Characters: Jack O’Neill, Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal’c
Part: 1
Themes: Precursor to AU, Teamy Goodness, Stranded, Explosions!
ESRB Rating: Teen - Strong Language, Violence
Prompt: 001 Beginnings
Season: 2-esque
Written: January 06
Revamped: August 06
“Chevron five… locked.” Jack tugged down on his hat again as Walter continued what the Colonel always considered ‘the countdown’. Something like a NASA space shuttle launch.
“Chevron six… locked.” Even if it was technically a count ‘up’. And they didn’t so much as go up in a ship as simply stepped through space. Um. His face twisted into a thoughtful scrunch. Whatever, same difference. He wasn’t usually given to waxing philosophic on the actual workings of what he did, he just, you know: did them. Man of action, that was Jack O’Neill, two L’s please. Turning and preemptively squinting towards what would soon be an exploding event horizon, the commanding officer of SG-1 was rather unprepared for—
“Chevron seven… will not lock.” Say again? All four members of the SGCs flagship team turned as one to look up into the control room. General Hammond was already bending over in urgent consultation with the gate technician. “Carter?” It was simply the woman’s name, but Jack’s question was clearly implied.
“It could really be anything, sir. A solar flare of a star along some point in the wormhole’s path, some sort of disruptive fluctuation in the space/time matrix of the gate’s network, a computational error, an unexpected surge in the planet’s magnetic field…” Shifting, the brilliantly blonde, brilliantly brilliant astrophysicist cocked her hip and regarded the other officer. “Since we don’t have an actual DHD, we have to dial in each symbol manually, and so that means that sometimes—”
“Ah, ah!” Jack’s hand sailed between them in an impatient gesture. Man of action, he reminded himself. And listening to Carter go on into theoretical… theory… things just wasn’t very action oriented. From the corner of his eye, O’Neill caught Daniel ducking his head to hide a smirk. And then Carter was giving him an indulgent grin. With a dark scowl — tease HIM will they — he tugged down on his cap again, turning to look back up into the control room. Teal’c stood next to him quietly. He loved this Jaffa. More members of SG-1 should be like him: quiet.
Half turning, Sam began. “Should I…” But at the end of the ramp, the Stargate’s chevrons cleared and the inner circle started to whirl around once more. Looked like they were going for a second try. “Hang on a second, people,” Hammond confirmed over the intercom. Sam lifted a shoulder in half a shrug, turning back around to join the team line-up.
Jack resumed squinting up at the ancient ring, his team in turn regarding it in his or her own fashion: puzzlement, curiosity, resignation. There was a collective holding of breath when the Sergeant announced chevron six… and then chevron seven, locking. The Stargate burst open in its watery display and settled into its familiar shimmers and ripples. Carter only had a shake of her head for an explanation. If anything odd had come up in the logs, she was sure they’d be asking for her up there.
“Sergeant?” Much like O’Neill, Hammond’s asked a complex question of the gate tech in the single word. He had come to stand behind the man, arms down at his sides but wrists fidgeting in turn near his waist. The General looked over the man’s shoulder towards the computer screen.
“Unknown, sir. It simply… worked this time. And I don’t see anything unusual in the computer’s log other than its failure to engage the destination.” Count on the man to multitask and predict future questions in the same keystroke. “No unusual energy spikes, no obvious abnormalities.” The General frowned, but Jack was already moving his team up the ramp. He knew he should stop them, take telemetry from the MALP before letting them go through, but, if Jack was confidante enough to move them ahead….
George motioned absently with one hand. “Call up the MALPs visual.” Walter nodded, casting a glance at SG-1s energy signals through the wormhole before relaying the orders to the probe.
The four roughly stepped out of the event horizon at the same time — and came face to face with a squad of serpent guards. Or, well, they looked more like ‘cat guards’, but it was more or less the same thing: big guys, lots of brushed steel armor, a healthy helping of big animalistic helmets.
“Whoa!” Jack swung his hand wildly in something approximating ’spread out’. Weapons were already being drawn up on both sides as SG-1 rolled for cover. Staff weapon blasts burst over head mingling with zats and bullets. No one seemed to be expecting the other.
The SGC collectively held its breath and pissed its pants when the MALPs telemetry came through. “Colonel O’Neill!” Hammond white knuckled the mic. “Colonel, report! Jack? Captain Carter?” An equipment control technician was panning the camera in a slow and lazy arc. Maybe ten guards seemed to be returning fire while a contingent of two stood near the DHD. One of those two pointed towards the MALP and the second slammed his fist on the red bubble in the center. He’d effectively hung up on them. “Get them back!” But Walter was already punching in the sequence again.
Teal’c personally took down three of the guard in quick succession before SG-1 as a whole regrouped behind the now closed Stargate’s dais. It gave them the hint of coverage, but that was about it. A very brief hint, at that. Carter took out two, Jack giving her cover fire. Daniel laid claim to zatting one, but mostly he was just trying to avoid being blasted to death. The others seemed to know instinctually where enemy fire was going to come down and easily skipped around it. For Daniel, it was more of a moment by moment game of hopscotch. Lucky for him, his teammates were seasoned warriors of the highest caliber. They came in handy when saving his academic backside.
“What the hell is going on here!” It was more a demand than a question, and Jack was barking it out for anyone to dare answer. He squeezed off another volley of shots, taking his aggression out on an assailant. Sam only just rolled out of the way as a low flying staff blast exploded far too close to the edge of their already precarious cover - and her head.
Breathing hard, Carter gathered herself and then shoved up to nail a guard straight in the kneecaps. “No idea!”
Teal’c’s voice was strained as he went to shout. When the Jaffa couldn’t rely on his sonorous resonance to convey importance, his tone always seemed to suffer for it somewhat. “Ubasti guard!”
Like this made sense to him. Growling, Jack asked for clarification. “And that means?”
“Cat guard! Bast! Sekhmet! Maybe Isis!” Daniel supplied, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t see that plain enough for himself. Or like that really cleared anything up for him. It’d just have to be something he’d deal with later. Right now, they just needed to get out of this.
“Don’t we, you know, check an area out before waltzing a team in?!” O’Neill was very, very unhappy. Monumentally unhappy. Surprise fire fights weren’t very high on his wish list. “T, head count?”
“I count four left, O’Neill!”
“And we’re all good?” The Colonel tried to give his team a sidelong appraisal, but the two goons near the DHD were frantically slamming buttons down and futzing with the open panel and the whole thing was just making him twitchy. Next to him on the left, Daniel raised himself to zat but instead took one in the shoulder. Jack could only groan internally. If anyone was going to take a hit, the universe was going to make sure to claim one Dr. Daniel Jackson. The archaeologist winced rather impressively as he slid himself onto his butt.
“Daniel?!” Jack was trying to both keep cover fire as well as turn the man over to get a look at his wound.
“I’m fine! Just grazed. Stings!” Like a good little solider, Daniel set his jaw, rolled to the corner of the dais and zatted his original target from the lower position.
“Christ, what now?” Jack turned right to look at Carter. The gate had suddenly begun to hum and was only growing louder in pitch. And it wasn’t a pretty ‘help is on its way’ hum. It sounded like a real bad hum.
“No clue, sir! Best to run!” If Carter didn’t like the sound of it either…
“Back! Fall back!” Teal’c was up like a shot at the Colonel’s order, spreading a sweeping arc of discharged energy like greek fire at the feet of their remaining enemies. Carter was sprinting, Jack was helping Daniel up and dragging him as best he could, mostly tripping them both with the effort. All four made a 180 from their current position and high tailed it as fast as they could from the Stargate. Could MORE go wrong on a routine survey?
“Will not lock, sir!” Walter and the rest of the gate technicians were in over drive, trying every trick in their play book to reestablish contact between P2X-524 and SG-1. Hammond was pacing which didn’t exactly soothe anyone’s nerves. This was the fourth time the SGC had tried to dial the planet up, but each time their seventh chevron was denied. The General had put the base on full alert after the first retry.
But now he told them to stand down. It was an order ground out through a grim delivery, and it wasn’t one George Hammond really wanted to make. Still, for every time they tried to dial out, they could be blocking SG-1 from dialing in. He ordered the SG-3 marines to join the SFs in the gate room and left standing orders in command to alert him immediately to any changes.
“Sergeant, call up the MALPs last telemetry readings and the system logs and have them on my desk ten minutes ago.” He had to call the President and would need to show him and the Joint Chiefs something. The stead fast Harriman nodded, fingers clacking away on a second keyboard as he did what he was asked.
It was suddenly a very long walk for the General to go up a single flight of stairs and across a conference room to his office where the red phone sat waiting. Guilt made his steps even heavier.
Even a hundred yards away as they were, they could all hear the keening whine coming from the Stargate. It wasn’t just loud but piercing. All four tried to cover their ears as they moved. The fire fight had come to a complete halt the moment the terrible noise had started and SG-1 had made a break for it.
Coming in hot, Daniel getting hurt, a wail to set his fillings to rattle, Jack wanted answers and wanted them now. “What the hell is going on?”
“Got me, sir! The MALP showed nothing like this going on.” Carter was a good solider and a good second in command. Even a good athlete with great breath control to keep up the pace she’d set herself and answer O’Neill in a clear voice. But she wasn’t very helpful to Jack right about now with answers like that.
Teal’c, Sam, Jack and Daniel kept up their sprint, doing what they could to stay up right as they suddenly found themselves semi-tripping down a grassy hill. The gate’s humming was to a point where you couldn’t distinguish it from the ringing in your ears. “Then what’s this noise all abo—” But Jack didn’t get to finish his second demand.
Because in one final pitched scream, P2X-524’s Stargate exploded.
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