Chapter 12: Other-Worldly
P3E-610
10:15 A.M (Zulu Time)
Alexeyeva couldn't remember a time when she rode a roller coaster. But at least she wouldn't need to guess what it would be like. The Russian felt herself be thrown left and right, up and down, as her body was transported through the wormhole. Upon exiting the other end, Alexeyeva nearly lost her footing over the steps. Her attempt to breathe was cut short when Witkowski exited the gate right behind her, knocking them down the steps.
"Ah bloody hell!" The Major yelled at the Russian as he stood up. "Way to throw a spanner in the works, eh?"
Alexeyeva slowly stood up, feeling nauseated.
"My apologi-" She bent over as she vomited.
"Ah, blimey!" The Major added, covering his nose as he backed away.
The other team members exited the gate only to find what had happened, much to their amusement and disgust. Teal'c approached the ill Lieutenant Colonel.
"Are you alright, Colonel Alexeyeva?" He asked.
The Russian threw up once more.
"I…" She tried to speak. "I think I'll live,"
Mitchell smiled.
"Don't worry about it, Ruski," He said. "You'll get used to it,"
"I'd better," Alexeyeva replied.
Witkowski shook his head, trying to hide his nose from the smell.
"How the bloody hell did she pass selection for Spetsnaz anyway?" He mumbled, adjusting his slinged weapon.
When the Russian recovered, she decided to take in the scenery. The immediate vicinity was forested, giving disappointment to the Lieutenant Colonel. She was hoping to see alien civilizations and meet their inhabitants and gain valuable experience to top her original Counter-Terrorism, nuclear safety and law enforcement. Life in the SGC, as she figured, was anything but exciting. Mitchell signaled Alexeyeva to follow him. She struggled to walk, having to hold onto the MALP, which had come before them, for support.
"We're going to look around a bit, make sure there aren't nasty surprises waiting to spring at us," He said to the Russian.
"Understood, Colonel," Alexeyeva replied, following the Colonel through the forest.
After ten minutes of surveying the immediate area, Mitchell and Alexeyeva returned to the other team members.
"Well, no one's home," Mitchell stated their findings.
"Then it appears we can proceed as planed, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c replied.
Mitchell nodded.
"SG-26, you're on guard duty while we scout ahead," He said to the teams.
At that moment, Ortega waved his hands side to side in protest.
"Oh hell no," He replied. "You are not making us baby-sit the goddamn gate again,"
Mitchell shook his head.
"Come on, Sergeant," He said. "It's not like you'd be interested in a bunch of old stones,"
"You know what happened the last time it was nothing more than 'a bunch of old stones'?" Ortega argued. "You got your butts handed back to you, and not in the nicest way,"
"All the more reason for you to stay behind to protect the gate," Mitchell replied.
Alexeyeva, tired of the infighting, decided to step in.
"What if we split our teams," She asked. "Colonel Mitchell and Doctor Jackson will go along with Sergeant Ortega and myself while Teal'c and Vala stay behind with Major Witkowski and Private Williams,"
"Oh this is just a terrible idea," Vala commented as Mitchell and the others began to leave, five minutes later.
"Speak for yourself aussie," Witkowski replied, rolling his eyes.
Vala looked at the Major funny before looking back to the departing members.
"You can't just leave us here!" She said to them.
Daniel waved with a smug look on his face as they were almost out of view.
"Bu-bye Vala,"
Then they were gone.
Not knowing what to do next except sit down, Vala did as such. She turned to her left and found Williams, who was fiddling with her rifle.
"What are you doing?" The alien asked the Canadian.
Williams looked at the SG-1 member before returning to her rifle.
"Making an adjustment to the sights," She replied. "They seem to be a little off,"
"How can you be sure?" Witkowski asked, standing a few steps above.
"It just doesn't feel right," Williams replied, aiming her rifle at the ground.
The Major sighed before approaching Williams.
"Come on, give it here," He told her.
Williams handed her rifle over, hoping that the Major could solve the problem.
"A C7A2?" The Englishman asked.
"Yes Sir," Williams replied. "Canada's proud main battle rifle,"
The Major nodded and felt the weapon's weight in his hands. After a brief examination, Witkowski recalibrated the sights. Removing the magazine from the rifle and handing it back to the Canadian, Witkowski flipped the weapon to semi-fire and aimed at a nearby tree, knowing there was one round still left in the chamber.
"I'm taking a shot," He announced to the rest, to make sure that no one panicked.
Mitchell spun 180 degrees when a shot rang out.
"That was a 5-5-6 caliber," He commented.
Alexeyeva, too, noticed the unique sound of the bullet. She also remembered that Williams was the only person left behind that had a weapon that fired such ammunition. The Lieutenant Colonel reached over her radio and pressed against the talk button.
"Private Williams," She spoke into the microphone. "Was that you who discharged your weapon?"
"Negatory, Colonel," A reply came in. "It was Major Witkowski, he was just test firing my weapon,"
"Do you care to explain why, Private?" Alexeyeva asked as she and the others continued forward.
"I needed my weapon to be recalibrated,"
"I thought you did that before we left,"
"I must have forgotten, sorry about that Ma'am,"
Alexeyeva shook her head in disbelief. Yet she still acknowledged and ended the conversation.
"I don't understand Ma'am," Ortega commented as they continued to walk. "She still has the SPAS 12 to use, why not just use it instead of her rifle if she thinks it's no good?"
"Use on what, exactly?" Alexeyeva asked.
"Good point Colonel," Ortega replied, preceded by a sigh.
"While we are traveling to the ruins, Colonel Mitchell, Doctor Jackson," Alexeyeva began. "I would like to know more about this Lucian Alliance,"
Jackson turned his head to face Alexeyeva briefly before looking forward again.
"A bunch of criminals who banded together after we ripped the Gou'ald a new one." Mitchell explained.
"They were able to loot everything from the system lords, including ships, weapons and technology," Daniel added.
"Now they run a bunch of illegal operations all over the galaxy," Mitchell finished.
"Space Mobsters, da?" Alexeyeva asked.
"Sí, it has a nice ring to it," Ortega continued. "But not until three years ago did they really step things up,"
"How so?" Alexeyeva asked.
"They attacked the Destiny, an ancient ship that was occupied by our hombres,"
"Where is this ship?" Alexeyeva inquired further.
"Who knows where it is now," Daniel replied. "It moves from galaxy from galaxy…so far there hasn't been any contact with them,"
Alexeyeva sighed.
"That is a shame," She said.
The four approached the edge of a cliff, where they found what they were looking for.
"There it is," Mitchell announced, pointing.
Alexeyeva took off her sunglasses, shocked and surprised.
"God…damn," Ortega commented.
Destroyed stones where littered throughout the clearing while a single temple, half destroyed, stood in the center. The ruins showed age with plants growing upon them as birds flew across the field. Alexeyeva sat at the edge, leaning forward, curious about the ruins before them. She whistled in astonishment.
"It's amazing," She said.
"No kidding," Mitchell replied.
Alexeyeva looked down the cliff and then to Mitchell.
"How do you suppose we get down there?" She asked.
Mitchell nodded to his right where, as Alexeyeva found, were four hooks with ropes already attached.
"We took the liberty of setting up the ropes the first time around, Ruski," He said. "So there's no need to make a hassle."
Taking a deep breath, Alexeyeva held onto her rope as she repelled down. She could feel the wind rushing from the back of head as she descended, bringing a smile across her face. She always did enjoy doing a good repel down the face a cliff. Upon placing her feet on solid ground, she met up with Mitchell, who had arrived at the bottom first. He pointed to the temple, saying that they would have to enter through the destroyed area so that they could gain access to the temple.
"Should someone stay behind and make sure no one ambushes us?" The Russian asked.
"Noses!" Ortega immediately called out, placing his right index finger over the tip of his nose.
Mitchell chuckled.
"Well, thank you for volunteering, Sergeant,"
Ortega's face, at that very moment, looked as if he saw someone close to him die.
"Eres un hijo de puta!" 'You sonofabitch!' He yelled, raising his hands up.
"Sergeant Ortega," Alexeyeva replied, rolling her eyes. "Live with it,"
The Sergeant pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing that he had been outsmarted.
"Fine, Ruso," He answered, unfolding the bipod on his American-made M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle. "I'll set up,"
The stone walls provided enough friction for the Russian to slide downward through the linier airshaft without her slipping. Upon reaching the bottom, she quickly aimed her rifle-mounted flashlight through the corridor. Seeing that it was clear of life, Alexeyeva signaled Daniel and Mitchell to follow her. Beams of light flooded the corridor as the three Earthlings advanced down the blackened hallway.
"To tell the truth," Alexeyeva commented. "I never expected to find an ancient ruin on an alien world,"
"You didn't expect a lot of things Ruski," Mitchell replied, smiling. "Fifteen years, a lot had come and gone,"
"That is an understatement," Daniel replied, eyeing the walls.
"I can understand that," The Lieutenant Colonel said. "That was around the time I became part of the Russian Armed Forces,"
"Oh yeah?" Daniel asked.
Alexeyeva nodded, looking upward. "I graduated in 1997 with a rank of Mládshiy Leytenánt,"
"Which is?" Mitchell asked.
"Junior Lieutenant," Daniel answered.
"Da," The Russian replied, stopping at a door. "I decided to pursue a degree in Biological Chemistry,"
She paused before chuckling.
"What good that did me,"
"I dunno," Mitchell replied. "You never know when you would need your smarts,"
Alexeyeva turned her head to the Colonel.
"The only 'smarts' that I ever used was for combat," She commented. "There is a very small demand for Combat Scientists in my country,"
"There is one for Stargate Command," Daniel replied.
"Perhaps," Alexeyeva replied, as she and the others looked at the doorway.
The Russian repeated one last time before taking a breather.
"Jackson, this seems right up your alley," Mitchell said, examining the symbols on the wall.
Daniel nodded before he placed his left hand over the walls, feeling the engraved pictographs.
"This doesn't make any sense," Daniel commented.
"What doesn't, doctor?" Alexeyeva asked, sitting on the floor.
The archeologist took off his backpack and searched it for something. Upon removing his journal, Daniel opened it and began to compare symbols.
"These pictographs, or hieroglyphs, they match the ones in the mines on P3Z-597,"
Alexeyeva moaned angrily.
"Again with this damn mine," She complained. "What the hell was so important in those caves that some pictures match the ones here and there?"
Daniel didn't reply as he was already busy attempting to translate some of the text.
"It says here that great beings have arrived from a world unknown, possessing great technology. Some of their technology permitted them to vanish and then reappear elsewhere."
"Sounds whoever this 'advanced race' was, they seemed to have cloaking tech," Mitchell commented, sitting down.
"Well, it gets interesting," Daniel replied, translating further.
"The advanced beings taught us how to read and write as well as deliver us a circular device that is capable of sending explorers to the farthest reaches of space. We call it the Zvezdnye vrata," Daniel further read the text.
Mitchell quickly gotten off the ground and approached Daniel.
"Stargates?" He asked the archeologist.
"There is one more thing about that translation, Doctor," Alexeyeva said, also getting off the floor.
"That last part," She said. "Those final two words…it's Russian and it literaly means 'Stargate',"
Daniel and Mitchell looked at each other, wide-eyed. Not knowing what else to do, Daniel continued reading. "After thousands of years of facing the oppression of the symbiotic menace, we have finally broken our chains and became an independent society. Our saviors left us technology in order to nurture ourselves and one day help those who are being beaten down by the Gou'ald, though now we are about to leave this world behind…we hope that those who visit are not saddened, please bear our gift to you,"
"Was it the Ancients who helped these guys?" Mitchell asked.
"Did aliens kidnap Russians and set them up on other worlds?" Alexeyeva also asked.
"They did that to a lot of people from Earth, Ruski," Mitchell answered.
"Well…whatever happened and whoever helped who," Daniel added. "The last part talks about a powerful energy source,"
"A ZPM?" Mitchell asked.
Daniel shrugged, sighing.
"It also mentions a large cache of this power energy source," He added. "So if they are ZPMs…we just found a lot of them,"
Mitchell took a step back.
"Whoa," He sighed. "So what you're saying is that we could be standing on top of a stockpile of ZPMs…a massive stock pile,"
In the midst of the conversation, the Russian decided to do a little bit of exploring herself. After taking a few short steps, however, Alexeyeva found a stone sticking out. With a single push from her foot, she pressed the stone back into place. Then something else stuck out to her right. Something, with an orangish-yellow tint, was sticking out. Placing her two hands over the object, Alexeyeva pulled it out.
"Doctor Jackson, Colonel Mitchell," She called out, returning to the two with the object in her hands.
"Holy crap, Ruski," Mitchell replied, eyeing the object in the Russian's hands.
"You just found a ZPM,"
Alexeyeva raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Is this good?" She asked, examining the device in her hands.
Daniel shrugged again, looking around with flashlight in hand.
"If this place isn't booby trapped," Then the ground began shaking and dust began falling.
"Chyort, Doctor," Alexeyeva yelled. "You had to jinx us,"
"We should go," Mitchell commented. "Like right now,"
The three were about to leave until Alexeyeva noticed something on the wall.
"Wait," She said.
"For what?" Mitchell asked.
She pointed to the wall.
"Gate coordinates," Jackson said.
Alexeyeva quickly pulled out a camera from her vest and turned it on.
"You brought a camera?" Mitchell asked, beginning his climb.
Alexeyeva scoffed.
"You never know when you need it," She replied, aiming the camera.
Taking several pictures, Alexeyeva quickly turned off the camera and placed it back into her vest. After which, she quickly followed Daniel up the shaft and towards the surface.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and remember: Reviews are Welcome!
