The raiding party returns to base with some gifts. Also, at the end of the chapter there is a teaser for what would be the sequel to this story.


A Prior and a yellow sun: these were the two unique features necessary for this mission. Of course there were the usual requirements: a stargate, breathable air, solid terrain. But those were foregone conclusions. PX083005 had all of the above.

The second wave, if only three people could be considered a wave, had just gone through the gate to PX-whatever. The gateroom was silent now, except for some computer processes. Then of course there was the quiet chatter of Dr. McKay, incessantly muttering to himself something too low for O'Neill to hear.

O'Neill knew better than to concern himself with McKay's eccentricities. He made them Carter's responsibility. O'Neill's responsibility was the mission, the people on it, and the security of his base.

He ran over the team one more time in his head. There was the Kent kid, and Grayson. Both were captains, but Kent was more experienced. Both would sacrifice themselves for the others, as they all would. But if given that choice-Kent stood a better chance of surviving a Prior's assault than Grayson.

The nature of Clark Kent and the others, led to one of the dilemmas bantering within O'Neill's mind: did Earth have the right to exploit them for their abilities? Kent was almost indestructible within a yellow star system. Diana Prince, Allen, and Parker were also gifted, if you will, and being used for their abilities. With Grayson it felt different because he was human, without genetic, or perhaps racial differences. It was the same with…

At this moment the alarm sounded, and with that the announcement from Harriman, "Scheduled off-world activation; possible incoming hostiles, coming Hot!" A squad from a heavy weapons SF combat platoon was in the gateroom. All precautions would be taken so that they would not be needed, but just in case…

The gate swirled blue, as it normally does. Then, according to protocol, Herriman activated the iris, and Carter prepared the matter transfer. Without any signal, Carter seamlessly transferred two life forms from the stargate's matter stream, into a transporter buffer.

"Two signals in the buffer, one human, and a human-arachnid hybrid," she reported, aiming the comment to no one in particular, but O'Neill took it as his own personal information.

"That would be Grayson and Parker. The others?"

"Two more signals coming up now: one Kryptonian, and one Amazon. Bio-filters show them clean."

"Shut down the gate, and materialize our friends," ordered O'Neill, adding, "If something goes wrong, I'd like them in the fight." Carter complied.

O'Neill miked into the gateroom, "How'd it go?"

Kent, in the blue suit with the red cape responded, "Fine."

"Did you hold back?"

Kent rolled his eyes, "Yes."

The plan had been for Clark Kent, aka Superman, to refrain from using his strength so that his full capabilities would remain a mystery to the Ori. Kent was a modest person and felt the whole thing a bit awkward.

Now came the hard part, waiting. But in the meantime, there before O'Neill's eyes, in truly comical get-ups with even more comical pseudonyms stood: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Spiderman. "Batman" he kind of understood, the notion of bringing fear into the hearts of villains and all, but the others just seamed cheesy.

"Really, who comes up with these names? Should I just call myself 'Computer Man', or 'Super Genius'?"

There was a chorus that responded in unison, "Shut-up, McKay!" O'Neill hated that he agreed with the man, but he would never admit that publicly-especially to McKay.

"They are not gods," he added, "and neither are these Priors or their Ori."

Harriman couldn't resist, "In today's news, Super-Genius was felled by a lemon-juice ray

gun."

McKay started to snarl his face and point his finger. O'Neill could already hear the whiny speech about the dangers of lemons and the various physical ailments that would befall 'Super-Genius' when he came into contact with them.

"Knock it off. Let's focus on the job at hand. We know they are not omnipotent, which is the whole reason for this mission," ordered O'Neill. McKay whimpered like a whipped puppy.

O'Neill now noticed the Admiral standing in the corner of the control room. She stood silently with her arms folded, and a scowl on her face. Next to her was a man, probably in his fifties, with a silly grin on his. He had his hands on his hips so that his elbows were bent in the shape of a triangle. O'Neill recognized the man from the diplomatic mission. He had accompanied the Admiral at that time as well.

"Wow! Another galaxy. You know I was taken to another planet once-with my friend…" This was the first time O'Neill had heard him speak. He was excited by what was going on so much so that everyone around him felt slightly awkward. The Admiral did not. She did not even try to humor him. He coughed, and then nervously scratched his eyebrow with his index finger. He briefly widened his eyes, then relaxed them again. His posture remained awkward, but the grin never left his face.

The governing bodies-that-be had authorized a limited military response to the attack on Ambassador Smith and her team almost two months ago. Even the President, a successful military commander, thought a War Declaration imprudent, if not justified.

There was, of course, a standing authorization that the SGC defend three systems: Abydos, Chulak, and the planet which housed the Alpha site, PX-1307, O'Neill's current location. O'Neill had felt that the orders left some of their allies in the cold, but the Admiral reminded him that they could not defend the entire galaxy against the Ori. So far the Ori's ships had only engaged the Goa'uld, in addition to a few encounters with Free Jaffa, and one brief encounter with two Earth ships.

Earth's individual ships were more powerful than the classic Hatek vessels, but there weren't enough of them to defend more than a few systems. And without help from the Asgard, there were currently only three ships in the Andromeda galaxy that they even hoped could go toe to toe with an Ori mother-ship. One of those ships was Baal's super-ship, dubbed by Earth honchos as the Anubis Class. No one was sure how much more of a threat the Anubis class was to the Ori than the standard Hateks, but it had better shielding and more weapons. The Free Jaffa were well into the process of building a second Anubis Class starship, and about to start a third.

The alarm sounded again and was followed by Herriman's voice, "Scheduled off-world activation, possible incoming hostiles, coming hot!" The weapons squad tensed up. There was a second squad in the hall.

"Carter."

"Colonel, the buffer shows a hyper-metabolized human, now four humans, one with serious genetic modifications. Two of the three humans are ours, Sir. I believe the fourth life-form is a Prior."

"Do we have the staff?" He put the identity of what was assumed to by a Prior on the backburner.

"Yes. At least I think it is. It is similar to the readings we received from the Goa'uld."

O'Neill wondered what had happened. Everyone looked at the Colonel. Finally Carter asked, "Orders, Sir?"

"Materialize the humans. Hold the Prior in the buffers and materialize the staff behind a force-field in the lab."

With that order, three more humans materialized. One was Barry Allen, aka, the Flash. One was a frightened Ori soldier. There was no sign of the third human.

O'Neill rolled his eyes and miked in, "Skaara, stop messin' around."

Then out of nowhere appeared a darkly skinned young man with long, black dreadlocked hair, dressed in a strange red suite with a black cape. He was grinning from ear to ear. O'Neill came down to greet them.

His first task was to arrange for the prisoner. Upon orders, the squad in the hall took their prisoner to the sick bay. He was to receive a thorough medical exam, and then food. Then they would debrief him.

O'Neill marched into the midst of the men, and women in the gateroom. "Now why did we deviate from the plan?"

"O'Near, you are not happy with us?"

"Skaara, I am glad you are back, but the plan was just to get a staff." O'Neill had no idea what the consequences of nabbing a prior would be. Behind O'Neill was the man with the silly grin.

"So it worked for you again, huh? I never really figured out how the suit worked," said the man, nervous and excited, bouncing his body up and down while never leaving the ground.

"Would you mind? I am dealing with him first," said O'Neill, clearly upset with the young man.

"It worked great, he never saw me, Ralph," responded Skaara .

"Skaara, get ready for debriefing." O'Neill looked at the Admiral in the window of the control-room, who was not pleased. Great, O'Neill thought, a superhero who won't follow orders.

He went back up into the control room followed by Ralph Hinkley, the man who had gifted the strange red suit with super-powers to Skaara. When he reached the Admiral he threw his hands up in the air, "What do we do now?"

"We pass the buck," she said. "I will report everything to the SGC in the Milky Way for the administration to mull over with the legislatures. For now, put the Prior in stasis."

"What about our rogue super-hero issue?"

The Admiral thought for a minute, "He is the responsibility of the Abydonian Government, and he may have done us a favor, it's hard to say."

"I guess I'll just read him the riot act about following orders, since he is under my command," responded O'Neill.

With that, Admiral Janeway left by gate with Hinkley for Abydos to report on the mission to the Milky Way. O'Neill chuckled at the thought that-like something he himself might do, Skaara took a risk that they all hoped would pay off in nabbing both the staff, and the Prior that came with it.


This story is 30 years in the future-and part of the same universe as the story "A History of the Federation".