Carter looked around the room, " Rush, McKay, Miller, Lee, Novak, Brody, Volker, and Parks, I am glad you all are here. Commander O'Neill has put me in charge of deciphering what the Nexus is supposed to do, and what this Andromeda Strain is. You all have seen videos at this point. We know this system is using some space-time coordinate system. From initial reviews that McKay and I have done, we believe it is capable of targeting other universes."
"You mean parallel universes," corrected Rush.
"No think of a universe as a collection of all possible outcomes, or what we have referred to as parallel universes. I am referring to each collection of those instances. The wormhole at the center of the universe leads to the next collection," replied McKay.
"Precisely, we think Janus has come up with a way to target any instance in any collection at any point in time of that instance. I know this sounds bizarre. It's what we need to figure out," replied Carter.
"Do we know anything on this Andromeda Strain?" asked Brody.
"No, we do not. We believe that Janus and O'Neill somehow traversed time to create the Nexus and to set up a number of events that have led us to be here now. We do not have any information," replied Carter.
Parks asked, "Didn't Janus move on to the next universe?"
"Yes he did, so we are not sure his exact role now," replied Carter.
"Nothing is off the table, any idea needs to be shared," spoke McKay.
Several hours later Banks from the Enterprise contacted Carter, "Ma'am, we just received a communique from Altera, they received from Curiosity. Commander Davis felt this was something you would want to see immediately."
"Send it to me and I'll read it," replied Carter.
Carter going over Zalenka's report. Find it very interesting this information that the next universe time flows in the opposite direction of time in this universe. These replicators were sent by Destiny and if she was understanding everything correctly, and putting the pieces these replicators were sent on a signal through the wormhole to be picked up by a magnetar that was spinning at a certain frequency. Destiny sent them six months after entering the wormhole, and 6 months before it entered the wormhole. Destiny existed at the same point in time, in two different universes. Did this have anything to do with the Nexus and Andromeda Strain? Time was starting to give Carter a lot of headaches. She decided to show the report to McKay.
"This is fascinating. So time in this other universe moves backwards to our universe. Could Commander O'Neill have entered that universe to travel back in time to a previous point in our universe and get Janus?" asked McKay.
Carter smiled, "I was wondering that myself."
"This throws a new wrinkle into things, on how time works. Wait that might help explain this part of the equation," replied McKay pointing to an algorithm on his screen.
"Yes your right, that would help make more sense out of this," replied Carter.
"Do you think this is what Janus meant you would need Zalenka's help in solving this?" asked McKay.
"Meaning Janus already knew that Zalenka would pass on this bit of information. Time travel really confuses things," replied Carter.
"I certainly agree with you. That's not something I have done," replied McKay.
Carter laughed, "Count yourself lucky! Trying to keep everyone from messing with the timeline is more than difficult."
"Yes but this time, it seems like they purposely changed the timeline," replied McKay.
"Yet they kept things extremely vague on what was happening," replied Carter.
"Why then not tell us what is going on?" asked McKey.
"Not sure, but forwarding this out to everyone else," replied Carter.
An hour later Miller entering the command center, "I have an idea,"
"You do?" asked both McKay and Carter.
"I've been thinking what if when all the ascended moved on to the next Universe, something was wrong there. They needed to come here and build the nexus to fix something further back in the time line of the next universe," spoke Carter.
"Because time is reversed there, something was already wrong when they got there, so they needed to come here and fix it. The nexus and this time/space coordinate system is to get them to a point in their universe to fix the issue, before they go there," replied McKay.
"Ok, but how is Jack back in time?" asked Carter.
"But why go through all of this, when they could just stay here until and crossover at some point in our future and their past?" asked Miller.
"Could the old ones be keeping them from interfering there? Maybe that is why they had to come back to our universe. Also how did they come back to our universe?" asked Carter.
"Jeannie you have a good idea, but unfortunately we are still in the dark," replied McKay.
The next day Carter has a full report ready to send back to Zalenka, to catch him up with everything that is going on. O'Neill was debating on whether to send the Curiosity back to the Dyson sphere to try and learn more from the replicators, or not. Ultimately after much back and forth discussion with Mitchell it was decided not to send them.
Everyone was working in ascended form, and sharing any idea or information they could come up with. McKay and carter had never worked so closely together in their lives.
Sheppard leading teams to search out the Nexus made the next big discovery. Nexus had proven to be far larger than what it appeared on the outside. Around every turn was an interdimensional pocket turn what should be a small room, into nearly a city by itself. Teyla had went to get Carter, McKay and O'Neill, as providing directions was nearly impossible, Miller tagged along as well to see what was found.
"This place is a maze," replied O'Neill.
"Tell me about it. I best this place could easily hold a billion people or more. I'm not sure what all we are going to find here," replied Sheppard.
"What did you find?" asked Carter.
"This room right up here. It has what appears to me to be stasis pods," replied Sheppard.
"Stasis pods? That's nothing new," replied McKay.
"It's who is in them, that is interesting!" explained Sheppard.
"Janus and me?" asked O'Neill.
"No Commander O'Neill, it's ..." replied Teyla.
"Quctenificaltenfinuhbudswer," replied Sheppard.
"What!?" replied Carter, Mckay, and O'Neill.
"Could he be the Andromeda Strain? The Old Ones?" asked Miller.
"No it's even more confusing," replied Sheppard.
"How?" asked O'Neill.
"There is video playing on it, from you," replied Teyla.
"Here we go again," replied O'Neill, "Let's see what I have to say this time."
Everyone entering the room, could see three stasis pods, but only one was in use. A video of O'Neill began to play.
"Well if things are not confusing enough for you, I'm about to add another twist for you. Quctenificaltenfinuhbudswer is here. We have placed him in stasis. This is special pod that Janus cooked up for ascended beings to be put on stasis. Do not revive him. He will be revived when it's appropriate. Unfortunately I can't tell you when that will be. Sorry guys you have to trust me." spoke O'Neill in the video.
"I'm going to beat myself up for not giving more information than this!" replied O'Neill.
"Sir, you must have had a good reason for all of this," replied Carter.
"Yeah what?" asked O'Neill.
"I don't know, sir, but it must have been good," replied Carter.
"So we have Quctenificaltenfinuhbudswer in stasis and he will be released when it's appropriate but you can't tell us," replied McKay.
"Maybe we could tell something from the computer system, and how it knows when to release him," replied Miller.
"Maybe," replied McKay.
Rush had been working alone, reviewing the Nexus database. He was finding little more than entries on the automated activities around the Nexus. He was desperate that Janus must have left some clue. So far he had only a few entries that were him talking about keeping O'Neill focused. Janus was not keeping any notes of any value on this project. When Carter sent out Zalenka's report, he began to search for replicators in the database. This turned up nothing. Magnetar turned up nothing. Dyson sphere turned up nothing. Everything he could think of turned up nothing. Getting frustrated he went for a walk from the lab area he was in.
After about an hour of walking he found a door that was different from anything else he had seen. He approached it and entered the room. In front of him was something he never expected.
"Commander O'Neill, I think if found what is powering the Nexus," spoke Rush over the communicator.
"OK, come get us and we'll have a look, I'm with Carter, McKay and Dr. Miller," replied O'Neill.
"I would sir, but I don't know how I got here, I was wondering around," replied Rush.
Sheppard spoke up, "What can you tell us about where you are at?"
"I've been walking about an hour from the lab I was using. I came down a number of steps, and through a number of doors," replied Rush.
"Stay where you are at, we'll start following that as best as we can and search for you," replied Sheppard.
Four hours later, Sheppard and Teyla had located Rush. Once again Teyla had went to lead Carter, McKay, O'Neill and Miller down to this new area.
"You can't go wondering around this place like that. All of these interdimensional pockets this place is far larger than all of Altera," shouted Sheppard.
"We need to figure out if there is a way to track people through all this," replied O'Neill.
"Not seen anything like that yet," replied Carter.
"So what do you have us, Dr. Rush?" asked O'Neill.
"Step in here with me," replied Rush.
Stepping into the room which was obviously an observation room, they could all see it.
"Is that a black hole? asked O'Neill.
"No, if these readings are correct, that is a super massive blackhole," replied Rush.
"Its inside an interdimensional pocket," spoke McKay.
"How?" asked Carter.
"This explains the power we're seeing running through this place," replied Miller.
"It must be using something similar to what Primus has done," replied McKay.
"Who figured out how to do this? Primus said it would take twenty-five million years to explain this to someone," replied Carter.
"Oh my, if these numbers are correct this would be the largest super massive blackhole ever seen. Nothing in our Universe comes even close," replied McKay.
Carter looking over the console, "Your right, it's more than five times larger than the largest we have found."
"Uhh guys'. This console is showing there are 4 other systems feeding the power of this city," spoke McKay.
"Your saying we have five super massive blackholes on this ship?" asked O'Neill.
"I think so," replied McKay.
"How can they fit in here?" asked O'Neill.
"These interdimensional pockets are incredible," replied Miller.
"This pocket is 10 billion kilometers in diameter," replied McKay.
Everyone sat in stunned silence. This was more than they could comprehend. Just what was going on?
Finally after about ten minutes, O'Neill spoke up, "Sheppard, I want you to get any and all available personnel to start going over this entire ship, going through every pocket dimension and finding what all is here."
"That could take a lot of time sir," replied Sheppard.
"I know contact Teal'c and get all recruits and all current personal not otherwise assigned to help," replied O'Neill.
"Yes sir," replied Sheppard.
"I'm contacting Lorne, his primary mission will be to hunt down Thor, Sol, and Mani. I don't know what they know about this place, but it's time we find out," replied O'Neill.
Over the next few days, ten's of thousands of people filed through the stargate arriving at the Nexus to help investigate the place, every recruit and trained officer was being assigned. Lorne requested Loki, Thrud, and Carson be assigned to his crew to help track down Thor, Sol, and Mani. So far they had not reappeared where they were last seen.
O'Neill looking at Carter, "Sam break this down for me, please."
Carter looking at her husband, "Jack, this is a step up in technology that is so far away from us now, as we were Fifty years ago from the ancients. This ship or city or whatever you want to call it, is so far advanced we haven't even scratched the surface. I mean it has five super massive black holes powering it, from inside 5 pocket dimensions. We are looking for something which we don't even know what it is, in a haystack the size of our sun."
"Apparently Janus believed you could put the pieces together," spoke O'Neill.
"Yes, but you and him had a plan and solution that didn't work out," replied Carter.
Commander Davis had been placed in charge of Pacifica and Alterra for the time being, while Commander Sheppard had been reassigned to lead the investigation into the Nexus.
Cap. Scott radioed into the Sheppard, "Sir, I think we have found something Commander O'Neill will want to see."
Sheppard replied, "Everyone is finding something they think he should see. What is it?"
"It looks like his quarters," replied Scott.
"His quarters?" asked Sheppard.
"Yes, sir. Pictures of his wife and kids," replied Scott.
"Thanks I'll let him know,' replied Sheppard.
Sheppard to O'Neill, "Sir Cap. Scott has located what he believes is your quarters while you were here,"
"He has? Well I'll go check them out. Maybe I'll find us a clue," replied O'Neill.
An hour later after many stops through the confusing nature of the hallways, pocket dimensions, and stairwells, O'Neill found Cap. Scott.
"Sir here is your room, I'll stay out here in case you need anything," replied Scott gesturing toward the door.
O'Neill entered and looked around the room. He took in the paintings on the wall. He recognized his artwork, while it did appear he had mastered his technique.
He started looking through the drawers and cabinets in the room. He found letters he had written to Sam. He went through them reading them, explaining how he missed her and the kids and hoped to see them again one day. That he didn't have any regrets, he would do it again because it would mean preventing it from happening. He grew more frustrated with each letter he read. Why couldn't he have left a note saying what was going to happen.
After reading through everything, he continued searching. He found a single letter he wrote to himself.
Listen to me, I'm sure you very frustrated with me right now for not telling you all the details. If your reading this, then do not take the hard way, try the easy way! It will be the most difficult decision you will ever make.
Once again later that day, Sheppard got a call from Greer, "Sir I think we have found the chair room."
"About time! Where is it?" asked Sheppard.
"Two levels above the gate room," replied Greer.
"What I've searched that floor, there is no chair there," replied Sheppard.
"Let me show you Commander, it's sorta hidden," replied Greer.
"I'll be right there," replied Sheppard. Running up the steps to the floor.
"OK, Sargent show me," replied Sheppard.
"This appears to be a wall, not a door correct?" asked Greer.
"Yeah," replied Sheppard.
Greer pushing on four panels on the wall. The wall slid open. There before Sheppard was the chair room.
"I'll be darn. Good work! How did you figure it out?" asked Sheppard.
"We found another section of wall like this in another section. Dr. Lee checked it out, we found that combination opened the wall. I remembered seeing this up here, and thinking what a good way to hide the chair. Dr. Lee is still looking into the other one. These appear all over the city. We could be looking at thousands," replied Greer.
"Thousands more areas to explore, this city never ends," replied Sheppard.
Sheppard to O'Neill, "We found the chair room, it was hidden, but Sgt. Greer found it. It's one level up from where you setup your office here."
O'Neill popped up to the floor, "So it was hidden behind a wall?"
"Apparently a type of door, so we have many more rooms to check through out the city," replied Greer.
"So which of us shall give this a go?" asked Sheppard.
"Your turn commander, get in and see what you can learn. Dr. McKay and Carter are on their way," replied ONeill.
Sheppard jumping into the chair, and it activating once he was in place.
"Oh sir there is so much I don't even know where to begin," replied Sheppard.
McKay and Carter arrived perplexed at the door.
Sheppard, McKay and Carter spent the rest of the day taking notes on what all Sheppard found.
Two days later Carter, McKay, Sheppard, and O'Neill were meeting.
"Well this station, is formidable weapons and defenses. Something called a Graviton Pulse weapon seems to be the primary weapon. The ability to materialize thousands of drones instantly for firing, and they appear to have multiple types of warheads on them that can be activated. Shields with more levels than I can count, at strengths far greater than anything I can the zero's on. Also the ability to make the shields solid, like a casing. I honestly don't think the old ones could even touch this station," replied Sheppard.
"Good to know we have a solid platform here to protect anything from," replied O'Neill.
"Also sir, this station has a wormhole drive, that can reach pretty much anywhere in this universe," explained Carter.
"Any where? Could it go to the Curiosity to bring them home?" asked O'Neill.
"Yes sir, when they stop the next time we can have them stop, jump to them and then jump them back here," replied Carter.
"Mitchell will be happy for that," replied O'Neill.
"It also has what we know Janus was working on. The Universal Time Placement Engine, that can target and jump this station to any point in time and place in any of the universes, or the parallel versions. We understand how the targeting system works, exactly how the engine itself works is still a mystery," replied McKay.
"Any information why Janus and I build this?" asked O'Neill.
"No sir, sorry nothing," replied Carter.
"Good news I was able to learn there is a transport system. It's those walls. A certain code, will open the wall to the room behind it. Other codes, will transport you to different sections of the city," replied Sheppard.
"It's based on a color code, sir, those walls have a nine color code sequence you punch it in and then you can enter the wall and it will transport you. Very similar to the transport system you and Col. Maybourne went through," explained Carter.
"Any clue how big this station is?" asked O'Neill.
"We now know sir, it's large enough to hold about twenty billion people," replied McKay.
"Twenty billion? With a B?" asked O'Neill.
"Yes a B," replied McKay.
"There is no way we can search all of it sir. However information from the chair, we now know where the interesting spots are and we're sending teams to those areas directly," replied Sheppard.
"What was this place built for?" asked O'Neill.
"It is the ultimate weapon and defense system. And capable of holding the entire alliance and even more people beyond that," replied Carter.