Confirming Carter Bk. 02 Daedalus Ch. 05

Teyla looked up at her for a moment. "I do not wish to tell you, but I must." She paused, her eyes pleading before she dropped them. "We have word of a gathering of hive ships. Ten so far, and their escorts, but we believe that more are on the way. We do not know why. A gathering such as this has never occurred before in the memory of my people."

"And you're worried what we might do. Especially since Daedalus is equipped with cloaking technology now."

"He will wish to go, Samantha!" Teyla said in a rush. "He knows of my hatred for the Wraith, and will want to go and attempt to destroy as many of them as he can. I cannot ask you to stop him..."

"You just did, Teyla. And I would do the same." Sam said as she went over and knelt in front of her, putting her arms around her. She was silent as she held her, glad that she hadn't begun to cry, but as she thought about it, she had never seen Teyla cry. Leaning back, she held her at arms length, meeting her eyes.

"I'll need to speak to John and Steven, but I can assure you, I will not send one ship into a hornets nest like that, no matter what we thought they could do." She let Teyla absorb that, then continued. "But if Apollo can be ready, I may have to send both of them. But you knew that before we came in here, didn't you?"

"Yes." Teyla said quietly. "I have not spoken of this. Only to you. But we must tell them, so plans can be made, and options weighed..."

"I'll want you to go with them, if we decide to do anything." Carter said, as she moved over and sat in the chair next to her. "With your knowledge of Wraith ships, we can't afford not to have you there. Would you do that for me?"

"You need not...how does John say it...work me, Samantha." Teyla said with a smile as she stood up. "But yes, I will accompany them. And thank you."

Carter waved her back into her seat, and leaned over, opening the door. "John, Steven? Would you come in here please?" She called. "And would you call Jack? I'd like to talk to him too."

"Here!" O'Neill said, high stepping into the room. He grinned down at them as he looked around for a seat. "That little brat Bra'tac brought with him hasn't shut up, or sat down since he got here. I had to get out of there."

"Sit here, Jack." Carter said as she stood up and went behind her desk.

O'Neill turned to Teyla as he sat down. "You and Caldwell. I didn't see that one coming." He said lightly.

"Yes, apparently you do not see many things when it comes to affairs of the heart, general." She replied with a wry smile. "Let us hope your vision is better when it comes to military matters."

"Ouch." O'Neill said, wincing, then smiling at her. "I guess I had that coming. I was about to add that I thought you looked good together. Is this a new thing, or have you been interested for a while?"

Teyla looked at him for a moment before she replied. "I did not care for him when first we met, but he showed himself as a capable fighter during the Wraith siege of the city. He had changed when he returned to Atlantis following his encounter with the Goa'uld."

She seemed to almost look through him as she continued. "The arrogance had been replaced by thoughtful self-confidence, and I found that appealing. When he joined us, he spoke from his heart, wanting to help right the terrible wrong being done against Samantha."

"Having a snake in your head will make you take a good hard look at yourself." O'Neill said. "I was glad we could save him. There was pressure from Washington to replace him, but Landry and I wanted to see what he'd do after the Asgard took the snake out."

"Then I owe you my thanks." She said.

Sheppard came in and had a seat. "Caldwell will be with us in a minute. He's trading war stories with Vala." He shook his head. "I have to be careful not to underestimate her. She comes across as a ditz, but she's crafty, and a lot smarter than she let's on."

Carter nodded and smiled. "Vala was host to the Goa'uld Katesh for almost fifty years. So if anyone can relate to what he's been through, it's her. You should run ideas through her, she can be conniving and devious. She knew every sneak thief, con artist and underworld operator in the Milky Way, and bested them all. I'm going to put her with Andi when she gets her intelligence services up and running."

"Well, we should as..."

"That woman isn't as dumb as she puts on." Caldwell said as he came into the room. "We need to put her with Samuels, maybe make her head of the intelligence services when we get them started up." He went over and sat next to Teyla, smiling at her as he tabbed across his tablet.

"I'm glad everyone is catching on about Vala." Carter laughed. "I didn't say anything because I wanted you to see it for yourselves. She won't head anything, she's an operator, and it would be a shame to waste her skills, that's why she's a royal advisor. I'm going to ask her to be our emissary to the Genii." She laughed again as she looked around the room.

O'Neill grinned wolfishly. "They'll never know what hit them! You may end up with new subjects, not just allies." He laughed.

"That would be a best case scenario. But we asked everyone to come in here to discuss something else." She said, looking at Teyla. "Teyla has information you need to hear, so I'll let her have the floor."

Teyla glanced at Caldwell, then over at Sheppard, giving him a small smile. "My people have been contacted by the Travelers." She said. "Larrin was quite specific that I share this with you John, and no, she had no personal massage for you."

"One of their scout ships detected a gathering of hive ships in a remote sector of the galaxy, I have the coordinates. So far, they have confirmed ten hives, and they believe that more are on the way."

She looked around the room before she spoke again. "Such a gathering is unknown in the history of my people. The Wraith are broken into factions that are openly hostile to each other, and often fight amongst themselves over territory. They are, however, all subject to one queen that they call the Primary. All the factions are loyal to her."

"So taking her out could throw them into disarray, and maybe even get them fighting each other." Carter said. She looked at Teyla. "Do you know how the Primary is chosen? It can't be hereditary, so I'm betting that the head of the strongest alliance takes it be force."

"I do not know, Samantha. Many of the leaders in this galaxy are chosen by who leads the strongest armies. It would seem natural that the Wraith would do the same."

Carter nodded and stood up. "We can't really do anything else tonight, but I want you all to think on it. I'd like to hear some options in the morning. Let's go into the living room, I'm sure Vala has Andi in a tizzy by now. Either that, or she's trying to seduce Tammy."

Caldwell took Sheppard to one side as they adjourned and moved into the living room.

"Zelenka's people just knocked off for the night, and he's saying that the cloak on the Apollo is operational. I'd like to do a few test runs, and see how she performs. If he has feedback waiting in the morning, they'll be able to get her ready that much quicker."

"That's a good idea." Sheppard nodded. "Do you want to just do jump tests, or go live fire with the jumpers again? I think Marks was having a good time when you guys were doing the shakedowns on the Daedalus."

"He was having a blast." Caldwell laughed. "I had to remind him that we were a military vessel, not an amusement park ride. But I was thinking of using the three-oh-two's this time. They have roughly the same radar signature and maneuvering capability as a dart, so it would be a better test for us."

"That's a good idea. Copy me on whatever you send Zelenka, and send me results on how you do against the three-oh-two's. Put all your birds in the air, and have them do targeting runs on asteroids or rocks in their areas, we might as well use the time to get them some practice too. We want them moving, going on sitting targets doesn't really tell us anything."

Caldwell nodded, looking around the room for Teyla. "I'll have Marks assemble the crew we'll need and move them over. The pilots will be glad to get out on a joy run. Other than routine patrols, it's been a while since any of them have had any flight time. I need to speak to Teyla, I'll let you know when we wrap up."

Sheppard grinned as Caldwell walked over to Teyla, and was about to go in the kitchen when Carter spoke up behind him.

"What's Steven doing, John?" she asked.

"He wants to do some test runs on the Apollo. Zelenka's people just knocked off for the night, and say the cloak is operational." He said as he turned toward her.

"That's fine, Teyla doesn't look too happy, but let him have his fun." She told him. "I'm going to have Tammy see about getting us something to eat, do you want to stay, or do you having else going?"

"No, I need to talk to Samuels about Anchorage, we sent eighty people over there today, and I need to know what else she thinks we're going to need. With the shields active, we won't need many troops for protection, but she might want to pull from my people based on skills. They can get lessons on the systems we need to get up first."

"Good, leave the towers alone, and concentrate on the production facilities." She said as they walked toward the windows. "We want to bring them online as soon as we can. And get a structural scan. Andi has concerns about it not being space worthy. We can live with that, but having two working starships makes us a force to be reckoned with."

"Let's not worry about that yet. We can defend both cities, that's enough for now." Sheppard said, looking out over the ocean. "I can't believe I'm saying that, but we have other things we need to do first. I'd like to see us making alliances, and diplomatic ties before we start looking at getting aggressive."

"I agree, but...nevermind, you're right. Let's take it slow for now." She said. "We all have enough on our plates as it is. And speaking of plates, I'm getting hungry, so I'm going to see if I can get Tammy to rustle something up."

Interior-Daedalus Bridge

1850 Hours

"Prepare to exit hyperspace and acquire targets, Mr. Marks." Caldwell said, bringing up a chart of the region they were dropping into. "Make sure all telemetry is recorded so Dr. Zelenka can go through it."

"Aye, sir. Exiting hyperspace in ten seconds...full stop, three targets acquired. Firing. Reversing to starb..."

The ship shuddered, and Marks was thrown violently against his console. Caldwell barely hung onto his seat as the ship shuddered again, and pitched to the right. Alarms sounded all over the ship.

"Inertial dampener's offline." The weapons officer said as his hands flew over his console. He glanced at Marks. "Cloak and shields holding steady."

"Sublight engines coming online, sir." Marks said. "Moving ahead, one half sublight."

"What the hell just happened, Marks?" Caldwell asked as he scrolled through the data on his screen.

"Checking sir. All systems online. Breaking off." Marks said, turning to look at Caldwell. "We'll have to go through the telemetry sir, but I think we just stalled her."

"Bridge to all stations." Caldwell said as he open the shipwide channel. "Damage reports as soon as possible. Sickbay, give us a count on injuries when you have it. Bridge out."

"Recall the birds in the area, Marks. Once we've got them, we'll go to the next zone." Caldwell said. "Let try one more, just to make sure we didn't break anything. Set a course for zone six."

"Aye, sir. Sickbays reports eleven injuries, nothing major."

"Nevermind Marks, we're not gonna chance it. Notify all birds to standby for pickup, then take us home." Caldwell said. "And send the telemetry we have to Zelenka. I want to know what the hell just happened."

Interior-Dr. Zelenka's Lab

2010 Hours

"Just explain it to us nice and slow, doc. Caldwell here's not that bright." Sheppard said. "I, on the other hand, could have been in Mensa if I had wanted to join."

"Bunch of egghead pansies." Caldwell muttered. "You'd fit right in."

"A power relay in the sublight control system failed. It had nothing to do with the cloak being installed, so we didn't test it." Zelenka said, showing them on the telemetry where the relay failed. "I'll have a crew replace it in the morning, and check all the other systems as well. Just so you know, this was not caused by our cloak installation. The Apollo may be overdue for maintenance. We have no control over that."

"That's fine, doc." Sheppard said. "No one is blaming you. But I'd like your crew going over that bucket bright and early tomorrow. We may have to take her out. I'm not sure who we're putting in the big chair yet, but if she's gonna act like this, it may end up being me. I'm not going to put someone in command of a ship I wouldn't fly myself."

"And I won't fly with someone dumb enough to fly in a busted bucket of bolts like this." Caldwell said. "Get crews out on it tonight. Have them check every switch, fuse and relay, starting in the engineering spaces, and work their way forward. When they get done with that, have them check the seat belt on the helm station. Marks has a wicked bruise on his chest from hitting that console."

"Yes, yes. I'll send them out now. If you'll excuse me." Zelenka said as he scurried out of the lab.

"I think you scared him." Sheppard said as he stepped through the door. "You made him run out of his own lab."

"You were going to let him sit on his ass all night. Bright and early. The fucking ship is in space for god's sake! It's dark all the time. Mensa my ass."

"It really irks you that I'm your boss now, doesn't it?" Sheppard grinned. "Let go get a beer."

"Like you wouldn't believe." Caldwell laughed. "And I drink scotch. But I can chase it with a beer."

"Now you're talkin'." Sheppard said as he keyed the porter.

(-)

That's all for Chapter Five. Please read Chapter Six for more of this story.

I hope you liked this episode. Please post a comment so I know if I'm the right track with this...