Daniel Jackson entered the room carrying an overlarge file. General O'Neill came in behind him followed by Sam Carter. The Doctor noted a container labeled "Belongings: Doctor and Tyler, Rose." O'Neill was holding the sonic screwdriver in addition to file folder of his own, considerably smaller than Daniel's file. All three of them sat in chairs at the table with the tea and doughnuts across from the Doctor and Rose.

"I think some introductions are in order," said O'Neill. "I am General Jack O'Neill, whom I think you've heard of. I think you have also heard of Doctor Daniel Jackson. I am aware that you haven't learned her name yet so let me introduce you properly. This is Colonel Samantha Carter."

The Doctor said, "Pleased to meet all of you."

O'Neill nodded cordially. Observing the Doctor directly, the alien didn't appear to be taking any of this seriously. From what O'Neill had seen, this Doctor acted like a little kid. He talked about absolutely everything he observed and made it a point to observe everything. Now seeing him face-to-face, the Doctor's expressions were cartoonishly overexaggerated.

"Before we decide anything, we need to go over some things." O'Neill laid his file before him and opened it. "I don't like beating around the bush. I'm a straight-forward guy, not the brightest fellow to know. So down to it. Your medical examination is the first thing I want to talk about."

"Oh, down to the meat of it. Who am I, really? Well, I'm ready."

"What species are you?"

"Species?"

"You have two hearts."

"Gallifreyan."

Daniel was absolutely fascinated. This Doctor, by the accounts he had read, was truly ancient, and if Doctor Lam's report held any water, the Doctor wasn't being kept alive by any parasite, wasn't being constantly cloned, and wasn't ascendant. Daniel's file revealed the Doctor as a mystery, regarded as an enemy by some, but as a hero by most. There were folk legends about him, government files praising him, and it seems was not unknown in the United States. He spent a great deal of time on Earth.

Daniel said, "So, I guess your planet is called Gallifrey."

"Yeah, that's a good guess," said the Doctor.

O'Neill said, "Where exactly would that be?"

"Oh, a long way from here. It was in the Perseus A galaxy in the constellation Kasterborous."

O'Neill and Daniel looked at Sam, who looked as though she had just been punched.

She said, "The Perseus A galaxy is approximately 250 million light years from here."

Sam had been irritated by some of the Doctor's incendiary observations the previous day. In retrospect, they were true, but one could not deny that nearly all of the technological advancement achieved in the past ten years had been thanks to information given by the Asgard. Then again, this information was not exactly given. The Asgard insisted upon overseeing the operations of ships built using this information. Also, it was entirely up to humans to understand these technologies, with little to no aid. The Doctor had correctly pointed out that this wasn't so much the same effect as giving a child a match as it was of giving a child a flamethrower. The Asgard had let humanity take a tremendous risk and then didn't tell them.

Sam wondered if the Doctor would have introduced this technology differently, but quickly realized that he wouldn't have done it at all. If it had been up to the Doctor, humanity would have no help from the Asgard, and the Asgard would be dealing with the threat personally. She looked into his eyes and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Doctor's opinion was to let children grow at their own pace and let grownups deal with grownup problems. Human ego awakened in the back of Sam's mind and protested that SG1 at the very least had proven themselves equal to incredible challenges, but reason took over and told her that it was always unwise to progress too quickly.

O'Neill said, "What do you mean, 'was'?"

The Doctor suddenly looked uncomfortable. He took a sharp breath and said, "Gallifrey was destroyed in a war. As far as I know there were no survivors. We weren't the type to leave our home world."

"Why did you leave?" asked Daniel.

"I was something of a rebel. I never saw eye to eye with my elders. They used to travel all over the place: the End of the Universe, the Dawn of Time, the Medusa Belt. In the end, they became stagnant. They were content to watch the universe fly by and never participate. I wanted to see it. So I left."

"And you came here," said Sam.

"I travel. I wander. I spend more time on Earth. This planet is nothing like Gallifrey. Funny thing. I come here because it feels like home."

"How long ago did civilization develop on Gallifrey?" Sam tried to sound professional but her voice was a bit raspy.

"Over a billion years ago."

Daniel's eyes went wide. "Which would make your civilization the oldest in known history."

The Doctor would answer no more questions about Gallifrey, which was just as well. They had only asked what happened out of curiosity. O'Neill finished with his questions and told Daniel to present his information. Daniel opened the large file and began to sift through it.

"Okay, well. Ahh, I have found a ream of information on you but nothing that really tells me about you. In London, you apparently have a fan club called London Investigation N' Detective Agency--"

Rose said, "LINDA!" and began giggling. "They know about LINDA!"

"--LINDA for short, that is dedicated to learning more about you and exploring how you came to be important in their lives. Apparently, in 1879, a man calling himself the Doctor and an improperly clothed woman named Rose Tyler, rescued Queen Victoria from a werewolf. They were both knighted for their deeds and immediately banished for the crime of "inappropriate knowledge of the stars," which is a euphemistic way of saying witchcraft."

"Oh, come on!" said Rose. "She is a werewolf! It bit her right across the wrist. We saw it! It's the only reason she had her little hissy-fit."

The Doctor said, "You mean 'howly'-fit."

Rose began laughing uncontrollably.

Daniel waited patiently for her to recompose herself. "Your Police Public Call Box appears in various drawings and tablets over the past five thousand years. Pompeii?"

"Haven't been there yet," said the Doctor. "I wonder what I do there? The eruption's a fixed point in time so I can't stop it." The Doctor cringed. "What if I have to cause it? That would be upsetting."

"I don't know. All I have is a record of someone called the Doctor and an unnamed woman being charged with heresy. The report describes them as Welsh. Whatever that's about. Apparently you are very popular in the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart swears that he has witnessed you literally saving the Earth on numerous occasions, has learned to trust your judgment, and calls you a dear friend." He closed the file and said, "I can go on for hours. I Googled, 'Doctor blue box' and had to go through five pages before I found a link that didn't relate to you. There are even pictures.

"I want to talk about some of your nicknames. You are called the Lonely God, the Ageless Wanderer, the Destroyer of Worlds--you don't look like you could destroy worlds."

"Looks can be deceiving. Yes, I have earned all of those nicknames. The Lonely God, who always travels with a human companion...the Ageless Wanderer, whose face always changes and never dies...the Destroyer of Worlds, before whom armies flee. I don't kill if I can avoid it, and I protect life. When faced with some the deadliest aliens imaginable, I'm sure you'll understand that I do what needs to be done to protect helpless lives."

O'Neill clasped his hands with a snap and said, "Well, when meeting a man who's lost his home, I think we'd be pretty inhospitable hosts if we let this go on any longer." O'Neill handed the sonic screwdriver to the Doctor.

Sam produced the Doctor's ID wallet and handed it to him, giving the box to Rose.

"I don't understand," said Daniel. "Why do you carry around a blank piece of paper?"

The Doctor opened the case and turned it around. "Because of this. The paper is psychic. I can show you identification or anything I need you to see. I can also receive messages on it. Such as this one."

Daniel blinked. "I'd swear that wasn't there a second ago. It looks like it's written in Egyptian demotic."

"It says, 'Please help'."

Sam looked at the paper and said, "That's a gate address beneath it. Do you know where it goes?"

"I've never worked a Stargate before. If you gave me galactic coordinates, I could probably tell you."

The gate control room looked like the inside of a spaceship. There were monitors and servers on every inch of wall. One computer monitor said "Ori tactical analysis", but everyone was more interested in the gate: an enormous, exotically beautiful ring in a massive room viewed from a window in the control room. The Doctor identified it as an old nuclear missile silo.

The Doctor was saying, "So, General, the Goa'uld are pretty well defunct now and you're fighting against the Ori, now?"

"Right. We know there are still a few out there. Seriously, though, why would they be calling us?"

"It wasn't calling you, it was calling both of us. This Goa'uld is sending out some really strong telepathic signals. It's calling us like a beacon. I think the TARDIS responded to it. Tell me what you've observed about the Ori."

The rest of SG1 appeared in the control room. They gave passing glances at each other as Daniel turned to the Doctor.

"Religious fanatics. Everyone is to be either converted or killed. Anyone who doesn't believe in their Book of Origin is usually murdered. They claim to be the true Ancients and to be showing us all the path to Ascendance."

"Well, the Goa'uld certainly wouldn't fit in their grand scheme. I wonder if this Goa'uld is dealing with them."

The Doctor turned to the last two members of SG1 he hadn't met. "I'm the Doctor and this Rose."

Vala said, "Hello. I think we've met before."

There was something different about the Doctor, but Vala couldn't quite place it. It certainly looked like the same man she had met so many years before, but...it was strange: it seemed to be him, but when Vala got up close, he looked completely different. She was sure it would come to her. One thing that seemed to be different, he seemed much more attractive than she remembered.

The Doctor said, "We have, Vala Mal Doran, but fortunately, it looks like you've left your superego behind."

Vala took that to mean Qetesh.

Mitchell stepped toward the Doctor. "Colonel Cameron Mitchell. I took over when General O'Neill got his stars."

The Doctor shook Mitchell's hand and said, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like that fellow from Farscape?"

"I hear that all the time."

Cameron felt a charisma from the Doctor that he had never felt from anyone before. He realized that it didn't matter what the Doctor said, he just loved hearing him talk. Having encountered aliens before that had had that intoxicating effect, he was suddenly on alert, but then he realized that the Doctor wasn't doing something that those other aliens had...he wasn't hiding the fact that he was an alien.

The gate address was entered into the main system. A map in the center of the control room plotted the gate symbols and showed a point between the positions of the constellations represented. The number P7K-141 flashed across the screen. The Doctor chuckled and observed the image closely. He put a finger on it and began tracing across the stars back to Earth.

"Oh, the planet Bubastis, home of Bastet."

Daniel said, "Bastet was generally depicted as female with a feline head. She was a protector goddess of Lower Egypt."

Mitchell said, "Never heard of her."

"You wouldn't have," said the Doctor. "She's one of the oldest of Goa'uld. She was the most vicious of the rulers. Three thousand years ago, she began defending her rule against a series of rebellions. There was one every fifteen years on average for the next 500 years. Not one of them succeeded. Bastet always put them down, but it did make her think. After the last rebellion, she called the rebel leader before him. He expected her to pass judgment on him and execute him as she had always done to rebels. She didn't. She asked him what he so desired that her subjects were so willing to tear the world apart over it.

"He told her, shouting in defiance expecting her to laugh him down. They didn't want to be treated as slaves anymore. The people were starving. She took so much of the harvest there was too little left for the people. They wanted doctors and medicine; schools and education. She told him that all of those things would be done and ordered his release. The time was she would have killed hundreds of people to make examples for their defiance."

"But not this time?" asked Sam.

"She did everything she promised. A grand experiment had begun. There was a provision. The people would have to be more productive in order to make up for the loss of the harvest tariffs. After four years, Bastet found that the increase was three times what she requested. She started giving them more freedoms. The tariffs were going to Ra. When he died, she forgot the harvest tariff. Now, thousands of years later. She rules on the belief that a happy population is a productive one. Her people love her and won't hear a negative word about her."

"Well," said Vala. "She had an incentive, didn't she? Her economy was being ripped apart."

"It was. I met her once before. She was a bit eccentric. Her view on the Goa'uld was disdainful and haughty. Her opinion was reminiscent of the Tok'ra, but I couldn't help but notice that her people still addressed as a goddess and she lived in horrific decadence." He looked pointedly at Vala. "Just FYI, you look much better without Qetesh sticking out of your neck."

"Oh, well," Vala stammered, "she didn't really suit me anyway." She laughed uneasily. "By the way, if Rose is your travel companion, how come she wasn't with you when I met you?"

"Rose and I hadn't met."

"But Rose said she had been with you the last time you regenerated. She said so during the interview with Doctor Lam"

"You're still telepathic because of your bond with Qetesh. I didn't look like this when you and I met. You're seeing me the way a psychic sees my kind."

Vala took a closer look and curious expression crossed her face. "Now that you mention it, you look a bit younger. You wore a scarf and a heavy coat right? Sarah Jane Smith!" Vala clapped. "That's the name of the girl you were traveling with! And there was someone named Harry! I'm right, aren't I?"

"Harry Sullivan, quite right."

Vala turned to General O'Neill and asked, "General, will you be staying to see if the Doctor's gate address turns up anything interesting?"

O'Neill looked at his watch, tapped it and said, "Well, I only came down here because I had to see what the fuss was about, but now I think I may stay for the party. Who's bringing the nachos?"

The MALP had finally entered the gate room. The gate technician, Walter, entered the gate alignment. He sounded off each chevron as they recorded the appropriate symbols. Only Rose showed any kind of surprise as the Stargate opened.

Sam spoke softly to Rose. "What you're seeing is the event horizon of a wormhole. It's easy to say it's a shortcut through space but that isn't really accurate. It actually creates a curve in space-time. If the distance between point A and point B is straight line, then a curvature in space-time could turn lightyears into mere feet. The Doctor probably knows a thing about wormholes that our science hasn't thought of."

As the MALP entered the vortex, Landry said, "Once we have an all clear, SG1 will go through the gate with Doctor and assess the situation. Team leader will report back in one hour. Civilian personnel will remain on the base."

Rose said, "Oi! That's not fair! What's the worse that's out there? A dodgy snake lady? I've faced Cybermen and Daleks and the Doctor said the Goa'uld weren't near as bad as them." Rose crossed her arms. "I've stood under a black hole, saved a load of people from a werewolf, Prime Minister of England makes me bloody ambassador of Earth on Christmas Day and now there's a wormhole in front of me and I don't get to go through?"

The Doctor said, "And you did a lovely job being ambassador to the Sycorax while I was regenerating, but I guarantee you the military is not going to want the responsibility of taking a civilian on a mission."

Sam said, "I'll make you a deal. You stay here and wait for us and I promise, I'll take you on a trip to one of our beta sites when everything's wrapped up."

The Doctor said, "I'm sorry Rose, but that's the best they can offer, I'm afraid."

Rose folded her arms tighter and said, "I'll hold you to that."

A signal finally reached the base. The MALP was transmitting. The images on the screen were of tents with various people scurrying about. Several people were watching the gate intently while others eyed the MALP curiously, but nobody made a move towards it.

"Looks like a flea market," said O'Neill.

"It's definitely some kind of market," said Daniel.

"I'm in the market," Vala said, turning to Daniel, an eager look on her face.

"No deposit; no return."

Vala's jaw dropped and anyone who was nearby had trouble stifling their laughter.

"How rude," said Vala. She looped an arm around Daniel's arm. "Fortunately, I know your rejection is merely your inner child crying out for help."

Daniel didn't look away from the screen. "No, my inner child is crying out in terror."

The Doctor and SG1 stood in the gate room. They were all lightly equipped, though the Doctor wasn't very enthusiastic about the P-90's they were carrying, nor did he particularly care for Teal'c's staff weapon. There was little he could do about it. Was it any wonder that they ran into such trouble considering that they always traveled so heavily armed? He stepped a bit closer to the gate and examined the aperture. Tiny tendrils of the Vortex of Time swirled, imperceptible to the human eye, in and out of the event horizon. He saw every road this gate could take. SG1 hadn't a clue of its true potential. Their human eyes could only see a glowing vortex.

Mitchell stepped up beside the Doctor. Measuring the expression on the Doctor's face, Mitchell chuckled. "So tell me, do you ever just sit back and appreciate something? Most people see this the first time and their faces light up like a kid on Christmas. Not you. You look like the boogeyman's about to jump out."

The Doctor smiled in spite of himself. "All the time. The trouble is that I'm too clever for my own good and I get to thinking about all the nasty things associated with whatever I'm looking at."

"Well, Rose didn't see that. She saw the same thing everything else does."

"No, she sees an adventure. She's here for the same reason I am."

"What's that?"

"To see what there is to see. No greater motivation than that. Once you realize your world is a postage stamp, you don't want to go back. I think we've lingered long enough."

The Doctor was the first to step through the gate.