THE ASGARD MOTHERSHIP: An advanced, alien warcraft developed by the Asgard.
The vessel symbolizes the pinnacle of their advanced civilization, equipped with technologies
to rival any species in the known universe.
The Asgard fleet was designed and deployed to defend numerous peoples under their protection,
and in so doing to perpetuate the myth of the Asgard as benevolent gods.
The Beliskner-class Asgard mothership was the cornerstone of their advanced fleet late
in the life of the Asgard civilization.
The first Asgard vessel encountered by Stargate Command personnel was the Beliskner itself.
This ship was commanded by Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet,
an ally to Earth and a friend to SG-1.
The name of Thor’s mighty ship fits the legend.
In the Norse mythology adopted by the Asgard, “Bilskirnir” is the great hall
where the god Thor resides.
The name is derived from the Old Norse word for a crack of lightning.
The Asgard appear to have taken the human mythology entirely to heart in their culture
and technology – or, perhaps the mythology originated from Asgard visits to Earth millennia ago.
In its design the Beliskner-class mothership itself bears the shape of a hammer.
This profile can been from the dorsal side of the ship, which is visible to the population
of a planet when the ship moves into low orbit.
Therefore the mere appearance of an Asgard ship in the sky reinforces the myth of the
Asgard as benevolent gods to those whom they protect, while striking fear into the heart
of their enemies.
Asgard ships systems are controlled by advanced computers, with intuitive interface panels
throughout the different parts of the ship, including the engine room
and the cavernous main bridge.
The computer system holds a vast database and also enables a remarkable ease of operations
for most ship systems, including communications, matter-energy transporters, internal and external
sensors, and a dedicated navigational computer.
Many elements of ship operations can be maintained by automation,
or by a small crew or even a single occupant, at least for the short term.
This includes a fully automated medical system.
The Beliskner-class mothership is powered by four neutrino ion generators,
each capable of outputting a maximum of one billion kilojoules.
Two thrusters at the rear of the vessel control forward propulsion.
Like Goa’uld- and human-made vessels the ships can utilize hyperspace channels
for faster-than-light flight.
But when the drives are operating at full power Asgard motherships can travel much faster
than normal hyperspace engines.
This allows them to cross an entire galaxy in mere minutes,
making use of a form of hyperspeed travel that is unknown to less developed races.
During this operation power is limited to the rest of the ship, as the generators require
full power in order for the ship’s engines to generate the subspace field
required to travel at hyperspeed.
As a result, ships traveling at hyperspeed cannot simultaneously maintain active shields
or weapons.
Ships are also unable to maintain active shields during transit through hyperspace.
Motherships are also capable of entering the atmosphere of a planet
in order to conduct low-altitude operations, or to land on the surface.
This requires the functioning of the deceleration drive, an important component
that controls entry into the atmosphere.
Without it, a ship entering the atmosphere of a planet would burn up and be destroyed.
Asgard technology is capable of matter-energy conversion.
This is utilized in rapid manufacturing of tools and parts, and also for rapid transit
from place to place.
Ship sensors and advanced targeting scanners pinpoint persons or objects from a great distance.
Utilizing a high-energy pulse, the Asgard molecular transportation device can then transfer
them in moments from one part of the ship to another, between ships,
or between a ship and a planet’s surface.
Transporter arrays are strategically distributed in zones around the ship’s exterior,
and presumably inside the ship as well.
This rapid and low-effort transit is particularly useful to the Asgard crew, whose bodies are
small and relatively frail after millennia of physiological degeneration due to repeated cloning.
Asgard motherships are fully armed with advanced energy weapons, able to defend themselves
and their allies from most threats.
Main weapons fire takes the form of contained energy pulses – blue in appearance, a volley
of which is usually sufficient to disable or destroy an enemy vessel at a level of technology
such as that of the Goa’uld.
The Asgard also developed a high-intensity cutting beam.
This beam is white in appearance and can be sustained for several seconds,
destroying a target or rapidly draining enemy shields.
These weapons would require much more power for the ship to maintain over a longer discharge.
Though they were shared with Earth-made vessels, the cutting beam is not known to have been
in operation on board Asgard motherships themselves.
The mothership’s matter conversion technology can also be used as an offensive weapon.
When the mothership moves within close proximity, enemy targets even as large as a ship or other
structure can be systematically dematerialized.
This quickly neutralizes a potential threat.
Asgard motherships have sophisticated stealth technology, able to conceal them from scanners.
To protect the ship and its crew from enemy fire or other interstellar hazards,
they are also equipped with advanced energy forcefields.
This field sits several meters away from the surface of the exterior hull,
and can effectively absorb fire from most known energy weapons.
In case of a hull breach, the shields can also be modulated to prevent atmospheric decompression.
Self-defense systems also protect the ship from being destroyed from the inside.
All Asgard ships are equipped with internal dampening fields,
which automatically activate in the event of an interior explosion.
Finally, Asgard motherships are equipped with external emitters for generating an energy bond,
allowing them to safely and rapidly tow another vessel through space.
Towing another vessel does remove the option of hyperspeed – now requiring several hours
to travel from Earth to the Asgard home galaxy by hyperspace routes.
Thor’s own ship, the Beliskner, was deliberately destroyed in Earth’s atmosphere
after it was infested by Replicators.
SG-1 destroyed the ship’s deceleration drive, causing the vessel to burn up on entry and
crash into the Pacific Ocean – a huge fireball 400 miles off the coast of California.
The Beliskner-class line would be followed by other, more advanced Asgard ships equipped
with their most advanced technologies.
Following the destruction of the Beliskner, Thor himself commanded a new ship
with a similar hammerhead profile.
This ship was lost in combat with the Goa’uld Osiris, who took advantage of more advanced
weapons technology procured by the System Lord Anubis.
A new class of advanced Asgard warships began with the vessel christened the "O’Neill,"
after the human commander of SG-1.
It was the most advanced attack vessel developed by the Asgard at that time, with a hull composed
of a new trinium, naquadah, and carbon alloy ... making it a prime target for consumption
and assimilation by the Replicators.
While still incomplete the O’Neill was sent on auto-pilot into hyperspeed and,
when the enemy ships gave chase, its self-destruct was activated.
The O’Neill was destroyed, taking out the enemy with it –
and sending Asgard engineers back to the drawing board.
(The Asgard would also name a ship the Daniel Jackson, after another member of the SG-1 team.
This, however, was a smaller science vessel and not a mothership.)
Newer Asgard motherships appeared to follow the design of the O’Neill,
distinguished by a more sleek arrowhead silhouette and pronounced weapons systems.
This is the class of ship Thor commanded when he recruited SG-1 and the Earth ship Prometheus
to travel to the Asgard homeworld to attempt to stop the Replicators.
A detachment of these ships also engaged in the later conflict with the Replicators under
the command of the Asgard Aegir and his flagship, the Valhalla.
Two years later, the Asgard also committed a handful of their ships to the Milky Way
coalition in a failed stand against an Ori incursion at the Supergate.
Here not even the advanced warships of the Asgard could stand up to the enemy fleet.
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