Jackson returned to Destiny after the Atlantis council meeting. Jackson met with Mitchell and Lorne to report on the details of the meeting. Rush and Simpson had been able to complete repairs on another major section of Destiny. Opening up another twenty-two compartments. Hayley was currently investigating what appeared to be a storage room.
"Thor is trying to probe the planet we suspect the Furlings of having inhabited. He is trying to get past an automated defense system there," explained Jackson.
Vala overhearing, "Maybe I could be of help."
"The defense system would kill you when you cross a certain point," replied Jackson.
"Look sweetie I've been up against some tuff defense systems this is what I do," replied Vala.
"She did get aboard Loki's ship, and you've never explained how," replied Mitchell.
"A girl has her secrets darling," replied Vala, "Look, Daniel, I don't take on anything I can't defeat. At the very least I may be able to help Thor if I can't get past it myself."
"Your right you do have your ways. I'll contact Atlantis and have them open a gate for you to travel back on. Thor can brief you and get you up to speed," replied Jackson.
Destiny dropped out of F.T.L. at this point.
Hayley over the radio, "We have an issue, the countdown clock is blank."
"Meet us in the control room," replied Rush.
"Let's see what is happening," replied Mitchell.
Everyone runs off the control room. Rush and Hayley are already at the controls.
"How can this be?" asked Rush.
"Well it's clearly not supposed to be here!" replied Hayley.
"A star and planet don't suddenly pop up!" replied Rush.
"Can someone tell us what is going on?" asked Mitchell.
At this time the Hades can be seen jumping to the location through the external windows.
"This star and planet here are not supposed to exist. When the seeder ships came through here they did not exist, now they do," replied Rush.
"Yes, but couldn't they have formed? I mean stars and stuff are forming all the time right?" asked Micthell.
"Yes but not in a hundred years. The last seeder ship came through here about a hundred years ago. There wasn't even a dust cloud here," replied Hayley.
"Destiny is trying to make adjustments for this. The gravitational pull is messing up the navigation. It looks like we are going to be here for a while," replied Rush.
"Define a while?" asked Lorne.
"Maybe a month, or more, Destiny is running some pretty complex computations to adjust her course with this new information. It also appears to be waiting on updates from the Stargates on the signal," replied Rush.
"That's a good thing, we can complete the hull repairs much faster outside of F.T.L. In fact, we should be able to complete all the repairs quickly," replied Simpson.
"That would be a good thing, I don't like sitting here for a month with those drones out there," replied Mitchell.
"Well the Hades is here, and we have proven to be pretty effective against them," replied Lorne.
"Maybe we should consider the bigger question here?" asked Rush.
"And that would be?" asked Mitchell.
"Who created a star, and a habitable planet, in less than a hundred years?" spoke Rush.
"Maybe we should take a shuttle down to the planet and introduce ourselves?" asked Jackson.
"Col. Lorne can you send a pilot with SG-3 and Dr. Jackson to investigate the planet?" asked Mitchell.
"I can arrange that," replied Lorne.
"Hayley we will be having guests soon, Dr. Zalenka and Dr. McKay will be joining us soon to help with the drones," replied Mitchell.
"I will be expecting them, sir," replied Hayley.
Jackson beamed over to the Hades with SG-3 to meet Lt. Williams. They would be taking a puddle jumper down to investigate the planet.
"Lieutenant we need to proceed slowly to the planet, we do not want to show any hostile intent. We go in cloaked and scan at maximum range for life signs and proceed slowly," ordered Maj. Donovan.
"Yes sir," replied Donovan.
"Watch for any signs of structures as well," replied Jackson.
Two hours later the puddle jumper had circled the planet. No signs of life were detected, but they could see signs of plant life. As they circle in closer, scanners picked up one structure when the approached its location, they could see it was an extremely tall obelisk. Scans reported it to be two thousand foot tall obelisk. Finally, the puddle jumper landed, an immediate search of the area showed no signs of life. Plant life was very similar to Earth. Jackson approached the obelisk, writing was on the surface of the structure. Williams sent his men around to investigate the structure looking for an entrance.
"Gentlemen we have our work cut out for us. This writing is not like anything I have seen before," replied Jackson.
"So not something from the Furlings?" asked Donovan.
"Definitely not," replied Jackson.
"Let's put those Kino's to use and start recording every inch of this structure," ordered Donovan.
Meanwhile back on Destiny, the Stargate opened, and Dr. Zalenka and Dr. McKay stepped out.
Mitchell greeted them, "Welcome gentlemen. We were expecting you a little earlier."
"We got held up, updating the records in the repository BP6-3Q1 is officially renamed Remoc. Master Bra'tac wasted no time after the council meeting getting the Jaffa Council to sign off on the planet," replied McKay.
"Welcome Doctor's, I can certainly use the help on this drone. Can I show you the way? or did you need to get settled?" asked Hayley.
"Let's get started!" exclaimed McKay.
Hayley led them down the hall to an empty room, where the drone had been placed.
"We have placed a subspace receiver in here, to disrupt and prevent this drone from being reactivated," explained Hayley.
"Good thinking," replied Zalenka.
"Your report said they used a power source similar to our interdimensional energy collector?" asked McKay.
"Yes, this is the device here. It took me a while to fully understand it. It seems to be locked into a specific parallel universe to draw energy from. I thought this could be a vulnerability we could exploit," replied Hayley.
"This here is obviously the plasma cannon, doesn't appear to be anything special on it," replied Zalenka.
"This is the communication module. I have not had very much luck with it other than determining that it uses subspace," replied Hayley.
"Zalenka why don't the two of you look into that, while I look into this energy collector further," replied McKay.
"OK, we can do that," replied Zalenka.
Hayley and Zalenka started going over sensor readings she had made during the fights of the subspace communication. McKay was busy comparing the energy collector to the one used on Atlantis. Over the next few hours, they attached probes and ran scans over individual parts.
Mitchell meeting with Rush, "How goes the repair?"
"We should have all of the hull repaired in two days. Then we will concentrate on the internal parts. Within a week we should be complete with all repairs," replied Rush.
Back on Altera, Vala was meeting with Thor.
"Commander O'Neill, said infiltration was a specialty of yours," replied Thor.
"You could say that," replied Vala.
"That you were able to board a cloaked Asgard ship that Loki had," replied Thor.
"Secrets of the trade," grinned Vala.
"Interesting," replied Thor.
"Let's have a look at this planet," suggested Vala.
"We have sent thirty-seven probes to the planet. They have all been destroyed when they reach one-hundred seventy-eight feet from the Stargate," replied Thor.
"Let's see the footage," replied Vala, who started watching all thirty-seven attempts. Stopping and rewinding at pieces, Thor watched, unsure what she was trying to determine or see in the videos.
After seven hours of watching and re-watching the video's, "There it is!"
Thor looked at Vala, "What is it?"
"It's the one place they can not fire at. They have ten different automated guns, but they only have an angle to seventy degrees they can fire in. There is a hole in their defenses. It's small no more than 8-inch in width," replied Vala.
Thor reviewed the footage with Vala, after multiple viewings, "You are correct. I believe the exact measurement is 7.9 inches."
"Just enough room for me to sneak through. Once I'm past the grid, I can find a way to turn it off," replied Vala.
"I do not believe this is a wise course of action," replied Thor.
Vala headed off to the gateroom, "Walter dial up the Furling world!"
"I need the authorization to do that," replied Harriman.
Landry stepping in, "What do you need?"
"Tell them to dial up the Furling world I found a hole in their defenses. I can slip through," replied Vala.
"I do not recommend this course of action Commander Landry," spoke Thor.
"Please explain?" asked Landry.
"There is an 8-inch gap in the security system. I can slip through that and shut down the system," replied Vala.
"7.9 inches to be exact," replied Thor.
"Vala that is really tight," replied Landry.
"Are you calling me fat?" asked Vala.
"No of course not!" cried Landry.
"Then 8-inch is an inch more than I need," replied Vala.
"Then at least wear the Stun Armor that will help offset the effect if you were to get shot," replied Landry.
"That will put me over 8-inch mark. Besides, I will have to shed some things as it is now," replied Vala.
"Are you sure you can do this?" asked Landry.
"Of course she is," replied O'Neill entering the room.
"Thank you, Commander O'Neill," replied Vala.
"Take a communicator and call us once you have the system down," replied O'Neill.
"Dr. Jackson will kill us both if something happens to her," replied Landry.
"Yes, he will. Which is why she isn't going to let anything happen," replied O'Neill.
Harriman had already dialed the gate address. Vala grabbed a communicator and stepped through.
Vala emerged on the planet. One look around told her the planet had been war-torn. Rubble in every direction she could see. Now to slipped off her jacket and tightened her vest. Her belt would have to go as well. She adjusted her boots, to nearly standing at point. She knew this was going to be a tight squeeze. She grabbed a few stones and tossed to verify her theory. Right there was the 8-inch gap she needed. Walking up to it, she turned sideways, carefully and gently she worked her way into the gap. One small step at a time. She was progressing nicely until she felt something catch. Looking down what appeared to be a nail sticking out of the remaining section of a wall there had her caught on her pants. Carefully lowering her hand down to try and unhook her pants, the wall shifted slightly as she tugged. Bolts of plasma raced in her direction from the two cannons. Dust clouded the air where the wall had been previously as remnants of the wall came down.
Back on Destiny, McKay spoke up, "I would love to meet the Furling who created this. It's a much simpler design, but they have scaled it down to an impressive size."
Zalenka looking up, "Finally someone to talk to you at your level?"
"Precisely," replied McKay.
"I can't think of an immediate vulnerability of this system. Think we better concentrate on the communications," replied McKay.
"We have isolated the communication stream in the sensor readings. They appear to be encoded," replied Hayley.
"Let' see what we can do about that," replied McKay.
Down on the planet Jackson and Donovan walking the parameter of the obelisk.
"This writing I doubt I can translate it. It's completely unrelated to anything from Earth. Unless I can somehow match it to Furlings which I doubt, we will never translate this," replied Jackson.
"Do we keep recording?" asked Donovan, "Cause it's going to take days to record this entire obelisk."
"Yes, we need to record it. We might find a clue somewhere, that could change everything on it," replied Jackson.
"A Rosetta stone you mean?" asked Donovan.
"Exactly," replied Jackson.
Back on Destiny Mitchell was making notes for a crew for the Destiny. What he felt he would need, between soldiers, military, medical and scientists. Commander O'Neill had asked him to provide an assessment. Mitchell wouldn't mind having a few Asgard here. He wondered who O'Neill had in mind.
Vala was covered in dust. The plasma cannons had been precise, striking the wall in front of her. It had knocked her off her feet and left her covered in some debris, she was getting to her feet. Waiting for the dust to settle so she could find the control panel for those weapons. A quick look around revealed only one small structure intact. It appeared to be a small bunker in the ground for guards. Upon reaching it, she could see it contained one lookout for the Stargate and large enough facilities for five individuals to be stationed.
An examination of the controls did not leave her many choices to try to disable the system. The red button she pushed first, fired every cannon simultaneously at a spot just in front of the Stargate, "That certainly is not the correct one."
Next, she tried the green, all of the cannons tilted downward and appeared to shut down, "Seriously green for off, and red for on?"
After a few experiments with rocks the cannons were not reacting, she took a cautious step toward the gate and finally darted through the zone. No cannons firing, she was relieved. She picked up the communicator and called for Altera to open the gate.
Once back at Altera, "Thor, your security perimeter is shut down. I'd recommend I come along and help keep an eye out for further booby traps,"
"Quite impressive," replied Thor.
Thor stepped into his mechanized suit, and a group of twelve other Asgard arrived in the suits as well. Vala slipped off to put on a set of the armor plate. Twenty minutes later they were stepping back out. PJ-1 had been called in to assist as well, Sheppard and Andrews would be flying searching for any structures or clues toward what happened on the planet. Vala was roaming around looking for anything of value.
Sheppard over the communicator, "Thor there is a small intact structure at your five o'clock. It appears to be partially subterranean."
"We will investigate," replied Thor, as he dispatched several Asgard to investigate.
After another hour, Sheppard came over the communicator, "Your going to need a lift, there is structure here completely untouched. Doesn't appear to have any damage at all,"
Vala and Thor boarded the puddle jumper to look at this structure.
"Interesting that everything else around here has been leveled with the exception of this," spoke Vala.
"Sensor readings are not detecting any life signs, and not depicting any energy signatures," replied Thor.
Thor entered the building first. Vala followed closely behind him. Sheppard waited with the puddle jumper. After nearly an hour, Vala and Thor both emerged from the building. It was obvious to Sheppard something was wrong.
"What happened? What's in there?" asked Sheppard.
"Col. Sheppard please use the drones on your puddle jumper and destroy this building," asked Thor.
"Yes make sure nothing remains," remarked Vala, visibly shaken and at closer look obviously crying.
"Not until someone tells me what is going on?" spoke Sheppard.
"John, what is in there, should not be seen. There is nothing useful in there for us. Only death and sadness, I will never speak of it again," replied Vala.
Thor with tears on his face, "That is a memorial built by those who defeated the Furlings, of what they did."
"Are you sure about destroying it?" asked Sheppard.
"If you do not I will immediately dispatch a ship from Othalla to do so," replied Thor.
Sheppard responded, "Consider it done."
Everyone got back onboard the puddle jumper. Sheppard fired five drones which decimated the structure. For an extra measure, he fired an additional three to make the rubble even further destroyed.
On their way back to the gate, the Asgard exploring the subterranean building, reported they had found a computer system and had downloaded all information from it.
"Meet us at the Stargate, we will return to Altera to analyze the data," order Thor.
Upon arriving at Altera as they were getting used to calling it now, Vala immediately asked for them to dial Destiny so she could return to see Daniel. She could not speak of the horrors that Thor and she had seen.
Thor briefed O'Neill the planet was positively identified as Furling world. Explained that the building he ordered destroyed was a necessity and would not explain further. Thor went to analyze the data from the computer system.
Later that day Sheppard was called to O'Neill's office, "Colonel what can you tell me about this building?"
"Sir, I didn't go in. Vala and Thor both went in. When they returned they were not the same. I don't know how to describe the sadness that was over them. Both of them had tears," replied Sheppard.
"Thor cried? I didn't know Asgard could," replied O'Neill.
"Me neither. They were both very visibly shaken," replied Sheppard.
"For those two to be shaken I can't imagine what it would take," replied O'Neill.
"Neither can I, and I don't think I want to know," replied Sheppard.
"Thanks, Colonel," replied O'Neill.
Once Vala arrived on Destiny she learned Daniel was still on the planet. Mitchell quickly determined something was severely wrong.
"Vala talk to me. I've never seen you like this?" asked Mitchell.
"You couldn't understand. As Qetesh I've seen the awful things that Goa'uld could do to people. The things I saw on that planet, make those memories pale in comparison. How can anyone do those kinds of things?" asked Vala.
"War is awful, and enemies can do some horrible things to each other," replied Mitchell.
"I've seen war. I know those kinds of things. I can't describe what we saw, to even give words to those images would be a travesty," replied Vala.
"I don't know what you saw, give it some time you can get past it," replied Mitchell.
"I'm not sure I can. Let me tell you something you see any blue water aliens, don't stop shooting them," replied Vala as she walked off toward her quarters.
Mitchell immediately called for Jackson to return to the Destiny. Mitchell explained what little he knew to Jackson on his shuttle ride back to Destiny.
"Daniel I've never seen her like this. I contacted Altera and Commander O'Neill said Thor was visibly shaken and apparently Col. Sheppard said they both had tears coming out of this building," replied Mitchell.
"Thor was shaken?" asked Jackson.
"Yes," replied Mitchell.
"This can't be good," replied Jackson.
Jackson made his way back to their quarters. He really didn't know what to say to Vala, or even how to approach this. Upon on entering he found her sobbing in the corner.
"Vala dear, talk to me," spoke Jackson as he made his way to his wife.
"Daniel! I can't. You don't understand the images depicted in that building where beyond anything I have seen a Goa'uld do. Never have I seen such evil," replied Vala.
"What can I do?" asked Daniel.
"Hold me," replied Vala.
Jackson held Vala rest of the night. Comforting her, neither spoke, neither slept. Finally the next morning Jackson was able to get Vala to eat some food, and she slept. Jackson stayed by her side. It was not a restful sleep, she tossed and turned, was obviously having some bad dreams. Later that day after Vala had gotten about six hours of sleep, she wanted to clean up. Jackson took this time to slip away.
Jackson found Mitchell on the bridge.
"How is Vala doing?" asked Micthell.
"Not good, but she finally got some sleep," replied Jackson.
"Look I've seen some bad stuff in my time. I can only imagine what Vala has seen as Qetesh. I'm worried about what she saw for it to affect her so much. Heck it affected Thor pretty badly as well," replied Mitchell.
"You know something more?" asked Jackson.
"I spoke to Commander Landry this morning. Thor won't even discuss this with Commander O'Neill or Thrud. I can't imagine what shook them like this," replied Mitchell.
"I have seen Thor talk about the suicide of his entire race, without a doubt. Something worse than that?" asked Jackson.
"Stay with her, take her back to Altera if you need to," replied Mitchell.
"I suggested that, but she doesn't want to go. Said she needed to stay here," replied Jackson.
"You think she expects to bump into these aliens?" asked Mitchell.
"I suspect she does. I wouldn't want to be them," replied Jackson.
"On that, we agree," replied Mitchell.
Daniel stayed with Vala, after a few days he was able to work around the ship. Vala would come to find him and he would hold her for as long as she needed. The team from the planet finally completed the recording of the obelisk. They had been in the system now for two weeks, with another two weeks expected. Simpson and Rush had reported that the hull was fully repaired, and the last of the systems would be back at one hundred percent in a couple of days. Supplies were beginning to arrive for the expanded crew that would be coming on board.
Finally, after all, systems had been restored the new crew was arriving. SG-1 was being given permanent command of Destiny to see to her mission. The Hades would be investigating the Furlings and trying to find and control the drone weapon systems.
Zalenka and McKay had made considerable advances in understanding their communications. They had been able to build a device to control the single drone they had on board. Further testing to determine how to override the control ships remained. Hayley had been critical and was working on a system to broadcast commands to the drone, at least to confuse the drones at a minimum.
The Stargate activated and the new crew was boarding.
"Welcome aboard the Destiny, some of you I know, other's I do not. So let's go around the room here and introduce ourselves," replied Mitchell.
"I'm Narim, of the Tollan. One of your science officers," replied Narim.
"I am Thrud of the Asgard, technical adviser and investigator," replied Thurd.
"Carson of the Asgard, control chair specialist," replied Carson.
"Larin from Pegasus, pilot," replied Larin.
"Tomin combat specialist from the Ori," replied Tomin.
"Oma ascended speicialist," replied Oma.
"Fraiser medical specialist," replied Fraiser.
Others introduced themselves as they went around the room. Additional security, medical assistants, and support crew members. Simpson returned to Altera to begin on her next mission, while Rush returned to the Hades.
A few days later an emergency communique from O'Neill for McKay, "Dr. McKay we are opening a wormhole to you now for you to immediately return to Earth. There appears to be something going on with Jennifer,"
"What's going on? Is she hurt?" asked McKay.
"She was on Remoc helping train some medical staff there, and she is remembering things that didn't happen. I think it's wise for you to get back here as soon as possible," replied O'Neill.
"What? I'm on my way!" shouted McKay.
"Go, Rodney, I'll cover things here!" shouted Zalenka.
Rodney took off for the Stargate that was ready for him when he arrived in the gate room.
Lorne met with Mitchell, "We won't be that far away, we can be back in a single jump so contact us if you need us."
"We should be good. Destiny is a pretty tough ship, and she has a crew now," replied Mitchell, "But I will keep you on speed dial."
"Solve this mystery for us," replied Lorne.
"We will," replied Mitchell.
Zalenka appeared on the bridge, "Col. Mitchell may I have a word?"
"Certainly Dr. Zalenka, how can I help you?" asked Mitchell, "You've been very quiet since you got here."
"Captain Hayley has taken care of most of our needs," replied Zalena, "I wanted to ask about remaining on Destiny."
"You want to stay here?" asked Mitchell.
"Yes, sir. I think it's a good opportunity and some fascinating new things," replied Zalenka.
"I'll speak to Command Landry on it. Consider it OK, unless you hear otherwise," replied Mitchell.
"Destiny this is the Hades, we take our leave. Godspeed with you!" came Lorne over the communications channel. The Hades opened a wormhole and was gone.
Daniel and Vala appeared on the bridge, followed closely by Hayley.
"We're out here alone, and it's all up to us," announced Mitchell.
"No we're not alone," replied Vala.