The Daedalus has been equipped with the Ancient's cloaking technology, and Caldwell leads a mission to scout the Wraith gathering. Sam and Tammy have a falling out, then some serious make up sex. Tammy shows the first negative signs to her exposure to Sam's blood, and Teyla welcomes Caldwell home as befits a hero...
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Confirming Carter Book Two Daedalus
Chapter Six
Interior-Conference Room, North Pier
0825 Hours
"Zelenka has the cloaking equipment installed on the Apollo, but he says he needs another day to fine tune and test it." Caldwell was saying. "We took her out on a few test runs last night after his people knocked off, and we didn't have any problems with the cloak. There were some performance issues though. I don't know if you can really stall a starship, but I think we came damn close."
"I would have thought you'd be beating on the table demanding we go, Steven." Carter said, leaning back in her chair. "I'm glad I was wrong. But I read your report, you tried to drop out of hyperspace, come to a full stop, then fire at multiple targets while putting the ship in a reversing turn to starboard."
"Yes, maam. I can do that maneuver with the Daedalus, and we should be able to have both ships behave in a similar fashion." Caldwell said. "And I'm not going to be sitting in the big chair on Apollo. I'm not going to put someone else's life on the line because I got in a hurry. We found out what the problem on that was. A power relay overloaded and took the sublight engines offline. Zelenka's people said the problem was with the relay, not something in the cloak that caused the problem."
"We'll let Zelenka make his adjustments, but if we can go safely sooner, I'd like to." Carter said. "I wasn't here when you hit those Wraith ships last time, and I don't know what kind of dead spaces there are in a hive, but I'm betting that there are alot."
"Are you thinking about beaming nukes onboard some of them, while we hit the rest with beams and missiles?" Sheppard asked. "They threw up shields pretty quick the first time we did it, and we haven't gotten another shot since. They come out of hyperspace with shields at full power now."
"I'm thinking along those lines, but I'm not exposing either of my ships to that force. I'm thinking drop and dash." Carter said. "Teyla's people are saying that there are twenty-seven hives, and dozens of cruisers now, gathered out there in the middle of nowhere, and they're thinking it's some kind of summit."
She leaned forward, looking back and forth between them. "I'm thinking, that if you beam a nuke onto a few around the perimeter, when they go up, we'll get secondary's off the nearby hives and cruisers. If enough of them start going up, we may get the whole gaggle of them, without risking either ship, or wasting alot of ordinance."
"That's a ballsy move, Sam." O'Neill grinned. "But what makes you think that they'll be unshielded when we get there? From what Teyla said, the Wraith are just as hostile to each other as they are everyone else."
"We're the first one's to put up any kind of fight against them in a long time, Jack. And I think what happened with the Replicator homeworld has a lot to do with this." Carter said. "They're out there talking about us, and the Travelers. They're wondering what they're going to do now that there other space fairing races in Pegasus that can be a threat to them. Add to that the fact that the Hoffen drug has poisoned their food supply, and they have to be seeing things getting tight for them."
"I've talked to Teyla about the intel we're getting." Caldwell said, bringing up a star chart on the monitor. "This is the area we're talking about. It's dead space, there are no planets or space gates for light years in any direction. The Travelers are sending scout ships that sit at the edge of their sensor range, keeping an eye on what's going on. So far, none of them have been detected."
"This gathering is more than ten percent of the Wraith ships that we, and the Travelers know about. And the head queen, the one they call the Primary is there, that's been confirmed." Caldwell continued. "There's still more hives on the way it appears, so we may have a few days to get the Apollo ready, and make plans. The question I have is, do we want to try something on our own, or do we want to see if the Travelers will come on to help?"
"No." Carter said. "If we decide to do anything, I think our stealth approach is going to our best and safest bet. But we need our own recon, and a test. We need to see if they have shields up, and if we can get in close without being detected." She highlighted an area on the chart. "Steven, if you dropped Daedalus out of hyperspace here, where it should be outside their sensor range, how long would it take you to get to that cluster of ships at max speed?"
Caldwell looked at the chart, then tapped his comm and spoke quietly for several moments. He made a few adjustments on his tablet, then looked up at her again.
"Marks says we can actually drop out here." Pointing to an area much closer to the Wraith ships. "That's quite a bit closer than you suggest. Apparently we give the Wraith sensors too much credit." He said with a smile. "I'm like to split the distance, and come out here." He highlighted an area on the map. "Just to be safe. From there, we're looking at three hours in and back. Once we reach the cluster, we can use passive scans to check for shields and do a count of our own."
"That sounds like a plan. We're going to adjourn, and I'd like you to be ready to go by eleven hundred hours, sooner if you can. Teyla is going to want to go, and I told her that we'd send her when we did anything, but I've been thinking about that." Carter said. "With the Wraith being able to detect her, and get into her head, she could present an unnecessary risk. But damn, having her on the scene would be valuable too."
"We've already talked about that, colonel." Caldwell said quietly. "She understands the risk, and knows that she can't go. She doesn't like it, but she's accepting it. We've been going over the schematics we got from the Travelers, and she's pointed out places we can beam nukes in where they shouldn't be detected too quickly. If we work quickly, we should be able to have a dozen nukes on timers in place and be safely away before they start going off."
"Good. And thank you, Steven." Carter said as she stood up. "Get going, and at the first sign of trouble, you get your ass out of there as fast as you can." She looked at Sheppard and O'Neill. "I need a couple hours, but I'll want you two back here, and we might as well get Andi too. We need to look at what's going on with Anchorage."
She walked over and stopped Caldwell at the door, putting her arms around him, hugging him tightly. "You be careful, Steven. No heroics, just go in, get what we want, and get out. You and your crew are more important than a few Wraith ships. We can always pick them off one at time if we have to."
"Yes, maam." Caldwell said with a smile. "My boss already had that little talk with me. We'll be careful, And we'll be home soon."
"She did, did she?" Carter laughed as she let him go. "Well, in that case, let me say good luck, and good hunting."
Interior-Kitchen
1040 Hours
"Ops says the Daedalus is away. They left a few minutes ago." Tammy said as Carter and Ronin came into the room. "And you left your comm on the table. Again. You don't have to wear it, but you do have to carry it with you." She handed her the headset as she sat down.
"Bitch, bitch, bitch! That's all you've done for two days." Carter laughed as she dropped the comm in her vest pocket. "What's the matter, sweetie. You not gettin' enough lovin'?" She laughed as she leaned over for a kiss.
Tammy kissed her, but it was just a light peck. "And no, I'm not getting enough lovin', as you so quaintly put it. What do I have to do Sam? I try, but you're not interested. Is it the cameras? I can turn them off, all you have to..."
"I'll be in the living room." Ronin said, then stepped out quickly.
"Jezzus, Tammy! Was that necess..."
