Author's note: Here is the next chapter. It was really fun writing it and I hope you'll like it too.

Senrab Nomis: Thanks for the review and yes I also wondered how much time had passed somewhere around this chapter. That's why in the next one the second year anniversary of the attack on Earth will be mentioned. I'll try to write every week one chapter as I have done thus far.

Thanks for reading the story.


Milky Way Galaxy – Liam's Ship

Liam was running through the ship's corridors not because he was in a hurry, but because he was exercising and that was definitely a new thing for him. He was thinking of the last time he spoke with Lya and the strange way she looked at him. He was becoming used to being looked strangely, Thor being the one to constantly look at him like he was seeing a ghost of some kind, but Lya acted differently and that made him feel extremely uncomfortable. It was like she knew what was happening to him and he knew there was a real chance she really did know. From the very beginning of the Alterran friendship with the Nox, the Alterrans had known the Nox were the oldest race they'd ever met, and probably ever would. They were much older than the Alterrans and they knew a lot more than they were letting on. Some Alterrans suspected that the Nox had ascended a long time ago, eons before they even knew what ascension was, but for some unknown reason, they'd eventually decided to descend back to the lower plane. Those were only conjectures with no real proof, mostly because the Nox wouldn't give any, but still there were some signs that made many believe it to be true. Liam was one of those who believed. It was also one of the reasons that had compelled him to follow a similar path.

When he'd reached the Nox home planet to update their Stargate and DHD, Lya had come to him and had decided to spend her time by just staring at him without saying anything. She'd smiled the whole time, the usual way she always did when she saw something that amused her. In the end, he had to ask her what was going on, because it was becoming increasingly distracting and he couldn't finish his work on the gate with her there. She simply answered that he had changed from the last time they saw each other and that she was very curious about it. The problem with the Nox was that they never wento into details. Their philosophy was to let others discover things by themselves instead of just telling them. Someone would say that they have a really Zen approach to life, but they would also tell you how frustrating it was at times to talk to them. Of course they brought this philosophy to a whole new level, a level where getting anything useful out of them was practically impossible. He'd tried to get something more from her, but it had been to no avail. The only thing that she'd added was that he should exercise his body and mind, now more than ever. She told him that she couldn't tell him anything more and that it was his job to understand what was happening to him.

He took Lya's words at heart and now he was running through the corridors in order to train his body. It was strange, he had to admit it. In the thousands of years he'd spent as a mortal, he'd never thought of himself as an athlete. He was always in good shape, but what he could do now was beyond simply being in good shape. He was just finishing running the second lap around the ship, which was more than ten miles, and he was feeling great. And this wasn't all. He had also spent a lot of time meditating and he found out that he can concentrate much better than he ever before could. There was also the little fact that, while he was meditating, he started remembering things from when he was ascended and that was great, but it was also incredibly frustrating not knowing exactly why this was happening to him. But, as Lya said, he should also be very patient and that in time, everything should become clear. He just hoped it wouldn't be centuries before he understood what was happening to him. With the Nox, time was a very abstract concept.

He finally turned the last corner before reaching his room when he almost jumped to the ceiling like a scared cat.

"Nice timing," Aenea said.

"Aenea, what brings you here?" Liam said after turning toward her and especially after letting his heart slow down from the two hundred heartbeats per minute it was only moments ago. He wouldn't put it past her if she did this on purpose.

"Nothing special, I was just in the neighborhood," Aenea said simply.

Liam didn't buy it. She was never just in the neighborhood, "Really."

Aenea also knew he didn't buy it, "Fine, I wanted to check up on you. There is some… concern upstairs about what happened the last time you ascended."

"What did exactly happen, because… I have no clue?"

"Neither do we… or maybe the Elders do, but they are not saying anything."

"Why do you think they know something?"

"The way they behaved on the meeting we've had afterwards. They were asking a lot of questions, but they were reluctant to say anything concrete," Aenea said before coming to the real reason why she was here. "Did Oma visit you after that?"

"No… why?"

"I can't find her. I don't even know if it's related, but she wasn't at the meeting and I haven't seen her ever since."

"That's strange? She's not the type to just vanish for so long," Liam said not having a clue where she could be.

"Yeah that's what I was thinking." Aenea looked at Liam for a long moment before continuing, "By the way, you look different."

Liam shrugged, "Yeah, I get that a lot lately."

"From whom?" She was a little puzzled who could have noticed.

"Thor noticed something, but mostly Lya."

"Of course, the Nox. They know a lot, but they say very little. What did she say exactly?"

"Not much really. Just that I've changed, that's all. And that I should... exercise. Whatever that means."

"Really? Did she say why?"

"Nope, and believe me, I tried," Liam said, also deciding it was time to change the subject. He didn't like too much being the center of attention and even less when he knew so little about what was happening to him. "What is going on with the Ori?"

"Nothing has changed. They are still coming. I don't know how or when, but they are. We are trying everything we can to block them from seeing this region of space, but if their followers come here, we won't be able to do anything about them."

"Yeah, I thought that much. Let's hope the Second Great Alliance will be able to stop them no matter what they decide to throw at us."

"To what end Liam?" Aenea asked with some concern.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, the problem are not their followers, the problem are the Ori."

"I can't fight the Ori, but I will be damned if I let those religious freaks roam free in this galaxy!"

"And for how long you are going to do that?"

"For as long as it takes."

"Liam, you must understand that the Ori have an entire galaxy of followers at their disposal. They can send waves after waves; it will be a slaughter," Aenea explained, trying to make him understand that this could not end well.

"I know, but I have no choice in the matter, except if you know of a way to fight the Ori directly."

"I can't talk about it and you know it."

"No, I don't know it. There is a way to fight them, but you're not willing to share. Why is that?"

"Our law of noninterference goes both ways, and you know it. We can't interfere with the lower plane, but we can't allow anything that will do the same from your end either."

"You know, as days go by, I'm more and more certain that I made the right decision to descend."

"I'm glad you approve of your own decisions, Liam," Aenea said a little angry at him. He did after all left her behind.

"I asked you then if you wanted to join me, so you can't just keep blaming me for everything."

"Ah yes… the allure of spending the next ten thousand years in a stasis pod. How could I ever refuse such an offer," Aenea retorted with as much sarcasm as she could muster.

"It's not like you would remember it. The point was to prepare for the time after the ten thousand years in stasis."

Aenea understood that they were going back to the same discussion they already had countless times before, and she wasn't planning on having another one, "I… I have to go. If you see Oma, tell her I'm looking for her."

Liam sighed, "I will."

Aenea nodded, disappearing into thin air the next moment.

Liam sighed, again. He really didn't like fighting with her, but somehow every conversation they had, ended the same way.

Liam entered his room, going straight for the shower. He had a long day ahead of him and the next task was the only fun part of it. Somehow, while Jack had been on his ship for the three days in which he'd played dead for the rest of the universe, he'd managed to make Liam promise him he would let him fly the Defiant. At the time, Liam believed it would be just another promise he would not have to keep, or at least there was no expiration date on it, but he soon found out how relentless Jack can be when he wants something. From that point on, there wasn't one meeting with him where he didn't ask him when was he going to fly the Defiant. Since they were in the process of making an alliance, he knew that the frequency of meetings could only increase in the future, and he realized it was easier to let Jack have his wish fulfilled rather than spending every meeting trying to come up with some excuse.

He finished his quick shower and dressing into his usual robes. His ship was already in the Solar system waiting for the Defiant to arrive, so he wasn't in any hurry. Still, he wanted to spend some time with Jack before their little trip so that he could discuss a few points with him. He used the teleporter outside his room and found himself standing on the bridge the next moment. He checked his sensors and found that Jack was in his office alone. He instructed the ship to beam Jack directly to the bridge and the next moment a little confused Jack was standing in front of him.

"Liam, is the Defiant here?" Jack asked the moment he got his bearings back.

"No, not yet; it will be here soon. There is something else I wanted to discuss with you before we go on our little trip."

"Alright, what's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about the Jaffa. With everything that is going on, I had to redirect a lot of resources to other tasks and I've lost touch with what is happening with them and I think you're the right person to ask."

"I didn't know you were interested in the Jaffa?"

"I'm not, not directly anyway, but I am interested in the Jaffa not falling apart. No matter how strong we are and how strong we will become once our alliance is formally established, I still think that the best thing for the Milky Way Galaxy is if the Jaffa stay united."

"That's true. We already had some problems with Jaffa who have left the FJN."

"Problems? What kind of problems?"

"Well, those who have decided to leave the FJN usually end up as mercenaries, mostly working for the Lucian Alliance."

"And more of them join the Lucian Alliance, stronger they become."

"Yup, and we don't like it very much. It's also bad for our relations with the FJN when we come across the Lucian Alliance and we end up shooting a Jaffa. We then have to explain to the FJN why we had to shoot them. They don't look at it as if he was a mercenary working for pirates. They look at it from a more personal point of view, and especially Gerak."

"I get it. You shot a Jaffa and not a member of the Lucian Alliance."

"Exactly. Most of their Council understands, but Gerak is using this to alienate as many Jaffa as he can, also probably twisting the story a little. The result is we have to fight the Lucian Alliance with gloves so that we don't kill any Jaffa while, at the same time, they don't have the same consideration for our people."

"Well, once we formalize our little alliance we can work out a few joint missions to take out the Lucian Alliance, but for now I'm more concerned on how stable the FJN really is."

"It isn't. For now there are only rumors, but we think Gerak is preparing to leave the FJN and form another nation together with the more radical members who are willing to follow him."

Liam was perplexed. This was even worse than he thought, "When did you hear about this?"

"Klaus told me a few days ago. I don't really know where he gets the information, but most of the time he gets it right."

"Is there a way to marginalize Gerak somehow? I mean, from what I know, the man is a moron."

"You don't have to tell me that. I have firsthand experience, but history shows that being smart is not a prerequisite for becoming a leader or to have people follow you. Actually, sometimes I believe it is the opposite."

Liam had to admit, on too many occasions a person would become a leader just by raising his voice and playing on people's dissatisfaction with the current state they were in, "And he is playing on the Jaffa's tradition, which the rest of the Council is trying to change. That way is easy to get supporters."

"And the fact that military strength, which Gerak still has majority of, is a crucial factor, he has no problems in finding a lot of followers. We think that if Gerak decides to split right now, almost half the Jaffa in the FJN will follow him."

"And inevitably they will start fighting against each other. If the remaining Jaffa in the FJN succeed and flourish, those who joined Gerak will be envious and war will be almost inevitable. Not to mention how they intend to split their planets." Liam concluded.

"That's what Teal'c and I believe might happen, which will inevitably force us to intervene and I don't have to tell you that we don't need another enemy right now."

"Yeah, and you don't know half of it," Liam spoke, not actually understanding what he just said out loud.

Jack was curious now. From what he knew, there was nothing he didn't know, and now Liam was saying he didn't know the half of it, "Care to elaborate?"

Liam snapped from his thoughts, finally realizing what he'd said. He sighed, no reason to keep it secret any longer, "I was waiting for our alliance to be finalized before I brought this before you and the Asgard, but I see no reason to keep it a secret anymore," Liam said, pausing shortly before continuing. "Are you aware that my people had some special abilities, like telepathy, telekinesis and healing abilities?"

"Yeah, Aiyana, the Alterran woman we found in Antarctica was able to heal my team and a few other people from some kind of disease we had no cure for. Even I was capable of healing somebody after the head sucking machine downloaded the repository of knowledge into my head."

Liam was a little stunned. He didn't know about Jack's ability to heal somebody, "You did?"

"Yeah."

"I don't recall reading it in your reports."

"First of all, it's not nice reading other's 'top secret' reports, and secondly, probably nobody wrote it in any report. I didn't know about it until after Daniel told me."

Liam scrutinized Jack for a long time, "And after Thor erased the repository of knowledge you felt the same as before?"

Now it was time for Jack to look perplexed, "Yeah, why?"

Liam scratched the back of his head while thinking on how to say it, "Well, do you know how the repository works?"

"It downloads a ton of stuff into your brain."

"Yeah… that's only part of it. The repository downloads the knowledge immediately when you stuck your head in it, and stores it in a specific region of the brain. The second and the dangerous part is the change in the neural pathways that it performs in order for you to be able to access the downloaded knowledge. Only after this second step is finished, it starts changing another portion of the brain that could possibly give you those abilities like healing, telepathy and other stuff."

"Okay, I didn't get half of what you've just said and I still don't know where you are going with this."

"The problem is that the repository was made for Alterran physiology and not human, and a human would have certainly died if the process reached the last stage of the transformation."

"But I didn't die," Jack said as a matter of fact.

"Exactly my point," Liam concluded.

"What is your point?" Jack asked really not getting the point.

Liam sighed, "My point is that you must have Alterran ancestors if you're still alive."

"Oh, that. Are you sure?"

"I am."

"Well, it's possible that those who returned from Atlantis… mingled with the local humans and…" Jack tried to explain, but he saw Liam shaking his head. "What?"

"I said Alterran, not Lantean."

"What's the difference?"

"The Lanteans are advanced humans, but they are not Alterrans and they were never able to use the repositories of knowledge we made. And there is something else that troubles me."

Now Jack was puzzled, "What?"

"Your Alterran ancestor… or ancestors, must be only a few generations back, and not thousands of years. Maybe three generations at the most. Maybe four, if both of your parents had Alterran ancestors."

"So my grand grandfather or grand grandmother were Alterran?"

"Yes, and that begs the question, how in the hell were there Alterrans on Earth less than a hundred years ago?"

"That's your big question? What does it matter?"

"You still don't get it, don't you?"

"Apparently, I'm not," Jack retorted a little pissed.

"Jack, the Alterran are an extinct race. If you don't count me or the higher plane of existence, the only way for them to have been on Earth a hundred years ago is if they descended like I did."

"Oh, now I get it… I think."

"Jack, your ancestors were ascended beings sometime in the past, that's the big revelation."

"I got it. Look can we change the subject. You still didn't tell me the half part I don't know."

Liam smiled seeing that his talk was making Jack uncomfortable, "You're right. As I said before, the Alterrans showed signs of having developed various types of mental abilities, and I'm also one of them. A few months back I had a dream that actually wasn't a dream, but a vision of the future."

"Okay, what did you see?"

"What I saw wasn't pretty. I saw that somewhere in the future we will face another enemy. I don't know who they are, but in my vision we were in a battle against them and they had thousands of ships descending upon us."

"Did you just say thousands?"

"I did. We were also much stronger. We had a considerable fleet there with hundreds of ships, some of them I've never seen before, but I can tell you that the odds were not in our favor."

Jack was thoughtful. He couldn't even imagine how a fleet comprised of thousands of ships would even look like. The biggest fleet he had seen thus far was Anubis's fleet when he'd attacked Earth, and that was a couple of dozens Ha'taks, "Do you know how far in the future this is going to happen?"

"Well, I worked on the number of ships we had in my vision, and calculated the shortest time it would take for the Asgard, the Terrans and the Guardians to build so many of them separately. Then I made two distinct assumptions. The first was on how many ships we would be able to build if we didn't know they were coming, as if I never had the vision, and the second if we knew they were coming. In the first case it would take a minimum of ten years to build so many ships, and in the second case a minimum of five years. Of course this is if we don't lose any ship against other enemies in the meantime."

"And what do you think is the real case here, the first or the second?"

"It's not just what I believe as much as what I hope. I hope for the first case, but where we still have the ability to change what will happen. If not, we are screwed, because it means we can't change anything of what I saw."

"You do know what they say about Hope?"

"I do and I'm not planning on hope. I also know that if we can change the future it also means that the time when they are going to show up can change, and not only for the better. That's why I was planning to inform you and the Asgard the moment we sign our alliance, so that we can start preparing for them."

"Great. We have to fight who knows how many enemies that we already know about, knowing that in the future we will face something even worse."

"Well, I'm trying to look at this from another angle. We now know they are coming, and that is an advantage for us."

"Yeah, I'm not a very optimistic person."

"Well, you should be. From what you've gone through in the past ten years and how you managed to come out alive every time, it's almost a miracle."

Jack was again thoughtful. He didn't like the news he'd just received, but he had to admit, they had always won even against impossible odds, and in most cases they were the underdog. Now they were not the little guy anymore and there was real hope for them. Still, the image in his head of thousands of ships converging on them could not leave him a sense of confidence, "From your calculations you think that, now that we know they are coming, we can increase our production almost twofold. I'm not so sure about it."

"I am. You are forgetting that in a week we won't be three separate races anymore. We will work together and help each other. When one of us has a problem, an enemy to fight or needs resources, the other members will step in and help as much as they can. That will greatly increase our efficiency."

"I hope you're right about this."

Liam nodded, wanting to reply something, but he didn't have time to say anything when the console in front of him beeped. "The Defiant is here. We can beam aboard the ship right now if you want. We still have to finish our little discussion about the Jaffa and try to find a way to save them, but we can do that later."

"Sure…" Jack said, but he was actually still thinking about Liam's big revelation. He then remembered something important, "Oh, I hope you don't mind, I invited Daniel and Sam to come along."

"Not at all," Liam said already checking his sensors to see where they were. He pressed a few buttons, beaming Jack and him to the Defiant. Daniel and Sam followed shortly after, the ship having automatically activated the beaming array for a side-by-side transport directly to the Defiant. Daniel and Sam looked startled for the next few seconds. No matter how often it happened to be beamed without any warning, it still took some adjustment.

The crew and the three Terrans exchanged pleasantries, getting to know each other a little better. Jack stepped closer to the pilot and started learning the various controls he would need to fly the ship. In the meantime, Liam brought up the same topic to Daniel and Sam that he had with Jack, wanting to know what they thought about the Jaffa situation and if they had any idea on how to solve it. Sam didn't know much about it since she had other things to worry about related to her department and she didn't have the time to think about the Jaffa and their predicament. Daniel on the other hand was very involved in the entire ordeal, and he even thought he had an idea on how to solve their problem, but it wasn't without drawbacks. The main idea was that if the Terrans and the FJN formalized their alliance, Gerak and other likeminded Jaffa would never leave the FJN, fearing they would be much weaker than the allied FJN. The drawback was that if they pushed such an alliance while Gerak was still in the Council, they could decide to reject the alliance. And with all the rules and regulations they would have to agree on, that was a very real possibility. Many Jaffa would not like all the limitations such an alliance would bring to them and the Terrans could not concede much because of the rules they'd agree upon signing the Second Great Alliance. Liam understood the idea and he believed it had merits, but he also thought the timetable was all wrong. It would need to happen too fast, and even if they succeeded in forming the alliance, he thought it would eventually crumble because they rushed into it, especially with Gerak advocating against it.

Jack finally got the gist of it. He sat in the pilot's seat, which of course brought a massive smile on his face. Without waiting any longer, and without knowing the ship's inertial dampeners were not set to completely negate the massive acceleration of the ship, he engaged the sublight engines to full throttle. The crew was pushed against their seats with the force of several gees, all protesting in unison, but Jack wasn't even noticing their screams. He made a tight turn around Liam's much bigger ship, the ship giving him a much greater sense of the speed and maneuverability than if there was nothing else around them. After the turn, he pushed past the moon directed away from Earth and toward Saturn. He flipped the ship a few times, making everybody on the ship yell at him except for the pilot who was enjoying the ride almost as much as Jack did. He wasn't allowed to do things like that.

He finally steadied the ship once he reached high velocity, "Woo-hoo, this is fun!"

Daniel shook his head, "From where I'm standing… not so much."

The console in front of Jack started beeping for reasons he didn't know, "I didn't do anything, I swear!"

The captain checked his console, "The sensors are picking some strange distortion in front of us."

The moment the captain said those words the pilot moved immediately, exchanging seats with a very reluctant Jack, but he knew when it was time to leave the helm to somebody more experienced. The pilot took the controls, immediately trying to change the ship's course, but it was to no avail, "I can't change our course. Something is pooling us toward the distortion."

Liam had a face of utter frustration on his face, "That proves it. Only an Alterran has the bad luck to stumble upon a spatial anomaly on his first test flight."

Jack turned to face Liam with narrowed eyes, which made Liam flinch, understanding that maybe Jack didn't want anyone else to know about what he thought about his ancestors. Liam turned and saw Daniel's curious expression on his face. He decided to say something else in order to steer the conversation, "What are the scans telling us? Is the anomaly some kind of wormhole?"

"No, it's not giving out the usual emissions. I have no idea what it is," the Captain replied.

"I still can't change course. The pull is too strong," the pilot yelled.

The captain looked at the fast approaching anomaly on the main screen. He knew they were going in, "People, fasten your seatbelts. I don't think this is going to be an enjoyable ride."

As the captain finished his sentence, the ship started trembling and they all felt the pull increase as they were coming closer to the anomaly. The ship entered the mouth of the anomaly, the shacking greatly intensifying with the people inside barely managing to remain in their seatss. The lights flickered and they could sense the tremendous strain the ship was under. At that moment, Liam thought how he would very soon found out how good his ship's designs really were.

The next few shakes were so hard that Liam thought he had dislocated a shoulder. The lights and displays all around them shut down, but they didn't care. They were still alive and the shaking had stopped, which meant they finally went through.

"Status," the Captain barked at his small crew.

It took a few moments for the backup power system to kick in so that the crew could check out the status of the ship, "Sir, backup systems have engaged, all primaries are offline."

It was bad and the captain knew it. The primaries were practically everything. It meant that the reactor, engines, shields and hyperdrive were all down. The only thing that was working was the life support through the backup power system, "Can you give us sensors so we can see where we are?"

The crewman manning the sensors worked frantically, on several occasions wanting to punch the console in front of him in order to make it work, but he knew it never worked. Eventually, the console gave him a reassuring beep, also displaying some data on the screen, "I have partial sensors. We are still in the Solar System, fifty-four light-seconds from Earth."

That made everybody on the bridge relax a little since it would be easy enough to reach Earth even in the conditions the ship was in.

They should have known better.

"Um… sir, something is wrong. The stars are not in the right place."

"Crap!" Jack swore. He had watched too many movies to not know what that meant, "Please tell me we are in the right… time."

The crewman looked at Jack puzzled, "Sorry… I can't tell you that."

"Oy… This is not how I envisioned my day," Jack said, clearly feeling depressed.

"When are we?" Liam asked calmly.

"We are somewhere in the fifth century Earth's time," the crewman replied after calculating the change in the position of the stars.

"Oh, that is just great. The last time we went back in time, people at least didn't ride on horses," Jack stated, referring to the time they traveled back to '69.

While Jack was shouting about the unfairness of their situation, the captain was more preoccupied with the state of his ship. From the little information he was getting from his console, things were not looking good. The reactor received a pretty strong feedback surge while they were passing through the anomaly, the screen was displaying more warnings and system errors that a Christmas tree usually has decorations, and this was only the state of the reactor. He dreaded to even look at the rest of the ship's systems, which were probably in the same or worse condition.

The ship was slowly crawling toward Earth, mostly on inertia and with little help from the few thrusters still operational, but with much less juice than usual. Also, there was no inertial dampeners to lower the ship's mass and that meant no chance of landing. Not that they were planning on landing, but still it would have been a good thing to at least have that option. They intended to enter orbit around the planet and start repairs as soon as possible since the list of repairs the ship needed was growing with each passing moment as the crew checked more and more of the systems. From what they were able to check thus far, the ship would need several days of work to even restart the main reactor and there was also the question of supplies, both mechanical and food for the crew and guests. If the repairs lasted longer than a week, they would need to go down to get at least some water, since the recycling system wasn't tied into the backup system, hence, wasn't working.

Once they reached orbit, the sensors started receiving unusual readings coming from the ground. It wasn't much since only their passive sensors were working, but it was still enough to register emissions that, as everybody thought, should not be here in this time of human history. It was clear that some kind of power source was on the surface. It didn't take them long to come to a decision to check the location where the emission was coming from. While Liam was interested in the power source, Daniel was more interested in the history of fifth century England. Jack on the other hand was bored to death on board the ship, so the three of them decided they would go down while Sam decided to stay on the ship and help make repairs. She also had an ulterior motive. The opportunity to check out the inner workings of the ship was too great to pass it on.

Jack was already packing so much firepower that Liam thought he was planning on conquering England in record time. Liam had to explain to him that they should go down there in disguise and that a plasma sniper strapped on his back would be a dead giveaway. After a short but intense altercation about the pros and cons of having weapons versus being inconspicuous, they agreed to take only an energy pistol and a knife that they could hide under their robes. The small group moved to the small cargo bay where a Puddle Jumper was waiting for them. Jack's expression was enough for Liam to understand that he wanted to drive the little ship down to England. Liam was reluctant, knowing how Jack's first test flight had ended, but he wasn't a superstitious man, so he decided to let him pilot the ship.


Milky Way Galaxy – Earth (…somewhere around the 5th Century)

It took the puddle jumper five minutes to descend through Earth's atmosphere. They cloaked the ship once they were near their destination in order to avoid creating mass panic in the local populous. The ship touched ground and three people exited the rear of the ship, all in Alterran robes. It was amazing how Alterran robes could pass as the usual garments worn by people from practically any period in human history. The thing they didn't know though was the fact that those who wore similar robes in the fifth century Earth were thought of as wizards.

"Okay, everybody on the ground and roll over," Liam said.

Nobody liked it, but it had to be done. They lay on the ground and started rolling in the dirt. They had to make their clothes look old and used up, so they could blend with the local folks without raising too many questions.

Liam's small device, the one he was holding in his hand, was telling him the power source was still very distant and they still had four miles before reaching it. The reason why they landed so far was because the power source was located inside a small city with a large castle in the middle and they didn't want anyone to see them exiting the cloaked puddle jumper.

Daniel thought about the whole situation and he believed he knew which city it was, "I think the city we are going to is Camelot."

Jack stopped walking, looking pensively at Daniel, "Camelot? King Arthur… the round table… Excalibur. That Camelot?"

"I think so. And you forgot to mention Merlin," Daniel said, but he also noticed Liam's pondering expression and decided to ask "What do you think?"

Liam turned toward Daniel, deciding to answer with another question, "Why here?"

"I don't understand?" Daniel replied.

"Why did we end up here? The anomaly brought us here, where there is a strange energy signature and probably where a former ascended being lives. I don't believe this is just a coincidence." Liam explained.

"Well, if you put it like that, it does sound kind of improbable."

"Exactly, and I think we are going to find a lot more than just a power source in Camelot."

Jack decided to say something, "Well, let's hope we find a way to go back home. Everything else is not that important."

Daniel was a little pissed at Jack's defeatist attitude, "Jack, you really don't have the adventurer spirit. How many people in the entire universe can say they had the chance to travel through time, see incredible things from their past, or other stuff like that?"

"Daniel, I don't mind visiting the past, but I mind being stuck in it with no idea on how to go back," Jack retorted back.

Liam turned toward Jack, "Is that what worries you? Being stuck here for the rest of our lives?"

"Of course it is. Why else would I worry about?"

"Jack, there is no reason to worry about that," Liam said.

"It isn't? Why not?" Jack was now puzzled by Liam's statement.

"Because traveling to the past is difficult and unpredictable, but traveling to the future is easy."

"How do you mean easy?"

"Think about it. Even if we couldn't recreate the anomaly that brought us here, I can always build us stasis pods where we can wait in stasis in order to return to our time. Or, if you prefer, we can modify our ship to travel close to the speed of light. Then we can fly it for the next fifteen hundred years while to us mere days would have passed. You see, I've already gave you two ways to return to our timeline in mere days, without the need for some spatial anomaly, wormhole passing near a solar flare or anything that complicated."

"Oh… I haven't thought about that. Well, then we can really enjoy our stay here," Jack said cheerfully.

He should have known that such statements never go unpunished.

The three of them turned toward the sound of horses clearly moving fast toward their location. They stopped their walk, waiting for the next few moments before they finally saw half a dozen horsemen clad in metal armor charging towards them with swords in hand.

Jack watched the approaching cavalry not really that impressed. On TV they usually looked much more menacing. Jack thought it must be because of the lack of special effects. Probably a slow motion effect would make them look much better, and the clanking sound of their armor was also too funny to take them seriously. They looked worse than the Jaffa in their armor, "Should we shoot them?"

Liam shrugged, "Let's first find out who they are… and then we shoot them," Liam concluded already predicting what the outcome of their conversation would end up to be.

"Shouldn't we try to limit our actions in the past? I mean, wouldn't killing six people change the course of history in a considerable way?"

Liam thought about it for a moment, "I don't think so, the chance of changing something important is really small since people with the sword die by the sword very often in this period, but you are right, we should try to minimize our actions as much as we can. After we talk to them and they still decide to kill us, we will only stun them."

"You're pretty sure they will want to kill us, aren't you?"

Liam thought about it a little more, thinking on the period they were in and deciding his estimate was right, "I am."

The six horsemen reached them, stopping mere meters from them and pointing their long swords at them. Liam clearly didn't like the way those people were acting towards them and he could feel his blood pressure rise as a result. He didn't know how Jack and Daniel were feeling about it, but he was sure they were ready to bring forth their guns at a moment's notice.

"Wizards, this is not your lucky day!" one of the horsemen shouted with a smug expression.

Jack turned toward Liam, "Wizards?"

Liam remained fixed at the man who spoke first, "What gives you the impression we are wizards?"

"Your clothes… wizard," the same man replied.

"Haven't anyone told you not to judge a person by the clothes he's wearing?" Jack snapped back with a mocking expression.

Liam looked at Jack, not really knowing if he really wanted for this to end badly, or he was just completely oblivious of what their reaction would be. He decided to add something, "We are not wizards."

The man was clearly thinking about what Jack had just told him, not understanding if this man was mocking him or what. The fact that they had six swords pointed at them was contradicting that theory, since, who in his right mind would mock them in such a situation. But he had to admit, he saw a lot of fools in his life so, it was possible. The other problem was that he didn't know what these wizards could do and how dangerous they were, "Why are you wearing wizard clothing then?"

Liam saw Jack wanting to say something, but his narrowed eyes told Jack to shut up before saying something they would regret later. Liam knew that in most cases telling the truth was the best course of action. Still, he decided that, in this case, lying was a much better one, "We were robbed from everything we had. We clearly didn't want to walk through the woods naked and these old garments were the only thing we could find."

The man thought how this was a plausible explanation, even though the robes they were wearing didn't look that old to him. Apparently, they should have rolled in dirt for a little longer. "Where are you from?"

"We are from a remote land called America," Liam lied, also noticing the baffled expression on both Jack and Daniel's face.

"America? Never heard of it."

"I've told you, it is a very distant land. We spent many moons on the sea to reach this land, only to be robbed of everything we own."

The man was troubled. He really didn't know what to believe, "You will follow us to Camelot, where the King will decide your fate."

Liam nodded, deciding that for now it was the best course of action, Camelot being their destination anyway so there was no reason to protest, "We will follow you to see your king. May I ask what the name of your king is so I can address him properly once we meet?"

"King Uther Pendragon of course."

Liam, Daniel and Jack exchanged looks, Daniel's look telling Liam he understood they were in an earlier period when Arthur still wasn't king, and Jack's look telling Liam he didn't have any idea who Uther Pendragon was. Liam couldn't take this fact as proof of Jack's ignorance since the only reason he knew about Earth's history was because of the Repository of Knowledge. The device was also capable of being programed with whatever knowledge you had in digital form. That way, it was easy for him to learn, while others had to learn things the old-fashioned way.

The three of them followed the six armed horsemen to Camelot, the city magnificent and proud, the same way as they read about it or, in Jack's case, watched movies about it. There were a lot of people there too, especially around the fortified castle in the middle of the city. They reached the inner gate, and to their utter astonishment, nobody checked if they had any weapons on them. Liam thought it was because they feared they were wizards, and wizards don't use conventional weapons anyway. They also didn't know they could carry guns small enough to fit under their robes, but also capable of killing everybody there without too much difficulty. The three of them were then brought directly in front of the king who was sitting in his throne chair in a very large room, impeccably decorated to show how rich the king was. The king on the other hand didn't look much of anything. He was definitely a few pounds to heavy and it looked as if he hadn't left the throne in ages.

Again, Liam, Daniel and Jack looked at each other, not really knowing what to expect from the king. One thing Liam did know. They were very close to the power source.

"Kneel down before the king!" one of the guards yelled, clearly addressing the three of them.

Jack looked at Liam and Daniel with a 'are they kidding' kind of look, "I'm not getting on my knees."

"Jack."

"What Daniel?"

"Don't be an ass; is not the right time."

"Daniel, I watched this movie and it never ends well," Jack retorted angrily.

"Jack, everything is under control," Liam said to Jack.

Jack sighed, reluctantly agreeing to do what was asked of him and joining Liam and Daniel who were already on their knees, "Just for the record, I don't approve of this."

"What is their crime?" the King asked with what Liam thought to be a very depressing voice.

"They are believed to be wizards, sire," the same man who brought them here replied.

"So why didn't you kill them already?" the king asked with the same tone of voice.

That made the three people knelling on the floor think about how smart it really was to follow those men here. Maybe shooting them, as Jack had suggested, wasn't such a bad idea after all. Jack looked at Liam, "Are you sure you have everything under control?"

Liam gave Jack a reassuring look, even though he wasn't sure about anything right now.

"Silence!" a guard yelled after hearing Jack speaking.

Jack's tolerance for the weird had already reached the highest possible level. He faced the guard with his eyes narrowed, clearly in a threatening manner, which made the guard flinch fearfully. Apparently, there was a lot of fear around wizards and, as far as these people knew, they were full-blown wizards with who knows what kind of powers.

"They were brought before you, my king, because they claim to be innocent. They claim they were robbed while traveling from a far land and these were the only robes they could acquire."

The king slightly changed position in his chair, scrutinizing the three new arrivals in front of him, "Where have you found these wizard's robes?"

Liam thought about it for a moment, his fear being that if he said they stole them and the king believed him, they could still be found guilty for theft and he didn't know what would be worse, "We were lucky we found them in the woods, not very distant from where your man found us. If we haven't, we would have had to walk naked through the cold."

The king chuckled at Liam's words, "Maybe it would have been better if you did walk naked. Wizards are not well received in my kingdom."

"Our apologies your majesty, we did not know garments such as these are usually worn by wizards. From where we come from, there haven't been wizards for many seasons," Liam apologized, knowing they were still not out of the wood, and he really didn't like how the king was behaving.

The king was curious now, "There are no wizards in your kingdom? Where is such a land?"

"We came from a very distant land. It had taken us several moons of sailing through the Ocean Sea to reach your land's shores," Liam explained to the king knowing that they didn't know what the Atlantic Ocean was.

"Through the Ocean Sea? Your land is indeed very distant. Why would you go on such a perilous journey?"

"Your majesty, we are explorers in search of new lands and friendship with other kingdoms. We heard of your kingdom and we were bringing gifts to your majesty when we were savagely attacked. We were lucky to have been taken hostages. Many of our people were not so fortunate. We were eventually capable of freeing ourselves and escape our captors," Liam was so deep in lies that there was no going back.

The only thing that the king registered in Liam's speech was the 'gift' part, "You were bringing gifts? What kind of gifts?"

"Gold, jewelry and garments of the finest quality, all as a sign of our good intentions toward your majesty," Liam explained.

"And you claim to have been robbed in my kingdom?" the King said angrily.

"Your majesty, I do not know where exactly we were robbed, but it was no more than a day walk in the direction where the sun sets down."

The King was angry, and it showed. He motioned to one of the knights in the room who immediately stepped closer to him. The king had instructed the knight to take a patrol in search for the alleged thieves. The knight motioned to a few other knights to follow him and they immediately left the room. The king turned back toward Liam, "My knights will find the thieves and murders who attacked you and they will return what has been stolen from you. You have my word," the king said, motioning to a servant, the servant leaving the room immediately while the king continued, "There is still the need to prove you are not wizards."

Liam's hopes suddenly went down. He didn't know what kind of test they could possibly perform to prove they were or weren't wizards, but he knew that such tests usually ended badly for those being tested. He had knowledge of few such tests, and he didn't like them very much. He remembered that on Earth, to prove somebody wasn't a witch, they would strap a heavy rock on her and toss her into the river. If she floated, it meant she was a witch. If not, it proved she was a mere human with no magical powers. The problem was that the tested person would drown, proving she was not a witch, but also dying in the process. This all had happened much later in human history, the Church the one to perform such cruel tests, and Liam wasn't sure if humans in the fifth century had similar tests to check if somebody was a wizard or if they had some other methods.

Jack and Daniel also had a troubling look on their faces, knowing that proving the improvable could not be an easy task and that it could end up very badly for them. Jack turned toward Liam, "Any idea how they intend to prove we aren't wizards. I mean, I would really like to have my head and other body parts still attached to the rest of my body after they finish."

Liam turned toward Daniel as the designated expert, "What do you think?"

Daniel shrugged, "I don't know. I know what they did with witches, but that was in another period entirely. From what I know, the idea of wizards and sorcerers was not a very spread one in this period, and usually there was no test to prove it. If somebody was thought to be one, they would execute him immediately, no test involved in proving his guilt."

"So, no idea of what the test could be?" Liam asked.

"Well, the only thing that I can think of is if they have another wizard who will determine if we are in fact wizards. It was believed that wizards could sense each other. Of course, the wizard was not a real wizard and he would in most cases found those guilty, more to prove his worth than anything else," Daniel concluded with a somber note.

"Oh, that's just great. So a cheap magician will perform some parlor tricks while checking us out and conclude we are wizards, and our heads will roll the next second," Jack said frustrated. "Can we shoot them now?"

"Not yet, we always have that option. Let's first see what the test is." Liam concluded, but at the same time thinking how Jack's suggestion would probably become a reality.

"Yes, we do have that option... until we don't." Jack retorted.

It didn't take long for the servant to return with an old man in tow. Daniel was the first to notice the similarity with the Merlin's hologram he'd seen in the caves when Vala forced him to go look for the treasure.

Merlin stepped closer to the king, "What do you want?"

The three of them didn't miss the antagonistic tone of voice Merlin used to address the king. It was strange since usually people who addressed any king in such a manner would lose their heads the next moment.

The king as well wasn't happy about the way Merlin addressed him, but for some reason he let it slide. "Those people claim not to be wizards. They claim to be explorers having been robbed of all of their possessions, and the wizard robes they are wearing is because they found them in the woods. I want you to test them if they are wizards or not."

A very pissed Merlin stepped toward the three kneeling man, "Rise."

The three men complied and Merlin started his investigation if they were indeed wizards. He checked Daniel first, grabbing his head with his hands and checking for signs. Merlin sensed something different about him, but he couldn't fathom what exactly. The next was Liam, grabbing his head the same way as he did with Daniel, but he immediately sensed something else. Merlin stepped back in utter puzzlement, "Alterran?"

"Lantean," Liam greeted him, smiling at the same time.

Merlin understood now wasn't the time to ask the thousands of questions that were swirling in his head at that moment, deciding to continue his routine check and leave the questioning for later. He stepped in front of Jack, doing the same theatrics as with the two previous subjects. This one was even stranger. He didn't know what to sense. Was he human or Alterran? It didn't matter; he needed to give an answer to the king before he became suspicious. "I'm not sensing any magic in them. As far as I can tell, they are simple people.

Jack felt a little hurt by being called simple, but he knew it wasn't the time to bring the matter forward. The king, on the other hand looked relieved, "You have proven your innocence. You will be my guests until we find those responsible for robbing you, and I assure you, they will be punished accordingly." The king turned toward his servant before continuing, "Find them adequate accommodations in the castle, and be certain they have everything they need."

The servant bowed to the king before approaching Liam, Daniel and Jack, "If you would like to follow me, I will show you your accommodations."

Liam turned toward the king also bowing in gratitude, "We are very grateful for you generosity your majesty."

The king motioned for them to leave, apparently having enough of this, before turning toward his advisor and asking what was next on his list of today's duties. The three of them turned and exited the king's chambers, following the servant to their new accommodations. Three adjacent rooms had been prepared for them and different robes had been brought so they could change into something less conspicuous. After changing their clothes, they gathered all together into Jack's room. It didn't take long for a very impatient looking Merlin to show up.

"Who are you?" Merlin asked.

Liam turned to face Merlin, "Oh, that's a very long story."

"I have time." Merlin replied simply, "What is an Alterran doing here? Are you here to stop me?"

"Stop you? From what you think I'm here to stop you?" Liam asked not knowing what he was referring to.

"To find a way to fight the Ori," Merlin answered, but he was already sensing this wasn't the reason they were here.

"No, I'm not. If anything, I would like to help you, but I don't think the others would like that very much." Liam answered.

That made Merlin think hard for a moment, "So, you are also working against the others' wishes?"

"More or less, but the whole story is much more complex than that."

"I can see that. You are really a strange bunch. What about you?" Merlin asked Daniel.

"What about me?"

"You feel… strange. You are human, but there is also something else I'm sensing in you."

Jack stepped in answering the question, "Oh, that's probably because he ascended a while back… or will ascend a while back is maybe a better way to explain it. I'm a little confused."

"What?"

Jack sighed, "We are from the future. More than fifteen hundred years in the future."

"What?" Merlin repeated the same question.

Liam decided to finally start giving some answers in an orderly fashion because, if they continued like this, they would still be here in a year, nobody wiser. "We have stumbled upon some strange anomaly that brought us back in the past and it almost destroyed our ship in the process. We were able to detect a faint energy signature originating from here, so we decided to investigate since we all know such energy should not exist in the fifth century."

Merlin thought about what Liam said, before raising an eyebrow, "When did that anomaly show up?"

"More or less, ten hours ago. Why?" Liam asked also noticing the strange expression Merlin had.

"Ups!" Merlin said sheepishly.

"How do you mean ups?" Liam asked, looking intently at the wizard.

"I think it must have been my experiment that went south. I was experimenting with inter-dimensional energy exchange, and it didn't go as I have predicted."

Daniel turned toward Liam, "That explains why we were brought in this period. Not a coincidence after all."

Merlin also remembered something else, "How did you succeed in ascending? Even if you are from the future, you still haven't reached the necessary level to ascend?"

Daniel thought about how best to answer, "I had help, Oma to be more precise."

"Of course, Oma was always the one to worry more about individuals rather than looking at the bigger picture." Merlin replied.

"That's Oma." Liam added.

"You know her?" Merlin asked.

"We are old friends. We ascended somewhere in the same period." Liam answered.

"So, how come you are back?" Merlin asked still not getting the whole story.

"I descended even before your people left the Pegasus galaxy and went to the Andromeda galaxy. Then I spent the next ten thousand years in stasis, waiting for the last ZPM factory to build enough ZPMs, before awakening and continuing preparing for the fight that would follow. At the time, I thought I would wake up and have to fight only the Wraith, but that ended up not being the case. We have many more enemies."

"That explains why I never heard of you. While I was ascended you were in a stasis pod, and nobody talked about you upstairs."

"Yeah, my decision to return to the lower plane wasn't the most popular and I became more or less an outcast. Maybe you know my wife Aenea."

"I do. Aenea and Oma were very close while I was ascended."

"You have a wife?" Jack interjected.

Liam just smiled at Jack's question, not wanting to let the conversation drift in the wrong direction.

Merlin was also still confused, not really knowing what questions to ask first, "You said the Wraith won't be the only enemy. The Goa'uld?"

"No, not really. They are pretty much beaten, thanks to them?" Liam said pointing at Daniel and Jack.

"I'm impressed; I didn't think humans from Earth will reach such a level to be able to fight the Goa'uld, not in such a short time anyway." Merlin said looking at Jack, still with a wary eye for some reason.

"Well thanks, but we also had help. The Asgard and the Jaffa rebellion helped a lot," Jack said proudly.

"So, who are those other enemies?" Merlin asked already dreading what the answer would be.

Liam smiled, knowing what Merlin's fear was, "Yes, the Ori are one of them."

"I knew they will eventually come." Merlin said.

Jack put an angry expression on his face, "Yes they did, thanks to you."

Now it was Merlin's time to be puzzled, "What did I do?"

"You left that communication thingy lying around for anyone to find it, and that guy over there found it and used it to contact the people in the Ori galaxy," Jack said pointing at Daniel as the other guilty party in the Ori affair.

Merlin had a puzzled look, trying to understand what the communication thingy could be, "What? What communication device?"

"Oh I don't know, a thing ye big, with a pointy crystal on top. Ring any bells?" Jack explained while showing the approximate dimensions of the device with his hands.

"Dammit! Where did you find it?"

Daniel explained the location of the cave and the whole story about how they'd found it and subsequently used it without knowing what it was until it was too late. Merlin retorted explaining that even if he did leave it, they should not have used it since they didn't know what it was. Jack reassured Merlin that he blamed Daniel for that as well, but also that this wasn't an excuse to leave it without any instructions attached to it. The conversation heated up, and also became very confusing when Liam stepped in explaining that, now that Jack told Merlin about it, Merlin would have to leave it in the cave if they didn't want to change the course of their own history. Liam also noted to Jack that, now that he told Merlin about the device, he was also responsible for the device being there, also trying to explain the paradox of cause and effect in a temporal loop, specifying there was no beginning or end in a temporal loop like the one they were in. Jack, pissed at Liam, explained that he stopped listening to him the moment he mentioned the word paradox and that everything that he said afterwards was gibberish to him. Daniel on the other hand was silent the whole time, feeling guilty about the whole thing, but eventually he decided to explain that there was nothing they could do about it now, or at least he thought they couldn't, explaining that what happened has happened and that what will happen has also happened. The four of them spent the next five minutes in silence, utterly confused, since the conversation they just had, had become a paradox in itself with no end in sight. The short break didn't work, since they restarted the conversation laying blame on who started the whole thing and it would have probably lasted for a lot longer if Liam didn't decide to stop it. Liam thought that these three could go on like this forever, the only positive thing being that he was the only immortal in the room. Still, he had to stop it.

"Can we please finish this ridiculous blaming game and focus on what we are going to do next?"

The three other people in the room stopped talking, finally realizing the futility of their discussion. Liam took the initiative, not wanting to give them enough time to restart the entire discussion, "Merlin, do you know of a way to reverse the anomaly?"

Merlin thought about it for a moment, "I don't have to reverse anything, the spatial anomaly goes both ways. The only thing I have to do is carefully recreate the same conditions so that you can return in the proper timeline. The other problem is you'll have to modify your shields since the first time you went through it almost destroyed your ship. I will give you the necessary modifications that should greatly improve your chances."

"Good, the only problem now is to find out if the shields will work at all. The ship is pretty banged up."

"If you need any supplies just ask. I have a small manufacturing facility here."

Daniel was also interested in something else, more precisely in history, "On another note, what is your deal with Utter Pendragon. I saw the way you talked to him, and I didn't see a lot of love in there."

"That is because I hate the guy." Merlin answered with a disgusted tone of voice.

"You do? Isn't he the father of the future king Arthur?"

"He is, and that is the only reason I don't fry his ass. The boy shows great potential in becoming a great king one day, with the right guidance that is. That is the only reason why I'm letting Utter Pendragon remain on the throne. Arthur is still too young, and the death of Utter could change him and not for the better. He is still his father after all."

"So you are here working on a way to defeat the Ori, while you wait for Arthur to come of age?"

"Not just that. I'm also helping Utter to expand his kingdom so that, when Arthur comes to age, he'll have a strong kingdom to run. I have great expectations for the boy."

"There isn't much about Arthur in history books. Most of it is folklore with contradicting facts, but what is certain is that he became a great king that united England."

"That is great to hear. In a way, is great to know that you left a mark in the history books."

The conversation was abruptly cut short when they heard people running in the outside corridor, and from the clanking sound it sounded as if knights were the ones making the noise.

"You stay here. I'm going to check out what is going on," Merlin said, leaving the room the next moment.

Liam decided it was a good time to check on how the repairs were coming along. He contacted the ship, the captain explaining the repairs were coming along well, but that it would be several more days until they could bring the reactor online. Liam explained what they'd found out and how, if they needed anything, Merlin could build it here, which the captain was glad to hear.

After half an hour, Merlin returned bringing bad news. Not for them directly, but rather for the kingdom. A large force was marching from the east to the city. A great battle was about to begin in less than a day. It was a direct result of Utter pissing off one of the bordering kingdoms and the enemy had many more warriors than Camelot currently had, another mistake of Utter who'd lost many men attacking another bordering kingdom. The strong walls of Camelot were the only defense against such an army. Plans had already been put into motion in order to bring most of the people inside the strong walls, since staying outside would result in almost certain death. Jack didn't like it, also advising to bring down as many weapons as they could, but Merlin assured him he built Camelot's walls himself and that without something stronger than swords, the approaching army would crash against them unable to do anything more than that. It had taken a little more convincing before Jack conceded to let the matter drop. Liam was glad, but at the same time he called the Defiant and instructed the captain to send the schematics of several various types of weapons and armors just as a precaution. Jack and Daniel remained in their rooms while Liam followed Merlin to his lab. It was well hidden behind a holographic barrier that Merlin himself had designed. Liam told Merlin how he would have great use for a scientist like he was, also explaining the exact situation with the Edenians and the Order he'd created. It didn't take long for Merlin to find a kindred spirit in Liam, the idea of joining him in the future and consequently joining the fight against the Ori, incredibly alluring to him, but he knew it would change history too much, especially now that he knew that Arthur would become the great king he always hoped he would. After a long talk and after checking if the manufacturing facility was compatible enough to use the schematics the Captain sent to him, he decided to go in his room and spend some time meditating, still remembering what Lya told him about his need to train his mind and body. He thought it would be too strange to run around the castle jogging, and it would probably rise to many unwanted questions, but spending the afternoon in his room in peace was something he wouldn't have any trouble doing.

In the evening, the same servant came to their rooms to let them know that they had been invited to participate in the evening's banquet the king had decided to throw in their honor. After all, everybody believed them to be high dignitaries from a far land with friendly intentions, and they didn't mind having something to eat that weren't ship's rations. They all changed into robes they thought would be appropriate for such an evening event. They walked in the large room they had been previously admitted by the king, now embellished for the festivities with large tables in the middle and with many more people than it had been the case earlier that day. The only people who were missing were Merlin and the King. They knew Merlin wasn't coming. He had never been invited to such events, but also because he didn't like them either. On the other hand, the king's lateness was something to be expected. Jack was about to start eating the food in front of him, the smell making it difficult for him to resist, but Daniel told him that there was a good chance of him losing his head if he did it before the king arrived. Jack didn't like all this protocol, but the idea of losing his head made him wait, also making him lose a good portion of his previous appetite.

Finally the king arrived and the feast began. It was good, Jack had to admit it, the wine and meat were worthy of a king. Not entirely strange since this was the real case here. During the meal, the king asked many questions about their kingdom, which Liam answered in as many details as he could fabricate in such a short time. Jack was amazed by how Liam could easily invent an incredibly accurate story, while at the same time being a complete figment of imagination, but at the same time having many facts from their real life. The thing that was strange to Jack was that nobody was mentioning the incoming battle. Daniel explained that, throughout history, it was impolite to discuss politics or battle plans during the evening meal. The meal was supposed to be reserved for relaxing before going to sleep. The most prominent example were the Romans, whose people would under no circumstances discuss anything that could disturb the last meal of the day or anything after it. It was a way to make people go to sleep without thinking of the many hardships they had to endure during the day, knowing that tomorrow, at sunrise, they would have to wake up and probably go into yet another battle.

The meal ended and the three of them took off to their respective rooms after what had been a pretty long and tiring day. Tomorrow was going to be an even longer one, especially if the incoming battle wouldn't be such an easy one as Merlin had assured that it would be.

The crew of the Defiant didn't have such luxury. Their working hours had continued even after what could barely be construed as dinner. They didn't mind though, especially Sam who was ecstatic at the opportunity of working on such a ship. It had taken her some time to understand the various systems, in many ways similar to their own, yet different in many others. The main distinction were the components which manufacturing process was based on matter transfer, with the ability of creating more compact components and greatly changing the way of repairing them. In most cases it was a matter of switching the broken component with a new one or, in rare cases, using some very precise tools, which Sam had never seen before and barely understood how they worked.

The repairs were on schedule, only few times having to leave the repairs for when Merlin could fabricate a component they didn't have replacement for. The captain believed the reactor would be up and running in two days' time at the most. It was almost midnight, ship's time, when they decided to leave the rest of the repairs for tomorrow and to take some well-deserved rest, rather than screwing up some of the repairs because they were too tired to even see what they were doing.

The night had been uneventful. The peace and quiet of a world that didn't have or even could have a nightlife as modern times did, had allowed Jack and the rest of the people down on the planet surface a good night of sleep. Jack couldn't remember when the last time had been when he'd slept so peacefully. There were no sounds or urgent matters that would have woke him up in the middle of the night. Then, he remembered how this was another reason he liked to spend some time in his cabin in the woods and how the incident that almost cost him his life, had robbed him of the opportunity of a few days of quality sleep. He reminded himself that he should build another cabin. He didn't know if he would build it in Minnesota or maybe somewhere on Terrania on a remote location, but he knew he had to do it. Maybe there, he could even catch some real fish for a change.

The sound of a rooster was clear indication that the sun had risen above the horizon and that it was time to get out of bed. Jack got up, immediately dressed in what he thought was appropriate clothing and walked to the window to see the rising sun. The sunrise was beautiful, and it would have been even more so, if there wasn't for the army amassing on a hill less than a mile to the east. Jack scratched the back of his head, looking intently at the thousands of medieval warriors clad in armor. Some of them were pushing some large trebuchets and other types of siege weapons they intended to use to conquer the city. Liam and Daniel entered the room and approached Jack who remained standing in front the window the whole time.

"Nice view," Jack stated, "I think it would be even better if there weren't so many angry people on that hill, but still a nice view."

"Yeah, we really know when to pay a visit to 5th century England," Daniel said in a sarcastic tone.

"Hey, at least nobody can say we have a dull life," Jack said, still looking at the growing army amassed on the distant hill.

"That's true," Daniel said.

"Well, if what Merlin is telling us is true, they won't be able to breach the city walls," Liam said, reassuringly.

"And what if they do?" Jack asked.

"Then Camelot is in serious trouble. They have only three hundred warriors to defend the city, and that won't be enough in a close quarter's fight," Liam explained. "Come, I have something to show you."

Jack and Daniel followed Liam, clearly curious to see what he wanted to show them. They went through the many corridors that led to Merlin's lab in the basement of the castle. Merlin was waiting inside, working on some strange device. The device was virtually constructing something as if from thin air. Jack liked it. He would really like to have one of those back home.

Liam waited for Merlin to finish what he was doing. The device was currently finalizing the component he was creating on a small pedestal. Once finished, Merlin stepped away from the strange looking head-sucker he was using, "Are the components the captain requested finished?"

Merlin turned toward Liam, "They are."

"And the other things I asked for?"

Merlin didn't answer, instead he moved to a storage unit on the other side of the lab, "I still don't know why you wanted me to build these." Merlin opened the storage unit, showing his content to the others. Three armors and as many swords were inside and they looked very medieval, but they all understood they weren't just that.

"I know you think there is no chance they can breach the city walls, and I concur, it is indeed a slim chance, but I like to be prepared." Liam explained his reasons.

"What are does?" Jack asked, pointing at the content of the storage unit.

"Those are our armors and weapons."

"You really want us to wear these?" Jack asked again.

"If it comes to that, yes," Liam answered. "Look, we can't just start shooting people with our guns. People would freak. Instead I wanted to have something that can pass in this era as the usual weapon and armor, but I assure you, they are much more than that. They are made of a very light material, but at the same time, they are almost indestructible, at least against weapons from this era."

"You think we know how to use a sword? The last time I used a sword was… I have no idea when the last time was, and I'm not in the best of shapes either."

"I planned for that. The armor will help you in that regard," Liam said.

"It will? How?"

"The armor is not just a piece of metal. It gives you complete protection, and the suit underneath will boost your strength considerably. The sword is also made from a special material with the edge sharpened down to a molecular level. It can cut through practically anything."

Merlin was a little pissed nobody was giving him the credit he deserved, "I'm telling you, there is no rock they can throw at us that can destroy the walls, and the gates are… enchanted."

"Meaning?" Liam asked.

"Meaning, the gates have a forcefield that protects them from the outside. There is no way they can break the forcefield with some battering ram or anything else they might have. And the three hundreds strong knights are enough to stop anyone from trying to get inside over the walls."

"Fine, and I think is great you are so certain, but I still like to have a backup plan if all else fails," Liam said a little annoyed. "Why are those men even attacking Camelot?"

"Because Utter is an asshole, that's why. He knows that Camelot is impenetrable, and that gives him the confidence to do whatever he wishes."

"So, what did he do?" Jack asked.

"He insulted the neighboring ruler by rejecting his gifts. He thought they were too pitiful to accept them," Merlin explained, disgusted by the king's behavior.

"Nice guy this Utter fella. When will Arthur come to age?"

Merlin thought about it, "Well, he is ten now, and I would like for him to be at least twenty years old before becoming king so, I think I'm stuck with Utter for the next ten years."

"I'm not sure it will be that long," Daniel interjected. "From what I know, Arthur became king at the age of fifteen, if the history books are right about that."

Merlin looked relieved, five years sounding much better than ten, "That… is probably the greatest news I had in a very long time."

"By the way, when do you think those angry people on the hill will decide to attack?" Jack asked.

"I don't know, probably in the next few hours, once they set up properly, but sometimes the waiting can last for days." Merlin answered, knowing from experience how these battles went.

"So, we have enough time to go grab something to eat?" Jack asked.

"I swear, sometimes I think you can eat all day," Daniel said.

"I can… and sometime I even do eat all day," Jack said grabbing his belly, clearly deciding it is too empty for his taste.

"Fine, let's go eat something," Daniel said, knowing full well who would eventually win the debate.

The four of them moved out of Merlin's lab, Jack and Daniel first, and Liam and Merlin following a few meters behind. It wasn't just a coincidence. Merlin had on purpose slowed down so he could discuss a few things with Liam in private. "So, strange group you have here. One of them is a former ascended being, with the help of Oma, and the other is… actually I have no clue who or what he is. I can't decide if he's human or Alterran, which begs the question. How did that happen?"

"I only discovered this recently myself. Only yesterday to be exact, when he told me that he stuck his head in the Alterran Repository of Knowledge and survived the last stage of the transformation. The only way he could have done that is if he has Alterran ancestors and recent ones at that."

"You know what that could mean, do you?"

"I hope so."

"You hope. Why?"

"Because it means something is happening with our ascended siblings' way of viewing things."

Merlin looked at Liam for a long moment, trying to understand what he really meant, "What is the reason for you being here?"

"Here?"

"Not here in the 5th century, but here in the lower plane. And don't give me that crap about repairing the mess both of our people left behind, because I can sense this is not the whole story."

Liam walked in silence for the next two corridors thinking what, if anything, to tell Merlin. "I returned to the lower plane because I think that is what we should do."

"Who gave you that idiotic idea?"

Liam smiled, already having predicted Merlin's reaction. He knew there was a difference between him and Merlin, with the reason why he descended being very different from Merlin's, "Believe it or not, it was Oma who gave me the idea."

Merlin was puzzled. He didn't understand what Oma could possibly have had to do with Liam's decision to descend, "Oma? If anything, Oma has always preached the opposite."

"Exactly."

"Exactly what?" Merlin was now very confused.

"Oma has always helped humans reach enlightenment in order for them to ascend, and that made me think. What happens to them after they ascend?"

"They enjoy being ascended beings?"

"Well… that probably is true, but that's not where I was going with this. My question was do they reach the same level as Lanteans, or Alterrans?"

This was a sore point for Merlin, since he knew the Lanteans had never reached the same level as the Alterrans did once they have ascended. He also knew humans, helped by Oma, never ascended to the same level as neither Lanteans nor Alterrans. "No, they don't."

"Do they eventually reach a higher level while ascended?" Liam asked another question.

"No, as far as I know, they don't," Merlin answered.

"Exactly my point. There is no progress in the higher plane. You are stuck where you land."

"But, you can gain incredible knowledge while ascended. There are no limits to what you can learn, no matter who you were before ascending," Merlin said, "and the widespread understanding is that the higher plane is just another steppingstone towards something even higher."

"Well, that is the problem, isn't it? Do you know of anyone who has reached something more after having ascended, and I for one know ascended beings that have spent millions of years trying, me being one of them," Liam explained his reasoning.

"So you think that, whatever you have achieved in the lower plane is proportional to where you land in the higher plane."

"I do, and aren't the Ori proof of that? They use their followers to artificially increase their core energy levels by stealing it from them, but even then they have to constantly suck more energy from their followers if they want to retain it. They are not accumulating the energy, as it should be if there was a way to evolve and progress in the higher plane."

Merlin was puzzled, what Liam was telling had some logic, but he still wasn't convinced, "But there is no guarantee that you can ascend back once you descend to the lower plane?"

"Look, I'm not telling that it is without risk, or that life in the higher plane isn't more… comfortable, I'm only saying that when you ascend you're stuck. It looks to me that it is more like a trap than anything else."

"But, what can you really achieve if you descend. Can you really progress any further in the lower plane?"

"Well, that's a difficult question. We know that the core energy every living being has is based on, both, your physical and mental qualities. If you change those, you should change the amount of core energy you transfer after you ascend."

"And how do you plan on changing your physical… oh, now I get it, but isn't that dangerous?"

"Again, I never said that it was easy, and you are also forgetting there's another way?"

Merlin thought about it for a moment, seeing that Liam wasn't about to just say what he meant, when he realized where he was going, "You mean, by having children. Through children there is evolution, something that is impossible in the higher plane."

"Bingo!"

"Bingo?"

"Sorry, human term, very popular… don't know why though. It means you got it."

Merlin was thoughtful. This was a lot to take in, and it was also the reason he felt depressed, "Great! I was just thinking of leaving the lower plane once Arthur's destiny is on track, and now you gave me something else to think about. Damn you and your theories!"

Liam chuckled, "Look, I'm not saying you shouldn't ascend, that's your decision."

"Ye-ye, I know that. Still, you gave me something to think about, and at the moment I'm really confused on what to do."

"Well, it's better to have something to think about, than blindly follow some misguided preconceptions."

Merlin still looked at Liam with a pissed expression while they were entering a large room where they could have something to eat. Jack and Daniel had been much faster and had already taken some seats on the large table in the middle of the room. Liam and Merlin joined them, taking their own seats on the other side of the table. Soon, servants started bringing food on their table. Jack was more than satisfied with the amount and variety of it, while Daniel was a little less excited to eat roasted beef at breakfast, but since, beggars can't be choosers, he got on to it. They all ate in peace, nobody really having anything to discuss at the moment, until a strange sound took their attention. It was a crashing sound, coming from somewhere outside the castle. Merlin explained it was probably those angry people on the hill that launched a rock with their siege weapons, with the large Trebuchets probably being the one to send it. The other wanted to go and check it out, but Merlin told them it was only the beginning and that it will take some time before the real siege started. The others didn't understand how Merlin could be so calm at such a precarious moment, but they understood this probably wasn't Merlin's first rodeo. Camelot probably had survived many more attacks before.

Eventually the four of them finished their breakfast and moved outside the castle to see what was happening. As Merlin had predicted, nothing was happening yet. The previous shots were only to calibrate the siege weapons arc of fire. Still, many knights had already taken their positions, mostly on the tall walls surrounding the city since that was the only vulnerable part of the city. If Merlin was right, the only way they could assault Camelot was by climbing the walls and the warriors there were assurance they wouldn't succeed in their attempt. To Jack, it was very strange to see rows of archers waiting to fire up their arrows once the enemy decided to charge the castle. To him, it looked like he was in some kind of second grade movie and not in the real world. The large cauldrons with boiling oil were ready to be spilled on the unfortunate people brave enough, or stupid enough, to reach the walls. The idea of receiving the full load of such a burning and sticky substance on your head, made Jack shiver, also making him remember the time Ba'al had tortured him with various types of acid that would burn through his skin.

He didn't have time to think much about it when the first of many balls of fire flew toward the castle, some hitting the exterior side of the walls while others reaching much farther inside the castle and hitting the ground in the main courtyard or some of the internal walls. There was no one in the courtyard as that was the most dangerous place to be while balls of fire were raining down from the sky and the people here knew that. Most of them were hiding inside the castle or on the opposite side, outside the range of the enemy's siege weapons. To Jack's relief, Merlin's estimates were right. The walls remained standing proudly without even feeling the rocks that were raining on them, and the interior of the castle was also mostly made of rocks so that the balls of fire didn't have the desired effect of lighting a fire inside the castle. Then Jack noticed the shouting from the enemy warriors charging toward the castle. The archers on the walls took their time, waiting for the approaching horde to come closer. Their commander gave the order and they lit the tip of their arrows. Hundreds of arrows flew into the air, only to fall down in the middle of the approaching warriors. Most of them continued running, but some had fell onto the ground. A few carts that were being pushed were caught on fire, but still they pushed forward. The archers fired again and again, with more enemy warriors falling down onto the ground after being hit by one or more arrows, but again, they pushed forward, now, almost reaching the footing of the walls. Some were carrying some ladders that they were trying to bring up on the walls so that they could eventually climb them, while others were bringing a strange looking battering ram in front of the main gate. The people on the walls started throwing large rocks on the people below. The battering ram and many people around it took a full load of boiling oil, unfortunate enough to stand right below. Still most people there were shielded, since the battering ram had been constructed in such a way to protect the people around it. The remaining people started pushing the large wooden ram with a metallic tip into the main gate, but the gate would just light up as it was usual when a forcefield was hit. The gate behind didn't even feel the impacts.

"You see, their attack is futile," Merlin said to the three other people standing beside him.

"It looks that way," Liam stated also witnessing the impossible task the enemy had in front of them.

Jack was also about to say something, but then he noticed something strange. Several dozen people entered the courtyard, running toward the main gate. They looked like peasants, and Jack wasn't sure what they were doing down there. There was no reason for anyone to be down there, and especially not peasants who should be hiding somewhere inside the castle or on the opposite side.

"So, Merlin, what would happen if someone opened the gate from the inside? Would the forcefield still stop anyone from entering?" Jack asked.

Merlin had a puzzling look on his face, "No, the forcefield is tied to the gate. It automatically deactivates when you open it. Why?"

"Well, because those peasants down there are opening the gate as we speak."

Merlin looked down and saw the people there trying to raise the internal metallic gate. Once that gate was raised they would only need to open the exterior wooden doors and the enemy could freely enter Camelot. "My God! Are they insane?" Marlin exclaimed, also seeing that the few guards who'd rushed down there were greatly outnumbered and unable to stop those people.

"No, they aren't. They are working for the enemy," Jack explained. "Liam, Daniel, Let's go."

The three of them ran inside the castle directed toward Merlin's lab while Merlin remained, trying to inform other guards to run down in the courtyard and stop those people from opening the gate. The guards understood what Merlin was trying to tell them, immediately hurrying down to stop them. It was a race against time and Merlin had the clear feeling they wouldn't reach them in time.

Jack, Liam and Daniel reached the lab, thankfully being very close to where they had been standing, and rushed to the storage unit. They were trying to put the armors on them as fast as they could, but it wasn't easy. The armors were incredibly difficult to put on. It took them almost five minutes to put them, but once they did, the suit underneath understood the wearer had finished dressing and activated its systems. They all felt the suit tightening to their body and powering up the artificial muscular system that would give them increased strength and speed. They took the swords and ran back toward the courtyard.

It was too late. The gate had already been opened and enemy warriors where pouring inside the castle while more were waiting outside to do the same. In the courtyard, knights were already engaging the enemy, but they were having their hands full and nobody was close enough to reach the gate in order to close it.

Jack entered the courtyard completely disoriented by the helmet he was wearing. A warrior, also wearing armor, ran towards him with his sword raised high. The man sliced at Jack, hitting him in his chest, but to the warrior's utter astonishment, nothing happened. Jack understood that he should do something instead of just standing there. He swung with his sword in an awkward motion, clearly not as a trained knight. The warrior's head dropped on the ground. It would have been funny for Jack to be able to use a sword with such ease, if it wasn't for the fact that the sight of the beheaded warrior was so disturbing to him. Jack sighed, adopting a 'what has to be done, must be done' kind of attitude and going in search for his next victim.

Soon, the enemy understood that something was not right. No matter what they threw at the three black knights, being arrows, spears, or attacking with their swords, the knights were unbeatable.

And they were not prepared to fight an unbeatable opponent, much less three of them.

Jack, Liam and Daniel reunited in front of the gate, looking at each other for a short moment before going completely berserk at the enemy, slicing with their swords like children, yet with incredible effectiveness. The warriors tried to back away, nobody wanting to be in the first row against those meat grinders that were approaching them, but other warriors from behind were pushing them forward and making their retreat impossible.

Merlin stood on the wall above the main gate, concentrating with his hands in the air. As if from nowhere, dark clouds started forming above Camelot increasing in density while strong winds started raging from all directions. The people there were frightened at what was happening, or even worse, what was going to happen next. The clouds reached their peak density, arcs of lightning thundering everywhere in the sky. The arcs suddenly connected, shooting down in front of the main gate. Strong explosions rocked the earth beneath the enemy warriors, several of them being burned or thrown into the air. The enemy advance had been stopped, the lightning giving the three black knights the help they needed to push the remaining warriors back outside so that the gate could finally be closed again. At that moment, the enemy decided to adopt a 'screw this' attitude, turning by 180 degrees and starting to run as if the devil itself was chasing them, which, to their knowledge, could very likely have been the truth. The warriors were brave, but they knew when the situation had gone completely FUBAR.

The people in Camelot started cheering once they saw the enemy fleeing away, but at the same time they were also wary of the three strange knights in black armor that were standing in front of them. They didn't know who they were, how they got there and, most importantly, if they were going to kill them all. The biggest fear of all was that there was magic involved, as the only possible explanation for how easy it had been for them to kill so many. People sighed in relief when the three knights took off their helmets, even more when Merlin gave them a plausible explanation for them wearing those magical armors. He explained how he had enchanted three armors and gave them to the three strangers in case things hadn't gone as planned and the people ended up being grateful for what he had done. The King was also incredibly grateful for the three strangers helping them in their time of need. The king promised they would always be welcomed in Camelot.

Another banquet had been prepared in their honor with even more people attending. The festivities went on throughout the entire city of Camelot and continued throughout the entire night. There was also an execution of those who had helped open the gate and others who didn't escape the fight in time. Daniel and Jack weren't happy to watch those beheadings, contrary to the rest of the people there who cheered and celebrated the act. Those who opened the gate were peasants, unhappy with Utter's ruling and also brave enough to do something in order to change it. There were many more who didn't like the King, but also unwilling to risk their lives in the same way as those who had opened the gate. Jack and Daniel were troubled, not knowing if they changed history or made it and also not liking both options and only finding comfort in the fact that they didn't have any choice in the matter and that one day Arthur would take his father's place and do something good with his kingdom.

The next morning, with a raging headache, the three newly branded Knights of Camelot had spent most of the day in Merlin's lab, helping as much as they could to complete the remaining components the Defiant would need. It was mostly Merlin and Liam's work, but Jack and Daniel didn't want to spend that time outside with too many people treating them as heroes. After some time, the attention had become tiresome and they needed some peace and quiet to recuperate from the festivities and prepare for their departure. It took the entire day to finish the repairs of the Defiant that was finally able to reactivate its reactor. As their time of departure came closer, Merlin decided it was time to give Liam something he wouldn't need anymore. The device he had built so that no ascended being could eavesdrop while he worked on the weapon that could destroy ascended beings. Liam was reluctant, not understanding why he was giving it to him with all his research in it. Merlin explained that, now that he knew when the Ori would come, and that Liam would be there to fight them, the device would help him to accomplish that. Merlin also decided he would remain here to see Arthur grow, but after that he would probably leave this place, still not knowing where he would go or do afterward. Liam had to promise he would keep the device safe, also realizing the danger it represented if it fell into the wrong hands. The device in itself was a marvel of technology.

Combined with the knowledge inside, it was a ticking bomb.


Milky Way Galaxy – Defiant (5th century)

The three strangers left Camelot for their puddle jumper waiting where they'd left it. Once reached, the puddle jumper rose into the air with haste as all of them wanted to go back home as soon as possible.

Once on board the Defiant, Jack could barely wait to tell the tale of their heroics of how they'd saved the kingdom.

"… and then we charged the enemy at the gate, pushing them back so that we could finally close the gate. Merlin summoned a storm above Camelot and lightning struck the enemy in front of the gate so we could finally close it. I can tell you, the enemy didn't expect that. They ran like the devil was chasing them," Jack was explaining what happened to Sam and the rest of the crew on the bridge.

Sam was dumbstruck, thinking what Jack could have possibly had to drink down there for telling such a story, but Daniel's expression told her it was all true. "Huh. And I thought I had an exciting time fixing the ship."

Liam stepped on the bridge. He had spent some time in engineering installing the device Merlin had given him so they could recreate the anomaly that brought them here. He walked to the captain who was also listening intently to Jack's tale, "The device is ready. We can go now."

The captain didn't wait for more encouragement. He instructed the pilot to take them away from the planet in order to finally go home. The pilot moved the ship to the location where they'd exited the anomaly. The device activated, forming the same anomaly in front of them as before and the ship lurched forward under the gravimetric distortion the anomaly was producing. The ship went through, this time, with much less turbulence as Merlin gave them the right instructions on how to modify the shields. The ship exited the anomaly on the other side.


Milky Way Galaxy – Defiant (somewhere… still in the past)

"Check when we are," the Captain ordered, but the pilot had something else to add instead.

"Shit! Earth is in front of us," the pilot said.

"How is that possible?" the captain asked.

The crewman manning the sensor was already working in order to find out what went wrong, "We are in the wrong space-time coordinates. Earth is not where it should be in our time."

As the crewman said those words, the others immediately understood they didn't return to their time and Earth wasn't where supposedly it should be.

"That's not the worst part. We are too close to the planet. It's pulling as down."

The ship was already entering the higher layers of Earth's atmosphere. The pilot was unable to do anything to counteract the strong gravitational force the planet was exerting on the ship and their descent was too steep to change course. The planet's atmosphere burned against the ship's shields, making the ship turn into a fireball. The pilot was doing everything he could to slow down the fast approaching ground from hitting them, but it wasn't easy. The ship was moving too fast to simply change course. The pilot had to gradually turn the tip of the ship upward, at the same time, accelerating instead of slowing down as someone would believe it should be done. The ship almost touched the ground before the pilot managed to level the ship, now slowly gaining altitude instead of losing it. Finally the pilot pushed the engines to afterburner, speeding back upward into space.

"When are we?" the Captain asked after the ship reached space.

"We are somewhere in 1993. The anomaly didn't bring us back the entire way," the officer working on the sensors replied.

"The calculations must have been wrong. Merlin had warned me it could happen," Liam said.

Jack turned to Liam, "Do you think somebody noticed our reentry?"

Liam shrugged, "I have no idea. We will find out when we return to our time."

It was true. Nobody had caught their reentry, except for one person who was spending his vacation camping in the woods where they almost reached ground. The man was the artist who will eventually design the Defiant for the Star Trek series.

Jack asked the question everybody was already thinking, "So, what now?"

"Now we try again," Liam answered. "We are now much closer to our time and it will be much easier to get the time right this time."

Liam stepped to one of the consoles, inputting some data in it that would hopefully bring them back home in the right time. Once he finished, he gave the okay to the captain who without thinking ordered the ship to open the anomaly once more. The ship sped towards it, exiting on the other side the same way they had done moments before. Thankfully, this time, they ended in the right timeline, only a day after their unfortunate time travel had begun.

They were finally home.


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