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Chapter 11
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Thundersdawn
Kalinda was attempting to walk down the corridor through all the debris of the hasty refit and the extra cabling that had been set up to boast the power of the Pulse lasers and to assist with the power transfer from the hastily installed Naquadah generators.
There hadn't been too much of an argument over those which actually surprised her, but then maybe it was a sign that the instinctive indignation and wariness from the Americans was starting to fade and be replaced with more careful thought.
Or it could just be that they considered the Brits the lesser of two evils when wondering exactly why the Asgard were doing in town.
In truth, whilst it appeared she was walking down the corridor, in reality, what she was mainly doing could best be described as exercising her vocabulary, swearing every time the debris almost made her fall. The young ensign who was accompanying her was taking notes; he hadn't even heard some of those before. She eventually made it to the end of the corridor, and poked her head into the electronics suite at the end of the corridor.
“Carter, the bypass cables are up and the circuit test checks out. We'll have to send a team to start clearing the corridors out though; this corridor alone must break at least 20 health and safety regs.”
With a pleased smile, Carter looked up from her monitor, “the new software seems to be okay and the interface between the stations power grid and the Naquadah generators appears to be stable. Barring a full power test, I think we may be done.”
Kalinda frowned, “A full power test would be a good idea, but I suggest we leave that until there has been some tidying up done,”
At that she shot the Ensign following her a significant look and he nodded resigned agreement before turning towards the comm. Panel beside the door.
“For the moment, I suggest we update the Captain,” snorting, she continued, “They do so love to know what's going in inside their little domains don't they?”
Recognising a rhetorical question when she saw one, Carter just smiled and swiftly locked the computer before following the civilian out of the room. They arrived at the bridge in time to hear the comm. officer of the watch speak;
“Incoming transmission from Master 1, captain.”
“Put it through.”
“This is Captain Peters of Her Majesty's space station number 1, call-sign Thundersdawn , to whom do I have the honour of addressing?” she tried to keep her voice calm, and it mostly worked. This was after all the Royals first contact with an alien craft, sure the SGC had made first contact, and the Asgard were allied… well, technically allied with the Americans and no-one else but even so she couldn't entirely suppress her nerves.
“Captain Peters, this is Colonel O'Neill.” She quirked an eyebrow, yep definitely there first contact, someone with his record could hardly be described as 100% human after all…
“Thor here says we have inbound, a pair of Ha'tak 's just registered on his sensors.”
“How long?” Peters snapped out, her manner suddenly all business.
“15 minutes, they are coming in fast, must have acquired a faster engine from somewhere.”
“GQ!” she snapped out, her head turning to the duty comm. Officers station.
“Will your friend fight?” Peters continued turning back to her microphone.
“I will try Captain Peters, but 2 upgraded Ha'tak s and their fighters will prove difficult to destroy,” the little alien standing next to the Colonel gave what she could only assume was his equivalent of a shrug, “I was only here to check the progress of the new construction and deliver the last batch of gauss weapons. This is not a top of the line vessel either; as such assistance would be required.”
Peters glanced at Kalinda and Carter, who nodded, speaking simultaneously,
“We're done.” Kalinda said.
“Upgrades complete and online Captain” from Carter, “but not yet tested.”
Nodding her understanding at the Colonels careful addition, she turned back towards the screen, “we have a problem.”
“That I can see,” Thor noted, “you do not appear to have any real weapons systems, certainly none capable of being a threat to the Ha'taks. I find myself quite surprised at this given how clear my thoughts on the matter have been in the past.”
Peters eyes narrowed slightly as she caught the wince from O'Neill and she found herself suddenly curious. Did the Asgard know of the situation with the Russian Prometheus? Had they already stated that they did not approve?
“The fault is not entirely that of Stargate Command,” she admitted, “I'm afraid the American squandered a lot of trust and respect with how that project has been handled and when we discovered what was going on, we started this project without their assistance or knowledge.”
“I see,” he considered this a moment then continued “If we had time the weapons I had brought destined for the Independence I would install aboard your Thundersdawn but given the limited warning I am afraid that would not be possible.”
“Then I see only one option,” she replied, not bothering to hide her pleased grin at the thought of her station being re-equipped with osme real weapons, “Send the fighters our way, our pulse lasers are more than a match for them and fire rapidly enough to really sweep clear, but the big boys are beyond us.”
This the diminutive alien appeared to accept “I will try to do as you suggest.”
The channel closed, but Peters was already barking orders out “Comms, send general alert signal ‘cave', tell all the 1-4's, 1-5's, and the construction crews over at the mining facility to go quiet, shut down all non-essentials and make like a hole in the water! Weapons, set pulse lasers and targeting computers to rapid fire mode, assume hostile fighters inbound, comms, begin dumping our logs to ground control, and get me ship-wide!”
“Ship-wide up, Captain!”
“All hands, this is the Captain, we have hostile craft, a pair of souped-up Ha'tak s inbound and we expect to engage within 15 minutes. This is not a drill people! An Asgard vessel will be fighting with us, but they will be outmatched if we don't do our part. Hopefully we will be able to distract all the enemy fighters long enough to give them a chance, but if that doesn't work we will be next. Good luck and God bless.”
“Weapons! Lock the Asgard vessel into the targeting computer and label it as a friendly”
She sat back at her command console with a sigh, “Now, we wait.”