1807 May 24 2022 [Local Calendar]

Paris, France

I blink, coming back to my senses in front of the two girls who had interrupted my search through my inventory. "I'm sorry, I was lost in thought, did you say something?" I ask, having thoroughly lost track of what was happening during my conversation with the Kwamis.

The goth girl who was Roaar's chosen looked like she just wanted to fade from existence whereas the girl in pink seemed ecstatic to be having a conversation. "Oh, sorry to interrupt your train of thought, I hate it when that happens. You said something like 'It's here' to which I replied: 'um, what's where?'" She explained, rather cutely dropping her voice a couple of octaves to mimic me.

"Oh, my bad. I just forgot which pocket I had my wallet in, I switch which pocket it's in whenever I travel to confuse pickpockets." I lied with the help of both Communication and Covert Talents.

"Oh! Are you a tourist?" She asked in what very well could have been the most cheerful voice ever heard. "One of our friends' families owns a hotel that's really beautiful." I was pretty sure that the other girl just snorted and said something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like we're friends? "If you want I could give you the number and address."

I smile at her enthusiasm and nod. "That would be great, thank you so much for your help."

To my surprise, instead of pulling out a smartphone, she instead pressed a button on the side of the ring she was wearing on her right index finger causing a holographic window to appear projected from it. "It's called Le Grand Paris. Here's it's phone number so you can make a reservation." She explained, displaying the number in question.

I pull a notebook from my pocket (read Pocket Space) and jot down the information. "Thank you." I tell her with a smile before focusing on the ring. "If I may ask, what is that lovely piece of tech you have there?" If I can get ahold of that kind of tech, replicating the Omni-tools would no longer require Ezoe.

The outgoing girl blinked and looked down at it before looking back at me and smiling. "Oh this? It's just an Alliance Ring. I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of it, the creators both live in Paris and as far as I understand they're using the city as a proof of concept for the tech before going national or maybe even global!" She explained enthusiastically.

"Really? Do you know where I can get one?" I asked. I already had a plan to umm… acquire some funds, acquiring one or more of these rings would be great.

"Sure!" She said pointing down a nearby road. "There's a shop that sells them a few blocks that way!"

At that point, to my surprise, the goth girl spoke up in a near monotone. "The part Rose is leaving out is that they are prohibitively expensive, and the service network doesn't expand more than a few kilometers beyond the city limits."

The now named Rose gasped in shock before turning back to her friend. "Thanks Juleka! I totally forgot about the price and service limits. It's not that big of a shock since we got ours as gifts and we don't really leave the city." She seemed like she was trying to defend her actions to her friend, now named Juleka, before turning back to me. "She's right about the price, I'm sorry I didn't mention it before. I didn't even think about it because the rings were a gift from the parents of two of our classmates who are the creators." The tiny girl explained in a bit of a ramble.

"Don't worry about it." I said, raising both of my hands in a placating gesture. "Funds aren't an issue and even if it doesn't work when I head home then I'll have a nice memento of my trip."

The girls quickly make their goodbyes and then leave me to my lonesome. Once they were out of sight I checked my surroundings to find no witnesses.

I quickly pull out a single object from my Pocket Space.

A single small object.

There's a flash of light from my palm that quickly consolidates into the holographic image of a woman. "Fred? Where are we?" Serina asked from her portable holo projector that I had made for introducing her to SG-1.

"Oh, thank fuck you're here." I told her, letting out a breath I didn't know I had been holding. "Hop out of there really quick and we can talk about it on our way to pick up some things."

She quickly turned into pure code and flew into the air next to me and consolidated into a flesh and blood human woman. She took a quick moment to straighten some nonexistent wrinkles in her clothes before turning to me. "Now that that's done, tell me what is going on. Last thing I knew Kasumi put me back in the Pocket Space after I had completed my task of delaying Colonel Maybourne, my system clock registers that as having happened roughly 12 hours ago."

I nod, placed the projector back where it had come from, and motioned for her to follow me. "Correct, once through the Gate I recognized the planet as one that held a small amount of significance to the main timeline, though hopefully not enough to alter events by any considerable amount. I captured a young girl who had been experimented on and the Goa'uld who was conducting the experiments, as well as the ship that she had hidden in lunar orbit." I summarized before exiting the park-like area we had found ourselves in. "After that my benefactor approached me with an alternate deal, one in which he sends me to random worlds for a week at a time and then I return. Apparently a fair few of the lesser deities don't enjoy the slower pace I've been setting and wanted some excitement."

She seemed confused, but accepting. "Alright, then what's the current situation?" She asked as I led her in the direction that Rose and Juleka had directed.

"First of all we're in Paris, I guess it's the primary location for the universe we're in called the 'Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir'." I explain in a whisper.

"You guess?" She asked in a cautious tone.

"Yeah, I guess that it's no surprise that they aren't all realities that I'm familiar with." I say with a wry smile before I explain what the Kwamis had told me, being careful to shut up if anyone came within 15 meters.

She took less than a second to work through everything I explained before she turned her head to me. "So what's our plan?"

I smile as I reply. "Well this is day one of seven. Let's do some sightseeing together while we can." She gave me a little smile before my expression soured slightly. "Unfortunately we have to do a few unsavory things before that. First I need you to hack into some local banks and appropriate some funds."

She looked scandalized by the implications. "Frederic Drake. I certainly hope that you aren't expecting me to steal from everyday people." She stated as though it were a command from on high and not a near question.

"No Ma'am. In fact I wanted you to target only the accounts of people who have questionable activity and accounts that would indicate criminal activity." I immediately respond. "I trust your judgment on the matter as you can think at a ridiculous rate and can go through vast amounts of data in about the same amount of time. We just need some money to last us through the week."

"I suppose you do make a valid argument." She said before letting out a weary sigh. "Very well, we're going to want to find an ATM in a location with very few cameras, and then I'm going to need at least 10 minutes to find any accounts that match the criteria in the local network."

"Alright." I agreed simply as we walked down the street at a leisurely pace.

You know it kinda makes sense that this city has so few CCTV cameras, they'd make it nearly impossible to maintain a secret identity if every time you need to go to work the cameras always spotted you walking into an empty alley or telephone booth (if you want to get back to basics) and your alter ego walks out, it'd take people maybe a week to connect the dots. Therefore the first ATM that wasn't blatantly out in the open we found was actually in a set of booths in a subway station, I guess that the French enjoy privacy.

It takes Serina 15 minutes rather than the predicted 10 for one simple reason: 21st century hardware is significantly slower than 26th century technology. She could only inject a sliver of her code into the system before it started to show warning signs that the entire system could crash.

With that in mind, it's actually extremely impressive that it only took her 15 minutes rather than two or more times that amount. It was still long enough for me to be getting odd looks from the passersby, thankfully nobody had called the po-.

"Excuse me sir." A rotund man with red hair and what looked like a police uniform and badge on. "We've received complaints about a man who is standing suspiciously next to an ATM. May I ask you what you are doing here?"

My Communication Talent stepped center stage with Covert acting as support. "My apologies officer, the ATM declined my card and so I placed a call with my bank and now I'm just waiting for-" as I'm talking my company phone rang. Looking down I saw that the caller ID said that UNSC IS Bank was calling me. I glance at the device behind me that currently held my companion and answered my phone. "Drake." I answered simply rather than give my name to the voyer who was standing there watching me speak.

"You should be good to place any card into the reader, enter any four digit pin, and I'll dispense the money for you. While you're doing that get my puck close to the machine so I can make the transfer." Serina's lovely voice answered me.

"Alright thank you for clarifying this situation, I'll let you know when I'm traveling in the future so this doesn't happen again." I said before hanging up and turning to the officer. "Sorry about that, turns out when I tried using my card here it triggered a fraudulent transaction and locked my card down."

"I see." The cop said, placing his balled fists onto his overweight hips. "Well then I'll let you off with a warning today, don't look so suspicious and next time you need to do something like this go to a park or something while you wait for the call."

I wave to him as with some slight of hand I pull my old wallet out of my Pocket Space while he walks away and quickly insert a card that was archaic even before I left my world. The pin I used was just 0000 and then I attempted to withdraw 7500 but the ATM pulled up an error message saying that the max withdrawal amount was 2500. Sighing, I withdrew the maximum and walked out of the subway station, allowing Serina to retake her human form at a blind intersection so that nobody could see her appear from the ether.

"Okay, now we just need to get a room for a couple of days, and then we get to figure out what is going on later tonight." I say as Serina and I walk down the road arm in arm.

"Don't forget that you wanted to get one of those alliance rings." She reminded me.

"Right. I suppose we should grab that first." I respond, thinking about the directions that the small Rose girl gave me.

We walked into a massive hotel in the middle of downtown Paris, a new ring adorned my right middle finger. As we approached the reception desk I pulled the Psychic Paper out of my pocket and placed it on the counter. "A room for two please."

"Of course." The man said, reaching for his computer before pausing. "I don't suppose you have a reservation?" He asked hopefully.

"No, but I do have this voucher for an all expense paid week in the Grand Paris honeymoon suite." I said, tapping the Psychic Paper that was in front of him.

He looked at it in surprise before looking back at us with a smile. "I see. Yes, everything seems to be in order. Congratulations to the both of you, and welcome to the Grand Paris." He then quickly handed me a pair of room keys and led us to the room. On the way there was a blonde teenager who was walking around like she owned everything and an unfortunate teen with reddish brown hair and glasses who was being a perfect little yes girl. "Please don't mind the young miss." Our guide explained. "We've tried to teach her humility and kindness but she has never had anyone who she couldn't strong arm into doing what she wants." His voice paused as he cocked his head to the side slightly. "Well I suppose that was until earlier this year when her classmates started to do as they pleased."

I glanced at Serina out of the corner of my eye and we made eye contact. I shook my head slightly in an attempt to say "Don't do anything" without speaking.

"Here we are." Our guide said after another minute of walking, this damned hotel is huge. He opened the door for us into a large sitting room, off to the left was a bedroom with what looked like a king sized bed through the open door, and to the right was an open concept kitchenette. It wasn't huge by any measure but it was definitely larger than my first apartment.

"Thank you." I said simply, palming 100 into my hand I shake his and gesture out the door. "We'll get settled in."

He nodded, tucked the money into his vest pocket, turned on his heel, and left. "Okay, we have a couple of hours to wait, what do you want to do?" I asked before I heard some fabric slumping to the floor.

Confused, I turned to my companion to find her completely naked and looking at me hungrily. "You've spent quality time with almost every other woman you've brought aboard, and I'm starting to feel left out." She said, walking forward confidently. The swaying motion of her hips drew my eyes down to a wet trail of arousal working its way down her inner thigh. "This is the honeymoon suite after all, let's use it as intended."

She guided me into the bedroom by the belt and the last cognizant thing I remember for the next few hours was the sound of the door locking.

1012 October 31 1997 [Local Calendar]

Cheyenne Mountain, SGC

Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

General George Hammond sat in his chair at the head of the conference room table, to his left was Major Smith and SG-7, to his right was Colonel Maybourne and his "goon squad" as Jack had so eloquently described them. "It's good to see you all out of the infirmary now that Dr. Fraiser has given you a clean bill of health." He said to the table as a whole, but everyone present knew it was directed towards his team. "Now what do you have to report?"

"Well sir-" Major Smith started before he was cut off by Maybourne.

"General, we need to immediately put a Shoot on Sight order out for former Commander Drake." The man demanded, bringing his fist down on the table to accentuate his point. "Not only did he aid a valuable intelligence asset to escape, he and his team also left through the Stargate while under an active investigation. Then he actively launched a biological weapon towards the law enforcement team sent to apprehend him and his team. The deaths of every civilian on P8X-987 rest solely on his shoulders."

"Colonel!" Hammond nearly shouted, regaining control of his briefing room. "As much as it pleases me to see your sense of justice, I need to know the facts of the mission that I sent my team to accomplish." Having cowed the man for the moment he turned back to Smith. "Major, continue your report."

The team leader nodded as he sat at attention to deliver his account of what happened. "Sir, shortly after arriving on P8X-987 Commander Drake and SG-10 left into the woods around the primary settlement. We did not see them again." He then grimaced before continuing. "The next few hours were spent preparing to accomplish our mission while keeping an eye on the Gate in the event that SG-10 left or there was an incoming wormhole either from Earth or some other Goa'uld world. After approximately four hours we got your call to assist Colonel Maybourne. When he arrived we received a radio communication from Commander Drake alerting us to an inbound biological attack, our first order of business was to get ourselves sealed into MOPP 4 HAZMAT gear. After that the populace began to quickly develop symptoms of the bio-agent and died within 6 hours of infection. Over the next 72 hours we managed to go over all of the data we had to determine that Commander Drake's broadcast came from lunar orbit. After determining that we searched through all of the images that were in storage and found images of a pyramid ship that had been hidden in a minor asteroid cloud that seems to be near the planet's moon. After remotely conferring with Teal'c he confirmed that it was a Goa'uld mothership that had the symbol of Nirti on the hull, he also confirmed that Nirti was a scientist who was entirely capable of producing the bio-weapon that was deployed." The Major took a moment to consider his next words carefully before continuing. "Sir, it is my professional opinion that Commander Drake was not responsible for the attack."

Before Hammond could respond, Maybourne let go of what little control he had and began another tirade against Drake. "How could you possibly believe that?! Is it lost on anyone else that the man somehow managed to make it to the moon in four hours?"

"As much as I want to scold you, Colonel, you do raise a fair point. However I will not authorize any orders to harm any members of SG-10." He was far more aware of the problems that could arise if his people should they attempt to act on such orders.

"You don't need to." Maybourne said, his voice sounding exceptionally high and mighty. "I will bring my concerns before the appropriations committee and then the order will come down from the top. To be honest I doubt you'll even have your command after the negligence of allowing such a man into the single most secret installation on US soil let alone allowing him into any kind of leadership role." And with that said he stood and left, his lackeys in tow.

Hammond looked at SG-7 and quickly dismissed them he spent a minute in the empty room waiting for something.

"Get in here SG-1. I know you were listening." He finally said, looking at the spiral staircase in the corner of the briefing room.

After a moment the entirety of SG-1 came down from the instructional room just above the briefing room. "Wow, General!" O'Niell started, acting surprised. "Who would have thought that those stairs led to that room? You look great by the way-"

"Sit down Jack." The General said, motioning to the seats that were previously occupied. After his flagship team did as ordered he looked around. "So given what you heard, what are your thoughts?"

The Colonel sighed before he started to speak. "As much as I hate to say it, the snake does have a good point: how did Drake get up to a ship in orbit? He'd have to have had a ship ready to go and that'd be highly suspicious."

"Not necessarily O'Niell." The resident Jaffa said, turning his chair to face the man more fully. "It is entirely possible that Commander Drake found a set of ring transporters on the surface and used those to get to the mothership."

Captain Carter perked up as the conversation turned to her specialty. "Are you sure Teal'c? I thought those had a limited range."

"That is correct Captain Carter, however ground based facilities tend to have the ability to send a set of rings farther than shipboard sets." Teal'c paused for a moment in thought. "The Goa'uld always claimed that it was because their divine powers were strongest on the worlds they owned, however I now suspect that it may be due to a greater amount of power."

"That's not-" Sam cut herself off as she worked through the science behind it. "Actually, it could be theoretically possible."

"Regardless," Jackson interrupted, trying to get everyone back on topic. "I highly doubt that Fred would be the type to resort to a plague to sort out his problems. He seems like the kind of person who would face something directly. Plus his tone of voice in the recording of the radio call he made sounded scared, almost defeated. I think he was trying to stop the attack and failed."

"You are correct, Daniel Jackson. Commander Drake is an honorable warrior." Teal'c said, inclining his head toward his friend. "General Hammond, I do not believe it to be wise to engage him with deadly force."

"I agree with you Teal'c." The man said before letting out a heavy sigh. "However I believe that Maybourne is right about getting superiors to issue the order, thankfully his comment about Drake being assigned here should be solved by the legitimate orders from SECNAV placing him under my command but the odds are pretty good that we'll be under an increased amount of scrutiny." He stood and walked to the window and looked down at the Stargate. "SG-1, I have a mission for you, completely off the books. I want you to try to make friends with Commander Drake and his people." He turned back to the table, meeting four pairs of eyes. "As the flagship team you are the ones most likely to encounter them. Any questions?"

There weren't any.

A/N: okay here we go. I know that it's been a little bit since I posted, and I'm sorry that my muse decided that I needed to write two new stories. (Shameless plug: they're CataLoged Horizons and Swords, Shadows, and Sigils) Regardless of how brief, this chapter is my first toe dip into smut, I tried to write out the scene but my brain just couldn't do it at all so here's another fade to black with some extra details.

I'm thinking about doing a rotating schedule for updating my stories but I will play it by ear. Thanks for all your suggestions and support, it really means a lot to me.

Read. Follow. Review.