The Shadow on the Other Side of the Mirror (Stargate/SRW)

[Pale Wolf]

-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-

Momo Mizrahi gently stepped through the Stargate Command facility, behind the inspecting Senator Kinsey and his party and gaggle of experts.

Of course, she wasn't part of that group of experts, or allowed in here at all - that was why she was wearing the infiltration-grade armour. It was very work-intensive to fit seamless video functionality across the outer surface of the armour, and even then it was basically worthless in combat, one had to move very slowly to keep it working and a single scratch would ruin it, but since it made someone pretty much invisible to sight if used well... It'd been worth giving her and the rest of the forward infiltration team one suit each.

Momo slipped up against the wall, coming to a halt as Kinsey and his experts met up with the base commander - the somewhat rotund, completely bald General George Hammond. He was angry at the time, a deep, seething anger that he tried to hide, but Momo liked the look of him. He looked... nice.

"Senator Kinsey. Welcome to Stargate Command."

Kinsey just shook his head. "I seem to be coming down here pretty often, General. Do you have any idea why?"

"I wouldn't presume to say, Senator Kinsey."

"And the fact that this command has sucked up seven billion taxpayer dollars and failed as soon as an attack came doesn't give you any ideas?"

The general shook his head. "Every person at this command obeyed the orders they were given from the Pentagon. We made recommendations, they were refused, and we carried out the orders given as best we could. The plan was bad, but this command had no say in it." Momo noted the glare he cast towards the colonel in Kinsey's entourage - the one with the bandaged nose, Samuels.

Colonel Harry Maybourne covered a snicker with his hand. "I noticed the logged protest. Forward-thinking of you, General." Kinsey cast him a look.

Momo shook her head. She liked Maybourne. She really didn't know why he worked for a man like Kinsey... even if General Hammond didn't seem to like him. ... Maybe it's because he doesn't like himself...

Still, she was here for a job, not people-watching. She ghosted past them, stepping quietly past General Hammond as they continued the verbal sparring.

General Hammond's head tilted up slightly, and his eyes began tracking. Momo froze. This was why it was hard sneaking past humans - they still had dozens of primitive senses and techniques that they'd only mostly forgotten... for all she knew, he'd smelled her. He wasn't fully conscious of her presence yet, simply... looking.

She was saved when Maybourne spoke up, distracting the general long enough for her to slip past, out of his immediate detection zone. "Any further news regarding SG-1?"

General Hammond shook his head slowly. "Nothing since. Given the circumstances..." The pain in his voice confirmed Momo's initial, spontaneous decision to like him.

Kinsey barked a short laugh. "Ah yes. Your 'they used the Stargate to board and infiltrate the enemy ships' - against regulations, I might add - theory. I suppose when the ship in question explodes, the theory sounds more depressing."

Samuels said nothing, casting an apologetic look to the general.

General Hammond didn't seem to pay attention to it. "They believed they'd found a way to stop an impending attack - and they proved to be correct about the impending attack. They used a MALP, which indicates wherever they gated to was safe. Beyond that, since the gate point disappeared, we're left guessing, and the best guess doesn't look good."

Maybourne shook his head. "O'Neill's the next-best thing to immortal. You're probably right, and they're probably alive. Soldiers that good don't just die. There's fanfare." Kinsey quelled him with another look, but General Hammond, himself, looked at Maybourne consideringly.

Smiling under her armour, Momo continued down the hallway, away from the inspection party. Now, her sensors indicated that the base was mostly on a local area network - two if you counted the facilities in the other section of the mountain, but just one in Stargate Command. In all probability, the gate control computer was not on the network. It would be more secure that way. So addresses, she'd likely need to pick up directly from the appropriate computer.

Mission and operation logs, however, should be in the main base network, to allow people to work on them on their own computers. Those would be easier to get, so she'd do that first. She drifted out to hug the hallway to decrease the chance of someone walking into her, and set out for an empty area.

Such wasn't exactly easy to find in a facility this small, and she continued moving past various working Air Force personnel, wincing as a 'Sergeant Siler' instinctively ducked away from her 'presence' and a crack emanated from his arm when he hit the wall. He rushed off, cradling his arm - presumably to the infirmary. Momo continued on, feeling a little guilty and helpless to do anything about it.

And... jackpot. Seemed to be the office of one 'Captain Carter', and Momo's infrared sensors indicated it was empty of any warm bodies. Camera pointed at the door, though at least the hallway was clear. It'd detect as soon as she opened the door.

So... she moved under the camera, and triggered an adhesive to secrete from the gloves and boots, allowing her to crawl up the wall close enough to touch it. To be honest, she could use this as an access point to the network too, but it was too exposed. Now, a normal infiltrator might be a bit limited in what they could do with the camera. Momo, however, was a Number.

All she needed to do was pull off a glove, exposing her slim hand to view. Spread her fingers. And let her contact filaments extend from the space between her fingers. With them out, she brought her hand up to the camera's bundle of cables, and carefully pressed one of her filaments in, nicking the appropriate cable and penetrating through the coating to the wires within.

Her eyes flashed. She was in the network, and seeing strangely double now - through her own eyes, and the camera. With another blink, she expanded her view to the next cameras down the line in each direction - it'd give her some warning if someone was coming through, who might see her currently-visible hand.

Now, pick a program... she hadn't come loaded with the programming to tackle equipment this old, but she'd had some time since she'd arrived to piece some basics together, so she didn't need to stand here actively writing the programs in the middle of an infiltration. Once she inserted it, the program would send the past few seconds of the camera's recording on loop to the security network, and the camera would shut down.

And... uploaded. Done. The camera's whir quieted beside her, and she pulled back her hand, readjusting to just seeing through her own one pair of eyes. Retracting the filaments to their housing between her fingers, and let the flesh slip back over the tiny holes in her hand. Glove back on. And she set her suit to neutralize the adhesive, dropping her back to the floor.

She hugged the wall as an airman carrying a rather heavy-looking stack of files passed through the hallway... and once he was a ways away, she was clear. She moved up to the door, and quickly, quietly pulled it open, slipping in and closing the door behind her. A quick scan of the room confirmed its emptiness, as well as the presence of a computer. That'd be easier than hacking in through the wires.

She moved up to the computer, looking around again - it was a pretty large office. Seemed to double as a workshop. Very tidily kept, no projects out and cluttering the work tables, or coffee mugs lying around... She pulled off her glove and extended her contact filaments again, ducking down. Now, these old computers usually had...

Yes! Floppy disk drive. She slipped her filaments in, establishing contact with the computer, and used her free hand to hit the power button. She wouldn't need the monitor, so she didn't turn it on - it'd increase visibility, for now she was shielded from cameras and anyone coming in by Captain Carter's desk.

The computer began to boot up, and she used the opportunity to read its operating parameters. Password request. She sent in one of Shadow Mirror's darker slogans - the ones devised towards the end of the war, when their loss was well in sight, had been long on spirit, short on optimism. This one had apparently been one of Chief Axel Almer's products of a darker mood.

Naturally, it was the wrong password, but the system had to bring the proper password to the fore to compare, and she snagged it when it showed - J4ke. After cycling to the second password attempt, she input the proper password... and was in.

She maneuvered through the system, and into the network. It seemed she was pretty lucky - Captain Carter had what appeared to be more or less total operating log access. Momo moved into the folder, and began drawing in data.

From here it was more or less a long wait. Her own system could easily download far faster than this, but a 1998 computer could only upload to her so fast, and she was more or less at its limit.

The gate addresses would be trickier. A map of the facility would help, so she could find where the gate computer backed up to - backups were less likely to have people working at them than the main system, and she'd really rather not have to knock out the entire operating staff when she went onto that.

She settled in for the haul, reading the reports and data as they came into her system - her brothers and sisters were much, much less prone to boredom than she was. And besides, this was fascinating reading - even the inherent dryness of military reports couldn't really hide how these teams - particularly this SG-1 - were pretty nearly superheroes. She really hoped they'd want to join Shadow Mirror later, when Colonel Mauser decided it was safe to tell the truth about themselves.

-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-

George S Hammond knocked on the office door, frowning. He wasn't often called out of his own facility into the NORAD section of Cheyenne Mountain. Especially not so soon after a Senator came for an inspection - of course, his people had been up to snuff, even with Kinsey trying to pick at things.

"Come in," the occupant of the office ordered.

George stepped in, and saluted to the bespectacled man behind the desk - Michael Shanks, the second-in-command of North American Aerospace Defence, and currently in charge of Cheyenne Mountain, as his superiour was off at the Pentagon. Another general, but a higher grade of general than George himself was - three stars (well, maple leaves) to his two. And fitter... George would be embarassed by his own build if he hadn't been five steps to retiring and a grandfather by now - see if the man looked as good and had all his hair at that point.

General Shanks returned the salute, gesturing to a seat in front of him. "General Hammond, I presume?"

George nodded, moving up to the seat and levering himself down. "May I ask what it was you needed, General?"

Shanks smiled mysteriously, pulling a bottle and a pair of small glasses from under his desk. "You like whiskey? I know you have the time."

George chuckled, nodding. "Certainly." He wasn't as jovial as he acted, of course, but the difference between a Colonel and a General was politics - he knew the game and the need to keep people comfortable.

Shanks poured the whiskey into the two glasses, picked up one, and passed the other to George. "Go on, try it. I don't really use this enough, so I'm never sure if it's good enough."

George chuckled, taking a sip and swilling it around his mouth to evaluate the taste. It was decent stuff - not the best, but it was clear Shanks wasn't much of a drinker.

"Oh, sorry. Let me ask again," Shanks suddenly requested. "General Hammond, of the Stargate Program, I presume?"

George's eyes widened, and he couldn't stop half the whiskey from being spat out of his mouth, over Shanks's hand - the general had brought his hand up to block the spit-take, totally expecting this. "... I'm not cleared to say, and even if I were, you're not cleared to know, General Shanks." How the hell had he found out about it? The existence of the SGC was public now, after President Nichol had had to start the disclosure ball rolling, but its location was still top secret.

Shanks smiled. "Don't bother, General. I've pretty much figured it out, and to be sure, it wouldn't hold up in a legal environment, but it's enough that I know who to talk to." He took a sip of the whiskey, a plain 'does not like alchohol' expression flitting across his face as he tasted and swallowed. "I'd have preferred to hold this meeting in your own office, where you're more comfortable, but apparently I'm not even allowed into your section of my own base."

George wiped his mouth and slowly took another sip, composing himself. "You're the man who walked up to security yesterday claiming to be Daniel Jackson, aren't you?" Then when refused, he'd walked away with his hands in his pockets and whistling.

Shanks grinned, leaning back in his padded chair. "Yeah, you can stop looking for the loon now. You see, I knew there was some kind of top secret facility down there in the old missile training center. Hard to hide the various requisitions you've made and shipped in there. Had no idea what it was, but when your President went on the airwaves talking about the Stargate, I figured, hey, maybe that was it. He mentioned Jackson's name, so I tried it."

George raised an eyebrow. "You seriously expected to be let in just because you claimed to be Daniel Jackson, without identification?" Maybe there was a superficial resemblance, but he wouldn't pass inspection except at a distance - he was too old, and far too military.

"Of course not! I expected one of two things. Either the guard would blink and wonder why he should care who I am. Or he'd point out that I am, in fact, not Daniel Jackson - which'd mean he knew Daniel Jackson, a man who your President had just said was involved in the Stargate Program."

George sighed heavily, taking a long swig of the whiskey - feeling a certain need for it right now. The security had been broken by something that small? At least the second-in-command of NORAD was more trustworthy than some random civilian, but any resident of Colorado Springs could have tried it... Another hole exposed and to be fixed. "So. What is it you want, General Shanks?"

Shanks took a deep breath, and put down his whiskey glass. "You know I'm Canadian, of course?"

George nodded slowly. "Of course." The Deputy Commander of NORAD was always Canadian. It was a unified command - and Shanks being a foreigner was part of what made the leak problematic, though at least it was the Canadians.

"I'm speaking to you today in that respect, as a representative of the Canadian government - this message is also being passed on to your president, but as the man on the ground, we thought you deserved to be kept in the loop and spoken to directly."

George nodded sharply. "Understand that I don't have the power to act on anything you ask. I'm bound by orders first."

"Of course." Shanks folded his hands together over his chest. "I'll cut right to the chase. We've got two outstanding issues with your program. First off, the Canadian Forces high command considers the placement of your facility unacceptable."

George raised an eyebrow, waving slightly for Shanks to continue and taking a long sip of the whiskey. Not the best, of course, but this was a 'whiskey' conversation.

"You've got a gate open to half the galaxy down there. And believe me, I'm fascinated by the idea, but it is a threat. Not only that, but it's a threat put right at our jugular. If anything gets out of your facility's containment, it doesn't even have to cross the street before it can rip into the NORAD facilities. It can basically shut down or seize control of the entire continent's aerospace defence and early warning network. This's bad enough if the worst we have to worry about is the Russians poking us to see how quick our pilots are. It's catastrophic if it happens right before an alien invasion, and I'm pretty sure I'm in the twilight zone since I can say those words without sounding crazy..."

George winced. "This facility was deemed the most secure we had available."

"Well, you're probably right. Though now that this mess is public, you can probably build a sufficiently secure site at a better location. And as I said, this location is unacceptable. It's bad enough if it cripples your own aerospace defence, but we cover the entire continent, which means Canadian national security is at just as much of a risk."

"I apologize, General Shanks, but there's nothing I can do about it."

Shanks nodded comfortably. "Oh, I understand. Our government is offering yours three choices to fix this, because the status-quo of every egg in the one basket simply isn't tolerable. Number one, move the Stargate. Number two, switch NORAD primary command to CFB North Bay up in Canada - it would still heavily impair United States continental air defence if the Cheyenne Mountain facility went down, but it would leave Canada's untouched, so it at least impairs only your own national security. And number three - and bear in mind we don't like this option either - Canada pulls out of NORAD. I really don't like the idea, but our chances are better on our own than with primary command exposed as it is now."

George frowned, looking down into his glass and swirling the alchohol around in it. "It's also possible the Stargate will be shut down entirely."

Shanks shook his head. "Not a chance. The Russians want it used - they want a shot at the aliens. You shut it down, they'll buy it, steal it, or damn well try to invade to get it, and half the planet'll help them. The gate's staying open whether you're running it or not, and your gov is never gonna let the Russians run through the galaxy without them." He leaned forward again. "To be honest, the Russians are right. Burying our heads isn't going to work, especially not now that the aliens have hit us and lost people trying it. And I know you've told your people the same thing, General Hammond, your record doesn't indicate an idiot or a coward."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, General, I don't have the power to determine whether the gate is used - only how."

"Fair enough. I suppose it's a question of whether your gov can see the writing on the wall or the Russians end up gunning for the gate. And speaking of the Russians, what're your thoughts on their cooperative gate venture idea?"

George paused, looking up and into Shanks's eyes. "... Second outstanding issue is that you want in, isn't it?"

"Weeeell, I was hoping to solicit your opinion before diving right in on that, but yes." He shrugged. "We're too small in terms of population to match what you can put in, but we can contribute funding and personnel to the program, and quite a lot of territory as potential locations for the Stargate. You've got your own options, of course, but we have much, much, much more 'completely empty' space than you."

George whistled. "It seems everyone wants in."

"Surprised?"

"Not really." George took a deep breath. "As far as my opinion... off the record?"

"I won't include it in my report."

George nodded. "... I see the point about the United States taking it on itself to represent the entire planet. I don't necessarily disagree, but I'm nationalistic enough to say I prefer the United States have control over who gets what through the gate than let nations led by insane dictators like North Korea have free access to potential alien superweapons. And I don't want a dozen conflicting chains of command and Russian soldiers who don't necessarily speak English taking commands from their own government before me. No clear chain of command will destroy the efficacy of the facility."

"Fair enough. What if all soldiers follow your orders first? No conflicting chain of command, simply foreign soldiers under your command?"

George scratched his cheek. "Assuming it'd ever happen... I honestly couldn't say. Foreign soldiers work all right in certain cases - NATO, for example. And special forces units sometimes mix nationalities at an even smaller command scale than the SGC. Your boys would work fine. Warsaw Pact forces, on the other hand... I can barely even imagine it. We spent decades training to kill each other. A fair proportion of my officers make the sign of the cross when they say 'Russian'. The Cold War's over, and I'm too old to care about things like that, but my people may not appreciate the idea, and a command where half of them are trained to kill each other is a recipe for disaster."

Shanks nodded, humming to himself. "Well-" The phone on his desk rang, and he blinked, reaching out for it. "Sorry, General..." He pressed the phone to his ear. "Shanks here." His eyes widened, and he flicked a switch, changing it to speaker. "I've got General Hammond here. Repeat that."

A young technician took another deep breath on the other end of the line. "The Russians have called in. They're reporting our Guests are moving - the unknown spacecraft is floating over the Black Sea now."

George's own eyes widened. "Can we make contact with them?"

"The Russians are trying, but they're nonresponsive. We're thin... holy shit!"

"Bit more detail, Lieutenant," Shanks prodded.

"Uh... we've got a huge glowing light to the south of the mountain, sir. And... uh, a really messed up electromagnetic pulse pattern. It's not damaging anything here, we're hardened against that, but our local area radar is scrambling."

Shanks cast a look at George. "How huge are we talking? And is it clear of civilian areas?"

George frowned, thinking to himself while the technician responded. "Really huge - circular, at least two or three kilometers radiu... ah, wait, that's diameter. Nobody's living out in that area."

George shook his head. "... I haven't heard of this effect before." They'd only been out there a year... best they could pray for was that it wasn't the goa'uld or an attack.

There was nothing to announce the change in status - no vibration that could be felt down here, no singing chorus, but the technician took a deep breath and then reported: "... EM has died down. The light's gone... it's one of those huge ships. The Guests." What they'd been calling the people who'd intervened against Apophis. Everything needed a name.

The whiskey probably didn't actually turn to ice in George's gut, but it felt like it. An unknown alien force, on Earth, and they not only possessed enough firepower to pound the planet flat, but they could teleport? "... General Shanks, I'd recommend you train every sensor you've got on that thing."

"Consider that an order, Lieutenant. And call Buckley Air Force Base - get their fighters out here with whatever they can bring to bear, but they are not to open fire before the Guests do."

"General Shanks, in all probability there's nothing a handful of fighters can do to stop whatever a ship that size feels like doing."

Shanks nodded. "In all probability. I'd still prefer to have something ready to give them a battle scar to remember us by if they get aggressive." He switched off the speaker for a moment. "Make a note, General Hammond - I'm going to recommend we start making things 'interesting'. Your boys have a whole load of Davey Crockett miniature nuclear warheads dating back to the sixties, we can make our alien enemies cringe a little if we start strapping those things into ASATs and fighter-scale missiles. We need something to scrape the paint off these huge buggers."

George chuckled. "I'll pass it on." Anyone who thought Canadians were pacifists - including Canadians themselves - had clearly never met Canadian soldiers.

General Shanks put it back to speaker. "Lieutenant Curry, call the Russians. Ask them if their ship's gone now, or if there are two of these things on the planet. And start hailing ours, all channels, every language you can scrape up." He stood. "Keep in touch with me through intercom as necessary, I'm heading up to the control center now. General Hammond, you're coming with me, you're the closest thing to an alien expert we have."

George nodded, standing up as well as General Shanks moved around his desk and up to the door. "I'll warn that I don't know these ones. We've encountered a limited number of populations technologically competitive with even the fifteenth century, let alone the gould. A total of... four."

"Give me the rundown on them," Shanks ordered, stepping out into the hardened concrete halls of NORAD's primary facility - much the same as in the SGC.

George followed him. Fortunately, in a circumstance like this, since disclosure had occurred, he was freed to release all details of SGC operations and discoveries that he considered relevant - so he wouldn't be court-martialled for providing officers background knowledge in the interests of saving the planet. "It can't be the Tollan. Tollan FTL is too slow - their nearest ship to Earth was years away when we met them earlier this year." And this thing didn't give him a 'Tollan' feeling... it wasn't shiney enough. Too much functional, pragmatic construction.

"Others?"

"The population of Altair is five people, and four of them are closely associated with us - if this were from them, they'd be responsive." They were also robots, but he was so not going to get into that right now. "And the Nox are extremely pacifistic and non-interventionist. It's an open question whether they have weapons at all, and they've never, as far as we know, left their planet to assist anyone against the gould - from what I've understood of their philosophy, the Nox consider the gould rights to be equal to those of the people they enslave, and violence to prevent that to be immoral."

Shanks's expression twisted a little unpleasantly, and he nodded. "And the last?"

"About as mysterious as these ones, General. We haven't met them in person, only an automated defence system they left behind on a planet we visited. All we really know is that they inspired the Norse pantheon, that they're competitive with the gould, and that they do act against them - they're fairly benevolent. They may be our Guests, but our prior encounter is scarce on details."

"You'll still know Thor or whoever better than I will, General Hammond."

"That's most likely true."

Shanks came to a halt, and stepped out of the hall, into the command center.

George followed him, looking around and shaking his head slightly. It was much larger and nicer than his own. If aliens had been public knowledge, the battle against Apophis's ships would almost certainly have been directed from this large, spacious, carpeted room. The large screens across the walls normally depicted strategic data, maps and graphs, but for the moment they had been repurposed to show a few different angles of the mystery ship, as well as what data they'd been able to pick up from it. Water dripped off its hull like rain.

The first thing that hit his mind as he observed the immense green-painted bulk of the ship was... well, the size. This was a machine built by people who knew their business, and considered it to be war. There was no way the Nox were involved in the slightest. And it was no surprise that it had defeated Apophis's ships - it outmassed the two ships put together by at least four to one.

The second thing was the construction, the clean lines... It didn't look too damaged by the battle. Simple, effective design, the kind of thing that came from the mind of an engineer rather than an artist. Again, George couldn't imagine a thing like this not put together explicitly for the purpose of battle.

The third thing was the smaller vehicles flitting around it. He remembered having seen these sorts of things on the original enhanced battle video, though it was easier to discern details at this range. Twelve rounded, heavy-set, humanoid forms stationed around the huge ship. Seemingly hovering motionless in midair.

And two more, heading up from the ground towards the top side of the ship... had they had scouts in the region that they were picking up now? One slimmer, more angular. The other much larger than all the other such humanoid forms, spiked and plated and with what George almost thought was a cape over its back...

"Top side's open, sir!" a young captain called out.

George blinked as a new camera view came up... yes. There was a thick strip down the back of the ship, open to the air, armour plating retracted... George thought it looked like a huge hangar. He could only just see tiny humanoid forms milling within, as the two machines settled down on the floor.

Shanks whistled, leaning over one of the operators. "Call up our interceptors. Have them move to a high-altitude position, and target that centerline strip. Do not open fire until fired upon."

"Yes sir."

He nodded, spinning around and pointing at a fresh-faced lieutenant. "What've the Russkies said? And have our Guests responded to contact?"

"Uh... no sir." It was the same man who'd been contacting Shanks earlier. "The Russians have reported the original ship is no longer over the Black Sea... this may be the same one."

George frowned, stepping up next to General Shanks. "So they can teleport. I can't say I've ever seen or heard reports of large-scale teleportation - transporters exist, but the diameter has never been over seven meters. And we've only seen them with a transporter unit on either end of the travel." The awed look he was recieving from some of the operators felt... very strange. But then again... science fiction fans were probably more prevalent in the Air Force than anywhere else in the world, and here he was, living the dream.

Shanks nodded, glancing over the screen and frowning. "What the hell is with those sensor readings?"

"Uh, sorry sir. It's got an abnormally small radar cross-section... it's highly stealthed, we can at least pick it up at this range but we can't get much detail, optical and thermal are giving better results." One of the images of the ship became dimmer, with highlighted wireframes denoting points of interest. A very large number of apparent vertical launch missile hatches across the top, some odd structures that George thought might unfold into cannons... The construction made sense, unconcealed cannon stations would damage the ship's aerodynamic and stealth performance.

George, watching the screens, frowned, pointing to them. "Look. One of the units that just went onboard is taking off again." It was the larger one, and it seemed to be carrying a pair of very large objects in its hands as it lifted off the flight deck.

That, in itself, seemed to trigger a shift in the Guest forces - the twelve units, presumably an air defence team, began moving back towards the upper hatch. The large unit descended... very rapidly, actually. And then the displays fuzzed out for a moment.

The lieutenant blinked. "Sir, we just got a large burst of data... I think a virus just hit our comm systems! Everything's scrambling..."

Shanks frowned, turning to another operator. "That looks like the first shot. Send them a message - they have one minute to open contact before we'll take that as an act of war. And tell the interceptors to move into position."

George bit his lip, watching the twelve patrol units returning to the bay in the top of the ship, and the door smoothly sliding to a closed position. He moved up to whisper into Shanks's ear. "It may not be a virus - it could be a first contact package, or a communication..." He could've said it out loud, but he wasn't stupid enough to undermine a commander's authority in a situation like this, especially not when he wasn't absolutely sure.

Shanks nodded, whispering back. "Maybe. But didn't they speak Russian to the Black Sea Fleet? Using the existing comm protocols? That's on record. They don't need a first contact package, and they are capable of contacting us. They're refusing to."

George shook his head. "We don't know that."

"But we're going to have to make a decision before they decide to attack or attempt a takeover."

"Maybe they just speak Russian rather than English!"

Shanks paused, and slowly, calmly, brought his hand up to hit his forehead. He turned to the operator. "Repeat the message, and give them another minute. Then repeat it in Russian. Keep the interceptors in position." He turned back to George. "We'll try your theory. But we know they speak Russian and are capable of contact. Silence at this point is a refusal to open up, not a failure."

George nodded. "I just don't want us to open fire on people who outgun us this heavily without trying the other options first... If I think of any more, I'll protest, but for now, this is the best we can do."

And then, the room's speakers gave a short burst of static, before giving way to a man's voice. "Good... good. You're willing to open fire. Even when you're outgunned. You gave us every chance to communicate, and if we refuse, there's no reason to allow us on your territory. I was wondering about this world, after that last ploy with the pyramid ships... Thank you for proving who you are."

George's eyes widened. "Is this... This is General Hammond, of the United States Air Force. Who am I speaking to?"

"I am Colonel Vindel Mauser, commander in chief of Shadow Mirror. That means nothing to you at this time - perhaps I will explain it in the future, but first... The world is undergoing a great shift. I want to know what world I will be dealing with in the future before truly opening our hearts."

General Shanks nodded. "Fine. But you're still violating North American aerospace with a heavily armed craft, and you just tried to hack us."

George could hear the hint of a smile in Colonel Mauser's voice. "Simply a systems test. It would be a shame for this planet to fall because of a simple incompetence in computer design. I must say that you met expectations. To be sure, I control your sensor and communication displays at this point, but the systems are well-segregated - life support, for instance, is on a completely different circuit, and I can't even hijack your systems to send false communications out. I'd recommend keeping it up. Dying because some fool thought airlocks absolutely had to be connected to the communicators will certainly never get you into Valhalla."

"Gee. Thanks." The gratitude in General Shanks's voice was somewhat less than palpable.

"Don't worry, we'll be leaving momentarily. We were really just here to drop something off for you. You misplaced a few things." The communication cut out, and while the ship itself vanished in a flash of blue light, one of the display screens at the front of the room shifted to a list.

A list of names. Names that warmed George's heart. Colonel Jonathan O'Neill. Captain Samantha Carter. Doctor Daniel Jackson. Teal'c. Doctor Janet Fraiser... The list went on, covering the other twenty-three missing members of the Alpha Team.

Every. Single. Soldier. Every man and woman under George's command who had gone missing in the past two weeks. They were all there. And three more jaf'fa names, including Bra'tac.

George would try to withhold his elation until the container the large robot had gently set down on the roadside was checked and he actually saw them...

But it wasn't going to be easy.

-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-V-

Author's Notes:
Thanks go out to the usual pre-readers (Sunshine Temple, Belgarion213, Ellf, and DCG), plus Kurushi-the-archaeologist for confirming some points for me about archaeology law regarding the Stargate. (Of course, even if it's legally Egypt's property, they can hardly expect to get it back from the US...)
Apologies for not coming out sooner, the muses were working right, but TVTropes. Freely available distractions make it very difficult to get cracking through a scene from Kinsey's perspective...
Those who are reading it on a forum may notice the changed scene breaks. To which I can only say: FFNet. Had to change 'em so they don't delete.
Regarding shields, that's just my own theory - seems to fit the constant talking about 'frequency' (a solid wall wouldn't have a frequency), as well as the way we've seen shots fairly often not so much penetrate the shields as simply pass through without ever interacting with them (see Tollan ion cannons, when they actually work, as well as what ends up happening to most heavily-fired-upon ships such as Anubis's ship and Prometheus in Lost City, with the shield still visibly up, but impacts occurring on the hull). Considering that in Upgrades O'Neill and Carter were walking through the shields once they knew the flicker pattern...
And yes, I'm operating under the assumption, for the sake of my own sanity, that they're generally speaking an Egyptian-derived language on other planets, and the Canadian-accented English is just translation convention. Well, except in Alex's case.
As always, reviews, comments, corrections, and etcetera are appreciated whether for good or ill, and my email's always open (PaleWLF @ gmail com).

[Spokavriel]

I'm sorry I just can't take all this politics. I got as far as faxon opening his mouth about the stargate being their only weapon of defense.

That is an idiotic sentiment. The Gate is a door. It gives access to opportunities for both finding resources but also for threats to be leveled against wherever it resides. I'm surprised no one from the SGC currently in custody has at least given the minimum information of how to turn the Stargate off to prevent further accidents.

There has already been an attack through the gate which is why it has the iris now and other security measures. That was already disclosed. Why isn't the argument one of "We have it in as safe a location as we can manage because not only is it the best chance for seeking weapons to aid us it is also a threat. The Gou'ld could just as easily dial up Earth and fire one of their ships lasers through." Its happened before. in series. The first attack by Ra was going to send a Nuke through and at least the SGC is in a location capable of handling that kind of detonation. Not the naquada enhanced version but its still the most hardened facilities available to them to protect from the treats from the other side.

Why wasn't that kind of arguement used with the already disclosed information on the threats?

I'll try again in the future. I do like the prison accomodations and computers but all this BS politics is just too much for me.

Edit: Ouch this took 3 posts for this chapter? Then I got less than half way. Please consider making this at least 2 chapters when posting to fanfiction.net with their advertisements this could be a bit trying on the patience to reload to clear shadow boxes and the like that appear on overly long chapters due to sloppy Ad coding.

[Pale Wolf]

Well, the main reason nobody bothered saying 'we at the SGC have a secure facility for the risks the gate poses' is... well, there are two.

#1, nobody actually said 'move the gate' other than the Egyptian representative, and he was half-joking. Volksyn only wants access. Admittedly, letting foreign personnel into 'a hop and skip away from control for NORAD, our aerospace defence network built against the Russians in the first place' would be a non-starter and pretty much imply that it'd be moved. (Then again, they didn't seem to worry about it in canon, where the only known foreign teams are Russian...)

#2, moving it to another, equally secure facility is pretty much assumed. Nobody really thought their counterparts would be dumb enough to want to move the SGC to an unsafe site. (And canonically speaking, the Russians were even more paranoid about security than the US was - it's true their program got an early rape, but SGC procedures would have been just as vulnerable to Waterworld.)

As for why O'Neill etc haven't answered how to close the gate: They're hoping for rescue. (In fact, Hammond probably had a scouting mission planned and just waiting for approval - MALP to Alpha, then from Alpha to Earth to confirm safety, and then teams through the same route. Success would be unlikely, but he'd certainly give it a look - a prepared team wouldn't just vanish off the radar like the Alpha team did.)

[CYberCrisis]

I was hoping for more interaction with Stargate command then what happen with this chapter but besides that I think it is great what you have done with this chapter. I do admit that I do not know much about Super Robot Wars but it does seem like it work very well with SG1 so far.

[Wyrd]

That is an idiotic sentiment. The Gate is a door. It gives access to opportunities for both finding resources but also for threats to be leveled against wherever it resides. I'm surprised no one from the SGC currently in custody has at least given the minimum information of how to turn the Stargate off to prevent further accidents.

There is only one way to completely disable the gate that they know of, bury it(or they may be able to disassemble it). And in the process, cut off all ability to access other worlds while not denying that same option to the enemy as was just demonstrated when enemy ships flew to their planet to attack it. In fact, the stargate makes a horrible means of attacking a planet because it creates such a bottleneck of resources, restricts the size of objects that can be sent through it, and if there is a blocking device at the event horizon it prevents objects from rematerializing, preventing the go'auld from sending a bomb through. Energy blasts do make it through the wormhole(since disorganized high speed plasma packs a lot of a punch, even if it isn't quite as much as organized high speed plasma), but even in the episode where the enemy kept dialing Earth and firing constantly through the gate, they were only slowly weakening the iris over the course of several hours.

What the Stargate is good for, though, is small team tactics such as employed by the SGC, and rapid transmission of goods between friendly locations. The Stargate and the Guests are the only hope Earth has of obtaining sufficient tech to be able to compete with the go'auld at all, so yes, it is their only weapon/means of obtaining weapons.

@Pale Mirror

Why didn't SG1 consider the possibility of alternate Earths? These events happened after the quantum mirror episode, so they have first-hand experience with the existence of parallel realities. Part of the reason that I bring that up is I really look forward to you writing the Shangri-la's reaction to the knowledge that SG1 apparently encountered dimension hopping tech that exceeds their own, and could be used to bring across individual personnel and goods(in both directions) from the realities the other ships landed in if they can combine that tech with their ability to trace specific realities. Sure, it would mean sending a team across to grab the mirror in that other world and then bring it to the attention of their forces in that reality, and the other ships might have landed in realities where the mirror doesn't have a counterpart, but their realization of the potential if things do pan out should be fun to read.

I'm enjoying the story, even the politics. I especially like the Russian leader's approach to politics-- kill 'em with kindness. 99.9% of the country didn't even know of the existence of the gate, so as long as he isn't giving them reason to unite against 'those ^&*% commie *(&))(*&," they will gladly tear apart the people responsible for him, and he winds up looking good in the process. He was doing so well despite being promoted from the Patent Office that I thought for a while he must be one of the Shadow Mirror plants that you had referred to being there months ahead of them, but just being too smart for his own good holding him back in politics works much better. It is very rare for the truly competent to be allowed to get in a position to use that competency, and he has integrity as well. Loving the character.

Small bonus note: I'm really enjoying all of the character references to other series. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of them, but their crew is supposed to be multi-universal so I figure if I recognize a character, I am meant to recognize them.

[Pale Wolf]

In fact, the stargate makes a horrible means of attacking a planet because it creates such a bottleneck of resources, restricts the size of objects that can be sent through it, and if there is a blocking device at the event horizon it prevents objects from rematerializing, preventing the go'auld from sending a bomb through.

It's not as good at planetary assault as some mechanisms, but it actually is fairly effective, if you can get a wormhole open and safe, non-iris access. It's much easier to resupply your end of a gate than it is to resupply a ship that may be days of travel out. And while it does restrict the size of objects that can be sent through... it's seven meters wide. Tanks are four meters wide. (Hint)

Generally, when assaulting a planet, the best strategy is to seize control of the gate (whether by ship or by gate - either has benefits and drawbacks dependent on the situation), take a foothold, and then use the gate for resupply and reinforcement.

Why didn't SG1 consider the possibility of alternate Earths? These events happened after the quantum mirror episode, so they have first-hand experience with the existence of parallel realities.

Mostly because they were still thinking 'alternate universe should be around the same timeline as ours', though technically 'different time' implies alternate universe unless you get one of those ever-entertaining self-sustaining time paradoxes.

Part of the reason that I bring that up is I really look forward to you writing the Shangri-la's reaction to the knowledge that SG1 apparently encountered dimension hopping tech that exceeds their own, and could be used to bring across individual personnel and goods(in both directions) from the realities the other ships landed in if they can combine that tech with their ability to trace specific realities.

Actually, Shadow Mirror's dimension hopping tech is significantly better than the quantum mirror in most respects - you've seen them using it for shorter-ranged work towards the end of the chapter. It carries more mass, is more precise (the quantum mirror, you basically have to guess what universe you're going to based on whether what you can see through the mirror is roughly right - you basically have to understand an entire universe from peering through a doorway), and works in-universe.

It just runs into that little problem of reliability when hopping dimensions. Said problem is fixable, long-term, but it'll take resources they don't have yet.

That said... it's still extremely useful, by virtue of that 'working' thing.

Sure, it would mean sending a team across to grab the mirror in that other world and then bring it to the attention of their forces in that reality, and the other ships might have landed in realities where the mirror doesn't have a counterpart, but their realization of the potential if things do pan out should be fun to read.

It'd definitely be a worthwhile exercise, but they're gonna have to find their lost ships first. And that's assuming the ships arrived in non-hostile locations rather than getting torn apart by inter-universal forces or the like. More of a long-term project.

I'm enjoying the story, even the politics. I especially like the Russian leader's approach to politics-- kill 'em with kindness. 99.9% of the country didn't even know of the existence of the gate, so as long as he isn't giving them reason to unite against 'those ^&*% commie *(&))(*&," they will gladly tear apart the people responsible for him, and he winds up looking good in the process. He was doing so well despite being promoted from the Patent Office that I thought for a while he must be one of the Shadow Mirror plants that you had referred to being there months ahead of them, but just being too smart for his own good holding him back in politics works much better. It is very rare for the truly competent to be allowed to get in a position to use that competency, and he has integrity as well. Loving the character.

It's partially being a bit too sharp, but it's also that politics is his retirement - he felt no real rush to get ahead, so he was pretty much just relaxing. Now, though, he's got opportunity and a reason to stay in power. His original job was as a KGB agent, as he mentioned in the scene from his perspective.

There are still going to be people railing against 'those commie bastards', of course (and the inverse in Russia) - they were fighting each other for a long time and as Hammond noted, half their armies trained explicitly to kill each other. It's gonna take time and symbols to really get them working together well.

Small bonus note: I'm really enjoying all of the character references to other series. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of them, but their crew is supposed to be multi-universal so I figure if I recognize a character, I am meant to recognize them.

Not quite. Shadow Mirror is one universe - they intend to be multi-universal, but aren't quite yet. Most of the character references to other series are expies to fill in where I need 'a character', or me borrowing ideas from other series (like Cerberus). So Momo, for instance, isn't actually MOMO from Xenosaga... but she's based on her and there's a fair degree of similarity in the background, though altered a little to fit the Shadow Mirror setting.

[Wyrd]

Not quite. Shadow Mirror is one universe - they intend to be multi-universal, but aren't quite yet. Most of the character references to other series are expies to fill in where I need 'a character', or me borrowing ideas from other series (like Cerberus). So Momo, for instance, isn't actually MOMO from Xenosaga... but she's based on her and there's a fair degree of similarity in the background, though altered a little to fit the Shadow Mirror setting.

So they are at the beginning of their 'endless war.' Then again, in a sense they are already multi-versal since their fleet has been scattered across several universes.

On the quantum mirror, the main thing that seems to make it a better choice to me is that it seems to be extremely stable and to have a very low power requirement. The other universe that tried to figure it out by trial and error weren't very good at using it, but I expect the Shadow Mirror scientists would have a lot more luck studying the place where the mirror was found and possibly finding a lot more tech to go with it. Even without that, if they can combine the targeting abilities they already have for locating a universe with the stable portal created by quantum mirror tech, moving between universes becomes vastly simpler. Even if they have to have a receiver at the other end, they could use their current tech to send a probe to the target universe, then once it is confirmed that it is where they want it, they could transition the ships safely.

I suppose I should qualify my earlier statement: The gate is a horrible way to invade a planet if the gate is well defended, especially if the dialing system is not sitting right next to the gate like it is at most of the stargates, but isn't at SGC. Once you have the gate firmly on your side, it makes a wonderful means of reinforcing your troops, and the puddle jumpers make it clear that weaponized vehicles can be designed to make use of the gate for offensive purposes. Not that those vehicles would survive hitting the iris*, but on worlds without such a defense they would be quite useful. Especially if those mechs, or at least some of the models, can fit through the gates.

*The way it is described over a number of episodes, so this is a cobbled together explanation, is that the gate converts matter into energy**, or possibly just breaks matter apart to small enough pieces to fit through the stable center of the wormhole, while making a recording of how that matter is arranged. When it gets to the other event horizon, that gate tries to reassemble the matter at its end and push it out at the same speed it entered the other end. If there is something right at the event horizon but not blocking the actual portal, the result is individual atoms bouncing off of the shield and being destroyed in the energy field. There is a noticeable impact, but that tank wouldn't hit the shield like a tank but more like a large wave of sand that immediately dispersed.

**Since electromagnetic radiation and gravity obviously travel both ways through the gates, if the gates actually converted you entirely into energy they would be able to send matter both ways, instead of having the paths only go one way. Then again, the one way thing may be more of a safety measure to prevent two streams of matter meeting in the middle of a wormhole travelling at who knows how fast and having a reaction that I couldn't even hope to predict. Some Stargate writer could probably come up with an episode for it, though.

[Comartemis]

*severe eyetwitch*

"What is SRW"?

"What is SRW"?

I thought you people were supposed to be anime fans, but if you don't know what Super Robot Wars is, then I guess not. You may as well claim to be a Nintendo fan while knowing nothing about Super Smash Brothers.

Here. Educate yourselves. Then do it again. And again. And again. And while you're at it, do some research on Another Century's Episode. Don't come back until you're familiar with the material.

[Pale Wolf]

On the quantum mirror, the main thing that seems to make it a better choice to me is that it seems to be extremely stable and to have a very low power requirement.

Yeah, what makes it better at the moment is... well, the fact that it works. 'Dude and what he can carry' transport is better than no transport at all.

The other universe that tried to figure it out by trial and error weren't very good at using it, but I expect the Shadow Mirror scientists would have a lot more luck studying the place where the mirror was found and possibly finding a lot more tech to go with it.

Unfortunately, the quantum mirror was picked up by another planet's Stargate program - there might be some useful stuff and information where they found it, but there's really no way to find out where it was found since everyone who did is dead.

Shadow Mirror could probably get a fair degree of effect if they went in on the quantum mirror, but the overall research effort would look, from most perspectives, to be fairly similar to stabilizing and mass-producing System XN, which is preferable if it can be stabilized. It'd certainly be something to look into while you have spare personnel, though.

Even without that, if they can combine the targeting abilities they already have for locating a universe with the stable portal created by quantum mirror tech, moving between universes becomes vastly simpler. Even if they have to have a receiver at the other end, they could use their current tech to send a probe to the target universe, then once it is confirmed that it is where they want it, they could transition the ships safely.

That is, indeed, a possibility.

*The way it is described over a number of episodes, so this is a cobbled together explanation, is that the gate converts matter into energy**, or possibly just breaks matter apart to small enough pieces to fit through the stable center of the wormhole, while making a recording of how that matter is arranged.

Yup. The Stargate is basically an extremely narrow wormhole that hooks up a ring transporter to make the people small enough and fast enough to fit through it.

There is a noticeable impact, but that tank wouldn't hit the shield like a tank but more like a large wave of sand that immediately dispersed.

Exactly. This is why invasion-by-gate must start with a drone, or unit that can send video back and you're prepared to lose. One unit through to confirm that you're not slamming into an iris, and then use it to hold the beachhead, make sure an iris doesn't form, while you send the rest through.

But in the end, the gate as used for invasion holds the same position as the quantum mirror does: Not the best option... but one that's there. A ship is better at taking a reinforced gate, but if you don't have a ship...



Enjoying the fic, Comartemis, if not the comments?

[Comartemis]

Very much so, though I know precisely jack about Stargate. Are you going to more or less follow the OG timeline, or can we expect some unexpected appearances here and there?

Please say RaiOh, please say RaiOh, please say RaiOh, please say RaiOh...

[Pale Wolf]

I might use your source of prayers, except I don't really know it firsthand. I don't really like writing from summaries

I don't plan to quite follow the OG timeline - to be honest, the OG timeline is basically completely off-track because Shadow Mirror missed their jump. (Blame Daniel. It was his bouncing between universes that jerked around their course.) Shadow Mirror is from about four years ahead, and their universe went quite differently.

Though, the Einst may well show up. They were certainly interested in the Shadow Mirror universe, and followed the Neverland...

There may be others to show up as well - unfortunately no Gilliam, he isn't likely to rebuild XN and without it he can't jump. On the other hand, Alex did plant a certain hint in the analysis bit about how I had Shadow Mirror's timeline go and someone that might come up...

[Wyrd]

Very much so, though I know precisely jack about Stargate. Are you going to more or less follow the OG timeline, or can we expect some unexpected appearances here and there?

So you know MacGuyver?*

*The actor who played Jack O'neil, Richard Dean Anderson, also played MacGuyver, which for a long time was one of my favorite shows.

[Wyrd]

This has been long enough that I'm going to risk the wrath aroused by a double post to catch your attention: One thing you never covered was their reactions to the zats. A pistol sized stun gun that works through armor(they have only ever been shown being blocked by force fields{or objects far enough away to not count as contiguous, such as a tree or rock someone is hiding behind}, as far as I recall) and that can kill would be likely to catch their attention to some extent. After all, sometimes you want to take prisoners and not just corpses.

Learning the gull extent of the device, that it builds up a charge in a target so that a target hit once is merely stunned as if by a taser, twice killed, and thrice the body actually disintigrates, would be really interesting to them as well, I would think. Then again, that third feature is used so rarely that it is understandable if you forgot about it. As with a taser, someone with a high pain tolerance can stay conscious, but they won't want to do anything for a while. The charge seems to dissipate slowly over the course of 5-10 minutes, going by the episode where O'neil zapped himself so that the charge in his body would repel the energy creatures that were attacking them(why it didn't occur to him to just zap the ground I don't know, since they had already seen that zapping the walls of their building drove the creatures away).

Of course, you could just leave it as a very brief mention of a device that they haven't entirely figured out yet. The mission logs and the information on that equipment should get their geeks salivating, though.

[Pale Wolf]

To be honest, the majority of the salvage isn't examined or even labelled yet. They have absolute gold in there (notably the inertial drives, the rings, and the hyperdrive), but the goa'uld hide their buttons and Shadow Mirror hasn't been able to figure out all of what's what just yet - they pretty much just disassembled the ship and loaded it onboard. The guns were easy to find, the staffs were easily identified as weapons because people were holding onto them, power conduits, reactor, and the crystaltech computers are relatively simple to locate, but the other stuff is more hidden and harder to identify as useful.

As far as the zats, they're useful, but I'm working them primarily as an extremely powerful taser and trying to ignore the disintegrate function - the writers themselves tried very, very hard to forget they'd given it that, and for good reason, it's very hard to make sense of. They also have the disadvantage of being very inaccurate (they have the best ergonomics and easiest aiming of all goa'uld weapons, but that's not saying very much), so at least for the short term, Shadow Mirror's 'capture' operations will work primarily through chemical warfare. The zats are damned good, though, yes.

(why it didn't occur to him to just zap the ground I don't know, since they had already seen that zapping the walls of their building drove the creatures away).

That ep? The zat itself didn't drive them away, it was the massive fluctuations in his bioelectric field that made them back off - so it had to be him.

[Wyrd]

That ep? The zat itself didn't drive them away, it was the massive fluctuations in his bioelectric field that made them back off - so it had to be him.

At the end of the episode, one of them(I think Teal'c) zaps the ground to drive them away from Jack. Yes, it would have taken a lot of zaps to clear a path to the gate. They could have made some statement about those zats not having enough power to be fired that many times(say that they were due for a recharge, since at no other point does one ever run out of power). That would have made sense. They could have said that zapping metal walls worked and zapping the ground didn't. Instead, they have Jack get zapped, run to the gate, collapse because he can't zap himself again so soon without killing himself but the charge is no longer enough to keep the things away, and Teal'c comes in a zaps the ground, clearing the area and letting everyone leave.

I would have loved a, "How could I have been so stupid?!" moment after Jack had left, where they realized that zapping the ground would work and that was why they were so close behind him and able to save him, but it just become4s a big plot hole, and{insert more ranting here}.

I agree that the disintigrate thing was a bad idea. Otherwise, three zat blasts and no more go'auld. Something tells me the sarcophagus can't put a pile of dust back together. Instead we get recurring villains because you have to not only kill them, you have to make certain to take the body to keep their advanced med tech from resurrecting them.