Field Test One

Tyr, Teal'c, Carter, and Harper materialized smoothly on the surface of Arzawa III and each drew in a lungful of the frigid air. Teal'c and Tyr, neither wanting to show weakness, began scanning the area for movement as though they were in comfortable surroundings. Carter shook her head, looked up to see if it was snowing, then gritted her teeth and started searching for Replicators.

Harper said, "I just remembered. We didn't test the Shorinol bullets at temperatures quite this low. Heh heh."

Teal'c turned to look, his mouth drawn down in maximum scowl. "Will not the passage of the bullet through the rifle barrel heat up the liquid?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah it should heat it up enough. Yeah." said Harper, with a tone of uncertainty. "I guess we'll find out when we shoot our first Replicator."

Carter reached into her pocket, pulled out a small rounded object, and spoke into it. "Carter to Thor, do you see us?"

"I have your location," responded Thor. "There is a group of Replicators moving toward you, approximately seven hundred yards away at a bearing of one three five."

The team, as one unit, raised their left arms to look at their wrist mounted compasses, then turned toward the southeast.

Harper raised a pair of binoculars. "Oh yeah, here they come all right. Ugh."

Even when well-rested and in excellent physical condition, a person's eyes can play tricks on him. While scanning the horizon upon arrival, Harper had noticed the slight heat shimmer to the southwest. But there's no heat shimmer when it's freezing! thought Harper. The story became clear through the magnification of the binoculars. Thousands upon thousands of Replicators approached, clattering and tumbling across the uneven terrain. The small boulders and scattered clumps of wiry grass were making the journey difficult, but they continued with the dogged determination that only machines can display.

The team began to hear the roar of an ocean crashing against a rocky beach. It ebbed and surged, but grew ever louder. And finally it grew loud enough for them to recognize what it really was - the sound of thousands of metallic Replicator feet clicking against rocks and frozen tundra. Carter shivered imperceptibly and Harper put what he hoped was a brave smile on his face.

"You hear that?" asked Carter, frowning slightly.

"What?" responded Harper. "That buzzing sound?"

"Yeah," said Carter. "Kind of a buzzing whine, like a... umm... like a..."

"Mosquito." answered Teal'c.

"Right!" said Carter. "Like a mosqui...WHOA!"

Carter spun around and hit the ground as the attacking Replicator flew past and turned for another run. One razor-sharp wing had grazed Carter's face, and a thin line of blood filled the shallow wound. Carter jumped to her feet and spun around to face the returning flyer. Her gauss rifle locked into position and she fired a short burst on full automatic, hitting the Replicator dead center. The flying insect-bot disintegrated into a shower of individual metal chips. The team watched the chips with interest as they hit the ground and then began spinning and tumbling among the grass and dirt clods, drawing together again, trying to form the flyer. But something was wrong, because the chips could move close to each other, but could not lock into place and combine into a larger unit. They watched as each chip rotated and revolved, trying to match all six of its surfaces to all six surfaces of every other chip in the pile.

"That's like the biggest orgy I ever saw," marveled Harper. "Those guys are gonna be there all night!"

Carter sneered at Harper and pulled out the communicator again. "Carter to Thor. We've got flying Replicators down here. You'd better watch out. If a few of those could get aboard your ship, they could cause problems."

"Do not worry, Major Carter," came the voice of Thor. "This ship is well protected."

The clouds parted and the massive form of the Samantha Carter emerged, protective shields glowing brightly. Harper raised his binoculars toward it and whistled softly.

"Wow, it's a good thing he put those shields up when he did," said Harper. "Those flying Replicators are all over him."

Now that the other three team members had their attention directed toward the ship, they could see tiny sparks across various parts of the shield as Replicators threw themselves against it again and again. Suddenly a fan-shaped beam of... something insubstantial stabbed out, and the shield's sparking abruptly ceased.

"I wish he'd shine that thing down here," wished Tyr, turning to the southwest again. "We could use it right about now."

The other three turned to look. The Replicators were almost upon them. And the entire planet in the direction they were gazing was a moving sea of Replicators, right out to the horizon. These things breed faster than rabbits, thought Carter. And they're probably coming after us because they sense the electrical activity of our heated clothing.

"Carter to Thor!" she said. "We could use a little help down here!"

"Understood," responded Thor. The beam slashed down from the Asgard ship and struck the ground between the Replicators and the team members, then slashed back toward the southwest. It cut a swath about half a mile wide. And it had absolutely no effect.

"Not working, Thor!" shouted Carter, dropping the communicator back into her pocket, raising her gauss rifle, and pressing the firing stud.

Inside the rifle, a solenoid plunger snapped against the back of the bullet, propelling it into the gun barrel. A timer discharged a capacitor into a powerful electromagnetic coil, drawing the bullet farther down the barrel and speeding it up. As the bullet approached the first coil, the coil's magnetic field snapped off and the next coil energized. Apart from the quiet snap of the solenoid, the process was soundless until the bullet left the barrel at a speed of greater than Mach One. The capacitors recharged, the next bullet was racked into the firing chamber, and the process began again.

As the first bullet struck the Replicator, its outer shell ruptured, covering the Replicator with liquid Shorinol, steaming in the frigid air. As the second bullet slammed into the little insect-bot, the shock fractured the Replicator into its component pieces. The chips began their dance of reconnection and the next Replicator became the target.

At first it looked as though the Replicators were no match for the team's gauss rifles. Shorinol splashed everywhere, wetting subsequent Replicators. As the pile of rotating, revolving individual chips grew, the Replicators that were forced to climb over it seemed to become confused at all the activity for a second, which bought time for the rifle-wielding team. But the team was forced to change magazines in the gauss rifles when the bullets ran out, and that took some time. And there were simply too many attacking Replicators for the team to destroy. They were forced to take a step back to avoid being overrun, then another step, and another.

Teal'c glanced to his left. "We are being encircled!" he shouted.

It was true. There were so many Replicators, spread out so far to the sides that they were beginning to approach from the left and right as well as ahead.

"We have to run!" shouted Carter, still firing.

Each of them glanced quickly at the others, and then they turned as a single unit and began to run away from the Replicators. After running a few paces, Carter stopped, turned, and emptied her guass rifle's magazine at the approaching Replicators. When the last bullet left the barrel, she turned and began running again, inserting a fresh magazine as she ran. She passed Teal'c, who had also stopped running. After she passed him, he also began to fire at the Replicators, delaying their advance while the rest of the team lengthened their lead.

Carter once again withdrew her communicator from her pocket. "Carter to Thor, get us out of here!"

The Asgard ship had dropped closer to the planet's surface. Instead of transporting the team to safety, Thor activated the weapon. The beam stabbed out and sliced into the leading edge of the attacking Replicators. Instantly they fell apart into piles of unmoving, non-rotating and -revolving chips. The beam slashed back and forth, destroying hundreds of Replicators at a time. As the sound of pursuing Replicators began to fade, the escaping team stopped and turned to watch.

"Carter to Thor!" she shouted excitedly. "It's working! You're killing all the Replicators!"

"This is gratifying information," responded Thor. "Do you still require rescue?"

"We'll stay for a little longer to observe the process," said Carter.

"Apparently something in the atmosphere was diffusing the beam," said Thor. "It should have been effective at a much greater dis..."

The beam snapped off. The Samantha Carter swung around and sped away.

"Thor?" said Carter. "Thor! What's happening?"

"I must leave," responded Thor. "I will return for you shortly."

The Asgard ship ascended through the clouds and was gone.

In the distance, a roaring ocean crashed against a rocky beach. And the sound was getting louder.