Fic: The Archway (PG) (1/3)
Title: The Archway
Rating/Warning: PG (for action scenes)
Spoilers: Season 8 (anytime after "Zero Hour")
Written for: nandamai in the sg1teamficathon. Nanda wanted: "The original team stranded offworld. Could be in S8 or later (i.e., General Jack with D, S, and T), or in an earlier season. An unusual setting and an action-adventure plot are optional but would make me squee. And lots of teamy goodness, of course!" And didn't want: "Cam or Vala. Apocafic. First-person narration."
Summary: When SG-1 goes missing on an Ancient planet, General O'Neill may be the only one who can get them out. But more danger awaits than Jack knows.
Author's Notes: I read the prompt as Season Eight team being first choice, so hope nanda approves. Thanks to abyssinia4077 for her translation advice, to redbyrd_sgfic who read it as a wip, and to final beta(s)fabrisse and beanpot.
Sam blinked as she exited the wormhole. Her two teammates followed, stopping short at the sight before them. "I don't remember the MALP footage showing this world to be so..." Daniel's voice trailed off, his mouth agape.
"...Purple." Teal'c supplied.
"Yeah. Yeah, that would be the word," Daniel agreed. "It's like a huge crayon box." They stared at their surroundings. A slight breeze drifted across the grasslands around the Stargate. Sam remembered the grasses looking near white in the unmanned survey footage, but the knee-high groundcover now appeared a strange blueish-lilac color. The trees in the forest nearby also had that same hue. The sky above was a deep violet. All the colors were extremely vivid.
"Something in the atmosphere could shift the light spectrum closer to the ultraviolet." Sam unpacked some of her equipment from the FRED and started taking readings. She noted the second sun rising to their right. "It also could be related to the time of day. It would explain why it didn't show on our initial survey."
Out of the corner of her eye, she noted Daniel doing his usual check of the DHD. He then pulled out his binoculars to check some tall stones in the distance. "At least the ruins are right where the MALP indicated they would be." He picked up the FRED's remote, directed the machine towards the plinths in the distance, then started to head in that direction himself.
She was about to follow when a spike on the scanner caught her attention. She tried to track the source. "Hold up, Daniel," she ordered.
Daniel started to protest. "Sam, you know Jack only okayed a four hour recon, and the initial survey indicated Ancient writing on the outside of those ruins. A lot of writing. I'm going to need..."
Daniel's objections faded to background noise as Sam's focus was caught by these high readings. She continued to wave her scanner to the left of the Stargate, catching another strong but brief ripple. It seemed localized near an old archway twenty yards away from the Stargate and in the opposite direction of the ruins. Whatever building it may have once led to had long since crumbled to dust. Only the doorway to nowhere remained. It reminded her of a section of Stonehenge, but there were no other rocks nearby. Just the three stones making the arch. The scanner didn't lie; something was giving off readings. She moved forward, intrigued, just as the device dropped to baseline readings.
Absently she was aware of Teal'c nearby, already alert for danger, Daniel was double-timing to close the distance to them, now aware of Sam's interest.
Teal'c asked, "What is it, Colonel Carter?"
"I'm not sure," she murmured, finally looking up from her scanner to study the archway before her. I got a spike from an energy source coming from this, but now, it's gone." She shook her head. "This can't be right." She stopped short of banging her handheld scanner and instead waved it around in a systematic pattern.
Daniel had caught up to the group and looked at the archway with interest, circling around it and studying the base. "Strange."
Sam scowled at her scanner. "It doesn't make any sense. The readings have disappeared. Do you have any idea where this doorway led to?"
Daniel said, "I don't think a building was ever attached." He pointed out the smooth, even angles of the outer edges. "It appears to be a freestanding structure. Perhaps it had a cultural significance leading to the Stargate."
"But the ruins are only over there." She pointed to the elevated area now at her five o'clock. "The people wouldn't walk around the Stargate to enter through this arch unless there was something else here." She looked around, but had to agree with Daniel's assessment. The only stones of any size were this archway and the platform and stairs on which the Stargate and DHD rested.
Daniel frowned, looking at her from the other side of the archway. "That's why it's strange."
"Should the stone not be more weathered, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c looked at the archway like it was an enemy, not quite touching the smooth edges of the rock. Sam glanced back and realized it was a very familiar rock. She recalibrated her scanner to be sure.
Daniel said, "We're in a valley, and the tree line over there may have protected it. Also, I can't be sure but I think..."
Sam's readings confirmed her suspicion. "It's naquadah." Belatedly from her teammates' expressions, she realized she'd finished Daniel's thought. After so many years, they really should be used to it. She waited a half-second for the colonel's expected teasing remark, then with a start realized she was "the colonel" now, or at least lieutenant colonel. She suppressed a smile and continued. "We've already seen that naquadah is resilient to all sorts of traumatic events. The question is, why would they use it to make this device?"
Daniel frowned and circled back to where Sam and Teal'c stood, backing away to get a better perspective. "It is a bit cruder than the Ancients' usual style."
"But we've been fooled by deceptively primitive looking objects before." Sam started to study the base of the archway in earnest.
"Should we not proceed to the ruins? Perhaps there will be something there to explain this anomaly," Teal'c said. Sam detected an unusual note of wariness in his tone. Teal'c's atypical reaction was enough to give her pause.
Daniel too seemed to pick up on their friend's caution. "Teal'c's right. I may find something there to provide a context." Daniel shielded his eyes from the direction of the rising sun, then exclaimed, "Wait! I can make out writing on the top. It reads...'entrance'?"
"Really?" Sam started to stand to see where he was pointing; Daniel was moving closer, squinting at the top. She automatically leaned on the base to help straighten herself, and her hand holding the scanner brushed the inside of the arch. Its readings spiked, and she felt a tremor of shock travel up her arm. "What the...?"
She looked at the scanner again; it seemed magnetized to the entranceway, the readings holding on a steady high. In fact, it seemed to be pulling her. She tried to move the hand that was resting on the archway itself and...
"Sam, no!" She heard Daniel's cry an instant before everything went white.
Daniel Jackson couldn't believe his eyes. One second Sam was standing in front of him, looking at her scanner; the next, she was enveloped by a strange white energy. He had cried out without thinking, and his actions were instinctive. Only a few feet separated him from Sam. He moved forward, hoping to drag her away. As he reached out, she seemed to disappear before his eyes. His fingertips were so close, could he just pluck her back? Maybe if he didn't touch the sides of the archway...
"Daniel Jackson!"
Teal'c's warning came at the same time he tackled Daniel from the side. But even this action failed to stop Daniel's forward momentum. He found himself engulfed in the strange white light, blinding him.
Then he was hitting a solid surface, immediately followed by Teal'c's heavy weight falling across his back, winding him. He tried to call out to Teal'c, but could not yet gather breath to speak. To Daniel's relief, Teal'c rose an instant later with athletic grace. As Daniel coughed and tried to get the air back into his lungs, he looked around, but spots danced before his eyes from the blinding light of a few moments ago. He squinted. Was it his imagination, or was everything appearing less purple than a few minutes ago?
Of course, the odd color of the sky was the least of his worries at the moment. Teal'c was already sweeping the area, his staff weapon at ready for any other danger. Next to him, Sam was on her knees, shaking her head and blinking, but thankfully looking no worse for wear. Aside from a few scrapes, now that he could breathe normally, Daniel felt fine as well. The strange energy field that had surrounded them had disappeared.
He crawled over to Sam. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," she responded. "What was that?"
"I have no idea. I'm assuming you don't either?"
Sam shook her head as she got to her feet, blinking rapidly. "I saw this..."
Daniel stood next to her, finishing her statement. "Light. I saw it too. You disappeared within it, and then..." He gestured around them. "Teal'c and I followed."
"Well, at least we seem okay." She approached the archway cautiously.
It looked benign to Daniel's eye. He could still see the DHD and Stargate on the other side. But the foliage's change in color still concerned him. He hesitated to bring it up, but anything could be important. "I don't know if it's how the flash affected my eyes or what, but does anyone else notice the ground..."
"It is no longer purple," Teal'c answered, circling back to his teammates. "The trees have also lightened their hue, and the sky is overcast."
Daniel exchanged a concerned glance with Sam. Over her shoulder, he spotted something else that worried him even more. "The ruins...the FRED, they're gone!"
Sam spun around to look where he pointed. "Not so benign after all." She started sprinting to the DHD. "The archway may have been a transporter of some sort, redirecting us to..." her voice trailed off.
Daniel kept to her heels, shaking off some last vestiges of dizziness. His mind was already spinning its own scenario. This archway wasn't like the mirror on 233, but the tingling sensation he just experienced was a bit of a deja vu. If Sam had a logical explanation that did not involve alternate realities, he was more than ready to hear it. He was unable to completely keep the nervousness out of his voice as he prompted her. "To...?"
"It could be anywhere. Another spot on the planet...another planet..."
"An alternate reality?" Daniel finally voiced his fear.
Apparently Sam hadn't considered that possibility. She blanched, and then squared her shoulders. "Well, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions, right?" She looked around the area. Daniel noted the familiar, secure presence of Teal'c standing between them and the Stargate. Sam ordered, "What we do know is that something happened, and most of our equipment to figure out what it was has disappeared. Our best alternative is to dial what will hopefully be home."
Teal'c questioned, "If it is not our reality, are we not at risk by alerting them to our presence?"
"Like I said, it's a remote possibility, and if it is true, we need to know of potential entropic issues." Sam's voice held a note of command. "Right now, I'm more worried that..." Her confident tone lapsed, and she bit her lip. Her voice softer, she turned to Daniel, her expressive eyes unable to hide her fear. "Dial it up, please, Daniel."
Daniel grimaced, suppressing the memories he had of living through two alternate Earth armageddons. Steeling himself to dial, he paused in confusion. The symbols appeared different from what he remembered from before. Getting his bearings, he found the first symbol that would dial home.
His hand passed right through the device as if it wasn't even there.
"Uh...S-Sam?" He glanced over to her. She had been staring off to where the ruins used to be, a worried frown on her face. Realizing he was watching her, she turned, glancing down at the DHD.
"What is it?"
"I-I can't dial." He moved his hand across the width of the DHD; it passed through the device. "I swear, Sam, I checked the DHD when we first arrived. It operated normally."
"Yeah, I saw you do it." She waved her P-90 through the device. "It appears to be a hologram. I wonder if the base is also..." She followed her words with action, getting to her knees and trying to open the crystal area. Her hand passed through it. Undeterred, she reached for her scanner and started moving it around the stone base near the DHD.
"Hologram, not...um," Daniel struggled for the right expression, "not out of phase?" He had to admit the disappearance of everything else made this unlikely, but he couldn't forget how decades ago, Nick had been shifted out-of-phase and transported to another planet at the same time. Daniel wasn't anxious to relive that experience either.
"From these readings, I'm pretty sure it's the DHD that's the problem, not us." She plucked at the grass, which easily broke off in her very solid hands.
Daniel wasn't sure whether to be relieved or more worried. "And...not an alternate reality?"
"I'm thinking no." Sam made a frustrated noise at whatever she was seeing on her scanner. "It's more likely we went through some kind of transporter to another location. Something similar happened to Colonel O'Neill a couple years ago."
Sam looked around again and Daniel followed her gaze. He thought he remembered there being two suns, but it was hard to gauge with the thick cloud cover. Several yards away, there were more trees in a full circle of the clearing where this false Stargate and arch sat. Teal'c was walking along the perimeter of the woods.
Daniel looked back to Sam, who grimaced. "It would explain why everything looks different. We could be miles away from the real Stargate, or even on a neighboring moon."
Daniel tried to follow her logic. "So, the good news is, we're probably still in the planetary vicinity of where we started in this reality. The bad news is we're trapped."
Sam got up and dusted off her knees. "That sums it up."
"Oh, Jack is not going to be happy." Daniel looked over at the archway. "Should we try door number one again?"
Sam looked leery but followed him back. "Don't get too close," she ordered unnecessarily. Daniel planned to stay far back. He could translate the archway just fine from here.
Sam ran her scanner while standing next to Daniel. "It's not reading anything." She started circling the archway, careful to maintain a safe distance. "Nothing at all."
Daniel renewed his translations of the faded writings. The same note stating "entrance," but a few more words were listed here--some reference to the passage of days, a few words he couldn't make out and something...storage? Part of this reminded him of an old poem, but he couldn't place it. He tried to continue reading, but the words were too faded.
His thoughts were interrupted by Sam's calling to him. She had moved from the archway over to the Stargate. He joined her. Daniel wondered if it was his imagination that the circle appeared smaller than the traditional ring. Sam was tentatively touching the device.
She said, "It's solid: not a hologram, but it's not a Stargate. At least not one that we're familiar with. There's only five chevrons visible."
Daniel blinked. Now that he looked again, the differences were obvious. "The symbols are the same as that holographic DHD. They're not traditional chevrons. Some are recognizable, but others...." He shook his head and pinched his nose, trying to clear his mind to consider possibilities. "It doesn't make sense to have a dialing device with no way to use it." He paused, remembering something Sam said earlier. "You mentioned this happened before? To Jack?"
"Well, not the DHD thing, but yeah. To him and Colonel Maybourne. It was during that year you were..." Sam broke off and looked uncomfortable.
"Glowy?" Daniel grimaced while using the euphemism, but he thought Sam needed the humor at the moment. He wasn't quite able to pin down her mood, but she seemed unusually upset, even given their current circumstance.
The lighter tone worked. She chuckled faintly and sighed. "Yeah. Maybourne initialized a doorway that led to a moon orbiting the planet. We searched the whole planet-the Tok'ra even sent a ship. We had no hope before we figured out the device sent them to a moon."
He vaguely remembered reading about that mission report in his "catching up" days, but he was going through information overload at the time. And none of his teammates seemed willing to discuss it in any further detail, so Daniel hadn't pressed. He wondered now if he should have. Teal'c was at the far side of the clearing, so he had no other sounding board but Sam, and her expression was very closed. "Well, with that experience under his belt, maybe he'll start searching the moons first," Daniel joked, trying to gauge Sam's melancholy mood.
Sam gave a wan smile. "Maybe." She was staring again at the atmosphere. "I'm almost wondering if we are on the same world, just a different region. The foliage is so similar." She pulled out another device from her pocket, one Daniel recognized as the Stargate locator beacon. Ever since the Nox planet, teams never left the indicator on the FRED. She shook her head. "Wherever we are, the Stargate is out of range."
"What is the range on those things?"
"One hundred kilometers."
Daniel winced at the distance that indicated. "Well, at least the present company is much better than Harry Maybourne."
She gave a genuine smile at that; then frowned in puzzlement. "But on that mission, the technology was Furling. All indications from the initial UAV are that this place was Ancient. You didn't see Furling writings at all, did you?"
"No," Daniel replied. "But we know the Furlings and Ancients were part of an alliance. It's conceivable they would've shared information and technology, including some kind of transporter." The possibilities struck him like sledgehammer. The archway had mentioned "storage". Would this be a different variation for what they called their repository of knowledge? Perhaps if Furlings were involved, it could be something even different. Alight with excitement, he turned to Sam. "What if this is the location of another Heliopolis!"
Sam's expression was skeptical. "I don't know, Daniel. The Ancients already had rings as a transporter. Why would they create something like this?"
Daniel was surprised she didn't appear as excited as he, but his excitement was undampened. "But if they were working with the Furlings on some experiments or discovery, it would make sense the technology could be a hybrid."
Sam furrowed her eyebrows in thought and looked again at the sky. "You may be right. The Furling device Maybourne used coordinated with the moon cycle of the planet. Perhaps it's timed. Dawn was breaking when we came through the doorway." She sighed. "But it looks like full daylight here, which means we're a long way from where we started. It's P2X-887 all over again. Get the team stuck searching for advanced tech. No way out."
"It's not the same as 887. We're not in a musty, empty cave this time, for one thing." He smiled at Sam's suppressed snort of laughter. " And no saying 'no way out' when we've just scratched the surface. We've had years of experience getting out of messes. We'll figure it out this time...eventually." Daniel hoped she wasn't running a tally on how often each of them had gotten into these messes. Come to think of it, Teal'c probably was. He kept the oddest statistics.
Daniel derailed that rather disturbing train of thought to focus on the issue at hand. He looked at the mysterious devices around him and shrugged. "The Ancients had this archway lead us to somewhere. We should find out why. Whether it's another Heliopolis, or another dead end, it's worth exploring. And maybe it'll give us a clue on how to leave. In the meantime, we're together and uninjured. It could be worse."
As if in response to this comment, the darkening skies let fall a torrent of rain. Daniel blinked at the drops speckling his glasses and put on his most contrite expression. He saw Sam already opening her mouth, so he lifted his finger. "Don't. Don't even say it. I know. I'm sorry."
She chuckled while grabbing her boonie hat from a pocket. Daniel did the same while wondering if he should just pull off his pack to find his poncho. Wiping his glasses on his dampening sleeve, he saw Teal'c running up to them.
"Colonel Carter, we must leave this area immediately." He looked very serious.
"Yeah." Sam nodded. "Daniel and I were discussing doing some recon before the rain started."
Teal'c shook his head. "The precipitation is not my concern. I have spotted Jaffa tracks."
Brigadier General Jack O'Neill tried not to worry. He really did. SG-1 was only an hour overdue. It had happened to other teams before, it would happen again. SG-6 had been three hours late just last week because protocol didn't allow dialouts during electrical storms. And then there was that native festival on P9C-403 that had gone on longer than anticipated for SG-3. The team was fine, even if that one lieutenant had looked a bit tipsy. But it didn't stop Jack from worrying all the same. And no matter what way he'd try to spin it to himself, the fact that it was SG-1 was an added worry. He trusted his old team; that didn't stop his concern. Maybe Hammond was right, it should be a four person team, but Jack just couldn't handle adding "his" replacement. Well, technically, Carter was his replacement, but that was a question of semantics. Times like now, he questioned his selfishness of not adding a fourth. Then again, maybe he'd just be worried about four people now instead of three.
Finally, the sixty minute mark had come and gone. And Jack couldn't shake that niggling feeling of deja vu from the last time SG-1 had not checked in on schedule. They'd been trapped for days, and big, bad Ba'al had bluffed he'd kidnapped the team. Jack really didn't need to see the rerun. He headed down the stairwell to the control room.
Walter Harriman had anticipated him once again. Jack could tell from the computer monitor the coordinates to P7X-485 were already called up, and Walter had his finger poised over the send button, awaiting Jack's order. Grimacing, he nodded his head and Harriman started the dialing sequence.
Jack fidgeted while Walter called out the familiar announcements, ending with "Chevron Seven locked," and the Stargate burst to life. Harriman pressed some switches and turned to Jack. "MALP is active, sir."
Jack leaned forward and keyed the microphone. Trying to sound casual, he transmitted, "SG-1, you know how I worry when you don't make curfew."
They waited. Interminable moments seemed like hours. His second transmission was curt and formal. "SG-1, respond." After another few seconds passed without answer, he turned to Walter. "Can you call up the MALP camera?"
"Yes, sir." Walter punched some buttons on his keyboard and a video image showed on the screen. There was no sign of anyone or anything except the DHD and some trees in the distance. Panning the area brought no further signs of anyone, but Jack's heart plummeted to his stomach at what he spotted in the distance. The FRED was tilted halfway in a ditch, with all of SG-1's gear still on it, seemingly abandoned.
"SG-1, this is Stargate Command. Please respond." Jack had given up hope of an answer at this point and was already mentally running down the list of teams on base. SG-5 was experienced in Ancient technology, and SG-12 was gearing up for their own mission. Jack ordered Harriman to call the two team leaders to the briefing room immediately and shut down the Stargate.
He'd brief the teams, ignore the worrying about SG-1, and wonder again why promotions were seen as a good thing.
On to Part 2
Rating/Warning: PG (for action scenes)
Spoilers: Season 8 (anytime after "Zero Hour")
Written for: nandamai in the sg1teamficathon. Nanda wanted: "The original team stranded offworld. Could be in S8 or later (i.e., General Jack with D, S, and T), or in an earlier season. An unusual setting and an action-adventure plot are optional but would make me squee. And lots of teamy goodness, of course!" And didn't want: "Cam or Vala. Apocafic. First-person narration."
Summary: When SG-1 goes missing on an Ancient planet, General O'Neill may be the only one who can get them out. But more danger awaits than Jack knows.
Author's Notes: I read the prompt as Season Eight team being first choice, so hope nanda approves. Thanks to abyssinia4077 for her translation advice, to redbyrd_sgfic who read it as a wip, and to final beta(s)fabrisse and beanpot.
Sam blinked as she exited the wormhole. Her two teammates followed, stopping short at the sight before them. "I don't remember the MALP footage showing this world to be so..." Daniel's voice trailed off, his mouth agape.
"...Purple." Teal'c supplied.
"Yeah. Yeah, that would be the word," Daniel agreed. "It's like a huge crayon box." They stared at their surroundings. A slight breeze drifted across the grasslands around the Stargate. Sam remembered the grasses looking near white in the unmanned survey footage, but the knee-high groundcover now appeared a strange blueish-lilac color. The trees in the forest nearby also had that same hue. The sky above was a deep violet. All the colors were extremely vivid.
"Something in the atmosphere could shift the light spectrum closer to the ultraviolet." Sam unpacked some of her equipment from the FRED and started taking readings. She noted the second sun rising to their right. "It also could be related to the time of day. It would explain why it didn't show on our initial survey."
Out of the corner of her eye, she noted Daniel doing his usual check of the DHD. He then pulled out his binoculars to check some tall stones in the distance. "At least the ruins are right where the MALP indicated they would be." He picked up the FRED's remote, directed the machine towards the plinths in the distance, then started to head in that direction himself.
She was about to follow when a spike on the scanner caught her attention. She tried to track the source. "Hold up, Daniel," she ordered.
Daniel started to protest. "Sam, you know Jack only okayed a four hour recon, and the initial survey indicated Ancient writing on the outside of those ruins. A lot of writing. I'm going to need..."
Daniel's objections faded to background noise as Sam's focus was caught by these high readings. She continued to wave her scanner to the left of the Stargate, catching another strong but brief ripple. It seemed localized near an old archway twenty yards away from the Stargate and in the opposite direction of the ruins. Whatever building it may have once led to had long since crumbled to dust. Only the doorway to nowhere remained. It reminded her of a section of Stonehenge, but there were no other rocks nearby. Just the three stones making the arch. The scanner didn't lie; something was giving off readings. She moved forward, intrigued, just as the device dropped to baseline readings.
Absently she was aware of Teal'c nearby, already alert for danger, Daniel was double-timing to close the distance to them, now aware of Sam's interest.
Teal'c asked, "What is it, Colonel Carter?"
"I'm not sure," she murmured, finally looking up from her scanner to study the archway before her. I got a spike from an energy source coming from this, but now, it's gone." She shook her head. "This can't be right." She stopped short of banging her handheld scanner and instead waved it around in a systematic pattern.
Daniel had caught up to the group and looked at the archway with interest, circling around it and studying the base. "Strange."
Sam scowled at her scanner. "It doesn't make any sense. The readings have disappeared. Do you have any idea where this doorway led to?"
Daniel said, "I don't think a building was ever attached." He pointed out the smooth, even angles of the outer edges. "It appears to be a freestanding structure. Perhaps it had a cultural significance leading to the Stargate."
"But the ruins are only over there." She pointed to the elevated area now at her five o'clock. "The people wouldn't walk around the Stargate to enter through this arch unless there was something else here." She looked around, but had to agree with Daniel's assessment. The only stones of any size were this archway and the platform and stairs on which the Stargate and DHD rested.
Daniel frowned, looking at her from the other side of the archway. "That's why it's strange."
"Should the stone not be more weathered, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c looked at the archway like it was an enemy, not quite touching the smooth edges of the rock. Sam glanced back and realized it was a very familiar rock. She recalibrated her scanner to be sure.
Daniel said, "We're in a valley, and the tree line over there may have protected it. Also, I can't be sure but I think..."
Sam's readings confirmed her suspicion. "It's naquadah." Belatedly from her teammates' expressions, she realized she'd finished Daniel's thought. After so many years, they really should be used to it. She waited a half-second for the colonel's expected teasing remark, then with a start realized she was "the colonel" now, or at least lieutenant colonel. She suppressed a smile and continued. "We've already seen that naquadah is resilient to all sorts of traumatic events. The question is, why would they use it to make this device?"
Daniel frowned and circled back to where Sam and Teal'c stood, backing away to get a better perspective. "It is a bit cruder than the Ancients' usual style."
"But we've been fooled by deceptively primitive looking objects before." Sam started to study the base of the archway in earnest.
"Should we not proceed to the ruins? Perhaps there will be something there to explain this anomaly," Teal'c said. Sam detected an unusual note of wariness in his tone. Teal'c's atypical reaction was enough to give her pause.
Daniel too seemed to pick up on their friend's caution. "Teal'c's right. I may find something there to provide a context." Daniel shielded his eyes from the direction of the rising sun, then exclaimed, "Wait! I can make out writing on the top. It reads...'entrance'?"
"Really?" Sam started to stand to see where he was pointing; Daniel was moving closer, squinting at the top. She automatically leaned on the base to help straighten herself, and her hand holding the scanner brushed the inside of the arch. Its readings spiked, and she felt a tremor of shock travel up her arm. "What the...?"
She looked at the scanner again; it seemed magnetized to the entranceway, the readings holding on a steady high. In fact, it seemed to be pulling her. She tried to move the hand that was resting on the archway itself and...
"Sam, no!" She heard Daniel's cry an instant before everything went white.
Daniel Jackson couldn't believe his eyes. One second Sam was standing in front of him, looking at her scanner; the next, she was enveloped by a strange white energy. He had cried out without thinking, and his actions were instinctive. Only a few feet separated him from Sam. He moved forward, hoping to drag her away. As he reached out, she seemed to disappear before his eyes. His fingertips were so close, could he just pluck her back? Maybe if he didn't touch the sides of the archway...
"Daniel Jackson!"
Teal'c's warning came at the same time he tackled Daniel from the side. But even this action failed to stop Daniel's forward momentum. He found himself engulfed in the strange white light, blinding him.
Then he was hitting a solid surface, immediately followed by Teal'c's heavy weight falling across his back, winding him. He tried to call out to Teal'c, but could not yet gather breath to speak. To Daniel's relief, Teal'c rose an instant later with athletic grace. As Daniel coughed and tried to get the air back into his lungs, he looked around, but spots danced before his eyes from the blinding light of a few moments ago. He squinted. Was it his imagination, or was everything appearing less purple than a few minutes ago?
Of course, the odd color of the sky was the least of his worries at the moment. Teal'c was already sweeping the area, his staff weapon at ready for any other danger. Next to him, Sam was on her knees, shaking her head and blinking, but thankfully looking no worse for wear. Aside from a few scrapes, now that he could breathe normally, Daniel felt fine as well. The strange energy field that had surrounded them had disappeared.
He crawled over to Sam. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," she responded. "What was that?"
"I have no idea. I'm assuming you don't either?"
Sam shook her head as she got to her feet, blinking rapidly. "I saw this..."
Daniel stood next to her, finishing her statement. "Light. I saw it too. You disappeared within it, and then..." He gestured around them. "Teal'c and I followed."
"Well, at least we seem okay." She approached the archway cautiously.
It looked benign to Daniel's eye. He could still see the DHD and Stargate on the other side. But the foliage's change in color still concerned him. He hesitated to bring it up, but anything could be important. "I don't know if it's how the flash affected my eyes or what, but does anyone else notice the ground..."
"It is no longer purple," Teal'c answered, circling back to his teammates. "The trees have also lightened their hue, and the sky is overcast."
Daniel exchanged a concerned glance with Sam. Over her shoulder, he spotted something else that worried him even more. "The ruins...the FRED, they're gone!"
Sam spun around to look where he pointed. "Not so benign after all." She started sprinting to the DHD. "The archway may have been a transporter of some sort, redirecting us to..." her voice trailed off.
Daniel kept to her heels, shaking off some last vestiges of dizziness. His mind was already spinning its own scenario. This archway wasn't like the mirror on 233, but the tingling sensation he just experienced was a bit of a deja vu. If Sam had a logical explanation that did not involve alternate realities, he was more than ready to hear it. He was unable to completely keep the nervousness out of his voice as he prompted her. "To...?"
"It could be anywhere. Another spot on the planet...another planet..."
"An alternate reality?" Daniel finally voiced his fear.
Apparently Sam hadn't considered that possibility. She blanched, and then squared her shoulders. "Well, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions, right?" She looked around the area. Daniel noted the familiar, secure presence of Teal'c standing between them and the Stargate. Sam ordered, "What we do know is that something happened, and most of our equipment to figure out what it was has disappeared. Our best alternative is to dial what will hopefully be home."
Teal'c questioned, "If it is not our reality, are we not at risk by alerting them to our presence?"
"Like I said, it's a remote possibility, and if it is true, we need to know of potential entropic issues." Sam's voice held a note of command. "Right now, I'm more worried that..." Her confident tone lapsed, and she bit her lip. Her voice softer, she turned to Daniel, her expressive eyes unable to hide her fear. "Dial it up, please, Daniel."
Daniel grimaced, suppressing the memories he had of living through two alternate Earth armageddons. Steeling himself to dial, he paused in confusion. The symbols appeared different from what he remembered from before. Getting his bearings, he found the first symbol that would dial home.
His hand passed right through the device as if it wasn't even there.
"Uh...S-Sam?" He glanced over to her. She had been staring off to where the ruins used to be, a worried frown on her face. Realizing he was watching her, she turned, glancing down at the DHD.
"What is it?"
"I-I can't dial." He moved his hand across the width of the DHD; it passed through the device. "I swear, Sam, I checked the DHD when we first arrived. It operated normally."
"Yeah, I saw you do it." She waved her P-90 through the device. "It appears to be a hologram. I wonder if the base is also..." She followed her words with action, getting to her knees and trying to open the crystal area. Her hand passed through it. Undeterred, she reached for her scanner and started moving it around the stone base near the DHD.
"Hologram, not...um," Daniel struggled for the right expression, "not out of phase?" He had to admit the disappearance of everything else made this unlikely, but he couldn't forget how decades ago, Nick had been shifted out-of-phase and transported to another planet at the same time. Daniel wasn't anxious to relive that experience either.
"From these readings, I'm pretty sure it's the DHD that's the problem, not us." She plucked at the grass, which easily broke off in her very solid hands.
Daniel wasn't sure whether to be relieved or more worried. "And...not an alternate reality?"
"I'm thinking no." Sam made a frustrated noise at whatever she was seeing on her scanner. "It's more likely we went through some kind of transporter to another location. Something similar happened to Colonel O'Neill a couple years ago."
Sam looked around again and Daniel followed her gaze. He thought he remembered there being two suns, but it was hard to gauge with the thick cloud cover. Several yards away, there were more trees in a full circle of the clearing where this false Stargate and arch sat. Teal'c was walking along the perimeter of the woods.
Daniel looked back to Sam, who grimaced. "It would explain why everything looks different. We could be miles away from the real Stargate, or even on a neighboring moon."
Daniel tried to follow her logic. "So, the good news is, we're probably still in the planetary vicinity of where we started in this reality. The bad news is we're trapped."
Sam got up and dusted off her knees. "That sums it up."
"Oh, Jack is not going to be happy." Daniel looked over at the archway. "Should we try door number one again?"
Sam looked leery but followed him back. "Don't get too close," she ordered unnecessarily. Daniel planned to stay far back. He could translate the archway just fine from here.
Sam ran her scanner while standing next to Daniel. "It's not reading anything." She started circling the archway, careful to maintain a safe distance. "Nothing at all."
Daniel renewed his translations of the faded writings. The same note stating "entrance," but a few more words were listed here--some reference to the passage of days, a few words he couldn't make out and something...storage? Part of this reminded him of an old poem, but he couldn't place it. He tried to continue reading, but the words were too faded.
His thoughts were interrupted by Sam's calling to him. She had moved from the archway over to the Stargate. He joined her. Daniel wondered if it was his imagination that the circle appeared smaller than the traditional ring. Sam was tentatively touching the device.
She said, "It's solid: not a hologram, but it's not a Stargate. At least not one that we're familiar with. There's only five chevrons visible."
Daniel blinked. Now that he looked again, the differences were obvious. "The symbols are the same as that holographic DHD. They're not traditional chevrons. Some are recognizable, but others...." He shook his head and pinched his nose, trying to clear his mind to consider possibilities. "It doesn't make sense to have a dialing device with no way to use it." He paused, remembering something Sam said earlier. "You mentioned this happened before? To Jack?"
"Well, not the DHD thing, but yeah. To him and Colonel Maybourne. It was during that year you were..." Sam broke off and looked uncomfortable.
"Glowy?" Daniel grimaced while using the euphemism, but he thought Sam needed the humor at the moment. He wasn't quite able to pin down her mood, but she seemed unusually upset, even given their current circumstance.
The lighter tone worked. She chuckled faintly and sighed. "Yeah. Maybourne initialized a doorway that led to a moon orbiting the planet. We searched the whole planet-the Tok'ra even sent a ship. We had no hope before we figured out the device sent them to a moon."
He vaguely remembered reading about that mission report in his "catching up" days, but he was going through information overload at the time. And none of his teammates seemed willing to discuss it in any further detail, so Daniel hadn't pressed. He wondered now if he should have. Teal'c was at the far side of the clearing, so he had no other sounding board but Sam, and her expression was very closed. "Well, with that experience under his belt, maybe he'll start searching the moons first," Daniel joked, trying to gauge Sam's melancholy mood.
Sam gave a wan smile. "Maybe." She was staring again at the atmosphere. "I'm almost wondering if we are on the same world, just a different region. The foliage is so similar." She pulled out another device from her pocket, one Daniel recognized as the Stargate locator beacon. Ever since the Nox planet, teams never left the indicator on the FRED. She shook her head. "Wherever we are, the Stargate is out of range."
"What is the range on those things?"
"One hundred kilometers."
Daniel winced at the distance that indicated. "Well, at least the present company is much better than Harry Maybourne."
She gave a genuine smile at that; then frowned in puzzlement. "But on that mission, the technology was Furling. All indications from the initial UAV are that this place was Ancient. You didn't see Furling writings at all, did you?"
"No," Daniel replied. "But we know the Furlings and Ancients were part of an alliance. It's conceivable they would've shared information and technology, including some kind of transporter." The possibilities struck him like sledgehammer. The archway had mentioned "storage". Would this be a different variation for what they called their repository of knowledge? Perhaps if Furlings were involved, it could be something even different. Alight with excitement, he turned to Sam. "What if this is the location of another Heliopolis!"
Sam's expression was skeptical. "I don't know, Daniel. The Ancients already had rings as a transporter. Why would they create something like this?"
Daniel was surprised she didn't appear as excited as he, but his excitement was undampened. "But if they were working with the Furlings on some experiments or discovery, it would make sense the technology could be a hybrid."
Sam furrowed her eyebrows in thought and looked again at the sky. "You may be right. The Furling device Maybourne used coordinated with the moon cycle of the planet. Perhaps it's timed. Dawn was breaking when we came through the doorway." She sighed. "But it looks like full daylight here, which means we're a long way from where we started. It's P2X-887 all over again. Get the team stuck searching for advanced tech. No way out."
"It's not the same as 887. We're not in a musty, empty cave this time, for one thing." He smiled at Sam's suppressed snort of laughter. " And no saying 'no way out' when we've just scratched the surface. We've had years of experience getting out of messes. We'll figure it out this time...eventually." Daniel hoped she wasn't running a tally on how often each of them had gotten into these messes. Come to think of it, Teal'c probably was. He kept the oddest statistics.
Daniel derailed that rather disturbing train of thought to focus on the issue at hand. He looked at the mysterious devices around him and shrugged. "The Ancients had this archway lead us to somewhere. We should find out why. Whether it's another Heliopolis, or another dead end, it's worth exploring. And maybe it'll give us a clue on how to leave. In the meantime, we're together and uninjured. It could be worse."
As if in response to this comment, the darkening skies let fall a torrent of rain. Daniel blinked at the drops speckling his glasses and put on his most contrite expression. He saw Sam already opening her mouth, so he lifted his finger. "Don't. Don't even say it. I know. I'm sorry."
She chuckled while grabbing her boonie hat from a pocket. Daniel did the same while wondering if he should just pull off his pack to find his poncho. Wiping his glasses on his dampening sleeve, he saw Teal'c running up to them.
"Colonel Carter, we must leave this area immediately." He looked very serious.
"Yeah." Sam nodded. "Daniel and I were discussing doing some recon before the rain started."
Teal'c shook his head. "The precipitation is not my concern. I have spotted Jaffa tracks."
Brigadier General Jack O'Neill tried not to worry. He really did. SG-1 was only an hour overdue. It had happened to other teams before, it would happen again. SG-6 had been three hours late just last week because protocol didn't allow dialouts during electrical storms. And then there was that native festival on P9C-403 that had gone on longer than anticipated for SG-3. The team was fine, even if that one lieutenant had looked a bit tipsy. But it didn't stop Jack from worrying all the same. And no matter what way he'd try to spin it to himself, the fact that it was SG-1 was an added worry. He trusted his old team; that didn't stop his concern. Maybe Hammond was right, it should be a four person team, but Jack just couldn't handle adding "his" replacement. Well, technically, Carter was his replacement, but that was a question of semantics. Times like now, he questioned his selfishness of not adding a fourth. Then again, maybe he'd just be worried about four people now instead of three.
Finally, the sixty minute mark had come and gone. And Jack couldn't shake that niggling feeling of deja vu from the last time SG-1 had not checked in on schedule. They'd been trapped for days, and big, bad Ba'al had bluffed he'd kidnapped the team. Jack really didn't need to see the rerun. He headed down the stairwell to the control room.
Walter Harriman had anticipated him once again. Jack could tell from the computer monitor the coordinates to P7X-485 were already called up, and Walter had his finger poised over the send button, awaiting Jack's order. Grimacing, he nodded his head and Harriman started the dialing sequence.
Jack fidgeted while Walter called out the familiar announcements, ending with "Chevron Seven locked," and the Stargate burst to life. Harriman pressed some switches and turned to Jack. "MALP is active, sir."
Jack leaned forward and keyed the microphone. Trying to sound casual, he transmitted, "SG-1, you know how I worry when you don't make curfew."
They waited. Interminable moments seemed like hours. His second transmission was curt and formal. "SG-1, respond." After another few seconds passed without answer, he turned to Walter. "Can you call up the MALP camera?"
"Yes, sir." Walter punched some buttons on his keyboard and a video image showed on the screen. There was no sign of anyone or anything except the DHD and some trees in the distance. Panning the area brought no further signs of anyone, but Jack's heart plummeted to his stomach at what he spotted in the distance. The FRED was tilted halfway in a ditch, with all of SG-1's gear still on it, seemingly abandoned.
"SG-1, this is Stargate Command. Please respond." Jack had given up hope of an answer at this point and was already mentally running down the list of teams on base. SG-5 was experienced in Ancient technology, and SG-12 was gearing up for their own mission. Jack ordered Harriman to call the two team leaders to the briefing room immediately and shut down the Stargate.
He'd brief the teams, ignore the worrying about SG-1, and wonder again why promotions were seen as a good thing.
On to Part 2