12 – Déjà vu
(Destiny – Gate Room – Day 176, 1602)
Watson had followed Telford through the Stargate. As
she made her way into the Gate Room, she flashed back to when they had first
arrived on board Destiny. Once again, there was gas in the air and
people were passed out on the floor. But this time, it was the Vicerant who had
been on the receiving end. The grenades had knocked out everybody in the Gate
Room and the nearby corridors. ~Those grenades really did the job.~ The rest of
the team arrived and Telford gave her a nod.
She turned to her team and gave them hand signal. They
headed out. Watson and seven others would see to disabling the AI suppression
system, while Telford would take eleven people to get Colonel Young and his
crew. Everybody else would stay in the Gate Room and keep it secure. The plan
to destroy the system was to assault the bridge. Once it was secure, they would
use a pair of batteries to create and power surge that would fry it. The
batteries came from the Vicerant Puddle Jumpers and packed quite a punch.
(Mining Planet D-7 – Governor’s Home – Day 176, 1602)
Cinara was sitting on a balcony, overlooking the
capital city of D-7. Spera had arrived and landed on the planet. The
warships chasing her had gone into orbit, but had not fired. ~Colonel Vale’s
gamble paid off.~ They had probably contacted the New Xivolo Prime and asked
for new orders. The thought of the trouble that would cause the Senate pleased
her to no end. ~They need me to be their figurehead. So they will send in
ground forces.~ D-7 had no Royal Army presence, but she was sure there were
soldiers on other planets. Thus, it was only a matter of time before they came
through the Stargate.
~And what do we do then ?~ Her mind wandered to her
grand-father. Yalock had sacrificed himself and her father Axos. ~And his
friends, for these people.~ And the bulk of the Palace Guard. ~Was it worth it
?~ Lieutenant-Colonel Vale had allowed her to leave the ship after it had
landed. So she had gone to find a place to think about it all. The Governor, an
elderly man called Gavis, had offered his office to her. And she had taken him
up on this. So here she was.
“Thinking about the future ?” Gavis asked.
“Gavis, was Yalock…,” She sighed. “…was my grandfather
a fool ? To make the sacrifices he did ? For people we know nothing about ?”
“I’ve never met your grandfather,” Gavis began. “But I
have friends on New Xivolo Prime. And they told me the truth, no propaganda.
Your grandfather was no fool. Did you read the text they call ‘Rewritten
History’ ?” Claus had used his nanites to make a copy of the book before they
had buried the original for General O’Neill.
“Yes,” Cinara looked at Gavis. “I presume you have
read it as well ?” He nodded. “Do you believe what it says ?”
“I have lived long enough and asked enough questions
to know that it is true.” Gavis had asked plenty of questions when he had been
a child. And his grandfather had loved telling stories. He had also learned
things in his many years as governor of D-7. Because it was a key planet to the
Empire, he had very high security clearance. “And no, your grandfather was not
a fool.” He joined her at the railing. “The Inner Senate wanted to prevent the
test of Time Travel Device. But doing so would have wiped out the Nakai, Ursini
and Jynacko. Not to mention billions of Xivolo. All of them would have died
from the disease. It was wrong and it was foolish.” He paused.
“Like you said, we know very little about
these….Tau’ri ? What evils have they defeated over the years ? What darkness
would eliminating them allow to rise ? There’s more these people then just
their influence on this galaxy. And what does that make us, if we go around
wiping out entire species ?” Cinara nodded. “Not to mention, the cure we got
from Novus….it was used thousands of years ago. But our species has changed
since then. We have undergone several genetic mutations in the years between.
And I have found no evidence that it was ever tested on modern day Xivolo.”
“They were going to use an *untested* cure on what
little remained of our people ?”
“Yes,” Gavis said. “And it gets worse. They want to
repeat our greatest mistake. We build slaves out of flesh and blood and abused
them. Now, they want to introduce robotic slaves into the Empire. There have
dozens of scientists working on this project.” He paused. “As if that cannot go
wrong. But there are many things about the mind and the soul that we have yet
to discover, your highness. Who knows what could be born out this decision.”
Cinara pondered what he had said and looked at the
city. She had a decision to make. ~And whatever path I take, I won’t be easy.~
And a big part of that decision was whatever Colonel Vale decided to do next.
So she went to ask him.
(Destiny – Stasis Chambers Area – Day 176, 1618)
Watson and her team had managed to fight their way to
the Bridge. They had radioed that they were ready to destroy the suppression
system. As they had done that, Telford and his people had been in a running
firefight to the armory. From there they had gone to area with the stasis
chambers. Telford had just shot the last guard, securing the area. ~Well, at
least for now.~
“How many weapons do we have ?” Telford asked.
“Plenty to go around,” Ingram said. “Between the
weapons from the Vicerant and what we got from the armory, we can arm everybody
from the pods.”
“Start thawing them. If Rush give you any trouble,
shoot him.” Telford grabbed his radio. “Watson, have you found anything on Eli
?”
=/\=Nothing so far, Colonel.=/\= Watson said.
=/\=We’re still looking.=/\=
“Understood.”
When the crew has gone into stasis, they had been one
stasis chamber short. One of the chambers had been damaged. After some
discussion, Eli Wallace had decided to stay outside the chambers. The real
problem had been that Destiny had been low on power and supplies. And
she was about to make a three year trip, skipping a considerable chunk of
Galaxy Destiny Two and then making her way across the void to Galaxy Destiny
Three. But there was only enough power to keep the life-support going for two
more weeks. If Eli kept the life-support going for long then that, Destiny
would not make it to her destination.
~But the ship is here.~ And the crew was still alive.
So where was Eli ? Had he committed suicide by shutting down the life-support ?
Or had he – somehow – managed to fix the damaged stasis chamber ? They had not
found any answers during the first assault. So, this time around, they had made
it one of their goals. ~Come on, Eli. Don’t let us down now.~
(Destiny – Observation Deck – 2010 / The day the crew
went into stasis)
Eli was standing in the observation deck, watching as Destiny
flew in FTL. Colonel Young and Rush had just become the last two Expedition members
to enter stasis. He had two weeks to fix the damaged stasis chamber. After
that… ~Yeah, there’s that.~ He had a few ideas on how to repair the chamber,
but the real question was where to begin. ~Well, getting down there would be a
good start.~ Eli walked out of the observation deck and headed for the area
with the stasis chambers. When he reached the area, he made his way to the
control console.
“What the hell ?”
The console was not only on-line, but displayed a
message. ~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.~ Eli grinned and began to work the console. He set a time delay and then
quickly stepped into the chamber. Two seconds later, the chamber closed and
activated.
(Destiny – Stasis Chamber Area – Day 176 / 2 February
2018, 1625)
The first thing Eli saw was the door of the chamber,
sliding open. Rush was arguing with Telford, but Eli couldn’t hear what they
were saying because of the nearby gunfire. There were also several people there
that Eli didn’t know. ~Where did they come from ?~ The argument came to end
when one of the newcomers - a sergeant - shot Rush with a tranquilizer dart. Said
sergeant then turned to Eli.
“Mister Wallace, I presume ?”
“Oh yeah, that’s me.”
“Welcome to 2018. Now get to the Gate Room, Destiny
is about to be overrun by bad guys,” The Sergeant gestured towards the exit.
“Go !”
Eli ran from the stasis room. ~2018 ? That’s five
years too late.~ But between the look on the Sergeant’s face and the gun battle
going in the corridor, he figured that now was not the time to ask. He noticed
that Rush was being carried away. And that whoever these people were, they had
brought a wheelchair for Doctor Park. Lisa Park had gone blind shortly before
they had gone into stasis. She could walk just fine. Fast, however, was another
thing. ~These guys knew they would end up in a firefight and would have to move
fast.~ When he reached the Gate Room, he found that everybody was being
evacuated.
“Well, that explains why Rush was yelling.” He
muttered to nobody in particular.
He got the feeling that if they left Destiny
now, there was a good chance that they would not be coming back. But before he
could object, he was ushered towards the Gate. ~Another evacuation with no idea
what is on the other side.~ They had – somehow – come full circle. He gave the
Gate Room one last look and then stepped through.
(Destiny – Corridor – Day 176, 1631)
Watson and her team were on their way back to the Gate
Room. The Vicerant had larger numbers, but their troops were not as experienced
as her team. They had send an electrical surge through the cables that
connected the Vicerant control nodes. It had fried the AI suppression system,
so Watson figured that Destiny would jump into Faster-Then-Light as soon
as the wormhole closed. When they reached the Gate Room, they found that the
defense team had been in quite the fight. And it was still going. But – at
least, so far - they had held the Gate Room.
Then Telford team’s came around the corner, firing
their weapons. She also spotted several people she did not know. ~Looks like
they got Colonel Young and his crew out.~ She shot another Vicerant soldier,
while retreating into the Gate Room. Telford gave the order for everybody to go
through the Gate. ~How did he convince Young to go along with this ?~ Not that
it mattered right now. She could figure it out once they were all back on Slave
Dump. ~We really need a better name for that planet.~
Everybody began making their way through the Gate,
while the military personnel covered the evacuation. Finally, there was nobody
left expect her and Telford. She kept shooting as she backed towards the Gate.
~Time to go.~ Watson shot one more soldier and bolted through the puddle. Two
seconds later, Telford followed and two seconds after that, the wormhole
disengaged. Another five seconds passed and then Destiny jumped into
FTL.
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