A/N: Sorry for the long delay. I was waiting for my semi-co-author and she never came back. So I am removing her character from the story. After such a long time I have a better idea of this fic and it will be much better than what I had first planned. I hope to keep up with my writing this time. I won't leave such large gaps of time between my postings. I'll try not to at least wink
Briefing Room…
"Sir, we have tried everything. We can't shut down the gate." Sam informed the General.
"What about cutting main power?" Jack asked. "It's always worked before."
"Except with the black hole, or any other instance where the gate drew power from another source." Genevieve pointed out.
She caught a look from Jack and simply smiled.
Sam felt another argument coming on. "In any case, that was going to be my next suggestion."
"So lets do it." Jack stood up.
"Just a moment Colonel. Do we even know where the gate is connected to in the first place?" General Hammond motioned for him to sit back down.
"No sir. It doesn't match any star map we have so far. Technically, it doesn't even have an address." Sam answered.
"Well then how was a wormhole established? There is obviously a gate on the other side." Daniel asked.
"I don't know. But we have two other teams out right now and are due back within the hour. We have to get the gate closed." Sam reminded him.
"Very well then, cut main power. If it doesn't work, I'll contact…." The General was cut off.
"The Russians." Jack groaned, dropping his head to the table.
Teal'c and Jack went to cut the main power to the gate while the others were in the control room.
"Sam, can you get the M.A.L.P. to take a quick look around while we wait." Genevieve asked. "The least we can do is find out a little more about this place."
The M.A.L.P. panned around to the right and zoomed in on a few places of interest.
"We're ready down here." Came Jack's voice.
"So are we Colonel." Sam responded.
A moment later, the lights went out and everything shut off…. except the gate.
"Did it work?" Jack asked.
"No sir, the gate is still active."
"Damn it. Now what?"
"You and Teal'c get back up here. We'll have to figure something out." The General told him.
Although they couldn't figure out how to get the gate closed, Genevieve took the opportunity to take the M.A.L.P. on a little tour of the surrounding area. Daniel joined for a bit, being a little curious about the place as well.
"Found anything yet?" He asked taking a seat.
"Not really." Genevieve said leaning back in her chair. "Just trees, trees and more trees. Oh, and grass."
She was only half listening though. She was still trying to get the M.A.L.P. to move closer to the tree line.
"Damn… piece… of… mechanized cra..." She grumbled just as Daniel cut off that last word.
"Something wrong?"
"It won't move any closer. I can't get it to move farther than 10 meters from the gate in any direction. After that, it just stops as if there was an invisible wall." She complained.
Just as she spoke, the gate shut off. Just like that, it shut itself off.
"Did you do that?" Daniel asked.
"Nope."
Mirkwood….
The symbiotes from the two jaffa had now had complete control of their new hosts. Normally they would have declared themselves Gods in their own right, but these two were loyal to their master and remained his servants. They kept the hosts names so as not to raise suspicion and blow their cover, at least for the time being.
They watched the gate, expecting someone to come through, but no one did. Instead, a machine exited the gate, one that they recognized as a probe from earth. They watched the probe and the gate intently. Nothing else came through the gate, although it did stay open. They remained hidden within the cover of the trees so as not to be seen.
They watched as the probe moved around the gate, but never too far from it. In fact, it looked as though it couldn't. One of the jaffa moved from behind the tree to get a better look when the gate suddenly closed.
"We can not stay here."
"Where do you suggest we go?" The other jaffa said.
He searched the memories of his host and recalled the way back to where the three of their hosts had come from.
Just then, their master had regained consciousness.
"We will go to the palace and see if we can find this Prince Legolas." He said standing.
"Are you well enough my Lord?"
"Yes… Tinion. You should get used to using your hosts names."
"Very well, Lord Faroth."
"No, just Faroth." He corrected him.
"I am," The other jaffa started, searching his host's memories. "Legandir."
"Very well, now that we know, we should be on our way. I believe our hosts were heading for the palace anyway." Faroth stated as they started in the right direction.
"My Lord, what of the human probe?" Legandir motioned.
"Leave it. They saw nothing anyway."
"And if they did?" Legandir asked again.
"They will not know who we are."
Back at the SGC…
Gen was with Daniel in his office looking over the tape. Gen would have done so elsewhere but she wanted to be somewhere where she could have some quiet.
She went over the tape a dozen times trying to find something to indicate what was going on.
"If you haven't found anything yet you're not going to at all." Daniel finally spoke up.
"Would you give up if this was one of your projects?" She asked still staring at the paused screen.
"No." He smiled.
He looked over at the screen and noticed something.
"What's that?" He asked pointing to the tree line.
"What's what?"
"That."
Gen looked closer at the image and saw what he was pointing to. It looked like a figure looking out from behind one of the trees.
"Is that..?" He started.
"I think it is. I'll see if I can enlarge the image."
Gen zoomed in as much as she could without distorting the image.
"Well I'll be damned. There is someone there, and they saw the M.A.L.P." Gen turned to Daniel.
She looked back at the image, and it was pretty clear considering the zoom. She was able to make out their clothing and one very different feature from the normal humans they've come across. Daniel noticed her expression and was about to ask when they were called to the briefing room. He'd ask her later.
Briefing Room…
"Alright, what have you got?" The general asked.
"I still have no idea why the gate did what it did." Sam started. "As far as my instruments are concerned, everything was totally normal."
"Well, obviously everything wasn't normal." Jack chimed in.
"Um, I think I found something while I was going over the tapes from the M.A.L.P." Gen put in.
She went over to the VCR and popped in the tape. It played to the point where it showed two people looking from behind one of the trees. She paused it and showed the zoomed in frame.
"Someone saw the M.A.L.P. and from the looks of it, they ran away or where about to when the gate closed." She finished.
She still had that concerned look on her face and Jack noticed it this time.
"So what? A lot of people run away when they see that thing."
"Well, that wasn't really my point. My point was the people." Gen pointed to the zoomed image. "Do they look off to you, or maybe even familiar?"
The looks from around the table suggested that they were all thinking the same thing.
"Ok, so any world we go to would have different clothing and what not. But I recognize the style, and the… ears are… strange as well." She hesitated a bit not sure if it was a good idea to say what she thought in case they thought she was insane.
Sam leaned in closer to take a look and noticed the pointed ears.
"I've seen other cultures do strange things to their bodies before. This could be one of them." She offered. She played the tape zoomed in and at the end when the gate shut off she noticed something Gen missed. "Um, did you see that?"
"See what?" Jack asked looking back at the tape.
Sam rewound it and played it again. "Watch his eyes."
The was a short pause before Gen let out an "Oh crap."
She had quite an imagination and she was getting ahead of herself. But factoring in all the odd things that had just happened, it made sense to her, and the outcome was worse than the system lords taking over the galaxy.
"Care to explain?" The general prompted.