I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – October 2002
‘So I hear they’ve finally decided on a name for our second Ha’tak Sir?’ O’Neill asked, having run into General Hammond in the corridor as they both headed to the gate room in their dress uniforms. ‘Would have been quicker to hold a vote like last time’ he opined.
‘I don’t think they wanted it to be called the Millennium Falcon Colonel’ Hammond replied as they turned into another corridor.
‘That’s what I get for telling Jonas something, he just blurts it right out’ O’Neill complained. ‘So what’s it going to be?’ he asked.
‘Weirdly they found that calling our first Pyramid Ship Enterprise helped out with OpSec because if anyone outside the program overheard anything, or accidentally caught sight of a report mentioning the ship, they assumed the vessel being mentioned was the one that floats in water, not space.’
‘All part of my plan Sir’ O’Neill interrupted.
Hammond threw O’Neill a doubtful look. ‘In any case based on that they’ve decided to name the second ship Admiral Kuznetzov after the Russian Carrier’ he said. ‘The British wanted Invincible but the French objected strenuously’ he told O’Neill with a grin. ‘Our old friend Colonel Chekov is getting command so they’ll be a Russian at the helm too.’
O’Neill frowned. ‘I thought he was going to be running the Omega Site for the foreseeable future?’ he asked as they arrived at the gate room, a guard at the heavy blast door swiping his ID to open it for them.
‘He was, but the Russian Federation was getting annoyed that not only was the first Ha’tak under US Command but we’re about to bring Prometheus into service giving the United States command of what they saw as a disproportionate number of Earth’s Capital Ships’ Hammond explained as the door slid aside. ‘They also pointed out it was only going to get worse since funding for the second X-303 was approved by Congress last week, it’ll begin construction at Area 51 just as soon as Prometheus is finished.’
‘I heard they’re going to call it Atlas?’ O’Neill remarked, following Hammond through. ‘Jonas said it was because Atlas was the brother of Prometheus or something like that.’
‘I’ll take your word for it Colonel’ Hammond replied. ‘I thought it was because it’s one of the ships that’ll bear the weight of the world on its shoulders’ he said as they joined the others already waiting there. As well as Carter, Jonas and Teal’c, the latter two in suits, the former in her own dress uniform, Elizabeth Weir was wearing a very expensive looking suit of her own.
O’Neill gave a nod of recognition to Major Warren of SG-3 who was stood with the rest of his unit and the other US Marines of SG-5. They might all be gung-ho loons with doubtful personal hygiene to his way of thinking but formed up into a short double-rank the jar-heads looked good in their Dress Blues he had to admit.
‘They’re due any minute’ Weir said, checking her watch. ‘Thanks for finding Commander Sharp something to blow up, these things always go smoother with him out of the picture’ she whispered to General Hammond who had moved to stand beside her.
‘Fortunately he didn’t need much persuasion to go off on a mission instead of play the gracious host’ Hammond whispered back. ‘It was much harder to persuade Colonel O’Neill not to follow him’ he noted.
Jonas wanted a cup of coffee, he was starting to suspect that Colonel O’Neill’s jokes that he was addicted to caffeine weren’t so funny after all after deciding to not have any that day to prove a point to himself that he wasn’t dependent on the stuff. A nice hot cup of Java would really hit the spot right now he thought, imagining the smell as he wafted it under his nose. ‘Earth to Jonas, come in Jonas’ O’Neill said to him, waving a hand in front of his face.
‘Sorry Colonel I was light-years away’ Jonas apologised as his thoughts sharply shifted away from coffee and to his commanding officer.
‘Well gate back here and join the rest of us’ O’Neill told him. ‘I asked you about that technical report I got you to read for me’ he said.
Carter sighed. ‘You promised to read it yourself Sir’ she reminded him.
‘I’m a busy man’ O’Neill defended himself.
‘Earlier I observed you spending an hour in the canteen working on a crossword O’Neill’ Teal’c interjected.
O’Neill looked aggrieved. ‘I was busy expanding my mind, enhancing my vocabulary...’ he began.
‘Busy trying not to lose that bet with Lieutenant-Colonel Ferretti as to which of you could finish it first’ Carter said.
‘That too’ O’Neill admitted. ‘And anyway Jonas is much better at understanding that stuff and converting it into a summary I can really get to grips with’ he said. ‘I’m a big-picture man, tactics and strategy’ he continued, ‘details are the other guys department’ he said. Then seeing the expression on Carter’s face, with one of her eyebrows raised he shrugged. ‘Okay I needed some of it dumbed down a little, is that better?’ he asked.
Teal’c thought about it for a second. ‘I for one am satisfied by your explanation’ he said magnanimously.
‘Thank you Teal’c’ O’Neill replied, wishing it didn’t sound like the Jaffa was more believing of the notion he needed things dumbed-down than the veracity of his word. ‘So it seems like our guests are running late’ he said, checking his watch. ‘Why not fill me in on the concise summary I hope you’ve prepared.’
Fortunately for Jonas he rarely needed notes to work from, although he would have remembered it all more quickly if he had some coffee in him. ‘The prototype Earth-Built sarcophagus passed all its tests and they’re going to start producing the first production models very soon, the first being earmarked for installation on Prometheus’ he said.
‘Does it still look like a big plain box with a hinged lid on it like the mock-up they showed us once at Area 51?’ O’Neill asked.
‘I’m afraid so’ Jonas replied apologetically. They had included a photograph of the prototype with the report.
‘Say what you like about Goa’uld bling but at least when you get into one of their sarcophagi you don’t feel like you’re in a tanning salon’ O’Neill opined. Earth design, particular the military Earth design aesthetic was too functional by half sometimes.
‘One day every hospital in the world will have them’ Carter commented. ‘Of course the price will have to come down first, they’ll cost more than an F-22 does each until they can find a way to make it work without so many rare earth metals in the device and find something less expensive than using gemstones for the crystals’ she said. ‘There’s more Luteium alone in a sarcophagus than a dozen of our shield generators.’
‘Which is why the sarcophagus project was so delayed in implementation of course’ Jonas noted. ‘F-302 production always trumped everything else priority wise’ he said. ‘It’s only since they found a richer vein of ore on P8X-362 that they’ve been able to consider allocating resources towards something else.’
‘Talking of fighters that reminds me’ O’Neill said. ‘You’ve got to look over the design specs for the thing they’re giving to the Kelownans’ he said. ‘I don’t know if I’d fly it but the damn thing sounds like it’ll really move’ he said.
‘You mean the rocket-interceptor?’ Jonas asked. ‘General Hammond let me take a look’ he said. ‘It’s based on something the German’s tried in your Second World War right?’ he asked.
‘Right, like a Messerschmitt 163 but with better engines and endurance’ Carter told him. ‘Think a Surface-To-Air Missile with a pilot instead of a guidance system’ she explained. ‘It’s the best they thought your people’s 1940’s level infrastructure could manufacture themselves once we gave them a few pointers’ she said. ‘Rocket planes are your best option for supersonic flight at the moment, possibly even hypersonic in time.’
‘I’m thinking X-15’s with guns’ O’Neill said. ‘That would be a hell of a ride’ he decided. The X-15 was basically a pilot riding a rocket dropped from a cradle slung under a B-52 bomber, it was 1950’s technology, just within the reach of what Kelowna and her neighbouring countries could manage, but the USAF and NASA had gotten them up past Mach 7, fast enough to catch most of Loki’s UFO’s in the atmosphere as long as the chase didn’t go on too long.
‘It’ll be naquada-enhanced nuclear tipped missiles, not guns they’ll be packing Sir’ Carter pointed out. ‘We told them using their own naquadria devices would be a little hard on the pilots because they’d almost certainly not be able to escape the blast radius.’
‘Missiles are okay but they’re not as classy as a good old fashioned aircraft toting good old-fashioned machine-guns’ O’Neill opined although he knew ordinary aircraft cannon would simply bounce off the hulls of Loki’s cydonium-armoured ships.
‘You could always give us lasers and naquada generators to power them’ Jonas commented.
‘Once the three nations on your planet have convinced us you’re going to only use the things on Loki, not each other, we’ll give you all sorts of gear Jonas’ O’Neill replied. ‘At the moment from what I hear the three governments are still arguing between themselves more than they are cooperating.’
‘Old enmities die hard’ Jonas said sadly.
O’Neill checked his watch again. ‘Sir, if they’re not going to turn up soon can we go get lunch?’ he asked Hammond. ‘I won’t get ketchup on my uniform again even if it is hotdog day.’
General Hammond turned to O’Neill. ‘They’re only a few minutes late and this is an important reception’ he said.
‘They say punctuality is the politeness of King’s but it’s apparently not the politeness of Tok’ra Queens’ Elizabeth Weir observed.
‘She’ll probably blame the host’ O’Neill replied. ‘The Tok’ra do that a lot’ he said, then paused ‘Of course the host is female, so to be fair...’
‘Treading on dangerous ground there Colonel’ Weir told him with a stern expression that was tempered by the hint of a smile.
‘Got the itinerary for our newly cloned and reconstituted Royal Guest all sorted out Doctor Weir?’ O’Neill asked.
‘Tour of the base then onto Area 51 to meet Heimdall and see some of our research projects’ Weir replied. ‘Heimdall did do most of the work involved in saving Egeria so I imagine the Queen will be happy to say thanks in person now she’s blended into a new host.’
‘Just as long as we get the credit for the idea even if the Asgard did the science stuff’ O’Neill responded. ‘The Tok’ra should owe us big for saving their asses from extinction’ he opined.
Hammond nodded. ‘Hopefully examination of Loki’s creations will do the same for the Asgard themselves.’
‘Again thanks to us’ O’Neill pointed out. ‘We’re building up a lot of goodwill IOU’s we can cash in at a later date’ he said. ‘At least I hope we cash them in, I’d hate to think we’re only doing this all out of the goodness of our hearts.’
‘No point building up capital if you don’t spend it Colonel’ Weir replied. ‘If I can facilitate the planned negotiations between the Tok’ra and the Free Jaffa we might be on the verge of a major shift in galactic politics with Earth coming out looking very good.’
Hammond was about to agree when the stargate engaged and started to spin as the warning claxon began to sound.
‘Incoming Wormhole’ the familiar tones of Technical Segeant Walter Harriman’s voice boomed from the loudspeakers. ‘Closing the Iris’ he continued, the trinium-titanium alloy sliding into place.
‘Better be them’ O’Neill declared.
‘Tok’ra IDC received’ Walter reported. ‘Opening the iris’ he added.
Something occurred to O’Neill. ‘We’re not expected to bow are we?’ he asked hurriedly. ‘I’m not up on the proper etiquette for greeting alien royalty’ he said.
‘Well I’m not planning to curtsy Colonel’ Elizabeth Weir replied with some amusement as the re-born Tok’ra Queen stepped through the event horizon to receive a salute from the Marines and greet her peoples allies on their home world.
Capital City Outskirts – Tollana – October 2002
Ambassador Joseph Faxon looked up at the weapon emplacement that towered above him and was once again struck at how good the Tollan were at making their technology look advanced as well as being advanced. From their smallest simplest devices up to their new warships Tollan designs often seemed to scream “Yes we’re smarter than you” and this new creation was no exception.
An engineer with the Tollan Security Forces was explaining some of the more technical aspects of the design to dignitaries from the Curia but Faxon had lost track of the conversation as soon as the talk became too scientific for him to understand. Now he was just waiting to see if the hulking Heavy Ion Cannon they were stood beside reached its claimed specifications when they test-fired it at a target set up in orbit.
Standing at least twice as tall as the earlier model cannons, but almost identical in outward appearance otherwise, the new Tollan weapon was a major step forward in capability. Eschewing some of the finesse of its ancestor for brute force, it fired a bolt of energy at least an order of magnitude more powerful with the intention of simply smashing any shield that was advanced enough for the pulse not to simply go through. It also had a shield for good measure as a guarantee against sneak attacks attempting to decapitate the planetary defences.
‘You are impressed I take it Ambassador?’ Travell the head of the Tollan Curia asked Faxon.
‘It certainly looks the part High Chancellor’ Faxon replied. ‘Earth will be grateful to receive these weapons once your own defences are complete’ he told her. Currently the plan was for five of the Heavy Ion Cannon to ring the Capital itself with others to follow later once production was underway in earnest. A second outer ring made up of ten of the older standard cannon were already in place around the city as a defence against a massed attack by Deathgliders or Al’kesh which might overwhelm the defences by sheer number otherwise. ‘Can I ask about your orbital defence program?’ he asked. The Tollan had taken advice from military experts from Earth and were developing a layered defence network that was not reliant on one weapon type only, although primitive the humans of Earth did seem to have a gift for military tactics and strategy, or perhaps that was because they were primitive the Tollan often theorised.
‘Construction is well in hand’ Travell told him. ‘The Goa’uld Ha’tak main gun design Earth gave us is extremely primitive by comparison to our own systems but it does lend itself to cheaper, less resource-intensive production’ she said. ‘We will have two dozen orbital weapon platforms equipped with both those weapons and goa’uld shields within a year’ she announced.
‘Will you be incorporating the Anubis type upgrades?’ Faxon queried, the Tollan had been very interested in seeing the analysis made of the new goa’uld vessel now in Earth’s hands.
‘Naturally’ Travell confirmed. ‘We were largely unsurprised to discover that most of the improvements were simply based on using the basic technology closer to its maximum potential and better build quality rather than a whole new development in goa’uld science’ she said with satisfaction.
Faxon nodded. It had long been known that much of goa’uld technology was simply copied from that left behind by the Ancients with its inferiority to the original devices it was based upon often down to the fact that the System Lord’s didn’t understand the theory behind it all near as well as they made out to. The Tok’ra had told them that the very first Ha’tak built had been the work of a famed goa’uld engineer named P’tah millennia ago and was, as expected, based upon his back-engineering of salvaged Ancient spacecraft but it was now beginning to become evident that he had screwed up the design considerably. Although the goa’uld could physically copy the devices they found readily enough as a rule, because they used inferior materials and worse engineering tolerances their copies never reached the outputs of the originals. They also had a tendency on occasion not to use or power the devices properly, one engineer having used the analogy of putting US style 110 volt 60 hertz mains electricity into a European 230 volt 50 hertz electrical device and expecting to get good results, it just wasn’t going to work very well.
From what they could tell Anubis had somehow stumbled across the knowledge and understanding he needed to make a Ha’tak with weapons and shields that were nothing more than closer in performance to the original technologies they were copied from. According to the Asgard Hermiod who had examined them in detail they were still pretty clunky in fact but nevertheless they were superior enough over standard Ha’tak ships to give Anubis quite an edge over his opponents, and of course to have dealt a nasty surprise to Thor who although now recovered and downloaded into a new clone body back home was still seething about having a ship shot out from under him.
Having finished talking to a couple of the other Curia members the Tollan Engineer had overheard the conversation between Travell and Faxon and had wandered over to join them. ‘May I join you High Chancellor?’ he requested, offering her a slight bow.
‘Of course Guardsman...’ Travell replied, trying to remember his name.
‘Travoc’ the Engineer replied. ‘Tesserarius Travoc’ he explained, giving his rank and slightly annoyed that she didn’t recognise that his insignia indicated he was an officer.
‘Guard Commander’ Faxon translated, like many diplomats he was good with languages. ‘That’s of Latin derivation, possibly Ancient too originally’ he observed. ‘Like the word Curia too of course’ he added, smiling at Travell. It was a deliberate policy of the Embassy to remind the Tollan where they came from whenever possible, to try and increase the sense with which they might identify with their ancestral homeworld Earth and hence hopefully steer them towards a deeper alliance.
Travell smiled back. ‘Our scholars have been pouring over the academic literature you have provided with great interest’ she told the Ambassador. ‘Our people look to the future but it’s always worth knowing where you came from’ she added before turning to Travoc. ‘Did I hear something about our Security Forces considering adopting an emblem from Earth’s history Tesserarius Travoc?’ she asked him, getting his rank right this time.
‘An insignia, a flying animal on a perch with outstretched wings that was used by some of our presumed ancestors’ Travoc confirmed. ‘It had an abbreviation underneath it in Earth script, are you familiar with it Ambassador?’ he asked Faxon.
Faxon raised his eyebrows. ‘It sounds like you’re describing a Roman Eagle’ he said. ‘The letters underneath are S.P.Q.R. meaning Senatus Populusqus Romanus, or The Senate and the People of Rome, it was originally the insignia of the Roman Republic’ he explained. ‘If I recall correctly the Curia of the Roman Senate, was the building where they met’ he said.
‘Interesting’ Travell remarked. ‘Perhaps an abbreviation in our own alphabet of Curia and the People of Tollana would be very apt in that case’ she pondered.
‘My own nation uses an Eagle emblem and part of our government structure is called the Senate following the traditions set down by the Roman Republic’ Faxon told them. ‘In fact government buildings not only in my country but in many others too are deliberately modelled on the Greco-Roman architectural style’ he noted. ‘Lots of stone pillars and wide stone steps much like many of the buildings here on Tollana in fact’ he said.
‘Fascinating’ Travell replied. ‘Did you have something you wished to ask when you walked over Tessarius?’ she asked the Security Force Officer politely.
Travoc nodded. ‘Now most of my work on the Heavy Ion Cannon program is completed I’m on the short-list to be selected for temporary transfer to Earth to examine the Anubis Ha’tak in more detail’ he said. ‘I was hoping to ask the Ambassador about his peoples progress in upgrading their other captured goa’uld mothership to the same standard’ he said.
‘So far preliminary estimates are that it will take several more months to upgrade Enterprise even with Tok’ra practical assistance and Asgard technical knowledge’ Faxon replied. ‘We’re just relieved it’s not something that would take years and a complete refit’ he added.
‘I thought the Asgard were restricted in how they aided Earth by the Protected Planets Treaty?’ Travoc queried.
‘They are but having of their ships shot out from under Supreme Commander Thor by Anubis has made the Asgard rather more forthcoming’ Faxon replied. ‘If the System Lords complain they plan to argue that Anubis broke the treaty and that therefore any of his technology is outside the remit of the agreement’ he said. ‘Apparently the Asgard have underhanded lawyers, who knew?’ he joked.
‘A lawyer is their word for a professional archon’ Travell explained to Travoc who clearly hadn’t gotten the joke judging by his reaction.
‘Oh right I see’ Travoc responded then grinned. ‘Did you hear the one about the Unas who was going around eating dung?’ he asked. ‘Another Unas stopped him and asked why he was doing it and the first Unas replies that he just ate an archon and he’s trying to get the taste out of his mouth’ he said, laughing himself.
Faxon chuckled. ‘I’m told the Aschen don’t have lawyers or the equivalent at all’ he said.
‘They don’t have jokes either’ Travoc responded disparagingly, ‘I went to one of their colony worlds to install a stargate for them’ he said. ‘If you’ll forgive the presumption of a mid-ranking officer giving the High Chancellor advice we should not give those people this Ion Cannon technology under any circumstances’ he told the Head of the Curia.
‘Yours is not a unique position’ Travell replied evenly. The Tollan didn’t like the Aschen, they were advanced enough to be near peers of a sort, technologically somewhere between Earth and Tollana in scientific development, but they were not well regarded otherwise. The Nox had also warned the Curia in no uncertain terms to beware of the Aschen Confederation in the future and if the Nox didn’t like you that was saying something because as a rule the Nox liked everybody.
‘Earth is providing the Aschen Confederation with the plans for Anubis upgraded shields and weapons for their fleet but we are still keeping back hyperdrive technology’ Faxon noted. Like the Tollan the Aschen had indigenously developed FTL travel of their own but also like the Tollan it was relatively slow, taking months or years to get anywhere. Earth had given Tollana back-engineered goa’uld hyperdrives which propelled their new warships at decent speeds but the Aschen were best thought contained in their own little corner of the galaxy for now.
The device on Travoc’s wrist beeped. ‘The orbital target is about to enter line-of-sight’ he announced loudly. ‘Can everyone please stand clear of the Cannon’ he requested, moving back away himself, Faxon and Travell following.
‘Is the weapon operating fully autonomously?’ Travell asked.
‘Not yet but we plan to give its Targeting AI considerable leeway once it’s in full service’ Travoc replied. ‘It is programmed to give a warning before engaging and can be overridden before firing if required’ he noted. ‘Here we go’ he said as the turret suddenly span to face westwards its cannon raising into firing position. ‘Defence network has issued a challenge to the target via radio and subspace frequencies’ he reported, looking at the display on his wrist computer, ‘target drone has ignored challenge... Heavy Ion Cannon is engaging’ he declared.
Faxon could hear the weapon power up and for a second it seemed like the air around it was become charged with static electricity before it fired a colossal bolt of energy into the sky. It was already cycling the next shot before the first disappeared from view and the cannon fired once again when it was ready.
‘One shot should smash any known Goa’uld shield’ Travoc announced. ‘The second will blow the unprotected craft to fragments’ he declared.
High above an almighty flash signalled the demise of the target. ‘If that was a Ha’tak pieces of it would be re-entering our atmosphere as shooting stars for years’ Travoc noted with satisfaction, several Curia members starting to applaud.
‘How would your Ghostrider’s stand up to the cannon?’ Faxon queried out of interest. ‘I mean what if Anubis or another System Lord managed to develop Asgard type shielding?’ he queried.
Travoc smiled at the Earth nickname for the cruisers. ‘The Asgard supplied shields on our ships are considerably better than the ones the goa’uld have’ he said, ‘it would probably take three to four shots from a Heavy Ion Cannon to batter down the older Beliskner type shield and it’s estimated the newer O’Neill Class could probably take twice that’ he said. ‘However with five Heavy Ion Cannon ringing the capital we could fire a barrage that would pulverise any known vessel’ he said confidently.
‘Excellent Tessarius’ High Chancellor Travell praised him. ‘Please pass my thanks and those of the Curia to the team that designed and built this mighty addition to the defences that protect our citizens from the predations of more barbaric societies’ she said.
Faxon crossed his arms and looked at the Heavy Ion Cannon again wondering how to phrase his report back to Stargate Command. He smiled as he wondered if a signal reporting “The Big Honking Space Gun Mark II works as advertised” would be too unprofessional.
Area 51 – Earth – November 2002
Radek Zelenka surreptitiously crossed his fingers as the new and first commanding of the Prometheus stepped onto the bridge. Everything had looked okay on the simulations, the naquada reactors were showing in the green and according to everyone that had looked at them, including Anise of the Tok’ra, the hyperdrives were as ready as they would ever be but this was still going to be the ships first flight and it would look very bad for him if the thing didn’t get off the ground.
Colonel William Ronson took his chair and made himself comfortable. ‘Amazing vessel you’ve built for us here Doctor Zelenka’ he told the scientist.
‘I was merely the chief X-COM Advisor to the project’ Zelenka replied, ‘the credit largely belongs elsewhere’ he said. The X-303 was a USAF project with X-COM technical assistance not a primarily international one like the Avenger had been. ‘I will of course pass on your thanks to the engineers and technicians who built her’ he told the Colonel.
Ronson nodded and turned to his second in command in the chair to his right. ‘Major Gant is the ship sealed and ready for flight?’ he asked.
‘Yes Sir’ Gant reported, checking her console to confirm.
‘Excellent, inform all hands we are preparing for lift-off and ask the people with the button that opens the roof to press it so we can get this bird out of this hole and into the sky where she belongs’ Ronson told her.
Zelenka realised he hadn’t checked the roof mechanism earlier like he planned too and hoped to hell someone had when to his relief the underground hanger opened smoothly exactly like it was supposed to. If it had been daylight it would have bathed them in the bright desert sunshine but for obvious security reasons they were taking off at night. Prometheus was very large and would likely be easily spotted at a distance by the UFO nuts that often hung around the outside perimeter of the base.
‘Take us up Major DeLouise’ Ronson told the pilot and the two-hundred metre long ship began to rise gently from the hanger. It utilised goa’uld derived gravitational engines for lift and handled as well as any tel’tak as it rose into the sky.
‘Well that works anyway’ Zelenka said to himself in Czech before switching to English. ‘The Redemption will meet us in orbit yes?’ he asked.
‘It’ll be our chase-plane for the hyperdrive test’ Ronson confirmed. ‘Make orbit please pilot, fifty percent maximum rate of climb best not push the engines too hard on her first time out’ he said.
‘We’ve got company Sir’ Major Gant reported. ‘Looks like an F-302’ she announced as the fighter came up alongside, flying in formation as Prometheus went into a steep forty-five degree climb, accelerating as it went.
‘Must be an X-COM pilot, we weren’t scheduled to have a USAF escort’ Ronson noted. ‘It’ll peel off again once we’re about to clear the atmosphere’ he said.
Prometheus made orbit with a minimum of fuss and Zelenka was feeling very good about himself so far. Although technically only an advisor as he said, he had in fact had input into the vast majority of the systems on the X-303 over the past few months and had helped solve several of the key problems that had inevitably arisen as Earth built it’s first Capital Starship. ‘How are the naquada reactors?’ he asked one of the technicians.
‘Power output is stable and running at twenty-five percent’ the technician reported. ‘We can ramp it up when ready’ he added.
‘It may be a good time to charge the shield generators and bring them on-line’ Zelenka suggested to Ronson. ‘The possibility always exists of encountering a Sectoid craft and they need to be tested in any case’ he said.
‘Raise shields’ Colonel Ronson ordered.
‘Shields up, buffer is fully charged’ Gant reported.
‘Naquada reactors now at forty-five percent of maximum output’ the technician reported. ‘Still in the green’ he added.
‘We are fortunate we did not have to rely upon naquadria as a power-source’ Zelenka commented. ‘Our first hyperdrive design was extremely inefficient and would have needed higher output than the one we have installed on this ship’ he continued ‘The ability to back-engineer several types of goa’uld ships provided us with a much better understanding of the technology’ he said.
‘Naquadria is only good for bombs’ the technician monitoring the naquada reactors commented.
‘I agree, the instability far outweighs the potentially greater power output’ Zelenka responded. ‘The Asgard Hermiod commented that he did not think even we were crazy enough to try and harness it for energy production after examining the material’ he said. ‘If you so much as look at it funny it starts an uncontrolled chain-reaction right in front of you’ the scientist declared.
‘Of course we do use better fuel than the goa’uld’ Major Gant pointed out.
‘Higher grade at least’ Zelenka responded. ‘One thing we do not have is a naquada shortage so we can be slightly profligate in how we use the most refined material’ he noted. By using near weapons-grade naquada as fuel the reactors on Prometheus put out considerably more wattage for their size than equivalent goa’uld power-plants tended to.
Gant checked her console. ‘Redemption coming alongside’ she reported, ‘Captain Tanner is hailing’ she announced.
Prometheus followed the smaller Redemption away from Earth, slowly running up her sub-light engines until eventually she out-ran the other ship, slowing down to let her catch up once Colonel Ronson was satisfied with the X-303’s performance. Redemption was built by a planet technologically inferior to the goa’uld in overall ship design so it wasn’t surprising that a largely goa’uld-based vessel like Prometheus had was faster, nevertheless the crew of the new ship were extremely pleased to leave the relatively diminutive vessel in the dust as it were.
The hyperdrive test didn’t go as well unfortunately. The hyperspace window generator glitched out the first time they tried it and Zelenka and others had to quickly repair it whilst Captain Tanner made mildly sarcastic comments over the radio. To his regret Colonel Ronson had started it by earlier making an equally snide remark about the slowness of Redemption to his opposite number on that ship and he had to admit Tanner was probably justified in his karmic retaliation in kind. Eventually they managed to open a stable hyperspace window and the X-303 made its first faster-than-light voyage with the smaller ship following behind just in case engine failure meant Prometheus had to drop back into normal space in the middle of nowhere.
The first planned stop was out beyond Pluto amongst the so-called kuiper-belt objects. There the Prometheus got to try out its weaponry, blasting chunks out of a ball of rock and ice called Quaoar which had only been discovered by astronomers a few months before. The twin rotary staff-cannon and elerium plasma beams in the ships bow did a masterful job of defacing a decent section sized section of the thirteen-hundred kilometre diameter planetoid until satisfied by the results achieved by his guns Colonel Ronson finished up the test by blowing a large crater in the surface with a naquada-enhanced nuke from his missile bays. After that it was time for the next journey even further out from Earth, and again with Redemption following the Prometheus opened up a hyperspace window and headed for the facility mining the naquada asteroid on the very remotest outskirts of the solar system.
Arriving at the mining base in the Oort Cloud the new ship was greeted with applause by the teams working there and received a fly-by salute by a trio of F-302 fighters which were assigned to protect the small but growing installation. As part of his mission directives since he was out there Colonel Ronson was to take aboard several thousand tonnes of naquada ore for transport back to Earth and this was still being loaded when to the surprise of everyone a hyperwave transmission from Cheyenne Mountain recalled the X-303 immediately.
Apparently the Asgard wanted to borrow it but so far nobody back home was quite sure why in hell they would want to have a loan of a vessel that although the pinnacle of Earth science was still so inferior to their own? One thing Colonel Ronson was sure of however, Earth was going to want something pretty valuable in return, if not today then eventually.