EDIT: 2/14/2012

Hello fellow SGU fans! Chapter 3, Similar Differences has been edited and new material has been added! Most of the content is still the same, and the story is still very much just the same. But I have reread everything, edited, added some new things here and there and replaced the original Chapter 3 with the new and improved Chapter 3! Hope you guys enjoy a better read with the improved Chapter 3! Oh, and I am removing the M Rating for this story, as I have edited out the adult content. So now, SGU fans of ALL AGES can enjoy the read!

Hello fans of Stargate Universe. The name's sheesh.

This is the story of our friends onboard the Destiny, 3 years after they made the fateful FTL jump from one galaxy, to another. We follow them as their jouney continues through this new, and strange galaxy. What mysteries await them? What sort of alien species will they encounter, and wil they be hostile? And what has become of the one man we have come to know and love as the incredibly smart, Eli Wallace? Has he survived the jump? Or did the crew wake up too late? To find out the answers to these questions, read the story that could have been, the story that many of us SGU fans would love to see finished.

This is a fan fiction that I have been working on for the last few months. Forgive me if you see mistakes here and there, as I have been a novice writer for about 6 years now. Since I learned while watching the season 2 finale that there would no longer be new episodes, I was haunted with many, many questions about where the story of the Destiny would go, and what would become of the characters we have come to love. After giving it some thought, I decided I would write my take on a season 3 of Stargate Universe. This is a fan fiction, written by a fan, for the fans. I hope that you guys enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. This is the biggest project I've ever done. Please, I only ask one thing from those of you who read it...REVIEWS! Again, I'm still a novice writer, and I need...would like reviews from other fans ands readers about my writings. If there is something that you did or did not like, please tell me in your review, so that I may improve upon it in future chapters. Again, PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW!

Stargate Universe: Infinite Ultimatum

This story is no way affiliated with the Stargate franchise, SyFy, or anything else associated with Stargate and MGM. All characters and name's that appeared in the Stargate series belong to Stargate, I do not own them. This is a fan fiction. I do not own any copyright claims, no copyright infringement is intended. I own only those characters and name's whom I have added to the storyline. Again, all characters and name's that have appeared in the shows belong to the Stargate franchise, and all other affiliates.

9/2/11

Chapter 3

Similar Differences

In the infirmary, Young, TJ, Rush, Terra, and Scott were talking amongst themselves, discussing the strange arrival of the even stranger creatures. Three days had passed since their arrival, and Young was unsure of what to do with them. So Scott used the communications stones to exchange bodies with Gen. O'Neill.

"Sooo…" Jack rocked back and forth on his feet as he shot a quick glance at the creatures. "These...things, happened to know the name of this ship, Sgt. Greer's name, Johansson's name, and Rush's name? AND they all happen to be wearing Icarus Base and marine uniforms?"

Young shrugged, "We don't know what's going on, General. First, Destiny seems to go rogue on us by locking us out of key systems except communications and weapons, and then Destiny is almost immobilized by an alien computer virus, and now this."

"Not only that, General," TJ said, "but one of them has Eli's last name on its name patch."

Jack looked blankly at TJ, "And that means…what?"

"Just before they came through the Gate," Young replied, "one of the things on the radio said to take Eli with them. And that things voice…happened to sound exactly like mine."

Jack tilted his head to one side a bit, "Your voice, Colonel?"

Young nodded, "Yes sir. We're just as confused as you are about this."

"Uh huh," Jack said looking down at the floor for a moment. "This sounds a bit too familiar."

Rush was confused by this, "What?"

"Well, it only happened about five or so years ago," said Jack, "but about twenty or more SG-1 teams came through the gate in about a day. One of those teams happened to not be very friendly. Not only that, but Daniel met…a different…me a long time ago."

Young furrowed his eyebrows, "Twenty different SG-1 teams?"

"You're talking about alternate versions of SG-1, correct?" asked Rush.

Jack nodded, "Yep."

"But what does that have to do with these things?" TJ asked.

"Well, you did say one of them has the name Wallace on its name patch," replied Jack, "and another called one of them Eli. So, I kinda…connected the dots."

"I think I know what he is talking about," Terra said, speaking for the first time since Jack came aboard. Jack seemed surprised that she could talk, let alone speak English. All eyes turned to her. "The multiverse. A theory that emerged in our culture about nine thousand years ago."

Jack raised his eyebrows at that, "Nine thousand years ago?"

Rush answered his question, "Her race is by far the most advanced race we've ever come upon. I have a feeling that they may even be far more advanced than the Asgard and the Ancients. But is she right?"

Jack nodded, "Yeah. That's sort of what I was getting at…I guess." He glanced over at the creatures again, and saw that one of them was still standing. This made him uneasy, "Why's that one not sleeping?"

Young turned to glance at the standing creature before turning back. "Well," Young said, "we can't budge him. We can't even lift it high enough to put it up on the bed."

"It seems to be an android," added Rush. "Its arms and legs are locked in place. Its eyes aren't even reacting to a flash light."

"Right," Jack said. "Like I said, alternate versions of SG-1. That…multi-whatever she called it."

"Multiverse," Terra said. "What else may explain Col. Young's voice on the radio when he was standing next to Dr. Rush, not touching the radio? And perhaps the one with the name Wallace is this Eli that was mentioned."

Jack looked at Rush and Young, waiting for them to say something. "Well?"

Rush scratched the stubble on his chin, "It's plausible. But I don't think that the one with the Wallace name patch is Eli." He shrugged, "Don't get me wrong, the multiverse theory is by far the most possible explanation. But a variation such as this one? It's hard to wrap my head around the idea of me being one of those things in their universe."

"Oh believe me," said Jack, "I know the feeling all too well."

"Then if that's true," said TJ, "would that mean that humans don't exist in their universe? That all of us would be one of them instead of human?"

"It is highly likely," answered Terra.

Jack looked down at the watch on his wrist and drew a deep breath, "Well, when they do wake up, I'm sure you'll find out the answers to all of these questions. And oh," he pointed at Young, "we'll talk about this whole…alien culture interference thing later. Right now, I need to review Ronon's strategy for taking back DC."

Young nodded, "Yes sir. I'll escort you back to the stones room. TJ, I want to know exactly what these things are. And Rush, find out how we're going to send these things back."

"I will help you," said Terra, following Rush out of the infirmary.

TJ set about drawing blood from one of the unconscious creatures to find out what they are.

Young took Jack back to the stones room.

"Colonel," said Jack as they reached the stones room and entered. "Just one thing…why is there a six foot tall, two-legged lizard on the ship?" He leaned closer to Young and whispered, "That thing is taller than me!"

Young smiled, "Well sir, Destiny shut the gate down before Terra went through back to her planet. We're still trying to gain back control of the ship. And Terra isn't exactly a lizard."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "Oh? What is she then? Wait, don't tell me that she's somehow a distant relative of the human being, except from another galaxy."

"Actually sir," Young said, unable to stop himself from smiling, "I was going to say something like that."

Jack raised his other eyebrow, "What?"

"She may look like a reptile," answered Young, "she may have basically all the physical attributes of a lizard, but she's a mammal."

Jack shook his head, "The weirdest things happen in this universe. Now that you mention it, I did see something that looked like a bra under that pretty shirt she's wearing." He smirked, "And Sam would be on my case for a whole year for saying that."

"The stone's ready, sir," James said from where she sat behind a laptop.

"Well, Colonel," said Jack, "even with all that's happening back home, you seem to be managing this ship like a true ships captain." He patted Young on the shoulder, "Keep up the good work."

"Thank you sir," Young said, saluting Jack, "I will."

Jack touched the stone, and Scott blinked. "Why am I back already?"

Young could tell something was wrong, "Scott, what happened?"

Scott looked at the stone, then back at Young, "The Lucian Alliance led an assault on the SGC."

ͼͽ

Jack looked around as the ground beneath him shook. Dust fell from the ceiling, and the lights flickered.

"…and they're trying to get through access hatch at the top of the mountain." Jack looked in front of him and saw that it was Cameron talking. Cameron pointed to Jack, "You, Lt. Scott, I need you to get a team of four and help out Ronon and Teal'c up at the access hatch entrance. They'll need the support." Jack glanced at the people standing at either side of him. It was Teyla, Vala, and Sam. He looked back at Cameron blankly. Cameron waved his hand, "Hello, Earth to Lt. Scott. Did you hear what I said?"

"I sure as hell did hear what you said, Mitchell," Jack said. "But why the hell are you giving me orders? And what the hell's going on?"

"Jack?" said Sam, a bit surprised. "Was the connection severed?"

"No, I came back because I have to review Ronon's tactical strategy," Jack answered. "What the hell is going on? And why the hell is there dust falling from the ceiling?"

"The Lucian Alliance is trying to get into the mountain," Cameron answered. "They wanna gain control of the gate."

"I'm gone for only two hours," Jack said, "and you already managed to let everything go to hell?"

"Sir," said Sam, "they attacked without warning. They showed up in several cloaked Goa'uld cargo ships and they used the rings to beam their men right on top of the mountain. We had no warning."

"And they're shooting at us with two of those cargo ships," Vala added.

"Ya still let everything go to hell," said Jack. He looked back at Cameron, "I want you to go up and help Ronon and Teal'c. And get a team."

Cameron nodded, and quickly made his way out of the room.

"What are we to do, General O'Neill?" Teyla asked.

"I don't know!" Jack exclaimed. "I just got back here. I don't know what the hell is going on." He glanced at Sam, "Does Landry know about this?"

"He's at the Pentagon with the President," Sam answered. "They're monitoring the Lucian's' movements on the mountain from a UAV."

Jack raised his eyebrows, "The Pentagon? But I thought-"

Vala interrupted him, "The Lucian Alliance evacuated that place." Jack glanced at Vala, "We don't know why, but they just went up and left."

"They left everything intact in the Pentagon," Sam added, "although there are obvious signs they hacked much of the computer databases."

"Damn," Jack said, "I was hoping they wouldn't do that to the computers." The floor shook again, "If they transported their troops to the mountain top, why is the whole mountain shaking?"

"They are firing upon the entrance to the mountain by a pair of cargo ships," Teyla answered, "hoping to seal us inside the mountain."

"Well, we can't let them do that," said Jack. "Contact Atlantis. Find out if they have any of those little...yellow things that nearly killed me back in Antarctica. I want those damn ships blown up."

"McKay's already working on the drones," Sam answered. "The galactic jump Atlantis made to get here seems to have damaged the drones somehow."

"Well, tell him to hurry up then!" Jack exclaimed.

ͼͽ

"McKay!" Sheppard shouted as he rushed into the Chair room, "We need those drones working now!"

"I'm working as fast as I can here!" McKay shouted back. "You wanna help? Be my guest! You try and figure out why a piece of ten thousand year old weapons technology isn't working!"

"I'd rather be the one using that weapons technology right about now," answered Sheppard. He tapped the radio headpiece on his ear, "Dr. Woolsey, how's the SGC holding up?"

Dr. Richard Woolsey's voice responded in Sheppard's earpiece, "General O'Neill just returned. Col. Mitchell just reported back, the Lucian's have pretty much destroyed half of the main entrance tunnel already. We need those drones working now. The mountain can't take much more."

"I got it!" McKay exclaimed. "It's not the drones! It's the control circuits in the pedestal!"

"Well fix it then!" Sheppard shouted as he sat down in the Ancient control chair.

"Just about," McKay said as he fiddled with the circuits in the pedestal the Ancient control chair stood on, "There! Go, the drones should be working now."

"I'm firing," Sheppard said as he placed his hands on the gel at the end of each of the chairs arms.

ͼͽ

Masses of drones emerged from the city and shot upwards towards the sky.

They quickly raced through the clouds towards their intended targets. Within minutes, they had already reached their destination. The Lucians in the cargo ships had no time to react, and all three cargo ships were destroyed in the blink of an eye.

The Lucian foot soldiers on the ground scrambled to get inside the access hatch before the burning wreckage of the cargo ship that transported them crushed them.

ͼͽ

McKay glanced down at the tablet in his hand as it beeped, "Targets have been neutralized. There's nothing left."

Sheppard sat forward in the chair and tapped his com headset, "Woolsey, tell the SGC that hostile air support and ground transport has been neutralized."

"Very good," Woolsey responded, "I'll contact them immediately."

Sheppard stood up and made quickly for the door, but McKay stopped him, "Where you going now?"

Sheppard glanced over his shoulder, "There's still the troops inside the mountain to deal with. SGC is going to need all the firepower they can get."

ͼͽ

At the SGC, Ronon and Teal'c continued to defend against the invading Lucian soldiers. Ronon shouted over his shoulder to Teal'c and the marine's fighting alongside them, "Fall back!" He turned back and fired off two more shots with his weapon before jumping back toward Teal'c. A Lucian soldier looked from his cover spot and fired a spray of bullets at Ronon. Two bullets met flesh, hitting Ronon in his lower back and his right thigh.

Teal'c reached forward and caught Ronon as he fell forward. Ronon grunted, leaning back against the wall behind Teal'c. Teal'c stepped from behind the corner he was using as cover, firing off a spray of bullets from both his P90's. He hid behind the corner again just as bullets glanced off the wall. He shouted to Ronon, "Are you alright, Ronon Dex?"

"Don't worry about me!" Ronon shouted back over the roar of the gunfire, "I've been worse! Fall back!"

Teal'c nodded and ran down the corridor to where the rest of the marine's waited for them behind the corner. The blast door began to lower no sooner had Teal'c stepped behind the corner with the marine's. "Ronon Dex! You must hurry!"

Ronon thrust himself forward onto his feet into a limping run towards Teal'c. He pointed his weapon behind him in the direction of the Lucian's and fired off a couple rounds, and the Lucian's responded by showering him with more bullets. He grunted, and broke into a sprint, gritting his teeth from the pain in his lower back and right thigh. The blast door was almost closed, and Ronon dove towards the narrow opening. He slid across the blood drenched floor and passed beneath the door, his feet narrowly missing being crushed by it. Bullets hit and bounced off the other side of the blast door, sounding like flies hitting a windshield.

Teal'c reached down, grasped Ronon by his forearm, and hoisted him to his feet. Ronon grunted as he placed weight on his right leg. "You must seek medical attention," Teal'c said, seeing that Ronon's pants leg was soaked with blood.

"I'll be fine," Ronon said, shrugging off Teal'c's concern. "I'm not gonna die from this. We need to set up defenses at the end of this hallway before they get through the door."

Cameron came around the corner, cradling a P90. "Whoa," he said upon seeing Ronpn covered in the blood he slid on to get beneath the blast door. "What happened to you?"

"He has been injured," said Teal'c. "He needs-"

Ronon interrupted Teal'c, "I've been shot. No big deal. Nothing I can't handle." Ronon limped slightly down the hall to where Cameron stood, "We need to set up defenses here before they make it through that door."

"Right," Cameron said. He raised his radio and spoke, "Hey Sam. We're gonna need some heavy firepower up here. Send some guys up here with sandbags and some big guns." He glanced at Ronon, seeing his fresh blood soaked pants leg, "And get someone to bring a medical kit up here."

"I don't need your medicine," Ronon said angrily, trying not to show his pain.

"I know, tough guy," Cameron said patting him on his shoulder. "But we're gonna need you patched up and ready to kick some Lucian ass." Cameron stepped passed Ronon and met Teal'c halfway down the corridor, "How many?"

"There seems to be no end to their numbers," Teal'c answered. "But they seem to be slowing in how many men they send at a time. And we have lost fifteen men at the point of entry."

Cameron nodded, "Alright. We're gonna go with Ronon's idea and set up camp here. We need to stall them for as long as we can until we figure out a strategy. We won't be able to take all of them out just by fighting them like this."

Sam's voice crackled over Cameron's radio, "Mitchell, Col. Sheppard just beamed in with a group of men. I'll send them your way with everything you need."

Cameron nodded, "Speak of the devil. Looks like help is already here."

Suddenly, the blast door buckled and then burst open.

"Fall back!" Cameron shouted as Lucian soldiers suddenly began to stream into the corridor through the broken blast door. "Get to the elevator!" He and Teal'c ran back down the corridor, firing behind them blindly. They met with Ronon, taking his arms and putting them over each of their heads. They lifted his feet off the ground and carried him down the winding corridor as fast as they could. A few marines covered them as they went. "Get that elevator open!" Cameron shouted as they came around a corner to the hallway that led to the elevator. The marine's that were already at the elevator raised their weapons to cover them.

The doors opened, and Teal'c and Cameron rushed in, dropping Ronon to his feet as soon as they were inside. Teal'c placed his arm in the way of the elevator door, and Cameron pointed his weapon down the hallway as the marine's covering them came sprinting to the elevator. A Lucian soldier rounded the corner, fire and metal erupting from the nozzle of his rifle. The last marine lurched forward as he was hit. Cameron caught him as he fell forward into the elevator. Teal'c brought his arm back into the elevator, and everyone fired their weapons down the hallway as more Lucian's ran down to stop the elevator doors from closing. The doors were nearly closed when a Lucian soldier managed to get within a few inches from reaching his hand into the door. Ronon raised his weapon in that split second, letting off two shots through the narrow gap between the doors. The first shot met the Lucian's face, and the second shot hit him square in the chest, sending him flying backwards. The doors closed, and the elevator began its decent downward into the depths of the mountain and the SGC.

Cameron got out his radio, "Col. Sheppard, this is Col. Mitchell, do you copy?"

Sheppard's voice responded over the radio, "Hear you loud and clear, Col. We're waiting for the elevator to come down."

"Good," Cameron replied, "then you can take Ronon and Sgt. Fritz to the infirmary to get patched up. We're comin' down. The Lucian's have control of the elevator corridor."

"Gotchya," Sheppard's voice answered.

Cameron let out a deep breath and turned to face Teal'c and Ronon. "Well…this sucks."

ͼͽ

Half way across the known universe, in the infirmary back on Destiny, TJ sat at a table looking through a microscope. She was examining the blood cells from one of the creatures that came through the gate. She was puzzled by what she was seeing through the lens. She turned the focusing dial slightly to see the cells more clearly. The blood cells under her microscope were different from the human blood cells she was used to seeing. The creature's blood was red, just like a human's blood, but the blood cells from the creature had nuclei. TJ drew her head away from the microscope, blinking a couple times to clear her eyes. The tablet lying on the table next to the microscope beeped, indicating that the test results were in. She picked it up and viewed over the test results, and the result was that the unconscious creatures behind her were reptilian.

This stumped her, because these creatures were anatomically different from any reptile that she had ever seen or read about. Their skin was just like human skin, soft and flexible, but strong. But there were no signs of any scales anywhere on these creatures. They were covered in fur, the exact opposite of what reptiles should have. They had nothing but sharp and oblique teeth on either of their upper and lower jaws, the very last one's being serrated, much like sharks teeth. The creatures also had long ears located at the top and near the backs of their heads, much like a wolf or a fennec fox. This would allow them to have excellent hearing, as good as a canine's hearing. The stranger thing is that they were bipedal. TJ was not familiar with reptile anatomy, but she knew for a fact that no reptile had the ability to walk upright, aside from one species of lizard that could run for short distances on its back legs. Even stranger still, the test results indicated that these reptilian creatures were warm-blooded.

TJ shook her head, "This is by far the weirdest thing that's happened since we got here," she thought to herself. "Reptiles from another universe that take the place of humans?" She thought back to what O'Neill had said about different variations of the SG-1 team coming through the gate. She looked over her shoulder as the creature closest to her stirred, "But how could a variation of this scale even exist? Parallel universes' are supposed to be nearly identical."

The creature stirred again. It lifted up its right arm, and placed its clawed hand over its right eye and moaned. "Somebody get me an aspirin," it spoke in a soft, yet commanding female voice.

TJ froze for a moment, but regained her composure. She stood up from the table, walked over to a medical shelf and pulled one of the lower shelves out. She reached in and pulled out a bottle of aspirin that the Novans had supplied her with. She opened it and tipped the bottle over in her hand, a few pills rolling out into her palm. Returning all but one pill into the bottle, TJ closed the cap and replaced the bottle into the shelf. She walked over to the water dispenser, and filled a small plastic cup with water.

She turned towards the creature, her anxiety very high. She took a deep breath and thought to herself, "Just act normal. Make it think that it's still in its home universe." She walked over to the creature's side as it sat up in the bed, still holding its hand over its eye. "Here, take this," TJ said in a calm voice, concealing her anxiety and fear.

The creature held out a hand and TJ dropped the pill in its palm, and handed it the cup of water. The creature kept its eyes closed while it tossed the pill into its jaws, and downed half of the cup of water. "Thanks, TJ," it said again. From its feminine voice, TJ concluded that it was probably female. Glancing at its flat chest, TJ saw the name "Riverstone" stitched in the name patch on its uniform. The uniform was identical to the Icarus Base uniforms that Young wore. On it's left shoulder was a patch of the symbol used for the rank of general.

Another creature stirred, but did not wake up. The creature named Riverstone turned its head in the direction of the other creatures. "What happened?"

TJ drew a deep breath silently before answering, "That's what we're trying to figure out. Rush said that the gate lit up like a light bulb when you guys came through. And when you came through, all of you just collapsed."

"Tarvock seems to have shut down too," the creature said. "Though, Eli can fix him up no problem." Riverstone sighed and turned her head toward TJ, "Did Everett make it throu-?"

Riverstone froze, as did TJ. Riverstone's cat-like pupils dilated, her sea green iris' shrinking to just thin outlines around the black of her pupils, and the cup in her hand fell to the floor, the remaining water splashed out onto the floor. TJ stepped back in fear, but tried to maintain her composure, "I'm not here to hurt you."

The fear in Riverstone's eyes was clear, "Who the hell are you? You're not TJ."

TJ shook her head, "No, I am…just not the TJ you're used to seeing. You see-"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Riverstone exclaimed. "What did you do with TJ and what the hell are you doing on my ship? Where's Everett?"

TJ held up her hand, "Hold on, I'll have him and Rush come here right away. He'll explain everything."

ͼͽ

Young sighed after hearing Scott's report of the Lucian attack on the SGC. Varro stood next to Scott, arms crossed, shaking his head side to side. "Was there ever any plan to attack the SGC before you left for the Icarus-type planet?" Young asked Varro.

"No," Varro answered, "at least, none that I was aware of at the time. Plans like those usually aren't shared even with a leading officer's most trusted men. Not until the very last minute." He shook his head again, "But there's something off about this attack."

Young looked at Varro suspiciously, "What you mean?"

"It sounds almost like a desperate move," Varro answered, "like they're afraid of something. The Lucian Alliance I left behind normally doesn't attack without proper preparations." He looked at Scott, "How were they attacking? What were their tactics like?"

"The ground troops were using an access hatch at the top of the mountain," Scott answered, "and they had two cargo ships hitting the main entrance tunnel from a few hundred feet in the air to prevent anyone from escaping the surface levels. The ground troops were just pouring in through the access hatch entrance, guns blazing." He glanced at Young for a moment before looking back at Varro, "They weren't using any of the tactics you used when you infiltrated Destiny."

"Meaning?" asked Varro.

"No hostages and no organized attack strategy." Scott paused, "They just killed on sight, even the wounded."

Varro nodded, "Yes, they're getting desperate," he said to Young. "They wouldn't kill an enemy if he were on the ground, injured without thinking of taking him as a hostage. Something has them in a rush."

Young sighed again, "Let's just hope that they're not rushing to come here again."

TJ's voice spoke over Young's radio, "Col. One of our guests' is awake."

Young picked up his radio and spoke into it, "I'm on my way." He looked up at Varro and Scott, "Dismissed."

ͼͽ

In the control interface room, Rush, Terra, Brody, and Volker worked on finding out how the creatures managed to gate through the barriers between their universes'. Rush coached Terra on how to use the controls and how to read some of the various symbols. Brody assisted Volker with determining where the wormhole had emerged into their universe.

Volker's control panel made a sound, and Volker raised his eyebrows, "Whoa."

Everyone looked up at him. Brody spoke first, "What?"

Volker shook his head, "I don't know what just…" He trailed off before speaking again, turning a dial on the control panel, "You're not going to believe this."

"Try me," Rush said. "There's nothing I have yet to not believe in these days."

"Well," Volker continued, "I just put in the command to track the address that dialed our gate, and…" He paused to turn the dial again, and then spoke again, "It recognizes the address as one of the gates in this galaxy, but it's saying that it's not the gate that dialed Destiny."

"And?" asked Rush. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything, actually," Volker answered. "I'm looking at the gate activation logs for this galaxy, and it's telling me that every single gate in the galaxy activated for about the four minutes when those things dialed in." He pressed a couple buttons and his screen came up on the display. He turned another dial on the control panel, and a map of the galaxy appeared on the display. All of the gates registered as having dialed Destiny within the three days, when the creatures came through the gate.

Rush took off his glasses and stepped closer to the display screen.

"How is it possible for every gate in the galaxy to dial one gate at the exact same moment?" Terra asked.

"Every gate in the galaxy," Rush said to himself.

"What are you thinking, Rush?" Brody asked.

Rush shook his head, "We know that the creatures gated in from another universe, yes?"

"Yeah," Brody and Volker answered simultaneously.

"And we know that it requires a macro-program to dial every gate in a galaxy at the same time, correct?" Rush asked again.

Brody and Volker nodded. Terra studied the display screen carefully.

"But there was no macro-program, at least no human macro-program." Rush glanced at Terra.

Terra shook her head as she glanced over her shoulder at Rush, "My race does not have macro-programs capable of dialing every gate in the galaxy. We do have macro-programs', yes, but for purposes other than gate technology."

"Then that confirms my hunch," Rush said.

"Which is?" Brody asked.

"Wormhole inflation," answered Rush.

Brody and Volker glanced at one another. "What?" Volker asked.

"It's a rare glitch in gate technology," Rush replied. "It was a theory I came up with before the Icarus Project." He looked at Terra, "It is the act of a Stargate wormhole expanding beyond the natural borders that hold it together. Those borders prevent a Stargate from dialing more than one gate at a time, even if only one address is used."

"How does it happen?" Terra asked.

"It's only a theory," said Rush, "but I said that when an abnormal amount of energy is transferred into the wormhole, then the molecules that make up the walls of the wormhole become hyperactive, and breach the borders. Once they breach the borders, they expand the walls of the wormhole. They'll roam free at hyperspace speeds until they encounter another Stargate. That Stargate will be triggered into instantly activating. But it won't have its own individual wormhole. Instead, it will share the same wormhole that inflated and triggered the instant activation."

Terra digested this information, while Brody and Volker stared down blankly at their control panels, still trying to make sense of what Rush said.

"But that would mean that only a few Stargates will be activated at the same time," Terra said, "and share the same wormhole. How could wormhole inflation cause every single Stargate in an entire galaxy to activate and share the same wormhole?"

Rush shrugged, "We already know that it is possible for two Stargate's in completely different universes' to connect when a wormhole passes through a solar flare."

Terra scratched the bottom of her lower jaw, "Solar flare?" She paused for a moment, thinking rapidly. "Of course!" she exclaimed, snapping her fingers.

"What?" asked Volker.

"You said two universes' may be connected via Stargates when a wormhole passes through a solar flare, correct?" Terra asked, looking at Rush.

Rush nodded, "Yes, that is what I just said." Rush suspected she was onto something, and this intrigued him, "What are you getting at?"

"Just think," Terra replied. "If two universes' can be connected by Stargate when a wormhole passes through a solar flare, imagine the amount of energy that the molecules in the wormhole walls are absorbing." Terra's tail flicked, her excitement evident, "What if a wormhole from another universe was to pass through a few, or maybe more than a few solar flares'?"

Rush put his hand to his chin, scratching the stubble as he pondered what Terra just suggested. "The amount of energy in those molecules would be increased a hundredfold if a wormhole passed through a few solar flares." He shook his head, "But that still would not be enough to cause the wormhole to inflate and connect with more than ten or so gates within the vicinity of where the wormhole emerged into another universe."

"Then that means," Brody said, "that the wormhole passed through more than a few solar flares. What if it passes through…ten solar flares? Would that be enough to trigger the activation of every Stargate in a galaxy?"

Rush looked up at the display screen of the galaxy dotted with thousands of Stargates. He shook his head, "No, that still would not be enough." He thought for a moment, "I'm thinking more in the range of a hundred solar flares."

"What?" Brody and Volker both said at the same time.

"A hundred solar flares?" Terra asked. She glanced up at the display as well, "That may just be enough. But a hundred solar flares occurring at the exact same moment? I find that difficult to imagine."

Rush glanced back at Terra, "Oh, believe me. Once you've spent more than enough time on this ship, nothing is difficult to imagine. There are still stranger things in this universe that any normal human being would find unbelievable. In fact, my idea of being able to activate the Stargate using all nine chevrons was laughed at."

"And look where we are now," Brody added.

"Point taken," Terra replied. She looked up at the display screen again, "But I agree with what you said earlier when your General was here. 'A variation such as this one?' Not even parallel universes' can be this different."

Rush nodded, "Aye. It seems unlikely that they came from a parallel universe."

"Then what?" Volker asked. "You're saying they're from another dimension or something?"

"That," said Rush, "or it's possible that we may have the very first inhabitants from a perpendicular universe onboard this ship."

Terra tilted her head slightly, "'Perpendicular universe'?"

"What's that?" asked Brody.

"It was a rejected theory I read about many years ago," Rush stated, "during the first few days I was in the Stargate Program. The parallel universe theory was already a hot debate in the scientific community, but it was a proven theory by the SGC. But not even the SGC would accept the theory of perpendicular universes'."

"Okay," Volker said, "but what exactly IS a perpendicular universe?"

Rush turned to face all three of them, "A universe very similar in many ways to ours, but very different in many ways as well. In this kind of universe, we humans, or Petrus'iri, may not even exist. Our species' may be replaced by species' that don't exist in our universe. In this kind of universe, events that happened in our universe, may have never occurred, or occurred differently. Similarly, events that did not happen in this universe may have happened in a perpendicular universe. In perpendicular universes', the flow of time may be different, or time may not exist. The Ancients may not exist, and Stargates would not exist as well."

"So…" Brody thought about it carefully, "basically, everything that can happen in this universe, doesn't happen in that kind of universe, or what exists here, doesn't exist there, or vice versa?"

"Somewhat correct," Rush answered. "But perpendicular universes' may also share the same events that occurred in the same way as well."

"A genius idea," Terra said. "That would account for why we heard Col. Young's voice over the radio, and why humans did not come through the gate. But then what about this, 'Destiny Two'?"

"The second Destiny and second Rush," Volker stated as he stared down blankly at his control panel.

"The what?" Terra asked.

"We tried to dial our home planet from within a star," Rush answered. "But it didn't work…at least, not the first time."

"First time?" Terra was puzzled now.

"We came across another Destiny from an earlier timeline," Rush replied. "For some reason, the dialing attempt did not work, and everyone aboard the ship was transported two thousand years into the past. Everyone, but one." Rush glanced at Brody and Volker, "That was back in the other galaxy. The ship and their Rush were only transported back in time a few hours. We came across the other Rush and Destiny, just as we were about to attempt the same thing they attempted before us. The other Rush stopped us from making the same mistake, and that's why we're here now, and their," Rush pointed at Volker, Brody, and indicated the rest of the crew, "descendants colonized the planets that had Stargates in the other galaxy…and why they are also here in this galaxy. But the second Destiny was damaged beyond repair, and it was pulled into the star."

"What of the other Rush?" Terra asked.

Rush shook his head, "We don't know where he disappeared to. We assume he went down with the ship."

Terra nodded, "Then that explains the 'Destiny Two'. Perhaps the first Destiny was also transported back in time along with the first crew in their universe?"

Rush understood where Terra was going with this, "Perhaps. It might have been too damaged for the first crew to repair it. And maybe the next Destiny crew was able to fully repair the second ship to working order." He scratched the stubble on his chin again, "Very intriguing. It is possible that is what happened. But we won't know until we ask the creatures."

"Two Destiny's," Volker said. "Why didn't that happen to us?"

"I know what you mean," Brody said. "Imagine the advantages of having two of the same exact ship. More of the same technology."

Just then, Young walked into the control room, "What's everyone talking about?"

"Perpendicular universes'," Volker answered.

"What?" asked Young. He shook his head, "Never mind, one of those things is awake." He quickly passed by Rush and down the hallway.

"I'm coming with you," Rush said.

"May I join you?" Terra asked.

"Very well," Rush answered.

ͼͽ

In the infirmary, TJ tried to calm the creature named Riverstone down a little. She succeeded in dispelling her fear somewhat, but she was still uneasy about not seeing the TJ she knew in front of her.

TJ was cleaning the spilled water off the floor when Varro walked in. "Tamara," he said, "Lt. Scott came back. He said that the SGC is under attack by the Lucian Alliance."

Riverstone's eyes narrowed to slits as Varro spoke.

"How bad is it?" TJ asked.

"Lt. Scott could only say that before he came back, it was a stalemate," answered Varro.

"What the hell is going on here?" Riverstone asked out loud. "First you sound like TJ," she said pointing at TJ, then at Varro, "now this guy sounds like Varro, and you're saying the SGC is under attack again?"

TJ stood up and Varro walked over and stood next to her, crossing his arms. "You must be the one who was talking on the radio before you came through. What do you mean by 'the SGC is under attack again'?"

Riverstone looked at them both suspiciously, "The attack happened three weeks ago."

Varro and TJ glanced at each other. "Three weeks ago?" TJ asked.

"Yeah," Riverstone replied, "that's what I just said. What, are you deaf or something?"

"No, she isn't," Varro answered. "We're just confused by you saying that the attack happened three weeks ago. The attack occurred only two hours ago."

Riverstone shook her head, "No, it was three weeks ago. I would know, because I used the communications stone to go to Earth and stop the Lucians. And you say you're confused? Are you as confused as I am? Because I'm still trying to figure out why Varro and TJ's voices are coming out of your mouths when you don't even look like them at all!"

Young entered the infirmary, followed by Rush and Terra, "What's with all the yelling?" asked Young.

Riverstone's pupils widened, "Everett?"

Young stopped, "Yes. How do you know my name?"

Riverstone's eyes migrated over his shoulder, and saw Terra walking in, "Terra, what the hell is going on here? Who are these people? What are they doing here on my ship?"

"You're ship?" Young asked. "Now it's my turn. Who are you?"

Riverstone glared at him and her upper lip curled up, "I am General Shandra Riverstone. I demand to know how the hell you people got on my ship, what you have done to my people, and what has happened to Destiny Two?" Her strong commanding voice seemed to be full of anger, but the fear in her voice was just as obvious.

Varro and TJ looked over their shoulders at Young, Rush and Terra.

Rush approached Riverstone where she sat on the bed, "I think I can explain to you everything that has happened within the last three days." Riverstone looked at Rush with suspicion, recognizing his voice, but not his face. "You have been transported from your universe into ours. We are not exactly sure why or how, but I assume that the wormhole which brought you and your friends here passed through around a hundred or so solar flares."

Riverstone was skeptical, "Yeah, sure. I know the whole solar flare thing and alternate universes', but I don't believe it. Parallel universes' are similar in lots of aspects. You people are nowhere near being alternate versions of my people."

"Actually," Terra said, stepping forward, "you are correct that this is not a parallel universe. But you are in another universe. Just think, why is it that you are able to know our names by our voices, but not by our appearances?" Riverstone blinked, seeming to realize that what Terra was saying was true. "You were able to recognize me easily, but I do not personally know you. I have only been on this ship for three days, and we only received news from Lt. Scott that their people were under attack a few hours earlier."

Riverstone digested what Terra said. It seemed that she was right.

"Let me further clarify why this seems familiar, yet very different for you," Rush added. "You are not from a parallel universe. You and your friends are the first inhabitants from a perpendicular universe to ever set foot in our universe."

One Riverstone's ears lay down while the other pricked forward. She seemed utterly confused, "Perpen…dicular universe?"

Rush sighed, "It's difficult to explain, but I'll put it in a brief definition. Basically…your universe is both similar in many aspects to ours, but also very different in many aspects to ours." He paused, then continued, "That is why you are in a very familiar environment, and hearing familiar voices, but seeing alien faces belonging to those voices."

Riverstone looked down at the floor, realizing that what Rush was saying was true, "Then that means certain people in my universe, don't exist in your universe, right?"

Rush nodded, "Aye, that may also be true."

"But then how is it that your SGC has just been attacked?" Riverstone asked. "The attack happened three weeks ago in my universe."

"The flow of time may also differ between our universes'," Terra answered. She glanced at Rush, "Perhaps their universe is three weeks ahead of ours?"

"That seems more than likely," Rush said nodding.

"If that's true," Young said from behind Rush, "then that means that she knows a way of fighting off the Lucian attack."

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker and dim, and at that moment Destiny dropped out of FTL.

"What just happened?" Young asked.

"I'm not sure," Rush said. He turned to Young and reached out his hand, "Lend me your radio." Young handed Rush his radio, and Rush contacted Brody, "Mr. Brody, why have we dropped out of FTL? And what was with the power fluctuation?"

Brody's voice responded, "I don't know. There shouldn't have been any fluctuations and no reason for Destiny to drop out of FTL. The nearest Stargate is five thousand light-years away."

Riverstone turned her head to look at her comrade next to her, "Oh no."

Rush turned to look at her, "What is it?"

Riverstone pointed a clawed finger at her comrade, "That."

Everyone followed her finger to her comrade. There, they saw something around its neck, glowing a brilliant sky-blue color, like a star.

Rush and Terra cautiously approached the other creature to examine the strange glowing object.

"What is it?" Terra asked.

"That would be Col. Addamo's star heart crystal," Riverstone answered.

"'Star heart crystal'?" Young asked. "And that is…"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Riverstone answered. "What you are looking at, is the very heart of a blue supergiant star. It's a massive power source, and it's causing interference with the ships systems."

Rush pushed his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose as he leaned forward for a closer look.

"Be careful," said Riverstone, "he might-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence. Addamo's sky blue eyes shot open. In a split second, he had opened his jaws, exposing his sharp teeth. Two large, inch and a half long sharp fangs on his upper jaw sprang up from two nooks in his gums located on the inside of his teeth, just between the first two sets of teeth. He lunged up at Rush with surprising speed. But Addamo didn't get close enough to snap his jaws shut on Rush's left shoulder, for Terra had also lunged forward. She grasped his long neck, and shoved his head back down onto the pillow. Startled, Rush jumped back. Addamo struggled for a few moments underneath Terra's powerful grip on his neck, then stopped when he saw who it was. "Terra?" Addamo asked, his strong masculine voice sounding weak under Terra's firm hold. The two sets of fangs retracted back into the concealed nooks in his gums.

"Do not be alarmed," Terra said, "we are not here to harm you."

"Tom, stand down," Riverstone said.

Addamo looked to his right at Riverstone, revealing many large scars on the left side of his face and head, "General?"

"To put it bluntly," said Riverstone, "we're in another universe."

Terra released her grip on Addamo, and allowed him to sit up. He looked uneasily at Rush, and the others behind him as he massaged his throat, "Another universe?" His voice was rough, like that of a heavy smoker, but also very strong.

Rush regained his composure and fixed his glasses, "Aye. You were transported into our universe when you attempted to dial your Destiny. You're from a universe perpendicular to ours."

One of Addamo's ears flicked downwards while the other stood straight up and he tilted his head slightly to one side, "Rush?"

Rush nodded, "Aye. This is what I look like in this universe. I'm a human being."

Addamo glanced at Riverstone, still nerve racked, "Please tell me this is just some hallucination Destiny is making us see."

Riverstone shook her head, "Unfortunately Tom, it's not. We're not on Destiny Two. There is no Destiny Two in this universe…so it seems."

Young stepped forward, "There are two Destiny's in your universe?"

Riverstone nodded, "Yeah. Got sent back in time the first time when the first crew tried dialing Earth inside a star."

"Like we did," TJ said, "but Destiny wasn't sent back in time."

"And two thousand years later," Varro said, "You come along, about to make the same mistake, only to be stopped by their descendants, right?"

Riverstone turned an eye on Varro, "Yeah. That's basically what happened."

"Going back to the Lucian attack on the SGC," Young said, "how was the SGC able to fight off the Lucians?"

Riverstone sighed, "Well, I'm not sure if this is true for your universe, but since Terra has been on the ship for only three days here, then in two days I am to use the communications stone to switch bodies with Col. Carter. Afterwards, I am to take out about half of the Lucian forces along with Teal'c, Ronon, Teyla, and Vala." She looked around the room at all the alien faces she has come to accept as being those of her crew, only of another universe. No one seemed to know how that is going to happen. "I take it that I don't exist in your universe."

Young shook his head, "There is no Shandra Riverstone registered in either the SGC personnel list, or any other military personnel records. I don't even think the name Riverstone even exists."

Addamo took a deep breath, "If that's true, then that means I don't exist in this universe also."

"I guess that's true," Young answered. "There's no Col. Addamo in the SGC personnel records either."

Addamo sighed, looking down at the floor, "Great."

"Then what are we going to do?" TJ asked. "If she doesn't exist in our universe, then how are we going to help stop the Lucians?"

"I have an idea," Varro said. All eyes turned to him, "You may not exist in our universe, but you're here now, at a critical point in our timeline."

"So you're suggesting we have her switch bodies with a human being?" asked Rush. "You really think that is a good idea?"

"It may sound crazy," said Varro, "but she is here. She said five days after Terra joins the crew, she went to Earth to defeat the Lucian attack force. In only two days, that same event would happen if she also existed in our universe."

"I don't think that's a good idea," TJ said. "Imagine the psychological trauma the two would experience, switching into alien bodies. I mean, our anatomy is completely different from theirs, especially on the molecular level. They're reptiles, and we're mammals. I don't think merging a reptiles mind with a mammals body will work. It'll probably kill them at the least."

"Not necessarily," Rush said shaking his head. "Remember when Young switched bodies with the alien? Their physiology is completely different from ours, even on the neural level. Yet he and the alien both survived the switching of bodies and their minds stayed intact."

"But our physiology is different from theirs and yours," Addamo said. "Our visual abilities are similar to that of a…of a horse! We don't have the same depth perception as the Blueis' do."

"Blueis'?" asked Young.

"It's the name he's given to the aliens that abducted Chloe," Riverstone answered. She shook her head, "Unfortunately, in our universe, Young had a hard time coordinating his mind with the aliens' body. Although, you are right that both stayed mentally intact."

"Don't tell me you're up for it General," Addamo said shaking his head in disbelief.

Riverstone glanced at Addamo, "I am." Addamo began to protest, but she stopped him, "It's my decision Tom." She turned to look at Young and Varro, "I feel that it's necessary for me to help these people, even if they are from another universe. I just have that gut feeling that it's what I'm supposed to do."

"And there you go again," Addamo said rolling his eyes, "about the 'gut feeling'."

Riverstone glanced at him sideways, "They are what's kept me alive all these years."

"Yeah," Addamo replied, "they're also what nearly killed you too many times before, like they almost did four days ago."

Young entered the conversation, "What happened?"

"We were rescuing Eli over there," Addamo motioned with his head at the third creature lying on the other bed, "and Mrs. Gut Feelings over here decided to go one on twenty against…zombie things."

All heads turned to look at the unconscious creature.

"So, that is Eli?" Rush asked.

Addamo nodded, "Yep. The Bluei's made the mistake of going to a planet that was covered by a parasitic organism that had incorporated nanotechnology into its make-up." He peered over at the creature named Eli, "They didn't stand a chance, but Eli was smart enough to seal himself into a cryo-chamber that the parasite was unable to assimilate. He froze himself for the time it took us to find out where he was."

"And it's the same parasite," Riverstone added, "that basically wiped out the entire Petrus'iri population throughout the galaxy." She turned her head to look at Terra, "You're the sole survivor of the plague, Terra."

Terra was a bit shocked, "The…only survivor?"

Riverstone nodded, "Yes. But you are pregnant with triplets, are you not?"

Terra nodded, still a bit shaken about hearing that she was the last of her kind in Riverstone's universe.

"But didn't the descendants in your universe," TJ asked, "arrive in time to prevent the parasite from spreading to the entire population?"

Riverstone and Addamo glanced at one another, a bit confused. "The descendants?" Addamo asked.

"From the other galaxy," TJ replied. "Didn't they make it to the next galaxy? The one we're in now?"

Riverstone shook her head slowly, still confused, "No. How would they have managed that? They didn't possess any FTL technology on their ships."

"That may be true," said Rush, "but there was a natural wormhole beyond the orbit of Novus' third moon. The third Tenaran ship actually made it off the planets surface, and traveled through the wormhole. They ended up here thirty years ago, and helped in the search for a cure for the parasite. We were the answer…or Dr. McKay was the answer." Rush became aware of something, "But if your descendants didn't make it to this galaxy, then you're people weren't supplied with adequate provisions, correct?"

Riverstone nodded, "Yes. We're still searching the galaxy with Terra's help for planets that have viable food and water sources and medicinal plants." She glanced at Addamo, "That is, our crew is still searching the galaxy."

"Then that means," TJ said, realizing something, "that your TJ doesn't have the cure for ALS."

Riverstone's ears dropped back a little, her expression turned solemn, "Yes, she doesn't have the cure."

TJ looked at Young as he glanced over his shoulder at her.

Young returned everyone's attention to Eli, "If you already found Eli in your universe, then maybe you can help us locate our Eli."

ͼͽ

Back up in the control room, Volker and Brody continued to work. As Volker worked on finding stars that were going through the solar flare cycle, the tablet laying on his control panel beeped twice. He picked it up and looked over the gate data that it displayed. As he scanned the data, something caught his eye and made him stop. He looked over the information again, "I think we're in luck."

Brody looked up, "Really? Did we win the jackpot that happened three years ago?"

Volker shook his head, "No, but I just found something interesting." He walked over to Brody and placed the tablet on the console, and pointed to the information that caught his eye, "This one is still active."

Brody looked over the data, shaking his head, "That's not possible." He scanned over the data again, "It should've deactivated three days ago. A gate can't maintain a wormhole for that long, much less a stable one with another universe. It's theoretically impossible."

Volker nodded, "My thoughts exactly."

Brody picked up his radio and called Rush.

ͼͽ

"There's one thing that I don't understand about this whole thing," said Addamo. "Why now?" He looked around the room, "Why this universe? Why not just a parallel universe?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Riverstone stated. "Why weren't we transported to a similar universe? Why this…perpendicular universe?"

Young turned his head to Rush, who shrugged.

"Perhaps," said Terra, "the wormhole absorbed so much energy from passing through possibly a hundred solar flares, that it broke the barrier between our universes'."

Rush nodded, "Aye. Normally the boundary between our two universes' is next to impossible to break by a wormhole energized by a single solar flare."

"But multiply by a hundred solar flares," Terra added, "the particles have absorbed such a great amount of energy, that that barrier just became possible to penetrate, and send the wormhole here into our universe."

"A hundred solar flares?" Addamo asked. "At the exact same moment?"

Terra nodded, "That is what we assume."

Brody's voice crackled over Rush's radio, "Dr. Rush, we just found something I think you'd like to see."

Rush rolled his eyes, "There's nothing that I wouldn't like to see anymore at this point." He raised his radio, "Very well, I'm on my way." He turned towards the infirmary entrance. He called over his shoulder, "And before you ask, General Riverstone, you may join me if you wish. After all, this is in a way also your ship."

Young stopped him, placing his hand in front of Rush, "Who said you could tell these people they can walk freely around the ship? We don't know exactly if they really are from another universe. They could be another alien threat trying to take over Destiny."

Rush sighed in frustration, "Col., if they were a security threat, then they'd know absolutely nothing about this ship, nor our names." He leaned closer to Young, "They are from another universe, Col. We've already established that fact as truth. We have never encountered their kind, nor have they encountered ours, so there is absolutely no way that they could be putting on a show just to distract us as they slowly take over the ship." Young started to say something in protest, but Rush stopped him, "You need to hold your soldier ego on a tighter leash, Col. I am sorry, but you need to start thinking more logically about situations such as these." He indicated Riverstone and Addamo, "Even General O'Neill said that it looked like the same situation that SG-1 encountered a few years ago. How would you explain their uniforms? How would an alien species that has never seen our race manage to copy our clothing? Explain that to me."

"I can't," Young answered

"There you go," Rush responded.

Young bit his lip as he returned his gaze to Riverstone and Addamo, "I still think we need to put some security on them."

Rush shook his head, "No. We need to treat them like human beings-"

"But they're not human," Young interrupted.

"That's beside the point, Col.," Rush retorted quietly. "They have been put into an environment they are familiar with, yet also not familiar with at the same time. This is as much their home as it is ours, even if it may not be their home."

Young looked down at the floor and sighed, "Fine. But if anything goes wrong, and it's related to them, I'm not going to say 'I told you so.'"

Rush nodded, "Trust me, you won't have to." He glanced over his shoulder at Riverstone, "General Riverstone, you may join me if you wish." He quickly left the infirmary.

Riverstone seemed to think about Rush's offer for a moment before she jumped off the bed. The claws on her feet clacked and scratched across the surface of the floor. She nodded at Young as she passed him, and stopped just outside the infirmary entrance. She spoke to Young without turning her head to face him, "Everett. I know what you must be thinking right now. But you have my word, we are not a security threat. I'm sure that even Jack would understand the situation we are all facing here." She called to Addamo, "Tom, you stay here with Eli and Tarvock. Have Eli reactivate Tarvock once he wakes up."

Addamo sighed, "Leaving me out of the fun and exciting stuff again." He looked up at Riverstone's back, "Yes ma'am."

Riverstone left the infirmary, following Rush to the control interface room. Her long slender tail bobbed up and down a few inches above the floor in correspondence with her steps.

Terra remained where she stood. The realization that her people would have been close to becoming extinct forever, and that she could have been the sole survivor began to sink in. The knowledge that she was the sole survivor of her race in another universe hit her really hard. Even though it was in another universe, she still felt for the other Terra, still felt that it was close to being a truth for her. If it weren't for the Novan's arriving just as the global outbreak began, she would be in the same position as the other Terra. She realized that her entire race owes its survival to the Novan's. She wasn't sure if there was anyway of repaying the Novans for saving her race.

She was shaken from her trance by TJ, "Terra. Don't let the fact that you're the only one left in their universe bother you." She placed a hand on Terra's shoulder and smiled, "Be grateful that in their universe, you're also pregnant. You're species will survive in their universe because you were smart, and you thought ahead."

Terra shook her head, "It is not that which is bothering me." She tilted her head slightly towards TJ to look at her with one eye, "It is the fact that my species was a mere day away from becoming just a memory…if it were not for the arrival of your species. For once in my species history, we were forced to depend on another species for guidance…and survival." She paused, and looked ahead of her again, "And for that, I think it is safe for me to say that on behalf of all my people, you and your people have our eternal thanks. I do not think we can ever repay your kind for saving us."

TJ smiled, "It's not us you should be thanking. It's the Novans, our descendants you should be thanking. We only just arrived here a week ago, not thirty years ago."

"But you are of the same species," Terra replied, "and that is all that matters. Our species was always independent, and a simple parasite rendered us helpless and weak, depending on another species to survive. I think it was the right decision for my people to trust yours."

"Well," said TJ, patting Terra's shoulder, "we humans are always looking to help others, even if they may look to be alien, or are alien. We are a people of peace and freedom, and generosity. It's in our nature to provide assistance to anyone that needs it."

Young walked over to join the conversation, "And preserving the culture of another race is our top priority, not just looking for allies and sharing technology. Our people are multicultural, and it's also in our nature to learn what we can from others. Our descendants lived up to that, and that's why we're a proud race."

Addamo joined the conversation from his bed, "Speaking of pride, you let Rush talk down to you. The Young I know would never let that happen. Besides, I agree with you that you should have some security with the General. I suggest you send your Lt. Scott to guard her…if he exists here. He and Shandra seem to work well together." He paused, "Work well as a team, not personal life I mean. When it comes to personal life, it's her and me that are involved."

Young raised his radio and told Scott to go and watch Riverstone.

Varro joined his voice to the conversation, "You two are involved?"

Addamo nodded, "Yeah. Married, actually."

Young raised his eyebrows, "Married? But you two don't have the same last name."

"Is that how you do it in this universe?" Addamo asked. He shrugged, "When a couple is married in my universe, neither the man nor the woman changes his or her last name."

"But then what determines the last name of your children?" asked TJ.

"Well," Addamo said, pondering for a moment, "it's a bit complicated, but usually with the first born, it's the name of whoever's family has more status in society. When a couple has more than one kid, then usually the names alternate."

"On the topic of names," Varro said, "I don't think the question about what you call your species was raised."

Addamo nodded, "Yes. You call yourselves human, right?" Young, TJ and Varro nodded, "Well, I am a Viterosaur. My species is descended from the Eodromaeus raptor. We first appeared on Earth about two hundred thirty-one million years ago."

"Two-hundred thirty million years?" TJ said, surprised. She glanced at Young for a moment, the back at Addamo.

Addamo nodded, "Yeah. We were a mutant species, so to speak. Of course, we didn't exactly look like I do now in the beginning, so it took us about a hundred million years or so to evolve into what you're seeing now."

"Which means," said Terra, "that you are an advanced civilization, correct?"

"Yeah," Addamo answered nodding. "Well, not as advanced as your species, Terra, but still advanced. I guess you could say that our technology may be on par with the technology of the Asgard. Our culture may just be older than that of our Ancients," he said shaking his head, "but we have yet to prove that."

"If your species evolved that long ago," Varro said, "then your species must be highly diverse, right?"

Addamo shrugged, "Well, I am just a subspecies of the original Viterosaur species. I guess you can say our species is diverse, since there's about forty or fifty different subspecies. The General is of the original species that all others are descended from. She's a pureblood."

"You're a subspecies?" Terra asked.

Addamo nodded, "Yep. I am a venomous species of Viterosaur."

Young raised his eyebrows, "Venomous?" He glanced at TJ, then back at Addamo, "Then you tried to kill Rush."

"No, no," Addamo replied, shaking his head, "it was only instinctive. I don't really have control over myself whenever instinct takes over. Besides, wouldn't you react the same way if you saw a bunch of strange alien faces staring down at you?"

Young shrugged, "Maybe, but that's beside the point. You could've killed Rush. If it wasn't for Terra, Rush would be lying on the ground with a white sheet over his body right now."

TJ turned to Young, "Col. He wasn't really-"

Young interrupted her, "I don't care. His instincts almost killed Rush. He's even a venomous species." He turned to face Addamo, "I'm sorry Col. Addamo, but I'm going to have to put some security on you for the time you're on this ship."

Addamo shrugged, "Fine by me, Col. Our Young would do the exact same thing." He paused, "Although, I don't think he would've really cared much about Rush. Those two hate each other's guts."

"Well, in this universe," said Young, "everyone on this ship is family. We've set aside our differences a while ago, and there aren't anymore secrets to hide." He turned to Varro, "I want you to stay here and watch over him until Greer gets here." With that, he left the infirmary. Terra looked over her shoulder at Young as he disappeared around the edge of the infirmary doorway. She sighed, and quickly left the infirmary as well, following Young.

Varro nodded without answering.

TJ shook her head and sighed, "I'm sorry, Col. Addamo. He's still a bit angry over the fact that Eli is being held prisoner by the aliens that abducted Chloe. And frustrated that we still don't have control over the ship yet."

"It's alright, TJ," replied Addamo. "It's probably the better idea for him to put security on me." He sighed, "But can you do me a favor?"

"Sure," said TJ, "what is it?"

"Can you get me my cigarettes from my vest?" asked Addamo with an innocent smile on his dinosaur-wolf-like face.

TJ smiled, "Sure thing, Col." She went over to the table with the vests and found the one with Addamo's name stitched on it. She went through the pockets until she pulled out a small thin white paper box wrapped in plastic. She pulled out what looked like a small silver lighter from the same pocket. She walked back over to Addamo and handed him the pack of cigarettes and the lighter.

"Thanks, TJ," Addamo said, taking the cigarettes and lighter from her. TJ turned to walk over to her work table, but Addamo stopped her, "And TJ." She turned to face him, "You can call me Tom."

ͼͽ

Scott headed in the direction of the control interface room. Chloe walked along side him. They turned a corner, and Rush passed by them. Scott called to him, "Dr. Rush. Young said that some General was with you."

"He said General Riverstone," Chloe corrected him.

"Aye," Rush called back not stopping, "you'll know it's her when you see her."

Scott gave Chloe a bit of a concerned look, "Maybe you shouldn't be here with me. This thing might be dangerous."

Chloe shook her head, "No Matt. I want to meet her. She's from another universe, and there aren't a lot of chances of meeting someone from another universe."

Scott sighed, "Fine, but stay near me. We don't know if 'she' is really who she says she is." Scott looked down the hallway, "Those things might be here to infiltrate the ship, just like the Lucians infiltrated us."

"Oh c'mon Matt!" said Chloe. "Don't be like that. There's no way they could possibly know about Destiny, or even be wearing the same uniforms as you if they weren't from another universe."

Scott rolled his eyes, "Don't be so sure of that."

Chloe started to say something, but stopped when she saw Riverstone step around the corner. Scott looked in the same direction. Chloe whispered to him, "She's beautiful."

Scott nodded, "Yeah, but she could be deadly." He called to Riverstone, "Hello, General…Riverstone?"

Riverstone looked up, "Lt. Scott, I presume?"

Scott nodded, "Yes ma'am. Col. Young wants me to walk with you to the control room. Is that alright with you?"

Riverstone nodded, "You may, Lt. I think I need the company anyway."

Scott nodded and joined Riverstone, walking by her left side to the control interface room. Chloe walked on the other side of Riverstone, much to Scott's dismay.

"I assume that you are Chloe," Riverstone said, turning an eye on Chloe.

Chloe nodded, "Yeah. Do I look different from the Chloe you know?"

Riverstone nodded, returning her gaze down the hallway, "In my universe, you're of my species, but of a different subspecies. Actually, both you and Matthew are the same subspecies. You two are adapted to living in water. That subspecies is from the tropical environment of the Amazon Rainforest, but it took to living in the rivers, rather than on land." She smirked, "But unlike both your parents, you two prefer to live among the land-walkers."

"Subspecies?" Scott asked. His suspicion of Riverstone faded. "There's more than one of your kind?"

"Yeah," Riverstone answered. "There's about fifty different subspecies, on Earth." She placed her four fingered hand on her flat chest, "I am a pureblood, the original species, and all others are descended from us." She frowned, "There's not very many of us purebloods left."

"Why?" asked Chloe. "Aren't you the dominant species on Earth in your universe?"

Riverstone nodded, "Yeah. Purebloods were very abundant on Earth, with a population of about sixty billion by the beginning of the Pliocene Epoch." She glanced at Scott and saw that he was confused, "I meant by the last five million years of our history." She sighed and looked down towards the end of the hallway, "But most of the purebloods left Earth through the Stargate after the fall of Goa'uld in Egypt. By the time the Hashverin Empire fell apart, the pureblood population was reduced to several million."

Chloe was a bit shocked, "From sixty billion to only a few million?"

"How's that possible?" Scott asked.

Riverstone sighed again, "Most of the pureblood population disappeared within the last five million years through interbreeding with other subspecies." Riverstone paused, clenching her fists tightly, "Another large factor of pureblood population loss is due to the Goa'uld enslavement and harvesting for hosts that happened at the beginning of Nano-Egypt's time. After the slaves overthrew the Goa'uld, a fairly large part of the population decided to leave the planet after learning that there were thousands of other planets just like Earth." Riverstone glanced at both Chloe and Scott, who were listening intently to her history lesson on her species, "After they all left, the Stargate was sealed away in a pit of heavy water with a bit of old fashioned cement. It remained sealed away for almost five thousand years."

"Nano-Egypt?" Scott asked, confused by the name. "You guys had that kind of technology that long ago?"

Riverstone nodded, "Yes. It seems my race is far more advanced than yours."

"So then, your pureblood species are…rare?" Chloe asked, returning the focus of the conversation back to Riverstone's people.

Riverstone nodded, "Yes. But not just on Earth anymore. Even though purebloods spread out into the galaxy, developing the different alien culture's that SG-1 has encountered over the years, even they have evolved and become slightly different. They still possess the pureblood genes, yes, but they are no longer considered the pureblood species. They've become subspecies as well."

"So how many different species are there of your kind?" asked Scott. "I mean, how many in the whole Milky Way?"

Riverstone was silent for a moment as she pondered. The sound of her claws clicking and scrapping against the hard surface of the floor echoed through the hallway. After a few moments, she answered, "I'd say more or less than three hundred subspecies of my kind throughout the whole galaxy. So, yes the purebloods are rare." Riverstone looked at Scott, "Now, tell me about your species, Lt."

ͼͽ

Rush entered the control interface room. Wray stood next to Brody, looking over the gate data with him. Dr. Park stood by Volker, helping him with different calculations.

"Alright," said Rush. Everyone looked up at him, "You called me here, and now I'm here. What is it you needed me to see?"

Dr. Park answered him first, "To put it bluntly, one of the Stargates is still active from the time the creatures came through." She was no longer wearing black sunglasses. Instead, she was looking directly at Rush.

Rush's became interested, "Still active? After almost four days?"

"That's what Destiny's gate logs are saying," Brody answered. "We don't know how it's possible, but we've run the gate activity logs several times already, and keep getting the same result."

"I thought Stargates could only maintain a stable wormhole for thirty-eight minutes," Wray said. "I don't think there's ever been a time where a Stargate remains open longer than a couple hours, has there?"

"There is now," Volker said.

"There must be something else going on," Rush said as he walked over to Brody and Wray. Brody handed him the tablet with the gate data, "The only instances a gate has remained open longer than the maximum limit was with the black hole incident, and when the Ori first appeared in the Milky Way." He shook his head, running through the data multiple times, "There must be some sort of power source on the other side of that wormhole keeping that gate open, it's the only possible explanation."

"Wait," said Volker, "you said that the Ori managed to keep a gate open longer than thirty-eight minutes, right?"

Rush nodded, "Aye, I did say that."

"And that was in the Milky Way," Volker continued, "where the gates are more…advanced."

Rush pondered for a moment, "What are you saying, Mr. Volker?"

"What I'm saying," Volker replied, "is that these gates that we are using are far less advanced than the Milky Way gates." He glanced at Dr. Park, "Right? These gates were made when gate technology was still in the prototype stages."

"I see where you're going with this," Brody said. "You're saying that because these gates are so old and primitive, there might be some glitches and bugs still in them, right?"

Volker nodded, and looked at Rush, a bit pleased with himself.

Rush rubbed his chin in deep thought. He carefully thought over what Volker said. "A likely theory," he said nodding, but dismissed it with a wave of his hand, "but highly unlikely. There needs to be a large amount of energy being fed into the receiving Stargate to maintain a stable wormhole longer than the maximum time."

Volker seemed a bit down about having his theory dismissed so easily, "But since these gates are so old and primitive, maybe it takes a lesser amount of energy to maintain a stable worm hole for a longer period of time."

"I think that's the more likely cause," Dr. Park said. "These gates are much older than the Milky Way gates, so it only seems valid that it will take less energy to do that."

Rush nodded, "Perhaps you're right. But we won't know for sure until we visit the planet the gate is on." Then he remembered that Destiny had dropped out of FTL earlier, "Have we jumped back into FTL yet?"

Brody quickly checked his console and shook his head, "No. We're still drifting in the void halfway between New Novus and the next planet with a Stargate."

Rush pondered for a moment, thinking of what Riverstone had said earlier after Destiny dropped out of FTL. He spoke silently under his breath to himself, "Perhaps it really does have something to do with that power source around his neck."

"What?" Brody asked, thinking he had heard Rush say something.

"It's nothing," Rush answered. "I was just thinking to myself. Have we regained control over Destiny's systems?"

Volker answered, "Not yet. We did manage to get back control of the countdown clock though, so I guess that's a start."

Rush turned and exited the control interface room.

"Where are you going?" Wray called after him.

Rush called back over his shoulder, "I need to check something."

Wray and Brody looked at one another.

"I get the feeling he knows something we don't," Wray said.

Brody nodded, "I get that feeling all the time."

ͼͽ

Terra made her way through the ancient maze of hallways back to her quarters. Although she had an excellent memory, and knew where she would find her quarters, every hallway and every corner looked the same, making it slightly difficult to remember exactly where to turn and which hallway to go down. She sighed. Col. Young had told her that they still did not have control over the ship, which meant that they couldn't dial the gate to New Novus. Informing her grandfather that she was okay and that she had made the decision of staying on the ship would have to come later, once control over the ships systems was reestablished.

Finally, after a few silent minutes of wandering through both empty hallways, and hallways half packed with supplies and provisions from New Novus, Terra found the laboratory where different plants and herbs had once grown. She peered into the laboratory as she passed by. One of the female scientists that Dr. Park worked with was inside, unpacking a small crate that contained different medicinal herbs and edible plants. Terra continued down the hallway. She turned right at the end of the hallway. The voices and laughter from the mess hall echoed through the hallway behind her. As she continued her way to her quarters, she couldn't help but notice the strange feeling of being watched. She knew she was alone, her instincts told her that there was no one else in this hallway with her, but she cast a wary glance over her shoulder now and then. She couldn't tell what it was, but someone or something was watching her, and her instincts were never wrong.

She reached her quarters at last. As she reached for the controls to open the door, she froze. Now her instincts were telling her that she was not alone in the little junction of hallways. Someone was in the small open room behind her on the other side of the junction. She could clearly feel their gaze on the back of her head. She whipped her head around as she quickly turned to face her stalker. But there was no one there…nothing but a vacant and unkempt bed, and a small control console, with some small round metallic spheres sitting in a groove on the console.

Every fiber in her body said that someone was watching her, something was stalking her. But she could not see her stalker. She shook her head, "Calm down Terra. You are still getting used to life on this empty ship. It is only your imagination." She turned and pressed the door controls. As the door opened, she half expected there to be someone standing on the other side, staring at her. But there was no one there when the door fully opened.

Terra sighed and entered her quarters. She turned and pressed the controls to close the door. She turned and walked across the room to her bed, sighing as she lay down on the soft covers and rested her head on the pillow. Even though it was much different from the bed she was used to, it was very comfortable, maybe more so than her bed. She closed her eyes, feeling tired for the first time in her long life. In over two hundred and seventeen years of her life, Terra was exhausted, even though she may not have done much at all today. Normally, as a scientist she barely slept for more than four hours. A Petrus'iri normally slept an average of four to five hours a night, but Terra felt like she could sleep for days. Perhaps this is a result of living on a ship flying through the depths of space at incredible speeds. Sleep slowly began to creep over her.

"You may not be a human like the rest of the crew," said a female voice, "but they quickly accepted your presence among them. The fact that you are an alien to them does not seem to bother them. Intriguing."

Terra's eyes snapped open, and she sat straight up upon hearing the voice.

Sitting on the couch across from the bed, with legs crossed, was a Petrus'iri.

"Do you not find that odd?" the female Petrus'iri asked. "The last time they encountered an alien race, they were not very quick to accept the aliens."

Somehow, Terra recognized the voice, but she couldn't remember who it was.

"Well," the Petrus'iri said as she stood up, her long white robe gracefully cascading down over her legs to the floor, "I believe that human nature is a scientific mystery in itself." She walked over and admired the various scientific instruments on the desk that Terra had brought along with her. Ever so gingerly, the Petrus'iri touched one of the instruments.

Terra realized that this was who had been watching her earlier. But Terra could not understand how she had been able to conceal herself. Then Terra noticed something peculiar about the Petrus'iri; there was a strange, distinct warm white aura surrounding her.

"I am proud of you," said the Petrus'iri as she glanced sideways at Terra, "Terra'sha'ri."

Terra's eye's widened in disbelief. Suddenly, memories flooded back to her, and she remembered who it was that stood before her, "Mother?" The Petrus'iri blinked. Speaking in her native language, Terra asked again, "Jex'va?" The Petrus'iri smiled.

"Hello Terra," the Petrus'iri said. "It has been a long time since we last saw each other."

Terra nodded, still unable to believe what she was seeing. It felt surreal, seeing her mother here, in front of her after nearly a hundred and fifty years. But despite the surreal feeling, it also felt so real. Terra blinked, rubbing her eyes, and looked at the Petrus'iri that was her mother, "What is happening? How are you here? You disappeared with father a century and a half ago! You and father have been declared dead for that long!"

Terra's mother sighed, and walked over to the window, gazing out across the large brilliant band of stars that was the galaxy. She was silent for a few minutes, then spoke again, "I am sorry Terra." She turned and faced Terra, "I should have never left you. It was wrong of me to make such a rash decision."

Terra's emotions stirred for the first time since the months after her mother and father's disappearance. First it was joy, then sadness, then anger. "Left? What do you mean? Where could you have gone to? You disappeared off the face of the planet! Not a trace of you or father was left. Nothing but a few rushed notes that father made the day you disappeared."

Terra's mother shook her head, "I understand your emotions, Terra, but do not let them cloud your judgment. We left the planets surface, yes. But we did not die. I have been watching you all this time, your struggles within the scientific community, your training within the Global Bastion Forces, to your struggles with searching for a cure for the parasites. Harboring two parasites instead of just one took a great toll on your mentality, I know." She looked away, "I would have done something for you, but I was forbidden."

Terra tilted her head to the side, confused, "Forbidden? What are you saying? First of all, you still have to explain to me where you and father went to."

Her mother closed her eyes, and let out a deep sigh, "Your father and I…left the realm of mortals, to live among beings living on a higher plane of existence. To live in that realm, one is required to severe all ties with loved ones, and the mortal world. All one may do is watch over those you have left in the mortal realm."

Terra became even more confused, "Higher plane of…existence?"

Her mother returned her gaze on Terra, "We live among the people who built this ship, the people your human companions call Ancients."

Terra blinked, "Ancients?" She couldn't make sense of what her mother was saying.

Her mother looked over her shoulder for a moment at the wall behind her, like she had heard something. She returned her brilliant hazel-green gaze back to her daughter, "I am sorry Terra, but I have already said too much. I must go." She turned, and began walking towards the wall.

"Wait!" Terra exclaimed, "What about father? Why is he not here? And if you are leaving, then I beg you to take me with you!"

Her mother stopped just in front of the wall. She turned her head, "Your father went on to greater planes of existence. I have lost contact with him shortly after we both rose to the realm of the Ancients." Her eyes dropped to the floor, "I remained behind, so that I may watch over you, and protect you. I wish to take you along with me…" She turned her head back to the wall, "But your destiny is not with me. Like this ship is rightfully named…your destiny is here, on this ship and with these people. You are…destined to uncover the answers that the Ancients have searched many millennia for." She paused for a moment, and Terra could sense that her mother was shedding tears, "Good bye, Terra. You are my beloved child, my heart and soul, and no amount of words can express how proud I am of you. Go, and fulfill your destiny."

With that, Terra's mother became surrounded by a brilliant light, and Terra could feel the warmth of her mothers love radiating from the light. As the light quickly faded in a flash, Terra shouted after her mother, "Jex'va!"

She sat straight up in her bed, breathing heavily. Tears streamed down over the scales on her face. She glanced around her room. Nothing was different. It was only a dream, but a very vivid, very real dream. She placed her left hand over her right breast, feeling her heart beating rapidly beneath the soft scales.

Brilliant blue and green lights danced around the entire room. Gazing outside the window, Terra realized that they had returned to FTL.

ͼͽ

Rush shook his head, frustrated that Destiny was still locking him out of much of the systems to control the ship again. He was alone in the bridge, sitting slumped in the helm chair. "What are you thinking?" he thought, directing the question not to himself, but to Destiny. "What has changed that you feel the need to keep us out of your systems?"

"Nothing has changed, Nicholas," said a female voice behind him.

Recognizing the voice he turned to see his wife, Gloria, leaning on the railing just behind the central command chair, "Then why are you keeping us out? Is something wrong?" He paused and then continued, "And why did you drop out of FTL?" Rush knew that it wasn't his wife, but a representation of Destiny's consciousness.

Gloria pushed herself away from the railing, and walked down the steps to stand next to the controls that surrounded the chair, "I didn't drop out of FTL by my own decision. It was that strange device the creature Thomas Addamo wears around his neck." She turned her focus to the window, "It was interfering with my systems. But now it has deactivated, so we may resume travel."

"You mean you may resume travel," said Rush. Gloria rested her comforting gaze on him, but Rush was not comforted at all. "Where is it that you're taking us to? Something is obviously causing you to become defensive of your systems. Was it the recent attempt by the aliens to infect your systems?"

"No," Gloria simply answered. She smiled.

"Then what?" Rush asked again, becoming more and more frustrated. He kept calm, "Don't you think it's time you told me what is happening? It's been almost four days since you shut us out of your systems."

Gloria continued to smile, and looked away, "Terra seems to be quickly adjusting to life on a ship. She is an intriguing species, don't you think so?"

Rush closed his eyes, irritated by Destiny's attempt at avoiding answering his questions, "You haven't answered my questions. Enough with the games, tell me what is happening."

Gloria walked around the central command chair and behind Rush, "All in due time Nicholas. The mission still continues, isn't that what you want?"

Rush opened his eyes. He didn't answer. Instead, he asked one more question, "If you won't tell me what is wrong, then at least confirm my suspicions. Are they harmless?"

There was a long pause before Gloria's voice answered from somewhere behind him, "They are not hostile. They are who they say they are, and their only intensions are to return home. The one who calls himself Thomas Addamo," Gloria continued, "is very emotionally conflicted. And the one who has authority over him…she's a proud creature, but only in the military sense, not as a mother."

And then, Rush was left alone on the bridge to ponder what his next move was going to be. Destiny may have not changed the master code to all her systems, but she had locked them out of them, not accepting any commands for certain systems. Something had changed, something was obviously wrong. Destiny wouldn't just become so defensive of her systems for no reason. Rush didn't know what that reason was, but he intended to find out…somehow.

Å

End Chapter 3