"You're a hunter, right?" Jack asked Ian about 15 minutes later. They were standing in the armory, looking at a huge assortment of weaponry – some Ian had never seen before.

"Yeah," Ian agreed, smoothing down the front of the uniform he was now wearing. "Mostly birds."

Desert wear; khaki BDUs – shirt and pants – boots, and web gear. An outfit identical to the ones Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were all wearing. Although now Teal'c wasn't wearing a hat and Ian for the first time saw that the big guy had the oddest… tattoo… he'd ever seen. He didn't stare, but he did wonder what it was, and why anyone would put something like that right in the middle of his forehead. Maybe it was a tribal thing – he wasn't completely sure where Teal'c was from, after all.

"Ever use a machine gun?"

Ian shook his head, wryly.

"Not a lot of call for a machine gun when hunting ducks, Jack."

Sam laughed, and Jack scowled at her – which fooled no one.

"How about a shotgun?" He asked the cadet.

"Sure."

Jack already knew he could handle a sidearm, so he handed Ian a holster with a .45 in it, while Teal'c pulled a shotgun from the rack of weapons in front of them and handed it to Ian once the cadet had strapped on the holster and tied the strap around his thigh to keep the weapon from bouncing when he moved.

"Thanks."

Ian watched as Teal'c picked up a long… thing… that looked like a weird big Q-tip only a different color and made of some kind of metal of some sort.

"What's that?"

"It is a staff weapon."

Like that told him anything.

"Can I see it?"

"Not just yet, Ian," Jack said, strapping his own holster on, and sliding his Beretta into position while Daniel and Sam did the same. "It's not something to check out indoors."

Ian nodded, and checked the load on his shotgun, then took a box of shells and loaded several shells into ammo loops on the web belt he was wearing. The gear wasn't all that different from what he wore while he was hunting, after all – just a different color. And he'd never worn a Kevlar vest hunting. Ducks rarely shot back, after all.

"We ready, Campers?" Jack asked a moment later, picking up his P-90.

He gave Daniel a quick once over – since the archeologist was wearing a sling, he was limited to just his Beretta, and although there wasn't supposed to be any threat where they were going, it was habit to make sure that his team was prepared for anything that might come.

"I'm good, Jack," Daniel told him, smiling.

O'Neill looked over at Sam, who was checking the action of her P-90, noted she was prepared as always, and looked over at Teal'c – who was always ready, and didn't need Jack to make sure he was set. (Although Jack did it anyways).

"Let's go, then."

They headed out of the armory and down the corridor, and Ian had to suppress a thrill of delight that was way too childish to allow to show. He didn't know what they were doing – although he suspected they were going to go through the wormhole – but he was definitely looking forward to it, and couldn't help but feel pretty cool surrounded by the group he was. They were bristling with weapons and the few (very few) people they met in the hall moved aside to allow them to pass with nods of greetings and no little respect or curiosity showing in their expressions.

The final obstacle was a solid metal door that Daniel reached first and opened with a pass card that he pulled out of his breast pocket. The door slid open, and Jack gestured for Ian to precede them into the room. Which he did.

It wasn't an incredibly large room – not as large as Ian had expected it to be – but it was definitely dominated by the round object at the top of the metal ramp. Ian took the rest of the room in at a glance, knowing that he'd remember everything in it if asked, and then walked over to stand at a yellow line at the bottom of the ramp, looking up at the thing that had to be the Stargate. Jack and the others came over to stand behind and beside him.

"Is that it?" He asked just to make sure.

"That's it." Jack confirmed.

He looked over at Jack for permission, and then walked up the ramp to get a better look. Since the gate wasn't dialing, it was safe, of course, and the others walked up with him.

"What are the symbols?" Ian asked, reaching out and touching the strange surface of the metal ring. It didn't look like any metal alloy he'd ever seen.

"They're constellations," Daniel answered, pointing out one, and Ian noticed that he could see Orion if he used his imagination a little. "They're what we use to figure out the addresses to the other Stargates."

"There are seven symbols in one gate address," Sam told him.

"Cool." He looked through the ring, and stuck his hand through it. "So we just walk through?"

Sam smiled, and shook her head.

"We haven't activated it yet. Are you ready?"

He nodded, looking up at the top of the ring, and waiting, and Jack took him by the vest he was wearing and pulled him back down the ramp with a grin.

"It's a bit safer if we wait for them to dial it from here," he said, stopping behind the yellow line once more. The Colonel looked over his shoulder and nodded, and Ian followed his gaze and saw a group of people standing at a window that was up and inset into the concrete wall. General Hammond was standing there, watching them, and the General's voice came over a speaker as Ian watched.

"I don't need to tell you that you're to obey Colonel O'Neill while you're with him, do I, Cadet Brooks?"

"No, Sir," Ian answered; correctly assuming that the speakers went both ways and Hammond would be able to hear him fine.

"Good. SG-1, you have a go…"

"Who's SG-1?" Ian asked Sam.

"That's us," she told him. "Well… us…" She pointed to the others. "You're just the VIP coming along with us."

The gate started dialing, drawing Ian's attention as the inner ring started turning, and a voice over the loudspeaker started saying something about chevrons locking. Then he said something about a seventh chevron engaging, and suddenly the whole Stargate flared, and what looked like a flood of water came swooshing out of it, right at them. Ian flinched back, wondering if something had gone wrong, but no one else had moved. He'd have been embarrassed if not for the fact that he was too fascinated with what he was seeing. The watery surface of the ring was moving, but it wasn't sliding out and onto the floor like it should have.

"Fuck me…" Ian whispered, amazed.

Jack snorted, and slapped the cadet on the shoulder hard enough to jerk his attention from the ring for just a moment.

"That's exactly what Sam said when she first saw it…"

"I did not."

Jack ignored her, and headed up the ramp, Jaffer moving easily beside him.

"Let's go, kids."

Ian walked up between Jack and Sam, but couldn't help but stop. They weren't surprised, though – they'd expected it – and they stopped as well, giving him a chance to look at it. He put his hand out, touching the watery surface, but his hand didn't get wet.

"This is the event horizon to the wormhole?" he asked, showing Sam that he had been paying attention when she'd explained the wormhole theory to him – and had remembered the term.

"Yes."

"Crazy…"

"Yup." Jack gave him a nudge. "Let's go. There's someone I want you to meet."

Ian took a deep breath – quietly so no one would notice – and stepped through.