Welcome to Stargate: Galactic Imperium's new Chapter 1. It has been remade.
Oh, and all rights reserved for the original creators... I don't own Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, etc...
Chapter 1
The USS Odyssey was indeed the most powerful space ship in the vast and dangerous Milky Way Galaxy, where the aftermaths of the Fall of the Goa'uld, the Rise of Anubis, the Replicator Infestation and, the last but not least, the Ori Invasion, had plagued the inhabitants of the galaxy with constant war and devastation. Armed with the mighty Plasma Beam Weapons of the Asgard, the most powerful weapon ever developed by the ancient friends of the Tauri, protected by the Asgard's latest shield and equipped with technologies far beyond those employed by the Jaffa or the Lucian Alliance, the Odyssey and its brethren had uplifted the military might of the Tauri to a level that is viewed by the rest of the galaxy in envy.
This ship was a pride of the mighty Tauri fleet, particularly since it housed the single most technologically advanced item apart from the relics of the Ancients. It housed none other than the Asgard Core, a mighty computer of the Asgard that held every achievement and knowledge of the Asgard, now found nowhere else since its creators have committed a race-wide suicide by blowing up their own planet. It was a powerful tool comparable only to the incredibly advanced Molecular Construction Device once used by Merlin and then by Daniel Jackson. The Asgard beaming technology, having been constantly used and developed by the brilliant but physically frail alien race, had advanced in ways that would have surprised even the Alterans. Although the methods of designing and redundancies was still much less sophisticated than its Alteran counterpart, the Asgard's beaming technology was capable of creating almost anything.
Along with this technology, many other upgrades had been installed aboard the USS Odyssey, making it the most powerful and advanced starship. One of those upgrades was the sophisticated and powerful sensor systems that scanned, evaluated and displayed amazing amount of data from around the ship. It was, however, this sensor system that began to flash with red color, so familiar in human psyche as a sign of danger. Seriously, flashing red lights could not be good, in almost all cases. So, it was obvious for Major Hollands, the new Helms&Ops officer of the Odyssey, to sound an alarm and call for his captain.
"Proximity Alert! Colonel Davidson to the Bridge!"
His voice rang throughout the ship through the Internal Communication System and had reached the Colonel returning from his visit to the Engineering.
~This is Davidson. What is is, Major?~
"We have an unidentified ship that just exited hyperspace well within the Earth's outer Proximity Grid. Wait... Another hyperspace exit is forming, sir!"
~I'm on my way!~
Yet, things usually don't work that easily.
"Sir! I have three Ha'tak class vessels exiting the hyperspace with weapons armed. Distance to maximum firing range in 2 minute 20 seconds and counting."
~Shit! Major, raise shields and initiate Emergency Command Recall!~
Emergency Command Recall was one of the new protocols set up after the Earth's acquisition of the Asgard Transporter Technology. It referred to the initiation of the Asgard Beaming technology to transport the commander of the vessel back to the Bridge from any other parts of the ship, in cases of emergencies.
"Yes, sir. Shields up! Initiating site to site beaming!"
Flash!
With a brilliant white light, Colonel Davidson was back on the Bridge.
"Report!"
"The Ha'taks have charged weapons and they are firing their weapons at the unidentified ship. However, the target ship appears to be a Tel'tak class cargo ship, although the sensors indicate the displacement of the ship is at least 20% greater than any variant in record, and it is exerting incredibly high amount of energy from its cargo hold."
Davidson frowned.
"Shit... Power up Asgard Beam weapons and hail the Ha'taks and the cargo ship."
"Hailing frequency online."
"This is Colonel Davidson of the Earth ship Odyssey to the Tel'tak and Ha'tak vessels. You have entered the Earth's defence parameter. Power down your weapons and identify yourselves. If you do not comply, we will fire upon you."
There was no response.
"Major?"
Holland's face cringed.
"The Tel'tak has received the hail, but the last shot from the Ha'taks seem to have damaged the vessel. As for the Ha'taks, they are recharging their weapons. They have locked on to us."
Davidson sighed.
"Contact SGC and relay all situation to Pentagon and the White House."
"Yes, sir. Communication Protocol Papa-Delta-Alpha-Alpha initiated."
Within moments the voice of General Landry was heard from the speakers.
~Colonel, I've just received the report. How far out are the Ha'taks?~
Davidson quickly gestured to Hollands.
"They will enter our maximum firing range in 45 seconds and counting, and we will be in their maximum firing range in 1 minute 15 seconds and counting, sirs."
~Thank you, Major. Colonel, have they identified themselves yet?~
While not keeping his eyes off the screen that indicated information about the situation, Davidson made his report.
"No, general. However, from their actions so far, they appear to be hostile."
"Colonel, they are finally answering our hail."
The screen changed and a face of Jaffa bearing the mark of Ba'al appeared. Davidson cringed inside, intuitively understanding that this would end with the death of the three Ha'taks and all Jaffa inside.
~Tauri scums! We serve Lord Ba'al and we are here to track down a traitor in our midst. Do NOT interfere, for we have no interest in attacking your planet.~
Obviously, Davidson had no intention of allowing Ba'al's Ha'taks to do whatever they please. Then something else happened to allow Davidson to make up his mind.
"Sir, the Tel'tak is sending an audio transmission. It has Tok'ra encoding."
"The Tok'ra? They are chasing a Tok'ra agent?"
Holland quickly tapped his console but he shook his head.
"The transmission is fuzzy at best."
"Play it."
~This is An'ran of Tok'ra to the Tauri ves… zzz… The device is active… zzz… cannot stop… zzz… The ship has damages and I am severely wounded. I… zzz… relay this message… argh… Goa'uld scientist Doruan… zzz… Ba'al... mutli-reality… zzz…~
"Can you clear it up?"
Davidson inquired but Hollands shook his head.
"The original transmission was not very good, sir."
"Very well. General Landry, I hope you were listening in."
However, it was another voice that answered him.
~Ian, it's O'Neill here.~
It was none other than the legendary General Jack O'Neill.
"General."
~You have the President's permission to beat crap out of bocce's ships.~
"Sir?"
~Ba'al's ships, Colonel. Destroy them.~
"With utmost pleasure, sir. What of the Tok'ra agent, sir?"
~We are sending up 302s to escort it.~
Hollands quickly interrupted the conversation.
"Colonel, the Ha'taks just entered out Optimal Firing Range. We are still 40 seconds to their OFR."
"Well, you heard the general. WSO, fire Asgard Plasma Beams at the Ha'taks. Two bursts per ship."
"Yes, sir."
Two bright blue beams exploded out from the Odyssey and struck the first Ha'tak. One beam instantly drained the shield of the Ha'tak and several minor explosions appeared across the hull, then the second beam entered the Ha'tak and shattered it into thousands of pieces.
The second and the third Ha'tak quickly understood that they were no match for the Odyssey, and they quickly turned to flee, only to have the second Ha'tak destroyed with the next shot. Fortunately for the Jaffa aboard, the third Ha'tak opened up a hyperspace window and fled, with the Asgard Plasma Beams narrowly missing the offending Goa'uld vessel.
"Damn it. Sorry, general, one got away."
~Well, they are sneaky that way. How about the Tok'ra guy?~
At O'Neill's request, Davidson looked at Hollands who was busy recalibrating the sensors to compensate for the strange energy around the cargo ship.
"Major?"
"The energy fluctuation from the cargo ship is increasing and... it's enveloping the Tel'tak. It's heading straight for Earth."
~I've heard enough. I'm ordering the 302s to back away. I know that the Tok'ra are our allies, but I cannot allow that ship from coming any closer to Earth. Davidson, remove the threat.~
"Yes, sir. You heard him, major. Set course to intercept."
The Odyssey's primary sublight engines kicked in, propelling the mighty ship toward the planet. From the distance, the Odyssey's heading was toward the tiny dot upon the blue planet that was now pulsating with invisible but intense energy.
"Major, this is a strike of precision. Prep a missile."
"Yes, Colonel."
However, before Hollands could carry out his order, the sensors went crazy.
"Sir... The ship... It disappeared."
Holland's words was disjointed thanks to his surprise.
"What? What do you mean? Did it cloak?"
"No, sir. I am detecting no residual energy matching any cloaking technology that we have cracked. It appears that the Tel'tak cargo ship just... disappeared."
Davidson narrowed his eyes.
"Record all data and contact the SGC. I feel that we are not really done with this... yet."
You know, I have never thought that I would take this kind of initiative to come out here. Here was the Outback, the real Australian Outback, not the Outback Steakhouse, which happens to be an American company that has almost nothing to do with Australia.
The problem was that unlike the Outback Steakhouse, there was nothing much out here. I am sure Australian Aborigines would refute this and somehow find me waterholes and grubs for me to taste, but in my eyes, I saw nothing but flat land of red sand and rocks.
"Ahh... Why the hell did I do this?"
I guess I just wanted to get away from the hectic environment of the city. Melbourne, frequently voted the best city in the world, was relatively lazy city with plenty of peace and quiet if I wanted so, but even then, the hustle and bustle of the city really grated on my nerves. It didn't help that I lived in the apartment in the city. Sometimes, I would go with my friends to nightclubs to get this stress out of my head, but over the last year or so, my stress-level had been going up... thanks to my annoying girlfriend.
Honestly, I think that she is cheating on me and was in the relationship with me for all my money, or my family's money. Yet, I had some innate softness that refused to make me dump this girl that I've been dating for two months. I guess two months were little too short, since the shortest relationship I've ever had was a year.
I was not a sporty 'jock', as the Americans call it. I was a little on the side of the nerds. I wasn't too short or too fat, but I had lacked the self-confidence to make myself the centre of attention outside the confines of the stuffy classrooms. It wasn't that I was bad at sports. Okay, I wasn't 'that' bad at sports. In fact, I had a think for hockey, though the Australian Rule Football or soccer or tennis baffled me. The cricket, the other national sports of Australia, was something that made me want to smash a jar of lemonade over my head just by watching it.
I tried to keep fit, but it didn't take for quite a while. Through regular walking to and from school, forced upon me by my grandfather, I maintained my weight throughout my high school years, but after months of ice cream-binges at the end of my Year 12, and living alone in my first year of university, had turned me into a Mr Chub Chub Chubby. My height at 185 centimetres really didn't protect me from looking like the Michelin Guy with extra wrap. The intervention came from my beloved family members, and the fact that I found a girl that I really liked, had pushed me to recognise my weight issue.
For six months, I was really into the gym. My grandfather, a man who was far wealthier than my father, had paid for my membership at a really great gym and I had a session with a personal trainer four days a week, which is a lot now that I think about it. Then my mother, a Korean-Australian and second generation immigrant, took lessons in cooking Korean food, notoriously well known for its healthy yet tasty food. With her learning came my new diet that involved a lot of steamed rice, vegetables that I had previously thought as garden weeds, and a whole batch of stinking herbal medicine that my mum insisted that I drink to the last drop.
By the time that I came out to the Aussie outback, I was relatively lean, though I was no Ryan Reynolds. Also, at this time, I had my fourth girlfriend, though none had really made me fall in love with them. I suppose that while I looked like a bit of playboy outside, I was still the geek who loved Star Trek, Star Wars and Star Gate series. I maintained a massive collection of science fiction books and TV-series, along with an equally massive collection of fantasy books. More recently, however, I was very much into the vast array of internet fictions of Korea. In Korea, there are entire websites dedicated to what they call 'genre fictions'. Thanking my mum for forcing me to learn to read Korean, I relished every one of those books that I had purchased.
Perhaps, it was the revelation that I was a geek with a closet full of superhero costumes, a wall filled with various collectibles and stuff, had driven away my past three 'girlfriends', though two of the three had met me at nightclubs, and only one was someone from the university days. Even the current girlfriend was a girl I've met at a nightclub and a one-night-stand.
As I stood upon this strangely imbalanced line between a geek/nerd and a cool guy, I must say that I have toppled toward the geek side. In order to get away from my confusion, I packed up my expensive laptop, a couple of external hard drives filled with my various collections, and drove out here. Of course, as a meticulous nature made me plan this months in advance and made me buy heaps of things I thought I would need, including a satellite phone.
Nothing the time, I stopped the car and reached back from the driver's seat. I rummaged around my stuff and found my satellite phone. That day was my mother's birthday, and though they were on a long trip to USA, I wanted to call them. As I got out of the car holding the phone on my ear, I noticed a small flash of light in the sky. At first, I did not know what it was. I was focused on the signal on the phone.
~Hello?~
"Dad?"
~Kev, my man.~
"Why are you speaking like that?"
He paused.
~Well, don't the young people speak like that?~
"Dad, I'm twenty six, and I am also not a moron. I don't speak the brainless-hipster language."
~Woa... Settle down, kid. Don't go offending people for their personal style.~
I cringed. He always wanted to appear young, and I do admit that my mum always looked much younger than my father, even though they were of same age.
"Where's mum? It's her birthday and I wanted to say happy birthday."
~She went out with her friends for brunch.~
I guess I had misjudged the time.
"She left you behind, huh?"
~Yeah...~
As I spoke, I noticed that the small flash of light that appeared in the sky had gotten bigger than seemingly coming toward my direction.
"Huh..."
~What is it, kid?~
"There is something... Umm... I will call you later."
~Alright, Kev. Talk to you later!~
I quickly tossed the phone in the back seat and got back on my car. I didn't move the car though, because I didn't really think the object would hit me, and from the looks of it, it was falling very slow.
"What is that this?"
I quickly found my trusty binoculars.
"WTF!"
That was the first thing that came out of my mouth when I saw it.
It was the familiar shape of Tel'tak cargo ship from Stargate SG-1. It was impossible that it would exist, let along fall from the sky. For a moment, I tried to reason it out. I supposed that it could be a movie prop or something that fell from a cargo plane. Except, the problem was that this vehicle was a little too big to fit in a cargo plane, and who builds a prop like that any more? They all used computer graphics, so there was no reason to suspect it was a prop.
"Huh... huh? It's falling... here? SHIT!"
I quickly drove forward. My gear was already forward, and unlike in a movie, there was no reason for me to go backward. As long as I moved perpendicular to the direction of the fall, I would be safe. What I had miscalculated was the speed of the fall and the impact it would have.
The next thing I remembered was that I was still alive, despite feeling like I have been lynched by a violent group of psychopathic kindergarten kids. Then I remembered. My car, though a big 4WD it was, had flipped forward. It spun in the air a full circle and landed correctly, sparing me from crawling out of car sprawled upside down. The years of having seatbelt on had also saved me from breaking my neck.
"Wait a minute, where is the air-b..."
Blam!
The air-bag came to rescue at the wrong time.
I undid my seatbelt, popped the air-bag and got out of the car. Then I turned around to see the falling Tel'tak.
Indeed, it was a Tel'tak, and by the looks of it, it looked genuine.
"So, Stargate SG-1 was actually a cover, just like the Wormhole Extreme was a cover for the SGC... Huh..."
That was the only reasonable explanation I could come up with.
Then I saw the door of the Tel'tak opening up on its side. I tensed up, as I wondered who would it be. If it was a Goa'uld, I could die or get infested. Of course, if I was really unlucky, it could have been any one or more of many dangers of the outerspace.
A man, in his mid 50s but well built like the Jaffa that I would see in the TV shows. He had huge muscles and a mark on his forehead that looked suspiciously like that of Ba'al, the last of the System Lords. He dressed like a Jaffa. If it was Jaffa, there was even less chance of me defeating the guy. So, I quickly searched the back seats for the lone revolver I had. It was an insurance, since people did go missing in the outback. Despite my shaking hands, I managed to put the bullets in the revolver.
Now armed, I was a little braver. So, I slowly approached the man who appeared to be severely wounded. He stumbled twice while I got close. Then looked up at me, and I nearly blew out his brain when I saw his eyes glow. Yet, it was lucky that I did not fire the gun in a moment of hesitation because he told me who he was.
"STOP! I am a Tok'ra! I am not your enemy!"
Of course, someone who is not a fan of Stargate SG-1 would just shoot him, but I had to make sure.
"Prove it."
Keeping my eyes on his hands, where I could clearly see a copper colored Kara'kesh (the Goa'uld Hand Device), I warily asked him.
"Prove it? How?"
"Tell me something only a Tok'ra would know."
Even so disoriented and bleeding profusely, he hesitated.
"How do you know the Tok'ra? You do not seem like a member of SGC. If you were... I would be rescued."
I had no answer to that, or at least no answer that would be short enough for him to hear to the end.
"Just tell me... ummm... Do you know Anise?"
The Tok'ra's eyes twinkled in recognise.
"Yes, I know Anise."
"What is her host's name?"
The Tok'ra paused then smiled.
"Freya."
I lowered my gun.
"Welcome to Earth."
I flipped him over on his back, and had him lean on a mound of red earth dug up from the impact of the Tel'tak crashing.
"Here, drink this."
I gave him water but he could not swallow.
"My host has lost consciousness, and his organs were far too heavily damaged. He cannot drink."
The Tok'ra spoke as the water mixed with blood came back out from his mouth.
"My name is Kevin. What is yours?"
"I am An'ran... my host is Collox... I must deliver a message to... the SGC. You seem to know... much about... the Tok'ra... You must be affiliated with the SGC."
That was not true. He assumed wrong.
"Umm... sorry to say this, but I saw everything about Tok'ra because I saw it in the TV show."
"TV show? I do not understand..."
The coughed up more blood.
"I must..."
Then he looked at me.
"Kevin, can I ask you a favor?"
"A favor?"
"Yes... I need you to blend with me."
Huh?
"Come again?"
"I am dying. My host is dying. If I take a new host, I may live a little longer... Perhaps long enough for the SGC to find me."
For a moment, I worried if he was not really a Tok'ra, but then if he was a Goa'uld, he would have jumped me by now.
"Okay... but I don't really think I can kiss a guy."
Yet, I leaned in closer and opened my mouth.
"Just don't bite down."
Squelch!
"Aaagh! Aaargh! Huh? My voice..."
My throat hurt really a lot, and then a voice appeared within my head just as my voice changed.
-Thank you, Kevin. I was successful in transferring to your body. Unfortunately, I think I have sustained too much damage. Even in your body, I cannot survive.-
"So, what happens now?"
-If I just die, my body will release deadly toxin into your body. However, I can use the last of my strength to merge with you completely, and then dissolve my body that you may live with all my memory.-
"Uh... you would do that for me?"
-Yes. I am Tok'ra. I just want you to deliver my warning to the SGC...-
"What message?"
-When I die and you absorb me, you will understand.-
Then I felt him squirming inside me.
-It is lucky though... Your body is healthy and we are a good match. You also seem a little different from any human I had bonded over the years. I think you would be able to access most of my memories in time. This is good. You would be able to clearly understand the message... Ugh... Argh... I am... dying... Good Bye...-
I did not understand why I was crying, but tears began to flow down my cheeks.
"Good bye, An'ran."
Then a blinding flash of pain coursed through me. I screamed as I rolled on the ground in pain.
It felt like days of torture, but when the pain subsided, I realised that it had been mere minutes of pain.
"Wow... I'm not doing that again..."
I felt strong, however. It was as if his dissolution had caused my body to strengthen. Then bits of his memory flooded me.
"Urgh... I think... I'm gonna puke."
I did puke. I threw up everything I ate in the morning.
"Crap..."
I shook my head and slowly stood up to assess what's going on around me. Things seemed clear in my head, yet I somehow knew I needed more time. I turned around.
"Tel'tak... a cargo ship... and... argh!"
More pain came, but it was quickly followed by memories and knowledge.
"Huh... I know how to drive this thing."