Author's note: Ah, I'm doing good. I haven't updated a story this regularly in.,. well never! J Hope you enjoy. I /do/ put this through a spellchecker. SO Don't know how I miss some of the bad spellings. Unless it's because some words are in there are Canadian spellings. You know. Check/Cheque and Armor/Armour and stuff like that. Anyways, hope you enjoy and thanks for the continued support.


Chapter Nine

The march through the city of the Vanir was unsettling at best, The closer they got to the center of the grand alien metropolis the eerier it became. Buildings gradually became taller and taller and taller yet, more grandiose, but they all shared something in common.

They were all dead.

Or maybe they were just slumbering. It didn't matter either way. The city was silent in the way a city shouldn't be and it was something that disturbed even Teal'c, who was the hardest to unfetter.

Bestla led them down the broad avenue, mile after mile, passing over no less then three bridges that spanned the ring-lakes of ice. Occasionally she would look at something, a shop or a building, and sigh, whispering that "They would soon live once more" to assure herself.

Finally, after an hour and a half they reached the great tower. Taking the Ruby orb from Daniel, the Vanir woman held it up in front of a crystalline doorway. The opaque crystal vibrated once then slid aside like a panel door, revealing a spacious lobby within. It was very human, almost, like it belonged in some corporate or government headquarters. Spacious and with numerous benches and chairs. There were what looked like plant holders with no plants actually in them and a fountain that was frozen.

Every panel they walked by slowly glowed to life, activated by the presence of the Ruby Sphere. They came to a double panel door which automatically opened and they all stepped in, at Bestla's urging. The doors closed and there as a flash of white and they opened again to reveal.. a different floor.

Carter looked very intrigued. "Hey, this is like the transporter they found in Atlantis." She said, looking pleased with her assumption. The Vanir simply nodded, smiling faintly as she led them down a broad and door less hallway. Door less that is except for a single opening at the far end.

"Yes, the teleporter system that the Ancients used was a system we ourselves gave them. Strangely, while they had developed Gate technology and faster then light capability on their own, they had never sought out a matter transport system themselves. We did, though, and they thankfully used it with our blessing." She told them humbly.

When they arrived at the far doorway it did not open automatically like every other door they had passed. Instead, Bestla placed the red ruby into a socket. It glowed an angry red for a long moment and then al could hear the loud thunk like sounds of physical locks, one after another, disengaging. When they stopped the doors opened with a hiss.

The room beyond the heavy doors was large, though not stupendously so. It was like a hangar bay almost in a large spaceship, an entire wall that was about a hundred feet high with a transparent wall from floor to ceiling. Along the inner walls were walkways and balconies that looked out into the bay and the great window-like wall beyond it.

And in the exact center of the large and uncluttered floor stood a stargate.

The Stargate.

The Master Stargate.

The First Stargate.

Like all others that would come later, it was tall and round. Not that anyone was expecting it any other way but you never knew. It wasn't any larger then other gates though the crossection was thicker perhaps. But beyond that, any semblance ended.

Like the Atlantis Stargate, it had no rotating inner track and it's Constellation symbols weren't extruded as much as etched into the Naquadah, each star making up a constellation seeming to be a small round crystal that must light up, again like on Atlantis. The gate seemed more heavy duty and digital as if all the other gates ,except those within the main cities must have been like Atlantis', were made to be simpler and easier to use. And still this First Gate was even more heavy duty then the Atlantis one.

Everyone from the human team looked in awe and reverence at the First Gate, aware that they had found what was probably the source of everything that they had seen or accomplished. This gate was the one that made every other gate possible. The template on which the Stargate network, which had been both a blessing and a curse, had been based all those tens of thousands of years ago.

SO of course Jack had to say something dumb,

"I dunno. I thought it would have been… well.. taller."

Daniel groaned loudly and shook his head while Carter, not as immune by O'neillisms as she believed herself to be, just rolled her eyes. Teal'c didn't even deign O'Neill's comment with a raising of his majestic brow.

Bestla only smiled that strangely attractive smile of hers and led the group to a circle etched on the floor. When everyone was within it there was a flash and they were suddenly within an identical ring on the floor, yet upon one of the balconies overlooking the First Gate's room.

But while everyone else seemed enthralled by the view of the First Gate, with it's background of the vast city beyond the transparent wall hundreds of stories below, Carter was drawn at once to a vast control panel. Crystalline plates for buttons, like keys on a piano, spread out below unlit holographic projectors.

And all dead.

At once, without anyone noticing, she sat down at the center seat and looked for the Ancient symbol that would power up the system. She couldn't find one. So she started pressing keys.

Nothing happened.

Drawn by the clicking sound of fingers on keys, everyone else turned and looked at the Colonel, frowning. She looked up at them, sheepishly, and bit her lower lip.

"Uhm, sorry." She apologized and started to push back from the chair. "I just wanted to see what it all did."

Bestla laughed, a musical sound that was delightful in it's strange alien way. "it is okay, Colonel Samantha Carter." The Vanir assured her. "Though I am surprised the control panel did not light up for you. You said you were a child of the Ancient."

Daniel smacked his forehead and walked over to Sam. "We are." He said as he took a seat beside Carter. "But the genepool has thinned out so much that the actual gene that separates us from our Ancient ancestors is quite rare. Only one in Sixteen people seem to have it." He pressed a hand against the panel and..

Nothing happened. Again.

Jack rolled his eyes and took the third seat, on the opposite side of Carter from Daniel. "Geeze. What would you ever do without me?" he asked as he touched the panel.

And all at once it lit up like a Christmas tree.

Bestla grinned and stood behind the three humans. "Well, you have proven you are who you say you are." She said happily, and almost relieved.

Daniel turned in his chair, looking confused. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly. "You weren't sure?"

Holding up her hand, Bestla bade Daniel to stop. "My heart told me yes, but I had to be sure. If none of you had been able to activate the master interface, I would have been forced to activate certain safeguard measures your ancestors installed."

Jack and Carter quickly turned in their seats, looking shocked at the admission. Only Teal'c smiled, nodding his respect."

"You were most wise, Mistress Bestla. It was sound judgment on your part and those of the ancients to ensure the safety of this place.

Grumbling, Jack turned back to his panel and squinted at the symbols. "Still coulda been more honest about it." He griped.

Sam smiled now and patted Jacks shoulder. "They had to be sure, General." She assured them, then looked at her console. "You know, these are much like the ones on Atlantis, but at the same time they seem.. less advanced." She said.

"Well, remember, the Atlantian Ancients had thousands upon thousands of years to advance beyond the Ancients and Vanir that were left behind." Daniel reminded her. He readjusted his glasses as he studied the control panel. "So we might not find the technology quite as advanced as some."

Jack snorted and gave up trying to decipher the key, crossing his arms against his chest. "Oh yeah. So their only a few thousand years more advanced then tens of thousands of years more. Oh no, whatever shall we do."

Bestla leaned in between Sam and jack and pressed a key. A Holographic screen lit up and many Ancient and Asguard symbols scrolled down the screen. "The Omegalium is still at full charge." She said, then stepped away and over to a side console. Her long fingers tapped the keys in a blur of sequences. "The Omegalium for the Shield is at three quarter's capacity and the one for the Hibernaculum is at a third capacity."

Jack smiled now. "Well that's good. So how many times can a ZPM power a gate? You know, for intergalactic trips?"

Bestla looked back and frowned. "I don't know." She said. "We never made an intergalactic jump, ourselves. We needed to get a Stargate to another galaxy to actually do it and while my people traveled from one, the Ancients never left this galaxy until they fled."

"Well, from my calculations of how much power a ZPM could hold and how much power we used to open a stable wormhole to Pegasus I would think you could get about a few dozen or more trip out of it before you used it up and had to replace it." Carter said as she pressed a few keys experimentally and the holographic display changed. "Not that we know how to make a new ZPM, or charge an old one."

Bestla looked at Carter. "There were Omegalium production facilities on Minerias." She said. "I don't know what you would call the planet now, mind you. It was the next one out from Aresia."

Jack blinked. "Wait, you guys had industry on Jupiter? The largest gas Giant in the solar system?" he asked. "You mean on one of it's moons, right? I just can't see Ancients in floating cities around a Gas giant."

Blinking, the Vanir woman regarded Jack curiously. "No, Mineria is between Aresia and Panthia, the sixth planet which is the Large Gas Giant. "

"Wait!" Daniel interceded. "There is no planet between Mars and Jupiter." He told her. "Only a… Oh. Oh my."

Jack winced. "An asteroid belt." He supplied. "Bestla, there are only 9 planets in our solar system."

Once again, Bestla looked stricken. "This cannot be." She said. "There were twelve planets."

Everyone gawked and Teal'c even raised his brow. "Mistress Bestla. They speak the truth. I have been living on their world for almost ten years now and I have studied their star maps. This solar system does indeed have nine planets."

Without thinking, The Vanir uploaded a stylized map of the solar system and it was very very different. She was right. There were twelve planets on it. "Which ones?" she asked, quickly. "Which ones are gone?"

Jack quickly stood and walked over to the map. Studying it for a moment he started pointing out the ones he was not familiar with.

"Well, there's this one inside the orbit of Mercury."

Bestla closed her eyes. "Hel."

"And this one, between Mars and Jupiter. You called it Mineriam right? Okay, well.. This one here beyond Pluto and Neptune…"

Bestla cringed and stepped back from the map. "Naquias." She whispered.

"But what happened to them?" Carter asked, looking uneasily at the map. For a person who had almost single handedly destroyed a sun, the thought of planets being destroyed seemed to disturb her more.

Bestla stepped back up to the console. "I don't know." She whispered. "Vul was a small planet which the Aesir Asguard mined for heavy minerals. Minerias was a cold world, much like Aresia, which we and the Ancients used for heavy industry. And Naquias… That is where the Ancients mined their Naquadah."

Daniel nodded quicky. "That makes sense." He says. "A lot of earlier Ancient Technology was Naquadah based. They had to discover it initially somehow and we have never found any on earth. I guess it could have been completely mined until it was gone but perhaps the Ancients discovered it on their first forays into the solar system."

"Yeah yeah, Daniel. A good theory and all but I'm more interested in how three planets disappeared. We have the asteroid belt to say one of them were destroyed. What of the other two?" Jack asked.

"Well, Hel's debris could have been pulled into the sun." Carter said.

"Okay, I'll buy that." Jack said.

"Indeed, Colonel Carter, that is most likely what occurred." Teal'c added.

"As for Naquias," Carter mused, "Anything that would have destroyed a regular planet would most likely have caused a chain reaction that vapourized a world heavy in Naquadah."

Bestla shakily sat down, needing something to support her. "Minerias and Naquias.. they both had small splinter outposts with other Asguard of various types." She whispered. "Almost ten thousand apiece. Now they are gone. Who would do this."

Jack walked over and gently placed a hand on the Vanir's shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. "I don't know. Maybe it was the Phage in their final assault. Maybe it was something else entirely. All I know is I am sorry for the loss of so many of your people. And with all you have kept for us I will make damned sure that they didn't make their sacrifice in vein."

Everyone else nodded in agreement and Bestla looked up at Jack, smiling faintly though her tears stained her pale grey-white cheeks.

"Thank you. Once again, Thank you. You are as noble as your ancestors."


Walter leaned back in his chair with his fingers interlaced behind his white balding head. The Sergeant sighed happily as he looked at the cup of coffee and the last chocolate donut from the Mess hall which sat on a plate on his console.

Yes sir, it was a nice quiet day for him. With the General and SG-1 gone he didn't need to constantly remind O'Neill to sign papers or try and organize his schedule, which the general always seemed able to screw up or forget. He swore O'Neill did it on purpose. He didn't have to call for fire fighting units to put out one of the bi-weekly fires that Colonel Carter seemed to start in her lab. He didn't have to order yet another fascinatingly boring history or archeology book (or entire library) for Daniel Jackson.

But best of all he didn't have to fight Teal'c for the donuts.

Yep, being a Sergeant for a super secret military installation had it's benefits when it's CO and Flagship team weren't about. He already had a nice poker game set up for tonight with Siler, Davis and Ferreti in utility closet 3a and just maybe he'd ask that nice Civilian scientist from upstairs out. The one with the freckles, red hair, and legs up to here.

Thinking happy pleasant thoughts about full houses, copious amounts of money earned through illegal gambling in a us military base, and fantasies of whether said redhead scientist wore a bra or not over her impressive bosom, Walter pickes up his coffee and donut in each hand and was about to take a bite.

Then the Stargate stared to turn.

Alarms blared as Walter, without thinking, placed his hand against the the panel that recognized his DNA and close the iris. Unfortunately, he hadn't let go of his donut so while there was enough contact fro his fingertips to get the proper scan, the entire palm area became a nice gooey mess of dough and chocolate.

"Sonuva.." Walter almost cried as he beloved donut was smooshed against the sensitive piece of security technology. But ten years of ingrained training made him forget it for at least a moment as he grabbed the microphone and yelled our his trademark phrase.

"We have an unscheduled offworld activation."

The Gate spun quickly as airmen ran into the gateroom, guns raised at the iris. Techs scurried into the control room and sat as the gate's chevrons began lighting up one right after another in the quick sequence of an incoming wormhole. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven…

Eight?

And then before Walter could say anything..

Nine.

NINE!

If his donut had been in one piece and then subsequently in his mouth, Walter Harriman would have choked on it as the wormhole engaged. Never in his almost ten years had he encountered a nine chevron wormhole.

The reflection of the event horizon of the iris lit up the wall behind the gate.

Walter just slumped into his chair. He looked down at the console and saw an incoming transmission.

SG-1's GDO code.

Crap. Of course it was SG-1. Who else would do something impossible?

"Hey, Walter!" an infuriatingly familiar voice called over a radio transmission. "Open the door, will ya?"

Sighing, Walter flipped on the transmitter and spoke into his microphone. "Yes, General. Opening the Iris now. Everyone else stand down."

He placed his hand against an un-doughnuty section of the DNA-reader panel and the iris opened. Then he turned to the nearest non-com he could find.

"Get me some paper towel. And if you see a donut in the infirmary please grab it for me. Just make sure Teal'c doesn't see you.