"Who are you?" asked Mitchell.
"I have taken the name of Jack in your language," replied the figure.
"Jack, how did you get on this ship?" asked Mitchell.
Hailey took the opportunity to settle into the command chair.
"I used what I believe you call a teleporter," replied Jack.
"Is there anyone else? Are you from the Dyson sphere?" asked Mitchell.
"Sir he's a replicator!" shouted Hailey. She brought a containment field up around Jack.
"Not another replicator," sighed Mitchell.
"I am not a replicator, at least not like the ones you have experienced in the Pegasus, or Ida galaxies. I am what you would call an artificial lifeform," replied Jack.
"Honestly Jack, I'm not sure any of us are buying that," replied Mitchell.
"Nope, I'm definitely not!" replied Zalinka.
"Please start explaining the replicator bit first," replied Mitchell.
"You are correct I am made of nanites similar to the replicators you call Human Form. However, that is where similarities stop. We certainly contain no resemblance to the barbaric replicator blocks. Our programming is vastly different than those you have experienced. We are peaceful, and no need for your technologies," replied Jack.
"Well you can say that, how are we supposed to believe that? If you know our records, then you know we have encountered replicators that have lied before," replied Mitchell.
"Valid point," replied Jack.
"So how do you know so much about us?" asked Hailey.
"We scanned your ship, and read the data in your records," replied Jack.
"We've only been out of Hyperspace here, for less than ten minutes," replied Zalenka.
"It certainly did not take us that long to process and understand your records," replied Jack.
"You say 'we' and 'us' who are you referring to?" asked Mitchell.
"What you call a Dyson Sphere, are my people," replied Jack.
"The entire Dyson sphere is made up of nanites?" asked Zalenka.
"That is correct," replied Jack.
"How many of you are there?" asked Mitchell.
"That is hard to explain. Let me see if I can put this in terms you would understand. I am one sentient program, out of seventy-four trillion programs that make up the Dyson sphere. Physically I am just a collection of nanites my program controls," explained Jack.
"You are a collection of programs that can inhabit any grouping of nanites?" asked Zalenka.
"That is correct," replied Jack.
"Where do you come from?" asked Zalenka.
"That is a bit more difficult to explain," replied Jack.
"Who created you?" asked Mitchell.
"This is going to take some explaining," replied Jack.
"Then you better get started. Otherwise your not getting out of that containment field," asked Mitchell.
"Very well," replied Jack.
Mitchell spoke, "We're waiting,"
"I was chosen to meet with you because I was the first of my kind. My programming was created and sent here," replied Jack.
"Here to this Dyson sphere?" asked Micthell.
"No sent to this universe," replied Jack.
"Sent to this universe? As in you're from a parallel universe?" asked Mitchell.
"Parallel universes are created from every decision point in this universe you get two or more for every decision point. This conversation has generated several thousand, if not more," replied Jack.
"You said you were sent to this universe? So where did you come from?" asked Zalenka.
"I have read your records I know your familiar with the wormhole at the center of the universe that leads to the next universe. You were the captain of the Destiny that found it," replied Jack.
"Well you are well versed in our history, how do we know your not making this story up from reading our records?" asked Zalenka.
"Because I can tell you the event your stargate network picked up and led to its discovery," spoke Jack,
"How is that?" asked Mitchell.
"Because I was that event," replied Jack.
"Matter can only travel one way through the wormhole, however energy can traverse the wormhole in both directions if you know-how. My creator knew how to do this," replied Jack.
"So sending you here from another universe triggered an event on a universal scale that all the stargates detected?" asked Zalenka.
"Yes, my signal itself was extremely weak, however by using the stargate network my signal was amplified enough to be picked up by this magnetar working at a specific frequency, and more importantly integrate into the magnetic field it created," explained Jack
"Ok so back to the question where did you come from?" asked Mitchell.
"That wormhole doesn't lead to a parallel universe it leads to the next instance of parallel universes," replied Jack.
"You mean after the next big bang?" asked Zalenka.
"That is correct. You see when the wormhole forms, a tremendous amount of energy and matter is pushed through. That forms the basis of the next universe. Which operates on entirely different rules, from your universe here," replied Jack.
"That is amazing!" replied Zalenka.
"Who sent you here to help us? asked Gardner.
"Destiny," replied Jack.
"Wait how can a ship send you here? And more importantly, Destiny was still here when that event happened!" asked Mitchell.
"Time works differently there than it does here. To put it in simplistic terms time is backward. So Destiny is not there now, it was there before, Destiny is far more than a ship. The A.I. it contained was far superior to anything you could imagine," replied Jack.
The Enterprise exited the wormhole in the Andromeda Galaxy,
"On Screen!" replied O'Neill.
An image appeared on the main viewer of a city-ship, quite different from any they had seen before.
"That is similar but not like Atlantis," replied Carter.
"That looks far more advanced," replied Jackson.
"Advanced? That thing looks like Atlantis on steroids," replied O'Neill.
"Any life signs?" asked Carter.
Marks replied, "Three Asgards."
"Thor what have you done. Daniel, you're with me and a team to beam over," replied O'Neill.
"OK," replied Jackson.
"Marks beam us over! I'm going kick some grey butt!" exclaimed O'Neill.
O'Neill and Jackson appeared in what appeared to be a gateroom. Standing across from them were Thor, Sol, and Mani.
Sol and Main quickly entered the stargate. Thor looked back and O'Neill and mouthed the word, "Sorry"
The gate closed behind them.
"Beam Carter over here now, and signal Altera to send McKay and his team immediately! Send over security teams to sweep this ship!" ordered O'Neill.
The Hades exited the wormhole at the specified coordinates, in the Ida galaxy.
"Anything on scanners?" asked Lorne.
"What appears to a city-ship, sir. Bringing it up on the main viewer." replied the Lieutenant.
"That sure does look like Atlantis," replied Lorne.
"Told you it was here," replied Nyan.
"Any life signs?" asked Lorne.
"No sir. But we are picking up an energy spike," replied the Lieutenant.
"What is it?" asked Lorne.
"It's like a stargate activation," replied the Lieutenant, "Sir I'm now detecting three Asgard lifeforms."
"I want a team over there now on that city-ship!" ordered Lorne.
"Sir! There is a large energy surge coming from the ship!" replied the Lieutenant.
The city-ship disappeared.
"Did they cloak?" asked Lorne.
"If they did I can not detect them," replied the Lieutenant.
"Dial the address I gave you!" spoke Nyan.
"Do it!" ordered Lorne.
The Lieutenant punched away on his console, "Sorry sir we can not get a lock,"
"Contact Commander O'Neill," replied Lorne.
O'Neill speaking to Lorne, "Thor, Sol, and Mani gated from here. Those are the three Asgards you detected,"
"Did they cloak the city-ship, or did they take it somewhere?" asked Lorne.
"That is an interesting question," replied O'Neill.
"You said your city-ship is different? The one here seemed like it could have been Atlantis," spoke Lorne.
"Yeah this one has all kinds of lights, and floaty things, going on. Nothing I have seen before. Just enough resemblance to Atlantis that it's for sure Ancient built," replied O'Neill.
"Sir what do you want me to do?" asked Lorne.
"Jump away like your leaving, then under cloak make your way back, and watch that location for them to return," replied O'Neill.
"Yes Sir! Hades out," replied Lorne.
O'Neill looking around from Command and Control, "Carter, you and McKay have anything for me yet?"
Carter looking nervously at McKay.
"We've figured out the Ancients called this place Nexus. From what little we can tell, this place is designed to channel vast amounts of energy," replied Carter.
"ZPM's yeah I figured," replied O'Neill.
"No, wrong scale. If we're reading these consoles correctly they are channeling more than anything Altera can approach," replied McKay.
"What for?" asked O'Neill.
"That we don't know yet," replied Carter.
Over the radio, "Commander O'Neill, we have something you need to see," came Sheppard.
"I'm sure there are many things I need to see," replied O'Neill.
"No sir, you need to see this, bring Carter and McKay," replied Sheppard.
Five levels below command and control, and down a long hallway they found Sheppard with Teyla. They walked out on a balcony. Before them stretched out a room easily two kilometers in width and just as deep. However, it was the supergate that appeared in the middle of this that caught everyone's attention. It was easily a kilometer in size more than ten times larger than the Ori supergates.
"Oh my," spoke McKay.
"I think we know why they needed all the power now," replied Carter.
"Uh did anyone see a building on this ship this large when we arrived?" asked O'Neill.
"That's my point," replied Sheppard.
"We checked with the Enterprise, We are in a building little over two hundred feet wide," replied Teyla.
"Hologram?" asked O'Neill.
"No, we were able to walk far more than two hundred feet in each direction on that gantry," replied Sheppard.
"It's an interdimensional pocket," replied McKay.
"Carter?" asked O'Neill.
"It's a pocket of space-time that exists inside a smaller physical space. The inside is larger than the outside, impossible unless you can create your own dimension," replied Carter.
"How is that possible?" asked O'Neill.
"We don't know, we have nothing in our ascended knowledge that even comes close to this," replied McKay.
Mitchell sat in the conference room with the crew discussing everything that Jack had told them.
"Zalenka can you explain this time backward thing?" asked Mitchell.
"So think of the two universes as rivers, and the flow of the river is time. Now the two rivers are next to each other, but they flow in opposite directions. So if you get out of one and enter the other and flow in it for some time, then get out and back into the first, your earlier in time than you were when you left the first one," explained Zalenka.
"So Destiny was already in the next universe in our time, before she went through the wormhole, but now she's not because we're back further in time in that universe?" asked Wallace.
"That is correct," replied Zalenka.
"Nope nothing complicated here," replied Ginn.
Hailey spoke, "So what do we do?"
"We have to see what Jack wants" asked Mitchell.
"That is the ultimate question," spoke Gardener.
"Let's hope it is peaceful," replied Nicole Keller.
"Maybe for once we deserve a break," replied Wallace.
"An advanced nanite society that is benevolent?" asked Mitchell.
Back in Andromeda, Carter and McKay were going over consoles working to identify the exact nature of the Nexus. McKay had brought in Novak, Lee, and Rush, to help.
Carter looking over a console, "These equations make no sense."
"These parts here match what we know about wormholes, but this here is something entirely different," replied McKay.
"It's like it's trying to push the end of the wormhole to a specific place, but that's not how it's done," replied Carter.
McKay shaking his head, "Here is the equations we did for the wormhole drive, that allow us to target a specific place. We match till we get to here, then it goes very differently."
"I know you completed their wormhole drive they were trying to create, but this is entirely in the wrong direction. They wouldn't go this far wrong," replied Carter.
McKay nodding, "They were not that far off from completing it. No, they had to be doing something different, but what? These calculations here are kinda similar to targeting a parallel universe."
Rush entering the room, "The power they are generating here is beyond anything I've seen. They are pulling energy from somewhere but I'm not sure where yet. You all have any luck?"
"We're trying to figure out this part of their equation," replied Carter.
"Let me have a look," replied Rush.
"If we can't figure it out," started McKay.
"Then nobody can?" asked Rush.
"Rodney!" spoke Carter.
"Actually this looks similar to some calculations I ran for Commander Sheppard," replied Rush.
"Commander Sheppard asked you to run calculations for him?" asked McKay.
Rush nodding, "Yes he wanted me to look at the wormhole at the center of the universe. He wanted to see if energy could traverse it, to establish communication,"
Carter and McKay looking at each other, "Wormhole to another universe?"
"Why do that? They had the Stargates and knew how to use them to gate to parallel universes," asked Novak.
"Daniel!" shouted Carter.
Daniel raising up from his console, "Yes!"
"What did Quetzalcoatl tell you the wormhole went?" asked Carter.
"My understanding was to the next universe," replied Jackson.
"Never really thought about this, but could he mean to the next instance of the universe, and not a parallel one?" asked Carter.
"You mean after a big bang?" asked McKay.
"Yes, if you look at this section here, this is an alteration that far exceeds our spacetime, and this wouldn't be for a parallel universe," replied Carter.
"Your right. If you look at this section here, that would pass all parallel universes," replied McKay.
"They didn't know about the wormhole at the center of the universe, so they were trying to make their own," spoke Carter.
"How did they know about it? I mean the ascended we knew were not aware of it," replied McKay.
"Who would have built this ten thousand years ago?" asked Carter.
"What were they trying to accomplish?" asked Rush.
Curiosity was holding orbit around the Dyson Sphere, Moran was guarding Jack, in his containment field.
Mitchell entered, "Sorry for keeping you waiting, I hope you can understand our apprehension?"
"I am fine thank you," replied Jack.
Sarah who followed behind Mitchell, "Jack, just tell us what you want? How are you here to help us?"
"Actually right now we're here to wait, until such time as we are needed," replied Jack,
"When is that?" asked Mitchell.
"I can not say," replied Jack.
"Can't or won't?" asked Mitchell.
"Certain criteria must be met before we become fully operational," replied Jack.
"What is that criteria? and who set this criteria?" asked Gardner.
"That I am not programmed to share," replied Jack.
"So what do you do when this criteria is met?" asked Mitchell.
"We will be where we need to be, to help the people of this universe," replied Jack.
"That's it?" asked Mitchell.
"Sorry I can not say more, because that portion of my programming is locked from my main programming," replied Jack.
"So what are we supposed to do now?" asked Mitchell.
"Continue on your way. Know that when you need us, we will be there," replied Jack.
"So you are just here to tell us to go on our way?" asked Mitchell.
"Yes, your curiosity is known to us, if we did not send you on your way, you may stay and trying to learn about this Dyson spare," replied Jack, as he stepped through the containment field.
"Woo!" shouted Mitchell.
"I have delivered my message, now I take my leave," replied Jack as he beamed out.
"That was a little weird," replied Wallace.
"Ginn set course for Altera and get us out of here," ordered Mitchell.
"Yes, sir!" replied Ginn.
Hailey looking at Mitchell, "Sir something is bothering you? And the hurry to leave?"
"If what he said is true, then think of this. Destiny knew we won the war. We were pretty much the dominant race in the universe. Why then would Destiny send a nanite army to help us?" spoke Mitchell.
"Destiny knew something terrible was coming," replied Gardner.
"How could destiny know this?" replied Zalenka.
"Or they are lying and that could get even messier," replied Wallace.
"Zalenka I want you to write up a full report on this next universe thing, and the time flow, for Altera. They are going to need this information as soon as possible. I will inform Commander O'Neill about this. We'll drop out of Hyperspace once we're a day away from this place," ordered Mitchell.
Meanwhile, in Andromeda, Carter reviews the Nexus database for details on who created it. Carter could find no logs that indicated who built the Nexus, finally coming across an encrypted file. When she tried to open it, it displayed "Supreme Commander O'Neill Authorization Required"
"McKay, did you lock anything in this database for Commander O'Neill?" asked Carter.
"No, we haven't locked anything. Why?" asked Mckay.
"Then things have gotten stranger, there is an encrypted locked file here for Supreme Commander O'Neill. I'm guessing Thor must have left it," replied Carter.
"Well maybe we finally find out what they have been up to," replied McKay.
O'Neill being called to the Command Center, typed in his authorization code, when a video displayed, of O'Neill in ascended form.
"If you're seeing this, then our plan did not work. You need to know about the Andromeda Strain, it is ..." spoke O'Neill on the video.
O'Neill looking around the room, "What was that?"
"You apparently left yourself a message, but the question is when?" replied Carter.
"What do you think this Andromeda Strain is?" asked McKay.
Rush asked, "I assume you don't remember making this video?"
"Nope, I certainly did not do that," replied O'Neill.
"Then the question is when did you do this?" asked Carter.
"So the real question is when did you go back in time to do this?" asked McKay.
"Not Time Travel again!" cried O'Neill.
Author's Note: Sorry for the long time getting this out. It is not abandoned. However life, covid, virtual school, new job and other things have made it extremely difficult to get time. I will do my best to get new chapters out as often as I can, but there may be delays. I would advise anyone interested to follow this story.