Believe
Summary: On an ocean planet SG-1 are looking for anything that might help them in the fight against the goa'uld, when they suddenly find themselves separated – and facing things they've only ever dreamed of.
Timeline & spoilers : Season 2, somewhere between episode 15 and 18.
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The blue sky rose in a cloudless arch over the equally blue sea. A mild wind ruffled the water and sent bright reflections of the sun dancing across a single spot of land rising from the wide expanse. Standing beside the Stargate on the little island, Sam found it easy to see how early man could have thought they were at the centre of the universe, placed on a flat Earth underneath a bowl of sky. Of course, this wasn't the Earth, flat or round. It was just another of thousands, maybe millions, of planets across the Milky Way connected by the Stargate network and on the SGC list of places to go.
They'd had high hopes for this world. Hope that there might be something here to use in the battle against the goa'uld. The address had been among those entered by Jack under the influence of the Ancient repository of knowledge, but it was not part of the Abydos cartouche. The discrepancy had to mean one of two things; that the goa'uld had deemed the planet useless, or that there was something here that they wanted to avoid. The SGC had put their hope – and in some cases their money – on the latter.
However, now that they were here things didn't look so promising. The MALP had shown nothing but thick fog all around the Stargate and SG-1 had been sent to see what they could turn up. What in fact had turned up was that the Stargate sat on a lone island barely thirty paces across. The search had been quick and initially disappointing, as they had found nothing but a few clumps of brush growing in the cracks of the bedrock. There were no signs of people, no writings or indications that the 'gate had been used recently. That is until Daniel found a faint carven design underneath a patch of moss. Armed with his trusted trowel he followed the barely visible lines, uncovering it as he went, while the others mostly tried to stay out of his way. None of them really thought the lines would pan out to anything useful, but the sun was warm and the sea air nice enough to humor him. As Jack had put it – they could hang out a while if Daniel wanted to have a poke-around.
"I found something!"
Daniel's shout ripped Sam from her contemplation and in a short sprint she headed over to where he was crouched down on the ground. In front of him several of the carved lines converged around a small indentation in the rock. He scraped away a clump of moss and swept away the remaining dust with his fingers. When his skin connected with the stone the nearest lines flared with a turquoise light. He quickly drew his hand back and looked up at the rest of them, his eyes connecting with Sam's. She nodded a silent assurance that she had seen it too. Beside her she could feel Jack tense. No doubt he anticipated Daniel's next move, but he said nothing as Daniel placed the palm of his hand in the indentation.
The light flared again, growing steady when he didn't draw his hand back, and then it began to spread. It ran quick like water along the lines until the entire island shone with a complex design of turquoise light. Then, as sudden as the first flash, the light winked out and disappeared. A heartbeat later the island shook with a low rumble, and to the grinding sound of stone against stone a section of the rock split open and began to sink into the sea. In the opening sat a small wooden sail boat.
Jack was first to find himself and approach the vessel. He slid his hand along the delicately carved hull and then heaved himself over the railing to inspect the rigging. Meanwhile Daniel headed for the newly uncovered cliff walls. It didn't take long before he paused and a wide grin spread across his face. Sam hurried to his side and couldn't help smiling too when she saw what he had found.
"Colonel!" she called and Jack looked up, his brow wrinkling with confusion as he took in their matching grins.
"Yeah? You find something else?"
"Kinda…" Daniel replied, stifling a giggle. He pointed his chin at the boat. "Is that thing safe?"
"Looks sturdy enough to me, and plenty of room for the four of us. Why?"
Daniel ignored the question. "And you know how to sail it?"
"My grandpa taught me when I was a kid. Like riding a bike I reckon. Why?" Jack put some more emphasis on the question this time.
"Because I think we're need to go that way." Daniel stepped aside to reveal the big arrow carved into the cliff, stifling another giggle.
Jack nodded. "Right. Dial up the 'gate. We have to let Hammond know what we're up to."
The water was still and crystal clear, and at first the soft wind blew them slowly but steadily in the appointed direction. Soon the Stargate-island faded into the haze but that was no problem. According to the compass their direction was northeast and according to Jack they would have no problem keeping their heading. Besides, it seemed unlikely that their destination was too far away. At least that was what they thought.
Around noon the wind died. Jack fiddled with the sails for a while, but in the end he had to concede that they were adrift. Sam checked the compass.
"The current is still taking us northeast. Maybe the wind will pick up again."
Jack nodded and pulled out his binoculars. After pointing them at the horizon for a while he waved Sam over.
"Here. What do you see?"
He thrummed his fingers on the railing of the boat while she scanned the horizon. At first she saw nothing, but then…
"What is that?"
"I dunno, but it's getting closer I think."
She took another look, and nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I think you might be right."
"Are you guys talking about the fog?" Daniel called from the aft.
Sam turned and looked at him. "The fog?"
"Yeah, it's all around us, and it is getting closer."
She glanced around, and sure enough there was a stroke of white along the horizon in every direction, already visible to the naked eye.
"But it's just fog," Jack interjected, looking a little worried that one of them might say it wasn't. "It is just fog, right?"
Sam bit her lip, and replied, "No, sir, I don't think it's entirely…"
"Natural? I figured. So, options?"
Sam didn't reply, and neither did Daniel or Teal'c. What reply was there to give but a resounding silence? The fog might not be natural, but it didn't seem very threatening. And besides, in the lull there wasn't anything they could do to escape whatever it might hold. Jack didn't seem to have any ideas either, so they all sat down and watched the fog creep towards them. It sped up as it drew nearer, shrinking the world inside its white walls quicker and quicker. Then, just a few yards away, it stopped. It felt like being stuck in a jar; a white jar with a blue lid far above and phantoms of clear water below. No one spoke as they waited for something to happen. The only sound was the lapping of water against the hull of the boat.
Gradually Sam became aware of another sound. It was barely audible and faded in and out to the point where she thought it might just be a hallucination brought on by the tension. Just as she was about to write it off as a figment of her imagination it came back, no stronger but definitely there. She strained her ears to hear. Yes, there it was again, and against all laws of physics it seemed to literally come from beneath the water. She leaned over the railing and listened harder. The water was deep here, the bottom barely visible despite the clarity. The sound was louder closer to the surface. She leaned further out and peered into the deep. There was a structure to the sound, she was sure of it. A melody, like music – or singing. Eerie voices beckoning, calling her closer, closer. She leaned further out, her nose almost touching the surface of the water.
Far below she could just about make out the shadow of the boat slipping along the seabed, rising and falling with the hills and valleys. And there was her own shadow sticking out from its side. As she watched three more shadows appeared until the boat looked like it had somehow sprouted legs. She was about to share the humorous observation with the others when she spotted another shadow. It was fast, not at all like the slow drift of the boat, and like the singing it was there and gone again so quickly that she doubted it had ever been there at all. While she stared at the spot where the shadow had disappeared the singing grew louder, as if called by her attention. She could make out words now, or at least she thought she could though she had no idea what any of them meant. They weren't words in any language she knew. She considered asking Daniel if he understood, but at that very moment the shadow appeared again. It dashed out from a pile of rocks and circled the shadow of the boat. Another followed it, and then another, and another. The four creatures weaved around each other in a mesmerizing dance, in perfect rhythm to the singing.
The song grew to an impossible crescendo, so loud, so high and so beautiful that the feelings swelling in her chest were almost physically painful. Just as she thought she could take no more the song ended in a long shrilling note. The creatures in the water froze and for a breathless moment everything was still and quiet. Then they turned their faces up and shot towards the surface.