Ishta's Mother ship held station about twenty kilometres out from the Ori ship, she had six fighters flying CAP in and around the area, keeping watch for any unseen nasties that might appear. That was Sam's idea, a good one it was agreed. Mac sat in the pilot's seat of the 401, one of Ishta's Jaffa pilots filled the co-pilots. He was there on Cam's insistence, two sets of hands on the wheel, were better than one, was his reasoning. The remainder of the ships occupants were seated in securely, in either the rear troop places, or the two crew places behind the pilot. Mac had a digital stopwatch stuck to the console in front of him.

Mac spoke to Jar'el, the Jaffa beside him. "Ok son, as soon as that clock reaches ten seconds, punch the hyper-drive. Sam we have got the co-ordinates correct haven't we? I don't want to think about where we might end up otherwise."

"Yes sir, it's all set. We'll be in hyper-space for less time than we can even think about anything at all."

"Right. Listen up folks. This is gonna be rough, so hang on tightly and cinch your harnesses till you can't breathe, well almost anyway."

They all followed Mac's order to the letter. One Marine's face actually started to turn coloured. Vala squeezed Daniel's hand until he grimaced. Sam and Mitchell were the only ones who seemed calm, Jonas seemed to be praying, or perhaps remembering something he should have done. Mac reached for the button on the clock, his finger hovering briefly, then he tapped it forcefully. The counter looked like it was changing numerals in slow motion. Jar'el's brow was beading with sweat, finally the ten came around and he hit the hyper-drive. "Here we..." Was all Mac managed to say.

The familiar hyper window formed in front of them and the Tornado was literally sucked in. As Sam said, it was ever so brief. Mac was concentrating on the clock, his hands gripping the controls with all his strength, which at fifty eight years, he figured wasn't worth much. Others knew he always underrated his abilities.

A loud crash and a shower of sparks in rear section heralded their arrival. The vectoring re-programming worked, just. As the 401 came in under the Ori ship's shield, the tail skimmed the surface of the shimmering field, enough to register a small hit. There was no real damage, just darkened skin on about a foot of tailplane. Mac engaged the docking bolts, flat skids that lowered and drove explosive hardened bolts into the Ori ships fuselage. White faces showed everyone's reaction and not a sound was heard, except for a couple of sputtering cables in the trunking. A quick check of diagnostics said all was well. Cam was the first to speak. "Man that was cool sir, we gotta go around and do it again."

Teal'c unstrapped himself and leaned into the forward section. "Are you having fun Colonel Mitchell?"

"Are you kidding T, that was just..."

The young Jaffa Jar'el finished it for him. "Awesome." He said, unsure if it was the right Tauri word. With that, the whole lot if them burst into laughter. Jonas wore a grin as wide as the Mississippi.

When the humour died down, Sam took control, she immediately did an atmosphere test of the Ori ship and reported to Mac. "I don't know how you knew sir, but the inside of the ship is, toxic. It's something like we've come across before."

"Such as Sam." Daniel looked at her, he sensed something as well.

"Remember when that prior held the gate open for their first supergate, he was inside a shield, which was toxic. Well this is much the same and the energy readings I'm getting are much on a frequency as then. We could be dealing with a situation much the same."

"Recommendations Sam? Oh and it was just a hunch by the way" Mac turned in his seat.

"Uh-huh." She said sceptically. "Well for starters, luckily, the toxicity doesn't seem to be as strong as back then. The main source of the higher energy readings are coming from the bridge. I think the first order of business, is to try and shut down the shields, then the ring platform. Then we should try and find out what this energy source is."

"Are there any life-signs Colonel Carter?"

"One. In the bridge Teal'c."

Cam looked to the Admiral as he left the pilot's seat. "Sir?"

"There is not a lot I can add right now Cam, until we know what's goin' on down there. Just do what you gotta do and find the threat. I'm sure there'll be one. A single life eh Sam." He thought for a moment. "I expect everyone of you, to be careful though, I'll just hang here with Jar'el until you call me. But Sam...shields first I agree. I'll beam you all down to the aft section near the power core."

The inside of the Ori ship was well lit and the moment SG1 and the troops beamed in, they all saw the same thing. Bodies here and there, no wounds, no sign of battle. A pale haze filled the spaces and the only sound was the breathing noise in the HAZMAT suits. Cam ordered a teamed patrol, so everyone went off in three's or two's. Jonas teamed up with Sam and Teal'c; naturally Vala went with Daniel and one Marine. Cam paired with a grizzled Marine veteran Sergeant he'd known for awhile, and the last was Captain Hampton with two of his men, Corporal Singer went with two others.

Searching every space took some time, when Sam had reached the shield drive, she radioed to others, that they should be as quick as possible. Though the toxic levels were low, they were still lethal. Their suits would only protect them for about an hour or so. She had Jonas monitor the conditions constantly, whilst she examined the emitter crystal console.

At first both Sam and Jonas thought it will be a simple task just to pull the crystals out, but on a valuation once she had connected her laptop, Sam figured out that it would only cause a massive feedback and probably blow them all up. There had to be a way to by-pass the circuit.

Daniel and Vala had better luck. They were in the ring platform room and Daniel saw that there was a relay running from the master crystal opening, back to a power conduit in the wall. It was fairly rudimentary, plainly just providing extra power to the rings. He was reminded of the time Jack O'Neill boosted the rings to get through the ice on Antarctica. 'Was this doing the same thing?' He thought.

Vala leaned into his arm. "Daniel why don't we just pull that cable out?"

"Hmm, yes it does seem to be as easy as that doesn't it." He reached down to where the cable went into the ring panel, his hand poised for a long moment, then he closed his eyes and yanked it out. The continuous hum for the ring platform stopped. "And presto." Vala exclaimed.

Daniel spoke into his radio. "Ah Sam, Daniel here, Vala and I have disconnected the rings."

"That's good Daniel, we're still in the shield emitter room. No luck yet. Head on out and find Cam, we'll join you as soon as we can."

She then spoke to Teal'c. "Jonas and I will work this out, go catch up with Cam." He nodded and moved out to find the others."

Cam had linked up with the other marines, all they found was more bodies. Men and women both, perhaps up to several hundred. They headed toward the bridge.

Jonas was looking at the laptop. "Sam, there..." He pointed to the screen. "You see that fluctuation there. That's an energy shift, slightly into the negative cycle. If we ramp up the power to max, then shut it down quickly, that should work. But we have to time it to the next time it drops."

"Yeah, that'll work." She watched closely at the screen and waited to see the wave drop. At that instant, she tapped her keyboard, which sent the power scale up to one hundred percent. As soon as it reached that mark, she cut the power manually from the laptop inputs. A winding down of power sounded their success. "Hey it worked." She hit Jonas not too lightly on the arm. He didn't flinch.

On the radio she called the 401. "Admiral sir we think the shields are down, but we need you to confirm for us."

"No problem Sam. I'll get right on it." He turned and spoke to Jar'el. "What do you think my young Jaffa friend?"

The young man looked out into the darkness of space, stars glittered in the distance. Far off he could see his Captain's ship. "Admiral, if we contact Captain Ishta, perhaps she can help." That gave Mac an idea, he caught sight of one of the fighters passing his field of veiw.

"Four oh one victor to closest 307, do you copy?"

The 307 replied. "This is Lieutenant Bera, what can I do for you Admiral."

"She is a good pilot sir. She is from a village near my home, I know her well." Jar'el whispered.

A little more than you're letting on son, he thought. "Bera, I want you to test the shields on this Ori ship, are you up to it?"

"Yes sir, what do you wish of me?"

"Just fire a single blast, slightly behind my ship, but not at the Ori vessel itself, just low enough to penetrate the shield."

The Jaffa 307 pilot came around hard and followed Mac's instructions, a short blast past behind the 401's tail. Low enough to have impacted to shield if it was active. Nothing, zilch, nada.

"Thankyou Bera."

"You're welcome sir." She continued her CAP.

"Sam...the shields are down!" Then he turned to Jar'el. "We've got a little while to fill in lad, now let's see what's in my bag." Mac moved down to the rear section and lifted up a rather full dive bag. He opened it and removed a laptop, the lid of which had been hand painted in camo. Looking around Mac found a power outlet and plugged the adapter in, started up the computer, then removed two usb joysticks from the bag and connected those. "C'mon kid, let's see how we can fill in the time."

The boarding party had reached the forward section of the ship, the lighting here had changed. Not too far from the bridge, the passages took on an orange luminescence. To Sam and SG1 it was very familiar. The memory of the Prior and the first Super-Gate, was not so far away. A steady hum of power could be plainly heard now in this section. Cam ordered the Marines to take up guard positions at various adjoining passageways, to cover a wider area. He didn't know why, they had not as yet encountered a single living being, but experience taught him to be prepared for anything.

SG1 moved slowly forward. Just around the corner the first portion of the bridge area came into view. Teal'c held up his fist, to halt. The rest of them bunched up near him. All of them as one simply stood there transfixed, there was nothing that unusual about the bridge of the Ori ship, apart from the fact it was configured somewhat like their own ships. That is to say, no Prior had to control the vessel, it had seating positions for various crew. Upgrades they all thought. Yet the single thing that drew their attention was a lone man, middle in his years, dark hair to his shoulders, just standing in the middle of the raised platform, near what was obviously the captain's chair; his arms outstretched, lines of visible blue power radiating out from his hands and that sickly Ori force shield surrounding him for about three metres. When SG1 drew to the edge of the visible edge of the field, he turned slowly toward them.

Teal'c raised his Zat gun toward the figure but Sam placed her hand on his arm to forestall him. "No Teal'c, I think that is just what he wants us to do. Give him more power." She clearly saw those fiery eyes they had all witnessed in Adria.

The figure, dressed in long off-white robes spoke, a sickly deep baritone. "Ah Colonel Carter, what a disappointment it is. I've come all this way and you offer me no challenge? Adria told us your kind would be difficult. Still I thought this might have been more interesting."

"Who are you, what are you doing here. If you haven't yet noticed bucko, there's nothing left of your fleet, your ship is full of dead people, we've isolated the shields and ring platform, and there is enough C4 attached to your main power source to send you back to your own galaxy. And hey folks, the guy stands here almost gloating!" Mitchell could be a very good orator when he put his mind to it.

"Colonel Mitchell, I thought you would have been much more intelligent than that. There is no explosives, I only wish you had though, it would have made my efforts much more rewarding. Quicker as well, I grow tired of this." He indicated the lines of power emanating from his hands. "Never mind though, I shall indulge your curiosity. Before you sought to destroy us previously, our child, the one you, Vala Mal Doran so kindly carried for us..." Vala looked at him with malevolent anger. "...gave us, what is that quaint expression you people use, ah yes. She gave us the head's up so to speak. We knew what you had planned, with a little help from our enemy, the Ancients to your kind. So a number of us re-took human form and entered your galaxy some time ago to formulate our final plan."

"Whoa, back up there. You said you re-took human form...if that's true then you are.."

"Ori Daniel Jackson!" Now he was gloating. "And to answer Colonel Mitchell's question, I'm here to destroy your world, in fact when I'm finished this solar system will not exist. The fleet, ah yes, a mere distraction whilst I did my work, you would be fascinated I think Colonel Carter. This planet, you name Jupiter, will be a new star, very soon!" Clasping his hands, the power momentarily withdrew, he smiled contentedly, then he spread his arms again. The blue lines of energy appeared stronger this time.

Jonas, who up until now had said nothing, but there was something here he thought might give them something to work on. He peered hard at the streams of blue light and compartmentalised it away.

To Be Continued