IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS STORY, PLEASE SEE MY PROFILE PAGE FOR THE EPISODE GUIDE, AND READ BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS:

This story is part of a plan to write a "virtual season 11" for this lovely show, which in my opinion had plenty of juice left for more storytelling. This is something I pitched to some of the wonderful people who write Stargate stories on this site (Myosotis and SC, in particular!), and they were kind and wonderful enough to encourage me to follow it through. And also to sit me down and explain how do it properly, because really by "pitched" I mean I was pretty much jumping up and down and going, "I want to know what happened after Continuum! Let's write all the things!" They patted me on the head and taught me how the whole story-writing process goes and outlined some nice hoops and milestones, and they've been all around wonderful and supportive collaborators.

So this is the plan right now: The stories we publish will be in chronological order (of course, not counting any time-travelling that SG1 is so fond of!), and will pick up where "Continuum" left off. (With the provision that none of us were too happy with how quickly "Ark of Truth" handled/ended the whole Ori conflict, so there's a little more vagueness about what happened after the Ori supposedly died and Adria ascended.) All the usual characters will certainly appear, and we'll keep the new characters to a minimum. This is an SG-1 story, people, and our answer to "what happened after the second movie?" is not "everyone went off to do their own thing and Mitchell found 4 new SG1 members". (not that that's not totally plausible. But we just can't bear to see them go yet...!) Major things that we're planning to tackle are the Asgard legacy, the new status of Earth as a major player in the galaxy and what old and new dangers that might bring, and of course the personal goals and growth of the characters.

Finally, after a little bit of research, I found there's another similar endeavour out there, and this is in no way shape or form meant to step on anyone's toes! We just came a little late to the game, but hopefully there's enough stargate love out there that people would want to read alternative stories of what may have happened after the end of "Unending" (or Continuum). So, while this project is not related to the other VS11 that's out there, it shares the similar (noble!) goal of telling the continued story of all the characters we fell in love with.

Okay, that's the end of this unending author note! Thanks for reading this, and thank you again to Myos and SC for helping out and being all around awesome partners in crime.

We hope you enjoy the story :). Please let us know what you think!

State of Affairs: An SG-1 Story

Prologue...

"…and that's a dozen requests he's denied or ignored, and I think I'm getting the message loud and clear."

Colonel Samantha Carter pressed her lips together to contain a smile, as she gave the man walking alongside her a sympathetic glance. "I don't know, Daniel, maybe it's just not the right time. There's so much we need to understand about the Asgard legacy, and you are the world's foremost expert on the Asgard culture and language…"

"The only expert, unfortunately," Daniel Jackson sighed. "Although Dr. Riggs was reading up on it before SG-8 had to spend weeks dealing with the supergate aftermath…"

They walked silently down the corridor for a moment, as they both remembered the long months at war with the Ori. Things were quieting down now, and it seemed that the worst of the battle was over…although no one knew for sure quite what had become of the Ori… or their leader, Adria. The powerful and ruthless Orici… and Vala's daughter. In a manner of speaking.

"Have you heard from Vala?" Apparently, Sam's thoughts had taken a similar direction. Daniel pushed away the last grim memories of the Ori war.

"She's still with the Tok'ra," he replied, "and it's no match made in Heaven, from what Landry says. Last I heard, half the council threatened to sever diplomatic ties if she doesn't leave soon."

Sam grimaced. She had seen Vala interact with the Tok'ra, and the mutual dislike was plain to anyone watching. "It's been, what, almost two weeks?" She was surprised the woman had lasted so long in their company. She must really want to help Ba'al's former host.

"Just about," Daniel agreed, and mentally he was able to tell that it had, in fact, been fifteen days exactly since Ba'al's (hopefully last) symbiote had been extracted in a quick but satisfying ceremony on the Tok'ra's new planet. "You'll notice that Landry has no problem about allowing Vala's off-world project to go on for weeks. Meanwhile, if I so much as open my mouth about Atlantis…"

His voice took on a slightly huffy undertone, and Sam again had to hold back a smile. Daniel's failed attempts to get permission to go to Atlantis were becoming something of a running joke around the SGC. And while she was sympathetic to his frustration, she was also relieved every time Landry denied his requests… Daniel was perfectly capable of finding trouble right there on Earth, and Sam felt better knowing that she, and the rest of SG1, were at least within reasonable range when that inevitably happened.

"...dodged me in the hallway last week, and I'm pretty sure he's got Walter in on this, calling him on 'urgent business' whenever I go into his office..." Daniel continued to grumble. "And you know what he told me today? I'm 'needed on Earth'. We haven't even been on a mission for two weeks!"

"Someone has to go through and understand those Asgard databases," she reminded him as they came to a stop in front of an elevator.

"Yes, but I can go through the databases on Atlantis. Mitchell's off to Kansas, Teal'c's been at that Jaffa Nation summit for days, you're spending half your time working on the Odyssey, but I'm…grounded!" He all but threw his hands in the air. "And you know whose fault it is."

Sam gave him an uncertain smile, although she was fairly certain that he meant…

"Jack! This has Jack written all over it!"

The elevator dinged to a stop, and the doors began to open.

"Yup, Major General O'Neill," Daniel steamrolled on. "You know, you'd think Homeworld Security would keep him busy enough to stay out of my business, but somehow even from DC he's managing to be a major pain in the –"

Daniel trailed off abruptly, as the elevator doors slid back completely, and he was finally able to process what was in front of his eyes.

"Mikta." Major General Jack O'Neill stepped out of the elevator with a satisfied grin. "I believe the word you're looking for, Danny boy, is 'mikta'. It doesn't mean 'neck'," he added in a conspiratorial whisper.

"At least this place hasn't changed at all since I was last here…" Jack trailed a finger along one of the bookshelves in Daniel's office, then held it up to the archaeologist for inspection. "D'ya make the cleaning crew go on strike again?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "That happened once. Are you ever going to let me live it down?"

Another Jack-like grin. "Nope."

Several years previous, and following a few unfortunate incidents, all the custodians in the SGC had gone to General Hammond and declared that none of them was willing to clean Dr. Jackson's office anymore, because of the risk of accidentally touching the variety of dangerous alien artefacts that the young archaeologist seemed to attract.

"Poor Gary," Jack shook his head, "his eyebrows never grew back quite the same."

"They grew back fine!" Daniel huffed. "And I had told him repeatedly not to touch any of the artefacts…besides, how was I supposed to know how that sacred statue reacted to Lysol?"

Still wearing the same smirk, Jack picked up a Victoria's Secret catalogue from the armrest of the couch. "These are supposed to go under the couch pillows, Daniel, not on top."

Another eye roll. "That's Vala's." He groaned when Jack dug up a bright pink tank top from behind a stack of books on the same couch. "That's Vala's, too…," he shook his head at the unspoken question in Jack's twinkling eyes, and was honestly surprised when the man's snooping also revealed some sort of nail polish kit, and a loofa. What the heck had Vala been doing on that couch while he was busily poring over some translation at the desk?

"This is probably yours," Jack said helpfully, holding out something blue in his hand, which looked a lot like…

Oh, that's where that credit card had gone.

"Yup, that's mine."

Jack gave him a knowing look.

"So, what were you doing on base, again?" Daniel leaned against the edge of the desk, crossed his arms and gave his old friend a sour look. "Other than making sure I'm never setting foot anywhere on Atlantis again?"

The general tilted his head. "Old age is making you paranoid, Danny boy."

"Yeah well, at least it's not making me bald."

There was a short pause, where the two of them looked at each other, Daniel's expression expectant and a little wary as he wondered if he had accidentally gone too far with the banter, and Jack's expression blank, as he let the words echo between them.

Then Jack burst into laughter.

Daniel let a wide grin play on his lips. The wary expression vanished, and now he just looked pleased with himself.

"Bald?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

Daniel pretended to think about it for a second, then adopted a grave expression. "And a little…squishy," he added with a lopsided nod.

Jack laughed again. "That's what Washington life'll do to ya."

"Well, you could always come back to the Stargate program... I hear Atlantis might be looking for a leader."

The general shook his head. "You're like a dog with a bone." Then the mirth somewhat faded from his expression. He leaned against the bookshelf, watching Daniel with renewed focus. "Do you really want to go that badly?"

The younger man arched an eyebrow. "You mean, after the fifty requests that I put in?"

"Well, since I had the privilege of having to carefully consider most of those requests – and you still owe me a new paper shredder," (he ignored Daniel's glare) "I noticed a…pattern, you might call it," Jack said. "You always tended to get loud and obnoxious about it when things were...quiet. Y'know, no Goa'uld trying to take over the galaxy, no one threatening to blow up Earth on a vendetta…Not unlike the present," he pointed out. "No intergalactic crusade to stop, no more Ba'als, and suddenly there you are pestering Hank. Face it Daniel," he raised his eyebrows, "you only want to go to Atlantis because you're bored."

Daniel covered his face with his hands and groaned. "That's awful logic." Jack just waited in pointed silence. "It's not that I'm bored," he argued, "it's that at all the other times you mentioned, I was a little busy trying to stay alive to put in Atlantis requests!"

"Nah," Jack shook his head. "You're bored. Carter's on the Odyssey, Teal'c's out with his Jaffa buddies, and even your space chick's off on the vacation from hell with the Tok'ra… and you're jealous that all the other kids get to go away for the summer and you don't."

There was another moment of silence, while Daniel opened his mouth several times to fire a retort, and never quite managed to find a good one. Finally, he leaned back against his chair and closed his eyes in resignation.

"I hate you," he informed Jack.

"Well, if that's how you're gonna be, then maybe I'm going to ask Reynolds to go with me instead."

Daniel cracked open an eye. "Go? Go where?"

Jack smirked.

"Well, Daniel," he started, intentionally slow, "as it so happens, I didn't just drop by to listen to you call me old and fat." He grinned. "I heard SG1 had some down time, and I could use some help."

"Do I get to go to Atlantis afterwards?"

This is it! Each story will be made out of four parts, and the action will be roughly episode-sized (we're still figuring out the details...suggestions welcome!), with both standalone bits and longer arcs. Right now there are about 4 or so episode-like stories written. I'll definitely try to post updates often, maybe once or twice a week. This is the first time I've tried to do anything on this scale, so any feedback and ideas are welcome! Like I said in the beginning, while I'm the main writer, this is definitely a collaborative effort and we're always happy and open to get input from others :).

Thanks for reading!