Chapter Forty: Stasis
"They're moving towards us," said Sergeant Paisley. "No doubt about it. The whole fleet is coming this way. Apart from the ones we've disabled of course."
"How many more can we blow up?" asked Jack staring at the screen in front of him.
"Another three," said the sergeant. "If all the bombs go off."
So far Jack had ordered that five of the bombs which had been transmitted aboard the enemy fleet be exploded. Four had exploded and one had been a dud. Either that or it had been discovered and neutralised before the detonation had been ordered. Of the four explosions three had disabled enemy ships and one had caused lesser damage.
"So he's got twelve ships left and we can only stop a maximum of three. Great!" said Jack. "We need some good news. OK, set off another one. Let's keep them nervous. And just when they think it's all over we'll do one more."
So far Apophis's fleet had shown no sign of doing what Jack had demanded and evacuating the system. No further communications had been received from the Goa'uld. The attacks on his ships had it seemed at last provoked a response from Apophis, this being the most likely reason for his current fleet manoeuvre.
At that moment Sam Carter returned to the Control Centre. "It's completely dead," she said. "I can't do anything with it. And it's not just our Gate. I've heard from the guard detail on the planet. The Gate down there is dead as well. The whole Stargate network might have gone down. I can't find anything wrong with the Gate but when you dial up, nothing happens."
"Have you tried kicking it?" asked Jack.
Sam ignored the comment. "I think there might be some sort of power failure or power loss," she said. "For some reason we no longer seem to have enough power to make it work. I've got some of our people working on emergency power hook ups. When the work's done I'll feed in as much power as I dare and see what happens."
"Think it's Apophis pulling some sort of trick?" asked Jack.
"I don't know, but probably not," said Sam. "Apophis wouldn't want to shut down his emergency exit."
"Not unless he could start it all up again whenever he wanted to," said Jack. "And who's to say his Gate's been affected."
"The officer in charge of the guard detail on the planet said the Gate down there was lit up with some sort of green energy display before it went down," said Sam.
"Just like what Colonel Marker reported for our Gate," commented Jack.
"Exactly, and as far as I can tell, at exactly the same time," said Sam. "If we haven't got it working before then, maybe Willow and the Halliwells can try some of their magic when they get back. This shut down might be some sort of magical affect. Still no news from Teal'c?"
"Nope," said Jack. "Nothing from Teal'c, nothing from Daniel and now we're cut off from the SGC as well. Oh and Apophis is gathering his fleet to go hunting bear. We're the bear. Any suggestions?"
"That might be the best news we've had for a while," said Sam as she sat down beside him at the controls of the ship.
Jack didn't say anything. He just gave Sam one of his looks and waited for her to explain further.
"Well a stern chase always takes the longest," said Sam. "If we head out at top speed before Apophis has his ships in position we might be able to lure his whole fleet away from the planet. That might give the Kallistians some breathing space."
"I like it," said Jack. "And Apophis is arrogant enough to come after us with his whole fleet. I should think we've really got up his nose this time. Let's hope this ship is as fast as anything Apophis has got."
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Faith was running but not flat out. Even though Piper was on a horse close behind she wouldn't be able to keep up for long if the slayer really cut loose and there was no point in exhausting the horse.
By using her freezing power Piper had easily been able to 'acquire' a horse without being observed by anybody, but Faith had told her there was no point in stealing two animals. Faith had no experience of riding horses and anyway was satisfied that she could travel faster without one.
They had left the town quietly by the north road, trying not to attract attention. As far as they could see it was an ordinary day in the town. There was no indication that the insurrection planned by Glory and her supporters had yet started.
Once clear of the town the two travellers had sped up. By now they had passed into an area of thin woodland and were only visible to observers a short distance away. Most of the people they passed on the road took no notice of them as they encountered various carts, carriages, riders and groups of pedestrians going one way or the other.
Finally they saw ahead of them a group of about a dozen uniformed men, gathered around the next crossroads. It seemed to be some sort of road block because the soldiers were stopping and questioning people. Faith slowed her pace and dropped back beside Piper.
"What do you reckon?" said Faith. "Fight straight away or try to talk our way through first?"
"We can't afford the delay. I'll take care of it," said Piper. "Stay back here out of range," she added as she quickened her horse's pace towards the crossroads leaving Faith stopped in the road behind her.
If the soldiers had any intention of stopping and questioning them Piper gave them no opportunity to do so. As she rode forward she waved her hands and froze the entire military group together with the people they were talking to. She turned back to Faith and beckoned her forward.
Faith raced through the group of frozen people and down the road on the other side. Piper steered her mount around the outside of the immobile group and back onto the road behind Faith. The two women would be long out of sight by the time the soldiers unfroze. To any of them who had seen the women approach it would be as if they had disappeared right in front of their eyes.
"Think they'll raise the alarm?" asked Faith who once more dropped back to run beside the horse.
Piper shrugged. "Who knows? They look like locals rather than Jaffa but I suppose some of the locals work for the Goa'uld. I didn't see anything like a radio. If they're locals they might know enough not to get involved in witch business."
As she once more took the lead Faith was thinking about Piper and her power. Good job she's on our side she thought. How do you defend against something like that? Doesn't matter how big you are or how good at fighting, if Piper freezes you, you're a sitting duck, even if she doesn't decide to blow you up.
Piper was thinking about the Slayer. She knew that Faith was stronger and faster than a normal human being but her display of speed and stamina immediately after recovering from injury was still startling. She doesn't just run as fast as a horse thought Piper, she's got enough breath to chat away at the same time. She could make millions as an athlete. I suppose she's not allowed to because it counts as personal gain. Either that or it's never occurred to her.
The two women continued on their way along the north road. Finally they came out of the trees into a more open countryside, full of crops ripening in the fields although there were no farm workers in sight.
Faith stopped and Piper reined to a halt beside her. "There it is," said Faith. "That's the place, that's the place I saw in my dream."
Faith was pointing to a large house on the top of a hill to the left of the road. The house was a rather impressive structure some three stories high with large wings on either side of the center block. I expect it qualifies as some sort of royal palace thought Piper. That probably means plenty of armed guards.
The roadway leading up to the building met the main road a few yards ahead of where they had stopped. A few yards along the roadway was an arched gateway, barred by a closed metal gate. On either side of the gateway a high stone wall stretched away in both directions. There were no guards visible at the gateway although there was a gate house on the other side which might be occupied.
Faith led the way towards the gateway and rattled the gate. No response. If there was anybody about, they weren't making themselves known. Faith shrugged and with an easy leap cleared the gate in one jump.
Piper dismounted and led her horse towards the gate holding the reins. "Very good," she said. "But rather too energetic for me." With that she waved her hands and destroyed the locking bar that held the gate in place. "See, no need for any jumping about."
Piper now pushed the gate open, or rather she tried to push the gate open. But the gate, although no longer barred was large and heavy and perhaps rusted in places. It didn't move. It wasn't until Faith added her muscle power that they managed to get the gate open enough to allow Piper and her horse to come through.
Faith started off up the path towards the palace but stopped at Piper's call.
"Stop! There's something wrong," she said. "Everything's stopped. Listen! I can't hear those clickety insects any more, no birds chirping."
"I don't think they're really birds," said Faith. "But you're right, everything's quiet. Dead quiet. Hey, look up there!"
Piper looked up in the sky to where Faith was pointing. Just above the building one of the local 'birds' was just coming into land on the roof. But it hadn't actually landed. It was frozen in the air. Some force was holding it suspended in the air, in some sort of stasis.
"Looks like we're too late," said Faith. "Looks like it's already happened."
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Connor led them across the rooftops and found a way down into the next street via another fire escape. He had considered going on ahead to check out the area for demons but changed his mind. The street below was full of local people and quite clearly they were not under threat from demons, or at least not yet.
This was the first time the group had seen more than the occasional human in their night-time trek through the city. What they saw now was a convoy, a refugee convoy of people fleeing the fighting in the north. The convoy was of pedestrians, carriages, carts and handcarts. The people were young and old, rich and poor, people who simply wanted to get themselves and their families to safety. In amongst the civilians were scattered groups of Kallistian soldiers, some of them wounded soldiers.
Connor waited for the group to come together as they all came down the fire escape. Finally Kennedy, who was at the back, joined the rest of them with a leap from the last landing.
"OK, follow me," said Kennedy leading the way across the street, weaving her way past the people and vehicles passing by. The others, starting with Connor, followed her.
"Wait a minute," said Connor grabbing Kennedy's arm once they were on the other side of the street. "We'll be safer with these people. The demons won't attack such a large group of people, especially since some of them are armed."
"We're not refugees," said Kennedy. "We've got to move faster than that. We've got to get Dawn to the Witch HQ. She'll be safe there."
"You don't know that. For all you know she'll be in even more danger once..." began Connor but he stopped abruptly because Kennedy, with a straight right hand, had knocked him out. Kennedy caught Connor's body as it fell and put him over her shoulder.
"Anybody else want to argue?" asked Kennedy. Nobody said a word, they were too surprised. "OK Gwen, you and the sergeant watch the rear. Now everybody follow me." With that Kennedy set off once again at a jog, not in anyway slowed down by carrying Connor.
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"I've placed the Colonel under arrest pending investigation but I don't expect him to remain in custody for long," said General Hammond. "Colonel Maybourne has good contacts and he'll soon find some way to weasel out of it."
After breaking the siege of the Slayer HQ the General, along with Amy and Leo, had gone into the house to talk to the people there. They were now comparing notes in the basement of the house where the general had been shown that the Stargate was no longer operating.
"But there's no longer anybody besieging you," said Major Larkham "So you should be quite safe now."
"We had our own protections anyway," said Gunn. "As the Colonel would have discovered if he'd tried to come in without an invite."
"I'm sorry this Stargate has stopped working as well," said Hammond once again looking up at the large circle which dominated the room. "We had a lot of green flashing lights and the Gate back at the SGC simply closed down."
"That's just what happened here, right after Anya took Dawn...erm..." began Fred who stopped in confusion because she suddenly realised that the two events might be connected.
"Right after what?" asked Hammond. "Are you saying something that happened here might have shut down the Stargate network?"
"The Key?" suggested Amy.
"You think Dawn had that Key with her when she went through the Gate?" asked Gunn.
"Key? What Key?" asked Hammond. "Please explain, because having the Gates down like this is putting a lot of our people in danger. As well as cutting off your people and our people on Kallistien, we've got other units cut off on other worlds."
Fred explained to the General about why Anya and Connor had taken Dawn through the Gate. "We had to do it because they were attacking Dawn with magic," she said.
"So you're saying it might be their magic that's shut down the Gate network?" asked Hammond.
Fred looked at Amy and Leo. "You guys are our magic experts. What do you think?" she asked.
"I think Wolfram and Hart wanted us to send Dawn through the Gate all along," said Amy. "For some reason they want the Gate network closed down. You'd better ask them why."
"Since this is a matter of National Security that's something I should be able to do," said Hammond sounding very determined. "If this Wolfram and Hart organisation have shut down the Stargates, there won't be a big enough hole for them to crawl into."
The General pulled out his cellphone and took the Major aside to put into effect moves against Wolfram and Hart. This at least was something he could do rather than just waiting for the Stargates to start up again, or not.
"I think you'd better tell me exactly what happened," said Leo quietly to Amy, Fred and Gunn. "I know about Dawn and the Key. If something as powerful as that has been activated..."
Leo stopped talking because just at that moment, right in the middle of the room, Tara appeared in an orb. A very surprised Tara.
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Without Tara the group were not able to orb to where they wanted to go so they set out to walk to the witch HQ. Giles had explained the advantages of using the library of the HQ as the most suitable place to carry out the spell to bind the demon into the book.
"As well as being quiet and well protected, an additional advantage is we can ask for help from the Kallistien witches if we need more magic power to do the spell," said Giles. "Although I think Cordelia and me working together should be sufficient."
At that moment the sound of galloping hooves sounded behind them. They turned to see an open carriage being pulled by two horses careering out of control towards them.
Cordelia, Giles and Angel quickly got out of the way to allow the carriage to pass but Drusilla walked out in front of it and held up her right hand. To the others watching, what Drusilla was doing looked suicidal, maybe a reversion to her previous insanity but the vampire knew what she was doing.
The horses suddenly skidded to a halt right in front of Drusilla. She walked forward murmuring pleasantly to the horses and began to pat them both to calm them down. The others walked forward to join her and were able to see that the carriage was empty. The carriage had come from the north so the horses had presumably bolted because they had become frightened of the explosions that could still be heard going off in that direction.
Cordelia got into the carriage and sat down. "Now this is a lot better than walking everywhere. Who's going to take the reins?" she said.
"For the moment we need to walk these horses," said Angel. "We need to let them calm down and cool off. Having them with us won't help us to travel any faster, not for a while."
"But at least we can travel in comfort," said Cordelia who had now been joined by Giles in the carriage. "Hello, what's this," she added bending down to pick up a small glass vial from the floor of the carriage.
No sooner was the vial in Cordelia's hand that it began to glow brightly. She instantly dropped it onto the seat beside her and the light quickly faded away. Cordelia looked at her hand but it seemed to be unharmed. "You don't think Frodo left this lying around in case we meet any big spiders do you?" she asked.
Giles leant forward from the seat opposite and picked up the vial. He carefully examined it but this time it was not glowing. "Pick it up again," he said holding it out to Cordelia.
Cordelia took the vial in her hand again and once more it began to glow. "Why does it glow with me and not with you?" she asked Giles.
"It probably belongs to a witch," said Giles. "I expect it's a sort of bottled witch light and it only works if the person holding it is a witch."
"Since I'm the only one of us who can use it I'd better be the one to keep it," said Cordelia putting it into her pocket.
Meanwhile Drusilla and Angel continued to lead the horses at a walk along the road towards the witch HQ. As they did so their acute vampire hearing began to pick up the sounds of a great many people in the streets ahead of them. The sounds were getting nearer.
"We've got to get off the street," said Angel. "Something's coming. I'd like to see what it is before it sees us."
But even as Cordelia and Giles jumped out of the carriage, people began to run towards them. These people did not seem to be at all threatening but seemed to be running away from some sort of danger. The danger must have been very frightening because everybody was running back north, towards where the sounds of the fighting against the Goa'uld could still be heard.
"What's happening?" asked Giles who took the opportunity to grab the arm of a passing man. "What are you running away from? Is it the Goa'uld?"
"Monsters!" said the man. "They're horrible. They're eating people. Run for your life." With that the man pulled his arm free and followed the panicked crowd.
"Demons? I suppose we should investigate. That's what we do isn't it? Just like back in LA and Sunnydale," said Cordelia looking at the others.
"This place seems to becoming more and more like Sunnydale," said Angel. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked Giles.
"That somebody's trying to open up a new Hellmouth around here?" asked Giles.
"Or perhaps there already is a Hellmouth in this city," replied Angel. "And somebody or something very powerful is now taking advantage of it, now that the local witches are otherwise occupied."