Chapter 3: Alterus

The city remained as dark and as silent as it had been when they had left. However, it wouldn't remain so for long. Firstly, there was the whoosh of the wormhole establishing, followed closely by SG-1's voices and muffled footsteps...

"I can't stand the man..."

"I can't think why Sheppard hasn't shot him yet - McKay must be pretty darn good to put up with that..."

"Indeed..."

...then SG-12, completely silent, followed by the sound of McKay stomping.

This trip through, Mitchell noticed the blue chevrons on the gate, just like in Pegasus. He couldn't believe he could possibly have missed something so glaringly obvious - but then, the gate was so commonplace to him now... man, that's weird, he thought, that I no longer consider a large disc-shaped alien transporter to be strange. He turned on his torch with a flash of light, as did SG-1 and then 12. Only McKay hadn't turned one on. The first thing he did was shatter the silence preserved by the other eight, screeching, "You call those puny things torches?" He got a self-satisfied look on his face and pulled something out of one of the packs he'd mad Davidson's men carry through for him. He thumbed a button and, as the massive, wide beam emitted from the torch added smugly, "Those aren't torches - this is a torch."

Mitchell was struck silent for a moment, then burst out, "How the hell did you get that?"

McKay's self-satisfied grin widened. "Smuggled it in. See? Suddenly I'm wanted."

Mitchell grimaced and grabbed the naquadah generator, carrying it to where Carter was waiting, and putting it where she wanted it. Lieutenant Rachel Bolton came up the stairs behind him, carrying a bagful of equipment which she was carrying with Teal'c. Stubborn, thought Mitchell. Teal'c had hold of his end as if it were a feather weight, while she was dragging it like a tonne of bricks...

McKay, meanwhile, had taken one look at the generator Mitchell had been lugging and his face lit up. He mustered up Davidson and his two men, and came over to the Colonel with a stupid grin on his face and a light in his eyes, "You said this city's just like Atlantis, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "No, no, don't bother - so, it'd run on ZPMs."

"And you think there might be some spares," guessed Carter.

"Bingo!" He was almost rubbing his hands together with glee at the thought, "I amaze even myself some days. So, I just thought I could go take a look...?"

"Fine with me," muttered Mitchell, shrugging and hefting his P-90.

McKay nodded rapidly, "I'll be back when the lights are on," he said. He looked so excited that for a moment Mitchell thought he was going to bow - guess his bad back stopped him.

The Canadian vanished down the hall and was soon out of earshot, though they did hear one last comment made to Major Davidson, "So, you're all prepared to die for me right, because..."

Carter sighed in relief. "Thank God he's gone."

"How long'll he be?" asked Lieutenant Bolton.

"With the transporters down? A good three hours."

Bolton grinned.

At the same time, Daniel was still sifting through a portable device he'd been playing with since finding it on the dead Ancient the day before hand. Clearly, it was a portable history databank - a strange choice for a corpse to be holding - but he hadn't found anything of interest in it yet and it wasn't likely he would in a hurry. He sat on the edge of the steps, and scrolled down to the next row of Ancient writing - and suddenly, finally came to something that caught his curiosity. But just at that moment, he heard a scuttling noise in the hallway. He picked up his P-90 and shone its light around. Nothing... just an Ancient city. Mustn't have been anything, he thought. He grabbed his work and walked to where Carter and Bolton were still struggling with the lights and getting the city online.

"How's it coming then?" he asked them.

"Not too well. And you?"

"Well. I've actually got quite a bit to report - for a start, the city's name." He paused, as though for dramatic effect, glanced at them expectantly, "The city's name was Alterus!"

Blank looks all around met this statement. Not quite the reaction he'd hoped for, but then, it was the one he should have expected, when he thought about it. After all, the legend of Alterus didn't even exist on Earth so far as he could tell. It was pretty obscure stuff even on the planet he'd found it on.

"Daniel Jackson, I am sure that means something to you..." began Teal'c.

"... but let's all just pretend for a moment we're not all Ancient Historians and that we have no idea what the hell you're talking about," finished Mitchell.

"Okay, okay," protested Daniel, raising his hands, "In some Ancient stories and legends, Alterus was said to be 'from whence they came' - that is, the original Alterans, when they came to settle the Milky Way - this must have been the city that they came in..." he paused, thinking rapidly, "And not only does this database show that this is that original city..."

"The city couldn't have survived that long," broke in Carter, "We're talking millions of years."

"Well, I presume the city was maintained by the Ancients, over the years - probably nothing here is actually the original any more. What's important, though, is that they never left for the Pegasus Galaxy. The people of this city took their chances with the disease. Eventually, however, several people were killed by an unstoppable 'scourge', according to these records - the disease, I'm guessing. And so the rest sealed themselves in stasis pods until it had passed..." his eyes lit up with such delight it was almost like watching a goa'uld, "...and they never left, or they left in a hurry, because that's where all the records end."

"And the bodies start?" muttered Vala.

Carter glanced at her, then back at Daniel, "So, why didn't the pods open up when the danger had passed, if that's the scenario?"

He shrugged slightly, "I don't know, but..."

"You want to try and find them, right?" Sam gave him a look.

He smiled, "Of course."

"Okay, Teal'c - you go give Indiana Jones a hand," ordered Mitchell, "I'll stay here with the ladies and 'keep guard'..." He winked at Bolton and laughed. Daniel and Vala, followed by Teal'c vanished out through the same door which had already claimed McKay.

"Looks like it's just us then," stated Mitchell and stretched slowly, "Why didn't these people understand the meaning of 'comfy chair'?" He shrugged, sat on the steps with his back against a wall, and about ten seconds fell asleep.

"How do people do that?" asked Bolton and as the sound of Mitchell's breathing filled the room.

"Who, him?" Carter laughed, "Years of hard practice..."