Record keeping: first, this is going to e another and the last of the 'beating a dead horse section. This is being done for a reason and said reason will be revealed in the near future. Naturally, the FF powers-that-be have not responded to any of the entreaties yet. It seemed to improve for a microsecond and then, it got worse. So no responses unless you wish to send me an email on gmail ag3607273. FF will not allow an actual email writing here so you know how the email setup works.

A question was asked about the comparison between Star Trek and Star gate governments and technology. To me, both are good. However there is a difference. In ST we can see the progression of a group of people starting from scratch and developing at a specific pace to get to where they are. In SG, a lot of the tech was given to them, as well as acquired. It also involved hard work to get to where they are now in canon. It's the way things go, like being working class and becoming successful, or being rich and being successful. It's no better or worse. Like the original Jurassic Par (and 9 means the book people!), the scientists didn't have a clue as to what they were doing when they made the dinosaurs and plants and insects and the possible relationships between the old and new. In ST an SG wherever they started from, they are working to get to where they are. They have earned their respective successes.

What to do? What to do. Concerning the UCW visiting the colonies do something or not? I am not saying here one way or the other. The answer is coming.

The Kobollians are changing and the EA refugees sense the truth. Sadly it's a problem the local visitors can deal with. The respective homes people are another story. Next, the Tollanian situation is about to hit in the upcoming chapter. Otherwise, I hope everyone is doing well and please enjoy this chapter. Thank you. AlbertG

We now conclude the meeting…

Roads Paved in Shadows

Chapter Fifty

CDF Radiance

…She was trying to understand what happened to him and his attitude? Were others in the fleet beginning to think the same way? "You really are a blasphemer, you know that?" she gulped.

"Yes, I know," Eddleson answered. He didn't have a desire to upset the priestess anymore than he had done so already.

"Your 'openness'," she said, hissing the word, "would put you into good graces with some of our other priests and priestess on Caprica. In Saggitarian and Gemenon and some on Picon would annex you as soon as those words came out of your mouth."

Commander Eddleson nodded in agreement. The Caprican priests were always known for their liberalism. They were more open and many of the more conservatives didn't like it. Like the Teachers strike, the two opposing factions' opposing positions were coming out into the open.

"We're discussing is the difference between religion, religious conviction, and culture and how it affects our lives. We haven't had any experience interfacing, or working with people fundamentally different from us until last month!" Demetris stared at the uncomfortable-looking priestess. "I've concluded that we're so locked into our religious culture and beliefs that we can't see what's in front of us. What we thought was true didn't appear to be a problem before we came here, for obvious reasons." He turned to address the ambassador, who appeared flushed. "I have had a profound change of attitude since we've been here. We're treading in unknown, dangerous territory. Our religious convictions are not theirs, yet we expect them to fall into our religious laps. But that's not going to happen," he stated with finality. "We can't accept their beliefs, but we demand that they accept ours. Did we come here, looking for reunification and all that entails, or did we come here looking for a fight?"

"We are not looking for a fight," Goesel snapped. "We are here to unite with our brothers and sisters."

"But at what cost?" Eddleson asked. "We've been quietly picking at this since we've been here. I know it's uncomfortable discussing this over and over, but it's too important to just let it go and wait for it to bite us in the behind later on. Earth is unique to us. We may adjust here, but what about the others? They don't have a problem. It's us who are having difficulty adjusting, and if it's hard for us, then what about the others at home?"

Isahan hadn't kept eye contact with him. What he was saying was in the back of her mind, she struggled to keep at a distance.

"It is a challenge, and I can't help wondering about the other UCW members who have different beliefs from the Tau'ri. And the Race has their own beliefs. The fleet is just beginning to understand the depths of this problem. I think we are adjusting. Some of us," she added. "What the people at home will feel is another matter."

"A large portion of them are atheists, Ambassador. They may adjust better than you believe."

"What you're saying is blasphemy," Priestess Goesel growled. She already knew, but was loath to admit it. "The people are loyal to the gods. They will grumble and insist we eliminate this corrupted bastion of religious idolatry suffusing itself in the totality of the UCW and the Lizardians."

"And that perfectly illustrates my point. We're too focused on ourselves and what we want. Why is war the first thing on our minds just because we disagree with the Terrans and their religion and their obsessive need to say 'no' to our every demand? They're not the ones threatening war. It's us, because we cannot get what we expect we should have a right to." Shaking his head, he said, "It might be better if we did come back in another hundred years or so."

"Enough." Admiral Kunningham almost smiled. His officers were studying the reports and coming to their own conclusions. Nevertheless, the argument hit too close to home. It was a future explosion waiting to happen.

"Our religious and cultural differences, and," the admiral then added, "personal opinions can be discussed later."

When we have a few weeks to spare, he thought with more than a hint of sarcasm. He wasn't looking forwards to that particular discussion.

Despite his attempt to change the subject matter, the heated report lasted for another ten minutes before Kunningham took over. "I want you to submit your opinions and comments within the next twenty-five hours. We have another issue to discuss. Please open your folders and read the ambassador's report, along with my additional notes. This is another technology the Terrans have that could be of greater importance than the mobile space station, their energy generation systems, or their energy shields.

Both the ambassador and the admiral waited while the men and women studied the report. The quiet whispering and facial expressions made for interesting observations.

Commander Eddlison was the first one to speak, before the others, chomping at the bit, could do so. "Sir, how many gates do they have?"

"They haven't been forthcoming about numbers, but I would say at least ten gates, possibly more."

"Are any of these transporter gates near the Cyrannus system? Because it they are, then that would explain how they obtained so much information about us without us knowing it. It's not just their stealth probes. They could have spied on us with impunity for years."

"I agree." He found it interesting that Eddlison hadn't even questioned such a fantastic technology. "This gate gives them the ability to travel anywhere, as long as there is a second gate to connect to. And it works. Ambassador Isahan, myself, and others traveled to the world of the Race in a matter of seconds, like stepping through a door and entering another room. I cannot stress how important this discovery is."

"And they didn't bother to tell us until now?" the lead scientist asked. He looked flushed, almost overwhelmed by the possibilities. "This is too important to leave in the possession of one tribe," he said, echoing comments from an earlier time. "The Race aliens had their own gates! This is unacceptable. They shouldn't be allowed such technology. Who knows what they could do with it? Will they share the gates?"

I see his is going to be one long, long conversation. Eddlison's right. "I don't know," Kunningham answered.

"They have the time to explain to us why they kept this from us," the lead engineer said. "They, as a fellow tribe of Humanity, must share this with us, and we all need to keep the Cylons from obtaining such a device. We'd be doomed if they gained access to this gate. This is too important for Earth to handle alone, even with their small colonies supporting them. And aliens," he added.

Commander Eddleson had had enough, "Sir, permission to speak freely?"

Kunningham narrowed his eyes. The commander usually kept his opinions to himself unless there was something seriously wrong. He was always respectful, but he could tell the man was furious. He allowed it because he wanted to hear what the commander had to say.

"Permission granted, Commander."

The man was angry, but with whom, no one was sure, although the admiral had his suspicions. "We assumed that Earth was a poor, desperate, isolated, lonely colony world in need of our help. That was our expectation of coming here. We have to be honest. We came here to force them to reunite with us. They don't even know us. We call them our brethren, but we think of them as a poor, desperate people which is contrary to everything we've seen."

"That's not true," Mayrion Petris retorted. "I am thinking of what's best for humanity, not just the Colonies."

Demetris plowed on, virtually ignoring the agriculturist. "We knew what was best for them. We brought gifts and trinkets thinking they would fall all over us in love and joy for honoring them," the man all but shouted. "But our intention was also to intimidate them with our ships and our powerful advanced technology and weapons. We offered them trinkets, expecting them to fall all over us and grant us everything we wanted. They were going to follow our lead, abandon their beliefs, and follow the gods. Then We discovered they knew and interacted with aliens, but we dismissed both Earth and the aliens as somehow inferior."

"You're pushing this all out of proportion!"

"We all know that the Quorum and Colonies wanted their resources, and their shielding, that everybody went out of their way to downplay after they humiliated our Colonial defense force in our own backyard. We all wanted their power sources and tech, all of us, and we let ourselves believe it would be easy, that everything would work out to our satisfaction. This mission, while having good intentions, was flawed from the start."

Kunningham sighed. That action in and of itself was a subtle but stunning admission.

"We began with one error, and it's blossomed into where we are now. Our pride compounded everything we've done since we've been here." He was rewarded with several hostile looks by the priestess and some of the religious members of the synod representatives in the room.

"Every single one of us and I'm including everyone from the President to the average man on the streets, believed that earth needed us. We looked at this world, believing that they would act as if we were their long-lost loves coming back to them after a long absence. At home, our people are at war, but here we are, planning one day to turn this world into a gigantic farm for our benefit, not theirs!"

"The only way for any of this to become practical, we have to get their technology. Their FTL drives are unlike anything we've ever seen before, and faster than ours. If the Terrans are anything like the Earth forcers, then that fact is obvious. It's also obvious that we need that tech if any of our plans can happen. Will the Quorum then insist this world called Earth, if it is the right one, submit to their elders and give us their technology?" he shook his head. "Ladies and gentlemen, that will not happen."

"These people are different from us. They are very independent and have a different outlook on aliens and Cylons. We plan to wipe the Cylons from existence if given a half a chance. Good, I am all for it. But the Terrans talked to survivors!" he told them. "The mere sight of them disgusts us and fills many of us with fear, but not the Terrans, who are wary but not panicked. We consider that a weakness borne of ignorance. But is that really true? Ambassador, can we make peace with aliens the way they did, or would we have slaughtered them all?

"My point is, we assumed something that turned out not to be true. We arrived here assuming our doctrine was the correct one, and we antagonized them from the very beginning. They didn't allow us to see the remains of the battle because we tried to force our way on them. Everything we did to convince them to see it our way, they said no. I thought they were afraid of us, but I see that I was wrong. They may choose to associate with us. They don't need us. We ignored what happened in our first contact as a fluke, a mistake on our part. We didn't even think of what they might be."

Eddleson was Staring at the ambassador, but the words were meant for everyone while he continued. The admiral made no moves to stop him. "Our pride poisoned this mission, without us noticing it, of course. Placing stations from here to the Colonies without even thinking about how the Earthers would respond? Trying to force them to become an Agro nation?" the commander shook his head in dismay. "We need to change our approaches completely before we alienate these people. I don't know what is happening at home, but this mission will establish our relationship with the Terrans for the next hundred years. We have to approach them as equals, not acting like we know everything, because apparently we don't know as much as we thought. And our pride is hurting us, our relationship with them, and this mission."

"Are you finished?" Kunningham cut the commander off before he could continue.

"Yes, sir."

Admiral Kunninghan's vein was throbbing again. He understood most of the delegation hadn't been privy to the diplomatic minefields when dealing with the UCW. The scientists, scholars, engineers, and passengers had no idea what the Earthers really thought about the Colonies. He barely understood them himself. So, he could make excuses for their lack of knowledge. The politicians knew and some religious clergy were aware, but not the others.

The moderates and right-wing hard-cores weren't speaking to each other. The Sagittarons were such traditionalists, and their distrust of modern medical so severe, that it was little wonder that they weren't allowed to step foot on Earth without following Terran Rules of Entry. They were furious and getting worse by the day. Having them on Earth would humiliate colonials everywhere, not to mention that hardcore earthers would clash with them.

The Gemenese were just as bad and chaffed at the rules they didn't like. earth was very opened and that tribe would be very vocal in their opinions. Their attitudes and arrogance wouldn't sit well with Earth, who would either start arguments or laugh at them with impunity. The governments on either side wouldn't like that. He could already see the resultant riots.

The high priestess was more than upset. "A couple of your points I concede have validity, but you are wrong. They need us as much as we need them. They cannot stand on their own, not for long. Their own small colony will fall apart, and they are surrounded by aliens and alien influences. The Race Empire isn't bad, and I applaud both species working together, but how long will it last? The Jaffa are not fully human," and here she frowned. "Whatever that really means. They are a warrior race. The gods they served were nothing but false entities, corrupting the names and dignities of the true gods of Kobol."

"Not only the gods of Kobol, but the gods of Earth. and correction, this world is not small. Think about that," the ambassador murmured. Commander Eddlison's words had struck her hard.

"Those other gods don't count," the Priestess huffed. "They're not real. And I dispute one of your assertions. They spied on us. We all know this. I believe they are afraid of us and the truth we know of their mutual heritage and the insight of the gods, whether they admit it or not. The leaders of this world are hiding the truth from their own people about the gods and their cultural heritage."

"With their ships and resources, they likely spied on us for years, not that I have a problem with that since they have shown no aggression towards us, and we would do the exact same thing if we could," Eddleston answered. "We may have had contact with the Race. But we will not know for sure, unless our own confirms those contacts. It is the same with the UCW. If we ask them, they will deny it, naturally. I suspect we have had some contact with them that did not go well."

Kunningham almost said something but decided not to. He believed the same thing. The fleet was sent on this mission without critical need to know information. The Terrans would naturally deny any of the accusations, and there was no credited truth to back it up. But he would confront the UCW members just to see what they would say. "I will speak to the UCW representative," was all the admiral said.

Ambassador Isahan was not so sure. She had a different impression of what might have happened. She warred for a moment and then spoke.

"I am not sure if the Tau'ri Terrans or the UCW have spied on us," she said. "It would seem reasonable, but I am of the opinion that they don't care about us enough to consider us a real threat. If we think about it, we are more than nine months away. It is us who believe we assume they are afraid of us. They destroyed a Cylon squadron of capital ships without problems, although I concede we have not seen the results. Whether it was as easy as they claimed, I have my doubts, but they do have prisoners, which does add credence to their claims. They are far from defenseless. Not only that, but we also can't even detect their ships unless they want us to. We've just seen their battlestar analogs! We cannot even see their moon base unless they want us to," she reminded them. "No, I don't believe they have spied on us. They might have a few probes in our space, but that is it. And if they did have some type of presence in Colonial space, then they would know if Earth Alliance was there and to what extent the damage is. We got that information from the Earthforce crews and their senators. If Earth is watching us, that might not be as serious as we think. We would do the exact same thing. Isn't that one of the reasons why we're here?" she asked the gathering. "To evaluate their threat potential?" she stared evenly at the admiral. "That is one of our mission statements, to ascertain what the Terrans could do, both pro and con."

Those were all good points, and the admiral resolved to find out. "I want to discuss our finalization of a fallback for the civilian ships once this battle starts. We know when they will be here, so I want all civilian ships on hot standby. As soon as the fighting's about to begin, I want them to jump. The first set of coordinates are…"

Hyperspace

A Shadow mothership cruised silently towards the world of this universe called Terra. It was the counterpart of Earth of its own universe, now abandoned by its people. The two-kilometer-long living ship was one with hyperspace. It knew where it came from. It knew where it was going. It had no need for primitive beacons to guide it. Those were for lesser, more primitive species. Who didn't understand the secrets of what they called jump space?

The younger species of the old universe were terrified by the mere sight of such a powerhouse. That was a result of generations of genetic manipulations and a dark reputation that struck fear into their hearts. Not so in this universe, but things would soon begin to change once the humans of this galaxy were out of the way. Specifically, the Terrans were something to be concerned about. They were servants of the dangerous, but now extinct, Asgard.

In the Shadows' opinion, the extinction of the Asgard was one of the few things the Vorlons got right, although the cost of victory was high. What remained of the Vorlons were heading for the Rim, terrified of what might happen if the Humans of this universe might come back and investigate what was left of their people. the Vorlons were powerful, but they lost the war they thought was a skirmish and fled.

Few things were feared by the Vorlons other than the assumed to be extinct Asgard. But they also feared another race above all others who were known to them as the ancient and mysterious species called the Yonji Sinhindrea. A million years ago, or so the Vorlons called the aliens, invaded the old universe and almost defeated the Vorlons. There was a vicious battle, and the Vorlons won, somehow locking the creatures out of the universe. How they'd done that remained a secret. There were rumors about a doorway, terrible rumors which the Shadows took to heart.

The Shadow saying, passed on from generation to generation, was that whatever the Vorlons touched that was Shadow, died. The war between the Vorlons and those aliens struck fear into the hearts of countless mature races, and the Vorlons were hated for what they brought into the universe because of their arrogance. When they finally fled, the elder races were glad they were gone.

However, the Vorlons showed the Shadows the way to something new. The great game was never finished to the Shadows' satisfaction, but they did give them a way to start over once more without their interference. But the Shadows also felt cheated. The Asgard were dead and gone, but their Tau'ri servants survived and allowed for the Shadows to claim retribution.

The Shadows hated the Tau'ri, but they were also wary of them. That young race had ships that could hurt mothers, as was proven months earlier. That was not to be tolerated if the Dancers of the Dark were to establish themselves here. The mother ships and their masters had spent every moment improving their LASED-particle beam main weapons and improving their armor. However, it was known that the wild, young Humans here had only a few ships. Powerful, yes, but not powerful enough to prevent what was coming. The Drakh would make sure that the death of Earth would be memorable and serve as a warning to the Goa'uld. Two planet killers and the feared plague configured specifically for the humans were going to be used. The Human fleet might be small, but the aliens weren't taking any chances.

Such as now.

The beacon planted by Earth's moon was no longer functioning, and the Shadows wanted to know why. These humans had little to no ideas of the secrets of jump space, so the black glistening arachnid-like mother felt safe from detection while she investigated. Then it would remain in the sector to guide the invasion forces to its destination. Together, the servants and the ten mothers would make sure nothing in the system survived to tell the tale.

But, the Shadow commander wasn't foolish. Something had destroyed the beacon. The radiation profile of the miniscule particles of the destroyed beacon indicated a plutonium-based weapon was used to destroy the beacon. There was another radiation profile, but the organic brain of the ship was unsure of the nature of the additional material. The organic construct would have known it was in danger, but didn't have time to screaming a warning to its masters, before it was vaporized. This was something that rarely happened, as the beacon construct would have recognized the danger. No primitive plutonium missile would have been sufficient to destroy it, as the beacon had its own defenses. Apparently, the defenses were insufficient to protect it. But it brought up more questions, such as how the planet's inhabitants were able to access jump space in the first place. Being a cautious species. The Shadow commander and his crew stretched out their telepathic abilities, aimed towards the planet.

There was nothing but static. It was the reason why the Shadows hated the humans of this universe. It was also the reason why the Vorlons despised these humans. They were immune to their type of telepathy. These humans were already genetically modified and protected. No information would be gleaned from their minds of those creatures. But one of the crew's eyes brightened in recognition. There were home humans here, on ships orbiting the planet!

Earth Alliance! How had they gotten here? The Clark human had only just received the coordinates and their ships were too slow to have made it to that world so quickly. Logically, those ships had to have left months ago and had somehow known where this Earth was located and came here. Their ships had access to jump space and if they told the Earth humans, then those humans could have destroyed the beacon! The Earth Alliance ships could have ridden the beacon signal all the way to Earth. They might not have even known where they were going, but had taken the chance, and the four were successful.

The Shadow commander fumed as her eyes brightened. This was a mistake on her people's part. The very device being used to guide the fleet to Earth was used to guide the Earth Alliance. Somehow, the information about the Clark human's plans was likely revealed and they would be ready for his forces.

But the Clark minions were not their problem. The Drakh and her people were. But the incoming fleet needed to be warned.

The Shadow commander was still satisfied, although the plan was found to be flawed. Four hundred capital ships, two planet killers and a death plague would be enough to wipe out the entire UCW primitives. Nothing would stop it. And as she smiled, she wished that she could see the Clark human's face when they came here and found nothing but rubble where this planet used to be.

The Shadow commander was meticulous and the presence of the Earth Alliance ships disturbed her. They may have told the Humans of the beacon, but they did not have enough time for these Humans to copy the technology and gain access to jump space. If those ships were destroyed now, they would not be able to disrupt jump space using their missiles when the Drakh came. Nevertheless, caution was advised. Any overt action would reveal her presence.

She had to decide what to do.

Atlantis: Location-Pacific ocean

General Cameron Mitchell and Colonel Jon O'Neill's eyes were glued to the main monitor in the situation room. The Lantean-based array, now configured for dimensional jump space surveillance, presented a near perfect image of the disturbing, horrific image entering the system while submerged in jump space. The ship was now close enough so that it could be scanned in detail.

The technicians in the room looked on in disgust at the vessel. It looked unnatural, floating in space. None of them had imagined an organic, space-dwelling life form designed like a mutated alien spider.

"Okay, now that's one ugly ship," Jon muttered. "I thought the Wraith ships were intimidating. Why does it have to look like a giant freaking space spider? Is it alive?"

"Actually sir," George Pecowsky, one of the systems operators, said. "although it looks superficially like one of the genus Araneae, there are quite a few differences that can be observed that differentiate it from the species we are familiar with, whom we term spiders. For example, there are no characteristic spinnerets, organelles that define nearly all species of Earth spiders. Plus, the number of appendages doesn't conform to our definition of any genus I am aware of. Therefore…"

"shut up, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

Mitchell shook his head in disgust. To him. This looked nightmarish and was built to look intimidating and frightening. Everything about it appeared predatory. "Sensors say yes. There is a human inside the ship. He or she is connected to that thing. Some kind of cybernetic connection. The others are completely alien. Almost reminds me of the Reetou."

"It's heading directly towards the beacon's remains," Jon said as he and the others looked at the jet-black glistening ship on screen.

"The Second fleet's cloaked. Lemuria's cloaked. Only the Earth Alliance ships and the Colonials are visible. There are a couple dozen 304s visible near the edge of the system, so we look basically defenseless against an armada."

"Lemuria will make sure that the Alliance and Colonials are protected if there are any signs that they'll be attacked."

Lemuria was nothing less than a Lantean city gun ship. It was only two-thirds the size of Atlantis, but it was well armed with Lantean weaponry. It was also supplemented to the brim with Terran weaponry and was a force to be reckoned with. The ship was found five years after the discovery of Atlantis, adrift near the edge of the Pegasus galaxy. The inhabitants were dead of the plague that wiped out the Lantean people. the Wraith hadn't taken the ship, illness had. The city-ship didn't have enough weapons in Jack's opinion. The UCW corrected that oversight.

"Good. Her shields will extend and protect them. That thing is doing a recon. Notice how it's vectoring towards our pickets and sentries just close enough to be detected? Almost, but not quite?"

"It's daring us to detect it. So, it's a good bet that it knows we suspect something is about to go down. But we still look weak. I don't think its sensors are detecting the fleet. That ship bothers me more than a Waith Hive ship," he whispered. "At least, it looks better than one of those green Vorlon vessels. It makes me want to blow it to pieces, but we'll let it have its fun." Cameron continued to gaze at the almost hypnotic real time video.

"I'll inform everyone to leave it alone."

"Their fleet will be here in three days. The G.O. D SATS are cloaked and operational. Moon base Terra One is ready."

"Think it's related to those aliens that attacked the Tok'ra?"

"That would be my guess, but it's only a guess." The initial belief was that the Ashtorath had instigated the slaughter, however, while there was evidence implicating them, but further evidence discounted them. What the Tollanians saw was a deception. He hated to admit it, but Ba'al's children were smarter than that.

"Oh, wonderful. There's another one at the edge of our system near Pluto. They really must not think we see them."

"All the better for us."

Next: Tollania