SGC EARTH FEB, 10, 1998

Carter was sitting in the control room watching the techs below working around the malp. When the finished their final checks and gave the thumbs up she nodded to Walter, Sergeant do your thing.

Chevron one encoded. Chevron one locked.

As he began calling out chevrons O'Neill walked up behind and asked. "What's going on kiddies?" Sam sighed knowing he was at the meeting but still asking anyway, she smirked because it was part of their game. "We're sending a malp to P3X-984 one of the planets not on the gould cartouche to see if it would be a viable alpha site. It was explained in the meeting sir."

"Just checking you know how things change from moment to moment in this place."

"Chevron seven locked." Cried out Walter, as the event horizon of an establishing wormhole exploded from the ancient "stone" ring. "Sending the malp through now.

Seconds later. "Telemetry coming through."

At first the room was pitch dark. Then a light source appeared causing lines of text to appear along the walls as well as a metallic voice started coming through the mic.

Daniel who had been quiet until then spoke up. "That's gould."

What's it saying?

"Hold on a minute."

After a canned speech the voice began again this time in another language.

"Daniel?" began O'Neill

"I didn't get it all but it said something about the Gould being unwelcome on the planet. I think?"

"You think?"

The voice started again in an English language this time.

"If you are goa'uld or harbor a goa'uld you have five minutes after the incoming wormhole shuts down to leave after that your lives are forfeit. There is no escape from this room for such as you. Any others are welcome to take refuge on this planet as long as you abide our laws. Have a good day."

It began again in German.

"Sounds friendly. Let's visit." Enthused Jack

"Indeed. You will however excuse me from joining you on this expedition." Deadpanned Teal'c.

The others turned to General Hammond.

Daniel started. "If for no other reason the writing on the wall could be like a rosetta stone. Different language same message."

Sam nodded. "I'd like to know how they could detect Gould sir."

Jack joked. "I'd babysit."

Hammond snorted. SG-1 minus Teal'c you have a go.

As SG-1 stepped through the event horizon once again they split up and began their assigned tasks. Dr. Jackson pulled out a video recorder and started recording the words on the wall; Sam started scanning the walls with one of her doodads. As O'Neill went to the malp to send any info recorded in the past twenty four hours.

As the wormhole disengaged the three humans were startled as the eyes of four statues lit up and sent out blue beams of light towards them. They were further startled and drew their weapons as one of them stepped off its pedestal and addressed them.

"NO GOA'ULD PRESENCE DETECTED STATE YOUR REASON FOR VISITING"

This was repeated of course in several languages. Before English came around.

"Uh" started O'Neill

"We are explorers looking for archeological and technological information as well as allies in our fight against the Goa'uld" Daniel cut in.

"SENDING REQUEST; WAITING FOR RESPONSE; FOLLOW ME."

The robot walked to a circular door which disengaged an airtight pressure seal and rolled open allowing the three travelers through.

In the center of a short circular hall a pleasant female voice said. "Scanning for nanite infestation and pathogen compatibility.

Sam's eyebrows hit her hairline while Daniel scratched his head and Jack looked questioningly at Sam "Carter?"

"I think they are checking to see if we're plague bearers sir."

"Two harmful viruses' detected countermeasures have been devised. Symbiotic bacteria have been categorized. You may proceed."

A second airlock opened and the three walked out to the outside world, what they saw filled them with awe and not a little concern.

P3X-984

The three members of SG-1 stood staring in the near distance stood a structure a seeming cross between a pyramid and a ziggurat colored a matt black with grey or silver highlights. And while that building was impressive it was not what truly stood out. What stood out to the different people was the normal buildings the ones seeming in decay and disrepair in the near distance.

In the far distance there were two structures. One a massive building shaped like a tall thin pyramid. Similar in shape to the Eiffel tower though solid and several orders of magnitude larger, As well as what looked like a massive floating lump of metal. Whose shape was hard to discern.

As they were about to comment, a sonic boom caused them to flinch their heads upwards. After their eyes darted around a small man shaped figure was eventually spotted by each of them. It approached and glided slower and slower they took in its appearance. It looked robotic or vaguely android in appearance using the same matte black and silver highlight color scheme as the intact buildings they have seen. The few lighted spots on the figure were two glowing spots for eyes the palms and feet which seemed to be for propulsion and stabilization in the air and a glowing ring in the center of its chest surrounding a dark circle or sphere.

AS the figure approached more details could be made out, subtle design elements suggested that the figure gliding to a landing before them was female. The black areas of the armor seemed ridged while the joints and more flexible parts of the human body was incased in a silver grey metal.

A young sounding female voice speaking in a Russian sounding accent addressed the robot guardian, before turning to them and addressing them in English.

"Greetings travelers and welcome to Terra Nova. I apologize for not removing my helmet. However since the translation program I am using needs it to remain on it will remain on. So what brings you to my planet?"

Dr. Jackson being the defacto politician answered her. "Exploration mostly, as well as looking for allies and trade partners in our defense of our homeworld against the goa'uld. We are known to most of the galaxy as the Tau'ri."

The figure stood pensively for a moment before coming to a decision. "Well, let me give you a tour and afterwards we can sit down and talk."

"My name is Ember." The woman stated as she led the team over to a metal pad with a short pedestal. "Have you used ring transporters before?"

With a nod and other noises of confirmation Ember gestured them to stand inside a circle while she punched something in at the pedestal. Seconds later the familiar rings erupted from the ground around them and they were incased in light and whisked away.

The rings lowered around them revealing a short squat building in front of them Ember walked over to it and touching a panel on the side activated a display screen. "This is one of this planets planetary shield emitters it produces a roughly hexagonal dome directly above, combined with others around the world any direct bombardment of the planet will be reduced by about 98% any leaks would generally occur around the edges of the shield where this and another one would overlap. Our science hasn't been able to completely get rid of this flaw but at 98% our leaders believed the coverage was enough.

Carter was starting to ask questions about the tech, when Ember cut her off. "Please save all questions until after the tour." She then went back to the ring platform followed by SG-1 and punched in another destination.

When the thrumming rings descended around them SG-1 stared in awe around them a vast door stood before them and they were standing on the outside of the giant black floating shape. Ember went over to the door and after punching in a code the door opened letting them in. inside was row after row of small glowing pedestals with a fist sized black ball on top of them.

"You are standing in what was dubbed the Darksteel reactor. This floating building, ship can produce enough power for the whole world, millions of people, all because of this." She picked up one of the small lumps of black causing the pedestal beneath it to go dark. "The darksteel ingot, Darksteel in and of itself, is virtually indestructible, that's why when we found out how to tap into the type of power we use the ingots aren't destroyed like previous materials." Replacing the lump of metal she walks out of the building.

Upon exiting the reactor SG-1 saw something that they had missed before and caused them to grip their weapons more tightly. "Is that a Ha'tak pyramid ship?" Daniel asked incredulously.

"Yes we hijacked it from our former god. Would you like to see it?" with reluctant consent the team SG-1 agreed and the ringed down to the ship.

As the tour of the Ha'tak commenced Ember told the story of how it came to be in their possession.

"Frankly if it wasn't for the Tau'ri we wouldn't have been able to overthrow our system lord."

Dr. Jackson replaced the dying battery of the video recorder that had been running all this time.

"Our god whose name I won't even try to pronounce was a minor functionary of Ra. He found this world quite by accident and seeded it with us, one of the last to come from the homeworld; earth, right before the Tau'ri uprising against Ra.

In his anger Ra led a bloody crusade across the galaxy to instill rules that would prevent this from happening again. Our god kept this world secret and when his forces were called to muster he left the garrison here woefully under strength. We threw off our Jaffa overseers and waited until our god sent for reinforcements through the gate. We sent our people through and joined his Jaffa pretending to be Jaffa. These old hyperdrives took decades to get to their destination, so it was fifty years until our task force was needed, and then another fifty as they simulated the disappearance of this Ha'tak and brought it back here.

Since our god was killed and he and his most loyal Jaffa were the only ones to know the location of this planet we have lived in isolation until now."

With the tour of the Ha'tak over, and a very happy Carter, Ember advised her that the ship was several centuries out of date, and the newer ships would be a much bigger threat than this one would pose. Slightly reigned in Carter was still happy for this was a source of tech that might soon be available to the SGC and Earth.

One more ring transport and their guide introduced them to the Darksteel Citadel a building designed to hold millions of citizens. They entered the building near the base and took a fast elevator to a floor near the top of the mega structure.

Entering a meeting room no matter how comfortable is still in the military psyche time to get down to brass tacks. SG-1 knew nothing else would be handed out until some agreement was made about the relationship between her people and theirs.

Ember asked for info on the policies and practices of Earth and the SGC much to the relief of SG-1, since she didn't ask for anything that would compromise the security of earth.

Jack exclaimed "Oh for crying out loud are we going to talk to your superior face to face or are we going to talk to a mask all day!"

"Jack!" both Carter and Dr. Jackson exclaimed.

"What I want to talk to someone in authority not some drone tinker toy."

Ember got up and walked over to a wall where she tapped the wall a few times causing it to light up and then settle down in a muted glow.

Then the face mask of the helmet retracted and the helmet split somehow as a girl, looking much too young, pulled it off her head and set it on the table.

She began speaking in her not quite Russian language followed a half second later in English coming from the wall to their side.

The petite blond girl, looking no older then sixteen, if you were being generous, began.

"Turn on your recording device for what I am about to say is hard and I do not want to go over it again.

Each person in my society was born into a class, and rarely if ever were they allowed to rise above their station. Only in the most rare instance was this possible and then only the descendants of the first born male could benefit for he would enter a marriage with a female in station above the family.

My family was amongst the lowest ranks we got little education and less opportunity to advance than most. In desperation my family, basically sold me to a scientist of much greater rank. Many of the younger boys and girls in the lower classes did similar things all in the name of helping their family rise in the ranks.

For many years I waited generally doing menial tasks around the labs until one day I was chosen for a genetic test. The test improved my looks according to the ones who designed it changing my straight black hair to this wavy blond softening my face making me appear more youthful and increasing my bust size a little. However it did have some side effects that were undesirable, that I won't go into at this time.

The experiment was a failure, I was a failure to my family, but I could still be used as free labor for the labs and that was my life until a sickness spread through us test subjects and some underpaid minion was called to collect new subjects for a new experiment. A quota had to be filled and I was healthy and my deformities; my shame was well hidden. So I was chosen as a replacement for one that was sick.

I was injected with what was later called the answer to society's prayers. An immortality serum after a few days of pain I was effectively immortal all tests done to me caused me to heal or otherwise shrug off damage to my body. It was even found out that I did not seem to age.

My dejection transformed to elation. The family of this scientist that created this formula would advance in class as would mine. My brother was immediately engaged to a woman of higher class and the formula was mass produced and handed out to the populous. The children were given to the care of the daycare service Myr; a type of robot we had created. And everyone injected themselves with the serum.

I should have died; if I had been a normal human I would have died, just like everyone of my race. Everyone died a horrible painful death. The worst was the children. The programing of the robots would not let anyone but the parent or guardian or some emergency personnel access to the children eventually they starved to death.

I spent the next decades finding and burning whatever bodies I could and eventually learning everything I could about everything my people have done. Eventually I convinced the computers that being the only survivor entitled me to be in charge of all the facilities of the planet I learned all I could and erased and destroyed all genetic engineering information in our database.

For the last couple centuries I've been here alone developing and adapting technowledgy for the ones who come through the gate who are worthy.

I'm hoping that that's you. If it is, all the tech of this world is yours the only price I'll put on it is companionship. I want to walk your world; see it's people, explore its places, enjoy other cultures."

SG-1 answered that in order to do that the stargate would have to be disclosed to the general public.

"I understand that disclosure is something your government doesn't want to do, but how long before you become too big a thorn in the collective Goa'uld's side. Before they retaliate? How long before some system lord sees a planet full of slaves, easy to conquer."