“You’re sure?” came the muffled reply.
“You’re the scientist. You tell me.”
Lee lifted his head, his glasses fogged up. No doubt he must have been breathing pretty hard. His face was as white as the now snow-covered force field.
“General Hammond!” Ambassador Duebel stormed through the archway, his clothes dusty and torn.
Behind Duebel were the other two diplomats — Juarez and Zhu. The Chinese ambassador sported a wide bandage across the left side of her face, thanks to a chunk of rock that had gone flying when the floor first caved in.
George cursed silently. Someone needed to keep these people out of the room. Where had Simmons had disappeared to? He’d lost sight of the lieutenant when the latest quake hit.
As the diplomats drew near, George deliberately ignored them. Instead, he pulled Lee up from the ground and patted his shoulder. After a few words of encouragement, the scientist hurried out, shouting for replacement equipment and a clean-up detail. Lee may not be military, but he understood the need for order.
And the need for haste. George privately hoped Jack and the others had weathered the trembler intact, but there was no way to know. Though the snow had melted off the force field, it was still intact and murky as mud.
Ambassador Zhu crept up to the hole before he could stop her. She knelt, reaching out a hand toward the force field.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” he warned.
She snapped back her hand.
Duebel side-stepped, blocking George’s view of the Chinese ambassador. “We demand to know your plan.”
George stopped just short of scowling. “Plan?”
“Yes, General Hammond.” Spit flew from Juarez’s mouth. The Argentine ambassador wiped a hand across his face and then stabbed a finger at the force field. “Your brilliant military’s plan to destroy the outpost before it destroys us.”
George counted to three and then responded as blandly as he could. “Ambassadors, I’m not going to sit here and quibble over what the military is and isn’t responsible for… Not now. Not when our focus should be on shutting down that device and then mounting a rescue effort.”
“Forget your rescue efforts!” Juarez flung a hand toward the force field. “Esperanza Base was destroyed! Fifty-five people, including ten families and two school teachers, all gone!”
George was taken aback. The Argentine Base was over 2,400 miles away, located at the very tip of the Peninsula on Antarctica’s far other side.
Fifty-five people. No wonder Juarez was beside himself. George gave his condolences. “We’re doing everything we can, short of — ”
“Really, General,” said Duebel, “you’re doing nothing of the sort.” He toed the broken monitor at his feet. “Scientific study isn’t enough. Please do not misunderstand, I fully recognize the lengths General to which O’Neill and his team have gone in order to protect this world in the past, but there’s more at stake now. First, Scott Base and now Esperanza. Something needs to be done.”
“What of China’s stations?” Ambassador Zhu called out. “Have there been any reports?”
“Not yet, no.” Juarez’ eyes narrowed. “At least, not of your official bases.”
Zhu returned to gazing at the force field, ignoring the obvious dig at what everyone involved with the Antarctic region already knew. George had heard reports that the Chinese were building several stations up on Dome Argus, but what they wanted up on the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau wasn’t his current priority.
Stopping the quakes and retrieving his people was what mattered. If they could access the floor down below by altering that force field, it was entirely possible to take care of both problems in one fell swoop.
Dr. Lee reentered, leading a pack of airmen carrying replacement monitors. Simmons brought up the rear. He rejoined Ambassador Zhu by the hole and gave her a polite nod.
She rewarded him with the faintest of frowns.
“You must destroy the outpost,” Duebel stated, “before more earthquakes tear apart the entire continent.”
“I wish it were that simple, Ambassador.” George shook his head. “We’re dealing with technology we’ve barely begun to understand. We need more time.”
“This isn’t about the earthquakes,” Juarez shouted, his face bright red with anger. “You’re more concerned with rescuing your people than the several thousand spread across this continent. With one phone call, I could contact the UN Secretary-General and the IOA Chair. They would demand your president — ”
“Leave him be,” Zhu announced.
“Excuse me?” Juarez whirled toward the Chinese Ambassador, his mouth agape.
“Quing…” Duebel strode over to Zhu’s side. “I know the young woman trapped below is — ”
“You know nothing.” Zhu rose from her position by the hole’s edge. She turned toward George and though he expected to see a measure of the anger exhibited by the other two ambassadors, he instead saw what could only be described as genuine concern.
“I want you to destroy the outpost,” Juarez repeated. “That is the only way to stop the earthquakes.”
Zhu took a menacing step toward him. “And I want you to cease speaking an endless loop of gibberish.”
“Who do you think you are?” Juarez sputtered.
“China’s ambassador to this region.” Zhu raised her chin in defiance. “We must allow General Hammond and his people the opportunity to — ”
“Be careful which side you align with,” warned Duebel.
Zhu shrugged. “At the moment, I am aligned with the truth. These people have had far longer to study this technology than we. Yes, there have been losses, and yes,” she faced George, a pinched smile on her face, “there have been promises left unfulfilled, but we must recognize the greater picture or…”
Bowing her head, the ambassador turned away.
Duebel and Juarez spun on their heels and stormed out. By the hole’s edge, Zhu gave Simmons an acknowledging nod. Grateful for the reprieve, George thanked her for the support.
“Do not thank me just yet.”
Flailing white tendrils strained against the gaping rip above the building. As Sam watched the phenomenon, she raced through possible explanations, examining and tossing aside each idea as it cropped up. A black hole? No, she’d feel its gravitational force. Some sort of reverse effect on the aurora? That didn’t make any sense, either. And why the more gold-colored aurora? Gold usually meant a higher energy charge, but again, why?
The black maw widened further, pulling at the cluster of tendrils. The tendrils shrunk, a final flash of white illuminated the sky, and the phenomenon disappeared.
A gasp. Sam glanced to her left. Weiyan’s mouth hung open in a perfect O.
“What the hell was that?” General O’Neill asked.
The ground rumbled again. Nothing threatening — at least, not yet — but it was enough to scatter a few errant pebbles.
“Carter?”
“Sir, I really can’t say.” She wiped the sweat from her forehead. The sun had come back out in full force. “Not without a way to measure what we’re seeing.”
She’d kill for a scanner, a spectrometer, heck, even a pair of binoculars.
“Take a guess.”
“What we’re seeing just isn’t possible, sir.”
“And yet, there it is. So?”
Sam shrugged. “Without having a way to quantify what kind of energy — ”
“In other words…” He pressed his lips together.
“I really don’t know.” She frowned, hating to let him and the others down.
“It’s all right, Carter,” he said, giving her an assuring tap on the shoulder. “Nice to know even you can get stumped by the impossible.”
“What do we do now?” Weiyan asked. “I want to go home.”
The earlier rumbling died off and Sam’s stomach unclenched in relief. One geophysical problem was bad enough.
“We can’t stay like this much longer, Jack.”
“I agree with Daniel Jackson,” said Teal’c. “Even I cannot sustain myself in this heat for more than a few hours.”
Daniel wiped his brow. “We have no supplies, no — ”
“But we do have a shelter.” General O’Neill raised two fingers and pointed toward the building. “And I’ll bet anything that’s the key to this whole mishegas.”
“Wait a minute,” Daniel said. “Shouldn’t we — ?”
“What? Sit here and wait for that thing to come back?”
Daniel frowned. “I don’t think it was a ‘thing,’ Jack.”
Teal’c mimicked Daniel’s frown, only more pronounced. “Do you still believe it was an ascended being?”
“I don’t know.”
The general shrugged. “Sure looked ascended-y to me. Let’s move out.” He headed off at a slow lope toward the building with Teal’c at his side, and Daniel close behind.
Sam turned around to make sure Weiyan was ready to follow. She gave the girl an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, it’s not much more than a half a mile — ”
An ear-splitting crack reverberated to Sam’s right. As Weiyan jerked her hands up to cover her face, Sam whipped back around toward the men. The building rippled, but at first she thought it was a trick of the heat. A mirage.
The rumbling intensified and she realized the ripples were pushing outward, toward the general and the others. Another boom shook the ground.
The building began to crack in two under the pressure of the massive turbulence. Several hundred feet off to the left and right of the building, hills erupted from the ground. Fountains of dirt sprayed from all sides. Sam watched in horror as all three men stumbled backward.
“Sir!”
Daniel fell. General O’Neill and Teal’c grabbed hold of his elbows and lifted him up, never missing a step as they ran like hell toward Sam and Weiyan.
Weiyan.
She’d curled up into a ball, her arms over her head.
Two hundred feet away, another hill savagely erupted.
“Get her up,” the general shouted over the rumbling.
Sam dragged Weiyan to her feet. “We need to run. Fast!”
Weiyan’s eyes rounded in fear. “I will try.”
She didn’t move.
“Go! Go!” shouted General O’Neill, darting ahead with Daniel and Teal’c close behind.
“Please, Weiyan.” Sam took hold of her hand. “This whole area’s unstable. We need to put as much distance — ”
The general doubled-back. “We have to go, Colonel!”
An ear-splitting blast exploded behind them. Sam scooped the girl over her shoulder, fireman-style, and ran as fast and as far away from the eruption as possible.
“Wait!” Daniel pointed back the way they’d come.
The tremors had stopped. Panting from the exertion, she turned toward the building.
It was gone. The newly erupted hills surrounding the area were still there, but the ground had settled down. The air had become suddenly still.
The tundra-like grasses from earlier were gone except for a few tufts on the newborn hills. Where the building had once been was now a flat plain of pale, lifeless dirt.
“That’s impossible.” Sam set Weiyan down. “Land just can’t change. Not this fast.”
“We must retrace our steps, O’Neill. We must find our original point of entry onto this world.”
“I’m all for that, T.” General O’Neill spread out his arms and turned around full circle, “But unless your spidey-senses have a clue about which direction to go, we’re screwed.”
“That’s the one part of this whole puzzle that’s still foggy,” Daniel said. “I remember the Ancient outpost. I remember falling through the floor. Then next thing I knew — ”
“We were here,” the general said. “Coming out of the Stargate. Thing is, I don’t remember stepping through one to begin with, let alone why.” He turned toward Weiyan. “Or how you got here, for that matter.”
A low rumble started up. Sam hoped it was just an aftershock, not another full on quake.
“I had told you that I don’t know.” Weiyan had backed away from the general, shaking her head vehemently.
The vibration intensified. Not by much, but enough to jostle the dirt at their feet.
Sam tensed, ready to run. Her vision darkened. She put a hand up over her eyes, convinced it was fatigue.
“Colonel Carter.”
Sam dropped her hand. Teal’c pointed toward the horizon. The sun had dropped dramatically, hanging low over where the building had once stood.
“General!” Sam directed his attention toward the setting sun.
“Yeah, I see it.” His voice had gone flat, his eyes never leaving Weiyan.
The ground continued to rumble. Low, like a wounded animal growling its warning to keep away.
But that wasn’t possible. The planet wasn’t alive.
Or was it?
General O’Neill ignored the escalating tremors, or he didn’t care. As he stepped closer to Weiyan, Sam watched him clench his fists, straining to keep his anger in check.
“You did something to the chair,” he said.
“I don’t know…” Weiyan’s hands shot up, covering her face.
“That’s bullshit.”
“Jack, leave her alone.” Daniel grabbed the general’s arm.
The ground kept shaking.
“Sir, we should get ready to — ”
“You were there, Daniel! She deliberately slammed down on one of the gel packs.” General O’Neill wrenched his arm free. “You heard her. The only way we’re getting out of here is the way we came. Either she tells us what she did or we’re screw — ”
Another boom echoed across the plains, or canyon, or… Sam couldn’t even decide what to call it anymore. The geography kept changing.
Planets don’t change that fast.
“Who are you?” the general demanded.
The ground shifted beneath them. Sam staggered forward, but Teal’c stopped her fall. The rumbling deepened. It was nearer. Stronger than before.
“General…” She rechecked the horizon. Swirling dust covered the sun, leaving only a red-tinged corona visible.
“O’Neill!”
Fifty meters to their left, the ground cracked open. A splitting maw widening with each passing moment.
“Jack?”
The fissure lengthened, heading in their direction.
“Run!”
Teal’c remembered running. Hills thrusting upwards. Dirt and rocks flying through the air. A sudden pain against his left temple, and then…
Nothing.
He stirred into awareness, greeted only by darkness. Within the black, a sense of heat without sun. Peace. Ease.
The pain was gone.
No. That was impossible. He must wake up. His friends would require his assistance. They were stuck —
He tried to open his eyes, but could not. It was as if a great weight held him in place, refusing to allow him to awaken. He struggled against the unseen restraint.
A golden-white ribbon of light danced across his vision, hovering just beyond his reach. “Why do you hold me here?” he demanded.
The ribboned light flowed nearer. “Wait. Learn,” a voice said in the dark. “All will be well.”
The voice had spoken in Goa’uld. Of this, he was most certain. Cold fury welled up within him. If a Goa’uld was responsible —
Calm washed over him. A silent assurance his former oppressors were not responsible, and yet… He must know the truth.
“If all is well, why do you hold us here?”
The light dimmed its brightness, becoming only a single rope-like strand. “If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”
“You speak in riddles.”
“There are no riddles. Only events to unfold.”
Teal’c imagined
himself raising an eyebrow in response. “Which events do you speak of?”
The ribboned light winked out.
Clink. Snap.
Metal against metal. A familiar sound. Teal’c strained to find its source, but the darkness would not release him.
Clink.
A feather’s touch circled his emblem and he found himself free to open his eyes. At first, the sunlight was too strong. His lids fluttered as they adjusted to the brightness.
Snap.
“Come on, big guy.” O’Neill’s voice urged. “Rise and shine.”
Teal’c opened his eyes to find his friend and Weiyan Shi kneeling beside him. The trainee’s hand lay gently on his forehead. Behind O’Neill stood Daniel Jackson and Colonel Carter, their relieved smiles most gratifying.
O’Neill waved his lighter at Teal’c. “About time you came back to the living.”
“We thought we lost you for a moment there,” said Daniel Jackson.
Teal’c raised a hand to his left temple.
“Easy, Teal’c,” warned Colonel Carter. “We may be in some kind of illusion, but still… You took quite a blow.”
He felt no cut or abrasion where the rock had hit. There was no pain. “I am well.”
“Can you sit up?” Weiyan Shi glanced over at O’Neill who gave an approving nod. A hesitant grin spread over the young woman’s face. “You were very brave,” she said to O’Neill. “Teal’c might have died if — ” Her voice broke.
“Nah,” O’Neill drawled. “Can’t knock this guy down for long.” He grinned. “Trust me, I’ve tried.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow at O’Neill.
“What?” his Tau’ri brother asked.
“You have made peace.”
“And you made us worried sick. Well, not me, but Daniel and Carter were going nuts.” O’Neill sternly glanced up at the remainder of SG-1 who rewarded him with matching smiles.
Weiyan Shi grabbed hold of Teal’c’s arm and though she was far smaller, she had the strength to assist him as he stood up. He privately berated himself. He shouldn’t feel so weary. With a brief nod of thanks, he found his balance and then proceeded to recount what had happened while unconscious.
The Drift Page 14
