N'has'y

The Sun On The Horizon

Chapter Ten

Kemyt and Abjdeu

EARTH

COLORADO SPRINGS

Catherine Langford put the finishing touches to the birthday cake and slid it into the picnic hamper. Silver goblets and a bottle of sparkling wine finished off Ernest’s birthday lunch.

‘Ernest, are you ready? Did you find the blanket?’ she called.

He appeared in the hallway, dressed for Colorado’s chill autumn. ‘Ready,’ he said, sparse as ever with words.

‘Well, good. Off we go then.’

He took the basket, she picked up the car keys, and they were ready for another birthday picnic: an enjoyable habit they’d practiced since their marriage six years ago. Regrettably, this time it was just the two of them. Last time, Catherine’s birthday, had been celebrated with Daniel, Jack, Sam, Teal'c and George. But this year… she sighed. Daniel was lost amongst the stars, Jack, Teal'c and Sam had been offworld months now, searching for him, and George had declined the invitation – although he had sent a lovely hamper.

Ernest opened the front door and jumped at the sight of a young woman marching up the path toward them. Uncomfortable with strangers since his return to Earth, he stepped aside and let Catherine greet the visitor.

‘Doctor Langford, Doctor Littlefield? I’m Merrie Stern. I met you at your presentation in New York last year. I do apologise for disturbing you both at home.’ She pushed unruly black curls out of her eyes and smiled at them.

‘How do you do, is it Ms Stern?’

‘Professor, actually. I teach at UCLA. I believe Doctor Daniel Jackson is an acquaintance of yours?’

‘Daniel? Yes, he is – a very good friend. In fact, we think of him as a son.’

‘I need to get something to him. I’m going to Peru on a dig for the next year, and I really must hand these journals to him before I go, but I can’t seem to contact him anywhere. His phone and mail are all forwarded to a rather unhelpful Air Force man.’ She paused for breath. ‘Do you know where Daniel is?’

‘Daniel is away,’ Catherine said, the truth making her throat tight. ‘He’s not been able to give us a date when he will return.’

‘I see.’ Professor Stern looked down at the carry bag she held. ‘Doctor Jackson spoke so highly of you both in New York, and I daren’t leave these at home in case he returns before I do and thinks I’ve absconded with them.’

Catherine ushered her inside and they followed her into the sitting room.

‘These journals belonged to Doctor Jackson’s father. I wonder—could I impose and ask you and Doctor Littlefield to safe-guard them for Doctor Jackson?’

‘Why of course, Professor Stern.’ Catherine accepted the bag with reverence. ‘I know how deeply Daniel will treasure these. We’ll give them to him as soon as he comes home.’

‘Oh, thank you, that will be a weight off my mind. I must run, now. Thank you both, so much.’

They waved her off then returned to their study where Catherine locked the journals in their fire-proof safe.

‘There’s a nice picnic spot on the road to Cheyenne Mountain,’ Ernest said.

Catherine smiled and hugged her husband. ‘How clever you are, my dear.’

Å

SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT

SS SPACEMONKEY

They parked Spacemonkey out in the empty black of space, far from anywhere. For two hours they crawled into every nook and cranny, pried up removable panels and those that weren’t, gathering a bewildering array of trackers, listening and recording bugs. The Carters rigged up a controlled EMP to sweep the outer hull of any foreign attachments out of their reach. Aris Boch proved himself useful with a number of gadgets that let them track any alien devices, both passive and those transmitting a signal.

Jack dropped his fifth tracker into the collection bucket. Teal'c pulled his zat and vaporised the lot of them.

‘I believe that’s all there is to find, O'Neill,’ Boch said.

‘EMP worked too, sir,’ Carter said. She had globs of engine grease in her hair and a satisfied look on her face. ‘We should be clear.’

‘Good job. Go get cleaned up. Teal'c, let’s get moving.’

‘To which destination, O'Neill?’ Teal'c slid into the pilot’s chair, and warmed up the big red control ball.

‘Back to Abydos.’ Jack looked at his motley crew. ‘Were not giving up. We’ll have a rethink, contact Hammond, come up with the next step.’

‘Now we know a bit more about this attack on Ba'al,’ Jacob said, ‘I’ll contact the Tok’ra, see if they tracked the battle were Daniel was lost.’

Boch cleared his throat noisily.

‘Something on your mind?’ Jack pinned him with a glare.

‘There was a ship, took off just before we did.’

‘Yes, there was.’ Jack hadn’t missed it, but Boch actually mentioning it surprised him.

‘It was a bounty hunter. Cirian Kacha. She’s good. Not as good as me, mind you, but competent.’

‘Ba'al’s put another bounty on Daniel?’ Jack ground his molars. Last thing he needed was a pack of hired guns on Daniel’s trail.

‘Cirian is more a specialised tracker. She doesn’t usually go for the general hunts.’ Boch braced himself as Spacemonkey shifted into hyperspace. ‘Smooth. Ba'al’s engineers know what they’re doing. She’s a lone operator, O'Neill. And she owes me a favour. Maybe I can get her on our side.’

‘Maybe.’ Jack wasn’t going to hold his breath on that.

Å

N'HAS’Y

KEMYT CITY

‘Hold!’

The shout had barely left Daniel’s lips before it was taken up and repeated through the ranks of workers surrounding him. He hobble-hopped past the crews straining on the guide ropes – twenty men and women apiece – and knelt awkwardly on the newly constructed plinth.

Twenty-seven days of meetings, arguments, planning, drawing up drafts, assembling workers, overseeing the construction of the plinth, and removal of the Stargate from the library wall – barely a brick dislodged, he was proud to say – with heavy haulage equipment drawn in from upriver, sleepless nights spent imagining every possible contingency alternating with crushing moments of doubt about whether he should even try to connect the ‘gate to the galactic network, interspersed with odd moments of sheer panic that Ba'al would turn up right now before they could dial out for help, sprinkled with surprised pauses when he realised just what it was he and the enthusiastic N'Hasians were doing…

It all came down to this moment.

The Stargate hung from the elegant crane erected in the square, surrounded by the academic and archival buildings. Daniel’s euphoria at discovering the Stargate in the library’s wall had barely faded since that early morning. When the Elder Council realised he hadn’t gone nuts, and Daniel had dissuaded them from firing it up then and there – and probably punching a matching hole in the other side of the building – everyone eagerly set to the task.

Scientists and engineers of all persuasion had flocked to offer their knowledge and to absorb whatever Daniel could impart to them. He’d been apprehensive in those first chaotic days that he’d lose touch with his Clan, but that had swiftly faded; they were all here and had been with him every step of the way. Unrealised talents – on Daniel’s part – were discovered. Trettish the gardener was a former engineer, Safia held qualifications in physics, Ayshal a talented astronomer.

While a group of clever people worked on a way to power the Stargate, based on Daniel’s somewhat limited knowledge, and curators and scholars from many disciplines searched for the DHD, Daniel worked in the square. The library structure was inspected, reinforced, then the Stargate was painstakingly removed. Every day, as more and more Clans arrived from far-country towns or nomadic paths, Daniel and his Clan constructed a rather beautiful stand from a granite-like stone of incredible strength, to bear the ‘gate. All the while, Sabire was nearby, often serenading everyone with his music. It was a nice way to work.

And now, here they were. A metre separated the gleaming Stargate from its new home. Daniel raised one hand, lowered it fractionally. The ‘gate dipped down. One centimetre at a time, it descended into its cradle.

‘A little more,’ he muttered, eyes darting from one side of the monolith to the other. The measurements ensured the 7th and 8th chevrons would not be swallowed by the cradle, but he had to be up close, to be sure. A slip, a cracked jewel and it would all be over. ‘A little more.’

Trettish and chief engineer Reiner flanked him, measuring, calling instructions. The many hundreds of onlookers fell silent.

Ten centimetres. He reached up, cupped his hand over the inner track.

Five centimetres. The wind picked up, pushing the ‘gate out of alignment by three millimetres. The guide rope foreman called out, directing the hands to haul in or slack off.

Three centimetres. Back on course.

Two centimetres. Steady.

One centimetre. Daniel curled his fingers inside the ring.

Zero. It slid home; the outer ring disappeared into the brace until the inner track was even with the top of the platform. The Stargate settled with a ground-deep thud. Done.

Perfectly supported, the ring sat solid and sure, as if it had always been there.

Daniel let out a shaky breath, swamped in a sudden rush of emotion. Home, home, home. He wanted to leap up and throw himself through the wormhole. That quickly faded in a rush of guilt. Belatedly, he realised people were cheering and ringing bells in a multi-toned celebration. The sounds blended and lifted up into the air, a joyous day to be remembered by all.

He pushed himself upright. ‘Well done, everyone. Now for the hard part.’

Å

STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

SS SPACEMONKEY

The trip back to Abydos took days. They homed in on the pyramid and made planetfall in Nagada’s early evening. Skaara, under Teal'c’s tutelage, brought them in over the dunes toward the city, waggling the wings to show the watch guard on Nagada’s gates there was nothing to fear. Cutting a wide arc around the city – he was not going to bury his market garden under piles of back-washed sand – Skaara settled the ship on the east side of the city.

‘Thank you, Teal'c, for teaching me the ways of this vessel.’

‘You are most welcome, Skaara. You are an adept pupil.’ Teal'c bowed his head.

Skaara grinned and joined Seni and Tobay. They raced down the ramp, waving at the militia who were pouring out of the east gate. Jack hung back as the others left. Teal'c and Carter stayed with him, watching the reunion out on the sand.

‘We’ll find him, sir.’

‘Indeed.’ Teal'c sounded even more confident than Carter.

Jack shook off the gloom lurking in the back of his mind. ‘Yes. We will.’ He looked at them, really looked. Confidence, hope, determination; neither of them were about to give up on their teammate. Even though they still had no idea where Daniel was, the information they’d managed to uncover brought him closer to them, if in spirit only.

‘Y’know.’ Jack picked up his pack and headed out into the warm, spice-scented night air. ‘I’m thinking we send Hammond some of Skaara’s aunt’s preserved toja berries. Keep him sweet. And off our backs…’

Å

N'HAS’Y

KEMYT CITY

One thing Daniel really liked about the Elder Council was they made decisions really quickly. Need to half demolish the national library to extract an alien gateway to other planets? Sure, how big a crane do you need? Need to engineer from scratch a power source to supply said alien gateway? How many people would you like? There were no committees, no costing proposals, no bickering over who owned/controlled/paid for anything. The Stargate was as much a part of N'Has'y as the land, the rivers or the air – therefore ownership and use belonged to everyone.

Kinsey would never get a job here. Daniel glanced admiringly at the Elders as they walked reverently around the Stargate, heads of a very long line of people come to inspect this fascinating new addition to their daily lives. The only person not entirely pleased with Daniel’s discovery had been Vanesh, head librarian of the library which now sported an enormous hole in its side. He glanced over at the scaffolding propping up what had turned out to be a load-bearing wall, and the workers swarming around it. Which reminded him, he had to talk to her about that name. Library of Thoth, indeed.

‘It is an object of great beauty, Daaniel.’ Sabire stood next to him, surveying the ‘gate with satisfaction. ‘It gleams as if newly made, and not a thing lost, found, moved and made a part of a building for so many hundreds of seasons.’

‘That’s the naquada, the mineral it’s made from. Hardest and most durable element we’ve ever found.’

‘When I touched it, it felt like a living thing.’

‘Yes, they’re all like that. Buried in the wall it felt cold, but once we got it out here in the sun, it… came alive almost.’ Daniel paused. ‘Something I’ve never really considered before. I wonder if the Gatebuilders incorporated some kind of photovoltaic system in the ‘gates. Must remember to ask Sam.’

‘She of the hair of gold. I look forward to meeting her, Daaniel. And all your Earthy friends.’

Daniel looked down at his feet, suddenly overwhelmed. ‘I can’t believe this is actually happening, Sabire. I’ve been disconnected from everything I knew for so long, and then the Clan and you made me so welcome. I felt like I belonged here. And now, everything is changing again. I hope—you don’t think I’m abandoning you, that I used your hospitality just to fill in a gap until I could leave?’

Sabire gave a mighty snort of disbelief. ‘Pah! Never have you used any of us, my little pale friend. The land of your birth is in your blood all your life, no matter where one journeys. Never regret leaving, never regret returning: this, my mother told me. And, as she also told me, she is always right.’

Daniel nodded. ‘Mothers usually are.’ He looked up at his friend. ‘I haven’t actually asked, Sabire, but will you come with me, visit the land of my birth and the land of my heart?’ Taking Sabire to Abydos would be much easier than trying to get him out of Cheyenne Mountain.

Sabire puffed his chest out and straightened to his full height. Sombrely, he accepted. ‘Daaniel, you give me the greatest honour. To place my humble feet upon your home lands will be the proudest moment of my life. May I bring my music with me? I would serenade your folk with our most appealing songs.’ His expression suddenly crumpled. ‘They do appreciate song, do they not? They—they do not all sing… like you?’

‘Well, like most cultures we appreciate… Hey!’ Daniel thwacked him on the arm as Sabire cracked up laughing.

‘My apologies. I accept your invitation with much anticipation.’ A genuinely serious frown creased his forehead. ‘I do wonder, though, which words to use in greeting to your good people. We would not wish an unwisely spoken word to offend.’

‘Well, the translation function of the Stargate will affect you, once you pass through it. It generally doesn’t take long to establish a usable lexicon in travellers. But, until that happens I can coach you in a few standard greetings, ones that are acceptable to both the military and civilians on Earth, and there are some fascinating Abydonian customs…’

He pulled out his journal and began jotting notes. ‘I can write out some guidelines. Anyone who comes with us will need to know some words, and a few customs, although the SGC is used to offworld visitors, but it would help so that they don’t take us by surprise. Abydos has fewer formalities that could cause problems, well, as long as they don’t try to marry you off to one of Kasuf’s nieces, that is. Uh, I don’t know who else will be coming with us. Does the Elder Council decide, or should I invite people?’ He lifted his eyes from the journal and stared unseeing at the space in the centre of the Stargate. ‘Oh, geez.’

‘Daaniel?’

‘I’m going home,’ he said. Sudden constriction in his throat choked the words to a whisper. ‘Everything could have changed. Jack, Teal'c, Sam…’ Could be dead. Worse, they might have replaced him, and just got on with life without him. ‘Ba'al or Anubis might have attacked Earth. There might not be anything to go back to.’

Sabire laid a large comforting hand on his shoulder. ‘You think too wildly, Daaniel. What has happened is unchangeable. What stands before us will be a grand adventure. Do not encourage disaster by giving it voice.’

‘Que sera, sera,’ Daniel murmured. ‘You’re right. And we won’t go anywhere unless we get the ‘gate working.’ He ran his eye over the Stargate: now solidly anchored in the plinth, N'Hasian scientists swarming around it connecting up the power conduits they had been working tirelessly to construct. He’d given them everything he knew about powering a Stargate without a DHD, from lightning to Kera’s fusion fronds, to the enormous jumper leads the SGC used.

Ingeniously, they’d come up with their own version: more durable than the one-trip only lightning / frond attempts, less draining than the first SGC power-ups, which had browned out half of Colorado. The groove carved into the plinth contained a well of super-conductive fluid. When charged from a large generator nearby, it would power the entire Stargate. Hopefully. They’d soon know.

He looked up, around the square: at the beautiful, outlandish buildings; the groups of people working around the Stargate; the Elder Council seated under the shady trees, deep in discussion; at the Kendasai making their way through the crowd barriers bearing lunch and great pride at being hailed the Clan of Daaniel of Eart; and at the crowd happily camped out behind the barriers, fully equipped with deck chairs, sun umbrellas, coolers full of food, watching everything they did with unabashed enthusiasm. Some saw him look their way and waved and cheered. He grinned and waved back, causing a mini-riot as everyone waved, hooted and rang bells at him.

Daniel sighed. He stood at an all-too familiar crossroad, faced with leaving one life to start – or resume – another. This time it’ll be different. I won’t abandon them. He reaffirmed the decision he had gradually realised on the long journey through N'Has'y’s sands. Unless he could return to this world he would not leave, and he would not let any of the N'Hasians take a one-way trip either. He knew what it was to be cut off from the land of your birth, or heart, and he would not let anyone else endure such pain.

Which brought them to their biggest problem. He and Sabire walked over to the Elder Council, who rose and invited them to sit. Daniel sank gratefully into a chair, his leg aching from the hours of hobbling around the Stargate.

‘The work proceeds well, Daaniel?’ asked Elder Constile.

‘Yes, the Stargate sits in the plinth as if it has always belonged there. Everyone involved is to be commended.’

‘Can we use it now, Daaniel?’ asked Elder Koma.

‘Uh, well, we probably can, once the science team complete their tests.’ He looked at the earnest faces around him. ‘But there is one thing we need before anyone can step through the Stargate.’ He knew there had been a lot of discussion about the worlds at the other end of the Stargate, and that exploration parties had been forming all over the city.

‘Continue, Daaniel,’ Gramire nodded encouragingly.

‘In order to connect the Stargate here to a ‘gate on another world, we need the address of that world: six glyphs for the destination and the point of origin glyph.’

‘These are the addresses you have given us?’ Elder Constile gestured with her copy of the list he’d written out for them, all worlds the SGC had established as safe and friendly.

‘That’s correct. However, we cannot leave N'Has'y without discovering the address for this world. Without it, no one will be able to return.’

That caused a murmur of concern.

‘Where is the address to this world, Daaniel?’ Gransire asked.

‘I don’t know. We have a list, actually two lists, of addresses on Earth. Our exploration follows the process of picking an address, checking if the world is viable, then going through and matching the world to the address. We’ve only ever had to search for an address twice – and those were both recorded on very old historical artefacts. I’ve asked Librarian Lotha and Archivist Mheme to search for such an artefact, but they have not as yet found anything.’

‘Is there no other place an address will be recorded?’

‘There is. Every Stargate is supported by a machine, what we call the Dial Home Device, which engages an address into the Stargate’s technology and activates the wormhole. We’ve found that each DHD bears the address of that world, allowing the occupants to travel away from – and back to – their world.’

Sam had made that discovery, years ago when she’d dived into the inner workings of the DHD on their second mission. They’d later theorised that Ra must have travelled the galaxy at some point, stopping at worlds with a Stargate and recording the address, thus amassing the enormous repository he’d found in the Abydos Cartouche Room.

‘But, we have not found the device you described, Daaniel.’

‘No, but we have a clue, a very good one. Each Stargate bears one symbol unique to the world it sits upon. All we need to do is find the address ending with N'Has'y’s symbol. And I know where to look.’

Å

ABYDOS

NAGADA

Night fell swiftly and completely on Abydos. It was too dangerous to make the trip through shifting dunes to the pyramid until dawn returned the suns to the sky. With no disturbances reported, SG-1 and 2 settled down in guest quarters for dinner and some welcome rest. Kasuf listened intently to everything Jack and Skaara told him, one hand resting on his son’s arm.

‘This Ba'al – he is false, as was the shatal Ra?’

‘Yes, father. He is Goa'uld.’ Skaara sat cross-legged near the hearth fire. ‘He uses Dan’yer for his own purpose, but now has lost Dan’yer out amongst the stars.’

‘We’ll keep looking, Kasuf.’ Jack stretched his legs out, soaking up the warmth in Kasuf’s home. Outside, in the open pathways between buildings, the desert night was crisply cold.

Kasuf nodded. ‘When you find my Good Son, you will bring him here, to his home.’ To Kasuf, Earth would never be Daniel’s true home.

‘Sure will.’ Jack caught Skaara’s eye and winked. A roar of laugher drifted out of a house nearby: Ferretti and the others unwinding. ‘Think I’ll catch some sleep. Night.’

Sleep was short-lived, and after an hour of lying awake listening to the mastages mumbling softly to themselves in a bier down the street, Jack rose and dressed. The sounds of the city surrounded him: a baby fretting, someone who sounded like Skaara crying out in a dream, a couple making noisy, giggling love.

He wandered through the city. Up on the ramparts, the night guard kept watch, for sandstorms more than anything these days. He strolled along the narrow streets, up and down mud-brick stairs, over hemp and wooden bridges. He really did love this place. There were no expectations here, just be fair, be happy. In the very rare moments when he thought of retirement, he fantasised living here. Daniel would, the moment he left the SGC. And Lou had all but put his house on the market.

The SGC Retirement Home. Kick back and grow old disgracefully. He hopped across a creaking bridge and up onto the ramparts, to find himself at the rear of the city. Dawn was just breaking over the hills far to the south. Jack watched as crags and gullies took shape in the growing light, still mysterious and promising interesting times for any willing explorer. The Abydonians had not ventured too far yet, from their home, apart from the long-range hunting parties that ventured out each cool season. Bet Daniel would enjoy exploring up there. Suddenly, he felt tired. Tired of fighting an unstoppable enemy, tired of losing friends and good soldiers, tired of battling the very people who should support them unquestioningly. Maybe it is time to retire. But, not quite yet.

‘Jack.’ Skaara’s soft call announced his presence.

‘Hey, kido.’

‘The desert is beautiful in the dawn light.’

‘Yeah. What do you say we take Daniel on an exploration of those mountains? Could be fun.’

Skaara cocked his head. ‘You would leave the comfort of the city to sleep on the ground, be burned to a husk by the sun, freeze your man-ness off at night?’

‘Sure! It’ll be great. We do it all the time on Earth.’

‘Your race is very strange.’ He shook his head, still an odd sight without the long braids. ‘I have told Dan’yer this many times.’

‘Yeah, but you love us.’

‘That I do.’

Jack grinned, but it quickly faded. ‘I don’t know where to look for him now,’ he admitted. ‘How do you find one man in a whole galaxy?’

‘I have thought on this, Jack. Klorel had few dealings with Ba'al, but there were two places of neutrality where system lords would meet. Perhaps we will find something there.’

‘It’s worth a try. We’ll have some breakfast, if the others ever wake up, then go talk to Hammond.’ With some kind of a positive plan to present to the general, hopefully they would avoid orders to return to Earth, orders Jack had no intention of following.

Å

N'HAS’Y

KEMYT CITY

Daniel couldn’t remember ever being this nervous, not even at his wedding, which technically had been their second wedding because he’d sort of missed the first one…

He stood thirty feet from the Stargate, flanking the scientists who monitored the generator and power conductors snaking over to the plinth. To one side stood Sabire, unusually sombre or perhaps too excited to talk. To his left stood Gramire and Gransire, Gramire clutching Daniel’s hand with a death grip. Behind them stood the Elder Council and the Kendasai. Behind them – probably half the planet’s population by now had jammed themselves into every available window, rooftop, tree and spaces in between to watch the first moment of interplanetary contact.

‘Here goes.’ He nodded to the two diallers, Shanti and Kinkala, winners of the lottery to be the first to spin the inner ring.

Shanti and Kinkala pushed and pulled respectively. The ring moved easily, as if it had never lain dormant for centuries. The glyphs sailed past the topmost chevron – the dialling engagement chevron – until Auriga appeared.

‘Hold!’ Daniel called.

There was a second’s pause then the lower left chevron clunked up and down, its crystal glowed red: confirmed.

‘Okay. Next.’

Majestically, the inner ring circled again and again as one by one each glyph in Earth’s address was locked into place. Finally, the last, the unique symbol that looked like a curly capital M, was locked into the top chevron.

Heartbeat pounding madly in his ears, Daniel called out. ‘That’s it. Clear the area. Remember – no one move until I say. The wormhole will vaporise anything and anyone in its path.’

Shanti and Kinkala scuttled past them, huge grins on their faces. Warning whistles rang out from the scientists. Daniel checked three times that everyone was stationary and well clear of the washback zone, then nodded to Binish. ‘Release the power burst.’

Equivalent to pressing the centre crystal on a DHD, they released a measured surge of power into the plinth well. Energy flooded into the Stargate.

Gramire and Sabire gripped him so hard he’d have bruises tomorrow.

Daniel stopped breathing.

With a grinding, whooshing explosion, a wormhole formed in the centre of the Stargate. Excess energy boiled out toward them, then was sucked backwards before settling down into a beautiful blue pond, casually rippling.

The air crackled with ozone. Every hair on Daniel’s body was standing upright. He opened his mouth, gasped a breath.

They’re still there. A viable wormhole connected N'Has'y to Earth. Their Stargate was still there; chances were the SGC and the rest of the planet was too. Unconsciously, he inched forward. The need to just go, run, throw himself into that cold blue embrace was frightening. And get splattered on the iris, if you do. There was a long way to go yet.

‘Well, that worked!’ he said brightly. He waved to the engineers set up behind a battery of radio equipment. His hand was shaking. He tucked it into his pocket and limped over to them.

‘We are broadcasting on the first frequency, Daaniel,’ said the chief operator, Elash.

‘Thank you.’ He cleared his throat. Switched to English. ‘This is Doctor Daniel Jackson, calling SGC niner. Come in please…’

Å

EARTH

SGC, COLORADO SPRINGS

‘Unscheduled off-world activation.’

Master Sergeant Natasha Sullivan’s voice followed the alarm blaring through the mid-morning bustle of the SGC. The Gateroom blast doors rumbled shut and the frontline defence team took up their positions, weapons at the ready.

Hammond walked into the briefing room and stared down at the Stargate. The iris remained firmly closed. He waited another moment, frowned, then moved briskly down the stairs into the control room.

‘What do we have, sergeant?’

‘Um, nothing, sir.’ Sullivan puzzled over the unresponsive instruments in front of her. ‘We’re not picking up any IDC, no video or audio transmissions either.’

‘Who do we have off-world, currently?’

‘SG-7 is on a trade negotiation with SG-9, they’re due back tomorrow. SG-11, SG-15, SG-8 and SG-5 all left on missions yesterday and all have reported in on schedule. They’re not due back till tomorrow and Friday. SG-18 and SG-17 are due in this evening; all their reports so far have not indicated trouble. That just leaves SG-1 and SG-2.’ Who could be anywhere and in any kind of trouble.

George let out a thoughtful sigh. If any of his people were in trouble and had no access to their GDOs they wouldn’t bother trying to dial home. They had half a dozen safe sites established on other planets, where a team in trouble could either gate to and use the buried supplies while waiting to contact home, or merely use as a turnaround point and gate out to another safe hole or friendly planet, or even the Alpha Site, depending on who was on their heels. Odds then were it wasn’t one of their own.

‘Could be a random dialler.’ A lot of people lived on planets with Stargates. It might be someone doing some cold-calling and got lucky. Or someone who had Earth’s address.

‘We haven’t registered any impact on the iris, general.’ Technician Batey called from the rear monitors.

The hiss of open radio channels filled the room. After ten minutes people began shifting restlessly. The guards in the Gateroom didn’t relax, George was pleased to see.

The minutes ticked by. The wormhole stayed active, blue light leaked around the edges of the iris, reflected off the back wall.

‘Coming up to 38 minutes, sir.’

Exactly on the 38 minute mark, the wormhole collapsed. The guards stood at ease. George grunted. Odd, but he’d take an odd occurrence over one that ended in blood and destruction any day.

‘Log it, sergeant.’

‘Yes, sir.’

George headed back upstairs, the incident filed in the curious basket in his brain. He had seven reports to sign off on before 17 and 18 came home that afternoon.

Å

N'HAS’Y

KEMYT CITY

Daniel tried not to let disappointment take a hold. Finding the exact frequency, or any frequency that matched those used on Earth, with completely alien equipment, was going to take time. Still, he’d hoped.

‘Daaniel! Come, sit in the shade and take some tea.’ Ayshal ushered him away from the radio banks set up under an awning that looked like a circus tent. He followed her over to the grassy garden in the centre of the square where most of the Clan had settled. Chairs, lounges and cushions were grouped under the trees. Heavenly scents rose from tables piled with food. He accepted a steaming cup of tea and a jellied bun.

‘How long will it take to talk to your family, Daaniel?’ Teni skipped up to him, and sat cross-legged in the grass at his feet.

‘I don’t know, Teni. The radios here are very different to what we have on Earth. We have to find the wavelength that matches what we use at home, then a frequency that someone on the other end is listening to.’ Without an SGC issue radio, he was fumbling in the etheric dark. Sam could have matched up the radio waves in a heartbeat. For a selfish moment he wished she’d been brought with him. But, no. Soon – very soon – they’d see each other again.

‘Why don’t you try again?’ she asked, mouth full of Jacuna’s pastries.

‘We will, in a little while. You see, a lot of other people use the Stargate on Earth, and while we’re connected to it nobody else can be. So we’ll wait an hour between each try.’

Teni cocked her head and nodded. ‘That is fair. Do you think I could come with you, Daaniel? I would wish to see a new world. I’m sure mother will say yes,’ she rushed on, batting her eyes for good measure.

He chuckled. ‘Probably. Once we make sure it is safe.’ He could talk Kasuf and Skaara into accepting some tourist parties. Having the N'Hasians interact with the Abydonians would do both cultures some good. Possibly, even encourage some of his adopted people to venture off-world themselves. After what had happened to Sha’re and Skaara, no one had even attempted to explore away from their planet.

Å

EARTH

SGC, LEVEL 28, CONTROL ROOM

The Stargate came alive twice more, in a pattern of every 52 minutes after the last connection disengaged.

Each time the caller remained mute and unknown. By the third time, Hammond authorised an attempt at contact from their end.

Off-rota SG teams wandered in and out of the control room, offering opinions or suggestions.

From the mystery caller, there was no reply.

Å

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