PEGASUS HYPERSPACE

Col. O'Neill is wondering at the splendor of it all. Just six months ago, Apophis was about to launch an attack against Earth when the mysterious Colonials arrived in the proverbial Nick-O-Time. Not quite as advanced as the Goa'uld, but apparently, their big honking railguns were effective enough. You got to love massive amounts of kinetic energy. Anyhow, this led to the downside of that encounter. EVERBODY now knew about the alien threat that was the Goa'uld. A big fleet of 100 assorted spacecraft did tend to show up on any decent detection equipment looking into the sky. That fraking (got to love the new expletives we're gaining to the English language) Pegasus was 2000 meters long. Way bigger than the Ha'taks Apophis brought along. They even managed to capture Klorel's ship. Saving SG-1 in the process.

"We are coming out of hyperspace over Heliopolis," Commander Lee Adama informed Col. O'Neill.

"Good, I've never seen it from orbit. Last time we were a little too preoccupied to even think about exploring."

"Well, we transported your DSRV submarine to the planet last month. They located the Stargate. Luckily the Library you mentioned was still intact. A little exposed to the elements without a roof overhead, but still functioning."

"Got to love those Ancients. With the DHD from Antarctica, we should have the Gate up and running soon. You guys will have your own colony here with constant communication with Earth." Jack considered his next question carefully. "Speaking of Colonies, did you guys encourage it, or did the Cylons decide for themselves to set up shop on the 4th planet?"

"Oh, they decided that own their own. We maintain constant communications with them and signed a mutual defense pact. Besides, these guys are alright. If it wasn't for them, I'm not sure anybody would have survived." Commander Lee Adama smiled, "Besides, I've actually become quite fond of a few of them on a personal level. Saving your butt a few times in fighter engagements with the Remnants will give you a new perspective on old enemies."

Jack began thinking that despite Gate activity being at a minimum, they still performed one joint action with the Colonials and the Cylons. Cimmeria sent a message when the Goa'uld Heru'ur took advantage of the destroyed Thor's Hammer to invade. Jack remembered the satisfaction of leading a real strike force to help fight off those Jaffa. Still wasn't enough to liberate the planet, but they held their own until Daniel managed to contact Thor himself. Yeah, the Snakeheads really don't know what they are in for.

SGC Cheyenne Mountain

General Hammond was relieved he wasn't relieved of command. The Stargate was now part of a new UN organization. After studying his tenure over the SGC, they liked what they saw. He was knowledgeable about Gate Operations and had a good head for command. The Security Council was happy to leave him in command. That wasn't to say they didn't plan on getting him a new XO, not that they really ever assigned one to him before. To ease friction, and even the Russians and Chinese agreed to it, the XO was a Brit, Brigadier General William Stuart.

"So what have we today, General Hammond?" asked the Brigadier.

"THAT is the million-dollar question. Hopefully, we will be getting a Dial-In from Heliopolis. We're under orders, for now, to cease any further Gate travel until the restructuring of this new joint UN Command is finished. I believe the New UN Defense Force is leaning to using the rank structure of the Colonials. They don't seem to have a strong Naval Tradition, so most of their ranks are based on normal army-style ranks. That is except when a rank has a definite relationship to any Fleet Commands. The squids are NOT going to like losing their argument for maintaining their version of the Captain rank."

"Be that as it may, it's about bloody time we get a truly unified rank system. Too bad it took an alien invasion to get that done." Brigadier Stuart smiles. "I believe we are also about to receive the new units sometime soon." The Brigadier knew that a group of SAS boys, from the UK and Australia, were to arrive soon. After that, it was expected that the new personnel would be arranged into teams with mixed nationalities.

"We can add that to the list of the things we are getting from the Colonials in this alliance. They are sharing their medical tech with us. It helps to have a useful example of nanotechnology rather than the stuff we have encountered made by the Goa'uld. Thanks to their Cylon friends they have managed to do something about most of their cancers."

GALACTICA EARTH ORBIT

Commodore Adama hated admitting one thing, even in private to himself. Besides the continuation of the Human race, we need Earth because they actually have a near monopoly on scientists for now. They had Gaius Baltar. Earth had Captain Samantha Carter, which would be fine unto itself, but why, by all that is holy on Kobol, did they send this Rodney McKay? The man was an ass even compared to Baltar. Oh well. If we want to get anything done with the Goa'uld ship, I will just assign my Chief Engineer to Captain Carter's team and pair Baltar up with McKay. Maybe one of them will kill the other and reduce my stress levels to a normal level. Though, right now, Captain Carter seems very distracted by something.

"Captain Carter? As a pilot, do your people use callsigns?"

Carter blinks in surprise. "Yes sir, why do you ask?"

Adama smiles, "It's just a common custom, to save time and breath, to usually refer to pilots by their callsign rather than tongue twisting around what may be a difficult pronunciation of name and rank. What is yours?"

Sam blushes, "Mine was 'Astro Nerd,' or 'Astro,' during the Gulf War. I was hoping to become an astronaut. That is what we call the members of our space program. And a nerd is…"

"I can see the correlation. You mind if I call you that? 'Astro' I mean? I'll let you in on a secret about embarrassing callsigns. Mine was 'Husker.' I don't know if it has an equivalent…."

"Yes sir, it does," Sam replies while trying to suppress a giggle. "A country boy farmer? We call many of those huskers, too."

"The embarrassment was that I was actually from Caprica City and my extended family was part of what you may think of as the Mafia. I was about as far from a husker as you can be. My first ECO refused to call me anything else and it sort of grew on me."

"Okay, sir. If it will engender a spirit of cooperation among allies, I guess I can go by 'Astro' once more. Besides, it may be a good way to start out this new alliance by adopting some of each other's military customs."

"Well, Astro? What seems to distract you today?"

"Okay, a few months ago I was a host to a Goa'uld that was part of a faction that has rebelled against the System Lords. They call themselves the Tok'ra, which literally means 'against Ra.' I have recently been having visions? Memories? They are of me, but I think it is really Jolinar, the Tok'ra that was in me, and I am remembering the last time they evacuated. I remember the Gate address of where they went."

"So what is the importance of this?"

"Sir, I think they would be great allies against the Goa'uld."

SGC

"General Hammond, General Stuart, do you have any idea when your people will begin to use the Gate again?" began Adama. "I believe that it may be time sensitive to follow up on this lead presented by Captain Carter."

"Right now, we are only authorized to conduct Gate travel to and from Heliopolis. The UN Council won't authorize anything more from our end until we have the new military structure solidified," explain Hammond.

"Besides, the rest of Captain Carter's team in New Caprica City," added General Stuart ", I would assume that they would want to be part of any mission proposed by her."

Adama thought about that a moment. "You are absolutely right. I think we should talk to Col. O'Neill to have his opinion of this anyway. I would like to take Capt. Carter to New Caprica City. She needs to brief our people there on what she has discovered, so far, about the likelihood of reverse engineering at least the shield technology in the near future."

Hammond smiled, "I think that would be acceptable. Having your ships better protected is of the utmost importance."

"Good, I'm ready to go now, if the Captain is."

Looking startled Sam replies, "Of course, sir."

"Sargent, dial-up Heliopolis."

Minutes later, as they are stepping through the Gate Sam leans in, "Sir, we aren't going to brief anybody about shields, I hope. I don't have a clue as to when we could do anything."

"No, Astro, we are not."

General Stuart leans towards Hammond, "They aren't going to talk to anybody about shields, are they?"

Author's Notes:

Some explanation. Since I am writing this as part of the Stargate universe, I make the assumption that the Colonials are using a standard hyperdrive as their FTL. Now I imagine it more in the order of how fast Teal'c thought that Goa'ul ships travel, making it significantly slower than Apophis' ships. Interestingly enough, the discription of the fuel element Tyllium is close enough to Naquadah that I think I can handwave it as just being the name Colonials use for Naquadah.