Carter beamed up to the Nemesis. She was looking forward to this trip they would be traversing three galaxies that they had limited contact in. She had her crew of nine hundred well trained. Her command staff was on the bridge and ready. Chuck and Banks were her right and left hands. She was confident in their abilities and was ready to see what the Nemesis really could do.
Carter order, "Prepare the Wormhole drive for a jump to Celestis, we will begin there as we go around the galaxy."
"Ma'am coordinates plotted, we are ready on your command," replied Chuck.
"Let's go," replied Carter.
"Yes ma'am," replied Chuck. Clicking a few buttons the Nemesis entered the wormhole that appeared. Seconds later the Nemesis was in the Ori galaxy in orbit around Celestis.
"That is never going to get old," spoke Carter.
"Yes ma'am," replied Banks.
"Full sensor sweep of the planet. I want to know everything down there," ordered Carter.
"Yes ma'am," replied Banks. Initiating scans.
"Last time I was here we were fighting multiple Ori ships, and trying to find the Ark of Truth," spoke Carter.
"Ma'am, sensors are detecting energy signatures in the runes near an area called Ortus Mallum, an additional energy signature near Ver Eger, and also we are picking up the expected energy signatures around Celestis," replied Banks.
"Wonder just what else the ancients may have hidden in Ortus Mallum. That is where we found the Ark of Truth," replied Carter, "Chuck send two science teams and four security teams down to those coordinates. I want to know what they find."
"Yes ma'am, I'll have them there immediately," replied Chuck.
"Ver Eger, I bet that is the communication device, that brought Daniel and Vala, here in the first place," replied Carter, "Contact the prior in that city and see if he can peacefully get us the device,"
"Yes ma'am," replied Banks.
Two hours later the prior from Ver Eger was beaming onboard with the Ancient Long Range Communicator.
"Thank you for retrieving this for us. We didn't want to cause a panic," replied Carter.
"No trouble at all, those who had this device are now in Altera learning your ... science to learn how to build their own," replied the prior.
"That will be good to see," replied Carter.
Four hours later Carter asks, "Chuck how are the teams in Ortus Mallum?"
"Ma'am, they last checked in an hour ago. They are making progress on the debris blocking them from getting to the signatures. They reported it would an hour from now before they expected to have it cleared," replied Chuck.
"Thanks, let me know the minute they find something," replied Carter. Not being there was killing her, but she was in command of this ship, her spot was to be here.
Two hours later, the first team reported in, they had found what appeared to be a type of life signs scanner. However, it didn't seem to be working as it showed none of their life signs on it. They would take it back to Altera with them to see what could be made of it. The second team however made a much larger discovery. They located two small stargates, about the size of the one Orlin built in her basement. They had a single switch to activate and they connected directly between the two. The science teams brought them onboard for further testing, these would have the scientist back on Altera scrambling for clues.
Carter paid the Orci a visit, who had come back to Celestis to personally give Carter and her team a tour of Celestis the city-ship of the Ori. Several engineers were still coming and going between Altera working with the people of the Ori on the city ship. It wasn't ready for flight, but they had uncovered numerous new devices.
Priors had requested their presence at five other cities located on four different planets. Mainly to make their presence known and to talk to the locals about the opportunities they had at Altera. First stop was Val Mer on the planet Pax. Teams spent many hours explaining to them about advances in medicine, farming, and science. Much to the surprise of the military officers, none were interested in combat training.
They proceeded on to Placidus, where they would visit Tal Egeris and Sol Egeris. Here they found the two cities were rivals, each had been sites for building Ori ships. A number of people were interested in science. Some had an excellent understanding of the Ori ships. Carter made note of particularly good ones, she would recommend for helping on the Ori ship they took from Orbit from Celestis.
The last two planets Casila and Guerra proved to be where many of the Ori soldiers originated from. The military officers were overwhelmed with questions. Carter had to send reinforcements to help answer questions. A full week was spent between them, and when they left, about two thousand recruits were headed to Altera.
Carter over the ship speaker, "I'd like to congratulate this crew on an excellent job. We have found several new technologies to take back to Altera for further study, we have connected with an additional five planets in the Ori galaxy, and numerous recruits are headed to Altera. Those recruits are off to study combat tactics, science, medicine, and farming. Our efforts here will pave the way for the people of the Ori to advance quickly. Thank you for your excellent work. We are now off the Ida galaxy, we will be visiting several planets where the Asgard once had bases."
"Course laid in for the wormhole drive, ma'am," replied Chuck.
"If Commander O'Neill was here, he would say Engage, but I will just say proceed" replied Carter.
"Yes ma'am" replied Chuck.
The Nemesis proceeded through the wormhole and was above a world that looked devasted. Large holes in the surface could be seen, where the replicators had extracted material for replicating more of their numbers.
"Complete scan of the planet and space, for any signs of replicators," ordered Carter.
"Yes ma'am," replied Banks.
"While we are here, continual scans watching for replicators. While we believe we got them all, if there are any remaining I want to know immediately," ordered Carter.
"Will make sure nothing sneaks in. May I suggest we fire two sensor probes one to the far side of the planet and the other to the L2 point around this star?" asked Banks.
"Sensor probes?" asked Carter.
"I thought I might surprise you. The Asgard built these wonderful sensor probes into the DN-1103's but nobody even talks about them," replied Banks.
"By all means deploy them. What other secrets does the ship have that I don't know," replied Carter.
"Lots of little things that haven't come up. I have insomnia sometimes, so I've done a lot of reading on the ships and using the systems to learn all the components," replied Banks.
"I'll have to make it a point to read up on it," replied Carter.
"Better clear your schedule for a month. The Asgard packed this ship with everything," replied Banks.
"What's the condition of the surface?" asked Carter.
"Not good ma'am. Sulfur and carbon dioxide at poisonous levels. The replicators must have opened up vents into the core of the planet," replied Banks.
"Any Asgard structures remaining?" asked Carter.
"Negative, the surface is pretty unstable, I don't think it could support a doghouse currently," replied Banks.
"Ma'am I see four satellites in orbit," replied Chuck.
"Anything of value?" asked Carter.
"No ma'am, they appear to be observation satellites," replied Chuck.
"Leave them, the Asgard can access them still I'm sure," replied Carter.
Thor had given Carter a list of planets she should check out and confirm no replicator activity. The list was sizeable, it took the crew two weeks to check them all out. They found the same destruction on the worlds. It seemed the replicators took every resource they could gather when they took over a planet. Much of Ida, was dead worlds now.
"I know the past two weeks seeing the destruction that the replicators have caused has been rough on all of us. Let me remind you we have defeated them. We have the weapons necessary to defeat them if we encounter them again. Our job is to make sure none remain to ever cause an issue again. We are now headed to the Othalla galaxy. We can expect more of the same there," informed Carter over the ship speaker.
"Course laid in for the wormhole drive, ma'am," spoke Chuck.
"Proceed," replied Carter.
Another three weeks were spent here moving from planet to planet and finding them all devastated by the replicators. They did not leave much behind if they were allowed they took every resource. After the first two weeks in Othalla, Carter was talking O'Neill.
"You mean to tell me the Jennifer we thought was ours, was really a Jennifer from another parallel universe?" asked Carter.
"That would be a yes," replied O'Neill.
"So our Jennifer was being held by the Genii?" asked Carter.
"Colonel Sheppard lead a rescue and now we have two Dr. Keller's," replied O'Neill.
"That's not confusing at all. How is McKay handling this?" asked Carter.
"Well, Dr. Keller from the other universe is going to go by Nicole instead of Jennifer. Dr. McKay is trying to navigate a minefield, with his real wife," replied O'Neill.
"I can only imagine," replied Carter.
It was during their final week in Othalla they encountered a planet that wasn't devastated. In fact, it looked pristine.
"Does this seem odd to anyone else?" asked Carter.
"Yes ma'am," replied Chuck.
"Check our data from the Asgard are we at the correct planet?" asked Carter.
"Yes this is P98-X34," replied Banks.
"Continual scans, I want to know if anything is moving down there. This used to be a thriving Asgard planet," replied Carter
"Ma'am I believe the Asgard city is come up on the horizon," replied Chuck.
"I'm picking up life signs. They are Asgard. I'm seeing over one million," replied Banks.
"How can that be? According to Thor, this planet was overrun with the replicators," replied Carter, "Make sure they are not Asgard form replicators."
"Ma'am I'm detecting no signs of their subspace field," replied Banks
"Two ships coming up from the surface. They appear to be O'Neill class vessels," replied Chuck.
"Hail them," ordered Carter.
A few moments later the screen lit up with an Asgard standing before them.
"I am Supreme Commander Fin of the Asgard, who are you and why have you entered the orbit of our planet?" asked Fin.
"I am Colonel Samantha Carter from Earth, or Midgard as you may know it, of the Atlantis Alliance. We are conducting a survey of the Othalla galaxy, looking for the remains of any replicators," replied Carter.
"We have defeated the replicators that invaded our planet," replied Fin.
"We were told by Thor, this planet was devastated," replied Carter.
"That is a lie, Thor passed away with the rest of our people. We were barely able to deactivate the self destruct mechanism on our planet to avoid their fate," replied Fin.
"Well I'd like to break the news to you, but Thor is alive, it's a long story. We helped them solve the genetic issue," replied Carter.
"Again you lie, the people of Midgard are not nearly advanced enough to solve the genetic anomaly we have," replied Fin.
"Contact Thor and patch him in," ordered Carter, "Give us a minute and we will have him on the screen with us. I will warn you he will appear different, fixing the genetic degradation, restored him to an Asgard body prior to the cloning."
"Colonel Carter to what do I owe... Commander Fin?" asked Thor on the view screen.
"This is not possible. Thor?" asked Fin.
"Yes it is I, how is this possible? The last communique from you the planet was taken and to avoid at all costs," asked Thor.
"We were able to use a time dilation field to freeze the replicators in place. That gave us time to find a way to capture them all and accelerate them into the star," replied Fin.
"We have much to discuss. Many things have changed with our people. I will get a ship and come to you immediately. It will be vessel similar to the one you see now. Expect me within an hour," replied Thor who closed his communication.
"Supreme Commander Fin, I will leave you to the good hands of Thor. We will move on to our next planet to search. Thor will walk you through many things that have transpired," replied Carter.
"It seems we have much to catch up on. May we inquire on the state of the replicator war? How many do we believe are still out there?" asked Fin.
"None, they were lured to the Milky Way galaxy where Midgard is located and we were able to destroy them all," replied Carter.
"We have been hiding here in fear of drawing their attention," replied Fin.
"You have kept your people safe, and now we can help you," replied Carter.
"I look forward to hearing from Supreme Commander Thor," replied Fin.
The Nemesis stayed in orbit, discussing various matters until Thor showed up in a DN-1103 named O'Neill.
"Thor have you been holding out on us?" asked Carter.
"Colonel Carter did you not expect the Asgard to build a DN-1103A to defend Othalla?" asked Thor.
"Something tells me you have more than that up your sleeve," replied Carter.
"I assure you I have no sleeves," replied Thor.
"We will be leaving now. I can't wait to hear the details of how this turns out," replied Carter.
The Nemesis continued their journey, with no further surprises. As they were on their last planet, Commander O'Neill contacted them.
"Colonel Carter, I'm sending you all available information. I need you to search for the Hades. She is missing. Our last signal came when they exited the wormhole at the Furling homeworld. Then they just disappeared," explained O'Neill.
"Do we think they were attacked?" asked Carter.
"We sent a Puddle Jumper through to search in orbit they found nothing. It's like they simply vanished," replied O'Neill.
"We will take a look, sir! Trust me sir we will take it cautiously," replied Carter.
"Thank you, Colonel! I can't afford to lose another DN-1103," replied O'Neill closing the communication. Carter knew he would be watching every move the Nemesis would make and ready to send an armada in search of them if they disappeared as well.
"Attention crew, we have been ordered to search for the Hades. They have vanished on their search of the Furling homeworld," spoke Carter over the ship wide.
"It will take us a total of six wormhole jumps to reach the planet. Unfortunately, it's in the opposite direction of where we are at currently," replied Banks.
"Proceed," ordered Carter.
The Nemesis exited at the edge of the system. It would take a full three hours at full sub-lights still to reach the planet. Carter wasn't taking any chances. They would start out here, searching. Banks deployed multiple sensor probes to search the system. The system had seven planets in, with the second from the star, being the Furling world. They would search each of them in turn, verifying each planet was clear before proceeding.
Every sensor, camera, and telescope on board was watching and looking. Carter even had the F-319's out scouting which were a cross between the F-302 and a Puddle Jumper, able to fly through the gate, hold a crew of 4, but packed a significant punch with the capacity to carry over five hundred drones, and other armaments as needed.
Clearing one planet at a time, took time, but Carter was determined not to fall to the same fate as the Hades. All data was being relayed back to Altera as fast as it was collected. Taking two days to clear the first four planets, with no sign of anything out of the ordinary.
On the third day on the fifth planet, they discovered the remains of what appeared to be a large space station that had crashed into the planet. Carter feared at first it was the Hades until scans showed it was made up of unfamiliar alloys, and further inspection showed it had been there a considerable amount of time. Once the fifth planet was cleared, the next was the Furling homeworld.
Upon reaching the Furling homeworld the Nemesis conducted a complete scan of the space around the planet, and then of the planet itself.
"Ma'am I'm detected no debris from the Hades. I'm not detecting ships in the area, also the surface appears to be destroyed. There is one anomaly sensors are depicting a subspace distortion, but I'm not able to pinpoint where, only in this vicinity," spoke Banks.
"Keep scanning, let's see if we can find a way to pinpoint that anomaly," replied Carter, wishing she could go work on it in one of the labs, but being in command she had her place here.
They spent a week scanning and testing every hypothesis everyone had, but no clue what could have happened to the Hades. They had the location where they were last reported, but nothing to show what happened. The subspace distortion could not be pinpointed, it seemed to jump around.
Carter received an urgent communique to join a video conference apparently Pacifica had been overtaken.
"I believe my work on reversing time in a dilation field may be of some help. Thankfully I sent that back with Teal'c on the Oydessey," replied Carter.
"We need to be able to get people or weapons into the station to combat the aliens once identified," replied Caldwell.
"Thor buddy nobody knows time dilation fields like you," replied O'Neill.
"We will find you a solution," replied Thor.
"Dr, McKay we need a way to deliver the Mimic frequency around the station," ordered O'Neill.
"Systems on the station can already deliver the frequency we just need to reach them," replied McKay.
"Commander Caldwell and Commander Landry work with Teal'c and Ronon, come up with a plan to assault the station," ordered O'Neill.
"Wait, I have an idea," replied Carter.
"I'm all ears for ideas," replied O'Neill.
"Mini-Drones," replied Carter.
"Harmony, I remember that," replied McKay.
"Please explain?" asked Landry.
"Back in the Pegasus Galaxy, Col. Sheppard and Dr. McKay encountered them. They are small and extremely agile. If we can find the designs for them in the Repository we could build them, and add an enhancement to include the mimic frequency. We would have to do a little reprogramming, as they attacked anyone without the Ancient Gene," replied Carter.
"How do we get them in there? Beaming them into the station we have the same issue, I don't imagine beaming one of these into a wall of conduit would do us much good," replied Landry.
"No, but we could beam these into one of the empty airlocks. They could burrow through the inner door since they can't be opened from the outside. The station would remain secure because the outer door would still be in place," replied McKay.
"Dr. McKay what do you need to make this happen?" asked O'Neill.
"Time to find this in the repository. I hope it's in there because we were never able to get much from the Ancients Outpost where we found it," replied McKay.
The Nemesis spent another four days searching, before being recalled back to Altera. The Hades would be listed as missing in action. Nobody felt good about that.