Oceans of Dust by Stargate

Author:Stargate
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781905586530
Publisher: Fandemonium Books
Published: 2012-06-12T23:00:00+00:00

When Daniel and Jack had finished placing charges around the Tel’tak, they headed back to the cockpit in time to see the Clythena looming above them.

It was an awesome sight. Unlike the tetrahedral cores of the Ha’taks, the flying mountain had a square base. It was a true pyramid, but scaled up to insane levels: the vessel could have landed atop a small town, and covered it entirely.

While the ship’s flanks gleamed like smooth white marble, the underside of it was less prepossessing, a maze of thruster bells, docking ports, kilometers of exposed pipework. It reminded Daniel of a gigantic foundry, hundreds of pits of glowing metal connected by vast tubes and gantries and factory buildings, turned upside-down and moving slowly over his head.

“There have got to be tens of thousands of Jaffa in there,” he breathed.

“Maybe less than you think.” Jack was sitting on the deck, checking his weapons and equipment — an MP5 with multiple spare magazines, a sidearm, a zat gun, grenades and more C4. “Every time we’ve been inside one of those pyramids we’ve see a lot of empty space.”

“It is true,” Bra’tac agreed. “Goa’uld vessels are vast in order to terrify those who might oppose them. Within, there will be many unused areas, unless an army is being transported. This ship, for all its size, will be crewed by a few thousand, no more.”

“That’s still not very comforting.”

“Daniel, we can do this.” Jack got up, his MP5 slung, the rest of his gear stashed efficiently in his tactical vest and daypack. “They don’t know anything’s wrong, so they won’t be on alert. Bra’tac can find us something sporty, while we go hunt down the navigation system and cripple it. We’ll fly out and be in hyperspace before they even know why they can’t steer.”

Daniel just looked at him. There were so many things he could have said, so many flaws in the plan, so many dangers and logical gaps and leaps of faith. The idea of sauntering into the vastness of that spaceborne Everest as if it were a local shopping mall was simply insane. It was true that the ship was not on alert now, but they only needed to be spotted once, and all hands would be against them. The fleet might enter hyperspace while they were still inside, dragging them untold light-years off course. It was a terrible plan. It was suicide. Madness.

It was as likely to work as any other option, frankly. And in the face of such nightmarish odds, perhaps audacity was the thing that would see them through.

“Let’s do it,” he replied.

“Humans,” said Bra’tac. “Observe.”

He was standing at the viewports, looking up at the endless base of the Clythena. Past him, Daniel could see a huge shape gliding upwards, glittering white and silver. Another starship, as long as a Ha’tak was tall, was docking vertically with the mountain’s underside.

It was only when he got closer to the ports that he realized his mistake. The object was not a ship.

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