Lost Hope 3/? - SGA (Part 2)

[tari_roo]

Title: Lost Hope (3/?) (SGA)
Author: tari_roo
Rating: PG13 for now, maybe R later

Disclaimer: I own nothing and profit from nothing but if I did… Sheppard would have had wings at one point in the series.
Summary: Wingfic AU. Having survived the destruction of his homeworld, Sheppard escapes the life of a slave on Athos and with a few other runaways, goes in search of their last hope for freedom, Atlantis.

Warnings: Alternate Universe. This is completely AU from SGA and SG1 and is set in a fictional galaxy that is the combination of the Milky Way and Pegasus – a seven spiral galaxy. There will be mentions of torture and war, but no overly graphic depictions of such. So be warned for AUness etc.

The room was roofed by the massive dome, which had large cracks running down its length, a few spears of sunlight breaching the stone. This room was quieter than the rest of the camp, probably because it was the reason the Genii were on Athos. Laden Radim and three Genii, who were probably some sort of scientist or technician, were huddled around a large machine in the middle of the room. As he followed McKay to a work bench on the other side of the room, Sheppard studied the machine. It was tall and bulbous with several interfaces and screens. Its purpose however was not readily apparent. The leader, Koyla, was not in sight, and Sheppard felt his feathers relax a little. The man made his skin crawl. Radim barely noted their entrance, as he was heavily engaged in a debate with the others. The Genii dialect of Pegasii was quick and difficult to follow, but they were arguing about the best way to interface their tech with the Athosian device.

McKay shot a derisive look in their direction when he was certain no one was looking. Grumbling still, he dumped the various broken items on the work bench and whirled on Sheppard. Softly, his voice pitched to carry no further than Sheppard and laced with annoyance, he growled, "I have no blinking idea what level of tech skill you have but by the Circuit, you are going to help me surging fix these things, ok?" Resisting the urge to smile, Sheppard nodded and said quietly back, "Cool your drafts, dude. You are likely to blow a connection or something." McKay sniffed and sat down on the only stool and snapped, "Shut up and get to work."

The various diagnostic tools and repair kits on the bench were galaxy standard, with a few C'roid and Genii specific tools in the mix. Sheppard awkwardly picked up a communicator and began poking the casing to expose the circuitry. McKay was already bent over a scanner, his interfaces whirling with agitation and emotion. The communicator was clunky and had none of the sophistication of the communication devices Sheppard was used to. Even the Gou'ald, whose tech was notoriously antiquated, had superior devices. Genii-tech was decidedly poor standard, and Sheppard, who was far from any sort of technician, could easily see the issue with the device. Carefully he opened the casing and used one of the repair kits to re-secure the wiring and circuit boards. At first his hands ached at the motion and need to grip small tools, but he soon grew used to the hurt. As he connected the last section, it gave a loud squawk and then a babble of voices streamed from the tiny speaker. Ignoring McKay's hot angry look, Sheppard turned the thing off and replaced the casing. He barely noticed the traces of blood under the transparent bandage.

Steadily Sheppard worked through the communicators and fixed all but one, as the loose casing and circuity was the common factor. Utterly bemused at the shoddy workmanship, he murmured to himself, "Solar-winds, did they buy these from a Jearn farmer? Or did a Ghent salesbeast offload sub-standard drak to idiots who didn't know any better?" His head was pounding a little, but his wing was no longer aching, in fact it was a happily numb, and he kinda wished his neck and hands were.

McKay snorted and replied quietly, "Oh no, it's better than that. It's homemade. Highest quality, top notch Genii products." The C'roid was struggling with a second scanner, which kept shocking him as he tried to diagnose which circuit or chip was faulty. He shot Sheppard a look of irate amusement and Sheppard chuckled. The last communicator he left for McKay and he turned to the two hand-held lights. "Well, at least it's not Bearj tech. That stuff only works every second solar year."

His eyes lit up, as well as his interfaces, and McKay laughed softly, "And only if there is a comet overhead! My lab once bought a Bearj compressor just for the challenge of seeing if we could get it to work. Three years we tinkered on it, between other projects and the closest we got was one full compressor cycle and then it started smoking."

McKay proceeded to tell him about several more horrendous tech stories, mostly involving himself in a starring role, but the stories were funny. The lights were a quick fix, and while McKay was regaling him with an unlikely story about a malfunctioning hydro-collider and inter-dimensional space, he turned to the projectile weapons and began stripping them down. The steady routine of stripping and cleaning a weapon, even if it was an unusual, poorly made rifle, settled the remainder of Sheppard's nerves. The familiar motions hurt his hands less, and he barely noticed them, or his neck. While he had no real idea what the Genii wanted with him, and the future was utterly uncertain, today was better than yesterday. Better to be surrounded by tech in need of fixing than death, blood and the smell of burnt flesh. His situation had completely changed in the space of two days, but it was hardly first or last time there would be an abrupt change in circumstance. Life as a slave was hardly filled with certainty.

Mid-way through the morning, McKay tossed him two de-hy bars mid-speech and barely paused in regaling Sheppard about a horror story involving a re-animated jump-drive which was determined to plot nav courses through the galaxy core. The practically non-stop verbal commentary and free-flow story telling from McKay was occasionally interspersed by a 'hmm?', 'oh really?' and 'right' from Sheppard. He finished the rifles and handguns long before McKay gave up on the last scanner. For a good while, he leant against a mottled blue-grey wall and listened to his companion ramble on, jumping from random topic to random topic, mostly themed around technology in the Galaxy. He focused intently on the little being, watching him work, laughing quietly when needed.

In his peripheral vision, Sheppard kept track of the Genii in the room, subtly watching their movements. Radim and his men were clustered around the central device, no doubt trying to interface their technology with the Athosian device. As McKay paused, a sure sign of a subject jump, Sheppard quietly asked, voice pitched low enough that only McKay's audio receptors would pick it up, "Any particular reason the Genii have such low grade tech?"

Without looking up from the last scanner he was working on, McKay snorted as quietly, "Other than because they are misogynist bastards, well, yes." Sheppard kept his wings furled flat on his back, the easiest, most natural resting position he could manage with the injury, and watched McKay chase the circuitry trying to figure out where the fault was. Happily multitasking, his mouth on auto, McKay continued, "They have the misfortune of living on a planet within the Wraith farming range. Surge help them, they probably are a Wraith Farm World for all intents and purposes. The local hive makes sure that any technological advances are short lived and any person with the brains to actually think is eaten. Keep the populace nice and stupid. And mean. And belligerent."

Sheppard frowned slightly and then smoothed that expression away with his hand before anyone noticed. "The Genii use the two hundred year cycle of Wraith hibernation to catch up what tech they lost, so that hopefully they can stop the next cycle of feeding. Hence, we are here raiding dead worlds for possible technological advancement they don't have the time to figure out themselves. Wonderful species the Wraith. Why didn't you lot wipe them out again?"

Emotion roiled through Sheppard which he firmly quashed and he replied with a deadpan voice, "Genocide isn't something you contemplate easily. Predators or not, the Wraith deserve to live just as much as the next species."

McKay made a noise of derision, his circuits flaring red and blue and he shook his head as if despairing of the idiocy of some people. "They eat sentient beings, nerf! It should have been a 'change your diet or die' ultimatum. Not, 'stay in your sector of space and eat only those people!' Stars and circuits!" The little C'roid hissed and shook his fingers. Caught up in his tirade he'd burnt himself with the soldering tool and he shot a glare at Sheppard, clearly blaming him for the injury. "Why are you just standing there? We've got work to do!"

He waved at the bench of completed repairs and belatedly noticed that his was the last item. "Oh. Good. Uhm…."

"C'roid! Come here."

Radim's voice was loud and McKay's head snapped up in response. Sheppard saw him quickly scan the room and bench, no doubt checking if he had neglected anything important, before responding in a dull, obedient voice. "Coming, sir."

"Bring the Helosian."

Silently, Sheppard followed McKay, keeping his wings small and flat on his back. His bare feet crunched the dust and gravel that covered the floor, the design of the smooth tiles lost in the debris. The room had a feel of a library, a learning centre, dotted with annexures and ruined workstations. All of the screens in the room were shattered, and there was still a faint scent of burnt electronics in the air as he passed a few stations.

Radim, his face grim and unhappy, impatiently waved them over and McKay's hesitation was fairly visible as he approached. "Sir?"

Gone was the verbose, argumentative person and a seemingly quiet and biddable one awaited further instruction. "The interface isn't working! Koyla will not be pleased, at all!" Radim pointed at an odd looking contraption that looked incredibly makeshift and cobbled together. Three different pieces of tech were connected through a series of cables and wires and that mess was attached to the open interface of the large Athosian computer. One of Radim's men was holding a screen, and fruitlessly poking it, trying to access the Athosian system. "All I can see are menus and old searches. No actual data," he grumbled.

McKay barely even scanned the tech and replied stiffly, flatly, "As I mentioned previously, sir. The converter will work but first we need to ascertain if the Ancient database is functional and more importantly, powered."

Radim rolled his eyes, his frown deepening. "I know that! The lights are on, aren't they?" True enough there were a variety of lights on the large machine, scattered all over its bulbous structure, and the majority were illuminated or flashing. Someone, probably McKay, had jury-rigged a powerbase into the thing given that the city's power grid was gone, and the only illumination the Genii had in the ruin was from whatever sources they had brought with them.

Stepping closer to the machine, McKay hummed to himself and said quietly, "As far as I can tell, sir, the outer structure was how the Athosians accessed the Ancient Database. All of these processors here are used to decode, translate and encode the ancient data into Athosian." McKay ran his hand over one of the bulbs, its surface marked with dust and tiny degradations. "The actual ancient database itself is not powered. You can see over here…"

The collected Genii bent and followed McKay's directions as he indicated the hidden ancient artefact obscured by the bulkier, more organic looking Athosian tech. The ancient device was barely visible from where Sheppard was standing, but its more crystalline structure was dark and silent. Quite reasonably, Radim asked, "How can you tell, droid? Because it's not lit up or flashing?"

Still hunched over, peering at the outer casing of the database, McKay poked it with a finger, and a whole map of cybernetic implants in that finger lit up, turning his hand into an array of pulsing lines of light. "My sensors can pick up its failure to initialise, but yes, for the un-enhanced, it would be the absence of a glow. It would probably simply look lighter in colour, warmer when powered and functional."

"You could have told us earlier, 'droid!" one of the Genni exclaimed, clearly upset, his voice dark and angry. Radim followed that with a softer, but still furious, "I thought I told you to fix this last night so we could start working this morning. We have limited time here, C'roid."

Sheppard may have only known the shorter C'roid for less than a day, but after a full morning in close proximity, he was fairly certain that the reply he wanted to give was short, sarcastic and caustic. Instead though, McKay straightened and humbly explained, "I was attempting to do just that when you called me away last night to fix the protective barriers. Sir."

The 'and save your ungrateful lives' was unspoken but the tightening on his shoulders and hard brittle eyes carried that non-verbal rejoinder. Oblivious, or uncaring, Radim poked McKay in the chest sharply and said, "Then you should have fixed it before sleeping! Fix it, now!"

There was a long beat of silence, and Sheppard wondered if McKay was going to argue or let loose a tirade of indignant vitriol but he nodded sharply and replied, "Yes, of course. At once."

He did not apologise and it seemed the Genii did not expect one, as the other three turned and left, dismissing him already. The trio of scientists, assuming that's what they were, drew back to the opposite side of the room from McKay's work bench and started tinkering with another Athosian device, this one much smaller, still bulbous but separate from the larger object of their mission. Radim pointed at Sheppard, and barked, "You, follow me." Glaring at McKay, he growled, "You have an hour, C'roid."

Tempted to shoot McKay a look of sympathy, Sheppard calmly followed Radim, and very carefully did not look at the C'roid at all. In his peripheral vision he noted McKay's expressionless face as he picked up a few tools and started diagnosing the problem. Whatever anger he had nearly shown before was now invisible. He obediently got to work. Sheppard obediently followed Laden, curiosity vying with nerves.

Radim had his own work bench, a learning annex he'd seconded against the far wall. Considering the Genii had arrived two days ago, they had set up their camp quickly and efficiently. No matter how much McKay had grumbled about menial labour, the little C'roid could not have done it all himself. The Genii were a smooth, organised, tightly run unit. Radim's bench (unlike McKay's) was neatly ordered and organised, and could be packed up very quickly. He pointed at a stool near the bench and snapped, "Sit. Take your shirt off."

Caught off guard, Sheppard paused mid-step but continued swiftly and silently sat, unbuttoning his shirt as he did so. He tried to ignore how his heart started pounding and he willed himself to calm down. Instinctively, he thinned his feathers, making his wings sharp and smooth and the shirt slipped off his back without a snag. He noted Laden watching him covertly as he fussed with a container on the bench, and his chest tightened involuntary. Hoping that none of his nerves showed, he sat quietly, patiently, unconcerned on the surface.

From the container, Radim took out several medical scanning sensors and a reader, all of which looked well used but in good condition – and not Genii-made. Initialising the largest scanner, he directed it at Sheppard and studied the read out as it did whatever he asked it to do. Sheppard remained utterly still. Laden made no sound, his eyes darting over the screen as information scrolled up. He placed small sensors on Sheppard's temple, throat, over his heart and lungs, chest and abdomen, the metal cool on his skin and barely noticed on his second skin. Radim continued to run a series of scans, his gaze fixed on the screen, illuminated by its glow. Incrementally, Sheppard felt his heart slow and calm down, and he hoped whatever scan Radim was running wasn't picking that up.

Across the room, McKay was buzzing around the Athosian interface, his hands full of a variety of tools and he was very studiously not looking at Radim. "Hold this." Laden's voice startled Sheppard slightly but he stared at the small boxy device Radim was holding out to him. "What is it?" His voice was rough, dry and he resisted the urge to clear his throat. "A life signs detector, I think. Take it!" Laden sounded irritated but he was rummaging around in another container, not glaring at him. Sheppard took the machine, its smooth white casing familiar. Ancient tech.

Sure enough, the little screen lit up as he touched it, and several dots appeared, and a handful of ancient words. Life Signs Detector. Radim was looking at him and the device, his eyes darting from the screen to his face, an odd expression on his face. Calmly, Sheppard replied, "Looks like you were right." Radim frowned and took back the device, which instantly shut down. "Can you tell it to stay on?"

Taking it back, Sheppard shrugged. "I can tell it that, but it might not work. Generally, if they require the gene to work, an instruction to stay working is fruitless." Nonetheless, Sheppard told the LSD to stay on and he handed it back to Radim. As the Genii's hand touched the white surface, the screen went dead.

"How do I know you didn't just tell it to stop working?"

Before he really thought about it, Sheppard smirked and said, "You don't."

Unimpressed, Laden picked up another ancient device from the box and said, "This is a weapon?" The round ball he put in Sheppard's hand was smooth and sleek, an intricate design over the surface, but it looked a bit beat up. Sheppard shook his head, and said, "No, it's a reconnaissance device. You can send it through a wormhole ahead of you to recon the other side."

The ball did not light up or activate and Radim raised an eyebrow of query, studying his scanner at the same time. Sheppard sighed, "You don't need the gene to operate this, just the control device. You know? To send it where you want to go."

Grimacing but interested, Radim pulled out another piece of tech and said, "Like this?"

It was a control device, but not one for the recon sphere. Taking the control, Sheppard pursed his lips and replied, "No, this is for a quantum mirror, I think."

"A what?"

"Quantum Mirror. The Ancients built them to recon and visit parallel dimensions." Radim stared at him, mind ticking over with that intel and he mused, "Is it a big thing? Looks like an actual mirror?"

"Yes."

Nodding, pleased Radim took both devices from him and handed him a small square communicator. "Comm right?"

"Yes. Doesn't need the gene."

The little device lay flat and unresponsive on his hand. "Is it broken?" Laden asked, staring at Sheppard's hand like it was gold. "I have no idea. McKay could probably tell you."

Laden snorted, unimpressed and exchanged the communicator for a triangular crystal. This one flickered briefly in Sheppard's hand and Ladim grunted at the readings from the med scanner. "What is it?"

"No clue," Sheppard replied studying the crystal, which was very definitely damaged. "Might have been a personal cloaking device, kinda looks like one. Definitely not working though. It's code is very garbled."

Laden peered at the scanner screen as he spoke and said keenly, "You can hear its code?"

"Sort of. The gene linked tech talks to you, in a way." Sheppard wasn't too interested in trying to describe it. It wasn't something that readily leant itself to explanation. Radim though seemed to accept that and moved on to the next device.

They went on this way for nearly half an hour, Radim giving him broken, nearly dead and mostly useless ancient technology and Sheppard confirmed its functionality and purpose, if he knew. The majority of the tech was harmless, functional type stuff that would normally be left in the debris of an abandoned city or ship. Nothing of real note. Radim, initially interested and excited by seeing the devices light up and getting confirmation on their function, started projecting frustration and anger the further they got.

None of the devices or technology was a weapon, or really useful. Sheppard guessed that the Genii had bought this junk in the hope of finding something useful to fight the Wraith. The last piece of tech in the container was a broken LSD, its screen cracked and Radim didn't even bother giving it to Sheppard.

Angrily, he put the stuff that mostly worked back in the container, and the rest he tipped onto the floor. He detached the sensors and despite his anger, carefully packed them and the reader away. Sheppard remained silent, passive, not wanting to provoke any come back. He felt a little exposed suddenly in the silence and his wings fluttered slightly, the injury a dull ache. Under the transparent bandages, his hands were red and angry, a small trickle of blood scabbed over under the wrapping.

Laden pulled over another similar looking container and opened it, his face grim and focused. This container did not have as many devices inside it and they didn't look ancient in design at all. As Sheppard took a second, more detailed look at them, he felt his blood run cold. Radim took out one near the top, a short black rod embedded with round crystals with no discernible switches or buttons and said, "Here." He moved to put the thing in Sheppard's hand and Sheppard instantly moved his hand away and up, fingers outstretched.

"No. That's not ancient technology."

Radim stared at him, and at the rod, his eyes tight and curious. "What is it?"

Sheppard shrugged, "Not too sure. All I know is that it's from the Elder Wars and whoever built it wanted to hurt Ancients. It's a weapon alright, just one that's directed at Ancients - only."

"And Ancient gene carriers?" Radim surmised, his expression intrigued. He gripped the device a little tighter as Sheppard nodded. Throat thick with tension, Sheppard tensed, and watched Radim carefully, his eyes darting to the rod.

"Do you know who built it?" Laden asked.

Sheppard shook his head and croaked, "No. I just know that it hurts. A lot."

Radim was pensive and gave Sheppard a considering look, one that he was all too familiar with. Caught in a moment of indecision, Sheppard weighed the options of toughing out the stare and making it seem like he wasn't worried, or backing away, and creating a little space. Showing weakness and fear was never a good thing.

His indecision was a second too long. Radim feinted right and Sheppard flinched and missed his left hand rise, rod outstretched. The instant one of the crystals touched his skin, his world exploded in bright, white pain. Nerves on fire, muscles locked in a rictus of pain, Sheppard collapsed off the stool, crashing to the floor, wings crumpled beneath him. Unable to move, he rode out the wave of pain, heart and lungs screaming.

He sensed movement around him, but couldn't tell who or what it was. Something touched his feet and then his hands, but all he could do was impatiently wait for the agony to fade. He knew that it only lasted a few minutes but felt like hours. As the red mist of pain fell from his eyes and he came back to the here and now, Sheppard looked up at the cracked dome ceiling, momentarily at a loss as to where he was. Radim's heavy Pegasii was unintelligible but as the present trickled back into the fore, Sheppard groaned. And then he realised what Laden had said.

"I'm sorry. I need to know if they are all the same."

Unable to move, muscles still stiff and unresponsive, Sheppard whispered, "Please. No."

If Radim heard him, he ignored it. Sheppard couldn't see which blasted device it was but its touch brushed his leg and he was lost. His scream was strangled and broken, as every muscle contorted and contracted, bones pushed to the point of breaking, tendons and sinews twisting as his body fought the insidious pain. For a long, awful minute, Sheppard was back on Riall's Ha'tak, writhing on the deck as the System Lord experimented with various torture devices.

Radim though had only barely touched him, and the pain faded swiftly, but as the spasms and constrictions lessened in intensity, aftermath tremors set in, and Sheppard shivered and twitched in the dust, his wings brushing artful patterns he neither saw or cared about. The relief at seeing Radim rather than Riall's white eyes was a direct contrast to the fear that clutched his heart when he saw the next ancient device. He mouthed, "No," unable to speak, the familiar taste of blood in his mouth.

Laden looked sick, his face pale and wane. He really looked like he didn't want to continue, but bent down nonetheless, the short, squat cube in his fist shiny in the afternoon light. Once Sheppard might have closed his eyes, and willed it away, but he stared, unable and unwilling to go back to that dark place.

"Hey! Stop! Stop!"

Radim turned, face red and McKay descended upon them, his own face red, interfaces flashing, wielding a wrench like a sword. Laden tensed, no doubt expecting some sort of attack and raised the cube as if it could be used against the little C'roid. McKay though, using those enhanced reflexes no doubt, caught his hand tightly and said, "Are you out of your sharding mind? You're torturing him!"

His face even redder, angrier, Laden barked, "I paid a lot of money for this trash. I have to know if it's all useless!"

In full furore, McKay snapped back, "Of course it's all useless! I told you that when you were haggling with that surging Nargil! Did you really think that you could buy genuine, valuable Ancient tech for a couple thousand credits? Frakking moron!"

Neither one of them moved, and Sheppard watched them both, willing his limbs and body to stop shaking. If Radim ignored McKay and knocked him aside, Sheppard wanted to be able to at least run, hell, crawl away if he had to.

"Watch your tongue, McKay! Or I'll have you shot!" Laden shouted, but McKay shouted back. "Go ahead! See how far you get with all this tech without me! You are not touching him again! Or do you get your rocks off causing people pain?"

The last sentence dripped with derision and scorn and Radim dropped the cube as it burned him as well. "You go too far, C'roid!"

"If it stops this insanity, then I don't care, Genii!"

Radim stared at McKay, fists clenched, radiating shame and anger. Patches of sweat had broken out under his armpits and in the small of his back, and he looked like he really, really wanted to punch McKay. Instead though, after sneering at him, Laden growled, "See to him and then get that ancient database working. If it's not working by sunset, then I'll personally execute you both!"

With that threat, he stormed off, angrily knocking into McKay as he did and he signalled for the ashen faced, stunned scientists to follow him.

McKay stood in the silence, watching him stalk off and snarled in return, "Psychotic jackenape." Belatedly he realised the cube was still in his hand and dropped it in the container like it was something disgusting. Tossing the other two devices inside, he closed the box and shoved it to the far end of the bench. Instantly, Sheppard felt some of the fear leave him, his heart rate calming.

McKay dropped to his knees and gently checked Sheppard's vitals, wincing at the trickles of blood still streaming from his mouth. "Bit your tongue, huh? Bastard." Without any fuss, the C'roid helped Sheppard sit up into a recovery position, head between his knees, wings curled around him. He kept a steady, comforting litany of meaningless chatter as he checked the spot where the first rod had touched Sheppard. "It's blistering, but doesn't seem too bad. I think your leg is worse."

The second rod had touched his thigh, and the contact point was still a dull, throbbing pain. Scanning through the material of the trousers, McKay sighed, "It's blistering, badly. I'll get something to counteract it." McKay moved to leave, and Sheppard shocked himself when he instinctively grabbed his arm and hissed, "Stay." He continued to shake like he was freezing, limbs still not entirely his own.

McKay's face was priceless. A mix of annoyance and pleased pride. Sheppard though felt fear tighten his throat again. He stared at his hand, gripping McKay's arm. A thick cuff was around his wrist and it was connected to its pair on his other wrist by a long metallic cord. A similar cord was connected to the two rings surgically inserted into his ankles. His position with the Genii was definitely no longer in doubt. McKay grimaced at the restraints and sighed, "I wouldn't be surprised if I was in restraints by the end of the day. And about to be staked out for the crazy-ass Athosians to surging eat. Bi-nodular fardling bastards, the lot of them."

Sheppard had no idea what a bi-nodule or a fard was, but he completely agreed.

*sga*sga*sga*sga*sga*sga*sga*

TBC

Species mentioned and notes on the galaxy:

The Ancient Galaxy: massive spiral galaxy with seven spiral arms centred around a huge core. The core is a massive collection of giant stars, clustered so closely together so as to make navigating and transversing the Core impossible. StarGates The names of the spiral arms are: Carina, Persion, Orion, Magellan, Omega, Centarii, and Pegasus.

This chapter takes place on: Athos, which is in the Pegasus arm of the galaxy. Athos was attacked by the Asurans soon after Helios. The majority of the population who survived left Athos and roam the galaxy as nomadic refugees.

The Ancients formulated a translation algorithm to assist the many varied species of the galaxy in communication. In recent years the Asurans have disrupted that algorithm and people no longer automatically understand one another

deGerans – a small, squat species from the Centarii spiral, with rough shell-like skin. Well known as traders, and slavers, they plant colonies of trees native to their home world, Spina Trees, on other worlds to harvest the fruit, bark and leaves which are used in medicines and food products around the galaxy . The deGarens are genderless and operate in trading consortiums other than families. Each consortium is led by a duHon, or Manager and can range from ten individuals to over a thousand. They view all other species as other customers or products.

Kurgens – a massive insect-like species from Carina. Loud and boisterous they make a great of noise and commotion but are generally a passive species. With no high technology or interstellar flight capacity their world is often raided by more developed species

Meroy – a batlike humanoid species from a forested planet in the Centarii spiral. On their homeworld they hardly, if ever, land and spend their lives on the wing or perched in trees. As a result, they are ungainly on land and ideally suited to the deGaren Spina byproduct trade.

Flittas – a delicate, small species from the Carina spiral, who hail from a low gravity world near the Core. Both genders are bald, with sticklike arms and four legs. Resembling a stick insect, they appear frail but are relatively strong despite the low gravity on their world. They pair off for life and are notorious breeders, one female being able to produce upward to 100 offspring in her lifetime. Males are excellent co-parents. Highly sociable and socially interlinked they do not thrive in isolation

Veesh – a birdlike species from the Centarii spiral, who are extremely xenophobic. As a result though, their technology is not on par with other worlds and deGaren slavers frequently target their colonies. Veesh refuse to use StarGates and bury all StarGates found on their colony worlds. Very little is known of their society and culture.

C'roid – a humanoid species from the Magellan spiral. They derive their genetic ancestry from the Ancients but have developed into a unique species entirely dependent on artificial cybernetic implants. From birth, C'roid children receive implants that are used to enhance their natural abilities. Family units are the prime base for child rearing, but adults tend to join corporations or conglomerates that form the basis of their social circles. Expulsion from a corporation will result in complete isolation as no other group will accept an expelled person. C'roids do not thrive outside of large social groups.

Genii – a humanoid species from the Pegasus spiral, within the Wraith Farming range of space. Preyed on by Wraith Hives for generations, on the surface they appear to be a low tech, agricultural society, but in truth are a ruthless, military based society determined to destroy the Wraith. While their technology is low grade and simplistic as a result of wraith strategy to keep their livestock defenceless, they remain intelligent and capable of adapting to situations, new technology and exploiting weaknesses.

Heliosan – a genetically modified variant of the Ancients, whose home planet was within the Persion spiral. Genetically designed by the Ancients as a warrior race, Helios was home to a large population of winged people who shared the Ancient gene marker with their creators. Two years ago (as this story occurs) the Asurans attacked Helios and completely annihilated them. Several Goa'uld system lords assisted with the genocide.