Fallen Heroes: Book One Version 2

by SeanKR

The Survivors of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol are searching for what they believe is the long lost thirteenth tribe on a planet known as Earth. The first clues on their journey are found on the long lost mother planet for them Kobol. Heading into an area of space where they believe they will find Earth and hopefully sanctuary and a new start while on the run still from the Cylons.

2. First Contact Sorta

Foreword

Ok here is the long awaited second Chapter, and again I apologize for the long wait, my muse is sometimes very fickle. For those of you who thought I had killed off Jack O'Neill (and you know who you are) for shame! And now off we go.

Chapter 2

Wraith Controlled Earth

Wraith Hive Cells

May 4, 2013 Time unknown.

Almost everyone in existence goes through their entire lives never even realizing that every single day they lose just a little bit more of their life. This is a truism for nearly all life forms in the universe. Everyday that goes by is just one less day we have to live our lives. It is fortunate that as a species humans while having an awareness of time and how little we actually have of it in the universe. We are able to ignore, or are blissfully unaware of our ever dwindling life energy. That is, of course, until you run across the Wraith!

Jack O'Neill had read all the reports on the wraith, seen every interview with both the victims and survivors. He had even debriefed Col. Sheppard after his capture by the rouge Genii officer Koyla. But nothing, absolutely nothing could prepare him for the actual experience of being feed on by the Wraith. To actually feel his life energy being drained was definitely not an experience he ever wanted to have. Why they kept draining him only to revive him latter though he did not understand, save for maybe either sick pleasure or another attempt to break him. And they had been doing it now for weeks if not months, if he is any judge of time. He looked at it like this though, he had survived Ba'al he'll survive this. And maybe get a chance to payback a few wraith personally.

Currently he is lying in his cell a near emaciated corpse, would be his description, which is were the Wraith left him last night. They do this to him every now and again, drain him and leave him with just enough life to make it till the next day. Sometimes they come in just before he is about to die and return what they took, other times they wait until after he has passed and then bring him back. Like he has thought before, so not fun, and so not original.

He has to resist the urge to wish they would just let him die, because once he starts thinking like that he knows they'll have won. Instead he keeps thinking of Sam and of protecting her, and by extension the last remnants of hope left for Earth. It is as he is thinking of this small hope that the doors (or web depending on your definition) of his cell opens. Three Wraith enter his cell with the leader walking over to him. The Grunts stand inside the cell by the door ready for anything. Yeah right like he would be able to do anything even if he wasn't chained up, he could barely breathe right now let alone lift his arms.

Right now 'Jeff' (Jack had started calling him Jeff after the first time this wraith drained him and brought him back) is standing over Jack as if he is waiting for him to say or do something. After a few minutes 'Jeff' kneels down next to Jack and slaps his feeding hand on his chest. Within seconds Jack begins to feel his strength returning to him, as his skin and muscles begin to rejuvenate from the returning of his life force. Now while Jack would never call this part of the process unpleasant he will refuse to call it euphoric because he knows that way leads to a trap. It doesn't take long for Jack's life force to be returned to what it was but for some reason 'Jeff' seems to keep his hand on Jack's chest longer than normal. While Jack does register this it is regulated to the back of his mind were he will hopefully process it latter.

Once 'Jeff' removed his hand from Jack's chest the two grunt's at the side of the door immediately moved to him and forcefully got him to his feet and remove his chains from the wall. They than started walking Jack out of his cell and into the hallway with 'Jeff ' in the lead. It takes a few moments but soon Jack begins to regain his composure and is walking under his own power. Once he does the grunts just make sure he goes in the correct direction and let him walk on his own. He doesn't register it consciously but somewhere in the back of his mind he realizes that his knees aren't hurting him anymore for some reason. It takes a few minutes but once he gets his bearings and is under his own power Jack begins doing what he does best annoy his captures.

"So 'Jeff' where to now, nicer accommodations maybe, I hope so could use a nice rock for a pillow instead of my arm"

"You know you guy's should really do something about the decor in these places dungeon chic was so last season even when the Goa'uld were in power, perhaps some nice floral prints. Or is that the Queen's preview not yours."

"Speaking of the Queen is she who we are going to see cause you know I'm not really presentable, you guy's didn't even capture me in my dress uniform you know."

"Now the Asurans they at least knew how to keep prisoners, and I was in my dress blues for them, so I was at least presentable."

"Guess she's really not that picky though considering how you guy's are dressed. Although she is a queen she really should.." before he could continue though 'Jeff' whirled around and for a moment looked as if he was about to strike O'Neill in the chest with his feeding hand. Instead his feeding hand hovers an inch over Jack's chest as 'Jeff' growls before he looks at Jack and say's. "You know, I am just glad that after today you are no longer MY problem."

Jack decided that for the moment silence was golden, besides he had gained valuable intel in this. He was being transferred to someone else's care, someone other than the Queen, and that rankled her second. He might be able to use that, somehow. Soon enough though they arrive at their destination. And Jack prepares himself for some type of torture or perhaps some form of persuasion.

What he does not expect in fact it is the furthest thing from his mind is what he sees when the door opens, A Lab. As he takes a quick look around, he notices a few pieces of similar equipment from his many visits to Carter's Lab. He also notices three armored individuals, who for some reason strike a cord in his memory, working on a device that catches and holds his attention as two of the armored beings walk over to him and take him from the grunts. While they drag Jack towards the device in the center of the room, Jacks thoughts are not on why their technology seems so similar to tech he has seen before and not more reminiscent of wraith tech. Nor are his thoughts on why these armored individuals are strangely familiar to him. No his thoughts, as his head is forced into the device against his will, are how much he hates the headaches he always gets from these ancient knowledge download machines.

March 5, 2013

Unnamed System

250 ly/from Atlantis

17:50 Atlantis Local Time.

Captain William Harris sat in his office reviewing the reports from his battle group from the last 24 hours. The flight here though short was enough to confirm that the hyperdrives were in fact perfectly fine. Not that they had thought there would be a problem but it never hurts to be sure. It took less then a minute to verify that they were in fact alone in the system, once confirmed Capt. Harris ordered his ships to one of the two asteroid belts. Once they arrived he had ordered each of the ships to break off and select their targets and thoroughly test each of their new weapons systems.

He was understandably impressed with the new DBRG and the amount of fire it could put out. Both the point defense guns and the main guns displayed an impressive amount of fire. Nothing however could prepare him for the M.A.C. gun though. Even at low power that weapon is truly terrifying to go up against in his opinion. He almost could not wait to try this weapon against the wraith. Preliminary reports from the Des Moines and Lexington's assigned to his group looked good as well. His XO should be bringing him the final reports soon as well as the reports from the battle drills they had been running most of the day and night since arriving in system. Satisfied for the moment with the reports he looks at the picture frame on his desk of his wife and children.

A knock on his door cause's him to look up, still with a slight smile on his face before saying, "Enter."

The door opens and in comes Comdr. Robert Hayes the executive officer of the Excelsior and Bill Harris's best friend for over 20 years. "Hey Capt.," Hayes starts, "Got those final reports for you on the new weapons upgrades as well as the reports on the battle drills we've been running on the group."

"Come on in Bob," Harris say's, "close the door and sit down, tell me what you've got and how we did."

Robert Hayes closed the door and moves over to the front of his desk and sat in one of the two chairs situated there. As he sit's down and prepared his tablet to give his reports he noticed his best friend and Capt. of over 20 years looking not at his laptop, but the picture frame sitting on his desk. Knowing exactly who it was Bill Harris was thinking about Bob speaks already knowing the answer, "Have you heard from Leslie and the kid's yet?"

Bill looked to his long time friend and answered truthfully," No, but I didn't expect to hear anything just yet anyway." he paused for a moment before continuing "most if not all of the off world sites are still under lock down until we are sure they aren't compromised. We probably won't hear anything for awhile yet. But I am pretty sure she got out with the kids. They where assigned to the 4th evacuation group, headed for either the Delta or Epsilon site, How about Janice you hear anything from her or the kid's?"

Bob got a slight smile on his face as he looked at his friend and co and said "She was able to send a brief message before she went out with the sixth group, basically she said she and the kids were fine and I quote 'Bob you have some splaining to do'" he laughed "she always did like I Love Lucy as a kid."

Bill joined his friend in the laugh knowing as Bob had said that he himself would have more than a few things to explain to his own wife as well. He get's up from his desk and goes to his coffee machine pouring himself a cup as well as one for his friend. Giving one to Bob he returns to his seat and say's, "Yeah, I imagine we will all have to do that at some point for all our loved ones Bob."

"True enough Capt., but something tells me I would rather face the entire wraith fleet than an angry wife."

Laughing Bill Harris thought of his own wife and could not help but agree with his executive officer on his assessment of both their spouses. He also realized that his friend was most probably trying, and in his opinion succeeding in lightening his previous melancholy mood. Looking to his friend and college with a slight smile he can tell that is exactly what Bob Hayes did, of course he doesn't say it they have known each other long enough that for some things words of thanks and appreciation don't always need to be spoken, instead Bill Harris takes a sip of his coffee and looks to the tablet that his XO placed face down on his desk to take a drink from his own cup of coffee. "So what have you got for me Bob." he say's bringing the conversation back to the business at hand.

Putting his coffee cup back on the Captains desk and picking up his tablet, Comdr. Harris unlocked the device and opened the reports his Capt. had requested. He than looks to his Capt. and "Do you want the full report for each ship, or should I just sum it up for you?"

Sipping some of his coffee Bill looks at his XO and replies, "Just hit me with the highlights Bob, I'll read the full reports latter before preparing my own report for Gov. Carter-O'Neill & Gen. Sheppard."

"Ok, here we go," Bob started, "essentially all the Captain's of the Des Moines, and the Lexington's, are very pleased with the upgrades." Pausing to take another sip from his coffee before continuing, " The overall opinion is that they finally feel able to fulfill the support role their ships where intended for when they were built." Pausing again this time to check his notes from the reports, "The only concern they all seem to share is the limited 'ammo' the vacuum batteries offer for the time being. As long as we don't hit any Major engagement's though, they all agree we should be fine till the Mk 3X is ready. Now as far as the group battle drills, at first our efficiency was below 80% for an overall combat group, by the time we finished a couple of hours ago, we got it back up to approximately 93% where it belongs. Apparently we just needed to shake off the rust a bit. "

"Good," Bill replies, "let's space the drills out a little bit now, make sure all shifts are up to par, anything else?"

Robert Hayes gets a look on his face Bill can't quite decipher before he begins. "Yeah, the Captain of the Des Moines Commander Luther Elton sent over an article 15 file for a possible elevation to Court Marshal proceedings. Apparently Seaman first Class Eric Turner improperly reloaded a vacuum battery during their final phase of test firings in the forward port battery, and jammed a flat head screw driver in between the recess and the battery to try and get it out." Sighing and looking at the report Bob than continued. "Unfortunately power was still on in the system and the screw driver fused to the recess. The Chief in charge of the area and the Chief Engineer got it repaired with some of the spares they had on board, so it should be fine, and before you ask Seaman Turner survived as well. Though he did get quite a shock even with insulated gloves on and the insulation on the screwdriver which got melted off. However he is being charged with possible dereliction of duty as well as damage to the ship. Comdr. Elton had a Captains mast for Turner, gave him 15 days and confined him to quarters."

"Great, sounds like he's handled it than why bring it up to me Bob?"

Comdr. Robert Hayes looked at his friend like he had just claimed he was a Goa'uld, "We are in a state of War Captain, declared or not, Comdr. Elton sent you the file to review to see if this warrants an elevation to a Court Martial or not as per protocol."

Bill Harris rubbed his right hand against his forehead and blew out a breath out through his mouth. The absolute last thing they needed right now was a Court Marshall hearing, in his opinion that could be just about the final blow that their remaining forces morale could take. Despite his own personal feelings on the matter though he still needed to look over the case and if necessary file for a formal Court Marshal. If it came to that he could only hope either General Sheppard or Gov. Carter-O'Neill felt the kid deserved another shot. Bill looked to his friend and XO resigning himself he say's, "Alright Bob, send me the file I'll look it over and give Elton my answer tomorrow, make sure you include the kid's jacket for reference."

"Aye, aye Captain already sent it to your inbox."

Checking his computer Bill noticed the e-mail from his XO with the file attachment. Opening the file he say everything he had requested included. Closing the file as he did not want to get into it at that moment Bill looked to his XO and indicated that he should continue taking another sip of his coffee.

Bob checked his tablet again for the next item on the agenda, "Last piece of 'official' business boss, got a sub-space message for your eyes only from a 'Ghost Leader' it's secured so only you can access it, should be on your system."

Bill checked the system and noticed the message entering his security code decrypted the message so that he could open it. He spent the next minute or two reading the report from 'Ghost Leader', which caused his right eyebrow to rise immediately spiking the interest of his friend. Before he could ask about the message though the Captain touched his earpiece and spoke, "Bridge this is the Captain speaking."

"This is the bridge, Lt. Williams Duty Officer speaking, how can I help you Captain?" came back the reply.

"Lt.?" the Capt. said questionably looking at his watch, "Where is Lt. Comdr. Evers Lt. he is supposed to be the Command Duty Officer for this shift."

Lt. Williams voice creaked as he replied, "Yes sir he is sir, he ...is indisposed at the moment sir."

"Indisposed Lt. explain please?" The Captain replied.

Bill Harris heard a slight groan from Lt. Williams and than a sigh before he nervously replied, "He's on the head sir!"

The Captain then relieved the young Lt. "It's alright Lt. when he get's back inform him I am sending a file to the on duty comms officer, tell them to run it through our standard translation protocol's, if they have to they are authorized to run it through the Asgard station. Also have them flash send a copy back to Atlantis for Dr. Jackson to listen to as well. Confirm." Bill finished.

A reply from the bridge came back a few seconds latter, "Confirmed sir, Ensign Riggs is beginning to run it through now, do you wish to be notified on her progress or when it's completed?"

"Negative Lt., just Have Mr. Evers note it in the ship's log, only notify me if anything unusual or out of the ordinary occurs, Captain out." And with that Bill Harris cut the connection with the bridge and turned his attention back to Bob Hayes. Smiling slightly Bill say's to his friend "You got anything else 'official' we need to talk about Bob?"

Robert Hayes could not help but smile, "You know what I am going to ask you about sir, I mean you order the group to shut down sensors for 10 minutes once we arrive in system. During that time the entire crew from the starboard flight deck is told to stay out, as that covered squadron is launched. And then once sensors are back online, there is no sign of them anywhere. You never said I couldn't know about them, just that there wasn't any way to tell me at the time. So what are they sir?"

William Harris smiled at his friend and executive officer, he knew him so well. Ever since the deck chief from the starboard bay called up to the bridge the other day he could tell he wanted to know about those birds. Truth is when the Governor and Gen. Sheppard told him they were putting them on his ship, and gave him the spec's for the 'fighters' he was a bit shocked as well, course when the Squadron Leader gave him the full debrief on their trip through the Nebulae, that was when the real shock hit him. He is just surprised his friend restrained himself for this long. "I don't know Bob, I don't think your really enthused enough about them."

Laughing at the look on his friends face Bill decides he has teased him enough," Relax Bob, I'm just messing with you. Besides I decided the other day I would let you know if you asked."

Bob looked at his friend and commanding officer with a slight glare, sometimes he swears if Bill Harris wasn't his best friend..., well he decides best not go there. "Well if you're done teasing me 'sir' mind telling me, what the hell was up with those fighters"

Bill Harris lightly laughed and Bob Hayes joined in, after a few minutes Bill began the explanation of exactly what the hidden fighters were. About fifteen minutes into the capabilities of the new squadron Comdr. Robert Hayes face showed a look of awe that remained for the rest of the meeting.

March 6, 2013

Unknown System

01:30 Atlantis Local Time

Third shift is normally the most boring onboard ship at least that is the opinion of nearly everyone who serves during that shift. Everyone that is except for Lt. Comdr. Eric Peterson, he is the third shift commander. For him this is his chance to prove he is capable of commanding a ship of his own one day. Six months ago he would have given his right arm to serve on an Arlie Burke Destroyer. Until that is he got picked to serve on the Excelsior. Now if he can't get command of a Daedalus class one day he definitely wants a Des Moines. He would take a Lexington if there was no other choice but seeing as he was never a pilot doesn't think it would be a good fit.

Sitting at the Helm & Navigation Station he looks over the Status of the ship and the Battle Group since their arrival in the system. He, like all the sift commanders, could do this from the command chair. However being third generation navy he believes the Command chair is for the Captain only. That is why he sit's his watch at the con station, as it is sometimes called, going over the reports and updates. Closing the ships status updates, he opens up the sensor log reports. Noting that the fleet they are tracking has moved yet closer to this system since the battle group arrived. They are now less than ten light years away, and look to be heading for the system they were in. He updated the ship's log with the information, making certain to note their position, number and prospective type of each craft.

The last report he looked at was a survey of the system they where in. He noted that most of the bodies in the system where made up of a lot of common elements. Mostly nickel, iron, and cooper, though there was some titanium, platinum, and a small amount of gold. Little to no, naquadah, or trinium was present in the system. And none of the planet's or moons where habitable at all. There was one element that did seem to be in abundance that he had never seen before. He had to check the Asgard database to identify it actually, they called it Uru.

According to the database the Asgard used to use uru for several different functions not the least of which was powering their ships. Apparently once liquefied uru packed quite a punch energy wise. Until of course the meet the Ancient's, that was when they were introduced to naquadah, which far out performed uru in power production. Though they still used uru right up to the end, they just didn't use it for power production anymore. While he did find this interesting, historically speaking, it had little bearing on their current needs so he filed it into the overall ship's status report to be sent to the Captain for review.

Before he could open up the next report concerning fighter and flight crew status of the Excelsior, he hears a louder than normal expletive coming from Lt. JG Ashley Williams at the Comm. station. Getting up from the con station he goes over to the young Lt. and gently lays a hand on her shoulder as he asks her, "Is there a problem, Lt. Williams?"

Somewhat startled by his approach, Lt. Williams looked over her shoulder to see her shift commander, and realized she must have exclaimed her frustration aloud. Looking somewhat embarrassed at the lack of professionalism, she reigns in her emotions a second before replying to her senior officer, "I'm sorry for outcry sir. It's just this language is a real conundrum sir."

"How so Lt.?" Peterson asks the young officer, not really knowing how to help her but hoping that through her talking about it she might think of a way to work it out.

William's than began to explain the issue to her C.O. "Well sir, the problem we are having is the language these people are using doesn't correspond to any known variation of Goa'uld, Altaran, even Wraith that we know of. I have even tried some of the Furling, and Nox that we have in the database, nothing."

Eric can defiantly see how upsetting this could be to the young Lt. "What about the translation programs the I.O.A. and the S.G.C. developed, won't they help?"

Williams looks at the screen shaking her head negative and explains "No sir, the bureaucrats at the I.O.A. did not see the reason for installing a 'complete' language translation software onto our ships. So the only language's we can translate are the ones we have run across already."

Lt. Comdr. Peterson inwardly rolled his eyes at the stupidity of the I.O.A. sometimes. The organization had been the bane of the SGC and Homeworld Command for years, and looked to continue to trouble their efforts even after their demise. Looking to the young Lt. he asked "What about the Asgard station, doesn't that have some type of translation software?"

"Yes sir it does, but as with most things the Asgard did, there is a security lock out on the Asgard station preventing anyone from accessing anything but the most basic function's. According to Dr. West we should be able to unlock it remotely with the Asgard core on Atlantis, but apparently we have to wait till tomorrow to do it. Until then we are attempting to translate manually, so far we've got it about 20% done, it's just a very strange language sir."

"Strange in what way Lt." Peterson asked hoping she kept her answer in terms she could understand.

Williams looked to her shift commander and began explaining," Well sir first off we are picking up at least 12 different dialects, so right off the bat, that in and off itself is strange. And while there are similarities no two dialects are the same. Another thing is the dialects themselves seem to have similarities to ancient Alteran, Greek, Mesopotamian, and a few other languages as well, but it's like they took a completely different route language wise than they did on Earth. It's just very confusing and frustrating sir."

Eric could empathize with the young Lt. Williams, especially since thanks to the I.O.A. they didn't have the tools necessary for them to do their job. Of course he doesn't verbalize this instead he say's to her, "Just do the best you can with what you have William's. It's not like there's a rush to get the translations in anyway, we're only observing them right now, not preparing for first contact. We can wait until Atlantis updates the Asgard station, for a complete translation."

"Yes sir I'll try not to over do it sir, and again I apologize for the outburst sir."

Eric acknowledged the apology and indicated for Williams to return to work. Once that was done he turned to return to the conn. station and continue his watch. Just as he reached the seat a noise from the ops console next to him, and just as he was about to sit down the young Ensign Jason McGuire spoke up, "Comdr. that fleet we've been monitoring, we just picked up several smaller subspace distortions from them, best guess look's like their sending out probe ships again."

"Well looks like that proves Dr. West's theory that they don't have any long range sensor abilities." Peterson stated out load before continuing, "Make sure we note where each of the scout ships are going, maybe we can determine what they are looking for by checking those other systems out."

Before he could reply with an affirmative though something on his screen caught the ops officers' attention "Contact at the edge of the system emerging from a subspace distortion, Contact is confirmed as one scout class vessel from the unknown fleet."

Peterson was in his seat in an instant, checking his instruments on the contact asking, "Do you know if they can detect us?"

McGuire spent a few minutes looking at the information on the scout ship before replying, "No sir I don't think so, not at the moment anyway. They are apparently using an advanced form of radar of some type, as of right now our basic ECM package should be enough to block it. However if they get any closer I would recommend increasing our stealth systems to Asgard level's."

Confirming with his own system what the ensign had told him Erick took a moment and made a decision, activating the communications system he contacted the other ships in the battle group. "This is Lt Comdr. Peterson of the Excelsior to All ships, I am ordering the initiation of Asgard stealth protocols effective immediately. All fighters are to RTB and future flights are cancelled unless so order by Captain Harris, updates to these orders will be issued as needed. That is all, Excelsior out." With that Peterson closed the connection and initiated the Asgard protocols for the Excelsior.

Looking to Lt. Williams he receives confirmation that the rest of the battle group is complying with the order. Peterson looks over to Ensign McGuire and asks "What is the contact doing now, Mr. McGuire?"

Keeping his eye's on his screen Jason replied to the Lt. Comdr. "It look's like they are moving toward the last planet in this system sir. Based on their current speed and trajectory I would say, they'll arrive in orbit in about ten to fifteen minute's."

"Is their anything about that planet that is special or note worthy Mr. McGuire?"

"No, sir, the planet itself is a typical Gas Giant around Neptune's size composition is mostly Hydrogen and Helium with a few other trace elements. The moons might be a slightly different story though. Several of the moons are rich in Titanium, Iron, Zinc, and several other materials including Uru. And just so you know sir, I just did a thorough scan of the scout vessel and there are two things of note, one is that it apparently runs on a form of liquefied Uru, and two the humans piloting that vessel are only 99% compatible to the baseline humans we've met through out the galaxy and from Earth."

Eric took a minute to digest that information; the liquid Uru fuel might mean that these people may set up in the system for mining operations. Especially if all their ship's run off they stuff which they probably do. But the thing that shocked him the most was the compatibility. He remembers the SGC briefing's on the Human populations in the Galaxy, since most humans were transplanted by Ra and the Goa'uld ten thousand years ago, the majority of human populations remain approximately 99.8% compatible with those on Earth. Jonas Quinn's people due to their apparent evolutionary branch they took and possibly the Naquadria explosion in their distant past are 99.5%, the Aschen where at 99.4% and the Jaffa at 99.2%. So what Ensign McGuire had just told him was that they apparently had less in common with these people than they due with the Jaffa. At least if these two in the Scout are representative to the rest of the people in their fleet.

Shaking these thoughts aside though Eric began to doing his job "Mr. McGuire, submit your scans and findings for Dr. Hastings in the med bay, if we run into the rest of their fleet he may be able to confirm your findings. I'm setting a course out of the Asteroid Belt at dead slow speed, Lt. Williams please have the rest of the battle group form up on us and follow us out."

Several Aye sir's followed and for the next several minutes everyone went about doing their jobs more attentively than normal. Once certain that everything was going smoothly, Eric got up from the con. station and went over to communications. Placing his right hand on Lt. Williams left shoulder, his other hand resting on the console providing balance, he leaned down and quietly said into Lt. Williams ear, "I think it's time we wake the Captain Lt."

Looking to Lt. Comdr. Peterson, Ashley simply nodded and went about accessing the buzzer in the Captains Quarters to waken him. Realizing as she did so that this was the first time she had ever had to do this since coming aboard the Excelsior six months ago. She could only hope that once the Wraith on Earth had been dealt with, that things would quiet back down and return to some normalcy.

U.S.N. Excelsior

Deck 5

Captains Quarters

01:45 Atlantis Local Time

William Harris is normally not a man to be troubled by nightmares that is not to say he has never had them because he has. They have just never troubled his sleep since he was a little boy, at least not until tonight that is. Tonight his dreams about his wife and children are invaded by the wraith, causing him to toss and turn in his bunk. Fortunately his nightmare is interrupted by an annoying buzzing sound the constant repetitive buzzing eventually drags him from his sleep. It takes him a minute after waking to realize that the buzzing is the intercom next to his bunk. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he reaches his right hand over and hit's the intercom, activating the device and say's groggily, "Unless the Wraith are attacking, or the Asgard have miraculously returned from the dead whoever this is, will be doing KP duty for the next six months. Go!"

"Sorry to disturb you sir, this is Lt. Comdr. Peterson third shift duty officer, thought you might like to know, one of the unknown fleets scout ships, just came into the system. Looks like they are doing a survey of the system, possibly for materials. Could mean the fleet will be arriving relatively soon sir."

At the mentioning of the fleet they were tracking, the last dregs of sleep fled from William Harris and he sat himself up on his elbows. Reaching his left hand over to the table were the intercom is, he activates the desk lamp checking the clock he see's he got about 5 hours of sleep. Rubbing his right hand over his chin feeling the slight stubble from his sleep he makes up his mind, "Commander, I'll be up on the bridge in fifteen minutes, I'll want a complete report on that scout it's activities, and everything you've discovered or will discover when I get there, understood?"

"Aye, aye sir, we'll have it ready for you A.S.A.P. bridge out." Peterson said before closing the connection.

With that Bill got himself out of bed, and went to his personnel wash room to get himself cleaned up and presentable, before heading to the bridge. Something told him, as he splashed his face with cold water that today was going to be a long day.

Deep Space

Colonial Remnant Fleet

Battlestar Galactica

Port Flight Pod

45 minutes earlier or 13:30 Colonial Fleet Time

Lt. Margaret 'Racetrack' Edmondson was currently inspecting her Raptor for her latest mission, survey and recon of the nearby system. It wasn't really her normal cup of tea but, it was an important mission none the less. The fleet was in need of resources, it wasn't an immediate need of course but a need all the same. She had just finished her external inspection of the Raptor when she notices her ECO and Chief Tyrol heading towards her. Indicating to McCall that he should just get into the Raptor Racetrack heads towards the Chief and extends her hand in greeting saying "What's the good word today, Chief?"

Galen Tyrol takes Racetracks hand shaking it firmly handing her a clipboard from his other hand for her to sign out the Raptor and says to her, "Responsibility, Lt."

Taking the clipboard and signing her name to the form allowing her to take the Raptor off of the chief's hands. Margaret knows she may regret it, but curiosity gets the better of her so she asks as she hands the clipboard back to the chief. "Responsibility Chief, what's that about?"

Galen takes the clipboard from Racetrack checking that she signed in the appropriate place and signed in the spot reserved for him. Once done he looks to the Lt. and explains " Well mam, here's the thing, A lot of Raptors have been coming back recently with a significant amount of superficial damage. Most of it is just dings and dents, but some of them came back with their gear fracked up, one had to be scrapped due to its frame being bent. But all of them had one thing in common, none of the damage was combat related. So the Commander and I have come up with a solution, you land your bird with any damage not related to a combat situation, you fix it yourself, and your grounded until it is fixed."

Margaret remembered Capt. Adama telling the Viper Pilots something similar a few weeks ago, she just didn't realize that they were now including Raptor crews in that as well. Course with some of the new crews she's seen in the past few weeks she shouldn't be surprised at all. She notices the chief watching probably expecting her to freak out or something instead she smiles and say's "Well chief, here's hoping I never have to do that. See you when I get back." And with that she climbs into the Raptor and closes the hatch.

Once inside Racetrack moves into the pilot seat, puts on her helmet, and begins her pre flight instrument check. As she does this she also checks with 'Skulls' to see how his own check is going. At the same time that this is happening, the Raptor is being moved to the elevator to take it out of the service bay and into the launch bay. After everything checks out, and she gets confirmation from Skulls of the same with his equipment, Racetrack switches on the radio "This is Raptor 314 to Galactica control requesting clearance for takeoff."

"Raptor 314, this is Galactica Control, you are clear for take off, exit vector is 314 carom 25, jump distance is 1000 meters from Galactica, please confirm."

"Confirm Galactica control vector 314 carom 25, jump distance 1000 meters, anything you want me to bring you back Dee?" Racetrack replied.

Chuckling is heard for a minute on the wireless, till Anastasia Dualla responds, "Well let's see I'll take either the exact coordinates of Earth if you can find them, if not then I'll settle for either a nice planet to set down on for a bit, or enough fuel and minerals for the fleet."

Racetrack gave a little chuckle herself before replying, "I'll see what I can do Dee no promises though, Raptor 314 out." Closing the wireless down Racetrack then turns to her ECO Skulls, "We ready to go back there Skulls?"

Hamish 'Skulls' McCall looked to his pilot for this mission Racetrack gave her the thumbs up and says, "All systems green Racetrack, coordinates are set, jump drive shows as ready."

"All-right then, here we go." and with that Racetrack engages the engines and begins throttling up. Within moments the Raptor has lifted off of the launch deck of the Galactica and soon enough it is out in space. It takes less than a minute for the tiny craft to reach its jump destination designated by the Galactica. Once there and the coordinates verified by both the ECO and pilot, Racetrack troughs a series of switches and activates the jump drive causing the craft to disappear into sub-space.

System Designation AC120 (Colonial Designation)

14:00 Colonial Fleet Time

Raptor 314

In a burst of subspace radiation the Raptor enters the system, inside both Racetrack and Skulls deal with the brief nausea and get to work on surveying the system. "Ok, Skulls can you confirm that we are in the target system?"

Skulls checks a few readings from his instruments and once he's satisfied "We are where we are supposed to be not a bad job Racetrack. Beginning system scan setting Dradis on Maximum, we should have a fairly accurate picture of the system in a few minutes."

Racetrack nods in understanding as she works the controls of the Raptor while setting her own dradis system to maximum as well. While not as extensive or a far reaching as the ECO's. It does give excellent short range capabilities as well as aiding in keeping an eye out for dangers like Cylon Raiders. Racetrack immediately gets a hit on her screen in the form of a Gas Giant and makes a decision. "Copy that Skulls, while we are waiting I'm going to take us into orbit of that Gas Giant nearby and we'll start the survey there."

"Roger that," Skulls replies "starting to get some information back anyway, re-tasking the Starboard array for planetary survey." For the next several minutes both Skulls and racetrack busied themselves with their perspective tasks, then Skulls spoke up, "ok Racetrack, I got a general overview of this system now, looks like we are dealing with a somewhat of a binary system. I say that because the Third planet is listed as a Gas Giant by the fleet astronomers, is actually a failed star. Anyway not counting that we are dealing with seven planets total four are various sized gas giants, with several moons and asteroids, and three rocky planets two with atmospheres and one barren. Before you ask, the two atmospheres are not habitable. There are also two significant asteroid fields further in the system and three additional bodies orbiting the failed star."

Racetrack listened to Skulls report with some interest," So all in all, another crap system, well lets hope..." a beeping from Skulls station silenced her.

"Wow, Margaret, we got something showing on the jump sensors from the nearest asteroid field on DRADIS and it's not a jump." Skulls informed her.

"How can it not be a jump and show up on the Jump sensors Skulls, did you do a through check on the system before we launched?" Racetrack asked knowing it was serious as Skulls used her name not her call sign.

Skulls began checking the system again as he replied, "I'm positive, I checked the system over three times before we launched and I am checking it again as well as recording the anomaly." he paused continuing to type frantically away looking over the system as the warning continued until after a full two minutes it stopped. "Wow, it's gone." Skulls continued checking the displays and reviewing what the jump sensors detected "According to the readings, whatever it was operated in the same frequency range as a jump, but the power and duration reading were off the charts. Not even Picon station put out this much power."

Margaret thought about the situation before asking "Your sure it wasn't a jump though right Skulls?"

Skulls shook his head and replied "I'm positive, I may not know what it was but as far as I can tell there is no way that was a jump. The power in the reading alone was enormous let alone the duration. No, whatever it was it most certainly was not a jump."

With that Racetrack made up her mind, "Alright than, we're going to complete the survey because the fleet really needs these minerals, keep your eyes peeled for that signal again, and keep the jump drive on hot standby for either you or I to activate it. Make sure we have it set so we don't go directly back to the fleet if it is Cylons I do not want to lead them there. Also we are going thoroughly look over every inch of that Asteroid field when we get there."

"Copy that Racetrack, resetting return trip to the fleet, for an indirect route. Also programming it so that either you or I can set the jump, timer set to its minimum of three seconds and done."

And with that both Skulls and Racetrack went to work doing the survey for the Colonial fleet. The first two hours were quiet tense for them both as they were waiting for the signal to re-appear. They both started to relax somewhat during the third hour especially after finding several rich veins of Tyllium, and Titanium on a moon of the fifth planet. Though neither let their guard down completely, they both started to relax into the routine of doing the survey.

Twelve hours latter, they are both back on edge a little bit, as they are finishing the survey in the asteroid field where Skulls detected the signal from. Though both feel enormous relief as overall this system is a goldmine for the Colonial Fleet literally. If they had made this discovery when the Colonies were still around, both Skulls and Racetrack would be rich many times over. The downside is they probably would have never discovered this system if the Colonies had not fallen.

It is as they are finishing up the survey that Racetrack looks back to Skulls and asks him, "Anything at all Skulls?"

"Nothing Racetrack," Skulls replies shaking his head "I don't get it, the only thing I am picking up from this asteroid field is a crap load of Tyllium. Other than that nothing, what about you?"

"Nope," Racetrack replies, "not even with the old mark one eyeball, maybe it was a glitch in the system or some type of unknown phenomenon. What ever it was we'll have the chief check the system over when we get back. We've also got a recording of whatever it was to maybe a few of the eggheads we got left can check it out tell us what it was. Other than that this system is exactly what the fleet needs right now. Let's head back."

"Copy that," Skulls replies and then asks, "Do you still want to head back indirectly to the fleet or what?"

Racetrack thinks it over, she doesn't believe that the signal was Cylon but it could still be something that was a possible threat to the fleet, decision made she lets Skulls know. "Well do an abbreviated return keep it to three jumps rather then the standard five."

Skulls replies in the affirmative and in several minute lets Racetrack know the jump program is ready and off they go. Unbeknownst to either of the Raptor occupants the entire time they where in system they were in fact being watched by the Excelsior battle group.

On the bridge of the Excelsior sitting in his command chair elbows on the arm rests with his fingers steepled together at his face as he watches the as yet unknown scout leave is Capt. William Harris. His thoughts are currently on the scout craft that just left to supposedly return to their fleet as well as a report he got some six hours ago from Dr. West. The report was about the scan taken by Ensign McGuire of the scout craft. Apparently the vessel is equipped with what the Doctor called a basic subspace listening device. More than likely designed to detect their ftl emissions. Normally not something they would worry about yet according to the good doctor, several of their own systems operate in the same frequency range as this races ftl drive. Not the least of which is sensors and communications. And this is what concerns the captain right now.

Based on the scout crafts actions the last few hours and their excessive detailed scan of the asteroid field. He is fairly certain the detected something before the battle groups stealth systems activated. What exactly neither he nor the good doctor can say for sure. That thou does lead to his next problem, what to do when the fleet gets here. Does he initiate contact or hold to his orders, no sub space communications have been initiated since he got the report not wanting to risk exposure even with the stealth systems on. Now that the scout has left he has to decide, disengage the stealth and contact Atlantis, or remain in stealth and wait for the fleet risking exposure. Sometimes, he thinks to himself, it doesn't pay to be the boss.

A/N

And thus we come to the end of chapter 2. For those oh so few of you who may remember the fallensiths original version I know by now in his story the Colonials had been contacted by the Tau'ri and things were starting to get off. However I also know that there were some who resisted how he had arranged for the two to meet. Hence why I am slowing things down a bit, and changed how the Tau'ri found out about the colonials. Anyway, for those of you who are into action it will in fact be heating up soon. As far as Jack is concerned, this will be the last we see of him for awhile. Next several chapters will be dealing with the Colonials and the Tau'ri but I promise you it will most definitely not be the end of Jack O'Neill, at least not yet. Next chapter will be from the Colonials point of view completely. Until then, Thanks and please review.