The snowfall had lessened sharply and finally cleared up during the flight, but the sky didn't get any lighter for it. In fact, the mass of cloud cover roiling high above them was still a uniform black.
After so much time spent on so many worlds with clear and open skies, Tony had the distinct impression he'd just left the Matrix and just seen the real sky for the first time. He shook his head. I've been spending too much time with Ahardt.
Unsurprisingly, there were no signs of regular traffic in the area, not even one plowed road, but more than once Tony thought he could see other skimmers on the horizon. The others seemed just as impressed as Tony was at the Pyrta's skill with the control stick; he seemed to be able to navigate without any visible markers in the snow. Either he was getting instructions from a remote location, or he knew the way very, very well. As they quietly discussed the possibilities in the passenger seats behind him, they could see a big mountain looming up ahead of them. It seemed obvious that it was their destination.
When questioned about it, Argyros had given a brief explanation. "As on most worlds, this one was once ruled by a Goa'uld. The mountain served as his base of operations and seat of power."
"What is it with them and mountains, anyways?" Tony mused. "That researcher Seraus, the Goa'uld who ruled here, even Nereus lived in the hills above his city!"
"Either they just like the view, or they're actually compensating for something. Remember, even fully adult ones are less than a foot long." Haley quipped.
Tony gave her an incredulous look, and she blushed slightly. "Sorry, I think I've spent too much time around Nelson."
"Join the club."
At Cayo's confused look, she shook her head, smiling. "It's an Earth joke I'll let someone else explain to you."
"But didn't you once tell me that the SGC was built inside a mountain?"
Tony and Haley shared a surprised look. "We're… gonna skip over that particular truth for now, Cayo, ok?" Tony responded uncomfortably.
They sat in silence on the approach to the mountain, when Tony suddenly noticed that the limited road he'd seen earlier had disappeared. In fact, as far as he could tell, the skimmer was moving at at least a hundred and fifty miles an hour, and was heading straight towards a rock face on the side of the mountain. He exchanged a nervous glance with Cayo, and leaned forward to question Argyros, when the surface ahead of them shook noticeably and a passage began opening up. Argyros slowed only fractionally and suddenly they were underground. A set of front lights turned on automatically, and they were speeding through a crude-looking but obviously stable passage. Haley smiled in wonder at the transition, and even Cayo was wide-eyed.
Just as abruptly, they'd left the passage and were cruising through a wide-open cavern, several hundred feet high at its lowest point and buzzing with activity. From their position, Tony could see hundreds of people walking around the various levels of this apparently subterranean city, and dozens of other skimmers in motion. He felt overwhelmed by it; suddenly being back in a modern city brought a flood of memories back to him.
When he'd first joined up with the SGC, he'd moved to Colorado Springs for the sake of convenience. Later, his sister Julia had moved there as well, when she'd discovered he wouldn't be stationed anywhere else anytime soon. She didn't know anything about the Stargate, though, and he couldn't help but wonder what kind of fairy tale the Air Force had told her to explain his disappearance. Somehow, this Deuca city reminded him of Colorado Springs, though.
The sudden realization that they were coming to a stop cut into his reverie. Argyros smoothy maneuvered the skimmer into a narrow parking space, and jumped out to face a waiting Deuca in a lightly ornamented black uniform. They gave a simultaneous bow to each other, and spoke quietly for a moment before Argyros beckoned to them. Tony exited as gracefully as he could, and approached them while trying to give an impression of confidence. Haley and Cayo fell into step behind him.
The man waiting for them was tall and thin, with graying brown hair. His features and the stark uniform he wore gave Tony the impression of an aristocratic government official, but the friendliness in his eyes and smile betrayed his excitement, probably at seeing new arrivals.
"Colonel, Warrior, Doctor, welcome to Othrys. I am Thalus, a Proxen of the Deuca Boule." He looked at them all in turn, and awkwardly extended a hand to Tony. "This is your custom, yes?"
Bemused, Tony shook hands with him. "It's an honor to finally visit your homeworld, Proxen. The Pyrta has told us… so little about it."
"Yes, secrecy is an unfortunate reality of our existence." Thalus smiled a little sadly. "As you've seen, we keep the portal a good distance from our homes, under layers of security, and we disguise our city as a matter of survival."
As Thalus began to lead them up into the nearby building apparently built into a rock face, Argyros tapped him on the shoulder and whispered something into his ear. "Yes, yes, you may go." He responded dismissively, and the Pyrta sped off back towards his skimmer.
"Today is his son's fourteenth naming day." Thalus explained. "He's anxious to be there for it, understandably."
Tony and Cayo exchanged a startled glance, and Haley bit back a giggle. The idea of 'Archie' with kids of his own was strange enough to be disturbing.
"Of course, Proxen." Tony responded, throwing a warning glance at the others. "I was wondering if you could tell us why we're here, actually."
"Yes, of course." The Proxen led them downstairs past what looked like a waiting area, and up to a closed set of double doors. Two guards stood at attention, each with a strange-looking alien sidearm. They both gave an abbreviated bow to the Proxen, and opened the doors for them. The Proxen led them down another corridor to the right, and then into what was, unmistakably, a shooting range. They could see eight booths lined up nearby, all of them empty, and a series of targets spread across the range in varying states of damage.
The Proxen came to a stop, and turned to look at them all approvingly. "Officially, I am here congratulate you on your recent military success against the Goa'uld, and to formalize the previous arrangement you made with Pyrta Argyros. Unofficially, I'm here to present you with a gift and to offer the sincere thanks of several members of the Boule."
He waved to some seats to the right, and then sat down with them. "In order to fully appreciate the gesture we're making, you must know some of our history first. I'll explain what I can." He interlaced his fingers as he apparently thought back over it.
"The story starts fairly predictably, from your standpoint. Over two thousand years ago, our years being almost the same as your own," he added, "the Goa'uld Prometheus kidnapped our ancestors from Earth and brought them here. As you've no doubt learned, this is hardly uncommon throughout the galaxy; indeed it seems to be standard procedure for the Goa'uld. Here on Paros, however, things were a little different. Our records from that time are fragmentary at best, but we've had a long time to theorize about what really happened back then."
"Didn't you call your world Othrys, though?" Haley inquired as the Proxen paused once more.
Thalus shook his head. "My apologies. I've never actually had to explain this to anyone before. The mountain and the city within are both named Othrys. The planet itself, we've come to call Paros. Both names were apparently inherited from your planet." He smiled slightly. "Perhaps, someday, we may find out exactly how."
"At any rate," he continued, "my ancestors weren't made into slaves or transformed into Jaffa as you'd expect. Rather, they were the subjects of experimentation by Prometheus. At first there were only a hundred or so test subjects here, but as they died off, he would bring in more and more to replace them."
"What was he trying to accomplish, though?" Tony asked as delicately as he could. The Proxen didn't seem to be upset by the topic, but you could never be sure.
"That's a matter of some controversy among our historians. Some of our records hint at a war that he was waging with the other Goa'uld. The most common theory holds that he didn't have a Goa'uld queen, and therefore could not support any Jaffa, so he was forced to seek alternatives."
"I've never heard of a Goa'uld… queen." Cayo mused. "How do they support the Jaffa?"
"I have." Tony responded. "According to intel on Earth, a small percentage- we don't know exactly how small- of the Goa'uld are fertile, and can spawn more of their kind. They call them queens, and they can apparently create a great many symbiotes at once. They'd have to, I guess, in order to keep providing symbiotes for the thousands of Jaffa that fight for them."
"Are you saying he was trying to improve humans to a point where they could fight the Jaffa?" Haley asked. Her eyes were lost in thought for a few seconds. "It sounds desperate, but if he succeeded, he wouldn't need one of those queens to be able to carve out his own empire."
Thalus nodded. "You understand. Prometheus vanished without a trace some twenty-five centuries ago, probably assassinated by one of his rivals, but at least some of his experiments worked. Those of his subjects who survived had been changed, and those changes have bred true ever since."
"That's why Archie- the Pyrta, I mean- could use his own blood as an immune booster!" Haley exclaimed. "It also might explain why he didn't need an inoculation to come here. Why did we need that inoculation, anyway?" She wondered aloud.
Tony gave her a stern look. He could appreciate her desire for details, but all the interruptions might be annoying their host.
"Patience, friend." Thalus raised his hand. "I will get to that. Physiologically we are very similar to you, yes. Our immune systems have been enhanced however, and there was another, almost certainly accidental, side effect to our genetic changes." He paused. "None of the Deuca can be a successful host to a Goa'uld."
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
"What?" Tony breathed.
Haley sounded just as stunned. "You're immune to blending?"
"Not precisely," Thalus continued after giving them a few seconds. "A Goa'uld symbiote would be able to attach itself to my brain, but doing so would kill both of us in seconds. We cannot be used as hosts."
After thinking about it for a little while, Tony spoke again. "No wonder you're all so obsessed with staying hidden. You can't risk the Goa'uld finding out." Through his surprise, Tony realized the Deuca were giving him and his people a remarkable gesture of trust by telling them all of this. Or the Proxen was, at least.
"Why not?" Cayo put in. "Just because they can't be taken as hosts doesn't mean the Goa'uld wouldn't use them as slaves instead."
"They wouldn't risk it, Cayo. If anyone else found out exactly how to make themselves immune to blending, it could be a risk to all the Goa'uld, everywhere. After all without a host, they're nothing, really. Last year, the SGC made contact with someone from a species that was immune to blending. The Goa'uld had almost completely wiped them out."
"And that's precisely what they did to us." Thalus concluded grimly.
-.-
"I thought you were supposed to be resting!" Suna admonished him from the doorway. Hargrove could be seen looking in behind her.
Blake hid a wince as he straightened up from the Goa'uld computer console in the auxiliary control room Govis had found. The young man was there as well, or mostly. He spared them a glance from the other side of the room, then went back to silently reading the Goa'uld entries one by one.
"I'm fine," Blake insisted, when Suna came over and appraised him critically. "I was going bonkers just lying there staring at the mine walls all day, so I decided to get started on the analysis. Good work getting that access code, by the way," he added hurriedly to Hargrove. "It made this job much easier. How did you get it?"
"Do not think you can change the subject, alanid!" Suna persisted. "Haley would give me words that would make my ears bleed if she returned to find you in worse condition than when she left."
Blake cast a curious glance at Hargrove, who shrugged. "Sounds arabic."
"It means 'stubborn one'," she explained, "or to some, mule-like!"
"Ouch." Hargrove chuckled. "As to how I got the code, that's something of a trade secret. Our 'guest' is still under guard on Savannah. With the amount of sedative the Healer gave him, I'm surprised he's not in a coma, but better safe than sorry. So, find anything interesting here?" Suna hit him. "Uh, I mean, Suna's right. You should be in bed."
Suna glared at him before going over to Blake and pressing her hands to his side as he looked at the spherical display screens.
"Ow! Damn, get away!" He fended her off ineffectually. He looked to Hargrove for help. "Can't you, like, control her or something?"
Hargrove laughed out loud, a very unusual sound, coming from him at least. "Ever tried to stop an avalanche barehanded?"
"I was right!" Suna concluded triumphantly. "Must I summon the Healers to drug you into resting?"
"I'm not doing anything strenuous." Blake assured her. "I'm just reading up on some of the artifacts that Seraus person stockpiled here. If you're so worried about me, then by all means, stay here and keep an eye on me!" He looked at Hargrove. "Some of these artifacts are truly mind-blowing, actually."
"Such as?" Hargrove said over Suna's noises of objection.
"Well, I'll start you off slow." Blake smiled as he tapped a few 'keys' on the Goa'uld terminal, and an image appeared on one of the screens. It showed one of the mine shafts far above them, with an alcove cut out of the tunnel wall. Inside it, they could all see the faint outlines of curved metal.
"What is that?"
"Here." Blake responded, brightening the display and clearing the image up. It revealed a pair of gold-colored vehicles, shaped vaguely like beetles of some kind. Both of Archie’s Deuca 'apprentices' could be seen walking around it, apparently scanning it.
"From what I read from the database, they're called Kheparhi. I think it's a Goa'uld ground assault vehicle."
He could immediately tell he'd caught Hargrove's attention. The man studied the image with fascination. Suna seemed more amused at Hargrove's reaction than anything else.
"You know, I always wondered about that. In five years of contact with the Goa'ulds, we've never once seen them use a ground vehicle. No tanks, humvees, or even a jeep. I figured they just never built any."
"Well, they used to, anyway." Blake pulled up the schematics on the screen. The Kheparhi was over twenty feet end-to-end, with upper 'wings' in the style of a dung beetle or scarab. Blake pressed a control and the schematic began moving on the screen, with the wings extending out from the side, and then down a few inches. "I think it's a troop transport. Those wings can extend and deploy around it, but I'm not sure why."
"It's a 'gate breaching vehicle." Hargrove mused. "It's armored enough to take fire once it's through the 'gate, and then it can deploy those wings to provide cover as it drops troops."
"What's that?" Suna pointed at a long rod placed just between the wings in the back.
"It's a staff weapon emplacement. Probably used to protect the troops."
"That's quite something." Hargrove gave a rare smile. "We could really use something like this in battle. Can you tell if they're working or not?"
Blake coughed. "Uh, they're old. And I mean really old. I don't think a Goa'uld has built one of these in at least a thousand years. These two were repurposed centuries ago, as ore haulers. I don't know if their guns still work, but I doubt it."
"Pity." Hargrove sniffed. "Still, they could be useful." He paused. "Kheparhi. I know that name from somewhere."
"It should sound familiar." Blake pointed over to where their MALP sat, unused. "The Kephera Mobile Robot was used as a template to build our MALPs back on Earth."
Hargrove shook his head. "That can't be a coincidence."
Blake snapped his fingers. "Speaking of Earth, there's something else I should show you." He pressed another control, and a panel slid open on the far wall. He stepped over to it, careful not to favor his side. Hargrove and Suna followed.
Suddenly, Hargrove put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "Wait. Shouldn't we wait until Argyros is back before going through this stuff?"
"Why?"
"Well, we have a deal with the Deuca. We share all information about any Goa'uld tech we find, remember?"
Blake smiled conspiratorially. "I thought about that, but the artifacts in this lab aren't Goa'uld. They were found on various planets and brought back here. If Tony wants to bring in the Deuca on this, that's fine, but he doesn't have to." He directed them towards the panel again.
Behind the panel, a metallic hemisphere rested on a pair of treads, about three feet high. It appeared to be airtight, and relatively smoothly constructed.
"Ok, I give up. What is it?" Hargrove asked.
"Seraus' notes suggest it's a probe, like our own MALPs. He was able to open it up and access its computer. From his notes, he thought it was from just another human population, because of the language."
"So?"
In answer, Blake pressed his fingers to a small patch of metal just above one of the treads, and a control screen extended from the side of the probe. Angular text could be seen on the screen. Blake grinned as Hargrove's mouth dropped open. "I told you it would blow your mind."
"Is that… cyrillic??" He managed.
"Sure looks that way. I had the same reaction." Blake patted him on the back.
"But… how?"
"I'm right there with you, man."
There was a long silence, which Suna finally broke. "Why is this so amazing?"
"Cyrillic is the written form of a language on Earth." Blake explained. "But it's only used by nations who have no knowledge of the Stargates. It's most commonly used in-"
"Russia." Hargrove finished for him. He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Is it possible that a human society developed from Russian people taken a long time ago through the Antarctic 'gate? That they built this probe?"
"I thought of that, and I don't think so. Based on the construction and the technology, I'd say this was built recently. On Earth."
"Ok, you said this probe had been cataloged by the Goa'uld. Where did they find it?"
Blake pulled out the laptop. "I cross-referenced the address with our own list. It was found near the 'gate on P2C-527."
"Uninhabited, three moons, thick layers of helium and ammonia in the upper atmosphere. But from what I remember, 527 is nowhere near Earth, galactically speaking."
"You really do have a photographic memory, don't you?" Blake looked at him with envy.
Hargrove ignored that. "When did they find it?
"Two months ago, but who knows how long it'd been sitting there? I can read a little Russian, but nothing in there gave me any clue as to how long it's been operating. I can tell you that it's got a nuclear power source, though, so it could have been there a long time."
Hargrove ran his fingers across the probe's metal surface for a moment. "Ok, let's ask the obvious question. How does a Russian probe, built on Earth within the last five or ten years, get thousands of light-years across the galaxy?"
"Through the Stargate on Earth, perhaps?" Suna suggested with a touch of impatience in her voice.
Blake shook his head. "Not possible. The SGC monitors our 'gate 24/7; they'd know if something like this were sent through it." He paused. "There was a second 'gate on Earth, but it was destroyed a while back."
"Could there be a third?"
"You got me." Blake sighed. "But until we can actually go to Russia and ask them, I don't think we'll get an answer." He moved back to the console, and closed the panel. "Believe it or not, I've actually got more to show you."
-.-
According to Blake, one of the devices Seraus had been studying had been cataloged Artifact 28. Blake opened another wall panel and retrieved it for them to see.
Artifact 28 looked like a flat horizontal cylinder, about a foot long and half that in width. Clusters of what looked like metal beads could be seen running the length of it, but didn't seem to be placed in any pattern Hargrove could make out. Blake beckoned them over to look at it.
"This little gem has been here for about four years now. According to the notes on it, when Ra died, there were a series of scuffles over his territory all over the galaxy. Nereus apparently managed to steal this, along with a bunch of resources, during the fight over one of Ra's more important planets, a place called Dakara. He sent it here, and Seraus had been trying to figure out exactly what it is ever since."
"If the Goa'uld didn't build it, who did?"
Blake leaned over the cylinder. "Apparently, the Ancients. Dakara was one of their planets, I guess, before the Goa'uld ever set up shop there."
"Ancients?" Suna asked.
"A super-advanced race of people who either died out or moved away a long time ago," Hargrove explained. "We're certain they're the ones who built the Stargates, but that's pretty much all we know about them for sure. If this thing really is an Ancient machine, it must be old."
"Very, very old." Blake emphasized. "Seraus did the Goa'uld version of carbon dating it, and determined it was at least ten million years old!"
They just all stared at it for a moment.
"Just keeps going and going, I guess." Hargrove said into the silence. "Is it still… functional?"
Blake moved his hand back and forth above it for a moment. "See for yourself."
On the top of the cylinder, in the exact center, a circular opening appeared as four tiny sleeves of black metal extended out from it, each about an inch long. Suna looked startled, but Hargrove was intrigued.
"Motion-activated?"
"Yup," Blake responded. "Because of its design, Seraus guessed that this was some kind of subspace communicator, but he was never able to get it working. He thought that the opening on top was some kind of security measure, making sure that it couldn't be activated by just anyone." Blake's voice took on a tinge of amusement. "He got pretty frustrated over it, actually. His notes include Goa'uld curse words and everything."
Blake continued his long-winded explanations, but Hargrove tuned him out. Something about how the device was built seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Moving past Suna, he stepped up to the artifact, and looked into the circular opening. At first, he could see various tiny colorations for a moment, before a burst of white light blinded him. At the same time a flood of images and a cacophony of voices burst out at him all at once, and he felt a vague sense of falling.
He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
-.-
"When Prometheus disappeared," Thalus continued his history lesson, "our society was in great upheaval for a long time. A few people claimed power, and some challenged them, of course. Most refused to take sides for fear the Goa'uld would return and punish them. Eventually, after the dust settled, there were two 'factions' of a sort remaining. Most of the population continued to worship the Goa'uld, and kept a kind of priesthood in place to honor them, calling themselves the Verus. The rest decided to leave Othrys behind- back then, the city was at the base of the mountain; you must have seen what was left of it on your way here."
Tony and the others nodded. "Was there conflict between the two factions?"
"At first no," Thalus responded sadly, "but eventually the Apistos, as they'd come to be called, decided to enter the mountain. Things degenerated very quickly after that, almost causing a war. You see, the mountain was seen as holy, as Prometheus had resided here. The Apistos believed that they could seize the source of his power inside, and never have to fear the Goa'uld again. In fact, they were partially correct. Prometheus had left some technology behind, some of which we use to this day."
Haley winced. "Did the Apistos use any Goa'uld weapons against the others?"
Thalus shook his head. "They didn't know how, thankfully. Still, all accounts agree it was a pivotal moment in our history." He swelled with pride. "Were it not for one of my ancestors, a man named Deucalion, a great many people would have died that day."
"So your people named themselves for your ancestor." Cayo concluded, and Thalus nodded. Tony was lost in thought, though.
"I know that name from somewhere," he said distractedly.
Thalus looked at him curiously, and then continued. "Deucalion was an Apistos, but he had remained behind in the city as a spy. When the Verus sent an army to the mountain, planning to burn the Apistos out, he went with them. He'd had time to earn the respect of a great many people, and the priesthood had chosen him to take part in the assault on the mountain. In his position, he could have ended the siege and seriously hurt the Verus in the process, but instead he called for talks." His voice rang with pride again, at his ancestor's achievements. "It was he who arranged the first truce, and prevented a war. He died only months later, but his efforts continued in his name long afterwards."
Cayo looked impressed. "It's no easy task, convincing bitter enemies to avoid fighting. Your ancestor must have been quick of tongue as well as well-respected."
Tony spoke up. "Now I remember the name. If I may, Proxen?"
Thalus hesitated, then gave him a small nod.
Tony thought back over it. "When I first found out about the Stargates, and how all the ancient cultures on Earth had been connected through the Goa'uld, I did some research. I wanted to know if any Biblical accounts were mirrored in other cultures, too. The Goa'uld left Earth long before the birth of Christ, but Bible stories go back a lot further than that.
"Turns out, there are several cultural versions of the Flood, aside from the Hebrew one. The Greek version, in particular. According to Greek myth, the gods wanted to wipe out humanity for their sins, so they flooded the Earth, but warned one man and his wife in time for them to save themselves. The man built a boat, Noah-style, and floated to safety. His name was Deucalion. Even more, he was supposed to be the son of Prometheus!"
"Couldn't it just be a coincidence, Tony?" Haley asked.
"Perhaps not," Thalus responded slowly. "My ancestor was named for a much older Deucalion, one of the original test subjects who survived Prometheus' experiments. He, too, had a wife."
"I don't remember her name in the story… Peer-something, it sounded like?" Tony hazarded.
"Pyrrha."
"That's it!" Tony snapped his fingers, and smiled in amazement. "According to the myth, the gods wanted to make a stronger version of mankind, made from stone instead of clay. They saved Deucalion and Pyrrha for that reason alone! Based on what Prometheus was doing here… even if it is a coincidence, it's a pretty incredible one."
"Indeed." Thalus gave a broad grin. "Perhaps more of our culture survives on Earth than we suspected. Still," he added, "I should finish explaining while we have the time."
He took a deep breath, apparently organizing his thoughts. "Because of the truce, which was later formalized into a treaty, the Apistos were forced to leave the mountain but were allowed to take many 'treasures' with them. They settled a few hundred kilometers from here. Over the centuries, they eventually gained a working understanding of the technology they'd appropriated, even to the point of being able to recreate some of it. Finally, they were able to negotiate for more permanent access to the mountain."
He sighed. "Despite the treaty, and the time that had passed, there were still significant delays. The two movements had become nations, after all that time, and trust between them was sparing at best."
"I think I know how they felt." Tony responded, glancing at Haley. "If the leaders in our nation were suddenly asked to share access to the Stargate, I'm sure they'd react the same way." She nodded understandingly.
"All that changed when the Goa'uld returned." Thalus continued bitterly. "The Goa'uld Iklos sent Jaffa through the portal in the plains, and arrived in his giant ship a few days later. The Apistos, as the smaller group, were forcibly relocated to join the Verus, and Iklos demanded that they all worship him and serve him as slaves. The Apistos wisely hid the tools they'd learned to use, and Iklos must have assumed they had none; else, they would have been killed. A few hundred Apistos researchers, along with their Verus guards, remained hidden inside the mountain, apparently because Iklos didn't know anything about Prometheus having lived here. As a result, they were able to set up an organized resistance, and that's exactly what they started to do."
Thalus looked down at the ground. "It was a brutal time for our ancestors. Iklos forced them to build monuments in his honor, and brought many ships to our world. They were simple transport vessels, mostly, but-" He looked up at them abruptly. "The radiation that threatened your people: it was a byproduct of the engines they once used on their ships, hundreds of years ago. The effects are lethal, even to Deuca. Many of my ancestors died from repeated exposure as the Goa’uld came and went as they pleased.
"Eventually, of course, some of our people were taken as hosts. Iklos found out about the fatal results of blending in short order, and must have failed to find any way to overcome it. In true Goa'uld fashion he decided to blast our world from far above, contaminating the surface and permanently altering the climate." He looked at them somberly. "Only those few hundred inside the mountain survived."
Everyone stayed quiet for a time. Eventually, Haley spoke just above a whisper, "So that's why we needed those shots to come here. Is it also why the sky looked so…" she trailed off.
"Nuclear winter." Tony said sadly.
Thalus nodded. "The assault took place three hundred and eighty-two years ago, slightly longer by your years. We've sent aerial probes across the surface, and it seems the destruction is global. It is doubtful our world will ever be inhabitable by any non-Deuca humans. Despite that, it is our home, and we won’t leave it. Since the devastation, we've worked hard to remain hidden, and to provide for our population by sending out the Pyrtas and their support teams through the portal. Our technology is advanced, thanks to the head start Prometheus unintentionally gave us, so we have much to offer other worlds in trade. Still, our greatest fear remains that the Goa'uld will again find us, and complete our destruction."
