STARGATE ANDROMEDA
EPISODE: 102
THE RED-EYE NEBULA
Written by, Lewis Green
Lieutenant Colonel Eli Thompson stood in the gate room, waiting with his team, James, Rachel, and Carl, for the Stargate to be dialed, and for them to be on their way.
James turns to face the rest of the team.
"So...where are we going again?"
"Ancient Laboratory. Apparently, very dangerous in the hands of a blood thirsty Gould," Carl replied.
"Can't we just nuke the whole thing? I mean, why waste good men on a mission to a lab that's only going to cause trouble?" James replied.
"Because this is what we do, Major," Rachel interjected, almost annoyed by the complaints of James.
"Is it?" Eli asked.
"Yes, Colonel," Rite answered, his eyes rested on a Tablet computer.
The intercom clicked. This automatically made Eli and his team look to the Control Room.
General Hank Landry stood in full view of the team, holding down the button to activate the intercom.
"Alright, SG-5, SG-1 is currently off-world, securing a fleet of Jaffa Rebellion ships for whatever may happen. If you need ANY support, dial in, and call us up."
"Yes, Sir!" Eli responded.
"Dial it up, Walter," Landry said to a balding man in glasses, sitting right beside him.
Suddenly, the Stargate began to activate, its ring twisting around under the nine chevrons of the entire ring. Each chevron lighted up with a shade of orange light, until, KAWOOSH! The Stargate sat calmly, yet so lively, a blue puddle rippling in its opening.
"Alright, SG-5, let's roll-out!" Eli yelled, taking the Stargate at a run. His team followed.
Eli slammed into the event horizon, followed by James, then Rachel, then Carl.
The group was dematerialized and thrown across the galaxy through a wormhole.
WOOSH! Eli jumped out of the Stargate. As the rest of his team exited the gate, they were all greeted by a desert prairie. The sky was blue, yet streaked with red, they were inside of a nebula. The ruins of wooden buildings, forming one road, were spread across the landscape.
"Uh..." James said, looking around the deserted area. "Not exactly what came to mind when I heard, 'Ancient Laboratory'."
The Stargate closed.
Several hours passed, and the team found nothing. They gathered in front of the Stargate.
"Carl, Rachel, what did you find?" Eli asked.
"Nothing, just a bunch of piles of wood," Rachel replied.
"Same with us," James said. "Do you think we have the right planet?"
"I doubled checked the address to our database, this is the place," Carl said. "This is definitely the place."
"Then, where's the lab?" Eli asked, not really to anyone, only scanning the terrain.
"More importantly," Carl started, "where's our Gould?"
James sat himself down on the ground, joining Eli in looking over the deserted area. He fiddled with two rocks, he then began to juggle them. He missed one of the rocks, sending both to the ground. He reached for another.
"Maybe we should check in with the General," Eli suggested.
"You're the CO," Rachel replied.
James continued to play with a few of the rocks on the ground, obviously bored to tears.
"Just sucks that we don't get to shoot-up a few Goulds today," James says, pulling at a decent-sized rock.
When he pulls this rock, a loud screech filled the air. The team covered their ears as five large rings sprang up from the ground, surrounding them, and then engulfing them in a blast of light.
The team was beamed far, far underground.
A ring pad sat, embedded into the floor of the Ancient Laboratory. The platform suddenly sprang to life, firing up five rings, filling them with light, and spitting out the four members of SG-5.
Eli fell to the ground, and stumbled back up to his feet.
"What the HELL was that?!" Eli yelled, balancing himself on the wall behind the ring platform.
Carl took a deep breath, staring around the room, and then down at James.
"It looks like Major Redford's found our Laboratory," Carl said.
"Well, looks like I am a genius," James replied, hoisting himself to his feet.
Rachel moved her gaze from left to right, observing the dark room they were ringed into.
"Doctor Rite," Eli began, "where are we?"
"I'd say, we're in the Ancient Warfare Lab."
Eli slapped his palms together, rubbing them together.
"And it only took us five hours!"
Rachel, Eli, and James raised their P90s, their flashlights on, and pressed forward, surveying the room they were sent to.
Eli rounded a corner with Rachel.
"Clear!" Rachel called.
James rounded another corner.
"Clear!" James called.
The team regrouped in front of Carl. Carl looked at the rest of the team.
"Clear..." Carl said.
The team looked down the corner Rachel and Eli took, fining nothing but dust and unusable Alteran terminals and equipment.
The team then decided to take a look down the corner James took. They walked down a long, dark hallway. No lights came on, and it was cold enough to make the dead shiver. Eli, James, and Rachel shined their flashlights and pointed their P90s all about making sure to have the advantage if they were ever jumped by Gould forces.
James begins to hum the Twilight Zone theme song.
"That's really not helping, Major," Carl protested.
"I thought it would be fitting," James replied with a smile.
As the team walked the hall, a half-opened door revealed a shining object in another room to Eli. Eli stopped.
Rachel stops and turns to Eli.
"Colonel?"
"What's in there," Eli asked himself, staring into the room.
"Hang on," James said, walking over to the door.
James shoved his hands into the opening between the door and the doorstop, pushing it the rest of the way open.
James slapped his palm together, getting the dust off of them, and turned to Eli.
"There ya go, Sir."
Eli nodded and made his way into the room.
The room was filled with dim lights and large tubes full of alien liquid. Eli observed his reflection in one of the more larger test tubes.
"What is this place?" Carl asked.
"My guess? Biological warfare lab," Rachel added.
"I dunno, Rachel," James started, making faces out of his reflection in the tubes. "I was on the Atlantis Expedition for the better part of a year, and we never found anything to suggest that Ancients were using Biological-Warfare."
"Well, we never found anything to suggest that the Ancients thought about clogging up Sub-Space, so the Wraith couldn't travel Faster-Than-Light, until very recently," Rachel countered. "Who knows what the hell the Alterans've been doing?"
"They sure are squirrelly," Eli said, looking around at all the other tubes. "What d'you figure's in these things, Rite?"
"Oooooh," Rite began, "probably something... horrible..."
Rite began to pace the room, reading off of a Tablet computer.
"That's the spirit, Doc," James said, slightly downed.
Rite put down his Tablet and began to examine one of the tubes, watching bubbles fly up from the bottom to the top.
"What could this be?..." Rite asked himself.
James decided to make faces in the tubes.
On board the X-304 Odyssey, the third Starship and second Daedalus-Class Battle Cruiser to be built by the Taur'i, Colonel William Patton sat in the Captain's chair of the bridge as that very ship soared through Hyperspace.
The USS Odyssey was one Earth's Battle Cruisers and Deep Space Carriers.
The Sergeant on the right of Patton looked up from his terminal to speak to the Colonel.
"Sir, we're about to drop out of Hyperspace."
"Got it. Where are we anyway?" Patton asked, resting his cheek on his fist.
A burst of white light ripped Hyperspace away from Patton's sight, replacing it with a red Nebula.
Outside the ship laid a Middle-Stage Star and a Super-Earth.
Patton sat up from lying on his cheek.
"Is this it?"
"Yes, Sir," the Sergeant to his right replied.
"Well, alright then."
Patton turned to the Sergeant on his left.
"Sergeant, get me Colonel Thompson."
"Yes, Sir," the Sergeant on Patton's left replied.
Inside of the Alteran Bio-Warfare Laboratory, Eli and the rest of SG-5 stared all around.
Suddenly, Eli's radio clicked and the voice of Colonel Patton rang through the room.
"Colonel Eli? Is this, Colonel Eli?"
Eli lifted up his radio, confused by the abstract greeting.
"Uh... Yes?"
"Excellent, looks like we've found you. What've you found down there?"
"Well," Eli began, "we first found a western-type village, looked like it came out of a Clint Eastwood movie. But, we found the Ancient lab underground."
"...Cool..." Patton said. "No Gould?"
Eli looked surprised, remembering that the whole reason they had come to the lab, was to stop a bloodthirsty Gould from taking up Ancient weapons, and enslaving the Galaxy.
"No..." Eli responded. "Just us chickens."
"Well, we'll watch the stars up here, tell you if we see something," Patton responded over the radio.
"Sounds good, next check-in, I guess... ten minutes?" Eli said.
"That'll be fine."
The radio clicked, ending the conversation.
Rite looked interested down at his Tablet computer, a cable connecting it and an Alteran terminal via a crystal adapter.
"What d'ya got, Doc?" Rachel asked.
Rite didn't respond, tapping his fingers on the computer's screen.
"Doc!" James yelled.
Rite shot back to reality, startled.
"Oh, oh, sorry," Rite said. "I think I've just found something."
"What?" Eli asked, walking towards Carl.
"I think I've just found what's in these tubes."
"Well, spill it, man!" James yelled.
"It's a Strain. A dangerous one at that," Rite said, gesturing at the tubes.
"How dangerous are we talkin', Doc?" Eli asked.
"Dangerous enough to concur a galaxy. I think we've just found what the Gould would be looking for," Rite said. Rite turned his head, looking all around the room. "If he was here that is."
In space, the Odyssey sat in orbit around the planet, sliding across the red streaks in the blackness of space.
Suddenly, a Hyperspace Window opened, spitting out three Ha'tak ship.
The Sergeant on the right of Patton springs to action.
"Sir, three Hat'aks have just dropped out of Hyperspace."
"Oh, crap," Patton said, pressing a button on his chair. "Eli, you need to speed this party up, we've got company."
"Understood, we're heading out now," Eli responded.
Patton watched several lights fly from the Hat'aks, Jaffa ringing down to the planet.
"Hurry..." Patton said.
SG-5 rushed for the ring-pad. The rings suddenly sprang to life.
"Mother!" James yelled, staring down five Jaffa.
The team bolted back, firing their guns on the Jaffa, killing them all.
"We need to hurry the hell up," Rachel said, typing out the directions on the Ring-Pad's control panel.
Before she could finish, the rings sprang back to life.
"Fall back," Eli yells.
More Jaffa materialized inside of the rings.
The team bolts back to the lab.
Patton gets out of his chair.
"Shields up! Get our Asgard Beams on line!"
"Sir," the Sergeant to the left of the Captain's chair responds.
"I don't want any of those Hat'aks surviving and telling their buddies who's here. Rip 'em to pieces."
"We've got a problem don here!" Eli yells over the radio. "Jaffa!"
Eli, Rachel, and James fire their P90s out the exit of the lab, hitting Jaffa left and right. Rite wrestles with his M9.
"Can you get to the rings, Eli?" Patton asks over the radio.
"Not a chance!" Eli yells over the gunfire. "They've got those things blocked off good!"
"OK, we'll beam you up in just a sec."
"Negative! We've got a dangerous Strain down here, if we leave it, they can infect the galaxy with whatever the hell this stuff is!" Eli yelled into his radio.
"Then stick some C4 on whatever's holding it," Patton replies over the radio.
"Roger!" Eli yells into his radio, pulling a pack of C4 from his vest and moving for the tables that hold the tubes.
Rachel and James ripped the packs of C4 from their vests, tossing them to Eli as the Jaffa fire on them.
A Gould grenade flies into the room from the outside.
James only laughed, picking up the gray ball, and throwing it back.
It exploded, firing out a blinding light and a deafening screech, forcing the Jaffa to their feet in pain.
"What now?!" James yelled at the enemy.
Eli stuck the tubes with the C4.
"Time to go," Eli said, turning to his team.
"Beam us up," Eli said over Patton's radio.
"Roger that," Patton responded, signaling the Sergeant to the left of the Captain's chair to do so.
The Sergeant nodded and began typing.
"I have their beacons, beaming now."
SG-5 burst into several beams of light, beaming off to the Odyssey.
SG-5 reappeared on the bridge.
"Thanks," Eli said.
"No problem," Patton said, seating himself down in the Captain's chair. "Where the hell are my Asgard beams, Sergeant?"
The Sergeant to Patton's right responded. "I don't know, Sir, they're not going on line."
"Perfect," Patton responded, annoyed.
Several yellow lights assaulted the Odyssey's shields, coming from the Hat'ak ships.
The Jaffa walk into the Alteran lab, pointing their staff weapons every which way, trying to find their enemy.
One approaches the tubes, seeing the C4.
"Jaffa!" he yells. "Sha-"
The Jaffa is cut-off as the C4 explodes, incinerating him and blowing the rest of his group off of their feet.
They assault on the shields ended.
"They're launching Death Gliders!" the Sergeant to Patton's left announced.
"Call all pilots to the 302 Bay, get those birds in the air!" Patton responded.
Eli handed one of the Sergeant's his P90, running off of the bridge.
"Where the hell do you think you're going, Eli?" Patton asked.
"Before I was a 302 pilot, I flew the Raptor, I know my way around a plane."
Patton sighs. "Go then!"
Inside of the 302 bay, pilots ran left and right, running up metal steps to F-302s.
Eli ran into the Hangar Bay and up the steps of a nearby 302, no flight-gear on.
He sat himself down in the cockpit of the fighter, flipping up switches, activating the fighter's systems.
The canopy slid back as the Hangar Bay's doors lifted, revealing the blackness of space, and several gray and gold dots coming to kill them. The shield sealing the Hangar Bay rippled.
Eli rolled his fighter onto the strip of the Bay. He thrust the throttle forward, sending his fighter up into the air, through the shield, into space, and out of the Odyssey's shields.
Rachel, James, and Eli watched the fighters fly from the ship.
"What d'you figure the chances are of the Colonel dying out there?" James asked.
"I have no idea..." Rachel replies. "You worried?"
James laughs. "No, I only ask because if he dies, I takeover the team."
Eli watches the Gliders approach.
Voices came over the terminal's radio, other pilots checking in. It soon came for him to check in.
"Ripper 3, checking in," he said into his radio.
The Gliders and 302s rushed at each other at great speed, firing on each other. The Gliders fired their staff weapons, the 302s their KEW rifles.
Some Gliders were shot down, other only flew in between the squad of 302s.
The Jaffa that were scorched by the flames only lay on the ground, dead or dying.
One Jaffa survived however.
Holding his ribs, this Jaffa made his way to the tubes, not shattered. He reached his hand out, touching the liquid dripping out of the vile. He then made his way to the ring-pad.
He ringed off to the surface.
The Jaffa collapsed on the dusty ground of the now very-used-ring-pad.
He lifted a small communicator out of his armor, pressing down a button.
"I... I need help, please..."
A voice came over the communicator, the Gould. "Have you procured the substance that I seek?"
"No, the Taur'i, they've destroyed it with their weapons," the Jaffa gasped out, holding his bleeding wound.
"Then you have failed your God."
"My Lord, I."
"Die, it will suffice as punishment for this atrocity."
The Jaffa threw the communicator aside, enraged. He yelled.
Suddenly, lines of blood began to descend from his eyes.
He placed his hand on his cheek, catching the lines of blood. He looked confused at the blood, getting up to keep it from pooling in his eye sockets.
"What is this?" he asked himself.
The Jaffa rose to his feet, typing out an address on the dialing device of the Stargate.
The Stargate spat out a burst of energy and sucked it back in, steadying to a simple pool of blue light.
"Sir," a Sergeant said from behind the captain's chair, from one of the terminals lining the walls of the bridge, "the Stargate's just activated."
"Is it incoming, or outgoing?" Patton asked.
"We're not receiving any signals from the SGC, it's a safe bet that it's outgoing."
Patton is concerned, turning to face Rite.
"What're the chances of anyone surviving the blast you guys made with the C4?"
"Slim, but not impossible," Rite replied.
"Sergeant!" Patton yelled, turning to the Sergeant on the left of the Captain's chair. "Fire up all rail guns and missile launchers. We need to destroy that gate!"
"Yes, Sir."
"Why," Rite asked.
"Because if it's one of the Jaffa from down there, it's a good guess that they've come in contact with whatever the Strain is that you found down there. If he carries it through the gate, he'll infect the galaxy." Patton replied, seating himself down in the Captain's chair of the ship.
The Jaffa prepared to step through the gate as a load roar came from the sky. The Jaffa looked up to see several rail gun rounds and missiles flying directly at him, firing blazing all around them.
A line of blood was already leaking from his ears.
The Jaffa jumped through the gate just as it was hit and buried by the dust and rubble created by the rail gun round and missiles.
"Confirmed hit," the Sergeant says to Patton.
"Alright, call back all the fighters and Jump us home," Patton replied.
"Yes, Sir."
Eli pulled his fighter back to the ship after hearing the callback.
His fighter shakes lightly as he passes through the Hangar's shield and hits the landing strip with the legs of his landing gear.
He immediately turns his fighter to its spot on the side of the Bay's wall, cooling his engines and rocket motor, as the rest of the 302s come in for landings.
"We have our 302s!" the Sergeant announced.
"Alright, take us to Hyperspace," Patton ordered.
The Odyssey jumped to Hyperspace, leaving the Hat'aks behind.
At the SGC, everything was calm. It was fourteen hours after the team had arrived at the SGC.
Eli walked to his quarters, but was stopped by General Landry.
"Colonel," Landry began, stopping Eli in his tracks. "Mission accomplished I suppose?"
"Seems like it, General," Eli said. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Unfortunately, Colonel, this isn't pleasure. We have a situation," Landry said, hands in the pockets of his jacket, his slightly down as he circles around Eli.
"What's that, Sir?"
"The strain you found. We think it may have gotten through to another world."
"Which one?"
"P3B-993, a simple planet, not much. But they've been showing some strange symptoms over the past few hours."
"Like what?"
"First, they bleed from their eye sockets, not long after that, they bleed from their ears. Then their nose, then they spit and cough out blood. After that..."
"What?" Eli asked, looking very concerned at this point.
"A slight, pop comes from their ears, and they die."
"Have we figured out the details of what's actually causing this?"
"You said that Stargate activated after you left the planet's surface."
"But we buried it."
"There's no saying what got through. All I'm saying is, a strange strain shows up just hours after you find an Alteran strain. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that it's the same one."
Eli leaned on the wall, shocked, mouth hanging open.
"What do we do?" Eli asked.
"Whatever we can. Unfortunately, the people of P3B-993 already migrated off of their planet before telling us, so now the strain could be anywhere. We need to go to P3B, and find out more."
"Isn't this a job for SG-1?"
"I figure since you and your team were the ones who found the strain first, you maybe of great use. As for SG-1, they'll be coming along as well."
Eli is shocked again.
"Th, they're coming too?" Eli stuttered.
"That's right, Colonel." Landry slapped Eli on the shoulder. "Gather your team, suit up, and go to the gate room, double time!"
Landry walked off smiling, leaving Eli bewildered.
Eli sighed and began to make his way off to find his team, then to the armory, then to go to the gate room to finally meet the people he had come to idolize since he had come back from his first ever mission off-world.
To Be Continued...