Major Kate Novak poked her head through the open door to the General's ready room, and called out, "Sir?"

"Yes, Major?" General Patchkirk said, setting down his tablet on the desk.

Novak nervously entered the room and handed over the table she was carrying.

"What's this?" General Patchkirk asked.

"Nate and I ran some projections last night on Edora's orbit to calculate the next few years' worth of meteor showers," Kate replied, thankful she hadn't inherited her Aunt's hiccups.

"And," Patchkirk prompted.

"Well, this next 'fire rain' takes us directly through a particularly dense portion of the belt," Novak said, pointing to the projected path through a heavily packed portion of the debris field.

Even with all three of their ships making strafing runs ahead of the planet's path; there would still be a huge amount of space to cover and planet's gravity would pull more of the debris into the cleared area.

"Shouldn't the Asgard beams be able to intercept any asteroids them before they hit the city?" the General asked.

"Yes, of course," Novak replied, "And normally that would be fine. But we dragged Radomil's team in to help with the calculations, the beams will be able to stop the big stuff from hitting the city and most of the small stuff, but it won't be able to stop anything farther away."

"And a big enough hit could throw up a dust cloud and drop the planet into a temporary ice age." The general nodded in understanding. "How long do we have until the planet hits the debris field?" General Patchkirk asked.

"Two months, based off the old mission records the planet hits the belt on the same day every year usually just clipping the edge," Novak replied.

General Patchkirk sighed and handed the tablet back to her, "Forward a copy of your report to Generals Heightmeyer and Kowalski. We'll notify everyone tonight."

** No Paradoxes **

Sheppard leaned back, hands behind his head, as he watched the others argue over the news.

"I told you," Madison crowed at Beckett. "You invoked Sheppard's genetics. Never taunt the Sheppard genetics."

Beckett sat there arms crossed, "What's this got to do with me? I'm the one who was bored not Sheppard."

"Yes, and most likely the meteor shower will mean that Sheppard has to do some crazy aerial stunt in one of the small fighters to save us all." Nate replied.

Madison showing her agreement with by nodding her head with each word, "and Sheppard's genes are predisposed to make a situation that makes use of his proven genetic ability to fly just as insane as his father."

Beckett buried his face in his palms.

Maxwell Sheppard just sat there quietly amused at the conversation, having learned long ago not to try and defend his supposed genetic predisposition to be in the middle of a situation. Maxwell interrupted the conversation with a sudden thought, "I have to wonder, did we ever check to see if there's a native settlement near the gate on this planet?"

** No Paradoxes **

Matthew Becket stepped out of the transport near the Edoran gate.

Maybe there was something to his friend's theory on Max's Sheppard genes, he mused idly. He'd been bored, and then Max goes and mentions that we haven't been good neighbors and said hello to the Edorans yet.

The Edoran settlement was a decent walk away from the gate, but eventually Matt reached them. Being knocked down every 150 years must take a toll on a people. The Edorans have just managed to get themselves set back up and here another fire rain comes to knock them back down again, he thought.

"Hello," Matt called out on the edge of the village.

One of the children playing a short distance away looks up and then runs into a nearby house. A few moments later and Matt is being welcomed by the locals.

"I am Ethan," a tall man with brown hair, green eyes, and a strong jaw told Matt as he stepped forward.

"Matthew," Beckett replied accepting the offered greeting.

"Where are you from," Ethan asked.

"Another world, my people are capable moving between the void from star to star," Matt replied. "Someday in a few generations, the standing ring at the edge of your lands will be able to open a doorway between our worlds."

"We know of the ring of sorrow," Ethan said.

"My people call it a stargate," Beckett said.

"My grandfather told me of the story, our people were brought here through the ring long ago, and then abandoned when the fire rain chased away our captors." Ethan told him. "My wife calls the fire rain the tears of our ancestors. Saddened and angry at what became of us."

Beckett nodded, "We know of them, both the fire rain and those who held you're ancestors captive, my people have fought them before and will fight them again."

The first few conversations with the Edorans went well enough, Beckett was a hit with the kids from his Scottish accent. Later he'd complain that Sheppard stole his thunder by introducing them to candy and chocolate.

But for the most part first contact was a success.