Author's Note: I wrote this before starting the MacGyver Virtual Season with Rocket, and I thought it might be nice to share it here. While I have spellchecked the VS is U.S. format, I am a Brit, and you will find the spelling of this story reflects that. Thanks MJ.
Giza, Egypt
West Bank of the Nile
1994
The wind seemed to come from nowhere, whipping swirls of sand across the landscape like tiny twisters. It didn't care there were men here trying to work, or then again, given their objective, maybe it did.
Some locals hated the westerners disturbing their ancient, sacred places. Perhaps the wind felt the same.
Right now, Angus MacGyver didn't much care what the blasting current of air felt or didn't, he simply wanted his old professor to take a breath and stop shouting over the noise of the dang thing.
Atticus was a genius when it came to archaeology, a bold, loud and very rotund man who was larger than life, with a set of vocal chords to match.
Months earlier he'd convinced MacGyver to help him search for Atlantis, and now somehow, he'd talked the adventurer into yet another caper – which Mac was regretting in earnest.
"Just one more night, MacGyver, I tell you there's something here the Egyptians wanted to be kept well hidden. It has to be treasure of untold value!" Atticus's arms splayed out and his large beard twitched in anticipation.
Over the top as a description was not an exaggeration in his case.
Mac sighed and nodded. It was far easier that way when the professor got a bee in his bonnet.
And truth be told, there was something strange about this dig – but not because Mac thought there was going to be treasure here, at least not the golden variety.
A turban clad worker saved MacGyver from further onslaught from the professor's tonsils.
"Mr. Atticus, Sir, come, look, see!"
The man was excited, his grin revealing several rotten and broken teeth.
"See, I told you, MacGyver!"
Atticus didn't wait for his old student to try to answer, but scurried after the dust-covered worker.
After just a few paces the man dropped to his knees where he'd been carefully clearing sand and ran a hand over something like he had found the lost ark.
Atticus followed his lead and for once in his life, his booming voice didn't have one word to say.
Not one.
That fact alone intrigued Mac enough to join the pair and squint through the sandstorm at what had been found.
Only a small section of the thing was visible, a chevron shaped piece of dark grey material adorned with symbols. But what was it? Metal or some kind of stone?
Instantly drawn to the thing, just as Atticus had been, MacGyver dropped to his knees and began to join the other two men in frantically digging.
Fifteen minutes later, they had revealed what appeared to be half of a huge circle that had been buried in the ground since the time of the pharaohs.
As they'd dug away the sand, they'd discovered more of the strange chevron shapes on the ring, and yet more symbols and glyphs.
It had obviously been hidden on purpose, and yet there was nothing here to suggest why. It wasn't a treasure that belonged to a pharaoh, or it would have been protected inside his tomb. It wasn't gold, or any other precious metal, and it didn't appear to be anything to do with worship or it would have been in the remains of a temple.
MacGyver stepped back from the thing and rubbed at his neck, wiping away sweat with the back of his hand. "Well…you got me," he admitted.
"My boy, in all my years in archaeology, I have never seen the likes of it before." Atticus was almost whispering. Was that reverence in his toned down voice?
Another worker appeared, this time from a separate section of the dig. He was taller, more confident than the first man. "Sir, we have found another…item." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "Perhaps these things would be better off left buried Mr. Atticus. There are local superstitions…"
Finally, Atticus found his bellowing voice again, and he slapped the worker on the back jovially, reminding Mac of an over-zealous department store Santa. "Nonsense, nonsense, let me see what you've found! I have a feeling we're making history today!"
Mac suddenly had the inexplicable feeling that they were too, but not the kind the professor was thinking of.
This thing was huge. At a guess, without even revealing the rest, Mac estimated it was around fifteen feet wide and over twenty tonnes in weight.
It was no ordinary artifact, and nothing like it had ever been seen before, of that he was sure.
Maybe the locals were right, and it was better left hidden in the bowels of the desert.
He shook himself. Since when had he ever thought that knowledge should be left buried? He was a thinker, a man who believed that history and knowledge should be shared and used to benefit mankind.
And yet, the thought remained as he jogged over to where the professor was now babbling excitedly. We shouldn't uncover this…
"MacGyver!" The professor was rubbing his hands together as if he'd won the lottery. Maybe in his head, he had, from an archeological standpoint. "Look! What do you make of it?"
The Egyptian workforce had removed a massive stone slab some six feet below the surface of the desert to reveal the top of yet another round object.
The thing seemed to have two circular sections made up of what could only be called keys. Each key had a symbol like the ones on the larger artefact.
At the center of the new find was a large red stone.
Intrigued, Mac slid carefully down into the hole that had been dug and straddled the object.
Sand billowed around him as the wind once again whipped up a small storm, but he ignored it, scooping away the desert in huge handfuls to try and reveal more of the relic.
He had an idea, and it was a scary one.
Once enough sand had been cleared from the left side of the thing, Mac reached into his pocket and tugged out his knife. Then, slowly, and oh so very carefully, he began to work on the artefact, picking away at a seam he'd discovered until finally he'd gained access to a very small part of it.
He blinked, took another look to convince himself, and then sat back, his suspicions confirmed.
"What is it, MacGyver? Don't keep us in suspense!" Atticus was bellowing again, a large grin on his face that even his beard couldn't hide.
But that grin would be very, very short lived.
"Professor, I think we better call the Phoenix Foundation. We're going to need some help on this one…"
Atticus huffed. "Don't be ridiculous! The London museum will fund us once they see what we've discovered! These artefacts are the find of the century! They're pieces of history the likes we've never seen before!"
Mac shook his head. "That's just my point, professor, these aren't pieces of history. They're pieces of technology…"
PX97-554
1999
The sky was black and the air filled with the stench of ozone. Lighting blazed from the heavens, streaking to the ground in a deadly cascade of light.
And with it all, came rain so heavy it pelted off the ground like a bouncing wall of water.
Daniel Jackson didn't notice the weather. He was simply running as if his life depended on it – because today, it did – and so did the lives of his SG-1 team mates.
The unit, along with SG-3 had been on a standard recon mission of a seemingly harmless planet, when they'd discovered it was actually one giant lab used by the local system lord.
The goa'uld in question had decided his Jaffa were no longer efficient and had begun to "improve" them with all kinds of genetic and technological enhancements.
Right now, SG-1 was feeling the brunt of those enhancements as they tried to get back to the stargate. Most of SG-3 had been lost already when they'd walked into an ambush.
But then, it wasn't hard to get trapped when your enemy had some kind of cloaking capability.
Daniel stumbled as his foot caught in an animal hole, and he almost lost his glasses. Not that he could see through them with the pounding rain anyway.
He picked himself up and pushed on, knowing the rest of the team was behind him, protecting him so that he could dial home and get them through the portal.
A staff blast whizzed past his head as he finally reached the DHD and threw his body to safety behind it.
From somewhere behind, he heard Jack O'Neill's voice yelling over the constant thrum of the electric storm above. "Right about now would be a good time, Daniel!"
Jackson knew they had minutes to live at best, and began to work on the DHD.
Except, something was wrong.
As he touched each symbol, instead of lighting up permanently, they flickered and shimmered, reminding him of the power surges back home when the local power station had outages.
Not now. Not now!
Daniel felt O'Neill join him on the stone podium, but didn't look up at the officer.
He couldn't, he had to make the device work, nothing else mattered.
Rain water streaked from his fingers as he pressed the keys again, a strange blue light dancing over them like an extra, alien current was flowing through the device.
"For cryin' out loud, NOW, Daniel!" Jack was firing indiscriminately at the forest behind them, and somewhere to either side Daniel knew Carter and Teal'c were doing the same.
But still the Jaffa blasts continued, even though there wasn't an enemy in sight.
Shells littered the ground at both men's feet, and O'Neill was forced to reload at least three times in just seconds.
Finally Daniel looked up, pushing his soaked glasses up his nose, defeat in his stammering voice. "It's…it's um, not working…"
A thud to his left indicated Carter had joined them, rolling across the dais military style with her weapon still firing.
Click.
The captain's clip was empty.
Letting the gun drop to her side she focused on the DHD too while O'Neill and Teal'c continued their barrage.
"What's wrong with it?" The blonde was dialling as she spoke, but the symbols continued to flicker and deny any gate travel access.
Daniel shook his head. He didn't know. In fact, the only thing he was sure of was that they were going to die here in about twenty seconds.
He gave up working on the dialler and stared at O'Neill, realizing the officer had stopped firing altogether and was simply staring out at the forest.
Teal'c joined them, his usual stoic façade also transfixed by what was coming.
While Carter still toyed with the DHD, Daniel found his own eyes turning to the edge of woods.
And then he saw them.
Shimmering seven foot figures that were appearing from the trees as if by magic.
Their forms were translucent to begin with, and as they moved forwards they seemed to solidify more until their bodies glowed with a blue static charge that streamed over their armour.
They wore the full Jaffa helmet, obscuring their faces, save for their leader, whose eyes flickered with the same tinge of cobalt.
"I have heard of such a goa'uld cloaking device," Teal'c offered helpfully. "However, these devices also appear to render our weapons useless."
O'Neill looked down at the empty shells at his feet. "You don't say," he retorted sarcastically.
The lead Jaffa let off a burst from his staff weapon, the blast landing just short of the stargate and making the earth move as if there had been a mini quake.
Sods of burnt soil and flames spiralled through the air, joining the storm's effects to make it seem like this world was coming to an end.
Even the staff weapons had been improved.
"Sweet," Jack snarked, "Remind me to add one of those to my Christmas list."
Teal'c raised a brow. "It is said their strength and hand to hand combat skills are also superior to ordinary Jaffa."
Jack looked at him as another blast tore into the ground, this time behind them, making the gate quiver, but he didn't flinch. "Great, sugar coat it why don'tcha?"
The Jaffa remained silent, his expression suggesting he was trying to decipher the comment.
Behind them, Carter finally yelped. "I've got it!" and before she could say more the portal gushed open with a whoosh of exploding energy, sending out a wave that oozed into the surroundings and was then sucked back again as the wormhole stabilized.
The DHD crackled and hissed as tendrils of blue danced across its keys, but all the correct symbols for earth were now staying alight, keeping the doorway to earth open.
Another staff blast hit dangerously close to the dialler, and it trembled and shivered with the tremor from the explosion.
Jack rammed in another clip and returned fire. It was futile, really, but Daniel guessed it made the Colonel at least feel like he was giving them cover.
Teal'c followed suit with his own staff weapon, but even that had no effect on his hostile brethren.
"C'mon!" Sam took a dive at the shimmering wormhole and was engulfed in its maw.
Above, lightning streaked from the sky, forking and snaking its way to the planet's surface. And for a second, Daniel could have sworn the actual gateway glowed the same blue as the dialler.
Then, the trick of light was gone, and he found himself following the captain into the stream of energy.
Jack O'Neill couldn't actually remember, diving into the stargate. One minute he was staring into the malevolent eyes of the lead Jaffa, the next he was rolling across a very cold concrete floor and landing with his butt in the air next to Teal'c.
At first it didn't hit home that he hadn't landed on the very familiar ramp in the gate room.
In fact, it didn't hit home that he wasn't in the gate room at all for at least ten seconds.
When he finally did come to his senses, he realized that he was sitting on the floor in front of a plump, rather bald man that instantly reminded him of General George Hammond.
"Mac, what on earth just happened?"
The man was looking around the room as if he was searching for someone, and he seemed to completely ignore the fact that O'Neill was sitting at his feet.
Jack scrambled up, only realizing once he was face to face with the man that he was blind.
Behind the blind man, emblazoned on the wall was a logo and some lettering. It read Phoenix Foundation Research 3 and had some kind of white bird in flight for the emblem.
The Colonel sighed. "I'm guessing we're not in Kansas anymore, kids." He turned then, looking for the rest of the team.
They were all behind him, staring pointedly at something or someone on the far side of the room.
The gate, or rather "a" gate was behind them all, set in a jury-rigged frame and looking rather sorry for itself.
Jack ignored it, turning to follow the gaze of his friends.
"You gotta be kidding me…"
Standing by the security door to the room was a man of Jack's height and build. He wore a rather bright shirt that the Colonel wouldn't have been seen dead in, and his hair was what could only be described as one way out of control mullet.
It was lighter than the Colonel's too, and yet…
And yet somehow, Colonel Jack O'Neill was staring at his own face – not just someone who looked alike or had similar features, no he was staring into the face of someone who shouldn't exist.
And it bothered him more than facing down a whole army of enhanced Jaffa and their weapons.