Monday 7 August 2017

Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter 12

12 – It all goes to hell

(Nova Roma – Control Room – 9 November 2016, 1601)

The Nakai motherships were giant three-dimensional trapezoids. There were two fighter bays sticking out of the sides. The ships were grey, with red details. This included a big dish at the front of the vessel, which was the main weapon. All six ships opened fire, but Major Teldy had been manning the tactical station. And she had raised the shields just in time. Nevertheless, Nova Roma took a major pounding.

“Shield down by ten percent.”

“Returning fire.” Vale said from the control chair. “All defense stations, open fire.”

Nova Roma had hundreds of Ancient drones, but that was not all she had. All of the balconies that were big enough to hold one had a railgun. There were also eight missile launchers. And finally, there was an Asgard Beam Weapon. There was, however, a problem with the Asgard Weapon. In order to fire them, they had to take the hyperdrive off-line. Otherwise, there simply wasn’t enough power. But the other weapons cut loose as ordered. They hit the shields of the two closest ships, but did not do any damage. The Ancient drones, however, cut through the Nakai shields. Three of the motherships exploded.  But they had managed to fire several more shots before they had been reduced to rubble.

“Shields down to seventy percent.”

The remaining motherships fired again. Vale fired another wave of drones and two more Nakai motherships bit the dust. The last mothership went to full sublight in an attempt to outrun the drones. But it was not enough. They fired again and the ship exploded. Vale was about to ask for a damage report, but another ship dropped out of FTL. At first glance, it looked like the other ships. But a closer look revealed that it was bigger. There were dome-shaped sections on top and an sphere-like expansion in the rear. Vale estimated it was about fifty percent bigger than the first wave ships. It first two pulses off yellow energy. Vale put the tower into a wild turn, dodging one of the pulses. But the second one hit.

“Shields down to thirty-five percent.” Teldy began. “One more shot, and no more shields.”

“How the hell are they doing this much damage ?” Colson said. “This doesn’t line up with their attacks on Destiny and the reports we have.”

“I think I have an answer.” Hailey began. “The New Asuran expeditions….” The ship fired again, with Vale dodging the fire. “…we presumed that the Nakai destroyed the ships completely. But what if they didn’t ? What if that’s how they invented their intergalactic hyperdrive ?”

“You mean they did some retro-engineering ?” Aranov said. “But how does that explain that ship out there ?”

“Recycling.” Hailey said. “They learned what they could from the parts, then used them to do some major upgrading to that ship out there. It probably detected us flying through their galaxy. They followed us and arranged for this little party.”

The Nakai ship fired again. There were three pulses, two of them missed. But the last one hit and the shield collapsed. And that was not the only damage. One of the console exploded, sending the crewmember who had been manning it flying. At the same time, the lights flickered. Worse, with the shields down, the balconies were exposed to space. While the bulk of folks manning the railguns had managed to get back inside, several did not make it. Before the crew could blink, the Nakai ship fired again.

Vale threw the tower through a wild turn. Alas, the tower was hit again. And the shot was devastating. More consoles exploded, windows shattered and whole sections of the tower decompressed. Then, the chair went dark….Vale realized that this meant the engines and the weapons were down. Nova Roma was a sitting duck. And the Nakai were about to fire again. He looked at his crew. They all realized what was about to happen. He looked at the tactical display – well, what was left of the display – and saw that the Nakai ship was lining up for the kill shot. There was an energy surge, the pulse launched and then….hit something else. Something invisible. The object – whatever it was – exploded.

“What the….” Before he could finish, sections of space rippled and eight spaceships appeared. Vale recognized them from the description the Destiny crew had given them. “Ursini !?”

“Looks like it.” Teldy said. “And they’ve all opened fire on the Nakai.”

All eight of the Ursini ships opened fire. Their energy weapons fire passed right through the shields of the Nakai ships and did major damage. Then they fired some kind of torpedoes. They hit the Nakai ship and its shields collapsed. The Ursini fired another wave and finished the mothership. Vale leaned on the nearest console and sighed. It was over.

(Stargate Command – Briefing Room – 11 November 2016, 0711)

Reginald Jones was exhausted. He and the rest of the representatives had not slept since word about the ambush had come in. The tower had been in really bad shape. The crew had spent the time since the attack making repairs and connecting the few rooms that had not been decompressed. But even with the Ancient repair nanites, it was slow work. And the death toll was expected to be extremely high. Jones was leaning on the table when General Landry came in. The look on his face made it clear that this was not going to be good news.

“How many made it, General ?”

“We’re still working on the final report.”

“Dammit, Hank ! We authorized this ! How many !?” He sighed. “I’m sorry, General, this…”

“….is not your fault. You had no idea the Nakai were planning to ambush Nova Roma.” Landry said, while approaching the table. “Have a seat.”  Jones sat down at the table. The rest of the representatives were already sitting. The General joined them. “Thirty-three. Including seventeen wounded.”

Landry began giving them a more detailed report on the condition of Nova Roma. As he did so, General O’Neill watched from Landry’s office. He turned to Sergeant Walter Harriman.

“Have they been camped out here since the news came in ?”

“Yes, sir.” Harriman began. “They….they’re blaming themselves, sir.”

“Oh, for crying out loud. Hailey did the math, and both Zelenka and McKay confirmed it. And then Carter confirmed it AGAIN.” He paused. “There was no way they could have predicted this. That’s the whole point of an ambush.”

“Yes, sir. But I don’t think that will make them feel any better.”

The look on O’Neill’s face made it clear that the General thought that Walter was absolutely right that. These were good people. And they would have to life with the decision they had made.

(Nova Roma – Mess Hall – 11 November 2016, 0903)

Vale woke up. They had turned the mess hall into a living space. Nova Roma was in bad shape. Most of the outer rooms were still exposed to space. But the managed to create a small safe zone in the core of the tower. There were only a handful of survivors. The Nakai had targeted the lower part of the tower. Aranov and Hailey had explained that this was because the Nakai wanted to loot the control room for intel. The other survivors had been in rooms deep inside the tower. They had been saved because the doors had closed and kept them from being sucked out into space. This had left them trapped inside pockets that had life-support.

But only thirty-three of one-hundred and two remained. And that was his fault. He should have done more and he could have done more. Leaving the sleeping bag he had been using, he made his way to the bar and searched the supplies. He pulled out a bottle of red wine and uncorked it. There were no glasses left, so he drank straight from the bottle. After a couple of sips, he sat down on one of the few surviving tables. Three sips later, Captain Grogan walked in. But there was something off about him.

“Carl.” He said with a nod.

“Not really.” Grogan began. “General O’Neill.”

Vale put away the bottle and snapped to attention.

“At ease, Colonel.” Vale relaxed a bit, but the tension did not leave his body. “Listen to me, Col…” He sighed. “Oh, to hell with protocol. Marc, sit down.” The two of them sat down on the table. “This is not your fault.”

“Like hell it isn’t. I’m the CO, it is….or was….my job to keep these people alive.”

“You know, I have five IOA representatives who are beating themselves up over this thing.” O’Neill began. “And I’m going to tell you the same thing I told them. The only people responsible are the Nakai bastards who did this. Pull your head out of your ass. Because you still have a job to do.” He paused. “And if you can’t, step aside for somebody who can.”

There was a long moment of silence. Although he would never admit it, sometimes General O’Neill reminded him of his father. And he knew what his father would do if he was he gave up. ~He would kick my ass.~ Vale thought. He picked up the bottle of wine, paused and then threw it into the bulkhead across the room. It shattered.

“It was a bad year anyway.” He turned to O’Neill. “So, what’s the game plan ?”

“Well, according to the eggheads, it’s bad.” He looked at Vale. “Even if you managed to repair all the damage, there is no way that the tower can handle the jolt of going into hyperspace. Apparently, the whole thing would tear itself asunder.”

“There is good news, sir. We have friends, the Ursini have not left us since they saved our bacon. We’re heading towards one of their planets as fast as we can. The bad news is that it would take a hundred and four years to get there at our current speed.”

“Got a Plan B ?”

“Yeah, but you’re not going to like it.” There was no way to sugarcoat this, so he wouldn’t even try. “Colson and Hailey calculated the Gate addresses of all eighteen New Asuran Stargates. It would take all six remaining ZPMs and all but two of ours naquadah reactors, but we can dial back there.”

“You’re right, I don’t like it. Especially since salvaged Ancient tech is what basically allowed the Nakai to ambush us in the first place.”

“That’s why we are going to use the last two reactors to destroy the tower. We’ll connect them to the Stargate. When the wormhole disconnects, it will start a ten second countdown. The reactors will overload and the tower will be vaporized.”

“And if it doesn’t ?”

“Aranov thinks he has figured out a way to ask the Ursini to take care of any wreckage. If they agree, we will be certain there is nothing left for the Nakai to find.”

“And then what ?”

“To be honest, we haven’t thought that far ahead yet. But if we stay here, we’ll run out of food and water and die. That is the first thing we have to deal with.”

“There’s that.”

The door opened and Alison Porter walked in. She had not been in the control room during the battle. But she had survived by diving into a supply closet. Porter was the only one left any Medical training. She had taken a First Aid course during her time in Atlantis. The look on her face said that it was not good news.

“General O’Neill, I believe you know doctor Porter ?”

“Well, doc, how does it look ?”

“It’s not good. We have thirty-three people left. But Xander Henderson is comatose and three of the crew are shell shocked.” Porter said. “So basically we’re down to twenty-nine. Also, we lost the entire Medical staff and the security staff is down to just Teldy and Grogan.”

“You’re right, that’s not good.”

The intercom came to life and Aranov called for Vale to come to the Control Room. The three of them headed there. When they arrived, they found Aranov at the Science console, looking at some kind drawing of the city.

“What do you have, Nikita ?”

“Well, according to the reports, the first time we met the Ursini, they were aboard a seed ship.” Aranov began. “So I figured that, maybe, the Ursini can read Ancient. It was a long shot, but since it was the only shot we had, I figured we had nothing to lose….” He paused. “I also send it in Wraith, Goa’uld, Chinese, English and a crude version of Nakai I put together using data we got from the New Asurans. Just to cover all the bases. Turns out the Ursini can read Nakai.”

“That makes sense.” Porter said. “The upgraded mothership probably send orders, which the Ursini intercepted and decoded. That’s how they knew to ambush the Fleet.”

“General O’Neill here.” O’Neill said. “And I’d like to know if there’s a point to this little science get together.”

“Yes, sir.” Aranov began. “The Ursini have agreed to Plan B. They….” He swallowed. “They’ve also collected all the bodies, sir. And they promised to bury them on their planet, sir.”

O’Neill made a face. Then he took a deep breath. “Are we sure this is going to work ?” He looked at Vale. “Because if you don’t have enough power, you might be stuck on a tower about to blow up.”

“The chances are eighty-twenty, general.” Aranov began. “Which, based on the reports I’ve read, is actually not that bad. SG-1 and AR-1 have pulled off plans with much worse chances.”

“And the whole food, water and death thing, sir.” Vale added. “So, even if the chances were worse, we don’t really have a Plan C.”

“There’s that.” O’Neill began, leaving a long silence. “Do it.”

“Yes, sir.” Vale said. “We’ll need three days to make it happen. One to set up the power source and self-destruct and two to strip the base. Since we’re probably going to be in the Hope Galaxy for…well, a while…I think we should take anything that is not nailed down. And as much of the rest as we can.”

“Better get started then.”

O’Neill headed for the Communications Room to disconnect the Ancient Stone, while Vale began giving orders.

(Nova Roma – Gate Room – 15 November 2016, 0755)

Colson looked at the display in front of him. He was sitting at the Engineering Station. Victor Leyton had died in the attack, so it had fallen to him to modify the tower. Nova Roma was designed to be powered by three ZPMs at a time, which meant that they had to plug the other ZPMs directly into the Gate. But that was easier said than done. And – as a result – it had taken two days, instead of one to get the power set-up done. But that had actually worked out in their favor. In the original plan, they would have been forced to abandon the Puddle Jumpers. This was because the door between the Jumper Bay and the Gate Room had been broken. The delay had given them the time they needed to repair the door.

“How’s the power looking, Alec ?” Vale asked as he walked into the room.

“Good.” He began. “Power is stable and at maximum. How are the Jumpers ?”

“Jumper One has the wounded and shell shocked, while Jumper Two is crammed with all the heavy gear.” Vale said.

Fifteen of the seventeen wounded were back on their feet. Xander Henderson was still in a coma and Hetty McConnell was still on the mend. She had survived the battle with just one injury. The problem was that this injury was a broken leg. And Porter had decided that she was not to even try to stand up for a week. As for the shell shocked. The truth was there was no way to treat them aboard Nova Roma. They needed some serious psychological treatment before they would heal.

“How long until we dial ?” Colson asked.

“Two minutes.” Vale said. “You need to join the others.”

Colson nodded, stood up and made his way down the stairs to the Stargate Room. All the survivors who were not in the Jumpers, were here. His backpack was lying against one of the bulkheads. Grogan helped him put it on. Soon after, the Gate began dialing. After what left like forever, the final chevron locked and the wormhole opened. The door to the Jumper Bay opened and the two Jumpers went through. Teldy began to count down from ten. Then she turned to the group.

“Okay, people, you know the plan.” She said. “Two at time on a two count.”

Then she readied her weapon and stepped through the Gate. The others followed, until it was just Colson and Grogan. Since they had not been totally sure this would work, they had decided not to enable the self-destruct until the last moment. Which was why Vale was still in the Control Room. He looked at the Gate Room and saw Colson and Grogan step through the Gate. He entered his command code into a laptop that was tied into the reactors. A beep told him that the self-destruct was armed.

“Okay, Marcus, time to go.”

He ran down the stairs towards the Gate. His backpack had been loaded in Jumper Two that he didn’t have to carry it for his jolt. He reached the Gate, but didn’t run in. To do so, felt….wrong. Instead, he stopped and gave the Gate Room one last look. The Nakai had made one more victim.

“Goodbye.”

He stepped through the Gate. Five seconds after that, the wormhole disengaged. And fifteen seconds after, Nova Roma was no more.

Sunday 6 August 2017

Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter 11

11 – Spera

(Atlantis – DSI Network Room – 8 September 2016, 0830)

It had taken an day to find the DSI Network Room. The place was located at the far end of one the piers. It had been hidden behind several rooms full of machinery and a camouflaged door, which explained why it had not been found before. And then it had taken several days to figure out how to operate it. But now they had the hang of the place. Doctor Radek Zelenka was leading a team manning the room as Colonel John Sheppard walked in.

“How is it going, Radek ?”

“Well, the map is coming together quite nicely.” Zelenka began. “We should be have the location of Destiny and the seed ship by the end of the day. So, has the IOA made a decision yet ?”

“No, they’re still bickering about what to do.” Sheppard said. “On the bright side, McKay is closing in on the blueprints of the seed ship.”

Despite known what they were looking for, finding the blueprints inside the Ancient database was not easy. The database was massive and find a specific file was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. And even if they found the right file, it was very likely that the file was encrypted. Which would complicate things considerably.

“Anyway, Woolsey wanted a progress report and I couldn’t raise you.”

“Yes, the machinery in the other rooms seems to block our radios.” Zelenka said. “Chuck is gathering the components for a relay. It should be ready in an hour or two.”

“Good.” He left Zelenka to do his thing. As soon as he walked out of the last machinery room, his radio crackled. “Sheppard here, repeat that.”

=/\=This is McKay. I’ve found the blueprints of the seed ship.=/\=

“Nice work, Rodney, I’m on my way.”

He made his way the nearest transporter and beamed back to the command tower. Then he headed straight for the Gate Room. McKay was in the control section of the place. The blueprints was on one of the displays. Sheppard was impressed by what he was seeing. At first glance, it appeared to be the same design as the seed ships in front of Destiny.

“Nice.”

“Say hello to the Spera, which translates as Hope.” McKay began. “And this…” He hit several keys. “…is what the seed ships in front of Destiny look like.”

The two schematics appeared next to one another. Because Spera got the same telemetry as Destiny, she did not have to do as much legwork as the seed ships. This meant that there was a whole bunch of systems that she did not need. Added to that – because she was newer then Destiny – the systems that were there did not take up as much space as their older counterparts. Finally, the communications relays also took less space than the Stargates to fabricated and store. The space taken by one Gate could hold six relays. Between these three things, a large chunk of Spera was empty space. But Sheppard noticed something on the schematic.

“Is that a Stargate ?”

“Yes, it is.” McKay said. “It appears that we have found the first Alpha Site, well….ever.”

“Can we dial it ?”

McKay gave him a look that made it clear that he did not know.

(Nova Roma – Main Science Lab – 8 September 2016, 1017)

Hailey looked at the blueprints of the Spera. It appeared that besides installing the Stargate, the Ancients had also upgraded the command systems. The seed ships had a small control room, which aboard the Spera had been expanded into a proper bridge. But other than that, there were no facilities. Apparently, they were counting on whoever showed up to bring along whatever was needed to turn the ship into a viable base. And Jennifer had an idea about that. If they could get Nova Roma to Spera, they could cannibalize the tower to do just that. The problem was that they had no idea what condition the Spera was in. Or if they could reach it.

So Hailey was crunching the numbers. She was also using the DSI-Network to communicate with Radek Zelenka. He was double checking her math, while the rest of the people in Atlantis’ DSI Room were trying to figure out what condition Spera was in. They were also taking a closer look at her idea about cannibalizing the tower. The door to the lab opened and Colonel Vale walked in.

“How is the math going, Major ?”

“Good. But there is a problem.” She paused. “We planned to jump mere hours after dropping out. Instead, we have been sitting here for a couple of days. And even with our naquadah reactors, that has drained power from our second set of ZPMs. We might not make it.”

“If anybody can make sure we make it, it’s you.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Vale walked away. As he did so, Hailey watched his. While she understood that Teldy had her doubts, she was certain that he was the right commander for this expedition. And she was also glad that he had confidence in him. But that didn’t help with the weight that seemed to be pressing on her shoulders. One mistake and they would ended up thousands of lightyears away from where they needed to go. Sometimes being the boss sucked.

(Nova Roma – Control Room – 8 September 2016, 1603)

Hailey’s math had said that their chances of reaching Spera were good. And the IOA – still being represented by Anders and company – had authorized the second jump. So they had jumped back into hyperspace at 1600, leaving the New Asurans and the Hope Galaxy behind. It made Teldy feel better to be away from them.

Part of her understood why the Colonel had wanted to make peace with them, but she simply did not trust them. Of course, they did have another major security problem. While the New Asurans where possibly hostile, the Nakai were definitely so. Their jump would put them far from the Nakai Home Galaxy. But that didn’t mean that there couldn’t be Nakai waiting for them when they dropped back out hyperspace. But that would not be for another sixty-two days.

At the moment, she was sitting behind the science console and monitoring the stability of the tower. It was holding steady. Several minutes later, Vale walked in. He sat down behind another console and started working. After another few minutes, Teldy suddenly spoke up.

“May I ask you something ?”

“Sure.”

“What do you think about this mission, sir ?” She paused. “Do you think Destiny is really trying to decode some grand message carved into the universe ?”

Vale seemed to ponder it. Aranov had told him that science believed that the universe had begun with an explosion called the Big Bang. And this explosion had left behind radiation. The Ancients had found a pattern hidden in that radiation and believed that this pattern contained a message. But who had created that message – and what message was – that was great mystery Destiny was built to solve. (She travelled through the universe and collected data to puzzle together the answer.)

“Well….” He paused. “I went from a world of slaves, swords and the Roman Empire to a galaxy full of Stargates and aliens. But if we manage to decode what Destiny is after, I think my leap will be microscopic in comparison. That ship and her mission could change things for the entire human race in ways we cannot even fathom now. The thing is…” Vale leaned back. “…that’s the big picture. And while I see the big picture, is that what matters here ? Me, I think we need we to rescue Colonel Young and his crew first. The big picture will still be there tomorrow.”

“Do you believe in…” Teldy paused, she had never had this kind on conversation with Vale before. “…well, you know, something…?”

“Back home, before….well, we had a whole pantheon of gods. But now….I honestly don’t know.” Vale turned his chair. “There are a lot of faiths out there. And they all claim that they are the only true one. How do you know which one is right ?”

“There’s that. And there’s not much you can do about it, is there ?” She said with a smile.

“Except do what you think is right and fair and not worry about it.”

“Which sometimes is not so easy, especially when you’re the commanding officer.” She looked at him. “Or as Hailey puts it…sometimes being the boss sucks.”

“Yeah, that’s one of the few things that hasn’t changed.” Before the conversation could continue, there was a beep from Vale’s consoles. He hit several buttons and cursed. “Great, the IOA blow hearts want me to report in. Say what you want about the Roman Empire, at least it had one thing in its favor…the bureaucrats in Rome were far away and it took forever for their orders to be relayed.”

“Good luck, sir.”

Vale walked out of the room and Teldy watched him go. As she did so, she wondered about their conversation and who Marc Vale was. And what he was about. She was still figuring it out. But from what she had seen up until now, he was a good man. Then her console beeped and she turned back to her work.

(Nova Roma – Mess Hall – 9 November 2016, 1550)

Aranov sat at one of the tables and took a bite out of his egg and ham sandwich. He had decided to take a break from his work on the artifacts from P2Y-101. The analysis of the data they had collected on the desert moon had given him a break from his original project. But after several weeks of pouring over the images and samples, they had written and theorized all they could. So he gotten back to the artifacts. And he had been able to put several of them together that he had been unable to fix before. And in doing so, he had managed to solve the puzzle of how the artifacts had ended up on the planet. It turned out that the people of P4C-227 – the nearest planet in the network - had been attacked by the Goa’uld in 1915. They had barely survived. And as part of their rebuilding efforts, they had hidden supplies on every planet they had the address to. P2Y-101 had been one of eleven uninhabited planets they had been familiar with.

But the research had not been the only thing going on. There had been several birthdays, which the crew had celebrated. To Aranov, it was sign that things were changing. During the first jump, everybody had been busy doing his own thing. But now the crew was beginning to bond. This was also evident in the fact that some of the crew had begun calling one another by their first names. And they were sharing meals when they could. So he was not surprised when he saw Alec Colson approach him. He was carrying a tray full of food.

“Hi, Nikita.”

“Afternoon, Alec.” He made a gesture. “Want to join me ?”

“Yes.” He sat down. “So, what are you working on these days ?”

“Well, with the one research project done and the other as-done as it is going to get…well, work is a bit scarce. “ Nikita said. “I am working on a study of the New Asurans. But there is not much to work with.”

“Have you tried running a search in the Ancient database ?”

“Yes, there is no info on them or the original Asurans. So, it was not very useful.” He leaned back. “But I was able to locate the Asuran Homeworld and do the math on the course the New Asurans probably took to get to the Hope Galaxy. I logged it. Who knows, it might come in handy someday.”

The intercom came to life. =/\=All hands, this is Colonel Vale. We are about to drop out of hyperspace. Report to your stations.=/\=

“Lunch will have to wait.” Colson said.

Colson and Aranov headed for the Control Room. Colson sat behind the Engineering console, while Aranov joined Hailey at the Science console. Ten seconds later, the tower dropped out of hyperspace. And straight into the path of six Nakai motherships….