They'd made it through. They were--somewhere. In some alternate universe.
Daniel wondered how they'd ever get back to their own universe, even if they managed to open the doors here. If they'd get the doors open, they wouldn't be able to activate the mirror again, because that would close the doors again. But even if they wouldn't be able to go home, at least they'd live on. Maybe in some universe completely alien to them, but they'd live. If they got the doors open, and found a way out of this Ancient space station.
Everyone else was slowly starting to move around him, Teal'c to his right and Sam to his left. It looked like everyone was all right. Even Max, though he was probably more than a bit embarrassed because of his desperate outburst in the previous room. But if it hadn't been for that, Galen might not have figured out that he could power up the Veraeda.
Daniel couldn't see Galen from where he was, so he backed away to get a wider view.
The techno-mage was lying on the floor, eyes open but eerily unmoving, like those of a dead body. Mitchell was checking him out.
"He's alive. Vitals seem stable. He's just totally out of it, completely unresponsive," Mitchell told them. "We knew that using the device would probably do something to him. I guess all we can do is keep an eye on him and hope he comes out of it sooner or later. In the mean time, Jackson, Eilerson, go and take a look at the walls. See if they're any better here. Wherever here might be."
Daniel gazed at the surrounding room. The size and shape of it were awfully familiar, but there were major differences. There were no tables. None at all. Nothing else in the room than the Veraeda on its pedestal, and then, a dark form on the floor behind it, near the wall. He walked over to take a closer look.
As soon as he got within a few steps, he realized what it was, and called to the others, "Guys, I think you need to see this."
It was a mummy, or a mummified corpse, to be exact. Oddly enough, the first image it called to his mind was not that of the Egyptian mummies so familiar to him, but that of the Linvris. The minor Goa'uld lords killed by Machello's devices. Coming through a stargate in his closet. Haunting him, until his friends had taken him for mad and put him in the mental ward. It had happened years ago, and it really wasn't something he wanted to think about right now. He pushed it away, and looked at this corpse more closely.
Actually, it didn't look anything like a Goa'uld. It clearly wasn't human. The parched skin still had patches of different greens and browns. Instead of a nose, it had a snout with a set of horns on it, and there were several more horns on its hairless head. It didn't have ears, only holes in their place. The hands had long, curved claws. It was wearing what looked like a space suit of some kind. As far as Daniel could see, there were no signs of any kind of injuries, nothing to tell how it had died. Maybe it had hit a nerve gas wall. Or something else they had been lucky enough to avoid so far.
"Daniel, stay away from it," Sam warned.
"I'm definitely not going to start poking at it."
"What is it, anyway?" Mitchell asked.
"It reminds me of the prehistoric beasts known as dinosaurs."
"Yes, Teal'c--that's what I thought as well... What if it really is that? If we're in a universe where dinosaurs never became extinct, and evolved into humanoid creatures of some sort, even developed space travel--maybe humans never came to be in this universe," Daniel thought aloud.
"Yeah, it's amazing, but it doesn't help us, unless we get out and actually have to face these things. Jackson, the walls. Please. Now," Mitchell said, his tone cold and commanding, different from anything he'd said to Daniel during the last few days. His face looked tense, with dark circles under the eyes, and stubble covering most of his chin. Really tired, with a bad headache, Daniel could guess. And anxious and worried of his team. Jack sometimes started snapping at people too in similar situations. It was perfectly understandable.
Daniel could just imagine what he looked like himself. Probably not much better than Mitchell. He ran his hand along his cheek. Coarse with long stubble. Just when he'd gotten rid of that beard a week or so ago. He was tired too, since he hadn't slept a whole lot during the last two days. His T-shirt was still full of tiny holes from the needles. What little help the aspirin had offered had worn out quickly, and the headache hadn't just returned, it had spread out--most of his body felt vaguely achy now, muscles and joints protesting every time he moved. And he felt a bit dizzy, but it mostly stayed away when he ignored it. He wondered if it had something to do with the trip through the Veraeda, or if it was just all about the inevitable dehydration.
He lifted his gaze from the humanoid dinosaur and looked at the wall behind it. It was carved with Maya hieroglyphs. He might not be able to translate it, but he was pretty certain he could figure out a dating. He went on, following the walls counter-clockwise.
In some other circumstances, Mitchell might've found the mummified dino interesting, but now, he thought it was far from it. When Teal'c and Carter had stayed near it, he'd returned to sit on the pedestal at the foot of the ice-device, keeping an eye on Galen.
He'd sat there for half an hour, when Galen suddenly came to and spoke up.
"Did it work?" he asked.
"Yeah, it worked. I can't be really sure we're in another universe, but at least we're in a room with different walls. Jackson and Eilerson haven't told if they can figure it out yet. How're you doing?"
"Fine, for now. If we must go through again, I can do it. I must do it, actually, since, as you may have noticed, the Veraeda in this room is now broken as well."
"Yeah, Sam took a look at it and said that the ZPM's melted, just like the last time you came through."
"It cannot be avoided, I'm afraid. I'm also afraid that if there is a next time, I'll be out longer. How much longer, I can't tell."
"What's it do to you anyway? Should we be worried?"
"I can take care of myself. If we come to a point where I can't, I'll ask for help. You see, my tech--the technology I use, that is--was not exactly built for this kind of use. It is... It is closely connected to my system. And it seems that when it meets this sort of unusual, unexpected stress, it comes through as a great physical strain on my body. I need time to recover from it."
Mitchell wondered what that really meant. "Closely connected" to his body. Combined with how he had said, or showed, earlier that it was in his hands and his head, Mitchell could only come to one conclusion. The technology was inside him. In his body. Implants of some sort, or cybernetic parts. Maybe he was a cyborg, or something like that. It would explain how he could connect to the mirror so easily.
"It's not like it's going to kill you, is it?"
"There will be a limit. Sooner or later, it will be too much. Not yet, though. I can take us through the device several times more. Of that I'm certain."
Carter and Teal'c returned from the corpse and sat down on the pedestal as well.
"Galen, I've been wondering," Carter started. "Daniel told me he'd read from one of the Ancient diaries that the Veraeda is thought-controlled. Did you control it? Did you tell it where to put us?"
"I did not control it. I was not the one using it, I was simply the power cell. The battery. Nothing more."
"Then who did? Who decided where we were going?" Mitchell was baffled. He'd thought Galen had been in control, and that he'd have at least a vague idea of where they were.
Galen looked mildly amused. "No one. We went right were it wanted to take us."
The second-last wall had caught Daniel's attention for a good while. It was another of those really annoying cases of "I've seen this before, but can't name it right now." And he was so certain that if he ever told that to Max, Max would instantly tell him what it was. Still, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with anything. The ever-present, slowly worsening aches and nausea didn't make it a whole lot easier.
Finally, he gave up. Max had probably already finished his round, and was waiting for him so they could compare what they had. Daniel looked at the last wall. Nothing like he'd ever seen before. Once again. It looked like a bunch of stars with different numbers of rays. They were drawn at the exact same intervals from each other both horizontally and vertically, so he couldn't even guess which way the script was supposed to be read.
"So?" Max's voice came directly from behind him.
Daniel turned around and shrugged. "I don't think it's any better than the first room. I can give accurate dates for two texts, a bit hazier for three, there's two I think I know but can't actually name or date. The rest don't say a thing to me."
Max crossed his arms and shook his head. "I recognize six of them, more or less, but I can't even date all of them. The other six I've never seen before. If we stay here, we'll have to keep guessing. Six or seven out of twelve is about the same than what we had last time."
It was depressing--that they had traveled to this alien universe just to find out that it was no better than their own. At least they could always try another one. Sooner or later, they'd probably come to a universe where they'd be able to figure out the walls. It'd just have to be sooner, because they wouldn't be able to go on all that long.
The linguists had no choice but to go and tell the others the bad news.
"So, we'll just go through again. As soon as possible. Galen?" Mitchell said as soon as they'd told him.
"We can go right away. Just gather around the device."
Daniel placed his hand on the uneven surface, waiting for it to come to life again.
Mitchell massaged his temples. If he could just get rid of this headache. Combined with the constant waiting, without anything useful to do, it made him extremely irritated. He kept snapping at people when he really didn't mean to.
"We have still not tried playing Truth or Dare, Colonel Mitchell. Perhaps that would help us pass time," Teal'c suggested.
Mitchell sighed and let his hands fall on his lap. They were sitting on the pedestal again, he, Carter and Teal'c, with Galen lying in a heap on the floor. It felt awful, watching him end up like that so they could travel through the device, but they didn't have much choice. Carter had closed Galen's eyes. That lifeless stare had felt way too scary in this grim place. He'd been out for over an hour already, and Jackson and Eilerson had spent all that time gazing at the walls and talking in low voices. No news from them yet.
The room was just like the previous one. No tables here, either. The only difference was that there were no dead dinos around. No sign that anyone had ever lived here. Nothing that'd reveal anything about the universe they were in. And nothing new to see, nothing even distantly interesting to do.
"Right... This really isn't the time and place I'd pick for that, T, but it's not like we've got anything better to do. Sam, you in?"
"As long as you don't dare me to kiss Max."
"So, who's starting?"
"I shall begin. Truth or dare, Colonel Mitchell?"
"Dare. Of course."
"In that case, I dare you to make up a song of our current situation, in the melodramatic opera style."
No matter how tired and thirsty he was, Mitchell laughed out loud at that.
Daniel jumped at the unexpected sound of laughter from where the rest of the team was waiting. He didn't see anything funny anywhere around. Instead, he was starting to get really depressed.
He felt awful, and this room was hopeless. He'd recognized one text as South Iberian script, something that really wasn't all that familiar to him. Now, after spending all too much time trying to figure out eight other walls without any success, he'd come across one that he knew all too well. It was the only one of the scripts of the four great races that he didn't know. The writing of the Furlings, that one race that remained a complete mystery to them. He had no idea when they had been around, or if they still were, so he couldn't even begin to guess the dating for this text.
He felt something flowing from his nose, and absently swiped it away with his finger. It was blood. Probably not a good sign. Dehydration gone so far that the nasal membranes were dried and cracking. He dug a tissue from his pocket and pinched his nose with it, hoping he could stop the flow before someone noticed. No need to get the others worried.
The last remaining walls were just as bad as the majority of them. No chance. None at all.
He hid the tissue in his fist and faced Max.
"It's no good. There's the Ancient text, like in the previous rooms, but from the others, I can only recognize two. That's three out of all the twelve walls. And out of those three, I can only date two."
"That's two more than what I have," Max said meekly.
"Surely you've got to know that one? Iberian script?"
"Right... I knew I'd seen that before, somewhere..."
They both chuckled, dryly and mirthlessly. It was turning out to be a bad joke between them. Seen it before, but can't name it.
They walked over to join the rest of the team by the Veraeda.
"Sam, Teal'c, Cam... Bad news again. I'm sorry," Daniel shook his head. "This is worse than the two rooms we've seen before."
"Galen still hasn't come around. We've got to wait a while longer," Mitchell answered.