A/N: This is the second part of my Journey story, each part can be read stand-alone but if you want to fully catch up then please read the first part which is episode 7 in my Fade to Black story series and can be found on my profile page :)
The Journey - Part 2
- Circle of echoes -
The Alterans were once a noble race of people who lived in peace and harmony on their home world of Celestis, that was until their mixed religious and scientific beliefs created a rift between them and eventually they split in to two groups, those who believed in learning about the universe through science and those who believed religion was the way to go.
The Ori, as the religious group became known, tried to convince the others that science was not the way but ultimately failed and as a result they tried to wipe them out, the Alterans didn't want to start an all out war with them and so they decided to leave Celestis in search of a new home and the two groups would be allowed to continue to follow their own beliefs without conflict with the other.
The Alterans eventually settled in the Milky Way galaxy and over millions of years they made countless scientific breakthroughs and eventually shed their physical bodies and moved to a higher plane of existence using a process known as ascension which allowed them to live as pure energy, they eventually became known as the Ancients, when they ascended they left behind a lot of their technology and probably the single most important of these was a device called the Stargate.
The Stargate allows people to travel between worlds via a wormhole, it was eventually taken over and used by a parasitic race known as the Goa'uld, who used it to enslave countless words and use it as a tool to demonstrate their power and convince people they were Gods, other races used the gate for trading purposes and exploration and the people of Earth used it to eventually bring down the Goa'uld and free the galaxy of slavery and false Gods.
The Ancients are powerful beings and known throughout the galaxy as the gate builders, but were they the first gate builders?.
Three months ago
It has been a little over a month since SG-1's last mission in the Pegasus galaxy, they were only meant to explore a crashed Furling ship and search for any technology that was salvageable but it went so terribly wrong, they discovered the ship was shot down by the Wraith and the Furling crew fed upon which made the Wraith super strong, Sam was badly injured in a fight with one of them and died from her injuries, as SG-1 stayed at her bedside grieving for their friend, Alisana was angry at the death of her people at the hands of the Wraith and was hell bent on getting revenge.
When she discovered the Wraith had taken a shuttle and were heading for the Furling home world she knew she had to stop them, leaping across the universe using the Stargate she eventually used the weapons on board Destiny to disable them, when she transported over to the shuttle she was so fuelled with anger that she killed every Wraith in her path as she ripped her way through the ship and she took back the life energy they had taken, she eventually used all this energy to destroy the Wraith and do what the Ancients said was impossible, she brought Sam back to life.
Alisana made the ultimate sacrifice and gave her life to save her people and her dear friend Sam, SG-1 have spent the last few weeks trying to come to terms with her death, O'Neill was reduced in rank back to the rank of Colonel for disobeying IOA orders and General Landry has returned as head of Stargate Command.
Carter is in bed sleeping, her forehead is covered with sweat, her eyes are moving around underneath her closed eyelids, her arms and head twitching occasionally and she lets out short sharp breaths of air, she's having a dream but it's clearly not a good one, suddenly she awakens and sits upright while screaming briefly, clutching her chest and breathing heavily.
At the opposite side of the bed, a lamp on a bedside table is switched on, illuminating the room.
"Sam." says a concerned O'Neill.
He sits up and places his hands gently on her shoulders, "Bad dreams again?" he asks, Carter nods.
"I just keep seeing it." says Carter.
She's been having these dreams almost every night for the last few weeks and its always the same, she's walking through dark hallways and its so dark she has to use her hands to feel her way around, she finds a door handle and opens the door revealing a room filled with blinding light, as she steps inside the room her eyes focus and she sees someone standing with their back turned in the corner of the room, she walks over and places her hand on their shoulder and says "Hello, can you help me, I'm lost." then suddenly they turn around and with a badly burnt and scarred face screams at her, then the whole room is engulfed in flames and she herself catches fire and starts to burn, that's when she wakes up.
O'Neill reaches over to the bedside table and picks up a glass of water and a pill from a bottle that was prescribed to Carter to help her sleep, he hands them to her and she places the pill in her mouth and washes it down with the water.
He places the glass back on the table, "Come here" he says, as they both lay back down with his arm around her, he turns off the lamp and rubs her head as she falls asleep.
The next morning at Stargate Command, all base personnel are going about their daily duty's, maintenance crews checking key systems and changing light bulbs, canteen workers preparing enough food to feed a small army and of course ensuring they make enough tater tots for their favourite Jaffa, SG teams walk the halls preparing to head off world to continue exploring the galaxy.
At the end of a hallway the elevator doors slide open and Jack and Sam step out, they're greeted by their fellow team members who have been waiting patiently for their arrival and now that they're here they all head towards the control room.
"Morning" says Daniel.
"Morning" replies Jack.
"Morning" says Sam.
"Morning" says Mitchell.
"Morning" replies Sam.
"Morning" replies Jack.
"Morning" says Siler as he walks passed them in the opposite direction.
"Good morning to every body!. Okay are we done with the mornings now?" moans Jack, sounding very grumpy from lack of sleep.
"Rough night huh?" asks Daniel.
"You guys go ahead I'll catch up" says Sam, suddenly turning and heading away from her friends.
"Where are you going, we've got a briefing." says Jack.
"I need to see Dr Lam, I'll catch up." replies Sam.
So as Sam heads off to the infirmary the rest of her team walk up the small steps to the control room and then to the back where they make their way up the spiral stairs to the briefing room, when they reach the top they see Landry through the glass window on the phone in his office, he raises his finger indicating he'll just be a minute, so they take their seats and wait.
Jack finishes poring himself a cup of coffee and takes his seat at the table, "Ahh - There's nothing like a good cup of coffee to start the day...but I guess this will do until I get one." he says.
A few minutes pass by and Landry finally comes out of his office, "Morning SG-1." he says, pulling out his chair and taking his seat at the head of the table.
Jack slams his cup on to the table when he hears the word morning once again.
"Morning General" says Mitchell.
Sam returns from the infirmary and enters the briefing just as Landry is taking his seat.
"Okay we're all here, Dr Jackson lets get this thing moving, I have a meeting with the IOA this afternoon and I still have a lot of paperwork to get through so if you don't mind..." says Landry.
Daniel starts handing out files with information and photos of ruins found on P3X-474, a number of researchers and archaeologists have spent a number of weeks examining the ruins and attempting to translate the text that remains engraved on them, the ruins themselves aren't spread over a large area so it wasn't a village, in fact only two large stones remain relatively in tact and readable.
"I'm sorry, what planet is this again?" asks Jack.
"P3X-474, its the planet the crew of the Odyssey were evacuated to when we were under attack from the Ori after the Asgard killed themselves." replies Daniel.
"Ah, I don't remember that." says Jack.
"No, you...you weren't there." replies Daniel.
"Continue Dr Jackson." says Landry.
Daniel goes on to explain that he believes the ruins are actually a memorial of some kind and are ancient, not ancient as in ascended beings ancient, ancient as in old, very very old, initial tests carried out on the ruins indicate that it could in fact be over a billion years old.
"Then who put them there?" asks Vala.
"Don't know. Unfortunately the writing engraved in to the stones is written in a language we haven't encountered before and without any type of reference we don't know what it says." says Daniel.
"Then what makes you think its a memorial?" asks Mitchell.
"Well if you look at the photos you'll see the text is engraved on all sides of the stones and if you look closely you can see a series of dots that break up the writing, now these dots appear randomly throughout the text which to me seems to indicate that its some type of list, probably a list of names like the ones we have on our memorials here on Earth to remember those who gave their lives in battle." says Daniel.
"I'm sorry Dr Jackson, is there a reason you're telling us this?" asks Landry.
Daniel picks up a photo from his file, "This is an image taken of one of the smaller stones, most of the engravings have faded and warn away but you can still make some of it out." he says.
"Didn't you say these ruins were over a billion years old?" asks Carter, after looking at the photo.
"Yes." replies Daniel, with a little grin.
"But isn't that a.." says Vala.
"Stargate." says Teal'c.
One of the images engraved on the stone looks a lot like a Stargate.
"That's impossible. The Ancients didn't build the gates until they came to this galaxy, but that was about 100 million years ago, how can a billion year old stone have an image of a Stargate on it nearly a billion years before it was even created?." asks Sam.
"I don't know, but its fascinating isn't it...I mean this could change everything..." says Daniel.
Suddenly the Stargate activates and the SGC's base alarms start to sound, "Incoming wormhole" announces Walter over the comms.
"No one is scheduled to check in for at least another 4 hours." says Landry.
They all stand up and heas down the spiral stairs to the control room, they reach the window just as the gate connects.
"What is it?" asks Landry to Walter.
"Receiving SG-4's IDC Sir." says Walter.
"Open the IRIS" orders Landry.
Walter places his hand on the palm scanner and the IRIS jutters slightly and then spirals open revealing the blue shimmering vortex beneath.
A few moments later SG-4 walk through the gate and down the ramp.
Landry bends down to the microphone in the control room, "You're early, SG-4" he says.
Major Pauletti, leader of SG-4 removes his hat and looks up to the control room window, "Yes Sir, we thought it would be best to return as soon as possible, we got some intel." he says.
"Intel?" asks Landry.
"We found her." says Pauletti, with a happy grin on his face.
Landry and Jack share a look at each other, they know exactly what he's talking about, this is what they've been waiting for the last few months and they're not letting this opportunity slip through their fingers.
"Go get her, Colonel." orders Landry.
"Yes Sir." replies Jack.
"Found who?, who are you talking about?." asks Vala, who has no idea what is going on.
SG-1 leave the control room and head to the lockers to gear up.