With tensions rising between the Tok'ra, Earth, and me over the fate of the captured Ha'tak vessels, I invited both sides to a final discussion in The Phoenix's spacious briefing lounge. Negotiations started out tense, but we hammered out a cautious agreement: Earth would receive several motherships to boost its ability to defend itself, while the Tok'ra would not be left out in the cold. As a gesture of goodwill, I also vowed to share certain intelligence gleaned from Sokar's outposts.
In the aftermath, only Daniel Jackson lingered behind. He'd grown genuinely curious about my evolving ambitions—and was, in his own way, trying to protect Earth from any unintended consequences.
The Balance of Power
"You know you can't just hand over a fleet of Ha'taks to the U.S. military," Daniel said quietly. "It'd shatter the global balance in one fell swoop."
I nodded, half expecting that response. "I'm aware. But you realize Earth is ridiculously vulnerable. A single Goa'uld warship could wipe out entire continents. At least this way, they stand a fighting chance."
Daniel's expression softened. "You've made incredible strides, but I'm worried about an arms race on Earth. The rest of the planet won't just bow to American superiority."
I sighed, appreciating his candor. "I won't let Earth start conquering itself. I'll make sure they know I'm still around to keep them honest. If they try using that new firepower for anything but defense, they'll have to answer to me."
Daniel pursed his lips, clearly uneasy, but he inclined his head. "All right," he said at last. "I trust you—but history tells me not everyone handles power so responsibly. Keep your eyes open."
Looting Delmak
The next morning, I turned my attention back to Delmak, Sokar's industrial nexus. Even from The Phoenix's vantage in orbit, I could see the sprawling factories, refineries, and countless warehouses. No wonder Sokar had built such a large fleet: Delmak was an assembly line for war.
With Sokar defeated—if not permanently gone—there was little organized resistance left. I sent down teams of automated cargo drones, accompanied by half a dozen SGC volunteers in my shielded suits. We systematically emptied depots of raw naquadah, refined metals, and advanced equipment stockpiles. Some of it was straightforward—cannon parts and engine modules. Other crates contained bizarre, half-finished experiments whose designs I couldn't fully decipher yet.
In total, The Phoenix could hold 45,000 tons in her cargo decks. By the time we finished scouring the planet, we'd crammed every cubic inch with supplies. Even the battered Ha'taks we planned on refurbishing ended up being stuffed full of loot. The local populace cowered behind barricaded doors, watching in terror as my insect-like drones scurried through streets, hauling crates of war material. In their eyes, a new overlord had replaced the old. I couldn't blame them for being afraid.
The Tok'ra among us recognized the sheer scale of these resources. "This is at least a decade's worth of Sokar's military buildup," one marveled. "No wonder he was so close to launching an all-out offensive."
It took a week of work to repair the worst damage on the captured Ha'taks. The Ion Pulse bombs I'd lobbed had short-circuited or melted half the electronics. Airlock controls, engine modules, even basic door panels were fried shut. My engineering droids painstakingly reinstalled new wiring and swapped out entire circuit boards. By the time we were done, the refurbished motherships were spaceworthy—though not exactly in pristine shape.
Satisfied that Delmak had nothing left worth taking, I ordered the fleet to assemble. Ten Ha'taks in total: five designated for Earth, five for me to salvage or break down for raw materials. Since the ships' engines were still somewhat delicate, I programmed them to cruise at only half speed so they wouldn't burn out. That meant a two-week journey back to Sol. The Phoenix, on the other hand, made the hop in a matter of hours, carrying the SGC folks and the Tok'ra back home in comfort.
Negotiations with Earth
I left the Ha'taks traveling on autopilot, parted ways with the Tok'ra (for now), and arranged a top-level meeting at the SGC. General Hammond's greeting was warm, but the faces that flanked him—State Department representatives, Richard Woolsey, and several other officials—were anything but casual. They knew what I proposed was a major upheaval in Earth's power dynamics.
Once pleasantries wrapped up, I laid out my terms:
Five Ha'taks delivered to Earth for planetary defense.Official recognition of my claims to all Ancient or Alteran facilities in the galaxy—i.e., anything the Ancients built was, by default, mine to salvage or study.Acceptance that the Pegasus Galaxy remains a "breakaway province" of the Alteran Empire, acknowledging my jurisdiction there if I so chose to press it.Formation of an international Earth-based defense body to ensure no single nation unilaterally used the ships for imperial gain.
The officials were stunned at first but quickly realized my demands were less about personal wealth and more about controlling how Earth used Goa'uld technology. A flurry of phone calls followed. Within an hour, they returned with a handshake agreement—pending final ratification by the U.N., they assured me. But I knew once the U.S. was on board, the rest of Earth's governments would follow, or risk being left out of the loop.
I asked for one last courtesy: "I want it in writing that the SGC or any Earth agency won't stand between me and Ancient technology." They nodded readily; anything to get those ships. With the deal sealed, I offered them a 48-hour window to finalize paperwork, then excused myself.
Repurposing the Leftover Ha'taks
As soon as I returned to orbit, I hopped over to The Anvil in Seraph-344, towing five leftover Ha'taks behind me. One by one, construction drones tore into them, salvaging everything from hull plating to hyperdrives. The Anvil had grown larger in my absence, bristling with new modules and forging panels. The station's AI automatically stowed the best components for future projects, while the rest got pulverized into raw metals or refined into new assemblies.
With Earth and the Tok'ra somewhat placated, only one major threat loomed: the Replicators, an ever-evolving insectoid machine plague that had begun devouring large swaths of Asgard territory. If left unchecked, they'd eventually reach Milky Way space in full force.
I recalled from the show that Thor would soon arrive above Earth, desperately seeking help. But if I waited too long, the Replicators might become an even bigger menace. Better to intervene on my terms.
Building the Anti-Replicator Arsenal
After rummaging through Ancient records and combining them with Asgard intel gleaned from random mission reports, I designed a specialized Anti-Replicator Beam. The concept was straightforward enough: a specific energy frequency that disrupted Replicator bonds. However, I didn't stop there. I developed a multi-pulse system that would jam their subspace communication, then force them to cluster, then finally blast them to dust. While they might adapt to a single frequency over time, hitting them in stages made it far harder for them to evolve new defenses.
But the galaxy is big. If I wanted to cleanse an entire solar system, I needed a wide-scale approach, not just a single-ship beam weapon. So I built a handful of larger "pulse generator devices" that could be deployed like mines around a star, each one capable of discharging a field that encompassed planetary orbits. I also coded "anti-nanite missiles" that introduced subspace errors into Replicator code, fracturing their collective consciousness. If a massive wave of Replicators struck, I intended to be ready.
When my cargo bays brimmed with these new weapons, I set a course for Hala, a major Asgard world that had fallen to Replicator infestation in the show's timeline. My Asgard star charts, gleaned from Merlin's repository, gave me an approximate location. Even with The Phoenix's advanced intergalactic drive, it would take nearly a month to get there.
A Month in Transit
Slipping into hyperspace, I settled into the command chair, calling up the engineering readouts. The Phoenix's drive thrummed quietly, inertial dampeners smoothing out the ride. For the next four weeks, I'd be effectively off the grid—no SGC calls, no Tok'ra negotiating sessions. Just me, the droids, and my curiosity.
I used the downtime to refine my station plans at Seraph-344. My forging panels had grown adept at printing new starships, but the rate was limited by my supply of raw atomic material. Most of that came from the system's gas giant. Now, I wanted to branch out—build a new vessel that could devour asteroids and convert them into neat bars of refined metal. That way, my matter-forges could focus on the higher-end composites and electronics.
Once I finished those designs, I turned to a more delicate matter: the frozen Ancient I'd claimed from Earth's cryogenic vault, originally discovered in Antarctica. She was sealed in a block of ice, the temperature stabilized by a specialized cooler in my medical lab. Gently, I began scanning her cell structure, cross-referencing it against my own DNA (and the samples I'd taken from Merlin).
I quickly discovered the rumored Ancient "plague" that supposedly ravaged their civilization was far more complex than SGC records suggested. It contained nanitic elements, but its real deadliness stemmed from the way it evaded Ancient healing abilities. Delving deeper, I found telltale signs that the plague might have mutated repeatedly, becoming so entrenched that even partial ascension couldn't purge it. No wonder the Ancients turned to ascend or died off.
Curiously, the Ancient's genetic structure was very similar to mine—more so than Merlin's had been. Possibly this woman was from Atlantis' latter-era population, already hybridizing with local human gene pools. It reinforced my suspicion that my own DNA was partly from a more "modern" branch of the Ancients, not their earliest form.
Preparing to Arrive
By the time The Phoenix neared Hala's coordinates, my heads-up display blinked with an alert: "Hyperspace exit in T-minus 6 hours." I sighed, stepping away from the lab table, leaving the Ancient's cryogenic chamber in stasis for now. I'd uncovered tantalizing clues about how to cure or modify her biology, but no definitive breakthroughs yet.
Glancing around the silent halls, I wondered how the SGC was faring with their new Ha'taks, or whether the Tok'ra had begun pushing deeper into Goa'uld territory. Perhaps Earth's acceptance of my demands had spurred them to form a unified international defense. Or maybe old prejudices were overshadowing common sense.
One crisis at a time. First, I'd see if the Replicators on Hala still existed in the form I expected. If so, I'd test my new multi-stage pulse. If not, that meant they'd already begun evolving—and the galaxy was in more danger than we realized.
I settled into the captain's chair, letting the soft hum of The Phoenix's reactors soothe my nerves. Four more weeks out here, alone with my thoughts and a possible cosmic plague on the brink of unleashing itself. Sometimes I still felt like a kid playing at war in the grown-up galaxy. But I'd chosen this path—no sense doubting it now.
As the clock counted down to re-entry into normal space, my comm panel flashed. Helia's cool synthesized voice spoke: "Approaching designated coordinates. All systems ready. Please confirm final readiness for potential hostiles."
I closed my eyes, inhaled, and then exhaled slowly. "Confirmed, Helia. Let's hope the first field test of our new weapon is a success."