1 – Swallowed By The Light
(Spera – Bridge – Year 2, Day 9, 1215)
Alarms were blaring all over the place and the shields were taxed to the maximum, but Spera was still around and fighting for her life. It had been over a minute since she had been swallowed by the shockwave from Project Backlash. ~Come on, girl, you can do it.~ Vale’s fingers flew over his controls as he tried to keep the ship together. Suddenly, there was a jolt and the pressure on the shields went down.
“Are we out ?” Vale asked.
“No,” Levine said. “We’re….” He hit several keys. “….between. The event was so violent it send out several shockwaves.”
“He’s right,” Porter said. “We’re between two shockwaves. One is positive, for lack of a better term, and the other appears to be negative.”
“So we’re at the point where the two cancel one another out ?” Vale asked.
“Yes, sir,” Porter said. “And if we can use the thrusters and sub-light drives to stay here, we might be able to ride it out. All we have to do, is wait until the shockwaves fade. But there’s no telling where and when that will happen. The sensors are all overwhelmed.”
“Still, it’s the best plan we’ve got.” Vale said.
“It’s the only plan we’ve got,” T’Zalo said with a smile.
Vale snickered at that. ~But sometimes all you need is one plan.~ He told T’Zalo and Levine to go for it. And with them taking of the ship, he could turn his attention to the crew. He grabbed his radio and contacted Doctor Bennett. Fortunately, the doctor told him that they had only suffered minor injuries. And the infirmary staff were already working on those. So now it was simply a waiting game.
(Spera – Briefing Room – Year 2, Day 42, 1159)
Cinara and Nikita Aranov were sitting behind their laptops. The table was filled with paperwork and artifacts. They had used every inch of space in the science lab and the briefing room was barely used. So it was now science lab one-a. The shockwaves of the Backlash Incident had been just under a day to fade to the point that Spera could push through without any damage. But that had been fine with Vale, because it gave them time to make repairs and figured out where exactly they were.
As the effects of the Backlash Incident had faded, something else had drawn their attention. Until now, Spera’s AI had not been very active. But now, the AI had suddenly come to life. To begin with, Spera was not on the same course as Destiny had been when she had passed through this galaxy. And all the worlds Spera had suggested stopping at, had been ones with ruins of civilizations. Aranov, Hailey and Porter believed that the AI was looking for something. This was backed up by something that was now happening every day. Which was why Vale came in and sat between the two of them.
At exactly 1200 hours, the two laptops changed to a program. It had three data streams side-by-side. The left one was from the Seed ships, the middle one was from Destiny and the one of right was Spera’s telemetry from the last twenty-four hours. The AI was comparing the three streams and looking for differences.
“How long has it been doing this ?”
“A week.” Aranov said. “And every day it’s the same. The AI spends an hour going over the data and then it starts a twenty-three hour countdown.”
“So, what’s your best guess about what it means ?”
“Well, we know for sure that the AI is looking for something,” Aranov said. “But we don’t have enough pieces of the puzzle yet. I want to see what happens when we pass the point where Destiny left the galaxy. Because I figure that’s going to be the best clue we’re going to get, sir.”
“How long until we reach that point ?”
“Nine days.”
“Okay, stay on top of it,” Vale said. “And if Spera is making comparisons, maybe it’s making notes somewhere. Let’s see if can find that file,” He stood up. “If the border crossing doesn’t tell us anything, we’re going to need a Plan B. And let’s see if we can up with a Plan C as well. We have enough problems as it is, the last thing we need is a crazy AI.”
Aranov gave him a nod and Vale walked out the room. He needed to relief Major Levine on the bridge.
(Spera – Gate Room – Year 2, Day 55, 1316)
It had been four days since they had passed the border of what the crew had begun calling Destiny Space. The ship was still looking for something, but that was not on Vale’s mind as he led NR-1 and NR-5 through the Stargate to 2HR-145. The ship was low on water, so the two teams were going for a collection mission together. Both teams were understaffed. NR-1 had lost Alex Patterson due to her reassignment to Exodus One and NR-5’s New Asuran members were still on Freedom Prime.
After getting the green light from both General O’Neill and the President, Vale had promoted T’Zalo to Staff Sergeant and offered the open slot on NR-1. Which he had taken. As for NR-5, while Claus – one of the botanists – was coming back to the team, the other member was not. Frank had been one of two New Asurans who would staying behind on Freedom Prime. Valerie Watson, who was the commanding officer of Epsilon One – one of the SG-teams based at the Epsilon Site – had recruited him for her unit.
Which was fine with Vale, because it finally gave him an opportunity to rearrange the NR-teams. Right now, the kind of missions they could handle was kind of rigid. NR-1 was Recon, NR-2 was Science, NR-3 and NR-4 were Security and NR-5 was Resource Collection. His plan was to make NR-3 and NR-5 more flexible. His first decision was to upgrade Cinara’s title from crewmember to archeologist. He had then offered her Frank’s slot on NR-5. Which she had accepted. Next, Andrea Jones had been promoted to Corporal and been made acting CO of NR-3.
Her slot on NR-5 had been taken by Private First Class Vladimir Golov, a Russian Marine who had been assigned to NR-3. Golov was a good soldier and had been promoted to Corporal as well. And NR-5’s team leader, Henrietta ‘Hetty’ McConnell had been promoted from Private First Class to Sergeant. With a hydroponics expert, a security officer and an archeologist, this new NR-5 was a very different beast then the old one.
As for NR-3’s other two members, there was Private First Class John White from South African and First Lieutenant Tamara Cho from China. Cho had swapped teams with Alec Colson, making her the Security Officer for NR-2 and him NR-3’s resident Engineer. It also made John White the default second-in-command of the team. And finally – if everything went according to plan – eventually, Spera would arrive at Freedom Prime. At which point, Captain Laura Cadman would join the crew as the new Head of Security and Commanding Officer of NR-3. But that was still a long time in the future.
For now, however, Vale had two teams to lead. They were making the trip in Puddle Jumper One. As soon as the ship passed through the event horizon, the wormhole disengaged. And with Vale off-world, Jennifer Hailey was in charge. She was not the bridge, however, having left Major Levine running things up there. Instead, she was headed for Science Lab One-A. Colson and Aranov were studying the data they had on Spera’s search. And they were not alone. The room was occupied to capacity. ~Well, nearly.~ Colson had saved her a seat. She thanked him and sat down.
“So, what do we have ?”
“A theory,” Colson said. “But you’re not going to like it.”
“Tell me anyway.”
Colson nodded and then began explaining what they thought Spera was looking for.
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