Jaina stepped through into a large, beautiful chamber full of lights, windows, stairs, and people pointing weapons at her and her brother. One of the armed men came toward her and took the lightsaber from her thumb, before retreating back to the defensive perimeter.

"I'm sorry for the enthusiasm of our guards," a balding man of authority approached from the top of the stairs opposite the stargate. He wore a red paneled jacket, dark pants, and a wire frame holding two sheets of glass before his eyes which made him look both distinguished and somewhat goofy. "I'm Doctor Richard Woosley, leader of the Atlantis Expedition. You've already spoken with Doctor Rodney McKay,"

Woosley gestured to another balding man, this one in a blue-paneled jacket and lighter pants. McKay looked slightly shy and nervous, but Jaina could sense his boundless excitement. He then gestured to another, younger man with dishevelled black hair and a black, more militaristic uniform.

"And this is our resident military authority, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard."

"Pleasure to meet you," John said, reaching out to shake hands with Jacen, and then with Jaina. He held Jaina's hand a bit longer than he had Jacen's and gave her a smile that her brother did not seem to have earned.

"You can also call him Captain Kirk," McKay muttered, reaching past John's arm and pushing him aside to roughly shake Jacen's hand, then Jaina's. "Hi. Nice to meet you both. I can, uh, see the family resemblance."

"Atlantis appears to be a beautiful planet," Jacen said, noting the clear blue skies staring back at him through the windows and the architecture of the building they were in. "I'm looking forward to seeing more of it."

McKay laughed.

"Atlantis isn't a planet," he said in a mildly condescending tone that Jaina doubted he knew he was using. "It's a city."

Jacen and Jaina exchanged glances.

"A city?" Jacen asked. "The records and address I found indicated Atlantis was a planet…but then this city must be able to travel between planets!"

Jaina regarded her brother with a dose of skepticism. A moving city? What nonsense…

"Yes," McKay confirmed impatiently. "We moved it from the Pegasus galaxy to here, on Earth, about three years ago. We haven't had enough power to leave, until now."

"That's why the…eight symbol address didn't work," Jaina said, still trying to wrap her head around the idea of a city that could fly to other galaxies. "You had to use the nine symbol address to make a connection. The eight symbol must be the address of the planet Atlantis was on half a million years ago when Centerpoint was built."

"Atlantis has a nine symbol address?" McKay demanded.

"Rodney," Sheppard interrupted. "We'll have plenty of time for questions later. First we'd like to ask that you come to our infirmary. Guests to Atlantis go through a standard medical examination when coming here. We've had our share of alien pathogens cause problems before."

"Nothing too invasive, I hope," Jacen said.

"Just a quick body scan," Woosley assured him. "Lantean technology is quite thorough, but there will be no needles."


The medical scan, done by a pleasant young woman with some sort of badly hidden connection to Rodney McKay, did not take very long at all. In under five minutes both Jacen and Jaina were scanned and pronounced clear of any health threats, though the doctor did silently take note of the lasting indications of the torture that Jacen had gone through during the Vong war. While Jaina had missed her apprehension at the results of the scan, Jacen had not. McKay and Sheppard both decided to accompany the Jedi on a tour through parts of the city, which started with a view of the tropical island that Atlantis had been parked beside.

"Most of the people of Earth have no idea we exist," Sheppard explained to the siblings as the four of them leaned against the balcony railing looking over the city and island below. "Atlantis is cloaked to keep hidden, and there is a naval quarantine around this whole area to keep people from running into us."

"We've been taking the last few years to repair the city," McKay said. "We're almost done the repairs and refits. Being on Earth makes it a lot easier to get resources, especially shipments of stuff that can't fit through a stargate. You wouldn't believe what this city has been through."

"Our galactic history goes back thousands of years, but we know nothing of the time when Centerpoint was built," Jacen said. "It is amazing what gets lost to time."

"Excuse me," Sheppard said, tapping his ear and walking away from the group.

"So you're explorers?" McKay asked.

"I guess you could say that," Jacen said and glanced at his sister. "Well, I am. She's a politician."

"Am not!" Jaina protested. "Just because I sit on the Council doesn't mean I'm a politician. And you're one to talk!"

"She's a former fighter pilot turned fighting politician," Jacen corrected himself, earning himself a slap on the arm.

"Whatever you say, your highness," Jaina mocked. "If anyone's a politician, it's you."

"King Jacen?" Rodney asked with a mixture of curiosity and amused disbelief.

"I married a queen." Jacen shrugged. "It's a matriarchal society. I'm just arm candy."

Any further response was cut off by the return of Sheppard from a…closet down the hall.

"McKay, the SGC needs you," Sheppard said. "Destiny is having some power problems and General O'Neill wants you to go over some of Eli's calculations. The Daedalus is standing by to transport you."

"What's Boy Wonder up to now?" Rodney muttered and walked away.

"Not much for social skills, is he?" Jaina asked when the balcony door closed behind McKay.

"Let's be serious," Sheppard said smoothly. "What scientist needs those?"

"Destiny was a location in the Centerpoint address book," Jacen interrupted Sheppard's attempts to hit on his sister. "Another city ship?"

"No, Destiny is a ship that is on the other side of the universe. Some of our people were stranded there after an accident involving a planet that exploded. The ship is millions of years old and falling apart around them, but we have no way of getting them home right now. However, thanks to that new gizmo of yours, we think we might be able to dial in."

"What could you do to help them? Send them some power generators?"

"That's for McKay to figure out," Sheppard said. "I just shoot things and fly the ships. Let me show you around some more of Atlantis."


The tour ended after an hour at a room with a man who looked like a partially-shaved Wookiee fighting with an attractive woman, both of them with metre long sticks in each hand. Jacen immediately noticed that her fighting style was much more reserved than the man whose wild attacks matched his appearance.

"Hey kids, we have guests," Sheppard announced. "Tayla and Ronin, the other two members of my team. These are Jacen and Jaina Solo. They're from another galaxy, too."

"Nice to meet you," Jacen said, and Jaina nodded.

"You here to fight?" Ronin asked without taking his eyes off Tayla.

"Sure," Jaina accepted the challenge, stepping forward. She tossed Jacen her Jedi robe and Tayla offered her the sticks. She spun them around to get the feeling for them. Before she could face Ronin, a downward slash of Ronin's weapon would have made a dent on her skull if she had not stepped away at the last moment. She barely felt the breeze of his other weapon pass by her head as she ducked on reflex, spinning away from the larger man and taking a wild slash at his back. He already had his left-hand stick deflecting her blind attack and was winding up with his right. She dropped to the ground and used the Force to speed and strengthen her strike, catching his ankle with a low roundhouse kick. Caught off balance, Ronin hopped back a few metres to put some distance between him and this unexpected challenge.

"You're not bad."

"I've fought better," Jaina replied with a grin.

"Better than Ronin? Is that possible?" Sheppard whispered to Jacen.

"You should meet my wife," Jacen responded.

Jaina attacked with a lightning-fast lunge at Ronin's chest, jumped off her front foot into the air, twisting her feet into the air so her head passed within a foot of his head and slapped him across the back with both staffs as she sailed over him. Ronin barely budged off the hit and counterattacked before she hit the ground, catching both of her staffs as she blocked across her chest and sending her back several metres through the air where she landed on her feet. Their traded blows echoed through the room as the sticks hit each other, or on the few occasions that Jaina slapped Ronin on the skin. Despite landing several blows on the larger man, two of which broke his skin, Jaina could not slow Ronin down any more than Ronin could land a hit on the agile young Jedi. If anything, the repeated blows only seemed to drive him to fight with greater intensity.

"Where did you learn to fight like this?" Ronin finally broke his bout of silence, but not his concentration. His eyes flicked all over her as he continued analyzing her movements looking for a weakness in her form.

"Sorry to cut this short," Sheppard interrupted, one finger to the device in his ear again. "But Woolsey would like to see our guests now."

"Keep practicing," Jaina said to Ronin with a wink as Tayla relieved her of the weapons.


Opposite the control room above the gate room, Jacen, Jaina and Sheppard met with Woolsey, Doctor Keller and two people in military uniforms who were introduced as General Jack O'Neill and Colonel Samantha Carter.

"So you're the aliens?" The General asked with an appraising eye as he shook their hands.

"Wait until you meet a Trandoshan," Jacen responded.

"Please have a seat." Woolsey gestured to a couple of empty seats across the table from him. His tone indicated he had little tolerance for the General's unique form of diplomacy.

"Before we start," Jacen said as he sat down. "I'd like to hear some more about your people. Based on what I read in the database on Centerpoint station, human life originated in this galaxy in the form of the Lanteans?"

"Ancients," Carter corrected. "The Ancients were the gate builders, and the ones who built Atlantis and Destiny. The Lanteans were the Ancients who lived on Atlantis. Like yourselves, we are the second evolution of humans in our galaxy. We're still trying to learn a lot about the technology that makes up the city, and we've occupied it for eight years now."

"Doctor McKay is our resident expert on all things Ancient," Woolsey continued. "Unfortunately Doctor McKay could not be here because of a crisis on the other side of the universe, so I've asked Colonel Carter to join us today as she is our foremost expert on alien technologies. I'd like to get straight to the point. We would like to know what your expectations of meeting us are."

Jacen and Jaina exchanged glances.

"Umm…well…I hadn't really thought that far ahead," Jacen admitted. "I was hoping to meet new people and I thought I'd drag my sister along for company."

"Thanks," Jaina said sarcastically, and Jacen smiled in response.

"I spent five years searching our galaxy for knowledge after a war that nearly destroyed our galaxy," Jacen elaborated. "During the last few years I started a family, but never stopped looking for knowledge. I suppose this is a new…way to learn new things. Exploring a human culture in a galaxy far, far away from home. I have no idea what you could offer us, personally or otherwise. I'm not looking for riches or anything. Hell, I married a queen of sixty-three planets, and not for the wealth. I'm here because…it's exciting, you know? I do want to go back, but I also want to see what's over here. Maybe in time we can discover things that we can share and develop relations between our governments."

"This…war you mentioned," Doctor Keller said. "You didn't happen to be involved in it, were you? And would this enemy be a threat to us?"

"Jaina and I were on the front lines from the second day," Jacen said, his eyes losing the glint of youthful excitement they held a moment before. "During the third year, I was captured by the enemy. I trust you noticed some of the reminders that were left from my captivity with your scan, Doctor."

Keller flushed bright red, but did not say anything.

"The Yuuzhan Vong are no longer a threat," Jaina picked up. "Jacen befriended a sentient planet and together they had a large part in convincing the Vong to end the war."

"A sentient planet?" Carter asked.

"A close friend of mine," Jacen corrected. "Who happens to be a planet. She's the only one we've ever found. Together we created a situation which allowed for a peace accord to be struck between the Yuuzhan Vong and the people of our galaxy. Their warrior class committed suicide at the end of the war, and they abhor technology, so you have nothing to fear from them. They would destroy the stargate before activating it."

"Well, we have a need for you," Woolsey said, bringing the discussion back to his intended path. "Colonel?"

Carter stood up and activated a display screen. A diagram of what appeared to be a streamlined crescent-shaped ship with a long front hull extending from the middle of the crescent appeared.

"This is Destiny, an Ancient ship on the other side of the universe," Carter said. "Fifty two of our people are stranded on it in a dire situation where they lack both the power and resources to survive, much less get home. We're hoping you can help us out."

"With the device I sent you," Jacen theorized.

"Exactly," Carter said. "That device you created produces enough energy to run all of Atlantis' systems at full power even with an active stargate to your galaxy, and that would still barely use half of what it can output. But that still isn't enough power to reach Destiny."

"You need a bigger singularity to connect a wormhole," Jaina said.

"That's part of it," Carter admitted. "But not all. We want to make another of these to power Destiny. Right now they can't store enough power to survive more than a couple of weeks at full operating capacity. The power system has sustained too much degradation and damage over the millions of years Destiny has been active to support a crew. They're looking into long term hibernation and an FTL jump that will put them out of touch for three years until they can find stars that are safe enough for them to recharge in."

"What's wrong with the stars near where they are?" Jaina asked.

"They're being defended by a powerful enemy," Woolsey said. "Any attempt to get near a safe star is suicidal. Destiny has already sustained damage attempting to recharge from a star that was too hot."

"So you need my help to create the singularity inside one of these devices to send to them," Jacen said.

"We've replicated the unit using your specifications and the Asgard matter replication system, but we can't figure out how you activated it," Carter admitted. "Frankly, we're as stumped as the Ancients who designed it were."

Jacen held his hands in front of him and concentrated. A moment later a flash of light appeared half way between his palms before it coalesced into a bright ball of light. He clapped his hands together and it disappeared.

"It's a matter of controlling specific matter at an atomic level," Jacen explained.

"How?" Carter asked breathlessly, speaking for everyone in the room. He had used no perceptible technology to create the short-lived star.

"I did mention I spent five years seeking knowledge," Jacen said. "Did you think I was searching for new recipes?"