Introduction
(Or How I Almost Lost My Sanity Trying to Figure out the Timeline for this Story)
Fact: At least a couple of weeks must have passed between Lost City and New Order, enough time for all those countries to argue about the Ancient outpost so long that the talks had stalled more than once. And Teal'c had to have enough time to grow that hair.
Fact: The events of New Order happened over a period of around 10 days.
Fact: In Rising, the pilot episode of Atlantis, it was stated that Dr. Weir had been choosing people for the expedition to Atlantis for months.
Fact: At least 7 days passed during the events of Lockdown, probably more. That's not counting the opening scene, which had happened a month previously and must have occurred shortly after Anubis' fleet was destroyed. (See below.)
Fact: More than a month passed from the end of Lost City to when Anubis, in the body of Colonel Vaselov, came to the SGC.
Fact: Zero Hour happened over the course of 6 days.
Fact: The events of Icon happened over a period of 3 months.
Fact: At least 18 days passed during the course of Affinity.
Fact: In Covenant, it was stated that it had been about 5 months since the battle with Anubis in Lost City.
Conclusion: The writers for Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis pay no attention to their timeline of events.
Do the math. It is impossible that "months", (as in two or more) passed between New Order and Rising (which was aired between New Order and Lockdown), yet only five months passed between Lost City and Covenant. Even if Rising happened after Lockdown – which makes more sense given that scene between Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c near the beginning of the episode – it won't work. Heck, even if Weir started choosing personnel for the expedition right after the events of Lost City, before New Order, it still won't fit. I know. I spent hours trying to work out a timeline, only to have it shattered when I read the transcript for Rising and saw that remark from Dr. Weir about her planning the expedition for months.
Therefore, since the canon timeline is impossible, I'm going to ignore it. Actually, all I'm going to do is ignore that remark from Weir and place the events of Rising after Lockdown instead of before. As far as I'm concerned, Weir was suffering from sleep depravation or something and accidentally said "months" instead of "weeks", and everyone else was too polite to correct her. Okay, so it's a stretch to believe that McKay wouldn't correct her, but I'm sticking to that explanation. I know that it wouldn't really be possible for all the planning that went into the Atlantis expedition to take only a few weeks, especially searching for and finding people with the Ancient gene, but I'm going to pretend it was possible. If the writers for the two TV series' can somehow pack seven or more months worth of events into a five-month period, I can have my little illusion. *bg*
CHAPTER ONE
One thing that everyone at the SGC learned sooner or later was that, when you're dealing with aliens, off-world adventures and keeping the planet safe from various extraterrestrial threats, things seldom go according to plan. This was now being proven yet again.
With all the stuff that had happened over the past two weeks – being bothered by the NID again, finding out that some unknown Goa'uld was pushing his weight around, thwarting a presidential assassination and getting shot in the process, and bringing down a huge organization that had been planning on wiping out the Jaffa race in order to destroy the Goa'uld – Daniel had planned on doing nothing for the next few days except digging into the ever growing pile of translations threatening to bury his desk beyond all hope of excavation. The moment he heard SG-1 being called to the briefing room, he knew his plans were doomed. The last thing he expected to see when he got there, however, was Thor.
"Greetings, Doctor Jackson," the Asgard said. He greeted Jack, Sam and Teal'c when they arrived a few seconds later.
"Thor, buddy. To what do we owe this pleasure?" Jack asked.
"I fear that I have serious news. You are aware that the time dilation field that the Replicators were trapped within was only temporary."
"Yes, you thought it would take Fifth around two years to reach the controls to turn it off," Sam said.
"Yes. I had been monitoring the situation there for some time now. It was decided by the council that we would eliminate the Replicators by causing the sun of the planet they were on to collapse."
Sam stared at him in shock. "Wait a minute. You planned on creating a black hole?"
"Yes, which we succeeded in doing."
"You made a black hole? That's even more impressive than blowing up a sun," Jack said. He turned to Sam. "Carter, for your next impossible act, you should do that, too. It'll look great on your résumé."
Sam ignored the remark. "But Hala's sun wasn't nearly massive enough to collapse into a black hole," she pointed out to Thor. "How did you do it?"
"We artificially increased its gravitational field."
"Wow. That's . . . pretty cool."
"So, what happened?" Daniel asked. "I'm guessing that things didn't work out as planned."
"Unfortunately not. The Replicators came together in a coherent mass that I discovered was a spacecraft. I do not know exactly how, but they succeeded in escaping the gravity well of the black hole by using the time dilation device. I managed to escape before the ship attacked, but the Replicators are now free. We are concerned that they will eventually find the Asgard's new homeworld, Orilla."
"How can we help?" Jack asked.
"I am aware of the events that occurred with Doctor Jackson and the Ancient Library of Knowledge. At the time that you requested my aid, time-space distortions caused by the black hole were interfering with my ship's long-range communications, so I was unaware of your need for assistance. I am pleased that you did not need my help after all and that Doctor Jackson is well."
"Yeah, he managed to fix things all on his own, put himself in some kind of freaky suspended animation and stuffed all the Ancients' gunk back into his subconscious."
"Interesting," Thor said. "Perhaps, someday, I can study this at length." He turned to Daniel. "It is because of the knowledge of the Ancients that I am here. That knowledge would still be within your mind, though you can no longer consciously remember it."
"I know," Daniel confirmed. "I do remember some of it, but only bits and pieces. Like Jack said, I had to force most of it into my subconscious."
"I am hoping that within that knowledge is a means to destroy the Replicators."
"Whoa there, Thor," Jack said. "Now, I'm all for helping you guys out, but if you go digging around inside Daniel's head, you're liable to make all that stuff come pouring back into his brain like before. It almost killed him last time."
"I am aware of the danger, O'Neill. If the knowledge yet again begins to overwhelm his mind, I will remove it as we did with you. I would not ask this if I did not believe it is the only way that we can defeat the Replicators."
Daniel gave a small nod. "Then I guess we'd better get to it."
Jack frowned at him. "Daniel."
"Jack, you heard him. If he has to, he'll remove the stuff from my brain. I won't be in any danger. I have to try to help them."
The colonel sighed. "I know, Daniel."
"Thank you, Doctor Jackson," Thor said. "If we succeed, the Asgard will owe you a great debt of gratitude." He looked at everyone. "We must leave immediately. Every moment that we delay may bring the Replicators closer to finding Orilla."
"Okay," Jack said, "just let us get our wea. . . ."
SG-1 suddenly found themselves onboard Thor's ship.
". . . pons," Jack finished. He looked at the Asgard. "Has anyone ever told you that it's rude to beam people away when they're in the middle of talking?"
"My apologies, O'Neill."
"If we're going against Replicators, we need our weapons," Sam told Thor.
There was the flash of an Asgard beam, and a pile of P-90's, handguns, shotguns and ammo appeared on the floor a few feet away.
"Ya gotta love those Asgard beams," Jack said, getting busy on loading his weapons of choice, the rest of SG-1 doing likewise.
Thor entered hyperspace, aiming the ship toward the home galaxy of the Asgard.
"How do you intend to access the knowledge inside Daniel's subconscious?" Sam asked.
"I will merge his mind with the ship's computer."
Daniel blinked. "W-what? Uh . . . how?"
"The process of interfacing your mind with the computer will be complex, but I assure you that it will do you no harm. Once the process is complete, I am hoping that you will be able to safely access the information we need."
"Okay, let me get this straight. You're going to merge Daniel Jackson with the Daniel Jackson?" Jack asked. "There's gotta be a joke in there somewhere. Not thinking of one right now, but it'll come to me."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Daniel muttered.
"Maybe this is a dumb question, but why can't you just extract all the knowledge into the ship's computer and do a search for what you need?" Sam asked.
Thor looked at her. "You cannot even begin to comprehend the extent of what is within Doctor Jackson's mind. Our scientists, long ago, extracted parts of the Ancient Library of Knowledge and learned much from it. But we have been studying it for as long as I can remember, and we have barely scratched the surface."
"You wouldn't know where to look for the information you need," Daniel guessed. "It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack."
"A haystack of infinite size."
"That's big," Jack remarked.
"I am hoping Doctor Jackson's conscious mind can provide us with a direct conduit to the information we need." A low table was beamed onto the bridge. "Please lie upon the table, Doctor Jackson."
Feeling a little nervous, Daniel did as he was told. The others watched as, a moment later, he appeared to lose consciousness. Several seconds passed, then they heard a familiar voice coming from some kind of speaker system.
"Uh . . . hello? Can anyone hear me?" asked Daniel's voice.
"We hear you loudly and clearly, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c replied.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, it's just weird."
"All the information in the ship's computer is available to you," Thor told the disembodied archeologist.
There was a brief pause. "Wow, this is interesting," Daniel said. "It's a good thing Jack didn't do this. He'd want to play in here."
"Would not," Jack said.
"Would to."
"Not."
"Yes, you would."
"Uh uh."
"O'Neill, Doctor Jackson," Thor interrupted.
"Sorry," Daniel apologized.
"If you wish, you may appear to us as a hologram."
A moment later, a hologram of Daniel appeared. He waved at his teammates. "Hi, guys. I almost feel like I'm ascended again."
"Are you able to access knowledge that will help us with the Replicators?" Thor asked.
"Um . . . yes, I think so. It might take a little while, though. I'll be back." Daniel's hologram disappeared.
"Now what?" Jack asked.
"Now, we must wait," the Asgard answered.
"I hate waiting."
It turned out that they didn't have to wait for long. A short while later an image of some sort of device appeared on the viewscreen.
"What is it?" Teal'c asked.
"I am unsure," Thor replied. "It seems that Doctor Jackson's mind is building something, virtually, in conjunction with the ship's computer."
"Maybe it's a weapon of some kind," Sam suggested.
Less than a minute later, the hologram of Daniel reappeared. "Hi again." He walked up to the others.
"Can you tell us what this is?" Sam asked.
"Sort of. It's—"
Daniel was interrupted by an alarm. Thor looked at his control console.
"It is a distress call. The Replicator ship is attacking one of ours."
"Can you help them?" Jack asked.
"It is doubtful my ship's weapons will be effective against the Replicators, but I must try."
"Um . . . Thor, I hate to interrupt, but I think this might be a good time for you to disconnect me from the computer," Daniel said.
"Yes, of course."
The hologram vanished. A moment later, Daniel's eyes blinked open. His teammates went over to him.
"Are you all right?" Sam asked him.
"I think so." Daniel sat up with Jack's help. "That was an interesting experience."
Jack studied him closely. "Are you sure you're okay? That Ancients' stuff isn't all coming back into your head, is it?"
"I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait and see."
At that moment, the ship came out of hyperspace. Thor opened fire upon the Replicator ship, but it had no effect.
"The ship is turning around," Thor announced. "I believe it intends to attack us."
"That's not good," Jack said.
"They have fired upon us."
"Can it penetrate your shields?" Sam asked.
"It is more than likely," the Asgard answered. "Brace for impact."
The members of SG-1 grabbed hold of whatever was available. Moments later, the ship shuddered as something impacted upon it.
"The hull has been breached," Thor said.
"Where?" Sam asked him.
A floor plan of the ship's interior came up on the viewscreen.
"The damage is minimal," Thor said. "The projectile was likely composed of Replicators. They are not visible to my ship's scanners. This is how they have boarded Asgard ships in the past."
"Can you use the shields to prevent decompression in those sections?"
"Yes."
SG-1 armed themselves and headed to the area of the ship where the Replicators had infiltrated. As soon as they got there, they could hear the sounds of the spider-like machines inside the walls.
"Stay sharp," Jack warned. He really, really hated these things.
Daniel kept looking around, tense and alert on all levels. His sixth sense was screaming at him, warning him of danger.
The archeologist sensed rather than heard a Replicator coming up behind them. As he turned around to fire, he saw Sam get beamed away.
"Sam!" he yelled. He blasted the Replicator. "Thor! Sam was just beamed away. Did you do it?"
"I did not, Doctor Jackson. The Replicators must have her."
Suddenly, a bunch of the creatures attacked. As Jack and Teal'c opened fire on them, Daniel unleashed his fear for Sam upon the machines that had taken her. The Replicators exploded, ripped apart by the fury of the attack. Still more came and were instantly obliterated. Daniel opened his senses and sought out the ones still in the walls, destroying them. Within minutes, every one that they could find was no more.
Daniel turned and ran back to the bridge, Jack and Teal'c in his wake.
"We have to stop the ship!" he cried. Even as he said it, the Replicator ship jumped into hyperspace.
Thor looked at him. "I am sorry, Doctor Jackson. I could not stop them."
"Why did they take her?" Daniel asked, afraid of what the Replicators intended to do to her.
"I do not know. I will follow the ship."
"Do you know its destination?" Teal'c asked.
"The commander of the other ship warned me that the Replicators learned the location of Orilla from his ship's computer. It will likely be their first target."
"How come? Because your people are there?" Jack asked.
"No. Orilla is rich in Neutronium, which is a key element in Asgard technology. It is also essential for the creation of human-form Replicators."
"Definitely not good."
"No, it is not, O'Neill."
Daniel had a horrible thought. "What about the Replicators that got onboard this ship? Did they get into your computer? If they did, they'll have the plans to that thing I created and any other Ancient knowledge you got from me."
"I anticipated that this might occur, so I purged the information retrieved from your mind from the computer before we engaged the Replicator ship in battle."
"And that thing Daniel made?" Jack asked.
"I scattered the data throughout different computer systems, including several that the Replicators would have no interest in and should not have infiltrated. I will have to create a program to recompile the data."
"I just hope it's going to help," Daniel said.
Sam studied the room she was in. It was made of Replicator blocks, which told her that she was on the Replicator ship. She didn't know why she had been brought there. She walked up to one of the walls and touched it. She was startled when something began to form where she touched the wall. In horror, she watched a frighteningly familiar figure emerge.
"Major Carter," said the human-form Replicator named Fifth.
"Fifth." Scared, Sam began backing away from him as he slowly advanced upon her. She now had a terrible feeling that she knew why she had been taken.
"I imagine you never expected to see me again."
"Look, I'm sorry we left you behind, but we had to do it. We couldn't risk the others getting out. You know what they're capable of. I know you must be upset."
"Upset," Fifth repeated, his tone and expression telling Sam that the word didn't even come close to describing his feelings. She kept backing up as Fifth walked toward her.
"We betrayed you. It must have hurt," she said, trying desperately to reach the gentle, caring part of him that she'd seen on Hala. "See, that's the part of you that's most like us. The human part of you." Finding herself backed up against the wall, there was no place left for Sam to go. "I understand how you feel."
"No, you don't!" Fifth snapped. "You couldn't. But I promise, you will."
Fifth reached his hand toward Sam's head. She grabbed his arm, trying to stop him, but it was useless. She felt his fingers touch her forehead. And then he was in her mind, and there was pain.
Terribly worried about Sam, Daniel had been attempting to find her, just as he had when she was stranded on the Prometheus. He didn't know what the Replicators were planning on doing to her, but his sixth sense was telling him that she was in great danger. He knew without doubt that this was what his dream had been warning him of, a warning that had failed to give him the power to stop it from happening.
He was just beginning to feel like he was close to finding her when pain lanced through his brain. He gasped, clutching his head.
Jack and Teal'c hurried up to him. The colonel grasped the archeologist's shoulders.
"Is the Ancients' knowledge returning, Daniel Jackson?" the Jaffa asked.
"No," Daniel replied. "It's Sam. They're hurting her. I can feel her pain. God, what are they doing to her? We have to find her, Jack."
"We will."
"I fear that is not the case," Thor stated.
Daniel looked over at the Asgard. "What do you mean?"
"My ship's weapons will not function in hyperspace, much like the shields, so I will be unable to fire upon the Replicator ship once we catch up to it. However, in close proximity, the self-destruct may be sufficient to eliminate both ships. I am sorry, but we have no choice. If the human-form Replicators reach Orilla, they will have the resources to replicate many thousands of times. We cannot allow that to happen."
Jack, Daniel and Teal'c looked at each other.
"Well, it's not the first time that I believed I'd be going down with the ship," Jack said. He gazed at his teammates. His own death didn't frighten him, but it saddened him that his teammates were going to die as well. But if this is what it took to save the Asgard, so be it. They owed it to Thor's people.
Beneath the pain searing Sam's brain, she felt Fifth boring into her memories, brutally raping her mind. In many ways, it was worse than the physical pain. Images flashed by with dizzying speed, scenes of her life, many of them deeply private. She was helpless to stop it, powerless to prevent Fifth from violating her like this.
As last, it stopped as Fifth withdrew his hand. Now on the floor, Sam clutched her head.
"Why are you doing this?" she cried.
"You think you deserve better?"
"You can see my thoughts. You know I didn't want to do it."
Fifth turned and walked away a couple of paces. "I suppose, in a way, I should thank you. It was because of what you did to me that I came to realize my full potential." He turned back around to look at her. "I am more human than the others. At first, I thought it was weakness, but now I see it makes me capable of so much more."
"Fifth, please," Sam gasped.
"My brothers and sisters will devour entire civilizations in order to replicate, but they will know nothing of cruelty . . . or betrayal . . . or revenge. Not like us. Isn't that right . . ." He stepped toward Sam again, "Major Carter."
"No. No," she begged.
Ignoring her plea, Fifth again tore into her mind.
Daniel flinched as Sam's pain returned after only a brief respite. He sensed her cry out for help, and it was tearing him apart that they could do nothing . . . nothing except an act that would end all their lives.
The archeologist turned to his other teammates, the men who would soon die with him. "It's been an incredible seven years, hasn't it?"
"Yes, it has," Jack replied softly.
"It has been a great honor to fight at your sides," Teal'c stated somberly.
Jack looked at him gravely. "Same here, Teal'c." He turned back to Daniel. "I really wanted to see you get that medal, though."
The archeologist shrugged. "It's not like I really wanted the thing anyway. They'll probably give it to me posthumously."
"You bet they will."
"We are almost within range," Thor announced.
The three men came up to the control console and saw that they were quickly approaching the Replicator ship.
"Now," said the Asgard. Even as he spoke the word, all the lights dimmed then brightened. The three members of SG-1 looked at Thor, who was searching for the problem. On the viewscreen, the Replicator ship began pulling away from them.
"We are slowing down," Thor said. "Something is interfering with the controls."
The floor plan of the Daniel Jackson appeared on the viewscreen. One section was flashing a warning.
"The auxiliary control console, outside the engine room."
Teal'c grabbed his weapon, but Daniel stopped him, his face hard.
"I'll get it," he said in a matching tone of voice. He strode off, hurrying down the corridors to the auxiliary control console. When he got there, he saw a single Replicator sitting on the console. He ripped it to pieces with his mind.
"I got it," he said into the radio, sensing that there were no more of the things.
"Unfortunately, the Replicators are now beyond our reach," Thor told him. "We are too late to stop them from reaching the new Asgard homeworld."
Next Chapter
