Author's Note: I don't own Stargate.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Avalon Rising
Janet was right about Daniel wanting my help with a new artifact. Later that week Skaara and I headed into the SGC. Being driven around by Skaara was a strange experience. He had definitely improved since his first driving lesson way back in 1969. For a moment he caught my eye and smirked, no doubt remembering the same thing. At least he hadn't crashed into a wall, unlike me. With one hand still on the wheel he reached over and laced our fingers together.
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Daniel greeted us as the elevator opened with a hug.
"If you'll excuse me," Skaara said, "Dr. Felger needed me to look over something before his next off-world mission. I'll meet you down stairs."
"Ok I'll see you soon." I said, quickly kissing his cheek before he strolled down the corridor. In his SGC BDUs Skaara was completely at ease and fit right in. A few scientists waved as he passed them.
"Hey Skaara," Daniel shouted, "Make sure he doesn't shut down the whole gate system again."
"No promises." Skaara waved over his shoulder as he disappeared around a corner.
"Oh," My eyebrows shot into my hair line, "That's who that is." Then at Daniel's questioning glance, "What? I've been reading."
"I didn't think you would be that far through the reports." He commented, impressed.
"In my defense I've only been granted access to a quarter or so of the reports. So, in truth its not that many."
"Only you would categorize a couple hundred reports as 'not that many'."
"Besides I'm a fast reader and I've had nothing to do." Then thinking for a moment, I bit my lip, "Well, almost nothing."
"I'm sure."
"Hey!" I slapped his shoulder.
"What?" Daniel deflected innocently.
The two of us walked in companionable silence for a few minutes, "He seems very comfortable here."
"He fits right in with our off-world culture department. I remember his first official day. The other doctors were besides themselves for the chance to speak with a member of a living and breathing Ancient Egyptian Culture."
"So he hasn't joined an SG team?"
"Nope." Dani shook his head, "He prefers negotiations, missions to set up diplomatic relations and all that. And any missions that require excavations and diging are his personal favorite. However, the new leader of SG-1 has been begging him to join for weeks."
"Yeah, I heard about that." I tugged on Dani's jacket where his SG-1 patch used to be, "I never would have though SG-1 would break up like that."
"It was time to move on." Dani commented dryly.
We continued on in silence. Finally he stopped, "What is it?"
"Huh?"
"You keep looking at my head." He crossed his arms and stared me down over the rim of his glasses.
"It's just your hair."
"Yes?"
"I thought you'd never cut it." I laughed.
Absently he "Oh, yeah. Its been short for a few years." Then he froze, considering, "Wait was there something wrong with my hair before?"
I didn't respond, save for a shrug and strolled down the hallway. Messing with him like old times.
"Wait, what is that supposed to mean?" then he had to run to catch up to me, "Hang on…"
"Hey there Jackson." A young man suddenly darted out into the hallway to intercept us.
"Morning Mitchel." Daniel greeted him. "Erin this is Colonel Mitchel, the new head of SG-1 I was telling you about." He gestured to the man, and then to me, "Mitchel this is my sister Erin Clark."
"Hello Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchel." A young air man introduced himself, "We met, kinda, briefly." The Colonel had been there when Skaara and Cassie had been brought in after I'd woken up. He was indeed very young. There wasn't that weathered look about him that Jack and Feretti had. In a way he made think of how Jack would have been twenty or so years ago, "So you're the one Jackson wouldn't shut up about."
"I suppose I am. Nice to meet you Colonel." I offered my hand.
"Please call me Cam." He smiled at me and shook my hand.
Daniel wedged himself slightly between the two of us while holding up his pointer finger, "Yeah, she's my sister and she's involved."
Colonel Mitchel frowned, "I was just saying hi," and quickly let go of my hand.
"Yeah sure you were." Daniel eyed him in his big brother way although I recognized the good-natured teasing between the them.
"Where is your shadow," Cam asked Daniel eyeing the bone colored bracelet on my brother's left hand.
"Hopefully where I left her in my office," he answered stuffing his hands in his pants pockets and hanging his head.
"That woman you were with the other night?" I wondered.
"It's a long story." Daniel gave me THAT look. Alright I was going to drop it and not ask anymore questions. For now.
The three of us made it to an observation room. Inside Skaara was already at work on a device in the center of the room. I didn't get much of a chance to look it over as my attention was instead drawn to the dark haired woman from the party. The lady was literally sprawled stomach up atop books and scrolls on the room's large work table. My inner archeologist screamed.
Daniel stomped over and glared down at her. When she didn't open her eyes he cleared his throat pointedly.
"What?" she was the epitome of false innocence.
Dani braced his arms on the table and leaned over her, "I told you to stay in my office."
"Yes you did," She patted his arm as you would to calm a child throwing a tantrum, "but I got bored."
"Off." Daniel yanked a book out from under her head.
At the sudden loss of her 'pillow' her head fell against the table with a small thunk, "Oh come on Daniel, I was just taking a nap."
"Now." He snapped.
"Oh fine," she sat up and her eyes zeroed in on me. "Well hello gorgeous."
My cheeks flushed, "Hi."
Skaara handed me a cup of coffee, which I gladly took and tried to ignore the way the woman was dragging her eyes up and down my figure.
"So, this is the sister." She sauntered over, "Now I know where Daniel got his dashing good looks."
"And you're the one who's been giving my brother all this trouble… I've read the reports." I sipped my coffee.
"Oh please" Vala waved her hand flippantly, "they don't tell the whole story." She leaned her butt against the desk I was working at, too close for my comfort, hands on her hips, "They don't even have the time me and Daniel had sex."
I spurted my coffee across the desk. "Excuse me!" was what I could choke out in between coughing.
Skaara just rolled his eyes and went back to writing in his notebook. Perhaps this was a normal occurrence.
Daniel hung his head in a long-suffering sigh, "That never happened."
"Keep telling yourself that."
Daniel gave me a sideways glance and mouthed, "Never ever."
"Not that I'm not grateful to be out of the house, but what am I doing here. I don't exactly have the clearance I used to." The translations from the device looked expertly done, if strew a little to haphazardly around the work space for my taste. However, the language was very familiar. Huh.
Dani waved me over to the device and I happily jumped over, eager to get away from Vala who was hovering. Examining me. Once I vacated my spot at the table she happily jumped up and planted her butt again on some books. URGH.
"Well, I wanted to ease you back into everything and I figured…" Dani began.
"And thanks for your figuring." Vala grinned from her seated perch on Dani's desk. While chewing on the tip of a pen in her mouth she eyed my brother up and down with an appraising eye.
"Hey." Daniel cautioned. Super weird seeing another woman interacting with my brother. To me it had only been about two years since Sha're was taken. But to him nearly a decade had passed. This woman was the absolute polar opposite of Daniel in every single way.
"Yeah hey, not in front of me. Get a room." Pointedly I turned by back to them. Skaara handed me some of his notes on the device.
"How about we get back to why we're here." Cam suggested helpfully.
"Yes please." I said circling the device in the observation room, "This does look familiar."
"It should." Daniel looked up from his notebook, "it's covered in the same language that was stuck in your head for a while."
"It's Ancient?!" Wow no wonder I recognized it.
"Yep." Cam answered.
The device was circular in its base which tapered upwards to a point holding a crystal. I wondered what the slots were made to hold, if anything at all. .
Perhaps it came over on the Daedalus with the same tech that had been used to awaken me. Ducking my head closer I could understand some of the glyphs. Translating them in my head was just like hopping on a bike again. And maybe residual leftovers from the Ancient download helped me a long a bit. I brushed my fingertips over the raised symbols around the bottom of the device. "There is something written here about communication and seeing through another's eyes." I wondered what exactly that meant. "Was it brought back from Atlantis?"
"No," Daniel squinted at the device from across the tablet in his hand, "Again it's a long story."
Skaara sighed and sat his notes down, "Vala conned us into finding the Ancient Merlin's stored technology hidden under the British country side."
Vala quirked her eyebrow, "Apparently not that long."
"You left out the part where she handcuffed me to herself." Danie grimaced and pulled up the sleeve of his shirt to show of the ugly bracelet that I now saw matched the one around Vala's wrist.
"So that's why she's barely left your side," I knelt down to see the device's markings better, "and here I thought it was just because you liked each other." Then standing I scanned over all the notes and mechanical readout sprawled across the desk.
Dani fired a glare in my direction.
After a while Dani and I, and amazingly Skaara, fell into a sort of focus trance as we deciphered the device's purpose.
Finally, "Does this mean what I think it means?" Skaara asked, moving aside so Dani and I could examine his work.
"We need to meet with General Landry." Dani rushed over and snatched the phone off the wall altering our commanding officer.
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Turns out our meeting with General Landry was in fact a frenetic walk though the corridors of the SGC. So Daniel, Skaara and I trailed directly behind Landry because we had a lot of info to relay to him. Vala followed close behind because the last thing we needed was for her of Dani to just drop if they were to far out of range from each other. And Cam brought up the rear because… To be honest I think he was still living in hope that Dani would change his mind about staying on with SG-1. That, or maybe he was bored.
In short, our group made for a crowded stroll through the SGC.
"Sir," I addressed the General, "We believe we've had a breakthrough in regard to the device brought back from Glastonbury." At the General's prompting I continued, "It appears to be a communication device. Woah…" A door suddenly opened in front of me and I nearly smacked into it.
Cam deftly pulled me to the side and we continued on with the group not missing a step.
Daniel to his credit powered through his part of the lecture heedless of the many teams and scientists weaving in and around our fairly large group, "It's much, much more than that. We know the Ancients left our galaxy for Pegasus and returned later when they lost the war to the Wraith, but what happened to them?"
"I thought they ascended." Landry powered walked down the corridor.
Thinking I needed to be brought up to speed Cam said in an aside to me, "Ascended is when…"
"I know" I gently cut him off, "I read the reports."
Not missing a beat Daniel quickened his pace so he kept in step with our superior, "Some ascended that we know of. But what if the others went home? Even if they didn't, the book I read suggested that the Alterans left a civilization behind."
"Where are you going with this Dr. Jackson?'
Skaara switched places with Dani, "We believe that the device was left on Earth as a communication link between the Ancient's that stayed here on Earth and the ones who moved on."
"And your point is?" Landry was getting frustrated.
I wondered what was going that had the General so uninterested about these findings. Come one, these were the gate builders we were talking about.
My brother and fiancé again swapped places so that Dani was walking side by side with Landry, "My point is that we haven't met a single, living Ancient who was willing to share their knowledge freely with us, and there could be an entire advanced civilization of them out there somewhere in another galaxy! I mean, isn't that why we're doing this, all of this?" He threw his hands up at the bustling Air Force base surrounding us. A passing USAF nearly got hit in the face and ducked under Dani's outstretched arm, "Sorry." Dani called after the air man. "The Stargate program, the budget? Isn't it so we can go out and meet new races? Gather advanced technology? Possibly learn about ourselves in the process?"
Vala stepped in Dani's way and crossed her arms, leaning in conspiratorially, "Oh, come on. You do it to meet women," Vala then eyed Skaara, myself, and our joined hands with a wink, "or men."
I opened my mouth to retort. Then closed it and shrugged. Ok she had me there.
"She has a point, sir." Cam commented and we entered the elevator to take us to Landry's office.
When the grey doors to the elevator slid closed Landry sighed, "I've been thinking I need to get out on an off-world mission or two."
A grin pulled at Cam's face, "Yeah, just to get the feel for it."
"'Always do everything you ask of those you command.'" Landry spoke as if quoting a profound proverb.
"Patton." Cam stated, "Great movie."
"Very good." Landry agreed.
"I don't understand that reference." I whispered to Dani.
"I do!" Skaara announced proudly.
"Wow look at you," I playfully nudged his shoulder and he glanced down sheepishly, "I guess I'll be the one playing catch up on pop culture this time."
"That movie was from 1970." The confusion was evident on Cam's face.
"Oh," I blinked. Though in my defense it did come out seven years before I was even born, "Fine, as a kid if something wasn't over two thousand years old I wasn't interested."
"That explains why you like Daniel so much," Vala piped in, "he's practically ancient."
Daniel narrowed his eyes, irritated, and continued his lecture on the device as the elevator doors opened, "Laugh if you want to, but I believe finding these Alterans and where they came from should be our top priority from this point forward. They are "the Gate Builders."
"Nobody's laughing, Dr. Jackson. The universe is a big place." Landry was getting frustrated, "Tell me where they are and how to get there, and I'll order you to go."
Daniel and I stared at each other a bit flabbergasted.
"Wow, I thought it'd be a lot harder to convince you Sir." Maybe I had misjudged Landry. Our new commander was very different from Hammond but he wasn't as dismissive as I'd first judged him.
"No one wants you all to be successful more than I." Landry's eyes crinkled at the edges, "Our Galaxy may be safe for the moment but who knows where the next threat may come from. And of-course there is still the threat of the Wraith in Pegasus. I'd rather not be known as a leader who stood in the way of finding the gate-builders." Then to Daniel, poking a finger at his chest for emphasis, "You get me a gate address, a planet, anything and I'll send you."
Daniel continued, "I'm not saying this is going to be easy. I mean, if they're from a distant galaxy, our network of Stargates might not even connect. And even if it does, we know the massive power requirements necessary to dial Pegasus, and they're relatively close, in intergalactic terms."
A thought popped into my head and I snapped my fingers, "Hey maybe we could use that device I built when I went all Ancient. It had enough power to dial the Asgard galaxy."
"Unfortunately, that device burned out after it was used," Dani explained, "Although it did a help us to better understand the inner workings of ZPMs and building naquadah generators."
I pursed my lips, "So that's a no then."
"Sir, if I may," Skaara raised his hand politely, adorably.
"Go ahead son, tomorrow is to late." Landry said.
All the attention was on Skaara. He gestured to his notebook, inside were notes in both English and Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs dotted around sketches of the device down in the lab. And too think reading and writing had been forbidden to him for nearly the first two decades of his life.
"From what I've been able to translate on the ancient tech I don't believe we will need a ZPM. It seems that the device was made to communicate over extremely long distances, perhaps even galaxies. Here," Skaara flipped though his notebook until he found what he was looking for and held it up for Landry to examine, "Here appears to be mention of the signal passing beyond space. I believe that means the transmission travels through sub-space and if so that would greatly increase the devices range of communication. Furthermore, if we are able to make contact with them it would stand to reason that, as Ancients themselves, they would have the means and power needed to dial our Stargate. Maybe we could get them to come here rather than having to expend our resources. But we would need to first contact them."
Landry stopped in front of the open door to his office, "Thank you Skaara, Doctor Jackson. I'm sure you'll keep me posted. Now if you'll excuse me I have a summit to prepare with the new Jaffa Nation. Colonel."
Cam snapped to attention, "General."
Landry nodded stiffly and shut his door.
"He has no idea what you guys just said." Cam whispered to Dani and Skaara.
The general's door immediately reopened and Landry stuck his head out, "Someone want to tell me why she's still on my base?" He jutted his chin in Vala's direction. And then to Cam "…And, uh, yes, I did." And he shut his door again.
Cam went pale.
"Well I think it's incredible." Vala giggled. A veritable kid in a candy store.
Slowly, deliberately Skaara, Cam, Dani and I turned to look at her. Then with an eye roll, huff, sigh and shrug respectively we walked away.
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Vala was pacing the observation room, "I have been around the galaxy long enough to know that knowledge is power, and understanding the technology that was left behind by the Ancients is the most powerful knowledge around."
Skaara popped up from where he'd been kneeling by the device, "Please, you're just looking to steal something."
"And if you think I'm going to stay linked with you for the rest of my natural…" Dani thrust his handcuffed hand in her face.
Cam, interrupting the quickly devolving bickering, "Focus! Maybe we should focus on the task at hand."
Dr. Lee, who'd been quiet and nigh invisible to this point tapped on the computer screen that was monitoring the device's output, "Yeah, well, the device obviously has a power source, and, uh, I don't think it's been depleted."
Now back on track Dani began to open what I recognized as an SGC containment and storage case, "Okay, once we determined this was a communication device, I realized that the shape of these recessed spaces looked familiar." He finished unlocking the case and removed two black stones that were shaped like eggs that had been halved, "These stones are actually an Ancient form of communication device that links the users psychically, allowing them to see through each other's eyes. Just as you translated on the device Erin. It appears that they're actually meant to be used in conjunction with this terminal."
"So what happens when you attach the stones?" Cam asked, a hint of excitement on his otherwise controlled face.
"That is what we are here to find out." Skaara answered.
"These stones were originally set for General O'Neill and one Joe Spencer." Dr. Lee took the stones from my brother.
"Spencer was a barber from Indiana…" Dani explained.
"I read the report." Cam and I almost said in unison.
"Weird guy." Cam commented.
"No weirder than Jack." I laughed back.
The poor doctor looked wildly uncomfortable with the casual was I joked about the SCG's last commanding officer, "Well, anyway," Dr. Lee cleared his throat, "after a lot of tedious, although, I must say, ultimately very brilliant work if I do say so myself," Dani's hand on his shoulder stopped his rambling, "Yes I believe I figured out how to operate them."
Cam held his hand up to pause the good doctor, "Don't they have to be activated by someone with the Ancient gene? Same file."
"Not necessarily. But it wouldn't hurt to have someone with the gene to reinitialize them." And Dr. Lee plopped the stones in my hands.
"Me?" I gulped. Turning the stones over in my hands I marvel at how seamless and honesty quite beautiful the blue stone were. If I didn't know better I would have mistaken them for precious gems.
"Yes you." Dr. Lee rolled his eyes, "Has no one briefed her on the Ancient gene? It was quite obvious you had the gene after you activated and Ancient Repository Honestly."
"She was a popsicle for the better part of a decade. There's a learning curve." Cam snapped back at the impatient doctor. Then seeing Dani, Skaara, and my gaping mouths he winced, "Oops, sorry." At my brother's and Skaara's glares Cam held his hands up in defense, "Hey, I'm not good with tact."
Dani and Skaara were waiting with bated breath as to my reaction. When I finally gave one, I could tell busting out in a fit of laughter was not what they were expecting, "No kidding," at least Cam wasn't walking on egg shells around me. Made me feel almost normal. I held one stone in each hand, "What should I do?"
"From what we can gather a lot ancient tech is based on mental intent. It should be as simple as focusing on what you want and willing the stones to do it." Dr. Lee explained, "Close you eyes and think about wiping the stones memory clean."
Cam's eyes widened at a sudden thought, "The last thing we want is General O'Neil and that barber to get sucked across the galaxy."
"That would be bad." I agreed. Taking a deep breath I closed my fists around the stones. A heat, barely noticeable at first, emanated from them. i imagined wiping a chalk board clean.
"Erin!" Daniel's sudden shout almost made me drop the very valuable ancient technology.
"Daniel." I groaned.
"I think its working."
He was right. The stones were emitting a faint blue glow.
Skaara reached for one, "May I?"
"Of course," and I handed one over.
Skaara examined his stone under the high-powered magnifying glass and jotted down some notes. The blue light from the stones died away, "Interesting." He held the stone closer to his face.
"Huh." I turned my own stone over. It was as cool to the touch as ever. "That should do it." I handed them back over to the visibly impatient Dr. Lee.
"So any one of us can take the pony ride now?" Cam further aggravated the doctor by plucking a stone out of his hands.
And Daniel deftly snatched it away from Cam, "Yeah, and I figured that was going to be me. I did miss the Daedalus for this, so…"
Cam could only groan, "You're going to dine out on that for a while?"
Daniel clutched the stone to his chest and nodded vigorously, "Oh yeah. Like you wouldn't believe."
Cam seemed like he wanted to argue the issue but relented, "Alright, you are the world's foremost expert on the Ancients. But we got two stones." The way Cam's hand twitched for the remining stone made it clear he was rearing to go.
And the Vala had it in her hands, "Yes, and this one's mine. Thank you."
"How did you come to that conclusion?" I put my hands on my hips.
"If anyone else was going it should be Skaara or Dr. Lee." Cam protested, "Heck even Ms. Clark is more qualified. And I refer you to what I mentioned before, she was a popsicle for six years."
"Well, Daniel and I are linked." Vala said leaning her arm on Daniel's shoulder.
"If I could just point out for the record," Daniel grimaced and knocked her arm away, "we don't have to be. Give me that." And he made a grab for the stone.
But Vala held it out of his reach, "He's only guessing that this device is for communication. What if it's a transporter of some kind, and he gets whisked away and can't get back?"
"Actually," Dr. Lee pipped up, "we have done a fair bit of research on this device, and I can say with absolute…" he faltered for a moment at all of our incredulous looks, "…relative…certainty…oh for… Look we have studied devices like this for years, and at some point ultimately you just have to turn it on."
"And I'm going to be the one to give it a try." Daniel planted his feet firmly in front of the device.
Vala stepped up beside him, "Where he goes, I go."
"I'm not going anywhere." He countered.
"So you think." She threw back.
"Dani." I had to break up their squalling or else I had a feeling we'd be there all afternoon, " Just try turning it on."
Daniel studied the device, "I'm guessing we just put these two stones any two of these spots."
"Any two?" Vala asked.
"Well, there aren't any markings to indicate otherwise, so any two." He shrugged.
Daniel and Vala slid their stones onto adjacent slots. The air in the room was thick with anticipation. Vala screwed her eyes shut and turned her head away as if the device was going to explode. Both stones snapped into place with a barely audible click. And…
Nothing.
"That's strange." I walked right up to the device, "That should have been it."
"You are correct," Skaara stepped up beside me, leaning down for a better view of the stones, "Maybe they weren't inserted properly?" to Valla and Daniel, "Try removing and reinserting…"
A flash of blue light cut him off. Skaara and I exchanged worried glances. Then it felt like someone had cut the strings on a puppet, and I was the puppet. I felt my legs giving way and right before I collapsed, I saw Skaara fall.
Complete blackness enveloped my vision…
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…And I opened my eyes.
The room around me had completely changed. Pots and pans along with aromatic herbs hung from huge wooden rafters. In between the wooden scaffolding that made up this building was a white mud or plaster. Various pieces of wicker furniture was lovingly placed around the cottage and a coals smoldered in the fireplace with a pot of something cooking over it. In a far corner a small stairwell lead up to what was presumably a second floor. In all it was quite homely. Like it was pulled out of a picture book.
This was not the SGC.
When I first opened my eyes my back had been pressed against one of the cottage's huge pillars. Cautiously I pushed off my resting place. I needed to find out where I was.
Instantly I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and whirled around to find… a young woman staring back at me.
She couldn't have been more than a few years older than myself. Her blonde hair just passed her shoulders and she wore a blue dress and a black band across her forehead.
I raised my hand and stepped forward to greet her only for the woman to mimic my actions perfectly. Too, perfectly. I looked down at my arm and saw it was covered in the same blown and white knotted sleeves as the woman before me. Reaching up I even felt the black band across my own forehead. I squinted at the woman and gasped. This wasn't another woman I was looking at, it was a mirror!
"Hello." An unfamiliar masculine voice called out.
Spinning around I kept the strong pillar between me and the newcomer.
The newcomer was a young man. Kind of lanky with short brown hair, almost as short as Daniel's was now. His attire reminded me of peasants in renaissance paintings.
At seeing my alarm he held his hands up, "Please don't be afraid." He pointed at himself, "My name is Skaara I am a peaceful employer."
"Skaara?!" I slowly came out from behind the pillar.
"Yes?" the unfamiliar man nodded. Although in appearance I didn't recognized this person, I did recognize an underlying accent. I'd know it anywhere.
"It's me, Erin." I pressed a hand to my chest.
The man uttered an Abydonian expletive.
"Hey." I chastised him good-naturedly.
"My apologies." Skaara bowed his head and walked about clenching and unclenching his hands as if getting a feel for the foreign limbs, "That was not a transporter. Do you know where we are?"
"No." I took Skaara's arm and guided him to the mirror. Skaara touched his face and the stranger in the mirror did the same.
The reflections' concerned expressions matched our own.
"But I think we're in them." I said.