Chapter 14

Several hours had passed and Cameron Mitchell found himself still haunted by his conversation with Daniel. He had to admit that when he had encouraged the archaeologist to open up, he wasn't expecting the flood gates to be bursting at the seams. He found himself where he had been ever since, wallowing in the commissary nursing a large cup of blue Jell-O. Part of him, and he had to admit that it was the largest part, wanted to confront Sam with what he had been told. After everything that they had been thru it had been disgraceful to think that they had merely cast Daniel aside and forgot all about him. What stopped him was the fact that if he had said something, Daniel would never have forgiven him, and right now it seems that the good Dr. Jackson needed someone in his corner. So he swallowed his anger and nursed his resentment with strange wobbly blue squares of fruity goodness. So caught up was he in stuffing his face and drowning his sorrows that he didn't notice when Bill Lee came bursting thru the doors and plopped down in front of him. It wasn't until Dr. Lee actually removed the cup of sugary sweetness from his face did he acknowledge his presence. And when he did, Mitchell found himself struck by the large grin on the man's face. Sporting what he could only ascertain to be a smile similar to that worn by children on Christmas morning, Dr. Lee began to speak before a greeting could be formed.

"I was working in the South Lab, because the bickering between Carter and McKay was driving me crazy, and I guess I fell asleep but when I woke up it came to me and I realized that it could be possible so I looked and by gods, there it was. Do you know what this means?"

Mitchell paused momentarily, taking a look at Dr. Lee as he allowed what he had just been told to sink in.

"Bill, what the hell are you talking about!"

Bill sighed and opened a really large manila folder filled with star charts and other technical specs.

"I went to the South Lab to do research on a way to get Daniel to the Ori galaxy. Carter and McKay are too preoccupied fighting or looking for a way to disable the gate to even consider helping Daniel out. So I started looking for ways that we could both block the gate and get a ship thru."

"And"

"And nothing, its not possible. Every simulation I tried ended up the same way. We can either disable the gate or dial in to get a ship thru, not both."

"So, you're saying that its hopeless."

"It seemed that way, but I wasn't going to take no as an answer, impossible things always seem possible when Daniel is involved."

Mitchell smiled softly, "Yes, they do."

"So I kept running the simulations with the same result each time. I was working so long, I ended up falling asleep in the lab. When I was asleep I had this thought that there had to be more than one Supergate. If the Ori are planning this huge invasion, it seemed ridiculous to only have one means of access to our galaxy. So when I woke up I did a broad spectrum analysis given the criteria needed to created a Supergate and I hit the jackpot."

Mitchell again paused, only this time he could barely contain the excitement in his voice.

"Are you telling me, that you found another Supergate?"

Even before Dr. Lee could finish his nod, Mitchell was up on his feet jumping up and down like a man who won the lottery.

"Yeah, that's the kinda sign I was talking about man!" he cried pulling the unsuspecting scientist into a large bear hug.

So caught up was Mitchell in his enjoyment that he failed to hear the heavily muffled words that Dr. Lee was trying to say. Suddenly taken aback by his outburst Mitchell tore himself away from the good doctor.

"Sorry."

"That's okay," Dr. Lee replied retaking his seat and motioning for Mitchell to do the same. When both men were settled down, he sighed and removed from his manila folder a large star chart that looked as if it was a map of an entire galaxy. "This is a technical diagram of a quadrant of space in the Pegasus Galaxy, and that large blob that I circled in the middle of that quadrant is the Supergate."

"How can you be sure?"

"It fits all the criteria we know about the creation of a Supergate, a planet going nova, the presence of a black hole and recently there have been strange energy spikes similar to that which we located in the Milky way. Now so far there hasn't been any sign of activity in or out of the gate in question."

"Which means either it's not active?"

"No, I am guessing that they are waiting for orders to make their grand entrance. Now, from my other calculations I figure that I may be able to calibrate a dialing device on board one of the puddle jumpers to dial into the Ori galaxy."

"But the Ori galaxy is far, far away, would that require a massive amount of energy to even create an event horizon?"

Nodding, Dr. Lee pulled out another set of charts and place them in front of Mitchell, pointing decidedly at small blurry objects as he talked.

"From my readings, the Supergate is giving off a massive ionic charge, giving off a massive energy spike every few hours or so. Now if we can figure out the exact pattern of these burst we can rig a timer to a 'gate buster and detonate it at the same time. The combined energy along should give us enough of a charge to dial to the other side.

"Have you talked with the SGC about this?"

"Not yet, I wanted to run it by you first."

"Why?"

"Because I don't think the SGC will give us permission to go on this mission."

"Why not?"

Dr. Lee pulled out the last of his star charts and set it down in front of Mitchell. The Colonel's eyes widened with what he saw.

"Please tell me this isn't --"

"I'm afraid so. Our Supergate is located smack in the middle of Wraith controlled space."