Three hours later in the briefing room:
"What I don't understand is how we can just lose a submarine." said Daniel earnestly. "Surely we uh.. we keep track of them?
"It wasn't ours to lose" Hammond reminded him from the other side of the table, with a meaningful look on his face.
From the General's expression, Daniel got the feeling that the Russians had been a little less than helpful. It didn't entirely surprise him. It was quite possible that the sub had been on some morally dubious mission that the Russian military would probably have preferred the USA not to have found out about. The US military, for their part, were not well-known for their tact and probably waded in with heavy-handed demands. By now, suspicion and animosity on both sides were probably hampering the search. Daniel sighed and raised his eyes briefly skywards, despairingly.
McKay brushed off the correction with an impatient shake of his hand. "Dr Jackson is right. A high-tech military vessel equipped with GPS, emergency locator beacons and goodness knows what else can't just vanish."
'He looks as frustrated as I feel' thought Daniel with a sudden pang of fellow feeling. Perhaps he had misjudged McKay; it couldn't be much fun being suddenly thrown in at the deep end with no time to acclimatise. Especially since he must know that everyone was comparing him unfavourably to Sam. Daniel had a sudden uncomfortable flash back to his own first mission with Jack; he knew what it felt like to be treated as an interloper. Perhaps he should -
Zalenka spoke, interrupting Daniel's train of though. "We know where it went down. It will be possible to calculate to within the nearest few yards exactly where the sub was when the crew sent out the distress call."
"That may be so" said Hammond "but neither our navy nor the Russians have been able to locate it and until such time that they do, your task is to focus on getting the beta gate online." He looked around the table, making eye contact with each man in turn "You three doctors are our best hope of achieving that task."
"Oh forgive me for wanting to know if we are about to be dissembled by aliens" muttered McKay. "I would just rather know if I am about to die."
Hammond either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him."Has anything come of Dr Jackson's idea?" he asked the scientists.
Zalenka shook his head. "There are absolutely no indications of any other active stargates on earth". He pushed his glasses (which had slipped due to the vigorous head shake) back up the bridge of his nose and folded his arms decisively.
"How certain can we be?" asked Hammond, fixing the junior scientist with one of his piercing stares.
"Very" said Zalenka confidently. "An active stargate causes a ..a ..massive energy signal equivalent to seismic activity." He shrugged dismissively "Once we are looking for it, it would be easy to detect." From the tone of his voice it was clear that he thought that particular aspect of the problem trivial.
Hammond nodded, convinced. "So do any of you have any other ideas?"
Daniel shook his head. "My bet was on the alpha gate. Obviously I was wrong." Wrong again. Wrong about Linea, wrong about the gate.
McKay rubbed his temples wearily and leant back in his chair. "Our latest tests suggest that for some reason the naquidah that the gate is made of is not holding its power." He shrugged with an air of defeat and added dully "But we don't know why".
"It is like a broken clockwork toy" Zalenka offered helpfully, but somewhat confusingly "you turn the handle round and round and round but the broken spring does not tighten and so the toy does not work."
A thought occurred to Daniel and he turned to McKay with a puzzled frown. "But in those circumstances surely it should still be possible for SG-1 to gate back?" He placed his elbows on the table and leant forward eagerly "The power comes from the dialling gate right?" McKay nodded "So it doesn't need power to receive an incoming wormhole. It doesn't even need to be connected?"
"In theory, yes" McKay agreed "but the fact that hasn't happened suggests that in this instance, not."
"But you don't know that for sure?" Daniel persisted.
"The only way that you can be certain that a stargate works is to send something through it and see if it arrives" said McKay in the same tone of weary defeat.
"So the gate might actually be able to receive incoming travellers" said Daniel slowly.
"Possibly" said McKay "but it is equally possible that whatever fault prevents us from dialling out also prevents others from dialling in."
Daniel twisted round in his chair and gazed into the gateroom, willing the walls to light up with that ethereal shimmer they had when the gate was active. Nearly a week had gone by and they were still no nearer to solving the problem. Either SG-1 were marooned off-world confused as to why they couldn't dial home (and Daniel could imagine how Jack would feel about that. He hadn't exactly been thrilled to be stuck for those months on Edora. In fact, he had been pretty pissed). Or, the gate could receive incoming travellers, but SG-1 were in no position to dial home. If they couldn't dial home then they were most likely imprisoned, injured or dead. But with no ability to dial out there was no way to even begin to test either theory. Daniel clenched his fists under the table and tried to regain control of his imagination which was again threatening to spiral out of control. Should he hope or should he mourn? Without answers he was stuck in limbo.
3 a.m.
Daniel had been lying awake for hours. He was tired, but fear of dreams combined with beginnings of theories and scraps of history needled him into wakefulness. He couldn't help feeling that he was right on the edge of an idea - as though there was an insight that kept waving to him from the edge of his consciousness but which kept ducking out of view as soon as he tried to look at it. He was afraid that if he slept now then he might lose sight of it entirely. Eventually the urge to pursue it became too strong and he clambered awkwardly out of bed, shivering in the night air. He grabbed a sweater from his cupboard and pulled it down over his bare chest. Deciding he couldn't really go wandering round the SGC in his boxers he added trousers, socks and shoes and crept out into of his room, shutting the door quietly behind him.
Even at night the SGC was manned - always ready for unscheduled off-world activations - but the bustle of the day gave way to an almost sepulchre-like ambiance and the main lights were dimmed. The gloomy corridors reminded Daniel of the eerie atmosphere of his dream and as he walked towards the lift he had an unpleasant sense of déjà vu. His hand faltered unwillingly as he pressed the button for level 28. He swallowed hard, his mouth dry in anticipation, as the lift dropped smoothly down the levels. Taking a couple very deliberate breaths to steady his nerve he chided himself for being so impressionable; He was being ridiculous, it was only a dream. It wasn't as if he thought it would come true! Yet he was undeniably relieved when the doors opened revealing nothing untoward and he headed purposefully towards the hum of the control room with a renewed confidence in his step.
Although the gate was off line, the control room was staffed and Sargent Cox, who was holding the fort, looked up in surprise as Daniel came in.
"Dr Jackson? What are you doing down here."
"Couldn't sleep!" said Daniel with a smile. "I thought a walk might help."
"Great!" Sargent Cox said with a warm smile "I could use some company. You would not believe how dull it gets down here at night."
"Yeah, I can imagine." Daniel said sympathetically. He walked aimlessly over to the window and stared through the blast-proof glass at the gate. "You know it looks so normal."
Sargent Cox nodded. "I know, it looks absolutely identical. If I didn't know otherwise I would say it was the same gate." She looked confidently across at Daniel and mimed lining up gun sights with her hands. "From here I can tell you exactly which brick each chevron should line up with on the wall, and it's all spot on."
"And yet we can't make it work!" Daniel said with a sad smile. He gazed hard at the gate, looking for any possible sign of something awry. Perhaps it had been damaged in transit. After all, it had been removed from a glacier, flown to Nevada, undergone various tests and then manoeuvred with great difficulty into the SGC. At any one of those stages damage could have occurred. On the other hand, it was made of naquidah and pretty much indestructible.
"The gate itself is fine."
"How do you know for sure?" Daniel shot back, turning to look at Sargent Cox and realising too late that she hadn't spoken.
"How do I know what?" she asked, bemused. She gave Daniel the type of worried and confused look that Daniel was getting used to receiving.
"Er…" Daniel said, thinking frantically, and running back through the conversation in his mind. "I mean, you said it is all lined up correctly… How do you know for sure that it is?"
"Oh" Sargent Cox looked reassured. "Ever been bored enough to count bricks?"
Daniel shook his head.
"No? Well if you had, you'd know." She said with a laugh. "Chevron four is exactly thirty six bricks up from the floor. That Orion glyph is in line with that brick that is darker than the others. On the other side…" she saw that he wasn't really listening. "I could go on!" she said looking with amusement at his distant expression "but don't worry, I won't!"
"Sorry" Daniel said, aware that he must have looked bored. Full of embarrassed remorse he looked keenly at Sargent Cox "I'm not great company at the moment."
"Hey" she said cheerfully "don't do yourself down. Your better company than Jimmy!"
"Jimmy?" Daniel repeated cautiously.
"You've never been bored enough to invent an imaginary friend either have you?" She said with a grin.
"Um… no." Daniel said, hoping it was true.
Sargent Cox leaned back in her chair and tucked her hands behind her head. "Jimmy's a great guy – doesn't say much, great listener." She nodded gravely and then gave him an impish grin.
Daniel smiled back awkwardly and waved vaguely towards the gateroom "I'm just er… Going to look at stuff."
"Be my guest" the sergeant said. "Jimmy and I'll watch."