Here's the next chapter for you all, questions will be answered and others will be asked. Note: I only own what characters i create, the names and places i invent and the ships and vehicles i seem to be designing in droves for this single story.

I would like to thank AlexanderD for all his help and i strongly recomend reading his story New Dawn. I hope he likes the character named after him Admiral Alec Xander.

For those of you interested in what some of the ships featured in this story look like here are a few sketches on photobucket: .com/albums/ae166/Senrab_Nomis/

Please review and i will respond. Or alternatively post in the thread for this story in my forum. .net/topic/84023/35075481/1/

Review Responses

AlexanderD: Its always nice to please and your character is going to play an important role. Without your assistance this story wouldn't have come as far as it has. I'm just sorry i took so long to get you this update but rest assured more are on the way.

Shadow of Realm: Your not the only one, everyone is asking that question but will they like the answer.

DaletheChu: Where there is conflict there will be action, who am i to say otherwise? When your writing what would be normally be an image in front of your its your duty to stick readers right in the middle of the action.

Jedi Carpet: I thought it best to give the readers an idea of just what AD created, a fair amount of that description was his idea and i thank him for it. In stargate an idea is usually so crazy is just has to work. I think this one certainly counts as off the wall so its gonna work.

lanteanscribe: Glad you like it, hats off to AD for the technical work for the defense weaponry.

Ecomadness: Glad you're enjoying it so far. Enjoy the latest.

kreep13: I try to balance out the combat, descriptions and the dialogue but sometimes an enemy just needs kicking.

herbert89: Here's the update, enjoy.

blocky: Anticipation makes it all the more worth it.

Unknown area of space

In the space between stars, the gap between systems. In the void where there was only the background of glowing stars, some much, much brighter than others, a tear in the fabric of space began to rip open. The fabric between dimensions fractured and spread open, wider and wider until it easily six kilometres wide, forming the most massive hyperspace window that had ever been seen, and yet here there was no one to see it. And from this window emerged a single ship, a ship that was tiny compared to the window that had been opened, the Weir. But this single ship was just the tip of a much larger iceberg that was slowly being pulled through the still open window by the Weir. Surrounded by a vanguard fleet of small warships emerged a colossal structure that, once it cleared the window, had completed a feat that had never been conceived by its creators. Using the hyperdrive power of a fleet of relatively tiny ships Hope station had successfully completed a journey through hyperspace.

The command and control of the Averian space station was a bustle of activity. At the numerous consoles and terminals throughout the large circular room crewmen were bringing online systems that had been dormant during their time in the exotic dimension. Reports poured in of the effects of their unplanned trip on the station, luckily they were all positive, the shields had held and the station had been unharmed.

Admiral Alec Xander, co-designer and commander of Hope station, breathed a sigh of relief at the good news. Then as his fears ebbed away his face steeled as he took command of the situation they now found themselves in and started barking out orders.

"All right people, listen up. Helm, activate manoeuvring thrusters and stabilise the station. Sensors, check the hull for any radioactive markers, purge any you find and report immediately if you do find any. Tactical, keep shields active, we still don't know we're safe, and begin recharging our shields. Use all available primary and secondary power for this and get shields at maximum as soon as possible. Have weapons on standby, and target any ships that appear, you'll have power priorities if they register as hostile. Com, contact Averia and inform them to have all ships check their hulls for radioactive tags and have our escort fleet do the same. Do not tell Averia our current position and only transmit on a narrow band data burst. Oh, and get me a line to the Weir and Colonel Sheppard. Have all docked ships connect their power grids to Hope's and once connected begin recharging the shield capacitors."

"Aye sir."

"Communications established Admiral."

"On screen."

Across the numerous display screens throughout CAC the dual images of Admiral Durra and Colonel Sheppard appeared.

"Gentlemen," said Xander. "As station commander I am officially taking command until it is confirmed our location is secure. Colonel Sheppard I acknowledge that I have no control over you or ship but I ask that you co-operate for now. I assure you I will not order you to put your ship and her crew in danger."

"I understand," said Durra.

"We'll do what we can to help you Admiral," said Sheppard.

"Thank you both," replied Xander. "I've sent a message to Averia informing them of the countermeasures but I'm still having our hull checked for signatures in case we missed anything. In the mean time I would like all ships to connect to Hope's power grid and begin recharging our shields. I can also begin repair operations to your ships Admiral while they're docked. Colonel, since it would take to long to adapt your ship to connect to our power grid I would like you to maximise your scanners and keep an eye out for any enemy vessels."

Both men nodded their understanding and severed the transmission.

As the surviving warships of Admiral Durra's assault force docked with the station in the numerous hangers across the arms and the central column the hangers became a bustle of activity. Repair teams raced forwards from their safe positions to the landed ships. Conduits, that had previously been used solely to channel power from the station to the ships, extended outwards and locked into place allowing the ships generators to feed the stations capacitors. Over the hull of the station crawled the stations scorpion shaped repair robots. These metallic constructs were designed to maintain the hull of the station and perform external repairs that could not be done from the inside. Thousands of these machines were now scanning the hull of the station, searching for any signs of radioactive tags that might have been planted, so far though the scans were coming up dry.

Above the station, and inside Hope's shields, the Weir remained stationary, her sensors scanning the depths of space around them for any signs of movement, and finding none.

As repairs on the Averian warships progressed and no further signs of tags were found the mood started to calm. With all the power of the stations massive generators and those aboard the Averian ships channelling power into the capacitors the shields quickly recharged to full, even with them active.

"Status," ordered Xander.

"Hull maintenance robots have completed scans of the station. No tags found and the hull appears to be intact."

"Shields are at maximum capacity and weapons are all on standby."

"Sensors report no contacts, hostile or friendly."

"The Weir is reporting nothing on sensors."

"Okay then," said Xander, breathing a sigh of relief. "Open a channel to Averia and get me Minister Jakose."

In moments the worried face of Minister Jakose appeared on the view screens.

"Admiral it's good to hear from you again, we were getting worried."

Xander gave him a reassuring smile. "Sorry for leaving you wondering sir but we had to make sure we couldn't be tracked or we would have to move again."

"Yes I heard the reports from our scouts. Taking the entire station with you was one hell of a risky manoeuvre, you're lucky it worked."

"To be honest sir we didn't have a choice, this station wasn't designed to simply be evacuated. It was better to take the risk than be sure we would lose our people. What did the scouts say about the Hope system?"

Jakose's face was grim. "It seems once you pulled out with the station they turned your attention to everything else in the system. From what we can tell every mining site we had there was destroyed."

Xander frowned. "I expected as much. They probably thought if they couldn't get the station they would get everything else. I hope they didn't take out their frustrations on Averia."

Jakose actually smiled. "They tried taking a few pot shots at the planet from a distance but it didn't do them any good, they couldn't get past the planetary defence shield."

"Hope wasn't so lucky. If we hadn't pulled out when we did the shields would have gone down pretty quickly."

"How are repairs going?"

"It took us a while to get the shields back to full but that was because we kept them active until we could completely check the hull with the maintenance robots. I would have liked to just divert the power to the sensors but the shield was so weak we needed to keep recharging it. Other than that it's just a matter of patching the ships up. Durra's fleet took a bit of a pounding during his battle and he lost some ships but other than that everything went according to plan."

"That's good news at least. I'll have your warships sent to your location. You could use the back-up."

"About that, I want to keep Hope where it is for the foreseeable future."

"Are you sure?"

Xander nodded. "I think its best. In a star system we have more chance of being discovered than open space."

"What's the area of space you're in like?"

"Our long range sensors have a few star systems dotted around us. I'm going to dispatch a few ships to scout the systems and see if they have any suitable mining sites."

"It might be necessary to see if we can establish a stargate connection with the station. It would be a safer supply line than transporting it all by ship."

"I thought that we proved that wouldn't work out?"

"Some of the Vanir believe that the Tau'ri and the Asgard might have a way to do so, they have more experience experimenting with the gate system than we do."

It was true. Averia's stargate did not allow for incoming travellers as part of a subroutine embedded in the stargate network. Attempts to dismantle it had failed and the Averians didn't get out of their own home system much for security reasons so further study had been decided to be too risky. They didn't want to risk permanently damaging their only stargate when attempting to secure another could lead to a confrontation with the Wraith before they were ready for one.

"I'll talk to the Tau'ri here about it. Minister, we need them as allies."

"I know we do, now more than ever."

With the conversation over the transmission was severed.

"Contact the Weir," Xander ordered.

"Admiral," said Sheppard.

"Colonel I was hoping you might be able to help us with a little problem we have."

"What's the situation?"

"At the moment we plan to keep the station here instead of placing it in another star system. In order to establish a secure supply line we will need a stargate but we don't have a way to modify the command coding so one will work away from a planetary body. We were hoping your people might have a solution to this problem."

"I'll talk to McKay but I think we can come up with something."

"You have my thanks."

"I don't want to hear it right now Rodney," said an agitated Sheppard as he marched down the ships corridors with Rodney half jogging behind him to keep up.

"You know I'm right," protested Rodney. "You saw those ships and those fighters."

"So what, what do we know other than the fact the ships are familiar?"

"The implications of this could be disastrous for us all," Rodney shot back.

"Could the Daedalus have possibly found its way back to that reality?"

"Well no…" admitted Rodney.

"Then it's not the same aliens we encountered and we can't take anything as fact," argued Sheppard. "Assuming it is could only get us killed in the long run."

"The weapons and the ships they used are almost identical," McKay countered.

"So what? We don't know anything about this version until we find some way of getting more information and I don't want to go down that road until we are ready."

"So what are we supposed to do in the mean time?"

"You are supposed to find a suitable gate for the Averian's to use and are going to modify the dialling sequence so that it will work without a planet."

"Yeah and then what am supposed to do in five minutes when I've done that?"

John paused momentarily. "Five minutes…really?"

Rodney shrugged. "We already used pretty much the same program on Midway. In this case it should be easier as I just need to have it use the mass of the station as the point of origin."

"Nice to see we have some breaks. But we still need to find a stargate for them to use."

"Not a problem we'll just give them one of ours."

This time John did stop completely. "What do you mean one of ours?"

"One of the gates we have in storage in the Weir's cargo bays that we recovered from the void as part of the old gate bridge network."

"And when were you going to tell me about all this?" John asked angrily.

Rodney shrugged. "Hey I thought you knew. It was all in the reports you got sent about the Weir under the stores list."

An image of the small mountain of paperwork he had received when he was given command of the new flagship popped into his head. Okay so there had been a lot to go through but surely he hadn't missed that.

"That poses a major security risk you know, why the hell are they even onboard."

"I thought you knew, where did you think that gate for our mining world came from?"

John didn't answer, he just scowled. "Tell me that there is no chance of some invasion force making their way in through one of the stargates."

"None at all, they've all been deactivated and disconnected from their DHD's. They can't even be dialled because the macro I designed is still in effect."

"Fine give them one of those, just be sure to wipe the old command data from them."

"Where are you going?"

"To do what I have to," John replied cryptically before continuing down the corridor again.

Tau'ri Mining Planet - Pegasus

Over time the mining world had expanded from a single main base to a nexus of mining outposts spreading out across the planet. Utilising transport pillars resources could be transferred from the smaller outposts to the main base with ease and the resources poured in as more of the outposts became complete. The primary directives had been clear, stockpile resources and complete the smaller outposts. No vessels of any class were to be built and no resources were to be transferred off planet until these first orders were complete and even then only with express permission from an appropriate authority. The mining process however was proving so efficient that they wouldn't have to wait long for the needed resources to become available and the worker drones were constructing the outposts with ease. After all a small outpost made almost entirely out of concrete is easy to build using matter converters when the necessary materials are at hand. The personnel stationed on the planet thought that they would be watching the resources pile up quite quickly now that the last construction projects were nearing completion, however with a single order from one Colonel Sheppard would set off a chain reaction of frantic activity.

Once Hope station had been deemed to be in a secure location Sheppard had used his authority as commander of the Pegasus forces to authorise defensive measures to be implemented. Instead of empty construction yards and silent machines suddenly a wave of frenzied activity erupted as construction beams were brought online and engineers worked in whatever space was available to them. The final mining robots were the first thing to be constructed and were soon put to work even before the outposts they would call home were completed. Priorities had suddenly changed. Instead of stock piling mined resources those same resources were now being channelled into constructing a defence that the world might someday desperately need. In the numerous construction yards stationed at the main base dozens of satellites were being assembled with pain staking care.

Two versions of these satellites were being constructed. The first consisting of nothing more than a computer, a position stabiliser, a microwave receiver and a shield emitter, while the second consisted of a position stabiliser, a computer, a generator and a microwave transmitter. Together these satellites would form a defence shield that would encompass the entire planet and protect the surface from bombardment. The design for the shield grid was simple and yet also quite advanced in own way. Most defence shields simply consist of the shield generator tied to a set of capacitors and as the shields take hits the energy stored in the capacitors is gradually used up, at which point the shield fails. However the type of shield these satellites would generate had more in common with a wall of pure energy rather a typical defence shield. The design was based off the shields of Atlantis which coincidentally used the same technological principle as those used by Ori motherships. A solid wall energy shield would be created that would be able to be able to maintained so long as enough power was being channelled to maintain it. The advantage of this type of shield was that so long as it was being given enough power it would be able to withstand constant bombardment without failing and without being overwhelmed. As had been seen before though such a shield could fail if enough energy was directed at a specific point as the barrier was, after all only so strong. Hence the reason the Asgard designed plasma beams had pierced the Ori shields with every shot. The Alterans had attempted to counter such a problem by using ZPM's as a source of power for city ships, the remarkable batteries being able to provide as much power at a time as had been necessary, but like all batteries they would eventually run out of power. The Tau'ri design was a combination of the two. Instead of being fed by a capacitor power would be transferred via microwave beam from the generators to each of the emitters which would in turn generate the energy shield. Each emitter would be supplied by one generator as standard in order to produce the basic barrier while additional satellites would channel power to different emitters to reinforce that area of the shield as it became necessary. What this boiled down to was a shield that would not only protect the entire planet from bombardment but would also, because of the advanced and almost intelligence like programming, reinforce whatever area happened to be under attack. This would prevent it from failing without wasting energy by boosting the entire shield.

Soon the entire shield grid would be in place with dozens of the generator satellites to power it. The satellites were time and resource consuming to produce but the more they had the stronger the defence they would have available. And with this new unknown enemy suddenly appearing from the depths of space it would undoubtedly prove very necessary. No one had thought that something like a mining site would need these kinds of defences but in time as the shipyard facilities came online this world would quickly become that much more precious.

The priority at the moment was defence, but once the shield grid was fully operational offensive options could be considered. The Tau'ri, after all, were never ones to just shield themselves from harm and not striking back when able. Many a Goa'uld, Wraith and even the supposedly all powerful Ori had learned this, much to their peril. The Night Fury class which had originally been conceived to pound the Wraith into submission by providing swift death in a relatively compact package would serve their interests very well should it be deemed necessary.

Hope System

The battle against the unknown enemy had been rather one sided and as such very little damage had been inflicted by the Averians before they had retreated with Hope in tow. The chances of finding any suitably intact wreckage to analyse were slim but despite this the Tau'ri had still dispatched a lone transport shuttle to the system in the hopes of finding something to give them some clue as to what they might be up against.

Immediately after exiting hyperspace the shuttle cloaked and started scanning the system. The last of the unknowns had long since left the system, presumably for wherever they called home, but they weren't taking any chances. It took some time but if the asteroid belts were all ignored along with the planets then scanning the system became that much easier. Since scans were focused around the area of the battle then eventually they found what they were looking for in the form of the remains of a fighter craft.

The fighter was far from where Hope had once stood and had presumably been set adrift after taking damage. At a glance the fighter seemed to be relatively intact, but if you looked closer the burn marks from energy weapon impact became more apparent. But on there own these things wouldn't seem likely to have taken it out of the fight. What had done that was the large crack running almost the entire length of the cockpits cover plate and the piece of debris lodged in it. The fighter crew had died from lack of air, the cockpits own atmosphere having been sucked out and replaced by the cold vacuum of space.

Amongst the mass of floating debris this was truly the best that they could hope to find so this was the piece they chose to salvage. It was the work of a moment to beam the damaged fighter to the sizeable cargo hold of the shuttle, although if the thing had been much bigger it probably wouldn't have fit being much larger than most fighter craft. But then it did carry three passengers in its cockpit, and the aliens manning it certainly weren't small creatures being two meters tall and heavily built.

The recovered alien fighter had been immediately brought to the Weir for study, and the sight that greeted them once they finally removed the aliens from their metal coffin was not a welcome one. Perfectly preserved by the vacuum of space sat four dead sickly green skinned figures, each of which bore a striking resemblance to Wraith drones.

For the front line gate team of Atlantis the sight of these figures was enough to confirm what they already feared, another enemy had emerged from the dark to strike at them. In another Pegasus in another reality these same aliens had been a bitter enemy to the Tau'ri and would have destroyed that realities Atlantis if not for their untimely arrival. Now it seemed the same species had appeared, with the difference being this species was native to this reality and potentially posed the same threat. Caution would be necessary if they were to survive the coming days. The problem was the sheer lack of information they possessed about this species. Who were they? Where did they come from? Why had they attacked the Averians? When had the two species even met to become enemies in the first place? Were they a threat? Would they be a threat? There were so many questions and so few answers, and no way to get them if they couldn't even find them. So far the Tau'ri hadn't fired a single shot against these aliens but the aliens may still view them as an enemy for helping the Averians. Life in the Pegasus galaxy had a bad habit of getting complicated, a fact which never seemed to change.

A universe is a grand thing. To think of it we imagine a vast cluster of countless galaxies slowly spreading apart, and each one filled with billions of stars, countless worlds and countless chances for life to exist. And yet what we see is only one layer of existence for there are many planes of existence beyond that which can be seen by the naked eye. Subspace, hyperspace, two dimensions that exist in the same place as real space but physically separate from that which we call our own. And yet there exists another plane, a higher plane which humanity might one advance enough to reach on our own without the assistance of those that have come to reside there. This plane is occupied by beings that have shed their once physical forms to become beings of pure energy, a state of being known as ascension. Ascension from the lower plane to a higher and from mortality to powers that are beyond our current understanding. In our area of the universe the majority of the ascended are those who once, when they were flesh, were known as the Alterans, and now bear the title Ancients. Ancient, old, but not forgotten.

So great is the power of those who have ascended that one rule stands above all others for those who have achieved such power, none interference. Under no circumstances are the ascended allowed to use their powers to affect the lower planes, a rule that they will enforce with zeal.

But there will always be those who will try to help those who need it and there are times when the others will ignore such actions, for despite their views the Ancients still recognise what needs to be done, sometimes. They could have stopped Oma from saving the entire Milky Way from extinction at the hands of Anubis but instead let her sacrifice herself by keeping him locked in combat for eternity. If they so wish they could have stopped Morgan La Fey from providing the Tau'ri with a means to defeat the Ori but they did not, instead they allowed her to eventually take on Adria, the last of the Ori and thus bring about the end of their old enemy. Many know of these events but few know what came after. The Ancients had been given a chance, a chance to bring about the extinction of an enemy who would just as happily destroy them and for once, they took it. Perhaps it was pride that caused them to assist Morgan in her battle, perhaps it was fear, or perhaps it was anger that had been allowed to simmer for over ten thousand years at the embodiment of the enemy that had brought them to their knees. Or perhaps it was the first step taken by an individual who had become legendary not for being an ascended but for his time as a mortal man, an individual known as Janus. In any battle there is always one person at the very front, the one who swings the first strike, the one who takes the first shot. In the battle between the Ancients and the Ori Morgan had struck first, but it was Janus who struck second. Two ascended locked in battle against one another is a constant battle between two unstoppable forces, with neither able to overcome the other. It was for this reason that the Ancients were so amenable to Oma taking on Anubis, for she would be trapped, as unable to move as he. Unable to run and unable to affect the rest of the universe, the interferer of the lower planes would be out of their hair. But if a third force were to enter the fray things might change if that force were directed at only one target. Unfortunately for Adria she was the target, and Janus was but the first of many more to come.

But while the rest of the ascended Ancients were exacting retribution Janus pulled Morgan away from the fight. At first she had protested. She wanted to go back, to finish what Merlin had started but Janus had been adamant that there was something they needed to do now while the others were busy. So together the two had return to their own corner of the galaxy and descended on a clash much like the one they had left. A battle between Oma Desala and Anubis, that had been raging for over two years and which the Ancients had been guarding so that no one might interfere, until now. When the two beings descended upon the clash, neither Oma or Anubis expected what was to happen next. Again and again Janus and Morgan struck at Anubis, the semi ascended creature reeling under every blow. Against Oma alone he could have survived by putting all of his energy into defending but against three of the all powerful beings he stood no chance of surviving. Before the Ancients had finished cornering and killing Adria Anubis had been vanquished and Oma freed from her imprisonment.

During the coming years the three travelled together, watching over the lower planes as they made strides into the future. Occasionally they would find beings that might be worthy of ascension, and so the interviews would begin. Janus would test their knowledge, Oma their wisdom and Morgan their intentions. Some were ready for the chance they offered, others required time to progress along the path.

Nox Homeworld - Past

"So they found another option other than cloning," said Janus. "I'm surprised they didn't go down this route sooner."

"Many hesitate to give up their flesh," stated Oma. "How many times have we seen people return to human form rather than stay isolated as an ascended? Some habits are too strong to break."

"They cannot be faulted for trying to fix their mistakes," added Morgan. "There are many who would not hesitate to simply discard their failures and try something different but it takes a brave person to try to right the wrongs they have done."

"You're still mad because I didn't allow you to finish Adria aren't you?" asked Janus pointedly.

"No," denied Morgan. "I see the reasoning behind it I just think that if you had tidied up a little better the universe might be a little better for it."

"It's not my fault people insist on not leaving well enough alone," protested Janus. "I mean they were abandoned for a reason."

"Haven't you two done this enough times already?" asked Oma.

"No." they both replied.

"Still I would like to regain human form just to look at that ship of theirs," said Janus. "It certainly is an impressive piece of technology."

"And this is why we have this argument," said Morgan. "He's just like Merlin."

"Is that a bad thing?" asked Oma.

"I thought you liked Merlin towards the end?" pondered Janus.

"I meant a young Merlin," corrected Morgan.

"Ah."

Hope System – Present

"And so another potential threat emerges," said Oma.

"But an ally has been gained and an enemy vanquished," pointed out Janus.

"Yes about that…" said Morgan.

"I had nothing to do with it I swear," protested Janus. "Okay so I might have left the odd piece of technology about the place but I never left behind an instruction manual and this is something else entirely. An ark containing the basic knowledge necessary to advance a civilisation to be a threat to the Wraith, it's an inspired plan."

"You just wish you'd thought of it," countered Morgan.

"True," admitted Janus.

"What I want to know is who this enemy is?" said Oma.

"So do the Tau'ri," said Janus. "Did you take a look at those things in that fighter craft?"

"Yes I did," said Morgan. "The similarities between the Wraith and those things are indeed troubling."

"The universe loves its ironic twists doesn't it?" commented Janus. "The Tau'ri solve the Wraith problem spectacularly only to be confronted by what appears to be a whole new version of it."

"Surely you don't think these are the Wraith themselves?" asked Morgan.

"No I don't, but I think some link was forged in the past ten thousand years and this is the result."

"We should go," said Oma. "There is nothing left for us here. We all seek answers but we will not find them if we do not look for them."

"Agreed."

Please click review and tell me what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions and epecially your impressions of my OC's.