Teal'c and Jack watched the security camera footage once more, the horror of the construct's energy cannon striking their fellow SG members refusing to be lessened by continued viewing of the footage.
"Turn it off, Teal'c," Jack said as he sat down at the table, rubbing his hands across his head. He felt as though he had not slept in days, even though the attack was a scant two hours ago.
"I have never seen such a weapon, O'Neill," Teal'c said, sitting down as well.
"That makes two of us," Jack replied, glancing up as Sam and General Hammond entered the room. Dr. Jackson came jogging down the stairs and took his seat.
"What do you have for us Major?"
"Unfortunately not much, General. Most of the information we can gather is from the computer readings prior to the wormhole establishment. Now as we said before, the energy readings were unlike any other wormhole we've seen, but I have seen something similar."
"From where, Major?"
"From the quantum mirror Daniel found. Only this one operated on a much larger scale."
"Are you saying the Gate could have been opened by another universe?" Daniel asked.
"Oh, not this parallel universe crap again," Jack said, resting his head on the table.
"I think it is a possibility. The energy signatures were very comparable to the quantum mirror when it is activated. I had to scale back the readings but the connection is there. I think this wormhole we saw operates on a similar resonance technology for cross-universal travel."
"Does anyone understand what she just said?" Jack asked the room.
"Colonel, basically whatever that thing was that came through the Gate was not of this universe, but maybe a parallel one."
"Then why come through the Gate?" the General asked. "Do they have a Gate on their end?"
"I don't think so, General. We went over the readouts and while we may call it a 'wormhole' it really wasn't. Maybe 'conduit' is a closer analogy. From what we can gather that machine or whatever it was is probably a scout, like the M.A.L.P. we use. The energy build-up was caused by the massive power they use to establish a doorway to our universe, but I think they require a focusing agent for the conduit. They, whoever they are, need some means to establish their exit."
"Almost like dialling blind on a Stargate," Daniel mused.
"Exactly. They somehow send out this wave of energy and hope it connects with something. Some means to…coalesce their probe and open a gateway. When you're dealing with the potentially unlimited number of parallel universes, you're bound to hit something eventually."
"Lucky us," Jack said.
"Whoever they are, they are hostile," the General stated flatly.
"Our weapons proved useless against it," Teal'c added.
"My guess is they want information and technology. Look at the weapon used. It consumed organic matter but left inorganic material. I can't think of a better way to gather protected resources than that."
"Have you found a way to prevent this from happening again, Major?"
"Sorry General. I'm not even sure how they connected to our computers, let alone how to stop it. Our encryption codes were useless. We might be able to set up some kind of remote shutdown, but that will take time."
"In the meantime check with the Tok'ra and see what they have to say about this, as well as the Asgard. Maybe they have some insight into this. Dismissed."