CHAPTER 62 – TO CLOSE THE PORTAL
General O'Neill found Sam almost asleep over one of the lab desks down in Rodney's old lab. "Sam, honey? I've been looking for you. When did you last get some proper rest?" He walked around behind her and started to lightly rub her shoulders and she groaned.
"Aahh Jack, I've missed that..." Smiling now, she pushed herself away from the papers that were spread out around her. "I'm nearly there Jack. I think I'm onto something. Closing that damn portal so that we can rest again, so the whole city can rest again. So that little girl can have a chance at having a normal life here."
"Whatcha got? In simple terms please..."
She laughed at him, knowing that he only feigned his ignorance, was in fact an extremely intelligent man. "I'm going to need one of the ZPM's Jack and some good old fashioned fire power. That should get yours and John's testosterone flowing more than sufficiently. I know how you boys like to play with your weapons."
Jack's eyes gleamed. "So I get to stay and play... hmmm? Been too long since I've been out in the field. Kinda missed it. I didn't miss the sore body though, aaah getting old is a bitch. The body wants what it used to have, but sadly... you know how it goes..."
"Actually Jack, no I don't. Not there yet..."
"Cheeky wench! Don't rub your youth in my face. Us old boys can still teach you young ones a few tricks."
She winked at him. "I know that for a fact, flyboy... anyway, back to the portal. Mind on work Jack – let's get the testosterone back in it's bottle for now. If I hook up a ZPM to one of the electromagnetic pulse weapons that we created to destroy the replicators... this would increase the pulse to a range that would effectively shatter any rift, theoretical or otherwise."
"Far be it from me to give you a lesson in physics, but wouldn't that widen the rift – aiming all the energy into it?"
"I have a theory as to how these rifts formed. By Carlie's admission, they have been undergoing a wide range of experiments in their dimension, I imagine in much the same way as we do here. There has been some theory that experimentation with particle accelerators may have the effect of creating tiny black holes. What I am surmising is that they had created a device that used particle acceleration intentionally, to create a rift in the dimensions – or it is possible they were seeking to control a rift in time, which is essentially what a black hole can be determined as."
Jack's eyes had begun to glaze over and she punched him lightly on the arm. "Listen Jack, don't you dare play that dumbass card with me. It so does not work anymore... I've been onto you for years! Anyway, as I was saying, we can use a supercharged electromagnetic pulse to combat the effects of the particle accelerator."
"Supercharged as in using the ZPM to juice it up?" The General was fascinated now.
"Rodney was not only looking into it while he was here... but back on earth in his new time line – did you know Jack...one early test of electronic space warfare took place in 1963 when the United States exploded a ground-launched nuclear weapon in space to test the effects of an electromagnetic pulse. The result was a deactivation of many then-orbiting satellites, both American and Soviet. The unfocused effects of the EMP test led to the banning of nuclear weapons in space in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Just who do you think was responsible for that one...hmmm?"
"Aaah crap... so he did manage to stuff something up..." Jack scrubbed a hand down his face.
"He did Jack... but this 'stuff up' let him to work on his research here in Atlantis. He's perfected the electromagnetic pulse warfare, hell, we fought the replicators with it. And he also found that they could essentially render damage from a particle accelerator... useless."
"So, getting confused here Sam... he stuffed up intentionally back on earth in 1963?"
"No Jack, I don't think so. He tried to speed things along a little, introduce some of his theories too early and they weren't ready for it. I know John gave him fair warning about that just before he went through the portal. If he tried to expedite anything, the ancients would come down on him like a ton of bricks. I'm thinking that Rodney got his hands slapped on that one. But... by instigating the research into electromagnetic pulse earlier than it should have been – well guess what path my research took... so, leading me to this point where I can pick up Rodney's notes and complete the process."
"I thought the current theory was that Gina was supposed to complete his research?" Jack was scratching his head now.
"She found the link between time travel and dimensional portals." Sam held out some notes, this time in Gina's handwriting. "White holes... theory up until now – we could pass through a black hole and exit through a white hole. Think of this as the exhaust end of a black hole. Instead of pulling everything into its gravitational force, the white hole would push everything out and away from it - perhaps into another time or even another universe. Put simply, the idea here is "what goes into a black hole must somehow come out." If a black hole tears the space-time fabric of "our universe" creating a wormhole, a white hole would be the entry point into the "other universe." Essentially, a white hole would be the mathematical representation of the black hole in reverse."
Sam took a deep breath, slapping a hand onto the notes that she had spread out around her. "White holes have been theory up until now, Gina surmises that it is likely that the particle accelerator device that they have been playing around with 'over there' has created both a black and white hole – effectively the black hole is the time portal and the white hole is the dimensional portal. They have a way for them to successfully co-exist."
"And Gina found this? Her reason to be here..."
"One of them Jack. You'll find out soon enough what the other is..."
"Are you holding out on me Colonel Samantha Carter?" Be bent down to kiss her, after sneaking a peak behind him that they were indeed alone down here.
"Just a little Jack.. but it's not my news, so my lips are sealed..."
"Ah ha... let's hope the surprise does not cause unnecessary implications... it seems we've had enough of those. Time for bed Sam.. you've done good sweetheart, as usual. It's all falling into place, isn't it. The players are doing exactly the moves as set out for them. If I hadn't already experienced the arrogance of the ancients first hand, I would never have believed them capable. But they are..."
It took a week for Sam to round out her theories and she spent a lot of that time pouring over notes, calculations and theoretical models with Gina. The device retrieved from Carlie had been safely stored away in the lower room of the city, the same room that held the time/dimensional portal. When John had gone back down there the following day, he was not surprised to find that it had simply...gone. There would be no element of surprise for them now. The 'other side' knew they had determined exactly what Carlie had been sent to do. A child assassin from another universe.
The pains in Gina's stomach had lessened significantly within hours of the removal of the device and by the day after the operation she had felt more or less pain free. Carson had continued to keep her in the infirmary, along with Carlie who was recuperating from the operation to remove the device. Angel had been a constant visitor between the two, much to Carson's disapproval. He did not like the idea of any animal being in a sterile environment but he had been outnumbered and had had to eventually give in. Carlie now resided in a bed beside Gina and as Gina refused to actually spend her recuperation time in the bed, it was generally in a seat beside Carlie's bed, reading books to the little girl. She slept on and off throughout the two days after the operation with no memory of what had been done to her, either by the medical staff in Atlantis or the people of her world.
Once Sam had rounded out her theories she called a meeting for all personnel who would be involved with the portal closure. That included all engineers, military, security and a large science team who were busy working on the EMP discharger hookup with one of the city's ZPM's. This was the difficult part. Having given them the calculations required, they still needed to find a day to get the accelerated power source compatible with the EMP pulse without overloading it.
Gina and John had spent little time together during that week. He had visited her during the early part of the week when she had still been incarcerated in the hospital – the latter part of that week for her had been spent in conference with Sam and visiting Carlie. John had worked with his security teams and they had been back to the mainland several times to set up perimeter guards around the area they thought contained the rift, to ensure that if anyone attempted to come through to get the girl, they would be ready for them.
He had been worried about getting his men too close, in case they accidently went through it but Sam was quick to point out that at this stage, the rift was too small for an average sized man to get through, and there would be an electrical sensation when they got to the point where they crossed. He intentionally blocked off a five meter radius of the supposed area and nothing would be allowed in or out of that perimeter.
John, running late for the meeting that Sam had called, entered the room with an apology on his lips and noted immediately that Gina had not arrived either.
He raised an eyebrow at Sam. "Anyone seen Gina yet? Thought you guys had been down in your lab this morning, and you were en route together?"
Sam's eyes were serious. "She had to make a small detour John. Wasn't feeling too well... she'll be here soon."
Something slammed into him then, something he had been missing and been struggling to piece together and he went to leave the room again. Sam stopped him with a curt voice.
"Leave her John. Deal with it later. We need to get this plan underway."
He sat down, his expression darkening as the implications sunk in and when Gina finally arrived late to the meeting, looking pale and extremely fragile, he turned dark brooding eyes on her that had a sickening feeling rising from the pit of her stomach. One that had nothing to do with the new life that was growing in there.