Chapter Forty Eight: Allies and Enemies
"We can't even jump to another star system?" asked Jack.
"No, I'm afraid not. As far as I can see there's no reason why the jump engines don't work," said Sam. "But they just don't."
SG-1 were exploring ways to save their spaceship from crashing. Up until now they had not tried to jump away from the planet to another star system. Now that they had tried it they found themselves unable to do so. When they had travelled away from the planet before, they had deliberately not used the jump technology because they wanted to remain visible to Apophis and lure him away. Now that they were getting closer to Kallistien they needed to do something drastic or the ship and anything it crashed into would be destroyed.
"That is the same as you have reported for the Stargate," said Teal'c. "There seems to be nothing wrong with the equipment, but it just does not work."
"So you're saying this mysterious force, whatever it is, is connected to why the Stargates have gone down," said Jack. "It's sort of dampening things down generally."
"It's the simplest solution," said Sam. "It's much more likely we're dealing with one mystery rather than two or more."
"And you say this force is coming from the capital city. Is that why it cut out for a while? Was that when the city was on the other side of the planet facing away from us?" asked Jack. "Because that would make sense."
"None of this makes sense," said Sam shaking her head in frustration. "Some of the time the city has been facing towards us the force has been turned off and some of the time it's been facing away from us the force has been on. It doesn't seem to make any difference. But it's on most of the time now."
"If it goes off again perhaps that would be a good time to try a jump, or to try to use the Gate again," suggested Teal'c. "Maybe the equipment will work then."
"Good idea," said Jack. "Sergeant, tell Colonel Marker. Tell him we'll give him the nod if this force goes down again so he can try a dial up. Sam..."
"I'm nearly sure the force was off the last time we tried to get the Gate to work," said Sam. "I'll be ready to try a jump the next time it goes down sir. But we shouldn't try to dial up and make a jump at the same time," said Sam. "Sergeant, I'll tell you when to contact Colonel Marker."
"So back to this mysterious force of ours. You're saying this thing is pulling at us even when it's on the other side of the planet?" asked Jack, "when it should be pulling in the opposite direction."
"That's exactly what I'm saying yes, although my latest measurements say the power source is way beneath the surface of the planet," said Sam. "Whichever way the city is facing there's a fair slice of the planet between us and whatever it is anyway."
"Is there any way we can resist being pulled down?" asked Jack. "Can't we realign the dilithium crystals or something?"
Sam sighed. "Um, no. I'm afraid we don't have the time to come up with a brand new scientific invention to save us. This thing is stronger than our regular engines and that's that. You might just as well try to invent a new engine half way through a car race. It doesn't work like that. At least the regular engines still work."
"Well magic's not an option this time," said Jack. "The witches we still have on board say they're all magicked out, whatever that means."
"If Phoebe and Willow couldn't do anything from up here the others wouldn't have a hope," said Sam. "None of them have the same sort of power and they're already busy keeping the other spells going."
"But there may be something we can do," said Teal'c. "Can we not use the engines to control our descent to the extent that we do not crash into the city itself? Could we perhaps achieve a safe landing somewhere nearby or even on the opposite side of the planet when the city is turned away from us?"
"Without going into detail the answer is no, our engines are simply not powerful enough," said Sam. "We're using them to resist being pulled down but we're losing ground bit by bit. Eventually we'll come to a tipping point and lose control. If we try to go into land it'll just mean we crash more quickly."
"So you're saying it's self-destruct or crash, no other option," said Jack.
"That's what I'm saying yes," said Sam. "Unless that force is turned down or turned off again. All we can do is destroy the ship before it hits the atmosphere and leave the fragments to burn up before they hit the ground. We can use the transporters to bail out," said Sam.
"I would prefer that we use the shuttles and save them for the fight against the Goa'uld," said Teal'c. "Unless the shuttles too are subject to this force."
"Good point," said Jack. "That's something we should out check straight away."
"I will see to it," said Teal'c who stood up and walked out of the room.
"And I'll do some calculations to see how much time we've got before we have to blow the ship up," said Sam. "But it'll be very approximate if the force switches off and on again."
"The Goa'uld fleet has started back towards us," said Sergeant Paisley from his place in one of the control seats. Sam went to look over his shoulder at the instrument read outs on the screens in front of him.
"Judging by how long it took us, Apophis will be back here in about twenty four hours," said Sam. "But since we still have our magical cloak he won't know we're here."
"Don't bank on it. Last I checked he still had witches on board his ships as well. He might just figure it out," said Jack. "See if you can pick up any chat between the Goa'uld ships, sergeant. See if you can find out what happened to the ships he left behind. They might be cloaked as well and we don't want to be taken by surprise."
"Yes sir," acknowledged the sergeant. "But I've got an idea about that already sir. I'm picking up Goa'uld transmissions from the largest of the moons. Either Apophis has got a base there or his other ships landed there, or both."
"Good work sergeant. Is that a problem for us Carter?" asked Jack. "Could they detect us from there even though we're cloaked?"
"I don't know sir," replied Sam. "We're still invisible to normal observation but they might have been able to detect it when we transported people down to the planet. That might have produced an energy signature from what looked like an empty area of space. Without an understanding of the magic being used I'm pretty much in the dark. But I'm sure the Goa'uld know about cloaking devices, even if only in theory."
"OK, let's watch out for any energy signatures from their ships, just in case they're out there somewhere," said Jack. "And make sure nobody uses the transporter again without my permission. And keep watching that moon. Hell, watch all the moons. Meanwhile I'll join Teal'c and see if we can figure a way to test out the shuttles without revealing our position."
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The attack started around midnight with demons breaking into the building from all sides. But it was something of an anti-climax for the demons because once inside they found nobody to attack. They had been sent after the Key by their master the demon lord who was convinced that it was inside the building. But as the demons rampaged from room to room, smashing everything in sight they found no sign of the Key or anybody protecting it.
The demon lord himself was perched on a tall building on the opposite side of the street, watching his demons at work. He was large, about ten feet tall and completely black in colour. Completely black until he opened his jaws to display his long white fangs and blood red mouth.
The demon had settled down and folded his wings to await the outcome. If necessary he would take a hand himself but that wasn't the way he usually liked to operate. His power was mainly used to draw other demons to him. Demons who then served him and carried out whatever tasks he set them. Their present task was to find the Key and bring it to him so that he could feast on its power. Once he added the power of the Key to the power he already possessed he would be invincible.
But he wasn't invincible yet. He was frustrated, not to say furious. His demons continued their rampage but they had still not found what they were looking for. But it was there. The demon knew the Key was still inside the building. He could feel it. How could it be hiding from his demons? Obviously some sort of magic trick was being pulled. That's the trouble with this world the demon thought. There's too much magic around, and most of it's white magic.
Alarms began to sound from the other side of town. Very soon the local authorities would arrive and take a hand. The demon was not afraid of them but he wanted to get hold of the Key before everything became confused and his prey had a chance to escape. And if one of the witches that infested this planet did manage to get hold of the Key before he did, and knew how to use it, then the demon would be in trouble.
The demon decided that it could wait no longer. It had to get involved in the search personally. Its ability to feel the presence of the Key would enable it to go straight to it and whoever had possession of it, even if it was hidden by some sort of magic. The demon therefore launched itself into the air in order to glide across the street onto the roof of the building where the Key was located. If necessary it would demolish the building brick by brick. But the glide ended far short of the other side of the street.
The dragon had been watching silently from the darkness above. She had been told of the demon by one of the witches working with the dragons. The witch had received a radio message from the Witch HQ. She had invoked the alliance with the dragons to ask for dragon help in dealing with the demon. The dragons were only too pleased to help. They had no wish for their world to become a playground for demons. They liked it just the way it was.
As soon as the demon launched itself into the air the dragon dropped into a fast silent dive of her own, claws outstretched. She homed in on the demon and dropped onto its back when it was only half way towards the other building. Her talons ripped into the creature causing it to cry out in pain and rage. The demon twisted in the dragon's grasp trying to escape. For anybody watching from below the two monsters swiftly became a twisting intertwined fury of movement as each tried to destroy the other.
As the battle in the sky between demon and dragon developed, Angel and the others at last took a hand against the demons within the building. Drusilla had done a concealment spell to hide the group of four from the searching demons. But it was a simple spell and would not last for long. The plan was to use the spell as a way of taking the demons by surprise and this is what now happened.
By now the various demons were scattered all around the house. They had just about given up looking for the Key and were intent on looking for victims and loot and causing as much damage as possible. They were therefore not prepared when the two vampires together with Connor and Dawn, a potential slayer, all well armed, came out of hiding intent on slaughtering demons.
The group had hidden on the top floor of the house. Now they worked their way down from floor to floor, killing the demons and clearing out the house one step at a time. They moved fast and kept together so that the demons would not have the chance to attack them one at a time.
Meanwhile the aerial combat continued. The dragon still held the demon in her claws and flew ever higher. The demon twisted and turned to try to escape and was now causing damage to the dragon, despite the thickly armoured dragon scales. Finally the demon succeeded in pulling free from the dragon which pulled away with a mighty scream.
But now the demon began to fall. Its wings had been badly damaged by the dragon's first impact and the way she had used her claws. They were no longer able to keep the demon in the air. But the demon knew the fall would not be fatal. It was easily tough enough to survive. The demon calculated that it would land not far from the house containing the Key. Once it had the Key in its possession it could quickly repair its body and be able to deal with the dragon and anything else that opposed it.
But once again the demon was taken by surprise. This time not by a dragon but by a witch and a slayer. Phoebe and Buffy now joined in the battle against the demon.
Phoebe had used her flying power to take herself, Buffy and Xander, south to join Angel, Dawn and the others. She had flown in from the north following the railway line. The three humans knew they had arrived at the right place when they saw the aerial combat between the demon and the dragon in the sky over the town. Night had now fallen but as so often a great deal of light was provided by the Kallistian moons. Phoebe had swooped down and landed on the ground underneath the battling monsters. It was from this position that the three of them saw the dragon drop the demon.
"Take me up again quick," said Buffy. "Let's drive into it before it hits the ground. It won't be expecting that."
"What do you want me to do?" asked Xander but he found that he was talking to himself. Phoebe had realised that she had to act instantly or not at all and the two women were now airborne again.
Phoebe held Buffy by the waist and from behind with the slayer above her. Buffy held her sword firmly in both hands pointing up above her head. As the demon came down the slayer's sword came up. At a devastating closing speed the sword drove right inside the demon.
As she felt the impact Buffy let go of her sword as it disappeared inside the demon. As she felt the impact Phoebe steered away to try to make sure that she and Buffy were not hammered into the ground underneath the falling demon.
Xander watched the impact from below and rushed away from the impact point to avoid being hit by the falling demon himself. The demon hit the ground with a great thud which cracked the paving slabs all around it.
From his position across the road Xander looked up and was relieved to see Phoebe and Buffy still airborne. And then, Xander being Xander, he drew his own sword and ran at the fallen demon in case it was still alive. Xander knew that if the demon still lived it was better to attack it straight away before it had any chance to recover.
But this time Xander did not need to exhibit his usual bravery. The demon was well and truly dead. It might have died anyway but Buffy and Xander had made sure that the witches had added their own power to enchant their swords before setting off south. The dead demon lord had been powerful, very powerful, but it had not been able to resist the combined power of dragon, witch, slayer and gravity.
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"What do you think it is?" asked Cordelia. "What sort of power could possibly pull down spaceships from so far away?"
"There's only one thing I can think of," said Willow. "The same sort of thing that was set to pull down that giant meteor on top of us a few months ago back on Earth."
"A Hellmouth?" asked Kennedy. "You think there's another Hellmouth around here?"
Buffy, Willow, Xander and Phoebe had transported down to the planet to join the others who were already at the Witch HQ. While Phoebe had then used her flying ability to take Buffy and Xander off south, Willow had led most of the others off to investigate the source of the mysterious power that was pulling at the spaceships.
Giles had remained at the Witch HQ to continue his research to see if the witches' library had any useful information about the Key and how it worked and how it might be affecting the Stargates.
"Isn't that what Giles said about all those demons around town?" asked Gwen. "That somebody's trying to open up a Hellmouth? Do you think that's where all those demons came from?"
"Where you get magic you always get a Hellmouth, sooner or later," said Anya. "Why should this place be any different? There's certainly a lot of magic around this world and I bet it's not all white magic."
"What do you mean you always get a Hellmouth?" asked Willow. "Are you saying Hellmouths are some sort of natural feature like a mountain or an island? What exactly causes one to develop?"
"If you want some sort of grand theory to explain how Hellmouths come about you're looking at the wrong person," said Anya. "All I know is that Hellmouths come and go. They always seem to come about where there's a lot of magic being done, dark magic. It's as if the dark magic attracts some sort of connection to the demon realms."
"And what causes them to shut down again?" asked Cordelia. "Or is there some sort of natural process to that as well?"
"You already know the answer to that," said Anya. "Self sacrificing heroes like you guys shut down Hellmouths."
"You were there too." said Willow. "You were as much a hero as anybody else when we shut down the Sunnydale Hellmouth."
"Yeah, well before we expand on our mutual admiration society let's go inside and have a look around," said Kennedy. "See if we can find out who's been doing all that dark magic and what exactly is going on. Even if it is a Hellmouth there must be something more going on otherwise Sunnydale would have been swimming in meteors and spaceships."
"Yeah, if it is a Hellmouth then somebody's using it in some way," said Willow.
"Bet it's Wolfram and Hart," said Cordelia.
SG-1 had pinpointed the location of the origin of the mysterious force. On following the directions provided the group had found themselves outside the hotel. The very hotel in which most of them had previously stayed. The force was centred under the hotel so they would have to go into the basement to find out what was going on.
As Willow led the way into the hotel her thoughts were once again on Tara. Is that what Tara is doing thought Willow. Dealing with a Hellmouth? That might be just the sort of emergency a Whitelighter would have to deal with. Maybe she's inside the hotel, or inside the Hellmouth. Willow quickened her pace.
