Chapter 4
SEVERAL HOURS LATER
GATE ROOM
Hammond, O'Neil, Carter and Daniel strode into the control room of the Stargate facility. Dozens of technicians were busy preparing the computer systems and gate diagnostics as well as entering commands into the supercomputers designed to process, receive data from, and send data to the alien computers inside the Stargate itself.
"Monitors up" ordered Hammond.
"I've got details on" came the reply, from a man dressed as a Technical Sergeant. His nametag said Harriman.
"Good", proclaimed Hammond. "Make it spin."
Harriman turned to the General.
"Sir, it doesn't spin."
"What? It has to spin! It's round! Spinning is so much cooler than not spinning. I'm the General, I want it to spin. Now."
"Yes, sir." Under his breath, Harriman muttered "jackass" and proceeded to input the coordinates Daniel had given.
The gate began spinning.
"Hey. It does spin after all."
O'Neill gave the Sergeant a hearty pat on the back. "Yeah, magnets probably."
The entire facility began shaking as the coordinates were dialed and each red chevron on the 'Gate lit up in turn as it hit the appropriate symbol - there were thirty nine in all, making for an extremely large number of possible combinations.
"This is as far as we have ever been able to get" said Carter to Daniel as the sixth chevron was encoded. With Daniel's identification of the last symbol, the pyramid shape - the point of origin - they would hopefully be able to establish a lock.
The room was shaking so violently now that unsecured devices like land lines were vibrating uncontrollably and pens flew in people's faces. Siler, another Master Sergeant, crumpled to the floor with a cry of "Ow, my eye!".
Then the vibrations stopped. But what happened next was far more astonishing.
The center of the Stargate lit up with a great flash, excess electricity enveloped the metal of the gate itself, and the very air was warped as the wormhole was established. (For a good approximation of what the wormhole looked like, see . , only imagine that the warped part between the inner and outer vistas is moving and rotating, and that a good deal of harmless blue plasma is being ejected from the wormhole into both the SGC and the other side as electrons and other subatomic particles tunnel through the energy barriers.)
Agent Archer was the first to speak, whiskey still in hand. "Holy shit dude."
That snapped everyone back to the task at hand: Hammond proceeded to order in the robotic probe, or MALP.
Covered by men with rifles, who pointed them at the wormhole, evidently as a precaution in case hostile forces entered from the other side, the robot proceeded up the ramp leading to the hole in space-time. As it entered the stargate, it too appeared to be warped, until Daniel could see it, faintly, on the other side - a dimly lit desert area. Another planet?
The soldiers cleared the inner silo as one of the female technicians looked up from the technical readouts now being transmitted by the probe.
"We're receiving data now, sir. The beam has locked itself onto a point somewhere in... in the Draco Dwarf galaxy."
Daniel and Carter turned to the star map, which displayed the Milky Way and the surrounding local cluster of galaxies. Earth was represented by a blue dot, and the robotic arm indicating the probe's location was now pointing toward a small spherical galaxy situated 260 thousand light years away.
As Daniel realized the implications of this, Carter spoke: "That's right, Jackson. It's two hundred sixty thousand light years away. I guess the carvers of the seal stone got it right."
The technician continued. "It has mass. It could be a moon or a large asteroid."
Harriman. "We're losing the signal."
And with Harriman's statement, the wormhole disappeared and space-time warped back to its normal configuration, leaving only trace amounts of blue plasma which quickly dissipated.
***STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED***
AN HOUR LATER
BRIEFING ROOM
General Hammond and Sergeant Walter Harriman were pouring over the vast amount of data the SGC had received from the probe before the Stargate deactivated. Colonel O'Neill, Captain Carter, and Daniel looked on with varying amounts of interest. The General turned to the others.
"This is the information the probe sent back to us." As Walter skimmed over some of the images of the stargate on the other end, Hammond motioned to him to stop and enhance the image quality with... you know, top-secret image enhancing software not yet available to the general public. As the symbols on the stargate came into clearer focus, Hammond continued: "You can clearly see the gate on the other side. Both gates must have functioned as a doorway between our two worlds."
The technical sergeant elaborated. "These readings tell us it's an atmospheric match. Pressure, temperature... and most importantly, oxygen."
Daniel noticed the now clear symbols on the alien stargate. "These markings are different" he stated, in reference to the fact that he had not seen a match for any of the alien gate's constellation symbols on the earth gate so far. "They don't match the symbols on our gate."
"That's why we may have to abort" confirmed General Hammond. "This project is for naught without a reconnaissance mission. Once on the other side you'd have to decipher the symbols on the other gate, and in essence, "dial home", in order to bring the team back. Based on this new information I don't see how we can do that."
They all paused, looking at the data. Finally, Daniel spoke.
"Well, I could do that."
The military personnel stared at him.
"Are you sure?" asked Hammond.
"Positive" nodded Daniel.
O'Neill looked at the alien symbols, then at Hammond as he turned away. "He's full of shit."
General Hammond considered this most cogent and logical argument for a moment. Then, shrugging, he turned to Daniel and said "you're on the team."
***STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED***
In the room with the cover stones, Daniel looked over his archaeological reference books, trying to decide which ones would be most useful in interpreting an alien culture which was familiar with Earth symbols.
From behind him, a tall figure approached. He was not wearing a military uniform or normal civilian clothing, but a long grey robe which reached down to his ankles and fit his body tightly but not too tightly. It appeared to be made of a shiny fabric about as thick as a business suit. His blonde hair, unusually, was worn long, about shoulder length, and he carried himself with the air of a dignitary or nobleman. Daniel turned to him and smiled. "Hey" he offered the man in greeting.
The man nodded to him, then reached inside a pocket and handed him a length of metal chain on which hung a cylindrical gold pendant. The writing on it was undecipherable.
"For luck" the man said.
Daniel looked him. "Where did you get this?"
"Not important." Few of words, this guy. "You can bring it back to me."
He turned away.
"Who are you?" Daniel called after him.
For a moment the man paused. "Ra Mu" he said, and walked out of the room.
Daniel shrugged, and pulled the chain over his neck.
***STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED***
The next day, the team that was to go through the gate assembled in the corridor outside the Gate room, checking their weapons and supplies. Sam Carter and Jack O'Neill were there, with O'Neill as the officer in command, as well as Kowalski and Ferretti and four others, not including Daniel, who arrived late.
As he saw that the team were all assembled, O'Neill addressed his men.
"If anyone has anything to say, now's the time to say it. Smoke if ya got 'em."
No one said anything, but Daniel sneezed and blew his nose.
They entered the gate room and moved up the ramp. It was a tense moment, no one knowing what kind of effects a ride across a tremendous distance using a space-time shortcut would have on the human body. One of the men used a remote control to move the robot carrying most of their food and heavy equipment into the wormhole before them. Then one by one, the soldiers entered the Stargate.
Daniel was last, pausing just before hitting the event horizon. Glowing azure streams of plasma touched his face and hands, causing a tingling sensation. He was apprehensive, even a little frightened, but oddly certain that his destiny lay on the other side. So, closing his eyes, he stepped into the unknown.
What followed felt like a sickening jolt forward as his feet were seemingly lifted off the ground. It felt like a giant had picked him up in its hand and thrown him across light years of space. Even as his eyes were closed, he could see planets, stars, and galaxies flash before him and disappear. Abruptly, he returned to normal space. The stargate closed behind him. He and the team were alone now.
***STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED***
{a team of military humans has discovered and re-activated the stargate}
{did they go through?}
{yes to the draco dwarf galaxy}
{then it is no matter death or worse awaits them there they will not succeed in upsetting the treaty}
To be continued...