Chapter 3

Paradise Regained and Revisited Part One

Jack O'Neill stepped quickly through the circular gate. He came through with an inquisitive look and energetic smile. Today would be one of THE most historical days in the history of the Stargate Command, and he was here to experience it. It was presumably safe.

*Damn...wow...wow...highly impressive...some folks have been studiously developing their real estate. The last time I was here, this plot of land owned by friendly Four Races was mostly unused. This time though. A complex path of flat escalator-like devices lead all around the b"

Next to him, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c, and Cam were also staring in awe at the sight awaiting them. The first three of the current four SG-1 team members had been here before, and they were amazed at the actvitiy going on right now compared to the uninhabited planet they'd been on before.

An ultra-advanced digital display device message was hovering in midair, announcing in in large blue and silver lined English words, "The Furling warmly welcome SG-1 of the Earth's United States Stargate Command, coming to us on planet P3LYW2."

The SG-2 team members stood by also, having for this once beaten SG-1 to the SGC's recorded discoveries of a century.

*They finally one-upped our flagship exploration team. Well, good for them. They deserve an opportunity after all.* O'Neill thought.

"Hey, general! Still astonished that the second-best team finally got to experience the awesome finds while your first-best team, which you formerly personally led had to stay back and find out a lot later, eh?" the SG-2 commanding officer Beckie Hynes jabbed.

"More than you might be able to tell, Colonel. Ya happy now finally?" Jack snarked in a bit of feigned resentment.

'"Beckie! I'm gonna be so envious for a while, but I guess I can just let it go, considering. I can't say greed is such a virtue after all." Samantha Carter intejected.

"Darn right, Sam!" Hynes jabbed back. "We deserve our day in the sun, after all! You guys have had a hundred or so days in the sun, and that's only counting the ones recently!" she snorted.

Sam smiled at. Becky Hynes had arrived at the SGC a few years after she had. In that team, she'd arguably supplanted Sam and even Major Gans as the most eligible bachelorette at the SGC. Her colleagues often remarked that she looked like a supermodel. And then she had natural-scientific and engineering knowledge which easily rivalled even Sam's.

A delegation of beaming Furling dignitaries stood to their left, dressed in varying clothing, but with informal looking sashes of office draped diagonally across their clothing, They all looked regal, but at the same time, modest and very friendly. And, as these were modern times and the Furlings were O'Neill and SG-1 immediately recognized the shortest elf, Liann. He was about 5'7''.

Terminik Edukil Liann smiled with much amusement. "Our warmest welcome to you, General O'Neill and SG-1. I apologize, but Envoy Narcill is curently attending to a matter inside our planetary embassy. He'll join us very shortly, as soon as he's able to."

Then he paused for a second. "I thought perhaps you might want to verify that we really are the Furlings, not simply beings posing as Furlings. We've also explored the universe for millions of years, very occasionally encountering beings who've claimed to be people they're not. It I also a good way to 'break the ice' between us, as our human friends call it in the Earth English dialect. And so, I shall now turn over the speakership to Science Officer Alrin, if no one objects to that I do so."

Sam Carter took the floor for the Tau'ri. "I'd sure be interested, as a major science nerd-er... enthusiast. Any other takers? Come on now; very few pieces of tech we've seen can compare with this!" She glanced at the rest of her team hoping to get someone else to experience the wonders of .

Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, and Cam Mitchell all nodded simultaneously and enthusiastically.

Mitchell piped in wtih great excitement. "I read about your mind-boggling contraption when I was familiarizing myself with SG-1's past experiences. Never did get a chance to checkout this contraption. Now I get to make up some for missing out on the fun these folks had from before I showed up. "

O'Neill added, "New guy on the team. Pretty bright, capable fellow though, nonetheless."

A tall, blonde-haired Furling dressed in nearly all whitish-yellow clothing nodded, smiling at O'Neill and SG-1. "Well, my friendliest greetings to you , new friends. It's a pretty good day for experiencing concepts of the natural sciences, physics just as well as all the others i would say! I see Dr. Colonel Samantha Carter is here too. I know you'll be the most excited, Colonel Carter. I helped design this device, and I was exhilarated and mystified when I first observed it activated. And I imagine you must have a few hundred questions to inquire of about its inner workings. I promise I'll explain those all to my you, fellow scientist, and might I add, a quite prominent one too. First let me demonstrate this technological delight to verify our identity.'

Sam's eyes lit up (not in the way Jolinar might effect when she was symbiotically bonded to her and physiologically inducing her eyes to do so).

Alrin pressed a few buttons on a long armband he wore on his left wrist. It contained tens of different-colored buttons and a shiny display screen which Sam deduced displayed the action he was initiating. He then seemed to be verbally authorizing this high-clearance action. Suddenly, from above the clouds came a colossal, radiant, round, golden beam of light which they barely had time to register. It deposited an equally colossal, immaculate rhombus-shaped object that looked just like the Furling arch they saw last time, but it was about 100 times larger. This larger version of the first transport arch SG-1 had seen when they'd encountered Furling technology was made from an immaculate, grey-shaped material.

Sam stared wide-eyed and raising both brows, simply awed. Being the natural sciences enthusiast Samantha Carter that she was, Sam didn;t resist gushing with excitement at how marvelous the capabilities of this device were.

"Woooowwww…..! Is it just me, or does that transport-beam travel even faster than the Asgards? Or yet also the Alterrans'? Your transport-beam technology seems advanced beyond any other civilization's we've seen yet, well at least in one way I'll say."

The Furling scientist paused, smiled modestly, and replied 'Well, in this particular technological field we happen to have surpassed the Alterrans one way. Our transport beams move much further than even the Asgards' transport beams, though the Asgard transport beams are able to able to though to be fair I should note that we have been in continued existence on this plane longer than the Alterrans. Though technically, my father Alwin, who initiated developing this device, voluntarily de-elevated himself back to this existence-plain to help elven-kind. To him, his appropriate time on this existence plane wasn't over yet, as we still hadn't completely driven the Ilempir aggressors from our galaxy.

"Two things" Daniel Jackson interjected. 'Well, first, I know for the first time that a non- Alterran, non-Human species managed to achieve the supremely difficult endeavor of ascension'. And in connection, I guessed you were all trying to help the people on this planet to ascend, as the Alterrans called it. Secondly, are you talking about the Ilempiri-the ones known as the Vampires on Earth and the Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy?"

"A prominent part of the Earthans' intriguing native mythology" Teal'c interjected , repeatedly nodding slightly.

The Jaffa continued to display his considerable knowledge of 'vampire' lore. "Of course, the myth has deviated significantly from the reality of these Wraith. For example, these so-called Vampires do not fear the human vegetable known as Garlic, nor do they fear water which an Earth Christian Cleric has blessed. Nor do they not cat a shadow. They do feed on human bodily nutrients, but they do not feed specifically on blood.""

"Are both you and Dr. Jackson-"

"Ah please, it's just Daniel, Teal'cs not a certified professional anthropologist like me, tho he's arguably moire and please do continue! "

Teal'c loved reading up on Earth mythology. He just hadn't realized who the Elves, the Trolls, the Orcks, and the Ogres he'd read about with so much interest would turn out to be.

Raising an eyebrow like he characteristically did, Teal'c also turned up a corner of his mouth and inquired more deeply on the subject of reality-nased mythological beings of that sort. "If I might inquire, Liann, do the mythological beings known on Earth as the Dwarves, Goblins, and Gnomes also exist?"

"Yes." Alrin replied him, delighted that the Jaffa had picked up on the mythology-real world connection. "

"I heard from our Asgard friends that the main group of Ilempir are still residing in the Pegasus Galaxy, where your satellite Stargate Command Branch branch, Atlantis Exploration Command, has been courageously and successfully fighting them. What's more, they are nearly completely turning the tide of the war against this sinister race. We know humans know these beings as the Wraith. In time, speaking of your Pegasus expedition, we shall send, with your consent, a contingent of one of our our finest Exploration-Reconaissance personnel to the Atlantis Base to assist with battling them. I hear the Ilempirs' numbers have been dwindling considerably, but the sooner we succeed in ridding the Pegasus Galaxy of those flesh-consuming creatures, the better."

"By the way, considering you may notice that although technically your race is what the Nox might call 'young' in number of years of existence compared to the Four Allegedly 'Great' Elder Races, we do are much more optimistic towards your abilities. We have seen time and time again that wisdom is not so necessarily directly linked with age. More importantly, it is one's general quality of mind that determines how wise they are. Your kind, after all, have successfully defeated the Goa'uld due in great part in utilizing your available resources well. ' Liann added with authority on this subject, being one of the nation of Furliya's most eminent anthropologsts.

O'Neill looked very enthused and grateful to hear what Liam had just said. "Wow, now I think you get us pretty well. None of that your too young to interact with you on a higher level than the current one…. ideological diatribe. And we also got really lucky to have accidentally met friends like the Asgard too who saved our figurative behinds. Turned into a mutually beneficial alliance, as well as a true friendship in the deepest sense of the word. We were more than happy to bend over backward to help each other in the direst situations."

Liann's eyes lit up and he continued. "Ah, yes; the Asgard. Truly a noble race, besides just being one of the eldest, most advanced races ever to travel the stars. From the time we joined the Great Alliance up until we left our Milky Way extragalactic base we were kindred spirits. We tended to hold more of the specific ideals than any other two races in the alliance. It has been a greatly joyful friendship, one which we have recently reinvigorated. Speaking of them, our mutual friend Thor has announced that he will be coming to visit the Stargate Command, if you and your staff approve, as he now has much more leisure time to spare."

"You don't say, now, do you? Thor on such a casual visit? I've been trying to get my old buddy to visit me and do soemthing other than discuss how to pouhd the latest Go'auld pest into dust or to blow the replicators into tiny pieces. Of course I approve! Heck, I'll even steer one of our own vessles to the Ida Galaxy to transport the little fella He'd better take it though before the nature of our jobs has some other galaxy-threatening event demand our attention again."