Disclaimer: The characters used within this are mostly the property of others. I have a few originals, but the vast majority are not original. A few well known names may be used, but everything here is fiction. This is for entertainment only and not for profit.
This is a multicross, initially focused mostly on Stargate. Ranma from Ranma ½ is added at the start and a couple other series are added later. This is a story about how the great alliance came to be. Politics warning plus some mentions of religion.
Author's Note: At the time I started editing what became this first chapter I had written almost three hundred thousand words. This does not mean updates will be quick. That will partially depend on motivation, available time, and well how much rework is required. I've found that my best bet writing wise is not to get side tracked with editing until much of the story is told.
-oOo-
Araiansu – Chapter 1
A slightly threadbare Ranma Saotome shivered as he looked down at his shadows and soaked feet trudging through snow. The twin moons really made this strange place beautiful at night, but it was strange to see his shadow diverge in two directions outside. He had no idea where he was. It seemed a world that had never seen the foot of man, and when he was not shivering it seemed more precious still.
He had been walking this strange seemingly never ending forest for almost a month now. He thought it was a combination of a scroll of some sort from Happosai and some kind of thing Gosunkugi had drawn on the ground, apparently with his own blood. He remembered it glowing faintly before he must have passed out and ended here.
He was still surprised it had gone this far. Happosai had been angry that he could fend off his advances in his female form. What really seemed to anger him was that he had figured out how to heat water coming at him, so that he didn't change. Sure, it only worked if he had some warning and could focus, but it still enraged the old pervert.
He could only guess that Happosai had recruited Gosunkugi for part of the plan, or his luck was just that bad. It didn't matter. Hopefully the fool didn't die. He was looking pretty pale, and the blood that was used was clearly his.
Fortunately, he had his pack with him. Unfortunately, his travel pack was about his limit for hidden weapons. He knew Mousse could do more, but you appeared to have to tie up a decent portion of your own ki in order to reach that limit, which is something that did not interest him, at least before he got trapped here.
He continued to walk in what he hoped was a southerly direction. The only thing he was sure about was that it was slightly warmer in this direction, and that despite his best efforts to outpace the snow, he was already walking through six inches of it. It was eating through his supply of ki to stay warm at night. He was seriously considering trying to cut down some trees and build a house when suddenly he saw a shimmer in the air.
He saw blond hair and green military fatigues before he quickly ran and jumped in the air. A quick examination of the woman revealed blood and a broken arrow sticking out of her right thigh. He shifted how he held her to try to lesson the impact on her right side and touched down as gently as he could. The blond was out cold. She looked perhaps twenty five or so.
He quickly found a spot underneath a very leafy tree that was mostly clear of snow and gently set her down. He took a quick look at her leg and quickly and gently wrapped his shirt around it to slow the bleeding. It was now that much colder, but he ignored it.
He pulled out his pack and put a spare shirt before pulling out his tent and assembling it underneath the tree, and then putting her gently inside.
"Too cold," he muttered. He stuffed everything else back in his storage space and crawled inside before closing the tent after him. There was no room for anything, but he carefully shifted so as not to disturb her or break the tent. He looked at her thigh again before gently shaking her, and then pressing a couple pressure points Doctor Tofu had taught him.
Her eyes blinked open.
Ranma said in Japanese, "You are safe."
The blond glanced at him then down at her thigh. She asked hopefully, "English?"
Ranma replied in English haltingly, "Some."
"Where?" she gasped out, and then clearly fought back a scream as her twist aggravated her injury.
"Not know," he admitted.
"Great," she said sarcastically.
Ranma asked, "Look leg?" He pointed to her thigh.
She nodded.
He first removed his shirt from around her leg. Thankfully it wasn't too wet with blood. He then pulled a dagger out of his storage space and gently used it to slice her pant leg on the side around the broken arrow. Some of the camouflage material was sticking to the would.
He bit his lip even as she watched. He took out a small thermos of water and poured it into the attached cup. He then picked up the cup and seemed to concentrate. His hands and the cup glowed. Seconds later steam was rising from it.
"What?" she gasped.
He tipped it slowly over her leg, gently loosening the flap of fabric, only to see new blood start.
"Gomen," he said before quickly pressing several spots on her leg, one rather close to her private area.
"What are you doing?" she exclaimed.
"Stop blood. Can't long."
"Fine," she said warily, evidently still in pain.
Ranma finished washing the area, only to consider the remnant of a broken off arrow in her leg. He quickly poured a little more water into his cup before flashing it to boiling again and then pouring it over his knife.
She said, "You can't. Not with that?"
"All I got. We nowhere. Not treat, you probably die."
"Fine," she said resigned. "I hope you have bandages."
"Just some spare clothes."
"Great."
Ranma very carefully cut using the very sharp knife just enough to ease the arrow head out. She very bravely didn't scream. He hit the pressure points again, blood began to flow quickly, then he hit them a third time when the wound seemed clear, slowly them to a crawl. He pulled another clean cotton shirt from his storage space and gently tied it around her wound before carefully releasing the pressure points a final time. The shirt immediately became red, but it seemed to stop after a short time.
"Thanks," she managed.
He poured her a cup of water and helped her drink, and then poured her another.
She reached into a side pocket of her jeans on the other side and carefully pulled out a small bottle of pills. Inside the bottle was a whole mix of pills. She selected one and swallowed it.
He looked at her curiously.
She said, "Antibiotic. Only a couple days, but maybe it will help. That is going to need stitches. I don't have any needle or thread. Do you?"
"No."
"It still burns," she said. She hesitated. "I think it was poisoned."
Ranma paled. He started pulling out stuff out of his storage space before putting it back, and then ending up with his pack, which barely was able to fit inside their space, before reaching to the bottom of it, and removing a hidden strap he pulled out a small bottle. Inside was a long thin mushroom, seemingly fresh picked.
"How is that going to help?" she asked tiredly.
"Not sure. Age shroom. May help."
"I don't think psychedelics are the answer," she tried. Her dry town was clearly nearing panic.
"Make young. Heal maybe."
"That is absurd."
Ranma shrugged. He said, "Have water? Show magic."
She carefully handed him the cup she had been drinking out of. He dumped the rest over his head, suddenly becoming a shorter yet well proportioned red haired young woman.
The woman passed out.
Ranma sighed and hit her pressure points again, only to see her try to twist when she woke, briefly opening her wound and causing her to scream.
Ranma said, "Magic real. Please try. Maybe only chance."
"Fine, guess I don't have anything to lose. How young?"
Ranma shrugged, "Eighteen maybe? Not sure."
"Your kidding."
"No."
"Find give it here. If I wasn't poisoned…"
She took the mushroom from him and then chewed and swallowed it. Instantly she started to shimmer. "It hurts," she screamed.
Ranma gently held her hand, letting some of her own ki flow into the other woman, which seemed to reduce the pain. She watched slowly as the blond shrank and became younger. She looked down at the blond's leg and saw the swelling shrink.
The process seemed to take hours, and by her expression she was in pain the entire time, even with the flow of ki he was giving her. Finally near midnight she said, "It is over. I think."
The blond's voice was higher pitched when she spoke. She reached up and carefully removed the shirt from around her leg, only to see unblemished skin.
She asked, "Is this permanent?"
"Yes, was saving if need."
She asked, surprised, "Why would you need a magical thing that makes you young?"
"Other shroom make younger. This fix."
"Okay, well that was weird, but I guess I'm alive and healthy, and by the looks of things it is going to be dark soon. Are we okay here? It is getting cold."
Ranma shrugged. "Hungry?"
"I'm fine for now. Have a few snack bars."
Ranma yawned. "Tired. Used too much ki. Can I sleep here?"
"As a male or a female?" she asked curiously.
Ranma shrugged.
"How cold does it get?"
"Cold."
"I assume you can behave yourself."
Ranma nodded.
"Then come on. Let's try to sleep."
Ranma nodded. She started to crawl in behind but the blond pulled her to in front of her where she fit better.
"By the way, I'm Sam. Sam Carter."
"Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."
"Why did you apologize? You probably saved my life."
"Not sure."
"I can't believe you changed into a woman."
Ranma cringed when Sam's arms loosely curled around her even as she brought up the thin blanket.
"Relax," Sam said. "Not going to hurt you."
It took a long time for either to fall asleep.
-oOo-
Sam woke first. The light penetrating the tent indicated that the day was well begun. She also had to go to the bathroom. She wished her pants were not torn, or that they fit. She also wished she at least had her gun, but she didn't have that either. She did, however have a belt that she cinched.
She tried shaking her savior only to get no response. She was still breathing deeply, but evidently not easily woken. She slipped out from behind her and carefully opened the tent to preserve as much heat as possible, only to have several inches of snow come in, and it looked like there was a foot outside, at least once you got away from the tree.
She was swimming in her shoes but she nonetheless proceeded to get far enough away before she relieved herself. She then climbed back in the tent, but seeing the thermos she picked it up, and sure enough it was almost empty. She quickly grabbed it and closed the tent again before returning outside to fill and then pack it with snow.
She looked around. There was nothing in sight, not even birds. Just forest and snow. She got back in, and sealed the tent again. It was still cold. She set the thermos down, even as Ranma blinked her eyes open.
Sam asked, "Where are we?" She was sure she had asked that, but she thought she would ask again.
"Not know. Magic send here."
Carter rolled her eyes, before remembering that magic was why she was, apparently, not dead.
"You?" he asked.
"A machine of some kind." She was less than certain about the details. She had been trying to get away; to get back to the others when she was hit by the arrow. She had stumbled and pressed a bunch of stuff in the ruins. It was a pure Daniel move and then the panel had seemed to explode before she was here. "Damn," she cursed.
"How?" he asked.
"Don't know," admitted Carter.
Ranma laughed.
She scowled.
Ranma said seriously, "Moving south month maybe. Getting colder, but north worse. Build house maybe?"
"Build a house with what?"
"Wood?" He pulled out a small hand ax from stuff space as well. It was solid metal.
Carter looked dubious. She had her own combat knife, which might help a little. She asked, "Food?"
"Plenty of not deer. Some not squirrel. Get one for food?"
Carter raised an eyebrow. "Sure, why not?"
"Wait here? Keep warm?"
"Keep the place warm?" she asked.
"That too," she said.
Ranma was gone little more than an half an hour before she heard her return. She proceeded to use a branch she cut off to kind of sweep the area of snow near the tree base. Then from a bit further away she pulled another branch. It was clearly much older and dry. She started cutting it up into logs.
Sam was amazed at how resourceful Ranma was. She was more amazed when she cupped her hands near the base of the fire and suddenly the wood burst into flames. She stepped out of the tent and stood before the fire and watched as he forced the skinned version of the, she supposed it was the not squirrel on a stick before holding it over the fire.
Who ever heard of a squirrel with bat like ears?
After the food was done she eat her fill even if it was bland and boring. Ranma picked up the thermos she had set down, only to start pouring it and have nothing come out. She looked in and saw it was snow. She held the metal thermos over the fire.
"You sure that is safe? Sure the outside is metal, but the inside?"
"Safe," confirmed Ranma.
After they melted and drank their fill of water Sam said, "We need to get to higher ground and find some signs of civilization."
"Tried that."
Sam scowled. "Maybe keep moving for a few days?"
Ranma nodded. She then quickly repaked everything into her pack and then making that vanish.
"How did you do that?" she asked.
"Tricky. Don't have words."
"I can help you with English. It is probably easier than me learning Japanese."
Ranma nodded and then picked up the thermos before pouring a bit of heated water over her arm and returning once more to his birth gender.
"That is amazing," she said.
"Annoying," he responded.
She smiled.
They took off walking south, taking a path where the snow seemed lighter. Unfortunately this soon became too much for Sam to keep walking through.
Ranma turned to her and asked, "Carry?"
"I can walk!" she insisted.
"Please," he asked.
She scowled at him but approached him carefully. He quickly pulled her into his arms and then just started running flat out.
Sam was stunned. Oh it was absolutely crazy that she was being carried like a small child in someone's arms that probably didn't weigh that much less than she did, particularly when they were going at probably thirty miles an hour.
He kept this pace up for hours until they were interrupted by a frozen lake. She could still hardly believe how light his steps were, but somehow he missed or the ice was particularly then, for he cracked through just enough to splash super cold water on his ankle, making him a her.
Ranma set her down and scowled. Sam smiled, but resisted the temptation to laugh.
More soberly she considered what they had just done. Assuming four hours and thirty miles an hour, they had traveled one hundred and twenty miles. She was sure the actual distance was probably a bit different, but it was an insane amount of travel on foot. She looked closer at her savior only to see that she was clearly exhausted.
Carter said, "Can you get the tent out? And the axe?"
Ranma nodded. She pulled both out and handed them to Samantha
Sam used the flat part of the axe to shove snow out of the way before doing her own expert job at quickly putting up the tent. She said, "Go Rest. I'll cut some firewood."
Ranma hesitantly got inside the tent.
Carter was already exhausted by the time she had a fire going outside the tent, complete with enough dry wood to carry them through the night. She hesitated before heading back out and chopping down a smaller tree and and then chopping off one the end of it before setting it near the fire. She hoped it would be dry enough to burn when their other wood ran out.
She then tiredly crawled into the tent. Ranma, in boy form, was already asleep, but had not taken the sleeping bag. She placed the sleeping bag directly next to him, waking him up.
She suspected she smelled now, though so did he. It was obvious that neither of them had a fresh supply of deodorant, though it was also obvious that Ranma was doing his best to remain clean, particularly since he had been here a month.
She said, "Go back to sleep."
He looked at her warily, as if afraid she would hurt him before finally letting himself go back asleep.
She tried to make herself comfortable by herself in the sleeping bag but failed.
He woke up and looked at her. "Can't sleep?"
She said, "Let me get out, then you can get in the bag and I'll slip in along side."
"Are you sure?" he asked warily.
"Yes. We are in deep trouble if either of us get sick. Your chivalry, while appreciated we can't afford."
"I can change."
"No. I'm a soldier. You have acted honorably. I will not return honor with distrusting you just because you are currently male."
He warily got in.
She said, "Lay flat."
He again looked at her warily before laying flat down, with his head on his makeshift pillow, which was nothing more than a rolled up shirt. He closed his eyes.
She carefully laid on top of him with her head pillowed over the side of his chest.
He got very very still, and even seemed to stop breathing.
She said, "Relax. We are only sleeping."
His breathing resumed.
The next morning she yawned and stretched only to see that he was still sleeping. She wondered how much sleep he got. Her stomach grumbled and she fished out one of her few remaining ration bars.
She turned again and saw Ranma blinking.
"Did you get enough sleep?" she asked.
"Arigatou."
Sam blinked. "While I don't make it a habit of sleeping next to strange men, in the field, I do what I need to. Any soldier would, and you were a perfect gentleman."
Ranma got up, blinking several times as he tried to puzzle her words out. "Before I here, was engaged by oyagi. Akane would have hit me."
"Seriously, you mean, just for waking up next to you when she chose to sleep there?"
Ranma nodded.
"Well, I'm not going to tell you who to marry, but if you wanted work, I could probably get you into the Air Force."
"Air Force?" questioned Ranma.
"The United States Air Force. We fly planes, among other things."
"Hontou?"
"I think that means really?"
Ranma nodded.
"Yes, really. Anyone who can do what you did so far, heck anyone who can be dropped in the middle of nowhere and survive we would want to look at. Are you interested, or did you have plans?"
"I'm interested. Could we not tell..."
Sam laughed. "As long as you can prove your over eighteen I think that can be arranged."
Ranma grinned.
Just them Sam's stomach grumbled.
Ranma said, "I get food."
"You should say, 'I am going to get food.'"
Ranma nodded.
"Okay, I'll try to figure out a plan for a house of some sort. I think your right. We need to hunker down till this weather recovers."
Ranma smiled.
-oOo-
Sam looked out through their cloudy window onto the lake. The glass had been a personal project of Sam's even if it was still fairly crude. They had been here the better part of two months. It was now bitter cold outside. They had managed to fashion needles and now had some crude furs for clothing. Their original clothing was near rags, particularly hers, since she did not have any spare.
She looked over at the fireplace in the middle of their house and could not help but wonder. It had taken Ranma weeks to even mentioned his sealed art, and it had taken her another week to talk him into using it, but once they had that, well Ranma could slice any rock precisely, allowing them to make this fireplace from nothing more than well fitting rock, including the chimney. Admittedly it was bigger than one made with mortar would be, but the important part is it worked and was safe.
They had separate beds of furs, though she still found herself laying down next to him. She was, well not old enough to be his mother. She wasn't that old, but she was not that far from it, except she wasn't. She was now his age, and wasn't that odd.
They had not wanted to let Jack keep his authority when they thought he was de-aged. Come to think of it, she was now the approximate age of Jack's clone, and wasn't that a strange thought. She looked back to the table. She had wire, of a sort. She had managed that much, though mostly with Ranma's help. The fact that he had figured out how to cause pure copper to separate out of ore stunned her, particularly since he had somehow done it with his ki. He was training her, and while she was by no means a slouch in unarmed combat, compared to him she was. Nevertheless she persisted.
She really wished she had some technology on her when she was sent here. She hoped to make a very basic AM radio that just listened to bulk radio frequencies. It was unlikely to pick up much, but at this point she just wanted to see if she could pick up anything. Of course she had yet to figure out how to make a speaker and was resorting to actually holding the wires in her hand to try to detect a signal. So far nothing, but she was hoping if she either made the loop larger, or used more loops she would eventually do so. If she could detect a signal and then triangulate they might find civilization.
Of course, that assumed they were on a planet with a civilization. She was still skeptical about Ranma's mentions of magic, even though she knew that at least some of it was true, but magic that could send him to another planet? That seemed less likely. Of course, she also didn't think anything but a Stargate or a Starship could send her to another planet. She supposed it was possible they were on some far away region on the same planet she was on, but that also seemed unlikely. For one thing there was a good chance their allies would have found them by now.
Come to think of it, actually meeting anyone from Earth at all was insanely unlikely, unless perhaps Ranma's trip somehow influenced her eventual trip, though again it was highly unlikely they would meet, unless he was still influencing it somehow? That strange power he had maybe? She had no idea. She was mostly thankful things did turn out as they did. It also wouldn't be the first time she thanked luck. SG-1 had more luck at times than they deserved, both good and bad.
Ranma, unfortunately, didn't keep up with the news. They knew they weren't on Earth, but she also suspected from what he did recall that they did not even come from the same Earth. After all, what would be the odds of Stargate Command not knowing of those like Ranma? They and every other special forces military would be knocking on his door and trying to sign him. She knew his thing with water and gender would just make some of them knock louder, particularly those divisions involved in espionage. The Goa'uld would certainly send more ships if they could obtain hosts such as him.
On that thought, she let herself try to sense Naquadah. As usual she sensed nothing. Oddly she could sense Ranma slightly in the distance. It wasn't the sense of a Goa'uld, or even just a former host. It was something else. He was warm to her senses. Actually, now that she noted it, he was a she right now. She could tell that much. Was it because he had given her some of his ki when she was made younger to heal the wound? She didn't recall it before that, but she was also busy dying at the time. She hadn't told Ranma of her new skill. She knew she could never surprise him, so she felt no guilt at keeping this one small secret.
She went back to the desk and considered her wire. She only had about twenty feet of it, and it had taken a lot of effort to get that much made. On a whim she wound the wire around the outside of her fur shirt on her right arm and then wrapped long strips they had previous made for bandages around that before bringing the end back to her right hand so she held both ends of the wire with different parts of her hand.
She walked out of their cabin and climbed the crude ladder they made till she was on the roof. She held her arm out and slowly began to turn. She spend several minutes turning just five degrees. Nothing. She kept slowly turning. There, nearly an hour later, in what they would consider southeast was a little tingle.
She had no idea what it could be. Ranma had come back while she was searching. The day was noticeably warmer than their first days had been.
Ranma asked, "Did you figure something out?"
His language had improved a lot thanks to her instruction. Really he was as quick at learning everything she had tried to teach him, which so far wasn't much. There was always so much work to do.
She said, "I felt something to the southeast. Do you feel like coming with me to the northwest for a couple miles. I want to repeat it."
"But you said southeast?" asked a confused female Ranma.
"I want to see if I can tell if the angle changes with respect to the sun. That will give me an idea of distance."
"Oh. Well, do you want to get there fast?"
She smiled and rolled her eyes. "It would help, since the sun would be in the same spot."
Ranma changed back into a male and picked her up before heading northwest.
Twenty minutes later she pointed to a tall tree, which Ranma helped her climb. She repeated her test and sure enough she found the same tingle in her hand again where the electricity was shocking her faintly.
She said, "It is still southeast, but more south I think. It is hard to tell."
"Want to go head that way in the morning?"
"Definitely. Let's go back and get ready."
Ranma was glad he had doubled the size of his stuff space, or as Mouse called it, hidden weapons space. Sure it was eating a portion of his ki reserves, but right now they needed supplies more. They started out the next morning with Ranma jogging first and then Sam following. This allowed him to find any problems first, and if needed Sam could help deal with them. She had her combat knife ready and he had his own dagger ready.
They traveled for over an hour before Sam called for a rest. Ranma picked her up and continued running for another two hours, before Sam spotted a hill that she directed them to.
Sam used her makeshift locator again. "West, I think. Let's walk. We are getting closer."
They continued their journey. It was night before she saw it.
"There!" she shouted. "There. That is Thor's symbol."
"Thor?" asked a confused Ranma.
"I'm sorry for not telling you much about my job or how I got here Ranma, but there are rules. This is good news. We may be getting home. Will you come with me?"
He smiled. "Always." Her cheeks pinked. They approached the obelisk.
She grabbed his right hand in her left. "She said, it would be better to touch the stone together, just to be safe."
They touched the ruby stone together and were suddenly transported to a room almost like the one on Cimmeria.
Sam said, "I can solve the puzzles. Just give me a minute. Oh and there may be a death defying thing. I doubt they will actually kill us, but be on your toes."
"Okay," said Ranma warily.
She quickly solved a similar puzzle and they resumed walking deeper into the Asgard structure.
Less than five minutes later spikes suddenly started to descend from the ceiling.
Ranma shot his arms out causing vacuum blades to form and slice through the spikes, which fell to the ground around them.
Sam moved towards him using the cleared path. He shot again and they jumped clear.
An image of an old Viking warrior stood before them speaking in a language they did not know.
Sam asked "Do you understand English? Is Thor there? We really could use his help. It's Sam. Sam Carter."
Thor appeared before them in full Roswell gray. "Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Sam Carter, from Earth."
The alien blinked.
"The Tauri. You know the place the Goa'uld left thousands of years ago?"
Thor said, "I know of Earth. The Goa'uld were exterminated by the Asgard thousands of years ago."
Thor seemed to peer into her. "You are not of this Universe."
The image turned to Ranma. "And neither are you. The two of you are not even from the same Universe. How is this possible?"
Sam said, "Well I was exploring P3A-469 when some native shot me with a poisoned arrow causing me to knock myself into whatever transported me here. I could draw you the Stargate symbols I guess."
"Do so."
"Do you have something to write with?" asked Sam. A stick of chalk materialized near Sam. She drew on the floor the symbols for the world she was on.
"That world had the technology you speak of."
"Had," Sam asked warily.
"We destroyed it. It was quite dangerous."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Is there any chance you can get us home?"
"Perhaps." Thor turned to Ranma. "What of you?"
"I don't know if you are going to believe me, but where I am from there are people with special abilities. They are rare, but some can do something that is called magic. Someone used a scroll, while someone else drew runes in blood. I got caught in it."
"In blood?" asked Carter.
"It wasn't a great memory," said Ranma.
"The Asgard are aware of such abilities. I also know what you did to get past the challenge room. I will need to retrieve both of your memories of these events. Will one week be sufficient? We are currently rather tied up."
"It isn't the replicators is it?" asked Carter.
Thor blinked. "Replicators? I am curious what that is. No, it is an annual audit of resources used. It is rather irritating."
"Ah," said Carter. "We probably don't have enough food for a week, or a bathroom here. We could return to our home."
"That is easily provided. Simply state what you need and the computer here will provide it, within reason. You are quite fortunate we left this outpost after the native population died out."
Sam said, "No kidding. Thanks Thor, and though you are I guess not the one we know, it is, nevertheless, good to see you again."
Thor blinked and his image faded.
-oOo-
Please consider Follow, Favoriting, and Reviewing.