StarDestroyer.Net BBS

With Marina's WTWC ended, the time has come for the next major TGG story with major ramifications for the development of the Metaplot.

Here is the prologue to "The Last Woman Standing"!



Prologue




DNS Stephen Ford DD-28484
Geostationary Orbit, Planet P4V-387, Restricted Space
Near the Alliance Frontier, Universe Designate AR-12
14 October 2178 AST

The Block III Naresuan-class destroyer was maintaining her lazy orbit over the spinal mountain range on P4V-387 as she had done for the past four months, detached from the Stellar Navy for the moment to serve under the IUCEC Department of Special Operations. Aboard her the commanding officer was Commander Anatoly Denevsky, a native of Kaluga from Russia SE-1 and a veteran of the Interuniversal War.

Denevsky was joined on the bridge by Commander Drisylan Javarha, a Taloran Imperial Starfleet officer assigned to the Department of Special Operations and acting as the Department's officer aboard the picket ship. Whatever project was going on planetside - Denevsky and his crew were not fully appraised of the purpose of the facility, save that its very existance was classified - the IUCEC didn't want much attention paid to it, and having a destroyer in orbit was far more subtle than sending a bigger fleet unit.
Javarha rarely came to the bridge, spending most of his time in the office set aside for him to manage communciations with his IUCEC superiors and occasionally taking watches in the CiC when his watches permitted. Today he had chosen to follow up a lunch with Commander Denevsky with a review of the navigation bridge. The short, stocky Taloran man seemed to make a few of the bridge watch crew uncomfortable, but he took little more than scant notice at it while examining the instruments on the bridge and the view of the planet below. His eyes turned next to the plaque commemorating the ship's launch, including the Stephen Ford's seal: a circular emblem depicting a human figure standing in a small boat that was amongst urban buildings with his arms stretched out - as if offering to help someone into the boat - with the Alliance four-color-flame torch seal set above his head.

"I am curious, Commander Denevsky," Cmdr. Javarha said in accented English. "Why would your vessel have such a seal? It doesn't seem very martial."
Denevsky gave a shrug from where he was standing. "Ah, it was the builders being sentimental. An American shipyard built this vessel and they were permitted to name it after some impoverished crab farmer from New Orleans. He rescued people during the great storm Katrina in the early 21st Century, I believe."

"Ah. This city of New Orleans, do you know where...."
There was a beep at one of the consoles. "Commander Javarha, we are picking up an emergency signal from the project HQ, meant for you."

Javarha connected his neural interface into the Ford's communication systems to receive the signal. "SPC, this is..."
"We're under attack! Repeat, we are under attack!", a panicked voice said from the other end. "They've overcome the Embarkation Room security systems and are swarming through the base! We need assistance immediately!"
"Get me General Sampson," Javarha said.
"We've lost him, sir."
Denevsky could see that Javarha, still calm and collected, was still quite perturbed by what was happening. "Upload data to Ford and commence evacuation. Activate the self-destruct sequence immediately." He looked to Denevsky. "Commander, I need you to re-arm your missile tubes with the missiles you were provided upon arrival."
Denevsky looked at him with some consternation. The missiles in question had been identified as not being normal anti-matter reaction warheads, but as fusion warheads with a Guyverite booster package, just as powerful as the weapons used to shatter the Dominion's Inner Core over fifteen years before. Denevsky tapped into the neural network with his own linkup and nevertheless gave the order, wondering what the hell was going on.....





IUCEC HQ, Space Station Babylon-5
Euphrates Sector, Neutral Space
Universe Designate EM-5


The IUCEC's Department of Special Operations was overseen by the Special Directorate, a committee of seven members picked by the IUCEC's main committee body to govern the day-to-day affairs of the IUCEC's top secret projects. The body had been established four years prior after the months of debate and discussion behind closed doors about (now former) President Robert Dale's release to them of the Alliance's Stargate Project. To ensure their security in the nominally open port of Babylon-5, the Directorate met in the War Room, the chamber from which nearly forty years before John Sheridan led the effort against the mysterious Shadows.
The Chair of the Special Directorate rotating every six months. Currently it had an ADN/Texan occupant, retired Texan Air Force General Arthur Thompson, the former commander of the Allied Nations' Stargate Project Command.

His counterparts represented the most powerful or contributive nations of the IUCEC. The Talorans' Duchess Trisania itl Sethan and Hereditary Censor Drujhesal Ghalpinah, the former a feudatory lady of the Great Queen of Lelola Colenta and the latter a patrician of the Quesadi and a direct representative of Empress Saverana II; an official ADN Director as opposed to Thompson being appointed by the Texan government, Sandra O'Malley; Count Felix di Montecuccoli of the Free Worlds League; Sir Reginald Henshaw of the British Empire CON-5; Ta'Lon of the Narn Regime, formal ISA Director on the Directorate.

The day's business had been interrupted by news from AR-12 and the fate of the facility on P4V-387. "This invading force is a danger to Universe AR-12 at the very least," Sir Reginald Henshaw pointed out. "And we can't very well evacuate the entire universe if necessary. Something has to be done and now."
"President Maxwell-Fyfe is dispatching a carrier battle group to the region," Thompson remarked, "but it'll take time for them to arrive. And even if they do, the reports we're getting make me think this won't be enough." Thompson folded his hands on the table. "I think we need to consider the possibility that we'll need outside help on this matter."
"What kind of outside help are you considering, General?", Ghalpinah asked. "Surely you're not thinking..."
"If anyone knows what these things are, they will," Thompson answered. "And given Admiral Sisko's unavailability at the moment, I know just the man to lead the mission...."





Kilpatrick Base (ANMC), Ossing, Ossing System
British Commonwealth, Alliance of Democratic Nations
Universe Designate LRC-19
15 October 2178 AST


If there was one constant over the centuries of divergent histories, it was that Marines - particularly Marines based off the US Marine Corps in spirit - knew how to throw a party for their own. The wedding itself had been relatively quiet (if only because the father of the bride was a general who's wrath none wanted to invoke), though the attendant Marines had made the requisite wolf whistles at the bride and cheers and hoots when the kiss was made, followed by the requisite flat-blade swat on the bride's ass by one of the Marine honor guards complete with a proud and jovial "OOOHRAH!", but after the marriage of Captains Ronald Nash and Ivliya Nash neè Mackensen was completed the reception was a full on party, the bride and groom having already smashed their first slices in each other's faces and a lot of dancing and general ruckus-raising being done by the Marine officers and NCOs in attendance. Rock music blared over the speakers and many of the songs with lewd lyrics that the partygoers were insisting would be performed that night by the newlyweds. Although celebratory wine was offered, beer was the drink of choice for the attendees, including the bride, with detoxicants being insisted upon for the newlyweds lest they be so drunk that their wedding night failed to be memorable.

Among the uniformed party-goers was just man still in dress uniform and the only general officer present. Brigadier General Nathan Mackensen had only permitted himself one beer and tended to keep to himself during the festivities, save for his dance with his adopted Bajoran daughter that was mandated by custom, allowing Ivvie and her husband to enjoy their great day with their friends. He smiled widely at seeing her enjoy herself and tried to smile at seeing his ex-wife Sarah and her new husband mingling with the others, as well as Lorva and his growing family and the still-single Furel, a Teacher's Assistant at the university he'd graduated from. Nate spent time with them all, very happy for how his family was turning out.
In a way, the past five years had been the best of his life. Since returning from Universe SRC-19 alive Nate had been promoted to Brigadier General and given command, in succession, first of a Recon Marine brigade (albeit the post being administrative, as Recon Marines were divvied up at battalion level to divisions) and then a desk job as the Quartermaster at New Appalachia, a posting that made it easy for him to travel and see his family. He'd seen Lorva succeed in getting his doctorate and becoming a respected researcher on Bajor, Ivliya begin a thriving career as an officer in the Alliance Marine Corps (she was still considering a Recon Marine assignment, though for the moment she was satisfied with the Combat Engineers), and Furel, well, he was doing well if still being a rather undisciplined and hotheaded character.
There was still George, of course. There would always be George. But the pain seemed more bearable of late. The wound healing slowly, perhaps because Nate had briefly gotten to know a guy who was going through the same thing, had been able to see the pain in another set of eyes. And there were times he wondered how Jack O'Neill was doing, if he and his team of explorers were still giving the Goa'uld fits. Nate never let himself wonder about the sadder possibilities concerning SG-1 and the isolated, outnumbered position of Earth in SRC-19. He was confident that Jack, Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c could handle whatever the Snakeheads threw at them.

"So, Furel...." Nate saw his youngest son standing alone finally, working on another beer. "This means it's just you. Any plans?"
"Dad, don't you start too," Furel said, rolling his eyes in humor. "Ivvie, Lorva, and Mom have all been asking. I'm telling you, I'm not ready."
"You've been seeing that blonde for three years now."
"Three years off and on, Dad. She's made it pretty clear that we're firmly stuck at 'fuckbuddy' level," Furel replied. "And that's cool with me. Just fine with me."
Nate nodded with a smirk on his face. "Well, you've got time. But I can tell you now it won't always be."
As Furel took another drink Nate saw the two men enter. Dark business suits, the kind that made it clear that they were official agents but not of whom. Their eyes met his and he could see they'd found their man. "Furel, excuse me," he said. He walked up to them, noting they were waiting for him in a corner that came off as rather inconspicuous. "Gentlemen, may I ask what you're here for?"

"General Mackensen, I'm from the Department of Special Operations," the one man said with an Australian accent. "Agent Cadwallader and Agent Stone." He indicated the other man of nearly equal height and size.
Nate looked at them intently. "Department of Special Operations? I'm not aware of any military or civilian..."
"We're not Alliance, General. We're IUCEC," Stone remarked, his English more, well, English in accent. "And we need your help."




The shuttle was hitting orbit and engaging its warp drive when Nate was sat before a laptop. Stone hit a key on it. "I trust you recognize this, General?"
And Nate did. The screen was showing a chamber in a facility he'd never seen before, exactly, but he recognized the layout and, most importantly, the device on the screen. "A Stargate." After a moment he put two and two together. "You got another one?"
"P4V-387's Stargate, according to the starmap log that the SPC was given by Stargate Command," Cadwallader explained. "Abandoned planet made uninhabitable due to comet strike. Nobody'll miss this Gate. We found a similar planet at P4V-387's location in AR-12 that was far enough from major trade routes to set up shop."
"So what happened?" Nate looked to them. "The 'Men in Black' approach at my daughter's wedding reception wasn't necessary if this is just some attempt to get me to join any new Stargate Project."
'Watch."

At the touch of a button on the laptop a video began playing. The Stargate flashed to life, gold and green hues shifting in the blue, watery event horizon that was the natural byproduct of an IU wormhole. A lone figure in SPC fatigues stepped through. Nate immediately knew something was wrong due to how he was unarmed and the way he was standing.
Then a massive surge through the gate occurred. An endless wave of scurrying bugs raced out of the event horizon. The gray, metallic four-legged bugs looked unnatural, like segmented blocks put together. Shouts were made and the defensive weapons in the Gateroom opened up on them, as did the guards with their particle rifles. The plasma cannons seemed to do absolutely no damage to the bugs but the particle rifle fire caused those it struck to break apart.
An iris slid into place over the Stargate with a backup energy deflector field, cutting off the surge of robotic bugs as they came through. But those in the room were already quite numerous due to the speed with which they'd surged through. They overwhelmed the guards with the help of the humanoid figure who came threw, who was fired on in vain by all of the defensive weapons in the room. The armed men disappeared under a wave of metal bugs, with one suddenly appearing on the camera. Its "mouth" opened up and a spurt of liquid came from it, after which the feed broke off.

"What are those things?" Nate asked.
"We were hoping you might remember something like that being mentioned while you were in SRC-19."
"No, nothing like that." Nate shook his head. "I don't think the Tok'ra or the Goa'uld have anything in that fashion, not from what I saw."
"Well, that just leaves us with one option." Stone sat down beside Nate. "The new SPC facility was overrun by the damned things within an hour. They interfaced with the computer and took over the entire facility, but not before the ZPC device used for the Gate was transported into space as well as all of our backup ZPCs. There were only a handful of survivors..."
"What happened to the facility?" Nate asked.
"Destroyed from orbit by the security vessel we keep there. The Bugs managed to physically disable the Guyverite bomb we had for a self-destruct device."
"So, what happened afterward?"
"Apparently, despite our best efforts, a few of them survived. It took hours for the orbiting vessel to realize it." Cadwallader reached over and hit some keys on the laptop, showing an orbital image of the facility area at a mountain side that had clearly been caved in from orbital weapons fire. A time-delay series of pictures popped up, hour by hour, showing the caved in area suddenly decrease... and a silvery metal sheen appear on the planet's surface. "When we realized what had happened we tried to destroy them from orbit again, but this time they'd raised an energy field far too powerful to break with the orbiting ship's weaponry. Even Guyverite-enhanced torpedoes failed to penetrate." As the time delay pictures made clear, the silvery area was growing. "We estimate that at their present rate of expansion, by tomorrow they will have covered that entire section of the planet. So far they haven't done anything but expand to encompass the planet, but we can't be sure what they'll do afterward. If they can build energy shielding surpassing even Goa'uld technology, there's no telling what they're capable of."

"You want to contact the SGC," Nate said. "See if they know anything."
"It's our best bet, General. And you were the senior field officer to engage in operations with them. Your own reports, and Dr. Herzela's recollections, indicated you got along quite well with Colonel... Jack O'Neill?"
"That's him." Nate shook his head. "But what about Admiral Sisko or..."
"You're the only senior officer from the SRC-19 operation we could get to in a short order to lead this mission," Agent Stone remarked. "Someone that the SGC will be inclined to trust and cooperate with. And if you please, General, we need this done as quick as possible."
Nate shrugged. "Fine, sure. I'll go. But we're going to lose days as it is, even if you've got a ship with the most advanced, fastest Cochrane drive...." He noticed Stone smirk. "What?"
"My dear General, who said anything about sluggish old warp drive?" Stone stood up as the shuttle shuddered slightly, coming out of warp. "We should be about there, come here."

Nate was led to the cockpit of the small shuttle. Empty space was ahead, but the pilot was clearly talking to someone. "No traffic in the area, sir," he reported. "They're preparing to decloak."
A shimmer appeared in space ahead of them. The vessel appeared made Nate think of Ben Sisko's Defiant in how it was shaped. But it was soon clear that it was much, much more. The sides had no armored warp nacelles but wing-fin shapes that reminded Nate of news footage of Minbari starships. The hull was brighter than Defiants had been in a fashion like that of the Victory-class warships built by the InterStellar Alliance of EM-5, with the nose of the ship ending in a thinner fashion like that of a Ranger White Star, complete with cannon emplacements there.
"I see the IUCEC's been busy," Nate said, looking on in some surprise.
"All made possible by the Tok'ra scientists Nural and Cadmilis, with some help from the quite creative Dr. Herzela's engineering acumen. We've had them working with some of the most skilled engineers in the Multiverse to build our prototype. The Tok'ra have provided us with advanced Guyverite reactors, pan-galactic hyperdrive, enhanced shielding, various other pieces of technology, and the IUCEC has married it to a ship carrying the finest technology that Alliance, Taloran, and Minbari engineers have to offer." Cadwallader looked on happily as the shuttle began to move into the ship's hanger bay. "General Mackensen, welcome to the Gray Star."

(Yes, I slightly changed the scene from the Teaser, was not happy with some of the flow.)

Something interesting. ADN vs Replicators... How can ADN deal with such enemies?

I'm going to predict orbital bombardment will play a large part in this war.

Also, as this was an IUCEC operation, will the Talorans be involved?

Marina's contribution begins now.



Chapter 1


Gray Star, Alliance Space
Universe Designate LRC-19
15 October 2178 AST


Agents Stone and Cadwallader dropped Nate off and departed on board the shuttle, their parts in this matter done. Nate was met by a couple marines in light power armor, very advanced stuff from the look of it, who barely had time to finish saluting before the hanger door opened and a familiar face stepped through.
Dr. Zaharzia Herzela met Nate with a smile. The attractive Trill was dressed in a trim engineer jumpsuit marked with the IUCEC emblem, her long red hair pulled back into a bun at the back of her head. "Nathan, or should I say General? It's good to see you again," she said.
"Dr. Herzela. Zaria." Nate gave her a return smile. "I guess we'll be sticking to titles, this is a mission I believe."
"Oh, it is. This way."

He followed Zaria out of the hanger into the crisp blue-sheened corridors of the ship. Over the intercom an accented voice began speaking. "Prepare for jump sequence." Other crew, wearing a new uniform Nate had never seen before, were moving about on duties. "Nice ship," Nate remarked. "You're serving on her?"
"Only for a short while to complete training. And I'm actually only something of a carrier for the actual trainer." Zaria lowered her head momentarily. When she lifted it, her voice changed to the unnatural timbre of a Goa'uld or Tok'ra symbiote. "General, I am pleased to see you are well," Cadmilis remarked.
"Ah, Cadmilis. Good to see you too. How is Kaetis?"
"She has done well. Though we have both had to get used to the level of... luxuries your Multiverse permits," Cadmilis answered. "I frankly believe half of the lesser-ranked Goa'uld would be tempted to defect if they were granted a lifetime of your finest luxuries."
"Well, we try to be good hosts," Nate remarked. Smirking, he added, "Well, of that kind at least."
Cadmilis smirked in reply. After another head bow it was Zaria talking again. "So, how are the kids?"
"Lorva got his doctorate and Ivvie just got married," Nate answered. "Furel is still a bachelor and has a Teaching Assistant job at his alma mater."
"Oh, nice. So, what's up with the dress blues?"
"I was at Ivvie's reception. When I said she just got married, I was being very literal." Nate followed Zaria into a lift. When they were in it Zaria gave the command "Command Level" and the lift began to move. As they did so, he could feel the dislocation that was part of jumping from one universe to the next. "So, we're in SRC-19 now."

Another shift in the ship happened. "And now in hyperspace, en route to Earth," Zaria answered.
The lift stopped and they emerged into another corridor of blue-sheen walls. They walked along the edge of the wall about ten feet before arriving at a door. Inside was the command bridge of the Gray Star. The layout reminded Nate of the Defiant's bridge, with command stations along all the walls, though there were more away from the walls - a helm station up front and behind and to the right of the CO and XO seats a weapons station. The controls looked like standard, at least, with DNI ports for all officers.

In the center chair a figure stood up, wearing a more ornate version of the uniforms seen on the ship, vaguely human in appearance but with pale, almost golden skin. The short figure beside him was quickly identified as a Taloran, with long blue hair put into a pony-tail. Standing beside him was a Minbari, a woman from the shape of her face - at least what Nate would think of as feminine, Minbari being aliens after all - in similar uniform. "General on the Bridge!" the Taloran barked, prompting the bridge crew to stand at attention and salute.
"General Mackensen, I am Captain Data of the Federated Worlds Starfleet," the commander said. "Welcome aboard the Gray Star, Sir."
Somewhat surprised at meeting the somewhat-known android built from the old, defunct Federation, Nate returned the salute. "At ease, Captain, everyone back to your stations," he said, taking in the rest of the crew.
"General, this is Commander Kharaste Triulajha of the Taloran Imperial Starfleet," Data noted, referring to the blue-haired and short Taloran, "ship's Executive Officer. And Officer Serlann, the Chief Engineering Officer." The Minbari woman nodded.
At the helm was a small, short figure with slim, pointed, and long ears, more like Vulcanoid than Taloran ones; the smallness of the figure gave him or her away as a Zohan. The weapon station was manned by a tall, well-built Cardassian man, a bronze-skinned woman with dark hair was at communications, and sensors was taken up by an Oriental man.

Nate was beginning to notice a theme among the new uniforms he was seeing. On the left shoulder was the emblem of the IUCEC, and on the right, different flags. Data had the circle of stars on a blue field that was the Federated Worlds flag, the Taloran Kharaste had the seal of the Taloran Empire, the Minbari the InterStellar Alliance insignia, etc.
Kharaste took it upon himself to introduce the rest of the crew. The Cardassian officer at weapons, with the ray-like winged figure and black field of the Cardassian Republic on his uniform, was 2nd Rank Glin Tarak Torcet. The name was familiar to Nate from somewhere, but he couldn't quite put it...
The helmswoman, with the ADN flag on her uniform, was Lieutenant Di'not, a Zohan Commonwealth native serving in the Alliance Stellar Navy. The communications officer was Lt. Ziva bat David Oded, Alliance Stellar Navy as well, with the sensor officer as Subcommander Hsaio Luo Shan of the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces, the Liao Sword-on-Green Triangle emblem prominent on his right shoulder.

"There's also Doctor Meredith Constantine," Zaria continued, "Chief Medical Officer and a Commander in the Stellar Navy, though like myself, Data, and Tarak, she is an ST-3 native. I'll have to introduce you later."
"Forgetting Commander Nagase would be unfair as well," Kharaste pointed out. "Lieutenant Commander Kei Nagase of your Stellar Navy commands our small wing of fighters and can be introduced at a later time."
"Sure." Nate looked around the ship and saw the viewscreen and the blueish field of hyperspace that surrounded the ship. "So...."
"At current speed, we will arrive at Earth in precisely thirty-seven minutes," Di'not reported.
"After we arrive, we shall cloak," Data reported. "All indications indicate that the existance of Stargate Command would still be a secret on Earth. We will attempt to communicate by focused transmission on military satellites. The content of the message, however...."
Smirking, Nate said, "Oh, leave that to me, Captain Data."





Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain
Earth, United States of America
Universe Designate SRC-19


The situation at Stargate Command was quieting down now that the threats facing Earth and the Milky Way - the Replicators and Anubis - had been dealt with. In the conference room overlooking the Gate Room, the members of SG-1 - now down to three - were in conference with General Jack O'Neill. The meeting was informal, something of a way to wind down and go over the events of the last few days.
Teal'c spoke up. "I am curious, Daniel Jackson. Why did you not choose to Ascend once again?"
"Eh, been there, done that," Daniel answered. He was trying not to look at the SGC flag that had been replaced after Jack had torn down the last one to serve as covering for Daniel after he was restored by the Ancients without the benefit of clothing. "Being Ascended simply isn't something I'm interested in now. Besides, I think that the others weren't particularly looking forward to having me among them again, apparently I was something of a pain in the ass the last time."
"Well, I can relate," Jack commented with a half-grin. Daniel shot him an annoyed look. "So, what about ol' Ghost-snake? Think we'll be hearing from Anubis one day?"
Daniel shook his head. "Oh, I doubt it. Anubis was never fully Ascended, and even if he had been, I don't think he'd have the experience or control to match Oma. No, I think we've heard the last from Anubis. At a... high cost, though."
"She made the right choice, Daniel," Sam said. "Anubis had to be stopped."
"But she shouldn't have to condemn herself to an eternity of stalemating Anubis," Daniel grumbled. "I get the others want to punish her for being the one to help Anubis ascend, but I get the feeling that it's more than punishment. It's a warning. The majority of the Ancients are doing this as a way of getting to anyone sympathetic to Oma, a warning to them that if they act out of line they'll suffer the same fate."
"Given the way they act, it's hard to believe the Ancients used to be nice enough to be allies with the Asgard," Jack remarked.

Before anything else could be said, a call came over the PA. "General O'Neill, please report to the Control Room."
"Hrm, wonder what that's about," Jack mused, noticing the Gate hadn't activated. He got up and went to the stairs that would bring him down to Gate Control, the others following him. He walked up toward the control area in time for him to be informed, "General, we've picking up a signal being routed through one of our military satellites. It's addressed to you and the SGC but..."
"But?"
"It's not coming from anything on the ground, and we have no ships or fighters in orbit."
"Well, let me hear it," Jack said.
"It's a simple data transmission, text only." Sergeant Harriman looked at a screen and a bewildered look came over his face.
When he failed to respond, Jack cleared his throat and made a hand gesture emphasizing his impatience.

"Sir, um, it reads...." Harriman looked back. "Hey Jack, is Maude dead yet?"
Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c all looked at Jack. He seemed to grin a little, chuckled lowly, and nodded. "Hook me up to a satellite," Jack ordered. "Looks like some old friends of ours are back in town."




Gray Star, Near Earth Orbit


"Sir, picking up transmission," Lt. David said from comms. "It is an audio channel."
"Put it on, Lieutenant," Nate said. "Hello?"
"This is the SGC, General Jack O'Neill speaking," Jack's voice said over the bridge speaker. "Yes, Colonel, Maude Flanders is dead. And thanks to you I knew it was coming."
"Damn, Jack, you too?", Nate answered, chuckling. "It's tough having stars on the collar, isn't it?"
"Well, we all have to grow up sometime. So, if I might ask, what took you so long in getting back into our neck of the woods?"
"Oh, political stuff I guess. Frankly I got yanked away from Ivvie's wedding reception for this mission...."

"You may have gotten yanked from a wedding reception but I have gotten yanked away from my entire life," the voice echoed through the room before the body materialized, horizontally but otherwise in a fashion disturbingly similar to the Goa'uld-pattern ring transporters, letting them be used without a ground station as a receiver--since they worked on wormhole principles, they were acceptable to the religious, unlike ST-3 transporters--and here, well, certainly not accompanied by any rings or the like... "Where is she? Where is Nirrti, and what the hell is she doing in my universe?"
She stood about six feet tall and had an incredibly perfect, beautiful body, though there was a slight hint of a developing belly--impossible to tell if she enjoyed herself a bit to much or if it was the initial signs of pregnancy--below ample breasts, all contained by a simple homespun sweater over a long green tunic, black hanging skirt; vivid, firey red hair fell down her back in waves, accentuating freckled, hyper-pallid skin, with sharp, high-swept cheekbones and an upturned nose, and her green eyes flicked over the assembled for a moment, furiously angry and her eyes actually starting to glow before they fell away and she stood, staring in what was close to shock as could be imagined at the Taloran XO. "Oh. So there are more of you, after all." She frowned, leather-gloved hands folded under her ample bosom. "Is this a ship of the drive of Prescience that you primitive barbarians have actually managed to build? Because nothing else explains your arrival in this universe." It sounded like she was translating the term in her head, and she made no movement, staying perfectly still and not blinking.

Nate stared at the newcomer rather blankly. Data stood from the command chair. "I am sorry. I do not know of this 'Nirrti' individual you speak of, ma'am, and this vessel is the Gray Star, an advanced prototype utilizing a newer compact form of interuniversal wormhole generator."

"Quite alright, then, rather more primitive than folding space, but I can see how you do it. But how do you see where you're going? You must have mechanistic prescience, because there are only three beings left alive in the Cosmos capable of traveling without moving, and it's not my fault that on sensing you I suspected this was the ship of Nirrti, because the other one wouldn't give me any warning unless he wanted to." She sighed and closed her eyes, a gloved hand pressing up to her chin. "Great. Some jumped up survivors build their own Prescience Drive and it ruins the life I've built for myself over the past couple of years."

"Nate, what the hell is going on up there?"
"Jack, um, we seem to have attracted a visitor," Nate responded before looking to the woman. "Um, lady, I don't know who you are, but we're not some group of 'jumped up survivors' and an IU wormhole drive is hardly a... 'Prescience Drive', whatever the hell that is."
"I believe the visitor is referring to the normal inability of sensing equipment to actually track destination universes in an uncontrolled IU wormhole generation," Data remarked. "However, our generators do not need such capability as we are capable of controlling the emission frequency of Straczynski particles in a generator and therefore able to determine which universe the wormhole will open to."

"You set it in advance? Oh that is very clever. I just envision every possible destination and then select the one I desire." She smiled. "Prescience. I can, in fact, envision all possible sentences that your General Nate over there may say next, for example. The ability is not godlike; I need to focus to use it. Though you're certainly welcome to... Why, Captain Data, please don't compare me to a Q, no matter how much this may remind you of the 'Encounter at Farpoint', whatever that is. I can sense your mind, Android or not, and..." She paused again, and looked straight at Nate. "Jack O'Neill? Colonel Jack O'Neill?" She started walking over toward the pickup, and spoke into it herself. "Hi. It's Ayiana. I'm sorry about lying to you at the time, but I was worried that you were working for the Ancients, and, hmm, what's that term they use, ah yes, they have a hate-on for me. My real name is Maedhv, by the way. Am I interrupting something important?"

"Jack, you know this lady?" Nate said into the comm system.
There was silence on the other end. "Um, yes, I think. Though she certainly wasn't much of a talker when we encountered her the last time."

"Well, no. You don't talk that much when you're in potentially hostile territory, Jack. I've been both a soldier and an Empress and I know a thing or two about surviving, you know. I've done it for... Thirteen thousand years, now. Eh well, let's all talk." With an imperious flick of her wrist, she teleported the four members of SG-1 directly onto the bridge of the Gray Star in the same fashion as herself.

The new arrivals looked around at their new environs, taking a few moments for it to kick in. Jack looked at Maedhv/Ayiana and then to Nate. "Um... we didn't know she could do that."
"Actually, we didn't even know she was alive," Sam pointed out. "Aiyana, we thought you were...."

"Dead. By human standards, I was. Hi, Samantha." She stretched out lazily in front of them. "As you can see, though, I can manipulate my body at will--I'm filled with nanomachines, you see, so I just reconstruct my body as I see fit, though it hurts like hell--so the infection was actually never a threat to me. Of course, it was never a threat to me anyway. I'm High Caste, and we manufactured the plague in the first place. Jack actually has significant high caste genes, but not enough to give him immunity. The Irish are a remnant population, I think...." She trailed off and frowned. "Well, I'd rather not talk about that. The moment I seeped my way out of the soil to leave the grave untouched, I resolved to abandon war and politics for the rest of my life..." And there she grinned again, "and I went and started a hippie commune. The only reason we're having this conversation is because your visitors had all the signatures I'd expect out of... This person named Nirrti who was a fabled enemy of my race, though the last time I saw her, we were actually on the same side. But I don't trust her, and she isn't supposed to be in this universe." She raised a hand to forestal Teal'c. "Forgive me. She's not a Goa'uld. The Goa'uld stole her name from the oral histories of the war to impersonate her, I would fancy."

"I couldn't help but overhear you earlier," Daniel began, "but while I'm not too familiar with being 'High Caste', I am familiar with the Ancients and.... why would they hate you? From what I've read of you from Jonas Quinn's notes, you are an Ancient. Though apparently a lot more powerful than it seemed at the time."

"First of all, you're dead. You're not real--you're a not-Daniel. You were Ascended and in the process your soul was lost and you are just a copy of the Daniel Jackson who existed before." She looked rather pitying at that moment. "Second of all, the Ancients are all a bunch of liars. Do you really want to go into this? I ought to protect you from them, I suppose. It's hilarious that they haven't learned their lesson, so arrogant... They wanted to be like me, you see. Imagine... Someone who is ascended and corporeal at the same time. Simultaneously existing perfectly and totally in both universes, sort of like how Jesus is supposedly both completely man and completely God at the same time, and yet one single individual with one single soul. That is what I am, not-Daniel. And the pre-ascended Ancients, who are not Alterans as they call themselves but Asvins, were envious of me and my immortality and my capabilities, and tried to copy me. They fucked up. Just like.. Hmm, what is a good example. If you can start to understand the abilities inherent in that statement, consider that... Ahh, here is a science fiction reference you should understand. My prescience abilities? I am capable of traveling without moving."

Before Daniel could respond to Maedhv's rambling, Nate chimed in with an irritated, "Woh woh woh, as interesting as this is, especially all this stuff about Ancients and Ascended something and Asvins, we came here for something a little more pressing for time. Would any of you happen to know anything about little bugs made of segmented blocks of metal who like to spread like weeds?"
"Replicators," Sam said. "Wait..."
"Oh no..." Jack made a groaning sound and put a hand to his head. "You picked up another Stargate, didn't you? You picked up another Stargate, hooked one of your toys up to it, and the Replicators got through, right?"
"That about sums it up," Nate said. "'Replicators', huh? That sounds bad."
"Yeah, it's bad. It's very bad," Jack said in irritation. "Remember when we told you about the Asgard and how they couldn't curb-stomp the Goa'uld because they had nastier things to deal with? The Replicators were those nastier things."

"What else can you tell us about them?", Data asked.
"We defeated the Replicators just days ago," Teal'c answered. "Using the Ancient device at Dakara, which my people have now begun to disassemble to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands."

"You started disassembling the cannon at Dakara? I can put it back together for you if you really want to wipe out the Replicators. They were created from my nanomachines by the 'Ancients' anyway. Or something like them, anyway. But it's basically Asvin technology, and only Asvin weaponry can defeat that. Well.. Heh. Almost." She laughed darkly, and grimly, and then glanced around the bridge. "Is there any place for a pregnant lady to sit? I suspect you're not going to let me off the hook about your little infestation, are you?"

After some bewildered looks it was Kharaste who, being the Officer and Gentleman of the Empress' Starfleet he was, showed Maedhv to a chair at a side station, which a petty officer quickly abandoned. "I believe this should suffice for you," he remarked patiently, even if everyone else was still a bit offset by just how sudden the woman's arrival had changed and shaken things.
"So, Replicator problem, we need to get to Dakara. How fast is this ship?"
Seeing Zaria, Sam remarked, "Well, if they've adapted Goa'uld technology with the help of the Tok'ra, I bet it has a hyperdrive."
"You'd be right," Zaria answered. "Nice to see you Sam. Hope you and Daniel have enjoyed your gifts."
"Oh, we have," Daniel remarked, still looking at Maedhv with a bit of uneasiness. "And we have some things to tell you about the Ancients and your home universe of ST-3...."

Maedhv settled back into the chair and smiled sweetly to the Taloran before looking over to the assembled team and Nate. "Ah, you have a wormhole generator on board, right?" Maedhv glanced around. "That was implied in what I was told. If you just activate it randomly, I can take you to Dakara in about a minute. That is easy, and it lets me prove that I'm being serious about traveling without moving. And can I hear these interesting things about another universe and the people who revolted against my rule?"

Eyes turned to Sam, Zaria, and Serlann, the choice determined by who had them. The Minbari woman in turn looked to Data. "Captain, if you want, I believe I can program the computer to emit the 'Zynski particle streams for wormhole generation without a programmed destination."
"General?" Data looked to Nate. "You are officially in command of this operation, I will defer to you if you wish to pursue this option."
"Wait, hold it, hold it..." Nate brought a hand up. "Just... what the hell is this Dakara thing? And what are you again? Why do you need us to generate a wormhole?"

"Daniel, make yourself useful and explain to General Nate how prescience allows one to navigate through space-time," Maedhv answered, "meaning that I can use a wormhole from your interuniversal drive to travel to different points in a universe, since my ability to navigate relies on prescience and not on the nature of Straczynski particles." Then she settled back and closed her eyes before continuing. "The Dakara cannon is basically a weapon capable of destroying a planet whose field-effect can be transmitted through a wormhole, allowing it to engage from extreme range."

"I think Ayiana.... Maedhv.... is referring to an ability to predict all possible outcomes and then to select the one she wants," Daniel answered.
"I concur with Doctor Jackson, General," Data added. "Prescience is a concept believed possible for high-capability entities, though there are only a few recorded instances of encounters with them, such as with the Q Continuum..."

"They just fake it, Captain Data," she spoke without opening her eyes. "A bunch of cowardly tricksters."

That brought a curious look from Data to the interloper. Nate shrugged. "Alright, alright. Go ahead, set the Michaels Device to open a random wormhole if you can."
Serlann nodded and began working her console, Zaria helping her.
While this happened, Sam said, "What we were about to tell you is that using the records you gave Daniel five years ago, Daniel found out that the writing of a race you call 'Furies' matches the language of the Ancients. They apparently visited the universe of ST-3 about ten, thirteen thousand years ago."

"No, that was Second Home universe. I suspect these Furies are the geneforms who revolted against the rule of myself and the rest of the High Caste and slaughtered all of the High Caste except for me, and destabilized the habitat we'd built for ourselves. I fled with the middling castes to this universe, but I wasn't paying attention, so we ended up fifty million years in the past. One of the downsides of limited prescience, you see." Maedhv's eyes flicked open. "Is this all starting to make sense to you? I am THE Ancient. There are no more ancient humans than I left alive."

"Curious," Data remarked. He was the only one to speak, with Daniel seeming the most utterly befuddled by what was being said.
Before he could find his voice and try questioning Maedhv, Serlann reported readiness. At Data's command the wormhole drive was activated.

At that moment, Maedhv reached her mind into the ship's computers and established links with them as she guided the drives according to a prescient vision laid out before her of all possible paths, and selected the one to Dakara, holding steady to the fix on the present as closely as she could as the ship dove and spun through the wormhole and then burst out on the other side, over Dakara. She shuddered and settled back as she released herself from the grip of prescience, and then grinned. "I haven't lost my touch, I see. We have arrived at Dakara--one minute before we left Earth. Very good accuracy, with such a primitive drive. Now, let's discuss my compensation."

Neither Jack nor Nate very much liked the sound of that, with Nate almost spluttering, "Compensation?"

Maedhv smiled rather innocently. "I need to go somewhere, so I want you to provide me with a ship."



(Suffice to say, Marina is writing Maedhv.)

I for one, am finding myself HATING Maedhv. Everything else, great-but she is instant poison.

Vehrec wrote:I for one, am finding myself HATING Maedhv. Everything else, great-but she is instant poison.

What? Harmless ol' Maedhv? Why ever would you hate her? She's actually kind of charming as a raconteur, tossing out potential revelations left and right.....

Just make sure you don't have a better stud bull than her....

Vehrec wrote:I for one, am finding myself HATING Maedhv. Everything else, great-but she is instant poison.

She is a domineering bitch who likes the sound of her own voice, isn't she?

Fortunately for you, this story, and everything else, she's also lying through her teeth about more than a few things.

Not however a very positive thing for the other people in the story....

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:

Vehrec wrote:I for one, am finding myself HATING Maedhv. Everything else, great-but she is instant poison.

Fortunately for you, this story, and everything else, she's also lying through her teeth about more than a few things.

Not however a very positive thing for the other people in the story....

Thats kind of a relief, if she had been truthful that would have been some sweeping contradictions to SG-1 as a series. I just finishd reading an SG-1 Star wars crossover that ws alright, but one of the msot jarring things is taht it just flat out tells you the star trek and the stargate universes are the same, and that the star trek worlds don't ahve stargats so the Goa'uld ignored them. that is such a contradiction to both series I couldn't swallow it, and likewise in this situation it would ahve been ahrd to swallow that daniel was a copy and the Ancients are complete fakes.

Either way I enjoyed stories by both authors, when they join forces I avhe to watch :-p Great work guys!

The way Maedhv was introduced is referred to as a "twist". In this case, we had you thinking you were getting a bog-standard SG-1 style adventure story like OSS was and then smacked you in the side of the head with a major plot twist which, if you'll give it time, will have a big payoff in the course of the story.

Early that morning, about ten miles south of Forks, Washington, United States of America.


"Oh no, Sir. Guru Shariyah Sahimba is surely quite available to see you--she did not sleep well tonight, I fear, so she is very much awake. Is anything the matter?"

"No," Tony Evanston sighed and glanced to his partner, Burt Kilpatrick, for a moment. Loons. "We are however looking for a hispanic male, late teens or early twenties, who jumped out of a car and ran into the woods near here last night at a US Border Patrol checkpoint on US 101. And we know, ma'am, that you have a fair number of youths here."

"And we know they're all over the age of eighteen," Lieutenant Kilpatrick hastened to assure the suspicious woman. "CPS has made that very clear to us. So really we're just hoping for your cooperation on the possible whereabouts of a suspected illegal immigrant."

"Ah, of course," Erin frowned for a moment, but then nodded and smiled. She was black haired and tall, and rather obviously pregnant, though with clear green eyes and frightfully pale skin. "This way, then." She let them back through what was, by Pacific Northwest commune-bordering-on-cult standards, actually a fastidiously organized compound with the buildings laid out at the cardinal points of the compass in local river stone, and at the center was one of the popular local Geodesic dome houses, though this one had the unique twist that instead of four of the faces having projections for doors or balconies, there were eight sides for them, and each one radiated out in a long one-story, plus basement, living space, and these were connected to eight further rambler-sized habitation spaces with their curved roofs that completed the spokes. A sign identified it as the Temple of The Wheel of Dharma.

By best estimates of the government agencies, there was a usual population of about fourty adults at the commune at any one time and probably just as many children, or even more. The birthrate was extremely high, and the men--who were outnumbered by the women (usually a bad sign in communes, but this one was unusually functional)--worked on local jobs in the timber industry here just south of the small and conservative logging town of Forks, which nonetheless was the rainiest city in America and at least left their odder neighbours alone. The Temple of the Wheel of Dharma was scarcely the only cult or commune in the area, though they were the only ones to own an organic produce shop and restaurant in the city itself, and they even made a habit of paying their taxes.

The ease with which they'd pegged down the 'Guru Shariyah Sahimba' was still rather surprising, though, as they were led through the halls of the strong wooden temple and down into the basement, which was interestingly capped with concrete, and the doors for entrance were salvaged from freighters, surely, with the massive spinning wheels to lock them into place. "Expecting trouble?" Tony asked.

"The destruction of the world, Patrolman. This is the Kali Yuga, the Age of Vice. The Cycle comes to an end, you know, before it begins again." The basement was redlighted like the interior of a warship, and the gentle whir of ventilation units and slight breeze as they entered suggested an overpressure environment. That was far more technical sophistication than most cults had, though the water-wheels in the creeks, the solar panels (fat lot of good that did them) and the windmills suggested a fairly conservative mindset, and they apparently produced enough power from biological wastes from the farm in a few Stirling Cycle Generators to sell back to the local public utilities district anyway.

Finally, Erin paused at the entrance to the Guru's chamber. It didn't even have a door, nor did it have any bed. There was just a tatami mat where a futon would surely be unrolled, and a raised dais in the center where an incredibly tall woman managed to be statuesque even while seated, more than a little of a view of her ample bosom visible through the loose black silk robe she wore, wavy bright red hair spilling down her back as green eyes coolly regarded the entering State Patrolmen. Tony couldn't help but notice a slight swelling of her stomach. At least she practices what she seems to preach. Weirdoes.

"Sit, officers," she offered as Erin bowed to her side and kissed her cheek affectionately. "Shall I have tea brought, or coffee, seasoned by cardamom perhaps...?"

"No, that's alright, ma'am," Burt interrupted gently. "We just need to talk to you about someone and then we can be on our way."

"Ah, so I see. Erin, if you'd be so kind?"

"Yes, Guru." She bowed, rose, and retreated.

"What's your name, Ma'am? Your legal name, and some identification."

"Maeve Tuohy," she answered, and then held up a card to the lieutenant.

He grabbed it and took a look at it--it was a valid USN retired reserve ID showing she'd been an O-4 before mustering out and... Well, she sure as hell didn't look fourty-one. "Thank you," he quickly radioed it in, fairly standard procedure, and the result somewhat surprised him. Most cult leaders were up to their eyeballs in minor petty crime in the past; Miss Tuohy's record was completely clear.

"So, ma'am, did you take in any young hispanic male last night or this morning, we have a sketch..." Which he then produced. "He's being sought for fleeing the scene of a Border Patrol roadblock."

"No. I select my people rather well, and I do not select people running from the law," Maeve answered promptly. "I give you leave to search my compound in full. You will find much which is obscene to the morality of the craven bourgeoisie of the modern world, but nothing which stands in defiance to the laws of the United States. I served in the Navy in Desert Storm, you know, and though that scarcely makes me a hero or above the law, I aim to enjoy my future span of years here, no matter what shall come to pass. Even when the Olympics," she gestured to the mountain range behind her property, "Fall into the sea, and then the oceans themselves boil."

"Big believers in the Apocalypse?" Tony remarked, wondering how long it would actually take them to search the compound; maybe they should just accept her word for it.

"Hardly any revelation or that sort of thing, Patrolman. Rather, there have been four ages of humanity; the first age, the Golden Age, was the first human civilization and the height of all human accomplishment. People however forgot their connections with the world, with ethics and morality, and plunged into chaos and so brought this age to an end; in that age, I was a soldier, and I fought to protect the rest of society. The second age was the Silver Age, and in the Silver Age the society was an orderly one created from the ruins of the Golden Age, but in which the spiritual dimension was entirely lacking and the lower castes were held in place by blind force, and the pleasures of the flesh, which are themselves a form of spirituality, were forgotten in favour of the construction of vast monuments meant to aggrandize a hollow people. In this age I was a learned governor, and the last survivor of my cast. In the Bronze Age that followed, then, which was in this universe and flung far back in time by my own faults, I was the Queen of my debased people, and I ruled them foolishly in memory of the evil of my ancestors until I was overthrown.

"And then I journeyed to the ur-world of our people, and here I slept in ice until the Age of Iron, the Age of Vice, the Kali Yuga in which we now stand, and here I have theretofore traveled from the southern wastes upon the Larson B to establish myself and bring into me those whom I may love, and who may love me, and to protect them onto the end. When the snakes or some other foe finally rains fire down upon the skies of this doomed planet, I shall complete the cycle, I who remain the last alive of the Golden Age, who was in each more debased age a little more important, until in the present Age of Vice I am nothing, nothing at all, but under my sovereign embrace I will see humanity reborn into the Golden Age of a new cycle. So it is true that I may indulge in the Vice of this age because I am so wise and have seen so much that as the great sages of the Buddha learned, I may steal with my left hand as I distribute charity with my right and yet incur no sin.

"One day shall a golden No-Ship come out of the stars that I sent to be buried in a hidden place, and we shall be the sole survivors of this planet, here in the bubble I shall create when the fire falls from the sky, and we shall travel on it to found a far flung extant of the human race in a distant galaxy." She smiled vaguely. "But we need corporeal bodies for that, so, no mass suicides. That, and sex is fun."

"Practice what you preach much?" Neither officer had really felt like interrupting the little spiel, which was odd, but then, Maeve Tuohy was incredibly attractive, and there was a little sympathy for her, since she was obviously crazy, but in the responsible, conversational sort of way that probably did make her harmless. And it was clear that she wasn't in the business of harboring strays--these were all probably deep eco-nuts, and...

"Yes, I am pregnant. Hopefully the first of many children," Maeve smiled beatifically. "Someone needs to repopulate the human species at the end of the cataclysm. And that will be my role--I have given up ruling and conquest, and now live only to play my part in the continuation of the human species."

"Err, yes, but can we contact you if anything else comes up, or if we need to speak to some people who know the area or we have some trouble with your folks?" Burt finally spoke to cut things off.

"But of course," and this time, taking back her ID, she handed over a business card. "Cellphone number and e-mail. Like I said, it's the age of vice."

The expression made both of the officers laugh as they offered their pleasantries and left. It was only after they'd reported in that the suspect wasn't present and were driving away that they both rather looked oddly at each other. "She was pretty damn mesmerizing, wasn't she?"

"Eh, it's a trait some people have," Tony replied. "Especially the crazies. Hell, even Hitler had that, do you think fourty percent of the people in Germany would have voted for him otherwise?"

"Think she really isn't planning on killing everyone to go to the magic starship in the sky?"

"Probably just a harmless religious enthusiast who likes orgies. Hell, I've never heard of Hindu cultist types killing anyone before. I wonder what makes a responsible person who was a military officer go completely nuts like that, anyway, though?"

"Damned if I know. Usually they have some reason for it, but not her, unless she saw something that made her snap, I guess. Next stop..."


Back at the commune, Maedhv rubbed her head. The pheremonal influence was far more subtle than the mental entanglement she was also capable of, and more to the point wouldn't potentially alert Stargate Command. They might after all have psychics there, whereas the pheremones were quite harmlessly undetectable. Shamelessly naked, she walked up to the kitchen to receive a strong glass of tea from one of the girls up there making breakfast, and leaned in behind her to kiss fondly at the nap of her neck. "Ahh, sweet Rachel. Soon enough..."

The girl flushed brightly. Her eighteenth birthday was in a month. "Of course, Guru, I...." A shiver. "Can't wait, I really can't."

"Sadly, mortal laws constrain," Maedhv answered, before returning to her room to pull on a skirt and blouse and gloves, and her comfortable pair of jackboots--police officers had excellent footwear, very comfortable indeed--before speaking into the air. "Varihahus Rujadaka," she ordered, and a hologram leapt to life even as she finished pulling her hair back. It showed Alpha Centauri as the outer frontier of her defensive perimeter and the Asvin cannon standing out as an annex from the 'Ancient' base the allied Gate-control powers had since occupied for their own. Nobody had realized that the Ancients had merely put in their drones at the facility because she had disabled the defensive guns, which remained hidden, buried under rocket and miles of ice, several dozen kilometers from the site and fully self contained.

Nobody was able to detect the level of frequency the high-band foldspace transmitters at the Ceres Core Facility were operating on, either. Except, of course, for the Ancients, and Nirrti. Maedhv was reasonably confident that if Ancients saw her sweeping with a full-power set of that magnitude, they wouldn't still be heading straight in. And they were all Ascended and thus dead, the torturing, ungrateful fucks. She had left high-frequency foldspace detectors with her other children, but she considered it highly unlikely they had already arrived at Earth, and they wouldn't press an attack anyway. And they wouldn't be coming from another universe.

"Have the fucking Vorlons finally cracked the ways of prescience? Possible. They were the most likely to do it." She rubbed her head again. "I really, really hate having to do that. Talking all that bullshit makes my head hurt." The slang of the era came easily to her now after living several years on Earth and listening in continuously to the thoughts of the members of her commune. Which really was the best thing she'd ever done for herself in her entire life. Why enslave people when you can dupe them into giving you everything they own without any coercion and put out for you constantly in a bunch of fun orgies, and do it all simply by smashing together random prophecies and philosophical musings that Nirrti used to shout at you?

"No. The Vorlons could detect my sensor sweeps, too. They'd also stand off--I could knock a dozen of their cruisers out of orbit with the first salvo, and they'd have no idea that I could only manage three salvos. Damn." Was a nice little dream-world, for a while. But now it's caught up to you and you can only hope that Nirrti isn't here to kill you or will fall back on her primitive, iron-age morality and refuse to attack a pregnant woman. Either way.. No, it's not really that good. She had three hundred and fifty years more experience in the war than I did, and she was always uniquely powerful and.. Yes, that's her genetic signature I can feel. Not even hiding it anymore, and boring straight in at a leisurely, taunting course on secondary drive.

"Erin? Please inform my elders that I shall be ascending to the spirit plane for an urgent matter. I am retiring to the inner sanctum and may not return for some days," she called out of the null-field she'd created around her room as she released it.

"As you say, Guru!" Came the eager voice, and it made Maedhv bitterly sigh before she turned and stepped through the golden door into a room only she saw, a room with a painstakingly reconstructed blood-altar in it that reminded her, bitterly, of the past, the room into which she stepped when she wanted to see, in all its brutal symbology, exactly, precisely why she had abandoned the temptations of sadism and tried to live this little pretty lie that had been a marvel worth millennia for the few years it lasted, and now was brought to an end.

Maedhv closed her eyes, and recalled the warrior code of her ancestors that she had so long been lived by. "That I dedicate my life to the taking of the hearts of my enemies, and laying them in the Golden Temples of the High Andes in eternal sacrifice, and that my existence will given over to the honour of my people and the finding and taking of the foe in single combat." Then she spat, because it had all been a lie, a hilarious lie that had died by the time that the Flower Wars had ended four hundred years before she was born. A lie that had deceived her and let her and tempted her again and again, until she had tried to escape it all....

...And now, again, it was forced on her. "For much cleaner purposes will I fight now, even if I suppose it is my last," she sighed, and prepared to ask Nirrti to go and find and wake Alarita if they were to fight, and Maedhv to perish. The poor ghoula did not deserve to spend another six thousand years asleep waiting for a mistress who no longer lived....

Maedhv Curoi'larijh, the last Golden Condor, rose to her feet, and waited out in preparation for battle the last minute until she felt the ship slip into orbit above. And then, holding most of her incredible powers in reserve, she tapped but a little of the inherent energy of the universe and transported herself directly onto the command bridge of the unfamiliar vessel, utterly convinced that she would find there a very, very familiar and old face. The last Asvin had hoped that the last Sarasavsati would be a sight she would never gaze upon again her life, but it seemed that was not to be.

Chapter 2



Gray Star, In Orbit Over Dakara
Free Jaffa Space
Universe Designate SRC-19


"You know, it's usually polite to inform the other party about attached strings before you actually seal the deal," Nate remarked irritably.
"Sir, picking up vessels approaching, Goa'uld Ha'tak-class," Subcommander Hsiao reported. "Their shields and weapons are powering up."
"Raise shields, Mister Torcet," Data ordered. "Begin locking weapons..."
"Wait." Sam stepped up. "A lot has changed since you were around last time The Jaffa Rebellion has seized a lot of Goa'uld ships in the past week. Hail them, we'll talk to them."
"Lieutenant?" Data looked to David-Oded.
"Sending identification hail and informing them we have SG-1 on board."

Several moments later the viewscreen changed from showing the approaching Goa'uld ships to a bridge on one of them, a wizened Human face with the same forehead tattoo as Teal'c's appearing. Bra'tac smiled at them and said, "Ah, General O'Neill, Teal'c. We did not recognize your vessel as Tau'ri and did not detect your exit from hyperspace."
"Well, it's a long story, Bra'tac..."

"Master," Maedhv rose, and dipped her head with her hands folded in front of her in a gesture of respect. "My apologies for the violation of your space in such an egregious fashion. I'll allow the General," she gestured to Nate, "to explain the reasons. But, to suffice: We need access to the Dakara weapon."

"The Dakara Device? We have already begun dismantling the device. And who would these people be?"
Teal'c gave the answer. "Master Bra'tac, this is Nathan Mackensen. He is a comrade of Worf son of Mogh, the warrior who slew Zeus."
Bra'tac nodded, the smile returning to his face. "Ah, yes, I remember that story. These are the Tau'ri from another universe, then? What is it you need of the Dakara device?"
"I hear you just defeated the Replicators with it," Nate said. "Well, Master Bra'tac, I'm afraid that before you did, a few slipped through a Stargate we had set up to another universe. They're taking over a planet in one of our universes now, a highly populated one. Trillions of beings are at risk."
"And you seek to use the Dakara Device to destroy them as well."
"We'll need to work fast," Sam said. "It won't take long for the Replicators to make ships to spread to other systems."
"Then you are welcome to come and restore the Device. I will be awaiting you on Dakara." With that Bra'tac disappeared from the screen.

"Colonel Carter, do you have an idea on how to use this Dakara Device in Universe AR-12?" Data asked from his chair.
"Well, when we used it here, we got all the Stargates in the Milky Way to open at once to propagate the wave," Sam answered. "If we can open the Dakara Stargate to your's in Universe AR-12, it should work."
"Unfortunately that will not be possible," Data answered. "The Stargate was buried when our orbiting ship destroyed the facility in an attempt to stop the Replicators. We will not be able to retrieve it from under the Replicator shield or provide a Straczynski particle charge to permit a wormhole from this universe to be established there."
"Then we'll need to get another Stargate," Sam said.

"If you do, you won't need to provide a particle charge," Maedhv seemed to take particular pleasure in interrupting other peoples' conversations. "I'll provide that service as well in exchange for a ship to transport me on a.. Short little search. I'll also throw in, oh, two dozen of what you call ZPMs, contingent on my arrival at my final destination. The rest I'll do in advance--which I suppose means wiping out these Replicators for you, or this planet they're on, anyway. No guarantees that they won't have already spread from it."

SG-1 leveled rather intense looks at Maedhv. "ZPMs?", Nate asked quizzically.
"Zero Point Modules. Ancient power sources," Daniel answered. "And we need one to restore communications with our expedition to Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy, not to mention powering the Ancient outpost we found in Antarctica."
"Well, I'm certainly interested," Jack said. They had just received notice from Atlantis, decrypted by Sam literally hours before Gray Star had arrived, of an impending attack on the Expedition by an alien threat called "Wraith". "Do you have subspace communications? I can get the ship that Aiyana... Maedhv... has asked for."

"General O'Neill, this woman has already proven herself to be not entirely trustworthy," Teal'c noted. "She clearly meant for you to die when she failed to heal you from the plague in Antarctica. I do not believe it is wise to trust her word."
"Maybe so," Sam conceded, "but I don't like the idea of the Replicators running around in an open galaxy. I think it's worth the risk."
"So do I, for obvious reasons," Nate chimed in, looking at Jack.
"No telling what we could learn, even if only half of what she's said is true." Daniel leveled a look at the Ancient woman, still a bit disturbed about the way she'd addressed him and referred to his Ascension. "And with those 'Wraith' that the Atlantis Expedition talked about..."
Jack nodded. "Well, I need to get ahold of the Prometheus then. If your subspace doohickeys are compatible..."
"I assume that your new ship uses communications technology based on examples of Tok'ra and Goa'uld technology, so the answer is yes," Zaria said.
"Good, good. In the meantime," Jack looked to Maedhv. "I guess you have to put that thing down there back together? We'll go with you planetside while we wait for Prometheus and I can dial home to let them know what's going on, see if we know of a nearby Stargate we can borrow for this mission."

"That's fine," Maedhv replied a bit flippantly, though a dark and slightly worried look crossed her face at the mention of the Wraith. "As for why I failed to heal you, you irritated me. I saw you were going to recover, anyway, in prescient vision. No real malice intended." She smiled very slightly. "You can, of course, refuse to believe me when I say that. At any rate, this shouldn't take long at all, though you will need to help me a bit--I am really pregnant, and I need to protect my body a lot more than I normally would because of it. But for the moment, do you want me to teleport all of us down to the surface? I assume the redoubtable Captain Data can go pick up a stargate and position it a few light seconds from the target planet and then jump back into this universe; when he does jump back into this universe, I'll sense the ship's transition between the universes, and that will tell me where in your home universe I need to look for the stargate so I can connect the wormhole from the Dakara gate to it. You will however need to survive getting fairly close to the planet with the gate you drop off. I am not omnipotent."

"I am fairly confident that we will survive such an attempt," Data remarked. He looked to Nate. "General, as your purpose on this mission was to make contact with Stargate Command, I would make the recommendation that you remain here."
"Yes," Nate said, "starships are a bit out of my ability. Besides, I get the feeling that I've got a lot to pick up on when it comes to changes here in SRC-19."
"You could say that," Jack answered with a nod.

Maedhv smiled affably. "Now that everyone has happily arranged themselves, please send that message summoning the Prometheus--and I suppose explaining to Stargate Command where the hell you are--and I shall then convey you to the surface without further incident."

"Lieutenant David will make the connection for you, General O'Neill," Data said.
Jack looked to Sam, who went over and provided the Israeli officer with the necessary data. Within moments a connection would be established. "Colonel Pendergast, this is General O'Neill," Jack said.
"General, we just got a message from the SGC saying you'd disappeared. What's going on?"
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure of that myself," Jack answered. "I need you to head to Dakara ASAP, Colonel."
"Understood, we're on our way."
The channel cut, Jack shook his head. "Actually, I doubt he'll be heading here ASAP. Not until he gets clearance from the SGC, given we were abducted straight from the control room." He looked to Maedhv. "Get us planetside so we can dial Earth, I'll send Daniel back to let them know we're fine."
"Actually, Jack, I'd like to stay here," Daniel remarked, looking to Jack and Maedhv as well. "I've got a lot of questions to ask our cattle thief here."

Daniel's remark brought some quizzical looks, with Jack saying, "Cattle thief, Daniel? It's bad enough she's not making sense, don't you start too."
"Actually, Jack, I just figured it out," Daniel answered, gazing now on Maedhv. "'Maedhv' is distinctly Celtic and clearly a derivative of Medb or Maeve, the Queen of Connacht in Irish mythology who was the famed enemy of King Conchobar of Uliad, the son of King Arthur. In the Ulster Cycle accounts she was credited with starting a war with King Conchobar's realm in order to steal his prize bull. Later she was killed by her own nephew Furbaide with a slingshot and a piece of cheese." Smirking, Daniel added, "Though I don't suppose Maedhv here is vulnerable to getting hit in the head with a chunk of cheese."

"People embellish crap all the time," Maedhv answered with a sly sort of grin as she turned her face to look at Daniel. "You know, you bother me, and I feel bad for you, but you really aren't that bad of a person, all things considered. It's a pity the 'Ancients' pulled the wool over your eyes." She got up with a sigh and walked over to the rest of the group. "Anyway, it's sort of an allegory of my most famous deed back when other people were still ordering me around. I did however manage to be a Queen later on--twice. I rather failed at running countries, though, so I have since given up that line of work. I see most of the Goa'uld and other local pikers around here were less willing to grab all the gold they could and run for the intergalactic equivalent of the Riviera while they had the chance, so I guess I can remain comfortably sure of my own basic intelligence." She was grinning again by that point.

"What do you mean by that anyway?" Daniel asked. "What do you have against what Oma did for me, showing me Ascension before I died of radiation poisoning?"

"It's not really an 'ascension'. It's just--packing your consciousness away in some energy fields." Maedhv shook her head. "And they only are ascended because they're all a bunch of greedy idiots. I know this very well; you see, it's not quite true that they're only Asvins, not Alterans. I was once the High Queen of Altera." She dropped her wrist imperiously, and they were teleported down to the surface of Dakara to stand in front of the Dakara Stargate. Maedhv finished the conversation as though nothing had changed. "Millions of years ago... The Ancients revolted against me. And they certainly didn't tell you about me, now, did they? They have things that they're hiding. So do I, for that matter--I haven't scratched the surface of what I could tell you. But at least I'm honest about it, something I doubt Oma Desala ever was."

The Jaffa around their arrival point were quite stunned to see them suddenly appear as if they had come via rings - just with no rings - and were only calmed by recognizing Teal'c among the six figures. "Since you're having so much fun talking with Her Royal Highness," Jack said to Daniel, looking Maedhv with sarcasm as he emphasized the title of the acclaimed "Queen", "I guess I'll head back to the SGC instead. Sam, make sure she doesn't blow anything up." He looked to Nate as well. "I've got some Heineken back at the SGC, let's go get a drink and see about getting you out of those dress blues."
"Sounds good to me," Nate said, following Jack to the Stargate.

"Well, Samantha, Daniel, Teal'c, are we all ready to go start preparing the device? I'll need your help with the components, Teal'c, and some of your expertise as well, Samantha."
"And what about me?" Daniel asked, following them toward the large compound. "I doubt you'll need me to translate."
"Well, you can lift things. Or take out the trash. Something like that. It's a pity Jack left--I could have turned him into a horse if he kept talking like that."
"I'll be sure to let him know he was missed," Daniel grumbled.





Stargate Command


"So, how is General Hammond?" Nate asked after Jack got off the phone, having appraised President Hayes as to the developments.
"Oh, he's good. General Thompson?" Jack promptly took a swig of Heineken.
"Haven't kept up with him. Though I figure he's with the IUCEC now. I think part of the reason we didn't come back earlier is because President Dale went to them and let them take over our operation." Nate followed Jack back to the control room. He'd gotten out of the dress blues in favor of SGC field camo, which certainly felt comfortable. Jack had even arranged for him to be assigned a sidearm, one of the Rollings-Teffer P-4 particle pistols that the SPC had given Stargate Command five years before.
"Well, we managed to survive," Jack said. "We've had some losses along the way. Daniel spent a year on a higher plane of existance and all. And we had to deal with the nastiest snake of all."

"This 'Anubis' you referred to," Nate remarked. "Oh, how's Doctor Fraser?" He needed to only see the look that came over Jack's face to see the answer. "I'm sorry, Jack. She was a good doc. Wish I could've been there."
"Yeah." Jack looked to Harriman. "Sergeant, I'm heading back to Dakara. Has Pendergast confirmed he's on course?"
"Yes, sir."
"Colonel Davis will be by soon to fill in for me while I'm off-world," Jack said. "Dial up Dakara, we'd better be getting back."





Over P9D-498, Goa'uld Territory


Lt. Commander Kei Nagase was a Japanese native of attractive build and curves, though one couldn't quite tell that in the large confines of the full-body piloting suit she was in. The ace fighter pilot gunned her F/A-48 Scorpion into its full attack velocity as she came around for another run on one of the two Ha'tak motherships in orbit, among the remaining fleet loyal to the Goa'uld System Lord Ba'al.
Around her more Scorpions were coming into formation, each carrying anti-ship missiles redesigned with Guyverite-boosted tactical warheads. Two Taloran men pilots and another Stellar Navy aviator were on her wing, the four of them the lead flight of the forty starfighters that Gray Star was built to carry (the IUCEC had sided with the Taloran and Minbari desire to have attached fighters). "Lock targets, weapons free!" she ordered into the mic, ordering her SIO and those of the other fighters in the unit to keep the Goa'uld ship "painted" and that they could fire at will.

A stream of missiles dropped from the fuselages of the sleek, powerful F/A-48s. Their impulse boosters fired and the missiles raced across the distance, only two being destroyed by point defense fire before the rest crashed into the shields of the Ha'tak. They held under the onslaught, but only just.... the flight coming for an attack run behind Kei was sure to nail them.
As she pulled away to allow Captain Kender - a Human from Orientale, the space colony republic from VS-5 that was known for having prompted Taloran intervention in the Earth's war against the nearby colonies - to complete her attack run, Kei saw a flight of Goa'uld fighters on her HUD. Armed with only two anti-fighter missiles, she saw no need given the relative slowness of the weak Death Gliders and lined up her targeting icon on one before pulling the finger trigger. Pulses of energy erupted from the cannon on her fighter's "nose" and shot across the black void. The slow glider had caused her to miss a little, but a slight change in direction allowed her to slip the stream of fire over the craft. It exploded in an orange fireball. "Scratch one bogey."

As Kei maneuvered her fighter for another attack run, she saw the Gray Star race by, her own weapons blazing.




On board the bridge crew was silent and professional under the watchful eyes of their android commander and his stern Taloran XO. "Shields holding," Glin Torcet reported from his station.
On the screen their attack fighters scored a critical blow. Missiles blew past the shields of one of the Ha'taks and got a direct hit, reducing the Goa'uld vessel to a crippled hulk after a series of explosions. This left one target that was completely gunning for Gray Star.
"Mister Torcet, fire at your discretion."

The Minbari neutron cannon mounted on Gray Star's bow lashed out. Powered by an advanced Guyverite/naquadah reactor, the powerful emerald beam drained the Goa'uld mothership's shields as it played over them. Bursts of powerful phaser energy from the parallel cannons to either side of Gray Star's bow, mounted in their approximate places on a Defiant or Boxer-class vessel of the old Federation or Alliance respectively, joined the onslaught as well. A series of missiles erupted from VLS launchers on the Gray Star's hull and added to the damage.
"I believe the Ha'tak is preparing to make a jump to hyperspace," Subcommander Hsiao reported.
"I'm on it, Captain," Di'not reported almost eagerly.
Under the Zohan officer's expert handling, Gray Star came about hard and followed the Goa'uld ship. She used the attitude thrusters and engines to shift and move to make the return fire miss where possible, or be glancing blows often enough to maintain shield cohesion. As Di'not kept the ship going, Tarak poured more fire into it. The shields on the Ha'tak were starting to fail, clearly.

Whoever was leading that Goa'uld mothership was lucky. Even as another missile brought the shields down for good and phaser cannon fire raked across the armored hull of the Ha'tak, the hyperdrive successfully initialized. The Goa'uld vessel accelerated and entered the hyperspace window before it.
The action was over but there was no celebration, not under Kharaste's watch. The Taloran officer turned to his commander. "Captain, we have driven away the enemy. I will prepare an after-action report for your approval."
"Thank you, Commander," Data said. Looking forward, he added, "You have performed above expectations, Lieutenant Di'not, Glin Torcet. Lieutenant, return us to orbit. Lieutenant David, begin recovery of the fighters and clear the recovery shuttle to launch."
"Immediately, Captain" and "Yes sir" were the two officers' responses as they performed their duties. The Gray Star, having gotten her first trial by fire, headed for orbit as her recovery hanger and launch hanger portals opened.
From the launch hanger, a single shuttle slipped forward. Half the size of a Tel'tak-class cargo vessel, it was still large enough inside to accomodate the planet's Stargate as well as the crew, led by Zaria/Cadmilis, that would recover the Gate.

On the bridge, as the crew secured from combat stations back to full standby alert, Kharaste presented a digital display to Data. "Captain, I am happy to report only minimal scouring on the ventral port hull due to a brief bleedthrough of our deflector screens brought on by a direct hit. Our shields held during the engagement with an effectiveness drop of only fifteen percent due to enemy fire. Weapons accuracy was at expectation."
"Thank you, Commander. What of the fighters?"
"The Alliance's new multirole starfighters performed well under our modifications. Commander Nagase's attack wing suffered only one full loss, both crew ejected. Three fighters partially damaged and being landed under their own power."
"Excellent. Have another recovery shuttle prepped to recover the eject pods." Data saw Kharaste make those arrangements. "Commander, I have noticed you seem tense lately. I presume you are uneasy about the mysterious entity that identified herself as Maedhv?"

"There is something wrong about her, Captain. Especially her reaction to my presence," Kharaste said. "I do not trust such a creature."
"An understandable feeling, Commander. We shall have to be on our guard for this mission." Data did not bother articulating his projected chances for treachery from Maedhv. Even accounting for everything he did not know of her, her behavior and remarks left those chances... disturbingly high. "As we are in Goa'uld territory, we must leave as soon as Doctor Herzela secures the Stargate. Have the ship prepared immediately for hyperspace jump and ensure that the lost starfighter's hulk has been reduced to the point that the Goa'uld cannot gain anything from recovering it."
"Yes, Captain..."





Dakara, Free Jaffa Space


"Ahh, alright. Diagnostic checks out," Maedhv sighed in relief, and settled back, reaching for the pitcher of water she had finally--and with unusual politeness--asked Daniel to bring, drinking heavily before she pulled her gloves on, comfortable jackboots crossed in front of her. "The Dakara cannon is again fully operation, and if I'm not mistaken, Sam, you have it checked out on the appropriate frequencies for this operation. I can of course provide the power when it's activated; so, we're all set for the operation. And as I noted, I'll perform this even if the Prometheus isn't here yet. It's just the ZPM's that are dependent on our little excursion." She smiled politely, and then added, "Thank you, Teal'c. I could have normally done the lifting of the components myself, but.." A shrug. "At any rate, it now appears that we must wait." She had lost her lunacy fairly quickly when presented with something to do, distressingly quickly. The woman was not a scatterbrained lunatic, completely, but was showing the level of focus that she had when presented with the prior need to cure the plague in the Antarctic facility.

"At least you make a better partner than Ba'al," Sam remarked with some humor, double-checking to make sure the device would create the necessary wave to disrupt the Replicators. She looked to Teal'c, who seemed no worse for the wear despite having been made to do almost all of the lifting (Sam had been able to help out here and there, as had Daniel, but Teal'c alone had the height and arm reach to do what was needed in some cases).

"Well, I fancy that the average Goa'uld is still intent on resuming power. I just want to live the rest of my extremely substantial lifespan in peace."

"They live for power," Teal'c said. "They destroy what they cannot enslave."
"And they're addicted enough to power that even when in hiding they can't help but try and get followers. We found Seth in Washington State with his own little cult," Daniel added.

"I know you did," Maedhv giggled slightly. "Considering that's where I'm living presently. Different part of the state, though. The people living with me see me as a wise sage, but I harbour no aspirations over them."

That made the assembled feel very uncomfortable. Behind them the door to the chamber opened and Bra'tac entered, leading Nate and Jack back. "The Prometheus is on its way," Jack told her. "We're living up to our end of the bargain."

"Thank you," Maedhv smiled. "The Dakara cannon is ready to be fired through the stargate the moment I detect the return of the Gray Star to this universe and focus in on it. You can dial any planet you please, I can grab the wormhole and reorient it once it's been connected. Note that this will require a fairly substantial concentration of energy to achieve, as I must have precision within the matter of seconds or microseconds to avoid eradicating the Replicators on the planet at a later date in the future, so that they would have already spread by the time the effect reaches them. Prescience is not magic, or godhood. It is probability computation, and that requires energy. But I can provide it." She let her hair out, and produced a small brush from her pocket that she started to work through it with as she sat there, waiting.

"Well, here goes nothing," Nate muttered.

Chapter 3




Gray Star
Planet P4V-387, Restricted Space


With a flash of energy the Gray Star came out of hyperspace, her shields popping online within seconds. Which was a good thing.
Fire converged on them from multiple directions, the Replicators having already put together a small force of ships resembling their basic bug form. "Sensors indicate the Replicators have used the raw metallic materials on the planet to build several ships," Hsiao reported from surface scans. "Including a couple really big ones. I think one is soon to launch..."
The ship rocked slightly. Projectiles were impacting against their shielding, fired by the spider ships. "Shields holding at eighty percent," Torcet reported.

Fire was returned as a spider ship moved across their bow to intercept. But even powered as they were the energy weapons of the ship were resisted by the superior shielding of the Replicators, gleaned as it was from the Asgard.
"We're nearing the drop point, Captain," Kharaste remarked. "Opening hanger doors."
"Helm, make certain that we do not present the open hull to the Replicator ships," Data stated.
"Yes sir," Di'not said, guiding the ship through the Replicator force.




In the hanger bay Kei had slipped back into her fighter with her SIO, Ensign Landers, with all system checks ready and plans made ready should the fighter wing need to launch. But for the moment they were on standby, leaving her nothing to do but wait.
Her head turned to the right and faced the opening to the hanger. The Stargate they had picked up was being tested as one of the craft-towing vehicles pushed it and the gantry around it up to the end of the hanger bay.
The ship rocked again. I hope we don't take all day with this, Kei thought, helpless as she was at the moment in the cockpit of an inert fighter.





Dakara, Free Jaffa Space


Maedhv was fielding some technical questions from Sam when Jack quietly pulled Daniel out of the room and back toward the Stargate. "So, Daniel, find out anything more about her?"
"Not much, she was actually less talkative while re-assembling the device," Daniel answered.
"And what do you think about her? About all this stuff she's saying about the Ancients, Ascension, calling you dead? Is she just being a lunatic?"
He could only shrug. "Well, to be honest, I can't be a hundred percent certain about how much of what she says is right and how much is wrong. I can tell you that she's not quite as unstable as she seemed to be. She put this device back together faster than Sam can, well...." Daniel paused for a moment and tried to think of an example before giving up. "...okay, the analogy's not coming to me. The point is... she's smarter than she looks and more powerful than any Ascended being I've yet heard of."
"And she's living somewhere on Earth," Jack sighed. "What was that she said? That she was running a commune?"
"Hippie commune, cult, something like that. Like Seth, just that when I brought that up she said she wasn't being as bad as he was."
"Any idea where?"
"Washington State, I think she mentioned."

Jack nodded briskly at that "Well, I'm going to run back to the Stargate and dial Earth, let them know where to start looking. I'm not comfortable with Her Highness being anywhere on Earth. We at least need to know where to knock."
They returned to the open. The nearby Jaffa guards nodded respectfully at them as they walked on to the Stargate and DHD. "Jack, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Daniel remarked. "Maedhv's already quite... irritated with you."
"Oh? How irritated?"
"Oh, she said something about turning you into a horse."
At that Jack looked at Daniel blankly for a moment. "Oh, come on," he finally remarked, one hand beginning to dial the DHD to Earth. "That is the dumbest threat I've heard in my life. What is she, the Fairy Godmother? There's no way she can do that...." Seeing Daniel's uncertain expression, Jack added, "Can she?" rather apprehensively.
"Frankly, Jack, I'm not sure," Daniel finally answered.




Gray Star
Planet P4V-387, Restricted Space



"Shields at sixty-five percent!" Torcet fired another cannon burst that proved ineffective again. "Captain, request permission to use Mark IVs."
"Permission denied, Glin," Data answered. "We have only limited reserves of ammunition and using more would be unreasonable."
"Drop point attained in twenty seconds," said Di'not. She weaved the Gray Star around a bug-vessel, the point-defense guns on the Gray Star shooting down the Replicator boarding torpedoes.
One of the cylindrical ships was coming up at them now, forcing a strong maneuver by Di'not that nearly hit the hull of the Replicator ship as she twisted away and "down" from it before re-aligning them to the pattern. On the bridge screens the mark indicated they'd reached the optimal drop point. "Commander Triulajha, drop the Gate."
"Yes sir," the Taloran officer said, relaying through his DNI the order to the rockets attached to the Gate's gantry. They powered up and the Stargate came straight out of the hanger doors, now in a medium orbit over P4V-387.
"Signaling General Mackensen now," Lt. David said immediately.




Dakara, Free Jaffa Space


Jack and Daniel were still at the DHD when Jack's radio came on. "Hello?"
"We got the signal from Captain Data," Sam said over the light static. "Get a wormhole opened up, sir."
"Hrm... eenie meenie mynie moe..." Jack looked over the DHD. "Got a good planet to dial, Daniel?"
"Jack, just dial one," Daniel answered, rolling his eyes. "Just so long as it's not the black hole Gate."
"Spoilsport," Jack muttered. He thought of one particularly bad planet he'd been to, uninhabited, and began dialing it.

As Jack finished dialing, Maedhv came jogging up to the gate, coming to a stop by the DHD. "I can fire by automatic, but I need to be here with the DHD, as those were never designed for me to control," she explained after a moment. "That, and pretty soon I really shouldn't be exerting myself like that anymore. Let me know when... Ah." She watched as the event horizon spilled out and then stabilized, quite calmly. "If you'd stand aside, Jack? I need direct contact with the DHD for this."

"Be my guest," he said, standing to the side.

She brought her hands to touch the DHD, and then froze up in a rictus of agony as her hands began to melt and waver and flesh and gray fluid was briefly exposed before reforming, the metal covering on the DHD also melting, distorting, rising up and melding into her arms like two columns of metal turned to flesh as they met her forearms, her hands disappearing. She even whimpered as it took place, and short of a rather sophisticated show it was very painful, her eyes closing in relief as it was complete and the stargate began to flicker and hum with energy strangely, the dialing mechanism beginning to unlock and then spin uncontrollably though the wormhole oscillated and expanded and contracted like it was cycling over and over. Her mind reached out, and found the exact location the other gate must be, would surely be, and flung all her energy into guiding the wormhole to the new connection across space and time and the cosmos. And then it found its lock and matched.

She fired the Dakara cannon, as she called it, instantly, without warning Daniel or Jack, but before they could be concerned about the backwash of the beam firing, a shield leapt up around both of them and herself, just to be on the safe side, shimmering a faint clear-purple in the sun as the shot from the Dakara device was sent through the gate to the active and aimed stargate on the other side in orbit of the Replicator-infested planet. Focusing with incredible intensity she both held the shield and guided the Dakara device's firing with a terrible certainty, modulating the beam to pass through the planetary shields as though they didn't exist.




"Shields to fifty percent!" Torcet braced himself against his station. "Deflectors are starting to lose cohesion, the Replicator torpedoes may be able to break through them now."
"Lieutenant Di'not, please indulge in your most creative evasive maneuvers," Data ordered.
The Zohan woman smiled at that and fired Gray Star's sublight engines to full. The ship twisted and weaved, making nimble shifts in its orientation or relative position chaotically as the Replicator ships continued their methodical attempt to bring the shields down and hit the ship with a boarding torpedo through its point-defense batteries.
"The Lieutenant is starting to tax inertial dampening," Serlann remarked stoically, never-minding the fact that the ship was beginning to experience moderate G-forces despite the best efforts of the systems to accomodate Di'not's creative maneuvering.

The Stargate they'd dropped suddenly flared to life. Barely a microsecond passed after the event horizon stabilized before a beam erupted from it, powerful enough to punch through the Asgard-based planetary shield protecting the Replicators on the surface. Once inside the shield and impacting the surface the beam began spreading out, contained within the shield for the handful of seconds until it hit the Replicator shield generator. It took less than a second for the generator's Replicator parts to be disassembled, bringing the shield down.
The field erupted everywhere then, covering orbital space as well as sweeping over the planet. The Replicator ships, even their torpedoes, literally fell apart piece-by-piece.
Hsiao gave the news. "Captain, I'm not picking up any active energy sources on the planet, all the Replicator pieces seem to be completely inert!"

"Excellent, thank you Subcommander," Data answered. "Please secure from..."
"Wait..." Hsiao was double-checking his station. He looked back, now seeming very concerned. "Just before the field expanded to cover nearby space, there was a power spike. A hyperspace window."




Maedhv had since disconnected from the DHD--a process as painful as connecting had been, leaving her wringing her hands as she walked and wincing--and headed back to Samantha Carter and the IU radio connection with Daniel and Jack in tow. "There's been a problem," she muttered under her breath as she arrived and then picked up the feedback to the IU Radio. "Captain Data? One of the replicator ships jumped clear before the effect disassembled it. I need you to power up your wormhole drive without direction again." She glanced around outside around the Dakara device. "I want you all to hold your breath--contrary to stereotype you shouldn't exhale--you'll be in vacuum for maybe a fraction of a second. Is anyone doubting the fact by this point that I want to destroy the replicators as much as you do?"
"I do not believe so," Data replied almost non-chalantly. "We are preparing to engage wormhole drive. All hands in need are securing vac-masks for the transferrence you refer to."

"Oh, forgive me, Captain Data," Maedhv answered. "I was warning my companions here. I'm a bit of an airhead about this stuff." And with an innocent look, she felt the wormhole activation on the Gray Star and wrenched SG-1, Nate, and herself into space right in front of the Gray Star, for only a microsecond of cold and raw pressure, and then another microsecond later they materialized on the bridge of the ship just like Maedhv had done herself, before. "I need to be present to guide the ship to Dakara since it's to small to travel through the Dakara wormwhole, which I left open for this jump--I directed the transport beam through the wormhole, you see," she said boastfully as her victims in the abrupt jump were given a moment to recover from the kiss of vacuum. "We need to return to Dakara because there's several missiles in a weapons depot under the Dakara Device which should be useful in destroying that Replicator ship. They are, consider it thus, an extra gift to you even though our agreement didn't cover any escaped replicators."

Of them all, only Teal'c seemed to have taken the experience with little impact. A flustered Jack looked to her and remarked, "Maybe you should look into clearer warnings next time?"

"Hmm. I suppose I should. Interesting, Di'not is Telempathic--I wasn't aware of any species with that capability except for.. Well, maybe that explains it. Never did find out where Nirrti went, after all." She stretched a bit and then stepped forward to lean on a railing. It was clear that she was in communication with the ship's computers, though she made no attempt to forcibly access them. "If you can repeat the activation, Captain Data? To say we don't have a second to lose is an underestimation."

Data nodded to Serlann, who returned to looking at her station. "Initiating Michaels Drive."

"Thank you, Captain Data," Maedhv replied, sighing, settling back and focusing again. The ship spun down and through the wormhole, and within a minute later reappeared over Dakara for the second time that day. As they did, Maedhv somewhat slumped and staggered against the rail before pushing herself back up, and then slipping down to the floor with a heavy sigh.
"Today.... Has been rather tiring. A pity I need to do this one time to get us to the surface of the planet."

"Doctor Constantine to the Bridge," Kharaste said into the ship's audio systems.

"No, no, no need," Maedhv waved her hand a bit feebly. "It's more an issue with energy field depletion around Dakara than anything else." But it was too late, and so she just left herself sit there without any further effort. "I suppose it's worth it in the end. Just need to pace myself for the sake of my child." She glanced archly over to Daniel, though. "After what you've seen me do in the past five minutes, are you at least beginning to believe that I'm telling the truth?"

"Some of it, yes," Daniel said. "But I'm not convinced you're being entirely truthful."

"Well, you'll have an opportunity soon enough," she smiled primly. "I'm out of practice, sadly. I suppose you could use the transporters here, but my body is likely too complex for them to handle me. Which I guess you're all going to have a bird's eye view of momentarily." She nodded her head toward the 'lift doors just as they opened.

The figure that emerged, carrying a medical kit and accompanied by two medics - a Human and another Minbari - was a short Human woman, barely a meter and a half in height, with a very lithe figure. Her brown hair was around her neck at the longest. Her uniform had the Federated Worlds patch on it to denote her nation of origin. She motioned to her medics and knelt down beside where Maedhv was sitting, getting a medical scanner to examine her with.
"Doctor Constantine is the ship's Chief Medical Officer", Data said to the others, since none save the bridge crew had been introduced to her before.
"That's odd," Meredith said while examining Maedhv. "Her body's filled with nanites, and there's some kind of... interference. An energy source inside her cells."
"She did say she was both corporeal and Ascended," Sam remarked, looking toward Daniel. He kept looking at Maedhv as the Doctor examined her.
"And she's in her second trimester, about four months I'd figure, given the size of the fetus," Meredith added. "This really isn't a place for you, nanites or no nanites."

"No, it's not really a place for me, and I have to travel yet further before I will be in a place that is," Maedhv smiled back rather affably. "I can and have kept the child safe, however. As for the energy source, well, my cells are busier than they seem. Shall we leave it at that?"

Meredith looked toward Data and shrugged. "Aside from looking a little worn I don't see anything wrong with her. Though i doubt I could."
"Thank you, Doctor," Data answered. "Allow me to introduce General Nathan Mackensen and the members of the SG-1 team of Earth-Local."
"Well, technically I'm not in SG-1 anymore," Jack said in correction. "Now," he looked to Maedhv, "Your Highness, I believe you said something about weapons to help us finish the Replicators off?"

"Just call me Maedhv. Yes, they're under the Temple of Dakara and..." She closed her eyes and concentrated again. "Well, we'd better hurry."

"What is it?" Nate asked.

"Well, if we don't succeed in arming the Gray Star with these missiles and getting it flung back into the other universe, at the right time, an entire one of your responding Strategic Carrier groups is going to be destroyed by that ship," Maedhv answered simply.

Quick explanation:
Forks, WA is a little town in the middle of the Olympic Peninsula that's known as the rainiest city in the U.S. It's so rainy that it got its own young adult vampire series based in the town. Marina and I spent a night in a motel there when we were traveling the peninsula.

The jackboots comment comes from my shopping for work boots. At one store I visited, there were no work boots, but I tried on the jackboots that were there for the heck of it. They fit perfectly and were so, so comfy, despite it actually being a men's size and, well, you know, are jackboots. Apparently Marina found that quite amusing.

Chapter 4



Dakara, Free Jaffa Space


Maedhv's remark on the imminent destruction of a Strategic Carrier Battle Group by the Replicators made for some concerned looks. "Such an occurrence would be very unfortunate," Data said, replying first.
"Losing a carrier always is," was Jack's reply.
"Actually, the stakes are much higher. Alliance Strategic Carrier-type warships are equipped with an Interuniversal Wormhole Generator," Data pointed out. "Given your statements on the capabilities of the Replicators, it is quite likely that they would be capable of copying the technology if they capture it intact. And since the carrier force ships are equipped with warp drives and not hyperdrives, they will be incapable of outrunning a Replicator vessel. It would simply be lying in wait wherever they came out of warp."
"Ah," Jack said with a nod. "Well, yeah, I'd call that 'unfortunate.'"
"So, what are we waiting for?" Nate said. "Let's go get those missiles."

"They're an Asvin knockoff of the Koman Shipkiller," Maedhv explained as she pushed herself to her feet. "A name which probably doesn't inform you of anything, but let me assure you that, oh.... Does a Shadow Spider-Cruiser sound like a familiar ship to you? One of those dead, I can say. Explaining the energy levels in the mechanisms would be more complex." She moved to stand with the rest of the group.

The phrase made Serlann turn in her chair and look at Maedhv. "Shadows? You know of the Shadows?"

"Well, of course." Maedhv rather bitterly looked to Serlann. "We were at the height of the flowering of the golden age, and we didn't realize until far too late that they were rotting us to the core and driving us to war. Since they couldn't defeat us in battle, they and the other old races with them instead drove us mad. And now I'm the very last survivor of that age still alive."

"These Shadows, what are they?" Daniel looked between Serlann and Maedhv. "I've... well, if they had a connection to the Ancients I'll admit I'm curious..."
"The Shadows are First Ones," Serlann remarked. "From my home universe. Over thirty years ago we of the Younger Races banded together to drive them and the Vorlons out of our galaxy after they tried to set us at odds again, as they had done to many races over the millennia."

"Mmm-hmm. And so it was with the Asvins and the Sarasavsati first," Maedhv replied. "They drove all of us mad, and when that didn't quite finish us, they turned my comrades into nihilistic lunatics who swept down on all the survivors of both sides. I am the last Asvin to have lived through those events. All the others have perished. The Ancients are their children and grandchildren, for I was the only one given immortal life." She smiled darkly. "Well, the only one given immortal life who survived the Shadows."

"So you're from her home universe?" Daniel asked, pointing a bit toward Serlann. "And according to you the Ancients are the descendants of these As...."
Jack cleared his throat. "Um, Daniel, we can talk about this later. Right now I think we need to go down and get those weapons so this ship can return to the other universe and blow the Replicators away before they attack that ship with the IU drive and put the whole Multiverse in danger of infestation.

"No, I haven't been to their home universe. The Shadows and Vorlons and other such old races are from our home universe," Maedhv answered, and then glanced to Data. "Captain, I believe you have a scientist and specialist in local technology aboard? Please send her down to join us; I will need substantial assistance in checking these weapons. There's fourteen fourteens of the weapons down there, but we'll be lucky to find six that are still functional."

"You refer to the Tok'ra Cadmilis, currently hosted by Dr. Herzela," Data remarked matter-of-factly. "She is currently overseeing work in Main Engineering. I shall her report to the transporter room immediately."
After Data's reply Serlann was looking in confusion at Maedhv. "The Shadows and Vorlons are the First Ones of my home universe," she said. "Perhaps they also existed in this home universe of your's?"

"No, same group, exact same," Maedhv answered, and focused levelly on Serlann. "All universes are one whole in the Cosmos. They were the first ones in the cosmos, and they have moved from one universe to the other. So as it was, that Asvin civilization flowered in ancient days alongside the Sarasavsati, until the Golden Age ended in fire, and the Silver Age began in blood. Meditate upon the fact that travel between parallel universes is impossible; therefore, these universes are not parallel at all. They are instead folded inside of a larger, all-encompassing Cosmos which holds them as easily as on the earth of this universe many dolls are folded inside of a larger one. And at one point, that cosmos began, and from it, all these universes came forth." She flashed a smile to Data. "Thank you, Captain." And with an imperious gesture, she teleported herself, Nate, and the SG-1 team back down to the Dakara temple.

With Maedhv gone, Data looked to Meredith and asked, "Doctor, what more can you tell me of this entity?"
"I'm looking over the DNA scan now," she answered. "Whatever she is, she's certainly more than Human. I..." Results popped up on her screen. "This is... impossible?"
"Doctor?" Data asked with curiosity at her expression.
"Maedhv's DNA does not meet several baselines of Human DNA. At least not our DNA. Her DNA is fully unique, but more closely corresponds with..." Meredith looked up. "Homo Neanderthalensis."
"You mean she's a Neanderthal?" David asked in an incredulous tone.
"Not exactly, but if I had to guess, she was born from a genepool that included Homo Neanderthalensis more than Homo Sapien."
"Fascinating," Data remarked. "It would appear that she is being somewhat truthful about her lifespan, though we still lack evidence as to the full truthfulness of her claims."




Dakara, Free Jaffa Space



The recovery shuttle landed in the Dakara Stargate courtyard, the landing thrusters creating plumes of dust that coated Jack, Nate, and Daniel as they waited for the ship. The side door opened and Zaharia exited, now in a flight suit. "You're a pilot now?" Nate asked her.
"General, I have always been a pilot," Cadmilis answered. "Show me to where Maedhv is."
"Right his way," Jack remarked, motioning toward the temple. The four figures walked into it together



"Gutsalka," Maedhv was finishing speaking to the clear air, and then sighed in reveal. "The Ancients tried to lock me out of the command systems, but they didn't realize that there were still Asvin military codes hardwired," she noted, having cleared the passage only moments earlier; now it was unshielded, and the huge opening in the floor of the temple was large enough for the missiles. "You'll need to rig a crane to get them out, I think. Or at least a block and tackle pinioned to the roof--the missiles are not that heavy--since they're down pretty far." She turned and went first, probably because she was wearing a skirt, and began to nimbly descend the simple access ladder into the blackness below that ran alongside the weapons access, leading them down below. "Now, the key thing to look for is an amber light above a blue light, if you see that on the top of the missile, punch the nearest button and it will report in Ancient the power charge. It needs to have retained at least thirty percent charge to still be useful. The missiles are ten meters long and about one meter wide, but there's a system for removing them from their storage spaces and transferring them to the bottom of the shaft, which I'm going to fix while you all survey the missiles and tag the ones that have enough power."

They split off, Sam working by herself while Daniel followed behind Zaria and helped her and Cadmilis understand the Ancient numbering as they started checking missiles. "So, how are things back in your magnificant, wide Multiverse?" he asked.
"Oh, they're generally okay. A couple of medium-sized wars, some minor squabbles, nothing big."
"Oh, just a few wars?"
Hearing the tone in Daniel's voice, Zaria looked at him with a smirk. "Doctor, your own world in the first decade of the 21st Century has about what? Two hundred nation-states? And as I recall there were a fair number of civil wars, violent political repressions, and standoffs. Now imagine a Multiverse with literally thousands of individual states and tell me you're surprised that there are wars. Frankly the Multiverse is more peaceful today than it was twenty years ago when we had the Alliance and Federation within moments of war over Algrossa while the Cardassians re-armed for a Round Two with the Alliance and the Dominion infiltrating the entire Alpha Quadrant, the Kilrathi rampaging in FB-16 and the Drakh doing the same in EM-5, Hanson Leewood rattling sabers in CON-5, the Interuniversal War just two years away..."
"Hrm, Interuniversal War? That sounds... nasty."
"Universes ST-3 and CON-5 saw trillions dead, trillions more rendered homeless, entire planets cut off from interstellar trade and general economic collapse." Zaria checked a missile for the amber light and looked at the characters.
"Thirty-eight percent," Daniel said for her. "So... general economic collapse?"

"I was still at New Chatham in October of 2161 when the Battle of Alpha Paternis happened in the Gamma Quadrant, Universe ST-3. Virtually the entire campus was fixed 24/7 to the news networks to hear the latest updates to the naval battle. For three weeks."
"Who won?"
"The Alliance did," Zaria answered. "They beat off the Dominion counterattack. And in twenty days of fighting, they lost three thousand starships. The Dominion lost ten thousand."
Daniel had no immediate response to that and went back to trying to help Zaria identify Ancient numbers on her own.

Maedhv stayed near the front, working on activating the transfer assembly. She'd jacked herself into the assembly with a neural interface even as she leaned over it and, with occasionally moments of extreme pain twisting through her face, used her nanites to rebuild parts which were old enough to have ceased working. Each missile weighed several tonnes, after all, and she wasn't feeling well enough to levitate them... And, of course, quite aware that Nate, Jack, and Teal'c were there, primarily watching her. "Fancy being suspicious?" She asked a bit flippantly with a grimace on her face as she made another repair.

"Well, it usually takes me a while to trust people," Jack answered. "Especially ones that have formed their own cult."

"Well, everything I've told them is the truth, more or less," Maedhv replied. "Also, we pay our taxes, don't have sex with underage children, and donate to local community charities. Also a roadcrew for picking up trash on the one-oh-one. Utterly harmless, and with the added benefit that I could have protected them if the Goa'uld had attacked Earth. Quite handily, actually." Another sharp grimace.
"So where were you when Anubis was getting ready to flatten us?"
"Trying to decide whether or not the risk was serious enough for me to activate the remaining system defences and use up their energy," Maedhv answered. "I actually did bring them on-line when I detected the Gray Star arriving, but Nirrti is a far more serious threat than Anubis."

"Nirrti being the person you thought brought us to this universe," Nate said, more a statement than question.
"Yes."
"Ah."
"If we distrust you, it is also because of the things you have said," Teal'c stated plainly. "Our experiences have not indicated the Ancients to be the beings you paint them as."
"Like you being their Queen," Daniel added, having joined them now since Zaria knew enough about Ancient numbers to do the work herself.

"Well, they've had millions of years to repent their sins," Maedhv answered after a moment, glancing over to Daniel as he approached. "Well, that was fifty million years ago, in a distant galaxy. They were the survivors of our civilization after the end of the Silver Age, which had been the descendent of our civilization of the Golden Age, and they... Were very jealous of me. I understand the present Ancients, well, some of them anyway, have repented of the evil that their jealousy caused. But to give you an idea of how bad they once were, one of the reasons they overthrew me was because I outlawed slavery, which had been ubiquitous in the Golden and Silver ages."

"Yeah, see, we don't buy that," Daniel immediately replied.
"If you are telling the truth about that, it means you also likely had slaves." Teal'c glowered at her. "Which makes me distrust you even more."

"I did once. A harem of seven, seventy household and estate servants, not counting those of my family, and thirteen personal servants. The number seven was considered holy or important to our people, as was thirteen," she elaborated. "So those were the customary norms. All of them perished at the end of the Golden Age except for my personal servants and my harem, and they revolted in the Silver Age--all except for one. Alarita." Maedhv straightened, with a distant look in her eyes. "Alarita chose to stay with me, and saved my life when I could have been killed instead. I ended up making Alarita my highest advisor in the age of Bronze, which greatly angered the middling classes who became the Ancients--me, putting a geneform over them! I outlawed slavery, and as long as I ruled as High Queen of Alteras, no slaves were permitted in my Empire. I understand that only after the Ancients overthrew me that some of them repented of these actions and the crimes they committed against me. So, yes, Teal'c, I once owned slaves, as did every member of High Caste Asvin society. But I have lived millions of years since then without doing it, and don't fancy ever doing it again. All the pleasure in it is... Hollow, and to realize that is to crush all that you once believed in and force you to change yourself irrevocably."

Daniel frowned at her. "So you say that some of them reformed. Assuming they're the Ancients that we know of, and right now I still consider that a big leap, what happened to the other Ancients? The ones who didn't repent?"

"Something suitably bad," Maedhv answered simply, offered a tight smile, and then activated the transfer mechanism. "How many missiles do we have active?"

"Two," Zaria said.
"Four for me," Sam added from where she was.

"That'll be enough," Maedhv answered, "in fact, four should be, and the missiles should home automatically." She activated them machinery, running it down a track to the first of the tagged missiles, and then hauling the missile out to the recovery shaft, with the crew of the shuttle waiting above with a winch hooked to a block and tackle to hoist it up.



Gray Star


The last of the six missiles was being fixed to the outer hull by engineering teams led by Serlann and Kharaste, who was providing his own expansive EVA experience to the time-crunched project.
Data and the rest of the bridge crew were remaining at their stations, preparing to jump out when the final missile was fixed and the firing system rigged to Glin Torcet's console. The doors at the rear of the bridge opened up and admitted Sam, now wearing an IUCEC vacsuit with an American flag patch added to the shoulder for national ID. "Ah, Colonel," Data said, twisting in his chair. "Thank you for agreeing to take Doctor Herzela's place. I believe your prior experiences with fighting Replicators will be most useful in our mission."
"I'm happy to help," Sam answered, also being quite eager to get to examine the Gray Star more closely. It's hullform reminded her of the Defiant very much, though she could see the technology incorporated into it was quite different in many ways, not counting the purpose-built Goa'uld-level technology that Cadmilis and Nural had installed for the ship. "So I guess I should report to Engineering."
"Officer Serlann will be taking the post overseeing Engineering, the ship Operations console is where I would like for you to remain. Unfortunately you are without a DNI implant, so you will have to rely entirely upon the console."
"DNI?"
"Direct Neural Interface," Data explained. And given her distractions the prior times Sam had been on the Gray Star's bridge, she now noticed that all of the bridge crew did, in fact, have equipment attached to their heads with cords running into their consoles.
"You plug the systems directly into your brains?" Sam asked.
"It was a design feature insisted upon by the Taloran design team that participated in the ship's planning," Data explained. "It is a feature primarily used by the navies of the Taloran Empire and feudatories and the Habsburg Dynasty. The Federation and Federated Worlds have not yet adopted neural interfaces, and the Alliance Stellar Navy still uses headpiece based neural interface technology that is less intrusive but also less efficient."

"Oh."
"Captain Data, we are ready," Kharaste reported from his space suit. "We are returning to the ship now."
"Excellent, Commander. Glin Torcet, please run simulations to confirm the equipment will function."
As the Cardassian weapon officer did so, Sam continued looking over the console, getting a hang on it. It was a bit different from what she was used to on Prometheus. At first the display was in alien characters she didn't recognize, worker-caste Minbari to be precise, but a few moments after she touched the console for the first time the characters altered to English lettering. "How did that happen?"
"The consoles provide their own low-level neural link to determine if the subject can sufficiently understand the characters displayed, and to alter the display if a sufficient understanding level is not displayed by the readings in the brain," Data explained. "It is a system designed to accomodate the multi-national nature of our crew and the likely crews of further ships of this type."
"Clever." Getting used to the console, Sam asked, "So, why isn't Doctor Herzela joining us? Cadmilis has already sent his report to the Tok'ra Council."
"Doctor Herzela will be accompanying General Mackensen in his mission to resume ties with the SGC." The answer was not entirely the truth. Data was also most curious about the entity Maedhv and her claims about the antiquity of various universes, as well as to the Q being "cowardly tricksters". He was hoping the twin scientific minds of Doctor Herzela and Cadmilis might work well to shed light on the mystery Maedhv presented.

"Commander Triulajha reports all EVA teams are back aboard and all airlocks are secured," Ziva David reported.
"Prepare for Michaels drive activation, Colonel Carter. Lieutenant, please inform General Mackensen we are ready."

Maedhv materialized on the bridge in the usual abrupt rush of white light and washover, looking even more wearied than before as she surveyed the bridge crew... "Are all the missiles active and securely fastened? I'm going to interface with them through your computers so the command code Alpha Gamma Epsilon will fire them all automatically. They will automatically track and lock onto the nearest target other than the ship they were launched on, Captain Data. So make sure you don't have any friendlies in the area." She stepped over to the nearest console, looking pointedly at the crewer to make him vacate it. "After we're cleared, I'll put you right in the vicinity of that Replicator ship, before it attacked the Strategic Carrier group, time-wise; I'll jump back to the surface just as you go through."

"Very well. We will be ready as soon as Commander Triulajha and Officer Serlann report to their duty stations."
It only took about eighty more seconds for Kharaste to arrive. Sam confirmed Serlann was in main engineering, looking over the naquadah reactors that powered the ship and their fusion reactor backups. "All stations are ready, Captain," Kharaste would report within ten seconds of jacking in to his DNI port.
"Miss Maedhv, when you are ready?"

"Of course." Maedhv interfaced directly with the computers, this time, grimacing as she modified her DNI with her nanites to connect, and configured the vessel to send the necessary signals. "Alright, I suggest not entering that command code until you're ready to personally fire the missiles, Captain Data," she finished a moment later. "Generate a wormhole charge for me, please, and I suggest you go to red alert."

"Sound General Quarters, Commander."
"Yes Captain." Using his DNI, Kharaste did just that, klaxons sounding through the ship and ordering crew to get into vac-suits and prepare for combat operations.
"Activating the Michaels Drive," Sam said, starting to get the hang of the console and taking advantage of Serlann's alterations to provide an uncontrolled wormhole generation.
Ahead of Gray Star, two small beams came out of the drive's emitters and merged about a kilometer or so ahead of them. The resulting beam collision opened a wormhole that Maedhv took control of.

Maedhv closed her eyes, concentrating and shifting and tearing through the universal barriers to find where the Replicator ship must be, and then dial back, follow it backwards in time to where it must have come from and when, and then she locked the wormhole on to that moment. "Forward, my condors!" The words left her lips before she could think about them, a hoary old battle-cry, and then, just as they began to dive into the wormhole, she flashed a cheery salute to Data and teleported back to the surface of Dakara.

Chapter 5


Dakara, Free Jaffa Space


Maedhv returned to the surface, not looking particularly much worse for wear as she smoothed out her skirt and nodded her head slightly, almost to herself, green eyes flicking up to her five companions on the surface, for the moment. "Alright, they're through, and I have, well, more than completed my end of this bargain--I initially said I wouldn't help if any of the Replicators escaped, but I decided to anyway. Those are teratonne range missiles, thereabout, and I doubt they'll have a problem effecting the complete destruction of the replicator ship with them. You have to admit, I have been quite the lady in providing so much assistance for you all. So, when shall the ship arrive to take me to my final destination?"

"They should be here soon," Jack answered. "It does take a bit of time to zip around the galaxy."

"Not to those who travel without moving," Maedhv answered. "But then, short of the speculation of your fictioneers--I am sure Daniel is aware of these things--we are the only people to have mastered that. I imagine you'd fancy the technology greatly, would you not?"

"Oh, we would be interested," Nate said. "But you don't seem the type to share too much."

"I'm hindered by a series of agreements with Nirrti," Maedhv answered a bit reluctantly. "I can probably offer some more directly relevant things on Earth, however, in this universe, since I'm expecting that I'll need to relocate when this whole fracas ends. I suspect you don't want me living there anymore."

"Well, we do have some concerns," Jack admitted, not about to volunteer the fact he'd already given the SGC information that could help locate her cult.
Daniel spoke next. "I'm actually a little curious about this 'Nirrti' you're talking about. She doesn't sound anything like the Goa'uld Nirrti, whom we're familiar with. How much does she meet the whole "goddess of death" rakshasa image?"

"The magnitude of the body count she left in her wake," Maedhv answered curtly, moving to lean against a temple wall. "Nirrti is a corruption of the original name, which is unrecognized in the modern world, so I shall not speak it--for it is a name of evil to me. She destroyed my homeworld, for instance. We last parted as allies, and her morality was unimpeachable, but what else can I say? She is death, and she lives still, inscrutable, obsessed. I can feel her abilities lurking in the universe, prescient vision always searching."

"Searching for what?", asked Zaria.

"I'm not sure, though I have some idea, of course. There's only one thing that makes sense... Though it's ludicrous to imagine that she's spent the past aeons in such a fashion, but Nirrti never behaved in a way an Asvin could understand anyway." Maedhv reached a gloved hand up and held it to her forward, shaking her head a bit miserably as she added, quietly: "On the other hand, I expect that in a billion years she will still be here. My own longevity is less sure. Oh, I have the capacity, but the Fates have no reason to keep me alive. So sooner or later my luck will run out. Her, they are either going to make her miserable forever, or make her happy forever. But it will be forever. The Goa'uld play at being Gods; I have enough power to match the definition of an old pagan god; when Nirrti talks to God, she gets answered."

"Sounds like a very special woman," Jack said somewhat sarcastically. "So, Teal'c, want to go grab..."
There was a crackle over the radios of SG-1 as well as Nate's. "This is Colonel Pendergast, General, we've arrived in orbit."

"Well, I believe it's time for us to go," Maedhv remarked with a relieved expression actually showing on her face. "Shall I teleport us straight up into the equivalent chamber on the Prometheus to avoid any unnecessary disruption aboard the ship? I can then go to the bridge and provide the coordinates for our destination, and then, I fancy, retire to some terrifically cramped quarters to try and relax until we arrive."
She was answered by an assenting nod.

Maedhv smiled drily. "Well, then, consider this sufficient warning." She paused five seconds, and then teleported them up into the transporter room of the Prometheus. Barely had they finished appearing when she gestured grandly forward. "Lead on, MacDuff," she addressed to Jack, apparently having settled back to her irreverent attitude of before.
"Ah, 'MacDuff'. Very cute," Jack replied before leading them on through the ship. "So, where is it you were wanting to go? I do have to justify putting billions of dollars of United States Air Force property at the disposal of a pregnant cult leader."
"To find Alarita," Maedhv answered seriously. "We're going to a place where I can find some clues in that direction. Consider it a.. Treasure hunt." Maedhv finished as they reached the bridge.
"Colonel, set course for..." Jack looked back to Maedhv. "...where do you want to go again?"

Maedhv smiled fondly, and then closed her eyes and took a breath. "Well, while I try to remember the coordinates.." Her voice shifted, wavered, and she continued with an air of absolute command, "I'd appreciate it if everyone would leave the bridge for a moment."

She watched as everyone left, everyone, that was, except for Zaria, who instead wordlessly dropped to the floor as Cadmilis fought the impossibly powerful psychic compulsion to obey Maedhv. The Asvin frowned darkly at the failure of her plans, and reached out with her hand, a pistol flying out of the holster of one of the leaving personnel and sailing through the air right into her hand to be leveled at Zaria. "Consider this a threat from the 'old fashioned way'," Maedhv commented as, the moment the doors to the bridge shut behind the exiting crewers, she reached out and trapped the true universal powers of her mind to lock the bridge in an energy shield, and then stretched out telempathically to establish a connection to the entire ship's computers, locking them out and rapidly changing all of the security passwords, shutting down every single input mode so that only she could control them by telempathic connection directly to the cores, and then creating a code based around her own unique signal to lock out any Asgard.
As the door slammed shut and the energy field jumped into place, the compulsion in Jack's mind ended. He turned, seeing Daniel begin to snap out of it as well, and said, "What the hell just happened? Why did we..." He went to open the door and a jolt of energy filled his hand, making him pull it back from the tremendous stinging, even as a sheen of blue-purple energy played over the door.

A call came over the PA. "Colonel Pendergast, we're being locked out of all of the ship's major systems. Propulsion, subspace communications, weapons.... the computers won't accept our security codes."
"It would appear that we have been betrayed," Teal'c said, glowering at the confirmation he was not right to trust Maedhv.
"I hate it when that happens," Jack muttered, irritated with Maedhv and even with himself for falling right into her trap.
"I guess she figured we wouldn't be as cooperative as she wanted in this 'treasure hunt'." Daniel went up to a ship intercom.
"Or she was lying about that as well and needed this ship for another purpose," Teal'c pointed out.
"Yeah, or that," Daniel said as he keyed the intercom. "Maedhv, what's going on? Why have you done this?"

"Ahh, well, you know, I've been quietly browsing computers since I arrived, and it appeared that my destination is directly inside the heart of Ba'al's remaining territory, and I figured you wouldn't take me there. That, and you might not do what I asked when we arrived at our final destination, anyway. It will be both easier for me to penetrate past Ba'al's remaining loyalists if I've hijacked the ship, and guarantees that I will arrive at my final destination, at which point I'll give you the promised twenty-four ZPMs and a free spacefold back to Earth. You can try to seize the ship back from me, but I won't let you, so just sit back and enjoy the ride... We're engaging hyper right now."

Inside the bridge, Maedhv sprawled out on the command chair, stretched, and closed her eyes. "Don't bother moving, Zaria," she added, the gun still pointed at the woman. "I can see you even with my eyes closed. Of course."
"Cadmilis was right about you," the Trill woman rasped.

"I'm a Golden Condor of the Asvin Empire!" Maedhv shot back with a merry laugh, making sure that the pickup broadcast it throughout the entire ship. "My heart is stained by ten thousand deeds worse than this. But all I desire is to escape and be with those I love, to protect my heirs in an age where my enemies have fallen aside. Yet of course I will permit no one to stand in my way."
Zaria scowled and lifted herself up off the floor. She could feel Cadmilis' voice grow weak, the effort he'd expended to resist the sudden overpowering telepathic control Maedhv had used on her having taxed the Tok'ra symbiote to his limit. She moved toward a chair and turned it to face Maedhv, pondering if she could be fast enough to at least knock the gun out of the woman's hand.

"The gun is somewhat immaterial," Maedhv answered to Zaria's surface thoughts very casually. "I was designed to defeat an entire brigade of combat telepaths in heavy powered armour. Having been dropped in front of them with no warning, unarmed, naked."
"Then why hold a gun?" Zaria answered.
"Habit, desire to intimidate. Also the fact that I need to keep you at arm's length to protect my child. Wouldn't it be rather sick for the sole result of an effort to retake this vessel to be me miscarrying and therefore the only innocent aboard dying? Because that is the worst possible outcome that any effort can have for me, and it is, I grant, bad enough that I want to avoid it."
Given the situation, it wasn't unexpected for Zaria to consider the woman might very well not be pregnant at all, that this was another lie. But it still left the pressing question of if she was lying about her abilities and if not, why she wanted the gun.
Zaria looked back to the screen at her station, looking to see if she could find a loadout of what the Prometheus was armed with. "You know, even if they had help from the Tok'ra in weapons and Sam was able to do engineering miracles with the drive we gave her, I doubt this ship has the weapons to deal with the kind of response that Ba'al will send at us."

"I'll negotiate with him. And if he refuses my terms, well, I'll start deleting the crews of Ha'taks from existence until he gets the message. Not like I particularly enjoy doing that, but whatever is required to get us to Castor." She paused for a moment, and then with half-lidded eyes looked to Zaria. "I'll give you the gun if you promise to only shoot me in the head. If you aim it at my stomach, I'll not merely vapourize the bullets before they hit but give you a first-hand demonstration of what 'deleted from existence' means."
"What's the logic in that?", Zaria answered. "If you're truly powerful enough to vaporize the bullets before they hit you, then it doesn't matter if I have the gun or not. If you're not and you're pregnant, you don't look advanced enough for the fetus to survive with the medical technology Prometheus likely has. And if neither of those things are true, there's no way in Hell you'd actually offer to give me the gun."
Maedhv shrugged, flipped the safety on, and threw the gun off into a corner of the bridge. "Do whatever you want, though you can't leave, so don't bother trying."
"Ah, I'm a hostage." Zaria turned back toward the screen in front of her. It certainly wasn't the kind of thing that Zaria had experience with. Cadmilis was familiar with hostage situations, but when you involve Goa'uld with them they rarely turned out well.

"Yes, you are." Maedhv activated the outside feed again, and started speaking, after a moment's grimace of pain, in a perfect Arab man's voice: "This is Omar Abulbul Amir of the Palestinian Liberation Front! This plane has been hijacked! Everyone aboard is a hostage! We are no longer flying to Athens, but to the People's Arab Republic of Libya! Unless we receive twenty million dollars America, five thousand anti-tank missiles to continue the fight with the Zionist aggressors, and the release of twenty prisons of the Fatah from Zionist prisons, we will execute all of you within seventy-two hours! Resistance will see this plane plunged into the ocean! Allah Ackbar!" And then, with another grimace, she collapsed into a gigglefit with the feed still open. "If you want to talk hostages, fine, you have a hostage crisis."




"That woman is really getting on my nerves," was Jack's response to Maedhv's impersonation of an Arab hijacker. He and Colonel Pendergast had put together a meeting of the ship's senior crew in the engineering section. Even if it was an area that in normal circumstances could be used to control the ship without the bridge, the computer was completely locked down.
"With the computer out we'll have to try things manually," Pendergast said, mostly for the benefit of Daniel and the others. "Which isn't good, but it's better than nothing."
"Alternatively, we could just see where she's taking us without making her angry and unwilling to live up to her end of the bargain," Daniel said suddenly. When every set of eyes looked at him, he chuckled and nodded, "Yes, I figured that would sound stupid. I'm just thinking... even if we somehow managed to regain control of the computers, or took the computers off, how do you fight someone who can teleport at will, interface with electronics on the fly, and psychically influence the entire bridge crew to leave the bridge without a word?"
"So your solution is... to sit around, grab a drink, and wait to see where the cult queen is taking us?", Jack answered.
"No, my solution is to make sure we don't do anything rash and cause her to get really nasty," Daniel pointed out.
"Ah, good plan Daniel, I feel bad I never thought of it myself," was Jack's sarcastic response.

"I can listen to everything that you're saying through the communications network. For that matter, I suggest that you shoot all the security cameras or something," Maedhv abruptly intervened rather drolly into the conversation. "You know, just to make this harder. Daniel has the right of it, of course, but I don't expect you to listen to him.. Especially after I said that, ironically. But I've never actually lied to you. I never said that I wouldn't hijack the Prometheus, now did I? Anyway, I also control the reactor control computers, so keep in mind that even if you succeeded I could just shut down the reactor and then spend a day or two detaining people before continuing. Or just teleport people into space, but my goal is to actually do this without killing anyone aboard this ship, because you simply don't deserve it."
"Nice to know you don't want to kill us," Jack answered. "But you have to admit, taking our ship from us because we might have disagreed with entering the heart of Goa'uld space was a bit overboard."

"Depends on the definition of overboard!" Maedhv replied cheekily. "Standard operating procedure back in the day would have had me exterminate all life on Dakara to slow down any pursuit. I've gotten a conscience in my old age, for whatever it's worth, so my goal is to have everyone getting out of this alive. Doesn't mean that I'm going to decline to take steps to minimize the risk to me and my unborn daughter, however."
"Some conscience," Jack muttered. "Sounds like it still needs some work to me."
"Jack, stop provoking the demi-goddess," Daniel chided mockingly.
"Can't you all just take a nap or something? This thing has an Asgard drive, it won't take us that long to get where we're going. I figure you're writing plans on paper or something over there. I'd adjust the security cameras to check for this, but I'm frankly too lazy. I could read everything in your minds if I really wanted to, but men mostly just think about sex and I don't need the distraction right now. Later, with Alarita, but not right now." She started laughing to herself at that point. "I'd take a nap, myself, but I don't need to."
"We do not!" Jack looked around for a moment. "There's also beer and fishing to think about."
"Somehow I don't think she's too interested in those things either," Daniel said.

"Empirical Staught, Aldergrove Brewery, Tulalip, Washington," Maedhv rattled off instantaneously. "Best damn pint you could ever want, though it's not like the corn beers I used to appreciate. Good enough, though. I have a few cases back at home; I'll give you one when we return, Jack? Now, as for the fishing, I haven't done much of that, but I understand it's really good on the Sol Duc river. Pity the Hoh is mostly in the national parks and closed to it. I am quite practiced in the art of enjoying myself, thank you very much. I suspect even the Vorlons got drunk before they began semi-energy creatures. Perhaps that's what made them so boring. So... Are we going to call a truce on this?"
"I think we should," Daniel said, but the looks on the faces of Pendergast and Jack told him not to expect it.
"We'll think about it," Jack replied, clearly not intending to think about it.



Maedhv, seeming rather bored despite presumably handling all the functions of the ship by herself, shifted her attention back over to Dr. Herzela, ignoring the intercom connection for a moment. "So, I see you haven't wandered off to go pick up the gun. Why not?"
"What would be the point?" Zaria remarked. "I'd clearly present no threat to you."
"Some people like shooting someone's head to watch them repair the damage by sucking up the seat cushions and remaining perfectly unharmed," Maedhv answered drolly. "Anyway, would you tell me a bit about Alliance civilization?"
"Like what? I don't think it's too different from what you've seen on SRC-19 Earth. People live longer, perhaps a bit less religious intolerance on most Earths...."
"No geneforms? No slaves created by genetic engineering to fulfill certain specific tasks?" Maedhv looked rather dark at the thought even as she asked; it was a point of regret for her.
"What? No! That's illegal and disgusting." Zaria looked straight at her. "We have had some troubles in a couple universes with less-advanced races and nations indulging in slavery. Mostly sexual slavery - especially among the Orions of my home galaxy and on Gilead in CON-5 - but the Alliance has expended great efforts to suppress any slave-trading and to destroy states that support it."

"Interesting. You've avoided the one human sin throughout the ages. Strange that in the age of degeneracy, the crime which led to the end of all the other ages should be absent. I wonder how Nirrti will justify the term 'age of Vice', when this was a common sin of the three prior ages of human civilization...." She stretched, seeming thoughtful. "It is one thing that I admit to have ended up firmly committed to. All other human civilizations have been undone in some fashion or another by this evil, and I'm very interested in not having my life destroyed all over again. Do you not see, Zaria, that in the final accounting, I, too, am simply learning from my mistakes and traveling along the grand plan of life? I certainly mean no ill-intent to you nor the Prometheus."
"You're clearing going to have to learn some trust then," Zaria answered.
"Clearly."



Jack and Pendergast were leading a discussion on ideas on how to retake control of the ship while Daniel and Nate stood to the side. "So, I figured you'd be with the others planning the great retaking of the ship," Daniel said to Nate.
"Well, as much as I hate to say it..." Nate shrugged. "Hell, I think you're right. The stuff Maedhv's done is a bit much for us to beat. But I can't fault Jack and the Colonel wanting to get their ship back."
"Yeah. Too bad she locked us out of the comms, we can't see how Sam and the others are doing."
"Actually..." Nate brought a comm unit out. "It's tied the transceiver in my pack. And it's not part of the system, maybe it works." He tuned it to the right frequency and began transmitting. "This is Mackensen to Gray Star, do you read me?"
Silence.
Nate and Daniel glanced nervously at each other. "Repeat, this is Mackensen, Gray Star, please come in, over."
More silence answered them. Just as Nate, fearing the worst, tried a third time, Ziva Oded's voice answered, "General, this is Gray Star. I'm sorry, but we're having a bit of a problem here..."

Chapter 6


Gray Star, Alliance Space
Universe Designate AR-12


Space tore open and a wormhole exit appeared, the Gray Star rushing forward through the gap in space-time at full alert. After a couple seconds the vessel shimmered out of view, now operating under cloak. "Confirm spatial location," Data asked.
"We're two parsecs from P4V-387," Hsiao answered. "I'm detecting a series of warp signatures heading to P4V-387 at approximately 15 lyphs. I believe it is the carrier group."
"What about the Replicator ship?"
Sam was paying attention to the conversation of the bridge crew while she examined the systems as best she could, becoming familiar with the interface and how the ship operated and monitoring, closely, the Ancient missiles that Maedhv had attached to their ship. She took the time to notice what systems the ship shared with Prometheus, most of them being communications, engines, and other support systems that Goa'uld technology was plugged into. The weapon systems, save the pulse phaser cannon batteries she recognized as larger versions than the ones from the Defiant, were clearly of different make and design than anything she'd seen before. While not as powerful as naquadah, the fusion reactor backups and the emergency batteries were also something Samantha's Earth could not hope to have yet. She had helped the Air Force reverse-engineer the best technology that Zaria's gift drive had to offer.... and it apparently only scratched the surface of the technological acumen of the wider Multiverse.
Sam was considering how some of these things might be applied to the newer Daedalus-class battlecruisers when Hsiao spoke up again. "Reading contact on our hyperspace scanners. Course is bringing them our way, Sir."
"Give me their time of arrival, Subcommander," Data ordered. "Lieutenant Di'not, prepare evasive maneuvers."
"Prepared, Captain," she answered rather cheerfully.

"Hyperspace window!"
Hsiao's shout brought everyone to full attention. Kharaste triggered the Minbari-style viewer, the ones popularly found on White Star-class ships, which rippled down from the top of the bridge to show the hyperspace window finish forming and the cylindrical Replicator ship emerge from it. Secondary displays showed that the vessel was not dead ahead, but rather "below" them by about eight degrees and to the left.
Sam had expected to hear the code spoken. Nothing more was said, though. Data transmitted the firing code Maedhv had created directly from his positronic brain into the Koman Shipkillers. The missiles detached from Gray Star and zipped through space, bracketing the Replicator ship

The system auto-dimmed the display, keeping the resulting detonations from blinding anyone looking even partially at the screen. The weapons detonated with a force almost unimaginable, far above anything even the largest naquadah-boosted matter-antimatter warheads in the Multiversal arsenal could yet achieve. The energy overwhelmed the solitary Replicator vessel.
"Subcommander, any sign of the Replicator vessel?"
Hsiao shook his head while answering. "Captain, I can't tell, the detonation of those weapons are disrupting all instrumentation. I think I'm starting to...."
From within the subsiding flash where the Replicator ship had been, a bolt of white energy lashed out. Gray Star shook with almost savage force as the bolt of energy sliced right through her before fizzling out. Data and Kharaste were both reading over the damage via their DNI interfaces as the ship's internal systems determined the extent of it.
As they confirmed the failure of all engine systems, partial structural damage even to the ship's inner "keel", and the engineering section's damage, Hsiao confirmed for them that the attack had not been successful. The Replicator ship was still there.
The Replicator vessel was now back in physical view on their monitor. It had not passed through the attack well. Half the ship's mass seemed to simply be gone. Another half of what was left appeared liquid and cooling, as if it were the remains of a metal cylinder plunged into a vat of molten steel and removed.

But that section of slagged remnants was already being feverishly reclaimed, the process of the Replicator nanites absorbing the material and restructuring it visible on the screen. A second blast, weaker this time, sliced at the Gray Star furiously, drilling another hole into the ship as it shimmered into view, the cloaking device fried. A second later, as a third shot was being made, Torcet had successfully brought the shields up and they absorbed the blow. "Shields at ninety-two percent."
"Return fire!", Data commanded. "Glin, you may employ the Mark IVs."
"Aye sir!" Torcet's fingers went to the launch keys.
A stream of missiles erupted from Gray Star's launchers at the Replicator ship, "descending" from the ventral launchers and soaring right at the enemy vessel.
The first vestiges of a shield generator were clear on Hsiao's readings when the Mark IVs detonated. The matter-antimatter warheads were naquadah-boosted, of course, and the detonation was, while less overwhelming as the Ancient weapons, a great destructive force in its own right.
When the blast was cleared the Replicator ship was worse off. The remaining slagged material was mostly gone, vaporized by the blast. Some had survived but was broken off, the force of the blast having destroyed any nanites present in the chunks to prevent them from processing the material.
The remnant of the cylinder twisted in space and began moving at high sublight speed, as fast as the engine the Replicators had put together could manage.

On Gray Star's bridge Sam had already noticed that the ship's power grid had gaps in it from where conduits and lines had been cut by the two successful hits. And among the effected systems were all the ship's drives. "The engines are out," she reported to the bridge as a whole. "They can't get any power from the main systems."
"Bridge to Officer Serlann," Data said aloud. When there was no response he directly connected to the ship's computers to determine casualty reports. "Bridge to Doctor Constantine, status on Officer Serlann?"
Several moments would pass before Meredith's answer came. "I don't know first hand, the medical team is still working on stablizing her to get her to the infirmary. We've had several fatalities and a number of casualties in the engineering section."
"Is Lieutenant Kanazaki available?"
"Sorry, Captain. He was one of the fatalities."
"I see. Thank you, Doctor, please carry on." Data looked over to Sam, who met the look. "It would appear, Colonel, that you are now both head of engineering and the only remaining expert of Goa'uld technology we have aboard."
"So it seems," Sam said. "But if we're going to get this fixed I'm going to need more help."
"Indeed. Commander Triulajha, I shall leave you in charge of the bridge for now," Data said, disconnecting the altered DNI port from the open access port on his head so he could stand. "Subcommander Hsiao, can you give me a course for the Replicator ship?"

"It's maintaining the same course as before, Captain," Hsiao answered.
"I'm calculating it now, Sir," Di'not added. As she did so, the screen shifted to show the general appearance of local space and nearby systems. "At current acceleration, they will enter System ZKH-4983 in approximately twenty-four hours."
"They're going for more material." Data and Kharaste looked to Sam as she stood as well, preparing to leave the bridge to go help with repairs. "We destroyed so much of the mass of their ship that they can't rebuild a shield generator or a hyperdrive. They'll need raw material to restore their ship."
"Do we have any records on System ZKH-4983?", Kharaste asked David-Oded.
The Israeli woman gave a nod and with a mental command through her DNI the screen split, one half showing the course projection for the Replicator ship and the other the data on the system. "Star is F-class, six planets, five of them gas giants and one rock planet. Reading about sixty different moons among them..."
Sam finished the statement for her. "....with enough raw material for the Replicators to overrun this galaxy." She looked to Data. "We can't let them get to that system."
Kharaste looked to Hsiao and asked, "Subcommander, ETA on the Carrier group?"
"Thirty hours approximate, sir."
Sam let out a sigh. "They won't get here in time. Six hours is more than enough time for the Replicators to start building a new fleet."
"Then our goal is to slow the Replicator ship down by at least six hours." Data turned from Sam to Kharaste. "Have Commander Nagase and our fighter squadrons launch. They must do everything they can to delay that ship long enough so that we will be able to catch up to them. Colonel Carter and I will endeavor to get the ship's engines back up and running."
"Very well, Sir." Kharaste took Data's seat as he and Sam left the bridge.




After being on ready-five for so long, it was a thrill for Kei to be able to finally get going again. She settled into the cockpit and did her pre-flight checks as Kharaste provided the details for her and her attack wing. Find the Replicator ship and sting her as badly as possible. Take out her engines to prevent her from accelerating any further and, if possible, knock her off course.
For that purpose Kei and all her fighters were being armed with the new Mark XIXG torpedo, a variant of the Alliance's newest anti-ship matter-antimatter torpedo that used a Guyverite booster. They were locked into the hardpoints on the sleek arrow-shaped attack craft as the fighters were one by one lowered to the launch deck, on the ventral side. Quick-acting catapult devices permitted the fighters to be flung out of the ship in rapid succession without wasting precious fuel.
In all, thirty-six fighters were being deployed, given the one lost in the prior battle with the Goa'uld and the damaged ones not being approved for flight ops yet. It was still enough of a force that against one ship Kei was confident in success.
"We can't let that ship get any kind of head start on the Gray Star," Kei said into the combat channel with the other fighters after the last flight had hit the void. "Everyone form up into your flights, prepare for warp jump to position ahead of target location in ten... nine... eight..."
In tandem the thirty-six fighters streaked away at warp, moving to cut off the Replicator ship.




Kharaste watched the fighters through his DNI as they disappeared in streaks of light and breathed a silent prayer for their success.
He heard Lieutenant David-Oded's voice begin speaking and looked over to her. "General, this is Gray Star. I'm sorry, but we're having a bit of a problem here..."
Kharaste tapped into the comm link with his DNI in time to hear Nate Mackensen's voice on the other end. "Problems? You didn't take out the Replicator ship?!"
"General, this is Commander Triulajha," Kharaste answered for Ziva. "We managed to significantly damage the Replicator ship, which has lost three-quarters of its mass and is fleeing at sublight. Unfortunately, the Replicators tracked our location from the missile launches and inflicted damage on the ship before we could decloak and restore shields. We are adrift for the moment until Captain Data and Colonel Carter can restore sublight propulsion. We have launched Commander Nagase's fighter group to attempt to delay or destroy the Replicator ship in the meantime."
"Oh, that's swell.... wait, Carter? She's having to lead the repair effort? What about....?"
"Officer Serlann was badly wounded in the attack and her assistant was killed," was Kharaste's answer. "Colonel Carter is the best we now have on hand. Though if you can patch in Doctor Herzela to provide assistance, sir, repairs should go faster."
"That might be a problem...."

I like the tone of this fic, the whole "Elaborate plan becomes Cluster-fucked but there is still a way out of it" is very Stargate. I was thinking data was under used as the captain until you threw him back into the mix, thats great for character developement AND utilization.

Chapter 7


USS Prometheus, en route to Castor
Universe Designate SRC-19


The time was going impossibly slow for Zaria on Prometheus' bridge. She remained seated at one of the work stations which Maedhv had rendered mostly inoperable. Only their destination and ETA was visible, and the timer for that wasn't moving nearly fastly enough for Zaria.

The quiet on the bridge was interrupted when Maedhv spoke up. "So, Zaria. Why do you throw your lot in with the Alliance, exactly?" Maedhv glanced up from a readout where she'd been browsing through the ship's data-banks. "Collection of pretentious pontificators, it seems to me. Why not live a more comfortable, happier life? I could give you freedom from all want, and give you access to scientific marvels like even the Ancients could barely comprehend, and undid themselves in lusting for. And I could, in the ghola-tanks at our destination, keep you alive forever, after a fashion... As I shall do for all those who choose to come with me from Earth."
"You're a pretty girl, you see, and I'd rather feel bad leaving you behind when it's not at all necessary," she finished, though the whole speech seemed halfhearted, like she didn't expect the slightest chance of it having any influence, but was saying it anyway because she could.

Zaria blinked and looked back. As a bewildered expression crossed her face she almost asked what Maedhv was getting at - and had the slight and somewhat disturbing feeling that Maedhv was hitting on her! - before replying, "The Alliance is better than where I came from, that's why I moved there. And they gave someone very close to me a safe haven in a painful moment of her life. My home is there now, I've got no reason to leave it."

"It shall also pass away," Maedhv warned rather prophetically. "As shall all you love and all you know. Pass away, as grains of rice blown by the wind. You realize this? Only I remain, and only I can provide eternal life, tied to me... Or not. Eternal enough until all energy in the universe is spent, anyway. Fourty billion years of existence, at least. Though I don't expect you to begin to comprehend that."

"Maybe it'll pass away one day. Things change all the time. But as long as it doesn't in my lifetime, I can be happy."

"We may hope," Maedhv answered. "But I've seen more deserving hopes founder in my life. Tell me, do you know how the Shadows operate? Do you know the games the Vorlons play? Do you know of the forces greater than even they, who lurk in the halls of many different universes? Of the many species which match those lying tricksters, the Q, and of the races which stood higher than even the Vorlons? Did you know.... That I remember a time.... When they were all allied against me? And yet I am here, still alive."
"An Empire that spread across thirteen million inhabited planets," she whispered lyrically. "And me and mine are all that is left of it, after thirteen thousand years of absolute chronology and fifty million years of travels across time. All who to cross those ancient powers were swallowed by their wiles. Except me. I am the last survivor of my Empire... The last woman standing. Would you give up the future I offer so readily?"

Zaria mostly ignored what the woman was saying about Vorlons and Shadows and Q. That she knew of them was interesting, but her inability to not talk about the subject of the Empire she claimed to have been in had long turned Zaria deaf to such remarks and to question their full truthfulness. "So I should give up everything I have to follow you for what? Immortality I don't really want or knowledge that would be dropped into my lap without the slightest bit of work at actually learning it?"

"It would take quite some time to learn it, actually." She stretched. "But mostly the offer is because free love and peace are better than all the other alternatives, in my experience." Abruptly, she flipped open the intercom to the lower parts of the ship, as though bored with Zaria's answers. "You want to talk to me, O'Neill?"

Before an answer could come, Zaria turned back to face Maedhv and remarked, "'Free love'? Were you hitting on me?"
"....I'm sorry, kids, was I interrupting anything?", Jack's voice said over the intercom, having clearly heard Zaria.

"Oh, well, boys, girls, neuters, hermaphrodites, random incomprehensible genders from floating cephalopod species, it's all good to me," Maedhv answered cheerily. "Though Zaria sadly seems to disagree. What can I do for you, Jack?"

"Well, given you've taken over our ship anyway and made us all hostages, we were hoping you'd give us Zaria back since you don't need her anymore."
"Since she apparently isn't cut out to be a hippy, sure. Who do I get in trade?" Maedhv smirked lazily. "I'll get bored up here and start turning people into horses like I said if I don't have someone to keep me company."
"...oh. Well I'll need a minute to see who's willing to entertain you."
After the intercom died down for a moment Zaria asked, "So, that whole song and dance about knowledge and immortality was so I could be your harem girl for all eternity?"

"Why can't it be both? Why can't you be my harem girl for all eternity and be a brilliant scientist? What makes them exclusive of each other? Surely you're not that shallow minded... I think you'll understand when you meet Alarita, anyhow." She smiled vaguely, and fondly. "Oh, it really makes me happy to finally be going back to be with my Dear Loyal. To finally reclaim my halls."
"Well, mostly because I'm not attracted to you," Zaria pointed out, a few moments after the intercom went live again, "and generally dislike how you behave. Plus I have a standing policy about dating other redheads. But I'm sure you'll be happy enough with this Alarita you keep talking about."
"Maedhv, you have a deal," Jack said. "But I'm not sure if you'll find Daniel any more attracted to you than Zaria is. Hey Daniel, what's your policy on dating redheads?"
At hearing that, and realizing she'd been overheard, Zaria's cheeks burned red with a fierce blush.
"It's a fair deal, nonetheless," Maedhv laughed with herself lightly, delighted as she could be. "Send him up, I'll be sending our blushing violet up here down to you in return. She really is quite cute."
"A cute redhead for Daniel, sounds like a fair exchange to me. He's on his way up."
"I'll make do," Maedhv answered, and then, with a terrific smirk, gestured to Zaria. "Go," she ordered simply, before glancing back to the intercom and adding, "Or just turn Daniel into a cute redhead. That's also a possibility."



The conversation ended as Maedhv remarked about turning Daniel into a redhead. Teal'c finished wrapping his fist around the speaker and in an angry motion ripped it out of the wall. Seeing the others staring, the angry expression on his face softened a bit. "I tired of hearing her voice," he remarked stoically.

"Uh huh." Jack looked away while Teal'c tossed the trashed intercom to the side to see Daniel looking at him intently with some irritation. "What?"
"Jack, do you have to keep antagonizing her?"
Jack seemed to be in thought for a moment. "...Yes. Yes I do. Now head on up. Enjoy your quality time with the insane woman."
Shaking his head, Daniel left the engineering compartment to head to the bridge. After he left Nate remarked, "You gave him up a bit fast, even if he wants to try to get into her head."
"Well, if she's going to hit on him... Daniel's girlfriends have never had the best of luck. They always seem to get snakes in the head for some reason..."



Daniel had made his way to the bridge with good speed, passing by Zaria in the hall. She smirked at him and said, "Good luck, Doctor," and not another word, even if the sly grin on her face made him wonder just what the two of them had been up to. Likely not the same things as he was thinking of.
Maedhv was an enigma for him. Despite all his knowledge of the Ancients there seemed to be no outright references to Maedhv or anyone like her. Whether that meant she was lying or if it was another dirty secret of the Ancients he couldn't tell. He figured it might be a bit of both. And he was going to find that out.
Taking a bit of a deep breath before entering the bridge, Daniel came through and heard the door slide shut behind him. The energy field Maedhv was surrounding the bridge bulkheads with snapped back into place. Aside from her the bridge was eerily empty. He spied the sidearm she'd snatched from one of the persoonnel lying on the ground nearby and wondered how it got there. "Hello, Cattle Thief," he said, trying to sound a bit flippant.

"Hi, Daniel. Take a seat? We've got another few hours to reach our destination." She glanced archly back for a moment, and then shifted, tossing her legs up under her long dress and folding them into the command chair as she leaned lazily to the side, hair falling over her in a cascade.

Daniel took one of the operator stations beside the command station. "I guess Doctor Herzela wasn't an entertaining guest?"
"Oh, actually, she kind of was, but we didn't defile the bridge or anything, more's the pity." A vague smile struck her as she clasped her gloved hands for a moment. "So what do you want to talk about?"
"Well, there is your abuse of our good faith and decision to take our ship from us," Daniel noted.
"Rampant paranoia," Maedhv answered simply. "It's not like it hasn't happened to me often enough in my life that preemptive actions are preferable. You'll get it back, or else a better one."

"Ah. Ever consider that by acting this way for others, you just start the cycle again? People don't trust you, they expect betrayal, and it makes it that much easier to betray you."

"Hmm... Probably. I'll find some way to make it up to you when we get to our destination. Sorry, Daniel, but I'm..." She sighed heavily. "I really have no choice at this point, and the gnawing need to be reunited with Alarita.. Ah, well. It's not something you're really going to understand until you arrive at our final destination, and it's not like you can quite realize just how thoroughly I hold the cards, anyway."
She paused, and then, very softly, her lips twisted into a faint grin, and she added. "Let's talk about something more interesitng. How about... A fairy tale, that might or might not be true? I do believe you very much like myth."

"Some seventy thousand years ago, dear Daniel, the human species began evolving out of the muck and building houses, buildings, simple stone structures," Maedhv began, smiling. "Seventy thousand years ago. Over the next fourty thousand years or so we grew up and developed our processes and knowledge and then we finally developed hyperlight drive and, about twenty-five thousand years ago, began to colonize the stars. Our civilization then lasted for twelve thousand years... And by humans I mean what you commonly call Homo neanderthalis, I suppose the Sarasavsati high caste was human, in the sense of being equals in some sense, though I was weird in that regard. And yes, I am from a highly refined subspecies, but I am certainly Homo neanderthalis and not Homo sapiens.
"Now, after all this, for twelve thousand years we had a marvelous civilization, split between two nations--coalitions, really, which had formed in the wake of a great war when we were still bound to one system--which colonized half of the galaxy, and had a population of quadrillions on twenty-five million worlds or more. Isn't it marvelous to imagine? We could do anything we wanted to flesh--anything at all--and we could fold space and reality at will.

"Now, after all this, for twelve thousand years we had a marvelous civilization, split between two nations--coalitions, really, which had formed in the wake of a great war when we were still bound to one system--which colonized half of the galaxy, and had a population of quadrillions on twenty-five million worlds or more. Isn't it marvelous to imagine? We could do anything we wanted to flesh--anything at all--and we could fold space and reality at will.
"But there were ancient species in the core, terrified of our precocious development and overwhelming power. And, we shall admit, of the amorality for which this civilization of our's was known. So they sent a virus into the minds of our leaders, manipulated us with powers beyond the telepathic, dark and old, to make war on each other, more and more violent and progressive, spiraling out of control, until we destroyed planets and crushed the life out of trillions with the guns of our warships...
"And I was created as the ultimate weapon in the final stages of that war, to fight others of my kind. And so we did, we fought for our nations, until only a few hundred planets remained. By that point, the savagery and pointlessness had overwhelmed the mind-influence of the old aliens. We paused. We took a breath. We made peace."

She smiled dryly, lazily, and coiled her legs further into herself. "They were not satisfied with this. They wanted our total extermination. So they turned almost all of our soldiers against us, most of the beings like me. Only myself, only Nirrti, only two others of our kind, stayed to fight them. One who had gone over to them later defected. When they attacked Earth....
"...Nirrti and I and a few dozen ships survived. Most of the population of the planet was killed by radiation flux. We had won a pyrrhic victory in defence of our lives and people, and then, the fleets and powers of the Old Ones converged on us. We stripped the surviving planets of all that remained and prepared to flee with all those people whom our ships could carry, and left behind those who could not--the origin of you and all the humanity of your world and every world.
"For even the cosmos itself, the multiverse itself, came forth from the end of that great war." She frowned, shrugged, then, and continued. "I fled with my kindred, the Asvin, to the universe you've taken to calling ST-3. But there most of the population revolted against us, and killed all of the High Caste but myself, destroyed our great works. In desperation, I fled with the loyal middling castes to this universe, and a world called Alteras, properly. There, instead of ruling with the rest of the High Caste--for there were none--I made myself Queen, and on finding that we had been flung back in time by my desperate escape, some fifty millions of years, resolved to simply build what we could in power and glory there.

"And you claim that these Asvin 'middling castes' are what we call the Ancients," Daniel remarked.

"Exactly so. The middling castes lusted after my power, they were not content with their lives. They wanted to be not merely like the High Caste, but like me myself. They overthrew me with ancient prana-bindhu bindings that had once been in all the ancient weapons like myself, and enslaved me and experimented upon me for many thousands of years. In the end, some repented of this path they had embarked on, but only after they had tried to make themselves like me... And failed. That is what Ascension really is. Others who did the same chose to retain their old evil ways. I don't know whether or not you've encountered them yet, but when you do, you will suffer for it."

Daniel didn't like the sound of that. Of course, there was a lot of this story he didn't like. For all his knowledge of the Ancients, there wasn't any shred to confirm, or even indicate, they had such an astounding origin.
But yet there was the evidence he had back at Cheyenne Mountain, evidence of an Ancient presence in ancient Universe ST-3 through the races known as the Furies. And he knew from experience that the Ancients had their bad sides. The story, as astounding as it was, still seemed to pull at him, as if there was a kernel of truth there.

"At any rate, I escaped from them, traveled sublight through deep space, and intermittently fought a war with them. In the end, though, the war... Got out of control, and I decided to give it up and freeze myself in the Antarctic ice until the date Alarita was supposed to next awaken and go looking for me. Well, you woke me up first, so I just wandered off to wait, but now that I've got a ship, I'm looking for Alarita. That's pretty much the story of my life."

"And it's quite a story," Daniel answered, putting a bit of emphasis on "story". "So, what happened to these 'Old Ones'? And how could a war with them, as impressive as it'd be, create the multiverse we know today? Because if they're that powerful I don't see even you surviving."

"The war didn't happen," Maedhv answered. "It never had a chance to happen."
"Because?"
"I was telling a fairy tale, not the concise history of the cosmos," Maedhv snarled abruptly. "Suffice to say that I got out of it alive, and you really don't need to know more .You don't understand what those events were like and you can't. Nor could even your precious Ancients, whom I can sense you still presume to believe are more credible than I am!"

The violence of Maedhv's reaction and the stinging tone of her accusation didn't fluster Daniel, not as he once might've reacted. "The Ancients have had plenty of opportunity in their records to remark on once having a ruling Queen. Yet this is the first I've heard of it. Nor have the Asgard, who actually worked with the Ancients as allies. An alliance of races that really don't fit the image you paint of the Asvins."

"Well, they didn't want to add anything about me to their records. That would mean involving their rather sordid past. And they did keep me a secret from the Asgard--after all, it's not very wise to reveal to prospective allies the existence of an enemy which could destroy both of you. Which I was, though I had no intention from an ethical standpoint of destroying them. Completely." The last word fell dead, and ominous, as she stretched her legs back out and folded, laced her fingers together.

That, of course, won her increased attention from Daniel, though he didn't want to admit how much he was becoming willing to believe at least some of what she said. "The plague that eliminated the Ancients' civilization in this galaxy and forced the survivors to flee to the Pegasus Galaxy," he remarked. "You started it?"

"Yes."



Alliance Space
Universe Designate AR-12



There was an old military adage that plans never survived contact with the enemy. So far all plans regarding the Replicators had gone awry in one way or another and that pattern was, sadly, continuing to hold.
Kei and her squadrons had been intending to intercept the Replicator vessel immediately, warping out at the extent of torpedo range to be able to immediately attack without being too close. Unfortunately, their warp flight lasted milliseconds too long. Instead of being a mere four light seconds ahead of the Replicator ship, enabling intercept and attack within six seconds and not giving it time to modify itself to repulse them, the range was closer to ten light seconds.
The extra twelve seconds was bad enough. Even as Kei and her fighters let loose with their torpedoes, the Replicator ship sacrificed critical mass in self-defense to permit it to make energy weapons. Beams lashed out, some aimed at the incoming torpedoes, others at the fighters.
Years of training kicked in and Kei began hard maneuvers to avoid the energy fire. G-forces began to push against her and her SIO due to the sheer quantity of Gs her Scorpion was pulling with her maneuvers, enough to overcome the inertial-dampening fields that enabled manned craft to accelerate that much in the first place.
The first beams missed her and her people mostly, but they weren't out of danger yet. The Replicator ship's weapons were multiplying by the second, though, as it sacrificed engine size and power for anti-fighter weapons, filling space around it with tight penetrating beams.

One beam hit home, spearing Kei's fighter through a missile-attachment "wing" that also blew out one of her primary drive engines as well as eliminating a warp coil. Flares of energy showed where her less-fortunate subordinates were being killed by direct hits to their fuel tanks, about five fighters dying in about as many seconds to highly accurate Replicator return fire. Other fighters suffered critical hits that did not blow them up but left them crippled and helpless in space.
A flurry of explosions began engulfing the Replicator ship as this occurred. Their Mark XIXG torpedoes - the ones that survived the Replicator's counter-torpedo fire - detonated as programmed from proximity or direct hits. Replicator nanites were vaporized or flash-fried under the intense energies of matter-antimatter detonations intensified by Guyverite/naquadah booster material and caused the Replicator ship to lose substantial quantities of mass.

But it survived.

At first Kei's reaction was to prepare to try and get in to engage with her surviving wing's particle cannons. The ship should be entirely non-functional by this point, after all, doing nothing more than moving ahead from its inertia.
Unfortunately, enough of the mass had survived to maintain anti-fighter weapons that could damage or even destroy an F/A-48. Kei watched a couple get speared through their deflectors by the powerful white-hued energy beams erupting from the charred ship, now more of a disc with small nodules that contained its energy weapons. With her squadrons down to about twenty-two effectives and twenty-eight overall survivors, she had at least caused so much damage that the Replicators seemed to have the choice of either abandoning anti-fighter weapons to restore their sublight engines or trying to coast along at their established speed, losing time that would have been gained by acceleration. Their mission was a success.

Kei thought that way, at least, until she saw the ship fire maneuvering engines to permit it to slip by debris from a destroyed fighter. The disc-shape of the ship began to shift into a bowl shape as the nanites repositioned themselves in the greater mass. It caught the debris in the new "bowl"... and began to assimilate the material into itself. As it did so, it began to re-align some of its mass to restore engine capability, permitting it to maneuver and capture more debris to integrate into itself.
Now Kei was caught on the horns of a dilemma. If her fighters stayed away, it could easily regain mass from the debris of those fighters destroyed. But if they attacked, it might go on the defensive again, destroy more fighters, and then have more mass to integrate into itself.

When it came down to it, there was still her overriding concern. The mission of her fighters had been to delay the Replicators long enough for Gray Star to restore her drives and rejoin the battle. With that in mind, Kei angled her head back a bit to Landers and said, "Ready the missiles. We've got to hit this thing with everything we've got." And buy time for the Gray Star to get here.




The engineering crew of the Gray Star had suffered badly from the hits the Replicators had inflicted upon the ship, forcing Data and Carter to bring in personnel from other sections to help the engineers in their tasks. Destroyed parts had to be replaced from the ship's stores and equipment had to be jury-rigged to make up for the destruction, particularly with the ship's power grid.
Sam and Data had been working non-stop for about half an hour when their comm units activated. "Captain, Colonel, I have Doctor Herzela on IU radio for you," Lt. David-Oded said.
"Excellent, Lieutenant, please connect us."
From a universe away Zaria's voice began speaking to them. "Captain Data, Sam, Generals O'Neill and Mackensen filled me in on what's happened. How are the repairs going?"
"Slowly," Sam said. "I'm trying to do this from my experience with Goa'uld technology and what Admiral Sisko showed me on the Defiant, but some of these systems are beyond me. If not for the self-repair functions..."
"Yes, you've got to work with the Taloran and Minbari technology. The Minbari stuff is especially tricky, hopefully Serlann can get back on her feet soon enough to help you. But until then I'm all your's. Where do we start?"
Before Data could reply, Kharaste's voice cut in. "Captain Data, I don't mean to interrupt, but Commander Nagase has radioed in. Her fighters are doing damage, but the Replicator ship is putting up a fight and is actually regaining mass by snatching debris from lost and damaged fighters. She is requesting our status."
"We will be operational shortly, I believe, with Doctor Herzela's assistance. Inform the Commander that she and her pilots must hold the Replicator ship as long as possible."
"It has already been done, Captain," Kharaste answered, in a tone that seemed to subtly ask "What else would you expect of me?"
"Your initiative is very welcome, Commander. Doctor, we are attempting to bypass the Deck 10 Starboard power conduit section due to battle damage, do you know of any suitable alternatives for...."




USS Prometheus, en route to Castor
Universe Designate SRC-19



A group of engineering personnel returned to the section and were greeted with looks from Pendergast and Jack. "Any luck?", Pendergast asked.
"None, sir. We couldn't physically disconnect the bridge systems, there was some kind of electric field that is protecting every physical line."
"She's thought of everything," Pendergast remarked in exasperation. "Damned woman's taken my ship without even a harsh word in resistance."
"Well, actually, I've got quite a few harsh words in mind," Jack said. He turned his attention to Zaria, who was sitting near Nate with his IU radio in her hand. "So, she's on a chase for this 'Alarita', any idea what we're talking about?"
"I got the distinct feeling that Alarita was, is, Maedhv's lover," Zaria answered, her attention free for the moment as Sam and Data applied her advice to their repair work. "And that the woman's incorrigible in a lot of ways."
"Yes, we overheard that whole 'hitting on you' part," Nate said with a smirk.

"Yeah. Out of all the people here she hit on you," Jack remarked. "Well, at least she's got good taste."
Zaria raised her head and grinned at the compliment. "General O'Neill, if I didn't know better I'd think you were hitting on me too."
"Oh, nah, why would you think that? I'm just... trying to make a compliment."
At that Jack got a "Yeah, right" look from the Trill scientist. "Well, Cadmilis likes you more than Maedhv, at least," Zaria said. "It's twice as hard getting into relationships when I have an older being in my head that's always making observations about how bad they are at this and that. Kaetis is about the only person he really wants me to be involved with, I guess it's some leftover fondness from Castox..."

"Wait, Kaetis, that brunette we went after back on Olympos? You two are..."
"...friendly," Zaria said, cutting him off. "Though she is pretty attractive, I'd admit."
"So you're..."
"Bisexuality is more common among Trill than Humans, particularly among women," she answered with a mischievious grin. "And that's all I'm saying."
There was a moment of silence from Jack. He glanced toward Nate and asked, "She's not yanking my chain, is she?"
"Oh no, I am not getting drawn into this conversation," Nate said, shaking his head.
"Actually, among all known humanoid species, bisexuality is most common among the Kalderi of VGC-34, the Zohan Clans, the Talorans, and the Dorei races of GS-42," Zaria remarked matter-of-factly, her grin remaining wide at seeing the reactions she was getting. "The Bajorans, Narn, and Minbari are at the bottom of that list. Humans are actually in the lower half too, just below the Centauri at the mid-point statistically, just above the Vulcanoids. Of course, the Vulcanoids are skewed upward a bit by the Rigelians, the Vulcans themselves and the Romulans aren't very...." Seeing she'd gotten her fun out of tweaking with Jack, Zaria smiled widely and said, "Anyway, I'm going back to work. Let me know when something's happening."

Zaria went back to paying attention to the radio, fielding questions from Sam and Data as the others gathered around Pendergast. A light on one of the stations blipped. "Well, it looks like we've arrived," Pendergast muttered, seeing the station confirm the hyperdrive had disengaged.

And then Maedhv's voice cut in. "Welcome to Castor. Unfortunately it appears the system is inhabited by a fair number of ships of the System Lord Ba'al. Everyone should relax and sit back while I resolve the problem."

"This day just keeps getting better and better," Nate muttered.

Steve wrote:That, of course, won her increased attention from Daniel, though he didn't want to admit how much he was becoming willing to believe at least some of what she said. "The plague that eliminated the Ancients' civilization in this galaxy and forced the survivors to flee to the Pegasus Galaxy," he remarked. "You started it?"

"Yes."

Unless you are throwing out Stargate canon completely, we know the plague which wiped out the Ancients was actually generated by the Ori.

IIRC it was indicated it originated with the Ori. In the show it'd be pretty clear that they made it, but in this fuller background history there are other possibilities to the actual creation of the plague.....

Xon wrote:

Steve wrote:That, of course, won her increased attention from Daniel, though he didn't want to admit how much he was becoming willing to believe at least some of what she said. "The plague that eliminated the Ancients' civilization in this galaxy and forced the survivors to flee to the Pegasus Galaxy," he remarked. "You started it?"

"Yes."

Unless you are throwing out Stargate canon completely, we know the plague which wiped out the Ancients was actually generated by the Ori.

The canon is being manipulated to fit into the TGG, just like it was for every other universe.

Chapter 8



Castor, Goa'uld Territory
Universe Designate SRC-19


Long gone were the days when the System Lords could, together, assemble hundreds of planet-devastating motherships into one spot for united campaigning. Eight years of intensive internecine warfare touched off by the death of Ra, topped off by the losses to the rogue Anubis and then the Replicators, were now magnified by the large-scale Jaffa revolts shaking the galaxy. The taking of Dakara and the failure of the System Lords to recapture it had turned increasing numbers of Jaffa away from their traditional religion. Now the remaining Goa'uld were doing all they could to hold on, evidenced by the presence of a paltry twenty-three motherships in the system.
A number, having managed to temporarily stave off the hemorraghing of ships and troops through the usual method of mass executions and hostage-taking, were gathering now upon the call to assemblage by the one remaining System Lord.

Upon the pel'tak of his personal flagship Ba'al waited patiently as a hyperspace window heralded the arrival of Poseidon, the last survivor of the Olympian Goa'uld. The son of Zeus and his sole remaining heir was reduced to a single Ha'tak like many of the lesser Goa'uld lords. Even Amaterasu had only a dozen motherships left with five present here, though she would not be happy if she knew that Ba'al knew of her weakness. He had only four himself present, at least overtly, but alliances - overt and covert - with some of the minor Goa'uld present meant that he had a majority of the fleet present on his side if treachery occurred.

"We will give it another hour," Ba'al remarked aloud. He walked up beside his First Prime, Delnak. "Signal the others that in one hour's time we will meet on the planet's surface. No more than two Jaffa guards with First Primes are permitted for each of us."
"Yes, Lord Ba'al."
For several moments Ba'al remained quiet, allowing Delnak to perform his order. "Delnak, what do you feel about those Jaffa who are rejecting us and siding with the shol'va and their Tau'ri allies?"
"They are traitors and I would crush the larva in their pouches if I were to ever meet them," Delnak answered matter-of-factly.
"Really? Hrm." Ba'al circled the Jaffa. "So you think they are wrong to reject me and the others as their Gods? To claim we are just normal beings who use technology and superstition to rule?"
Delnak shook his head. "I believe it does not matter what you truly are, Lord Ba'al. The only thing that matters is that without you and the other System Lords, all of Jaffa society would be lost and without the source of our strength. Better to obey false Gods and keep the Jaffa whole than to see our people and way of life destroyed."

A small smile crept across Ba'al's face. Some System Lords put great effort into maintaining the facade of divinity because they wanted to be worshipped. He considered it a means to an end, a method of controlling the primitive and superstitious, nothing more. Trying to actually claim the mantle of godhood opened one to all sorts of dreadful mistakes, after all.
What made him smile about Delnak was that he had already surmised his First Prime's attitude and had promoted him based on that. There were some Jaffa who still held to worshipping the Goa'uld as gods, who considered the rebelling Jaffa as blasphemers and apostates, traitors to be executed. But such Jaffa would be unreliable over time. Eventually they too would begin to see the decidedly un-divine nature of the Goa'uld and there was no telling how they'd behave when that happened. Jaffa like Delnak were impervious to this. They were loyal because they believed that loyalty to the Goa'uld was what was good for the Jaffa, because they could not reject millennium of tradition no matter how true or false it really was. They would be more loyal and more steadfast, even if they did not quite appeal to the egos of the surviving System Lords as much.
We must all make our sacrifices these days, Ba'al thought wistfully in regards to that.

His thoughts were interrupted by Delnak's new report. "We have a ship coming out of hyperspace.... Lord, it is not one of our's. It is a Tau'ri vessel, I believe."
That got Ba'al's attention immediately. His grin turned wicked. Well well well, what prize has Fortune sent my way today? "Alert the fleet that I don't want them to fire until I give the order. Let's see what these Tau'ri are up to."





"Screens up," Maedhv noted to nobody in particular as she tripped the red alert klaxon for the hell of it. "Arming weapons and locking on to the central ship in the formation.... ...Always negotiate from a position of strength, Daniel, and if you can't, a position of insanity," she grinned softly as she then flipped open a channel to the fleet out there. "This is Maedhv Curoi'larijh. You've probably never heard that name before, though the epithet of 'laughing murder' might still be floating around some circles in the likes of the rarefied air you float in, Ba'al--probably not, but it's worth a try. I am not Tau'ri, and I am in total control of the Prometheus. Tell you what, I have SG-1 onboard and I'd like to trade them for access to the planetary surface and safe passage through your territory. Interested in talking?"

Daniel shot a glare at her. "You can't be serious," he hissed at her in a low tone, wondering just what the hell she was up to.... beyond the chilling probability of outright treachery.

"Maedhv Curio'larijh? An interesting name. Well, whomever you are, I applaud your audacity. Because of that, I may be interested in acquiring SG-1 in exchange for those concessions instead of simply blowing them, and you, into dust. Though as a further condition I would like to know just what it is you intend to do in Goa'uld territory."

"I'm trying to find the burial place of my lover," Maedhv said, in what was, in fact, not at all dishonest, just a minor sin of omission, and confidently ignoring Daniel. "So that we can be together for all eternity, since we have long been separated. It is... The desire of a rather old soul. There is a point on the planet Castor, I shall give you coordinates with a hundred meters of it or so for us to meet at, and there, she will have left a marker for me. Give me safe passage on the Prometheus deeper into your space and let me look at this point, and you'll have SG-1 up front after I get the coordinates... And you can send some people along on the ship to bring it back to your forces when I'm done. I don't plan to return on it, after all."

There was a moment of silence. On the other end Ba'al was considering the possibilities. He wasn't about to completely and uncompromisingly trust an unknown figure, of course, but the prize she was offering was worth it. Getting SG-1 didn't really matter compared to the prize of the Tau'ri ship and the Asgard technology that his agents on Earth said it contained.
"Give me your coordinates. I will meet you there. You will understand, though, if I insist you keep your weapons powered down on the planet surface?"

"I'll come unarmed," Maedhv answered as she started to swing the Prometheus closer in and deactivated the ship's weapons. "Well," she added with a soft, soft laugh, "I won't cut off my arms, of course. But you get the idea. If you feel like betraying me, I can remote detonate the Prometheus quite reliably."

"So you say. I will see you there."

"Well, Daniel, it appears that it's time for us to head to the surface," Maedhv stretched lazily and smiled, as she pushed herself up in her jackboots and smoothed down her skirt.
"So you're either going to betray us again and hand us over to Ba'al," Daniel remarked sullenly, "or you're going to betray him?"
"Well, I didn't give him my word. But generally, we'll have to wait and see what will happen," Maedhv murmured. "Or, at least, you will. I already know."




Alliance Space
Universe Designate AR-12



Kei yanked the flight control stick sharply, firing the maneuvering thrusters to make her damaged fighter twist and shift position to avoid the ray of energy that would otherwise have torn through the cockpit. With the press of her thumb trigger the last anti-ship missile on her fighter dropped from its hardpoint bracing. The high-velocity ion rocket on it fired and the missile darted forward, impacting on the unmaneuvering Replicator vessel.
Its energy weapons lashed out again while a tendril reached out and enveloped the severed missile hardpoint wing from another fighter, absorbing the material and converting it into base Replicator nanites. The beam went past one of the Scorpion fighters but caught another as it made a turning maneuver, slicing through the main body of the fighter. The pilot and SIO ejected as the fighter was cut in two, their pods rocketing away.
The engines on the Replicator ship fired, putting it on a course to scoop up the destroyed fighter. Kei watched the movement and twisted her fighter to follow. The two halves of the lost Scorpion came up on her targeting HUD and crosshairs moved kover them. Squeezing the index trigger on her control stick sent a series of particle pulses at the fighter, expertly aimed by Kei at the anti-matter fuel tank that powered the warp drive. The particle fire tore through the armor protection and after about four seconds breached the anti-matter tank. The breach knocked out the protective magnetic field that contained the volatile material and permitted it contact with matter, causing that section of the fighter to explode. Kei twisted away from the brief flash and fireball.
The force of the blast caused the surviving part of the fighter, or rather what was left of it, to be pushed aside, causing the Replicator ship to miss. It began maneuvering again to grab the surviving chunk as another missile slammed against it, doing superficial damage. "Winchester," the pilot said on the radio, indicating he was out of missiles.
"Withdraw back to the Gray Star," Kei ordered over the radio. "That goes for all of you who are warp-capable. The rest of us will stay here and keep this thing occupied."
"Roger, Commander. Good luck."

As the last fourteen or so Scorpions turned and zipped away at warp speed, Kei was left with seven fighters that were functional to various degrees but had no warp drives. "Okay everyone, the rules are simple. Keep moving and try to prevent this thing from leaving. Split into pairs for this, everyone watch each other's backs. Mueller, you're our odd man out, keep your distance and shoot up any of us who get hit so that thing can't absorb any more material."
"Yes Commander," the Lyran pilot answered.
"We've got to keep this up until the ship can get here. Everyone form up, attack on my signal." As Kei maneuvered her fighter to link with one missing both missile wings and with two maneuvering engines out, she thought to herself, C'mon, Gray Star, get here and blow this damned thing up, we can't keep this up forever.





Castor, Goa'uld Territory
Universe Designate SRC-19




As promised, Maedhv arrived on the planet, bringing with her only Daniel to prove that she had SG-1 well in hand. She arrived in a flash of light from the Prometheus above, descending like a ring transport without any of the usual signs, and a wavering of spacetime reality brought both herself and Daniel in a snap to the appointed place on the planet's surface, where a heavily eroded obelisk stood barely recognizable on the top of an earthen pyramid of enormous size, irregular in shape, like the great pyramids of Casma in Peru, and a few piles of rock reduced to gravel suggested there might once have been statues. The level of decay in a fairly protected world of a dead planet suggested the edifice was not thousands but hundreds of thousands of years old.. Or perhaps older, and perhaps, thus, Ancient.

Across the artificial plateau created by the vast earthen mound from them, came the Goa'uld lord and his retainers climbing to the top from their nearby facility, the area being surrounded by more Egyptian styled monuments in much better condition, which had clearly been built substantially later, perhaps around this site in a homage to the ancient relic even the Goa'uld had once found here to be mysterious. But in a perhaps ominous sign, someone from that time had returned to claim it for her own, as Maedhv glanced to Daniel. "We'll walk forward to the obelisk and there we'll wait for them. The coordinate marking should be directly under it, because, you see, that's the coordinate marking at which my family's compound on this planet, in another universe, once stood. I'm reasonably certain that Alarita erected this here in the traditional Asvin style to mark exactly where the coordinates would be left."

"I see." Daniel followed her as they began walking. "So what are you going to do about the fact that they could just start shooting at us from orbit?"

Maedhv, for all her usual tendency to ramble about the slightest subject, just gave a laconic shrug in response to Daniel's question as they reached the obelisk, calling out as she did: "I brought Daniel Jackson here to prove that I have Jack O'Neill and Teal'c about the ship. Sadly, the processing of capturing those three involved the killing of Samantha Carter, though I have her body aboard the Prometheus. Which as I noted, I'll allow some of your men aboard once I have the coordinates, so they can bring the ship back here after I've reached my final destination."

A wide grin crossed Ba'al's face even if internally he had hardly decided this was a clear victory yet. "So General O'Neill has been caught by you as well? How interesting. You're quite a resourceful woman, Maedhv, to have seized the great SG-1 so completely. I would look forward to seeing you work with the Goa'uld further." His head turned to face Daniel. "Ah, Doctor Jackson. It is nice to see you again."
"You'll understand if I don't share the sentiment," Daniel answered while carefully looking at the obelisk and the characters underneath it.
"Yes, quite interesting, aren't they?" Ba'al remarked, seeing Daniel's interest in the obelisk. The fact that Daniel was giving attention to it didn't strike the Goa'uld that oddly as he was well aware of the members of SG-1 and how they behaved. "These Ancient ruins are unique in layout and structure. Anubis was never quite able to decipher why they looked so differently from the Ancient sites he was aware of." Ba'al looked to Maedhv. "I will take Doctor Jackson and the shol'va Teal'c into custody now. Colonel Carter's remains and General O'Neill can be left aboard the ship when it is turned over. A shame about Colonel Carter, she was quite brilliant... for a woman."

"Hmm, she was. For a human woman, you should say. We long ago genetically engineered intellectual distinctions out of the Pure Caste," Maedhv answered with a rather sweet smile. "They are our inferiors, of course--substantially so. But I'll bring Teal'c to the surface, certainly. I will need to down the obelisk after he arrives to read off the coordinates," she finished. "As for working with you--well, let's get me home first. You can, I suppose, bring your fleet entire to accompany me if you really want to. It doesn't matter one way or another for me. Our goals in life show no real sign of diverging. As for the ruins? I'll explain their purpose and when they were built in a moment, if you like--but let me first bring Teal'c to the planet."
She dropped down, gestured downwards with her hand, and in another flaring of blue light, delivered Teal'c to the surface without further warning--absent his weapons, which she had, at least from Teal'c's perspective, filtered out as she had teleported him, without a second's hesitation or further complexity in the act; on the Prometheus, they clattered to the floor where he had disappeared.

"Impressive," Ba'al said, not permitting the same looks of surprise that came across the faces of the assembled Jaffa and Goa'uld. Glancing back he was given a bit of amusement at the slack-jawed expression of Poseidon at the impressive display, since Maedhv clearly had no controls on her. Ba'al began to wonder if he was, in fact, dealing with an actual Ancient, even if her behavior didn't quite fit what he'd expect from the Ancients as he'd heard of him.
They were treated a moment later to Teal'c, having no weapons, taking a step toward Maedhv looking as if he intended to rip her limb from limb with his bare hands. The woman brought a hand up and Teal'c froze in place, angry snarl and all. "Jaffa, kree," he said, motioning toward the obelisk.
"Wait, you're not just going to...."
Daniel was cut off as the staff weapons of Ba'al's guards opened up at full power. The ancient obelisk was peppered by bursts of energy that weakened its structure enough for Ba'al, who brought his hand device up and sent a shockwave at it that knocked it over.

"It was just X marks the spot, Daniel," Maedhv replied happily, and reached over to give the frozen Teal'c a pat on the shoulder before almost, and definitely very happily, dancing her way over to the remnants of the obelisk. There she knelt down in her homespun skirt against the dirt, and dug it away from the obelisk's basic easily, and then, prying with her fingers, wrenched out a heavy golden-white object and cracked it open. Two slabs fell apart in pieces, and laid out on them was a starmap with accompanying coordinates and a series of writing in Ancient, which Daniel could certainly read:

Love! Under your orders I'm going to bury the ship and wait for you to make it out. I'm sorry I can't do more for you, but I have utmost confidence that you'll escape soon enough and together we'll avenge ourselves upon them--I can barely sleep at night for the thought of that strangled cry, and look forward to this hidden rest. The coordinates are listed below as well as an image of what you should expect the surface of the planet to look like at that point, in Asvin military standard. I'll keep the ship away from the ungrateful bastards, promise. Good luck.

"I trust this satisfies your conditions for the moment?" Ba'al asked as Maedhv examined the slabs. "I will go arrange for some of my Jaffa to board your ship for your trip to whichever destination it is you have in mind."

Maedhv nodded. "Yes, it's all I need," she answered, and then abruptly Teal'c unfroze--which was intentional, it being just in time for her to, as she stood up, flick her fingers. The minute gesture saw every single one of Ba'al's Jaffa simply drop dead around him--and to make it clear that they were dead, their bodies disintegrated into dust as they hit the ground, while a wave of cold air surrounded the Goa'uld and Daniel alike. "Ba'al," she continued with a soft laugh, amused by the death she'd inflicted, "You're not dealing with an Ancient. You're dealing with someone who fought the entire Ancient race to a standstill."
"I am the Last Golden Condor of the Asvin Empire. And as a benefice for your kindness to me, I am going to show you what that means before I kill you."

The smile that had been on Ba'al's face for most of the exchange disappeared immediately. In that moment he realized that he was dealing with something new and unexpected, completely outside of his calculations. "I bargained with you honestly," he remarked darkly. "But I am no fool. My ships are already locking weapons on this spot by now."

She laughed, and the laugh reverberated and reverberated until the mocking tone shook the entire atmosphere, and then she held out her open palm, and spoke in a voice that came from her lips and from every direction, rolling and wavering in a thousand different tones, as she presented it to Ba'al, and continued, unhurried, relaxed, amused, and even perhaps, from the look in her green eyes, delighted. "You see, we have a saying about the Golden Condors..."
She began to, ever so slowly, close her palm, and finished, lyrically...

"The turning of the seasons is as the closing of my hand. I hold all the forces of nature," she continued, entranced by her own declaration, "and I drink the darkness between the stars."

And overhead, as her hand closed, stormclouds began to gather within the space of seconds, casting shadow over the entire plain, stormclouds for as far as the eye could see, immense and powerful, as winds began to blow and lightning started to crackle. The temperature began to drop sharply, and rain began to fall. Rain which, as the wind began to tear across them and the thunder cracked, rapidly progressed, colder and colder, into sleet... And then into snow. It had taken her perhaps twenty seconds to finish closing her hand, and by the time it was done, they were standing in the middle of a raging blizzard on what had once been a hot, dry, dead desert planet, the snow coming down impossibly fast all around them.

Behind Maedhv, Teal'c and Daniel were looking up as the blizzard raged around them, as surprised by the sight as Ba'al and his entourage was. Daniel drew in a breath as the feat acted, in a way, to give her story - or elements of it - further verification in his mind. Not entirely, of course; Maedhv had here again proven her capacity for utter dishonesty and treachery. But this was clearly at the scale of an Ascended being's work and Daniel was entirely sure that Maedhv wasn't quite an Ascended being as he knew them.



Further behind them at the Prometheus, Jack was watching the blizzard form around their ship from a window in a compartment near the engineering section. Nate walked in behind him and his jaw dropped slightly. "I thought this place was a desert?" he asked. "You don't think Maedhv..."
"Sometimes I hate it when Daniel is right," Jack muttered.



"Arise from your graves!", Maedhv suddenly screamed as an explosive conclusion to her declaration, and rising up from where the Jaffa had fallen there began to, swirling in the clouds of the blizzard, form together again their skeletal remnants with weapons held at ready. "They will have their vengeance for their slavery upon you--from the grave." Maedhv turned away, even as the staff weapons were locked into ready position in a circle of execution around the surviving Goa'uld, and she coolly gestured upwards. "Let's go back. They'll be attacking the Prometheus momentarily, so we need to get out of here." Behind her, the Jaffa skeletons opened fire.

Daniel and Teal'c watched as the staff blasts converged on Ba'al, Poseidon, and the handful of other Goa'uld that had joined him. The first wave of blasts dissipated harmlessly against the protective fields generated by their hand devices.
The second round of shots, however, passed through their fields like they weren't there. The Goa'uld cried out in surprise and terror as they were mowed down, the skeletons continuing to fire on their corpses as Maedhv teleported them all back to the Prometheus.

The ship tore out of the atmosphere as the three dropped down onto the bridge of the Prometheus, simultaneous with her arrival, and the moment it had cleared it, engaged its Asgerd hypdrive as shots from the Goa'uld ships in orbit tracked after them, Maedhv, by purely mental commands, activating the shields, charging weapons, and dropping down into the command chair once more as she crossed her legs under her skirt and glanced to Daniel and Teal'c, unconcerned with the pursuit that her abrupt explosion of commands to the Prometheus had given them a head start on. "I said I wouldn't betray you, didn't I? Never said that to Ba'al.."

"And yet your behavior has not been entirely trustworthy," Teal'c noted, the snarl on his face having only slightly subsided.
"No, it hasn't," Maedhv agreed. "Not trustworthy at all. Nonetheless, I didn't turn you over to Ba'al--or, should I say, to Ba'al's clone. That wasn't actually Ba'al."
"Really?", Daniel asked. "And you'd know that how?"
"I saw into the fabric of his mind."
Daniel stared silently for a moment, slightly embarrassed that he'd briefly forgotten about her mind-reading abilities. "Oh yeah. Duh." He went over to a seat at one of the stations, glancing at it. "So, it looks like they're following us as best as they can. What's your plan now?"

"We go to Alarita. Our problems should comfortably settle out at that point." She stretched her arms. "You're free to go below and make your report, Teal'c, I've deactivated the corridor forcefields. I think you know by this point that storming the bridge would be a hair silly."
Glowering, Teal'c left the bridge, leaving Daniel alone with Maedhv once again.




Gray Star, Alliance Space
Universe Designate AR-12




"And the power flow?"
"It's working, Colonel. The distribution is working correctly."
Samantha Carter nodded and looked back up at the main power grid display in Main Engineering, which showed that their rigged power lines were again giving power to the sublight engines and other critical systems. The nearby naquadah reactors - supported by a pair of secondary fusion reactors that were, in their own way, beyond her experience even if they were not anywhere near as advanced or powerful as the naquadah reactors - were being carefully monitored by other remnants of the engineering team.
With her hair a bit disheveled and BDUs ruffled from the feverish activity of patching up Gray Star's damage, Sam was feeling much better than the slight fatigue coming on might otherwise cause. With input from Zaria and some assistance from Data the ship was back in working order, well, as best working order as it could be without a trip to a repair yard. Sam keyed the intercom to the bridge. "This is Engineering. Data, you've got power now."
"Thank you, Colonel, your work under these circumstances has been quite extraordinary," Data answered.
"Has there been any news about Serlann?"
"Doctor Constantine has stabilized her condition but it may be some time before she recovers."
"Okay, I'll stay down here then." Sam turned off the intercom and returned to work.



On the bridge Data immediately reacted to the report. "Lieutenant, set intercept course for the Replicator craft. Engage as soon as the last fighter is recovered."
"Yes Captain," Di'not answered.
Kharaste looked toward Data. "Captain, will we not lose valuable time recovering the fighters?"
"Perhaps so, Commander, but we may yet have use for the remaining warp-capable fighters, and they permit us to launch further fighter attacks on the Replicator ship if necessary."

"The last fighter has been recovered, Captain," Ziva said from Communications.
"Lieutenant, engage at full possible power.."
"Yes, Captain." Di'not's fingers keyed the sublight drive to the maximum safe level she could. Gray Star began accelerating forward in pursuit of the Replicator ship.




USS Prometheus, Goa'uld Territory
Universe Designate SRC-19



Prometheus was on her way again, bound for another section of the galaxy and the coordinates Maedhv had unearthed on Castor. The bridge was eerily quiet as Daniel walked across it, processing what he'd read on the tablets Maedhv had uncovered. The ruins there and the tablets were further confirmation that at least some of what Maedhv had said was truthful, or at least possible. What it meant for the Ancients and how he and everyone else understood them, though, was more disturbing.
As if sensing his thoughts, Maedhv asked, "Do you believe me yet, Daniel?" as she stretched in the command chair, and sighed softly with the slightest hint of some tiredness.

"I'm beginning to," he admitted, still trying to reconcile what she'd said of the Ancients with what he knew of them. "What was the significance of the obelisk, if I may ask? It looked a bit more detailed than a mere 'X marks the spot' marking.'"

"Yeah," Maedhv answered. "It was a monument to my family. They were killed on Castor-7, I guess you'd call it, about a hundred years before the end of the war that saw me created. Not that Castor-7, of course, but another one. In the universe that was my home. The first universe. Their house was on the exact spot on the surface of the planet--well, country manse, really--as the funerary monument. Though it's not a true memorial for them, it was intended for me to knock over the obelisk to find the map. Just that the Ancients would recognize what it is and, I imagine Alarita hoped, respect it, if they came through there."
"So where are we headed then?"

"The coordinates left on the plaque. I'm not really sure what you'd call the system. Kuahuatl, to me," she pronounced precisely. "Since Ancient is only a bastardized version of the Old Tongue anyway. The only surviving languages on Earth related to the Old Tongue are actually Aztec and Mayan and Incan tongues. Vaguely related. The heart of our civilization actually developed in the Andes, and then we went back and re-colonized Ireland and the other places we originally had evolved in."
"So Asvin is actually a kind of proto-American tongue and the changes in Ancient caused it to evolve into Latin?", Daniel asked. "Actually, I've been wondering how Latin could exist in the other universes anyway as it does in our's, given its particular roots in Ancient."

"That's not quite accurate, Doctor. It's rather to say that Latin's split from Proto-Indo-European was caused by Asvin influence, rather than to say that Latin is a descendent of Ancient, or the Old Tongue. So imagine that you took PIE and applied Ancient influences to it.. And that's what produced Latin, approximately. So the similarities between Latin and Ancient are due to shared vocabulary; the similarities between the Old Tongue and Ancient are due to shared grammar. The grammatical substrate of Latin is however proto-Indo European, as noted... Which was the Sarasavsati mother tongue. So as you may now guess, Europe was the main place the Two Empires fought over on Earth before they became spacefairing cultures, resulting in a melange of our languages developing there among numerous peoples."
"The Sarasavsati, which produced Nirrti. The Nirrti you know." Daniel was putting the links together. The Asvins as proto-Andeans was pretty clear to him now; the Sarasavstati were clearly proto-Indian, or more precisely proto-Vedic. "How were they different from you?" He intended to keep her talking, hoping to put more pieces of this alluring, if somewhat disturbing, puzzle together, or perhaps find an inconsistancy to prove Maedhv a liar.

"Organized. We were chaotic--and proud of it. Supreme individuals. We did things as we pleased; the High Caste at the top, the middling castes were free but had no rights, everyone else was a slave and we did whatever we wanted with slaves. The Sarasavsati.. had a thousand castes, they were rigidly organized, they controlled everything. Morality was dictated by the state." Maedhv rattled off the differences like she was rattling off a summary from ages long past, without a pause or hesitation.

That, of course, didn't sound like the Ancients at all. In fact, Daniel thought that her description of the Sarasavsati hewed closer to them if anything.
Of course, even this contradiction was met with the description of the Sarasavsati. A caste society, rigidly delineated, fit well with something that if it existed had a clear influence on the culture of the Indian subcontinent and a bit of bleedoff to other Oriental cultures.
As these thoughts came to Daniel, Maedhv's words made him think of something else. "So, your cult. Are they your new slaves? People that you condition to do whatever you want?"

"No, actually. Alarita wouldn't really like it if I got back in that business," Maedhv answered with a prompt smile. "That, and the simple fact is that it has proved the destruction of all my prior efforts at stability and happiness. The commune was indeed a representation of my decision to leave the business of ruling others. They chose to follow me of their own free will, and I have treated them as I am the mother of them all; a far better, and far more honest leader of a cult than any other, I would argue, and more loving, besides. I would have saved them if Earth had been otherwise destroyed, after all, and I would have roused the old Asvin batteries beneath Antarctica to do service for their lives. As it is, my only interest is in creating a stable group family and nurturing it, with the able help of my beloved, over many generations."
"And how many of those people already have families? Families who worry about them and want them to come home? Have you ever considered that some of them don't need to be in a cult to have direction in their lives?"
"They all do, or else I wouldn't have let them join. I saw exactly what their lives would be without me, after all. ...Does it not occur to you to extend the range of my prescience vision from merely navigation to other uses?"

"You said you see all possibilities. You don't know the exact future, just all the possible ones. Can you tell which is more possible? And can you justify letting people turn their backs completely on any family, any loved ones, because they might end up worse off instead of being happy in the outside world?"

"Why do you assume I've completely cut them off? Now it's true that we have become our own family--but really I have mostly taken them from the wretched of the Earth. No different than that Judean wanderer's teachings your society makes so much of; to cast aside the pagans and take up a commonwealth of His Kingdom, and so on, and so on; no, Daniel, I am indeed doing the best for them, and they will live and die happy, for Nirrti is not the sort to hurt those around me--too stiff-necked in her iron-age morality--and nobody else can touch me. What I desire, I take; be thankful that I have decided to act in the best interests of others. It was not always so, for all I've revealed the folly of it now.... It was not always so."
The look on her face told Daniel it was time to draw back unless he were to, well, do what he was telling Jack not to. He turned away and looked back to a screen showing the time left until they reached their destination.




Below decks, in the engineering compartment, the others were milling around. Zaria was still giving pointers to Sam over IU radio on operating the Gray Star with Serlann unavailable and so was largely unavailable for conversation.
Nate was standing nearby, trying to pick up indicators of how things were going, when Jack slipped up to him. "So, you up for something?"
"Like what?"
"Like taking this ship back," Jack replied.
Nate whistled. "Well, that's going to be hard from what we've seen Maedhv do. Do you have a plan?"
"Yeah. Teal'c says that when Maedhv double-crossed the Goa'uld she wasn't able to immediately wipe them out because of their defensive fields. Prometheus is carrying a couple protective field generatorsn we rigged from the stuff your SPC gave us five years ago. We figure that they might give us a couple seconds of protection, long enough that Maedhv can't stop us from physically severing the power lines to the bridge and main computer. We get the secondary systems going and take back the Prometheus."

Nate "hmmed" at that. "Assuming Maedhv wasn't showing off and toying with the Goa'uld, assuming she doesn't cut us off at the pass the instant she sees what we're doing, and assuming she just doesn't warp down to engineering and overpower us with mind control to take control right back. Brilliant plan, Jack."
"Well, it might not be perfect, but I don't see you coming up with anything better," Jack retorted. "I mean, is it any worse than doing nothing and hoping that Her Mightyness doesn't do to us what she did to Ba'al just for kicks?"
"Yeah, you've got me there," Nate admitted. "So, what do you want me to do?"
"Teal'c will handle the backup line, but I'll need your help to pry open the doors to access the main system. Pendergast will keep things going down here."
That prompted a nod. Nate thought about how badly this was likely to go, but like Jack he didn't feel right just giving in instead of doing something. Gesturing to Jack, he said, "Well, let's get started."

This...Is not a good idea.

O'neill must be pretty desperate to try something with a massively inherent flaw in it, especially after nate already pointed out the flaw. maedv can teleport, cutting the powerlines to the bridge doesn't accomplish anything. maybe it will take him long enough to enact his plan that maedv won't need the Prometheus anymore. this is the crap Sam has to be around to tell him is stupid.

Yeah. Too bad Sam's in a different universe.

Basically, Jack has the option of A) doing nothing or B) trying a plan likely to fail spectacularly. And no Sam or Daniel around to play the reason card.