Stargate: Immortal

by Seraphin2011

Book III: The Ori gone, Aschen imprisoned, Wraith changed and pacified, yet the Alliance is threatened once more. The Vargas are coming and no one knows how they are going to survive an enemy that spans throughout the known universe and had done so for billions of years. By closing the anomalies, they have postponed the invasion by more than two years, but will that be enough?

22. First Offensive

Author's note: Another six months went by, and another chapter is posted. Far from the pace at which I would like to post new content, but with work and other stuff, well, it can't be helped. When I want to write my story, I like to go out, sit in a bar and spend a few hours writing while drinking a cafe or a beer maybe. But with this pesky virus going around, no bar was open during winter. Well, now it's a little better, which is why I managed to finish this chapter.

Random Norwegian:

Unfortunately, no. I barely have the time to write the next chapter. Trying to write an intelligence report like the last one takes too much time. Time sadly, I don't have.

A time skip might happen, but it probably won't be a big one. I may have short time skips, a few months or a year tops whenever needed, but nothing is set in stone. Besides the ending, I don't have anything planned.

Furlings? Who knows.

Tesseract? Read this chapter.

As far as building new ships goes, I think now is the time to use what they already have. Some improvements are possible, but they haven't even used the ships they currently have—no point in making new ones.

Well, thanks to my beta, and I hope you'll like this chapter. Savor it, because I don't know when the next one will come out.

---

While watching the battle unfold on the large holo-projection, Jack sensed from behind someone entering the room. The approaching steps readily revealed their owner.

"You're late," he said.

"No matter how many people join my office, my work doesn't decrease," Sam responded, frustrated. "Sorry, I just had yet another minor crisis on my hand."

"About?" Jack asked while still focusing on the large four-by-five-by-three meters large hologram.

"About the endless wishes relayed back from our people in the IC1001 galaxy and regarding the copious number of scientists readily complaining. Somehow, it always must turn into an endless debate that I couldn't care less," Sam said, sounding exasperated. "It also seems that I'm incapable of putting a stop to it, no matter how much I try."

"Few can. So, don't worry about it too much," Jack quipped back. He discovered that the only way to deal with a group of scientists discussing their latest project was to let them do so while he went elsewhere. "So, you used my well-proven tactic?"

"Yeah, I left. That bunch is probably still at it," Sam complained.

"They probably haven't realized yet that you're not there anymore," Jack added.

"Probably. Why do I dislike what I'm seeing?" Sam said, abruptly changing the subject.

Inside the hologram, the battle kept unfolding. The Third Fleet led by Admiral of the Fleet Jack O'Neill—the one five minutes from the future—was fighting no less than a hundred Vargas capital ships. But that wasn't all. Other vessels, some that Jack saw today for the first time and others that belonged to the detested Dinos, were present in great numbers.

"That's the second to last hub that we need to take down, and as you can also see, things were a little screwy there," Jack said. What he was watching was the recording of a battle that ended an hour ago.

"When did you get the footage?" Sam asked.

"I called you the moment it came in," he said. "I just started watching it."

As he was explaining, an antimatter beam fired from one of the largest Vargas ships hit a Damocles square in the middle. Moments later, the beam pierced the ship's defenses. The ship broke in half, with a massive explosion signaling its demise.

The antiproton beam was as much the bane to the Vargas as it was to the Terrans. Only the most formidable ships in their arsenal could cope with its destructive power. The only saving grace was that, because of the weapon's large size and need for raw power, only the largest Vargas ships had it.

"Crap!" he shouted. He knew there would be casualties in this battle—after all, they were fighting the Vargas—but seeing it happened so soon since the engagement began wasn't pleasant.

Before the last hit, the ship had already taken several blows from other ships. With its shielding half depleted, he knew the earlier strike—from an antiproton cannon, no less—would simply be too much for the vessel. Losses were inevitable, but it still pained him to watch one of their ships perish. He also knew that most if not all crew members had lost their lives. Such a blow does not give one time to escape.

"Did these Vargas come through the anomaly?" Sam asked. She, too, seemed worried by what she had just seen.

"Some were already here when our ships arrived. This hub's defenses are much tougher than those of the other five we took care of," Jack said.

The Terrans had to spread their forces to hit all the stations at the same time. The first five stations targeted went more quickly since no Vargas forces were patrolling the immediate area. No matter how powerful they were, the stations could not move, making it easier to take down from a distance. No matter how strong they were, eventually, they would succumb under the relentless barrage of the Terran long-range artillery ships, their unsightly dreadnoughts.

But here, near the sixth anomaly, the situation was different. With hundreds of ships ready to stop them, the Terrans were having trouble approaching the stations—especially the main one placed to cover the central anomaly. To make it worse, they were in a rush. The enemy was already bringing reinforcements. If they waited, a large contingent might come rushing through the central anomaly. Their arrival would prevent achieving a quick victory. They needed to close the corridor connecting to the Vargas territory quickly. But, as much as they wanted, they could not dismiss the Vargas ships protecting it. They had to deal with them first and foremost.

Hence, a battle raged hundreds of thousands of miles away from the anomalies and stations, with no clear outcome anywhere in sight. He then saw two battlecruisers turning towards the offender that had dared destroy the Damocles. They unleashed a barrage of QDBs that swiftly removed its shielding and peeled off its armor. Many nukes followed, of which two managed to bypass the point defense screening and slipped inside the ship's bowels. In Jack's eyes, the resulting explosions were both phenomenal and righteous.

'Payback time!' he thought.

"It was to be expected. It would have been too optimistic to think the Vargas wouldn't put a fiercer defense on any of the hubs," Sam continued with the discussion.

"It did seem like we caught them with their pants down with the other stations," Jack answered. "Not that they carry any pants."

"Oh, that one did great at evading from being surrounded," Sam commented, swiftly switching topics.

Another heavy cruiser had gained the nearby Vargas ships' attention, but it didn't go according to their plan. The slippery ship went past their encirclement while successfully unleashing a deadly blow to one of the Dinos' largest capital ships that so happened to float nearby.

Seeing that made Jack smirk. There was more to it than meets the eye. "That's thanks to our newest friends—the ones that Sheppard brought to us."

"You mean the ones that can rewind time?" Sam asked, a little unsure if those were the aliens he meant. They met so many in recent months. "What was their name again? I never seem to remember."

"The Nourvee, I think," Jack answered. So many things were happening that it was challenging to keep up. He was still sure he got their name right, though. "Anyway, they often give instructions when something bad happens."

"Not that they can prevent everything. The Vargas know about their ability and are choosing their strategies accordingly," Sam stated. "They also can't use their system too often, or they'll end up depleting their energy reserves half through the battle."

"Unfortunately," Jack responded. Even rewinding time did not guarantee a better outcome if the enemy knew about it and used a more resilient formation. The Vargas might be able to detect the temporal anomaly, knowing the moment the Nourvee had rewound time.

"Still, I somehow think they are among the coolest allies we got. They will greatly help us during this war, I'm sure," Sam said.

New development caught his eye. Two Bellerophons escorted by five heavy cruisers and a bunch of Defiants went deeper into the enemy formation. "What's going on over there?"

"Don't know. Ask the computer," Sam said.

"Okay, let me rephrase that then. Computer, what's going on over there?" Jack asked, not very enthusiastic about the idea of using the station's AI.

In front of Jack, a small avatar resembling an Asgard with an oversized head popped into existence. It promptly delivered the answer. "Before current events in the recording, the Nourvee informed the Admiral of the Fleet Jack O'Neill that in fifteen minutes, Vargas reinforcements would come through the central anomaly. The information prompted the Admiral to increase their efforts of closing the anomaly before the estimated time."

"So that's why," Sam commented, but she was still frowning. "But I still don't get how those ships are going to reach the anomaly."

She was looking at Jack, waiting for his take on it. Jack turned to the cute avatar, waiting for it to respond, but no word of wisdom came out. He turned to Sam, nudging with his head for her to be the one to ask this time.

Sam sighed. "Computer, explain in detail how are the detached ships planning to reach the anomaly."

"They are not," the avatar answered.

Silence reigned for a long moment.

"The AI is bugged!" Sam said, annoyed.

"That's why I'm not using it all that much," Jack said before turning to the avatar. "Oi, Computer! Can you explain in more detail how they are planning to reach the anomaly?"

"I can," the avatar answered.

A deafening silence stretched for too long.

"This is becoming tiresome. Computer, please explain in more detail," Jack said, thinking how the AI was in desperate need of an overhaul. Thor might have messed with it when he came last time and saw the avatar's new look—with the oversized, wobbly head—so he might have had some negative feelings about it. Ever since that day, Jack was unable to change any of its settings. He still thought it looked cute, though.

Plus, what's better than to have an avatar of an Asgard for answering difficult questions?

"The detachment comprised of two Bellerophons and their escort served as a diversion to lure the Vargas away from the central anomaly. The hope was to create a weakening in their formation that would allow a second group to slip through their enclosure and deploy a time-dilation field near the anomaly," the avatar explained.

It was a simple strategy, but only a straightforward approach could succeed with only fifteen minutes on the clock. However, there were drawbacks to employing such a strategy. Both the diversionary group and the one needing to punch through the Vargas formation would be in grave danger.

Some might even call this whole operation a suicide mission.

"Your double must be feeling pressured," Sam said.

"Aren't we all recently," he responded, knowing that everyone was giving a hundred and twenty percent. Some might already call that desperate.

With the anomalies, it was all or nothing. There was no point in closing six while leaving one unattended. They needed to complete them all, or else the whole plan of taking control of the IC1001 galaxy would fail. If they failed, the Vargas would send their ships through the still open anomaly. Even if it took them longer due to the galaxy's large size, they would still be able to spread everywhere.

Conversely, closing them would not only cripple the Vargas efforts inside the IC1001 galaxy. A much vaster region covering many superclusters—including the Laniakea Supercluster where the Milky Way galaxy dwelled—would be hard to reach. If the Vargas still wanted to travel for half a billion light-years through hyperspace to reach Laniakea, they were welcome to try. Even with their advanced propulsion system, half a billion light-years were too great of a distance to wage war against another highly advanced civilization, especially one with a superior transportation method, such as the supergates. In such a scenario, Jack was sure the Earth would be safe for decades to come, if not centuries.

"I think it's working. Look at the top-right corner. The Vargas are redeploying ships towards the bait," Sam said.

While waiting for any new movement the Terran would make, Jack tried to predict what those could be. They could not just penetrate deep inside the enemy's formation. The enemy would surround them, and they would end up suffering heavy losses. Furthermore, the Vargas were aware of their aim. They were aware that a time-dilation device forces an anomaly to collapse into a near-singularity, effectively preventing ships from coming out (at least in one piece). Therefore, Jack knew the Vargas would watch for any weapon capable of carrying the time-dilation field fired in the general direction of the anomaly.

Not having to wait too long, a larger group of Terran ships began to move. Without sparing their engines, twenty ships topped their acceleration at one thousand gees. They were going to exploit the Vargas weakened formation Sam had pointed out. The Vargas noticed the ruse, of course, but it wasn't so easy to turn around. Space was relentless in that regard. It takes the same amount of effort to achieve the motion as it takes to bring the object back to a standstill. It would take even more to accelerate a ship in the opposite direction. In the last five minutes, the Vargas had crossed a considerable distance and had built up quite the speed, which precludes any chance of returning before the Terrans' second group passes. As a direct result, the second group would only have to deal with those ships that stayed behind.

Several dreadnoughts were serving as long-range ship-killers to whoever tried to block the group's path. However, even with the diminished number of enemy ships, Jack wasn't overly confident they could make it in time. "The other me is way too optimistic if he thinks this will work."

The Terrans overall formation had seen better days. Looking at it right now, no one could argue differently. Their latest bold maneuver had displaced several contingents, leaving even the main formation vulnerable to sudden attacks—a fact that did not pass unnoticed. The Vargas took the opportunity and launched a full offensive. Their assault was so fierce that it left no choice but to begin retreating. They were in a precarious position, and if they stayed, they would end up suffering heavy losses. If the haphazard plan they came up with failed, the whole mission would turn out into a disaster.

"I believe it will work." Sam still had a positive outlook, but another part was still bothering her. "I also have no clue how they are going to make it back alive."

There were two goals the Terrans needed to achieve. First, stop any reinforcements from coming through the anomaly. Second, don't get too many of their people killed in the process. Jack could not see a way for their ships to escape the Vargas encirclement.

The artillery ships began their long-range bombardment, focusing exclusively on the vessels in their path. They were utterly disregarding the fire they were receiving from the sides. By serving as the head of the spear, the battlecruiser Iowa took the brunt of the attack. However, the Iowa had the most robust defense in the Terrans Fleet. The Aegis-3 was doing a remarkable job of protecting the ship from harm. While the primary shield blocked most weapons, the gravitational barrier sporadically sprang to life when needed to stop the accursed Vargas draining weapons. It would also prevent damage against the antiproton beam. Suffice it to say, the chances of the ship reaching the anomaly without the Aegis were nonexistent.

"That guy made something amazing," Jack whispered.

"Oh, God! You're praising Felger," Sam said with terror showing in her eyes. "Is this a sign of the end of times?"

"Don't make a fuss about it! I just said that, despite the massive number of shortcomings, that guy has managed to create something decent for a change. That's all!"

"Yet, you're still unable to speak his name."

"Baby steps, Sam. Baby steps," Jack said. It wasn't that he believed Felger (that guy) had turned a new leaf. Or that there was no danger of him blowing up Earth by mistake or a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportion happening. He still thought that he was a menace they needed to watch closely. "Besides, I'm sure he'll screw up sooner or later. Don't know what he's doing these days, though."

"Um, he's working on the next Aegis system. The Aegis-5," Sam said.

Jack thought about it for a moment. The Aegis-3 had the gravitational barrier, the primary shield, and the armor-strengthening reinforcement field. He could not grasp what they could add to make it any better, much less two things as the name Aegis-5 implied.

"Five?" Jack asked.

"Yep. Felger's idea," Sam said.

"Of course it is. And what does this idea entail?"

"He thought that we could increase our ships' survivability if we created a spatial and temporal distortion around them," Sam replied.

"No clue what that means," Jack said. He didn't understand the mind of a scientist. Plus, they had a language of their own that usually confused outsiders. It was frustrating talking to them, especially when they were in their element while explaining some science stuff.

"He's trying to make a spatial distortion around a ship, which means whatever approaches it, it wouldn't necessarily move in a straight line. For example, a beam fired at it would change direction due to the curvature of space. That way, it would be difficult for any weapon to score a hit. The distortions would often change shape and place, making it difficult to make predictions. Of course, that's except for our ships that would know how to compensate for the distortions. The ship would know how to fire a weapon for it to hit the enemy. They could sometimes even fire straight ahead, and the beam would hit an enemy ship standing on the side. The possibilities are endless!" Sam explained, with a smidge of anticipation present in her voice.

"And the second one, the temporal one?"

"The same thing but with time instead of space as the medium. It would create temporal distortions around the ship, making it difficult to time any attack properly. Coordination between enemy ships would be meaningless because the timing would be off."

He understood the gist of it. A coordinated attack meant that ships must attack at a precise time and place for achieving the best effect. But the distortions would make it impossible to synchronize the attackers' efforts. Some weapons fire would be stuck in place or at least delayed for precious seconds while others would miss because the space was bent, with a straight line not being so straight anymore. It would be even worse for ships that entered the abnormal regions.

"Chaos space," he said.

"Yes, some have started calling it that way. It would be Chaos Space where only we know the rules," Sam replied.

"Where did he get the idea?" he asked, curious.

The guy was getting one wacky idea after the other. It wasn't that long ago when he and Thor had to intervene and stop Felger from making a weapon that could beat the Aegis-3. If done, it would have forced them to go back to the drawing board and create a new system that could prevail against the new weapon.

"Do you remember how the Aklarians protect their space?" Sam asked.

"Of course," Jack said, instantly realizing the source of Felger's inspiration. "They are creating spatial anomalies throughout their galaxies that are capable of hindering hyperspace travel.

"It's not the same as what Felger is trying to do, but the idea stems from there," Sam said.

"Uh, not sure I like having that guy playing with space and time. Is there something more dangerous than that? I mean, we had him make the tricobalt bomb—the one that displaces space itself. Then we had him play with quantum disruption—the one that eradicates all forms of matter and energy. Then it was gravity—the kind that squeezes everything into a tiny region of space. And now we are just having him play with space and time in whichever way he might find useful," Jack concluded, making a pained expression. "I don't know, Sam. It looks to me like we are trying extremely hard to cause a disaster."

"If you put it like that, it does sound like we are giving Felger all the scary stuff. Still, I think Rodney with his Arcturus reactor was even more of a threat. I still think there was something fishy behind that whole project. The way he came up with the solution so fast before ruining any planet or star system—I just don't know how he did it," Sam complained.

"Don't worry, Sam! You're still the only Terran who blew up a star!" Jack said while chuckling, but soon he noticed her unhappy face. He coughed awkwardly. "A-Anyway, not that I'm praising Dr. McKay, but I think he's a little more stable than the resident troublemaker we have here in the Milky Way. More importantly, Rodney's in another galaxy. You cannot even imagine how comforting it is for me to know that at least one of our wacky scientists is far, far away from Earth."

"Ever since he became a council member, Rodney is doing great. And we did send Felger to make his experiments light-years away from any planet," Sam said.

"I'm not sure if that's going to be enough. Let's give the guy an extended vacation—wait!" Jack stopped as he remembered something. "Didn't we sent that guy to tour Earth, give speeches, or something like that? I'm sure we sent him somewhere where he can't cause too much damage."

"We did," Sam began explaining. "But they sent him back."

"Sent him back, you say. What did he do to get canned so quickly?"

"It's not like he did anything bad," Sam said, reluctant to explain any further. She even sighed.

"Sam, there has to have been a reason why they shipped him back to us," Jack said, eagerly awaiting an explanation.

"His smile," She responded.

"What?" Jack said.

"When Felger gives a speech, he would often be a little nervous, but that's to be expected. But, whenever he paused, he would smile. It came naturally to him. So natural that he would do it whenever he was in front of a camera, or reporters were taking photos, or while shaking hands," Sam explained. She sighed again. "The gist of it is that he smiled a lot."

Jack thought for a moment. He envisioned Felger while smiling. No wonder they were shipping him back. He was making everyone freak out. Even if he explained his work if he showed that smile, people would think: 'that guy should not have access to anything dangerous!'. "I forgot about his smiling face, even though I have an eidetic memory. I must have blocked it somehow on a subconscious level. We shouldn't have sent him in the first place—or we should have filled his face with Botox first. I'm sure the public is now thinking that we are doing some shady research up here."

"It's not that bad. The TV station didn't know what to do with the footage. Since Felger smiled too many times to count, there was no way of editing the content in a meaningful way. It was unusable," Sam said.

"The only thing we can do is to send him in a remote place, one devoid of people, and hope the universe doesn't end while we sleep," Jack said, accepting the situation. "Only a higher power can save us now."

"Whenever it's about any of our scientists, you're blowing it out of proportion, as usual, and especially when it's about Felger. Recently, he's been doing a decent job. I'm sure his days of reckless research are behind him," Sam said with conviction.

On the other hand, Jack thought that Sam was once again tempting fate.

While talking about nonsensical stuff to make the time pass faster, both never forgot to keep an eye on the large holo-display. It appeared the good guys were making progress, with the detachment successfully breaching deep into the Vargas formation and well on their way towards the central anomaly. However, right around that point, things turned from bad to worse.

They had just entered the range of the central space station—the ten kilometers large cube imposingly standing in front of the anomaly. Unfortunately, this time around, the Terrans did not have the time to deal with the space station calmly. Before this incident, the way to go was to shoot from outside of the station's reach. The dreadnought ships the Terran had turned into long-range batteries were perfect for the job. They had further increased the range of their main antiproton tri-barrel gun. It made it possible to target the strong Vargas space stations from outside of their weapons range with that modification. It gave the Terrans a massive advantage against anything that had the maneuverability of a brick. However, they did not have the time to chew at the current protector slowly. Reinforcements were coming, and they needed to stop them.

The distance between the task force and the station was already below one million kilometers, which was well within the range of the station's antiproton guns. Yet, the station was still standing strong. Four bright beams flew from the station's four corners towards the leading Iowa. The resulting impact caused such brightness that it made it difficult to watch. The gravitational barrier held against the onslaught, preventing the beams from going any further. However, the Vargas were already aware of the powerful gravitational wall the Terrans used and had found a way to deal with it. While the station was attacking, other ships were also firing while targeting different places. Their tactic was easy to understand. They were trying to overload the system. The Vargas must have figured out the barrier could stop any weapon but only at the expense of wasting large amounts of energy.

The Iowa could not form as many gravitational barriers as the number of fired weapons. The barrier keeping the antiproton beam from passing through was already enough to strain the ship's power system. That meant the rest of the incoming fire would need to be stopped through other means or risk a far more dangerous cascade failure.

From multiple sides, dark energy bolts slammed into the ship's primary shield.

"Bastards! They are lowering the intensity of the antiproton beams to make them last longer," Jack said.

"The grav-barrier is giving us a considerable advantage by negating two of the Vargas' strongest weapons. It is reasonable to think they would try to come up with countermeasures against our strongest offensive or defensive abilities," Sam replied while watching the battle unfold. "I don't think the shield will hold."

The Iowa wasn't the only ship that needed to endure. The Vargas were targeting others as well, albeit not with the same intensity. It was clear the Vargas had placed the leading ship as a high-priority target. They were directing seventy percent of the fire at it. They might have assessed it would be easier to deal with the rest after taking down the Iowa.

"If only we could use FTL travel. Then we could deliver the payload smack in the middle of that anomaly! We could have our ships in and out in under thirty seconds while sustaining no casualties."

"It would be strange for the Vargas not to have a method capable of preventing FTL travel. We are talking about a race standing at the very top of the whole universe. One that has been at the whole dominion thingy for billions of years," Sam explained. "They are a definite step-up compared to the Goa'uld or the Wraith. Of that, I'm sure."

Without FTL capabilities, ships and torpedoes had no choice but to travel slowly towards their goal at STL speed. While he was thinking about various strategies they could not employ for one reason or the other, two artillery ships fired a large contingent of missiles. The missiles vanished immediately after.

"Cloaked missiles. That might work," Jack said.

"Yeah, a few of them have the time-dilation field as their payload. Good idea, but I'm not too sure it will work," Sam said.

"Why not?" Jack asked. To him, it seemed like a reasonable attempt.

"Think about it. Their adversary is the Vargas's strongest asset, at least that we know of the guarding station. "Try to imagine if it was in front of our strongest station."

Once again, she was forcing him to use his brain instead of just giving him the answer. But this time around, he thought the answer should be an easy one to decipher. It was making him want to try finding the solution on his own. The mightiest space station under the Terrans was the one he was currently on, Terran Starbase One (TS-1). In his mind, he envisioned an enemy firing a barrage of cloaked missiles at it. He quickly realized what Sam was trying to convey. "Just like Starbase One, their station must have a heck of a sensor suite."

"Correct," Sam nodded. "No way cloaked missiles can pass so close to their space station without being detected. If not, this war would be an easy one to win."

The confirmation came instantly. With pinpoint accuracy, bolts of destructive energy flew towards the swarm of missiles, cleanly destroying them one after the other. Their hope that cloaked missiles could achieve victory had evaporated from the moment Sam had explained the problem. However, their rapid destruction was still a depressing sight to see. The only thing left was understanding why his double—the one five minutes from the future—did it regardless of the easy-to-predict unfavorable outcome. "So, why did the other me do it? It's not like he accomplished anything, except maybe to waste a bunch of unbelievably expensive missiles."

Missiles capable of cloaking, especially those having the time-dilation device onboard, did not grow on trees. Tossing them at the enemy in ample amounts while knowing they wouldn't achieve anything wasn't something a sane person would do.

"Maybe—" Sam began saying while engrossed by the battle. She did not explain any further.

Jack waited for a moment longer. She would continue with the sentence at her own pace. If she did, he would be content with that. However, time passed with no answer anywhere in sight. "Maybe what?"

"Not sure, but I have the feeling that all of this is just a big diversion," she explained.

It wouldn't be good for him to ask too many questions. He was a military man, just like Sam. He should be able to see what she was seeing. Even more so, since the one who came up with the whole plan was his double who, by no stretch of the imagination, should be any wiser than he was. However, they did have an almost identical thought process.

He began thinking; mulling over it; tossing ideas from one hemisphere to the other, all the while pacing in front of the holo projection. It was okay to think that everything was a diversion, in one way or the other. The first group of ships had served their purpose—to remove a good portion of the hostile vessels protecting the central anomaly. The missiles could have helped shift the attention away from the Iowa and the Fleet. But they did not achieve it, as the same amount of firepower kept pouring down on the task force. The Iowa was in a dangerous situation, with its energy reserves inexorably dropping. Even the ship's reactors and the fully charged ZPM could not keep up with the energy demand.

Then he understood something. "Wait! If all of it is a diversion, could the Iowa also be serving as one?"

"That's what I'm not sure about, but if I know you, you will try to hide your true intentions instead of going for a direct attack and hoping for a miracle. The Vargas are focusing on the Iowa with everything they have, which is probably what the other you were going for," Sam explained.

"Which means there's something out there that we are not seeing," Jack said, quickly going to work.

He perused through the fleet's manifest, removing all visible ships first. Only a few entries were left. Those destroyed since the battle started, and one more. "One Defiant is missing."

"Maybe that's how they are trying to reach the anomaly. Everything else is just to focus the Vargas on the wrong threat," Sam said.

"I get that, but why can't we see it?" Jack said.

Even the cloaked missiles stayed visible inside the holo-projection. They were translucent with a blue hue around them to signify that they were in stealth. However, he could not see any cloaked ship anywhere in the whole of the battle theater.

"Ah, I know why! They are so deep in stealth that they are not sending their location even to our Fleet. I'm certain they are also on a ballistic trajectory towards the anomaly, with no engines burning or giving off any other emissions of any kind. The only power they are using must be to keep their stealth going," Sam said.

"And with the whole ruckus, my double is hoping to force the Vargas to keep their sensors pealed on the task force," Jack said, finally understanding the situation.

"That has a chance of succeeding," Sam said. "But they still need to hurry."

Jack was scrolling to see who the captain of the missing Defiant was. "Oh, it's me again."

"What?" Sam asked.

"The one in command of the Defiant, it's the third me," Jack said.

It was the clone, the younger Jack from the incident with Loki.

"He probably knew what the other you wanted to do, so he volunteered for the mission. Well, he is the best choice for the mission you devised. Or rather, the mission the other you concocted," Sam said.

"Ugh, there's too many me around," Jack said.

"Don't I know it," Sam retorted.

"What's that supposed to mean," Jack said.

Sam wasn't talking. Jack had the feeling, no matter how long he stared at her, that fact would not change. While pondering about what she meant, he also continued watching the progress of the battle. It wasn't looking good; that was clear for everyone to see. No matter how formidable their battlecruiser's defenses were, they could not protect the ship forever. Among the many indicators displayed near the Iowa, one was of particular concern to him—the one showing the shield's power consumption. Soon, there would not be enough energy reserves to keep the grav-barrier active.

"Not even a ZPM can keep up with the punishment the Iowa is under," Sam said, almost mirroring his concerns.

"I wonder where our little cloaked ship is right now," he said.

"Oh, speaking of the devil," Sam said while pointing to a location inside the hologram.

The Defiant was remarkably close to the anomaly. Still, Jack thought it would have been better if it kept going while cloaked for a bit longer. "Why did it decloak?"

"I think the station detected it. Look, they are already firing at it," Sam explained.

A random sensor sweep might have caught the ship. In the end, it all comes down to luck. Or lack thereof.

Bolts of dark purple energy were rushing towards the lonely Terrans ship. Thankfully, due to its trajectory, the Defiant was far from the station. That had allowed the nimble ship to evade the deadly bolts—most of them, at least. While he kept watching, the last one slammed into the shield, making it glow. The accursed weapon would now start draining it. "Come on! Fire that missile!"

"Not sure if that would be a good thing," Sam said.

"Why?" he asked, although he had a vague idea what the answer was.

"Too distant. Now that the Vargas know about the ship, they won't let any missile reach the anomaly—especially not from such a distance. The Defiant also shouldn't have more than a few missiles with the time-dilation device in them," Sam explained.

"Makes sense. Still, what's the solution?" Jack asked.

"Probably waiting until the last moment before firing," Sam said.

"I think we are already there. A little more, and there's no way that ship will have the time to escape before the station or the converging ships will shred it to pieces," Jack said.

Sam once again wasn't saying anything, which was a bad sign. It meant that she was having the same thought—the thought that this was a one-way trip.

"The Iowa is taking damage," Sam said.

The ship could deploy the grav-barrier only sporadically. Using it to stop the antimatter beams took precedence. The energy bolts were now slamming one after the other on the primary shield. With such intensity, it wouldn't take long before it failed. Other nearby ships were trying their best. But they were few, surrounded, and outgunned. The brunt of the Terrans fleet had no choice but to retreat or else suffer heavy losses.

He glanced at Sam and saw her fidgeting. She was nervous, just as he was.

"It's firing!" Sam said.

Jack turned to see that the Defiant had launched several missiles on their way towards the anomaly. He felt as if he watched his favorite team trying to score while he bet all his savings on a ten-to-one win. If they scored, Jack would become rich. If not, he would have to sell the house.

The first missile was intercepted soon after launch; the second one, halfway there; the third one, just a thousand miles from the anomaly.

The rest were duds.

Those should have worked as decoys, but the Vargas disregarded them and targeted only those with the time-dilation device inside. "How the hell did they pick all the right ones?!"

"Don't know. They shouldn't be able to. Even we don't have a scanning method capable of differentiating between the two types," Sam explained.

Like many, Sam was also proud of the SGA technological superiority. Therefore, it must have been quite the blow to learn that the enemy could do something they couldn't. "That's not important right now. Not one time-dilation missile reached the anomaly. The way things are right now, I don't see any other ship nearing the damn thing. I don't see how they can salvage this operation."

"Look, the Iowa and the rest of the ships are turning," Sam said.

"Will they make it?" he said.

Just as he finished the sentence, one of the group's heavy destroyers took one blow too many. One energy bolt hit the ship's unshielded stern while another slammed into its starboard hyperdrive engine. The resulting detonation pushed the ship into an uncontrollable spin.

That was one ship he knew would not make it back.

"The task force is falling apart," Sam said while watching the ships trying to escape.

"It's a miracle they made it that far. One or two might even get outside of the station's firing range. That's at least a chance at surviving," he said, thinking how, different than for the task force, the lonely Defiant did not have even such a slim chance. He glanced at the Defiant. "Why is it still moving towards the anomaly?"

The chances of survival were slim. However, pushing closer to the anomaly made even less sense. Reinforcements would come momentarily.

As he said it, he had to revise his last thought. The sensors were picking up fluctuations inside the anomaly. Travel through it wasn't instantaneous. It was more akin to traveling through hyperspace. It was just that it went at an appreciably higher speed—one that would allow entire fleets to cross hundreds of millions of light-years in a minute. Since the anomaly was emitting more exotic particles than usual, it meant that ships were already inside the corridor. It suggested they would be here sooner than predicted.

"Don't know. Maybe—" Sam began saying but stopped. She was deep in thought.

He smiled, realizing what that something was. "Yeah, that would make more sense."

"You think so too?" Sam added.

"It's the only explanation that would make sense," he said. "I'm just not sure if the ship can make it."

A lot of fire was being poured onto the lonely ship. He didn't know if the Vargas came to the same conclusion. Regardless, they were putting significant effort into taking the Defiant down. But it wasn't in the Terrans' spirit to make things easy for the enemy. To take the ship down, they'll have to work hard for it.

From the maneuvers the nimble ship was making, he was confident the whole crew was immersed in the ship's VR system. They were now one with the ship, sharing their senses and thoughts, which allowed for lightning-fast reactions. It wasn't easy to hit a ship that could instantly react to any change.

"I think the Vargas know what they are planning to do," Sam said.

"Yeah, why fire all the missiles when you can keep a spare, right?" he said.

"Right. And the ship becomes the perfect delivery system," Sam added.

When the ship was ten miles from the anomaly, its shields were on their last leg, and the hull showed clear signs of damage. However, that didn't matter because they made it.

They activated the time-dilation device.

Everything stopped. The ship, the fluctuations caused by the anomaly, the energy bolts hurling towards the little ship. It all came to an abrupt stop. Then, even though time seemed stopped, the anomaly's mouth shrank at great speed as if about to disappear. Only a tiny opening remained—one so small that even a fighter would have trouble passing through.

"Since time isn't completely stopped, it would take, I say, a few weeks to a month for debris to peek out of the anomaly," Jack said with a massive grin on his face.

"In the meantime, the ships that are already inside will be exposed to massive temporal and spatial compression. They'll get squeezed through a tiny tube," Sam said, she too with a big smile on her face.

None of them knew how extensive the approaching Vargas forces were. They could only guess, but just knowing that they would suffer heavy losses was great.

"They should have sent a considerable force, no smaller than the one sent to the Milky Way galaxy," Jack said. He was being optimistic but didn't care. "On the other hand, my clone was able to survive what was clearly a suicide mission."

"We will have enough time now to slowly think of a way to save the crew of the Defiant. We just need to clean this side of the Vargas forces before we do," Sam said.

"But not today. This battle's lost, and the Fleet is in disarray. I don't think the other me will keep pressing while in such a state," he said.

"It doesn't matter. With the anomaly closed, the Vargas have no way of getting reinforcements through it. We can now take it slow."

It was a victory, but it came at a cost. The forward detachment was trying to rendezvous with the Fleet, but it wasn't going well, especially for the Iowa. The ship had remained in the rear to soak much of the incoming fire in the hope the other ships in the task force would have a chance at escaping.

"She's the first we're going to lose, isn't she?" Sam said.

"Yes," he answered. The sublight engines were gone, and the hull was heavily damaged. From the readings, he also knew the situation inside the ship wasn't any better. With the shields and the overall energy reserves gone, the ship's fate was sealed. "It won't be too long."

A thick lance of destructive antiprotons smashed into the hull, slicing right through its rear section. The resulting explosion was strong enough to break a large chunk off. The engines gave their last, leaving the ship dead in the water. It was the end of the road for the battlecruiser Iowa. The large explosion signified the loss of the first Terran battlecruiser.

But other ships had it bad too. Many had suffered extensive damage, making it impossible for them to outpace their pursuers. He was sure several would perish in a matter of minutes, just like the Iowa did.

Jack knew that, before the war was over, more would suffer the same fate.

"We won, but we also lost," Sam said.

He knew what she meant. They might have achieved their goal, but the loss of the Iowa would weigh heavily on their people. Until this battle, the Armageddon class of ships had never lost. Even the many times larger, strongest Vargas' ships were not its match. However, after today, the people would learn that even their mightiest vessel could perish. He also knew that no matter how many ships perished inside the anomaly, such losses meant little to the Vargas. It was only a drop in the ocean. The Vargas were spread everywhere, with countless ships and races at their disposal.

"I think it will be worth it as long as we can close all the anomalies," he said.

"Any news on how the last one's going?"

"Nope, but I can't see Thor losing. Not with that badass ship of his," he said. The Asgard were pushing their development in a different direction. He couldn't say he disliked where they were going.

"That's true. The Asgard went completely overboard with the new Valhalla," Sam stated. From the face she was making, she might be itching to take the ship apart.

Although the SGA members shared their technology among themselves freely, they still choose to build different ships. The biggest reason for such a move was the difference in the number of people their respective races could conscript in their navies. The Asgard and Guardians' population was a hundred times smaller than that of the Terrans. Consequently, they had to take a different path. They chose to build fewer ships but bigger and fully automated that needed a smaller crew. Additionally, the Guardians decided to invest in the Echelon ships heavily. They would use those automated ships as escorts to their largest ships.

However, there were downsides in making such a decision. The Valhalla was such a mighty ship that the Terran battlecruiser could not hope to compete. They were simply in a different category. The Valhalla was a 2600 meters long behemoth with a six times greater mass than the Terran battlecruiser. The two ships' offensive power could not be compared. However, the time to build a single Valhalla was five times that of the Terran battlecruiser.

Could the Valhalla go toe-to-toe against five Armageddons?

He wasn't so sure about that. However, he was confident that it was much easier to cover the IC1001 galaxy with five times the number of ships. And as far as the Armageddon went, no one could argue the vessel was a fragile one.

"Both the Guardians and the Asgard sent as many ships as they could. They know how important it is to close the anomalies," Sam added.

Jack didn't want to watch his people retreating. He put the summary of the battle on display instead. "It's funny. I didn't want to know the result of the battle before watching the recording. On the other hand, thanks to the Nourvee, my double probably knew the outcome of the battle before it ended."

"I'm not sure the Nourvee would have told him," Sam added.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Think about it? The more information they share, the more variables that can invalidate their prediction there are," Sam said.

"You're saying that by sharing the outcome, they are influencing my double's decisions, which means more uncertain the future they saw becomes?"

"Wow! You actually understood what I said," Sam seemed shocked, although Jack was fairly sure she was just making fun of him.

"I have my moments," he said. He looked at the final report on the display. "Do you see this? We lost seventeen ships while twenty-four have been damaged. For a surprise attack, we lost a lot."

"Seventeen ships and 2,088 people. What's the toll from the beginning of the IC1001 campaign?"

He worked with his pad until the system displayed the relevant data in front of them. "The Navy lost thirty-four capital ships, of which one dreadnought; one battlecruiser, the Iowa today; eighteen heavy cruisers; two assault carriers; and thirteen Defiants. The number of small craft lost is much greater, though, mostly because we must protect the various Minian planets and installations. Eight-hundred-and-seven fighters and sixty-two corvettes lost. We also have several ships in need of repairs, which is taxing the few repair ships we have in the IC1001 galaxy."

"Our heavy cruisers are getting a lot of beating," Sam said.

"Yes, eighteen Damocles lost is a bit much. But when you consider that the ship has the highest offensive-power-to-weight ratio, it becomes clear why they are the enemy's target of choice," he said.

"The Armageddon is a tough nut to crack, and the Defiant is a slippery ship that's exceedingly difficult to hit. No wonder they choose the Damocles," Sam added. "But that also means that we need to change our tactics accordingly."

"We can't improve the Damocles shielding more than it already is, at least not quickly. But we have a few ideas that could help. One is not to keep the Damocles fixed inside a wall formation," he said.

"But changing that would make the rear more vulnerable. The enemy's assault would have a much greater chance of reaching the Dreadnoughts and the assault carriers in the back if there were no wall to stop them," Sam said.

"The people back home are coming up with ways to quickly switch between fortress shields, which could give us an extra layer of protection against the Vargas energy-draining weapon. If the shield can hold, the Damocles could roam more freely throughout the battlefield."

The biggest hurdle with using the fortress shield was that it would become the primary target as soon as it was raised. Big and unmoving, the enemy would bombard it with energy-draining fire, making it fail in a matter of minutes. A battle could easily last half an hour or even longer. A few minutes was too short of a time to make a difference. If such a shield—in which they put a lot of energy into—fell so quickly, one might conclude that its role was negligible. However, if the shield could be dropped and another raised in its stead, it could prove a practical defensive option. In such a case, the Damocles could move more freely. Moving more freely meant it would be harder to hit them. A ship could even retreat if the situation asks for it and then return when its shield returns to full power.

"Got it, more freedom equals getting hit a few times less," Sam said. "And that could mean the difference between surviving the battle or not."

"There's also the use of the satellite drones."

"The point defense system? What of it?" she asked.

"The captain of one of the Damocles used them in a different way than intended. He would place them in the path of the Vargas energy-draining weapon. When hit, he would circle them around, drop their small shield and purge the shield generator of the residual, harmful energy. Then he would raise their shield again and toss them back into the fray. They would be as good as new and ready to take more hits, those otherwise taken by the ship's main shield."

"Good as new?"

"Well, not exactly. The satellites would often explode when hit. They are taking fire from an anti-capital ship weapon. But sometimes they would survive," Jack said.

Sam was pensive. "Compared to a ship like the Damocles, the satellite drone's shielding is easy to reinitialize. This strategy could also save the Damocles from at least a few hits."

"Yep, taking a few hits less can mean the difference between being blown up and surviving. Also, the people in the IC1001 are already trying to modify them so that the satellite drones could absorb at least one blast from the Vargas energy weapon without blowing to pieces."

"So, we still have room for improvement," Sam said.

"We do, but it's different when it comes to defending others' planets, you know. We simply don't have the numbers to protect a stationary object as big as a planet from every direction. Not to mention the losses the Army has sustained. Three times the number of casualties when compared to the Navy, and it hasn't been that long since we started protecting the Minian planets and installations."

The enemy was relentless. They were sending their warriors and mindless abominations, wave after wave, not minding how many of them died. Ten times they would fail. But then, they would win once, and hundreds if not thousands of their brave soldiers would perish in the skirmish. This cycle would then repeat itself every day. The enemy had so many troops that Jack could not see an end to the fighting.

"How do you fight against a race that has trillions of potential soldiers and an unending number of those troublesome abominations?" Jack said. He felt powerless, and he didn't like it. "I thought those Crabs they sent to our galaxy are bad, but at least their numbers are limited."

"Without the support of the Aklarians, we wouldn't have been able to protect the Minians. We are strong when it comes to space battles in which we can decide the battlefield. But when we must fight in a defensive battle, we simply don't have the necessary numbers," Sam agreed.

Even if they closed the anomalies, they would still need to deal with the already present enemy forces. The Dinos alone had thousands of planets and fortifications spread throughout the IC1001 galaxy. Going on the offensive while also having to defend the Minians and other races could turn into a prolonged campaign that no one wants. If it took them a decade to clear the IC1001, it would give the Vargas too much time to come with devious plans of their own. It would make pushing deeper into their territory that much more complicated.

On the other hand, pushing any further without securing the IC1001 galaxy first wasn't a possibility. Too risky. The Terrans needed the galaxy clean and ready to serve as a forward base in the future.

"We don't even know where the Vargas home galaxy is," he said.

"True, but we are getting some good intel from the space station we were able to board," Sam said.

When the Guardians went after the second hub, they used one of the few devices capable of shifting their people into a different dimension that Liam made before leaving. Merlin's device that Liam had perfected was great when one wanted to infiltrate the enemy camp. They were able to enter the station and access the mainframe. They stole a lot of data for later perusal. Unfortunately, the station had enacted a self-destruct, causing the whole team to perish. They knew it was a possibility when they went in. They knew the Vargas would not give any information of what was beyond the anomaly willingly.

"Getting the intel was great but losing one of the few Merlin devices that we have—I think it was our loss there. Not to mention the people that died in the mission," Jack said.

It was the main reason why they didn't use the same tactic again. It was risky in the first place, and the Vargas might devise a plan to steal the precious device. That would be disastrous. If they learned how to replicate it, the Vargas would become unstoppable.

"With the information inside the space station, we now have a much greater understanding of the Vargas network," Sam said, but with little enthusiasm.

"I know, it's not much, but it's a start," Jack said. "Ah, I don't want to talk about the Vargas anymore. My head is full of Vargas all day long, every day."

"I'm not all that inclined to spend my day talking about the Vargas either. Where's Daniel?" she asked.

"Dealing with all the crap that's going on in the Milky Way galaxy," Jack said.

"You mean dealing with the Galarans?" Sam said.

The Galarans were, for now, feeling quite emboldened. With a few plans going their way, they kept pushing their whole Galaran Confederation idea without restraints. It was clear their appetite was enormous. However, he could not fault them entirely for trying either. With the Jaffa growing stronger and other factions like the Lucian Republic or the Coalition of Eryn gathering members at a frightening pace, it was only expected for the Galarans to try something similar. However, he could not agree with their methods.

"Maybe we left the galaxy to their devices too soon," he said.

"Daniel explained it to you already, didn't he?" Sam said.

"Right. Trying to control the entire galaxy would have made us look like tyrants. Someone who always tells them what to do but is unwilling to share any of the cool widgets that would allow them to make stronger ships, weapons, and the likes," he said. "I get what he said, but it's not like everything is going smoothly now!"

"The Guardians and the Asgard agree. Trying to control other races will always end badly. They will never thank you for interfering in their business," Sam said. "It is better for us to protect and aid those worlds that cannot do it on their own."

Many worlds in the galaxy had little to no people on them. Some had as low as ten thousand people. Too little to call them a race yet unwilling to be moved. It was their home, and they had the right to refuse any kind of relocation plan, no matter how helpful it might have turned out to be. To such people, who could not hope to prosper independently, the Terrans should provide aid. Giving protection, food, medicine, and basic knowledge so that they could finally start developing after so many years of oppression was the minimum the Terrans should offer freely.

"Fine, we already have many worlds under our umbrella. What I'm afraid of, though, is that the peaceful times will not last for long if the situation keeps evolving the way it has until now," he said. "Since we had to send our main fleets to fight the Vargas, and since the little that remained must still deal with the Reapers, the likes of the Galarans think that they can do whatever they want. And they are not the only ones."

"You mean the Jaffa?" Sam said.

"That's the reason why Daniel isn't here today. He's dealing with that mess," he said.

"The Asgard Prediction Core did foresee such a development, but it should have happened many years into the future," Sam said.

Everyone knew the Jaffa would split eventually. The more the Milky Way galaxy was at peace, the more the Jaffa did not know what to do with themselves. After all, they had been thought—and even genetically modified—to be warriors above all else. After thousands of years of brainwashing under the Goa'uld, simply telling them that they need to change the way they lived until now did not sit well with many. While there were enemies to be fought, such individuals found meaning in their lives. However, it was different now, and a good part of the Jaffa didn't like it.

"Who would have guessed that the discovery of them selling warships on the black market would be the spark to start this whole thing," he said.

"Teal'c wasn't happy when he learned Bre'lac was selling warships to slave traders. He liked it even less when he discovered that the man had murdered the engineers he'd sent," Sam said. "Discovering that some of the produced components were removed from the inventory and shipped elsewhere was enough to get them killed."

"It should have taken decades before the Jaffa began splitting. Such a small incident, yet it was enough to start all this," he added.

Truth be told, it did not make all that much difference when it happened. They all knew it would. The only issue was the current state of the Milky Way. The reapers were here while the Terrans were sending their assets to a faraway place.

"At least Teal'c side is keeping up with the plan," she added.

The Terran Federation had given a few tips to Teal'c faction. They informed him that they should keep the number of planets in their possession at a minimum if they wished to prosper. The Terrans concluded that a population of five hundred million people was acceptable for an average habitable world. They also told the Jaffa that having a population below one hundred million might be too little. It could negatively influence their economy, their ability to protect their people and assets or cause unwanted disputes.

Even if they kept their planetary populations at the down-low, with around a hundred million on each, Teal'c faction would need only three planets. If they took another ten rich worlds for resource gathering, they could have a stable income for centuries. The Terrans were doing the same. Even though they had the ability, they were not contemplating colonizing more planets than what was needed.

Even with their uber advanced technology and access to planets of above-average quality, the Terrans still thought best to have no more than a billion people on a single world.

"Many Jaffa are not happy with their suggestion to have only fifteen planets while giving away the rest to Bre'lac. It is difficult for a Jaffa to understand the reason for giving up on hundreds of planets, seemingly for nothing of value in return," he said. Jaffa had been snatching planets for other Goa'uld for millennia, hence their reluctance to part with them. "On the other hand, negotiations with Bre'lac went smooth mainly because of that reason. Bre'lac was happy to receive such gifts even without asking, which made him more amicable."

"Especially when he won over Dakara," she said.

"Yeah, he thinks that it was thanks to his charisma and polished diplomatic skills that he received so many planets, including Dakara. What he still hasn't realized is that we had thoroughly surveyed the fifteen planets Teal'c's side is gaining, and we knew exactly how rich they are," Jack said.

Space for hundreds of light-years around their planets would fall under their control. Riches were present there that nobody except the Terrans and a few Jaffa knew about them.

"If only Bre'lac knew the Ancients chose Dakara as a testing site after it was deemed unfit for colonization. They even decided it was too much effort to try to terraform it," he said.

The entire Jaffa population was below one billion galaxywide. Bre'lac's faction ended up with two-thirds. It meant that the six hundred million Jaffa that had joined Bre'lac's faction would have to manage hundreds of planets. Many of them were as barren as Dakara or were overmined in the last several thousand years until all resources were exhausted. Building enough Ha'tak to protect so many planets scattered throughout the galaxy would not come cheap. Trade was also going to be a nightmare since the stargate network was down, and it would stay that way for the conceivable future. Many believed having a device capable of blocking ships from exiting hyperspace near a planet and forcing them to travel for hours a good thing. The stargate not working was something they just needed to get used to.

The situation was the complete opposite for the Jaffa faction led by Bra'tac and Teal'c. The fifteen star systems were all close to each other, creating a linked region of space. Since they were close, travel would be comparatively short, easing trades and allowing their Navy to have a much easier job patrolling their border. Another benefit, the riches found in that region of space were so abundant that it would take hundreds of the star systems now under Bre'lac just to come out even.

"In the long run, Bre'lac and his faction will have to face many challenges. Their standard of living will also be much lower," she said but frowned at once after. "Did they come up with a name? I know Teal'c and his people kept the name Free Jaffa Nation, but what did the other side choose?"

"I can tell you that they weren't very creative," Jack said while smiling. "It's the Jaffa Empire!"

"Oh god! Does that mean—" she began saying but could not finish the thought? At least not at loud.

"Yep. From now on, we are dealing with emperor Bre'lac!" he shouted but then burst into laughter. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to meet the man ever again. No way I'm going to call that asshole Emperor, Your Lordship, oh Exalted One, or whatever title he decides others must use while addressing him. His ego will choose one I definitely won't like."

"Now that you mention it, I don't think that even Daniel will be able to stomach it, much less Teal'c or Bra'tac. Can you imagine Teal'c calling the man that?"

"Nope," Jack said, shaking his head. "Not seeing it."

"I think the Jaffa Empire will enter a challenging period. Over time, their economy will gradually weaken. Then, they'll start having trouble keeping a significant presence in the galaxy—a presence large enough to shield hundreds of spread-out planets. Compared to the FJN, I know they will fall behind with their education program. I'm confident they'll prioritize their military budget over the one meant for education. Even a rough prediction is enough to realize how dire the situation will eventually become.

"On the other hand, we can be sure the Jaffa Free Nation will have an easier job of maintaining a strong navy capable of protecting their much smaller region of space. They won't waste as much money as the Empire. That, in turn, will allow them to invest elsewhere, like in their people's education and in creating a strong economy. Also, they have us to back them up whenever needed while the Empire does not." she said. It all sounded full of positivity, with the JFN having a rosy future. At the same time, the Empire will slowly wither away, but she didn't look content. "But what about the short-term ramifications because the Jaffa split while the Milky way is still in turmoil?"

Right now, the Empire's population was twice that of the JFN. They also had that much more ships, shipyards, and other military assets. It was a downside to giving Bre'lac the rights to Dakara. As a result, many Jaffa chose to join the Empire instead. However, it wasn't just people that went to the Empire. Those who had sided with Bre'lac brought other assets with them.

Jack thought that Bre'lac could decide to attack the Free Jaffa Nation but realized the Terrans would not stay idle. Just by providing logistical support and whatever resources they might need, the JFN would have enough for a decisive victory. Hence Bre'lac had no choice but to split peacefully. Jack could not tell what Bre'lac's plans were. A good chance was that he was planning to increase the Empire's strength further until he was confident in his strength. Then he might try to snatch a few planets. Somehow Jack did not think Bre'lac would be satisfied. He would push for more; Jack was sure of it. Unfortunately for Bre'lac, he also knew that such a future would never come to pass.

One reason was that many habitable planets were present in the region the JFN got that were not part of the stargate network. It meant that Bre'lac did not know of their existence and could not evaluate the true worth of the region he so readily conceded. He did so because he received Dakara in return, thinking that having the planet from which the Jaffa originated under his control would be crucial for his plans. Jack had no misgivings about Bre'lac goals. He wanted to slowly chew at the JFN until he created a unified Jaffa Empire, with him as the emperor. If he could become the dominant force—without taking the Terrans into account—he would have achieved his goal.

Unfortunately for Bre'lac, such a future would never come to pass.

"In the short-term, we can expect to have a lot of problems," Jack said. "Until now, the Jaffa was a unified front that fought against the Reapers, pirates, and whatever else would disturb the peace. But from now on, they will be the ones causing the problems. There will be no one to patrol the galaxy either."

The Jaffa Empire will stop with any activity that did not give them a clear reward. The JFN might try safeguarding the galaxy, but it will be challenging to do it alone. It could even put their progress at risk. Without the Jaffa ready to help and the Terrans being busy in a distant galaxy, the situation in the Milky Way could progressively worsen. If they could take care of the Reapers, the Terrans could somehow deal with the troubles pirates and other races caused. Even the JFN alone might be enough.

He did not have much hope for that. The only other choice was to invest more into the Arkhan Empire. He somehow did not like giving so much power to that guy.

"Emperor Arkhan could take care of the Galarans and the Lucian Republic because they are close and because we are providing the needed resources. Without our resources, he would never have been able to build such a strong navy in such a short time," Sam said. "But that is only a small region of the galaxy. Who's going to patrol the remaining 99% of it?"

People had started grouping. Many of them were ex-slaves freed from ten-thousand-years-long Goa'uld oppression. Suddenly finding freedom, these ex-slaves realized they hated being someone else's servants and would do whatever it takes to prevent it. Because of it, they formed the Coalition of Eryn—a large group counting thousands of planets under their control.

The Terrans did not know how to deal with them. They were distrustful of outsiders, so much so that they even rejected the Terrans' offer of installing the Nox's interdiction device inside star systems they controlled. He knew why they refused, though. Their worlds were sparsely spread throughout the galaxy. To share their goods among their worlds, they needed to rely on the stargate network. They did not have the resources of the other wealthier players who could compensate for the loss of the stargate network through an increase in their Navy. Having a working stargate network was the only choice, even at the risk of letting pirates and other enemies ambushing their planets without warning.

Their planets were among the poorest in the galaxy. It was the main reason why these planets were abandoned, and no large groups were coveting them. Still, no matter how poor or disconnected they were, they were still the largest group in the galaxy. The most astonishing fact was that it had taken them a short time to form their Coalition. It meant that someone capable must be behind it. Jack did not know who they were or even if it was a single person or several individuals. No matter how thoroughly they searched, they could not find who Eryn was.

And they were not the only ones. Dozens of similar groups—and many more of which the Terrans knew nothing about—existed in the vastness of the Milky Way galaxy. With more than twenty thousand worlds known to hold people, the last thing they needed was for most of the Jaffa to turn belligerent.

"I think the people in our galaxy will have to learn how to take care of themselves. We can provide aid to the less fortunate worlds, but the rest should manage on their own," Jack said. He didn't like it, but they were incapable of helping every planet. Part of him also believed the galaxy should find stability independently, without constant meddling. Only then would the Milky Way galaxy be on the right track.

"You say that, but you know just as I do that many races have begun actively exploring the galaxy," Sam said, frowning. "Every nook and cranny of it!"

"I truly don't get them," Jack said, mystified.

The people in the Milky Way galaxy had seen their share of conflict. Why were they now testing fate by going around with their loud hyperdrives so that others could notice them? Once upon a time—some two decades ago—the Goa'uld were barely moving by traveling through the gamma hyperband. It meant that it took half a decade to cross a thousand light-years. Of course, that was only if their hyperdrive wouldn't burn during such a long journey. Such traveling speed precluded any exploration far away from the stargate network.

However, things quickly changed. First, Apophis discovered how to change his ships to travel through the epsilon hyperband. It was a giant leap, and another one had followed it shortly after, thanks to Anubis. Current Ha'tak could enter the zeta band that allowed the Jaffa to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other inside a year. Human races had gained the technology when they joined the Jaffa in their fight against the Aschen. It was one of the promised technologies the Jaffa pledged to relinquish if the human races joined the struggle.

Having such hyperdrives at their disposal meant being able to send expeditions even tens of thousands of light-years away from their worlds.

Jack wasn't sure what was the point. "I mean, do they understand how many planets there are in a 10.000 light-years radius? I'm sure there are a hundred million stars at the very minimum! Why are they then flying for fifteen thousand light-years towards the galactic center? Why?"

"That's a mighty specific case you gave there," she said, chuckling. "But I get what you mean."

Their little project of making a confederation wasn't the only reason the Galarans were giving Jack a massive headache. They could have canvased their surroundings for centuries without visiting even one percent of the worlds in a ten thousand light-years radius around Galar. They could have done that, and it would have made Jack a happy man for the remainder of the century. Instead, they built a bunch of shabby ships with a noisy hyperdrive that even rudimentary subspace sensors could detect from a thousand light-years away. To make it worse, they sent them on a long journey towards the galactic center—a place no one ever canvased.

Or almost.

Of course, the Terrans had done something similar, sending unmanned, stealth probes to check all the places currently veiled in mystery. The preliminary results were astonishing. It turns out that the Milky Way galaxy wasn't as devoid of life as the inhabitants of the galaxy might think. Because if the Galarans thought for even a moment about possible worst-case scenarios, they might have decided to remain on Galar and enjoy life to the fullest.

And they would have done the right thing because there were things out there lurking.

"Ah, they can get eaten for all I care," Jack said, pissed.

"Not all races like to spend their time gallivanting around the universe, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. They are just waiting for someone to come to them instead. Since we are busy dealing with the Vargas, even we have no leeway to go poking around, especially when there's no need for it."

Unexpectedly, the probe was discovered, even though it had a solid stealth system installed onboard. Unable to escape, the probe enacted a specific self-destruct procedure that left no traces behind the other party might follow. After a short chase, the probe found the nearest star. It went straight into it, effectively precluding any chance of the lifeform discovering anything about its maker. Still, the fact that the thing was able to detect the probe and could stop it from leaving left Jack concerned. The good thing, though, was that the lifeform did not have any plans of venturing any further, as a follow-up mission with a stealth frigate confirmed. The data collected shows the lifeform lived a dull existence, never exploring further than ten light-years even though it could easily do so.

"It's so easy to meet enemies in this universe. No need for us to seek them willingly, am I wrong?" Jack said with confidence.

"You're not wrong," Sam agreed. "Even though you don't care if they get eaten, let's still find a way to inform the Galarans of that."

"I really thought the Milky Way would have seen more peaceful times, you know," Jack said. "It's why we were so confident in sending most of our ships far away."

"It would be great if we knew how long the war with the Vargas would last so that we can plan accordingly," Sam said.

He liked Sam's optimism. She did not doubt they would win the war, and their people would come back. She thought they would also keep their losses at a minimum. He wanted her to be right.

"I'm not even going to try predicting that one. I mean, right now, we don't even know where we are supposed to go next. Taking the IC1001 from the Vargas is a great accomplishment—a milestone that will make the Milky Way and a large portion of space around it a much safer place. We need that before going any further. But that's about it. The future is still very much uncertain," he said.

Several factors could significantly influence the future. The first was Liam. He still had amnesia. They were almost sure that to escape, Liam had ascended and somehow descended in the same galaxy as the Destiny. However, unlike Daniel, who miraculously regained his memories only days after reuniting with his people, Liam wasn't showing any signs of doing the same. They tried jogging his memories in a thousand different ways, but nothing worked. Liam could be the key to finding their next step, a roadmap of how to deal the most damage to the Vargas. Sure, they had a massive construct the size of a small moon that could cross millions of light-years in a blink of an eye. Without the legacy left by the Furlings, their entire offensive would look ridiculous. Without the Sphere, their Fleet would have barely crossed a few tens of millions of light-years. Even decades would not be enough to reach the IC1001 galaxy. In the meantime, the Vargas would have been free to do whatever they wanted, including storming the Milky Way with a much greater force. Even they would learn after two failed attempts that they needed to send a much larger contingent to win. They would not make the same mistake for the first time. Thankfully, the Vargas will not get that chance, thanks to the Sphere and her ability to travel vast distances very quickly.

However, even with the Sphere, they could not progress much without knowing where to go next. The universe was simply too big for a single vessel to canvas it in any meaningful way. If they wanted to use the Sphere to the fullest, the knowledge that Liam had was vital.

"We need Liam's knowledge before proceeding," she said.

It was as if she was mirroring his thoughts. "Yeah. No clue when that will happen, though."

"It will, I'm sure of it," she said. "It might just take more time than we would like."

Once again, her optimism without any proof was surfacing. "You don't know that."

"I do know that. From what Daniel and Aenea told me, I'm positive that whoever comes back from the Ascended Realm keeps their memories. Aenea told me it could be that Liam is taking so long to remember because of the vast knowledge he has. Something like, it takes time to recreate the indexing system in his head that allows for easy access of memories," she said smiling.

"Okay, I'm sold," he said. There was no point in arguing. "We still have time. It's not that we finished our job in the IC1001. We still have a lot to do before we can move forward, even if we knew how to proceed."

"Let's hope our alliance with the races we befriended doesn't deteriorate due to lack of progress," Carter said.

Their thoughts seemed to be mainly in sync today. "You're worried that after we close all the anomalies in the IC1001, some of our newly acquired allies might decide to leave us to fend for ourselves."

"A bit. More specifically, I'm worried about the Aklarians reducing their involvement," Sam said. "If they don't see progress, they might even decide to pull out completely."

The Aklarians were investing a lot in this war. He did not know how the war effort influenced their economy. Still, he knew that suddenly increasing their military budget to build so many new shiny warships and train so many more officers must be expensive. They were big, with trillions of people spread across many galaxies. It should mean that they could increase their military spending effortlessly, without suffering any severe side effects. But that was only sophistry on his part, done to deceive no other than himself. They are big and strong, so we don't have to worry about them. That was the line of thinking many, including him, were having when the Aklarians were concerned. However, from time to time, a whispering voice would remind him how terrible it would be if the Aklarians pulled out of the war at this juncture. If they stayed in the IC1001 for too long without making any progress, it could cause trouble. The Aklarians might even decide that spending so much money on a war that wasn't going anywhere was not worth it.

"You're right. Too much time without any progress, and our allies might think it's not worth it," Jack said. "But there isn't much we can do about it. Not if we don't gain new intel on where to go next."

Sam was shaking her head. "Even if Liam can't regain his memories, we must have a plan of action ready within a year. We should find a way to probe deeper into Vargas space and find clues of where we need to strike next on our own. Even if it's not the best way, it should show the Aklarians that we are doing something."

"We need the Sphere to pave the way for our expansion, but never anywhere close to Vargas held territory," Jack said. He was adamant that the longer the Vargas were clueless about the Sphere's existence, the better. "But we do have a few spare Merlin devices."

Only Liam could build them, and even he said that the rate of failure was high. Still, before he left, he gave a few spares to each race. They should keep several on Earth as a reserve since the device could provide an incredible strategical advantage in many situations. But they could install one or two on ships slated to penetrate deep into Vargas territory. Being able to slip into a dimension that even the ascended could not pry into—the same was true for the Vargas—was incredibly helpful.

"If the Asgard could finish the next-gen hyperdrive, sending scouts deeper into Vargas territory should become possible. It would be like what Liam did," Sam said.

Thor's Valhalla was the first and only ship with the Kappa Drive installed. After Liam had proved the feasibility of entering an even higher hyper-band, the Asgard felt the need to build a better drive. Other than Atlantis—with its massive intergalactic hyperdrive powered by three ZPMs—no other ship could rival the Asgard ships in speed. Still, the Kappa Drive was only a prototype the Asgard were testing on Thor's ship. In Thor's words, that, unfortunately, was the case because it was a moody drive. Thor did not elaborate further, but he did not look happy. It meant more work needed to be done before it could be mass-produced. The Terrans would be glad to receive just an improved drive of the one they currently had, if not the final product. Even one that allowed them to travel through the Iota band without the need to suck a ZPM dry would suffice.

"With the new drive and Merlin's device onboard, a ship could freely roam in Vargas infested territory without getting caught," Jack said but then frowned. "Which begs the question. How did Liam's ship get trashed like that?"

That ship was a monster. He still remembered what it did to the enemy during the Battle of Eden.

"It might mean that someone can detect it even while inside the other dimension and harm it. But we know the Vargas don't have that ability. Even when we boarded one of their guarding stations with that same method, they did not react," Sam said.

"Yeah, the station detected them and initiated countermeasures only after our people phased back into our dimension," Jack continued. That one turned into a complete debacle. The station quickly activated the self-destruct, vaporizing itself, our people, and Merlin's precious device in one fell swoop. A few more brilliant ideas like that one, and better call it quits and hunker back home.

"Well, let's start small. First, let's hope Liam regains his memories. Second, let's hope the Guardians can restore William and the data stored in it," Sam said.

"I'm hoping more for that other race to join," Jack said.

"What other race," Sam said.

"That other one, you know," Jack said, frustrated that he could not remember their name if he ever knew it in the first place. "The last one that Weir met."

"Ah, that race!" Sam said. "Indeed, that would be nice."

"They are the first race that proactively seeks to fight the Vargas," Jack said.

The Vargas created many enemies, but most were purely struggling to survive and wanted as little to do with the Vargas as possible. Even the Aklarians were content with having their region protected. Only after Liam promised them benefits—like the supergates that would help them travel inside their vast domain quickly—did they agree to join? Or the Illari, who joined but only as helpers prepared to provide support from the back with their ability to rewind time but never clash with the Vargas directly. But with the Zillahs, it was different. They were glad that a race came to them asking to fight alongside them.

"The reason the Zillahs didn't go seek the Vargas on their own is that they don't have the means to travel that far," Sam said.

"Without the Sphere laying down stargates as it goes, we would be in the same predicament. Wanting to fight, but unable to because of the vast distances involved," he said.

The Zillahs were a mist race. It was difficult to know if there were individuals in the same sense as humans. At first, Weir could only see mist onboard their ship. She thought that it was their natural environment. Only later she learned that the Zillahs were the mist.

"Frankly, I'm more interested in their technology than I am in them," Sam said.

"Me too. Let's hope Weir pulls another diplomatic miracle," Jack said.

The first time they met, the Zillahs' massive mothership was peeling the armor of a disabled Vargas ship off. They were using the Vargas armor for their needs. But the speed at which they could remove the armor and shape it for their needs was what left Jack and many others drooling. The Terrans had accumulated tons of Vargas wreckage after the Battle of Eden and the one above Earth. If they could use the Vargas armor from the debris, they could boost their ships' defenses by a significant margin.

Terrans ship heavily relied on energy both for their weapons and their defenses. It wasn't wrong to say that they would become easy prey after their ships exhausted their energy reserves. That was an even bigger problem with their smaller vessels that could not hold large energy capacitors as their battlecruisers could. Those ships had entire halls filled with rows of big, high-energy capacitors stacked one after the other. The Defiant and other smaller ships could not hold something so massive inside their small frames.

"With that technology, we could remake the armor plating of our Defiants, corvettes, and fighters—the ship that do not have large energy reserves. With that, even with the shields collapsed, they could still fight for a time," Sam said.

"Our losses would decrease significantly," Jack said, angered. "Those damn Dinos! How did they discover a way to stop our beaming technology from working? I would really like to know!"

With the Minian planets sieged, the Terrans had no choice but to play it defensively. Not only were the Terrans ill-prepared for it, but the most significant role fell onto the smaller ships the Terrans did not put much importance into. Against the Vargas, only powerful capital ships could work. Hence those should take precedence when planning production. But even then, when the endless waves of Dinos took down their fighters, they did not falter or despair but kept protecting the planet. The reason was their beaming technology capable of ensuring the safety of their pilots.

But then the Dinos found a way to prevent their beaming from working. From that point on, the loss of life began to rise. While they could easily replace a space fighter quickly enough with their massive production capacity, they could not replenish the loss of experienced pilots so readily. Not to mention the drop in morale the fleet had suffered because of it.

Hence, getting their hands on a tech that could increase their smaller craft and pilot's survivability was paramount.

"Don't know how they did it, but I think we are looking down too much on the Vargas allies, don't you think?" Sam said.

"Maybe," Jack said reluctantly. In truth, they saw the other races as just small fries, only good at keeping the territory under control while the Vargas were absent. "The Dinos seems to be capable enough. I do not want to think of what kind of enemy they would have been if we didn't snatch the Minians and their entire infrastructure away."

He was certain Thor would close the last anomaly that led deeper into Vargas territory. With that final step, they could say the IC1001 became theirs for the picking. But the trillion of Dinos and several other races were still there. Would they be able to put the galaxy fully under their control before moving deeper inside Vargas territory in one year? He wasn't sure.

"I think taking their infrastructure away is an achievement on par with closing the anomalies. We still don't see it because it's too soon, but given time, the Dinos will start breaking apart. Wait for their supplies to run dry, and we'll see an immediate change in their performance," Sam state.

Sam was optimistic even concerning the trouble with the Dinos. It wasn't like it was unfounded optimism. What she was telling had its merits. It was just that he didn't think it would happen as smoothly as she was making it sound. Still, there was no point in ruining her mood with unwarranted negativity. "You're right. The Dinos cannot keep attacking as they've done until now. Their fleets are doing some major reshuffling in the galaxy, and that burns a lot of fuel. The fuel they are not getting anymore, at least not from the Minians."

The situation, for now, was stable, which was the most important part right now. The only thing they needed to solve was the exact plan of taking over the galaxy. But even that was his double's job, except for the requests Jack would get and would have to evaluate here. A lot of work remained, but at least the worry of if they would successfully close the anomalies was slowly but surely fading.

As he was about to say something, Walter entered the room. Besides his bafflement at the abrupt entry done without knocking, he also felt a surge of anxiety coming over him for another reason. It was the dread of what job Walter would be giving him. It was never small, and rarely would Walter let him leave it for later. However, Walter's face told him that his visit wasn't about paperwork, memos, or anything that would force him behind the desk for the next five hours.

"Sir, we have a situation," Walter said.

"What kind of situation?" Jack said.

"Something happened in the Orion Nebula, sir," Walter answered but didn't explain any further.

While Sam was frowning at the news, Jack was clueless. As someone who liked astronomy and who has actively traveled among the stars, he, of course, knew about the Orion Nebula. He began racking his brain about what could be happening there, a place only 1.300 light-years from Earth which meant still inside the Terran territory. He glanced at Sam and noticed her strange expression. It was almost screaming 'Oh-no!' but, at the same time, without any true apprehension. That gave him a much-needed clue.

"Felger!" Jack shouted.

"Um, that's correct, sir," Walter said.

"What did he do this time?" Sam said.

Walter worked his datapad with practiced expertise. Soon a hologram sprang to life in the room. "An experiment went wrong, sirs."

"What am I looking at?" he saw it on the hologram but couldn't understand what it was.

"That is the space station where Doctor Felger worked," Walter said.

"No, that's not a space station," he said.

"Yes, it is, sir," Walter reaffirmed. "That is how it looks after the experiment that involves spatial and temporal distortions went out of control."

It had turned into a strange amorphous mass as if someone took clay and molded it in whatever way they felt like it. One part seemed bloated as if someone pumped air in it, while other parts turned elongated like several bent and twisted spoons. In short, it has turned into a piece of artwork in which no one would understand the artist.

"It's still changing, though," Sam said. "The spatial distortion is still active. And the rate of change is not constant, which could suggest that time is twisted as well."

"And it's expanding," Walter added.

"Expanding?" Jack said, puzzled. "Didn't whatever device made it get twisted with it. It should have suffered damage, which should have shut it down."

"The safeties should have shut it down sooner than that," Sam added.

She was right. Jack understood a few things from the many scientists he spent time with and sporadically had to listen to their science stuff. The universe seeks a state of equilibrium, always. For that not to happen, at the very least, one needed to pump energy into the system constantly. It could be used as a life lesson. One needed to put effort (energy) into anything for achieving any kind of change.

He knew the spatial and temporal distortions could not be expanding if no new energy was added, which meant that the device must still be active.

"What about Felger? Could he shut down the system?" Jack asked. It was clear that the safeties did not work.

"Doctor Felger is not there anymore," Walter said. "The moment the station's artificial intelligence detected a faulty behavior in the tested device, it enacted its safety measures. Doctor Felger was beamed into an escape pod at once and launched at high speed away from the station. No one is on the station, and the AI is not responding."

"So, how fast is it expanding?" Sam asked.

"At the speed of light, ma'am," Walter answered.

"That's strange," Sam said, pensive. She was crunching numbers in her head, and it seemed the results weren't making much sense to her. "If it is spreading at the speed of light, it should have exhausted the station's internal energy reserves in a matter of minutes. After that, the rate of expansion should have slowed down to a crawl, maybe even stopped completely."

His first estimate was wrong. Not only the system needed energy, but it also needed a lot of it too. "So, what's going on then?"

"The only thing that I should think of is that the device is somehow powered from a different source. But the station shouldn't have any except for the Naquadah main reactor and the modest energy reserves stored in the capacitors. I'm not counting the backup cold-fusion reactor because that's just for backup and can't supply even a tenth of the power the main reactor can. So, I don't have a clue what's going on aboard that station."

"Umm, that's not necessarily true, sirs," Walter said with a confused expression on his face. I just noticed that the space station has another power source."

"What power source?" Sam asked.

"The Tesseract, ma'am," Walter said.

"So, we are calling it that in the end," Sam said, feeling resigned while completely missing the point.

"Now's not the time, Sam," Jack said. "Focus on the important issue here, which is, how did the Tesseract end up in Felger's hands? Walter! Explain how that thing got on that station!"

"I'm checking, sir," Walter said, frantically tapping on his datapad. "I see the request for it that Felger made a week ago. It was approved a day later and shipped to the station two days ago.

"Wait, wait. Felger asked for the Tesseract? What was the reason for it?" Sam asked.

"It just says that further insight into the Tesseract could help him with his research, ma'am," Walter said after checking.

"Sam, you're again asking the wrong question. We are talking about Felger here. He might have needed a paperweight and found the Tesseract looking fancy and just of the right size, so he asked for it. But I don't care about that! What I want to know now is, who in their right mind would give the Tesseract to Felger?" Jack asked, angry. "I know I wouldn't."

After a moment of hesitation, Walter answered. "I don't know, sir."

"You don't know?" he asked in disbelief. Was it even possible for Walter to not know about the internal happenings, procedures, paper trails, and whatnot inside of Starbase One? Or the entire Terran Federation, for that matter?

"Sir, I can't explain it. I can see the transfer request with the date. I can even see which terminal he used, and I can see that it was approved. However, I cannot see when or who did it," Walter explained. He seemed troubled.

"Computer, check the station's data system. Specifically, any related information to the transfer request of the Tesseract done by Doctor Felger," Sam instructed.

"Comparing of the backup files BKP/0078-34567.12 and BKP/0078-34567.13 it was discovered the change had to happen on April 21st between the hours of 12 a.m. and 1 p.m. Inspection of the data block 87362487-324897432897-3232 containing the data, it was discovered that the change occurred on a quantum information state without any other changes occurring in the station's data system," the computer said.

"What does that mean?" Jack asked, clueless.

Sam came to the rescue. "The station makes backups every hour, and it found that the relevant data has changed between the two backup files. From that, we know the approximate time when the request was approved. But another thing is peculiar here. The system stores the data inside a data crystal on a quantum level. Still, the operating system doesn't change just one piece when someone approves a request. It writes logs and other data while asking subsystems if the approval violated any procedure. Like, if the user had the rights to approve the transfer. We put the Tesseract accessible only to those with the highest authority since it was deemed a dangerous piece of technology. The system should have written data in dozens of data crystals the moment someone approved the transfer.

"But the system said that only the quantum information state in one crystal changed. It's like one single bit suddenly changing from zero to one, where that one means the request is approved."

He understood, mostly. But the question now was, "How's that even possible? I mean, I don't know how to do it. Could you?"

"No, I couldn't do it either," Sam said, but she was thinking of something.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"I couldn't do it, but I know at least one technology that might be able to, at least in theory," Sam said, pausing. Jack urged her to continue. "Do you remember when Liam's ship came back, and that half of its data was scrambled? Well, whoever attacked the ship corrupted its data without directly accessing the system. It was an attack through subspace that randomly changed the state of the data-crystals."

"Wait, wait. Are you saying that the Vargas has hacked our space station with some subspace scrambling attack or whatever?" Jack asked.

"No, I just gave you an example of a tech that does something similar. In truth, what happened here might be even scarier. Even the Vargas attack only involved randomly changing Liam ship's data, and we know that the method was intrusive. What we have here is much more terrifying than that. Here we have an attack that could, with pinpoint accuracy, change one single bit of data. Even worse, if the attacker intended to approve the transfer, it means that it had complete knowledge of where that single bit of data was," Sam explained.

"Yeah, that does sound quite scary, but could it be that we see ghosts and that what happened was simply a faulty data crystal?" Jack said. "I mean, it wasn't made in China, but that doesn't mean it can't have faults, right?"

"No… well… that could have happened too?" Sam said. Once again, she was crunching numbers in her head. "That might have a higher probability than the Vargas somehow having sneaked near Starbase One and remotely performed a surgical attack on our data. But I'm still baffled because something similar had never happened before."

"That we know of?" Jack said. "Also, there's always a first for everything, right?"

"Y-yeah, that we know of," Sam replied reluctantly. She could not refute that possibility either.

"We could have had cases of bits changing without us knowing because it's difficult to notice such small changes. It's not like I care if a single letter inside some memo changes from an I to a J, I don't read most of them anyway, much less doing it twice! How could I know if something changed in them, right?" he laughed, but no one else did. "Anyway, we could also attribute the whole thing to the Felger Effect."

"What's the Felger effect?" Sam asked, dreading the answer.

"Inexplicable things happening around that guy?" Jack said.

"That's not a thing, Jack," Sam said, annoyed.

"Really? Then explain this. He visits a friend in his lab, pushes a button for an unclear reason, and under impossible odds, the lab cooks a fully working Tesseract," Jack said. "Can you explain that?"

"Ugh, when you put it like that," Sam said.

"How about most of his experiments working?" Jack said.

"That going too far!" Sam said, angry at him for slandering one of her scientists.

"Really? So, you think that it is completely normal for Felger—actually, for any scientist—to make dozens of earthshattering discoveries with practical applications in such a short time?" Seeing that Sam did not respond, "I'm tellin' ya. It's the Felger Effect!"

"I hate when I can't refute your stupid ideas!" Sam said, frustrated. "But that's beside the point. What are we going to do about the whole mess in the Orion Nebula?"

"What can we do? I know that sending people inside that maelstrom of spatial and temporal distortions wouldn't be good for their health. The good thing is that it's expanding at the speed of light, which means it would take a year just to engulf the nebula."

Sam calmed down a little. "You're right. Since there are no inhabited planets or anything of value, we can think of a solution calmly. I also think that I'm forgetting something, but I'm not sure what it is."

"Could it be about our scientist that is currently flying like a bullet through hyperspace all alone?" Jack asked.

"Oh, god! How could I forget about him?" Sam said.

"On the contrary. I find it incredibly easy to forget the guy." He said while putting on a mischievous smile. "Besides, let him spend some time in solitude to contemplate on the error of his ways."

"It was an accident, Jack. No need to blame him every time something weird happens," Sam said.

"That's also part of the Felger Effect. He never means it to happen. He just does," Jack explained. "And when he comes back, I'm going to—"

At that moment, Jack felt a strange sensation. "—chew him."

Right now, Jack noticed his surroundings. From a room on the space station, somehow, he was now in the open, surrounded by a lot of green. "What the—"

He was in the countryside with a pleasant prairie spreading in front of him. In the distance, he could also see a forest. All in all, the sight wasn't bad. The thing that he found strange, though, was that it was warm enough to be comfortable even with his indoor clothes. Yet, he knew it was winter on Terrania; the island found smack below Starbase One.

"Where did he come from?" he heard a voice coming from behind.

"Did he sneak on us?" he heard another voice.

Reluctantly, Jack decided to turn around even though he knew it was a bad idea. As he slowly turned, he saw two men standing not more than ten feet away. "Oh boy."

"Who are you, and where did you come from?" one of the men spoke.

Jack didn't know how to answer those questions. First, his brain was still trying to process what happened. Part of it, he figured it out very quickly, like the fact that, once again, he had traveled into the distant past. Since it wasn't his first time, he got used to it by now. Part of him was only glad that this time around, he had his pants on, something often enough not being the case during his time-traveling incidents. However, the two men were causing him to feel baffled. The last time he traveled back in time, he ended in the 19th century; more precisely, in 1863. It wasn't a nice trip. After all, a civil war was going on. He had hoped the next time he time-traveled, he would appear in a more peaceful time—one that might serve as a break from his stressful days at work. But he traveled further into the past than he had predicted. At least the two men in front of him wearing red coats were suggesting that. Them slowly but steadily lowering their muskets towards him depicted the situation quite clearly.

At that moment, he knew, the same as if he could read his friends' minds what they would say. Sam would undoubtedly say that he had escaped forgoing dealing with Felger. Daniel, on the other hand, would say that he once again went galivanting. And Walter would grunt something about him ducking doing paperwork.

Only he knew how wrong they were. "Why can't I, just once, travel to a tropical island where I can relax doing nothing for a few days?"

To be continued.

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