SG Nova Roma - Chapter 2.9

9 – Picking up the Pieces

(Lucian Alliance Homeworld – Hall of the Council – Day 61, 1107)

It had been weeks since Outpost 7 had been destroyed. Gerhart Zinar had spent those weeks dealing with major unrest within the Alliance. There had been several battles between hostiles factions, along with two dozen assassinations. There had also been three rebellions by locals whom wanted the Alliance off their planets. It had taken major muscle flexing to get everybody back in line. In fact, one of the rebel planets had actually been lost to the Alliance. But that was actually working in Zinar’s favor. He could use losing the planet and all the unrest as an excuse to delay the attack on Earth.

“No, no, no!” He was yelling at several Commanders who were gathered in the Hall. “I want three motherships in orbit of Outpost 7 until the examination of the wreckage is done! We are not taking any chances! Is that clear!?” The commanders nodded that they understood. “Now, get out, all of you!”

The Commanders walked out, while Zinar sat at a large table in the center of the room. ~Idiots.~ They wanted to go on the offensive against Earth, while they knew nothing about whoever had destroyed the base. For all they knew, destroying the Outpost was just the beginning of whatever they had planned. He needed the analysis of the wreckage before he made his next move. ~If it was Earth, which I doubt, attacking them would be a serious mistake.~ And that meant that there was nothing to do, but wait. So that was exactly what he would do.

(Beta Site – Gate Room – Day 65 / 29 October 2017, 0800)

General Jack O’Neill was standing in the middle of a beehive of activity. People were moving boxes into the Gate Room, filing in paperwork and talking amongst themselves. In the back of the room, several technicians were working on the circuits that controlled the Gate. O’Neill had beamed down from the Odyssey two minutes ago. He was up to speed with the reports, but had wanted to see the progress first hand. The Base Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Gabrielle Sobel, walked into the Gate Room.

Sobel had first come to the SGC’s attention when Atlantis had encountered an alternate universe version of the Daedalus. While Colonel John Sheppard and his team had explored the ship, they had found a log entry recorded by an alternate version of Sobel. That version of Sobel had been the commander of the Daedalus. But the Gabrielle Sobel of this universe had not been part of the Stargate Program at this point. After Telford and Vale had both lead their respective expedition teams away from the Beta Site, it had needed a new Commander. And Sobel had all the right skills. So she had been recruited into the program.

“General,” Sobel began. “Welcome to the Beta Site.”

“So, is this a sign that you are ready to go?” O’Neill said, while gesturing towards the people around them.

“Yes, sir,” Sobel began. “Reinforcement Unit One is ready to go. As is the Planet Nineteen Site Construction Team,” She paused. “We’ve also been making improvements to the power source. The final diagnostic is running now. It should finish in about an hour, sir.”

“So, how about a tour?”

“Yes, sir,” Sobel said. “Also, we’ve got a pool going on what the name of the Planet Nineteen outpost is going to be.”

“Really?” O’Neill said with a smirk.

The two of them walked out of the Gate Room. O’Neill got a feeling that this was going to be an interesting tour.

(Beta Site – Gate Room – Day 65 / 29 October 2017, 0915)

Major Frank Levine looked at the Stargate and took a deep breath. He had served on Atlantis for several years, where he had flown Puddle Jumpers. Then, several weeks ago, he had been transferred to the Beta Site to lead Reinforcement Unit One. And now, the time to leave had come. The diagnostic had finished and the override program had been loaded. Colonel Sobel gave the order to begin the dialing sequence.

~If you had told me that I would be assigned to fly a spaceship several billion lightyears from home, I would have called you crazy.~ And even weirder, he would be working for a Colonel who had previously worked for Roman Empire. ~On the other hand, Colonel Sheppard would say that it’s just another day in outer space.~ He had barely completed the thought when the ninth chevron locked and the wormhole opened.

“Here we go,” Levine said.

He took a deep breath and stepped through the puddle. His team followed and seven seconds later, the wormhole disengaged. Over in the Control Room, General O’Neill had watched them go. He turned to Sobel.

“So, how long before we can send the Construction Team?”

“Two hours, sir. The power source needs to cool down, otherwise we risk blowing up the base.”

“Yeah, that would be bad,” O’Neill said. “So, what exactly will they be building?”

Sobel turned to a large monitor that was mounted on a nearby wall. There was a keyboard underneath, which she used to enter several commands. The monitor changed to show a blueprint of the planned outposts. There was a ground level made out of Quonset huts and tents. The tents were Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelters. DRASH’es were special military tents that came with air-conditioning and electrical power. Underneath each structure was a fallout shelter. These would be connected by a corridor to form a second level. The base would have a staff of sixty, plus three SG-teams of four people each. The blueprint was labelled Planet Nineteen Outpost.

“The Outpost really needs a better name,” O’Neill said.

The look on Sobel’s face made it clear that she agreed with him.

(Spera – Bridge – Day 65 / 29 October 2017, 1030)

The first thing Frank Levine had done was settle into his tiny quarters. After that, Major Teldy had given the new arrivals a tour of the ship. And now he was walking into his new place of work. ~Well, when I’m not out flying Puddle Jumpers.~ To fly a Jumper, you need the Ancient gene. Alas, that gene that only occurred in humans. And it was pretty rare. ~So we figured out how to give people the gene artificially.~ But that method only worked on humans. This meant that only the humans could fly the two Jumpers they had.

The reason he was thinking about all of this, was Sergeant T’Zalo. The Ursini had been the Chief Pilot until his arrival. He wanted to treat T’Zalo like just one of the crew, but the fact that he could not fly the Puddle Jumpers was not helping with that. ~Counting T’Zalo and Alex Patterson, there are eight pilots now.~ And only one of those was not human. He reached the Helm Console.

“Sir?” T’Zalo said.

“Sarge,” Levine said. “How is our girl doing?”

“Sailing smoothly, sir. No alarms, no problems and we are not due to drop out of FTL for another two hours, sir.”

“Excellent,” Levine paused. “Look, I know this whole thing is…..awkward. But I just want you to know that I think you did a terrific job as Chief Pilot. So, carry on.”

“Yes, sir.”

Levine walked out of the bridge, confident that Spera was in good hands.

(Lucian Alliance Homeworld – Hall of the Council – Day 75, 0800)

The analysis of the wreckage was finally done. And that meant that Zinar had run out of time. The Alliance was a powder keg ready to burst. And it was aimed at Earth. ~This is not going to end well.~ Earth had finished their repairs on the Sun Tzu and the George Hammond had returned home. Together with the Odyssey, this meant that the planet was defended by three warships. But the real defenses of Earth were its friends.

The Tau’ri had had spent the last couple of years rebuilding their ties with the Free Jaffa and Tok’ra. The Tau’ri Alliance – as it was unofficially being called – had fallen apart during the last years of the Goa’uld Empire. And the war with the Ori had damaged the relationships even further.

But that had been years ago. And things had changed a lot since then. If the Alliance attacked Earth, they would destroy all life on the planet. And then the Free Jaffa and Tok’ra would avenge the loss by launching a full-scale attack against the Lucian Alliance. The Alliance would end up fighting a war it would probably not win. And even if it did win, the Alliance would be badly damaged. ~But if I don’t attack, they will kill me and then start a new civil war.~ And both scenarios would end with the Alliance in flames.

~Doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t.~ The Fleet was holding position, waiting for the final order. He stood up from the meeting table he had been sitting at and walked across the room. There was a transmission console there, which he activated. The console showed a map with the Fleet and Earth’s solar system. He hit the proper buttons and opened a channel to all the ships. He gave the order to attack and watched as the ships began to move.