STARGATE SG-1 ATLANTIS: Homeworlds : Volume three of the Travelers' Tales (SGX Book 5)

by Sally Malcolm

  The first light of dawn was lightening the sky when, through the trees, he saw a backlit figure limping towards the camp.

  Squinting to get a better look, he got to his feet. “Major Lorne? I think Sheppard’s back and he’s not moving well.”

  And he was alone.

  Lorne and Teyla hurried over, but Sheppard dismissed their concerns. “I’m fine. Just a minor disagreement with some Wraith.”

  He winced as Teyla ducked under his arm to help carry his weight. “You do not seem fine, John.”

  Ronon looked up expectantly, but Sheppard shook his head. He looked pale, his face blood-streaked. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was too late.”

  Ronon nodded, like he’d expected it all along. He probably had. “You tried,” he said. “That means something, Sheppard.”

  “It’s what friends are for, buddy,” Sheppard said, grimacing as Teyla helped him to the ground.

  Ronon didn’t reply, but the silence between them felt significant. Even Rodney could sense the emotion.

  Retrieving a first aid kit from her backpack, Teyla quietly set about tending Sheppard’s wounds. After a while, and around a grunt of pain, Sheppard said, “Where are we on a way home, Rodney?”

  Nowhere, he wanted to say, given that predicting solar activity using a tablet computer was proving impossible. “I’d like to remind you that, the only other time this has been done before, SG-1 had a literal message from the future to tell them the exact time and date of the next flare.”

  “What if — Ow.” He flinched when Teyla applied some antibacterial ointment to the laceration above his eye.

  “What if what?”

  Sheppared touched the gash over his eye and Teyla batted his hand away. “Remember that crystal with Teyla’s location on it that I got from future-you a couple years ago?”

  “Possible-future-me. Yeah, why?”

  “Well, if possible-future-you is anything like present-annoying-you he probably put a whole lot more than Teyla’s location on that crystal. And if I know present-you, you downloaded it all.” He raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you?”

  Rodney squirmed as everyone looked at him. “Okay, maybe I did. Why?”

  “You probably would have included information on places we would be likely to visit or care about —”

  “Yes.” He felt a pulse of hope. “And given what possible-future-me knew about SG-1’s missions...” Was it possible? Could he have ever anticipated this scenario? The database he’d downloaded from the crystal was searchable — future-him wasn’t an idiot — and it didn’t take long to find what he was looking for. With a surge of triumph he punched the air. “Yes! It’s here. I’m a genius! Now, let’s just hope... Yes, yes, here it is.” His heart stopped. “Oh crap.”

  “Oh crap?”

  Rodney looked up. “We’ve got just under three hours to get to the gate, set up an explosion, and get the Wraith to notice us. Or we’re stuck here forever.”

  With one kilometer to go, and just under half an hour remaining, they were hunkered down watching several Wraith comb the desolate area close to the gate.

  “Do we wait for them to leave or engage?” Lorne hissed.

  “We have twenty-eight minutes remaining to get to the gate and get everything set,” Rodney said. “We can’t wait.”

  On Sheppard’s signal, they opened fire. It was bloody and brutal but all the Wraith went down. Almost all. “One was able to escape,” Teyla said, rising from her cover. “He will most certainly alert others to our presence.”

  Sheppard shifted his weapon in his good hand, his injured arm immobilized against his chest. “Then let’s get to the gate before they do.”

  Arriving at the Stargate with seven minutes to spare, Lorne set the charges around a damaged but intact brick building while Rodney took cover behind the DHD, ready to dial. The wreckage of a dart smoldered to the left of the gate and Teyla, Sheppard, and Ronon crouched behind it. Lorne joined them with three minutes to spare.

  He flashed a grin. “We just might make it.”

  As if on cue, a couple dozen Wraith emerged from the ruined city. “Why would you jinx us like that?” Sheppard said as the Wraith opened fire. “When they’re close to the wired building, light it up.”

  “Not yet!” Rodney yelled from the DHD. “It has to be timed perfectly.”

  “How much longer?” Lorne opened fire on the oncoming Wraith. “I’m almost out of ammo.”

  “As am I,” Teyla added.

  “Seventy-five seconds.”

  As the Wraith drew even with the wired building, Sheppard said, “Intensify your fire, see if we can hold them here until we need to go.”

  “Forty seconds,” Rodney yelled. Three stun blasts impacted near the DHD and he hit the dirt. “Thirty seconds!”

  It felt like forever.

  “I’m out!” Lorne yelled, drawing his sidearm .

  Rodney shouted. “Twenty seconds!”

  The Wraith began advancing at a run. There was no more time. “Blow it!” Sheppard yelled.

  Lorne hit the switch and the building detonated, taking out most of the Wraith in the blast. “Rodney, dial the gate!”

  One of the Wraith staggered to its feet and Teyla poured a burst of gunfire into its chest, sending it staggering. She dropped her weapon to her side. “I am out as well.”

  “Rodney!” Sheppard ducked into a crouch as the orbital bombardment began.

  “Ten more seconds.” The next blast was closer and Rodney began dialing, holding off on the last symbol.

  “Rodney, now!” Another blast sent Sheppard to his knees. Teyla grabbed his arm, helping him up as Rodney pushed the last symbol.

  The event horizon erupted and Rodney started running. “Go, go, go!” he shouted as the orbital bombardment intensified. Now they just had to hope the Wraith actually hit the gate while they were in transit.

  As the others flung themselves into the wormhole, Rodney sent his IDC and dived after them as another blast half threw him into the wormhole.

  Landing with a thud, Rodney looked up. “Oh, thank God.” He was staring at the gate-room ceiling.

  “Med team to the gate-room!” It was Lorne’s voice, behind him.

  He sat up as Woolsey ran down from the control room and looked at his ragged team in dismay. “Colonel Sheppard, you didn’t report in. What happened?”

  “Long story,” he grunted through the pain. “But it’s good to be back where we belong.”

  “Yeah,” Ronon said, from where he sat on the floor. “I guess it is.” He and Sheppard exchanged a look but said no more.

  Woolsey broke the silence. “Very well,” he said, sweeping a glance across them all, clearly aware he was missing something. “Debrief in twenty.”

  “Uh?” Rodney said as the med-team arrived. “Better make that debrief in the infirmary.”

  “Yes,” Woolsey said, finally noticing their injuries. “Of course. In the infirmary.”

  “And I’m going to need something to eat first. I haven’t eaten in days.”

  “Days?” Woolsey frowned. “But you’ve only been gone a few hours.”

  Sheppard laughed, the sound snapping off as he grimaced in pain. “Like I said, it’s a long story…”

  Stargate SG-1

  Sun-Breaker

  Keith R.A. DeCandido

  This story takes place three years after season ten of STARGATE: SG-1.

  “Am I disturbing you, Colonel Carter?”

  Samantha Carter looked up from her tablet to see that Teal’c had entered the crew lounge on the General George Hammond, the 304 ship under her command. He wore a sleeveless vest and a much more relaxed smile than he’d ever have had back when she’d first met him on Chulak all those years ago.

  She gave hi
m a smile right back. “Not at all, Teal’c. I was just stargazing. What can I do for you?”

  “We have received a communiqué from Rak’nor. He should be in the system within the hour.”

  “Good.”

  Teal’c walked around the couch where Carter was sitting to stand in front of her. “Stargazing?” he asked with his trademark head tilt.

  Carter held the tablet display out toward the Jaffa. “Just looking at the view from the Hammond’s port camera.”

  “To what end?”

  She hesitated. “When I was a kid, the stars were my one constant. We moved around all the time, whenever Dad was transferred somewhere else, and there wasn’t much I could hang onto as being consistent in my life — especially after Mom died. But the night sky was always the same. I could look in my telescope, and no matter if we were living in Lincoln or Dover or D.C. or Colorado Springs, the stars were right where I left them.”

  “Yet now, they are different.”

  Carter chuckled. “Yeah, now what I enjoy is how everywhere I take the Hammond, the stars are different. Every time we come out of hyperspace, it’s a new set of stars. The constant is that it’s never the same. Does that make sense?”

  “Indeed it does. The progress of life is such that one’s perspectives change. My own views have altered considerably over the decades I have lived.”

  Before Carter could respond to that, the voice of the watch officer came over the intercom. “Bridge to Colonel Carter.”

  “Go ahead,” she said.

  “Colonel, a cargo ship identifying itself as belonging to the Free Jaffa Nation has decloaked, and we’re being hailed by its sole occupant, who calls himself Councilor Rak’nor.”

  Nodding, Carter said, “Pipe it to my tablet, please.” She looked at Teal’c and patted the couch. “Teal’c?”

  Inclining his head, Teal’c sat next to her.

  The tablet altered from a view of the stars to that of a Jaffa with scarring on his forehead. His Goa’uld sigil had been burned off by his father, a rebel whose life Teal’c had saved. Rak’nor himself eventually became a valued member of the Jaffa Rebellion, and now served on the Free Jaffa Council.

  “Tek’ma’te, Teal’c. Greetings, Colonel Carter.”

  Carter was somehow not surprised that Rak’nor greeted his fellow Jaffa first, even though protocol dictated he greet the commander of the ship before anyone else. She was almost not offended. “It’s good to see you again, Councillor Rak’nor.”

  “Thank you, Colonel. We’ve both come a long way since you defeated me on Cal Mah.”

  In fact, Carter had forgotten about that until Rak’nor mentioned it. She didn’t really think of it as a victory for her, more a demonstration of how much more useful a P90 was than a staff weapon. Although she had to admit that utterly destroying the target with her P90 that Rak’nor had only been able to hit two out of three times with his staff weapon was very gratifying — especially given the Jaffa’s tendency in general to dismiss her because of her gender.

  It hadn’t been the first or last time Samantha Carter had been so dismissed. It also hadn’t been the first or last time she had made those dismissals look incredibly foolish.

  Rak’nor continued: “I have discovered that the Lucian Alliance has taken over the planet Armak.”

  “I don’t know that world.” Carter turned to look at Teal’c.

  “I believe that the Tau’ri refer to the planet as P7X-942.”

  “Still doesn’t ring a bell.” Looking back at Rak’nor’s image on her tablet, she said, “Not that any of us here are big fans of the Alliance, but why does its activity on this planet matter so much?”

  “Once, Armak had significant naquadah deposits. It was one of Heru’ur’s slave worlds. I was posted there for a time when I joined Heru’ur’s service. When the mines were stripped dry, Heru’ur abandoned the world.”

  Teal’c added, “After Apophis defeated Heru’ur, the world remained abandoned, and it became a supply station for the Jaffa Resistance. We stored many weapons there.”

  “For a time,” Rak’nor said. “Then the sun’s flare activity increased to the point where it was no longer safe. We had to abandon Armak, and also leave the weapons cache behind.”

  Carter frowned. “If it’s too dangerous for the Jaffa, wouldn’t it also be too dangerous for the Alliance?”

  “That was what I believed as well, which is why we must discover what they are doing there. Perhaps the flares have lessened, perhaps the Alliance has technology that protects them. Or perhaps it is just as dangerous, but the Alliance has either discovered the Jaffa weapons or a new vein of naquadah.”

  “Okay.” Carter regarded Rak’nor. “I’m confused, though. The Jaffa Council obviously wants our help in this investigation of Alliance incursion onto P7X-942.”

  “What is the source of your confusion?” Rak’nor’s tone was almost belligerent.

  “Why that request is coming through you in a cloaked cargo ship instead of through official channels to Earth.”

  Rak’nor hesitated.

  “The Jaffa Council rejected your request to investigate because it’s too dangerous.”

  “Even if they did,” Rak’nor said in a tone that indicated that there was no ‘if’ about it, “we would still require your help, Colonel Carter.”

  “The Jaffa have plenty of ships that are more advanced than the Hammond.”

  “I mean your help, Colonel. The Jaffa have ships, but we do not have scientific minds of your caliber.”

  Teal’c gave Rak’nor a dubious look. “There is a saying among the Tau’ri, Rak’nor: flattery will get you nowhere.”

  “Then you will not help us.”

  “Help you, you mean.” Carter sighed. “Here’s the thing — we’ve been having our own issues with the Alliance. I’ve had more than one run-in with them since we took the Hammond out, and I’m not thrilled with the notion of them getting their hands on naquadah or a stash of Jaffa weapons.”

  “Then you will help?”

  “I can’t promise that, yet. What I will do is speak to my superiors. Why don’t you bring your ship on board? We’ll clear a 302 bay for you to dock in, and Teal’c can give you the grand tour while I call Earth.”

  Rak’nor nodded. “Very well. Thank you, Colonel.”

  “Don’t thank me, Councillor — just be a little more straightforward the next time you ask a favor. Stand by for a signal from the bridge.”

  After another nod from Rak’nor, the connection was cut, the screen reverting to the image of the stars.

  First Carter contacted the bridge and instructed the watch officer to clear space in the 302 bay for Rak’nor’s ship, and also to put a call through to the Pentagon on Earth.

  Once that was done, she turned to Teal’c. “What’s your take on Rak’nor?”

  “He has always been both impulsive and passionate.”

  “Shoots first and asks questions later?”

  Teal’c nodded. “I believe that Tau’ri saying does indeed apply.”

  “All right. I’m going to head to my cabin and wait for General O’Neill. Why don’t you meet Rak’nor in the 302 bay?”

  “Of course.” Teal’c got to his feet, and Carter did likewise a second later.

  “Look, Carter, I’m the last person to deny you a chance to get back at the Alliance for Icarus, but this sounds pretty thin. Besides, Rak’nor isn’t exactly what I’d call a reliable source of intel. I mean, this is the same guy who turned Teal’c over to Heru’ur’s pet sadist, right?”

  Carter nodded at the image of Jack O’Neill that looked back at her on the computer monitor on the desk of her office. “Yes, sir, but that doesn’t make the concern any less legitimate. There’s something else — while I was waiting for you to respond —”
r />   “I was meeting with the Joint Chiefs. They won’t let my adjutants interrupt those meetings, no matter how many times I beg.”

  Chuckling, Carter said, “Regardless, it gave me time to look up P7X-942 and cross check the data Stargate Command has on that world with NASA and also with what Rak’nor provided. Rak’nor’s data indicates that the sun surrounding P7X-942 is a flare star, in a constant state of flux. But that doesn’t match what we have at the SGC or what NASA has observed with their telescopes — it should be a regular G-type star like ours that only flares occasionally. Of course, NASA’s data is by nature several thousand years old.”

  O’Neill nodded. “Yeah, stars don’t just change like that overnight.” He smiled. “I know that from looking in my telescope.” The smile fell, and he spoke in as formal a tone as he ever did. “Colonel Carter, your request to have the Hammond investigate the peculiar characteristics of the sun that P7X-942 orbits is hereby granted. And if the Lucian Alliance has a problem with you being there, you can tell them that’s why. If you happen to find out anything else along the way, fine and dandy. Tell Teal’c I said hi, and I’m still waiting for him to get his ass back to Earth so we can see the new Star Trek movie together.”

  Carter grinned. “Yes, sir. Hammond out.”

  Teal’c led Rak’nor into the largest of the Hammond’s labs, which contained a number of workstations.

  “This is quite impressive, Teal’c,” Rak’nor said. “It was not long ago that the Tau’ri were unable to even leave their own planet without the chappa’ai. Now they have ships that rival a ha’tak in terms of raw power.”

  “Indeed.”

  Rak’nor noticed something on one of the workstations. “That is Goa’uld technology!”