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Chapter 4
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Ground Control - RAF ST Athan
“Control, this is Airhead 1-4-9, we are RTB, ETA 14hours, the components are now in a stable Martian orbit.” the voice of Pilot Officer Reynolds came blaring through Lieutenant Peters headset, degraded by static and distance, only truly understandable due to the frankly excessive encryption that was being used; an encryption which came with its own build in error checking to help stabilise the signal.
Still, they would have to see about improving the signal between Earth and Mars somehow.
“Roger that, be advised Shunter's 1-5-1 and1-5-2 will pass by close approx. 3 hours and will be loaded.”
“Roger that GC, I'll be home in twelve, get the kettle on will you?”
Rolling her eyes, Peters turned from the console, “Its confirmed sir, the first components are in place and more are on route, the Quarters for the construction crews are being loaded onto Airheads six and five now and the next two tugs are ready to be loaded once numbers one and three land.”
Peters glanced at the schedule and nodded, seemingly pleased, “We should start to come online within a fortnight, sir.”
“Good” Thompson smiled, mentally planning a commendation for his hard working Exec “have SG-1 sent to my office please.”
“Yes, sir.”
Turning swiftly, Thompson left the room, flicking his digital ID card through the reader by every set of doors he passed through to open them. Security was tight here, you couldn't go anywhere without ID or an escort, ‘good thing too' Thompson thought, he really dreaded to think what chaos an unauthorised person in here would cause.
He arrived at his office to find SG-1 already waiting, quickly motioning the guards out of the room; he closed the door and thoughtfully moved around to his desk, laying his arms on the varnished mahogany.
“SG-1, you have several space going warships don't you” it was more statement than question, “ Prometheus, Iwo Jima and Independence which is under construction?”
Sharing shocked looks, O'Neill and Carter mentally cursed; they hadn't even been told what the third ship was to be called yet.
O'Neill replied, cautious and startled “yes”
“And Russia ? Russia has a Prometheus under construction which is…” Thompson smiled, knowingly, “Strangely delayed?”
This time O'Neill gave a suspicious “yes”
“Any Space docks or repair facilities?”
“No, but as the Prometheus class is fully atmospheric…” Carter began.
“And what happens when you receive damage that prevents you from re-entering an atmosphere?”
He sighed at the reluctant shrugs from the team, “either you have to do the repairs unassisted in space or you have a risk a landing anyway. A landing which could potentially drop a huge hunk of metal onto somebody's house… or perhaps into the middle of a city and given we're talking about a ship which contains munitions, potentially several nukes and naquadah, that would not be a good idea at all.”
“You want a space station,” O'Neill noted.
“We are building a Command type station in Mars orbit,” Thompson shrugged, “by our definition a command type station contains all the facilities to ‘command' an area of space from logistical support, personnel, armaments to ship construction and repair.”
“Hammond attempted to procure funding for such a facility, but he failed.” Teal'c intoned.
“We didn't fail, Right now we have begun lifting pre-constructed components for such a station into Martian orbit, before the day is out the construction crews and their habitat modules will be en-route to join these components in Mars orbit and with their arrival, assembly will start. Within a fortnight we expect the superstructure to be near completion and the internal fitting out will start. The end result will be an operational base which will include Space dock facilities capable of taking 4 Prometheus class vessels at a time, as well as providing support for operational ships. The next stage will have already started at this point which will be and an asteroid mining operation to provide resources for these facilities”
SG-1 shot up in their seats, shocked, even Teal'c raising an impressed eyebrow at the scope of the plans and their speed. This was not what they were expecting. Thompson didn't fail to notice this.
“You were expecting construction of more warships perhaps?”
“Well yeah, we are at war, more warships are…”
“Useless. Colonel, without decent support behind them, a hundred or more ships might hold back the enemy for a time, but if the infrastructure, the repair facilities, the ability to supply them isn't there then their effectiveness will rapidly diminish. You see, while you and Russia have been building ships and reacting to the Goa'ulds, we have been planning. You are needed out there, but we intend to make damn sure you and your ships have the support they need, and it is much easier to build spaceships in orbit, away from prying eyes.”
“How are you powering everything?” Carter asked, curious, the reply shocked her.
“Zero-point Energy Extraction” Thompson replied deadpan.
“Buts that's impossible, you can't…”
“Not impossible, merely difficult, requiring a lot of expensive materials, and the collector also has to be designed for the solar system it is set-up in, the collector shape we have been reliably informed, is different in every star system, which is were you come in.” Thompson stopped there; they were intelligent; they would figure it out quickly enough.
“Naquadah Reactors.” said Carter.
“Yes”
“Ah…” Jackson suddenly found himself the centre of attention, “reliably informed? By whom?”
Thompson just snorted, “It will be her decision to identify herself to you, not mine.”
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, whilst Carter and O'Neill glanced at each other, still trying to process all that had been rammed down their throats in the last few days.
Still trying to figure out who was assisting too, the ancients and the Nox wouldn't, none of the technology had Goa'uld hallmarks so unlikely to be them, the Tok'ra, the Jaffa or a few others they could mention. It had to be someone else, perhaps the as yet unseen Furlings?
Thompson just hid a smile, knowing that for the moment at least he was still in control and therefore more likely to get the Americans to accept the fact that, like it or not, they were now involved as well.
Of course, the balance of power would still favour the Americans; they simply had more money, more personnel, more experience and more clout they could throw at the problem.
But he would ensure his nation at least had a solid foot in the door.