SG Nova Roma, Chapter 3.13

13 – Aftermath

(Slave Dump – Doorway Base, Gate Room – Day 176, 1635)

Colonel Everett Young was standing on a ramp and overlooking organized chaos. After his stasis chamber had opened, he had been surprised to see David Telford standing outside. Telford had told him that they needed to evacuate Destiny. The ship’s Artificial Intelligence had apparently suffered some kind of psychotic break, turning the Ancient vessel into a death trap. At the same time, Destiny was facing an invasion by a hostile force and her FTL drive was not working. The depth of their trouble had become clear when several soldiers had attacked the area with the Stasis Chambers.

While Young had believed Telford, Doctor Nicholas Rush had not. Rush and Telford had history. The two of them had gotten into an argument, which had ended when Rush had been shot with a tranquilizer dart. After that, the military personnel had engaged the hostiles, while the civilians were evacuated through the Stargate. Now, both Destiny’s crew and Telford’s group were in a Gate Room. The only exception was Rush, who was still out cold and being carried away by two soldiers.

In the middle of the room, somebody was giving instructions and keeping things going. Young made his way down the ramp and recognized the officer as Laura Cadman. The collar of her uniform indicated that she was a Captain.

“Captain.”

“Colonel,” She said with a nod.

“So, where the hell are we ?”

“Slave Dump,” Cadman began. “It’s an friendly alien world.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe that ?”

“No,” A female voice said. It belonged to one of the aliens that had kidnapped Chloe Armstrong. Young readied his weapon, but did not fire. ~ How can I understand her ?~ “It’s my job to convince you. Especially after what the Central Authority did to Miss Armstrong,” She paused. “So, you’re going to shoot me or what ?”

“Okay.” He lowered his weapon. “But this had better be good.”

The alien nodded and led him out of the Gate Room.

(Spera – Bridge – Day 176, 1650)

Spera was parked at the very edge of the capital city, so it had taken Cinara a while to get there. She had entered the ship through the hatch that was normally used to deploy the communications relay and made her way up. ~It’s odd seeing her like this.~ The ship was largely powered down. She was also nearly empty, because the bulk of the crew was enjoying some down time on D-7. Nevertheless, there was an argument taking place on the bridge. Jennifer Hailey was standing at one of the Engineering consoles, while Major Levine was berating Colonel Vale.

“You lost Destiny !” Levine was saying.

“Did I miss something ?” Cinara said to Hailey.

“This is General O’Neill,” Hailey whispered. “He’s our commanding officer.”

“Ah, he’s using the Ancient body switch-a-roo thingies,” She paused. “What ? Nikita told me about them.” ~And he probably didn’t ask permission either.~ Levine-slash-O’Neill hadn’t noticed their little conversation and was still berating Colonel Vale.

“And you decided to tell me this little detail AFTER the assault !?”

“Well, I figured that you might not approve the mission if I told you,” Vale began. “And I’m kind of allergic to getting shot.”

“Oh, really ?” O’Neill said, while making a face.

“Are all your generals like this ?” Cinara asked.

“No, General O’Neill is one of a kind.” Hailey said.

“Glad to hear that, otherwise Earth wouldn’t have any armed forces left.” ~If he goes around shooting his own people.~

“And what exactly are you going to do now ?” O’Neill was saying. “Considering that you lost Destiny and stranded her crew on an alien planet ! Not to mention the little hiccup of Spera being pinned down on D-7.”

“Actually,” Cinara said as she stepped forward. ~Time to rescue the Colonel.~ He had, after all, rescued her from the Senate by allowing her to stay aboard. “the Colonel asked me to come here so that we discuss that.”

“And you are ?”

“Princess Cinara, heir to the throne of the Xivolo Empire. So, I know a thing or two about local space,” She paused. “The Royal Family and the Senate don’t really like one another. It’s a long story.”

“Ah,” O’Neill began. “So, what have you got ?”

Cinara was afraid that her rescue was about to blow up in her face. But then a fact popped into her head. So she nodded and began explaining about the Police Impound Lot and how it was filled with illegal goods from all over the cluster. Including, if they got lucky, a confiscated cloaking device or two…

(Slave Dump – Corridor – Day 176, 1830)

Gy’Has had finished bringing Colonel Young up to speed on as much as she could. And the Colonel was not very happy about their current situation. ~I can’t say I blame him.~ Had things been the other way around, she would have been furious with Telford. ~And there’s the issue of Destiny’s mission.~ A message carved into the fabric of the universe itself, who knows what that could mean ? For security reason, that piece of information was only known to the Slave Dump Senate. So she had not discussed that with him yet.

“So, you’re saying that we’re stranded on a world that will become uninhabitable in three years ?” Young said.

“Yes,” Gy’Has said. “But now that the Door….I mean, Stargate is working, we have options we did not have before.”

“Any other good news ?”

“We shot Rush. Speaking of which….” They reached City’s main clinic. “…I think should be awake by now.”

They entered the main clinic and found that Rush was indeed awake. And he was even more unhappy then Young. ~It’s a good thing that Major Hailey briefed me on some of the people before the raid.~

“You had no right to take us off that ship !”

“We had every right to take you off that ship,” Gy’Has said. “General O’Neill authorized the mission. And even if he had not, we still would have taken you. Our first priority was the safety of the people on that ship.” The last bit of her statement made Young smile for some reason.

“You have no idea what that ships means !”

“Yes, we do. Colonel Telford briefed us on the message in the Cosmic Background Radiation,” Gy’Has said. “And it still wasn’t worth it. Staying on Destiny would have been a death sentence. Where would your precious mission have been then ? If you were all dead ? Well…”

Rush gave her a frustrated look, but said nothing. Before the conversation could continue, there was an announcement over the city’s Public Announcement system. It said that she and Colonel Young were needed at the Doorway Base. So they headed out. Rush hopped off his bed and followed them.

(Slave Dump – Doorway Base, Gate Room – Day 176, 1845)

The Gate Room was nearly empty. Destiny’s former crew was settling into quarters in the capital. They were basic, but there were enough of them for everybody. And when Colonel Young and Gy’Has entered the Gate Room, there were only two people there….Captain Cadman and Lieutenant Matthew Scott.

“Sir,” Scott began. “there’s been a development.”

“We intercepted a distress call from Destiny.” Cadman said.

Cadman led the way into the Computer Room and activated the computer. She hit several keys and one of the screen came to life. It showed a human in a uniform that looked like it was from the forties. Based on what he could see in the behind the man, Young figured that the distress call was coming from the Control Interface Room. It was hard to make out what the man was saying, because there was gunfire in the background. 

=/\=This is Lieutenant Patterson of the Vicerant…=/\= The signal was interrupted, causing the image to go to static. =/\=….Destiny has entered obsessed mode. All the controls are dead, the bridge is off…=/\= The picture went to static again. =/\= We have tried dialing the Stargate, to no avail…=/\= Loud gunfire swallowed some of what the man was saying. =/\= The troops have begun turning on one another. We don’t have enough supplies. And the stasis chambers…=/\= The transmission ended.

“Well, that settles that then.” Rush said.

The room lapsed into silence. They had lost Destiny and they all knew it.

SG Nova Roma, Chapter 3.12

12 – Déjà vu

(Destiny – Gate Room – Day 176, 1602)

Watson had followed Telford through the Stargate. As she made her way into the Gate Room, she flashed back to when they had first arrived on board Destiny. Once again, there was gas in the air and people were passed out on the floor. But this time, it was the Vicerant who had been on the receiving end. The grenades had knocked out everybody in the Gate Room and the nearby corridors. ~Those grenades really did the job.~ The rest of the team arrived and Telford gave her a nod.

She turned to her team and gave them hand signal. They headed out. Watson and seven others would see to disabling the AI suppression system, while Telford would take eleven people to get Colonel Young and his crew. Everybody else would stay in the Gate Room and keep it secure. The plan to destroy the system was to assault the bridge. Once it was secure, they would use a pair of batteries to create and power surge that would fry it. The batteries came from the Vicerant Puddle Jumpers and packed quite a punch.

(Mining Planet D-7 – Governor’s Home – Day 176, 1602)

Cinara was sitting on a balcony, overlooking the capital city of D-7. Spera had arrived and landed on the planet. The warships chasing her had gone into orbit, but had not fired. ~Colonel Vale’s gamble paid off.~ They had probably contacted the New Xivolo Prime and asked for new orders. The thought of the trouble that would cause the Senate pleased her to no end. ~They need me to be their figurehead. So they will send in ground forces.~ D-7 had no Royal Army presence, but she was sure there were soldiers on other planets. Thus, it was only a matter of time before they came through the Stargate.

~And what do we do then ?~ Her mind wandered to her grand-father. Yalock had sacrificed himself and her father Axos. ~And his friends, for these people.~ And the bulk of the Palace Guard. ~Was it worth it ?~ Lieutenant-Colonel Vale had allowed her to leave the ship after it had landed. So she had gone to find a place to think about it all. The Governor, an elderly man called Gavis, had offered his office to her. And she had taken him up on this. So here she was.

“Thinking about the future ?” Gavis asked.

“Gavis, was Yalock…,” She sighed. “…was my grandfather a fool ? To make the sacrifices he did ? For people we know nothing about ?”

“I’ve never met your grandfather,” Gavis began. “But I have friends on New Xivolo Prime. And they told me the truth, no propaganda. Your grandfather was no fool. Did you read the text they call ‘Rewritten History’ ?” Claus had used his nanites to make a copy of the book before they had buried the original for General O’Neill.

“Yes,” Cinara looked at Gavis. “I presume you have read it as well ?” He nodded. “Do you believe what it says ?”

“I have lived long enough and asked enough questions to know that it is true.” Gavis had asked plenty of questions when he had been a child. And his grandfather had loved telling stories. He had also learned things in his many years as governor of D-7. Because it was a key planet to the Empire, he had very high security clearance. “And no, your grandfather was not a fool.” He joined her at the railing. “The Inner Senate wanted to prevent the test of Time Travel Device. But doing so would have wiped out the Nakai, Ursini and Jynacko. Not to mention billions of Xivolo. All of them would have died from the disease. It was wrong and it was foolish.” He paused.

“Like you said, we know very little about these….Tau’ri ? What evils have they defeated over the years ? What darkness would eliminating them allow to rise ? There’s more these people then just their influence on this galaxy. And what does that make us, if we go around wiping out entire species ?” Cinara nodded. “Not to mention, the cure we got from Novus….it was used thousands of years ago. But our species has changed since then. We have undergone several genetic mutations in the years between. And I have found no evidence that it was ever tested on modern day Xivolo.”

“They were going to use an *untested* cure on what little remained of our people ?”

“Yes,” Gavis said. “And it gets worse. They want to repeat our greatest mistake. We build slaves out of flesh and blood and abused them. Now, they want to introduce robotic slaves into the Empire. There have dozens of scientists working on this project.” He paused. “As if that cannot go wrong. But there are many things about the mind and the soul that we have yet to discover, your highness. Who knows what could be born out this decision.”

Cinara pondered what he had said and looked at the city. She had a decision to make. ~And whatever path I take, I won’t be easy.~ And a big part of that decision was whatever Colonel Vale decided to do next. So she went to ask him.

(Destiny – Stasis Chambers Area – Day 176, 1618)

Watson and her team had managed to fight their way to the Bridge. They had radioed that they were ready to destroy the suppression system. As they had done that, Telford and his people had been in a running firefight to the armory. From there they had gone to area with the stasis chambers. Telford had just shot the last guard, securing the area. ~Well, at least for now.~

“How many weapons do we have ?” Telford asked.

“Plenty to go around,” Ingram said. “Between the weapons from the Vicerant and what we got from the armory, we can arm everybody from the pods.”

“Start thawing them. If Rush give you any trouble, shoot him.” Telford grabbed his radio. “Watson, have you found anything on Eli ?”

=/\=Nothing so far, Colonel.=/\= Watson said. =/\=We’re still looking.=/\=

“Understood.”

When the crew has gone into stasis, they had been one stasis chamber short. One of the chambers had been damaged. After some discussion, Eli Wallace had decided to stay outside the chambers. The real problem had been that Destiny had been low on power and supplies. And she was about to make a three year trip, skipping a considerable chunk of Galaxy Destiny Two and then making her way across the void to Galaxy Destiny Three. But there was only enough power to keep the life-support going for two more weeks. If Eli kept the life-support going for long then that, Destiny would not make it to her destination.

~But the ship is here.~ And the crew was still alive. So where was Eli ? Had he committed suicide by shutting down the life-support ? Or had he – somehow – managed to fix the damaged stasis chamber ? They had not found any answers during the first assault. So, this time around, they had made it one of their goals. ~Come on, Eli. Don’t let us down now.~

(Destiny – Observation Deck – 2010 / The day the crew went into stasis)

Eli was standing in the observation deck, watching as Destiny flew in FTL. Colonel Young and Rush had just become the last two Expedition members to enter stasis. He had two weeks to fix the damaged stasis chamber. After that… ~Yeah, there’s that.~ He had a few ideas on how to repair the chamber, but the real question was where to begin. ~Well, getting down there would be a good start.~ Eli walked out of the observation deck and headed for the area with the stasis chambers. When he reached the area, he made his way to the control console.

“What the hell ?”

The console was not only on-line, but displayed a message. ~Fixed it. You’d be surprised what you can do with alien nanites and a time machine. And yeah, it’s cheating. But who cares ? Lieutenant-Colonel Marc Vale.~ Eli grinned and began to work the console. He set a time delay and then quickly stepped into the chamber. Two seconds later, the chamber closed and activated.

(Destiny – Stasis Chamber Area – Day 176 / 2 February 2018, 1625)

The first thing Eli saw was the door of the chamber, sliding open. Rush was arguing with Telford, but Eli couldn’t hear what they were saying because of the nearby gunfire. There were also several people there that Eli didn’t know. ~Where did they come from ?~ The argument came to end when one of the newcomers - a sergeant - shot Rush with a tranquilizer dart. Said sergeant then turned to Eli.

“Mister Wallace, I presume ?”

“Oh yeah, that’s me.”

“Welcome to 2018. Now get to the Gate Room, Destiny is about to be overrun by bad guys,” The Sergeant gestured towards the exit. “Go !”

Eli ran from the stasis room. ~2018 ? That’s five years too late.~ But between the look on the Sergeant’s face and the gun battle going in the corridor, he figured that now was not the time to ask. He noticed that Rush was being carried away. And that whoever these people were, they had brought a wheelchair for Doctor Park. Lisa Park had gone blind shortly before they had gone into stasis. She could walk just fine. Fast, however, was another thing. ~These guys knew they would end up in a firefight and would have to move fast.~ When he reached the Gate Room, he found that everybody was being evacuated.

“Well, that explains why Rush was yelling.” He muttered to nobody in particular.

He got the feeling that if they left Destiny now, there was a good chance that they would not be coming back. But before he could object, he was ushered towards the Gate. ~Another evacuation with no idea what is on the other side.~ They had – somehow – come full circle. He gave the Gate Room one last look and then stepped through.

(Destiny – Corridor – Day 176, 1631)

Watson and her team were on their way back to the Gate Room. The Vicerant had larger numbers, but their troops were not as experienced as her team. They had send an electrical surge through the cables that connected the Vicerant control nodes. It had fried the AI suppression system, so Watson figured that Destiny would jump into Faster-Then-Light as soon as the wormhole closed. When they reached the Gate Room, they found that the defense team had been in quite the fight. And it was still going. But – at least, so far - they had held the Gate Room.

Then Telford team’s came around the corner, firing their weapons. She also spotted several people she did not know. ~Looks like they got Colonel Young and his crew out.~ She shot another Vicerant soldier, while retreating into the Gate Room. Telford gave the order for everybody to go through the Gate. ~How did he convince Young to go along with this ?~ Not that it mattered right now. She could figure it out once they were all back on Slave Dump. ~We really need a better name for that planet.~

Everybody began making their way through the Gate, while the military personnel covered the evacuation. Finally, there was nobody left expect her and Telford. She kept shooting as she backed towards the Gate. ~Time to go.~ Watson shot one more soldier and bolted through the puddle. Two seconds later, Telford followed and two seconds after that, the wormhole disengaged. Another five seconds passed and then Destiny jumped into FTL.