O'Neill had summoned nearly all the scientists, including Asgard for a meeting to discuss the disappearance of the Hades and now Athena.
Miller opened, "Ladies, Gentlemen, and our fellow Asgard attending, I want to thank you all for coming. We have lost two ships while using Wormhole drive to leave the vicinity of the Destiny to return here. We need to know why."
O'Neill stepping up, "We have lost two valuable crews. I have not given up on them. I believe they are still out there. However, we need to figure out what did happen to them and where they went. If it is a problem with the Wormhole drive then we need to fix it, or we will have to stop using it. Dr. Miller and Dr. McKay here will give you the additional details, I am on my way to meet with the fleet commanders and we are suspending all Wormhole Drive use till we know what is happening."
With that O'Neill left the auditorium.
"Here are the details we do know. Both the Hades and Athena both jumped from near Destiny. The Hades was supposed to be jumping to orbit around the Furling homeworld, while the Athena was returning here. We do not know exactly where Destiny was jumping to exactly. However, it would have been near the galaxy with the Furling world in it. Twenty-three other ships successfully used a Wormhole from the same area as the Athena. You will be provided with all of their data, the last data we received from the Athena, and Hades. Nothing is off the table, so any idea is a good idea, run it down. If you need anything speak to me and I will request it from Commander Davis," spoke Dr. Miller.
A scientist asked, "Why would they be opening a wormhole to near the Furling galaxy if they were returning here?"
"What's your name?" asked Dr. Miller.
"Dr. Hopkins," replied Hopkins.
"Well Dr. Hopkins you obviously don't know much on the wormhole drive, otherwise you know the drive on the DN-1103's is only able to jump a max distance of one billion light-years. Destiny was near six billion light-years. So they had to make a serious of jumps to return. Now let the grown-ups talk," replied McKay.
"Dr. McKay," replied Miller.
"Many of us had good friends and colleagues on one or both of those ships. Commander Caldwell and Lorne have saved our butts more than once. Everyone is turning to those of us in this room to solve this mystery. It's time to step up and deliver," spoke McKay.
Over the next hours, Miller and McKay went over every data point. Answered every question from the two hundred eleven scientists invited.
O'Neill had a video conference with Sheppard, Thor, Landry, Bra'tac, and the various station commanders.
"Folks you all know we now have the Athena missing, with Commander Caldwell. The disappearance is similar to the disappearance of the Hades. Both were making a jump using Wormhole Drive. Our eggheads are starting to investigate what happened, whether it's an issue with the Wormhole drive or not. For the short term, I am ordering all ships to no longer use the Wormhole Drive. Use standard Hyperspace travel. Only in the most urgent of military instances is Wormhole drive to be used," ordered O"Neill.
"I will notify all commanders within the Asgard Fleet," replied Thor.
"As will I with the Jaffa ships with Wormhole drive," replied Bra'tac.
"Are we sure it's the Wormhole drive, sir? I mean they were both far off could it be something out in that space?" asked Sheppard.
"Commander Sheppard nothing is off the table at present. If that is the case, we still have to identify what conditions make it unsafe to use," replied O'Neill.
"Right sir," replied Sheppard.
"Commander O'Neill, your obviously in charge, but for day to day operations how are we going to replace Commander Caldwell until he returns?" asked Landry.
"Glad you asked, Commander Sheppard will be covering those duties," replied O'Neill.
"I'm what?" asked Sheppard.
"You heard me. You're in charge of the fleet for day to day operations. I'll be assisting you, particularly with military matters," replied O'Neill.
"Could this be a tactic of the Old Ones?" asked Bra'tac.
"Commander Hammond and Janus are in agreement that is likely not the case. Neither has heard of anyone in the ascended plane traveling that great of a distance," replied O'Neill.
"Never really thought of them traveling," replied Sheppard.
McKay and Miller were discussing their position after dismissing all of the scientists to get to work.
"Meredith what do you think our chances are of figuring this out?" asked Miller.
"It's Rodney. I think if you or I don't come up with something then we won't have anything," replied McKay.
"Seriously you think that little of them?" asked Miller.
"The only other two people who could possibly understand all the fundamentals are Dr. Zalenka, and Commander Carter. Both are working on it as well," replied McKay.
"I'm only halfway through the books on how the Stargate works. Your the only person I know that has read all of them," replied Miller.
"Precisely my point," replied McKay.
"Rodney whatever you need, it's yours," replied Miller.
"Thanks. I could probably use your head to bounce things off," replied McKay.
"As long as its ideas and not things," replied Miller.
Zalenka and Hailey had been sent all the data on Destiny. They worked together, focusing on the design of the Wormhole drive looking for any potential errors. Carter was dealing with three advanced babies and trying to go over all of the environmental data looking for a reason that could cause a disruption in the wormhole.
Over the next week, many ideas were brought to Dr. Miller. Most she tossed out for lack of any credibility.
"Dr. Hopkins suggested what if the Wormhole crossed to an alternate universe. That would explain why nothing was found, and why no communication data was received," asked Miller,
"That was my first thought, however, the wormhole drives had the same block placed on them as our stargate here, to prevent that crossover. Also as we have learned there is a certain signature that would appear in the wormhole data if that was the case, it's not there," replied McKay.
"OK, what about Dr. Richard's idea. She thought maybe they opened the wormhole into another body, such as a planet or star?" asked Miller.
"The wormhole wouldn't stabilize. The Asgard ran multiple experiments trying that exact action, the wormhole immediately collapses," replied McKay.
"Well those seemed like the best two ideas I had gotten," replied Miller.
"Well better than I expected," replied McKay.
"Yeah we had everything from a worm in the wormhole swallowing them, to the wormhole getting hijacked," replied Miller.
Rodney stopped, "What did you say?"
"Meredith it's not possible there is no worm!" exclaimed Miller.
"No the hijacking part," replied McKay.
"Someone could have hijacked the wormhole," replied Miller.
"That's it! Get whoever came up with to my lab now!" shouted McKay running out of Dr. Miller's lab.
Twenty minutes later, Dr. Lee entered McKay's lab.
"Look I know the hijacking thing is crazy but couldn't it be possible? And don't yell at me over it!" exclaimed Lee.
"No, it's brilliant! I think you're on to something. It's amazing you came up with it!" replied McKay.
Lee shook his head.
"Let me get Zalenka on the communicator," replied McKay.
"Rodney any luck on your end?" asked Zalenka once the connection was established.
"Dr. Lee here had an idea, what if someone hijacked the wormhole?" asked McKay.
"We know that a wormhole can jump from one gate to another nearby gate. But you would need a massive explosion to move one of these wormholes," replied Zalenka.
"What if someone figured out how to do it without an explosion. Using pure energy?" asked McKay.
"That's entirely possible," replied Zalenka.
"I agree," replied McKay.
"So what's next then?" asked Miller who had entered the room silently.
"We need to investigate this, and try to find a way to do it," replied McKay.
"But wouldn't we shouldn't lose their communication signal if they came out somewhere else," replied Dr. Miller.
"Anyone capable of moving a wormhole likely would be able to block our communication. Also, there is no telling where they ended up," replied Zalenka.
"What do you need?" asked Miller.
"Time," replied McKay.
Miller informed O'Neill they had a plausible theory but was working to see if it was possible. McKay joined the Asgard Design Team that had perfected the technology for the DN-1103's on Othalla. They had a far more advanced lab for testing this. He brought the miniature Stargates that were found on Celestis. The Asgard quickly created additional versions of the minis. Before long they had ten working copies.
It took a week, they were able to use small explosive devices to determine how much energy was needed to make a wormhole jump. They found it was relative to the distance of the wormhole and the size of the wormhole.
"Using our miniature stargates, we have been able to apply the energy and cause them to jump between the small gates. When we scale it up to create a wormhole the size the Athena would need and the distance, it would take sixty-eight trillion kilojoules. Then to cause it to shift, it would take another fifty-seven trillion kilojoules," spoke McKay.
"That is with an explosive force. Nothing seems to indicate that an explosive force was used to do this," replied O'Neill.
"Right that is the next step they have to go through to determine how to apply the energy to cause the jump without an explosion," replied Miller.
"What will that give us?" asked O'Neill.
"Once we figure out how they were able to hijack the wormholes, hopefully, we can find a way to track it," replied McKay.
"Keep going, find me those ships," replied O'Neill, leaving to head back to Earth.
"Meredith, I sure hope your right on this," replied Miller.
"So do I," replied McKay.
Over the course of the next two weeks, McKay and his Asgard team tried various means of applying the energy to the wormhole and stargate. Three of the miniature stargates detonated when the energy was applied.
"OK, Rodney let me check your eyes," ordered Keller.
"I'm OK, the explosion was pretty far away," replied McKay.
"Rodney I am a doctor and your wife, now sit up here and let me examine you!" shouted Keller. She gave McKay a thorough examination. The last explosion of the stargate had knocked out the shield and knocked two Asgard and McKay unconscious.
"So why are you applying the energy directly to the stargate? I mean there are no stargates with the wormhole drive," asked Keller.
"Well because that's what we have to interact with the wormhole," replied McKay.
"Yeah but what about where the wormhole actually goes through. I mean the gates just expose one end right?" asked Keller.
McKay sat in silence, his wife had stumbled upon the answer, "You're brilliant! We need to apply the energy directly to the wormhole, not the stargate!"
McKay rushed back to the lab, that was being restored. He spent the next couple of hours explaining his theory to the Asgard. After some calculations were run the potential for damage was considered to be considered great. Thor stopped all testing and began building a facility that would be able to be controlled remotely to run the kinds of tests this would need.
O'Neill holding baby Jacob in his arms, "Sam you think McKay is on to something?"
"I believe he might be. I just don't know whether he will find a way to track it," replied Carter holding Jacklyn, and Samantha.
"So have these three done anything new?" asked O'Neill.
"Well Samantha would levitate Jacob into the air to keep him away from the rattle," replied Carter.
"Un-huh. We sure did it right with these three," replied O'Neill.
"Which one of you is making Daddy float?" asked Carter.
"What? How did I get up here?" asked O'Neill.
"I told you they are gentle and sneaky," replied Carter.
Fraiser entered the room, "Here let me help you down. Jacklyn now stop that!"
"Jacob seems to enjoy doing that to Teal'c whenever he stops by. I'm thinking that is why he isn't coming around so much," spoke Carter.
"Now that I have to see!" replied O'Neill.
It took several weeks for Thor to have a facility made available. It was placed in a deserted quadrant of their galaxy. McKay and the Asgard could interact with is through remote control. It was placed so nothing would be around the facility for one hundred light-years. It took a few weeks to devise a way to push the energy directly into the wormhole itself.
The first few tries resulted in substantial damage to the facility. However, on the fifth try, they made the wormhole jump. A few tweaks and they had it down.
"Rodney this is excellent work, now we just need to find a way to detect it," spoke Zalenka.
"That's our next phase. We're going to be trying to scan from hyperspace and from normal space. So how are things on Destiny?" asked McKay.
"We are three days out from the next galaxy. It seems that it's the center of the universe, but we don't know if that means much at this point," replied Zalenka.
"Well, the best of luck there. I'll keep you informed if we determine anything," replied McKay.
McKay and his team of Asgards went to try every sensor scan they could, to find a way to detect if a wormhole jumped, either when it was jumping, or after. Days turned into a week and still nothing. Sensors could not detect any change. Thor suggested setting up a small craft with a wormhole drive and testing the behavior of the wormhole drive in a real situation.
A week later a small ship had been created, and a secondary craft to trigger the jump. It was a short wormhole only a few light-years. In the first two tests, they had to change the timing in order to trigger the jump. However on the third, they could see the wormhole move locations, it was only a few hundred meters. They began changing the variables, but each attempt only moved the wormhole a few hundred meters, regardless of distance, or timing, it was nothing more than a nudge.
"Greater distances because a wormhole from a stargate can only connect to another stargate. These wormholes can open anywhere. Whoever is doing this, must have a way to redirect the wormhole to a specific location," spoke McKay.
"So all of this has been for nothing?" asked O'Neill.
"No, we have learned some amazing science here. Something the ancients didn't even know," replied Miller.
"Yes but in terms of finding the Athena and Hades, it's given us nothing," replied McKay.
"Could something else have happened?" asked O'Neill.
"No, I think whoever did this, used this method. They have a way to control where the wormhole jumps to, however it leaves no traces," replied McKay.
"Well back to the drawing board," replied O'Neill.
"I don't think you understand. We have nothing else to try. Where ever they are, we're not going to find them," replied McKay.
"If we can't track where they went, find me a new way to look for them. We have to have some way to scan for them, or talk to them or something!" replied O'Neill.
"We'll see what we can do," replied McKay.
Mitchell spoke to Oma, "So we have been in this galaxy for little over a week. We haven't dropped out of FTL, but we are approaching the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Before long I'm going to have to override Destiny and take us out of here."
Over the next two hours, Mitchell, Oma, Carson, Thrud, Tomin, Jackson, Vala, Zalenka, Narim, and Haley gathered on the bridge of Destiny.
"Signal the other ships to fall back, I want them at a safe distance," ordered Mitchell.
"Done sir, they will hold position here," replied Tomin.
"How close are we?" asked Mitchell.
"Sensors are not picking up a gravitational pattern we would expect from a supermassive black hole," replied Zalenka.
"Does that mean there isn't one?" asked Jackson.
"I don't think we know," replied Oma.
"Aren't you supposed to know everything?" asked Vala.
"We know many things this isn't one of them," replied Oma.
Destiny dropped out of F.T.L. The countdown clock read zero. Before them was a site none had seen. A single star with a planet orbiting it. However, it was what was below the star and planetary disc that had everyone's attention.
"Isn't that a black hole?" asked Narim.
Oma looking, "No that's a wormhole."
"First things first, Tomin make sure we do not enter F.T.L. I do not want to enter that wormhole until I say so. I want complete scans on everything in this system," replied Mitchell.
"Sir Destiny appears to be bringing us into orbit around the planet," replied Tomin.
"Interesting, thoughts anyone?" asked Mitchell.
Thrud spoke up, "This is the center of the universe. Everything from here is moving even slightly away from this system."
"OK, so the center of the universe has a wormhole to where?" asked Mitchell.
"That is an excellent question," replied Oma.