Please see chapter one for disclaimer.

I apologize for taking so damn long to get this (shortish) chapter up. We just added another muse bunny to our family, so I've been trying to get everyone to play nicely together. Not an easy task with three stubborn muse bunnies, I tell you what. Little brats can be fluffy pains in the miktas. Good thing they're so gosh darn cute. :)

My Andromeda

Chapter Six

by Mabyn

"Barrett."

"Hey, Mal. It's Scott." Major Greggs removed the burnt DVD from the drive and slid it into an envelope marked 'Disc 14.' "Just finished uploading those files to the main server. They need to go through quarantine, but you should be able to access them in ten or so."

Barrett nodded and took a deep drink of his luke-warm coffee. God, he was tired. "Thanks, good work. Find anything interesting?"

"Loads," Greggs said and inserted another DVD into the burner. "Doc had a whole 'nother harddrive of data we found―most of it's readings, charts and other med shit about Colonel Carter." He paused and scratched his jaw, his brow furrowed in ambivalence.

Barrett frowned. "And..." When Greggs didn't immediately reply, his stomach clenched, his knuckles tightening around the handle of his mug. "Scott?"

"I ain't a doctor or nothin'," Greggs said at last, his voice strained. "But from the looks I got from Michelle―our team's uber-geek--"

"Yeah, I know Michelle."

"Yeah, well," Greggs exhaled and rubbed the heel of his hand against his eye. "Things don't look too good for Colonel Carter. At least, not in the long run."

Barrett felt his stomach hollow out; his ears started to ring. "What do you mean?"

"Like I said, I ain't no doctor--"

"But Michelle is--"

"She only saw the files for a couple minutes," Greggs explained. "She even said it was out of her league, didn't know what to make of it." A notice box popped up on the computer screen; he clicked 'okay' with more vehemence than necessary. "All I'm sayin' is that...is that there's enough info there to give you the answers you're looking for. An' if there ain't, maybe you ain't askin' the right questions, know what I'm sayin'?"

Barrett sighed, his head cradled in his free hand. "Yeah," he muttered. "Thanks, Scott."

"It'll be all right, man," Greggs told him. "We'll see ya for cards when you're back in town."

"Sure thing," Barrett said.

The connection died in his hand.

The foyer of Aedes Luma unfurled at her feet, crystalline lamps igniting as she stepped towards them, bathing the walls in a soft blue glow. Lilac danced through the air on breezes hardly felt; sweet, sweet drafts wafted through her nostrils, tasting like honeysuckle. The stone floor warmed her bare soles as if it was heated from the inside. Looking up, her eyes widened at the natural stone mosaic. Water nymphs, priestesses and regal godesses and queens danced with one another, their faces free of blemishes and strain, their long tresses dressed and flowing, covering their nakedness.

They were her sisters.

In this place of her legacy, she felt at peace. She allowed herself a moment to swim in this contentment, this assurance of sisterhood that spanned millennia, before succumbing to the Orsa Calax' insistent pull.

But even as she walked down the corridors, the Ferra at her sides, she felt the warmth of her spirit-kin follow her and she smiled.

He blinked. Once. Twice. He rubbed his eyes.

His office had evaporated to be replaced with stone walls, their faces lit by dull blue light. He wrinkled his nose at the spicy sweetness that permeated the air―he had never been one for fragrances. Clutching his briefcase to his chest, he gasped as cold steel licked his cheek and clumsily hurled the object away from him.

The sword clattered as it hit the ground.

Breath coming in short, shallow busts, he crept towards the blade, adjusting his glasses to accommodate his dilated eyes. The blade glowed. At least, it appeared to. But it could be a trick of the light, his eyes were still adjusting to the dim environment and the lamps flickered haphazardly, throwing their beams everywhere. It was difficult to make an astute judgment.

Perhaps it was just a reflection.

But as he inched closer to the weapon, he realized that the blade was indeed glowing. Not brightly, not enough to light his path, but gently, consistently and with purpose.

Soft footsteps echoed down the corridor, cutting his perusal of the blade short. Wrapping his bony hand around the hilt, he drew the weapon to his chest and stepped into shadow near an expansive doorway. The woman entered his view and he silently gasped as two humongous horses dutifully followed her, their heads bent low in respect. How the giant animals made no sound, he didn't know. Their hooves, combined with their massive weight, should have produced a slight clip against the stone floor at least. But nothing, no sound, no rocking of the tiles, no signs of their presence were detectable.

He drew a deep breath as they stepped from his view and clutched the sword to his chest. He was an instrument of the gods, given a sacred weapon for a sacred duty. Her blood would run like water.

He would not fail them. Not again.

A shiver raced across Sam's skin as she entered the sanctum of the Orsa Colax. The room was large, rounded, the walls' stone tiles meticulously carved and placed with the utmost care. Mnemosyne's fountain stood in the center of the room, water streaming from its six tiers. Beyond the fountain in an alcove, under a stream of light falling from the ceiling, the Orsa Colax sang.

Sam passed her fingers under the constant cascade of water in respect and reverence as she passed the fountain. After whispering a short blessing, she continued past the fountain, her feet forgetful of the floor and flying towards the Colax.

She knelt before it, this stone that had seen the change of every time, the birth and death and rebirth of the human race, of every race. The stone that would be their grace. Hardly daring to breathe, she reached out a trembling hand and laid her palm over its smooth surface. She gasped, her eyes falling closed. An intense rapture, deeper than any she had ever known, coursed through her veins, pulsed through her heart. Aedes Luma faded from view and she was flying, falling and leaping all at once; through the atmosphere, through fields of stars, underwater cities, cities on clouds, on mountaintops, on the other side of silence.

The stone shivered a warning pulse and she slid back into herself. She rose and the stone was around her neck, beating faintly.

A small, wiry man, his green eyes wild with confidence, stood on the other side of Mnemosyne's fountain, a longsword clutched in his hand, the tip trained on her heart.

"Doctor Kierken," she said, hearing the silence shatter around them like glass.

His eyes widened and the sword tripped a bit in his hand. "You know my name."

"We spent many days together," Sam told him. Far from being bitter at her captivity, she almost felt the need to thank this poor man for what he had done. But he would not hear it, she knew. Say what she would, he would not hear her. "You do not belong here."

Doctor Kierken straightened and his eyes turned venomous. "It is you who do not belong anywhere!" he said. "I made you what you are and my creation is not pleasing to the gods."

Sorrow sat in the pit of Sam's stomach and she could not hold the pity from her eyes. "Your gods are small and weak," she told him. "Their time is drawing to an end."

"Lies!" Doctor Kierkin shouted. "You are an atrocity! A blemish on my work for the gods! They have ordered your destruction!" The blade quivered in his hand, but he did not move.

Sam considered him a moment before speaking. "Out of them will come one, the destroyer of evil, a priestess of fire and water."

"Do not quote the Book to me!" Doctor Kierken cried, his knuckles paling white around the hilt of the sword, his other arm flailing behind him.

"Their cities will be torn from their roots," Sam continued undaunted. "Trampled to the ground, they will be as fleeting as dust." Taking a step towards him, her eyes gleaming in the dim light, she said, "She will rise from these ashes, a sacrifice unto herself and bring the beginning of the beginning, as it should have been, as it will again be." Her shoulders straightened. "The wrongs will be righted, the balances evened, the truth restored." She smiled. "And you cannot stop it."

The sword trembled in Doctor Kierken's hand, his eyes still wide, but now flushed with doubt. "You speak blasphemy."

Sam shook her head. "I speak from your holy book." She paused and drew nearer to him, the Ferra with her doing the same. Soon, Mnemosyne's fountain was at her back, the water churning in its haste to run. "Out of them will come one," she whispered. "A destroyer of evil, a priestess of fire and water."

Flames erupted from the fountain behind her, the water spilling from the tiers now ablaze like oil.

Sam pegged him with placid blue eyes. "I am that priestess."

"This is really killing you, isn't it?"

Daniel glared at Mitchell before turning back to his long distance perusal of Aedes Luma. "That place has gotta be hundreds of thousands years old," he muttered.

Mitchell grinned. "I mean, having to be all the way back here when all the goodies are up ahead―that's gotta be tough."

"Shut up."

"No, seriously, I'm asking," Mitchell said. "If you--"

"Children," Jack warned. "Don't make me separate you. I'll parcel out the prairie if I have to."

"Field," Daniel told him. "It's more of a field."

"I was thinkin' vale," Mitchell said, gesturing to the wildflowers and tall grasses. "Aren't those the ones that--"

He stopped short and listened. A distant rumbling, like thunder only louder, echoed across the field. "You guys hear that?" Daniel squinted and listened; Jack rose from the ground, his hands digging into his hips.

"Yeah," Jack answered. "What is that? A storm?"

"Clear day for a storm," Mitchell replied.

"Perhaps it is an earthquake," Teal'c intoned.

"Uh, guys," Daniel said, squinting towards the hill's crest behind them.

"Don't think it's an earthquake," Mitchell said. "Unless they--"

"Guys," Daniel said, grabbing Jack's arm and pointing towards the hill. "Move."

"What?" Jack turned and squinted towards where he was pointing. His eyes widened. "Oh boy..."

Hundreds of Ferra flooded the hillside behind them, earth flying from their hooves in clods as they raced over the field and directly towards where the three men were standing.

"They are so not stopping!" Mitchell shouted as he began to run full tilt out of the stampede's way. From the gasped expletives and dull thumping footsteps behind him, Mitchell could tell his three companions were matching his pace. A blurred wall of massive bodies hurled towards him out of the corner of his eye; there was no way he could clear their path before they collided, not with the pace the ferra were setting.

The rumbling of hooves grew louder, closer, and sweat dripped into his eyes. He could hear them breathing.

Their footsteps shook his bones.

Their breath raced down his neck.

He could not outrace them.

With a cry he could not stopper, Mitchell threw his body as far as he could, his arms cradling his head as he rolled on impact.

But as the deluge overcame him, he was not crushed. Hazarding to open a single eye, he looked up and saw enormous bodies leaping his, their hooves easily clearing his prone form and landing several feet away. The ground shook beneath him, he labored for breath, but dared not move. Looking towards Aedes Luma, he thought he saw the rock hewn doorway gape to accommodate the entering ferra; he shook his head to clear it and then was certain. The doorway was expanding.

As the last of the ferra dodged his body, he slowly rose, his body quivering and covered in uprooted grass and dirt. Looking to his companions―similarly awed and shaken―he said, "That was...an experience."

"Indeed," Teal'c answered, his eyes wider than usual as he squinted towards Aedes Luma. "One I hope never to have again."

"Ditto," Jack muttered as he brushed debris from his BDUs. "They could've said they weren't gonna kill us. Woulda been polite."

"On a positive note," Daniel said, righting his glasses and accounting for his various papers and pens. "I'm really very awake now."

Mitchell smirked. "No shit."

Gasp! A swear! Sorry to any virgin ears I might've corrupted. :)