fic
Title: Ring of the Gods
Claim:Battlestar Galactica (General Series)
Word Prompt:#044 Circle
Fandoms: BSG/Stargate SG1
Characters: cameo from Sam Carter
Spoilers: none; set pre BSG series and any time in the first seven years of SG1
Rating: same as the shows
Word Count:814
Disclaimer: I don't own Battlestar Galactica or Stargate, else I wouldn't be a poor student right now.
Summary:No one really knew what the Caprican Stargate was, or what it was supposed to do. A short history of the Stargate on Caprica.
Notes:Not beta'd so apologies for any typos, I've been through this repeatedly and some still manage to appear.
The Ring of the Gods, along with the Arrow of Apollo and the Statue of Athena, were prized exhibits not just of the Caprican Museum of Colonial History, but of the Twelve Colonies themselves. It was the Ring however, that remained an enigma in the mind of many Colonials for millennia.
It had for centuries stood outside, where it had been an object of awe to Capricans from the ancient, lost settling days right to the point where the present Museum had been built around it. It had been considered moving it, but minor excavations had revealed it to be wired up to some sort of geothermic power source alongside its accompanying device. No one wanted to tamper with that, not knowing precisely what the Ring really was or its true function. It could be a doomsday device for all the Capricans knew; no one had seen it working, nor did anyone know how to make it work. Superstition and religion kept many away all but up until the last few years before the second Cylon attacks.
That the device was even on Caprica without much of a mention in the Scriptures had been a source of debate for years. Their ancestors never claimed to have built the device, nor was it explicitly said that the Gods had done so, despite the commonly held name for it. Did it then prove the existence of aliens? Everyone knew humans did not originally come from any of the Colonial planets. Did it then mean that at some point Caprica had been inhabited by another race? If so, what had happened to them? Why had no other evidence of their existence been uncovered?
Someone thought to perform a more thorough excavation of the floor in a wider area around the device in the Museum, the result being that such a wealth of artefacts was discovered that the Ring had to be roped off and serious considerations put into closing the entire building. Most of what was found was never put on display - stone tablets adorned with strange writings, technology beyond their comprehension, but so ancient it was unbelievable.
Mere days before the attacks, historians and scientists succeeded in translating a tablet buried alongside the Ring, and finally discovered what it was.
A transportation device.
Such things were supposed to belong in the realm of science fiction, this especially it should seem since it operated by creation of wormholes, allowing instantaneous interstellar travel. The tablet even helped them to open one of these wormholes, back to what the writings named as the homeworld of the human race. Everyone naturally assumed this to be the legendary Kobol, home of the Gods. Many would be superstitious of course, but they were scientists. If the Gods forbade this action they would have caused some way of making sure the wormhole was never opened. The Ring was subsequently allowed to shut down, whereupon the scientists and historians began the debate as to where or how to proceed next.
As it turned out, it didn’t matter at all.
The Cylons returned, and rained their radioactive fire down from the skies onto the Colonies of their birth. The attacks came so soon after the activation of the Ring that there was no record of it ever having been achieved. Nothing to tell the Cylons of what they’d done, and almost certainly anything that could have was destroyed in the attacks.
Meanwhile…
The alarms continued to blare out as Samantha Carter sat down at the computer and began to type. She frowned as the computer analysed data on the incoming wormhole and reported the address unknown. They’d never seen it before, and, if what she was looking at was right, it was from an unknown region of the galaxy.
Nothing left to do, Sam sat back and watched as the gate disengaged, no hint of an incoming traveller or transmissions of any sort. It wasn’t often such an event happened, and oddly enough, it reminded her of when they opened the ‘gate to test for viability on the other side, just without a probe being sent through. Going back further, it bore similarities to their own Stargate program starting out, testing to see if the ‘gate would open at all.
They would, a few days later, send a MALP through, but on seeing the bombed out city on the other side, Hammond wasn’t willing to send a team through, especially in light of the radiation readings sent back.
The address wasn’t locked out of the dialling computer, but rather had a small note set aside it on the off chance it could be explored at a later, less pressing date when radiation levels dropped or there being time and equipment to spare. And a small warning in the event of incoming travellers from an apparently devastated world.
In the end, the address was quietly forgotten.
Claim:Battlestar Galactica (General Series)
Word Prompt:#044 Circle
Fandoms: BSG/Stargate SG1
Characters: cameo from Sam Carter
Spoilers: none; set pre BSG series and any time in the first seven years of SG1
Rating: same as the shows
Word Count:814
Disclaimer: I don't own Battlestar Galactica or Stargate, else I wouldn't be a poor student right now.
Summary:No one really knew what the Caprican Stargate was, or what it was supposed to do. A short history of the Stargate on Caprica.
Notes:Not beta'd so apologies for any typos, I've been through this repeatedly and some still manage to appear.
The Ring of the Gods, along with the Arrow of Apollo and the Statue of Athena, were prized exhibits not just of the Caprican Museum of Colonial History, but of the Twelve Colonies themselves. It was the Ring however, that remained an enigma in the mind of many Colonials for millennia.
It had for centuries stood outside, where it had been an object of awe to Capricans from the ancient, lost settling days right to the point where the present Museum had been built around it. It had been considered moving it, but minor excavations had revealed it to be wired up to some sort of geothermic power source alongside its accompanying device. No one wanted to tamper with that, not knowing precisely what the Ring really was or its true function. It could be a doomsday device for all the Capricans knew; no one had seen it working, nor did anyone know how to make it work. Superstition and religion kept many away all but up until the last few years before the second Cylon attacks.
That the device was even on Caprica without much of a mention in the Scriptures had been a source of debate for years. Their ancestors never claimed to have built the device, nor was it explicitly said that the Gods had done so, despite the commonly held name for it. Did it then prove the existence of aliens? Everyone knew humans did not originally come from any of the Colonial planets. Did it then mean that at some point Caprica had been inhabited by another race? If so, what had happened to them? Why had no other evidence of their existence been uncovered?
Someone thought to perform a more thorough excavation of the floor in a wider area around the device in the Museum, the result being that such a wealth of artefacts was discovered that the Ring had to be roped off and serious considerations put into closing the entire building. Most of what was found was never put on display - stone tablets adorned with strange writings, technology beyond their comprehension, but so ancient it was unbelievable.
Mere days before the attacks, historians and scientists succeeded in translating a tablet buried alongside the Ring, and finally discovered what it was.
A transportation device.
Such things were supposed to belong in the realm of science fiction, this especially it should seem since it operated by creation of wormholes, allowing instantaneous interstellar travel. The tablet even helped them to open one of these wormholes, back to what the writings named as the homeworld of the human race. Everyone naturally assumed this to be the legendary Kobol, home of the Gods. Many would be superstitious of course, but they were scientists. If the Gods forbade this action they would have caused some way of making sure the wormhole was never opened. The Ring was subsequently allowed to shut down, whereupon the scientists and historians began the debate as to where or how to proceed next.
As it turned out, it didn’t matter at all.
The Cylons returned, and rained their radioactive fire down from the skies onto the Colonies of their birth. The attacks came so soon after the activation of the Ring that there was no record of it ever having been achieved. Nothing to tell the Cylons of what they’d done, and almost certainly anything that could have was destroyed in the attacks.
Meanwhile…
The alarms continued to blare out as Samantha Carter sat down at the computer and began to type. She frowned as the computer analysed data on the incoming wormhole and reported the address unknown. They’d never seen it before, and, if what she was looking at was right, it was from an unknown region of the galaxy.
Nothing left to do, Sam sat back and watched as the gate disengaged, no hint of an incoming traveller or transmissions of any sort. It wasn’t often such an event happened, and oddly enough, it reminded her of when they opened the ‘gate to test for viability on the other side, just without a probe being sent through. Going back further, it bore similarities to their own Stargate program starting out, testing to see if the ‘gate would open at all.
They would, a few days later, send a MALP through, but on seeing the bombed out city on the other side, Hammond wasn’t willing to send a team through, especially in light of the radiation readings sent back.
The address wasn’t locked out of the dialling computer, but rather had a small note set aside it on the off chance it could be explored at a later, less pressing date when radiation levels dropped or there being time and equipment to spare. And a small warning in the event of incoming travellers from an apparently devastated world.
In the end, the address was quietly forgotten.