Pain. Pain was the first thing he noticed as he stirred. But it wasn't just a physical sensation, though there was plenty of that to be sure. No, this was something else. Something deeper. Something more… penetrating, profound. He'd experienced a similar sensation before… the overwhelming wave of information that was far more than a normal human mind could handle; knowledge that seemed to permeate into one's very soul. What he was feeling now was… similar. But… less intense than what he had felt before. How did this happen? He couldn't remember.

He tried to swim his way back to consciousness from the sea of darkness that he found himself in, but every time he tried to pull himself out of it the pain would intensify. It seemed with each passing second the pain seemed to increase and there was no end in sight. If he was able to, he would have been screaming by now, but he could do nothing but silently agonize as he tried to block out as much of it as he could. A white-hot poker seemed to be penetrating right into his skull until finally, it ceased.

The black sea melted away, and he slowly found himself standing on a grassy hilltop. He looked down at his clothes and saw he wore long, tan, sand-stained robes. Robes he'd worn for over a year… so long ago. As he continued to look at his now covered arms, a flash of light caught his attention. He looked up to see what it was. Dozens of miles away, huge ebony towers stretching almost into the clouds jutted out of the ground with smaller, but equally impressive, ones surrounding them. They were angular, almost grid-like in their design with lines of glowing emerald running up and down their faces. Neon-like lights shined throughout in what was clearly a city of some sort. It was a massive city, and it seemed to stretch on for dozens of miles. It was beautiful architecture that was unlike any he had ever seen before. Clearly alien based on the design. But how had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was-

- WWWHHUUUUUUUAAAAAAA

That noise drew his attention, and his head shot up towards the sky in shock. Coming down out of the clouds covered in red static electricity was a ship. A massive, almost animal-looking ship that seemed to resemble a cephalopod slowly descended into the city. It was taller than even the tallest skyscraper that already seemed to touch the clouds. Before he could try and wonder what the hell was going on, the massive squid raised on of its legs. Without warning, a beam of ruby energy shot out of the tip and sliced through the nearest building like a cleaving sword. In on smooth motion the beam cut the building clean in half; a thin glowing red line stretching from end to end. A half second later, the top half of the building wobbled, then tilted, then completely toppled over and crashed into the lower buildings and streets below. Even from this distance, he could hear the screams and cries of panic, though he couldn't understand the language.

As the ship continued its assault of the city, green beams of energy began to shoot up from the city streets and the rooftops of surrounding buildings. Sleek fighters seemed to appear from out of nowhere and began to fly circles around the behemoth while firing similarly colored beams of energy. Soon a storm of weapons fire was raining down on the monster, but it seemed to have no effect on the beast's shimmering red barrier that coated its entire hull. It continued its slow and methodical march around the city as it burned, crushed, and vaporized anything and everything in it way. Soon enough the beautiful city was a smoking ruin with fires and glowing hot glass littering the landscape. Still, the defenders of the city continued to attack the cephalopod ship even as their city burned around them. From the safety of the hilltop, he could only watch as this senseless destruction occurred. His mind continued to race with unanswered questions: where was he, whose city was that, why was this ship attacking? He tried to look around for something he could communicate with someone one on; maybe he was transported to another-

- WWWHHUUUUUUUAAAAAAA

The archeologist looked up again in horror to find even more of those ginormous ships descending from the atmosphere and land on the city. This time they seemed to be accompanied by dozens of smaller versions that were no less deadly. Soon the entire skyline of the city was filled with red and green beams, massive nuclear explosions, and the steady whittling away of the towers that at first had seemed so wonderous and majestic in their silent, lofty stature. He could only watch, helpless, as this city that must have been home to many millions of people was systematically wiped from the face of whatever planet he was now on.

Without warning his field of vision melted away once again, this time to be replaced a dark passage in some kind of… cave? Tunnel? He couldn't be sure where he was now; the walls were colored a dark, rusted hue that seemed feel… almost alive. The ground beneath him had a soft, moist feel to it and he could see it even had a layer of dew covering most of it. He looked behind him and saw that the passage was blocked off by a door, so he started walking forward. The tunnel was dimly lit with sacs of… well, he wasn't sure what they were. They looked organic, so maybe some kind of bioluminescence. That wasn't his particular field, so he couldn't be sure. As he continued to walk, the archeologist couldn't help but feel there was something… wrong with this place. Something… horrible. Maybe he was just being paranoid.

"AHHHHHHH!" a scream echoed from down the hall he was walking.

Startled, but knowing the sound of someone who's in serious pain, he took off in a sprint down the hall. He ran around loops and corners as the screams began to grow louder and more numerous as other's voices joined into the chorus. The cries grew louder and louder, and the sounds of heavy machinery began to join them the closer he got. As he turned one last corner, he could see a bright light at the end of the tunnel that seemed to be open into a much larger area. He doubled his speed as he came into the opening, and momentarily had to close his eyes as the change in lighting conditions overwhelmed him for a moment. Once they adjusted, he squinted as the view of the new chamber came into focus. What he saw froze him to his core.

Piles. Piles and piles of burnt, decomposing, and cold dead bodies. Some seemed to be almost melted as they bled into each other. Some of the piles were almost at waist height, and they were everywhere. He slowly walked around and over the piles of bodies, careful not to step on anyone of them. As he looked down at the victims of this atrocity, he noticed they were an alien race he'd never seen before. Bipedal, roughly the height of the average human, and with almost bug-like features such as four eyes and scaled, leathery skin. Given the mangled and grotesque states of their bodies, however, he couldn't tell male from female.

Cries directly ahead drew his attention. He looked over to see many of these aliens, alive, and being shuffled about in lines. They all were beaten and bloody, with many having looks of surrender and complete defeat on their faces; at least from what he could read of their foreign expressions. But guarding them were… well, he wasn't sure how to describe them. They actually seemed similar in shape and structure to the aliens they were clearly subjugating, but their entire bodies were blackened and seemed to have glowing contusions all over. Their faces, or lack thereof, were completely unreadable save for two set of glowing yellow eyes.

They began to pack their victims in cocoon-like pods. One by one, until dozens at a time were filled. At first, he thought this might some kind of stasis chamber to keep their prisoners sedated but alive until these bugs had planned for them could be enacted. But then, much to his horror, the screaming started even stronger as the people in the pods began to eject bodily fluids and blood. Black rain poured down on them and the skin began to peel and slide of their faces and bodies revealing their skeletal systems. More screams followed that quickly turned to garbled sounds as the victims began to drown in their own fluids. Slowly, they melted into pools of gunky, black tar that settled into the pods for a moment. Then, massive tubes that were attacked at the heads of the containers began to suck up the ebony liquid and pump them up and away to places unknown. His eyes were wide as he observed the cold, calculated precision of it all, and he felt bile rise up in his throat as he felt more disturbed than he ever had been before.

Without warning, the slaughter-filled chamber faded away to be replaced by a starry field of space. He found himself floating through the vast void of emptiness as he tried to comprehend how he wasn't imploding from the vacuum. His thoughts were interrupted as he zoomed through space, through a searing hot cloud of dust and particulate until he found himself hovering over a dark world. The system's sun was directly behind it, making the dark side of the planet impossible to make out any details. Then, just as suddenly, he felt himself get pulled down towards the planet at blinding speeds. His vision went black. Then out of the darkness… that massive ship, stained blood red, emerged and raced towards him, preparing to collide with him at equally deadly speeds.

He shut his eyes and braced for the inevitable.

2139 Hours, October 20, 2183 (Council Calendar)
Atlantis, Novus, Thoros System, Milky Way Galaxy

Jack ran into the medical ward of the main tower, narrowly dodging a nurse who was running by with an armful of gauze and Medi-gel tubes. The wing was in chaos: marines laying in gurneys, Jaffa being helped to into rooms where they could kelno'reem and allow the symbiotes within to heal their bodies, while others were getting extra doses of Tretonin. Moans and cries of pain echoed throughout, and discarded and bloodied pieces of armor littered the tables and floors. He continued speed walking through the ward, trying to avoid slipping on any blood on the floor or bumping into an orderly who was patching someone up. Finally, he came across the man he was looking for, and slowed to a halt beside him.

"Doc, how bad is it?" the General asked.

Beckett was applying Medi-gel to a marine's shoulder that had a sewn-up gash, lathering it in the miracle substance before wrapping it in medical tape and turning to Atlantis's commander with a mournful frown, "…Twenty-three dead I'm afraid. Nearly everyone else is wounded in some way."

Jack swore under his breath and ran a hand down his face, "Dammit, how the hell did this happen?"

"I'm not the one to ask that question, General," he motioned towards a room behind him, "SG-1 is in there… they've refused to leave until…."

Nodding, Jack patted the Scotsman on the back in gratitude and moved past him and entered the observation room that overlooked the isolation chamber. Inside, his former team and its current leader were standing in silence as they looked through the glass. Teal'c had the same look he remembered seeing when he had the Ancient knowledge downloaded into his brain, twice. Mitchell looked pissed, a feeling that he shared though not at his people. And Sam… he'd seen that look on her too. Too many times in the past ten years. Slowly walking up behind them, he took a spot next to the genius Colonel and looked through the glass with them.

"Carter, how's it coming?" he asked the woman next to him.

Sam didn't take her eyes off the window, "Sir… they've been at it for about twenty minutes."

Mitchell turned towards him, "Sir, I-"

Jack waved him off, "Not now, Colonel. After."

With that, the four turned back towards the room. Inside, doctors and nurses wearing red biohazard suits shuffled around, their Omni-tools and scanners out and taking in every piece of information from the body lying on the lone gurney in the center of the room. The man was unconscious, but otherwise looked peaceful. If one looked closely, however, they could see that despite being closed, his eyes were darting back and forth at a rapid pace. Above his head, small emerald lasers were being fired at the top of his skull from a small, rectangular device that was being fed into nearby screens showing brainwave activity. The doctors monitored the readings, quietly conversing with each other, though none of SG-1 nor their commanding officer could hear. One of the doctors tapped another, who turned towards the window and noticed the new observer. Nodding to the others, the suited individual walked towards the airlock, stepping inside before the decontamination procedures activated, and a moment later the airlocked opened on the other side allowing the doctor to step into the viewing area.

They took off their hazmat helmet, revealing Dr. Lam with a frown, "General O'Neill, sorry I didn't notice you were there."

Jack shook his head, "Don't worry about it doc, you've got your hands full," he reassured her, turning to look at the man in the other room, "How is he?"

Dr. Lam's frown deepened, and she walked over to the window. She tapped on the glass and a holographic screen appeared on the translucent surface. Punching in a few commands, the screen changed to match the readings that were being taken inside the isolation chamber, allowing the other four to observe them as she went on to explain.

"Physically, we can't find anything wrong with him. His vitals all check out for the most part, aside from elevated levels of adrenaline that we would typically find if he was in a fight or flight situation. But when we hooked him up to the Ancient brain scanner," she enlarged the readings, showing the erratic wave patterns, "We saw that his beta waves were all over the place. And the rapid eye movement suggests that he's in a serious dream state."

"You guys said he activated that Prothean doohickey, right? Did it download some crap into his head?" Jack asked the obvious question, given his prior experience.

Sam could only shrug, "I honestly don't know, sir. What little information we have to go on with these kinds of devices suggests that they are information storage devices, but from what we've been able to dig up no one has ever interfaced with one like this," she glanced over again, "Daniel seemed to think they had some sort of neural network capability. Like the Ancient Repositories and other similar technologies we've encountered over the years."

Jack sighed, "Ah, dammit Daniel…" looking back at his best friend laying on the gurney.

"It might not have been his fault sir," Sam pointed out, "Just before he activated it… Daniel was acting… strange."

"Strange how?" Jack asked.

Sam looked contemplative, as if she was trying to find the best words to describe it, "Well, he seemed almost… entranced by the device. Like he was being forced to walk towards it."

Teal'c grumbled a thoughtful grunt, "If the device does indeed possess neurological capabilities, then would it be possible that Daniel Jackson was being influenced by the device even from a distance?"

"Like I said, I really can't say for sure without more research on other devices that have been found, and the device itself, but given his odd behavior before I'd have to say it's possible," Sam replied.

Mitchell raised a hand at that, "Then why weren't the rest of us affected?"

That seemed to stump that Colonel as she tried to theorize an answer, "Maybe given Daniel's previous experience with this kind of technology, it made him more susceptible to its influence," she recalled standing in the chamber, "Besides, we all felt something off when we entered the cavern."

On that, the other two members of SG-1 could agree. The energy of the chamber around the pyramid was something they all felt the moment they set foot inside. It was the same thing that Rak'nor had felt and explained to them when they'd arrived. They simply thought it was nerves or caution they were feeling. But after what happened to Daniel… maybe it was something more.

"Regardless of that, his brain patterns seem to be stabilizing, so hopefully that means he'll wake up soon and he can tell us what happened," Dr. Lam noticed her colleagues inside signaling her, "I need to get back in there. If anything changes, I'll let you know," with that the doctor put her helmet back on and walked back inside the isolation room, leaving SG-1 and General O'Neill alone.

Jack turned to his team and motioned for them to follow. Walking out of the viewing room, they maneuvered their way through the medical ward until they were outside. They continued down the hall until they reached the Transporter closet and stepped inside. Jack hit the control room location, and the doors shut. An energized whizzing came and went, and a second later the door opened to a new hallway. It only took another few minutes to enter the control room, walking past the inactive Stargate and up the short flight of stairs before they entered the briefing room. Walking inside, they saw the Mr. Woolsey, Bra'tac, and Admiral Zorah were all sitting in around the table waiting for them to arrive. SG-1 all took seats at the empty chairs as they greeted those who were already sitting. Once everyone had taken a seat, Jack waved his arm over the control panel on the wall, causing the shutter doors to close and seal the room.

Taking a seat at the head of everyone, Jack started the debrief, "Alright, let's get started people."

"How is Daniel Jackson? Is he alright?" Bra'tac asked, concerned for his friend who he knew was in the isolation chamber.

Jack bit his lip a bit as he thought, wondering the same question, "Dr. Lam seems to think so, but doesn't know when he'll wake up."

"Daniel Jackson is one of the strongest warriors I have ever known. He has been through far worse than this, and I have no doubt he will recover in due time," Bra'tac offered his reassurances, to which Jack was grateful for.

Mr. Woolsey cleared his throat, "I hope he recovers quickly as well. But in the meantime, I believe we have more pressing matters," he changed the subject, waiting for a moment if anyone else had something to say before continuing, "Admiral Zorah, it is my understanding that the planet in question, Joab, did not have any other inhabitants on it prior to Mr. Rak'nor's arrival, correct?"

The Quarian Admiral nodded, "Yes, to our knowledge no one has attempted settlement on the planet. I don't know who would have done this. A mercenary group perhaps?"

The humans and Jaffa sitting at the table shared a concerned glance. When the Bane had sent the subspace communication about the attack, they had decided to only inform their Quarian allies in the city only that the event had taken place. They had withheld the details of the attack until they were certain of their attackers' identities, given how they knew their alien allies would react. Even now, some of them considered not tell the Quarians about it. But for the sake of their alliance and the good relations they were building, they decided that honesty was the best policy for this situation.

Mr. Woolsey shook his head and tapped a few buttons on his data pad. The screen at the head of the conference table changed, showing images captured by SG-1 and the Bane during the assault. The ships, the fighters, and the enemy troops were all shown in great detail, along with sensor data and the mission reports of detailing their combat capabilities and technology. Before Woolsey could get another word in, the sound of a chair crashing to the floor drew everyone's attention to the now standing Quarian Admiral, his glowing eyes wide behind his mask.

"Geth!? You were attacked by the Geth?!" he shouted, rage seeping through every syllable of the word 'Geth'.

Mitchell nodded on the other side of the table, "Fraid' so. We were there for barely an hour before their fleet jumped into orbit and started making a mess."

Zorah stared at the images on the screen, his eyes narrowing as if he expected them to jump right out from the display and attack him. Finally, he let out a sigh, turned around and picked up his chair before taking a seat once again.

"I apologize for my outburst. It's just… when you said you'd been attacked, I never imagined it would be the Geth who were responsible," the Admiral stated, shock still evident in his voice, "How-why did they-"

-Jack leaned forward and gave the Admiral a pointed look, "Shouldn't we be asking you that? You were the ones who sent us those coordinates after all."

Jack was giving the Quarian a hard look, one that the Admiral seemed to know well. They'd had a meeting about this very topic several weeks prior, though no one besides the two and Master Bra'tac knew about it, with the understanding that the Admiral would not try get them involved with the Geth. Now, after going to a system that the Quarians asked them to, the mechanical boogeyman of the galaxy just happened to show up out of the blue. The General did not believe in coincidences.

Mr. Woolsey cleared his throat, drawing the attention back to him before that ensuing argument could happen, "I think what the General means is that given your obvious expertise on the Geth, you would be in a far better position to have some sort of intelligence on their activities."

The Admiral shook his head, "I can assure you all, I have not received any information from the Fleet about recent Geth activity. They haven't left the Perseus Veil in nearly three hundred years!"

"How closely do you monitor this region of space?" Bra'tac asked.

"…Not as closely as we would like. The Council declared the whole region off limits. What few Relays connect to the Veil are guarded by Turian patrols," he replied.

Sam looked confused at that, "Then how did the Geth leave the Veil without anyone noticing?"

Zorah tilted his head in thought, "Unfortunately, there are a number of secondary Relays that connect to systems that are within FTL range on their side of the Veil. It would take them months, perhaps years to travel from those systems to a Relay on our side, but they're machines. Time means nothing to them," the Admiral theorized.

Teal'c sat with his hands folded over each other on the table as he looked across Zorah, "So the Geth could strike again, and no one would have any way of knowing."

That thought didn't inspire confidence in anyone. Atlantis was safe given how far outside the Mass Relay network it was, but their forces that were away on missions could be at risk. Or the Migrant Fleet. Or any number of colonies out in the Terminus or the Traverse. If the Geth were moving back out into the galaxy, then their plans for future operations could be in jeopardy. But that also brought up another question.

"I want to know how the Geth happened upon the planet not long after Master Rak'nor arrived," Woolsey asked the most important question.

Mitchell shrugged, "They were definitely after the Prothean thing."

Zorah turned towards the Colonel, "Prothean? You found Prothean technology on the planet?"

"Yes, some sort of pyramid. Daniel said that similar devices have been found over the years," Sam replied, and started swiping on her data pad, "I've been going over the timeline of events. From the moment Rak'nor and his men entered approached the pyramid to the moment the Geth forces arrived in system."

"And?" Jack asked.

"And I think that my first theory on what happened was correct: when the Prothean device came online, it must have sent out a signal. And the Geth must have either been able to detect and trace the signal or…" she trailed off.

Zorah seemed to pick up where she was leading, "Or the Geth have found a device of their own that is somehow connected to the one you discovered. A frightening thought… if they gain access to advanced Prothean technology…" his eyes widened at the implications, "Did they manage to recover the device?!"

Teal'c shook his head, "No. In order to prevent it from falling into their hands, Colonel Carter and Rak'nor destroyed the device."

Zorah sagged a bit into his seat, relief falling off his shoulders like a heavy backpack was pulled off them, "Thank the Ancestors. You did the right thing. While the loss of such a find is disappointing, the consequences of the Geth gaining access to it would have been disastrous for the galaxy."

Jack frowned as he listened to the smart people in the room talk and guess about the Geth's motives, "So, the Geth are looking for Prothean technology, and as soon as they get a signal leading them to more, they head for this planet. They find our guys, and attack without warning. What's so special about this Prothean pyramid anyway? The damn thing put Daniel in the medical wing!"

"Dr. Jackson interfaced with the Prothean Beacon?" the Admiral was shocked.

"We're not sure, it definitely did something to him," Sam clarified, "But whatever was in the Beacon was obviously worth a fight."

Zorah rubbed his hands together as he seemed to do when he was nervous or thinking very hard and turned towards the images once again. Studying them, he pulled up his own datapad and pulled the information to it so he could study the data more closely.

Without looking up, he directed a question at SG-1, "How did the battle play out exactly?"

Mitchell punched a few commands on his own datapad, the screen changing to show the Geth fleet in orbit. The footage was from the Bane and the Quinn, and showed the opening minutes of the battle from the moment they opened fire on the Ha'tak and the launch of their troop transports.

"Shay was in command of the Bane and engaged the Geth forces. She was outnumbered thirty to one, but the Bane more than held her own," he stated as the footage showed the mothership obliterating cruiser after cruiser.

Zorah watched closely, "Hmmm, their ship designs have certainly evolved from what our records show. Sublight speed in particular is much faster than what any other race is capable of."

"We noticed that. I guess being machines means that those pesky G-forces don't affect them much," Jack pointed out.

"Their weapon systems… they appear to be mass accelerators but…" the Admiral trailed off, zooming in on an image of a frigate that was stopped mid-firing sequence, "Some sort of energy field is surrounding their slugs."

"We've taken data from the Bane's scans and found that before the eezo propelled slugs are lighter than what seems to be the norm for the rest of galaxy, allowing them a much higher rate of fire and velocity. And they appear to have some sort of phasic plasma coating, giving them an added punch to make up for the lower yield per shot. Their small arms seem to be the same," Sam explained as she pulled up wireframe scans of the ships and their weapons, "I'm surprised they were capable of developing this pseudo energy-based weaponry, given the lack of it anywhere else."

Zorah studied the technical read out, his dread growing with every new piece of information, "I never imagined they could have evolved so far… these weapons will make short work of standard barriers."

Mitchell grimaced, "Yeah… our marines and Jaffa found that out the hard way."

The table went silent at that. They'd managed to escape the Ori and flee to an entirely new universe without taking a single casualty. Even during the battle on New Rivers, they'd managed to get through without losing anyone. But not this time. And everyone lost in their medical ward was a painful dagger in the heart for every human and Jaffa in the city.

"I… am sorry for your losses, truly," Zorah offered his condolences, his gaze moving towards the ground as he tried to think of something to say.

Mr. Woolsey nodded solemnly, "We appreciate it, Admiral," he thanked Zorah, who in turn nodded in thanks for preventing an awkward moment of him trying to come up with some other heartfelt words, "But I believe there is another item of interest in the mission report?"

The blonde Colonel nodded, changing the images on the screen to show the Geth fleet holding position a distance away from the Bane. This time, only one cruiser remained and many other of the machine ships were destroyed as well. The footage held on the fleet until another ship came out of FTL. Everyone at the conference table, minus SG-1 as they had already seen the footage on their hyperspace ride back, stared at the monstrous ship in concern.

Bra'tac narrowed his eyes at the image, "What is this new devilry?"

Jack stood and walked over to the screen, staring at the ship in question with serious intent. From looks alone the thing was damn intimidating, and he wasn't one who was easily intimidated. But there was something about the ship that just screamed bad news, and not just because it had attacked their people.

"What are the specs on this thing, Carter?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"The ship is over two kilometers long, making it larger than anything we have besides the city," Same explained, pulling up the detailed info alongside the image.

Zorah's eye widened, "That would make it the largest vessel in the galaxy. Even larger than the Destiny Ascension."

"What is the Destiny Ascension?" Teal'c questioned.

"The flagship of the Citadel Defense Fleet. It's an Asari dreadnaught, and the most advanced ship in the galaxy. Well, it was before you and your people arrived," Zorah clarified.

Jack turned around towards the Admiral, "Have you ever seen a ship like this?"

The Admiral stood and walked towards the screen, standing on the other side of it and giving the ship a hard look over. After a moment or two he sighed and shook his head, turning towards the General and folding his arms behind his back.

"I'm afraid not General. It is unlike any design I have ever seen… I can say that it does not appear to be of Geth design," the Zorah stated confidently.

"Really? How can you tell?" Jack asked confused.

The Quarian raised a three-fingered hand to the screen, "While our current information on Geth is outdated as shown by these images, one thing that we do know about the Geth is that they are uniform in their creations. Even during the war, when they began to develop their own weapons and ships the general designs were the same. Unlike organic races that will branch out with new classes of ships, the Geth ships remain the same as they come off mass assembly lines. If you observe the other vessels in the fleet," he pointed to the vastly smaller Geth warships, "They all follow this rule. The cruisers and frigates are of the same shape and style, as well as their drop ships. It stands to reason that their dreadnaughts would be as well."

Jack turned and looked at the Geth fleet, seeing what the Admiral was pointing out. Every ship from small fighters to their cruisers looked almost identical, like Russian Matryoshka dolls. And he couldn't help but agree with Zorah's logic. Their encounters with the Replicators proved that machines tended to stick to a few, effective designs. The only real exception to that was the human-form Replicators who would take on varying appearances, though their capabilities were all the same. And it made sense; machines didn't develop preferences and curiosity for new designs and aesthetics the way humans, or any organic species, did.

"There is also this disturbing fact," Sam interrupted his thoughts.

The video continued, showing the massive ship fire beams of red energy at the Bane. In retaliation, the mothership fired plasma bolts. To the shock of everyone in the room who hadn't seen the footage before, the ship's barriers flared and held out against the assault. Sam paused the screen, showing the beams firing on the golden energy shield of the Ha'tak as well as the plasma splashing against the enormous ship.

"Do you mean say that this monstrosity can withstand the plasma cannons of a Ha'tak?" Bra'tac asked genuinely stunned.

"It seems capable holding against our light cannons," Teal'c grumbled in frustration, "It is unknown how it would fare against heavy plasma bolts. Or against the Asgard beam weapons on the Taur'i vessels."

"Now how is that possible? I thought kinetic barriers were useless against our energy weapons?" Woolsey asked.

Sam frowned, knowing she had spent much of time on their way back to Atlantis trying to solve that very question. She zoomed in and enhanced the image, showing the plasma 'splashing' against the barriers. When closely examined, they could see that some of the golden energy actually did make it through but simply dissipated against the hull with no noticeable damage.

"I can't even begin to speculate how this ship could be capable of withstanding plasma damage. The only equivalent weapon systems in this galaxy would be GARDIAN anti-ship lasers. But those are only effective against small craft like fighters, as we saw when the Bane's Gliders attempted to engage the Geth dropships," she explained.

"And those weapons, while capable of bypassing kinetic barriers, would do little against the hull plating of capital ships. No one has been able to develop energy weapons on the level that your ships are armed with. Therefore, barriers simply aren't designed to deal with them," the Admiral added.

"So how does this ship have barriers that do?" Mitchell asked.

"Well, look at those weapons its got," Jack pointed out, "Maybe they developed barriers to defend against it."

Sam shook her head, "Despite appearances, the weapons aren't actually energy based," she pulled up the sensor readings alongside the beams, "According to the readings the Bane took, what we're actually seeing is molten metal being fired at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Much greater velocity than what the other Geth ships and what the Council races are capable of."

Mitchell raised both his eyebrows at that, "So, this thing's got a damn lava cannon?"

Sam sighed at her peer, "Putting it simply, yes. Each one of those beams is hitting with the punch of a nuclear weapon. Substantially lower yields than our own weapons, but when you add in the speed and constant rate of fire…"

"Problems," Jack stated with a frown.

The Colonel nodded in return, "And because of the molten nature of the metal being fired, a layer of superheated material builds up on the shield and continues to wear down on them, albeit in a very small manner. But the compounded effects eventually take their toll. At least on Goa'uld energy shielding," she nodded to Teal'c and Bra'tac, "Asgard shielding will be able to shrug off concentrated fire without any issues. We'll need to see about upgrading our Ha'tak sooner rather than later."

"Indeed. The Bane was more than holding her own before this unknown vessel entered the battle. But I would feel far more comfortable if our ships had every advantage possible before the next engagement," Teal'c replied, his old master nodding in agreement.

"And our fighters," Mitchell grimaced, "Those Gliders got torn to pieces by those anti-fighter lasers."

Mr. Woolsey frowned as he raised a hand to his forehead, as if trying to prevent a headache from coming on, "I would think that we would be trying to avoid any future conflict with the Geth."

Admiral Zorah shook his head, "I feared this day would come. I just never imagined that it would come this soon. The Geth are an aggressive machine race, Mr. Woolsey. Conflict on a galactic scale is inevitable now that the Geth are finally venturing out into the galaxy," he then turned and faced the whole room, "I must inform the Fleet to remain on high alert. They could be preparing a strike against us as we speak."

"I'm recalling all our ships until we get a handle on the situation," Jack responded, before stopping and thinking for a moment, "But I'm sending the Apollo to reinforce the Migrant Fleet."

Zorah breathed a small sigh of relief, "Thank you General. That means a great deal to me knowing we will have one of your battlecruisers guarding our flank."

"Well, I did say we'd help protect your fleet," referring to the terms of their alliance, "Besides, we've got our own people their too," he pointed out, but with a mirthful tone and a smile.

Bra'tac stood up, drawing everyone's attention, "While I am in agreement with Mr. Woolsey that we should attempt to avoid open war," he nodded to the other balding man beside him, who nodded in appreciation of the support, "I do believe that we should be prepared for it. Teal'c, Colonel Mitchell. I would like you begin training all our warriors with the tactical knowledge you have gained in combat against these machines."

The pair nodded, grabbing their materials and heading for the exit of the conference room. The shutter doors turned and opened the room to the rest of the control center. Bra'tac then turned towards the Admiral with a concerned look.

"You have theorized that the Geth are not responsible for the construction of this vessel, I assume that you do not mean to suggest that the Geth have allied themselves with another race?" he asked.

"No, the Geth would never ally with organic beings. Just as organic beings would not ally themselves with a machine race," Zorah adamantly declared, "And after seeing its defensive and offensive weaponry, I'm only more convinced that the Geth did not have a hand in its construction."

"Which means that the Geth must have found it somewhere out there," Jack assumed, waving he arms towards the sky, "Who the hell would just leave a ship like that lying around?"

"Well, the Ancients left a bunch of their ships and technology just lying around all over the Milky Way and Pegasus," Sam pointed out with a shrug, before her eyes widened with an epiphany, "Maybe that ship is Prothean!"

"Prothean?" Jack asked, waiting for the Colonel to enlighten them with her thought.

"…Yes, it would explain how the Geth knew that a Beacon had been activated without actually having forces already on the planet," Zorah completed her thoughts, "If the vessel was Prothean, then it likely had some sort of system for tracking their technology."

"And if the Geth have access to a Prothean warship… the race that built the Mass Relays and the Citadel…" Mr. Woolsey trailed off as the implications became clear.

"Then who knows what they're capable of now. Hell, that might not be the only one they have," Jack stated, his mind already thinking of contact scenarios, "Alright, Carter, start getting plans together to speed up our plans for the Jaffa ships and our fighters. And anything else you guys have been thinking of down in the labs I want on my desk by 0800 tomorrow."

The Colonel nodded, leaving the room and leaving the remaining two humans, Jaffa, and Quarian alone. The four were quiet as they contemplated the situation that they now found themselves in. It now seemed the war was on the horizon, which was something none of them wanted. Well, the Atlanteans at least, given the narrow stare the Admiral was giving the images frozen on the screen.

Finally, Bra'tac spoke, "I believe we should begin preparing for the possibility that Atlantis may be revealed to the galaxy at large."

The other three looked at the old Jaffa with wide eyes, especially Jack who tilted his head and tried to pick out his ear, "I'm sorry, I think my hearing is going in my old age. I think I might have heard you say that we should tell everyone Atlantis exists."

"I do not mean to say that we should be heading for the Citadel and formally begin negotiations with the Council… but events are now in motion that are beyond our control," Bra'tac stated, "From the attack on New Rivers to this assault by the Geth, it is obvious that there is going to be significant turmoil in the galaxy for the foreseeable future. Worlds we wish to go to, for trade or exploration, will become much more scrutinous of new visitors. Suspicion and hostility will become the first reaction when one of our ships enters a civilized system."

"Well… yeah, there is that," Jack grumbled, finding it hard to find disagreement with anything the much older man said.

"So, we should begin preparing our First Contact package for when the day comes that we are in contact with the Council races and the Systems Alliance?" Woolsey clarified, "A day that is looking to be coming sooner than later."

"Precisely. Beyond that, if these Geth begin to assault innocent worlds that we are or become allied with, we may be drawn into conflicts in order to defend them. I believe that we may need to inform the Council races and humans of this galaxy of what we have learned and know about these machines," the Jaffa Master suggested.

Admiral Zorah shook his head in disagreement, "They won't listen. Besides the fact that the Council will only get involved if the Geth attack within their borders, the moment they learn of you, this city, and your technology they will try and do whatever they need to do to get it. They may even sanction the Alliance if they think they had something to do with it. You are all human after all," he then paused, "Well, you all look human at least."

Bra'tac bowed his head towards the Admiral, "Perhaps. But that does not mean we should not try if it comes to that. Many innocents may be spared if they are made aware of the threat."

"Do we even know what the threat is?" Woolsey questioned as the others turned to him, "The Geth have not left the Veil in three hundred years. Why now? We speculated that they were after the Beacon, but surely there are other Prothean Beacons in their sector of space. Why are they choosing now of all times to make such an aggressive move?"

No one seemed to have an answer for that, which made the question seem all the more confusing and important to ask. All they knew was that the Geth were going to be a significant threat. But why… the why was something that they needed to investigate. Especially if they were going to keep venturing out into the galaxy and have possible encounters with them. The four of them continued to sit in silence as they tried to come up with an answer, but nothing concrete came to mind.

"Has there been any change?" Vala asked, sitting in a chair as she pressed the intercom to the room beyond.

Inside the room, Daniel continued to lay on the gurney with the Ancient brain scanner hooked up just over his head. Vala had been in the middle of teaching a class when she'd gotten word that he was in unconscious in the infirmary. She immediately dismissed the class, running out of the room at lightspeed and raced towards the medical wing. Jumping and sliding under tables and doctors, she skirted into the observation room, sweat pouring off her from the run and nerves. Seeing her best friend on the table and unable to do anything for him… was painful to say the least. She'd been her before, when Daniel had taken it upon himself to use Merlin's device to download Ancient knowledge into his mind, and the old man's consciousness. Mitchell had said that was the moment she'd finally become one of them… seeing your friends taking great risks with their lives.

She'd hoped that it would get easier with time…

One of the biohazard-suited nurses inside walked over and hit the intercom on their side, "No change in brain activity, I'm sorry Ms. Mal Doran."

Vala sighed, sagging into her swivel chair that Dr. Beckett had been kind enough to bring her while she waited. She pulled her feet up and clutched them close to her chest, resting her chin on her knees as she continued staring into the room. She didn't know exactly what had happened to her Daniel, only that he'd interfaced with some kind of alien computer that put him in a coma. She wished she'd never volunteered to teach those classes while he and the rest of her team went off on the mission.

The scuffle of footsteps drew her attention, and she swiveled around to see Eleni walking into the room. The poor girl looked scared, a look the former Host had never seen on her. Her fiery hair was unkept, and the girl was out of breath, more than likely having run up here as soon as she heard as well. She looked past Vala, slowly moving towards the window and looking inside at her mentor. She wrapped her arms around his body, taking deep breaths as she tried to get herself under control.

Turning slightly towards the older woman with glistening eyes, Eleni asked, "How bad is it?"

Vala didn't get up from her chair, "They still aren't sure why he hasn't woken up yet. His brain waves are erratic, but that shouldn't be keeping him down. They don't want to try and give him any stimulants and forcefully pull him out of whatever coma he's in."

Eleni whipped fully around now, a fire in her eyes that matched the locks on her head, "Why did they activate a machine they knew nothing about! They should have brought the whole fleet with them- should have waited to bring in anyone until they'd learned more about it- why didn't they-"

-"Eleni," Vala stated firmly, causing the girl to stop immediately at the tone the woman was using, standing up and placing her hands on her shoulders, "There was no way to know what would happen, darling."

The girl bit her lip and frowned, "But… but what if-"

Vala shook her head, "You've been wanting to go out on a mission. You and the others. Well, this," she motioned her head to the isolation room behind her, "This is what it is to be a part of Stargate Command. Every time you step through a Gate or venture out on one of our ships to unknown worlds, you're taking the very big risk and likely chance that you will die. You, or your friends," she stated with sadness.

Eleni stared up at the woman with wide eyes, tears threatening to spill over as she turned her head to look back at her teacher on the gurney. Vala could guess what thoughts were running around in her head, having had similar thoughts of adventuring when she was her age and stepping foot into the galaxy at large for the first time.

"Are sure this is still what you want to do?" she asked the girl.

Daniel's protégé didn't answer, just continuing to stare into the isolation room, seemingly to avoid answering the question. Sighing, Vala let go of her shoulders and moved back to her chair, sitting down and returned to waiting for something to happen. She wished they'd had a Sarcophagus with them, despite the risk she'd be willing to take that chance if it meant that it would help her friend.

'Friend' she hummed to herself in her thoughts.

She'd always felt… something towards the man. Sure, at first it was just shameless flirtation on her part. It was how she survived for so long during her time roaming the galaxy. She knew her strengths and played to them well, it was how she survived. So, the day she met this strange and awkward man from little backwater planet called Earth, she treated him as she did anyone else. It helped that he was quite handsome to be sure. Still, she did not know when exactly her feelings for him changed. Sometime during the Ori invasion, when she'd returned from their galaxy. And since they'd come to this new universe, they'd grown even closer. From him helping her when she was stuck in her quarters for weeks with the guilt of causing the Ori crusade and her failure to stop her daughter, to helping him in the classroom. There was a connection, that much was clear. And as much as he tried to hide it, she knew that he felt something for her as well. Sadly, given how busy both of them were they found themselves lately, they really hadn't had the time to sit down and discuss it.

'Well, that is going to change… if-when he wakes up' she mentally declared.

As if to hear her thoughts, an alarm rang out from inside the isolation chamber. The doctors and nurses began to run around frantically, looking at readouts on their computer screens and taking the vitals of the archeologist who began to turn and shift as he lay, as if he was having a terrible dream. Vala jumped from her seat and ran to the window along with Eleni, and the pair stared in anticipation and dread. The doctors continued to point at the screens showing brain waves, bickering back and forth though no one outside of the room could hear what it was about.

Daniel, meanwhile, continued to flinch and twitch in his 'sleep'. Flinching turned to tossing, and soon that changed to full on thrashing as Daniel nearly threw himself off the gurney causing the attendants to grab him and hold him down. One of them pointed at the others, and they ran to a nearby cabinet. Opening it, they pulled out a syringe filled with some sort of liquid and ran back over handing the syringe over. The doctor took it, holding it up to his glass covered face before grabbing Daniel's arm. He started to lower it down, the needle angled and nearly penetrating the skin-

-Daniel's eyes sprang open and he sat up in the bed with a loud gasp of air. The doctors and nurses backed off at the sudden movement, startled and waiting for some other violent reaction. But it never came as the SG-1 veteran held his head down, bent over at the waist taking heavy breaths with sweat pouring down his face.

Not hesitating for a moment, Vala rushed over to the door and opened it, Eleni running in behind her. The airlock sealed for a moment, Vala tapping her foot impatiently as the decontamination protocol activated before the inner door finally opened. Running into the isolation room, the lead doctor turned to them and started towards them with his arms held up.

"What the- you can't be in here! We haven't cleared the room for-" he started, but before he could finish Vala shoved him aside and walked right up to the gurney, the other nurses and doctors moving aside as they did not want to get into a confrontation with a member of SG-1.

Vala gently placed a hand on his back, smiling softly as she leaned down towards him, "Daniel? Are you alright?"

The man didn't respond, simply continued to let his head droop and stare at his lap as his breathing slowed down. Vala frowned, leaning closer and noticing that his eyes were closed again, very tightly. Biting her lip to fight her nerves, she reached her other hand over cupped his cheek. Instantly, his hand came up and snatched her wrist in a painful grip, drawing a gasp from her as he turned and stared at her with wide eyes. Vala stared right back into them, feeling at a loss as to what to say as she saw the fear and horror in them. The two continued to stare at one another without saying a word, and everyone else watched in uncomfortable silence, not knowing what to do.

"Dr. Jackson?" the meek voice of Eleni broke the quiet.

Daniel's eyes darted to the side, noticing the girl he'd been mentoring, then to the doctors, then back to the women holding his face. Vala offered a sad smile as she saw the wild alertness in his eyes disappear. Slowly, he released his grip on her wrist and sagged slightly into her hand, then leaning over as he collapsed into her shoulder. She wrapped her other arm around him, holding him tightly as he relaxed further. A few minutes passed before they finally separated, allowing him to sit up and for her to get a better look at him. He was clearly exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes which were themselves bloodshot. Vala stepped back, allowing the doctors to examine him and make sure he was alright.

"Daniel-" she started.

The man held up his hand, "I… I'm alright Vala, thanks. I'm just… a little overwhelmed."

Vala frowned, knowing that there wasn't much that could unsettle him like this, "What happened?"

He closed his eyes again, raising a hand to his temple as if he could feel a headache coming on. Eleni stepped forward, reaching into her sweatshirt pocket, and pulling out a water bottle. Unscrewing the cap, she handed it to Dr. Jackson. He looked up at her, a small smile appearing as he took the bottle from her. He raised it to his lips, chugging down several large gulps before letting out a few coughs from drinking too fast. He wiped the droplets from his chin with the back of his hand before giving the bottle back to the young woman.

"Thanks Eleni, I needed that," he said before taking a breath, "It's… difficult to put into words," he stated after a moment, "I think its best if I tell everyone at once… its gonna take a while to explain."

"Daniel, you know what I say about working too hard," Vala joked with a light smile, before turning somewhat serious again, "You've been unconscious for hours. You can take all the time you need."

But the archeologist shook his head, "No, there's too much to explain. And we don't have much time left before…"

He trailed off again, gaining a far-off look as he stared into the distance. Vala shared a look with Eleni. Something wasn't right, besides the obvious that was. Daniel shook his head loose of the cobwebs, then slid his legs over the side of the gurney and moved to stand. The head doctor came back around, holding his arms up as he tried to stop him.

"Wait Dr. Jackson! You can't leave yet, we still have a multitude of tests we need to run to make sure there's nothing else wrong with you," he pleaded with the man.

Daniel rolled his eyes, "I'm fine. I promise."

"Daniel…" Vala chided, drawing his attention to her.

He was about to reassure her when he saw the look in her eyes and the scrunched in her forehead. Sighing, he sat back on the gurney and nodded at the doctors who started to pull up their scanners and Omni-tools, crowding him and pulling all the data they were getting on his vitals into their computers for analysis. Vala and Eleni backed off, letting the medical professionals do their jobs. In the meantime, Vala pulled up her Omni-tool, a large orange screen filled with static appearing. A moment later, the screen changed to show a blonde-haired woman with blue eyes working in a lab, humans and Jaffa running around behind her from table to table holding equipment and cables. The amount of noise coming from the screen told the woman that there was a lot of people in the room, with countless conversations and sounds of industrial equipment echoing throughout.

"Hey Vala, sorry it's a bit hectic here! What's-" she asked, before being cut off.

"Samantha! Daniel's awake!" she exclaimed, drawing a look of surprise from the Colonel.

"Really?! Is he alright, what's his condition?" Carter asked, or rather yelled over the sounds of science going on behind her.

Daniel's head popped up at hearing the sound of his friend on the other line, "I'm alright Sam, just a bit of a headache," he explained, ignoring the disbelieving look Vala was giving him, "Tell Jack and the others to meet us in the conference room. I've got a lot to explain."

A half hour later, the senior staff found themselves in the conference room for the second time that day. Daniel had wanted everyone in command positions included, so all ship commanders not away on missions, SG team leaders, Dr. Weir, Mr. Woolsey, and even Admiral Zorah were called back in. The room was crowded, with every seat being taken and everyone else forced to stand behind them as they waited for Dr. Jackson to arrive. Small conversations were being had, with everyone speculating on why they had been called into a second meeting. They knew that Dr. Jackson had been in the infirmary after the mission to Joab, and while they were thankful he was awake, it didn't seem to be enough of a reason to pull everyone away from their posts.

Weir was sitting next to Mr. Woolsey, continuing the conversation they had started once Richard had left the initial meeting earlier in the day. Weir had been unavailable to attend as she was busy working with the Quarians on some disagreements that had happened a few days prior between their scientists in the Migrant Fleet. Nothing serious, but enough that she felt they should work to prevent any furth escalation between the parties involved and avoid a diplomatic incident.

"…So, if we decided to go down that road, you're comfortable taking the position of lead Ambassador?" she asked the former IOA representative beside her.

Woolsey nodded, "Yes, I believe that is where my skills would be best put to use. And to be perfectly frank, I feel that there is not as much for me to do here."

"That's not true, Richard. You've been a tremendous help with keeping the civilian population organized, and helping with our relations with the Quarians," Elizabeth reassured him with a smile.

He returned the smile, albeit somewhat forcefully, "I appreciate that, Dr. Weir. But it's really been you who has led the charge when it comes to our newfound allies. And I still believe that you and Dr. Jackson would be best suited in the role. But you also have administration responsibilities here, and Dr. Jackson has his hands full teaching and reading the civilians who will be joining our SG teams in the future. So, it falls to me to take on the job of dealing with the Citadel Council and Systems Alliance."

"If we decide to go down that road," she pointed out, referring to how the earlier meeting ended.

"Well, Mr. Bra'tac had a point," he conceded, with a slight nod to the older Jaffa who was in conversation on the other side of the table, "Atlantis's existence is likely to be discovered sooner rather than later. When that day comes, we need to be prepared for the fallout."

Weir hummed in agreement, "You know, part of me is sort of looking forward to it. I really want to see this Citadel in person, it sounds amazing!"

"Yes… well, personally I'm still just getting used to living in Atlantis. The idea of going to an even bigger space station floating in the middle of nowhere with millions of aliens… well…" his voice cracked a bit, nerves breaking through, "Not to mention the fact that these Councilors have held their positions for years, or hundreds of years in some cases. It's not like negotiating with another agrarian society in our old universe."

Weir smiled and patted his hand, "I'm sure you'll do fine. Besides, if and when that day comes, I'm sure General O'Neill would send at least the Daedalus or Apollo with you. Or maybe even the Odyssey if it's repaired by then. You won't be alone."

The man nodded in thanks once again, though he still felt a cold sweat break out at the prospect of having the responsibility for being the public face of the Atlanteans. He, Dr. Weir, Dr. Jackson, and his protégé Eleni Kateson had spent many hours since their initial contact with the Quarians developing First Contact scenarios for meeting the rest of the galaxy at large. The biggest issue that they kept coming back to was how the Council would react to their advanced technology. Races that had treaties with the Citadel had to abide by their laws. One of the biggest being that any advanced Prothean technology must be shared equally with everyone. And from their perspective, none of the Atlanteans in charge of future negotiations could find anything wrong with it considering the political situation. They did the same thing on their Earth in regard to the Stargate Program, though to a lesser extent.

But Atlantis being thrown into the mix was something else entirely. Besides the fact that the Council races would likely be willing to do anything for even a glimpse into things like hyperdrive technology, there was also political ramifications to them being human. Well, mostly human. The Systems Alliance was already viewed with much scrutiny by the rest of the galactic community for their persistence and somewhat aggressive behavior. If Atlantis came forward and tried to explain their… unique origins, it was likely to cause major problems.

It was going to take some major convincing for the Council to believe that they were from an alternate reality. Many Quarians still didn't fully believe them, though they kept those thoughts to themselves given how vital the alliance was to their people. The likelihood that they would be viewed as simply an offshoot of the Systems Alliance at best, or a deliberate attempt at deception by the Alliance Parliament at worst was of great concern for the senior staff. And while Atlantis had no ties with the humans of this reality… they were still human. And they came from Earth, even if it was not their own. And with the hope that one day relations might allow them to go to this new Earth, perhaps even live there… those thoughts kept them from wanting to do anything that would hurt the public image of the Alliance in anyway.

But that was the rub of the situation: if they came forward, the Council would probably demand access to their technology. The Atlanteans would refuse, and sanctions would likely be leveled at the Alliance given both were human in attempt to force them to acquiesce to the Citadel. Unless they could definitively prove to them that they were two separate entities, Atlantis being outed on the galactic stage could be disastrous for the humans of this reality. It was something that would need to be handled delicately, and with much better proof than what they'd shown the Quarians.

Thankfully, that was a problem to be dealt with on another day. The chatter around the room quieted down as everyone turned and saw General O'Neill and SG-1 entering the room. As they all took their seats. Dr. Weir and Mr. Woolsey noticed that Eleni was trailing behind, trying to look as small as possible as she entered the conference room. She stopped as she got past the shutter doors, looking like a deer in headlights as she was unsure where to sit. Vala turned around, noticing the poor girl who was frozen. Shaking her head, she grabbed her wrist and dragged her over to sit next in between her and Teal'c. The Jaffa smiled and stood, pulling out her seat and motioning for her to sit down. Eleni meekly smiled back, siting in the chair and sinking as deep into as she could go, as if she hoped it would swallow her and keep anyone from looking in her direction.

At the front of the room, Jack and Daniel seemed to be having a quite conversation that no one else could here. Whatever they were whispering about seemed to have the General concerned, but Daniel just shook his head and nodded towards the empty seat. The older man shared a look with his friend before sighing and plopping down in the chair, folding his arms and leaning back as far as it would allow. Dr. Jackson nodded to the Airman manning the controls as the entrance, who in turn waved his hand over the device and the shutter doors smoothly turned shut.

Daniel walked over to the other side of the room where the screen was and stood in front, "Hi everyone, thanks for coming in on short notice. I've got a lot to explain and not a lot of time to do it."

"How about starting with what the hell happened on that planet," Jack's tired voice echoed from the other side of the room.

Daniel rolled his eyes at that, muttering something like 'so much for waiting' and turned to the screen. He opened up his Omni-tool, tapped a few holo-keys, and the screen changed to show the images of the Prothean pyramid on Joab.

"Okay, so everyone knows that this is a Prothean Beacon, we're up to speed on that right?" he asked the room, getting a general consensus of nods with only a few shakes, "Okay, so for those who don't know, a Prothean Beacon is similar to an Ancient Repository of Knowledge. This Beacon also has a neurological network that allows for mental activation and commands."

"Which is how it was able to influence you into activating it, right?" Colonel Carter asked, referencing her earlier hypothesis.

Her friend nodded, "When we entered the cavern, I felt a… a presence. A kind of… nagging at the back of my mind."

Turning, he pulled up other articles and information about other Prothean Beacons that had been found by the Council races, "From everything I was able to find before our mission to Joab, no one has reported being influenced by a Beacon in the way I was. It's been known that there is a kind of neuro network, but no one's been able to access it. Now, the only thing that I can reason as to why I was able to is my past experiences with the Ancient Repository, like you guessed Sam… but…"

"But what?" she asked.

"It was more than that. The Beacon had some kind of… I don't know, some kind computer program that was communicating with me through this connection," he explained, or tried to, "It's hard to put into words, but I just had this feeling that it wanted- no, needed me to access the device."

Mr. Woolsey frowned, "So you're saying this alien device was capable of influencing your actions without your consents? How do we know that you are not still under its influence?"

Jack leveled a look at the man, "Come on, Woolsey. If that was the case, then he'd probably be trying to access some computer or build a whacky device," then he thought for a moment before turning back to his friend, "Right?"

"Actually, no. The Beacon doesn't have that capability. At least this one didn't. It was just meant to pass along a message. It, the computer or whatever it was, 'told' me that I needed to see," the archeologist explained.

"What message?" Weir asked, leaning forward in anticipation.

Daniel was quiet for a moment, then took in a deep breath and pulled up another image. This time, it was the image of the colossal warship that was leading the Geth fleet at Joab. The others in the room who hadn't seen the detailed report started muttering concerned whispers to each other as they looked at it. He looked over at Eleni, who'd gone white as she listened to the adults around her talk about some pretty heavy stuff, then seeing this monster of a ship that she knew was very real and flying around somewhere out there. He hated seeing that look on her face, but she needed to know what they were up against. Everyone needed to know.

"I was given a… vison of sorts, but it was more like a recording. Like I'd been dropped into the memory of someone else," he explained.

"So, like when Merlin downloaded his consciousness into your head, and you got all his memories and stuff?" Mitchell asked.

Daniel winced slightly at the thought of the even in question, tilting his head side to side as he replied, "Not exactly. This wasn't an entire mind merging with my own, nor did it start the genetic alterations in my DNA and physiology to put my body into a more evolved state. This simply showed me… something terrible…"

He trailed off into silence and started to stare into the distance, causing everyone to share a look with each other before turning their attention back to him. Jack frowned, having only seen that look on his friend once before, when he'd come to visit him and ask him about a new threat called the Ori. Clearing his throat, he sat Daniel seemed to snap out of whatever was going on in his head. The man turned, looking back at the ship on the screen, clenching his jaw and narrowing his sight as if he was trying to will the image to burst into flames.

"The vision showed me a glimpse of the Prothean Empire at its peak. What they were like as a people," he explained.

"Really? You mean you actually saw what they looked like?" Admiral Zorah asked from his seat near the General, drawing everyone's attention to him, "We have little to no knowledge of what the Protheans or their society looked like. All we have is information on some of their technology."

"Well, the Beacon showed me a lot more. They were a bipedal humanoid race, with four eyes and an almost insect-like physiology," Daniel went on, "Their technology was a lot more advanced than what the Council races use as well, at least from what I could see."

The Admiral nodded at that, "I would imagine so. They built the Mass Relays and the Citadel after all."

"No. They didn't," Daniel replied coldly.

Everyone looked confused at that. One of the main points that separated this universe from their original one was the use of Element Zero, and through that the Mass Relays. And everyone in the galaxy knew that they were created by the Protheans. It was a known fact in the same way that the Stargates were built by the Ancients.

"I-I'm sorry? What do you mean they didn't?" Zorah asked, thoroughly confused.

"The Protheans didn't build the Mass Relays or the Citadel. They found them and used them, just like the races of the modern day did," he explained.

Jack scratched his head, "Okay… so if they didn't make them, who did?"

Daniel raised a finger and jabbed it at the image behind him, "They did."

Everyone looked at the image again, at the menacing presence that it exuded even in a still image. More mutterings and conjecture started around the room as they all tried to speculate on it.

"And just who are they, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked, his baritone silencing everyone.

Daniel folded his arms over his chest, "I don't know what they call themselves, but the Protheans called them 'Reapers'."

"Reapers? Well, that doesn't sound ominous at all," the General muttered, leaning forward to stare at the image.

"The Reapers are a techno-organic hybrid race. They hunted the Prothean Empire to extinction, wiping out all advanced life in the galaxy," Daniel explained, drawing shocked looks from everyone, "They do this on an average of every fifty thousand years or so. They come when galactic civilization has reached its peak, harvest everything and everyone, then leave again until life rebuilds. They've repeated this cycle for millions of years. Maybe more."

The room went silent, as they tried to comprehend what the man had just said.

Vala raised her hand, "I'm sorry, but can we back up to the part where you said 'harvest'. What does that mean exactly?"

Now Daniel looked visibly sick, his face going a pale white like he'd eaten something rotten, "For what purpose, I don't understand. But I saw the Reapers take millions of people and… process them. Melt them down into some kind of fluid and pump them into these mega structures. I mean… millions of people, wiped out and used as material for… something, I don't know what. It was," he paused, swallowing something in his throat that everyone could guess what, "It was just so methodical, with no remorse or mercy. Families, children. It didn't matter. They all just melted… and the screams…"

He trailed off again, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. Everyone stayed silent, trying to grasp what the man was describing. Daniel was a veteran of the Stargate Program. He'd fought everything from System Lords to Priors in his tenure at Cheyanne Mountain. Despite being a civilian, the man had grown into a competent fighter and never backed down from anything even if he was sure to lose. To see him so affected by what he'd seen… was disturbing to say the least. His friends looked on with concern, especially Vala who stood up and made a move towards him. But he opened his eyes, and gently raised his hand to signal her that he was alright. Her eyes looked anything but convinced, nonetheless she slowly sat back down and waited patiently for him to continue.

"I don't know why they do this instead of just wiping everyone out. The vision didn't offer any explanation on it. It just showed me what they do," he stated quietly.

To say that there were people in the room that were skeptical was an understatement to say the least. Many wanted to believe the archeologist as he was rarely wrong about these things. In fact, he'd built a career on it. But without any real proof…

Zorah was the first to speak, "Dr. Jackson… I have the utmost respect for your abilities as a historian and member of SG-1. But what you're saying… it's impossible. Even if you were given a glimpse of Prothean history, how would you be able to understand it?"

Daniel seemed to have an answer for that, "Well, I've been learning as much about the Protheans as I could since we arrived in this galaxy. Specifically, their language. I don't pretend to be as fluent with it as the Asari are, but I've got a decent understanding. And, well, no offense but the Ancient Repository I've had experience with is a lot more advanced than the Prothean Beacon. The only reason I was in that short coma is due to physiological differences between the Protheans and humans. Everything I learned is as clear to me as if I'd watched it on the Extranet."

"Dr. Jackson," a guttural voice suddenly spoke.

Everyone looked over towards where Bra'tac was sitting. Beside him, an old man wearing a tan set of clothes sat. His posture seemed to be perfect without a single dip or sense of relaxation in it. His eyes showed an ageless wisdom, much like the old Jaffa beside him but even more pronounced.

"I believe there is a way for all of us to see what it is you have seen," the Tok'ra named Krad'ik stated, nodding to another of his kind who bowed and left the conference room, the Airman at the entrance swiping his hand and opening the shutter doors.

"What do you guys got in mind this time?" the General asked, a slight edge behind his question.

"A way for Dr. Jackson to provide proof of his visions from this Prothean device, General," the Tok'ra replied without rising to meet Jack's displeasure at having the Tok'ra step in.

A few minutes later the other Tok'ra returned, this time with a small case and purple, triangular Goa'uld datapad. She handed the device and case to Krad'ik, who took with a nod. He stood up and walked over to where Daniel was standing. He set both objects down, then opened the case to reveal several quarter sized disks with red, blinking dots in the center of each.

Daniel's eyes widened in recognition, "Memory recall devices."

"Precisely," Krad'ik nodded, "If you are willing, we can use this to see exactly what you saw."

Eleni stood up, "Wait, wait, wait. You want to put him through that again? Don't those things, like, make the user feel like their experiencing the whole thing all over again?"

Everyone in the room turned and focused on the young girl. Instantly, the girl's cheeks went bright red at the sudden attention. She began to sputter and stumble over her words, trying to form a coherent sentence.

"I-I mean- what-okay actually- uhh," she tried to get her footing back.

Vala stood up beside her, "She's right, I mean, Daniel already told us what he saw. Isn't that enough?" she asked around, waiting for someone else to speak up and noticing no one was, "Don't tell me you all don't believe him?"

Again, she was answered with silence. A few of the people started shifting uncomfortably, avoiding eye contact with the woman. After a few minutes of this, Sam finally cleared her throat and drew Vala's attention.

"It's not that we don't believe you Daniel," she nodded to her friend at the head of the room, "But we have to look at this objectively. An alien device not designed to interact with human physiology implanted images in your mind. For all we know, it could have been a training simulation."

"And how will this prove that what he saw wasn't a simulation?" Vala heatedly asked.

Krad'ik pulled one of the devices, holding it up for everyone to see, "We have spent some time refining the technology with information SG-1 gathered on their mission to Galar."

Mitchell's eyes lit up at that, "You mean the people who tried to frame me for a murder?!"

"Yes. That unfortunate incident aside," Krad'ik explained, ignoring the Colonel who made a move to stand up and protest before Sam grabbed his arm, "Gave us new ideas on ensuring that no false memories would make it past screening. The technical specs on this are in a data packet we have prepared for you all."

"Yeah… I'll let Carter explain all that later," Jack mumbled as he wiped the exhaustion off his face, "So bottom line this for me? How does this help Daniel prove what he saw?"

"There is a signature, if you will, to memories. Regardless of the species, there is a pattern that can be detected that allows us to determine whether or not the memory came from an organic mind, or if it was created or modified by a machine. As we observe what Dr. Jackson saw in his mind, we will be able to determine whether the recorded memories are genuine or not," the Tok'ra explained.

Jack folded his arms over his chest as he thought about it. Personally, he believed his friend. They'd been through too much together and Daniel had been right too many times for him to doubt him now. Even if it was a blind trust, he just knew that Daniel was telling the truth. Or at least, what he believed to be true. But… if there was a way to prove it to everyone else, it was worth a shot. Not to mention that if these Reapers were real, any solid intel they could get on them was going to be important in the long run.

"It's your call, buddy," Jack spoke up, looking his friend straight in the eye.

Daniel looked right back, holding the stare for a moment before nodding and taking a seat. Krad'ik leaned down, placing the recall device on his temple, ensuring that the molecular bonding was secure before standing back to his full height. Moving around the table, he reached over the top of Vala and Eleni and set the purple device in the center, pressing the correct command sequences before a large holographic screen appeared. The red light in the center of the device on Daniel's temple lit up, and he closed his eyes, letting out a shaky breath as he prepared to relive the memories again. Vala, noticing this, scooted her chair over to him, grabbing his hand and giving it a tight squeeze. Jack motioned to the Airman at the door who turned down the lights in the conference room so that they could see the screen better.

The screen slowly faded from black, showing Daniel's perspective as he stood on top of a green hill. They weren't sure of the planet that he was on any more than he was, but it was obvious that it was a pristine garden world that anyone would have gladly called home. What followed was exactly what Daniel had described, but his descriptions did not even come close to the level of destruction that was happening. Everyone in the conference room was dead silent as they watched, appalled at the images of dozens of ships like the one the Bane had fought descend from the sky. Many flinched at the noise that the gargantuan vessels blasted… it was a dreadful sound seemed more like a signal blasting than some sort of intimidation tactic, though that was an effect as well. They watched as the ships vaporized anything that moved, and take thousands if not millions of aliens prisoner.

Their reactions turned to absolute horror as they watched through Daniel's eyes as he walked through hallways filled with mountains of melted and burned bodies. The screams of victims being melted in tanks, others tossed aside like useless scrap still moaning and gurgling as their insides leaked out of them. It was worse than any horror movie anyone of them had ever seen… and the detail…the realism of it all was too much. One Dr. Beckett's lead doctors inside the conference room heaved, running towards the entrance and out into the atrium before dumping the contents of his stomach on the ground. Others felt a similar impulse but were stuck in standing in their place, their eyes glued to the holoscreen, unable to move. The screen changed to show a dark planet, and one of the ships racing towards their point of view before fading to black again, and the images finally ceased.

The lights slowly came back on, and the room was silent as a crypt. A few people had broken out in cold sweats, their faces pale as they tried to deal with what they'd just witnessed. Others were offering silent prayers to whatever god they believed in. Daniel opened his eyes, ripped the memory recall device off of his head, and threw it on the table as he wiped away the sweat from his forehead. Vala reached for his hand again, offering the smallest of smiles that she had to muster all her will to give after what she'd just witnessed.

"My god…" Dr. Weir whispered, her hands shaking as she brought a glass of water to her lips to quench the thirst she now had.

Teal'c face was one of absolute solemnity, staring hard and without any hint of emotion as he turned to Krad'ik, "What does your device say about Daniel Jackson's vision?"

The Tok'ra pulled up the readings on his own Omni-tool, wordlessly going over the details that would normally take a human many hours or days to understand. He stood there for a few minutes, ignoring everything and everyone while they all waited for the verdict. Finally, he closed the wrist-mounted computer and folded his hands over each other and addressed the whole room.

"I will need more time to go over the more minute details, but I can say with confidence that these memories that Dr. Jackson possesses are, in fact, genuine. Though they came from an alien device, the original memory was uploaded from an organic mind, one of these Protheans," he stated without a waiver.

More silence. Hearing about a galaxy-ending threat was one thing. Seeing direct evidence before their very eyes was another. Especially when said evidence was something straight out of a nightmare that the most disturbed psych ward patient couldn't come up with. Even Jack who would have come up with something clever to say to break the ice that had frozen the room was stark silent.

Mitchell was tapping the table nervously as he thought about everything Daniel had said and what he had just witnessed, "So, that thing is a 'Reaper' ship?" he asked, pointing to the image of the Geth attack on the screen behind Daniel, "If it was so long ago, maybe the crew died out and the Geth just found it and are using it. I mean, if no one else has heard of these guys before, maybe they're all gone."

Daniel shook his head, "No, that's not a Reaper ship. It's an actual Reaper," he corrected, drawing more confused looks, "Reapers are these massive ships. It's one being, one organism, if you can classify it as such. It's a blend of organic and inorganic material that has been merged into a single ship."

Sam gasped in shock, "That's why the sensor readings from the Bane registered it as one huge life sign. We couldn't figure out why!"

"Exactly. Each Reaper is capable of independent thought an action and is armed with technology far beyond other life. They conquered the Protheans in a few centuries before returning to wherever they come from," he continued.

"How do you know this? Nothing in these… memories indicated this level of information being explained," Zorah asked, the slightest of breaking in his voice as he was still reeling from the images he had seen.

"The Prothean Beacon… computer… whatever it was, told me everything they'd manage to learn about them," the archeologist replied.

Jack let out a breath he'd been holding, and raised a hand, "Alright, that was pretty… horrifying. Haven't felt like that since I snuck into Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was a kid. But… I'm still confused on why this matters to us? This happened a long time ago, right?"

Daniel couldn't help but roll his eyes again and pointed to the image again, "It matters because the Reapers are going to return. And soon."

Again, the mutterings started. This time with no small amount of panic as the thoughts of these monsters returning to the galaxy that they no inhabited.

"Well, Atlantis is well outside the Relay network. We can just hold up here. What does it matter to us if they come back?" someone commented.

"But if they start attacking worlds, can we really just stand by and let them? I mean, we've got the technology!" another asked.

"And the Quarians! We can't just leave them out there defenseless!"

The room started to grow from a low chatter to outright debate. Military and civilians, humans and Jaffa, half the room wanted to pull back on everything and the other wanted to start running patrols throughout the galaxy looking for this Reaper and its Geth allies. Jack leaned his chin into his hand, letting out a sigh and looking over at Carter. She looked around the table as everyone continued to talk, the volume growing louder and louder. The Colonel turned her attention back to her commanding officer, shrugging and giving him a look. Jack got the message, standing up and raising two fingers to his lips and letting out an ear-splitting whistle. Instantly, the room went silent as they all turned to the General.

"Daniel."

"Jack."

"How do you know these Reapers are returning? How do you know this isn't just one ship left behind? If this Beacon thing recorded all this a long time ago, then how would it know anything about what's happening today?"" the General asked.

Daniel raised a hand to his forehead, like a headache was coming on, "There was a lot of information in that Beacon," he took a moment before refocusing, "Over the centuries of fighting the Reapers, the Protheans managed to discover much about them. Even learning some things from previous civilizations that were wiped out by them."

"And?"

"And…" now Daniel looked somewhat unsure.

He turned around and stared at the screen, studying Reaper on it. Shaking his head, he turned back to face the room, frowning and shrugging his shoulders.

"The message is incomplete," he replied.

"What do you mean it's incomplete," Sam asked confused.

Daniel slouched into the chair, "Despite all the information the Beacon had on the Reapers, there's… something else. Something that was supposed to be in the message. But it never made it through the connection. I think Joab was too far out for the signal to make it through in one piece."

Bra'tac held a hand up to his chin, "And what do you believe to be missing in the message, Daniel Jackson?"

"I… I don't know," he honestly admitted, "But I know it's something important. Vital," he turned his attention to his friend on the other end, "Galaxy-saving vital."

Jack groaned when he heard that, "I was afraid you were going to say that."

"I know this isn't what you all wanted to hear," Daniel spoke, giving the whole room a once over, "But this was going to happen whether we came here or not. It's blind luck that we ran into that Beacon and got this early warning when we did."

"A warning that is incomplete, Daniel Jackson, is a warning that we cannot take full advantage of," Teal'c pointed out, "What do you suggest we do in order to combat these creatures? Without more information, we cannot make a move against them."

Daniel chewed the inside of his cheek as he thought about it. A moment later, he pulled up his Omni-tool again and changed the screen to show a two-dimensional representation of the Milky Way galaxy. Numerous lines highlighted and separated the territories of the races of the galaxy. Daniel highlighted the Exodus Cluster and zoomed in showing the various star systems. Specifically, the Utopia system.

"I think that I might have an idea on that. Somewhere that the message might have made it to in its complete form. The computer had records of other locations where there might still be functional Beacons. And I know one that might work best."