Knife Edge, part 4: Politics, and other reasons for war
Earth Orbit, 2002
Dylan was calm as could be, “Mr Anasazi, if you would be so
kind.”
Tyr couldn’t help be smile, “Target locked. Firing.”
A single fist-sized missile shot forth from the Andromeda,
and every face on the command deck turned to follow its progress on the main
screen. The Al-Kesh
attempted to escape, dodging and weaving, but the missile followed it like a
bloodhound, and finally caught up with its prey. The result was staggering: the
force of impact shattered the craft, and the subsequent explosion obliterated
the few remaining large pieces.
O’Neill looked at Dylan, “What the hell was that, a
nuke?”
The High Guard officer shook his head, “Standard PM-6
Star Arrow smart anti-ship missile, with one minor adjustment: I had
Rommie cook up a batch with Naquadria
warheads. They pack one hell of a punch, as you can see.” Everyone turned to
look at Rommie, who was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
SGC, 2002
General Hammond ran into the control room, “Report.”
Sergeant Davis was hunched over
his computer console, “Large explosion in orbit, origin unknown. Deep-space
tracking is picking up a large metallic debris field falling towards the
atmosphere. They don’t think any of it will reach the ground.”
Hammond rubbed his forehead, “I don’t know how many more
of these ‘unexplained lights in the sky’ we can pass-off as meteorites. Is
there any sign of a spaceship?”
Davis shook his head,
“Negative sir. Hold on.” One of his computers bleeped, “We’re receiving
a transmission over the deep-space array: it’s SG-1.”
The General sighed, “They must have returned from P5X-729
already.” He grabbed the microphone, “SG-1, this is Hammond: what did you
find?”
O’Neill’s voice came from the loudspeaker, “We found
a very dangerous woman who you wouldn’t want to tick-off.” There was the
muffled sound of movement, followed by an “Ouch! Quit it!” from
O’Neill.
Hammond was confused, “Are you ok Colonel?”
“I’m fine, just a little bruised.” O’Neill
replied, “Some people need to work on their sense of humor. I think it
would be better if we showed you what we found.”
Sergeant Davis blinked as the
image on the radar screen changed, “Sir, Deep-space tracking just picked up a
large object in orbit.”
Hammond looked at him, “How big?”
Davis looked at a side screen,
“Approximately dimensions are 1,300
X 900 X 300-meters. Mass is somewhere in the region of 10,000-metric tonnes.”
Hammond’s mouth went dry, “Colonel O’Neill, we just
picked up a large object in orbit.”
O’Neill laughed, “Like I said, we ran into someone,
someone we know. Hold on, well, be down in a second.”
There was a flash of light down in the gate room, “What a
dump!” A voice declared, “You guys need to find yourselves a good interior
designer.”
Hammond and Davis looked down out of the window.
“Not good!” they said as
one.
Rommie, Dylan and Harper sat patiently at one end of the briefing room
table while General
Hammond watched Commander Thor’s holographic message. He shook his head,
“This is without a doubt one of the worst predicaments we have ever been in.
We need to contact the Asgard: I’ll send SG-9 to K'tau to see if they can contact them from the Hall of Wisdom
there.” He turned to Dylan, “Captain Hunt, can your ship remain hidden from
earth-based sensors somehow?”
Dylan turned to Rommie, “Well?” The Avatar smiled, “You
can only see me know because I adjusted my stealth-systems to allow the specific
frequency used by your deep-space radar to detect me. I could have hidden up
there for years without being seen if I wanted.”
Carter nodded, “She’s telling the truth sir: from the
little I’ve seen, the High Guard don’t even need cloaking technology, their
ECM systems are so advanced. It’s really amazing! You see, they…”
O’Neill raised a hand to silence her, “Carter, put it in your report, ok: we are on a tight time line here.”
The rest of Andromeda’s crew had come down for what O’Neill called
‘the nickel tour’ of the SGC. Trance was interested in the medical
facilities, and had been left with Dr Fraiser, where as Try and Beka wanted to
spend some more time in the armory, and where being shown around by O’Neill
and Teal’c.
Rommie and Harper where quite happy to play in the lab, with Carter and Jonas keeping an eye on them. Dylan was taking the opportunity to
kick back and relax.
All this ended with the arrival of Senator Kinsey
and his staff. He breezed past the security and barraged straight into General Hammond’s office, “Do you mind telling me why
there is a potentially hostile WarShip in orbit, and you’ve done nothing about
it?”
Hammond sighed, leaning back in his chair, “For one, the
ship is not hostile. In fact, they have come here to help us.” He reached over
to his intercom, “Lieutenant, page SG-1 and Captain Hunt’s crew to my office
please.” He sat back, waiting for the others to arrive.
O’Neill was first, followed closely by Carter, Jonas,
Rommie and Harper. Finally Teal’c
arrived with Beka, Tyr and Dylan. General
Hammond stood, “Captain Hunt, this is Senator Kinsey,
chairman of the appropriations committee, and head of the NID. I believe you ran
into them on your last visit here.” He smiled when he saw Tyr and Rommie move
their hands to their weapons, “Senator, this is Captain Dylan Hunt of the Commonwealth
starship Andromeda Ascendant, along with Rommie, the ship’s Avatar,
Beka Valentine, his first officer, Tyr Anasazi, the tactical officer, Miss Trance Gemini, their medic, and
Mr. Seamus Harper, their engineer.”
Kinsey looked at the hostile strangers, “So, you are the ones who broke
that rouge operation last year. I must thank you: the National Intelligence
Directorate has suffered from such unfortunate problems for a long time. We are
working to stop them all.”
Rommie burst out laughing, “I have to congratulate you Senator:
that was a skillfully put together lie, and you should be proud of it. Your
voice didn’t waver, you didn’t tremor, none of the usual signs where there.
However: your pupils dilated by 1.6-mm each, your pulse rate rose by 10-bpm and
you perspiration almost doubled.”
Kinsey looked at her, “What are you: a walking lie detector?”
Rommie smiled sweetly, “Yes.”