Author's note: Nope, still don't own it.
Chapter Ten
Singularity
Blue moonlight streamed down on the never ending waves of white sand. A cloudless sky brightly showed every star in the night. The air was cool on my skin as I sat at the base of the great pyramid.
I've had this dream before. It felt so calm, so peaceful here. But underneath it all is a dim sense of dread that for the life of me I couldn't place, not here.
The scene morphed, bleeding into another place and time. Skaara packing his bag in his tent, preparing to leave with his gathering party to search for food during the dry season. He paused on his way out by where I stood at the entrance. "I will return soon." He brushing his hand over my scar and planting a small kiss on my forehead. "I love you." With one last smile he leaves.
On my way back to my tent I realize what had been nagging me since he left. That was the first time he told me he loved me.
My dream dissolves and it's months later. I am once again at the pyramid with the moon shining above, only this time I'm not alone.
Skaara leads me over the remaining rubble from almost a year ago. Careful of the rock's sharp edges, he helps me to stand on the very same rock we climbed on after our victory of Ra.
He looked around nervously, not meeting my gaze. Skaara had been acting weird all day. When I had asked Dani about it he only smiled and walked away like he knew something, but wasn't going to tell me.
Suddenly he gets down on one knee. Oh Holy Crow! My pulse started hammering away, so loud that I'm sure he can hear it. Everything was beginning to make sense.
"Dan-yell told me of the customs of your world when a man wishes to wed a woman." He started stammering. "I can't promise that there will always be enough food or water. I can't promise that life will always be easy and without heartache. But I can promise that I will love you, from now until the day I die." Standing, he took my hands in his. "That is, if you'll have me." His eyes were trained on the ground and his face blazed red.
Tears of joy were running down my cheeks as I threw my arms around his neck. He jumped in surprise and I giggled. "Yes! Was there ever any doubt." Smiling, I pressed my lips to his cheek.
He arms tightened around me, it felt safe.
Skaara's body stiffed against mine. Warning bells began to go off in the back of my mind.
Skaara's arms kept tightening until it felt like my ribs would crack. "Skaara! What are you doing?" I gasped and wrenched away from him.
His hand shot forward and wrapped around my throat. My terrified eyes met his glowing ones. "Skaara, don't do this, please." I pleaded, but he only smirked and clamped down harder. His face was full of cruelty and he seemed to enjoy the pain he was inflicting on me.
Out of nowhere a gun materialized in my hand, and I realized what I would have to do. My shaking arms raised the gun, aiming at his stomach. "Don't make me do this." My breathes were coming in shorter and shorter gasps.
Skaara free hand grabbed the gun and it went off. His eyes dimmed as his grasp on my neck loosened and he fell to the ground. Just before his eyes closed he looked up at me, betrayal written all over his face.
"No!" Screaming, I fell beside his unmoving body.
The wind picked up around us, blowing sand violently till it blocked out the light of the moon.
When it settled Skaara's body wasn't the only one lying on the ground. Scattered around the gate room at the SG-C were the broken bodies of Kawalsky, Jack, Sam, Teal'c, and Hammond as well as dozens of SG-C personnel I didn't even recognize.
My hands felt warm and sticky. Looking down I saw they were drenched in blood. There was the creaking sound of steps behind where I sat on the ramp.
I whirled around. Daniel stood behind me, in his hand was a gun aimed at my head. When he spoke, it was with a voice full of barely contained rage. "Your fault." His face contorted into a snarl.
He pulled the trigger.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"No!" I screamed, ripping the bed sheets away. Sweat and tears ran off my face. Trying to calm my pounding heart, I pressed my hands to my chest.
It was always the the same dream every time I tried to sleep. Every night for months.
A knock sounded at my door. "Erin, you up yet?" Daniel's voice asked.
Running my hand through my damp hair I pulled the covers off and set my feet on the freezing floor. "Yeah." I shouted back.
"We got about an hour until our next mission." He reminded me.
"I'll be there." I must sound horrible.
"Hey are you okay?" Daniel asked. He was the only one besides Jack who knew about the nightmares.
"Don't worry about me." Opening my set of drawers I pulled out a set of fatigues. "I'll be in the gate room on time."
"Okay." He sounded unsure. "See you then." There was the faint sound of his boots walking away.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"Hey Erin!" Sam greeted me when I finally shuffled into the locker room to pick up my gear. We were the only two yet to get ready.
"Morning." I mumbled picking up my pack, shoving random things into it.
Sam furrowed her brows. "It's afternoon."
"What?" I glanced down at my watch. I'd overslept, on an epic scale. No wonder Daniel sounded worried when he came to wake me up.
"So..." Sam began.
"Yeah?" I looked up from my bag. The zipper had become stuck and I started yanking violently on it.
"So, I here you thinking about moving off base." She said taking the pack out of my hand, effortlessly zipping it closed.
"Thanks." I said taking it back. "And I'm not just thinking about it. I put a deposit down for a small condo about five miles from here."
"Really?" Sam smiled. "House warming party?"
That got a laugh from me. "Maybe."
"Hey Kids." Jack stuck his head in. "You coming?"
"Jack!" I shrieked tossing a shoe at him. "This is the girls locker room! Get out!"
"If I did that I'd get court marshaled." Sam laughed, shaking her head at me.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Teal'c and Daniel were already waiting for us in the gate room.
Daniel was watching me closely, but didn't say anything. I knew he wanted me to talk to someone, but I just wasn't ready.
I smiled halfheartedly. "So, what exactly are we going to see after the eclipse begins? I mean, its black, and its a hole..." I trailed off.
"Well, it might be a black hole." Jack said sarcastically.
I glared at him. "Um, let me rephrase that."
"No Erin, you're right." Sam explained starting up the ramp. "You can't exactly see the singularity itself. It's so massive, not even light can escape it. But, during the totality phase of the eclipse, you should be able to see matter spiraling towards it." She ended by spinning her hands around and then shooting them at the gate.
"Actually, it's called the accretion disk." Jack called out from where he had stopped to tie his shoe.
"Well, I guess it's easy enough to understand why the local population would be afraid of something like thi…" Daniel followed Sam up the ramp, then he seemed to realized what Jack had just said, and whirled to stare dumfounded at him. "What did you just say?"
Jack shrugged his shoulders. "It's just an astronomical term." He said offhand like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"You didn't think the Colonel had a telescope on his roof just to look at the neighbors, did you?" Sam smiled at Daniel and I.
Jack paused for a moment and looked of into space thoughtfully. He then turned to Teal'c, who had his customary eye brow raised, and added as afterthought. "Not initially."
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
As we came through the gate on the other side there was an eerie disquiet. With all the fields of crops as far as the eye could see you would think there'd be at least a few workers out in them.
"Someone from SG-7 should have been here to greet us." Teal'c said, surveying the surrounding empty area.
Jack walked down the steps leading to the gate and pointed at the observatory that the SGC had set up a few months ago. "They should be prepping the telescope for the big show. Come on, lets head out."
We were nearly halfway there before we found a man lying face down in the dirt.
"Hey!" I yelled running to his side. "Are you okay? Sir!" Jack knelt down beside me and helped to turn him on his side. The man's face was covered in lesions and he had obviously been dead for a good amount of time. "Holy crow!" I screamed, jerking away.
Jack yanked his hands away to. "Oh God. Alright, MOPP 4." He said reaching into his pack and pulling out a hazmat mask.
After I pulled mine on he handed me a decontamination towlet to rub on my hands. The stuff smelled horrible, but hopefully it would kill anything on our hands.
"Okay, Daniel, you Erin and Teal'c check out the village." Jack ordered standing, then helping me to my feet. "You guys find out why none one's missed this guy, where everyone else is. Carter and I will go to the observatory. We'll all meet back there in twenty, got that."
"Yes Sir." Sam answered.
"Alright, move out." Jack said heading off towards the observatory with Sam.
"Where's the village?" I asked Daniel.
"Less than a quarter of a mile that way." He pointed at a cluster of windmills and small buildings in the distance.
The walk there was a short one, but it seemed longer. I kept expecting to see children running around or hear the sound of some native animals. As we walked into the center of town the only sound was that of an open door banging against its frame in the wind.
"Hello! Is anyone here?!" I screamed walking to the swinging door. A sickly smell came from inside, and I knew what I would find before I even went in. In the dim light that streamed in through a cracked window I saw a family seated around their dinner table. Whatever happened, happened quickly for their forks were still in their hands.
"There are more bodies over here!" Teal'c called out behind me, and I could hear his and Daniel's boots crunching on the gravel road. But I couldn't rip my eyes away from the scene before me. Did these people have time to realize what was happening, or was it quick? I hoped it was quick.
"Erin." Daniel came up nest to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. I wrenched my gaze away from the family to look at him. "We need to get back to Jack and Sam." I nodded. "Okay. Teal'c come on."
We took off running towards the observatory. Plowing through the entrance, we raced to where we knew the barracks were.
"JACK! JACK!" I screamed coming to a dead stop when I saw all of SG-7 laying dead in their beds. Panting I looked up at Jack and Sam's startled expressions.
Seeing I couldn't breath, Daniel spoke up. "They're dead, all of them."
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
All my team stood in a plastic room, blasted by hot decontaminate steam. After that was done we stepped out. Dr. Fraiser greeted us, fresh out of her hazmat suit. "This complex has been totally decontaminated. How many dead?"
I felt like I was going to be sick as I answered. "We estimate about a thousand."
Janet glanced between us, confused. "Why didn't they send a message, some warning this was happening?"
"We don't know." Jack answered.
"Looks like all this happened very quickly." Daniel said walking to a swivel chair and taking a seat.
"There may still be survivors out there. Shouldn't we be looking for them?" I asked stepping forward.
Janet shook her head. "No. Not until I examine you. We'll use the barracks room. Colonel, you said that you touched one of the victims before putting on gloves?"
Jack's eyes widened. "Yeah, both Erin and I did, but we washed our hands right away." He held his hands up as proof.
"No. You two are first." Janet took us both by the arm and began leading us into the examination room, but a loud and sudden sneeze made us all jump.
"Allergies, right?" Jack glanced at Daniel, who was blowing into a handkerchief. When Janet didn't say anything he asked again. "Right?"
"Right." She hesitantly agreed, eying Daniel carefully.
All the while Daniel watched this exchange with a horrified expression painted on his face. "It'll be okay." I mouthed to him as Jack and I were lead out of the room.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
After we'd all been examined and were shown to exhibit none of the standard signs of infection. Janet, abet reluctantly, cleared us to join the search for survivors. We trudged around in the yellow, bulky hazmat suits, except Teal'c who didn't need one. After we'd tagged the twentieth body on a narrow stretch of dirt road it seemed more like a recovery than a rescue.
Daniel got up from tagging a small, blonde haired boy and looked around in despair at all the dead, a few he'd spoken to only a week earlier. "They knew this would happen."
Sam turned to him sharply. "The indigenous people?"
Daniel nodded, adjusting the breathing pack on his back. "Yeah. They told me when we came here three months ago that with the darkness would come the apocalypse. It was part of their mythology. But what do we tell them? That it's just an eclipse, and there's nothing to worry about."
Sam and Daniel started down the road after Jack, but as I began to follow rustling in a nearby bush stopped me. Turning back I saw a tiny hand emerge from the bush and pull the tag off the boy Daniel had just pinned. "Hello?" I called out, kneeling down so I could see into the underbrush better. Inside the small, dirty face of a young girl peered out at me. "Hello, it's okay. You can come out. Look, I know I must look pretty scary in the mask, but I'm not going to hurt you. It's okay." I reached towards her, but she pulled away." Twisting my body I turned and looked up at Jack and Teal'c who had come up beside me. "There's someone in the bushes, but I can't get them to come out. I think its the mask."
Jack nudged Teal'c "Show 'em your face." Teal'c lifted his one eyebrow and frowned, like he wasn't sure what Jack was asking. Jack just sighed and nodded in the direction of the girl. "Try to look friendly."
Teal'c walked around to the other side of the bushed and leaning down, spoke in surprisingly gentle voice. "We will not hurt you. Please come out." He said reassuringly and held his hand out."Take my hand." The girl looked unsure and hesitantly reached for his hand. When he had and firm grip on her, Teal'c smiled down at her kindly and gently pulled out of the bushed and lead her around to the rest of us. "It is okay."
Now out in the open I could see that she had light red hair that flowed past her shoulders. She was even smaller than I first thought, probably no more than eight years old. Her face was expressionless, a typical sign of shock. But her eyes showed that she was terrified, maybe not of us, but of something.
Sam, Jack, Daniel, and I shared concerned glances. I'm not sure what we were excepting if we found survivors, perhaps someone barley clinging to life or already showing signs of the disease. All I know it that finding a seemingly perfectly healthy little girl was out of the question.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The little girl sat on the examination table. The whole time Janet looked her over she had not said a word, only stared off into space.
When we had come back, Daniel suggested that since I had often worked worked with children back on Abydos, many of them sick, that I would be helpful with the girl. Janet finished listening to her lungs and waved me over.
"It's okay. Don't worry, everything's going to be fine." The paper mask over my mouth muffled my words. She didn't seem to react to my words and I tried to get her to meet my eyes. "Can you hear me?" I turned to Janet who was putting away some medical supplies. "Can I take this mask off?" I tugged on the mask's straps.
Janet nodded, pulling hers off and I followed suit. "I think that'll be okay. Looks like we're dealing with a bacteria infection. Just don't get too close."
I set my mask down and ruffled my flattened hair. "There, that's better, isn't it? You feel like telling me your name now?" The girl gave me a blank look, then deliberately looked away again. At least I knew she could hear me. I forced a smile and rubbed her arm. "That's okay. You remember my name? Erin Clark. But you can call me Erin."
The girl pulled something shiny out from under her hospitality gown and clipped it on her collar. With a jolt I realized it was one of the identification tags that we'd been pinning on the bodies when we found her. "Oh no, no baby. You're not going to die." My hands came up trying to pull the tag away, but she clamped down on it. "Okay." I said brushing some of her hair out of the way. "Why don't you just lay down and rest for awhile, okay?" She obediently laid down, clutching on the tag like another child would a teddy bear. "You're very brave." I said brushing the back of my hand over her cheek before pulling a thin blanket over her. I saw so much of myself in this little girl. She had seen things that on one her age should ever see, I just hoped it wouldn't haunt her as what I'd seen haunted me. She leaned into my hand as I ran my hand through her hair once more and she closed her eyes.
Janet called from across the room, "This can't be."
Cold dread made my stomach feel like it was filled with bricks. "Please tell me she's not infected."
"No, she's not." Janet said, filling me with relief.
"Then what's wrong?" I asked coming to stand next to her. The computer screen she was working on was filled with readings and test results I didn't even pretend to understand.
"Three are traces of the element the Stargate is made of in her blood." Janet gestured to a particular set of readings in the screen.
"What?! Naquada?" I looked back at the sleeping girl across the room.
"Yes. Now, it's possible that's the reason she was able to resist the infection." A technician came into the room handed her a readout. "Thank you." She flipped though the page and turned to me. "Come on, the rest of your team will want to know these results."
"What about her?" Leaving her alone after everyone she properly knew had died didn't set well with me.
Janet glanced between me and the girl. "She'll be fine." We walked out into the room where the telescope was set up. "Well, I have some bad news. The samples my team collected show the entire area to be contaminated. It's in the water and the ground. Now, the bacteria doesn't seem to be airborne, but it has the unique ability to survive in a variety of environments."
"Listen, um…" Daniel spoke, hesitantly. "I hate to sound self-centered here, but…"
"Your tests are fine." Janet reassured us all.
"What of the girl?" Teal'c asked.
"No sign of infection, and as a precaution I did an ultrasound to make sure she wasn't parasitically infested with a Goa'uld."
"So," Jack clapped his hands together. "she goes back with us."
"Doctor, would it be safe for someone to stay a little while longer? I mean, we're safe right now, right?" Sam asked, setting down some notes on the singularity she'd been looking over.
"Captain?" Jack questioned. His face showed that he thought she was completely crazy for wanting to stay here, and for once I didn't disagree.
Sam began passionately. "Sir, the eclipse happens in less than one day. This is our only opportunity to use this window of darkness to photograph the black hole with this telescope. It could change the course of human history. I don't want to belittle what's happened here, but if we just pack up and leave, SG-7 and all these people will have died for nothing."
Her speech was cut off by the pitter-patter of bare feet on concrete. Behind where Janet and I were standing, the little girl cowered in the door frame. She looked at us with fearful, glazed eyes and her feet wavered between running back into the examination room and staying where she was. Finally she seemed to decide and she scurried forward, latching onto my arm. She gazed at the rest of SG-1 with a half-hidden face from behind me.
Jack grinned mischievously at me. "Well, we know one person who wont be staying."