Chapter Fourteen: Time and Time Again
Piper's idea had been to scry for Replicators once again. "Whatever or whoever is causing that dust cloud we don't want it to be more Replicators," she had pointed out. "If there are no more Replicators we can scry for danger generally and see if it points to the cloud."
But the result of the first scrying spell had confirmed Piper's fears. It had pointed directly at the approaching dust cloud. The advancing cloud must represent the advance of another horde of Replicators. The reason for the presence of the Replicator spaceship might be because this was already a Replicator occupied world.
"That lot must have been further away than that spaceship the first time we checked so our previous spell pointed to the ones in orbit and not the ones already on the planet," commented Prue.
By now, as well as getting closer, the cloud had expanded a lot in width. "There must be an awful lot of those little beasties to kick up a cloud that big," said Phoebe.
SG-12 had acted immediately to the news of more Replicators and went over to the Stargate to prime the explosives they had set. Noticing this, the sisters had gone up to Major Larkham to ask what SG-12 were doing.
"Colonel O'Neill's orders," replied Larkham. "We take no chances. Whatever happens we've got to stop the Replicators taking over the Gate and going through it. We've got to blow it up, completely destroy it."
"So how do we get home?" asked Piper. "And what about Paige and the others?"
"The plan is, we set the explosives so we can go through the Gate and blow it up behind us," replied Larkham. "We'd like you guys to help with that if you can. The others will have to take their chances."
"Take their chances!" exclaimed Piper. "Now just a minute, that's my little sister you're talking about!" Perhaps I should do a little freezing she wondered.
"Don't worry," interjected Doctor Sarfraz. "The SGC has contact with a number of alien races who have interstellar spaceships of their own. I'm sure a rescue trip can be arranged. The SGC knows exactly where this planet is."
"But how long will that take?" asked Phoebe, "with them stuck on a planet of Replicators."
"You don't need to do this," protested Piper. "We can destroy the Replicators. I can destroy the Replicators. I've done it before."
"Can you guarantee, absolutely guarantee to destroy them all?" asked Larkham. "There must be thousands of them coming. It only needs one of them to get through that Gate and it'll create countless copies. It's like a plague."
"Not to mention those walking bombs," put in Lieutenant Davidson. "How will you deal with them?"
"They're right," said Prue. "We can't take any chances. But there are a few things we can do which will give everybody a way home without giving the Replicators a chance to take over the Gate."
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The attack on the capital by Marduk's forces had been launched in the expectation that the witches' defences would be disrupted by Lord Shumi's attempted coup. Thanks to Cordelia, Faith and Giles there was no such disruption.
The bombing by the Goa'uld aircraft totally failed to penetrate the magic shield held in place by the witch covens. The only explosions that went off were those set off by various groups of agents in the city working for Shumi.
Marduk landed contingents of Jaffa troops but they soon discovered that many of their weapons were useless within the city. Not only that, but as time went on the witch defence seemed to become stronger than ever. Soon after the landing the Jaffa began to sustain major casualties as their own weapons were exploded by the spells of the witches and Jaffa aircraft were brought down by the explosion of the bombs and ammunition aboard.
The second wave of Jaffa was never committed to the attack after the disaster that befell the first wave. Also conspicuous by their absence were any of the witches that were now working for Marduk. Any plan for using these witches against a weakened defence had presumably also been aborted.
After a hectic few hours Cordelia, Faith and Giles finally found time to sit down in a side room of the Council Hall and talk. Cordelia had spent much of the time working with one of the witch covens to support the defences. Faith had joined the guards from the Council Hall in capturing groups of agents and saboteurs working for Shumi. Giles had remained at the Council Hall and had taken the opportunity to meet some of the Kallistien councillors and find out more about what was happening.
The three Earth exiles began by explaining to each other what had happened to them. Giles agreed with the two women that they should help the Kallistians defeat the Goa'uld and try to find a way to free those Earth witches who had been taken captive as well as find Buffy of course. Unfortunately for the other two Earthmen who had been working for Shumi, Giles's fear that they would be killed had turned out to be correct.
"Remember we have a fine line to tread here," said Giles. "It's not our business to fight wars and kill human beings. That's not what white magic and the slayer gift is for. Kill non human parasites that prey on humans: yes. That's pretty well what we do when we kill demons and vampires. But we have to do it without killing people ourselves."
"That's all very well," said Cordelia. "None of us want to kill anybody but this is a war. If it's them or us I'd like it to be them. Anyway the witches here are doing their best not to kill anybody."
"What about those crashed planes and those dead Jaffa?" asked Giles sounding very sceptical.
"Like I said they're doing their best," said Cordelia. "They don't like using magic to kill any more than we do although it's not always possible to avoid it without being killed yourself. The way they've got it set up the planes that come within the protected area get destroyed by their own bombs if the pilots try to use them and the Jaffa hand weapons explode when the Jaffa try to use them to fire on somebody else. So in a way they're killing themselves."
"With my history I'm the last person to want to kill human beings," said Faith, "but I'm not going to let the Goa'uld win because I'm afraid to get my hands dirty. If they take over here what's to stop them going to Earth next? They know where we are."
"Let's see how things go shall we," replied Giles. "All I'm saying at the moment is to bear this in mind. It might come to a decision one way or another at some time but for the moment do what you've been doing and avoid causing any fatalities yourselves as far as you can. Magical and mystical gifts are not there to be used against other people, especially people who are in many ways victims themselves. I don't need to talk to you two about the dangers of dark magic. We just have to remember that the ends don't justify the means."
At that point the witches Lagathe and Maralli entered the room and joined the three exiles from Earth. "Many thanks for all you've done," said Lagathe. "I dread to think what might have happened if Shumi's plan had succeeded."
"As it is, with all the help you've given plus the help we've been getting from the Tau'ri witches we now have a real chance of beating the Goa'uld," said Maralli.
"The Tau'ri are here?" asked Faith. "Can we see them?"
"I don't see why not," replied Lagathe looking at Maralli who nodded. We've certainly got every reason to trust them now she thought. "They arrived not long ago. I don't see why we can't go and see them now."
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Willow realised that the time for holding back had passed. Willow and Tara had carried out a deactivation spell to prevent any surprise visitors arriving through the Stargate but two new groups of Jaffa had nevertheless arrived, one by elevator from within the ship and the other via teleportation rings.
Willow took Tara's hand and together they invoked a wind spell. The blast swept down the hanger area and knocked over all of the Jaffa advancing from that end of the hanger off their feet. They were tumbled over and over until they came up against the launch bay doors at the far end.
Buffy, seeing that the witches had that particular threat well in hand lead a charge towards the Jaffa who were arriving by teleportation rings. Her reaction, and that of Angel, Kennedy and the others following, was sufficiently fast to bring them into close contact and combat before the Jaffa could bring their energy weapons to bear.
Meanwhile Tara orbed Willow and Gwen to the far end of the hanger area where Gwen started to use small blasts of electricity to knock out any of the pile of Jaffa there who showed any sign of recovering and constituting a threat.
The six Jaffa who had arrived by teleportation rings were now engaged in combat with the slayers, the vampires and Xander. They had not anticipated and were not prepared for such a ferocious and immediate attack. All of the attackers had now had experience of fighting Jaffa and knew not to take them lightly so no punches were pulled. However barely had the Jaffa been downed when a fresh group arrived by teleportation ring.
Buffy turned to launch a new attack but suddenly found Willow stood beside her. Willow had been orbed back across the area by Tara and had applied her freeze spell to the new arrivals before they had a chance to deploy. Gwen had remained at the far end to watch the other group of fallen Jaffa. Willow now completed the release of her companions from the freeze spell and put the Jaffa to sleep.
"Space ships, beam up technology, all we need now is for the Klingons to turn up," said Xander. "This is all pretty cool." He looked around him to find amused expressions on the faces of the women around him. "In a very serious way of course," he added with fake seriousness as he tried and failed to wipe the grin from his face.
"Tara and I can make a portal back to Earth if you want to go back there now," said Willow. "But I think we should take advantage of our present position and take over this vessel."
"She's right," said Angel who had come up on Buffy's other side. "A lot of their fighters are out of action now. It might take a while before they get any more. We should strike now."
"That's all very well but can anybody fly this thing?" asked Xander.
"We'll take prisoners," said Willow. "With a little magic they can work for us."
"No," said Buffy. "You've no idea how big this thing is. Think of an aircraft carrier but a lot, lot bigger. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people aboard. There aren't enough of us. Anyway they've got witches of their own on board somewhere. We're badly outgunned. We've got to get out of here."
"We'll start our spell to open the portal," said Tara quickly, relieved that she didn't have to have another discussion with Willow about why she shouldn't use magic to control people.
But by now the people in charge of the vessel had hit upon another idea to get rid of their unwanted visitors. At the far end of the deck the hanger doors began to open to the sound of emergency alarms. In a very short time all of the air would be sucked out and the people with it.
To start with, the fallen and unconscious Jaffa at that end of the area began to be sucked out, thus demonstrating the callousness of those in charge to their own people. Gwen, the only person down that end of the area would have gone with them but Tara orbed over to her and orbed her back to safety, at least temporary safety.
There was now no way that the witches could do their spell to create a portal back to Earth. Willow and Tara now had to exert all their efforts to try to close the doors again.
"Close!" Willow repeatedly commanded but, even with Tara's support she was only partially successful. The force that she was applying was not sufficient to fully close the doors which were still being forced open by the power of the vessel. For now the competing forces remained in balance but there remained a small gap to outer space and all of the air would eventually be sucked out.
The hanger area had now been locked down by those in command in order to seal off that part of the vessel which was becoming airless and to prevent anybody from getting into the rest of the ship. Given time and with slayer and vampire strength they would be able to break their way out and into the rest of the ship but with the air leaking out there was little time.
The only obvious way out was the Stargate, but how to work it? Where to dial? Where to go? With Willow and Tara occupied the Stargate couldn't be released from their spell of deactivation. There was however another alternative.
"Over here!" shouted Drusilla. "We can leave this way."
Drusilla was referring to the teleportation device. She had found and woken the Jaffa whom she had mesmerised a short time before. As she and the others watched he explained how it worked.
"Can we send everybody at once?" asked Xander. "It'll be a bit of a squeeze."
"Hurry!" shouted Tara from behind them. "We're still losing air and we can't hold this much longer."
"Everybody stand on the platform" said Angel. "You all go first and I'll bring Willow and Tara along afterwards. I'll be alright, I don't need air."
Buffy, Xander, Drusilla, Gwen and Kennedy stood on the platform and were sent down to the planet. Angel then turned to Willow and Tara who were still concentrating on trying to stop the door to the outside fully opening up.
By now the atmosphere on the deck was a lot thinner and breathing was a definite problem. A problem that the witches could have dealt with had they not been otherwise occupied in preventing the hanger doors from fully opening. Willow continued to exert her will but she could no longer spare the breath to speak magic commands. The hanger doors were now slowing opening.
Willow and Tara held tightly to each other. Tara, as a Whitelighter could also exist, at least for a short while, with little or no air. As well as holding fast to Willow she now pressed her mouth against Willow's mouth to give her as much of her own air as possible.
Rather than disturb the concentration of the two witches Angel picked them both up and put them down on the teleportation platform. He then set the controls to jump to the same destination as the others. As the three of them waited to be transported nothing happened. The people in charge of the vessel had presumably detected the use of the teleportation device and had cut power to it.
At that moment Willow fainted. She had taken herself to the limit in trying to stop the outside doors being opened. With her collapse the doors shot open and the remaining air, together with everything in the area that was unsecured was pulled in a rush towards the outside doors and outer space.
Tara still held tightly to Willow and Angel held tightly to them both as they were swept along the deck towards the doors and oblivion in outer space. The remaining bodies of Jaffa and technicians, some of them recovering consciousness were swept along with them including the confused Jaffa mesmerised by Drusilla.
Angel frantically searched for something to cling to as they reached the yawning gap into outer space but to no avail. At that moment, Tara orbed.
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Teal'c finished going through the ration packs. "If we only use the minimum possible each day I think we have enough for twenty days. SG-12 didn't leave their packs or we would have had more. We need to find more food if we are to survive longer than that."
"SG-12 must have gone back to Earth with Paige's sisters," said Sam. "I think enough time has passed so they wouldn't corrupt the timeline. But I can't understand why they didn't leave their packs behind to help us."
"I can't believe my sisters would just leave me behind," said Paige. "Not even a message."
"More Replicators have passed through here," said Teal'c who was now kneeling down carefully examining the ground. "Their tracks are all around this area, and they overlie all the human tracks. They must have passed through after SG-12 left. They may have taken or destroyed any message, or ration packs."
"Or they may not have had time to leave a message," said Daniel.
"Anyway don't worry," said Jack. "We won't be abandoned. We have a few friends with their own spaceships. The SGC know where we are. They'll arrange for us to be picked up."
"And how long will that take?" asked Paige.
"Hard to say," replied Jack. "We don't actually have a cab rank of spaceships on standby but we will be picked up." I hope, Jack added to himself.
"Is there anything, um, magical that you could do?" asked Daniel of Paige.
"Like what?" asked Paige. "I don't know any fly me across the universe spells." But I suppose I might work something out Paige thought, after I've had a rest, maybe some sort of inter-world portal, but would they really leave without me?
"I was wondering if you might..." began Daniel only to stop suddenly because of the new arrivals.
SG-12 and the Halliwell sisters were suddenly back with them, having just appeared from nowhere. After the greetings were over and Paige had been hugged by each of her sisters they explained that they had had to blow up the Stargate because of the approach of a new mass of Replicators. They had not however gone through the Stargate before blowing it up.
"It was the safest option Colonel," explained Major Larkham. "That way we were sure it was destroyed. Especially with the plan the witches put together."
"Once the Stargate was destroyed we travelled forward in time," explained Prue. "And here we are. No Stargate and the Replicators have passed by."
"But now you're stranded with us," said Sam who even as she said it realised that there was a way out that the witches had probably already considered. "Or perhaps not..."
"Exactly," said Phoebe. "We now do a spell to take us back a few days to before any of this happened and before the Stargate was destroyed."
"All this is giving me a headache," said Jack.
"OK," said Daniel, "We go back a few days but we can't then return to Earth because..."
"It would corrupt the timeline," chorused most of those present.
"So we go to Kallistien," said Sam. "We intended to go there all along and we know we won't meet anybody from Earth there, so long as we don't go back far enough to overlap our previous visit. We can find out what the Kallistien witches are all about and return to Earth a few days later when all these time loops have run out."