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The Guardian and the Gate
"So," Jack looked curiously at Sam as SG-1 sat in the briefing room, "this Stargate's on an island?"
"One of a sizeable archipelago, from what the aerial drones saw," Sam confirmed. "The island with the Stargate itself isn't populated, but there appears to be a city of some kind on the largest nearby island, and there were signs of similar habitations on some of the other nearby islands. The drones weren't able to get in close enough to take a more accurate observation in case the natives noticed before we were ready to make contact, but there was an interesting underwater current very close to the islands, and the drone's sensors also detected… well, some very interesting energy sources."
"Interesting energy sources?" General Hammond repeated curiously. "Interesting in what way?"
"Interesting in the sense that they were… mobile," Sam replied, shaking her head uncertainly. "Whatever these sources are, they're capable of independent motion around these three islands; one of them located around the island with the 'gate on it is giving off a great deal of heat, and there's another one on a nearby island that seems to be generating a large amount of electrical energy, but there's a third source that almost seems to be giving off cold energy."
"Cold energy?" Jack repeated curiously. "Are we talking cold fusion here?"
"What is cold fusion?" Teal'c asked.
"A theoretical nuclear reaction that could be triggered at room temperature rather than the usual extreme heat," Sam explained. "In any case, an energy sink might be a more appropriate term for what we're picking up here, as cold would be traditionally more about the absence of energy, and this source seems to be taking it in."
"Taking it in?" Daniel asked.
"I'm not sure how else to explain it; that cold source is… well, it's not like anything I've seen before," Sam explained, shaking her head thoughtfully before she focused on General Hammond. "Whatever's causing them, considering the scale of these energy sources based on a cursory assessment with our standard drone, the possibilities are still worth following up with a more detailed assessment. I'm not sure what it is, but we lose nothing by going there to take a look; at the very least, we might get some interesting ideas about how to develop similar energy sources ourselves."
"…Very well," Hammond nodded after a moment's thought. "SG-1, you have a go."
"Just to check," Jack looked over at Sam as the four-man team moved into position in front of the dialling Stargate, the FRED behind them loaded with the scanning equipment Sam had selected for this particular mission, "if the Stargate's on an island, how are we going to get around to the rest of this place once we get there?"
"We can at least get to this planet and see what our options are," Sam said. "The drones confirmed that the largest island of the four in the immediate area had strong signs of human habitation, so we might be able to send up a signal to attract attention if there's nobody on the island when we get there."
"And if nothing else, we might be able to take a look at the energy source on the island itself," Daniel noted, just as the Stargate finished dialling, the familiar kawoosh emerging from the Stargate before the gate's interior circle settled into its traditional image of an upright pool of water. "This is the island with the great heat source, right?"
"Right," Sam nodded. "It's the most straightforward of the three in the area, but we might still get some ideas for what the other two might be."
"Well," Jack said as he glanced around at his team, "let's see what we've got, shall we?"
As soon as they stepped out of the Stargate, Daniel's glasses were drenched and the rest of the team found themselves squinting in the rain, the new arrivals suddenly struck by the storm that had broken out around them. A quick glance around was all that Sam needed to confirm that they were in the small cove that was the location for the Stargate on this planet, surrounded by steep walls on all sides apart from one small flight of stairs in one corner, but the thick dark clouds above them detracted from the current view even if they didn't have to worry about the rain as well.
"Right," Jack said, looking back at Sam. "You couldn't have mentioned the storm?"
"Was there any indication of this weather during our latest drone reconnaissance?"
"No," Sam said, eyes narrowing uncertainly as she looked up at the sky. "We only sent the drone yesterday; there should be no way for the weather to change this fast under normal circumstances…"
"And what about this?" Daniel called over. Glancing in the archaeologist's direction, Jack was surprised to see that the DHD and the Stargate had surprisingly thick layers of ice around them both. It wasn't as bad as the Stargate he and Carter had found in Antarctic, but considering that this was meant to be a tropical region, the fact that there was any ice here at all raised questions.
"Strange," Sam noted, studying the pattern of the ice. "If this wasn't so big, I'd wonder if it was… unnatural…"
Her teammates looked at her for a few moments, but when Sam shook her head and looked back at the three men, it was clear that she was just as baffled as they were about the inexplicable ice pattern.
"Well," Jack shrugged, lost for anything better to do in this situation, "whether or not this storm came in a bit too fast or there's any strange ice to take into account, we can't exactly do anything about either, so I say we try and check out that power source you detected and work out our next move from there. Recommendations?"
"The centre of the island," Sam said after a moment's thought. "Whatever it was, all three power sources generally seemed to stay around the centre of their respective islands during our surveys; even if it isn't there now, we might be able to find a clue as to what it is."
"Check," Jack nodded, as Teal'c picked up the primary scanning equipment, Carter studying the hand-held scanner for a moment before putting it back on the main box and indicating a rough path up a nearby hill.
"That way," she said. "There's no sign of the larger power source in itself, but there's something this way that has similar energy traces."
"Could it be connected to it?" Daniel asked, as they began to walk up the hill. "I mean, you said the power source you detected was mobile; maybe this one is like its… charger or something?"
"That's… not the worst theory, certainly," Sam noted thoughtfully, before winching as the wind increased around them. "And now that I think about it, maybe this wind has something to do with whatever those energy sources are; a civilization that can produce those could have all kinds of other resources…"
"Weather control?" Jack asked. "Seriously?"
"It's not exactly control; that would imply they can make it better and worse, rather than just making it worse," Sam explained, looking uncertainly up at the sky. "It's too early to be sure, of course, but we might have a better idea what we're dealing with once we find what we're looking for…"
"All the more reason to keep going," Jack nodded firmly as they proceeded up the hill. Jack's cap blew off when they were about halfway up, but he didn't bother trying to catch it; he was always so-so about hats as part of his uniform, and in this case he didn't really need it since he wasn't faced with the sunshine he'd expected.
As they finally reached the top of the hill, SG-1 found themselves staring down into a large crater of an unusual formation. Half of the crater's floor was stone, with a small flight of stairs at the other end, but the other half seemed to be a large gap, with what could be steam completely concealing whatever was on that side of the crater. The most surprising thing about the crater was the small building standing at the middle of the crater, practically on the edge of the stone floor before the mist effect took precedence, even if SG-1 couldn't see much of the construction from this angle.
"OK," Jack said, glancing back at the team as he indicated the small building in the middle, "maybe we've been doing this so long I'm thinking in as many clichés as the bad guys, but what are the odds that thing's important?"
"Probably," Sam confirmed, squinting against the rain as she grabbed the scanner from Teal'c's back to take another check of the readings. "I'm not sure how or why, but there's definitely something in that shrine that's linked to the power source we came here to track."
"Well," Daniel added, looking at the rest of the team, "even if it's not the power source we're looking for, it has to be worth a look for the social value, right? Maybe we can get a better idea of what this society actually worshipped, even if we can't find the main power source."
"Why not?" Jack said. "Gets us out of this wind, anyway."
Taking a glance around the crater, the team soon round the nearest rough part of the wall and carefully made their way down the sides to the floor of the crater, Teal'c keeping the scanner on his back while Daniel used Teal'c's staff to knock a few suitable footholes in the rock below them. The wind was still intense, but the crater shielded them from the worst of it, making their descent uncomfortable rather than cold. As they reached the bottom, Sam had just taken the scanner from Teal'c's equipment to examine the small construction more closely, when a strange sound came from the stairs at the outer edge of the crater. The team turned around to take in the source of the noise, Daniel just about to begin his usual introduction, but the words died in his throat as the four of them stared at the small creature that had just entered the crater and was now looking at them with undeniable curiosity.
"Carter," Jack said, after a moment's pause as the team took in the creature. "Is that or is that not a giant yellow mouse staring at me?"
"Pika?" the creature said, tilting its head as it looked back at Jack.
Staring at the creature, which indeed resembled a large, slightly fat, yellow mouse, apart from its black-tipped pointed ears and lightning-bolt-like tail, Daniel noted that at least he didn't have to worry about finding that planet he'd been dreaming about the night before. It was hard to be certain amid all the other creatures he'd seen in that dream, but he was fairly sure this creature had been one of the many he'd seen walking about on that planet.
Why do I suddenly think that dream wasn't a coincidence?
AN: I appreciate that it was quickly clear what crossover I was using in this storyline, but can you guess when in the other franchise this story takes place?
Be assured that I have plans to adapt the original plot to a Stargate-level threat and SG-1 aren't just being brought in by sheer coincidence to solve something that everyone handled in canon on their own…
