Disclaimer: The characters of Doctor Who belong to BBC Wales and those of Stargate to MGM but the words are mine.
AU/SG1/DW: The last address of the Stargate opened on a depressing, dim world full with nothing but graves and tombstones where four SG teams already disappeared without a trace. SG1 embarks to locate them only to witness the opening of one tomb that holds the greatest of all secrets in the universe.
The Tomb of the Doctor
Chapter 2
Colonel Mitchell emerged on the other side. He had to admit that the MALP direct video did not make this place justice at all. It was far more dismal and depressing. Dark stormy clouds covered the skies and thunders pierced them every second or so. All around the gate there were gravestones of different heights and sizes, and with names in so many forms of writing that it would take years for anyone to translate them.
His team came in as well. Their expression said it too – dismal and depressing. Walk in the park this was not. Mitchell remembered his words just moments ago – Daniel Disneyland and wanted sincerely to take them back. If it was a planet full of ruins it might have been but this was something else entirely.
He walked up the nearest mound that could qualify as a hill and looked down. It was the same as the area around the gate – grave to grave. There were some bushes of black branches with no leaves. It was the kind of bushes one sees on volcanic planets or dead worlds. The one thing he could not explain was the air. It was perfectly breathable. It was an obvious contradiction. If the entire planet looked like this place then what made oxygen.
He turned around and there behind the gate surprise, surprise, the graves continued in every direction until the line of the horizon. What is this place? He had a feeling he would ask himself this question many times.
"Sierra Golf Charlie, this is SG1's leader." Mitchell said touching the button on his radio. Curiously there was a lot of static in it. Response did not come immediately. He looked strangely at Colonel Carter. "What gives?"
"I don't know." Samantha Carter replied shrugging.
"SGC, come in." Mitchell repeated. "This is SG1 leader."
Daniel Jackson exchanged looks with Vala and Teal'c.
"Weird," Mitchell exclaimed silently. He tried again and again silence answered his call.
"Time dilation…" Vala said mostly expecting an answer from Sam.
"Why do you always turn to me for answers?" Sam replied sounding slightly offended. True, she was the smart one in the group but she did not know the answer to every question.
"You are geek one in the group." Vala replied cracking a smile.
"Aha,"
Mitchell did not need an answer. He already knew something was wrong. The static in his radio lasted only a few moments then it disappeared completely. He walked to the DHD and gestured Daniel to come to him.
Daniel came. "What?"
"See if you find the symbol of this planet so we know how to go home."
Daniel obliged and faced his first nasty surprise. The symbols on the DHD did not match any Ancient he had ever seen.
"What?" He exclaimed loudly attracting his teammates' attention.
They came to him and looked. "What is that?" Vala asked.
"I have no idea." Daniel replied.
"Jackson?" Mitchell asked.
"Well as you can see these symbols, I have never seen them before." Daniel said.
"Never, never?"
"Never,"
"Huston, we have a problem, kind of thing?"
"Yeah," Daniel nodded.
"Ok, this is weird." Mitchell acknowledged. "But you can still work them out with Sam's help?"
"I don't know." Daniel shrugged. "I have never seen them before."
"How did we miss that?" Vala asked.
"I don't…"
"Wow." Mitchell interrupted raising both hands in the air. "It is redundant already, Jackson. Ok, it is a bump on the road but if we stayed with cool heads we can figure it out."
"I can try."
"That's the spirit."
"Meanwhile, shouldn't we explore?" Vala asked with the usual glint in her eyes when it came to unknown places full of possible treasure.
"Um, I think we should figure if we can go back home first and then explore." Mitchell said. "Sam, get on with it."
"Right,"
Mitchell looked around. He noticed Teal'c was unusually silent. And speaking of Teal'c he was nowhere around them. This did not worry him much but still a moment of panic grazed him. He ran to the mound and looked around. He relaxed visibly seeing his friend just a few meters below.
"Teal'c," He called.
Teal'c looked up. "Colonel Mitchell,"
"You scared me buddy."
Teal'c threw him one look that said no worries and then continued descending till he reached the bottom. There was a way through the rubble of gravestones. It zigzagged and vanished in another mound of smaller hills.
There Teal'c stood still and his eyes scanned the immediate area. It was the same as the one above. He wondered how a planet can have these many graves. How many people have died here and when? Or were they people? It was difficult to tell since they did not understand the markings on the graves. But whether they were people or not was irrelevant.
Still something hit him. The way the graves stood it made him think it was not that much of a graveyard but a monument. To whom he asked himself. Was it to the fallen or to the one or ones responsible for their downfall? His answer was only the silence. Silence, Teal'c came to think of it. Other than the thunders piercing the skies there was no other sound. There were no sounds of water, of wind, of animals of any sort, only silence, pure silence. Not even his footsteps made a sound loud enough.
What is this place? He asked himself. He did not have the answer. He had seen many dark worlds but none compared even remotely to this one. Hell, even the dead worlds had more cheer than this one.
"What did you see?" Mitchell asked.
Teal'c did not usually display signs of surprise but this time it was hard not to. He did not even hear him come near him. Mitchell stood right beside him. Strange, Teal'c thought, this place dulled all his senses with this unusual, unnatural silence.
"I see more graves." He said.
"Same here," Mitchell agreed.
Teal'c sensed his friend's voice. It was the same as his – low. Their good, their usual good mood was simply not present. There was melancholy in the air.
"Dr. Jackson,"
"Sam and he keep trying to figure out the DHD."
"Vala Mal Doran,"
"She keeps them company. I think we should rejoin them. It is best not to linger around alone."
"I agree."
They climbed back up. Daniel, Sam and Vala kept staring at the DHD. Mitchell thought he saw a glimpse of hope in their eyes before it vanished. "Oh, come on,"
"Cam?" Sam looked at him as this outburst attracted everyone's attention.
"We can't start losing hope." He elaborated seeing their expressions.
"I hate to say it but…" Daniel began.
"Then don't say it." Mitchell interrupted him. "Look, we came here to do a job. We have to find our missing teams or at least what happened to them. So quit your whining and find how this damn thing works."
"Look, I'm usually the optimistic one in the group." Daniel said. "But these symbols do not match anything in the Ancient database. It is like we are not in our own…" Daniel's words drowned in the sudden thought he had, a horrible thought.
"We are not in our own what?"
Sam looked at Daniel too. "Daniel?"
He did not reply at once. The horrible thought began to form and now expand. But even if it was what he thought it was not possible. How can it? "Look, all I know is that these symbols though they seem Ancient may not…"
"What?" Mitchell exclaimed interrupting him again. "What are you saying? They are not ancient?"
"It is possible." Daniel replied. It was not what he thought but still it was in the general direction. "I'm not sure how to say this but there is a good chance we are no longer in our own galaxy."
"Jackson, the gate address was, is."
"I'm not sure about this."
"Carter?"
"Don't look at me. I'm even more confused than he is." Sam said. "Honestly, I have no idea where we are."
"Wait a minute." Mitchell exclaimed raising a hand to silence them. "You two always say that the gate address corresponds to a distance and a place. Seven symbols to dial a gate address within our galaxy, eight for another and nine for the Destiny?"
"Yeah," Sam confirmed.
"So now you say what?" Mitchell asked to clarify.
"Now we say we don't know." Daniel replied. It was the first time he felt uncertain but it was the only thing that made sense. There was something else too. He noticed it just moments ago. It was in the gate itself. It had forty-two symbols on it. He did not know the meaning of that since it changed everything they knew about the gates. Of course the most pressing question was how they connected to this gate in the first place.
"Daniel, what is it?" Vala had come to know his looks.
Instead of answer, he moved to the gate. "Bear with me." He said and pointed at the top symbol of the gate. "And count with me."
"Count?" Mitchell looked confused.
"Ok, moving right, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, we are ok so far?"
"Yes,"
"Alright we continue – twenty one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, and thirty. Alright so far?"
"Yes,"
"And we continue – thirty one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one and forty-two."
"What?" Mitchell exclaimed perplexed. "No, no, the gate has thirty-nine. We counted wrong."
"Please feel free to start over," Daniel called on and folded arms.
Mitchell started over but no matter how many times he counted the symbols were not thirty-nine, they were forty-two. "Ok, this is weird."
"How did we connect to this gate in the first place?" Vala asked.
"I have no idea." Daniel replied relaxing his arms.
"Nah, this is not right." Mitchell said and started counting again. And again the number of symbols was forty-two. There was no mistake.
Sam did not take part in the counting of the gate symbols. Instead she counted the symbols on the DHD and compared them to those on the gate. Something did not add up. The DHD symbols were thirty-nine and a half. It was staggering discovery. The fortieth symbol was in half.
"Um, guys," She called.
"What?" Vala turned to her.
"The DHD has um thirty-nine symbols and a half."
"And a what?" Mitchell nearly yelled. He ran to the DHD. "How can you have half a symbol?"
"Well, take a look." Sam smiled weakly and pointed.
Mitchell, Vala and Daniel looked and surprise Sam was right. Teal'c as always raised an eyebrow but they all stared at the half a symbol.
"What…" Mitchell was at loss of words. "But…ha…what…"
"This is one weird planet." Vala remarked. "So what do we do now?"
No one had the answer though. How do they get home when the DHD and the gate did not match? How do they get home when the gate symbols were more than usual? And how do they get home at all when the symbols were nothing like they had seen? What was this place?
No, the MALP definitely did not give this place justice. Speaking of the MALP, Mitchell noticed just now, where was it? He looked around and did not see it anywhere. There were no tracks of it on this dusty ground. Still he walked to the gate and kept looking. Maybe it came on the other side. But no, there was no sign of it.
He made a step and looked down. There was it – his track was visible. So it was not the ground. It did not hide footprints and therefore it could not hide the MALP's tracks. But if the MALP was not here then where was it. It was weird because the MALP did go first. It was already here when they stepped in through the gate.
He agreed with Vala it was one weird planet. And then just as he thought about setting a defensive perimeter around the gate another thought hit him and he wondered how he not thought of it first. How did he not notice this before? For the first time since they came here he noticed something even more frightening. And this is where Mitchell had the biggest panic attack. Why were they alone? (I hope you noticed that too).
"Um, team," He said raising his voice to attract their attention.
"Cam?" Daniel looked at him.
"Did anyone see the other teams when we came through the gate?"
"Yeah, they were right behind us."
"Are you sure?"
And it was in this very moment everyone remembered. They came alone. The other teams though they followed closely never came through.
"Oh, crap,"
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