Chapter 3: What the heck is a Stargate? (Annabeth)
After living the demigod life for over a decade, you get used to seeing weird stuff. As much as I hate to admit it, even as a daughter of the wisdom goddess there were plenty of times I was surprised by some weird entity or mystical power. But after journeying through the Labyrinth, being teleported by pearls, being blown across the world by Zeus, falling miles into Tartarus, then escaping it through the doors of death, I thought I'd seen it all.
Naturally I was wrong.
The surface of the portal looked and felt like liquid, almost like a pool of cold water suspended in a vertical ring. But the moment Percy and I stepped through things got weird. It felt like we were yanked forward at impossible speed, hurtling through a blue-green tunnel like the world's fastest rollercoaster. The tunnel then shifted, tiny points of light being stretched out as we went even faster, the color shifting to a more even blue. I couldn't turn my head or move at all, did I even have a body anymore? The tunnel continued to twist and turn at terrifying speed, until it straightened out and ended in a bright light.
Percy and I were thrown out the other side, falling and tumbling to an abrupt stop. I tried to get up, but vertigo knocked me back down immediately. I looked around to see the rest of our group all struggling to get their bearings. Nico was the first on his feet, and after a minute or 2 the rest of us had mostly recovered. The place we landed looked almost identical to the room we left, except there was more visible technology around. I looked back to see an identical black ring as the one we entered, with several chevron shaped lights equally spaced around its circumference, but the blue-green liquid was gone. Would we be able to get back? I thought. As I examined the room, I saw a similar series of consoles and displays as on the other side. Good, at least there's a chance we can power this thing back up when the time comes.
"You good?" Percy asked, "never better, you?" I replied. "Of course the crazy portal looks like water, as if almost drowning 4 times wasn't bad enough,". I chuckled. For a son of the sea god, Percy seemed to be really good at finding watery environments where he was helpless. But hey, nobody's perfect. I spotted that the room transitioned into a corridor that led away from the portal room, and we quickly resumed our pursuit. After moving down the corridor for a few minutes we saw sunlight and heard the sounds of the soldiers' blue staff weapons, along with…gunfire? Oh Styx, the situation was bizarre enough as it is, and armed mortals would only make things worse. I just hoped the mist would cover us enough to ensure we didn't get shot by mistake. That's the nasty catch of being a demigod, you are vulnerable to things from both the mortal and mystical world.
The group waited at the entrance to the cave, I could just make out a group of soldiers firing and falling back, before falling to automatic gunfire. Then I heard the now familiar sound of a ring platform, and looked to see one out in the field, the rings lowering after its occupants teleported away. We all readied our weapons and Percy led the group out of cover, and we turned to see what the soldiers had been fighting.
A group of 5 humans, all wearing military tactical gear, had just emerged from cover amongst rocks and trees when they saw us. They quickly aimed their weapons at us, and Thalia and Reyna aimed back with their bows, arrows already loaded. Fortunately, whoever these mortals were they had discipline, and their leader flashed a hand signal to hold fire. "Who are you? And what are you kids doing out here?" said one of them, presumably their leader. "I was about to ask you the same thing," Reyna replied.
In the moment of awkward silence that followed, I examined the group. They all looked human, and their equipment all looked like fairly standard military issue. There were 3 men and 2 women. 2 of the men were caucasian, and looked to be fit but otherwise normal in stature, though one was wearing round, thin framed glasses. The other, though, had dark skin and was a full head taller than the others, and had the build to match. He also had some kind of oval symbol on his forehead. One of the 2 women had chin length blond hair, and a steely but curious expression, and the other had long black hair tied back in a ponytail.
The one with the glasses spoke next "Were you following that group of Ori soldiers?". Ori, I hadn't heard any of the soldiers refer to the name of their faction, but they had referred to the woman in the cave as the Orici. "Yes," I responded. "They took a bunch of people captive, including some friends of ours,". Leo then added "And we would still be following them if we weren't caught in a Mexican standoff,". Most of the mortals' expressions softened. "Sam?" the leader gestured toward the platform. The blonde lowered her gun and walked briskly over to the ring platform, pulling a tablet of some sort out of her backpack. After another awkward silence, Sam spoke up. "It looks like the rings are inactive, the Ori ship must've moved out of range,".
"So there's no way to follow them?" Percy asked, and Sam shook her head. "The best thing we can do is send word to our allies and wait for them to pop up again,".
It was obvious from the way Sam spoke that this wasn't their first time dealing with the Ori, and I could tell she'd been in our position before. The collective mood of the group plummeted. With our friends now out of reach, the exhaustion of fighting across the underworld had finally caught up with us. The mortals slowly lowered their weapons, and we did the same. After another awkward silence, the other woman innocently asked "Where are you kids from?".
Leo, being Leo, responded half sarcastically "It's kinda cool actually, we're from all over the place. I'm from Texas, she's from the midwest (Piper), she's from San Francisco (me), he's from New York (Percy), she's Puerto Rican (Reyna), and he's Italian (Nico).
Before I could smack Leo for giving away so much information on a whim, I noticed the shocked expressions on the mortal's faces. Even the big one, who had been stoic the entire time, raised an eyebrow at Leo's statement. "You mean, you guys are from Earth?" the one with the glasses asked. "Uhhh, yeah! Where else would we be from?" Leo replied. The confusion on their faces was almost funny, but the way he'd asked about Earth implied they were used to encountering people not from Earth. But that wasn't possible! There was no scientific evidence of alien life! But as I thought, I realized there wasn't any evidence of the world of the gods either, and nothing we'd seen so far, apart from the Ori appearing human, matched up with anything from Earth science or myth.
"How did you guys get here?" Sam asked. "Through a portal, in a room at the end of the cave," I explained. A few minutes later we were back in the portal room, and the mortals were examining it. Sam and the one with the glasses seemed to be the most knowledgeable. Sam examined the ring, "this gate looks almost like the ones from Pegasus, it's definitely been modified but i'm not sure why,". The leader walked over to the console "Jackson, any luck with the translation?". Percy looked puzzled, but the man in the glasses quickly responded. "I've got bits and pieces, all of this equipment looks to be part of operating the gate in place of a DHD,".
The woman with dark hair was examining more writing on a panel on the other side of the room. "Daniel (she spoke with a british sounding accent), take a look at this,". Daniel walked over and quickly examined the writing. "It looks like this was some type of research outpost, something to do with an experiment,". "Any reason why we've never heard of this place before?" the leader asked. "It's possible whatever the Ancients were working on here was powerful or dangerous enough to keep the location hidden,". The big guy then spoke in baritone voice "Is there any mention of the Sangraal?". "Nope, I guess the Ancients were smart enough to keep their secret projects separate,".
I wanted to scream. What is going on? What planet are we on? What is an Ancient? What is this Sangraal thingy? The rest of the group seemed similarly on edge. Exhaustion or not, standing around getting no answers while our friends got further away was aggravating. Just as I was about to ask one of my 20 questions, the leader turned back to us. "How exactly did you find this place?".
I then explained what had happened, making sure to leave out any mystical details like the Underworld or our powers. When I mentioned the Orici, the woman with black hair cringed a little. When I finished, the mortals didn't look totally convinced, but it seemed like they believed most of it. Sam looked like Percy had described me when I was trying to solve a complex puzzle, I could almost see the gears in her head turning. Then I remembered something the Orici had said. You are strong, imbued with power from the higher beings of this universe. Now, considering my biggest problems have to do with ancient gods and monsters, my knowledge of theoretical physics was pretty limited. But I remember watching a tv program a few years ago when physicists discussed the possibility of parallel universes. I'd wondered if there was one out there where I hadn't lost so many friends, where demigods weren't trapped to this cycle of life or death quests. Now though, amongst all the possible explanations for this bizarre situation, it almost made sense.
Sam seemed to reach a similar conclusion, and asked us "What year is it?". "2012," Piper replied. A look of resignation spread through the mortals. "Is Earth still, you know, the same, as in not all worshiping Origin?" the woman with black hair asked. "Yes? I think. Wait, what exactly is Origin?" Thalia responded, her voice slightly annoyed. The leader facepalmed, and Daniel glared at his teammate as if to say, Really? Was that the best question you could come up with?. I decided this was as good a time as any to speak up."The orici mentioned something about 'this universe' before she went through the portal. Could that mean that we're…" "from another universe?" Sam finished, "yes, that would make the most sense, because here it's currently 2007, and as far as we know there aren't any Stargates on Earth we don't know about,".
Great. Not only did we not have any leads on where the crazy lady with telekinesis had taken our friends, but we were effectively stuck in a different universe and time. I made a mental note to stop and think the next time I follow Percy though a mysterious portal.
The leader suggested a plan. "Well it sounds like we've got a lot to explain to each other. If you wouldn't mind, you can come with us back to our Earth, and we can try to figure the rest of this out,". Thalia quickly replied "we're not going anywhere with you until we find our friends,". "Thalia," I started to reason with her, but Daniel beat me to it. "There's nothing you can do to find your friends from here, but I promise once we figure this out we'll do everything we can to help you find them,". There was a sincerity and conviction to his words that was very convincing, like you could feel he meant every word. Either Daniel was a very good liar, or he really did want to help. "Ok," Percy said, "we'll work together, lead the way,". Thalia was fuming, she wanted to protest, but I made eye contact with her and mouthed we'll figure it out, save it. While not happy, she still trusted my judgment, and settled down as we followed the mortals out of the cave.
The team of mortals led us through the temperate forest for 20 minutes or so. There were still a hundred different questions pinging around in my head, but being able to walk through such a peaceful area gave the group time to relax a little. You really got the sense that this area (if not the whole planet for all we knew) was uninhabited. I imagine Thalia would have enjoyed it if she wasn't worried sick. I hadn't seen her like this since, well, since she fought Luke on Mount Othrys. Luke. I wondered if anyone else saw. Even if they had, only Percy and Thalia would have recognized him, and I didn't feel like explaining that 2 of the friends the Ori captured were actually dead.
The walk was uneventful, probably because we were all still processing our situation, and the mortals probably didn't fully trust us (not that I blame them). I had managed to pick up on their names though. The tall one was named Teal'c, and he always referred to his teammates by either their full name or name and rank. He referred to the leader as Colonel Mitchell, but I didn't manage to catch his first name. Finally, the woman with black hair was Vala, and she seemed just a touch out of place. Percy and I walked together, and I passed the time by twirling my knife between my fingers. Percy saw it and we made eye contact. Ok, so he knows. I wanted to talk privately with him so badly. He definitely had a dream right before everything kicked off, and any additional information would be helpful. There was also the small matter of the Orici. At first she seemed mortal, but her powers and the way she carried herself suggested a godly heritage of some kind. Then there was the attempted mind probing. I wasn't sure how many of us she tried it on, but she went after Percy and I for sure. Just be patient, I told myself, you'll find all of the answers eventually, just play nice. I looked down at the knife as I twirled it around, a simple Celestial Bronze dagger, just like the one I lost.
I guess I should explain that. When I was 7 years old I ran away from home, and after surviving on my own for a little while, I was found in an old warehouse by Thalia and Luke, They were both a few years older than I was, but they'd been impressed by the fight I put up, so we agreed to stay together. Luke then gave me his knife, a Celestial Bronze dagger, and promised we'd stay together as our own little family. That knife was one of the only constants in my life over the next few years. Thalia "dying", being turned into a tree, then resurrected. Luke's betrayal and eventual self-sacrifice to stop Kronos. Dangerous quests, a trip across the atlantic, even a charming adventure beneath Rome with a bunch of spiders. Then, when Percy and I fell into Tartarus, I lost it. I eventually found another weapon, a sword of Drakon bone made by the friendly giant Damsen, but it just wasn't the same.
After we escaped and stopped Gaea, and after Leo returned from his supposed death (long story), he offered to make me a replacement. True to his word, the knife was basically an exact replica of the original, save for one detail. On one side of the blade, there were 3 sets of initials etched into the glowing bronze, AC, TG, and LC.
Eventually we came to a clearing containing a small platform with another black ring (a Stargate, as Sam had called it) mounted on top, only this time there was a circular console sitting in front of it, with several rings of symbols surrounding a large red button. Daniel walked up to the console and input a series of 7 symbols. After each input, a smaller ring within the gate rotated, then stopped as one of the chevrons (which were red this time) lit up. Shortly after pressing the red button, 7 chevrons were lit, and the gate erupted with a kawoosh of blue energy, before settling into a "pool" like the other gate.
"Whoa! Where can I get one?" Leo exclaimed. The group were all in various states of surprise and curiosity. The mortals all smirked and shared looks, we obviously weren't the first people to have this kind of reaction. The leader sent a quick radio message, presumably to whoever was on the other side, and headed through the gate. Vala beckoned us to follow, "don't worry, you get over the dizziness after your first 10 or so times," she said with a smirk. I looked at the rest of the group. "I realize we're low on options, but is this really our best option?" Reyna asked. She was right to be worried, heck I was worried! We were in unfamiliar territory with no idea what we're dealing with, no leads, and our only option being to follow a group of people we just met into their base. Throw in a dark cave with spiders and it would be my absolute worst nightmare. But my instincts told me that the mortals were telling the truth, and I could tell that everyone else was on more or less the same page. "If they wanted to kill us they've already had plenty of opportunities, besides it's the closest thing we've got to a lead on our friends," I responded. Though I could tell she didn't like it, Reyna agreed. Even Thalia managed a shrug of acknowledgement. "Alrighty then, the last one through the gate has latrine cleaning duty when we get back," Percy challenged.
With that feeble attempt to lighten the mood, Leo charged forward and we all followed, but I made sure to grab Seaweed Brain's hand before he went through. A few seconds later, we passed through the blue liquid, and were thrown through a blue space tunnel for the second time today.