Chapter 4: ET Phone Home

"Sir, we have an incoming wormhole. There's no IDC, but it's coming from the planet where we lost contact with SG-1, sir." Sergeant Harriman reported to General Hammond as he entered the control room.

"Don't open the gate just yet. They're more than three days overdue for a check-in, and they may have been captured."

"No sir, I don't think that will be necessary, sir. There's readings coming in from the MALP, and I believe the aliens may be trying to use it to contact us, sir." Harriman replied.

"Activate the camera and microphone."

"Yes sir," Walter flipped a few switches. "Done, sir."

Looking at the images displayed on the screen, Hammond recognized them as the same beings with whom he had previously spoken- at least, he thought they were the same. When contending with short fur in a variety of gold and tan hues, facial recognition was a bit more difficult. But the ornamented robes also seemed to be the same. Watching a finger reach out and touch the lens of the camera on the other side, Hammond decided that Harriman was most likely correct about the aliens' motivation. They were trying to contact earth with the MALP. But why? And why the blazes hadn't SG-1 been in contact?

"This is General George Hammond, of Stargate Command on the planet Earth. With whom am I speaking?" The aliens looked startled by the voice at first, but turned back towards the camera after a moment. Hammond rubbed a hand over his bald pate while trying to think how to diplomatically phrase his next question. Thankfully, the aliens spoke, saving him the trouble.

"Greetings, General George Hammond. I am Minister Eglarond, and this is Advisor Theris. We have heard your voice on our machines, trying to contact others of your world. We believe we have discovered what transpired. Two lenta* ago, we came together at the Ring of the Ancients to meet your group, as we had previously agreed. At the appointed time, the Ring lit up, shook, and briefly flashed on and then off. However, no one came out of the ring at that time."

Hammond sucked in a breath. Oh, God, no...

"Since that time we have been trying to discover what happened. Since we have not made use of the Ring in many furgushen*, we thought that an error may have occurred within our Ring.

"What we have discovered is that during the time the Ring was lit up, a solar flare was occurring in our sun. We were unsure as to what possible effects this might have on the wormhole or the beings within..."

"A solar flare?" squeaked Harriman. "Sir- you don't think..."

"Shh," said Hammond, focusing on what the alien was saying.

"But when we consulted our records, looking for times when this may have happened in the past, we discovered a record of a strange occurrence that took place quite a few enteri* ago. I was unaware of this occurrence until recently.

"Four beings, one of them a Jaffa, came out of the gate suddenly and without warning. Our sensors detected them immediately and a patrol was sent to pick them up and return them to their place of origin." The being, Eglarond, inclined his head. "That planet was the first world of the Ancients; the planet you come from. Are you aware of this occurrence?"

"Sir, we're having a little difficulty with your time reference. Can you tell us how many lenta are in an enteri?" Harriman asked, before silently begging the General's pardon for grabbing the mike.

"Ah, yes, I apologize. There are five hundred and three lenta in one enteri, and the incident I speak of happened approximately 23 enteri ago."

Harriman did some rapid calculations while explaining to the general, "We already know that their lenta is about 43 hours long based on the schedule we set up for first contact. Given that information, sir, the team they're talking about would have gone through sometime between 54 and 59 years ago, sir."

"So right around the time the gate experiments were going on in World War Two." Hammond frowned. How on earth was he supposed to know if the government had sent someone to that planet back then? Ernest Littlefield was still stuck in Heliopolis when our own Gate program was initiated; how do I know others weren't abandoned in the same fashion?

"Sir, if I may-" Harriman spoke up, seeming to read his CO's mind, as usual. "The only recorded time that the Gate was successfully dialed in the forties was to Ernest's planet. After they thought that he died, the entire program was shut down. So I find it highly unlikely that anyone from Earth could have actually gone to the planet at that time, especially without the computer recalculating for stellar drift. The fact that there was a Jaffa there pretty much assures that it is SG-1 they're talking about."

"Which leaves us where?" Squeezing the mike, the General spoke to the alien again. "You said that they were returned to Earth?"

"Yes, although it appears from the records that my people were not overly careful about where on your planet they were deposited, as they did not want to risk an entanglement with the Goa'uld."

"Thank you, Minister Eglarond, for giving us this information. Unfortunately, we do not know yet what happened after that. We will search our own records for any clues as to what may have happened to our team." Hammond took a deep breath, then forced out the words that wanted to stick in his throat. "We would like to continue communicating with you. Perhaps we could talk again, about one of your egleri-"

Walter elbowed him and hissed, "Lenta, not egleri!"

"Sorry, make that one of your lenta from now."

"This is acceptable," replied the minister. "If I am not available personally at this time of lenta, I will make sure that Advisor Theris is."

"Thank you, minister."

As the Stargate shut down, Harriman said, "And I'll make sure you're available at 7:30 Thursday morning, sir."

Looking at him, Hammond couldn't help but ask, "And when did I almost set the meeting up for?"

"Two and a half years from now, sir."

The general sighed. "Thank you, Walter. And would you please have Rothman and any other available personnel with backgrounds in history and archeology come to the briefing room ASAP?"

"Already making a list of who to call, sir."

Author's notes:

Lenta, enteri, and furgushen are all time units I've made up for my aliens. Think of them as days, years, and centuries- but all on a much longer time scale.

1 lenta (their solar day) = 43 hours

1 enteri (their solar year) = 503 lenta ~ 2.5 years

1 furgushen = 500 enteri ~ 1250 years

And no, it's not a typo when I say they haven't used their stargate in millenia.