Wormholes and Loopholes

By: Gyte-san

Chapter 8: Okay, new rule: You are never allowed you bring your mother-in-law to an offworld mission

(Okay, okay. I know I am a bad, lazy person, but I will try to get better. It has been way too long since I have updated. Lucky for my fans, the roads have iced over, my volunteer group has canceled work for today, and I don't really feel like moving away from my heater, so now is the perfect time for me to get a new chapter in. I really want to thank everybody who has reviewed. Every time I read a new review, I get a warm tingly feeling inside, which might just be indigestion, but I would like to think it is happiness. Ten points to everyone who knows enough German to translate the bar's name.)

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For a while, nobody moved. A perfectly normal reaction for when you see something clearly impossible. One zat stuns and knocks you out, two kills you, the third removes all evidence that you ever existed. This new stranger broke the rules and threw the crumpled remains out the window. Teal'c and Carter's reaction to him now make a lot more sense.

Janet was the first to awake from her daze. A quick once over told her he was still alive. She turned Hammond and his group of soldiers, disapproval clear in her eyes, "He seems fine as best as I can tell, but I don't think zatting him three times is going to speed up his recovery."

The soldier who had zatted him flinched. "I did warn him, and the first two zat blasts didn't stop him."

"Soldier, while I can understand your reasoning behind it, you actions were out of line. This man posed very little threat to us until you threatened him. I am putting you on level five guard duty until further notice."

The soldier nodded, signaling he understood Hammond's order. Very little happened on level five. Very little. There aren't even labs on that level. It mainly consists of storage rooms for broken equipment.

Now on to more important matters. What kind of being could survive three zat blasts? Their stranger was getting more unusual by the minute. First, he shows up in a very strange manner, in a blue box no less. Then, his injuries heal themselves at an alarming rate that would make a Goa'uld envious. Now he has done the impossible. Three zat blasts and you are not just dead, there isn't supposed to even be a body to bury.

"Hammond, why is everybody speaking Chinese?"

Dr. Enli Jin ran into the room, practically hysterical, closely followed by Jack and Daniel.

"Hammond, something is translating everything!"

"Unscheduled Offworld Activation!"

There are days where Hammond wished he had a universal pause button.

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Oddly enough, Thursdays were her say off. At first she found this rather annoying, but then she realized how great Thursdays were. Everyone else had weekends off, so every business was crazy busy on the weekends. Errands that would have taken her the entire day to get done on Saturday or Sunday take only a couple of hours on Thursdays.

Unfortunately for her this Thursday was also the day the weather decided to let loose with the worst storm the city had seen in the past decade. There Rose was, miles away from home, stuck in the worst storm ever, with a bag in each hand, and without an umbrella.

She was debating how she could make it to the bus stop without getting soaked when she heard a voice behind her, "Need a place to wait out the rain?" She turned around to see an older gentleman leaning in the doorway behind her. She looked beyond him to see the dim lights, long bar, and bar stools that tipped her off that this was a bar. "Come on in. I'll buy you a drink; it looks like you need one." She still hesitated. After all, she did have work tomorrow. It wouldn't be the best idea to spend the evening getting drunk and going into work tomorrow with a hangover. Apparently seeing the look of doubt on her face, he again tried to persuade her, "We have other drinks besides alcohol. Might as well come in. It doesn't look like this storm is going to let up any time soon." That last statement convinced her. She had no chance getting home without getting soaked, and it was pointless to stand outside in this weather. She nodded and followed him into the bar.

It is weird how the universe works (regardless of which universe you are in). If Rose had bothered to look up, she would have noticed the sign for the bar. For many people the name would not mean anything special; however, the name Schlechter Wolf would mean a great deal to Rose.

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"Now SG-4, you weren't expected back for ten hours. All of you are back with no injuries, and nothing chased you back through the gate, so why are you here?" Leaving the infirmary, he decided that the mystery of the stranger could wait; after all they couldn't very well interrogate an unconscious man. As for Enli, Daniel and Jack, their mutterings about Chinese and an instant translator could also wait until he found out who was now trying to come through the Stargate.

SG-4 had left only a few hours before their new guest had made his dramatic appearance. The probes couldn't find anything special about P77-88N. Some trees, more rocks. Uninteresting, but the rocks did prove to be a problem. They couldn't get the probe to move more than a few feet from the Stargate. SG-4 volunteered to take an overnight trip to the new planet, not really expecting to find anything new. It was quiet a surprise to everyone when they showed up early and unharmed, a rare occurrence at the SGC.

SG-4 could barely contain their excitement. Being the leader of the group, Ross Manner pulled rank on his teammates so he could show Hammond their prize. The rest of the members of SG-4 were a bit peeved, but they would soon get over it. Making such a great discovery such as this would give them major points in the unofficial social ladder.

Omar Sanchez wasn't as peeved as he was confused. Since he arrived back to the SGC, he was pretty sure he was going crazy. Everybody was speaking Spanish, yet he knew that could not be true. Manner certainly didn't know Spanish, Sanchez figured that out one day on an offworld mission. He was very lucky that Manner didn't know Spanish; otherwise he would have gotten in so much trouble for teaching the locals a certain raunchy song. He shook his head slightly; he would figure it out later. He turned his attention back to Manner who was now presenting their new discovery.

"Soldier, what the hell is that?"

To answer his question, something very strange, very alien and very cool. It looked like a twisted blob of slivery metal, but it moved… or rather flowed. It didn't change it shaped, but it was clear that the "metal" moved. Imagine mercury. Now imagine mercury poured into a clear glass vial, giving it a form, but still swirling around all liquid-like. Now remove the glass. That is what Manner had in his hand.

"We found this material all over P77-88N. All over."

"And you just picked some up soldier! We have no clue whether it is dangerous or not! "

"It isn't, I swear. We did not come back until we were positive that it is harmless."

"And what did the locals say when you took this?"

"There are no locals. Usually there is always some village near the Stargate, but we couldn't find one. We couldn't find any signs that anyone lives anywhere near the Stargate. We searched all the area in a three-mile radius. There were no footprints, no broken branches. If anyone lives on that planet, they don't live anywhere near where we found this stuff. I don't think anyone will miss it" A broad grin spread across his face, "You haven't even seen the best part yet."

He set the piece of metal on the table. It sat there in the same shape, and then Manner began to mold it like one would mold clay. He played with it for a while, molding in into several shapes. Each time the metal held its form. "And now for my last trick." Manner molded the metal into one final shape. It now looked just like a sheet of aluminum stood on its edge. Manner took out his sidearm, causing the other soldiers in the room to take a defensive position, ready to make a move in case he had gone mad. "Don't worry, I don't plan on shooting anyone." He aimed at the metal and shot it.

"Manner, what the HELL are you doing?"

"Take a look for yourself." He pointed to the metal, which had stopped the bullet cold in its tracks. The bullet was sticking out of the metal. Manner reached over, plucked the bullet out and handed it to Hammond. The bullet was cool and there was no damage to the metal. If he hadn't known any better, he would have never guessed what had just happened.

"General, think of the possibilities. A moldable, bulletproof metal. This might just be the discovery the SGC has been waiting for."

Ross Manner might just be right. This could be one of the biggest discoveries of the SGC had seen. Hammond refused to get his hopes up.

"Reissen," the scientist of SG-4 stood up, "take this and do whatever tests you need to do on it. I am authorizing for you to have full use of Labs 5 and 6. Take whatever personnel and equipment you need. As for the rest of you, I want your full reports in within the hour. I also want you to get rechecked out by Frasier as soon as she gets the chance. Dismissed."

The members of SG-4 all got up to go do their duties. "Oh and SG-4," they paused to hear what Hammond had to say, "Good work." They smiled at the praise and left.

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The bar was clean and well kept. The comfortable atmosphere put Rose right at ease. There was a piano in the corner and a young (and very attractive) man played a smooth jazz tune. Booths lined three of the walls and a few scattered tables dotted the floor. Most of the room was left open, probably for people to dance though no one was currently on the floor. The bar was built in to the last wall. The bar was far from full. Two of the booths closest to the piano were full and a couple of men were conversing at the bar.

The bartender ushered Rose to an empty seat at the bar, a couple of stools away from the men. "What can I get you, Ms…?" He ended the question clearly expecting Rose to fill in her name.

"It's Rose, no need to me miss or anything." She glanced over the various drinks the people around her were having, some of them she couldn't identify and looked quite interesting. One of the men at the bar had a neon orange drink with a chocolate chip cookie floating on the top. "I don't really know, surprise me."

He gave her a quick smile, then turned around to prepare her drink. After a bunch of clanking and a few seconds of the blender, he poured a very strange concoction in a small fishbowl (a clean fishbowl, of course). He put a large twisty straw in it and slid it over to her.

Rose was a little uneasy at first. The drink was clear, but it had gummy bears and half of a satsuma floating on the top. Somehow he had also managed to put several electric blue bubbles in the drink.

"Go ahead, just try it. It is on the house."

You can't argue with free. Rose took the straw and took a sip. This was the most amazing drink she had ever had. All the weariness she had been feeling just went away. She felt incredible, almost like she had felt traveling with the Doctor.

"You like it, I can tell. This is a new drink I have been working on. You are my first customer to try it."

She took another long sip and smiled at him, "I love it."

"Want to know my secret?" He leaned in a little closer, "My secret ingredient is blue Jell-O mix."

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Where?

Different… new

Where?

Far away

Signs?

Many… confused… too far away

When new understanding… contact again

Wait! Betrayal… stolen…

Betrayal? Who?

Them… protectors

Make them pay

Must grow

Do what must be done

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