CHAPTER FIFTY
Jacob pressed one of the device's panels and watched as numbers on the computer screen changed, dropping slightly. He gave a sigh. This was taking too long. They had to get the device's wave output to match the modified Replicator disruptor wave to within a margin of point seven six percent, but they still had a long way to go. The problem was that, even with the help of Sam's program, there still seemed to be no pattern to what panels needed to be lowered or raised. There had been times when he and Selmak made the wrong choice, taking them further away from the goal.
Sam came into the room. "How's it going?"
"I'm making progress, but slowly. How about you?"
"I've rigged the DHD to dial automatically on signal when the weapon's ready. It's programmed to activate every gate in the network. I could never have done it without those instructions Daniel gave us."
"We'll have to give him a big thank you after this is all over."
Sam's gaze dropped to the ground. Jacob knew that she was still worried sick about the man she loved, but all their attention needed to be focused on their task.
"I really wish we had an instruction manual for this thing," he said. "You'd think that the Ancients could have come up with a control panel that was easier and made more sense."
"Well, maybe they did it this way on purpose to prevent someone else from figuring out how to use it."
Jacob turned back to the device and pressed another panel. The difference between the two graphs lowered from fifty-nine to forty-seven percent.
"Hey, great going, Dad," Sam said.
"There's still a long way to go, and we have no idea when the Replicators will arrive."
"We'll make it. We have to."
The knowledge of millions of years was slowly and painfully being uncovered, piece by piece, memory by memory.
Replicator Carter drew back from it for a moment.
"It's incredible," she marveled.
Daniel frowned in pain, but said nothing.
"Do you not care?" the Replicator asked. "Are you not amazed by what you are seeing?"
"I don't understand it. It's more than any human can begin to comprehend."
"I am not human."
"Oh, believe me, I know. There must be a limit to how much your mind can process, how much information you can store."
"I am sharing what I learn with my brethren. The extent of knowledge we can absorb is only limited by our numbers. As we speak, those numbers are growing faster than you can imagine."
"But are there enough of you yet? You've only just started invading this galaxy. There can't be all that many of you here, relatively speaking, and I kind of doubt that you can talk with the Replicators all the way over in the Asgards' galaxy."
"I have escalated the invasion. My brethren are presently hunting down and attacking every ship they find. Already, great numbers of Goa'uld ships are within our power, and more fall to us by the moment. Our power and numbers grow exponentially."
With a smile, Replicator Carter dove back into Daniel's mind.
As the alarm for an unscheduled off-world activation sounded, Jack descended the stairs to the control room.
"Is it Carter?" he asked.
"No, sir," Sergeant Harriman replied, "but we are picking up a radio signal."
"Put it on speaker."
They heard nothing but interference over the speaker.
Jack frowned. "What is that?"
"I don't know, sir."
Suddenly, images began flashing across the monitors, blueprint-like images of various Stargates.
"Okay, so what the hell is that?" Jack asked.
"I'm not sure, General. I can't access the system. Looks like something's hacked into the computer remotely."
"Shut it down."
The sergeant attempted to shut down the gate, but failed. "I can't, sir. I'm locked out!"
"Damn." Jack picked up a phone. "This is General O'Neill," he said into the receiver.
At that moment, the iris opened.
"Sir!" Walter cried.
Seconds later, Replicators began swarming through the gate. The SF's in the gate room fired upon them, but there were far too many to stop.
Jack stared at the sight in shock and horror. He grabbed the microphone and told the men in the gate room to evacuate, then gave the order to close the blast doors.
"Initiate base lockdown," Jack said over the P.A. "Emergency evacuation of all personnel through alternate routes. Self-destruct protocol, on my order."
He hung up the phone and turned to Harriman. "Let's get out of here, Walter!"
As he hurried down the corridors, Jack knew that they were in big, big trouble. They had to prevent the Replicators from getting to the surface, even if it meant destroying the base with the self-destruct device.
A short while later, he found out that wasn't going to be possible. The Replicators had reached the self-destruct device and blocked access to it, probably disabling as well.
Jack came up with an alternate plan. As soon as everyone was out, they'd toss a nuke down the silo. Hopefully, that would be enough to take care of the bugs. And if it wasn't? Jack wasn't going to think about that.
Daniel's eyes opened, and he looked at Replicator Carter, whose eyes had also opened, a slightly disconcerted look on her face.
"You can't handle it, can you?" Daniel said, feeling a hint of satisfaction.
"I can. I just need time to process, share it with the others."
"Like the universe, it's infinite. It's not just knowledge and information, it's understanding on a level that you will never reach."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because you're a machine."
"So are you, just of weaker construction."
"And that's where you're wrong."
Replicator Carter gave Daniel a smile of confidence. "We'll see."
Daniel returned the smile, knowing that he'd almost reached his goal. Soon, the human-form Replicator would receive a big surprise.
The president has authorized deployment of a ten-kiloton nuclear bomb, on Jack's command. An emergency state of alert had been issued in a two hundred square mile radius around Cheyenne Mountain, which was currently being evacuated. A transport helicopter was, at that moment, waiting on the surface for Jack and the remaining personnel.
Unfortunately, there was a problem. Eight SGC personnel, including Siler, were pinned down by the Replicators and couldn't get to an emergency escape hatch.
Reynolds, Jack and three others were now on their way to rescue the men, all of them wondering if they'd manage to get off the base alive.
Again, Daniel's eyes snapped open. Furious, he glared at Replicator Carter.
"So much for leaving Earth alone. There's Replicators infiltrating the SGC right now."
Surprised, she stared at him. "How can you know that?"
Daniel did not reply, simply looking at her.
Comprehension came to the Replicator. "While I was in your mind, you were inside mine."
Daniel's eyes looked into hers with a hint of gloating. "Took a while to figure out. Fortunately, you were too distracted to notice. Some of the Ancient knowledge really helped, too. Thank you."
Replicator Carter was furious. "You tricked me."
"Yep, sure did. But then, you tricked me first, so I figure we're even. Too bad you didn't question why you were so suddenly able to get past my mental shield. I let you in on purpose."
"You should never have told me."
Daniel's gloating went up a notch. "Too late . . . for you, that is."
Replicator Carter's hand rose to strike him. He grabbed her wrist. Replicator fought to break his grip, but found that she couldn't.
"Trying to leave?" Daniel said. "Sorry. A little more time in Danny's world."
"My brethren will not stop. You cannot control them."
Daniel's eyes pierced into hers, blazing with fire. "Not yet, but I'm learning."
Things were not going well on Dakara. A couple of minutes ago, an armada of Goa'uld ships had come out of hyperspace and was presently attacking the rebel fleet. But the situation could have been worse. Everyone was pretty certain that the attacking ships were some of Anubis'. If they'd been Replicator-controlled ships, it was likely that, with their more powerful weapons, they would already be decimating the rebel fleet.
Jacob's attention was fully upon the device before him. He pressed another panel and was delighted to see the number differential change from thirty-eight to eight.
Sam came hurrying into the chamber. "I got a message from Teal'c. He says that they're doing all right up there so far, but it's a tough battle." She looked at the computer. "Wow, you've come far, only seven point two four percent to go."
"Lucky guesses mostly. We've made some wrong ones, too. Selmak would have his fingernails chewed down to the quick, if he had any." He hesitated a moment, then pressed another panel, cursing when the number raised to twenty-five.
"Dammit! I would really like to have a little chat with the people who built this thing."
Frowning, Sam walked up to the Ancient device. She studied it a moment.
"Try that one," she said, pointing at one of the panels.
"Any particular reason?"
"No, not really. Call it woman's intuition."
Jacob did as she asked, and the number reduced to eighteen.
"Better." He smiled at Sam. "Maybe Daniel's abilities are rubbing off on you."
"I wish. We could really use them right now." Her eyes met his. "Dad, I tried to dial the SGC, but I couldn't get through."
"Maybe a team was coming through the gate, or they could have been contacting someone."
"Maybe, but I have a really bad feeling."
"Woman's intuition again?"
"Could be or maybe it's just nerves. But I keep thinking about the Replicators. Earth would be one of their primary targets. Daniel had a vision several months ago of Replicators attacking Earth by the tens of thousands."
"Sam, don't think about that. We've got enough to think about as it is."
Sam nodded. "Yes, you're right."
They both returned their attention to the device. Another panel was pushed, dropping the differential to eleven.
"Sam, you do realize that, if Anubis' ships break through, we're not going to be able to stop those soldiers," Jacob said. "We don't have enough weapons that can kill them."
"I know. We just have to hope that doesn't happen until after we activate the device."
"And what about afterwards?"
"We'll use the nuke the general sent through just in case and blow this thing to hell. We can't let Anubis get his hands on it."
With the aid of Jack and the men with him, the Replicators attacking the group of trapped personnel were finished off.
"Thank you, sir!" Siler said as he came forward, scooting around the blasted remains of the Replicators.
Jack handed him a weapon. "I expect to be put in your will."
"Already on it, sir."
That made Jack pause. "Okay, that's . . . weird."
With Jack and Reynolds in the lead, the men traveled back up the corridor, keeping a careful eye out for the invaders. And then they heard it, the sound of approaching Replicators . . . lots of them.
"Ah, crap!" Jack cursed.
All of the armed men took aim. The moment the Replicators came around the corner, they opened fire. The Replicators swarmed toward them.
In the space above Dakara, the battle waged on.
Aboard one of the rebel motherships, Teal'c announced, "Shields are down fifty percent."
"We cannot take much more," Aron said.
"We cannot retreat," Bra'tac declared. "If we do, Anubis will take Dakara. That cannot be allowed."
At that moment, the situation became even more grave.
"Sensors are picking up multiple ships exiting hyperspace," Aron said. A moment later, he announced in surprise, "They are firing on Anubis' forces."
Teal'c stared at the viewscreen. "It is the Replicators. Contact Colonel Carter. They must be told of this immediately. And instruct all of our vessels to target the Replicator ships."
"Are we not better off letting them destroy each other?"
"If the Replicators should prevail and gain control of the weapon on Dakara, all that we have fought for is lost."
Down on the planet, Sam and Jacob received the dismaying news that the Replicators had arrived. Jacob responded by pressing another panel, which lowered the differential to six point one. Not hesitating, he pushed down another one, and the number dropped another point five percent.
"We're getting there," Sam said.
"But the clock is really ticking down."
The battle for the base was still going on. The Replicators seemed to be everywhere, and the countdown for the detonation of the nuke had begun. Jack had come to the conclusion that he and the men with him weren't going to make it off the base through the escape route and had ordered Walter up on the surface to tell General Hammond to pull the trigger on the nuke the moment he could. He'd also given the command for the chopper that had been waiting for them on the mountain top to get out of there. Jack and the men with him were now going down instead of up, down to the only other way they'd be able to get off the base.
Reaching their destination, Jack, Reynolds and Siler entered the control room as the rest of the men took up position in the corridor outside. Jack and the leader of SG-3 quickly eliminated the Replicators that were in the room.
"Go," Jack commanded Siler, who went to the control console and began typing. The lights started turning on throughout the complex, and the blast shield covering the window lifted, revealing an empty gate room.
"Siler, can you dial out?" Jack asked.
"I'm working on it, sir."
Reynolds looked at his watch. "Ten minutes to detonation."
Jack glanced at his own watch upon hearing that.
The sound of gunfire coming from the corridor made the SGC commander curse internally. Reynolds left the control room to go help hold off the Replicators.
"Step it up, Siler," Jack said. "We're almost out of time."
"I'm having problems, sir. The Replicators have taken the dialing computer offline. I'm working as fast as I can."
Deciding he'd be of more use in the efforts to hold off the Replicators, Jack grabbed his weapon and joined his men, closing the blast door behind him.
"How's it going in there?" Reynolds asked.
"Not well."
"Same here."
Deciding to get a bit more proactive, Jack yelled, "Grenade!" and fired off three grenades. The Replicators kept right on coming.
"Crap! The damn things are like locusts."
Above the sound of the weapons fire, Reynolds said, "I don't think we're going to get out of here, General."
The mothership Teal'c, Bra'tac and Aron were on was in trouble. The shields were down, and the weapons were offline. Power had been rerouted to sub-light engines and evasive maneuvers taken, but it was useless. The Replicator ships were too quick.
What they didn't know was that a ship made entirely of Replicators had landed on the planet.
Inside the temple, Jacob had gotten the differential down to two point nine percent.
"Two point one five percent to go," Sam said.
Jacob nodded. At that moment, they heard gunfire outside.
"What's that?" Jacob asked, already knowing the answer.
Also knowing what was happening, Sam said, "Hurry."
"I've almost got it. Just a little more time."
"I don't think we have it," Sam yelled as she turned and ran to the doorway, preparing to try her best to keep the Replicators out.
Moments later, the Jaffa retreated to the entrance of the inner chamber, unable to hold back the invaders from gaining entrance to the structure.
Soon, the Replicators came into view, swarming into the structure. Sam and the Jaffa opened fire on them.
Many light-years away, another confrontation was continuing to be waged. Replicator Carter could sense Daniel's efforts to get control of the Replicators, and she fought against it. So certain was she that he could not succeed, however, that she did not break the connection between their minds, still intent upon taking all she could of the Ancient knowledge. That proved to be her biggest mistake.
Daniel's eyes opened, and he looked triumphantly at Replicator Carter, who stared back at him in shock.
"Got you now!" he declared.
All across the galaxy, every Replicator suddenly became motionless, controlled, for the first time in all of history, by the mind a human.
On Earth and Dakara, the defenders stared in shock at the unmoving Replicators.
"Huh," Reynolds said, totally perplexed. He looked at Jack.
"That's odd," remarked the general.
Both men turned and resumed shooting the Replicators, which had suddenly become like shooting fish in a barrel.
In one of the rebel ships above Dakara, Aron stared, baffled, at the sensors.
"The Replicator ship just . . . stopped. Sensors are indicating that all of the Replicator ships have ceased activity."
Puzzled, Teal'c contacted the surface.
"Colonel Carter. Have you successfully activated the weapon?"
Sam got on her radio. "Not yet, but the Replicators down here just froze." She glanced over her shoulder at her father.
"Dad?"
"Almost there!"
Wondering what had caused the Replicators to freeze, Sam returned her attention to them.
On a ship far away, the man responsible held firm to his control of the countless thousands of Replicators within the galaxy. The many months of training his mind to control his psychic abilities were paying off, enabling him to do something that no ordinary human being could have done for long.
"There are so many, aren't there?" Replicator Carter said. "Too many for your mind to handle. It's taking all of your concentration just to control them."
"Actually, I seem to be doing just fine, thank you. In fact, I'm thinking that I should step this up a bit."
Following his words with deeds, Daniel passed on new orders to the Replicators onboard one of the ships above Dakara. Seconds later, the ship blew up, destroyed by its own occupants.
Furious, Replicator Carter finally broke free of Daniel's grip on her wrist. His position in the room abruptly changed. He was now once again imprisoned against the wall. He realized that he was finally back in the real world.
A second after he came to that realization, one of Replicator Carter's arms began forming into a sword-like appendage. She came at him, intent upon his death. Daniel's mind struck at her and threw her clear across the room. He then destroyed the blocks binding him and stepped away from the wall.
The attack had broken his concentration, and he lost control of the Replicators. Everywhere, they began to move again.
"Dad, they're on the move again!" Sam yelled.
Jacob pushed down another panel, and the differential went to point eight two. Just point six percent more to go! His eyes scanned the panels frantically, knowing he had to push one, but terrified that he'd choose the wrong one.
Inside the Replicator ship, Daniel's precognitive abilities sent a sudden warning to him, telling him what was about to happen. Knowing that, if he didn't do something, he would very soon be dead, he looked at the person he'd pinned against the wall.
"It's been nice, but I gotta run."
Blasting an opening in the wall, he fled the room. As he ran, he reached out with his newly gained power and seized control of the Replicator ship. It leapt into hyperspace at his command. He could feel Replicator Carter trying to wrest back control, but it was useless. She was now up against the full might of Daniel's power.
Too late, the human-form Replicator realized that she should have killed Daniel the moment she discovered that he was attempting to gain control of the Replicators. She had believed he was too weak to succeed, but she had been wrong, and, now, she was suffering the consequences. She didn't know yet, that, very soon, those consequences were going to prove fatal.
Inside the temple, Jacob made his selection. Fearfully, he pushed another panel, holding his breath as he watched the numbers on the monitor. They dropped to point seven two percent.
"Point seven two!" he cried.
"Do it!" Sam yelled.
Jacob activated the weapon, and the building began to shake as the tip of the mountain started splitting open like the petals of a gigantic flower.
Obeying the command Sam had programmed into it, the DHD on Dakara began to dial, not just one address, but all of them. All across the galaxy, on hundreds of thousands of worlds, Stargates began opening, prepared to receive that which would soon come.
At the top of the peak, the mighty device that had been made to create life gathered its power, this time, its mission one of destruction.
Replicator Carter heard the voices of her brethren on Dakara, telling her that something was happening there. She looked through their eyes and saw what they were witnessing. She commanded them to turn all their might upon getting to the weapon and stopping it.
In the temple, Sam and the Jaffa fought to keep the Replicators at bay, while, above the planet, Teal'c, Bra'tac and Aron watched a Replicator ship come in for the kill.
"Enemy ship is in range," Aron said. "It is powering weapons. We cannot survive another hit."
On another ship, Daniel came to a halt as they dropped out of hyperspace. By his order, the ship swiftly approached a planet, its new master uncertain that he was going to make it off in time.
And then he felt it. On that world hundreds of light-years away, the weapon of the Ancients released its massive power. It spread out in a gigantic wave, disintegrating every Replicator it touched. The energy entered the wormhole of the open gate on its unstoppable quest to wipe out every Replicator in the galaxy.
Daniel's mind gave one final command to the Replicator ship. Replicator Carter arrived just in time to witness him being beamed away. And then the wave of destruction hit, giving her one brief instant to be aware of her defeat before she was no more.
