Stargate Genesis
Episode 10
"Of Epitaphs"
General Samantha Carter walked out of her office into the conference room to see General Jack O'Neill waiting for her. It was still strange for her to see him getting older and fatter, after serving so many years under his command on SG-1. Back then he had been lean, fit, and attractive, and never compromised his health. An office job can turn even the most virile soldiers into heavier, slower versions of themselves.
Sam thought of Generals Hammond and Landry, who had also served as the heads of Stargate Command before her, and shook her head. She had made a promise to herself that just because she didn't go on missions anymore, she wouldn't let herself get soft. Frequent excursions with her husband Whitney helped with that.
"Sam," said Jack, holding out a hand in greeting.
"Jack," she responded warmly, pulling him in for a hug.
"Oh, thanks," he said, awkwardly patting her on the back. "How's the ol' husband?"
"You mean Whitney?" said Sam, pulling away from the embrace. "He's great. We went hiking through Arizona last month."
"Oh, yes, Arizona," said Jack, raising his eyebrows in mock interest. "I went there once, you know. It was … nice."
Sam smirked at Jack as the conference room door opened and SG-1 walked in. Cameron, Jessica, Greer, and Danesh took places around the table.
"General O'Neill, I'd like you to meet my new team," said Cameron. "Major Jessica Warren, Danesh of the Tokra, and I'm sure you've already met Major Greer."
O'Neill nodded at Greer, and smiled. "It's great to meet all of you, and I'm sure you'll do the Stargate Program proud," he said. "Now let's get to business, shall we?"
"I'm patching Sheppard through now," said Sam. She pushed a button on a round device in the center of the table, and a hologram of Colonel John Sheppard appeared in the empty seat next to her.
"Colonel Sheppard," said Jack. "It's nice to see you."
"Thank you, General," said John. He looked around at SG-1 and General Carter. "Looks like the whole gang showed up to say hi."
"How is everything going on the Elizabeth?" asked Sam.
"Well, as you know, we had a minor subterfuge problem," said John. "Everything is alright now, but it may take longer to get to the Genesis Address than we originally thought."
"Like I said in the message I sent you earlier, we called you for another reason," said Sam. "We've just completed construction on the second Elizabeth-class starship. Seeing as you are the only person to ever captain one, we would like your input before we send the Charles Kawalsky on her maiden voyage."
Jack cocked his head and looked at Sam. "I didn't know we were calling it that," he said.
"I think it's about time Major Kawalsky was properly recognized for his service," answered Sam.
Jack nodded. His eyes seemed to shift out of focus, as if he were lost in thought. Remembering his old friend stirred emotions he had long since hidden deep inside himself. Around him the briefing continued.
"The Charles, as we have been calling her, has been outfitted with a modified version of the gate drive," explained Jessica. "She doesn't have the range of the Elizabeth, but she should be able to reach any location within the Milky Way galaxy with one jump. Plus, the drive itself can be powered by a complement of large naquadah generators, rather than the six Zero Point Modules that the Elizabeth requires."
"Wouldn't ZPMs be more efficient?" asked John.
"ZPMs are in short supply right now, John," said Sam. "Plus, if our test of the Charles is successful, we plan on building a lot more of these ships. There is no way Atlantis could keep up with the demand."
"With lower power requirements, the Charles should be able to make a series of jumps without stopping to recharge for more than a few minutes," said Jessica. "The ship was designed as a tactical weapon. We intend to create a fleet that can outmaneuver anything the Lucian Alliance can throw at us. The Charles is fast and tough, tougher than any ship we have encountered or built."
"We sure could have used one of these when we were facing the Ori," said Sam.
"Well, I've had the designs cleared by Eli and Todd," said John. "They say it should work, as long as the calculations are done correctly. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how easy it is to end up somewhere you didn't intend to be, especially when you are dealing with wormholes."
"Thanks John," said Cameron. "SG-1 will be accompanying a skeleton crew on the first test flight. We'll let you know how it goes. That is, if Major Warren's calculations don't send us to Narnia."
"Very funny, Colonel," said Jessica. "I won't make a mistake."
"Good luck," said John. He looked at O'Neill and nodded. "General."
John's image disappeared, leaving only an empty seat. Jack shook his head, willing his eyes back into focus. "Colonel," he said distractedly, though John was already gone. Had it really been sixteen years since Kawalsky died? Jack looked down at his hands, which showed his age now more than ever. Sixteen years…
~~00~~
Cameron and Greer walked into the bridge of the Charles, which was cloaked in high orbit above Earth. Colonel Shuan Quire stood up from the captain's chair.
"Colonel Mitchell, it is an honor to meet you," said Quire.
"The honor's all mine, Colonel Quire," said Cameron. "Quite a ship you've got here."
Quire smiled and looked around at the bridge. "I'm still in shock they are trusting me with a shiny new bird like this," he said.
"I'm sure you'll do her proud," said Cameron, putting a hand on Quire's shoulder. "Ready to get underway?"
"Yes, sir," said Quire, walking over to the command chair. He pushed a button, and a hologram of General Carter appeared before them.
"Colonel Quire," she said in greeting.
"General," he responded. "We're ready and eager to fly."
"You have the go-ahead," said Carter. "Good luck, and come home safe."
Carter disappeared, and Quire took his seat in the captain's chair.
Cameron put a hand to his ear.
"Everything set to go back there, ladies?" he asked.
~~00~~
"Major Warren is still working on her calculations," said Danesh.
"This isn't basic algebra," complained Jessica. "I'm almost finished."
Jessica stood in front of the gate drive holding a tablet in her hand and making last minute adjustments to their plotted course. The drive was almost identical to the one on the Elizabeth: it consisted of a titanium ring with one hundred and twenty-eight symbols around a dome which curved out from the bulkhead. The dome's purpose was to deflect the vortex generated by the ring out into space, where it would open a stable wormhole large enough for the entire ship to pass through. In front of the ring on either side were two trapezoidal pillars. On the Elizabeth, these pillars housed the six Zero Point Modules required to power the drive. Here on the Charles, the pillars were connected to huge naquadah generator casings which occupied large sections of the room on either side of the drive.
"Done," said Jessica. "We should be ready to go."
Danesh sighed. "We apologize for the delay, Colonels," she said. "Major Warren is very young, and not accustomed to responsibility."
Jessica shot her a look that could cut through diamond.
"Better buckle up," came Cameron's voice. "I hear this can be a little jarring."
Danesh and Jessica moved to seats against the wall on one side of the room and strapped in. Jessica watched as nine symbols lit up on the ring of the gate drive, and the naquadah generators hummed with effort. Suddenly the entire ring lit up with blue light, and with a roaring sound the light was deflected off the dome. From a profile view, it appeared as though the entire room was suddenly underwater, and the force of the vortex rebounding off the dome distorted the air like a strong current emanating from the ring and heading toward the front of the ship. After a moment the room was silent and the air was still. By now the event horizon had formed several hundred meters in front of the Charles.
The sublight engines of the Charles fired with a dull hum and the ship entered the wormhole. Jessica looked to her left where Danesh was sitting, only to see her sitting at once two feet and a hundred feet away. Her vision blurred and she felt nauseous. Willing her eyes to focus, Jessica turned her attention to the gate drive, when suddenly she felt a jolt as she was ripped in a direction she didn't know existed. For either no time at all or an eternity, she felt herself floating in a space with no dimension and no points of reference.
The Charles re-entered real space on the other side of the wormhole. Unbuckling her restraints, Jessica ran to the corner and heaved heavily, though her stomach had nothing in it to eject.
"Everything alright back there?" came Cameron's voice over the radio.
"I'm not sure," said Jessica, regaining her composure.
"The gate drive seems to be intact," said Danesh, who was already inspecting the titanium ring.
"Something is wrong," said Cameron. "I need you both on the bridge."
~~00~~
"We were supposed to jump to the alpha site," said Quire.
Jessica pushed a button on the console in front of her, bringing up a holographic star map. Cameron, Greer, and Danesh stood watching.
"The coordinates are correct," she said. "We are where the alpha site is supposed to be."
Through the viewport on the bridge, the team could see large rocks and bits of debris floating past the window.
"Looks like something happened to the place," said Cameron, stepping closer to the window.
"This didn't happen recently," said Danesh, turning to look at Jessica. "If there was a planet here, it was destroyed long ago. The coordinates must be wrong. Someone made a mathematical error."
"We just spoke to the commanding officer at the alpha site before the jump," said Greer.
"Contact Homeworld," ordered Quire, sitting in the captain's chair.
"I'm not getting a signal," said the communications officer. "The ansible is reporting no viable connection Earthside."
"Where the hell are we?" asked Cameron.
"Wait!" said Jessica, still looking at the star map. She zoomed out and highlighted the ship's path. "Watch this."
A dot representing the Charles appeared next to Earth, vanished, and then appeared at their current coordinates. Quire looked over at Jessica, puzzled.
"What am I supposed to be looking at, Major?" he asked.
"I'll play it again," she said, resetting the footage and pointing to a bright yellow dot halfway between Earth and the alpha site. "Pay attention to this star."
Just as the dot representing the Charles disappeared, the star she pointed out flickered.
"A solar flare," confirmed Danesh.
"Exactly," said Jessica. "The wormhole we opened crossed a solar flare as we entered it, so we were sent off course."
"So where did we end up?" asked Cameron.
"We ended up exactly where we wanted to be," explained Jessica. "We just got here 200 years too late."
"Welcome to Narnia, Colonel," said Greer.
~~00~~
Jessica paced back and forth in front of the gate drive. Holographic windows open around her showed star charts and complicated equations. She was muttering to herself when Greer walked in.
"Everything alright in here, Major?" he asked, looking around at her charts.
"Colonel Mitchell wants us to go through the stargate back to Earth, to see what happened," he said. "Are you coming?"
"No, I've got to figure out how to reverse the process," she said. Then she stopped pacing and looked at Greer. "Did you say stargate?"
"Yes…" said Greer. "Is that a problem?"
"It's just that sometimes I forget the gate drive isn't the only device on board capable of creating a stable wormhole," she said, bringing up yet another holographic window.
Greer raised an eyebrow at her. "Is there anything I can—"
"Shush," interrupted Jessica. "Go away now; I have math to do."
~~00~~
The gate room was clean and sterile. There were three large doors at the front end of the room, each designed to function as an airlock in case of emergency. The entire room was a module which could be ejected from the Charles at a moment's notice. The stargate was conceivably a weak point on the ship; given the Charles' coordinates and an override code for the gate shield, an enemy combatant could use the stargate as an entry point for a hostile takeover. Thus, the room was ejectable.
In the center of the room the ring of the gate spun, dialing the address for Stargate Command. The event horizon burst forth and then settled back into the ring, casting a blue shimmering light into the room and over SG-1. Danesh held up a small metal orb, which hovered above her hand and then flew into the open wormhole. The device was similar to the kino devices Eli Wallace had discovered on the Destiny, except that this version was re-designed to be compatible with standard stargate team equipment.
"The kino has arrived in Stargate Command," she said, holding the tablet in her hands for Cameron and Greer to see. The video feed from the kino appeared on the screen.
"Atmosphere levels are good," she said. "No human life signs detected."
"That's not Stargate Command," said Cameron, looking at the screen. The kino was displaying a view of a city block that looked like it had been abandoned long ago. Nature had long since reclaimed the buildings, which were in varying states of decay. "What is that, Danesh?"
"That's Boston," said Greer.
"Boston has seen better days," said Cameron. "Alright, let's move out, see what we can find."
~~00~~
Cameron, Greer, and Danesh stepped through the stargate and into what remained of Boston. Turning around to face the gate, Cameron saw that not only were they not in Stargate Command, but this gate wasn't the gate that was kept at Stargate Command. It wasn't even Ancient in design.
"This looks alien," said Greer.
"Most of the technology your people now possess is alien," said Danesh. "This could very well be a future version of the Stargate built by humans."
"No, that's not it," said Cameron, stepping up to the gate as it shut down. "This looks like the gates they had on Tollana."
Danesh cocked her head. "You had not yet joined SG-1 when the team visited Tollana," she said.
"Doesn't mean I didn't see pictures," said Cameron. "It took us years to replicate gate technology. The Tollan were far more advanced technologically when we first met them, but they went Vulcan on us and refused to share. It was kind of a big deal around Stargate Command."
"And you think this is a Tollan gate?" asked Greer.
"It sure looks like it," affirmed Cameron.
"Then what happened to the original gate?" asked Danesh.
"Whatever it was, it looks like it happened to the whole planet," said Cameron. "Let's see if we can find anything."
~~00~~
They had walked ten blocks when Greer spotted it. A huge monolithic structure covering a fifteen block area, as if it had been simply set down on top of the existing structures. It was grey and windowless.
"What in the hell…" said Greer.
"Danesh, can you get the kino up in the air?" asked Cameron.
Danesh nodded, and used the controls on her tablet to send the kino high in the air above the city. When it was high enough, the screen showed a bird's eye view of the entire city. Gigantic non-descript structures like the one in front of them dotted the city. While the original buildings of Boston had broken down against time and nature, the monoliths stood undamaged.
"It appears as though the city was invaded by a hostile force," said Danesh.
"You think?" said Greer.
~~00~~
"I found a door!" Cameron called. The team had made their way to the first alien structure and searched for a way in.
Greer and Danesh walked to where Cameron was standing. He hacked away the vines that covered the doorway, and pulled the door open.
"Remind me, Colonel, why we are exploring this building?" asked Danesh.
"To find out what's inside," said Cameron, shining a light into the room beyond.
"This is not our time," said Danesh. "Whatever we find here is inconsequential."
"Clearly something very bad is going to happen here," said Cameron, "and I'd like to know what it is, or will be."
Danesh and Greer followed Cameron into the building. The door opened into a long white hallway with a tall ceiling and doors lining both walls.
"Simply by visiting the future and returning to our time, we will have changed the course of events that led to whatever happened here," said Danesh. "No one can know the future."
"You're assuming that we're ever going to get back to our time," said Cameron, as they walked further down the hallway. All the doors were closed.
"If we do not return, we only have Major Warren to blame," said Danesh. "It was her faulty calculations that sent us here in the first place."
"Hey now," said Greer. "Jessica knows what she's doing. She couldn't have predicted a freak solar flare."
"Precisely," said Danesh. "She could not, because she lacks the abilities required of her position."
"Simmer down back there," said Cameron. He walked to one of the doors along the hallway. As he reached for it, the door hissed and slid sideways into the wall. Cameron brought his P90 and the flashlight attached to it up toward the doorway, shining a light into the room beyond. He stepped inside, followed by Danesh. Greer brought up the rear.
The room they stepped into was small and made of metal. In the center of the room was an operating table. Along the walls were sleek metal cabinets. Greer opened a door on one of the cabinets to find it full of medical utensils, syringes, and vials of liquid he could not identify.
"Colonel, I've got a bad feeling about this…" he said.
"This looks like a medical facility," said Cameron. "Danesh, is the kino picking anything up?"
Danesh looked at her tablet, which showed the nightvision view of the kino, still out in the hallway.
"Nothing, Colonel," she said. "Wait… the kino is picking up faint lifesigns in another room."
"Let's go," said Cameron. They walked out of the room and back into the hallway. The kino was flashing in front of a door on the opposite wall.
"The life signs are coming from behind that door," said Danesh.
Cameron stepped up to the door, which opened for him. He shined his light into the room and stepped through.
"Damn…" he muttered, as his flashlight revealed rows of stasis tubes. Naked men and women hung suspended in tubes of liquid. There were hoses coming out of their orifices and leading down to the base of the tubes. "Turns out the Matrix is real."
"What is the Matrix?" asked Danesh.
Cameron slowly walked along a row of tubes, until he came to a shattered one. All the liquid had drained out and there was no occupant. The tubes lay sprawled out onto the ground.
"There is someone else awake in here," said Danesh. "Stay still."
She watched on her tablet as a fourth dot moved toward the three dots representing her, Colonel Mitchell, and Major Greer. "It's coming this way."
Cameron raised his P90 to the end of the row. The beam of light fell on a naked man crouched by a tube. The man had detached a hose from the tube and was sucking on it. He stopped what he was doing and turned toward the light.
"Grrrr…." growled the naked man, before sprinting towards Cameron.
"Run!" he shouted, firing a warning shot above the man's head and stepping backward. Cameron, Greer, and Danesh turned around and ran for the doorway. Back in the hallway, they started running for the door they came in at, only to see their way blocked by several more naked people, who began barking and growling nonsensically before running toward SG-1. Danesh raised her P90 and began firing.
"What the hell are you doing, Danesh?" shouted Cameron. "These are human beings!"
"As I told you, Colonel, this timeline is of no consequence," she said, continuing to fire. "As soon as we return to our time, this future will no longer exist."
"She's got a point," said Greer, bringing up his own P90 and firing at the oncoming savage humans.
They reached the front door, stepping over the dead bodies of the people they had mowed down. Cameron was the last out the door, and he slammed it shut behind him just before another feral man caught up to him.
Danesh looked down at her tablet.
"The kino is still inside," she said, turning the screen so Cameron and Greer could see. Inside, a few remaining men and women scratched at the door, while others wandered around, moaning.
"They're zombies," said Greer.
"Unlikely," said Danesh. "They were clearly experimented on, however. Whoever was running this laboratory was using stasis pods to preserve their subjects, and then left the pods running when they abandoned the planet."
"Are we sure they aren't still here?" asked Cameron.
Danesh looked out at the city. From here she could see several more of the alien laboratories.
"I don't think so," she said. "I would guess that whoever built these buildings hasn't been here for quite some time."
"I've seen enough," said Cameron. "Let's get back to the gate."
~~00~~
Jessica walked into the gate room as the rest of the team walked through the gate. She looked up from her tablet for a moment to acknowledge their arrival.
"Major Warren!" said Cameron. "You missed our big adventure."
"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Come with me; I figured out how to get us home."
~~00~~
On the bridge, Jessica pulled up a starmap while Cameron, Greer, Danesh, and Colonel Quire watched.
"In every recorded case of a solar flare sending an SG team through time, they found a way home by waiting for another solar flare of the exact properties necessary to happen again, and timing a wormhole to intersect it, sending them back to their original time," she explained, highlighting the path of a wormhole on the star map, and where a solar flare crossed it.
"It is nothing short of miraculous that any team ever got home this way," she said. "The chances of finding the right solar flare and finding a wormhole connection that can utilize it are slim to none."
"Why are you telling us all this, Major?" asked Quire.
"Because," Jessica smirked, "we don't have to wait for the perfect opportunity. We can create it."
She brought up a schematic of the Charles.
"Every Elizabeth-class ship has two devices capable of creating a stable wormhole," she explained. "The first is the gate drive, located here," she said, pointing to a compartment near the rear of the ship.
"The second is the stargate, here," she said, pointing to another compartment closer to the bridge.
"In theory, a wormhole could be opened using the gate drive that opens on the other end at the ship's stargate," she said.
"Why the hell would we do that?" asked Cameron. "It would tear the ship apart."
"We don't," said Jessica. "The gate drive will dial the ship's stargate, but we will just buffer the pattern the stargate receives, and send it right back to the gate drive. That way, when the ship goes through the open wormhole, it will come back out in exactly the same place. We won't have moved in space at all."
Jessica beamed proudly. Cameron stared at her.
"I guess I don't follow," he said.
"Oh!" she said. "I forgot the most important part. We have to fly the Charles next to a sun and fire at it to cause a solar flare. I've already done all the math; if we position the ship correctly and fire with the exact required amount of power, when we enter the wormhole a solar flare will hit the ship and send us back in time 200 years."
"That's it?" asked Cameron.
"Almost," said Jessica. "We're going to have to do all of it with the ship's shields turned off. The solar flare needs to intercept the wormhole, which exists between the gate drive and the stargate. If the shields are on, they will just deflect the flare, and we won't go anywhen."
She looked over at Quire.
"Sorry Captain," she said.
~~00~~
Jessica and Danesh stood in the gate drive room. Jessica made a final adjustment and then looked up at the titanium ring.
"We're ready to go back here, Colonels," she said.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Cameron over the radio.
"Yes," she said, "but the timing has to be perfect, or else the solar flare will rip the ship in half. We are going to be taking some pretty heavy damage no matter what, but as long as we do this right, the Charles will make it out alive."
"Alright," said Cameron. "Strap in, ladies."
Jessica and Danesh walked over the seats on the side of the room and strapped in. Danesh looked at Jessica, and then fixed her gaze on the gate drive, preparing for the jump. Nine symbols lit up on the ring of the drive, and then the entire ring lit up, sending a burst of energy toward the front of the ship.
Jessica heard the sublight engines come on and gripped the restraints holding her to her seat. The ship moved forward, and Jessica shut her eyes tight in an attempt to avoid the nausea she felt the first time. She could hear the solar flare rocking the ship and tearing at the hull before it entered the wormhole. Once again, she felt herself ripped from space into a dimensionless void. She wanted to vomit but found that she had no mouth to vomit with. All she could remember was feeling sick; there was never a time when she didn't exist as a feeling of uneasiness.
Jessica snapped back into awareness as the Charles re-materialized on the other side of the wormhole. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
"Everything alright back there?" came Cameron's voice over the radio.
Unbuckling herself and standing up, Jessica made her way over to the gate drive and pulled up a holographic window displaying the data the ship recorded during the jump.
"It worked, Colonel," she said. "We made it back."
"We are getting reports that the hull of the ship took heavy damage from the flare," came Quire's voice. "Getting ripped through time like this wasn't easy on her. Please don't ever make me do that to my ship again."
"I'll do my best," said Jessica.
"We're going to need a tow back to the alpha site for repairs before she can fly again, but we survived," Quire continued. "Good work, Major."
Jessica looked over at Danesh, who had joined her by the drive. Danesh allowed herself a polite smile and a shallow bow before quietly walking out of the room. Jessica smirked, and then turned back to the holographic display.
"Score one for Major Warren," she said to herself, smiling.
Written by Caleb Palmquist
Story by Andrew Marron and Caleb Palmquist