Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or any of its characters. The only thing I own is my character Adolfina!

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The Apprentice

Chapter Four: The Stargate

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Briefing Room, the next day

Immediately after figuring out that the symbols in the middle of the cover stone were constellations, Daniel and I had raced to inform Catherine. Catherine had then informed Kawalsky, who informed his superiors. Which is why I was now following Kawalsky and Daniel into the briefing room where several military officers, Myers, Shore, and Catherine were waiting for us to explain what the symbols meant.

"Hi, hello," Daniel exclaims, looking at the people around him.

Some of them nodded at him in greeting, but that's about it. I just glared at each of them, and in turn some of them glared back at me. I'm pretty much a quiet person; I like to keep to myself a lot if I don't know that many people in a room. Daniel said it probably came from being on my own for some time after my parent's death.

"Right here," Kawalsky stated, indicating two chairs for us.

"Jackson, Adolfina, I'd like you to meet General West," Catherine introduced.

West approached us and shook Daniel's hand, then held his hand out to me. I eyed his hand for a second before reluctantly shaking the offered hand.

"So, you two think you've solved in 14 days what they couldn't solve in two years?" West asked.

"Two years?" Daniel asked, surprised.

"Any time," West stated, ignoring Daniel's dumbfounded expression.

Jack entered the room just as Daniel started passing out several rolls of papers. Jack eyed me again for a second as if he still thought I should be here, and I just glared at him.

"Um, we have stuff for you to look at. Just, um, pass-pass them down. Um, you'll have to share them, cause' I um… sorry, I- don't have enough of those. But anyway," Daniel sat down took a quick breath then continued, "Okay, all right, we're obviously looking at a picture of the cover stones. Now on the outer track, these figures that you would believe to be words to be translated were, in fact…"

Daniel stood up and started shuffling his papers around. Some of the large pieces of paper he accidentally pushed onto some of the people next to him as he rolled out a star chart.

"Were in fact star constellations, 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," Daniel continued, turning to a metal wall behind us.

There was a picture of the cover stones taped up on the wall, and Daniel tapped up another paper which he started to draw on.

"And uh… to find a destination within any three-dimensional space, you need six points to determine the exact location," Daniel stated, drawing a cube and placing a dot in the center of each of the six "sides" of the cube.

"You said you needed seven points," West interrupted.

"Well yeah duh, six for the destination, and the seventh for the point of origin," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"Except there's only six symbols in the cartouche," Myers stated.

"Well the seventh actually isn't inside the cartouche, it's just below it, here designated by a little pyramid with two funny neat little guys and funny little line coming out of the top," Daniel answered, drawing it.

"They did it," Catherine muttered.

"No, that symbol isn't anywhere on the device," Myers exclaimed.

I looked up at him questioningly. Device?

"Uh-what device?" Daniel asked.

West looked over at Jack and Jack just shrugged at him.

"Show them," West ordered.

Kawalsky stood up and walked over by Daniel and pressed a button. The metal wall Daniel had been using started rising and soon it had risen enough that I could see a room down below. I stood up and walked over to stand next to Daniel. I could see a large metal like ring sitting at one end of the room with a metal ramp in front of it, and there were various personnel working around it.

"What is that?" Daniel asked, just as Catherine walked up to us.

"It's your Stargate, come Jackson, Anderson," Catherine replied, walking away. We followed her down to some sort of control room.

"Monitors up," Myers exclaimed, walking in behind us.

"Monitors are up," A woman replied.

"Mitch, you want to bring up the details on the center monitor please?" Myers asked.

"Yep, I've got details… on," He replied, punching in a few keys.

The monitor started showing images of the Stargate with seven blank boxes to the right that read "idle". The Stargate started spinning just as Shore and the others joined us.

"Hold it," Daniel exclaimed.

They stopped it and I noticed a symbol that looked like a pyramid with a circle above it.

"That's it," I mumbled.

Daniel quickly grabbed a marker out of Mitch's pocket and started drawing on the screen.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't…!" He started, but Daniel had already finished his drawing.

"Two figures on either side, praying beside a pyramid with the sun directly above it," Daniel stated.

"He's right. It was in front of us the whole time," Myers exclaimed amazed. Catherine moved over to a red phone on the wall across the room and picked it up.

"General West, Jackson has identified the seventh symbol," Catherine stated into the phone.

After a few seconds, she put down the phone and nodded at a woman at the control panel.

"Programming seventh symbol into computer, Chevron one is holding. Chevron one is locked in place," The woman stated.

"Power output at 23 percent," Mitch shouted.

"Chevron two is holding, Chevron two is locked in place," She continued.

"Holding at 35 percent," Mitch shouted.

"It was under the cover stones?" Daniel asked suddenly.

"Yes, my father found it. 1928, made out of a mineral unlike any found-on Earth," Catherine answered.

Made from a mineral not found on Earth? Is she suggesting that this thing came from another planet? I glanced over at her for a second then back at the Stargate. The inner circle was spinning and only stopped as for a few seconds as it locked onto the next chevron.

"Chevron five locked in place," The woman stated.

"79 percent," Mitch shouted.

Suddenly everything started to shake, and I could see the coffee cups and equipment rattling in their spots.

"Chevron six is holding, Chevron six is locked in place," The woman continued excitedly.

"This is as far as we have ever been able to get," Catherine stated.

The shaking got worse as the computer locked in the seventh Chevron, and I reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Daniel's shirt.

"We have to override manually," Mitch shouted.

"Chevron seven is… Chevron seven is locked in place," The woman exclaimed.

I watched as the Stargate activated and a giant vortex of what looked like water came streaming out towards us, but then shrunk back leaving a vertical wall of water. Holy crap, that's…that's… that's amazing. I've never seen anything like this.

"Send in the probe," West stated over the intercom.

I watched as a group of technicians set up a treaded probe that they sent up onto the ramp, which then made its way up the ramp and into the water inside the gate. It seemed to just disappear into the water.

"It's guiding itself, can you believe it?" Shore exclaimed.

"No… this is amazing," I mumbled. Daniel nodded his head in agreement.

"The thing has locked itself onto a point somewhere in the Kaliam galaxy," Shore stated.

"It has mass, it-it could be a moon or a large asteroid," The woman said.

Another planet, holy shit. Did we just discover a way to instantaneously travel to another planet?

"Where are we on that map?" Daniel asked.

"Look down," Catherine said, pointing. I looked to where she pointed to see a star chart where a red square box was following the trajectory of the probe.

"That's right, Jackson it's on the other side of the known universe," Catherine stated.

"We're-we're losing the signal!" The woman shouted. A few seconds later the Stargate shut down.

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Later in the control room

We were all sitting in the control room watching the video that the probe had sent back before the Stargate shut down. It showed pictures of a room and another Stargate.

"This is the information the probe sent back to us. Freeze and enhance. You can clearly see the 'gate on the other side. Both 'gates must have functioned as a doorway between our worlds," West stated.

"These readings tell us it's an atmospheric match, Barometric pressure, temperature, and most importantly, oxygen," Johnson said. Daniel was standing by one of the screens staring at the close ups of the Chevrons on the other gate.

"These markings are different, they don't match the symbols on our gate," Daniel stated.

"That's why we may have to abort, this project is for naught without a reconnaissance mission," West replied.

"Once on the other side, we'd have to decipher the markings on their gate and in essence dial home in order to bring the team back," Johnson said.

"Based on this new information I don't see how we can do that," West replied.

"Well, Adolfina and I can do that," Daniel stated.

I looked over at him and smiled. Yes, he'd actually included me in that. I'm glad, if he gets to go there's no way I'm staying here. He's not gonna have all the fun without me.

"Are you sure?" West asked.

"Positive," Daniel replied.

"Absolutely," I stated.

"Wait no, maybe Daniel but she can't go," Jack stated, pointing at me.

"What, why?" I asked angrily, standing up.

"It could be dangerous, and you're too young," Jack replied.

"I'm 18 okay I'm an adult," I shot back, scowling.

"And she can take care of herself, heck she took down two guys with knifes the first time I met her," Daniel defended. Jack looked at me in disbelief.

"I can kick your ass if you want," I stated, crossing my arms and glaring at him. Jack scowled at me.

"Fine," He growled, storming out of the room.

I silently cheered in my head. Adolfina one, Jack zero!

"You're on the team," West said to the two of us.

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Research lab

Daniel and I were both packing our suit cases getting ready to leave. Daniel was shoving books in his case, and I'd shoved a few books in mine but not as many as Daniel. We'd be leaving in the morning, but we wanted to get everything together now, so we'd be ready.

"This is so cool I can't believe this. We're going to another planet," I exclaimed, setting the last of my clothes inside my suit case.

I closed my suit case just as Catherine walked into the room.

"Jackson, Anderson," She said, causing Daniel to look up at her.

"Hello," He said.

"I have something for the two of you," Catharine stated.

"No, I-"

"Yes, I found these with the Stargate when I was a child. They have brought me luck," She interjected, holding out an Eye or Ra necklace, and a golden bracelet with the Eye of Ra etched into it.

She handed the necklace to Daniel and the bracelet to me.

"You can bring them back to me," She stated.

The two of us nod, and Daniel put on the necklace while I put on the bracelet. Catherine wished us luck, then left. I stared down at the bracelet on my wrist. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for everyone, and I doubt I'd get much sleep tonight…