Chapter 3
TWO WEEKS LATER
"...Completed search of cuneiform and other pre-Uruk period writing, no matches found whatsoever. I've exhausted all reference material in comparing the symbols in the center against all known writing samples from the period, pre and post. Still no similarities. I'm never going to get paid."
Daniel pressed the stop button on the tape recorder, and his captured voice was silent.
Tired, but not yet willing to sleep, he turned to the coffee maker upon the extremely messy desk next to the east wall of the room. It was empty.
Had he really drank all of that since midnight?
Throwing caution of caffeine-induced psychosis to the winds, he grabbed the pot and proceeded outside to refill it at the water fountain. The guard, looking up from the newspaper he was reading, vocalized his warning for the archaeologist to stop and show ID, which he did.
Glancing at the guard and wondering why on Earth he didn't know who he, Daniel, was by now, he noted a large diagram of the constellation Orion beside an astrological chart - utter nonsense, he thought - and an article entitled "Ancient Mystic Predicts Death of Trees Eminent". He waved the last one off as new age drivel, but there was something about that Orion diagram...
Like a predator stalking its prey, Daniel moved toward the guard, abandoning the coffee pot at the fountain, forgetting why he had come out of the lab in the first place. He practically tore the Orion page from the guards hands, adding, only as an afterthought and speaking through the doors of the lab which he had rapidly scampered through, "Can I borrow this...?"
"Crazy civilians..." muttered the guard under his breath.
...
Daniel placed the newspaper on his desk. He foraged for a pen in the drawers, and upon finding one, outlined the main body of Orion to make it stand out. He then proceeded to the ladder resting against the large coverstone. Climbing it, he compared his outline to one of the central symbols.
"Orion."
Indeed, the two looked almost precisely alike.
15:00 HOURS, THE SAME DAY
Daniel had been informed by Captain Carter that the big brass in charge of the project would be arriving to hear his briefing. He sure hoped he was right about the symbols, although having exhausted all other options, constellations were the only thing those characters could possibly represent.
Major Davis, who was the Pentagon attaché to Archuleta Mesa, or so Daniel had been told, led him to the secure briefing room as he finished off his infinity billionth cup of coffee. They entered the room, inside which was a large desk which almost filled the entire floor space and at which several high ranking officers (including Colonel O'Neill) and civilian personnel were sitting or milling about. Of course like every room in the base the lighting was quite dim, a fact which perplexed Daniel. Were they going out of their way to let people know they were underground or did their electrical budget just suck?
Daniel was approached by a large, completely bald man, and Captain Carter introduced him as General Hammond.
"Oh, right! Of course, General." Daniel freed his right hand from the massive pile of paper he was carrying to shake General Hammond's own hand, and the room settled in for his briefing.
As he sat down, the General queried "so you think you've solved in fourteen days what they couldn't solve in two years?"
Daniel paused. He looked at doctors Meyers and Shore. "Two years?"
"Any time, Dr. Jackson."
"Uh, I have some stuff... just pass them down."
Putting on a grin to hide his nervousness, Daniel began passing out the larger papers he held.
"Sorry, you'll have to share because I don't have enough." He laughed uncertainly.
"Anyway. Uh, alright, we're obviously looking at a picture of the coverstones, now, on the outer track, these figures that you would believe to be words to be translated were, in fact" - from his seat, Daniel clumsily placed a huge diagram of the night sky on the desk - "star constellations."
Carter listed with interest.
"Now these constellations were placed in a unique order forming a... map, or an address of sorts. Seven points to outline a course to a position... and, uh..." Here, he walked toward the whiteboard behind him on the wall. "To find a destination within any three dimensional space, you need six points... to determine the exact location."
As he spoke, Daniel drew a cube, with one point on all six sides of the structure, which converged in the exact middle of the cube.
Hammond spoke up. "You said you needed seven points."
Daniel clarified. "Well, no, six for the destination. But to chart a course you need a point of origin." He drew a connecting point outside the cube.
Meyers voiced his objection: "Except there's only six symbols on the inner track."
"Well the seventh isn't actually inside the track, it's just below it here."
Daniel, having pinned a diagram of the coverstone to the board, circled the chevron or pyramid-shaped device beneath the vertical line of constellations, and then drew it in larger detail on the board: "a little pyramid with two... funny, neat little guys and a funny little line coming out of the top, heh." He giggled for no reason whatsoever. "Anyway, uh..."
Everyone stared silently, then the General Hammond spoke incredulously. "I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson... you came up with all this not even knowing that what was hidden in the chamber beneath the coverstone was a device that, according to Captain Carter, generates an artificial stable wormhole? What could possibly have possessed you to believe the ancients were charting a course to distant point in space, rather than using the constellations as simply a new form of writing?"
Daniel began to uncannily resemble a deer looking into the headlights of an oncoming automobile. "Uh..."
Hammond brought his palm to his face. "Never mind... for the sake of the story I'll accept that you came up with this on your own."
Daniel now looked to Carter. "Um, artificial stable what now?"
Hammond looked at O'Neill, who shrugged.
"Show him" ordered the general.
Major Davis pressed a green button by the whiteboard, and it began to move upward as gears kicked into action. Beyond, Daniel saw there was a window down into a very large concrete chamber in which technicians swarmed beneath, and lights shone from above upon, a wondrous object, a seemingly metal circle, held by great supports which also contained electrical wiring, for it seemed the military was planning to electrically charge the device.
"What is that?"
Captain Carter spoke from next to him. "It's your Stargate."
...
Colonel O'Neill cleared his throat.
"Now that the esteemed Dr. Jackson has been let in on the Big Secret, we have a much more important matter to discuss: who gets to go through the Stargate?"
The general answered him, saying "I've already picked you to lead the mission Colonel, and you get to pick your team, but I want Daniel Jackson and Sam Carter to go through with you."
A major, Ferretti, interjected. "Who's this Carter we keep hearing so much about?"
Carter turned to him. "I am Captain Samantha Carter, sir. Obviously you haven't noticed the nametag on my uniform, so here I am."
Another major, Kowalski, who sat beside Feretti asked "but of course you go by Sam."
"You don't have to worry Major. I played with dolls when I was a kid."
"G.I. Joe?"
"No, Major Matt Mason."
"Oh. Who?"
Ferretti. "Major Matt Mason, astronaut doll. Did you have that cool little backpack that made him fly?"
O'Neill spoke up. "Two scientists? General, please..."
"Theoretical astrophysicist" retorted Carter.
"Which means...?"
"Which means she is smarter than you are, Colonel" said Hammond. Ferretti and Kowalski smirked. "Especially in matters related to the Stargate."
"Colonel, I was studying the gate technology for two years before Dr. Jackson here came up with a solution. I think I've earned a place on your team."
Hammond again spoke. "Captain Carter's assignment to this mission is not an option, Colonel."
Carter again. "I'm an Air Force officer just like you are, Colonel. And just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside doesn't mean I can't handle whatever you can handle."
O'Neill sat down. "Oh, this has nothing to do with you being a woman. I like women. I just got a little problem with scientists."
Daniel, who was standing there in witness to the whole exchange, muttered under his breath. "What am I? Chopped liver?"
"Colonel, I logged over a hundred hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War. Is that tough enough for you?" asked Carter. "Or are we going to have to arm wrestle?"
Beside a woman in a mini sweater dress, another civilian dressed in a sharp, black suit cleared his throat and emerged from the shadows.
"Well, if you two are done comparing penises, maybe we should discuss my involvement in this mission."
Every head in the room turned to face him.
"Agent Sterling Archer, NID, and, if I say so myself, the world's greatest secret agent."
Sam rounded on him. "Archer? What are you doing here?"
"You know this man, Captain?" asked O'Neill.
"Sam!" Archer greeted her. "I know you still have a thing for me, but I've moved on. Maybe, after we get back, we can work out some kind of bang-buddy deal-"
"Hah! You wish!" Lana Kane, the woman beside him, interjected.
Sam shook her head. "What. Are you doing here?"
"Agents Sterling Archer and Lana Kane are here as civilian oversight from the NID of this project" replied General Hammond.
"Yeah, and I have Q clearance" stated Archer.
"But this is an MJ-SCI-USAP program... oh never mind. General, does Archer really have to be on the mission?"
"Actually neither agents Kane nor Archer have clearance to go offworld. Agent Archer spoke out of turn."
"Aww, come on! Better us than some" - he indicated O'Neill - "Lieutenant..."
"Colonel" corrected O'Neill.
"...Lieutenant Colonel hopped up on LSD, compliments of the CIA and MKULTRA."
Hammond shook his head. "I'm not dignifying that with a response."
...
Half an hour later, Colonel O'Neill stood in a very secure section of the base, examining the skeleton found at the Ur dig site. It appeared that the bones and the ornate serpentine helmet had been corroded by something that was in the air, even though they were sealed in that chamber hundreds of meters below ground for thousands of years where presumably no air exchange took place.
General Hammond entered, and walked up beside O'Neill, who turned to the general.
"General. I thought I said I retired."
Hammond looked at him quizzically. "Oh. I thought you said you were tired."
"Well... I am a little tired, actually." He continued, indicating the humanoid bones. "You understand this complicates things."
"That's why I wanted you Jack. We've opened a doorway to a world we know nothing about."
...
