“Simmons, get back from there,” he yelled over the thunderous roar, but the lieutenant didn’t budge. He kept looking down in that damn hole.
Another jolt. George fell sideways, his head smacking against the floor. As he struggled into a kneeling position, he could only hope the force field protected Jack and SG-1 down below. At this rate, the outpost would be torn to pieces.
And the planet, too, if they didn’t shut the damn thing off.
The tremor stopped, only to be replaced by loud hissing and popping sounds emanating from the force field. George glanced over at Zhu. She seemed none the worse for wear. Dr. Lee had risen to his feet, double-checking the straps on the Mark IIs.
“General, I can see them!” Simmons pointed down at the hole.
George scrambled to his feet and raced over to the force field. It was as clear as glass. Down below, a motionless Jack laid next to Weiyan Shi on top of a glowing circular platform the size of a Hummer. Backlit trellised panels glowed underneath. Sprawled around the outer edges were Colonel Carter, Teal’c and Dr. Jackson, forming a semi-circle around the other two. Or more specifically, around Weiyan. She’d fallen exactly center.
A control crystal protruded from her lower stomach. Or rather, the remains of one. Larger than a DHD controller, the red crystal was charred black.
“There should be more blood,” Dr. Lee observed.
Zhu’s ashen face made George wince. Normally, he’d ask Lee to be less clinical, and more sensitive to the fact that civilians were about, but he needed the scientist to focus on getting them out, not playing diplomat.
He’d have to do that himself.
Zhu sucked in a sharp breath. “Is she…? Are they…?”
Weiyan’s hand slid across her stomach, coming to rest just beside the burned out crystal.
“There!” Simmons pointed toward Colonel Carter. Her left arm raised a few inches and then dropped back down. As if she was trying to pull something.
“How is that possible?” Zhu asked, bending down beside the hole. “Why are they all unconscious?”
“I’m not sure.” Lee rubbed his beard. “I mean, I have a theory, but — ”
“Spit it out, Doctor.”
“It could be a side effect of the photonic energy emitting from the device, or — ”
George raised a hand to stop the doctor’s preamble. “You’d said the device derives its energy from the sun. Why would it keep them unconscious?”
“Hold on, let me show you.” Lee ran over to his computer table. He lifted up a toolkit and grabbed a pad of yellow paper. “See now, why couldn’t I find this earlier?”
“Perhaps the pad had disappeared,” Simmons whispered.
George gave the lieutenant a stern look. “Doctor, please.”
“Sorry!” Lee rejoined them, pulling a pen out of his coat pocket. He drew a fair facsimile of the platform below.
“Photons are pure energy. They register as both particle and waves.” He drew a series of waves emanating out from the center. “If General O’Neill and the others were knocked unconscious from their fall, they might be susceptible to Mu-waves. Electromagnetic oscillations that can affect neuron activity in their brains, forcing them to stay unconscious.”
“Can these Mu-waves hurt them?” George asked.
Lee shrugged. “I don’t really know that much about the physiological affect, but I’d bet they’re having some pretty wild dreams.”
“What about Weiyan?” Simmons asked. “Why isn’t she bleeding?”
George looked back down at the six-sided crystal sticking out of her stomach. A horrific sight to say the least. “Does that crystal have something to do with it?”
Lee shook his head. “If the crystal was lit up, then yes, maybe. But it’s broken which could be why the device is behaving this way.”
George watched Samantha Carter’s hand tighten into a ball. “How much time do we have, Doctor?”
Lee ran over to his computer and tapped a few keys. “The sun rises in less than eighteen hours.”
“I need to contact Major Davis.” George glanced out the archway leading to the main area. Two airmen were carrying a civilian on a stretcher toward the elevator. Against the far wall, another airman was speaking on the radio, requesting a med-evac chopper.
“Sir?” Simmons hurried to his side. “I took the liberty of contacting the major before the latest tremor. He’s still busy helping with recovery efforts at McMurdo.”
“I almost envy him,” George replied. At least someone was doing something constructive. He turned back toward the chair and it occurred to him that maybe there was something to be done here, too. “It’s time for a new approach, Doctor.”
“Sir?”
He turned to Simmons. “How many trainees are still here?
“At least five.” The lieutenant gestured toward the archway leading to the outer chamber. “Should I — ?”
“Whoa, General. Wait a minute.” Lee’s head shot up. “Putting an untrained person with the ATA gene into that chair is what got us into this mess.”
“And it might be the only way out at this point. If we don’t take the risk, we could lose much more than General O’Neill and SG-1.”
“We could lose the world.” Lee slid out from behind his computer. “I’ll go find out which trainees are still here.” As Lee hurried out, George dropped his gaze to the comatose General O’Neill. If the stakes weren’t so high, he’d be amused by his protégé’s uncharacteristically still form. Jack was a ball of energy, never not-moving. Even during briefings, he’d fidget with a pen, a coffee cup, or even a button on his BDUs.
The president had once referred to Jack as a living spin-top, never happy unless in motion. George snorted, remembering the man’s recent promotion ceremony. President Hayes had pinned the stars on himself. He’d said it was like trying to shoot a moving target.
But now, Jack lay motionless. If the frown lines on his face weren’t deeper than normal, George would’ve believed him dead.
He prayed it wouldn’t come down to that.
Footsteps announced Dr. Lee’s return. To George’s dismay, only two trainees followed him in. Ryan Hall, the retired army vet, and Sgt. Miguel Helado, the young Argentine whose arrogance was enough to convince George they were doomed before the soldier even got in the chair.
He strode up to the two trainees and stuck out his hand. “I cannot thank you enough for being willing to help.”
Hall gripped his hand and pumped it hard. “Happy to, General. Just tell us what to do.”
George turned to Helado to do likewise. “You too, son. It’s appreciated.”
The Argentine didn’t take his hand. “I do this to save my own country, sir, not yours.”
Though taken aback, George held his tongue.
Lee coughed. “He’s right in a way, General. If we don’t get the device turned off soon, Argentina and Australia will — ”
“Thank you, Doctor.” He gestured toward the chair. “Let’s get this underway, all right?”
“First try shutting the device down.” Lee escorted Helado around the hole to the back of the chair. “If that doesn’t work, try moving the force field downward, away from the top of the device so we can deactivate it ourselves.”
Helado’s face turned white as he walked across the wooden board leading to the chair and sat down. The seatback lit up. “Now what?”
Lee returned to his monitors. “Concentrate on the device. Try to shut it off.”
Helado closed his eyes and the chair back reclined into the active position. His face scrunched up, he sucked in a breath…
Nothing happened.
“Concentrate on the force field,” Simmons offered. “You want to bend it downwards, away from the control crystal.”
Helado’s eyes popped open. He glanced left and then right. “What was that?”
Lee shrugged. “I didn’t feel anything.”
Hall rubbed his arms. “I felt it, too.”
; “Like a wind. A breeze, yes?” Helado shivered.
“General,” Zhu said, her voice impatient.
George skirted around the hole until he was as close to the chair as possible. “Sgt. Helado, if you could just focus?”
“Sí. Of course.” Helado’s eyes closed again.
The platform rattled. The back’s illuminated panels flickered. The floor shook, not as intensely as before, but bad enough to topple over a decorative panel by the archway.
“Watch out!” Simmons yelled.
Helado jumped from the chair just before a chunk of ice fell on its seat. More ice and snow tumbled down from the ceiling as Helado ran across the wooden plank and took cover by the Mark IIs with Lee.
“Get back!” George yelled.
A shudder ran across the floor. Zhu and Hall crouched a few feet away from the hole, their arms covering their heads. Simmons was back at his default position, holding on to a column by the hole. Ice and snow smashed into the force field, immediately disintegrating into a burst of rising steam.
“Evacuate the room!” George shouted over the din.
Hall and Helado dashed out, but Zhu crouched lower, staying put. “I am not leaving!”
A final shake and the tremors stopped.
George exhaled, his breath turning to wispy fog in the cold room. Glancing back down at his unconscious people, he could only hope that whatever had them in its grip was also keeping them warm enough to escape hypothermia. Lying still like that for so long couldn’t be good.
Simmons seemed no worse for wear. Not a hair out of place. “Earthquakes and sub-zero temperatures seem to agree with you, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.” Simmons managed a faint grin. “I was raised in a very warm climate, but I like the cold. Would you like me to see if any coffee survived that last round?”
“You read my mind. Thanks.”
As the young man hurried from the room, Zhu wiped a hand across her eyes. “We have failed. Weiyan will die and — ”
“Not true,” George said. “We just haven’t succeeded yet.”
“That’s the real irony in all this,” Lee said. “If Colonel Carter was here, she’d have the device shut down in no time.”
George glanced at Samantha Carter’s still form. Her hands no longer twitched, though her brow was creased. Whatever was going on in the colonel’s brilliant head, it was clear she, too, was struggling to figure it all out.
“What happens now?” Ambassador Zhu asked, more to the force field than to anyone else.
The scuffle of footsteps announced someone else had entered the room. “I have spoken with the UN Secretary-General and he has agreed.”
George whirled toward the voice.
Ambassador Duebel glared back at him. “Destroy the outpost now or I will arrange to have it done myself.”
Once Sam managed to get Weiyan to lie down, she probed the girl’s abdomen. She used her palm to scrape back the blood pooling around Weiyan’s belly button, around her hips, up high around her ribcage. There had to be a good pint, at least.
“This makes no sense,” she reported to the others. “There’s no incision, no cuts, not even a bruise.”
“I don’t feel anything.” Weiyan laid a hand onto her bare stomach. “It doesn’t hurt, but,” sucking in a breath, she lifted her hand, the fingers coated in the viscous stuff. “No, no. I cannot bleed like this. Not now.”
The girl was panting, clearly terrified.
“You’ve got to breathe slower,” Sam told her gently.
“I will try.”
“It’s going to be okay.” She took off her pullover. The fleece was made to wick away moisture in cold weather, she couldn’t ask for better material to blot up the blood.
“Any chance at an explanation?” The general knelt down beside them, his eyes narrowed in concern. “I thought we’d decided this was all imaginary.”
“I can’t explain it, sir.” The fleece soaked full of blood, and yet, still more seeped out around Weiyan’s navel.
The general handed over his pullover. “Teal’c’s earlier knock to the head didn’t leave any wounds, so what gives? None of this is real.”
Weiyan’s breathing had calmed down from massive hyperventilation to ragged whimpers. Daniel crouched beside her. “We know there are some similarities between here and the real world. Weiyan’s…”
“Go ahead,” Weiyan sobbed. “Say it. I lost my temper.”
“It happens.” Daniel squeezed her elbow. “Just ask Jack.”
“Watch yourself,” General O’Neill half-warned, half joked.
“Is anyone thirsty?” Sam asked. “Or even hungry?”
“No, which is strange enough, but if we’re gonna talk about imaginary versus real, we should probably talk about this.” The general pulled out his Zippo.
“Skaara’s lighter,” Daniel said. “I thought you packed it away in that cigar box of yours after — ”
“After we pulled your ass out of Lord Yu’s little fortress last year? Yeah, I did.” The general flipped the lighter open and thumbed the wheel. The flame sputtered to life. “Cute trick, huh? No lighter fluid.” He snapped the lid shut.
“O’Neill, if you did not carry the lighter with you to Antarctica — ”
“Good question, T.” He stuffed it back in his pocket. “Part of me thinks we’re dealing with Skaara, or another of Daniel’s ascended buddies.”
Daniel shook his head. “They don’t interfere. Not like this.”
“You can’t be sure, Daniel.” Sam wiped up the last of the blood on Weiyan’s stomach. The bleeding had stopped. “You can’t even remember why you left them.”
“Or why they kicked your sorry ass out.”
“You’re right,” Daniel said. “I don’t know, but this just doesn’t seem like something they’d do.”
Sam pulled down Weiyan’s shirt to cover her stomach. “I just don’t see how any of this is possible. We’re here, but we’re not — ”
“Yes, but when Weiyan got angry while in the chair,” Daniel said, “a quake happened.”
“Subsequent earthquakes have directly tied into General O’Neill’s and Weiyan’s emotions,” Teal’c added.
“True,” Sam said. “But if this is all imaginary, then where are we really? For all we know, we’re still at the outpost.”
“And if no one there can get to us,” Daniel said, “Weiyan could be injured. It could have happened when we fell.”
“No!” Weiyan bolted up from the ground. “I don’t feel any pain. I am well, I tell you.” She clenched her fists. “I am well. Please,” her voice lowered, “do not let me die.”
“No one’s dying.” General O’Neill gathered Weiyan in his arms and held her as she cried.
Sam glanced up at him, surprised though warmed by his gesture. Then, a chill ran up her spine. A reminder of the impossibility of their situation. She hated to be the one to break his moment’s kindness, but it had to be done. “Sir — ”
“Leave it alone, Carter.” He gave Weiyan a brief bear hug and then stepped back. “We’re getting out of here. Trust me.” He tugged down on his shirt. “We’ve got a good record of getting out of far worse things that this, don’t we, people?”
“General O’Neill is correct,” Teal’c said. “We have indeed escaped from far more challenging situations.”
“Even holographic ones,” Daniel added. “Look at what happened with the Gamekeeper.”
The general scowled. “Do we have to?”
“That was different, sir.” Sam shook her head. “We experienced yours and Daniel’s memories over and over again, but we weren’t hurt.”
“So… This isn’t a hologram?”
“I don’t think so, sir.” Sam pointed toward the building at the far end of the basin. “Otherwise, would that structure be here through every permutation?”
“And why the city?” Daniel asked. “Or, more importantly, why give us clues like that obelisk? Or Jack having a sudden bout of speak
ing Ancient?”
General O’Neill turned toward Daniel, “You’re convinced that Peda-lite Elysium — ”
“Pedion.”
“Whatever.” General O’Neill waved his hands. “You really think that’s a gate address?”
“Sir, you were the one to fill in the last few syllables.” She met his grim gaze with one of her own. Twice before, Sam had watched the Ancient Repository take over his brain and had always felt unsettled when it happened, as if the general would slip away and never come back.
Frowning, he turned toward the building across the valley floor. “I still feel like we’re rats in somebody’s maze.”
“Or children with a puzzle,” Teal’c commented.
“I am bleeding again!” Weiyan pressed a hand against her stomach.
Sam pushed Weiyan’s hand out of the way and pulled up her pullover. A blotch of blood oozed from her otherwise healthy skin. “How do you feel?”
“Sleepy.” Weiyan glanced at the general and then sniffled back a sob. “I will try to be brave.”
Sam grasped her hand. “Good, that’ll help, but if we don’t stop the bleeding soon, you could lose too much.” She made to pull her hand free, but —
Weiyan grabbed hold with her other hand. “I must confess.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I am — I am a hemophiliac.”
Sam gasped. “That’s impossible. How did you get on the trainee program if — ?”
“I cannot tell you why I was accepted, Colonel Carter. Only that my bleeding,” she touched her stomach, “is serious!”
Sam exchanged a look with General O’Neill. If Weiyan lost much more blood she would die, and all the assurances in the world wouldn’t make a difference. “Sir,” Sam said, “we need to figure a way out of here. Soon.”
He nodded. “I’m going to take Daniel and scope out the area. See if we can figure out a way off this rock.”
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