Chapter 3

Jittering as he stepped out, he blinked, the lights being far dimmer than the twin stars of the planet behind him. SG-2 was gathered at the foot of the ramp speaking to each other. A second squad of airmen pointed their weapons up at him.

"Major Sowell." he heard Landry speak through the microphone. "Where's Doctor Jackson?"

"Right behind me." He said. Almost on cue, the final figure crossed through the event horizon. Daniel Jackson nodded at Landry.

Power was cut to the gate, which fizzled out.

"Power down complete." Harriman said over the intercom. "All personnel stand down."

The major could only stare at the ring behind him – how similar it was to the one he had crossed only a few days before. Hell, how long had he been gone? Did time mean something different here?

"Major Sowell?" Landry asked again.

"Yes, sir?"

"Got a little surprise for you."

Through the door came the rest of his men. Five of his boys – Jenkins, Yosemite, Svensen, Uller, and Zagoc; all of them dressed in their full uniforms.

"They treat you well?"

"Four stars." Yosemite said. "Room service sucks."

A few cracked smiles as General Landry made his way into the room. "Colonel."

"Recovery was a bit slower than expected." Ferretti said. "Got tied up at the end. These fine gentlemen," he waved to Sowell and Jackson. "gave us a hand."

"Primary objectives?"

The colonel went straight-faced. "Accomplished. Made contact with the locals, made our intentions known. Yeah, we're looking at a resurgence of pledged Jaffa. I don't know their symbol."

"Tohep." Jackson said. "General, SG-2 was the first to encounter an organized resistance of these guys. We need to go back and question the locals further on this."

"Agreed." Landry said. "We'll get SG-1 on that as soon as possible, but not today. SG-14 and SG-15 are penned in for expeditions. Teal'c should be thrilled about it."

Jackson shrugged. "Oh thrilled. I'm sure he's going to love this more than fishing."

"Ferretti, your team's off duty."

"Sir." The colonel nodded.

"Dismissed." Landry said. SG-2 and the guards disappeared.

"Hey, I owe you a beer." Ferretti said to Sowell, and then disappeared, leaving only Landry, Jackson, and the Wolfhounds.

"So are we free to go?" Sowell asked.

"Lieutenant Yosemite has informed me that your missions have schedules just as SGC expeditions?"

"Yeah. They cut us loose for a few days to see what's what in an EUS."

"EUS?" Jackson asked.

"It's what we call alternate universes. Extrauniversal Spaces. This is EUS-1712."

Jackson's eyebrow raised. "This was more Sam's area, but… how many universes have you found exactly?"

"Ongoing." Sowell said. "I lost count over 2000." He checked his watch. "Unless our times work different, I think that right about now actually they should be starting to listen for progress report. Svensen."

The tall bulky Sergeant Major reached into his pack and pulled out a device that was impossible to identify to the untrained eye. Svensen in particular was expert at using it. His thick finger slid around the screen, and within moments, it began to chirp once every five seconds."

"What's it doing?" Landry asked, curious and concerned.

"A very bright kid once told me that it's kind of like a whistle."

"OK."

"Every world sort of has a signature. We're not from your world. We play by different rules. So, deep down, deep down…"

"Deep in our balls." Jenkins said.

"Yeah what that asshole said." Sowell said before clearing his throat. "We all have different signatures. Somehow you can tell which is which. This little whistle makes a louder version of that signature."

"So they can pick you out of the white noise." Jackson said.

"Bingo." Sowell said, turning towards the gate. "So, they're going to take a few minutes matching up, making sure there are no duplicates, yada, yada, yada; they're going to make calculations, a few AI are going to take over the operation because the Humans are too slow; I guarantee someone is getting drunk at this very moment… and if there is a kind and gracious God…"

Fifteen seconds later, an aperture instantly appeared where the Stargate did. It was a sound of tearing paper as loud as a gunshot. Air popped and the room lit up.

"Offworld…" Harriman began, but trailed off. "General, we couldn't see it coming."

"Relax, Walter." Landry said.

"Now comes the cool part. Watch this." Sowell said grinning.

The portal began to wobble. The air around it seemed to ripple. Strange shapes and alien geometries were briefly visible that baffled the mind and confounded the senses. Ghost images flashed in front of everyone's eyes, and for a moment, shapes not unlike those of men seemed to appear and disappear within the portal – probabilities and worlds of themselves. Even now Kevin Sowell wondered if another version of him was coming to a world exactly like this one, only separated by incredibly small differences. He was here now.

"General, radiation levels are rising around the stargate."

"It's fine." Sowell said. "It's confined around the portal."

Landry nodded to the control booth.

"Kind of like how your stargates work. Except this one goes to other universes."

"Kind of, kind of not." Jackson breathed.

"That should be the motto of the project." Yosemite said.

There was another loud pop, and suddenly the ripples were gone.

"Check, check." Svensen said, tapping his radio headset. "1-1 radio check, Ops verify positive handshake."

There was silence for a few moments. Crackling of an open channel sounded in the room. Sowell opened a channel for the benefit of everyone else. The only sound was that of the interdimensional portal emitting what could have been a slight wind. This surprised Jackson as he thought a portal tearing into the fabric of space itself… no, Existence, would be a bit louder.

"1-1, Ops. Confirm positive handshake." A voice over the radio said. "Confirm mission code."

Sowell spoke, "Ops, 1-Actual. Mission code Bravo-Tango-Oscar-Oscar-4-4-1-7, please confirm."

"Confirmed. Good to hear you boys." The voice said.

"Well look at that." Landry said.

"1-Actual, describe status of Team 1."

"Team 1 reports all nominal." Sowell reported. "We made a few friends along the way."

"Say again, 1-Actual, 'friends'? We were under the impression 1712 was sterile."

"Well, we were wrong; oh man, there's a whole bunch going on here. Stand by."

Sowell took the radio and held it towards Landry. "Want to make First Contact, sir? Beginning of a beautiful friendship?"

Landry's eyebrows bobbed. "Protocol?"

"Just act natural sir. Just a heads up though: this is going to get weird."

"Weird?"

"Well, we work with these other guys… They've… got a bit more hair than we do."

Jackson said, "What?"

Landry took the radio, thinking about what he was going to say.

The major started. "Oh wait, I just thought of something. Doctor, how good are you with alien languages?"

Jackson shrugged. "I studied Egyptology when I was studying for my doctorate. I've gotten kind of good since then." He smiled.

Sowell nodded. "I think we have a problem you might be able to help us with. We're going to need everyone we can get on this one."

Landry laughed. He'd heard of strange stories like this before; he learned a lot at the SGC, but this was a first. "Hell, why not." He cracked a smile, hit the transmitter, and said, "This is Major General Henry Landry, United States Air Force. How's life on the other side?"