AUTHOR'S INTRO: After a looong silence due to both school and such stuff and some serious trouble with getting a yet un-posted story beta-read (still haven't decided what to do with it), I'm starting a new story. Feeling a bit nervous about whether I know how to write anymore... I guess we'll find out about that.
This story is (at least intended to be) the last part of the DinoGate trilogy. It's set in some indefinite time during Season 7. Familiarity with the two previous DinoGate stories is strongly recommended, though I do try to explain the basic facts.
Two-horn marched through the jungle, slowly, without any hurry, as was her way. She had spent most of the day eating, as she always did, and now she was making her way towards a lake where she could drink.
She was already near to the lake when a strange object crossed her path. Or rather, it was a being of some sort, much smaller than she, but walking on two feet, like many hunters did. It had strange, silvery shimmering skin that reflected the sun's rays. The being shouted at her, and pointed at her with what looked like tree branch, but was slightly shimmering as well.
Two-horn did not like this new thing in her jungle. It looked and sounded too much like a predator. She would take it down easily. She charged, lunging at it with her two horns. She saw that the creature did not back off, but kept its ground, and there was a strange flash of light from the branch, which might not have been a branch after all. She felt something hot and searing hit her bone-armor-plated head, but she did not stop. More such bolts hit her as she advanced, but before she fell, her horns sank deep into the offending creature.
"Unscheduled offworld activation!"
At the sudden announcement, Colonel Jack O'Neill leaped up from behind his computer. He hated writing mission reports. He did hate alien attacks as well, but right now, the latter felt like the lesser evil. Besides, not all unscheduled gate arrivals were hostile. Most of them did come with bad news, though.
Jack ran to the gate control room, and actually got there first--Carter, Daniel and Teal'c arrived right after him. Hammond, of course, had gotten there before him.
"What've we got, sergeant?" the general asked Harriman.
"It's the Tok'ra IDC, sir."
"Let them through, then."
The iris slid aside, revealing the so-far still and silent surface of the gate.
"Well, well, we haven't heard from them in a while," Daniel noted.
"They really should warn us in advance when they're about to pop in, since they always bring nasty stuff with them," Jack added. "Spies here, scheming there..."
A figure stepping through the gate broke the smooth surface, and the conversation. Jack had been expecting a familiar face, if not Jacob Carter, then at least someone they'd met before. At least someone who'd look like a Tok'ra. This person, or whatever he should be called, definitely didn't.
"What the..." Jack muttered.
The traveler landed on the gate ramp, looking a bit unsteady on his feet, like someone who'd just gone through the gate for the first time. Jack had seen many weird things appear from the gate, but this one went right to the top of his list.
Apparently human, the traveler was an old man whose exact age was pretty much impossible to guess. He had long, gray hair and a matching beard, shaggy enough to form dreadlocks. He was wearing extremely worn and dirty trousers, a shirt made of what looked like crocodile leather, and, of all things, a necklace of teeth, in all sizes and shapes.
The odd, definitely not Tok'ra visitor was instantly surrounded by guards, their guns pointed at him. He stopped and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"N-no, wait!" he spoke, the few words revealing a strange accent of some sort. "I need to talk. To the commander of this place, and SG-1."
"I am General George Hammond," the asked-for commander announced his presence through the microphone. "And SG-1 is here with me. Who would you be, and why should we hear what you have to say?"
"I'm Chlewrg-" the man started in an odd growl, but stopped awkwardly, cleared his throat and tried again. "Leo Ramsey. Doctor Leonard Ramsey, paleontologist."
Jack was still frowning, trying to figure out who this was, exactly, when Daniel made it clear. "Leo Ramsey, as in, the man who left Earth to stay on Dinoland, five years ago?"
"I do believe this individual does greatly resemble Doctor Ramsey," Teal'c confirmed.
"I can't believe it--but it really is him, I can recognize him now, too," Carter exclaimed.
"Stand down," Hammond told the guards. "We'll hear his news," he added to SG-1. "But before that, escort him to the infirmary. I want Doctor Fraiser to confirm that he really is who he says, without any unpleasant surprises."
"So, what's up with the caveman-look?" Colonel O'Neill asked Ramsey, as they walked away from the infirmary, towards the briefing room. Doctor Fraiser had declared that as far as she could tell, this really was Doctor Leonard Ramsey, and that he was in perfect health--actually, better than he had been before he'd left to stay on Dinoland.
Sam thought that the colonel's quip wasn't the least bit exaggerated. There was a definitely prehistoric air about Ramsey. Of course, it was to be expected.
"Caveman?" Ramsey repeated, and looked at himself. He uttered a slight growl that might've been a chuckle, and answered, "It's not as if could've just walked to the nearest boutique to buy a new suit."
"Yeah, I get that. Though I've got to say, the bone necklace is an especially nice touch."
"This?" Ramsey grabbed the strange adornment, and pulled it over his head. "It's not for decoration. It's scientific evidence."
"Of what? And why? You've studied dinosaur bones on Earth all your life, and now you had plenty of living ones to study, right?" Sam wondered aloud.
"Oh, it's not for me, not really. It's for your people to study. DNA samples, remember? I have twenty different species here, one of them being the Grwch... the Neotroodon. Easy to carry, and easy for me to recognize."
That did make sense. Five years ago, the last time the SGC had had anything to do with P4X-215, better known as Dinoland, they had talked about the possibility of getting DNA samples. The planet held many mysteries. One of them was how and why the Neotroodon had evolved, when no other dinosaurs had. Hopefully the teeth would help in solving that mystery.
The Neotroodon Sapiens Stellaris, as Doctor Ramsey had named the species, was a species of dinosaurs that had never lived on Earth. A species as intelligent as humans, capable of speech and writing, and having a culture and a society of their own. The Neotroodons had been under the rule of an exiled Goa'uld and his offspring for thousands of years, until five years ago SG-1 had helped them gain their freedom.
Ramsey was still holding the necklace in the air, so Sam reached out for it. "I can take this over to the biology department. They'll know how to extract and analyze the DNA, though I'm think it'll take a while."
"Yes, and we don't have that much. Please, do that later. We have wasted enough time already. My news are urgent."
Teal'c was not surprised to hear that Doctor Ramsey had arrived with information that could not wait. It was surprising that he had come at all, so he must have a very good reason to come.
The stargate on Dinoland had been buried or otherwise disposed of, as the SGC had suggested. They had tried dialing it after Ramsey had left, but had not gotten through. Unless the dinosaurs had set it up again, Ramsey had used some other means of transportation to leave the dinosaur planet. It was likely that he had had other means at his disposal, considering that one of the dinosaurs of Dinoland, the one that Colonel O'Neill had named Barney, was a Tok'ra operative. Thus it also made sense that Ramsey had come through the gate with the Tok'ra Iris Deactivation Code.
No matter how Ramsey had reached Earth, it had probably not been easy let alone simple for him. Teal'c was anxious to hear what news could have made him embark on such a journey.
"Well, then, Doctor. I would like to start with asking how you came here, and why," Hammond began, once they were all seated around the briefing room table.
"How I came doesn't matter. The Tok'ra helped arrange it. Why I came is the important question," Ramsey spoke quickly, without waiting for comments. "You see--you know--that Grawrrgh, or Dinoland, has always been a sheltered planet. Wahrhrwgh, the first Goa'uld to take a dinosaur host, arrived on the planet thousands of years ago. Very few people from outside Dinoland have set foot there since. You, SG-1, were the first to do that in a very long time. I don't know how it was possible that the peace and quiet lasted as long as it did. Now, it's gone."
Daniel Jackson, who had been staring at the table in an absent manner, suddenly looked up. "The Ancients!" he exclaimed.
Ramsey fell silent, as did everyone else. All eyes were turned to Daniel.
"Beg your pardon?" General Hammond said out loud what everyone was probably wondering.
"The reason for the peace and quiet. The Ancients made Dinoland. They're the ones who saved the dinosaurs from extinction and took them there. I'm sure they also placed some sort of defenses on the planet," Daniel explained.
"And you just suddenly figured this out? How?" Colonel O'Neill asked incredulously.
"I..." Daniel frowned. "I remember it, sort of, almost. I just know it's true. It's got to be some sort of hidden, residual knowledge from the time when I was..."
"Glowy," O'Neill completed the sentence. This time, only Doctor Ramsey gazed at Daniel Jackson with a surprised expression. Of course, Ramsey could not have any idea of what had happened during the years he had spent on Dinoland. Such as the fact that Daniel Jackson had died, or more exactly, ascended, and then returned to human form again.
"Long story," Daniel simply stated. "Let's hear yours first, Leo. We can talk about the Ancients and the Ascended some other time."
"Grch," Doctor Ramsey answered with a growl. He had clearly picked up a dinosaurian accent during his years among them. "My story could be long too, but I'll make it short. The first rumors of strange sightings and encounters came a few weeks ago. They were confirmed this week. A Goa'uld has found Dinoland. His name is Anubis."