Disclaimer in chapter 1
20
Sam looked around the storeroom Daniel had led her to. She'd been to Area 51 on several occasions in her universe, but it had never looked like this. Items in her world were cataloged, but often it was a hodgepodge with no clear sub-sections to help locate any given item. This room was a warehouse and was so neat and organized, Sam's mouth dropped open. Speechless, she turned to Daniel who shrugged.
"We've had a lot of time on our hands since Kinsey closed the Stargate."
"Some how I don't see you as a clerk," she said.
"Surprisingly, I seem quite suited to cataloging," he smiled, as if admitting a guilty pleasure.
"Must be the archaeologist in you," she mumbled distractedly, staring down an aisle. Some things she'd seen before, others were new. Considering the number of missions this SGC had run in comparison to her own, she was surprised at the amount of alien technology tagged, and sitting on the shelves.
"You have a naquadah reactor? Have you made a generator?" she asked, wondering why it was gathering dust on a shelf. "I had to build my own. Well, with some help, that is."
"Is that what this is? We had no idea," Daniel took a step closer. "We found it on a planet that according to their texts referred to itself as 'Orban.' At least it had in the past."
"In the past?"
"They'd been wiped out, I'm not sure by whom," Daniel said, running his fingers over the rough surface of the reactor. "My gut says the Replicators, but I have no evidence to base that on. We didn't find any blocks."
"You're probably right," she sighed. "I'm sure someone here could have made a generator if they'd had Merrin's help." Daniel gave her a puzzled look. "Merrin is the girl who helped me understand the reactor and assisted with the development of our generator."
"A girl? Children of their society were that advanced?"
"Some of them. They learned vast amounts of knowledge very quickly through the use of nanites. Which is kind of ironic, actually, since nanites work together in much the same way as Replicators. If you're right, it's like their cousins wiped them out."
Daniel just nodded. "Any chance you could make this into a generator?"
Sam walked over to the solid rectangle, turning it this way and that. "Given enough time, I could probably figure it out again, but without my notes. . . ."
"And time is one of the thing we don't have a lot of. Let's keep looking. Maybe there's something else that wouldn't take so long to get up and running." Sam continued to peruse the gadgets, but hadn't found anything she thought had potential.
"I feel like I'm at an alien garage sale" she quipped, unable to hide her smile. Daniel smiled back, but Sam could see he was mulling something over. While he didn't know her beyond his brush with another version of herself, she had the benefit of knowing a Daniel for years.
"So, how is it you came through our Stargate, from another universe?" Sam blinked at the unexpected segue.
"Well, I wasn't trying to, if that's what you mean." They continued to stroll through the stock of off-world devices as Sam relayed events as she could recall them. Daniel listened patiently, much more indulgent than Jack, she thought.
"I dialed Earth, and when I came through, I was here. Only I didn't know something was up for a few minutes. It didn't take me long to realize I wasn't in my 'gate room, though. It was dark, there were no troops, and the biggest difference of all, there was a DHD."
Daniel stopped moving forward. "You don't have a DHD? How do you work your 'gate?"
"That was a bit of a sticking point in getting ours to work," she smiled. "Daniel had translated the glyphs on the cover stone to read 'Stargate' to begin with, but we still didn't know how to turn it on. In our universe, it didn't come with an instruction manual. In any language."
"Wait a second," Daniel said, holding up his hand. "I translated it? I admit I know a few languages, but obscure ancient Egyptian isn't one of them. Catherine Langford was the one who cracked the code. And we did have a 'manual', so to speak."
"You did?"
"The tablet of cartouches," he clarified. "You didn't have that either?"
"Daniel found more on Abydos, but we never found anything similar on Earth. We thought the Stargate only went to Abydos until he found more cartouches on the walls of a temple. And then we realized we needed to account for stellar drift in order to make the Stargate connect."
"Wow," he said, running his hand through his hair. "I guess we did have it easy in comparison to you. So, if you didn't have a DHD, how did you get your 'gate to work?"
"I was on the team that developed the dialing program. It took us fifteen years and three super-computers to get it to work. We'd been working on it for so long, I was actually kind of surprised when it did establish a wormhole."
"Okay," Daniel said, pushing his glasses back into place. "Let me get this straight, you're on an unknown planet, and you can't find your team. You just discovered a shifting energy field and were taking readings when you were engulfed and essentially knocked unconscious, is that right?"
"Good so far."
"From what I've seen, it takes a device, a quantum mirror, I think you called it, to send a person or maybe persons from one reality to the next. How could this energy field do that on its own?"
Sam began pacing back and forth before him. "I've been wondering the same thing, and I've been working on a theory since I arrived here. First of all, it would require massive amounts of energy like you said, a collapsing star, or a black hole. The planet we initially 'gated to was near such a star, it was actually why we were there-to help evacuate the local population." Daniel nodded, urging her to continue.
"We didn't get a chance to investigate because of the electrical storm, like I said. I'm guessing the lightening strike which I believe diverted the wormhole to the other planet, was influenced by the gravitational pull of the collapsing star. When I showed up on the new planet, a portion of that energy came with me, infusing the existing native energy field. Probably what happened to me was some kind of overload that caused a rift or bridge between universes."
"So, if you were able to 'gate back to that planet, you should be able to get back to your universe," Daniel theorized.
Sam looked at the floor. "I don't think so." She thought a moment then looked up at him. "I got zapped pretty good, but I don't think there was enough energy to sustain the bridge for more than a few seconds. I also think after the overload, the field would have 'blown itself out.' Kind of like a pilot light on a gas appliance exposed to a gust of wind."
Daniel gazed at her with sympathy. "You're really stuck here, then. What a great time to come for a visit," he smirked at the irony. "Right as were about to be destroyed by Replicators."
Sam smiled, giving him a reassuring nudge. "We're not down for the count yet." Realizing how familiar she was being with someone who technically was her superior, Sam straightened and apologized. "I'm sorry, sir. You're so much like my Daniel, I forgot myself."
"Think nothing of it, Major," he smiled. "In fact, it's kind of refreshing being treated as a friend for a change."
"It's not a bad universe," she added conversationally. "There's a lot of things I like about this one over my own." Sam immediately thought of the fact she wasn't subject to frat regulations here, but there were other things as well.
"Oh? Like what?" Daniel asked, gesturing they should continue on their tour.
"Technology, for one thing. You're slightly ahead of where we were when I left. It's not a huge difference, maybe five years or so. Maybe your world is just better at marketing," she grinned. "And you have these amazing snack chips, made out of quinoa."
Daniel laughed out loud at that. "Score one for Frito-Lay." She smiled at him, and found herself comparing him to the Daniel she knew. He had her Daniel's sense of humor, but he was different in subtle ways as Jack was different from Colonel O'Neill. Even after all these years, there was still an underlying sadness to her Daniel. She suspected it would always be there. Colonel Jackson hadn't met and fell in love with Sha're so there was a harder edge to him. Sam still recognized his compassion, and innate curiosity, but it was tempered by the weight of command. She hadn't witnessed it, but Sam guessed a good deal of his passion was directed towards his team. It probably was difficult for him to send people into dangerous situations, and she suspected he did so only after careful consideration. Even if that consideration took only seconds. She'd trust herself under his command, Sam decided, and few leaders engendered that kind of faith in her.
"You've gone awfully quiet," Daniel noted, drawing her from her musings.
"Sorry, you just got me thinking about differences and similarities is all." Sam looked up and past him, noticing an elongated device, reminding her of a gauntlet with an expanded gun barrel on the end. Sam felt a tingle of recognition traveling her spine. "Where did you get this?"
"I'm not sure," Daniel muttered, picking up the tag to look at it. "P3X-493," he read, tapping his lips. "If I recall, there were a few other objects from there as well." He moved down the shelf and picked up several crystals, but from their dull color, it appeared they were inactive.
"These are Ancient," she whispered in awe.
"Well, we haven't carbon dated them and they don't look. . ."
"No! I mean Ancient as in the progenitors of Human life in this galaxy!" She moved past him again, picking up the dead crystals. "Definitely Ancient and not Asgard," she spoke to herself. "Was there anything else?" Sam was excited now. It seemed like this was the first break she'd had, and the familiarity of the alien technology felt reassuring. Even if she didn't know how to work it.
"Just this," Daniel said, handing her a donut shaped object. Sam turned it over, looking at it from several view points, but she had no idea what it was.
"This isn't familiar," she told him, "But the writing is Ancient."
"Can you read it?" he asked, sticking his head in her line of sight trying to see the glyphs on the side of the item.
Sam exhaled. "No. Daniel was-is-our expert on the language of the Ancients. I can recognize some of the symbols, but I can't read them. See?" she said pointing to a squarish pictograph on the device in her hand. "This means 'energy' so it could be something to do with the generation of energy, or the dissipation of it."
"Kind of opposite meanings," he observed.
"Yeah, and potentially deadly if you don't have the right translation. Their language is incredibly complex, like their technology. Daniel's just begun to scratch the surface of their texts."
"So, still no possibility for help against the Replicators," Daniel sighed.
Sam went back and picked up the first piece she'd recognized as being Ancient. It was bulky, but lighter than it looked. It resembled a rifle in that it had a barrel and was steadied with two hands. One arm slid into the gauntlet of the device, where there were indentations fitted to a person's palm.
"Not necessarily," she said, holding up the weapon with her arm. "This device was definitely made for a Human shaped hand. I'm guessing the 'trigger' is the contact with the palm."
Daniel stepped around to her side to get out of the way of the business end of device. "Then why isn't it coming on?"
Angling her head to see the underside, Sam was stumped. "I don't know. Maybe it needs to be recharged or something." She looked up at him, "I want to take these things to a lab and do a little more research. Is that possible?"
"Just have to sign them out," he said, picking up the crystals and the circular object. "We have a staff that should be able to assist you," he added.
"No offense, Da. . .Colonel, but I generally do better on my own."
"And I'm sorry, Major. While I believe you're acting in America and Earth's best interest, there's still a question of loyalty. Until you've been cleared, I can't allow you unrestricted access to anything here."
Sam nodded. She couldn't blame him. After all, it wouldn't be prudent to let her have free rein until she'd proven herself. "Understood."