Goa’uld called Vozak had launched a successful takeover.
Three days ago, he had launched a military campaign against several groups of pirates and criminals. ~They’re trying to build some goodwill before implementing whatever their real plan is.~ So the base’s teams had been going off-world to collect intelligence, while the base staff had been hard at work as well.
“Keep it short, Frank,” Telford began. “I need sleep.”
“Yes, you look terrible,” Frank said. “Anyway, we finished the cure. I’ve send the formula to Spera already. And that’s not all…” He turned around a laptop. “This is the checklist on Destiny’s paranoid mode. There’s a hundred and two protocols. Until yesterday, all of them were active. Then one of them switched off. And today, two more were switched off by the ship’s AI,” He paused. “Long story short, we’re getting signals that Destiny has begun going back to normal.”
“Excellent work.” Telford said. “The paperwork can wait until I don’t feel like I’m carrying an elephant on my back.”
“Yes, sir.”
Telford walked out of the science lab. He really needed sleep. The Goa’uld would still be there tomorrow.
(Chaser – Infirmary - Year 3, Day 100, 0930)
Lisa Park walked into the Infirmary and found Private V’Lazo behind a laptop. Next to him stood Matthew Scott. Except, it wasn’t Matthew Scott. Doctor Bennett – Spera’s Chief Medical Officer – had used the Ancient Stones to swap with the Lieutenant. The two of them had been preparing the potential ALS cure for TJ. They were going over the formula one last time. TJ was on one of the nearby beds, while Colonel Young was pacing nearby.
“Are you sure this is going to work ?” Young asked.
“No,” Bennett said. “Frank was right, there is only a seventy percent chance of it working. But it’s the best chance we’ve got.”
“Doctor Bennett, you wanted to talk to me ?”
“Excellent timing, Doctor Park,” Bennett said. “Doctor Lam wants to be here for the Lieutenant’s treatment,” Carolyn Lam was Stargate Command’s Chief Medical Officer. “And you wanted to discuss the Hal’Iry with Doctor Jackson. So I thought we could kill two birds with one stone.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The communications device was on a nearby table, with a stone next to it. Lisa picked up the stone and put it on the device. Then she was at Stargate Command. So she took a deep breath and went to find Doctor Jackson. At the same time, Doctor Lam was now aboard the Chaser. Lam looked around the ship’s Infirmary.
“Nice place,” Lam said.
“We do our best,” Bennett said. “I’m Doctor Bennett. And this…,” He gestured to V’Lazo. “….Is Private V’Lazo. He’s a Nakai and the defacto second-in-command of Chaser’s medical department.”
“Nice to meet you,” Lam began. “I’m Doctor Carolyn Lam. So, may I…” She gestured towards the laptop.
“Of course,” V’Lazo moved over so that Lam could sit down behind the laptop.
Lam sat down behind the laptop and spent ten minutes studying the medical data. She was not surprised to find that Bennett – who had worked for her for several years – had done his homework. The British doctor had always been very good in the research department. ~But his hair has been neater.~ The last time she had seen him, his red hair had been short. But now it was twenty centimeters long and he had a wild, unkept beard. Completing her check, she turned to Colonel Young.
“I checked the treatment, Colonel,” She said.
“And…”
“And it’s this or nothing, sir.”
Young said nothing, only nodding his reluctant approval. So the three of them got to work on setting up the treatment. Samuel Wallace had already provided them with the blood they would need, so all they needed to do, was put the IV in place. Then they would inject the HE-17 into the transfer line. Finally, there would be injection of the modified Nakai pathogen, which they had codenamed Zeus. At the same time, they were using an advanced scanner to keep an eye on her vital signs.
“Blood transfusion running, Doctor,” V’Lazo began. “How are you feeling, Lieutenant ?”
“I’m feeling fine,” Johansson said. “So, how long do until you inject the HE-17 ?”
“Ten minutes,” He looked at Lam, who gave him a nod. “So, presuming this works, what do you want for your celebration dinner ?
“I don’t know. But the dessert will involve chocolate ice cream,” Johansson said.
V’Lazo chuckled. Before they had reached Freedom Prime, Destiny’s crew had lacked any chocolate. It was suspected that this food contained fifteen-hundred ingredients or more, making it impossible to chemically recreate. But Freedom Prime had been home to a plant very similar to the cocoa plant of Earth. And with the crew having been on the planet for months, the crew had been able to create a small stockpile of the foodstuff. Now there was nothing to do, except to execute the treatment and hope that it would work.
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