I intend to look at all reviews and try to clear up any questions you may have, so if you have any stick them in your reviews and i will try to answer them without giving the game away at the start of each new chapter.

As some of you may have guessed there will eventually be new ships being built. The tricky part is coming up with appropriate names which is very important, so if you have any suggestions send them in and the best will become the names for the new BC - 305 class ships.

Review Responses

Scotius: I classed the station as Midway II because the current station goes beyond a simple bridge between galaxies, but i wanted to note the importance of the previous station as it was the first space station the SGC built. The design of this station also means that there could be numerous others placed around any number of planets in either galaxy to act as outposts, both for military or non-military uses. As for the Tria, at this point i will say that it is much closer to the Pegasus Galaxy and as such would be the gangs job to go and get it. At the moment they only have the two ships available so wait and see. Hopefully this next chapter will better explain my reasons why i am leaving it for now.

DaniWilder and Shadows-of-Realms: Thank you. I hope you both enjoy the next installment. Remember the competition, the best names get slapped on the hulls of brand new ships.

Pegasus Galaxy – M35 117

The planet was one that, for some unknown reason, had not been gifted with a stargate by the ancients. One theory was that this was due to the large snake like creature that inhabited the main land. Another theory was that this was because the planet itself had in fact at one point had a stargate but it was placed on a city ship that had later on been relocated. This was the more popular theory as the planet featured a large ocean which was why the expedition had chosen to relocate there when the Asurans attacked Atlantis. Water was after all the easiest thing for a city ship to safely land on providing that there aren't any major breaks in the hull. Leaks could be kept under control to the point where you would only lose a single level at the very most, but holes on several lower levels and the whole city would eventually sink like a stone.

There were five moons circling the planet but only two could be seen from the surface. It was when these moons were becoming visible over the now empty ocean, which had once supported Atlantis on its calm surface, that a hyperspace window tore open and out of it flew the massive bulk of the Weir.

"Anything noteworthy on sensors?" asked Sheppard from his command chair.

"No ships or power signatures are being detected within sensor range," said the tactical officer.

"Readings from the planet and moons match last recorded scans, everything seems normal," said the science officer.

"So that's a no then," said Sheppard. "Right, now that's taken care of lets get out of here shall we. Helm next stop please."

"Yes Sir."

A little while later - Unknown Planet

Above the planet a hyperspace window tore open and out of it came the Weir.

"Anything noteworthy on sensors," asked Sheppard.

"No ships detected. A few low emission power signatures detected on the planet, all consistent with previous scans," said the tactical officer.

"Several thousand life signs are being detected on the planet mostly spread around a central area. Population estimates are within expected borders," said the science officer.

"Com, signal my team and Mr Woolsey to meet me in the jumper bay." Sheppard turned to second in command and he rose from his seat. "Lorne you have the bridge."

"Yes Sir," replied Lorne.

Woolsey and his team met him in the jumper bay inside the ship. His team were kitted out with their regular off world gear. Woolsey meanwhile was wearing the same uniform he had in his days commanding Atlantis, even though he could have worn one of his business suits, as he still considered himself to be a part of the expedition as did everyone else who had come to call the city home. In fact everyone who had come from the city to the Weir still wore the same uniform as they always had done. It was a part of the belief that the city would eventually be returning home to where it belonged. Hopefully that would be true.

Once they were all aboard the jumper, with Sheppard at the helm, they signalled the Weir to open the lower and outer hatches. The jumper bay was situated near the front of the ship in a specialised hanger, and as such the only way out of the ship was down through a hatch set into the floor and through another storage hanger below the jumper bay. Because the hatches led directly to outer space the Weir's crew had to depressurize both hangers and open the hatches themselves for safety reasons, in other words there were no controls for doing this inside the jumper itself.

As the hatches slid open the jumper dropped gently through the hangers, as they lowered quickly through the other hanger they were able to glimpse vague metallic shapes inside a room set up not unlike a smaller version of the jumper bay on a city ship. Before they knew it they had left the ship and were in outer space staring directly and the seemingly gigantic planet before them.

Using his mind to extend the engine pods outwards Sheppard urged the small craft forwards through space and into the planets atmosphere. As the ship fought against the planets gravity, the pilot only allowing it to be gently dragged down to an acceptable altitude, the surface of the planet came close enough to make out the individual trees they passed over. The jumper surged forwards over valleys, woods and high hills, moving at high speeds, its destination quickly becoming visible. Past a growing village and over a large hill a solitary tower was situated in a large clearing came into view and bore a striking resemblance to the control tower of Atlantis. As they approached closer they saw that the tower was slightly overgrown with vines which were evidently being stripped away, bit by bit, to reveal the shining metal underneath. The ground around the tower showed clear signs of excavation work as huge amounts of earth had been dug up and removed. To allow people to traverse the massive, deepening and expanding ditch around the tower long wooden rope bridges had been erected at compass points. The bridges all seemed to converge at what once might have a viewing platform circling the entire perimeter of the tower.

As the jumper came closer it hovered over the towers jumper bay roof entrance. Inside the jumper McKay tapped a few commands on his tablet and the entrance opened to allow them access. The jumper lowered into the bay and came to rest in one of the alcoves. It wasn't hard to find a parking space as all of the alcoves were empty except one, which contained a single large item covered by a dust sheet. By the time they grabbed their gear and opened the rear hatch a welcome party had already assembled to meet them. The welcome party consisted of three men wearing the same black uniforms they saw the last time they visited the planet. This time however instead of whips attached to their belts they had sheathed short swords. One of the men stepped forward, the bronze symbols on his shoulders indicating him to be of a higher rank than the other two, and greeted them.

"I am Captain Tovar. Welcome back to Kolumnar people of the Tau'ri."

Woolsey, the appointed Tau'ri representative for diplomatic missions, stepped forward.

"It is good to be here Captain. Is Minister Petra available to see us?"

"Of course, I shall take you to her office at once," replied Tovar.

He turned and led the way out the jumper bay and down to the control room. The Minister's office was located in the same place as the commanders of Atlantis had been. Hardly surprising seeing as the city ship Kolumna was an exact duplicate of Atlantis. In fact after a little redecorating the control room actually looked a lot like the one in Atlantis. Where a control chair once stood now stood the planets stargate which had been transferred down from orbit over the planet and fitted in the control room. They had even gifted the people of Kolumnar with a naquadah generator, inside a reinforced lock box so that no one could tamper with it, to power the lights and jumper bay entrances.

A lot had changed since their first visit several years ago. It was hard to believe that in such a short space of time the peoples lives had changed so much, but they had and for the better. Before they had come the villages were going hungry, forced to give half their harvest to the oppressive monarchy that ruled over them. Now the fruits of the harvests were spread evenly amongst the people, and as a result the people were stronger and happier. The population was also increasing as the medicines they had traded for allowed for treatment of the illnesses that would have otherwise killed the villagers. But the biggest difference in their lives had been the stargate. They now had a knowledge of how to use the device and a list of friendly planets from the Tau'ri, and by friendly they meant people who they had had good relations with and would not take advantage of them by, for instance, trying to steal the city ship out from underneath them. This might have been a rather cruel outlook towards the Genii but the Tau'ri were not the only ones to think so, as the people of Larris had found themselves sharing a similar outlook after they discovered they were being cheated by them.

As they entered her office Minister Petra rose from behind her paper strewn desk to greet them with a smile.

"My friends it has been to long. What brings you back to our little planet?" she asked.

"We were in the neighbourhood and thought we would drop by and see how some old friends were doing," said Sheppard returning the smile.

"Oh is that all, well I can tell you we are doing quite well. In fact the people of Larris are supporting our role to join the Coalition, so thank you for introducing us," said Petra.

"Don't mention it, how is Harmony by the way?" asked McKay.

Ever since that little trip to the temple McKay and the queen of Larris seemed to get along quite well, probably because the two of them enjoyed teasing Sheppard about the famous portrait showing him cowering behind Harmony and a gun totting McKay. A portrait which had since been replaced by one showing the three of them standing nobly with mini drones flying around them. After all she could only hold a grudge for so long considering John had actually helped save her life. But the original was still around, stored in a private room for whenever Harmony needed to cheer herself up. She could still, to this day, remember the priceless look on Johns face when it was unveiled.

"The Queen is doing quite well, of course if you will be attending the Coalition meeting next week you will see her for yourselves," she answered.

"Well hopefully we can make it, can I assume you'll be there?" said Woolsey.

Petra shook her head, "No, we have not been gifted with the knowledge of the location yet. Of course I expect that we will only learn it if our application had been approved, in which case we will only learn of it next month."

The location for the monthly Coalition meeting never actually changed, it was in fact the same place where the team had had their trial. The underground complex had been built in secret on Keltona, a planet that had no native populace and so was ignored by the Wraith. The Tau'ri knew of the location and they knew of the date of the next meeting, which was in a few of days, and usually there was a confirmation message sent to the planet of each member to remind them a day in advance.

"Well we wish you the best of luck with that," said Woolsey.

"Thank you for that, now will that be all or is there another reason you all came here?"

The reason that Petra had been able to gain power was that the people of Kolumnar had learnt of democracy and decided to vote on a leader. The prestige she had gained amongst her people for her willingness to fight for their freedom from oppression during Ortho's grab for power had almost assured her election. But what had allowed her to keep power was the fact that she had proven to be a strong leader and a devious negotiator. It also helped that she was an excellent planner and a woman with foresight, traits honed after years of knowing that the survival of your village depends on guaranteeing one good harvest after another. These were also traits not uncommon in her people as a whole which helped make them an upcoming people as a whole. One of her first acts was to get the individual villages to collaborate in working on the next harvest. Her second act had been to task numerous people to delve into the scrolls and records of the late chamberlains and begin teaching the children, and others, to increase their knowledge base. In the past her people had always been forced to give half their harvest to the royals, but now that the royals weren't royalty anymore they had the chance to trade with other civilisations and that meant bartering. Outsiders might expect them to be very bad at this but what they failed to take into account was that the villages would have to trade with one another to get the things they needed to have a successful harvest. After so many years of having their hard work taken from them for practically nothing Petra expected to get nothing less than what they deserved for their goods. As a result people hoping to convince her that her items weren't that valuable but were still wanted found themselves faced with an immovable rock. This seemed to be one of the times when people had made the mistake of underestimating her.

"Well we would be interested in a little light trading," said Woolsey. The pleasantries were nearing an end and it was time for the two negotiators to step into the ring.

"And we would need to know what it is you want and what you have to offer," said Petra.

"We would be interested in acquiring the control chair, as we understand you no longer have any use for it. We would of course be willing to give you some more medical supplies in exchange."

"But clearly you do have some use for it or you would not want it. Since our first trade was for the drone weapons I can only presume you need it for reasons relating to them. However I cannot let you have it merely for medical supplies, not with the current threat."

"Threat?" enquired Woolsey. This was certainly news to them as everyone looked surprised at her words.

"So far we have not been culled by the Wraith. However we do believe we will not be so lucky in the future. It is in fact one of the reasons I ordered that we begin the excavation of Kolumna as I am sure you noticed."

"But surely you realise that even if you dig out the city that won't protect you from the Wraith," said McKay.

"You are right Doctor, however uncovering the city may allow us to find something that might. Besides since I know that your people live in a similar city you must know how to use the technology and might be interested in whatever we find. You might even be interested in the city itself someday. I know that my people do not have the knowledge to properly use it other than as a place to live but you do," replied Petra. They had to admit the woman certainly had foresight. A second city ship would certainly be a nice thing to have, especially one which had already proven to be in pretty good condition in terms of its major systems.

"What you are saying is that you want is a defence against the Wraith and then you will trade us the control chair," said Woolsey.

"If you can provide that then we will indeed have a deal."

"Well I think this is the point that I turn things over to our military leader," said Woolsey, turning to look at Sheppard. "So Colonel Sheppard what can we offer these people?"

Sheppard thought for a moment before he replied. "Okay, how does this sound? We can give you a way to detect the Wraith if they ever make an approach to the system, that way if they ever head your way we can send a ship to intercept."

"Can you explain this detection method to me please?" asked Petra.

Rodney stepped forward at this point. "Basically we put a series of satellites around your star system. These will then allow us to scan for Wraith vessels and will warn us if any happen to approach, and once we get the warning we can then send a ship which should arrive in no time," he explained.

"Can you not give us some other defences against the Wraith, some of your weapons perhaps?" Petra enquired. She was slightly reluctant to put the fate of her people in the hands of others, even if these particular people had freed them from oppression.

Sheppard shook his head. "Sorry but we don't give our weapons to anyone, and in all fairness you've never had fire arms before. We can give you a warning system if they should turn up."

They all knew that lethal weapons were available from select groups around the galaxy but they weren't about to go about arming people, especially people who had no experience when it came to fire arms.

Petra nodded her head in understanding, "I understand your reluctance to give people weapons so thank you for your honesty. However if that is the case then I must ask one small thing of you."

This was something they had rather expected but that didn't mean they liked it, especially when the deal was so close to being finalised.

"Ask away," said Woolsey, ever the negotiator.

"I understand that you have some influence in the Coalition, and I would like to ask that you try to help our application go through," requested Petra.

Pegasus galaxy politics, like all politics, was a complicated thing and people knew that the Genii played a major part in it. As such if someone who refused to trade with the Genii was supporting an application to join the Coalition you can bet that they were going to make some attempt to block it. In fact the main reason that the people of Larris even got in to begin with was because they were a strong people with many resources at their disposal and traded with a great many important people, the Tau'ri included. Still that didn't mean the Genii wouldn't try to stop them from getting more friends into the Coalition.

"I can assure you will do whatever we can to support your application," said Woolsey.

"In the mean time what say we get some protection for your planet organised," added Sheppard. "Of course I am sure you'll want to see it happen so care to take a trip up to our ship?"

"Using your puddle jumper?" asked Petra.

"Transporter's quicker," replied Sheppard.

Petra grinned, she had been there when they beamed the stargate into the control room, it was an impressive sight and she had often wondered what it was like.

"Will it take long?"

"It'll be done before you know it," said Sheppard.

"Then allow me a moment to inform Tovar and we can go," replied Petra.

Informing Tovar took but a moment and they were quickly beamed up to the bridge of the Weir, while the puddle jumper was beamed back into the jumper bay using the ships powerful beaming technology. When they reappeared Petra's eyes were like saucers as she looked around the bridge and then out the forward viewport to see her planet below.

"It truly is an amazing sight," she said.

"Indeed it is," said Sheppard before switching into Commander mode. "Com, signal the satellite deployment teams that they have a go to launch."

The plans for setting up a detection grid around a star system had already been predetermined and the pilots knew what to do.

"Deployment teams are acknowledging and will be launching shortly," said the com officer.

"Helm, when the shuttles are in position take us to satellite one's location," said Sheppard.

"Aye Sir," said the helm officer.

On each hanger wing the larger doors of the middle hangers split in two and slid open. From each of them soared four support ships that spread out to head out in different directions. Once they were all on course the ships immediately went into hyperspace but only making a relatively short jump.

The ships were the newly completed transport shuttles or the TS-01 class. Although classed as shuttles the ships were actually a good deal larger than an Al'kesh being 50 metres long, 25 metres wide and 15 metres tall. The ships were actually shaped like an emerald, with flat panels making up the exterior hull instead of curved surfaces. There were two large doors on the front sections of the ship while the front of the ship itself sloped downwards and curved inwards at the slides marking the jutting pointed bridge of the ship. The inner layout was actually quite similar to an Al'kesh. The two doors each led to side cargo bays which connected to a wide corridor running down the length of the ship connecting the bridge, creating a tuning fork shape with the bridge at its tip, to the ring room at the back of the ship, which in turn connected to the engineering section via two doors at each end of the back of the room. In the cargo bays long slightly padded shelves that folded into the walls could easily double as bunks for crewmen and in the corner of both cargo rooms there was a closet bathroom that doubled as a shower. The design was the product of years of research and technical understanding compiled together to create this entirely earth built vessel. As part of the standard design the ship had a relatively low tech hyperdrive, making it as fast as an Al'kesh, and shields that could be turned into a cloak with the press of a button. In addition there was a pair of twin X-699 type energy weapons mounted on the base of the ship that rose into a compartment in the hull when the ship was landing. All of these systems were powered by a Mark II naquadah generator with two Mark I's as back up. The bridge command chair was situated at the back in a small indent, hence the tuning fork shaped corridor running down the ship. At the front of the ship, directly before the large window, were two control stations. On the right was helm control while on the left was the tactical station. Both consoles were fitted with sensor screens and controls to activate the cloaking device.

The ships soon exited hyperspace a fair distance away from the system and reappeared on the Weir's deep space sensors.

"Sir all ships have arrived at their designated locations, taking us into hyperspace," said the helm officer.

The ship made a quick jump through hyperspace and reappeared below one of the shuttles.

"Keep your eye on that shuttle, it's about to deploy one of the satellites," said McKay.

The rings on the shuttle activated sliding out of the bottom of the ship into empty space. As the middle of the cluster glowed with light the satellite was transferred from the ship to empty space, the light faded and the rings retracted leaving only the satellite behind. It was quite long, probably ten metres, and was a cylinder shape with a rounded top and a flat base. The satellite's themselves were designed to act a sensor relay, transmitting the data to a specific receiver, in this case the Weir or the Kolumna. Each satellite had been constructed to use deep space sensors, like those on Atlantis, as well as a subspace transmitter and a Mark II naquadah generator. The satellites also used stealth technology to hide them from detection from sensors and were painted like the 302s to protect against visual detection. This was actually so effective that you were unlikely to spot them from a distance unless you had the ways of detecting them that the Tau'ri did, such as searching for the specific subspace signal.

While Sheppard gave orders for the other shuttles to meet them back at the planet McKay activated the HUD on the viewport and brought up the sensor data they were receiving. The image showed the solar system they had just left, with the satellites marked by red dots around the system in an octagon shape. It was apparent just how far from the system they were as it only appeared as a small dot on the sensor screen with the satellites spread a great distance from it.

"We have set up 8 satellites around the system. Each of these satellites provides a very large amount of sensor cover meaning that if one of them is knocked out for some reason or another then it doesn't leave a gap. Of course we will repair or replace it if that happens so that we get the maximum possible coverage," he explained.

"Your technology is very impressive, thank you for putting this in place," said Petra.

"Your welcome," said McKay.

Sheppard stepped forward. "Well now that the satellites are in place why don't we get you home."

"Yes I should get back to my people," agreed Petra.

Two days later - M35 117

After dropping Petra off at her planet the Weir had returned to M35 117. The Daedalus had also met them at the planet and was undergoing the final installations of her new upgrades. These upgrades mainly consisted of two neutrino ion generators as the primary power source and give the ship a much needed power boost. Additional upgrades consisted of a cloaking device, the Asgard equivalent of food replicators and hologram technology, allowing the Commander of the ship to communicate easily with someone without actually leaving the ship.

The stargate that they had beamed up from Atlantis was fully operational and capable of receiving wormholes directed at the planet so long as the ship was in orbit. They had made contact with the Athosian's and had even traded a few supplies with them. However they had not yet received the regular meeting reminder from the Coalition, which was surprising. Possibly their absence last month had raised some eyebrows and they had been assumed missing. Either way it didn't matter as they were going to pay the Coalition a visit, and on that thought the Weir entered hyperspace.