Beyond the Gate

by Xeir Zith

The last thing Tanith remembered was Cameron cracking a very bad joke and Daniel cracking up in laughter. The next thing she knows is that she has a splitting headache and is in the dark, literally. As she unravels where she is, she finds out things she would rather not know. The SGC and Atlantis learn more of who the Furlings really are, and where they were hiding all that time

17. Rodney 3

Beyond the Gate

Chapter 17: The Stargate Code of Conduct

Atlantis

The next morning

The database information scrolled past as I searched through it. Code and translations, notes. Visitor logs from when the Ancients had humans and other Ancients vist the city or live there. I was trying to find mentions of specific members of the Furlings by name.

I managed to find two different Furlings by name, Redtail, and some guy named Quaxo. Quaxo sounded familiar, but I couldnt exactly place the name.

I continued to search. There were other names popping up, either working with Janus, Moros or Melia, the hologram lady was named Melia it turned out. Once John had explained to me how I had made a hologram of myself, and also adapted the hologram software to allow full citywide motion and access and not be a power drainer.

The hologram of Melia appeared and I regarded it carefully. The Ancient as described by the alternate Weir was a kind lady, and had really hoped to send her safely back to the rpesent, but unfortunatly the Ancient Council was a hardass.

Using Melias information I was able to find names for three others. A Furling male by name of Munkustrap. Now that rang a bell, more of a gong really as I figured out exactly who to look for. Twenty five more names appeared in the list. Some of them had indeed visited Atlantis in the ancient past well before the Wraith were first encountered.

Radek showed up. "At work already huh ?" He asked, I had barely been home long enough to sleep before being up well before sunrise to try and figure things out.

"Yup" I replied, ever since Daniel and I found those coordinates for a place underneath Taniths house back on Earth, I had come back to Atlantis and continued searching and finding out more of the Furlings. "Did you find anything about that shrine on Ascretta ?" I asked Radek

"Only that the Ancients had built a prototype stargate on Ascretta as an experiment to see if the device could work" Radek said

"Well, apparently it did work as they hoped." I replied.

"Yeah, the Ancients built the prototype, then they built the Milky Way gate and then populated the Milky Way with more stargates once they were sure the wormhole could safely be established." Radek explained showing me the entries he had found.

"Huh" I said reading them over.

Radek looked around, I hadnt told him Ben stayed on Ascretta the last week to monitor for more energy bursts. "Where's Ben ?"

"He's on Ascretta, he's monitoring for more energy surges like what took Major Pendergast." I replied, he looked at me. I looked at him, "What ? Its no big deal he said he'd work with Tanith and follow her orders as best he can. Come here and have a look at this" I said I tapped a key

The larger screen activated as I moved closer to it. "According to this, just like you said the shrine we had found was indeed originally an experimental stargate created by the Ancients to see if the wormhole could indeed be sustained and allow safe transport from point a to point b" I said reading off the entry

"Yeah, and it worked so they populated the Milky Way with the stargates." Radek said with a nod

"Exactly, so when the ancients were suffering from their plague, they packed up Atlantis, and took it back here to the Pegasus Galaxy because the plague wasnt here to begin with." I said

"Where did they go, obviously Leantea wasnt their first choice." Radek said in thought, I had to agree

I snapped my fingers and typed on the keyboard. "It wasnt their first choice no, so they went instead to where they built Atlantis, in this case, they went back to the planet, Ascretta. Built the Pegasus stargate network, and then moved here to Leantea" I said.

Radek looked impressed. "So when the Ancients came from the Milky Way the city actually landed on land ?" He said in wonderment

I nodded, "As scary as that is to think about, yes" I said, I started typing on a keyboard some more bringing up further information. "According to this within one year of arriving on Ascretta, they received word through the stargate from close friends, in this case the Furlings, on the planet Sparia that their sun had gone supernova. The Ancients sent time dliation devices with the Asgard to keep the sun in check and from expanding while the Ancients relocated the entire population, flora and fauna from Sparia to Ascretta. Ascretta then took to the Furlings as if they had always been there." I said reading off the database entry. It also found some images. "According to this the Ancients by that point had perfected the third generation, or in this case the Pegasus stargate, and seeded the Pegasus galaxy with it, and with life."

"What are the images ?" Radek asked pointing them out. I moused over a few folders and shrugged

"I dont know, worth seeing I guess." I tapped the link in the database entry, a dozen images appeared of various Furlings. I brought up the opened folder on the much larger screen so we wouldnt be squinting at a small screen

There were six images for female Furlings, and six images for male Furlings. I pointed at one that showed a pair of female Furlings. "That looks like Tanith and Major Pendergast" I said, Radek looked close at the image as I brought up a copy of the radio link we had with the two only a week or so before.

I stared at it. "Whoa"

"Oh my" Radek said upon seeing it. He turned to me, "This image is millions of years old" He said pointing at the old image in the database. The time and date of the image being taken was eactly around the time of the Ancients returning to Pegasus. A few dozen million or even more years ago. I nodded. "And that one is a week ago ?" He asked as he pointed at the shot I had taken from our jumper

"Yeah, somehow time and space dont exactly have a meaning unless Tanith and Major Pendergast were reborn with the exact fur patterns." I said, I sounded jealous, I really wanted to pet Tanith between the ears.

I freely admit it, I love cats. Possibly far too much then I should. But Radek didnt seem to care. Fortunately, we wouldnt be allergic to the Furlings, so long as they didnt shed.

Woolsey entered the office. "I was hoping to find you two here. We're almost ready to take in our guests. I really hoped this would be easier. But I doubt it." He didnt look happy, infact he looked upset at the fact that he was going to try and placate a mother trying to find her missing son.

"Something wrong ?" I asked him without looking from my database searching

"Dr Keller is almost entirely set up, Dr Beckett is with her." He said, so that was good, but there was something on his mind, so he said. "I'm worried about the six year old boy, according to the IOA, during the lightning storms, a daycare center in Ohio was hit, and the only person missing from it is a six year old boy named William"

I whistled, Radek groaned, "I cant imagine what the boys mother and father are going through" Radek said, I nodded in agreement. The closest I got to losing someone was when Toombs went missing one night, I had thought up all sorts of really bad scenarios where he'd gotten into trouble or lost, or killed. Fortunately he had come home the next morning and was screaming at my front door to be let inside

But this was different, the boy we had been told through Ben, was still quite alive, but he was not human anymore. Ben had told me everything on a daily basis in a subspace transmission "So what happened ?" I asked to Richard. He looked at me. "I mean in a sense of finding out what happened to the kid, what are his parents doing ? Were the IOA able to get in touch with them ?"

"We were, but only to a point, we told the parents we were searching for the boy and would let the parents know when we find him, from what I heard on the radio from Ben, the boy is indeed quite safe, just really hungry, and he misses his mother dearly." Richard replied. "But the issue that arises is the one wherein the kid will want to see his parents, and vice versa, doing that on Earth outside the SGC or other SGC locations only makes things very hard to explain."

I snapped my fingers and pointed at Richard. "Now that is a problem" I said, William was now a six year old boy, in the body of a cat, covered head to foot in fur, with a tail, claws, catlike everything really. How would his mother take to seeing her son like that ?

He nodded at the screen. "Whats that ?" Richard wasnt one to cut around the bush.

I tapped a few more keys. "An entry on the furlings. Including some pictures" I pointed at the image on the left, "This image was apparently put into the database around ten maybe eleven million years ago, possibly even older. It turns out, the Furlings might be really long lived, or better. Because this image" I pointed at the image on the right. "Was taken just a week ago from our jumper when we first went to Ascretta," I pointed first at Tanith, then at Claire "That's Col Raines, the one in the dark dress. And that is Major Pendergast, the one in the red dress"

"So we found Major Pendergast" Richard said in confusion.

I sighed, "Yeah, we found her, and Col Raines, and more then likely all of the others, including that missing Miami cast. Because this guy,..." I pulled up the name and entry concerning Munkustrap visiting the city. "Is apparently the leader of the... I guess we'll go with tribe for now. Him and twenty four others were sent from Ascretta according to the datacrystal Col Raines gave me to study, to Earth."

"You said there is more then one stargate on the planet as well" Richard asked, I had given the whole report, it even confused Radek, but I made the most sense of it, we thankfully didnt get into a shooting match.

"Three actually" I replied, slightly correcting Richard.

"Three ?" He looked at me confused, how could there be three stargates on a planet ? That was impossible wasnt it

"I know what you're thinking" I said to Richard, "How is there three stargates on the planet that would be impossible," I sighed, how to explain without sounding like a know it all. Then I figured, you know what, fuck it. "Well, we know one of them is connected to the Milky Way, that stargate is is the one that is directly connected to the radioactive core, thats what allows the Milky Way stargate to connect to anywhere in the Milky Way or even possibnly the Ori or Asgard home galaxies, as I Radek and I have been finding the Ancients had built a prototype stargate to see if a artifical wormhole will connect and be stable enough to transport living matter. That stargate itself is so old it has no powersource, and no possible way of manual dialing even if it had a powersource. It also had no real star constellations on it either just weird lines and dots."

"So its more like a relic of a bygone age ?" Richard said in thought

I nodded. "More like a old experiment left to rot that was later turned into something resembling a relic or a shrine yeah." I replied to him

"I'd look at it more of a successful experiment however methods were updated and the stargate in the milky way was born" Radek offered. I nodded to him

"Or that" I sighed, I brought up the images from Ben's camera. "What we found was twelve other puddlejumpers arranged in a circle, according to Col Raines, each jumper had at least three more bodies in them, and just enough juice to crack the rear hatch once all three bodies woke up. It had the appearance of a shrine for the most part"

"So Ascretta has a Milky Way stargate, and a Pegasus stargate ?" Richard asked, I nodded, "And both have power ?"

I nodded again and went over to a star chart wall. "When the ancients were suffering from the plague in the Milky Way they fled here somewhere, to Ascretta, where they first built the Milky Way gates and seeded life in the Milky Way. After a year of being on Ascretta, they helped transplant the Furlings from their original homeworld of Sparia to Ascretta. In which case the Ancients became more like vistor as the planet took to the Furlings like a swan to water"

"Sparia ?" Richard asked

"The original homeworld of the Furlings" Radek said, "Its sun went supernova and the ancients and the asgard had sent time control devices to stop the black hole from swallowing the planet and allowed them time to migrate from there to Ascretta." He explained to Woolsey.

"Those devices then gave the Ancients enough time to safely transplant every possible Furling from Sparia and take them to Ascretta. Along with all the wildlife and landscaping, tress, grass, rocks, frogs, whatever" I said to Richard. "By that point the Ancients had divided their forces and half of their forces were seeding stargates in Pegaus with the new third generation design that we have. The other half was helping the Furlings transplant to Ascretta"

"That doesnt explain why Ascretta is not on any star chart, and its only in a hidden part of the database" Richard said

"I was getting to that" I said. He looked at me

"I apologise" Richard said, I waved him off, he nodded.

"The Ancients never did make a full map of the galaxy, so every stargate could safely connect, however judging by how things were set up, Ascrettas stargate can only be dialed from our stargate here in Atlantis itself, or from anywhere in the Milky Way. However, neither the Wraith or the System Lords were really interested in the world until about five thousand years ago when that portal occured"

"Portal ?" Radek then asked, both he and Richard looked at me confused. What the hell was I talking about ? Was written on both their faces.

I nodded to the question. "Yeah. The furlings created a portal that could allow twenty five of them go from Ascretta to Earth, shortly after that the planet somehow reacted and apparently the people, the reason for invading the planet, fled by portal, then those who were invading, they left the planet and disavowed their worker drones or whatever" I said

"Its posible those jumpers you found were an effort to get to safety through the old stargate, but they must have realised they were doomed when it didnt have power or didnt activate" Richard said

"Exactly" I said in reply. "That area we found was set up more like a shrine with how everything was laid out. Not including our two jumpers, it was a old shrine just waiting to be discovered." I told Richard.

"So the Milky Way gate, what is so important about it." Woolsey asked as I picked up a tablet.

"That's the fun part, according to the scans and information about the planet itself, Ascretta has a naturally occuring radioactive core, a urnaium core, I mentioned that before. The Milky Way stargate is directly tapped into that for a powersuplly to allow the increased distance connection to anywhere in the Milky Way." I said as we started from my lab up to the gateroom to welcome our guests.

"According to what I was able to find so far, the Milky Way stargate was part of an experiment along with the shrine stargate, which had no inner ring, or even consteliations showing up on it. It just had these weird squggly lines and dots see." I showed Richard the image. "Once the ancients were sure that living matter could safely be transported from point a to point b. it allowed them to make plenty more Milky Way Stargates, and by that point they had also begun started work on making the Pegaus gates. But they werent able t ofinalise those stargates until the plague in the Milky Way occured" I explained

We arrived in the gateroom and went up to the controlroom, John was waiting for us there. "Wondered where you two were" He said to me and Radek, Richard spotted Dr Keller and Carson nearby.

"Are we ready ?" Richard asked them as we arrived.

"For the most part yeah, but we've possibly run into a slight issue." Dr Keller said to him

"Issue ?" Wollsey asked her, Carson spoke up

"If my thinking is correct, it may indeed be Col Raines and Major Pendergast who step through that stargate. But if I were a betting man, their blood samples more then likely have seriously changed but also should still be a match for the most part." he explained

"So we do a blood test that's the plan, but we also find out further of what happened to them for them to show up on Ascretta" Richard said. I was thoughtful as I remembered how Tanith was more worried of becoming a science experiment for people on Earth if she went back there right away.

"The device that Dr Jackson found on Earth at Tell Basta" I offered in thought

As Richard looked at me confused Radek spoke up of what he found "According to the database here, Tell Basta was the location where the Furlings, the twenty five initally sent through the portal wormhole of some kind. They built a huge temple apparently in ancient egypt if my recall is right. The device that Dr Jackson and Col Mitchell found is some sort of recall device."

"The Furlings went to earth without access to the stargate" Richard said in thought, it never explained why the Ancients left Ascretta from the star charts, maybe there was hyperspace interference ?

It didnt matter right then. "When do they arrive ?" I asked

"Soon as they're ready on the other side." Richard replied, Ben had kept me aprised with subspace transmissions of information, detecting another sixteen energy spikes. But then he had also given me the news of the child that Tharon, Col Raines husband, had rescued.

So I spoke up as I had a tablet with me. "The database doesnt say anything about a new race though. At least a new race that the Ancients themselves had encountered, some thing called a Pollicle" I brought up what I thought could be one based on what Ben told me about them.

Richard took a look at it. "Looks like a human with a dogs head and tail." He said to me, it made me snicker. "Not to mention fur pattern, what breed would you say this is ?"

"Based on Bens report from Tharon, I'd say typical bulldog or rottwiler" I replied Richard nodded. It made sense for the most part. John stepped over and looked at my tablet.

"That's a bipedial dog ?" He asked, I could tell the gears in his head were turning.

"Yeah, what Ben was able to work up in the database over on Ascretta in the shipyard." I replied, I didnt have the heart to tell Richard or John just yet that Ben had been given permission by Tanith to begin harvesting resources in order to produce more puddlejumpers and possibly a cityship for the Furlings to live in.

"For a second I thought it was my Aunt Rose in a swimsuit" John said, I looked at him, "lovely lady, just... big boned. Bulldogish face" Radek started to snicker as Carson struggled to keep a straight face

"Are we done ?" I asked lowering my tablet, John nodded, I could tell he was struggling not to smile.

"Yeah we're done" He said just as the stargate started up.

"Offworld stargate activation" Chuck called out. A few seconds later and the gate activated. "I'm reading Ben's IDC." he then reported

"Can he get on screen ?" Richard asked

"Audio, visual, and they're ready to come through." Chuck said with a nod

"Put him on screen" Richard said, Bens face appeared on the nearby screen. "Ben, you seem preoccupied." Richard said calmly.

"That is because I have been splitting my time between helping Tanith and the Furlings collect resources for further starship and clothing making. Along with monitoring for more of those energy spikes." Ben reported, well great. He just said what I was trying to avoid.

"You're what ?" Richard asked, shock on his face, I tried to stay out of the mans reach. But it couldnt be helped.

"He's been given the green light by Tanith to replicate twice in order to help them collect resources to survive, as is his duty. According to Tanith its how they built their puddlejumper. Using up the last resources their facility had s they could do so. Its like ours only much more exotic and streamlined." I explained, "With Ben collecting curther resourdes its possible they could also get farmlands and a means of getting food supplies.

Richard gave me a dirty look. But he said to Ben, "Can you return through the stargate with the others ?"

Ben could tell Richard was upset, but it was Tanith who spoke up. "Richard Woolsey, how in the hell did you end up on Atlantis ? I never expected to find you there!" She sounded surprised, but also just slightly upset. "Would it be preferred for us to explain when we arrive ? Everyone here execept for Cayran and Ben were in awe when the stargate fired up."

"Explain what ? Why is Ben replicating ? Whats going on ?" Richard asked to Tanith

"I'll explain when I get there, may we step through ?" Tanith asked on the screen.

"We ?" Richard asked. Tanith rattled off a list of names, herself at the top, followed by her husband Tharon who when his name was called gave a wave of greeting through the screen, the boy he rescued the day before, Agustus, and also Cayran, who we knew as Claire, and finally Munkustrap himself, the top dog... err cat.

They were all coming through, and the reason of course was exactly what Richard said in my lab, blood tests, and hopefuylly a proper explaining of what happened to the six year old.

The IOA had an issue on their hands. It was either release the news that aliens did indeed exsist in the galaxy and that some wanted to kill us and eat us alive. Or keep it a deadly secret. Or say that we worked with several aliens and even used reverse engineered alien technology in order to defend the planet ?

I mean honestly, I told myself this the night before, how could we explain the exsistence of aliens in such a manner that it both made sense, but did not make America out to be stupid ? I mean sure I did send letters home, but they never were sent to my sister. It wasnt until my sister showed up with her bridge to make a power source for us when things went sideways and she saw my video letter.

Richard then nodded, he'd briefly seen those to step through, along with Ben, who was for sure going to get grilled by Richard for replicating. Fact was, Ben was following his orders, Tanith told him to replicate twice, and use those replicates to harvest resources for construction, clothing making, food preperation, you name it. It was possible we could even send them some supplies too.

"Yeah, come on through." He nodded to chuck who deactivated the shield. So far things were going smoother than expected, which made me happier than ever. Ben was doing his job, and helping Tanith. And of course it had pissed of Richard but I didnt care. I was actually happy that Ben could get put to work.

And then my thoughts went to Tanith. I wondered if I I might get to pet her on the head between those ears after all. But I did not voice that thought out loud.

A few moments later and the group arrived, Ben came through first, and he was followed by Tanith, her husband kept the boy, Agustus close, Claire stepped in and behind her was Munkustrap. The silver mancat was nervous apparently around so many humans, and only wore a samurai kamino like outfit that showed off his furred chest. Tanith still looked gorgeous in that dark number.

And for a very brief moment I honestly thought that Tharon was Puss in Boots, but I didnt voice it, John did. "I wasnt expecting Puss in Boots to show up" I smirked but didnt say anything. I saw Tanith and Tharon both struggle to not smile at his words.

Richard was already going down the steps berating Ben. "What do you mean you replicated to harvest resources ?! This is the very thing I was against you doing" Woolsey wasnt happy.

Ben however for his credit remained calm as Tanith pushed the two apart. "Mr Woolsey, listen to me! Calm down! He asked me for the permission to harvest the resources so we, the Furlings, not the replicators, could rebuild our culture. We barely have the food and clothing that we need to survive as it is so we're already going hunting. But we need other supplies, weapons, more clothing, that kind of thing"

Richard finally relented and let Tanith explain the situation more clearly. It made a bit more sense when I showed up. Oh I struggled not to go near her ears. "So thats the boy ?" He then asked after Tanith explained what she could.

"Yes, his name is Agustus, and he really misses his mother." Tanith replied

"I bet, the IOA were informed of the Ohio day care being hit by lightning and the boy the only one missing." Richard said to her, he then went throughtful. "We were also told of a highschool in Iowa also hit by lightning, a head count is still being dfone but so far at the very least, five students and a teacher and their principal are missing." Richard sighed, the IOA had their hands full, it was all he could do to keep from staring at Taniths fuzzy very exposed skin compared to what the IOA was used to on Iota.

He looked at her, giving her a careful once over, and what he said next made me snicker loudly. "That's not the typical Iota dress code now is it ?" He asked her

She shook her head. "No, this... well.. its complicated." She said, a smile on her face as she spoke to Richard. "Ben has proved to be an excellent help in gathering the resources we need to rebuild, he also managed to start uncovering the buried shipyard. But we havent found the name of it yet."

"So you really asked him to replicate in order t oharvest resources for you ?" Richard asked her, she nodded

"He asked me first, offered really. But I said I would think about it, almost slept on it, ended up giving the green light, something told me we'd need to be ready to defend the shipyard, and fast." She then explained how Tharon and Zane had discovered and saved Agustus from the Pollicles.

Keller and Carson showed up a second or so later as Tanith finished speaking. "He now just wants his mother, and a McDonalds kids meal."

"The IOA told the family that we're looking into finding where he might be." Reichard told her. "Fortunately, they never asked where, only that we look and not stop until he is found dead or alive." Richard said, "Dr Keller, Dr Beckett, Have our guests treated well. I'll get in touch with Earth and let them know we found the boy, and hopefully can explain whats been happening at the school too." Richard then turned to Me, and saw Tanith was curious about a few things as Tharon was staring struck dumb in awe. "Oh, and Tanith if you could explain further of what happened at that highscool could be helpful. You can do that in Dr McKay's lab"

With that he turned and headed up to his office. With the latest ZPM installed onto the Daedalus we could easily reach Earth inside four days. But the first ZPM for it wasnt ready just yet, and it took twenty one days, Major Pendergasts only trip aboard it, to get to Atlantis, now it was an easy four day hop back to Atlantis across the void.

Carson and Keller lead the others, in this case Tharon, Munkus and little Augustus to the infirmary two levels down while I focused on Tanith and Claire. "Welcome back to Atlantis Major, Col" I said to them both

"Thanks" Tanith replied, "But please, call me Tanith." Claire smiled and kept quiet, she was confused about the place, and she and Tanith also carried their staff weapons. I had seen them before, even nearly got shot by them before, but thankfully things were working out a whole lot easier than expected now.

Claire spoke first. "Dr McKay, how long can we be expected to be here ?" Cara, the cat from Ascretta before death and becoming both Claire and Cayran wanted to look at the database here, she was curious.

"That depends" I replied, "mostly on Mr Woolsey, but I'll tell you the truth, you let me pet your ears and I'll let you need to do whatever you wanna do" I said to them both, I was looking between them as I spoke. But my eyes were mostly on Tanith because she reminded me the most of my own cat back home on Earth with my sister.

The two of them traded looks, Tanith half smiled before she started laughing. "If that is the case, Dr McKay" Claire said as Tanith roared with laughter. "I think I can take you up on that, Tanith too. Though you might need to ask Tharon for permission first."

"Who Puss in Boots ?" I asked Claire, which caused Tanith to nearly collapse where she stood in laughter. I looked at her as Radek arrived, he was staring, transfixed at Tanith and Claire.

"Rodney, remember the image ?" He said to me after a good silent minute of staring at Claire in confusion turned awe.

"Huh ?" I asked him, too confused as to why Tanith was roaring with laughter, was it something I said ? "Oh right!"

"What image ?" Claire asked to Radek

"Its something in the database, tell you what, lets go to my lab and wew can show you there, Ben, I want you to come too. I want a full sitrep of everything you've got so far from Ascretta." I said nothing of the replicating part, Tanith continued to giggle hilariously as we headed for my lab.

Some of the soldiers on duty stared at the two catwomen as we went by, OK that wasnt something you saw every day. But it made sense at that moment however. As we neared my Lab, Ben explained why he was harvesting resources in more detail, concerning that the shipyard had been overgrown by all sorts of the meadow. Ben figured that by harvesting those resources he'd actually free the shipyard for flight if the need for flying actually did indeed come. He'd also found the ZPM room, and found it required six of them, but because the Furlings had been away for five thousand years, only two of the remaining four were able to provide any power. And one of them was almost at maximum entropy. Which meant that they only had one fully fuctional ZPM left

So by harvesting the resources, Ben allowed the Furlings a shot at survival on the means that we could provide five more new ZPMs with the right resources and time to construct the devices. And then there came the other news, the power sources for the puddlejumpers.

"You're serious ?" I asked Tanith, staring at her

She nodded. "Yeah, we were asked by the system what kind of power source we wanted, its also got a hyperdrive built in too. Its ZPM powered, somehow, its complicated but it works. For now" She explained.

First I was told they didnt have drone weapons, and now Im told they got a ZPM powering it somehow, as well as a fully working hyperdrive. I turned to them as we walked, "Is it possible to fly from here to Ascretta ?" I asked

"Ben told me that you found no possible star charts with a map to find it" Tanith replied, she sidestepped a marine patrol as we came to my lab and broiefly halted outside the door. I nodded.

"Yeah, none of the star maps we've found so far have anything on it concerning where Ascretta is" I replied, the images were still on the wallscreen.

"Well, from what Ben could find in the shipyards database, the Ancients never mapped the stars there to be an actual map of the galaxy, the only thing they mapped there was for star patterns for the stargate." Tanith said, we briefly halted in the hallway on the way to my lab. "Ben said he'd look into it further. Right now you have our gate address."

I nodded in reply, then motioned for Tanith and Claire to follow Radek into the lab, Ben and I brought up the rear. Once inside the lab, I said to the two. "Alright, the image Radek mentioned, compared with one we recorded in our jumpers. Its standard procedure." I told them showing them the two images. Claire and Tanith stared at their past selves for several minutes, then Claire said.

"May I search the database ?" I nodded and Ben provided Claire with a computer, she set her ori staff weapon aside and started looking up stuff rapidly. Screens flashed by on the larger screen as Tanith continued to look at the image from the past.

"Something wrong ?" I asked her She shook her head.

"Its old, I agree, its possible I just inhereited her markings. That cant be me" She said to me, I smirked, but I knew what she meant, she couldnt just be totally reborn, in this case she was simply well, reborn as a Furling.

So that left a new question, namely, what to do next ? Luckly, Tanith answered that question. "I somehow feel as if this is home" She said Claire typed rapidly on the keyboard, the only sounds we could here was of her claws tapping away quickly as she searched the database.

"Really ?" I asked Tanith as she sat at the desk, her hair framed a gorgeous face, it was loose and wild, yet also elegant and clean. "That reminds me" I said, she looked at me. "I managed to put in a supply request, for shampoo and conditioner. The Daedalus will deliver it here to Atlantis in a week. Can you guys wait that long ?" They were cats, giant human sized cats, they bathed each other didnt they ?

"I can, yes, why ?" Shampoo and conditioner for her, and Claire, and the others, perfect! "You know what, nevermind, thank you" She said to me, I couldnt help but smile. Then she smiled at me and said "Far as I am concerned, I can tell that you want to pet me, or Claire, when you first saw us."

"You could tell huh ?" I asked her, There was no use in my denying it, Tanith looked so soft!

"Yes" Tanith replied. She smiled again at me. "For what its worth, Rodney, you may pet me. I'll tell my husband I said you could, after all, you're a cat owner and you know how to care for your cat. Right ?" I had to smile, Tanith knew me inside and out, did Ben tell her any of my secrets ?

"Of course I know how to care for a cat, I love my cat. I miss him truth be told." I had briefly told her of Tombs, a big chonk of a boy tabby that my sister now cared for back on Earth.

"You think we can go back ?" Tanith then asked after a few minutes

"Back where ? To Earth ?" I asked her in reply, she nodded. I thought a second or two as Claires typing was still heard. I crossed my arms over my chest, a hand to my chin in thought. "You know, thats a good question, I think its possible, but Im not sure entiurely if it is possible, or even allowed. I mean think about it, you're an alien cat now, no longer human."

"I could be seen as a furry from Japan or something" Tanith said in tohught.

OK that was not what I was expecting for a reply. I opened my mouth to reply to her thought, but nothing came out. Then I closed it and tried again. Again nothing came out. I finally got my brain and mouth to work together. It took a moment but then I realised it made sense, furry conventions were a huge deal in various cities, San Deigo, Tokyo, and others to name a few "That... might work." when I thought about it there were conventions practically every week and in some areas I knew of the people rarely, if ever, took their costumes off.

"Did you find anything ?" Radek then asked to Claire who had brought up stuff I had never thought to look for. All sorts of entries in the database were on the screen.

"I'd say so, come look at this." Claire had fouind what she sought. And I read the information on the screen. "Ascretta, population, one hundred and seventy three thousand Furlings. Three Shipyards. Fleet ability, thirty two cruisers, three city ships, one hundred gateships ?" I read aloud

That was insane! Nobody had that type of fleet. At least not since the Wraith had backed off and let us have our peace. "Whoa" Radek said in awe seeing the buildout of the fleet

"You said it" Ben said. I just nodded. Tanith was confused mostly of the old pictures.

She pointed at one of the male images of a Furling, "That looks like Munkus, Claire, what do you think ?"

"I can see the resemblence, according to the database the Furling in the image was known as General Munkiti of the advance army." Claire repied.

In short, the Furlings were under attack five thousand years ago by a race of beings known as Pollicles, and according to the ancient database there was an attempt to modify a similar race to the Furlings using native animals, only it didnt take. The end result was a failure and the planet destroyed. It was why the Wraith had it in their zone but never went to it.

But the stuff Claire had found also included a database entry on something else, in this case, as I read it, it showed that some of the Furlings had gone with the Ancients to Earth already, that much we knew, and now could confirm that fact.

"Alright according to this, apparently there are Furlings on Earth, somewhere in Egypt along the Nile, or possibly the Amazon." I said in thought. That was not the news they were hoping for but it did the job for the time being, and that allowed me the sense of peace. We had three ZPMs, Ascrettas shipyard only had two, well more like one and change with any source of power, but we could provide them with five more eaqsily.

And thanks to Ben doing the harvesting and storing work for the assembly lines we could soon have the meadows cleared off the seven peirs of the shipyard and hopefully even have a fuel source for them too.

"Woolsey's gonna love this" I said when I found the next entry. It showed the biological information of a Pollicle. Apparently there were several breeds. From what the list had, doberman, rottwiler, bulldog, bloodhound, you name it.

"The Ancients were experimenting with Dogs ?" Radek asked in confusion

"No, according to some reports, the Ancients, and the Furlings that went with them, had encountered what the Furlings called the Pollicles, on P3R-M11" I replied, as I read further I found out more. "According to this, the end result was that the tech advancements of the Pollicles allowed even the Ancients to worry and the Ancients had set up a monitor of a sort to observe and ensure the Pollicles would leave the Furlings alone. Fortunately, the planet never had a stargate placed on it, but the Pollicles somehow achieved hyperspace travel thanks a new race showing up."

"The Wraith ?" Radek asked, the mere idea that the Ancients were experimenting with mutts was a scary one for sure.

"No, worse, the System Lords had come across the Pollicles and had seen them as a good means to an end, one of them, in this case Sokar more then likely, used the Pollicles by giving them advanced weaponry. In the end, the Pollicles had half migrated, most of them joining the Pollicle armies, the rest remaining on their homeworld isolated and just fine as they were." I replied.

"By the look of things, once our world was conquered by Sokars minions, in this case the Pollicles five thousand years ago left and made their own Zone." Tanith brought up a bit of information, there were three shipyards on Ascretta. "One of the three shipyards, is here." She keyed a color pattern. "In what we have dubbed the Pollicle Zone. Havent been able to find the third one yet. We live in this one here" She highlighted a shipyard city that housed the only stargate.

"Where did Tharon and Zane find the kitten ?" I asked

"Here" She keyed a few things and moved the map around. It was on the edge of the Pollcile Zone

"According to my scans I was able to decern around nearly sixty or seventy thousand total Pollicles in the Pollicle Zone, they are about fourty miles from the Furlings current location, but they also surround the Milky Way Stargate itself. However they're about a kilometer or so from it. Like a no go zone, a buffer so to speak and they stay away from it" Ben explained as Tanith showed the map.

"So this is where I, Zane and Zackary ended up before being met up with the troupe, was in a pollicle zone, but we didnt know it then, they kept away from the device. I wonder why" Tanith told us, highlighting three areas, all three of them insidse the Pollicle Zone, but also out of harms way and left alone before finding the shipyard

"Fear more then likely, many planets try to use the stargate very little, if that because of the Wraith before we arrived here." I explained, fortunately since the peace was formed the planets the Wraith formerly haunted had begun t oregrow their former holdings

"That explains it" Tanith said.

"Anything else ?" I asked from her to Ben

"Resources harvesting is about one percent or less last I was able to ensure. Sadly as you know, I was not not able to replicate more than twice. There are twenty harvesting drones working to harvest and store what resources they can for the Furlings to rebuild their culture." Ben reported to me. "Fortunately the energy signatures I detected when Major Pendergast disappeared from our North Peir two weeks ago allowed me to match them up. I counted sixteen, but Tanith and Tharon rescued six or so"

"We rescued seven, five students, around highschool, possibly freshmen or seniors, maybe sophmore age" Tanith spoke up, "along with one teacher and their principal, apparently three of them are siblings."

"Ahuh" I said in thought, well that settled it. five kids, and how many adults ? Fortunately Ben could go back and help further if he wanted to. He was already harvesting resources there sure. The goal was to clear the peirs of the meadows and use the cleared away meadows as resources. According to Ben the meadows were like hills on each peir, makiing it harder to decern that the outlaying cities were indeed connected to the centeral spine. But as resources were harvested, the ancient construction could get revealed.

I took a seat next to Tanith as she typed on the keyboard. "Alright, this is the assembly system that the Ancients used to build a puddlejumper. With the right resources and supplies, even for weaponry. Drones could be built, but like I mentioned Claire figured to use the ori staff weapons instead because we didnt have the supplies to make enough drones for a test run." She showed me the assembly line and how it worked.

"You did mention you built your jumper with what supplies you had on hand, and this explains why it looks so exotic. Its not Ancient made, its Furling made, so its prettier, more focused on appearance on an outward way." Then I whistled as Tanith showed me the rear hatch. It wasnt a ramp per sei, instead it was a pair of sliding doors that opened side to side, then the ramp snaked out of the opened door itself instead of just lowering. Similar to a city bus handicap ramp

"With the right resources we can also build drones too" She said to me.

"So what happens now ?" Claire asked, she had found everything she could using Caras memories in the database. A hundred and fifty three entries on the database were about the Furlings, and their sworn enemy the Pollicles.

"I think for this moment we can get you two down to the Infirmary to give Dr Beckett your blood samples. And then from there let Richard figure out the next step." I said as I stood from the stool I sat on. The good news about this whole mess though is something else entirely. Somehow, things are going in stride as they should. At least that was the hope.

We arrived at the infirmary, Munkus was just having a bandage placed on his arm after giving a blood sample. He didnt look very happy to be in the room. Fortunately Richard had been there and assuring him that it was standard for all personel and visitors to submit a blood sample and nothing more.

Basically the way I put it was it was mostly to ensure, like a bookmark on a page of a closed book, that the city knew who you were so it wouldnt try to kill you. "Comfy ?" I asked seeing the silver tabby up close for the first time.

He looked at me, then to Tanith. "Who is this ?"

"This is Rodney McKay, he's the guy who I had everyone originally hide from because I didnt know who was aboard the vessel that came through the stargate" Tanith explained. I held out my hand.

"A pleasure to meet you" I said to him.

He shook it. "A pleasure indeed." He replied, his fur was soft. I couldnt believe it, I just shook hands with a Furling! For all I knew, aside from Keller and Carson, I was the first human to shake hands with a new alien!

An alien that the SGC and SG1 never met.

Looks like I could score a few points with Daniel, but I didnt want to gloat, he more then likely found more Furlings hiding on Earth somewhere already.

Munkus sat on the hospital bed, "So what happens now ?" He asked to mostly Tanith, but also to me.

"Well, first I was planning on asking you a few questions, simple stuff about Ascretta, the last thing you remember back on earth, stuff you found, and how many your numbers initally are." I replied to his quest "In the meantime though, you're more than welcome here on Atlantis until we can send you back to Ascretta."

"Ascretta ?" Munkus asked.

"The name of our homeworld" Tanith replied, he nodded in understanding.

Munkus seemed quiet for a long moment, then he smiled. "Thank you, Dr McKay." Munkus said to me.

"Think nothing of it, Ben here is providing a means to secure resources for you and your people, I think I can even have Fran designate a few Replicators for the same duty in terms of food production for us too" I said in reply I turned towards Ben as I spoke, he nodded.

"I will let her know" He replied and then left.

I turned back to Munkus, as the boy, Agustus arrived, he was kind of scared and treated Munkus as if he were the boys father. Munkus also treated him like a son. "Where are we ?" Agustus asked him

"We are with some kind humans who simply need some help, just like we do" Munkus replied, it made me smile, I looked to Carson, he nodded. According to him, the boy was perfectly healthy.

"Fortunately the boy is very healthy, healthy as any kitten can be at six years old. Its the other students I am now worried about as well, if anything I'd like to go to Ascretta and do a full exam and make sure everyone is healthy." Carson said as he stepped into view.

That made me smile, Carson getting out into the galaxy again. With the death of Michael, Carson was free to do whatever, but he was never able to harm Michael. But with good ole Mike dead, Carson was free even to return to Earth if he wanted to.

"Have we heard anything from Ford ?" I asked, since Carson was on Earth for two days

"Aye, He and his wife both want to return to Atlantis and do another tour here. But General Landry is asking him to wait another month" Carson replied, he'd just been to earth the last two days, and Aiden was wanting to come back to Atlantis already

Truth was, I actually did miss Aiden. In the sense that he was a good soldier, and could be trusted with my life, the poor man though had gone on a wild stint with the Wraith enzyme and ended up somewhere in the Galaxy. Amazingly we never expected the Traverls to have rescued him

Tharon then stepped into view. "Oh look who it is" I said seeing him, "Its Puss in Boots if I ever saw him on TV, you look more like Zorro minus the mask though."I said in greeting to Tharon

"Do I know you ?" He asked me, clearly confused.

"Dear this is Rodney McKay, Rodney, this is my husband, Tharon" Tanith said introducing us as I reached out my hand to shake. Tharon took it and we shook hands

"A pleasure to meet you, Tharon." I said to him

"Very much so, Likewise, Rodney" Tharon said. I found myself liking the fact that Tanith was married. That and she gave me permission to pet her ears! However what made me suddenly start chuckling was when Tharon said "I would be Puss in Boots yes, but I need my hat. Its back home on the hatrack." Puss in Boots was not possible without his hat. But he had the boots, and the swords, tunic and breeches so to speak. Fortunatly Tanith was smiling broadly. Tharon saw the smile and asked her. "Whats going on dear ?"

"I told Rodney he has my permission to pet my ears, I could see clearly he has been restraining himself from doing just that the whole time we've been here" She explained as my face went beet red with embrassament, and then I shrugged it off. "He's been quite the gentleman and I trust he wont make any wrong moves."

Tharon looked from her to me, then back to her. Then back to me. He looked me over like he was sizing up a slab of beef, then said "Sounds like a plan dear, is there a place we can relax until the meeting is over ? According to Mr Woolsey, if that is who I spoke with. He will only be gone a few hours before coming back with some guests.

"Hopefully by tonight you can head back to Ascretta, according to the database though theres just a few things left he needs to know before you can go back" I explained then what Claire had found about the Pollicles, their different breeds. And that was when Agustus spoke up

"The golden one cared for me when she found me with that bunch you took care of. Is she OK ?" The boy asked to Tharon when he finished explaining.

Tharon smiled and nodded. "She is alright, I made sure to only knock her out so she wouldnt follow us home. I am glad she took care of you to keep you healthy and well fed." He said to the boy.

"Do you think your warning her will work ?" Munkus asked

"Maybe, but I am not sure" Tharon replied, Tanith was in thought

"A golden one ?" She asked. One of the breeds was indeed a Golden Retriveer breed of dog which my aunt and uncle always kept and sometimes bred.

"Yeah, like a Golden Retriever or Lab" Tharon replied, now there was a thought. I looked to Claire who shrugged

I nodded, "Its possible the Pollicles had other breeds to work with as well, I mean, Golden Retrivers, Bulldogs, dobermans, according to Ben he said you also told him you also took down a Rottwiler ?" I said to Tharon

"Yeah, big brut of a mutt too, went at him head on. The bulldog took a bit, he had some skills, but nothing perfect." Tharon replied, Tanith I saw smiled at how her husband acted out a brief swordfight

"That's my Puss in Boots" Tanith said, it made me smirk, the mere thought of being able to snuggle up with her and Tharon was only making me happier than I had ever been today. Tharon himself snickerd too at her words

What was wrong with me ?

Nothing, nothing was wrong! I was in cat lover heaven in that infirmary!

Two Hours Later

Conference room

"Do I really have to be here ?" Agustus asked, he had met up with Jinto and the young Athosean boy had taken to him, offered to care for him so Munkus and Tharon didnt have to worry about him too much. With Ben or Fran they'd both be safe too.

Tharon thought a moment, looking to Munkus, Munkus merely looked to Tanith, what did she think, she was after all the commanding officer of the Furlings right ? And Agustus was a Furling boy.

So that meant he could infact go with Jinto for a few hours. "I dont see a problem with it, with either Fran or Ben with them, they should be fine" I said to her

Munkus nodded, as did Tharon, "You can go with Jinto, but be careful, alright ? Just do as Jinto says, and if Fran or Ben say not to touch something, listen to them too, alright ?"

"I will" Agustus said in reply, the boy darted from the room, leaving myself, Carson, Munkus, Richard, Tanith, Tharon, Sheppard, Caldwell, and finally two guys from the IOA and Claire at the last. With two Replicators standing nearby overseeing recent repairs to certain points of the city after the recent storms that rolled through.

The storms we got lately were enough to break windows, but nothing as intense as what took Claire from us to Ascretta. So we always had for each building, at least two Replicators to simply run repair jobs.

"Alright since we're all here I was able to make a subspace link between here and Earth, the IOA were also able to send two members. So we can get down to business" Richard said, he nodded to the seats around the table, "Please, be seated and we can get underway."

We all sat down, Woolsey looked at Carson first. "Dr Beckett, your report ?"

"Well, to start off, their blood samples were compared with the recent blood work done in Miami for dna matching, I am still waiting for the results from the SGC, but according to my simulations, its a dead match." Carson nodded towards both Claire and Tanith. And also Munkus. "They are indeed who they were, just in different bodies now."

"What about the boy ?" One of the IOA agents asked, a woman named Marcia

"Agustus was from the Ohio Day care center that was hit by the same lightning bolt that took out a high school according to the news reports. Five students, a teacher and the principal are all missing. Am I correct in guessing they are with you on your new world ?" Richard said to Munkus

"They are" Munkus replied calmly. "And if you worry they may be in danger or harmed, one of the students a boy named Mike, who calls himself Fiddlestix, had broken his leg upon arrival, luckly Tanith and Tharon had managed to rescue the seven of them when they were about to be beset by a rain storm. My healers tended to him, he'll be fine" Munkus told Woolsey.

"Would it be possible for me to accompany you back to your world to checkup on him ? Just for a second opnion I mean." Carson asked to Munkus who simply nodded

"I do not see a problem or issue with you returning with us to make sure we're healthy. You were kind enough to tell me why you wanted my blood sample, which is why I freely gave it" Munkus told him

"Alright new question; How many are your current numbers ? The IOA was watching for new storms out of nowhere recently, and several hve sprung up across the globe recently." The Other IOA agent said. He later introduced himself as Jake

"Right now, not including the new arrivals recently, it was initally thirty eight of us, then Tanith, Captain Zane, and Mr White joined us, makiing it fourty one." Munkus replied setting his arms on the table

"Then I showed up." Claire spoke up, I had to smile thoughtfully remembering howe she complained of her landing.

"Making it fourty two" I mused.

"So as of right now, exactly sixteen people went missing in the last storm surge. Seven of them you rescued from another storm. Plus finding the boy. So what of the other nine ?" The first IOA agent asked

"I can answer that" Tanith said, all eyes turned to her. She went on to explain about the Pollicle Zone and how it was packed, and how the Milky Way Gate was safely in a neutral area. According to Tanith, the Pollicles were more focused on their zones and had no idea how the stargate worked

Either that or they were scared of it when none of their troops returned after five thousand years. Apparently the Pollicles did, according to munkus remembering his ancestors memories, they did send a thousand troops through the stargate to Earth to track the lost twenty five that got away, none of them were ever to return. At which point the Pollicles stopped sending troops.

"But that does not explain two stargates on the planet" The second IOA agent said

"Its possible that because the Ancients kept the planet off of all known star charts and only this one obscure barely looked at if at all remembered entry in the database with the gate address in it would be found by the Wraith, knowing the Wraith they'd try to go there only to be destryed by the shipyards automated defenses not recognising the Wraith as Furlings or Ancients. Which might explain why the Milky Way gate is infact kept in as neutral zone" I suggested

"That's possible Dr McKay" Woolsey said, he turned to Tharon and Tanith, "You said you found the boy in a group of Six of these... Pollicles, what kinds were there ?" He asked

"Three of them were the typical doberman, ground troops, ground pounders more then likely ready to take down a target. One was a rottwiler, one was a female, in this case she was the Golden Retriever I think, and finally the leader of the squad was a Bulldog." Tharon reported. By that point Tharon had relaxed enough and set his elbows on the table. "Zane and I went on a hunt, in the end result not only did we rescue Agustus from the bulldog and his squad, but we also came back with a hunting prize for dinner that same night too" He then described the six legged boar they had found.

"Sounds like good eating" Sheppard said, I was inclined to agree on that. Woolsey could see that Tharon did not want to speak further on his methods for taking out the squad, but he did also praise the catman for rescuing the boy

"You did good in rescuing the boy. Were you on Atlantis at the time as part of the crew here, I would gladly nominate you for a medal of some kind. But I dont think that will do much good to the Furlings now will it ?" Woolsey said. Tharon smiled, while he did save a kitten. But his methhds in doing so would never be known

"I will only say I left the Golden alive, she was more concerned with making sure the boy was properly fed, and unhurt. From what I could tell she wanted the other Pollicles away from the kitten. But I could also tell she lacked any combat skills." Tharon said

"That leaves us with one thing, how do we tell the boys mother that her son is alive, but no longer human, or should we fake his remains and pray that the DNA matches ?" Asked the first IOA agent, Marcia, I looked at her

But it was not me who spoke, it was Claire. She had venom in her voice and her eyes. "Are you insane ? Lying to a mother who just lost her son to a freak storm, and a freak of genetics ? It took me a year and a month to find out what truly happened to my dad when he went down with his ship and my mom had to bury an empty coffin!" she thundered at the woman. I saw easily her gorgeous tail was bristled in anger.

"Cayran, please, calm down." Munkus tried to placate her, but she heard none of it.

"If you ask me" I spoke up, everyone turned to me. "Let me talk to the mom, no outside interference. I could even bring her a picture if you want me to, or the boy himself. Look I own a cat back home on Earth, so I know how to treat a kitten, especially a kitten like Agustus. With extreme care. The last thing I want is for the boys mother to be lied to, Let me take him to his mother. With the DNA records and everything. And tell her what happened. And if the boy wants to remain with her in his new form,..."

"Offworld acivation!" rang out on the radios, we scrambled from the briefing room. For some reason that felt right. Though I did want to tage Agustus home to his mother.

"Who is it ?" Woolsey asked to Chuck

"Its the SGC, audio only." Chuck replied

"Put it on speaker." Woolsey said

The message we got was interesting to say the least. "This is the latest news report out of Ohio. A lightning storm has caused three houses to explode, one of the homes was the residence formerly lived in by the missing boy William Grey, whose mother has been searching for him for a week now. The mother, Maria Grey has been reported missing as her body is not found. The police currently are investigating."

The report stopped and Hanks voice came on the horn. "That report was just minutes ago, I had it recorded, If you're lucky, that boys mother might be in the Pegasus Galaxy as we speak"

"Thank you General, we'll take it from here" Woolsey said, he looked at me. Thankfully we kept the rest of the briefing group in the briefing room. We walked absently back to the briefing room and sat down

"Who was it ?" Tanith asked

"Apparently the boys mother has just disappeared in a lightning storm. Dr McKay, have Been track for all signals to Ascretta as we speak, Tanith with your permission I would like for Ben to go back to Ascretta with you and track where the woman, Maria Grey ended up. If you can, you can reunite mother and son there." Woolsey told Tanith

I spotted Tanith smiling, she wanted Ben to come back with them, she told me so herself. She nodded "It would be wonderful for him to come with us back to Ascretta" she said to Woolsey.

"Perfect, Dr McKay inform Ben he's needed in the gateroom this evening for transport to Ascretta. In the mean time, Munkustrap, was it ? You are welcome to stay, we have guest quarters." Woolsey said

"Thank you, Mr Woolsey, so long as I am not subject to experiments by any scientists" He said. Apparently he had been well advised by Tanith to worry over such a thing

"Oh, you've already given what we expected, there is nothing more that we'd need from you other then information." Carson spoke up, Richard nodded in agreement.

The conversation went a bit longer, but I was thankful that at the end of it, Tanith and Tharon asked if they could stick with me for the remainder of their time in Atlantis, I said sure, it was all I could do to remain gentlemanly about it too.

We went to a common sitting area near my quarters, across the way was Sheppards room. As it got closer to dinner, Tanith snuggled against me with Tharon watching, Within a minute she was asleep, purring loudly. "I think she likes you" Tharon said to me. I honestly had no idea what to do as I looked at Tharon, he smiled and nodded, I gently set an arm around Tanith, her ears were so very soft. I gently pet her between her ears. She purred some more.

I looked to Tharon as he sat across from me. "Thanks" I said to him, this was the experience of a lifetime. And it just made me miss Tombs all the more. Tharon smiled at me with a gentle nod.

"Tanith trusts you, and I trust her. So that means I trust you." He said to me. And that meant a lot.