30 – Into the Unknown
(Chaser – Gate Room – Year 2, Day 38, 0918)
They had reached the border of Civilized Space. It
turned out that said border was not actually a hard border. Instead, there was
the official border and then a transition zone. The transition zone was not
colonized by the Order of Other yet, but the local Gate capable planets had
established frontier towns, farms and infrastructure. And basically, it was the
Wild West of the Far Galaxy. That meant shoot-outs between outlaws and law and
order were still very common.
In fact, Lieutenant Matthew Scott had just gotten in a
firefight to back up the local constabulary on H5R-821. The planet didn’t have
much to offer, but there was a sheep-like species that could be found in
extremely large numbers on the world. Scott’s team had not only won the
firefight, but had also come back with a large stockpile of meat and clothing.
The natives had even thrown in some ammo for their trouble. Scott was reporting
all this to Colonel Young when Chaser jumped back into hyperspace.
Young had been up for way too long, so he headed for
his quarters and ordered Scott to go take charge on the bridge. When he walked
onto the bridge, all three stations were manned. Eli Wallace was behind the
right console, Corporal Barnes was in the middle and Sergeant Hari Poviso was
at the left console. Poviso was a Nakai and a top-notch pilot. He was one of
the new crewmembers that had joined them from Freedom Prime.
“So, Matt, rumor has it that you picked up some new
threads for us on 821.” Eli said.
“Indeed I did. They even had some colors,” Scott said.
The colors were limited to red, brown, green, purple and yellow. But he was not
complaining. ~I’ll take what I can get.~
“Nice.” Eli said with a smile.
While they had been on Freedom Prime, the locals had
repaired the clothes they had wearing when they had been thawed. They had also
been given new clothes, with the Senate paying the bill. The civilians had each
been given fours new outfits, while the military personnel had each gotten two
new uniforms – the locals had managed to make perfect copies – and two civilian
outfits. Scott also figured that they had enough clothes from 821 to give
everybody one more outfit.
As for the new crewmembers…the Jynacko could wear the
same clothes as the humans, while both the Ursini and Nakai wore costume made
uniforms and civilian clothes. Like the new uniforms, they were perfect copies.
They were just special sizes to fit the non-humanoids. Scott gave Eli a nod and
then sat down in the command chair.
“So, what do we have on sensors ?”
“Nothing special so far, sir,” Corporal Barnes said.
“We have roughly three hours before we hit Uncharted
Space, Lieutenant,” Poviso said. “According to the locals, 821 is the last
settlement. We’ll pass H5R-823, which is the unofficial border of the
Transition Zone. It’s been visited by colonists as a source for certain
medications. But it’s a desert planet, so it’s too harsh for permanent
habitation.”
“Medications ?”
“There’s a creature that sounds like what on Earth is
called a scorpion. If you extract their toxins and process them the right way,
you can make several anti-biotics.”
“Eli, make a note of that,” Scott said. “If we drop
out in range, we might want to scorpion hunting.”
“Right.”
Eli nodded and set to making the note. As a result, he
did not notice a red dot that appeared at the very edge of sensor range. It was
only within range for a second before it vanished again. Eli finished making
the note and went back to monitoring the sensors.
(Order Warship Yalock – Bridge – Year 2, Day 40, 1705)
Commander Rayo Gazzil was sitting in the command chair
of the Yalock. The main viewer was showing the vessel they were
trailing. So far, the target appeared to be totally unaware that they were
being followed. ~So far, so good.~ Yalock was one of two warships the
Order of Other had. She was assigned to deal with external threats. The other
warship, which was called Grand Founders, was assigned to defend the
Order homeworld. It had been the people on the homeworld who had labeled the
ship they were following as a threat. ~After what happened on Mine 4, it makes
sense.~ Now it was only a matter of time of picking the right moment to strike.
(Chaser – Bridge – Year 2, Day 50, 0800)
Matthew Scott dropped the Chaser of out
hyperspace. This was the third time since they had left Civilized Space that
they were taking a stab at gathering supplies. So far, they had not had much
luck finding food and water. They had, however, hit upon a big stash off
limestone on their second trip. Next to him, Ronald Greer was manning the
weapons.
“Four Stargates in range, sir,” Scott said.
“What does our new toy say ?”
“H5X-018,” Scott began. “It should have water.”
Chaser
still didn’t have Artificial Intelligence, but Eli, Rush, Park and Volker had
been hard at work programming several advanced filters. They were programmed to
find and highlight a selected list of elements when they were detected by the
long range sensors. It wasn’t perfect, but – if they worked – these programs
might increase their chances. The problem was that this was the first time they
were using the filters, so the plan was still untested.
“Time to test the filter,” Young said, before turning
to Greer. “Assemble a team.”
“Yes, sir,” Greer said, before turning to the third
person manning the bridge, which was Varro. “You up for a trip ?”
“Always,” Varro said.
Varro and Greer left the bridge, while Young grabbed
his radio. Several minutes later, Camille and Eli walked into the room. Before
they had gone into stasis, Wray had never manned one of the bridge console.
Which had made sense, because she was the IOA representative and the Human
Resources Officer for both Icarus Base and Destiny. But Young had
decided that he wanted all of the crew – old and new – on the Chaser to
be rated on the bridge consoles. It was an approach developed by the US Navy
for their submarines. The idea was that everybody had to be able to do every
job. Wray gave Young a look, before sitting down at one of the consoles. She
had barely done so, when her console beeped.
“A ship just entered sensor range,” Camille said.
“Do you have an ID ?”
She worked the console and a profile appeared on one
of the screens. It was not good news.
(Order Warship Yalock – Bridge – Year 2, Day 50, 0807)
The time had come. Yalock was about to attack
her target. Gazzil stood up from his command chair and looked at the main
viewer. He had begun his career in Order Naval Forces as a pilot. So he would
have preferred to be behind the helm at this very moment. But that was not his
seat anymore. Instead, that place was held by Lieutenant Vi’Jar, a very capable
Nakai pilot. As for him, Gazzil was a Jynacko-Xivolo hybrid who was no fan of
the center seat. But somebody had to make the hard calls. Taking a deep breath,
he turned to Vi’Jar.
“Maintain course and speed, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, Commander,” Vi’Jar said.
“Major Caross, sound action stations,” Gazzil began.
“All hands, prepare to attack !”
Major Caross was the Ursini Executive Officer of the Yalock.
He was also the ship’s weapons officer and the best shot they had aboard. There
was a pause and then the alarms began to sound. Gazzil made his way to the helm
and hit the proper keys to silence the klaxon. Then he sat down in the command
chair again. The battle was about to begin.
(Chaser – Bridge – Year 2, Day 50, 0809)
Chaser
scored two hits on the attacking ship, while dodging two shots herself. The
Primians had not wanted to take any risks, so Chaser was fitted with the
heaviest and most advanced weapons they had been able to get their hands on.
She was equipped with sixteen cannons and two missile tubes.
As for their enemy, it was a Goa’uld Ha’tak-class
vessel. But for some reason, it had not launched its Deathgliders. Not that
Young minded. He watched as Scott threw the ship through another turn and Eli
managed to score three more hits. Camille then launched two missiles at the
attacker, both of which were fitted with technology that allowed them to got
right through the enemy shields. The missiles hit the Goa’uld ship and its shields
came down thirty percent.
“Nice shooting,” Young said.
“Coming around again,” Scott said.
“Cannons moving,” Eli began. “Firing again.”
Eli fired again, hitting the Goa’uld three times. The
enemy fired back, but Scott dodged the shots. It was at this point that another
ship appeared on sensors. Camille tried to ID the newcomer, but it was not in
the database. What was clear, however, was that the alien vessel was a warship.
It opened fire on the Goa’uld ship with all of its forward weapons. The Goa’uld
ship’s shields collapsed and the vessel exploded. Then the newcomer turned
around and jumped back into hyperspace.
(Order Warship Yalock – Bridge – Year 2, Day 50, 0815)
Gazzil wished he could have contacted Chaser.
But his orders were clear. He was to protect the Chaser, not contact it.
The Goa’uld had placed surveillance devices on Mine 4, which the Order had
discovered when they had intercepted the signal from those devices. Which had
triggered the alarm in Security Room Two. After Brother Xander had run this
alert up the chain of command, Gazzil’s superiors had given all Order Naval
Force ships orders to be on the lookout for suspicious Goa’uld activity. And
when one of their ships had been detected following Chaser, Yalock
had been ordered to follow them.
But the Goa’uld had been smart about their plan. They
had waited until Chaser had left both Civilized Space and the Transition
Zone behind. And then they had waited for their prey to be out of subspace
transceiver range of the world they called H5R-821. It had been only then that
they had attacked the ship. And had paid the price. He left Major Caross in
charge as he headed for his office. As soon as they reached transmission range,
he would report the outcome to his superiors. But for now, he had paperwork to
deal with.
(Chaser – Bridge – Year 2, Day 50, 0816)
Young was glad that the Goa’uld had lost the fight,
but plenty of things were not adding up. So he had assigned Rush and Brody to
studying the data on the ship that had come to the rescue. He was also pondering
why the Goa’uld had attacked them with just one ship. ~And where were their
Deathgliders ?~
He left Scott in charge on the bridge and headed for
Auxiliary Control, where Rush and Brody were working on the information on the
alien vessel. While he started to discuss their findings, Doctor Lisa Park –
who had been manning another console because they had gone to battle stations –
left the room for her quarters. ~I need some down time.~
As soon she walked in, she realized that something was
wrong. The entrance from the corridor led into her bedroom, where the lights
were off. Then the automatic doors closed behind her and the lights came on.
What she saw made her gasp.
“Greetings, Doctor Park,” Pelops, Supreme System Lord
of the New Goa’uld Empire said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
Pelops was not alone. He was accompanied by three
Jaffa, all of whom were not wearing the traditional Jaffa armor. Instead, they
were wearing black coveralls. And they were all pointing Zat’ni’katels at her.
“How did you get onboard ?”
“Well, Anubis might have been a psychopathic,
sociopathic and utterly crazy monster,” Pelops began. “But he did acquire some
useful technology, including Asgard teleporters. We added one to a cargo ship,
which also came with a cloaking device. So, me and friends launched our little
ship from the Vengeance before she proceeded to attack and teleported
over while the shields were still down.”
“Why are you telling me this ?”
“Because I know all about the ninth chevrons and the
signal Destiny was built to decipher,” Pelops said. “And I…,” He took
out a small backpack. That backpack contained a cylinder filled with a blue
liquid. And inside that liquid was a Goa’uld parasite. “….Need a spy aboard
this ship. So we picked a set of quarters at random to teleport into, and you
became the lucky winner.”
Pelops nodded to one of the Jaffa. The man fired his
Zat and the world went black. As Pelops watched, the Jaffa put Park on her bed.
They put her on her belly, while Pelops opened the cylinder. He grabbed the
parasite from the cylinder and dropped it on her back. Then he took out a knife
and cut a hole in her shirt. Two seconds later, Park screamed as the parasite
borrowed its way into her body.
To Be Continued In Stargate Universe Season Five….
