A Collection That Puts a Museum and an Armory to Shame

"Hammond said to phone back when we reach where ever that gnome is…" said Jack as they appeared over a rocky ledge. Skie stumbled forward, gasping for air. The last jump was a bit much for him and he was already feeling his magic go. Samantha leaned over and took hold of his arm. She could tell he was straining right now, his face began to morph and twist. He was battling against his waning Polymorphspell and he was loosing. Fighting the change only made it painful for him. Daniel shivered for a moment, noticing the temperature change. They were obviously high up on a mountain. All around him, the waning autumn trees swayed. In front was a stone cliff, bare. Skie, still struggling with his powers, shouted out a magical word and the cliff opened up, revealing a vast chamber inside. The cavern in the mountain was massive, large enough to house a dragon of Skie's great stature. They traveled down the slope, torches igniting by themselves as they came in.

"Motion…sensitive…" Skie gasped. As soon as all torches came on SG-1 stopped and stared with wide eyes at the auditorium-like cavern they spied before them. It was filled with gold, silver, and jewels of priceless value. There were objects and artifacts from all periods of Earth's history inside. Daniel was the most awestruck. He had walked into an archeologist's paradise.

"Jack…" he breathed. "Greece, Rome, Egypt…China, Japan…Norse, artifacts from all sorts of times and places. I've never seen such a vast collection."

"Yeah—wow…" Jack replied, unamused. "So, the dragon's a pack rat."

"Look at all this treasure," said Sam.

"It shames even the wealthiest of Goa'uld," Teal'c noted deeply.

"Yeah…okay…" Jack nodded. "But those two are the only things I'm interested in."

He pointed out towards the far wall of the cavern to the two Stargates.

"This puts the Smithsonian to shame…" Daniel breathed. "No museum could compare to the collection here." He glanced down at Skie, who was now on his hands and knees. "Hello…are you okay?"

"I think—its best you—stand back…" Skie grunted. "Unless—you want to be—crushed…"

"Jack," began Daniel. "I think we better move."

"What?" Jack asked.

"Move!" Daniel cried as he saw Skie literally explode out into his dragon form. Skie's morph was not smooth as it usually was when he had control over the spell that made him human. His body contorted, stretching out, becoming immensely massive and muscular. His clothes ripped off his body as his skin was covered in shining blue scales. White hair sprouted out, falling about his shoulders as his wings sprouted and spread wide from his back. Skie's neck elongated and became armored like a tank. His face grew long, becoming reptilian, his lips ending with a beak. Tusks jutted out of his lower lip. White horns sprouted from his head as his ears enlarged and became frilled.

Jack felt his heart drop into his stomach when he looked upon the massive dragon's form. Skie was much larger than he was when he attacked Cheyenne Mountain. Sam's eyes bulged out of their sockets again when she saw just how massive the dragon really was. She felt she had to recalculate the dragon's weight again. One of his taloned fingers could easily crush her into a bloody smear.

"Good God!" Jack finally spoke out. "He's Godzilla with blue scales."

Teal'c's cheek trembled. Samantha just blinked.

Once the transformation completed, Khellendros let out a powerful, earth shaking bellow, rearing back to his hind legs. Stalactites on the ceiling above cracked and fell to the ground, crashing into the hoard and pelting SG-1 with gold coins and flying diamonds. They ducked down to protect themselves from the shards of rock and coins flying towards them. Skie fell back onto his all fours, his front paws sending earthquakes into the ground as he landed. He settled as softly as he could down onto the hoard, gasping again.

"Shit…" Jack breathed, trembling where he stood before the enormous Great Wyrm.

Skie's tail softly patted the coins he laid upon and his head drooped low. Jack turned back to Daniel who finally got over his Dragonfear. He was studying the gold coins that had splashed upon him earlier.

"Doubloons," he said. "Spanish doubloons. Aztec gold pieces…"

"Skie…" Jack gathered himself up to approach the dragon. "The gnome."

"Right…" Skie sighed. "Give me a moment. It's jarring for me to change like that as it is for you to watch me change."

He finally brought himself up back to his feet and slowly lumbered towards a pool of water at the other far wall.

"This—isn't exactly time for a bath…" Jack stated as he followed the Blue Dragon.

"Hah!" Skie laughed. "Don't be absurd, mortal. This is a looking glass."

Skie leaned over as Jack and his team gathered around the pool. Daniel was holding up an ancient Egyptian, beaded, gold collar, inspecting it.

"Make yourselves scarce," the dragon warned as he dipped his claw into the water. "I don't want David to know what we're up to."

"Daniel!" Jack called, pulling the archeologist away from the pool. "Come on."

"Skie!"came the voice of David as his image appeared in the pool of water. "I was wondering when you were going to call. Dear God, man, you look like hell!"

"I spent 10 long hours digging around the icy wastes of Antarctica to find your bloody gate," Skie growled, lighting began to spark about his ear frills. "I nearly became apart of the scenery thanks to you. I have it! Now, let me see Melissa!"

"All in due time," David smiled smugly at the dragon. "But first, you must bring both gates to me. Then, you may at last be rejoined with your precious niece."

"If you have harmed her in any way…"

"No harm has come to her," said the gnome. "I assure you. I've heard rumors. Electrius has heard about the theft. I hear he's furious at you and he fears that what you've done might cause a war between our two worlds. It's so exciting that I can cause such a ruse!"

"Don't laugh long, gnome!" Khellendros bellowed, feeling some of his strength coming back. "You forget who I'm related to!"

"If you intend on bringing Electrius here…" David began. "Our deal is over. I'll take the two gates for myself and you'll and your pompous, bloated father will be a new set of matching suitcases! Do not dare threaten me, dragon!"

"Arrogance!" Khellendros roared out. "Insolent mollusk! Consider yourself lucky you have that Ace up your sleeve—if not, I would have killed you the night we met!"

"All bark and no bite, Skie…" David chuckled back. "You don't scare me. Now, be a good delivery boy and bring me my gates and you'll receive your payment. Here are the coordinates to my mansion. You will meet me there. And no funny business—or the girl gets it…"

With that, the gnome's image disappeared. Khellendros let out an infuriated roar, sending shards of rock falling from the ceiling again and splashing into the pool.

"Yup…that's definitely our guy…" Jack nodded. "Skie, listen, I'll ante up. We help you, you give us the gate, and I'll make sure you don't take the blame when it comes time to give your dad a ring."

"You know I'm Electrius' son?" Skie asked, glancing back at the human.

"We've been informed," Jack shrugged. "Electrius is afraid of a potential war because you stole top secret government property. To me—I think you had a justified reason—though I think you could have done it a little nicer."

"What was I supposed to do?" he asked. "Ask you for the Stargate?"

"Okay, good point…" Jack cocked his head up at the dragon.

"I think what Jack is saying that we'll put in a good word for you," said Daniel. "Make Electrius understand your reasoning. Does he even know about Melissa?"

"He does," Skie replied. "He's visited her. On my world, it isn't looked down upon to marry into mortal families, though it is often not suggested because of draconic life spans are much longer than yours. When I married Kirsten, he was happy, when I took care of Melissa, he was there to support me. If he knew why I stole the gate, he would reconsider my punishment."

"We'll try to get him to let you off for good behavior," Jack's eyes squinted at Skie. He watched as the dragon rose up and grabbed the two gates, placing them around his neck. Skie searched around his hoard, pulling two golden arm bracers and a silver ring. The bracers grew to his size and he clasped them onto his forearms and then he placed the ring round his finger.

"Daniel, that Egyptian collar you were holding, could you hand it to me?" he asked as he leaned his massive claw down to the historian. Daniel woke up from his inspecting of the collar and glanced back at the blue claw. Nodding silently, he placed the collar into the dragon's palm, standing back as Skie lifted it up. The collar grew, becoming long enough for him to place it around his neck under the two gates. Skie glanced back at Teal'c. "I believe a Jafa should never go into battle unarmed. On that wall over there is a Jafa staff weapon. It is fully charged. You may take it with you."

Teal'c bowed his head respectfully at the dragon's offer as he moved towards the staff weapon. He pulled it free from the wall and inspected it, opening up the spear head.

"Where did you get it?" he asked.

"When I dug through that ice," Skie began. "I found the Gate and a frozen, dead Jafa at the DHD. The ice was closing around me, so I used a spell to enlarge the staff to fit my size and blasted my way out using it. I just took it with me after that."

"Thank you," Teal'c dipped his head again.

"Why did you put jewelry on?" Jack asked.

"My spell cache is severely low," Skie replied. "The collar, arm bracers, and ring are magical items I can use despite that. The collar boosts my remaining spell cache quota, the ring helps to boost my breath weapon's power. The arm bracers will increase my toughness and it'll help against the affects of that powder."

"Great…got anything for us?" he asked. "Like a submachine gun? Pistol? Rifle? Zat? A tank, maybe?"

Khellendros chuckled as his tail snaked around to a gold, tasseled cord. The tail wrapped around the cord and pulled at it. A depression in the wall moved back and then off to the side, revealing a secret chamber. Shelves folded out as torches ignited to light what was inside. Jack's eyes grew wide when he found the shelves stocked with various weapons both modern and ancient.

"Take your pick," Skie smirked back at the dumbfounded human.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Jack breathed. "What would a dragon do with a rocket launcher?"

"As you've stated, I'm a pack rat," Skie replied.

"It's every weapon imaginable, Colonel," Sam said as she pulled out a submachine gun from the shelf. "Good condition too. Brand new. Every weapon except a nuke is in here."

"Don't tell me you got a nuke…" Jack glanced back at Skie.

"What do you take me for?" Skie asked. "Stupid? I'm insulted. Of course I don't have a nuke. Just your average conventional weapons. Grenades…rockets, guns with magazines, shells, anything you can think of. No nukes."

"I like you," Jack called back to the dragon.

"Just as long as you don't breathe a word of my—collection," Skie chuckled as he started for the opening of his lair.

Jack agreed, giving the 'zipped lips' motion to the dragon. They walked back outside onto the ledge. Skie seated himself, his tail tapping the ledge which caused the door to close behind him.

"So, how do we get there?" Jack asked.

"Fly," Skie replied.

"You mean we—ride you?" Sam asked.

"Scared, my dear?"

"Well—it's not that…" Daniel replied. "You don't exactly have—seatbelts."

"Fine then, you can walk…" Skie snorted. "But it's a good 400 miles to Atlanta."

"I suppose we don't exactly have a choice in the matter," Teal'c cocked an eyebrow. They stood back as Khellendros lowered himself to the ground, leaning his neck down to them.

"Think of me as a rather large F-18," the dragon grinned back as his companions grabbed hold of his frosty-colored mane. He turned his neck slightly down to help them ease up onto the back of his neck. As soon as he felt them settle themselves down between his wings, Skie lifted himself back up. "Now, just keep your seats and tray tables in their upright positions. I'm sorry, there won't be an in-flight movie…"

"Just take off…" Jack said, grabbing hold as much of Skie's mane as he could.

Skie let out a laugh as he spread his wings, bounding off the cliff's ledge. The wind whistled and whirled around the passengers as the dragon gained altitude into the low, gray clouds above. Jack scooted himself up Skie's neck, bringing himself closer to one of the massive frilled ears.

"I have a question!" Jack shouted, realizing the wind made it difficult for his voice to carry.

"What is it?" Skie asked, bellowing back.

"You're a big, flying, monster!" Jack shouted again.

"What's your point?" Skie asked.

"You're gonna make a huge radar signature!" Jack called. "There's an Air Force base near here. They're gonna think you're a UFO and try to contact you. If you don't answer, they'll try to shoot you down and us with you!"

"Don't worry about it, Colonel!" Skie called. "With the added boost of my spells, I can project a cloaking signature that will mask my flight path. Basically once I pass over their radar, I'll make nothing more than the radar signature of a sparrow!"

"That's great!" Jack called. "But they're still gonna see you."

"No, they won't!"

"You're gonna make you and us invisible like you did when you attacked Cheyenne?" he shouted.

"No," Skie replied. "I don't have enough for a long invisibility, however, I'm dragging this cloud with me. They won't see me through it."

"That's nice!" Jack called. "I guess you have to think about how to conceal yourself when you fly."

"That's basically the idea!" Skie bellowed. "But I suppose the government knows about me now thanks to what I've done. But I'm sure that base down there don't know about you. So, the concealment is more for you than me!"

"How nice of you!" Jack could not help but to let slip some of that sarcasm in his voice.

"Ask the Major how she likes flying on something that scientifically shouldn't be able to fly even at these speeds…" Skie chuckled.

"Yeah, I'll do that," Jack shouted. "How fast are we going anyways?"

"I'm sorry, I don't have a speedometer with me," Skie called. "But I can estimate. I'd say—about 300 miles per hour."

"How fast can you fly?"

"What, like a sprint?" Skie asked. "I'm not exactly a good sprinter. My wings are built for long distance flight like an albatross. I'm a marathon flyer! But I can reach close to 500 miles per hour if I push it hard enough. But that's a very short sprint. But we don't measure the speed of our flights, more as how long we can stay up."

"Okay, how long can you fly non-stop?" Jack asked.

"9891 miles—non-stop," Skie replied.

"All—almost 10 thousand miles?" Jack asked. "You can fly that long?"

"Yeah!" Skie replied. "Well, that's when I actually needed to eat and sleep. I'm an Ascended Dragon, I don't need to eat and sleep anymore. So, I can stay up in the air indefinitely." He turned his head slightly back to the human. "Forever. But who wants to fly that long? I guess I can just circumnavigate the entire planet if I wanted to—pole to pole, or swing around the equator."

"Yeah, that's what I call marathon flying!" Jack nodded. "Are you flying below commercial and military flight paths?"

"Primarily," Skie replied. "Don't worry, I'll see a plane coming towards me before you will anyways. I normally fly around 10 thousand feet. Higher if I have to go over tall mountains. Don't be so worried, Colonel. We magical creatures have procedures too. If a commercial airline sees me, Sector X will come in and alter the memories and alter the flight logs."

"Just try to steer clear of any L1011s," Jack said as he scooted himself back towards his team.

"I'll keep that in mind," Skie said as his head turned back to the front.

"Well?" Sam asked.

"He asked how you're taking it…about flying on something that should have the power to fly on its own…" Jack asked.

"Pretty good…" Sam replied. "I've got—some theories on how he might be able to do it. Most of those theories revolve around cold fusion, but it's good enough."

"That's good," Jack nodded.

"I've had dreams about riding on dragons…" Daniel called. "Never thought I would get a chance to do it!"

"It's an experience," said Teal'c. "Riding on a creature this large."

"Well, be lucky he's not wanting to see if we're edible," Jack stated, still holding some of that sarcasm. He glanced down to see if he could see the ground. The cloud that followed Skie obscured the view. He looked up instead, seeing the white, fluffy clouds above streak by in the deep blue sky. He noticed that Skie's scales were the same azure color as the sky itself. Skie could very well just fly in the sky without any concealment, his scales providing the perfect camouflage for flight. Though, Jack had a feeling that once they got into more smog-filled industrial areas, the concealment would not last long. The sky would become a paler blue and Skie's form would be revealed. So, there was reason for the cloud. Daniel and Teal'c glanced back behind them, seeing the two massive wings working in a slight circular motion. The triangular wing blades at the dragon's back moved up and down at the motion of the wings' downward beat. Sam leaned down, swearing she could hear the sound of the dragon's massive heart beat through the body. Once more her mind was whirling around in various theories on how Khellendros could keep himself aloft. For a creature his size, his heart must be incredibly strong and his lungs massive to take in so much oxygen to power the heart. She felt the mane she held in her hands, noticing they were protein fibers like the hear mammals had. And yet, this was a reptile—or was he a reptile? His body was more mammalian than it was saurian, built like a great cat. His wings were shaped more like that of a bat than a pteranodon. Even his claws held a sight feline appearance. But he was a dragon, he was covered in hardened scales and plates. Samantha shook her head, she was not a biologist, she was an astrophysicist. Still, she did study some biology and she could not help but think that Khellendros was neither a reptile, nor a mammal. He was more of a hodgepodge of various known animals. And that is what a dragon was.

Jack glanced down at his cell phone and noticed he had fairly good reception even at this altitude. He called up Hammond, informing the General where Skie was taking them. As soon as he got that note, Hammond sent contacted the Air Force base near them to send out supplies at a rendezvous point near where the mansion was. He scooted back up towards Skie's head again.

"Skie!" Jack shouted. "Listen, I've contacted General Hammond. We need to land before we get to the mansion. He wants to meet us about 10 miles west of Macon."

"Macon is where we're headed, that's where David's mansion is!" Skie bellowed back. "But sure, I can take a detour before we get there. I just hope your General's men can take seeing something as big as me flying towards them."

"I think he's informed them about you," said Jack. "He'll be there too."

"I just hope you put in a good word for me with him too," Skie chuckled, his tone holding some uneasiness.

"Don't worry about it, he understands!" called Jack. "But, maybe you should leave the talking to me!"

"Sounds good…" Skie sighed, his head turning back towards the front. He grumbled to himself silently as he pushed himself through the clouds. Meeting this general was only wasting precious time he needed in order to rescue his niece. She was counting on him to be there for her. Skie let loose another growl, his eyes narrowing as he focused on his objective.

That gnome will pay, I swear it…