"The Last Woman Standing" - SG1/TGG Multiverse Revised Ed.

[barricade]

Marina/Steve - while nBSG doesn't exist on SRC-19 Earth, did the Independence Day universe still stay TGG canon, or was it removed as well?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Marina/Steve - while nBSG doesn't exist on SRC-19 Earth, did the Independence Day universe still stay TGG canon, or was it removed as well?

it exists, but hopefully that crappy movie doesn't. Actually, exercising my power as supreme goddess of the universe, it doesn't exist. Thank fucking god.

[Steve]

Marina/Steve - while nBSG doesn't exist on SRC-19 Earth, did the Independence Day universe still stay TGG canon, or was it removed as well?

it exists, but hopefully that crappy movie doesn't. Actually, exercising my power as supreme goddess of the universe, it doesn't exist. Thank fucking god.

Um, excuse me? Supreme goddess of the universe? Last I checked this was a collaborative work, and DN-9 happens to contain ADN member nations and provided a fluff character (the ADN negotiator for the peace treaty with Cardassia from "Anatomy of a War"), as well as helping to provide the impetus for the slowing in multiversal expansion in the TGG background fluff that occurred between the 2090s-2110s AST. Oh, and providing the name for an entire class of ADN supercarriers.

Besides, it wasn't a direct take off the movie obviously. What spooked everyone was that the events of the alien attack in DN-9 and some of the named individuals involved correlated with the movie. The alien invasion was probably thwarted with the judicious use of nuclear weapons.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I was being silly, and I meant the movie, Steve, doesn't exist, NOT the universe. Just, the movie doesn't exist in any of the universes. The universe itself exists, and proved more sane than the movie.

Also I am in fact really, genuinely the Supreme Goddess because you and Chris are Gods.

[Steve]

I was being silly, and I meant the movie, Steve, doesn't exist, NOT the universe. Just, the movie doesn't exist in any of the universes. The universe itself exists, and proved more sane than the movie.

Also I am in fact really, genuinely the Supreme Goddess because you and Chris are Gods.

I wasn't in the mood for silliness yesterday given I spent some of it at my cousin's funeral service, so I apologize if I overreacted.

Though I am curious to your logic of "I'm the Supreme Goddess because you and Chris are Gods".

[Themightytom]

I was being silly, and I meant the movie, Steve, doesn't exist, NOT the universe. Just, the movie doesn't exist in any of the universes. The universe itself exists, and proved more sane than the movie.

Also I am in fact really, genuinely the Supreme Goddess because you and Chris are Gods.

Co-Gods?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'm the only girl in the triumvirate, so I'm the supreme Goddess, silly. Just a co-Deity, but supreme Goddess.


Sorry about your cousin, Steve.

[barricade]

So its a really small pantheon. One Supreme Goddess, and Two Gods that daily flip a coin as to who gets the title of Supreme God today.

[Steve]

Ha! Given the quantity and quality of TGG stuff I've done I think it's fair to see I'm the higher God.

[Themightytom]

I'm the only girl in the triumvirate, so I'm the supreme Goddess, silly. Just a co-Deity, but supreme Goddess.


Sorry about your cousin, Steve.

Oh I meant Steve and Chris are co-gods

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Chapter 18




Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain
Earth, United States of America
Universe Designate SRC-19
24 October 2178 AST


The conference room overlooking the Gate Room bustled with activity as SGC staff members went about checking papers and laying things out for the meeting to come. Jack and Nate were in uniforms looking out at the activity from Jack's office. Business was set to begin soon, though it didn't keep them from making small talk. "So, how did your call last night go?" Jack asked.
"Oh, Ivvie was understanding," Nate answered, an expression of relief on his face. "Apparently the honeymoon went extremely well so I imagine that took the edge off."
"Decide where you're going to be living?"
"Daniel said something about an open apartment where he's staying. I figure I'll go check it out in a few days, after we get all this business done."
"So.... these 'Talorans', Commander Triulajha is one right?"
"Yeah. And from what I've seen of them he's about standard for them. Really stiff-necked, formal people. They have a feudalist society. And the women are tall."
"How tall? Are we talking 'healthy six feet' or 'hates ceiling fans' tall?"
"Midway I think. I've not exactly met a lot of Talorans in my life, Jack."
The phone on Jack's desk rang. He picked it up. "General O'Neill..... okay, send them down. Have someone bring them straight to the conference room." Looking at Nate as he put the phone down, Jack said, "Our guests are here."



The other members of SG-1 arrived just ahead of the dignitaries, taking seats further down the table while Jack and Nate occupied two of the top seats. Captain Data and Zaria had beamed down to attend the meeting, given its likely content and what it meant for the Gray Star.
Hammond entered first in full dress uniform. He was followed by Count di Montecuccoli, sent to represent the IUCEC Special Directorate, with the dimunitive form of the Zohan Chief Executive Mar'tov behind him. Following were SRC-19 Earth officials that were part of the briefing, consisting of the bureaucrat Richard Woolsey, Russia's SGC liaison Colonel Chekov, and Chinese official Shen Xiaoyi.
Also present, coming in beside and behind Count Montecuccoli, was the Taloran delegation.

The individuals who entered seemed certainly as striking as might be imagined. The leader was at least six and a half feet tall, and sex was initially indistinct, but surely female; long, long hair fell in considerable waves down to her mid-thigh, a royal blue colour that was tinged with silver in places, and her eyes a relaxed and vivid yellow-flecked-green. The uniform was laden with silver braid, and held a gold sash over a vivid garnet-coloured jacket which showed a vermillion blouse and blue vest below it, the pants being a subdued navy blue, but they bore bright red piping with orange trims. The height of the heavy boots they wore only accentuated things, and to top it off, the black hat--a fore-and-aft style hat like an old Admiral's, with the high Taloran ears jutting out, free, to each side--was prominently adorned with a series of feathers like those of a tropical bird.

In similar uniform was a younger-seeming--no silver--and shorter Taloran, only six foot two inches, about, who carried a notebook computer tucked under one arm, with cobalt blue hair and brilliant orange-red eyes; the feathers adorning her cap held a different pattern, however. Two lower-ranking officers, they surely had to be officers, trailed subdued behind them, one a tallish female with blonde hair and blue eyes, and a male with lavendar hair and yellow eyes. The two lower ranking personnel stood back while, elder first, then the younger, the two presented themselves:

"I am Admiral Ritadhi Uroijha of Her Serene Majesty's Imperial Starfleet; greetings, officers of the various nations. I represent the Taloran government and am the head of the Imperial Starfleet Security Division. My compatriot is Rear Admiral Fiyesia Hulamjhui, commander of the High Energy Research project's Applied Testing Division," she gestured to the younger Taloran at her side. "Greetings, and thank you for your hospitality in the journey over."

"General Jack O'Neill, Commander of the SGC," Jack answered. He went on to introduce the others. "I hope you folks had a nice trip. I was wondering why you just didn't use that nifty transporter tech that the Asgard just installed on Gray Star."
"A pleasure to meet you, General," Ritadhi answered as the two ranking officers sat down.
"It's still being considered as to its religious impact," Fiyesia answered for her senior commander. "It appears to operate on extremely different principles from the matter-disrupting copy devices that the old United Federation of Planets used, but more rigorous testing is required by the relevant Farzian religious specialists on scientific impact before we'd feel it appropriate for use. Generally the threat of the technological disruption of the soul must be taken rather seriously, and is, by our people. I do not expect you to find this rational, but nonetheless this is--as it is, General.."

There was an uneasy look on Daniel's face as he looked at Jack with an expression that pleaded for him to not make any comments. Giving a wry grin to Nate, Jack remarked, "Well, it's no big deal. I'm not the best judge of what's rational and what's not. I've been told I'm completely crazy on a few occasions..." Noticing the bemused expression on Hammond's face, Jack waved his hand. "Anyway, on to business I guess."

"It would be preferable. I understand that you have a force standing under siege on a planet in a distant galaxy--the relief of which we would have considered, as well as its existence, the subject of farce only months ago," Admiral Uroijha answered. "Well, in strict theory, perhaps, for we were already well underway with the research to some of the theoretical aspects of Goa'uld technology, and related subjects, including Tylium refinement.
"This situation is an urgent one, and so we don't want to detain you for very long," the Admiral continued, her ears flexing, a tip flipping to the right a bit, "Considering the need to organize the relief force and quickly begin. So I'll turn the main details over to Rear Admiral Hulamjhui."
"To elaborate," the younger Taloran continued soothly, "we've come with a ship of the latest type, inspired by the Gray Star, which has sufficient energy loading capacity to handle enough energy from a ZPM to match Asgard hyper-speeds for intergalactic travels, as well as a delivery of weapons grade Tylium since we understand that the fleet stocks of such weapons has been largely expended by the engagement over Earth. I am functionally in control of operations about the Empress Mikela the Great and so I've come to coordinate directly as to how the relief efforts have been handled. Her Honour the Admiral Uroijha came along over certain security matters which Her Serene Majesty has authorized for general dissemination to the IUCEC and related groups, the Earth coalition here included."

"We are currently preparing to send reinforcements to Atlantis through the Stargate," Hammond explained. "One of the ZPMs recovered from the being Maedhv is being set up to provide our Stargate with enough power to dial into the Atlantis Gate. We can then send through troops and any equipment that can be fit through the Gate. We're also sending through three of the ZPMs so they can restore complete power to the city and we'll be sending Daedalus to Pegasus to aid them in fighting the siege. Naturally any help we can get from the New Brasilia Treaty nations would be highly appreciated."
"We have already agreed to send the Gray Star to join the Earth vessel Daedalus," di Montecuccoli said. He looked to Data and asked, "Captain, how are your repairs and refitting going?"
"We will be ready to depart for Pegasus within the next thirty hours," Data answered. "Hermiod and the Asgard engineers have been quite thorough in refitting the Gray Star with examples of their technology as well as assisting in repairs from our battle with the Replicators."

"We'll be ready by that operational date," Fiyesia replied. "The Empress Mikela the Great is a Queen Keralka-class Line Ship of the Imperial fleet which was taken in hand while still a year from completion and extensively altered with the addition of Goa'uld technology authorized from the IUCEC projects bureau--of which the Empire is of course a member. We, I believe, beat out a comparable new-build design by the Alliance due to the modification process being favoured to bring such a project to fruition," she added with a faint bit of amusement. "And for that we can present her here fully operational, with an improved armour based around Tylium energy dissipation, far enhanced main particle cannon, and multiple shield banks derived from Goa'uld generators, all powered by Tylium moderated fusion. Short of SRC-19, or perhaps comparable to it, we've so far found certain sectors of our own universe to contain some of the richest Tylium reserves in the universe and because of that we've brought several tonnes of weapons grade Tylium with us as well as the ship herself for the sake of adding in the reinforcement efforts."
Daniel brought up a hand. "Um, Tylium? May I ask..."
"It's their name for naquadah, Daniel," Sam answered for the others, having figured out what Fiyesia was referring to. "Though it makes me wonder why certain universes would have observable differences in the availability of naquadah."
"Well, it's interesting, but we have our own mystery related to this Maedhv of your's," Admiral Uroijha began, a bit hesitantly. "You see, we encountered a group of humans fleeing from a race of cyborgs, some years ago, far beyond known human territory in the Empire. Almost all Tylium in the Empire comes from their region, where we lately discovered some interesting facts relevant to these most recent of developments, and during the war with these cyborgs a series of events happened with the strictest of classification, which it has now been our decision to disseminate to the IUCEC generally."

"Well, by all means Admiral." Jack smiled and put his hands together. "Disseminate away."

"Thank you, General." Admiral Uroijha turned to her younger counterpart and stretched out a six-fingered hand, wide and extremely long, perhaps the most creepily alien thing on them, beyond the flamboyant colours, the off-kilter skin tone, and the great height and relative physical androgyny. "If you'd give me the display, Fiyesia?"
The younger Rear Admiral shifted her ears subtly and brought the notebook computer up, unlatching it and revealing inside a full holoprojector mount, the computer flipping open 180 degrees to rest on the table, and the 'screen' covered in green glowing writing in an abugida, scrolling past as she tapped out a series of commands. Then the display expanded to highland a segment of the galaxy--their galaxy--spinward of Earth in the Orion Arm. "The Oralnif Spinward Sector," Fiyesia offered cooly. "And beyond it, highlighted in red, the Confederacy of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. The world of Kobol and Second Earth are highlighted precisely in yellow, and in blue is the Cylon homeworld, the Cylons being the referenced cyborgs which attacked the Twelve Colonies, which are now a Taloran protectorate."
"The war with the Cylons happened roughly over the years 2169 to 2170 of the Alliance Standard Calendar, Year of the Empire 619, about nine to eight human years ago," Admiral Uroijha continued smoothly. "The Cylons executed the genocide of about ninety-five percent of the Colonial populations via neutron bombardment of their worlds in a surprise attack, after their computer systems had been compromised by sabotage which allowed the Cylons to shut down most of the command functions of their Starfleet's forces. Only three warships escaped, one of them crippled and on a high acceleration sublight burn. The other two escaped intact with a smattering of small ships. Ultimately we retrieved ninety thousand survivors in this fashion. The rest of the survivors were trapped on the worlds of the Colonies, including many who were hoarded into experimentation or death camps."

"Great, killer robots," Jack murmured.
Sam brought up a hand. "Wait, 'Second Earth'?", she asked incredulously.
"Yes, a Second Earth," Admiral Uroijha answered. "To be precise there are two perfectly identical Sol systems in our Milky Way, in different locations. We discovered this during the later stages of the war after we'd defeated the Cylon fleets in a series of running battles and engineered the defection of a significant portion of their forces. At this point we succeeded in defeating their offensive, after it had killed some billions of humans under our protection, alas. The world of Kobol is the most interesting point--it was settled about thirteen thousand years ago and yet was understood to be by the humans of the Twelve Colonies, the homeworld of the human species, while Earth, their legendary Terra, was but a thirteenth colony."
"We were attacked, when landing over Kobol, by a single suicide ship of interesting configuration. Admiral Fiyesia...?"
The image on the holoplot moved into the Kobol system, and then flashed up to a large display over the table of the bridge of a warship, with a heavily scarred face, seaweed-green haired Taloran officer in a skinsuit with helmet flipped back. The vocal feed was translated, the louder human words following volume-reduced Taloran as an overlay, while an immense tactical plot of a fleet substantially larger than that which relieved Earth was displayed prominently ahead of the cluster of officers:
"It was another suicide run," one of the junior officers became without further preamble. "Look at this--I got the sensor picture data in and slowed it down. Pretty much as much as possible. This is an image composite, but spectral analysis suggests even the colour is about right, and we did see the reflecting flash, analyzing that right now."

The hologram on the bridge of the ship, reproduced here, showed a gold ship, of doubled delta wings and high-neck forward, T-tail aft, probably at least several hundred tonnes and in the same size range as the gunboats that had accompanied the fleet above, rounding the planet at already high velocity as indicated by the data-readouts scrolling through the bottom of the screen. And then it elongated, accelerated, tore straight forward into a huge carrier, the size of those in the Alliance relief fleet, with an impossible degree of power, the acceleration monitors flickering off the scale, and collided with such force that it incinerated the center of the vessel as it exploded into a rolling fireball which trailed far up and above the debris of the carrier, two shattered sections spinning off.
"I think it was making close to .9c when it impacted," the officer continued very softly. "Some kind of runup for faster than light speeds, that's all I can guess, but on a suicide course."
".88." a voice came as a hologram of another Taloran female materialized onto the bridge, appearing very grim. "If we'd had a few more seconds warning, we could have actually gotten missiles off with a good chance of an intercept. May I order constant patrols by up to five hundred electronic warfare 'birds at a time to be instituted, Tisara," she addressed the scarred officer, "at long ranges, with the necessary escorts?"
The playback froze there, and Admiral Uroijha looked to to the assembled officers. "The acceleration was later confirmed to be at about seventeen thousand gravities. But things got rather more mysterious at that point."

"They recovered a survivor from the planet, a Major Kara Thrace of the Colonial Navy. She claimed to have ejected in an escape pod from the vehicle just before it rammed home, having escaped from the Cylons who operated. The existence of a second Earth was already speculated upon, based on circumstantial evidence, by our special investigator on the scene--a telepathic adept of the religious orders--and Major Thrace confirmed it, claiming that other examples were being prepared for use in a similar fashion. So Admiral the Archduchess Urami," her ears flattened back as she gestured toward the scarred, green-haired figure in the frozen hologram, perhaps in some distaste, "transferred her flag to a dreadnought in the fleet and sent the Synthetic Control Cruiser Dhirisma, who you can see reporting the details of the acceleration there, with Captain the Baroness Armenbhat aboard and in overall control, as well as the adept and some researchers, and the Major herself, on a course to that world. The synthetic control cruiser was powered purely by anti-matter, which gave it about a factor of four edge over typical vessels of that tonnage in energy production--the firepower and shielding of a dreadnought on a fifteen megatonne cruiser, in part due to the 100% automation of using an AI to completely control the ship. Strictly an experiment, but it was the most powerful individual ship for her mass we had available, with a very high acceleration rate, so the Archduchess made the right call in sending it. It took them about three days to get to the specified location..."


"...And there was indeed a second Earth," Admiral Uroijha added softly, as the hologram shifted to another scene on the bridge, the short green-haired and scarred Archduchess not there any longer, but the--the ship herself?--and a few of the other officers standing by, as well as some humans, and the recording continued from there:

“Shields are at full power,” Dhirisma reported with diagnostic precision. Ysalha was in her acceleration couch, fully jacked in and seeming lifeless; Erisimia and Doctor al-Nasr stood on the bridge with Starbuck and several of the attendants of both the Ryvarian Order Adept and the Doctor, as well as the Marine Captain in command of her Company, Liankhia Syraste. “All batteries fully charged and the missiles are ready for fire on response—fear not, my company. We will be ready. Dropping out of superlight now and entering a polar orbit trajectory.”

“Thank you, Dhirisma,” Ersimia answered, and looked down to the planet coldly, but nervously. Doctor al-Nasr was perfectly still, utterly silent.. And so was Starbuck, uncharacteristically.

Ysalha was in command of the mission, and she spoke with a careful professionalism even as she remained unmoving, using the same speakers as Dhirisma. “We're going to be coming in over the South Pole with our gravito-magnetic superlight drives ready for immediate activation, and...” The sensor image reasserted itself with two blips flying out of the ship. “We're firing reconaissance missiles forward to scan the surface before we clear the horizon. Everyone should be strapped down and prepared for up to 120% of normal thrust; that will be the equivalent of up to12g's bleed-through over the inertial compensators, so feelings of faintness may be expected for some of you.”

The central holoprojector activated to show the data from the probes, even as they clawed forward in low orbit toward the terminator line and organized their own sensor data into a picture of the planet below.

“My god,” Sophia whispered, shocked to see Earth in such a condition. “The planet is a desert. The sea levels are at least a hundred meters lower, and yet..”

“The northern Polar Ice Cap is nonexistent. No data yet on the southern Ice Cap,” Dhirisma replied primly. “Major, no massive environmental damage.... Background radiation is consistent with decay of radioactive particles... I'm trying to get a sample from the probes as they skim the upper atmosphere. We can estimate how long ago this happened from that. But there seems to be nothing here—even huge swathes of the ecosystem seem to be completely destroyed, it is a desert!--reading numerous and extensive ruins in the areas we pass over. And several major impact craters which seem to be reasonably fresh, one moment....”
An image flashed on and magnified, and Sophia recognized where it was from immediately with her knowledge of Earth, and she could not help but share it. “The impact point for that crater... Oh God. Buenos Aires.”

“Exactly Buenos Aires, down to the exact center of the main city for the exact point of impact. They were accurate bastards. Similar craters over Rio de Jainero, Brasilia, Santiago, hmm... Rechecking the initial data... Yes, Lagos and Carracas as well. The island of Jamaica no longer exists, for that matter. And.... Standby for full reverse acceleration!”

Everyone was slammed back into their acceleration couches as the ship easily stopped herself dead in her tracks while the probes raced on ahead.. And Ysalha, for the benefit of their guests, put up what they'd both recognized. In a huge, vast chasm in the Antarctic ice was a crisp assembly of massively heavy ground-to-space defensive cannon batteries surrounding a comparatively tiny installation. There were, however, none of the gold craft in sight.

“Where are the Vimanas?” Starbuck finally asked, staring. “And where the frak did those batteries come from?”

“For that matter, why have we not been engaged by Cylons yet?” Ersimia queried rather coolly. “Major Thrace, you were quite sure they were in orbit, and that there would be those fighters on the surface.. Though your surprise, I grant, is genuine. But where are they?”

“Let's not rush to mistrust,” Ysalha interjected. “I'm running a full power active scan of the orbital space and.... Oh damn. Debris consistent with multiple Cylon capital-grade ships in low orbit and decaying. Age is only about two weeks.” She looked levelly to Starbuck. “After they sent you out aboard that suicide fighter. It appears that the Cylons have found themselves a new enemy; or a very old one. Regardless, however...”

“Yes,” Dhirisma spoke aloud as though finishing a conversation they were having privately. “There's no evidence of any debris consistent with the Vimana hullform or the materials signatures—whatever those materials were, I still haven't figured out—anywhere. The Cylons succeeded in removing them before that defensive installation was activated.”

“I wonder why it hasn't destroyed the probes yet,” Sophia spoke from her position as 'Dr. al-Nasr' to the side. “It clearly has the firepower.”

“Maybe they don't register as a threat,” Dhirisma was now holding them stationary over the surface with her engines, under the horizon of the guns. “I'll bring one of the probes to full active scan and keep monitoring passively with the other one and see what happens.”

“..And, nothing.” The AI's hologram looked slightly irritated at that. “Nothing at all. In fact.. That installation seems to have basically no power left at all. Flickers of some minor energy, that's it. They might have expended their power.”

“Got the radioactive particle analysis together for you, love,” Ysalha added only more ominous considerations to what they saw: “It happened about one thousand, two hundred and fifty years ago at maximum, nine hundred and fifty years at minimum.”

“Can you bring us close enough to the surface, Captains, that we'd be masked from those batteries? They seem very clearly designed to engage high-altitude targets.”

They calculated and answered simultaneously: “Yes.” And left themselves slightly embarrassed by the waste of resources.

“Well, it's certainly doable,” Dhirisma added. “Tricky, of course, but well within our manoeuvring tolerances. Alright, then. We're heading down.”

“Inform your troops to prepare for egress,” Ysalha ordered the Marine Captain—Major, as a courtesy title—Syraste. “We will be approaching very low along the planet, and we will remain very close the whole while to avoid any group being separated from the rest.”

“Of course, Captain. Should we stay strapped in for now?”

“Yes.”

The recording shifted to a sweeping view of the planet, from outside the ship, as Uroijha continued to speak, the interior feed no longer being available. "Of course, General O'Neill, I understand, was commanding a copy of those very same batteries on this instance of the planet Earth, merely some days before. We encountered an old facility, and it was there that Major Thrace revealed what she actually was, an enormously powerful telepathic entity which had occupied the body of the Major, calling itself Iblis, which was only subdued by the combined efforts of twelve of the finest Telepaths of the religious orders, and an inordinately powerful telepath, who identified herself as a Ranger of the Anla'shok, though we presently think was a foreign spy--she escaped our custody later. She subdued the entity by taking advantage of a 'perverse feedback loop' of sadomasochistic pleasure resulting from the injury of receptive-empathic telepaths, of which she was, but it escaped in Major Thrace's body, and we still don't know the location of the Iblis Entity."

Uriojha's comments got her the attention of Daniel. "Maedhv said her people, the Asvins, used to do that to telepaths they bred as slaves. Inflict pain on them to begin a loop of pleasure, how did she put it again... 'their pain is our pleasure is their pleasure'..."
"That is an exact description of what the Iblis entity did to this unknown telepath," Admiral Uroijha answered coldly. "So we can safely say that the Iblis entity is of Asvin origin. It was apparently running a covert eugenics programme in the Colonial population, and used Sarasavsati--that word was explicitly used--DNA in the production of the Cylon humanoform cyborgs themselves. We furthermore found a series of other facilities in the system which followed a basic pattern indicated by this Sophie woman, who claimed knowledge of them from elsewhere. The existence of these facilities was later proved to be exactly duplicated on the primary Earth. But more importantly we secured the location of the Cylon homeworld, and Captain the Baroness Armenbhat immediately brought the Dhirisma to it with the utmost haste."

"What facilities are you talking about?", Sam asked. "Apparently the Ancient - or rather Asvin - Antarctic outpost existed on this duplicate Earth as well..."
"Ah." Admiral Uroijha paused the playback and looked to Sam. "There's one at the very base of the core on Mars, below the Olympus Mons, and one at the exact center of the planetoid Ceres."
"They're system defence command facilities."
Sam gave Jack and Hammond a curious look. "We should check our solar system and see if these other facilities are there."


The holoprojector now changed to showing an immense pyramidal structure which seemed to rise into space, tens of kilometers in size or even greater, perhaps hundreds, consuming the surface of an entire island on a great planet. "We found this on the surface of the planet, during a period in which the Cylons ceased operation to receive commands from it. We called it, for obvious reasons, the Golden Pyramid."
"They sent a team down to the Golden Pyramid with nuclear demolition charges," the Admiral continued. "And encountered there another instance--a copy--of the Iblis Intelligence, commanding the Cylons from inside the computer core. Copies of Cylons were created there, the population having perished from a particularly virulent plague. The psychic attacks of the Iblis intelligence were insufficient to stop the team and the demolition charges were set--they escaped on two Vimanas in the bays which were still operational. At that point Dhirisma returned to effect their recovery..."
The images of a swirling space battle were shown as below the Golden Pyramid remained undamaged. "Its shields and power generators for some sort of field, tentatively now identified as a No-Field, whch could make it vanish at whim, were damaged, which let us fire eight heavy assault missiles loaded with matter/anti-matter warheads charged with Tylium into the structure--the total yield of the eight missiles being in the teratonne range."

The footage showed the missiles detonating around the structure in tremendous fireballs which still didn't completely engulf it... But the remaining parts continued to collapse, and then the entire screen went brilliant white, while the ship the recording monitors were on accelerated through superlight velocities. The shift in the monitors skewed the view crazily for a moment and then they adjusted to a new sensor composite which showed the white light fading into a huge expanding fireball as the world itself glowed bright red with the burning of the atmosphere. "The detonation of the main reactor core had power comparable to the collision with another planetary body, for an example you can easily understand, with the Earth which created your large primary Moon."
"There was a facility in orbit engaged in the mass production of Vimanas, a nanite-based fabrication yard, which subsequently turned into a gray goop incident the central AI of the Dhirisma was able to successfully counteract and shut down. The Cylons subsequently surrendered en masse after a vigorous offensive from the Dhirisma. It was later revealed that the intent of the Iblis intelligence was to release a plague throughout the various instances of the cosmos which would kill all life not bearing certain specific DNA markers."
"In conclusion," the old Admiral finished softly, "We did further research which indicated that all the facilities in the second-Earth, exist on the first in our universe. Furthermore, we found that a Second Earth exists in the ST-3 galaxy, called Miri's world, though we have not received permission to search it yet, and the IUCEC can now proceed with that search."

Daniel asked, "Do you have any idea on what DNA markers the plague was programmed to spare?"
"Yes actually. They correspond with the high caste breeding programme that the Iblis entity was engaged in," Uroijha replied. "It was unquestionably a plague for the purposes of eugenics. We may now surmise, from what we have been told of the Maedhv intelligence's statements, that the plague was planned to be part of a selective breeding programme to restore the Asvin High Caste."
"And it may also be the plague that Maedhv said she unleashed on the Ancients after escaping from captivity," Daniel said. "So if Iblis is Asvin as well, the Kobolian Humans are obviously descendants of the Sarasavsati. How exactly is their society ordered? Is it very hierarchical? Caste-driven?"

"They were polytheistic, but there were no signs of an intact caste system," Admiral Uroijha answered. "Their gods however were of Indo-Aryan origin and their language is the ur-tongue of the Indo-Aryans, that much has definitely been confirmed."
"Much like how the Asvin language is the predecessor to Mesoamerican ones, with languages like Latin being the result of mixture between the two." Daniel looked intent in thought for a moment. "Though apparently they had their own social revolution, according to Maedhv the Sarasavsati had a highly-regimented, strictly caste-based society."
"Or," Fiyesia spoke up for the first time in a while, "All the individuals who ended up on Kobol were of the same caste."
"Or that, I suppose," Daniel agreed. "Much like how the Alterans - the people we know as the Ancients - were all former middle-caste Asvins. Maedhv is the only survivor of the High Caste."
"Just how powerful was this 'Iblis'?", Teal'c asked. "Could he be another of the 'devastraa' like Maedhv and the being she knows as Nirrti?"
"I don't think Iblis is a Devastraa," Daniel said before either Taloran could answer. "If he were that powerful I don't think anything sent to that Second Earth could have stopped him. Actually, I doubt he would have even needed to possess Major Thrace."

"It may be that he is ascended in the same fashion as middling caste Asvins did in this universe," Fiyesia mused. "Merely of the High Caste. That much is explicit. Otherwise, a computer-uploaded intelligence, in the fashion that the Carinisis artifex of the Archduchy of the Nebula are known to perform."
At that point a new voice entered the conversation. "I'm finding this all very fascinating," Woolsey stated with a slight bit of irritation, "but I believe we had more pressing matters to discuss, such as the matter of Atlantis." The looks on the faces of Shen and Colonel Chekov indicated they had also grown a bit disinterested in the discussion in light of more pressing concerns.
"Just one last thing to ask," Daniel said, looking at Hammond and Jack for a moment to make sure they weren't going to object. When neither did, he continued, "The Kobolians aren't the only ones with connections to the Sarasavsati."
With that said, he leveled a gaze at Mar'tov.


Chief Executive Mar'tov lifted one eyebrow slightly at the statement, a faint smile playing across his lips. "Indeed? I am going to make the assumption that you are referring to the data transmission from Bastion?"
Daniel gave a nod. "I was on Maedhv's bridge when it came on. Maedhv and Alarita identified the image as that of Nirrti's flagship the Lord Krishna and presumed you were Nirrti's subjects."
That prompted Chekov to speak up. "Who is this 'Nirrti' you speak of? Surely not the Goa'uld Nirrti, she has been killed."
"Apparently she is the last of the Sarasavsati Devastraas, a being just like Maedhv, but even more powerful. For what it's worth I got the impression that Maedhv was afraid of Nirrti," Daniel explained. "Anyway, Chief Executive, I'm not very familiar with the Zohan as a people, but you seem to have at least encountered this Nirrti before. What was it like?"

Mar'tov nodded in response, taking a sip of icewater before replying. "As some of you are aware, during our escape from our home universe one of our Battlecarriers was caught by the Enemy and swarmed while in the process of opening the IU portal. While significant portions of the fleet under escort made the jump, the portal was collapsing and the Battlecarrier was nearly destroyed when an unidentified vessel simply appeared."
As Mar'tov spoke he set a small device on the table, from which sprang an ultra-high resolution, high enough to see every detail visible that damaged and failing sensors had managed to record, image of the mystery ship. Shaped like a cross between a cigar and a pyramid, the only scale reference was to the nearby Battlecarrier, which was dwarfed by the titanic vessel.
"The Enemy fled instantly upon seeing this vessel, as if siezed by true terror. But that was only peripheral, through some means our engineers still have not been able to understand, this vessel remotely repaired the IU portal device and assisted the remaining ships in their escape before vanishing again. At no point were any transmissions picked up from this vessel, despite attempts to contact by surviving bridge crews. We have consulted with the Maker's and they have nothing in their lore and history to explain it, beyond vague references to 'pyramid ships' which we thought may have been Gou'ald vessels but could, potentially, have referred to vessels such as the Lord Krishna."

"So there's more than one of these beings running around out there," Nate remarked. "I don't find that comforting at all."
Daniel's attention was on the image in front of them. "What's that in the corner?" He pointed toward one end of the image.
Mar'tov lifted one eyebrow then manipulated the controls, bringing the image fully into view of the section of the image. "A vessel of the Enemy." the elder Zohan responded calmly. "Fleeing from the emergence of the Lord Krishna"
Jack looked intently at the surprised expression on Daniel's face. "Um, Daniel, something you would like to share with the class?"
"I've seen this before," Daniel replied. "I've seen this kind of design before."
"Where?", Montecuccoli asked.
"The New Chatham Xenoarcheology Archive that Doctor Herzela and Commander Dax left me when we had our first encounter five years ago," Daniel explained. "It was about four years ago, just after I found evidence connecting what we then knew as the Ancients to Universe ST-3. I was looking to see if there was any more evidence that the Ancients - the descendants of the middle-caste Asvins - had been in other universes. There was a set of alien ruins that had shapes just like those ships on them. They were arranged in the context of being demons or some other kind of evil force."
That caused Montecuccoli to ask. "From Universe EM-5?"
Daniel shook his head. "No. I believe it was PA-6. Why do you ask?"

Eyes turned toward the tan-complexioned Marik noble. "As a member of the IUCEC Special Directorate I am given access to various highly-classified secrets from signatory states, including the Alliance of Democratic Nations and the InterStellar Alliance in EM-5. And since I've been living on Babylon-5 for the past three years I've become rather knowledgable in that station's rich history. Nearly forty years ago, 2261 Local, there was a series of incidents on the station that occurred in the months leading up to the Earth Civil War. An alien race of immense power attacked the station through an artifact found in the depths of hyperspace. They used powerful telepathy that turned various station dwellers into savages that attacked each other without restraint before coming through the artifact. Their fighters engaged the forces of Sheridan and his allies and did a great deal of damage before Sheridan's people were able to destroy the artifact, preventing further aliens from coming through."
Montecuccoli pointed toward the viewer. "I've seen images from that battle, again, thanks to my position. And that is one of the enemy ships. This 'Enemy' that the Zohan speak of are known to the Rangers of EM-5 and others associated with Sheridan as the 'Thirdspace Aliens'."

Mar'tov listened quietly, then spoke up. "You state that their primary attacks were telepathic in nature? We have no experience of that, as all attacks were purely 'physical' and there are no reports of any Zohan being controlled by these aliens. However the intelligence we were able to gather from the attacks on the Master's worlds bear out that information."
"Your people are all telepaths, yes?", Montecuccoli asked. "Perhaps the Thirdspace beings were unable to affect you the same as they do non-telepaths?"
"Potentially, although with the lack of firm data on what actually occurred on the Master's worlds we cannot say with any degree of certainty if that is the case." Mar'tov replied, steepling his fingers in front of his face for a moment. "Without hard data we are only speculating."

At that point Jack spoke up, seeing the expressions of Woolsey and the others. "This has been a pretty intriguing discussion so far, but for the moment I'm afraid I'm more worried about the half-bug people who want to feast on our planet and are attacking Atlantis to find their way here."
"Agreed. The fact that the Asvins and Sarasavsati are still in some respects a going concern is deeply worrying, but not pressing. We will hope for the full cooperation of the Asgard, and our numerical superiourity, to ultimately develop reasonable countermeasures to them," Admiral Uroijha spoke. "The mystery of how their facilities appear duplicated across many Earths is something for future exploration. For the moment, however..."

"Ah, yes," Rear Admiral Fiyesia spoke up. "Well, the Empress Mikela the Great is ready for combat operations, and we expect that certain technological measures we've taken can push both our jump-drives and Goa'uld hyperdrive to combined levels approximating the speed of your Daedalus, Prometheus, and the Gray Star. It's very awkward to run a ship with now three FTL drives, but it was a good workaround in lieu of the Asgard assistance we're now receiving. The ship is powered by Tylium-moderated metallic hydrogen fueled reactors which among other things have let us, in combination with Tylium energy sinks on the main guns, let us increase the energy firepower of the ship by seven and a half times, when she's already the most powerful Line Ship known in the cosmos. The missile banks are also entirely loaded with tylium-charged missiles, though we don't have any of the big three stage anti-matter, tylium, fusion missiles used against the Golden Pyramid presently available, they're still an impossibly powerful punch. We've also used multiple copies of Goa'uld shields in a layered format to defend the ship up to reasonable levels of protection, and a layer of low-refined Tylium acts as a thermal energy soak which can actually recharge the capacitors when the armour is taken under fire. In short she can reliably fight against whatever we may expect out of these Wraith, and I've been given orders to aide you to that effect."
"Admiral, do you not think it possible that with Asgard assistance we could outfit your vessel with an Asgard drive in the limited time available? There are still some lingering concerns on whether Goa'uld-level hyperdrives can be properly powered by a ZPM and even if so the differences in speed performance may not be so easily overcome through sheer power."

"It's not necessary. The jump-drive is of the Cylon type, and they can manage," Fiyesia said with a slight pause, "Jumps of up to one thousand, eight hundred and fourty lightyears every thirty-five minutes. During the thirty-five minute recharge period we can run the Goa'uld hyperdrives within the overcharged limits via ZPM, and of course we'll have the gravito-magnetic drive operational the whole time. With that combination we estimate it will only take twenty-six point five human hours longer than an Asgard hyperdrive for us to reach Atlantis--and the repairs for the Gray Star, you said, will take another thirty hours to finish anyway. Since we don't have the time to try and install yet another hyperdrive and make it work, we'll just head out before you do, and rendezvous over Atlantis."
"You believe your Heim Drive can operate effectively within hyperspace?", Data asked.
"Yes. The universal principles are the same there. We've already done it, in fact," Fiyesia answered with some pride.
Data nodded at that. "Ah. A most promising discovery."
"Well, that handles things from the space end, but there's also from the ground-side end," Jack said. "We're planning on sending troops in with some equipment to help them hold out and now that we've got all these ZPMs to go around, we can probably send three through to power the city fully. Given it apparently took the Wraith a few years to bring down Atlantis the last time that should give us plenty of time to get them more reinforcements."
"Of course, we'll need to find some way to keep them at bay," Nate offered. "I doubt they'll be too happy if their initial attack force is destroyed, they'll send more."

"We can pack the components of a few ground to space particle cannon onto the Empress Mikela the Great that arrived with the amphibious forces," Fiyesia offered. "With ZPMs for power they can continue firing more or less indefinitely, and under IUCEC auspices we could send a detachment from the Fortress Command to operate them in the long term. But other than that I'm afraid there's not much help we can offer in that regard."

"Actually, that is something the President wanted me to bring up with you," Hammond spoke up. "We would be happy to have the IUCEC join the Atlantis Expedition on a full-time basis."
"As part of our expanding ties with your world, General, I'm sure something in that form can be arranged," Montecuccoli answered. "Though I imagine there will be many issues regarding those in charge."
"Well, allow me to say that going by the messages we just got from them, I think Dr. Weir's done a damned fine job in Pegasus," Jack said. "Granted, she's not military, but the Expedition was always meant to be more than a military operation."
"I actually don't think it would be appropriate for a military officer to be in charge of a research mission, if that's what this is to be," Admiral Uroijha returned to the discussion. "Though the ranking military officer should be from one of the IUCEC member states."
"Your position is understandable," Woolsey answered for the assembled, "and we are certainly open to...." And so the discussion went on to more mundane matters of protocol and command, enough to make Nate long for another cooler of beer and Jack's fishing-lake-without-fish.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

And, for the tech nerds! :

QUEEN KERALKA CLASS LINE SHIPS OF THE TALORAN IMPERIAL STARFLEET, SHOWN AS THE REPRESENTATIVE, HSMS EMPRESS MIKELA THE GREAT, OF A MODIFIED SUB-VARIANT NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF REGULAR SHIPS OF THE CLASS. THESE SHIPS ARE RATED AS SUPERDREADNOUGHTS ACCORDING TO ALLIANCE CLASSIFICATION LISTS.


NOTED STATISTICS:

Length, overall: 3,965 meters.

Beam, minus sponsons: 375 meters.

Height, minus superstructure: 375 meters.

Hull Volume (superstructure and sponson exclusive): 240 million m^3.

Mass, Empty Hull: 71.35 megatonnes.

Mass, Fuel: 220 megatonnes (metallic hydrogen plus miniscule quanatities of anti-matter and fissionables counted in stores).

Mass, Stores: 55 megatonnes (45 megatonnes are metallic hydrogen for ERA).

Mass, internal fittings: 20 megatonnes.

Mass, sensor masts, hangars, barbettes, turrets, guns, missile casemates and other superstructure: 76.2 megatonnes.

Mass, Total: 436.05 megatonnes.

Pod Empty Mass: 4.5 megatonnes.

Pod Fuel Mass: 5 megatonnes.

Pod Stores Mass: 1 megatonne.

Pod Equipment Mass: 1.25 megatonne.

Total Mass of Two Fully Equipped Pods: 20.5 megatonnes.

Overall loaded mass with pods: 456.55 megatonnes.

External fittings volume: 30 million cubic meters.

Total volume: 270 million cubic meters.

Density: 1,700 kg / cubic meter (equivalent to the ship being a solid aluminium block).

Overall Power Output: Approximately 1.25 x 10^20 watts.

Sublight drive type: Heim gravito-magnetic reactionless; high efficiency.

Crew Compliment: 25,000 minimum operational; 55,000 war standard.

Onboard troops and flight personnel: approx. ~10,000.

Energy Armament: 72 x 1.5 GT p.c. in 18 quadruple turrets; 56 x 50 MT p.c. in 23 twin turrets and 10

single mounts. Main guns are capable of firing once every twelve seconds, secondary guns once every two seconds.

Missile Armament: 16 x 10 GT short-range torpedo tubes per broadside; 4 x TTs fore and aft,

40 in all, eight reloads per tube. 120 x Mk.30 very-long-range quadruple-rail accelerative missile

launchers per broadside, 240 in all, 300 missiles per rail (variable mix of anti-fighter/anti-ship rounds) -- some missiles can be replaced with 4-pack capsules for LIS-168 as needed; standard anti-ship warhead is 256 MT for very-long-range missile for the Mk.30. Torpedo and missile launchers recycle to fire once every six seconds.


Point-Defence Armament: 144 x twin 21cm p.g. turrets (each gun fires four times per second); 288 x sixteen-cell missile interceptor launchers, 288 x quadruple LIS-168 box launchers (reloads carried internally only) -- 'raider-killer' bolt-on anti-slow small craft weapons + 8 x additional box launchers inside the hangar bays for last-ditch defence against suicide attack; 288 x flak projectors.

Weapons busbar capacity: 10.95 GT/S.

Maximum instantaneous shield absorption capacity (impact of greater energy than this in the space of a milisecond will burn out and destroy all the ship's shield genators): 208 GTs. (note only half this energy is available to each broadside.)

Acceleration:

1,500g's.


STATISTICS RELEVANT TO THE EMPRESS MIKELA THE GREAT SUB-CLASS:

Length, overall: 3,967 meters.

Beam, minus sponsons: 377 meters.

Height, minus superstructure: 375 meters.

Hull Volume (superstructure and sponson exclusive): 240.5 million m^3.

Mass, Empty: 74.15 megatonnes.

Mass, Fuel: 220 megatonnes (metallic hydrogen and fuel-grade tylium, plus miniscule quanatities of anti-matter and fissionables counted in stores).

Mass, Stores: 57.5 megatonnes. (46 megatonnes are metallic hydrogen for ERA).

Mass, internal fittings: 20 megatonnes.

Mass, sensor masts, hangars, barbettes, turrets, guns, missile casemates and other superstructure: 76.2 megatonnes.

Mass, Total: 445.05 megatonnes.

Pod Empty Mass: 4.5 megatonnes.

Pod Fuel Mass: 8 megatonnes.

Pod Stores Mass: 1 megatonne.

Pod Equipment Mass: 1.25 megatonne.

Total Mass of Two Fully Equipped Pods: 26.5 megatonnes.

Overall loaded mass with pods: 471.55 megatonnes.

External fittings volume: 30 million cubic meters.

Total volume: 270.5 million cubic meters.

Density: 1,750 kg / cubic meter (Somewhat more than the ship being a solid aluminium block).

Overall Power Output: Figures reported to IUCEC indicate approx. 9 x 10^20 watts at maximum power.

Sublight drive type: Heim gravito-magnetic reactionless; high efficiency.

Crew Compliment: 25,000 minimum operational; 35,000 war standard (heavily automated by Taloran standards).

Onboard troops and flight personnel: approx. ~5,000.

Energy Armament: 72 x 1.5 GT p.c. in 18 quadruple turrets; 56 x 50 MT p.c. in 23 twin turrets and 10

single mounts. Main guns are capable of firing once every two seconds, being of modified type with Tylium heat sumps which serve to transfer thermal energy from recoil absorption into electrical power for ship systems, secondary guns fire twice a second due to the same method being employed in their design.

Missile Armament: 16 x short-range torpedo tubes per broadside; 4 x TTs fore and aft, 40 in all, ten reloads per tube. These torpedoes have 48 gigatonne three-stage M/AM -> Tylium -> Fusion warheads. 120 x Mk.30 very-long-range quadruple-rail accelerative missile launchers per broadside, 240 in all, 300 missiles per rail (variable mix of anti-fighter/anti-ship rounds) -- some missiles can be replaced with 4-pack capsules for LIS-168 as needed; Tylium-boosted anti-ship warhead is 1.23 GT for very-long-range missile for the Mk.30. Torpedo and missile launchers recycle to fire once every six seconds.


Point-Defence Armament: 144 x twin 21cm p.g. turrets (each gun fires 27 times per second with Tylium cooling system fitted); 288 x sixteen-cell missile launchers (RMI-120 high acceleration interceptor missiles carried), 288 x quadruple LIS-168 box launchers (reloads carried internally only) -- 'raider-killer' bolt-on anti-slow small craft weapons + 8 x additional box launchers inside the hangar bays for last-ditch defence against suicide attack; 288 x flak projectors (these emit a cloud of ball bearings around the ship to destroy incoming missiles with their own kinetic energy).

Weapons busbar capacity: 82.125 GT/S (amount of energy which can be directed into the ship's weapons).

Shield type and strength: Vessel uses a composite layer system with 16 different shield fields. Each shield field area is triple layered, and each layer is powered by a copy of a standard Ha'tak shield generator so that the total shield strength is comparable to that of 48 Ha'tak type vessels. The ship is physically much larger than a Ha'tak however and so the point-strength is at 3 times Ha'tak strength. Backup shields have a maximum absorption capacity of 224 gigatons / ms, only half of which can be absorbed in each direction without compromising resistance to the other broadside. A total of 52 shield generators are fitted.

Acceleration at full load mass, with pods full and fitted: 1,985g's.

Power generation: The Empress Mikela the Great uses a revolutionary new Triple Cycle Generation propulsion system. The standard Taloran Double-Generation system in which an initial stage of Hydrogen --> Helium 3 fusion provides the majority of the power and a matter/anti-matter catalyzed fusion of Beryllium six from the helium products of the first fusion cycle. In the Empress Mikela the Great however the heat from the two fusion cycles is directed through fuel-grade Tylium (also known as Naquadah) which produces an immense boost in overall power; the ship is recorded as generating about 7.5 - 8 times the power of the standard Double Cycle generation scheme. The primary fuel for the reactor cycle is metallic hydrogen.

Armour: The armour has been enhanced (making the ship slightly longer and beamier) with a layer of naquadah which transfers thermal energy in the outer armour layers into electricity, recharging the capacitors of the shield generators and guns and cooling the armour to prevent additional thermal deformation. The use of the metallic hydrogen tankage as explosive-reactive armour is retained.

Drive capability: Instead of the standard Gravito-Magnetic submersion (Heim Field drive) and Jump drive combination, the Empress Mikela II has a third stage with a Goa'uld Hyperdrive. The combination of Gravito-Magnetic drive operation inside of Hyperspace allows the ship to obtain 53.4 times the regular speed of a Goa'uld hyperdrive without further modification. Using a Cylon jump drive installation, the ship can instantaneously jump up to 1,840 lightyears with a recharge and recycling time on the jump-drive of 35 minutes. Dropping out of hyperspace and jumping before returning to hyperspace can be accomplished under computer-predictor control within one Taloran minute, making it worthwhile to use the hyper/heim-field combination and jump drive successfully when a maximum speed approaching 24,000 lightyears / hour is desired in critical response situations.

Onboard parasite combat craft: A total of 128 modified J'u'crea-type Gunboats are carried. They operate with a modified version of the semisapient computers used on Carinan tanks and small craft, allowing them to be fully automated and dispense with the crew; this in combination with Tylium power boosting allows for much more rapid-firing 21cm guns, more missiles, better shields to be fitted, and somewhat higher accelerations to be obtained; the craft can also manoeuvre without regard to a crew's limitations, and receive directives from a slave-control facility inside the ship, but can operate fully autonomously for scouting purposes.

Pod notes: The currently fitted pods each carry 24,000 Very Long Range missiles in mass-flushable cell launchers as well as the general stores and fuel storage normative to all pods.

[Tanner]

Great story so far but can you tell me the stats for the Grey Star.

[Steve]

Chapter 19



Atlantis, Lantea
Pegasus Galaxy


The mood among the members of the Atlantis Expedition had fallen to new depths, with just days left until the arrival of the Wraith. With the threat to Earth having been made clear by Teyla Emmagin's telepathic contact with the Wraith the Expedition members were faced with a bleak set of options, the primary one to be to destroy the city and wipe the city's database to keep the Wraith from finding Earth.
Dr. Rodney McKay was busy informing the others of his plan to re-activate an Ancient defense satellite found at the outer edge of the system, along the Wraith path of advance, when the alarm came from the control room. "Unscheduled gate activation!"
Given the mood it was perfectly understandable that every heart in the room froze with dread. Dr. Elizabeth Weir and Maj. John Sheppard were the first into the control room overlooking Atlantis' Stargate. As they arrived the gate flashed to life, though not before the Canadian technician overseeing the gate controls triggered the protective shield. "Do we have an IDC?", Weir asked as she took a position near the Stargate controls.
The technician stared at the screen for a moment. An astonished expression came to his face. "Doctor, reading IDC, it's... Stargate Command!"

Stunned astonishment came across the faces of all in the room. Remaining skeptical for a moment, Sheppard asked, "Wait, are you sure?"
"It's confirmed, it's Stargate Command!"
"Lower the shield!" A sudden burst of enthusiasm came over Weir and the others as she, Sheppard, McKay, and Lt. Aidan Ford all tromped down the steps and toward the Stargate. The protective field that covered it flashed out of existance. As they came close armed soldiers began entering, moving out in a protective formation briefly before they allowed themselves to relax. A gray-haired figure stepped through after the first squad of troops, wearing an urban camo BDU and the rank insignia of a US Colonel. Ford saluted immediately as the figure walked up to them. The man saluted sharply and identified himself, "Colonel Dillion Everett, United States Marine Corps. Dr. Elizabeth Weir?"
"Yes," Weir answered, everyone else staring at the figures continuing to come through, some pulling pallets of boxes or carrying smaller ones.
"My congratulations to you on a job well done under extraordinary circumstances." Everett brought up a radio. "We're clear, send them through."

As more men and women came through carrying items, Jack and Nate emerged from the event horizon as well. This prompted Weir and the others to gawk for a moment; O'Neill, commander of the SGC, stepping through to Atlantis and stranding himself here? Unless....
"Dr. Weir, good to see you're all still with us." Jack motioned to Nate. "Doctor, Major Sheppard, Doctor McKay, this is General Nathan Mackensen, Allied Nations Marine Corps and the new NBTO liaison to the SGC. Nate, this is Doctor Elizabeth Weir, Major John Sheppard, Doctor Rodney McKay."
"Nice to meet you," Nate said to them.
"General, what are you doing here?", McKay asked, almost stammered. "I mean, you can't go back unless...."
"Doctor McKay, we come bearing gifts." Jack looked back just in time to see three SGC personnel carrying in boxes, each clearly labeled "ZPM".

At that sight McKay's eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning finding an overflowing mountain of presents underneath the tree. "How... how did you... three ZedPMs?"
"It's a long story," Jack said. McKay didn't wait to ask more, he immediately began motioning for the box-carriers to follow him so he could get the ZPMs plugged in. "So, how are you holding up?"
"We weren't doing bad until the Wraith started coming in," Sheppard answered. "Speaking of that, are we getting anything else to help with the Wraith?"
"We've got four ships coming your way, including one big honking... what are they called again?" Jack looked to Nate.
"Superdreadnought," Nate offered.
"Ah, yes, superdreadnought... I really do like the sound of that."
"Sounds... big." Sheppard gave a little half nod along with that remark. He pointed toward Nate. "I don't think that uniform looks..."
"He's from a different universe, Sheppard," Jack answered. "Afraid you weren't with the SGC long enough before leaving to get briefed on that one."

Weir, however, had. "The universe-jumping Humans from the Olympos Mission?"
"One and the same."
From behind it the scope of aid coming into Atlantis was now clear. Open pallets carrying powered body armor should the Wraith somehow get in the city went by. Others bore the markings of surface-to-orbit weapon emplacement parts that were going to be rigged to the city's pier areas.
"Woh, that is one sweet looking set of body armor," Ford remarked upon seeing a platoon of Alliance Recon Marines start coming through the gate in their own light powered armor. "When do I get one?"
"When you're certified for it, Lieutenant," Nate answered for him.
"We're bringing you enough materials to hold out in case the Wraith do somehow break the shield, as well as some weapons we hope will catch them a bit by surprise if they get too close." Jack grinned. "Presuming our ships don't get here first and..."

"General, sir, we may have a problem."
Heads turned toward a young Oriental man hovering over a computer system. Nate asked, "Yes, Lieutenant Nguyen?"
"I was doing a quick systems check on this security scanner and picked up some kind of anomaly. It looks like a life sign but..." Nguyen looked up at Nate. "It's definitely not Human."
"I think we have a couple non-humans here already," Nate pointed out.
"No, that's not it Sir. The signal's coming from elsewhere in the city."
Everyone started looking at one another. "A Wraith," Sheppard said. "Has to be one..."
"How could it have gotten here without us knowing?", Ford asked.
"Your report did mention a flyby by a Wraith fighter," Jack pointed out. "Sneaky, but that just means they take after their Mommy Dearest." When that prompted another quizzical look from the assembled Atlantis personnel, Jack added, "Another long story, you'll have access to the report soon enough."

Suddenly a new voice called out. "Hey Jack, did I miss anything?"
Looking very irritated, Jack turned to see where Daniel had stepped through the gate. "Daniel? I thought you were going to remain on Earth gloating to all the people who claimed you were crazy?", Jack asked.
"I can always gloat later," he answered. "Besides, you might end up blowing up Atlantis so I wanted to get a chance to look around as quick as possible." A sardonic look came over Daniel's face. "After all, you and catastrophic explosions and/or other acts of destruction do tend to go together."
Nate chuckled a little before catching himself, putting a hand over his mouth as he endured an irritated look from Jack. Jack looked back to Daniel and, suddenly, a very pleased smile came to his face. A very pleased, mischievous smile.
Upon seeing that smile, Daniel felt a cold feeling go down his spine. "Jack, I don't like that look. What are you about to do?"
Still smiling, Jack gave his reply. "I was just thinking that if you've come all this way you might as well make yourself useful."
In a very cautious tone," Daniel asked, "Useful in what way?"
At that question, Jack's smile looked almost predatory, and that didn't make Daniel feel good at all.




A short time later Daniel was walking around Atlantis in the general location of the suspected Wraith. "I should have stayed home," he muttered.
"Oh, just relax, you'll be fine," Jack answered over the radio.
Daniel increased the grip on his pistol.
He was turning a corner when he heard a noise, a low hissing sound. He swung the gun and his flashlight around and found himself staring face to face with a humanoid figure of pale greenish complexion. The being hissed at him and swung out, knocking the gun from Daniel's hand. The speed of his attacker was such that Daniel barely moved before he was being thrown back into the wall, the Wraith reaching its hand back in a prepatory gesture for feeding.
He stopped when the word "Maedhv" left Daniel's lips. Still snarling, the Wraith seemed to appraise Daniel closely. "How do you know of the High Queen, Human?", he demanded.
He didn't get to say anything else. A bolt of energy struck him courtesy of a zat'nikatel in Jack's hand. The Wraith fell over completely unconscious.
Daniel drew in a breath and put his hand to his head for a moment while Jack walked up. A group of Alliance Recon Marines in full power armor moved around him to secure the body, Sheppard taking up a position beside Jack. "Good work, Doctor Jackson," Sheppard said. "You're better at this than Rodney."
"Yeah, I have a lot of experience in 'I'm about to die' situations," Daniel answered sarcastically, giving a "Are you happy now?!" glare to Jack.

"So, what's this about 'Maedhv' and a High Queen?"
"That..."
"....is a long story, yeah," Sheppard finished for Jack. "Well, how about you tell me while we get Bob here," he motioned to the unconscious Wraith, "into a holding cell?"
Daniel looked a bit bewildered before asking, "Bob?", in an incredulous tone.
"Yeah, well, they don't name themselves," Sheppard explained, "And we already had a 'Steve'."
"Really? Huh." Jack nodded, seemingly impressed. "'Bob', I like that. 'Bob' is good. Any other names on the list for the next one?"
Sheppard seemed to think about a second. "Either Todd or Michael," he finally answered. "McKay suggested Radek and Peter as names for the list but given his rivalry with Zelenka and Kavanagh I decided against it."
"Ah, Dr. Kavanagh," Jack said simply, thinking about the civilian's petulant message to him in Atlantis' earlier broadcast home about the things he thought Dr. Weir had done wrong. "Maybe I shouldn't have used Daniel to draw Bob the Wraith out...", he added, letting the sentence trail off wistfully.



Several hours later Daniel was waiting with Sheppard and Teyla when "Bob" came too. "Well, Bob, good to see you awake finally," Sheppard remarked. "We've got some questions to ask you."
The Wraith merely gazed at them, smiling an eerie, predatory smile.
"You've been in this city two weeks," Sheppard continued. "What have you done while you've been here."
"I have a question for you as well," Bob the Wraith countered. He leveled his eyes on Daniel. "How do you know the name of our High Queen?"
"Answer our questions and I'll answer your's," Daniel replied.
Still smiling, Bob's reply was cold in delivery. "The truth is that it doesn't matter what I did to this city. You cannot stop us from taking this place and finding the location of Earth."
Sheppard and Daniel exchanged looks. Neither wanted to tell Bob too much since he might telepathically warn the others. "You know what I think? I think you were biding your time until the fleet was close," Daniel answered. "Then you were going to come out and sabotage the city while we tried to defend it."
"If you think that, then your question is meaningless. Mine isn't. How do you Humans know of the High Queen?"
"We... found her name written down in the database. I recently finished the translations," Daniel lied.
Bob clearly saw through it, as he let out a low cackle and answered, "I do not believe you. You know far more than that."
"Maybe I do," Daniel admitted. "But I have no reason to cooperate with you."
"But you do, Human," Bob said. "If you truly know the High Queen, we may yet spare you to learn about her whereabouts."

To that Sheppard remarked, "You want to know about this 'High Queen' pretty bad. Why?"
Bob scowled. "That is not your affair."
"Given you plan on feeding on us and then Earth, I think it's become our affair," Daniel pointed out.
"I will tell you no more," Bob insisted. "You can kill me but it will only ensure your suffering when the others find out what you have done. But if you cooperate with us on your knowledge of the High Queen..."
Daniel and Sheppard looked at each other. "I have a better idea," Sheppard finally said. "Teyla?"
Looking very resigned but determined, Teyla stepped up to the bars of the holding cell and began to concentrate.




Jack and Nate were in the main conference room with Weir, Dr. Carson Beckett, and McKay as Sheppard, Daniel, and Teyla reported on the results of their interview with "Bob". "I am sorry," Teyla said softly, still looking rather unettled, "but I was unable to get into his mind."
"So we don't know if he did any sabotage before being caught," Jack said. "Swell."
"Oh, I'm not too worried about that now," McKay said in a very self-assured tone. "I am happy to report that our three ZedPMs are operating perfectly normally. We'll be able to raise the city shield easily and hold off the Wraith for quite some time. And with the assistance of these Talarans...."
"Talorans," Daniel corrected him.
"Whatever," McKay answered in expasperation. "...with some input from them, your's-truly has been able to power the weapons they've brought through the Stargate from the ZPMs as well. We're ready to give the Wraith one hell of a fight."
"That's good, that's real good," Jack said. "Well, I've enjoyed my visit, Dr. Weir. I look forward to telling the President what an excellent job you and your people have done here in Pegasus. But I'm afraid I must be getting back to Earth." Standing up, Nate doing the same a moment later, Jack motioned to Daniel. "Come along, Daniel."

"But... I haven't gotten to really look around yet, I haven't even seen the database..."
"Daniel, in sixteen hours you're giving a report to a joint session of Congress and a UN General Assembly meeting," Jack reminded him sternly. "You're going to have to come back to Earth."
Looking defeated, Daniel looked to Sheppard and Weir and said, "Please, please don't get this city blown up."
"Sorry, Doctor Jackson, we can't make any promises," Weir answered.
"But we'll do our best," Sheppard promised. "We've grown rather attached to it ourselves."




Empress Mikela The Great, Arriving Over Lantea
Pegasus Galaxy
29 October 2178




“As Your Ladyship commands,” Commodore Anneliese von Brauchitsch turned around with the vaguest of smiles on her lips, leaving Fiyesia to vaguely smile. She had been the one who recommended to Admiral Uroijha that they not bother with their titles when dealing with democratic Earth-humans of the 21st century, who would respond negatively to it. Properly Fiyesia was Her Ladyship the Rear Admiral Fiyesia Countess of Hilumjhui. Democratic societies never thought well of such formality, and now they had a real chance at securing command of the IUCEC force in Pegasus due to their judicious support of the Stargate Command’s civilian leadership there, and less formal demeanour.

Unfortunately, such delicate concerns of political manoeuvre were about to end in favour of a less tasteful action, for all it was one Fiyesia was scarcely unfamiliar with-nor was most of her crew unblooded. Von Brauchitsch for that matter had received the Order of the Faith against the Domain’s forces, which was not a military order, but had been given by the Farzian prelates for the liberation of countless slaves at the Battle of Rulangat while commanding a detachment under the Marchioness Sapai during the first interuniversal adventure of the Empire. Since the Zohan had been instrumental in the construction of the Empress Mikela the Great they had put her name in for captaincy of the ship and so the first Tylium enhanced vessel in the Imperial Starfleet had been put under the command of a human who had entered the Imperial service because she was bored with being the dutiful housewife of the officer she’d married.

Well, she was in Supply, and how odd that relationship turned out, didn’t it? Now it’s Anneliese who’s the decorated hero, and Khalimna in relative obscurity. Fiyesia admitted that her having been a family friend of Khalimna’s had provided some influence in the appointment, but the Order of the Faith was no triviality, even and more precisely especially on the neck of a human. Having her in command, also turned out to be good publicity here, though Fiyesia was the ranking officer. The immensely tall and rugged German woman with her body wiry from hard exercise and kept dangerously lean, and hair coloured a vibrant green that contrasted blue eyes, was admittedly attractive even by Taloran standards, if not particularly, though Fiyesia had never had much recourse to wandering her eyes beyond her husband in many years. She certainly understood what Khalimna had seen, though…

“We’re approaching the Artaik limit.”

“Bring the ship out of hyperspace,” Commodore von Brauchitsch ordered coolly, checking displays which indicated the ship was fully at Condition One with all internals buttoned up, and shoving a stray lock of hair back into her suit. “Stand by the missiles to engage as required and disengage Gravito-Magnetic drive on return to sublight and cut our speed to ten-percent c.” As she’d agreed with Fiyesia just minutes before, there was no real reason to wait for the rest of the squadron to arrive; indeed, they could insert themselves into the standing engagement as they thought best for added surprise.

“Aye, Captain!”

Four kilometers of muonic titanium, d-uranium and tylium, laden with countless megatonnes of metallic hydrogen, smoothly slipped from hyperlight, carrying along for a greater distance before the drives dropped them down near to Lantea, as Anneliese understood the planet to be named. The holoproject betrayed the existence of three immense ships close to twelve kilometers in length and very broad by beam, nine smaller escorts which could be considered warships, and an entire swathe of smaller targets, reminiscent of the tiny Cylon Raiders that the infamous Tisara of Urami had once encountered. Fortunately, they were well-prepared for the likes of those.

“Commander Mhyanjhra, Stand by the Starboard pod if you please and read the missile batteries. We have the enemy well in sight and range.” She turned back to Rear Admiral Hilumjhui. “Does Your Ladyship believe that the Wraith are aware a state of war exists with the Empire by treaty?”

“I don’t think so,” Fiyesia answered for a moment, her ears dipping to show a thoughtful bit of consternation. “All right, Commodore, go ahead and warn them before commencing the attack.”

“Certainly, Your Ladyship.” Anneliese stepped over to the large display bank around the holoprojector and flipped up a communications handset, broadcasting in the clear. “This is Commodore Anneliese von Brauchistch of Her Serene Majesty’s Starship the Empress Mikela the Great. I have been directed to inform you that pursuant to causus foederati our nations are now at war, and we mean to destroy your squadron. This is effective immediately.” She set the handset down: “Full missile salvo and flush the starboard pod!”

25,000 very-long range attack missiles leapt from their rails or flushed from their cells at the enemy in one grand salvo, the two hundred and fourty quad-rail launchers immediately reloading with fresh missiles, and the starboard pod having flushed its full load, but the port pod still available.

“Time to impact?”

“Twelve minutes, thirty-two seconds, Commodore. The range is relatively close so the missiles will only be coming in at twenty-five percent c.”

Anneliese flipped open an old fashioned pocket watch in gloved hands, well, on the outside; on the inside it was a very complicated relativistic chronological display. “Widen the parabolic trajectory to eight arc-seconds relative the system primary and stand by for lightspeed!”

“Astrogation has ship’s navigation computers control,” voices coolly droned out across the ship. “Replacing tactical plot, Your Honour.” The tactical flipped into a green-line display of the shifting arc of the ship and the indicated course as they’d be driven to with engagement of the supralight capacity of the Gravito-Magnetic drive. One of the Astrogation officers turned up, her ears flicking up clear and attentive. “Commodore, we will be approaching within fourty thousand kilometers of the planet’s moon if the course is held for more than one minute and twenty-two seconds.”

“Noted. Engage.”

“Aye, Your Honour!”

Anneliese coolly held the course and speed for thirty-eight Taloran seconds. “Disengage from lightspeed and roll the ship. Stand by to flush the port pod.” They quickly responded to the helm orders, the huge superdreadnought flawlessly dropping from 1c back down to .1, with one leg of a crudely formed oblique scalene triangle having been crossed. The moment they dropped out, control reverted to the helm and the ship rotated one hundred and eighty degrees.

“Salvo all tubes and flush the pod!”

Another 25,000 missiles leapt toward the Wraith formation on a converging course which would bring them in simultaneously to the first 25,000, at an 87 degree angle from the angle of their approach.

“One hundred degrees starboard y to ship’s orientation and stand by for lightspeed on bow heading.” The ship pivoted her bow flawlessly toward Lantea and the Wraith fleet and the Gravito-Magnetic supralight drive again flashed green.

“Button up,” Anneliese added, and flipped her own helmet into place, sealed and locked. She activated the internal comms… “Attention All Hands, this is the Captain speaking. We will now be entering close combat with the enemy. May the Lord Justice grant us all success in our duties. Good luck and good hunting, my children!” Then she flipped through to the channel for the Central Battery Director. “Weapons free all batteries from the moment we drop out of lightspeed, Klarikha.”

“Understood, Your Honour. All batteries report ready, over and out.”

“Astrogation: Engage the drive and disengagement on proximity alert with the enemy fleet!”

“Astrogation: Engage the drive and disengagement on proximity alert with the enemy fleet!” And again the huge superdreadnought leapt forward, now inexorably toward the Wraith fleet. The Wraith had already analyzed the situation, and seen the magnitude of the danger, and they had their own response for it.

By the time the Empress Mikela the Great had dropped out from supralight, the Wraith Darts were already dying violent deaths by the thousands as they interposed themselves between the cruisers and Hive Ships and the enemy missile salvoes, firing their guns to kill as many missiles as they could and then ramming the ones they couldn’t, or more precisely interposing themselves between those missiles and their ships. There had been about ten thousand Darts deployed from the fleet-its entire strength-to meet the incoming missile attack, and they were dying as they deployed in waves to meet it.

“Show them the Raider-killers,” Anneliese gestured to the central defense control bank as she spoke, attention returning to the renewed tactical plot in time to see as the forward arc guns, fourty of them in all, fired their first salvo. And then, with a speed that surprised her even though she knew her new ship was capable of it, fired a second; one second intervals, one salvo every two seconds.

Along the hull the armoured box launchers for the LIS-168s were opened and the missiles swarmed in immediately at the Darts which were further out than they were, the missiles having passed through and leaving very few behind as they manoeuvred to doggedly attack the ship of whom the crew already fondly called the ‘Miki’. Without further ado the highly manoeuvrable army surface to air missiles, adapted for engaging extremely small and slow fighters with high manoeuvrability, simply washed in a wave over the remaining darts, leaving precious few left. The 21cm powerguns opened up next, their rates of fire also substantially increased by Tylium-based dry coolant systems.

Ahead of them, great gouts of venting plasma were visible from the massive 1.5 gigatonne particle cannon strikes of the main guns of the Miki.

“By the Lord Justice, we’ve really got the firepower of eight Line Ships in one hull, don’t we now?” Fiyesia murmured softly as she watched the holographs and scrolling computer analysis of the destruction besides them. “And the enemy is unshielded, too. These people are the terror of an entire galaxy? Here come the missiles…”

Having raced past the hull of the big Line Ship, the missiles converged in two directions, overwhelming the point defence cannon on the cruisers which had formed themselves forward to protect the Hive Ships from the huge salvo. Gouts were torn out of their hulls as again and again the Tylium boosted warheads struck home, until in a tremendous explosion one of the cruisers detonated, and then another, and then another, spun to pieces as the missiles simply overwhelmed all of their defences. One final ship was overwhelmed by the missiles and detonated, while the five surviving cruisers were ragged with damage in the space of the barest seconds over which the battle had been fought.

“Flank deacceleration and present the broadside for the CBD’s favour,” Anneliese spoke coolly from where she contemptuously remained standing by the holoprojector. Then she flipped on one of the comm lines. “Director control, this is the bridge. Secondaries against the cruisers only. They’ve been badly handled, no need to waste main battery fire on them.”

“Enemy is returning fire!”

“No need to inform me, Lieute…” Anneliese was cut off as the huge Line Ship was struck hard enough by the massed salvoes of three Hive Ships to be bodily flung to the side, her confident hands gripping hard enough on the rail lining the bank of readouts surrounding the holoplot that she wasn’t tossed across the bridge as she might have been.

“It appears, Commodore,” Fiyesia offered gently, “They punch a lot harder than they can take.”

“Quite, Your Ladyship,” Anneliese reluctantly stepped back to settle down into her command chair and strap in, just in time as the next salvo slammed violently into their shields as the engines strained into overdrive, working the inertial compensators to the redline to keep the Miki holding formation while her full broadside-84 gigatonnes of concentrated firepower from 56 particle guns-was fired with the massive 50-meter recoil of the 150 meter long gun barrels deep into the turrets, the retardation systems generating enormous heat… All of it now absorbed by Tylium dampers, with the energy then bound into the Tylium at once drained into the regular capacitors and allowing the gun to be fired two seconds later, instead of twelve. Sent at velocities of .99994c toward the Wraith Hive Ship targeted were small streams of neutrons which at such velocities contained the requisite kinetic energy.

The hull was riddled end to end and it scarcely seemed like the ship should remain functional, but as with their original target a disturbing thing started to happen; the vessel began to immediately repair itself. “Nanite repair mechanisms? Interesting,” Fiyesia commented from her position high on the bridge, being more of an observer than anything else at the moment. Unfortunately the situation on the bridge indicated things were more serious for them.

“The outer layer of primary shielding has collapsed under those salvoes, Your Honour!”

“We’ll keep our starboard broadside to them-concentrate all shields there,” Anneliese answered even as the ship heeled and rocked under them from another massive rain of fire directed upon them by the Wraith ships. “How many more salvoes can we take from them?”

“Eleven or twelve until we’ve lost all shields, Your Honour!” The ship slammed from yet another, and then another, and another bank of shields collapsed, even as the broadsides from the Miki were sloshing one of the Wraith Hive Ships to pieces regardless of her ability to regenerate damage. The secondary guns had claimed a sixth cruiser with rapid-fire 50 megatonne particle shots, but the remaining long-range missiles were having less of an effect due to the close range, yet they were not close enough to use torpedoes yet. Commander Mhyanjhra elected to start firing heavy anti-fighter missiles at the Wraith Hive Ships, which had twice the acceleration though even smaller warheads, and not Tylium boosted; they got through unlike the slower-accelerating anti-ship missiles at that range, but the damage they added was marginal at best.

“The Wraith cruisers are moving, Your Honour. We’re analyzing their attack maneouvre…” Lieuteant Efylait seemed as unpeturbed as his commanding officer. “There is a danger. They’re coming about to present their guns to our unshielded port, Your Honour, and quickly.”

“Shift the reserve shield banks, full power to port. Keep all primary shield generators focused on the starboard hull.” She glanced back to Fiyesia, still unperturbed. “Fortunate for us they’re so big that almost every shot lands as a hit, is it not, Your Ladyship?”

“Surely, but mind your ship first, Anneliese,” Fiyesia answered, to make it clear it was not a formal rebuke.

The captain of the Miki turned back without another word, just an imperceptible nod. Then within a few seconds the fire from the Wraith cruisers remaining started to land brutally upon their old-style reserve shield banks… And one of the Hive Ships blew up. The only reaction on the well-disciplined bridge was the satisfied snap! of the face of Anneliese’s expensive relativistic pocket watch having been closed sharply, though Fiyesia thought for sure she’d heard something soft in the woman’s native tongue as well.

“They’re highly internally compartmented and not very strong-possibly even metal-laced bio-ceramics. It ironically means our high velocity fire at least partially penetrates straight through without causing spreading damage, so we had to get lucky with a reactor hit,” Anneliese commented as though to no-one in particular, but clearly to Fiyesia, and the Taloran woman was struck again by how the devilish perceptiveness of the human meant she’s earned every honour, family connections or not. Then she leaned over… “Klarikha, port main battery turrets if you please…”
“Understood, Your Honour!” Sixteen particle cannon from four turrets swung out and aimed in on the lead of the remaining six Wraith cruisers that were now pummeling the old-style backup shields of the Miki, put out to port, and rapidly depleting them. They opened fire at maximum rapidity, and within ten seconds, the number of Wraith cruisers was down to five. It wasn’t enough; the backup shields were rapidly collapsing.

“Shift one main shield layer to port,” Anneliese finally ordered, and just in time, too. The cruisers were being hammered to pieces but in the meantime they’d knocked down the backup shielding and the Goa’uld-type layer snapped back into existence just in time to hold up against the next salvo of fire. That, however, meant…

“Two more broadsides to starboard, Your Honour and the hull will be exposed.”

“Keep firing, we’ve almost got that second Hive Ship, look at how she’s riddled,” Anneliese answered, and coolly flipped her pocket watch back open as another broadside slammed home into the Line Ship.

And then, just moments later, the next. “We’ve lost shields to starboard!”

“Shift shields from port and keep firing, we’ll take the fire from the cruisers in the hull first…” She fiddled with her watch. “And stand by to go to lightspeed.” The words were met with genuine relief from all who could hear the command.

And then, flashing into existence on the opposite side of the Wraith Hive ships from the Miki, a very familiar squadron of three ships: Daedalus, Prometheus and Gray Star. Again, the snapping sound of Anneliese’s pocket watch being closed, even as the hull shuddered under unprotected fire from the cruisers and the last shield bank collapsed against the Hive Ships.

“Take us to lightspeed!” Without further comment, she turned back to Fiyesia. “They were four minutes and nineteen seconds late, Your Ladyship.” The smile that touched her face was almost infectious, and Fiyesia flicked her ears in her helmet in a hidden acknowledgement.

Anneliese, though, was back to being all business. “Now, give me a report damage to the portside armour and any penetrations and get as many of those shield generators back up as we can. We’ll re-enter the battle as soon as we’ve got any kind of shielding. Let’s help them out as we can, though: Deploy the synthetic control gunboats and bring them into the engagement immediately.”

“It may be quite some time before we can complete repairs to the generators, Your Honour.”

“Well, then, we shall have to hope that the parasites are sufficient aide.” Anneliese stood to get a better view of the developing engagement.




Gray Star, Arriving Over Lantea


"Emerging from hyperspace now," Di'not said as the Gray Star emerged from the hyperspace window it created near Lantea. Around the bridge crew braced themselves for another intense combat after a few days of relative rest during their intergalactic flight. "Firing engines to full capacity."
Hsiao gave a report on the enemy. "I'm picking up six major enemy contacts as well as numerous parasite craft. Going by what we've been told I believe the Wraith force consists of four cruisers and two of their Hive ships. All six vessels are damaged, two cruisers badly as well as one Hive showing extensive damage."
"Status on Empress Mikela?"
"She's showing signs of severe damage but is still functioning, they're making a lightspeed course away from the combat zone using their Heim drive," was Hsiao's reply to Data.
"Gray Star, Prometheus, this is Caldwell. We're launching fighters and locking weapons. I'd suggest a direct attack, keep the Wraith on their toes. Captain Data, since you've got seniority and the most experience in this field we will defer to your commands."
"I concur, Colonel Caldwell. Please maintain a position on our starboard arc exact positioning left to your discretion. Colonel Pendergast, maintain distance and use missile fire, your vessel lacks the weapon loadout to participate beyond missile attack and fighter support. I am leaving you responsible for our stern arc. Data out." With his commands given Data now issued orders to his crew. "Lieutenant Di'not, engage in evasive maneuvers as necessary. Glin Torcet, you may fire at your discretion." He was answered with a series of "Aye"s and "Yes sir"s.

With the commands given the two Earth ships took their places relative to the larger Gray Star. The twenty-megaton empty displacement vessel targeted forward weapons on the nearest Wraith cruiser and let lose a barrage of phaser and neutron cannon fire. Normally these weapons would have only inflicted minor damage that the Wraith repair functions could keep up with but they were now enhanced by the ZPM attached to Gray Star's power core, the ship's power grid having been carefully altered to deal with the extra energy being coursed through it. A solid beam of green energy speared through the Wraith cruiser's bow, coming out near the stern. The phasers proved somewhat less than effective from a pure power standpoint but their particular atomization properties were causing the damage they caused to ripple along the Wraith ship's hull. The cruiser died when a pair of Guyverite torpedoes slammed into it, blowing the Wraith vessel in twain.

Flooding in to aid the three attacking ships was a swarm of 120 gunboat-sized vessels; they were about 4,000 tons each and moved very rapidly under Tylium-enhanced anti-matter drives, dropping out from Heim effect to close with their two 10-gigatonne m/am torpedoes each, executing manoeuvres no ship should be able to execute... Precisely because there were no life-signs aboard, the 'synethic control' ships being operated by semisapient computers and having been launched from the Empress Mikela; their forward powerguns stuttered in very rapid fire and decoy rockets and missiles were fired to help confuse the targeting picture for the Wraith against the Earth ships and the Gray Star as well.
While Prometheus engaged from long-range with their missile batteries, Daedalus opened up with the four 300mm particle cannons built into the ship's forward arc. Powered by the naquadah reactors of the ship and now the ZPM it was using, the lances of sapphire energy scoured the thick hull of a nearby Wraith cruiser, sending molten pieces of armor material flying with trails of atmosphere erupting from the damaged sections. The missiles had their own target, moving toward the riddled Hive ship that had already endured a battering from the Empress Mikela. The warheads detonating along the ship's hull further deteriorated the Hive ship's structural stability and auto-repair systems.
On the Gray Star Tarak was busy using his station and his DNI interface to scan the enemy ships. "Captain, I have identified a possible weak point in the Hive vessels. Given their lack of energy shielding and point-defense weaponry I believe missiles and torpedoes could be fired into their launch bays."
"Lieutenant David, relay Glin Torcet's information to all ships and fighters," Data ordered.




Kei reduced the acceleration of her Scorpion fighter to bring a Wraith Dart into her HUD's targeting crosshairs. She pulled the trigger on her weapons and watched a stream of energy pulses lash out, swiping across the Dart's body and causing the sleek craft to fly apart in a ball of fire. "Commander, we're getting targeting data from Gray Star," Kylie said from the rear seat. "They want us to put our ordnance into the Wraith ships' launch bays."
"Roger that. All F/A-48s form up on me, target that Hive ship. Tell the F-302s from Daedalus and Prometheus to take the other Hive." Kei fired her engines to full acceleration again while Kylie entered the targeting data into her system, informing the missiles' targeting computers of what they were to look for and when to detonate their warheads. Wraith Darts whizzed by, unable to get solid shots at the faster F/A-48s.
"We're at 50 kilo-klicks, Kei, missiles are good."
"Fox One!" Kei pressed her thumb down on the missile trigger.
Her immediate flight all fired as well toward the same target, a launch bay on the least-damaged Hive. Darts saw the missiles flying and tried to intercept, a daunting task for those between the missiles and the hive and impossible for those already behind the missiles. One missile blew apart as a Dart crashed into it, immolating both. Another missile went up, but that would be it: the Wraith Dart forces had dispersed trying to engage the fighters and the ships and the Taloran synthetic control craft and had already taken great losses in the engagement.
Even with the best targeting systems designed in the Multiverse not every missile hit the mark completely, not when dealing with the sheer amount of emissions in the battlespace or the speed of the combatant. Those that didn't still did damage, their warheads' proximity fuses determing they were about to hit and detonating the warheads just in time to avoid being crushed against the Wraith Hive's armored hull. These detonations did a fair amount of damage, but it was the missiles that successfully slipped into the launch bays that did the trick. The least-damaged Wraith hive, as well as two of the cruisers, disappeared in blinding flashes of light, leaving only some specks of debris behind.
"Looks like one of the good shots was our's," Kylie said, a bit of a grin on her face. "Good shot, Commander."
"Thank you, Ensign."



Even as the first missiles came off the launch points of the F/A-48s and F-302s, Data suddenly seemed to tense up. Kharaste noticed this and gave a concerned, "Sir?"
"Curious," Data said. "Lieutenant David, emergency dispatch to all ships via secondary laser data-transmission. The Wraith are attempting to transmit a computer virus into our systems via communications systems. I have detected the attempt on Gray Star's computers and am currently uploading firewalls to contain the infection. Commander Triulajha, we must sever all physical system connections to the primary communications transceiver."
Kharaste immediately dispatched the orders while the necessary communications were sent to Prometheus, Daedalus, and Empress Mikela.
On the screen the last Wraith hive went up in a spectacular explosion, the victim of a naquadah-missile fired from one of Daedalus's F-302s. The sole surviving Wraith vessel turned away to disengage.
Tarak struck before it could. Again the supercharged neutron cannon in Gray Star's bow fired, joined by the four cannons on Daedalus. Four blue beams joined the larger green lance in savaging the rear quarter of the Wraith cruiser. A hyperspace window beginning to form before it dissipated abruptly as a result.
The Wraith cruiser turned to engage and was struck by a brace of missiles from Prometheus and Daedalus. The explosions nearly blew the Wraith cruiser apart before a Guyverite torpedo from Gray Star finished it off.

"Captain, enemy vessels destroyed," Tarak reported.
To add to this news, Kharaste gave a report. "Teams have severed the physical connection to the main communications transceiver."
"Thank you, Commander," Data answered. In truth he'd sensed that the moment his own interface registered a loss of contact with the infected system but didn't begrudge his crew of a verbal report. "Signal all fighters to shut down comm systems and land by laser sight control. Upon arrival their computer systems will be completely purged to ensure they were not contaminated by the virus."
"Yes Captain."


Atlantis



A cheer came from Stargate Operations as the final Wraith cruiser disappeared from their screens. "Allied fleet, this is Dr. Weir on Atlantis," Weir said into her comm headset, "congratulations on defeating the Wraith."
"Atlantis, this is Colonel Caldwell on Daedalus. Thanks for the support. We're going to be collecting survivors from lost fighters, do you think we could send them down to you?"
"Doctor Beckett and his staff are standing by in the infirmary," Weir confirmed.
"Thanks. Caldwell out."
"Well, Rodney, looks like we won't get to try out those guns after all," Sheppard said to McKay.
Before McKay could respond, the accented voice of Dr. Radek Zelenka spoke up. "I wouldn't be to sure of that." Everyone looked to him as Zelenka brought up an image from Atlantis' long range hyperspace sensors.
The image of wavery yellow shapes, in the distinct form of Hive ships, made the celebration end immediately.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Some notes on the armour scheme of the Taloran Line Ship, or dreadnought to the foreign powers:

For the heavily protected Taloran dreadnought, utterly no expense is spared in protection. By long tradition the shields are considered the first line of passive defence (active defence being the interception and dispersion of incoming targets, which can include intercetion by counter-missiles of even incoming energy weapons fire where this may be appropriate). The shields are arranged with projectors running along the dorsal and ventral surfaces fore and aft only, and along the entire length of the ship in two rows offset from the broadside. One generator is therefore typically attached to six projectors and is usually designed to power all six at standard levels, or four at double-strength (due to power loss in transmission and certain other factors).

Due to this it's quite typical for shields in standard mode to actually have one generator focused on one side of the ship or another; to double the shields up is to concentrate all of them on a single side, and computers handle the complex switching tasks of allocating energy on the point basis to maintain the subspace distortion fields which operate on a two front basis--first the matter and energy of something entering the shields is partially submerged in subspace and then the distortion waves cause sheering. Therefore it is typical for missiles impacting the shields of Taloran vessels to simply be snapped in two; the shields themselves are not a mere barrier in space, but an area of effect extending out perhaps a dozen kilometers from the hull. The characteristic image of a forcefield around the vessel is the visual appearance of the subspace wave effect around the hull at the point where the shear effect disrupts incoming matter or coherent energy beam.

Because of the nature of the shields they beautifully allow for direct fire out of the fully raised shields without compromising the defensive integrity of the hull: This is due to the fact that the subspace shearing wave, occurring last against incoming fire, occurs first to outgoing fire, meaning it has no effect whatsoever as that fire is not submerged in subspace. Traveling beyond the shearing layer is the submersion layer, which means the outgoing fire is submerged in subspace and then de-submerged as it passes through it, which has the effect of actually increasing the velocity of outgoing fire, and indeed if the shields are at full strength it allows the heavy particle cannon shots to briefly exceed the speed of light for several tens of kilometers before dropping back down to extreme sublight velocities, though the infestimal length of time this occurs in makes it irrelevant to the overall time to target for fire.

A typical dreadnought or other heavy ship therefore has eight primary and three secondary shield generators as well as a series of twenty-one tertiary engine shield generators (providing point fields over the gravitic vanes) and up to 18 tertiary main battery shield generators over the main turrets. The three secondary shield generators, which are actually primary shield generators operating at full power, but concentrated over very limited areas of the hull, protect the hangar bay (one ventral), and the sensor masts (two dorsal), at levels of power much greater than the protection actually afford to the rest of the hull, while the tertiary generators are of lesser power, since the distributed nature of the engines and the armament makes it less important to provide them with overwhelming protection.

Rated shield capacity is based on the maximum amount of energy which can be absorbed by the main shields landing within the space of one milisecond before the submersion and shearing power of the generators is exceeded to the point where the generators themselves will be overloaded and melted into a slag, releasing intense energy into the hull. The secondary and tertiary shields do not enter into these figures. Wear to the shields can however take place because extremely concentrated fire can cause disruptions in the subspace shearing wave effect, allowing penetration of enemy fire before the shields themselves have been taken offline; also the heat absorbed by the generators must go somewhere. Taloran ships convert some of it to electrical energy and store it in massive super-capacitors (this has the direct effect of increasing the length of time the ship can be in combat before fuel is expended by meaning that when the capacitors are being drained the ship's reactors can be reduced from full military power), and dump the rest into heat sinks which must be periodically flushed in combat. Computerized systems automatically take the shields offline at the moment of critical damaging failure, but the shield generators are in internally armoured compartments with their control rooms outside of the armour which are designed to protect the rest of the ship from any potential damage from the generators being slagged anyway, as the magnitude of energies involved and rapidity of the situation means even direct computer control cannot always successfully take a generator offline before it is overwhelmed. In rare circumstances power from this event will be generated at excessive levels and can travel through the lines to the super-capacitors and blow out surrounding power distribution busbars, but statistically it is an exceptionally rare occurrence with recent extensive modifications having made it less likely.

The sinks themselves are usually flushed by diversion through emitters along the hull which emit it as diffuse light and directed thermal energy; this temporarily engulfs the ship in a blinding flash to rival the intensity of a star, and means that in action Taloran heavy ships will regularly disappear in immense blinding flashes to reappear a moment later undamaged, an effect that is also produced by the leftover energy when submergence in Heim Gravito-Magnetic drive effects allows for the violation of conservation of momentum; it is typical for Taloran fleets, though rigorous and requiring extensive planning, to rapidly slow or make extreme manoeuvres that would otherwise be impossible by briefly going to lightspeed and then disengaging the drives on the desired course and speed; this is accompanied by a huge backwash of leftover energy emanating from the Heim fields themselves which is superficially similar to that produced by dumping the internal heat sinks. It is also similar to the flashes produced periodically by Taloran cloaking devices to dump energy from the internal heat sinks which allow their cloaks to function, but unlike the cloaking devices and shields the burst is produced from the Heim fields themselves, located a hundred or more kilometers from the hull and is far more intense.

The hull armour itself consists of an extensively layered system dozens of meters thick, though the majority of that thickness is in the form of the metallic hydrogen tanks. For the very largest and newest of Taloran Line Ships, the outer layer of the armour is a strength layer intended to protect against incoming fire, particularly kinetic energy penetrators, by shearing away or being melted by thermal energy. It is muonic steel about half a meter thick, the only use of that substance, and for good measure is coated along the outside in a thick layer of graphite. The second layer consists of a meter-thick depleted uranium (duranium) which resists vapourization and absorbs energy well from kinetic impactors; the heating of this layer necessitates the addition of a second, meter-thick layer of ceramsteel composites designed especially for dealing with extreme thermal energies. The next layer is one-tenth meter thick lead to guard the fuel tankage against radiation backwash, and the final layer is one-tenth meter thick muonic aluminium which serves as the outer nonpressure hull skin. The layers of armour are attached to it via pinions made up of solidified metallic hydrogen, extremely lightweight and easily manufactured from the fuel onboard to allow ease of replacement and a relatively small aspect profile within the armour. When energized they explode outwards; but each armour section is secured by fourty or more and will continue to serve in a protective fashion even with 75% of the pinions having been destroyed, as designed, and sometimes they will continue to protect even after this number has been exceeded. The pinions are attached to the main outer hull plating by huge built up base foundations of muonic aluminium which resist vapourization through transmitted energy by sheer bulk.

Below this outer armour structure (which is applicable to the Empress Mikela the Great) are the huge metallic hydrogen tanks. Since a typical Line Ship carries well in excess of 200 megatonnes of this fuel, these tanks occupy a substantial portion of the hull despite having a volumetric energy density due to their exceptionally compression, very similar to that of matter/anti-matter reactants. However the fuel has another function; because of the nature of metallic hydrogen, it is sufficiently volatile that it may be used as explosive reactive armour. The tankage is subdivided not hundreds but thousands of times across the hull in cells just large enough to function equivalent to ERA blocks. Penetrating fire cutting through the first layer of the armour sandwich will detonate the ERA tankage. The subdividing cell blockers are made up of a central layer of one-meter thick muonic aluminium with one meter of duranium on each side and one-meter of ceramsteel composites one each side sandwiched between them, for five meters thick subdividing bulkheads which essentially guarantee only one tank detonates; with the immense backing of the primary internal armour layer behind it, the tanks explode outward through the damaged region and intercept the penetrator or absorb the energy of incoming fire through their detonation.

Because the use of fuel as armour can result in a loss of fuel for sustained combat operations, the amount of metallic hydrogen carried is actually much higher than reported in ship statistics; for example the Queen Keralka class actually has an extra approx. ~40 millione tonnes of metallic hydrogen aboard, classified under stores as "Explosive Reactive Armour", meaning that the ships is expected to lose no less than 20% of her regular fuel tankage in sustained action due to detonating events along the hull; this means that the Admiralty expects a Taloran ship of the line to see the total destruction of around (when the additional tankage is factored in) 16% of the outer armour layer and 16% of the total tankage, meaning that only 84% of the ship's outer hull surface is seriously expected to remain intact after an action for the ship to still be considered combat capable. The detachable pods are not similarly armoured and their metallic hydrogen tankage is purely fuel (though some is still counted as stores due to the accounting metrics of the Starfleet) which is always drained first in any circumstance so that the ship always has full tankage; note however that only 75% of the ship's own total storage (including the stores-listed parts for the accounting metric) actually forms the ERA; the rest is in ready-use tanks associated with the reactors, guaranteeing that even with 100% loss of outer hull armour and tankage the ship can still be powered to continue fighting.

The lower layer of armour is by far the thickest, backing the tanks with an outer layer of 1 meter thick muonic aluminium. Below it is a layer of 2-meter thick duranium, and then a 2-meter thick ceramsteel composite; the .1-meter lead radiation absorption layer follows and then a final strength layer which consists of .2-meter thick muonic aluminium. Following this is a 5-meter thick void space separating the armour layers from the internal primary strength pressure hull. The primary strength pressure hull comprises of 1-meter thick muonic aluminium also heavily coated in graphite, and several milimeters of lead provide a final radiation coverage. This means that the hull and hull armour consists of 7% of the volume of the ship, not counting the ERA or void spaces. Another 1% of the hull consists of the 70 transverse bulkheads, each 1-meter thick muonic aluminium coated in graphite, which are placed every 50 meters along the length of the ship in a Queen Keralka class vessel. The ship is further subdivided by 5 longitudinal-vertical bulkheads of equal thickness and graphite coating, running the length of the ship at intervals of 60 meters inside the pressure hull; finally 5 longitudinal-horizontal bulkheads run the length of the ship dividing it into five vertical sections, these bulkheads of the same composition as the others, and spaced at 63-meter intervals in the Queen Keralka class, meaning there is one every twenty-one decks. In total the ship is therefore subdivided into approximately 1,500 vacuum-tight comparments and internal subdivision (which also reinforces the strength of the vessel)--the reduced number is due to the reduced beam fore and aft, where the bulkheads progressively terminate as the ship's hull curves inward, and, in the case of right aft, the horizontal bulkheads also terminate as it curves downwards. In total, 2.5% of the vessel's internal volume is taken up by internal vacuum-tight bulkheads. Standard regulations mandate that each vacuum-tight compartment be pierced for only three vacuum-tight doors, which are at the same thickness as the bulkhead and on heavily reinforced antishock mountings. In addition to protecting against decompression the incredible thickness of the internal bulkheads guarantees they can mitigate damage from fire which has completely penetrated the armour with a considerable degree of effectiveness.

The strength of the hull is completed by the central keel, a structure that is a 20-meter thick muonic aluminium box. This box is a total of 60 meters high and 60 meters wide and most of the central power mains run down it; the barbettes which enclose the main battery centerline turrets and the sensor masts are also directly anchored to this structure, running through the entire vertical height of the ship to be secured to it. Three decks including officer's country and all of the CIC and bridge functions on the ship are included inside the armoured keel with the other 11 meters of vertical clearance being devoted to central power and fuel distribution. There are only twelve access points into the internal keel capable of handling the crew; the rest are milimetric piercings for diffuse fuel and energy transmission, and the keel is subdivided every 24 meters along the length of the hull by a standard 1-meter thick muonic aluminium transverse bulkhead in the event of the unthinkable possibility of enemy fire penetrating 20 meters of solid muonic aluminium; all strength members are also coated in graphite, and the access points are closed off by 10 separate 1-meter thick vacuum-tight muonic aluminium blast doors each. The foremost and sternmost 6.5 meters of the keel is completely filled in by muonic aluminium forming solid, unpierced muonic aluminium blocks of 23,400 cubic meters in size that anchor the keel into the hull. The ship's several dozen gigawatt-range emergency fission reactors are also located inside the keel to provide emergency backup power for the sustenance of life support--or when in combat, to power the CIC/Bridge command functions--with electricity which can last for decades.

The keel is not however relied upon alone; eight subsidiary keels, which are 20 x 20 meter structures running part, though not all of the length of the ship (usually around 70% of the hull length) and are completely solid muonic aluminium also exist at the cardinal compass points of the hull structure, directly backing the armour. These are connected to the keel and to each other by a reinforcing girder structure of 2-meter thick muonic aluminium girders, all designed in a classic truss arrangement which cross through and are interconnected with the internal bulkheads so that both in turn strength each other, with all girders being two force members and the truss structure being statically indeterminate with a 100% safety margin, meaning that half of the girders in the hull can fail before the ship can suffer hogging under maximum military acceleration or any kind of impact event within the design specifications. This consequently also allows when the girder structure is fully intact for the ship to withstand accelerations or impact events with a very large safety margin above the design specifications.

Completing the armour structure of the ship is the barbettes, engine sheaths and reactor shells, with one barbette corresponding to each turret and sensor mast; for example the Queen Keralka class has 20 barbettes, 18 for main battery turrets and 2 for sensor masts. The barbettes when inside of the hull armour are a 8.5-meter thick armour sandwich of 2 meters of muonic aluminium, 2 meters of ceramsteel composites, 2 meters of duranium, .5-meter of lead, and another 2 meters of muonic aluminium, with the outside coated in graphite. Outside of the hull armour all of these thicknesses are doubled so that the barbettes when exposed to direct enemy fire are armoured to a thickness of 17 meters all around. The barbettes in all cases each contain a fusion reactor, a small supply of fuel, and dozens of super-capacitors, and each barbette has only three entrances from inside the hull only except for milimetric diffuse power conduits. The barbettes are fully self-contained and with all capacitors internally provided and a backup fusion reactor, the guns can be worked even when the ship's main reactors have suffered a 100% power loss, often for hundreds of shots. The neutron base material tanks which provide the particles for the main particle cannon are thus also located within the barbettes for the turrets. The sensor mast turrets thus can also continue to operate even with all other power lost, and the sensor masts are covered in 17-meter thick armour entirely, with the sensors simply built over-powerful enough to work through the interference this creates out to the desired ranges, and the muonic aluminium in the armour itself being energized through milimetric leads as part of the subspace receivers for long range scanning and communications.

The actual turrets themselves are somewhat less armoured due to their large position and the preference to keep them low-aspect to minimize hits, being provideded with the below-the-hull 8.5 meter thick armour sandwich all around. However, the standard quadruple turrets on modern Taloran Line Ships have an 8.5 thick armour sandwich bulkead subdividing the turret, so that even if one half of the turret is destroyed the two guns in the other half can continue to function normally. Barbette/turret crews are provided so that the guns can be fought even if all contact has been completely lost with the rest of the ship. Wing turrets are attached to the secondary keels, running through one and terminating on the mid-line keel for strength (centerline turrets also run through the centerline keels at the strength deck).

The next component is thus the 17 meter thick armoured shells which surround each of the ship's (in the case of the Queen Keralka class) 144 primary fusion cycle reactors. The two-cycle reactors receive metallic hydrogen, and are penetrated for crew access three times, and also three times for the admission of metallic hydrogen, and three times again for the busbar leads--there are only two beryllium/helium vents, however). The two-cycle reactors on the Queen Keralka-class ships operate standard pulse fusion powered by metallic hydrogen; the helium which results is then catalyzed by very small amounts of anti-matter into helium-beryllium solar type fusion, and the exhaust gasses of helium 4 / beryllium 7 are then vented to storage and are used as thrust matter for the low-velocity ion manoeuvring thrusters as required. The reactor shells are dispersed throughout the hull to prevent one from being damaged by the destruction of another. A series of fifteen central busbar routing stations for internal power have separate and identical protection, and the ship's two jump drives (one main and one backup) are also similarly protected.

The missile batteries are arranged in Armoured Decks which pierce the regular armour hull, and are surrounded in the standard 8.5 meter thick armour sandwiches on all sides, pierced only for internal access, with subdivision between every eight launchers and corresponding magazines. Identical protection is provided by the secondary turrets; the point-defence weapons are all mounted in individual self-contained mountings inset into the armour without completely penetrating it. Like the individual secondary turrets each one of the torpedo launchers is mounted individually.

Defensively the last area protected is the ship's gravitic vanes. These are defended by 17-meter thick standard external armour sandwich like the barbettes, with the four superlight and four main main drive vanes clustered together in the extremely thick amidships sponsons. Four secondary thrust vanes are mounted aft with 8.5-meter thick protection. Eight manoeuvring vanes aft and four forward have similar protection, and the final, reversing and forward manoeuvring primary vane mounted in the telaro bow is afforded full 17-meter thick protection due to its importance. This completes the overview of the passive protective systems, which in combination with the hull, occupies 25.5% of the internal volume of the ship entire, the other 75% being empty space for tankage, habitation, storage, or the mounting of machinery; this does not count barbettes, turrets, sensor masts, and the small craft hangar, nor the sponsons nor other gravitic vane mounts, all of which are not counted in the hull volume figures, and so whose armour is not, either.

On the Empress Mikela the Great in particular the ship is 2 meters beamier; this is an addition to the backing of the second, primary armour layer of a thin layer of Tylium and space, sealed with a .1-meter thick muonic aluminium layer behind it off from the void space, allowing the mounting of machinery which transfers the energy absorbed by the tylium as heat, into the ship's power systems as electricity. Additionally the reactor spaces are expanded to allow for the third tylium-based stage of the reactor generation process, and two new armoured shells for the main and backup hyperdrivers are installed. These changes cumulatively increase the percentage of the hull's volume filled by armour and structural members from 10.5% to 13% on the Empress Mikela the Great sub-class.

A brief addendum on repairs: Within the stores are large quantities of .1-meter thick muonic aluminium plating which can be welded across damaged sections of the hull during lulls in battle or between actions where further repairs cannot be effected at a dedicated facility. These sections can then be flooded with metallic hydrogen up to the limits of the sealed bulkheads or lower armour layers (if it is only a partial penetrating hit). This turns the damaged area into an ERA block which can provide at least some protection to the ship's internal spaces, with the bulkheads resisting the force of the detonation enough to direct it outward with the outer plate intentionally lightly welded on, so that at least some defence can be provided in the already damaged sector against incoming fire which would otherwise have an impeded path into the ship's internal spaces.

Note also that regularly published calculations neglect both the volume of the barbettes / sensor masts / hangars / armoured vanes and also the mass of the armour protecting them. Since the barbettes, sensor masts, turrets, and armoured vanes are a very large component of the armour, as well as the secondary turrets and missile casemates, these figures can be slightly deceptive. For example though 10.5% of the hull volume is armour when the armour weights of the ship are balanced against the much more heavily armoured sponsons, vanes, barbettes, and etc, and their volume, the figure rises to not less than 25.5% for the Queen Keralka class and 28% for the Empress Mikela the Great. The actual density of the hull armour due to this accounting of figures (which is partially intentionally deceptive) is about 2,000 kg/ m^3, with the muonic aluminium being 1,700 kg / m^3 and the highly sophisticated ceramsteel being as little as 1,000 kg / m^3. Therefore the empty mass of the average Taloran ship is actually closer to double the figures typically listed, which basically are published for the hull alone in a stripped condition without armament fitted, a fairly typical shipbuilding practice; the same is true of most other powers.

[Steve]

Chapter 20



Atlantis, Lantea
Pegasus Galaxy


The incoming Wraith fleet had prompted the formation of what Fiyesia had termed a "War Council" in the Atlantis conference room off of Stargate Operations. The leading Atlantis team was present with Weir and Zelenka, Fiyesia and Brauchitsch joining Caldwell, Pendergast, and Kharaste from Gray Star, sitting in for Data due to the android's need to stay on Gray Star and oversee the computer sweep that would verify whether or not the Wraith virus had been eliminated.
"Long range scans have confirmed that there are now twelve Wraith Hives coming to Atlantis," McKay said to the assembled, pointing to the screen in the conference room. "That means about thirty-six to fourty cruisers and as many as thirty thousand Darts are barreling our way."
"How long do you think the city can hold out if we're forced to withdraw?", Caldwell asked.
"No telling how long. We know the Ancients held out for years under Wraith siege, but the Wraith might have improved their weapons in the last 10,000 years or found other ways to deal with our shields. Even if we do hold out for awhile, eventually the ZedPMs will drain and we'll be right back where we were when you showed up," McKay explained.

That prompted Kharaste to remark, "Given the ZPM power sources we acquired from Maedhv, couldn't we just replace drained ZPMs with new ones?"
McKay flashed a little bit of a sneer. "Sure, let's drain all of those precious ZedPMs we've managed to get our hands on," he grumbled, as if insulted by the idea. "Thankfully we should have enough time for me to come up with something..."

"There's another issue I'd like to discuss," Commodore von Brauchitsch spoke slowly from her seat at the table, and as she did, drew out an elegant silver cigarette case covered in etched teak panels showing south seas scenes from one of her uniform pockets, opening it with a reflexive motion that led to a faint snap as she drew out one of the very long and narrow cigarettes. "We did receive the after-action report from the IUCEC force on the Gray Star about the encounter with the Wraith High Queen, this Maedhv Curoi'larijh. What is our plan if she intervenes on the side of the Wraith? Though I am reasonably confident we can find a way to cope with a dozen of these Hive Ships, the ability to repel firepower of that magnitude doesn't exist outside of the Home Fleets of the Alliance or the Empire."

Most of those present knew little about what was going on, leaving it to Kharaste to remark, "I think that if Maedhv was going to become involved in this situation she would have done so. If she does then we have no choice but to cut our losses and abandon Pegasus."
"Just how powerful is this 'Maedhv'?", Sheppard asked.
"Major, Maedhv is an immensely powerful entity who has the ability to teleport herself and others via wormholes, interface with machinery, absorb energy from the very essence of the universe, and emit powerful psychic impulses that permited her to seize the bridge of the Prometheus with naught but a kind word," Kharaste responded. "Her vessel was so powerful that even with a detachment of Asgard vessels and a massive fleet of a couple thousand of combatants, including one of the Zohan BattleCarrier stations, it was still winning the day when she was convinced to retreat. And that was with its self-repair nanites disabled through the use of an Ancient machine called the Dakara Device."
"Wait wait wait..." McKay gave a look of bewilderment. "'Absorb energy from the essense of the universe'? What is she, a walking talking ZedPM?"
"That would be a pretty accurate description," Pendergast said, remembering what had happened at Kuahuatl.

Anneliese pulled out an elegantly etched cigarette lighter with bas reliefs of Babylonian motifs, again in silver, and quietly lit the cigarette while the conversation was going on, a faint puff of pure tobacco without tar echoing across the room as she added. "Courageous acts are only purposeful when they have a hope of success. I fear it's necessary to have a backup plan in case she does arrive, to evacuate Atlantis, and destroy it."
"To guarantee Atlantis' destruction we'll have to use one of our naquadah-enhanced warheads. One of the big ones," Caldwell said.
"Or if we want to make absolutely sure, we set a ZedPM to overload," McKay added. "We'd only need one, that means we can take two with us."
"Do you think we'd have time to evacuate everyone through to Earth?", Weir asked.
"Given Maedhv's abilities and the power of her ship I expect we might only get minutes," Pendergast answered. "Of course, she may also make the point of destroying Atlantis moot. She certainly knows where Earth is."
McKay suddenly brought a hand up. His face betrayed the scope of the epiphany he'd just had. "Wait, we don't need to destroy Atlantis!"

"How do you propose to save the station, Doctor? Fiyesia quoted.
"Atlantis isn't just a city," McKay pointed out. "It has a stardrive, that's how the Ancients brought it from Earth to Pegasus millions of years ago. Now that we've got three ZedPMs to power the city I could get the stardrive going and we could bring Atlantis back to the Milky Way!"
"How long has the city's stardrive been dormant?", Kharaste asked. "Could you really get it running in the next few hours?"
"Oh please, remember who you're talking to," McKay boasted. Zelenka rolled his eyes a little as McKay began to verbalize some of the systems needed to be checked, caught up in the enthusiasm for his idea.
As McKay wandered a moment, he stepped too close to Anneliese and got a faceful of cigarette smoke. A disgusted look came over his face. "Hey, we're not outdoors, put that out. Don't you know that stuff can give us all cancer?"
"It isn't my fault you haven't had gene therapy against nicotine-based carcinogens," the human Commodore in Taloran service answered a bit tartly. "I can even refer you to a doctor, if you'd like."

McKay looked ready to retort when Weir, ever the diplomat, stepped in. "Commodore, that's a bit above our technological level at the moment, would you please indulge us for now?"
"Ah, of course, Doctor Weir." She pinched the cigarette out with her fingers without a trace of further expression. "Well, the military engagement now at hand is dealing with the existing Wraith forces. I'd feel better if we had some CAPTOR mines available, but currently we're reloading the pods for two more massed salvoes. That should let us severely attrite the Darts but there's at least ten thousand that will be left--I'd recommend we hold the synthetic gunboats and the other fighters back as a reserve until we've attrited the Darts. This time we're going to have to close to torpedo range, where the tylium-enhanced warheads can do some real damage. I'd like to plan the combat around the Empress Mikela being escorted to close range so we can flush our torpedo boats at point-blank simultaneously with all the fighters hitting them all out. Are there any other suggestions to compliment the attack strategy?"
"Bringing a Line Ship into such engagement should be quite devastating to the enemy," Kharaste said, "but the odds do not look well. I would feel better if there were some means of subjecting them to attrition. Even our preferred strategy of firing missiles into their launch bays will not work well until the enemy fighters are reduced sufficiently."

"Maybe we could put some warheads on some of the Puddle Jumpers, slip into the launch bays under cloak and leave the nukes?" Sheppard looked to McKay.
"I don't know. Given the destructive power even our side is going to be tossing around a Jumper wouldn't have much of a chance of getting close," McKay said. "But there is another way we could get nukes inside without worrying about the Dart screens. At least two of our ships are equipped with Asgard beaming technology."
"Three," Kharaste corrected.
"Okay, three. We could beam active warheads right into the Hives."
"Is it a known fact that the Wraith have no kind of interference capability against Asgard beaming technology?" Fiyesia queried from her point on the table; being after all at least the effective commander.
"Well, we don't know," Sheppard answered. "Since we never had any Asgard technology to try on them. But we don't see how they would."
"Well, we'll have to plan around a direct engagement without the tactic working. If it works, it should be done immediately, to give us better chances in the direct engagement," Commodore von Brauchistch spoke again. "At that point, if it fails, nothing changes; if it works, we have less targets to engagem. We'll also want to fight close enough to the planet that the defensive batteries we've installed in Atlantis can join in the battle, though. We need every erg of energy we can throw at them to have the best chance."

"There are only a few of the Ancient drone weapons left in the city," McKay said, "but they might still take down a Hive. I mean, if we've got someone in the control chair..."
"That would be me," Sheppard said.
"Of course. And that leaves me to handle the city's shields and keep those guns you've brought down firing. We've already attached them to the city power grid and thanks mostly to me they will be quite effective." A self-satisfied smile came across McKay's face.

Human and Taloran exchanged a brief glance--both Christianity and Farzianism teaching humility--but Fiyesia nodded for the lot. "Certainly, Doctor McKay. Then we have the rough strategy for the operation well in hand. I trust there are no objections to my assuming command of the entire defence from the flagbridge of the Empress Mikela?"

"I don't see why there would be any objections," Weir answered. She did notice that Pendergast didn't seem quite as enthused, nor did Caldwell, but the fact of the matter was that the Talorans had sent the highest ranking military officer and thus it was a matter of protocol that their officer was in charge.
"I do have combat experience, command of a destroyer flotilla in the Cylon War, so it seemed appropriate." The Taloran Admiral added to assuage the concern of the USAF ship commanders, recognizing as she had before by dropping titles, the importance of the diplomatic aspect.
"We're probably going to need that," Sheppard remarked.




HSMS Empress Mikela the Great, Lantea Orbit


“Here they come…”
“Thank you, Commander Kylandris,” Fiyesia observed curtly as the holoplot activated on the flagbridge, showing the Wraith fleet arriving from hyperspace. “Signal all ships to bring defensive screens to full power and activate their countermissile batteries. Condition One, stand by for action, all ships button up.”
“Aye, Your Ladyship!”
Fiyesia activated the channel down to the conning bridge further aft in the ship’s huge armoured keel. “Captain, give them the missile broadsides.”

“Understood, Your Ladyship.” Commodore von Brauchistch didn’t even bother to flip off the channel. “Port broadside and all launchers stand by to salvo. Helm, prepare to role the ship one hundred and eighty degrees…”

Fiyesia did, though, and then switched the line to the three lesser ships in the formation. “Colonels Caldwell and Pendergast, Captain Data, please stand by to use your transporter effect the moment the enemy comes into range… We will shield you for the moment, take advantage of our protection. Remember that if the attack fails, you will execute the necessary manoeuvres to shift and provide cover for us as we move to close engagement. The fighter groups will be released at my command.”

She coolly waited through the acknowledgements as the ship shuddered faintly beneath her feet at the release of the first 25,000 missile salvo, and then the rolling which was unfelt, to present the next salvo, fired six seconds after the first, this time coming in one after the other; the huge expanse of the Wraith fleet prevented the sly manoeuvring of before, and anyway, the Wraith had only one effective method of countermissile fire and that meant suiciding their Darts into the incoming missiles after they’d shot at them as much as possible.

“Time to target?”

“Twenty minutes. They’ll have .4c on impact.”

“Not bad.” They were at 12% of light moving on an intercepting course trending slightly to port of the Wraith fleet to cut across their bows if it was unaltered, but nearly head-on. “They don’t have any long-range missiles with which to reply, so, we wait.”

“Admiral.” Commander Kylandris looked over from his position rather intently. “A new strategy on their part. The massed Dart formations are accelerating toward us rather than staying back. Best guess is that they’re intending to bring the Darts up to maximum acceleration and joust their way through the missiles.”

“They’ll only have enough time to engage one missile each head-on like that.. Though they could spin the craft and engage another from behind. It’s a relatively sound strategy, I suppose, and preserves at least some of the Dart force. Interesting. Well, let’s not make it easy for them.” She opened a channel back down to the bridge. “Start firing all missile launchers immediately, Captain. Anti-ship missiles first and then switch to anti-fighter missiles targeted at the Darts. Any that aren’t destroyed jousting with our missiles are going to come for us as kamikaze, but they may well not be able to tell the difference between the two types of missiles and will actively try to ram the anti-fighter missiles anyway.”

“Our missile batteries will be exhausted in twenty-four minutes of continuous fire at current levels of supply, Your Ladyship,” Von Brauchistch’s voice echoed up from the bridge, and Fiyesia could imagine her smoking at the moment.

“So noted, Captain. Then, I want you to also open fire with the main battery and force them to break up their formation.”

“Of course, Your Ladyship.” Anneliese pinched out the cigarette with her bare fingers and tossed it in the discrete recycler to the side of the holoplot, then pulled her helmet on and secured it. “Central Battery Director,” she called on the comm line to the separate fire control station on the ship where the ship’s gunnery officers coordinated the fire of her main turrets, “Show the enemy our range. Use predictors and keep up rapid fire, let’s slosh them up a bit.”

“Aye, Your Honour!”

Anneliese flipped through the comm channels to the flag bridge. “Since we’re supposed to be covering the light ships, Admiral, can I go to emergency flank acceleration and start maximum power jamming?”

“Negatory on the jamming, Captain. But ply on all the speed you want.”

“Thank you, Your Ladyship.” She turned to the helm. “Helm, remove the safety interlocks and bring us up to two thousand gravities.” Anneliese turned without further comment to her command acceleration couch, strapping in, because bleed-through in the inertial dampers would rapidly make standing upright similar to a strong gust of wind pushing against her. “Range to the enemy?”

“Two hundred and thirty-six light seconds and closing! First particle cannon shots will arrive within the enemy fleet in two hundred and thirty-four seconds.” The guns were now steadily thrumming through the hull at two-second intervals.

“A bit less than four minutes. Noted.”

Wraith ships normally fought at extremely close ranges, and worse, they fought in tight formations because of it, often very, very close to each other, a few kilometers, within easy visual distance. This had the practical effect of making the particle cannon fire from the Empress Mikela the Great effective even at a range of more than three and a half light minutes. Each turret was firing on a slightly different pattern determined by computer-predictors which analyzed the expected and possible manoeuvres of the enemy force, creating a kill-box of particle bolt fire tracking each direction the fleet could manoeuvre in, and the Wraith, instead of dispersing their fleet formation, altered course from the initial firing en masse, which carried the force into the fire zone of two of the particle cannon turrets, only the glowing of the energized particles flashing fast enough to burn a streak along the retina showing any evidence of their passage.

Little was available or clear as the Miki leapt ahead, for the next ten minutes that was, but then the picture started to rapidly come together… And they still hadn’t yet been engaged by the enemy. It felt very strange indeed to be drawing as close as they were with their missiles less than two light minutes from the target and to not have been fired back against. Relieving, though, to know they could force the massive force to run the gauntlet, with the light ships holding back in range of the guns of Lantea.

“Got a couple good hits on the enemy formation, Commodore.” The Sensor officer was the daughter of a Duchess, and certainly didn’t need to call Anneliese ‘her honour’. “We’re shifting and clarifying the predictor tracks and bringing more turrets to bear on them and they’re not yet breaking formation. Turrets engaged on the correct tracks are managing about three to four percent hits for shots fired. The Darts are shifting course to concentrate on us and are about to try and joust with the missiles, but they’re also diverting some into ”

“Thank you, Ritaga.”

“Interposition!” The dots showing the missiles and the Wraith darts on the holoprojector abruptly blurred together.

“How many left?”

“Ten thousand Darts and five thousand missiles are still inbound toward the enemy. They’re now running into the subsequent smaller waves of missiles… Trying to take those out solely with massed fire instead of ramming it seems, Commodore. A sizeable detachment is moving into the stream of the particle cannon fire and is starting to take losses trying to disrupt the bursts, but that’s working about as well as expected.” In other words, not at all.

Anneliese patiently waited out the engagement as the Wraith darts shifted from the hopeless task of trying to deal with the particle cannon fire back toward closing on them rapidly, slicing their way through the incoming waves of missiles… And then abruptly finding themselves targeted as the missiles shifted to anti-fighter missiles. They were quick on the uptake, however, and their velocities spiked as they tore down onto the lone and exposed Miki whose batteries were now sloshing through the Wraith heavy ships with increasing effectiveness.

The operation however was having its desired effect. Not one single Wraith Dart was closing with the three ships fitted with Asgard transporters. Annelise snapped out her relativistic display chrono from a skinsuit pocket and grinned faintly. It wouldn’t be long now until the three ships had closed within one light minute.

As the Wraith Darts got closer and closer the missile stream kept attriting them further, and they raced into the minimal-effective range of the huge high acceleration long-range anti-fighter missiles. “Counter-missile batteries opening fire.” The side of the ship erupted with tiny lances as the big manoeuvrable cell launchers for the countermissiles sent of flurries of them toward the enemy, and the armoured box launchers for the secondary LIS-168’s elevated to reveal the waiting missiles inside.

“Are they coming in too fast to manoeuvre around to attack the portside?” Anneliese asked.
“Yes, Your Honour.”
“All shields to starboard.”
“Aye, Your Honour!”
“Kamikaze,” Anneliese murmured softly, an old word that would be familiar to the Talorans only in translation.





******


Thousands of Wraith Darts were swatted out of the skies by the countermissiles and hundreds more by the LIS-168s that fired at the same moment that the 21cm powerguns opened up. 72 twin mounts could bear on the incoming, and each gun fired 27 times per times, meaning some 4,000 shots of a yield of about 800kT each filled space against the approaching Wraith Darts… every single second. Behind them a cloud of ball bearings was forming around the ship as the flak projectors shot them out, aimed slightly ahead to counteract the continued acceleration the Miki was pulling.

A second later everything happened at once. The Darts that survived plowed into the ball bearings at c-fractional velocites and were literally shredded into fragmentary scrap, some so fast that they couldn’t explode. Then the less than seven hundred of them which had made it slammed in a staggered wave into the shields. It turned out they were packing explosives aboard and the ship shuddered and rolled from the strain on the shield generators as the craft were annihilated; in a couple places point failures in the shield field-area allowed a few Darts to get through, and these slammed into the hull armour with enough kinetic energy to explode.. inside the tankage. Massive explosions ripped the side of the ship, and as they faded, she continued on course, undamaged except for the blackened, pock-marked sections of the hull where the impacts had triggered the ERA.

Perhaps two hundred darts had missed the impact and carried on, shaping courses toward the three ships, and that was it. Fiyesia smiled tightly. “Fighters and drones, stand by to take care of those Darts if the beaming tactic works.” She flipped over on the line to the three ships in the rest of the squadron.

“Admiral, how are you holding up?” Colonel Caldwell asked immediately. “We’ve seen some pretty heavy detonations along the hull.”

“ERA, Colonel, we didn’t suffer any compartments vented to space at present though I understand the Captain has teams checking for shock damage micro-leaks. We’re still holding position and engaging the enemy—six new-type generators burned out, but we’re restoring the other fourty-two to full power. Do you have range?”

“That’s affirmative,” Pendergast replied. “We’re the lead ship and we’ve just crossed the market.”

The Miki shuddered beneath her feet, and Fiyesia glanced to one of her subordinates. The officer answered without words.

“The Wraith are attempting ranging shots on us, Your Ladyship, and starting to make a few hits.”

“Noted.” She switched back to the feed. “Colonel Pendergast, your Prometheus has the honour of the trial engagement. You may fire when ready.”

Fiyesia turned back to her own flagbridge in time to catch the evident delight as the one of the Wraith cruisers went up in a violent explosion from the long-range fire of the Miki’s main battery, and then waited tensely for the bigger show. She only had to wait a moment longer; without any warning at all one of the Wraith Hive Ships violently exploded from the inside out, one major explosion initially followed by the huge secondary of the reactor going.

“Good detonation, good secondaries,” one of the staff officers commented, rather stating the obvious, though it made Fiyesia smile even as she immediately snapped back to the general channel.

“Before they can counter it, gentlemen! Before they can counter it—give them every bomb, gentlemen, every bomb!—and fire your missiles for good measure!” Then she flipped over to the comm link to the fighters and the drone control. “Maximum acceleration now! Take out those Darts and then head straight for the enemy fleet!” Then, last, to the Miki’s bridge. “Cut acceleration back to normal rates and veer us toward the enemy formation at sublight and add the secondary guns to the fire, Captain. We’ve got our chance.” A last order: “Atlantis, commence battery fire on your discretion.”

“Look, Admiral! Three Hive Ships, all at once!”

Even Fiyesia grinned as the enemy formation’s heavy ships were abruptly reduced from twelve to eleven to eight while the missiles tore out of the Gray Star, Prometheus and Daedalus and the fighters leapt up from the planet. Beyond that, the Hive Ships were again the target of the transporter being, and again another three exploded while the Miki had drawn close enough to take the cruisers under very heavy fire, and her main battery guns were joined by similar installations mounted on Atlantis. Under that combined firepower another of the cruisers quickly succombed as the enemy force was torn apart in disorder.

The fire of the enemy fleet had been seriously comprimising the shields of the Miki, but with the abrupt lost of the majority of their combat capability, the danger slacked away like the ending of a rain, while the fire from the superdreadnought was unstaunched. Behind them, the fighters and drones racing in ripped apart the remaining Darts even as they tried to set up desperate suicide runs on the Earth ships and the Gray Star, completing the perfection of the attack.

And, again, three Hive ships blew up, and suddenly there were only two left, and moments later, too, the number of cruisers was reduced from thirty-four to thirty-three.

“They’re powering up their hyperdrives!”

Fiyesia immediately flipped open the general channel: “No mercy to them while they’ve not surrendered! Keep firing!”

But the two surviving Hive Ships made it out before the transporters could be used again, and the cruisers followed them under the harrying fire of the massed batteries and missiles, losing two more of their number before escaping successfully. Suddenly, and oh so suddenly, the threat to Atlantis had been checked, and all that remained were a few dozen darts that were rapidly mopped up, with a mere four getting through to explode harmlessly against the shields of the Gray Star and Daedalus.

“All ships, batteries, and fighters, Stand down. At least for the moment, gentlemen, you have saved the city.”





USS Prometheus, Near Mars
Commonly-held Earth Space
15 November 2178 AST


A view of the famed Red Planet filled the bridge window of the Prometheus as it slipped into Mars orbit. Colonel Pendergast and his crew had seen such a sight a number of times during working-up periods and system patrols but, like everything else, that had changed.
Where once there was nothing with them save the occasional 302, now Martian orbit was bustling with activity. From support for excavation teams milling around Olympus Mons to uncover ancient secrets potentially buried beneath the great volcano to vessels beginning first-phase terraforming of Mars, there were at least two dozen vessels of varying size in their section of Martian orbit alone.
"Quite a sight, isn't it Colonel?" From behind Pendergast Hammond stepped forward. The normally reserved, even soft-spoken former commander of the SGC was now out of military uniform and in a "simple" business suit.
"I can only imagine how cluttered it'll look in ten years' time, Gen..." Pendergast caught himself. "...Director."

Hammond answered him with an understanding smile. Along with the changes coming to Earth was one for him as well. Hammond had finally retired from the United States Air Force - having postponed doing just that to head up the SGC - and was taking up a position that President Hayes had talked him into holding; Earth's first representative to the IUCEC's Special Directorate.
He certainly didn't intend to hold it for long - Hammond had two granddaughters he loved to spoil - but for now he was up to continuing heeding the call of duty in these extraordinary times.
"Colonel, we've received clearance to enter the gate," one of the bridge officers said.
"Follow their gate approach pattern to the letter. We wouldn't want our first trip through one of these to go bad," Pendergast said.

Ahead of them, just over the north pole of Mars, was the initial form of what would soon be a full Interuniversal Jump Gate Assembly. Currently it only consisted of a square block with two gates per open face, the upper and lower segments containing the guyverite (or naquadah, or refined tylium, depending upon your terminology) reactors that permitted the gates to be powered without bulky, fuel-intensive matter-antimatter reactors like on the vast majority of IU gate assemblies.
With guidance from Gate Control the Prometheus was moving along at mandated speed, engines ready for emergency stop or course correction if necessary, when ring of material at the top of the gate "cone" came to life. An energy field emitted by the ring met over the center of the cone and formed a shining wormhole that pierced the universal barrier, creating hues of blue, green, and gold color along its event horizon.
The Prometheus' engines fired to a controlled rate, bringing the ship through the "jump point". An eerie sense of dislocation came to those on the Prometheus while their instruments blanked out for the brief moment they were between universes.

When the sensation ended they were coming out the other end. Ahead a brown, lifeless-looking planet loomed. Prometheus' engines powered up and the ship moved toward the planet, moving closely enough that a small object (small compared to the planet anyway) became increasingly visible.
As they neared, a voice came over a general channel. "Earth SRC-19 vessel Prometheus, this is Babylon Control. We are sending you telemetry for your scheduled approach vector. Please maintain a careful watch for civilian traffic as you come in." A brief pause came before the voice continued. "Director Hammond, welcome to Babylon-5."
"Thank you, Babylon Control," Hammond answered. Looking back to Pendergast, Hammond continued, "Well, I believe this will be it. Thank you for the ride, Colonel."
"It wasn't a problem at all, Sir," Pendergast answered. "We'll have your things beamed over to the customs bay you're arriving in."
"Of course." Hammond looked back briefly to the window and saw the space station up front for the first time. Currently in the shadow of the planet below, the station was lit up with running lights that turned along with the station's main body. The entire crew took in the sight for a moment before Hammond began speaking again. "Before I go, Colonel, I want you to know that I'm proud to have been your commanding officer. You and your crew have made many accomplishments and sacrifices that have brought us to where we are today. Thanks to the victory at Atlantis Earth has as strong a position in the Multiverse as we could ever hope to have."

"Thank you, Director," Pendergast answered. "For what it's worth, I'll miss not having you as our superior. Your confidence has been a key part in our successes." Pendergast saluted Hammond at that point, as did the others on the bridge. "We're going to miss you, Sir."
Hammond grinned and answered them with a salute of his own. "The feeling's mutual, Colonel," he said. After this Hammond brought his right hand down, prompting Pendergast to shake it. He took the time then to shake the hands of all of Prometheus' bridge crew before saying, "I guess we shouldn't keep them waiting any longer. I'm sure they've got some kind of welcoming committee for me."
"Of course not, Sir." Pendergast nodded to one of the bridge crew, who began operating the controls for the Asgard transporter. Hammond disappeared from the bridge in a burst of white light.
"Sir, receiving another transmission from Babylon-5. Babylon Control confirms Director Hammond's arrival. They also wish to know if we intend to send any personnel over for shore leave."
Mulling it over a second and considering their time table, Pendergast sighed wistfully. "Maybe next time. Okay, bring us about and ask Babylon Control for an approach to one of the Gates, we're due back home now."
And as quickly as she had arrived, Prometheus turned to leave, returning to a universe that, in some part by her efforts and her crew's, was being irrevocably changed.




Genii Homeworld
Pegasus Galaxy


The underground capital of the Genii undoubtedly reinforced their paranoia and siege mentality, and at the very center of it was the most paranoid and besieged Genii of them all. Chief Cowan ruled the Genii Confederacy as military dictator, and was getting in the nasty habit of seeing enemies all around him. Granted people were out to get him and the Wraith were constantly threatening to devour his entire civilization, so a certain amount of psychological strain was to be expected. Reports from the scientific attaches with their technology development group were beginning to suggest it was going too far, and that had the leadership at Festung Wewelsberg contemplating their options. But for the time being the man remained the leader of the most advanced nation yet detected in the Pegasus galaxy and his actions had thus far served the interests of the Empire.

That meant Kommandant Istvan Schwarz was obliged to treat the shifty, capricious peasant like a respected head of state. As he was escorted into the Chief's working office he removed his peaked cap as a sign of respect, and bowed slightly. "I am pleased to respond to your summons, your Excellency."

Cowen's office looked like nothing special, boasting the same bare metallic walls as the rest of the bunker-city and stamped-metal furnishings that brutally served utility over aesthetics. That sparse looking desk, weighted down with paperwork, may as well have belonged to a junior clerk except for the computer system and holographic display device that had recently been installed. Those, like the other touches of high technology the Genii were beginning to field, were gifts of his Emperor.

The leader of the Genii sat there, regarding the visitor for a few moments. Schwarz knew Cowen was not above deliberate rudeness, and studied him back. The broad peasant's face, the growing waist that careful tailoring failed to hide, the perpetual smirk the man wore... it was a trying task to remember to respect the Chief, but he was an officer of Naval Intelligence. There was shrewdness in Cowen's eyes, and underestimating him would be a serious mistake. The leader finally signaled him to sit, allowing Schwarz to pull out one of the stamped metal seats stowed in front of the desk for visiters. It was uncomfortable, and he suspected that was the point, and that Cowen did it for all of his underlings and anyone else brought into his sanctum of power.

"I want to thank you people for these virtual computers," Cowen began, offhandedly. "It's cut down on how many forms I have to sign each day. Just press approve, and it goes through." He sounded bemused, which was annoying but at least meant that Schwarz wasn't going to have to deflect any probing or feel the brunt of Cowen's temper.

"I am pleased to hear that your Excellency has found our holographic systems of such usefulness. It is only one of many benefits that a closer association between our powers can bring." Translated, it was just another reminder of what the Empire could do for the Genii, one that he was prepared to elaborate on but which both men knew by heart now. "My government greatly appreciates the intelligence you provided about that world, Dagan. We are already planning a visit to seek out the ZPM device your man Kolya lost there. Once the present unpleasantness dies down, of course." It hadn't been that long ago that the Wraith had swept through this area of space, and it was going to be a while before travel outside the Eisenrings was safe.

Cowen nodded, his smile never wavering despite the mention of Commander Kolya. But the reference was barbed in more ways than one. The Empire had not been pleased that their Genii allies had mounted an independent operation to recover a ZPM. And Cowen was increasingly coming to believe that Kolya represented a threat to his continued status as Chief. "I'm sure you'll enjoy better luck than we did. Kolya had his intelligence and thought there wasn't enough time to wait to act on it. Looks like he should've. But I've got some new reports that might interest you here."

Schwarz perked up, leaning foward just a bit and narrowing his eyes barely perceptibly. "Naturally we value all intelligence that your directorates can provide. Our joint interests require information. We do not want to be like those damned fools from Atlantis, traipsing about randomly."

Now that reminder did get to Cowen, and he scowled briefly remembering the trouble Atlantis had caused for him and his people. "Well it looks like they received reinforcements from their own galaxy, and they managed to trounce the Wraith. I'll have the details we have made available to you, but it looks like they beat two groups of Wraith hive-ships. And the ships they brought in are a diverse lot, not just from the Terrans who run Atlantis. We've been hearing about a new group involved there, an IUCEC. Heard of 'em before?"

Schwarz had to fight hard to maintain his poker face. This would require the immediate notification of his superiors at Wewelsburg. "We are familiar with them..."

[Steve]

Oops, eh.

Credit goes where credit's due: that final scene was written by Chris Purnell.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Epilogue

The Hive-Ship of the Wraith Primary,
Wraith Territory, Pegasus Galaxy.
20 November 2178 AST.


The Wraith had lost thirteen Hive-ships in the attempt to take Atlantis, and nobody was pleased about it. With the Keeper—leader of one of the two great factions of the Wraith—dead, her subordinate Queens had tried to organize the offensive against Atlantis in concord, only to fall into bickering. In the wake of its defeat by such a powerful enemy, they had no recourse but to turn to the Primary, the leader of the other principle faction of the Wraith; each had controlled the allegiance of close to seventy Hives, but now only one lived.

Her own control for that matter had fragmented severely, though she still commanded the allegiance of about half of her original Queens. It was enough to maintain her as a force to be reckoned with, but most of the other Queens were being openly insubordinate as they discussed the appropriate measures by which to deal with the threat of Atlantis and the powerful reinforcements the revived Ancient city had received.

“I don’t think your endless bickering on how to organize the culling is quite so important in the wake of such a miserable defeat as that we’ve not experienced since the earliest days of war with the old enemy,” she growled out in an attempt to quiet the other Queens. It was met with immediate dissent, and she feared the growing certitude of an open challenge to her tenuous authority.

In the depths of the dark, vaporous passageways of the Hive, though, nobody noticed the heavy-shod feet as they slammed down, until the doors to the meeting hall snapped open with such abruptness as to send them straight into the walls with a resounding thud, likewise made by the two warriors guarding the entrance, who crashed against them and fell to the ground, at the very least shocked and injured. Staring out of the gloom were two green eyes, a gloved hand on the bone-hilt of a sword.

The figure stepped forward, into the light: Solid black jumpsuit with ripped bands around the joints, pistol and a few other items clipped to it as well as that sword. It indeed had a hilt of human bone and a black opal inset at the top, in an old ceremonial sheath, also in black. A cape trailed back and nipped at the floor behind her, and the tightness of the jumpsuit made certain that perfect form was female, while long and vibrant coppery red hair flowed down to the small of her back, and virulently alabaster skin revealed she was… Certainly no Wraith, at least in body. So too revealed by her approach and indeed blatantly displayed in the light were the reinforcing bands in the jumpsuit which supported and protected her unborn child, and only the Asvin would be haughty enough and confident in the excellence of their nanites and perfection of their bodies to think flying while pregnant to be a common enough occurrence to manufacture a flight suit just for the occasion. But they, of course, had indeed done just that.

The assembly of twenty-six Wraith Queens fell deathly silent in shock. The figure walked confidently toward the head of the table and the Primary. “Ixtakutmul,” she spoke, for she had named the Wraith, and only those Wraith named by Her, had ever possessed names, and these were private names which were known only by the Queens, and by Her. “Why do you not keep your subordinates in order?”

A trace of a smile touched her lips as she approached the bony throne, and a curved, wicked grin looked across the faces of those held in awe. “Though don’t worry about it, Ixtakutmul. Your loyalty for me when Culixma forced my disposition has been amply rewarded; in honour of you, the child in my womb bears the name Ixtakcuaridhv. And yes; by it I mean she is pure and of the High Caste and also to be a leader among you, without the flaw, the blindness to the ways of prana bindhu, which makes lesser humans susceptible to your witchery.”

“Thank You, Your Majesty, Creatrix,” Ixtakutmul stumbled through a speech she’d imagined through a very long life, shivering. “Our people have fractured and our numbers have receded since the defeat of the Lanteans, and Culixma, our Creatrix, Culixma is dead at the hands of the humans of Earth, those who have reoccupied Atlantis.”

“I am aware, Ixtakutmul.” Maedhv didn’t remain standing. Instead, she moved toward the throne, and as Ixtakutmul rose to vacate it for her, pushed her back into it, straddling the Wraith Primary and nuzzling her filling stomach against the vaguely reptilian Wraith. “I’m not going to let you sit alone, you know, Ixie,” she whispered in amused fondness as she leaned in and delivered a passionate kiss to the lips of the deeply relieved Primary, for it meant that at least when it came to her own life, Maedhv was satisfied and behaving as she always had; that left her to return it with a little of the old fire.

Breaking the kiss she squirmed her way in Ixtakutmul’s lap to face the other Queens, and began delicately pulling off her gloves, while gently accepting the embrace the Primary offered, given in part out of fascination at putting her hands over another of the High Caste, the purebred progency of their Creatrix, the High Queen of Connaxutl. Delicate fingers began to trace through the air, and then brilliant golden beams of pure light lanced out from a few and slicing and cutting and curving through the air, sliced one of the Queens into fifty pieces in the space of a second.

“Waxi was directly and grossly insubordinate to me; and that is punishable by death under the old Asvin Law; and so it is also in many cultures that the child who is directly insubordinate to the head of the household, may be put to death. I wished it of Waxi. She was once one of the finest of my children; but I will not let my progeny escape my wrath now, because to do so dishonours my own line.”

The ichor of more than a few of the Wraith Queens at the table ran cold at once.

Then, they found some real difficulty in continuing to function as Maedhv reached out with her mind and started to strangle the selected eight Queens, slowly. “You all, are also directly insubordinate to me—and I will not deign to say your names while you remain alive. You conspired to disobey me and pursue the war against Atlantis to the bitter end, and gave me the choice of killing you, or leaving to let you pursue policies in this galaxy, I had no desire to allow you to pursue. Well, I have taken my time about deciding what the answer to that ultimate is, and I’ve settled on it.

"I’m going to kill you.” The sound of eight necks being broken instantaneously was peculiar, and surprisingly loud, though not as loud as the bodies collapsing off their chairs in a haphazard mess upon the floor, ringing through the silent hall as Maedhv glared along the length of the table.

“The rest of you were either neutral or supported me or were not yet born or had become the Queens of Hives, in those days; for you, I am pleased to have returned. Now there are seventeen sitting below Ixtakutmul, but she is the stronger for it, for I know you will be loyal to me; she is my Second.”

“I still love you all, you know. All as children, and some as lovers past, who might again be.” With those words she reached down, lifting Ixtakutmul’s hand with the feeding organ in her two smaller hands, up to her mouth, and kissing it intensely. The Primary tossed her head back and moaned in hapless delight at the old gesture; it was both sexual and a sort of feeding, for within Maedhv was the power to bestow upon the Wraith energy by merely touching them, taken not from herself, for she never gave parts of herself away, but from the Hidden Realm itself.

Her eyes, aware, smirking, flicked around the other queens for a pregnant moment before she lifted her lips and began to speak again. “You’ve got, what, a hundred and thirty-eight hives left? Rebellions and revolts and dissensions across the galaxy, when once I led you with sixty fourteens of fourteens in strength of Hives against the treacherous Alterans! Demographic catastrophe due to improper management of your food resources. This is what my children have accomplished?”

“We’re sorry, Your Majesty, for having failed you…”

“To shortsighted to realize I’d ever come back, though, Tixmatl. And also unable to see how you could govern yourselves. So enough of this game. I am back, and all orders disseminate from me once again. The Wraith Empire again has its High Queen, and obedience to me will be enforced in a military force, children of mine or not that you may be. I created you to bring the Ancients to their knees, but they escaped through the method of Ascension and may yet attack and harm us again, or those I have chosen to be close to me. They must be guarded against, and we must build a fleet capable of resisting Nirrti, for she is active, and actively protects some of our enemies, you understand?”

Maedhv smiled brilliantly at the looks of terror on the faces of the Queens, the tensing of Ixtakutmul beneath her. “Now, I encountered, in my sojourn, this interesting low-born human, Daniel Jackson, from among our enemies. He argued vigorously with me, and in the end, I confess, forced me to return to this responsibility I had neglected, to turn away from Earth, which I had aimed to rule with your aide, and take direct responsibility for you, and only you, first and foremost. So here I am, to again sit as High Queen.

“But Daniel Jackson misunderstood one thing. He’s never been a father, and even a father doesn’t understand a mother. I created you out of my own genetic material, without another input… You are as thoroughly me in origin as this child of my womb shall be. No, a man by definition cannot understand being a mother.

“So he didn’t realize that when he awoke me to my true responsibility, it meant implicitly, that in accepting responsibility for you again, rebellious though you’ve been, and even though I might have to kill some of you to reassert my proper authority… My first interest is for you, my Queens. Not for the humans of this universe, but for the fruit of my own body. There will certainly be changes in how business is conducted; but I did not come here to destroy you in vengeance. You are, and always will be, loved by She who Made you.”

“I cannot believe the reserves of your forgiveness,” Ixtakutmul spoke softly to her Creatrix’s ear, their hands still clasped together, though the other Wraith Queens could hear her. “But how do you intend to have us aide you, though we will try regardless, against such a great entity as Nirrti herself? Our Hive Ships no longer have the power sources they once did, and…”

She became aware of a shadow being cast through the windows, growing, and seeming to obscure the entire ship. A long and battered hull slid into view, dwarfing even the huge Hive Ships, semi-cigar shaped, built in heavy armour with countless weapons blisters and mounts, twice their length and many times their mass.

“My trump card, which I never told you about before, my dears. My old No-Ship, the Xihuatlatl; Alarita, my loyal two-sexed Vizier and highest lover, as you know, escaped… And as you don’t know, escaped by blasting hir away out of an assembled Alteran fleet, traveling to the Milky Way and burying her on a planet for the ultimate day when we might be reunited, for Alarita is a ghoula beyond time who is always resurrected by the ancient technology of my race. Though the ship needs heavy and extensive repairs and reconstruction at the Class IV yard at Connaxutl, the more important thing is that she carries aboard her more than a thousand ZPMs, recharging stations for them, and automated manufacturing facilities for various shielded attack craft, whose shield generator production plans can be adapted to finally give all of our Hives energy shielding; the ample power for it and all the usual benefits of improved power generation in these hulls will be met by a full compliment of three ZPMs as in the old days when we took the war to the Alterans.

“They will not be destroying a thirteen of hives in one day ever again, I promise you that!" Maedhv smiled sensuously, more of a lethal threat in the context, though not to anyone there. "Does this satisfy all questions for the moment? Detailed instructions, I deign to save for later.”

The Queens bowed their heads in nervous acknowledgement of the incarnate goddess, the Creatrix of their race. Maedhv luxuriated in it, arching her back and leaning back into Ixtakutmul’s form. “I’ll sleep tonight with you in your chambers, my dear Ixie,” she purred, and then her eyes jerked back to the remaining Queens.

“Go tell your subordinates and spread the news far and wide that the High Queen is returned, and that she shall receive the homage of all the lesser Queens, or else put my vengeance down amongst them and their offspring and scour them for their disobedience. You are dismissed from our presence. Ixtakutmul and I have… Old business to catch up on.”

The Primary very nearly laughed. That was the old Maedhv that she remembered so well. Her loss of prestige to Culixma and consequent sundering of the horde and great losses, had been the punishment for her defence of the High Queen; the payoff had been millennia in coming, but it had come, and with a surfeit greater than she’d ever hoped to imagine. And besides, even the hated Alterans had acknowledged Maedhv to be the most sexually talented and experienced being in existence…

“Ixie. There’s change coming in the air, you know? Things are happening in the cosmos again. Lorien was present recently, some of the Old Ones have gone back Home.” A pause. “I’m going to make sure there’s still Wraith alive when it’s all said and done, and you, my lover.”

“As we’d be honoured so by our Creatrix!” And then, softly: “Maedhv, how bad is it?”

“Maybe back to the old days—playing ball games with planets and stretching the fabric of the cosmos to kill a trillion at a time—or maybe just the assumption of the destiny of humanity again. Either way, I’ll be here for you and your progeny. Promise. I am also a Wraith; and you are also me.” Again they kissed, and this time, lingered. "Only death in battle will ever make me shirk my responsibility again."

"I look in your eyes--and I know this, Your Majesty." Again they kissed.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'll post a table of power/mass ratios with the Asvin and Sarasavsati at 1.

Asvin / Sarasavsati - 1.
Ori - 1.
Ancients - 1.1.
Asgard, O'Neill era - 1.1.
Wraith Hives with 3 ZPMs (the Maedhv arrangement) - 1.8.
TGG, Tau'ri with Ancient shields powered by Aurora type reactors or tylium boosted M/AM - 1.8. (hypothesized only)
Vorlons and Shadows - 1.9.
Wraith Hives with ZPM - 4.5.
Tau'ri, 304s - 5.
Ha'taks, Anubis - 5.8.
Asgard, Beliskner era - 6.5.
Empress Mikela type upgrades (using tylium/fusion cycle) - 6.5.
TGG ships, pure anti-matter / quantum singularity - 14.
Ha'taks, pre-Anubis - 23.
Wraith Hives without ZPM - 27.5
TGG ships, fusion-powered - 50.

Note this is a table of POWER TO MASS ratios, which means that, for example, for the Ori to generate as much power in a ship as the Asvin or Sarasavsati, that ship must be 140% the size of a ship of the Asvin or Sarasavsati with comparable power generation figures.

To provide further information, the Xihuatlatl has the mass of 150 superdreadnoughts of the same class as the Empress Mikela the Great. And she wasn't operating at full power over Terra (and has all sorts of other issues to be revealed later). No-Ships are also rather heavy on protection and engines and light on guns. Note that these figures are not completely useful in comparing firepower; for example on Maedhv's modified hive ships one entire ZPM is devoted to powering the telepathic and hidden-world disruption shields to prevent effects in either one from harming the ship, and a second is committed purely to powering the hundreds of spot shield generators required meaning that the ship's firepower, FTL speed, acceleration, etc, are no better than those of the ZPM hive in the series finale, it is just much more survivable.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'll post a table of power/mass ratios with the Asvin and Sarasavsati at 1.

Asvin / Sarasavsati - 1.
Ori - 1.
Ancients - 1.1.
Asgard, O'Neill era - 1.1.
Wraith Hives with 3 ZPMs (the Maedhv arrangement) - 1.8.
TGG, Tau'ri with Ancient shields powered by Aurora type reactors or tylium boosted M/AM - 1.8. (hypothesized only)
Vorlons and Shadows - 1.9.
Wraith Hives with ZPM - 4.5.
Tau'ri, 304s - 5.
Ha'taks, Anubis - 5.8.
Asgard, Beliskner era - 6.5.
Empress Mikela type upgrades (using tylium/fusion cycle) - 6.5.
TGG ships, pure anti-matter / quantum singularity - 14.
Ha'taks, pre-Anubis - 23.
Wraith Hives without ZPM - 27.5
TGG ships, fusion-powered - 50.

Note this is a table of POWER TO MASS ratios, which means that, for example, for the Asgard to generate as much power in a ship as the Asvin or Sarasavsati, that ship must be 110% the size of a ship of the Asvin or Sarasavsati with comparable power generation figures.

To provide further information, the Xihuatlatl has the mass of 150 superdreadnoughts of the same class as the Empress Mikela the Great. And she wasn't operating at full power over Terra (and has all sorts of other issues to be revealed later). No-Ships are also rather heavy on protection and engines and light on guns. Note that these figures are not completely useful in comparing firepower; for example on Maedhv's modified hive ships one entire ZPM is devoted to powering the telepathic and hidden-world disruption shields to prevent effects in either one from harming the ship, and a second is committed purely to powering the hundreds of spot shield generators required meaning that the ship's firepower, FTL speed, acceleration, etc, are no better than those of the ZPM hive in the series finale, it is just much more survivable.