Stargate Thirdspace: What If

Authors Note: This story is a spin off story from Stargate Thirdspace which asked what would have happened if Rivendell and her escorts had ended up in a different universe to Babylon Five after the first battle with the Sinhindrea.

Chapter One

Admiral Jacob Robyns sighed softly as he studied the report on the holographic screen floating in front of his eyes. It had been six days since the encounter with the unknown but extremely aggressive and xenophobic aliens in the dark matter galaxy they'd been escorting Rivendell to. Six days since the fleet had been forced to withdraw only to have their combined hyperspace window hit by weapons fire from the pursuing aliens, weapons fire which had somehow mutated there hyperspace window into something else. Six days since said mutated window spat them out in the Milky Way – but not there Milky Way as there was no subspace activity of any kind. No communications, no ships in hyperspace, no Stargate activity nothing.

For the last six days, scientists on his ships and on Rivendell had worked with Rivendell's A.I Arwen to try to figure out what exactly had happened to them. It hadn't taken very long to determine that the aliens unusual antiproton based plasma weapons fire had somehow worked with the exotic properties of dark matter to transform the hyperspace window into a trans-universal rift. Since then they had been working to try to figure out away of getting back to their own reality – while everyone else worked to repair the damage the alien weapons and the passage through the rift had done to their ships – but they hadn't gotten anywhere. According to the report the exhaustive analysis carried out confirmed that there was no way of recreating the rift that had brought them here, there was just far to many variables that even Arwen with all her processing power couldn't completely account for them.

Sighing again, he pressed one of the crystalline controls on his ready room desk console, dismissing the holographic screen and the depressing report. He had half expected what the findings would be, but that didn't make reading it any easier. We're stuck here, he thought, terrific, I suppose I had better have a word with Governor Shepherd, see if she has any idea of what we can do now. He was just reaching for his desk comm. unit when the device came to life.

"Flag Bridge to Admiral Robyns," a familiar female voice said. Jacob tapped the glowing crystal making a holographic screen appear in front of him again, this time showing the face and torso of his flag captain Josephine Owens.

"Yes, captain?" he asked.

"Sorry to disturb you, sir but our long range sensors have picked up a ship at the edge of the system. It's coming in system slowly from interstellar space and is not responding to our hails."

"Can you tell what kind of ship it is?" Jacob asked raising an eyebrow, he wasn't surprised by the lack of response to attempted communications given the total lack of subspace comm. traffic they'd observed in this galaxy over the last few days. It was unlikely that the crew of the incoming ship even knew that they were being hailed.

"Negative," Owens answered. "Our sensors are having a hard time locking onto it at this range. We're not picking up much in the way of energy emissions either. It doesn't look like the ship is under power but rather is coasting along on inertia. It could well be derelict."

"Hmm," Jacob said thoughtfully, wondering what curveball fate or some random ascended being was throwing there way now. "Dispatch a fighter squadron and one of the cruisers to investigate. If it is a derelict have them board the ship, I want to know who they are and where they come from."

"Aye sir."

"Then contact Rivendell, tell Governor Shepherd that I need to speak with her on a matter of the utmost urgency."

"Aye sir."

"Keep me informed on the status of the incoming ship, if it makes any sudden moves I want to know about it immediately."

"Yes sir," Owens answered before Jacob signed off, making the holographic screen vanish with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble. As the screen disappeared he leaned back in his seat and thought about the incoming vessel teasing there sensors and felt his youthful wanderlust and curiosity stir. He couldn't help but wonder what the ship was and where it had come from, and how it had come to be travelling between star systems at sublight speeds. At that kind of speed, it would take decades or even centuries for the ship to get anywhere. Maybe it some kind of ark ship, he thought, after all it could be whatever species inhabit this version of the Milky Way might not have developed hyperspace technology. However, it could also easily be a derelict, abandoned long ago and left to roam the stars as a celestial Flying Dutchman.

A chime sounded throughout his ready room a moment before a holographic screen once more blinked into existence in front of him this time showing the face and torso of Rivendell's governor, Alison Shepherd. Jacob mentally sighed once again and straightened up for what was probably going to be a difficult conversation.

"Hello, admiral," the governor said in greeting, though the grim look in her eyes belied the cheer in the greeting. "I take it you've read the report from the scientists."

"I have," Jacob confirmed grimly. "The findings are far from ideal, though I can't say I'm overly surprised by them."

"I know what you mean," Alison admitted. "From the moment our sensors revealed that this is a different quantum universe to our own we knew that getting home was not going to be easy."

"Indeed, now it seems like it will never be possible. So the question is what do we do? As far as we can tell there is no subspace activity in this galaxy, so it's unlikely there is anything like a Tau'ri Federation here. Earth might not even exist in this reality for all we know. Even if it does it won't be our world, they won't be our people. We're alone."

"We have each other," Alison pointed out. "Between your ships and those of us here on Rivendell we have a total population of just over thirty five thousand individuals. If my memory is correct there was a plan drawn up for contingencies where groups of ships or entire fleets could become separated from the rest of our race."

"You're talking about the Kasaki Plan."

"You know of it?"

"Yes," Jacob confirmed. "Though if I recall my academy classes where they taught us about it correctly many of the plans protocols are outdated; after all the plan was formulated at a time when we lacked the technology to make devices such as zero point modules, nano-forges and food synthesisers or build things like cityships."

Alison nodded. "Indeed. We'll have to carefully review all the plans protocols and recommendations to see which ones we can apply to us and to our unique circumstances," she said. "But one thing is certain we'll have to find a suitable planet soon as this city cannot stay in space for much longer."

Jacob nodded. He was fully aware of the fact that cityships couldn't stay in space indefinitely they simply weren't designed for long-term space travel. Instead cityships were designed to launch from a planet, travel to their destination and land again. Spending periods longer than a few weeks in space, having to keep shields up to keep atmosphere in the city and stardrive powered up to hold station would soon start draining Rivendell's resources; particularly the trio of zero point modules that provided the city with the bulk of its power.

"Maybe we should start sending out probes to scan some star systems that are outside the fleet's sensor range," he suggested. "Start the ball rolling on finding a suitable place to land the city while we review the Kasaki Plan."

Alison nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a plan," she agreed. "I'll have Arwen launch a series of survey probes to sweep systems outside of our immediate sensor range; in the meantime though we have another issue to discuss."

"Oh?"

"Yes the unknown ship our sensors have detected coming in from interstellar space at relatively low sublight speeds. I am aware that you've dispatched a cruiser and some fighters to investigate it."

"That's correct. What about it?" Jacob asked.

Alison gave a small smile. "As you are aware admiral the sensors here on Rivendell are considerably more powerful than what you have on the Achilles," she said. "We've been able to gather some additional information on the incoming ship."

"What kind of information have you been able to gather?"

"I'm forwarding it to you now," Alison replied. "But it's not a huge amount. We've determined that the ship is two and a half kilometres long and appears to be constructed of obsolete materials, specifically a titanium-based metallic alloy."

"Titanium," Jacob repeated more than a little incredulous. Titanium or titanium-based alloys hadn't been used in starship construction in centuries, as while it was a strong metal trinium was far stronger. Trinium or trinium-based alloys also had the advantage of being lighter while being far more resilient to both energy fire and the subspace radiation encountered when travelling in hyperspace.

"I know it's strange. I would have thought that any civilisation capable of designing and constructing a ship the size of the incoming vessel would have discovered far more advanced and durable metals and alloys than titanium."

"Indeed. That ship is one giant question mark after another," Jacob answered. "Hopefully we will get some answers about it shortly."

"We can but hope," Alison replied. "While we wait for answers though admiral I suggest we get on with addressing our other concerns. We should both review the Kasaki Plan, and meet over here in a couple of hour's time, work out exactly what we are going to do next."

"Agreed, I'll keep you apprised of any developments regarding the unknown vessel."

"I would appreciate that, thank you."

"You're welcome. Now though if you'll excuse me governor I have some reading to do."

"Of course, good luck."

"To both of us," Jacob answered knowing the Kasaki Plan was not going to be exactly easy reading. Government plans and bills never were, instead they were always complex, bureaucratic nightmares that could really try your patience. Governor Shepherd smiled back at him before breaking the connection between them from her end.

Jacob sighed as the holographic comm. screen once again evaporated into thin air. For a moment he sat there in his seat then he accessed his desk terminal and made a new holographic screen appear. After accessing the Achilles library computer he pulled up the details of the centuries old Kasaki Plan and began the time consuming, frustrating job of reading through it. He just hoped the government analysts who'd devised the plan all those centuries ago had known what they were talking about when they'd come up with the plan.

Because he had no idea what they would do if they'd been wrong.

TFS Concordia

A Few Minutes Later

Captain Paul Mitchell frowned thoughtfully as he studied the increasingly detailed findings of their scanners as they closed upon the unknown vessel. Findings that combined with sensor data courtesy of Rivendell's far more powerful scanners only increased the mystery surrounding the incoming ship.

Concordia's sensors had determined that the unknown was definitely a warship, the weapons turrets and missile/torpedo pods visible on her hull along with the large cannon in the bow made that perfectly obvious. However, what was confusing was the fact that the vessel didn't appear to mount any form of energy shielding system. An occurrence that was almost unprecedented for a spacefaring vessel, as most species that they knew of who were capable of space travel used energy shielding in some form even if only on a low level to protect the ship from radiation spikes, micro-asteroids and other space debris while in normal space.

Instead of shielding the derelict, if it really was derelict, warship seemed to be completely reliant on its thick titanium-based alloy hull for protection. Concordia's sensors had revealed that that had obviously not been enough as the ships hull had been breached in over a dozen places. Some of the hull damage was clearly caused by weapons fire the holes having the characteristic smooth, melted edges of damage inflicted by directed energy weapons. However, other holes had more ragged and torn edges. One particularly large hole on the ships port side had the jagged, twisted and crumpled look of collision damage while the other holes were smaller and had the punched in look of meteoroid impacts.

Paul shook his head softly. The derelict had obviously been travelling through space for quite sometime – the fleet's long-range sensors had long ago confirmed that there were no habitable planets within twenty light years of here in all directions. It was a testament to the engineering skills of whoever had built her that the ship was still holding together – not that it would for much longer as the navigational computer had extrapolated the ships trajectory and determined that on her current course she would drive straight into the deepest part of the larger of this systems two asteroid fields. An event that would certainly lead to her destruction.

"Sir," Lieutenant Alexander McKay reported from sensors. "Our latest in depth scan of the derelict has been completed. We're starting to pick up weak life form readings on board."

"What kind of life forms," Paul asked curiously and also hopefully. If there were life forms on board the ship then he would have all the justification he needed to either board the ship or tractor her onto a safer trajectory. Assuming of course that the derelict would be able to withstand the sudden change in inertial and gravitational stresses caused by locking on a tractor beam, he thought.

"Human sir," McKay reported sounding disbelieving. "There very faint, almost too faint for our sensors to register them, there also not moving at all. My guess is there in some form of stasis."

"Stranger and stranger," Paul mused. "What's the atmosphere like over there?"

"Stale and very cold, it's only a degree or two above freezing over there, sir. The ships power levels are incredibly low, all there reactors appear to be powered down, all but one emergency generator as well. From these readings I would guess that within a month at most the ship will loose what little power it has left, when that happens…"

"…those people in stasis would die," Paul finished before straightening up in his seat. His choice was clear regulations – and more importantly his own conscience – would not let him abandon the people on the derelict to their fate.

"Alright this is what we're going to do. Commander Parker I want you to prepare a boarding party," he said after a moment. "We'll transport them aboard the derelict ship, once there they're to determine if there is away for us to transport the stasis apparatus to this ship for transport back to Rivendell and revival."

"Aye sir," Commander Jason Parker answered turning to his console and starting to carry out his task even before he finished speaking.

"Communications send a transmission to both Rivendell and the Achilles. Advise Admiral Robyns and Governor Shepherd what we're doing."

"Aye sir," communications acknowledged.

Paul relaxed back in his chair as around him his crew burst into action, carrying out his commands as they prepared to render assistance to the crew of the derelict ship. He focused his attention at the ship displayed on the high-resolution screens at the front of the bridge that provided a window out on space. The ship was ugly, all blocky and angular with nothing like the sleek grace that modern Tau'ri ships had. The fact that it had a Human crew and had presumably been built by Human hands wasn't particularly surprising when he thought about it. Only Humans could build ships that ugly and get away with doing it. In fact, now that he thought about it the design was like something they themselves would have built before the development of inertia-less sublight engines forced a radical rethink when it came to starship design.

The question now was how the Humans on that ship had gotten into their current predicament. How had they come to be out here, hundreds of light years from Earth and twenty light years from any habitable planetary system? As far as their sensors could determine the derelict had no faster than light capabilities, at least not of any known design, so how did they get out here? Unless the derelict was somekind of sleeper ship – something that was very unlikely for a warship – something else was going on here. I hope that we'll get some answers soon, he thought.

At that moment the communications console emitted a soft series of bleeps and chirps as a signal was received. "Captain we've just received a message from the Achilles," the officer operating the console reported. "Admiral Robyns aggress with you that we should board the derelict and rescue the crew. However he advises that extreme caution be taken doing so as we have no idea how or why this ship is out here."

"Signal our acknowledgement, lieutenant," Paul ordered.

"Aye sir."

"Commander is the away team ready for transport to the derelict?"

"Yes sir they are," Commander Parker answered. "Given the condition of the derelict I've ordered them to wear full armour and to be cautious onboard."

"A sensible precaution commander," Paul agreed. "Advise the team they are clear to transport over to the derelict."

"Yes sir."

Derelict Ship

A Few Moments Later

The first thing that Lieutenant Nathan Blackwell saw when the Concordia's transport beam released him was near total darkness. The first thing he felt was an incredible lightness that made his feet start to leave the metal deck as he slowly drifted upwards in zero gravity. But it was only for a moment before his armours computer automatically adapted to the situation, magnetic souls on his boots engaged bringing his feet firmly back into contact with the titanium-alloy of the deck.

The darkness disappeared as the sensors built into the armour probed the space around him and brought up an electronic image of where he was on his helmets built in heads up display. Nathan noticed that he and the other five marines of the boarding party were in what had to be some sort of hanger bay. Lined up in rows on either side of a wide central walkway were eight large bulky craft with nose and wing mounted weapons turrets as well as what looked to be somekind of missile pods under the wings. From the size and design Nathan guessed they were probably the derelicts equivalent of Night Hawk landing craft or the recently developed Mirage-class bombers as they were far to big to be fighters. At the end of the deck to there right a large set of doors sat closed, from the size Nathan guessed that they were the hanger bay doors.

"Lieutenant," Sergeant Rostov said over the closed subspace radio circuit linking the members of the boarding party together in secure contact. "I've located the closest active stasis signatures."

"Where are they, sergeant," Nathan asked.

"Approximately two hundred and fifty metres aft of our current location and up one deck, if my sensors are correct there should be a ladder or stairwell sixty five metres from here on the right hand side," Rostov answered. "I'm relaying the coordinates to all team members now."

Nathan nodded as a small window opened on his helmet HUD showing a blinking green dot some distance down the blue outline of a corridor. "Squad move out," he ordered before starting walking towards the far left end of the hanger bay.

The rest of his team followed closely behind him, the sound of their boots hitting the deck echoing through the silent, cavernous interior of the hanger bay. As he walked, Nathan couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable by the shapes of the landing craft revealed by his armour sensors. They looked powerful and dangerous, it would be easy to think them alive, predators that were waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey. They would probably look a lot less menacing if the bay lights were on, he thought, but there's no power to much of this ship. As he walked, he did have to wonder how the people on this ship had come to be in their present situation, in stasis on a ship whose current course would soon end with its destruction amongst the remains of a failed planet.

Hopefully we'll get some answers soon, he thought as he reached the doors to the rest of the ship. As he'd expected the thick metal, doors were closed and the control panel beside them was dark and lifeless. Not put off in the slightest Nathan calmly mentally instructed his suits computer to scan the doors and the locking mechanism knowing that unless the Humans who'd built this ship were radically different to his race they would have included a manual override system of some sort for emergencies.

A heartbeat later, the suit spat back a response. There was no direct manual override system. Oh terrific, Nathan thought even as he examined the scan results in more detail. He noticed that the doors were hydraulically controlled, but any thoughts of bypassing the hydraulic system went out the window when the scan revealed that the lines to the motor were on the opposite side of the door to the squad's current position. Guess there is only one thing for it, he thought.

"Break it down," he ordered his people.

Immediately Corporals Sterns and Hayes moved forward and accessed the doors with their suit sensors before proceeding to attach a series of small devices to the titanium alloy of the door. Behind the silvered faceplate of his helmet, Nathan smiled as he recognised the devices as shaped C-60 – a modern descendant of C-4 plastic explosives – charges. Being designed to penetrate far more advanced and durable alloys the charges would make very short work of the inch thick titanium doors.

"We're ready sir," Sterns reported over the comm. after a moment.

"Good pull back," Nathan ordered moving back so they would be out of any conceivable blast radius. While the charges were shaped there was always a chance of some of the blast coming back there way, it was a slim one but a chance nevertheless. The rest of his team followed him and in moments, they were secreted behind one of the docked ships.

"Send the detonation signal," he ordered.

"Yes sir," Sterns replied before obeying tradition. "Fire in the hole," he said before mentally giving a command to his suits computer, which immediately sent the detonation signal to the charges.

The explosion split the air, showing everything in the docking bay in sharp relief before the light of the blast faded. Through his feet Nathan felt the ship shudder slightly as the shockwaves shot through the support structure a moment before a pressure wave washed over where they were hiding carrying with it a plume of smoke and a few glowing pieces of pulverised metal. After a moment the fallout subsided, allowing the squad to come out of where they had taken cover.

Stepping clear of the landing craft Nathan looked over at where the heavy door into the rest of the ship. The door was completely gone, torn asunder by the explosives. Instead of an imposing barrier, now an opening led into a wide, high corridor, a corridor that was littered with the torn fragments of the bulkhead door.

"Move out," Nathan ordered over the squad command frequency before stepping through the wreckage of the door and being careful to watch his steps. Though there was little to no chance of him being hurt should he trip on the debris, he likely wouldn't even feel the fall as his armours shields and panelling would easily protect him and diffuse the force of impact. Still he walked carefully as he didn't want to look like a fool, which is how he'd look if he happened to trip of something as mundane as a chunk of pulverised titanium.

The rest of the boarding party followed closely behind him, taking equal care to watch their footing until they were clear of the debris field. As soon as they were all clear, Nathan picked up the pace a bit, following the corridor until they came upon the access hatch that Sergeant Rostov's sensors had detected earlier. Arriving at the hatch Nathan wasn't particularly surprised to find it closed though surprisingly the control panel beside the door still glowed with a weak light, indicating that it was still drawing some of this ships slowly failing auxiliary power supply.

Calmly he studied the panel and blinked in surprise when he saw that the characters were clearly English. After a second he mentally berated himself for being surprised, this ship was Human built and they were in another universe to their own. There was no neutronium clad law after all that said other Human societies had to use Ancient as a written language – even though it was better at conveying various advanced mathematical and higher dimensional concepts than English – indeed many of the less advanced Human societies in their own universe still used their own languages. Studying the panel more closely he eventually pressed one of the controls and a green light came on, a second before with the sound of hydraulics the door slid open.

"Come on," he said stepping into the stairwell, and was surprised to see that there was still some light in here. Small lights at regular intervals were glowing with a faint blue light that barely banished the darkness that seemed to fill much of this ship. Probably being powered by built in emergency capacitors, just like some light crystals on our ships have auxiliary capacitors to power them in the event of main power failure, he thought as he started leading the way up the steps his footsteps clanging on the metal. The sound echoed weirdly off the walls of the stairwell, breaking the graveyard silence that filled the derelict ship.

"Damn that's spooky," Hayes commented.

"Just a little," Nathan agreed as they continued moving, heading up to the next level of the supposedly derelict warship built by the Humans of this universe.

Bridge

TFS Concordia

A Few Moments Later

The sudden crystalline-sounding bleeping from the sensor station drew Captain Mitchell out of his contemplation of the derelict ship on his front screen. Turning his head to look at Lieutenant McKay he saw the younger man working to find out what it was that had suddenly teased the Concordia's sensitive scanners.

"Sir," McKay reported after a moment, not looking up. "Short range sensors are detected somekind of spatial distortion forming thirty-five thousand kilometres away on a bearing of one six four mark zero eight nine."

"What kind of spatial distortion?" Paul asked.

"I'm not sure it reads somewhat like a hyperspace window forming but there are a number of differences."

"Show me," Paul ordered with a puzzled from on his face as he turned his attention back to high-resolution display screens at the front of the bridge.

"Yes sir," McKay answered before giving a mental command to his console.

Immediately the screens changed from showing a view of the supposedly derelict native Human warship to a view of a location that was further out from there location, though still within drone weapons range. The viewed space glowed with a strange greenish light and seemed to be almost bubbling, like it was a liquid that was boiling, before parting revealing a glowing aperture half a second before two alien vessels slipped gracefully into normal space. The distortion vanished behind them and for a few moments, Paul studied the two new ships with interest.

They were very different in design to the blocky, angular warship that his boarding party was currently investigating. Instead both were sleek, elegant designs composed of three vaguely oval sections and with two strange fins at forty-five degree angles to the centre line along their aft section. Both ships were constructed from a purple-blue metal that gave off a strange almost opalescent sheen and their rear engines glowed with a soft purple light. They were big ships to, each half again as long as the Concordia, though more slender. In away the ships seemed oddly fragile yet at the same time there was something about them, something that indicated the vessels were dangerous predators.

Paul was brought out of his contemplation of the alien vessels by a series of trilling bleeps from the sensor console. "What is it," he asked turning his head to look at Lieutenant McKay.

"Alien ships are scanning both us and the derelict sir," the younger officer reported. "There scans are penetrating our passive ECM systems – there getting clear readings of us."

"Return the favour scan them," Paul ordered a little startled that the aliens ships sensors were penetrating their ECM systems – albeit systems that were only currently operating in passive mode as opposed to actively working to disrupt sensor beams and communications signals. Few races that he knew of had the ability to scan their ships so thoroughly through even passive ECM most developing worlds back home didn't have the ability to do that.

"Aye sir, sir the alien ships have ceased scanning," McKay replied. "Sensors are detecting power surges on both vessels, they're raising shields and appear to be powering up weapons systems."

"Raise shields," Paul ordered immediately. "Move us into position to screen the derelict ship. Lieutenant can you determine what weapons systems the alien ships use?"

"Each ship appears to be armed with one large particle beam cannon and numerous pulse cannon turrets, exact nature of pulse weapon unknown. There is also some kind of magneto-plasma strips running along the lateral lines, exact nature unknown but from the increasing temperature and beta-particle readings mine and the computers best guess is there plasma weapons of somekind."

"What about the alien shields lieutenant," Commander Parker asked. "Can the scanners reveal anything about them?"

"Scans confirm that the alien shields are inferior to our own," McKay answered. "They appear to be at least four generations behind our own shield technology they won't withstand our weapons for very long." The sensors bleeped an urgent warning. "Alien ships locking on… there firing."

No sooner than the words left the lieutenant's mouth than a soft series of shudders accompanied by a rumble of distant thunder were felt/heard throughout the Concordia as volleys of purple-blue energy bolts from both alien ships struck the cruisers shields. To the pilots of the Hornet-class fighters holding a perimeter around both the Concordia and the derelict ship the alien weapons made a pretty lightshow as the pulses broke up on contact with the shields and vanished in soft silvery-white shimmers as the energy was effortlessly either absorbed or refracted back out into space.

"Damage," Paul asked as soon as the Concordia finished shivering from the minor shockwaves from the ineffectual attack.

"No damage sir," Lieutenant Daniels reported from the engineering/damage control station. "Shields are holding."

"Alien weapons appear to be somekind of pulsed lasers," Lieutenant McKay added as another volley of blasts impacted their shields and once again sleeted ineffectively off. "Firepower is about the same as the light capital plasma cannons the Jaffa use on their fighters or as point defence weapons on their motherships. They're no threat to our shields."

"Communications try and hail those ships," Paul ordered even as a third volley of pulse laser blasts thudded into their shields. Have to give these guys credit for persistence if nothing else, he thought a moment before two more powerful impacts against the shields produced a more powerful and noticeable shudder in the deck beneath his feet. "What was that?"

"Some sort of focused plasma weapons just impacted our shields, sir," McKay reported. "They're very similar to the plasma balls fired at us by the aliens in the dark matter galaxy, however its not antiproton based and plasma particle density is somewhat lower."

"It still packs a punch though," Daniels added. "Shields are down to ninety percent and holding."

"No response on any communications channels sir," communications reported. "I've tried every frequency I can think of – I've even tried old fashioned radio signals – but there is no reply."

"Aggressive silent types then," Parker commented as yet more pulse laser blasts smashed into their shields. "Captain this has gone on for long enough. We should return fire."

"Agreed," Paul, replied. "We've tried to talk to these people, whoever or whatever they are and there not interested in talking just shooting. It is time to show them our teeth and claws in return. Tactical target the closest alien vessel, ion cannons only."

"Acquiring target, weapons ready," Lieutenant Commander John Beach reported from tactical.

"Fire."

For the first time since the battle that had seen Rivendell and her escorts transported across universes gun turrets on the outer hull of the Concordia swivelled round and locked onto the closest alien warship. For a moment, nothing happened then the muzzles of the powerful cannons – both the single barrel heavy ion cannons and the dual barrel mediums – glowed with whitish-blue light as ionic energy gathered in the pre-fire chambers of the advanced particle weapons. A millisecond before discharging in a massed salvo of electric blue-white energy blasts.

The barrage of ion bolts sparkled and crackled like blasts of malignant lightning as they streaked through space towards the closest of the two alien starships. Mere moments later they slammed into the shield surrounding the ship with a searing force. The alien shield flared with a brilliant scintillating silver sheen that spread over the entire ship as it fought to disperse or deflect the energy of the attack back out into space. A second massed volley of ion bolts erupted from the Concordia and smashed into the still flickering shields with enormous force.

It was too much.

Already struggling to repel the energy imparted by the first massed salvo of ion bolts the alien shields flared nova bright, then winked out of existence allowing the remaining energy of the ion bolts to smash into the armoured hull of the warship. Armour glowed white hot in several locations as ionic energy attacked the atomic structure of the metal, tearing molecules apart from the atomic level up. The alien warship rocked with the impact and yawed to starboard from the inertia imparted by the sudden eruption of ejector from disintegrating armour plates.

Another pair of ion bolts – this time from dorsal heavy ion cannon turret one only – smashed into the wounded vessel. Each blast punched through what was left of the warships armour like it was paper – one bolt shooting right the way through the ship coming in underneath and cutting right through to shoot out the dorsal surface with an eruption of debris and burning atmospheric gasses. The second bolt came in on a slightly different trajectory and sliced deep into the ship, eviscerating section after section on four decks before smashing into the starboard plasma storage tank the ionic energy discharge exploding inside the volatile mass of superheated material with hundreds of megatons of destructive force. No longer contained and charged to a far higher level than normal by the ion blast, the plasma burst forth instantly melting or vaporising everything that it met before it reached the ships fusion fuel tanks. Instantly the superheated mass flash heated the deuterium to the point of detonation.

The mortally wounded alien warship split wide open along every single seam, before disintegrating in a massive explosion that sent debris and a wave of superheated plasma and radiation flying in all directions. The blast wave smashed into the remaining alien warship – setting its shields aglow as they fought to repel the maelstrom suddenly unleashed upon them. The blast wave faded and dispersed, leaving nothing of the first warship other than a spreading, cooling cloud of dust, plasma and semi-molten debris.

Bridge

TFS Concordia

Captain Paul Mitchell studied the spinning debris plume that was all that remained of the destroyed alien warship. He hadn't really wanted to do that, blast who knew how many hundreds of sentient beings straight to hell, but the aliens really hadn't given him much choice. Though the fact that the alien shields had yielded so easily was somewhat surprising as he would have expected shields that were only four generations or so older than their own to hold up longer to the fury of there weapons.

"What's the status of the remaining alien warship," he asked a moment before a fresh series of shivers ran through the deck as the remaining alien opened up with pulse lasers again.

"There shields are down to seventy percent, sir," McKay answered. "There is also some minor thermal damage to there outer hull on there starboard side." The sensors abruptly bleeped a warning. "Sir I'm picking up a neutrino surge on the alien ship."

Paul frowned. "What kind of neutrino surge," he asked a moment before the Concordia rocked violently as a brilliant spear of energy from the alien ship slammed into their shields.

"Shields down to seventy-nine percent," Daniels reported as gravitational stability returned, but only for a moment as another violent blow shook the ship as two balls of superheated plasma struck the shields. "Shields at seventy percent minor thermal increase on outer armour layer," he added.

Paul frowned in annoyance. "Alright enough of this nonsense," he growled softly. "Lock our portside particle slicer cannon on the alien ship, destroy them."

"That might not be necessary, sir," McKay interrupted. "Sensors show two ships decloaking off the alien's port quarter reading transponder codes, there the Juno and the Akagi."

Paul nodded he could see it himself on the screen. The two Windraker-class destroyers shimmered into view, disengaging the cloaks they'd used to hide there approach from the direction of Rivendell and the rest of the task force. Both ships opened fire on the aliens immediately, ion bolts erupting from their cannons while drones birthed from their lateral launchers and shot towards the alien warship at the incredible speeds the highly advanced Alteran-tech based weapons were capable of travelling at.

The alien ships shields visibly flared with a brilliant silvery sheen as the heavy volley of energy blasts crashed into them, tearing at the protective barrier with bolts of ionic devastation. The shield flared brighter as it fought to withstand the lower energy but still extremely powerful blasts fired by the destroyers. Seeing the alien shields struggling Paul wasn't particularly surprised when the drones from the destroyers reached the ship, and passed through its weakening shields as if they didn't exist to tear into the ship.

Paul winced slightly as he saw explosions erupt on the alien vessel as the drones drilled through it. He knew the kind of chaos the drones would be causing onboard and he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the alien crew as their ship was literally being ripped apart around them. Fifteen drones from the originally twenty strong salvo emerged from the alien warships starboard hull and arced around to strike it again, crumpling the ships hull and superstructure as if were tin foil and not a strong metallic alloy. More explosions erupted on the vessel as whole sections on multiple decks underwent total structural collapse, ten drones shot out of the underside of the ship, which was already visibly starting to break up. As before the drones arced around and struck the alien ship again, this time all of them exploding as they punched deep into the vessel – the detonations merged with the detonation of the ships ruptured reactor fuel tanks. The alien vessel erupted in a titanic fireball that swiftly faded away leaving nothing but a plume of torn semi-molten fragments as an epitaph.

"Stand down from battle stations," Paul ordered as the flash of the explosion faded away. "Lower shields."

"Aye sir," Lieutenant Commander Beach replied from tactical a moment before the communications console trilled for attention.

"Sir we're being hailed by the Achilles," the officer on duty reported. "Admiral Robyns wants to speak with you."

"Very well put him through," Paul replied guessing what his superior wanted even as a holographic screen blinked into existence in front of him showing the face and upper torso of the only Tau'ri admiral in this universe.

"Captain Mitchell," Admiral Robyns began. "We've monitored the battle with the unknown alien vessels, I'm glad the Juno and Akagi arrived in time to assist you. What's your status?"

"No damage sir," Paul replied. "The aliens dropped our shields down to seventy percent but other than that we haven't sustained any damage to speak off. Sir I should point out that we tried repeatedly to hail the aliens but they either didn't hear us or ignored us."

"I see," Robyns repeated with a concerned frown appearing on his face. "That's concerning and why have to consider that those aliens got off a signal to wherever there homeworld is through a mechanism we don't understand. More ships could be coming, meaning we cannot stay here for much longer."

"No sir," Paul agreed knowing that the risk would be great. While the aliens were not much of a match for them in small groups in number's the threat would be magnified to a level that would be far too dangerous for Rivendell. To mitigate the risk they would have to move to a new location soon. First, though they needed information on which stars in this area were safe and which weren't – the last thing they wanted or needed was to come out of hyperspace and come face to face with a hostile alien fleet. Fortunately, there was a readily available source of such information, coasting along at low sublight speed off the Concordia's starboard flank.

"Sir might I suggest we reinforce the team on the derelict ship," he suggested. "Send over some technicians as well as more marines, before trying to access their database and download some star charts from their navigational computer – if we can access it."

"That ship has been cruising the stars at sublight speeds for at least twenty years," Robyns, reminded him. "It's likely that any information in her navigational computer would be somewhat outdated."

"I know," Paul replied, "but it would give us something of a starting point and given the hull damaged we've observed to the derelict it's possible that they may know who the aliens who attacked us are."

The admiral frowned thoughtfully. "They may indeed," he agreed after a moment. "There's also the matter of the people in stasis on board we can't in good conscience abandon them to die when the derelict enters the asteroid field.

"Very well then, captain. Dispatch additional marine and technician units to the derelict ship," he continued. "Co-ordinate with the captains of the Juno and Akagi, have them do the same."

"Aye, sir," Paul answered.

"Also do a full scan of the derelicts structure and hull status. I want to know if it will stand up to both the stresses of a tractor beam and a hyperspace tow."

"I understand sir."

"Excellent, Achilles out," Robyns replied a moment before the holographic screen blinked out of existence with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble. Paul sighed softly before looking around at the rest of the bridge crew.

"You heard him people," he said. "Commander Parker liaise with the captains of the Juno and Akagi about transporting additional marine and technical support units over to the derelict. Communications update Lieutenant Blackwell on what has happened. Lieutenant McKay begin in depth scans of the derelict along with computer simulations to determine if it could potentially withstand both the graviton stresses of a tractor beam and the subspace stresses of hyperspace travel."

"Aye sir," came the replies from the respective stations.

As his crew scrambled into motion to carry out there orders Paul turned his attention back to the view screen. With both alien warships now destroyed, the visual had returned to a view of the blocky, angular derelict ship. He hoped that that ship held the information they needed, information that they would need to ensure Rivendell's safety. After all, while they'd defeated the aggressive aliens easily this time – there was no guarantee they would be able to do it again – especially if the aliens came with a full-blown battle fleet.

If there is no information salvageable in that ships databanks then maybe the crew will be able to help if and when we take them out of stasis, he thought, we would be saving there lives so its only fair they pay us back with information. Mentally he sighed and told himself that despite saving them the Human crew of the derelict might not exactly be cooperative on the information front, not immediately anyway. We'll convince them that we mean them no harm and that they can trust us, he thought, we have to. Or this battle will have been for nothing, we could have gotten involved in someone else's war for no reason.

After a moment, more thought he sighed softly to himself again and leaned back in his command chair. He had no idea what the future held for the task force and Rivendell, but he did know one thing.

It had just gotten a whole lot more interesting.