Conference Room, Atlantis, Pegasus Galaxy
"We've received a new directive from the STO Council yesterday," General Theron tented her hands on the large table and looked at her command staff. "They want to maximise the use of the Earth ZPM; as such, barring strategic emergencies, from now on we will only be receiving resupply wormholes every month, instead of weekly. This means that we have to be more self-sufficient."
"What about wormholes from us?" Colonel MacTavish asked with a frown.
"That remains unchanged, once a week we establish a connection with Earth for data exchange and any personnel that must return for whatever reason arises. So, as Napoleon said, 'An army marches on its stomach'; we need to establish our own food production."
"To that end, Earth has shipped through seedlings of the plants that produce the major foodgroups, not to mentions tons of fertile soil, a team of farmers and all the equipment that goes with them."
"Can Atlantis even have a farm?" Major Sheppard asked incredulously.
"Of course," Captain Herodotus was nonplussed, "how did you think we fed ourselves during the last Wraith Siege ten thousand years ago?"
"I thought you used some type of artificial matter synthesis, working from pure energy…oh."
"As Major Sheppard has finally realized," Herodotus said amused, "we needed all of Atlantis' power for its defences and couldn't spare any for food synthesis. Hence, that's why the south-east pier has large depressed sections and not a lot of buildings…soil can be deposited there and there are already irrigation, fertilizer and solar energy systems in place. Now we don't have the Wraith pounding on the City Shield, so theoretically could use the food synthesis systems, but it would represent a marked increase in power consumption to provide food three times a day for over fifteen hundred people. So this has to be done the more traditional and conservative way."
"My people wish to begin contributing to Atlantis," Teyla announced at this point, "they are starting to feel…I believe the Earth term is…cabin fever. While the children are in the…academy you have recently started, their parents are becoming weary of the inactivity."
"You wish them to work in food production?" General Theron raised her eyebrows.
"It is something they can do very well, and perhaps they can learn more from your own farmers."
"Very well," Theron's lips thinned, "however, emphasise that it is their choice to work on the farm. If they don't wish to I'm sure we can find something productive for them to participate in and agree on some form of acceptable remuneration."
"Thank you, General."
"Projections indicate that the soonest we can harvest will be four months," Herodotus looked at his Tablet PC. "We're looking at a food shortage at that rate."
"That's why I'm ordering our teams to approach local Pegasus human populations to trade with for food." Theron turned to Teyla. "Do you know of any planets that can help us?"
"I know of perhaps four worlds, all my people have done trading with them before and they should be amenable to us. The most promising I think would be the Genii, but…"
"Is there a problem Teyla?"
She looked tentatively at everyone in the room. "As a people the Genii are very cautious and wary, a necessity in the Pegasus Galaxy. Their trust was hard earned on my part, I would have to approach them openly, without the alien disguise and we must go on foot…the Puddle Jumper would alarm them."
Everyone exchanged worried glances. Finally General Theron spoke up, "Are you willing to be openly identified as having knowledge of us? If that were to get back to the Wraith…"
"I understand the risks," Teyla nodded. "But a mission to the Genii would not succeed without it."
"Very well, give those gate addresses to Colonel MacTavish, thank you, Teyla."
Genii Homeworld, Pegasus Galaxy
John Sheppard and his team emerged from the local Stargate to find themselves in an area that could be straight out of the farmlands of the US; flat grassland as far as the eye could see that was only broken up by clumps and on occasion orderly rows of green trees that divided the fields from each other. The brisk sun overhead was blazing down on the distant crops that were just in view.
He glanced at his team and had to resist the urge to order Teyla to cover her exposed head.
"Alright, Teyla…where to?"
"We should allow them to come to us…"
"If you know where the village is…shouldn't we…" John proposed.
"They are a simple people and as I said, their trust was hard earned." She said reassuringly.
"Okay," John conceded reluctantly.
"What is it you said they grew here anyway?" Rodney turned around curiously, surveying the area.
"Many things, but they are best known for a bean known as Tava."
"How do they even know we're here anyway?" Ford pointed out.
"They already do," Teyla gestured to a nearby row of trees, from where a man and woman appeared, dressed in the rugged apparel of country farmers; the man with thick trousers, overalls and boots, whilst his younger companion wore a long heavy dress with white apron over it. Both looked very fit and had a kind of grim air about them that tweaked at John's senses.
"They look friendly enough," he commented wryly.
"The eldest one is Tirus," Teyla explained. "I have traded with him on many occasions."
The man in question and his younger female companion stopped a few meters away and in greeting said, "Teyla Emmagan."
"Tirus," she grinned, "it has been many days."
"Too many," Tirus acknowledged.
"Teyla," greeted the woman. John saw Teyla's smile become rather forced at that point.
"Sora," she nodded. "These are a people I have come to know well and trust. They are explorers to our Galaxy and call themselves Terrans. This is Major Sheppard, Doctor McKay and Lieutenant Ford."
"Rare to see such an advanced alien people here," commented Tirus.
"It seems so," agreed John.
"They have come to trade a share of your crops," Teyla explained, getting to the point.
"Yet you bring weapons," Sora pointed to the PR8s.
"Only to defend ourselves," Ford countered.
"You wear their dress and carry their weapons of your own accord?" Tirus asked suspiciously.
"Of course…why?" Teyla frowned.
"He wants to know if you work with us…or for us," John explained knowingly, he hoped the voice distorter didn't blur his tone.
"Ah…These are my friends, Tirus. I would not have brought them if I did not think them worthy to become yours."
"We'll take you to see Kalan," Tirus looked meaningfully at Sora.
"Follow me," the younger Genii said, and lead them away from the Stargate, Tirus stayed behind to take the rear. Rodney fell into step next to John and activated the private team link.
"Maybe we should offer a sense of humor in trade," he laughed.
"Sure, they can have yours," John retorted with amusement.
"Ah, ah ha ha ha, oh please my side…you slay me…what the!…"
"What is it?" John asked, seeing that Rodney had visibly hesitated a step before shaking himself and continuing on.
"Uh, Teyla said these people were just simple farmers, an Agrarian Civ, didn't she?"
"Yes…so?"
"Well, my AI just informed me that it detected a radio transmission…from Tirus."
"What?" John mentally asked his own AI and it confirmed. "I didn't see a radio on him?"
"Which means it must be very small, you know what that implies?"
"The Genii are not what they seem."
The team was led into a wooden house of what seemed to be traditional construction, yet was at the moment flung open and rather airy, so that light spilled in from all sides and to allow the cool breeze to sweep through. The four of them sat on the opposite side of table from Kalan. He also wore rugged clothes, but these were not for farming; had John not been wise to it, he would've sworn Kalan had just came out of a saloon in the Old West.
The fact that they had EM radio meant that the Genii were clearly 'pretending' to not be as advanced as they were. Something which John knew was rather prudent in the Pegasus Galaxy when it came to avoiding the Wraith. He had debated with himself on whether to call Kalan on it; but since he was the 'Leader' of the Genii, that would not be a good idea. The Genii valued their privacy, just as they did their own; if he violated that there was no telling what the locals would do to maintain that secret.
So John had made the decision and through the team link told the other to play along, unfortunately, Teyla was none the wiser at the moment and had to be kept that way.
"And these medicines are cold?" Kalan's somewhat chubby face frowned in confusion under his short curly hair.
"It's just an expression," Rodney explained. "They are capable of stopping bacterial infections entirely."
"It will help us through a harsh winter…" Sora conceded.
"Mmmmm…we will need more than you offer," Kalan eventually declared, his eyes pensive.
"More?" John said a bit incredulously.
"I don't think you understand what a difference this medicine will make," Ford pointed out.
"Well…leave if you wish then," Kalan smirked.
"I thought you said the Genii were fair traders," John grumbled at Teyla.
"We have always been able to achieve a…reasonable bargain," she replied delicately.
"You ask for…much of our harvest. New crops will have to be planted in sufficient quantities to replenish our stores…or it is the Genii who will starve. That amount of planting will require new land to be cleared. Clearing more land is slow, hard work and it will lose us an amount of growing time…between now…and the next harvest season," Kalan explained stoutly.
"I see," John nodded but then an idea occurred to him. "But what if clearing land was fast and easy?"
Kalan and Tirus laughed.
"I suspect you do have such ways of easily removing the stump of a three hundred year old tree, but are there any that would be within our reach to use and comprehend?"
"As a matter of fact, we do."
8888888888888888
John watched as Lieutenant Ford calmly and professionally stuck a hand sized block of C4 onto a large stump just a few hundred meters away from the Genii village. The team, Kalan, Tirus, Sora and small crowd of others were at a safe distance waiting for the demonstration. Finally Ford seemed satisfied with the placement of the explosives, carefully pushed a detonator into the C4 and armed it, where immediately it started to flash tiny red LEDs to warn that it was active.
Ford jogged back fluidly.
"You will need to cover your ears!" John called to everyone.
"I don't understand," Kalan shook his head.
"It'll be quite loud," John nodded at Ford who materialized his remote detonator. "Come on…you're gonna wish you did," he encouraged, as the people hesitantly propped fingers into their ears. "Lieutenant, by all means."
"Yes, sir!" Ford's alien visage grinned noticeably behind his helmet and lifted the safety catch. "Fire in the hole!"
Everyone besides the Terrans flinched at the sudden and rapid BOOM that reverberated everywhere…the explosion blossomed oddly due to the stump initially channelling the rapidly expanding gasses but the old natural structure couldn't take it for more than a moment and was transformed into kindling and small splinters of wood that streaked in every direction.
The villagers all stared in shock as the smoke cleared with pieces of shattered wood still raining down for a few seconds afterwards. The stump was gone, as were most of the deep roots.
"It's called C4," Ford explained with satisfaction, closing his remote detonator and putting it back in his suit's matter storage.
"If you can supply us with sufficient quantity of C4," Kalan said eventually, his eyes eager. "We will supply you with the crop you require."
"So, this instead of medicine?" John asked for clarification.
"As well as the medicine."
"Really? That wasn't impressive enough?" He gestured to the small crater where the stump had been.
"It is you who are in need," Kalan reiterated.
John thought about this for a moment. "I'll need to discuss this with my people."
"I'm sure we can come to terms. Teyla! Thank you for bringing us these new trading partners. Please…stay as our guests. There will be a harvest ceremony later…"
"Wonderful," Teyla nodded with a pleased smile as the villagers walked back to their daily lives.
"Ford…" John turned to the young Lieutenant.
"Sir?"
"We're talking harvest ceremony, you up to it?"
"Sounds like fun, sir."
"I'll be back soon, Rodney you're with me," he nodded at the scientist, before heading off in the direction of the Stargate.
Commander's Office, Stargate Ops, Atlantis
"So let me get this straight," General Theron drummed her fingers on the desk thoughtfully. "These farmers, who we aren't sure, are actually farmers, want medicine and a veritable truckload of C4 for the express purpose of clearing stumps…in trade for a percentage of their crop."
"That's the bottom line, yes ma'am," John nodded.
"What did you make of that radio signal you picked up, Dr McKay?"
"I've, uh, analyzed it and it seems fairly advanced, it was a modulated digital frequency, had a one twenty eight bit encryption…I easily brute forced it with our hardware…" Rodney tapped his Tablet PC and a voice that John recognized as Tirus' spoke. 'Bring in the men, all operations to silent mode.' "That's all there was."
"Well, it seems the Genii are playing at smoke and mirrors, that transmission had military radio discipline all over it," she deduced immediately. "What do you think, Major?"
"There's a possibility they might just be using the radio's second hand, and don't really know how to make their own…Teyla has that laser lighter and the Athosians sure as a sunrise didn't make that gizmo."
"Quite right," conceded Theron. "This just doesn't feel like it though…the attitude in that voice, that was not just some farmer speaking on a gizmo he doesn't understand."
"Hmmm, they didn't really have the right…feel of a farmer," Rodney commented absently.
"And just how would a real farmer feel, Dr McKay?" Theron's lips twitched in amusement.
"Uh…ah…I-I wouldn't really know, it's just Kalan…oh well," Rodney sighed, visibly unburdening himself, "I've started to get flashes of Telepathy or Legillim…whatever…and uh, I got the distinct impression that Kalan wasn't just after the C4 for stump clearing."
"Does Dr Granger know?" Theron asked sharply.
"Yeah, I went to her a week ago, been getting lessons to control it."
"Good," she turned back to John, "Major, tell the Genii we agree to the trade, but I think we must do some undetected recon into this situation as well."
Genii Homeworld
She exited the Stargate barely a moment after Major Shepard and Dr McKay, she was both invisible and intangible without using any of her own power; thanks to a modified Tollan phase shift device stuck to her shoulder. She quickly stepped away from the event horizon and calmly watched as the Gate disengaged and the two men headed back to the Genii village.
She raised her Hand Scanner and began to sweep for any radio signals or indication of power signatures. No radio signals but a there was a faint trace of…gamma radiation?
Orientating herself in its direction she began walking towards it.
Fifteen minutes later she was standing outside a small hut just outside a copse of trees. She walked straight through the door and regarded a straw covered floor. To one corner the straw was piled up to hip height. The faint gamma rays were coming from inside it. She tapped her Phase device, deactivating her intangibility, and then made a sweeping gesture with her hand…
The straw was abruptly swept away.
'Ah ha,' she thought.
A steel hatch, surrounded by concrete was jutting out of the earth. A glance at her Scanner showed that there was trip switch that would no doubt tell a central system that the hatch opened. No problem. Stepping onto the hatch, she activated her intangibility but manipulated the field towards her feet briefly enough so that gravity pulled her through the hatch, and just as quickly renormalized it so she landed on the floor two meters beneath it.
She tuned the vision systems in her chromesuit to work in the infrared spectrum and regarded a structurally advanced bunker. Her scanner was now picking up neutron radiation as well, coming from a powerful energy source.
'These Genii are quickly climbing up the tech tree,' she mused.
Walking down the long corridor, she walked through another steel door, and again the rad level increased…she was infinitely glad that the chromesuit was greatly capable of protecting her from ionizing radiation. She went down a long flight of winding stairs and walked through another door and gasped.
Beyond was a huge subterranean cavern with various buildings ranging in height from single floor to fifteen, which towered all the way to the rocky ceiling, people were milling about moving from building to building, seemingly going about their daily lives.
An entire subterranean human society.
'Oh the General is gonna love this.'
Conference Room, Stargate Ops, Atlantis
"They're building an atomic bomb," Dr. Hermione Granger said simply to the assembled Command staff. "Or should I say, more like attempting it."
"Hence their reason for wanting so much C4," Colonel MacTavish scowled.
"How close are they?" Dr McKay asked curiously.
"I'm not exactly a nuclear physicist," Hermione pointed out, "you can look at the footage my Chromesuit AI recorded, but I think they're running into super-criticality problems and their methods for Uranium enrichment need a lot of work. Not to mention they don't seem to yet understand the long-term effects of ionizing radiation – their shielding was woefully inadequate, I doubt their scientists will survive long enough to see the project to its end."
"Did you uncover their objective in building the atomic weapon?" Herodotus asked seriously.
"They want to deliver the bombs to sleeping Wraith ships that are on the ground."
"There are two obvious and big problems with that," General Theron pointed out. "They'd need Wraith ship locations and the Wraith aren't sleeping anymore. Did you see any indication that they possessed spacecraft?"
"No," Hermione shook her head. "From what I saw and deduced from their minds is that their true scientific and technological understanding is roughly where Earth was in the Fourties. However, they did know the location of one Wraith Hive; Intelligence which they apparently got from a salvaged Dart's data module that they shot down…and yes, I scanned it and have a copy."
Theron smirked at Hermione's forethought and pre-empting the question that had been on the tip of MacTavish' tongue. "All right, we now know the general situation. We have a subterranean society of humans in the early stages of their own Manhattan Project, what are your thoughts? Do we help them overtly?"
"They'll not think the world of us, blowing their secrecy," MacTavish shook his head. "It's their way of life, their shield against the Wraith. From the sounds of Dr Granger's report, I doubt they'll be above killing to protect their secret."
"What about covert help?"
"That's possible," Dr McKay pointed out. "We could infiltrate again and give the scientists some sort of subtle hint to get them going the right direction."
"That would not be wise," Herodotus disagreed, "accelerating their atomic program will not achieve anything if they have no reliable delivery means. They still think the Wraith are in hibernation...they'll be captured in the attempt to deliver their bomb and then the Genii's true development level is revealed and they will be completely exterminated. As it is, the C4 will have already sped up the program to an extent."
"What about at least warning them of the new Wraith disposition?" Hermione proposed.
"Wraith technology in a broad sense is inferior to our own, but they can and will detect the same radiation signature you found Dr Granger," Herodotus said darkly. "That is the best option I see and it will at least preserve the Genii culture until our own plans against the Wraith can come to fruition."
"I agree," Theron nodded. "Though I think we can do a little bit more…one of our cloaked COSUS satellites in orbit and we provide the Genii with a secure access terminal. That should also give them ample warning time of approaching Wraith ships from space as well."
"That'd give 'em a chance," nodded MacTavish. "We'd have to communicate with them from the Briseus in hologram form, to remove the temptation to attack us."
"It's decided, make it happen."
8888888888888888888
Interstellar Space, 2000 LY Rimward of Terra, Milky Way
Apollo was a ship that had been designed firmly with the notion that space was a three dimensional plain where there was no up, down, left or right, and that such concepts only belonged on a planet. No matter which angle on the three Cartesian planes you approached the warship from there would always be a weapon staring you in the face, ready to atomize you for so much as daring to look at the ship in the wrong way.
Which was why, when the Aschen cruiser dropped out of a Hyperspace window ten thousand kilometres negative z-axis from the Apollo that all her ventral Neutron cannons had hard targeting solutions on the enemy ship in an instant.
When the Tollan engineers on Luna had been approached with the data behind the weak performance of the standard particle cannons against Anubis refit Goa'uld shielding, they looked at it for an hour and simply declared that it wasn't a matter of the weapon itself but more what it was firing.
It seemed a paradoxical concept at first. It was an energy weapon after all, but from another point of view it was just like a much more sophisticated rail gun. It did fire objects with mass out of it after all…on the subatomic scale of course. So the engineers decided to look towards the most powerful energy source on the ship…the two NAMA Fusion Reactors, and designed a weapon that could channel the high energy neutrons that they released towards the particle throwers without having to go through the complicated conversion processes that most normal ship systems required.
Colonel Ellis had debated with himself for a few brief seconds on whether or not to start these negotiations by making the token effort of sending a message to the Aschen cruiser asking their intentions and making Terra's wish for peaceful coexistence known to them. He dismissed the idea in a second…most of the world hadn't wanted to coexist with Hitler in the Fourties, and Ellis doubted any Terran citizen would hesitate to push the big red button on the Aschen in a second after all the facts were put on the table.
"Open fire as she bears," he ordered.
Apollo sent sixteen beams of contained Fusion neutron energy all at once into the Aschen ship, to the eye; it had looked like Apollo had just drawn thick neon yellow lines to connect it to the enemy cruiser, whose shields flared violently as it struggled to bleed off the energy and resist penetration.
It managed…just, but lost almost forty percent integrity in their shield matrix in the process. It responded by turning as fast as possible to bring its fore energy weapon armament to bear and sent bolt after bolt of green omicron radiation streaking towards the Apollo.
The Terran ship had not been idle and didn't just sit around to take this incoming punishment on it own shields. Apollo had completed a snap-roll to present all the dorsal cannons, allowing the ventral Neutron cannons to cool down, whilst its Phalanx Interceptor Grid came online.
Here the true power of quantum computing was finally realized. The Interceptor sensors tracked every single bolt of incoming energy, calculated its respective course and impact point on Apollo…all within a less than a microsecond and orientated an optimally located gattling Plasma cannon to fire a stream of specifically tuned phase modulated bolts into the path of the enemy fire.
It was but one cannon in an entire grid that ran like a network of veins all over the Apollo, and the battlespace between the two ships was deluged in a storm of Plasma fire, with individual bolts roughly the size of a football. Where omicron bolt met plasma, space flared with bursts of uncontrolled energy release.
The Phalanx Grid also had the knock on effect that if a bolt missed, it would still continue on and hit the enemy. It wouldn't do that much relative damage, but it was still the death of a thousand cuts. The rate of Omicron fire from the Aschen quadrupled and it fired more of its own cannon in an attempt to get through. It was only partially successful as a few hits splashed off the Apollo's shields, reducing it to ninety three percent integrity.
Another salvo of Neutron fire leapt across space at relativistic speed, pushing the recovering Aschen shields down to forty percent.
"Roll us around and lets open up the range a bit more, Helm, relative hundred thousand k," Ellis commanded.
"Sir, enemy shields are recharging at a very fast rate, more so than we are capable of," his Science Officer pronounced over the rumble of the Apollo's firing weaponry that transmitted through the hull and bulkheads.
"Understood," Ellis said; his heart racing despite appearing outwardly calm. He peered at the status displays mounted in his own chair. "I want a multi-vector launch of all port missiles. Let's see if that beast has any point defence."
All along the port hull blade of Apollo, fifteen AHM1C missiles launched out and their small gravitic engines ramped up to full acceleration, turning sharply out of the engagement envelope between to two ships, and then arced toward the Aschen cruiser.
The missiles began to jink and weave in erratic patterns relative to the enemy, rapidly closing the distance.
The Cruiser's own Omicron fire was abruptly diverted to engage the missiles; their extremely high energy signatures had almost flash blinded the enemy sensors as they reached their detonation coordinates. Nine of the missiles were intercepted, but their focused Naquadria/Francium cores detonated anyway, creating small brief suns in the battlespace.
The remaining five bracketed the enemy ship and in a move that even had Ellis impressed by its ingenuity; the Cruiser opened a modulated hyperspace window directly in the remaining missiles path that sucked them in like a vacuum cleaner.
Two million kilometres away the missiles reappeared and promptly turned around to head back, but it was futile, their drives burned out and they were turned into ballistic projectiles…the safeties detonated them after their displacement clocks reached a million k.
"Make a note of that defence trick, Weps," Ellis grumbled with reluctant admiration.
"Yes, Sir," the Weapons officer responded as he triggered off another Neutron cannon salvo.
"Enemy shields to twenty percent."
"Fire starboard missile salvo, program half to attack from above, the other from below."
"Yes, sir. Missiles targeting, course laid in…firing and away." More shudders ran through the hull.
"Our shield strength is at sixty percent and falling steadily Colonel. Eighteen percent of incoming fire is making it through the Phalanx envelope."
"Let's hope they can't do that hyperspace defence trick again."
"I doubt they can, Colonel," Harry declared from the Science station, staring intently at the screens. "Not so quickly, anyway."
The Aschen Cruiser turned on a new course that presented its aft section towards Apollo, and started to open the range between the ships ever further. Finally, a single missile made it through its defences, a bright flash heralded its directed detonation into the shields of the Cruiser.
"Their shields are almost down."
The Cruiser promptly vanished into a Hyperspace window. Muted hisses and fists punching the air in celebration followed from the Bridge crew. Harry doubted a commanding officer like Ellis would tolerate more overt ventings of emotion from his crew.
"Did we send them packing?" Ellis asked
"Negative, sir. They're still in sensor range, they made a tactical hyperspace jump straight towards the Nebula we were going to explore," replied the Science Officer, a few moments later and… "They've entered it, Sir."
"Why wouldn't they just stay in Hyperspace and keep going?" the Master and Commander of Apollo mused.
"One reason is that we've lost them on sensors, Colonel," Harry explained. "They're hiding, licking their wounds."
"I think it's more than that, Sir," Major Carter spoke up. "Assuming their Hyperdrive is somewhat comparable to our own, then it was a bit of a gamble to open a Window in the manner they did to swallow our missiles…in the context of a long battle. It could be that they're having re-calibration issues to return the Drive's subspace geometries into a normal alignment to go over their hull. That short jump was probably all they could risk without checking that the geometries are all in alignment."
"So you're telling me they could've killed themselves by going into Hyperspace so soon after doing that HS shield?" Ellis queried with raised eyebrows.
"Spectacularly, sir," she said earnestly. "I doubt there'd be anything left of that ship bigger than my fist."
"Well, whoever that Aschen Captain is, he or she's got a pair," Ellis declared. "Helm, set course for the Nebula, and give me a similar short hop in Hyper to get us there."
"Colonel, I don't think it's a good idea to go into this Nebula after them," Harry shook his head, coming to stand next to the Commander's chair.
"Do you care to elaborate on that assertion, Commodore?"
Harry inwardly bristled at Ellis' emphasis of his rank, not so subtly reminding him that while he outranked the Colonel, he was not Captain of the ship and couldn't order Ellis to actually do anything.
"This Nebula has unknown properties; properties that we now know affects subspace in a manner we haven't determined yet. Blundering into it when we don't how it will possibly affect the ship's systems is not…wise."
"Do I need to remind you Commodore, of the consequences should the Aschen cruiser escape and return with data and knowledge of our ships capabilities, not to mention the fact that the COSUS net exists."
"We should want them to go back with the former, Colonel." Harry retorted. "But their knowledge and scans of our COSUS deployment can't make it back to the Confederation. What I'm saying is we can keep the Apollo at the edge of the Nebula and send one of the spare satellites into the place as a probe. If it isn't affected then we can go in after the Aschen, though only after we've determined that we won't ignite any volatiles firing weapons in there."
Ellis frowned severely for a moment, "You make a good point."
A quick two seconds of Hyperspace was enough to get Apollo to the very edge of the Nebula. Harry, Sam and Apollo's own Science Officer was hard at work using every scanning system the ship had on the Nebula, while the Launch Bay prepared another COSUS sat for launch and modifying its gravitic thrusters, normally used for stationkeeping, to act more in the manner of a missile.
"Any sign the Aschen have left the Nebula?" Ellis asked after a few hours of waiting for the techs to finish.
"None, sir."
"Very well, Launch Bay, deploy our probe."
"Yes, sir."
"We have probe telemetry and control," announced Sam.
The satellite/probe coasted at a leisurely sedate pace of just one G of acceleration and after ten minutes it breached into the Nebula perimeter. They got barely a few seconds of data when…
"Probe telemetry via subspace lost…trying STL radio…hmm, we've got it back," Harry mused on that. He blinked in astonishment at the data it was now sending.
"What?" Sam was baffled. "How is that possible?"
"What is it?" Ellis demanded.
"The probe is stuck," Harry declared.
"Stuck," replied the Colonel flatly.
"Its gravitic thrusters just give me an error, that it can't initialize for an unknown reason, it's also been…stopped, shed all its momentum."
"There's only one way that can happen, seeing as the COSUS sats never needed an inertia dampening system; Newton's Third," Ellis affirmed.
"There could be someone else in the Nebula," the Science Officer theorized.
"Possible, but if they're using any form of STL propulsion similar to our own, they would be stuck too…and if I interpret this data correctly…opening a HS window in there would be bad if not impossible."
"So the Aschen are stuck too?"
"Yes, their Reactionless Drive would do no better," Harry nodded.
"Apollo wouldn't get anywhere then, either," Ellis sighed in frustration. "Can you make heads or tails of this Nebula yet?"
"There are some pretty exotic gasses inside, so exotic that our scanners just spit back 'unknown' at me," Sam folded her arms glaring at the various holoscreens. "It could be a property of one of these gasses that it somehow inhibits major subspace manipulating systems."
"Figure out a way to get us in there and out, that's an order."
Harry and Sam gave each other knowing looks, as they left the Bridge for one of the astro-science labs. "I know we're both in the military," he shook his head in disgust, "but that sort of mindset...complaining about us scientists, shoot first, and when that doesn't work, come running to us…ohhh, it just gets my back up."
"Tell me about it," Sam sighed. "At least you have the flag rank to call the 'brass' on it."
Astro-Physics Lab 2, TSS Apollo
Harry and Sam stood in front one of the large new holo-walls that dominated one side of Astro-physics Lab 2; it was essentially a super-sized holoscreen that also allowed for interactivity with the operators fingers. Their fingers tapped simulated buttons and their hands grabbed other smaller holoscreens to the fore to observe simulations and then just as quickly the other hand would give a wiping gesture and the screen would vanish.
Colonel Ellis entered the Lab and in his wake trailed the rest of SG1.
"It's been six hours, what do you have?"
"What we have…" Harry sighed and gave another wiping gesture to the holowall, following it up by grabbing the form of a virtual file, which exploded in size and displayed a simulation of the Nebula with all sorts of data scrolling in smaller windows at various points.
"Sweet toy," Jack smirked, "should get one for my living room."
Harry gave the man a beady eye "…what we have, is a plan to get in and out of the Nebula."
"I'm sensing a big 'but' at the end of that statement," Ellis observed.
"Yes," Harry nodded. "The gasses in this Nebula are amazing; we're going to have to update the periodic table…again. This stuff would even go straight through our Shields with no problem; their individual particulates are unaffected by graviton distortion. The only way to protect ourselves would be to partially engage the Hyperdrive to encase us in a subspace bubble, only pushing us a few degrees into subspace…we'll be totally unaffected by anything in real space. We can go straight through the Nebula no problem."
"That sounds good," Ellis nodded. "But…"
"We wouldn't be able to fire weapons…" Sam explained. "Neutron and Plasma energy would disrupt the integrity of the subspace bubble, the same goes for missiles. We'd re-emerge into normal space in the middle of the Nebula."
"Not to mention I doubt it'd be happy with us literally fighting in its belly," Harry crossed his arms and flashed a glare Sam's way.
"Its?" A chorus of astonished replies came from Daniel, Ellis and Jack, whilst Teal'C just raised an eyebrow.
"This is not just a Nebula," Harry said flatly. His hands moved on the holowall and the view was now from within the 'Nebula'. He also pulled up another screen which showed a field of green, orange and blue molecules that arced energy towards one another. "It's in fact a space-dwelling sentient organism."
"You're kidding?" Daniel came forward eagerly taking in the view.
"The enhanced scan you see here, came from the probe…these energy discharges are occurring in a unique pattern, not entirely unlike brainwaves."
"Commodore," Ellis blinked and seemed to struggle with the very idea, "how…that's…"
"I realize this is way out of your experience," Harry sympathized. "But Earth's travels have been limited to the Stargate network and we've only recently begun fielding ships to travel beyond that. Suffice it to say, it's a big Galaxy and carbon based life is not the only type to exist."
"But something as hostile as space to call home?" Jack shook his head in amazement.
"'There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy'," Daniel said with wonder.
"Very relevant quote," Harry nodded with a smile.
"Okay, say for a moment I accept this…" Ellis frowned at the holowall. "How would this be relevant to our Aschen problem?"
"Well, I'd say in less than two days there won't be one anymore," Harry grinned and turned to Sam. "Bring up the probe diagnostic."
Sam waved her hands and a cross diagram of the probe appeared. Several areas of the probe were highlighted in angry red, but most significant of all.
"Its hull is being corroded," Ellis interpreted the screen rather quickly.
"At this rate, the probe will be destroyed in less than ten hours," she reported. "Some of the gasses clearly have properties that eat away at the thin hull…and it does somewhat support the idea that this is a lifeform."
"So all we do is maintain a sensor overwatch, in case the Aschen figures the way out, and let the…lifeform do the work for us." Ellis rubbed his brow musingly.
"Essentially," confirmed Harry. "This thing is a few light-years across in size; it should handle the Aschen power core breaching no problem."
"Would be the equivalent of a small ulcer for this thing," Jack commented.
"Will we be able to get confirmation of the Aschen's destruction?"
"The cruiser exploding should react like throwing a stone in a pond, that'll be visible on the exterior of the Lifeform. We could also send in another probe to the general coordinates where the Aschen breached the perimeter, with its phase cloak activated, it should protect it from the Lifeform," Sam proposed.
"Well done, both of you," Ellis nodded at Harry and Sam. "I don't really like the idea of sitting on our hands, but doing otherwise it seems will only result in giving the Aschen the idea of how to leave."
"I'm sure we can find things to occupy ourselves with while we wait," Jack pointed out, looking at Sam significantly.
"Yes, sir," she quirked her mouth with a restrained smile.
"Commodore, how about a few spars to loosen up the old muscles. I'm sure Teal'C is dying to have a go at you again."
The big Jaffa just gave one of his broad grins and bowed.
"I've been getting a little rusty," Harry smirked.
One day, sixteen hours later the signs appeared…the Lifeform rippled in waves before settling into relative normality. The probe had managed to record the event of the cruiser's rather spectacular demise…it was fitting in a way, that the Aschen; who had purposefully exterminated and reduced a entire races to a mere handful via disease and sterilization for their own selfish gain would be destroyed in a such a manner…by the inner workings of a giant lifeform.
Conference Room 1, SGC, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy
"The effect of Earth's decimation of Anubis' Tartarus Base and Kull Warrior production facility has not had the effect we hoped for," Jonas Quinn, host to Kanan of the Tok'ra, explained to the assembled brass of the SGC and General Thompson.
"We nuked over a thousand of Anubis' goons, totalled his 'Secret Volcano Lair' with him inside I might add," Jack said incredulously, "and you're telling me it achieved nothing in the strategic sense?"
"I wouldn't say that," Jonas said half-warily, "it's certainly stalled and reduced the scope of the Kull Warrior attacks that are occurring now across the Galaxy on the various System Lords."
"Anubis isn't stupid enough to have put all his eggs in one basket," Harry shook his head.
"Yes," nodded Jonas, "we estimate that Anubis must have at least another Kull production facility similar in size to Tartarus hidden somewhere else in the Galaxy. And as we well know, Anubis can't be harmed in any known conventional sense. One of his Ha'taks picked his incorporeal form up after a few days, and while no Tok'ra has gotten close enough to report on his condition yet, orders in his name started going out throughout his holdings about three weeks ago."
"Where are we on finding a practical countermeasure to the Kull, Commodore?" General Thompson turned to Harry.
"General Carter and his daughter are at Delta Site currently working on a prototype Kull Disruptor," he thumbed a remote and the large holoscreen showed a graphical representation of the device in question.
"Rather small," Jack commented with a frown.
"The Disruptor is a module designed to be attached to PR7 and 8s, it will become an alternate fire mode on our main infantry weapon," Harry explained. "The Disruptor's nature is that it cancels out the animation energy that is used to produce a Kull Warrior in the lab."
"Wouldn't it just get absorbed by the Kull's armor, just like any other weapon?" Hammond queried.
"Yes, and that's exactly what we want. The energy is stored in the Kull Armor's energy sinks, and there it begins to radiate at the precise frequency needed directly into the body of Warrior, which will render it lifeless in short order."
"Ingenius," Thompson mused, "you've turned the strongest advantage of the armour into its greatest weakness, and its barely been a month since our first encounter with the Kull."
"Credit goes to Major Carter," Harry smiled mildly, "I just helped with the practical design elements."
The base alarm klaxon signalling an incoming wormhole blared at this moment, followed by Master Sergeant Davis voice announcing a Code Red.
"General?" Hammond turned to his superior.
"Don't mind me, George, get to it. Everyone dismissed."
The room burst into action.
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In the Control Room, Harry saw that the Stargate Defenses were all on, but that there was incoming transmission on an SGC frequency.
"Report," ordered Hammond.
"Incoming Code Red transmission from Echo Site, General," Davis said grimly. A holoscreen flared into existence over the main consoles and the grim, dirty visage of an SGC Colonel greeted them.
"Colonel Reilly," Hammond jerked in surprise. "What are you doing at Echo?"
"Twenty minutes ago, Sir, Delta was attacked by a squadron of Goa'uld Al'kesh and Kull Warriors. We were forced to set the self-destruct and evacuate. Only half of us made it through before the wormhole connection was disrupted by a direct attack on the Delta Stargate."
Harry felt like his blood had turned to ice at what he was hearing; that meant forty people were missing, possibly dead.
"Colonel, did the Carters make it through?" Hammond's tone for all it's neutrality was about as grim as Harry had ever heard.
"No sir," Reilly reported, his jaw flexing in anger. "From reports I've managed to gather from my personnel who witnessed it, a Kull Warrior attacked their lab directly. They managed to get past it somehow and were in the line of evacuees running through the Gate…but because of their delay…they were near the back. Sir, the only reason I'm alive now is because my XO forcibly threw me through the event horizon when we saw the Al'kesh doing a bombing run targeted at the Gate…I...I was the last through…"
"Understood Colonel," Hammond sighed. "We'll begin S immediately."
"Request permission to join the search teams, sir."
"Denied, Colonel. I know how you feel…but your people there at Echo need you and you're in no shape to possibly go toe-to-toe with Kull Warriors."
"Yes sir," acknowledged the Colonel reluctantly.
"Disengage wormhole, and dial Delta Site immediately, Sergeant. Send a MALP."
The Stargate snapped off with a woosh and immediately began accelerated dialling. As the hovering Mark 2 MALP was readied by the standby technicians, Harry slammed his restrained fist in anger on the console. "How in the name of Creation did Anubis find the location of Delta Site? It's an address that we created; it's not on the Goa'uld list, the planet is not even on the Ancient list."
"That is something I'm going to find out," Hammond said with a grim determination.
"Chevron Seven locked," the wormhole to Delta Site kawooshed into existence with its usual spectacular flare of energy. Sergeant Davis ran a radio and subspace com sweep, putting a finger into his earpiece briefly. "Stable wormhole, no chatter, sir."
"Send the MALP
The machine in question rose higher into the air, in line with the event horizon and crossed into it at a cautiously sedate pace with Sergeant Davis at the controls.
"Receiving telemetry."
Harry blinked at the holoscreen which showed the MALP video feed, it was oddly tilted; showing a pile of rocks and the event horizon of the Delta Gate looming large in the picture.
"Sir, my instruments are telling me that the MALP is on its side. Attempting to correct orientation."
"If the Stargate was knocked over and is lying face down on the ground, the forming of the event horizon would have excavated a cavity underneath it. The MALP came through, and fell into the hole," Daniel deduced, as Sergeant Davis gingerly fiddled with the control joystick.
"There is no way to know if the DHD survived the attack then," Hammond shook his head.
"If we were to bring an alternate power source we could dial out manually," Teal'C suggested stoically.
"Possibly under enemy fire," the General pointed out.
"We'll be fine, sir," Jack said intently. "The Gate dug the perfect foxhole."
"We must also prepare for the possibility that there are Kull Warriors that survived the self-destruct of Delta Base, General," Harry spoke up. "I suggest we send a Darkstar drone through armed with Phoenix Missiles; after we've righted the Gate. If we find any Kulls, we can laser designate them as targets from a safe distance."
"You heard the man, Sergeant."
"Yes, sir."
Delta Site, 15000 LY NNE from Earth, Norma Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy
Delta Site, as its name indicated was the fourth offworld base that Earth had established. Its purpose was both as a place for highly dangerous scientific research that had the potential to create rather large craters should anything go wrong and as a secure bolthole for any Tok'ra that had to get scarce in a hurry.
Its security had been ensured by the fact that it was a Terra-class world discovered by the Asgard and consequently wasn't on any list of Stargate addresses that were out there accessible to the Goa'uld, not to mention the standard passage denial techniques of Iris and Shield.
This would be Harry's first visit to the site, and it also counted as only time he had ever fallen through an event horizon to rather painfully find himself kissing the dirty grey earth. He groaned and quickly rolled out of the way, and looked around in this very strange foxhole. As expected the MALP had been completed vaporized by their second dialing, and it was decidedly eerie having nothing but earth all around you whilst a frothing plasma event horizon created a ceiling above you.
The next thing to fall through was a folded expandable ladder. Harry quickly got that out of the way as well. Next to come through was Jack, who also did a nice impression of kissing the ground.
"Ouch."
Harry chuckled. "You better move Jack…"
Daniel fell through next and promptly landed on top of the still groaning Colonel.
"Ouuuch." Harry sighed and pulled the wincing archeologist off the Colonel, whilst Jack rolled to the other side of the foxhole with his face twisted and an arm rubbing his back. "I said give me a three count, Daniel."
"I did," he countered indignantly as Teal'C fell through event horizon, but he had clearly come through prepared in a way that had Harry kicking himself for its simplicity; the Jaffa had come through with his arms extended slightly forward, and his hands absorbed the relatively brief fall easily.
"SGC, we're through and safe," Harry spoke into his radio.
"Roger that, cutting signal."
The wormhole vanished and abruptly they were treated to the sight of pure blue sky and their noses picked up the smoke from various burn sources. Jack then proceeded used the age old method of mirror on a combat knife stuck together with chewed gum to scan the horizon above the Gate.
"Clear," he declared and Teal'C promptly unfolded and set up the ladder.
Harry took point, climbed up and vaulted the final rung to land in crouch and did a complete scan of the horizon first with his AW systems, his PR8 tracking right to left. There were no life signs evident in a three hundred meter radius, so pulled out his Hand Scanner.
The other three also climbed out and they surveyed the area with a grim air.
There wasn't a single building of Delta Site left standing; everything was devastated to the point that there was absolutely no trace left. SG1 was standing in the centre of a massive blast crater, with scorched earth in all directions. The nearest trees were absolutely flattened by explosive overpressure.
"Wow," was Daniel's rather awed response.
Harry could understand that awe, their self-destruct devices were meant to do exactly this.
"The self-destruct appears to be quite effective," Teal'C commented in a fashion that showed he was impressed while disquieted at the same time that there could come a time when he would find himself caught in such a blast if ever the SGC or any other Terran site was compromised while he was there.
"Single radius blast, weapons grade naquadah potassium explosion," Jack shook his head whilst putting on his sunglasses. "Commodore, if you wouldn't mind?" he gestured to the Gate.
Harry nodded and holstered his PR8, "Come Daniel, give me a hand."
"Ummm, okay…never moved anything this big before though."
"Don't make me quote Yoda to you, Daniel," Harry threatened. "Besides with two of us doing it we'll share the strain equally. Teal'C, get those Gate anchors ready."
The Jaffa nodded and pulled out two box like devices from his pack that he placed on the ground a few feet in front of the overturned Stargate. Harry and Daniel waited for him to finish before both of them took deep breaths as they reached out to all the ambient energy sources around – the most prevalent being the zero-point energy of the Universe, plus the ambient electro-magnetic field of the planet.
"Now," Harry said simply, whilst Daniel gave a lifting gesture with one hand to release his intention.
The Stargate silently lifted itself off the ground from one side, it tilted slowly upwards and by the time it reached a forty five degree angle relative to the ground, Daniel was already wincing with effort. Harry's eyes were narrowed in concentration but didn't give any outward sign that moving the twenty six ton mass of the Stargate affected him at all. Thankfully, they weren't picking up the thing, but merely tilting it.
Finally, the Gate was ninety degrees relative and Teal'C rushed forward, attached the Anchors to the arches closest to the ground and activating them.
The Stargate was back in business.
Harry took a deep breath and bled off the residual energy he had left in him back into Nature and looked to Daniel who was leaning on his knees and breathing like he had just run a brisk jog.
"Easy there," Harry said, walking over and patting the archeologist on the back, helping him to dissipate the energies.
"Nice going Space monkey."
"Th-thanks," nodded Daniel, "I don't think I've ever fully appreciated how much that thing weighs until now."
Fifteen minutes later after attaching a Naquadah Reactor to the Gate and manually dialing back to Earth, Colonel Reynold's SG3, SG11 and SG21 emerged. After everyone had withdrawn to a safe distance, the Darkstar drone blasted through with a roar and shot into the air, cloaking as it climbed into the sky.
"Split up according to teams, we've detected life signs scattered all about the place in a five mile radius," Jack ordered the team leaders. "Priority is to evacuate the wounded, mark the dead with signal tags and move on, at least until we're sure that there's no more of Anubis' goons on the planet. If you find one, radio into the Commodore for a Darkstar strike. SG21, Gate duty. SG1 is going after the Carters."
"Copy," nodded Reynolds and the teams fanned out.
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SG1 had barely gotten five hundred meters from the Stargate and was well into the forest when Teal'C called a halt and stared at the ground.
"What have you got?" Jack asked, joining him.
"This is a piece of armor from one of the Anubis drones." The piece in question was half buried and scorched.
"Commodore, what's the Dark Star picking up?"
Harry stared for a moment into the ergonomic Dark Star interface he was wearing. "I've got a weak trace of the energy used to animate a Kull; I'm tracking it to its source now. Luckily it seems we've only got one left active in the general area."
They continued on their search while the computer was following the energy trail, and they traced that route.
"O'Neill," Reynolds radioed.
"Go ahead."
"We found twelve survivors but they're not in good shape."
"How bad?" Jack asked flatly.
"Some can walk, but most need immediate medical treatment."
"Major Carter with them?"
"I'm afraid not."
Harry consulted SG3's position on his DarkStar Command screen. "Colonel Reynolds, Dark Star indicates your path to the Gate is clear, but be advised there is one Drone on the loose."
"Understood, Commodore, we'll get these people home."
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The first welcome event for SG1 came half an hour later when they found Jacob Carter, trapped under a fallen tree trunk that had been flattened by the Delta Site self-destruct. Thankfully, it had only caught and broken his leg.
"Jacob!" Jack called as they rushed over to the fallen Tok'ra.
Between Harry and Teal'C they easily lifted the trunk off of him, while Daniel got out a Healing device and to at least seal up the bleeding from the wound.
"Anubis drones…" groaned Jacob.
"We know," Jack interrupted.
Then they hit the proverbial jackpot when Jacob handed them the very reason for this whole mess. The Kull Disruptor module for the PR8. "Take this. It's not a hundred percent, but it's all we've got that doesn't involve micro-nukes. It only has a few more shots. Sam has the properly calibrated power unit that's supposed to go into it."
Jack affixed the Disruptor to his weapon and asked intently, "Where is she?"
"I don't know," Jacob said, despair clouding his voice. "I don't know if she's even still alive."
"We can't take the time to get you back to the Gate, we're tracking the Drone's energy signature…" Harry began.
"I'll take him," Daniel volunteered.
"Yes, hurry, that drone was after us, if she's still alive it's hunting her."
"Let's go," Jack ordered stoically, immediately resuming their trail, with Harry and Teal'C close on his heels.
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They set a blistering pace through the woods as they continued to hunt the Kull Warrior, who was apparently hunting Sam in turn. They crossed a path when they found the first physical signs of the pursuit.
"Footprints," Teal'C declared, kneeling close to inspect them.
"Standard SGC issue," Jack spared a brief glance, but kept his eyes peeled on the area around them.
"Indeed, the depth of the impression is consistent with someone of Major Carter's size."
"Another set here," Harry pointed out.
"They seem to be much larger, perhaps the drone," Teal'C glanced at his comrades, then at the Kull Disruptor on Jack's PR8. "Do you believe this prototype weapon will be effective against it?"
"We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it."
They burst back into a run.
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The energy trail and footprints were setting a clear direction now towards the east, in the hills overlooking the Delta Site. The higher ground would allow anyone being hunted to have a good overview of the area and aid in evading pursuit.
Harry's Darkstar interface bleeped at him and opening it he gave a triumphant exclamation. "I've found Sam, she just took a drink from a river, a kilometer ahead…Fuck!...the Kull is across it and firing…" he slammed the Interface shut before grabbing hold of both his comrades arms in iron hard grips and turning them all into a subspace leap…
…the iron tight bands of being squeezed through a thin tunnel of subspace…the world blacked out…
The three reappeared twenty meters away from the Kull Warrior firing across the shallow river at the desperately fleeing form of Sam.
Harry and Teal'C needed no further encouragement to unleash their PR8s to distract the Kull, whilst Jack took after Sam to get the power module.
The Kull turned and unleashed both its Plasma Gauntlets, forcing them to take cover behind trees, but they kept up their rate of fire.
Harry was forced to abandon his cover twice in less than a minute when the Kull blasts threatened to chew through his particular tree. When he ran out of charge and reloaded, Teal'C took up the slack, and kept pouring on the blue plasma fire into the Kull Warrior. They repeated the process, retreating in leaps, but keeping to the river.
Finally, after what seemed like an unbearable eternity, an oddly phased aquamarine bolt of energy shot from the other side of the river and slammed into the Kull Warrior. The bolt arced over the impact point on its armor oddly and the Kull staggered, but remained upright.
Another Disruptor bolt lanced in and impacted…and the seemingly invulnerable Kull simply crumpled to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Harry took a deeply relieved breath and emerged from behind his tree that was groaning in protest and threatening to fall over from being shot with destructive plasma. He quickly walked towards the river and stood over the prone form of the lifeless Kull, kicking it slightly.
Teal'C joined him and they watched as Jack comforted an absolutely exhausted Sam who had nasty plasma wound in her leg. She was snuggled in his embrace and looked as if she just wanted to fall asleep right there.
"Let's get her out of here."
Conference Room 1, SGC, Earth – A week later…
"By all of Creation, you have to be joking!" Harry declared with astonishment, staring to a rather uncomfortable looking Jonas Quinn/Kanan of the Tok'ra.
"I wish I was," Kanan declared, his voice resonant. "Our spy in the System Lord Olokun's ranks was captured when Anubis attacked with his Kull Warriors. He initially thought he had escaped detection and was attempting to return to Delta Site when he was caught by surprise and captured halfway through the dialing sequence. He was consequently prevented from taking his own life by use of the Micro-explosive all Tok'ra field operatives have implanted in their skulls."
"Even so, a Tok'ra's natural resistance to torture should have allowed him to hold out for a while…enough time for his partner to enact the extraction plan…"
"…conventional thinking would suggest that, but our operative wasn't tortured at all," Kanan sighed and produced a small purple container that he opened and showed to everyone in the room. Inside was a small purple obsidian sphere about the size of a thumb, with nasty looking pins jutting out of it.
Harry squinted at the thing suspiciously.
"This is the foreign device we managed to extract from our operative," Kanan continued, "while he is still in recovery we managed to debrief him somewhat, combined with the our own analysis of it…to put it simply, his knowledge was interpreted and copied."
"Figures," Harry sneered as he stared at the device with revulsion. "Leave it to Anubis to pervert the intent and inventions of the Ancients."
"It is an Ancient device then?" Hammond queried worriedly, since this posed a massive new headache for operational security.
"Not as such, no," Harry shook his head, "the principle technology was the precursor to the Alteran Interface Chair in Antarctica. The Ancients at one time had a similar device implanted at the base of their brain stems, to directly interface mentally with their technology. Anubis has used that concept but turned it around, instead of the Interface implant being slaved to the brain, it's used to subvert and interpret your neurons into readable computer data."
"So literally everything your operative knew was compromised, including Delta Site," Jack grumbled.
"Yes," Kanan's face turned somber, "all the Tok'ra bases he had knowledge of has already been moved. However unintentional it was, the attack on Delta Site to destroy the Kull Disruptor served to buy time for those bases and the Tok'ra within. The sacrifice of those Terrans who died will not be forgotten by the Tok'ra."
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