Goa'uld Space Station; Hasara System
"I thank you for honoring my request," stated Anuk-sun-amun (Anuk) her seductive voice ringing in Harry's ears.
'I should've vaporized her pretty ass when I had the chance,' groused Harry internally.
"Normally a petition for a seat at this conference would not have been considered. Of course the current situation is far from normal," said Olokun gravely.
"I think you'll find I have much to offer. Shall we proceed?" said Anuk with a smile as Harry served another dose of tea for Yu.
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Anuk's initial petition had lasted for over an hour, and it reminded Harry that she was a cunning negotiator and her seductive presence was clearly being used to full effect to sway the other System Lords. She remained standing and no seat was brought for her, obviously due to practical considerations for her body paint and to keep her figure in prominent view of everyone…Harry noticed that even Morrigan (who had a reputation for her taste in powerfully sculpted men) looked swayed by the sex appeal.
"…weakness is befalling the System Lords. If this tenuous alliance crumbles it will leave the Goa'uld vulnerable to threats that exist outside this galaxy. We must put aside our differences and individual struggles for power to strengthen the Goa'uld and ensure our supremacy over those who threaten our domination."
"You speak of grand principle…" said Yu contemptuously. Harry's respect for Yu had jumped up another notch since the appearance of Anuk, he was not phased one iota by her presence.
"But you have no official seat here," said Baal, though it looked as if the System Lord looked rather eager for that to be corrected.
"Then I ask you to officially recognize my status here," said Anuk, gesturing gracefully around the room.
"What do you offer as support for your claim for position as System Lord?" said Baal curiously.
"Nothing," said Anuk lightly, "I am here to represent the vote of another."
"Whom do you serve?" asked Yu with narrowed eyes.
"Anubis."
It took all of Harry's mastery over himself not to flinch and breathe heavily. It took all of his control not to blast Anuk into her constituent atoms. His iron will clamped down on his racing thoughts and emotions, and he gritted his teeth…though he was careful to do it behind his closed lips. The System Lord's reaction was much more overt.
"What!" snapped Olokun.
"You lie!" hissed Baal, seemingly forgetting his enamored state with Anuk at the mention of the name.
"He is dead!" shouted Yu, his voice ringing through the room.
"That was what you assumed after you attempted to murder him. Was it not enough that he was banished from the System Lords?" said Anuk with a smirk.
"Never to be allowed to return!" snapped Yu.
"That was long ago and only one System Lord remains from that time," she said, staring at Yu pointedly. "He has sent me to ask that you accept him back or place yourselves at his mercy."
'We are so screwed,' thought Harry with a deep sinking feeling in his gut. Anubis, the Egyption God of the Underworld, was a Goa'uld as Anuk mentioned on par in age and experience with Yu. Anubis was considered a demon, a defiler, a destroyer, in the Tok'ra archives he was even once referred to the as the very antithesis of life itself. His acts were so evil, that even amongst the Goa'uld they were considered unspeakable. The last anyone had seen of him was over a thousand years ago, when he was banished by the System Lords of the time.
The identity of the mysterious Goa'uld was seemingly solved. And to make it worse, he had somehow acquired Ancient knowledge…it was a nightmare scenario. It seemed also that the Goa'uld had gotten their own answer as to who had so effectively been attacking their forces.
"We will recess for one hour to consider," stated Yu in a tone that brooked no argument. The other System Lords nodded in agreement and rose from their seats and walked away from the conference room.
Harry walked dutifully in the wake of Yu as the System Lord moved with a thoughtful and troubled expression on his face. The corridors were the typical gold and obsidian design that Goa'uld employed on their ships and stations, made to look the same almost everywhere to confuse infiltrators and spies. Harry was rather startled when they passed a hip height ornate container, decorated with relief statues of Goa'uld symbiotes…a ceremonial holding tank. What was that doing there?
They finally entered Yu's quarters and Harry automatically began brewing more tea, but Yu interrupted him halfway into the preparation.
"Speak to me Jarren," said Yu with a sigh, "as Lotar you have been educated in the History of the gods. Tell me what you think of Anubis' return?"
"Master, I am but a humble slave," said Harry with his head bowed. "My thoughts are irrelevant in matters of the gods."
"All my fellow System Lords are falling for this trap Anuk-sun-amun is setting on behalf of Anubis, they don't know that he'shak the way I do," disagreed Yu. "If I'm to have no allies among my peers I should at least have them among my servants." Harry inwardly sighed…he'd have to be very careful in his answer. He couldn't appear too knowledgeable, as that was a sure way to being found out. And if Anubis was indeed back…then Yu would be the only opponent the demon would have, as such it might turn out that Earth and its allies would have to accept Yu's help and give in return…
"Anubis wouldn't have returned now after a thousand years of hiding just to join the System Lords again, my lord," said Harry carefully.
"Indeed," agreed Yu darkly. "It's merely part of a larger agenda."
"The recent spate of unidentified attacks against you and the others, my lord, could also have been instigated by Anubis…to force a summit such as this…"
"…and in he sends his representative, another former System Lord we had thought dead," continued Yu. "The moment we accept her back, it will give leave for Anubis to return and move amongst us…the others will turn their backs on him…thinking they have a powerful new ally."
"And when the time is right, he will attack you and the others, my lord, when it is least expected," said Harry softly. Any further conversation was interrupted when the door chime to Yu's quarters sounded. Harry moved towards it and thumbed the button for the door to open and stood in the path of the visitor to act as a shield for Yu, as was custom.
Harry backed off with a bow to reveal Anuk standing there in all her near naked beauty. Yu took a seat and gestured for Anuk that she could approach.
"Thank you," said the woman graciously, coming to a stand a few feet away from Yu.
"Do not thank me," said Yu coldly. "Your very presence here is an insult to me. Speak."
"I have come hoping to dissuade you from opposing Anubis' restoration to System Lord," she said silkily.
"Your charms have always been wasted on me," said Yu dismissively, "even before you were killed by Tyr." Harry had the satisfaction of seeing her flinch at the mention of his Asgardian name. "
"Nevertheless," she continued, recovering her poise quickly, "time has taught Anubis humility and respect for the union of the System Lords."
"You take me for a fool," said Yu contemptuously.
"Please," said Anuk dryly, "The Goa'uld have warred with each other since the beginning of time. Anubis has been amassing power so that he may win back your respect. He is also no fool. He knows you would not accept him back without need."
"We do not need Anubis!" snarled Yu.
"Dissent and disbelief previously unseen in the ranks of the Jaffa," said Anuk pointedly, "infiltration and subversion by the Tok'ra and you cannot continue to ignore the threat of the humans on Earth. How many must die, how many dominions must fall and how can we continue to claim to be gods if we cannot act like them? The Tau'ri cannot be allowed to triumph again and again."
"The treaty with the Asgard protect their planet," said Yu dismissively.
"From the System Lords," said Anuk slyly. Harry groaned internally, seeing where this was going. Earth was in trouble, if Anubis attacked using the loophole in the treaty, then the Asgard could not interfere…the bluff was looking as if it was going to be called.
"Who must enforce the treaty upon all Goa'uld," countered Yu.
"But not from one who's been dead for a thousand years," grinned Anuk.
"What do you propose?" said Yu with a considering frown…and this was where the Machiavellian dictum of my enemy's enemy fell short. Despite Yu helping Earth's interests from a certain point of view, the old System Lord would not hesitate to maneuver this powerplay to remove Earth as a future threat in the meantime, while he plotted Anubis' downfall.
"Accept my vote on behalf of Anubis and before he resumes his position amongst you, he will destroy Earth," smirked Anuk.
"How can he accomplish this?" said Yu.
"I'm not at liberty to reveal that…yet," said Anuk. "But rest assured Anubis will deal with the Tau'ri, once and for all."
Summit Room, Goa'uld Space Station, Hasara System.
The meeting of the System Lords resumed and Harry stood in the back behind Yu stewing in frustration at not being able to ascertain what Anubis' plan was to destroy Earth. He looked up from his internal musings when Baal spoke.
"Who among us accepts the return of Anubis to the System Lords?"
Baal himself cast the first vote by clasping his hands together and nodding…voting yes. Olokun followed quickly…yes. Morrigan, Kali, and Bastet…yes. The rather quiet and arrogant presence of the System Lord Aries also voted in favor. The result was a forgone conclusion as Yu remained defiant and shook his head…no.
"The vote need not be unanimous," smirked Baal at Yu, "By a count of six to one, Anubis is awarded the status of System Lord and welcomed back among those that lead the Goa'uld. Anuk-sun-amun will be allowed to vote on his behalf."
"You shall not regret this," said Anuk with a satisfied expression.
"May we rule forever," declared Baal to the meeting.
"There is much to discuss in that regard," said Olokun, clenching a fist.
"But first," said Bastet expectantly, looking at the others.
"Lor kor harek. Sha mel," said Baal, raising his hands to the ceiling. Harry was intrigued when the screaming sound of a hidden Ring platform resounded throughout the room. The thick Obsidian rings shot down from the ceiling and settled to materialize the ornate vat of Goa'uld symbiotes he had seen earlier. The rings retreated quickly and the lights dimmed so that the only source of light came from the eerily glowing vat. All of the System Lords stood from their seats and walked around the vat appraisingly…it took Harry a moment to recognize the look in their eyes…that of greed and hunger.
It started with Anuk…she reached into the vat and grabbed a fully mature symbiote out of it. The symbiote squeaked at the mistreatment and its small crystalline eyes flashed indignantly…it was the last thing it did in life as Anuk used both hands to stabilize the slippery symbiote and bit a huge chunk all the way through…the purple gore and insides of the symbiote became visible as it was now in to separate pieces in Anuk's hands as she began to chew…it was a truly sickening sight on so many levels as the other System Lords also grabbed mature symbiotes and joined in the snacking.
Harry considered the implications of this ritual of diablerie…and he now knew why the Goa'uld population was not growing anymore. The Goa'uld themselves were responsible for it. If more symbiotes were spawned and claimed hosts…that would mean more competition for power and more headaches for those up top, it was a way for the System Lords of maintaining their power.
The ritual was concluded and the slaves were sent to prepare refreshment and bring cleaning implements to remove the remains of the dead symbiotes. It was an experience he would rather forget, and he made a note to remove the memory into a Pensive when he returned to Earth.
When talks resumed Yu was quick to point out his conclusion that Anubis had been the mysterious foe that had been harassing the System Lords for the last few months. Harry felt it was a rather last ditch effort by the old System Lord to sow doubt amongst his peers about Anubis' true motives.
"I lost two motherships in that battle," said Bastet, looking angry.
"Your strategy was obviously weak," said Anuk with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Your master has exacted tolls from each of us," said Yu neutrally. Which was wise, Harry knew that Yu would have to play it carefully as he had very little favor left.
"Yet you have all voted to welcome him back into the fold," countered Anuk with a mock puzzled expression on her face.
"The power he has regained so quickly is worthy of respect," said Baal in answer.
"What does he offer now to repay the damage he has done in garnering his forces?" said Olokun archly.
"Anubis owes the System Lords nothing. He joins you for the greater good of all Goa'uld," declared Anuk.
"Anubis may have grown strong but he does not outweigh the collective power of the System Lords. What deed does Anubis offer as evidence of the dedication you claim on his behalf?" asked Baal pointedly with a raised eyebrow.
"Speak now or leave us," declared Yu, putting down the gauntlet.
"As I have said before," said Anuk carefully, seeing that Yu was gaining the upper hand again, "Anubis believes that the greatest threat to the Goa'uld is that from within. As we meet here, that threat is being greatly weakened. Over the years we have all lost a great deal to the infiltrations, subversions and rebellious acts of the Tok'ra. Today, will be henceforth as known as the day that the blood of the Tok'ra ran free and their rebellion ended for good."
It was the one thing that could cause Harry to break cover and request extraction from Selmak/Jacob Carter.
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Yu's Cargo Ship.
Harry crouched next to the mummy-like escape pods stored in the main interior bulkhead of the cargo ship that was still docked with the space station. He was tinkering with the systems of the pod by manipulating the small crystals inside it to disable the homing beacon, which normally broadcasted the pod's position and the fact that it was launched at all.
With that done he reached into a hidden pocket and produced a small curved neon purple Tok'ra encrypted communicator.
"Selmak? You there?" he said, pushing a sequence into a control panel to open the escape pod.
"Yeah, what's your status?"
He climbed into the pod and it sealed itself. "I'm leaving via an escape pod…you better be ready to pick me up."
"Roger that," came the reply from the Tok'ra. "Why are you escaping now? You were not due to leave till the end of the Summit."
"We are in serious trouble, Jacob," said Harry grimly, as the pod jerked abruptly as it was launched out of the cargo ship and into space, with the resultant velocity of the launch it cleared the shield perimeter of the space station within two seconds. "I left because I learned among other things…that there is an immediate threat to the Tok'ra…the base on Ravana has been compromised…it's apparently being attacked by the Goa'uld as we speak."
"Damn," came the reply. "Ok, I see the pod, I'll ring you in within a minute…"
That minute was near unbearable. Being protected from the vacuum of space in a flimsy escape pod was not his idea of fun…where at any moment the space station could wise up and decide to blow it out of space. As it was, Harry was counting on the Jaffa manning the defenses thinking that it was merely a malfunction of Yu's cargo ship.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the ringing sound and white flash of dematerialization. When the world was normal again, there was a loud vibration that rung through the pod…it was only when the pod was opened from outside did her realize that the thing had fallen over once it had finished appearing within Jacob's cargo ship.
Jacob himself was there, still in his Chinese Goa'uld clothing and helped him out of the pod to stand.
"Thanks," said Harry with grin, and shook his head like a dog shaking water off itself and the disguise of Jarren melted away like dust in the wind. They set a course for Revana. "How long?"
"Pushing the hyperdrive to maximum, six hours, but it would be too late for any warning from us to help," said Jacob grimly.
The cloaked pyramidal cargo ship swooped around in a turn as it changed course and disappeared into a hyperspace window.
"What did you learn? Tell me everything…" asked Jacob.
During the entire six-hour journey, Harry told Jacob of the meeting, he told of Anubis' return, of Anuk's return from the dead as well…how Yu was the only Goa'uld to remain in opposition, they debated and drew numerous conclusions on this revelation and strategies for the future.
Jacob also concluded that Anubis must have somehow learned of Ravana, even though it was off the Goa'uld map…that meant that its location could only have come from a traitor or from a captured Tok'ra who was taken off guard and tortured for the information.
Also worrying was the alluded plans to attack Earth. What it entailed they could only guess at. They agreed that Anubis would most likely not park a fleet of Goa'uld attack vessels in orbit around Earth…such an attack was too overt and it took the risk of giving carte blanche to the Asgard. Whatever the attack would take the form of though…they would soon find out.
The cargo ship left hyperspace a few light minutes from Ravana.
"Scanning…" said Jacob and a holographic screen appeared as a HUD. "That's odd…there's no sign of a mothership in orbit…but there is one that's landed a few miles away from the Stargate…in addition to troop transports, but I've detected the remains of numerous Al'kesh and Gliders in a circumference around the mothership…"
"It looks like the mothership shot them down…" said Harry in confusion.
"Wait, I'm getting a hail from the mothership…"
The scans were replaced with a rather haggard looking Samantha Carter, who looked liked she'd been through a dozen battles. Her face split into a smile at the sight of her father.
"Hi dad…"
"Sam? What's going on? Why are you in that mothership?"
"Ravana was attacked not a few hours after you both left," said Sam with a tired grin. "They blocked our escape through the Stargate with an incoming wormhole, while the mothership dropped troops and other attack craft. Luckily, we had that vial of symbiote poison that you were going to take. The Tok'ra dug a tunnel towards the mountains and escaped to the surface and scattered as far away as they could with Teal'C." Now her face turned sad. "Lieutenant Elliot was injured gravely in the bombings, the rest of his team was killed…there was nothing we could do for him, but he volunteered to allow himself to be captured, with the symbiote poison hidden on his person."
Harry frowned in sadness at the loss of life. It was clear what happened next. Elliot…on his first ever mission, was taken by the Jaffa towards the Stargate, where the staging area for all the Jaffa and troops were. He had detonated the symbiote poison…wiping out every Jaffa within a radius of five kilometers. When the mothership lost contact with the ground troops and sent more whom promptly died before they could report back…the Goa'uld in charge, Zipacna, was forced to land the mothership itself…this of course was also fatal for any Jaffa on board and Zipacna himself.
That left the Al'kesh and Gliders still combing the area…which were destroyed when Jack, Sam and Daniel rushed into the mothership and commandeered it, blasting them out of the sky.
"It'll be another hour or so before the poison dissipates," said Sam eventually. "We will then try to gather the scattered Tok'ra and leave in the mothership."
"Any idea of casualties among the Tok'ra?" asked Harry grimly.
"I can't say exactly, but the Jaffa did manage to breach the base tunnels and there was a few firefights before the order was given to retreat and scatter," she reported. "I'd estimate, thirty to forty percent…but it could've been a lot worse."
"All right," said Jacob sadly, "we're coming in for landing…I'll see you soon, Sam."
"Luv ya, dad," said Sam, and the communication ended as the cargo ship came in for a landing in a virtual sea of the dead.
SGC, Earth…One week later…
Harry stepped through the subspace path and into the SGC with somewhat thinly veiled irritation on his face. He had barely spent two days on Seaworld with Apollonia and his children when the emergency summons came from Earth. The Stargate shut down behind him.
"What's going on Jack?" grumbled Harry, walking down the ramp towards the waiting Colonel.
"We're in trouble, what else?" said Jack rhetorically. "There's a big rock on a collision course with Earth."
He instantly lost his irritation.
A few minutes later found Harry with the rest of SG-1 and General Hammond in the darkened briefing room. Sam was presenting the briefing, and she thumbed a remote. The main screen now displayed what looked like an irregularly shaped asteroid.
"This image was generated based on satellite observations made over the last few hours. The asteroid has an irregular shape but we've calculated its length from end to end to be approximately 137 km," explained Sam.
"I've seen this movie. It hits Paris," quipped Jack, making doodles on a sketchpad.
"Actually Sir, it'll strike somewhere in the Arctic Circle, probably Greenland or the Barren Sea," countered Sam with a grin at the reference to the movie 'Deep Impact'.
"And nobody knows this but us? How is that possible?" asked Daniel in astonishment.
"Well, the asteroid was actually discovered by a civilian who's since been persuaded to keep it quiet. The reason no one else has detected it is that the object's path is highly atypical," she thumbed the remote again and the asteroid's projected course was displayed on a diagram of the Solar System. "It's a rogue well outside the plane of the solar system occupied by the planets in the asteroid belt. In fact it's a fluke that anyone saw it at all. We got lucky."
"I don't see how in any conceivable way this is lucky," said Daniel grimly.
"Well if this had happened 7 or 8 years ago there would be nothing we could do. The Stargate opens other options for us," said Sam.
"A little help from our friends?" said Jack, and everyone turned to face Harry expectantly.
Harry gave a tired sigh, rubbing his face wearily.
"Ah, the joys of fatherhood," said Jack knowingly.
Harry gave him a brief glare in retaliation and said, "the Asgard won't help. The Protected Planets Treaty states that they cannot prevent natural disasters from occurring on protected worlds. Have you tried the Tok'ra? They've got an Anubis refit mothership thanks to us."
"We've already sent a message asking for their help but so far there hasn't been any reply," said Hammond solemnly.
"Typical," grumbled Jack. "What about our mothership from Chronos? Can't we reassemble the thing?"
"Not in the time available before the asteroid hits, which is eleven days and sixteen hours from now," said Sam.
"What about bringing the Achilles here or using the MEV?" asked Daniel, looking at Harry.
"I could…but I think the time has come for Earth to show that it can stand on its own two feet," said Harry pointedly, looking at Sam. She frowned in response for a few moments and then understanding dawned on her face.
"It's not ready," she objected.
"It's not ready for combat," countered Harry. "But it will get you to where you need to go to nuke the thing."
"Are you talking about Prometheus?" asked Hammond.
"Yes," nodded Harry. "It's scheduled to be finished within a month, but the only things needed to be done on her are the lower deck airlocks, missile loadout and the PBCs…they are all built and at A-51…they only need to be installed. The main cannon is installed but has still not fired so much as even a test shot, the MRGs are operational however but they are anti-fighter weapons only."
"I see," said Hammond with a frown and turned to Sam, "Major?"
"It's…possible," said Sam with a thoughtful look on her face. "The Ambassador and I would need to go to Area 51 and join the shipyard teams to speed things up a bit, but…I think we can do it, sir."
"Good enough for me," nodded Hammond, "the rest of SG1 will be joining you in the interests of saving time. I'll get on the phone to the President and get the ball rolling on this. However, he has already ordered me to begin Alpha team evacuations through the Gate. Major Davis will be arriving shortly from the Pentagon to co-ordinate."
"Understood, sir," nodded Jack.
"Dismissed."
Area 51, Nevada Desert, Earth.
It was an area famed and shrouded in secrecy, conspiracy theory and UFO lore. The subject of popular fiction and ingrained in Western-Terran culture as synonymous with aliens and technology way beyond what people could dream of.
Harry grinned at that thought, it was amazing how one could hide things by actually carefully leaking it in such a fashion that it appealed to people's sense of the impossible and allowing rational thinking to do the rest of the work for you. For Area 51 had exactly that which the conspiracy theorists and UFO nuts claimed it was.
Area 51 was also known by a number of different names; Dreamland, Paradise Ranch, Groom Lake, and finally Neverland. It was actually a remote tract of land in southern Nevada State, located at the southern edge of a large dry salt flat. Officially, the place contained an extremely long airfield and numerous hangar and analysis buildings, the primary purpose of which was to analyze and test 'enemy' aircraft and weapon systems, and the secret development and testing of new craft.
Area 51 was already responsible for the development of the U2 high altitude spy plane, the super fast SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft, and the F-117 Stealth Fighter. With the end of the Cold War, like so many other similar facilities in the United States, the inevitable cutbacks and RIFs (Reduction in Forces) followed.
The inception of the Stargate Program changed everything.
Area 51 was now the primary staging and production area for the X- Starship Program and all R on new technologies and knowledge that came through the Stargate. And like Cheyenne Mountain, to preserve secrecy from the hovering commercial and spy satellites orbiting overhead, Area 51 went underground. Five huge underground shipyards had been hollowed out, each at roughly 521 meters in length, two hundred in height and width. That engineering alone was a feat in and of itself, all thanks to the strength of various Trinium alloys that had been developed.
Bordering the shipyards was an underground honeycomb shaped lab complex of thirty floors where experiments and development of new technologies was taking place. Some of these labs were lucky enough to have windows that looked out onto the shipyards themselves. One such lab was called Research Room 1432; and it was here where Harry and the rest of SG1 had gathered to look out upon Shipyard 1…where the relatively large ship that was Prometheus sat berthed with the aid of anti-gravity engines and large connective arms clamped onto the hull.
"Nice!" said Jack appreciatively.
"Wow!" nodded Daniel…Teal'C merely raised an eyebrow and the glint in his eyes showed he was impressed; the reason for this was obvious.
"You like my improvements over the original overall design?" said Harry with an amused look at the Colonel. Jack could only nod with a gleam in his eye as he stared at the Prometheus.
"Yeah," said Jack, "I hope you kicked the Wing Commander fan who designed the original bucket of bolts out of here. This is more…Star Wars- Star Destroyer, only without the upper Bridge superstructure and the totally exposed shield generators and it's missing the large flat aft area with the big engines, overall it almost looks like a kite in shape."
"Having your Bridge so exposed out of the main hull is asking for trouble, and there's no way you need engines that big or exposed either," opinioned Harry with a satisfied nod at the ship.
Prometheus was a ship that had the large thick kite design, it dimensions were from fore to aft, 432 meters, port to starboard, 163 meters, dorsal to ventral 150 meters. Its hull had a matt black finish to blend into the void of space and little specks of white showed that 'windows' or viewports were few and far between. (During battle the cabins and rooms with viewports would be darkened). The sublight and hyperspace engine emitters were integrated into the hull and conformed with the contours of it, much like the F117 jet engines were, meaning they were afforded greater protection.
"What weapons does she have or will…have?" asked Jack eagerly.
"MRGs, or Main Rail Guns, dotted along the hull to swat Death Gliders out of the sky, a depleted uranium- trinium - naquadah alloy projectile is accelerated to three kilometers per second and fires in a five shot burst," explained Harry, pointing at the domed gunports turning to Sam with a pointed look.
"Then," said Sam taking her turn, "we have PBCs, or Particle Beam Cannons, mounted next to the MRGs, they fire a constant beam of coherent energy at their target, mainly being Ha'taks in this case…"
"Then there is the main cannon," said Harry pointing to the nose of the Prometheus, with had an odd energy collector like arrangement on it. "Its actually just a huge version of a PBC, and if it can line up a shot and hit its target successfully, you'd have a pretty good chance of critically draining the shields of a Ha'tak but…"
"But…" prompted Jack.
"It's a bloody power hog," said Harry ruefully, "if you fire that thing, you'd lose Hyperspace engines for ten minutes at least. Then there is also the fact that I'm not that confident of its effectiveness or effeciency against Anubis refit Ha'taks."
"Ah, and what about torpedoes?" asked Jack eagerly.
"The Prometheus has multiple launcher tubes for the Anti-Ha'tak missiles we've been using on the F-302s," said Sam. "Recent data from Harry though indicates that we would need a massed strike on an Anubis Ha'tak to destroy it. However, we are working on solving that problem…"
"Admiring the view, lady and gentlemen," came an unfamiliar voice. The group turned to regard a tall man walking into Lab, who wore a dark blue Air Force jumpsuit. He had graying short brown hair and an experienced face with a prominent frown and other expression lines on his face. A great intelligence beamed from his dark blue eyes and he wore a pleasant and satisfied smile on his face as he stopped at the window looking out onto the Shipyard. The stitched patch of an eagle on the shoulders of his jumpsuit revealed the man to be a Colonel.
"Ah, everyone," said Harry, "this is Colonel Ronson, the Captain of the Prometheus."
"A pleasure to meet you," said Ronson, shaking Jack's hand first and continuing in polite greetings to everyone. He turned to Harry. "Ambassador, we've been having some difficulty with the forcefield to the fighter bay, and would appreciate the help. I would ordinarily ask one of the Asgard advisors but they're all busy helping with the installation of the Shields."
"That's why we are here," said Harry pleasantly, "we have a standard week to get the ship as ready as it can be for its first flight."
"I thought the asteroid would hit in eleven days," said Jack with a frown.
"Even with the new 1200 megaton naquadah enhanced nukes we have, it won't be enough to obliterate an asteroid of that size, we also don't know yet what is its composition, so we have to deflect the asteroid off its collision trajectory with Earth, if we do it too late the asteroid would still hit, since there is no way something of that mass can be moved quickly," explained Sam.
"Oh," said Jack, blinking.
"Ummm, not to sound rather selfish, but what should I do while we are here?" said Daniel with a sheepish grin.
"Daniel raises a good point," stated Harry. "Colonel Ronson?
"I think you would do well to familiarize yourself with Prometheus, Doctor Jackson, it's layout and especially its communications systems. Teal'C, Jack, the internal security systems and the onboard Armory would no doubt benefit from your presence, not to mention the fighter bays. Prometheus has only a skeleton crew at the moment, so you are all welcome to help."
"Personnel problems?" asked Jack pointedly.
"Yes," nodded Ronson with a sigh. "Finding enough people within the Air Force, who can be trained to crew a ship like this is proving difficult, ideally this ship would have a crew of nine hundred. But that would mean spreading the secret of the Stargate and the reality out there to a huge number of people and leaks and loose lips would be inevitable. Luckily, the amount of automation this ship has means its not such a big problem. However, I wouldn't want to fight off a boarding action if we ever pick up uninvited guests…"
"The plans are in the works Colonel," said Harry stridently, "the conference will be in a few weeks, if everything goes well you will have all the crew you need and then some…"
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As predicted, the next seven days were the most hectic and stressful in recent memory for the men and women working in Area 51. The fate of the planet was riding on getting the Prometheus ready in time. Engineers, metallurgists, physicists, designers all were clamoring inside and outside the ship to check, double- check and even triple check everything.
Harry had spent most of his time going over the primary and secondary naquadah matrix fusion generators that gave the behemoth ship its power. They had been tested and were giving proper output within expected norms but they had never been pushed to their conceivable limits in starship operations, as it would look really bad for the ship to blow up spectacularly and take most of the North American continent with it.
Sam, on the other hand, had her hands full with the navigation systems and the computer network running the ship in general. A whole new Operating System had been developed based off of the Linux OS. A computer could not simply crash on a starship; during Hyperspace travel such an event could be fatal.
Internal Security, had been thoroughly reviewed after Jack and Teal'C had consulted with the teams working on those systems. The cameras operating within the hallways and open spaces of the ship were hardened against attack. The Armory was decentralized; instead of having one big room providing all the hand weapons on the ship, smaller Armories were designated in multiple places on the ship. They also helped in doing some of the brute work of getting the PBCs on board and mounted. Both men were obviously most enamored of the fighter bays.
Prometheus had two such bays. The ventral bay was for take off of the F-302 space superiority fighter and opened about a hundred meters aft from the nose of the ship, like the engines, the bay was contoured to blend into the overall hull design. The bay itself ran almost the length of the ship itself, allowing for a large number of fighters to be carried. The dorsal bay, in turn, was for the landing and receiving of the F-302. However, both bays could be used for either role…in the event of battle damage disabling a bay.
Daniel spent most of his time in the ships' 'Bridge'; however, it was technically a CIC or Combat Information Center. It was buried in the center of the ship with reinforced bulkheads around it and even localized Firestorm Shield emitters, the purpose of which was to keep the ship's 'head' from getting chopped off. There was no way to 'disable' the Prometheus by just gutting the Bridge with a precision strike. The ship would have to utterly annihilated for there to be any harm to befall the Bridge crew. The Bridge itself had a square shape, with a multiple large Plasma screens forming a forward viewscreen of what was outside the ship. The interior design of the Bridge itself was a mix of functional, blocky and Spartan…it was clear that this was a warship.
SG1s resident archeologist and linguist sat at the communications section of the Bridge, which was forward and left of the Commander's chair in the center of the Bridge. He evaluated the ship's linguistic computer to see if the translation matrices actually worked accurately enough.
"All hands to stations, repeat, all hands to stations," came the announcement over the ship's PA system. Daniel jumped in the ergonomic seat at the Comm station and had barely stood and brushed off his SG1 BDUs when Colonel Ronson, his own Bridge crew, the rest of SG1 and Harry entered the room.
"Are we going already?" asked Daniel in astonishment, seeing that everyone was geared up and taking their stations all over the Bridge. Jack grinned in amusement.
"Got carried away in your work again, Spacemonkey?" said Jack, using the hated nickname. Daniel grumbled to himself and was about to vacate the Com station when Ronson waved him back down into the seat.
"Relax, Doctor Jackson, I want you to stay right where you are. There might not be much call for your talents on this mission, but I'm sure you can keep working on the linguistic database, and offer opinions and input as the mission progresses," said Ronson.
"Ok," said Daniel with a sigh.
Harry on the other hand was making sure to take a nice out of the way backseat to the coming events. Like Daniel he would merely be on the Bridge in an advisory capacity. To that effect he found a spot just behind the Weapons Station, forward and to the right of the Captain's chair, which was being manned by a Lt. Cunningham. Jack and Teal'C hovered to the left of Ronson's spot in the middle of the Bridge.
"All right people, let's do this by the numbers," said Ronson to the Bridge at large. "Doctor Jackson, forward viewscreen, give me a picture." Harry saw how Daniel manipulated a few buttons and twirled a sensor ball, and suddenly the large screen came to life and showed the Shipyard in front of the Prometheus and the rapidly evacuating work crews disappearing into blast doors that promptly sealed themselves after they had left. "Good, I want go, no-go for takeoff," ordered Ronson.
"Engineering, go," said Sam, from the said station at the back of the Bridge.
"Weapons, go," said Cunningham, working his controls.
"Sensors, go."
"Helm, go."
"Science, go." There was a brief pause.
"Comm, go," said Daniel.
"Security, go."
"All systems are go," confirmed Ronson, tapping a few controls on his chair. "Area 51 Control, this is Prometheus, we are go for flight."
"Roger that Prometheus," came the gruff voice of the ATC, "friendly and unfriendly birds are out of your predicted ascent path and you are clear…opening roof…" There was a deep whine of heavy hydraulics as the roof of the subterranean shipyard suddenly opened like great big horizontal window blinds. The blinds that faced up out of the earth was immaculately painted and camouflaged to resemble natural ground from anybody who could sneak a satellite over Area 51, of course, it didn't stand up to close scrutiny, but no one could get close to Shipyard itself so it was a moot point. The big blinds started to move themselves out of the way until finally the Prometheus beheld clear blue sky for the first time. "…confirm roof retraction."
"We confirm," said Ronson. "Ok," he breathed heavily as if psyching himself up, "he were go. Helm, AG drives."
"AG drives, aye," confirmed the Helm Officer, who's station was only a meter in front of the Captain's Chair. The Helm Officer, a rather tall brunette with the name Anderson, stitched to her jumpsuit, reached to her left and picked up a thick black rounded helmet that was attached to her station, and placed it over her head. Her eyes were now obscured by small screens that gave real time virtual reality feed of every visual sensor the Prometheus had. Turning her head would change her perspective exactly in relation to the actual position of the ship itself, she was in essence piloting the ship like a fighter. Her left hand found the power yoke while her right pushed a button, before it reached for the control stick.
The rumbling of the Anti gravity drives began to echo through the ship.
"Clear moorings," ordered Ronson. Sam got to work and the results were clear through the viewscreen as the arms that had been keeping the ship steady retracted.
"Clear," reported Sam.
"Clear," confirmed Anderson after turning her head left and right.
"Take us out, Z axis plus six hundred meters."
Prometheus rose out of its Shipyard with a steady thrumming noise that reverberated all over the surrounding area and finally settled to hover at four hundred meters altitude.
"Secure AG drives, bring main sublight engines online." The four contoured pulse emitters on the aft section of the ship began to glow a dull orange. The thrumming noise died down and now a whine echoed across Area 51 as the ship used multiple small plasma thrusters to orientate itself and with no further ado the ship shot up into the sky and out of sight of those on the ground.
Prometheus achieved high orbit less than two minutes later.
"We're in geo-synchronous orbit," confirmed the Helm a moment after, a big exhilarated smile on her face. Which pretty much mirrored the expressions of everyone else, except for Harry who had wore a satisfied grin and Teal'C who looked stoic as always, though the sparkle in the eye showed he was enjoying sharing in the big moment for his Tau'ri allies and friends. Though Earth was far from safe, what they had just achieved was a huge step forward in its security. Now for the first time, Earth could contest any hostile incursion into the Solar System.
"All right, people," said Ronson, his tone settling everyone, "that was a moment we've been working for the past two years, it's past, now we have a new horizon before us. So let's get to work. Sensors, bearing on the asteroid?"
"Bearing 232 mark 004," replied the Sensor Officer, staring at the multitudes of screens around him.
"Helm, set a course."
Prometheus broke orbit and smoothly orientated itself for the journey towards the asteroid.
"Speed holding at a 1/4 of light," reported the Helm. "Time to asteroid intercept…forty minutes."
"Well, we're on our way," said Jack excitedly.
"Match velocities and orientation," ordered Ronson.
Prometheus now had to display the finesse of a dancer trying to meet his partner while she was already halfway through the steps on the dancefloor already. Anderson dailed down the sublight drives and had to bleed off velocity and momentum to slow down relative to the speeding asteroid; which was now filling the viewscreen in exquisite detail…it had a real ugly look to it, craters, canyons, fissures, the whole geological kit and kaboodle was there. The ship orientated itself so that its nose pointed in the direction the asteroid was heading in and finally the ship appeared to hover relative to the asteroid.
"We're two kilometers from the surface and holding," reported Anderson.
"Good job, Lieutenant," said Ronson with a nod.
"Ok, so how do we get down there?" asked Jack.
"Well we don't have Asgard transporters, yet," said Sam. "And while we do have an onboard Ring platform, there is no platform on the asteroid to beam to, and we can't take this ship within five meters of the asteroid, which is the minimum distance for the rings to work at without another set of rings."
Jack blinked at her, opened his mouth, closed it and looked puzzled.
"Luckily we brought along the old Osiris cargo ship, that still has its sublight capabilities intact," said Sam with a small grin at her superior.
"Why didn't you just say that?" asked Jack faintly and gathered her, Teal'C and Daniel, and walked off the Bridge towards the ventral fighter bay.
"Are they always like that?" asked Ronson of Harry.
"Indeed," he said and walked over to the Sensor station, where the Captain manning it was beginning a thorough analysis of the asteroid they were about to deflect. The geologists among the staff at Area 51 were chomping on the bit to get good readings and observations before SG1 set off the most powerful nuke ever created yet on the thing.
Ten minutes later the pyramidal shape of a Goa'uld cargo ship shot out of the Prometheus and turned towards one of the largest canyons on the asteroid and sped down it causing it do disappear from visual sensors entirely, but not from subspace sensors. This canyon was chosen because it was at a right angle to trajectory of the asteroid, therefore the nuclear detonation would be channeled to act like a gigantic thruster that 'should' deflect the thing.
"This is SG1, we're about to land," said Jack's voice, a few moments later. "Touchdown! We're beginning EVA, we'll stay in regular contact."
"Roger, SG1, we've got your backs," said Ronson into his chair com.
The next half an hour passed uneventfully, until Jack announced that the nuke was in position and counting down to detonation in two hours.
"Ambassador," said the Sensor Officer, drawing Harry's attention away from the surface mass spectroscopic scans, which was wholly unremarkable, only Nickel and Iron was present.
"Yes, Captain?"
"Take a look at the gravimetric profile of the asteroid…this can't be right," said the Officer. Harry stared at the screen in question, looking at the data and graphics scrolling across the screen.
"I see what you mean," said Harry with a troubled frown.
"Problem, gentlemen?" asked Ronson pointedly, now standing behind the chair making the Officer jump.
"Sorry, sir, the gravitational attraction of the asteroid is not falling within expected parameters," reported the Officer nervously.
"Easy Williamson," said Ronson patiently, "explain."
"Surface scans show that the asteroid is made up of nickel and iron, but the amount of gravitational pull being exerted by it is much greater than if it actually was made up of those two elements."
"So that would mean the core has to be made up of a heavier element," said Ronson thoughtfully.
"Yes, sir," agreed Williamson.
"Very well, those geologists will just have to wait for their surface scans," said Ronson, "I want you to turn every sensor we have onto that things' core, we need to determine how this would affect the nuclear detonation. Ambassador, please assist."
"Yes, Colonel," nodded Harry and Williamson scooted his chair a little to the side to also allow Harry access to the systems.
"Prometheus this is SG1 we're RTB."
"Roger, SG1. We've a bit of a situation here, and I need you to stay out there for the moment," said Ronson.
"Copy that, please advise." The cargo ship came to a stop over the asteroid, just above the canyon it had just landed in.
"Stand by," said Ronson.
"Oh my!" blurted Williamson in astonishment. The Bridge crew turned to look at the man in amusement who had a faint blush of embarrassment at his involuntary action.
"What is it?" said Ronson in alarm.
"Umm, sir, the element…" he pointed at the relevant screen. Ronson stared at it, looked at Harry, who could only confirm with a grim nod. The Colonel didn't hesitate and rushed back to his command chair.
"SG1, I want you to get back down in that canyon and disarm that bomb and get it back up here," ordered Ronson in a no nonsense tone. "Sound general quarters, set condition 1!" he ordered. The lights of the Bridge dimmed and blue lights turned on all around the ship, indicating the highest state of alert the ship could go to. The one hundred odd crew rushed to secure their stations and areas as best they could. The few squads of Marines on board rushed to their designated armories and secured their tactical vests and PR-7s.
"All decks report Condition 1," said the Security Officer.
"PBCs and Rail Guns, charged and ready to fire," reported the Weapon Officer.
"Prometheus, please advise, what is going on!"
"SG1, the asteroid's core has been scanned, almost 45 of it reads as solid naquadah," said Ronson grimly.
"Sir," this time Sam's voice came across the link, "naquadah is not native to our Solar System."
"I know, Major," said Ronson with a frown, "but our analysis is confirmed. I believe this whole asteroid business is a Goa'uld plot."
"To circumvent the Protected Planets Treaty, Sam," said Harry with a nod. He had to take his hat off to Anubis on this one. "The Goa'uld brought the asteroid here and set it on a collision course to make it look a natural disaster. They knew the only way we would be able to stop it is with a nuke."
"So what happens when that nuke goes off?" asked Jack.
"Holy Hannah," exclaimed Sam over the link, "the explosion will be enhanced by the naqahdah, probably to the force of a small nova. This close to Earth, it would be enough to set the atmosphere on fire and boil the oceans."
"The Goa'uld have given us a Catch-22," said Ronson with a touch of anger. "We use the nuke, we might as well be nuking Earth ourselves, we don't use the nuke, the asteroid goes past the fail safe in two days, and we're screwed anyway."
"So what other options do we have?" asked Sam. Silence pervaded the Bridge after that loaded question.
"SG1, after you gather that nuke get back here, we have to come up with a new plan," ordered Ronson.
"Yes, sir."
88888888888888888888888888888
Main Briefing Room, Starship Prometheus
Colonel Ronson, the Bridge crew, SG1 and Harry all took their seats around the large wood-metallic conference table. They were in the designated room where the Captain of the ship would meet with the various department heads and Bridge crews as necessary. Like the rest of the ship it was dimmed but the blue lighting had turned off to allow them to see each other more clearly. The room could seat twenty two people at a time and had the general functional yet futuristic look down pat; large screens behind the head of the table, nice large windows that looked out of the port side of the ship, giving a marvelous view of the rolling and tumbling asteroid and the vast void of space beyond with the infinite starfield serving as a backdrop.
"All right, we know we can't nuke it and can't just let it go, so we're here to come up with a plan B," said Ronson. "I want to hear suggestions. Williamson?"
"Ummm, the main cannon?" said the Sensor officer in a fashion that said he had just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"Might as well try to spit against the wind," said Harry in turn, shaking his head. "You'd need a Death Star to make a dent against that rock."
"And I thought I was the only one to make Star Wars references," said Jack with a grin. Harry rolled his eyes.
"What about the Achilles," suggested Daniel. "I mean this is in essence an attack on Earth…"
"It's in orbit around Mars at the moment," nodded Harry. "It can be here in a trice, but there is nothing on her that would stop the asteroid without setting off the Naquadah. It doesn't solve the problem in its essence."
"Let's work this out from the beginning from the point of view of the Goa'uld," said Sam with a frown, "we've got a big rock of naquadah encased in nickel and iron somewhere…how did they get it to Sol?"
"That's easy," said Harry with a shrug, "three motherships pulling it with gravitic energy bled off from their engines, pull it through hyperspace…" he trailed off and shot a meaningful look to Sam.
"I get it…Hyperspace, that's it," she said, snapping her fingers in triumph.
"What are you guys talking about?" asked Jack resignedly.
"We expand the Prometheus' hyperspace field to encompass the entire asteroid. We take it out of normal space long enough to avoid the collision with Earth," she explained.
"Major…that's…" said Ronson, looking rather flabbergasted at the plan.
"Let me get this straight, you want to ride this ship and the asteroid through Earth?" said Jack in a flat voice.
"It would work," said Harry, but couldn't keep a slight hint of doubt out of his voice. In fact, there were so many things that could go wrong with this idea that he didn't even bother to list them in his own mind.
"To the outside observer, it would disappear on one side of the planet and reappear on the other. The problem is, it would take every ounce of power we've got. The field would have to be expanded far beyond its usual envelope. It could cause the engines to explode," she explained with a wince.
"This ship hasn't even done its shakedown, and you wanna do something that could put us back in drydock for another month or maybe even destroy us," said Ronson slightly incredulously.
"It's a choice between risking the ship or losing the planet, I think its rather an easy one to make," said Daniel delicately.
"I'm aware of that and the consequences, Doctor," groused Ronson. "Excuse me if I am somewhat hesitant to damage or perhaps even destroy something me and my crew have spent the last two years of our lives training and investing ourselves in."
Daniel nodded, looking slightly sheepish. Ronson sighed looking pensive and staring hard at the surface of the conference table, clearly having an internal debate. After a few moments his steely face looked up and met the eyes of Harry and Sam. "How certain are you that this can be done?"
Harry worried his lower lip with his teeth in consideration and eventually said, "It's the only way with the time constraints and other variables we have." The unspoken part that everyone inferred from that statement was 'If it can't be done, then we're screwed.'
"I better send a message to the SGC about what to expect then," said Ronson standing from his seat, causing everyone to rise with him, "dismissed."
The next few hours Harry and Sam appropriated most of the computing power that was available to the Prometheus in calculating the geometry of the improvised hyperspace field and feeding those solutions into the Hyperspace systems.
Earth's response to the revised plan for dealing with the asteroid was hardly enthusiastic. A lot of the scientists at Area 51 were sending hourly messages to Prometheus, in particular to Harry and Sam. In one memorable com message, an astrophysicist and contemporary rival of Sam's stated 'ARE YOU NUTS! There is no way you can account for the shifting vectors…blah…blah…blah' Harry had shut down the message at that point because the scientist in question was one Rodney McKay…a man who seemed determined to find a flaw in any theory or deduction that either Harry or Sam brought forth…it was to the point where Harry wondered if the man did it on principle or whether he was just envious.
On the Bridge, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.
"We have enough power to jump the asteroid only about an hour prior to its hitting the Earth," said Sam to Ronson.
"That's cutting it rather close, don't you think?" asked Williamson nervously.
"Best we can do, unless we divert power from weapons," said Sam.
"Something I'm not inclined to do," said Ronson pointedly, "there could be cloaked Al'kesh or even a mothership out there waiting to pounce on us." He turned to the Helm. "Ok, Anderson, you heard the Major."
"Yes, sir," said the Helmswoman, placing her hands on the controls. "One hour to impact, in five minutes…and counting…" she set the computer to display the clock for everyone's benefit on the viewscreen.
Harry took a deep breath to settle his nerves. For the past day or so he had been doubting himself in being as 'uninvolved' in the mission as he was. Part of him had wanted to just beam himself to the Achilles, summon the Asgard and simply tow the damn thing out of harms way. But Thor and Heimdall had drilled one very crucial lesson into his mind from day one…to do everything for and save people who are less advanced from suffering and death is not necessarily a good thing, for it was in the struggle to survive that one truly learned and advanced forward and grew. It was a rather difficult thing to balance, the morality that all sentient life is sacred and must be protected vs. allowing the struggle to ensue to allow growth. Both were concepts that Harry knew even the Ancients had struggled to come to terms with.
"One hour to impact in one minute…" reported Anderson, pushing buttons around her and they could hear the deep whine of the Hyperdrive starting to spool up…Harry found it impressive how she knew where every button was by sheer memory alone, due to the fact that she was wearing the visor helmet. "Thirty seconds…"
The Hyperdrive's noise went even higher and Harry winced in reflex and placed his hands over his ears to buffer it.
"10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…engaging." Anderson pushed forward on her left control.
Prometheus was barely two hundred meters from the asteroid surface (to reduce the size of the Hyperspace window needed) and ahead of the two; the blue marble of Earth loomed ever closer. A massive cloud of coherent purple energy formed between the asteroid and Earth…subspace took over and with a great gulp swallowed both ship and asteroid…
…on the other side of Earth a mirror effect of the scene a few moments ago was taking place…
From another massive Hyperspace window…the ship rode out the asteroid back into normal space.
"We're there, navigational computer confirms!" gushed Williamson, as the lights came back on from the massive power drain. The Bridge cheered in victory.
"Well done, everyone!" said Ronson, patting Anderson on her shoulder.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to the Sensor station and ran an orbit analysis of the asteroid. Williamson noticed as the cheering and congratulating died down and the crew returned to their stations. Harry grinned in amusement as Williamson saw the results and promptly began gaping like a fish and staring at Harry with ill-disguised awe. "That's…that's…how?"
"Elementary subspace field geometry, I made a tweak when no one was looking," said Harry with a nonchalant shrug. Williamson wasted no time in summoning Ronson and Sam. After seeing what Harry had done they could only blink and look rather stupid as they tried to comprehend it.
"Are you nuts?" asked Ronson promptly.
"Hey, if the Goa'uld want to throw a huge lump of Naquadah our way, why not make use of it," he said grinning unabashedly.
And so it was that Earth had a once in a lifetime cosmological event…it gained a second moon.