A/N: Last tributes here. I did not have space on the previous chapter.
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 7
Mitchell, Daniel and Colonel Mayborne's team checked the rooms and spaces they found with caution and curiosity. The oddities of this place did not seize to amaze. They did not think this place is this big. It did not look it from outside.
At one turn, Daniel and Mitchell went on first and in the first few seconds to follow realized they were alone once again. There was no sign of Colonel Mayborne's team. It was almost as though they imagined meeting them in the first place.
It turned out as they went back that the corridors were not the same. They had somehow shifted, changed. It seemed impossible but given all the crazies so far they were not this much surprised.
"Jackson," Mitchell called as he opened the next door.
Inside the room was circular. They were consoles of sorts. It was sorts as the items on them were outright ridiculous. Only in this place would they find such illogical mix of objects.
"What do you make of this?" Mitchell asked.
"I wish I had an answer." Daniel replied and he truly wished he did have an answer. He approached the console and looked at it. There was some form of writing but he did not know what it was as it was completely unknown. He supposed it was ideographic or ideological. There were circles, rectangles and other geometric figures intersected with lines.
"Is it a language?"
"It is possible."
"I'll check below." Mitchell saw some stairs and went down, and as he reached the bottom stair his eyes filled with tears. He shook head seeking what could make him cry at this moment but found nothing. 'Why am I crying?' He asked but there was no answer only more tears.
'John,'
Mitchell startled looked around and soon saw a mist emerging from the central column. There was a figure but it was blurry difficult to make out.
A sudden hit to the head and everything around took another shape. The hand that hit him seemed human but it did not belong to one. Instead the figure was at least seven feet tall with tentacles coming from the head and fierce expression in the eyes.
'Wake up, Crichton.' That voice was sharper and shrilled, no, not shrilled but girly pitch.
'John' This voice was softer and almost human.
His eyes flew open and he almost screamed with joy. It was Vala though her attire was very different and thus her weaponry was. There was something else and it was the look in her eyes. It was not a look of concern for a teammate no it was more than that. It made him shiver of the thought. It was love.
'Crichton, by the Hazmana,' The shrilling and annoying voice came closer this time and Mitchell almost had a fit. It was a creäture three feet tall with amphibious features. And it floated on a small throne. 'Your farbot human stunt scared everyone.'
Mitchell had no clue what this creäture said nor who everyone around was either. Well other than strangely attired Vala that is. He attempted to stand up but found it difficult. Every part of his body ached.
'John Crichton, Commander of the International Aeronautic Space Agency,' Vala said with a warm smile. 'Are you humans all that crazy or is it just you?'
Mitchell was at a loss here. He did not know where he was or who he was. He did not know who the people around him were or what they wanted of him. But the more strange the name sounded the more familiar it became. It was a strange contradiction.
And then just by command everything shifted and he saw himself lying on the floor beneath the console platform with the strange objects.
'What was that?' Mitchell wondered.
Daniel examined with great curiosity the strange mix of objects before him. The typewriter was of particulate interest as it was of Earth. What kinds of aliens use an Earth typewriter as part of their technology? It was ridiculous and impossible.
'Gabriel,'
"What?" Daniel said and looked around. He had the distinct impression he heard a voice calling. "Who's there?" He asked aloud.
'Gabriel,' The voice drew closer but he still could not find its source. It was also a soft voice filled with affection.
"Have I started hearing voices? Weird place." Daniel exclaimed silently. But his mind wondered – Shaare.
'Remiel!' This voice made him shudder. It was commanding and cold. It was also his. How was it possible? 'Report Remiel!' The cold voice continued and Daniel felt it fill the air.
A feeling of coldness climbed his body and it convulsed with pain. He lost his balance and fell on a knee. As it hit the cold metallic floor, Daniel gaped. The control console with the ridiculous objects was no more. Instead it was a repair shop of sorts. Sorts again as it were full of trinkets, cables, parts, metallic pipes and other little things.
The cold voice was there too but there was something strange about it too. It came from around him and in the same time it came from inside his head. It disturbed him greatly. His eyes flew high and on a screen on the wall he saw his image looking condescendingly back at him.
"Remiel, I do not like waiting. Seize command and report."
"Yes, of course," Daniel replied just to make his cold, dark side go away.
His image disappeared and Daniel visibly relaxed.
"Ah, there you are, Rommie."
Daniel sought the source of that voice. It belonged to a young man in a really strange and dirty outfit. Daniel's mind wondered – Rommie. What was that? Is it normal men to have girls' names here wherever here was?
"I still have a few things to fix on you."
Daniel blinked hard. "On me?" He asked unable to resist.
"Yes, you are incomplete."
Daniel blinked again but as the young man reached to touch him he gave him a slap and then gasped. The young man flew several meters and slammed into the near wall. Daniel looked at his hand and gaped. It was not his hand. It was a girl's hand, a woman's. What gives man?
He made a step and stopped. His legs felt strange (and not because they were woman's). He looked around for a mirror and soon found such surface. He walked to it and almost lost consciousness of the surprise. It was not his image that stared back. Oddly enough it was Doctor Caroline Lam's.
Where am I? Daniel wondered.
"Gabriel!" This time the voice seemed to come from inside his mind. He focused and everything changed. The environment was strange. It appeared digital. There were different matrixes in bluish coloring.
The voice called again and he turned around. And there she was Doctor Lam. He wanted to say Caroline but stopped himself. Instead the name he sought came out on its own.
"Andromeda,"
She stood in a cage of sorts. He walked around it while studying her.
"Gabriel!"
"This is not my name. It is Remiel, the Balance of Judgment."
"And yet you are here."
"I'm here because I need your body though soon I will have mine."
"Then why did you keep me?" Andromeda continued. "There is a part of him in you. I know it."
"There is not."
"Or maybe there is." Daniel protested. He managed to push his mind of the body he had appeared in and now stared at both of them.
"Who are you?" Remiel asked obviously confused and startled of his appearance.
"That is difficult to explain." Daniel replied. He started hoping that whatever brought him here will take him soon back.
"Try,"
"Well…" Daniel's thought trailed off. He suddenly reminded himself of one Jack's answers. "I got nothing."
"Gabriel, it is you." Andromeda said with hope in her voice.
Daniel shook slightly head. "Sorry, I'm…um…I'm Daniel, Doctor Daniel Jackson."
Remiel frowned. The name seemed familiar. He walked away from both and summoned a screen. Names flew across until it stopped on Daniel's image.
"Ha, what do you know?" Remiel, the Balance of Judgment exclaimed. "Daniel Jackson, doctor of Archeology, and…ha-ha…it says you were the greatest buffoon in the history of archeology. You had the most preposterous theories in the field and no one took you seriously. No wonder!"
Daniel did not expect he existed in this place wherever it was. But as always he was the reject of science.
"It is curious Dr. Jackson. It says you died in 2030 on Earth."
"Oh," Daniel exclaimed. "And what year is it now?"
Remiel studied him for a moment but indulged him anyway. "It is five thousand and change according to your calendar."
Daniel's eyes flew out of their orbit – five thousand. He was in the fifty-first or somewhere there century. Wow. Well only Colonel Sheppard's record was still unbeatable. He went forty-eight thousand years into the future and well Dr. Weir ten thousand into the past.
"Jackson,"
Daniel's heart pounded. He recognized the voice. It was Mitchell's. And soon his avatar appeared too.
"Who's that now?" Remiel exclaimed frustrated. Andromeda's memory got crowded.
"Here, Cam," Daniel called and Mitchell's eyes found him. He then looked at Remiel's avatar and frowned.
"Who's he?"
"I have no idea."
"Where are we?"
"Fifty and change century."
"Come again?"
"How did you come here?"
"I have no idea. One moment I was under and then somewhere don't ask, I don't know and then I was back and then I came up and then I was here wherever here is."
"But you pulled back?"
"Yes,"
"So I haven't yet?"
"Apparently,"
"How did you do it?"
"I don't know. It just did."
"On its own?"
"Yes,"
"Let's hope. I don't like it here."
"Too bad for you then," Remiel's cold voice thundered. Before they realized they stood surrounded by a digital fence.
"Jackson, what is that?"
"I think we are inside a computer." Daniel replied. "Don't ask."
"I shall try to contain myself." Mitchell said.
Remiel's avatar disappeared.
"Where did he go?"
"Outside,"
"Were you in his body?" Andromeda asked.
"Hugh? What?" Daniel asked and suddenly realized he willingly pulled himself out of Remiel. But how does he put himself back? Remiel was no longer here. "Oh, apparently. But I think it was your body."
"What?" Mitchell had trouble following this exchange.
"It is complicated." Andromeda said.
"So is it Andromeda or Rommie as the young hippie called me?"
"This will take time to explain." Rommie said.
"It doesn't look like we have anything else to do." Mitchell observed sarcastically.
Colonel Mayborne cursed. Jackson and Mitchell, he lost sight of them and then the entire place changed. He had never seen a corridor shift on its own but as the saying goes there is a first time for everything.
Crossing an arc everything around him lost coherence. It was like a fog and then he gaped. Was he back at Stargate Command? There were multiple displays and screens. He looked in one of the screens and saw he wore military attire different from the one now.
"General Villanova, sir, the drone has the target in sight."
Colonel Mayborne turned at the source of the voice. It was a young lieutenant. But this was strange as he was army not air force. 'Weird', he thought.
"We have the abnormals in sight. Do we have green light?"
He wanted to reply but another screen flashed. "What is that?" He asked.
"It is Dr. Zimmerman of the Sanctuary again."
'Who and what now,' Colonel Mayborne thought again. "What does he want?"
The lieutenant apparently answered the call of the doctor. "Dr. Zimmerman,"
"General, you have to give us some time to fix this before it escalates any further." Dr. Zimmerman said.
Looking at the other screens, Mayborne gaped. He was definitely on Earth but what were those creatures. They were definitely not human. They were weird. He examined the other screens and it seemed like there was an invasion in progress. He saw thousands of these things coming from underground.
Another screen showed some of these things in a camp. It looked like a containment camp. They all wore jumpsuits. The situation there however suggested the things were not in control.
"It doesn't look you have control over the situation, Doctor." Mayborne said.
"They reacted out of fear and panic. Give me some time. I have people in there they can help."
"How many do you have?"
"Three,"
"Three, are you kidding me?" Mayborne exclaimed.
"General, we can fire now." The lieutenant reminded.
"Hold your horses, young man," Mayborne exclaimed frustrated. "What do they teach you in cadet school?" He examined all screens. Apparently they have already fired once and many perished. But whether they were different creatures or not they had some rights. In his years in the SGC he had learnt to value even other life forms' rights. "Order all to stand down."
"General?" The Lieutenant looked up to.
"Do as you are told soldier."
"Yes, sir,"
"Dr. Zimmerman, I hope you know what you are doing." Mayborne turned to the young man at the screen.
"Thank you, General. You won't regret it."
"Every time someone uses that I do regret it." Mayborne couldn't resist retorting.
The fog reappeared and he was back in the strange corridor. Mayborne shook head trying to clear his mind. Where the devil was he just now? This place was definitely weird. But he got thinking nevertheless. He knew this place somehow shattered dimensions. Was it possible he was in a different reality? Well, it was most likely. What else could it be?
Looking at the others of his team he noticed the same confused looks. It appears they had similar experiences. Where were they? He wondered. It did not matter much though. They still had to find the others and go home. Still, he wanted to know more about the place he just left.
Perhaps he could find his way back to it. It appeared interesting as hell. He thrived in an environment of challenge. If he can find the owner of this place he would definitely ask him to send him back to that place (smirk, interesting idea of a spin-off don't you think?)
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Lordheaven