Previously on Stargate SG-1...
"'Under no circumstances go to P4C-970. Colonel Jack O'Neill.' This looks like your handwriting."
"The Aschen, sir. They're called the Aschen."
"They don't get excited in general, General. It's like an entire planet of accountants."
"You're offering a lot more than we asked for."
"Our motives are not entirely selfless. Perhaps you offer more than you give yourself credit for."
"Uh, you understand I have to, uh, present your offer to our leaders."
"You'll find we are a very patient people, Ambassador. "
"The headline says something about a pandemic. Some sort of... I can't translate that, maybe fever. "
"Vaccine causes...what?"
"I don't know. But it caused something, because, in the span of two hundred years, the Volians went from an urban civilization of millions to an agrarian civilization of thousands. After they were saved by the Aschen. "
"'Sterility.'"
"Vaccine causes sterility. That was the headline. You wiped out most of the Volian population and turned their entire world into farmland. You'd do the same to Earth."
"When they knew we were on... to them, they launched a bioweapon."
"I had to warn you, I... couldn't wait for the Ambassador. I'm sorry, sir."
"I just hope we don't regret giving them those gate addresses."
"I don't think we will. First one being a black hole, and all. They get progressively darker after that. "
"2008"
Daniel watched as the mysterious woman in shiny white clothes walked up the ramp, approaching the inactive Stargate while smiling enigmatically back at him. And then she dissolved, transforming into a cloud of energy, like ascended beings often did. The cloud then assumed the shape of a disc, filling the Stargate as if it was open.
He took a deep breath and stepped on the ramp himself, approaching the improvised wormhole...
"Daniel!" said a firm, commanding voice. Daniel turned around and saw Colonel Mitchell in the control room, looking at him from above. The scene then disappeared, and he found himself in his office lying on his table, on top of a heap of photos depicting wall inscriptions from P5G-438. "Daydreaming again?" continued Mitchell. "This is, what, the fifth time since —"
"Since Sam left last week," Daniel concluded. "But I think there's a pattern emerging now, I can see it, elusive, out there," he stood up and started waving his hands, as he used to do when in a flow. "It's an ascended Ancient. She's trying to contact me, indirectly convey some message, no doubt related to what we have discovered rec—"
"What's with you and the female Ancients?" smiled Cam. "Oma Desala, Morgan, now this? Anyway, I've come to tell you that General Landry's calling us for a briefing."
"Unplanned briefing? Why?" asked Daniel.
"Something about Carolyn's findings on 438. She'll be at the briefing, too."
Daniel stood up, taking one of the pictures with him, and followed Mitchell out, looking onto the picture and bumping into people along the way to the elevator. Soon, it took them down, and they entered the briefing room.
General Landry, Teal'c, Vala and Dr. Lam were already sitting there.
"I'm afraid we have bad news," Carolyn began. "My colleagues and I have studied the longevity serum and some of the people of P5G-438. The good news is that the serum really does increase their lifespan and strengthen their immunity, similar to tretonin but without the need to take it regularly."
"And the bad news?" asked Vala, beating a rhythm on the table with her fingers.
"It has one unfortunate side effect: it irreversibly damages reproductive organs."
"On the inside or the outside?" Mitchell asked sarcastically.
"Both," replied Carolyn. "Those affected think their inability to conceive children is just bad luck, but they have really been sterilized. I have no idea how I'm going to tell them that."
"That sounds familiar..." remarked Daniel.
"Indeed," said Teal'c.
Vala looked at the two of them with curiosity. "Familiar? How?"
"I think he's talking about the Aschen," explained Mitchell. "That was before I joined SG-1, but I read in mission reports that the team encountered an alien race who, uh — "
"...posed as benefactors to less advanced cultures," finished Daniel. "They offered their technology, but in reality it was a way of slowly wiping them out by making them sterile and eventually extinct. We barely stopped them when they tried to do the same with Earth."
"But they are still out there?" asked Landry.
"Evidently. That, er, incident with their fleet four years ago — "
"Enough, Doctor Jackson," said the General. "I've read the reports as well, there's no need to repeat it all."
"This case, however, does not resemble the behavior the Aschen displayed on Volia," added Teal'c. "These people have received their medication from an unidentified party, while the Aschen operated in the open when we encountered them."
"Are we even sure it's them?" asked Mitchell. "For all we know, a Trust agent or a Goa'uld just happened to use the same tactic."
"Nevertheless," summed Landry, "as long as the Aschen are left on their own, they pose a threat to us and our allies. SG-1, I count on you to investigate this matter — it is your next mission."
"General!" said Daniel. "We can't just dial P4C-970 and walk into their midst. That's exactly what Jack was trying to prevent us from doing with that note."
"I said 'investigate', not 'rush into a trap'," smiled Landry. "The Aschen have a confederacy. You should start with fringe planets. And you have already been on Volia."
"Chevron seven locked!" announced Walter as SG-1, now in their field uniforms, looked into the window from behind. The Stargate opened, and the MALP standing ready rolled up the ramp and into the wormhole. "We're getting a signal," he continued, turning on video feed. For a couple of seconds, an image of a blue sky with clouds appeared on the monitor, but then it immediately turned into static.
Teal'c cast an inquiring look at the Sergeant, raising an eyebrow.
"I, er, I think the target Stargate is lying on the ground, so the MALP fell back into it and was destroyed," said Walter.
"Okay, this may be a problem," Cam noted. "We'll have to climb out at the very least, and I can't really say I'm looking forwa—"
"This won't be needed, Colonel," assured Landry. "I've asked the Alpha Site to give you a more efficient means of transportation. Walter, dial P4X-650."
"Yes, Sir."
"SG-1, to the gate room," ordered the General.
As the Stargate opened again, the four explorers walked into it, side to side... and after exiting it, found themselves looking at a small vessel with an all-too-familiar design.
"Puddle jumper?" Mitchell exclaimed.
"A gift from Atlantis," said Colonel Pierce, approaching them. "Except we checked, and none of us here at the base have that Ancient gene to pilot it — I'm not sure about you, though."
Cam, Daniel and Teal'c turned to Vala.
"Uh... w-what?" she said. "It's not my fault that— "
"Maybe," answered Mitchell. "But it's not our fault either that back in Atlantis, you were the only one who thought gene therapy was cool and something to brag about. If you don't want to fly this thing, well, there's always climbing..."
"No! Anything but that!" protested Vala.
"Or we could dial 970, right now. 'Come take us, Aschen, here we are!'"
Vala sighed...
"Commander!" exclaimed a man in a very old-fashioned uniform, walking into a dimly-lit room looking like a makeshift command center. "Strange ship, flying this way! Doesn't look like Aschen technology, and it comes from where we buried the Stargate..."
"You didn't bury it well enough, it seems," the commander said grimly. "Wait for the ship to land, then bring the crew here. Aschen or not, they may still be in league with them."
He turned around, revealing who he was: Earth's former ambassador to Volia. Joe Faxon.