A Dangerous Alliance

TITLE: A Dangerous Alliance

AUTHOR: Methos (ianblyth2005@btinternet.com)

DISCLAIMER: All things Stargate belong to Gekko, All things Babylon 5 and Crusade belong to Warner Brothers and J. Michael Straczynski.

SUMMARY: As the star ship Excalibur returns to earth for a refit, the new Quantum Drive tests go a bit ca ca, landing the Excalibur and its crew in a different time and place, though maybe here they can actually do some good.

SPOILERS: Babylon 5, A Call to Arms. Crusade TV show, Technomage Trilogy Books, Stargate Atlantis season 3 finale episode “First Strike”.

RATING: FR15

“Are we far enough away from the planet to jump yet?” Captain Gideon asked the helmsman as the ship shook from another energy blast.

“No sir, at least another ten minutes until its safe to jump to hyperspace.” The helmsman of the Excalibur replied.

The Excalibur and its crew had been sent to this planet by way of the Rangers who had found out some new information as to why the native civilisation had recently become extinct, rumour was they had been exposed to the same plague that Earth had, but when the Excalibur had arrived they had found a large Drakh fleet waiting for them.

As the ship shook from another blast the doors to the bridge opened with Galen stood there, uncharacteristically looking shaken and holding onto the side of the door as the ship shook around him.

“Ah, The Drakh,” Galen noted from the main screen where four main fighters were trying to block their escape. “Pesky things aren’t they?”

“Lieutenant, what about the new drives President Sheridan had installed last time we were in dry dock?” Gideon asked.

“Untested sir, we were supposed to report to Sector forty nine to test them in two weeks.” Lieutenant Matheson replied with a grimace as the ship shook again.

“No time like the present, fire them up.” Gideon said with a smile, he’d heard about the new Quantum Drives that Sheridan had had developed from left over Vorlon tech. The Excalibur was the first ship to get them installed because of the power requirements, like The Excalibur’s main weapon system, the Vorlon tech used a lot of power, more than most ships were capable of generating. Hopefully the new Quantum Drive would allow ships to travel through Quantum space to a destination in a fraction of the time it would take through Hyperspace.

“New drives?” Galen asked curiously.

“Some Vorlon design or something, we had them installed last time we docked for repairs. Haven’t gotten around to testing them yet, but President Sheridan swears they are good for entering Quantum Space in solar systems, even in atmospheres safely.” Gideon replied, smiling slightly as he saw another Drakh cruiser get shot down from his ships secondary weapons system.

“Quantum drives you say, Mathew that is a dangerous idea, playing with Quantum technology is always dangerous.” Galen replied, trying not to come off as smug, just someone who knew what they were talking about.

“We don’t exactly have a choice Galen; there are fifteen Drakh heavy cruisers behind us with more on the way. We can’t jump to Hyperspace for another ten minutes and if those Cruisers catch us we won’t have ten minutes.” Gideon snapped back.

“Listen to me carefully Mathew; Quantum technology is dangerous and unpredictable. The Vorlons may have created it, but they didn’t use it, ask yourself why. The Vorlons, The Shadows, even my order only use Hyperspace. If Quantum drives were better than Hyperspace then why didn’t they use them?” Galen replied with a half smile, knowing that he had won the argument.

“I understand, they haven’t even been tested yet and I’ll take you’re warning under advisement, now ready the ship for the jump into Quantum Space.”

The entire bridge seemed to stop for a second; they all knew that when the Technomage warned you about something, it was normally for a very good reason. The Technomage’s were the most advanced race in the known galaxy, now that the first ones had left, if they weren’t happy with using Quantum Drives, then there was something wrong with the technology.

“Ready Captain.” Matheson reported from beside Galen.

“Jump to Quantum Space.” Gideon ordered as he braced himself and gripped his chair tightly.

“Jump.” Matheson repeated.

As the blue swirling vortex appeared in front of them, destroying several Drakh fighters as it formed, Galen’s eyes went wide, and for the first time since casting the spell of destruction he actually felt fear and anticipation. Quantum technology was forbidden by his order for reasons they had never disclosed, now he was going to find out why.

As the ship entered Quantum Space the feelings were like nothing the crew had ever felt before, Gideon wanted to scream but found no sound would come, he felt like he was being torn apart and then put back together instantly. Turning to look at Galen his vision clouded, even the motion of turning his head made it worse, it was like looking at the world in time frames that were overlapping by a few seconds.

His inner ear felt like it was on fire, his wobbled on his chair as he turned, his balance shot to hell. Glancing around he swore he could see things shifting in the shadow’s, the walls of the ship were turning translucent and then forming again right before his eyes. He could see out of the corner of his eye a few of the crew members falling to the floor, pools of sick were forming in front of them before the crew members were actually vomiting.

Time was stopping, rewinding and them speeding up as unimaginable speeds, it seemed like time itself was being pulled apart and reordering itself then it abruptly stopped.

Looking out the view screen Gideon paused for a second, taking in the view of Quantum Space. It was beautiful; like hyperspace is some ways but unlike anything he had seen before it others. For one it was blue, bright blue with green threads running through it, trying to get a gauge for distance Gideon tried to focus on one point of it before blinking and shaking his head.

It was strange, he could definitely see three dimensions in Quantum Space, but there was something else here, a fourth dimension at work, weaved into the normal three dimensions, trying to look at something, or trying to get a position was giving him a headache and making the feelings from the jump even worse.

“Lieutenant, close view screen.” Gideon ordered when he had found his voice.

“Sir.” Matheson sounded shaken, unsure of himself.

“Lieutenant, are you alright?” Gideon asked, glancing around at the other crew members he found them all looking as shaken as he was, some even worse.

“Fine sir, what was that?” Matheson replied as he looked round the bridge.

“I don’t know, anyone who needs to, head down to medbay and get yourselves checked out, and send a cleanup crew in to deal with this mess. Galen, with me.” Gideon ordered as he stood up from his chair and walked towards the briefing room.

He stumbled slightly, before righting himself and walking into the briefing room, closing the doors as Galen walked in behind him.

“What the hell was that? I felt like I was being turned inside out.” Gideon snapped.

“I warned you, Quantum Space is dangerous and shouldn’t be played with. It was forbidden in my order to research Quantum technology, now you have gone and opened Pandora’s box, I just hope you can close it again.” Galen said, glancing around the room.

“Galen, I’ve never felt anything like that, the researchers told me that the jump should have been even smoother than a Hyperspace Jump, did something go wrong?” Gideon asked, trying to get his head around what he had seen out of the view screen.

“I don’t know, and you should know how hard it is for me to admit that. Members of my order take very seriously the oath ‘know all of what can be known’, so a mystery like Quantum Space is something of a challenge for all of us. I suggest we just back into normal space as quickly as possible, the longer we stay here, the higher the possibility that something might go wrong.” Galen replied, stoically as always before walking to the door opening it.

“Galen, why hasn’t your order used Quantum Space before?” Gideon asked, causing Galen to pause in the doorway.

“I don’t know Mathew, and that troubles me greatly.” Galen said as he walked out the door, closing is behind him.

“Captain,” Gideon’s wrist link asked.

“Gideon here,” Gideon replied into it.

“Captain, you’d better get down here, there’s a problem with the Quantum Drive.”

“On my way, Gideon out,”

With that Gideon walked out of the briefing room and headed down to the Engineering deck as quickly as he could, as he entered the room he could barely make out what was happening.

“Captain, the Quantum Drives are overloading, they started a few minutes after we settled in Quantum Space, I don’t know how long we can keep them going.” The head engineer shouted over the whir of equipment and the mechanical chirping coming from consoles.

“How long have we got until we have to jump back?” Gideon shouted back.

“Five, maybe six minutes, I wouldn’t want to push it any further than that.” The engineer shouted back before running over to a console and pounding furiously at the screen on it.

“Matheson.” Gideon shouted into his handlink as he ran out of engineering and along the corridor.

“Matheson here.” The reply came from the handlink.

“Get everyone ready for another Quantum Jump, we need to get back into normal space as soon as possible or we’ll be stuck here.” Gideon shouted into the wrist link as he swerved around a corner and made his way to the lift to the bridge.

“Aye sir, readying for Quantum Jump.”

“Jump as soon as we’re ready, alert the crew to ready themselves, Gideon out.” Gideon grimaced as he looked at the small space of the elevator, it would be extremely uncomfortable if they jumped while he was in here.

“All hands, ready for Quantum Jump.” The voice came over the speakers loud and clear, Gideon braced himself against the walls and clenched his fists as the wave of nausea his him again. Closing his eyes he tried to concentrate on something, anything to help the time pass.

The lift jolted to a stop and Gideon stumbled out of the doors, still holding his eyes closed he stood, braced against the door of the lift for the sensations to stop.

“Captain,” Lieutenant Matheson was the first to recover on the bridge, he abruptly walked over to help Gideon stand up and ready himself.

“Just as bad as the first time, something we’ll have to tell President Sheridan about.” Gideon groaned as he walked towards his chair. “Everyone all right?”

“All decks reporting in now sir, no casualties but a few members are unconscious from the strain of Quantum jumping, I wouldn’t recommend doing that again anytime soon Captain.” Matheson reported.

“I quite agree,” Galen chose that moment to speak up from where he was leaning against a wall on the bridge.

“Galen?” Gideon raised an eyebrow at the Technomage.

“Well I assume you haven’t run a scan yet, but from what I can tell the quantum signature of the ship has... changed.” Galen noted with a hint of humour in his voice.

“That’s impossible,” Matheson retorted. “Quantum signatures don’t change, they can’t.”

“Excuse me, what is a quantum signature?” Gideon asked curiously. Physics had never been his strong suit in the academy, tactics and weaponry yes, physics, no.

“Well you see, everything in the universe has a quantum signature, everything from a plant to a ship. It’s like a fingerprint if you will, and now it has changed.” Galen said with a grin.

“View screen open, Lieutenant run a full scan of the area and tell me where we are.” Gideon ordered.

“Aye sir.” Matheson said before turning to the relevant console and opening the view screen.

“What in god’s name is that?” Gideon exclaimed as he looked out the view screen.

In front of the Excalibur was a ship, if you could call it that, it was bigger than the Excalibur by miles, larger even that the Babylon five space station, it was the largest thing short of a planet that Gideon had ever seen.

“Running scans now sir; it appears to be some sort of vessel, but without an outer hull. If I had to make a guess sir I’d say it was more a city than a ship. It’s damaged from what I can tell; it looks like they took a direct hit from an energy weapon of some sort, Damage to their main control tower. Captain, if these readings are right, they only have a few hours of power left before their shield drops.” Matheson reported his findings as he read the scan readouts.

“Open a channel.” Gideon said with an air of authority as he stood up.

“Channel open sir.”

“This is Captain Gideon of the Excalibur, are you receiving me?”

“Captain, they’re responding.” Matheson said as he punched a few buttons to put the voice onto the com system.

“Captain, this is Major John Sheppard of Atlantis, uh, I know this is kind of awkward, but is there any chance you’d be able to help us out here?”

“Major, I’d be glad to assist you; may I first ask where we are?” Gideon shrugged at the face that Galen pulled at him. Why bother spending hours on scans when they could just ask a native.

“Where you are?” The Major’s voice came back over the intercom sounding a bit strained, like he was struggling not to laugh. “The Pegasus galaxy, beyond that you’re guess is as good as ours.”

“I see,” Gideon noted with surprise the shocked look on Galen’s face. “How can we assist you then?”

“Well we’re in desperate need of power or a place to land, either would be good.”

“Lieutenant, run a scan of the local area, try and find a planet with an atmosphere the same as what’s inside their shields.” Turning to Galen he raised an eyebrow. “The Pegasus galaxy?”

“Yes, well, I did warn you about playing with Quantum space.” Galen’s voice had taken on his humours edge again, like when he knew something, but was waiting for you to figure it out as well.

“Captain, I’ve found a planet, roughly three hours away at top speed.” Matheson reported as he turned to the Captain.

“Major,” Gideon said, opening the com channel again. “We’ve found a planet for you, maybe three hours away from our present location. Do you have enough power to make it on your own or do you require assistance?”

Another voice came in reply, this one speaking quite roughly. “We don’t have space travel; it’s taking all our energy to keep the shields active.”

“Rodney!” the first voice was back on. “A lift would be appreciated or some generators if you have some spare to help out. We have wounded and things are looking pretty bad over here.”

“Do you require medical assistance?” Gideon asked, concern creeping into his voice. What sort of attack had come that could cripple such a large vessel.

“We have medical staff treating the wounded, but we’re low on power, in about five hours we’ll be dead in space, literally.”

“He’s correct sir, their power consumption is way beyond anything I’ve seen. Their shield system is eating through they’re power grid at a rate I’ve never seen before, they’ll be lucky to have power for shields for another hour.” Matheson said as he finished the scan of Atlantis.

“Alright, what sort of power systems do you use?” Gideon asked, curious himself to find out what sort of power supply these people used to power such a gigantic vessel.

“The city is built to use three zed pee ems, but currently we only have one.” The second voice, identified as Rodney spoke up again.

“Zed pee ems?” Gideon repeated. They were using Zero Point Energy? The ISA had been researching zero point modules for years now but had never managed to get a viable working prototype; the first ones however used ZPM’s in most of their ships, glancing over to Galen he noticed the Technomage had a small smile on his face. “Is there something you’d like to add Galen?”

“We used to use ZPM’s for our power supply in our ships, that was until we found a more efficient method of course. I believe I still have a few of them lying about in my ship somewhere, I’m sure I can spare one or two of them for a good cause.” Galen smiled, in truth he was more than curious about the gigantic vessel in front of them himself, and going over to install the ZPM’s would be a good way of getting a look inside and seeing what they’re level of technology was.

“You found something more efficient than zero point energy?” The second voice almost screamed over the com link, breaking Galen out of his musings.

“Of course, my order hasn’t used anything so archaic in hundreds of years.” Galen smiled at Gideon, happy that he was still able to shock him after everything they had seen together. “I take it you would like to borrow one or two of them then?”

“Yes, yes we would.” The first voice replied, “Do you have beaming technology?”

“No, but I will come over in my personal flyer to deliver the modules myself.” Galen smiled at Gideon before walking off of the bridge.

“But the shields, how are they going to get through them? We’ve got teams all over the place trying to assess the damage.” The second voice came again, obviously speaking to the first person.

“Gentlemen, if Galen says he can meet you there, then he will meet you there.” Gideon interrupted the voices.

“I don’t think you understand, the shields are strong enough to withstand a supernova, how does he plan to get through them?” The second voice asked.

“He’ll find a way.” Gideon replied, honestly thinking to himself the same question.

“Colonel, a small craft has broken away from the vessel and is heading this way. It’s hard to get a lock on it but I’d say the dimensions are roughly the length of a jumper but of a more triangular design.” Raddick informed Col Sheppard as he read off the displays.

“What do you mean ‘hard to get a lock’? Were the sensors damaged in the blast?” Rodney asked, swinging round to take a look at the readouts himself.

“No, they just can’t get a lock on the vessel, there was no problem with the larger one once it appeared but the smaller craft appears to me more advanced.” Raddick explained.

“He’s right,” Rodney actually sounded surprised. “Whoever these people are they’re way more advanced than us, more advanced than The Ancients. They could be a valuable ally against The Replicators.”

“I got that from them having a power source more powerful that a ZPM Rodney, but that still doesn’t help them get it inside the shields.” Sheppard groused.

“Ship approaching shield perimeter now.” Raddick announced, causing both Sheppard and Rodney to turn to the scanner to watch what was happening.

“That can’t be.” Rodney said in amazement, his jaw going slack for a moment. The ship mad passed straight through the shield as if it wasn’t there.

“Hello?” Came a curious voice over the intercom.

“Hello?” Sheppard answered back.

“Hello, is there somewhere you’d like me to land or shall I just fly around out here waiting?” The voice came again, tinted with good natured humour.

“Rodney, open the jumper bay doors.” John smiled and shook his head at the voice; it was the type of humour he could get along with.

“Bay doors open.” Rodney replied, still trying to figure out how the ship had passed through the shields.

“Ahh yes, expect me soon.” The voice finished before going silent.

“Shall we go and greet him then?” Sheppard asked, now in high spirits about getting Atlantis back up to full strength again.

Not bad. I've never watched any of those shows but it differently pulls off the sci-fi feel. I may read the next chapter ;P

TITLE: A Dangerous Alliance

AUTHOR: Methos (ianblyth2005@btinternet.com)

RATING: FR15

It was Rodney’s turn to be shocked when they walked into the jumper bay; the ship that was in front of them was like nothing they had ever seen before. It was pitch black, it reflected the lights of the bay around it, but the most intriguing thing about it was the design. It was triangular, with sharp edges on the wing tips and top, almost stealth like in appearance. It was weird, but Rodney could swear he could hear the ship singing in his head.

Shaking his head softly to clear the thoughts he turned to the new arrival, the man was tall, taller than Sheppard by at least a foot. As he pulled his hood back you could see he was bald, or his head was shaven extremely close to the skin. His eyes held a hint of humour and in his right hand he carried a black staff with gold inlay that almost looked like circuitry running down it in an intricate design.

“Galen I take it.” Sheppard was the first one to say anything while Rodney was trying to find his voice.

“Ah yes, and you would be Doctor Rodney McKay and Colonel John Sheppard.” Galen smiled at the shock in their eyes. Truthfully it was pathetically easy to find their database on an open channel and access all the data he needed on the people he would be dealing with. As Elric always taught him, find out everything you can about the people you are meeting before you meet them.

“And how did you know that?” Sheppard asked, not liking that the stranger had so much information about them already.

“Oh, I like to keep myself busy, reading, thinking and listening. The usual you see.” Galen replied, almost answering their question but not quite, and leaving them with more questions than they had in the first place.

“Right.” Sheppard drawled out.

“Did you bring the Zed Pee Ems?” Rodney asked, impatient to see what sort of technology these people possessed and how much work he would have to do to make it compatible with the ancient systems.

“Oh yes, I apologise but I only had two fully charged ZPM’s in storage, the others must have died off years ago.” Galen almost laughed at the look of shock mixed with pure joy that crossed Rodney’s face.

With a flourish Galen swirled his coat back and stepped aside, distracting the two enough so that when he moved the two ZPM’s were by the side of him in small metal containers.

“What? How?” Rodney burst out, unable to contain himself at this apparent display of magic.

“One second please,” Galen smiled as Sheppard nodded and Rodney dove forward to take a look at the new ZPM’s he had been given. “Go ahead Matthew.”

“Galen, we’ve just picked up something on the long range scanners, a ship seems to be making incremental hyperspace jumps towards us from a planet roughly twenty five light years away. They’re broadcasting pretty loudly asking for Doctor Weir and Atlantis while running sensor sweeps of the surrounding area. If they keep up their current path they should be here within four days.” Gideon’s voice came over the com link causing Galen to smile.

“Thank you Matthew, could you get it touch with them and patch it through to my ship?” Galen asked politely.

“Sure thing, hold on.” Gideon replied, curious himself as to what Galen was doing over there.

“Colonel Sheppard, we have someone you might like to speak too, they’re asking for a Doctor Weir?” Galen smiled at the look of surprise that crossed Sheppard’s face. He’d come across Doctor Weirs information in the database he found, but was surprised she was not here to greet him herself.

“Doctor Weir is currently in the infirmary. She got hurt pretty badly in the attack, who’s asking for her?” Sheppard was immediately curious himself, but cautious in case the replicators had found them again.

“The Apollo, I believe the ships name is, and it’s Colonel Carter asking for Doctor Weir, would you like to speak to them?” Galen smiled again at the shocked look on Sheppard’s face; it was nice to find people he could still surprise now and again.

“Please, do you need a terminal or anything?” Sheppard asked, happy about finally having some reinforcements on his side in case the replicators did turn up again.

“No need.” Galen smiled and waved his hand in the air, creating a quick mystical symbol with his fingers as he cast the incantation to link with his ships com system before casting another incantation to create a holographic display in the air of the video link.

“What... Colonel Carter.” Sheppard covered his shock quickly as he was faced with Colonel Carter floating in mid air in front of him.

“Colonel Sheppard, nice to see you again. We were worried when we couldn’t get in touch with you, did something happen while you were leaving the planet?” Carter smiled pleasantly at the group while Rodney was looking at the projection, his jaw hanging open while he tried to figure out exactly what he was actually dealing with here.

“We were grazed by the replicator beam while we were leaving the planet; it damaged quite a few systems causing us to drop out of hyperspace early. We would have been completely lost but were found by Captain Gideon and Galen; we’ve got a few stories of our own now, along with two fully charged ZPM’s.” Sheppard beamed at the shocked look on Carter’s face.

“And Captain Gideon freely handed over two funny charged ZPM’s?” Carter was shocked, god only knew what that would do with Atlantis’s systems, they’d have the shield fully charged with enough spare power to bring most, if not all of the secondary systems on line again.

“I assure you Colonel Carter; the ZPM’s were just in storage. I can live without them.” Galen smiled across the hologram at Carter’s shocked face.

“So, where is Doctor Weir?” Carter asked, surprised that she hadn’t asked first.

“Doctor Weir was badly hurt during the attack; she’s in the infirmary undergoing surgery at the moment.” Sheppard reported.

“Not to break this up or anything, but I’ve got to get the ZPM’s to the power bay and fix whatever was damaged in the attack. If I don’t get that done on time then we’ll all by floating in space.” Rodney interrupted, still trying to find his ground after seeing Galen perform his trickery.

“Can Captain Gideon forward on our location to the Apollo Galen?” Sheppard asked.

“He can and will,” Galen smiled as Carter signed off from the link. Banishing the display with a wave on his hand while he cut his link to his ship he smiled at the two men. “Well, while Doctor McKay is playing with his new toys would you like to show me to the medical bay? Perhaps there is something that I can do to help Doctor Weir.”

“Colonel Sheppard please report to medical.” Came the voice across the PA radios.

“Ask and ye shall receive.” Sheppard grinned to Galen who just smiled back.

“So, how did you do that... you know?” Sheppard asked as they walked down the hall, causing Galen to laugh out loud.

“Captain, we’ve run a full sensor sweep of the area, we are in the Pegasus Galaxy.” Matheson reported as he read the readouts off the control panel in front of him.

“Right, did you manage to forward out location on to the Apollo?” Gideon asked, still curious as to how they had jumped millions of light years in just a few minutes.

“Yes sir, they are on their way now. Estimated current arrival time at just over nine hours.” Matheson reported.

“Nine hours to travel twenty five light years?” Gideon asked, even the Excalibur couldn’t do that in hyperspace.

“Yes sir, it seems they don’t use Hyperspace as we do, they use a different more efficient form of faster than light travel.”

“Hmm, maybe they’ll let us take a look at their engines when we arrive, with speeds like that available to them they could probably make in between galaxies in a few days.” Gideon mulled over the thought.

“Colonel.” Doctor Keller smiled as she saw Sheppard walk into the infirmary followed by a tall imposing man with a lop sided grin on his face that made him seem more open and approachable.

“Doctor, what’s the news?” Sheppard asked while Galen took his time to look around the various medical instruments.

“Doctor Weir died on the operating table while we were trying to relieve pressure in her head caused by a cerebral edema.” Doctor Keller said sadly in a hushed voice.

Sheppard went quiet for a second; it seemed the entire infirmary stopped for a minute while he processed the news.

“I’m sorry colonel; there was nothing we could do for her. She suffered severe bruising as well as several broken ribs that punctured her lung.” Doctor Keller wanted to say something, wanted to do something to comfort the colonel. There was nothing that came to mind, nothing adequate to say that would heal the wound that the loss of Doctor Weir had left in them all.

“Sheppard, we’ve got a problem.” Rodney’s voice came over the radio, snapping Sheppard out of his daze.

“What is it Rodney?” Sheppard snapped into the radio.

“The damage caused by the replicator beam was more serious than we first thought; it’s damaged several key systems and almost severed the power conduits leading from the ZPM room.” Rodney snapped back.

“Is there anything we can do?” Sheppard asked, now realizing that he was in control of Atlantis and responsible for all the people on board until they oversight committee assigned a new leader to the expedition.

“We can try and patch them up, but a full repair job will have to wait until we land.” Rodney replied, sounding stressed and out of breath.

“Get teams on it, I’ll be there in two minutes.” Turning to Galen he shook his head. “Looks like we’ll have to cut the tour short, is there anything you can do to help with repairs?”

“I’ll do what I can.” Galen replied before following as Sheppard ran out of the room towards the transporter.

“Captain we’ve got a problem” Matheson reported as he walked into Gideon’s briefing room.

“Another one?” Gideon asked, couldn’t anything go smoothly today?

“Yes sir, the Quantum Drives are off line, permanently. That last jump was too much for them, it burnt out several key systems and destroyed the integrated Vorlon tech. wherever we are, we’re stuck here.” Matheson grimaced at the fact that they would never see earth or any of their loved ones again.

“There’s no way to repair the damage?” Gideon asked, not looking forward to telling his crew that they were stranded in some other galaxy.

“We can patch up the earth tech, maybe fix up a few of the smaller systems, but the Vorlon tech was biological, we have nothing that could even run a diagnostic on it, let alone repair it. I’m afraid we are stuck here captain.”

“Very well, dismissed.” Gideon watched Matheson leave the room before turning to the table and glancing down at the last orders he had received from the rangers. They’d find a way back, they’d have to. Maybe if they could get a look at the engines on the Apollo they could integrate them into they’re systems and get back to earth that way.

“Ok, I’ve got the base systems integrated into the Atlantis power grid. Hopefully we shouldn’t drain too much power before we land.” Rodney reported as Sheppard and Galen walked into the ZPM room.

“Power them up then and let’s get to the alpha site.” Sheppard let a small smile cross his face. At least everyone was safe, that was what Doctor Weir would have wanted.

“Switching to integrated power... now.” Rodney paused as the console flashed slightly before the two ZPM’s that Galen brought started glowing softly with light.

“Power systems are reading as full, we’re good to go.” Rodney smiled as he looked at the read out on his tablet.

“Right, jump back into Hyperspace and get us to the alpha site. Galen, do you want to tell Captain Gideon where we’re going?” Sheppard asked, turning to Galen.

“Already done, he will wait around for the Apollo while they are making repairs to the Excalibur before meeting us on the new planet.” Galen smiled as both Rodney and Sheppard nodded at him.

“Alright, let’s get to the command room then get this show on the road.” Sheppard grinned as they started walking back to the transporter.

“So, how’s Elizabeth?” Rodney asked as they entered the room.

“She didn’t make it.” Sheppard said softly as the doors closed and the white flash took them to the command room.

“Captain, Atlantis is ready to jump to hyperspace. All repairs are on course, by the time the Apollo reaches us we should be at full strength again.” Matheson smiled as Gideon walked onto the bridge.

“Excellent Lieutenant, carry on.” Gideon smiled at the buzz around the bridge; everyone seemed busy and eager to get their work done. God knows how his next announcement would affect the crew morale, he’d decided to put it off until they had got met with the Apollo, maybe they would be able to help with the dilemma he was facing.

“Captain, Atlantis is powering up its hyperdrive.” Matheson reported as he noticed a huge power spike on the sensors.

“On screen.” Gideon said, taking another short breath as the view screen showed Atlantis in all its glory. The ‘ship’ seemed to pause slightly before a blue singularity opened in front of them and Atlantis sped away at amazing speeds.

“Captain, we’re tracking them, the ‘ship’ is moving a lot faster than we are capable of in hyperspace. I’d say they’re method of hyperspace travel is at least thirty to forty times as efficient as normal hyperspace travel.”

“Amazing, if we could get our hands on that technology...” Gideon trailed off as the thought filtered through his brain. They would be able to search the entire galaxy in the time they had left until the plague killed everyone on earth. It could be the most vital piece of technology earth had ever received. “Lieutenant, you have command. I was repair shifts on five hour intervals, five hours work then down time. I’ll be in my quarters.”

Matheson watched as Gideon walked off the bridge, he knew just as well as everyone did how vital that hyperspace technology could be. It could be a tremendous help in defeating the Drakh and finding a cure for the plague, as long as they got home in time for it to be of use.

“Captain, the Apollo just dropped out of Hyperspace. They’re hailing us now.” Matheson’s voice came over the intercom, waking Gideon from his rest.

“On my way Lieutenant.” Gideon grimaced as he stood up and shook himself awake; forgoing his jacket he walked onto the bridge and looked at the view screen. The Apollo was a good sized ship, maybe the size of an earth destroyer but of a strange design; the people in this galaxy obviously had artificial gravity perfected a long time ago.

“Colonel Carter is hailing you now sir.”

“On screen,” Gideon braced himself, he hated first contact. He was never sure what he was going to find himself looking at, the name sounded quite normal for an alien race, almost human but they could be using interlac to communicate.

“Captain Gideon I presume, I’m Colonel Carter.”

Gideon had to shake his head quickly in response to the face that came over the view screen, it was human, not only that but it was that of an attractive blonde woman. “Sorry Colonel, you’re our first face to face communication with people in this galaxy, I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

Carter smiled back at him, obviously familiar with the situation herself. “So you’re not from the Pegasus Galaxy yourself then?”

“No, we’re from a planet a long way away, a place called Earth.” Gideon almost dropped into his chair as the look of shock filtered across Carter’s face.

“Earth, third planet from the sun with Human’s as the dominant species?” Carter asked curiously.

“Yes,” Gideon started slowly, had the Earth Alliance or the Interstellar Alliance been in contact with the people from this galaxy before? “You know of it then?”

“Um, Captain, can we speak privately. I think we have a few things to talk about.” Colonel Carter said, looking a bit white herself.

“Would you like to come aboard Colonel?” Gideon asked, he was tempted to ask them to dock so that he could go aboard their ship to see what level of technology they possessed, but it would be more secure if she came aboard the Excalibur, just in case this was a Drakh trick.

“I’d be delighted; I’ll be with you shortly Captain.” With that the view screen cut off, leaving Gideon staring at the front of his ship, where the Apollo was dwarfed by the front stretch of the Excalibur’s main weapons platform.

Gideon almost jumped back in shock when a bright white flash appeared in front of him, the rest of the bridge crew moved back quickly and when the white had cleared Colonel Carter stood there in what looked to be an old fashioned earth force aviation suit.

“Colonel,” Gideon smiled as he stepped forward to shake her hand. “Sorry, you just surprised us; we didn’t know you had transporter technology.”

“Quite alright Captain, we only recently acquired it. Is there somewhere we can talk privately then?” Carter smiled, the captain seemed to be an open book, friendly and helpful, but there was something beneath the surface. The same thing she saw when she looked at General O’Neill, the friendly open face was a cover, inside there was something a bit darker, and a hell of a lot more dangerous.

“The briefing room, this way colonel,” Gideon smiled as he led Carter to the briefing room before closing the doors behind him. “I’ve got to say Colonel; you are the most Human looking alien I’ve ever met before.” Gideon smiled as he poured a glass of water for them both.

“I’m not surprised considering I’m human too.” Carter grinned as Gideon spat his water everywhere.

“You’re human? From earth?” Gideon asked, hoping he’d misheard that.

“And I take it you are too?” Carter asked, she was sure this ship wasn’t earth designed; for one thing it was at least twenty times as large as anything that earth could build at the moment.

“I think we’d better take a trip to medical to sort this out, if you don’t mind?” Gideon smiled, this may be a Drakh trick, but something was telling his that Colonel Carter was telling the truth.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Carter grinned as she stepped aside so that Gideon could lead the way.

“Doctor Chambers, do you have a minute?” Captain Gideon asked as he and Colonel Carter entered the medical bay.

“I’ve just finished dealing with the left over’s from that Quantum Jump, are you still suffering from nausea as well...” Doctor Chambers trailed off as she turned around to see Colonel Carter standing with the Captain. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise... is there something I can help you with?”

“We seem to have come across a bit of a puzzle; it seems Colonel Carter here is from Earth as well. Would you be able to run a quick DNA test to make sure?” Captain Gideon asked, smiling as he saw Carter looking around at the scanners and various other technologies in the medical bay.

“Certainly, one second.” Doctor Chambers smiled at them both before walking into the back to retrieve the medical scanner. “If you’ll just hold still for a few seconds Colonel.”

Carter couldn’t believe what she was seeing; the level of technology here was amazing. It wasn’t up to the Ancients standards, but it was at least five or six generations ahead of where they were at the moment. Whoever these people were, they definitely weren’t from earth, but why were they saying they were, when they’re technology obviously was so far advanced from what earth had.

“Well, aside from a few abnormalities and the presence of a metal I can’t identify in your blood, I’d say she’s human captain, or as human and me and you are anyway.” Gideon was actually shocked at the news, he was expecting Carter to turn out to be a Drakh, or may be someone with a changeling net.

“Captain, this may seem like a weird question, but what is the date? By earth years?” Carter asked, playing a hunch.

“2267, just after the Drakh attack... why?” Gideon asked, not sure where this was heading.

“It’s 2007 Captain, and what did you mean by a Quantum Jump?” Carter asked, time travel made a bit more sense, is this where humans would be in two hundred and sixty years?

“Great, time travel.” Gideon slumped his shoulders, he hated time travel, and with the Quantum Drives permanently off line there was no way back to his own time, or his own galaxy.

“I take it you’re not here on purpose then?” Carter asked, she’d dealt with time travel before; she’d travelled in time before. Every time it left her with a head ache and too much paperwork to do.

“Wait, that can’t be right. In 2007 humans didn’t have FTL technology, let alone access to Hyperspace like you use. They didn’t even have access to jump engines or jump gates.” Gideon was now even more confused.

“As I asked, what is a Quantum Jump?” Carted asked patiently.

“It’s a new engine we were working on, a way to access a new type of Hyperspace. Something went wrong, or at least I think something went wrong and we ended up here. Galen might be able to explain it better.” Gideon explained, not wanting to get into the actual mechanics of the Quantum Drives as he didn’t fully understand them himself.

“Galen? He’s the one I spoke with on Atlantis?” Carter asked, remembering the man that gave Atlantis two ZPM’s.

“Yes, if anyone knows what’s going on here, he will. Lieutenant,” Gideon smiled, tapping his comlink on his hand.

“Sir?” came the reply.

“Set course for the coordinates Galen gave us.” Gideon ordered. “Can your ship follow us into hyperspace or do you use the same type of hyperspace that Atlantis did?” he asked Carter.

“You use a different type of Hyperspace?” Carter asked shocked at the revelation.

“I’ll take that as a yes then, would you like to stay on board and observe and we can meet up with the Apollo at Atlantis?” Gideon offered, it seemed a good idea to learn as much about the people he would be dealing with as possible, and showing her their level of technology seemed a good way to earn they’re trust.

“Colonel Carter to Colonel Ellis.” Carter spoke into her radio.

“Ellis here.”

“I’m going to stay on board while we travel to Atlantis, would you mind if we took some sensor readings while you entered your version of hyperspace captain?” Carter paused slightly, looking at Captain Gideon for a response.

“Be my guest.” Gideon smiled back.

“Run a full sensor sweep of the area and try and get as much data as possible of the hyperspace window.” Carter finished off.

“Acknowledged, Ellis out.”

“Shall we then?” Gideon smiled at her as he opened the lift doors.

“So, what’s a Drakh then?” Carter asked as the lift doors closed, her curiosity getting the better of herself again.

“Alien species, they dropped a bio weapon on earth a few months back, we’ve been trying to find a cure ever since.” Gideon explained as the lift whirred and took them to the bridge.

Carter didn’t know what to say to that, they always said that future knowledge was a dangerous thing, but finding out the entire of earth had been poisoned? That was something else, not to mention that fact that too many things didn’t add up about this, if it was time travel, there had to be something else involved as well, something she wasn’t seeing.

“Lieutenant, prepare to jump.” Gideon said as he walked onto the bridge with Carter behind him.

“Eye sir, ready to jump.” Came the response.

“Jump.”

Carter didn’t know what she was seeing; space seemed to fold outwards on itself for a second before changing into a swirling, churning blue vortex. The ship paused for a second before being pulled in and there it was, hyperspace in all its glory.

“This is hyperspace?” Carter asked, amazed at the beauty of it all. There were red and black’s, swirling with each other all around them, the entire beauty of it was astounding.

“This is hyperspace.” Gideon smiled, he remembered the first time he had seen it, he was breath taken himself.

“It’s beautiful.” Carter said under her breath, nothing had shocked her this much since she had stepped through the gate that first time over ten years ago, but this, this was something different.

“Captain, we’re getting a distress call. It’s from the Apollo.” Matheson reported, shocking both Gideon and Carter out of their mutual musings.

“Jump back to normal space and find out what’s going on.” Gideon ordered, he didn’t like the fact that he was going into a fight with unknown odds, but these new people were friends, and he would render whatever assistance he could, besides, these were the only people he could possibly help his crew get home.

“Jumping now Captain.” As the jump point formed, they could see the battle before they had even exited the jump point. There were two ships, possibly four or five times the size of the Apollo attacking the smaller ship. They were purple in colour and deploying hundreds of smaller craft in a dog fight style of fighting.

“The Wraith.” Carter explained.

“Wraith? Bad guys then?” Gideon asked as they watched the fight, the Apollo was holding its own for the moment even thought it was hopelessly outnumbered.

“Sir, I’m running a full sensor sweep of the attacking vessels weaponry. They are using particle cannons in the forty to fifty gigawatt range.”

Gideon had to stop himself from laughing outright, particle cannons were obsolete, no one in his galaxy used them anymore, even the Narn had moved on to plasma weaponry. There was no way the Wraith could do any damage to the Excalibur, not with their current level of technology anyway.

“Put us between the Apollo and the Wraith ships, ready secondary weapons.” Gideon ordered, moving aside so that Carter could watch the fight on the screen.

“They’re weapons are extremely powerful, the Apollo is the most advanced ship we’ve got and it can barely hold its own against two hive ships.” Carter said, anxious about going into a fire fight in an unknown ship.

“The Apollo is moving towards us sir; they will be along side in three minutes.”

“Charge primary weapons and lock onto the first Wraith ship.” Gideon ordered, he knew he was showing off a bit here but maybe if he could show these friends what he could do; they would be more willing to give them access to their Hyperdrive technology.

“Primary weapons are charged.”

“Fire.” Gideon ordered with a smile.

The diming of the lights startled Carter for a second, and then a hum engulfed the bridge before a bright yellow flash passed over the view screen.

“You’ll want to watch this.” Gideon smiled at he pointed to the Wraith ship that he had targeted.

Carter just watched in amazement at the yellow beam of energy shot down from behind the bridge and seemed to collect itself on the front section of the ship for a second before blasting out towards the Wraith Hive ship and punching a hole clean through it.

“Tell the Apollo to get clear and jump to hyperspace, we’ll take care of the Wraith ships.” Gideon said to Carter as she continued to watch on at the first Wraith Hive ship exploded in a giant purple flash.

“Carter to the Apollo, get clear. Captain Gideon says he can handle this.” Carter said into her link.

“I believe him,” Came the shocked voice of Colonel Ellis. “Tell him thanks and I’ll see you all at Atlantis. Ellis out.”

Gideon just watched as the smaller ship flew directly under them before jumping to hyperspace.

“Sir the second Wraith ship is moving to jump to hyperspace as well.”

“Time for main weapon recharge?” Gideon asked.

“Ten seconds second’s.”

“Get that ship out of my sky.” Gideon ordered as the Excalibur’s engines roared back into life. The secondary weapon system was proving more than a match for the wraith darts as they flew towards the Excalibur, trying to buy time for the hive ship to escape, it was no use though. The secondary weapon system was picking the darts off with amazing accuracy.

“Fire main guns.” Gideon ordered as soon as the immediate area was clear of darts.

“Firing.”

Carter span to watch the deadly weapon fire again, as before the yellow energy streamed down from behind them, this time she also noticed to similar beams of energy coming from each side underneath the front of the ship. ‘Obviously from the three pylons at the back of the ship’ Carter mused to herself. The energy paused at the front of the ship for a second as it did before, before blasting out and destroying the Wraith hive ship completely.

“As soon as we have full power back, jump to hyperspace and set course for Atlantis, best speed.” Gideon ordered.

“Impressive.” Carter said, inwards she was dying to take a look at their weapon systems, as well as their shielding. A few of the Wraith ships had got off shots before they had been destroyed, but the ship barely even shook from the assault.

“Thank you, we’ll be arriving at Atlantis in just over an hour so shall we continue the tour?” Gideon asked with a grin, happy that she was impressed with the level of fire power they had.

“I’d enjoy that.” Carter smiled back.

“Lieutenant you have the bridge.”

AN: So? What do people think?

This is a bit different from my normal work, as instead of focusing on one or two main characters, I’ve got two main casts to work with here...

Yes, there will be pairings later on, and most of the science stuff will be explained... hopefully lol

Anyway, hope your enjoying it, and leave a review :D

M