One Big Jump

by goulmeister1

AU:An Aerlion ship on patrol encounters the Cylons at the beginning of the first Cylon war and suffers a misjump, forty years later an expedition leaves Earth bound for Abydos, the Stargate has just been opened for the first time.

10. Chapter 10

Gas Giant Ragnar

Cyrannus

"Why all the secrecy gentlemen?", Gaius Baltar asked as he looked out of the cockpit of the Raptor, the view of the planet up close was amazing though.

Greehill examined the back of Baltar's head, wondering if he ever bothered brushing his greasy looking mop, Colonel Guyer coughed to draw his attention.

"We should be safe enough now", Guyer asked him.

Greenhill nodded, "Alright Baltar, sit down"

Baltar sat down on the bench seat across from the two military men, "What I'm about to tell you is so highly classified that if I hear a whisper they wont even find your grave", Greenhill stated, his eyes never leaving Baltar's.

Baltar gulped and nodded sufficiently cowed, Greenhill continued, "We have reason to believe the Colonies have been infiltrated by the Cylons, they have new models that resemble a human from the outside"

"What!", was Baltar's surprised reply, "Why didn't you tell everyone!"

Greenhill simply raised an eyebrow, "Imagine the panic if this went public, we'd have lynch mobs and rioters everywhere"

Baltar nodded, "Of course, I forgot how ignorant the common man is"

Greenhill held his tongue at Baltar's comment, "Because of that we are moving development of our new weapons to a secure facility, Colonel Guyer here will be in command"

"As for you Baltar, I was impressed with your recommendations regarding the power issues", Greenhill produced a folder from his breifcase, "I also read over your proposal for increasing automation in the fleet, this Command Navigation Program"

"A most impressive program I'm sure you found", Baltar seemed pleased with himself.

Greenhill frowned, "In some aspects yes but it's never going to happen, your program leaves our ships vulnerable, if they gain access they will have control over every system on a ship, you'll need change a lot of your ideas to make it workable and more secure before anyone will sign off on it"

Baltar looked annoyed but wisely kept his mouth shut as Greenhill continued, "The reason you're here is Project Revitalise", Greenhill threw the folder over to Baltar, "The president sang your praises and I liked some of your ideas for refitting our old ships"

Baltar skimmed the files, next time he would find out what exactly he was signing up for before hand but the pay he was offered was enticing.

"You want me to help integrate the new lasers into some of the mothball ships?"

Greenhill nodded, "You'll be working with the team developing the weapons and the construction crews, we picked out ten good hulls, old Adamant frigates"

"These ships need to run on native solutions to the power problem, we're stuck with that until we can get fusion reactors from the Terrans"

Baltar nodded as he read, "I already have some ideas, I'll need to see what I'm working with though"

"You will soon, we're nearly there"

Baltar glanced back to the cockpit as the ship flew into the gas giant, a cleared passageway led deeper into the clouds.

As they passed the colourful display outside a looming structure started to become visible, Ragnar Anchorage.

"There she is, Ragnar Anchorage, she used to be one of the mobile shipyards before they towed her here after the war", Guyer explained to Baltar.

The station was now swarming with crews performing repairs and maintenance, Baltar could also see a ship being towed into one of the docks, at over eight hundred meters long Baltar identified it as one of the Adamants Greenhill mentioned.

"We already started to move the ships here, they should all arrive by the end of the week"

Baltar eyed the ship quickly, it should be more than large enough to do what he needed.

Soon the raptor docked on the anchorage, inside was as busy as the outside, crewmen and workers were busy running around performing long overdue tasks.

An officer with Major rank tabs was waiting when the doors opened, "Major Clark, take Doctor Baltar and introduce him to the engineering team, I need to speak to the Admiral", Guyer ordered as they exited.

Guyer led the Admiral to his office, the station was a hive of activity everywhere they passed on the journey but eventually they arrived.

"Have a seat", Guyer waved to the threadbare chair, "New chairs aren't a priority yet", Guyer moved over to a battered looking kettle, "Tea?"

"Sure, no milk", Greenhill sat down as Guyer boiled the kettle, soon a steaming mug of black tea sat in front of him, Guyer took his own mug and sat down in his slightly better chair.

"He arrives tomorrow", Greenhill started talking, "I've hand picked a few people to monitor everything he does"

"And if nothing happens?"

Greenhill shrugged, "Once the viper bays are up to snuff he's getting transferred to the Galactica, he'll be gone"

Guyer sighed, "We don't know if Ragnar will even effect these organic types, this might just be a waste of time", He took a sip of his tea, "and an unnecessary security risk, the laser development team is onboard too"

"It's better we find out now, I placed a research scientist in your medical staff, if anything happens to Tyrol he'll document everything, this could be just what we need to find the infiltrators"

The fleet had long known of the effect that Ragnar had on the Cylons, whether that would still work on the organic versions was about to be tested.

Greenhill gulped down a mouthful of tea, "Just make sure he doesn't die, there's an emergency raptor on standby if the effect too severe"

"I don't like it but I'll do my duty, I'd rather keep well away from any of these skin jobs"

Greenhill nodded, he'd remember that term, it rolled off the tongue better, "I know but we put the Anchorage here for a reason, we need to know if it's still effective against the organic Cylons"

"So who else knows on the station?"

Greenhill raised an eyebrow, "For now, just you, Major Clark and my people here to keep watch, it's better you don't know who they are"

Guyer nodded, "And Baltar, why let him know about the Cylons?"

Greenhill sighed, "If it was up to me he wouldn't but the president has decided otherwise, he thinks Baltar might be useful helping to come up with a better test, it can wait till after he's done here though"

Greenhill glanced at his watch, "We'll have to leave it at that, I have a meeting to get to", he stood up from his chair and moved towards the door, "Keep me posted on what happens and keep an eye on Baltar too, he has an ego that might get in the way"

Sentinel Station

Earth Orbit

It took a full day for him to get to this meeting, the hours spent debriefing before he could even set foot outside of Pluto station had worn on him, others from the expedition had arrived from Kobol and were undergoing similar treatment.

The Admirals had actually given him a small round of applause when he entered the room, every objective of the expedition had been met and exceeded, even the Council had sent a small amount of praise his way.

Waiting at the head of the rectangular table was Fleet Admiral Coleman, the other top admirals of the Union sat around the table too, a space at the far end had been left for him.

"Admiral Borman, please sit", Coleman waved down to the other end when the door had shut behind him, James quickly took his seat, the other men craning their heads to track his progress.

"Good, now that we're all here we can begin"

Everyone opened the folders present on the table, "The good news first, the Colonials survived their war"

Coleman brought up a map of the local sector, "Unfortunately so did the Cylons", an area was shaded in red, "This is what the Colonials assume is Cylon territory, ceded in their armistice agreement, they have no current intelligence on their actual numbers or space they control"

"Recent information acquired by Admiral Borman here indicated the Cylons are attempting to infiltrate the Colonials population with biological constructs, so called replicants, for now that is the extent of our intelligence on Cylon activities"

"What of the five that were found by the Colonials", Admiral Fontana asked.

"The ones from the thirteenth tribe, until they regain access to their memories there's not much to say, I have one travelling with my fleet, we'll see if anything happens when we get to Gaia", Borman answered.

"Quite so Admiral", Coleman nodded to Borman, "For us though, we'll be changing our Goa'uld test to include Cylons too, scientists are already devising methodology as we speak"

A murmur of agreement sounded through the admirals, "We'll also be testing every Colonial ship that wants to travel to Earth in the future, plans are underway to construct a facility at Gaia for that purpose, right now secrecy is our biggest defence against the Cylons"

"How long will we be doing that?, it will have a big impact on future trade", Admiral Barrowman was the man who dealt with politicians the most, he was usually in tune with their mood.

"Realistically, a year or two but I'd prefer that the Cylons are neutralised as a threat before that happens"

"Can we beat them?", Admiral Rooks asked next, he had the most actual combat experience in void warfare compared to the others who, until the Guardian basestar, had none.

"Right now we have no idea of the size of their fleet", Coleman brought up an image of the Guardian basestar, "It would appear our weapons are better but our strategic mobility is woeful compared to theirs"

"We also cant commit our whole fleet to an offensive with the Goa'uld to worry about", Rooks mused as he looked at the picture of the Cylon ship.

Coleman nodded, "We're currently building up our fleet but that will take time, the best plan right now is to support the Colonials if they enter a war with the Cylons"

The screen changed to show some detailed information about the Colonies.

"We sent the expedition without even knowing if the Colonials were still alive" Coleman started, "They did suffer horrendous losses during their war, their population is twenty eight billion now, only a bit over double our own"

"Their space industry still vastly outstrips our own, their fleet is far larger and more massive too, most of our combat vessels are far smaller than theirs"

Coleman changed the screen too, it was showing estimated economic output for the individual Colonies, "Their civilian shipping tonnage is also vastly greater than the Union's, we still have a limited amount of cargo ships with jump drives in private hands, all the Colossus class ships are government owned"

"I heard the talking heads on the news, they want to be able to buy ships from the Colonials", Fontana added.

"Hopefully soon we can, the civilian side of things is lagging behind since most of the money is going to military production", Barrowman scratched his beard, "The Council wants a proper trade deal pronto"

"They have tons of ships in mothballs too, refitting the military ships would be exorbitant but the transports would be immediately useful", Borman had seen the mothball yards himself, more tonnage than everything Earth had built just sitting there.

"That's the conclusion of the Council, being able to buy civilian vessels will allow our economy to expand faster, trade with the Colonials will open up new markets for our goods to be sold and selling our weapons too", Coleman changed the screen again, a model of a jump drive now appeared.

"The first fruits of the expedition, Admiral Borman has managed to secure the complete technical details of the Colonial jump drives, although not the most current drives it is still far beyond what we could product to date, especially in miniaturisation"

"Good work James", Barrowman gave him a nod.

"We still need to wait for the arrival of the freighter with the drives the Colonials gave us but our engineers are already pouring over the documents and the data from the Cylon drive Borman recovered, we have already sent out the new algorithm to the fleet"

Coleman looked over to the clock on the wall, "Alright, take five we'll continue after I get a coffee"

The room descended into conversation as Coleman finished talking, Admiral Rooks stood from his seat and moved over to Borman, "We didn't really get to talk before you left", Rooks extended his hand, "Sven Rooks, formerly of the SLDF"

Borman stood up from his chair and took his hand, he had a firm grip, "James Borman, formerly of the United States Space Force, you were the captain of the McKenna's Pride?"

"Was yes, now I'm part of the Admiralty"

"So, what to you think of the Union's space force?"

Rooks looked contemplative for a moment, "Professional and green, none of you had any experience in fighting in the void, until you found that Cylon ship, it was all simulations and theory before we arrived"

The assessment stung but it was true, they never even had the sci-fi staple of pirates to shoot at, "And you Admiral, you have that experience?"

Rooks gave him a sad nod, "Thirteen years fighting Amaris, the most brutal fighting you could imagine"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to drag up bad memories, but I'm thankful you're sharing that experience with us, with the existence of the Goa'uld we need every advantage we can"

Sven smiled, "It's fine, I did want to talk to you about what you saw of the Colonials tactics though"

The two men wandered over to a corner of the room, deep in conversation.

Stargate Command

Hammond and SG-1 waited patiently in the conference room for their guests to arrive, as soon as they had returned from Kobol Jolinar had used her comms device to put out some feelers in the Tok'ra.

She had managed to stir up enough interest that their old friend Quinta had come through the gate to meet them, he was joined by their tech expert Anise, they both walked through the door guided by the marine guards on station.

Jack moved over to Quinta as he walked through the door, "Hey Quinta, how are the Tok'ra treating you"

Quinta bowed his head, indicating he was taking over control, "We'll enough Colonel, it is good to see you and the rest of SG-1 again, I see you have a new member though", he said looking over to Jolinar.

"Yeah, she's a bit rough but she grows on you"

A loud clearing of the throat from Hammond caused them to cut their conversation short, "Better get down to brass tacks then", Jack returned to his seat.

Quinta bowed his head again and his eyes flashed briefly, his voice now carried the distorted tones of a Goa'uld in control, "Greetings, I am Selmac of the Tok'ra and this is Anise, whom you have met before"

She bowed to the group, "Greetings"

Hammond stood and waved them to sit, "Welcome to Stargate Command, please sit and we can begin"

"Jolinar mentioned in her message that you encountered a being that revealed information to you?", Selmac asked as he sat down.

"Yes, we're currently trying to confirm the accuracy of the information we received", Hammond pulled out a folder, he opened it and passed over a photograph.

"Do you know what this is?"

Selmac picked up the picture, a robotic form stared back at him from the paper, he sighed and passed it back, "Ra encountered these machines thousands of years ago, he destroyed them all, I believe they called themselves Cylons"

"Five thousand years ago?"

Selmac nodded, "That sounds right, we were never able to infiltrate any of Ra's vessels at the time, we only had second hand reports but Ra did bring back some trophy's afterwards, I saw one personally, where did you get this image?"

"Did Quinta share our history with you?", Hammond asked after a moment.

Selmac nodded, "Some yes, he didn't really look into it though"

"Forty years ago a ship from another human civilisation arrived in orbit of our planet, the ship had ben infected by a computer virus created by the Cylons"

Selmac raised an eyebrow, "Did some survive Ra's purge?"

Hammond shook his head, "No, these Cylons were created more recently than that, one of the Colonial worlds, Caprica created them several decades ago, they rebelled and caused the Cylon war, it was at the start of that war when the ship arrived"

"I assume that this image is from one of these new Cylons then", Selmac frowned, "Far too similar to be any kind of coincidence, perhaps they found the remains of a Cylon from five thousand years ago?"

"According to every shred of evidence the Colonials have, no, they were created by a scientist named Daniel Greystone, independently"

Seeing that Selmac was lost for words Hammond continued, "The entity, Catius, he made allusions to the fact that the Colonies were destroyed once by the Cylons, five thousand years ago, that they had fled Kobol before and returned, repeating a cycle of destruction"

Selmac looked at Hammond, his face deeply frowning, "There are rumours of higher beings, beings that grant knowledge of things no one could know, there are many unexplained happenings in the universe, this Catius could be one of them"

Selmac looked over to a corner of the room, deep in thought, "Anubis was also rumoured to be seeking a path to ascension, a higher form of existence, it was half the reason that the system lords destroyed him, that and just how evil he was, even the system lords have limits, bad as they are"

"Ascension?, do you mean to tell he that there are god like beings around?", Colonel O'Neill's voice told him how much he didn't believe a word out of Selmac's mouth.

Selmac sighed, "Gods, no, but beings with powers beyond our understanding, yes, their actual power and limitations are unknown, but I understand your scepticism, we only have second hand stories ourselves"

"It would explain a lot", Jackson waved up towards the ceiling, "Maybe Catius is one of them?"

"Hmm, it's possible but not something we can confirm, lets table this avenue of discussion for now", Hammond turned back to Selmac, "Catius also told us something else you might be able to add to, the existence of an ancient human empire predating the Goa'uld"

Selmac nodded, "That much I can confirm, the stargates, all the terraformed planets and most of the Goa'ulds technology were the remains of a previous galactic empire, we have even found human populated planets that predate the discovery of Earth by Ra"

"So, Catius was telling the truth then", Jackson mumbled.

"It sure looks that way Danny, the bigger question is why", O'Neill's jovial tone was belied by the look on his face, tight with worry.

The sudden silence at that statement was broken by a loud banging on the door, it caused several of the occupants to jump in their seats.

Regaining his cool Hammond called out, "Enter"

A lone harried looking marine burst in and gave a quick salute, "Message from Earth sir, high command is requesting an SG team, they found something"

Hammond nodded, "We'll have to continue this conversation some other time, SG-1, gear up, you have a mission"

Mayan Pyramid

Mexico, One Hour Previously

A loud thump followed the doping of a large stone slab onto the dusty floor, electric lights reached out from the new doorway to illuminate the dark room, the silhouettes of several people could be seen behind the bright lights.

Two heads poked through the doorway, Doctors Kleinhouse and Cole, the shone their flashlights around the room and stepped inside.

Kleinhouse was the first to speak, "Would you look at this, many of us suspected there was another chamber, but the Mexican government wouldn't let us dig the compartment, until now"

The woman, Cole, shone her light on a large dark object taking up much of the space in the room, a golden tint could be seen underneath the layers of built up dust.

"What's this?, it looks like a sarcophagus"

They both moved over to the sarcophagus, a third man now stood in the doorway silently, observing them.

Kleinhouse took out a brush and handed it to Cole, "Burial chambers in a Mayan temple are very rare indeed, here"

Cole started to brush the layers of dust off the golden sarcophagus, soon various pictographs became visible, Kleinhouse looking over her shoulder, "Hieroglyphics", he said surprised,

"They're Egyptian", Cole was also surprised.

The man at the door perked up at that word, "Alright, back out of the room slowly you two, I'm declaring code Dangerous Lurker, possible Goa'uld technology"

Agent Sanchez had pulled out his service pistol and held it at the ready as the two archaeologists slowly backed out, "Months of research out the window", Kleinhouse moaned as they passed him.

Sanchez waved over one of his team, "Radio command, tell them we need backup"

"The rest of you stand guard, no one is allowed inside the pyramid and no one leaves the site until they're tested"

Sanchez turned back to shine his light into the room, it was a good thing the Union had introduced a policy of putting security agents at every archaeological dig, since the Goa'uld controlled Earth for thousands of years it was possible they left some things behind, scores of people were already re-examining every artifact in the museums around the world to see if any were Goa'uld.

"Good thing we were here, that could be a bomb for all those egg heads knew", Agent Diego mused from beside him.

Sanchez nodded but he had a feeling it was more complicated than a simple bomb.

Sentinel Station

The Admirals had returned to their seats, many now sporting steaming mugs of caffeinated beverages, Coleman settled back into his chair at the head of the table.

"I'll go over one last item before we end the meeting", Coleman began.

He hit a button on the table and the screen behind him came alive again, a new image appeared this one showing two ships that none of the Admirals had seen before.

"As you know our biggest bottleneck for ship production is orbital yard space"

Coleman looked at the admirals faces to ensue he had their attention, "There are already building projects underway to fix this but building orbital shipyards takes time, time we might not have"

He pointed up to the image, "These two new designs are meant to be a short term solution to that problem, meet the Tower class Corvette and Castle class Frigate"

Borman strained his eyes to read the distant screen but he could make out he details with the large text font, the corvette was one hundred meters long and the frigate two hundred, the same as a shield class, he couldn't see how they solved anything.

"You're probably wondering how this is a solution, let me explain"

He changed the displayed image to a video of the test flight of the first Terran built Leopard drop ship, it was shown hovering off the runway.

"Anti gravity lift engines, we've been toying with them for several years now but the technology had finally matured enough for heavy usage"

Borman though he knew where this was going, "You're planning on building them on Earth?"

"Exactly, if all the orbital docks are full, why not use the other shipyards we have, the ones on the ground"

Coleman changed the picture to a map of the world, "There are hundreds of yards big enough to manufacture the ships and more can be built easily, it would allow us to expand our fleet numbers faster"

"And the drawbacks?", Admiral Barrowman asked.

"The Castle will actually have a heavier armament than the Shields, mostly due to being designed from the ground up with new technology but with thinner armour"

"Not a bad trade-off, Goa'uld weapons will probably tear through our armour anyway, shields seem to be the main defence", Fontana mused.

"So our friends the Tok'ra have told us, I'll believe it when I see it", Rooks was sceptical of the information the Tok'ra had shared so far.

"The ship will have the ability to land on a planet and remain airborne too, the Tower is intended to fulfil patrol duties for us and with the national space militaries for policing and anti piracy operations"

"Will it have a jump drive?", Rooks asked, nothing that small back in his home reality had one.

Coleman nodded, "So far it will be the smallest warship equipped with one"

"So, when are we getting them?", Fontana spoke up.

"These things take time, I wouldn't expect to see one for another year at the earliest"

The reality of construction time was harsh although a lot better than it used to be, massive advancements had been made in robotic and drone construction techniques that had drastically increased the turnaround time for ship building.

Coleman let the room settle down before addressing Borman, "How soon will you have your fleet back to Earth?"

Borman did some quick calculations in his head, "Kobol is around twenty eight hundred light years away from here, with the new algorithm, around a month"

"I cant wait to get a new jump drive in my flag", Fontana sounded excited, "With our new drives and that algorithm you found it wold take less than a week to cover that distance"

"And we still haven't gotten those drives the Colonials traded with us, we could be matching their jump range soon", Barrowman was more subdued but a hint of joy was in his voice.

Coleman smiled, "You heard them James, better get moving".

Borman laughed too, "A few more days and we'll be back at it, the crews needs a few days at home to unwind"

The meeting wound down afterwards, Coleman pulled Borman aside for a private chat, "I sent a ship ahead to Gaia to inform them of the Colonials coming with you"

Borman nodded, this was about the Cylon onboard the Valkyrie, "I'll keep an eye on them sir"

"We're not giving them permission to advance further than that, only the ambassadors ship will be allowed to Earth and we'll be scrubbing their nav computer afterwards"

With the threat of the Cylons still looming it was a sensible precaution, "Good luck out there James, I'll see you when you get back"

"Thanks, more luck never hurt, until then Admiral", with that the two men left the room.

Mayan Pyramid

Mexico

Sometimes it still amazed him how far things had changed, take their trip back to Earth for example, they had an FTL capable ship sitting docked to the station just for emergencies like this, a skymarshall was waiting in orbit at Sentinel station when they arrived and now they were landing directly outside the pyramid.

All in all it only took one and a half hours to get from Pluto to Mexico and that was including the briefing and prep time.

As SG-1 disembarked he could see the hive of activity around the site, APC's and soldiers from the Mexican army had secured the whole area, setting up a cordon for at least twenty kilometres from the pyramid, he could see aircraft patrolling the skies too, and helicopters flying around in the distance.

"Colonel O'Neill?", A tanned looking man wearing a Mexican army uniform asked him, a Brigadier General to boot, "That's me, General Pérez I assume?"

"Si", he waved his hand to the man beside him, "This is agent Sanchez of the CNI, he was present when the discovery was made", Pérez looked over to another soldier trying to gain his attention, "I'll leave it to you, we already have media building up outside the cordon", he nodded to O'Neill and walked off.

"Agent Sanchez", O'Neill nodded to the man, "What exactly did you find, from all the activity it must be big"

"Follow me, I'll explain on the way", was Sanchez's curt reply, "Two American archaeologists have been pestering the Mexican government of several years with theories regarding undiscovered chambers in this pyramid"

Sanchez led SG-1 up the steps of the pyramid, "Their request was granted several months ago and I was assigned to keep an eye on things", he led them inside the cramped interior.

"Earlier today they found what they were looking for, a hidden chamber", Sanchez expression darkened, "Inside is a golden sarcophagus covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics, it screams Goa'uld to me"

O'Neill nodded, "I seen something that looked like one of those", Jack thought back to Ra's ship, how he had revived Daniel from the dead.

"It's through there", Sanchez pointed to a dark doorway, powerful lights were pointed inside.

"Alright, we'll take it from here, if you hear screaming call for help", Sanchez's face went blank but he nodded and withdrew.

"Lets check it out then", he led SG-1 through the small doorway, inside just like they were told was a golden sarcophagus covered in dirt and dust.

"Daniel, Jolinar, translate", he said curtly eyes fixed on the large object, it looked identical to the one on Ra's ship.

Daniel approached the sarcophagus while removing a small toolkit from his pocket, he opened it up and took out a small brush, "It looks like the sarcophagus on Ra's ship"

"That's because it is the same", Jolinar approached and stood beside him, "Sarcophagi are part of the reason that the System Lords are as bad as they are, it causes damage to a persons morals and ethics, they become callous with repeated use"

"I thought they were a healing device, how do they affect mentality?", Carter spoke up from her spot at the door.

Jolinar shrugged, "The causal mechanism is unknown but the Tok'ra will not use a sarcophagi lightly or at all really, otherwise they can heal most injuries, even recent death as long as the damage isn't too great"

"Define too great", Jack asked, curious.

"Brain destruction is the usual limit", she answered back, she leaned her head close to the sarcophagus, drawing Daniel's attention, "Brush here", she pointed to a section in the middle.

He brushed away revealing a symbol, "Hathor"

"Egyptian goddess of women, fertility and love?, that Hathor?", Daniel asked as he leaned in closer to the symbol.

"The Goa'uld Queen Hathor, she was the wife of Ra and mother of Her'ur, until she disappeared when Ra abandoned this world"

Jolinar moved to the circular bit of the sarcophagus near the top, a glowing orange crystal was visible underneath the dirt, "This will open the sarcophagus", she drew her side arm, a zat.

"You think she's inside?", Jack asked, "Still alive?"

"Inside, I don't know, but alive, yes she could still be alive in there", Jolinar moved back to the doorway, dragging Daniel along as she passed.

"Let me explain some things", she looked back to the sarcophagus, "Someone like Hathor will be extremely dangerous", she looked O'Neill in the eyes, "Thousands of years ago she developed what we now call Nish'ta, a mind control drug, airborne"

"I know for a fact that she had glands implanted into her host to be able to release it from her mouth, her old version was designed to control men, women are immune to it", she looked at Carter, "The modern version has no such deficiency"

"Add that to the standard System Lord equipment, a kara kesh, a powerful weapon and defence, it can generate a personal shield around the user"

"Vulnerabilities?", Jack asked.

"Apart from masses of fire only one, slow moving objects, otherwise the user would not be able to move or breathe, a melee weapon is the best counter"

Jack nodded, "Will knives work?"

"Anything slow enough, knives, sticks, rocks", Jolinar moved to stand beside the glowing gem again.

"The kara kesh is also a potent energy weapon, capable of generating large kinetic blasts"

"Alright, you have a plan then?", Jack saw she was going somewhere with the explanations.

"A simple one really, I'll stand by the sarcophagus as it opens and blast her with my zat'nik'tel at close range, inside any possible shield", She looked back to him, "Be prepared if I fail"

Jack nodded, "Knives out everyone and spread around, Daniel cover the door"

The group spread around the room, knives in hand in case the plan failed, "We're ready, do your thing"

Jolinar took a breath and reached over and pushed the glowing crystal, a grinding sound could be heard as the top of the sarcopagus started to slowly spread apart, the interior becoming visible.

A hand raised itself out of the inside, gripping the sides of the sarcophagus, the form of a woman soon followed, she pulled herself up and opened her eyes.

Before she could even open her mouth Jolinar shoved the zat into her chest and pulled the trigger, Hathor shuddered and collapsed back into the interior.

"Well, that was anticlimactic, what now", Jack asked Jolinar.

"We strip her and bind her, you have a facility that can contain a Goa'uld?"

Jack walked over to look inside, "I wouldn't mind looking at her naked but is that necessary?"

"Sir", Carter said as she walked over, embarrassed at his words, "But the question stands, do we need to strip her naked?"

"Send for coverings then but those are not merely cloths she wears, they could contain many weapons and defences I would rather we remove", Jolinar was adamant he saw.

"Fine, Daniel, ask outside if they have something, like overalls", He turned to Teal'c, "Help me lift her out"

"Indeed O'Neill", Teal'c moved to her feet and Jack took the head, Jolinar also moved to lift from the middle, they soon had the unconscious Goa'uld queen on the dusty floor of the chamber.

"Alright ladies, we'll stand guard at the door while you work away", Jack waved Teal'c to follow him out.

"This was a most strange trip O'Neill, I have never partaken in undressing a Goa'uld Queen before", Teal'c said when they stood at the doorway.

Jack laughed, "Me neither, lets just shoot them next time"

Union Parliament Building

New York

Once they had gotten the stargate working Tamara wasted no time in accelerating her journey to Terra, she wasn't staying in a ship for a month if she could help it, even the trip to Kobol took far too long to someone used to only spending a few hours to travel to another planet, leave the long journeys to the Fleet she thought.

Now she was in the back of a Terran limousine, on her way to meet their president, it had taken some time to arrange everything but now she was here, unfortunately some of her staff and the equipment would have to take the long way instead.

She was surprised when she arrived in orbit over the planet, it was far more heavily developed for a people that had only been in space for such a short time, even the city she was in now surprised her, it was massive, perhaps bigger than Caprica city even.

She knew the answer to her question though, she had spent the time travelling from Kobol learning everything she could about the planet, everything that the Terrans had deigned to share anyway, she knew it had a population of twelve billion, a whole lot more people than any single colony back home.

She and her staff had also tried to learn as much of the major language of the Terrans, English, as they could on the trip to Kobol, the Terran Admiral Borman had even loaned one of his crew who was a linguist to teach them on his off hours.

Still, she was far from proficient yet but the Terrans had supplied translators, tiny things that fit inside her ear, they would suffice until her vocabulary improved enough.

Her gaze went out the window as they approached their destination, the old UN building she had been told, now the seat of Union power, it was an ugly flat concrete slab covered in windows, she had seen worse on Sagittaron she supposed.

A large crowd was awaiting her arrival, held back by uniformed local police, a sight she recognised from home, the vultures of the media were a universal problem it would seem, she was ushered through the entrance, ignoring the questions thrown her way, she barley understood half of what was asked anyway.

It was a short trip afterwards, through the lobby and into one of the many elevators, now she was waiting outside the presidents office, she took one last look at her appearance, quickly fixing a few stray bits of fluff and straightened her shoulders, the secretary was waving her inside now.

"Ambassador Tamara, welcome to Terra", Was the jovial greeting she received when she walked into the room, a man stood behind a large desk, grey haired and clean shaven, he looked to be around her age too.

"Thank you Mr President, it's a very beautiful planet"

The president came around from behind his table and extended his hand in greeting, "Please, call me Henry"

President Henry Hayes had an easy smile as he directed Tamara to a couch to the side of the room, he moved over to a closed cabinet, behind which was an assortment of beverages and machinery.

"Tea, Coffee?", he asked her while pouring a rich dark blend into a mug.

She was a bit of a coffee aficionado back home, she'd see how the Terran blends held up, "Coffee please, black"

He walked over with two steaming mugs and placed them down on the coffee table, he sat down in a comfortable armchair across from her while taking a sip.

"So, are the premises we provided adequate for your embassy?"

"More than adequate, I thank you for the generosity", like the property given to the Terrans on Caprica it was an old embassy, she couldn't recall which country owned it before at the moment.

"Good", Hayes sat back in his chair, a smile still gracing his face, "I had my people go over the documents Weir signed, we saw no problems"

Tamara nodded, "And our proposals?", she said and reached for the mug, a sip later and the taste hit her tongue, it was far better than any Colonial blend.

Hayes' smile grew as he saw her reaction, "It's a Colombian bean, from the Andes mountains I believe"

His face turned serious, "For initial trade purposes we can offer tariff free trade on weapons in exchange for similar treatment on ships and jump drives, for five years"

Now it was back to smiling, "We can go into the details one the financial people sort out exchange rates and the rest"

Tamara nodded, they'd enter serious negotiations in the future but it was a good idea to get their positions laid out now, "I'll let my government know but I'm sure they'll want fusion reactors and thrusters included"

Before the gate that would have taken months, now only hours, they still needed to work out a schedule for regular contact but first the gate would be moved from Kobol back to Cyrannus, that was still a few days away from happening.

Hayes smile never left his face, "Speaking of communications, I was presented with an interesting idea, a joint venture"

He pulled a sheaf of documents from the side of his chair, tossing it onto the coffee table, "We have a device called a HPG, it can transmit a message fifty light years to another receiver"

Tamara reached down and opened the folder, fortunately it was in colonial, Hayes spoke on as she read, "We're already constructing satellites equipped with them based on mobile versions and laying out a network for our colonies"

Tamara glanced at the specs of one of the satellites, solar panels, a fusion reactor and the HPG itself all contained in a thirty cubic meter housing.

"It would take around sixty satellites to reach the Colonies", Tamara read, "You want us to pay half?"

Hayes nodded, "The stargate is too much of a bottleneck to clog up with diplomatic chatter, this network would allow us to communicate without the gates"

"Civilian use too?", she could see the value of such a system, she didn't anticipate much opposition back home, "I'll need to talk to the president, but I see no issues with a project like this"

Hayes' grandfatherly smile seemed bigger, "The first step of many, to the future", he raised his mug of coffee in a toast.

Stargate Command

"This symbiote has a much larger body than those we have encountered so far, this mass",Doctor Fraiser used a stick to point to the image on the wall, "is located in the hosts womb, the symbiote has longer neural tentacles that reach up the spine and connect to the brain"

Her face betrayed her disgust, "It would appear that this Queen coopts the hosts reproductive system to produce it's own offspring"

"Very informative doctor", Hammond would rather forget everything he just heard, "How is our guest's health right now, I understand she was stuck in the sarcophagus for thousands of years?", Hammond asked from his seat at the top of the conference room table.

"Perfectly healthy, I was told that the machine can heal any wounds and also sustain someone inside, I'd say she's proof of that, for now we're keeping her sedated with the drugs the Tok'ra shared"

Hammond nodded along, "Thank you Doctor Fraiser, you may return to the med bay"

Fraiser sharply nodded and made her way out of the room, a quick "General", acknowledging his order.

Hammond turned to the other people in the room, namely SG-1.

Colonel O'Neill was the first to speak, "So, how about we chuck it out of the nearest airlock?"

"That's not happening Colonel, this Hathor is too valuable to simply kill out of hand", Hammond shook his head, "The Council and Command want to extract every bit of information they can from her"

"I would advise against that course of action, a Goa'uld is dangerous enough but a Queen is even more so", Jolinar said, "I doubt you will be able to pry any information from her"

"There is another option", Hammond began, "Selmac said the Tok'ra would be willing to deal with her, I asked our superiors and they denied that request out of hand but Selmac asked to return and see their High Council, he should be back soon"

"A Queen is valuable in ways beyond simple information, I wonder what the High Council will do?", Jolinar mused.

They didn't have to wait long for the answer, the stargate activated a few minutes later and now Selmac was sat before SG-1 and Hammond.

Selmac bowed his head in greeting, a note of desperation was heard in his voice as he spoke, "The High Council is prepared to offer compensation for Hathor, everything we know about Goa'uld shields and further cooperation in intelligence matters"

SG-1 and Hammond wore looks of shock, even Jolinar was surprised by the offer, the Tok'ra had been reluctant to share anything with Earth so far.

Hammond overcame his minor shock and raised an eyebrow, "Shields are the thing we lack the most, why the change of policy, is Hathor that valuable?"

Selmac looked pained, "How much has Jolinar explained the history of the Tok'ra General?"

"You rebelled against the Goa'uld on moral grounds, beyond that I don't know much"

A huff and a sharp look at Jolinar later Selmac began to tell the story of the Tok'ra, "Our queen, Egeria was a mate of Ra, she became disillusioned with the Goa'uld empire, preferring to live in harmony with her host, she promoted a way of life that was at odds with the system lords"

Selmac sighed, "She fled and spawned us, the Tok'ra, free from the genetic taint of other Goa'uld, we strove to find willing hosts and live in harmony with them but then Ra found her"

Selmac had a dark look on his face as he continued, "Ashrak took her back to Ra, where she was removed from her host and imprisoned in a stasis jar, the jar was then sent to an unknown world, as for the rest of us we were hunted down until few of us remained, we went into hiding and began our war against the system lords"

"I see, how does Hathor factor into this?", Hammond asked.

"Hathor was also one of Ra's queens, Egeria and her were never friendly, they hated each other, I know that Hathor was there when Ra imprisoned Egeria, she knows where Ra sent the jar"

The room had a sombre mood when Selmac finished, "Finding Egeria is the most important thing to the Tok'ra, we would do anything to find her"

Selmac made eye contact with Hammond, "In addition to the data itself I can send Anise to directly help your scientists develop shield technology"

Hammond stared back into Selmac's eyes, "I'll need to talk to my superiors but I have a feeling they'll take your offer"

Kobol

Borman felt the shuttle touchdown in the hangar, he was finally back on board the Enterprise after a few days of recouperation on Earth, he spent some time with the family after the numerous debriefings and other meetings he had to attend, now it was time to hit the road again and finish this mission.

Captain Anderson was waiting when he exited the shuttle, "Admiral on the Deck", salutes greeted him as he planted his feet firmly on the steel floor of the hangar, "At east Captain, anything happen while I was gone?"

"Not much, I had our fighters do some joint training missions but that's about it, Commander Durant wrote up a report on the Colonials fighter tactics and performance, it's waiting on your desk"

"I'll have a look later, lets head over to the CIC"

They walked to the command centre in a few minutes, talking about some trivial things on the way, soon they passed the marine guards at the entrance and walked inside.

"Sir, Admiral Corman is on the line", The ensign manning the comms station said to Borman as he neared his chair, "Put him on"

Corman's voice came on over the speaker, "I heard you're leaving soon James, I thought I'd say goodbye"

"Ha, I'm sure we'll meet again but yes, we're about to continue on, is Adama ready to leave?"

"Yes, he wants to get to the bottom of this whole thirteenth thing, he's been ready since we arrived"

"Lets not keep him waiting then, it's been an interesting few months but home is calling, I'm glad we became friends Peter, if those Cylons start anything I'll be right back"

"I'll hold you to it, good luck James, may your path be free of hardship so the scroll say, good luck out there"

"Farewell, Borman out", the line wend dead soon after.

He turned to Anderson, "Captain, status of the fleet?"

"We got everything packed away as soon as we heard you were on the way back, the Shoebox reports that the Colonials took possession of the gate and is reporting they are about to launch, as soon as they dock we can leave"

She pulled out a pad and read some reports, "Every other ship in the fleet has their drives charged and ready, including the Valkyrie and the Ambassadorial ship"

"Good, as soon as the Shoebox is docked to the Pathfinder start the jump clock, we've been away from home long enough"

A few people, Borman included, had managed to get some time back on Earth via the gate but most of the crew were stuck in the fleet, he had let them get shore leave on the planet at least, but they had spent long enough on this expedition, it was time to go home.

Several minutes later and they were ready, "Countdown started, t minus 10 seconds to jump, all ships synced"

Borman took one last look at the monitor showing Kobol, perhaps sometime in the future he would return but now they were going home.

On the Athena Borman watched the Terran fleet vanish in flashes of light, only Colonial ships remained in orbit, he gave a salute to Borman and turned back to ship business.

Deep Space

Near Gaia

Adama looked to the clock on the wall, ten more minutes to go until their final jump, two and a half weeks of travel it took to get this far, he lamented the slow nature of the Terrans drives, a Colonial ship would have been there in less than two days, an old Jupiter even faster with its dual drives.

He rested his hand on the DRADIS table, patting the ship, she was the first of the Valkyries, a veteran of the first war, late as she was to it, a cheaper solution than the Jupiter's she only came with a single drive.

Adama's thoughts were broken when Tigh slunk into the CIC, a faint aroma of alcohol followed him inside, ever since he was back on the ship he had taken to the bottle, it got even worse when he found out what his wife had been up to, it was a good thing she was on the science ship Coeus, their last meeting had ended in a fight.

"Bill, I miss anything"

"Nothing, we're about to jump soon though, it's the last one"

"Thank the gods for that, I'm sick of waiting", Tigh trailed off, seemingly distracted by something.

Adama watched as Tigh stared off into a corner then shook his head, his general appearance was shabby, his face unshaven and shoulders slumped, his uniform rumpled and dirty looking.

"Saul, are you alright?"

Tigh jumped and focused back on Adama, he sighed and rubbed his head, "Apart from the big thing, no, I'm not"

Adama nodded and started to walk over to his office, "Lets talk in private"

It was a short trip out of the CIC and into Adama's small office space, he sat down and let Tigh take the seat in front of his desk, "Alright, what's wrong?"

Tigh looked around the room before he started to talk, "I've been hearing things, music I think, its been getting worse the further from the Colonies we get"

Adama nodded, "Is it Cylon related?"

Tigh sighed, "Must be, its like a song you know but just cant remember, it feels like its calling me somewhere"

Adama glanced over to his drinks cabinet, it was locked, good, he didn't want Tigh to get any ideas there, "Have you talked to Ellen, she might be going through this too"

Tigh's face darkened, "I'm not talking to that whore, she can rot in hades for all I care"

Adama sighed but held his tongue, things weren't going great back home for him, Carolanne was making noises about his absence from home and Lee was planning on joining the fleet, she was pissed at him right now.

A loud ring shook Adama and Tigh from their melancholy, he reached over and lifted the wired handset to his ear, "Adama here, go"

"Sir, the fleet is ready to jump"

"I'll be right there", he said and put the handset down, "Come on Saul, lets finish this"

The two men made their way back to the CIC, "Inform the Enterprise we're ready", he ordered as he walked in, taking up his spot by the DRADIS table, Tigh joined him.

"Enterprise confirms, jump in 60 seconds"

"Start the clock", Tigh shouted out to the CIC, a digital timer started up on the wall, counting down the time to the jump.

A minute later and Adama felt his stomach flip and the ship shudder slightly, the signs of a completed jump.

Contacts lit up the DRADIS display, the fleet they had been travelling with but further away the large icon of a planet was displayed, smaller symbols were arranged around it too.

"DRADIS contact, 231 carom 122, 12 contacts, looks like one Terran destroyer, two frigates and several civilian ships, the last object seems to be a station of some kind", Ensign Hanson called out.

"A defence force then", Tigh noted, Adama nodded in agreement.

"Bring the planet up on the screen and tell Bulldog to launch the CAP", Adama lifted his eyes to the small screen above his head, he could feel a slight rumble as the vipers launched out of their tubes.

The screen changed to show a live feed from the telescope on the ship, he could see the Terrans were in the middle of constructing a space station in orbit of the planet.

His eyes moved to the planet itself, green, blue and brown, from where he stood it was hard to tell anything was wrong with the place but he knew it had been nuked to hades and back, his thoughts were interupted by Saul falling to his knees and clutching his head.

"Arrggh", Tigh cried out, Adama move to grab him and haul him up, "Saul, whats wrong?"

"Frack!", Tigh's hand pounded on the table, "Frack this", he hyperventilated a bit before leaning on the DRADIS table, "Worst fracking headache I ever felt", he mumbled quietly.

"Saul", Adama helped him up again, "Snap out of it, what's wrong"

"I think I just got my memories back is what's wrong", Tigh whispered to him, "I need to get down there", Tigh looked back up at the screen, the planet seemed to stare back.

"Alright, but first were going to the med bay, then we can go down there"

Cylon Colony

Things were not well in the colony, that much was evident to everyone, it had all started when the three Biers and come running back to Cylon space raving like a lunatic, then Cavil had vanished.

Like Cavil, Leoben was the representative for his model, the Two's, he had been there when this had all started, he was in the room when Biers had been questioned, he was there when they last saw their supposed leader Cavil.

The other One's were trying to run the show but they couldn't hold a candle to Cavil's management of the Cylon people, things were slowly falling apart, liable to explode in their faces if they made the wrong move.

Even things in the Colonies were going bad for them, the Humans had implemented a stringent testing policy in the fleet and civil service, obviously to him an attempt to discover any infiltrators, it was the only thing that made sense, he was able to later confirm his theory after some informants the Two's kept let them know what happened.

The newcomers, these Terrans, and didn't the Colonial media blast that out, pointedly telling everyone how they most definitely were not the Thirteenth Tribe, they had found something on their trip to the Colonies, the Guardians.

That was enough to let the Colonials know, Leoben knew the game was up, that Cavils much vaunted plan had been taken out behind the shed and shot, but Cavil was missing and the other One's were too stupid and spineless to deviate from the 'god' approved 'Plan'.

Where the One's pointed the other models followed, Leoben prayed at first, seeking guidance, but he felt nothing where before the surety of their path was made abundant, talking to the hybrid made it even worse, all he could parse from that was they had been abandoned by god for something else, something old.

So Leoben took it upon himself to find out just what in hades was happening, prayer had always been his first choice, even the Colonial scriptures had some value, his talks with the hybrid had revealed the nature of their world, of a cycle of repetition and time, now it would seem that the cycle had been broken, the Cylons cast away as useless.

He sat up from the small cot that passed for a bed on the Colony, contemplation and prayer were getting him nowhere, it was time to act, what was Cavil doing before he vanished?, the best place to find out would be his quarters.

He could feel the atmosphere as he wandered, for once he didn't project a nice scene but examined the corridors of the ship itself, he decided to take the long route to where Cavil slept and on the way he started to notice some oddities.

Where there less centurions patrolling around?, he noticed a pair heading to one of the old storage warehouses and on a whim decided to follow them discreetly, they walked past several empty rooms, rooms that Leoben was sure contained the old deactivated Centurions from the first war, were they scrapped without him noticing?.

Around half way down the corridor the Centurions entered one of the storage rooms, Leoben waited and watched as they emerged carrying an old Centurion, he decided to investigate this activity.

"Centurions, explain what you are doing", he addressed them as they walked back.

There was a noticeable pause before the answered, "Orders: bring old units to foundry for recycling"

"Who ordered that?", he mused aloud, it's not like they were hurting for raw materials with all the space the Colonials gave up with the armistice.

"Unit Cavil, model one, gave order"

"He must have done that before he disappeared", he waved his hand dismissively, "Continue"

The two Centurions walked off and Leoben kept going towards Cavil's room, he'd look into this recycling later, investigating where Cavil went off to was more important right now.

He wandered for another hour before he finally arrived outside Cavil's room, Cylons were supposedly not to keep secrets from each other, knowing Cavil as well as he did he knew that was a load of rubbish, the fact that the door was locked proved his point.

It was a matter of moments for him to override the door lock, it had a trigger to inform Cavil if it happened but he wasnt around to know, Leoben walked inside and closed the door behind him, he stood in the middle and closed his eyes.

He recalled his last conversation with the hybrid, after working out exactly what she was saying, Cavil had found something and Leoben would find something in this room to point the way.

Opening his eyes he looked around, the room was bare mostly, but the bed sheets were nearly touching the floor, he move closer and lifted them up, there was nothing on the bed but underneath he could see something poking out.

Pulling the object out revealed a hard case, inside was a data drive, strange, all their information was stored on the network, why would Cavil need an offline drive.

He pocketed the drive and left the room, locking the door behind him, once back in his room he could examine the data in private, as he began his trip back a flash of alert spread across the network, he could feel the alarm of the other models in the cyber space, his walk turned into a sprint and he made his way to the command centre.

Inside the command centre the leaders of the various models had gathered, including the stand in for Cavil, a one dressed like a priest, he moved over to the gel interface and placed his hands on it.

"What happened", the Four asked.

The Six spoke up, "We just lost contact with one of our resurrection ships", her voice was tinged with alarm.

"Colonials?", Leoben spoke up, with everything that happened recently it was possible they attacked.

"No, it was on the far side of our space, everything was normal then suddenly they disconnected from the network"

"Disconnected?, not destroyed?"

She nodded to him, "I checked the sensor logs, no other ships were present, apparently it received orders from Cavil to jump out there with no escort, no one spotted it until now"

Leoben frowned, watching as the others began to rabble and panic, just what in hades was Cavil up to.

Gaia

It took a few hours to sort out their visit to the surface, first there was a medical check-up that had detected a slight increase in brain activity but otherwise Tigh was in good health, afterwards Adama had talked with Borman and the local commander to arrange things.

Looking at a map of the planet Tigh had picked out a destroyed coastal city, saying it was calling to him so that's where they were going, now Adama could get a look in person, their raptor was circling the site, down below he could see various tents in the ruins, Terran archaeologists had been examining the place already.

"Remember to take some anti radiation meds", the marine corpsman said as he pulled out a small injector, "You should be fine but there could be pockets of stronger radiation"

Adama nodded and pulled his sleeve up, ignoring the feeling of a needle piercing his skin, a cold sensation soon flooded his shoulder and the needle was withdrawn, he pulled his sleeve back down as the marine moved to one of the other passengers.

The raptor landed soon after in a small cleared zone occupied by Terran vehicles, he could see a bare bones SUV waiting for them, opening the door he exited followed by Tigh and the marine escort, a civilian moved forward to greet them.

"Welcome to Gaia, I'm Doctor Rothman", the man waved to the vehicle behind him, "Lets head into the city"

They loaded into the car as Rothman spoke, "We've been here for a few weeks now but all we found is skeletons and old robots, it looks like most of the documentation was lost in the blasts and to time"

Adama tuned him out and looked to Tigh, he head was staring out of the window, his face frowned, "Ellen is on the way down too Saul", Adama spoke up.

"Hmph", he turned away from the window and looked at Adama, "I'm still angry at her but she needs to be here too"

The silence returned for the rest of the trip, soon they arrived at a desolate sandy ruin, all that was left of the previous civilisation was crumbeled walls and old bones, Rothman led them to an active dig, in the hole was a rusted looking Centurion, Adama shook his head, where the Thirteenth destroyed by their own creations too.

Adama and Tigh disentangled themselves from Rothman and wandered off on their own, Tigh leading the way to the ruins of a small building, "This is it, where it happened", he spoke softly as they stood in the former centre of the building.

"What happened?", Adama asked even though he knew the answer.

Tigh looked down to the ground, "I wonder if I dig here will there be bones?", he shook his head and sat down on the ground.

"Everyone knew a war was coming, the end of the world, Ellen had a plan", Tigh said as he stared at the spot he died.

"Resurrection, the ability to download your mind into a fresh body, we banned it when we discovered how to fix our infertility problem but Ellen thought she could recreate it, she could"

"Saul, I thought this is where you would go", A new voice spoke out, Ellen Tigh walked into view and stood beside Adama, her eyes drifted to the same spot on the ground.

"Bill", she nodded to Adama, "We made the same mistake that you did, creating machines to be our slaves, they revolted and gained control of our nuclear weapons, you can see the results for yourself"

"Ellen came from money, she was able to get a ship prepared in orbit with the resurrection technology aboard, our insurance policy if the worst happened, we were right here when the nukes hit", Tigh nodded his head towards the spot on the ground.

"There were five of us, Myself and Saul, then Galen, Samuel and Tory, we all woke up on the ship afterwards and decided to go to your worlds, to prevent the same thing from happening there"

Adama raised an eyebrow, "Why did you think we'd do the same thing?"

"Honestly, I don't know, I just felt something drawing me that way, plus there was nothing left on Earth to return to, so we programmed our ship to take us to the Colonies, a journey of two thousand years", Ellen said and sat down beside Tigh, he put an arm around her and drew her close, their previous spat forgotten for now.

"When we arrived near the end of your war we offered our resurrection technology and organic bodies to the Cylons in exchange for ending it, the Cylons agreed", Saul said with bitterness entering his voice, "That's when it all went wrong"

"Cavil", Ellen sighed, "The first of the new Cylons, I modelled him after my own father, he resented us, hated us, hated you too", she said the last bit to Adama, "At the time we thought he would grow out of it, but then he sabotaged the sevens, ended their whole line"

"That's the last memory we have before we woke up in the Colonies, Cavil must have erased them and dumped us there, I wouldn't put it past him to start a new war", Saul finished the story.

"Would he send infiltrators into the Colonies?", Adama asked after processing what he heard.

"It's possible, he really hated humans, he resented that he was organic at all, he was a master of projecting his problems onto other people, the Colonies included"

"Hmm, so it's likely that he would start another war?"

Saul nodded, "Why else erase our memories and send us to the Colonies, we'd stop any attempt otherwise"

They were done here then, Adama thought, it was time to head back to the Colonies and prepare for war.

Stargate Command

10th July 2065

A whole year gone by, Jack thought, since he first set foot through a stargate, things had been picking up in Stargate Command recently too, the past few weeks had been strange to say the least.

That planet with the ageing nanites had been a horror experience to him, fortunately he was spared the worst by Jolinar pointing out that they had a central control computer, it only took her a few minutes to discern its location inside a statue of the Gould responsible, Pelops.

The Argosians had been ecstatic that they now lived for a full human lifetime but Jack had foreseen problems with their limited numbers, he managed to convince them to relocate to the refugee facility on Heliopolis, they would be educated and integrated into society there.

The next week had Daniel floating the idea that the Norse gods were aliens too, one thing led to another and Teal'c gave them the address to a world where the Gould never returned, that's when Jolinar told them about the Asgard and the protected planets treaty, Cimmeria the planet in question was part of that treaty.

It was decided in light of that information to only sent the human members of SG-1, that would turn out to have been a good idea in retrospect, Thor's hammer they had been told would sent etins to their deaths, etins being Gould to the locals.

They managed to find a former host called Kendra who explained the system, she had been transported into a labyrinth a good distance away from the gate, she told them it was occupied by a Gould trapped there, inhabiting an Unas, another race enslaved by the Gould, she managed to escape it and pass through a barrier which destroyed the parasite within her.

With nothing else to do they left a box in the hopes that the Asgard would show up and returned to the SGC, they might revisit the world in the future, the Gould removing device would be worth study.

Jack's thoughts soured when he remembered last weeks trip through the gate, Hanka, they had discovered it was close to a black hole, it was a good opportunity to study it and the locals had agreed in exchange for some tools, thus they had built a small observatory.

Last week was when it turned bad, the whole population of the planet reduced to one child, an act of spite by the Gould Nirrti, it would seem that she didn't know who had built the observatory, Jolinar told them, or there would be fleets of Ha'tak in orbit now, instead she had just released a nerve agent into the atmosphere.

Jolinar had told them to be wary of further action from Nirrti, nerve gas and child bombs weren't enough for the Gould, it was a good thing that they left little information in the observatory to point anyone back to Earth and nothing showing that they had fleets of space ships.

Jack sighed, they should be fine but the military forces were still on high alert just in case a Ha'tak showed up, Janet had even offered to look after Cassandra after the surgery, it was fortunate that the Star League medical database had methods to remove the semi organic explosive from the child.

Jack finished writing up his reports for now, the backlog had nearly caused his desk to collapse under the weight of the paper, he sighed and leaned back in his chair.

He could feel the rumble of the stargate activating, they were sending a probe to the another planet on their list of addresses, tired of writing he left the room and headed to the command centre.

"General, anything good", he asked when he arrived, Hammond and the techs were glued to the screens showing the world on the other side.

"No, the world looks uninhabitable, toxic gases and volcanic activity around the gate"

Jack moved closer and looked himself, "What's that there", he pointed to a corner of the screen.

A small reflective bit of metal was visible under the mounds of ash building up, "Sergeant, zoom in on that metal"

The mound had a familiar shape to it thought Jack, "Is that a body?"

Hammond nodded, "It could be, Colonel gather SG-1, you'll need the hostile environment suits"

Jack nodded, "Sir", it was time to explore a volcano, a change from endless forests he supposed.