Harry breathed in the fresh soggy morning air. It bothered him sometimes that he spent so much time on Earth, but only remained within the confines of the SGC. To put it simply he missed his home planet. The reasons for basically remaining within the SGC were varied and many in his own mind, and they were all good reasons but he was seriously developing a bit of cabin fever regarding the SGC.
He was dressed in unmarked green military battle dress uniform (BDUs) that was standard issue for SGC field personnel and the rather constricting combat boots that went with it, and leaning against two blue sedans parked out on Runway 18 of the highly secure and classified landing strip just ten minutes distant by car from Cheyenne Mountain.
With him were Jack, Sam, Daniel and Major Davis – the only one wearing his blue Air Force Uniform - all of whom were staring up into the sky. Jack had brought along a high-powered set of binoculars for this occasion and was occasionally staring through it up into the sky. Harry didn't really know why he bothered, as the cloud cover made visibility problematic at best.
"Teal'C was ordered to push the envelope, sir," stated Sam. "I'm sure he'll be back soon."
"Well, that'd be nice," said Jack, sarcastically looking into his binoculars again for any sign of Teal'C.
"Where else would he go?" asked Daniel, ever the voice of reason.
"Good point," conceded Jack eventually.
Their attention was drawn to an approaching military HUMVEE painted in black. The wide-bodied successor to the venerable Willis Jeep used so extensively in World War 2 approached at a leisurely pace. Harry saw the immediate reason behind Jack's subtle impatience with Teal'C. The license plate of the Humvee was blue and adorned with three stars and all the soldiers it passed snapped to attention and saluted it.
The Humvee stopped next to the sedans Harry and SG1 had arrived in and first out was General Hammond. Sam and Jack immediately snapped to attention, while Daniel and Harry merely stood slightly more respectfully.
"Well, here we go," muttered Jack.
Major Davis walked to the Humvee and opened the door, allowing General Hammond to climb out. Jack smiled at his boss. The Humvee drove away to reveal the reason for three stars on the vehicle. Standing in the slightly more informal blue Air Force uniform was a severe looking dark skinned man, his shoulder boards of three stars indicating he was a Lieutenant General. Jack and Sam saluted him, and promptly the three star saluted back.
"Is there a problem, Colonel?" asked Hammond.
"No, Sir. I'm sure Teal'C just felt like taking her for a spin…around the world," grinned Jack.
"Well, while we're waiting, I have someone who would like to meet your team and the Ambassador," said Hammond.
Major Davis took that as his cue, "Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, Ambassador Harry, allow me to introduce Lieutenant General Vidrine." Introductions went quite smoothly until it was Harry's turn.
"Ambassador," said Vidrine.
"General," Harry slightly bowed his head.
"I understand that you are the mind behind some of our most recent advancements?" enquired Vidrine.
"I did nothing but bring forth ideas that anyone could have come up on their own," said Harry with a smile. "Apart from the PR7, everything else I merely facilitated at best."
"You're too modest, Ambassador," commented Vidrine, who now turned to Jack. "General Hammond has been telling me nothing but good things about you and your team."
"Has he, Sir?" said Jack, in a humorous tone. "Well, then I'm sure he's left something out."
"Such as?" said Vidrine in a sudden serious tone of voice, which made Jack lose his grin in an instant. Harry had to clamp down his jaws to keep a snort of humor from escaping. As an excuse for not answering Jack spoke into the hand-held radio link with Teal'C.
"Teal'C, ya there, buddy?"
"Look immediately to the south-west," crackled the voice of Teal'C over the radio. Everyone turned to look in the direction. Out of the clouds what looked like a Death Glider swooped over them at extremely high speed, a major sonic boom following in its wake that deafened everyone temporarily, the wind gusting powerfully behind it. The Death Glider was at first glance hardly any different from the standard models in use, but at newly fixed hardpoints to the sides of either energy cannons were large missiles, something very different from the Goa'uld model.
"What in God's name is that?" shouted Vidrine over the rush of air.
"That, Sir, is the X-301 Interceptor," said Davis.
"Looking good, Teal'C," said Jack into his radio. "Give us another flyby, going low and slow."
"As you wish, O'Neill," said Teal'C's voice.
"It's a hybrid craft, Sir," continued Davis, "made with a combination of good old American know-how and two Death Gliders SG1 salvaged a couple of years ago."
"It's easily the most impressive craft I've ever seen," admitted General Vidrine, as the Death Glider made a near prancing turn in full view that exposed the underbelly of the craft. "How does it fly?"
"I believe I can answer to your satisfaction, General," piped Harry up before Sam could say anything. Harry knew that Sam's 'technobabble rants' as Jack termed them, could confuse almost everyone on the planet, except for himself and Dr Lee. "Simply put, the craft uses gravity itself for thrust, and because of an inertial compensation system the pilot is immune to G-forces at speeds that would normally be fatal. It's capable of both atmospheric and space flight."
"Fascinating," said Vidrine.
The craft made one last turn before it basically came to an easy stop not twenty meters away. The cockpit panels split open and the large figure of Teal'C climbed out and slid along the curve of the Glider almost like a playground slide, and walked away while taking off his flight helmet as ground crews scrambled to secure the X301 from flight.
Teal'C with his helmet secured under his arm approached the assembled group watching the test.
"I always like to get a view of the man in the cockpit," stated Vidrine seriously. "How does she fly, son?"
"The vehicle performed within the expected parameters," said Teal'C stoically to the General.
"Woo-Hoo!" shouted Jack, causing everyone to look at him. "Sorry, Sir," he said to Vidrine, while everyone was grinning behind the General's back. "I couldn't help bet get caught up in Teal'C's enthusiasm."
"Upon completion of the flight test program, we intend to deploy the X301 in an orbital defense role, under your command, Sir," said Major Davis, also grinning.
"In all seriousness," said Vidrine, and turned to Jack sarcastically, "if that's all right with you Colonel? How effective can a single craft be against a potential fleet of Goa'uld attack vessels?"
"That's what these tests will determine, General," said Harry. "But the X301 is at best, merely a stopgap measure, until construction on the first squadrons of X302-As are completed, with the first prototype rolling off the line at the end of this year."
"Yes," said Vidrine thoughtfully. "Something for which we have you to thank for again, I'm told that without your direction it would have taken us at least another two years to field the X302."
"While that may be, General," conceded Harry. "Earth does not have the luxury of time. The recent improvement in the faster-than-light (FTL) capabilities of the Goa'uld makes it ever more economically viable for them to attack. They might call the Asgard bluff."
"I for one hope the Goa'uld don't play poker then," commented Vidrine glibly. "So what's next?"
"I take second seat for an air-to-air live fire test," said Jack with an excited grin.
"Light that candle, boys," said Vidrine with a satisfied nod.
"Yes, Sir," nodded Jack. Teal'C however, clearly did not understand the Earth euphemism, and raised an enquiring eyebrow to Jack.
"Does General Vidrine intend to engage in some form of candle burning ritual?"
"Yes, that's it exactly," grinned Jack and headed off with Teal'C to get in his own flight suit for the test. While the rest of the assembled group climbed into the sedans and drove off the secure airfield back towards the SGC where the tests would be coordinated from.
Half an hour later found Harry standing pensively next to General Vidrine in the background of the control room overlooking the Stargate. Sam, Major Davis and Daniel were seated at the positions normally occupied by the Stargate technicians. The computers were all displaying status screens and radar images from various sources, ground based and from military satellites. It currently showed the X301 still on the landing tarmac of the airfield as Jack and Teal'C were getting prepped for the flight.
"Anything on your mind, Ambassador?" asked Vidrine. Harry turned to meet the fierce General's narrowed eyes.
"It's just that I advised Area 51 to not build the X301," said Harry with a sigh. The General raised an eyebrow to invite elaboration. "Simply put, the hybrid nature of the X301, could cause system conflicts that are unforeseeable, due to the complexity of the technology we are talking about."
"So you aren't confident that the X301 will perform up to spec?"
"General, frankly, I'm amazed Area 51 even managed to get it off the ground," declared Harry honestly.
They were interrupted when the dot that represented the X301 began to move and showed that it was traveling at great speed towards the target area.
"Well, for better or worse, Ambassador," said Vidrine, "we're committed to seeing this through now."
Jack's voice crackled over the speakers in the control room, "Request permission to proceed with weapons test."
"You're a go, Digger 1," said Davis into the radio.
"Proceeding to target area," said Teal'C voice this time.
"Roger that," said Sam. "You're a go for phase 2."
"That's them?" asked Daniel, pointing to the screen, showing the blip that represented the X301.
"The X301 is equipped with stealth technology, so we've installed a signal beacon that allows only us to track it," explained Davis.
"These blips," said Sam pointing to two blips that the X301 was rapidly closing in on, "represent the target drones. The X301 is carrying two AIM-120A air to air missiles."
"Major, are you suggesting a slammer missile is capable of taking out a Goa'uld mothership?" asked Vidrine skeptically.
"The missile, instead of carrying the standard tri-ox high explosive, is carrying pure weapon's grade naquadah – which we recently learned to enrich thanks to a large sample retrieved on a mission a few months ago," explained Sam, nodding to Harry. "Which means the energy being released is increased in massive orders of magnitude, enough to weaken any shield. But we've also affixed a shield modulator to the tip of the missile, that should, in theory, allow it to bypass the shield and hit the hull of a Goa'uld mothership directly."
"Beginning attack run now," came Teal'C's voice over the speakers.
Harry stared at the vectors of the X301 and frowned…it looked like Teal'C was going to overshoot the targets if he kept going at that angle of attack.
"Digger 1, you're going to overshoot," advised Sam into the radio.
That was when the blip that represented the X301 disappeared and was replaced with the words TRACKING FAILURE…CAUSE UNKNOWN.
"Oh boy," said Harry, his sense of wrongness flaring.
"Digger 1? Digger 1? This is flight…" said Sam into the radio…only static was the response. "They're not responding."
"We're experiencing atmospheric interference," declared Davis, listening to the sound with earphones.
"Their last vector did put them on a course out of the atmosphere," commented Harry, moving forward to stare at the computer screens.
"Major Carter?" asked General Vidrine expectantly.
"They were approaching the targets, sir, when they went into a steep vertical climb, they've left the atmosphere, we're attempting to reaquire now…"
"Are you saying they've gone into orbit?" asked Daniel with a worried frown.
"No, she's saying they're headed straight into space," said Harry with sigh.
"You said the 301 was capable of space flight," commented General Vidrine.
"It wasn't part of the test, Sir," said Sam grimly.
"Teal'C wouldn't do this intentionally, there has to be something wrong," said Daniel firmly.
"A malfunction?" asked General Hammond.
"Must be, Sir," said Sam.
"Get me the shuttle action officer at space command," ordered Hammond.
"The shuttle would only help them General if they'd remained in orbit," said Harry with a grim frown, looking at the vectors scrolling across the computer screen. "The last vector reading we got on the 301 would put it well out of Earth orbit by now and into interplanetary space."
"We're attempting to reacquire using NASA deep-space radar, with the DSP and NORAD data we should be able to get a reading on their position and focus a tight beam satellite radio transmission," said Sam.
It took ten minutes to finally get a good reading on the X301 and correlate a radio signal to its position.
"Digger 1? This is flight, do you read?" said Daniel into the radio. "Digger 1, come in?" There was only silence and a slight crackle of distortion over the radio link. "They're still not responding," he said in frustration.
"NASA is boosting the signal now," said Davis, listening to the feed from the space agency in his ear.
"It's not a problem of power," said Harry, staring at the real-time diagram of the solar system and the blip of 301 in relation to it. "You're not using subspace, but standard radio communications here and the numbers indicate the X301 is doing over four hundred and fifty kilometers a second."
"So?" asked Daniel.
"Radio signals only travels at the speed of light," said Harry patiently. "They're already a light minute away from Earth."
"Time delay," stated Sam in frustration. And sure enough his point was proven when only now Jack's voice came over the radio.
"Flight, we have a problem."
"Digger 1, this is Flight, we are reading you five by five. We have reacquired your position. Be advised, there is a time delay with communications due to distances involved. Please give sitrep. Transmission sent at 1425 Zulu," said Sam into the radio.
"Good thinking, Major," said Davis.
"General Hammond," said Daniel, "perhaps I should contact our allies capable of interstellar flight and ask for assistance."
"Very well," nodded Hammond, "I'll assign SG2 to assist you."
"George," said Vidrine, "perhaps it'll be best if I return to the Pentagon, see what our people can contribute from there. I'm just getting in the way here."
"Yes, Sir," nodded Hammond and traded salutes with his fellow General before the man left the control room.
"Dr Jackson," called Harry, before the archeologist could leave to gather SG2. "I would advise that you contact the Tok'ra first, the Tollan homeworld is too far away and their FTL capability isn't that great." Daniel nodded and rushed out of the control room.
"I have an idea, Sir," declared Sam to General Hammond, staring at the diagram of the solar system. "But a whole lot of things have to go right for it to work. We need to wait for the Colonel's sitrep before I can explain."
Harry didn't know what miracle idea she had to get her teammates out of this debacle, and after a few minutes Jack's response finally came through.
"Yeah…Flight, Digger 1, we read you-we have lost control of the craft due to some sort of recall device. Apparently, the scum-sucking, slimy, snake-assed Apophis installed it in his Death Gliders. Controls are NOT responding, negative thrusters and reaction control system…we are purely ballistic."
Harry saw Sam close her eyes and bow her head in near despair. His own reaction was merely to rest his head against his hand as he sat in front of the computer, staring at the telemetry.
I am going to have a serious conversation with those engineers at A-51, thought Harry sourly.
"Dammit!" exclaimed Sam slamming her hand on the console. "I was counting on them having some reaction control."
"What was your plan, Major?" asked Hammond.
"Their trajectory puts them on a relatively close flyby of Jupiter," she explained, tapping a few commands into the computer…and a curving course line was drawn passing by the gas giant. "If they had at least some maneuvering capability we could have done a sling-shot maneuver and send them on a course straight back to Earth."
"Send your idea to them anyway," said Harry, "perhaps they can think of something." Sam nodded and sent off the idea through the radio.
Ten minutes later and a reply came through.
"Flight, this is Digger 1," said Jack's voice. "We have negative nudging capabilities on our trajectory…stand by, Flight…(half a minute passed)…Flight, this is Digger 1, we may, I say again MAY, have two AIM120 Alpha rocket motors at our disposal. Can we override the release mechanism and ride them through burnout? If so, we need to calculate when, where, and duration of burn. Digger 1 at 1458 Zulu."
Harry, Sam and Major Davis began to frantically type into the computers, using navigation software and Calculus programs to model the problem.
"No," said Harry eventually, shaking his head. "Their velocity is too great, the rocket motors on those missiles are strong enough, but it's a problem of duration, there's not enough Delta V in them."
"But what if we delay the firing of the port side missile by a few moments, that should help," said Sam. Harry factored that into his own model…
"No, still not enough," said Harry with a sigh.
"Damn, are you sure?" she asked in a sudden angry voice.
"Check my calculations for yourself," invited Harry wearily and rolled back on wheels of his chair and allowed Sam to similarly roll into the spot he had occupied. She tapped at the computer angrily and eventually her head dipped again.
"Digger 1, this is Flight," said Sam into the radio. "We calculate there is not enough Delta V for a sufficient duration burn."
The reply ten minutes later was, "Flight, Digger 1, we'd rather try something, anything…than be stuck out here for the next seven hundred years as this thing heads back to the snakehead's homeworld."
"General?" asked Sam.
After a long moment's consideration Hammond said, "Let them try. Even if it doesn't work, it'll at least keep their spirits up until we can get the Tok'ra's help."
Harry also supposed it was a matter of pride to have tried everything possible with the current resources Earth had at its disposal. Major Davis soon had an override procedure ready and broadcasted it to the stranded craft. Sam followed by calculating the ignition time and sending it off. And then they waited.
Harry clearly felt at this point that he was spoiled by subspace communications. Using standard radio for anything was something the Asgard hadn't done in nearly a hundred thousand years. Finally, after a half an hour Sam announced that the burn was complete.
"Preliminary data coming in…" she said, the targeted course was projected in red, while actual course was done in white…there was still a large discrepancy. Sam rubbed the bridge of her nose wearily. "Digger 1, this is Flight, there is no joy on the burn. I'm sorry, Colonel. It's as we calculated, the missiles just did not have sufficient thrust to achieve the desired course change. Your current trajectory takes you out of the Solar System and into the Oort cloud, which you should reach in…a few months. We're still thinking down here, so don't give up. Transmission ends 1813 Zulu." Sam nearly looked like she wanted to cry and Major Davis had a grim sadness on his face.
It was at that point that a fully geared up and SG2 and Daniel entered the gate room for their journey to Vorash to enlist whatever aid the Tok'ra could offer. Sam noticed it and moved to the dialing computer and began startup procedures to establish a subspace path. It was as the first chevron was locked in place that an idea occurred to Harry as he stared at the grinding inner ring of the Stargate. By the time the fourth chevron was encoded he was somewhat sure it could be done.
"Major," said Harry, "stop the dialing, I have an idea."
"What is it?" asked General Hammond.
"I can get a ship here much faster than the Tok'ra could, even if they have a cargo ship relatively nearby in interstellar terms," said Harry slowly.
"What? How?" asked Sam in response, as the fifth chevron encoded.
"I will explain, but first stop the dialing," said Harry patiently. Sam tapped the clear button on the dialing computer and the gate stopped rotating with a whine as power drained from its massive capacitors. "General, I think we need to convene in the briefing room for this."
The General nodded and told Major Davis to keep in contact with the Glider. Five minutes later Harry stood in front of an expectant looking Sam, Daniel and Hammond in the briefing room.
"Major Carter asked how I could get a ship here, well…I'm not talking about asking the Asgard for help, they're deeply pressed for ships to fight the Replicators…I have a ship berthed on Seaworld that is capable of traveling through a Stargate."
"You mean like that fighter I flew second seat with Teal'C on when we rescued SG1 from Hathor less than two years ago?" asked General Hammond. Harry was not here at that time, but he was very familiar with SGC mission reports.
"Yes," nodded Harry. "It is a small multipurpose exploration vessel (MEV) that uses the Stargate network as a backbone for its interstellar capability, while it has sufficiently powerful sublight engines to give it a good intra-solar capability as well…" Harry trailed off and frowned.
"But there's a problem," stated Daniel, "otherwise you would have mentioned this earlier."
"Yes," nodded Harry. "As I said, it's an exploration vessel, not a Search and Rescue (SAR) craft. There is no way for the Colonel and Teal'C to enter the MEV conventionally from space, entry and egress is done through a rear hatch, which has no airlock system. The only way to get them out of the glider and into the MEV is for me to try and interface an Asgard transporter module with the MEVs systems."
"And you're not sure it will work?" asked Hammond.
"No, the MEV is not a ship of Asgard design, it will require improvisation," said Harry glancing at Sam meaningfully.
"You want my help?" she asked, astonished.
"Two heads are better than one," he said, "besides it wouldn't hurt for you gain some more experience with these technologies."
"Ambassador, if you are confident you can do this…" said Hammond, trailing off.
"With Major Carter I'm sure we can get it done in time…" said Harry.
"I'm afraid time is something we don't have much of any more," said the voice of Major Davis from the steep stairwell as he walked into the briefing room. "I just received word from the 301, apparently, when the missiles cooked off they detached and collided with the craft…life support was damaged."
"How long do they have?" asked Hammond grimly.
"Twelve hours," stated Davis, "we can maybe get that to fifteen hours if they conserve power by switching off non-essential systems."
"Then we have half that to modify the MEV, considering we still have to fly halfway across the solar system," said Harry.
"Ambassador, Major Carter, you have a go."
88888888888888888888888888
The Stargate had been fired up in record time and ten minutes later Harry and Sam stepped out of the Seaworld Stargate.
"Wow," said Sam, staring at the natural beauty of the island around her, despite the fact that they were pressed for time.
"My exact sentiment when I saw this for the first time," said Harry with a grin. He raised a jewel device in his hand and sent a mental command. He and Major Carter were enveloped in two columns of white light and vanished from the island. They materialized in a corridor within the underwater lab complex and immediately began walking down it, with Sam following Harry's lead.
"We're underwater," stated Sam as they passed a window with a breathtaking view of underwater seascape.
"Yes, this entire complex is submerged," said Harry as they finally came to a stop next to a large door. Harry pressed the jewel next to the door and it parted to reveal a very large room beyond; it was easily fifty meters in length, width and ten meters in height and was lit brightly, various control pedestals and workstations were scattered across the perimeter of the room. What caught the eye though was what Sam assumed was the MEV; and she immediately judged Harry as correct in saying that the Asgard did not design the ship.
The MEV looked roughly like someone had taken a twenty two foot diameter (the width of the mouth of a Stargate) cylinder and cut it out at a twenty five degree angle, the hull was bronze colored and grooves ran all along the cylindrical hull that went up and down in right angles. The front of the ship had a large forward viewport and she could vaguely see two seats in the darkened interior of the vessel, no doubt for pilot and co-pilot.
"Where are the engines?" she asked, looking for anything that looked remotely like a sublight engine.
"They are hidden within two extendable nacelles that pop out of the rear hull when the ship is in flight," said Harry and they walked forward towards the MEV. Sam could now see what looked like writing, located in a band underneath the forward viewport…it was…she gasped.
"It's a ship of the Ancients," she said in awe.
"I knew it wouldn't take you long," said Harry with a grin. "Yes, the Ancients used these craft to explore and do surveillance on worlds they had seeded with life."
"How did you find it?" said Sam, running her hands across the seamless hull in fascination.
"That's a rather long story, something we don't have time for," he gently reminded her. Sam pulled her hand away from the MEV as though scalded and turned to Harry with a determined look.
"So what do we do?"
Harry gestured her to follow and they walked around the craft to the rear, where Harry pushed a button and large rear section of the hull opened smoothly to form a boarding ramp that allowed access into the darkened interior of the MEV. Harry walked into the rear compartment and the ship immediately responded happily to his presence and the lights came on. Sam followed nervously but her eyes roved around and took in everything she saw.
Harry reached up to the roof of the rear compartment and pulled open a panel, exposing clear squarely cut crystals, slotted perfectly into grooves within, the crystals glowed with an inner blue light which seemed to flow through them, nearly like blood through the veins of the body.
"These are the master control conduits of the MEV, something you are going to quickly become acquainted with over the next few hours," said Harry, gesturing to the crystals. The next moment a black curved Asgard control panel with a seamlessly attached transporter module and a programming tablet materialized on the seats that faced each other in the rear compartment. Harry picked up the tablet and began tapping.
"Now, as I said on Earth, the Asgard and Ancient systems are not compatible, which means I have to design an interface from scratch," said Harry, he stood and pulled out a lead of what looked like flexible fiber optic wire and attached it to one of the control conduits. "What I need you to do is reroute certain control pathways when I tell you to, not before, understand?" She nodded. Harry reached into the conduits and pulled another fiber optic wire out of and handed it to Sam. "This is what you'll use, see the tip?" She nodded. "That is the tool you'll use, to reroute, you simple touch a pathway with it and draw it towards where you want to go on the crystal. I'll give you instructions on what to do and when."
Harry began to focus in earnest now and his hands danced on the tablet. "Ok, find the top left crystal."
"Got it."
"The pathway is currently traveling at a forty five degree angle, I want you to move it to eighty two degrees relative to the base of the crystal." Sam did so and there was a slight tweeping sound to come from the crystal. "Good, that's perfect." Harry began typing again. They continued in this fashion for nearly two hours. Harry would program, then give Sam instructions on what to reroute and how.
"I'm sorry," said Sam eventually, shaking her head, "I know we're pressed for time, but I just have to know what I'm accomplishing here, I've lost count of the amount of pathways I've adjusted."
"You're adjusting the power source of the MEV," said Harry, his hands never ceasing their tapping. "More specifically, the frequency output, you realize just how much power is required to turn a person into a matter-energy stream, now while the MEV has more than enough for it, the power itself isn't compatible with the Asgard transporter module."
"So I'm trying to make the power of the MEV more palatable for the transporter module," concluded Sam, "while you're designing a software interface for the two systems."
"Correct," said Harry with a grin. "And I think we're ready to run our first test, my interface program seems to be holding, the module is accepting input from the MEVs sensors. Now, I'll be piloting the MEV, you'll have to operate the transporter, so head over to the module," she did as instructed and sat down next to the obsidian black module, "the largest jewel controls co-ordinates in the three Cartesian axes of space so simply move it towards your target and program destination coordinates after fixing the point of origin."
"Got it," said Sam, moving the jewels and the small display on the module lit up. "What am I targeting?"
"We need to simulate bio-matter transport, so please focus your targeting scanner two levels down, and towards the northwest of the complex, there is a small kitchen, choose what you want to eat and initiate transport."
"The sensors on this thing are amazing," said Sam with wide eyes. "How about this…"
A small column of white light flashed on the floor between the seats and resolved to form a puddle of unrecognizable goo that immediately began to disintegrate in front of their eyes.
"And that was supposed to be…?" asked Harry lightly.
"I targeted what looked like a bacon egg sandwich," said Sam with a disgusted expression on her face. Harry raised his own jewel device and the mess vanished instantly.
"At least we solved the power problem, otherwise the transporter wouldn't have even engaged or at worse…exploded," said Harry with a happy go lucky grin and turned back to the tablet to find the flaw in the interface program.
"You're saying we could have just been incinerated?" said Sam with a gulp.
"Yes," said Harry in an unconcerned fashion. Over the next hour they performed another three transports…each one turning into a puddle of primordial goo instead of edible food. It got to the point where Harry grabbed another computer tablet, loaded a translation program and had Sam help with the programming.
"By the Infinite Universe! What is the problem?" growled Harry in angry frustration, three further unsuccessful transports and two hours later; shaking the tablet computer as if it was a person he was throttling around the neck.
"What if the systems are just too incompatible?" suggested Sam. "I mean, the amount of technological development between the transporter module and the tech that makes up the MEV must be at least thousands of years apart."
"But a lot of the Asgard tech we know today was developed in conjunction with the Ancients when they were still around," countered Harry in turn. "The systems should work together."
"Perhaps, but we would need a lot more time than six hours, of which we have already used five," said Sam grimly.
"So what do you suggest?"
"What if, instead of designing an interface program between the two systems, we wipe the Asgard software clean and use the MEVs Ancient software as a basis, and load it into the transporter module," suggested Sam.
"Ah, I see where you're going with this," said Harry with a jubilant grin. "Of course since the MEV wasn't designed to have a transporter, we'd need…"
"…an Ancient transportation program," they chorused together.
"Like that which governs a Stargate…"
"…no Ring transporter, we'd just need to patch the software to allow remote transportation," said Harry triumphantly. "You start erasing the Asgard program…I'll be back with what we need." Harry was consumed in a column of white light and vanished. Sam hurried and got busy deleting the software on the module…while not as simple as formatting a hard drive, she eventually found a way to delete the program by causing a recursive feedback loop in the programming.
Harry returned in a flash of white light and held a crystal in his hand. "This is master program crystal of a Ring transporter," he said and kneeled next to the obsidian black module and ran his finger along its side. There was a beep and a panel opened to reveal the glowing innards of the module…he moved his jewel device to point within (sticking ones fingers into those circuits was not advisable), the now blank Asgard control crystal came floating out and the Ring crystal went in.
"Ok," said Harry heaving a relieved sigh as the crystal was accepted. It did not bear thinking if that crystal had touched a neighboring conduit carrying power. He shut the panel and began to tap on the controls of the module as fast as he could…writing the program patch. Sam had nothing to do for this part, and had taken to pacing up and down in the cramped compartment.
Ten minutes before their self imposed six-hour deadline Harry tapped a button and stopped.
"What?" said Sam urgently.
"I think I've got it," said Harry in near disbelief.
"Well, try to beam something," snapped Sam. Harry nodded and moved the appropriate jewel and a few moments later the whining hum of the transporter was heard and a perfect tuna sandwich materialized on the seat. Sam approached it and picked it up, poking it with her finger and feeling to see if anything was missing or wrong with it…satisfied she bit into it.
"Good," nodded Sam with a grin.
"So what do you say we go rescue some stranded pilots?" asked Harry rhetorically and entered the forward compartment for the first time and it lit up, allowing Sam to see it for the first time. The first thing that caught her eye was the prominent Stargate dialing device, situated between the two pilots seats and merging ergonomically and seamlessly with the forward control panels. All thirty nine Stargate symbols were there.
Harry flung himself into the left seat and it slid forward towards the control panel; Sam couldn't see how you could control an obviously complex craft such as this with no buttons at all, for there were none whatsoever on the control console…merely seamless 'plastic' for lack of a better word…there was no pilots yoke, or throttle, no altimeter…nothing.
She uncertainly got into the co-pilots seat and observed Harry as he simply placed his hands on the clear plastic in front of him and it immediately lit up a bright blue under his hands. The rear compartment door abruptly raised itself and sealed. Sam heard the strange whine of the engines engage and the MEV lifted off the floor. She was startled as she suddenly heard a different mechanical sounding whine that was much more deeper than the engines, which abruptly stopped.
"Don't worry, that's just the engine nacelles extending," said Harry, his eyes looking strangely unfocused. Abruptly another noise was heard from above and Sam watched in astonishment as the roof retracted above them to show swirling ocean that was being held back only by a flaring gold force field of some kind. The MEV tilted upwards slightly and abruptly shot forward and into the ocean, not two seconds later they broke through the surface and rapidly ascended into the air.
And in all this, Harry had not moved a single muscle to pilot the craft. The answer to this hit Sam soon afterward.
"You're flying this ship with your mind?" she concluded with wide amazed eyes.
"Something like that," grinned Harry. The MEV began a swooping turn towards the main island that housed the Stargate. "Ok, Major, we're in range, the Stargate will accept commands, begin dialing." Sam was unused to the layout, so took much longer to dial than she normally would with a standard DHD.
Harry brought the MEV to a hover twenty meters in front of the Stargate as the subspace path was established with the 'kawoosh' of the unstable vortex. Sam brought out her GDO and entered her iris code, the GDO flashed green. She now talked into a hand radio.
"SGC, this is Major Carter, come in," said Sam.
"Major, this is Hammond, sitrep," crackled the radio.
"The Ambassador and I were successful, we're hovering in the MEV just in front of the Stargate, I recommend you evacuate any personnel within the gate room," said Sam into the radio.
"Understood, we've also retracted the roof and stand ready to open the silo door, however, a concern has been raised over whether the MEV would be seen or detected once it left the mountain," said Hammond.
"Tell the General, that MEVs have cloaking devices, and I'll engage it just before we ascend out of the mountain," said Harry. Sam nodded and relayed the message.
"Understood," said Hammond, "the gate room is clear, you have a go. See you soon."
Harry focused and the engine nacelles retracted into the hull and the MEV trusted forward and into the event horizon. He briefly experienced the disembodied feeling of Stargate travel and regained awareness just in time to halt the forward momentum of the ship before it crashed into the large windowpane of the control room. It was quite funny to see the gawping faces of the technicians staring at them. General Hammond had started for a moment as the MEV surged through the event horizon but composed himself in moments, while Daniel just stared wide eyed.
Harry waved nonchalantly at the control room and engaged the cloaking field. The MEV shimmered briefly and disappeared from view…the only thing betraying its location was the sound of its engines resonating through the cramped gate room. He 'ordered' the MEV to rise in a vertical ascent, up beyond where the 'roof' of the gate room normally was and into the dimly lit silo that used to house Ballistic Missiles for testing. Occasional scaffolding passed every few meters as they ascended but there was more than enough clearance for the craft. Harry paused below the massive solid reinforced concrete door that made up the lid of the silo.
"General, we're below the silo doors now," reported Sam into her radio.
"Understood, silo door is opening…now," said Hammond's voice. The was a whine of machinery and gears and the door parted to open up into the cool night air with the half-moon bathing the area with its soft light and the stars twinkling down. When the door was fully open Harry moved the MEV further until they had totally cleared the mountain.
"We're clear," reported Sam and immediately the silo door closed again. This was done because despite the end of the Cold War, the Intelligence business was still alive and kicking, and more than a few Russian and Chinese Intel gathering spy satellites still hovered the skies looking down on American defense sites…such as NORAD…for unusual activity. The silo doors briefly opening and closing could be explained away as mere maintenance on the mechanisms.
Harry extended the nacelles and the invisible MEV shot upward into the sky on an escape trajectory. Not twenty seconds later they emerged into space. Harry's mind brought up a forward holographic scanner display of the Solar System.
"Ok," mumbled Harry examining the sensor feed. "The 301 is here," he pointed to a relatively slow moving dot, blinking just beyond Saturn's orbital path.
"What's their speed?" asked Sam, squinting at the hologram that nearly dominated the entire forward view.
"It seems the failed missile burn slowed them down a little bit," reported Harry, scrutinizing the scrolling Alteran text. "They're doing four hundred and ten kilometers per second."
"What's the maximum sublight speed of this ship?"
"About fifteen thousand kilometers per second, so don't worry, we'll reach them in time," said Harry with a smile. "I've plotted an intercept course," the intended course appeared on the hologram, "I don't want to strain the engines too much…so at ten thousand kilometers per second we should reach them in…five hours, thirty nine minutes and two seconds."
The hologram screen disappeared and Harry turned the MEV on the intended course and switched it to autopilot, allowing him to remove his hands from the interface console.
Now there was nothing to do but wait. A few minutes of complete silence reigned with only the harmonic hum of the engines in the background noise. Sam broke it first with a question that had been on her mind since she learned how the MEV was operated.
"Would it be possible for me to pilot this ship?"
"I don't know," said Harry honestly, he didn't know if Sam had an Alteran as a distant ancestor or if she was evolved enough as a human/Terran to exhibit the unique physiology required. "But there is an easy way to find out." He placed his hands back on the interface pads, just in case Sam did have the ability to use Alteran technology and unknowingly ordered the ship to do a lot of crazy and weird things with her uncontrolled thoughts.
"How?" she asked curious.
"Place your hands like mine on the interface panel," he instructed. She bit her lip and hesitantly rested her hands on the panel…it remained dark and unpowered. "Sorry Major," said Harry sincerely. Sam looked extremely let down and nearly insulted. Harry had an inkling of why the latter was the case.
"Don't be offended Major, it's not a measure of mental capacity as to whether it will work or not," explained Harry.
"Then what is required?" she asked, looking slightly mollified.
"Remember, that this is a ship built by the Ancients, and it stands to reason that they would want certain dangerous or advanced technologies only to be operable by their own kind," said Harry seriously.
"What!" said Sam in astonishment, nearly jumping out of her seat. "You mean, you're a…you're…"
"Major! Sam!" snapped Harry to get her back to reality. She settled back into her seat with a slightly awed expression and looked more coherent. "No, despite what I just said, I am not a true Ancient."
"Why?" said Sam, her mind was still racing and she seemed stuck for the moment in single word questions.
"The true Ancients…those that lived millions of years ago and moved on from this Galaxy when they had outgrown it…eventually, for some reason I don't know yet, were forced to return to the Milky Way and for some reason decided to scatter around Earth and other parts of their ancient homes in this Galaxy. Now, this was about ten thousand years ago. The Ancients lived among humans for a time and once enough civilization had entered the psyche of humanity…the Ancients walked more openly and eventually, nearly inevitably…some of them fell in love…can you see where this is going?"
"There are unknowing descendants of Ancients living on Earth, and you're one of them," concluded Sam. "Another reason you were abducted I assume?"
"Indeed," nodded Harry with a grin. "But even if you couldn't trace an Ancient among your distant ancestors, it's possible that you could…as a Terran…have evolved the ability to interface with the MEV."
"And just how is that possible?" said Sam shrewdly. "The statistical chances of it are..."
"That's simple…you see…the humanity you know and are part of…is the second evolution of this form, the Ancients being the first…"
"Ok," said Sam holding her hands up in mock surrender. "Don't say anything else, explain fully when Daniel is here to listen…he'll love to hear it as well."
"He's welcome to listen, he merely need ask," said Harry with a shrug.
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The MEV decloaked.
Through the forward viewport Harry could see the 301 rapidly growing bigger. Soon enough the MEV came to a relative stop to the starboard side of the glider. Harry ordered the ship to open a radio frequency to the glider.
"You can speak."
"Digger 1, this is Digger 2, please respond," said Sam. Harry brought up a scan of the 301 and frowned at the results.
"It looks like Teal'C has entered a Kel-No-Reem meditative state to conserve oxygen and the Colonel is unconscious and seems to be in the early stages of carbon dioxide poisoning," reported Harry. Sam got out of the co-pilots seat and headed to the transporter module. A few moments later the shimmering whine of the transporter was heard and Harry saw the motionless forms of Teal'C and Jack disappear from the cockpit of the 301.
There was a flash of light. Teal'C and Jack appeared within the MEV, and fell awkwardly to the small floorspace between the rear seats. It was enough to jar Teal'C awake and the big Jaffa heaved great gulps of fresh air.
"Major Carter, Ambassador Harry," greeted Teal'C when he was able to. "Your arrival is timely. Little oxygen remained." Jack was also jarred awake by the transport and looked totally out of it for a moment as he struggled to regain his equilibrium.
"Hey Carter, nice ship," said Jack, "bit cramped."
"Well, it's either that or suffocate, Colonel," said Harry sarcastically, walking into the rear compartment. "So what do you both say to going home?"
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