Shipping It Stargate Style
Chapter 3
Go for Launch
Taylor gazed up at the night sky. It was a deep blue, almost black. The view was immensely pretty. Her new eyes, her sensors, were just so incredibly...
powerful. Every shade of every color was visible to her.
And some that
weren't colors.
She... could see the entire electromagnetic spectrum! The additions to her sight turned the normally dim night sky into a kaleidoscopic vista of beauty and elegance.
Such an
amazing view. Way better than her old eyes.
The ones that needed glasses.
Taylor raised a hand to her face and pressed against the bridge of her nose as if she was adjusting a pair of the vision correcting optics.
But she wasn't.
Taylor didn't
need them anymore.
A small perk of her
merge with the Odyssey that she just couldn't get over. Compared to everything else it didn't even rate mentioning… yet she couldn't stop marvelling at that simple little difference.
The lack of glasses, of the
need for them, was like a shock of cold water to her system. It hammered home just how
unlike her previous human existence she now was.
Another deceptively simple difference was her visual range. Now Taylor could see every star in the sky. Every nebula. Hell, every
photon coming in from the far off celestial bodies. It almost felt as if she could reach out… and grab them.
She suddenly realized she
had reached towards the heavens with a hand and attempted to cup what she knew to be Alpha Centauri. The part of her that was the Odyssey was
anxious to return to her home environment.
"Heh," she snickered, shaking her head. "Soon. Atmosphere first, then a galactic tour. Baby steps Taylor. Baby steps." She consoled herself with the fact that, eventually, after she had gotten a handle on her new life, she would allow herself a vacation. Amongst the black.
But that was in the future. Taylor had a set of powers that
desperately needed calibration for her new body's configuration. She had been winging it till now, but a single moment of lapsed attention was all it would take for her to accidentally flare her sublight engines too hard and cut a building, much less an enemy cape, in half.
If they survived at all.
Her actual weapons were so hilariously lethal at her new scale it was almost worthless to think of them. They were designed to destroy
starcraft, not wipe the floor with any and all of the comparatively very, very squishy capes. Which they would most certainly do.
Taylor from before would have said that the Endbringers or Scion would give her pause. She even believed, for a moment, that she could hear the downtrodden commentary of her former self.
She wasn't sure she would agree with that now.
Even if her weapons proved to be ineffective upon them, which given the damage the Endbringers kept suffering at the hands of powers that were barely firecrackers compared was unlikely, there were a lot of black holes in the Milky Way alone. And
she had a Hyperdrive.
Taylor really wasn't interested in killing people on accident. On purpose, though? …Well, there were some people that had to be removed to produce a better future. She was ready to take their lives if she had to, certainly.
But nobody else.
Unless they were the Endbringers. Those monsters deserved everything and anything she could deliver. If they were even people at all...
That was a definite change from her pathos as Taylor. She was ready to do what had to be done. Take down those that deserved it, eliminate acceptable targets. Defend the innocent and brutally put down any oppressors she might come across.
It was the mindset of a soldier.
Fitting, really, for she was now a military vessel. It felt…
right.
Just like the rest of her.
Unlike her previous worries she knew it wasn't a case of her becoming Mastered. Her new existence was the blended result of essentially two people. Taylor, and the Odyssey.
Of course her mindset would change. Hell, it had
already changed. She didn't curse this much before even in her own head, and she wasn't really as calculating, or hyper-observant, as now. Taylor felt she was ready for battle at any time, any place, and assured she could win handily.
It was something
beyond confidence. She was entirely certain of herself and her capabilities. They were both hard fact.
Taylor, who hadn't been confident in years,
reveled in the feeling.
Still, she needed to take those capabilities for a full test drive. She had the perfect place to run herself through her paces, too. There really was only one close by area available with the lack of possible collateral damage she required. She needed to develop safeguards for the techniques of… starship girl, name tentative, combat.
Even as much as it pained her ship half, Taylor would have to use the Boat Graveyard to conduct her examinations.
It's not like those old boats were doing anything else anyways. They were probably insane from boredom, pain, and sorrow. If they were alive like she was then she would be putting them out of their misery. If not, it wouldn't matter.
No ship wanted to feel unwanted. That, Taylor was
certain of. Odyssey might not have formed a mind, but her soul was there, and so were her instincts.
Now they were Taylor's instincts. And she would feel hopeless if she wasn't wanted.
The less said about how she had been bullied, and its effects on her self worth as Taylor, the better.
"
Taylor?" Vala spoke into her intercom.
Taylor most certainly did
not jump. She was a professional.
"
Sorry," the ex thief managed to get out over her chuckling and the klanging red alert system Taylor had activated on instinct.
Over in her aft hangar Sam and Cam were startled out of their review of her suspiciously full complement of F-302 Aerospace Superiority Fighters. "
Oddy-" Sam began, before she realized what she was saying. "
Taylor, turn that off!"
Taylor left it on a few more seconds just to needle the scientist.
"
I was thinking. Vala startled me. Sorry Sam, Cam," she apologized over the intercom in her hangar.
Sam waved her off and dug her nose back into the diagnostics. "
This doesn't make any sense…" she mumbled.
Yeah, because becoming a ship from another universe totally
did.
Taylor shook her head and chuckled.
"
No worries Taylor, we're all still getting used to this," Cam reassured her.
Taylor found herself smiling. Hey, an attractive guy was trying to make her feel better. It was nice. So what if that guy was a little smaller than normal and inside her…
The brand new starship girl blushed at the route her thoughts had taken. She shook her head to clear it of anything remotely lewd. "
Thanks, Cam."
"
No problem. We're a team.
Just… with the ship on it too."
He was taking everything remarkably well, Taylor noted. She turned her attention to finding Daniel to apologize to him too… but she found he literally hadn't noticed. He was back in the Asgard Presentation Room and his head might as well have been underwater for all she could to to reach him.
Taylor couldn't help herself. She snorted with amusement at, as Jack O'Neill frequently called him within her hull, her Spacemonkey's antics.
"
Yes, Vala?" she finally asked the original cause of this whole series of mishaps.
Vala but her lip and shifted her eyes around for a few moments. Finally she sighed. "
What does it… feel like?" she asked hesitantly.
Taylor blinked. "
What does what feel like?" she asked in return.
"
Being a ship."
Oh. "
...Oh."
She had to think about that for a little bit. What did being her…
feel like?
Freeing. Amazing. Incredible! Confidence she lacked in her human life was now hers, she was possibly one of the most powerful people on her planet, and she… she just felt
right, in a way she hadn't ever felt before.
"
I dunno, Vala, it's…" she began, tailing off. "
It's hard to describe."
Vala smiled in a knowing way, patting Taylor's hull plate next to the intercom she was using. "
That's okay. I get it." She tried, but the disappointment was evident in her voice.
"
No, no! I'm.. just trying to find a way to express it," Taylor insisted, cutting off Vala's incoming and infamous pout. "
It's… like nothing I've ever felt before. Heh, obviously, but still. I feel… free, and right
, and just so many other things at the same time. I'm confident now. I feel powerful. The thrum of my engines and my reactors flows throughout my body at the same time as I feel my pulse. My shields tickle as they touch and filter the atmosphere. My engines slightly flare every time I take a step. I see beyond anything I ever have, even as I can see the normal world, too. It's… liberating, compared to being human."
Vala nodded, her face brightening up. "
It sounds incredible," she said.
"
It is."
Vala nodded again and deftly caressed Taylor's hull for a moment. "
Thanks for telling me, Taylor," the ex thief said. "
I don't know how long it might take for the others to fully understand this new situation, what with you being our ship and all, but I'm here if you ever need someone to talk to."
That brought warmth flooding through Taylor. She shivered a bit despite it not being cold. Those words… they resonated somewhere deep within her very being.
Our ship.
"
T-Thanks, Vala," Taylor replied, trying to keep the stuttering out of her voice.
"
You're welcome." A final tender pat on her hull and Vala was off down the hallway, presumably to the mess hall to grab something to eat.
Taylor hastily and almost automatically checked her food stores. After over half a century her admittedly quite expansive cargo bays dedicated to food storage were likely almost empty despite how much they normally held.
Wait… what?
They were… full?
That was odd. Taylor distinctly remembered them running out soon, back when she was The Odyssey only.
...On further thought, Taylor hadn't felt hungry at all since she escaped the Locker. She was in there all day, and after 60 years the Odyssey should also be really low on fuel… which apparently equated each other in her new existence, somehow...
So why wasn't she hungry?
A quick check of her Naquadriah storage found it to be completely,
totally full, too.
Okay, this was starting to get weird.
Any weirder than turning into a starship? No, but still weird.
On a hunch, Taylor started checking
everything.
Her Naquadriah generators were nearly full. It seemed like they had only used enough fuel to match the time since she became a ship.
Her ammo magazines for all types of weaponry were full. From the complete stock of every mark of nuclear missile, to the naquadah fuel in the limited Goa'uld weapons she had on board, all the way down to the last gun's internal magazine in her armory,
it was all completely full.
And… so was her ZPM.
What.
Hold up, since when did she have a ZPM on board? The Asgard Neutrino Ion Generators had been used to power the temporal bubble in her home universe. She
knew she wasn't deployed to Orilla with one of that humanity's very tiny supply of very drained Ancient power sources on board, much less a completely full one!
What the fuck!
"
Sam," she spoke up in her hangar, "
I've discovered something… possibly alarming, but mostly just very very weird."
Sam jolted up from her code inspection. "
Yes Taylor? What's wrong?"
"
I have a full, literally full, ZPM plugged in."
Sam stared at the ceiling of her hangar for way longer than she should have.
"
Excuse me?" Cam said.
"
Come again?" Sam asked, at the same time.
Both sounded completely disbelieving.
"
Yeah, I don't believe it either. But that is what my systems tell me," Taylor insisted.
"
Maybe something went wrong in whatever the process that turned you into… you, was," Sam reasoned.
"
I can see inside myself with my sensors, Sam, but I would appreciate you two taking a look," Taylor said. She managed to keep herself from allowing the sudden trembling that had taken over her body from affecting her voice.
Sam pulled her tablet's leads out of the computer core of the Drone 302. "
We're on our way."
"
You've been quiet for too long," Taylor stated. She was worried.
Cam and Sam had entered the auxiliary power source room off Taylor's Main Engineering, took one look at the glowing yellow crystal in its socket, and proceeded to do nothing more than stare at it with disbelief.
"
That's impossible," Sam finally announced.
"
So it's real? " Taylor asked. "
My sensors aren't wrong?"
Can hesitantly, slowly, reached forward. He first poked the ZPM, gently, then tapped it, and finally laid his hand on top. One pat of its head was clearly all he could take, because he pulled his hand back as of it was burnt.
"
Oh yeah," he sarcastically confirmed, "
it's real."
Sam brought a hand to the side of her head and began massaging her temple. Clearly she had a headache from the sheer impossibility. "
And it's full?" she asked Taylor.
"
That's what my power system reports, yes," Taylor agreed.
"
I thought Earth didn't have a full one of these," Cam brought up.
"
We don't… didn't," Sam confirmed. "
And even if we somehow did
, it wouldn't be on the Odyssey."
"
It's not just the ZPM, Sam," Taylor revealed, grimacing.
Sam blinked, looked up at the ceiling, and frowned. "
What do you mean, Taylor?"
"
I'm full. Completely."
Sam furrowed her eyebrows. "
Wha-?"
"
Naquadriah, my reactors, food stores, missiles, railgun ordnance, a full complement of Mark I all the way through Mark IX Naquadah and Naquadriah enhanced fission devices, quite a few Horizon platforms, and at least eight of something my sensors yelled at me as stupidly classified that look suspiciously like your prototype Mark X warheads," Taylor listed off. "
Hell, even my food stores
, the liquid naquadah in the staff weapons, and the fucking last bullet of the last damned gun in my armories are full!"
Sam just stood there, staring at nothing in wide eyed disbelief.
"
Okay," Cam commented, "
even I know that's impossible."
"
I don't think my sensors are at fault Cam," Taylor refuted. "
There's this… you two are gonna think I'm crazy."
Seeing as Sam was still attempting to process Taylor's dump of ludicrous information, Can fielded the conversation. "
Any crazier than turning into a ship from a human?"
Taylor sighed, shaking her head. "
Maybe."
"
Like Sam said earlier, all of us are learning about our new situation. The more we know the better we can figure out what to do," Cam calmly explained.
Taylor breathed in deep. She exhaled, then nodded her head decisively. "
Okay. This is gonna sound insane, but… I feel
full, Cam, Sam."
Cam's eyebrows rose. "
What do you mean?" he asked.
"
Just what I said. I feel full," Taylor repeated. "
I'm not hungry. At all."
Cam blinked. "
...And?"
Taylor huffed with irritation. "
Cam, I was locked in my locker without food, throwing up, for hours. I should be feeling some
kind of hunger."
Cam's eyebrows rose even higher as he realized what she meant. "
Oh. But you don't."
"
But I don't. And it seems like I'm completely full in almost literally every way a ship can be. Fuel, weapons, stocks, auxiliary addons. I even have an extra flight of 302s in my secondary bays."
Realization struck Cam then. "
You think the two are related somehow?"
Taylor nodded. "
It fits. Somehow. Feels accurate to my ship instincts too."
Cam looked back down from the ceiling, then at Sam, and back to the ceiling. "
Ship instincts, huh? Maybe. That's something we'll have to test." He moved a hand in front of Sam's face and waved.
The resident astrophysicist snapped out of her unfocused state so fast that if Taylor wasn't a ship she'd have gotten whiplash. "
Don't do that!" Sam exclaimed, smacking Cam's hand away.
Immediately afterwards she groaned and held her head. "
My head's killing me," she groaned.
Cam frowned while Taylor instantly became worried. He didn't even have to open his mouth.
"
The medbay is also completely stocked. Go."
Cam nodded and put an arm around Sam to support her. "
Come on Sam. Let's get you checked out."
And while the two of them trundled down Taylor's hallways… all she could do was worry.
Thankfully the scans showed nothing wrong with Sam. The stress of so much illogical, worldview defying bullshit finally just made her brain decide it had enough.
Taylor understood the feeling. If she didn't have the confidence and surety of self from her Odyssey half, she'd lose it too.
"
Sorry for the pain, Sam," Taylor apologized.
Sam waved her off with the hand that wasn't holding the ice pack to her head. "
Don't worry about it. None of this is your fault."
Taylor smiled at that. "
Thanks."
"
Not that I'm against discovering a lot more highly interesting things while we sit in the same spot all night," Vala interrupted over the intercom, "
but maybe standing outside the sight of such wanton destruction until some kind of authorities arrive to arrest is for it isn't the brightest of ideas?"
Sam and Cam looked at each other. Cam shrugged and Sam winced.
"
She has a point," Sam admitted.
Cam sighed. "
I know. Taylor, we should get out of here."
Taylor felt like she could be happy no matter where she was or what she was doing as long as she had her crew to talk to, but relented nonetheless. She still had those tests to get to. "
You're right," she grudgingly agreed. "
As much as I don't like the idea of it, you're right, and so is Vala. Moreover I need to figure out how to fight in this new form."
Cam raised his eyebrows. "
Why? Last time I checked, this is Earth. Maybe not our Earth, but a starship is overkill for any domestic problems."
Taylor scoffed. "
Be that as it may, I cannot end up killing those I fight because of it. I need new safeguards. The ones from my ship form ate worthless at my new size."
"
Who could you possibly be fighting?"
"
Enemy capes."
That time it wasn't just Cam who asked. "
What?" Sam asked along with him. "
Capes? Like, superheroes?"
"
And villains," Taylor confirmed.
Sam looked at Can with disbelief. He mirrored her look. After a couple of seconds, Cam cracked a grin and looked at the ceiling once more. "
Nice one, Taylor. You got us. I have to admit, first time I've been pranked by a starship, but you got us."
Taylor remained silent as she walked around, looking for a good spot to lift off from.
Her lack of a response said everything.
Cam's grin evaporated from his face. Sam groaned with defeat, sagged to the medical bed, and just put her hands over her eyes.
"
You've got to be kidding," Cam exclaimed. Almost pleading.
"
Nope," Taylor denied. She looked at the sky and plotted the cloud cover so she could enter into it when she got high enough.
"
Your Earth has SUPERHEROES?!"
"
And supervillains. And Endbringers," Taylor continued to inform them.
Sam's only response was a muted scream of despair.
Can didn't say anything. He just stared at her hull.
Taylor grinned. Her first successful prank on her crew had worked. And age was in the perfect spot to take off with minimal to no evidence of something like a starship having been there in the first place.
The human starship concentrated on engaging her sublight engines just enough to lift off the ground. They happily complied, ticking up to only
two thousandths of a percent engaged.
Taylor's sneakers left the ground. She began to rise into the air above her school, head raised high and chin out. The low, rhythmic thrum of her engines rang out into the night in a comforting drone. On a whim she stuck both her arms forward, fists clenched, and soared into the night sky.
Any whoops of glee she would deny vehemently.
She was the Odyssey. Nobody could ever take that from her. She dared the entire universe to go right ahead and
try.
Not even the Endbringers would be capable of it.
Brockton Bay was pretty at night, from the sky. All the dim lights from the homes of less well off residents to the lofty high rises and businesses closer to the Boardwalk lit up Taylor's sensors like the Fourth of July.
They formed a pattern almost like that of an organism. Thousands of little beacons of hope, collectively warding beck the darkness.
A muffled
boom rippled out through the air around her. Taylor instantly took her attention off the great view and investigated the cause.
Oh.
That was the sound barrier.
She reduced her speed with a sheepish chuckle.
"
Sam, mind making an expected thrust calculations change? I just accidentally'd the sound barrier before I managed to throttle up more than another thousandth. I can't really do that next to other capes, most won't be able to survive."
Another wordless, strangled scream echoed from her medbay.
