Through the Infernus Gate on Maere
Daniel shivers in the cold air of the volcanic crater holding the ink-blue lake of the Infernus stargate. All around the lake, the craggy rim of the crater rears up, glassy volcanic rock reaching up in shards to the deep, clear sky above. Here and there, in the shadows, are the entrance to caverns and lava tubes, leading deep into the volcano, down to the lairs of the Morrigna wraiths.
As he is joined by the rest of the team stepping free from the gate, Daniel points to the nearest shadowy cave. 'Are there any left?'
'Morrigna?' Aelix asks, 'Some, maybe. The Naxen raiders crushed most underfoot but some escaped. Do not worry, Daniel, with Nixor turned to stone, their powers are much diminished. Little more than shadows now, I doubt they will disturb us.'
Daniel nods, hoping Aelix is right. He runs a hand over a nearby extrusion of rock, feeling the cold, surface under his hand, a myriad of tiny frozen bubbles in the glass. Agnes would have liked to have seen this place but her ankle was too sprained to make the trip.
Gail follows Teal'c and Jack through the gate not really sure what to expect. As she emerges into the Infernus Crater it feels as though she is waking from a dream of her old life, safe, secure and Earthbound. Here, in the cold air of a silent volcanic crater on another planet, far from home, is where she is waking to a new reality. All those UFO reports, all those unverified sightings, all the scepticism and disbelief she faced in every day of her job evaporates away. This is the new reality. Life beyond Earth. She grins broadly as she takes in their surroundings and then looks up at the sky, delighting in the vast canvas of unfamiliar stars etched across it.
'So, Aelix, where will we find this Spinner?' Teal'c climbs up to the top of the crater, his feet finding a path worn through the rock.
'I do not know. ' Aelix joins him, gasping slightly at the sight that greets them.
'You don't know?' Jack picks up on their conversation, struggling to reach their vantage point, above the lake. As he picks a path through the rock, Daniel and Gail follow him. 'Um, this might not be the right way...'
'The Spinner is very ancient. I was hoping to find some indication of where she might be once we arrived.' Aelix turns and proffers a helping hand to Gail who leaps up the last few feet to the top of the crater. 'Wow!' She she exclaims as the planet of Maere unfolds below them.
Daniel is the last to reach the vantage point and take in the view. The volcano sides roll steeply away to a barren plain below, littered with giant rocks and ravines and little else. Stretching away on one side a chain of volcanoes reach out like a belt across the land and, in the far distance, where the horizon drops out of sight rises a black fog, rolling in towards them.
'That looks like a fog bank, is it over a sea?' Gail asks.
'It is moving, quite quickly and towards us.' Teal'c observes, pointing with his Ma-Tok staff in its direction.
'Yes, yes you are right, Teal'c. It is moving this way... and it is not a sea fog but a sandstorm,quite timely too. We must get moving now.' Aelix strides down the side of the volcano without waiting for anyone else.
'But where are you going, you're heading straight towards it!' Jack yells after him in exasperation. Daniel shrugs at Jack and the others and heads after Aelix as Teal'c and then Gail also follow him, slipping their way down the glassy surface to the plain below.
'You are heading into the storm!' But no one listens to Jack so he shakes his head and sighs and then plunges off the crater, down the rock slopes after them.
Aelix reaches the plain first. From the top of volcano the rocks and ravines had looked small but now, vast glassy boulders loom, hiding deep crevasses full of brooding shadows and lava tubes, falling away into the planet's interior. The ground, solid enough when viewed from above, is in fact a desert of volcanic ash, in places knee deep, piled up in the lee of the boulders and falling here and there in quicksand runs into the ravines. The dust storm has halved the distance to the volcano in the time it took them to reach the plain below and now the sky is full of billowing clouds, building up and up and running towards them as Daniel, Teal'c, Gail and finally Jack join Aelix. The group watch for a second or two as the storm towers before them.
'Is there a plan?' Jack asks, breaking their awed silence.
'Yes, Stand on the hem of my cloak, all of you! We shall ride the sands across Maere. Quickly now!'
They all stand on the hem of Aelix's cloak, each wondering whether the young Magus knows what he is doing. Almost immediately the sand is in front of them, a cliff face of swirling grains and Aelix, reaching into his mind, pulls out an incantation and recites quietly under his breath from memory, then steps forward and upward into the sand. For a moment nothing seems to move and the whole group looks to be consumed by the sandstorm and then a staircase of sand forms beneath the cloak and they are rising up to the top of the storm. At the top, Aelix turns and stands, like a captain on the prow of a ship, arms folded and cloak spread out behind him. 'The sand remembers.'
'The sand remembers what?' Jack asks, dipping the toe of his boot into the sand and feeling it try and drag him down, off the cloak.
'I wouldn't do that, Jack. This is glass-sand, sharper than knives and as quick as water. But full of memory. It remembers Spinner well.'
Jack quickly pulls his foot back out of the storm and checks carefully to see if his boot is in one piece. It is but over the surface are a series of shallow cuts, as though slashed with a handful of knives.
'The sand remembers the spider? How do you know that?' Gail asks, almost but not quite lost for words.
'Because I am a Magus.' Aelix replies tetchily. 'Now, unless you all want to be cut into a thousand ribbons I suggest you stop asking questions and let me concentrate. This is the first time I have ever successfully managed to ride on glass-sand.'