Hostile Ground Part 31

"By usurping their legends and impersonating their heroes?" Jack said, not bothering to hide his contempt. "Sounds familiar."

"Huh." The snort came from Zuri. "You can hardly object to that when you -"

Dix put a hand on her arm, quieting her. "I have done what I must, O'Neill."

"Oh, I bet you have."

"Jack -"

"No, Daniel, this is bulls.h.i.+t. All of it." He turned to Dix. "Look, I don't know who you people are, or what scheme you've got going on here, but you clearly know us and I'm willing to bet you know how to get us back to Earth." He didn't raise his MP5, but he swung it around, letting everyone in the room know how this scene could play out. "So if your boss has a Stargate, Dix, then I suggest you take us to it. Now."

Dix exchanged a silent look with Zuri, before saying, "I understand why it is difficult to believe me, O'Neill, but there is something you need to see."

"Dix, no," Zuri protested. "You can't -"

"I must." With a serious look at Teal'c, he said, "It is the only way."

For once, Teal'c's emotions were easy to read and it was obvious that he wanted to know more about the man who claimed to be his son. Jack couldn't begrudge him that, even if he couldn't trust this Dix character any further than he could spit.

Hathor had proven that, when it came to Goa'uld plans for galactic domination, no scheme was too elaborate and no detail too small. But if this was a trick, Jack didn't know where it started and where it finished. Planet-wide nuclear destruction seemed over-the-top, even by System Lord standards, so whatever had happened to these people - the war, the enslavement, the invasion by the Amam or Wraith or whatever they wanted to call themselves - all of that was real.

The fact was that, wherever - and whenever - they were, their priority was still getting back to Earth. And Hecate's hat'ak remained their best shot at finding an operational Stargate. So, for now, he was willing to play along and see how far this game took them.

Dix turned and pulled a lantern from its hook on the wall. "Follow me," he said, his gaze fixed on Teal'c. "Then you will understand."

As Dix walked from the room, Zuri on his heels, Jack glanced across at Carter.

The unease on her face mirrored his. "What if he's telling the truth, sir?"

"We'll burn that bridge if we get to it, Major. For now, let's just find a way home." Pus.h.i.+ng all other considerations from his mind, he focused on Dix's lantern as it lit the way through the ruined tunnels. "Stay sharp," he said as they headed out after him. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

The rubble had thinned out here, and the way was clearer and easier to navigate, but Jack didn't like how the lantern light bounced off the walls; the shadows stirred something queasy in his gut, a sense that this planet was wrong to its very core. Here and there on the ground, he saw a swathe of the same red paint they'd followed here.

Dix led them onward, until they reached a wide hole in the ground. From somewhere far below, a sound echoed like metal on stone. "Sounds like a dig," murmured Daniel, but he too seemed anxious as he peered into the darkness of that pit.

"What's down there?" said Jack, fighting the urge to draw back from the edge.

"You asked me to help you return home." He gestured to the hole, and Jack saw that a rope hung over its edge. "Now you must trust me."

They'd come this far and in the end it was nothing, a swift rappel down a long, sheer drop, then an awkward crawl through a narrow gap hewn into a wall.

They emerged into a large cavern, where men and women worked with hand tools, chipping away at the rocks and excavating them in hefty woven baskets. At first, Jack couldn't understand exactly what it was he was looking at. High above them was a panel with shattered windows, the remnants of some burnt out technology barely visible in the darkness beyond.

"Oh my G.o.d," whispered Carter, her voice stricken in a way that Jack didn't want to acknowledge. It was a desperate whisper, an awful sound.

"No, Carter..." But the back of his throat was acrid and bitter; he'd seen what was slowly emerging from the tumbled rocks of the cavern.

"The time, sir, the daylight hours. If I'd been able to keep count, I would have known. I would... I would have realized."

"What is this -?" said Daniel, but his words broke halfway.

Stone by stone, one hammer blow at a time, a curve of gray was being exhumed from its resting place. Familiar symbols gleamed in the torchlight, one of them a two sided pyramid topped by a circle, frozen in time. Frozen for a century, just like the Stargate on which it was engraved.

"You wish to return home, Colonel O'Neill?" said Dix. "You see now why I cannot send you there."

And in a moment of shock, of s.h.i.+fting reality, Jack's eyes suddenly made sense of the fractured world around him. They couldn't go home, because this was home. This was Stargate Command.

This was Earth.

EPILOGUE.

Never had he seen the SGC so still, cold as a tomb without the lifeblood of its people pulsing through its hallways. George Hammond wondered what it looked like topside right now. There had been no weather report that day; every channel had run with only one story until they'd dropped off the air. What was the point of knowing whether rain would fall, if tomorrow wasn't guaranteed? He imagined, though, that the sky was clear, the night air crisp, the stars perfect and unchanged. This was what he wanted for his last night on Earth, therefore in his mind's eye, it was so.

Hammond got up from his desk and switched off the light, walking out through the briefing room and down the spiral stairs into the control room. The event horizon rippled, casting its blue light across the walls, making the stone come to life. Not long until the thirty eight minutes was up, but by then it wouldn't matter. The blasts from above had become less frequent, and Hammond knew it was because the Jaffa had already made their way deep into the mountain. As if to reinforce the point, the sounds of an explosion echoed from somewhere just two or three levels above and he felt a tremor beneath his feet. The wolf was at the door.

The gate room was deserted. The last of those lucky enough to have made the list for the Alpha site had ascended the ramp and pa.s.sed through the event horizon some time ago. It was on that ramp that he had said goodbye to Tessa and Kayla. He hoped that, one day, they'd come to understand why he couldn't give in to their tearful pleas to go with them, why he couldn't promise that he'd see them soon. But he wouldn't think of that now. They were safe and that was all that mattered.

The Stargate itself stood like a lone sentinel; it was fitting that it should be his last companion.

"Sir?"

Almost his last companion.

He smiled at the voice, though he was tired and heart-sore. The loyalty and bravery of his people never ceased to amaze him, and the woman who walked into the control room was no exception. "Doctor, I thought I'd told you to leave with the last wave."

"And I thought I told you I'd be here 'til the lights went out."

Hammond glanced out of the control room window. "Just one left to turn out."

Janet's mouth tightened in some semblance of a smile, though when she spoke her voice trembled. "I'm not leaving, sir."

"What if I said it was an order, Captain?"

"Then I would say consider me insubordinate, General."

Hammond nodded. She would change her mind in a moment, but for now, G.o.d help him, he was thankful for the company.

Another explosion sounded and Janet looked up at the ceiling. "How long, do you think? Until they come?"

Hammond followed her line of sight. "Ten, fifteen minutes, maybe less." So little time, but time enough to complete the work left to him. He thought of this planet, his treacherous, maddening, beautiful, precious home, and the true nature of all that would be lost.

"Have you ever read Whitman, Janet?"

"Walt Whitman?" She shrugged. "In college, I suppose..."

"When I was younger, I had Leaves of Gra.s.s hidden beneath the mattress on my bed, because my father called him a commie - and worse - and wouldn't allow it in the house. I guess he just plain didn't get it." He closed his eyes and let the verse come to him. "As onward silently stars aloft, eastward new ones upward stole."

"It's beautiful, sir. I didn't realize you loved poetry."

He smiled. "If ever there was a time for poetry, doctor."

"Yes, sir."

With a deep breath, Hammond strove to shake the sadness that had settled over him. Their last minutes were counting down. "Time for you to go, doctor."

Janet looked between him and the gate, shaking her head. "I told you, sir. I'm not going anywhere. I won'ta"

"Ca.s.sie's there."

With a startled gasp, Janet tilted against the control panel, as if needing the support to keep her upright. Tears spilled down her face. "But they said... they said there wasn't a chance Ca.s.sie could go. They said there was no place for her on the list."

"I made arrangements. So you see now that you haven't got a choice. Go through the gate, Janet. Take care of your family."

Still she hesitated, and Hammond knew that she was torn, that her loyalty to the base, and to Earth, made this an unbearable choice. But in the end, really, it was no choice at all.

"Thank you, General Hammond," she whispered. "Thank you, sir." She ran from the room, appearing seconds later in the gate room. She was halfway up the ramp when Hammond was gripped by a sudden, desperate impulse. Hope, it seemed, was a tough b.a.s.t.a.r.d to kill.

He punched the b.u.t.ton on the PA system. "Doctor?" She stopped, whirling back to face him. "If there's a chance... If any of us survive this, will you come back? Will you come back and fight for us?"

Janet's shoulders shook, but without a radio her words were trapped behind the barrier of the gla.s.s. She nodded, raising her right hand and pressing it to her heart, before executing a perfect salute. He returned the salute and, in the next second, she was gone. The gate fell, for the last time, into darkness.

And so Hammond was left to finish this vigil strange, the Earth above him his fallen comrade whom he'd tried so hard to save and whom he would not abandon, even at the end.

One minute was left to him now and he would use it well. Opening up a deep s.p.a.ce channel, he sent the final message, hoping it would be enough, wondering if anyone was even listening.

The countdown ticked on.

"This is a distress call from planet Earth. We are under attack and in need of a.s.sistance. If you have ever called yourselves our friends, we ask that you help us now. But if we must stand alone, we will stand strong. Though we may fall, we will fight. Though we may be outnumbered, we will endure. And for those who have abandoned us, know this: we will never forget. And we will never forgive. This is Major General George S Hammond, signing off."

Far above, on the bridge of a vast s.h.i.+p cloaked against the blackness of s.p.a.ce, two gray figures watched the bright flower of light that burst across the area that was called Colorado. The final words from a dying planet echoed through the corridors of their vessel.

"We should have intervened," said one.

The other turned and walked away from the viewing window, and there was sadness in his step. "You know we could not."

Against a backdrop of stars, unseen by the s.h.i.+ps that advanced towards Earth, the Beliskner retreated, leaving the lonely blue planet to her fate.

About the Authors.

Sally Malcolm is the commissioning editor at Fandemonium Books and has overseen the production of almost fifty novels based on Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe Sally has written Stargate SG-1: A Matter of Honor, Stargate SG-1: The Cost of Honor, and Stargate Atlantis: Rising (novelization). She has also penned four audio dramas for Big Finish Productions: Stargate SG-1: Gift of the G.o.ds starring Michael Shanks, Stargate Atlantis: Savarna starring Teryl Rothery, Stargate Atlantis: Perchance to Dream starring Paul McGillion, and Stargate SG-1: An Eye for an Eye starring Michael Shanks, Claudia Black and Cliff Simon.

She also wrote two episodes of the video game Stargate SG-1: Unleashed which were voiced by Stargate SG-1 stars Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Chris Judge.

Stargate SG-1: Hostile Ground is the second novel Sally has co-auth.o.r.ed with Laura Harper. The first one, Stargate SG-1: Sunrise was published under the pen name J.F. Crane.

Sally is currently working on Fandemonium's first Stargate short story collection 'Far Horizons' which will be published in October 2014.

And her first original novel will be published later this year by Choc Lit UK.

Laura Harper co-auth.o.r.ed Stargate SG-1: Sunrise with Sally Malcolm, writing as J.F. Crane. Stargate SG-1: Hostile Ground is her second novel for Fandemonium Books.

Laura is currently working on an original novel and book two of the Stargate SG-1 Apocalypse series.

THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE....

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