And into Heaven.
Cheyenne Mountain complex
“So that bit about you being the youngest person to break the sound barrier is bullshit?” Kowalski asked as he, Lahm and a woman with long sandy blond hair and gray eyes walked towards the armor. She was dressed in the fatigues of the Aerial and Spatial combat fatigues of the Space Force, a tribute both to her grandfather General Jacob Carter and her infamy as a Test Pilot. Among the million other things Doctor Samantha Carter had done before her thirtieth birthday.
“Not bullshit, I’m just number two, Katrina Mumaw beat me by two years” Carter grinned. “The story about the Castle Bravo replica is true though, I just didn’t have any fissile material. I did make some explosives so I could blow it up, but it wasn’t as spectacular as I thought it’d be” the woman sounded, somewhat disappointed. A thing that made Kowalski chuckle, the meeting between Samantha Carter and the rest of the team had been, rather tense. Jack’s attitude had been rather terse, which was to be expected given his distaste for academics and it wasn’t until Carter told him about how she once crashed a Cessna in weed field belonging to the Juarez Cartel and that she fought her way out that he relented. “You’d think the whole “youngest person in space” would have won me tome points” she muttered under her breath, it normally didn’t bother her when older military types looked sideways at her as she’d either earn their respect or run through them. But for some reason the look the Colonel gave her had bothered her, maybe it was because of his accolades, that he’d been on the original Abydos mission. Or maybe because one of his daughters had been her assistant and occasional partner in crime that she wanted the man’s approval. Like Hammond, he represented the best of the old school, though old school for them was two different eras.
“He just wants to be sure you can handle yourself in a pinch” He explained.
“So, the fact that I was putting out a fire while shooting into orbit on a test rocket doesn’t count?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. Kowalski only shook his head “It counts, don’t take it personal. He was the same way with Jackson”
“I’m in good company then.” Carter nodded, she didn’t mind having to earn the Colonel’s respect at all, as long as she was given the same chance to screw it up as everyone else.
“You were born in good company, your grandfather saved the Colonel’s life in the 90’s, give him time. Speaking of that how the hell did you manage to…Y’know?” Kowalski hesitated, not sure how to phrase the question -How the hell did you fight a cockpit fire in a fucking rocket? That sounds like bullshit- delicately. He’d seen the logs, listened to the recording, he knew it wasn’t a lie but how the hell did she manage?
Sam beamed at him “Explosions and I are old friends Colonel!”
That didn’t answer his question but given his wife’s laughter he figured he probably shouldn’t pry anymore. Entering the room, they saw Colonel O’Neill holding up one of the Next Generation guns that were supposed to replace the current weaponry used across the armed forces. The Colonel had a perplexed look on his face, which made Carter chuckle, he looked very much like a caveman trying to comprehend a crossbow and it was almost adorable. “Why’s it got a doorknob on the barrel?!” he asked to no one in particular.
Accompanying them would be six marines belonging to the other Carter, they were all prepped and alternating between wanting to question the Colonel’s sanity or laugh at what had to be an obvious joke. “Um suppressor sir” Lahm remarked with the cheekiest of smiles, as if to say -c’mon I’m a civilian and even I know this-.
“Looks like a piston”
Kowalski laughed “Come on sir, we ready to go retrieve our other nerd?” O’Neill nodded “Yeah, what do you think of your toy guns?” he asked with a face as neutral as possible. “I see you’re still keeping your colt”
“An O’Neill has been carrying that into battle since the first world war, one day one of my brats’ll get it. Til then, she stays with me.” O’Neill walked out just as Kowalski began to arm himself. Following behind Jack was Sam Carter who folded her arms behind her back and seemed to almost jolt to his side with a kind of manic energy O’Neill wanted to grumble at. “You know you’ll like me when you get to know me sir! I’m not that crazy”
“Oh, I adore you already.” he added half sarcastically half serious, she’d stood her ground in the conference room when he put her on the spot and despite her size, she was able to handle Hammond’s iron grip without wincing and seemed to be willing to do her best to match it. Beyond that his daughters sung her praise constantly and he accounted them as good judges of character even if they thought he was awesome. “Did you eat before going through the gate Doc?”
“Yes, but I’ve eaten before lift off Sir, I’m sure I’ll be fine”
-oh boy-
As the teamed walked into the Gate Room, they found Admiral Hammond waiting for them along with the eternally sour Colonel Samuels. “It’s a remarkable machine when it’s not being used by enemy combatants” Hammond remarked watching the chevron’s lock onto each piece of the Abydonian address. The beams of light touching in the center followed by an exclamation of delight from Carter as the energy fields bent and swooshed into a violent whirlpool of energies that gradually settled into the appearance of a tranquil pool of water.
“Bring Jackson back, for a briefing on what he’s achieved there during his sojourn. Get home in one piece”
O’Neill saluted and the team began to disembark, Kowalski jumping in as if he was doing a free fall into a pool while Lahm hung back to guide the new recruits through, until at last she jumped in. Only O’Neill and Carter remained, Carter who was presently reaching up to touch the surface of the vortex, watching it ripple as her fingers traced it. “Amazing” she said softly, something approaching awe in her voice. “It feels, it feels like water, cool water and you can even see the fluctuations in thewoah”
Jack Rolled his eyes, gently pushing the dweeb through before nodding to Hammond and taking his own steps through the looking glass. While Jackson and Brown spoke of seeing worlds and stars flash before their eyes as the wormhole launched them through time and space, all the Colonel remembered seeing was a rush of blue and green energy and an endless spiraling tunnel, one that he was ripped through at speeds that defied the imagination. As with the last time, he felt a rush of hair escape his lungs as he “fell into” the aperture within the Abydos gate.
Abydos- Pyramid Complex
To her credit carter was fighting back her nausea and looking up at the Abydos gate as the wormhole closed. “Huh this one looks more simplistic and smaller than the earth gate” Sam remarked, she’d read the Abydos mission brief a hundred times, but this was a little detail O’Neill and Kowalski’s report had left out (with only Doctor Lahm noting the difference). “Did you ever figure out why?”
“Wasn’t really high on our list of priorities” O’Neill admitted though in hindsight, it probably should have been. There were very clearly a lot more questions than there were answers and their own misconceptions only added to the confusion. “But Jackson thought the one on earth was a newer model than the one on Abydos, likely used to impress the locals.”
“Like bringing out the Benz to visit in laws?” Carter asked with a wry smile. O’Neill nodded “Something like that yeah” He said before shaking his head as Carter darted to the mushroom like piece of technology seemingly growing out of the ground. He remembered that, it was the device Jackson had used to activate the gate, sending them home. “Fancy ain’t it?” he asked sarcastically.
“You’re telling me sir!” she exclaimed kneeling to inspect the Dialing device, missing the sarcasm in his tone as she was busy trying to figure out how this work. “It took me the better part of a year and a pair supercomputers to MacGyver up a system like this and they’ve got..a night stand” her eyes darted around the room noticing the lights that simulated torches, she couldn’t even tell what they were powered by but she was already rambling out guesses. “I wonder if Naquadah particles are woven into the material this pyramid is made out, it would explain why this place seems to have no wiring or outlets” she turned and then let out a curse and then then something was grabbed, and O’Neill heard a crunch.
He whirred around to see a youth of fifteen on the floor cursing and an “old” M27 grabbed by Carter who was pointing it down at the boy. Who upon seeing her, blinked then asked “Merikyan?”
She blinked, trying to process the word, wondering if it meant American or just “screw you” in Space Egyptian. Others came out armed but there was a commotion and the word “Onyer!” echoed into chamber as a young man who had to be twenty-one or so rushed towards Jack, who was grinning like a bastard. The two embraced as another teenager, this one closer to eighteen jumped into Lahm’s arms before yanking Kowalski into a hug.
“I did not expect to be seeing you again my friend!” The young man who was clearly the leader here remarked clasping O’Neill on the shoulder.
“Skara! Life’s been good to you huh?” he asked surprised he spoke English, but the Colonel just assumed Jackson had taught him the language. Abydonians learned fast and in five years who knew what the Abydonians could have relearned or if they’d begun to innovate on their own.
“I am a man married now! I hope my wife will give me a son sometime soon! And I am Vice Marshall to Marshall Ferretti”
Of course, he would name his rank something like Marshall O’Neill thought rolling his eyes. “Congratulations on the wife” For some reason he felt like a proud father and by the look in Skara’s eyes it seemed that he seemed to be searching for such a sentiment. -Funny how we could barely understand each other and the little shit’s family- “Oh wait Vice Marshall huh?” He stood at salute with Kowalski and the new marines following suit (Though more out of deference to their officers). Lahm and Carter followed even though civilians didn’t technically have to.
“Sir! Vice Marshall Skara, on Behalf of the United States Space Force, Marine division Colonel John James O’Neill formally requests permission to enter Abydonian territory! Sir?!”
Skara may as well have been a hundred feet tall in that moment. He beamed proudly then nodded hurriedly “On behalf of Lord Kasuf and the City and Farm Masters, Skara son of Kasuf, son of Amenthep welcomes you to Abydos…dear friend”
With the formalities out of the way Skara guided them from the Gate Room, through a hallway that had been little more than an oppressive indigo yet now seemed to illuminate with light. “Amazing projected out of the walls” Carter murmured.
“Yes, Daniel found what he called a “switch” which allowed for us to activate the light carvings when we wished to study them, though he says these light up when we move near them” The voice of Kadra piped in from behind Carter, sandwiched between Lahm and Kowalski. “He thinks there is Naquadah in the stones, that brings power here”
“I thought so!” Carter beamed turning back towards Kadra. The poacher of talent in her wondering if when relationships were formally established, she couldn’t request from whoever this lord Kasuf was to borrow this youth, who seemed eager for knowledge in the way she described it -I’ll probably have to fight Carolyn for her though- Carter thought, ah, well, it was worth the potential black eye. “Have you been studying these walls?”
“Yes!” Kadra said enthusiastically “And much more around us, though I am a healer primarily” she remarked. “A physician in training as Daniel calls it” The youth beamed a looked back at Lahm who laughed “our little urchins are all grown up huh Charly?”
“Shit our junior marines out rank us huh Colonel?” he called to Jack, earning a laugh from Skara. Kowalski was pleased to see the group of marines he brought with them were chatting along with the little militia that Ferretti had trained on behalf of Kasuf, comparing their “older” weaponry to the Next Gen toys O’Neill brought along. “Speaking of Daniel, where’s he at?”
“He was in the town when the storm came, I believe he and the others will arrive at the main entrance soon” Skara called back. “He has been…important to us, helped us rediscover much of what Ra stole from us.”
O’Neill nodded, deciding it would be time to break the ice on why they were here. “You unburied the gate then?”
Skara nodded. “It did not seem prudent to hide ourselves, we continue to send Naquadah through, though less than before. Just in case.”
“Has anyone come through?”
Skara shook his head “In truth, I do not even believe the gate on the sphere we send our Naquadah to is manned by anyone, not since Ra has anyone come from outside, except for you O’Neill”
Jack nodded, he knew these guys didn’t come from here, if any of those guys had showed up to take the planet as well trained as Skara and the others no doubt were, nothing would have stopped those snake bros. “You sure about that?”
Skara chuckled “O’Neill very little happens on Abydos that I do not know about now, if there were any visitors, I would have sent for you myself.”
“you’re assuming they’d be a threat?” Carter asked, catching up to O’Neill. Skara looked to her and nodded his head in formal greeting before answering her with a shrug. “My father tells of Sobek, a lord who ruled our world in the name of the Goddess Hathor, wife of Ra. He was much beloved, part of why his generation rebelled was that they felt that Ra betrayed the loyalty Sobek had earned from them. But that was long before I was born, none save O’Neill came since then, but Ra and he always brought misery to us, and always came from the heavens.”
“I see.” Carter thought, she began to speculate then on the nature of this Empire that was content to forget entire planet’s existed, were they incredibly wealthy? Or a vestigial power as so many Earth civilizations became. “Skara, on our world, there was a realm, an empire called Rome. This Empire once ruled a large part of our planet. At its zenith its might was felt over all corners of the earth but as its power waned, as its society slowly came apart. They abandoned their farthest flung outposts and least important colonies to try and hold onto their more critical areas.” As they walked down the hall Sam began to grasp the sheer size of the pyramid and she wondered what sort of materials it was made of to handle its own weight. -I should see if I can take samples, the material science department back at Groom Lake would go nuts- She had promised them a souvenir.
“Do you think Ra’s domain was like this Rome?” Skara asked curiously. Carter gave a shrug “I don’t know, but it would explain why you guys went so long without contact.”
“Or maybe they’re just so huge they forgot Abydos existed” O’Neill muttered pessimistically. “Damn forgot how huge this place is”
Skara laughed “We would not mind if either were true, Daniel alternates between the two.”
“Typical” O’Neill muttered as they reached the main entrance to the pyramids, where it seemed like a makeshift camp had been set up. Various hammocks hung between columns and tents erected and O’Neill noticed the temperature had dropped a considerable amount. “Jackson mess with the cooling?”
Skara laughed “No, it always grows this cold during a lightning storm, Daniel believes the buildings draw in energy”
“Makes sense” Sam chimed in. “We haven’t seen any power source that we can detect anywhere. Granted this place is huge but still, if it pulls power from the storms and the sun then maybe” She blinked quirking her head to O’Neill who was seemingly snoring on his feet. Sam rolled her eyes which caused Skara to grin. “Daniel will like you.”
“You think?” She asked with a hopeful grin. She’d read the Ballard-Jackson theory on cultural mimicry as it was now being called, gaining traction due to Jackson’s mysterious disappearance among the antics of the Langford family which seemed to have taken a keen interest in it after Katherine’s death. Beyond that, Sam remembered the day she found out about Jackson’s breakthrough and what an idiot she felt like for missing something so obvious. “I hope so.”
O’Neill had pushed passed them and called out “Neeeeerddd!” in the most dramatic fashion possible, causing the group to turn in surprise, surprise that quickly erupted into cheers of welcome. Ahead a blond who had been out by the doorway at the entrance peaked his head through and on espying Jack the figure adopted a smile and ran towards O’Neill.
“Colonel! I didn’t think I’d ever see you again!”
“Same here, what’s this business about letting Ferretti make himself some gaudy military title?!” O’Neill asked, his eyes warm as he gripped the other man’s hand. “Been awhile Jackson.” The years on Abydos had done the young book worm some good. No longer was he a scrawny, almost girly blond. While he still looked bookish, his shoulders were broader, his arms thicker and he looked healthier and more alert. There was some power in the kid’s handshake too which O’Neill nodded in respect.
“It has!” Jackson said with an energetic smile.
Kowalski slid forward handing Jackson a box of kitkat bars and some tissue paper. “Greetings from Earth Doctor Jackson!”
“Kowalski!” Jackson reached out and shook his hand before turning to eye the blond who was kneeling beside Lahm and Kadra listening intently to a conversation about one of the medicinal fruits that was grown on this planet. She looked vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite place her. -There’s something about that face- he thought, turning when he felt an arm lace around his. Shau’re was there, smiling at her old friends “Colonel! It is good to see you!” She made a gesture of salute and O’Neill returned it “Ma’am, I hear you and Jackson have been pretty busy”
“Trying to reclaim what was taken from our people yes” She said nodding her head vigorously. She too looked stronger, there was more definition in her body and weird as it was, her eyes had changed colors, green with blue flecks -The fuck?!- Jack thought. He remembered the conversation Lahm and Jackson had before they left all those years ago, about how she believed these humans were selectively bred and modified. -I wonder-.
“And Ferretti?”
“He should be in soon, his people were caught in the storm and he went to make sure the Mastages were safe in the buildings by the river” She said with a hint of worry in her voice, these storms had gotten more intense since Ra’s death, a cycle that she was told by the elders of Nagada that worsened once every seventy years or so.
Carter, who’d risen from her place beside Lahm nearly walked into O’Neill “It’s amazing sir, the sheer size of this place and the lights and holographic hieroglyphs”
“Hologlyphs? That’s catchy” Jackson said with an amused smile, wishing he’d thought of that. She turned upon hearing him and reached out “Oh, hi! Doctor Jackson! I’m Doctor Samantha Carter, I was in charge of creating the dialing system you used on the first mission.”
“You were?!” Carter, so that’s who she was! He recognized the name, but not from the study of alien artifacts or from any involvement in Project Giza, but from when he was in high school. Carter who was two years older than him had been a bit of a celebrity for a little while before she dropped off the face of the earth (Presumably to area fifty-one and to work on whatever else the Space Force was into). “Shau’re let me introduce you to the second youngest person to break the sound barrier and the youngest person from my world to go into space.”
Carter offered a manic grin. “I worked on the same project Daniel worked on, albeit in a different area. I read about your people in the report, I want to say its an honor to meet one of their liberators.”
Shau’re nodded her head and seemed to want to ask her about space but there was a loud boisterous call of “Colonel!!!” and then the sound of the jolly Italian giant running over to salute O’Neill and then lift Kowalski into a bear hug. “You fuckers came back!? Nice!...wait..you fuckers came back”
He set the other marine down and looked at Jackson who finally realized how odd that was. “Yes, not that I’m unhappy to see you, but
why are you here?”
O’Neill cleared his throat, straightening the beret on his head. “Skara says you haven’t had any trouble from the gate?”
Jackson nodded, his mouth suddenly dry “Did..something..someone come through the gate?”
“Oooohh yeah” O’Neill muttered “Something came through alright, dudes wearing snake get up. Sort of a supped up, combat mod variant of Ra’s guys. Only, not human, not totally any way, they tore through one hundred and ten marines before they got killed and their Commander..Daniel..His eyes glowed like Ra.”
Ferretti blanched, tore through over a hundred marines? -There are more out there?!-
-We messed up- Jackson thought, horrified “General West?”
“Died a few years back, it was Hammond who repelled the attack..my..daughters were there too”
“Oh god, Jack! Are they okay?!” Jackson asked, both Shau’re and Skara edged closer to the Colonel and Sam found it heart warming to see just how much people respected and care for the Colonel. -Reminds me of Grandpa Jacob- she thought. Ferretti cursed loudly and punched one of his fists against the palm of his other hand.
“They’re fine, O’Neill’s are made of sterner stuff. But, Ra, we killed him, right?” When Jackson nodded, O’Neill continued. “So, it stands to reason, these guys, this glowing eyed alien dude is..Part of Ra’s Empire. They took one of our marines Danny.”
Jackson nodded. “I take it you weren’t able to convince them?”
O’Neill nodded. Noticing how Shau’re’s grip on Jackson’s arm became vice like -She freaked big time at the mention of the snakes-
“Well, if that’s the case I think I may be able to help you, we found something in the Southern pyramid, though it’ll have to wait until the storm passes.”
“You know anything missy?” O’Neill asked Shau’re his tone neutral while Daniel moved to ask him what he meant by that. Shau’re shook her head “Only more conjecture, it wouldn’t help you, I think conjecture is what got us here. “
“We were just about to sit down for our evening meal if you’d like to join us?” Jackson offered and O’Neill was more than happy to oblige. Dinner had been more of those lizard lobster things, but this time cooked in a sauce made from those weird tomato looking fruits that grew underground in the Nagada oasis. It tasted surprisingly more like barbeque sauce than what he expected from space tomatoes, but the highlight of the evening was the liquor Skara had begun to distil based on Jackson’s description of bourbon. The only person who was able to handle shotgunning a glass without flinching besides himself was Carter and O’Neill gave the lunatic nerd a nod of respect. And when the night wound down, it was early morning before one of Junior Marines came in to let Jackson know the storm had passed. “Good, this thing doesn’t work well in storms at least according to the manual”
“Manual? Thing?” O’Neill asked. His team had barely finished exploring the front pyramid the last time they were here; six days and it was the size of a small mountain and the other pyramids? They’d managed to examine the courtyard and the second pyramid but given the sheer size of the entire complex it took seven hours to walk the whole complex. “Did you ever end up seeing snow ontop of the pyramids?” O’Neill asked absent mindedly, prompting Doc Carter if they were truly that big, which caused Lahm and Shau’re to nod emphatically.
“I’ll remain here with Shau’re while we escort Doctor Lahm around to find some samples of the local wildlife” Ferretti offered. Skara and Shau’re both agreed to stay as well, with Shau’re telling Lahm that she believed a particular plant would suit her world nicely. O’Neill gave a nod of his head “Then Kowalski stick with them, make sure our marines are protection detail for our VIP’s” he said gesturing to Shau’re and Skara. “Jackson, Doc Carter.”
“With you, yeah we know.” Sam said with her usual smile, one that was a mix of adorable and nerve wracking. It was hard to doubt her smarts and her courage, so far, she’d handled being on another world like a pro but that half crazed grin always made him wonder. “Personally, I’m fascinated by everything and I can see why Caro wants to look around at the plants. I’ve seen at least three instances of plants that seem to generate electricity and another that seemed like it was doubling as an insulin shot and that was just from what I observed in the water gardens at the Gate Room and during dinner.”
“Electrical plants? Are a good thing?” O’Neill asked, immediately regretting it when Carter nodded enthusiastically and launched into an explanation as to why that caused his eyes to glaze over until she sighed and settled for saying “Lightning tree good, make power cheaper, make life cheaper, help settle pollution problems.”
“Thank you!” O’Neill beamed as the group made their way down another hallway through the pyramid, with “torch lights” that flickered on, presaging their approach.
“So, Jackson, how’d you and Shau’re meet?” Sam asked her eyes on the sudden appearances of murals carved out of light depicting beast men at war with a race of tall knight looking men with hammers. Others depicted, gentle fairy like people who reached out with their minds and made war on Ra in battles of illusion and trickery or debate and pleas. -The casualness of all this high tech is the most interesting part- She thought. It was all used for ceremonial purposes and yet, it felt like it wasn’t
special as if the technology was a commonplace every day thing.
“Well, she followed me into a sort of cleansing room when I tried to write, see religious texts, lore and anything not mathematics was prohibited to these people by Ra. I struggled to learn the nuances of the Abydonian language, and she was so intuitive, together we learned how to read it and she helped me figure out how to speak it. After that, we sort of fell in love, she kind of claimed me as her consort..funnily enough.”
That caused Carter to chuckle as they moved into a hallway that ended in a room that had nothing but another doorway and an immense mirror on the other side. “We found this room about a year ago.” Jackson said pointing at the hieroglyphs around the mirror. “A doorway, it says from one temple to the next.”
“It’s a mirror Jackson” O’Neill remarked quirking his head. “Well, an impressive mirror” He had to admit, the clear crystal was so perfect Jack thought he was looking at high some, res recording of his group.
“Yes but.” Jackson walked forward and touched one of the hieroglyphs on the lefthand side of the mirror. The mirror shifted, their reflections gone as it seemed to liquify and in their place a hallway into an interior that was dark green to contrast the indigo of the main pyramid. “Oh so that one’s green and the other is red” O’Neill said remembering that Brown had told him the pyramids were color coded.
“Yeah, I don’t know why that is” Jackson admitted before motioning to Carter. “Doctor Carter, I figured you would enjoy being the first person through.”
“I would!” she said with a smile that seemed to reach her ears. Through one looking glass and then another, Samantha Carter stepped through, her skin prickling at the cool sensation of the glass and the world shifting as she seemed to “sink” into the glass on the other side.
Once there, Carter realized they were inside not a hall of the same size as the one they departed but an immense room in an eerily hollow pyramid. Enormous statues flanked each corner, a mighty Cobra like alien made of gold and a pink gem she couldn’t identify curled around the statue of some sort of humanoid whose hand was extended in prayer. The snake sank its fangs into the throat of the humanoid. The second was a mighty Jackal headed man, his posture erect, perfectly rigid, armored and made of a deep black stone and gold and emeralds, the third could only have been Ra for his immense form sat at the center of an orrery made of holograms and floating globes, seated like a mighty king, directing the other two.
Everywhere around her were obelisks made of a Naquadah-diamond hybrid, covered with symbols, the walls were likely covered and after squinting in the semi dark she realized what she was seeing.
A repository, a map of their ancient empire.
The phone book her team spent five years searching for.
“
Holy, Hannah!”