Chapter 37: Red Sky

December 2000

Dawn ran down the Promenade heading for the transporter room. Since her 'birth' General Hammond had helped create her an identity down on Earth. She was Buffy's sister down there. Up here on DS9 everyone knew she was Buffy and Willow's daughter. And the only civilian under the age of twenty. When she was not in school or in her room studying she could usually be found in Buffy, Willow, Sam or Daniel's labs. Dawn seemed to be a spounge as she absorbed everything they taught and showed her.

"Dawn Marie Rosenberg-Summers!"

Dawn sighed and came to a stop as Willow came up beside her. "Yes, mom?"

"First off, you shouldn't be running down the Promenade. Second, aren't you supposed to be at school?" Willow asked.

"I was heading to the transporter room to beam down, mom," Dawn said. "Honest."

"Okay," Willow said. "Buffy will be here when you get home from school. I'm going out on a mission with SG-1 and Faith."

"Okay," Dawn said as she started off again for the transporter room.

Two hours later SG-1, Faith and Willow were propelled out of the Gate.

"Okay, What was that?" Daniel asked as he got up and took of his hat.

"Carter? Rosenberg-Summers?" Jack said.

"Yeah, Red, any theories?" Faith asked.

Sam sighed. "I don't know. Margin of error in calculating planetary shift used to cause the rough ride, but we fixed it."

"Carter?!" Jack said pointedly.

But it was not Sam who answered but Willow. "We had to override some of the dialing protocols in order to get a lock. I'll check with Dawnara when we get home."

"It's bright," Faith said as she looked around.

Sam nodded. "This planet's much closer to its sun than Earth," she said as they noticed the baskets of fruit, produce, wheat and flowers laid near the Stargate.

"Festive," Jack said.

Daniel looked at writing on a nearby stone. "This is interesting. I couldn't see these writings from the probe," he said as Sam, Willow, Faith and Jack turned around and looked at the writing.

"What's it say?" Faith asked.

"They're runic symbols, similar to those we found on Cimmeria. There could be a connection here to the Asgard," Daniel said.

"As the Lieutenant asked, what's it say?" Jack asked.

Daniel shrugged. "I don't know."

"You think it's a protected planet?" Willow asked.

"Well, Teal'c wasn't zapped away," Jack said.

Teal'c nodded. "There is no Thor's Hammer here."

"Well, they wouldn't need one if it was named in the Goa'uld/Asgard Treaty," Daniel said as they heard the sound of a twig breaking.

Sam, Faith and Jack turned toward the noise as they raised their phaser rifles.

"Hey! You! Come on out!" Jack said as a man dressed in simple black and white stepped out from behind the bushes.

Several other men and women, some of which carried flowers, followed.

"We're not, uh … we're not here to hurt you … we're explorers from a place called Earth … you might know it as Midgard. I'm … I'm Daniel Jackson, this is uh …" Daniel said as Jack, Faith, Willow and Sam looked at each other.

"I am Elrad," one of the men said, "Flamen of the 39th order of K'Tau. My congregation and I were on our way here for Morning Prayer when we saw a great wave burst forth from the Annulus."

"Annulus?" Faith said with a smile. "I like that."

Elrad pointed towards Teal'c. "He is an enemy of the Gods," he said as his people murmured to themselves.

Willow shook her head. "I am Frigg's mortal lover," she said as Sam, Jack, Faith, Daniel and Teal'c looked at her questioningly. "And I speak for the gods. Teal'c is not an enemy, he is a friend."

"You are Frigg's mortal lover?" Elrad asked.

"I am," Willow said. She looked to the others and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Frigg is Thor's mother in Norse mythology."

Sam, Faith, Jack, Daniel and Teal'c all nodded in understanding. Since Buffy was considered by the Asgard to be the mother of the new Asgard race. It could be construed that she would be considered to be Frigg in Norse mythology.

Elrad smiled as he gestured to his people. "Well, then. Come forth! It is a time for rejoicing! Freyr has sent us visitors from Midgard!"

A woman carrying a basket cames forward, handing out flowers to them.

"Freyr is the god of Sun and Rain, right?" Daniel asked.

Elrad nodded. "Yes, our protector. Ally of Frigg. Friends of the Gods are welcome here."

A village woman presented Jack with some produce. "What do you got?" he asked the woman.

"Please, come! Our village is this way!" Elrad said as he and his people led them towards the village.

"It's as if …" Daniel said as they entered the village. "Norse culture evolved in to relatively modern times, while continuing to worship the ancient gods."

"This is Brother Malchus," Elrad sid as a Malchus approached. "He is Chief Acolyte within our order."

"You must leave," Malchus said. "At once."

Jack smiled. "We just got here."

"These are not just ANY strangers…they came through the Annulus," Elrad said and then he pointed towards Willow. "And this one is the mortal consort of Frigg."

"This one bears the mark of evil!" Malcus said as he pointed towards Teal'c.

"He is a friend of Frigg!" Elrad said as Teal'c nodded in greeting.

"The people will not stand for this," Malchus said, quietly.

"You mean you will antagonize them until they agree with you!" Elrad said as Malchus looked at them before walking away.

"Friendly guy," Faith said.

"You must forgive Malchus," Elrad said. "He has a suspicious nature, and we have never before been visited by elves."

"Elves?" Jack said.

Elrad nodded. "You travel by way of the Gods. You say you know them well."

"In Norse mythology, Freyr was the ruler of Elves," Daniel said. "They can bring good or bad tidings."

Jack smiled at Elrad.

"We certainly hope you have come to wish us well," Elrad said as the villagers looked up at the sky, which suddenly turned from blue to a red-hue.

The villagers murmur and their voices grew ever louder in concern.

Willow and Sam looked at the sky and then pulled out their tricorders.

"Rosenberg-Summers? Carter? What just happened?" Jack asked.

Willow and Sam looked at each other and then back up at the sky.

"The Eye of Odin grows dim," Elrad said.

Sam and Willow looked back down at their tricorders.

"Some sort of shift in the light frequency," Willow said.

"Good," Jack said. "I thought I was having a stroke."

"You did this!" Malchus said as he pointed at them.

"What?" Jack and Faith asked.

"Be calm!" Elrad said to Malchus before turning his attention back to Jack. "Is it true?!"

Jack shook his head. "No!" he said as he looked at Willow and Sam. "Is it?"

"We don't know," Willow said. "To accurately determine what happened, we'll need the Enterprise, here."

"It is no coincidence that this happens moments after they arrive!" Malchus said to Elrad before turning to the villagers. "The Elves are the harbingers of our doom!" Murmurs from the villagers grew ever louder. "Leave us, or be driven out."

"Malchus, the darkening of the Eye of Odin is the will of the Gods, you can not blame the messengers," Elrad said. "We must go to the Hall of Wisdom, and pray for forgiveness!"

"Hall of Wisdom … that sounds like the place where the Cimmerians communicated with Thor," Daniel said.

Jack looked at Daniel and cleared his throat as he walked over to Willow and Sam. "What the heck's going on?!"

"According to our tricorders," Sam said. "The light-spectrum of the sun has shifted toward infrared. Now, if it continues this way, eventually all the green plants will die. With the plants goes the oxygen supply—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jack said.

"The probe should give us more detailed data till the Enterprise can arrive," Willow said. "It's sensors are more sophisticated than what we have in the tricorders."

Jack nodded. "Good. You two, Faith and Teal'c head back to the … Annulus … see what you can find out … Daniel?" he said as he walked toward Daniel. "See if these folks have got an Asgard phone."

"Uhm actually," Daniel said. "Maybe we should contact Abydos Shipyards. Remember there are a contingent of Asgard stationed there."

"Right," Jack said. "I forgot. You go do that. I'm going to mingle."

Faith, Willow and Sam walked toward the probe. "I think I may have a theory," Sam said.

"Well don't keep us in suspense, blondie," Faith said.

"I think the wormhole that we used to travel here passed directly through this planet's sun," Sam said. "That might be why we had a problem dialing here in the first place."

Willow nodded as she thought about it. "We should have waited for a more fitting planetary alignment instead of bypassing the dialing protocals."

"Correct," Sam said. "The light from the sun suddenly shifted to the red spectrum after we got here. Now, as far as I know, the only way that could happen was if an unstable, super-heavy element, probably plutonium, was introduced to the sun's nuclear reaction. Sort of a subatomic poisoning."

"Okay … how did we do that?" Faith asked.

"Well, somehow, the plutonium piggybacked onto our wormhole from another starsystem, and bonded with their sun as we passed through it," Sam said.

"The fact that the gate wouldn't dial here when we first tried," Willow said. "Makes it sound like there is some sort of safety protocol built into the gate system designed to prevent exactly this sort of thing."

"Can we fix it?" Faith asked.

"Maybe," Sam said. "I don't know."

At the Stargate Daniel had finished dialing the Stargate address for Abydos Shipyards as the wormhole was established. He tapped his commbadge. "Dr. Jackson to Abydos Shipyards. I need to speak with one of the Asgard contingent."

"This is Mimir, the head of the Asgard contingent on Abydos Shipyards. Why have you gone to K'Tau?"

"We're exploring," Daniel said.

"K'Tau falls under our Protected Planets Treaty with the Goa'uld. I would hope you have not dispelled their current belief system. The Asgard felt it was essential—"

"Mimir, sorry to interrupt, but we have not dispelled their belief system," Daniel said. "But we do need your help."

"What help is that?"

"Let me Daniel."

Daniel looked over his shoulder as he watched Sam, Teal'c Faith and Willow walk up to him.

Sam tapped her commbadge. "This Major Carter. To answer your question. We may have inadvertently, totally accidentally, cause a foreign element to enter the K'Tau sun."

"How?"

"Major Rosenberg-Summers and I believe our wormhole picked up a super-heavy element and carried it into the sun as we passed through," Sam said.

"There are safety protocols in place on the Stargate system to prevent wormhole connections that would result in such events."

Willow tapped her commbadge. "This is Major Rosenberg-Summers. As you know we utilize a program on DS9 that allows us to dial our Stargate since we do not have an actual DHD. The program does allow us to bypass the protocals."

"I see."

"We could really use your help here," Sam said.

"I'm afraid I cannot assist you. The Asgard contingent is only allowed to remain at Abydos shipyards because Mother requested our prescencet. We are not allowed to interfere with the problem you have inadvertently caused to K'Tau as it would be in violation of our treaty with the Goa'uld."

"What if the Federation," Willow said. "Asked for assistance? You would technically not be helping the K'Tau but the Federation. It would be a technicality but you would not be doing anything other than sharing information with your Federation allies."

"Yes, you are as wise as mother is, Major Rosenberg-Summers. There is nothing in the treaty that says we can not share the information with the Federation as the Federation is not protected under the treaty. What the Federation does with that information is a different matter. We will contact mother and pass along the information."

Jack walked up just as the wormhole closed. "Well?"

"The Asgard can't do anything, sir," Sam said.

"Great," Jack said.

"But the Federation can," Willow said. "The Asgard contingent will relay the information to Buffy that we need. Then we will fix the problem."

"Let me guess a face saving maneuver on their parts?" Jack asked.

"Exactly," Daniel said. "This way they don't violate the treaty. And we get the information we need. As Mimir said, the Asgard we talked to. What the Federation does with said information is out of their hands."

"Alright," Jack said. "Let's return to DS9 and see what Colonel Summers has come up with."

An hour later they sat in the briefing room on DS9 talking with Hammond.

"Mimir relayed to me," Buffy said. "A plan that would in fact fix the K'Tau sun. We take the Enterprise and launch a specially modified torpedo into the sun. This torpedo would carry a super-heavy element, say something with an atomic weight above 200."

"Sure. I can think of a few," Jack said.

"Actually, they don't occur in nature, at least not on Earth," Sam said.

Buffy smiled. "While not the kind of element Sam is thinking of. Polonium found by Marie Curie in 1898 has an atomic weight of 209. It is highly radioactive. The modified torpedo when detonated would cause the radioactive material to bond to the super-heavy element in the K'tau sun, rendering it inert. The sun then could be restored to its normal nuclear reaction."

"Huh? How bout that?" Jack said.

"Since it would utilized the Enterprise," Hammond said. "The decision is yours, Colonel."

Two days later the Enterprise is in orbit of K'Tau.

Buffy knelt next to Willow as the finished the modifications to the torpedo. "You know after this is over. We should see about taking Dawn to Modaran. The Modaran Stargate should be ready about now. It would give us a little time to spend just the three of us."

Willow smiled as she looked over at Buffy. "I'd like that. We better get into our hazmat suits so we can install the polonium."

On the surface Xander walked up to Sam and Jack. "Where is Daniel and Teal'c?" he asked expecting to see them all together.

"Aw, they're in the village, trying to convince the folks we're friendly elves," Jack said. "I think the sooner we get out of here, the better."

Xander nodded. "I assume that includes the possibility of relocation?"

"Of course," Jack said. "But from what Teal'c said it sounds like they may not want to. How close are we to launching the torpedo?"

"When I beamed down, Buffy and Willow were just getting ready to install the polonium," Xander said. "I'd say about any time now they'll be ready."

On the Enterprise Buffy stepped onto the bridge. "Entara, report."

"The polonium torpedo is ready to be launched," Entara said. "I have moved the ship out of K'tau's orbit."

Buffy nodded. "Bridge to Engineering. How are the shields?"

"I'm dumping everything I can into the shields, Buffy." Willow said. "They should hold."

"Alright," Buffy said. "Hail SG-1."

"On speakers," Entara said.

"Colonel, we're ready to fire," Buffy said.

"Good luck," Jack said.

"Entara," Buffy said. "Fire the torpedo."

"Torpedo is away," Entara said.

On the surface Elrad led a group in prayer as Faith, Teal'c, Sam, Xander, Jack and Daniel stood nearby. "Brothers and sisters, in these troubled times, it is important for us to come together as a family. We must remember the great gifts of Freyr …" he said "… and we must be grateful for the lives that he has given us. In this, a troubled time, we must still remember …"

Suddenly the red hue of the light from the sun returned to its natural blue.

"Am I having a stroke?" Jack asked.

Sam shook her head as she looked at her tricorder.

"Blessed be Freyr!" Elrad said. "Bow your heads, and thank him for granting our prayers."

Sam tapped her commbadge. "Carter to Enterprise. It appears the torpedo worked."

"That's good to hear," Buffy said.

Two days later the Enterprise dropped out of hyperspace as it approached Modaran.

"Enterprise to Defiant," Buffy said. "We're bringing the Modaran Stargate."

"Acknowledged, Enterprise. We'll let Guardian One know."

An hour later Buffy, Willow and Dawn stood in front of Pallar. "Greetings Guardian One."

"Greetings Colonel Summers," Pallar said. "Major Rosenberg-Summers. And …"

"This is our daughter," Willow said. "Dawn Rosenberg-Summers."

"Greetings, Dawn Rosenberg-Summers," Pallar said.

"We have brought with us a way for you to traverse the stars without the need of spaceships," Buffy said. "Of course that does not mean you can not traverse the stars with us or on your own in spaceships. Just look at it as another way to do so."

"Thank you," Pallar said.