SG Nova Roma, Chapter 4.03

 3 – Theories, kicking ass and getting out of dodge

(Chaser – Corridor – Year 2, Day 50, 0842)

Ronald Greer was ready to kick some ass. He had been on the bridge when Lisa Park had come in. She had pushed some buttons on one of the consoles and then an alarm had begun blaring. It turned out that Chaser had been boarded by three Jaffa and a Goa’uld. Colonel Young had ordered Greer to gather a team and deal with them. He had left the bridge right away, so if Park had explained how she knew about these intruders, he hadn’t heard it. For some reason, the Goa’uld were hanging out in an empty set of quarters. ~Like shooting fish in a barrel.~ Greer looked at the other members of his team, which included Lieutenant Matthew Scott.

“So, have you ever fought Jaffa before ?” Scott asked.

“No.”

By the time Greer had been drafted into the Stargate Program, the Goa’uld had been defeated and dust of the Orii war had begun settling. They had reached the Goa’ulds position. Scott gave hand signals and the team took up positions. He nodded and Greer pushed the button to open the door. ~Here we go !~ The door opened and they opened fire. They had caught the enemy by surprise, which resulted in the three Jaffa not having even the smallest slither of a chance. All three of them went down instantly.

Pelops, however, had a personal shield. The bullets bounced off and he was left unharmed. Which allowed the System Lord to use his hand device to send out a shockwave. The team ended up falling to the floor, while Pelops made a run for it. But he did not get far, because a knife hit his left leg. He went down, allowing the person who had thrown the knife – Lieutenant Vanessa James – to make her move. She hit the System Lord with the butt of her rifle. His eyes rolled in his head and he passed out.

“How did you know that would work ?” Greer asked.

“I read about Goa’uld shields in several SG-1 reports,” James said.

“Get him to the infirmary,” Scott said.

“Yes, sir.” Greer said.

Greer and James picked up the System Lord, while Scott went into the quarters and set to examining. The last thing they needed right now, was more surprises. So he would make sure that there were no more hiding in this place.

(Destiny – Gate Room – Year 2, Day 50, 0905)

 Dennis Alexander Young was no longer a Vicerant private. His chances of making it home were practically zero. ~Especially on my own.~ So, for better or worse, he was home part of this tiny crew. ~Just the four of us.~ At the moment, he was helping Benjamin with getting the Stargate controls back on-line. There was a loud click and then Benjamin closed the console back up. Young checked the controls and found that they were ready to go.

 “It’s working.” Young said.

 “Now all we have to do, is figure out a way to drop Destiny out of FTL so we can get off.”

“We’ll need a Kino and a Gate remote before we do that. Otherwise, we’ll risk being stranded on a planet unsuitable for long-term survival.” Young paused. “What is our long-term plan ? Having the capacity to use the Gate will only get us so far.”

 “One problem at a time,” Amanda Perry said as she walked in. “For now, this our long-term plan. And we’ve wired two Kinos and two Gate remotes into the power source to charge the batteries.”

 “So, back to the original question,” Young said. “How do we get Destiny to drop out of FTL ?”

“The problem is that in its current state of mind, so to speak, Destiny will only drop out to recharge. And without control of the systems, we have no way to drain the power surplus. Not to mention that because the ship is much better condition then it used to be, the surplus is much bigger.”

“How much bigger ?” Young asked.

“When Colonel Young and his crew came aboard, the ship’s buffers could store less then forty percent of the original capacity. The Vicerant repairs brought them back up to ninety-nine point seven percent.”

“So, Destiny could dial Earth now ?” Ginn asked as she joined them.

“In theory,” Perry began. “But I wouldn’t recommend it. Draining the buffers that fast would probably burn them out, which would start a chain reaction that would destroy the ship. However, a dial to a Gate inside whatever galaxy we’re passing through should be totally safe.”

“Because that requires a lot less power,” Ben said with a nod.

“Okay, so we can leave the ship without it blowing up,” Young said. “But we STILL have to drop the ship out of FTL first. And we STILL don’t have a way to do that. Which brings us back to the buffers and draining them.”

“Actually, I have an idea about that.” Ginn said.

The other turned to her, while Ginn began explaining what she had in mind. Her plan was a long shot, but she was convinced that it was either this or nothing.

(Chaser – Infirmary - Year 2, Day 50, 0938)

Pelops was a god. A false god, a dead false god. After he had been brought to the infirmary, he had been secured to one of the beds. All of this was because of Doctor Park, who was sitting on another bed. After she had reconfigured the internal sensors, the computer had told them – in a rather loud voice – that it had detected Goa’uld aboard the ship. So Young had told Greer to deal with them. He had then asked Park how she had known about the Goa’uld. She had said that she needed to go to the Infirmary, so that Tamara Johansson could explain what had happened.

TJ had examined her and had then made a report to Young. She had found a scar at the back of the Park’s neck. The kind of scar that had was left behind by a Goa’uld entering a host. So she had put Park through a scan, which had found the dead remains of a Goa’uld parasite wrapped around her spine. Park had then told them about Scorpius and how Varash had been vanquished. It was at this point that Greer and James had come to the infirmary with Pelops. He had been tied to one of the beds and one of the Nakai crewmembers had donated some blood. After Pelops had been sedated, TJ had injected the blood straight into the parasite. Which had killed it stone dead.

Thus, the person on bed was Samuel F. Wallace and not Pelops. He was currently sleeping after his liberation. So that was not why Colonel Young had been called to the infirmary by TJ. What she had called him for, was the condition of Eli Wallace and Lieutenant Anna Deacon. Eli had been picked as a host because he was Pelops’ son and key to Chaser’s scientific efforts. Deacon had never been in the forefront, having been part of the trial of Colonel Young after Sergeant Spencer’s suicide. But she was a floater, helping wherever she was needed. So putting a Goa’uld in her would have provided them with intelligence from all departments.

 “So, can you cure them the same way you cured Pelops ?”

“I’ve examined both Lisa and Mister Wallace. And from what I’ve seen, it should work.” Johansson said. “So far, neither of them seem to suffering side effects. But I want to keep them under observation for another day or two.”

 “Okay,” Young said with a nod. “And I want them injected right away. The last thing we need is Goa’uld spies on this ship.”

TJ nodded and began giving orders and preparing for the injections. Young wanted to stay and watch, but Chaser dropped out of FTL and he was called to the bridge. So he headed out and left TJ to get to on with it.

(Destiny – Gate Room – Year 2, Day 50, 1205)

It had taken several hours to set up Ginn’s plan. Said plan was a desperate gamble, but it was all they had. Instead of draining the buffers, they would make Destiny think that they had drained the buffers. To fool the ship, they would infect several key points with New Asuran nanites and deploy a computer virus. It wouldn’t work for long, because the countermeasures would kill the virus after a couple of minutes. And that was would be all they needed.

~Presuming it works.~ Ginn thought. ~If it doesn’t….well, with my luck…we’ll probably be stranded.~ And they would run out of power and food, which would be a death sentence. With everything in place, they had all gathered in the Gate Room. They had all the food and water they could carry. ~Lucky for us there were some backpacks in the hydroponics bay.~ There had also been several Vicerant flasks in storage there.

“Here we go.” Perry said.

“So,” Ben began. “Who wants to push the button ?”

Ben was holding a small silver box with a red button. Pushing the button would transmit a signal that would activate the nanites and – seconds after that – the virus. Above the button were two lights, one for the activation of the nanites and one for the activation of the virus. If everything went according to plan, the two lights would turn green. But the real proof was if the ship dropped out of FTL. Ginn nodded and grabbed the box, while Perry readied one of the Kinos and Young stood behind the dialing computer.

“In three….two….one.” She pushed the button. 

Now all they could was wait and hope it worked.

(Spera – Briefing Room – Year 2, Day 56, 080)

The mission to collect food and water had been a success. They had come back with several crates of edible plants – including some food that was potato-like and some cucumber-like food – and two large tanks full of drinking water. So today, Vale had his hands free for a science briefing that he had not gotten around to yesterday. When he got there, the place was very loaded to capacity. But Cinara had saved Vale a seat, which he took.

“So, what’s this infamous theory that I’m not going to like ?”

“We figured out what Spera is looking for,” Hailey said. “We studied the telemetry she collected and the ship’s computer code. Then we ran a process of elimination, until….”

“…We were left with the Planet Builders.” Porter said. “The AI’s currently seems to think that they are the key to Cosmic Background Radiation signal. The problem is that, so far, the only know Planet Builder world is Eden.” Eden was a planet that had appeared out of nowhere. Both it and the star it orbited had been build by an advanced race known only as the Planet Builders. “And that is far behind us.”

“Do we have any proof that there are other Planet Builder worlds ?”

“Not so far,” Hailey said. “And only time will tell us if our hunch is right.”

“Okay,” Vale said. “But I do have one problem with all this….we can’t keep calling them Planet Builders, we need a better name for this species,” He paused. “So, suggestions ?”

“Zovaris ?” Cinara suggested. “Zov is Xivolo for mystery and Aris means people.”

“Sounds good to me.” Vale said. “Zovaris it is. But don’t bother changing it in the old reports. We’ll start using it in the new ones.” Vale leaned back. “But if Spera hasn’t found any traces of Zovaris civilization, what has she found ?”

“That you’re not going to like either,” Colson said. “So far, we haven’t found much. But what has been there, seems to belong to the race that build the berserker drones. We seem to be heading straight into the heart of their former space. In fact, we figure there’s a seventy percent chance that we’ll reach their old homeworld in the next couple of days.”

“So, we’re living in interesting times.”

Colson nodded and Vale leaned back. His instincts were telling him that their trip through Destiny Space would be a bumpy ride. But that was fine with him, he had not signed up for boredom.