Disclaimer: 'Stargate' and 'Harry Potter' both belong to their respective creators, so I don't own them; I'm just borrowing them for the immediate moment in time and space
Feedback: I'd like it, believe me
AN: Not my longest chapter, but it's mainly setting the stage for the next one, as we move on to another episode-inspired-plot with some subtle-but-significant differences from the original course of events that I hope will meet with your approval when they become apparent...
AN 2: Some reference here to the episode "A Matter of Time" and the 'sequel' novels "A Matter of Honour" and "The Cost of Honour"; if you haven't read them, relevant plot information will be included in the chapter itself. To cover the essentials now, I'll just say that SG-10- who were trapped on a planet falling into a black hole in the second-season episode "A Matter of Time"- were rescued by SG-1 using questionably-acquired anti-gravity technology in the two novels mentioned previously
Truth and Revelations
"Welcome back, SG-1 and SG-M," Landry said, smiling as the two teams stepped off the ramp leading up to the Stargate, the slight smiles on their faces assuring the SGC's commanding officer that at least something had gone right for the SGC recently. "How did things go in Merlin's library?"
"Well, sir, we've still got some work to do before we track down the Sangraal, but we do have a few ideas about where to go next," Mitchell said, smiling at the general. "It's a bit of a long story, so we should probably save it for the debriefing; we've picked up quite a few interesting facts since we left here..."
"As much as I'd enjoy hearing what those facts are, we may not have the time to talk about that," Landry said, looking grimly at the two teams. "SG-10 have failed to check in on their last mission, and we can't even dial the Stargate to confirm if they're still on the planet or not; we're prepping the Odyssey to pick them up, but once you've finished the current briefing, I think we'd all feel better knowing SG-1 is on the case."
"Understood, sir," Mitchell said, nodding at the base's commanding officer even as he exchanged concerned glances with the rest of the team.
SG-M might just be professionally interested- as much as they were fitting into the team dynamic with Jackson to serve as a 'bridge' between their two worlds (Even if most of the wizards probably still thought of Jackson as 'Potter'; Mitchell still wondered a bit about how he'd come up with his alias), they still didn't really know anyone at the SGC apart from him-, but the other three-quarters of SG-1 were obviously more emotionally invested in that team than anyone else. The stories of how Colonel O'Neill had defied orders and risked court-martial and worse just to lead the team in a mission to rescue Major Henry Boyd, Captain Michael Watts and Lieutenant Jessica McLeod was still legendary among the SGC, with many saying that one of the few things that really riled SG-1 these days was the thought of the team they'd risked so much to save being in serious jeopardy again.
Whatever had happened to SG-10, Mitchell already knew that SG-1's remaining members from that time would accept no quarter in finding a way to get them home; they'd gone through too much trying to save those guys originally to abandon them now.
"So," Landry said, looking between the various team members gathered around him as he contemplated what he'd just been told about their latest mission, "in a nutshell, Merlin told you three places where we might find this weapon he created, but he didn't tell you the addresses of the planets in question and there's no obvious way to find those addresses apart from trying to read through everything in that library?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Fred said with a casual shrug. "But, on the bright side, the villagers seemed willing to let us go back after we took out that Black Knight sucker; at least we don't have to worry about that kind of issue."
"It's certainly encouraging, I'll admit," Landry said, looking at Fred with a slight smile of acknowledgement before he turned back to address the rest of the team. "Unfortunately, as I previously mentioned, we've got more immediate problems right now; SG-10 were supposed to check in a couple of hours ago, and we haven't even been able to dial the Stargate of the planet they were on to try and find out what they've discovered."
"What was their assignment?" Lupin asked, looking curiously at the general.
"They were investigating our recent discovery that the planet they were visiting was the origin of Kassa, a highly addictive corn-like food that SG-3 found on another planet," General Landry explained. "Doctor Lee's tests have confirmed that the plant contains a highly addictive, artificially engineered psycho-stimulant; in other words, someone made it. I would have waited for you to get back, but when Hagrid informed me of your current situation I thought it would be better to send someone else in case you took too long to get back; SG-10 were available and willing, and so we sent them, but we haven't heard back since."
"Right..." Mitchell said, nodding in grim understanding. "Do we know anything about who's responsible for creating this stuff?"
"We thought that it might be the Ori, but that idea didn't last long," Landry continued
"They've got nothing to gain by making the population addicted to something like this, but we had no idea who was really behind it, hence why we sent SG-10 to investigate the possible source with the new chip implant beacons."
"The new what?" Tonks asked.
"It's a new development Doctor Lee's been working on since Tegalus; his idea was that we should instal small chips in the bodies of SG-teams to make it easier for them to be picked up by the transporters in the event of anyone being captured by hostile powers," Landry explained. "SG-1 would have been the first to receive it- your temporary captivity might have been averted thanks to Doctor Jackson's... magic... but we can't always depend on that to get us out of a tight spot-, but you went away to the library before Lee had finished testing them, and SG-10 were given the chips before they left just in case."
"So... all we need is to get a ship to the planet and we can find them?" Mitchell asked.
"Precisely," Landry replied. "The Odyssey- our new 304-class- is almost ready for departure, and Colonel Emerson's completely in favour of their first mission being the recovery of SG-10, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't appreciate every advantage; if you can go along, we can at least be sure that they'll have excellent tactical assistance if the situation turns out to be more complicated than just a damaged Stargate."
"Sounds like a plan," Mitchell said, nodding in agreement at General Landry.
"Good," Landry said, nodding back at the lieutenant colonel before he turned to address the rest of the team. "You have a couple of hours until Odyssey is ready for departure; get the necessary equipment together and get ready."
"Check," Mitchell said, nodding in agreement as the group left the room, the assorted teammates and wizards heading to the nearest empty office to discuss the situation in more detail.
"So," George asked, looking curiously over at Daniel, Sam and Teal'c after they had all gathered in their chosen office, "given how you reacted when you learned that they were the ones in danger, I have to ask; is there something particularly special about SG-10?"
"Apart from the fact that we once risked our lives, careers, and freedom to save them from a black hole?" Daniel said, smiling slightly grimly at the memory of that time even as he answered George's question.
The aftermath might have been a successful mission- the SGC was restored to its usual command structure, the Arxanti were saved, the Kinahhi would have to rebuild, the sheh-fet had been permanently dismantled, and SG-10 could return to their lives-, but the only thing worse than coming back to discover that Kinsey was now at least indirectly in charge of the SGC due to a covert coup he'd carried out in their absence had been that time when Hogwarts was under Umbridge's control back in his fifth year; the thought that everything they believed in could be taken over that easily...
"Uh... a black what?" Fred asked, drawing Daniel's thoughts away from that time period as he focused on the current conversation.
"A black hole," Sam explained, looking over at the twin with a slight smile. "Basically, it's the result of a star reaching a certain mass and collapsing in on itself when it becomes too heavy to support itself, creating a singularity that sucks everything in around it once it passes an area known as the event horizon..."
Noting the blank stares she was starting to receive from the twins, she waved a hand apologetically. "That's not important right now; what's relevant is that, if a planet should fall into a black hole, it alters the rate at which the planet perceives time passing around itself, with the result being that anyone on the planet when it falls in cannot escape through the Stargate as from their perspective the gate isn't active long enough for them to get through."
"Ah," George said, nodding in grim understanding. "So... SG-10 got stuck on a planet with a black hole near it... and... you couldn't go and get them in a ship because of that... singularity thing?"
"Indeed, George Weasley," Teal'c confirmed. "We were only able to recover SG-10 five years after the original incident when we made contact with the Kinahhi two years ago, as they possessed anti-gravity technology that could protect a ship from the time dilation effects of the black hole long enough for us to land and recover SG-10 before the planet they were on passed the threshold of the event horizon."
"Uh... neat?" Fred said, looking slightly uncertainly at Teal'c, clearly unsure if he should be particularly impressed at that feat (Not that Daniel could blame him; the twins were so used to doing everything with magic that they probably hadn't done that much research into conventional muggle technology, and there was so much alien technology to learn about at the moment that they probably hadn't had time to really learn what was and wasn't possible).
"And your rescue of them was... difficult?" Tonks asked.
"We defied orders, risked court-martial on our return, and found out that one of our greatest political enemies had taken control of the SGC until we came back to reveal that the 'allies' he'd recruited to get that kind of power were actually planning what amounts to a coup," Sam said, looking grimly over at the auror.
"Think Voldemort's attempt to covertly take control of the Ministry and you're pretty much there," Daniel finished for his teammate; given that Umbridge hadn't exactly been subtle about her attempts to take control of Hogwarts for the Ministry's sake, he didn't think that example counted.
"People can do that without magic?" George asked.
"Right bit of influence in the right place at the right time can work wonders," Mitchell said grimly, nodding at the Weasley twin. "Just because magic probably makes that kind of thing easier doesn't mean people can't be manipulated into it naturally; bit of paperwork edited to make people or things look a certain way can really work wonders with the right people."
"On the topic of attempting the apparently impossible," Hermione said, looking over at Daniel as she spoke, "do you think General Landry would object to me going back to Camelot to see what I can find in the library?"
"Huh?" Mitchell said, looking sharply over at her at this sudden twist in the conversation. "But-"
"Look," Hermione said, looking at the colonel with an apologetic expression, "if we're going to find this 'Sangraal' thing, we should probably get started as soon as possible. From what we've heard, it sounds like SG-10 could use help if something's preventing you from even dialling the Stargate on their planet in the first place, but you probably don't need all of us right now, and we don't want to start giving your superiors the impression that you need magic to pull you out of the metaphorical fire and give them a reason to start downsizing this place or something like that; given that Merlin is a figure from our history, it makes sense for me to try and see if I can find anything in that library that a muggle research team might miss..."
"Try looking for anything about Gwaine," Daniel said, looking over at his old friend with a sudden smile of inspiration.
"Gwaine?" Lupin repeated, looking slightly sceptically at Daniel. "What does he have to do with this?"
"It hit me when I thought about what Merlin told us about the planets the Knights went to; I just needed a little time to remember it," Daniel explained. "In one of the earliest incarnations of Gawain in myth, an old Welsh tale tells of how Gawain, AKA Gwalchmei, went on a quest to help rescue a lost love. I took a quick double-check while we were going through medical- I asked one of the nurses to get me my laptop after the check-over was finished-, and the legend says that Sir Gawain visited several lands over the course of his adventure, including a place called Gwlad Gan Brenhinol Gwir, which is Welsh for 'Land of Royal Truth'. Translate that into Ancient, and you get 'Verus Gen Bree'- Vagonbrei."
"Right..." Hermione said, nodding thoughtfully before she assumed a more enthusiastic smile. "OK, that gives me something to start with; so... you think that, if I can focus on anything with Gwaine's name in the title, we might manage to find something useful there?"
"I can't make any promises, but like you said, it's something to start with," Daniel replied.
"Trust me, he's good at those kind of leaps," Sam said, smiling slightly as she looked at the Minister of Magic. "When it comes to archaeological matters, I don't know anyone whose research skills are as good as Daniel's when it comes to making unlikely connections."
"Right," Hermione said, clapping her hands together as she looked over at the others, privately smiling at both Sam's praise of Daniel and Daniel's slightly awkward expression at his friend's high opinion of him; the more she saw of them, the more she had to wonder just how many people were in denial about their real feelings in this situation. "Remus, Tonks, could you give me a hand in the search; I get the impression that Fred and George will be more likely to be useful helping your research team coming up with a few additional tricks- we might as well stop just fighting together and see if we can bring our respective talents together for more than just the occasional fight, and... well, no offence to Hagrid, but if we're using a ship..."
Daniel nodded in grim understanding; as much as he would have liked to have his friend along for this mission, it just wasn't practical to keep Hagrid confined and uncomfortable in a ship for that long when he might not be able to make an individual difference to the situation.
"So... wait a minute; you want us to try and invent weapons?" Fred asked.
"It's not like most of what you've developed over the years couldn't be used to do some damage in a fight; all we're asking you to do is adapt your creativity somewhat," Hermione said, smiling encouragingly at them. "You've been out-of-the-box thinkers since you were at school- your low grades were only because you couldn't bother to apply yourself-"
"Do you have to keep going on about the grade thing?" George asked with an exasperated groan. "We get that you're our sister in all but blood, but..."
As George trailed off, Daniel didn't need to look around to realise that the same awkward expression now covering his features was on Fred and Hermione's faces, as well as his own.
It might have been over twenty years, but the damage Voldemort had done to the Weasleys in that war would never really go away, and comments like George's just brought up the memory of a time when Daniel was still Harry and he and Hermione seemed destined to become new members of the Weasley clan...
Well, if there was a reality out there where that had happened and that world's Harry Potter had gone on to marry his Ginny, Daniel wished that Harry the best; right now, he was here, Ginny was dead, and he would just have to cope with that.
"Well," Sam said at last, recognising the need to break the silence that had settled over the group as she looked awkwardly at the twins, "we should probably get on with things; I'll introduce you two to the science department and... show you some things we might be able to use- I've had a couple of ideas about how we could adapt technology to use some of the spells Daniel's demonstrated, but there hasn't been time to put anything into practise yet..."
As the group started to leave the office, Hermione hung back to look at Daniel, briefly holding the door closed behind her after Mitchell had walked out into the corridor.
"Should I read something into the fact that you have feelings for a woman that smart?" she asked with a slightly teasing smile.
"You were focused on learning what was already known to someone else, while Sam has a thirst for discovering things that nobody on Earth had yet; you're different enough for there to be no issues like that, I promise," Daniel said, smiling reassuringly at the woman he would always consider a sister before he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Let's go; we've all got our missions, and it's time to get on with them."
It might have been an abrupt way to end the conversation, but this wasn't the time for Daniel to get into another debate with Hermione about whatever theories she might have about his personal life; things were going to be complicated in that area for the foreseeable future, but there was something that they could do about the Sangraal and SG-10's predicament right now, and it was important to focus on that instead.