Part 4
SAM
All I could think about was Jack. Where was he? Was he injured? Dead? The very idea made me physically ill. After the trials we'd been through in the previous year or two, I couldn't have faced a life without him. At least we seemed to have found an ally in the strange world the disks had brought us to.
Teal'c, with some help from Daniel, had been speaking for several hours with the woman, Tsula, and her native assistant, into whose home/place of business/classroom we'd literally fallen. From the periodic updates Daniel had given me, I couldn't tell if we'd gained any greater understanding of our situation. It seems she was speaking the language Jack and Teal'c had reluctantly learned during the months-long repeating day. For some reason, that thought tickled something in my brain as not being right, but my preoccupation with my missing fiancée kept me from following the thought through completely.
TEAL'C
ColonelCarter sat pensively keeping watch by the portal through which we had entered the sanctuary. DanielJackson brought her up to date on the conversation and relayed her questions to me as I spoke with our hostesses.
In our halting communication, Tsula told us that her people were no longer welcome on the portions of this world where the Sect of Belezok held sway. The man so ardently speaking in the square had been an adherent of that faction and had exhorted his followers to kill all non-believers, including us.
We inquired of Tsula if she had heard any news of O'Neill or Ivan, but she denied knowledge of any other person new to this world save the three of us. Her people had been evacuating this planet for some months; only 23 remained. These last were to leave on the final ship, scheduled to arrive a few days from then.
To satisfy her curiosity about ourselves, DanielJackson and I told her of Earth, of which she was unfamiliar. In return, she told us of her work on this world.
Later, ColonelCarter, DanielJackson and I sat together over a meal cobbled together from the contents of her pack and our vest pockets. Our hostess had left us some time ago to communicate with her leader. Her assistant, Gzzusa, watched us with barely veiled suspicion from the door to their private rooms. She had brusquely refused to join us, claiming to have just eaten.
"Teal'c, have you gotten any clues from Tsula about where we are?" ColonelCarter asked.
"No, ColonelCarter. She identified this world as Vesca, which is what the native people, those she refers to as 'the scaled ones', call it. There is a Stargate here, but it is under the control of the followers of Belezok, those who pursued us from the plaza. The Vescans know of the Stargate system, but the growing influence of the cult of Belezok has precluded its use. They believe it to be of demonic origin. While we appear to still be within our home galaxy, Tsula has never heard of Earth and the address was not familiar to her."
"Should it be? I mean, there are a few thousand 'gate addresses."
DanielJackson interjected, "Um, Sam, Tsula's an expert in Stargate technology. She's here on Vesca to teach the locals how it works." ColonelCarter's eyes lit with a passion I had seen there before at the possibility of learning more of the technology that had defined her life for at least the past 10 years. DanielJackson continued his explanation, speaking slowly, "Apparently, all of Tsula's people on Vesca are here to teach. That's what they do. Pass along their knowledge to other species. Sound like anyone we've heard of before, Sam?"
She gazed at him blankly for a few seconds, until she whispered, "The Ancients?" He merely nodded his agreement with her deduction. "H-how? They're all dead, millennia ago. Aren't they? Are we on an alternate Eden? Could the pucks be a form of quantum mirror? Does Tsula know what the pucks are?" The colonel paused to take a breath.
"Sam, Sam!" DanielJackson interjected to stop her flow of questions. "Tsula does research on off-shoots of 'gate technology for her people. This is just a sabbatical for her that they all take at least once. Sam, are you listening?" he asked emphatically as the point of his communication still evaded her.
"Yes, Daniel. What's your point?" She passed her hand through her hair, weary from lack of rest and her worry over O'Neill.
"To Tsula and her people, the Stargates are current technology, not something they found or inherited. Sam, these are the 'Builders of Roads'; the original Ancients." Exasperated at her continued dullness, he continued, "Sam, unless we've been transported to an alternate universe where the Ancients were never killed in the great plague – which I now very much doubt - we've been sent to the past - the very, very, very far past."
JACK
Ninovan, my friend from the village, had brought us to a small cabin several miles from the town. We had dashed from one hiding place to the next, clearly trying to avoid the Belezok fanatics that she seemed to fear. Thoughts of alternate realities and travel through black holes whirled in my stunned brain. The woman pulled a small device from the carryall she'd brought with her from the hut where we met and used it to open the gate in the fence surrounding the cabin. After we'd passed through the gateway, she closed it with a noticeable sigh of relief.
Turning to me, she started to say something when she gasped and uttered, "You… what are you?" I looked down at my arm and saw that it was flickering like a staticy video signal. Had I been about to disappear like Ivan? The thought felt like an icy hand gripping my heart.
"Ninovan, I'm a person, just like you, but I got here by accident. One minute I was walking along with my friends. The next I was falling from the sky along with Brutus." I pointed to the dog sitting by my feet. She frowned, as though thinking furiously, reminding me of Sam when she chewed on a particularly gnarly problem.
I interrupted her thoughts with, "One of my people disappeared this morning after he stepped on a flat, round device." I mimed the dimensions of the puck with my hands. "After I stepped on another device and found myself here, I discovered his body by a small villa in the hills. Within minutes, he disappeared again, but it was like he was dissolving this time."
Fear in her face, she asked urgently, "Do you have the device on which you stepped?"
"Uh, no. Sam… my wife-to-be, has it. She's a scientist." The last word was in English and brought a confused look to Ninovan's face. "She studies how things work - like the device. If anyone can figure it out, she can."
Her face now showing understanding, Ninovan said, "I may now know why you ?." She searched in her bag and pulled out a dark gray puck-shaped device similar to, but slightly smaller than, the one Ivan found – the hard way – and held it up. "Your device, was it like this?"
"Yes, I think so." Not that I'd had that close a look at it yesterday. The geeks in our group had scooped it up and packed it away for study later. "What is it?"
"It is a device my superior, Degataga, has created using his knowledge of the star portals."
Star portals? "The Stargate? Big round, metal ring. Takes people to other worlds?" The words tumbled rapidly from my mouth.
"Yes. Degataga is the most learned ? on the star portals. He was instrumental in the deployment of portals to many new worlds and has made much improvement in their function." Ninovan spoke proudly of his accomplishments. "He and his wife, Ama, are the architects of many worlds that may someday be sources of new members of our Confederation of Worlds." This statement confused me, but I let it pass for now.
"So, what does it do? How did it bring me here, and how do I get back?"
"Come, let us go to Vescada City. My ? is there, waiting for my return with these," she held up the bag. "Degataga was forced to leave his place of private study too quickly and left them behind. The old ? would not leave Vesca without them." I detected a hint of frustration at his stubbornness and squashed a grin. "I fear you will not get home without one, either." I no longer felt like smiling.
Ninovan opened the door to the hut and waved me in. I saw what looked like pallets piled against the far wall and a stone fireplace similar to the one I'd seen in what I guessed had been Degataga's villa.
"We will spend tonight in this place and proceed to the transport cradle as quickly as we may," she instructed while pulling two pallets from the pile and placing them in front of the fireplace. Over a meal made from her supplies and mine, we talked of her work and the colony of Ancients that had been on Vesca until driven out by the followers of Belezok. The planets she'd been to with Degataga and his party of scientists. I told her of Earth, SG-1, my upcoming marriage to Sam and the fight against the Goa'uld. It was like a sleepover.
Later, I sat in front of the fire, staring at, but not really seeing, the flames. My mind kept wandering back to Sam and the rest of my people. Where is she? Has she been caught up by this thing too? Will she be able to rescue me, yet again? Where the hell am I?
DANIEL
My words finally sank in and Sam slouched on her stool. "How long?"
"Based on the studies of the 'gate you and Jack found in Antarctica, and the woman discovered there this year, I would say three-million years, perhaps more." She gazed at me with eyes huge in a pale face.
"And, Jack could be lost at any time within that period." Sam closed her lids over tear-filled eyes and she visibly struggled to maintain her fragile grip on control.
"Yeah," I replied grimly. "On Earth, Australopithecus is at its peak; in another million years or so Homo erectus will replace the off shoots of Australopithecus." I knew I was rambling, but it helped me focus.
"When will Tsula be back?" she asked quietly.
"Uh, she implied that it may be tomorrow morning. Perhaps we should get some sleep, Sam."
She pulled herself together again after yet another blow and said softly, "Good idea. Teal'c will you please ask Gzzusa where we can sleep?" While he spoke quietly with the young native, Sam gathered her pack and vest.
"We may use the storage room behind Tsula's quarters. It has sufficient space for all three of us and is secure." Gzzusa led a tired trio of humans to the storeroom and we prepared for some much-needed rest. Sam glanced at Teal'c as he crouched down by the door to begin his watch.
"Teal'c, let me look at your wrist."
"It is doing well, ColonelCarter. You do not need to be concerned."
"Teal'c, let me look at your wrist, please," she repeated. Confused by her insistence, I studied the Jaffa until I saw what had alerted her to his difficulty. He cradled the injured arm without seeming to and it appeared swollen.
"Teal'c, shouldn't your symbiote have healed your wrist by now?" I asked.
"Indeed it should. However, my new symbiote does not appear to be as efficient as my previous prim'ta. It will be much better by tomorrow." Despite his protests, Sam was removing the splint. I gasped at the extent of the swelling and bruising. He paled as the splint no longer provided the support that his injured wrist needed so badly.
"When did you get a new symbiote, Teal'c?" I asked.
"Just before leaving The Land of Light for Eden. I gave my previous symbiote to Drey'ac whose prim'ta had matured fully and had to be removed."
Suspicious, I asked, "Where did you get a new symbiote? I was under the impression none were available." His jaw clenched with pain as Sam re-wrapped the splint to his wrist. "Teal'c?" I pressed.
"P3X-888."
"The original home of the Goa'uld?" He nodded silently. "How do you know that one of the primitive Goa'uld will work in the symbiotic relationship you require? You don't know, do you?" I accused.
"I do not." Unable to speak, Sam and I gaped at our friend. Could that day have gotten any worse?
TEAL'C
Despite my wish to shield my companions against the results of my folly, ColonelCarter's vigilance revealed that my injury was not healing as well as it should. While I had not experienced any other failure of my health, the primordial Goa'uld was either unable or unwilling to heal my broken bone.
"Is there anything we can do to encourage or help your symbiote heal your wrist?" DanielJackson asked, his face a portrait of concern.
"I am unaware of any such method."
"Do you know if it will serve as your immune system? I mean, even if it won't heal your wrist as fast as a real Goa'uld would, will it keep you from getting sick like you did when you gave your symbiote to Rya'c?"
"I do not know, DanielJackson. I suspect I am the first Jaffa to ever attempt to use a primitive Goa'uld in such a way."
SAM
Just what I need! A sick Jaffa with his snake on strike, I thought sourly. I shook my head and spread my sleeping bag over a trio of crates. I'd shared my resources with the guys, but they'd insisted I keep the bag. No sooner had I put my head down than I heard Teal'c gently telling me it was time to get up for my turn on watch. At least that's that way it felt.
Teal'c crawled into the warm bag as soon as I stepped away and was apparently sleep as soon as his eyes closed. I knelt to check his forehead for a fever and was relieved to feel its normal temperature.
I settled on my haunches by the storeroom's flimsy wooden door, my side arm cradled in my hands and thought back over the past 36 hours. The man I loved most in the universe is missing. Two of my best friends and I are lost ourselves – possibly so far in the past that it boggles the mind, even of a theoretical astrophysicist. One of those friends has exchanged the parasite that keeps him alive for an archaic version that may not be able to heal his arm and serve as his immune system. To top it off, the reason he'd risked his own life – and possibly ours – was to save the life of his wife who had lain near death.
Compulsively twisting the diamond ring Jack gave me when I agreed to marry him, I wondered, where is that little cottage with the white picket fence and 2.3 children Jack and I are supposed to have? Do I really want that or am I merely burnt out on constant disasters and life or death situations? My desire for Jack isn't in question, but the rest? I certainly don't know.
Unconscious of its significance, I watched the blue-white central diamond sparkle with each turn. Finally, it dawned on me that the room had been dark until just a few moments ago. I looked up and noticed a small window high in the wall. Climbing quietly over the sleeping men, I stood before the opening with my arms folded on the sill, my chin on my arms. The view was of a narrow, foul smelling alley. A glow drew my eyes upward from the squalor toward a slender slice of night sky.
The small moon, in its fullest phase, showed me a face I recognized. It was the moon Jack and I had gazed at on many a romantic moonlight walk on Eden. I wondered what moon was in his sky right then.
JACK
We left the hut very early the next morning and walked for three or four hours through moonlit fields, detouring whenever possible into whatever cover was available. Ninovan led me on an indirect route around another walled village. She pointed out signs that the cult of Belezok was here already, making it unfriendly territory for us.
Finally, near mid-morning we approached another fence, although this time it surrounded a gazebo-like structure. As before, Ninovan opened the lock with her "key" and we gratefully closed the gate behind us.
She stepped up to a miniature version of a DHD, as tall as the average, but with a much smaller top. It stood in front of what looked like a cross between a Stargate on its side and a Tilt-a-Whirl car. I paid close attention to the address she entered – just in case. We stepped onto the car and sat on the cold metal bench inside. The DHD-like device shimmered for a second, then settled down.
As soon as the world was stable again, my companion stood and gestured for me to follow her through the exit. It was a twin to the one she'd unlocked just moments and who know how far ago. Ninovan watched as Brutus and I flickered again, this time for almost a minute.
I saw alarm in her eyes again. "The ? is progressing much faster. We must get to Degataga as soon as we can or you may be lost forever." She grabbed my arm and we hustled through several narrow and filthy alleys, all of which emitted an odor thick enough to swim through, if anyone really wanted to. We stopped at each turn to scope out the next smelly thoroughfare. After almost two hours of this type of skulking, we stepped up to a stout wooden door covered with brass studs and Ninovan scratched furtively on the panel.
It was jerked open violently by a young native woman who said something in a language that sounded suspiciously like what the man in the village yelled at me. My guide spoke back urgently in the same tongue and we hurried inside.
DANIEL
Tsula rejoined us late the next morning as we were repacking our meager belongings. Having a pack full of artifacts was less than useful in our current circumstances. I had been entertaining myself laying them out on the table in Tsula's classroom.
"What do you with these stones, Daniel?" our hostess asked after hanging her cape on a hook by the door. She sat on a stool across the table and stared at my "puzzle."
"Um, I'm trying to figure out the pattern that was originally on these stones."
"For what purpose?" Tsula moved a stone into a spot I'd been unable to fill.
"They came from a very old building near where our friends disappeared. I hope that if I can put the picture back together, I might find some clue as to where it came from and maybe find our lost friends."
She frowned at the picture that was taking place, trying to make sense from a collection of stones that had been buried for millions of years before being uncovered in our time.
"Can you make out the pattern?" I asked, intrigued by her expression.
"It seems … familiar, somehow, as though I've seen its like somewhere before..." She continued to look for a few seconds and then seemed to push the mystery out of her mind. "I have news of one of your friends."
SAM
When Teal'c and I walked into the main room carrying my pack, I found that Tsula had returned with word that one of her people had brought in a stranger this morning needing help. As soon as she said she was willing to take us to him, relief rushed over me like a wave, causing a momentary feeling of weakness, almost nausea.
"Which of our friends was it? Did she know his name?" I asked, nervously.
"No, his name was not given to Tsula," Teal'c translated for me.
Despite feeling as if I was betraying Ivan, I prayed for the refugee to be Jack. I barely remember the hurried trip through the odorous, trash-strewn alleys and side streets. Those people really needed to get a clue about sanitation.
As we made our way through the town, the natives cast hate-filled glances in our direction and I longed for my P-90. Fortunately, they never made any hostile moves and, after some hours of stealthy travel, we reached our destination. Another massive door, so common in the architecture of Vescada City, faced us as we waited anxiously on the wrong side of the door. After what seemed an age, an irritated native woman, this one dressed in robes much finer than those Tsula's assistant wore, answered Tsula's repeated soft scratches. Daniel translated for me as they spoke.
"What do you here again so soon, Tsula? Has my husband summoned you? And who are these, more refugees late come to the emigration?" She pointed to us rather rudely, her arrogance causing a stiffening of Tsula's spine.
"Mistress Ama, I bring the companions of the man Ninovan delivered to you. They are here to rescue him themselves," she said as humbly as gritting teeth would allow.
"Well, I suppose you must bring them in then. Do not dally, girl." Ama turned abruptly and her exotic perfume wafted toward us in an expensive cloud. She stalked away, only to spin on her heel to face us as we stood in the packing crate-filled entry hall. Many of the boxes lay closed but many more were open, pale wiry packing materials hanging from the open tops.
"And now, I suppose you wish me to interrupt my work further to take you to him." At Tsula's nod, Ama sniffed and spun again to lead us further down the long hall, toward a door at the very end.
She imperiously flung the door curtain open and threw over her shoulder softly, "My mate will not appreciate your disturbing his concentration while he works on such intricate matters. Make no noise until he recognizes you."
We entered the room, obviously a laboratory, and stood quietly by the doorway while Tsula pulled the curtain over the opening gently. She motioned for us to remain silent while she moved into the field of vision of the man and woman intently working on something hidden from us by their bodies. She waited patiently for one of them to recognize her while we shuffled impatiently by the door. We waited for what seemed hours until Teal'c's patience was apparently at an end and he stepped up behind the man. Tapping him on the shoulder elicited a violent start on his part and the pieces of equipment in his hand crashed to the table.
"Ohhh, my dear, how many times have I asked you not to startle me like that. I could have broken this device beyond repair anywhere on this benighted planet of yours," the white haired scientist exclaimed in his cranky, tenor voice. Carefully placing the remaining parts on the table, he turned to Teal'c and gasped in shock at seeing a stranger. "Oh my, you're not my wife."
"Indeed, I am not. You hold a friend of ours. May we see him?" Teal'c responded with his usual self-possession and assertiveness.
The unknown woman stepped forward and bowed slightly, giving us the most cordial greeting we'd encountered since arriving. "I am Ninovan. I found your friend. You must follow me quickly if you wish to see him. There isn't much time left." As Daniel translated for me, I felt my heart sink into my boots.
Continued in Part 5