5 – Putting Together the Pieces

(Sateda – Low Orbit – 07.02.2022, 0405)

Jack O'Neill whistled as he looked at the debris around his F-302. The Tau'ri had provided them with forty-eight of these fighters to kickstart the Satedan Air Force. That had been in 2011. By March 2020, they had finished their research and development on their own fighter. Named the X-201 during R and D, it had been renamed the F-201 when mass production began. The F-201 was not capable of leaving the atmosphere, but it was more then capable of giving a Goa'uld Deathglider a run for its money.

And with eighteen full squadrons of them, there were plenty of these planes to defend the planet. Combined with Planetary Defense Fleet, they had been ready for battle with the Goa'uld vessels. But the fighters had not needed to go to war. Because Alexander and the crew of the Orpheus had installed several upgrades to the Planetary Defense Grid. They had been forbidden from giving the Satedans weapons, but they had installed shields over key buildings. These buildings had also been fitted with sensor jammers. But the upgrade that had won the day, had been to the Satedan missiles. That upgrade had been inspired by the F-302.

The F-302s came with a hyperdrive. It was only capable of short bursts, which the SGC had once used to bypass the shields of a Goa'uld ship. Alexander and his crew had given the Satedans the means to produce 'hyper-modules' for the missiles. These allowed the missiles to bypass the shields just like the F-302 had back in the day. The end result had been eight Ha'tak-class warships had been blown to pieces. But that was not why O'Neill was up here. He was looking for answers on who these people were and why they had attacked.

Alas, so far all he was seeing, was small debris. The biggest pieces he had seen, were about a square meter. Then he put the fighter through a turn and spotted a Goa'uld cargo ship. It was dead in the water, with several large hull breaches. A quick scan told him that there was nobody alive aboard the ship. ~They probably tried to clear out and were caught in the blast when the big ships blew.~ O'Neill figured it was their best chance of getting some answers. So he activated the radio and made a transmission to HQ.

(Sateda – Valor Shipyards – 09.02.2022, 0800)

Zelenka's plan had worked. It had taken a while to get the Genii transmitter working. But once they did, they had connected to a nearby Genii colony. That colony had dialed Sateda, allowing Lorne to bring Larrin up to speed on what happened. At the same time, Larrin had told them about the Goa'uld cargo ship they had recovered from the debris field. They had then signaled the Orpheus.

The New Asuran starship had arrived with a replacement Stargate. Alexander and his crew had then repaired the subspace transceiver before leaving to check up on the Beta Site. It had suffered the same fate as the Alpha Site. So it had also received a new Stargate and a transceiver fix. Once they were both on-line, the bases had checked in with Earth. Both President Quinn and Brigadier Kersey were glad to hear the two bases had survived, but furious about the attacks.

They had ordered Lorne to find out what had happened to Atlantis and Screen One. Quinn had also informed Lorne that Spera on her way to reinforce them. Alas, it would be days before the ship arrived. And in the meantime, they were on their own. Lorne and Larrin had boarded the Zacharias, which was leading a fleet of four ships that was heading to Atlantis' location. At the same time, Zelenka and Beckett had gone through the Gate to Sateda. The Satedans had been doing an analysis of the Goa'uld cargo ship they had recovered, which Zelenka was coming to help with. They had also found several remains inside the ship, so Beckett had come to help with that. As they approached the ship, Major O'Neill stuck his head out of the main entrance.

"Hello, docs," He began. "Good to see you again."

"Major," Zelenka said.

"So this is a Goa'uld ship ?" Beckett asked.

"Not exactly," O'Neill began. "But you have to see the inside to see the difference."

Since he had spent his service aboard Atlantis and in the Pegasus Galaxy, Beckett had not seen much of the Goa'uld. They entered the ship, which looked like a standard issue cargo ship at first. But the door to cargo hold was open, revealing that it was far from standard issue. He saw Ancient circuitry in the bulkheads and there were no Goa'uld transport rings. Instead, there was a round platform of opaque glass. The rest of the floor was covered in Wraith tissue.

"What about the crew ?"

"That's phase two. But first," O'Neill began, while opening a drawer between the two chairs at the front of the cockpit. "You might want to take a look at this," Inside the drawer were control crystals. These appeared to be wired into some kind of organic circuits. "Because this is so NOT Goa'uld."

"Aye, they sure aren't," Beckett said.

"Organic circuits," Zelenka began. "Let's see what we can find."

They sat down on the chairs flanking the drawer, unpacked their equipment and got to work. As they did their thing, O'Neill walked out and made his way around the cargo ship. The ship had taken a major beating, with the hull having been breached in several places. There were also several major dents in the hull, along with scratches left by debris that had hit the ship. ~I hope there's anything for the docs to recover.~ Because the computer systems were probably messed up. Alas, only time would tell.

(Zacharias – Bridge – 09.02.2022, 1302)

Zacharias dropped out of hyperspace. The flagship was the most advanced ship in the Traveler fleet. It was a square room on deck two, filled with control consoles and chairs. A large window in the front of the room gave the crew a good view of the space ahead of the ship. In the middle of the room, Larrin was watching from the command chair. To her left, Evan Lorne was watching the sensors. On her right, Katana Labrea was doing the same. They were approaching the Frozen Planet that Atlantis called home, so Larrin gave the order to slow down. She got up and approached the window. What she saw, made her gasp.

Screen One had been wiped out. The entire fleet had been reduced to debris, which was orbiting the Frozen Planet. But that was not all. The Wraith fleet had also been wiped out. And from she could see, both sides had been wiped out by the same attacker. At first, Larrin thought that this must have been the same ships that had attacked Sateda. However, these thoughts vaporized as Zacharias finished her passage through the debris field.

Floating on the surface were several pieces of debris that had once been Atlantis. The Ancient city-ship had been annihilated. And orbiting above her remains was her suspected killer. ~That's impossible.~ But apparently, reality thought differently. The ship above Atlantis was an Ori warship. It had was in bad shape. ~Hull breaches, impact craters, scorching.~ Atlantis had clearly gotten in several good punches before being destroyed. Larrin turned to Labrea.

"Is there anybody left ?"

"No, ma'am," Labrea began. "The sensors are not detecting any survivors."

Larrin turned back to the window. This way a dark day for the Pegasus Galaxy. And while she would never admit it, there was a voice in the back of her head that was telling her that this was only the beginning. She wanted to make sure that there were no survivors, so she ordered a search of the debris field. But she had a feeling that soon, she would have to have a very nasty conversation with some people.

(Sateda – Morgue – 09.02.2022, 1435)

While the Zacharias was doing her thing at the Frozen Planet, Radek Zelenka was continuing his examination of the Goa'uld cargo ship. At the same time, Carson Beckett had been examining the remains of the crew. The Satedan doctors had already done an examination on them. But Beckett had experience with some things that they did not. So he was supplementing their reports. He was writing down the last of his notes when Major O'Neill came in.

"Carson, what do you have ?"

"Well, at first glance, these people appear human."

"At first glance ?" O'Neill asked.

The morgue looked like had begun life as a wine cellar, before being converted to its current purpose. It was also clear that the electric equipment and lighting had been added later. There were also six autopsy tables. All of which were full at moment. Beckett led the way to the nearest table and pulled the sheet off. The body on it was a Caucasian male with brown hair.

"There is a scar at the back of the neck," Beckett said. "However, this is not a normal host. There are several patches of tissues that are not found in Humans. I took a closer look and they appear to be organic control chips."

"Like Order 66 ?"

"Aye, these chips are like the ones that made the clones follow that order. And there is something different about the Goa'uld as well," Beckett took out a plastic cylinder, which had a Goa'uld inside. "From what I can tell, these Goa'uld parasite to NOT have the genetic memory found in the ones from our universe."

"Our universe ?" O'Neill frowned. "Does that mean they are from somewhere else ?"

"Radek ran several scans. He said that these people are from another universe, their quantum-what's-it doesn't match ours. And it matches with my findings. These people aren't Tau'ri, they're…." Beckett looked for right word. "….Terrans. Essentially, we've run into the mirror universe, Major."

"And as best as I can figure….Well, these chips allow the Terrans to control the Goa'uld, instead of the other way around. And that's not all," Beckett picked up the man's right arm, so that O'Neill could see the palm of his hand. "This man has a feeding hand. But it is not a natural feature. There are genetic anomalies, which are clear markers of artificial manipulation. This 'feature' was artificially introduced."

"By who ?"

"I don't know, but I can tell you that it was introduced when he was still a baby. I can also tell you that this man is old, really old. Sometime between forty-five hundred and five-thousand years. And that brings us to subject number two." Beckett led the way to another table and pulled off the sheet. "At first glance, this man appears to be a male Wraith. But his arm…," He held up the arm. "No feeding hand, Major. And there are genetic anomalies here as well."

"The point being…."

"Our Wraith were created by the Ancients experimenting to expand their live spans. These weren't," Beckett was surprised that O'Neill hadn't tuned out yet. "I had Sergeant V'Lazo and his team look over the data and he concurs. These Wraith were created by the Xivolo. I figure they took the place of the Nakai."

"So instead of the Wraith feeding on Humans, it's the other way around," It clicked in O'Neill's brain. "And if they presume it's the same way in this universe. Then they would attack Sateda and Atlantis to take out the competition," He paused. "But why attack the Wraith Fleet ? And how does that Orii ship figure into the picture ?"

"I'm afraid that's part of Radek's piece of the puzzle."

O'Neill nodded and walked out of the morgue. He had people to bring up to speed.

(Unknown Location – Cell – 09.02.2022, 1437)

John Sheppard woke up with a splitting headache. He was seeing double and the room was spinning. Slowly, the room slowed down and came into phase. It was only then that he realized that the cell was of Goa'uld design. He was on a slab opposite the only door in the room. There two more slabs in the room, one to left and one to right. Todd was on the slab to his right, while Amelia Banks was on the slab to the left.

As his headache faded, he went through what had happened before he woke up here. Two fleets had been approaching one another, both ready for battle. But then there had been some kind of disruption. And when it had faded, there had been an Ori warship. It had fired three shots at the Wraith Fleet, annihilating two Hives and three cruisers. Then it had headed for Atlantis, firing twice. That had been enough to collapse the shields. Sheppard had fired all the drones they had, doing some serious damage to the Ori ship. But it had not stopped the attackers from unleashing another volley. After that everything had gone black. ~And now I am here.~ Alas, only time would tell where here was.