Disclaimer - SGC Franchise and characters are not my creation. I don't own SGC, Character, Story or Franchise in any manner. This is a work of Fanfiction and I make no money from this whatsoever.

NOTE: stephenopolos helped me provide another set of eyes during editing of this chapter. He also provided me that News bit later in the scene. Thanks to him, it now looks better.

Unknown saboteurs and hijackers, invading his domain, the audacity of it. He was Cronus, worshiped as a god on over sixty planets. His thoughts for the moment were consumed with the burning question, who dared invade his domain.

That was all he could think about. He wasn't worried about theft of the resources. Resources could be gathered, it's the knowledge about his territory that was valuable. Someone now knew about his crown jewel of Trinium production.

To say he was furious, would be an understatement. In front of him, a few of the Jaffa who were responsible for the security were writhing on the floor. Their punishment, death by removal of the symbiote - the harshest penalty for any Jaffa.

He sat down on his throne and signaled to an attendant to remove these scum from his presence.

"Who dared to invade my planets?" Cronus once again wondered. One of his master Jaffa had gone on the ground and produced evidence for this invasion. They came from the Chappai and then somehow manage to infiltrate and control the Hat'ak.

He also produced small, deformed metal slugs. A kind of ballistic weapon? Primitive, but surprisingly effective. A primitive society, though, could never capture his ships.

This meant sabotage from within. Any of the minor Goa'uld working for him, wouldn't ally themselves with a primitive society.

"It must be a Tok'ra then!" he exploded in anger. They had been thorn in his side for centuries. It seemed to him, the Tok'ra were not only changing their tactics, but had also decided to ally themselves with a primitive civilization. He scoffed, only they would choose to sully themselves with the dregs of the galaxy.

His ashrak agent, he sent after one of them, didn't report back. Compromised maybe? He wasn't that worried about the agent, though, he could always get more where that one came from. These Tok'ra scum, though, felt like any other goa'uld, it was so hard to identify them. He needed a plan to deal with them and their new allies.

"Bring me Nirrti."

R-Jack wasn't surprised by the news from SGC-Earth. In many ways, it was a sound decision, they needed to master what they already had. While also continuing to explore if only so they had some advance warning when it came to other advanced and potentially hostile civilizations.

Their people on Altair were coming up new inventions almost on daily basis.

He'd heard some whispers among few engineers about a holodeck in the works. He had no idea if they'd succeeded with the project yet, but it seemed like cool idea.

Scaling down SGC-Earth's operation wouldn't hit them as hard, they had copied all of their workforce. With Android strength, they were moving quickly with any kind of heavy world load. Harlan was happy with the increased workforce from the many people on his base, but he also ran them hard, fixing and updating things as needed.

SG-Altair was being re-tasked to handle the exploration part of the SGC's old job description, while SGC-Earth would focus more on gathering Naquadah and Trinium from currently known deposits. Once again, SG-Altair had been lucky. They bumped into princess Shyla and her father who was playing "the god slayer".

They gained another sarcophagus, which geeks were very happy to rip it apart to see how it worked. The only other interesting thing they found was about degrading nature of sarcophagus, confirming what they already suspected from the Tok'ra Jolinar's memories.

"Maybe, we should keep it away from our politicians. Though I doubt they could be that much more corrupt than they already are," R-Jack chuckled at his own joke.

From what Jack had told him, both the Navy and the Army were moving quickly, SGC operations was still in Air force hands. He'd let Jack handle and worry about whatever was happening Earth-side. This planet, was their R&D cum new SG Command. He was itching for more action oriented missions.

Speaking of the new command, he was wondering about Tok'ra, they would be coming soon. Thankfully, they were almost done with upgrading the whole place. Harlan's people had their own version of a matter constructor, which Sammy upgraded from her work on the Goa'uld constructor. If they had to spit shine the whole damn place, they'd do it and make it look like brand new.

"Hmm… maybe I should send few androids to that Keeper's world?" R-Jack wondered, as long as they don't appear to be associated with the people who freed the natives, keeper shouldn't mind talking to them.

Anise stepped out of the puddle, her keen eyes and scientific mind noticed the details the rest of her team would probably miss. At least, these people understood the need of secrecy and security. She was then led into a medical chamber and asked to lay on a bed.

She noticed as the bed was scanning, these people from the Altair had holographic technology. At first she thought, they were putting on a show for her, but she was surprised at the detail of information this hologram was providing to the medical personnel. While holographic technology in general wasn't such a big deal, the detail from the scan left her feeling naked.

"Ms. Anise, we have finished with the process. You can get up." The medical personal turned to her.

"Thank you. I am impressed at your level of technology." She turned to the personnel, who just nodded and smiled.

'Not much for conversation? Probably they were told not to.' Anise wondered as she was, once again led by one of the security officer.

Not a minute later, she reached the meeting room, where the diplomatic team was already there. One of their people got up and welcomed her.

"Ms. Anise, we are glad you are here. I believe, this will be a good start for our group." He said and signaled to one of his teammate.

"As we promised, this is Jolinar and one of the ashrak we captured, assigned by Cronus to kill her both of which we've placed in stasis." He explained as she could see two labeled stasis containers. She was surprised at this gesture, of course they had negotiated Jolinar's release.

"I am surprised…" she was interrupted by the diplomat.

"Surprised that we are giving her away easily?" he shrugged, "We have no intention of keeping Jolinar here. Your people have been a thorn in the Goa'uld sides for centuries. We appreciate that."

This was what their people were initially worried about, dealing with less advanced civilization had their own issues. They often tend to manipulate situations to their favor.

Anise nodded, and then wondered about the deal, "So you want me to use tunneling technology to create a hidden base for you?"

"That's right. Our world is dead, so there is a need to create a secure underground bunker for expansion." He said as he slid the tablet to her, "These are our estimates, which are pretty similar to what we gave your council. There are few changes here and there, nothing big."

Anise looked over at the layout, and was impressed with the plan. She could see, why these people weren't as impressed with Goa'uld tech. They didn't want any of the Goa'uld technology, what they really wanted were the Tok'ra tunneling crystals. Their tunneling tech was quite versatile. You could easily create a network of underground structure, no matter the size. And the biggest advantage was, the natural compounds used in the tunnel walls made it hard to find this network with Goa'uld sensor technology.

The plan in front of her would be able to house at least a few thousand people comfortably, creating multiple networks and bases.

She looked up at the team in front of her, "I'll have to input this blueprint and then it'll take few hours to manufacture and activate the crystals."

"That's great, Ms. Anise. On the behalf of our people, I thank you." He said and bow slightly in respect.

Anise was gone, R-Jack looked at the tunnels, created by her. It also create a sort of super structure, able to handle high level of bombardment, well unless someone sabotaged it.

He turned to Carter, "what do you think of this technology?"

Carter looked up from her laptop, "Sir, its everything we thought it would be and more."

"Oh really?"

"It does more than just tunneling, there is also a limited amount of sensing capabilities. You wouldn't want to dig through a vein of Naquadah or any of the other volatile elements."

R-Jack looked startled at that, "Do you mean we can use them as a sensor for mining?"

Carter nodded, "Something like that. It won't do the mining by itself, but you can sweep it for raw material. It's better and deeper than any scan provided by any of the normal Goa'uld technology."

"What about mining itself?"

"Sir, Harlan's people has that kind of tech, a nano-tech. A couple of our engineers are working over time to improve it."

R-Jack just hummed, as they walked towards the meeting room.

"Any news on the spaceship front?" He asked her.

"We've finalized the design for space fighters. From the design, we should be able to launch it through the Stargate too." Carter explained.

"Specs?"

"Limited shielding, surface to space capabilities, plasma weapons, and options for either rail-gun or hyperdrive. At least at first it's only railgun addition."

"What do you mean?"

"We are trying to miniaturize the hyperdrive, able to hop around in the solar system. Right now, I don't think the first generation of our fighters will have it." She explained.

"Don't railgun have better range and speed than plasma weapons? Those things are deadly." R-Jack remembered the way that snipe shot ripped Herur-ur apart.

"But they do require ammunitions sir."

"Ah, there's that." He agreed.

"We are trying to work on increasing range effectiveness of plasma weapons, so far we have far too many irons in the fire, sir."

"What about matter constructors? You think you can turn one into something with big and with massive production capabilities?" He said, as he opened the door to the meeting room, noticing most of his brain trust was here.

"I think we'll able to produce fighters earlier than planned. Our constant tinkering of matter constructors, we've improved them a lot." She said as she took her chair.

R-Mckay interjected, "Yeah, if we can improve on Altair's matter re-constructors, we should be able to reconstruct new stuff from old. There will be some limits though."

"What kinds?"

"Well, there will no turning lead into gold or something silly like that."

"I understand that part, Mckay." R-Jack glared at him, "I am more interested in something like we put old fighters in, add more material and it comes out as brand new."

Carter interjected before R-Mckay could piss off R-Jack anymore, "That would be too complex, maybe ten years down the line… not now. What we should be able to do, is create frame structure or other parts pretty much in bulk."

"How much time to assemble a fighter?"

Carter looked thoughtful for a second, "Somewhere around a week. We should be able to cut that time down as we improve this technology?"

R-Jack was almost on the edge of his chair, "Are you telling me you can do it in a week?"

Carter shook her head in negative, "Not right now, sir. We are improving this technology as much we can. Adapting parts of Goa'uld and Tollan tech will take some time. In couple of months, we should be able to do it."

R-Jack leaned back on his chair, this was good news. If they could do it in couple of months…

"What can you guys do, to hurry it up?"

R-Mckay stopped it, "um-hmmm… not possible. We'll have to take this tech through multiple tests. You don't want fighter to fall apart in the space, do you? Doesn't matter how many resources you throw at it. Without taking the time to understand the underlying engineering principles, You'll only over complicate it."

Carter also nodded, "I agree, sir. Though I recommend to work on our anti-Ha'tak technology or strategy."

"Transphasic torpedoes?" Mckay smirked at her.

Carter rolled her eyes, "Tollan tech is encrypted, I doubt we'll be able to break it anytime soon. They are good."

"What about bigger yield explosive with Naquadah?" R-Jack had to ask about that.

"Not good enough. Even with our current knowledge, creating high enough yield to break through the shield, not possible. The ones we threw at Apophis ship, they were good enough, and we could throw those at him all day long without any result."

R-Jack nodded, "Well, I'll let you guys think about bypassing this shields. Go through our database, see and find any solutions for this."

R-Mckay muttered, "It's not like we have a magic wand we can wave around everytime you ask and we say abracadbra."

"I heard that Mckay." R-Jack turned and said, getting a flinch from Mckay.

Breaking News:

"ESA president Jacobi announced this morning a new economic initiative to create the infrastructure on earth to support exploration of the asteroid belt aimed at obtaining rare earth resources via asteroid mining. Sources within the president's office say several cash prizes have been set for successful development of key technologies."

"Britain's own Prime Minister had this to say:"

The image on the screen switched to Tony Blair giving a statement to the press.

"Developing this technology is key for the continued economic stability and security of the United Kingdom. My office is ready to issue tax breaks and research grants through the Royal institute for science, for the individuals and corporations that help us reach this goal in the next five years."

The screen switched back to the reporter.

"The ministers statement has received harsh criticism by political opponents and governmental advisor's, opposition party member Percival Dwyer had this to say, 'this policy move by the MP's office is unaffordable and a distraction from the ongoing financial situation in Southeast Asia.' He went on to criticize the ministers five year goal for this planned space exploration project."

"This is Kate Lockewell with BBC Air 3 news."

Switching to the newsroom:

"Thanks Kate, the future is looking bright, in other news, the Minister's announcement was met by a sharp rise in the stock market index for commercial interests in space exploration. We go now to market analyst James Thomas, James?"

"I still believe, we shouldn't have let the cat out of the bag, sir." The aide switched the TV off and turned towards his seniors.

In the room, pretty much every single person on who's who list of spooks were there. The biggest gathering of British spies, the aide almost snickered at the thought.

"Son, that man is a political shark, he's planning for long term." One of the senior spook said to him.

"Indeed, politicians never looked at space exploration because not only it's costly but there is no guarantee." Another member spoke, as he pointed at the folder marked "Space Exploration", "There is no 'If", rather 'when' he'll succeed. With a working spaceship, its only a matter of time."

"Adding a noted feminist and so-so scientist to this list will appeal to women's group." He continued, "Politics is all about manipulating the public opinion, it doesn't take much to sway a women's opinion anyway."

Rest of the room chuckled at his dry comment.

"He pretty much ensured his place in the history books for next few hundred years. We are the first, the only one to take initiative when the world expected Americans to do something like this. Even in the worst case scenario, they'll never be able to disclose their SGC operation to the public."

"And it's our job to ensure that it stays that way." He looked at his counterparts in the room.

Another dead planet, how many dead planet they came across? R-Jack wondered about that for a second, he sighed or he would have if he could breathe in here. This is why SGC-Earth had passed this exploration mission to Altair, they'd be able to explore more in short time.

After getting fit with some sort of internal communicator, at least they could contact with each other in vacuum. He decided to get every android fitted with this technology.

"Anybody home?"

"Jack, it may as well be the moon out here. If there ever was anybody home, they've been gone a hundred thousand years or more." Daniel (R-Daniel) spoke on his communicator, "and with our internal communication, I doubt anyone can listen to you."

BigT (R-Teal'c) spoke, "This world is definitely Tal'ac. Though it once supported life, it is now extinct."

Carter (R-Sam2) commented, "Well, the probe picked up an EM source coming from something."

"My guess…that thing." R-Jack shined his light upon a small globe like structure on top of a pedestal. R-SG1 walks towards it as Carter confirmed it as a source for EM.

"Are we in danger?" R-Jack wondered for a sec.

Carter replied, looking at the device, "No sir, I don't think so. Not at the moment. But, I mean this is incredible. If Daniel is right, this artifact has been doing this since Neanderthals were still a dominant species on earth."

"Ah, that takes me back." R-Jack almost rolled his eyes, almost every civilization that was up and running when their ancestors were living on trees and flinging poo around.

R-Daniel exclaimed, "Look at this writing of some kind, it's so tiny."

Carter spoke, "Well, it's maintaining an interior temperature of thirty three degrees Fahrenheit, it's generating an electromagnetic field and emitting small amounts of alpha, gamma, and delta radiation."

R-Jack deadpanned at Carter, who tended to forget important things, like ay survival, with hi-tech around, "Well, I know that. Why does it do that? I'm trying to make a threat assessment here, Captain."

Carter looked at him and said, "I don't know what it is, sir. But it's got a power source more advanced than anything we've come across, including the Goa'uld."

Danny connected the dots for them, "It's a time capsule. Well, that's an educated guess, but imagine your civilization is facing a major cataclysm. The end is coming, you know it. Wouldn't you leave something behind? Something that told everyone that came after you who you were."

For the next few minutes, they deliberated on taking it back or not. Even though they had good amount of tech back home, but getting another tech base from completely different civilization might open new avenues for them.

"That's it, guys. Let's go" R-Jack said, as we walked to the globe and picked it up.

"Move…" As he took next stepped, he convulsed and almost fell down.

"Sir, are you alright?" Carter was wary of whatever happened to R-Jack. It would not be a coincidence, the moment he touched that globe, he almost fell down.

"This is truly a strange feeling…" She heard R-Jack's voice, which sounded a little different.

"Colonel?"

"Yes, he is here." R-Jack/Alien said.

Now she was sure, R-Jack was infected with Alien device, she raised her gun towards him.

"Are you the alien entity from that globe?"

R-Jack tilted his head, like he was thinking, "Yes, we are."

That was interesting form of representing himself or herself or it.

"God above, I hope we are not facing borg here. That's all we need." Carter thought with a little trepidation.

R-Daniel took a step forward, "If Jack is in here, then you should know we mean you no harm."

"You awoke us."

"We were not aware of your existence." R-Daniel said.

"Millennia ago our world was dying. We could no longer live there. For this reason, we created the orb." R-Jack said.

"Where you slept for a hundred thousand years." R-Daniel finished the explanation.

"Yes Daniel."

"Waiting for someone to come along, like us, and take you through the Stargate." R-Daniel continued with his explanation.

"With connecting to this artificial body, you awoke us." R-Jack said as he looked at his hands.

"What is your goal?" Carter decided to get to the matter of things.

"So it was written on the orb. Once exposed to the atmosphere of a living world, we'll multiply and recreate our civilization."

R-Daniel was quick to answer, "If you let Jack go, we'll take you to a place, its primordial, lots of oxygen and sunlight. Perfect for you to grow."

"For what reason?"

"Jack is our friend, we want him to survive and we want you to survive as well."

R-Jack/Alien deliberated for some time.

"Very well. Take us to the planet."

R-Daniel turned to Carter, "We can take them to P4G-881."

"Of course." Carter exclaimed.

The team walked towards the Stargate and dialed the address. R-Jack turned towards Carter and sent a metal spike towards her, snatching her laptop in the bag. The team raised their guns towards R-Jack/Alien.

"Like we agreed and negotiated with Jack. Here is something we'll give your people."

Carter was surprised for a second, "Are you in contact with Jack? Negotiating?"

R-Jack/Alien looked at her, "Yes we are. And..." He hesitated for a second. "He is irritating."

As he said that, R-Jack pushed the orb through the event horizon.

"Wow, sir."

"Don't say it Carter."

"Yeah, it's not just us, he can irritate." R-Daniel commented as he laughed.

"Like I said, don't say it."

Tech List (Combined):

Hat'ak Motherships (SGC - Earth) - 6 (4 in the systems from Cronus and 2 more stolen from Herur-ur)

Death Gliders (SGC - Earth) - 720 (12 wings/Hat'ak - 72 Wings in total - 10 gliders per wing)

Tel'tak (SGC - Earth) - 12 (two Teltak per Mothership)

Alkesh (SGC - Earth) - 10 (stolen from Cronus)

Goa'uld Constructor (SGC - Earth/Altair) - 6 (every mother ship carries one - 1 stolen from Ansgar is upgraded with Tollan engineering)

Sarcophagus (SGC - Earth) - 2 - Herur-ur's ship and Princess Shyla

Staff, Zats and stun Grenade (SGC - Earth/Altair) - Countless - They could equip their forces.

De-Goa'ulding syringe (SGC - Earth/Altair) - Tokra tech for removing Goa'uld from their host without harming them.

Brute Forcing Ring transportation SGC - Earth/Altair)- Improved by Mckay, based on Tollan ideas for improvement

Portable rail gun (SGC - Earth/Altair) - New weapon designed by the engineers on the Altair.

The design for this weapon - art/comics-compact-rifle-184258110

Magical goop (SGC - Earth/Altair)- So far they've been using as healing goop.

Fusion based reactor (SGC - Earth/Altair)- Improved by Sammy and Tollan Engineers.

Harlan Tech (SGC Altair)- Cloning tech and anything his people had. Mostly low level of nano technology.

Tollan Tech (SGC Altair) - Sammy got it from Tollan Engineer during the rescue mission.

Crystal Tech (SGC Altair/Earth) - Improved from Goa'uld tech by Tollan engineers during the rescue mission.

Linea's Tech (SGC Altair)- Based on Cold fusion and Bio technology.

Hyperdrive (SGC Altair/Earth)- Improved from Goa'uld tech by Tollan engineers during the rescue mission.

Power source (SGC Altair) - Improved from Goa'uld (and Tollan tech) tech by Tollan engineers during the rescue mission.

Ring transportation - Improved from Goa'uld tech by Tollan engineers during the rescue mission.

Goauld Tech (SGC Altair) - Complete schematics from their technology, copied from Jolinar and Ashrack's genetic memory. (Altair is not sharing this tech with SGC-Earth.)

Tollan phasing device (SGC Altair) - 6 of them.

Portable Shields (SGC Altair/Earlth) (used in Cronus raid missions)

Internal Communicators (SGC Altair) Only for Androids.

Space Fighters (Vipers - SGC Altair ) - In process Design from Battlestar galatica Viper. Short enough wingspan to dive through stargate. wiki/Viper_Mark_II

I might be missing a few of those. I'll edit this list as needed.