Chapter 2
Gadarus, Atlantic Ocean
Project Ahrmuhgedn Initiated, Day 1
“Crap!” Sam Carter swore as her hand slapped down on the Ancient computer console in front of her; careful even in her anger to avoid hitting any of the keys of the keyboard.
Rodney McKay’s exclamation was equally succinct and in French, “Merde!”
Both scientists glared banefully at the computer terminal they and other experts had been working at around the clock by working in shifts as they looked at the Ancient text that was flashing on screen. They didn’t really need Daniel or any other of the linguists present to translate for them to know they had failed.
Daniel translated it anyway. “Project Ahrmuhgedn Initiated. Sequence 1 Engaged.”
Sam and Rodney switched from glaring at the computer console to glaring at Daniel as if he was personally responsible for their failure.
Daniel took a half step back and almost held up his hands in a warding gesture. “I’ll ah—I’ll go tell Jack.”
“You do that,” McKay grumbled beneath his breath as the archaeologist retreated from the room instead of paging the general over the headsets they all wore. He and Sam had been working at cracking the program for the past thirteen days but while they had managed a minimal interface, unlike the Antarctica outpost they were dealing with not only gene-locked tech for everything and all the time, but severely password protected material as well. And each failure had unexpectedly chipped away at the maximum amount of time they had estimated they needed to crack this by accelerating the program.
When Daniel returned with Jack, the general didn’t even need to hear any of the scientists in the room say anything. Their collective defeated air and Sam’s resigned look as she met her commander’s eyes said it all.
“Okay. You didn’t manage to stop the program from initialising,” Jack said calmly as he looked at each scientist in turn. “Is there anything else you can still do?”
Sam and Rodney exchanged looks as de facto leaders of the scientists and when they both looked back at the general, it was Sam who spoke. “We believe it is still possibility to stop it even though it has been initialised.”
“Alright,” Jack said in the same calm tone. “How long will it take?”
The scientists exchanged looks again and when Sam spoke again she confessed, “We don’t know Sir.”
“You don’t know Carter?” Jack questioned quietly as he held her gaze.
“No Sir,” Sam dropped her eyes from Jack’s gaze in shame.
“Alright,” Jack said again. “You do what you can. I will tell the President.”
“Yes Sir,” Sam responded dejectedly. Various other affirmations of the general’s words were given by the other scientists of the room and they watched the BDU-geared man depart before slowly turning back to their tasks.
. . .
Across the Atlantic Ocean, Henry Hayes formed a steeple with his fingers against his lips as he listened in stunned silence to what his SGC general had to tell him. He had already sent out notification to the members of the JCS and special advisor Hammond, but they would not arrive for another fifteen minutes at the latest.
Hayes hated to contemplate the thought, but the only option might be Operation Adam considering the virtually unknown character but suspected global and catastrophic nature of the Ancient program. If this Project Ahrmuhgedn did as the world’s top scientists said it did, Earth’s population would be reduced from 6,512 billion to 350 million.
Making this—the Ancient’s response to the plague that had devastated their population five to ten million years ago—the deadliest pandemic in human history. It so far outstripped Europe’s 14th century’s bubonic plague that it was almost not worth mentioning as a comparison.
As the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Hammond appeared in the room Hayes continued to ponder what action he could take. Once the military men were all seated and present, Jack collectively informed them about what he had already told Hayes and presented the hastily prepared debriefing packet.
The scientists had failed to stop Gadarus’s Project Ahrmuhgedn from initialising. Sequence 1, which was one of the more cryptic sequences of the project with it being divided into six sequences, was currently engaged and Gadarus was receiving massive amounts of subspace communiqués from space and locations around the globe.
“You mentioned around the world,” CSAF General John P. Jumper queried. “What do you mean by that?”
“Transmissions are being received from Ancient technology stored at Areas 51, 52, and 53 and other locations with noted mythological significance. For example, Glastonbury Tor in Britain, half a dozen Etruscan necropolises in Italy, the Giza Plateau in Egypt, and Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum in China.” Jack reported via teleconference naming some heritage sites they might be familiar with.
While there was no particular pattern to the locations indicated on the maps the generals had been provided with they could all see the clear affiliation with known ancient cultures influenced by the Ancients or Goa’ulds.
“Currently the transmissions all detail spatial location. None of them seem to be commands of any sort,” Jack carried on. “Considering the galactic distances most of the transmissions have traveled from once plotted out, the scientists surmise that they are all being sent via a subspace network.”
“So beyond mapping out this transmission origins, what are the scientists doing?” CNO Admiral Vern Clerk questioned.
“Only a sergeant and linguist pair is needed to map the transmission locations considering the automated system they are being received on. The scientists are still attempting to stop Gadarus’s program.”
CJCS General Richard B. Myers frowned at that. “Aren’t there some individuals on the scientist team that we have identified as ‘terminate’ status?”
“That is correct. Colonel Carter and five others,” Jack reported with a dispassionate air. There was no need to air to these men his rage at learning that because of Jolinar’s possession
and the unnatural Goa’uld protein the symbiote had left behind, Sam was one of the millions slated for death by the Ancients because they didn’t clean up their garbage.
At that reminder, Myers was not the only man present to frown.
“Is that wise?” CMC General Michael W. Hagee asked disapprovingly, “Considering the colonel’s invaluable contributions to the Stargate Program? Is she not on an evac list?”
“She is,” Hammond said as he too frowned at the one-star general reporting to them.
“She is,” Jack affirmed, “and Odyssey is on standby to beam her and other such marked personnel onboard the moment the situation becomes critical.”
Hagee’s expression relented marginally but his disapproval was still clear.
“Prometheus and Daedalus,” CSA General Peter J. Schoomaker named the other two ships of the USAF space fleet, “are on standby for similar circumstances?”
“Yes,” Jumper answered. “The Russians have Korolev so they will not be requesting spaceship assistance as other nations of the Gate Alliance Treaty may.”
The frowns of the generals intensified at learning that before the discussion moved on.
“Can we still stop the program even if it has been initialised by nuking the colony?” VJCS General Peter Pace inquired.
“No Sir,” Jack replied. “The scientists have checked into that possibility and learned that the colony is equipped with a force shield. If the highly advanced shield is unable to handle a bombardment load, Gadarus is programmed to re-descend to the ocean floor.” There was no need to go into the fall out of the nuclear winter that would occur from the sheer armament needed to punch through Gadarus’s force shield and how it would have an even worse effect on Earth than the genetic culling.
“Is a drone from the Antarctica outpost an option for a more surgical strike?” Clerk questioned.
“No Sir, the outpost refuses to target Gadarus.”
“You’ve tried? How? You’ve been at Gadarus since returning from Antarctica,” Schoomaker asked curiously.
“Yes Sirs, we’ve tried with Major Sheppard in the control chair,” Jack reminded them of the discovery of Major John Sheppard as a strong gene carrier.
There was contemplative silence in the room as they all digested what they had just been told.
“So, Mr President,” Pace turned the generals’ attention to their commander-in-chief, “what are your thoughts at the moment at what O’Neill has reported?”
“I think,” Hayes said with firm conviction, “Operation Adam is the only reasonable course of action.”
The six JCS stared at Hayes in astonishment.
“You can’t be serious,” Pace protested. “We haven’t disclosed that we know anything about Gadarus and you just want to start that evac plan?”
“Up to this point of the Stargate program,” Hayes began pensively, “the exemplary actions of the individuals of SGC have managed to avert the disaster staring myself, and my predecessors, in the face. But never before has the world known of aliens because of a worldwide publicised discovery that cannot be refuted by the scientific or academic communities.”
Hayes made a point of holding the eyes of the seven generals present in the room for a few moments.
“On the advice of the SGC commander—who knows better than anyone in this room the dangers and potential dangers Earth faces—I have chosen to activate Operation Adam. The SGC soldiers may very well be able to stop this Armageddon but I want to actively try to save some of the millions that are slated to die.”
“Sir—” Myers began to protest.
“Gentlemen,” Hayes held up a hand to cut him off. “It is time to stop hiding our heads in the sand and take our place in the galaxy.”