Chapter 11
The window was a narrow, earthy channel that was wider on the inside than it was on the outside. From where they were, she could see across a huge expanse of terrain. Even the Stargate's dark metallic sheen was visible in the distance, rising out of a broad field of gently waving yellow grass. From this distance, it looked like a sea of maize.
She couldn't see the downed tel'tak from this location, and the clouds of smoke that had drifted into view during its demolition were long since gone. She also noticed the sky was much cleaner than when they had first arrived. Whatever had caused the slow death of the vegetation around the Stargate and the absence of animal life had nothing to with the brief volcanic activity the Tok'ra had mentioned.
Jaffa were often in view. They were coming steadily closer to their location by the day. They had found the Stargate, but after a cursory inspection of it, had left it alone. She had watched them through her binoculars, to see if they showed any familiarity with it but there was no evidence of that. Infact, their lack of interest in the Stargate reinforced a little pessimistic voice inside her head that the gate was as useless as the Tok'ra thought it was. So far, they hadn't found any traces of the Tok'ra or SG-1's presence and seemed in no hurry to locate the owners of the craft they had destroyed.
She ran a hand through her blonde hair and turned back to study the room. Ra's sun disk was a blaze of angry red on the wall above the golden throne and seemed to dominate the room as the light from the window struck it. Maybe that's the point she decided. Maybe Ra wanted to dominate this room even when he was absent? She hadn't been on the first mission to Abydos so had never met Ra, but she had heard the stories from the Colonel and Daniel, and even from Feretti and Kawalsky. Ra had definitely been a Goa'uld who had wanted his presence felt.
She sighed as she thought of Abydos and wondered if the feisty Skaara would accept Ascension better than Daniel had. She winced as she thought of Daniel, alone at the SGC. He was family. They should have been there, helping him through one of the most vulnerable times in his life. How frightened must he be, being alone among strangers who knew more about him than he did? He had no living family and SG-1 had been his substitute - siblings, mentors, and closest friends. Now they were here, trapped amongst Jaffa on a distant planet, while he suffered in isolation at home.
"I do not believe the Stargate here was ever designed to function in the manner of other Stargates" the distorted male voice drifted back into her consciousness and she looked down. Sin and Quinn were arguing again. They had been arguing for the past three days and part of it, Carter knew, was because they were trapped underground. The frustration of living in almost perpetual darkness, eating a limited variety of food and with little to do aside from explore the complex, puzzle out the Stargate and avoid Jaffa patrols was beginning to wear on them all. Both O'Neill and Jacob were becoming increasingly sarcastic, Anise was growing more unbearable by the hour and the debates between the three working on the Stargate had long since lost their veneer of scientific respectability and were fast approaching open warfare. Even Teal'c was becoming increasingly isolated, patrolling the complex alone or taking the time to meditate.
She wondered if he continued to meditate out of habit, from nearly a century of carrying a Goa'uld larva, or whether he was just seeking the politest method of avoiding antagonism with his colleagues.
"Why?" The Kelownan's voice was flat. It had that tone in it. That tone he had used when he had stalled SG-1's investigation into the cause of Jackson's terrible injuries on Kelownia a year ago. It was a tone she had only heard occasionally since but which she had come to recognise as meaning he was frustrated. Usually it meant he agreed with a situation he was unable to support but those who didn't know him as well as she did often mistook it for bigoted antagonism. "Look, right now, I'm not seeing what you're seeing. That Stargate has everything a normal Stargate has except a DHD. If we can create a DHD, why wouldn't it work? Theoretically."
She moved down the steps to rejoin them, listening to Sin's reply.
"The presence of naquadria in the Stargate's design. Naquadria is an extremely unstable radioactive substance. It would have a destabilising effect on any wormholes engaged" Sin gestured. "That's if the energy requirements for creating a stable wormhole in the first place didn't cause the whole thing to explode on activation"
"So, you're saying they built a full sized replica, down to the tiniest details and set it in a naquadria-lined naquadah plinth for show? Why go to that trouble? Wouldn't it be easier to just build a normal, real, Stargate?"
"Jonas has a point" Carter said. "Why use naquadria and naquadah in a fake?"
Sin shook his head and sighed, moving away and stretching his back muscles.
"Alright" Quinn folded his hands in front of his stomach and frowned. "We're not getting anywhere. How do Stargates work?"
Carter raised her eyebrows. "Okay. Well... basically, the inner ring is energised to react with neutrinos. The spin concentrates the gravitational energy required for the creation of an artificial wormhole that transfers charged matter streams along lines of force in a single direction along an extra-dimensional conduit."
"Right and a DHD...?"
"Provides the power necessary to activate the wormhole and the information needed to establish one to another Stargate"
"So when we don't have a DHD....?"
"We can manually dial the gate itself but without an energy source to activate it, we won't be able to use it"
"So, basically what you're saying is that we need an energy source."
"Yes. Well. That and to translate the glyphs so we can attempt a manual dial"
Sin had been listening to this in silence, occasionally shaking his head. Suddenly he stepped forward, one hand raised to stop their flow. "Given our current predicament, where do you envisage our power coming from?"
There was silence. The three looked at each other uncertainly.
"What about the tel'tak?" Quinn asked after a moment.
Carter looked thoughtfully. "We'd need to get a closer look at it. They could have destroyed its power source. If they've just made sure it will never fly again, then we might be able to salvage enough energy from the crystals to power the Stargate. Once, possibly twice" she paused. "We'll need some way of harnessing the energy to the Stargate as well"
"How will you achieve that without the Stargate exploding?" Sin asked dryly.
Carter paused. That was indeed the question.
"Who's exploding Stargates?"
The three turned sharply to find the others had finally returned from their foray into the tunnels. O'Neill was advancing on them, eyebrows raised.
"Uh... well, sir... we have three problems with the Stargate that we need to overcome if we're going to get off this planet" Carter began. "The first problem is lack of energy to power the gate. The only source of energy that might provide enough for us to manually dial out is in the tel'tak."
"Assuming Her'ak hasn't had it destroyed" O'Neill interrupted.
"Yes, sir...."
"And if we can get it out of the tel'tak without the Jaffa catching us"
"Exactly, sir. We also need to find a way of channelling the energy to the Stargate"
"No Meaning-of-Life solution?"
Carter smiled at the confusion that flashed across Quinn's face. Their escape from Heliopolis had been years before they had met the Kelownan and while he had probably read about the mission, she doubted even the Colonel's report had referred to the method they used to escape P3X-927 as the 'Meaning of Life solution'. "No, sir. I haven't seen rain since we arrived. I don't think we can count on a storm this time."
"Alright, Carter. What else?"
"The second problem is that even if we get an energy source and find a way to attach it to the Stargate, we still need to translate the glyphs, associate them with Earth's address and find the point of origin for this planet before we can manually dial out."
The Colonel's eyebrows rose at that. "And the third problem?"
"Well, sir. As Sin was saying when you arrived, even if we manage to overcome the first two problems, the presence of traces of naquadria in the dais means any energy we channel into the Stargate could cause a chain reaction. The resulting explosion would probably destroy the whole plateau the Stargate is on, and us right along with it"
O'Neill stared at her. "Woah" he managed after a moment. "Well... we don't want to do that, Carter."
Her expression was wry but she knew she didn't need to answer that.
"Can you find a way to activate the Stargate without turning us into sushi?" Jacob asked in the silence.
"Well. I need to know what energy source we end up with and what equipment we will need to channel the output. I won't know until then, Dad."
O'Neill nodded. "In that case we better investigate the tel'tak for supplies" he scanned the room. "Okay, people. Listen up. Teal'c, Jacob, Carter, you're with me. Jonas. I want you, Anise, Sin and Ilithya to stay here and work on translating the glyphs. Keep your heads down and out of sight until we return. Okay?"
There were nods all round, so O'Neill slipped his gun over his shoulder. "Okay kids, let's tool up."