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Chapter 10
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Thundersdawn
Captain Peters sipped her tea slowly, as she carefully watched the Asgard ship through the small flat screen monitor built into the arm of her station. To say she was worried was to call the Arctic ‘slightly chilly'. The impression she had from all the reports on the Asgard she had spent the last 5 hours skimming through was that, when the Asgard come to Earth, trouble either follows, or is waiting for the Asgard on arrival, an impression Carter hadn't tried too hard to refute.
Unfortunately they weren't ready for trouble. Thundersdawn was the only operational station in the Sol system, and her weapons when compared to the Goa'uld's could best be classed as laughable. The several test firings they had performed had shown a considerable number of flaws in their pulse laser design. Replacements had been designed, but until the next financial year, there wasn't enough money to build them. Their missiles had nuclear tips, which had proven ineffective against normal Goa'uld shields before, let alone the upgraded shields of Anubis's vessels and whilst the missiles had been modified for use in space, they hadn't been fully tested yet.
The 1-4 and 1-5 series craft were unarmed though they were already planning to change that for latter marks, but for now they could easily pass muster as ‘sitting ducks' to any serious opposition, hell any opposition. As for the 1-6 series craft had been delayed again, but they at least would have some weaponry when they became available in about 3 months. The Lancer Class Star fighters had also been delayed, they were just waiting on the redesigned pulse lasers. They had actually been ground tested already and apart from the weapons they were finished, ahead of schedule.
Captain Peters tossed her head back and mulled over that thought, ahead of schedule, not something you often hear in government work, she thought with a wry grin.
That left only the Asgard to provide any serious opposition if trouble chose then to come a-knocking, Prometheus didn't even have a reactor at this point as it had been removed ready for replacement. Peters reviewed her stream of thought, and didn't like it, but maybe…
“Kalinda, report to command please!”
Trouble might be coming, or it might not be, but either way she intended to be ready, and she was sure the Royal Naval Academies top graduate, and a telepath whose IQ required a whole new scale could come up with something.
The captains thoughts were interrupted as the airlock at the back of the command deck thudded open, allowing Kalinda and Carter to enter the bridge, Peters listened to them for a few seconds then made the all too accurate deduction that they were so wrapped up in their discussion of some incredibly complex scientific theory that neither of them even realised they had arrived at command.
“Kalinda! Carter!”
Their heads snapped around, startled, their expressions quickly becoming sheepish as they realised where they were.
“Sorry” they said almost simultaneously.
Peters quashed the thought that Kalinda and Carter were related, but only because their records said otherwise. Those two acted so alike at times, except, Peters noted, when Soldier Carter came to visit. Kalinda had never entered military service, so did not have that aspect to her.
“Major, we could use your help on this one too” she added, trying to keep it informal for Kalinda who still wasn't used to military procedure, and was a bit young to join up anyway “Kalinda, thanks for coming so fast.”
Curious, Carter and Kalinda approached Captain Peter's duty station.
“As you know, an Asgard vessel arrived some hours ago, unfortunately an allied vessel arriving in this system usually means trouble is coming, trouble we are not ready for. There are only two armed craft in this system, the Asgard vessel and us. The problem is our weapons; specifically our pulse lasers and missiles are not up to scratch. We need to get them up to scratch, and fast. I'm not waiting until the next financial year for some weapons to defend this base with!” Peters thumping her hand on her desk punctuated her last word.
Carter nodded straight away, her military mind allowing her to quickly asses the danger of being on an under gunned space station, Kalinda took a few seconds longer, but by this time Peters and Carter had already moved to a large clear area, on the command deck, meant for a fighter control station when the Lancers eventually arrived, and were spreading schematics across the deck, she hurried to join them and they began bouncing ideas back and forth.
“ Prometheus? ”
Carter shrugged at Kalinda, “Completely offline and her reactor is in the process of being dismantled.”
Peters frowned, “what about moving her to an outboard airlock and using the shore power linkages to power her weapons?”
“Moving the ship would be relatively easy with the tugs you have available,” Carter noted, “it would place a strain on the ships power grid, its only designed to draw enough power for basic services through the umbilical's.”
“ Thundersdawn's power grid is more robustly designed,” Peters noted, “primarily because this station was always designed to be expanded upon should the need exist.”
Kalinda nodded, “the power grid was primarily Albertines responsibility during the design process, she does have the most experience with the ZPE's after all, but I suspect the grid will handle the draw but that the energy needed to bring Prometheus's main weapon online would exceed the generating ability.”
Carter sighed, “of course, the ZPE's generate a fixed and steady amount of power…”
“Unlike a naquadah generator which can be tweaked to temporarily provide more power then its normal rating,” the younger of the two geniuses's replied, “not to mention, whilst largely functional, this station is still incomplete. We have about half the generators available as we will once Thundersdawn is fully online. I'm not sure we will have the power to use the pulse lasers to their fullest.”
At that, Carter grimaced, “which rules out powering Prometheus and using her main guns.”
“Most certainly,” Kalinda noted, “I would suggest we need the power more for the station itself.”
“Is there any chance of getting some naquadah generators up here swiftly?” Peters asked.
“There are several aboard Prometheus, but again, they're only backups and could only power basic services.”
“If we could persuade your government to authorise their release…” she mused.
“Then at least Thundersdawn would be fully powered in the event of an attack,” Carter nodded, “I'll speak to General Hammond but it might be a while before we get a response. I would be willing to at least ensure compatibility between the generators and the stations power grid until we get a response.”
‘Of course you are,' Peters noted inwardly, ‘it would give her a closer look at the station and her capabilities.'
But in truth, if there was to be an attack then the extra power would be helpful and if all went to plan, Stargate Command and the Royal Space Service would be allied so, “agreed. The main issue remains though and that is dealing with enemy warships. We can give fighters a bloody nose but a warship?”
“How bad?” Carter asked.
“Very,” she grimly replied, “the lasers should in theory chew the hell out of fighters, though frankly their power draw is higher then expected, they overheat sooner… but they simply don't have the power to be a threat to a warship. Fighters like the Udajeet should not be a problem, Al-kesh will require concentrated fire, anything larger and we have nothing to touch them.”
Kalinda frowned, “the missiles…”
Peters shook her head, “nukes have already been tried against Ha'taks and failed. If their shields are down then its worth trying, but with their shields up…”
“Its possible Thor is just her for a social visit to because he requires help again,” Carter shrugged, “I think you may be being a bit paranoid.”
“Its only paranoia if their not out to get you,” Kalinda cracked.
With a slight grin, Carter acknowledged the point, “true. If it is Thor in that ship then we'll know more the O'Neill reports in. By now, he's probably already been beamed aboard.”
“And if it is to warn of an attack?” Peters asked.
“Then Iwo Jima will be recalled,” she replied, “but without that confirmation, she will remain on mission.”
Kalinda snorted, “That's assuming she will have time to get here.”
“True,” Carter noted, “but if you are right about why the Asgard is here, then we have little choice unless they stay and assist. Still, I will speak to Hammond about the generators.”