A/N: Alright, this is just an alternate version of my original story for those that are not Sam/Jack shippers. I had an anonymous comment from 'Adam' for the sequel that said 'Interesting. It would be more interesting if it wasn't going to be a romance. You're a pretty good writer - can't you write something besides a Sam/Jack romance?' - So I have decided to also post versions of my stories that will not have any Sam/Jack ship, just friendship like they have with the rest of the team. I will make the 'ship-free' versions only after I have finished the original (shippy) version so as to not accidentally omit a part that is still needed for the storyline to continue.

These first chapters are almost identical to the original story since it did take me a little while to even get to the S/J scenes - the only changes are a few grammatical corrections and a few sentences that were deleted at the end of chapter 3. Chapters 6-10 will be posted shortly and are also the ones where most of the changes have to be made. This story will still have the Daniel/Vala ship that was in the episode, but nothing more that that. For everyone that is not a S/J shipper, this is for you and I hope you enjoy the re-write!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 1 - Introduction

The secretary was having a hard time suppressing her laugh while maintaining her focus on the work that had to get done. It never cease to amaze her that in the year since she started this job that as often as he came here, that he never once seemed comfortable or relaxed. Sure, she had come to expect that a lot, if not most, of the people whose name were in the appointment book in front of her were nervous and /or anxious, the behaviors she typically noticed were sitting on the edge of the seat, eyes quickly and constantly moving about the room, and just generally being jumpy and on edge, but with him it was different.

When he came in he simply nodded at her and then took a seat in the corner pulling himself all the way back in the chair, almost like he was trying to avoid being noticed by anyone else. Then like clockwork, within fifteen seconds he would start pulling at his collar and tie and then after another minute move on to subtle pulls at the sleeves of his jacket and shirt. Perhaps the one thing that puzzled her most about his behavior was that, not only was he in the military, but he was a two-star General!

She just couldn't help but wonder how someone who worked their way through the Air Force, held a job at the Pentagon, and came by her desk to go into the next office at least once a week could appear so uncomfortable in Class A Dress Blues and yet be so calm, almost bored, in these surroundings that still made her on edge at times. Unable to come up with any reason, she decided it was time to turn her attention back to the task at hand, when out of the corner of her eye she saw him adjust his tie, again, and a little giggle slipped past her lips. Expecting him to ignore that like he seemed to ignore almost everything else, she was surprised to see him look up with a strange, yet quite peaceful look on his face. Before she could think about it further, the intercom on her phone buzzed and a voice said, "You can send him in now."

Standing up, she said, "General O'Neill, the President will see you now."

Suddenly remembering where he was, Jack stood up and managed to say, "uh, Thanks!" as he started walking towards the Oval Office. Those few steps gave him the chance to remember why he was here in the first place; this was the weekly briefing he gave the President on all matters relating to Homeworld Security, namely the Stargate program.

Jack opened the door to the Oval Office to see the President coming around from the back of his desk.

"Good afternoon Mr. President," Jack said as he shut the door behind him.

"Hello Jack, what's new this week?" he responded.

"It's actually been a rather slow week Sir, it shouldn't take me that long …" As the President turned to sit down there was a flash of white light and Jack was gone.

"… to bring you up to date," Jack finished from the bridge of an Asgard ship.

"Greetings O'Neill!" a familiar voice said.

"Thor, buddy! Doesn't appear you've lost your sense of timing. So what's going on this time?"

"I have come on a matter of great importance, The Asgard High Council wishes to meet with you."

"Well I have to say that I'm a little surprised to hear that. It's great to see you and everything but it's been so long since we have heard from you that …"

"I apologize for interrupting O'Neill, but time is limited and it is imperative that we depart for Orilla as soon as possible."

"Orilla? Wait, the Asgard home world? What's going on here Thor?"

"I'm sorry, but there is no time to explain. You, SG-1, General Landry and the Odyssey need to return with me. All will be explained upon your arrival."

To say that they were shocked was an understatement, none of them had a clue what they expected to hear when they met with the High Council, but what they had just heard left them all utterly speechless.

~A few minutes before~

"As we speak there are several Asgard beaming aboard your ship to install some upgrades," Thor announced.

"What exactly is it that you are giving us?" Daniel asked.

"Everything we have and know. All our most current technology, all our knowledge," he simply replied.

"You have always been so resistant in the past, saying that we weren't ready, what's changed?" Carter asked.

"While there are still many Asgard that believe that, the simple fact is that our latest attempt to solve our physiological degeneration left all Asgard with a rapidly progressing disease. As a race we are dying, very soon we will all be gone."

When Thor finished that last statement, no one was able to manage any kind of response; they all just stood there trying to process what had just been said. It took them all a little while to get over the shock of what they had just heard. While they all merely continued to just stand there, the Asgard went over their plans and their motivations behind them. When it came down to it, the Asgard were going to destroy themselves before the disease advanced too far to keep their knowledge and technology from falling into the wrong hands. Their ultimate legacy was passing it on to the humans from Earth, the fifth race of an alliance, an alliance formed long ago over many millennia by four great races in the galaxy: the Asgard, the Nox, the Furlings, and the Ancients.

Chapter 2 – Unexpected Company

The Asgard were in the process of finishing the updates and installations on the Odyssey and were beaming off when their work was complete. Colonel Carter and Thor were in the control room for the new Asgard core going over the integration of the systems with the new technology. As Thor was finishing up his explanation, three Ori mother ships dropped out of hyperspace and the ship's sensors showed them heading towards the planet. With that revelation Sam said good-bye to Thor and he, along with the remaining Asgard, disembarked the ship. As the Odyssey proceeded to leave, they detected a buildup of energy coming from the planet; just after they enter hyperspace Orilla exploded leaving the Odyssey and her crew with the entire legacy of the Asgard race.

A short while later the ship dropped out so that Carter could run some diagnostics on the ship's systems. Before she had the chance to even start, a couple of Ori mother ships dropped out of hyperspace right behind them and start attacking forcing them to resume hyperspace.

After the same thing happened again when they dropped out it became pretty obvious that the new Asgard technology was giving off some sort of unique energy signature that was detectable from subspace thus allowing the Ori to track them. In order to temporarily fix the problem the Asgard core needed to be isolated from the hyper-drive controls, a process that would take about thirty minutes, which was unfortunately about twenty-nine and a half minutes too long.

To reduce any potential loss of life, O'Neill has Carter locate a nearby Stargate so that the crew may beam down to the planet and then proceed home, while himself, General Landry, and SG-1 remained aboard to try and come up with a way of saving the Legacy that the Asgard left with them.

As the last of the crew was beamed down to P3X-474 the two Ori ships showed up and opened fire on the Odyssey. The new Asgard energy weapons were quickly able to take out one of the Ori ships, but unfortunately at the same time the second ship managed to bring down what was left of the shield around their ship. As the remaining Ori ship fired what would be the fatal blast Carter activated a time-dilation field that places the ship in a bubble outside of normal time and space where years could pass for them while only fractions of a second would pass for anyone on the outside.

The plan that Carter had come up with was to recreate some of Merlin's out-of-phase technology from scratch from what they had on board so that they could take themselves and the ship out of phase and then simply let the blast from the Ori ship harmlessly pass through them. The only down side to the plan was that it would take a while to make the technology from scratch, but fortunately they had a three-month supply of food and water on board that could be rationed to last for longer if needed.

All things considered the first couple of weeks went by rather smoothly.

Cam dedicated a lot of his time to jogging through the corridors of the ship and the occasional training session with Teal'c.

Daniel immersed himself in the Asgard knowledge base wanting to learn as much as he could as fast as he could, all the while flatly resisting Vala's attempts at seducing him.

General Landry found that this was the perfect opportunity to read reports that had been backing up for longer than he cared to remember along with all of the paper work that accompanied them.

Carter immediately set about learning about the added capabilities that were available to her from the new Asgard core in order to proceed with her plan.

As for O'Neill, he decided that he was long overdue for a vacation from Washington D.C. and couldn't think of a better way to start it than with a DVD marathon of his favorite T.V. show, The Simpson's. It was times like these that he was glad he decided to invest in a second set of the DVD's to carry with him at all times. After all, with his past experiences of hurrying up to save to world, galaxy, universe, whatever (it happened so often that it was starting to blend together) only to have to wait to get to the point where there was actually something to do, he knew that it was bound to come in handy one day as patience was something that he had never been able to pick up.

At the end of the second week the in the time-dilation field, Carter had the unfortunate job of informing everyone else that there was no way for her plan to be successful. She had to tell them that is was not possible to take the ship out of phase while the field was still active and that there wouldn't be enough to do it afterwards, the blast from the Ori ship would reach them before they could take themselves out-of-phase.

Chapter 3 – The First Year

Carter had just finished delivering the bad news. Not only was their first plan not going to work, but also neither of their back-up plans would work either. Plan B was to beam down to the planet and gate home from there and plan C was to use the 302's to fly away from the Odyssey. Neither of the plans would allow them to save the Asgard core that contained all their knowledge, but that didn't matter because neither option allowed them enough time to escape the blast wave that would come from the ship. The only reaction that Carter received was stares of disbelief.

After giving everyone a moment to take in what she just said, Carter had one last piece of information to deliver.

With a decidedly more up-beat tone in her voice Carter said, "But hey, on the bright side I can modify the beaming technology with the matter converter so that we can literally manufacture whatever we need so we don't have to worry about running out of food and water…"

"So let me get this straight Carter," O'Neill interrupted "we are stuck here for god-only-knows long, possibly never able to get off and being able to manufacture food and water is supposed to make us what… excited?! Don't get me wrong it's nice to know we won't have to worry about running out of the essentials, like cake, jello, and coffee, but the two just don't balance out."

Without anyone saying another word, the meeting broke up and everyone went their separate ways.

The initial shock of their situation wore off after a couple of days, and within a week everyone had settled back in to the routine that they had established in the first week they were in the time dilation field; that this was an extended vacation that should be enjoyed, well at least in the way that they would normally enjoy a vacation.

Cam and Teal'c continued working out and training together.

Daniel dove right back into learning everything he could from the Asgard knowledge base, with Vala still pursuing him relentlessly.

With all of his paperwork caught up, Landry started tending to some plants on board.

Carter went back to working on trying to come up with a solution to the problem that they were in, a challenge that she would have enjoyed if not for the dire consequences that they all faced.

O'Neill resumed his Simpson's marathon and figured that if he was going to be here for a while that he should at least be comfortable, so he used the matter converter to create a nice, comfortable recliner for himself. If anyone asked about it he would just tell them that it was for his knees, an excuse which almost always worked without raising suspicion.

Around the start of the fourth month things started getting a little interesting on the Odyssey. Within a matter of days, the atmosphere on board completely changed.

The first major change came when during breakfast one morning Daniel and Vala were joking around and openly flirting with one another. Up until this point Vala had been constantly pestering Daniel about one thing or another while he pretended to be going over some information from the Asgard core, trying his best to ignore what was being said.

Teal'c finally spoke up and simply asked, "Dr. Jackson, what has changed between yourself and Vala Mal Doran?"

Daniel turned to look at Teal'c unable to say anything, while Vala started mumbling incoherently.

Letting out a little laugh, O'Neill interrupted and said, "T, isn't it obvious, they are seeing each other."

Teal'c only response was to raise one eyebrow.

"You know T, seeing each other as in sleeping together," O'Neill managed to say with a relatively straight face.

A moment of silence followed his comment, when Daniel finally asked, "Is it that obvious?" not seeing any point in trying to deny what had just been said.

At that point everyone turned to face them and simply gave a little nod saying that it was.

The next day O'Neill stopped by the room that had essentially become the equivalent of Carter's lab at the SGC. As he entered he said, "So whatcha doin'?"

Carter didn't even look up and said, "The same thing as yesterday, trying to figure a way out of this mess, Sir," grateful that unlike her lab on the base that there wasn't anything for him to pick up and fiddle with here. "Is there something I can do for you Sir?" she asked hoping that she might be able to get him out of here quickly.

"Well, actually I was hoping that you might use the matter converter to make a few bottles of beer," O'Neill said trying not to sound too desperate.

"I'm sorry Sir, but you know as well as I that alcohol is not allowed on board," Carter replied intentionally avoiding making any kind of eye contact, she really just wasn't in the mood for this today.

O'Neill then said, "Me no function beer well without."

"If you make one more reference to The Simpson's I'm going to have to have Teal'c destroy your DVD's," she said with a deadly serious tone in her voice.

"Come on, I'm just trying to…" but Carter cut him off before he could finish.

"Sir, we are all sick and tired of you going around the ship quoting The Simpson's all day. It never ends, ever since you finished your marathon you have been throwing out quotes left and right. Yesterday it was something like 'you've tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is never try.' Now do you really think that that is going to help me to figure out a way out of this mess," Carter said almost yelling.

Seeing that his last comment had been the proverbial straw, O'Neill decided that he should leave before she had Teal'c follow through with her threat.

On the way back to his quarters O'Neill passed by Cam's and heard a lot of noise followed by a loud crashing sound. It was pretty clear that he had finally had enough of being cramped up on this ship and was quite literally blowing of some steam.

The next few days showed a noticeable rise in the tension between everyone evidenced by the strange lack of conversation during meal times. Finally one day the silence was broken when Vala said, "So Sam, would you like some extra help in your lab?"

After thinking it over for a second Sam happily replied, "You know Vala that would be great. Two heads are better than one and I've been looking at the same data for so long that another perspective might just be what I need."

After that the mood on the Odyssey lightened up quite a bit. The only ones that seemed to be enduring the situation well were General Landry and Teal'c, which seeing as how they are the only ones that are able to actually sit back, relax, and not do much of anything, it wasn't all that surprising.

That night after everyone had gone to bed, O'Neill snuck into Carter's lab to use the matter converter. He didn't want anyone else to find out about his hobby, Teal'c was the only other person that knew about it and seeing as how he hadn't told anyone about it in the six years since he picked it up, there was no reason that he would now. It only took a minute for O'Neill to manipulate the controls before a potter's wheel, clay, paint, glaze, and a few other small supplies appeared in front of him. After seeing the effects that his Simpson's marathon, and subsequent related commentary, was having on everyone else on board he decided that finding another way to occupy his time would help him avoiding being the first one to test the Asgard healing pods that had just recently been installed, so he figured that there was no better time than the present to get back into 'throwing'.

O'Neill would have to make at least one more trip back here to get a kiln, but in the mean time he headed to the one part of the ship that no one would ever think to look for him in, his office. Since he never used it the only things in there were a chair and desk with his name on it, which meant there was plenty of room for the new additions. After a couple of more trips to Carter's lab to use the matter converter, O'Neill had a decent sized kiln, more clay, storage containers to keep the clay moist, and some shelves for finished work. By the time he got everything back to his office and set up, it was time to call it a night and get some sleep.

The next day O'Neill was able to slip away after breakfast without be noticed and aimlessly wondered around the corridors of the ship eventually ending up at his office. After changing into an older pair of BDUs, to keep anything from getting on his other clothes and subsequently having questions asked about what he was doing, nope definitely wasn't going to take any chances, he got to work.

Ever since he took the job in D.C., O'Neill hadn't had much time for 'throwing', 'stupid, annoying paperwork' he thought, it was a lot harder to avoid it when you were 'the man'. The few hours between breakfast and lunch he spent relearning everything that he had forgot by not being able to practice that much over the last few years, and fortunately the learning curve was much quicker this time around.

After changing back into his other clothes, O'Neill began to make his way back for lunch. As he gradually went in that direction, he decided that this was the perfect time of day to get away and that when he did it again tomorrow he would try to make a pot and then slowly work his way up to more difficult items and designs.

It took about a week for O'Neill to settle into routine of having breakfast, 'throwing', lunch and from then until dinner he would check and see how everybody else was and what they were up to, careful to avoid any Simpson's related comments.

Carter wasn't quite sure what had changed, but whatever it was she, and everybody else, were extremely grateful for it. For the past month O'Neill had not made one comment about The Simpson's, and she was finally relaxed around him again, well as relaxed as anyone can be around a CO that was a couple notches higher in their chain of command. When he walked into her lab later that afternoon, it was just like the old days.

While walking through the doorway O'Neill said, "So whatcha doin'?"

Before Carter even had the chance to respond, Vala stepped in and simply said, "We are trying to find alternate ways to get out of this situation that don't end with our deaths."

"Yea, the whole dying thing gets kind of old after you already died a few times." He then just stood there for a minute thinking something over, while Carter and Vala stared at him, hoping and praying that he wasn't trying to think of a line from the Simpson's that would fit into their current conversation. He then suddenly spoke up and offhandedly said, "Wouldn't it just be great if we could go back in time and stop ourselves from ever getting in this mess in the first place," like it was the simplest thing in the world to do.

"I'm sorry Sir, but that just isn't possible, slowing down time within a localized field is not even close to the same thing as reversing time altogether… but it was a good idea," Carter said, somewhat disappointed that they couldn't.

After O'Neill and Vala left a little while later, Carter decided it was time she had a hobby, other than doing extra work, and figured there was no time like the present to start learning how to play the cello. It was something she had wanted to learn for more years than she wanted to count, but there had always been something else going on. The conversations from earlier had been playing over and over again in her head for a while now and it forced her to accept that this was one problem that she couldn't will herself to find a solution to. From previous experience she knew that if she kept at this pace for much longer that she would get burned out in the next couple of weeks and then not be of any use to anyone for quite some time after that.

The following day Carter did something that was completely out of character for her: she voluntarily took a day off from work. She had been spending so much of her time cooped up in her lab that she had no idea what everyone else on board was doing and wanted to find out.

Not surprisingly Daniel was going over the vast amounts of information that were contained in the Asgard core, and enjoying every moment of it. When he wasn't doing that he was with Vala, and their interactions together were so cute, she thought. They had only been together for a short while and were already acting like an old married couple.

Vala had calmed down quite a bit and had taken to roller skating through the corridors of the ship, and had pretty much stopped entertaining herself at the expense of the others on board.

General Landry had turned a few connecting rooms close to his quarters into a greenhouse. Since he couldn't do any bird watching on a ship stuck in a time dilation field in outer space, this was as close as he could get to enjoy the outdoors he loved so much. Not only that but he was getting tired of the oxygen being produced by the matter converter, it just wasn't right: oxygen was supposed to come from plant life not from an alien machine, there were some things you simply couldn't program machines to understand.

Teal'c and Cam had continued training with each other. When they weren't doing that Teal'c had taken to playing ping-pong by himself, and was getting really good at it. Cam on the other hand did a lot of running, and played the occasional game of chess with General Landry or General O'Neill.

Carter could not for the life of her figure out what General O'Neill was up to. He would disappear after breakfast and not show up again until lunchtime and nobody had a clue where he had been going or what he had been doing. She had even tried to follow him once but found it impossible to keep up with him. There was already one mystery Carter couldn't solve and the prospect of adding another to that, especially one that involved General O'Neill, was something she wanted to avoid if at all possible. But no matter what she did, said, or asked, she could not get one piece of information about what he was up to.

Six months passed with little variation in their daily routines, and before anyone knew it a year had gone by on the Odyssey.

Chapter 4 – Coping

Over the next five years the ship became noticeably quieter. After the first year came and went without any progress on getting out of the time dilation field, everyone on board began distancing themselves from each other to come to terms with the scope of the situation and adjust to their new and potentially permanent lives on board the Odyssey.

General Landry spent a great deal of time tending to his ever-growing greenhouse. When he wasn't doing that he would play chess with the others on board. Not only was it a good way to stay sharp but it also allowed him to check up on everyone else and see how they were really doing.

Daniel and Vala quickly became the stereotype of a couple that had been married for a lifetime: the cute little bickering that is more a battle of wits than a fight over any one thing, the finishing of each other's sentences and ability to understand the other's thoughts by simply looking in their eyes, and the frequent stolen moments and tiny gestures of love and affection. When they weren't together Daniel continued to learn everything he could from the Asgard core and Vala, out of habit more than anything, would still go to Carter's lab more as a show of silent support than to actually help solve the problem.

Cam had the most difficult time of anyone adjusting to his new life. He attacked his exercise with a new ferocity, much like that of someone preparing to compete in the Olympics, but even that wasn't nearly enough to settle him down. Training with Teal'c was the only release he had for his need for action.

As much a Cam and Teal'c were alike, they were also different; unlike Cam, Teal'c had absolutely no problem adjusting to this new lifestyle. Patience was something that T had learned early in life and was so much a part of him that it gave him strength beyond what anyone else would have thought possible. Over those five years Teal'c became like a mentor to Cam, imparting all that he had lived through and learned, giving Cam the means to find acceptance and peace in his new life.

Carter still tried to spend about half of her day in her lab coming up with ideas that yielded the same results as their original plans. It wasn't long before she deactivated the Asgard hologram that continually reminded her that, "That function is not possible". Over that time Carter's new passion became the cello, and it was what she dedicated most of her time to. She was able to use it to express her thoughts and feelings in ways that she had never before dreamed possible and was a release in every possible way that continually gave her the strength to continue to look for a solution of how to survive the Ori attack on the Odyssey.

O'Neill continued to keep his hobby a secret and became so skilled that any art gallery would have been jumping at the opportunity to showcase his work. It wasn't long before he realized that he wouldn't be able to keep working at the pace he started at. Well, actually he could but he would no longer be able to keep his secret because he would have to start filling up other free areas of the Odyssey and somebody would eventually start to wonder why ceramic pieces were showing up all over the place. So once again he had to find yet another way to occupy some of his time.

Chapter 5 – Merry Christmas! (Part 1)

After being stuck on the Odyssey for just over six years there was finally some holiday spirit to be found on board. Thanksgiving had just past and everyone was eagerly anticipating and preparing for their first real celebration of Christmas in years.

Vala took it upon herself to put up the decorations all over the ship, including mistletoe at every doorway she could find. As soon as Vala announced her intention of decorating the ship Cam and Daniel volunteered to help her out. Cam volunteered so that he could decorate the Christmas tree, it had always been one of his favorite parts about Christmas growing up and he wanted to make sure he had was a part of it. Daniel on the other hand not only volunteered to help with the enormous amount of work that would be required but also to keep an eye on Vala, someone had to make sure she didn't get carried away.

General Landry, Teal'c and Carter took it upon themselves to prepare all the meals for Christmas day, O'Neill had also volunteered to help out with the menu and preparation of the meals, but was immediately met with a chorus of "No" from everyone else.

Carter was the first one to speak up after everyone quieted down, "Well Sir, it's not that we wouldn't appreciate your help, but you know the saying about having too many cooks in the kitchen…" she said not looking directly at him. Carter knew she needed to say something other than what they were all thinking and that was the best she could come up with, how could she say that they wanted a menu that didn't have the word 'beer' in the name of every food that was being offered.

O'Neill instantly realized that he should find another way to contribute and announced, "Well since you all appear to have the major areas covered, I'll just have to come up with something else to do. Hope you like surprises!" he said with a smirk on his face as he left them to wonder what he was up to.

Christmas was now only a few days away and everything was ready. The menu had been decided upon and all preparations that could be done in advance had been done and the ship was now fully decorated for the holiday. O'Neill said he had finished with his contribution but despite their many attempts, no one had been able to figure out what he had been up to. With nothing else to do at the moment they had all taken to sharing their favorite stories about Christmas and the traditions that they grew up with. Within in no time at all it seemed, it was Christmas Eve and everyone couldn't wait for the next day. It was unanimously decided that everyone would go to bed early; mostly because that was something they were all use to doing on Christmas Eve.

O'Neill, like everyone else headed to his quarters early, but not to get some sleep, he had a lot to get done before everyone woke up and needed all the time that he could get.

Christmas morning arrived quicker than O'Neill would have liked, but despite having gotten only a couple hours of sleep he was more excited than anyone else and was trying not to show too much of it, he couldn't have any of the other getting curious as to why.

With nothing but time on their hands, everyone took their time eating breakfast and enjoying each other's company. Towards the end of breakfast, O'Neill casually said, "It sounds as though everyone has gifts to exchange with each other, to make things a little more interesting, why don't we only mark who the gift is to and make a game of guessing who gave the gift." After he finished O'Neill went back to finishing his coffee, not wanting to appear too interested in the response to his suggestion.

Vala was the first to speak up and said, "A game sounds like a great idea!"

Daniel responded immediately after saying, "It would be a great way to start a Christmas tradition for all of us, and give us another reason to look forward to this part of the year" sounding more like the archeologist he was when he first joined the Stargate Program.

Hearing the excitement in Daniel's voice everyone else readily agreed that this would be not only a good idea, but a fun one as well.

To get all of the gifts under the tree without seeing who put them there presented a bit of a challenge, but after a moment's thought Carter said, "We can use the Asgard beaming technology to get the presents from our quarters to the base of the tree while the room is empty."

They all then went to Carter's lab and took turns operating the controls for the beaming technology and then proceeded back down to the mess. The gifts were sorted out by the person they were to and then they drew straws to determine who would open the first gift and General Landry's name came up first.

After looking at the gifts in front of him for a moment, he decided upon a very tiny and lightweight box. Upon opening it he simply found a folded note that read 'It might be a good time to water your plants…' and read it to the others. Figuring that he needed to go to his greenhouse for the gift, they all followed him there to see what was waiting for him.

General Landry didn't really know what to expect, but when he opened the door to the greenhouse all he could do was stand there with his mouth open, never could he have even dreamed of such a gift. Looking around, every single plant, of which he had hundreds, in there was no longer in a plastic planter, but in clay pots with beautiful glazes in different shades of blue, green and brown. He had started walking around when the others entered a few moments later, all equally surprised, especially when it was pointed out by Carter that no two pots were identical and Daniel subsequently noticing that they all showed marks associated with pottery that is made individually by hand. Unable to even fathom an idea of who the gift was from, General Landry suggested that they head back and continue opening gifts, hoping that some of the other's gifts would shed light on his.

Daniel's name came up next. Deciding upon a different strategy than General Landry, Daniel decided to open the biggest gift in his pile, a box that was about two feet wide and three feet long and pretty heavy. After carefully moving it to a table, he opened it and found inside what appeared to be a mini clay replica of the Rosetta Stone. Upon closer inspection Daniel noticed that instead of the three Earth languages that were on the original, there were instead alien languages that belonged to the Four Races. A quick translation of the Ancient language, the one he was the most familiar with, revealed that the tablet said:

There was once an alliance of the four greatest races in the galaxy: The Ancients, the builders of our Stargate; The Nox, a race kind enough to bring us back to life when we died seeking them out; The Furlings, a group we have never met and know almost nothing about; and The Asgard, a gentle race who never surrendered and continued fighting until the end when they named a fifth race to the old alliance: The Tau'ri, and young race of humans from the planet Earth who still have much to learn and who have already learned so much.

The rest of the tablet had the same inscription in the other three languages. Not only was Daniel curious about who gave him this gift, but also about how they were able to accurately put the inscription in the four different languages. He was sure that this wasn't simply copied from another source, mainly because it was written in the perspective of one of them and not an alien race, so the question remained 'Who else on board would have enough of an understanding of these languages to be able to do this', and he kept coming up with the same answer that there was no one else besides himself.

Realizing that he was giving himself a headache, Daniel drew the next name out of a hat to continue on with what was quickly becoming a very interesting game. Vala, Teal'c, Cam, Carter and O'Neill opened their gifts next and all got gifts that were all very much alike, large, beautiful and detailed pottery all depicting different images.

Vala's had a fifty's roller skating theme; T's had a series of picture scenes showing his journey from First Prime to member of the Council of Free Jaffa; Cam's had depictions of every air craft that he had flown during his career; Carter's had a cello on one part and the music notes to one of her favorite songs on the rest; O'Neill's had a depiction of his secluded cabin and lake that had almost no fish in it.

O'Neill knew ahead of time that if he didn't want everyone to immediately know that he was the one who had given out these gifts that he would need to give himself one as well. After everyone had finished opening up all of the other gifts, he was even more happy with his thought to include one for himself because all of the other's were completely clueless about who had given them out and he was really enjoying the speculation amongst them.