It was probably the most important day at the facility, everyone was
in a hurry and anxious to complete preparations. It was the first time that
the whole Stargate program was to be setup on another world. Many new
members of the facility poured in from other areas of the military, civilian
scientists and construction teams. It was no longer confined to just the Air
Force, as the President had authorized an expansion that only a multi-branch
organization could fulfill. The Air Force was still the lead branch, however,
many resources of the Army and Navy have been added. It was one of these US
Navy personnel that breezed by Colonel O'Neill that peaked his curiosity.
He did not appear to be what a naval officer should look like. He was not
very tall, perhaps only 5 feet 6 inches, and his manner of dress was not
very military like.
"Hey, you there!" yelled Colonel O'Neill.
The man turned, saluted and proceeded through the gate with the other technicians.
"General, that man did not look right to me," stated O'Neill to General Hammond.
"You better look into it Colonel," returned the General.
Colonel O'Neill and the rest of the SG-1 team proceeded through the gate. Upon exiting
the gate, they asked the many technicians and workers about the man that had just arrived, but
no one could recall the man at all. One of the cases that he was carrying was placed down
besides the DHD. The other case he was carrying was not evident. Jack went over to the one
case, but he found no way to open it at all. When he touched it, it gave him a shock. Teal'c tried
his weapon, but it also had no effect.
"Okay, that's not good. Carter, you and Teal'c with me, the rest of you stay here and
continue to work. We're going to look for this guy," commanded the Colonel.
The three of them started to look around and found some foot prints leading away from
the stargate. They followed these, but they led to a section of ground with rocks and could not
follow any further. They had progressed quite a distance from the stargate so they were eager to
head back in case they had been led away on a false trail.
At the stargate however, the man had in fact led them away and was working on the
DHD with some sort of tool. He inserted the tool, shaped like a pencil, into the top of the DHD
and began to turn it several times, then insert it a bit more. The three members arrived back to
the stargate and saw the man working on the DHD. They saw none of the technicians and workers
of this facility being constructed. They also did not see anyone at the outside of the dig site
that had been found that contained a wealth of tablets and other archaeological artifacts.
This site had been chosen for that purpose, for the
information and technology needed to defeat the Ghoul.
"Hey! Get away from that!" the Colonel yelled.
The man turned and replied, "Dok We!" while pointing to the stargate.
The man had spoken in a tone and sound too much like the Goa'uld for Jack's comfort.
He raised his weapon to fire a warning shot, but the weapon was ripped from his hands when the
man turned around again. Teal'c fired his weapon, but it had no effect.
"That's not good," retorted Jack.
"Dok We!" repeated the small man louder than before, again pointing at the stargate, this
time his eyes did glow a bit, then he returned to work on the DHD.
The man finished inserting the tool. He pressed it down and the center section started to
raise up allowing access to several crystals under it in a tall cylindrical compartment. The man
opened the case and took out two crystals, inserting them into the compartment. He pressed
down on the tool again and the compartment went back down. The tool raised up after the
compartment lowered all the way down. The man took the tool out. He pressed a button on a
device attached to his wrist and a metal encasement wrapped itself around the DHD and also the
stargate sealing them completely. A section of this metal also covered the ground between the
two.
"Oh, this is definitely not good!" stated O'Neill.
At this point Doctor Jackson returned from the dig site with very exciting, good news.
But the scene of the stargate took away his smile.
"What's going on Jack?" asked Jackson.
"What does it look like! We are having a calm discussion with some Goa'uld! What do
you think!" replied Jack.
"No need for sarcasm Jack," returned Daniel.
"Dok We!" yelled the man.
"That language sounds a bit familiar, can you get him to say anything more?" asked
Daniel.
"He is a broken record! That's all he has said," replied Jack.
"It sounds familiar to me also Daniel Jackson," explained Teal'c.
The man began to put away tools and then close the case. He removed the SGC uniform
to reveal a black uniform with bright red markings and a golden lightning bolt across the chest.
Just as he was about to pick up the case to leave, Bra'tac arrived with a few other Jaffa.
"I see you met our new friend," Bra'tac said.
"You know this man?" asked Teal'c.
"Yes, we met on this planet a few weeks ago when you were first surveying the ruins. He
seems to speak Goa'uld, but with a strange accent," Bra'tac replied.
"These morons are with you?" the man asked Bra'tac in the Goa'uld language.
"It is he that has sealed the Stargate Master Bra'tac," informed Teal'c.
"Is this true? Did you seal the Stargate?" asked Bra'tac.
"The Sok-Rah belongs to us, as does this planet, Trahk-Noh-Rah," returned the man.
"This is one of our colonies established long ago. We had to take our warships away
to defend our planet. A race of beings attacked us like a plague, determined to wipe
us out. We hid among the stars until we found a way to defeat them. Now we return
to claim our lands and to search for our people. You must leave this place."
Teal'c and Daniel translated for the rest of SG-1 and Teal'c asked, "How can we leave
without the Stargate?"
"I cannot open the Sok-Rah, the worms are headed for this planet, we must defend our
lands," continued the man with Teal'c, while Daniel translated for SG-1.
"Worms?" asked Teal'c.
"Worms," the man replied while pointing to the stomach of Teal'c. "They are a delicacy
on some of the planets in our system. Our colonies here used to harvest them and ship them back
to our home world."
"Yuck!" added O'Neill.
"The Sok-Rah will no longer respond to any commands from a controller not in the
circuit. It will act as though it was not a valid address, so unlike your titanium cover, no one
from your planet will come through and be killed. I can open it for your exit later. You should
have left when I told you to. For now, just stay out of the way," the man said.
"What can we call you?" asked Teal'c.
"I am called Zuros", he replied.
A blue point of light appeared nearby that elongated up and down and then opened up right
and left. A warrior clad in black armor with red stripes, a shield with a golden lightning bolt and
carrying a lance appeared in this doorway. He spoke to Zuros, then stepped back into the
doorway. It disappeared the same way it appeared.
"It seems the worms have changed course and are headed away. You can return home,"
announced Zuros.
"Perhaps this is one who could help us against the Goa'uld," stated Teal'c.
"Ask him if we can talk about it," asked O'Neill.
"Ask him about these writings on his case, it is the writing of the Ancients," tried Daniel.
"Maybe there is some technology that could help us," added Major Carter.
"We know nothing about this guy, he could be a Goa'uld himself," O'Neill said.
"I do not sense any presence Colonel," replied Carter.
"I also do not sense a presence," added Teal'c.
Zuros pressed some controls on his wrist and the metal shield folded away. Just then the
gate activated, and then a remotely controlled vehicle, a MALP, came through the gate. General
Hammond contacted SG-1 on the radio. O'Neill replied, giving him the situation. Zuros, tired of
so much equipment on his planet grabbed the vehicle and threw it back into the gate. He
motioned to the gate and again said, "Dok We!"
The SGC team and the engineers went through the gate. They returned to the SGC to find
the vehicle in a tangled mess on the floor with one of the other SGC team members under it.
They stepped aside from the gate just as more equipment was thrown through the gate and the
gate shut down.
"Wait a minute! Did we just pass through the gate in the wrong direction?" asked Carter.
"Yes it appears so," stated Teal'c.
"Just who is this guy?" asked O'Neill.
"From what I gather from the case, his dialect, he could be related to the Ancients,"
inserted Daniel.
Daniel continued with his research of the ruins, as he had taken a lot of video. He also
had taken video of Zuros and his case. He translated the words on the case. It came to him, that
it was a repair kit for the DHD, with crystals and tools to repair the dialer device. During this
time, the SGC discovered several blocked addresses that were at one time accessible. Carter and
O'Neill guessed that perhaps this new player, Zuros, was closing other gates. The situation now
seemed a great deal more serious than before.
Daniel came into the meeting where Hammond, Teal'c, Carter and O'Neill already were
discussing the loss of these addresses and said, "We really need to find a way back to that planet.
I have discovered some major things there that I just have to see."
"Not only do we no longer have access to that address, we have lost others also,"
Hammond replied. "I hardly think that this is on our list of priorities Doctor Jackson."
"What?" exclaimed Jackson.
"That is true Daniel Jackson," replied Teal'c.
At that moment the gate activated with an incoming signal. The team rushes to the
control room. The terminal recognized the signal from the Tokrah. The team goes down to the
gate room with the general. Jacob, Samantha Carter's father comes through the gate with two
other Tokrah.
"Hello Sam, General. We have a mutual problem," stated Jacob. "Our gates are closing
at an alarming rate."
"We have also been attacked by unidentified craft when we approach certain planets that
we have used in the past," stated one of the Tokrah.
"We know who this is. He is a Goa'uld, named Amun. We believe the species of
humanoid that is the host also has powers that mask the Goa'uld presence. We have found
weapons at the ruins that you surveyed before he appeared on that planet. We can use them
against him. We also have stolen one of his wrist controllers he used to access the gate. Our
information has placed him on a planet that is currently under control by the Goa'uld. The gate
is still accessible. We will need to lure him through your gate, where we will have these
weapons setup and waiting for him. These weapons are not mobile and need a great deal of
power."
"Do we have that kind of power?" asked the Colonel.
"We could use the Naquadah generator sir," responded Carter.
"Let's set it up," ordered the General.
The SGC teams and the Tokrah setup the weapons with the generator. They sent a MALP
to the planet where Zuros was thought to be. The remote went through the gate. The view that
came over the monitor showed many bodies on the ground, as if an army had come through to
clear out the area around the stargate. They also sent the UAV, the remote plane, to scout the
area and found no evidence of any Jaffa or of Zuros in the immediate area. Then SG-1 went
through the gate to find him. Upon arrival they began to search. They used the UAV to continue
to scan the parameter. A team of Jaffa with Zuros appeared in the distance.
Zuros approached alone and Teal'c rose to speak with him.
"We must speak with you, at the SGC," requested Teal'c.
"Very well, let's get this matter settled then," replied Zuros.
Zuros motioned to the Jaffa, then dozens of warriors in black armor appeared, he spoke
to them in the same unknown language. All of them walked away. SG-1 dialed in their address,
and escorted Zuros through the gate. Just as Zuros emerged from the gate, Teal'c, the last of the
SG-1 team stepped aside quickly. Zuros noticed these weapons pointed at him, put his hands on
his hips, showing disappointment. He looked down and then back up, putting his hands out
stretched away from himself and asked, "Okay, now what?"
"Are you willing to give up and come with us?" asked the General.
"You cannot let him live!" exclaimed one of the Tokrah.
"Jacob, you had better restrain your people!" commanded the General.
"He is right General. That Goa'uld is too dangerous to allow to live," replied Jacob.
"That is our decision," replied the General.
"Then there is no reason for us to stay," returned Jacob.
The general commanded the airman on the terminal to allow the Tokrah to dial in their
address so they could leave. They did so and left. Zuros was escorted to a holding room to be
interrogated. It was quite a while before Teal'c came in to start to ask him questions.
"Very prompt of you," retorted Zuros.
"We need to ascertain what kind of Goa'uld you are," stated Teal'c.
"I have no worm. You can run any scan you wish, you will find nothing at all. The worms
are not able to take a host from my people, answered Zuros.
"Will you submit to these scans?" asked Teal'c.
"I said I would," replied Zuros.
Teal'c left to arrange for tests to be taken. Doctor Janet Fraiser later came in with other
guards. They escorted Zuros to the infirmary to make the tests. The doctor attempted to take
some blood from Zuros, but could not get the needle to penetrate the skin. They were able to
take x-rays and other tests and found no evidence of any Goa'uld. They escorted him back to the
holding cell and got together for a meeting.
"What did you find out doctor?" asked the general.
"I could find no evidence that this man has ever been, nor will he ever be taken as a
host," answered Frasier.
"How do you account for the vehement assertion by the Tokrah that he is and their
demand to have him killed?" asked the General.
"I cannot. His skin cannot be penetrated by any of my instruments, not even the sharpest
scalpel. I wish I had a blood sample to see what kind of humanoid this is. The x-rays and other
tests show a similar build to a human, but the organs are very different. I see four lungs instead
of two and many smaller organs that I cannot identify. The x-ray clearly shows a spine with no
evidence of any Goa'uld," replied the Doctor.
"I think we need to find out more from this guy," added the Colonel.
They all left the meeting, but then the alarm went off. They rushed to the control room to
find Zuros in the gate room. He was using some kind of small device like a PDA, hooked to his
wrist device. They all went down to the gate room, except for the General, with many guards.
They approached Zuros carefully.
"Sir, how did you get in here?" asked the Colonel.
After asking this question they noticed the same words echoing on the small terminal,
then English words scrolled down the screen on the PDA very fast. Then Zuros spoke, "English."
"Yes, that is what we speak," replied Jackson.
"Very uncomfortable language to learn," returned Zuros.
"Now perhaps we can get some information from him," stated the General.
"I came here in peace. I came only to claim the twelve colonies that belong to us. The
gates all belong to us. I had planned on allowing you the use of these gates, outside of our
colonies, but it appears your intentions are not honorable at all. I will not allow you to use them
anymore," explained Zuros.
The General had commanded his men to man these new weapons while they were
speaking. SG-1 and the others moved away from Zuros. Zuros put away the terminal, touched
some buttons on his wristband, causing the gate to be activated. With a signal from the General,
the iris around the gate was closed. Zuros turned back and started to motion with his hands. The
crews on the weapons opened fire on Zuros. Zuros winced and grabbed his chest, as if he was in
pain and began to scream.
Suddenly Zuros began to transform. As the SGC teams continued firing on Zuros, also
with their small arms and Teal'c with his weapon. The transformation ended to reveal a very
large dragon, with wings. It was dark blue. The scream from the dragon was immensely loud
and deafening. Carter advanced to fire her MP-5 at a closer range. Suddenly the dragon reached
out with one of his from claws, grabbed Carter and threw her violently against the glass window
to the control room, leaving a lot of blood on the thick bullet proof glass.
"Carter!" screamed the Colonel. He rushed over to her, but found her dead. With
renewed vigor, the Colonel fired at the dragon.
The dragon grabbed his neck with his front claws and spoke, "You got me." With a short
pause, he continued, "To die among enemies so far from home!"
He then suddenly leaned down to the Colonel, grabbed his weapon and spoke again, "I
should at least get an Oscar for this performance. Don't you think so?"
It was then that the SGC teams all stopped firing, realizing that the firing had no effect
upon him. "Today you have made a powerful enemy!" stated the dragon. He looked around,
breathed fire at the large metal door to the old silo, walked through the door and looked up. With
one hind claw he grabbed the gate, opened his wings, flew up the silo with the gate, broke
through the upper hatch and flew out into the night air with the gate.
"This is not good!" stated the Colonel. Suddenly he noticed Carter getting up off the
floor and rushed over to her. She was fine, with not a single scratch on her. "Just who is this
guy?" screamed O'Neill.
Everyone in the SGC looked around with gloomy faces, not knowing what to do now.
SG-1 team went to the conference room with the General. Carter however got onto her computer
and began to work. After quite while, she came into the conference room and announced, "I got
him!"
"You got what?" asked O'Neill.
"I was able to get some of our bases to track the dragon, he was certainly large enough to
track on radar. He evidently made no attempt to hide his course, he went straight to an area in
North Africa, not to far distant from the place where we found the gate."
"Lets get on it people!" commanded the General.
"And just what are we to do when we get there?" asked Jackson.
"We'll think of something!" returned O'Neill.
SG-1 hurriedly got prepared to take a flight to Africa. The flight was long, and they had
to refuel in the air. They arrived near the site and walked to where the satellite photos showed a
new complex built in the desert. The building was large, surrounded by thick pillars that curved
inward, leaving a circular opening in the center, like a domed stadium. There was enough space
between these pillars for someone to walk through. There was an opening in these pillars at two
ends. In the center was a DHD, with two gates near the ends, where the entrances where. One
gate was the gate that was taken from the SGC, the other was a larger gate. Zuros was at the
center.
"You have the unmitigated audacity to show your faces here?" yelled Zuros.
"I believe he has learned to have a command of the English language Colonel O'Neill,"
stated Teal'c.
"Do ya think?" retorted O'Neill.
"We could not just stand there while you took our only way to defend ourselves from the
Goa'uld," replied Carter.
"That is no concern of mine," stated Zuros.
"So, millions of people killed and millions more enslaved by the Goa'uld has no
relevance to you at all?" asked Carter.
"Don't bother Carter. He could care less," stated O'Neill.
Zuros looked up into the sky as a cloud was forming. O'Neill also looked up and
recognized it as one of the Asgard ships, looked back at Zuros and with a smile on his face said,
"Someone's gonna get it!"
Just then Thor appeared before Zuros and spoke, "You are in violation of the Treaty, this
planet is protected...."
"Not from me!" interrupted Zuros.
"Who are you?" asked Thor.
"Rok nah vee solok drednee forlah deeshnah, deeshnah nolay zokree et nash," stated
Zuros.
"No, you cannot be!" exclaimed Thor.
"Did I not save your life, when you were attacked by the Rixnor?" asked Zuros.
"Did I not promise to be at your side in any time of trouble? Did I not lose my
friend Laynor in a battle to protect your planet? Did we not make a pact together
for friendship? My ships are now entering your system, to help you deal with those
replicators. We have a knowledge of their origin, we know the one that made the
mistake in developing them and we have weapons that break the cohesion in their
components more effectively than the simple impact weapons of these morons. We
also have access to their program itself in order to modify its parameters and
return them to a role they were intended for."
"Hey!" yelled O'Neill.
Zuros turned to O'Neill and asked, "What would you call it? A race of humans in
extreme peril against these worms. They meet a man from another race that could wipe these
worms out completely, but what do they do? They disrespect that man, keep him in a holding
cell, do not feed him or even give him water, they poke and prod him and even try to use his own
weapons against him to kill him. They want to deny him the property that belongs to him,
impede his search for his own people. What would you call them Colonel?"
"Ah... well.... Ah.... Morons?" replied O'Neill.
"There ya go!" returned Zuros. "And what about you? You still do not remember me?"
Zuros then transformed into a being twice as large as a human, with eight arms and legs.
He then looked down at Thor, who was now recognizing one of the beings known as the
Ancient Guardian.
"You are!" exclaimed Thor.
Zuros returned to a humanoid and said, "I was wondering if you would finally remember
me."
"There must be a way to work this out," Carter said.
"Yes, I agree, don't you also Zuros?" asked Thor. "The one I remember by the name of
Zuros had compassion for others."
Zuros looked down, almost as if he were embarrassed. "That was a long time ago. It was
before we were abandoned by even you Thor, left alone against an enemy that we did not ever
know, or could seem to stop. They gained the use of our own technology, their phase
shifting ability to confuse where they are came from us. We were hunted down and
nearly destroyed. We once had a massive fleet of ships, ones that not one race
could match. We only have a few thousand left. We had to abandon our colonies
here, to hope that they would go unnoticed by our enemies. It was a long hard
battle to rid the universe of these mad beings bent on destruction. We still
do not know why they hated us, of exactly who they were. Our only defense was
to alter our own DNA and change our natural form to a humanoid one. A lot of our
culture and language had been lost, many tribes, colonies and outposts were
abandoned or destroyed."
"We never knew," Thor explained.
"I left you that message!"
"We never got it."
"I left it in the Hall of the Four."
"We have not returned there since you left, we found no message."
"Drak Laynor, son of Laynor that died helping you.... I wonder if he failed to add the
message because of some hatred for you, for his father's death."
