Vala was taken as a host by what Daniel believes to be a member of a parasitic race called the Gorgons, like the Goa'uld, the Gorgons are a snake like life form who take possession of other life forms by entering their bodies and controlling the mind of their host, Gorgons may even be a subspecies of the Goa'uld or a race that evolved on a different world in a similar way, however, unlike the Goa'uld who take hosts purely for control and power and bring fear to those around them, the Gorgons nature is still unclear.

Daniel believes the particular Gorgon that took Vala as a host is that which is described in Earth Greek mythology to be one of three sisters, Sthenno, Medusa and Euryale. Gorgons have a distinctive and prominent difference to the Goa'uld in that they're born with three heads, as with their nature, it is unclear whether a Gorgons three heads contain three individual consciousnesses, or if they are in fact a single entity.

After taking possession of Vala, the Gorgon, whoever it may be, ran away and left the planet known as Orac through the Stargate after appearing to become angry when it learned that Secia was in this galaxy, they still don't know if she is a friend or possibly on her way to join their new enemy and fight with her against them, when SG-1 returned to the SGC they learned that Secia has finally made her move and sent her ships toward Earth.


Meanwhile: On board Destiny


The details of the secret mission designated "Operation SunDial" that Colonel Mitchell and his team were sent on have finally become clear, Mitchell, and a team of scientists and engineers were sent to a planet in the Milky Way known as Langara, they were tasked with using their Stargate combined with the enormous amount of energy generated from the Naquadria that lined the planets core in order to reach the Ancient ship the Destiny, currently located several billion light years from Earth – its exact location relative to Earth is still unknown.

Their mission is to fit powerful Furling engines to Destiny, these engines were salvaged from a crashed Furling ship discovered by Colonel Sheppard and his team a few months back in the Pegasus galaxy, the powers that be back on Earth know just how powerful their new enemy is and that she has powerful ships are her disposal, something that Earth and its allies are lacking, if they have any chance at winning this fight they're going to need every ship, every weapon and every resource they can get their hands on, that includes Destiny.

Not only are they planning on bringing Destiny back, but thanks to Dr Rush successfully initiating a recall command to all the Seed ships in communication distance, they now plan on bringing the Seed ships back with them as well, although the Seed ships are smaller than Destiny and may not have as much fire-power, they still have weapons which will prove useful.

Colonel Mitchell and Colonel Young join Rush in the central control room after watching the Seed ships converge on Destiny's position from the observation deck.

"Rush, how's it coming?" asks Young.

"I'm almost finished..." replies Rush, holding his hand in the air signalling to leave him alone, "...just..give me a few more minutes." he adds.

Rush has been working for several hours on the calculation required to not only power the Furling engines safely, but also 'tow' the Seed ships back with them.

"Tick-Tock, Rush." says Mitchell, tapping his watch.

Rush looks irritated, "Will you shut up, these are incredibly complex calculations, if they're off by even a fraction we could end up anywhere in the universe...or worse case scenario we could end up blowing ourselves to pieces the moment we power up the engines and enter hyperspace. Now if you don't mind, please shut the hell up and let me do my work." he snaps.

Mitchell looks at Young in frustration, Young just shakes his head, he's been around Rush for a long time and is use to his outbursts and behaviour, "Just work as fast as you can, Rush." says Young.

"Lt Scott, could you ask everyone to meet in the gate room in fifteen minutes, I'd like to say a few words." requests Young.

"Yes Sir." replies Scott, he swiftly walks out to get everyone together.


Stargate Command


Jack, Teal'c, Daniel and Linda have been back at the SGC for a few hours now, since their return they've been helping out on base preparing for what's to come, refugees continue to flock through the Stargate trying to escape the destruction Secia's ships are leaving in their wake, the refugees were turned around and immediately sent back through the gate where teams on Atlantis are waiting to escort them to temporary safe worlds in Pegasus, but the ZPM used to power the gate to Atlantis was urgently required at the Ancient Outpost in Antarctica where McKay has found a weapon they may be able to use to defend Earth.

Both McKay and Sam believe the weapon they've discovered is similar to the one used by the Ancient called Chaya Sar, who they met on a planet called Proculus in the Pegasus galaxy, if it works then the weapon would create a type of highly charged energy net around the planet that theoretically would destroy anything that came in to contact with it, McKay has been working hard to connect the ZPM and power the weapon, it isn't working yet but he's confident he can get it up and running before the enemy ships arrive.

When SG-1 returned to Earth, Daniel walked off from the others needing some time to himself, Sam was very concerned about him and after attending a short meeting in the briefing room she decided to go and see how he's doing, so she heads to his research room.

Sam reaches Daniels research room and stands in the doorway, the lights are off but its not completely dark inside, the light from the corridor lights the room dimly, looking into the room she can see a table with piles of books scattered on top of it, "Daniel." she gently calls out, "Are you in here?" she asks, taking a few steps in to the room.

"Yes." replies Daniel in a muffled tired tone.

Sam lightly jumps when she hears his voice, "Oh, you frightened me.." she says with a light giggle, "Where are you?" she asks, glancing around.

Daniel slowly stands up and his head appears from behind the large pile of books on his desk, "Here." he says.

Sam takes a step back to the door and turns on the lights, "Why are you sitting in the dark?" she asks.

Daniels cheeks are red from the tears he's clearly been shedding, his eyes are puffy and look lost and distant.

"I don't know." replies Daniel.

"Jack told me the whole story about what happened to Vala, I'm sorry Daniel." says Sam.

"No, you have nothing to be sorry about...me...I'm the one whose sorry, it's my fault." replies Daniel.

"Don't say that." replies Sam.

"Why not, its true isn't it. First Sha're, then Sarah and now Vala, I couldn't protect any of them." says Daniel, filled with guilt, he catches a couple of tears running down his face with his bottom lip.

Sam goes over and stands by him, "Its not your fault, there's nothing you could have done, don't blame yourself. Vala is out there somewhere, we'll find her." she says, leaning in to hold him.

Daniel holds his arms up and moves away from her, "Don't, don't touch me. It was my idea to go to that planet, to satisfy my stupid curiosity." he shouts.

He walks around his desk and points at the books after sniffling and briefly sucking back the tears, "You know what, I spend most of my life reading these things, learning about our past and hoping to find something new, something exciting, something that will rewrite history as we know it...but it always ends up getting us in to trouble. Sha're is gone, Sarah is gone and now Vala is gone, and it's all my fault!" he shouts, getting angry, he takes his arms and sweeps them across the table sending all the books crashing to the floor, "..me and these damn books." he shouts.

Sam quickly moves back towards the door in shock and a little bit frightened, she's never seen Daniel this way, "Daniel." she shouts.

As Daniel continues to throw his books around and drag them off the shelves in a rage, Jack and Teal'c enter the room, they're equally shocked at his behaviour, "Daniel, what the hell are you doing..." shouts Jack, a book hits him on the legs, "..all right!" he says and he runs towards Daniel dodging the books and he grabs him.

"Get off me!" shouts Daniel, angry and getting upset.

"Calm down, Daniel..." shouts Jack, face to face with him and holding his flailing arms, "..Daniel, stop it, cut it out." he shouts.

Daniel gets really upset and starts crying and wailing, he slouches over a little and puts his arms around Jack and they stand holding each other, Daniel is Jacks best friend and he knows he's hurting, "Its all right, Daniel...its all right." says Jack comfortingly.

Jack comforts Daniel for a few minutes until he starts to calm down, "Come on, this isn't helping any body." he says, releasing the hug and holding him on the shoulders, "Danny, hey look at me. I know you're hurting, but we need you buddy...don't fall apart on us now. Do you think Vala would want you being like like this, if she was here now what would she say?." he says.

"Probably call me a wimp and tell me to suck it up." sniffles Daniel.

"Yeah, well...suck it up you wimp." replies Jack, which makes Daniel smile briefly, "Are we good?, or am I going to have to get Teal'c to sit on you." he adds.

"I'm good." replies Daniel.

"Good." replies Jack, giving him a friendly slap on the cheek, "..cos you scared the crap out of Sam." he adds.

Daniel wipes his eyes and sucks in the tears, "Oh, Sam. Sam I'm so sorry." he says, turning to face her.

They walk towards each other and hug, "Its all right, Daniel. You've been through a lot. I know you love her very much." says Sam.

"I just...I wish she was here." says Daniel.

Jack puts his hand on his shoulder, "Hey, we'll find her, we'll get her back, I promise." he says.

Daniel nods, he knows his friends are going to do everything they can to help get her back.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" asks Sam.

"Huh?!, Oh, right. McKay said he's got the weapon working but he wants to run some things by you first...and some guy called uhm...uhm..." says Jack, he can't remember his name.

"Professor Hisington." says Teal'c.

"Right, from Berkeley is waiting for you upstairs." says Jack, looking at Daniel, it seems to perk Daniel up a bit.

"Really. He was doing some research for me, he may have some information that could help us find Vala. I better...we should get up there." says Daniel.

They all head out of Daniels research room.


Destiny


Everyone on board the ship, with the exception of a few engineers still carrying out vital work and Rush continuing to run his calculation, have been gathered in the gate room, they're all standing by the Stargate facing away from it and looking up at Colonel Young whose standing above them between the two curved staircases.

"Good morning." says Young, the crew stop talking and listen.

"You're all aware of what's been happening here for the last day or so and you know the reasons why and what we're about to do. This wasn't the wakeup call any of us were expecting to get when we entered the stasis pods, and even though we've all been desperate to get home for the last two years this probably won't be the homecoming any of us were expecting

Earth is our home, that's where we all want to be and what we hoped for, a goal that's kept us together for so long, now it seems we're finally going to get there. Its dangerous and could kill us all, I'm not going to sugar coat it, there is a good chance we could all die trying to get home, but Earth is currently facing a very serious threat, they're at war...WE...are at war, they need our help.

We all have friends, family and love ones back home who are counting on us, now I can't put it to a vote and ask which of you want to go through with this, because we ARE doing this regardless, I've gotten to know you all very well in the time we've spent together and I know that you all agree we should go through with this, am I right?" says Young.

Everyone below responds with a "Yes."

"I can't say I'm happy that we all ended up here so far from home and we can't change the circumstances that brought us here, but I can say that I'm happy that I ended up here with all of you, I'm proud of each and every one of you, and it's truly been an honour to know you and work with you, every single one of you...now let's go home." says Young.

The crew feels the same way as Young and are touched by his speech, "We're with you Sir.", "Lets do this." shouts from below.

"Colonel Young." says Rush over the radio.

"Yeah, Rush?" replies Young.

"I've finished my calculations." replies Rush.

"Be right there." says Young, "Take your stations." he says to the crew below and he and Lt Scott hurry back to the central control room.

Dr Rush has finished his calculations and he's ready to go ahead with their plans, the 18 Seed ships have been remotely piloted in to positions around Destiny, their positions have to remain extremely close and constant if this is going to work so several crew members are on the bridge controlling them and adjusting their positions every second so they don't collide with each other or Destiny.

"Hey Colonel, we're good to go." says Mitchell, "I used the communication stones to contact Earth, I've told them we're on our way. We need to hurry, the enemy is already on approach." he adds.

"All right." says Young, he gets on the radio, "Everyone get in to your positions, we're about to get going." he says, then he nods at Rush.

"Ready when you are, Colonel." says Rush.

Mitchell and Young share a silent look and give each other the nod.

"Do it, Rush." says Young.

"Expanding hyperspace field to encompass the ships outside.." says Rush, the lights flicker momentarily as the power is increased and transferred to the engines, "...field is active and holding. Initiating engine power-up." he says.

The rear engines on Destiny light up yellow and gradually glow and get brighter and brighter, then as the Furling engine kicks in it turns the light emitted to a bright blue.

Rush slowly moves his finger towards the hyperspace activation button on the control dash, "3...2...1" he says, then he pushes the button.

As the engines fire up and activate, Destiny, with the Seed ships in tow, enter hyperspace like a bat out of hell, at blink-and-you'll-miss-it speeds, however, as they enter hyperspace the incredible speed proves too much for the internal dampeners to handle and everyone is thrown backwards, Rush, Mitchell, Scott and Young are thrown across the floor and in to the walls behind, thankfully they're not splattered against the wall but the force is so strong its difficult for them to move, its like battling against a gale force wind.

"What's happening?!" shouts Lt Scott.

"Help me to the console." replies Rush.

Rush crawls slowly across the floor towards the consoles, with the others pushing him as best they can from behind, he eventually reaches a chair and uses it to pull himself partly up, he then reaches out and using the console he brings up the dampener systems and uses his finger to move the slider up and increases the output, when it reaches maximum his body goes limp and the inertial force goes away.

"What happened?" asks Young, picking himself up.

"We forgot to adjust the internal dampeners to compensate for the speed increase." replies Rush, out of breath, "I have it now, it's okay." he adds, getting in to his chair.

"So we're in hyperspace, it worked?." asks Mitchell.

Rush brings up the holographic display, showing a galactic map and Destiny's current location as a moving blip, "See for yourself." he says.

"How fast are we going?" asks Young.

"Uhm...I don't know, sensors can't keep up with the speed we're travelling, Destiny wasn't designed for this." replies rush, "..but we've already travelled several million light-years. We should be near home in a day or two at this rate." he adds.

Lt Scott glances at Rush then looks at the display and smiles, "We're going home." he says.

"Good job, Rush." says Young, its not often he gives Rush praise.

"Thank you, Colonel." replies Rush, surprised by the praise.


Milky Way Galaxy - A short distance from Earth


A fifty plus fleet of ships made up of Jaffa, Tok'ra and Earth vessels were dispatched several hours ago to the Abydos region in order to intercept Secia's fleet, Two F-304's have been rushed in to service, the USS Lincoln and Freedom join Jaffa and Tok'ra Ha'tak and Al'kesh ships as they sit a few light years from Abydos currently in formation directly blocking Secia's path.

All the ships have weapons and most have already been retrofitted with Asgard beam weapons, however some are still a work in progress so teams of engineers are scattered around the ships of the fleet trying to get them functioning and ready for battle.

Cpt Philips on board the Lincoln is stood on the bridge by his chair holding a clipboard and signing off on various equipment requisitions the other ships in the fleet require.

"How long until the modifications are completed?" he asks Jessica, the female engineer standing in front of him waiting for the authorisation forms.

"It'll be a few more hours yet Sir." she replies, "...the Tok'ra are helping us hurry things along." she adds.

"Get it done as quick as you can." says Philips

As he's handing her back the clipboard, Major Carrigan calls him over after picking something up on sensors.

"Yes, Sir." replies Jessica, she turns and leaves

Cpt Philips leans over Carrigan to look at the console screen, "What is it Major?" he asks.

"Four unidentified objects just entered sensor range." he replies.

Then Cpt Dunne of the USS Freedom radio's in, "Lincoln, this is Freedom." he says.

Cpt Philips moves over and sits in his chair, "Yes Freedom, go ahead." he replies.

"We've detected four objects heading our way." says Dunne.

"Yes we know, we just detected them ourselves. Alert the fleet and have them stand by." replies Philips.

The fleet moves in to defensive positions, raising shields and readying their available weapons and wait for the arrival of the objects detected on route to their location, when the objects enter visible range its clear that they're indeed enemy ships as they feared, they slowly move towards the fleet and then take up a formation of their own in a line ahead of them, then they just stop and sit there.

"Only four ships, not exactly the army we were expecting. I don't think they'll be a problem." says Philips.

He immediately regrets saying those words when Major Carrigan is suddenly spooked by the loud beep of the sensor array and sending him in to a panic and speaking barely coherently.

"Ehm..S...S..S...S...Sir..." he says.

Off in the distance they see blue flashes of hyperspace windows opening, first a few, then more and more flashes appear, soon the horizon is just a beaming blue streak of light caused by thousands upon thousands of ships exiting hyperspace and taking up formation next to the other enemy ships.

Cpt Philips heart almost bursts from his chest as his mouth dries and he gently gulps down the last drop of saliva from his mouth.

The atmosphere on board all the ships is tense and fearful, silence falls over the open communication channels between all the ships in the fleet as they watch and wonder when the first move will be made.

"What are they waiting for?" asks Dunne over comms.

"I don't know." replies Philips, "..hold your position." he adds.

Earth's military are taught to remain calm in these type of situations, keep the mind clear and focus, the Jaffa, however, are not so calm in these types of situations, perhaps its instinct, an old reflex from their time serving the Goa'uld in battle or just plain fear, they order their ships to break formation and attack the enemy without waiting for orders.

"Jaffa, attack!" screams Kojek, commander of the free Jaffa fleet.

His scream can be heard on all ships through the comms, "No!." shouts Cpt Philips, springing from his chair, "Ha'tak vessels hold your positions." he shouts.

Its too late, the Jaffa have already moved forward and begun firing on the enemy ships, the enemy ships then retaliate by moving forward and opening fire on the Jaffa, both sides get some good hits on the other and the Ha'tak vessels managed to take out a few of them, but they're too fast and too manoeuvrable and the Ha'tak vessels are too damn slow, it's like bees swarming around snails, the Jaffa are losing this fight rather quickly and it soon becomes apparent just how powerful the enemy ships truly are.

"Damn it." shouts Philips in anger and panic, "..all ships open fire, move in and engage." he orders, planting himself firmly back in his chair.