The Unknown Regions

Chapter 1

Stargate Command, Earth. 23rd April 2010.

The very early morning at the SGC was the preserve of only a few people. Aside from the Marines and the night watch, there was an excellent chance of finding Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter buried in their offices, surrounded by computers, manuscripts, and the mandatory cups of coffee, working to decipher the secrets of the universe. It had been that way for thirteen years, and for Daniel, it felt like it would go on for the rest of his life.

That night was no different. Daniel's work since Disclosure (fifteen months previously) had focused on reconstructing the movements of the Lanteans who had returned to Earth from Atlantis.

Daniel was so engrossed in the book he was studying that he didn't notice a new presence in the room until he was tapped on the shoulder.

"Hey," Carter said. "How's it going?" Daniel slid his glasses back on and sighed slightly.

"Considering that records from that time are almost non-existent, rather well," he said. "In 8000BCE, the Stargate was in the Antarctic outpost. Obviously, the outpost couldn't support several thousand Lanteans, so they spread out across the planet and lived in settlements away from human tribes,"

"We know they had some influence on the Romans and possibly the Greeks as well," Carter said.

"Yeah, but that was thousands of years later," Daniel said, yawning slightly and pulling out a world map covered with small red dots and arrows from under the stack of documents. "I've traced the movements of twelve groups of Ancients. They had varying influences on almost all of the early civilizations, right up until Ra and the Goa'uld arrived and took control of the planet. After that, almost all records of the Ancients on Earth disappear,"

"Almost all?" Carter asked.

"Eleven of the twelve groups of Ancients were hunted down by the Goa'uld and destroyed," Daniel said. "Most of this information comes from records kept by Ra and a few other System Lords, but the really interesting stuff is in Merlin's library,"

"Ancient records likely to be more reliable than Goa'uld records, right?" Sam said, smiling.

"Yeah, you could say that. SG-11 found this book," Daniel indicated the book lying open on the table. Interestingly, the corners had been cut off. "in Merlin's lab last month, and it's fascinating. It doesn't look like Merlin himself wrote it,"

"Morgan Le Fay was Merlin's watchman, think it was her?"

"Well, she was a schoolteacher back on Atlantis," Daniel admitted. "But this is quite florid. It reads almost like a religious text and historical record rolled into one,"

Carter moved around the desk and sat down on the other side, frowning.

"The Ancients of this galaxy certainly weren't keen on religion," she said. "Think they went dowm the Asgard route of using religion to help develop a civilisation?"

Daniel looked up, and closed the book.

"They might have done. Although from what I've looked at so far, it doesn't seem to have been written with the people of this planet in mind," he said, opening it to the first page. "It says that 'Life here began out there', for example,"

"Sounds like quite a puzzle," Sam commented, smiling. "What do you think?"

Daniel half-shrugged.

"I'm fairly sure that this twelfth group of Lanteans left the planet," he said, standing up and starting to pace, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "They simply disappear from the face of the Earth, probably to get away from Goa'uld influence, but the question is-"

"Where'd they go?"

"Exactly,"

Battlestar Galactica, Deep Space, approx. 2 light-years from New Caprica. Fifth day of Cylon occupation.

"You're not listening to me, Commander," Admiral Adama said wearily, looking across to the CO of Pegasus. Both Adamas were slumped in sofas in the Admiral's quarters. "We need to establish contact with the surface before pulling off any stunts like that,"

"Dad, we need to do something," Lee protested.

"What can we do?" the Admiral asked rhetorically, gazing at the drink in his hand before looking up at his son. "Let's say a basestar shows up five minutes after you get back to Pegasus. How long would it take you to get to battle stations? The last big operations we undertook were the Resurrection ship and the Guardian basestar attacks,"

"True, but we need something, anything to increase morale,"

"Simply getting a message through to the people on that frakking planet would do wonders for morale," Adama (senior) noted. "Racetrack and Skulls took the first rotation, and reported heavy jamming. I've got Helo working on it, but he thinks that the problem is on the other end,"

Lee nodded pensively. "You can bet your ass that Starbuck, Tigh and Anders will be up to something," he said, leaving the 'if they're still alive' unsaid.

"Hm," the Admiral said absently. "We need to get our pilots' heads back in the game. Who's senior pilot?"

"Lieutenant Case," Lee said. "We've got more Vipers than pilots at present, which is a novelty,"

Both men chuckled slightly.

"I'll brevet her and Dualla up to Captain," the Admiral said. "I'm going to set up twice-weekly senior staff meetings of both ships. First one is tomorrow. Bring Dee and Showboat with you,"

"Yes, sir," Lee stood up, preparing to leave.

"Commander," Adama said, fixing his son with an intent gaze. "I need you to be in the game as well. I need Apollo back, the guy who saved the Pegasus from a major clusterfrak when Garner screwed up, the guy who flew his Viper though a Cylon tunnel and almost single-handedly scored a major victory. Remember him?"

"Vaguely, sir," Lee said with a small smile as he stepped out of the hatch.

"We're going to need to do better than that, son," Adama said quietly to himself, taking his glasses off and placing them on the desk. "or we're all frakked,"

New Caprica City

Just as the meeting aboard Galactica was finishing, another was starting. Tyrol, Cally, Anders and a small collection of others were gathered in one of the thousands of scattered tents that made up New Caprica City.

"They're overdue," Tyrol observed as he ducked into the tent. "How you doin', Sam," he asked the man sitting in the only seat.

"Ready to kick ass," the pyramid player-turned-resistance fighter said with a small cough. "Kara stole the medicine from Baltar's stores right before she disappeared. Any word on her?"

"That Leoben that barged in on you, he caught up with her about a half-hour after she brought the medicine back," Tyrol said quietly. "Lords only know where she is now. Probably in that compound that the toasters are putting up-"

"Oh my gods!" Tyrol was interrupted by the arrival of Ellen. "Have any of you seen Saul?"

"No, we haven't" Galen said, voice laced with worry. Of course the toasters would start picking people up, he thought. "Where did you last see him?"

"He went to speak with Roslin," Ellen lamented, a touch melodramatically.

"Chances are Roslin was picked up as well," Tyrol noted. "The XO of the Galactica and the former President of the Colonies are the first people they'd want to talk to. Sadly, there's nothing we can do for them at the moment," he said lowly. "Now, I'm no particular expert on running an insurgency, but thankfully we have someone here who is,"

Every eye turned to Anders, who coughed self-consciously.

"We're gonna start building up caches of weapons and explosives, real quietly," he said. "As much of our activity as possible will be camouflaged behind the activities of the union and the ex-military personnel from Galactica and Pegasus. While that's going on, we're going to be gathering as much intel as possible on the Cylons. They seem to be using Baltar's administration as a smokescreen for most of what they're doing, so much of the government has been left untouched. This gives us a way in,"

Tyrol took up the narrative.

"We either need to get a man on the inside or turn somebody who's already there," he said. "Some of my guys are putting out feelers for a number of people, but neither approach is going to be quick. We especially need intel on who the unknown skin-jobs are, so that's another of our priorities,"

"Let's not be under any illusion as to this. Barring any intervention from the Fleet, this is a long-term exercise. We were on Caprica for months and months and made relatively little impact," Anders said. "Good thing is, we've got more people here and also we can hide in the civilian population,"

"We're planning our first operation right now," Tyrol said, unfolding a hand-drawn map on the table. "We're going to try and blow up one of the watchtowers near the market-"

"This is all great," Ellen interjected, "but what about trying to contact the Fleet?"

Tyrol, Anders and Cally shared glances.

"I managed to strip a wireless out of a Raptor and hide it before they got to it," Cally said. "We can't make contact yet, the toasters are jamming the transmissions,"

"What can we do about that?" Barolay asked. Nobody asked where the wireless was hidden. It was safer not to know certain things.

"For the moment, nothing," the Chief said, "which makes getting an inside man even more important. We need to get hold of as much intel as we can. Ship deployments, troop strengths, fleet strength and gods willing, maybe even the jamming frequencies that they're using,"

"It's early days. Right now, we need to organise," Anders said. "We all live in different areas of the city, so find out who's willing to actively join us and who isn't. Any questions?"

Sam was met by a chorus of shaking heads.

"Alright. When it's time for the next meeting, we'll contact you," the Chief said. "Stick to your daily routine and don't contact either me or Anders unless you would've anyway, or if it's a big frakking emergency,"

"OK, we're done. Get out of here people, and don't draw attention to yourselves," Sam said, shooing the gathering away.

–

OK, first chapter. Comments welcome.

The SG part of this is already an AU, based around the Stargate program going public at the end of Enemy at the Gate, which is depicted in my other story 'Bandits Approaching the Entrance'.