Stargate and Babylon 5 franchises are owned by their respective copyright owners, I make no money off of this. The first six chapters incorporate the storyline of Stargate: The Movie.
Stargate Babylon
Chapter 1: Stargate
It is the year 2237, five years after the Dilgar War ended. Since then the Earth Alliance has been expanding its sphere of influence, setting up outposts all through its local sectors and expanding trade with the local powers, most notably it efforts with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to rebuild them after they were invaded by the Dilgar Empire. The Earth Alliance has proudly taken its place on the galactic stage after their vigorous showing against the Dilgar, looking forward to a golden future as one of the strongest powers in known space.
At this moment a middle-aged woman with dark hair streaked with grey lines and a golden medallion hanging around her neck, was tidying up a little at the Langford family manor just outside of Chicago. She was practically hip deep in centuries old papers, ranging from ancient financial documents to old black and white photos, yellowed with age, and several early data crystals. She spotted an old file folder from the early twentieth century and leaned over to pick it up, going through the papers in it, what she discovered was beyond astonishing. It detailed an archaeological dig in Egypt during 1928 led by one of her ancestors and the discovery of a ring device underneath some ancient cover stones with both classic ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and some ancient writing of unknown origin.
She learned that the ring device had been shipped to America and was studied unsuccessfully before the Great Depression of the 1930s put a stop to any more funding. During the Second World War research was started up again to see if the device could be used as a weapon against the Axis powers, but due to an apparent accident involving one of the leading scientists on the team all work was stopped and the Stargate was buried and forgotten.
Doctor Catherine Langford, the descendant of Doctor Paul Langford, was intrigued by her discovery. She searched for more papers concerning the device and found more and more notes on it, made by her ancestor and his team. She also found various returned letters made by her namesake, his daughter, to restart the project, all of them rejected. She fingered the little golden pendant with the eye of Ra on it, passed on from daughter to daughter as a good luck charm, and amazingly it seemed to hold true with the documents having survived for this long.
She realized that Earth Force may be sitting on the greatest discovery in the history of the Earth Alliance. She would use her resources within IPX, Interplanetary Expeditions, to get research started up again. She could not know that she would be opening a door to an even bigger galaxy than had already been explored, with wonders to satisfy the most subtle and gross, and terrors to freeze the soul.
Two years later, at the old Plaza Hotel in New York, Doctor Langford, whose long dark hair was even more streaked with grey, found herself walking up the stairs to a lecture being given by a young and very brilliant archaeologist named Daniel Jackson, who was trying to get his point about the origins of the Great Pyramids of Giza across to a bunch of deaf eared 'respected' archaeologists and various other experts and interested parties, including herself.
"... There are symbols painted everywhere, names, lists of offerings... Every other architectural structure at the time was covered in detailed hieroglyphics. When is the academic community going to accept the fact that the pharaohs of the 4th Dynasty did not build the Great Pyramids? Inside the Pyramid, the most incredible structure ever erected, there are no writings whatsoever."
The crowd became agitated at that statement.
"Doctor Jackson, you left out the fact that Colonel Vyse discovered workmen's inscriptions of Khufu's name within the Pyramid," said one of his rivals.
"His discovery was a fraud," retorted Doctor Jackson as he started to demonstrate on the large interactive touch screen behind him.
"Well I hope you can prove it," there was gentle laughter at that.
"Who do you think built the Pyramids?" asked an older British gentleman. You could hear a pin drop in the room as the crowd waited for the good Doctor Jackson's answer.
"I don't know who built them, but..."
"Men from Atlantis," said the same gentleman humorously, "Or the Centauri, or the Vree perhaps!" several more people laughed out loud at that as the audience began to stand and leave the room.
"The point is not who built them, it's 'when' they were built. We all know from undisputed geological evidence that the Sphinx dates from a much earlier time period than was thought, knowing this I feel that we must re-evaluate everything that we have come to accept..."
Everyone continued to leave at that point, except for one person as Doctor Jackson descended from the podium down to the floor, continuing to give his lecture.
"I have been able to show that a fully developed writing system appeared in the first two dynasties, which almost as if it was based on an even earlier type..."
He had now stopped talking as he saw that only one person had stayed after everyone had gone. His old mentor Doctor Robert Jordan.
"Is there a lunch or something?" he asked as he saw the rest of the audience walk out, but he knew that no one had accepted his theories, being far too outlandish to even comprehend.
"Don't mind them, Daniel, they won't accept anything except conclusive proof of your theories, and since we made First Contact with the Centauri almost a century ago the only race we know of for certain that has visited us in the past was the Vree, and those visitations were more along the line of practical jokes," said Doctor Jordan.
Doctor Jackson merely nodded and packed up his materials, grabbed his small Lap Top and headed for his room to pack his bags. Leaving the hotel, he stepped outside into the pouring rain, getting soaked almost instantly.
"I should have brought an umbrella," he complained as he pulled down the hood of his coat.
"Doctor Jackson?" asked an Earth Force officer standing beside a parked luxury air car.
"What, yes?"
"Someone would like to speak to you," the officer said, holding an umbrella above him.
"Earth Force, what's all this about?"
"Just get in the air limo, please!"
"Are we going somewhere?" asked Doctor Jackson as the Earth Force officers ushered him into the air car.
"You'll be fine. We'll take care of these." The Earth Force officer took Doctor Jackson's bags as he settled himself in the rear passenger seat, noticing the older lady in the other seat, holding a folder on her lap.
"Dr. Jackson, are these your parents?" she asked kindly as she showed him a photo.
"Foster parents," he answered curiously. "What's all this about, and who are you?"
"My name is Doctor Catherine Langford."
"The Catherine Langford, the one who discovered the ancient alien ruins on Orion III?" he asked surprised, it wasn't everyday that you met one of the most revered archaeologist in the field.
"That was a long time ago. I am here to offer you a job."
"What kind of job?"
"Translation, Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, you interested?" she asked as she showed him a picture of a collection of tablets that formed a circle with ancient carved writing on them. The inner track seemed to be made up of regular hieroglyphics, but he didn't recognize the symbols on the outer track or the cartouche on the centre tablet.
"Doctor Jackson this is a one-time offer and you will need to sign this non-disclosure agreement," she said, handing over a military electronic pad, which specified his contract as a civilian consultant. He quickly signed the dotted line, and submitted his thumb-print on the miniature thumb-print scanner which lit up as it scanned his thumb-print, confirming his identity.
Doctor Langford flashed a kindly smile as the young man signed and gestured to the officers outside to put Doctor Jackson's bags into the boot of her luxury air car.
"So, where are we going?" Doctor Jackson asked.
"Ever been to the Cheyenne Mountain complex?" she asked lightly as the air car took off into the air, flying over the regular traffic and out of the city.
Three hours later the air car arrived at the base of Cheyenne Mountain. As the air car that Daniel and Doctor Langford rode in flew down and converted from flight-mode to ground-mode Daniel was jostled awake by the landing and saw the gaping maw of the entrance, startling the sleep addled mind of the young archaeologist. They entered the large tunnel entrance, big enough for large ground vehicles to enter, and parked in an internal garage.
"Come, Doctor Jackson," commanded Doctor Langford as she exited the vehicle. "We still have a way to go before we reach our destination." She led him down an oval corridor the walls were a smooth, almost polished, concrete, with metal bracings at regular intervals and covered in steel wire mesh bolted into the walls, an old holdover from the Cold War of the 20th century when this place housed NORAD. They continued down the corridor until they reached the end of it where an elevator was waiting for them, along with an Earth Force officer wearing a standard blue duty uniform with commander's insignia.
"Doctor Jackson, this is Commander Kawalsky, one of the officers assigned to this project."
"A pleasure to meet you, Doctor Jackson," greeted Kawalsky politely. "This way please," he said, gesturing towards the elevator and entered, with the two scientists following close behind him. He got out his military ID card and slotted it into the scanner. "Sub level 28," said Kawalsky and it began to move down, deeper into the mountain. Before they reached their floor Doctor Jackson sneezed, rather loudly, and blew his nose into a handkerchief.
"Cold?" asked Kawalsky.
"Allergies," answered Doctor Jackson, he had been plagued by his allergies for as long as he could remember. "This always happens when I travel."
They stepped off the elevator at level 28 and continued walking; the hallways were circular and made of hard smooth concrete with various colour coded pipes running roughly mid height along the sides, and along the ceilings. On the way they ran into a pair of scientists, a man wearing a maroon sweater with dark brown trousers and a woman wearing a dark green button down sweater and glasses, someone who hadn't responded well to corrective sight therapy.
"Daniel may I introduce to you doctors Gary Meyers and Barbara Shore," said Doctor Langford. "They have been working on the tablet translation and examination for the past two years, and been a part of my team since the beginning."
"Doctor Jackson, it's a real pleasure to meet you, how are you?" Doctor Meyers asked pleasantly.
"I'm good, thank you. Doctor Langford what is this place? I've been to NORAD before, on a tourist trip when I was young, but this was definitely not on the tour," Daniel asked curiously.
Kawalsky answered for Doctor Langford. "This used to be part of the missile testing complex for early American ballistic missiles, the Titan II to be exact. The Earth Force Corp. of Engineers converted the old Cheyenne Mountain complex and expanded it deep underground, and we are now currently one mile down below the surface."
"Impressive," said Doctor Jackson quietly as they continued down the hallways and soon came to a set of double doors with the words "Research Laboratory – Authorized Personnel Only." They entered and on the far wall he saw twelve stone wedge-shaped tablets hung upon it, surrounding a central circular one, forming an almost perfect circle when put together. Doctor Jackson just looked at it with wide eyed astonishment.
"Doctor Jackson, welcome to the Well," said Doctor Langford as she gestured around the work space, with various ancient artefacts of obvious Egyptian origin.
"This is incredible, where did you find this?" the good Doctor Jackson asked in awe.
"Giza Plateau 1928 by one of my ancestors, it's been in storage for over three hundred years."
"I've never seen anything like this."
"Of course you haven't, no one has."
"There are two lines of hieroglyphs," said Doctor Meyers, gesturing to the symbols, arranged in two distinct circles when the wedges were arranged around the central stone. "The inner track has the classic figures, but the outer track is like the cartouche in the centre, it's got writing like we've never found before, here or on any world in explored space."
The centre circle had a set of odd seven symbols running vertically in the centre, with the bottom one raised instead of chiselled like the others. On either side of the odd symbols were more hieroglyphics and what seemed to look like birds wings, like early renditions of an angel's wings from early biblical scripts.
"Those aren't hieroglyphics," said Doctor Jackson as he intensely studied the symbols, trying to remember every dead language from the period he ever read about. "Maybe some form of hieratic or maybe cuneiform."
He then looked at the translation, written up on a chalk board. "Well the translation of the inner track is wrong. They must have used Budge, I don't know why they keep referring his books anymore," he said in exasperation as he began to rub out portions of the translation, re-translating it himself.
"Excuse me, what are you doing?" asked Doctor Meyers. "We've used every know technique available to us..."
"That's a curious word here, Gebeh, and an adverbial, sedjem-en-ef." He continued to write on the chalkboard.
"Sealed and buried."
"Excuse me, what are you doing?" Meyers asked again. He crossed out 'coffin' and wrote 'For all Eternity.'
"For all time," he continued to translate. "Who the hell translated this?"
Doctors Shore and Langford looked pointedly at Doctor Meyers.
"I did," he said nervously.
"Well this should read, 'A million years into the sky is Ra the Sun God, sealed and buried for all time.' It's not 'Door to Heaven,'" he said, crossing it out. "It's 'Stargate.'"
Doctor Langford smiled for the young archaeologist discovery of the device's true name.
"So, why is the military so interested in five thousand year old Egyptian tablets?"
"My report says over ten thousand," said an Earth Force officer who just entered the lab, he had light brown hair, a haggard worn face of a man who had seen much hardship while in the service, but also had a slight irreverent look about him.
"Afternoon sir," said Commander Kawalsky.
"Do I know you?" Doctor Langford asked.
"I'm Captain Jack O'Neil, from General West's office; I'll be taking over from now on."
"This figure ten thousand years, that's ludicrous, the Egyptian culture didn't even exist at that time," said Doctor Jackson.
"We know," answered Doctor Shore. "But the sonic and radiocarbon tests are conclusive."
"Well, these are cover stones, was there a tomb underneath?"
"No, no, no, but we did find something a lot more interesting..." she began, but was interrupted.
"Excuse me, this information has become classified," said Captain O'Neill. "From now on no information is to be passed on to non-military personnel without my express permission," he said to Commander Kawalsky then walked out of the lab for his office and quarters one level up.
"Catherine what's going on here?" asked Doctor Meyers.
"I'm not sure, but I intend to find out," she said as she made to follow the Captain. She managed to catch up to him just before he was about to enter the lift.
"Captain O'Neill, I was under the impression that I had complete autonomy."
"Plans change, whether we like it or not," said Jack, looking sympathetically at the good doctor,
"Why you, why were you assigned to this project, your no scientist," she said, noticing his division badge on his left shoulder, the standard yellow EA symbol of the Earth Alliance with the SEAL Trident in the centre, making him a member of the Special Forces division of the EFNI, Earth Force Naval Intelligence.
"I'm here in case you succeed," he said in all seriousness. "But anything of a diplomatic or scientific nature I'll leave to the experts, even though I so enjoy those things."
Doctor Langford could only snort at the Captain's sarcasm as he walked away. She also got the feeling that he was hiding something, what he was hiding she didn't know, but she just knew that it was deeply personal. She returned to 'the Well' and her and her team, now including Doctor Jackson, went to work.
Two weeks went by and still no results as of yet. Doctor Jackson was working into the early hours of the morning again, as he usually did, listening to his own voice on a recorder, trying to find some clue in the dozens of observations he had done over the last two weeks.
"Completed search in cuneiform and other pre-dynastic hieroglyphics. No matches whatsoever. I have exhausted all reference material in comparing the symbols on the cartouche to all known writing samples from the period, pre and post, still no similarities. I'm never gonna get paid..."
At that point Doctor Jackson turned off the recorder and went to get some coffee, if you could call the swill they give the scientists here coffee. He noticed that the coffee pot was empty, so he took it outside to the drinking fountain outside the Lab, where a guard was sat down reading Universe Today just outside the door. He flashed the guard his ID then got to fill the pot with water.
As it was filling up Doctor Jackson noticed the constellation on the front page of the newspaper, an idea suddenly hit him. Forgetting about the coffee for the moment he took the section of the newspaper with the constellation and took it inside the lab, then quickly remembering to ask the guard if he could borrow it afterwards, then continued on into the lab. He took a black marker pen and made the lines connecting the stars thicker, then compared them to one of the symbols on the cartouche.
"Orion," he said out loud.
The next day Doctor Jackson made his way to the main briefing room. It was long and rectangular with a metal staircase in the corner, going down to another floor. In the middle of the room stood a long table with multiple inbuilt monitors, on the one side was a long holographic screen, displaying a scene from nature right now, to give the illusion of being on the surface, though everybody knew better.
Milling about the briefing room were several high ranking military officers and the scientists from Doctor Williams team, though today there was someone extra on the team, a young blond, female Earth Force lieutenant that he hadn't been introduced to yet.
"Doctor Jackson may I introduce General West, the commanding officer of this facility," said Doctor Williams.
"Hi," said Daniel nervously as he shook the General's hand.
"And this is Lieutenant Samantha Carter, one of the foremost astrophysicists in the field."
"Pleasure to meet you Doctor," she said.
"Hello," replied Doctor Jackson, getting even more nervous.
"So, you think you've solved in fourteen days that what they couldn't solve in two years?" asked the General as he took his seat at the head of the table.
"Two years?" asked Doctor Jackson, surprised that they hadn't figured it out in all this time.
"Any time," said General West, growing a little impatient.
"If you would all direct your attention to your monitors," said Doctor Jackson as he inserted a data crystal into a slot, and displayed the cover stones.
"On the outer track you see these symbols, which you believed to be a message to be translated, were in fact star constellations." He put up a series of constellations next to the symbols. "Now these constellations were placed in a unique order, forming a map or an address of sorts. Seven points to outline a course to a position, and um..." He paused slightly as he gathered his thoughts. "To find a destination within any three dimensional space, you need six points of reference to determine an exact location," he said as a three dimensional cube appeared on the big screen with six dots representing the reference points, connected by several red lines. This was a familiar way of navigating space for just about every Earth Force officer who had spent time in the fleet.
"You said you needed seven points?" asked General West.
"No, six for the destination, but you need a point of origin to chart a course," he answered as another dot appeared outside the box and connected where the lines intersected.
"Except there's only six symbols on the cartouche," Doctor Meyers pointed out.
"Well, the seventh isn't inside the cartouche, it's just below it here," he said, highlighting the little symbol of a pyramid with small circle above it connected by a line and two little figures praying next to it. There was complete silence in the room.
"He did it," said Doctor Langford.
"No, that symbol isn't anywhere on the device."
"What device?"
General West looked to Captain O'Neill who gave a why not gesture.
"Show him."
An aide activated a set of controls and the big holographic screen reseeded into an armoured blast door, which retracted up, revealing a real window down into a cavernous room, which used to be the nuclear missile silo where a Titan missile used to be housed. Down at the bottom was a large black metal ring with nine chevrons on it, mounted to several superconductors with a ramp going up to it, like some kind of door way. Doctor Jackson and the scientists went down the spiral staircase to control room; monitors were all over the place, all standard Earth Force touch screens, with a large, reinforced, observation window looking directly at the big circle. Doctor Jackson just couldn't believe his eyes.
"What is that?" he asked.
"It's your Stargate," answered Doctor Langford as the inner ring started to spin; a camera was focused on the top centre chevron, seeing the different symbols pass by. Doctor Jackson looked intently at the monitor, and then noticed something.
"Stop," he said as a particular symbol came into view, then borrowed a marker pen from one of the technicians and started drawing on the monitor.
"Hey, what are you doing, don't do that," said the tech as Doctor Jackson drew.
"A pyramid with the sun high with two little men praying next to it," he said as he finished.
"He's right, it was right in front of us the whole time," said Doctor Meyers in realization.
"General West, Jackson has identified the seventh symbol," said Doctor Langford over the intercom.
"Go ahead," said the General.
Giving a quick nod to Sam she said, "Commence dialling sequence."
"Commencing dialling sequence," said Lieutenant Carter as she inputted the first symbol into the dialling computer, making the ring spin around until the chosen symbol reached the top centre chevron, glowed then seemed locked the symbol, then the bottom left chevron opened and locked in place.
"Chevron one holding, chevron one is locked in place."
Then it span around in the opposite direction.
"Chevron two holding, chevron two locked."
"Chevron three holding, chevron three locked."
"Chevron four holding, chevron four locked."
As the fourth chevron engaged the technicians in the Gate Room began to evacuate, knowing what happened the last time they had tried to activate the ring.
"This was under the Cover stones?" Doctor Jackson asked.
"Yes, my ancestor, Doctor Paul Langford, discovered it back in 1928; it is made out of a mineral very similar to Quantium 40, but different. We've named it Quantium 50."
"Chevron five holding, chevron five locked."
The room began to shake slightly, like a small tremor.
"Chevron six holding, chevron six locked."
Now it felt like the room was shaking apart.
"This is as far as we have ever been able to get," said Doctor Langford as the shaking became ever more ferocious, then came the seventh and final symbol...
"Chevron seven locked," said Carter as sparks began to fly from the attached superconductors. A great whoosh of blue 'water' shot out of the Stargate, and then was just as suddenly sucked back into a vortex behind the gate, next it was still, like a pool of water, only vertical. The 'water' bathed the gate room an ethereal sort of light, constantly rippling.
"Send in the probe," ordered one of the General's aides.
A small six tracked probe came out of the left blast door then up the ramp, moving slowly towards the Stargate. There were several GROPOs in the Gate Room, pointing their PPGs at the Stargate, as if worried that something was going to come out of it
"What are we seeing here?" Doctor Jackson asked.
"What you're seeing here Doctor Jackson is the event horizon of an artificially generated wormhole," said Carter.
"Wow," was all he could say as the probe entered the water and seemingly disappeared.
"Probe is en route, and we're tracking it..." said Carter as they tracked the probe through the wormhole.
"Probe has arrived at the wormhole's destination, calculations show that it's roughly 300 light years away, beyond explored space."
"Receiving telemetry from the probe, video and sensors" reported one of the technicians.
"Atmospheric pressure, slightly higher than Earth sea level and trace amounts of carbon dioxide and other trace elements, nitrogen and most importantly oxygen. Gravity at 1.02Gs, we have viable life support at close to Earth norm."
A vid feed came through on the monitors, revealing that the Stargate on the other end was in a large room, with only one way out.
"Could you move the camera around, take a look around?"
The technician nodded and then gave the probe new instructions. The camera panned around the chamber, bathed in the light from the active Stargate. A couple of meters away from the steps and to the side of the Stargate stood a pedestal covered in the same symbols as were on the Stargate.
"Looks like some kind of console, maybe to control the Gate?" Sam theorized.
"There wasn't one at Giza," said Doctor Langford.
The Gate chose that moment to disengage, the wormhole disappearing and all telemetry from the probe lost.
"What happened?" Doctor Langford asked.
"I don't know, running diagnostics now," said Carter as she began running though the various diagnostic systems she and several other engineers and scientists had designed for the 'gate.'
"According to the diagnostics the gate suffered a brief power failure and at the same time there was some sort of interference that cut our telemetry, I'm making some adjustments to the gate's power interface, it should prevent any power failures in the future."
"Keep an eye on it Samantha. Re-dial the gate please."
"Yes ma'am."
Once again the gate began dialling, and once again the room began to shake again.
"We really need to lessen these vibrations," Carter commented as she inputted the commands into the dialling computer. Once again a great whoosh of unstable energy erupted then settled into a standing pool of water. "We are again receiving probe telemetry," she said.
The probe began to move out of the chamber that the Stargate on the other end was in, constantly sending telemetry back to Earth through the gate. It continued on though many corridors and antechambers, exploring every little room it came across, though there was only one floor. The last chamber before exiting was filled with dozens of pillars, supporting a ceiling several meters high. Doctor Jackson made a mental note to himself that there were no writings on any of the surfaces.
The probe had now exited the building that housed the Stargate, revealing a vast desert landscape with temperatures as high as 35 degrees Celsius in the shade.
"Let's park the probe outside just inside the exit of the building, the exploration team can use it later on to relay messages though to the Stargate when they go through," Carter told the probe driver on a separate console. "Cutting power to the gate, now," she said and the Stargate shut down with a whoosh.
In the control room General West, along with his advisers and Captain O'Neill, were studying the images and sensor data picked up by the probe.
"So this is what we got back from the probe," said the General. "Freeze and enhance," he said as the camera panned around the alien gate room then focused on the other Stargate. "Both gates must have functioned as a doorway between our two worlds."
"The symbols on the gate match those on ours almost perfectly," said Doctor Jackson. "The only symbol that's different is the point of origin, but we don't know the coordinates for Earth in the alien coordinate system."
"Based on this information I think we may have to scrub the mission," said the General. "This project is for nought without a reconnaissance mission, and without those coordinates anyone we send might not come home."
"Not necessarily sir," said Lieutenant Carter.
"Please explain Lieutenant."
"We should check with Explorer Command and ask if they have any ships close to that planet's system, if we can get one of their jump capable scout ships and later perhaps one of our Explorer class ships could build a jump-gate..."
"Alright, I'll have a talk with Admiral Leftcourt, but considering the distance it may be weeks before we could get a ship out there," said General West. "Captain that should give you enough time to train Doctor Jackson for this mission, as well as a diplomat that will be coming along with you. Lieutenant Carter will also accompany you on this mission."
"Sir, do I really need to take along a pair of scientists and a diplomat along, it could get messy," said O'Neill, not really liking the idea of being saddled with non-combatants in an unknown situation.
"If we encounter anything or anyone on that planet that might be friendly you'll need both a linguist and a diplomat, and Lieutenant Carter is our foremost expert on the Stargate, her being on the team is non-negotiable."
"I'm an Earth Force officer just like you sir, and just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside, doesn't mean that I can't handle whatever you can handle, sir," Carter said testily.
O'Neill smirked a little and said," Oh this has nothing to do with you being a woman, Lieutenant." He paused dramatically. "I like women; I just have a little problem with scientists."
"Captain, I logged over fifty combat missions during the Dilgar war, is that tough enough for you, or do we have to arm wrestle?"
'I like this one,' thought O'Neill. 'She's got spunk, but a little tense.'
General West smiled as he saw how the two of them were getting along so well.
"Then Captain I suggest you begin training the good doctor in the use of military armour and weapons," said the General.
"Yes sir."
Over the next week Doctor Jackson got a crash course in the use of power armour from Captain O'Neill and others that were going on the mission. It felt lighter than he expected, but walking and running around in it took some getting used to, and he had to take it back to the base's armourer to be customized for him. A week later, while Daniel and O'Neill were on the firing range getting Daniel checked out on various Earth Force small arms, along with Lieutenant Carter who was doing her yearly quals on both standard PPG pistols and rifles, General West popped in with the diplomat in tow.
The diplomat was a middle aged fellow with dark grey hair and a large bald patch forming on top of his head, and had a weathered face, but his blue eyes were keen and alert, and right now they reflected a man who was happy to see the captain.
"Captain O'Neill, Doctor Jackson, may I introduce David Sheridan, he's the one coming along with you through the Stargate."
"Nice to see you again, Jack," Sheridan said in greeting.
"David, so you're the diplomat they've assigned to us," said O'Neill smiling.
"How know him, Captain?" Daniel asked in confusion, not really seeing how a special ops soldier like O'Neill could possibly know a famous diplomat like Sheridan, the man who had brokered several of the mutual defence treaties with the League-of-Non-Aligned-Worlds after the Dilgar War.
"Poker with his son," O'Neill said succinctly. "So how's John doing?"
"He's just graduated from the academy, and is now serving as a Starfury pilot on the Lexington," said the older diplomat.
"Good for him," said Jack smiling
"I got the go ahead from the President and Explorer Command has diverted the Amundsen to the sector in question," said the General. "However without a tachyon beacon on that planet finding the system will be difficult and would require the Amundsen and her escorts to drop out of hyperspace to get an astrological fix on their location every few light years."
"We'll just have to take a tachyon beacon with us to the planet when we go," said the Captain. "When will the Amundsen get out of range of the regular beacon network?"
"Another week or so, by their estimate, more time for your team to get Doctor Jackson and Mister Sheridan up to speed on basic power armour and for Carter to reacquaint herself with her gear."
"Don't worry sir, I've kept up with my quals and I completed advanced power armour training just a few weeks ago, before we opened the Stargate," she said smiling.
"Carter, when did you ever have the time?" the Captain asked incredulously as he couldn't imagine anyone could possibly make the time to complete such rigorous courses while at the same time working on such an important project.
"I just made the time sir, besides most of the hard work of creating the gate interface was completed months ago, it was only Doctor Jackson's last piece of the puzzle that we needed to get the gate open again."
"Good to hear," said the general. "You'll head out in one week from now, before the Amundsen gets out of the range of the local beacon network. Mister Sheridan I leave you in Captain O'Neill's capable hands," said General West as he left the firing range.
"Shall we begin campers?" asked O'Neill as he walked over to the equipment locker.
A week later as Doctor Jackson was packing the last of his gear for the trip through the Stargate Doctor Langford entered his quarters.
"Catherine, what's up?" he asked
"I just wanted to give you this," she said as she handed him her golden pendant.
"I couldn't," he started to protest.
"Yes you can. My ancestor, my namesake, found this with the Stargate at the dig at Giza; it has passed from mother to daughter for the past two centuries and has always brought us luck, maybe it can do the same for you. Also don't forget to bring it back to me; it's a piece of my family's history," she said kindly, but with a serious edge.
"Thank you Catherine and I will be bringing it back." he said and gave her a warm hug.
Jackson put the pendant on around his neck and went to meet up with the rest of the team assembling outside what was now called the Gate Room. The Special Forces teams that were going with them were all armed to the teeth with PPRs, Plasma Pulse Rifles. Improved versions from what they had during the Dilgar war.
They also wore full Combat Armour, a strength enhancing exoskeleton, meaning they can run faster and further, and carry ten times than what they usually could unassisted. The helmets were standard Earth Force Combat helmets, completely sealed with a detachable re-breather system. A Heads Up Display, HUD, is displayed right over the soldiers eyes with a link to the weapon he is holding at the time, a targeting reticule is shown, meaning you always know where your weapon is pointed, and a small camera, integrated into the targeting sights on the weapon itself, allows for the soldier to just point his weapon around corners and hit the enemy. This is just a small part of the Integrated Battle Management System.
Underneath the Combat Armour the soldier would wear standard BDUs with a skin-suit underneath which automatically adapts to the environment they find themselves in, regulating their body temperature and maintaining the optimum atmospheric pressure against their skin.
The two civilians were issued a different version of Combat Armour that was not as heavily armoured, but they still had the same BDUs and skin suits underneath.
They all waited outside the Gate room for the go ahead from the control room. As they waited Captain O'Neill was making a final inspection of his men. The military personnel seemed comfortable with their gear, standing tall and straight with their weapons held ready. The only one of the military personnel who didn't seem all that comfortable with the Combat Armour was Lieutenant Carter, though that was a given since she had initially trained as a pilot, not an infantrywoman.
"How're you holding up Lieutenant?" O'Neill asked.
"Just peachy sir," she said, she was used to the skin suits, all pilots wore them, but the Power Armour took a little getting used to. "I'll manage."
"Alright, if you have something to say or want to back out of this, now is the time," said Jack, giving his men a way out if any of them were uncertain, but all of the 32 soldiers and two civilians didn't move a muscle, until Doctor Jackson gave a big sneeze, thankful that his helmet was an open faced version and not a fully enclosed helmet that the rest of the team was wearing. He took out a handkerchief and loudly blew his nose, much to the annoyance and disgust of the rest of the team. 'Typical geek,' they all thought.
Jack just shook his head. "Let's move out people, recon team first."
The expedition moved into the Gate room, the Stargate was active and the six FREDs, Field Remote Expeditionary Device, were by the ramp and lined up through the opposite entrance, waiting for a signal to go through. First through the Gate was a six man recon team, upon their all clear, Captain O'Neill looked over to Lieutenant Carter, who held a small remote controller in her hand, with a nod gave her the order for her to send them through. The FRED convoy moved up to the Stargate and disappeared into it.
Next to go through was Captain O'Neill, who slowly, but surely walked up the ramp, getting ever closer. Filled with a feeling of apprehension he poked his weapon into the event horizon of the wormhole, then took the final step through the gate and disappeared, just as quickly as the FRED.
The next to go through was Lieutenant Carter, a little quicker than O'Neill she involuntarily gasped before going through, like just before you drop into a swimming pool.
One by one the rest of the expedition walked through and disappeared, until only one was left to go through, Doctor Daniel Jackson. He stood before the Stargate, mesmerized by the beauty of the light and the water like event horizon. He experimentally moved his hands forward, dipping them into the Stargate and felt a slight pull, but he could still move his arms back out. He smiled in childlike wonder then closed his eyes, stepped through the Stargate and into the ride of his life.
AN: I made some small edits, credit goes to Dan the Van Man from Spacebattles.