S.G.C

Earth, 2004

Click. Snap. Click. Snap. Colonel Jack O'Neill stood at the bottom of the embarkation ramp that led up to the Stargate. Carter and Teal'c stood next to him, keeping busy with something while they waited for Daniel. Jack played with his old zippo lighter. The one he had given to Skaara during his first mission to Abydos years ago. The lid was worn smooth from repeated use and Jack's habit of fiddling with something when he was bored. Jack hadn't used the lighter in years. He'd quit smoking after returning from Abydos.

One of the blast doors leading to the gate room opened and Daniel stepped in, still wrestling with his rucksack. General Hammond was a step behind him. The gate began dialling after Hammond gave a nod to the Sergeant in the control room.

"Sorry," Daniel said apologetically. Sam offered him a small smile while Teal'c raised an eyebrow. Jack ignored him.

"SG-1, try and make some new friends," Hammond said. "Those are the president's words, not mine. Good luck."

"Thanks, General." O'Neill said. "We'll be on our best behaviour while we're out. And if anyone can convince these people to help us then Daniel can. Isn't that right Danny boy?"

"I certainly hope so. Sam do have the device? We should give it back to them as a gesture of good will. They might appreciate that." Daniel said. He adjusted his glasses on his nose, rolled his shoulders again so his rucksack sat more comfortably and made sure the strap on his holster was secure. He was the only one of the group without a P90, or in Teal'c's case a Jaffa staff weapon.

"Right here," Sam said, patting a pocket on her tactical vest. The Stargate activated with a massive rush of energy and Jack felt himself buzz. He loved travelling through the Stargate. The adventures and the friends he'd made was worth everything in his opinion.

"Godspeed, Colonel." Hammond said as the team moved up the ramp. Jack turned and offered a lazy salute and stepped through the gate. A second later he was in another star system. The rest of SG-1 followed him seconds later.

The room on the other end was lit up by the active 'gate and several powerful floodlights that covered every inch of the room. They were hooked up to a generator in one corner. Despite the signs of recent activity in the area there wasn't a single soul in the room other than SG-1. Jack frowned and rested his hands on the grip of his P90, ready to bring it to up if he needed it.

"Nobody home?" Jack asked sarcastically. Chances were the people that had sent the device through were around somewhere. They'd been here recently. It was just a matter of finding them. "Come on, let's go have a look-see."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Jack? They might not be happy if they catch us walking about the place." Daniel said. Sam seemed to agree with him.

"Well it beats just waiting in here until they come back," Jack replied. "Plus, we aren't going to make friends by standing around waiting for something to happen."

Jack moved towards the door at the far end and Teal'c followed him- unwilling to leave his Tau'ri friend to wonder the base alone. Sam and Daniel followed somewhat reluctantly.

The hall beyond the door was filled with lights and equipment, all bearing the UNSC name and emblem. There was still no one around.

"Teal'c, I don't suppose you recognise the design of the temple do you?" Daniel asked. As he was walking he was studying the hieroglyphs on the walls.

"It is ancient Goa'uld design. Predating Ra's rise to power among the System Lords. It was probably abandoned around the same time." Teal'c replied. He was also looking around. Only instead of studying the walls and the hieroglyphics he was looking for any traps, any hostile movement… any movement of any kind except for SG-1.

"I thought so," Daniel said. "That might explain why the address wasn't on the cartouche."

They moved towards a junction in the hall when Teal'c forced them to stop. A second later Jack turned and put his finger in his lips, silencing any questions. A moment later the sound of boots on metal floor and the sound of two people talking reached the team.

This was it. Daniel wormed his way in front of Jack and Teal'c, ignoring the looks they shot his way. He steadied his breathing, swallowed, took a deep breath and stepped around the corner. He heard Jack mutter something about being reckless as he rounded the corner- Jack on his heels.

He came face to face with the woman from the first recording, her dark hair tied back in a neat bun. She was holding a device just like the one that came through the Stargate. The other person, a man, was geared up in charcoal black body armour that looked thick and durable, a damn sight more so than the tactical vests SG-1 was wearing. He had a helmet hooked onto his waist and a nasty looking rifle cradled in his arms. They stared each other down for less than a second before Daniel found himself looking down the barrel of the rifle.

The two backed up a bit, the soldier reached for his radio- keeping his rifle aimed at Daniel and Jack. "Don't move!" the soldier barked out. The woman took several steps back but kept her focus on them. She studied them closely.

"We're not here to-" Daniel tried to speak up.

"Shut it!" The soldier snapped the order. Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead he held his hands up and wisely kept his mouth shut. Unlike the usual, untrained lackeys pointing guns at him and his team this guy was good. Well trained. He had the right stance, the right amount of distance, the right attitude.

"Sergeant," the woman said. The Sergeant was already calling in for back up. Jack winced. Getting out of this could be a lot harder than originally planned. "Sergeant wait a second."

"Not now, Doctor. We have no idea who these people are or where they came from. Whatever it is you have to say it'll have to wait." The Sergeant said after he finished on the radio. He sifted his attention back at Jack and Daniel. "How many more of you are there?"

Jack opened his mouth to say that he and Daniel were it, a small signal for Sam and Teal'c to head back to the Stargate and dial out, when Daniel spoke first.

"There's two more, just around the corner. Listen, we came through the Stargate to find you-" Daniel tried again to talk but the soldier cut him off again.

Sam and Teal'c came around the corner, arms raised. Teal'c studied the soldier, looking for any weakness. Just in case they needed it. The sound of boots smacking the metal floor echoed through the corridor, getting closer. There were a lot of them.

"Wait a second!" The Doctor cried out again. She stepped forward and stood between the Sergeant and SG-1. "Look at his weapon!" she pointed at Jack's P90.

"So what? It's a museum piece. I saw one as a kid."

"Exactly. A museum piece. Where did he get it from? We didn't bring any museums with us, Sergeant." The Doctor said. She turned to Jack and held out her hand. "Pass me your weapon." She said. Jack frowned.

"No. now how about we all just calm down a second." Jack said and the Doctor frowned at him. He wasn't one to try the diplomatic approach, certainly not when people had guns pointed at his team. But these people, if they stopped pointing guns at him, could be valuable friends. Especially if they were the people from the fleet that appeared two years ago.

"Doctor, step away from them," The Sergeant said in the calmest voice he'd used since SG-1 appeared. Soldiers poured into the corridor behind the Sergeant. Leading the troops was a massive armoured figure that was at least a foot taller than Teal'c. They surrounded SG-1 within seconds.

"Well, this is interesting," The massive armoured figure said as he disarmed the team. He picked up a P90 and examined it for a second. "Where did you come from?" He asked. Jack assumed it was a man.

"We came to find someone," Daniel said. "A man called Edward Buck. We have something that belongs to him."

Daniel was a genius. There was no doubt about it. There were very few people that could rival Daniel's knowledge of all the different cultures and languages and histories of the galaxy. But at times like this, he was the dumbest, or bravest, man Jack knew.

The man in the armoured figure paused, turned to face Daniel. The emotionless visor merely reflected Daniel's face back at him.

"Yeah? Well you found him." The armoured figure spread his arms wide, as if showing himself off to the team. "What do you have that's mine?" Despite the relaxed words and joking manner behind them Jack could feel the tension in the air.

"This," Sam said, speaking up for the first time. She reached into her vest pocket, ignoring the dozen weapons aiming at her, and pulled out the device. The armoured man claiming to be Edward Buck snatched it out of her hand with a speed that belayed the weight of the armour.

"How'd you get this?" he questioned, shaking the device in her face.

"It came through the Stargate on a planet we were exploring a few days ago. We took it back home, told our bosses how we found it, who it belonged to and where it came from. They told us to come here, give it back and hopefully make new friends." Daniel said. He was in full diplomatic mode.

Buck snorted behind his helmet and bit back a sarcastic comment. Instead he waved for the marines to move forward. "Disarm them and take them back to camp. We'll let the Admiral decide what to do with them."

SG-1 didn't have much of a choice but to follow them. They were led through the tunnels, up into a cave and then out onto a narrow mountain path. They were marched onto an open clearing near peak of the mountain. A high winged VTOL was waiting on a makeshift landing pad and they were escorted inside. Their weapons and gear were stowed inside one of the weapons lockers above the seats opposite them and locked. There was no way they were getting their stuff back now unless they managed to convince these people that they were no threat.

Buck had escorted them to VTOL and as soon as SG-1 were strapped into some seats and the U-shaped restraint bars locked over their chests he disappeared into the cockpit to talk to the pilot. A squad of soldiers, none wearing the black head-to-toe armour of the first soldier, sat down opposite them and rested their weapons on their laps. They didn't bother with strapping themselves in.

Buck reappeared and sat in the seat opposite them and closest to the cockpit. The engines on the VTOL kicked in and the entire craft rumbled and shuddered. Jack felt the craft move up on the spot before it started to gain forward momentum. Within seconds they were flying very quickly away from the Stargate.

"Where are you taking us?" Daniel asked. Buck leant back in his seat and stretched his long legs. His feet were resting against the row of seats SG-1 was sat on. His rifle was resting on his lap and one hand was resting right next to his sidearm.

"Back to the Camp. If you're telling any form of the truth, despite how crazy it all sounds, we'll see what happens then. Now we've got a bit of a ride ahead so try to enjoy it." Buck said.

They flew in silence, despite Daniel's repeated attempts to talk. The only sound was the rumble of the engines and faint radio chatter from the cockpit that filtered through into the troop bay. The radio chatter sounded normal from where Jack was sitting.

Hours later they touched down and were escorted out of the VTOL and marched onto the tarmac of an airfield surrounded by buildings and roads. In the centre of the camp a massive structure, half a kilometre long, stuck out above the rest. It was surrounded by walls and turrets, even the structure itself was studded with weapon emplacements. Military personnel carried on with their business around the airfield, tending to a multitude of aircraft. There was dozens of VTOLs and sleek fighter craft that looked like evolutions of the fighter jets on Earth. There were other, wildly different, types of craft, including two, fortress like vehicles that dwarfed everything nearby.

A small convoy of lightly armoured vehicles, futuristic Humvee like trucks, surrounded an APC. They were shoved inside the APC and were on the move again before too long. The soldiers guarding them on this leg of the journey were different from the others, leaving their rifles stowed away. Buck was riding along, keeping to himself.

"So, lovely weather you guys have here," Jack said with a false grin. He was not happy about being a prisoner, potential ally or not, and he was looking for a distraction.

"The winter sucks though," a marine replied. "Sundown has great weather and a killer view. Always preferred Concord though."

"Really?" Daniel perked up, happy to hear more of these people. "What- what's it like? On Concord?"

"Pretty typical for a colony; nice weather, decent climate. A few nasty creatures, nothing too big though." The same marine replied.

"Draco III used to have these sea creatures," Buck said from his seat near the armoured doors. "And they were massive, the size of islands. I used to go out with my uncle Lou during the summer to try and capture them. If you found them near the surface you'd have to get them with a shocknet just to keep it from going back down into the depths. They were worth a lot of money. Kept us all fed, clothed and kept the ship running."

"Sounds fascinating," Daniel said. "It sounds like you used to enjoy it. What made you stop?"

The APC ground to a halt before Buck answered. They filed out and SG-1 found themselves inside a massive hanger like structure. From there they were spate and escorted into individual cells. It was over an hour before anyone came to see them and that was to give them something to eat.

Jack was beginning to wear a hole into the metal floor when something finally happened. The small door opened up to reveal Jacks near murderous scowl. He was face-to-face with a woman in a simple grey uniform escorted by two marines. She had her long brown hair tied back into a neat ponytail that told Jack that despite her uniform she was no combat soldier.

"I'm Commander Kwon, I'll be your liaison officer while you're here. Your friend, Daniel Jackson, confirmed you were the leader of your group. As such the Admiral would like to speak to you regarding the recent events." The Commander smiled slightly and moved aside. Jack followed.

"Where's the rest of my team? You said you'd spoken to Daniel, what about the other two?" Jack asked as casually as possible.

"They are being looked after well enough. Although you've only been in custody for few hours I don't think it'll be long before you're given some more freedoms. Unless your friends prove to be more trouble than they have been so far." Kwon said. She was as professional as any pencil pusher in the pentagon Jack had met.

She led him to a small room and sat him down in one of the padded metal chairs facing the door. Jack took the opportunity to look around. There was a window that allowed him to look over the camp and the wide, meandering river at the far end.

The wall to his left from the table was covered by a massive screen with a UNSC logo silently spinning in the centre. The rest of the room was unremarkable. Jack had only just finished his look around the room when the door opened again and two men stepped in. One was tall and dark. He had an emotionless face and was dressed in an all-black uniform and Jack instantly likened him to a NID spook. The other was slightly shorter than Jack with thinning grey hair and limped gait. He wore a grey uniform similar to Kwon's own, only his was more decorated.

The older man stepped in first and sat down opposite him while the younger man, the spook, sat off to the older man's right. Jack noticed the two silver stars on the old man's shoulders- this man must have been the Admiral Kwon had said wanted to speak to him.

The Admiral was scarred, his face had been burnt heavily and drooped, and the skin melted and elasticated by whatever had done it to him. He rested his hands on the table and Jack saw one of them was a prosthetic. This guy had seen action, Jack was sure of that.

"I'm Admiral Barclay," the old man said with a strong voice. "And you are…?"

Jack lent back into his chair and rested his hands behind his head. "Colonel Jack O'Neill. Now can someone explain to me why my team are prisoners? I mean, I get that we showed up in some military facility but-"

"That's exactly why you're under arrest. You managed to appear inside a mountain in an uninhabited continent. How do you explain that?" The Admiral interrupted.

"We came through the ring in the bottom of the facility after one of your people sent through a device to a planet we were exploring. One of our people looked at it and found out about you guys. From what we found we know you're more advanced than us so we came to find you. To ask for your help."

"Our help?" The Admiral repeated with an inquisitive look on his face. The spook still hadn't said anything but looked as curious as the Admiral.

"Look, we come from a planet called Earth and we do a lot of exploring through the Stargate- the metal ring in the cave where you found us- and we've found some serious threats out there. We are simply looking for people willing to trade technology to help us defend ourselves." Jack said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table as he spoke. The Admiral pondered what he said for a moment.

"What about your friends that intercepted our fleet two years ago? I admit we were in the Sol System but only because it's where we should have been." The Admiral said with an emotionless face. For the briefest moment Jack looked surprised. Surprised the Admiral had openly admitted it had been these people that appeared two years ago.

"Hey, those guys are good, don't get me wrong, but they aren't willing to share their most advanced stuff with us because they think we're too young as a species!" Jack almost shouted. He was beginning to lose his temper with these people. "But we are the ones fighting and dying to try and free the galaxy from the Goa'uld! And to keep Earth safe! You said you knew about Earth, that you wanted to go there."

"Colonel, where we come from Earth is the centre of our government and our home. We've already fought to keep her safe and paid for it in the blood of billions. I understand your desire to save your homeworld, everyone in this camp and in the fleet has sacrificed something for Earth. Our Earth. I don't know what happened, what changed everything to a point where our people and government doesn't exist anymore, but because of it, we don't have the capability to wage a war. To fight a galaxy spanning empire. All we want to do is to get home. Back to our Earth. Unless you can help us do that, we have nothing to offer." The Admiral said. Jack didn't speak for a moment. From the scars a lot of the veteran soldiers seemed to have and the way they carried themselves, Jack didn't doubt for a moment that the Admiral was telling the truth. Heck Jack had seen the combat footage on the computer tablet. And Jack couldn't blame them for wanting to go home.

The Admiral got up to leave, when Jack finally said something, anything to keep him at the table.

"What if we can?" Jack said. The Admiral froze in place and gave Jack a glare that reminded him who was in control. "We obviously don't have the capability to transport people across universes or realities or whatever happened. But we know some really advanced races, you've met one of them, and we know of some other highly advanced races in the galaxy. Help us and we will put you into contact with these people and let you have first access to anything that we find that could help."

The Admiral sat back down again with narrowed eyes. "Start from the beginning. If you want us to help you then I need to hear it all. Everything about this 'Stargate' and the hostiles you mentioned."

Daniel Jackson was starting to get bored. Really, really bored. And worried. He'd been left alone in the cell for several hours. The only contact he'd had with someone since he'd been thrown in here had been the Commander who asked him who had been in charge. Since then he'd been left alone in the cell which was barely big enough to move in.

He was sat on the small, rock solid, bed when the door finally opened up to reveal Jack, Sam and Teal'c stood there with an escort of soldiers.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?" Daniel asked.

"Colonel O'Neill has managed to broker a deal between the people of the UNSC and the Tau'ri, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c said. It was difficult to tell due to his lack of facial expressions but it sounded like he was happy about it.

"Yep, so come on Daniel, let's get our stuff and go. We've got a flight to catch," Jack said flippantly. Daniel studied his old friend and realised how tired Jack looked. He would never admit it, but Daniel could see he was exhausted. From what, Daniel had no idea- just that he was.

"Jack? What happened?"

"Come on, Daniel! I'll explain on the way back to the gate." Jack barked. Sam winced at the Colonel's tone but didn't say anything. She just patted his shoulder as he stepped out of the cell and into the corridor. They had barely take two steps in the direction of the exit when the massive armoured figure rounded the corner. This time with his helmet off. He definitely looked like an older version of the man from the videos on the device.

"SG-1, is it?" Buck said as he came up to them. "Spartan Edward Buck. I've been told to join you to Earth, to formalize our agreement." He stepped aside and began to lead the way.

"Yeah, that's us." Jack said. "So you believe us now?"

"I believe what I'm told to believe. I've spent far too much time working with spooks to know when to just roll with it." Buck replied. He led the way through the maze of corridors to the hanger where they were brought in. There was an APC waiting for them, only this time there was no escort. They climbed in and Buck closed the hatch behind them.

"Thanks," Buck said as the APC began to crawl away from the massive base. "For bringing my COM pad back. I thought I lost it for good." Buck kept gave the team a small appreciative smile.

"I hope you don't mind too much but we did access it; to find out somethings about you. Or where you came from." Sam said. Jack knew her well enough to know she felt a little guilty about going through his private stuff.

"There isn't anything on there that's classified. Just personal stuff. I am curious to know exactly how much you saw," Buck replied.

"Enough to get an idea of things," Sam replied.

They rode in silence all the way to the airfield where the same VTOL that brought them in was waiting. The pilot was sat on the ramp leading into the troop bay, his flight suit rolled up around his waist and calmly smoking.

"Spartan!" the pilot shouted as they climbed out. "What's going on? I thought those folks were prisoners, what changed?"

"They might just be able to help us, Zheng." Buck replied. "You want to get home? These people might be our best bet. So let's move, Lieutenant."

Inside the VTOL SG-1 was given their equipment back. Including their weapons. As the VTOLs engines stirred and the craft rose up into the air Buck turned to face them

"How come you're using weapons old enough to be in a museum?" Buck asked, looking at the P90 in Jacks hands.

"The P90 is a relatively new personal defence weapon," Sam said. "It's state of the art, really."

"I get there's some differences between our versions of Earth, I was told that much, but that weapon was put out of service centuries ago."

No one had a reasonable explanation for that. They flew in relative silence, only the dull sound of radio chatter leaking through from the cockpit and the back and forth between Daniel and Buck. Daniel was acting like a child in a candy shop; asking everything he could about the UNSC- the history, government and anything else he could think about.

They tried to avoid the topics of how the relatively small UNSC fleet found themselves in the different reality, or timeline, or whatever it was. There was still too little information to start to form a proper theory, even for Carter.

They arrived at the mountains where the Stargate was hidden at sundown. As they headed own the pathway into the mountain Daniel was still talking with Buck.

"Your people seem to know this planet quite well considering you've only been here for two years," Daniel said.

"Reach was a colony in the UNSC for decades. It was first settled in 2362 and was a major population centre until about ten years ago now." Buck replied.

"Was? What happened?"

"As you know by now we were at war with the Covenant for decades. In August 2552 the Covenant invaded and turned the colony into glass. I was there when they did it. It's weird seeing it all again as if nothing had happened."

"Oh, my. I'm sorry I- I didn't mean to- I didn't know." Daniel stammered out and the group fell into awkward silence. "Well, hopefully that won't happen again."

"It won't. The Covenant doesn't exist here. None of the species that formed the Covenant are still alive. They've all been wiped out before they reached space travel."

"How do you know?" Daniel asked.

"We sent a coupled ships out to see if we had to be worried about them. We went to Sangheilios first. They had been blasted from orbit millennia ago."

"Well, that's probably a good thing right?" Jack said. They entered the caves and began the decent into the ancient Goa'uld structure beneath the mountains. There were dozens of military personnel guarding the entrance into the structure.

Inside the building they met the same soldier that had held SG-1 at gunpoint until the others arrived. He looked at Buck, then at SG-1 and then back at Buck.

"Spartan?" he said, unsure of the four peopled he had apprehended earlier that day.

"Don't worry, Sergeant. They're good guys." Buck replied.

"Okay, what's the deal then Spartan?"

"We let them go back home. I'm going with them to formalize a deal. They might be able to get us home, Canfield. As far as I'm concerned that gives them a few points in their favour." Buck said as they moved deeper into the facility.

When they arrived in the room where the Stargate was located Doctor Lloyd, the woman SG-1 met with Sergeant Canfield and raised enough questions to keep them from getting shot. She cast them curious looks from her work station near the DHD.

"You know how this thing works right?" Buck said, pointing towards the massive metal ring.

"Yeah. The symbols on the DHD and on the Stargate itself represent star constellations. This must be an older gate, close to Earth relatively speaking. It's just a matter of finding the right symbols." Daniel said.

"Wait, you know what this device is?" Lloyd said, coming around from her desk and standing next to Daniel at the DHD.

"Yes. It's a device that creates, stable artificial wormholes between two fixed points in space. It does this by-" Sam started to explain the basic concept behind the Stargate.

"Ah! Carter, you can talk technobabble later. Just concentrate on dialling the 'gate." O'Neill interrupted. Between Daniel and Sam it didn't take them long before the Stargate was activated. The kawoosh brought the Stargate to life and Sam quickly tapped in her ID code into the small wrist device.

"Code's sent. We're clear to proceed back to the SGC, Colonel." Sam said as the small screen on the GDO lit up green to show the iris on Earth was open. Daniel and Teal'c went first and then Carter. Doctor Lloyd and Sergeant Canfield watched in fascination as they vanished into the quantum particles that made up the event horizon.

"Spartan please tell me we're going to be doing a lot more than study this thing," Lloyd said.

"Don't worry, Doctor. Next time we go to Earth I think you'll be coming with us." Buck replied as he moved towards the puddle of energy. "I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. This really does take the cake though."

"Earth?" Lloyd said, stunned for a second. By the time she finished uttering the word Buck and O'Neill were gone, transported to another world in an instant and the Stargate closed off behind them.