h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*This is a large room full of samples in storage, petrographic scopes, and equipment for making thin sections, peels, and the like.*

*Scandrea walks in, antelope in tow, and gets to work at making a thin section of the samples she had been given with an incredibly noisy machine. She's surprised at how difficult it is to cut the rock against fabric.*

*Enter's*

Scan, I'm sorry I upset you, but we can't keep him here, it's not fair on him, I won't send him back to the moon either, cos you can bet the Jaffa aren't members of the RSPCA either, what about a sanctuary somewhere?

*It takes a few minutes before Scandrea realizes Reef is even in the room over the noise of the machinery. She shuts one machine off and goes to another, polishing the surface of the cut rock.*

It's not just that, ma'am- how many planets have we lost just since I've /been/ here?

I don't know

Scan there were 8 of us on that planet and 3 squadrons of jaffa, the odds were against us from the start, so you what would you have me do, sacrifice SG-3 and SG-6 in a futile heroic gesture, we came back here to re group, re arm and come up with a plan that doesn't include explosives, you were the one who said we couldn't blow the mines

It's been nine- for one reason or another, we've lost nine planets to the Goa'uld.

I don't want anyone to die, but there had to have been something you could do that didn't involve blowing the mines!

*Scandrea isn't paying attention and pays for it when she nicks her knuckle on the grinding wheel.*



*She shuts the machine off and goes for the first aid kit hanging on the wall.*

*Beats Scan to the first aid kit*

Come on, sit down and let me deal with it

One of the reasons I came back is to let Atum think he's won he won't be expecting us to strike from the air, now we've finally capable of interstellar travel and we have the Daedalus at our disposal, we can face Atum on our terms, but I need you to tell me about that mineral, what weaknesses it has and how we can put a spanner in Atums works

*Looks at the Antelope and grins*

For a little fella you can certainly turn a big place upside down

I'll need to do my job, first. I'm back on active duty, according to Kat.

*finishes patching her up*

I wouldn't expect anything less from you Scan, don't work too hard, I need to get some crew together for our mission to the Moon

*Put's her hand out so the Antelope can sniff it*

Do you want to go home my little friend? it's a shame you can't tell us what to do to safeguard your home

Actually, I wouldn't put it past it!

*Starts up the machinery again.*

Hmm, clever little thing are you?, well you've landed on your feet here

*Yells*

let me know what you've got when you get it, don't blow him and yourself up will you

*Yells*

This really shouldn't hurt anything!

*Suddenly, the grinding wheel hits a crystal and starts making a nails-on-chalkboard noise. Scandrea shuts it off, but the damage is already done. There is a giant groove around the center of the wheel.*

I don't believe it... that wheel was diamond dust! You can't get any harder than that!

*She stares at the sample in her hand, the crystal glinting in the fluorescent light.*

*Winces at the noise*

I take it that's not good

*Sighs*

Well, it means that it's not what I thought. I'm going to need some time to look at this, but I think I gave you some bad advice earlier.

Oh, what's wrong?

Well, naquedah is a heavy element, meaning that gravity plays a significant role in its crystal structure on most planets. Here, gravity isn't strong enough to play a role while its forming, giving it the freedom to take a different shape- actually, this is a sort of naquedah-carbon compound as far as I can tell, but I digress. This crystal structure is very similar to diamonds, in that it transfers energy very well... and...

*Notices the blank look on the Colonel's face.*

...it won't blow up as easily as the normal naquedah.

*Groans*

Oy, so you're telling me we could have blown up the mines

*Looks confused*

So it's somekind of Diamond Naqadah, so it's harder than normal naqadah but not as explosive, so you could use it to make, say a weapon, that would be very difficult to destroy

Yeah- particularly some sort of space-based weapon. Consistent with everything I remember so far.

Any idea what would happen if say a naqada bomb was dropped on the mine?

I'll have to think about that one- I think these interior crystals are what Atum is after, but I have to make sure I know what the matrix is first.