A/N: HI! This is my first real fan fiction. I love stargate PASSIONATELY, and I really love the Tollan. I want to write a story focusing on them. It'll take place after "Unending" and it will be as AU as it has to be. I really need suggestions on what to do with the story. i want to make it big and exciting and i can use any help i can get. PLEASE read, review, and give me input and suggestions.

Your faithful servant eternally,

Shadowburst Enigma

Disclaimer-I do not own stargate, the franchise belongs to MGM. Living for something does not necessarily mean that it belongs to you…unfortunately…

The Chambers of the Curia, Tollana (The Tollan Homeworld

Fifteen calm men and women sat around the glowing white circular table. Their roughly egg shaped metal chairs were perched on the large platform that stood within a pool of blue water, with walkways leading to the doors of the chambers. The Curia was in session and a rather meek looking man sat in a chair that was considerably taller than the others and pointed at the top. High Chancellor Narim was attempting to maintain a sense of leadership.

A woman with long brown hair was finishing her adress, "And so with the completion of the third building in this series, we will not only have finished rebuilding Capitol City, but we will have increased the area of the city by 29%."

Narim nodded, "Thank you Councilor Llerea. Before we conclude this session, Councilor Cellus, if you would."

Cellus corrected his posture in his seat as the attention was shifted to him. He was a relatively short man with light brown hair and a straight grey jacket that went down past his knees. "Yes...uh.. of course High Chancellor. As you all know, since our people's near destruction at the hands of the Goa'uld, our priorities have been to both rebuild our society and to ensure that such a thing never occurs again. With the reconstruction of our city we have accomplished the first of these. Now for the second." With that, he touched the table in front of him and entered a few commands on the interface that appeared. A beam of blue light shot up for the center of the table and instantly exploded outwards into a holographic display of the Tollana system.

Cellus continued, "I have led the committee dedicated to the fortification of Tollana, and the defense of our people. Towards this end, we have implemented the four-stage defense system. Since the attack, we have had a rebirth in the fields of technology and science. These advancements have made this project possible. If you would permit me to review the system... Stage one is a series of eight long range sensor installations around the perimeter of the Tollana system. These will allow us to monitor the status of space surrounding our system and detect any possible threats before they can become... well threatening. Any ship entering the system without transmitting validation codes, will be warned to turn back. If they do not do so, the sensors will relay their location to the 150 automated defense drones positioned around the 4th and 5th planets of the system."

Cellus waved his hand and the hologram transformed into a schematic of an oblong object with what was obviously an engine module on the rear and a multilayered apparatus on the front. He continued, "each drone is equipped with a particle beam projector which emits a continuous high energy plasma ray at the target. These are not as powerful as an ion cannon on their own, but used in large numbers and coupled with their continuous fire properties, they can be very effective. The next stage is the defense satellite network above Tollana itself. These are lightly shielded satellites that are also fitted with two particle beam projectors each. The third stage is the series of Mark III Ion Cannons on the ground. These are the most powerful weapons we have ever created, and they operate on the same basic principle as the original." Cellus changed the projection to show one of the cannons. "They use a greater energy compression matrix, which triples their power. There is also the powerful city shield that can encompass the entirety of the Capitol."

Cellus sighed, "and then, of course there is the fourth stage." He sighed, "This one was the most difficult to get validated, and it has proven to be most controversial. It is the creation of a fleet of starships. To clear up one of the most common misunderstandings, this does not create a military. The most important part of our society, I believe, is our homogeneous nature. To distinguish between military and civilian would separate and weaken us. No, rather this would provide us with a civilian based defense fleet which would be by far the most versatile of defenses. In fact, the vessels were designed to be highly automated, requiring a minimum of one Tollan occupant in order to input commands and regulate the optional artificial intelligence."

Narim, who had been listening attentively spoke up at this point, "Councilor could you please relay the progress of the project?"

Cellus bowed his head. "Of course High Chancellor. I am proud to say that after only 5 years, we are 50% complete. We have established the sensor perimeter and the defense drone system, we have 100 of the total 200 defense satellites constructed and being placed, we have 12 of the necessary 32 Mark III Ion cannons built, and we have 2 starships completed with a third underway at the shipyard."

This time it was Councilor Llerea who made an inquiry, "Cellus, do you have a estimate as to the completion date of the entire project?" Her voice was soft. She had been one of Cellus's major supporters along with Narim, when Cellus first proposed the plan after the attack by the Goa'uld. She had watched as it evolved, and as he evolved. He was after all… very young.

Her question however seemed to make him nervous. He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, um that's the important part of the briefing. We appear to have exhausted our main supplies of trinium. The remaining trinium available on Tollana must be reserved for the production of personal items such as phase-shift bracelets and holo-computers. So... as of now... we have no way of finishing the project." Cellus looked down.

There were whispers and mutters around the table, as the Curia received this news.

High Chancellor Narim looked shocked as he analyzed this. "How could we have not anticipated this? Surely we would have calculated.."

Cellus cut him off, "We drastically over estimated the drain that the reconstruction of the city would put on our reserves."

Councilor Tolac who was a strong opponent of Cellus, looked smug at these developments. "And so, Councilor Cellus, what have you to remedy this unfortunate turn of events?"

Now Cellus looked like his skin was crawling. He knew that his next suggestion would be polarizing. "I would say that we need to look to other planetary sources of Trinium. We would have to... relax our isolationism somewhat…"

He was right about it being polarized…

Instantly, there were fifteen different voices speaking at once. Of course, there was no shouting as the Tollan were a mild mannered and quiet people. Still, there was no mistaking the tension caused by this suggestion.

"Becoming an obvious presence would surely attract enemies…"

"…enemies will eventually come, but we must be ready. We need the trinium…"

"…We have no way of knowing the status of the galaxy, we have had no outside contact for 5 years…"

"…exactly. I am not comfortable with such unknown variables…"

"…But truly it must be better to know?"

High Chancellor Narim raised his voice only enough that it be heard by everyone,"Let us please return to order." Everyone was immediately silent as he continued. "I believe that we must take this issue seriously. I propose that we attempt to reestablish contact with our allies. In that way we might be able to gain knowledge of the happenings of the last 5 years, and also locate a sufficient amount of Trinium."

Several of the Curia members nodded in approval. Others looked as if they were going to object, but Narim had proven his wisdom and they believed he knew how to handle this correctly. They too nodded, even if it was reluctantly.

Seeing this, Narim went on. "Very well, we will contact the Tok'ra, the Asgard, our friends the Nox, and…" Memories, sad memories of Samantha Carter came back to him and he stopped himself from adding the Tau'ri.

Cellus was seated at a computer console in his office at the Curia building. As he proposed searching off world, it was his responsibility to contact the allies of the Tollan. He began with the Tok'ra.

He spoke to the computer. "Computer access the Tollana interstellar communications array."

The computer answered back. "Access Granted. Citizen Cellus vocal validation confirmed.'

"Open a secure subspace link to Sector 12-561-43"

"Confirmed, Subspace channel open. No response."

Cellus spoke into the communication link. "This is Tollana, attempting to communicate with the Tok'ra base. Please respond." Cellus wasn't really expecting them to respond. The tok'ra usually contacted the Tollan, and they changed the locations of their bases fairly regularly. Anyway, Cellus knew that they were the only ones that would respond via subspace channel. The Asgard were a bit too far away for that, and the Nox did not approve of the indiscretion of that means of communication. Contacting either of them would require usage of a transpatial data beam. Each Tollan had a portable version of this device.

Cellus activated his phase-shift device and walked through the wall of his office. He appeared on the outside of the Curia building. He deactivated the the phase-shift bracelet and put his small transpatial communicator on the ground. He input the coordinates for Gaia, the Nox home-world and watched as the beam of white light carried his message across the stars. He then did the same for the Asgard.

Now, He thought, Now, I wait….