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

18. Cameron 4

Beyond the Gate

Chapter 18: Upstairs

Earth, Sol System

In Orbit aboard the Odyssey

Exactly one day after the events in Atlantis

I rubbed my eyes, I couldnt believe it, I couldnt go to Atlantis, get some sun, see Tanith. Instead, I got told last night to report to the Odyssey as her commanding officer first thing in the morning. I stood dumbly in Hanks office, "Did I just hear you right ?" I asked him.

"You did, the Odyssey is out of drydock and she needs a shakedown cruise. You were the only man on the list for the job, Col Pendergast has reported to his new post as soon as his ship is finished, and Col India will be your Executive Officer on this shakedown mission" Hank told me. He looked at me. "Any questions ?"

"Yeah, why me ? Why was my name the only name on the list, why cant I get a tan at Atlantis ?" I asked. Of course Hank looked at me with a mirthful smile on his face. I had a point, why was my name the only name on the list ? "Who recommended me ?"

That was where I was in for a surprise. "Col India requested you to be the commanding officer for the shakedown cruise." He said

"Alright new question" I said, if India wanted me as the commanding officer, there had to be a reason of why. "Where are we headed ?"

Hank handed me a sheet of paper, on it was a list of numbers. "You and Dr Jackson discovered a list of possible stargates. According to Dr Jackson, he hasnt been able to connect with any of them, so that means we have to investigate these areas. Further information is on the Odyssey already waiting for you." Hank said to me

I took the paper and read it over. Then nodded. "Guess I get a good nights sleep beforehand or should I beam up now ?"

"You can get some sleep tonight, first thing tomorrow the crew is expecting you." Hank said to me. "A subspace terminal has been set up on the Odyssey to track everything from here. If anything goes wrong we can access the nearest stargate and get you help, or an escape route." Hank then explained, I raised an eyebrow and sighed, not the best way to tell someone good night. I thought. "Good luck" I bid Hank good night and went to my on base apartment.

But now as I shook my head to get me back to the present the Odyssey was ready to take off. "Good morning boys and girls, lets get this show on the road shall we ?" the Odyssey broke from the dry dock and headed into space before we jumped to hyperspace.

"Feels a bit surreal doesnt it ?" India asked me, she sat in the pilots station. I sat in the command chair, it was weird. Marks was on the Daedalus, whereas we had a guy named Louis to handle the weaponry and other controls

"This is the second time I've sat in this chair" I told her, the first time was when we went to the Ori Galaxy, which was why the ship had been in dry dock for so long.

"It suits you" She said to me, a genuine smile on her face. I set my jaw in thought. Then shook my head.

"Nah, still feels weird, I'll never get used to it." I said in reply as I tried to relax as we were in hyperspace.

"So whats the plan ?" India asked me, I looked to her in thought. It was a interesting plan to be sure. But I tried to keep things simple. I tried to keep things to the point. And somehow it felt like it was going to all fall apart at the drop of a hat.

"General Landry wants us to try and find some missing stargates, they might be, they might not be, Furling outposts in the galaxy." I replied to her. It made little sense for us to go searching for more Furlings when they were just living on Earth this whole time!

"You think we'll find Furlings there ?" India asked in thought. The mere idea of meeting a Furling... "For that matter what does a Furling look like ?" She then asked

"Think me, or yourself, with fur, cat ears, and a long cat tail" I told her, she raised an eyebrow at me. "What ?"

"So basically something that would stick out out like a sort thumb execept in egypt or at a cosplay convention like San Deigo Comic Con or DragonCon" She said in reply, a smirk on her face.

I laughed. "Yeah. Something like that." I replied, I hadnt seen what Tanith had become, only told that she was now tall, fuzzy and catlike. And the fact that Rodney despreately wanted to pet her between the ears. Rodney was a cat lover, everyone he worked with knew that exact fact!

"So we find these outposts..." India mused "If they are outposts..."

"We find the Outposts, we find the Furlings, hopefully there will be some there, and those Furlings can help us with some questions concerning this great return of some kind." I said to India

"Great return ?" She asked.

"That's what Jackson's been calling it." I replied using Daniels last name.

"I see" India replied in thought.

"Coming up on our first set of coordinates" Louis called out from his station. "Dropping from Hyperspace in three... two... one..."

I stood up as we came out of hyperspace. Before us was a sight I never expected, a cityship similar to Atlantis, but easily six times bigger, it floated in space, ships floated all around it. A pair of fighters seemed to spot us. "Whoa" I said seeing the massive structure. "Looks like we found why there's no stargate connection. Can you detect the stargate ?" I asked

Louis looked a moment then looked at me, shaking his head. "Nothing, according to this there is no stargate here, however there are faint traces of a stargate energy signature similar to a stargate power source. Its coming from that cityship" I looked from Louis to the viewport, already thinknig that city in front of us was too bit to be a cityship.

I was about to reply when India spoke up. "We're being hailed" India said. "Its in Ancient, and Goa'uld" I raised an eyebrow as I turned to her.

"The snakes ? Seriously ? What would they want with the furlings ?" I asked as I stepped from the chair. "Whose hailing us ?"

"No idea, its possible that its just a language line ?" India offered in reply, she highlighted what looked to be a starfighter that was smaller than our own 302s. "I think its this... fighter I guess ?"

I jerked my thumb at the viewport. "Put it on screen I guess." I said

The Odyssey translated, thanks to the Asgard core, "Unidentified vessel, we sense an Asgard aboard. It has been a long time since any of Oriila has contacted us. What brings you here after so long ?"

"Actually you're picking up the Asgard Core we were given by them. I'm Col Cameron Mitchell of the Tauri ship Odyssey." I replied I was making first contact with hopefully a Furling. At least I hoped it was a Furling. He sounded like a furling ?

On the bridge a hologram appeared, it showed a feline man in a seated pose. But we only saw his torso and arms and face. It was as if we were looking at him from his fighter cockpit. Yup a furling I thought. Seeing him.

"The Fifth Race..." The catman said simply, they had been told by the Asgard of the movement and how the Asgard recognised the Tauri as the Fifth Race of the Alliance of the Four Great Races. "Please follow me and I will lead your vessel to a proper berth. The council will want to talk to you." The hologram catman said.

"Lead the way" I replied. The hologram faded. I looked towards India, she shrugged, guess we found the Furlings on the first try. But I did not want to get my hopes up. The guy did recognise us at the moment as the fifth race. So that was good

I guess. I nodded to India to follow the catman's fighter. He lead us to a landing pad and also allowed us to access the shell of the vessel, apparently the massive structure had the design to keep the atmosphere in properly without a shield. We were guided to a landing pad. Last thing I wanted was for us to suddeenly end up being jettisoned into space.

As we landed, we spotted on the scanner a dozen lifesigns, just looking at the camera system images we could see the dozen soldiers were all feline, each holding a strange crystal like staff in hand. Almost like a cerimonial weapon as I saw pistols of some kind on their hips, as well as a pair of swords across their backs.

"Lets go say hi to the locals, shall we ?" I said, I turned to Louis. "Louis, keep the engine running; just to be safe, if we have to get out fast I'd like to keep our options open" I said. Louis nodded and remained at his post.

"If they recognised us as the Fifth Race" India started. I looked at her.

"Its possible they might recognise us as the Fifth Race, but they might also see us as a threat. So we go full gear. I'll have to whip up a team real quick, who here on board has groundpounding experience ?" I asked, once I was told of how many of the two hundred crew, in this case, nine. I said "Have them meet me are the airlock bay on deck three fully decked for possible combat encounters." I said as I left the bridge.

Stepping into the third level deck from the elvator I spotted the group, they were waiting. Each one armed with weapons, a nice squad of strapping Marines. "Alright kids listen up, we're making first contact with someone that we've been trying to contact for years. Keep your weapons on safe in the case they're needed. We're trying to make a good first impression, not storm the place." I said. The gangway activated and allowed us to exit the ship to the nearby terminal way.

Stepping from the gangway I spotted the group of felines, two men, and two women. One of the men clearly was a pilot. And he looked like the guy on the hologram we'd seen on the ship. As we neared they walked forwards towards us. One of the women and one of the men were dressed in regal robes, whereas the other two were dressed in a pilot ready uniform.

"Welcome to Flamelight Spire" The first catwoman said. "I am Dila, this is Akter" She indicated her fellow elegant robed catman. "Our defence pilot, Viktar reported your arrival and guided you to this space so we could meet." her voice had a very strong almost egyptian twang to it, but also a lot of chirps and purrs were in the tone too.

"Thank you" I said in reply, it was weird, each cat had markings similar to the cats on earth, also various breeds of big cat too and yet they walked on two legs. "We've always been trying to meet with the allies of the Ancients and the Nox, the Asgard too."

"The Asgard Core as you call it, you say it is what we sensed." It was Viktar who spoke up, the black cat stood tall, his headband helmet about his head like a crown. "Is it true that the Asgard are truly gone from Orilla ?"

"Sadly, we witnessed it, but we took out two Ori ships with the explosion, they commited mass suicide instead of letting the Ori take over." I said, sadness in my voice. "But in the hours before they died, they gave us everything, every last bit of information they had, their ships, how to build them, their technology, their weapons, everything."

"The Asgard were very close friends, when the lights went out over Orillas address, we knew there was a problem, but we did not know what kind of problem there was." Akter said softly, the gray catman was serene and peaceful, almost like an elf.

"Do you mind if I ask why we cant connect our stargate to yours ?" I asked then. I regarded the city, Flamelight Spire. As a massive achievement, the Furlings had built it long ago, it floated in space in orbit similar to Earth, around a sun. which they called the Eternal Flame.

"Our technology does not require a stargate anymore. We see it as a relic of a bygone age." Dila said to me and my new team. I was used to leading a four man team, but having nine men and women at my back. I felt safer, somehow

"Walk with us, and we will explain." Akter said. We started walking, the soldiers on the deck dispersed and two of them followed us a few paces away. They were apparently ceremonial guards given by their armor type. "As Dila said, our technology renders the Stargate a mere relic of a bygone age. Others may use it as a means of transport across the galaxy. And that is fine, but for us, we have never had a need for it." Akter explained as we walked along.

Flamelight Spire was divided into nine peirs, and each peir was connected through a ring at six points, making the massive structure truly huge. I found myself easily getting lost if I tried to ake a picture and see eerything. It would take days to get through it all at once.

And yet, the way Akter and Dila explained it. With Viktar walking along with us. It made sense. The Ancients designed the core of the city, and taught the Furlings the means to live without their world. But they did have a colony world that supplied them with food and fresh water that they shared an orbit of their sun with. The planet was huge, and it only had three cities in three different zones. Designed spcifically to have vast fields of food to grow or hunt.

"We live above our planets. Every planet is a colony with three cities, the colony provides food and fresh water for those in the orbiting cities." Dila explained. The gist of it was simple, the Furlings used the planets for food, and also coming of age hunting. So it made sense how those on the planet saw those in orbit as equals, nobody questioned it.

I was about to question how it all worked, but I didnt, instead I asked about the Stargate again, and why visitors had to come by ship. "Why ?" I was asked by Akter "Do you wish to come by stargate ?"

"We found a book, well more like a few books, written in Furling, one of them contained a dozen stargate addresses or so, but none of them connected to our gate. So we figured them lost, the planets destroyed or the stargates just, hidden or something. So we came here by ship to see why we couldnt connect" I explained to them.

Dila and Akter traded looks, we had come to a door, the city was design similar to Atlantis, only it was of white stone and steel. The feeling of a happy home was present everywhere. Information freely shared. We saw kittens. And I was instantly aware of something else important. "What do you know of the planet, Ascretta ?"

Akter stared as did Viktar in shock, the girl cat, who was a pilot with Viktar, named Saca stared at me confused. Dila smiled. "Ah, Ascretta, our old home. I remember it well" She said. She then went on to say "The Ancients as you refer to them, Moros and Melia, Janus and Innatar. All worked with the others to ensure we could live safely somewhere else when our first world, so the histories say, named Sparia, was lost when our first Eternal Star was destroyed by its own events.

"The Ancients and the Asgard both provided devices to slow the events of the supernova. Allowing us to full transplant everything but the stargate to Ascretta. Afterwards, some of us when the Ancients returned here to this galaxy. Some of us came with them, and migrated away from Earth and other planets to form our own worlds." Dila explained.

I learned a lot that day. But it was what Dila said about some of their numbers suddenly dwindling five thousand years ago, "Around six thousand years ago there came a sudden seige. And Ascretta was lost to us. There was no contact from there, nor were we able to get close enough to establish contact."

"Because of our most hated enemies had created soldiers. And used those soldiers to ruin our first world." Akter growled. He activated the door controls and we stepped inside the vast room. Akter went to a pane land activated the hologram, directly in front of us was a humanoid creature.

It had the body of a man, covered in dark fur, and the head of a bulldog. In short it kinda looked like my great uncle John on a very bad hair day. The mutt was strong and according to what Akter pointed out, the creature was termed a Pollicle, or wolfman or dogman or something. A butt fucking ugly sun of a bitch for sure! And hey it was true, it was the son of a female dog anyway who cares what my grandma thought. "A System Lord, known as Sokar, created these soldiers. And sought Ascretta for its vast verdant resources." Akter explained

Ascretta had a naturally occuring urainium core, which allowed the Ancients to construct the stargate network. Ontop of that, the Ancients fled there when the Milky Way suffered the huge plague.

"So let me get this right, when the Ancients fled Earth they went to you guys ?" I asked. Some of the team had spread out and took in the various displays of the archives I guess is what it was ?

Dila nodded. "Yes, unfortunately, for several generations, they lived in peace, and then the Ancients fled again, returning to this galaxy from Pegasus, our kindred on Ascretta never learned of what happened to them." Dila went on to explain that five thousand years had passed before they lost contact with Ascretta, and as a result, shit went down on a level unheard of. It had been six thjousand years since they lost contact.

"The Pollicles all but destroyed our kindred on Ascretta" Viktar said. "As a last resort our kind resorted to magic, and opened a wormhole to Earth, where twenty five of our number was able to safely live."

"You have me curious human" Said the other girl cat, Saca said to me. "How did you come by name of our homeworld ?"

"A friend of mine, named Tanith, disappeared in a bolt of lightning. According to a team mate of mine in our stargate program. She somehow ended up on Ascretta" I explained the event of Tanith disappearing from the truck while we were on Iota on patrol during the storm. I also explained how Tharon disappeared from his own kitchen, and the child from the day care center in Ohio

"It seems then our numbers will regrow. It will soon be time to transport to Ascretta" Dila said.

"We must have the councils approval and a vote of every adult before we can even consider such an event" Akter said, a mass migration from every City back to Ascretta, back to solid ground really. Was going to take months if not years to prepare for

"And how long can the council be convined ?" I asked, if it mattered of how long, it was possible I could get a subspace transmission back to Earth to General Landry and then get a good nights sleep.

"It might take a day. You are welcome to tour the city while you wait for the council to begin" Dila said, she and Akter were members of a council. The upper or seatedcouncil oversaw most if not all of the Furlings government needs. While a standing or lower council oversaw a single cityships needs "Or are you in need to keep moving ?"

"I was hoping to find why the stargate wasnt working" I said, but I found myself staring at it, it hung on a wall, no steps towards it. There was infact, a massive lack of power getting to it. It hung on the wall in that archives room, useless. Powerless.

"You found it" Dila told me. A smirk in her voice.

"Yeah, I found it." Daniel was going to have a field day when I told him about this mess. The reason why it wasnt connecting, no power, no nothing, not even a ramp, it wasnt even in the ground for crying out loud! "Why is it hanging on a wall ?"

"Is it so important to use the stargate ? When it is no more than a relic ?" Akter asked me. I looked at him

"Before we began to build our ships, the stargate, and stolen Goa'uld ha'taks were the only way we could get around quickly enough." I explained, "Its our go to way of going to see our allies, if you dont mind it, have it set up somewhere centerally like down town or something." I said as I found the DHD, "You'll want this to go with it, its the only way to power it or use it." We of course used a modified version, trust us humans to think in a fun manner huh ?

If you asked me a ship took too long to get from place to place, so my job was to find why these stargates werent working, instead I found the city, Flamelight Spire, and with it, the reason why the stargate didnt work.

So that meant all the other addresses wouldnt work either because even those cities would have their stargates in a museum ?

"Wait, when did you get two stargates ?" One of the members of my team asked then, she'd found a second stargate, and its lack of a DHD, and it looked, well, compared to the Milky Way gate I was used to, older than dirt possibly even older then that.

"Whoa" I said seeing it, it too had no power and was built more like a shrine. I couldnt recognise any of the symbols on the stargate either. "Is that ?"

"That is what we call a first genration Stargate, made by the Ancestors shortly after they met the Ancients, they built two of them" Saca said. She smiled, pride more then likely. "Only two were ever built, according to legends, there is one somewhere on Ascretta, and one here, they were made as the test bed to be sure the technology could work safely." She explained

"Well, we're proof of that, from what I got told, Ascretta has a stargate, and it still got power. Mostly because our expidition in Atlantis is already able to make contact with those we lost from Earth." I explained

"Wait just a moment, Human." Dila said thoughtfully as I turned to go back the way we came. I turned to her. "By using the newer stargate we can remain in contact with you, is this correct ?"

"So long as you set it up somewhere and give it power, yeah" I replied to her. I had no diea where she was going with this train of thought.

"Give us one day, you may rest, and refuel your vessel Viktar and Saca can see to it that your needs are attended to for whatever supplies you need." Dila said to me. She nodded to Viktar, who nodded back, and stood by the door, ready to lead us back to the Odyssey. I nodded and headed for Viktar. "Oh, and Human" Again I stopped and turned towards her, this time it was a question in her tone that kept my own exporession curious. "Might I ask you your name ?"

"Sure" I replied, "You can call me Cameron" I told her. Dila smiled, she after all had told me her name so I guess it was proper to give mine to her as well.

She reached out a hand, it was slender, clearly fur covered of a pale gray and white mix, just like her hair. "It is an honor to meet you." She said to me. I took her hand and shook it. A firm nod in reply

"The honor is all yours." Normally I was killing snakeheads or worse hunting them. But in this case things worked out for the best pretty well. As we shook hands it made things clear, the Furlings and the SGC had just become friends.

"I do hope you find your lost friend on Ascretta, if you like I can provide your people with information to help them learn about us" Dila said, much to Akters dismay I could see it clear on his face he was upset that such information was getting shared.

I whistled and my team set up to head back to the ship, Viktar and Saca looked happy to be with us. Viktar himself considered us an honored guest and therefore had ensure our friendship was not going to sour.

Within a few moments we were back on the Odyssey, I never knew what Dila and Akter debated about after we had left, but I knew it was not going to be anything good. If anything, Akter didnt trust us, but Dila did. And apparently she outranked him greatly.

Soon as I was on the ship I opened a secure subspace channel to the SGC. "General Landry this is Mitchell come in." I said as I waited for the screen to connect.

"This is Landry, go ahead Col" General Landry apepared on the screen. "I wasnt expecting you to call so soon, was expecting it to take at least a few days, did you find out why the stargate wont connect ?"

I nodded. "I did yeah, its a museum piece, no power, no ramp, hanging on a wall, and that's not all, they had a second one here too, but older than the first." I replied

"They ?" Hank asked

"We found them sir, the Furlings. A huge city full of them, one of three actually. Anyway, they recognised us because of the Asgard Core." I explained, I think corrected myself. "They recogised us as the Fifth Race because of the Asgard Core."

Hank smiled, "The Asgard wouldnt have given us everything if they didnt trust us as the Fifth race." He said, I agreed, the Asgard gave us everything, their entire database of knowledge, their entire list of ships and technology. Even the ability to generate a hologram of any Asgard we'd need to control the ship.

"Let me get this straight" Hank said then. "You found a city full of Furlings ?"

"Yes sir, and they said they'd need a day to install their stargate. I was also told they had three cities in total orbiting this planet" I then also sent an image of what the city looked like. The external cameras had managed to snap the shot.

Hank whistled at the sight of it. "And its full of Furlings ? Did you find Col Raines there ?"

"No, I couldnt find Tanith, but I did find out that Ascretta was cut off from these Furlings around six thousand years ago, then five thousaand years later, at that point it is more then likely when they came to Earth from Ascretta" I explained

"So every Furling that came to Earth from Ascretta five thousand years ago..." Hank mused

"Will return to Ascretta just like they left, in a powerful storm" I concluded for him. "With all due respect I can ask the council woman we spoke with to inform the other Furling cities in space to set up their stargates too. That way we can connect to them as well" I then described what Dila looked like.

"Whats your plan, Col ?" Hank asked me

"At this moment, we dont have much of one, other then to wait. Though they did offer us a tour of the city while we wait for the council, and for the stargate to be set up." I explained

"Did you take them up on seeing what the city has to offer ?" Hank asked me. I shook my head.

"I thought it better to contact you first." I replied, I was actually not really in the mood to stray far from the Odyssey at this moment

"If they offer you dinner, dont hesitate to take them up on it, by time they get their stargate set up we can get in touch with you that way if you want." Hank said. Though I thought, Subspace was just as good, if not better in many cases. Maybe even get an idea of how they process their foods.

I found myself thinking that if Flamelight Spire was the place everyone lived on, and then went down into the planet below in order to do their coming of age hunts and run the farms... "Sir, is it possible that Ascretta also has cityships like this ?"

"Maybe ? I received word that one of McKays replicators, named Ben had been given the permission to replicate and begin harvesting resources that were hampering the shipyard Ascretta's Pegasus Stargate is inside of." Hank said, he didnt sound too happy about it, but with Rodneys code base made it work.

"From what it sounds like, Sir. Ben is just doing his duty, helping the Furlings on Ascretta by harvesting resources. And who knows repairing the city." I said in reply. Hank sighed, "You look tired." I commented

"The good news is that I am indeed tired. Go ahead and if they offer you food, take it. Best way to show friendship is over a meal" Hank said.

"Coffee ?" I asked

"Nah, I'm gonna hit the sack as soon as we're done here. SGC out." Hank said,

"Odyssey out." I replied, the line went dead. I stood on the bridge a few moments as India came in, Louis had remained at his post until I let him know he was relieved. The engines were still running though so that was good.

"Good news I hope ?" India asked me. I smirked.

I sat heavily in the chair. "I wouldnt call it good, but its worth it." I told her everything I told Hank, but I also told her a bit more concerning the stwo stargates. And the possible reason for the squiggly lines for symbols.

"And you think the shipyard at Ascretta is really a city like this one, meant to orbit the planet ?" India asked me

I looked at her sidelong. "For the most part, yeah. Its possible the shipyard at Ascretta, that's what McKay referred to it as, was infact meant to be in orbit, with the planet being where the food came from. Everyone else living up in space. This city, I guess, in space is high enough in the atmosphere that the air is breathable, there's no shield to keep the atmosphere in either." I said. I smirked, "Trust McKay to also explain that there is three shipyards to orbit each planet in Furling territory. This is just one of them I think"

"So that means we can open some windows ?" India asked I started laughing. "What ?"

"We start opening windows, the last thing I want is the Furlings to get wind of our dirty laundry or worse." I told her, at that she started laughing, it was good to hear her laugh. I relaxed in The Chair. I sighed, "Oh boy, Danny's gonna be sooo upset when I tell him I got in touch with people he and the rest of SG1 have been searching for."

About five hours later and I got the invitation from Dila herself to join her for dinner. I was actually curious of what a Furling could eat. And if it was possible for a human to try it without getting sick. But just in case I had the ships infirmary readied in the case I were to show up with an upset stomach

Dila had asked directly for me and me alone, no date, she was also alone as well. Akter had either gone to cool off, or think heavily on what information could be given to us when the stargate would reopen. I had with me one of the books, written in Furling, that Mahumed's wife had a collection of. I was actually hoping that Dila could recognise the writing or even translate it.

I was in luck, I found Dila, dressed in a dark black and red gown compared to the white and gold gown I had first met her in. Her arms were bare, showing off the graywhite mix of fur coloriation, along with a long slit up both legs that went to mid upper thigh. It was modest enough to be thought provoking, but also provocative enough to be almost a scandal inducing outfit with how it seemed to just shrink against her slender form. She wore a pair of open towed dark heeled shoes. Her ears were kept back with her fur. Similarly colored I almost didnt see them at first. I almost thought she was trying to lure me into bed.

Thankfully she spotted the book I was carrying. "What is that ?" She asked me when she saw it. It seemed she had recognised the writing.

I held it out to her. "A friend of mine back on Earth, his wife collected these, there is fourteen others. I was curious if you cold read this. Maybe even translate it ?" I said to her as I held out the book to her

She gently took hold of the book, I could tell being closer to her she had a modest chest size, Now, she wasnt Eva Mendes, more like Salma Hayek maybe ? Or was that too big ? No jessica Rabbit was too big, Salma sounded right in my minds eye. My thoughts were interrupted as she opened the book.

"Can you read it ?" I asked her, she nodded.

"Yes, this is apparently anb account, the first 'year' so to speak, of a tribe of twenty five Furlings, living amid human refuse, a junk yard." She said, she found mentions of the Exodus, and also the Arrival. "Ah here we go, it says here at 'one point we were humans, I held this in my hand' apparently a staff of some kind." She translated for me a few more bits. Mostly some names, Munkustrap, Demeter, Casandra. Finally one called Nightwalker.

"Ok that name, Munkustrap, sounds familiar." I said briefly interrupting her. She looked at me. I told her what I knew from Atlantis and Daniels findings.

"This is interesting" It seems that five thousand solars ago a 'tribe of twenty five were sent from the Homeworld' that would be Ascretta, 'we arrived on Earth, in Egypt. And took the form of their Pantheon as the Messengers of Bast' It basically goes onto say that there was some form of a sundering, but its not much to go on." She said to me. She set the book on the table. "Is it alright for me to borrow this ? I shall return it to you before you leave once the Stargate is properly in place."

I thought a moment, Daniel would not like it much, but I figured, why not, "If its possible to translate it into English or even Ancient, that would be great." Daniel understood and was fluent in Ancient, so having it translated into Ancient would allow Daniel the chance to read it in full.

"I will see what I can do" Dila said, she smiled then and motioned towards the dinner table a stackof fresh meat was cooked upon it, and there looked to be some cheeses and apparently some wines ?

I joined her at the table, and she was able to explain much more to me about their history, the loss of contact with Ascretta was the most important piece, apparently the seige of Ascretta with no contact lasted more than a year; and then nothing whatsoever.

"Ascretta is not even reachable by ship, it was only reachable by Stargate, and the Ancients made sure to keep it isolated at our request" Dila said to me. I was confused by what she meant concerning such a thing, but she explained it was really to keep the Furlings safe, and in the case of another supernova, they could flee Ascretta in their City if they had to.

Instead, they fled, to Earth by some sort of magically made wormhole. Which meant that everyone that fled from Ascretta would reappear there. And all the Furlings born and died on Earth since then were also going to be reborn on Ascretta.

"You mentioned that your friend, and another, disappeared in a storm ?" Dila asked me. I nodded.

"Have any storms of any kind appeared on any of your planets ? Or even in your cities ?" I asked her. She shook her head. Maybe it was just earth and her sites, and now also Atlantis and her alphasite ?

"No, no storms here that can magically take someone from one planet, and put them on another." She smiled. We then ate further in silence. It was another hour of her asking me questions about Earth and me occasionally asking about the Flamelight Spire and how many Furlings lived on it.

I got told the rough estimate, about thirty million, not including children younger than ten years. And that was on a per planet rating, so thirty million times twelve... My brain broke I couldnt math that well.

But somehow I could save the galaxy. So I mentioned the Ori. Dila smirked. "A Prior tried to come here. But when he arrived, he knew he was in trouble. Stating he was in the wrong. We helped him see the truth, He eventually died sure, but he saw the truth." Dila explained

"Took us a while to end the Ori Cursade. Mostly because of Adria, and her followers." I said

"You did what had to be done." Dila said, "You went to another galaxy, and destroyed your most hated enemy there." She had a point

"Some of them still live." I replied to her. I had hope for their worlds though, maybe they could explore further than being a farming culture. Get them some advanced technologies to fit the bill of being in another galaxy. You couldnt be farmers forever.

Dila gave me a crystal. And by the next morning I was bushed and wanted to go to sleep, but I managed to dial the SGC and make sure the stargate connected once it was given power. With that done, Dila assured me the other stargates would contact Earth before the week was out. By that point I had to be carried to the Odyssey and put into bed.

It wasnt until we were headed back to Earth when I remembered Daniels borrowed book. I spotted two books on the table in the Odyssey's mess hall, one of them the original book, the other the translated into Ancient. Looks like Danny could get some reading in after all.