Hello. I'm Simon Cross.

Huge thanks to everyone that has been keeping up with the story! I crunched this one out over the last week, so I hope it turned out smoking hot! Just, so a big thank you to my readers. I write for you, really. Your amazing reviews and thoughts have pushed me to write more. I just passed 10,000 hits to this story, which is really great in my mind. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!

Before I move on, a few words in response to reviews. AlexanderD, thanks for picking up on my tactic mess-up. You're right; not my area of expertise, and just happy for the offer! Marcus S. Lazarus, wow that was a detailed break down on your reaction and it was incredible to read. I love knowing that people really enjoy these episodes and that they actually make sense plot-wise. Huge thanks for the support! To Elricscousin and Angel1973, glad you found this story, happy your read it, filled with joy you liked it, and psyched to read your reviews! Thanks to all, especially those who have been reading from the start! Also, thanks to Tori Hawkeye for proofing for me; really helpful!

Episode nine, okay I will admit, this mostly takes place back at Earth, so if anyone doesn't like that... sorry. A chunk of this episode is spent trying to fill in the holes of where has Earth gone in the last three years, technological changes and advancements, stuff like that, so just be patient. I worked to try and blend in as much of everything possible, from action to development, to emotion, action, and a hint of relationships. As I approach the mid-season finale the focus is going to shift to the big story plot in the next episode, so I am really excited about writing that one. I beg all of you to read and please review this story if you can! I love it and the content is great! Again, and ideas or comments or questions about the story... just send me a message!

No schedule, so just keep your eyes on the SGU page and your FF accounts! Thanks for everything, and now... read on!

NOTE: I do not own Stargate Universe and all of these ideas are mine and not taken from anything the original writers of SGU had intended or from other fandom to the best of my knowledge. The opening statements in quotes are from SGU episodes and are not my words, except for quotes from my episode, "Control". The episodes "The Greater Good", "Twin Destinies", "Epilogue", and "Gauntlet" are sources for the quotes and they were obtained from the transcripts available on the Gateworld website.


309: Tides of War


"The Ancients did not devote the efforts of an entire generation to build this ship on a whim, neither was Destiny named on a whim.

The Ancients discovered a complex structure, the fingerprints of an intelligence.

Destiny was launched in search of that intelligence.

Who knows how close we are to finding it; how close we are to learning ... in the Ancients' words ... "the destiny of all things"?

I just wanna get these people home.

Well, I'm starting to think that seeing this mission through may be our only chance of ever doing that.

I only know that Destiny has come this far, and if we abandon her now, there'll be no coming back.

This ship was launched to solve a mystery by accumulating knowledge bit by bit.

Our mission is - and always will be - the journey itself.

What do you think the odds are that we've seen the last of them?

I doubt they would plan any kind of attack on us. And, we'll be leaving their outer planets in another month, so I sincerely doubt any more attacks.

I don't want to hurt you or anyone else, but this mission, this ship is about more than you can know. I need you to be safe, and to not interfere with anything I do, just for a little longer, and then, I promise I will explain everything.

It's amazing to realize how much this ship has learned. It's more amazing to realize that it still hasn't learned enough.

Who are you, and what do you want with me?

Colonel Maybourne, retired. What I learned was that the IOA had arranged a deal with the Lucian Alliance. The war stays away from Earth, and they will give the Lucian Alliance the Destiny.

I understand the need to protect Earth, but not by selling out the people who call Earth home.

We're not done yet.

No, but we know where they are. You ready to take this fight to them?"


Varro quickly slapped the branch out of his way as he ran through the thick foliage. The snap of the branch returning to its position was blocked out by the loud thud of his heavy boots as he tore straight down through the forest. He could make out the squashed clumps of grass and still shaking vines from where his target had just ran past. Relying completely on instinct and years of training, he bolted along the path as quickly as possible.

The forest was alive and full of activity, but he could still hear the tell-tale stomp of boots ahead of him and chased after the sound. Varro ducked below branches and twisted around thick tree trunks, constantly watching for small hints of which way to go. He burst out of the foliage and could see the forest clearly now. Stopping for a brief moment, he quickly scanned the area, trying to pick up the trail. It only took him that long to catch a glimpse of a dark figure running away about thirty meters away from him. Varro snapped into action and closed the distance quickly. He could hear the rush of water nearby; it was a sign that he needed to reach his target soon, or he could risk losing him. If his target escaped or died then he would lose a valuable asset.

As Varro passed through the last thick brush, he finally saw his target clearly. He was standing on the side of a cliff and ready to jump. Realizing that he must be at least ten meters away from him, Varro didn't see any way to grab him from the edge. The man he was chasing turned around to face his hunter, showing his arrogant expression and Lucian Alliance uniform.

To both of their surprises, a blue bolt of electricity shot out from the forest near the Lucian soldier and struck him flat across the chest. His arrogant countenance was replaced by him writhing in pain and effortlessly crumpling to the ground right by the cliff. Surprised and out of breath, Varro gazed to the origin on the weapon fire only to see Teal'c stride out calmly from the forest with a Zat gun held loosely in his arm. He was in a light military gear carrying nothing except the sole weapon.

"General O'Neill informed me that you were pursuing a Lucian Alliance castaway," Teal'c said, walking over to the unconscious body and roughly grabbing the man by the neck. "He also said that you choose to act alone."

Catching his breath, Varro stared at Teal'c with a semblance of irritation. "I know how to track my own people better than anyone on this planet. They would only slow me down," he said, watching as Teal'c effortlessly dragged the man across the earth over to the point where Varro was standing at.

"Indeed they would, but it would seem that I was not mistaken in choosing to aid you," Teal'c said with a satisfied smile, dropping the soldier carelessly onto the ground.

Varro sighed, but realized that he had been right is helping him out. "Thank you," he said somewhat reluctantly. Teal'c nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Now what?" Varro asked.

Teal'c responded by speaking into his earpiece. "Colonel Lorne, we have secured the target," he said.

"Understood, Teal'c," Lorne's response resonated out from the speaker. Right after that everything around Varro became unbearably bright for a fraction of a second and then he found himself standing in a large alcove within the hallway of a Tau'ri ship. An officer stood at a terminal by the opening to the hallway. "They're on board, sir," the officer said via the intercom.

"Copy that," Lorne answered. "Teal'c, take our guest down to the brig to be with his friends. We're on final approach right now, so I want you to meet up at Airlock Three when you're done. General O'Neill will be done with the Joint Chiefs within the hour and then he'll join us on the base."

"Very well, Colonel Lorne," Teal'c said obediently, hefting the soldier up effortlessly and carrying him out of the alcove. The ship was shaking somewhat roughly, but it stopped within a few seconds after the ship came to a grinding halt. The hum of the engines gradually slowed and died down, leaving the ship oddly quiet as the regular echo between the bulkheads was missing.

"Where am I?" Varro asked the officer.

"Follow me, sir," he responded. "Colonel Lorne asked for you to go to the bridge as soon as you arrived." The officer stood ready to escort him. Varro hesitantly nodded and walked out of the alcove, following at the heels of the officer as he walked down the narrow corridors. They reached the bridge very quickly. "Colonel Telford… I mean Varro is here, sir," the officer said embarrassingly. Clearly he was not used to dealing with stone communication. With a nod from the Colonel seated at his chair, the officer left.

"Welcome to the Hermes," Lorne said to Varro. He took the time to look around the bridge. The layout was similar to what Varro had seen through Lucian Alliance intelligence, but he had never actually had to chance to be on board one even during his time as a member of Destiny's crew. Still, it appeared smaller than he assumed, having a cramped nature to it. The weapon and helm station were joined together instead of having walking space between them, and the captain's chair was only a meter behind them, uncomfortably gazing right over their shoulders. A single computer terminal with a keyboard in front of it dominated the entire port wall, while a science station and plaque with the ship's name were on the starboard wall right next to the narrow door. The aft of the bridge housed a tactical center and a few more terminals.

Varro turned to gaze out of the view port, to see where they were. The first thing that attracted his attention was that they were not orbiting Earth as he initially suspected, but rather on the surface of the moon. The nose of the ship was shorter and more streamlined than he expected to see, so he was confident now that he was not on a Daedalus-class ship. What interested him even more was the presence of another structure to Hermes' port. A large, six-sided base dominated a significant amount of space, rising around fifty meters up, with the name Selene written prominently along the top of the foundation. The Hermes was docked to the station by several arms that connected midway along the nose to a large section marked 'Docking Bay C'. Varro could tell there was a great deal of activity within the base as he could see people and equipment moving through the dozens of large windows dotting the structure. Atop the base itself and across the nearby lunar surface Varro could make out railgun turrets and the occasional person in a space suit working on something. On the other side of the base two, Daedalus-class battle cruisers were docked as well, showing Varro the obvious importance of this site. He had to admit that he was a little intimidated seeing so many powerful craft in one location. He remembered from his time in the Lucian ranks just how much trouble one of those ships could make. This single installation seemed impregnable from what he could make out.

"Pretty impressive, isn't it?" Lorne said with a hint of pride.

Varro looked back to Lorne and stared silently for a brief second. "I've completed my task here," he said matter-of-factly. "You can tell Homeworld Command to disconnect the stones and expect Colonel Young shortly."

Lorne seemed put off by Varro's business as usual attitude, but did not argue with him. "You heard the man; disconnect him," he said to the communication officer who promptly sent off a message to Earth. Within a moment he felt fuzzy for a moment, and then took a sigh of relief as his consciousness filled back into his real body. It was a joyous feeling for him as he was not as used to leaving his body as others on this ship were. Destiny may not be the most perfect place in the universe to be in right now, but Varro was happy to be back.

"Varro," Young said, hovering over him urgently in the communication room, "what's the situation?"

He looked up at the Colonel with a look of success. "First phase is done; we're ready to start."


As the tense situation was evolving back at home, everything on the Destiny was slowing down and becoming still as everyone was waiting for news to return to them. The halls were empty as everyone was gathered in quarters, the mess hall, the observation deck, and the bridge. All of the crew was anxiously chattering amongst themselves, speculating about the events that were unfolding. Even Kalin was swept up in the fever of Earth-bound events, despite needing to have everything explained to him about the back story. The ship was out in normal space with over fifty-six hours to the clock and only one 'Gate in range, so there were no immediate issues. The crew was also relieved at not having to fix something for once, so all of the bridge officers were similarly huddled around each other discussing possible scenarios.

"How much longer is he going to be in this?" Telford asked as he scratched his arm in the sling, pacing around the room.

"TJ said it could be another week," Chloe answered. "We've been growing some more of those funny little berries we got a while ago in hydroponics. They seem to be helping him."

Telford shrugged and paced around some more, giving up fiddling with the cast.

"Do you really think that the Colonel can convince Homeworld to attack?" Scott asked Telford, breaking the silence.

He sighed in response and leaned against the central chair, resting the sling atop the console. "Well I just spent the last several hours giving the Joint Chiefs my personal opinion along with the General's. We're going after them; that's for sure." Telford looked angered that the Lucian Alliance had interfered with his life in a major way again. He was boiling inside to hurt them back. "But the real problems are probably going to be Earth-side. After the IOA fiasco that we just brought to light, there have been a lot of political ramifications. The NID has been brought in to conduct investigations into IOA records and the President himself, as the IOA helped his election. I mean, clearly they went too far with their power, and now they have to pay for it. A moratorium has been placed on all current IOA projects while the checks are processed, so it's going to be a nightmare for the NID to keep a media cover-up into the political scrutiny." For once, he thought his job sounded easy when compared to all the red-tape the NID was forced to work through.

"Have they given any estimate on when they'll launch the attack?" Scott returned.

Telford shook his head. "A meeting has been called with our international allies at the Selene to discuss that right now. Tactics, timing, numbers; all of that should be figured out soon enough, but I know they'll want it to be soon."

"Selene?" Eli asked, frowning. He had watched all the informational videos from Dr. Jackson and the name didn't ring a bell, which made him curious. "Is that like some new ship or something?"

Telford smirked. "Sorry, forgot you didn't know. It's our lunar base."

"Whoa whoa," Eli said excitedly. "We have a moon base? That is friggin' awesome!" he said laughing and looking around the room with a cheerful expression.

"It was completed about half a year ago, but there's been no need to use it until now," Telford said in a monotone, clearly not finding this as interesting as Eli. "Homeworld Defense is being separated from politics as much as possible so it's being transferred to the Selene. Like I said, they're planning the attack there right now."

"I just hope they kick ass," the Lieutenant said in a spiteful tone, getting a clamor of affirmations from the rest of the group and killing Eli's excitement buzz.

"Well what worries me is all of the knowledge that they've had access to," Brody mentioned from his chair at the center station. "Who knows how far they are with the wormhole drive technology, or anything else they could've gotten from Major Brooks?"

"Dr. McKay is going to work on undoing the lock he placed on her stone," Telford said reassuringly, "to get Dr. Ryder back into her body as soon as possible. And hopefully we will be able to secure any technology the Alliance has managed to work on."

Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking about the situation and just how much deep this conspiracy got before anyone was able to stop it.

"I still can't believe that they went that far," Chloe broke the silence, leaning against Scott's shoulder. She was voicing one of the prominent thoughts that everyone was having. "I mean, we're people. How could they just surrender our lives like that?"

"Politicians don't often see people as people," Wray responded, standing awkwardly out of the circle. She knew she wasn't to blame for this mess, but her affiliation upset her for the time being. "For the most part they see them as figures in a demographic. It's hard for them to consider the effects they have on one group if they do something good for a majority."

Eli frowned at Wray as she mellowed down and looked depressed. "Tell me you're not putting this on yourself? Yes, they did wrong, but you can't beat yourself up about it."

"It's kind of hard not to," she responded softly. "I served that function for years, and even now I'm part of that organization. Knowing that I probably did that to others in the past… I guess it's really an eye-opener when it happens to you, right?" she said calmly, regaining her composure after looking like falling apart for a split second. "I just want this to be over and to have the most positive outcome for all of us."

Similar conversations were going on throughout the ship between all of the crew. All but one crew member of course.

Rush was sitting alone in the Control Interface Room skimming through hundreds of historical documents and information files that had nothing to do at all with the Lucian Alliance issue. He found his current line of research to have a much greater importance than another Alliance threat to the ship.

He sat and read through document after document for a long while, occasionally taking a moment to glance around the room. At every moment when he learned something new, he kept expecting Amanda to appear and discuss something important with him, or to reprimand him for not devoting enough of his energy to this puzzle. But she never appeared.

Nonetheless, he continued to read and learn more, always hoping she would show herself, partly for answers, and partly just to see her.


"P3X-616," General O'Neill said in time with a visual of a large planet appearing on the screen in the Selene's briefing room. He sat at the head of the table across from the screen, with a large viewport behind looking out onto the lunar surface. The other members of the meeting consisted of Colonel Young in Telford's body at O'Neill's right, Teal'c to O'Neill's left, Dr. McKay next to him, and the Russian, Chinese, and British ambassadors who sat listening attentively to the General. "We've since determined this to be the location of the Lucian Alliance installation which received the data stream sent from Earth."

"Based on secure intelligence shared by the Tok'ra we know it to be heavily defended, having at least eight defending Goa'uld Ha'taks and multiple squadrons of Glider and Al'kesh support," Teal'c informed in a monotone glancing coldly across all the members of the table.

Small red icons oscillated across the screen showing the relative positions of the Alliance fleet. The General pressed another button on the small keypad in front of his seat. With that the visual zoomed towards the surface of the planet and highlighted a large facility. "The base is an old Goa'uld mining site that the Alliance has since converted to suit their needs. Due to it being a mine, the bulk of the installation is deep underground."

"Yes, and the extreme deposits of minerals make it secure against Asgard beaming technology," McKay chipped in. "It's probably the reason that they chose the site in the first place."

Quietly acknowledging the Canadian's remark, the General continued. "We have a map of the base that the Jaffa provided from old records, which should help us find all objectives. This is where Colonel Young here will come in."

Young nodded in acknowledgment as O'Neill passed the lead onto him. "I will replace one of the Lucian Alliance prisoners that we have via the communication stones and make my way into the base. Hopefully, I will be able to find my way to the data storage on all their research, at which point I will return topside and call for our task force to attack and retrieve me and the data, as well as level the base to ensure the Alliance doesn't take us too lightly."

"Forgive me for interrupting, General," said Colonel Danilko in a heavy Russian accent, without a hint of actual apology in his tone, "but why are we here? If I wanted information about facility's defenses and your plan, I would have requested you send me memo, not call me up to moon," he said with a gesture to the view from the window.

O'Neill smirked painfully and cursed out the Russian mentally for a moment before speaking. "You're all here because we need your help to make sure our plan works."

"Of course," Danilko replied snidely, leaning forward in his seat and aggravating most of the other people in the room but continuing nonetheless, "once you need our help, you call us. We can have political takeovers and alien forces on our planet, and you tell us nothing!" Danilko said in an enraged voice, smashing a fist with a deep echo onto the metal table. "But then once you decide you need help, you graciously call us to work for you."

"I have to agree," Minister Sheng said, nodding in his agreement with the gruff Russian ambassador. "Over the last few years, our government has been excluded from many operations within the Stargate Program."

"Yeah, and you know what," O'Neill said loudly and abruptly, shutting up the Chinese ambassador immediately, "we didn't know anything about the illegal operations that the IOA was running either! And if we don't stop fighting between ourselves more than we are fighting a war, then so help me or we're gonna have the first murder investigation on the moon!" he shouted angrily, shoving an accusatory finger at the Russian ambassador's face. The General sighed and took a pause to calm down, reclining limp into his chair. Young took up the slack while O'Neill thought about what to say.

"There's another important matter that needs to be discussed in addition to this attack," he said with determination and strength; he wasn't going to let any of the ambassadors find a weakness to exploit. "The computers we raided have the location of multiple Lucian Alliance ships landed on Earth with first strike capability. Now it's a good chance that by now they will be aware of our recent attacks against them and will be preparing to launch. We need the help of all our global forces to quickly and effectively destroy those ships before they attack, or we could be facing massive civilian and military losses."

Young delivered the news bluntly and it left the room in silence for a moment. The only sounds left were the beeping from screen and the hum of the Selene's generator. Danilko and Sheng were clearly infuriated at the fact they were treated as second-hand members to the Stargate Program, at least in their minds. O'Neill spoke up to fill the void. "We've been fighting for the last three years with a half-hearted effort. If the Alliance attacked, we held our ground, and yeah, we've hurt their supply lines when we could. But we have been sitting on our asses for the most part and letting them come to us. It's time that we start treating this war like a war." This statement seemed mostly directed towards Danilko, who, after a moment of thinking, nodded in agreement to O'Neill. "What we need is to work together to strike the Alliance forces here and at their base, give them a taste of our capabilities."

"If I've learned anything by being alone on the other end of the universe," Young announced in an attempt to get understanding from the others, "it's that you never understood how important friends and allies were until you have none." Sheng sighed and looked at him with understanding, and Young was met by looks of sympathy by a few of the members of the meeting.

"What we need you is for assistance in both attacks," O'Neill continued in the wake of Young's statement. "302s will be able to attack any cargo ships an Earth under coordination from the Selene and Odyssey. The Hermes, Apollo, and Olympus will be part of the attack on the Alliance base," he said plainly, but took a moment to think about how to proceed. "We'll need international cooperation to launch a strike against all of the ships, and some help against the Alliance would be great. The Hammond and Archimedes have yet to restore communications with us, so this is all we've got."

"The Jaffa High Council is in deliberation over the matter as we speak," Teal'c said after O'Neill left a short pause. "I have cast my vote in favor of assisting this plan, as has Master Bra'tac. We will know the final decision by the end of the day, but we should expect the support of several Ha'taks."

O'Neill sighed in response, but nodded his head appreciatively. "Unfortunately, we can't wait until the end of the day. Once this meeting is over we will launch, with or without anyone's help," he said, glaring darkly at Danilko.

The Russian ambassador's face flushed red at the attention and he scratched his head uncomfortably. Finally after returning a severe look to O'Neill, Danilko sighed and gave the General a reluctant nod. "Russia will support any aerial attacks on Earth and Suvorov will join attack against Lucian Alliance. I will… personally command her," he added slowly with a grin that made O'Neill groan audibly.

"I also pledge China's support in the defense of Earth," Sheng started, "but we cannot spare the Sun Tzu at the moment."

"Britain will likewise provide full cooperation in and aerial and land strikes; however the Nelson is undergoing extensive retrofitting and will not be able to partake in any engagement for quite some time," Minister Wells said sincerely, and then retreated back into his chair like he had been doing for the whole meeting.

O'Neill gave a weak smile in response to everyone. "Well then, I should let you all return and make preparations," he said, the subtext in his voice revealing how happy he was to end this meeting. "I personally want this to be over as soon as possible, so thank you for your cooperation."

Danilko didn't wait any longer. He pressed the earpiece immediately and delivered a quick order in Russian. The next second he vanished in brilliant flash of light.

"I should get back to Earth and work on disconnecting Brooks and Ryder from the stones," McKay said quickly, rising from his seat. "You know, it's surprising how hard it can be to undo something that you put so much effort into making work. I mean, you'd just think it's a simple pull the plug, but no sir," he chuckled along with a flurry of gestures, "I put so many redundancies to keep that connection stable through phase shifts and ionizing radiation that…"

"McKay!" O'Neill shouted abruptly, rubbing his head in irritation. "Stop giving us your Nobel Prize acceptance speech and go turn off that damn thing!"

He snapped his fingers in disappointment and looked around the room. "I'll never get that Nobel Prize if all I do is top secret work for the US Air Force," he mumbled begrudgingly.

"I should return to Dakara at once," Teal'c said, rising as well, "to convince the council to accelerate their deliberations."

"Good luck with that," O'Neill said with a genuine nod of hope. "You should probably all return to Earth now, organize your forces," he said to the Chinese and British ambassadors.

Everyone stood now and looked around the room. "I wish for the best outcome in this endeavor," Wells said, followed by an affirmative nod from Sheng. The General tapped away a couple of commands on his keypad and a moment and bright flash later, O'Neill and Young were the only people left in the room.

With that O'Neill plopped back into his seat with a groan. "I hate meetings." He looked up at Young and stared for a moment at his blank features. "I'd say you're lucky, but well, that would just be rubbing salt on a wound." Young maintained his calm countenance as the General rose and turned to look out the window by his chair. "Sometimes I just want to get away, somewhere far away. Maybe not as far as you," he said with a grin over his shoulder to the Colonel. "Retirement just keeps running from me, but I've got a place all picked out," he said, pointing out the window to a wide crater a few hundred meters away from the base. "I've figured the Air Force owns me one hell of a whopping pension, so I could have them build a dome over that, fill it up with water, make a nice beautiful lake out of it, get some fish in there…" He rambled the last part and stared out of the window looking old and tired of everything. "But not today," he said enthusiastically, turning to the Colonel and smiling. "Today, we get to save the world again."

Young nodded in silence at the General. "Before you disconnect the stones, I do have one thing I'd like to request."


Rush walked into the bridge and stopped for a moment when he saw all of the bridge crew gathered around and talking in calm, even tones. They all stopped when he entered and he looked at them incredulously. "Don't you all have something to be doing?"

Eli grinned childishly at him. "No, not really." Rush sighed in response and walked to the central chair, taking a seat and checking some readings on the side consoles. "What have you been doing? No one's seen you in hours."

"Just some reading from Destiny's database," he responded quickly, burying himself in the terminal.

"Anything interesting?" Brody asked suspiciously, inwardly cautious of anything Rush did in his spare time.

Rush paused for a moment in his work and stared down at the console. "Maybe," he answered quietly, and then looked up at Brody. "I'll let you know once I've finished." Brody raised his eyebrow at Rush but didn't pursue the line of inquiry any further. "When is Colonel Young due back?" Rush asked, staring at Young's body fully aware Telford was still there by the stiff posture, and how he oddly held the wounded arm that wasn't his.

"Any time now," Telford responded. He stared at the countdown clock above the doorway. "You know, I find it interesting that Destiny gave us such a long window, right when we needed it," he said, glaring right at Rush.

"Oh yeah, and why's that?" the Scotsman returned coldly and carefully, reciprocating the same accusation that was just delivered to him.

"I'm just saying, control of Destiny has been… supposedly locked out again," he said, leaning forward in his seat to look at the scientist. "Doesn't it seem odd that…"

"Just stop it, would you?" Wray interjected loudly, stepping up in between the two men. "Yes, we've had some unfortunate history on this ship," she said unwillingly, glancing to Rush and inwardly at herself, "but we're behind that now. You haven't been here among us, so you have no reason to judge anyone," she said coldly to Telford. He sighed and sat down, but didn't remove his eyes from Rush.

Wray loosened up and walked back languidly to the railing she had previously been leaning on. As she passed Rush, he reached out his arm to stop Wray. "Thank you," he said mildly, letting go at once.

She grinned in response. "Don't make me regret it."

Chloe rose from her seat and stood at Scott's side. "Maybe it would be a good idea to check out that planet," she offered.

"TJ and Greer are already there with a team," Scott returned, turning to look at her. "I'm sure they've got it covered."

"I know, but I'd just like to get out of here for a little," she replied with a hint of longing to escape, looking around the room like it was stifling here, "sit under the sun, and feel the breeze."

Scott nodded in return, understanding how she felt. "I'll come with you," he said after a moment. She smiled happily at the offer of company and they walked out of the bridge together.

Volker cleared his throat loudly. "Umm, you know, I've been on the ship a while too. Breathing recycled air," he stuttered. "That can't be good for your health." He glanced at Brody to confirm his statement, to which Brody returned an awkward nod to him, and then to Wray.

She chuckled to herself at them. "How's about we have a temporary shore leave," she offered, a slight glow shone on her face at the thought, "let everyone enjoy the sun for a while?"

Brody and Volker exchanged content looks and jogged off after Scott and Chloe. Eli followed excitedly as well. "I believe you have a diagnostic on the F.T.L due to me, Mr. Wallace," Rush said without looking away from his console. "I'd like it by the end of the day."

Eli turned to argue, but just sighed and pumped his fists angrily. "Evil… little man," he said, walking out slowly.

Wray watched them leave and shook her head with laughter. "See, there was a reason for Destiny giving us so much time," she said comically to Telford.

At first he sighed, but the next second his countenance shifted and his body loosened. Wray went from laughing to professional in the blink of an eye. "Colonel Young?" she asked, more so as a formality even though she could recognize the change easily by now. He immediately rose from his seat and took a step to Wray, nodding as he did so. "Well… how did the meeting go?" Rush looked up from his work with half-hearted interest, but listened nonetheless.

"Good," he said, looking around the empty bridge. It seemed like he wanted to ask where everyone was but decided in the last moment he didn't care. "I'm going back in ten minutes, but we need to make preparations first. Get Scott and Varro to meet me in the communication lab," he said as he was walking out of the bridge.

"Umm, Scott just left the ship for the planet," Wray told him, following at his heel. She realized Scott was still here, but she also didn't want to spoil a good chance for him to relax.

"Get James then; I don't care who it is, as long as they have a gun," he said halfway down the hallway, his voice muffled by the time it reached them.

Wray gave a confused look to Rush who merely glanced at her and returned to his work. She grabbed her radio from her waist as she followed Young out of the room. "Lt. James, can you find Varro and bring him to the communication room?"

"Copy that," James responded over the radio as Wray left.

Rush sighed and shook his head, happy to be alone again. He stopped pressing buttons and reading the rapidly scrolling data after a moment. Gazing out the front windows, he looked at the stars quietly.


Varro stood rigidly in the doorway of the communication room as James walked right past him. "You wanted to see us, Colonel Young?" he said calmly. The Colonel was seated and carefully restrained in a chair with Corporal Barnes at her station, a gun on the table next to her laptop.

"Have a seat," he said, gesturing to the chair to his side.

Varro was a bit taken aback by what he saw, and therefore didn't move at first. "I'm not sure what's going on."

"I need you to join me in this operation," Young said, gazing at the countdown clock taking a mental note of how much time he was losing. "We'll be swapping with Lucian Alliance prisoners and infiltrating a base." He looked up respectfully and sincerely at Varro. "I couldn't think of anyone else I'd want by my side for this mission. You could provide invaluable information once we're in the base."

Varro looked at the Colonel with a look of worry. "I've been away from the Alliance for more than three years," he started, emphasizing the time difference. "Anything I knew about security and operations is obsolete by now."

"True, but you know how to act," Young said reassuringly. "That can be a hell of a lot more useful than anything else." Varro looked unsurely at the Colonel, but in the end figured he was right and that if he could help he had to.

Still, part of Varro was uncomfortable with doing this. "I've changed on my time on Destiny. I just don't know if I can go back to them."

"You're tougher than that. You can do this." Young stared at him strongly, and Varro smirked, realizing he had no way to get out of this. He complied and sat down. "Lieutenant," he said to James, to which she responded by tying Varro's arms and legs to the seat tightly. "Now, you have to make sure you don't let these men escape. Have us sedated if the Alliance prisoners get too aggressive." James and Barnes both nodded in their understanding. "Also, Dr. McKay will have Dr. Ryder disconnected from the stones at any time. Bring her to the infirmary as soon as her signal is wiped from our stones."

"Understood, sir," Barnes said, plucking two stones and resting them each on Young's and Varro's hands to imprint their signal.

"Good luck," James wished with a smirk as Barnes put both of the stones on the pad, right below the third one holding Brooks on Destiny.


"It just doesn't feel right," Varro said aloud as he looked out of the rectangular viewport of the Hermes' briefing room. The deep blue hyperspace vortex shined brightly and cast a bright, peaceful glow into the room. Only Young and Varro were there now as they were waiting for Lorne to join them.

"It's not the same," Young supported as he glanced at him.

"No. You can't make out the stars. It's suffocating. And the sound is wrong too," he commented on the pulsing hum of the Hermes engines.

Young smirked as he listened to Varro. He never thought he would hear this man complain about anything, least of all a bit of different scenery. But he knew what he was talking about. You get used to things being one way, and it is noticeable when things change. Varro sighed and moved away from the window taking a seat at the table across from the Colonel. They looked at each other and at the Lucian Alliance uniforms they were wearing.

"I'll be perfectly frank," the Colonel said. "I don't know how you could wear this." He rubbed the sleeves and felt the material squeeze tightly at him with a cold, leathery feeling to it. He didn't know what alien animal was killed to make this uniform, but he couldn't understand how desperate someone would need to be to use this skin. Varro just shrugged, sitting comfortably in his uniform.

They sat in silence after that for a brief moment before the door hissed open and Lorne walked in.

He moved and promptly took a seat. "Sorry to have been so long," Lorne apologized.

"It's fine, Colonel," Young said. "We were just… talking about the view."

Lorne shrugged and turned on the screen behind his chair. "Yeah, it's kind of small, isn't it?" he said, taking a different approach to it than Young was meaning. "The Hermes wasn't built to be spacious, so I guess we had some sacrifices along the way."

"How different is the Hermes from the Daedalus-class battle cruisers?" Young asked from sheer curiosity. He had never had a chance to get any information about the ship, and only heard about it in quick passing remarks.

With a hum and whoosh, a figure of Dr. McKay appeared out of a blob of all the colors in the spectrum. "You should probably ask me all questions about the X-305," he said in a slightly distorted voice.

Both Varro and Young stared agape at the figure in surprise. Lorne shook his head in irritation. "Colonel, Varro, this is our computer," he said in a tired voice.

"Haha, very funny," McKay said in a sarcastic tone, "you know I'm much more than that." He turned to face Young with an excited expression. "I am an actual copy of Dr. McKay's consciousness that has been imprinted upon this ship's computer core using technology from P3X-989."

"Dr. McKay designed the computer for the Hermes and left this," Lorne explained, waving his hand through the projection, heavily distorting the image, "as a present."

"I have been more useful that you care to admit," McKay said in defense, moving just out of reach of Lorne. "I exist as part of the ship and can do anything and everything the real Rodney McKay can do without fear of physical abuse or torture because I am a hologram." He added the last bit directly to Lorne with an incriminating look.

"Seriously? You're holding a grudge for that? It wasn't even you; it was you… you, the real you!" he stammered. "Okay, we're getting off topic here."

"Right, right right right. I was answering his question," he said quickly turning back to Young.

"There's no way to turn him off?" Young asked Lorne, looking around McKay.

Lorne shook his head. "None. Believe me, we've tried."

McKay's projection flickered as he looked annoyed. "I'm right here, you know. And I can't be turned off because I am integrated into the computer core. And besides, you never know what a friendly, computer interface could be needed in solving any of the problems you mere mortals might face," he said smugly, looking around with a smile. "Anyways, the 305 was specifically designed to operation in consort with the 304, like an escort. It's only fifty-six percent the mass of the 304, but has an increase of thirty-two percent in engine efficiency, making it incredibly fast in normal space, which makes up for its reduced arsenal and lack of 302s. However, it utilizes multiple, new Mark V Naquadria Generators, that I designed, which individually generate nearly 200% more than the prior model…"

"I get it," Young said. "She's fast and powerful." McKay looked disappointingly at the Colonel but just nodded and took a step back. Satisfied he had shut up the hologram, he turned to Lorne. "So, what's the plan of attack?"

Lorne casually entered a short command into his control pad and brought up a schematic of the target planet on the screen. "When we arrive in system, the Hermes will drop out of hyperspace on the far side of this gas giant," he said, pointing to a large circle next to the target planet. "That should mask the hyperspace window from their sensors. Once in normal space we'll cloak and approach the target planet, P3X-616."

"This ship can cloak?" Varro asked, not remembering hearing about this capability during his time with the Alliance.

"Thanks to yours truly. I managed to reverse-engineer the cloak that Dr. Jackson installed on the Odyssey during his tenure as an Ori prior. It has some advantages over the cloak I whipped up from the Puddle-Jumper, well the real me," the holographic McKay said with a moment of reflection, "whipped up, I should say, back on Atlantis."

This time the Colonel chose to ignore him, vividly recalling the mission reports he was referring to. "At which point you will beam us to the surface," he continued from where Lorne had left off.

"Exactly. We'll remain cloaked in orbit as long as it's safe. If by some chance we're detected then you'll be on your own until the rest of the task force arrives."

"Assuming everything works out well, you and I," Young said nodding to Varro, "will make our way into the base, take any data related to the wormhole drive or anything else Brooks provided them, and leave, hopefully without any alarms being raised."

Lorne pulled two small nondescript pins from his flight suit pocket and handed one to each of them. "These are transmitters that will allow us to locate you for a beam-out. Once you are on the surface just squeeze the ends until it beeps. If we're still in orbit, we'll transport you back at once." Varro quickly took the pin and stuck it on the breast of his uniform along with a few other adornments. The Colonel went along with him as Lorne brought up the next visual on the screen. "Now the hard part. You'll only have eighty minutes for this operation. Our task force isn't going to wait for you to finish. When they get here, they're coming guns blazing and destroying everything on the surface."

Young gave a satisfactory nod to the information. "Maybe this will give the Alliance a clear message."

"That's the idea."

"Just because we look like Lucian Alliance soldiers doesn't mean it'll be easy to get into the base," Varro said, voicing his concern. "Security tends to be very high in their bases, and this looks like a place they are very worried about keeping safe." He gestured to the multiple red dots indicating guarding mother ships.

"And that is why you're going to love me right now," McKay said enthusiastically, stepping up in front of the screen. "Well, not me. The real me; God there has to be an easier way to say this."

"What is it?" Young asked, not amused with McKay's ramblings.

"Right. When Colonel Telford was brainwashed by the Lucian Alliance his memories bled through to the people he connected with on the stones. Dr. Lam and I put our mutual fields of genius together and figured it all had to do with a unique neurotransmitter produced during the process. Isolating it was the tricky part, but since we've managed to produce enough for field use."

"So if this works, we'll be able to remember facts about the men we swapped with?" Varro said, feeling a bit of relief.

Young seemed interesting in this as well. "That sounds promising. What do you need to do?"

"Oh, we already injected you with it," McKay said casually, to which the Colonel reacted with worry. Predicting his concern, McKay spoke up before Young could inquire. "Don't worry; it's not dangerous and it'll only work on the body that was injected with the neurotransmitter. The Alliance muscle you swapped with won't recall anything about your lives."

The Colonel nodded slowly, still annoyed at not having been consulted before doing this to him. He glanced at Varro who seemed less upset by this than the Colonel. "Well, I don't feel like I know anything more about myself."

The projection shimmered again before McKay spoke. He pointed at Lorne before speaking. "What's his name?" Young frowned in response to which McKay huffed in aggravation. "What is his name?"

"Colonel Lorne."

"What's my name?" He stared at the ceiling in aggravation again. "The real me's name?"

"Dr. McKay."

"And what's your name?"

"Neyal," he said without a moment of hesitation. It was a moment before he realized what he had just said.

McKay smiled widely and looked around the room with satisfaction before turning to Varro. "And your name?"

Varro looked around hesitantly before speaking uncomfortably. "Kaef."

The Colonel looked worriedly to the projection. "Is it permanent?"

"What?" McKay replied with surprise. "No, no, no, no. It shouldn't be," he added with a brief flicker of uncertainty which quickly vanished. "No, it only works on people that have the neurotransmitter and is triggered by a response to familiar stimuli: sound, smell, taste, looks, and instinctual responses."

Lorne rose from his seat and turned off the screen. "I think all the bases have been covered. We've got a few hours until we reach our target."

"Six hours, twelve minutes, and forty-one seconds, actually," McKay's projection corrected arrogantly. Lorne cast him a dark look, to which McKay responded to be faded out of existence with a quick hum.

"You guys should probably relax before we get there; get used to this," Lorne paused and gestured randomly at their minds, unsure what word to use, "memory… thing."

McKay fizzed back into existence. "The computer has videos and documents of Lucian Alliance bases. You can access them to acclimate to the memory recall process." He vanished immediately after that without Lorne's bidding.

Lorne sighed and walked to the door, slapping the keypad to open the door. "You heard the hologram," he said as he left the room.


The door to the bridge whirred open, letting Young and Varro walk into the room. They were both geared up with a full arsenal of Lucian Alliance weaponry and added adornments to further increase their authenticity.

Some of the bridge crew glanced at them as they entered and gave them nervous looks. Young could feel their hot gazes on him as they scrutinized all of the Lucian Alliance equipment. It was unsettling for him, but he didn't want to know how it felt for them, looking at the body of their enemy and trust him with a gun. Looks could be pretty powerful.

"We're almost at the planet," Colonel Lorne informed from his chair as they entered, not showing them the level of concern his crew was. "Figured it was a good time for you to get ready."

Young nodded at him in response and walked up to the viewport. Still all he could see was the pulsing blue waves from hyperspace. "That's fine, Colonel."

"Approaching the coordinates, sir," the helmsman announced.

"Alright then. Take us out of hyperspace, Major Wagner."

The view from the front window became incredibly bright for a moment, and then was replaced by a dull red haze. None of the usual disorientation came over Young as he was accustomed to on the Destiny, which disorientated him more than the actual disorientation.

"Status, Major."

Wagner took a moment to answer, surveying over his console first. "We're three kilometers inside the gas giant's ionosphere."

"Have we been detected?"

"I can't say for certain," Wagner said after a pause, tapping away on his console without learning anything. "Sensors can't get a clear reading past the ionosphere."

Lorne wobbled his head lightly. "Let's hope that means they can't read anything either. Take us into stealth mode and get her out of here."

"Aye, sir," Wagner responded swiftly. A moment later a shimmer appeared outside the window and the bridge lights dimmed to a dull blue. "Silent running mode engaged; cloak active. I'm taking us out of the atmosphere."

Young could feel the deck plates beneath him quake, but the view remained the same dull red. It wasn't sure to him if they were actually going anywhere. A few seconds later though, the red started to thin out, and another few seconds later he could see a black backgrounds dotted with stars.

"Can you get a clear sensor reading now?"

"Yes, sir. I'm reading the Lucian Alliance fleet in orbit of the planet, bearing two-six-three by one-zero-nine, range ninety-seven million kilometers. It doesn't look like they saw us," Wagner reported with a relieved tone.

"Very good. Lay in a course and take us in, full sublight," Lorne ordered, leaning on the side console of his chair.

Wagner quickly keyed in a set of commands. "Full sublight, aye. ETA is fifteen minutes."

"Guess you've got a little bit more waiting to do," Lorne commented. Young crossed his arms and kept his eyes fixed ahead of him. The stars turned wildly as the ship spun around on a course for the planet. Once they stabilized, the gas giant's red glow dominated the starboard side of the ship and cast an eerie light across the nose of the ship. Far off in the distance, straight above the tip of the nose, Young watched a dot that was larger than any of the surrounding stars.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, the Colonel's view was filled by a large planet whose surface was covered mostly with green forests and occasional patches of blue seas and oceans. In front of the planet, Young had the choice to watch Ha'taks, Al'kesh bombers, or Death Gliders as all of them were dotting the space between the Hermes and the planet.

"Henderson, give me a sitrep," Lorne said to his weapons officer.

"All railgun positions are on standby, and all warheads are ready for immediate launch, sir," Henderson replied in a quick, professional manner, checking off all the weapons as he spoke.

Lorne nodded with a satisfied expression. "So far so good. Doctor," he summoned, looking to the empty floor space near the viewport. The projection of Dr. McKay pulsated to life right at that spot; clearly this had been a rehearsed appearance.

"Whatcha need from me, Colonel?" he started casually.

"Are we in beaming range yet?" Lorne asked with strained patience.

"Depends. If you want them to materialize on a cloud, sure," McKay smiled. Reading Lorne's deadpan expression, he quit the joking. "Just pull her in another few kilometers and we'll be fine."

Wagner turned in his seat to face Lorne. "Sir, if I do that we risk getting too close to the Alliance ships. They could detect us."

The hum of the engines died and the lights dimmed even further. "I've brought us down to fifty percent power. Any chance of them detecting our energy signature is gone," McKay explained.

Lorne took a breath and nodded to the Major. "Move us in closer, right under her belly," he ordered, gesturing to the nearest mother ship with his hand. He also figured being that close could lend him an opportunity for a quick kill.

The helmsman looked reluctant for a split second, but did not ignore the order. He returned to his post and within a moment the ship was slowly creeping towards the mother ship. Wagner was very careful as he steered the ship to the exact position the Colonel had pointed to. The gold hue of the pyramid structure menacingly took up most of the viewport, encouraging all of the crew to speak in a hushed tone, as if that would keep them safe. "How's this, Doc'?" Lorne said, in a quiet voice like everyone else.

McKay looked up at Lorne from the floor where he had been fixated on the seam lines. "Hmm? Oh this'll be fine."

"Alright, you know the plan. You have no more than eighty minutes to get this done," Lorne reminded Young and Varro.

"Don't worry, we'll handle ourselves," Young responded. Varro walked up to him from the spot by the door where he had been waiting quietly.

"Good luck," Lorne wished.

Young saw McKay wave his arms in his peripheral vision, and the next thing he knew, he was standing in the middle of a dense forest with Varro by his side. "Let's go," he said, and following his instinct, he marched off in the direction of the fading sun.


As soon as the 302 in front of his went flying out of the Odyssey's hangar bay, Telford snapped his air mask on and hit the afterburner on his fighter, following the first one. He flew alongside the Odyssey's nose for a brief second before pulling hard left towards the darkened Earth as they were on the far side of the planet now. The atmosphere wisped around the nose of the fighter as he plummeted straight down. Around him he saw the silhouettes of the other seven fighters form up and follow him in.

"Whiskey team, we've got three targets located with the continental US and three more abroad," O'Neill informed over the patchy headphones. "We'll be taking care of the trash in our backyard. The British, Russian, and Chinese governments are launching attacks on the Alliance ships in their regions simultaneously, so none of the bad guys get a fair warning. According to the intel, they have ships ready to strike the Pentagon, the SGC, and Area 51."

"Copy that, Selene," Telford said into his mic. "I'll cover the Pentagon. Whiskey Two, form up on me." He pulled his fighter into a dive straight for the east coast as he said that. From his altitude he could make out nighttime lights of the entire western hemisphere, but it was rapidly getting more selective.

"Roger that, Leader." The fighter to his left broke off the rest of the group with him and took up a position twenty meters next to him.

"Whiskeys Four and Five, watch my six. We'll get the SGC," Whiskey Three announced over the radio. Both of them sounded acknowledgments a moment later.

"Whiskeys Seven and Eight, guess we drew the short straw. Full burn for Nellis base," said Whiskey Six. Again, both the Whiskeys responded affirmatively. The entire squadron broke into the three groups and flew off to their respective targets.

The static crackled over the headphones for a moment and then Colonel Davidson spoke. "The Odyssey had adjusted its sensors to overcome the Alliance scattering fields. We'll track the ships for you until you are within visual range."

"Much appreciated, Odyssey," Telford said.

"Unfortunately, any conventional strike would most likely lead to the detonation of the naquadah bombs." As the General was speaking, Telford passed through the upper atmosphere and could now hear the loud whining of the 302's engines. "The plan is to beam to a safe distance from Earth and let the Odyssey take them out there where no one will get hurt. Problem is their ships are jamming us from transport. Your fighters have been equipped with a special tag launcher that'll allow us to get a lock on the ship. Just stick them with it and the Odyssey will take care of the rest."

"Copy that, General," Telford said, quickly resounded by the rest of the Whiskey Team.

He heard some excited commotion and a cacophony of applause across the feed to the Selene. "Don't mean to hurt your pride boys, but the Chinese just got their target." Within a split second of O'Neill giving the news, Telford saw a red light shine on the darkened clouds and felt his fighter tremble slightly. The line was filled with static for a few more seconds before the General returned. "One down; just don't let the Russians beat us," he begged sincerely.

Telford nodded to no one in particular. He turned to look at the fighter to his side and flashed a thumbs up to Whiskey Two. "Let's get those bastards." His 302 roared to life as he pushed the throttle down as far as it would go, cruising straight for Washington. He could barely feel himself pulling any Gs, even though he was accelerating like crazy; one of the perks of flying a fighter augmented with alien technology.

It wasn't hard at all to fly to DC as the lights guided him so perfectly. All the city lights were on, and it made DC and Baltimore look as if they were two points where glass had been hit hard and splintered, leaving cracks running between them. It was that spot of cracked glass that he needed to protect.

"Whiskey Leader, we've picked up your target on our sensors," Colonel Davidson said aboard the Odyssey. "It's on the move about forty kilometers west of the capitol. We're sending you the coordinates."

The radar screen in front of him beeped as he received the information. A small blimp appeared in the far corner. "Roger that, we've acquired the target. Whiskey Two, follow my lead."

He arced the ship left and lined up his ship with the small dot. The landscape was already getting larger and the lights were becoming more distinct by the second. According to the information, he was within thirty kilometers of the ship. As he kept the throttle pushed down, he watched the distance close quickly. It wasn't long before he could see the ship.

"Command, I have a visual on the target," Telford said at once, eying the small gray pyramid ship as it inched across the background. "Single cargo ship; looks like it's on its way to the capitol now. I'm intercepting."

Telford pulled his fighter level with the cargo ship and then flattened and slowed his approach. He didn't want to overshoot his target. He was coming at it from the right, but within a matter of seconds, the cargo ship turned to line up with him. The pyramid silhouette grew quickly and menacingly towards him. An angry beep flooded the cockpit. "They've locked on their weapons," Telford informed loudly.

Bright orange bolts of energy illuminated the darkened communities below them and flew right towards him. Without a thought, he barrel rolled his fighter to the right to dodge the weapon's fire. The cargo ship went screaming past him as he leveled his craft.

"Whiskey Leader, you alright over there?" Whiskey Two asked.

"He missed. Get on his tail!" he barked, pulling his fighter up and curving it sharply to the left, swiftly bringing himself level with his target.

The targeting reticle appeared on the canopy as Telford armed the tracker launcher. He closed in and held his fighter steady as the cargo ship weaved around. The tree tops and occasional lights from houses sped by below him, and he could see his wingman through the corner of the canopy, closing in on the target. He took a breath, lined up the shot, and watched the reticle turn red. "Taking the shot."

He squeezed his trigger down and heard a pop as the launcher mounted on the port wing fired, the tracker flying across the night sky. A flurry of sparks exploded from the aft of the cargo ship where the tracker dug into the hull. The ship immediately burst into a ball of burning white light and vanished.

Telford pulled his fighter and pointed straight for the stars, easing up on the throttle. He pulled his air mask off and let out a deep breath. "Odyssey, this is Whiskey Leader. Confirm a kill on the cargo ship."

Staring at the black sky he could make out a thousand stars, and he knew one of those pin pricks of light was the Odyssey, but he had no idea which one. It didn't matter, because within a moment another bright light appeared in the sky. It lingered for a moment and then faded. "Roger that, Whiskey Leader. Another target down."

Nodding in success, he slowed the fighter even more and leveled it with the horizon pointing eastward. He gazed out to the coastline and pointed his nose to the broken glass of Washington. Whiskey Two kept heading straight up, back to the stars. "Running on low fuel here. I'll head on back to the Odyssey."

"Copy. I'll take another fly-by over the city before I had back," Telford announced calmly.

"Roger that," Davidson replied calmly over the radio. "We've neutralized the Russian and SGC targets as well. I think we can all breathe easy now."


"You sure we're heading the right way?" Young asked as they walked on through the sunny woods. They'd been on the move for at least forty minutes, and Young only saw that as time lost from an already short timescale.

"We were beamed outside of the base's sensor perimeter. We probably have a little while to go before we reach the entrance to the mine," Varro said, determinedly heading towards the sun, turning to look at the Colonel, "but yes, we are heading in the right direction."

Young sighed but followed right after him. "Is it working? Do you remember anything about this place?"

He nodded without looking at Young this time. "It feels familiar" he answered shortly. He sped up his pacing but didn't run.

"What's wrong?" Young asked, stopping in his tracks. Varro proceeded a few extra steps until he realized the Colonel wasn't moving. "You've been quiet and… uncomfortable this whole time. Does it bother you to be here?"

Varro didn't answer, just pointing urgently to the sun. "We shouldn't be wasting our time. It'll jeopardize the mission."

"No. What'll jeopardize the mission is me walking into enemy territory with a man who is not fit to fight. Now, if there's something on your mind, then get it out now." Young stayed his ground, letting his gun hang on its strap, crossing his arms.

"We should just get this mission over with and return to Destiny." He rested on a boulder and watched Young's resolute expression, looking to the sun but not moving. Finally he sighed and spoke up. "Look, I know you brought me here because you thought I could help. And I wish I could, but those people aren't me anymore. I can't relate to them, being back here with them. You would've been better off taking Scott or anyone else."

Young looked him in the eyes and just stared for a moment, trying to read him. "I didn't bring you because I thought you could provide information. I brought you because you're one of the best soldiers I have on that ship. You don't hesitate, and you've proven you can make the right decision." As he said that, he gestured to his arm where his real body was injured. Varro got the reference. "I brought you because I trust you, and because I need you."

Varro didn't respond. He just looked at the Colonel with a blank expression, trying to figure if he was being sincere or just motivating him to get his act together. Whichever it was, he got the message. "You can count on me, Colonel."

"I know I can. Now, let's go." This time he was leading the way, but didn't get far before a loud buzz sounded nearby.

They both raised and cocked their weapons and took up positions by some of the thick trees nearby. Gazing ahead of them, the source of the sound was easily identified. The thick outline of a circle had appeared in the earth, and with a powerful hum five rings jutted from the ground, stopping underneath each other. A bright light passed through the rings leaving five men within their confines before returning the ground to its previous pristine condition.

The five men walked out of the rings' range and wielded their weapons. They all looked towards the tree line Young and Varro were hiding behind. "Show yourselves!" the lead soldier yelled.

The Colonel glanced hopefully at Varro. "Let's hope this works." He stepped up from the shadow of the tree and donned a serious expression. "What is this?" he yelled at the lead, flailing his weapon around, but taking care not to aim it at anyone. Varro moved from behind the tree and followed behind the Colonel, maintaining a similar attitude.

The soldier seemed taken aback at Young's bluntness and Lucian Alliance uniform. Obviously he expected something different. Still, he persisted. "Identify yourselves, now!"

Young sighed in aggravation. "I'm Neyal. That's Kaef. We're here with Bakara's third division," he said completely out of nowhere. It took him off guard a little, but he didn't show it.

"He sent us to get a personal update on Danar's research," Varro said, shrugging at himself inwardly, not having any idea what he was talking about. However, the name Bakara he knew, and he cringed at it silently.

The lead soldier looked even more confused than at first, and had lowered his weapon by now. "He… he didn't inform us you were coming."

"Why would he? Last time he told you a team was coming, you did a nice job of cleaning up the evidence from your little accident," he said, using whatever tidbits of information that popped at him from seeing this man to intimidate him. "He wanted the truth this time, without you preparing for our arrival."

"Right, of course," he said, wincing at the reference to something that was clearly a bad memory. "I'll show you in personally." He walked over to where the rings had disappeared and stood waiting for them. Young hesitated but Varro walked over immediately. They both stopped by his side. The soldier lost his confused expression and instead donned an excited look. "I think you'll find the ship to be quite impressive."

Young's heart stopped. It was a moment before he felt his pulse return, and when it did it was racing. "Ship?" he asked in too weak a voice.

The soldier frowned at him but ignored the changed tone. "Yes. The necessary structural modifications are complete, and the drive is being worked on. We'll finally get there, just like we deserved," he said, pressing a button on his uniform's sleeve. He smiled widely as the rings activated and dematerialized the three of them.


"How is she looking, Doctor?" McKay asked Dr. Lam as she walked into the room with a chart of Major Brooks' test results. They had kept her in the warehouse just in case she wasn't safe to move, and had brought a doctor and lab full of equipment to her.

"Well, I'm finding a large quantity of a sedative in her blood work," she answered, reading right off of her papers. "They must have had her out the whole time."

"Isn't that bad?" McKay asked, having had more than a passing experience with a wide array of sedatives. All he could remember is his childhood doctor refusing to give him too much sedative after he had to get his arm stitched up. McKay must have complained about that for hours until his parents finally begged the doctor to give him some more.

Lam shrugged and walked up to the monitor. "Depends, but this must be some drug they brought from offworld; I don't recognize the compounds in it. I'm still running it through the lab though. They were feeding her through an IV drip, so she isn't malnourished at least." She pulled a syringe from her lab coat pocket and injected a small amount of the contents into the IV drip. "This should help to neutralize the sedative, help her wake up soon." Carefully capping the syringe, she returned the cartridge to her pocket.

"Huh, well that's good." McKay turned back to his laptop and clacked away furiously, editing a large section of the code controlling the stone's function.

She noticed his work and walked to him, leaving her charts on the tray by the bed Brooks was on. "How goes it on your end?"

"Hmm? Oh, almost done actually. The macro that controls the operations of the stones controlled multiple systems to make sure nothing happened to the connection. I had to work at disabling them one at a time so we can safely get this done," he said triumphantly, taking a pause from his work to look over at Dr. Lam with a grin. "I put a fine amount of work into this thing in the first place." Lam scoffed at his suggestion and walked out of the plastic clean room, heading to the portable lab that was set up next to it. He sighed sadly but returned to his code. After a bit of a donut and another minute of typing, the communication panel successfully turned off. "Yes! Oh I love it when things work for me." McKay turned to the security officer that was posted at the entrance. "You can tell General O'Neill that the connection is successfully broken, and that I have yet again proven my usefulness to this program," he informed haughtily. One of the things he had decided to do was to leave the subspace transmitter outside of the clean room. There was just no room for it in the clean room. Also, he knew from experience that giving his superiors easy communication access to him would mean they would never stop bothering him.

"Yes, Doctor," he said, turning to leave. Pausing, he pointed to Brooks. "What about her?"

McKay frowned at looked annoyed at the soldier. "What about her? She's unconscious and more drugged up than I was in college. Look, just go. Go go go go," he urged, almost pushing the Air Force officer out of the clean room.

Alone, he let out a content breathe and walked to his laptop. He closed it and started to pack up all of his equipment. By the time he had closed up the second box, he heard a smash behind him. Startled, he jumped up and turned to see Brooks sitting up, clutching her head with the tray knocked over on the ground.

He let out an audible gasp of air. "Oh thank God, it's just you."

Brooks looked around with a dazed expression. "Wha…? Whe…?" she slurred out.

"Okay... so not unconscious. Major, everything is okay," he slowly said, walking up to her. She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "We've disconnected the stones. You're coming off of some pretty strong sedatives, but you'll be fine."

Brooks shook her head a light at first, but then more aggressively. "No. No, I won't let you… I won't let you!"

"What? Won't let me what?" he asked, backing away from her. He recognized her reaction as the first sign of someone that was about to go ape on him.

"NO!" She threw herself out of the bed right at McKay. They fell to the ground and as he feebly tried to slap her off of him, she hoisted up the heavy box he had just packed and hit him hard across the head with it.


Once the light subsided and the rings were back in the ceiling, Varro and Young were left in a lowly lit, stone walled hallway with their Lucian escort. Around a half dozen other Lucian soldiers and workers casually looked up from their posts, apparently accustomed to the loud rings. "Follow me. I'll show you to Danar," their escort said. He strolled down the hall, with Varro and Young following close behind.

Young was having flashes of images hit him as he walked down the corridor. Clearly Neyal was a good choice to have swapped with as he seemed to have a detailed knowledge of this facility. The Colonel hoped that would help him out some more for the rest of the operation.

They walked through the wide tunnels for a few minutes in silence before their escort spoke again. "I know Bakara is pushing for results on this project, but can't he just trust the reports we send him?"

"Just show us the ship and we'll be on our way soon enough," Varro said gruffly. He didn't want to betray himself by saying something wrong, and he knew a powerful attitude could cut a conversation short. Generally the people he knew in the Alliance weren't very chatty.

"It's right up through here," he responded with a look of disdain, gesturing to a gilded door at the end of the hall. Stopping at a Goa'uld security panel by the door, he typed in a sequence that Young made sure he remembered, just in case. The door opened, grinding across the floor paneling.

The room on the other side was quite literally a cave. It extended high up, and as Young walked in he could make out a source of natural light at the top. Scattered around the cave floor were dozens of computers, generators, and tabletops containing a plethora of high-tech equipment. The various devices were all in different stages of completion, some being fully crafted together, and others having components lying across the table. The center of the cave housed a monstrous Al'kesh sitting atop a large platform which allowed access to its underbelly. Dozens of scientists and workers were milling about the room, too busy with their tasks to notice the three men saunter in.

"Definitely looks like you're keeping busy here," Varro said, craning his head around to look at all of the operations going on in the cave.

"How far along is the drive?" Young asked directly.

The escort scoffed at the question. "Well, when it's still in the development, but that much you can tell from the reports."

"We've been reading the reports for a long time now, and this still say that," Varro growled, working to intimidate him. "What we want is to hear that it's ready."

"Let me take you inside. You can talk to Danar. He'll explain everything better than I can." He led them through the cave to a point straight underneath the Al'kesh. Pressing the ring activator on his sleeve again, the belly of the ship opened and deployed the rings.

Once within the ship, they were plunged into an ornate and illuminated chamber consistent of Goa'uld architecture. The gold and patterned walls surrounded them. They followed the Lucian soldier to the engine room, where a sole engineer was working. "Where's Danar?" the soldier addressed loudly. The engineer rose from the large device he was working at. He was a young man and looked nervous around three soldiers. "Some of Bakara's men here want to talk to him."

"He had to go to storage," he said meekly. "He was missing a piece of coupling."

"Just go find him," the soldier responded haughtily, not caring about his explanation. "Tell him he's need here, now."

The engineer nodded and ran off quickly, looking very scared. Young made a mental remark, surprised to meet a member of the Alliance that wasn't tough and arrogant.

"Actually, we just want to take a look around, on our own, please," Young stated with authority, barely putting any sincerity into it.

The Lucian officer subtly brandished his weapon. "Can't do that. I don't care who Bakara sends, I'm not letting them out of my sight."

Young sighed and turned to Varro. "Sorry to hear that."

Catching the hint, Varro closed the distance between him and the Lucian soldier in a heartbeat. He tried to raise his weapon against Varro, but Varro slapped it out of his hands. Grabbing him by the neck of his uniform and lifting him in the air, he slammed him backwards hard. There was a crack as the soldier's head impacted the thick bulkhead. When Varro released him, the body fell to the floor with a dull thud.

Neither one of them seemed to care too much about the man Varro probably just killed. Instead, they both looked over at the large device that they assumed to be the wormhole drive. "This changes our plans," Young said. "We didn't know they had gotten this far along. If we could finish the design, Earth could finally supply us. Can you pilot this ship?"

Varro nodded. "Absolutely." He hefted the soldier onto his shoulder and carried him out of the engine room. "I'll lock him up," he said, splitting up to find a place for him. Opening one of the doors into the cargo hold he threw the man in. Taking his weapon he fired a trio of shots at the inner door panel. The lights on it flickered for a second before it exploded in a flurry of sparks. Closing it from the outside, he left the cargo hold. He met with the Colonel in the cockpit after he was done. "We should probably leave now."

"No," Young countered, sitting in the co-pilot's chair. "If we leave now then we'll expose the Hermes and the attack. We still have surprise on our side, and that keeps the odds in our favor."

He sighed affirmatively. Leaning to look out of the window, he gazed cautiously at the flock of people outside. "But we can't stay here too long. They'll figure out something is wrong here soon enough."

"Right. We just need to wait a while," he said, mentally calculating that they had around a half hour left, "then we can go." Varro quietly agreed and sat down in the pilot's chair, ready to go on a moment's notice. "Who is that... Bakara you brought up? Is he someone important?" Young asked him, having wondered quietly ever since he mentioned the name.

Varro stared reflectively at the workers outside. "By the time I left for the invasion on Destiny, he was one of the fastest rising officers in the Lucian Alliance ranks. He was known for his brutality, both with his enemies and his own people that didn't... show their full worth." He grinned in disgust at the thought of the man. "If he's a powerful figure in the command structure, then we need to be careful."

Young looked over at him, comprehending his warning. "Just gets better and better."


As the sixth and final red marker vanished from the screen, the entire CIC aboard the Selene went crazy. Officers threw papers in the air and shook hands. O'Neill stood in the center of the room maintaining a level expression. It wasn't good form if the commander showed too much emotion. "Whiskey team, you did good out there." He turned to the smaller side screens where the international ambassadors appeared, with a woman replacing Danilko's place. O'Neill already liked her over Danilko. "Thanks for the assistance. This wouldn't have worked without your cooperation." All of them nodded and voiced their acknowledgment. After that they all vanished from the screens.

"Sir, the task force has given us a final update; they're thirty minutes out from the target planet," one of the officers said reading a message off of his screen.

Before he could respond another officer called loudly from his terminal, holding his hand to his earpiece. "General O'Neill, Dr. McKay is on the line. It sounds urgent."

O'Neill sighed and gestured lazily to the screen. "Put him up."

The officer nodded and punching a short command. A bleeding McKay appeared flanked by Dr. Lam. This was not the image that O'Neill had been expecting. "What happened? I was just about to congratulate you on not messing anything up!"

"Brooks escaped!" he blurted out, clutching a spot on his forehead from where the blood was streaming from.

"What?" O'Neill shouted, the entire room falling silent yet again as the technicians and officers sensed the agitation. They all returned to their stations, realizing gravely their job wasn't over. "I just heard not ten minutes ago that she was out like a light!"

Lam stepped into the center of the screen as McKay moved aside to nurse his head. "General, I was looking over the toxicology report for the Major. I recognized one of the compounds in the sedative mixture they were giving her was a psychotropic drug."

"How could know that? I was told all the compounds were foreign."

"Not this one, sir. I recognized the chemical structure immediately," she said in a worried tone. "It's an Earth drug. Someone would have needed to supply them with it though. Dr. MacKenzie developed it for the SGC; you can't just buy that at the local drug store."

O'Neill flushed angrily as he heard that. He had an immediate idea who supplied them, and didn't doubt that he was right. "That was what made her attack McKay?"

"Yes, sir, I believe so. She's been given large doses of the drug over a long time period. The injection I gave her negated the effects of the sedative which was abating the drug. Without it, a large amount of the drug shocked her system." She moved in closer to the camera on her end and spoke very urgently. "General, she is very dangerous in her current condition. She is paranoid delusional, most likely experiencing hallucinations, and is probably unresponsive to most stimuli. If she's not found quickly, the shock could be fatal."

"Do we know where she went?"

McKay returned to the center of the screen, now with a blood-stained towel on his head. "She commandeered the cargo ship that was left here."

"I told you to secure that ship!" the General yelled, wondering why he told people to do things if it never helped in the long run.

"I was busy with other things!" the Canadian returned defensively, flushing red across his checks and panicking. "Someone had to turn off the stones, and that seemed like a priority at the moment. I mean, how was a supposed to know someone was going to hijack the thing?"

O'Neill was ready to yell some more at him, but decided to save it for later. He turned to the nearest officer and walked towards him. "Scan around the DC region. If she's in the air we should be able to find her."

"Yes, sir." He pulled up satellite telemetry for the area and within a quick moment was able to find the cargo ship, the only source of a large amount of naquadah in the Earth's atmosphere. "I have her, sir. Target is over the Atlantic right now and… correction, she's pulling straight up."

"If she's trying to escape that is very, very bad," McKay warned, having listened to the conversation. "She still has all the knowledge about the wormhole drive, and everything else. We can't risk her leaving."

"Agreed. Transport her out of there," O'Neill ordered quickly.

An aggravating beep came from the console a moment after the officer attempted to comply. "There's a scattering field in place around the cargo ship. We can't get a lock."

O'Neill clenched his fists. "Have the Odyssey intercept and disable her."

The officer shook his head. "Odyssey is on the other side of the planet. They wouldn't make an intercept before she escaped the atmosphere." He looked back to his screen and added on. "Colonel Telford is still in the sky, sir."

"Good, put him through."


"Roger that, sir," Telford said in response to the General. He had just been informed about the situation involved Major Brooks. Strapping his air mask back into place, he pointed his fighter to the stars and hit the throttle hard. A light yellow glow was coming through the canopy as the sun had started to rise. "I'm on an intercept course."

"Understood. Same drill as before. Tag her and the Odyssey will bring her aboard."

Telford saw the dot on the far end of his radar, which told him he needed to punch it. He passed through cloud after cloud on the way up and felt his engines roar until he cleared the top of the clouds. Ahead of him he saw the familiar shape of a small pyramid. "I have her in my sights. Still too far out for a clear shot."


"Sir, she's out of the atmosphere," an officer alerted O'Neill. "She can jump to hyperspace at any time now."

"Dammit! Colonel," he said, speaking into his earpiece, "your window of opportunity is almost gone. Tell me that you have a lock."

Static was on the line for a tense second. "Negative, sir. She's still out of range for the tag."

O'Neill watched the tactical overlay on the screen with anxiety. It wasn't until a moment later that he realized he was still watched the red dot veer away from Earth. "Why's she still here?" he said aloud to no one in particular.

"General!" the officer announced in a panicky voice, answering his question for him. "The cargo ship is on a collision course for the Selene!"

"Are the shields up?" he asked urgently, almost having to shout as the room returned to its previous state of chaos as officers were running to various stations and calling across to each other.

McKay's face returned to the screen before he could get an answer. "General, I've been monitoring the situation, and the shields aren't going to matter. She's on a course for a spot beyond the shield's range. It's an earthquake bomb!"

"A what...?" he exclaimed. "What the hell do you mean?"

The scientist sighed in exasperation and began explained with a blend of words and hand gestures. "Major Brooks specialized in unconventional weapon design years ago. I remember an idea for a naquadah earthquake bomb she developed that would cause secondary explosions in the naquadah present on most planets. It was rejected but still quite ingenious actually…"

"McKay!" he yelled, getting the scientist back on track.

"Sorry. Her cargo ship is accelerating rapidly towards the lunar surface. The course will have her hit straight on. Depending on shield and structural strength, the ship will force its way into the crust before it explodes. The shields on the base won't protect you against the earthquake… or I should say moonquake."

"Can't we just extend the shield's range?" O'Neill asked, voicing what seemed to be a very simple solution.

"Sure, but she'd just be able to punch through it. We'd be sacrificing strength for area," he explained. "She's just too far out from the perimeter."

He turned desperately to another officer. "Hail her. Tell her to stand down, and that we're here to help."

The officer nodded and conveyed the message. A moment later she looked back up and shook her head. "She's not responding."

"Well I'd like someone to give an idea!" he shouted to the room.


"Don't worry, General," Telford said into his earpiece, having heard all of the news as everyone had been speaking loudly. "I'm gaining on her now. I'll be in range to tag her before she reaches the Selene."

"Roger that, Whiskey One," O'Neill said with a small breath of relief.

He was out of the atmosphere as well at this point, gaining steadily on her ship. The moon was right there in front of her ship, getting larger by the minute. It was a few minutes before the cargo ship was large in his view. Finally, the reticle activated and turned red almost immediately, as Brooks wasn't trying to weave or evade him at all. "I'm taking the shot, Odyssey," he informed. As soon as he clicked the trigger though, an alarm sounded in the cockpit. A red text box appeared on his targeting screen reading 'Launch Failure'. "Dammit!" he swore loudly.

"Repeat, Colonel," O'Neill beckoned urgently. "Did you take the shot?"

Telford pulled off his air mask in aggravation. "Negative, sir. My launcher is failing to fire. Orders, sir?"

"All the other 302s are too far out to help," the General said. Static dominated the line for a minute, in which Telford gained some more ground.

"Orders?" he asked again, taking the pause to not mean anything good.

"Colonel, you're weapons free. Take a shot if you can."

"Sir?" he questioned. "Confirm, do you want me to destroy the target?"

His answer was static for a moment while O'Neill was fighting to make his decision on the base. "Affirmative, Colonel."

Telford took an uncomfortable breath. "Sir, shouldn't I try to disable her engines?"

"That won't stop her from her course," McKay shouted over the radio. "Her momentum is just too great to affect her trajectory, and she's too close to the base right now. She'll still impact with the Selene."

"I'm sorry to do this, Colonel," O'Neill said regrettably, "but I am ordering you to take the shot."

"I understand." Putting his mask back on, he unlocked his missiles and prepared an AIM-120 AMRAAM, leaving any thoughts not related to the task at hand behind him. "I'm within weapons range; lining up the shot." The moon was getting large now behind the cargo ship, as if it was trying to prove McKay's previous statement. The faint outline of the Selene's building was visible at this point further stressing the urgency of the moment. Once again, the reticle blinked red almost immediately. Telford didn't wait. "Fox three!"

He tapped the trigger and was rewarded by a successful missile launch. A trail of thick smoke followed in the wake of the long metal projectile, heading straight for the cargo ship. The distance was closed quickly. In the last second before the missile hit, the ship finally weaved to the right, but it was too late. The missile struck right in the center of the hull in a fiery explosion. A second, larger explosion came within a second of the first, ripping the hull of the ship apart into millions of pieces, some large and others small. The debris flew in every single direction, quickly leaving nothing behind as Telford soared through the wreckage.

In a downcast manner, he removed his mask for the last time. "Target destroyed, sir," he said simply, filled with regret at having had to kill a fellow soldier.

"Roger that, Colonel." O'Neill sounded equally distraught at having lost one of his people, and even more so at having had to order another soldier to kill her. "Head on back to the Odyssey. There's nothing more for us to do here."


Lorne stared nervously at the HUD over the viewport. It read with less than four minutes until the task force arrived. "Still nothing from them?"

"Negative, sir. I'm not reading their transmitters," Wagner replied.

Sighing, Lorne moved around the helm station and sat in his chair. "Understood. Major Henderson, watch for hyperspace windows. If you read friendly IFF, engage this target with all main batteries. I don't want to give them any chance to react."

"Aye, sir," he responded, setting up his terminal to prepare for the attack.

"Major Wagner, punch it to full sublight as soon as she's disabled. Let's leave her a little present as well. Prep a Mark VIII for launch with a ten second timer. Fire as soon as we move away."

"Copy, sir," Wagner answered. Both he and Henderson confirmed codes for a nuclear launch. The clock was now less than three minutes.

Lorne sat patiently in his seat, staring at the Goa'uld mother ship that was visible on the other side of the transparent HUD. With one minute left on the clock the numbers turned a bright red color. Pausing for another second, Lorne turned back to Wagner. "Do we even know if they made it into the base?"

"Negative, sir. I can't read anything within their scattering field," he apologized. A furious beeping sounded throughout the bridge. "Detecting multiple hyperspace windows opening, sir!" Wagner announced. The clock on the HUD was replaced by a tactical overlay. Three pulsating dots showed the locations he was talking about. One by one, they were replaced by pale blue dots with data displayed above them. "Reading friendly IFF from them. It's the task force; bearing one-six-eight by zero-one-one; range three hundred kilometers."

"Engage!" The ships decloaked at once with a buzz and the HUD vanished, leaving the pyramid structure fully visible. The bridge lights came back on and were compounded with a blaring klaxon.

Dull pops reverberated through the bulkheads of the Hermes as the railguns batteries opened fire. Streams of the projectiles burned across space and pounded through the weak armor of the Goa'uld ship as the Hermes was within the shield perimeter. Explosions jutted out from across the entire underbelly of the ship. Some of the slugs slammed through into the Glider bay and pealed the hull apart from the secondary explosions. The barrage only lasted for a few seconds, but the damage was extensive.

"All her major systems are disabled, sir," Henderson successfully informed.

"Good work. Major Wagner, move us off and fire." The ship rumbled to life and pushed away quickly from the mother ship. A stream of smoke flew off from the neck of the Hermes and propelled a large missile which collided right with the pyramid. Turning hard right and veering away from the target, the Hermes was presented with a half dozen Al'kesh and several squadrons of gliders. A massive explosion resonated through the dead of space as the nuke detonated, vaporizing every meter of the Ha'tak behind them. "That's one down."

Lorne could see the two Earth cruisers engaging five of the mother ships, their railguns harmlessly pelting their shields, while the occasional plasma beam lashed out and punished the shields. The third cruiser made a run straight for the planet and unleashed a barrage of railgun slugs, missiles, and beam weapons, all melting the surface. "Guess they're on their own now," he said as the closest Al'kesh opened fire on the Hermes, rocking the small ship with multiple impacts.


A large clump of rocks fell from the roof of the cavern and crashed onto the Al'kesh with a loud thump. Everyone in the cave was running out through the doors, escaping the now deadly chamber. "I guess this means they're here," Varro pointed out.

"Take us out of here!" Young shouted.

Complying, Varro grabbed the spherical Goa'uld throttle and pulled up. The Al'kesh roared to life as it pulled itself off of the platform and started to soar. "Wait. I want to make sure all of their equipment can never be used again." Nodding, Varro launched two bombs at the cave floor, reducing the equipment to a smoking pile of trash. The flames rushed up over the cockpit window, and Varro kept the ship going up. He pulled the nose up and pointed it straight for the opening at the top of the cave.

More rock and ore flew from the cave ceiling from multiple explosions, scattering across the hull.

"If they don't stop their attack we're not gonna make it out of here!" Varro shouted in response to the cave's collapse. The light at the cave's threshold grew brighter as an explosion near it blasted the hole even wider. As the ship passed through the opening it was showering with earth and rocks and a few small sparks flew from a circuit behind Young.

"Can you take us to hyperspace in the atmosphere?" Young beckoning, not caring at all about the severe warning his flight instructor had given him about opening a hyperspace window within an atmosphere. Varro nodded confidently, but when he tried, nothing happened. "What's wrong?"

"The hyperdrive isn't working," he said.

"Are you sure, maybe you just did something wrong…"

"The drive isn't working," he echoed, this time more aggressively, not taking the Colonel's suggestion without insult, but still maintaining a modicum of respect for a superior. "They must have scrapped the hyperdrive to work on the wormhole drive," he reasoned.

In the co-pilot's seat, Young clasped his chest in frustration and squeezed the small pin. "Guess we'll just stick to the original plan."


Two Gliders exploded in front of the Hermes and were dispersed by the shield as she rammed through their debris. Once she passed through the flames a mother ship appeared menacingly on the other side. Massive staff energy bolts lashed out from the ship's superstructure and headed straight for the Hermes.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Lorne shouted. He felt himself edge to the side as one of the ship snapped to the side. One of the staff bolts missed the ship, but the other hit dead across the bow. The small ship rocked under the heavy impact.

"Full sublight towards that target! Fire all forward guns!" The ship straightened out and hundreds of the hot projectiles shot out from the Hermes' railguns. The Ha'tak's shields flared a deep orange as they impacted. Some made it through as the shields had already taken damage and occasional plumes of fire burst from her hull. She continued to fire against the Hermes, striking across the short flight wings and the nose, the blue shields erupted everywhere. A console exploded in the back of the bridge as the hull shook violently. A large explosion was heard in the hall right outside the bridge, and a bright fire drew his attention. "Get damage control teams up here!"

"Aye, sir!" Wagner shouted in response, continuing his course for the Ha'tak. A circuit exploded above his console, showering him in sparks. "Shields are at sixty percent!"

McKay's hologram decided to make an appearance at this moment. "Might I suggest you don't put us up against a heavy attack vessel!" he shouted angrily. "This ship isn't designed for that!"

"Slow us to one-quarter sublight! Pull us hard to port once we're within one kilometer!" Lorne shouted, agreeing with the hologram. The distance was closing rapidly, and it made the staff bolts seem like they were moving at a blazing speed. The Ha'tak's shields began to sputter and more of the hot slugs made it through, pelting the hull.

A bright blue beam shot over the Hermes' bow and struck the mother ship right in the center of the pyramid, tearing straight through whatever shields had remained. The Hermes shook as the large form of a Daedalus battle cruiser passed over her. She fired two more plasma beams at the heart of the Ha'tak, and successfully watched her explode brightly, peeling the hull apart. The pyramid went first, and broke the superstructure into a flurry of pieces that flew everywhere.

"Colonel Ellis is signaling us," McKay informed in the calm following the engagement. Wagner glanced up at him, slightly annoyed as that usually would be his task.

"Patch him through," Lorne responded. A spotty video feed appeared on the side monitor of the older Colonel standing on his larger bridge. "Thanks for the assist there, Colonel."

"Not a problem, but I'd appreciate it if you focused your efforts on their fast movers: the Gliders and Al'kesh," Ellis suggested unpleasantly, echoing McKay's sentiments. "We can take care of their mother ships. Their shielding may by more resilient to the Asgard beam weapons, but they still get the job done."

Lorne nodded. He was right, as the Hermes wasn't equipped with a beam weapon. Being small and fast, a weapon like that just wasn't practical as targeting sensors weren't quite effective. Still, he was upset that he was put to work on the weaker opponents. "Understood, Colonel," he said as the feed flickered from the Apollo taking a hit. "I'll let you get back to work there."

Ellis quickly nodded and ended the transmission. The Apollo's nacelles burst to life above the Hermes and she veered off in the direction of the nearest Ha'tak. "Target any Al'kesh or Gliders that attack the Apollo. Let's try to keep the flees off of her, boys," he ordered.

"Aye, sir," Wagner said, turning the ship and pulling her in back of the other cruiser. A single Al'kesh flanked by a squadron of Gliders made their way after the cruiser. The ship roared to life and Wagner intercepted them. Henderson fired in coordination with the other Major, quickly reducing the small attack group into a smoldering wreck.

"Major, give me a sit rep on the task force," Lorne ordered, watching as the fire control team came running down the hall to put out the fire that had been raging for a minute.

"The Apollo has taken same damage to her sublight drive, but her weapons are still strong. The Suvorov is covering the Olympus, but is taking heavy strain on her shields. Some shots have gotten through and decompressed her port hangar bay. It's empty, so she hasn't lost any 302s," Wagner answered.

"And the Lucian fleet?"

Wagner jerked the ship right to dodge an Al'kesh that had been approaching on a kamikaze run. A glow across the nose of the ship indicated Henderson's success in destroying it. "Over half of the Al'kesh and Glider support has been destroyed, but only three of the mother ships are out of the fight." A furious beeping sounded across him console at that moment. "Sir, I'm picking up Colonel Young's transmitter."

Lorne swore and punched the armrest on his chair. "We can't risk lowering the shields to beam them back. Where are they?"

Another console exploded and a nearby pipe hissed as it leaked out a gas. A nearby officer ran over immediately to seal it off. "They're in the air in an Al'kesh."

His first reaction was surprise, but there was no time for questions. "Send a message to the task force with their transmitter frequency. Tell them not to engage that ship," Lorne ordered directly.

"Copy that, sir," he replied, quickly typing and sending the message.

The ship shook once more as four Gliders fired a flurry of small staff blasts across the bow, flying in from the starboard side. No real damage was dealt, and Henderson quickly disposed of them. "Sir, all of the remaining Gliders and Al'kesh are changing course. They're heading towards the planet."

"Hail Young's Al'Kesh." A moment later, Kaef's face was on the bridge's screen. "Varro?" he asked tentatively.

"It's me Colonel Lorne," he said, assuaging some of the Colonel's worries.

"Why are you in a ship? What happened to the plan?"

The Lucian soldier Young was occupying scooted to be visible in the screen. "This is the plan. They've developed the drive and it's on this ship."

"What?" Lorne exclaimed, completely taken aback by the news the Alliance had come that far in progress.

"I'll explain in the debriefing. Right now you need to get us out of here," Young said urgently. "It looks like they weren't expecting this ship to have to fly; half of the hyperdrive has been torn apart for pieces. We need to land in one of the 304s' hangar bays."

"Understood, but we've got a more pressing concern. You've got a large wave of Gliders and Al'kesh inbound, and the cruisers can't lower their shields for you right now," he informed. "Take whatever evasive action you can; we'll be there soon to cover you."

Young returned to his seat and Varro nodded, killing the transmission.

Lorne rose from his seat and stood by Wagner's station. "Major, get us right on top of that ship before those fighters do."

"Aye, sir." Again, the ship veered violently to the left, until the planet was dead center in the viewport. The ship lurched forward just as violently as Wagner pushed the engines beyond their maximum thrust for a quick burn. It earned him a scowl from McKay, but the hologram chose not to speak this time. The wave of small Alliance craft was visible, converging on the planet from every direction. However, the Hermes was quickly catching up with them.

"Major Henderson, you have permission to fire at will at any targets within range," Lorne said a moment later, once the fighters were close enough to the ship.

"Roger that, sir." The forward and lateral railguns all swerved through their wide firing arcs, firing wildly across space and targeting everything that was moving. The two other Earth cruisers were visible fending off attacks from three Ha'taks at this point.

The Suvorov was positioned defensively above the Olympus. The Russian cruiser was taking the brunt of the shots from the opposing group and did not seem to be faring well. Her shields were flickering with sporadic life, but she was still firing away persistently at the enemy with railguns and beam weapons. The beams were having a hard time cracking the stubborn Ha'tak shields, most likely because the Suvorov had diverted significant power to its shields. The lead Ha'tak was worse off though, her shields suddenly fizzing out of existence. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the Suvorov directed fire from all its weapons at that ship for a quick moment. Large plumes of fire came from the core of the ship and destroyed the ship, splaying the two nearby Ha'taks with large chunks of wreckage.

The Hermes sped past all of that fighting and stopped right on the edge of the planet's atmosphere. She quickly turned around and faced the incoming onslaught of fighters and bombers. "Tell Varro to park it right under us," he ordered Wagner. "Divert power from the sublight to the shields, and bring all forward railguns to bear."

Wagner's station beeped. "He's in position now."

There were clearly at least nine incoming Al'kesh, and a lot more Gliders then Lorne could count against the black of space. "This should be interesting," he mumbled as they came within weapons range. "Fire!"

As the Hermes pummeled them with electromagnetically propelled slugs, tearing a few Gliders to pieces in an instant, they returned the favor. Dozens of staff blasts slammed into the stationary ship's shields. Usually those weaker weapons wouldn't do more than just rock the ship, but combined they were pretty powerful.

Sparks flew from conduits and consoles across the bridge. Covering his face from the burning specks, Lorne returned to his chair and sat, gripping tightly against the heavy shaking of the ship. Another pipe ruptured in the bridge and more fumes filled in. They were quickly sealed as officers scurried across the bridge. One of the small monitors above the viewport exploded, sending sparks and glass across the two Majors.

McKay's hologram looked busy executing computer codes within the ship's systems when his figure suddenly became distorted. "Uh oh," was all he said before he vanished from the bridge.

"What happened?" Lorne asked, half curious, half happy he was gone.

Wagner quickly read of the damage report. "That last shot took out the holotransmitter in the computer core."

Lorne glanced disappointingly at the Major. "And you never thought of that?" Any humor he was hitting at was lost as another circuit exploded across the starboard wall, sending a constant stream of hot sparks.

"Shields are falling below thirty percent!" Wagner shouted over the shield impacts and exploding terminals. A muffled alarm sounded on his console. "Hull breach on deck three, sections six through eight!"

"Send in damage control teams, now!" At this point most of the Gliders were nothing but dust. However, there were still a half dozen Al'kesh, and as they were approaching Lorne was worried about them. If they got close enough for a bombing run, the Hermes would take heavy damage. "Major, I don't want to see those bombers anymore!"

"Railguns are running hot, sir!" Henderson warned as the weapons' blinked red on his console. "They can't maintain this level of fire!"

The weapon fire from the Hermes decreased to an inconsistent, yet safer level as Henderson spoke. A couple of the Al'kesh took a volley of slugs and tore apart, but the rest were getting close.

Another loud alarm sounded. "Colonel Lorne, I'm reading a hyperspace window forming!"

A purple cloud popped into existence to the starboard bow of the Hermes and with a bright flash two Earth cruisers zoomed out. The both flanked the Hermes and fired their railguns at the remaining Al'kesh, quickly vaporizing them. One of the ships continued on a course to defend the Suvorov while the second remained over the Hermes. A second cloud materialized and three Ha'taks joined the battle, assaulted the enemy mother ships immediately.

"The lead mother ship is hailing us, sir," Wagner announced, relief filling his voice as the shields were no longer being punished and the ship managed to settle calmly.

"Put 'em on."

Teal'c appeared on the screen with a wide grin. "Colonel Lorne. I apologize for my tardiness in arriving."

Lorne chuckled in genuine happiness. "Not a problem at all. Just glad to have you."

"Indeed. We rendezvoused with Colonel Carter and repaired their critical systems. However, both vessels are still heavily damaged. It would be best to leave now with the data," he offered. The transmission sputtered as Teal'c's ship came under fire,, doing nothing but creating a minor distraction for the Jaffa.

"Copy, Teal'c." With a low nod from Teal'c, the transmission ended. "Hail the Hammond." Within a few seconds a blurry image appeared on the screen of bruised Carter on a beaten bridge. It made Lorne feel better about his ship's status. "Colonel Carter, do you read me?"

While the image froze sporadically, the audio was clear. "Copy that, Colonel." Sparks flew across her bridge and she looked urgently at the camera. "Our shields are weak and we've had to divert most of the power from weapons just to get the hyperdrive online. We're really not that much use here."

"Understood. Colonel, do you think you could lend your port flight deck to our Al'kesh?" he asked, looking out to through the viewport at the battle. The added ships on their side really helped turn the battle in their favor. Only two enemy Ha'tak's were left in the fight, and they didn't seem to be in any good condition. A portion of the task force had circled back to the planet and was destroying the remnants of the Lucian base. The Hammond was currently hidden beneath another two cruisers, and didn't seem to be in immediate danger.

"Affirmative, just make it quick," she asked, looking back to her smoking bridge. "I'd don't want to be without shields for too long."

Lorne nodded at the screen, happy that this ordeal was almost over. "Much appreciated. And Colonel," he said smiling, before signing off, "it's good to see you're okay." Carter grinned and returned the nod. The screen returned to displaying a schematic of the ship, which startled him when he saw how many sections were bathed in red. "Let the good Colonel know that the Hammond is ready to take him aboard."

"Aye, sir," Wagner responded, entering the message calmly as he prepared to set a course to leave the system, anticipating his commander's next order.


"Looks like we're good to go," Young commented, reading the brief message.

Varro nodded in acknowledgement and pulled the throttle forward gently. The Al'kesh slowly moved away from the gray plated underbelly of the Hermes and edged to the larger cruiser. The Hammond was right next to the escort, so Varro didn't feel the need to move to fast, having to only cover a short distance.

Once he was approaching the shield perimeter of the cruiser, he slowed the craft even more. The Hammond's shield slowly peeled apart and allowed entry to the hangar bay, which was already open.

At that moment a blaring alarm went off in the cockpit. "What's happening?" Young screamed.

Two Al'kesh shimmered to life right behind the cruiser and zoomed forward towards them. The first made a bombing run across the cruiser's dorsal hull, blowing open huge chunks of its hull and releasing atmosphere, equipment, and people from the ship. It was a moment before emergency bulkheads sealed and prevented further losses. Nevertheless, the cruiser showed it had taken heavy damage as ship began to drift and various lights flickered. Her shields sputtered to life for a brief second, but one of the bombs seemed to have hit the generator as they fizzed into nonexistence instantaneously.

A flurry of heavy slugs came from the direction of the Hermes, obliterating the first bomber. The second one weaved across space, evading the fire once it was shifted towards her. Instead, she quickly made her way straight for Varro's ship.

"Move, now!" Young cried out. "Get us in there!" he said, frantically pointing at the hangar bay.

Varro complied, pushing the throttle forward hard. It was a race as his ship soared down the Hammond's neck straight for the open hangar, and as the opposing bomber flew over the ship's superstructure. Varro made it through the shielded barrier of the hangar bay first, but not before the enemy Al'kesh launched a bomb at the overhead of the bay. As the bomber exploded under fire from the Hermes, the energy bomb splashed against the thin roof of the hangar, pushing a wave of energy straight into the bay.

Varro had pushed the ship so hard that when he tried to slow it, it grinding loudly against the metal surface. As the bomb's explosion impacted the pyramid of their Al'kesh, explosions tore throughout the cockpit. Sparks flew across both of the occupants, and the controls shut down. Plunged into darkness, they careened across the hangar bay, until the slammed into the other side. The bomber stopped abruptly and more circuits exploded.

Young was thrown out of his chair by the impact, and flew back into the large open space behind the control center. He painfully rose and watched the control crystals by Varro continue to explode, throwing hundreds of sparks and shards at him. "Varro, get away from there!" he shouted.

As he struggled to move from his seat, a surge of electricity shot from the destroyed crystal tray and passed through his chest, sending him soaring back against the wall. After that discharge the ship was still and all the systems returned to normal. "Varro!" he screamed as he ran over to the body, smelling cooked flesh before he even got there. His uniform was burnt through and his skin was black across his chest. He didn't move, and Young scrambled to feel a pulse. It was there, but incredibly erratic.

"Colonel Young, are you alright?" Carter asked over the ship's communication system.

The pulse was fading; there were longer intervals between beats. "Varro's been hurt bad!" Young shouted, scrambling to think. "Contact Homeworld Command now! Disconnect Varro! Do you hear me?" He screamed with panic in his voice, not taking his hand off of the man's neck. There were many seconds between beats, and Young couldn't feel his breath when he put his hand above his mouth. "Come on," he muttered, remembering what happened the last time he had his hands over a hurt man. He wouldn't let it happen again. "Come on."

He couldn't find the pulse. It was gone, and the body was completely limp. Young frantically felt around the body, trying to find a pulse that wasn't there.

Someone said something. He didn't know who, or what. He just thought about Varro, and how he had to stare at an entirely foreign body while worrying about him.

"Colonel!" Carter shouted, snapping him to reality. He gazed up and looked at the empty cockpit. "Colonel Young!" she shouted over the comm line. "Can you hear me? The signal was disconnected."

He turned to look at the control consoles, the source of the sound. "Did they do it in time?" he asked carefully.

There was a pause as Carter wondered how to answer. "There's no way to know." She paused again. "How bad is he?"

Young looked back to the smoking body, letting go of his neck and sitting up above the body. "He's dead."

"Understood," she responded sorrowfully. "Colonel, we don't know anything. He could've been disconnected in time."

"Send me back," he blurted out. There was no answer. "Send me back!" he repeated louder.

"I can't do that right now, sir," she said firmly. "General O'Neill needs to speak to you, and you're the only person who can explain what happened." Young kneeled down and rested his head in his lap. "I'll send a team down." The line clicked off after that.

He sat in the silence and after a moment raised his head to look once more at the body. It was another person's face, another person's charred flesh. But all he thought of was Varro. "It just doesn't feel right," he uttered.


"Citizens in the DC-metropolitan area awoke to the sounds of roaring jets late last night." Young sat glumly in O'Neill's office on the Selene. The General was showing him a tape from a DC news reporter covering their late night operation. They had spent the last twenty minutes going over the results. "Witnesses report there being two fighter jets in pursuit of a third, yet unidentified aircraft. Video footage has so far shed no light onto the make of the craft due to poor visibility in the night sky. However, several people claim the pursued craft was fired upon by the fighters, saying they heard a loud shot and saw a bright light. The United States Air Force has yet to make an official statement on the matter, but claims there was no aerial engagement, citing a lack of visible debris from the alleged shooting. Similar sightings have been reported in Nevada and Colorado, as well as abroad in London, Moscow, and Shanghai. None of the foreign governments have yet to address the incidents."

O'Neill turned off the program. He looked from the monitor to Young, who was sitting glumly in the chair across from him. "We came close to a public disclosure event today. Guess we were just lucky. We're throwing the usual training accident story as a cover, but I think everyone knows that's BS. We'll just have to come up with something better."

"What about the task force?" Young inquired bluntly.

The General sighed tiredly. He had been listening to damage reports and repair estimates for the last hour, and that was a sore topic for him. "About a third of the fleet is probably out of the picture for a while. The Russians overtaxed most of their systems; they had to be towed home. The Archimedes mostly has internal damage, but it'll be a while to replace everything. Carter took the worst of the hurt with multiple hull breaches and destroyed systems. Hermes is alright, but will be in dry dock for a week. The rest of the group took moderate damage. McKay won't stop yelling at me because the drive was damaged." Apparently the bomb damaged the Al'kesh's engine room and crippled the wormhole drive. Still, the design was something to work from.

Young stared at the monitor, thinking about the extensive damage and losses. "Was it worth it, sir?"

"When you kick your enemy away from your home, and make sure they've been hurt badly enough that they'll remember it, it's always worth it," O'Neill remarked slowly and profoundly. "Losses on our side are expected, but we have just shown them we will fight this war. That's the strongest message we could send them."

They sat in silence for a moment. The Colonel stared back at him, maintaining a semblance of professionalism. "I heard about Major Brooks," he directly stated, voicing O'Neill's inner dilemma. "I'm sorry you had to do that. It was an unfortunate incident."

"Oh, it was no incident. She had been given a cocktail of drugs. They were meant to make her go bananas," O'Neill responded snidely. "They wanted her violent so she would be killed, as a countermeasure of some kind."

"Do we know who did it?"

"The drugs were produced in the SGC, so thankfully we have records of all orders," he said uncomfortably. "Shen ordered supplies of the drug over the last several months."

While his attention was only half in this debriefing, he still felt a burning hate for that woman. "How are we going to handle her?"

"You don't need to worry about that, Colonel," a voice said from the door to the General's office. "We'll take care of her." Young turned to see Richard Woolsey dressed in a full business suit.

"Mr. Woolsey," Young said in mild surprise. "I didn't expect to see you."

He smiled in return, clearly full of happiness and relief to be back among his colleagues. "I could say the same for you," Woolsey said jocularly, commenting on the Lucian Alliance soldier the Colonel was occupying. "Not the best look for you."

Young turned anxiously to the General. "Speaking of which, sir…"

"You're dismissed, Colonel," O'Neill answered, shooing him with his hands. "I hope for the best for your crewmates."

"Thank you, General O'Neill," he said, turning to leave.

O'Neill coughed loudly to get his attention before he walked out of the office. The Colonel stood by Woolsey in the threshold, waiting curiously. "Maybe you'll go throw yourself into the brig… you know," he said gesturing at the Lucian uniform again.

"Understood," he answered, walking off with a security officer.


"… just don't know when to shut up, do you?" James screamed into Young's face, holding her weapon menacingly.

He blinked in surprise and looked up calmly at her. "You have something to tell me, Lieutenant?" Young glanced around the communication room, taking in the aging brass design of the Ancient ship. The stars outside the small oval window looked more normal for him, even if they were different every single time the ship dropped out of F.T.L.

James stepped back and lowered her weapon. "Colonel Young," she breathed in a bit of shock. "No, sir… I... I just wasn't expecting you back."

"Stand down. It's alright." He nodded to Barnes and she removed the sole stone from the pad. As James moved to untie him from his chair, he looked to his side and noticed it was empty. "Varro… is he…?" he didn't finish the question.

"He's fine," James told him. His body flooded with relief and he closed his eyes, nodding his head. "He convulsed a few hours ago and passed out, but the connection was severed from Earth's end. TJ was called back from the planet and has him in the infirmary." She cut the last piece of the hard plastic and released him from his chair. "Dr. Ryder is there too. She was disconnected successfully."

Young rose from his seat and felt his cast arm itch. He ignored it and left the communication room, heading straight for the infirmary. Walking into the large room, he saw both Ryder and Varro resting comfortably. TJ was working at her computer but rose when she saw him.

"How are they, TJ?" He looked worriedly to Varro.

"I was concerned about him for a little while," TJ admitted, crossing her arms as she spoke. "He almost flat lined, but suddenly he normalized. I'm just waiting for him to wake up." She strolled over to Ryder who was two beds away from Varro. "She's been on and off. I'm a little bit worried about her recovery though," she confessed.

Young frowned and looked at her curiously, sitting down on the nearby bed. "What do you mean?"

She sighed and looked around, considering the shortest way to explain it. "Physically she's fine. I'm just… not sure about her psychological recovery. Obviously this was a traumatic experience for her."

"I'll have Wray work with her," Young offered, picking that as the easiest solution. It was likely she would volunteer first though.

"It's more than that," TJ said softly, walking away from Ryder so she wouldn't hear if she woke up. Young followed her with concerned interest. "I scanned her with the Ancient tech here… and I found a second neural signature, buried under her own."

He put his head down and shook it, taking in a breath. "It's Brooks', right?"

TJ nodded gently. "I'm afraid so. I can only think of the extended connection as an explanation, but that still doesn't make much sense to me."

"They were injecting Brooks' body with hallucinogenics and a bunch of other drugs," Young informed, looking over at Ryder. She was curled on the bed, looking as if she was having a nightmare. "Could that have something to do with it?"

She thought for a moment and shrugged. "It's possible. We still don't know that much about how the stones work. Maybe an abnormal brain chemistry could do something. I don't know," she sighed, not enjoying the ambivalence of the discussion. TJ looked away from her patients and turned to Young. "How about you. How are you doing?"

He didn't answer at first, instead gazing at the floor panels. "Tired," he finally admitted. Looking back up at her face, he appeared truly exhausted, both physically and mentally. "I don't know if I can keep this up."

"Keep what up, sir?" she said, her features showing compassion to her commander. She quite understood the burdens of command and never once envied his job.

His eyes still wandered around the infirmary, taking in the Ancient features that connected this room to the rest of the ship. From the ceiling recessed lights to the thin-metal patterns that made the walls look like they were sculpted, this ship had its own spirit. "As much as I want to get back to Earth, this ship is home," he said slowly, emphasizing the last word. "Every time I'm here, I'm thinking about Earth. When I'm there, I'm worried about this place. Going back and forth... I just want to stay in one place. It's hard... knowing my responsibilities are so far reaching."

TJ let him sit quietly for a moment, respecting him for his patience and ability to get work through the toughest situations. She wasn't used to hearing him complain, but in her mind he was completely justified to do it. "That's why you're the man that you are. Because you are stronger than most of us."

Young nodded and looked at her, supported by her words. Grinning, he glanced back at the two patients. "I'm going to my quarters. Keep my apprised of their conditions." He turned to leave immediately, letting out a small yawn as he felt his body turn into a massive dead weight.

"Colonel," a weak voice addressed him. He sluggishly turned to see Varro pushing himself up in his bed. TJ walked over to his quickly and began to check his monitor and him. "I'm fine, really," he said to her, silently asking her not to worry about him. She unwillingly backed away while Young approached. "Glad to see you're okay. How'd we do?"

"We have the ship, but the drive took some damage," Young responded, leaning against the next bed. "It'll take some time but Earth thinks they can make it work." He sat silently, staring at Varro. "You did a good job."

Varro grinned and nodded appreciatively at the Colonel. "Thank you, sir."

"And this time you're in the infirmary, so I guess we're even now," Young said plainly, lifting his hurt arm slightly. Varro grinned at him. The Colonel turned and walked out of the infirmary.

"Glad to see you're okay," TJ said, reminding Varro of her presence. "You scared me there." She sat down on his bed right beside him.

"That wasn't my intention." He stared at her silently for a moment, and she returned an unsure gaze. She started to rise, but he lightly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards him. He kissed her on the lips lightly for a quick second and immediately let go.

She looked into his eyes, staying still an inch from his nose. "What was that for?"

Varro leaned back to his pillow and sighed. "I just escaped death… by leaving another person's body and being sent across the universe back to mine. That's not natural, and this place isn't safe for anyone. Who knows how long we have."

TJ smiled lightly and rested more comfortably on his bed. From the shadows in the hallway outside, Young released a long breath and walked away.


Tiredly typing away at the Bridge's science station, Rush finally stopped and looked at his research. He was learning so much, but something just felt wrong about the whole thing.

"Maybe it's because you're doing this alone," a voice said behind him.

He turned around to face Amanda, not even surprised at her appearance or ability to voice his thoughts. "I take it you have something important to tell. And please, if you don't, then just go."

Amanda stood resolute for once, refusing to show him any of the hurt she felt. "This is bigger than all of us, you included."

"And what, you think I don't know that?" he said, gesturing to the computer terminal in exasperation. "I have been following your messages and preparing for this."

"That's not what I mean," she replied, casting him a domineering look. "You can't do this alone. If this is going to work, you need to have the support of the people on this ship."

Rush scoffed at her, and smirked at her ideas. "Oh please. We both know that would create more complications. If Colonel Young wouldn't refuse me, then I guarantee you our gun-slinging Sergeant Greer would enjoy doing it for him."

She walked straight up to Rush with a determined look across her face. "If you do this on your own, I promise you that you will fail."

Staring down at her, he decided to ignore her warning. He turned back to his station to work. As he reached for the console it suddenly turned off. Irritably, he looked at Amanda. "Turn it back on," he whispered.

"Not until you understand that you do need help with this," she insisted.

Looking at her stern face, he realized there was nothing he could do. "Fine," he surrendered. She gave him a quick smile, and vanished immediately.

"Dr. Rush?" Kalin asked as he walked onto the Bridge at that moment. "Who were you talking to?"

Ignoring the young scientist, he stormed out of the Bridge, leaving him standing by the railing wondering what he did wrong.


Young was lying out on his couch, watching the stars slowly drift past the window. It was calm and peaceful. It was a chance to be reflective. His radio sat turned off on the table. It was like that for a few minutes until the ship shook softly. With a grinding sound, the room phased around him and the stars were then obscured by the F.T.L. vortex.

A loud knocking on his door disturbed his reverie. He glanced behind him and chose to ignore it. The knock came again. "Go away," he mumbled, not loud enough to be heard.

Instead, the door lock spun loudly and let the door open. Young irritably rose from his couch and looked to see Rush leaning against his doorframe. Neither of the men looked too happy to see the other.

"Whatever it is, it can wait," Young said gruffly, sitting straight up in his couch.

Rush refused to take the hint and walked into the room. "No actually, it can't," he said reluctantly, but calmly, closing the large door behind him. "We need to talk."


On the mid-season finale of Stargate Universe. The greatest threat to the future of the Destiny is unraveled, and the most difficult decision must be made. As the crew is pushed forward by the Destiny's automated course, time is running out or the destiny of everything will be rewritten.