CHAPTER TWELVE
STARGATE COMMAND, 21 NOVEMBER 1998
Colonel Jack O'Neill was in the Operations Room of the SGC, consulting with General Hammond about an upcoming mission, when gate activation alarm went off. As security personnel rushed into the Gate Room, Master Sergeant Walter Harriman, who was, as usual, seated in front of the computers which controlled the operation of the Stargate, looked up from his display at General Hammond.
"I'm getting an I.D.C.[1], Sir," he said. "It's Bra'tac."
"Open the Iris!" Hammond ordered.
Harriman deftly pressed a button on his console, and the twenty titanium blades which formed the barrier which protected the SGC from unauthorized entry through the Stargate swung upwards, opening the aperture of the gate and revealing the blue event horizon of the wormhole. O'Neill smiled slightly as he saw it. The Iris always reminded him of the leaf shutter in an old camera he used to have.
Then Bra'tac stepped through the gate, and stood upon the platform. O'Neill watched as he stepped down the ramp and onto the floor of the Gate Room, coming to a halt in front of the security personnel.
"Well, Colonel," Hammond said. "Let's not keep the man waiting."
"Yes, Sir!," O'Neill replied, following the general out of the Operations Room and into the Gate Room.
Bra'tac's face lit up as they entered. "O'Neill!," he exclaimed.* "And Hammond of Texas!"
"It's good to see you again, Master Bra'tac," Hammond said, stepping forward and offering his hand in greeting. Bra'tac took the hand and shook it.
"Welcome to the S.G.C.," O'Neill said, smiling.
"I take it that this is not a social visit," Hammond said.
Bra'tac's face clouded. "It is not," he said.
"All right, then," Hammond said. "Let's retire to the briefing room and discuss the situation, whatever it is."He looked at O'Neill. "Inform Teal'c and the rest of SG-1 to join us."
"Yes, Sir," O'Neill said, moving off to do as commanded.
A few minutes later, O'Neill, Hammond, and the others gathered with Bra'tac in the privacy of the Briefing Room, listening as Bra'tac described some shocking events which had recently taken place on Chulak.
"As the final symbol was dialed," Bra'tac said, "a strange vortex appeared in the air above the Chappa'ai, while the Chappa'ai itself experienced a malfunction."
"Hmmm," O'Neill said. "THAT sounds familiar."
"Indeed it does, Colonel," General Hammond agreed, nodding.
Bra'tac looked mystified. "You have seen such a vortex before?"
"Yes," Hammond replied. "It happened in our own Gateroom, several months ago." He stood up and walked over to a phone, mounted on one wall of the room. He pressed a button before speaking. "Quinn Mallory, Professor Arturo, please come to the Briefing Room on Level 27. I repeat, Quinn Mallory, Professor Arturo, please come immediately to the Briefing Room on Level 27. Thank you." He hung up the phone and returned to his seat. "Before we continue, Master Bra'tac," he said after sitting down, "I think the two gentlemen I've summoned might be helpful."
"Of course," Bra'tac said. "I assume they have something to do with the earlier incident of which you spoke?"
"They do," Hammond said, nodding again.
A few minutes later, they were joined by Mallory and Arturo, both clad in the white lab coats they customarily wore when working here at the S.G.C.
"You wished to see us, General?" Arturo asked.
"Yes, Professor," Hammond said. "Please sit down, both of you. I think you'll find this most interesting." He turned back to Bra'tac. "Master Bra'tac, can you please start over again, from the beginning?" Bra'tac did so.
"That does sound like what happened to us," Quinn Mallory said after Bra'tac described the appearance of the vortex, in the air above the Stargate on Chulak. He looked at Bra'tac. "Did anyone come through the vortex?"
"Yes," Bra'tac said. "A strange, black vessel, of a sort never before seen, soon appeared. It attacked the Jaffa who were gathered near the Chappa'ai, firing an energy weapon of great power and killing many of them, before it was shot down by the defensive Staff Cannon batteries nearby." He paused before continuing. "The pilot of the craft was captured alive. It was a…strange…creature. It was quite similar to a human, but had a bizarrely distorted face and sharp, pointed teeth."
Mallory and Arturo looked at each other, alarm on their faces. Mallory looked quickly at General Hammond, then back at Bra'tac.
"The creature you're describing is called a Kromagg," he said.
"You've encountered them before?" Bra'tac asked, amazed.
"Mr. Mallory and Professor Arturo have," General Hammond said. "The vortex is a portal, connecting two universes in much the same way that the Stargates connect two planets within our own galaxy. Mallory, Arturo, and two other companions arrived here through such a vortex, and on their travels, they encountered these Kromaggs."
"And it was not a pleasant experience, I can tell you," Professor Arturo declared.
"But how did the vortex open on Chulak?" Mallory mused to himself, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"Well, my boy," Arturo said, "I can think of only two possibilities. Either the Kromaggs have some sort of interstellar travel capability, and the Kromagg vessel was sent there intentionally as a scouting party, or the Kromagg vessel suffered the same sort of accident which attracted us here, all those months ago, and was drawn to Chulak because the Kromagg pilot activated his sliding device at the same instant the Stargate on Chulak was activated." He frowned. "But which it might be, I have no idea. I rather think the latter is the case rather than the former, but I could be wrong."
"I agree," Mallory said.
"There is more," Bra'tac said. "Apophis has taken the…Kromagg…for a host. Apparently the Kromagg possesses some unique abilities which Apophis has now claimed for his own."
"Those would be the psychic abilities you told us about," Daniel Jackson said. "The ability of project a telepathic illusion into the minds of others, to communicate telepathically, and to forcibly take information from the minds of others by telepathic means."
Quinn nodded. "Yes, that's right," he said. "I'm not aware of any other special abilities the Kromaggs have."[2]
"As if Apophis wasn't enough of a bastard before," O'Neill said, shaking his head with dismay. "Now he can make us believe he's not him?" He sat back in his chair and began rubbing his temples. "My head hurts."
"And there's one more thing we haven't considered," Samantha Carter said suddenly, her eyes widening. "This means that Apophis has the sliding technology."
"Sliding technology?" Bra'tac asked.
"That's what the technology which creates the vortexes connecting one universe with another is called," Quinn said. He looked at Captain Carter. "And it means that Apophis not only has the sliding technology, but that he has a better version of it than our own. The Kromaggs don't slide randomly. They can direct their slides to specific alternate universes."
"It just keeps getting better and better," O'Neill groaned.
"Indeed," Teal'c said.
"That's all the more reason why we need to start seeing progress on your work, gentlemen," General Hammond said to Quinn and Arturo.
"We shall redouble our efforts!" Arturo declared. Quinn merely nodded, a haunted look on his face.
"I almost hate to wish for this, bearing in mind what you've told us about the Kromaggs," General Hammond said, "but perhaps the best we can hope for is that the arrival of the Kromagg vessel on Chulak was a prelude to invasion, and the Goa'uld are about to get into a war with an enemy who might be as strong as they are."
"One problem with that scenario, General," O'Neill said. "Whoever wins that war, we're probably fucked."
"Indeed," Teal'c said. "Our situation does not appear promising, in either case."
"Well," General Hammond said, rising from his seat, "there's nothing we can immediately do about the situation in any case." He nodded to Bra'tac. "Thank you for bringing us this information, Master Bra'tac. We are in your debt."
"You are welcome, Hammond of Texas," Bra'tac said, smiling.
Hammond looked around at the others in the room. "Dismissed."
[1] I.D.C….Iris Deactivation Code.
[2] They do have other psychic abilities, such as the ability to heal themselves and others, but Quinn is not aware of them as he has not yet encountered them.