Just over a week after seeing the Milky Way at a distance the Retribution arrived at her first destination, Earth. It opened a hyperspace window a few thousand kilometers outside the moon's orbit and and returned to normal space to find twenty ships guarding the planet.

"Captain, we're being hailed."

"Let me hear it," Katana said.

-Unidentified ship size all action and prepare to be searched,- a dark and heavy voice sounded on every frequency.

"On whose authority?" Sheppard had been standing behind the captain's chair, but now he walked up to the hidden pedestal and summoned it up from the floor.

-On the authority of the Supreme Earth Nobility we order you to do as instructed or you will be fired upon.-

"I don't take well to threats, especially threats you can't follow up with." Everyone on the bridge had been sitting silent and did not dare to move a muscle, they had all heard the rumors about what the Colonel did when he was pushed. But he was calm and composed. He knew well what he had to work with and the sensors had already shown him what the hostile ships were packing. "Simple railguns and missiles will not be of any use here."

-You are standing against the most advanced ships ever produced by the S.E.N, do as you are ordered or face the consequences.-

"We can't take them all Sheppard," Katana said behind him.

"I'm not planning on taking them on either." A thought from Sheppard activated the ship's cloak and closed the channel. "There's no way for them to hit what they can't see." He then activated the locked FTL drive which was installed for quick jumps to and from places of interests. It had been installed to work specifically with the cloak to increase the efficiency of the ship as a scout and now it was used to circle around Earth in mere moments. Still under cloak panels in the Retribution's hull shifted to expose the hangar where a single jumper was preparing for deployment. Within seconds the jumper was moving down through the atmosphere towards Antarctica while the Retribution performed a short FTL jump away from the solar system. Once it was away from prying eyes and sensors the Retribution shut down the FTL drive and dropped the cloak. The ship was visible to sensors and the naked eye for only half a second before it opened a hyperspace window and disappeared once again.

A chime at the door caught Jack's attention and he looked up from the report he was reading. It was a dry report about the workings of modern planetary economics with regard to hidden cave systems that someone had said would be important for him to read if they planned to expand into a proper empire. But so far the only insight it had given him was why all powerful leaders had advisors so this was a most welcome interruption. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal Sam with a tablet in her hands. "I'm not disturbing am I?"

"You know you actually do, so come on in," he said and threw the rapport to the side in a pile of other half-read reports.

"Another one you're going to read later?"

"Something like that." He knew that she knew he would not read it later, but he did not care, he was at the top of the chain of command and no one could tell him what to read. "Now what brings you here?"

"I came to deliver this report." She handed him the tablet but he just put it on the desk along with some of the other things he needed to go through.

"Just give me the short version."

"We have finished the field testing of the new Asuran prototypes and I have signed of on them, the chance that they will become a threat to us should be minimal."

"Great, then we can speed up the repairs to the shipyard and get Teal'c and the expedition moving."

"Yes. I have taken the liberty of creating a training program for nanite handlers to increase the number of people who can use them properly."

"You're free to do as you wish with them Carter as long as they're safe and effective."

"Thank you Sir."

"Sure. How long until you can have the shipyard operating at normal capacity?"

"I don't even know what normal capacity is Sir. But we should be able to have Athyl fully repaired in a matter of months with enough handlers."

"Well then, you better get back so we can have that shipyard ready soon."

"I actually hoped to talk to you about that. I had hoped that someone would be relieving me soon Sir. I know we have people here on Atlantis capable of performing oversight duty who are sit around doing nothing."

"You have something you'd rather be doing?"

"With McKay gone I had hoped to help Zelenka lead the research department."

"That's not going to happen at the moment. What's most important at the moment is that we can get Teal'c going. I think checking out four galaxies will take him long enough without the delays of putting you on R&D."

"Yes Sir." Her mood had dropped quite a bit by the news. Any normal day she knew that Jack would have done it without putting up too much of a fight, but now he did not budge.

"No need to go sour over that, I'll have someone relieve soon." He had been digging through one of the piles of papers and tablets and pulled out a tablet which was close to the bottom of the pile. "But I have a side task I think should suite you just fine."

"What is it Sir?"

"Something to keep you occupied on Athyl until someone relieves you, as long as things go smooth on Athyl I think you could work on this, on the side of course. You can check the tablet when you're back on Athyl."

"Yes Sir, thank you." With those words she grabbed the tablet from his hand and walked out of the small office."

It was nice to be working in familiar settings, like those of McMurdo Air Force Base, and not some dark and damp village in the backwaters of Pegasus or in the deep jungles of South America. Here he could sterilise his equipment and perform surgeries without flies landing in the wound. He got to help those that needed his help the most just like he always wanted to. He just had one small problem, he was trying to repair his best friends left arm, without any anesthetic. Helping him were three nurses and another doctor, the patient's girlfriend. To top it all of each and everyone in the room had a bodyguard, some low level privates who did not seem to have taken a shower in weeks and they were not there to keep them safe but rather to keep them in check. If anyone tried anything they would be on the receiving end of their guns.

"Carson, care to finish any time soon?" the patient scowled, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry Rodney." The apology seemed to be ignored by his patient who kept complaining.

It took another couple of hours to patch up the arm as good as they could with what they had. Then the guards rolled out the patient, Rodney would get to rest for a few days before he was sent back out into the crater with the rest. Rodney had just been rolled out when the guards came back with the next patient. Six hours of sleep each day was apparently all the guards thought anyone but themselves needed. What was important however was that they had just managed to implant a new tracker into Rodney's arm without anyone noticing during the surgery. When the others came to rescue them they would at least have some way of finding them and that hope was what kept them going under the abuse of their guards. Another thing that kept them going was the comradery between those kept there, everyone had been with the SGC at some point. But to avoid rescue from the former SGC personnel everyone had their subspace transmitters ripped out when they were brought there. He had had to dig out his own when he was brought there. He had been tending to some people wounded in the battle between the Alterran and Goa'uld ships in Europe when they came to collect him. The hospital's guards and the soldiers he tended to had been killed before his eyes as their capturers had come to collect him. Rodney had been collected from a crashed jumper minutes after the explosion and his girlfriend had been sleeping in their bed in their house in Chippewa Falls when they kicked down the door and pulled her outside in her underwear.

"Preparing to leave hyperspace," the nav officer said

"I want gunners on the four main guns and twelve of the turrets," Katana roared out.

A couple of seconds later the ship dropped out a few kilometers in front of the gate. As far as the sensors could detect there was nothing but the Ori supergate out there but they still retracted the armour plates which covered the weapons they deployed. Normally all weapons and the hangar was covered by thick armour plates but when they deployed the plates would move aside. While this was happening Sheppard had arrived on the bridge and had begun to dial the gate. A few seconds later the gate activated and the wormhole formed.

"The Phaeacians have arrived to bring you home." General O'Neill had forced him to remember the passphrase which he was to send to the Odyssey.

-Then the Odyssey will return home.- The response came and the gate shut down, within a second it begun to dial in.

"Man all weapons." Shepard's tone left little to argue about and he could feel the rest of the weapons deploy through the pillar. He knew something was wrong on the Odyssey, their reply should have been: Then Odyssey have finished her journey, for now. A thought from him activated the ship's cloak and gave the pilot a set of coordinates.

"I thought this ship was yours?" Katana's voice was filled to the brim with suspicion.

"So did I. But I don't think our people are in control any more." His head was going from side to side faster than anyone thought possible before his gaze locked onto one of his men. "You, take over here. If anything other than the Odyssey comes through that gate you take it out with the drones. Cloak and use the FTL drive if things get too ugly."

"Yes Sir," the man said. He had been brought along to assist the Travelers if the crew got stuck on any system, but now it seemed he got a new role. Of course Sheppard had brought along people to help with just about everything else on the ship too, something he was happy he had done at the moment. "Crown, Cadman you're with me. Major Gant, what do you need to pilot the Odyssey?"

"Two capable men at the least Sir," came a quick response from the woman who was standing at the back of the bridge with the other two women.

"Cooper, Kleinman, that's your que. Lieutenant Edison's team will be you escort."

"Yes Sir" rang out, but he had already stormed past them towards the hangar.

Outside the ship the gate finished dialing and the wormhole formed. Somewhere from the other side a message was transmitted on repeat. -Those who are prideful and refuse to bow down shall be laid low and made into dust.-