05x17 - Fail Safe

[bunniefuu]

No Listen to me now.

If you can't confirm my observations,you must have the coordinates wrong, because there is definitelysomething up there.

For the tenth time, it is in Cassiopeia.

Declination 61 degrees, six minutes.

Right ascension two hours, 48 minutes.

That's impossible.

Yes, I'm sure.

Listen.

Listen, I am not somecrackpot phoning in a UFO here.

I am the cofounder ofthe Northern Susquenita County Amateur Astronomical Society.

I've beentracking this thing for three nights.

Whatever it is, it is very big,it is very close,

- and I will not shut up about this until

- (vehicles approach) Never mind.

This image was generated from satelliteobservations made in the last few hours.

The asteroid has an irregular shape, but we've calculated its lengthfrom end to end to be approximately 137 kilometres.

I've seen this movie.

It hits Paris.

It'll strike somewhere in the Arctic Circle.

Probably Greenland or the Barents Sea.

Nobody knows this but us?

How is that possible?

The asteroid was discovered by a civilian who's since been "persuaded"to keep it quiet.

The reason no one else has detected itis that the object's path is highly atypical.

It's outside the planeof the solar system occupied by the planetsand the asteroid belt.

In fact, it's a fluke that anyonesaw it at all.

We got lucky.

I don't see how in any way this is lucky.

Well, seven or eight years ago,there'd be nothing we could do about it.

The Stargate opens other options for us.

A little help from our friends?



- Yes, sir.



- Perhaps the Tok'ra could assist.

They've been on the run since the Goa'uldattacked their base at Revanna.

We've already sent a message asking fortheir help.

There hasn't been any reply.

The Asgard owe us a favour.

We could contact them through the K'Tau.

The treaty with the Goa'uld means theAsgard cannot prevent natural disasters.

The Goa'uld tried to make theTollans send a b*mb through the iris.



- Screw the treaty.



- Well, one of our allies will help.

I hope you're right.

Otherwise, in 11 days and 16 hours,all life on Earth will be wiped out.

I'm afraid the answer is no.

Come on, guys.

Throw me a bone here.

The Protected Planets Treatyleaves no room for interpretation.

They tried to att*ck us.

It was the Tollans who attempted to sendthe expl*sive device through your iris.

By whose order?

The System Lordsdeny knowledge of this incident.

Of course they deny it.

The Treaty does allowfor the arbitration of such disputes.

We would need to assemblea commission of inquiry, consisting of equal numbers ofAsgard and Goa'uld representatives.

We would also need corroboratingtestimony from the Tollans.

That's gonna be a problem, as they've been wiped out by the Goa'uld.

That is unfortunate.

And I suppose, when Earth gets hitby that rock and we're all wiped out, that's gonna be unfortunate too?

Very.



- And after that I kind of lost my temper.



- What exactly does that mean?

Let's just say Jack madea reference to Freyr's mother.

We'll discuss his diplomaticshortcomings later.

Right now I'd like to know our options.

I say we nuke it ourselves.

We have sufficiently large

-yieldwarheads to deflect it, but we don't have a delivery systemwhich can reach the asteroid in time.

The cargo ship I crashedon Revanna must still be there.

In how many pieces?

Our understanding of Goa'uld technologyhas improved.

We might be able to fix it.



- How much time?



- With the right team, two days.

I'll assign anyone you need, Major.

Assuming we can fix it, how longwill it take to fly back to Earth?

Revanna's not exactly next door.

Even pushing the engines past 100%,it would take eight, nine days.



- Leaving little margin for error.



- Then let's get started.

Dismissed.

Colonel, I have every confidencein SG

-1's abilities.

However, as a contingency plan,the president has ordered me to begin Alpha team evacuationsthrough the gate.

Major Davis will be arriving fromthe Pentagon to coordinate.



- Yes, sir.



- If Major Carter cannot repair the ship, you will report immediately tothe Alpha site and assume command.



- General?



- No debates on this one.

That's an order.

Yeah.



- Good to go, sir.



- Teal'c, show 'em the way.

This way.



- This, uh big enough?



- 1,200 naqahdah

-enhanced megatons.



- That's a lot?



- It's the most powerful warhead there is.

It's the equivalent ofone billion tons of TNT.

That's a lot.

Hey! What are you doing?

I'm sorry, I can't do this.

I cangive you a list of some good engineers.

Come on, Spellman.

I do this every day.

You don't understand what happens toyour body when you go through it.

I do.



- We need you for this mission.



- It defies the laws of physics.

Spellman, you're going.

(groans) It doesn't look so bad.

Our first priority is auxiliary power.

Then it's hyperdrive and life support.

Right.

Is there a rest room?

My first priority.

Ah, they'll fix it up.



- I'm confident.



- Me too.

As am I.

I looked again.

I still can't find it.



- Did you check the guidance system?



- Twice.

OK, I guess we'll have to assumethat there isn't one on board.



- One what?



- We're ready to attempt an engine start.

Yeah, fine.

Assume there isn't one what?

Recall device.

The X

-301?

That was you guys?

You must admit it performed beautifully until you and Teal'cwere sent into deep space.

Yeah! Nice work.



- Carter.



- Attempting engine start.

Carter?

(electronic beeps) (power surge/engine starts) That's got it, sir.

We're good to go.

I'llrepair the remaining systems on the way.

Once you get to the Revanna gate, dialthe Alpha site.

They're expecting you.

I think I speak for about six billion peoplewhen I say "good luck".

You too.



- I'm gonna wanna talk to you guys.



- Teal'c, try to take it easy on the engines.

Why?

I'm slightly concerned that if wepush them too hard and they burn out before we reach escape velocity, we'll come crashing back to the planet.



- I'm confident.



- Me too.

As am I.

I appreciate that, but ifwe don't hear from SG

-1

- We're getting a message, sir.

It's SG

-1.



- You were saying?

The signal's being relayed throughAF SATCOM.

Audio only.



- Pipe it through, Sergeant.



- Yes, sir.

(Carter) Please respond.

SG

-1.

This is General Hammond.

Please respond.

Sir, we've justdropped out of hyperspace.

We should reach the asteroidin a few minutes.

We're relieved to hear that, Major.

You sent engineersto the Alpha site ten days ago.

The ship's barely flying as it is, sir.

We're lucky we made it this far.

Understood.

Proceed with your mission.

(Carter) Yes, sir.

All right.

39 minutes before impact, theasteroid will reach the fail

-safe position.

After that point, it'll be too closeto Earth for the expl*si*n to deflect it.

That leaves us three and a half hours.

So we just drop off the b*mb and what?

Our scans show that the asteroidis pitted with impact craters and fissures.

We fly the ship into the deepest crater wecan find at a right angle to its trajectory.

The crater should direct the explosiveforce of the b*mb like a rocket nozzle.

When we're just above the surface,we bring down the MALP with the b*mb.

Then we land, and two of us go EVA.

That would be you and me.

We walk the MALP down into a fissure atthe bottom of the crater to focus the blast.

We set the timerand then we get out of there.



- Piece of cake.



- There is one other thing.

We're about to pass through the Leonids:a cometary trail Earth crosses sometimes.

The shields should help protect the ship.

Anyone caught outsideis gonna have to find cover, and fast.

(rumbling) What was that?

I'm having difficultywith the sub

-light engines.

(rumbling) Yes, you are.

Sir?



- What is it?



- An overload in the control systems.



- Backups?



- We don't have any.

Sir, we just lost SG

-1's signal.

SG

-1, this is Hammond.

Do you read me?

SG

-1, please respond.

How's the head?

The sub

-light engines have shut down.

Big asteroid problem here.

Try using manoeuvring thrustersto slow us down.

I am.

It's not working.

Daniel is correct.

Manoeuvringthrusters appear to be insufficient.

They're all we've got.

Sir! Deep

-space trackingstill has a fix on the ship, but we show them approachingthe asteroid way too fast.



- Any time now.



- The thrusters are in full reverse, O'Neill.



- We're coming in faster than we should.



- Yes.

Faster than we shouldwith thrusters at maximum.

hit.



- What happened?



- We're inside a deep crater.

We stopped descending.

No, I understand.

Thank you.

Sir?

We got a message from NASA.

According to their calculations, SG

-1 has crashed into the asteroidat over 60 metres per second.



- Do they have confirmation?



- No, sir.

It's an estimate based onthe ship's last known position.

Any chance of survivors?

At that velocity, sir, it's it's very unlikely.

Sir.

If this is true, and the mission is down, we're out of options.

It's time to call the president.



- The sub

-light drive is down.



- As are shields and communications.

It might be easier to list what is working.



- The b*mb?



- It's good to go, sir.

If it comes right down to it,we can detonate it right here.



- What's our position?



- Personally, I'm against it.

We're about five metres abovethe surface at the bottom of the crater.

The rings will be functionalat that distance.

All right.

Here goes.

Let's suit up.



- Carter, you all right?



- I'm fine, sir.

You took a pretty good sh*t.

Why don't you sit this one out?



- No, I'm fine.

Really.



- Teal'c and I can handle it.

Yes, sir.

No, sir.

There's beenno response on the radio.

If they crashed, there should have beenvisible evidence.

We've found nothing.

Frankly, sir, if SG

-1 survived and theymanage to complete their mission, then no one needs to knowany of this ever happened.

If not, nothing anyone can do willmake the slightest bit of difference.

Going public now wouldonly serve to create panic.

Yes, sir.

I know how you feel.

My place is here.

Thank you, Mr President.

(Teal'c) Depressurising airlock.

(Carter) You'll experiencevery little gravity.

The asteroid's surface is mostly ironand your boots are magnetised, so you shouldn't gospinning off into space.

(O'Neill) That's very reassuring, Carter.

Thank you very much.

(Teal'c) Depressurisation complete.

Opening outer door.

(O'Neill) I'll drive.

What is it?

Our approach was a lot faster than itshould have been, even on thrusters only.

I wanna check something.

(Teal'c) We can proceed no further.

(O'Neill) Then this'll do.

w*apon is armed.

Something's not right.

The gravitationalfield is stronger than we thought.

So?

Gravity is determined by mass.

Massis determined by size and composition.

So?

So the core must be made of somethinga lot heavier than nickel and iron.



- (thud)

- What was that?

We're passing through the Leonidssooner than I expected.

Colonel O'Neill, what's your position?

We're almost out of the cave.

Better stay where you are, sir.

We're taking meteor hits.

Carter, any chance of gettingthose shields in play here?

We're working on it, sir.

Stand by.

Daniel, try to reroutepower from the hyperdrive.

Bypass systems are all blown.

Hull breach! We're venting atmosphere! Carter.

Any progress on those shields?

(Carter) Stand by, sir.

(rocks crashing) That's it.

And now there's two more.

Carter! Daniel!This is O'Neill.

Please respond.

Carter! It appears the meteor storm has subsided.

Go.

(O'Neill) Carter! Carter! Daniel! Report! O'Neill, these readings indicatezero atmosphere within the ship.

Hull breach?

If that is the case, Carter and Danielcould not have survived.

Open it.

I got nothin', Teal'c.

The hull has beendamaged in several places.

What are you considering, O'Neill?

They're in the escape pods.

I have identifiedthe breached areas of the hull.

We can begin repairs immediately.

All right.



- General.



- Doctor.

Shouldn't you be offworld?

I'm leaving with the next group, sir.

Your name isn't on the list, sir.



- That's correct.



- May I ask why?

If that asteroid hits, the only chancefor the survival of the human race will rest with the Alpha site.

We limited their number becausethey'll have limited resources.

Everyone will have to contribute.

Your experience makes youmore than qualified, sir.

I appreciate what you're trying to do,Doctor.

But my decision is final.

Yes, sir.



- (O'Neill) How you feelin'?



- (Daniel) Not bad.



- That's great.

Let's go.



- Sir, I don't think we should leave just yet.

Somethin' to do with gravity.

It's too high.

Higher than it should be.

I need to reconfigure the sensorsto find what the core is made of.



- Oh, here we go!

- I'm sorry, sir.

Oh, come on!We came, we saw, we planted the b*mb.

We had a little fun with a meteor shower,we went home.

It's a great story.

Isn't it?

I was right.



- This could be a problem.



- Indeed.

I don't wanna hear it.

Sir, the asteroid's core is composedalmost entirely of naqahdah.

Of course it is.



- It makes up 45 per cent of the mass.



- Of course it does.

Naqahdah does not occur naturally.

Which is why I nevereven thought to look for it.

Sir, this must've been a Goa'uld setup.

To betray the Protected Planets Treatywith the Asgard is almost unthinkable.

What?

The Goa'uld set the asteroid on a collisioncourse to look like a natural disaster.

They knew the only waywe could stop it would be with a nuke.

So what happenswhen that b*mb goes off?

The expl*si*n will be enhanced by thenaqahdah, to the force of a small nova.

This close to Earth, it'd be enough to setthe atmosphere on fire and boil the seas.



- OK.

This was not in the movie.



- If we deactivate the b*mb, and the asteroid passes the fail

-safe point,there's no turning back.

Are you sure?

Well, I I can't be 100 per cent We don't have a lot of choices here.

We're damned if we doand we're damned if we don't.

The asteroid itself may besufficient evidence of a treaty violation.

Right.

The Asgard can intervene.



- We have no way to tell them.



- We do if you get that radio on line.

Teal'c, suit up.

OK, try it now.

Stargate Command, this is SG

-1.

Do you read?

Over.

Nothing.

I don't know what else to do.

The radio's working short

-range, but there's no way the signal canpenetrate this much solid naqahdah.

(beeping) Ah, crap! The b*mb has yet to be deactivated.

I can see that, Teal'c.

Perhaps the code is incorrect.

Yeah.

Carter, come in.



- Go ahead.



- Confirm the deactivation code for me.

Yeah, that's it.

Nothin'.



- Is there a problem, sir?



- There was a cave

-in.

Seems to have damaged the keypad.

It's not accepting the code.

Other than that, everything's fine.



- How much time is left exactly?



- Under three minutes.

Sir, you're gonna have to open upthe b*mb and deactivate it manually.

First remove the casing around the timer.

There should be two screws.

Yeah.

I got 'em.

Got it.

Now find the wires leading from the timerto the detonator, and cut the red one.

Carter.

They're all yellow.



- Say again.



- There are five wires, all yellow.



- Maybe I should cut 'em all.



- Sir, if you interrupt the wrong circuit, it's the same as telling the bombthe timer has reached zero.

Yeah.

I knew that.

I'm sorry, sir, but you're justgonna have to cut them randomly.

Yeah.

I knew that too.



- How's it coming, sir?



- I've cut three.

I've got two to go.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say this is a poorly designed b*mb, and weshould say something when we get back.

I agree, sir.

(beeping stops) Sir?

We're still here.

Still no word from SG

-1?

No, sir.

Ten seconds.

Asteroid has passed fail

-safe.

Very well.

Major, Sergeant, take yourpositions with the last Alpha group.

That's an order, Sergeant.

Yes, sir.

General.

I haven't been relievedof this command, Major.

Yes, sir.

Good luck.

We get communications back yet?

Sorry, sir.

The only way would beto pull the components we used to fix the hyperdrive.

It would take hours.



- What, then?



- Well, we have a couple of options.

Number one, give up.

Use what's left ofthe power to get to the nearest gateworld.

We might make it.

Then we head to the Alpha site.



- Number two?



- We take off and hope that our signal can be picked up by the Asgard in timeto inform them this was a Goa'uld att*ck.



- There's not enough time for that.



- I know.



- Is there a number three?



- There's no three.

Maybe there is.

Teal'c, you said naqahdahwasn't native to our solar system.

Which means the Goa'uldmust've towed it by ship.



- A mothership.



- Daniel, that's it.



- What's it?



- We don't have a mothership.



- It only has to last a few seconds.



- What only has to last a few seconds?

Choice three, sir.

Expand our hyperspacefield to encompass the entire asteroid.

We take it out of normal space longenough to avoid the collision with Earth.



- Is there a four?



- I know it sounds far

-fetched, and it is.



- Ride an asteroid through Earth?



- Yes.

To the observer, it would disappearon one side and reappear on the other.

The problem is it'd takeevery ounce of power we've got.

The field would have to be expandedfar beyond its usual envelope.



- It could cause the engines to explode.



- Explode?

Even if we survived the engine overload,we couldn't take off again.

We'd have a couple of hoursof life support, and that's it.

But you think this is the best shotwe have at stoppin' this rock?

Yes, sir.

I think so.

Well, that's the plan, then.

I really need more timeto make the calculations.

Well, Carter, now might be a good time.

Almost.

Now?

If I engage too soon,we'll reappear right inside the Earth.

Carter, I can see my house.

Engaging hyperdrive now.

We're there.

The computer confirmswe have emerged from hyperspace on the other side of the planet.

Yep.

Plan three.

Works every time.

Yes, Mr President.

Yes, sir.

From what NASA and SATCOM tell me,it looks like the asteroid just disappeared.

I don't know, sir,it may have been the Asgard.

But it's my opinionSG

-1 had something to do with it.

So two hours of life support, then what?

(O'Neill) Hammond'll find us.



- (O'Neill) I'm confident.



- (Carter) Me too.

As am I.

(whistling noise) The sensors are picking upa vessel approaching.

- It appears to be another cargo ship.

- Goa'uld?

I do not know.

The ship is taking upposition directly above us.

I'm Jalen, of the Tok'ra.

We received yourdistress call.

Can we render assistance?

Well, you know, it's not like we don't haveeverything totally under control here, but Sure.

Render away.