Strangely enough, the crew which assembled for this particular mission held a unique distinction in that this exact configuration had only ever come together once before and that was for the very first SG mission. It was not so long ago, but long enough to feel like a lifetime (or twenty) had transpired. Jethro, Ugo, Vagus, Mim and Sid were once again on board the Magda and embarking on a journey which they could not fully anticipate. It had been a long gap since any of them had been able to come together for a mission. Personal commitments and attention in other areas of the SG collective had meant that the founders had little contact for the past several cycles. It was also the 50th SG mission, a significant number as 50 traditionally marks the completion of a cycle and this did feel very much like coming full circle, like the long arch of time had finally found its way back to the place where it had all begun. The karmic wheel had come to a full turn.

The mission itself was fairly routine. An old freighter had been spotted adrift in the Regulus system and the crew were dispatched to check it out. The derelict itself was pretty much only good for recycled materials. There were some navigation and communication components which were still usable, but the rest of the ship was effectively gutted by whomever had left it out here. The main thing was to get it out of the shipping lanes as it could become a navigation hazard if it drifted into a hyperdrive path.

At this point, the SG collective weren't too fussy about what salvage jobs they took. They'd take whatever they could get. Things were getting tight with the books. The black ink was getting thinner and threatening to turn a bright red if things didn't pick up soon. It was getting desperate enough that some crew were looking at picking up outside work to help supplement their incomes. Ugo was particularly concerned as he hadn't been able to pay off his salvage licensing fees from the previous year and the salvage commission was starting to breath down his neck, threatening legal action and suspension of his license.

Having stripped the remaining functional components from the ship, Vagus, Mim and Sid went about attaching some thrusters to the remaining hulk of the cargo ship so that it could be set up with an auto pilot assembly and sent on to the nearest recycling station. Meanwhile, Ugo and Jethro went about doing the cataloguing for the salvaged components. This included researching prices for these items. The prices had taken a nosedive recently thanks to some new replicator technologies which had just come on the market. These new replication devices required only the most inexpensive raw materials and could reproduce virtually any technological component you could ask for and it would cost next to nothing. The impact of this technology on the salvage market was devastating. It was getting to the point where you could barely give stuff away. It was only the poorer planets that were still looking for salvaged materials and they had no money to spend anyway. What had started out as a highly lucrative business was now quickly becoming obsolete.

With the last details of the mission sorted, the crew got themselves together and set course back to the SG headquarters. Upon their arrival, Ugo immediately went to his quarters to start looking through the job net for some kind of third party contract work that might be available to an experienced salvage man. The listings were less than encouraging and it took weeks of searching and making dead end contacts before anything came up that sounded even remotely interesting. When he did come across a listing that offered some promise, the next phase of communicating with the employer usually went south very quickly. The exception was the last listing that he came across in one of the more sketchy registries for the galactic salvage union.

The pay rate for this position was extremely attractive, but the terms and conditions seemed somewhat vague. The listing only stated that applicants must appear in person at a to be disclosed interview location which would only be revealed at the time of scheduling the meeting. Ugo was not in a position to pass up a good pay check like this and he'd been on some dangerous missions before, so this seemed to be worth taking a chance. The ad instructed applicants to send a text inquiry and that they would be given instructions in the response. Ugo sent off his text and, within a few minutes, he received a reply.

The reply was short and to the point. It contained location directions, a date and a time plus instructions NOT to be late. The meeting location was in a rather rough area of the city. Most of this area had been abandoned due to industrial pollution. Large sections of many cities had fallen victim to this fate. Chemical contaminants had made these areas unfit for anyone to live in and they had been mostly abandoned. Only the poorest people continued to live there where they could squat in any one of a large number of condemned buildings. Sure, they were many times more likely to develop various cancers and other degenerative illnesses, but they didn't really have much choice given the fact that the areas outside the condemned zones were so expensive and the security services hired by the landlords were positively militant about keeping the destitute out.

Ugo made his way to the meeting place, making sure to give himself plenty of time to get there before the meeting was scheduled. He did not want to risk losing this opportunity due to anything as preventable as tardiness. When he got to the location, he found that it was in an old office tower which appeared to date from the late 20th century. Most of the upper floors seemed uninhabitable. The glass was gone from all the windows and the place looked unused with the exception of the main entrance on the ground floor.

The instructions told him to enter via this entrance and to then head to the stairwell and down to the top level of the underground parking lot. Once there, he would have to follow the main driveway through the lot as it spiralled down to the lower levels. He was instructed to go to the very lowest level of the garage and locate a service door at the end of the lot. This particular lot was very large. Ugo lost count of the number of levels as he kept heading further and further down. The lot was mostly empty, but there were signs of hobo camps in some stalls. These seem to have been recently cleared out. It looked like whomever had purchased this property had done a good sweep of the premises to get rid of any squatters that had set up camp there.

After some time, Ugo could see that he was getting near to the last level of the lot. There was a door at the end of the motor ramp that had a single bare lightbulb over it. On the front of the door there was only an infinity symbol painted in dark grey overtop of the ash black door. There was no visible doorknob or handle. As he approached the door, an alert klaxon sounded once and a voice could be heard over a cheap PA speaker.

It was barely intelligible and heavily distorted. "Please stand on the pad directly in front of the door."

Ugo stood in the requested spot and waited a few seconds. Instead of the door opening, the surface of it seemed to change texture. It became flakey and looked to be disintegrating. It was like the matter of the door became unstable and was then sucked backwards where it revealed a long hallway with the only light coming from the end of the passage which appeared infinite.

The voice intoned. "Please step forward."

Ugo started to walk down the hallway. Gradually the light at the end of the hall began to enshroud him and obscure his image. Then the door seemed to reintegrate itself and close up. No sooner had the door come back together than it vanished completely leaving no trace of itself. No door, no light, no pad in front of the door. Just a blank concrete wall with a few bits of garbage on the ground in front of it. Ugo was gone.

TO BE CONTINUED…