A/N We do not own any of the franchises represented herein. We are just fans.
Chapter 19
One month after the Iconian attack at Origin, news came from Che Ryl of berserker drones attacking human worlds in the Cimmerian part of the galaxy.
Thor was in Atlantis when news came, and O'Neill started pounding on the door of the apartment Thor used while on Earth. Thor opened it and O'Neill stood toe to toe with him. In a bit of irony, Thor actually had two inches on O'Neill now.
"You said the Berserker drones weren't a problem, Thor," O'Neill said, his voice icy calm.
"I know I did, O'Neill," Thor said, his voice heavy with sadness. He turned and sat down heavily on one of the couches in the room.
O'Neill, for his part, was left unsure what to do. He had been prepared for defensiveness from Thor. Instead, Thor was clearly as confused as O'Neill about the attack. He sat down across from Thor and they didn't say anything for a long while. Finally, Thor said, "We need to get out there, see how many drones we're dealing with, and take them out."
O'Neill slowly nodded. "I agree, but let's make sure this ends them. I don't want to be worrying about drones when we've got the Ori to contend with."
Thor and O'Neill met with Bra'tac and they dispatched forty Iconian ships to deal with the drones. The drones were in deep space, moving in tight formation, heading in the general direction of Galara. Major General Cameron Mitchell was in charge of the Iconian fleet, and his flagship, the Valhalla, launched its starfighters as soon as they dropped out of hyperspace. The second Valhalla, Yggdrasil, did the same. Ca Rel, The Commander of the Air Group on Valhalla had his wing line up on the drones. "It's like shooting ducks in a barrel!" he exclaimed as he started his run.
"More like Galaga!" Joey Thompson, his second in command shouted as he started a run. "Just hold your trigger and you'll hit one of them!" He gave a war cry as he started his run, and while it wasn't quite as easy as he said, it did seem as though every shot he and his squadron made was connecting with a drone.
On the other side of the drone formation from Valhalla's air wing was Yggdrasil's. The CAG for this wing was Ca Ra. After the Battle of Heliopolis, she and her brother had both received their postings. Placing Ascended Ancients aboard the Terran carriers had triggered some animosity among the Terran elite fighters, but that faded soon after the skills the Ancients were demonstrated. In turn, the Terrans impressed the Ancients with their skills, and a competition was started between the two carrier's air wings. For this battle, Ca Ra and Ca Rel had decided their air wings would meet at the center of the formation of drones, giving each wing five layers of drones to work through.
Ca Ra started her run, and immediately realized something was wrong. She pulled her formation away from the drones and watched as the next formation attacked. "Yggdrasil, can you give me a reading on the shield frequencies these drones are using?"
"Affirmative, CAG. They appear to be identical to Ha'tak frequencies."
"What?" Ca Ra exclaimed. "How can they be identical?"
The flight officer aboard the carrier sounded perplexed. "Unknown, CAG. But I can superimpose the frequency scans on each other and there are no variations at all."
On board Valhalla, Mitchell was listening in. "The missing Ha'tak," he said into his microphone.
"That's a good bet, Sir," Ca Rel said. He had realized the problem almost as fast as his sister. "Recommend we use phasing drones." Both his and his sister's ships were the Alteran version of the starfighters, but the vast majority of his air wing had Terran versions. The fighters were being upgraded, but only twelve percent of his wing had been completed.
"You won't be able to complete the job," Mitchell observed.
"True, sir, but we'll do what we can," Ca Rel said. "Ca Ra, did you copy that?"
"Yes, I did," she confirmed. "I recommend that we forego the competition."
"Negative," Ca Rel disagreed. "If we attack from each side in an organized fashion, I think we'll have a better chance." As he was speaking, he maneuvered his starfighter into position for a run.
"I've only got twelve percent of my wing armed with phase drones, Bro," she told him. She couldn't see his ship, but she pulled hers into position as well.
"That's about how it is here, Sis," he answered.
"Ok. Just wanted to let you know," she said. "Ok, let's take them out," she told her wing. "Those armed with phase drones in the lead. The rest, follow behind and clean up the garbage."
On Earth…
In the night sky over London, a massive hyperspace window opened, so large, it could easily be seen by the citizens of the city. The fleet of ships that emerged from the window was a hundred ships strong. They quickly took up positions around the globe and started raining fire down on every major city they could find. Neither defense satellites nor Iconian ships pulled the Ori attackers from their task.
In between Cimmeria and Galara…
The battle wasn't going very well. The 304s, Astraeus class, and ha'taks had joined in the fray, but for some reason, the drones seemed to be able to devote an inordinate amount of power to their shields, and destroying them was proving to be costly. However, each person in the fleet realized that if the drones were to get through to Galara, there would be an even higher price paid by the Alliance.
"We need Avalon," Mitchell sent to Heliopolis, hoping and praying that the giant station could arrive in time.
"Sir," his communication officer said, stunned. "Heliopolis says Avalon has been dispatched to Earth. A fleet of Ori ships just dropped out of hyperspace and are attacking the surface!"
"WHAT?!" Mitchell exclaimed.
The drones had broke their formation, and were attacking all of the fleet now, and Mitchell had his hands full. Valhalla was not designed to maneuver. Like most carriers, it was designed to carry fighters, and allow them to defend it. Now, however, the starfighters were clearly out of their league. The phase drone supply was exhausted, and the little ships were next to useless against full ha'tak style shields.
Over Earth…
The Ori were totally absorbed with destroying cities, and for ten minutes that is exactly what they did. There was no worry about defending themselves as they diverted most of their power to shields.
Once they started losing ships, the Ori pulled out and entered hyperspace, but their goal had been accomplished. Over seven million on Earth were dead, and almost every major city had been seriously damaged. The damage could very well have been worse, but the heart of most of the Earth cities with populations over one million had been protected by shields. The Ori had only lost fifteen ships.
As soon as the Ori vessels left Earth orbit, Avalon was ordered to the drone battle. While the Commander did not relish the idea of leaving Earth unguarded, he knew it was possible to be back to Earth very quickly. Of course, there might be little left to defend by the time he was back, but Galara would definitely be in destroyed if the drones were allowed to arrive. Avalon jumped into hyperspace, and toward Galara.
The Drone Battle…
Avalon dropped out of hyperspace in front of the drones, effectively blocking their path. The message was clear. 'No Further' it said. The doors opened and sixty squadrons of Alteran starfighters emerged from the hanger. This was overkill as the total number of berserker drones before the battle had started was near four hundred. The number now was slightly above three hundred.
The battle was over very quickly now, with the starfighters quickly destroying the drones, but the damage had been done. The forty ships that had been sent to stop the drones were all still operational, but barely.Avalon simply transported the ships into its hanger, secured them, and jumped back to Earth.
That evening, in Camelot, Merlin met with Jackson and his staff, as well as the defense ministry for the alliance. Jackson had a new member on his staff filling O'Neill's former position, head of Earth security. However, he was no newcomer to the requirements of the position. Teal'c had been by O'Neill's side throughout his tenure in the position, and when O'Neill had moved to the Alliance defense ministry, it had been only natural for Teal'c to move into his friend's former position. It was unusual to have the head of Earth Security to be an alien, but no one in Earth's government had any question as to his loyalty or ability.
"We got our asses kicked!" O'Neill said without preliminary once everyone was present.
"Indeed, O'Neill," Teal'c said, "it seems as though the Ori were using the berserker drones to lure our fleet away from their patrols."
Jackson was staring at the city through Merlin's window. He was hearing his friends voices, but not really taking in what they were saying. The number dead on Earth was beyond imagination. Finally, his eyes met Merlin's. O'Neill, Bra'tac, Thor, and Teal'c were still raging about the beating Earth had taken, but when Jackson spoke, everyone stopped talking. "You and I could have stopped it, Merlin." Jackson's voice somehow carried over everyone else's, even though he didn't raise it in the slightest.
Merlin spoke very quietly. "Yes, Daniel. We could have."
"Why didn't we?" Daniel's eyes were tearing as he thought of all the people dead.
Merlin shuddered as he took a deep breath. He had known this was coming. Daniel's mood had been palpable as he entered the room.
"We could have saved them!" Daniel shouted before Merlin could speak. "Yes! I know about the universe blowing up if we change things! But right now I couldn't care less about that! Seven million dead, Merlin. While we sat on our asses!" He stood and started to turn away, but stopped and looked Merlin in the eye. "How do we explain that to the families of those who died?"
Bra'tac looked shocked. "How could we have stopped things, Doctor Jackson?"
Daniel was close to sobbing as he spoke to the Jaffa Master. "Not you, Master Bra'tac. Merlin! And me!"
Merlin was staring at the surface of his desk. O'Neill was furious as he said dangerously, "What do you mean, Daniel?"
Merlin looked up, and at the sight of his eyes, O'Neill's fury dissipated completely. Something in them told everyone in the room that Merlin would remember and rage over each one of the seven million Terrans killed today for the rest of his immeasurably long life.
"We cannot change things, Jack," Merlin said to O'Neill. "Daniel is quite right that we could have stopped what was happening. We have the power, but to do so would cause unimaginable problems." He stood and started to pace. "There is no predicting what would happen if we were to interfere."
O'Neill wasn't one to stand on ceremony, and even though Merlin was his grandfather-in-law, he wasn't about to let this go. "The First said that the Q would no longer stand by idly. So how come you did today?"
Jackson saw the deep sorrow on Merlin's face, and he knew that the old Q was just as bothered by this day's events as he was. For a few moments, he thought of letting the wizard dig his own way out, but then thought better of it. As much as he knew Merlin's reasoning, he also knew that O'Neill would never accept it. Unless he brought home the significance of what they must do.
"Jack," he said in a tone that stopped O'Neill's tirade, at least temporarily. "Do you remember P3W-451?" At O'Neill's look, Jackson continued. "Stupid question. Of course you do. SG-1 always held to the motto 'no one left behind.' So why didn't we when it came to SG-10?"
O'Neill looked at Jackson as if he were crazy. "If we had tried to rescue them, we would have been sucked into the black hole too, Daniel."
"Exactly Jack. Rescuing them was impossible."
Carter was sitting with his head down as he nodded, obviously agreeing with Jackson. O'Neill caught the nod and glared at his brother-in-law. "You agree, Jack?"
Carter raised his head to look at O'Neill. "I don't understand it enough to agree or disagree, Jack," he said, "but I do know what Merlin has said several times. We've all heard it, over and over. 'Things have to happen in a certain way, or the results will be catastrophic.'"
"That's kind of abstract, Jack," O'Neill said angrily.
"True," Jackson said, "but those people would never have existed if we had changed the way they died."
"Better to have lived and died, than to never have lived at all," Merlin said softly.
"What?" O'Neill said, startled.
"We are not dealing with a linear timeline," Thor said. "Is that what you're saying, Merlin?"
"Exactly," Merlin confirmed. "Any choices we make right now change the circumstances leading up to the making of the choice."
"What?" It was Carter this time, although the look on O'Neill's face said clearly that if Carter hadn't asked, he would have. "Is it just me, or does that make no sense whatsoever?"
"No," O'Neill said, "it makes absolutely no sense."
"Perhaps I can explain," Merlin said, then turned to O'Neill. "The circumstances leading to Jade's birth are an example. Her existence is made possible by three realities. Without those three realities, Jade would never have been born." O'Neill looked confused, but Merlin continued. "Let me start from the beginning. In the first reality, Dr. Jackson discovered the existence of a ZPM in ancient Egypt, which led to SG-1 going back in time to recover it. They were stranded there, creating a second reality where the stargate was removed from Earth by Ra. A version of Samantha, who was not related to the military at all, travelled back in time with you and Teal'c where you joined with the original version of Daniel Jackson, causing the rebellion that forced Ra to leave Earth and abandon the stargate. This created the third reality: the one that we are currently in.
"I could easily prevent this from happening. If I were to have placed some Zero Point Modules in the Antarctic outpost for you to find, things would have been much easier for Stargate Command. I could even, as we speak, travel back in time and place them where, when the DHD for the second stargate was excavated, they would be found. This would make things much simpler for you, but there would have been no need for SG-1 to travel into the past. Therefore, Jade would never be born."
O'Neill slowly nodded, finally understanding the situation Merlin was in, and how delicate the balance between interference and non-interference was for him.
Bra'tac was contemplating the situation, and saw a further consequence. "Was not SG-1 the catalyst which caused the Terran rebellion against Ra? If you had not gone into the past, the Goa'uld would still be in power."
Teal'c nodded his agreement. "That is the most likely outcome. The System Lords would never have fallen, and Ra would still be here, on Earth." He faced Merlin. "I understand what you are saying, Merlin. The balance between acting and not acting is a delicate one." He paused for a moment. "I fail to see what benefit the death of seven million people can bring, but since I see things in a linear manner, I will trust that you are correct in your assessment."
"Thank you, Teal'c. I understand your reluctance to see the benefit of today, but I can only say again, that if they had not died today, they would never have existed."
In the Pegasus Galaxy…
Brigadier General John Sheppard stepped out of his quarters, angrily balling up the sheet of paper he had printed his orders on. He was heading to the bridge of his flagship, the Enterprise, so named in the tradition of the US Navy. Enterprise was a Valhalla class carrier. It had a group of two Astraeus class battleships, three 304s, six Auroras, and ten air groups of starfighters. As well, under his direct command were three O'Neills, seven ha'taks, and in a strange twist, five Hives and ten Wraith Cruisers. Sheppard was the commander of the entire Iconian fleet in Pegasus, and there were seven more carrier groups under his command, each spaced strategically throughout the galaxy.
The orders that had him so angry had just been received from the Ministry of Defense in the Milky Way. That galaxy was usually referred to as Avalon, but in his mind it would always be the Milky Way. It wasn't the orders per se that he was so mad about. It was the fact that Earth had been caught so defenseless. He understood the reason for sending the fleet to deal with the drones, and in retrospect, he could see how it had been duped. Had he been in charge, he would have done exactly the same thing. Now, his forces were being recalled, and they would be leaving Todd to defend all the humans in the Pegasus galaxy. He had no misgivings about Todd doing the job. They had worked side by side so much in the last ten years that the wraith was basically his second in command over all the fleet.
Sheppard entered the bridge and told the colonel in command of the ship to contact Todd. As soon as Todd came on one of the smaller bridge screens, Sheppard filled him in on the problem.
"I am sorry for what has happened to your world, Sheppard," Todd told him. "I understand your need to return to Earth. There is no need to order me to protect this galaxy. I will do so willingly. We have worked together for so long now, that I consider you to be a friend. I will not break the treaty."
Sheppard nodded, grateful to hear Todd say the words. Strangely, he now considered the wraith to be a friend as well. What had started out as a treaty of convenience had changed to something more in the intervening years. Sheppard knew that the wraith would keep the treaty, even without Iconian forces present, and to hear him say so, sealed the deal. "Thank you, Todd. We will be heading out of the galaxy in two hours."
Todd acknowledged, and they signed off. The two hours Sheppard specified were used to transfer personnel to their rightful ships, and to contact humans in the Pegasus galaxy. They had to be told what was happening. At the end of the time, the Iconian ships leaped to hyperspace and were gone, leaving the Pegasus galaxy to the Wraith once again. But this time, the Wraith were the protectors of Pegasus.
Partway to Earth, Enterprise received another message. They were to head to a spot near the planet called Origin, where a supergate had been reported seen. Sheppard diverted his carrier group to the coordinates, and they raised shields as they left hyperspace.
The sight that awaited them was enough to cheer every member of the Enterprise carrier group. Avalon was sitting several miles away from the supergate, with close to a dozen Ori attack vessels surrounding it. The Ori ships, big as they were, looked like gnats flitting about the mammoth Alteran ship. The Ori ships were firing continuously as Avalon made a leisurely turn. It almost appeared as though the massive ship was toying with the smaller vessels.
Sheppard, however, made good use of the diversion Avalon afforded him. He ordered his fleet to launch all airwings, and the larger vessels were placed in between the station and the supergate. So far, it appeared as though Avalon hadn't fired a shot, nor had it launched any of it's innumerable starfighters. Sheppard watched as the Ori fired point blank on the station. The shields would flare, but it appeared as though the Alteran ship was doing nothing.
Suddenly, something happened, and for several moments afterward, Sheppard thought he must have blinked and missed it. All twelve of the Ori ships erupted in such quick succession it was almost beyond belief. Then, from the other side of Enterprise came one of the brightest flashes the general had ever seen. He looked back to the screen showing Avalon in time to see the huge ship growing as it drew closer. It had tractor beams on, pulling the wreckage of the Ori vessels along with it, then a golden glow shimmered around the ship as it beamed the wreckage into it's hold.
"Message coming in from Avalon," the communications officer on Enterprise announced.
"On screen," Sheppard said.
The Commander's face quickly filled the screen, replacing the image of the huge ship growing ever larger. "Hello, General," he said, smiling. "Welcome to the former sight of the Ori supergate."
"Thank you, Commander," Sheppard said. "Why'd you take so long to destroy the Ori ships?"
"I was trying to warn them off. If I didn't have to destroy them, I didn't want to. They didn't listen."
Sheppard was surprised that this man would try to spare the Ori, but then, with a ship as powerful as Avalon, one could afford to be magnanimous.
In another part of the Avalon Galaxy…
The Doci received a report from his long range scanners. As he had planned, news of the supergate had leaked out. He wasn't certain of the channels the news travelled to the Iconians through, but it was sufficient that it reached them. They had immediately set out to destroy the gate, and they had succeeded. He was sorry that they had lost the gate, but another one was being constructed in a different location, one that he had determined to be a secret.
The Iconians have destroyed the supergate, but they will not suspect the existence of another, even larger gate. They are to be led like sheep, the Doci thought.
He decided that he needed to gloat to someone. He stood and left the bridge for his quarters. In a dark room, off one side of his quarters, was a cage. He stood looking into the shadows of the room, smelling the unwashed, sweaty odor of the occupant. The person stood at the back of the cage, arms folded over his chest, defiant. Just like his father, the Doci thought. He doesn't have the intelligence to be afraid. But no, that wasn't right. It wasn't a lack of intelligence, but an overconfidence in his father's abilities to rescue him that gave him the bravado.
"Your father and his associates destroyed my supergate," he told the man.
"Good," came the reply from the shadows.
"But they were only able to because I allowed it," the Doci boasted. "I allowed them to have the location of that gate, because I wanted them to believe that they had destroyed my only means of reinforcing my fleet."
"And you think that having another supergate will give you enough of an edge to win?" his prisoner asked. "You obviously don't know who you're dealing with."
"Oh, but I do. I know that your father will stop at nothing to get you back, and when he comes, I shall be ready for him. I will destroy him completely, but not before I see the look on his face when he realizes what I have done to him."
With that, the Doci whirled and left the room, locking the door behind him. The prisoner heard the hiss as the door sealed, placing the room on it's own ventilation and climate control systems. He was determined not to give the Doci the satisfaction of knowing that he was scared, and so far, he was pretty sure he hadn't.
The Doci stalked to the bridge. On the way there, he backhanded an incompetent maintenance worker who was hooking up an intercom incorrectly, causing feedback. The man flew across the corridor, and hit the wall, hard, then fell to the floor, unmoving. The Doci continued on without a backward glance. The talk to his prisoner had not given any satisfaction. Instead, it had irritated him.
When he arrived at the bridge however, his mood brightened. In front of his ship, the final piece of the new supergate was placed, and the gate was brought to life. He watched, feeling power course through his body, as close to two hundred ships came through, and without even pausing, they entered hyperspace, heading for Vis Uban.