Chapter 6

Cheyenne Mountain - SGC

With Atlantis back in the Pegasus galaxy things were now returning to normal at the SGC. Once again, the gate was the primary gate in use on Earth. SG teams went about normal operations deploying to the far reaches of the Milky Way. Now that normality had returned, the SGC could get back to the business of gathering intelligence on the Lucian Alliance, supporting allies, and exploring ruins.

Once upon a time, the thought of someone appearing in the same room with a bright flash of brilliant white light would have seemed odd to General Hank Landry. Several years in command here at slightly altered his sense of what was odd and what was another random occurrence. Sitting in a chair in front of the desk was General Jack O'Neill. Why did he look like he was dressed for a fishing trip? Without missing a beat, Jack dove into the story he had to share.

"Back up a minute, you're telling me the Asgard are not dead?" questioned Landry.

"Taller too, looking like you and I. Looks like I wont be referring to Thor as little buddy anymore." responded Jack. Letting the revelation that Earths strongest ally had in fact not perished in mass suicide sink in took a moment of silence between the two men.

"Basically, they fixed their problem with the help of some ancient tech, have a new home world in a new galaxy that they wish to colonize with human life much like the ancients did, and finally wish to operate together as equals militarily in response to the Lucian Alliance disdain for the protected planets treaty" said Jack, laying all details on the table.

With Earth and the Asgard, patrolling the Milky Way the neighborhood would be a much safer place. Thor had made it a point of mentioning the safety of the galaxy this portion of the universe would soon be assured, but refused to elaborate.

"One last thing, they asked that we commit to a new off world base to be shared between both of us in the name of research and advancement as he put it." O'Neill said with a raised eyebrow.

Lucia

The order had been given by the new First of the Lucian Alliance to increase the size of the fleet. It was known that the Tauri had drastically increased the size of their fleet recently. Millic was as strong willed as he was brutal, and determined not to make the same mistakes Netan had made as First. The Free Jaffa lap dogs of the Tauri must also be dealt with. If the Jaffa could be sent into anarchy, the Alliance would be free to do as they pleased with the Tauri occupied.

Many Ha'Tak class vessels were being built on Lucia and other Alliance planets. The fleet must grow and continue growing if they were to unseat the Tauri. Many scout ships had been built also, fitted with naquadah bombs much like the one that failed to detonate on earth.

The perfect target had already been selected. Goronak was a Jaffa planet full of refugee's from the Ori incursion. The Tauri were deeply involved in so-called humanitarian missions there to assist the displaced people. Millic knew that striking there would be a knife in the heart of both the Earth oppressors and their Jaffa underlings. The time to atone for past grievances would soon be at hand.

Destiny

The repair effort had begun in earnest. Repair robots moved along the exterior of the hull, slowly correcting eons of damage and neglect. Hull breaches were the first priority for the automated repair team. Once the breaches were sealed, the crew could begin the process of sending Kino's through the now pressurized sections of Destiny to discover what secrets were there. Power conduits also began to come online allowing power to flow to systems of the ship not previously functional. Deep within the ship the power cells that currently only held forty percent of their original charge were replaced. At her next recharge while plunging into a star the ship would emerge with more stored energy than she had been able to carry in eons.

Dr. McKay had gone to work once he was aboard. He and Eli took on the challenge of power distribution to the ship's weapons systems. When their planned repairs and installation of replacement parts was complete, all the numerous weapons platforms would come online without fear of a critical overload. The main weapon was what intrigued the duo the most.

Dr. Lee and Dr. Volker were hard at work on the ships shield emitter relays. These had taken the most severe wear of any system aboard. Because Destiny used shields for FTL jumps, recharging, hull breach sealing, and when attacked these systems had been in continual operation since the ships launch. They had discovered that the current shield capability was only a small fraction of Destiny's designed shield strength. Simulation suggested that once repairs were complete the ship could sustain almost constant attack without losing a measurable level of efficiency.

Dr. Rush and Brody had been hard at work streaming the database to Athena. This had been accomplished with a clever bypass of the ancient chair interface. Hundreds of Exabyte's had been transferred already and it was estimated that another fifteen days would be needed before the process was complete. More of where the ship had been, what she had discovered, and most importantly where she was going had been found; It would take teams of researchers years on year to begin to scratch the surface of the databases contents.

Life aboard the ancient ship was finally approaching a level of enjoyment. Since the arrival of the Athena, the mood had been much lighter. A change of clothing, an Xbox, and some real food could make that possible though. An SGC personnel action team had come over from Athena to interview each member of the Destiny's crew. A surprising number of the interviews ended with the stated intention of remaining aboard. The rumor circulating was the next time Athena paid them a visit many new faces would be making the Ancient vessel home.

On the bridge of Destiny stood Col. Young and Col. Eckhart. Due to the repairs on her shields, Athena had expanded her own shields to encompass both vessels. In the distance, the F-302's could be seen patrolling and running drills.

"The repair teams are estimating she will be at one hundred percent in seventeen days. Presuming more storage space for the remaining food supplies to come over is found you will be in great shape for now. Honestly Everett I don't know how you held this situation together as long as you did" said Col. Eckhart.

Young, running his hands through his hair gave a tired smile and replied "Day by day Aaron, day by day."