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Chapter 7
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Thundersdawn
3 days later
Captain Peters and her Exec hurried from the bridge and headed towards the docking ports. Not one, but two category ‘A' passengers were now arriving for a perfect simultaneous docking. One arriving from Colorado Springs , one from St Athan, both were more than capable of calculating the odds of simultaneous dockings occurring (when they weren't set-up) but she wouldn't want to place on bet on who would come to the answer first.
It was a bit more likely to be Albertine though, whilst Carter was a scientific prodigy, Albertines skills were always a bit more pure maths.
The Exec turned off down a separate corridor to meet Major Carter, the Captain hurried on, seeing her destination ahead, the airlocks already cycling, preparing to open.
Soon, the passengers started to come through, mostly transfers heading for the mining station project. Ignoring them, she waited nervously; one of the design team was here and not one she had met before, despite the fact that she was the leader of their scientific team at the moment.
Soon a young lady comes through the airlock, looking to be in her mid-twenties but with that pale shade of skin that only comes with staying out of the sun far too much. The Captain hurries forward, smiling as she pictured Carters face once she found out who their ‘expert' was.
“Welcome aboard, I'm…”
“Captain Peters! A mutual friend told me all about you.” her eyes momentarily glazed over then she snapped back to the present “He's showing off a load of his paintings at the moment, his Italian Exhibition he calls it, 55 paintings and he still hasn't visited.”
Peters was amused, “Does he ever go somewhere he paints?”
“True.”
The Exec arrived at the airlock just as Carter left it, a small group of SGC engineers and scientists following behind her. This wasn't a Airhead or Shunter dragging a transport module or even the ever delayed 1-6 series courier, this was an SGC shuttle, the only craft available to Stargate Command and the Royal Space Service specifically designed for passenger transport.
With a slight grimaced, he nodded welcome at the two American Marines as they stepped out of the shuttle and took up position either side of the airlock, preventing unauthorised entry. Unauthorised entry in this case meaning anyone involved with the RSS, until the politicians and diplomats finished their negotiations that was.
“Welcome to Her Majesty's SpaceDock 1, Thundersdawn ”
“Thanks” Carter replied briskly, her outward expression blank but her eyes betraying her curiosity and perhaps even her orders as they flicked around the station, noting and assessing, “What's the status of the Prometheus ?”
“Sealed in Dry-dock 2, gravity is off in that section, but we were able to pump atmosphere in. At the moment there don't appear to be any kind of contaminants leaking from Prometheus , but we are monitoring. Her reactor is cold, and all systems are shut down” he replied, shrugging “You should be able to work without full spacesuits, though you will be required to wear a basic skinsuit and an emergency air tank.”
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SGC
Hammond was in a much better mood, whilst a large part of him didn't like the abrupt way in which control of the skies had been snatched by the British, he had to admire the sheer gall, brains and guts it took to directly challenge them in that way. To build a spacestation and support craft, to hide the creation of their parts and then to just choose their moment and go for it despite knowing that without the experience and technology available to the Americans, their stations, their ships would be far more vulnerable then they needed to be…
It was ballsy; it deserved a certain amount of admiration. It also dropped him right into trouble with his own brass for the breech of Stargate Command security that it represented and had happened on his watch.
Yet… if he was in their position he might have tried the same thing. Once they knew, they had two real options, the conservative option was one. That meant letting them know they knew and technically blackmailing America into allowing access in exchange for support. That was an option which he had little doubt the Joint Chiefs would have preferred and possibly even welcomed, the second option was the bold option.
This was the option they had chosen, to refuse to accept a somewhat subservient role, to hide their knowledge and build up a position of greater strength… in this case, quite literally. In time, America would certainly have had to build support craft and orbital stations but that March had been stolen by the Brits and with it, they had what they wanted. The ability to negotiate greater access, greater control then even the Russians had managed.
They could of course have gone for the third option, disclosure, but frankly, that option was insane and a simple assessment of the risks, costs and benefits was probably all it took to convince the bulk of those in the ‘know' to shelve that option.
Of course, he had little doubt a certain amount of Nationalism was involved as well, they were talking about a nation that was once the greatest power in the world and the loss of that Empire had never entirely sat well with certain elements of the British population and that was only to be expected.
He didn't think he would be too happy if America dropped of her pedestal as the worlds foremost power either. Yet, the route they had chosen, to create the support structures and not the warships themselves, at least, not yet, told its own story.
It was an acknowledgement, a very powerful one that Britain knew they could not stand alone in this and that, for all they wanted a certain degree of control; they knew it would be America that would remain the most powerful of the star-faring nations. They couldn't match the available resources, the available money the Americans had.
And that they would simply have to be willing to support her to a degree.
So, whilst he didn't entirely like what had happened, he did understand. He could also acknowledge the benefits this would represent for the American effort in space, which he knew was a large part of the point anyway.
The incident with Prometheus in many ways just helped to illustrate the point. He had managed to convince his superiors of the inevitability of Thundersdawn and by extension the United Kingdom getting a good look at Prometheus technologies, a task that had been made easier when it was agreed Carter could look at the Zero Point Generators.
That was a technology that Carter pretty much said she would believe when she saw it, for once with the complete agreement of the Tok'ra Anise who didn't made her disbelief in Earth's ability to develop such advanced technologies quite clear.
The Prometheus's survivors had arrived as well and most were out of the infirmary already, the others would not be far behind them and even better, Kinsey had cancelled an appointment with him. That alone was enough to make his day.
A knock sounded at his door “Enter.”
“Sir, Carter is on the radio for you.”
“Coming.”
He moved quickly down to the control room and the radio.
“Carter, you're early, any problems?”
“Sir, I just got a look at the Zero Point Generators, and they are genuine sir, it will take me a while to understand all the maths behind them but they are genuine.”
“That's good news Carter, our Naquadah use was getting a little high.”
“I just met their expert sir, you are not going to believe this……….”