Chapter Fifty-Eight: Tangent


Wednesday, 9th August 2000.

"Padma, open the door," Parvati said, resolutely staring at the closed door to her childhood bedroom.

When silence was all that replied, she turned to the guest she had brought and indicated the door. Parvati knew her sister well enough to know that the girl's repertoire of spells was far broader than her own, and a simple unlocking charm wouldn't do the trick here. So she would let the big gun handle the door, and focus instead on the seething child within.

With a click, the door unlocked and Parvati opened it before Padma could react. She slipped inside but left the door open behind her for the moment.

Padma was now standing beside her blue-covered double bed on the right-hand side of the bedroom the twins had shared as children. And she did not look happy to see her sister.

"Go away," Padma demanded, still fishing for her wand.

"NO!" Parvati replied stubbornly. "It's my bedroom too. Fitting that you decided to hide in here though, as you're behaving like a child."

Padma stopped her struggle and glared at Parvati. "What did you say?"

"Sirius Black would be dead right now without Rol. Harry would have lost yet another family member. Do you really think that is preferable to things as they stand now? While hiding in our childhood bedroom, with mum and dad down the hall. You would deny him refuges like the one in which you now cower? He doesn't have a childhood home to run back to." She paused a moment before saying her next thought, knowing it would likely hurt him, but needing to drive the point home. "No family of his own to seek out when things get tough. He lives and breaths our new lives, because he has no other choice anymore."

Parvati knew her words were hitting home as Padma sank back under each comment, though she hoped Harry would forgive her for some of the points she was making as well. While she knew this hatred towards the Goa'uld her sister harboured was justified, she took it a little far sometimes.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, Parvati walked over to the still eye-wateringly pink bed that had been her own for so long and sat opposite her shrinking sister.

"Sit." She instructed, and Padma complied. "I know this is hard for you. You got worse while we were stuck, didn't you?"

Padma turned away, the action more of a confirmation than any words possibly could have been. While their sorting had separated the twins for the first time in their lives, they had still remained extremely close throughout their time at Hogwarts. And Parvati still knew how her sister's mind worked. She couldn't match it for general smarts, but she understood it.

"None of this is your fault."

"I should have known better than to go in there. And now I can't get that bloody monster out of my head." Padma retorted.

"That's not your fault." Another voice said, beating Parvati to it.

Padma turned to stare at Harry Potter, standing in the doorway to their bedroom. He looked both defiant, as Padma glared at him, and nervous. As if the idea of entering a girl's bedroom was a worrisome concept for the barely adult man. Parvati was relieved he didn't seem bothered by what he had to have clearly heard her saying to Padma before.

"Come in, Harry," Parvati said, patting the bed beside her, without taking her eyes away from Padma who tracked Harry as he stepped into their room.

Parvati tried not to laugh as she noticed Harry's nervousness grow out of the corner of her eye as he approached her extremely girly bed. She could feel the discomfort radiating off of him and it would have been hilarious in any other situation. She'd love to tease Harry freaking Potter about being in her bedroom with a pair of twins. But today required a slightly more delicate approach. Though her opening salvo had been less than delicate, Parvati admitted to herself.

"I'll stand," Harry said as Parvati patted her bed again and she noticed a hint of a smile creep over her sister's face at Harry's state.

Many a discussion had been held over this very boy, in this very room, between these two girls over their summer holidays. Jokes about what they would do if they ever got him alone in here flashed through Parvati's mind, and she could see her sister was thinking about their former crush as well. But what girl hadn't crushed on the Boy-Who-Lived at one time or another?

Neither would act on it now, as it had mostly passed for the both of them. Throw in the fact that Harry was happily dating Hermione, and it made him completely off-limits. People might have assumed otherwise about her and Lavender during their time at Hogwarts, but Parvati was a loyal friend. She would never stoop to knowingly stealing someone else's happiness from them.

"How bad is it?" Harry asked, clearly trying not to take in the room around him.

Parvati could understand. A girl's bedroom was a detailed representation of self. But they had invited him inside. She instead focused on her sister. Who was obviously still hiding things from her.

"Bad." Padma finally admitted. "I can't make it any better using the techniques. It's ever-present."

Harry and Parvati glanced at one another before turning back to the other girl. She was still resolutely refusing to look at either of them.

"I'm so…"

Padma's eyes shot up and bored into Harry, who fell silent. "Stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault!" She growled, sounding an awful lot like Hermione when she did.

Harry just raised his hands defensively. The implied sorry still visible.

"I walked into that bloody cell block of my own volition. Like an idiot. I'm supposed to be the smart one."

"Pad…"

"Don't Pad me. I have the remains of a deranged psychopath stuck in my head. You can't imagine what it is like."

"Yes I can," Harry argued, and Parvati knew he was referring to the things he had seen thanks to Riddle. Now she knew the truth, she refused to use the feared nonsensical made-up name. "And maybe we can try something we discovered while you were both stuck."

The twins both looked up at Harry at this comment. "You saw that Sirius is wearing a halo. Hermione did a lot of research to make that work on someone who'd never been scanned before. It helped her identify the goa'uld brainwaves much better than we had with Luna. Maybe we can pulse those frequencies through your mini. See if that helps suppress it at all."

Parvati was surprised. Mostly at the change in Harry. During their schooling, he'd seemed so uninterested in learning from her perspective. Always off getting into trouble or goofing around with Ron. But here he was formulating his own theories right in front of them. Hermione had rubbed off on him.

"You're just trying to spin this as a good thing," Padma replied, but Parvati could see the small smile creeping over her features.

It was frustrating that Padma chose to hide whenever the presence surged inside of her, instead of seeking out aid. But once they forced her to submit to their company, these smiles were usually the first indicator that she was coming around.

"I'll admit, I don't want to have to send my godfather away again," Harry replied cheekily.

"I am glad you found him. Despite the circumstances." Padma replied, looking genuinely sorry for her outburst and the implication she'd have preferred Sirius Black remain lost amongst the stars than return with a boarder.

"Me too. And if it's any consolation, I now have to forever be grateful to a bloody Goa'uld that he even survived for me to find." Harry said with a scowl that made Padma snort.

"I'm sorry for how I acted."

"You do not have to apologize for that. I understand. And we sort of sprung it on you, even knowing how you feel about symbiotes. I promise we're being very cautious. I only asked Sirius to attend in case his imprisonment came up and we needed more information. I wasn't exactly about to ask Vala to come along. Not yet."

The twins both looked at Harry in confusion, and Parvati found herself wondering who this Vala was. Harry had mentioned them during the meeting, but things had gone sour before he could explain further. And the meeting had ended pretty quickly after Padma had rushed off.

Harry sighed as he spotted their looks and conjured himself a simple chair. "I suppose I should elaborate." He said, both girls glancing at one another before turning back to him as he began to explain everything the two had missed in detail.

ϟ

Tuesday, 15th August 2000.

"Harry?"

The young man blinked curiously at the sound and leaned back so that he could see the hologram around the dangling cover plate. The woman was simply standing there watching him, a curious yet stern look on her face. He wasn't sure how long Trebal had been standing there watching as he tinkered with the beam engine in the bowels of Atlantis, but it wouldn't be the first time she had spawned in to merely watch them.

"Hey, Lia. What's up?" He asked, turning back to the open panel above him and altering the arrangement of the crystals within. Hopefully, the ones he was adding would provide even better efficiency in the large unit. Which, coupled with the city's broad snowflake shape covered in emitters and more robust power distribution, would possibly allow Atlantis to beam objects as large as the Wraith Cruiser by itself in future.

"Moros just sent a message through the new communicator. Apparently, there is something going on at the SGC."

Harry gave a slight groan as he let his head fall back, somewhat regretting it immediately as the floor was quite firm. He rubbed the now sore spot as he used his other hand to insert the three remaining crystals and closed the panel.

"They just got out of a four-month time loop. Can they not go five minutes without getting into trouble?" He grumbled as he slid out from under the engine, shifting into a seated position.

He could have accomplished the task quite easily by just beaming out the section in question and replacing it with a premade piece, but Harry found the opportunity to work with his hands here relaxing. Plus, they needed to truly start understanding this technology instinctively if they were going to be using it properly. Relying on the computer to design everything was not really any different to having Merlin manage everything when they were still based on Earth. Moving and the loop had helped them shed that particular reliance, and he would not allow them to fall back into old habits.

"Possibly," Lia replied, a smile spreading over her features. "But given Moros did not elaborate, I cannot really speculate further."

"Right." Harry nodded as he pushed up to his feet. "And his name is Merlin. Moros ascended again. Technically two different people these days, despite the obvious physical similarity."

"Of course, Hig…" Trebal trailed off as Harry fixed his gaze on her. "Apologies, Harry. I forget myself sometimes."

"It's alright. Did Merlin say what it is he wants from me? He has the autonomy now to act when it comes to the SGC in most cases." Harry considered the changes they had made to the hologram's permissions after they had realized that Merlin could have resolved the Loop from the inside in hours if he'd been allowed to contact the SGC without their approval being required first.

"He did not elaborate. Perhaps you would be best served contacting him in return?" Lia suggested with a subtle tilt of her head.

Harry chuckled to himself at the comment. It was a fair point. She wasn't his secretary. Lia was likely busier than he was these days, managing the growing number of crew inside of the Mind palace. Harry was fairly sure that they were almost done with the transfers at this stage, and he knew that there were plans for a big celebration inside the now-connected virtual environments once they were.

He rubbed at a sore spot on his neck and nodded. "Right. I'll be up to the control room in a moment. Can you open a channel for me? I have to actually walk to the transport cabinet."

He smirked at the woman who nodded and vanished. Being a hologram had its benefits for getting around. Not that Harry couldn't just use one of the many nearby beam engines to get him there instantly, but after being on his back on the solid floor for over an hour, he felt like walking the few dozen metres would do him some good. Loosen up the muscles.

In total, it was less than four minutes from when Lia had interrupted to when Harry entered the large open control room. It filled the entire floor, now that they had moved it to one of the thinner sections of the tall tower. He was unsurprised to find Hessia at one of the several stations.

She, like Lia, preferred to interface with the system as a hologram. Enjoying the appearance, at least, of being back in her home. The teenaged Lantean hologram just smiled at him as he walked over to the communication terminal that Natalie had installed two days earlier. It was one of several now set up in all of their bases and ships that allowed instantaneous communication no matter the distance.

The technology was a refit of the Loquor design that Merlin had been testing when the loop had begun. It meant that they did not need to keep opening intergalactic wormholes just to speak to one another, or be present for a meeting when the participants were in different galaxies.

Harry activated the console and Merlin's face appeared. "You rang?"

The one real limitation of the system was that incoming signals were routed only to the communication suite at the moment, and thus the person calling in could not simply use the holographic system to appear anywhere in the city they liked. Harry gave it another week or so before someone figured out a way around that limitation as well.

"Hello, Harry. You asked me to keep watch on the SGC."

"Yes, I did. What have they gotten themselves into this time?" He asked, wondering how far Weir and West had gotten at thinking of candidates to take up the role of Ambassador for their fledgling nation so that they could make official contact. Without him being shot in the process. Though he wasn't sure how much thinking would be occurring given Weir was most likely simply enjoying being back on Earth for a bit. And the Wests had been more than happy to have her for the moment. Given she couldn't really pop back to her own home. It was already occupied by another version of herself.

"They have been testing the vessel that Hermione and Luna found at the Groom Lake facility for the past several days. This morning, they commenced a simulated flight test before beginning a live fire test."

"Good for them. It will be good for them to get some experience in space. There is nothing quite like it." Harry replied with a smile.

Several of the Aetherial had expressed concerns about leaving the SGC with the means to develop spacecraft technology, but Harry did not want to spend the next several years constantly having to watch Earth's back for them. There were more and more responsibilities that the Aetherial were taking on as they explored as it was. Especially with their still small number of corporeal members.

And the council had agreed that they would not limit Earth's technological advancement. Both for the benefits it gave to Earth and to avoid being massive hypocrites. They were gallivanting across multiple galaxies now using technology they had uncovered by accident.

"Unfortunately, the second test went wrong. Judging by the radio chatter I have been following for the past several hours, the ship is uncontrolled and flying into the outer reaches of the solar system."

Harry leaned back in his chair and let out an audible groan. "Let me guess. Someone from SG-1 is aboard."

"Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c," Merlin noted, not seeming surprised that Harry had guessed as such.

"Of course. And they have no other ship that can chase it down?"

"Not that they are aware of or could have ready before the craft runs out of life support. They are in the process of implementing a plan to slip the craft around Jupiter and shoot it back at Earth, but my calculations show it will fail. And they have been far beyond the range of Aether's Beam Transporter for some time now, which as you know, cannot even reach the moon. Hence why I am now informing you. It would appear matters are now beyond both my ability, and their own, to correct in time. Even if I had communicated with them, as you have now allowed, I would not have been able to rescue the crew myself. They were out of range before the mayday came in."

Harry sighed as he stared at the screen, weighing his options. The beam at Aether had not yet been upgraded, as they had only ever used it to mine or travel to locations already on Earth. And none of the ships here in Pegasus would be of any use, as even at full speed they would still take a couple of days to cross the void between the galaxies. But they now had Salvus and the newly christened Cervus in Avalon. And the direction of Harry's thoughts began to change.

"How big is this ship of theirs?"

"It is constructed from a pair of those Goa'uld Death Gliders. You encountered them in your battle test over Lazaria. The smallest craft. Approximately nine metres long and fifteen metres wide." Merlin replied.

"Please call the council and ask them to meet me at Aedis. We need to have an impromptu meeting." The intelligence nodded and disappeared. Harry activated the comm system again and called the Cruiser on the East Pier. "Hermione, Padma. Come in please."

"Harry? What's wrong?" Hermione's voice came back, no video this time as they had still not cracked the Wraith technology interface. Though things were progressing faster with Padma's assistance now that she was talking to them all again.

"We need to head for Aedis, asap. Meet me in the gateroom, please. SG-1 are in trouble again."

"How is that our problem?" Padma asked.

"Well, this is voluntary, you can sit it out if you like, Padma." He replied, the sly grin on his face definitely audible over the connection.

"Hmmm." She replied, and Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the Indian girl. It had taken Parvati three days to completely talk her around about the halos. But in the end, she had agreed that Harry had every right to do whatever was necessary to keep his only living 'family' alive and close by. And it had helped when she spoke with Sirius and heard his own resolute insistence he remain in captivity so long as there was any doubt. "Fine. We'll be up in a minute."

"See you there," Harry said, disconnecting the message. "Hessia, can you…"

"I've already informed Trebal and the Captain, sir. Have fun in Avalon." The young woman replied, though Harry still felt odd referring to her as such when she was over five hundred times his age.

For some reason, she preferred using a very young holographic avatar, and no one had seen any reason to deny her such a simple form of self-expression.

"Thank you."

By the time he and the two girls had made it through the stargate and into the meeting chamber in Aedis, the others had all arrived. Including Dobby who was looking right as rain once again, eagerly looking at the others.

"Thanks for coming. Did Merlin explain what's going on?" Harry asked, taking a seat.

"Something about the SGC firing a ship into space," Neville noted simply and the others nodded.

"Yep. And we're going to go and rescue them." Harry replied and the room fell silent.

"What about waiting for an ambassador?" Hermione asked from her seat beside him, gently prodding him in the stomach as she did.

"I'm done with this song and dance we've been doing. They're in trouble and presently can't save themselves. We have the means to pick them up safely. I think that we should make the most of the opportunity and introduce ourselves now. It's got to engender a little goodwill our way if we save their lives in the process. And we will control pretty much all the variables this time."

The others around the table seemed shocked at his sudden desire to make official contact, but no one was disagreeing.

"Salvus feels like overkill for the job, and may give the wrong impression, so I plan to take Cervus." Harry felt Hermione's grin at the fact he had named his personal yacht after his father's animagus form. He had yet to tell Sirius. "The hangar should be plenty large enough to capture the ship whole. And if not, we can always beam them aboard." Harry suggested.

Richard looked mildly offended that Harry wasn't planning to use a ship he had explicitly named for this purpose for the task, but otherwise seemed on board with the idea. Padma appeared to be generally indifferent, which wasn't surprising given her usual stance that the SGC should be defanged before they hurt themselves and the Earth properly, but most certainly did not wish them harm.

Neville and Luna both seemed to be agreeing with most of what Harry had suggested. Natalie was grinning like all her dreams had come true at once.

"Objections?" He asked, but no one seemed to have any. "Alright. Who wants to come along?"

"As much as it would be nice to look them in the face and say I told you so," Padma mused, "I think I'll sit this one out. Might keep working on the interface, now we found those storage devices on board."

Harry nodded, having not expected her to want to go.

"I am in and I call bagsy," Natalie said, leaning forward eagerly and calling the second seat on the bridge now.

Most present laughed at her enthusiasm. Harry never got tired of seeing the woman's excitement over space.

"Me too," Hermione said and Harry flicked his gaze to the last Granger.

"I'll sit this one out, too. But I'll have Salvus ready and waiting if you need help." The man replied and Harry smirked at the implication. It would be somewhat embarrassing to need Richard to come and scoop them up as well. Even if Cervus would fit into the lower hangar on Salvus just fine. So incredibly massive was the Vis-class ship.

"Dobby would like to come, Harry Potter." The tiny elf said excitedly, and Harry realized that this would actually be the wee guy's first time in space.

"I'd love to have you. Hermione made you a suit in preparation for you coming out into the galaxy with us." Harry replied and Dobby beamed.

Harry turned to Neville and Luna who both seemed to be giving it serious thought. "I'm in." Luna finally said, nodding her head firmly as though the gesture was more to convince her than them.

"Me too," Neville added. "Though, I suggest we bring Aurora and Carson as well. Just in case our future guests need any medical help."

"Good suggestion. Suit up and we'll meet in the main hangar in fifteen. I'll see if they want to come along. Thanks, everyone."

ϟ

Jack heard Carter's voice come over the radio as he shook his head trying to shake off the impact they had just taken.

"Digger One, this is Flight. We have no joy on the burn. I'm sorry, Colonel, but the missiles just didn't have enough thrust. Your current trajectory takes you out of the solar system and towards the Oort cloud, which you should reach in a… in a few months. We're all still thinking down here so…don't give up. 1813 Zulu."

One of the missiles had come free during the attempted burn and struck the canopy hard enough to shake him. Though he was thankful that nothing hurt too badly as a result. Nor was anything totally numb, which was a good sign nothing had been properly damaged during the impact. Though he was really keen to stand up after hours stuck in the cramped cockpit.

"Cabin pressure is within range for the moment, but falling slowly," Teal'c explained from the front seat and O'Neill rubbed his eyes and noted the readings on his own display. "We appear to have a slow leak.

"Well," O'Neill said, sighing heavily, "that went badly."

"Our situation has indeed worsened," Teal'c replied.

"Ya think?!"

"Indeed. The impact of the missile has damaged both power and life support. They will not last out the day."

Jack was rocked in his seat as something shook the entire ship. "What the hell was that?"

"The second missile. It has not fully disengaged and is still sporadically firing its engine." Teal'c replied as the ship shook again.

"How do we snap that thing off?"

"I am presently attempting to do so," Teal'c said, tapping away at the keyboard in front of him.

Jack joined him in frantically trying to release the weapon before it too managed to damage the ship. Or worse, detonate.

ϟ

"Deep Space Tracking is reporting a flash of light in the general vicinity of Digger One that has obscured their tracking. They're trying to reacquire now." Major Davis said, glancing at Major Carter as she leaned forward, reading the screen frantically.

"Digger One, This is Flight. Do you read?" She called into the radio mike on her head, and he could hear the desperation in her voice.

"It's no use, Major." Davis said, "Time lag is out to over fifteen minutes now. We just have to wait and see if they respond."

He glanced over his shoulder to see Doctor Jackson and General Hammond both watching with equally tense looks on their faces. Hopefully, NASA had some good news for them before that signal made it there and back. Though both were restricted to the speed of light.

ϟ

"Uh… Teal'c. You seeing this?" Jack asked, staring up out of the leaking canopy at the strange object now slowly passing overhead, his eye having been drawn by the bright flash that had occurred behind them as the missile had finally shot free and wheeled off into space.

"Indeed." His companion replied.

The smooth dark metal surface appeared to be part of a ship. The design of the glider cockpit made it difficult to see behind them, but there appeared to be some source of constant light now steadily approaching them as well.

"You ever seen something like this before?" Jack asked, leaning his head back as far as it could go to try and see as much of the vessel as possible.

"I have not."

As Teal'c spoke, the bright light drew level with and then overtook the cockpit, temporarily blinding O'Neill as he tried to look out. Having only had the darkness of space to look out to before. Given they had a long way to go before they would have reached even visual range of any of the other planets in the system.

He rubbed his eyes again, trying to make them work better in the bright light. As he looked out of the canopy again, he noticed clean smooth walls slowing around them as a shimmering field covered the opening now in front of the X-301. From his angle inside, Jack couldn't see anything else within the space. Just four walls now boxing them in, lit by some unseen source and protecting them from space.

Teal'c noted. "The leak has stopped. It would appear that the atmosphere outside is now equal to our own."

"Let's just hope that whatever is flying this boat is friendly," Jack replied.

Not that it would matter much either way. Neither he nor Teal'c had any weapons on them, having loosed the last one from the starboard wing moments before. There had been no reason to bring handheld weapons on a test flight in USAF-controlled airspace in the middle of the United States.

Suddenly, a tiny figure appeared on the deck in front of them. As if out of thin air. It was hard to tell for sure, not knowing their distance away or having anything to draw true scale by. But it appeared to be no more than three feet tall.

"You sure we didn't run out of oxygen yet?" Jack asked, looking at the smiling figure.

It had huge bulbous eyes and long pointy ears sticking out either side of its head. And its body was wrapped in some dark-scaled leather suit. The figure turned and looked out the wide opening of the hangar bay and gave a short jump before it began to almost quiver.

Teal'c just shook his head in response to Jack's question.

The tiny figure turned towards the far left wall and Jack's gaze was drawn with it. Several humans stepped out of a side door far to the left, near the opening to the space. They too were dressed in dark-coloured scaled suits, each slightly different to the next, and they slowly walked over towards the 301. With a glance at their hips, Jack noticed that they were most definitely armed. Though none of them had drawn their weapons.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this, T."

The one at the front of the group, a young male with glasses and wild black hair, knelt in front of the little creature and rested his hand on the little guy's shoulder. When it stopped bouncing, they all turned to the 301 and the leader bowed to them slowly. When neither Jack nor Teal'c replied, the boy gestured for them to exit the ship.

"Well, I guess we can't sit in here all day. How do we open this thing up?"

"We cannot," Teal'c replied.

"Why not?"

"According to the navigation system, we are still travelling at several million miles an hour. The canopy will not allow us to disembark at speed via any method but ejection."

"T. There are people standing right there," Jack replied, pointing at the group that was still watching them curiously.

"They too are travelling at speed. Their ship has merely precisely matched our velocity."

Jack started shoving at the canopy, even though he knew it was in vain. The ejection system had already failed upon their exiting Earth's atmosphere, and the impact of the missile had further damaged the structure.

He was so busy trying to pry it free that he did not notice one of the figures raise their arm and tap on a small device on their wrist. With a bright flash of somewhat familiar light, the canopy vanished.

"Woah." He said as his arms whipped through empty air. "How 'bout that?"

"Greetings." The young boy, who had now stepped even closer, said aloud. "You can come down. I promise you it is quite safe."

He gestured at the floor to the side of the apparently still rapidly moving ship and Jack took a deep, calming breath. He removed his mask, unfastened his restraints and stood awkwardly, both thanks to the hours of inactivity and the slight sway of the vessel below. He stepped up on the seat and out onto the hull of the ship. Having been made from the two recovered gliders and their underside access, it was not really meant to be disembarked through the canopy in this manner, and lacked any sort of hand or footholds by which to descend.

Teal'c joined him on the hull and gave Jack a curious look. Glancing at the boy, he once more gestured to the floor. Teal'c gave one of his signature curious head tilts before he squatted down and slid over the edge of the 301, dropping the dozen-odd feet to the floor.

"It is safe, O'Neill. The floor is quite malleable." Teal'c said, and the boy smiled over his shoulder at his companions.

Jack glanced at his knees, knowing they were not going to enjoy this and followed suit, sliding off the rounded hull and dropping to the floor. He was amazed to find the impact was almost soft. As though he had practically floated the last few inches.

"Nice." He said aloud, turning to face their rescuers as he stretched. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The boy replied, and Jack finally realized that he was not speaking English. Yet he somehow understood what was being said.

Before he could speak again, the other figures moved closer, and his eyes were once again drawn to the tiny alien figure amongst them. With the others for scale, he could now confirm his initial estimate had been accurate. The wee guy was about half the height of everyone else, and was missing what would have been its left arm.

Their rescuer seemed to notice his gaze. "That is Dobby. He is friendly."

Dobby gave Jack an enthusiastic wave with the arm it did have, the movement shaking the long ears. Jack turned to Teal'c who said nothing, but he did sort of raise his eyebrow in that subtle fashion he was so accustomed to doing.

"Right. And the rest of you?" Jack asked.

"My name is Harry. And these are my friends. Luna, Hermione, Carson, Aurora, Neville, and Natalie." The boy replied, indicating each person in turn, and they each gave a slight bow to him as they were named.

About half the humans were young, like Harry, with only Carson, Aurora and Natalie seeming to be closer to Jack in age. "Right. Ah, Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force... Earth. And this is Teal'c, of Chulak."

Teal'c nodded and gave a small smile at the introduction as Aurora walked towards Jack.

"Are you well?" Aurora asked, lifting a small pale device in her hands. "I can check to see if you require any medical help." The woman offered.

Noting a similar device in Carson's hands, Jack once more glanced at Teal'c who gave a curt nod of agreement.

"Sure."

The two stepped forward but paused when the small blonde girl, Luna, spoke. "That one is a Jaffa. You'll want to adjust accordingly."

Carson nodded to her and tapped on the device before he stepped up to Teal'c and began running it over his friend's body from the top down.

"So, uh… how is it that we can understand you? And you us?" Jack asked as the woman waved the device over his skin, hearing a soft electronic whirring from it as it moved.

Harry shrugged. "Evidently you have had cause to learn our language." He smiled for some reason and the bushy-haired girl to his side gave him a small jab in the arm. "What? This is going much better than last time."

"Last time?"

"Yes. We have actually had more than one run-in with you before." Natalie said, and O'Neill noticed she was inspecting the X-301.

"Be careful with that thing. It's not quite ready yet." He warned her, and Natalie turned and smirked at him.

"I know." She replied cryptically as she pulled out a much larger device from a pocket that could not possibly have held it and started scanning the small ship.

Jack was feeling less uneasy around this group, but something still felt off about everything. How had they known they needed help?

"As much as we appreciate the rescue, how did you find us?"

"The Sol system is still a pretty quiet place, Colonel." Neville, the other boy, said. "A ship flying through it is generally pretty easy to locate. And we could pick up your radio transmissions."

"Right," Jack replied as the woman finished and stepped away.

"You are a little tired and slightly dehydrated, but otherwise all good." She told him with a smile.

Jack turned to see the man was still waving his own scanner around Teal'c's symbiote pouch. "Junior won't harm you. You have my word." Jack offered.

"I know," Luna said, suddenly far closer than she had been before.

She was looking up at him curiously with wide silvery-blue eyes. And he felt as if he was being assessed more intensely now than with the scanner.

"Shall we go somewhere more comfortable?" Harry asked, gesturing towards the door they had entered through.

As Jack approached, he realized that it wasn't a doorway out of the room, but rather a doorway into a small closet-sized room. One that would barely fit them all at a tight squeeze.

"Please." Harry gestured and Jack was momentarily wary again.

While they had seemed to come from this general direction, he had not seen their hosts step out of this little room. It would certainly function well as a holding cell. And that Dobby had literally appeared out of thin air.

Harry sighed and stepped inside, gesturing them in again. "There won't be enough room for us all in one trip though."

Teal'c raised his eyebrow before he stepped forward, joining Harry in the small space. When Hermione and Neville also did, Jack shrugged and stepped in as well. The others remained outside and just smiled as the doors closed. A moment later they opened once again, and Jack checked that he hadn't caught some of his flight gear in the door.

But as he raised his gaze once more, he noticed that outside the door had entirely changed and Neville and Hermione had already stepped out and were walking down a lavish hallway to another door.

Jack noticed that Teal'c was also surprised at the sudden relocation. Neither of them had felt a thing. The doors had simply closed on one room and then opened on another. Were it not for what his eyes were telling him, Jack would have no idea they had moved at all.

Harry once more gestured, indicating the door that Neville had just entered. Jack stepped out of the small closet and took in his surroundings. This place was a lot nicer than the X-301 had been. There was thick carpet on the floor and the pale marbled pastel walls gave off a soothing feeling. The room they entered was much the same, but felt a little more at home with the large wooden table taking up the centre, surrounded by the cushiest-looking chairs Jack had ever seen. It very much felt reminiscent of the briefing room at the SGC.

Not waiting for an invitation this time, he pulled one out and sat, moaning aloud at the comfort. Compared to the seats in the 301, there was no contest.

"That's good." He said and glanced up to see his three hosts smiling at him as they took their own seats. A moment later, the rest of the crew joined them in the room and everyone sat.

"Help yourself," Hermione said, gesturing to a pitcher of what he assumed to be water and several small cakes on the table in front of Jack and Teal'c. Ones he had not noticed there when he had sat a few moments before.

Glancing up, he realized that he and Teal'c were seated together opposite the crew. While he definitely no longer felt threatened, he was still a touch wary.

Teal'c, however, was obviously hungry after their many hours stuck in that cockpit and grabbed several of the small cakes, immediately taking a bite. Jack stared as his friend paused and a look of intense interest came over his face. And given that it was Teal'c, that said a lot.

Teal'c was many things, but expressive was not a word Jack would often use to describe the man. To make him look like that, those cakes must be divine. Figuring he was in for whatever this little ditty was, Jack grabbed one of his own and bit down. Flavour exploded all through his mouth.

It tasted like a cross between a brownie he'd had as a child and the cheesecake that Sarah had made in their early marriage. With a light dusting of something citrusy on the backend. By far the best thing he had tasted in some time.

"So, you probably have some questions." Harry offered, and Jack was drawn out of his tasty reverie.

"Well, yeah." He replied, clearing the food from his throat before continuing. "Who are you folks?"

Harry glanced to the others before turning back and smiling. "We're human, like you. We call ourselves the Aetherial."

Jack glanced to Teal'c who raised his eyebrow slightly at the name. "A little…"

"We are aware of the meaning in your language, but it means something special to us. A part of our history." Natalie replied, and Luna blushed heavily but did not turn away. Jack detected a story there but had more important questions that needed to be asked right now.

"Why help us?" Teal'c asked, pouring out a pair of glasses of crystal-clear liquid for himself and Jack.

"Because we could," Harry replied simply.

O'Neill was thrown at the straight delivery of the line and he turned to Teal'c again, though his friend had nothing further to add.

Harry sighed again before he continued. "To be fully honest, this is not our first encounter with your group. We've had a couple of run-ins now. And it was high time we introduced ourselves."

The others nodded their agreement, and Jack felt like there was something obvious he was missing.

"Run-ins?" He asked, taking a slight sip of the water and was surprised by the clarity of it. He'd never tasted water so crisp or clean before.

"Yes." Neville said. "On Vor Anguu and Lazaria."

Jack glanced to Teal'c once more as the man gave nothing away. "Lazaria?"

"You had a Goa'uld problem. We helped." Harry offered as explanation, before seeming to struggle to recall something. "And I believe that you call Vor Anguu P3X-888."

Jack tried to recall the planets. Both seemed like they had been important, but unlike Daniel and Carter, he could not recall them all off the top of his head. And the unending blur of days of the time loop made it hard to even remember beyond the past week.

"888." He muttered to himself.

"The Goa'uld homeworld," Teal'c explained and the link clicked in Jack's mind.

He sat up straighter as realization filled him and he looked again at the outfits this lot were wearing. He could no longer see the holsters on any of their thighs, but he tried to compare his memory of the glimpse he had before to what Mawes had mocked up. They had definitely not been bright orange as described.

"That was you?" Jack asked.

Harry smiled, but Hermione seemed less than thrilled. "That was us. A chance meeting while exhausted and covered in mud. Not the best way to make first contact." Harry offered. "Today gives us another chance to start over."

Jack considered things. If this lot were as powerful as they seemed, they would definitely be a valuable ally. And now it seemed to be resting on him to smooth over the shooting from the SGC's last encounter with this group.

"You will find, Colonel," Carson spoke up for the first time, and seemed to have a wildly different accent to the others, "that Harry here doesn't hold grudges for such things."

"It was you personally?" Teal'c enquired, leaning forwards.

Harry shrugged and nodded. "It was an accident. I don't hold them, or you, responsible for an accident." He turned and glanced at Natalie before he continued. "No one expects the Vor Anguu Unas."

The woman laughed in response to what was clearly meant to be a joke, but Jack wasn't sure what he was referring to. He was busy considering his options from here. It seemed the Aetherial wanted to interact with them. And weren't holding the previous incident as a reason not to. Which meant this situation was his to ruin at this point.

"What is it you want from us?" He finally asked.

"Friendship," Luna explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the galaxy. "We're new around here, and we don't have a lot of friends out there just yet."

"New?" Jack replied, his eyes flicking to the spaceship around them.

"Relatively speaking," Hermione confirmed with a smirk.

Jack considered the group closely. While they were very young, they had saved Teal'c and himself. And we're clearly advanced. "What happens now then?" He asked.

"I'm sure that you both wish to return to Earth," Aurora suggested, and several of their hosts nodded their agreement.

"That would be nice," Jack replied, wondering what the SGC were thinking about what they must be seeing out here at the moment.

"Then we need to decide what to do with your ship," Harry said plainly.

"Our ship? What about it?"

"We're not terribly familiar with its design. How do you stop it?" Neville asked.

"We are uncertain. That is what put us in this situation, to begin with." Teal'c explained.

"It's a little broken. Being a prototype and all." Jack added.

"It will likely continue on its current trajectory unless acted upon by an external force. And while power is dropping, it is also possible for the engine to fire up again at any time. As it did during the initial test." Teal'c explained once again, sharing quite a bit more than Jack would have liked, but this group had just saved them from a slow cold death in space.

"So it is purely ballistic?" Harry asked, getting a nod in reply. He turned to Natalie, who was checking something on her wrist. "Is the scan complete?"

She nodded in reply and looked up at them sitting opposite.

"Scan?" Jack asked.

In reply, the Aetherial spoke amongst themselves for a moment, in a language he very much did not understand this time. A quick glance at Teal'c indicated he too had no idea what they were saying. The pair simply sat there awkwardly as the others decided something right in front of them.

Finally, Harry nodded and stood. "Come with me." He said, before heading for the door.

The others remained seated, Hermione and Luna watching him closely as Jack stood and followed. He could hear Teal'c fall in step behind him as they passed quickly through a few more lavish corridors, eventually stopping in what he assumed to be the bridge of this craft.

It was as beautiful and impressive as everything else he had seen, with half a dozen chairs spread across it and a massive open viewport above the controls. Harry quickly sat in the large central chair and tapped a few of the controls on the console in front of him. As the boy worked, Jack stepped up closer to the wide viewport, looking out into space once again, this time far more comfortably than he had in the 301.

But before he could spend much time taking it in, he heard the others assemble in the back of the bridge, watching quietly. And saw movement underneath the nose of the ship in front of them. The X-301 was drifting ahead, slowly outpacing the larger ship.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Harry turned to look at him for a moment, and the small cockpit-less craft began accelerating away ahead of them.

"We couldn't turn Cervus around and head for Earth with a ballistic fighter hovering in the middle of the hangar. If we cannot control it, or be sure it won't fire up inside the ship again, we have few choices left." Harry explained. "We can take you home, but we can't take it back unless you two know how to completely shut it off."

"We shouldn't just leave it out here either." Jack considered, shaking his head at the implied question Harry had asked as well. "There is probably some sensitive tech on board we don't want to just hand over to the Goa'uld."

Harry gave him a wry smile as he closed his eyes and laid back in the chair.

Jack was about to ask something further when a familiar golden glow zoomed out from the front of this ship and rocketed into the X-301. With a rather subdued explosion, the 301 broke apart instantly, debris scattering in all directions in the vacuum around it.

"What the hell?" Jack groaned. "Do you have any idea how hard that thing was to build?"

"Somewhat," Harry replied, opening his eyes. "I built this, after all. Keep watching."

Harry turned his chair back to face the viewport and Jack watched as the small yellow missile swept in circles through space before it vanished in a wash of white light. A moment later, all of the debris was similarly swept up by the light, leaving nothing behind of the prototype craft.

"Now," Harry said softly, and Jack noticed the stars rapidly turning in the viewport as they reoriented. Not that he felt the movement at all. "We can take you home. And we will provide all of the raw matter from your ship to you. So you can try again. I would suggest working from scratch this time, rather than retrofitting someone else's design."

Natalie held out something to Teal'c, who was closer to her. "This contains the detailed scan we made of your ship. It should help you design your new one. I believe that its wireless connection will work for your computers."

The shock of the event was beginning to wear off and Jack was now realizing what he had just witnessed. The familiarity of the tiny glowing missile. The white light recovering its ordinance. And why he knew the name Lazaria.

"It was you!" He said.

Harry turned to face him once again. "I already told you as much. You were in need. Though to be totally honest, we were going to attack that ship regardless."

"We searched that planet for weeks!" Jack groaned. "Empty ruins. That's all we found. Daniel was insufferable."

"I am sorry for that. My advisor pointed it out, but only after the fact." Harry said, looking actually apologetic.

"You destroyed a ha'tak vessel with this craft?" Teal'c asked, seemingly impressed as he looked around the bridge.

"This one?" Harry replied, "No, this one hadn't even been built yet. That was Vir. Our big gun. Cervus is more of a pleasure cruiser."

"You built a pleasure cruiser with weapons like that?" Jack asked, still amazed that they had finally found the source of the mysterious glowing weapons. He now had many more questions for this group.

"The galaxy can be a dangerous place, Colonel. Best to be prepared." Aurora explained.

"How about we get you guys home? We can discuss it all further there." Luna suggested.

"To Earth," Harry said.

Jack fell into one of the nearby chairs and tried to sort out his thoughts. This had been the most illuminating conversation he'd had in some time. And even then it had left him with more questions than answers.