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Satedan Stargate Control, Atteria Capital District, Sateda, Pegasus Galaxy

"And Sam told you this herself?" Ronon grimaced, looking at Teyla.

"Yes, so I have no reason to doubt it is the truth."

"How did the Wraith manage to attack them again? Did they get another ZPM?"

"Colonel O'Neill had no in-depth knowledge of the attack, only that she feared the attack was even more serious than she was already aware."

"If they're capable of attacking Earth like that, it might mean bad news for all of us," Ronon surmised, "The Wraith know how closely we worked with Earth, and that we're all still allies. They might come looking for intel."

"Of that we are aware," sighed Teyla, "The Athosian Council is anxious for more news so that we can decide what our next steps should be."

"Prime Minister Day's going to be really mad," Ronon agreed, "We've been keeping Sateda's repopulation as quiet as possible...Don't want the Wraith to show up to a free banquet."

Teyla nodded in agreement, knowing the security of their worlds would have to be their first priority before any loyalty to their friends on Earth. She wished she could talk more to Ronon, but she was uncomfortably aware of the Satedan Honour Guards in position around Sateda's fortified Stargate Control complex, and was even more aware of the presence of a few of the new Satedan government's top brass who were hanging around, keeping a close eye on her interraction with Ronon.

"I'll ask Kaldan to put together a statement for Earth," Ronon said, "I think it's about the most we can do at present."

"I will also ensure that I personally pass along the best wishes of Sateda's Strategic Planning Secretary, prior to Prime Minister Kaldan Day's statement," Teyla said, using Ronon's new government title with pride.

Ronon allowed himself a smile, but remained silent for a moment.

"Wish I could visit 'em. Tell them we're here for them,"

"Believe me they already know, otherwise Sam would not have asked me to pass on news of the attack to you."

"I guess."


Stargate Command, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

September 2nd 2012, 2am

The guest quarters at the SGC were full to capacity due to the influx of civilians from the surface, so the Millers and the Sheppards had been squeezed into a single room with two beds.

Madison was fast asleep on one of the beds, and Kaleb was dozing softly on a chair to the side, Elizabeth sleeping soundly in his arms. Jeannie sat at the foot of the bed holding Ewan and forced the odd awkward smile at the Sheppards every now and then.

Zoe Sheppard and her mother April were asleep on the adjacent bed while Nancy paced the room, a sleepy but still awake Patrick slouched in her arms. Nancy had all but ignored the Millers since they'd arrived in the room, and Jeannie hadn't tried to initiate conversation with her as the Homeland Security Director looked about ready to snap at just about anyone.

"I need to go a walk, he won't sleep until I do that," Nancy remarked suddenly, "I take it I'm allowed to do that here?"

"I-I think so," Jeannie said quietly, "I'd ask the guard outside."

Nancy muttered a thank you to Jeannie and headed for the door. When she heard Nancy talking to the guard outside, she heard a loud sigh coming from the corner where Dave stood brooding.

"She's always got to be different, even in the tiniest of ways," he remarked.

As the sound of Nancy at the guard's voices receded, Jeannie took the opportunity to talk to Dave some more.

"How are you doing?"

Her simple question seemed to rattle the elder Sheppard's cage a little, "You really need to ask?"

Undeterred Jeannie continued, "We all deal with things differently...I've known about the Stargate and the Wraith for quite a while now...just thought you might want to talk while it's quiet."

Sheppard seemed to stop bristling at Jeannie's comments, "I might actually like that...I want to know more and no-one seems prepared to give me any answers."

"Why don't we go for a walk as well then."


Atteria Capital District, Sateda, Pegasus Galaxy

"All they need is a statement Kaldan!" Ronon raised his voice a little at his Prime Minister.

"Not just yet Ronon. We don't know the extent of the attack if there even was one."

"Are you calling Teyla, Daughter of Tagan of Athos a liar?"

"Of course not!" Kaldan Day responded angrily to the suggestion, "But I am not about to issue a statement about a Wraith atrocity that may or may not have been committed in another galaxy and alarm our own people without due cause."

"Without Earth there likely wouldn't be a Sateda today at all," Ronon stated.

"That may be so, but any statement will have to wait," Kaldan responded, returning to his paperwork and ending the conversation.

Ronon knew he'd get nowhere with the Prime Minister right now, so he left the office, biting his tongue as he went.


Stargate Command, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

September 2nd 2012, 2.10am

"So what exactly has been going on?" Dave started their conversation, "I mean, what has the military, and by extension my brother been up to,"

Jeannie sighed, wondering the best way to go about answering Dave's question.

They'd been wandering the corridors of the upper levels of the SGC in silence for a few minutes. Jeannie had tucked Ewan into bed with Maddie and had asked the guards for permission to stretch their legs. The lighting in the SGC was as usual a little harsh on the eyes, and she was hoping they'd come across one of the commissaries on their walks – the lighting was usually a bit better in those.

"Well the history of all of this," she gestured to the corridors, "was put in place decades and decades ago. They discovered an artefact in Egypt that a few academics and the military thought might have more to it that met the eye. There was that as well as the fact it was discovered with alien remains buried beneath it.

"That device became known to the US Military as the Stargate in the mid nineties, when they were first able to use it. It creates stable artificial wormholes that allow people to travel to other planets that are also equipped with Stargates in the blink of an eye. There's a network all over this galaxy as well as in several others besides ours."

"Other galaxies?" Dave said.

"Yeah, I was amazed when I found out...I was given virtually no notice to travel to the Pegasus Galaxy."

"Wow," Dave was genuinely impressed, "So these other planets with Stargates on them, are there aliens on all of them?"

"Not aliens for the most part...You'll get the full story soon I'm sure, but most of the planets both here and in Pegasus are actually populated by humans, but yes, there are also a lot of aliens out there."

"So you're telling me we've colonised two galaxies?"

"No...the Stargate's ancient. The people out there left Earth thousands of years ago..But again you'll-"

"-get the full story later," Dave managed a smile. "How did you get involved in all of this?"

Jeannie smiled, thinking back to the proof that changed her life. One minute she was sitting playing with her daughter and her train set, the next she was writing the math that would change the very essence of how she understood the world.

"It was a little over six years ago. I'm a physicist...But I'd quit my career to have my daughter. Not long after she turned four I wrote a theoretical math proof and sent it to one of my old professors to review. At best I'd hoped it would lead to a paper and maybe a credit in a journal somewhere.

"What actually happened not long afterwards was a knock at my door from Colonel O'Neill, or Carter as she still was back then. She wanted me to sign a non-disclosure agreement and travel with her to here to do some work for the US military. As a Canadian citizen I wasn't too happy at the suggestion and told them to stick it. Within a few days there was another knock at my door and it was my brother Mer, or Rodney as most people here know him as."

"The guy who gave us the chair briefing?"

"The very one. We'd been estranged for a few years, so I'd had no idea what kind of work he was involved in, but he'd been working for the Stargate Programme for a long time already and he basically made me agree to work with the military by beaming me up to one of our ships in orbit. So that was how I found out – my own brother beamed me up to space."

"Were you happy to go to work for them?"

"Well, not initially – I was terrified!" she laughed, "I needed to go to the Pegasus Galaxy and leave my family behind for months to do the work, and my brother and I still weren't really talking. But in the end it all worked out, I got to go home to my family and my brother and I made up, and every so often I'll get asked to help out with some of the Stargate Programme's work, which means getting to go offworld from time to time.

"It's changed my life, and it's been a lot to wrap my head around, and a lot of work, but I've got very few regrets. I didn't initially approve of a lot of the Programme's actions – particularly keeping it all so secret – but after a particularly ugly incident right here on Earth where I was kidnapped for what I knew – I began to realise that keeping it classified was a necessity."

"You were kidnapped?"

"Yup...Armed men broke right into my house in the middle of the night...The threat isn't always out there...Sometimes the people of Earth are just as bad."

Dave nodded, "I'm just I guess in shock at all this. Finding out about aliens as they attack from the sky, finding out my idiot brother's somehow involved in this all...It's a lot to take in," he sighed.

"Your brother's definitely not an idiot," Jeannie stated, defending her brother's old friend.

John Sheppard was far from Jeannie's favourite person at the moment, but he'd given more to the defence of the planet than his big brother could begin to imagine, so for now she defended the younger Sheppard.

"Hmm...I think the jury may always be out on that one," Dave mused, "What can you tell me about him, because I'm not convinced he'll tell me anything himself."

"You owe him your life several times over," Jeannie said shortly.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

They walked in silence for a moment before John continued.

"So how long's he been wrapped up in all this?"

"Well...He actually got involved in it all completely by chance. See that ATA Gene my brother mentioned?"

"The one that I seem to have?"

"Yeah...It's actually very very rare.

"A team of scientists assisted by the US Military were working in Antarctica where we'd found some artefacts relating to the same people who'd build the Stargates. Your brother was working down there, with no clue about what the researchers were really doing, when he was able to active a Control Chair. Apparently he activated it and seemed to instantly know how to work it, better than any of the other people with the gene who'd been near it. At about the same time the researchers found the location of the Lost City of Atlantis and decided to mount an expedition to find it. Your brothers skill at operating Ancient technology meant that he was drafted in to help.

"Atlantis is actually a spaceship, and at that time it was located in the Pegasus Galaxy, a place we'd never been before, and a place where we had no idea exactly what we'd find, but your brother went there, and after the head of the military contingent was killed by the Wraith he took over as head of a fifty strong military unit in another galaxy. Now that takes guts."

Dave nodded in quiet agreement, but didn't say anything, encouraging Jeannie to continue.

"Atlantis remained in the Pegasus Galaxy for five years. In that time the expedition expanded and expanded, made discovery after discovery, and fought of the Wraith a number of times. Your brother put his life on the line more times than anyone can count, and until today he'd helped ensure the Wraith weren't a threat to us. I mean the Wraith are in another galaxy, and they're less technologically advanced than us in a lot of ways...They shouldn't have been able to get anywhere near us."

"Atlantis...Is that the city that's appeared in San Francisco Bay?"

"Yeah...It had been hidden there for three years."

"John can't still be working for them though...He and Patrick basically stay with my wife and I these days."

"I don't know quite what happened, but John left the Stargate Programme not long after Atlantis arrived on Earth, and he's been out of touch with all of us since then."

Dave looked at his feet for a moment, before looking up to Jeannie, "He just arrived on our doorstep one day, told me he wanted to bury the hatchet, and that he couldn't talk about his job or why he'd left. But then he never did talk about his work.

"It's strange though...My brother, the 'Intergalactic Hero'...I mean I see him every other day, I grew up with him, and at times I don't even know if I trust him when he's been keeping us all safe all these years...But I don't even really know who he is."

"I know where you're at with your brother, I think," Jeannie smiled at Dave, "Mer and I were so close – closer than most siblings - when we were growing up...Then when I decided to quit my studies, he did something that was so painful...and so hurtful that it made me wonder if I'd ever really known him at all...And we didn't talk for years until I got involved with the Stargate Programme, and that was when we started talking again...and I think it was only then that I really got to know Mer for who he truly is, and I couldn't be more proud of him.

"Things might seem bad between you and John right now, but now that you're likely to become part of the programme in some way or another, things will only get better."

"I hope you're right," Dave sighed.

But somehow he still doubted it.