It was complete, utter chaos on the other side of the Stargate. There were people lying in front of the gate, and soldiers yelling, and people screaming, and more, and more thing flying through the gate. Eli Wallace dodged to the side to avoid being trampled, and looked out over the mess. People were streaming through unsupervised now, rather than in the semi-organized way they had been before. Lieutenant Scott was yelling into the walki-talkie, but Eli couldn't make out what they were saying. He looked out over the crowd, and spotted Dr. Rush coming through. He hoped that man was right that it was safer here. He looked up, and around, but he couldn't see very much. It was dark, and it looked like they were in some kind of chamber. Ok. At least they had air. That was something.

Ralph Fayley clutched the bag as tightly as he could, and ran straight through the gate, fighting the wave of nausea as he felt the... there really was no easy way to describe Stargate travel. It was kind of like one of those crazy coasters that he'd been on when... he lost his train of thought as he came out of the Stargate, and tripped over a man on the floor ahead of him. He scrambled to get out of the way as more people streamed through, suitcases flying after them. He got out of the way, and looked around, a wave of relief passing over him as he recognised the consoles from the drawings. This was it. He was here. He smiled goofily, the grin wiped off his face when he realized that now that he was here, he might not actually survive. He shook his head, dismissing those thoughts. He'd gotten this far. He could make it the rest of the way.

Tamara Johansen stepped through, and immediately went over to a man on the floor. She thought she recognized him. He was part of the science team, Doctor... Volker? That sounded right. "I need a medic!" she heard someone else in the crowd yell.
"Over here!" she yelled to let them know she'd heard. She turned to the man. "Can you move your fingers?" she asked.
"No. I think my arm is broken," Volker said.
She folded his arm across his chest.
"OK, just hold your arm there and we'll put it in a sling, OK?" she said. He nodded, and she moved on.

Dr. Nicholas Rush got to his feet, and looked around. It had been so long, and he was here. He'd gotten here. He had help, but he'd still done it. He spotted what looked like a console, and walked over to examine it. It was inactive. He stared at it, but couldn't make sense of it. He looked back up, watching as more and more people come crashing through the event horizon of the Stargate. Those who were relatively uninjured helped move people and equipment out of the arrival zone.
"Clear this area! There could still be more incoming!" he heard Scott yell. He walked over to a metal staircase leading to an upper level, and walked up. He looked down on the chaos in the Gateroom, and smiled ruefully.

Chloe Armstrong, and her father, Senator Alan Armstrong, hurtled through the gate, tumbling out the other side. Chloe stood, helping her father up.
"Are you OK?" she asked.
"Yeah," he replied, straightening.
They stumbled out of the way of the incoming arrivals.
"Where the hell are we?" Alan asked. Chloe looked around, and shook her head.
"I don't know," she said.

Lieutenant Matthew Scott walked over to another marine, Master Sergeant Ronald Greer.
"Greer? Where's Colonel Young?" Scott asked.
"He was right behind me," Greer asked. The gate made an odd noise, and they both looked up in time to see the man in question hurtle through the gate, and an even greater velocity than everyone else. He soared across the room and crashed to the floor yards away from the Stargate. The Stargate closed down and the room was plunged into darkness, but only for a moment, unil plumes of steam and flame shot up from either side of the gate. Many of the civilians screamed in panic, but the flames died quicly, shrouding them in darkness once more. Flashights started going on, and the room wasn't quite as dakr. Greer and Scott started towards the Colonel.
"Move, move, move," Greer said to the ones in their way. He raised his voice, speaking to the entire room. "Stay calm! Keep it down!" he yelled.
Scott reached Colonel Young who was lying on the floor, not moving.
"Colonel? Colonel?" Scott asked.
He knelt down to him and put his hand under the colonel's head. Greer warned other people away from them so that they wouldn't accidentally tread on them.
Young looked up at Scott.
"Where are we? Where are we?" Colonel Young asked weakly.
"I don't know, sir," Scott said.
"You're in charge, OK? You're ..." Young's eyes closed, and his head rolled to the side. Scott stared in horror as he realised that the hand he was using to support the colonel's head was covered with blood.
"Yes, sir," he said softly. He turned to scream into the room.
"T.J.!" Scott yelled.
"I'm coming!" she said, hurrying over to kneel down beside Young.
"Is he OK?" Greer asked.
"Uh, I dunno," T.J. said.
She pulled out a medical flashlight, and peeled open one of Young's eyelids and shone the light into it. Scott scrambled to his feet.
"Wallace!" he yelled. Eli hurried over to him.
"What is this place?" Scott asked.
"Look, I just did what Rush told me," Eli said nervously.
"Where is he?" Scott asked.
"I don't know, I saw him come through the gate, but-"
"Rush!" Scott yelled. "Rush! Eli, help me find him."
"Well, I..." he trailed off as a hum became audible getting louder.

Ralph looked up, trying to determine the source of the hum. Then there was a kind of screech, and he felt like someone had grabbed his stomach and yanked on it. It wasn't painful, but it was a very unnvering feeling. He clutched the bag more tightly, looking around nervoulsy, before realizing what had happened. They must have dropped out of, or entered, FTL. He'd forgotten about that.

"What in the hell was that?" Greer asked.
"I don't know," Scott said. He turned to Greer. "Sergeant, I need you to get these people settled here. I need you to find out who and what we've got. Nobody leaves this room," Scott ordered.
"Yes, sir," Greer said.
Scott headed off as Greer stared down at Johansen as she started to dress Young's head wound. Eli was staring down at them too. "Eli! Now!" Scott yelled. Eli hurried after him.

Ralph ducked behind the staircase, and opened the bag. There was a lot of stuff in there, and he had no idea what most of it was. He reached in, for half circle that looped around one's ear. It was a Telepathy Link. He knew that there was an AI in this ship, so he might be able to get through to it. He took a breath, and concentrated.

Scott and Eli were in a corridor, searching for Dr. Rush. They reached a closed bulkhead with a small circular ornate panel in it. Eli shined his flashlight on the panel.
"Oh," he said.
"What?" Scott asked.
"I've seen this writing before," Eli said, looking at it more closely.
"In the game?" Scott asked.
"Yeah!" Eli said.
He shone his flashlight around and saw a small illuminated panel on the wall by the bulkhead. He pressed it and the panel in the bulkhead spun rapidly, then the doors opened, to reveal Dr. Rush standing at the far end of the room in front of an enormous floor to ceiling window. Eli stared out the window. They were obviously travelling through space, though it didn't look like hyperspace- it looked similar, but not the same.
"Jeez! We're on a ship?" Eli asked.
Dr. Rush didn't look away from the window. "The design is clearly Ancient, in the truest sense of the word –- launched hundreds of thousands of years ago," he said.
"Dr. Rush?" Scott asked.
"Faster than light, yet not through hyperspace," Rush said, ignoring Scott.
"What are you doing?" Scott asked.
"Who knows how far it's travelled?" Rush said, still not acknowledging his presence.
"Doctor Rush, I've got a lot of wounded. We need to get home," Scott said.
"Lieutenant Scott, come in?" T.J.'s voice came over the radio.
"Go ahead," Scott said into the radio.
"We've got a problem. One of the air vents just shut down in here," T.J. said.
"Copy that.
"Yeah, the air's gettin' pretty thin in here too," Eli said.
"What does that mean?" Scott asked.
"That the life support system is failing," Dr. Rush said. He turned away from the window and headed for the door. "And we should probably do something about that," he said.

Ralph looked up, his concentration broken as he heard something power down. He looked around. Others had noticed it too. He frowned, and put the Link back in his bag, before stopping, realizing another problem: they were most likely going to search all the bags. He swore, and looked around. He would have to get away from the rest of the survivors. He waited until no one was looking, and made a break for the door.

Scott walked into the gateroom. The power seemed to have just come on, and everyone was chattering.
"Could I have everyone's attention, please?" he asked. They kept talking.
"All right, please listen," Scott said, getting no results. "Hey, listen up!" he yelled.
Everyone fell silent, looking at him. Senator Armstrong walked over to Scott.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"We are on an Ancient spaceship," Scott said.
"What?" a man in the crowd asked.
"That's all I've got. Now, what that means is that-"
"It means you need to use the Stargate to get us all back home," Alan said, cutting him off.
There were various statements of agreement from everyone else there.
"That is definitely on the list of things to do, sir, but I think right now-"
"You can consider that an order," Alan said.
"We're working on it, sir," Scott said getting a bit impatient.
"I need to speak to the person responsible for this. Where is Dr. Rush?" Alan demanded.
"Would you just shut up for a second, will you?" Scott snapped angrily.
"How dare you talk to-" Alan cut off, his face contorting in agony. Chloe rushed over to him in alarm.
"Dad?" she asked. She caught him as he started to fall. "Dad, please!"
"Medic!" someone yelled.
"Water? Water?" Scott asked, looking atound at the crowd.
He took the Senator's other arm and helped Chloe support him as they helped him to an area where he could sit.
"Sit down," Chloe said.
"The pills..." Alan gasped.
He took a pill from a bottle that Chloe handed him, and put it onto his tongue.
"Look, I'm sorry," Scott said, to everyone. "I'm just trying to explain the situation. We are on a ship but we have no idea where we are in relation to Earth." he turned to Alan. "Now, with respect, sir, the reason you might be having a hard time breathing right now is because the ship's life support system is not functioning properly," he said.
The crowd murmured anxiously.
"Dr. Rush is working on that right now," he said.
"Brody and Park?" he asked.
A man and a woman raised their hands from near the consoles.
"Here," the man, Brody said.
"Here," Park said.
"OK, good. You two are with me," Scott said.
"But these consoles just came on," Brody said.
"No! Nobody touch anything yet!" Scott said, to everyone in general. He turned back to Brody and Park. "Dr. Rush needs your help. Everybody else –- just stay calm, stay put, please," Scott said.
"Stay put? What d'you mean? You're just going like that?" a man asked from the crowd.
Scott ignored him and left the room.

Ralph stared at the button for a while, but the Translator Chip wasn't working, apparently. Probably had to do with wormholes. He hated them, and they never did anything good for anyone. He sighed, and pressed the button, stepping into what looked like private quarters. He pressed another button, and the door closed, locking. He sat down on the bed, and opened the bag, peering inside. He reached in, and pulled out the Telepathy Link, and put it on, closing his eyes in concentration.

Scott, Sergeant Greer, Brody and Park were walking through the corridors, when they heard what sounded like Eli and Dr. Rush arguing. They hurried towards the noise, turning a corner into a control room.
"What's going on in here?" Greer asked.
"The life support system is on, but for some reason it's not working properly. I'm attempting to re-set it," Rush said.
Eli turned to Scott.
"He has no idea what he's doing," Eli said.
Overhearing this, Greer raised his rifle and aimed it at Rush. Brody and Park backed away nervously. Rush stared back at Greer, not looking afraid in the least.
"Step away from that thing," Greer said.
Eli turned back to Rush. "That screen says that what you're doing is gonna overload-"
"Eli, please," Rush said.
"Is that what it says or not?" Scott asked.
"You only think you know what it says on the screen because I embedded a rudimentary version of the Ancient language into the game. This is not a game," Rush said.
"Don't touch it, Rush," Scott said.
"When oxygen aboard this ship falls below critical level, it will become increasingly difficult to concentrate," Rush said.
"What you're doing could blow up the whole ship," Eli said.
"Are you sure, Eli?" Scott asked.
Rush turned towards the console.
"Back off now, or I will shoot!" Greer said loudly.
"Lower your weapon, Sergeant!" Scott ordered, just as loudly.
"He already screwed us once! I'm not gonna let him do it again," Greer said, not lowering the weapon. Rush raised his hand, fingers over the console. He turned to address Greer.
"I'm going to press that button. It's gonna fix the life support and then you and I and everyone else will be able to breathe and think much better," Rush said.
"Don't do it," Greer said softly.
Scott walked around the console and went over to stand beside Greer. He layed his hand on his arm.
"OK, look, Sergeant. I know we are in a tough situation here, but I am giving you an order. Lower ... your ... weapon," Scott said.
Greer stared at Rush for a long moment, before lowering his rifle. Rush looked at him for a moment longer, then slowly reached down and pressed the button on the console. They were all silent for a minute, Brody and Park seeming to hold their breath, but there were no signs from the ship as to whether or not anything had happened.
"So?" Scott asked.
"Well, I suppose that would have been too simple," Rush said.
He turned and walked away. Eli looked at the screen again, then looked up at the soldiers and shrugged.
"Apparently that did nothing," he said.
Scott turned away and activated his radio.
"This may take a little more time, T.J. Hang in there," Scott said.
"Copy," T.J. said.

Ralph had found that he could reach the ship's AI through the Telepathy Link, but it was ignoring him. Probably programmed as a woman. He sniffed a bit indignantly, and then reached out further, to a mind he was quite familiar with.
{Mary?} he prodded.
{Yep, I'm still here,} she said.
{I'm on the ship. But the AI's ignoring me,} he sent, whining a little.
{That could be a problem. Are you anywhere near a console?} she asked.
{No, but I could probably find one,} he said.
{Good, find one, and then try to get through to Jennie. She'll help you, and if memory serves, she's good with Alteran tech,} Mary said.
{Jennie Hartthrop?} he asked.
{Yep, that's the one,} she said.
{Alright. But the Link's almost done for. I can probably reach Jennie, and then it's gonna die,} he said.
{Well, don't waste time,} she said. He turned it off, and reset it, tuning in to Jennie as he walked out of the room.

Scott was slumped in the corner, listening to Rush and Eli arguing over which button on the console did what. Thye'd been at it for a while.
"What's that? Well, it doesn't look like life support," Eli said.
"Yes, I realise that," Rush said, sounding annoyed.
He pressed an area on the central screen and a floating holographic screen appeared in the middle of the room showing a picture of the Milky Way galaxy.
"Woah," Eli said.
He walked closer, as did Scott and everyone else in the room apart from Rush.
"What are we looking at?" Scott asked.
"It's a star map," Rush said.
"That's the Milky Way," Park said.
"I believe it's a visual log of the ship's journey," Rush said.
Eli pointed to a flashing light close to the edge of the spiral.
"So this is where we are now?" Eli asked.
"No. That's where the ship originally embarked from," Rush said.
"Earth," Brody said.
The map began to pull out and a line showed the route of the ship as the Milky Way faded into the distance.
"It's leaving the galaxy," Park said.
"It did –- long ago," Rush said.
They watched as the line continued to travel through the stars, stopping at a couple of points and then continuing onwards. Brody recognises a constellation as the line whizzed away after a stop-off.
"That was Pegasus," he said.
The line moved on, indicating many more points where the ship stopped.
"So those points are more stars?" Scott asked.
"No, they're galaxies," Eli said.
Shocked, Scott walked over to Rush.
"Rush. Where the hell are we?" he asked.
"Several billion light years from home," Rush said quietly.

Ralph was at a console. The Link had connected with Jennie, and she was telling him what to do.
{Alright, you're done,} she said.
{Thanks Jennie, you're a lifesaver, literally,} Ralph said. {Listen, I got to go, I think there's enough left in the Link to get Mary and tell her I'm coming,} he said.
{Got it. Good luck,} Jennie said, disconnecting. Ralph reset the Link, and reached out to Mary.
{Did you do it?} Mary asked.
{Yep. The ship's headed your way,} Ralph said.
{Good. Just in time too, because I haven't found any water in this hole I've been-}
She cut out. Ralph took the Link off, and looked at it. It was dead. He sighed, and turned, walking back to the gateroom.