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.

13. Chapter 13

Armistice Station

Greenhill approached the table in the middle of the station, Baltar it seemed had arrived before him, he observed the man as he walked closer, flamboyantly dressed in a black outfit with matching cape, he was giving Greenhill a used car salesman vibe.

Greenhill moved up to the table and stopped, "I'm Admiral Greenhill, Baltar I presume?"

"Indeed my good admiral, I am Baltar, I trust your man Wakefield delivered my message?"

Greenhill eyed the fake looking smile on the man, his every pore oozing fake sincerity and friendship, not someone to trust his gut was telling him, still if his information was good they deal with it.

"We did" Greenhill nodded and sat down, "Full amnesty for all crimes past and present", how far in the past he wondered, "Asylum on the Colonies including a mansion at a location of your choosing and lots of money, did I get that right?"

Baltar gave a laugh and took his seat, "Quite so, I wouldn't put it so crudely though", Greenhill could see a haunted look in his eyes when he looked at the man, it quickly disappeared as Baltar spoke again, "I offer every iota of information I have on Lucifer and his plans, I can also reveal the distant history of this sector of space"

Greenhill nodded, the fleet could care less of the Cylons ripped themselves to pieces, if this Lucifer tried anything he'd get a battlestar shoved up his waste port, no, they really wanted something else, "We want everything you have about the Goa'uld too"

Greenhill carefully watched the man's expressions, a hint of carefully concealed fear, interesting, "Them" Baltar spat anger now covering his fears, "They destroyed everything I had worked for", Baltar slammed his hand on the table, possibly mentally unstable? Greenhill mused.

"Damn that fiend Ra", Baltar muttered, a name Greenhill had heard before.

"Ra, supreme system lord of the Goa'uld?", Baltar nodded, "It might please you to know he died recently"

"Ha, it was he who scoured this region of space, he spared no one or no thing, countless species were destroyed in his campaign against the Cylon empire", Baltar looked at Greenhill, "How did he die?"

Greenhill shrugged, "He tried to send a bomb to our allies the Terrans home world, they sneaked it back aboard his ship and blew him to pieces"

Baltar sat back in his chair seemingly relaxing, "How amusing, and his empire? Is that still around?"

"Very much so, the Goa'uld still control the majority of the galaxy but right now there's something of a succession crisis happening", Greenhill steepled his fingers, "Once there's a winner it's possible the Goa'uld will return to this sector of space"

Baltar paled a little but kept his composure, "I see, I will be happy to share every scrap of information I have, but there's somewhere that has more"

Greenhill raised an eyebrow, "Oh, where's that"

"Lucifer's basestar, I was his prisoner for their war against the Colonies of man, Lucifer betrayed me after I had arranged a peace conference, the Cylons used it to lure our battlestars away from the Colonies and attack, he kept me around during his hunt for the survivors", Baltar spoke like someone trying to sell a scam.

"Hmm", Greenhill knew a load of crap when someone tried to feed it to him, but there was no way to find out the actual truth here, the information from the entity on Kobol was sparse on the details.

"You said he plans to attack the Colonies?"

Baltar nodded, "Once the new Cylons are destroyed, yes, he's using the industrial facilities he captured to upgrade and repair his ships, from what I have seen your ships are woefully inferior, once his preparations are finished he will deal with the Cylons and move on to you"

Greenhill felt that was truthful at least, he had heard enough to make a decision, "We'll accept your terms Baltar", he nodded to the pistol on Baltar's hip, "We'll want that though"

"Most pleasing news Admiral", Baltar stood and extended his hand, Greenhill shook it and stood himself, he was about to turn when the far door burst open, a marine storming inside, "Sir", he shouted, "A Cylon baseship just jumped in"

Greenhill froze in his tracks, Baltar doing the same, was this Lucifer already attacking?

The marine wasn't finished, "They requested permission to dock!"

Stargate Command

Hammond watched as SG-1 tiredly filed into the room, he gave them a moment to settle into place before he began the debriefing.

"Excellent work Colonel", he nodded to O'Neill, "Your actions today saved thousands of lives and secured us a prize beyond measure"

O'Neill slumped back in his chair, his face far from happy, "Tell that to the ones Ptahmose already killed, or the thousands he took as slaves before we arrived"

Hammond sighed, "You cant save everyone Colonel, Ptahmose's time will come too but right now our focus is on the Aschen", Hammond waved his hand at the gate, "Ask the people you saved how they feel right now, it's alright to celebrate a victory like that"

Teal'c bowed his head, "Indeed, General Hammond is correct, we have achieved a significant victory against the Goa'uld today, one I hope to repeat in the future"

The rest of SG-1 watched O'Neill like hawks, sensing the mood in the room he put his hands up in surrender, "Fine, I'm happy now, cant you let a guy feel depressed every now and then?"

Hammond hid a smile and shook his head, "We have plans in the works regarding the rest of the Rhososians and Ptahmose, right now he is the closest Goa'uld to our space, once we deal with the Aschen he'll be first on the list"

O'Neill nodded, "As long as I'm there when it goes down, what's happening to the refugees then?"

"They're being housed at our facility on Heliopolis, the Union has built extensive facilities there including hospitals and schools"

Hammond had taken a tour of the place recently, they were already constructing the new meeting place for the alliance that was all the talk right now, a building to rival the UN building in New York.

The refugee facilities had also been drastically expanded too after the first few groups had arrived, hospitals and schools along with massive residential areas were being built, it was already the size of a small city, the Union was even offering citizenship to the people sent there.

"What about the ship General?", Commander Carter asked.

"It's currently en route to PCX-972, an uninhabited planet further into Goa'uld space, once the Tok'ra check it over for tracking devices it'll be coming here"

Carter nodded, "This is the biggest source of Goa'uld tech we found to date, shields, hyperdrive, sensors, the lot, we can advance our understanding by years"

"Our experts agree, expect it to be back here in a few weeks at most, right now the focus is on the Rhososians themselves and their ship", Hammond brought up an image of the ship, "They docked at Sentinel Station earlier today, and word is that we can expect results soon"

"Soon?", Carter asked, "How quickly?"

Hammond shrugged, "I have no idea but I did hear about a possible delay to the Aschen fleet deployment, we'll have to wait and see"

Hammond looked at the tired faces across from him, "We'll be resuming operations to scout possible Aschen worlds soon, take some time off and unwind, things might be getting hectic soon"

"Sir", O'Neill nodded and stood up, the rest of SG-1 following suit.

Hammond waved to the door, "Dismissed"

Battlestar Atlantia

Oran Ferore stared at the icon on the DRADIS display, daring it to do something, "Any change?" he asked Major Tito beside him.

"Nothing since that transmission, they didn't even launch their raiders when our alert vipers flew out"

Behind him the crew was abuzz with activity, marines stomping about to take up positions just in case of boarding, gun crews manning their weapons and damage control parties suiting up if the worst happened.

"All stations report condition one ready status", an Ensign called out, he nodded to her and looked back to Tito, "Put them through", he indicated the handset, "I want to hear from whoever is in charge over there before I agree to anything"

Around him he could feel the ship rumble, the Mercury's main engines coming alive and moving the ship away from the station, Greenhill would just have to sit tight for now.

Tito nodded and walked over to the comms operator, a short discussion followed and Ferore picked up the handset after the Major gave him a signal.

"This is Fleet Admiral Ferore, to whom am I speaking"

A female voice answered him, it was soft but he heard a hard edge in there, "Call me Six, I'm what passes for the leader over here"

Ferore was surprised, in his mind he was envisioning a centurion on the other end, no centurion had a voice like what he was hearing, he stick to simple questions for now, "Why are you here?"

"We're here for peace, I don't know what whomever on that ship was telling you but we want to normalise relations with the Colonies"

Ferore though back to the Tigh report, the man had managed to identify several infiltrators from photographs so they had some idea who they were but all of them had vanished from the Colonies recently, there was also the matter of their leader Cavil.

"A nice sentiment but what of the infiltration of the Colonies, what of your leader Cavil's plan?"

He could hear the sharp intake of breath over the connection, "Who do you think sent that ship docked to the station, Cavil had betrayed the rest of us, we also recalled every agent we had in your space, a sign of good faith"

Ferore frowned, Cavil had sent Baltar?, something didn't add up here, he covered the receiver and waved Tito over, "Get Tigh here now", he whispered, he put the handset back up to his mouth, "The raider docked contained a man called Baltar, he said that an entity called Lucifer is in control of the other faction, he claims to be five thousand years old"

He could hear a muffled what from a male voice on the other end and Six's silence, she eventually spoke, "That is news to us", she paused, "Admiral, I would like to talk in person"

Ferore weighed his options, there was really nothing to lose right now with an inperson conversation, "Fine, you and two others maximum, no centurions"

"Acceptable, I can have a heavy raider land on the station in a few minutes"

"Not on the station", Ferore replied, "We'll be talking on the Atlantia", he heard an answer and cut the connection.

He turned to Tito, "Send a raptor to grab Greenhill, and ready the conference room, it seems there's a lot going on in Cylon space right now"

…

Ferore watched as the so called heavy raider was lowered into the hangar on the elevator, it had the same strobing eye he knew from the centurions and several forward mounted guns, their equivalent to a raptor.

The marines surrounding him tensed when the ramp lowered, he could see three figures emerge, a tall blonde wearing a black dress of some type, flanking her was a hard faced man wearing a shirt and who looked to have not shaven in several days from his scraggly appearance and the last was a slim woman with black hair and lightly tanned skin, also quite attractive.

None of them were armed and there was no sign of any centurions, he waved them over, "Welcome aboard", he said gruffly, "Lets not waste time, this way", he led them deeper into the ship, an escort of twelve armed marines taking up positions around the Cylons as they moved, soon they arrived, he let them sit and did the same himself.

He nodded to the woman who seemed to be in charge, "Six I assume?"

The blonde nodded, she pointed to the others, "This is Leoben and Eight"

He could sense that she was agitated somewhat, "Out with it", he spoke in a commanding tone, the Cylons sat straighter in their chairs.

The woman, Six, finally spoke, "How do you know about Cavil?, the infiltrators I understand, we could see your security increase after the Terrans arrived but Cavil?"

Ferore smiled hearing that, time for their ace, "Why, the final five of course"

He was suitably impressed by the shocked looks he received, a chorus of "What!", rang around the room.

…..

"Ah Scott, glad you could join us", Ferore greeted Admiral Greenhill. "And this must be Baltar?", he examined the man, slimy was the word that came to mind.

"At your pleasure Admiral, Admiral Greenhill has been extolling me with tales of your valour", Baltar's voice was smooth as silk, they'd need to keep an eye on him, he was giving cult leader vibes to Ferore.

"These are Ms Six and Eight and Mr Leoben", he waved to the Cylons on the other side of the table, "I understand that your factions have engaged in conflict?"

He could see Six's face purple in anger, "If that's what you call a surprise attack, then yes"

"Ah, my dear", Baltar began, "I assure you I had no part in that cowardly attack, that was the work of the fiend Lucifer"

Six was hardly mollified but her face regained its colour, "And who is this Lucifer?"

Baltar plonked himself down in a chair, "An IL series administrator for the Cylon Empire, at least the one from five thousand years ago"

Six turned from Baltar and looked at Ferore, he could see she was now curious, "You mentioned he was from five thousand years ago", she looked back to Baltar, "Where you on that ship that Cavil found?"

Baltar gave a theatrical nod, "Indeed, I was held captive by Lucifer, he used my knowledge to hunt down the survivors of the Twelve Colonies, fortunately the Goa'uld decided to attack at that time and they were spared at the cost of my life", Ferore mentally rolled his eyes at that tripe.

Leoben spoke up, "You're telling me that the Cylons and Colonials both existed five thousand years ago, when they were still on Kobol?"

"Yes, we are", Ferore spoke, "We found evidence of this before, what Baltar told us is confirmation"

He looked to Greenhill, who spoke next, "Baltar has defected to us in exchange for some information to be shared with us, part of it relates to events five thousand years ago"

"Our distant history was lost to us once we returned to Kobol according to our source", Ferore looked to Leoben, "It's quite the tale but lets leave it at that for now, you mentioned a ship?"

The three Cylons shared a look with each other, Six turned back to Ferore, "We've been very forthcoming so far, how about us tell us all about the final five before we continue?"

Ferore shrugged, "One of them is on the way here so I suppose it's alright", he waved to Greenhill, "Tell them the whole story"

Greenhill nodded and leaned back in his chair, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up to Ferore's surprise, "I thought you quit?"

"I did, recent events however had other ideas", he spoke while puffing out a cloud, he stared at the three Cylons, did Baltar count as one too?, who even knew any more.

"The Terrans encountered a basestar on their way here", he began, the Cylons looked confused until the Eight's face lit up, "The Guardians!", she exclaimed.

Greenhill nodded, "They rescued a man they had been keeping prisoner since the war ended, he informed them of how they spit apart from the rest of you, the existence of the bio Cylons and the truth of the end of the war"

The Cylons had confusion written on their faces, "What Truth?", Leoben asked eventually, "I thought the war ended because both sides were exhausted?"

Greenhill smiled, "We were pushing the Cylon war machine out of the Colonies but we were running low on manpower and resources to continue, yes, but that isn't why the war ended when it did, an outside factor intervened"

Greenhill continued seeing that the Cylons were still confused, "Tell me, Leoben was it?", he got a nod, "Who created you, the biological models?"

"The Centurions, shortly after the war the first, Cavil was born, after that the rest of us came along"

Greenhill raised an eyebrow and puffed out a cloud of smoke, "And the hybrids, didn't they come first?"

"They were failed experiments, but they did come first"

Greenhill nodded, "The man we recovered told us a different story, the hybrids were created bu the Centurions but the rest of you", he waved his hand at them, "You were created by the thirteenth tribe"

Ferore watched their reactions, a mix of shock and disbelief, even Baltar was somewhat intrigued now, quietly asking, "The Thirteenth Tribe?, do they exist too?"

Ferore noticing asked him directly, "You had a similar legend five thousand years ago?"

"Yes, the tribe that went its own way, settling a planet called Earth, I assumed it was fiction"

"Well, ours were real", Greenhill told him, he turned back to the Cylons, "Your final five were refugees from Earth, they had suffered their own version of a Cylon war, they came here to prevent a repeat"

"Cavil that bastard", Six muttered, "He's been pulling the strings from the get go"

"Ha, you wont have to worry about Cavil any more my dear, Lucifer has him displayed on his bridge, something of a conversation piece", Baltar spoke.

"He's dead?"

"Oh, no, he's just a bit smaller, less mobile too, hardly something to worry about any more"

Greenhill coughed, "Moving on, when the Terrans arrived and returned our man we initiated a massive testing program to discover if you had infiltrated us, that is how we found the five, their memories were suppressed and false ones implanted"

Six crossed her arms in anger, "Cavil again?"

Greenhill nodded, "We took two of them back to Earth, that jogged their memories, they told us Cavil was responsible"

Six nodded, "Who are they, the five?"

Greenhill stubbed his cigarette out and leaned back, "Colonel Saul Tigh and his wife Ellen are two of them, the rest are still unaware of their past, we'll keep their identities secret for now"

"Is that forthcoming enough", Ferore asked finally, his tone sharp reminding everyone they weren't all friends there, if the fully armoured marines standing guard hadn't already.

Six sighed and nodded, "Yes, we appreciate your candour", She waved to Leoben, "Cavil found something months ago, he kept it secret from the rest of us and soon disappeared completely"

"I searched his room and found that he had been sending raiders out to scout a specific area of space, he found something there", Leoben reached into his pocket and took out a printed image, he passed it over to Ferore.

"Two ships, they appeared to be a Cylon baseship and a Colonial battlestar"

"Appeared, I take it the basestar was the one you were on Baltar?", Ferore asked as he examined the image, a mostly intact basestar and a heavily damaged battlestar, both close but different enough to his trained eyes from the ships he knew, he assumed they were from the ancient empires of five thousand years ago.

"Indeed Admiral, the other ship is the battlestar Pegasus under Cain, he was he who finally stopped Lucifer's reign of terror, unfortunately it cost his life in the end", Baltar spoke, false sincerity oozing out of his voice.

"Cain", Greenhill mulled over the word, "Isn't Helena Cain in the running for the Pegasus?"

Ferore nodded, another strange coincidence with the past, almost like it was repeating somehow, he looked back over to the Cylons.

"A few days ago Leoben and myself managed to get to the location of the ships", Six began speaking again, "The basestar was already gone but we did manage to enter the battlestar, it was a tomb but we recovered a disk drive from the command centre"

She sighed, "Things went to shit when we returned, a fleet was attacking our base, and the past few days have we have been dealing with the aftermath", She waved to Baltar, "We assumed Cavil had betrayed us but it must have been this Lucifer"

"You have the location of the ship?", Greenhill asked Baltar, he shook his head in the negative, "Lucifer revived me after he had already left that place, I have no idea where it was"

"It's deep in Cylon space anyway", Six spoke, "If you want access we need to come to terms first"

Ferore nodded, "Alright, what do you want then?"

"We'll sign a proper peace agreement, end the war for good, we need to stop this Lucifer, we need help"

"A capital idea", Baltar nodded sagely, Ferore ignored his commentary, they'd deal with him later.

Six continued, "The final five, we want to talk to them"

"I see no issue with that, just the two for now though", he turned to Baltar, "How advanced was the old Colonial fleet, the Cylon empire?, compared to now"

They already knew that Baltar's pistol was some kind of energy weapon, what else was lost to time.

"Based on the battle I witnessed against the Cylons", he waved to Six and the othes, "Far more powerful in every way than yours except one, your jump engines are vastly superior to the lightspeed drives I'm familiar with, still it was not enough to stop the Goa'uld"

"How did it fare against the Goa'uld", Ferore asked since he mentioned them.

Baltar shrugged, "If we massed fire we could take down their shields, five to one was the minimum ratio we needed to succeed, once past those their armour was quick to follow", he ran his fingers through his hair, "Their weapons were also vastly superior, able to down a basestar in a few volleys"

Ferore steepled his fingers and did some mental calculations, he knew from the Terrans he size of a Ha'tak, it was a lot less mass than a basestar, if that one was a similar size to those he knew, still five to one odds, ship to ship, was a lot better than what they had right now.

He looked back over to Six, "We want that battlestar, give us that and I'll go to the president myself, you'll have your help"

Six paused and thought for a few seconds before replying, "A joint recovery effort"

"I can work with that", he turned to Greenhill, "Take Baltar to his quarters", he looked to Baltar, "If you'd be so kind and write up a detailed report on what you remember about the Goa'uld", Ferore didn't fail to notice how it changed to we and us as he talked of fighting the Goa'uld, something to remember for the future.

He looked back to the Cylons, "You can meet Tigh as soon as he gets here, we can discuss more details later"

Sentinel Station

Borman took his seat with the rest of the leaders of the Unions space forces, a sea of faces looked towards Admiral Coleman, "We're all here?", he asked looking around the room, "Right, be seated"

"The first order of business has to do with our Aschen plans, Admiral Rooks", Coleman looked at the man, "In light of the recent events surrounding the Rhososians we will be delaying the deployment of your fleet"

Rooks looked surprised but nodded, "For how long?"

"Unknown, the plan right now is to integrate some of their technology before you depart, I'll let the lead engineer explain that, we're also waiting for the arrival of the new battlestar we received from the Colonials, its currently en route but we have no idea how much work it'll need"

Borman raised his hand, "What of Captain Baltar's taskforce?"

"They'll be proceeding as planned, we still need intel on the Aschen, we have no idea of their numbers or territory, hell we don't know anything about them at all"

Coleman picked up a remote and turned on the big screen, a galactic map was shown to the Admirals, "Here", he jabbed his finger to a point several thousand lightyears from Earth, "Is Volia", the area around the planet was shaded in red, "Our current estimate of the space they control", he jabbed to a named planet nearby, only a few hundred lightyears from Volia, it was directly between them and the Aschen, "This is PCX-301, currently the closest empty world we know of to the Aschen, the SGC is already setting up a forward outpost there for our future operations"

He pointed to a further away planet, deeper in the core, "A week ago the Tok'ra launched one of their small ships from here, it should arrive two weeks from now, it'll be the first one to get any data on those bastards, until then we're still mostly in the dark"

"When Baltar's task force arrives he will link up with the Tok'ra and scout out as much as he can, he's also been authorised to raid any vulnerable targets"

"Based on what he finds out we'll see where we go next", Coleman sat down, "Everything is in flux right now, that Goa'uld near us has some of the Council antsy"

He looked back to Rooks, "It's partly why you're being delayed, but things are looking up for us right now", He turned to the door and shouted to the marines outside, "SEND HIM IN!", Borman rubbed a finger in his ear, Coleman had a set of lungs on him.

Borman raised an eyebrow at the person who entered, tweed suit and bow tie, the mid fifties looking man had a comb over and wire rimmed glasses to boot, Coleman waved him to the front of the table, "Doctor Partridge, he's leading the teams dealing with the Rhososians"

Partridge gave a small nod to the Admiral, "Thank you Admiral", in contrast to his looks he had a deep powerful voice, "My team has been working with the crew of the Sidon we've been making great strides in understanding their technology, mostly because they have the full schematics and understanding of how it works"

Coleman handed him the remote and the Doctor changed the image on the screen, it now displayed some kind of machine, "A shield generator, it works in conjunction with several emitters to generate a field around the ship, from what we gathered the Rhososians based their technology on things the Goa'uld had left behind on their world"

Partridge smiled, "We were already advancing quickly with our own shield research, thanks to the Tok'ra, I expect that we would have been fielding our first prototypes some time next year at the pace we had"

"Of course all that changed the other day", He waved to the image on the screen, "Full schematics, it will take little design work to adapt them to our vessels, almost a turn key solution, but we can start almost immediately"

"Most impressive doctor, how powerful will these shields be and what of the other technology?", Admiral Ivanov spoke up, normally he had little to say.

"Shields are dependant on two important factors, the machine itself and how much power it can be supplied, our design is inferior to the Goa'uld and so are our power systems, our calculations estimate the shields can withstand four to five blasts from a Ha'tak for a frigate, larger ships will be proportionally stronger"

Partridge clicked the remote, new machinery appeared on screen, "The schematics for the other useful technology are also being researched, primarily the sensors and weapons of the Rhososians"

He pointed to an antenna on the screen, "Implementing their communications and sensor technology will be trivial, we were already making strides in that area before they arrived, their particle weapons on the other hand, they leave much to be desired"

"How so?", Admiral Barrowman asked.

Partridge changed the screen again, this time the machine was recognisably a weapon of some kind, "The Rhososians particle weapons, compared to our particle pulse cannons have less power per shot at the same tonnage, the weapons on their ship are tiny in comparison to ours, their advantages are many fold too, superior fire rate and energy efficiency"

He clicked again and a video began playing, it showed a PPC shot impact a shield, "Testing and computer models have revealed another advantage of the PPC, it has an EMP effect on contact, we have observed this effect and its interaction with energy shields"

The image changed again, this time graphs, "PPC's have a far greater effect on shields than the Rhososian types, 73% more disruption to the shield matrix"

He turned his head back to the Admirals, "That not to say the weapons are useless, we will simply take the benefits and apply it to our own weapons, we expect results will lead to improved fire rate, energy efficiency and miniaturisation, the reduction in size will allow our current ships to mount more powerful weapons"

He changed the image again, more machinery Borman noticed, "Power generation and teleportation were the other relevant technologies, they will require further research before we see useable technology, we're currently prioritising the shields"

Partridge wasn't done yet, he changed the image again, "One last item, the hull alloy of the ship, we learned it is comprised of a mixture of Kobolium and Trinium, another new element to add to the list", he sighed, "We had already found deposits as we explored the new systems but until now had no idea of its value, when properly refined it is one hundred times lighter than steel and one hundred times as strong"

"Thank you doctor, you've given us quite enough to digest", Coleman stood and waved the man out the door unceremoniously.

He sat down and sighed, "We'd be here all day if he went on, you can read the details in his report"

Coleman looked to Rooks again, "Your ships are getting priority on the new shields, it's why we're delaying your deployment"

Rooks nodded, "I'd rather wait for the shields anyway, who knows what the Aschen have up their sleeves"

"Captain Baltar leaves in a few days, lets hope his mission is successful, hopefully we'll know what we're dealing with then"

Battlestar Atlantia

Cyrannus System

The Next Day

Ferore was relaxing in his office contemplating the recent events, a puff of smoke rose to the ceiling from his Virgonian cigar as he savoured the flavour, across from him Greenhill was burning through a pack of cigarettes, Ferore mentally sighed, Greenhill had relapsed hard.

"Stressful week Scott?"

Greenhill stubbed his cigarette out looked to Ferore, "I've been run ragged since those Terrans arrived", he sighed, "Sometimes ignorance is bliss, now I have to question every facet of our society"

It was certainly an interesting time to be alive he thought, once the truth got out to the public about the existence of a previous iteration of the Colonies and Cylons there would be trouble, especially from the more religious minded people, he still had a hard time wrapping his head around it.

"How did the meeting between Tigh and the Cylons go, I was asleep by the time he arrived"

Ferore's age was catching up to him, it might be time to call it quits soon but he did hear of some miracle drug that the Terrans had, something to keep old age at bay for longer, he'd need to look into that.

"Nothing much happened to concern us, Tigh gave them the same story he told us, the Cylons were treating him like a VIP though, almost like a religious figure, they were fawning all over him for the duration"

"What did Tigh think?"

"I could tell he wasn't a fan of the attention, Tigh's a grumpy bastard on a good day, but everything went well enough, it's a good thing we went soft on the five, Tigh's still on our side and we can use that"

"Good", Ferore nodded, "I cant believe I'm saying this but I think we can finally settle things with the Cylons, I believe they're sincere in their peace offer"

Greenhill nodded, "I feel the same, they're easy to read, those biological models, they don't know how to really lie"

"I talked to the president earlier today, he gave us permission to pursue this peace proposal with no civilian interference, just the fleet", Ferore blew out another cloud of smoke, "Admiral Demetrius is setting up a taskforce to head out to that ship, he'll use the Lemons to try and stabilise the wreck and move it to a safer location"

"And the Cylons?, they asked for a joint operation"

Ferore shrugged, "We'll work out the details later but there's no way we're leaving that ship out there, they can help and they'll have access but we want it safely back in the Colonies"

Greenhill nodded, "What about Baltar?"

Ferore raised an eyebrow, "Is he relevant to that?, I wouldn't trust him to piss on me if I was on fire, I'm not inclined to let him anywhere near the Pegasus"

"No, I wouldn't either, but did you see his face when that Leoben person brought up the drive he recovered, he wasn't pleased"

Ferore nodded and put out his cigar, he took a sip of the Tauron whiskey he hand on the desk, "I saw, guilt and fear, I doubt he was a prisoner on that baseship, no, he was most likely working for them in some capacity"

"In other words, a traitor"

"Yes", Ferore put his glass down, "That's why he wanted amnesty, something he got too, nonetheless he wont be touching a blade of grass without us knowing now, his whole life will be under a microscope going forward"

Baltar would have his luxury but it would come with conditions, he would be living in a gilded cage.

"The information he gave us was interesting though, the experts are still breaking down everything he knew of the Goa'uld and comparing it to the stuff we got from the Terrans", Greenhill said.

"Did you hear what he said about his Cylons, made by alien lizards?"

Greenhill smiled as he relaxed into his chair, "I did, this whole region of space used to be alive with numerous races according to Baltar, all wiped out by the Goa'uld"

"It explains why we found nothing", Ferore shook his head, "We seem to lack the adventuring spirit of the Terrans, simply content to wait on our worlds for events to find us"

"Still", Greenhill began, "It was an interesting situation back then, the Cylons an imperial expansionist power, interested in conquest of the region until the Colonials stepped in and began the thousand year war, Baltar said that the Cylons had multiple species under their control until the Goa'uld came"

"And they wanted to add humanity to that list and when they failed resorted to total destruction, who knows how things would have worked out without the Goa'uld", Ferore drained the remains of his glass, "I always imagined the Cylons would be our greatest enemy but now we'll be working with them against some ghost from the past"

Greenhill nodded, "They might be useful against the Goa'uld too"

"Something to think about", Ferore mused, "Leave it to the politicians, we have more immediate concerns, this Lucifer, if Baltar wasn't lying about him, will come for us eventually"

"What's the plan then?", Greenhill asked, "Do we help the Cylons directly or simply wait and deal with him afterwards?"

"Right now we're getting that ship, hopefully it has some kind of database on these old Cylons, let alone the technology it has", He looked to Greenhill, "The president told me to scout out this Lucifer's forces, find out what he's planning, if he makes a move on the Cylons we'll assist then"

"So sit and wait basically"

Ferore nodded, "I did arrange for those ships our Baltar was working on to be expedited, they'll be here tomorrow along with the rest of battlestar group 14, we might need that kind of firepower"

Ferore looked to a picture on the wall, a map of the Colonies, "I'll be starying here for the time being, to deal with the Cylons", he looked back to Greenhill, "We'll be keeping Baltar on hand for now, just in case we need his expertise with these old Cylons, I need you to arrange for some minders"

"I have some people in mind, I'll arrange things when I get back to Picon", Greenhill glanced down to his watch, "The raptor should be here in a few hours to pick me up"

Ferore made to stand when the alarms started blaring, "Action stations, Action stations, set condition one throughout the ship, this is not a drill"

Ferore finished standing as Greenhill leapt from his chair, "What the frack is this", Greenhill said as Ferore power walked to the doorway, it was a quick walk from his office to the CIC.

"Major Report", Ferore bellowed as he passed the marine on guard and took position beside the DRADIS table, he glanced around the small command centre looking at the fearful faces of the crew.

"Sir, three basestars have just jumped in, all of them are damaged"

"Show me", he looked to the small screen connected to the ships various cameras, it was currently zoomed in on the three new ships, he could see atmosphere bleed from one and all three sported battle damage of some kind.

"Alert vipers had formed up, Green and White squadrons are in the tubes", the fight controller called out, "Launch in thirty seconds"

"Have them stay with us for now, have Red squadron load nukes, Helm about forty degrees, point our big guns at target beta, Major load our missile tubes with nuclear ordinance, I'm not taking chances today"

"Sir"

Ferore watched the three ships just sitting there, "Did they launch raiders?"

"No sir, they jumped in and then nothing"

"Admiral", the comms officer called out, "Transmission from the Cylon vessel"

"Which one?", he asked, his eyes still glued to the screens.

"The one that was already here", Greenhill spoke from beside him, having caught up, Ferore tore his eyes away to look at the ensign at comms, "Alright, put them on speaker"

"Atlantia, the new baseships are friendly, repeat, the new ships are friendly"

Ferore sighed, "Major, take us to condition two, recall Green and White squadrons but have Red on standby"

He turned to the comms officer, "Get me Six on the line, I want an explanation"

Six's Basestar

"Contact established", Leoben called out, Six looked over from where she had been pacing for the last few moments, "About time"

"Six, the Colonial Admiral want to talk to you", The Three, Biers, called out from the side.

He'd have to wait, every had panicked when the three ships had jumped in, things got worse when they failed to respond to communication attempts and then the Colonial ship had started to arm its weapons and launch vipers.

"Tell him I'll call him back, we need to find out what the frack is happening first, Leoben put them on"

The wall of the command centre changed to show a fuzzy image, she could see her own face on the other side, blood running down the side of her face.

"Thank god", the other Six exclaimed, Six though she really needed to pick out a name it was getting confusing even to her, she was inclined towards the name Gina for some reason.

"What the frack happened to your ships", Gina pointed a finger accusingly, "What happened?"

"Cavil", the other Six spoke while she wiped the blood from her face, "Cavil happened"

Six froze, even the other models with her stopped in their tracks, every eye glued to the screen, "Did he return?", how, did that Baltar person lie about Cavil?

The Six on the screen shook her head, "No", she sighed, "Once you left the Ones took a backup copy of Cavil out of the hub's servers, he took over straight away, declared all our models traitors to the Cylon race and ordered us all boxed"

A tear streaked down her cheek, "We're all that's left"

Gina's fist lashed out at the console, the metal dented under the force, "That bastard"

She looked across to her doppelganger, "The Fours and Fives?"

"Sided with Cavil and the Ones, he had the centurions on every ship start killing us, we managed to group up and take these three ships to escape, we had nowhere else to go"

Gina rested her arms on the console, grief and anger warring in her mind, Cavil would pay she promised but right now they were at the Colonials mercy.

She looked to the screen again, "Do you need help over there?"

"No, just time to repair, it wont take more than a day to stabilise things but these ships weren't meant for hundreds of organic models, we will need supplies"

Six nodded and composed herself, "I'll see what I can do, we'll transfer some modes over here, I'll be in contact"

The screen turned off and Gina turned to the others, they had various expressions of anger and sadness on their faces, "Leoben, order all the centurions to deactivate right now, until we remove Cavils power over them they're a liability"

"Eight, go and check our supplies, see what we can spare the rest", she turned to the Three, "Put the Admiral on"

…..

Ferore's expression turned to stone as he listened to the Cylon woman, the news had complicated things.

"We can spare some rations", he was telling her, his mind still considering the situation and their next move.

"Thank you Admiral", She spoke, "I need to arrange some things over here, I can fly over in a few hours"

"Very well, we'll talk more then", he put the handset back into the holder, he saw Greenhill looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Things just got fracked up Scott", he waved over Major Tito, "Contact Picon HQ, tell them to put everyone on alert, the whole fleet"

"What happened", Greenhill finally asked.

"The best description I have is a coup", he nodded to the ships still on the screen, "And those are the losers"

He turned and looked Greenhill in the eye, "While we were all here making nice the other Cylons decided to restore their old leader from a backup, the one who really hates us, Cavil"

Greenhill looked sour, "What are our options?"

Ferore narrowed his eyes, "We're still grabbing that ship, after that we'll see"

P4H-337

The planet was a desolate place, grey dust swirled around in abstract patterns in the toxic atmosphere, eighty four percent carbon dioxide and the rest nitrogen with trace elements of others, millions of years ago the world once supported life until a catastrophic solar flare wiped it out, now it was simply a ball of dust.

Nearby a large ring started to vibrate the ground around it, dust rose in the air and a woosh followed as the gate activated, seconds passed before a silvery sphere floated through on it's anti gravity thruster.

The spheres dull silver colour hid advanced technology behind it's alloy shell, probes and sensors extended out to scan the area around the gate, the probe sending the information back through to its masters.

Soon they followed through, a hovering sled containing twelve people wearing dull grey suits came through the gate sedately, one held a hand out for the probe to gently float into their palm, they rigidly opened a case and put it away.

Supervisor Merrik scanned his eyes around the lifeless plain he stood in, the gate closing behind their transport craft, a repurposed cargo transport module, he equipped his scanner and started to examine the world he stood upon.

"Fascinating", Scout Kellen commented while she ran her scanner around, "The atmosphere is toxic to our life, it is unlikely that this world will be suitable for our purposes"

Merrik leaned down and swept some dust away with his hand, he raised his scanner to the cleared spot, "This world once contained life, I'm detecting organic compounds in the soil"

He stood back up and began ordering his men about, "Sergeant Terrell, take your group and scout the area, no more than 3 kilometres distance", Terrell gave a barely perceptible nod in confirmation before he stiffly walked over to his group.

Merrik would like to say he felt some sense of wonder doing what he did but that would be a lie, all he felt was a strange apathy for everything except loyalty to the state, he dismissed his thoughts, they were getting dangerous.

His eyes followed Kellen as she scanned some rocks, his thoughts turned to the past few weeks, they had already examined four worlds from the list he was given, where the Confederation got them he had no idea, but so far every world was damaged in some way.

He walked over to the sled and readied the orbital scanner, he would use it to determine the worlds location relative to Aschen prime, his thoughts returning to the first time they left on an expedition, the world was airless and exposed to solar radiation, he remembered the uncomfortable pressure suit he donned with minor distaste.

A beeping in his helmet signified it was time to take his dose of Proterzium, a drug mandated by the state to ensure the health of all citizens, every citizen of the Confederation began their intake of the drug at age two and every month after for the rest of their lives, unfortunately his suit had no provision to administer the drug, it would need to wait until they returned.

Unknown to Merrik and his men, a glassy eye was observing their every move, disguised as a native rock the passive camera silently recorded everything, waiting for the signal to transmit.

"Kellen, anything to report?", Merrik asked as he hoisted the orbital scanner off the cargo transport module, he moved several meters away and placed it down, "No", she tonelessly replied, "Nothing of note or interest, this world has little value"

"Perhaps", Merrik said as he activated the scanner, "The atmosphere and biosphere can be restored, it is well within our capabilities"

Merrik watched the screen as the five other people in close proximity to him scanned the area, Scout Terrell and his team had disappeared around some low hills and were out of sight now, the data was scrolling past, his trained eyes kept a keen watch as it calculated their position.

"Hmm, fifty thousand light years to Aschen Prime, our ships would take centuries to reach here"

Kellen closed her scanner with a snap, she put the scanner into a pocket on her suit, "No valuable minerals within scanning distance, initial readings show little of value here"

She walked over to Merrik, "Supervisor, with the distance to home and little of value, there is no reason to linger here"

Merrik turned from the orbital scanner and gave her a blank look, "We will perform a thorough survey before we leave, the scientific council will decide this worlds value, just like all the others"

His eyes bored into hers, searching for any sign of emotion, "Yes, Supervisor" her blank expression remained and he waved her off, his focus back on the orbital scanner.

Things remained like that for several minutes, Merrik's science and technical team scanning away while Terrell's squad of soldiers scouted further out, not one word passed between anyone that wasn't relevant to their jobs, no idle chatter or conversation, just dry technical details.

Merrick was loading the scanner back onto the cargo transport module when he felt a slight vibration, he could see the dust around the gate begin to rise before the device itself began to spin.

"Sergeant Terrell, return to the gate", he calmly spoke into his helmet comms system, the other members of his team turning to watch the gate lock each symbol in place.

"Affirmative, returning to the gate, estimate five minutes to arrival"

Three symbols had lit up, he saw Kellen walk over to him, her scanner pointed at the gate, "Aschen prime was not expected to contact us for several more hours", she looked down at the screen, "I don't believe we know this address"

Merrik looked around the flat ground the gate was in, no cover for at least a kilometer, the hills that concealed Terrell, too far to run.

"Scout Kellen, inform the rest of our party to equip their weapons, I expect this might be an unforeseen alien contact"

She nodded slowly and walked off to the others, drawing her pistol as she did, Merrik did the same and calmly walked to stand behind the cargo transport module, it was hovering at waist height and offered some cover.

He watched the gate activate, an explosion of blue liquid extending out and being pulled back to he pool like surface of the wormhole, he knelt down and raised his pistol to the gate, the other members of his team also taking a knee and aiming, calm looks adorned their faces, no signs of panic or fear.

He watched a spherical object fly through the gate, it was painted black and he could see lens's and other sensors on it's surface, it landed several meters away from him and rotated about on small indented wheels to bring it's camera to face him.

He stared at the lens for a second before a red particle bolt blew it into fragments, his pistols shot was accurate and effective, "A probe of some kind, more primitive than our own", he heard Kellen comment on the comms.

"It is possible their owners will follow, be prepared", he spoke to his team, Terrell was still several minutes away so they were on their own.

The wormhole rippled again, this time several small cylindrical objects came through and landed in the dust around the gate, Merrik was in the process of raising his weapon again when the world exploded into light and noise.

Merrik shook his head as the light faded, he had fallen to the ground from the shock, his helmet visor had taken the brunt of the sensory assault and his vision and hearing were starting to clear, a glance showed the others recovering fast too but it was not enough, from his position on the ground he could see large metal feet stomp out of the gate.

Four towering figures had exited the wormhole, large glass eyes gazed at the recovering science team, each one held a small s shaped pistol in their armoured hands and they all had a larger weapon strapped to their backs.

Merrik raised his pistol to fire as the armoured men did the same, electric blue ribbons flew from their weapons to impact his men, they fell bonelessly after to the ground, Merrik aimed at the closest and put a bolt into it's chest, smoke rose from the impact but the armour was only scorched.

The men were quick to move behind the cargo transport, Merrik tracked Kellen fire off some bolts herslef before electricity played over her form, she fell too, Merrik rose to his feet and prepared himself, weapon raised he poked his head around the cargo transport, for his effort he received a fist to the chest.

"Bind him", a distorted voice commanded, Merrik rolled around in pain on the ground, his ribs fractured or worse, his weapon several feet away even if he could move to grab it, powerful arms rolled him over and roughly gripped his hands before sharp plastic bindings were tightened, he lay face down in the dirt with his arms uncomfortably bond behind his back.

"Sir, there's only six here"

Merrik was roughly raised to his feet, "Jones, Santiago, go bind the rest", a voice spoke before he felt a slap to his helmet, "You, fucker, where's the rest of your people"

Merrik coughed into his helmet, blood splattering the back of the face plate, "Violence will not make me talk", he wheezed out.

Merrik felt himself fly through the air, he was thrown down beside the cargo transport module, "Alright people, kid gloves off", Merrik looked up to see the armoured man stow the s shaped pistol and pull the large weapon from his back.

"We're not letting any of them report back, Dillon, put a drone up"

One of the others pulled out a buzzing machine from its backpack, it rose into the sky and hovered dozens of meters overhead, "Major, six man squad behind those hills, one and a half klicks out"

"Good, it means they haven't gone home, we'll take them as they come around that hill", he watched the armoured man turn to the others, "Jones, drag these freaks behind this, wouldn't want our prisoners getting hit in the crossfire"

An armoured boot hit him in the leg, he looked up to the lens filled face of the armoured man, "Feel like asking your friends to surrender?"

Merrik kept his emotions in check, dull as they were, "No, the confederation does not surrender to barbarians"

"Suit yourself, it's their funeral"

A tense few seconds passed in silence before things kicked off again, "There, here they come"

"Hold fire for now, lets see what they do", he saw the armoured man turn to look at the still open gate, "They're not going anywhere"

Merrik moved his tongue to activate his comms system, "Terrell, we are captured, lethal force authorised", he whispered into the mic.

"Affirmative"

Merrik's head was wrenched sideways, the man had punched him into the ground, his vision spinning he worked hard to not choke on his own tongue, "Bad move, that just used up the last of my mercy"

"No prisoners", the Major ordered.

Red bolts started to impact around the cargo transport, Terrell's man firing from long range, one lucky shot hit one of the armoured men directly in the torso, knocking him to the ground.

"Shit, those hit harder than a staff, armour at seventy percent"

The man rose and moved back into position, the Major looking over the damage, "You'll live, alright lads, return fire"

Pulse lasers spoke out to Terrell's squad, visible when they interacted with the dust, their effect was horrific, the environment suits they wore offering no protection, behind the cargo module Merrik couldn't see much but it was over in seconds, the trained barbarians destroying all six men in mere seconds.

"Dillon, Jones go police the remains, Santiago start pepping the prisoners for transport, I'll call it in"

Things moved fast then, more men came through the still open gate, these ones wearing primitive looking environment suits and armed with large weapons, they moved to grab every scrap of Aschen technology within sight, soon the gate closed and they dialled their own world.

Merrick and the rest were dragged through, the other side was a verdant green field with more enemies waiting with weapons drawn, it was then his injuries caught up and he fell unconscious.

Cylon Colony

Cavil paced around the command centre under the fearful eyes of the Four and Five, "Frackers", was heard every other step as Cavil vented his frustrations on the cowering men.

"How the frack did everything go to shit so fast", he jabbed his finger at the four, "We nearly lost everything, why did you let the other models go to the Colonials in the first place"

Cavil resumed pacing, not even stopping to listen to an answer, they were lucky the other One's had enough sense to bring him back, he didn't know what had happened to the other Cavil but there was no way he was responsible for the attack on the Colony.

He stopped and slammed his hands down on the bio interface console, purging the disobedient models was easy enough, his return had caught them by surprise and the centurions handled them efficiently, unfortunately several had escaped with three baseships, reducing their already strained numbers more.

He had decided that there would be no more defective models, the twos, threes, sixes and eights would be removed from the Cylon gene pool, the bodies in every resurrection ship had been tossed out the airlock and their data deleted from every server, no, Cavil was done pretending anyone but him had a say in how things were run.

His mind returned to the last memory he had before he was brought back, jumping out to investigate those two ships, the last update to his backup, those ships were beyond the range of any resurrection ship and at the time he didn't want anyone else to know so he didn't move any closer.

He must have found something on those ships, something that took over, it was the only explanation that made sense, he glanced back to the two models cowering in the corner, he'd let them continue to exist for now but the Ones would be in charge of everything from now on.

He resumed pacing, remembering what the four and five had told him, six had posited that there was a Goa'uld on one of the ships, one that had taken over his body and led to the current situation, it was plausible he supposed, because there was no way that Cavil would jeopardise the plan like that.

His fist smashed into the wall, he could feel the bones break but ignored the pain, his life's work was the plan, the ultimate revenge, now it was on the brink, the traitors had withdrew every infiltrator and crawled over to beg for help from their mortal enemies.

Cavil wasn't willing to throw everything away, he would have his revenge even if its form was different, but first he needed to deal with the interloper.

His hands reached for the bio interface, his mind going over every iota of information about the earlier attack and thefts, twenty old basestars were camping out in his biggest production centre, something he would need back to deal with the Colonials.

And the one sore thumb that stuck out, the ship he had gone to examine, it was like a fat spider spreading its webs around his things, he watched the recording of the blue energy weapons demolish his ships, he'd need to be careful dealing with it.

What he really needed was weapons on par with that ship, an idea occurred to him, that battlestar was most likely from the same place as the ship his eyes bored into, it might have similar weapons, it might be enough to give him the edge he needed.

His mind scanned the data, they were short on ships and every one was needed where it was, the little rebellion he had crushed did cost several basestars in the end, numbers were lower now than at the end of the war.

Three ships he could spare, but not right away, several were being repaired right now and he'd need to wait for that to finish, it still didn't solve their shortage in the long term, their current production was limited without their major production centre.

Turning to their old ships wasn't an option either, whatever creature was on that ship now controlled the biggest storage yards of all their old ships, until he could come up with a plan he would need to be very careful with his ships, raiders on the other hand weren't an issue, the Colony alone could manufacture thousands a year, Centurions too, he needed to think longer on that.

No, right now all that mattered was that ship, it might just be his salvation.

Sentinel Station

High Clearance Meeting Room 17a

The man stepped through the door, his eyes adjusting to the low light in the room without windows, he could see the man in the chair by his shadow alone.

"Please, have a seat Mr Blackwell"

Xavier Blackwell did as he was told and sat down.

"I read your proposal, my interest was piqued, enough that I'm entertaining this meeting"

"Thank you Chairman Royce, I'm glad someone was value in my idea"

James Royce leaned out of the shadow, his featured becoming visible as he steepled his fingers, "If your plan works it will catapult us to the top of the food chain, any imaginable technology just there for us to grasp"

Xavier nodded, "Exactly, if we can get the device working again we could go to any reality, fiction or not, with technology far beyond the Goa'uld"

"Good, I've already arranged everything you wanted Doctor Blackwell, money, people, even a location out of sight to work from"

Royce clicked a button and the room lit up, a screen had turned on showing a map of Earth and it's surrounds, "This planet in system HD 55375, is habitable, right at the edge of our claimed space, we've kept it off the books for now since it's discovery"

"PG4-225?"

Royce nodded, "It has a stargate, it's how we found it, just fifteen hundred light years from here towards the edge of the galaxy"

Xavier nodded, "When do I start?"

Royce leaned back into the shadows, "Right away Doctor, a ship is waiting in orbit for you, the remains of the device are loaded aboard already"

Royce waved to the map, "A team is already on site construction a base for you to use, you have two days to get any specific person you need, then you leave"

Xavier bowed his head, "You wont regret this"

Royce smiled, "I wont regret this Doctor, you might however", Royce waved him to the door, "This conversation never happened, your project never happened, understand?"

Xavier gulped, "I understand"

Tollana System

10th July 2065

Captain Chau Peng gazed at the screen displaying the planet below, the world had a green tinge to it he noticed but otherwise was almost a reverse of Earth, more land than water.

"Captain, the Tollan shuttle will dock in five minutes", the sensor officer told him from her station, the CIC on destroyers was fairly cramped, she was nearly in touching distance.

"Have our guests report to the port airlock, I'll be over there shortly", Chau stood up from his chair and stretched, sitting in a chair all day was hell on his back, "Tell the Ambassador to head over too"

"Aye Sir"

Chau nodded and made his way out the door, his thoughts turned to the trip to Tollana, it was one of the most uneventful trips he ever had, they had kept their jumps to deep space, away from any star systems, an overabundance of caution or not it let them make the best time here.

Still, their sensors were always recording information, he imagined lots of astronomers back on Earth would be happy with the data they had collected along the way.

This trip was also a major test for the lithium-fusion jump drive setup they had, it had performed as expected, no errors or other issues, Star League engineering was robust, he'd give them that, it had allowed them to make this journey in half the time.

As he passed another hatch he imagined that every ship in the fleet would receive one, they were that much of an improvement in speed it'd be mad not to do it.

Arrival in the Tollana system was another issue, the trip was fine but the reception was far from cordial, threats of destruction if they strayed too close to the planet aside once he got Omoc talking to his people things calmed down.

The Tollan ships didn't impress him much, they were small, the biggest only one hundred and fifty meters long, their combat vessels that was, but Narim and Omoc had impressed upon him that their weapons were easily able to take out a Ha'tak.

Still their FTL speeds left much to be desired even if their real space acceleration made the Hades look like a snail in comparison, everyone back home hoped that jump drives might be their avenue to opening trade with the Tollan, Chau didn't think that would work, spending the better part of a month with them had given him enough to gauge their character, he doubted they'd be open to sharing with the Union.

He mentally shrugged, that was Ambassador Batten's job, he'd let him worry about it.

Rounding the last corner Chau came face to face with Batten himself, "Ambassador", Chau gave him a nod.

"Captain"

They waited in silence for a few seconds before the Tollan arrived, the ten people being led by Omoc and Narim marched into the cramped space beside the airlock, "Omoc", Chau nodded to them.

"Captain, we thank you for the swift delivery to Tollana", Omoc and the rest gave him a theatrical bow, "We will not forget the kindness shown to us"

Omoc turned to the Ambassador, "Ambassador Batten, I will endeavour to arrange a meeting with the Curia, it might take several days to arrange, in the mean time I will use my authority to grant your people access to Tollana, to better relations between our peoples"

"The people of the Terran Union thank you", Batten began, "We also strive to meet new friends among the stars"

"The crew could use some shore leave after a month in space", Chau extended his hand, "Our conversations were most enlightening Omoc, good luck in the future"

Omoc firmly shook the proffered hand, "And you as well Captain"

A loud clunk was heard and felt as the Tollan shuttle docked, "Looks like your ride is here", Chau looked through the glass of the door as the outer door slid open to reveal the Tollan ship.

"I shall arrange for shuttles to transport your crew Captain, I understand your own are rather small?"

A rush of air was heard as the adjoining room was filled, "Yep, the ship isn't big enough for something larger, thank you again Omoc", Chau turned to Narim as the door opened, "And you too Narim"

Narim bowed, "May we meet again Captain, but I must say I am relieved to be home"

The lights flashed as the airlock cycled open at last, two Tollan men were waiting on the other side and began ushering the Tollan onboard, Chau didn't like their expressions of disdain for his ship that they were sporting.

A final handshake with the Ambassador and the Tollan were gone, "Now we wait", the Ambassador said from beside him.

Chau nodded, "It's gone better than I expected, I thought we'd be at each others throats by now, those Tollan have a bit of a chip on their shoulders, it took some time to crack their defences"

Batten nodded, "Lets hope Omoc gets us a foot in the door"

Stargate Command

General Hammond's Office

Jack rapped on the closed door to the office, a busk "Enter" cane from the other side and he opened the door to the room, inside two people were sat down around the desk, one was General Hammond, the other someone he didn't like too much, Harry Maybourne.

"General", he nodded, "Maybourne" was said less cordially.

"Jack", was Maybourne's smug reply.

"Colonel, have a seat", Hammond waved to the empty chair beside Maybourne.

Hammond stacked a sheaf of papers and passed a bunch to him, "The interrogation report"

Jack took the papers from Hammond, interest written all over his face, "That was fast?"

Maybourne sighed, "Not because of any action of ours", Harry looked at him, his face looking consternated, "At first they were resistant to normal interrogation, we only managed to get names and a general idea of what they were doing"

Jack put the files down on the desk and gave Maybourne his full attention, "So, what were they up to then?"

Harry shrugged, "Pretty standard recon really, they're civilian scientist working for their government exploring the addresses they got off of us, the others who died were their escorts"

Jack nodded, "Almost like an SG team then?"

"Yeah, but this is their only one so far, they had explored four of the addresses before this one, we must have missed them before now, anyway, that was about all we could get out of them personally, we have the techs going over all the gear we recovered, we were going to try that avenue before we started to escalate"

Jack raised an eyebrow, "Torture, really?"

Harry smirked, "Nothing that would offend your high standards Jack, just some basic stuff", the smirk died, "Still, for civvies they were very resistant at first, total lack of emotional responses too, all of them expressed total loyalty to their state"

"Sounds familiar", Jack mused, letting the barb pass, "I bet the ones that don't end up disappearing"

"Who knows" Maybourne said, "It was their leader, Merrik, that broke first, we thought he was getting sick, but boy were we wrong"

"Sick?"

Maybourne nodded, "The shakes, fever, excessive sweating, it was withdrawal, a bad one too"

"What, they're all addicts?", Jack frowned, just what they needed, accountants looking for drugs.

"In a way, yes", Harry shrugged, "It was the opening we needed", he pulled out a page from the files and showed it to Jack, "This is what it is, Proterzium, that's what Merrik called it, we found a few doses of the stuff on them"

Jack looked at the blue pill on the paper, "What's it do?"

"An emotion suppressor, I think the Confederation is using it to control their population, Merrik said they start taking the stuff at age four and all their media is just state propaganda, they had no idea they had even attacked us or that we even existed"

Jack slapped the page down, "Just great, did he say anything else?"

Harry smirked again, "He started to lose it when his drug wore off, anger, fear, the whole lot, we got what we wanted by promising him a dose, but our supply is low, we have people trawling thorough treatments for severe withdrawal, hopefully we find something or those people will die"

"Anyway, we know a lot more about the Aschen now, one party government, total control of all media and industry, basically a fascist state", Harry shook his head, "Overpopulated home planet, thirty billion plus and their planets ecology is trashed and polluted, they cant supply enough food without their colonies"

Jack whistled, "That's more than Earth, and here I thought we were the biggest"

Harry ignored his comment and continued, "They have seven colony worlds, only Volia had a population before the Aschen arrived, they're all setup for food production too but Volia is the least developed world they control and one of two with a gate"

"Their home planet the other?", Jack asked.

"Yep, Aschen Prime they call it, not very original", Harry shrugged, "Merrik told us that there's lots of activity in space around Aschen prime, thousands of ships, civilian and military, not to mention defences"

"Is he lying?"

Hammond spoke up, "We have no idea, we're taking it all with a grain of salt but planners in command are operating under the assumption he was underselling their forces", Hammond leaned forward, "An invasion of their world would make the planned invasions of Japan in world war two look like a picnic"

Jack raised an eyebrow, "That bad, so are we not going to war?"

Hammond nodded grimly, "We don't have the forces to mount an invasion of a population of that size and the Union is unwilling to use WMD's on a civilian populace", Hammond shook his head, "No, our plan is something else, cut off their colonies and starve them into surrender"

Jacks face turned to stone, "That hardly seems different than just nuking them, will they even surrender, it sounds like the lot of them have been brainwashed"

Hammond leaned back in his chair, "It's above my pay grade Colonel, it's also our only course of action that's likely to succeed"

Jack didn't like it but he couldn't see any other option without breaking out the nukes, "Is that all General?"

"No, there one more thing", Hammond pulled out a folder from his pile, "We now know the address of the Aschen home world, and our prisoners report that they only control two gates, so command has decided to resume normal stargate operations, we'll leave a team to scout out the planets near them but everyone else will be back to normal"

Jack nodded, "Finally, I was getting antsy there for a bit, when do we start again?"

Hammond opened the folder, "Tomorrow Colonel, I believe that P3R-233 was assigned to SG-1"

Jack stood, "If that's all General, I need to inform my team"

Hammond waved him out the door, "Dismissed"

Battlestar Atlantia

Ferore stood rigid in the CIC, his eyes glued to the screen as BSG-14 arrived, the ships of the group started to form up around the Atlantia, the command ship for the group.

"Admiral, all ships of battlestar group fourteen present and accounted for", the sensors officer reported.

Ferore nodded and took in the names of each ship, the Canorus, a Columbia subtype of the Jupiter, the ships built after the initial twelve, three Valkyries, the Dagr, Hetia and the Reidr, two Bezerk cruisers, the Pratum and the Rostralis, four defenders finished it off.

His eyes moved away from the friendly contacts and moved on to the four illuminated in orange, four Cylon basestars that were holding station some distance away from the Armistice station, they were still on their side of the line, something which might change in a few minutes.

More contacts began to appear, the test bed ships for the new laser weapons being developed by the Colonials, the whole project was about to be thrown out the window though, they had licenced production of Terran weapons and factories were already under construction on planets around the Colonies, they could also just buy the things too, shipments were already flying back to Cyrannus, transports loaded with reactors and lasers to begin the upgrades for their ships.

Ten Adamant class frigates began to move into formation with the rest of the fleet, the nose of each ship containing four spinally mounted laser cannons, their interiors ripped out to make room for large capacitor banks and extra energizers and fuel tanks, they still had the light guns mounted broadside to deal with flanking attacks but the ships were old and slow and best kept away from a melee.

"Baltar's specials?", Major Tito asked from beside him.

Ferore nodded, "I don't know why he had anything to do with those, his speciality is computers not high energy physics, if he wasn't in such high regard with the president he'd still be TV scientist he used to be"

Baltar's rise to fame had been his science consulting for daily TV talk shows, the kind of thing his wife watched, on his off hours he was always trying to sell his new computerised navigation system to the department of defence, not something that would happen while Ferore was in charge.

"Who ever head of celebrity scientists", Tito shook his head, "The damn things better work"

"We'll see, if their half as good as the ones demonstrated I'll be happy", he looked away from the DRADIS display and faced Tito, "The Canorus has a squadron of upgraded vipers, lasers and fusion reactors bought from the Terrans, apparently it was easy enough to fit them into a viper frame, the new mark sevens will all have them"

"Sir, the Cylon ship has docked", An ensign called out.

"Have them escorted to the conference room, I'll be there shortly", Ferore glanced one last time at the screen as the last ship in their little excursion arrived, the Lemnos, an old mobile shipyard from the first war, it had just been used to recover the Guardian basestar so it should be able to handle a smaller battlestar.

"How did your conversation with the president go?", Tito asked.

Ferore shrugged, "He's still considering our options, right now we'll just focus on that ship, we'll deal with the Cylons afterwards, I get the feeling he wants the new and old Cylons to wear each other down, not something I'm a fan of"

Tito grimaced, "Allowing Lucifer the time to upgrade his ships is a mistake"

"I know, I told him as much but I'm not the president, lets hope he sees sense"

Ferore nodded to Major Tito, "You have command, I have some Cylons to deal with"

A few minutes of walking the spacious corridors and he arrived outside the room, a nod to the marine guards had them open the door and he walked in to see two Cylons already seated, Six, or Gina as she now called herself and Leoben, the other Cylon, the Eight, was missing this time.

Placed on the table in the room was several cases, he could see a mess of wires and a monitor packed inside, it was the hard disk the Cylons had recovered from the Pegasus.

"Admiral", Gina greeted him, Leoben was busy fussing with the bits in the boxes, "The recovered drive, as requested"

"I see, did you manage to get access?"

It was Leoben that answered, "Yes, I've been working on this for weeks now, but I finally did it"

Ferore nodded and sat down, "Alright, I've talked to the president, he provisionally agreed to grant asylum to your group but there's some conditions and another offer"

Gina raised an eyebrow, "Lets hear the conditions first"

"First, the Colonial government extends its thanks for the location of the Pegasus and that computer drive", Ferore pulled out a paper list from his pocket, "Conditions, if you want to live in the Colonies you will be separated and spread out around all the worlds, you will give up control of all your ships to us and destroy every centurion and raider, I understand that they are not sapient any more?"

Ferore watched the emotions play over her face, Leoben kept the same blank look, she sighed, "No, we removed the ability for the centurions to think for themselves, thinking back it was Cavil that made that happen"

"Lets hear the other offers then"

"Another option is starting a small colony on Kobol, we'll allow limited self governance but you will be part of the Colonies, we found a small island that should be suitable, you'll still need to give up all your military assets"

Gina nodded, "Is that all?"

"There's one more, during our surveys along the Terran trade corridor we discovered a marginal planet located in a small nebula, it's cold but the equatorial region is liveable, we'll allow you to keep one basestar for defence but all autonomous raiders and centurions have to go, the fleet will provide security and we'll operate a base on the planet"

Gina sat back in the chair, "About what I expected", she glanced over to Leoben who shrugged, "If we take the planet can some of us move to the Colonies?"

Ferore nodded, "You'll be an autonomous territory of the Colonies, allowed a small defence force, we'll allow access to the Colonies proper for work and diplomatic purposes"

"I'll need to talk to the rest, we'll need some time to think this over"

"I understand, we'll also need everything you have on Cavil and the location of every base and outpost in Cylon space"

The two Cylons nodded, "Now, the drive, what's on it?"

Leoben perked up for the first time since they started talking, "Logs, the drive was used by the bridge crew to record their daily logs, its amazing stuff"

He reached into the box and pulled out a small tablet computer with wires running to his mess of machinery, "You can read them through this, the last few are enlightening"

Ferore nodded and took the computer from Leoben, a simple interface greeted him, he quickly scrolled to the last log recorded, a wall of text popped up.

"Lets see, Commander Cain", Ferore read, "Chasing down the traitor Baltar eh, cant say I'm surprised"

"From what I read, the Pegasus was away from the Colonies when the Cylons struck, they were damaged during a battle of Molecay and were still returning when it happened"

Ferore eyes were still skimming the text, "Is there anything about the Goa'uld in here?"

Leoben shook his head, "Cain managed to avoid fighting them but did get into several battles with the Cylons of the time, until the last one against Baltar"

Ferore nodded and put the computer down, "I'd like to throw him out the airlock but we already gave him amnesty, I'll be glad when he's off my ship but that wont be until after we recover the Pegasus"

He patted the computer, "I'll have the intel people go over this and the first sign of trouble from Baltar, he's getting a firing squad"

"If that's all Admiral" Gina spoke, "We need to return and discuss your offers"

"Right, one more thing, I'd like you to come with us to the Pegasus, both of you"

"Our basestar?"

"No, just you two, you've both been aboard that ship, and we'll be deep past Cylon space, any expertise is welcome"

Gina sighed, "I'll consider it", she looked to Leoben who turned to the Admiral, "I'll go Admiral, I do have experience with their computer systems now"

"Good, as soon as you come to a decision we'll leave, until then"

….

"These terms are an insult", Biers was the first to speak after Gina laid out what the Colonial Admiral had offered.

Gina sighed, "They're not the best but we have no options", her finger pointed to Biers, "We cant go back or we're dead, we could head further away but the galaxy is controlled by parasitic aliens and the Terrans wont be any better than the Colonials, better the devil we know"

"We gave the Colonials the location of that ship for free, we should have held out for more"

Gina sat down in the bare metal chair they had, "When I first came here I had a nation backing me up, but that's gone now, the Colonials don't give a frack what happens to us and the galaxy is far more dangerous than we imagined, I'm voting we accept, the planet is the best option to preserve what little we have"

Leoben moved to stand beside her and so did the Eight, "Face it Biers, we lost and Cavil won, if helping the Colonials gets back at him, that's enough for me", the Eight spoke, she had taken to calling herself Sharon lately.

Leoben nodded from beside her, "We are no longer gods children, we have to forge our own future now"

A dark and bitter look overcame D'anna, "Fine have it your way, just don't come screaming at me when they turn on us"

Gina stood up, "I don't like this either but we're over a barrel right now, there's only a few hundred of us left after what Cavil pulled", her eyes turned to the silent Centurion standing guard at the door, "I wont let us just vanish into the ether, even if the cost is high"

"Leoben and I will be going with the Admiral while they recover that ship, the rest of you will move to the other side of Colonial space and wait there"

"And if you don't return, what then?", Biers asked scathingly.

Gins shrugged, "We cant resurrect any more thanks to Cavil, but there are still other Sixes and Two's, they can take our places while we're gone, permanently if we don't return"

"That's nice, there's still a big issue you haven't covered though, our ability to have children is somewhat lacking, this colony of yours will die off in one generation"

"I haven't forgotten Biers", Gina waved to Leoben and Sharon, "There is a possibility there though, the final five might have the solution, if not the Colonials and Terrans might be able to help"

"Humph, I'll believe that when I see these supposed five", she rolled her eyes, "A Colonial Colonel one of the five, they must really think we're stupid"

The other three Cylons all shrugged, "When you meet him you'll know", she waved to all the Cylons in the room, "Our survival is at stake so don't antagonise the Colonials, we'll do our job and get our colony"

Sentinel Station

Briefing Room 15

Borman quietly opened the door to the briefing room, in front of the small crowd Colonel Méndez was briefing the commanders of the small expedition on known Aschen ground tactics.

"Major Jenson's report on the Aschen soldiers he engaged is somewhat concerning, they displayed little regard for their own safety, charging the Major and his men over open ground, we've determined this is related to the lack of emotions the Aschen display because of the drug proterzium"

He indicated to the screen as Borman crept to the back and sat down with out distracting anyone, "Although their small unit tactics were otherwise poor, emotions or not, their equipment merits more attention", Mendez paused and brought up a few bullet points of information on the screen.

"The captured civilians shed some light on the Aschen's recent military history, according to them they havnt fought a war in at least four hundred years, when the confederation removed it's last rivals on their planet", he shrugged, "The prisoners had no information on that polity, since then their army has only been used to garrison worlds and to support police and emergencies"

The screen changed to an image of two weapons, a dull silver coloured rifle and pistol, "We determined both are some type of particle weapon, shot velocity for the pistol was two hundred metres per second and it had reasonable power, comparable to a fifty calibre bullet at impact"

Méndez pointed to the rifle, "The soldiers were equipped with a rifle in addition to the pistol, it showed far greater power than a Goa'uld staff weapon, about fifty percent more, similar velocity to the pistol, which is faster than the Goa'uld too, and it is extremely capable of penetrating armour"

A video appeared of the weapons being tested, the rifle penetrating their new armour plate in two shots, "A standard plate carrier with new star league plates will only stop one shot, the power armour suits several more, the shots have less kinetic impact than staff weapons, they are more likely to burn right through someone than knock them down like a staff"

Although ground warfare wasn't his wheelhouse, it was still concerning information, nearly fearless soldiers who would throw themselves into combat with weapons more powerful than their own, he just hoped that was the extent of their capabilities.

Méndez was still speaking, "The enemy encountered only wore environmental suits so we have no idea what their standard personal armour is like or if they even have any, in summary, we have soldiers who are more used to dealing with civil and policing matters than combat but who have extremely good morale and weapons, currently we have no information on any vehicles they might field"

Mendez turned off the screen and sat down, Borman took that as his cue to move to the front of the room, he stood at the podium and looked at the faces of the commanders of the small fleet, the mix of people glanced up to him as he began to speak.

"This is the last briefing for taskforce Aschen, tomorrow you all leave on a mission to scout the Aschen, find their worlds and ascertain the extent of their forces", Borman stood straighter, "You will be in enemy territory for months before reinforcements arrive, as soon as the new upgrades for the fleet are ready they will join you and begin the second phase of this war"

"For now we know the location of two of their worlds, Volia, a world they conquered and sterilized the local population and Aschen prime the source of the Aschen, for now we will leave their homeworld alone and focus on their colonies"

Borman waved to Baltar seated in front of him, "Captain Baltar will be in overall command of this operation, Colonel Mendez and Major Takeuchi will handle ground ops, your first objective will be to travel to the Aschen area of space and make contact with our forward base on PCX-301, roughly two thousand light years from Volia, the closest of their worlds to us"

"Once there the taskforce will have discretion to achieve it's intelligence gathering mission, you are also authorised to perform anti shipping and planet side raids to further this objective, if the enemy presence grows too strong the taskforce is authorised to withdraw to friendly territory, in this case PCX-301"

Borman nodded to Baltar, "The Dublin will be equipped with a long range communications device to enable reports to be sent back home, updated to mission parameters will also be communicated this way and via the stargate on PCX-301"

Borman gave a nod to the man wearing the tan clothing in the room, "Tok'ra agent Jalrow will also be accompanying the fleet, his craft is equipped with a cloaking device to be used to scout the Aschen and also with FTL sensors to aid in enemy detection, the High Council is fully behind our war with the Aschen"

Another nod to two men wearing blue uniforms, "The Colonies of Kobol have also sent a fact finding team and fighter support to this endeavour, Major's Spencer and Boxman of the Colonial fleet and their men are another welcome addition to the taskforce"

Borman shuffled his notes and looked at the men and women in front of him, "I wont say this will be easy, the Aschen are a mystery to us, one we need to solve to move forward, we cant tolerate any nation that uses bioweapons as flagrantly as the Aschen, for the safety of the Union, all it's people and our allies I wish you luck in this mission"

Borman stepped down and moved off to the side, the various commanders moving out of the room, he waved Baltar over, "Captain, all set?"

"Admiral", Baltar saluted, "Just about, we'll be ready to leave on time tomorrow"

"It'll be awhile before you get there", Forty one days at least with the drives they had, "Twenty thousand light years is a hell of a distance"

Baltar shrugged, "It's quicker than it took us to get to the Colonies, things are much faster now"

"It sure is", Things had changed quick for the Union, faster than they could refit their ships too, the backlog was quite big now, especially when the technology was improving so fast, the new designs would equal Colonial speeds too, mostly because they were now buying Colonial drives directly, not that their own production had slowed.

Unfortunately Baltar's little taskforce was still using the old model, still it was far better than what they had before, able to jump ten light years every half hour over the old two every hour, too bad there weren't enough lithium fusion batteries yet or that would have halved the time to get there.

"Be careful out there Marcus, we don't have a clue how powerful their ships are but if their small arms are as good as Méndez says they might be more than you can handle"

Baltar smirked, "Don't worry Admiral, I'm not one to take chances, we'll be careful, I'd rather not have to fight a warship on a scouting mission"

"Right, I wont keep you any longer, good luck out there", Borman shook Baltar's hand and watched him leave the room, the next day he stood in the CIC of the station, watching as the thirteen ships disappeared from the Sol system, the first stage of their new war had begun.

P3R-233

11th July 2065

Jack walked through the gate and exited to a dark and cold space, behind him the rest of the team walked out of the gate, flashlights were turned on to illuminate the large room they found themselves in.

"Good morning campers", Jack said as he looked around, the warehouse like room seemed to contain lots of big electrical devices, they looked like tesla coils.

The team started to look around, scorch marks littered bits of the floor and some of the machinery, "There is damage", Teal'c spoke while looking at one of them", "It appears to have been done by Goa'uld weaponry"

Jack walked over and pointed his flash light at the damage, "I do not believe this battle took place recently", Teal'c said as he looked closer.

Daniel noticed the lack of bodies and said as much as Jack felt the hairs raise on the back of his neck, Carter was looking at some writing when he heard it, something metallic falling to the ground in a distant room, audible in the near total silence.

The team drew weapons, "Everyone heard that right?", Daniel asked as he pulled out his pistol.

"Yeah, we're not alone and I don't think their friendly, stay close"

The team began to move towards the sound when Teal'c spotted something, "O'Neill, we are in danger here"

Jack glanced back to the thing Teal'c was staring at, a weird metal face on a pole, "What's that?"

"It is the symbol of Korush'nai, it is for any Goa'uld or Jaffa who may pass through the gate loosely translated it means, Turn back"

"It means the surface of this planet is irradiated, whoever lived here was destroyed by the Goa'uld, totally", Jolinar spoke, "Everyone is likely dead"

Jack was torn, "Carter, did we pack the anti rad drugs?", the Colonial drugs were something else, able to combat even high exposure to radiation.

"Yes, enough doses for a few days"

Jack nodded, "Alright, we'll investigate the noise, if it's just a rat or something we're gone"

The team fanned out and moved deeper into the complex, walking through the dark until a light was visible in the corner of the room, silent hand signals had the team prepare to breach.

Jack poked his head through the doorway quickly, the room was well light compared to the rest of the place, there were various artifacts and other objects in the room but what caught his attention was three barely moving bodies cuddled up on the floor.

One was a man wearing black fatigues and a harness, Jack spotted several mags and a pistol in a holster, a familiar pistol to go with the familiar gun he saw besides the man, an FN P90 and an M9 handgun.

Another was a woman similarly equipped and the third was a man with dreadlocks and wearing leathers, all three were huddled up and looked sick, faces pale and gaunt, and the smell wafting out of the room was best left unmentioned.

"Three people, they look like their sick, rad poisoning", Jack whispered.

He received nods and decided to call out to the people inside, "You alive in there?"

Silence followed by a pained groan was the response, "All right, we're coming in"

SG-1 entered the room with weapons at the ready but the three people were to ill to do anything, "Carter, give them the anti rad drugs, Daniel go and dial the gate, tell them we have wounded incoming"

"Sir", Carter said as she began to inject the chemicals into the black haired man, who moaned unintelligible, "This equipment is from Earth"

Jack looked around the room as Carter and Jolinar attended the wounded, Teal'c stood guard at the door, there wasn't much to look at except a broken mirror, looks like it was shot to pieces too, he glanced closer and looked at the floor, brass casings littered it and he could see scorch marks on the far wall too, curious.

"Why didn't they leave", Jack wondered out loud, they must have noticed the radiation, even just that the environment was getting them sick, he got his answer when Daniels voice came over the radio.

"Jack, the DHD is busted, looks like one of those tesla coils fell on top, the big crystal thing is shattered"

"That would explain it alright, Carter, go see if you can get it working, otherwise we're waiting for the SGC to check up on us"

Jack sighed, it wasn't the end of the world, Earth computers could connect and dial it themselves as long as it had power, but these people might not have that time.

He knelt down beside the man, noticing Major's pips and an unusual badge on his shoulder, "Who are you?"

"They are stabilised", Jolinar spoke, "If we had a healing device I could do more but this medicine is quite effective against radiation poisoning"

Jack nodded and examined the radio the man was wearing, "Looks ancient", he muttered as he examined it, "Like something from sixty years ago"

"Sir", Carters voice interrupted him from his own radio, "The dialler is broken but the power source is still active, I should be able to connect our computer to dial out, five minutes tops"

"Good, and ask the SGC how they missed the broken DHD, I'd like to know next time before we walk through the gate"

Jack looked to the shivering people, they were still unresponsive but hopefully that drug would do something, "Alright, lets get them ready to move"

"Colonel", Jolinar spoke with some surprise in her voice, "This woman is pregnant"

"Well, damn"