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.

15. Chapter 15

Presidents Office

Caprica City

Several Days later

Ferore walked into the office with his head held high, a loud T.V. was on in the corner blaring out a news report.

"In a surprising turn of events, the Caprica stock market soared after the presidents office announced a groundbreaking trade agreement with the newly discovered stellar nation, the Terran Union"

Ferore moved up to the desk, staring at the back of the presidents chair, Rand was currently facing away from him and was looking out the large window onto the Caprica city skyline.

"The deal, which promises to begin a stable regime for the trading of key exports such as technology and consumer goods as well as opening the market for Terran sourced tylium, has instilled newfound investor confidence, leading to a three percent rise in the Colonial stock market today"

Ferore stopped and saluted the back of the chair, the president waving for him to sit as he turned around, the only sound in the room was the news reporter talking.

"Analysts predict that this alliance will not only enhance economic ties but also create thousands of jobs domestically"

Garret Rand bore a furious expression on his face as the reporter kept talking, Ferore internally sighed.

"Major ship building companies are particularly excited about the prospect of accessing the Union's burgeoning market, igniting a buying frenzy that has seen stocks in the sector rally sharply, with futures trading indicators also showing upward trends, the financial sector is buzzing with optimism over the potential economic benefits of this strategic partnership"

Rand picked up the remote from his desk and turned the T.V. off, "I just signed the deal when you arrived back with news that we're at war", he spat out.

Rand stood up and started pacing in front of the window, "My ratings were up ten points", he nodded to the television, "All thanks to that trade deal"

He turned to glare at Ferore, "When the news hits my popularity will be in the toilet, we could be looking at economic ruin again"

"Sir", Ferore tried to speak.

"Don't Sir me, I'd have you fired if that wouldn't make things worse", Rand shook his head, "No, once we deal with this situation you are going to retire, Nagala can take over"

He began pacing again, "If that wasn't enough, you just handed the Cylons our new weapons technology", a fist slammed down on the desk, "There's no talking this out, first this Lucifer, then those other Cylons and now this, you better be able to deal with this Admiral"

Ferore waited for the president to sit before he spoke, "The Cylons are the weakest they've been since the war ended, they also attacked us first, in unclaimed space I might add, we were well within our rights to salvage that ship"

Rand leaned back, calmer now after venting his frustrations, "We got the ship at least, that's a point in your favour", Rand's eyes narrowed. "But you allowed Doctor Baltar to be injured, we're lucky he even came back alive and not rotting in a Cylon ship instead", Rand fished out a confidential medical report, "Massive head trauma from the Cylon attack, he's still in a coma"

Ferore refrained from stating that Rand had pushed Baltar into the laser weapons program to begin with, if it was up to Ferore Baltar would still be stuck doing television appearances and not involved with important military research.

"I want those Cylons dead, Admiral, every last one, Cavil and Lucifer", a finger stabbed towards Ferore, "What do you need to do it?"

"Full mobilisation, reactivating the mothball fleet, help from the Terrans wouldn't be unwelcome either"

Rand sighed, "I cant bring in conscription, not now, you'll need to work with the numbers you have, I'll see about a recruiting campaign though"

He looked back to Ferore, "As for the Terrans", Rand paused in thought, "We just signed the mutual defence treaty but I don't want to invoke something like that this early, I'll ask our ambassador to put out some feelers, see what the mood over there is"

"Sir, there is one other thing", Ferore began, "Reports from the Terrans revealed they gained access to shielding technology, we would like that for our own ships too"

"That's a big ask Admiral, we'd need to pay out the nose for that kind of tech"

"I understand, I think we could get them to agree with some incentives, like access to the Pegasus"

Rand sighed again, "We'd like to have our own advanced tech too Admiral, giving everything away before we even start will see us constantly behind them", he looked to the dark television, "Even if they agree it wouldn't even matter for this war"

Rand came to a decision, "I'll ask the ambassador, see what they'd want in return, we'll keep the Pegasus a secret for now", a hand made its way to his temple, he rested his head against it, "We'll need to start buying lots of weapons from the Terrans now, more than I intended at this stage, and their reactors too"

Rand looked to Ferore again, "You do know they started their own war don't you?, prices will be high"

Ferore hated dealing with politicians, he'd welcome retiring after all this, "If our expert is accurate, we'll need those weapons against Lucifer's ships"

"We'll see admiral, right now I need to find an angle to spin this in my favour, the economy might tank but people do love a war time president, as long as we're winning that is"

Rand looked back to Ferore, "See that we do", he waved his hand towards the door, "You may leave Admiral"

Ferore saluted and quickly made his exit, thinking to himself how every president seemed even worse than the previous.

Cylon Colony

Simon jumped as the shot rang out in the metallic corridors of the Colony, Cavil had executed another of the captives taken from the two Colonial ships they had captured, he felt a sliver of disgust at the thought, he used to believe that the Cylons were beyond petty cruelty but ever since Cavil's plans had gone awry he had descended to the worst a person could be.

But Simon was a coward at heart, it was his cowardice that led him to this situation, if only he hadn't voted to recover the Cavil backup, but he did and now he lived in fear of Cavil deciding to box him and his line for the smallest reason, so he kept his head down and followed orders like a good soldier.

A glance across the room showed Doral working away, seemingly oblivious to Cavils actions in the other room, Doral had been all for recovering Cavil, his head had never left Cavil's ass since he'd been back, a bitter feeling overcame Simon, they deserved each other, how he let Doral talk him into this he would never know.

An internal sigh had Simon focus on his task, he had made his bed now it was time to lie in it, his mind connected to the Colony computers via the bio interface his hand was on, information on the Colonials new weapon flooded the virtual space, they were lucky in that regard, the ships they had captured had been heavily automated and the project director had foolishly left reams of data on the systems, he imagined that Gaius Baltar would be in hot water if the fleet ever learned of it.

Still, after perusing the available data and examining the captured ships systems in person he knew they had a hill to climb if they wanted to make their own, mostly on a logistical front, whomever had taken system 3340-2a from them had done a number on their production and resource extraction with their raids, they'd need months to work out production of their own laser systems, full sized ones anyway.

His mind opened other files, sensor data taken from resurrected raiders from the battle, he watched the raiders fight the new vipers the Colonials had fielded, sensor analysis pointed to fusion exhaust and the fighters were armed with laser cannons.

The Cylons limited ability to produce anything right now would take time to fix and they needed that production to even attempt to make the capital scale weaponry, but smaller lasers, those they might just be possible in a reasonable time frame.

Behind him the door slid open, a bloodstained Cavil walked into the room a pistol still in his hands, manic eyes flew around the room, glancing over Doral who kept his head down until they landed on Simons back, he could feel them bore into his soul as he watched through the camera.

A sinister smile spread across Cavils face, Simon shivered and disconnected from the network, he turned to face him.

"I have some good news Four, a name for our mysterious enemy", as Cavil spoke Simons eyes glanced down to the loaded weapon in Cavils hands, he had taken to shooting anyone who did the slightest thing to aggravate him lately, claiming that feeling death would help them learn better, he also refused to call them by name any more, only numbers.

"A name?"

"The Colonials had some intel on the fracker who stole my ships, they called him Lucifer", Cavils waved the gun around like a loon, "He will understand true pain when I get my hands on him", Cavil glared at Simon now, "What about the weapons?"

"We can replicate them, the issue is the time required"

Cavil stepped into Simons personal space, "I don't have time for that, Lucifer is building up his forces while we wait, the Colonials are getting more powerful every day and now they have that ship, I want options right now!"

Simon backed away with his hands raised, "I could install the weapons from the Colonial ship into one of our own", his words spilling from his mouth rapidly, he had expected this response and worked out a method.

"We'll need to use one of the old baseships, our new ones don't have the internal volume in the arms or core to mount the system, we can have one baseship armed with the eight weapons and their power systems, I should be able to manufacture some smaller weapons too"

Cavil adopted a thoughtful look, "I did see some vipers armed with laser weapons in the combat logs, are you saying you can do the same for our raiders?"

Simon shook his head, "No, we could make weapons that fit a raider but the power requirements are beyond what their systems can supply, I could only mount them on our baseships"

Cavil frowned, "How long to do all that?", he rubbed his face with the blood soaked hand still holding the pistol, "Do we even have any old baseships left?"

"A few weeks to complete the work, as for the ships, we have two left, they were stored beside one of our mining outposts and we still have control of them, it shouldn't take to long to get them operational again, we have all the labour we need in the centurions"

Cavil nodded and moved back, "You better get it done, your life might depend on it", a sinister smirk grew on Cavils face, "I'll go interrogate more of those humans, they might have some more information on this Lucifer", he made his way to the door, turning back once he was in the corridor, "Work quickly Four"

Simon leaned on the console as soon as Cavil was out of sight, a bead of sweat dripping from his forehead, he looked over to Doral who had kept silent the whole time, the man refused to look back, an overwhelming sense of self loathing hit him as he turned back to the console, working away at Cavil's bidding, he really was a coward.

Orbit

Unnamed Planet

Gina didn't know what she was feeling, depression?, hope?, she stared at the information about the world gifted to the Cylons, a barely habitable ice ball, the only liveable zone being a strip around the equator, still it was better than being dispersed among the Colonials, at least this way they were retaining some independence.

Their three remaining baseships hung over the site chosen for the first settlement, soon there would be only one, they were also lacking in manpower too, the Colonials had taken every centurion and raider before they had been allowed to leave for the planet, only bio models remained, Gina felt a sense of loss she didn't understand.

Ellen Tigh stood beside her, she and three others of the five had joined them, the Colonials had revealed the truth to the others but Saul Tigh had elected to remain part of the Colonial Fleet, something the Colonials themselves were allowing, their guidance in the future would be invaluable.

"I've seen better but we can make it work, when is the transport ship due?", Ellen asked.

The Colonials had promised to send supplies and workers to construct the beginnings of the new colony, they were due to arrive today, along with a detachment of the fleet that was to be permanently stationed here, they would also construct a small orbital station for support.

"Should be any minute now, did you visit the surface yet?"

Ellen shook her head, "Not yet, I've been visiting with the hybrid, we need to work out how to disconnect them from the two ships we're loosing, I should have a solution soon but I doubt they'll be able to live unaided"

Gina nodded, losing two ships would be painful, one was to be taken by the Colonials, she'd let them work out how to move it without a hybrid onboard, the other would be scrapped in orbit and the materials used for the colony below, one of the other five, Tory, had put forward the idea of selling the jump drive to the Terrans, what for would be worked out later, an idea that had merit since the Colonials were getting one for free.

"I was asked to work on a project, one that will benefit ourselves as well as the Colonials, they asked me to recreate the resurrection system, they want it to work on normal humans", Ellen shrugged, "They claim to have encountered a normal human man who was revived by our system"

Gina nodded, "Baltar"

"Yes, that was the name", Ellen leaned closer, "I haven't decided whether to do it yet but I am working on solving our fertility issues"

Gina turned to her, interest written on her face, the ability to have children was something the Cylons had sought for years, "Really, what do you need?"

Ellen smiled, "Lab space, equipment, thing like that, we'll also need some DNA, we'll need to ask the Colonials to grab some from a sperm bank, maybe the Terrans too"

A greater feeling of hope built up in Gina, she had always dreamed of having children one day, perhaps this would be the fresh start they all needed, free from the machinations of Cavil and returned to the embrace of the five.

Ellen returned to looking at the planet, "I made Saul promise to return, I might be old but children were something I always dreamed of but the bodies I created were all sterile, in essence you are all my children, even Cavil", she turned back to Gina, "I didn't want to push him into coming" she sighed, "Him and Adama are attached at the hip, Saul would follow him to hades itself"

Gina nodded along, she wondered if there was someone out there for her, something to consider in the future, right now they needed to get their new colony up and running.

"Whatever happened to that Two, Leoben?", Ellen asked out of the blue.

"Working for the Colonials", They had approached him after their return to Colonial space, his work on the Pegasus' computers had impressed the Colonial engineers and now he was working with them to delve into the ships secrets, "They offered him a lot of money and he spouted some tripe about his destiny being in the Colonies, he always did have his head in the clouds"

Ellen looked at Gina, "There might just be something to what he says, stranger things have happened"

Gina shrugged, silence passed between them before the sensors on the ship detected a small flotilla arriving, the Colonials had arrived, she placed her hands on he bio interface and got a look at what had been sent.

She raised an eyebrow, wondering whether to be insulted or not, a Berzerk cruiser and four Defender class escorts, that was what the Colonials were providing for their defence, better than nothing she mused, they were escorting several civilian transport and passenger ships, the materials and workers to get their colony started, and the last was a big ship, a mobile space construction ship, it would be building their new space station.

"You know, we're technically Colonial citizens now", Gina mused out loud, "I think I'm voting for whoever runs against Rand next time"

Ellen laughed out loud, "I don't know how he got elected the first time", she shook her head still smiling, "Lets go greet our new overlords"

Presidents Office

New York, Earth

Henry collapsed into his chair, it was one of the most expensive purchases in the room, designed to give the most comfort while sporting a retro style reminiscent of the nineteen fifties, a button caused a leather embossed footrest to extend and Henry took a sip of his brandy and leaned back.

It was a tiring job being the face of the Union, his power might be limited but he was at the forefront of all their initiatives, he could cast tie breaking votes in parliament and he led all their foreign diplomatic efforts, even if the Council had the final say he was still one of the most powerful people on Earth.

But public relations was his biggest task, convincing the populace and member nations that the Union was the future of Earth, just today he had been doing a PR tour of several shipyards around the country, part of a new military contract the Union had signed, he was there to cut the ribbon at the start of construction for the new Tower class corvettes.

He felt the sting as he took a sip of his drink recalling the earlier part of the day, shaking hands with engineers and workers, remembering the pre event briefing he received on the new ship, it was a leap forward in Union engineering he was told, it's anti gravity engines giving it the ability to take off and land on planets or hover in the air like a flying fortress.

Not only that but they were cheap and fast to build, the designers were inspired by things like the liberty ships from world war two, the Towers were modular constructions built like commercial sea going craft, large sections were built in factories and assembled in the shipyard, he was told they could make one in four months from scratch.

The project would invest billions in building the ships, hundreds of yards around the planet were set to start construction, it wouldn't even effect the civilian market too much, the huge amount of places the ship could be built numbered in the thousands from the hundreds of years that Earth had being building ocean going vessels.

He recalled being told of another ship about to enter production, a replacement for their current frigates, the Castle class, it too could be built on the ground, but the amount of facilities that could house such a large ship was far less than the Tower, once the last batch of Shield frigates were completed production would switch to the new ship in the orbital yards but several would start on the ground before that.

He just hoped all this effort was worth in the face of the Goa'uld and Aschen, a swig of his brandy followed that thought.

That was the first half of his day, the latter was spent in the close company of Ambassador Tamara Caston, an old battleaxe of a woman, she had informed him that things were heating up back in Cyrannus, a battle had taken place between the Colonials and the Cylons, she had been light on details.

A few titbits of information had made their way out of Colonial space before the ambassador had appeared, he knew of the Cylons approaching the Colonials with peaceful intentions before some kind of coup had happened, the losers had joined up with the Colonials, he also was hearing rumours of some kind of other Cylon faction with a leader named Lucifer, who was leading some kind of insurrection, again, details were sparse and the ambassador tight lipped.

The Colonials had yet to activate the new mutual self defence treaty that was recently signed by both parties but they did ask for some support in the interim, and also access to Earths newest technology, shields.

All of that was the source of his fatigue, the ambassador had retreated to her embassy afterwards, promising to bring her military attaché next time while Henry had met with his military advisors and Fleet Admiral Coleman, the debate had raged for hours on if they should and what they wanted in return if they did, they had worked out a list of things they might want, he'd need to see if the Colonials would pay.

Still, sending a small battle group was something they could do and the Council had agreed, Admiral Coleman was already working out what they could spare to send to the Colonials without compromising the Unions domestic commitments.

He wished the Colonials were speedy in resolving this conflict because the Union had bigger fish to fry, the Aschen war was about to kick off, their scouting fleet was already on the way to Aschen space and Admiral Rooks was assembling a fleet to send the Aschen Earths response to their abhorrent attack on the Union, a conflict that would take all of Earths resources in the near future.

And looming in the shadows was the even greater threat of the Goa'uld, Henry frowned in anger at the thought of the parasites, one day the Union would be ready to begin that conflict, he hoped the Colonials would stand beside them when the time came and any others who had the courage to fight.

He downed the dregs of his glass, his normally affable visage now marred by dark lines, the stress of his job getting to him, a sigh left his mouth as he stood, he had more meetings tomorrow with the ambassador, he'd better get some sleep while he could.

Antarctica

Drones buzzed around in the sky as Jimmy Tanner wadded through the snow drifts, his breath steaming out of his mouth as he put foot after foot through the thick snow, icicles hung from his mouth in the sub zero temperatures as he trudged after the rest of his team, his eyes constantly glancing to the small wrist computer showing him the drone feed.

"Another few hundred meters, that's where they found it", Harold's voice carried over the frozen plain, he and the rest of them had been sent out to investigate an anomalous reading under the ice one of the ground penetrating radar drones had picked up, it was too small to be what they were in Antarctica for but it bared investigating anyway.

The whole continent had more people on it the past few weeks than at any time in history, he heard rumours that they were looking for a lost city deep under the ice, they might be on to something he thought, didn't they find a second stargate here already.

Several footsteps later their leader, Francine Michaels, came to a stop and raised her hand, "It's here somewhere, Jimmy, have the drone land where it found the thing"

Jimmy hit a button on his wrist device and everyone's eyes turned to follow the drone as it gently came into a hover a few meters away from where they stood, they walked over and began to pull out small folding shovels, soon the snow was being cleared away.

Francine had pulled out a data pad and had brought up a map, "We're not far from where they found the gate, a few kilometres", she craned her head around taking in the vast open space, shielding her eyes from the harsh glare of the sun and snow, in the distance low ice covered hills surrounded the plain.

Jimmy got to shovelling, wishing the drone had found whatever this was last week, a snowstorm had hit the other day after the drone had reported the location and today was the first time the weather had cleared enough to head out right into thick snow drifts, last week this whole place had been a wind swept ice field.

The team worked hard and soon had cleared the snow from the top of the ice, Jimmy knelt down and used his gloved hands to wipe the last remnants off the surface, murky darkness lurked below his feet but if he strained his eyes he thought a shape was down there.

A flash light was pulled out of his thick coat and shined down into the ice, "There's something down there", he shined the light into the ice, a few feet down the shape was apparent under the ice, it looked almost like a body.

"Right, I'll call it in", Francine waved to the area around them, "Start clearing around here, we'll need to cut it out"

More shovelling later the sound of chainsaws echoed out across the ice, a small hoist had been set up and they slowly lifted the large rectangular section out of the ground, the teams expressions changing from expectation to shock as the shape within was revealed.

"Holy crap, that's a person", Norm shouted out, Jimmy could only nod along, a clearly intact body was in cased in the ice.

"How are they so normal looking, I've seen pictures of ice mummies before", Osborn said as he moved closer while shining a light through the ice, Jimmy could see the features of an adult woman within, perfectly preserved.

"Everyone back away now!", Francine shouted as she backed away herself, her hand on her earpiece, she had been in contact with the expedition command since the find, "We have a potential bio hazard situation"

Jimmy didn't need to be told twice and nearly jumped through the snow to put some distance while Harold Osborn and Norm Woods walked backwards away from the icy tomb.

"There's a shuttle on the way, looks like we'll be stuck in quarantine for a while", Francine sighed as she removed her hand from the comms device, "This could be big"

Cimmeria

The next day

Jack looked around the square room, a fire pit was lit in the middle casting shadows around the walls as Daniel and Carter discussed the problem they faced, a puzzle.

"You'd think a hall of might would be more impressive, not a Viking themed escape room", Jack mused out as he glanced at the Norse runes that Daniel was engrossed in.

It had all started when they asked Sheppard about the Asgard, every thing he remembered from the Replicators to the first encounter with the alternate SG-1 in his reality, he didn't know much about the first time but did remember it had something to do with Cimmeria so here they came.

They had talked to the locals they had met last time and Gairwyn had let slip about the hall of Thor's might, supposedly a repository of weapons, with no other leads than here or the labyrinth they had elected to try the hall first, they had spent hours wandering around a forest with Gairwyn until they stumbled across a hammer shaped rock with an embedded gem.

After being teleported into a stone box and talking with holographic Viking man Thor, they had to brave a dark chasm over a narrow walkway, Gairwyn had fallen over and Daniel had been quick on his feet and managed to reach her but they had both fallen, or so it had seemed but the floor had magically reappeared and then they were teleported to this room.

Jack watched bemusedly as Daniel scrambled around trying to work out a solution to the puzzle, even Carter was stumped as Daniel explained the meaning of the runes on the wall, the solution was beyond them right now.

Finally Daniel sighed, "I have no idea what he wants us to do"

A flash of light emanated from the hammer sculpture, Thor had reappeared, "There is no shame, perhaps in more time you will have come of age", his hand raised to teleport them back outside.

Daniel raised a finger and opened his mouth to complain but Jack beat him to the punch, "Hold your horses there Thor, we came all the way here to help you with your little robot problem, does the name Replicators ring a bell?"

The hologram froze when he uttered those words, distorting as it changed to a different form, the stereotypical Roswell grey, "I am Thor, supreme commander of the Asgard fleet, how do you know of the Replicators", his black eyes stared at Jack.

He heard Gairwyn gasp behind him but ignored it for now, "We have our ways but I'd rather speak in person, how about you swing around and we'll talk"

The hologram just stared at him before vanishing, immediately after the beam from the teleporter had them back in the forest, "Is that a yes?", Jack commented looking around.

"Sir, the hammer, we cant return to the hall", Carter said from behind, she was touching the gem on the stone hammer.

"Alright kids, lets get Gairwyn home, we'll reassess back at the SGC", Jack decided, must have touched a nerve he thought.

They began their trek out of the wooded area, a slow leisurely walk back to the Cimmerian village where Gairwyn lived, Jack decided to lighten the mood with some conversation, "So, Carter, I saw you and Jolinar were in the lab for the last few days, working on something good?"

Carter brightened up as she answered, "She's helping me with Goa'uld crystal technology, it's amazing stuff and I'm trying to see if we can grow some ourselves"

"Grow?"

Carter nodded, "A lot of Goa'uld tech is hard to understand, Jolinar told me they use nanotech to construct the majority of the components and the priest class and lesser Goa'uld oversee the construction of larger objects"

Carter pulled out a notebook she carried, "The crystals are different, they grow blank crystals from a chemical slurry then use lasers to carve out the circuits in 3D, turning the blanks into powerful optical processors and storage mediums, it is something we should be able to reproduce"

"Did you?", Jack wondered.

"Sort of, we managed to grow some crystals and get them working but they were worse than what we use today, still it was valuable information and the research facilities on Earth will be able to take it further"

"Good work Carter, every little bit helps", Jack nodded to the commander, she had told them at the start of the stargate program that one day she wanted to command ships, that was why she stayed in the fleet rather than transferring to the marine corps like he did, he thought she was a shoe in at this point.

They continued their trek in silence apart from Daniel asking Gairwyn questions about the local culture and history, until finally they arrived at the local mead hall, Jack was tempted to try some, he always wondered what it was like.

"Alright, we move in twenty", Jack decided after arriving, they'd take a small break to see Gairwyn off before heading over to the gate, he opened the door of the hall when a flash blinded him for a microsecond, he blinked his eyes to reveal a metal wall a few feet from his face.

"Looks like we're not in Kansas any more", he said as he turned around, Carter and Jackson were both looking around in surprise while Jack spotted a small grey figure seated on a throne.

"Greetings, welcome to the Biliskner", the soft voice of the Asgard carried over, "I am Thor, supreme commander of the Asgard fleet"

Jack gave the small alien a wave, "Jack O'Neill"

"Samantha Carter"

"Daniel Jackson"

"I travelled here as you requested, you mentioned the replicators, implying you could help with them?, please explain"

Jack nodded to Carter, "Carter"

She nodded back and turned to Thor, "Several weeks ago we found several people who claimed to be from a parallel universe, one both in the future and the past, in that universe we were friends with you, we helped you deal with the replicators, managing to destroy them completely"

Thor gave a small nod, "Intriguing", he blinked his large black eyes, "Do these persons retain the knowledge of how this was accomplished?"

Jack shrugged, "Sheppard read all the reports but his memory isn't the best, he said something about finding a robot woman who created the replicators and luring them into some kind of trap?, didn't work in the end though"

"I see"

"After that they used some kind of device on Dakara to get them all at once, we'd need to talk to Sheppard to be sure"

"This Sheppard, he is from this other universe?"

"Yep, he's still in the medbay, radiation exposure"

Thor nodded, "I must speak with this Sheppard, where is he located?"

"Pluto station, we can contact them from the gate, I'm sure Hammond wont have a problem with you visiting"

Thor gave a small nod and raised his hand, Jack felt a slight bit of movement before Thor brought up a large holographic screen, "It has been some time since I visited your world, I see things have changed greatly"

The screen showed an orbital picture of Earth, Jack could see ships leaving and entering the atmosphere and stations orbiting silently in space, "What, how are you seeing that?", he walked closer, "Are we there?"

"Asgard hyperdrives are capable of crossing the vast distance between galaxies, a trip to your world is only a matter of seconds", Thor glanced at the image of the various ships in orbit, "Your vessels will not be able to detect us, where is this Pluto station?"

Daniel and Carter looked to Jack questioningly, he shrugged in response, "Its the outer most planet in the system, should be around five and a half billion kilometres from here, it's where we keep the gate"

Thor nodded, "I shall scan for the stargate", seconds later the ship vanished into a hyperspace portal to reappear over Pluto station, "There are three persons recovering from acute radiation poisoning, one female and two male", a spindly finger pointed to the holographic display showing the interior of the medbay, "Which is Sheppard?"

Jack pointed him out and watched as a flash moved him from the medbay to standing right beside him, he now looked healthier too.

"I have used the transporter to repair the damage to his body", Thor looked to the surprised Sheppard, "Your companions have explained that you may know the solution to defeating our greatest enemy"

"Uh, hi", Sheppard turned to Jack, "I see you found the Asgard, didn't expect that", he patted down his body, "Transporters can fix stuff?"

"The transporters are tied into the ships medical facilities, so yes", Thor's eyes blinked slowly, "Please, the replicators, what do you know?"

Sheppard scratched at his head, "I only skimmed the reports but I remember SG-1", he waved at Jack and the rest, "Found a humanoid robot on a planet somewhere that had created the replicators, you used her to lure them to a planet where you trapped them in a time thing"

"I do not understand the reference 'time thing', please explain"

Sheppard cringed, "You froze time, hoping to give yourselves more time to find a solution, you planned to turn the star into a black hole I think but they broke out before you could"

"I see, do you know the location of this progenitor machine?"

"Sorry, I cant remember, but I do remember what happened next, the replicators had gained human form by that point and they all came to the milky way, I was on Atlantis at the time but it was all the talk, SG-1 used the Dakara device to send out a pulse through the gate network that turned them all off, I think you based it on the anti replicator device"

Thor leaned forward in his seat, "What is this anti replicator device?"

Sheppard pointed to Jack, "I remember that O'Neill had all the ancient knowledge downloaded into his head from one of those head sucker things", Jack raised an eyebrow at that, "You used it to make a gun that worked on replicators"

Jack watched as the alien steepled its fingers, almost like a human, "I request that you allow me access to your memories, I can extract the relevant information"

"You can?", Sheppard was taken aback, "Will it cause damage?"

"No, it is quite safe, I will simply copy the relevant information onto the computer systems of the ship, these reports you read in the past"

Sheppard sighed and nodded, "Sure, if it can stop the replicators in their tracks, I'm all in", he rubbed his head again, "But I'd like a favour in return, my friends are still sick, could you heal them too?", Sheppard looked down at the hospital gown that barely covered anything, "Oh, some clothes would be nice too"

Jiangnan Shipyard

China

Admiral Charles Barrowman shivered in the cool sea air, he had just flown in from Sentinel station to watch the first flight of their new corvette ship, they had started building it a few months ago when the design was first proposed and now the first unit was ready to be tested.

"This way admiral", the ships temporary crew were boarding for the flight, a mix of engineers and workers from the shipyard, and also some military personnel here to see it in action like himself, he had heard the president had just attended another shipyard just yesterday, one that had started construction of another corvette, soon they'd be pumping the things out like no ones business.

Unlike the ships constructed in orbit the corvette sported a bright white coat of paint, he was told it was to stop rust, an issue for ships designed to land on planets, he gave it a pat as they passed the outer airlock and into the interior.

"A lot more cramped in here", he noted as they entered, the corridors were more narrow than he was used to with barely enough room for two people to pass by, wires and conduits were still exposed as he examined the walls.

"Space is a premium on ships this small", his guide explained, he was one of the engineers responsible for building it, "We actually managed to squeeze more room into it thanks to the trinium alloy we used for the internal structure"

Barrowman nodded, the arrival of the Rhososian ship had catapulted Union technology ahead years and they were still coming to grips with what Kerensky had given them, this ship was an example of that and he heard the new frigate design had even more new technology onboard.

They moved deeper into the ship, walking on the steel grating that passed for a floor, he could see bundles of wiring and pipework underneath, "It's very bare bones", he said while looking down.

The engineer nodded, "We didn't have the luxury to hide everything behind panels, the floor is easy to remove in case of repairs too, and easy to replace"

They arrived to the cramped command centre which was already packed with people for the test flight, they squeezed in and Barrowman took his first look, one word came to mind, small.

"Ah, Admiral, glad you could join us", a white haired man appeared from the small crowd and gripped Barrowman's hand before vigorously shaking it up and down.

"MP Kinsey", Barrowman ground out, "Why are you here?"

Robert Kinsey was a member of the Unions parliament and had a seat on the appropriations committee, recently he had turned his attention to the stargate program, constantly complaining in the media about the cost and lack of tangible results, all in total contrast to the actual achievements and technology it provided, his backers in the corporate sector were pushing for access and that was the source of his hostility.

"Just making sure our tax money is well spent, the fleet costs a lot of money you know, I need to make sure the right people are making the right decisions, now if you'll excuse me I have a press conference to get to"

Barrowman's teeth ground together as he watched the human slime exit the command centre, a gaggle of media types in tow, he spied the commander of the ship, one Lieutenant Commander Bridges near the helm controls and pushed through the throng to reach him.

"Admiral, sir, welcome aboard, we scheduled to depart in ten minutes"

Barrowman nodded, "Good", he looked around at the controls scattered about, "Why don't you tell me about the ship"

Bridges nodded, "She's the first of the Tower class, able to land, fly and hover on a planet and the smallest warship to mount FTL drives"

Bridges pointed to another console, "She comes with subspace comms and sensors as standard, a lithium fusion battery, shields and the best jump engines we have, twenty light years range and a recharge time of twenty minutes"

Barrowman nodded along, he was amazed at how far they had come in such a short timespan, only two years ago it took an hour to go two light years.

Bridges nodded over to another console, the weapons systems, "Due to her size the engineers needed to develop new smaller weapons, she has four ultra light particle cannons in four mounts and sixteen ultra light laser cannons in eight mounts, she also has eighteen point defence turrets and four interceptor missile launchers", Bridges patted the wall, "For anti capital weapons she has eight missile tubes for star dancer mark fives, enhanced warheads too"

"Impressive for the size", Barrowman knew a ship like this would have reaped a heavy toll on their old ships, even then it was still a pea shooter compared to the Goa'uld but it would fill out the light patrols and other small roles the fleet had.

"Thank you Admiral, I'll need to excuse myself and clear out some of the people here, we're leaving soon", Bridges saluted and turned to an ensign while Barrowman moved to the back, watching as the amount of people in the command centre slowly reduced.

Soon they were ready, he watched as the crew worked the ship and soon he felt it, a small force as the ship slowly began to lift from the dock it had been built in, engineers monitoring every system for problems as the ship slowly gained height, soon they were hovering over the dockyards while crowds of gawkers looked up from the ground.

A sense of accomplishment travelled through the crew as the ship held itself in the sky, they stayed there for several minutes before the next phase began, alarms sounded as the ship began to rise again before it pointed it's nose up and lit off the main engine, soon they were rocketing into orbit.

A cheer broke out as they left the Earth behind, Barrowman among them, "Congratulations, Commander, well done", he offered his hand, the Commander graciously accepting.

"Thank you sir but I think the workers and engineers deserve all the credit here, this ship is a massive leap forward for the fleet"

Barrowman nodded while he stared at the image of Earth on the screen, "Yes, it is"

Meeting room

Union Parliament Building

New York

"Ambassador Cranston, please have a seat", the Terran negotiator said as she entered the room, her military attaché following behind, seated at the table was the Terran diplomat and some aides.

She nodded and sat, the Terran shuffling some papers, "So, have you come to a decision on shield technology?"

The man nodded, "We understand that you acquired some Cylon rebels and their ships recently, giving you access to their technology, we would also like access"

Cranston nodded, "Acceptable, is that all?"

The man smiled, "We require the latest Colonial jump technology, the ability to purchase the most modern jump drives, the ability to purchase Colonial raptor craft and one thousand small jump drives of the same, in exchange we will offer the Colonial government the ability to purchase shield generators, if you want to licence the technology we will need more"

She glanced to the man in uniform beside her, he gave a slow nod in response.

"I don't see any issues there but I'll need to contact my government to confirm", she answered the diplomat, wondering what the price to licence would be or if their counter offer would entice them.

"We are prepared to transfer several of our mothball ships to the Union in exchange for licencing", the Colonel beside her threw a document folder onto the table, "We understand the Union lacks large scale warships"

The diplomat picked up the folder and took out a page, an image of a large ships was laid out, a Minotaur gunship, he and the others hovered around the documents before he turned back to her, "What do you propose?"

Tamara smiled, "A joint project, we upgrade the ships using your technology and our yards and split the results between us, the Colonial government will pay for the project and there are ten ships in storage we can use"

"A novel idea, your government is prepared to fund this?", he waved to the folder.

"They are, it is also an opportunity for your engineers to learn how we make ships and for us to learn your systems, we all benefit in the end and you receive five vessels you would consider battleships"

The man nodded, "In exchange for shield technology", he paused in thought before answering, "We can work with this, we'll also offer a lower price for royalties too, say one percent per device"

"The Colonial government will be happy Mr Burton, very happy"

"As will the Union Ambassador Cranston, I'll get started on a contract immediately"

Asgard Ship Biliskner

Sheppard sat up from the table, "Is that it?", he asked while checking over his memories, everything seems to be there.

Thor was standing near a console that had several rocks on top, a holographic screen hovered above it showing images from Sheppard's mind, "Yes, Major, I have recovered the memories required"

Sheppard nodded and moved over to stand beside the three members of SG-1, they all watched as Thor scrolled through Sheppard's memories of reading the old SGC mission reports, it went on for several minutes before he finished.

"I believe this is the report in question", Thor stated as the pages appeared in the display, "An android named Reece was found on P3S-517, after activation it was discovered she was the progenitor of the Replicators, she was deactivated and transferred to the Asgard for study"

Thor turned back to the team, "We are grateful for this information, it may allow us to defeat the Replicator scourge once and for all"

"That's great", he heard O'Neill say, "Can you help us out too?"

Thor returned to his throne, "Your society is too developed to be included in the protected planets treaty and although we might have been allies in another universe, here we have just met, it would be remiss of the Asgard to gift you technology at this juncture"

Sheppard heard O'Neill sigh, "Cant you do something?"

"As of this moment no, my attention will be focused on the Replicators and our treaty with the Goa'uld still stands, Thor nodded, "But I can share some information, I noticed some discrepancies while examining Major Sheppard's memories, allow me to expound further"

A map appeared on the holographic projector, several of the local galaxies Sheppard thought, "We are aware of the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy but learning that the Vanir fled there is unexpected, unfortunately we only learned of the demise of the Lantean civilisation after their return to Earth ten thousand years ago"

Two of the galaxies were highlighted, "This galaxy and Pegasus are the only ones with humanoid lifeforms, the Ori referenced in Sheppard's memories do not exist in this reality, according to the Asgard historical database the Alteran empire arose on Earth and so did the Human species, we would be unable to call you the fifth member of the great alliance in this reality, here you are one of the four"

"Er, what?, are you saying we're the Ancients?", Daniel exclaimed.

"Indeed Doctor Jackson, allow me to explain", Thor paused as he looked to the display, it changed to an image of Earth, "The Ancients as you call them were born on your planet, aeons ago, they spread around this galaxy seeding life everywhere they went, during this time the great alliance formed with the Asgard, Nox and Furlings, it was a time of great progress and prosperity for all"

Thor turned back to them, "It was during this period that your species began to develop what you would call psychic powers, the ability to read minds, telekinesis and healing abilities all manifested, it would also led to the undoing of the Alteran empire"

"How so?", Jackson asked.

"These powers did not appear uniformly across your species, the vast majority of the populace displayed no powers, this led to the creation of two societal classes, those with abilities who became the leaders and those without"

"Things continued in this fashion for several thousand years, the powerless were oppressed by those with abilities leading to resentment and finally rebellion, the rebels developed a bio weapon that targeted the genome of those with abilities, what would become known as the great plague"

Thor shook his head sadly, "The rebels miscalculated though, the plague was so virulent that it also effected the general populace, the government at the time used their terraforming device to sterilise worlds in response, the Dakara device you mentioned earlier is one such device, billions died on thousands of worlds as the plague spread through the empire, armed rebels also began to appear and attack too"

"The empire collapsed soon after, the leaders fleeing in what you called Atlantis for the Pegasus galaxy, leaving the remnants of the empire to a slow death of starvation and disease", Thor paused, "It was only then that we stepped in, far too late to save anything but we did develop a cure for the plague and administered it on the few remaining populated worlds, if only we had acted sooner"

"Afterwards we left this galaxy, content to simply stay in our own, many more worlds were lost during this time to various factors until only a few remained, Earth among them, afterwards the Goa'uld began to scavenge the remnants of the empire and begin their own"

"That's a lot to take in", O'Neill said to fill the silence, "But it doesn't really help us right now"

"I am afraid that is all I can offer at the moment, I am open to seeking friendship with the peoples of the Union in the fullness of time, I shall raise the issue upon my return to Othala"

"Now wait just a min..", O'Neill began, a flash later and they were standing before the stargate, "..ute, what the hell?"

"I think he sent us away", Jackson commented as marines rushed into the room with guns drawn, Hammond following behind.

"Colonel, how did you arrive back?", Hammond asked.

"Our friendly Asgard gave us a ride home", O'Neill pointed up, "And one whopper of a story to boot"

Hammond sighed, "Debriefing room in one hour", he turned to John, "Major Sheppard, weren't you in the medbay recovering?"

"I'm all better now", he patted the reproduction fatigues that Thor had made out of thin air, "I'd better check on Ronon and Teyla, see if Thor fixed them too"

Hammond just nodded, "Go on son, you'd better come to the debriefing room after too, I have a feeling the story will be a long one", Hammond waved them off while the marines left the room.

O'Neill stretched, "Man, I'm hungry after all that teleporting, lets hit the canteen, I heard it's pizza today"

Battlestar Atlantia

Colonial Staging area

7th August 2065

Ferore felt his age catching up to him lately, pulling all nighters to get the fleet into shape had taken it's toll on his body, he reached across his desk to grip the steaming mug of coffee and downed a large gulp, he sighed tiredly, in a way he was glad to be retiring after all this was over, he had seen the start of the war as a junior lieutenant in the Tauron fleet and would see its end as the top Admiral of the Colonial fleet.

He stood up and stretched his aching bones, rubbing his legs to encourage circulation as he moved to the mirror in the corner, a quick groom and tidy and he walked the short distance to the CIC.

He entered the organised chaos and took up his usual spot at the plotting table, around him crew and information flowed as the task force assembled for the soon to begin offensive into Cylon space, he nodded to Major Tito as he glanced up to the screens above.

"All of battlestar group fifty four have arrived, Admiral, I think that's everything"

Ferore looked to the display, the myriad ships were arranged around his command, BSG's 14, 27 and 54 were all present and accounted for, a formidable force to send their response to he Cylons while they prepared for the long haul back in the Colonies.

"Good", Ferore nodded, "We'll begin operations soon, we're still waiting on the Terran contingent"

A closed folder was waiting on the plotting table, the latest information from their Stealthstar craft they were using to scout out Cylon space, he smiled ruefully as he remembered the test against the baseship they were given by the rebel Cylons, the ship was clear as day on the Cylons scopes, fortunately with access to the Cylon ships systems the engineers were able to fix it to work again, it was a gift from the gods right now.

The oversized viper was also equipped with the smallest jump drives the Colonies could build, he had twenty of them at his disposal and he intended to get every iota of use out of them, he had them running round the clock missions to scope out the Cylon disposition, he even had one keeping an eye on the other problem child, Lucifer, he ordered that ship to stick to the outer system though so the information would be a few hours old by the time the ship got it.

He opened the folder, the latest scouting reports told a strange picture, it seemed that the Cylons had lost most of their industry to Lucifer, by outright theft and massive raids, the intel officers had estimated that only sixty baseships remained under Cylon control.

The utility of the rebel Cylons had presented itself in other areas too, a detailed list of every Cylon controlled system and outpost had been compiled, lists of every valuable target in Cylon space, he had worked out the critical objectives of his small fleet, primarily among them was the destruction of the resurrection hub, removing their ability to revive would cripple Cylon morale according to every expert they had.

After that was any remaining production centres and resource outposts, tylium mines and refineries were top of that list, then there was the Colony, the Cylons capital, a monstrous mobile station that would take careful planning to assault.

The bulk of the Cylon fleet was hovering around the station according to the latest intel, another disturbing bit of information was the presence of two adamant frigates, the Cylons had gained access to Colonial laser technology.

There were also large bays on the Colony that the telescopes on the Stealthstar was able to glimpse the interior of, skeletal frames were being constructed by the Cylons, the beginnings of new warships, albeit smaller than the standard Cylon fare, the incomplete ships resembled large disks, similar to half of an old basestar, Ferore would prefer to deal with things before those ships became operational.

All this effort really intended was to keep the Cylons off balance while the fleet rushed to upgrade their ships back home, weapons and power systems had been arriving from the Union for weeks already and ships were getting them installed, the one good plan Gaius Baltar had conceived was being implemented, work was even starting on a new generation of Colonial ships with the new technology built in.

There was also the matter of the Pegasus, it had been towed to Ragnar for analysis, work crews had already started reinforcing the fatigued structure of the ship while engineers and scientists work to understand everything they had found, things were already looking promising, the engineers and the Cylon Leoben had managed to download a complete history database from the ship.

Ferore had taken a few hours and given it a brief glance, he was amazed and horrified that their ancestors had fought for a thousand years against the Cylons of that time, the existence of actual aliens was something of a shock too and the fact that the Cylon empire had some of those other species as part of it showed the differing mentality of those ancient Cylons.

A slew of new contacts appeared on the display while he was thinking, "Looks like the Terrans have arrived", Tito commented as Ferore counted the ships, there were thirteen, he looked to the live feed and saw the ships they had sent, one of their carriers, and ten smaller ships, what he knew to be one of their carrier battle groups, the last two large contacts were old Colonial freighters that had been sold to the Terrans, they must have bought a hundred of the things so far.

"Look at the turrets on those ships, every one is a laser weapon I think"

Ferore nodded, "They told us they were sending their newest ships, the Cylons wont know what hit them", he glanced to the proposed fleet deployment for the upcoming campaign, "We'll keep the Terrans with battlestar group fourteen, keep our heaviest hitters together"

"Sir", the comms officer called over, "Admiral DuGalle is on the line"

"Put him through", Ferore took one last glance at the DRADIS display before he picked up the handset, a wistful smile on his face as the forces of the Colonies would finally put an end to the Cylon menace, once and for all.

Othala

Ida Galaxy

High Council Chambers

"The information in these memories contains disturbing information on the future of our species", Chief Archon Borr said to the other members of the council.

"With the knowledge Thor gained and the android in our custody, surely that future is averted?", Freyr asked.

The small grey leader gave a soft nod in Freyr's direction, "Indeed, we have already begun construction of a time dilation device, we will not make the same mistake as our counter parts, a stellar implosion device is already prepared and once all replicators arrive at the target system and are trapped they will be swiftly destroyed"

Borr raised a slim finger, "But that is not my concern, rather it is the mass suicide our counterparts decided upon, I fear we would reach the same decision in their circumstances, once the replicators are destroyed we must solve the cloning issue"

"Thor, you have had the most time with the information, is there a solution?", Penegal, another member of the council asked.

"There are many possibilities but the most promising in the immediate future is the presence of an Asgard ancestor's body on the planet Adara II, in the other timeline Heimdall's research was interrupted by the arrival of the Goa'uld Anubis, perhaps our salvation lies there"

"We shall dispatch a ship to recover this ancestor and any other Asgard artifacts, I understand that our counterparts feared the replicators disrupting that research and elected to preform it on the planet, here we shall be free of such worries", Borr decided, the other Councillor's nodding in agreement.

"There is one more issue I would like to raise", Thor spoke.

"Speak supreme commander, what is this issue"

"We owe the people of Earth a debt for providing us with this information, I propose we repay that debt"

Silence hung in the air as the Council thought over Thor's request, "They are the primitive remains of a once mighty empire, but they show promise, I propose we assist them with technical assistance so they might better oppose the Goa'uld, something we currently lack the ability to achieve ourselves"

"Your words have merit Thor but we must fully consider any action related to sharing technology with humans, it would violate the protected planets treaty and if the Goa'uld were to learn such all the worlds we offer protection too would be attacked, we would be unable to save many of them", Borr answered.

"I understand Chief Archon, while the matter is under consideration I propose to return the information we acquired to Earth in a format they are familiar with, after all it was a gift and we should offer something in return for the solution to the Replicators"

Borr and the other Councillors nodded slowly, "That would not violate the treaty, the information originated with them to begin with, I concur with Thor, we shall return the information to the humans while the matter of technology is considered"

Thor received nods of support from the other Councillors, "It would be remiss of us to fail to repay the debt we owe the people of Earth, sending the information would be a start", Freyr spoke.

"Very well then, Thor, I trust you can see to this?", Borr asked.

"Indeed, I shall do so presently"

…

Jack had started running when the alarms first went off, he flew through the doorway and into the command room as Harriman was calling out the last chevron, "Chevron seven locked"

The gate had other ideas as it continued to spin to the shock of all present, their home-made dialling computer began to throw up errors on the screen as another chevron illuminated on the gate, "Chevron eight locked?", a stunned Harriman called out, the gate stopped spinning once the eight locked.

"Get that iris up, right now", Hammond shouted to the stunned soldiers, Harriman was shocked out of his stupor and slammed his hand down on the iris control, Jack himself just kept watch on the gate as the metal panels closed over the active wormhole.

Nothing happened for several seconds before something came into existence before the gate, an Asgard now stood there, "Security team to the gate room", he heard Hammond call out as he raised his hand.

"Sir, that's an Asgard", Jack's eyes examined the small alien, "He looks like Thor"

"The alien you encountered several weeks ago?, why is he here?"

"Lets find out"

The two men entered the room behind the marines rushing in with guns drawn, Hammond raised his hand, "Stand down", he walked up to the alien, "I'm General Hammond, commander of this facility, who are you?"

"Greetings, I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet", the small alien nodded to O'Neill, "Colonel O'Neill and I have met before"

"Yeah, you kind of left abruptly last time, we had some questions", Jack moved up to stand beside Hammond, "Like giving us access to Sheppard's memories"

Thor nodded, "Time was of the essence, the Replicator scourge is a threat to all life and I needed to acquire the android immediately", his hand waved to the ground where a bright flash of light preceded the appearance of a stack of folders, "The mission logs recovered from Major Sheppard's mind, they only pertain to the alternate SG-1 as that was all I extracted"

Jack reached down and leafed through the top folder, it was a mission log alright, the first mission to Abydos, "Thanks", Jack said sincerely, "Did you sort out the replicators?"

Thor nodded, "We have revised the plan in the memories, we are confident this time it will succeed"

Hammond nodded, "Why don't we head up to the conference room and talk there"

"I am afraid that is impossible, what you are talking to is a mere projection, I am still situated on Othala", Thor looked up to the two men, "The Asgard are currently considering what assistance we many provide in the future but you must understand the protected planets treaty binds us greatly", Thor sighed, "We do not have the resources to combat the Goa'uld at this time, the Replicators caused great damage to our infrastructure which will take time to repair"

Thor pointed to the pile of documents, "For now these documents must suffice while the high council debates the issue, rest assured the Asgard will be seeking friendship with the people of Earth"

The alien faded out of existence before them and the gate shutdown, they shared a confused look, "Guess he doesn't like hanging around", Jack looked down at the stacks of files, "The little guy pulled through though, this is a gold mine"

Hammond nodded, "It is", he turned to the marines, "Dismissed", the marines began to file out as Hammond looked at the pile, "And someone grab a trolley"

Jack just smiled and grabbed a stack of folders, "Looks like we'll all be up late tonight"

Union Weapons Research Facility

New Mexico

"This way gentlemen", The Czech scientist led them deeper into the facility, the passed labs and other sundry items you'd expect in a facility of this size, armed guards manned outposts at every junction too, this was one of the most secure research facilities on the planet.

"It's an impressive facility", Barrowman heard Rooks say to him, "I've seen similar setups back in the Hegemony"

"Ah, we're here, please", Doctor Zelenka led them into a large room, the warehouse size space was home to a massive barrell shaped object with numerous electric coils and other equipment hooked up, a lab coat wearing man was approaching them as they gazed around.

"Radek, I wasn't told we'd be having visitors today", a grumpy voice reached them.

"This is Doctor McKay, chief researcher on the new weapons systems", Zelenka waved to the man, "Rodney, these are Admiral Barrowman, head of the bureau of ships and Admiral Rooks"

McKay scowled, "Fine, lets get this over with", he pointed to the large machine behind him, "Behold, the future of Union space warfare, the pulse cannon", his sarcastic voice told them.

"I see the similarities to a PPC, how is it different?", Rooks asked the man.

McKay smirked, "Double the firepower, a rate of fire of a shot every two seconds and the weapon is smaller and more compact than a standard naval particle cannon, you tell me"

Zelenka spoke next, "This weapon is a combination of Star League technology and the particle weapons from the Rhososians, we were already well on the way to improving the standard PPC ourselves beforehand too"

They started walking closer as the scientists explained, "Before the Rhososians arrived we were stuck, the biggest hurdle was figuring out a way to make Kobolium super conductors, we know the Goa'uld use them and even the elemental composition but we were missing something, every formula we tried tended to explode when we put too much current through it", McKay explained.

He waved to Rooks, "Star League tech had better conductors than we did before, things that operated on much higher temperatures but nothing like room temperature, Kobolium can work at temperatures much higher than room"

Zelenka nodded, "The Rhososians had already solved the problem of how to manufacture a stable super conductor, it is now simply a matter of production"

"After that it was easy to combine their particle technology with ours, rapid fire pulse cannons are just the first step", McKay stated, "We're just scratching the surface of what we can achieve in the future, better weapons, shields, you name it"

Rooks nodded and turned to Barrowman, "Is this why the Castle class is delayed?"

"Yes, those ships are going to be test beds for lots of new technology, not just these weapons, I doubt any will be ready before this whole Aschen situation is done though"

"What are the other technologies?", Rooks asked.

Instead of letting Barrowman answer McKay spoke instead, "There's facilities around the world working on improving our tech, your Star League engineers are too rigid, treating technology like orthodoxy, I can see why those clans of yours only iterated on what they started with, not much innovation at all"

"Is there a point to this", Rooks ground out angrily.

"Yes, before those Rhososians arrived we were working on adapting naval scale pulse lasers, something the Star League should have achieved hundreds of years ago, we'll manage it in a few months"

Rooks glared at the arrogant man as Zelenka rushed in to cover, "Right now teams around the world are working on new fusion reactors and gravity assisted thrusters for our ships"

"Do go on Doctor", Barrowman asked to relieve the tension between Rooks and McKay.

Zelenka pulled out a data pad, "The Rhososians use a more standard form of fusion but were able to produce much more power than assumed, we found they have a layer of Kobolium catalyst lining the interior of their reactors, it absorbs ambient unused radiation and heat to convert into more power, it makes their reactors very efficient but over time the catalyst is used up"

"I see, how fast?", Barrowman asked.

"We would need to replace the inner layer after several years of use", Zelenka brought up an image of a reactor, "We can adapt this catalyst to our own reactors, improving power generated and also reducing the amount of radiation shielding we would need"

"And the thrusters?"

Zelenka nodded and manipulated his pad, "Gravity assisted fusion thrusters, the Rhososians used a similar system that inspired our own, these will increase exhaust velocity by up to ninety percent in its current form", a detailed diagram of the thruster was shown on the pad.

Barrowman nodded, "What does that mean for acceleration?"

Zelenka brought up a chart, "Older chemical thrusters can achieve several G's of acceleration, Fusion thrusters break into the double digits thanks to inertial compensators, these enhanced drives should be able to reach from the mid thirty to forty G's based on the mass of our current warships"

"And all these technologies are ready for deployment?", Rooks asked.

Zelenka nodded, "The new Castle class ships will be equipped with them, after we fully test the systems out we can move on to upgrading our older designs with the new technology"

"Good", Barrowan said as McKay retreated back to whatever he had been doing when they entered, "When can we expect the first ship to be finished?"

"Right now the hulls are already under construction they just need their systems and armour installed, we expect them to be finished in around four months"

That was good news to Barrowman, he was expecting time frames of over a year, he could see that Rooks looked pleased too.

"Doctor, I heard that the Rhososians also had teleportation technology?", Rooks asked.

"They do, it is a derivative of Goa'uld ring transporters, more advanced in some ways, worse in others", he pointed to his pad where an image of a Goa'uld ring transporter was being shown in operation, "We've had a pair of ring transporters for some time now, they can work in pairs over long range and can be used singularly from short range, say from the interior of a ship to the ground if the ship was hovering above it"

The image changed to the Rhososian version, "The Rhosisians made their own teleporter system based on the Goa'uld one, the emitter needs line of sight to the target or to a receiver on another ship, otherwise it has a shorter range but greater capacity to transport large items, it also lacks the moving parts of the Goa'uld device, but it cannot penetrate surfaces to teleport inside structures or ships without a corresponding receiver"

Barrowman nodded, "So basically like a Goa'uld one but without the rings"

"Essentially yes, we don't expect to be able to produce our own for some time yet though but we have made advancements in other areas, like Goa'uld armour technology"

"Really, what have you learned?", Barrowman asked intrigued.

"We know that Goa'uld armour is composed of a Kobolium and Trinium alloy, the Kobolium acts to disperse energy across the whole surface of the vessel, reducing the damage from any single impact by spreading it over the whole hull", Zelenka shrugged, "But their weapons are so powerful it has a negligible effect, our weapons however will see noticeable reductions in effectiveness"

"And we can produce our own now?", Barrowman asked.

Zelenka nodded, "Cracking the super conductor formula opened up many avenues of research, armour included, a triple layer design is what the team is currently working on, an outer ablative layer, a new Kobolium alloy layer under that and finally a thick Trinium and Titanium alloy under layer"

Zelenka shrugged again, "The new armour wont be available for some time also, we need to build whole new foundries to produce it and even then only in limited amounts, we are also working towards more advanced star league armour technology too such as Ferro-Carbide and Lamellor Ferro-Carbide, mostly to reduce the cost of production"

"I see, still, amazing work Doctor, please extend my thanks to the team", Barrowman shook his hand and Rooks followed suit, they ignored the distant McKay and made their exit.

"There's one more thing to check out here", Barrowman said and led them back outside, he glanced to Rooks as they walked, "Too bad nothing will be ready before you leave"

Rooks nodded, "We're still mostly in the dark on Aschen capabilities, we could be poking a bear by invading or kicking over a rotten wall, we wont know until Baltar reports back"

"He should arrive soon, another week?"

"Yes, he'll make contact with the outpost we setup on a planet near their space, from there to Volia to begin operations"

Barrowman nodded, the latest transmission from Baltar didn't have much to report, just some sensor analysis they had performed on various stellar objects on the way there, the Goa'uld communication sphere was invaluable either way though.

Once they made it outside their destination was visible over the top of a warehouse, the large triangular point of the top of the Goa'uld Al'kesh rose above the surrounding buildings, they made their way over and met another scientist on the runway while teams of scientists and engineers worked around and inside the ship.

"We brought it here a few days ago once the Tok'ra gave it a look over for tracking devices", he waved to the scientists waiting for them, "Doctor Simon Partridge is in charge of all research here"

"We've met before Admiral, I do remember giving several briefings to the Admiralty several times", Partridge shook their hands and waved to the ship, "Impressive, isn't it?"

The two admirals looked over the ship, "It's something alright, it looks less gaudy than the Ha'tak pictures I've seen", Rooks mused.

The bow-tie wearing scientist gave a wry smile in return, "Just wait till you see the inside"

"So, Doctor Partridge, what have you learned so far?", Barrowman asked.

"I'll start with what we know, this Al'kesh is a cargo transport variant, the second smallest variant, a larger combat orientated variant is the largest", Partridge led them to the back, a large ramp was down allowing access to the interior.

He pointed to the engine nozzles at the back of the ship, "This seems to be unique to the Al'kesh, ion thrusters of some kind, every other Goa'uld ship we know of use some form of gravity engine for thrust", he looked to the two Admirals, "We tested her top sub light acceleration, twelve hundred G's"

Both admirals nodded grimly, those were the kind of numbers they heard from the Tok'ra and the team working on the captured Tel'tak, Barrowman knew that Ha'tak's were actually faster than that too.

"That puts this cargo transport Al'kesh on the low end of known Goa'uld acceleration, it's still vastly superior to anything we have now or in development", Partridge sighed out, he walked up the ramp with the two Admirals following behind.

"The new Halberd missiles top out at 5 kilo gee's of acceleration, specifically to engage the Goa'uld", Barrowman commented, those missiles were the result of massive investment and exploitation of Star League technology and from other sources, they did sacrifice long range for that speed though, burning through their fuel in a matter of seconds to achieve the acceleration, but they could also be fired at slower accelerations to enable long range use, they also sported the largest Kobolium enhanced warheads to date, able to explode with one gigaton of force.

Barrowman grimaced when he made it up the ramp, gold adorned most surfaces, covered with carvings and hieroglyphs, they followed Partridge as he led them to the front of the ship through the tacky interior.

"This is the command centre", he motioned to the strange Goa'uld console at the front and small throne behind it, "The commander would sit in the throne and a jaffa manned the console there"

"How powerful is this ship Doctor?", Rooks asked as they looked around the room.

Partridge shrugged, "Apart from running rings around all our ships, she lacks heavy weapons just two turrets with staff cannon similar to a death glider, and for the Goa'uld weak shields, around the same strength as our new heavy cruiser but a ship the fraction of the size"

"Can we adapt that technology for ourselves?"

Partridge nodded, "We're slowed by the need to keep everything intact but we are making progress, I expect our shield technology to rapidly improve in the near future, the same for our sensors and communications, we're also looking into adapting those ion engines for our use and we expect more improvements to inertial compensation and anti gravity technologies"

Barrowman nodded, they had only just gained shield technology so it was expected that improvements would take time, "What of the two radiation shield devices recovered by the stargate program?", he asked.

"Our first foray into shield technology", Partridge nodded, "We didn't get too far before the Rhososians showed up with the answers but there is a novel project based on those, ground based shield domes for cities and critical infrastructure, the first prototype is already being build on site"

Partridge sighed, "Although all of that comes with a big caveat, power, our current reactors wont be up to the task of powering shields like that, we'll need something better, it's the same story for our ships too, we'll only see minor improvements until our reactors rival those of the Goa'uld"

"I see, Doctors Zelenka and McKay indicated there was a new reactor design in the testing phases, is that not enough?", Barrowman asked.

Partridge shrugged, "It's better than what we use right now, but it's just a better version of a fusion reactor, we'd need to build bigger reactors to achieve the power levels of the Goa'uld, unfeasibly big, a better solution is how the Goa'uld do it, releasing the energy from Kobolium directly"

"Can we?"

"In time yes, right now were still trying to understand how the Goa'uld reactors operate beyond the basics, another issue would be actually building the things with our own technology", he shook his head, "It might be years or decades before we understand the complexity of Kobolium reactors, right now we are focusing on the lower hanging fruit"

The admirals nodded, "We wont distract you any further doctor", Barrowman announced, they left he scientist in the control room and walked into the corridor of the ship.

A sombre mood emanated from the two men, "How soon will your fleet be ready", Barrowman asked as they backtracked their way out.

"Another month, we'll be able to get there faster than Baltar though, all my ships have the most modern drives, the ones we bought from the Colonials"

"We'll soon know the Aschen's mettle, we need to deal with them quickly though, the Gou'ald are far more dangerous in the long run", Barrowman said coldly, "The Council wont authorise WMD's just yet though, the original plan of starving them into surrender is still our policy"

"Understood, I wont commit the same atrocities I fought against Amaris to stop"

Barrowman nodded, the plan was hardly better, starving a civilian populace was also abhorrent, the two men walked out of the ship in silence, fear of what the future would bring on the minds of the Admirals.

Union Prison Camp

Abydos

Major Zavech sat down in his air conditioned office as the harsh sunlight cast deep shadows across his face, he closed the blinds, looking over the fenced off jaffa barracks as he did, he settled in to read up on the latest reports from Earth, he had some time before his guest would arrive.

He opened up the first report on his computer, a general information report on current developments in the civilian sector of the bio medical field, the first headline caught his eye, the Star League anti ageing treatment had been administered to ninety percent of the Union's populace and it was expected to approach ninety nine percent by the end of next year.

The report went on to mention exports of the drug having begun to the Colonies of Kobol, Arcadia Biotech had the patent and was charging them one thousand credits per dose exported, there was even talk of opening a production facility in the Colonies too.

He sat back and thought about the treatment, it was initially envisioned as a treatment meant to combat low gravity muscle and bone atrophy in spacers back in the Terran Alliance days, the genetic treatment was found to also help the elderly keep their mobility and faculties longer, after that it evolved into its current form, a treatment that prevented the worst parts of old age and slightly extended life, people were also generally healthier and stronger afterwards too but not to a massive degree.

The general health of the Union had increased thanks to the treatment, but with what he was working on right now even that would seem tame in comparison.

He read through the civilian news for a bit longer before he turned to the classified reports he had access too, he wanted to check up on the latest find, the woman frozen in ice.

They had taken samples of her blood and even harvested some eggs, even frozen as she was there was still cellular activity and it bore further research, most of the research went to identifying the so called ancient plague, the downfall of the previous human civilisation in this universe, the woman had been dated to the time of their collapse.

Her blood had revealed the culprit, a virus that was remarkably similar to the flu but bore the obvious signs of engineering, several methods were devised to remove the virus from her body, the sarcophagus and a Tok'ra symbiote were suggested but dismissed and the team on the orbital research station had instead tried the new drug tretonin, which successfully removed the virus.

Unfortunately the woman appeared to have suffered severe brain damage during her tenure under the ice, currently the team planned to ease her back to functionality before trying other methods to recover her memory, like the sarcophagus.

"Sir, a VTOL craft is on approach", his secretary spoke through the intercom, he shut off the computer and stood, walking out of his office.

He turned to his secretary as he passed, "Tell a security team to meet me at the landing pad", he continued on and outside into the blazing heat of Abydos, sweat beaded on his forehead as he moved towards the landing pad, keeping under the awnings to stay out of the sun.

He raised his hand to block out the worst of the glare and scanned the skies, in the distance growing closer was the craft in question, soon he heard the roar of its engine as it came in to land, blowing dust and sand around the area, he covered his face against the stinging grains as the craft touched down with a clunk.

He stood straight and the marines behind him formed up as the door opened and his leader stepped out accompanied by another member of the council, Kerensky and Royce covered themselves and hurried over to him, he could see the heat was already getting to them, "This way Sirs", he directed them into the cool air-conditioned interior of the office complex of the facility.

A short while later had them walking into the main laboratory, a metallic case was brought in from the VTOL and placed into the refrigerator, "The samples from the woman", Kerensky told him, his wasn't the only facility to receive it but he was betting he'd do the best.

"Impressive facility Major, you reported that you were successful?", Kerensky asked as he wandered around the lab examining the various experiments.

Zavech nodded, "We completed the first phase, altering the DNA of a jaffa to fix the issue with their immune system, we did loose some prisoners to early testing but the newest sequence is stable and effective, we already passed the two week mark"

"Where is this test subject?", Royce asked.

"This way", Zavech led them out of the labs and back into the scorching heat, they passed armed guards and concrete barriers to arrive at the prison camp, inside large wooden structures housed the jaffa that had been taken prisoner so far.

"We have them building a road right now, breaking rocks and things, otherwise they just sit inside most of the day, there not much out here to make escaping survivable", he led them to the small concrete operations room and talked to the lead prison guard on duty, "Grab Tol'mak, put him in holding one"

"Tol'mak?", Kerensky asked.

"One of the jaffa we captured on", he picked up the prisoners file, "Egina, worked for Cronus before we got him"

"I see, didn't we have jaffa before then?", Royce asked

Zavech shrugged, "They didn't survive the early testing, I've been going through the jaffa using the earliest first, there's around eighty left from Egina and Rhosos so we wont run out any tine soon"

They waited while the guards brought in the buff jaffa, he was wearing a bright orange jump siut and covered in chains, they placed him in a chair and connected the chains to the ground, he was securely held in place.

The three men stood behind a thick plexiglass wall and observed the man, "Looks healthy, two weeks without a symbiote was it?", Royce asked.

Zavech nodded, "We isolated the difference between these normal jaffa and Ra's elite bodyguards, we suspect the rapid degradation of a jaffa immune system without a symbiote is a security feature", he waved to the jaffa, "after that it was a simple matter to devise a genetic treatment to remove the offending gene sequence and replace it with the superior version from Ra's men"

The two men nodded, "Do we know why Ra's bodyguards did not have the same fail-safe as these normal jaffa", Kerensky asked.

"Only supposition right now and unconfirmed information from the Tok'ra, we suspect it was paranoia, normal jaffa need a symbiote but all jaffa and Goa'uld can feel symbiotes in other people, I think Ra wanted to know if another Goa'uld had sneaked aboard his private ship, he wouldn't be able to tell if they were normal jaffa", Zavech explained as best he could.

Kerensky nodded towards the jaffa, "What about him, what does he think about all this?"

"Lets ask", Zavech hit the intercom, "Tol'mak, how are you feeling?"

"Release me foul sorcerer, you have blasphemed against the gods, return my symbiote immediately", the Jaffa stained against his chains, rage evident on his face.

Zavech smirked and turned off the intercom, "He still believes the Goa'uld are gods and that I ruined the holy work they did to the jaffa"

"Good work Major, now what about phase two?", Royce asked.

Zaveh shrugged, "Really, it shouldn't be hard to apply our own version of the jaffa genetic upgrades to a normal human but we wont know until we test it, I need subjects"

The two men shared a contemplative look, "Testing things out on the jaffa without consent is fine but citizens or other humans will come back to bite us in the ass", Royce mused, "We'll have to use volunteers"

He turned to Zavech, "You'll need to build facilities to house them, a prison wont attract anyone, give me a few weeks and you'll be swimming in test subjects"

Zavech nodded while smiling, soon they would have a new treatment, one that doubled lifespan and increased strength and resilience, plus he had that woman's DNA to play with, who knew what secrets her biology held.

Battlestar Atlantia

Ferore watched the aged Terran Admiral depart on his shuttle, Gerard DuGalle would take some getting used to, he shook his head and made his way back to the CIC, giving nods to the crewmen as he passed by.

"Report", he said out loud as he entered the command centre of the battlestar, the eyes of junior officers and marines turned in his direction as Major Tito answered.

"All ships report green across the board, all supplies and personnel ready and accounted for, we can begin on your order, Admiral", Tito replied as Ferore took up his usual position at the plotting table.

"Good work, Major, operations will start early tomorrow morning, have the crew rest up beforehand"

Tito nodded, "How was dinner with the Terran admiral?"

Ferore shrugged, "A bit of a zealot that one, he really believes in human supremacy, not that I'm against it either, he seems nice enough otherwise"

The two men returned to the companionable silence they enjoyed for a few more minutes before a loud beeping came from the sensor operators console.

"New contact on Dradis, 156 carom 211, it's one of our stealth stars", he reported to the two officers.

Ferore raised an eyebrow, "None are scheduled to return this early, Ensign", he pointed to the comms officer, "Find out why"

"Sir", the woman was quick to connect to the ship, "Lieutenant Bick says the Cylons have begun fighting"

"Patch her through", Ferore picked up the handset, "Lieutenant, report"

"Sir, the Cylons attacked each other, a fleet of fifty baseships jumped in and began attacking Lucifer's forces"

"Confirm Lieutenant, the Cylons are fighting each other?"

"Confirmed sir, I have the footage right here"

"Alright, good work Lieutenant", Ferore turned to Tito, "Tell the fleet to get ready, as soon as I see that footage is real were moving, now"

Tito nodded, "Admiral, what's the target?"

"The resurrection hub"