Beyond the Gate
Chapter 1: Tanith
Unknown Planet
Unknown time {presumably past dark}
"Ow..."
I'd gone on benders before. But nothing like this.
My head felt as if someone was using both mallets of a bass drum between my ears. Every single muscle in my body ached. Even the muscles in my eyelids hurt. Speaking of which...
I opened my eyes and blinked. And then I blinked again. Pitch black met me. And yet it was not exactly pitch black. Disorentied I felt that I was in a large room. I raised my left hand and snapped my fingers. They echoed slightly and told me that I was in a large narrow room.
Getting to my feet I started spinning in place. In the darkness I instantly got vertigo, since I did not have a stable vantage point. I was unable to locate where the source of light was originating.
If there was one
There had to be a source for the light, I could see vague pale shapes in the darkness around me. It felt similar to one of those old egyptian exhibits in a museum back on Earth
Finally I couldnt stand the silence anymore. "Hello ? Cam ? Daniel ?" I called out. "Anyone in here ?"
Echos came back "'er – 'ere - ' ere"
I snarled, agitiated, "Oh well that is just fuckin' great, I havent been this left in the dark since I fell asleep in that archaeology dig in Giza and they thought I was back at camp and took the torches with them!"
I reached to pat at my pockets, where was my radio ? I figured I could use it to call for help, but... My hand encountered fur. Wherver I touched on my body, there was nothing but soft silky fur. Even the backs of my hands! I could feel the downy stuff. I looked down at myself. And I couldnt help but laugh.
"OK I know I said I was a cat lover, but this is crazy. Stick me in a cat suit why dont you." I said tersely. "Hey Cameron ? Dr Jackson ? Captain Caberra ? Where the hell is everyone ?" I asked as I got no reply
"OK Tanith, think girl, just try and think a moment. What was the last thing you remember happening before waking up... whereever here is ?" I asked myself. I smiled as I remembered the joke Cameron spoke about. It cracked Daniel up but it didnt make me any less nervous of the sudden storm clouds over head at the time. "That's right I remember" I mumbled with a stiff nod. "There was a storm when Danny was laughing"
I sighed and sat against a pillar that I was able to feel in the dark. "Alright, if that storm was the last thing I remember hearing, why am I naked and dressed in a cat suit ? Where the fuck am I anyhow ?"
I do not remember how long I sat naked in that stone and chilly room, but my stomach growled, and I clawed myself to my feet. The darkness was easier to see in, and there was a door not far away, and it looked to be sealed.
I knew that if I could get outside, I could try and figure out where I was. So I started digging. I could feel the fingernails, now claws, on my hands gripping rock and pulling hard as I could, stones came loose over time and soon, with my stomach rumbling and me feeling weak enough to want to eat whatever I came across. I finally saw the outside light.
I stepped into the predawn light. And after catching my breath and standing upright, I stared.
That was not the Iota starline.
"Where the fuck am I ?"
Dawn soon came, and I knew I had supplies back inside the tomb, it had to be a tomb, now that I had light streaming through the door it allowed me the chance to see better of what was inside.
There was six tables, all of them made of stone, only two of the tables had at least one chair, the others had benches. Five of the six tables had a body wrapped tight in cloth. Just by looking at them I could tell easily that one of them, the nearest one to me that I somehow felt drawn to, was female, like myself. Normally the dead freaked me out, I had almost refused to go to the city morgue in Denver when my cousin had been killed in a car accident.
My nose told me these stiffs werent going anywhere for a long time. They were dead, bone dry, wrapped in tight blankets. "Six mummies, just my luck." I mumbled, I found a few items wrapped it seemed in tight leather or sued. I picked up the item, it felt like a book of some kind.
Great so this mummy kept a journal ? I wondered, or did it belong to someone else ? Whose mummy was this anyhow ? The journal I had found was nearer to one of the male looking mummies, I myself was a woman to begin with, now... "OK fine furball, you're a cat lover, in a cat suit, and you just found five bodies" I told myself, "If any of them so much as sneeze I am so out of here"
I took the book to the door and cracked it open, I couldnt read it at first before it was safely translated, at least it took me a moment to figure out the words. But once I had figured them out I was able to read that the owner of the journal, a guy named Tarfur, had been laid there.
I had a brother ?
I found myself crying over the man who wrote the journal, why am I crying ? Why ? What was so important about that man... cat thing ?
I slammed the journal shut. I couldnt stand it. I took a deep breath, then slowly let it out, then took another breath, and sighed. "Alright Tanith, think" I told myself aloud, "this Tarfur guy is long dead, you woke up between him and another mummy. So there might be more coming."
I then had to smirk, "You are also hungry you idiot, so lets get some chow. Somehow" I said as my stomach rumbled again. There had to be meat somewhere. There was fish nearby, I could smell it, I could hear through the doorframe to the outside that there was a stream nearby. Hence the scent of fish.
I could also smell deer, if that was what I was smelling.
Either way I had my next meal, the menu was an open choice and the deer was the most recommended item on it. With a seasoning of rabbit maybe ? I set the journal aside and stood up. "I guess I'll head for the stream, maybe find a mirror."
I followed my nose to the nearby stream, which was more of a narrow river. And managed to see myself, my face, in the reflection of the water surface.
"I'm a cat ?" I asked myself. This was impossible! A lightning bolt like that ?! How the hell was I still alive ?! "I am supposed to be dead!" I stumbled back, landing on my butt and scrambling from the water edge in shock. This was impossible. The storm had to have caused something, "Maybe I got hit by lightning, and I'm dead, now awake in some sort of hell ?" I asked myself, I smiled, chuckling, "Yeah, that's it" I got my feet under me again, "Yeah, I died and now I am in hell, which explains why I am hungry, if this was Heaven I wouldnt need food." I looked around.
The sun was starting to rise, so the sky above, the galaxy of stars in the sky overhead allowed me to think carefully on things. I sighed, I knew where I had to go. With the direction of the brightest point in the sky slowly becoming brighter as the sun began to rise. It allowed me to figure out where I was, I was facing east. Which meant if t he planet had a Stargate, it was behind me. But first I needed to see where the sun's track was at before figuring out if I was north or south of the stargates location.
I went back into the tomb, for that was what it felt like. I didnt feel like eating, I felt as if I was numb. I counted the bodies againm, at least those I could make out, I saw two that were female, an empty table, then three that were male.
"Alright" I told myself with a nod, "Five bodies, that makes... wait a second" I said, realising I had miscounted. I counted originally what I felt to be three female bodies, and three male bodies, six mummies. I found a torch not far away, and snapped my claws, what was left of them after clearing the stonework, against it. Lighting it.
There indeed was a missing body, but not exactly missing, more like, crumbled into dust ? I went to the third female body, at least what remained of it, and examined it in the firelight. There was nothing I could use from the body aside from a necklace that looked hauntingly familiar.
I took the necklace, and when I did so I seemed to recognise it ? "Did mother make this for me ? Or did I make it for myself ?" I wondered aloud, the last time I had bought, or even made my own necklace was at a ren faire back on Earth, back home, in Michigan.
I smiled remembering that meeting.
I briefly wondered if I could recognise any of the bodies if they werent mummified. But the last body being crumpled, as if it had fallen off the table and woke up on the floor... I stopped my train of thought. "Woke up on the floor ?" I asked myself aloud, I woke up staring at nothing really, killer headache sure, but on the stonework floor ?
Then it made sense. I was reborn as a dead cat, a cat who was also a humanoidish woman.
And I was still starkers naked.
I remembered my name, Tanith, that much was obvious, my name appeared in Tarfurs journal. It felt weird to read that. But I remembered everything, everything leading up to me appearing there.
"Alright" I said aloud mostly to the dead room. "Guess I'm alive, and not dead. So this isnt Heaven nor is it hell. Hell would not be this beautiful." I grumbled. I turned and left the tomb and headed back for the stream, I was going to get something to eat.
I passed a doorway to my left, surprised that I didnt notice it the first time I had gone by that way. Or even the second or third time. But now with a working torch I was able to see where it lead.
It was a storeroom of a sort. Which as I saw, had items stored in sealed plastic ? It looked like plastic but felt like the same stuff that was wrapped on the mummies. I broke open one of the items, the bandages falling away and crumpling to dust.
But what they sealed had infact kept very well.
It looked like clothing.
I took it outside, plus a few more packages, and somehow I knew which ones to open, and which ones to put back.
I had found a gorgeous pair of black leather heeled boots, similar black leather leggings. A gorgeous midnight black dress, once I put it on however it had a lot of my chest shown off down the middle, a very deep v neck for sure. And yet. It was soft, tight to my body. And allowed for as much freedom of movement as possible, there was even a slit designed for my tail to poke out easily.
I had to snicker to myself, I was still confused greatly how I had a tail. Driving was going to be a pain in the neck for sure.
I went back into the storeroom and found another door inside it, it lead to an armory of some kind. I went through it carefully, hoping to find a pistol, anything ranged really. But I couldnt find anything that reminded me of the Iota site's armory. But I did find a rack filled with swords that looked to be brand new, So I grabbed a few. Feeling that seven of the swords felt right. Somehow seven felt like a good number.
A safe number.
By the time I had dressed and armed myself the sun had come up. Just enough for me to follow its track. I was to the north of the stargate, if this planet had one.
The stars looked familiar to a point, it was not Iota, but, I knew I could find it. I just had to go south. And keep the sun to my right as I did so. I took stock of my supplies, I just had the swords, a slew of throwing knives that would come in quite handy. I couldnt find a bow or arrows, so if I was going to hunt anything I would need the knives to take down the target.
I felt ready to head off. By that point the sun was at mid morning. I had no idea what time it was. I just know I came to in the dark as the sun was starting to come up.
I had my bearings, it was time to head south. Because what I remembered about the Stargate on some planets, sometimes the sun was directly overhead, and the stargate, when activated, cast a shadow over its steps which meant it was a bit south of where the suns track was.
And if I was right, this planets stargate was directly on the equator, somewhere.
I started off, I knew in my heart that I was going to have a very long walk ahead of me.
Thankfully I was mistaken. As I neared what looked to be a cluster of buildings it was nearing noon, the sun directly above me by that point I thought I saw something resembeling a ring. I had hoped it was the stargate. But I was again mistaken as it was a trick of the light and shadows.
However the structures I had come across looked old, and yet well maintained. Going to a nearby doorframe of one of the recently burnt structures I touched my hand to it and then put it up at my nose and sniffed it. I then recognised the scoremarks instantly.
"Ori Staff weapons" I mused. Typical. I knew then my dress would do jack shit to protect me from such weapons. I looked around as I recognised the impact pockmarks on the stonework on the ground and on the building not far away. The Ori soldiers had gone to that planet when they were scouting for a new backup world to use as a last stand ? No that wasnt right, as I tried to remember what had happened it came back to me, hard. I put a hand to my head, my vision blurred, I saw brief fuzziness, as if my eye sight was glitching, busted like a computer camera effect.
Briefly I saw snaps of the past. Pieces of information scattered in my mind, old memories. I focused, I saw the battle, we had been ambushed by the Ori soldiers because we had learned they sought a beachhead. So they chose a seemingly empty world to begin their work.
But we waited for them. SG1 and a few other SG teams, along with my own squad known as The Iota Snipers had taken a ruined empty village and built up some defenses. I came back to the present, my vision cleared. I smirked. "Perfect, the gate is nearby!" I looked around the other structures, one roof had indeed been burnt away. The structure next to it only had Ori staff weapon marks on the wall. I knew what was inside.
I went to the door and smirked, there was a code pad on it. I paused briefly, trying to remember my personal code. And then typed it in, the door cracked open, and I smiled. Before me was a small armory. Ori staff weapons, and what I sought directly, a Kull armor suit. It could withstand an Ori staff blast easily. But I felt partial to the dress I had on already. I sighed,m if only it had a energy system to hide it under my clothing. Unseen.
I did however grab the wrist mounted blasters for the kull suit, as well as an Ori staff weapon. I was happy, I had some ranged weaponry to work with. I searched a bit before finding a portable shield wall and a personal shield emitter, putting the latter on my left wrist like a watch, before I stepped out of the armory and pulled the door shut, ensuring it was locked. I was thankful it didnt require a thumb print, just a security code that I remembered, somehow.
"OK" I said to myself aloud, "The armory is here, so that means the stargate is... half a click... that way" I turned in a circle trying to remember before it all fell neatly into place, half a click away and through a thick wooded area where I remembered ambushing the Ori soldiers before they dropped the ring transport in the middle of the small cluster of structures.
Which later I found and figured out to be a abandoned farm. I knew the Stargate was not far away. We had ambushed the Ori at first in the woods, using the cluster of structures of the old farm as the fall back point. Which sadly we ended up falling back to and surprisingly, when the ring transporter was dropped into place from the Ori ring transporter carrier fighter. And our own troopers had ringed through instead of the Ori soldiers, we had eliminated the enemy fairly quickly.
Which meant with a ship in orbit ringing to it might be useful. And I knew that. I carried the staff weapon in hand like a rifle as I moved through the woods. I remebmered each shot taken, each shot given, every injured soldier. Oddly we survived each encounter with the Ori. They never could find my snipers, even with their fighters and ships.
It had been an interesting year. Because after this ambush the Ori had regrouped, destroyed Dakara, and then made for a few other planets. Only to suddenly stop as the Odyssey had headed somewhere, the Ori home galaxy.
Within a day everything changed, the Ori plague had been ended safely, the Priors had turned from their original path and ensured the Ori were shown in a new light, the Ori armies had fallen into dispair and allowed us to mop up.
So now we had weapon caches across the galaxy, old Ori gear, Anubis' super soldier gear and armor. Everything we could ever need to defend the galaxy was now safely kept across the galaxy.
Like this planet.
I came out of the woods on a well kept road. Several outer structures stood before me. I remembered this small town, it could hold, I fugured, something of about three or four houses, like any typical western town would hold really.
I turned a corner, caerfully using cover to ensure the street was clear, and sighed with relief.
The stargate stood, majestic, out in the open. The DHD I knew was inside the nearby structure. A well kept building made of stone and steel. I turned from, it to go into the DHD building when a voice called out. "Stop where you are and put your hands in the air!" It was male voice. "Now!"
I stopped and slowly raised my hands, "Drop the weapon" I did so. The Staff dropped behind me.
"Turn around, slowly, so I can see your face" I did so, And saw a male catlike being before me, he stood closer to the stargate, but I stood closer to the DHD itself. For a second there was a mexican standoff, but it only lasted a second as the mancat seemed to recognise me "Colonel Raines ? Is that you ?"
I stared at the man cat, only one person called me that, even though I had insisted to everyone at Iota site to call me by my name of Tanith or at least by my rank. "Captain Zane ?" I stared at him, it had to be him.
It was. "Sir!" he lowered his own staff weapon and stood at attention. "I'm sorry sir, I didnt recognise you in that outfit. All those swords, that... dress I guess" Zane was dressed in a pair of black leather breeches, I could see he was armed similar to myself. Seven sword hilts poked out on his hips and back. Along with I could easily tell were a bunch of shorter daggers and silettos. His colors were a brown and white tabby.
"It is alright Captain, you didnt know." I picked up my fallen staff weapon with a flick of my foot. "Have you seen anyone else ?" I asked him
"I have not. No" He said simply, clearly upset. "You're the firt person I've seen since waking up in a meadow about ten days walk from here. I found a few settlements, but they were empty. Though I did find a armory at one of them. That's how I found my way here" Captain Zane Artigas of the United States Army, the man, when he was human, was a unnaturally tall boy growing up. Which meant that he was too big to fit in a fighter plane, much less a F302 fighter.
I remembered recruiting him when he was crestfallen at being unable to fit in either a fighter jet or a F302. I had offered him a place at being my XO when I took command of the Iota site, he jumped at the chance once I told him our duties, we were to be a training center for additional SG teams, and also if approved by the Preisdent himself, a place to train our own soldiers for basic Army and Air Force and Marines training.
It was weird truth be told, an Off Earth Boot Camp. The typical Army, Air Force and Marines boot camp for that matter on alien soil.
We had nothing to worry about either, the Iota site was beautiful, verdant, and to most of our soldiers, was quite literally home. I remember being told to tell General Landry that several of the soldiers sent there simply for the twelve weeks of basic training wanted to be stationed there for life. They either loved the scenery, loved the peace and quiet, or simply just wanted to be away from earth.
I remembered one really weird request, I was asked to perform a marrige, after all, anyone over rank of Captain could do so. But we also had a chaplan on the base, and I had asked him, now that I can easily recall his name, Robert Sheen, it felt weird, he was a catholic chaplin on the Iota roster and thankfully he had the abilitiy to perform a proper wedding ceremony.
He also did funerals but at the moment I was more concerned with the fact I wasnt at the Iota site anymore. I thought carefully on my next words. Zane figured my silence as a means to speak anew. So he did. "Where did you wake up ?" He asked me. I looked up, a snicker in my tone as I replied
"In a stone cold tomb, there were six bodies, five now. All embalmed." I explaiend, "One of the stiffs in there had a journal. His name was Tarfur apparently."
"Sounds like a cat name, no offense" Zane replied
"I agree, and none taken. The fact we look like cats," I sighed, Zane looked mostly like himself aside from longer hair that was a mix of brown and white, my own hair was a mix of black, white and silver the red stripes were mostly on my arms and legs.
"Yeah, freaky." Zane replied. He looked around, his staff weapon at the ready.
I looked at him in thought. "You said you woke up in a meadow ? Ten days ago ?" I felt like I had woken up only a day or so before!
He nodded. "Yeah, woke up in a meadow, about ten days walk, that way." He pointed towards the south. "Like I said, once I found the armory cache, I got my bearings and could get here faster once I found the road. That alone took a day, maybe a bit more."
"And I'm the first person you've seen since waking up." I said more of a statement then a question.
Again Zane nodded. "Yeah, first person in ten days, honestly this felt like I was in Myst or Skyrim. You know, the games you go on quests entirely on your own, the only places where theere was people were farms or small settlements ?" Zane said to me.
It made me smile, "You're the first person I've seen in two days" I told him
"Two days ?" he asked me, I nodded. "You woke up in a silent tomb, two days ago ?" again I nodded. "I have been here for ten days, you for two, so where the hellare we ?" He asked me
I smiled, "Right now I was about to dial the Iota site. If it will connect. What was your plan on finding the 'gate ?" I replied to him
"Well, originally my plan was to dial the SGC directly, but the Iota site might be better, and safer, no Iris or shield on the gate there." Zane replied
"That is true, yeah. But they do have guards on duty, we walk right through that gate dressed like this with this gear. We'd get shot to shit because they would not recognise either of us in this get up." I told him, he nodded, he remebmered setting up the guard posts himself. "Do you have any thing to write on ?" I asked him, He shook his head, I was thoughtful then I nodded towards the nearby armory, the armories normally had paper and pens stored in them, I didnt think to look. And then I remembered, nodding towards a building to Zanes left, "That's an armory, it might have some paper and pens, we can write a message and send it through, airplane folded style if we have to." I said to him.
Zane nodded and headed into the armory building, I went to the DHD and looked it over. I had to figure out the star formations on the device before using it. I knew it had power, the control crystal glowed brightly as I neared it.
Zane came back as I figured out how to dial the Iota site. "Found it, the building was also well stocked too, some of the stuff in there looked newer too like this place was recently visited. Thankfully my code got accepted too." He said to me.
"Likewise when I found my farm cache" I said to him. "My code worked fine there, thankfully no thumb print needed."
Zane smirked as he passed over the pen and pad of paper he had found, I started writing up a note. "Yeah, that would be a problem with these claws wouldnt it."
As he spoke, there came a sudden rumble. "What is that ?" I asked looking up from the note.
The sound was coming from the stargate, Directly in front of us the DHD came to life, symbols lighting up, the Iota site ? No, this was different.
"Get to cover, quick!" I said, I tossed him his staff weapon and grabbed up my own, taking the pad of paper and pen with me we ducked away from the structure. Zane went topside while I went across and behind the dailing in 'gate.
I dove into cover and peeked out at the gate kawooshed and settled. A single device came through, and I sighed in relief, it was a UAV, seconds later the gate disengaged. We watched the UAV as it circled, it worked on a pre programmed mapping software. Slowly increasing its rounds a kilometer by kiloeter in a cirle, mapping out everything up to a day from the stargates location itself.
"That was from the SGC, it had to be" Zane said to me as we joined back up at the DHD.
"If it was sent by the SGC, can we get its attention ?" I replied
"Maybe, but I am not sure if we should." Zane replied, "If that thing is scanning and maping the area, we should be alright. No doubt it will find the caches and otherwise, maybe even track and see if there is life here besides us ?"
"Besides us, you mean other cats ?" I asked him. He nodded. "Alright, so what do we do ?"
"I went by a farm, Thankfully the armories all have first aid kits." He said to me.
I stared at him. "Why ?"
Zane sighed, it was time for the truth it seemed, "Look, when I told you I said you were the first person I saw since waking up,I lied There's a guy I met back about a day and a half. I never met him before, even back at Iota or even on Earth, he said his name was Zack, Zack White, US Marines. Said he served at McMurdo, but never saw any action outside of urban combat in a few middle east places, and Turkey."
"Where is he now ?" I asked I kicked myself afterwards, Zane had just said where he left the injured mancat, I ignored the fact that Zane lied to me about being the first person he met. Quite honestly I am glad he did, possibly to keep me sane.
"Back about two clicks in that direction theres a farm, I made sure he was stable, he cant be moved yet. He was gored pretty bad" Zane explained to me a second time.
From what Zane told me, I could gather that this tech sgt, Zackary White was a US Marine veteran who had only seen minimal combat in a few select locations in Iran and Turkey, mostly with roit control. Urban warfare at its finest.
The place to see the worst parts of people really.
"Alright" I mused toughtfully. "Sgt White is two kilos that way, which means we need to leave this area, or move him here. Or get help ?"
"I would wait on getting help" Zane advised, "Last thing we need is the SGC or others trying to find us, or what happened to us just yet. If that" Zane was more worried, I then realised, of becoming a test subject by scientists at Iota or back at earth.
I smirked, "Whats so funny ?" Zane asked me
"What if we just tell the scientists it was an Ancient machine that went belly up, end result, at random we got picked out and got turned into this ?" I said to him, He looked at me thoughtfully. "Look, Zane, the last thing I remember was Col Mitchell cracking a joke to cheer up Dr Jackson, next thing I knew there was a rumble of thunder, huge flash of blinding white light, and I woke up in the tomb a klick to the north two days ago. What was the last thing you remember ?" I still hadnt really eaten much of anything either.
Zanme just looked at me. "You remember I had to go back to Earth for a funeral right ?" He said, I nodded. "My cousin had just passed away, so I had to be at the funeral, I was one of his pallbearers because we had made that deal when we were younger, if either of us died first, the other would be the lead pallbearer. While at the reception afterwards the weather took a turn for the worse, the stormclouds built up fast and dark. The National Weather Service warned of severe weather so I figured it safer to go back to my hotel before going back to the SGC to get back to Iota." he sighed and went quiet
"I was in traffic, the rain was too heavy to drive so I stopped under a bridge to wait it out." He smirked then and laughed, "Next thing I knew there was this huge rumble of thunder, the car ahead of me was engulfed in bright white light. Then the next thing I know, my ears are ringing and I woke up on the grass in that meadwow, stark naked." he told me
I was thoughtful, "So whatever that storm was, it wasnt just at the Iota site" I mused
"Why was Dr Jackson nervous ?" Zane asked me then.
"The storm wasnt natural, we were on patrol in Canvas' Humvee, She was driving, she remarked about the rain being earlier then normal. Next thing we know, we're unable to go anywhere the rain was so heavy and it made Dr Jackson nervous because of possible flooding sweeping us away. So Cameron cracked a joke, Daniel laughed, and we were hit with an IED, next thing I know I wake up in the dark, on the floor, butt naked in this fur. Five unharmed bodies around me" I explained to him.
"So it wasnt just me on Earth ?" Zane said thoughtfully. We went to the armory near the stargate and took some of the first aid kits there. We started to where Zane had left Sgt White
"No, it wasnt just you. At least it does not feel that way. I mean, this Sgt White alone is a US Marine, you are Army, and I'm also a Marine, you know that." I replied
"You think he was in the car ahead of me ? It was completely engulfed in bright light as if it was hit by lightning." He said as we walked
"Did you see anyone in the car as the bright light grew ?" I asked him as we walked along the road, the faint sound of the UAV above us kept us grounded that we could be sighted. Then again the caches were patrolled werent they ?.
"Come to think of it I couldnt really tell, the light was so sudden, I wouldnt be surprised if it was Sgt White in the car ahead of me, I never thought to ask what the last thing he remembered was." Zane said. I simply nodded and let him lead the way to where he had left Sgt White.
