A/N - in answer to a question, most of the sci-fi stuff is just stuff I've made up but I am a massive fan of Doctor Who so it's probably influenced by that quite a bit! Thanks for all the reviews everyone, it means a lot.

This will probably be the last two chapters before Boxing Day at least, so everyone have a great Christmas or holiday and all the best for the New Year!

For a long moment Timothy stared at his team, sprawled on the floor of the cavernous control room, his mind refusing to accept what he was seeing. He had kept his two worlds so completely separate for such a long time that this sudden collision was jarring, to say the least.

This was not supposed to happen. A recurring theme of Timothy's nightmares was an Earth invaded by an impossibly advanced alien race and those he loved forced to fight and die in a battle they could not hope to win. You started fighting for Stars out of duty to your home planet; you stayed fighting because the thought of your friends and family suffering as other besieged planets suffered was unbearable.

The team had become Timothy's family and he had always been determined to keep them as far away from this war as was possible. They were used to danger, yes - Gibbs and Ziva were soldiers themselves, Tony wasn't a stranger to risks and even Ducky had seen war up close - but this was not their battle to fight. This was not their cause to die for.

Timothy had no illusions that he would come home from this. And that was okay, as long as his family were safe, as long as his home remained protected.

But now they were here, in the control room of the Lunar Orbiter, surrounded by alien life forms and technology clearly far in advance of anything found on Earth. Suddenly thrown right in the middle of the most dangerous war the universe had ever known.

The whole room seemed to be almost as surprised as Timothy was. It was clear, from the confusion on the many faces, they had been expecting weaponry at the very least. Six perfectly ordinary humans were something of a let-down.

As the team struggled to their feet, staring around in shock, only Kinoan and Harriet had realised they were anything more than normal humans. Harriet was looking back and forth between Timothy and the team, as if she couldn't quite comprehend what was happening and was waiting for somebody to say things weren't as they seemed.

Kinoan put a steady hand on Timothy's arm, obviously recognising the team from Timothy's video call a lifetime ago.

"Tim?" Abby was the first to notice him. The others turned slowly at the sound of a familiar name, eyes lingering on the assorted aliens still clustered around. Timothy couldn't blame them; he had been much the same on his first day up here.

He felt irrationally annoyed. The whole room had turned their eyes on him now, glancing at each other from time to time with raised eyebrows (or whatever was the equivalent). Addressing him by any form of his first name in front of the support staff was a major slight and it rankled, even though Timothy knew Abby could not possibly be aware of this.

"McGee?" Gibbs' usual growl was only slightly shaky. "What's going on?"

Everyone in the control room looked at him, expecting him to take charge of the situation with his usual authority. Even Kinoan didn't have anything to say.

Timothy cleared his throat.

"I want everyone working on tracing that teleportation beam. Tell me where it came from. Now."

There was only the slightest of hesitations before the staff turned back to their consoles and the steady hum of talk started up again, perhaps a bit quieter than before. Timothy walked slowly over to where the team stood, closer together than they ordinarily would. He felt almost as if he were dreaming.

"Come with me."

Thrown abruptly so far out of their world, the team could do nothing but follow after Timothy as he headed through the door and back into the elevator, signalling for Kinoan and Harriet to come too.

The elevator was easily big enough for all of them but the atmosphere was decidedly tense. Timothy didn't dare look at his team, for he had no idea what he would say to them. The team themselves were staring at Kinoan - some, like Palmer, blatantly and some in a less obvious manner. Kinoan didn't seem to mind.

Timothy was suddenly very grateful for the elderly General, standing strong and silent and obviously alien at the front of the group, his height, red skin and third eye distracting the team long enough for Timothy to begin to formulate his thoughts.

His next step was fairly simply, really, now he had a moment to think - get his team off the Orbiter and back down to Earth, where they would be safe.

The elevator doors opened and Kinoan led the way through the winding corridors, the whole group remaining silent. Timothy didn't have to ask where they were going. He knew this route so well he could walk it blindfolded. Kinoan's office (which was more like a luxury hotel suite as it was used for formal meetings with visiting officials) had been a home-from-home for Timothy for many years now.

Small viewing windows placed every few meters along the corridor offered stunning views out onto planet Earth, suspended below in the inky blackness of space. It was an arresting sight even for Timothy, who had seen it thousands of times now, so it was no surprise that the team kept stopping and staring through the window with shock and awe on their faces.

Harriet, bringing up the rear of the group, kept almost bumping into them every time they froze. One scowl from her was enough to get them moving again. Timothy had seen this reaction before from just about everyone who met Harriet. There was a darkness about the woman that was hard to explain; an instant sense that it would be a bad idea to anger her.

Arriving in Kinoan's office, the team seemed relieved to sink down onto the soft couches placed either side of a thick rug. The room was decorated in a style typical to Kinoan's home planet, Joscial Ax, but it wasn't far removed from a rather old-fashioned Earth main room. A fire was already lit in the hearth, crackling pleasantly and giving the space a homely feel.

Kinoan sat down behind his desk with Harriet standing just behind him, leaving Timothy alone on the rug between the two couches to finally face questions from his team.

Timothy cleared his throat. "Welcome to the Lunar Orbiter."