Author's Note: I've been trying to get this chapter finished for a while, but it didn't seem to want to come together. On top of that, my brother just got a subscription to The Lord of the Rings Online:The Mines of Moria, so I have been wasting a lot of my free time on that. Throw in college final projects, and you get one author with very little time or energy for writing fanfiction!
However, I am continuing to work on this story, abet somewhat slowly. Things should pick up after the end of the semester, when I will have more time to spend on writing.
SG-20
Episode 1: Chapter 3
"Flash Drive"
Christine Ralston wasn't normally a person who worried easily. However, she was definitely worrying now.
She had checked the medical scanner again twice, but it only confirmed its original statement - the unfortunate Colonel Mike Sherwin was definitely fading fast. She feared he wouldn't last long enough for the medical team to arrive.
"What that!?" Ka'cha'nay suddenly announced, snapping up from his examination of the floor.
A deep throbbing sound erupted from somewhere in the forest, growing louder. Christine rushed to the edge of the balcony just in time to see the alien ship rise out of the forest, brushing aside the branches that had hidden it, slowly rising and spinning to face the city.
A pronounced clicking noise broke through her thoughts. She looked over to see that Ka'cha'nay had opened the cylinder of his M32 grenade launcher and was slamming a new round into the top chamber with practiced speed.
"Anti-tank HEAT round. Go through armor." He explained, flipping the cylinder closed and taking aim.
The ship spun to face then, weapons glowing.
It opened fire, pounding the far side of the city with bolt after bolt of plasma. The bridge fell with a crash loud enough to be heard from where they were hiding behind the low brick railing of the patio. Fires leapt up all around the city, burning with an unnatural furry. Clouds of thick, choking smoke rolled over the area, making Christine cough.
"What burning? This place made of brick!" Ka'cha'nay asked
"I think it's the straw they used to reinforce the bricks!" she coughed back. "This silver dust must be some sort of accelerator!"
Only seconds after the barrage ended, a pillar of light appeared almost directly beside them, lighting up the smoke. A series of silver rings appeared out of the ground, encircling the light.
"Ring platform!" Christine yelled, jumping up and bringing her P-90 clumsy to her shoulder.
The light vanished, and the rings disappeared back into the ground, leaving four people standing there. Two were dressed in white metal armor and helmets, and carrying strange-looking staff weapons. The other two Ka'cha'nay instantly recognized as former members of SG-13 - Daniel Wayland and Megan Though they still wore their SG uniforms, they too carried the strange staff-like weapons.
Ka'cha'nay whipped his grenade launcher at the new arrivals, who had already spread out, pointing their weapons at the startled members of SG-20. He considered opening fire, but quickly dismissed the thought. At this short range, a grenade would likely kill everyone on the patio.
"You will come with us." All four stated in unison.
"No." Ka'cha'nay stated. Christine looked scared, but kept her P-90 aimed at the two remaining members of SG-13. They stared back, faces blank of any emotion. Quietly, she switched her finger away from the trigger as her other hand slid up to the small button on the front of the forward handle.
"Now!" he yelled, throwing the grenade launcher at the two armor-clad humans. Startled, they fired hastily, their shots plowing into the wall as the Unas rushed at them, fighting knife already in hand.
Christine fired her P-90. A glowing blue bolt of energy erupted from beneath the barrel, stunning Daniel Wayland before he could react. She whipped the weapon around, but Megan knocked it out of her hands before she could fire the under-barrel 'Zat'nicke'tel again. The two went down in a heap, clawing and kicking, but neither able to land an effective blow.
Both heard the rings power up again, but neither was able to do anything about it.
Ka'cha'nay never heard or saw the enemy behind him- an energy blast struck him in the back, and he dropped, out like a light.
Christine froze when she felt the cold metal point of a weapon press into the back of her neck.
There was a pause.
"Get up." a woman's voice stated. It was a rough, poorly-articulated voice, as though it's owner wasn't used to speaking aloud.
She slowly got to her feet, releasing her hold on the drag handle of Megan's combat vest. Megan got to her own feet and relieved Christine of her handgun and combat knife.
"Into the ring device." the voice ordered. Slowly, Christine complied. The rings lit up, whisking her away.
When the light faded, she found herself inside a narrow, metal-walled room. One wall curved slightly along its length, and had heavy beams spaced along its length. She quickly guessed that they were now aboard the starship.
Any hope of escaping was cut instantly short as she realized that two burly humans in metal armor were standing on either side of the platform, staff weapons leveled at her head.
"Look, I just gave up! Don't go and shoot me anyway!"Christine snapped.
The guards said nothing, but quickly and roughly handcuffed her to one of the beams.
The ring device came on again, and she was pleased and worried at the same time to see two of the guards come through supporting the unconscious Ka'cha'nay. The Unas was similarly handcuffed to a support, although the guards took the precaution of chaining his feet to the beam as well.
The ring device came on again, and this time the two members of SG-13 and a strange woman came through as well. Christine instantly got the idea that the woman was the commander of this group- an air of vicious determination hung about her like a cloud.
"Who are you and what brings you here?" the woman demanded.
"I'm Christine Ralston, civilian scientist employed by Stargate Command, and that's all I'm telling you."
The strange woman stepped forward, her purple eyes focused on Christine with a look that could have bored through a metal beam by sheer force of will.
"Ah, yes. The Stargate Command. Those two," She indicated the surviving members of SG-13 "Thought quite a lot about it. Sadly, they've forgotten a great deal of what they once knew by now."
"Forgotten?"
"Of course. Their minds needed to make space for my memories."
"WHAT? "
"Well where else would store extra memories? A data crystal?" the alien asked.
"You mean you just downloaded your memories into their minds? Like they were some sort of flash drive or something?"
The alien looked puzzled, but said nothing. Instead, she turned to two former SG personnel behind her. A few seconds later, she turned back around. "Well, yes, kind of like your crude 'Flash memory sticks' 'USB drives' or whatever you call them. Only these are much more useful."
"You're sickening." Christine stated.
The alien's reaction was immediate. She raised one tattooed arm, and an energy wave burst forth from the leaf design on her palm, slamming into the unfortunate Christine. Her head hit the support behind her, and everything went black.
Jason hit the damp ground hard as energy fire rained around him. All about him, the ship's plasma blasts plowed into soft ground, setting the few plants into a smoldering blaze. He was glad now that it had attacked when it did- a series of blast turned the forest ahead of him into a raging inferno.
Half a minute more, and I would have been in the middle of that. He thought, glad they decided to open fire while he was still standing in the potato field.
Then, suddenly, the barrage stopped.
The massive ship seemed to hang in space, as though unable to decide what to do next. I stayed there for nearly a minute, then turned and dived toward the stargate.
However, as it dived, the entire ship seemed to shrink. When it was attacking the city, he was sure starship was at least the size of an Al'kesh bomber. However, as it passed only a few yards above his head, it seemed to be no bigger than a large remote-control airplane. It dived carelessly into the fire, energy shields flickering around it as they deflected the flames.
Then something strange happened. A huge limb fell from one of the flaming trees, crashing into the tiny spaceship. However, as the limb approached the spacecraft, the middle of the limb shrunk rapidly until it was the size of a twig. The limb snapped as it contacted the shields, sliding away. As the two pieces fell away, they seemed to grow rapidly until they had resumed their true size.
He was so shocked that he almost forgot to keep an eye on the ship. He glanced back up in time to see it disappear through a curtain of flame.
Seconds later, a series of sharp clunks followed by a pronounced roar, like that of a jet engine starting up, announced the activation of the stargate. The noise of the engines cut out abruptly, announcing the ship's departure, followed by another kerwhoosh as the stargate deactivated.
Well, that was weird. Jason thought to himself as he reached for his radio to check on the other two team members. Most aliens at least say "Hi" or "Cree" or something before they start …
His hand froze when he saw the city. The few small fires had grown quite rapidly until the entire city was engulfed in flame, consuming brick, timber and stone. A pillar of black smoke rose into the air
From where he stood, almost a mile away, Jason could feel the heat radiating out from this inferno.
For an uncounted time, he stood frozen, watching the flames that he was sure had just consumed three of his colleagues and good friends. Then some sort of demolition charge went off on the hillside above, sending several thousand tons of rock cascading down onto the city, extinguishing the flames and burring anything left of the mighty civilization that once dwelt there under tons of rubble.
Slowly, mournfully, he rolled up his sleeve and reached for the GDO/Remote Dialer Device strapped to his wrist. He'd need to report in, and get the general to send in a firefighting team, as well as a search-and-rescue...no, that wouldn't be possible for anyone, even the ingenious Ka'cha'nay, to have survived that inferno. They'd need a forensics team, though, to excavate some of the city and find out as much as they could about this new alien threat.
Hitting the final symbol on the tiny touch-screen, he raised his radio and began the type of report no one ever wants to make.
"General, This is Major Jason Terrell. We were just ambushed by an unknown alien ship. I have to report both Christine Ralston and Ka'cha'nay MIA, believed KIA."
Author's Note: Yep, yet another CLE (Cliffhanger-Like Ending).We will be seeing a steady increase in the amount of canton characters included in the next two chapters. I plan on including most of SG-1 in the epilogue.
For those of you who are curious- a drag handle on a combat vest is a heavy cloth handle sewn into the back of the vest, used for dragging injured solders out of the line of fire, hence the name.
Once again, your reviews are very much appreciated, even if they're just a short "Nice story, I liked it" or something like that.
Replies to those who don't have accounts on this site:
Andy: Thanks for your kind review. "OC" means "Original Character" (that is, a character created by the fan author, not the show's producers.) Don't feel bad about not knowing it. I know that this term had me somewhat mystified when I first started reading fanfiction.