Karen was a little disappointed at not being able to head straight over, but her military training kept her rooted to her location. She nods in agreement while listening to Bjorn. "That's how I've come to understand it too Bjorn. And that's not a bad idea. It'd be nice to implement something like that back home. An added layer of protection as it were." She starts to wander, back and forth, watching the feed on her phone.

Jackie also disconnected her laptop. When the order was given to close.

Once everyone has had their say, Coleman addresses the SGC again; "Ok, General, can we head over to the other location? Everyone here is obviously pretty excited at the prospect, but we wouldn't want to go ahead without your authorization and letting you know where we'd be."

===BEGIN COMM: "The Furlings are one of the four races that formed an alliance. How much knowledge they have compared to the Ancients and the Asgard is an unknown, but if they can reprogram a gate, then it must be pretty extensive," General Hammond replies.

"Unfortunately, we don't know anything about the Furlings, so we don't know if what you saw is really them. I could say I'm a Furling but that doesn't make it so."

"I think the risk compared to the potential benefit is acceptable. You have permission to go visit them. Just be careful. As in all missions, if we don't hear from you for a few days, we will probably put a ban on travel to that gate."

"Good luck." :END COMM===

"Great, I guess we're set." Coleman says as the gate home closes, "Ok, let's dial these 'furlings' back up and see if we can meet them. With those big heads, they gotta be pretty smart, right?" Coleman grins.

"You know, I know you all are super eager to meet these beings, but I'd sure feel most comfortable if Bjorn and I went through first while the rest of you monitored the MALP for a bit before coming through. If there is a trap or something, maybe they'll spring it on us and you guys can get back home safe..." Coleman looks at Bjorn; "Sorry, SGT; Rangers lead the way. Hooah."

"Absolutely, sir!" Jason agrees.

"Ready when you are. Do we want to see if the MALP image has changed first?"

"Personally, I don't see the point. If the Furlings are so super-smart, they can fool the MALP in their sleep."

Karen gives a nod of acknowledgment. "Yes, sir. Though, do try to be safe you two. Don't want it getting around you were rescued by a couple of 'flyboys' and medic 'squid', right?" She says with a joking smirk.

 Lizzy smiled, yes she wanted too go first but safety was required send the Rangers first then they would go. Lizzy got everything ready for when the gate opened and would wait the specified time to hear back from them after they left.

"Oh."

Kyle managed to package a lot of disappointment and disbelief into a single syllable.

"By all means come along but there ought to be at least one specialist too."

"We're all going, Kyle," Jason responds. "Just some of us are going first... just in case it's some sort of trap."

"That's right. You will be holding the gate open and watching. I expect that if there is a trap that they plan to spring quickly, a minute or two will suffice to determine that. If it seems clear, then I will say so, and you'll hear it via the MALP."

 Lizzy would be the senior officer once they left, she said," Very well Sir I will wait 2 minutes then wait for your signal, we will be monitoring the MALP sir."

Kyle dials up the secondary gate again, connection with the MALP is re-established, and the view remains the same. One of the Furlings is standing within the camera's view.

Jason and the Colonel step through the gate and out the other side.

"Greetings again, Earthers... or do you prefer Tau'ri? I am Ukunakorongamorku, which roughly translates as 'he who guards the stargate'. But you can just call me Uku," the Furling says in a deep and gravelly-sounding voice.

"Welcome to Rapa Nuiapu. Will the others be joining us?"

As you look around, you can now see details that you 'missed' before. The Furlings all seem to be wearing top hat-like hats (without brims) of different colors, but you soon realize that there are only six solid colors: red, blue, green, orange, purple, and black, all in solid colors and otherwise all identical in shape/form. Uku is wearing a black hat.

Even with the MALP, you didn't get a good sense of scale. Uku is 20 feet tall! As near as you can tell, all of them are of identical height. Other than size, the most striking feature is the large eyes.

You next realize that they have large heads, though tall and long rather than wide, but they are as wide as the long torsos. The heads seem to be about 8 feet long, the torsos also 8 feet long, and the legs a short 4 feet long. It explains why they appear to walk like 'statues'... somewhat awkwardly.

They also appear to have somewhat short arms... they just don't appear to hang down far enough.

"Yes, the others will be coming along. And we generally go by 'Earthlings', I suppose. Though we also hear Tau'ri plenty. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Coleman Hendricks. Lieutenant Colonel is my rank, Coleman is the name given to me by my parents, and Hendricks is a family name. I can be referred to by any of them. And this is Staff Sergeant Jason Bjorn; his name is of a similar structure.

I was wondering when was your last contact with the Asgard?"

"I believe the... alders... were in contact with the Asgard 7 cycles lunar ago," Uku replies, "but I am not sure. It is not my function to record data such as that."

"Now that you have joined us, what do you wish to do? That way, I will know who to direct you to."

"Well, our mission is to make peaceful contact with other worlds in hopes of cultural and technological exchange.


Give me a moment to signal my compatriots and we'll be ready to go to whomever you believe is the best for us to meet."

Coleman signals the others who have not yet come through the gate to go ahead and come through.

Kyle wastes no time in bouncing through.

"Hello. Thank you for letting us come to visit you."

Karen chuckles and follows Kyle through. "Hello. I'm Staff Sergeant Karen Stewart. Nice to make your acquaintance."

 Lizzy giggles, shakes her head as well and follows Karen through the gate. Once on the other side she is amazed at what she sees and how big they are. Lizzy smiles and then also introduces herself," Hello Lt. Doctor Elizabeth McKeon it is wonderful to meet you, and learn more about your culture." Lizzy was excited to be part of the group to first meet a new alien race.

"Uku, this is the rest of my team. Kyle McGuinness here," Coleman gestures towards Kyle "is our cultural expert, so he'll have plenty of questions, I'm sure."

"Greetings, Kyle, Karen and Lizzy. Welcome to Rapa Nuiapu," Uku addresses the others.

"I am one of the guardians of the Astria Porta. Since I cannot leave the vicinity of the Astria Porta, I will turn you over to Observer Kunakaragadurgonok for any questions you may have."

Another Furling 'waddles' up at that point. He is wearing a blue hat. Now that you see two of them up close and side by side, you can tell that there are differences between them. They may be subtle, but you can definitely see them.

The voices, however, sound identical.

"I am Kunakaragadurgonok, a Third Degree Observer. Humans have always had difficulty pronouncing our names, so you can call me Kunak."

"As you may have surmised already, we are a very patient species. We are very good at waiting. Those of us wearing purple hats are the Warriors. With nothing for them to fight, they wait until there is."

"The red hats are Teachers. You might say that they are also Learners, as they study problems that arise, work out solutions and then teach them to the appropriate Furling, such as the Builders who wear the Green hats."

"The Excavators wear orange hats."

"A pleasure to meet you, Kunakaragadurgonok," said Kyle, rolling his tongue around the strange syllables.

"So, purple hats for warriors, red hats for scholars, green hats for builders. What is the blue? You were described as an 'observer'...? Does everyone occupy a distinct role in society? And how come you speak English so well?"

Slow down! He was bursting with questions, but needed to give Kunak a chance to respond!

"A blue topa signifies an Observer," Kunak replies. "We maintain a contact with the Asgard. When they reported that there might be a Fifth Race, we downloaded your Earth languages from them in anticipation of meeting your species."

"We have also visited your world in the past. It did not occur to us then that your species could evolve into a Fifth Race. There was potential, but you hadn't reached the necessary level of development."

"Of course each of us fills a specific role in our society. Why would we not?"

"Fascinating... we found... ah... representations of your people on a remote island. It was the local language that I greeted you with before we discovered you could speak English."

He put his head on one side.

"Most people occupy several roles in our society, it's a bit more fluid. Or maybe your classifications are broader... It will be fascinating to study."

He'd not thought about it quite that way before. Did 'academic' roll into 'explorer'?

"Interesting. It is good to hear that you have maintained contact with the Asgard. It seems that the Alterans have disappeared and the Nox are extremely isolationist, to the point of not maintaining any level of contact with the Asgard, at least. Though I suppose the ancient treaty, of sorts, still seems to hold.
I guess, as long as Kyle's done with his questions for you, we should move along, so we can learn more from those who specialize in this stuff."