My goal was to get a new chapter posted before the season three premiere. Didn't quite make that, but enjoy anyway. I'm off work for a week's vacation so hopefully I'll have a couple more chapters posted before I return to work next week.
Thanks as always for the reviews.
Title: Eternal
Author: Cindy Ryan
Notes: See part one
Summary: Desperate to save his brother Sam runs across a lead that eventually sends them on a journey to another galaxy.
"Table it for later."Mitchell ordered as Daniel got barely a glimpse of the first few pages of the journal.
Cameron and Daniel repelled down to the water line. They unhooked from the repel lines and carefully made their way into the cave. The tide had receded leaving the water only ankle deep.
"How in hell did an Ancient device end up here?"Mitchell muttered as he sloushed through the dark water.
Daniel kept his flashlight trained straight ahead as he replied. "More than likely this wasn't even a cave at the time the Ancients were on Earth. Could've been a crevice could've been a lot of things."
Mitchell's light landed on the far wall where Sam and Dean had been digging. "Found it."
Daniel's curiosity piqued when he saw how much of the device the brothers had been able to pull from the wall. From what he could see it looked to be the width of a safety deposit box.
Mitchell pulled a backpack off his shoulders and took out a small garden shovel. "Let's get started."
Daniel held up his hand. "Let me try something first."
"You do realize that if you set this thing off it'll take you three days to get back home?"
"Yep."
"Okay."
Daniel pulled a pair of gloves from his jacket pocket and put them on. He had come up with a theory on the way here that the device was activated by skin touch. That way it knew the activator's touch was human and proceeded accordingly.
"Let me have your shovel."Jackson stated as he moved toward the wall.
Mitchell moved to stand next to his friend and handed over the shovel.
Carefully Daniel placed the shovel in the wall just to the right of the device. As an afterthought Daniel decided to try once to pull it out. He planted his feet against the wall and gripped either end of the device.
Just as Daniel was about to give up and reach for the shovel he felt the dirt around the device start to give. He got a better grip and pulled once more. The dirt began to crumble from the bottom of the device.
"It's coming."Mitchell commented.
Daniel gave one more strong tug and suddenly felt himself flying backwards. He splash landed a few feet back from Mitchell but managed somehow to keep the device out of the water.
"Got it."Daniel stated wryly.
"Good job."Mitchell replied with a grin as he offered his friend a hand up.
Daniel took his hand and slowly rose to his feet careful not to let the device touch any exposed skin. Under Mitchell's flashlight the two saw that the device was the width of a safety deposit box and the length of an average laptop computer.
Mitchell swung his flashlight back to the hole in the wall. "Where is the power source for this thing?"
Daniel looked at the dark empty hole to the device in his hands. "Maybe it's all here."
"Can't be."
"Why not? They built so many amazing things, Cameron. Why not a portable gate?"
Sheppard, Dean and a still slightly woozy Sam joined up with Weir, McKay and Ronon.
"I thought you were escorting our guests to their quarters?"Elizabeth asked as they stood in the corridor that was now lighted with several portable lights.
"Sam has info on Teyla."John replied quietly.
"I don't see how that's possible."Rodney stated not glancing up from his laptop as he continued to scan for the energy source that he'd seen earlier.
"And you would know that how?"Dean asked. "You know nothing about my brother and me."
"I know enough."McKay replied not bothering to mask the anger in his voice. "If you two knuckleheads hadn't messed with something you don't know about Teyla wouldn't be missing."
Dean took a step forward. "Knuckleheads? Listen buddy if you'd seen half the things we've seen you'd turn green as these walls."
Weir moved to stand in front of Dean. "Dean, Sam, this is Dr. Rodney Mckay, one of our lead scientists and I apologize for his behavior. He tends to speak before he thinks when he's worried."
"Only when he's worried?"John asked sarcastically.
"Still in the room here."Rodney replied finally looking up from his laptop. "Can we concentrate on finding Teyla?"
"Oh now you want our help."Dean stated.
"Dean."Sam warned quietly.
Weir glanced over at the youth for the first time. She was shocked at the paleness of his features and the pain in Sam's eyes.
"Sam, are you alright?"
"Side affects of the visions he gets."Sheppard explained as he leaned against the wall.
Elizabeth frowned. "You had a vision about Teyla?"
Sam nodded wincing at the movement. "Yeah, just snatches of jumbled images."
"Sam thinks she's alive."Sheppard commented.
"Oh that's conclusive."Rodney stated sarcastically. "And why are we supposed to believe these visions?"
"Because they're real."Sam replied closing his eyes slightly as his headache began to intensify.
"We don't know why he had one."Dean explained. "He hasn't had one since…….since Cold Oak."
"What did you see?"Weir asked softly.
Weir's voice drew Sam away from the pain. "She was surrounded by darkness and seemed to be floating and fading at the same time."
"Fading?"Elizabeth repeated worry creeping into her voice.
"I'm sorry I can't give you more information. That's all I saw."
"Thank you."Weir replied. "For telling us."
"I wish we could be of more help."Dean said looking down at Mckay who sat on the floor his fingers flying over the laptop's keyboard.
"I thought you only got supernatural visions?"Weir asked.
"Ninety five percent of the time."Sam replied. "Sometimes they are just of people in trouble."
Once back on top of the cliff Cameron and Daniel returned to the jeep. Daniel took out a carrying case that resembled a plastic tool box. He unclipped the locks and lifted the cover. Daniel gently placed the Ancient device inside and shut the lid locking it once more. He placed it in a secure spot in the back of the jeep before he made his way to the passenger side and climbed in.
Mitchell started the jeep and turned around so they were headed back the way they came. "I'll call and arrange for the car to get transported back to SGC. Might be more clues in there."
Jackson nodded absently as he pulled the journal out of his backpack and settled back in his seat. He opened it and began to read.
Mitchell glanced at his friend and shook his head in amusement as he pulled the jeep out onto the main road and headed toward the interstate.
