So I changed a few things in this chapter just for my own sake. Just some nitpicky stuff, someone mentioned that SG1 helping Aria didn't make sense because they could just hack into everything, so I provided some explanation for that. Hacking won't be an issue for them, just something they weren't keen to trying right out of the box in an unknown situation. Other than that and some smaller stuff not much of a difference.

Chapter 2

1400 Hours
September 18, 2007
Bridge, USS Odyssey
Unknown signal, Milky Way

The Odyssey sped out of its hyperspace window at incredible velocities, slowing to an easy cruise of twenty five thousand kilometers an hour. She immediately faded from sight, the space around her distorting until it appeared as if there never was a ship there.

"Cloaking system is online and holding sir," Marks reported as he ran a diagnostic to make sure the cloaking field was functioning properly as it wasn't a system they used too often.

"Sensors?" Jack questioned, as he leaned forward, resting his right arm on his knee while supporting his upper body with his left on his leg.

There was a pause as Marks ran a quick sensor sweep of the immediate space to check for planetary bodies, rogue singularities, enemy ships-
An alert rang out on the major's console as he pulled up the alert status, the sensors showing a large asteroid field a few hundred thousand kilometers ahead of the ship. The red star in the system shined brightly over the field; ruby tint that gave it an ominous and menacing feeling.

"Sir, I'm reading numerous radio and tightbeam signals, as well dark matter pulses from within the asteroid field on sensors," Marks reported slightly confused, with good reason.

Dark matter was a tricky subject; while the humans had never seen it, if the Asgard's database was to be believed, which it was, then it was a very strange and unnatural element. Apparently the Asgard had dabbled in Dark Energy for power production early in their history, but soon abandoned the technology when they invented Neutrino Ion Reactors. And as far as either race could tell, it wasn't something that was in very heavy use by any species, nor did it suddenly pop into existence randomly.

"Alright, take us in. Keep running scans until we find the source of those signals," Jack ordered as Marks acknowledged.

The asteroid field began to grow larger in the viewport as the Odyssey accelerated towards it, and soon the perspective of the bridge began tilting from right to left as Marks banked the ship in order to avoid incoming rocks. While navigating an asteroid field was normally hazardous without shields, although the hull of the 304 was capable of protecting it from everything but the largest asteroids, there appeared to be paths in the field as though they were moved out of the way to make way for ships. After a few minutes of flying through the field, the Odyssey came out into an open area that was dominated by a massive, mushroom-shaped space station.

"Whoa..." whispered a shocked airman who was running passive sensor sweeps of the open area the Earth vessel found itself in.

The rest of the crew were in a similar state of awe; this was probably the largest artificial structure any of them had seen in space. It too had a red glow from lights and what seemed like power generators, along with hundreds of large antennas and defense turrets sticking out all over. Besides that, the crew could see hundreds of ships of varying classes and sizes flying all over the place; some looked like freighter ships while others were clearly warships.

"Well... that certainly wasn't expected," Vala commented as she stepped up to the view port to get a better look at the space station.

"Ya, I'll say..." Colonel Mitchell muttered in awe, being relatively new to the Stargate program he was fairly easily impressed with everything they came across.

Jack hit the com to engineering, "Carter, what can you tell me about this thing?"

There was a slight pause as Carter no doubt was busy running scans and taking in all the data coming in from the Odyssey's new and enhanced sensors, "... Sorry sir just finishing up. Okay... from what I can tell the station is roughly forty kilometers in length, making it the largest space worthy construction we've seen to date. It appears to be both a mining facility and a city of sorts, if these sensors are reading correctly then there's almost ten million life forms in there, including a large number of humans. I'm guessing this is some sort of multi-species venture, but we have no records of these other races. Not even in the Asgard Core. Not to mention the number of ships there I'm detecting flying around out there, which I have to say doesn't make me very comfortable."

"I can confirm that sir. Most of them appear to be small cargo ships, but I am detecting a sizable number of warships. Most aren't too much bigger than ourselves," Marks chimed in, though there was a slight edge to his voice due to being so massively out numbered.

'Dam' Jack thought to himself; the last thing they needed was to get into a fight when they had absolutely no intel on who these guys were and what the galactic situation is. Not to mention the Odyssey had already sustained some damaged when outrunning a planet exploding and an Ori mothership nipping at their heels. Still, they needed answers and he had a feeling that this place would have at least some of them.

"Alright, keep the cloak running and keep us atleast a hundred clicks away from any ship. SG-1, I'm sending you on recon to that... big... mushroom thing," Jack ordered as he stood up and beckoned them to follow him out of the bridge, "I want you guys finding out who lives there, what connection if any they have to any of our allies, and anything else you can gather. Marks, you have the conn."

Mitchell sped up his pace to be in step with the general as they left, "Sir? This whole situation just got a lot more difficult. New races means First Contact scenario."

Turning a corner to enter the elevator the older man sighed, "Ya I know, that's why were headed down to engineering to see what Carter can whip up to help out. But we need answers and for the moment going in there feels like the right move. Now come on, we're burnin day light," he explained, waiting for everyone to get in the elevator and hitting the down button.

1600 Hours
Unknown Space Station, Milky Way

The space station was a lot uglier up close, though it obviously wasn't designed for aesthetic purposes. Much of the metal was of a dark, fog grey that left nothing to the imagination. Other parts were showing major signs of rust and serious degradation, hinting at the old age of the station. One particular alley that led away from a major street had a signal crimson light illuminating it and the small pitter patter of water or some other form of liquid leaking from an overhead pipe. Suddenly a musical chime filled the air as four pillars of bright blue light appeared out of thin air, the light overpowering the alley's own until it deposited four well armed humans and disappeared just as quickly as it came.

The four humans were back to back as they scanned the immediate are for contacts, only relaxing slightly as they saw that the alley was empty other than them.

"Okay people, let's take this nice and slow. Keep your guns holstered and away unless we see some unfriendlies. The last thing we need to get into a fire fight in the first five minutes in a first contact scenario... again," Colonel Mitchell ordered, remembering that their last first contact did not go well.

"Right, but we can always take hostages again if things go wrong," Vala quipped, earning a glare from the archeologist beside her.

With that out of the way, the team stepped out into the street, immediately they were taken aback at the sheer number of aliens and humans walking around going about their business like it was totally normal for this many species to be in one place together. There were many markets and eateries that people were busy spending whatever form of currency they had now a days.

But the aliens... that was what made SG-1 most surprised, and slightly uncomfortable. While there were a number of alien races besides humans and Jaffa in their own time, they had never seen such an abundant number of races, especially all living together in what seemed like relative peace.

"Well, I guess a lot of things change over a hundred years..." Daniel commented as he stared at the aliens who walked by, many of them giving the group of Taur'i strange looks as they passed.

SG-1 was decked out in standard black BDU's, tactical vests and armed with P90's and Zats; most of these aliens and humans seemed to wear civilian clothing, though the styles were very much different than that of Earth and had a very futuristic aesthetic to them. Others, clearly military or police, had full body armor and strange looking weapons on their backs and hips: they seemed to be made of some sort ceramic or other material as opposed to the polymers of their own weapons. They looked as alien as the Goaul'd stun weapons on their hips, but still had a definite 'gun' look to them.

"Wow... this is... different," Mitchell commented as he took in the sight before him.

"Clearly you've never been to Amarna," Vala chimed back, then seeing the confused look from the Taur'i in their party continued, "It's a trading world. One of the more developed planets in the galaxy. There was already heavy trading going on before the fall of the System Lords. Now it's one of the largest black market trading centers in the galaxy, with lots of different races coming together in the spirit of thievery and underhandedness."

Daniel rolled his eyes, but continued to stare at the strange sight of so many different species interacting with each other. He saw what looked like a cross between Oranians and humans with four eyes and a tall, avian looking alien with horns coming out of its head having a very heated argument. Though he couldn't understand what they were saying, he could see that it was over something the four eyed alien had most likely purchased from the avian creature. Further down the street he could see a blue woman and a female human eating... something together, sharing occasional laughs in between chewing and drinking. It was so strange how... human these other species seemed to be behaving.
Even though Stargate Command had encountered other races besides humans throughout their travels in the galaxy, most had evolved to a point where their cultures had transcended the more simplistic aspects of human society. But these aliens seemed to be very relatable, and not just because several of them appeared to be very human in appearance.

Moving on the team continued down the street keeping their weapons holstered and away so as not to create any problems with the locals. Though it went unsaid, a few of the members of SG-1 felt uneasy being in a clearly advanced society with no knowledge of who they were, nor of what had occurred since they had arrived here in the future. Most of the time SG-1 went to planets whose societies were still in feudal or tribal stages of development. And on the rare occasion they went to an advanced society they usually had some prior contact and time to prepare for their visit. Not to mention they had basically boarded this space station without anyone's permission, and had no idea of what laws they held here regarding trespassing. The last thing any of them wanted was to have a run in with authorities... again.

"So any idea how were supposed to get information from anyone here? Cause I don't know about any of you but I didn't exactly take lessons in four eye alien speak?" asked Vala as they came to a stop in the middle of what seemed to be the equivalent of a town square.

Though town square may have been a bit generous; it was a intersection of six different streets that all converged on a large pipe that was about the width of a sequoia tree back on Earth, and many times taller as it stretched into the rock 'ceiling' hundreds of meters above them. The massive gap between their level and the ceiling gave way to a fantastic view of this part of the station. Out in the 'open' air they could see what appeared to be hundreds of flying cars all flying in coordinated lanes.

Cam let out a whistle, "Now those are some things I wouldn't mind getting my hands on. Guess Doc Brown was right," he commented, clearly impressed with the new flying vehicle they had just been introduced to.

"Indeed Colonel Mitchell, though I do believe that even he couldn't have conceived that cars would fly in space," Teal'c replied, having seen the old Earth movie about the crazy time traveling scientist and his young cohort.

Vala pouted and crossed her arms, "Just gonna ignore me fellas?"

Mitchell stared at the scene before him for a few more moments before returning to reality, "Huh? Oh right, we need to find a computer or something we can plug this into. Not sure how that's gonna work though, no wires..." he replied before pulling out a white, polished stone.

"It's a quantum relay interface that is able to connect to computers and other access terminals using... never mind. Point is it doesn't need wires Cam," Carter suddenly piped in over their coms from her position in the Core room on the Odyssey.

"Right... well we need to find one first for it to do... whatever it is you need to do," Cam replied as the team began moving again.

Soon they found what they figured had to be a store based on how many aliens were going in empty handed only to leave with various pieces of tech that none of the team recognized. They filed in one by one and took a moment to survey their surroundings. Probably the size of an average Starbucks, the store had a register area at the back of the room where several customers were waiting to purchase their respective items; at least that's what appeared to be happening. There were several sections to the store that were divided into specific types of whatever this store sold spread out over tables and hung up on walls, and other sections had holographic displays instead of any actual items.

Seeing a screen in a wall with a holographic keyboard near the back left corner of the building, Cam quickly made his way over to it. Once he was within a foot of the terminal, and made sure no one was looking, he pulled out the Asgard device and held it up to the screen. A few seconds went by, then suddenly the screen began to glitch and sizzle out before going dead. Only a millisecond later it came back to life and suddenly began to show line after line of code, scrolling by thousands of lines a second. The transfer only took a few more seconds before the Asgard stone glowed a low light before becoming dull again and the computer went back to its normal state.

"Transfer complete, stand by... okay I've got the translation software. Transferring to your ear pieces now," Carter spoke into the coms.

A moment later the team heard a quiet beep as their ear pieces reset and came back online, and a second later all the incomprehensible rabble from the aliens around them became clear and understandable English. Conversations varied from what kind of omni-tool upgrade they wanted to buying new VI software to help run their business. All of which still went over SG-1's heads, but at least they could hear what they were saying even if they couldn't pick up on the lingo here.

"Well that's one obstacle out of the way," Cam commented, glad to have an avenue of communication to use with these aliens as opposed to a game of charades, "So, anything else you get out of that computer Carter?"

"Yes, a lot more than I expected actually. It's gonna take some time to sort through it all, but for now I'll relay any information relevant to your mission to Daniel's datapad," the Colonel replied before getting back off the com.

A few minutes passed before Daniel's datapad pinged with confirmation as to the information it just received; he pulled it out from his belt as he started to go over information on the aliens that they had encountered so far. Each race had a picture and general data; bullet point data to be sure sense they didn't have time to read a whole book on each race at the moment.

"Okay, looks like those four eyed aliens are called Batarians. Humanoid, aggressive and not very trusting or friendly with other species: particularly humans. The tall ones with horns are called Turians, military society and... oh, not on very good terms with humans either. We're gonna have to be careful interacting with these guys," Daniel read off, pausing as he skimmed the other races profiles.

"Greeting humans!" a higher pitched, distinctively male voice suddenly jumped in from out of nowhere.

The team quickly turned to see a tall and slender alien with two appendages coming out of his head and large black eyes that reminded them of the now dead Asgard.

"Uhh hi there," Cam replied after a moment of hesitation, as despite his two year service on SG-1 his experience with non-human aliens was relatively minimal.

The alien nodded, "I'm Kordo, welcome to Kordo's Tech, Supplies, and Stuff! Can I help you find anything today?" he quickly asked with much enthusiasm.

Vala raised an eyebrow, "Stuff? That's a strange name to call your business?"

"Well studies have shown that humans are 23.8 percent more likely to go into a store if it has a human fling added to the name. And Asari tend to gravitate to more culturally diverse stores," he replied just as quickly.

Vala looked like she had more to say but was cut off by Mitchell.

"Thanks but we just needed to use that computer, we've got some business in other parts of town so we gotta get movin."

The alien put his hands up to show he wasn't offended, "Of course, of course. You look like very busy people who probably have very important places to be, people to see. Just make sure to tell your friends about Kordo's, best place to get VI's and omni tools on Omega!"

With that said he quickly danced his way over to some new potential customers and repeated roughly the same lines to them, clearly having been from a script on how to handle customers. SG-1 made its way out of the store and back into the street which had taken on a more inviting appearance and feel to it now that they could understand and talk to these people here without a problem.

"So what was that guy back there? He seemed as jittery as a grasshopper bakin on a rock in the desert sun?" asked Mitchell.

Daniel swiped a few pages to get to the store owner's race's profile, "Salarian. Smart, quick, and have an extremely fast metabolism that causes them to age at almost twice the rate of humans. They tend to think and speak a lot faster too."

"Hmm, I got a bit of a con man vibe from him," the Colonel thought as he rested his chin on a fist, supporting that arm on his other folded over his chest.

"I liked him," Vala smiled, getting a knowing look back from the Colonel.

"At least we know the name of this space station: Omega. Come on, we got a mission to get on with," he replied as the team began moving again.

1710 Hours
Omega, Milky Way

The team had made their way to the center of the station, closer to the living areas and more populated sections. They figured it would be their best bet in finding out what the state of the galaxy was from someone, as the data they had recovered already would take some time to analyze. So SG-1 found themselves walking along the edge of a street, which also offered a good view of the rest of the station in the distance.
Suddenly three aliens, a Batarian and two Turians, stepped into their path. All three were heavily armed, but hadn't drawn their weapons, yet.

"Humans. Aria wants to see you, now," the Batarian spoke curtly, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Each of them looked at each other, not sure how to respond to that exactly. They had no idea who this Aria was, or what they wanted from SG-1. The only thing they could think of was that this Aria was some sort of authority figure on Omega, and that they hadn't taken too kindly to SG-1's unauthorized intrusion to the station. Still, they weren't being shot at yet, so they figured they weren't in that big of trouble.

"Right... we're kinda new here buddy. Not sure who this Aria is," Cam replied.

One of the Turians to the left of the Batarian growled, but was silenced when the Batarian raised his hand.

"She's the boss of this station human, I'd watch your tone around her if you value your head. Afterlife, Aria, now," he replied, jerking his thumb behind him to the building that had a large line outside of it.

With that the three aliens left the humans and Jaffa to their own devises, and confusion. Looking at the building in question they could see a large line of both humans and aliens waiting to get in, the stairs leading up to the large door surrounded by flames and a large holographic display over head shifting between various languages; finally stopping on English and spelling out Afterlife.

"Well gang, what do we think?" Cam asked his team, despite being the leader he wasn't one to ignore others viewpoints of the situation and wanted to hear their opinions before making a final decision.

"I don't know about you guys, but this Aria sounds like a real hardass. I've always found it best to avoid those types of people," Vala suggested, not eager to get into a confrontation any time soon.

Daniel looked up from his datapad, "Yaaaa, but we're here to get information. If this Aria is the leader of this station then they'd be the most likely to have what we need and get to us. Plus her guards didn't try and use force to make us go, even if it wasn't much of a suggestion. We don't wana offend anyone here, we are guests after all."

Cam nodded at both, thinking to himself their thoughts before turning to look at Teal'c who was looking out at the view of the station. Thinking of his people, Cam guessed, and their current situation.
Despite Earth's continuing efforts to stop the Ori from taking their galaxy, Earth had remained relatively untouched baring the plague that hit not too long ago. Thanks to the Ancient Drone Weapons platform in Antarctica, the threat of an Ori fleet attacking was minimal until they crushed all other remaining holdouts: holdouts like the Free Jaffa. Having the largest standing military in the galaxy, the Jaffa had led the fight on the frontlines against the Ori in an attempt to slow their advance. Despite early losses, the Jaffa had since adapted and followed more Taur'i based tactics of hit and run attacks and found some success; though most traditional Jaffa would only admit it begrudgingly. But it was like trying to stop a tidal wave; you could set up strong walls, evacuate people, take steps to minimize damage, but that wave was gonna come sooner or later and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it. And as strong willed and determined as the Jaffa were it could only delay the inevitable when faced with enemies as powerful as the Ori.

Turning back to Cameron Teal'c spoke, "We must determine exactly what the states of our civilizations are, and while I do believe caution must be exercised, I do not think we have time to search for a alternative option."

The Colonel nodded, feeling that the collective decision had been reached. The team walked over to Afterlife prepared to step in line when the guard, a massive alien Daniel explained was an Elcor, told them they were expected and could go straight in; much to the annoyance and frustration of the people in line. The team quickly filed in as the doors shut behind them, leading them to a large hallway with couches and relaxing chairs that various groups had occupied. As they walked towards the next set of doors, they soon realized that they stood out like a sore thumb. Everyone in this place, as well as the line, were dressed in clean suits and dresses and other very expensive looking clothing. Though they spotted a guard or two, no one else was wearing military BDU's and as heavily armed as they were; it begged the question as to what Afterlife was exactly.

They reached the next door, which pulled apart in the middle with the hologram in the front vanishing and up into the floor and ceiling. Once inside they saw the room was massive, with stands and various upper levels surrounding the middle of the room which was open showed off the lower levels to the building. To their right they saw could only be a bar, and to their left were chairs and booths for sitting. And dancing... everywhere they looked they saw dancing: humans, Asari, Turians, pretty much every species they had just been introduced to today was dancing to the loud beats and heavy bass of the music.

"Oooh, I take it back. I'm really glad we decided to come here!" Vala exclaimed.

"It's definitely not what I was expecting," Mitchell mumbled, turning from a table that had a very scantily clad Asari dancing on it surrounded by a few humans and Turians.

He motioned for his team to follow as he walked towards the bar area and away from the large crowds of people dancing and to get away from the strippers. Despite all he'd experienced these last few years, he was raised in a Catholic home with strong morals. Now he was all for free will, but he wasn't very comfortable with these Asari and humans throwing themselves out there without some self-respect. But those issues would have to wait, as they had more pressing ones to deal with. Walking up to the bar he saw that it was a Turian giving out drinks. The tall alien was in the middle of mixing some kind of blue and purple liquid when he notice four heavily armed humans come up to his bar.

"I hope you're not here to cause any problems humans," the Turian grumbled, clearly not very comfortable with their presence or the very obvious weapons on their persons.

Cam smiled and shook his head before leaning against the bar nonchalantly, "Nope, no problems here pal. Just lookin for a bit of info, we we're told to meet someone named Aria here. Maybe you could point us in the right direction."

The bar tender just stared at the Colonel incredulously before going back to his mixing, "If that's true, then she'll have you brought up to her private lounge when she wants you up there. Not before," he said as he nodded over to the lounge in question overlooking the whole club.

Cam nodded in thanks, but couldn't help but feel annoyed at having to wait. Like Teal'c had just made clear, they didn't have a whole lot of time to be fooling around. The fate of the galaxy might be hanging in the balance, and as per usual it was up to SG-1 to tip the scales.

"Why don't you humans get a drink, you all look like you could use one," the Turian suddenly spoke up before sliding them four glasses filled with a green liquid.

Vala didn't hesitate, immediately her hand reached out at grabbed the nearest glass to her and raised it to her lips to chug back. In turn Teal'c's hand shot out in a blur to halt her consumption of the unknown drink.

Cam's eyes narrowed at the bartender, "You give every new patron here free drinks?"

The Turian shrugged, "Just the ones who might be meeting with Aria; usually means they're heavy hitters here on Omega here on business, or it might be the last drink they'll have if it's not."

That did not inspire confidence in Mitchell, but Odyssey was still within beaming range if things got hot. Plus, if violence had been on this Aria's agenda, she could have sent her men out sooner to attack. Hell, they didn't even exactly know what part of the station they were in, they just happened to make it here by their uncanny luck. It would have been relatively easy to set up an ambush against a four man squad who had no lay of the terrain. So for the moment, he just had to trust that this was the right course of action and that it wouldn't put his team in harm's way.

The team waited for a little while longer, taking the unexpected break in their mission to observe the club in greater detail. Daniel didn't really look up from his datapad much, still very much interested in all the new cultural information he had received from Colonel Carter. Vala spent most of her time trying to get Daniel to come out onto the dance floor with her; something that the good doctor was definitely not trying to do. Teal'c and Cam mostly just watched the guards who were standing near the stairs to the private lounge and at other points throughout the club that gave overlapping fields of fire; ever vigilant for possible threats.
After some time one of the guards, this time a Turian, came up to SG-1 and beckoned for them to follow.

Quickly the team followed, walking up the steps until they came to the opening of the lounge. Behind them was a small booth area, where several prestigious guests were sitting and enjoying a more relaxed social setting. But the overlook had a large U-shaped couch that looked as comfy as it was expensive; one blue skinned women with black leggings that left nothing to the imagination and a white vest that covered her upper back and arms was standing with her arms crossed and her back turned to them.

Before SG-1 could climb the little ramp to get closer all the guards in the vicinity suddenly drew their weapons and aimed them at the team. Teal'c had his Zat and P90 drawn as soon as he saw the twitch of movement, aiming them both at a different guard. Daniel and Vala both put their hands up; the former out of peaceful intentions and the latter out of self preservation. Cam just eyed the Asari in front of him before crossing his arms over his chest.

"Now this ain't any way to treat a guest," he calmly stated.

That seemed to earn a humph of amusement from her, and the woman turned around to face him. He could see that her face had purple tribal markings over it, and it seemed to only highlight the viciousness that her presence filled the area with. This was someone who was utterly confident in their mind and body and abilities; someone who knew what she wanted and that she could have it, and would go to whatever lengths she needed to achieve her goals. Ergo, this was not someone to be trifled with.

"Well, can't be too careful with new faces now can we. You're being scanned for any nasty surprises you might have," she replied in a calm, lusty voice.

On cue, a Batarian to his right pulled up what Cam now knew was an omni tool that seemed to have a full 3D scan of his entire body; highlighting several areas of his body that held his weapons, combat knife, and other such goodies.

"They're clean," the Batarian stated, putting his omni tool away.

Nodding to her men, the guards lowered their weapons. Teal'c held his up only a moment longer before lowering his as well, though he kept his out and ready to go at a moment's notice. The other human members of SG-1 also lowered their arms, though they remained alert for any more foul play from their 'gracious' host. Aria then sat down on her couch, legs crossed and her arms resting in her lap; she motioned for Cam to have a seat to her right, though no one else.

As he sat down he nodded at his team to relax, "So I take it you're Aria?"

"That's right, and it's something you should make a note of remembering. Here on Omega, my word is law. I'm the boss, queen if you like. And you are?" she asked, her words glazed with a fake sincerity.

Cam sat up straighter, "Colonel Cameron Mitchell, commanding officer of SG-1. That's Dr Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran, and Teal'c of Chulac," he introduced himself and his team.

Aria raised what would have been an eyebrow had she any hair, and eyed the three humans and Jaffa in front of her. Clearly none of that mattered to her, so the Colonel continued.

"We came to your station looking for some information, see we're a little lost. If you could help us out, we'd be willing to compensate you," he explained in a clear, professional tone.

Aria tilted her head in confusion, looking over the Colonel and then at the rest of SG-1. She scanned them up and down, then brought her hand to her chin in deep thought.

"I take it your outfit isn't with the Alliance? What is it then: Corsairs? Black Ops? Or just a rag tag group of mercs?" she asked, only adding to Mitchell's already confusing day.

He shook his head, "No ma'am, we're of the Taur'i; Stargate Command. Well, me and Jackson are. Teal'c is a Jaffa and Vala is from... well not too sure about that exactly but she's not from Earth."

"And the Taur'i is what exactly?" she asked, leaning slightly forward with interest.

This of course confused the colonel greatly; by this point the Taur'i and Earth were well known throughout the galaxy as one of the key instruments in bringing down the Goa'uld Empire, alongside the Free Jaffa and Tok'ra. They must have been in a very secluded sector of the galaxy for this Aria to never have heard of them.

"Nevermind, that's not important. What is important is that you need something from me," she interrupted his chain of thought.

Then she smiled, an almost feral grin, and turned to the Colonel.

"I think I can help you with what you need, but first I need you to do something for me," she stated simply.

By the tone of her voice, Cam could tell that he was definitely not going to like where this was going.

"We're not mercenaries ma'am, and not for hire," he firmly stated, not trying to get roped into whatever dirty business she was involved in.

Aria let out a chuckle, "You human military types, ever the boy scouts. As it so happens this won't be any morally questionable work for you, probably nothing worse than what you've already done in the past."

"Why would you even want us to do this? You don't know us, and you don't seem like the type to just hire randoms off the street?" Cam asked suspiciously.

Aria nodded at that, "True enough. But this particular job is... well, let's just say it is a rather sensitive matter. I can't be directly involved in it, nor can any of my known associates. But you four look like you can take care of yourselves, and seem desperate enough not to be picky. Here, this data pad will have all the information you need, if you want my help you're gonna have to run this errand for me. Speak to Garvuk outside the club if you accept, otherwise get the hell off my station."

Being dismissed, Cam and his team went back down the stairs and back into the hallway between the entrance and exit of the club.

"That went well, I think," Daniel commented, thankful that the meeting didn't erupt into a fight.

"I don't know, she didn't even bring up the fact that we snuck aboard her station," Cam pointed out.

Vala shrugged, "She probably doesn't care all that much, we're just four humans on a massive space station among millions of other life forms, and we didn't cause any trouble. Or maybe we're being set up for a shady back alley ambush away from the public eye."

The whole team gave her a hard look at that comment, but couldn't deny the possibility either. They walked out of the club and back into the streets to where they were first approached by Aria's men to have a bit more privacy.

Once there Mitchell contacted the Odyssey, "Sam, this is Mitchell. You copy?"

"Here Cam, you have a status update?" the Colonel asked.

"Affirmative, we met with the person in charge around here. It went pretty good, no one got shot at so I'd chalk that one up as a win. Leader's name is Aria. We got the boss lady to agree to help us out but only if we scratch her back first," he asked her.

"Copy that..." she replied dejectedly, trailing off without another word.

Daniel looked at Teal'c with an inquisitive glance, Teal'c raising his eyebrow in return. When you spent nearly every day of the last ten years with someone, laughed with each other, cried with each other, went to hell and back with each other, you knew when something seriously wrong was affecting that person. Even if it was just through hearing a few words over a radio.

Cam picked up on the two senior team members' vibe, and spoke into his com, "Carter? Everything alright?"

There was a long pause, causing the team to exchange looks of worry. Carter was usually very succinct and to the point, so whatever she had found had clearly rocked her to her core.

"... We're in a different universe," she stated plainly.

That sent the whole team reeling back in shock.

Daniel shook his head as if to clear his wits from being slapped, "Uh come again Sam? Did you just say-"

"Yes I did. The data we got from their computers doesn't match up with our own history; there's no mention of the Ori, Goaul'd, Jaffa, or anything we know about the galaxy today, or rather the galaxy plus a hundred and seventy years into the future. I was only able to take a relatively limited amount since we don't know how advanced their security software is and we don't want to get caught breaking into their systems, but all the information we pulled from their networks, combined with all these new species you've seen today prompted me to use the Core to analyze the quantum frequency this universe resonates at. It's not too far off from our own, but I ran the tests several thousand times to confirm it," she replied sadly, not saying another word.

No one said another word; what could they say? While the team was fairly used to time travel, adding the shift into another universe complicated the already dire situation exponentially. Not only we're they so far from the help of their peoples, but based on what they had seen and what Carter had learned it seemed that there weren't any alternate versions of what they knew and loved in this universe. Or if they're were they might have all died out long ago.

"... But you have some idea on how to get us back right? I mean, we have all the knowledge of the Asgard?! Isn't there something you can do?" Vala exclaimed, panic creeping into her voice.

"Vala..." Daniel started calmly.

Vala let out a nervous laugh, "I-I mean there has to be something-"

"VALA," the archeologist stated more firmly this time, getting her to close her mouth immediately.

Cam shook his head and stared out into the distance wondering how he seemed to be able to keep his head above water with all these seemingly impossible situations he'd been put into over the last few years. Hell, just a few years prior he didn't even know about anything beyond their little blue planet; now he was a whole universe away from home.

"Sir, you on the line?" he asked into the com.

"...Ya, I'm here..." General O'Neill stated in an irritated tone, clearly not any happier with the situation than his team.

"Sir, what are your orders?" the younger officer asked, now even more unsure as to what their next step should be.

"Alright guys, I know we're in a bind here but the need for some good intel is more important now than ever. I know it's not ideal, but we need to reach out to anyone who's willing to share. Let's go over what this... Aria wants from you guys exactly before we jump in bed with her... that sounded a lot different in my head," the General ordered, and the team began relaying their encounter and request from Aria including the datapad she gave them.

Elsewhere on the station two Batarians were standing guard outside a large set of doors leading into a larger facility. It was deep within the bowels of Omega, away from the outer sections and civilian populated areas. In fact, as far as the rest of the station was concerned these areas were no man's land for anyone who wasn't part of the local gangs, and intergalactic ones. There were occasional scuffles, even a small war or two, over the years in these ganglands but there was a relative peace since most of these gangs had offworld operations going and thus had more room to spread out. Plus anyone initiating a full scale war under Aria's watch was asking for a bullet to the head.

"Guard duty again?" sighed one of the Batarians, his body leaning against the building and his gun down and safety on.

The other shook his head and he blew smoke from the rolled up herbs and leaves he was smoking, "I know, I think it's cause we killed some of the merchandise last week. Filthy animals had it coming, but I think in the future we need to exercise a little more restraint."

"I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that they didn't take the loss out of our pay," the other guard agreed.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and a shattering of some glass from the alley about a dozen meters in front of them. The smoking guard dropped his bad habit and brought his gun to bare instantly while the guard leaning against the post scrambled to get his gun prepared. The two inched their way towards the alleyway flinching their guns at every little sound. Another thud came from a small crate on the ground against an abandoned apartment door; the two aimed their weapons at the crate ready to fire on whatever was hiding in it. The lid burst open: a small monkey-like creature leapt from the crate and scurried up a nearby pipe, inaccurate automatic fire trailing behind it.

"Hold your fire! It's just a pyjak!" the smoking guard yelled over his peer's gunfire.

His friend stopped, looking to see if he had hit the creature and disappointed to see he had missed every shot.

"Damn, you really need to work on your aim if you're gonna stick with this outfit," laughed his friend.

Before the inept Batarian could respond there was a loud zapping noise and the two were hit with bolts of blue electrical energy. The currents snaked their way around the bodies of the two Batarians causing their bodies to seize up until the two passed out and dropped to the floor. Out of the shadows SG-1 quickly policed their weapons and dragged the guard's bodies to a nearby garage disposal pin. Once they were hidden, the team sprinted to the doors that now lay unguarded and quickly used the Asgard computer they were given to hack the doors and allow them entry. Once the doors opened they filed inside and shut the doors behind them.

"Well that was easy," Vala stated as they secured the first room in the building, what appeared to be a administrations center of sorts.

"Ya, that's exactly what Leia said to Han when they escaped the Death Star. They didn't know we were coming, and it's only gonna get harder from here on out," Cam commented, moving over to the computer terminal and pulling up its primary archive.
"Okay... looks like we need to take that hallway to the main holding cells, then we'll have to override their lockdown protocols once there. Or rather this little guy is gonna need to," he explained, holding of the Asgard stone.

Cam couldn't help but wonder if they should have even been doing this; assaulting an unknown alien base to rescue unknown aliens in an unknown universe was a bit reckless, even by SG-1 standards.

The team had sequestered themselves away from the populated entrance of Afterlife into a small back alley a few hours earlier. Once they were certain they were away from anyone they briefed Carter and O'Neill on their current situation. None of them were too keen on doing what essentially amounted to mercenary work for what was obviously a criminal organization, but neither could they deny that they needed to know what they were up against in this galaxy.
While the information gathered by Colonel Carter was very helpful in letting them create translation software and identify what species were what, the rest of the information was relatively limited to things pertaining to this station only. And Carter didn't want to risk further intrusion into their more secure databases without proper understanding of the security, stating that the Asgard Core could probably hack into them without issue but it probably wasn't wise to potentially make new enemies. The rest of the team agreed since they had enough on their plate already.
So once they started to go over the intel in Aria's datapad, they realized what she meant by it not being morally questionable: their primary objective was rescue three Asari being held by Batarian slavers. According to Aria, they were being held alongside many others waiting to be shipped out to slave markets in Batarian space. Once that happened they'd be unreachable, so Aria wanted to get them out before that. Of course, she couldn't just charge their gates and take them all herself; she was queen of Omega, but even a queen needed supporters and allies. Attacking these slavers openly would only cause problems with some of her business partners, and she didn't do bad business. So sending in unaffiliated mercenaries was the next best thing.
Everyone on board the Odyssey had spent years fighting the Goaul'd and Ori, trying to stop them from creating a galaxy of slaves to be used and discarded like tools and waste. So it was no surprise that SG-1, both new and old, had a certain amount of passion when it came to fighting slavery. Teal'c was on board almost immediately upon learning what they needed to do, and the rest of the team agreed as well that these people needed to be rescued. So they set to work to creating a plan that followed Aria's general intel on the layout of the base they would be assaulting.

The three humans quickly moved down the hallway, taking their time to be as silent as possible and not alert any more attention. There were a few close calls with hallway patrols they had to dodge, and security cameras which were taken care of by the Asgard-do-it-all computer as Mitchell had come to call it. But soon they came to a door that had a red holographic lock on it, indicating something important behind it.

"Okay, be ready to breach," Cam ordered as he primed a flash bang in one hand and held the computer in the other.

Daniel and Vala nodded, taking up positions on either side of the door. Cam nodded, and a second later the lock turned green and the door opened. A half second after that he threw the flash bang inside, waited for the loud pop, and then rushed inside followed closely by his friends.
The room was about the size of a gymnasium, more of a warehouse than anything else. Lining the left and right sides of the room were small individual rooms with some kind of force fields acting as the doors; there were catwalks above that crossed the top of the room, and a control station in the middle of the room.
And guards. Lots of guards.
Cam shot the first one he saw standing in front of the console, the Batarian going down immediately from a well placed shot to his upper torso. Another two were dropped by Vala and Daniel before all three took cover behind some pillars at the front of the room. Seconds later the other guards in the room got over their disorientation from the flash bang and shock of being engaged and returned fire. SG-1 offered a few potshots to keep the Batarians honest and stuck in cover, but neither could they move up to engage them without taking fire. Suddenly red lights began to shine all over the place and a piercing alarm began to ring out.

Daniel flinched as a chunk of the pillar he was behind was taken out, "Well I think it's safe to say they know we're here now!"

"I told you we should have just beamed in and out!" the thief to his side yelled back.

"Can it you two!," the Colonel barked as he reached up to the radio in his ear, "T we could use a little bit of that ninja Jaffa action right about now!"

On the catwalks above two Batarian guards continued to fire down at the humans in cover. As one stopped to reload his gun was violently ripped out of his hands and thrown down to the ground floor. He then felt a force grip his throat and found himself lifted off his feet and into the air, only seconds later his neck snapped from the immense pressure being exerted on it. His body was then thrown by an invisible force into his friend and the two fell from the catwalks to the ground. Another Batarian taking cover behind the console stood up and stared in shock, only for his head to be completely vaporized by a bolt of yellow energy that seemed to come from out of nowhere. This completely stalled the flow of the battle, the Batarians taken completely by surprise. Two more who were in cover behind pillars from SG-1 were taken down in quick succession by more bolts of energy, and the final guard taken down when he stepped from his cover to engage whatever was taking his men down so quickly.
With all the hostiles in the immediate area taken down, the humans stepped out from their cover and walked over to the control console. Once they walked around to the side that had holographic interfaces on it, there was a shimmering of the space near it and suddenly Teal'c faded into sight.

Cam nodded at his friend as he pulled a dead guard who was lying on the console off it so he could access the interface and turn off the alarm," Good work T. Glad we brought that Sodan cloak with us."

Teal'c nodded, "Indeed Colonel Mitchell."

"Couldn't you have stepped in earlier?" Vala quipped, her arms at her hips and head cocked to the side.

Teal'c stared stoically, then nodded his head in confirmation. Vala just glared back at him silently. Cam just shook his head at the two, then suddenly there was a beep from the console alerting the whole team. Cam found the holo button that was flashing and pressed.

"Detention area, we've detected gunfire coming from your location and the alarm was triggered. What is your status?" asked the deep voice on the buildings com.

Daniel looked to Cam who just stared back and shrugged his shoulders, unsure of what to say. Daniel pointed his head at him and raised his eyebrows in exasperation, urging the officer to say something into the com lest they soon be overrun with more guards.

"Uh yes, we're all good here. Had a slight weapons malfunction, but we're all fine. All good. Here. How are you?" he stated unsurely into the com, causing Daniel to slap his forehead and Teal'c to give him an even harder stare than the one he gave Vala.

"...Alright, we're sending down a squad to secure the area," the voice replied back, obviously not buying Mitchell's attempt at warding off any visitors.

Thinking quickly he pulled out the Asgard device and used it close the door they just came through and disable all the systems in the room. As Cam pulled up some of the bases secure systems, the screen showing many different accounts with varying numbers in the five digit range, Teal'c aimed his staff weapon at the door, turned the weapon down to a lower setting, and fired a blast fusing the door shut.

"Well hopefully that buys us some time," Cam commented.

The team noticed that the detention cells' force fields had been deactivated and the occupants had slowly stared to file into the room. Most were human, though there were the few Asari they were here for and even a Turian, and were only garbed in rags and clearly not been given the best treatment. Many had cuts and bruises on their bodies, others had grime that indicated they hadn't showered in some time. Each one seemed to wear a neck brace that had neural shocks attached, and they all were frightened or nervous at the team that had just eliminated their captors. Daniel holstered his weapons and slowly walked over to the crowd that had formed in front of them, his hands raised to show that he wasn't a threat.

"Easy, my name is Doctor Daniel Jackson. This is Colonel Mitchell, Vala, and Teal'c. We're here to rescue you all," he calmly explained.

"Ya, how do we know you're not just trying to steal the goods and sell us for a better price?" questioned a man near the front of the crowd.

"Well we did just risk our lives to free you. The least you could do is thank us," Vala scolded as she crossed her arms and leaned back on her right leg.

Cam moved between his team and the large group in front of them, "Easy now, like Jackson said we aren't here to hurt ya. But we don't have a lot of time so we need to move. Now."

With that said he used the Asgard computer to hack into the prisoners' collars the way Sam had showed him and deactivated them, causing them to short out and fall from their necks to the ground. The slaves, now free, massaged their necks in surprise and relief now that the uncomfortable devices were off. This seemed to buy SG-1 a modicum of trust, at least enough to help them escape.

"How many of you can hold a gun?" the Colonel asked as he nodded to Teal'c, the Jaffa master in turn moving over to the wall in the back of the room and planting a C4 charge.

The three Asari stepped forward, the Turian, and a few humans as well. Mitchell instructed them to grab the weapons from the now dead Batarians and get ready to help defend the group. Once armed, they all took cover behind the pillars and whatever cover they could find.

Cam nodded to everyone in assurance, "Fire in the hole."

A second later the wall exploded outward into another hallway and the whole group quickly filed out of the detention area. They moved down the hallway, though their pace was slowed by the injuries the newly freed slaves had gained while in captivity. Amazing they encountered no resistance on their way out, which only seemed to put them all even more on edge.

Cam held his hand up as they came to a large set of doors, "Okay people, according to the schematics we pulled this door leads to a hangar with some shuttle we can use to get out of here. Bad news is we haven't ran into any other guards, which means they're probably waitin' for us on the other side of this door. You three," he pointed to the Asari, "You guys use your super funky powers to keep us from getting mowed down as soon as we open this door."

The three Asari stared at him in confusion, "You mean biotics?" one of them asked, her arms folded across her chest.

"Yes that's what he meant," Daniel stepped in for his friend, giving SG-1's leader a pointed look.

"Yep, that. Then I want the rest of you guys who have weapons to take the left flank, my team will take the right. Now assuming they don't have any nasty surprises waiting for us, we should be able to take the rest of them down without too much of a problem. We all clear on this," he asked the crowd, getting firm nods from the people who wanted to be as far as possible from this place.

His team took position on the right side of the door while the Turian and a couple of humans took the left side. The three Asari raised their hands in preparation, then gave Mitchell a firm nod. He quickly tapped the door's hololock and it opened up. A large blue field of energy appeared in front of the Asari just before it began taking a hail of gunfire. The blue women moved forward, spreading out slightly to cover the two teams as they followed in behind them.
The hangar was fairly open and spacious; there were several shuttles parked with cargo and boxes of various shapes and sizes lying around. There was a line of containers near the hangar doors, behind them were about a dozen Batarians firing everything they had at the armed slaves and SG-1. Both teams took cover behind nearby crates, followed by the Asari. Once in cover they began to trade fire with the Batarians, with only the Turian and Teal'c managing to take a couple of them out.

"Cease fire!" a loud voice called out over the gunfire.

The Batarians all held their fire as the other side followed suit only moments later.

"Attention all slaves, lay down your weapons and return to your cells immediately! Human interlopers, surrender now and you may all live to be slaves for the Hegemony!" the voice barked, now identified to be a Batarian standing up on a crate so as to be seen and heard by all.

Cam popped a fresh clip into his P90, "Let me think on that!"

Jumping out of cover Cam fired a short burst at the Batarian leader, the bullets puncturing his suit and toppling the guard over and onto the ground. The rest of his team and the slaves opened up again, managing to fell a few more before taking cover again from the Batarian response.

One of the Asari growled and tightened her fists, her body glowing blue from the sudden surge of biotic power.

"I will not be a slave any longer!" she cried, rising from cover and throwing a condensed blue sphere of energy towards the middle of the Batarian line.

The sphere landed right behind the guards, freezing midair with the middle of it turning as black as the sea outside the station. Waves of purple and blue energy radiated off the sphere, and suddenly any Batarian within a meter of it levitated into the air. They spun and toppled into each other as the effects of gravity that once head such a tight grip on their body disappeared. Teal'c, taking advantage of the situation, stood up and quickly fired three accurate bolts of plasma at the guards. The force of the impact sent their bodies flying out of the sphere's range of effect and into the hangar bay doors behind them. The rest of the occupants of the battle, minus SG-1, stared at Teal'c in shock as they had clearly never seen such a weapon. SG-1, unfazed, fired upon the remaining Batarians. Their allies soon followed, and within in a few minutes all the remaining guards had been killed. They moved slowly over to the Batarians position to ensure that they were all dead; once satisfied they signaled the other slaves taking cover in the hallway to move into the hangar.

Cam walked into the middle of the group, "Alright, good work people. Time to high tail it outa here, anyone here who can pilot the second shuttle?"

A short woman stepped out from the back of the crowd, "Y-yes I can f-fly it. I was a shuttle pilot for the c-colony I live at. Lived at..." she trailed off.

Cam nodded understandably, "Alright, sounds good. Let's hoof it people, I'm sending the rendezvous point to the shuttle. We'll all meet up there, then drinks are on me."

With a much renewed stride in their step, the freed prisoners divided into two groups and boarded the shuttles. SG-1 boarded their shuttle, finally relaxing and taking a seat inside the passenger section. Cam walked into cockpit and sat in the pilot's chair and prepared the shuttle for takeoff. Daniel came up behind him, leaning over his shoulder as he watched Cam fumble around with the holographic interface.

"Uh... you sure you can fly this thing?" he asked unconfidently.

Cam looked at him, as if to ask 'do you know who I am', "Come on Jackson. I'm an ace F-302 pilot, flown a Puddle Jumper, and a Death Glider or two just to name a few. I think I can break in this old horse without too much trouble."

Daniel just shook his head, but dropped back with the others none the less. Once he had sent the coordinates for the meet up to the other shuttle, he managed to find the basic flight controls for his shuttle and activated the engines. The hangar doors opened up and the two shuttles flew out and into the 'skies' of Omega, free and clear.

Looking out at the now former slaves, who were now finally grasping the fact that they were free and were hugging each other and crying, Vala couldn't help but smile, knowing all too well what it was like to be a slave.

"You know, the last few months haven't really gone all that well for us. But I have to say, it feels nice for things to go right once in a while," she said as she leaned against Daniel.

For once the archeologist didn't resist the intimate gesture, as he too was glad that they were able to do something good for someone again. The last few months, hell the last two years, had been nothing but defeat after defeat at the hands of the Ori. They had some small victories, sure, but the Ori juggernaut had swept across the galaxy in a way that almost made them wish for the days of the Goaul'd. For now though, they could enjoy this victory. Even if it was for someone as shady as this Aria seemed to be, it was still a good feeling.
Teal'c leaned against the bulkhead, his staff resting against his shoulder. He too was glad that they had rescued yet more people from slavery. It seemed that even a universe away there were those who seek to use and exploit innocents with force. And despite the feelings of loss and uncertainty he felt at their current situation, he for once agreed with Vala Mal Doran. It was good for something to go right.

Soooo ya I thought I was gonna abandon this story but I was hella bord and got a sudden urge to keep it going. Sorry it took soooo long, hope you guys enjoy it though. I'll have another chapter up relatively soon. Peace and love!