SG Nova Roma, Chapter 3.21

21 – Nightmares and Hopes

(Freedom Prime – Eli’s House – Day 285,0607)

Eli was in his bed, tossing and turning. He had watched the recording of Pelops’ transmission several times yesterday. But he still had a hard time believing that his father was now the Supreme System Lord of the New Goa’uld Empire. Or host to the Supreme System Lord. Even after – or maybe because of - losing Ginn and the news of his mother’s passing, this news had hit him like a punch to the gut. His father had abandoned both Eli and his mother after she had gotten AIDS, so Eli’s feelings towards him had never been the warmest. But now there were all sorts of doubts floating around his head. How long had Pelops been inside his father ? Had his father abandoned them ? Or the snake ? And even if it had been his father, did he really deserve this fate ?

From what he had heard about the Goa’uld, being a host was a special kind of living hell. And out here, they did not have the resources of the Tok’ra Homeworld at their disposal. Which meant that even if they – by some miracle – managed to capture Pelops, there would be no way to extract the parasite from the host. In fact, the question of Tok’ra presence in the Far Galaxy was still very much up in the air. If there were Tok’ra amongst the New Empire, they were probably undercover. And without the means to report in, while their chances of safe extraction were slim to none.

And all of this was giving Eli nightmares. He woke up screaming and made his way to his bathroom. There, he splashed some water on his face and looked in the mirror. He had lost weight and gained muscle during his stay on this planet. ~The gym is a good way to distract myself.~ So – for a second – he did not recognize himself. Then he heard footsteps. ~Not again.~ Moving out of the bathroom, he grabbed a club on of his neighbors had given him. Then he headed towards the sound to find…. Darth Vader ? Before he could ponder it further, the Sith Lord turned to him. But when he spoke, it was Pelops’ voice.

“Join me, Eli.”

“No,” Eli began. “I’ll never join you.”

“You must, it is your new Destiny !” The Sith Lord-Goa’uld approached him. “It is the only way you can save Ginn.”

“No !”

Eli tried to swing his club at Vader, only to find that the club – and his hand – was gone ! Then the floor opened up and he found himself falling through a bottom-less shaft of some kind. He spotted two lights in the shaft and realized that he was falling towards them. Then he saw that they were the eyes of a giant Goa’uld parasite. The snake opened its horrible mouth and then….

(Freedom Prime – Eli’s House – Day 285,0616)

….the nightmare ended as he realized he had fallen out of bed. He pinched himself to make sure he was awake. Then he got to his feet and made his way to the bathroom. Once again, he splashed his face with water. But this time, there were no footsteps. Instead, there was a knock at the door. Taking a deep breath, he made his way to the front door and opened it. Doctor Lisa Park was standing outside the door. And there was something different about her. ~Something good.~

“Hello, Eli,” She began. “I want you to be the second to see. I already showed Ronald.”

“What are you talking…” And then he realized what it were Park’s eyes that were different. Her sight had returned. “How ? What happened to your eyes ?”

“The doctors in the clinic were able to fix them.” Eli grinned like an idiot. This was terrific news. “So,” Park continued. “Are you up for a walk ? Because I’d love to see this planet and I could use a guide.”

“You just found one.”

Eli grabbed his keys, stepped out of his house and locked the door behind himself. It was only as he began the tour of the city, that he realized that he was walking around in his nightwear. But he simply didn’t care and kept walking as he began explaining things about the city and pointing out some of the sights.

(Freedom Prime – Chloe Armstrong’s and Matthew Scott’s House – Day 285,0620)

Chloe was going through another nightmare. Despite the kindness the locals had shown her, she couldn’t help dreaming about her abduction by the Central Authority Nakai. It didn’t help that the very ship where she had been ‘cured’ was now part of the Space Navy that was supposed to defend this planet. Exodus Two was the ship where she had been through her second treatment.

But – ironically - that was also a source of hope. The Primians had send a large medical team up to the ship to study what the Central Authority had done to Chloe. They believed it was the best chance in the entire Far Galaxy of curing Tamara Johansen’s ALS. And from what Chloe had heard, that team had been working their butts off. They were good people.

Alas, that was not enough to keep her dark dreams at bay. So Chloe ended up tossing and turning in her bed, trying to push the images of Nakai and needles away. Next to her, Matthew Scott was worried. He had done his best to help her get rid off these nightmares, but to no avail. She had barely been getting any sleep because of them. So Matthew hoped that the Chaser would be finished soon. He figured that as soon as they were away from this planet, things might get better. Until then, there was nothing he could do.

(Fast Chaser – Bridge – Day 320, 0700)

It had been several weeks since the Goa’uld had arrived in the Far Galaxy. They had spent those weeks settling in on several planets. At the same time, the Primians had send their first team off-world. They had gone to a planet that the computer had named H3C-185, but that the locals called Valli’so. The Valli’sons had been primitive – with the local technology being equal to Earth circa 100 BC – but friendly. They had explained about the situation in the galaxy. From what they had said, it had appeared that the Order of the Other were seeding civilizations all over the place. They were playing the same role as the Ancients had in Pegasus Galaxy. The Valli’sons had never seen a member of the Order. And neither had anybody on the six worlds that they traded with. What they did know, was that the planet had a Stargate. But that the Order had blocked it with a forcefield. This had been discovered the hard way by an exploration team from one of their allied worlds, Castor Prime.

What the Valli’sons had also told them, was that the technology levels were all over the place. As were the politics, which ranged from friendly democracies to all-out xenophobic dictatorships. The galaxy also had every possible mix of species, including hybrids. The Order had apparently found a way to disengage the Xivolo genetic locks. The Valli’sons had also provided the Primians with the Gate Address of the Vicerant Homeworld – which was called Vicerant Prime - revealing that it was in the Far Galaxy. But the real shock about the Vicerant was the news that the Order had kidnapped several of their people to add Humans to the mix.

All of this was in a rapport that Colonel Telford had written on the mission. Jack O’Neill was reading said report in the command chair of the Chaser. He had used the Ancient Stones to swap with Telford, so that the Colonel could brief the IOA in person. At the same time, O’Neill had been checking the progress of the Chaser’s construction. The ship’s hydroponics bay had been finished last week, with the plants having been planted the day after. The construction was on schedule, which meant that the ship would be done on day 365. Well, technically, it would be done on day 363. But it had been decided to launch on New Years Day for the Nova Roma Expedition to boost morale.

The main entrance opened and Colonel Young walked onto the bridge. He had been checking up on the construction of the Chaser. Besides this, he had also been hard at work selecting Primians for the crew. The bulk of the new crew would be from the work crews how were currently disabling the wrecks in orbits, with the rest being drafted from the Chaser construction crew. Young figured these were the most experienced people the Primians had. And from what he had seen so far, the people on his list were not short on guts and common sense either.

“David ?” Young asked.

“Still talking to the IOA blow hearts,” O’Neill began. “So, how is the draft going ?”

“I finished the list,” Young said. “They’re good people, but I recommend putting them through training before we head out.”

“Not repeating history and all that. How long will it take to set up ?”

“The Valli’sons have given us permission to use one of their military camps, so we can start tomorrow,” Young paused, before answer the question that he figured O’Neill was about to ask. “And yes, we’re giving them something in return. Up until now, there’s been no reason for them upgrade their army. But now that the Goa’uld have entered the picture….”

“….They want to sharpen their teeth ?”

“Yes, so we’re giving them a Primian Dialing Computer. It will allow them to step up their trading with their allies and acquire several pieces of technology. They also gave us several addresses of unoccupied worlds where we could run practice missions.”

“Sounds like…” That was as far as O’Neill got before one of consoles beeped.

Young made his way to the nearest console and hit several keys. The display changed to show the telemetry from the planetary sensors. Four red dots were approaching the Freedom Prime. Young hit several more keys and the image zoomed in to reveal that the dots were actually Vicerant warships.

“This is bad.”

“You think ?” O’Neill said.

The Vicerant had apparently decided to attack Freedom Prime. The problem was that the old Exodus One had already been dismantled, which meant that all that was standing between them and the planet was Exodus Two. And without back-up, her chances were of winning were not good. Not good at all.

(Space – Just outside the Nakai Home Galaxy – Day 0320, 0713)

The last of the Command Ships and Berserker Drones had been dormant for quite some time. So they were covered in a layer of ice. After losing Destiny to obsessed mode, the Vicerants original plan for a coup of Novus had fallen apart. But now, they were finally ready to execute a new plan.

While their warships attacked and wiped out the Earth Allied world in the Far Galaxy, the last cluster of Command Ships would attack the Nakai Homeworld. The Berserker Drones had detected a Nakai fleet of five vessels leaving their galaxy forty days ago. There was no doubt that these vessels were resuming the Nakai’s pursuit of Destiny.

But the Vicerant didn’t care. They were certain that they were going to win this fight in the end. The Command Ships received their orders and began warming themselves up. Two minutes later, they began jumping into hyperspace.