"Fade To Black"
A few years have passed in the Stargate universe and although the war with the Wraith still wages on in Pegasus and the fate of Destiny and her crew remains unknown with the Goa'uld system lords and the Ori defeated the Milky Way galaxy has been relatively peaceful. SG Teams continue to visit their allies and explore new worlds remaining vigilant at all times not knowing what to expect when they walk through the gate but thankfully they haven't encountered any hostility in their continuing journeys through the gate to explore the galaxy with their main objective still to obtain technology to help defend Earth against all possible threats.
However the peaceful life in the Milky Way was about to be shattered...big time...
A MALP is sent through the gate to a previously unexplored address and footage shows the planet is completely void of life including trees and grass it's just a baron world.
Turning the camera to locate and verify a DHD exists so they could retrieve the MALP, Samantha Carter notices something on the Stargate. After a bit of bartering with O'Neill he agrees to let her go and take a look and they go through the gate and begin their investigation.
Carter runs scans trying to figure out what the object is that is black and shiny metallic and 'latched' around the gate between the 2nd and 3rd chevron and she tries to attached an instrument to the side of it, but before she is able to it unlatches itself and falls to the ground.
A little shocked but intrigued at what just happened (her initial scans show it's inactive and not a threat) she picks up the object which is quite heavy and puts it on the back of the MALP then opens the gate and heads back to Earth with the object in tow so she can research it a bit more with the correct equipment.
Back on Earth in a lab with other scientists Carter runs tests, scans and x-rays the object in an attempt to figure out what it is and they've been at it for 4 days when O'Neill walks in:
O'Neill: "So...hows it going?"
Carter: "We're making progress sir."
O'Neill: "Excellent." *Picks up hammer off table and starts hitting it gently* "What is it?"
Carter: "Well it's err..." *Takes hammer away from O'neill* "..we don't know yet"
Random Scientist: "It's shiny."
O'Neill: *Gives the scientist his strange look* "Yes, very good."
Carter interrupts and explains that they ran every test they could think of and so far know that it has no power source and no internal components and at this stage it just appears to be a large piece of metal but the material its made from is unknown, she doesn't know what it is or it's purpose if it even has one.
O'Neill: "Keep me posted." *leaves the room*
Carter: "Yes Sir." *looks puzzled and exhausted*
Meanwhile on P3R-272
(This is the world where the knowledge of the Ancients was first downloaded into O'Neill's mind.)
The gate activates and illuminates the room and a few moments later 2 figures appear through the gate dressed in black metallic armor and carrying a cylinder shaped object.
They place the cylinder in the middle of the gold ring situated in the center of the room and step back..the ring activates and the cylinder opens and red beams of light scatter all around the walls of the room, and then they merge at a single location on one of the walls.
One of the figures dressed in armour walks over and places its hand on the wall where the beams of light merged and in a Tok'ra like fashion the wall dissolves away revealing a corridor, the corridor is of Ancient design similar to that in Atlantis.
The figures pick up the cylinder off the floor and walk through the corridor and come to a large door which has some type of entry key system on the front of it and after entering a specific sequence the door opens revealing another room and after entering the room the corridor seals itself and the gate deactivates leaving the other room exactly how it was as if nothing had happened.
Some time later back at the SGC Carter and the other scientists are still hard at work trying to figure out what the object is when a red circle of light appears on the object and for a brief moment the entire object appears to fade away before their eyes but as suddenly as this occurred it was back as it was. Carter reported what had happened to O'Neill and having had bad experiences with little objects in the past as a precaution he ordered it be moved to a secure facility away from any mass population.
Carter: "But Sir I want to run more tests and find out what just happened."
O'Neill: "Sorry Carter we can't take the risk, you know that."
Carter: "..."
O'Neill: "Look you can go work on this thing when you get back.."
Carter: "Back Sir?"
O'Neill: "...I was about to come and see you before you walked in here. Col Swanson has requested you join her on board the Alliance."
Carter: "Did she say why?"
O'Neill: "Didn't ask!." *Gets on radio* "She's ready to go"
Carter: "Go?...I need to get m..." *she was beamed on board*
The "Alliance" is a new ship built from Earth, Goa'uld/Jaffa and Asgard technology and controlled and manned by all and not just a single race, it's a powerful ship and a symbol of peace and cooperation between the people of the Milky Way.
Col Swanson has played a big part over the last few years in negotiating peace between worlds that were arguing over territory and technology left behind by the Goa'uld and because she earned their trust and respect the leaders of these worlds chose her to be the captain of the Alliance.
Carter meets with Swanson on the Alliance's bridge where it is explained they intercepted a signal coming from a source in the same region of space as Proclarush, the planet where O'Neill found the ZPM to power the Ancient chair on Earth, and are on their way to investigate.
Carter says OK and asks what she can do to help, Swanson asks Carter to use her expertise to find out what the signal means and hopefully who sent it before they reach their destination. Carter, after a few hours into their journey and using various algorithms has managed to clean up the signal but it's in a language she's never seen before and even the Asgard system with it's vast database of known languages is unable to translate it.
Carter opens communications to Earth and asks Daniel Jackson if he can assist in translating the message, Daniel doesn't recognize the language but agrees to help and tells Carter that it may take some time and he will be back in touch if he makes any progress.
Col Swanson requests Carter comes to the bridge as they've arrived at the coordinates they believe the signal originated. Looking out they see nothing but space, no planets, no ships..with the exception of stars in the distance they see nothing.
Carter turns to a Jaffa at the flight console and asks "Are you sure these are the right coordinates?" to which he replies "Yes ma'am, this is the exact location the computer said the signal came from." Carter asks him to run a sensor scan and see if anything comes up. Swanson notices something strange, the stars appear to be disappearing and reappearing sort of blinking in and out and tells Carter "Can you see that?".
Carter takes the place of the Jaffa at the console and sees the scans have picked up a very faint energy signature and coupled with the blinking stars she comes up with a theory "There's definitely something out there..I'm going to try something." she quickly modifies the on board Asgard weapon array to emit a non lethal beam and begins firing in random patterns across their field of view.
On the 4th shot the beam strikes an illuminates an object in front of them, it's so black that it blends in with space making it almost invisible which is why they couldn't see it "It's a ship" says Swanson and Carter agrees "Our sensors can't penetrate it and appears to be dead in space". Swanson attempts to communicate with the ship and translating and broadcasting in every known language they have "This is Col Swanson captain of the Alliance, we received your signal and have come to investigate. We mean you no harm do you require assistance?." they don't receive a response.
They receive a communication from Daniel who tells Carter that he thinks he's managed to translate the message and Carter fills him in on their current situation and that they found a ship "So is it a distress signal?" she asks "I don't think so" replies Daniel and goes on to explain that it's in a variation of very old Ancient and he believes the message reads:
"From under the fence, the palace of light will slumber"
Carter says "That doesn't make any sense, what does that mean?" Daniel replies "I'm...still working on it" Carter asks Daniel to let her know when he figures it out and terminates communications. Swanson and Carter are discussing what the message could possibly mean when suddenly the ship outside shows signs of life with a red band of light glowing around it and a section at the front begins moving forward revealing a view inside the ship with a single figure inside at the controls.
As the unknown ship turns to face the Alliance everyone takes their seats and mans their posts, Col Swanson orders activation of the shields "Are we receiving any communication from the ship?" she asks and Carter tells her she's receiving nothing and so Swanson attempts to communicate with the ship again "This is Col Swanson captain of the Alliance, we mean you no harm please respond", nothing is heard back and so she tries again "If you continue moving towards us we will assume your actions are hostile and we will be forced to open fire do you understand?".
Swanson orders reverse engines to move the ship back but the unknown ship continues to follow so Swanson turns to Carter "Fire a warning shot". The warning shot appears to do nothing and the unknown ship didn't even flinch but continues to move forward getting ever closer to the Alliance so Swanson hoping for a peaceful outcome reluctantly gives the order to fire.
Several shots are fired at the ship but it appears to absorb everything thrown at it "It's not working, even with the weapons at full power it's taking no damage at all" shouts Carter then as the unknown ship gets within touching distance it just turns around and flies away. "Where did it go?" asks Swanson "Our sensors can't detect it but it looks like it's gone" replies Carter... "Yes, but I have a feeling we'll see it again." Swanson orders the Alliance head back to Earth.