Chapter 4: Halloween Part 4

Halls of Sunnydale High – 10 PM

Joyce walked the halls of Sunnydale High looking for a student, any student who might still be at school after returning their trick or treaters despite the late hour. As she passed the boys locker room, a boy came out.

"Did you volunteer tonight?" she asked.

"Yes," said the boy.

"Have you seen any of the other volunteers?"

"Some. Mostly the ones that got their costumes at Simon's in Oxnard."

"Hmm," Joyce thought. "Could there be a connection." She looked at the boy and nodded. "And where did the others get their costumes?"

"A friend told me he was getting his here in town, at a place called Ethan's."

Onboard USS Prometheus – Same Time

Scott stood hunkered over a console shaking his head. It was taking longer than he expected to reinitialize Destiny.

"What is taking so long?" Nyota asked.

"The main computer core was offline," Scott said. "I had to bring it back online. I am reinitializing Destiny now."

For a moment there was silence and then something flickered and then slowly solidified before them.

"I am Destiny," said the female hologram.

"Wow," Becca said as she looked at the hologram. "It looks so real."

"For all intents and purposes my hologram is real. You can touch me if you like," Destiny said as she turned her attention toward Becca.

Becca did just that and her eyes widened.

Destiny looked back at her crew. "Where is Captain Jones?"

"She is on the surface of Earth," Nyota said. "We have somehow traversed into a parallel reality as well as back in time."

Becca looked at Nyota as a frown appeared on her face as she realized they had known all along the planet they orbited. "You lied to us when you said you didn't know where we were."

"We don't," Alex said. "Not completely. We know we are in orbit of Earth. But until Captain Jones along with your Commander and the Cylon talked to leader of the base on the surface. We did not know if we were stuck in our own past or a parallel reality."

At Stargate Command – Same Time

"If you will please have a seat," Hammond said when he, Shira, Ashley and Caprica Six had arrived in the briefing room with two differently uniformed young people waiting on them along with a two older men one whose voice they had heard in the background of their previous communications and the other an unknown. "Before we get on with the business at hand. There is something I want to show you." He motioned toward a video screen as he touched a button on a remote. On the screen appeared a scene from the nineteen seventy-eight TV show, Battlestar Galactica.

"Mister President, a wall of unidentified craft are closing towards the fleet," Adama said. Baltar leaned toward the President. "Possibly a Cylon welcoming committee." "May I suggest that at the very least, we launch a welcoming committee of our own?" Adama suggested.

Shira looked to Caprica and then at Hammond. "What is this?"

"This is from a television show that aired twenty years ago. In this world you all are works of fiction. Works that have somehow come to life," Hammond said.

"All of us?" Ashley asked.

Hammond nodded as he looked at Ashley. "Yes, Captain, even you. The United Federation of Planets is an organization seen in multiple television series as well as several movies."

Shira, Caprica and Ashley were shocked. They were all fictional? If that was true then who were they? Were they somehow possessing someone else's bodies? Or had they as the General had said been somehow created. Could they be clones that were given memories of a life that never existed?

"I'm a work of fiction," Shira said as Hammond slid a book across the table to her. She immediately saw the title, Battlestar Galatica. She knew of the Galactica of course, it after all was a ship of the line. But it, as well as her own ship, looked somewhat different than the one pictured on the cover.

"That is a fictional story set in the world of Battlestar Galactica," Hammond informed them.

"We have been wondering how we arrived here," Ashley said finally. "Once our business is concluded. Maybe we will be able to find out the truth."

"I hope you're right, Captain," Hammond agreed. He paused for but a moment before continuing. "We should get started, we don't have a lot of time."

"Why?" Caprica asked.

"I should start from the beginning," he said as he motioned toward a window. Shira, Ashley, and Caprica along with Hammond got up and looked out the window at a ring shaped device in the next room. "That is the Stargate. With it we are able to travel to other worlds through an artificially created wormhole. A little over two years ago we encountered the Goa'uld. They are a parasitic race that takes humans as hosts. They have set themselves up as gods and have enslaved humans all across this galaxy. We have recently learned that they are on their way here. It would be a great help if you were to assist us in repelling their ships."

"We would be happy to," Caprica said. "But not because you are asking. If you are enslaved or destroyed. The answers on our arrival may disappear with you."

"That is understandable and I can't say I wouldn't do the same in your place," Hammond said. "There is one other thing. If you have the means to affect their liberty, there is a possibility one of our teams may be on one of those ships."

"If we can," Shira said. "We will retrieve them. I assume they have some form of communication?"

"They do," Hammond said. "And since I made the assumption you would help I already have it here." He moved back to the table and picked up a sheet of paper he handed to Shira. "This has the communication frequencies of their radios. I can't say how much we owe you for your arrival, even if it was unforeseen."

"That being said, while we do ask for your aid we would be remiss to not offer tactical and strategic assistance to you at this time. Due to the fact that once it enters our system the nature of the Stargate makes it impossible for us to dial into what we have surmised is a Stargate placed upon a starship so we will be deactivating our gate here in hopes that the one aboard the Goa'uld ship becomes the alpha gate and launch a full scale assault from an off world location upon that enemy vessel. Also I would request to send along two mixed units of my officers to aid with medical care for the wounded and to brief your officers and ground troops on our enemies capabilities, tactical style, preferences and weaknesses. Also, assuming our success I've been authorized to continue negotiations for long term diplomatic relations at a location of your choosing. Since, we have been dealing directly with one another I would volunteer to go with you along with our resident experts on your tactics and technology while Major Frank Cromwell my current second in command leads the assault. Would that be acceptable to you?

Shira looked at Caprica and Ashley who nodded. "Yes General it would be," she answered.

On the Star Forge

Revan stepped into the command center. Just like the first time he had set foot in it, it was utterly deserted. Of course with a station that was fully automated, there was very little reason for there to be a crew. Revan moved to the consoles that controlled the ship building functions. "Ship building is offline."

He moved toward another console and looked over the sensor readings for the system. In particular the third planet he had been on and the ships in orbit. None of which he recognized the designs. "Interesting," he said.

Onboard Battlestar Valkyrie – 11 PM

Hammond, Major Janet Frasier-the SGC's Chief Medical Officer, two teams of medical personnel and SG-2 followed Shira into CIC. "Put us on speakers throughout the Valkyrie and broadcast this also to the Cylons and the Prometheus," Shira said.

"Yes, Commander," came the person at the communications station.

"To the crew of the Valkyrie, the Cylons and Captain Jones officers. I am standing next to General George Hammond of Earth. His people have made an enemy of a spacefaring race who they believe are on their way here. He has requested our help in repulsing this enemy," Shira said. "Caprica Six, Captain Jones and I all agree that it's in our best interests in making sure this world is safe so that we can find out how and why we got here. So we are going to lend aid. General, if you will fill everyone in."

"With me is my Chief Medical Officer, Major Janet Frasier," Hammond said. "The enemy we will be facing are the Goa'uld. They claim to be gods, they are not."

"The Goa'uld are a parasitic race," Frasier said. "They take human hosts, forcibly. The main sign that someone is a Goa'uld is that their eyes will glow. There is also a scar at the back of their neck where the Goa'uld has entered. We have found no way to successfully remove a Goa'uld from it's host. They are from what symbiotes we have been able to study gray or green in color, primarily aquatic, with powerful flippers. They can survive outside a host or an aquatic environment long enough to be able to take a new host."

"The Goa'uld have their own army of a race of genetically modified humans known as Jaffa who believe fanatically that the Goa'uld are the gods they portray. The Goa'uld use the Jaffa also as incubators, they have a pouch in their stomach so that they can carry a larval form of the symbiot," Hammond said.

"The Jaffa are reliant on the Goa'uld," Frasier added. "Without the larval Goa'uld they would die, since without it they have no immune system."

"They use …" Hammond said, "... a staff weapon, it is a plasma energy based weapon. We know very little about their ships. But what we do know is that a bomb has been able to destroy one of their vessels in the past."

"What was this bomb comprised of?" Ashley asked.

"It contained a nuclear fusion warhead," Hammond said.

"What yield?" Caprica wondered.

"We are not entirely certain because according to the report of the incident it had been enhanced with the material that comprises the Stargate. We call it Naquadah. Our main scientist on the matter has even theorized that since the warhead was modified it actually changed the nature of explosion in ways we do not yet understand."

"I see," Caprica said.

"The Jaffa will fight to the death," said Major Louis Ferreti, the team leader of SG-2. "They believe death is the honorable thing and what their "god" demands of them."

"We have a team that could be onboard one of those ships," Hammond said. "One of the members of this team is a Jaffa by the name of Teal'c, he is our ally having renounced his position as what he calls the First Prime, the Goa'uld's commander of his forces, and joined our side."

"We have agreed to try and rescue this team," Shira said. "On the flight back from the surface Captain Jones, Caprica Six and I have agreed to a course of action. Viper's and Cylon Raiders will be launched to fight the Goa'uld's own fighters should they have them. Caprica Six will lead a team of Cylons to a Goa'uld ship, with Captain Reidel will take a company of marines to a second ship, should their be one. The Valkyrie, Cylon Basestar and Prometheus will attempt to disable or capture the enemy vessels. We agreed that we should try and take the crew and enemy pilots alive if at all possible, despite the fact they might fight to the death. While doubtful they could hold knowledge about astronomical phenomena that might have brought us here."

"It is doubtful," Hammond said. "But I agree it is possible."

"Commander," called the XO. "Two unknown vessels just appeared on Dradis.

Onboard Apophis Ha'tak – Same Time

Herak, the First Prime of Apophis, entered Apophis' quarters. He found Apophis standing at a window looking out. "My lord there are three unknown ships in orbit of the planet."

"Tell Klorel to begin the attack. Even if the Tau'ri have managed to obtain space travel. Their ships should pose no threat to us."

Her'ak bowed and left.