Leaning back in his chair Harry looked around the table before inviting discussion on what they had just witnessed and heard. "Comments?"
Agatha who had just retaken her seat, after coming up from Atlantis went first. "Of the six injured only two required more treatment than a quick healing charm."
Slotting her data pad into the table she continued. "I expect the other two to be out of the med bay by dinner time, as we just want to monitor them as the re-growth kicks in and does its work on the injured internal organs."
"Do we know why they attacked our team?" Remus ever the sensible one asked.
"Does it matter, they attacked and injured our people, so they have to be punished. We need to make a point that any attack on us with be dealt with swiftly and harshly." Ron spat out, sitting and covering Jacks station while he was down planet.
"And what would you have us do to them?" Remus asked Ron, a little harsher than he should have maybe.
Throwing his hands up. "Send them back where they came from, make sure they never can leave their world again." Ron replied calm but with lots of conviction.
Everyone was taken aback at that statement. For those who knew how unyielding Ron had become after his sister and girlfriend were tortured to death during a Hogsmeade weekend, they were floored at his less than dismemberment solution to the attack.
Remus was surprised along with the others, and slowly responded not wanting the young man to try and change his mind. "That is a very reasonable response. Even if in their mind they thought they had provocation, it would assure a just punishment, yet assure us they were not running around the universe."
"Do we have the right to pass judgment on them?" Molly asked concerned about how others would perceive their actions.
"The Alliance charter is very clear, Atlantis is Alteran territory as is Lantea, our laws and courts hold precedence." Aloria informed them
"How would we do this, I mean keep them from leaving their planet, most mechanical means can eventually be gotten around?" Vlad asked.
"Leave that to me." Agatha said making a few notes. "When I am finished I can assure you they will not leave their planet without having to replace their internal organs after leaving."
"And if they do attempt to leave after being told they can't, well let's say it will not be pretty and leave it at that." Agatha smirked, deciding her oath did not go so far as to cover those that would do harm first before thinking.
Agreeing with the solution, and seeing Jack in the arrival area with his two guests, "Well now that it is decided we have jurisdiction, shall we find out why it happened in the first place?" Harry said as he pointed down the table to the new arrivals.
Escorting the two who seemed to be the civilian and military leaders of their expedition over to Harry's work platform, Jack noticed Ron sitting in his chair and sat down in the one Kevin had vacated and logged into the system, so he could keep an eye on what was going on with his security forces.
Harry stared at the two people Jack had brought back with him. He recognized the two from fifty-three days ago.
Narrowing his eyes Harry remembered when they had sat at this very table. Maybe he should have looked deeper in that one's memories Harry thought as he stared at Colonel John Sheppard.
After several uncomfortable minutes on the part of the Atlantis expedition, Harry finally spoke. "Before we get into the explanation of what you are doing on Atlantis." Harry watched them pale slightly.
"I would like to hear the reasoning, of why your people attacked mine." Harry said without emotion.
Seeing that the two were looking at each other. "We might as well get your governments explanation while we are at it." Harry told them, giving them a few moment reprieve to come up with a story.
"Powaqa if you would send a Holo remote to Earth." Harry ordered.
"You might want to charm it to look like something else, taking in account what happened below." Remus suggested thinking of the mistaken identity of the remotes for replicators.
Facing the two at the end of the table while Powaqa tapped commands into her station Harry said one word inviting an explanation. "Well."
Taking a deep breath and straightening her shoulders, "Lord Commander, I am horrified that your people were injured." Dr Weir offered beginning her explanation.
"I don't want to make light of what has happened by labeling it a mistake.But it truly was a mistake, we did not intend an attack on your team." Elizabeth pleaded for him to understand.
"You have to understand, that we have had not had the best of luck with our run ins with the replicators. And except for the color they look exactly like your remotes." Sheppard told them.
Harry did not answer either of them, and when they tried to say anything else he held up his hand to stop them, waiting for the remote sent to Earth to start transmitting.
The Holo in the center of the table flickered as they watched the remote make its way through the Astria.
Something was not right with how the remote was moving and Harry activated a second display showing the remote itself as it entered the event horizon and stared at it incredulously before looking down at a very satisfied, smirking Powaqa.
They had just sent R2D2 through the Astria to Earth.
Looking back towards the head of the table. "What.I made that droid two weeks ago.It's a very useful design." Powaqa said with a straight face.
Shaking his head Harry muttered to himself. "I put my foot down on protocol droids." Referencing the Star Wars movies and a look sent to Powaqa that said we will discuss this later.
Snorts came from those who had seen the Star Wars movies as they tried to keep their laughter in check.
And Jack vowed to meet with Powaqa later, to discuss making light sabers and adding them to their arsenal. Just thinking about the new toys they could develop from his favorite movies made him want to cream his shorts.
Turning back to the Holo display in the center of the table, they watched as the droid exited the Astria on Earth to the blare of sirens and soldiers pointing weapons towards the droid.
Watching the soldiers look at the droid all confused, and hearing in the back ground someone say something to the effect that they were being invaded by the Sith, Powaqa directed the R2 unit halfway down the ramp and activated the Holo Emitter.
General Hank Landry, who had been having a meeting with SG-5 before the alarms starting blaring, stood in the control room behind the gate technicians as he watched what looked a lot like R2D2 from Star Wars roll down the ramp.
Glancing around the control room making sure he was not the only one seeing what he thought he was seeing, he heard Daniel Jackson say. "Hello.If that thing starts telling us about Obi-Wan, I am putting in for vacation."
General Landry just looked at the Archeologist as several of the Airmen snorted trying to hold in their laughter.
Some people had too much time on their hands, Harry thought as he played with the controls directing the droid.
Swiveling the eye camera Harry zoomed in to the control room to see the amused and confused expressions on the faces of those manning the computer stations.
At least the Holo that was depicting him was not flickering like some bad black and white image, like it had in the movie.
"I wish to speak with General O'Neill, if you would please contact him for me." Harry's Holo image said.
Taking in the expression on the images face, Daniel said. "This does not look good."
"Dr. Jackson, do you know who that is?" Landry asked.
"Yes." Daniel answered back to him as he moved towards the steps. "That's the Lord Commander of the Alteran people, otherwise known as the Ancients, the gate builders."
Taking one last look at the Image floating above the robot, droid, whatever it was, General Landry quickly moved towards the gate room himself.
Catching out of the corner of the Holo the blast doors opening off to one side, Harry saw Daniel Jackson walk into the room followed by what looked like another officer.
Daniel bowed his head slightly as he fidgeted with his glasses. "Greetings Lord Commander."
"Is there something General Landry and I can help you with?" Daniel asked as he pointed to the man next to him.
Changing the controls so that those on Earth could see every one sitting at the table including the two Atlantis personal standing near the end of the table, Harry saw the slight wince on the Generals face when he saw his people.
The image of Harry stared down at the two as he said. "Imagine my surprise, when my technicians, in an attempt to restore power and partial command systems to Atlantis, before they started determining what repairs needed to be made, exited the Astria to find Atlantis had occupants."
Narrowing his eyes letting some of the anger show through. "Imagine my displeasure when said occupants, who we discovered were form Earth, attacked mine with projectile weapons." Harry said anger tightly under control.
"I'm sure it was all." Daniel stopped when he felt the hand of General Landry grab his arm.
"On behalf of the SGC and my government please accept my apologies for the incident. General O'Neill is currently on the Colony world dealing with some last minute details." Hank stepped forward.
"I can contact him immediately and have him make his way to the gate. It will take some time." Hank offered. "We of course will cooperate fully with any investigation and ."
Holding up his hand to forestall further apologies and pointing his finger at the droid under him. "Enough have General O'Neill contact us through that remote unit as soon as possible. As far as any investigation goes, it is not needed the facts speak for themselves. Punishment has already been decided, and those involved will presently be moved to Toria Ai Shas to have it carried out."
Taking in the shocked expression of the leaders of the Atlantis expedition at the end of the table, Harry moved to close the connection as Daniel race forward.
"WAIT." Daniel yelled as the image started to fade out.
Allowing his face to be the only thing active in the Holo emitter Harry waited for the man to say something else.
Swallowing nervously. "Please allow me to speak on their behalf to your courts." Daniel asked.
"There is nothing to say. Your people fired their weapons without orders, which resulted in injuries to mine." Harry told him, end of story.
The connection closed as the little droid moved to the bottom of the ramp and off to one side out of the way.
Seeing Elizabeth Weir and Colonel Sheppard looking sick and truth be told a little frightened Jack decided to take mercy on them.
"We do understand that mistakes can happen when you first meet another race, and that regardless of what is fact, your men only attacked a perceived threat, a threat that their experience had shown would attack you first." Jack told them as he had a flash back to the older versions memories of replicators.
"Regardless, those that hold such great fear of others that they would attack without orders, do not deserve to be let loose in the universe." Remus told them gently, trying to ease their fears a little.
"While to some this will not seem like any punishment at all, to those that love the life of exploring the vast reaches of the stars, they will feel we have gone too far." Tanaka told them.
Harry stood. "Your people are to be sent back to their home world and banned from ever stepping off the surface of that planet ever again."
Relief flooded Elizabeth's face as she realized that in truth they were not being punished harshly. Back on Earth if this had gone through military courts, they would have more than likely spent time in jail, intentional or not.
"We have ways to make sure that this edict is followed, as such if any of those that are banned from travel off planet chose to ignore this edict, they would suffer complete organ collapse. They will lead productive lives full lives, just not off the surface of your planet." Agatha told them the penalties of breaking the sentence.
Thanking whatever gods watched out for space travelers. "As their commanding officer I accept the punishment you have handed down, we will not make any attempts to sway your minds." Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that even the civilian courts would have sent those men to jail, the sentence was not really punishment at all. Plus the Military would accept the sentence of the Alteran's and consider the matter closed, not set up their own trials under the uniform military code.
Willing two chairs to appear at the end of the table Harry pointed at them. "Sit."
"You might as well be comfortable while you explain what you are doing on Atlantis." Harry told them pointedly.
XXXX
Wondering what the hell had happened now, General Jack O'Neill walked through the gate and into the SGC. Seeing Daniel and General Landry along with a hastily erected table with a speakerphone on it. Eyeing the two he missed the droid unit at the bottom of the ramp off to one side.
"One moment sir he just walked through the gate." General Landry said to the phone.
Raising an eyebrow at what Hank Landry had just said, Jack O'Neill made his way off the ramp and over to where the two were standing wondering just who the hell Hank was talking to.
"Someone want to clue me in." Jack said coming to a stop near the table.
"Jack." Came the voice of the President from the speakerphone.
Looking down at the table with a frown. "Yes Mr. President." Jack said slowly, not sure if he was going to like this.
"There has been an incident involving Dr. Weir's expedition and The Alteran's on Atlantis." The president told him.
Shaking his head, nope he wasn't going to like this at all. Time to seriously think about retirement, he fantasized for a moment about bikini clad babes on a beach playing volleyball before discarding it.
Sighing he un-buttoned his collar before asking. "Was Dr. McKay involved? Because if he was I am telling you right now I will push for him to be put out the closest airlock without a suit." Jack said in a snit.
No chuckling came over the speaker, so O'Neill was pretty sure he was going to have a migraine shortly.
"It looks like the Alteran's sent some technicians through the gate, and for some reason we do not know at the moment, Some of Sheppard's people opened fire on them injuring several." Daniel told what they knew so far
Wincing O'Neill asked softly. "Tell me there were no children involved?"
"As far as we know it was only their maintenance technicians, something about a powered restart of the Atlantis main frame, so they could determine how to go about repairs." General Landry told him wondering why Jack was asking about children.
"That's a relief." O'Neill sighed.
"Why." Hank asked puzzled, not being with the group during the rescue he had no clue how blood thirsty Alteran's were when it came to their children. He certainly did not remember reading anything about children in any of the reports to pass his desk of their official first meeting with the ancients.
"Hank if it did involve children I would be ordering every person on this mountain through the gate to the colony site before the warship the Alteran's sent wiped out life in this solar system." Jack O'Neill told him watching the realization dawn on the others face.
"So." Jack O'Neill said.
"So what, Jack?" Daniel asked right back.
Waving his arms around causing Daniel to back away from a Jack O'Neill about to go in full rant mode, something he wanted no part of. "Does someone want to tell me what in god's name is going on. This telling me things piece meal, is so not helping, let me tell Ya."
"Jack." The Presidents voice scolded.
"Sorry Sir, but I really do not have time to play a thousand questions, not if I need to be getting our people back in one piece, alive preferably." Jack O'Neill replied with a sigh.
Motioning an airman to bring over and set up the TV and VCR, "So far this is all we know." General Landry told him as they started to watch the surveillance footage from earlier.
After watching the short fifteen minutes of the footage Jack smirked. "That's not all we know, we know someone is sharing Star Wars films with them." Knowing who it probably was.
"Hopefully only the good sci-fi shows and not some of the more." Voice trailing off O'Neill then muttered. "Probably did too. When I get my hands on him.."
"Who are you talking about Jack?" Daniel asked curious about who the Ancients could have been talking to here on Earth.
"Never you mind Danny Boy." O'Neill quipped as he turned around to study the droid near the ramp, almost hidden in the shadows that he had seen on the playback.
Pointing his finger at the droid and motioning it to come over. "Let's see how interactive this baby really is." Jack O'Neill wondered out loud.
Walking around the little droid that had come out of the shadows at his non verbal request Jack O'Neill had to admit that it truly was a work of wonder.
Reaching out and poking the little droid O'Neill jumped back when a side panel opened and a spark of energy shot out hitting the gate causing it to activate.
"Well that answers that." Mumbled O'Neil under his breath as he stood and watched the event horizon spread from the outer edge inward.
A short beeping whistle brought O'Neill's attention back to the little droid as a Holo image formed in the air above its head.
Studying the image for a few moments O'Neill took in several things the most notable was his younger version sitting prominently in view. It could only mean one thing, the Alteran's could care less if the Earth Government found out about mini me and his relationship to himself now.
This did not sit well with him, as he thought of the various three letter agencies that would be after his blood and DNA. The thoughts of being used like a prize bull in an attempt to breed a bunch of little Jacks all of them carrying the Alteran genes, making them into those perfect soldiers some of those agencies dreamed of one day creating, left him cold.
Seeing that most of those in the Holo were now watching him. "Greetings Lord Commander, mind if I come through?" O'Neill asked tightly.
"We." Daniel out loud added, inviting himself along. "We come through."
Ignoring his friend, Jack continued to wait for an answer.
"It might be for the best General O'Neill, if you did indeed come through." Harry answered his request before ending the Holo display. Not really telling them much.
Following Jack up the ramp Daniel had a thought. "Um.Jack.If they are in another galaxy, how do we have enough power for our gate to link with theirs?"
Shrugging it off as not important. "We don't. They do." O'Neill told him as he entered the gate.
Shaking his head at Jack's cryptic answer, Daniel ran to catch up before the gate could close leaving him out of the loop once again.
Walking towards the platform that Harry described as his working area, so that he was accessible to anyone that wanted to stop and chat, Jack noticed that the blast shields were completely lowered and stopped as he took in the sight before him.
Whatever system they were in was heavily fortified with all kinds of ships flitting about and huge platforms strategically placed in a globular fashion around the system.
They even had several huge space docks not too far away with several large ships docked there and what looked like the moorings for new construction being erected.
Yanking his attention away from the sight O'Neill left Daniel staring out the window and made his way over to the platform and climbed the few steps along the one side to stand near the end of the table where Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Weir were sitting.
"So kiddies." O'Neill started jovially from behind the two.
"What the hell happened?" General O'Neill demanded spotting the empty seat next to the younger version of himself and moving to it so he could sit down.
Daniel who had finally noticed he was staring out into space, tore his eyes away and quickly made his way over to the table. "Yes about that, in the interests of good relations, I think it would be wise for us to speak to those accused of injuring your people to find out exactly what happened."
"There were no accusations made Daniel." Younger Jack told him. "The visual recordings speak for themselves."
"But surely during the trial you took in account their perspective and how things looked from their view point?" Daniel pleaded.
"Trial.What trial." Ron asked confused once again thinking there had to be a language breakdown, but how that could be he had no idea, seeing they had both grown up on the same planet. It must be a muggle thing he thought.
"You didn't even give them a trial!" Daniel was aghast.
"But.But that's uncivilized." Daniel blurted out.
Jack leaned in to whisper to the older version. "I see he did not learn his lesson about jumping to conclusions yet. I still have some American money stashed in my quarters, five bucks says he gets hog tied again."
"You're on, but for ten HE gets duct taped again." Older Jack whispered back.
"Surely a civilization as advanced as yours holds trials before executing prisoners." Daniel practically yelled.
Molly had heard the two Jacks placing a wager spoke up. "Execute, wherever did you get the idea anything we have said could lead to execution?"
Blinking at the question as he really thought about it, never the less Daniel answered still thinking the soldiers were going to be killed. "We have seen firsthand what you are capable of doing to those that attack you, so is it really that farfetched to imagine what you would do to even us after joining the Alliance, if we attacked you?"
For some reason Molly took this the wrong way.
Standing up she rounded the end of the table and flicked her hand at the Archeologist flipping him upside down in the air. Spinning him slightly to stop his waving of the arms, she motioned with her hand raising him to eye level.
"No wonder most of the great races think of you as young children playing at being grown up." Molly started on one of her Molly rants, voice rising in volume as she yelled.
"Where in the world did you get the idea that when we said punished, that it meant we were going to kill your people?" She yelled as she stalked down the steps towards the floating Daniel.
Daniel still hanging upside down, still right at face level, maintaining the distance between them as she walked towards the gate.
"Do you think we punish our children by killing them, Are you so barbaric in the raising of your own that you would punish them so." She yelled.
"You insufferable man how dare you to presume that we would arbitrarily just up and kill those children that need to be punished." Molly continued her rant to the amusement of the others.
Twisting her hand so he was abruptly whirled around so he could see the group of soldiers milling behind him. "They are right there, alive and well you git." Molly spat out.
"Um, Harry." Ron said softly as he watched him mum in awe. She had evidently been holding back all these years.
"Yes Ron." Harry said laughter in his voice.
"Maybe you should tell Steven to connect the Astria, so when mum throws him at it he goes through back to earth, and not hit the wall behind it going splat." Ron suggested.
Steven who had watched in awe as the famous Mrs. Weasley let loose her temper, realized she was heading straight for one of the Astria and quickly deciding to be safe made the rapid commands needed to connect the two Astria before she could do something like toss him into the wall.
Molly who had been making her way to toss this bleeding git out of the city, waited until Steven made the connection, thus opening the door for her.
Pulling her hand towards her so that the upside down man was now centimeters from her face. "You need to stop jumping to conclusion and start taking things at face value, more times than not a word means exactly what you think it would mean. There is no reason to add some deeper meaning to it."
Righting the man with another flick of her wrist she pushed out with her hand sending Daniel Jackson through the Astria back towards Earth.
Turning her gaze on the eight soldiers standing next to the Astria she motioned them to go through it by throwing her arm out, ending in her finger pointing towards it. Like a parent would when they are through yelling and are sending their child to their room.
Not wanting to get the short formidable woman mad at them, they quickly made their way off the city through the gate.
Back at the table General O'Neill spoke up. "Ok who had Daniel flipped upside down and kicked out the door."
Harry couldn't hold it in any longer and broke out laughing.
By the time Molly walked back to the table most were laughing uncontrollably.
Molly sat down and looked around the table at her colleagues who were rapidly gaining control of their laughter.
Seeing the questioning look on her face, Harry told her. "You had to be here Molly."
"I take it those were the ones involved in the incident." General O'Neill asked.
"They are, and before we get into any discussions that have already been gone over. Their punishment is to be sent back to your home world never to set foot off of it by any means." Harry told him before adding. "Their organs will fail if they leave your world again."
"Okay." General O'Neill drawled out each syllable as he thought about what had just been said.
Then pointing to Weir and Sheppard along with himself he added. 'Then why are we here?"
"To discuss why you are on Atlantis, how you found your way here, and maybe what to do with the lot of you now that you are here." Harry informed him.
For the next three hours they discussed, the why, how's, and where to go from here, of the Atlantis expedition and their personal, and how to best integrate them with the Alteran personnel that would be repairing Atlantis.
AS Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard made their way towards the remote TS area, General O'Neill stayed seated and once the two were out of earshot asked. "You know that pretty soon, they are going to realize Mini Me is running around out here with you guys, and it is only a matter of time before they try to put me in a stable and treat me like some prize bull."
"I thought you guys wanted to keep him a secret." General O'Neill asked wanting answers.
"Normally you would be correct, but seeing as your new posting keeps you off world, and out of the hand of the alphabet agencies reach, it's pretty safe to let the cat out of the bag." Mini Jack replied trying to reassure him.
"New posting?" General O'Neill questioned as he scratched his head.
"Jack, did you even look at the colony charter you handed over to the Alliance." Mini Jack asked, already knowing the answer to that one.
"Does skimming count?" General O'Neill replied, knowing for a fact it was now time to retire seeing the smile on the Lord Commanders face.
"Must not have done a good job Governor O'Neill." Mini Jack smirked at the shock on the others face.
XXXX
Picking himself up off the floor of the SGC, Daniel brushed off his clothing in an attempt to regain some of his dignity. This was the second time he had ended up picking himself up off the floor after visiting the Ancients.
Shaking his head Daniel muttered. "I just don't understand those people." Not knowing he said that out loud.
As the eight soldiers walked out of the gate behind him the squad leader said out loud. "Dr. Jackson thanks for the gesture, but really all that happened is no more than a slap on the bottom and us being told to go home and never come back."
Looking at the officer quizzically Daniel asked. "What do you mean?"
"Our punishment was to be sent home, and we were told we could never leave our home world again." Another told him with a shrug.
"Pretty mild if you ask me. If it happened here on Earth we would be looking at jail time at the minimum." The squad leader replied as he followed his men out of the gate room and towards the infirmary and the physical all off world teams had to undergo.
XXXX
Muttering under his breath about sneaky politicians that he had not voted for, General O'Neill made his way over to the gate so he could go back to Earth and make a call on that nifty little red phone in his old office. Before or after he got drunk was what he was trying to decide right now.
Laughing at the antics of the older version, Mini Jack escorted him to the Astria so he could go get drunk.
XXXX
Bryce and Cadfael entered the living area to see Jack sitting on the floor between Harry's knees with his shirt off, as Harry was massaging the kinks out of his shoulders.
Looking up from their conversation as the boys came in Jack asked. "Have fun in class today?"
Quickly conjuring a cushion to cover his lap as a bony butt belonging to a hyper ten year old came flying towards his lap, Jack grabbed Cadfael in time to keep his head from hitting him in the face.
Harry spared a glance at Bryce as he sat down next to him and was thankful that he did not look all depressed.
"So any homework that needs to be done, best get to it before dinner. We have plans for the weekend, we are going to go camping when we get back from the early morning meeting, we have to go over any final details involved with the move down to the surface." Jack told the boys as he took a moment to start to tickle the one in his lap in retaliation for the dive bomb attack.
"No homework, I think the teachers decided we would not get much done even if they assigned us some." Bryce said as he snuggled closer to Harry.
"Are we going camping on Lantea?" Bryce asked not sure how he felt yet about the planet.
"Afraid not, no one is going down there to stay overnight for a while yet." Harry told him as Jack used his legs as a pivot point to stand up while tickling a laughing Cadfael.
"We are going to the forest dome." Harry tried to enlighten some of the confusion Bryce was showing.
"No one really goes there as it is wild and untamed. A perfect place to go hiking and camping." Jack explained.
After giving Cadfael a minute to catch his breath Jack told him. "Up you go nymph, we are on kitchen duty tonight so if we want to eat sometime soon we better gets started."
Watching the two make their way towards the kitchen Harry whispered loudly while grinning in delight. "Maybe we should make reservations at the dining hall."
"I heard that." Came Jack's voice from the kitchen.
Scott lent me his eyes and brain and provided the wonderful job of editing this chapter.