Disclaimer : The characters from Stargate SG-1 aren't mine. They belong to MGM, Gekko, Double Secret and a whole host of other people, who are an awful lot richer than me. This fanfic is purely for fun, not a bean has or will be made from it. I promise to put them back when I'm done playing. Oh, there's no point suing me, cause I work for the NHS, so I'm skint and it would be pointless. LOL. This story idea is mine, and so are Major Lomax, Smudge, Dinger and Chalky.
Author's notes : This tale came about after a friend told me of the legends surrounding Hownam Rings- cheers for the inspiration, Jock.
* * * * *
A Celtic Legacy
Major Samantha Carter sighed, stretched and reached over to shut down her computer. Scrubbing one hand over her tired eyes she then moved it to the back of her neck, massaging with her fingers and rotating her head from left to right until she was rewarded with a satisfying, bone popping crack.
"Aaahh, that's better," she muttered before running her hand through her short blonde hair and looking back down at the sheets of equations and blueprints lying scattered all over the tabletop, her brow creasing back into concentration.
"That sounded painful," said a wry voice from the doorway.
Sam started violently, the late hour having lulled her into the feeling that she was alone in the complex. Papers cascaded to the floor, and the remnants of a very old, very cold mug of coffee threatened to spill over the worksurface as the cup wobbled. She caught it just in time. Spinning around in her chair, her expression changed from annoyance to a smile as she recognised the petite figure in the doorway, widening to an appreciative grin as she caught the distinctive smell of fresh coffee emanating from the two mugs the shorter woman held.
"Oh hey Janet, what are you still doing here??"
"Sorry Sam, I didn't mean to scare you!" said the two simultaneously. There was a pause, and then both women began to laugh.
Doctor Janet Fraiser stepped all the way into the lab, handing one of the steaming mugs to the tall blonde before settling herself into a spare chair.
"You're a lifesaver, Janet," said Sam before taking a healthy swallow of coffee.
"So they tell me," said the young doctor, smiling. "Warner asked me to cover the first couple of hours of his shift, some sort of family crisis." The brunette took a sip from her own mug before continuing. "I thought you were heading home- doesn't that British officer arrive tomorrow?"
"Yeah, but I had an idea about this new naquada reactor I've been working on and-"
"You just HAD to come back down here and pursue it, and then you lost track of the time..." Janet interrupted, brown eyes sparkling with amusement. She knew her tall friend very well.
Sam laughed again, ruefully. "Yup, that pretty much covers it- guess I'll be staying on the base again tonight."
Janet leaned back in the chair she'd settled herself in. "So any idea what this briefing tomorrow is about?"
Sam shook her head. "Not much. All the General would tell us was that our mission to P3X-462 was being handed over to SG-16, as the Brits have discovered something in their backyard that probably has a lot to do with the Goa'uld."
"And he wanted SG-1 on the case, huh?"
"Yup."
"You four should stop making yourselves so indispensable," said the brunette with a smile.
Sam shrugged. "We'll know more tomorrow...." she glanced at the clock on the wall. "Sorry, today, when they arrive to give us a full rundown on what they've found."
"Unusual that they haven't at least sent a secure transmission ahead… Normally they at least give us a heads up."
"You officially know as much as I do," said the blonde, a split second before being overtaken by a huge yawn.
"Okay, that's it. Hit the sack." Janet glared forcefully at her friend.
"Really Jan, I'm fine, I'll just finish up-"
"Sam. Bed. Now."
"But-"
"Now!" said the brunette, pointing at the open doorway. "Cause if you don't go now, I'll come back and find you snoozing on your desk. Again."
"Okay, okay..." Sam trailed off as she yawned again. "I'm going..."
"Good, because I'm a little too short to carry you." Janet smiled as Sam got to her feet. "That doesn't mean you get to make short jokes, though."
Sam grinned as she rose from her chair. "Okay, now I think I see why the Colonel is so scared of you…"
Janet opened her mouth to retort, before catching the mischievous glint in Sam's eye. "Very funny." Janet tried to keep her face straight, and only partially stopped herself from smiling at the teasing.
"G'night Janet."
"Night Sam."
0800 Hrs.
"Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" Thought Sam as she hurtled up the stairway to the briefing room, almost running headlong into Sergeant Siler, who flattened himself against the wall just in time.
"Gah, sorry Siler!"
"No problem, Major," acknowledged Siler to Carter's swiftly retreating back. He shrugged to himself and continued on his way, well used to the idiosyncrasies of the base's resident genius.
Carter skidded to a halt on the landing, taking a second to compose herself before climbing the last flight. Miraculously, she was on time. Just. Despite having overslept by about half an hour.
"Ah, here she is now," said General Hammond in his unmistakable drawl as she emerged from the stairwell.
"Good morning, sir," said Carter, moving toward her customary chair. She saw that Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c and Daniel were already there, O'Neill and Daniel grinning in amusement, Teal'c merely tilting his head slightly in silent enquiry.
"C'mon Carter, last minute entrances are meant to my job." Jack's expression was positively gleeful- it wasn't often he got one up on his smart 2IC.
At that point the General moved to his own chair, and Carter got a clear view of the stranger clad in British fatigues sitting a couple of seats down. She began to stand up to greet the visitor, and then froze. "She looks familiar," she thought, her eyes flicking to the nametag above the left breast pocket of the other woman's combat shirt. LOMAX, she read. "Oh my God..." she thought, her face paling," It can't be the same one.." She looked back at the woman's face, seeing a reflected hint of surprised recognition Lomax's green eyes. "It is!"
The others already having done the introductions, the General turned to the two female officers. "Major Lomax, this is Major Doctor Samantha Carter, astrophysicist and second in command of SG-1." He turned to Carter. "Major Carter, this is Major Siobahn Lomax from the SAS."
O'Neill had been watching curiously as he saw the colour drain from his 2IC's face. "You OK Carter? You look like you just saw a ghost!"
There was a chuckle. "In a way she has, sir," said the SAS officer in a soft Scottish brogue. "A blast fa' the past anyway."
"Carter?"
Sam gave herself a mental shake and tried to pull her thoughts back into some kind of cohesion, then tore her eyes from Lomax to regard her CO. "Max...., I mean, Major Lomax was leader of the team that pulled me out after I got shot down over Iraq in the Gulf, sir." She closed her eyes for a second, as memories of the crash, the capture, the firefight, and the subsequent dash through the desert came flooding back.
O'Neill winced- he'd heard the full story of the crash, Sam's capture and beatings at the hands of the Iraqis, and being liberated by British forces- one quiet night offworld, when the two had been sitting beside a campfire under an alien sky, Daniel asleep, Teal'c on watch. It told him something that Sam had only spoken of it when she was literally on another planet.
Jack looked at the newcomer with a fresh measure of respect. "In that case, we owe you one, Major."
"Indeed," intoned Teal'c, inclining his head.
"It's what we were out there to do, sir. We were just glad we got to Carter and her co-pilot before the Iraqis had a chance to take them into proper secure custody- was a relatively simple ambush," said Lomax. "There were too many we didn't get to," she finished, glancing at O'Neill, her expression clouding. Changing tack, she turned to the General. "Is this the full team, sir?"
Hammond shook his bald head. "We're waiting for one more. She's been delayed in the infirmary, but shouldn't be much longer." He glanced around at SG-1. "Given the nature of this assignment, Doctor Fraiser will be accompanying you."
The faces around the table were becoming increasingly curious.
"Sir?" asked O'Neill.
"Let's just wait for the Doctor, Colonel, then we won't need to go through any of this twice."
Fortunately, the base's CMO chose that moment to appear. Introductions completed, the doctor took the seat next to Carter, giving her friend a curious look as she noticed Sam's troubled expression. Sam shook her head almost imperceptibly, murmuring, "I'll tell you later."
Fraiser nodded in understanding, gave Sam's forearm a squeeze of support, then turned her attention to Major Lomax, who had left her seat and walked over to an open laptop connected to the rooms wallscreen.
"I know you're all dying to know what this is all about, so without further ado, I'll get on with it- with your permission, sir" she said, nodding to the General.
"By all means, go ahead, Major."
* * * *
Lomax nodded to the SF standing at the back of the room, who dimmed the lights slightly, then left. She glanced around, and satisfied that she had the full attention of the room's occupants, began to speak, her accent causing her to roll her R's a little.
"Okay, here's what we've been able to ascertain. About a month ago, two archaeology students disappeared in the hills above a small village in the Scottish Borders called Hownam. They haven't been seen since. Their disappearance wasn't noticed, however, until about a fortnight ago, when they failed to send interim reports to the university."
"A search was launched by a combination of the civvie police and the local mountain rescue team- during that search, two police officers also went missing. They, however, were found a day later on top of Hownam Law, a large hill around two kilometres north of the area they were searching."
Lomax hit a key on the laptop, and the British Ministry of Defence's tri-service logo of army, navy and air force appeared on the screen, the words 'top secret' emblazoned below it in bright red.
"The first couple of pictures are rather nasty, I'm afraid," she warned, and brought up the first.
A photograph of two male corpses was displayed. Almost every inch of visible flesh on the first was charred beyond recognition, and the ribcage had been torn open with massive force. Claw marks were visible on the head, neck and chest, and the abdomen had been completely eviscerated. The second seemed to have escaped the burns suffered by the first, but had been mauled even more extensively, with chunks missing from all four limbs, neck ripped open exposing the windpipe and organs visible glistening through huge rents in the abdominal wall. Huge clawed tracks ran down the left side of the dead man's face into his shoulder, and the shattered ends of his collarbone and top two ribs could be clearly seen.
"Oh my god," gasped Carter, her hand going to her mouth. O'Neill muttered an oath, took a measured look then quickly averted his eyes, and Daniel swallowed convulsively, face paling, before looking away.
Only four were reasonably unaffected- the General and Major Lomax, as they had both seen the image before, Dr Fraiser, for whom the phrase 'this is a bit nasty' was sufficient warning to prepare herself enough that her only outward initial reaction was a slight hiss of rapidly indrawn breath, and Teal'c, who had seen far worse in his time, and was generally unflappable in any case.
"As you can see-" began Lomax, but Fraiser interrupted.
"Do you mind if I take a closer look?"
"Not at all, be interesting to see what conclusion you come to." Lomax swept her left hand toward the screen in the universal gesture for 'be my guest', and stepped aside slightly to allow the doctor some space.
"In fact, the next image is a close up of the wound sites."
Fraiser nodded, and Lomax advanced to the next collection of photographs.
"That's just not right, on so many levels..." moaned O'Neill, as the images of tattered, blackened flesh flashed up.
Carter, however, had regained her composure, rising and moving until she stood beside the petite doctor, her expression intent. She looked closely, at the image, then at the scale superimposed in the bottom left hand corner. "Is this accurate?"
"Yes," Lomax confirmed.
"These wounds...." began Carter.
"Happened AFTER the burns..." Fraiser finished.
"And the claws must be..." picked up Carter.
"Absolutely huge! Nothing originating on this planet could have done this..." finished Fraiser.
"The second ones' arms have defensive wounds..."
"I'd say he had more of a chance to fight...."
"But look at the angle of these ones, he must have-"
"Been attacked from behind, wouldn't have known what hit him...." Fraiser trailed off, her mind racing, trying to think of what could possibly have done so much damage- Sam's expression showing that the same activity was going on in her head, too.
O'Neill cocked his head sideways to Teal'c and muttered, "Y'know, I hate it when they do that- it's like they just have one, really, really smart brain between 'em."
"Their method works well, however it is accomplished O'Neill," said Teal'c, raising an eyebrow.
"I know, it's just kinda spooky," O'Neill responded, before catching sight of the frown General Hammond was directing at him.
"Sorry sir." He said, not sounding the least bit repentant. Lomax almost managed to hide her smile, but not quite, as the other two women fired twin glares at the Colonel, Fraiser's by far the most intimidating. "Remember who'll be doing your next medical, sir." She smiled sweetly. "I'm sure I can find some really big needles...."
O'Neill winced. "Please accept my heartfelt apologies, in that case."
"Well, you've come to the same conclusions that our medical staff did, albeit an awful lot quicker," said Lomax, once the banter had stopped. "The reason we've come to you, though, is because these items were found clutched in the casualty's hands. The Intelligence Corps directed us to you after they saw them." She glanced at the looming bulk of the Stargate visible through the window. "And now I know why."
Lomax advanced to the next picture to reveal, charred but still recognisable, a ribbon device and a slightly strange looking Zatnik'atel.
"Hel-looooo......" murmured O'Neill.
"So you recognise them?" said the SAS officer, quickly.
"Ahh, well...."
"I have all the necessary clearances, colonel, I wouldn't be here otherwise."
"Yeah, we may have seen those before," he said, rubbing his chin. Carter nodded in agreement.
"You might recognise these then, too,"
The next image to appear on the screen was a piece of carved stone, with three concentric circles cut into it. Symbols could be seen inside each one.
"Baal, Apophis and Nirti," supplied Daniel, glancing at Teal'c for confirmation. The big Jaffa nodded, "Indeed, DanielJackson, though I am unaware of any alliance between the three."
"Them again??" said O'Neill, exasperated. "For crying out loud, how many times do we have to clean up after 'em?"
"Were there any other carvings?" asked Daniel, ignoring O'Neill's outburst as his interest flared.
"As it happens, yes," said Lomax, bringing up the last of the slides to reveal a slab of stone covered in text, together with the same circular symbol. Daniel narrowed his eyes. "It's some type of obscure Goa'uld dialect...."
"I agree, DanielJackson, different from any I have before seen."
"Gave me a day, General, and I should be able to translate this with Teal'c's help. Some of it, anyway," Daniel continued, his mind already beginning to work. "Was this found in the same place as the first one?"
Lomax shook her head. "That one was found on the hill where the policemen were last seen. About two K's south- it's called Hownam Rings, and we've been hearing some strange old tales about it from the locals- ghosts and whatnot." She chuckled. "Rural types like passing on the local legends."
"Is that all, Major?" asked the General, rising to his feet.
"Yes sir, it's all we have."
"In that case, yourself, together with SG-1, will leave for the UK at 1500 hours tomorrow. Dismissed." With that, the Texan turned and disappeared into his office.
"I'll go get started," said Daniel, already preoccupied, "I'll see if there's any mention of the Rings in my notes..........coming, Teal'c?"
Teal'c inclined his head to the remaining company, and then followed Daniel down the stairs, his hands clasped behind his back.
O'Neill cleared his throat, suddenly aware that he was now the only guy left in the room, and he guessed that Lomax and Carter would maybe have some catching up to do- they were all probably going to start talking science stuff, anyway.
"I'll just see if those two need a hand," he said, chucking a thumb in the direction of the stairwell. "Oh, Major?"
"Sir?" said both Carter and Lomax in tandem.
"Uh, yeah, Majors... I'll see both of you here at 1400, go over some of the tactical details."
"Yes, sir," said Carter, nodding, and Max echoed the phrase.
O'Neill headed off to "help" Daniel and Teal'c.
Janet gathered her notes. "I should get back to the infirmary, take a closer look at this data. Nice to meet you, Major."
"Likewise," said Lomax, "I'm looking forward to working with you all."
"I'll talk to you later," Janet said to Sam, who nodded. "Uh, yeah, I'll come down in a while," said the blonde, still a little shaken by the sudden appearance of a living reminder of her not so pleasant past.
Fraiser smiled, then left the room.
There was a short, awkward silence, before Sam spoke up.
"You hungry?" Sam asked.
"I could eat, yeah. My system's all to buggery with jet lag."
"Okay, the mess is this way," said Sam, having missed breakfast in her haste to make the briefing.
* * *
"Aaaaahhhhh, that's better," sighed Max as she and Carter entered the astrophysicist's lab, sated and with coffee in hand. Sam grinned, having mostly recovered from the shock of seeing her "blast from the past" and sat down, gesturing to Max to take the other chair. The SAS officer took the proffered seat, placing her coffee carefully on the worktop for fear of disturbing the haphazard piles of paperwork and electronic components. She removed her sandy coloured beret with its distinctive winged dagger capbadge, and ran her fingers through her short dark hair.
"I HATE this transatlantic bollocks," she stated. "My body clock is all out of whack."
Their conversation had been tentative to start with, but both were relaxing, the intervening years dropping away.
"I know what you mean," agreed the tall blonde, "Just try transgalactic- now that REALLY does it."
Max chuckled. "I bet."
"Max, did you know I was here?"
"Nah, had no idea till you walked in."
"You didn't seem very surprised!"
"Well, I was," Max gave Carter a lopsided grin. "I just hid it better- SAS training, y'know."
Carter almost choked on her coffee. "Why you-" she broke off as she saw the grin widen as the baiting worked.
Max had been injured during the op that retrieved Carter and her co-pilot, and so was sent to the same military hospital at Akrotiri in Cyprus, Carter having been both injured in her crash and treated badly by her Iraqi captors. The two had become friends during their recuperation, then lost touch, as often happens in the military.
"So when did you manage to get into the SAS?" asked Sam, curiously. She hadn't realised that there were any women in the elite regiment.
"Before the Gulf."
"I had no idea-"
"You weren't meant to. We don't advertise who we are. For one thing, the government don't want the public to know about the fact that there are women in the regiment. Another is the terrorist aspect- knowing who were would put people in danger." She frowned. "It can be tough on family though- I mean, if anything was to happen to me, they'd be told it had been some dumb training accident."
Sam nodded- her family would be told the same thing- well all except her Tok'ra father, that is. The Stargate program was just as highly classified, if not more so, and not being able to tell her Dad why she didn't want NASA had torn her apart. She understood the reasons for it- "need to know" was the most efficient way of minimising security risks after all, but just because she understood the need for it didn't mean that she had to like it.
"So how about you?" said Max, breaking into Sam's thoughts. "This place looks like something off Doctor Who."
"After the Gulf, I couldn't fly," Sam explained. "So my tour was cut short, and I got posted back to the academy to finish my astrophysics degree- after that I got attached to the team working on the gate, as I specialised in wormhole physics. We finished off the system, and worked out the glitches in the software."
Max gave a low whistle, impressed.
"Wow... then you started hopping through it?"
"Not for about two years. I did a stint at the Pentagon first, trying to resolve the Gate's dialling problem, but that didn't happen until Colonel O'Neill went through the gate to a planet called Abydos," Carter explained. "Daniel discovered the cartouche there."
"What's a cartouche?" asked Max, looking a little confused.
"It was a collection of stargate addresses carved into the walls of a chamber on Abydos."
"Ah, right, gotcha. Go on." said Max, nodding.
"Anyway," Carter continued, " They brought back vital information that now allows us to calculate the degree of stellar drift to compensate for with any given set of co-ordinates......what?" Max was now just staring, expression one of blank incomprehension. The Scot shook her head.
"I knew you were clever, but you're now blowing me away." She made a whooooshing noise and simultaneously snatched her hand from the front of her head, over it, to the back. "Straight over my head, mate," Max clarified, seeing Sam's blank look at the gesture.
"It's pretty simple really- " Sam's eyes began to sparkle with enthusiasm. "In the couple of thousand years since the gate on earth was last active-"
"Woah, woah!" said Max, holding her hands up in surrender. "Jet lag, remember. Jeeez, and I thought I had dark secrets...." she trailed off, and then got to her feet, having emptied her coffee mug. "I need to go back up and see the General- catch you at 1400."
"You remember the way?"
"Um, kinda, but I'll just grab one of those lads you've got dotted about the place- I'm sure you've got stuff needing done that you want to get on with. One o' the airmen will be a perfectly good guide- besides, I haven't scared anyone today yet," Max finished with a slightly evil grin.
Sam nodded, she needed to touch base with Janet and throw a few more thoughts around about the briefing before talking to the colonel. She also needed to see what progress Daniel and Teal'c had made on the translation. "Okay," said the blonde, "See you later- be gentle on the junior ranks!"
"Of course I will!" said Max, jamming her beret back onto her head and disappearing into the corridor. Sam winced and shook her head slightly as she heard the Scottish officer appropriating a hapless non-com.
"Hey you! YES YOU! You doing anything life and death important?"
"Uh, no, I'm just-"
"Marvellous- it can wait for fifteen minutes then. Take me to General Hammonds office!"
"Yessir!"
"Do I LOOK like a SIR to you??!"
The airman's responses were becoming increasingly terrified.
"No si- , I mean, no Ma'am!!"
"Better. Don't just stand there gawpin' like a trout that's just been chucked out of a pond, c'mon lad, which way?"
Sam chuckled as she heard the voices diminish into the distance- the Brits certainly did things differently. She gathered up a few papers and went off to find the diminutive doctor.