Chapter 1
The Moon was broken.
It's fragments circling a center of gravity, yet always seeming ready to completely fall apart at a moments notice and plummet to the world below.
Four ragged individuals ran down the streets of the near empty city beneath that shattered companion, keeping close to the shadows while they tried to avoid their captors. Four desperate people whom had been on the run for a number of years now, always so close to getting home, yet still so far away.
How many worlds had they seen? None of them could remember. How many horrors? None of them wanted to know. The only thing they wanted was to escape once more and maybe, jut maybe, find their way back to the point where this trip had began.
Far behind them they could hear the howl of those whom followed them. The feral less-then-human creatures whom war and it's tools had reshaped and mutated from people into privative killers. Like wolves they hunted in packs, searching out the remaining few normals these visitors had encountered in the dark deep hiding places beneath this once great metropolis on the ede of a bay.
And if that wasn't bad enough these feral neo-humans were no longer relying completely on instinct. Someone else, visitors like themselves to this dark and damaged world, were controlling these things. Giving order to their chaotic exitance.
And these other visitors were this groups old sworn enemies.
They needed a place to hide. To rest. someplace they could wait out their remaining time on this world. The leader of the group, almost run ragged from the constant fleeing, slipped the handheld device he hid in his torn jacket out and flipped open it's cover.
Red on black digits glowed, almost threatening to give them away to the feral ones and their handlers. Four pairs of two digits, constantly rolling. Days. Hours. Minutes. Seconds. Constantly changing. The number getting smaller and smaller.
A countdown.
The quartet ducked into an alley and behind a dumpster, all of them trying to catch their breath. Their leader held up the timer for them all to see.
"Almost time." he gasped. "It's almost time. We only need to hold on a few minutes longer."
The others nodded, but not one of them felt it was a surety they would be able to last that long.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"So tell me again why we're doing this, Carter?" O'Neill asked, crossing his arms against his chest and staring out the Control Rooms viewport at the iris blocked Stargate.
It was late evening at the SGC and all was quiet. Only a few of the most needed personelle were around the control room, redy to provide support to any of the teams who were currently offworld. It was the perfect time for the less dangerous experiments that didn't require a larger support staff.
Sam sat at the main console next to an idly busy Walter and chuckled and shook her head, but her eyes never left the computer screen as her fingers tapped relentlessly on the keyboard. "Well, sir, we believe that it would be a good idea to have a way to open communications with Atlantis."
Jack furrowed his brows, pursing his lips once. "But we do have communication. The Daedalus can go back and forth between here and Pegasus." he pointed out. "And we have the subspace thingamabobs that the Asgard gave us to send transmissions, right?"
Continuing her last minute calculations, Sam could just shake her head. "Subspace transmitters." she corrected him. "But even that takes hours to send a message back and forth. We need a way to open instantaneous transmissions between us and them, in case of emergencies. And the only way we know how to do that is by Stargate."
O'Neill cocked a brow. "Yes, I know that Carter. But we don't have a ZPM, remember. It's on Atlantis. And we can't connect a wormhole using just Naquadah generators."
"Not a sustained wormhole, no." she admits. "But Rodney McKay was able to open one for one point three seven seconds that way. So why can't we do the same back? Besides, instead of using a chain of the smaller portable generators we're using a full blown Naquadah Reactor in tandem with a Streaming Capacitor I developed by backwards engineering that energy enhancer you built the first time you had the Library of the Ancients stuck in your head. I hope we'll be able to keep the wormhole open even longer, if only a few full seconds, before it disengages. And using Doctor McKay's compression algorythym that would allow us to open us a whole new level of information bandwidth, not to mention we may be able to send a single item across."
Nodding his understanding, Jack smiled. "I see. Makes perfect sense, really."
"It does?"
"So, when do we test this thing out again?"
"Well, I had Siler making the final power hookups the Reactor late last night. The Streaming Capacitor should be charged now. Atlantis will be making it's scheduled weekly contact via the gate from their end in a few minutes. We'll sync our countdown with them, then, and a minute after they disengage the wormhole from their end we'll dial them up and see if we can connect."
"Sounds like a plan, Carter. So... where's the popcorn?"
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
The countdown was slowly getting closer to it's end. Only a few small minutes left. The four otherworldly transients huddled in that alley, always keeping an ear out for their hunters while trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
"I'm so tired of runnin'," the dark skinned man with the melodious and soulful voice said as he hugged his arms close to him, trying to keep the chill off. His clothes, once a stylish in their cut, were tatters. "You think we'll make it home this time?"
The leadr of the rag-tag group looked at his friends, his eyes unreadable. "I don't know." he finally said as he looked at the device in his hands, the numbers constantly getting smaller and smaller.
"We can only hope."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"So, you think this will be a viable Experiment. Colonel?" Doctor Weir asked Sam, her face and those of her Atlantis department heads on each side of hers on the screen.
Sam nodded as she tapped on her keyboard. "Yes, it's completely viable. I used Doctor McKay's notes he sent us with your first update to figure out all the protocols and resources we would need. I really believe that with the excellent work he did, and my upgrades, this should go off without a hitch."
Rodney's face broke out into a grin. "See? She said I did excellent work." he said to Shepherd.
"Don't let it go to your head, Rodney."
"You still owe me ten bucks."
"For what?"
"I bet you ten bucks I could get a nice complimentary response from Colonel Carter."
"That was a sucker bet!"
"Gentleman?" Weir chided them, making them both look away in embarrassment. Weir shook her head and grins at Carter and O'Neill across the screen. "You see what I have to put up with? Anyways, if you think this is a a viable idea, General O'Neill, we'll be happy to be your guinea pigs."
Jack smiled that usual non-chalant smile of his and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, since I only understood one in... uhm.. all of her report on this I'll just take her word at face value. Soooooo." he looked at Sam. "Guinea Pig them, away, Carter."
Sam rolled her eyes and looked back at the screen. "Sync your computers to our transmission and the moment we disconnect the wormhole start the countdown. We'll dial out and attempt connection from our side in exactly three minutes..."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"...Three minutes." Their leader said, flipping the cover on the device closed. "Only three more minutes." he looked back at his friend, studying each and every one of them.
When was the last time they had enjoyed some real peace? When was the lst time they weren't running against the clock. Years of constant movement, never being on one world for long, was starting to take it's toll not on just their bodies but their very souls.
He flipped the device open again and squinted at the timer.
"Two minutes..." he whispered, hoping their next step was at least on closer to home.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Chevron Three locked!" Walter said as the third chevron on the gate lit up.
Jack stood over Sam, looking over her shoulder at her screen. "This wont be dangerous, right?" he asked, hopefully. "I mean, the reactor won't blow up and take out Colorado, will it?"
Sam scoffed and checked the readings from her streaming capacitor. it showed green, ready to jump onto the main circuit with the power needed to establish an intergalactic wormhole the moment the Eighth chevron was being engaged by the system.
"It's not like we're using portable generator's, sir." she told him. "besides, thats what the streaming capacitor is full. The gate sequence up until the seventh chevron is powered by the reactor as usual. It can't create an intergalactic wormhole because the power needed it drains the reactor quicker then it can replenish it. The idea of the streaming capacitor with the energy intensifying technology of the Asgard is to take over the generator's part in the sequence at the last possible moment and provide the additional kick we need to engage the Eighth chevron and establish the wormhole. Then it will continually stream it's stored energy until it runs out and disengage. Since it is, in effect, a battery of sorts and not a running reactor there is no chance for an overload..."
She noted O'Neill's glazed look and sighed, turning back to her console to watch the proceeding countdown.
"Chevron Five locked!"
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Fifteen seconds!" the group's leader cried, rallying his people. The group stood, poised and ready to make one final dash for it.
In the distance they could hear the howls of the feral ones getting closer. And they heard the low whine of a patrol ship belonging to their old enemy.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Chevron Seven... LOCKED!" Walter cried.
Sam jumped to action, bringing the streaming capacitor online and ready for crossover of power.
O'Neill watched, trying to be as impassive as possible, starring at the iris as the inner tract of the the gate spun.. spun... stopped.
The Eigth chevron quivered.
Sam punched the button.
The chevron clicked and lit up!"
Walter looked ecstatic. "Chevron Eight Locked!" he shouted as the light of the wormhole, hidden behind the iris, lit up the back wall."
"Wormhole Engaged!"
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"NOW!" the young man shouted, running out into the street. His friends followed behind him, not caring if their enemy saw them. They were so damned close.
The leader of the group brought up his device and pointed it in front of them. A barely visible wave of reddish energy washed out in a cone and suddenly the ir before them wrinkled and bent, twisting on itself and sinking into someplace that was neither here nor their. Torrential energies flowing down some quantum drain, flaring with a rainbow of colors.
"MOVE! MOVE!" he cried, pushing his friends passed him and to the sideways vortex that hung a few feet in the air. One by one his friends ran, like their lives depended on it.
First the young woman, the soldier, flung herself through the vortex and was consumed by it's energies. Next was the Brother, the sometimes naive young man who had a heart of gold and a razor sharp mind. Then came the darkskinned man with the singer's voice, the leader's dearesrt friend left to him.
The dark man stopped and looked at his friend. Then without a word he put a hand on his shoulder, smiled, and without a word they jumped through the vortex together.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Incoming wormhole!" Rodney cried, tapping at the console and activating the forcefield the moment the event horizon was stabilized. "My god! They made it work." he said, part in jealously and part in pride.
Elizabeth was beside herself. John was a bit better at controlling what he felt yet it was still evident he was pleased.
"Excellent job!" Weir said, clapping her head scientist on the back. "You and Colonel Carter have done a wonderful... Rodney.. what's wrong?"
The Canadian astrophysicist's jubulent smile had suddenly become a frown. he looked at the gate, still glowing and watching as it didn't shut down. In fact, it was getting brighter, stronger.
"The wormhole." he whispered. "The energy should have drained by now on their side. But the wormhole is getting stronger." He studied the readings a moment. "Oh know. I'm reading a surge!"
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Carter, what the hell is going on?"
Alerts were sounding throughout the base., red lights flashing in sequence. Carter stood hunched over the console, her eyes riveted to the screen."
"We don't know." she said, as calmly as she could. "The Streaming Capacitor kicked off five seconds after the wormhole was engaged... but the wormhole is still active. I have no clue where the power is being drawn from. I'm getting strange readings, though. Oh god, what's happening?" she cried as she pointed to the gate.
The wall behind the iris'd gate was getting brighter, the dancing reflections of light becoming more animated and violent. The colors changed from the usual white blue to a rainbow reflection like sunlight through a prism.
"Energy readings are off the scale, Sir?" she cried to Jack as she attempted to find soe way to shutdown the wormhole. "Reading a massive energy surge and it's heading to Atlantis!"
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
It was strange, really, that one could actually perceive travel through the twisting and weaving corridors that was the wormhole. They were supposed to be energy, matter broken down and dematerialized as they slid through the quantum strata from one world to another. There shouldn't be any consciousness or perception in this state, but there was. Maybe it was a phantom thing, unreal, and maybe it was all to real. There way to tell.
The ride twisted and folded on itself, a dizzying blur of colors that could easily make one sick. but they were so used to it by now. Years of traveling this way, world to world, had all but made them immune to it.
Until now.
Something had changed.
The sensation of movement changed. No longer sliding in any direction they were actually being pulled. Perception stretched and colours changed as if they were changing lanes on a highspeed freeway. The chaotic rainbow of light dimmed and faded out and they felt a lurch as their sence of reality was changed, elongated. The twisting topsyturvy ride became almost straight, or maybe just slightly curved. Streaks of blue white light, flaring rings of greeninh fire flashing by them, getting faster and faster.. rolling over and over.
And a flash of light engulfed them, drowning their existence in white.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
The Atlantis team watched in growing horror as the bluish event horizon behind the forcefield began to churn and spin, colors flashing across the surface in blobs. A rainbow cacaphony of light and energy distorting the wormhole.
"Rodney! What's happening?" Weir cried, quickly stepping back from the railing.
The Canadian worked franticly on the computer, trying to discover just that and by the frustrated look on his face it appeared he didn't have a clue. "We're registering a mssive power surge, Elizabeth! And I don't know how to stop it!"
John stared at the wormhole as it became more and more violent and his eyes grew wide as he saw the event horizon suddenly change. "Rodney! Is that supposed to happen?"
Both McKay and Weir ran and looked over the balcony and gasped. The wormhole, now completely filled with that rainbow of colour, rippled as if in a hurricane and began to swell.
Outwards.
There was a snap and hiss as the energies overloaded the force field, shutting it down. like a bubble it grew outward, surging more violently.. Twisting on itself as it's surface collapses suddenly the other way, inwards, sucking itself in.
"We have containment breach!" Rodney cried and was about to run to his computer when there was a flash of light.. and another... another... one more.
Everyone stared at the floor as, with each flash, a person was thrown from this mutated wormhole. First a young woman with dark hair tumbled across the floor. Then a young tall man with floppy hair not unlike Shepherd's. And finally, almost at once, a middle aged black man and an older looking version of the first male were deposited onto the steps.
And before anyone could say or do anything the wormhole broke up and vanished.
The four strangers groaned, looking ill as they tried to sit up. One of them, clutching a device that looked like a cross between a cellphone and a universal remote control pushed himself onto his knees and looked around.
And frowned as he discovered that he and his friends were surrounded by a dozen men with assault rifles pointed down at them.
"Uhm... Hello." he said, raising his hands slowly above his head yet never letting go of the device.
Weir, McKay, And Shepherd double timed it down the stairs, shoring up the rear behind the guntoting marines. Elizabeth pushed through the men, John and Rodney following her until they were right next to the four strange individuals.
"Who are you?" Elizabeth demanded of them, confusion and curiosity in her eyes.
The young man with the strange device shook his head, as if trying to collect his wits. His friends stirred more and tried to sit up, he looked to them first, making sure they were okay, and then looked back at Atlantis's expidition leader.
"Uhm, My name is Quinn." he said, slowly, his voice slurred ever so faintly.
"Quinn Mallory."
Author's Note: Well there it is. I think you can guess what I am crossing over with. Hope you enjoy'd this. Please Review/Critique.