Author's Note: Please don't bite my head off for the events in this chapter. This is the way I had it planned out, so this is the way I'm writing it.
Disclaimer: See previous chapters for disclaimers.
Cyber Stargate
Chapter 3: Arrival
Cold and light. Rushing through a tunnel with walls of blue-white light. Passing through an energy field shaped like an eye made out of stars. Translucent walls of energy, twisting and turning as bright spots- other Stargates- flashed past. Rushing toward a light. Being spit out.
The four members of SG-1 stumbled out of the Gate, covered in frost from being reassembled at the event horizon. Ignoring the cold, they spread out, scanning their surroundings.
The air was thinner than they were used to, but they adapted to it without any problems. It smelled of burned metal and something like gasoline. Strange constellations filled the alien sky. There was no sun, nor any hints of an approaching sunrise. Only the light of the distant stars lit the alien landscape. Three moons glowed with reflected light, nowhere near as bright as Earth's moon.
The Stargate stood on the edge of a ruined city. The half-melted remains of buildings cast long, dark shadows in the dim light. The cold metal stretched out in all directions, with no end in sight.
"Amazing," Sam commented, slowly turning to take in everything. "This world must be composed completely of non-organic materials and alloys."
"What?" Jack asked.
"The planet is made completely of metal, as far as I can tell," Sam translated.
"Ah. I knew that." The colonel turned to watch Daniel as the archaeologist made a beeline for the nearest ruin, then went after him. One thing that everyone agreed on was that Daniel attracted trouble, no matter where he went. Even if he wasn't looking for it, it was looking for him.
By the time Jack reached Daniel, the blond-haired man was already taking a close look at what turned out to be much larger up close than it had looked from a distance. The structure had been huge before it had been destroyed.
"Daniel?"
Daniel looked up. "Everything here is metallic. There's no sign of any of the traditional building materials, like wood or stone. And these structures were clearly meant for beings much larger than humans."
"How much larger?" Teal'c asked.
"See the doorway?" Daniel pointed. "It's about 25-30 feet high. The window openings are almost as high. Whoever they were, they were giants."
Sam poked her head inside the ruin. "Doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time. There's what looks like a communications console in here, so my guess is that they were a highly advanced race. Teal'c, do you know anything about why the Goa'uld are so afraid of this sector's inhabitants?"
"Tek'mateh Bra'tac once told me of creatures that flew small, agile craft, shot yellow and purple fire, and could pass right through a ha'tak's shields," the Jaffa replied slowly, searching his memory. "He himself did not see them, but he was told of them by older Jaffa. Goa'uld weapons were useless against them. The shots would only bounce off their hulls."
Jack whistled. Then he looked up at the ruins. "Doesn't look like anyone's home. Let's move on."
The team continued through the ruins.
"Sir," Sam called.
"What is it, Carter?"
"Have you noticed that the farther we go, the worse the damage becomes?"
The other three members of SG-1 looked around. Sam was right. The ruins were looking less and less like they'd been blown apart and more like they'd been melted. Around the Stargate, the ruined structures had been fairly intact, some with ceilings and three wall. Now they rarely had two walls, and none had ceilings. Ahead, the ruins barely poked up from the strangely contoured surface. Beyond them, barely visible in the distance, nothing was visible at all.
Teal'c paused to examine one wall. The nearer end was fine, but the far end was melted, and had cooled into what resembled the runny lava flows from the Hawaiian volcanoes. "O'Neill."
"Yes?"
"This was caused by the application of a massive amount of heat." Teal'c touched the melted edge. "And it was done very long ago."
"The question is, how long ago?"
Sam poked around the base of the wall, picking up a chunk of melted metal that had broken off from the rest. "I'll take this for dating." She slipped it into a sample container and put the container in her pack. Then they continued on.
They'd been walking for hours, unaware that they were being stealthily tracked through the ruins. They passed the last visible ruins and moved out onto a plain that looked like the same thing that had melted the wall had also melted it. Nervous, they gripped their weapons.
"Stop!" Sam yelled.
"Now what?" Jack demanded.
"Look."
A few meters ahead, the metal ground abruptly ended. Beyond it was a chasm so deep and wide that neither the bottom nor the far side could be seen. Carefully, they edged forward and peered over the lip.
The planet was definitely solid metal, and it had clearly been built outward from the center in layers, each layer built on top of the last. The layers were honeycombed with passages and tunnels, most of them nearly 60 feet high.
Something yapped behind them. They whirled.
Some distance behind them, just outside of the ruins, was an animal. Its hide gleamed, clearly more metal. Yellow optics blazed down the length of a pointed muzzle. Two pointy ears rose from its head. It moved on four legs. A thick tail stood erect behind it.
"What in god's name is that?" Jack demanded, raising his gun.
"It looks like a fox," Daniel commented, his eyes very wide behind his glasses.
The others took a long look at it. Daniel was right. The creature did vaguely resemble a fox, a fox made from an alien metal.
Whiskers made from some kind of wire twitched as the creature sniffed the air. It took a single step in their direction, then froze, optics glowing even brighter. It clearly scented something it didn't like, maybe another predator. Then it turned and darted away, vanishing into the ruins. SG-1 listened until they could no longer hear its paws hitting the ground.
Cree-e-e-e-e-e-e-eak.
Jack froze, then slowly turned around. He knew what that noise was. It was the creak of stressed metal, metal that might give way at any time. He turned, looking for the source.
Daniel had turned back to the chasm and was standing at the very edge, looking down into the abyss. Jack's heart began to beat faster. He and Daniel had been a couple for some time, and he hated it when his partner (hint hint) pulled a stupid stunt. But this had to be one of the dumbest ever.
"Danny? You'd better come back away from the edge. That sound was a very bad sign."
Daniel turned around, but he never got a chance to answer. Without any warning at all, the metal below him suddenly gave way, dropping with shocking suddenness into the abyss below. Daniel screamed in terror, reaching for the edge, but more of the metal gave way. There was nothing to grab onto. Jack lunged forward, but he was too late. He could only watch in horror as Daniel fell into the darkness below.
To be continued...
I repeat: do not bite my head off for this. At least wait for the next chapter before you start reading me the riot act, ok? Thank you. And here are the reviewer responses:
Gromia: Don't count on it. I have a way of surprising people with my writing. Just keep reading!
Christopher Greene: Yes it is and yes I do. But don't worry. I won't write anything too suggestive. I only write mild slash. The only high-rated story I have is Burning Skies, and it's rated for violence. Read it if you want to know how nasty this particular author can be when she puts her mind to it.
Fenestrae: You do? Good! Then you'll like this fic! There will be some dents, but I don't think there'll be anything major, at least not to the allied races. Pity the Goa'uld!
Worker72: Yes, the Transformers know about the humans. I'll give you a very short history.
Four million years ago, a Transformer spaceship carrying members of both factions, the peace-loving Autobots and the conquest-thirsty Decepticons, crashed on Earth. The ship got stuck in the side of a volcano. In 1984, the volcano erupted, restarting the ship's systems. The ship then repaired first the Decepticons, and then the Autobots. Less than two days later, the Decepticons attacked an oil rig, and the Autobots chased them off. The Autobot leader at the time, Optimus Prime, ended up saving the lives of two humans, Sparkplug Witwicky (not his real first name; I don't know what it is) and his son Spike. Sparkplug and Spike joined the Autobots as experts on planet Earth. Humans and Autobots have been working together ever since. This story takes place in around 2008-2009. In a nutshell, Optimus died in 2005, killed in battle. If you want to know how Ultra Rodimus came to power, I have a story called Transformation up that tells of Ultra Rodimus's history.
Send reviews! Then I'll post more chapters!