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: albums/ae166/Senrab_Nomis/

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

Review Responses

AlexanderD: Zarin knows he faces an enemy with technology superior to what he currently possesses. Taking that into account he will be making sure to have a few tricks up his sleeve.

Cdoctor: They will have to be careful about how they play their cards in the future, but sometimes all it takes is a small intervention for massive consequences.

Oddliver: Can't say i know that one but i have heard about it. The Zarasian ship probably wasn't such a house of horrors though.

Just A Crazy-Man: Thank you.

Monsterjeffbuk: I might have to disappoint you but please be patient.

chainreader: In this one they knew what they were in for, but who expected the invisible soldiers to be spotted.

stormwolf3710: Thank you.

BIG Z1776: Maybe you meant the chapter before last because that was the action chapter.

Since their arrival on New Lucia the Lucians had found themselves in a strange and unfamiliar environment which was a stark contrast to their former world. Here a daily fight for survival had been turned into a comfortable lifestyle, and they were in no hurry to change that. Plans were in place for them to make further strides towards independence but for now the Lucians were content to enjoy themselves and rest their weary bodies before making their lives more complicated. There would come a time though when the Asgard would cut off their support and force the Lucians to stand on their own while remaining under their protection.

The Tollan survivors had also settled onto New Lucia but their personal pride and the knowledge of what it felt like to possess an advanced civilisation had driven them to expand beyond the initial confines the Asgard had set down. Once they had settled down and licked their wounds they had set about restoring themselves to power. They had built hydroponics to produce food all year round and even limited manufacturing facilities. But now though they were looking to become a dominant power. The first order of business was acquiring resources to build a greater infrastructure, which namely consisted of trinium. Given their current lack of possessions short of what they could create using the small matter synthesiser provided to them by the Tau'ri the only choice had been to mine for them. When the Tau'ri had gifted the Tollan with the use of that small matter synthesiser they had expected them to use it for small personal items. Instead the Tollan had used it to create the components for small mining and construction robots, which they had quickly put to use.

Mining for resources on a shared planet however caused immediate conflict when the Lucians found out. The Asgard had quickly stepped in an attempt to act as mediators but talks had quickly broken down when the Tollan, subtly directed by Travell from the shadows, kept pushing for more territory than the Lucians were willing to give. Then the Tollan had played their trump card. Since they were now in a position to stand on their own without support, with their people healthy and their base industry restored, they were arguably capable of surviving on their own. Tollan pride was apparently a driving force that allowed for an inexplicably fast recovery time, although many people favoured the opinion that the advanced technology used by their rescuers. The Asgard had eventually relented and agreed to relocate the Tollan settlement to another world while keeping it exactly the same as it was now, Asgard watchtower included. However if they wished to be independent, while still being protected until they could build suitable defences of their own, then they would have to give up the matter synthesiser. It was a heavy toll for the Tollan to pay but given they had been rescued and offered its initial use for nothing it was a fair price.

The Asgard however weren't happy that the Tollan had constantly nagged them and their allies even after all the help that had been freely given. So they took a certain amount of pleasure in reminding the Tollan just how primitive they were in comparison to their noble and ancient race by carefully selecting the planet to which they would be relocated. In order to let the message sink in deep enough there was only one choice that would be appropriate, Tollana. Using technology well in advance of anything the Tollan had in their possession the Asgard had restored the damaged world to its former state of natural beauty. The atmosphere had been scrubbed clean, the waters purified and the indigenous flora restored. To say the Tollan had been surprised when they were told the name of the lush green world they had been relocated to was an understatement. The Asgard had even kindly provided a stargate for the Tollan to use, an act of which they were very much grateful since the Nox had taken back the knowledge on how to build a functional equivalent.

Tollana

The Tollan had comfortably settled back onto their old world and had already begun to make use of their brief time there. The Asgard had rebuilt their settlement in a valley not too far from the site of their former city. Acting on this knowledge the Tollan had dispatched their mining robots to search through the massive pile of debris that had remained for raw resources untouched by the Tau'ri sweep. Large amounts of refined trinium and crystal fragments were recovered with ease and incredible speed as the industrious robots worked tirelessly.

Meanwhile construction robots were hard at work further expanding the Tollan infrastructure to increase production beyond the meagre amounts currently possible. Massive hydroponics facilities were being laid down, alongside automated factories that could build the individual components for all manner of devices and even the framework for a shipyard was taking shape. Priority had of course been given to the factories since they would produce the components needed for additional mining and construction robots but things were moving along quite quickly.

In orbit above the restored world a hyperspace window opened and spat out the Enterprise. The flagship of the Milky Way fleet was here for a special purpose today, negotiating with the Tollan for a technology exchange. Ten years ago the Tollan would have laughed at the idea, several years ago the Tollan were thought lost but the unheard laughter was still deafening to the Tau'ri. Now though things had changed greatly. The Tau'ri were a powerful race, they had been named the fifth race by the Asgard and were now the founding members of the new Alliance of Great Races, not that the Tollan were privy to this knowledge yet. Until the Tollan were deemed ready to take their place in the galaxy once again the Asgard had chosen not to inform them in order to protect them from their own pride. It was feared that if the Tollan thought they were falling behind those they considered primitive they might act rashly in an attempt to catch up with them.

From the hanger under the nose of the flagship a small silvery craft emerged, drive pods extending before it descended into the planet's atmosphere. The craft was the latest of Tau'ri innovations and bore a striking resemblance to a puddle jumper. This craft's hull was much smoother and sleek than the patterned hull of a puddle jumper. The craft was the product of the sharing of Averian shuttle blue prints combined with Tau'ri ingenuity, and in function and practise the craft was very similar to a puddle jumper. It possessed a gate dialling device capable of working in whatever galaxy they might be deployed in, a compliment of NPD's, inertial dampeners, shields, cloak and even plasma weapons in the nose. While in reality they were mere imitations they were still a highly capable craft in practise.

Onboard the jumper, aside from the pilots and a small armed escort, was Daniel Jackson. He would be personally conducting the negotiations for the technology exchange and it was hoped his previous experience in dealing with the Tollan would be a boon in this endeavour. Onboard the Enterprise, which served as his personal office these days, was Lt General Jack O'Neill. He would not be taking part in these negotiations personally but he would be on hand to see them carried out immediately. The reason for this was rather obvious to those aware of the current political Tollan climate and a little history. The former Chancellor, Travell, and General O'Neill did not respond well to one another when in each other's company after the incident that had led to the devastation of Tollan civilisation. Travell personally blamed him for the end result and he hated her for being willing to destroy his world to temporarily save her own. Ten years had served to wither that hatred a good deal but their haphazard reunion had disturbed the waters. Jack was perfectly content if she slunk off into a dark corner and was never seen or heard from again. Unfortunately the universe isn't always that kind and Travell had certainly not been content with taking retirement. After the phase bomb incident, in which she had taken lead, she had been forced to step down as leader of the curia but she was far from out of the picture. She still possessed considerable sway with the other members of the curia and had managed to maintain a certain measure of power. She was also determined to stick her beak into every matter concerning the future of the Tollan, which included the technology exchange negotiations.

When the Earth made puddle jumper touched down on the green land just outside the expanding Tollan city they were treated to a wonderful view of the construction projects under way. Already the framework of the new shipyard was taking shape and flittering small shapes of construction robots could be seen flying around the skeletal structure. Upon arrival he was quickly escorted to the designated meeting room for these negotiations. As he walked through the city he felt a wave of nostalgia, the happy smiling inhabitants seemed much more like their old selves and it was almost as if he was walking through the old Tollan city. The Tollan had made great progress as of late and were well on the way to full infrastructural recovery.

As he entered the meeting room he was once again reminded of the old Tollan city, since it was an exact duplicate of the meeting room used whenever Earth delegates had previously visited this world. Presiding over this meeting was Narim the official representative of the Tollan people, arguable stand in Chancellor and, if the rumours were correct, the favourite in the upcoming election. Also present was Travell, who was wearing a stern expression at having to take a position as a mere watcher. Daniel couldn't help but think that battle axe, as Jack liked to think of her, was getting to be more and more appropriate every day.

"Welcome back to Tollana Doctor Jackson," Narim said warmly.

"Thank you Narim," Daniel replied. "It is nice to see how much progress you have made in restoring your civilisation."

"We have come far in such a short time," Narim agreed. "However such would not have been possible without the assistance of you and your allies. My people owe you a great debt."

Daniel could swear the air around Travell had seemed to steam slightly at that last comment and he resisted the urge to chuckle.

"We only did what would be expected of us to do," Daniel replied smoothly. "I believe that in accordance with your own laws these talks are being recorded?"

"An audio and visual copy will be stored in the public Tollan database," Narim replied. "We wouldn't want to betray the public trust by not allowing them to know what they have a right to know."

"Would it be possible for my people to get a copy?" Daniel asked. "General O'Neill would like to have a complete record of these negotiations rather than reading a report."

"Of course," Narim said. "That is the least we can do for you."

The last comment had managed to rile Travell up.

"I would have thought that if General O'Neill considered these negotiations that important he might have attended himself," she said, with an edge to her voice.

"Unfortunately being in a position of power takes up much of his time," Daniel replied. "He thought it best to defer the negotiations to someone with more experience. If you really think it necessary I could get him to beam down here."

"That won't be necessary Doctor Jackson," Narim stated before Travell could reply.

"Well now that that is out of the way let's get on with the negotiations," Daniel said.

"We have reviewed your request," Narim said. "Your people have advanced significantly technologically as of late. However you must understand our reluctance to part with this particular technology given the danger of its misuse."

"We understand that," Daniel said. "However you must admit that any technology has the potential to be misused."

"That is true," Narim admitted. "But we must ask what you intend to use the technology for?"

"Are you going to use it to make weapons?" Travell asked bluntly, causing Narim to cringe slightly.

"Potentially we hope it to replicate the phase technology for our drone weapons," Daniel admitted. "However there are many other applications for this technology that we hope to explore."

"But first you plan to weaponise it," Travell said bitterly.

Narim shot her a stern look.

"We already have working examples of the phase technology used in the drones," Daniel explained. "Eventually we could go about replicating it however we believe that understanding the principles behind the technology is better than simply copying it."

"Arguably though that is more dangerous than the technology itself," Narim pointed out. "There is only so much you can do with the technology you could build but the complete knowledge of its inner workings could be used for anything."

"However it is also safer since we will understand how to use, potentially fix it and realise what can go wrong with it," Daniel argued. "I should also point out that according to the proposal we simply asked for a basic knowledge of the technology."

"How basic are you willing to settle for?" Narim asked.

"What we have found when a technology is first researched is that the initial working example is rather large, inefficient and doesn't work for very long," Daniel said. "Would that be the same in your case?"

"Yes it is," Narim said.

"Then I believe that would be appropriate," Daniel said.

"What would you be willing to offer in exchange?" Travell asked surprisingly pleasantly.

"We would be willing to provide you with hyperdrive technology similar to the Goa'uld standard," Daniel replied. "With your more advanced power generation your ships would be much faster than ships of equal size."

"When would you be willing to make the transaction?" Travell asked, while Narim was distracted searching through the Tollan database trying to figure out what angle Travell was working.

"As soon as the agreement is finalised," Daniel replied. "So ideally immediately."

"Would you be willing to provide a built model with the design plans?" Travell asked politely.

"We would," Daniel said, though he was beginning to become suspicious of her motives himself.

"That certainly sounds reasonable," Travell said. "Are you willing to officially say that you will agree to these terms?"

"Doctor Jackson," Narim interrupted before Daniel could speak, causing Travell to shoot him a look. "Before you answer you should know that the most basic working example of the technology is rather large, far too large to be placed on your drone weapons and cannot be used by people. Also in practise it only worked for a very short period of time."

"How large exactly?" Daniel asked to their surprise.

"Pardon?" Travell asked.

"How large exactly is this device?" Daniel asked politely.

"About man sized," Narim replied since Travell had gone silent.

"But that would include a full explanation on the design principles of the technology which would eventually allow us to greatly improve the design?"

"Yes it would," Narim admitted.

"Then I think that would be appropriate," Daniel said with a smile. "And I think we can agree with the terms of this exchange."

Daniel noted the gob smacked look Travell was now wearing and was very glad that the whole meeting was being recorded.

"I'll have the hyperdrive and the design plans sent down to you immediately," Daniel said as he rose from his seat.

"And I will have the designs for the phase device prepared for you," Narim replied curtly. "Along with the recording of this meeting."

"Thank you," Daniel said, before striding out of the room with a smile on his face.

Enterprise

"Well Daniel how did we do?" Jack asked.

"Pretty good," Daniel said. "I got us the most basic piece of working phase technology in exchange for a Goa'uld hyperdrive and the design plans. Oh and I also got us a copy of the meetings recording."

"How did Travell take it?" Jack asked with a grin of his own.

"Pretty well when she thought she was conning us by giving us an oversized piece of junk," Daniel replied.

"How oversized?" Jack asked.

"Man sized," Daniel replied.

"Pretty big then compared to their hand held versions," Jack noted seriously.

"Oh definitely," Daniel replied.

Both men sat there wearing serious expressions and in silence for a few moments before they both broke down laughing.

"And to think I would have bet money on it being at least the size of a truck," Jack managed.

"I know I said at least the size of a car," Daniel agreed as the last of the laughter died out.

"The boys in Hellstorm will certainly be happy," Jack noted. "Less space means we can fit more of them. I just wish I could have seen the look on Travell's face."

"Why do you think I asked for the recording?"

"Thank you for that."

"No problem."

"I'll have them send down the hyperdrive right away. Once we have the designs we'll head to the Alpha Site, then we can drop off our guest."

Argus Shipyards

Activity in the actual shipyard was rather limited as of late. Ships were still being constructed but to a much lesser degree than before. The greatest priority was currently being given to construction of the new puddle jumpers and ship design implementation research and the majority of the resource flow had directed to the Night Fury yards orbiting Langara.

From his engineers office in the main yard Colonel Pierce had a spectacular view of the two ships under construction. The main yard had actually recently finished being expanded. With the reappearance of the Asgard and the new ships they were building it was realised that a bigger yard would be needed to accommodate ships as large as the O'Neill class. To that end the main yard had now doubled in width and had been extended by half. Thanks to the addition of a collapsible partition two vessels of the Pegasus class or ships of a similar size could be constructed simultaneously, which was a great asset to have.

Through his window he could see the shapes of two ships under construction. One was barely a skeleton of a ship, consisting only of the very basic framework. In its current form it was hardly a recognizable ship at all. The forward part of the ship was reminiscent of a kunai blade much higher than it was wide, while the smaller rear part of the ship looked like the wing section of the Night Fury class. It was interesting Pierce noted, that when you looked at the bare bones of a ship there is so much potential available. Anything at all could be placed in the internal space or lining those bones. The other ship was in a much later stage of construction, so much so that the end product was now quite apparent even Pierce knew exactly what it would be since he had approved the construction schedule.

At a glance it appeared to be a vessel of the Pegasus or Nightingale class, but if you looked more closely you would see the obvious differences. For one this ship had much larger side hanger bays that ran almost the entire length of the ship, allowing for a much greater number of fighters to be carried at the cost of the six side APB emplacements. In addition to this the railgun emplacements had been replaced with heavy X-699's, with the side mounts now running along the top and bottom of the hanger bays. Clearly this was a whole new kind of ship. This ship was known as the Sagittarius and she was of the carrier class.

All the attention however was not on the ships currently under construction. Instead that honour was given to the ship comfortably resting in the orbiting city ship dock, that being the only dock they had available to hold a ship as massive as the Tria. After all these years she had finally been recovered from the void and brought in for study, repair and even possibly upgrading. One thing that everyone agreed on was that the Ancients never did anything small. Atlantis and her sister Borealis were a testament to that, being cities capable of relocating to another galaxy if necessary. The Tria itself was a massive craft, over 3km long, and had been built during the height of the war against the Wraith. It possessed powerful shielding, large amounts of storage space solely dedicated to holding drone weapons, generators on par with the Asgard equivalent, hundreds of stasis pods for the crew, automated systems allowing for a small crew and powerful sublight engines. Her drone stores were running a little low though and her hyperdrive had been completely ruined in her last battle, but that wouldn't have mattered much anyway. The Ancients had, rather wisely as it happened, fitted their ships with interplanetary hyperdrives rather than intergalactic ones. While they were admittedly much slower it did mean that the Wraith hadn't been able to steal that particular technological secret when they captured ships in the hopes of acquiring ZPM's. If they had been capable of intergalactic travel the Wraith would have set foot in the Milky Way galaxy a long time ago.

Despite all the amazing technology the Ancients possessed when it came to designing a warship they were somewhat lacking. The Aurora class, as the Tau'ri called it, were believed to have been the frontline warship of the Ancients during their war against the Wraith. Yet despite this by Tau'ri standards they had not been designed effectively. The main weapon of the Tria was her drone weapons, powerful weapons certainly, but eventually they would run out when faced with the numbers of the Wraith and the force multipliers that were darts. The Tria could have taken on a fleet of hive ships single handed but once the drones ran out she would relatively defenceless. Lacking energy weapons of any truly significant power she would eventually be overwhelmed and that was exactly what had happened. Perhaps, Pierce reflected, that was just a result of the different thought processes compared to those the Tau'ri had developed. Drone weapons were undoubtedly a powerful weapon, capable of taking on any number of threats from fighters to the mightiest capital ships. The Ancients had essentially created a weapon capable of taking on all comers but the Tau'ri didn't think like that. Rather than have a single weapon capable of taking on multiple enemies, their warships, what they defined as real warships, possessed a large variety of weapons of varying strengths and suitability. That variety allowed them to take on multiple threats without an inefficient use of energy. It was a waste to destroy a single fighter with a weapon capable of systematically crippling or destroying a capital ship after all.

Despite this though the Tria was an absolute wealth of information on Ancient technology for them to study and the yard dogs were giddy with excitement. One powerful piece of technology that had been recovered was a control chair from the secondary control room, which had been shipped back to Earth for use as a back-up in case the other was destroyed. The highly valuable drones meanwhile would be used to replenish the Earth stores. It was hoped that someday the research into phase devices would be completed. Then they could finally give their drone weapons the ability to pass through any kind of shielding, not just the weaker variety. However they had been able to derive a way to generate a high intensity plasma field around them in order to bore their way through enemy armour. All drone weapons carried by the entire fleet were the Mark II variety which featured these upgrades. The Mark III variety would hopefully feature a miniaturised phase device. The boys in research had high hopes that it would only be a matter of time to achieve this aim. While the phase device was a very powerful device it was constructed using less advanced technology than what they currently had at their disposal. With an understanding of the design principles involved it would simply come down to rebuilding the devices using the miniaturised, yet still just as effective, technology.

The real question though was what to do with the Tria once the hyperdrive had been replaced, that is if they wanted to replace it. The potential possibilities were so numerous it gave Michael a headache to think about, so he was glad that he didn't have to. Potentially they could attempt to rebuild the ship to its previous specifications, slow hyperdrive and all, while restocking the drone stores with their own Mark II NPD's. They could upgrade the hyperdrive to one capable of intergalactic travel. They could add Grodin, APB, ICT, X-699 and railgun emplacements so that she wasn't overly reliant on drones if they wanted to.

For now though the priority was getting the ship back up and running again. Scans, when combined with repairs performed and schematics taken from the computer core, would allow them to gain a better understanding of what made the ship tick. Future plans saw her being sent to Pegasus to at the very least act as a drone platform for Concordia. Current plans however involved a full damage assessment before determining what the best course of action would be. If the ship was determined to be in decent condition they would conduct repairs and send her to Concordia where she would receive upgrades. If she was in need of an overhaul though they would kill two birds with one stone and perform a full upgrade along with the repairs. With the upgrades the Tria would become a real warship with much more bite than her drones alone offered.

Zarasian Lab

Pods lined the long walls of this room, each containing a cybernetically enhanced reaper. At the end of the room a single pod stood upright in the room and in front it stood Cyber Lord Azamoth. With a hiss of escaping gas the pod cracked open and revealed a Zarin resting inside. His eyes snapped open as he quickly regained consciousness and he stepped out of the pod, clad only in his underwear. Despite all reason his flesh was completely unmarked, not a scar or a hair marked his body, and it clung tightly to his strong muscles.

"It is done Etere," Azamoth said gleefully.

"Yes I can tell," Zarin said, admiring and flexing his muscles. "I already feel stronger…faster. You have done well."

"Thank you Etere."

"My soldiers?"

"At your command Etere."

"And my ship?"

"I am told it is ready to launch."

"Excellent."

"Come Azamoth your new lab awaits."

"Yes Etere."

"It is time to go to war," Zarin said finally, as he smiled a predatory grin and his irises glowed red.

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