They sat in the briefing room, taking turns. So far, Jack had fully understood maybe half of what had been said. It was showing, too.
"...Which is as far as we've been able to get with our propulsion systems." Touching a button to clear the screen, the ship's Chief Engineer, B'Elanna Torres looked at the visitors. The blonde, Major Carter, had impressed her so far. Knowing that they were in the twenty-first century, she had expected a level of knowledge comparable to someone from that era in her own dimension. What she got, however....
"Wow, the subspace barriers in your universe must be paper thin! No, it takes more than just setting up the hyperspace field here. You actually have to have a way to open what we call a window. It's like punching a small hole in the subspace barrier, extending your field through the opening, and letting it pull you into hyperspace, or what you call warp drive."
Nodding as she considered, the half Klingon nodded. "I get it, so we form the field, open the barrier, extend the field, and go?"
"In a nutshell, yes. Looking at the figures, your ship should be capable of going pretty fast, once we can figure out how to open the hole for you."
Seeing a potential bright spot, Jack took this moment to speak up. "Cool! Carter, why don't you go and help them figure things out. And take T, just in case." Turning, he looked at Janeway. "If you don't mind, Captain?"
"Of course not. I'd like another member of my crew, Seven of Nine, to join them, she should be a help, as well."
"No problem, sir." Standing, Carter headed towards the door, Teal'c following. He knew his assignment: Make sure that the Major remained safe and unharmed.
"Now, Colonel, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you about some of the other races in your dimension. We've seen several types of ships running around these parts, and were wondering what you knew about them."
"We'll be glad to look and see who you've seen," Jack replied.
Hiding a smile, the captain activated the viewscreen again. "We've scanned a lot of these vessels since our arrival. Some appear to be cloaked."
"Goa'uld Scout or Cargo ships. Oh, boy." Jack decided that it was best to let her know what kind of trouble she was really in.
"OK, the Goa'uld are a parasitic species that take humans as hosts. They're kinda snake like, in a lot of ways, including looks. They enter the body usually through the neck or the mouth, and wrap themselves around the brain stem. Once there, they take control of the body, and go pretty much all bad. You can usually tell that someone is a Goa'uld by the fact that they're eyes will go all glowy on ya, and their voice is different, kinda low, and it kinda echoes. And oh, yeah, by the way, did I mention? Evil. Pure evil. They're favorite schtick is to pretend to be gods to enslave people. They steal any form of advanced technology they can get, and use it to either turn more people into slaves, fight each other, or destroy worlds that don't bow down to 'em. Those smaller ships usually won't do much more than run away or hide, but then they'll call in their boss, and they like to show up with bigger ships."
"These?" The captain pushed another button, and an image of a Ha'tak appeared on screen.
"Yep. Mothership. Lots of death gliders, lots of Jaffa, lots of guns. Those you gotta watch out for."
"Death gliders? Jaffa?" Janeway looked sideways at Tuvok, who listened with rapt attention.
"Yep. Gliders are small fighters, one or two pilots, short range, pretty fast, pretty maneuverable. Two medium blast cannons for armaments. And Jaffa are their soldiers. Very strong, good fighters, and usually they will do what ever their Goa'uld master tells them to do, even kill their friends or family. Teal'c is a Jaffa."
"Teal'c? Then how...."
"He's smarter than the average Jaffa. Figured out for himself that the snakes aren't really gods, and let me talk him into switching sides. Been a great friend ever since."
"I see. Any chance of negotiation with them?"
"Only as long as they know you can destroy them. And even then, they'll backstab ya any chance they get. Treaties with them last only until they think they can win, and then all bets are off."
Katherine pondered this. Jack could see she needed some extra convincing. "Look, the snakes are evil. The live a hell of a long time, hundreds or thousands of years. I have personally been brought back to life, just so some wanna-be god could have the fun of killing me again. On a scale of one to ten, I personally give them a 9.5 on the 'Shoot-On-Sight-O-Meter.' Be careful where they are concerned, I'm telling you."
Surprised at the sudden forcefulness, the captain was shocked when Daniel spoke. "One took my wife as a host. She was still alive, and knew what was happening, and could see and hear and feel everything that she was forced to do, but couldn't stop it. The Goa'uld took her body. She couldn't be saved, and ended up dead in my arms." He took a deep breath. "And now it's happened again, to someone I care about. Sarah was taken over, too. Now her mind is held prisoner while an ancient evil named Osiris uses her body to do unspeakable evil. The Goa'uld are pure evil. They rape and destroy for pleasure, and they do it to entire civilizations. And now there's Anubis."
Janeway was somewhat disturbed at this point. "We've come across our share of less than savory groups before. But what you're describing...."
Nodding, Jack spoke up. "Pure evil. Nothing less than that. Like I said, avoid 'em."
----
Walking down the corridor, two Starfleet officers were having a conversation they'd had before. And, knowing one of the two, it was a conversation that they would probably have again.
"She's an astrophysicist. She's perfect, just exactly what we needed! I mean, she can help us so much! What are the odds that she would just drop right into our laps like that, really? If she can just...."
"Harry, come on," said Tom Paris. "You've really gotta quit doing this. I mean, seriously, I don't mind cleaning up on the betting pools like this, but if you don't stop falling for every new smart chick that comes by to visit, you're going to set new records in Starfleet! She's trouble, man, I'm telling ya!"
Shaking his head, Harry had to defend himself. "It's not like that, Tom, really. I just think that she's....well, she's...."
"A hot blonde who happens to be this dimension's version of a genius. She's like a non-Borg Seven of Nine, and we all know how that ended up for ya! Please, Harry, I'm begging you. That big guy with the gold forehead that's following her around? I get the feeling he'd happily rip your arms off at her command, like having a Klingon for a big brother. And that Colonel O'Neill? I've seen it before, there's something there. If anyone's going to get anywhere with her, it'll be him. And I'm pretty sure he'd be happy to defend her honor in the meantime. Trust me, Harry, you're playing with fire here!"
"You've got it all wrong, Tom, it's not like that at all. I just think she's the key to us getting out of this dimension and back home, that's all. There's nothing wrong with that!"
"Right. Well, don't say I didn't warn you."
Turing away, Tom began to walk towards the turbolift at the end of the hall. Thinking about it for a few moments, Harry turned down the side corridor, towards Astrometrics. Seriously, what could be the harm, he thought?