Chapter 5

Michael Knight looked upon the ten foot tall structure before him. He wasn't sure what the ring did but it looked rather large to him. Devon Miles and Bonnie Barstow stood beside him as they all got their very first look at the smaller Star Gate.

Michael asked, "Just what is this thing?"

Devon stated. "We are about to find out." He looked at his wrist watch. "Colonel Hammond and his guest should be arriving any minute now."

Bonnie stated. "I'm not sure what it is for but it does have a rather high tech computer system in it."

Michael stated. "Those symbols. They kind of look like what you see in the newspaper for horoscopes."

Bonnie agreed. "They do look like that."

Colonel George Hammond walked through the door to the warehouse with Professor Langford, Catherine Langford, Michael Coldsmith-Briggs the Third and his assistant, Marella, the crew of Airwolf and SG-1. He greeted. "Mr. Miles."

Devon, Michael and Bonnie all turned to greet their guest. They noticed most all wore civilian clothing except Colonel Hammond who was in his uniform.

Devon offered a handshake to the Colonel. "Colonel Hammond."

Hammond shook his hand. "We are grateful for assistance." He continued. "I would like to introduce you to some key people. He motioned to his audience: "Professor Langford and his daughter Catherine. Michael Coldsmith-Briggs the Third and his assistant, Marella. Stringfellow Hawke, Dominic Santini, Caitlin O'Shannessy and…" he looked back at Jack and his teammates. He gave a heavy sigh, "Colonel O'Neill of the U.S. Air Force, Major Carter of the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Jackson and Teal'c."

Michael Knight noticed Jack and Sam were both in civilian clothing. He asked, "The Air Force is sending in their own people for this project?" He also recognized Caitlin from his days as a police officer but knew she thought he was dead and would not recognize him after the surgery.

Jack smiled. "Yup." He then looked at the smaller Star Gate. "I see you got the mini gate all set up."

"Mini gate?" Michael asked unsure what to make of Jack.

Professor Paul Langford spoke. "There is a much larger ring that is twenty two feet in diameter sitting in a government warehouse."

"Bigger?" he gasped. He looked back the smaller Gate. "Bigger than that thing?"

"Yes." the Professor confirmed. "I found it in 1928. In Egypt. This one was found in a cave in the Mojave Desert and is more complete than the larger ring."

"Okay." He then asked, "Just what does this ring thing do?"

Jack grinned as he liked Michael Knight and his layman's terms. "Carter can explain it better than I can." He looked to Sam.

Sam stepped forward and stood before her audience. "It's called a Star Gate. It creates a wormhole connecting one gate to another. These gates are seeded throughout the galaxy and beyond. It works by dialing an address using star constellations that you can see on the inner ring. It's like an address. Once you dial the right address the wormhole will connect and establish an event horizon. You simply walk through it…like a doorway."

Michael knight asked. "Where did this thing come from?"

"Daniel can explain that." she motioned towards her friend.

Daniel stepped forward. He stated. "The Star Gate system was made and seeded by a very advance race of humans called the Ancients. There were once four great races that ruled the galaxy. The Ancients, who made the Stargates. The Asgard, the Nox and the Furlings. You will find many ancient myths and religions are based on ancient alien races. The Ancients were here on Earth about ten thousand years ago. There are other races too. The Jaffa, who are a genetically modified humans. The Goa'uld who are a symbiont race who take a host. The To'kra, who are the same symbiont race but will not suppress the host. There are other humans and other races as well."

Michael Knight stated. "You talk like you have already used this gate thing, gone to other planets and made contact."

"Right." he nodded.

"If the military has that then what do you need us for?" he wondered.

Daniel looked at Sam.

She spoke up. "We're kind of in a bind right now. You see, there is another element to gate travel. If the wormhole is hit by a solar flare is can bend it around the sun and the gravitational pull can bend space fabric which can throw the travel off their destination and bend time."

"What?" Michael Knight asked.

She confessed. "We have hit two solar flares. One in 1997 which sent us back to 1969 and the other in 2004 which sent us back to 1984 and connected with an auxiliary gate system." She pointed. "The mini gate." She then babbled on. "I spent weeks setting up a protocol so that would not happen a second time but somehow it happened anyways and now when I finally do get back I got a lot more work to do."

"Um…" Michael was a bit lost.

Colonel Hammond spoke up. "I was at the 1969 incident. In the future, I will be the general running the base the Star Gate program will be operating out of. Colonel O'Neill will lead his team to other planets. They are called S.G. One. Star Gate One and right now they are stuck in 1984." He concluded. "They have traveled through time twice." He then pondered, "That I know of."

Jack pondered, "Does the time loop thing count?"

Sam shook her head. "No sir. You and Teal'c were trapped in a time loop. You didn't actually travel through time. You just relived the same day for weeks."

"Time loop?" Colonel Hammond asked.

Jack waved it off. "Time loops, time dilation fields…all the same thing."

Sam shook her head and bit her lip.

Michael Knight asked. "Just what do you plan on doing with this ring, gate…thing and why do you guys need us?"

Daniel stated. "There is an unknown alien presence on earth. We also believe there is a Goa'uld on earth leading a cult."

"Unknown alien presence." Michael pondered.

Sam spoke. "The man in the red suit. That's not government. It's not a hoax either. I'm guessing it's alien technology and some how and for some unknown reason none of us in the future remember anything about it."

Jack added, "Which is a little worrisome."

Bonnie Barstow spoke up. "I understand that you are from the year 2004. You were accidentally sent here when the wormhole that you were traveling in was hit by a solar flare. My question is…how will you get back to 2004?"

Sam explained. "There will be a large flare in April. We have a chance of getting sent back if we can time it right using the small gate here."

"Just a chance?" she asked. "You don't know for sure?"

"To get back from the 1969 mishap we used the larger Gate and we hit another solar flare. But it overshot and we ended up much further into the future. A child that we save a few years back, Cassie. She was there to send us back to the right time. But she was an old lady." Sam explained. "I estimate we went 50 years past our objective."

"Could that happen again?" Bonnie asked.

Sam nodded. "Or we could even go further back in time. We have no control over it. It's just our only chance at getting back home. Until then, we are stuck here. If it was just a few years we could simply wait it out. Stay low and just go back to base the day we left. But waiting it out is twenty years. That's too long."

"You may not have any choice." Bonnie told her. "If you go further back you may never get back to when you left."

"That is a possibility." Sam agreed.

Jack asked. "You mean we maybe stuck in 1984, Carter?"

She nodded regrettably.

He pondered for a moment.

Daniel quipped. "Better than 1969."

Jack countered. "But we had good music in 69."

Sam stated. "There is also Teal'c. If the FIRM cannot recreate that tretonin than we need to go off world and get a juvenile symbiont or he dies." She announced. "Teal'c is Jaffa. He's not from Earth."

Michael asked, "He's an alien from another planet?" He looked at Teal'c rather surprised.

"Indeed." Teal'c confirmed.

"My mind is blown." Michael told her.

Jack grinned at his friend. "Hey T. Star Wars is playing in a theater."

The Jaffa smiled gleefully.

"Star Wars?" Michael asked. "The movie?"

Jack nodded. "Return of the Jedi."

Michael could not help buts ask. "Are there really Jedi Knights?"

Teal'c loved Star Wars and the Jedi Knights. He often envisioned himself carrying a light saber and policing the Galaxy. He declared. "Indeed."