Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter 16

16 – Spera at Last

(Stargate Command – Daniel Jackson’s Office – 3 July 2017, 2310)

Daniel Jackson was exhausted. He had just been on a mission to P2G-192, while had included a very long negotiation. The locals had been divided between three countries. It had been his job to oversee a fusion of the three nations. But that had been easier said than done. Now, he was finally writing his report on the outcome. (The treaty was signed and fusion was complete.) Suddenly, a knock made him look up. It was President Mackenzie, who walked into his office.

“I heard your mission to P2G-192 was as success, Doctor Jackson.”

“Yes, sir. I am working on the final report now.”

“It can wait.” Mackenzie grabbed a stool and sat across Jackson. “I need your opinion about something, doctor.” He reached into his pocket and took out a piece of paper. “I got a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Vale. He wants permission to recruit Nakai, Ursini and New Asuran volunteers into his crew. My first instinct is to turn down his request, but…” He leaned on Jackson’s desk. “…Vale asked some very good questions.”

“No offense, sir. But isn’t that what we pay him for ?”

“True.” Mackenzie said with a smile. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I want your opinion.”

Mackenzie gave Jackson the letter. He opened it and read it. And Vale had indeed asked some very good questions. It reminded Jackson of an argument he had once had with then-Colonel O’Neill. SG-1 had been off-world on a mission to a place called Euronda. Daniel had asked some hard questions, which O’Neill had not wanted to hear. But in the end, O’Neill had changed his mind and told him to ask his questions. The answers had not been pretty. But they had kept Stargate Command from supporting the wrong side in a war. (It had turned out that the people they had considered helping were basically fascists.) He finished reading the letter, then put it down.

“Well, I didn’t know if we are worthy of controlling Destiny…” Jackson began. “…but I do know that there are people aboard that ship who will die if we don’t rescue them. And that we can’t let the Nakai or the Lucian Alliance have it. If either of them get it, they will use its secrets to massacre millions.”

“Yeah, there’s that.”

“As for monopolizing Destiny as a race….” He leaned back and looked at Mackenzie. “I know the people aboard Destiny have had issues with both the Ursini and the Nakai in the past. But if these people were going to stab us in the back, they would have done it by now. Hailey finished the dial-in program a week ago. And they know how to fly the city by now. They would have killed our people and taken the city for themselves.” Jackson paused. “And the New Asurans have been holding up their end of the deal as well. They signed a treaty with us, when they didn’t have to.”

“Anything else ?”

“Well, we have to remember that we have no idea what exactly is at the end of the line.” Jackson said. “We have no idea what the message that Destiny is trying to decrypt is. We also need to remember that there is a difference between monopolizing Destiny and monopolizing the good that can come from Destiny.”

Mackenzie nodded. He realized that there was a major difference between the two. And that the second was a much more important issue then the first. The first was also much easier to fix then the second. Which was exactly what Colonel Vale was asking permission to do. He realized that his first reaction was how the IOA would have reacted. Mackenzie cursed himself, then nodded for Jackson to continue.

“Finally, we have a problem. Even if we manage to convince the New Asuran to let us build an outpost on a planet in the Hope Galaxy, setting up a supply line will not be easy. The original plan to dial-in with the reprogramming sub-routine did not work. And we both know that we can only dial Spera twice. This might be our only chance to increase the number of people aboard Spera. And until Vale gets his people aboard Destiny, we can’t use the Beta Site to dial the ninth chevron.”

“Good point.” Mackenzie said. “Now, I am going to talk to General Landry. And you should get to bed.” He smiled at Jackson. “P2G-192 might be a pain in the ass, but it won’t end if turn in that report tomorrow.”

“I’m not so sure about that, sir.” Jackson said.

“Bed, now.”

And with that, Mackenzie walked out. Jackson tried to continue working on the report, but a yawn made him realize that Mackenzie was right. So he saved the file, turned off his computer and went to find a bed.

(Colony One – Control Room – 25 August 2017, 0711)

They were approaching Colony Eighty-Two. And there was plenty of good news to go around. All the cities had escaped from the Home Space Nakai. Furthermore, they had managed to thin out the Fleet to five motherships and a handful of fighters. And in the end, those ships had been forced to turn around. At the same time, President Mackenzie – along with the team of IOA representatives and several other heads of state – had given him permission to go ahead with recruiting volunteers from their alien allies.

Finally, Doctor Jackson had managed to bypass the problem with the New Asurans not wanting them to set up an outpost on one of their planets. Instead, they had asked the Ursini and Colonists to create an outpost on their world. And they had agreed. Vale was glad to hear that piece of good news. But he wondered what good the outpost would do. So he leaned against the Engineering console and asked Colson.

“Well, l looked at the logs of the ninth chevron dial-in. And it’s a miracle the whole complex didn’t explode when Colonel Telford and his team went through.” He looked at Vale. “The folks back home have been working on it since we left. They have made a lot of upgrades on the place already. But if there is one thing we have learned during this mission, Plan A rarely works.”

“Yeah, there’s that.”

“So, Plan B is to use the Beta Site to dial the outpost and then dial Destiny from there.”

“Yeah, you did remind them that this whole software-override thing doesn’t work ?” Vale said. “We’ll be lucky if we can get aboard Spera and get one wave of reinforcements.”

“Yes, they said they were working on that.”

Before they could continue their conversation, a loud – and very annoying – claxon sounded. Colson killed it, while Vale ran to the Control Chair. As he sat down, Colson announced that they were two minutes from dropping out of hyperspace. Vale activated the chair. Then he waited for the clock to hit zero. The moment it did, he dropped the city out. Then he left the chair and ran down the stairs. Hailey and T’Zalo were now flying the city.

“Right on course.” T’Zalo said.

“Excellent.” He turned to Porter, who was monitoring the sensors.” Alison, what do we have on the long-range units ?”

“Checking.” She worked her console. A cluster of dots appeared on her display, along with a circle. Inside the circle was another dot. “One planet with a colony on it. And eighty city-ships in orbit.” She hit several more keys and the display zoomed in. “Everybody is here, and there are zero hostiles on scanners.”

“Life-signs and ZPM count, please.”

“Zero life-signs and zero ZPMs in orbit. One ZPM and thirty-two life-signs down on the planet.”

“Thirty-one volunteers ?” Vale asked. The last life-sign belonged to a technician, who had stayed behind to help with the evacuation of Colony One to the Hope Galaxy.

“Plus another ten from this colony.” Carossa said as she walked into the control room. “Six Ursini and four Nakai, including Mister T’Zalo.” She turned to T’Zalo. “Mister T’Zalo, front and center.” T’Zalo swallowed and left his console. “I am happy to announce that, by order of the Ruling Council of Governors of the Nakai-Ursini Alliance, you have been granted the rank of Senior Master Sergeant in the Fleet.” And with that, she put two small, golden discs on his shoulders. “Now, land this city, Sergeant.”

“You heard the lady.” Vale said. “Sarge.”

“Yes, sir.”

T’Zalo took his seat and set to landing the city. Vale smiled and watched as they approached the planet. The integration of his crew has just begun in earnest. But for now, they had other things to worry about.

(Colony Eighty-Two – Control Room – 25 August 2017, 1605)

The control room of this colony was different from the one back on Colony One. There was no Control Chair and the Flight Control console was much simpler. This was because she only had to fly on auto-pilot during the mission. The control room also housed a Pegasus Model Stargate. This was the Gate the other colonies had used to evacuate to the Hope Galaxy. At the moment, the people of Colony One were moving through it. The Gate was powered by the last ZPM and all the power city-ships could muster. Colony One and Colony Eighty-Two were wired in the old-fashioned way, while the city-ships in orbit transmitted power down. Hailey, Grogan and Colson were overseeing the evacuation.

“Is this the last group ?” Vale said.

“Yes, sir.” Grogan said. “We’re the only ones left.”

The last colonists stepped through the Gate. Five seconds later, they received a signal from the other side. Which indicated that everybody had made it. Colson cut the power and the Gate disengaged. Vale turned and gestured towards the door. The four of them made their way to a room they were using as a staging area. (It had been a mess hall before they had commandeered it, so it was big.) Despite taking as much as they could, they had lost a lot of gear when they had evacuated Nova Roma. But then they had picked up some stuff in the Hope Galaxy. And now, the Expedition was taking what they could from Colony Eighty-Two. So they were actually pretty well supplied and stocked.

“I still think it’s weird.” Grogan said.

“It makes sense to me.” Colson said. “What ? We’re one crew now.”

The Expedition now consisted of 49 Humans – or Tau’ri, as the aliens members had begun calling them – 10 Nakai, 17 New Asurans and 14 Ursini. But it was a little bit harder to tell them apart now. Because it had been decided that everybody would now wear the Icarus Base uniform. Well, sort of. The only difference was that the Icarus Base patch had been replaced by a Nova Roma Patch. The patch was a blue circle with a silver sword.

Around this was a red border with black letters. The bottom half had the person’s name and rank. In case of the civilians, the rank was replaced by either the title or position. The top half said: Nova Roma Expedition – Earth / Hope Galaxy Alliance. Making the uniforms for the Ursini and Nakai had not been easy. (The sizes had to altered.) But they had succeeded.

The room was a beehive of activity and making oneself heard would not be easy. So Vale put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

“Okay, people, I know it’s been a long and difficult road….” He began. “….and I know that we’re not there yet. But this is it. The colonies are empty. The autopilots have been programmed. The ZPMs have been planted by the defense ships assigned to this colony….” This had happened while they had still been on-route. “And we are about try and dial Spera.” If the Gate failed to connect, they would join the others in the Hope Galaxy and dial back to Earth from there. “You all know what it means if you board that ship. And the price that this Expedition might ask of its members. So I am giving you all one last to withdraw your anticipation…”

This was the point of no return. Once you were on that ship, your chances of seeing home – your friends, your family – ever again were slim. And everybody knew it. So he was giving them the option to change their minds.  But all he got in reply was silence. So he nodded. ~Make or break time.~

“…okay, let’s do this.”

The Expedition Team, eighty strong, began moving into the Control Room. Hailey went to the Flight Control console and typed in a code. There was a beep as the computer acknowledged the command and a countdown began. In one hour, the autopilot would engage and fly both Colony One and Colony Eighty-Two in orbit, where they would join the other ships. And five minutes after that, the Fleet would leave for Galaxy Destiny Two to do their part against the Berserker Drones. Next, she keyed in another code and waited. There was another beep and another countdown started. This one began at fifteen minutes. When it hit zero, the first ZPM would overload. The rest would detonate at one minute intervals after that. Finally, she moved over to the Engineering console. She put several commands and there was a beep. That done, she turned to Vale.

“Countdowns engaged, sir.” Hailey began. “Override program activate.”

“Good.” Vale said.

Vale walked to the DHD and began dialing. As he did so, Porter used a remote to line up a MALP. They had cobbled it together from parts they had found around Colony One. The final chevron locked and the wormhole formed. He nodded to Porter, who then drove the MALP through. One of the consoles lit up with readings and a video feed from a camera on the MALP. Aranov looked at the readings.

“The air reads as breathable and pressure is stable. I can’t see any hull breaches on the video feed.” He hit some keys. “I recommend we check the air scrubbers as soon as we get there though. And power is low, so we’ll have to address that as well.”

“Radiation levels ?”

“Minimal.” Aranov said. “We have a go.”

Vale nodded and stepped through the Gate. The MALP was right next to the Stargate. He took a spare remote from the MALP and drove it towards the hull. This remote had a small screen, so that he could it use to inspect the hull closer. As he did so – confirming Aranov’s initial assessment – the rest of the team came through the Gate. Finally, the Puddle Jumpers came through. Then the wormhole disengaged. And after all that had happened, they were on their way to Destiny at last.

END OF SEASON 1 – TO BE CONTINUED….

Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter 15

15 – Close call

(Colony One – Control Room – 19 January 2017, 0910)

Three weeks ago, this room had been a warehouse. Now it was a multiple level control room. The place was a mixture of Wraith, New Asuran, Ursini, Nakai and Tau’ri technology. Wraith Hives were grown by injecting a host with a pathogen. In order to make this work, said pathogen had been adjusted. It was something that they would have never been able to pull off without the New Asurans, who had done ninety percent of the work. They had combined the pathogen with a specially developed host that the crew had begun calling Rabbit Seeds.

The first stage had taken two weeks to grow and had been really small. But after that, they had added the ZPMs to the mix. The growth had then gone through the roof. It had taken six days to finish the growth. They had spent the last couple of hours running diagnostics, with the plan being to take off at 1200. Overseeing all these preparations was Hailey’s job. She was being helped by Porter, Colson and Bennett. Aranov walked in and whistled.

“Impressive.”

“You look exhausted.” Porter said.

“I am.” He leaned on one of the consoles. “I have been working overtime getting to know the Ursini and the Nakai. The New Asurans provided us with a translator, but their files on the culture of these two races were minimal. I have a lot of catching up to do.”

“So, what are they like ?” Bennett asked.

“Friendly. Very alien, but friendly.” Aranov said. “So, they drafted you into this as well, doctor ?”

“Well, Wraith technology is organic. It made sense.” Bennett began. “Besides, the city has a medical facility with plenty of staff. They can spare me. A couple more diagnostics and we should be….” His sentence was cut off by an alarm. “Okay, that does not sound good.”

“It’s the Fleet. They’re at the edge of long-range sensors.” Colson said. “At their current speed, we have six minutes before they reach us.” The screen in front of Colson showed a starfield with a lot of red dots, which represented the Nakai ships. Colson figured that there were at least twenty motherships. “And there are a lot of them.”

“Skip the rest of the diagnostics.” Hailey said. “We’re taking off now. Nikita, take a seat and power up that console.”

Aranov sat down and activated his console, which turned out to be the weapons station. The dome had come with several particle weapons to come being with. And the growth had included four upgraded Wraith guns. Finally, the New Asurans had send along sixty Ancient drones and the supplies to create a makeshift Control Chair. The chair was sitting on a small level above the area where Hailey and company were manning the consoles.

“Diagnostics have been skipped.” Colson said. “Sounding Action Stations now.” An alarm began blaring, but Colson quickly turned it off. “Starting take-off sequence.”

“Let me guess, the bad guys showed up early.” Vale said as he bolted into the room.

“Yeah.” Hailey said. “I know it’s a cliché, but what can you do ? We’re charging the weapons and the hyperdrive now.”

“How long until we can jump ?”

“Eleven minutes.” Porter said. “But the Nakai can open fire in five. The good news is that we should be able to return the favor. The bad news that if they score one hit to the hyperdrive, we’ll be target practice for them.”

“What about the sub-lights ?” Vale said.

“Two minutes and counting down.” Porter said.

“Good.” Vale said as he ran up the stair to the control chair. “Let’s see how much they like it if we give them a run for their money.”

“You do realize that of all the people here, you put an archeologist behind the weapons !?” Aranov said. “That’s like putting a counselor behind the helm.”

“Nikita, shut up and shoot !” Hailey said.

Vale sat down in the Control Chair and activated it. He brought up a display with the sublight systems. As the minutes ticked away, all the indicators turned green. After the last did so, he fired up all the sublight drives at full power. The city rattled and everybody grabbed hold of something. At this point, all the stations in the control room where manned. And not only by Humans. The crew was a mix of all three races. The Nakai were only one minute away when the city cleared the atmosphere. Vale took the city away from the planet.

“Thirty seconds to weapons range.” Porter said.

“Weapons charged to full.” Aranov said, which was followed by a beep. “They’re in range of the drones.”

Vale fired a wave of drones. It took out two of the Nakai motherships before they could launch their fighters. As they exploded, there was another beep, indicating that the ships were now in range of the rest of the weapons. Aranov opened fire with all the weapons the city had. It took out another mothership. But then the Nakai returned fire. And then they launched their fighters.

“Shields down ten percent !” Colson said. “Five minutes until we can go to hyperspace.”

Vale knew that there was no way they could win a straight up slugging match with the Fleet. There were simply to many of them. But he had a plan. The system only had two planets, but it had plenty of asteroids. They were located in a belt between the planets. Despite what many science fiction movies claimed, there were huge holes between the asteroids. And normally, you would not even notice that you were passing through one. But Vale not heading there to play cat-and-mouse.

“Incoming fighters !” Porter said.

“I see them !” Aranov said.

He fired the weapons again, while Vale unleashed another wave of drones. Six of the incoming fighters went up and Aranov took out another eight. But there were still plenty of them coming. Suddenly – however – there was another wave of fire. Ironically, the colony had two ships to defend itself from attackers. Vale had ordered them to hide themselves behind one of the asteroids. He had drawn the Fleet to the belt so that they could join the fight. (If they had been in orbit when the fleet arrived, they would have been blasted to piece by the first salvo.) Besides the Nakai ships, there were also six Ursini ships.

The Home Space Fleet tried to fire at the friendly Nakai ships, but hit the asteroid instead. Which was why Vale had ordered them to hide there. The Colonist ships threw their fighters at the enemy ships. Said fighters made kamikaze runs at the enemy. What the enemy did not know, but Vale did, was that the ships were on autopilot. The fighters took out dozens of their Home Space counterparts and one of the motherships. They were followed by the Ursini ships, which were also on autopilot. The Ursini – or well, their ships – managed to take out two more ships. But the fighters kept coming.

“Shields down to seventy-two percent !” Colson said.

“I can’t shoot them all down !” Aranov said.

Vale unleashed all the remaining drones, taking out a whole bundle of fighters. He ran down the stairs and made his way towards one of the consoles against the outer wall of the room. It was being manned by an Ursini called T’Zalo. (That was not his real name, but translating Ursini and Nakai names was practically impossible. And they understood that.)

“T’Zalo, engage the teleporter !”

“Yes, sir.”

The two friendly ships were carrying skeleton crews. It had come as a surprise that the Ursini had teleporters, but Vale had not complained. As soon as the two ships were empty, their self-destructs systems triggered. The explosions did not do any damage, but they did send out two massive waves of electro-magnetic energy. Any fighter touched by those waves lost power. Aranov made quick work of them.

“Time !?” Vale said.

“Two minutes.” Hailey said.

The Home Space Fleet fired again. With the Control Chair off-line, the job of flying the city had fallen to Hailey. She managed to dodge some of the incoming fire. But plenty of the enemy shots still hit.

“Shields down to fifty-five percent power !” Colson said. “They’re targeting….”

Before he could finish his sentence, a fleet of alien spaceships dropped out hyperspace. They were unlike any ships they had ever seen before. The ships were oval shape and roughly the same size at a Goa’uld Ha’tak-class mothership. Aranov counted eight of them. They opened fire on the Home Space Fleet, while forming a barrier between them and the city-ship.

“Didn’t this happen last time ?” Porter said. “Aliens riding to the rescue ?”

“Who cares ?” Vale said. “Hailey, get us out of here !”

Aranov maintained fire, taking out more fighters and putting a couple of holes in one the motherships. At the same time, the newcomers were also putting down heavy fire. They took out fighters and destroyed four motherships. Then they jumped into hyperspace. The Home Space Fleet moved towards the city-ship, but it was already to late. A beep announced that their time was up.

“Hyperdrive is ready.” Colson said.

“Go !” Vale said. “Jump this puppy.”

The city-ship opened a hyperspace window and entered it. Two of the Nakai ships tried to follow, but the city-ship was many times faster. It quickly pulled out of their sensor range. The moment they did, Hailey dropped the city out of hyperspace. She used the thrusters to turn it and then took it back into hyperspace.

“So, what just happened ?” Vale said.

“I think I have part of the answer.” Aranov said. “Look at this…” He brought an image of one of the alien ships up on his screen. Then he zoomed in on a section of the hull. It showed alien writing. “…that is the same writing we found on the desert moon. And this…” He pointed to a larger symbol. “….appears to be some kind of logo.”

“That is the Seal of the Jynacko Empire.” T’Zalo said.

“You’ve heard of this race ?” Vale said. “And you did not say ?”

“Nobody asked, so I presumed you knew.” T’Zalo said. “Sorry. Neither we or the Nakai Colonists know much about them. We do know that they rule about a quarter of the galaxy containing Home Space, which is the rest of the galaxy. Relations between the Nakai and the Jynacko are tense. The Nakai have superior numbers, but the Jynacko have better technology. And thus there is a balance.”

“Preventing open warfare.” Porter said.

“But out here, where the ships cannot easily report back, they can strike.” Vale said. “And when the ships fail to return, who will get the blame ?...We. It serves the Empire’s purposes if the Home Space Nakai lose this…war of attrition.” Vale scratched his face. “Because if the Nakai lose, they will have to spend resources on resettling those worlds. Thus reducing the Nakai’s numbers.”

“It is believed by some of the Colonists that the reason the Nakai are obsessed with the Destroyer, is the Empire.” T’Zalo said. “They want the secrets and knowledge of the Des…tiny so that they can advance their technology and wipe out the Empire.”

Vale leaned against one of the consoles. One of the things had learned after coming out of stasis, was how to play chess. He and Colson had played many a game during his time at the Beta Site. And so had he and Hailey. While he and Aranov had played lots of checkers and poker. Finally, his father had taught him a lot of games as well. And that was not even counting his official strategic training. He had a feeling that he would need all of that knowledge for them to survive this game.

(Colony One – Control Room – 19 January 2017, 1200)

Things had calmed down and the control room was running on a skeleton crew. In the central area, that was just Colson and T’Zalo. Before he had found out about the Stargate program, Colson had considered aliens the thing of science fiction. But now, here he was. Having gone from business man and engineer to crewmember on alien starship. Which was on its way to rescue a group of people who were stranded on another alien starship. And he was crewing it along with an alien to boot.

When they had arrived, he had thought that the plan would be really complicated. Fortunately, they had quickly learned that the colonies were not just domes, they were enclosed modules. It turned out that the Nakai had designed these colonies so that they could be moved. But the domes were not fitted with engines. They needed to be towed by a mothership. The modules were also not airtight. But the refit had taken care of all that. He leaned on the console and sighed.

“What is bothering you, Mister Colson ?” T’Zalo said.

“I am thinking about this mission.” Colson began. “And how it has already changed the universe.”

“Doctor Aranov told me about Destiny and its mission. And what it is about.” T’Zalo sat next to Colson. “How decoding the message she is chasing would change the universe. But I think you are right. Thinking it works like that is short-sighted. The mission itself is changing existence already. It has saved us from the Home Space Nakai.”

“What did you do before we came ?”

“Me ?” T’Zalo looked at him. “I was an engineer. My grandfather was on the team that created our Gate remote. It is a big, heavy machine. So we put together a team to invent an improved version. I got lucky and was made team leader. Is it true that you are an engineer as well ?”

“Yes.” Colson said. “What happened to that project ?”

“It was put on hold when we found out about the Nakai threat.”

“Well, we have several months to pass.” Colson said. “And we have technology from five races to work with. How would you feel about asking permission to get back to work ?”

“I think that is an excellent idea.”

Colson and T’Zalo continued to talk, with neither of them being aware that Vale was watching them. Vale was well aware that their trip would be long. The hyperdrive they had grown was not as efficient as the Ancient hyperdrive that had driven Nova Roma. It would take them roughly seven months to reach Colony Eighty-Two. And in that time, they would have to share the city with the Nakai and the Ursini. Colson and T’Zalo were not the only ones developing…contact. Aranov was talking to plenty of the locals. And Hailey and Porter were often seen together with alien scientists. By the time they arrived at the planet, the Expedition would be integrated into the society of the city.

“Saying goodbye will not be easy.” A female voice said.

Vale turned to see Governor Carossa standing behind him. Carossa was a female Nakai, who was the leader of Colony One. After Yorick had explained about the threat they were facing, she had given Vale command of all the military personnel in the city. (Meaning Human, Ursini and Nakai.) The colonel had taken an instant liking to the Governor. She was not the kind to pull punches.

“Yeah, I was thinking about that.” Vale said. “And the fact that we are short on personnel.” He paused. “There forty-nine of us now. Let’s presume that we managed to rescue Colonel Telford’s team and get twelve people from Earth. That’s twenty-seven people. So, best case scenario, we have seventy-six people.”

“Why do I have a feeling there is more to it ?”

“Who are we to take Destiny for ourselves ? What give us the right to monopolize that ship ?” He paused. “Rush said that we can make things better if we finish Destiny’s mission. But who decides what is better ? Who are we to play God ?” He looked at Carossa. “I have studied enough of history to know that it never ends well.”

“I am surprise to hear you be so philosophical. From what Nikita told me, the Roman Empire expected its soldiers to follow orders without question.”

“The Roman Empire was not born to my mother.” Vale said. “She drilled a lot of things into her children. Some that father did not agree with. But she refused to yield and did it anyway. No matter how much father yelled at her.”

“I like her.” She paused. “And you are right to ask these questions. Perhaps the power of Destiny is too much for one race to handle. The fact that you have the wisdom to ask these questions give me hope. But what of your superiors ? From what Nikita said, neither the military or the civilians have much faith in this….IOA ?”

Vale nodded. “Yeah, I am going to have to ask some serious questions and have some serious conversations. But first I have to do some thinking about who to direct those questions and conversations to. I’ll be in my room.”

Vale walked away, leaving Carossa to watch T’Zalo and Colson. She was no expert on Earth politics, but she knew that some things were…universal. And she had a feeling that Vale’s superiors would not like his questions.

Stargate Nova Roma - Chapter 14

14 – A Crazy Plan

(Planet 7 – Warehouse – 25 November 2016, 1412)

Jennifer Hailey sighed and looked at her laptop. She had been trying – for a couple of days now – to rewrite the program they had been planning to use to dial into Destiny. She had named it Destiny Alpha One. Her intention was reprogram DA-1. Instead of making Destiny believe their Gate was on Earth, they had to make the system believe that Destiny had been destroyed. Once they did that, they should be able to dial the ninth chevron and end up aboard the Spera instead. At least, that was the theory. The practice – however - was turning out to be a major pain in the neck.

“Any luck ?” Colson said.

She was sitting in the same room where the whole group had waited for the sixteenth. With a little help from the Asurans, they had converted the place into a major lab. They had also tied it into the DSI Facility. The Senate had not been happy when they had found out about it, but the people had supported Yorick. And so did the New Asuran Fleet. So there was nothing they could do about the new direction the New Asurans were taking. Not without getting lynched, that was.

“No.” Hailey said. “And we need this program to make it aboard Spera.”

The New Asurans had the Gate addresses of all 82 Colonist-Ursini worlds and had done the math on how much power it would take to dial from them to the Hope Galaxy. But even if they made it to the colonist world that was the closest to Spera, they would need the override for the final hop. And that brought up another problem. They needed a power source to do their leapfrogging between the colonies. But the Destiny model Stargates could not handle the output from a ZPM. So they needed another power source to make this work.

“Yeah.” He handed Hailey a cup of coffee. “The New Asurans are struggling with the power source as well.”

“Got any ideas ?” She smiled. “Don’t let this go to your head, but you are the best engineer we have.”

“At the moment, I’m also the only engineer we have. But thanks.” He gestured towards the laptop. “May I have a look ?”

 “Go for it.”

Hailey turned the laptop around and Colson sat down at the table. He had barely begun when Aranov came in. The archeologist looked exhausted. He had spent the later couple of days at the DSI Facility, digging through the telemetry archives. His intention had been to find more information about the race that had inhabited the moon they had explored with New Asurans. Alas, it was like trying to find a needle in a massive haystack.

“Well, looks like we’re not the only ones having trouble.”

“I can’t find anything about whoever lived on that moon.” Aranov said as he grabbed a chair and joined them at the table. “I was hoping to find something useful about these aliens. But there is nothing.”

“I know how you feel.” Colson said. “The power source research is not going well either. It’s not like power sources grow on trees.”

“Grow….” Aranov said. “That’s it…..Wraith tech. We use Wraith tech.” Colson and Hailey looked at him as if he had grown a second head. “Punch up the schematics of one the colonies.”

“Okay.” Colson worked the laptop a bit, then turned it so that Hailey and Aranov could see. “What’s the plan ?”

“Now, the Nakai were kinda cheap when they build these outposts. They didn’t bother to terraform any of these planets. Nor did they give the colonists the technology to terraform the planets themselves. So all these places are towns inside domes.” He paused. “We grow a shell around the dome, making sure it is airtight. Then all we have to do, is add a Hyperdrive. And we have a flying city.”

“Let’s presume that works.” Hailey said. “We can’t fly those cities through Nakai Home Space without them being destroyed or suffering major damage.”

“Can’t we ? Atlantis once encountered a Wraith Hive upgraded with one ZPM and it was a monster. With more than one and little help from the New Asurans, we could grow what we need in record time.” Aranov said.

“And then what ? Wipe out the Home Space Nakai with a fleet of 82 city ships ?” Colson said. “How does that make us any better than the Nakai ?”

“No.” Aranov opened the map with the locations of the Colonist worlds. “We know that the Berserker drones are native to the second galaxy Destiny travelled through with our people aboard. Hence, Destiny Galaxy Two. But the last outpost on the list is in Destiny Galaxy One. Now, we know that replacing a Destiny model Gate with a Pegasus model Gate and then getting it to work with the rest of network is a major pain. That’s why replacing 82 Stargates is not a viable option. But if we can get all of them to one place….”

“We’d only have to replace one Gate.” Colson said. “And if we tie together all the power of the city-ships, they’d have more than enough power to dial back here. Not to mention we’d have a chance to permanently break the chain.”

“Break the chain ?” Hailey said.

“Even if we empty these planets, the Nakai will simply resettle them. That will slow down their progress, but it won’t stop their chase of Destiny. Once all the Colonists and Ursini are relocated to the Hope Galaxy, we use the ZPMs from the city-ships to destroy as many planets as we can in Destiny Galaxy One.” Colson paused. “A ZPM on overload will destroy a whole solar system. And we would have 246 of them, allowing us to create a void. There would be no place to build a replacement settlement. The supply chain would be broken.”

“As I see it, there are two problems with this plan.” Aranov said. “One, Spera would probably have to cross this void itself. And two, this plan does not deal with the berserker drones. Remember, we have to cross Destiny Galaxy Two as well.”

“We don’t need the city-ships themselves to create the void.” Grogan said. He had walked in while they had been talking and had overheard the conversation after the mention of Wraith technology. “Just the ZPMs. We can use the city ships against the berserker ships. Gather them all in one solar system and they will make too tempting a target for the drones to ignore. And even without ZPMs, those ships should have enough firepower to make them call in all of their ships. So we leave one ZPM in place, lure them in and then…BOOM ! No more berserker drones to worry about.”

“And who do we get the crews off the ships before our trap closes ?” Hailey said.

“Who says we need crews ?” Colson said. “We could automate the ships before we set the trap.”

“So….” Aranov began. “…now that we have a plan, who is going to tell the Colonel ?”

This left them all looking at each other in uncomfortable silence.

(Stargate Command – Briefing Room – 25 November 2016, 1930)

The official IOA representatives had tried to push Anders and company out. Now that things were slowly coming together, they wanted to step in and claim the glory. But President Mackenzie was not going to let that fly. And he was not the only one to object. So when the President walked into the briefing room, the original team was there. They were accompanied by Landry, O’Neill and Richard Woolsey. Mackenzie gave them a nod and sat down.

“Okay, we all know what we are here for and we all know the plan that Colonel Vale’s crew has put forward.” He paused. “So, thoughts ?”

“Well, for the record.” O’Neill said. “This has to be craziest plan we have ever had. Because we don’t have enough people to make this plan fly.” There was moans at that unintended pun. “Which means that we’re going to have to trust REP-LI-CAT-ORS to make this work.”

“There’s that.” Grankin said. “But they did sort of do this whole unofficial coup d’état against the Senate. Just keep our people there.”

“And are we really going to sit on our hands and let millions of people die ?” Valluy added. “Besides, we are millions of lightyears away. It’s not like we can stop them by saying no. Would you accept no if you were out there ?”

There was a moment of silence, which Mackenzie broke. “So….” He said. “…we are doing this. But if we pull this off, we’re going to need a long term game plan. Can we use the Beta Site to dial Spera and establish a supply line ?”

“No.” Anders said. “Major Hailey is working to override the normal ninth chevron dial-in sequence. But her program will only work once. After that, the safety protocols will adapt and lock it out.” She bit his lower lip. “And the New Asuran version will have the same problem, but…”

Han took over. “….if we can make a deal with New Asurans and get them to send their program to us, we can dial Spera once. Based on how the power source held up the first time, we should be able to send twelve people. Which is enough to send a six member medical team and send six new security personnel.”

“You do realize we’d actually have to give them something ?” O’Neill said.

“I understand your objections, General.” Mackenzie said. “But our alliance with the New Asuran is a fact accompli. And like Mister Valluy pointed out, saying no is not really an option. So, what could we give them ?”

“Seeds and animals.” Woolsey said, making everybody look at him. “According to the reports, the ecosystems on the New Asuran planets are rather simple. We could give them the means to do something about that.”

“Yeah, I don’t get that.” O’Neill said. “The Asurans do not need food or air, so why bother with the whole terraforming thing ?”

“True, but the Nakai and Ursini do.” Han said. “And remember, they want to emulate the Ancients. So terraforming the planets make sense to them. They probably see the whole thing as a science experiment. And their grand goal is probably to ascend. Which means that their cities would be left behind….”

“….and whoever resettles the cities would probably need air.” Mackenzie said. “General Landry ? Your thoughts ?”

“I agree with Jack.” Landry began. “This is a crazy plan. But as crazy as this plan is, it’s nowhere near as crazy as leaving Colonel Telford team and Young’s crew behind.”

Mackenzie nodded and leaned back. He thought that the General’s assessment was right on the money. And like he had told O’Neill, their alliance with the New Asurans was a fact accompli. So the rest of the IOA could yell and scream until they were blue in the face, but this plan was happening.

(Planet 7 – Field – 29 December 2016, 0807)

It had taken several weeks to set up the plan, which they had codenamed Operation Big Move. They had wanted more time to plan the whole thing, but the New Asurans had learned that the Home Space Nakai were launching their attack today. It would take the assault fleet three weeks to reach the first planet. The New Asurans were still gathering their crews, but the Nova Roma Expedition was ready to go. If they could get the first city moving, the Home Space Fleet would have to travel to the next target. That trip would give the New Asurans time to finish getting their crews together.

At the moment, however, the Expedition team was gathered on the field with the Stargate. The Puddle Jumpers and the supplies had already been send ahead by the New Asurans. And that was not the only thing. They had managed to heal Hetty McConnell’s leg and then brought Xander Henderson out of his coma. It had taken Henderson time to get back into shape, but now he was back at work. The only people who were not around, were the three shell shocked Expedition members.

Despite objections from several IOA officials, the alliance between Earth and the New Asurans was now official. The New Asuran Treaty had been signed three days ago. As part of the Treaty, it had been decided to send the shell shocked members back to Earth. Beyond this, they had also managed to make the deal for the New Asuran dial-in program. The program had already been send back to Atlantis, who had then send it back to Earth. Getting the seeds and animals to the New Asurans, however, was a bit more complicated.

The New Asurans would get nineteen military backpacks full of seeds, insects and blood samples of larger species. (There were eighteen New Asuran worlds now. But once the Nakai and Ursini arrived, they intended to colonize and terraform a new planet. Hence, they had asked for nineteen packs.) Using the Beta Site power source to dial the Hope Galaxy had required a major recalibration. Finally, Earth had wanted to establish an outpost in New Asuran space and use it to establish a supply line and serve as a fallback point. Officially, the New Asurans had refused this. But off-the-record, President Mackenzie suspected that they wanted to know the condition of Spera first. Then they would attempt to renegotiate the outpost.

But to Vale, that could wait. Right now, he had a colony to safe. And he had received a wave of reinforcements. The military backpacks had been carried by nineteen new expedition members. Seven of them had been the new medical team, which consisted of six nurses and one doctor, who was the team leader. Doctor Alexander Bennett had been on staff at Stargate Command for several years. There, he had gotten pretty good at reattaching severed limbs. Then – three years ago – he had been promoted to Chief Medical Officer at the Gamma Site. General O’Neill had handpicked him for the mission.

The next six members of the reinforcements had been security personnel. With their arrival, both Teldy and Grogan had a security team under their command again. Completing the reinforcements were six scientists. Added to survivors of the original Expedition, this meant that there were now forty-nine people in the team. Vale was in the front, with Bennett next to him. Bennett was a Caucasian Brit, with green eyes and short red hair.

“Nervous, doc ?” Vale said.

“A bit.” Bennett began. “I only went off-world three times. Once at the SGC and twice at the Gamma Site. And now I’m hopping galaxies.”

“I know it’s a huge change, doc. But if we thought you couldn’t handle it, you wouldn’t be here.” Vale said, getting him a nod from Alex. It was at this point that Henderson joined them. “How are you doing, Corporal ?”

“Good, sir.” Henderson said. “But being the boss is a bit odd.”

“Yeah, I know how that feels.” Henderson was another Brit. But he was of African descent, with brown eyes and short black hair. He had succeeded Victor Leyton as Chief of Maintenance. “Are we ready to dial ?”

“Yes, sir. The ZPM is plugged in and we have the address. So, just give the word.”

“Do it.”

Henderson nodded and walked to the Dial Home Device. While the corporal dialed, Vale looked at his crew. They were good people and he was proud to be their commanding officer. He was kept from further pondering by the Gate connecting. So he turned back to the Gate. As he approached it, he realized that this was a leap of faith. But sometimes that was part of the job as well. So he took a deep breath and stepped through.