The Drift
Page 32
“Dormant’s a good thing, right?” General O’Neill came up on her left with Huang beside him. “We just need to grab the crystal, get back to the gate, and take this puppy to the outpost.”
The general secured his P90 under his right arm and reached out a hand toward the crystal. He motioned for Huang to do the same. “On my count.”
She glanced down at the meter. “Sir, wait!” The needle was off the scale.
General O’Neill pulled his hand away. “What?”
The needle dropped to normal levels. “That doesn’t make sense, unless… General, Mr. Huang, I need the two of you to touch the crystal, but don’t grab hold of it.”
With a nod from General O’Neill, the two men touched the crystal with their fingertips. The needle pinged again.
“Don’t make any moves.” Adjusting the amplitude, she ran another scan. The needle stayed off the chart.
“How much longer, Colonel? Not that I’m complaining, but we’re under a bit of a time crunch — ”
The ground shook, a low rumble reverberating through the chamber.
“Sam,” Daniel warned.
Suddenly, an ear-splitting crack resounded from somewhere outside.
“Hands off, hands off!” She pulled both men back from the platform. The tremor immediately stopped.
“Carter?” Dust trickled down on the general’s head. He yanked off his ball cap. “Skaara didn’t say anything about there being a problem.”
“No, sir. He didn’t.” She held out the scanner. “I’m getting inconsistent readings. It’s almost as if — ”
“Forget that meter thing.” The general checked his watch.
“I need to run more tests.”
“We’ve got two-and-a-half hours left before we’re outta time. Use your head and if that fails, use your gut.”
“What’s wrong?” Daniel peered down at the scanner and its near-zero reading.
She aimed the scanner at the crystal. Nothing. The needle didn’t move. “Daniel, touch the crystal.”
He did. Again, nothing happened.
Of course not. Neither she nor Daniel had the necessary gene.
The general had said use her head. Fine, but not without double-checking the theory forming in it. A theory no one was going to like.
“General, just one more time.” She gestured for him to touch the control crystal. “Mr. Huang, you too.”
As soon as they touched the crystal, the needle slammed to the meter’s far right. The ground shook. More dust fell.
“Satisfied, Carter?” shouted General O’Neill over the noise.
She shoved the scanner in her vest pocket. What was the point? It was useless. “Sir, I’m pretty sure that the moment you pull the crystal, the device will initiate a sizeable eruption similar to what happened in Antarctica.”
“How sizeable?”
She pointed toward the opened doorway. “Sizeable enough that, if the gate sits on a fault line, it’ll get buried.”
“Just like it did in our vision,” Daniel said.
“We’ve come this far.” General O’Neill shooed Huang from the platform. “There’s gotta be something we can do.”
“It doesn’t matter to the device if the crystal is damaged — like on Earth — or pulled.” She pointed at the silver lines on the floor. “In fact, here it could be worse because the sun’s already up.”
“I could dial the gate in advance,” Daniel offered.
Sam shook her head. “That won’t work. The gate’s almost a mile off. The quake could be instantaneous. We need some sort of buffer. Something to at least temporarily block any stored up energy from reaching the platform.”
“Like a dam,” Huang said.
Sam raised an eyebrow at Huang’s sudden contribution. He’d kept so silent since they’d entered the chamber. Still, he had a point. “A dam is exactly what we need. Something to hold back any energy from reaching the planet’s tectonic plates long enough to gate out of here.”
“With the crystal,” Daniel added.
“Kinda like sticking a finger in a dike,” the general said.
“You may be on to something, sir.” She leaned over the platform and examined the two empty brackets. Each one was about five inches long, maybe an inch wide. She eyeballed the bracket beneath the control crystal. It was both longer and wider. “Not a finger, a hand.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“The general figured it out, really.” She backed away from the platform. “We need a finger in the dike, or in this case, a hand. Something to trick the bracket into thinking there’s still a crystal attached.”
“Would a jacket work?” Daniel started to unbuckle his vest, but Sam stopped him.
“It needs to be carbon-based,” she said. “Like the crystal.”
“Or a diamond,” Daniel said. “That’s carbon-based, right?”
General O’Neill snorted. “Oh, sure. Let’s just run back to the SGC and see if Siler’s got one lying around.”
“Actually, sir, there’s one other option for a carbon-based form.” She retrieved her scanner and ran it over her hand. “Us.”
The needle wobbled, then settled back to normal. “On the quantum level,” she explained, “we’re made up of tiny particles of light, and these particles of light have an energy frequency. One that could block the emissions long enough for everyone else to gate out with the crystal.”
“And then what?” asked Daniel.
She didn’t know. “We don’t have time for me to run simulations. I couldn’t even guess — ”
“Forget it, Carter. What fun would it be without a surprise or two tucked inside the cereal box?” The general dumped his pack on the ground. “Daniel, head to the gate. Start dialing.”
“Wait,” Daniel said. “What?”
“But, sir!” She tried to catch his gaze, but he turned away, his focus on the dormant crystal.
“Not another word, Colonel. I’m going to do this.”
No one moved. How could they? Leaving General O’Neill behind just wasn’t an option.
“Do I need to remind you both of why we’re here?”
“There has to be another option.”
“We don’t have time for options, Carter.”
In her eight years serving with SG-1, there’d always been time for options. “What if we — ?”
“Forget it, Carter.” The general kept his back turned. “Daniel, get your ass in gear.”
“Jack…”
“Just follow my orders, Daniel.”
“I could do it, you know. I could stay behind. Even without the ATA gene, I should be able to… I mean, if the gate collapses, you could send word to the Tok’ra. Maybe the Asgard could pick me — ”
“Get it through your skull, Daniel. I don’t want your help.”
Daniel jerked his head back, obviously stung by the general’s words. “Fine.” Swooping up his pack, he stormed toward the doorway.
“Dr. Jackson!” cried Huang.
Daniel stopped.
Huang held out the cup. “You will want this back.”
“Keep it.” He looked over at the general who still refused to turn around.
“See you on the other side,” Sam said.
“Right.” With a final nod, Daniel ran from the chamber.
Sam refused to give up as easily. “General, what if I — ?”
“Negative, Colonel.” He shoved up his jacket sleeves and motioned for Huang to step up to the platform. At first, the old man didn’t move, glancing back and forth between her and the general. She understood his confusion. She was pretty much feeling that way herself.
Huang looked down at the cup. “I am ready.” He stepped up beside the general.
“This will be a snap.” General O’Neill turned back toward the platform. “We’re gonna pull this sucker out, Carter. Then the two of you will run like mad.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
P3Y-702/KUNLUN/ELYSIUM PEDION
19 AUG 04/1400 HRS STARGATE COMMAND
“I’m at the gate,” Daniel radioed in. “Dialing… Now.”
The kawoosh sounded distorted, tinny. From Jack’s position beside the platform, he could barely see the Stargate. It was too damn bright out there. A glint of sunlight off the distant hill had to serve as confirmation that the gate was active.
He thumbed his vest pocket radio. “Roger that. Carter will give you the head’s up when they head for the gate. Standby.”
“Good luck, Jack.”
“Yeah. You, too.” He signed off.
Carter was staring at her watch again. “Five hours till sunrise at the outpost, sir.”
For all of Skaara’s fancy quantum talk about time, down here in the real world the clock kept ticking.
“Thank you, Colonel.” He glanced at Huang. “Think you can double-time it out of here, old man?”
Huang placed his precious cup on the platform’s edge. “I will do what is necessary.”
He raised his chin with just a wee bit of indignation. Enough for Jack to be convinced they had a shot at doing what they’d come here to do.
“Carter, got your pack ready?”
“Ready.” She held up her pack, unzipped and ready to go.
He flashed her a smile, until it occurred to him that it could be the last time he’d get to do that.
Which sucked.
You’re stalling, O’Neill.
Huang bellied up to the platform. Jack couldn’t help looking at the smudged sigil on his forehead — Lord Yu’s stamp at its finest. Part of him wanted to ask why the old man had done it, why he’d almost gotten them all killed. Why it was so important to bother with that asinine mark.
Still stalling.
Huang lifted his hands. “I am ready.”
Jack cleared his throat. Reached out toward the crystal. Skaara said this would be worse than the chair. Okay, fine. He could handle it.
“On my count,” he told Huang. “One. Two — ”
Huang jerked his hands back.
“Damnit, Huang. What is it now?”
“My Lord Yu.” Huang turned his head toward the doorway. At first Jack thought he was looking at the active Stargate, but then he realized that wasn’t it.
Huang was looking at the statue up on the hill. “He will never forgive me for helping you. He will hunt me down. He will murder my ex-wife.”
For a moment, just one short moment, Jack found himself pitying the guy. “I told you, he won’t do anything of the sort.”
Huang turned toward him, stark desperation on his face. “You do not know that.”
Jack snorted. “Actually, I do. Your buddy Yu and I had a nice chat after your little setup. Turns out he likes Earth, especially China. Go figure.”
Huang’s gaze slid down to the cup. “I did not know.”
“Well, now you do.” Jack rolled his shoulders. This hands-raised-in-the-air stuff was getting tiring. “Can we get on with it?”
Huang nodded and raised his hands. “To honor my crèche-brother, Lao Dan Shi.”
Jack reached out toward the crystal. “One. Two. Three. Pull!” He grabbed hold and —
The city of Elysium Pedion flashed through his mind. Ancients gliding across walkways. Rooms filled with more of them, wearing long, beige lab coats. They tossed numbers and symbols through the air, as if playing catch with a baseball.
Jack shook the images from his head. Huang was tugging at the crystal right along with him. It wouldn’t budge.
“Pull harder!”
A buzzing filled his ears.
“It will not come free!” Huang shouted back.
Jack slid a palm around the back of the crystal. Shoved it toward him. Pulled it upwards. Nothing.
He placed his other palm across the base.
Sunlight sucked out of the room in the blink of an eye. An electric shock sizzled his muscles, burned through his bones. Ate at his insides.
The world went dark.
Thump. Thump-thump.
ANCIENT OUTPOST, ANTARCTICA
19 AUG 04/0715 HRS MCMURDO STATION
19 AUG 04/1415 HRS STARGATE COMMAND
“Wo jiang xie zia wo bao fu. Wo jiang bu hai pa.”
Weiyan Shi rolled her head from side-to-side, her face contorted in pain despite the Tau’ri’s narcotics. She mumbled the same words again and again, and while Teal’c knew ascension would free her from her current agony, the waiting was difficult to witness.
“Wo jiang… Wo jiang.”
“What is wrong with her?” asked Ambassador Zhu, her weariness shrouded in an implacable mask.
“I cannot say.” He crouched beside mother and daughter, his legs cramped, his muscles weary.
“Cannot or will not?” Ambassador Zhu demanded. A half-choked sob escaped her lips.
He had asked the other SGC personnel to vacate the weapons chamber in respect. The ambassador’s confrontational manner made him wish he’d done otherwise.
“Bàbà,” Weiyan whispered. “Wo jiang.”
Ambassador Zhu’s shoulders slumped.
“What is it she says?”
“She calls for her father.” The ambassador frowned. “I am the one who is here. Why call for him? He has done nothing for her, nothing.”
“Wo jiang, Bàbà. Wo jiang.” A great shudder ran through her. “Wo jiang.”
“What have I done?” Ambassador Zhu whispered.
A rattling reached Teal’c’s ears from above. He glanced at the ladder permitting access to the outpost’s main floor. The rungs shook.
Yet another tremor.
Fortunately, the vibrations subsided soon after they’d begun. The replacement of the control crystal could not come soon enough. Teal’c spared a moment to silently wish his comrades a quick success. For both their sake and that of Earth.
“Wo jiang, Bàbà. Wo jiang.”
“I have failed.”
Teal’c returned his gaze to Ambassador Zhu, an eyebrow raised in question.”Ambassador Zhu, you cannot fail as Weiyan Shi’s mother. She is your child by birth, is that not so?”
“Of course she is.” A defensive response, but Teal’c heard the truth in the woman’s words.
“Ni shi shui?” Weiyan mumbled. “Wo meng?”
“Have you told her she is loved?”
“I — I have not.” Sniffling, she raised her head and looked back at him. “Not for many years. When the doctors discovered she had hemophilia, that her needs would outstrip her abilities, I could not hide my disappointment.”
A strained laugh erupted from her mouth. “Huang abandoned us before she was born, before the doctors presented their diagnosis. He left me alone to care for her. Alone to…”
She pressed her daughter’s head to her chest.
It was then Teal’c understood. How could Weiyan Shi move on if her mother would not allow her to do so? It had been Ambassador Zhu’s harsh words that had caused her child to lose control in the weapons chair. Now, it was the mother’s need to love her daughter that kept Weiyan Shi here.
“Tell her of your love,” Teal’c commanded.
“I do not know how.”
He thought of Rya’c, of the anger in his son’s eyes upon the death of Drey’auc, his mother. The road to redemption between father and son had been difficult, but it had begun with one simple truth.
“Ask for forgiveness,” he told Ambassador Zhu.
“Muqin?” Weiyan Shi’s eyes opened. “Mother, don’t leave me. I am sorry. I — Please, do not be angry.”
“Shhhh, little one.” Ambassador Zhu stroked her daughter’s brow. “Of course I am here. There is no place I would rather be than with my child.”
“…taken you from your duties. Ahhh,” Weiyan Shi moaned, “Forgive me my fears.”
Teal’c took her hand. “You need not fear, Weiyan Shi. A great journey awaits you.”
“I will try, Teal’c.”
“No, Weiyan
Shi. You will not try. You will do.”
“I will do.” She squeezed his hand in return. “Mama?”
“I am here,” replied Ambassador Zhu.
“Forgive us both,” Weiyan rasped.
“Both?” The ambassador’s eyes widened. “Weiyan, it is I who must seek your — ”
“Father… Please forgive him, too.”
Ambassador Zhu nodded. “Duì bù qĭ. Yuánliàng.”
A brief smile passed over Weiyan Shi’s face. She released Teal’c’s hand and raised it to touch her mother’s face. “I love you, too, Mama.”
Her eyes rolled back and she sagged. “Wo jiang bu hai pa,” she whispered.
The ambassador translated. “I will not fear.”
“Wo jiang xie zia wo bao fu.”
“I will release my burden.”
“Now, Quing Zhu. You must let her go.”
The ambassador began to back away, but he stopped her. “Not like that.” He reached out and touched her shoulder. “Within you. Grant her what it is she needs to depart.”
Ambassador Zhu bent down and whispered into Weiyan Shi’s ear, “I will always love you, child of my heart.”
A great sigh escaped Weiyan’s lips. For a moment, she lay still, and then said, “Wo jiang xie xia wo de bao fu.”
“I will release my burden,” Ambassador Zhu repeated.
“Wo jiang bu hai pa. Wo jing zou jin guang mang.”
“I will not fear. I will go into the light.”
Weiyan’s hands dropped to her sides, her death apparent.
“Is that it?” Ambassador Zhu demanded. “You promised — ”
“Wait.”
A pure white radiant blaze of light rushed upwards from Weiyan Shi’s body. Though Teal’c had seen the process of ascension twice before, he could not help but bow his head in reverence.
“She is beautiful!” exclaimed Ambassador Zhu.
Teal’c lifted his head to gaze upon the light. The glowing form hovered above them, energy surging within its nebulous mass. Two tendrils unfurled from within its center, one extending to the ambassador, the other toward him.
“Goodbye, Weiyan Shi,” he whispered.
The tendrils pulled back. “Live well, Teal’c.”