“What do you require, General Hammond? A direct call from the UN Secretary-General?”
“Not while there are other options.” George blocked Duebel from stepping any closer to the hole and the platform beyond. “I’m sorry, Ambassador, but I take my orders from the President, not the United Nations.”
Duebel stabbed a finger at the Ancient chair. “That thing has cost too many lives.”
“It’s also saved lives.”
“I don’t care about the past. It’s the present that matters. Or should I say the future? Your own scientists have indicated that once the sun rises, the seismic activity emitted from that device could tear the continent apart.”
“I am fully aware of the losses — ”
“How many more must die before you accept your responsibility? Or is this about your precious SG-1?”
George sucked in a breath to calm himself down. “Mister Ambassador, given time we could still shut the force field down. The sun doesn’t rise for…” He turned to Dr. Lee who had returned to monitoring the device on his computer.
“Seventeen hours,” Lee said. “More or less.”
“More or less?” Duebel shook his head. “You know the immediate destruction of this outpost is the right thing to do. Ambassador Zhu, do you not concur?”
Duebel turned toward Zhu. She sat at her self-appointed post by the hole, her legs tucked under. Her eyes never left the force field or her countrywoman underneath. Almost too intently, unless —
“Quing?” Duebel strode to Zhu’s side and knelt down. “Your voice is needed.” He grasped her shoulders.
“What would you have me do?” she whispered.
“Trust us, Madame Ambassador,” George entreated. “Allow us the time to — ”
“Trust. Like your government entrusted mine?” Zhu raised her head and glared right at him. “Two years have passed since you disclosed the Stargate Program to China. Two years in which we’ve watched you trust Russia with plans to your interceptors and naquadah generators, but not us. Never us.”
Duebel’s eyes widened. “Quing! This is not the time.”
“This is precisely the right time.” Zhu curled her lips in obvious disdain. “Intelligence points to the United States now providing Russia with plans to something called the X-303. An interplanetary defense spaceship code-named Prometheus.”
Zhu returned her gaze to the force field. “Do not speak to me of trust, General. You haven’t earned the right. Instead, prove it. Find a way to save this planet.”
Duebel placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. As Zhu shrugged it off, the Swiss ambassador whispered harshly to her. George couldn’t hear what Duebel said, so he turned away to afford them some privacy. As he did, Simmons, and a Security Forces airman with an M-16 slung across his back, hurried in.
The lieutenant pointed at a cup of coffee in the SF’s hands and then at George. “Black, sir. We couldn’t find any sugar, but there’s enough left for one pot.”
“Thank you, airman.” George accepted the offered cup. “See if there’s enough for the ambassadors, including Juarez — wherever he took off to.”
“Yes, sir.” The airman strode out.
George sipped his coffee. It was bitter, pretty much a good description of his day so far.
He glanced back at the two ambassadors still deep in private discussion. “’We have to distrust each other. It’s our only defense against betrayal.’”
“Sir?”
George gave Simmons a wan smile. “It’s an old saying, Lieutenant. Almost as old as I feel.”
Simmons leaned in and whispered, “Sir, you should know. Ambassador Zhu — ”
“Is Weiyan Shi’s mother.” He gulped down the rest of the coffee. “I’m not surprised, but I should have guessed sooner.”
“General, you can’t blame yourself for what’s happened.”
“Can’t I?” George turned toward the Ancient chair. Its cold metal frame and alien architecture stared back at him, a reminder that for every step forward they’d taken with the Stargate Program, the cost had been enormous.
Shifting his view to the force field, he had to ask himself whether he opposed Duebel’s demands to destroy the outpost because there was still time to find an answer before the sun rose, or was the truth simpler? Was it because he couldn’t take any more losses?
A mild tremor shook the outpost, sending a light fall of snow down onto the force field and the surrounding floor. Some of it fell on Duebel.
“What are you waiting for, General? Another station to be flattened?” The ambassador brushed the snow from his gray hair and rose from Zhu’s side, his face dark with rage. “Destroy the outpost and, while you’re at, I want those interceptors that Quing mentioned removed as well. They should not be in Antarctica.”
“Those F-302s are critical to Earth’s last line of defense.”
“They’re U.S. military and entirely against the treaty.” He wagged a finger at George. “Stop stalling.”
“That’s not the case, Ambassador.
“Mount Erebus has erupted!” Juarez ran into the chamber, waving a piece of paper. He bent over, panting wildly.
Duebel snatched the report from Juarez and scanned it. “The volcano has had a significant eruption.” He handed it off to Zhu. “That’s only twenty-three miles from McMurdo!”
“Ah, Mister Ambassador?” Lee scurried over from his monitors. “Erebus has persistent eruptions all the time. There’s even occasional minor lava flows out to its inner crater, but never the outer caldera. An old college buddy of mine works up at the LEH, the Lower Erebus Hut, that’s why — ”
“Your friend is dead, Doctor.” Zhu lowered the paper. “A rescue helicopter was sent to retrieve the Erebus team, but they found the hut demolished. A five kilometer-wide lava flow erupted from the crater and is burning a path all the way down to the Ross Sea.”
“I don’t believe it,” Lee insisted. “We would’ve heard something. I would have…”
The scientist fumbled with his glasses. They dropped. George bent to pick them up, his hand grazing the brutally cold stone floor. He glanced over at Zhu, still sitting down. How she was able to handle the frigid temperature was beyond him.
Although, if one of his grandchildren were locked beneath an alien force field, George would suffer through anything to ensure their rescue. Which made his next decision all the more difficult.
He handed the glasses back to Dr. Lee. “I’m sorry for your loss, Bill. If you — ”
“Rick said Erebus would never amount to anything,” Lee mumbled. “He kept begging for more funds. He wanted to explore more, but the NSF wouldn’t let him.” He dropped his chin down. “It just doesn’t make scientific sense.”
“That’s all this is to you,” Juarez said, his voice dripping with spite. “A scientific anomaly to be studied.”
“That’s enough, Ambassador,” George warned. “You’ve made your point.”
“No, General. This is only the beginning.” Juarez’s chin jutted out in clear defiance. “Destroy this monstrosity,” he waved toward the force field and then the chair, “or I will contact your president myself.”
“I suppose an eruption could happen,” Lee continued to mumble. “Plate tectonics are a tricky thing… Although, something like a reversal of the magnetic poles could cause added stress, maybe the photonic energy’s directed toward — ”
“Get him out of here,” Juarez demanded. “If I see another scientist in my lifetime, it will be too soon.”
Lee apparently didn’t hear the ambassador because he kept on rambling on. “Maybe it’s not magnetic. If the computers work — ”
“Bill.” George laid a hand on the scientist’s back, hoping he might bring the man’s focus back to the here and now.
Lee’s eyes rimmed with tears. “I’m sorry, General. Rick was at my wedding, you know?” He swallowed. “This is hard.”
“I know it is, son.” He nudged the scientist toward the archway to the outer chamber. “Contact Major Davis. Have him get over to the F-302 base at Observation Hill. Pronto. I want the Byrd Station Navy SEALS ordinance team brought here to the outpost ASAP. Ready to detonate.”
Lee’s eyes widened. “General, we can’t!”
“I don’t see any other option. Not unless you have a way to turn that thing off.”
“Not yet, no. If we had someone with a stronger strain of the ATA gene, that might help, but with all the trainees evacuated…” Lee hung his head. “I’m sorry, General. I — ”
“I’m sorry too, Bill.”
Rubbing his eyes, Lee hurried toward the archway.
“And Doctor?”
Lee stopped and turned around.
“How many hours until the sun comes up again?”
“Less than seventeen now.” Lee cocked his head. “Sir?”
“You’ve got sixteen hours to turn that ‘yet’ of yours into a reality. Make the call and then get back to work.”
A brief smile flickered across Lee’s face. George hoped it was enough to keep him focused on finding a solution before it was too late.
“General?” Lt. Simmons backed off from his position by the hole and slipped in front of Duebel and Juarez. The two ambassadors moved off to join Zhu.
“How are our people, Lieutenant?” asked George.
“Still unconscious, sir, but General O’Neill’s smiling, if that means anything.”
“Why am I not surprised?” George pulled up the hood on his parka. The chamber had become damn near the temperature of an iceberg. “Is there anything else, Lieutenant? I’ll need to call the president and obtain clearance before going through with — ”
“Sir…” Simmons looked over at Ambassador Zhu. “Dr. Lee said that if we had someone with ATA genetics as strong as Weiyan’s, they could use the chair to deactivate the device.”
“Like mother, like daughter?” George eyed the Chinese ambassador. While she hadn’t admitted to the relationship, certainly saving her child would be worth the revelation. “Once more you’re a step ahead of me, Lieutenant. Why you haven’t put in for a promotion yet is beyond me.”
Simmons ducked his head. “I wouldn’t want to leave the Stargate Program, sir.”
“You sound like Major Davis.” George drew in a deep breath, preparing himself for what would undoubtedly be an uncomfortable discussion with Ambassador Zhu. “Why don’t you go see how Dr. Lee is faring? Tell him your idea.”
“Right away, sir.”
“And make sure Major Davis has those birds headed toward Byrd within the next half hour.”
Simmons ran through the archway and out into the nearly abandoned main chamber.
George walked over to the ambassadors. Duebel and Juarez greeted him with silent nods, but Zhu remained focused on the force field, or more specifically, on what lay beneath.
“Sirs, would you kindly give me a moment alone with Ambassador Zhu?”
“What for?” Juarez’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Duebel grabbed the Argentine ambassador’s elbow. “Leave it alone, Jorge. He’s agreed to our demands.” He half-dragged Juarez out of the chamber.
George knelt down beside Zhu. “Madame Ambassador, why didn’t you tell us Weiyan was your daughter?”
“Trust has many enemies and few friends.”
“Trust us enough to help save your daughter,” George said, refusing to rise to her bait. “Perhaps a turn in the chair.”
Zhu laughed. A bitter, empty sound that echoed through the now empty chamber. “I don’t have the ATA gene, General. Weiyan inherited that — and other traits — from her father.”
George sank back on his heels. “And he’s undoubtedly in China, thousands of miles away.”
“Oh, further than that, in a manner of speaking,” Zhu said bitterly. “Weiyan’s father is in a psychiatric institution. Completely catatonic and completely insane.”
Daniel instinctively ducked as an Al’kesh buzzed overhead.
Beside him, Jack stood his ground. “Would someone please explain how Lord Yu and his minions suddenly became citizens of this ghost town?”
“If we knew the answer, we wouldn’t be — ”
“They’re not real.” Sam crouched down beside Weiyan’s self-made foxhole. “It’s safe. Really.”
“I guess old habits die hard,” Daniel admitted. These weren’t real enemy troops. These were phantoms. Ghosts.
But why?
He scanned the valley. The Jaffa battalion who’d marched right through SG-1 earlier had taken up position a good hundred yards back behind Sam. Another battalion came to rest by the opposite end, standing in front of a massive grass-covered hill. The two remaining groups continued toward the rear of the valley, toward the bottom of the cliff Jack had climbed earlier.
In total, there had to be at least five thousand of Yu’s Jaffa, but again, why?
Teal’c pointed upwards. “More!”
Two more Al’kesh buzzed by, coming in for a landing.
“Someone — ”
“Or something,” Jack corrected him.
“Is trying to communicate with us.”
“Ya think?” Jack whirled toward the battalion behind Sam and frowned. “I’d have preferred a postcard or an email.”
“Jack, don’t you see?” Daniel held out his hands toward the landing ships. “Somehow this all has to do with Lord Yu and the Ancients, which means the Ascended — ”
“Daniel, you were ascended once, remember?”
“Yeah, but — ”
“Ah!” Jack raised a finger. “You told us on Abydos, when you were all nice and glowy, that Ascended folks don’t interfere. So what do you call this?”
“I don’t remember saying that, but if Yu — ”
“The last time I checked, Yu isn’t an Ancient. He’s a Goa’uld.” Jack turned back toward the trio of Al’kesh now parked in the middle of the valley. “And I should’ve killed his slimy, snakeheaded butt when I had the chance.”
Daniel hated the Goa’uld as much as anyone, but during his imprisonment with Lord Yu, he’d discovered the System Lord still had emotional ties to his ancient reign on Earth, or more specifically to China. “Yu’s not like the other Goa’uld.”
“A Goa’uld is a Goa’uld. Carter, stay with…” Jack jerked his head toward Weiyan. “Daniel, Teal’c, you’re with me. Let’s go find out what this dog-and-pony show is all about.”
Along with Jack and Teal’c, Daniel headed toward the closest Al’kesh. As they neared, people began to unload. Some dressed in blues, other in greens, reds and grays. Pretty much every one of them was dressed the same — all in ancient Chinese-style robes bound at the waist with swathes of darker cloth.
Civilians, he mused, until a giant of a Jaffa escorted a group of three women close enough for him to see the fear on their faces. And the white bandages on their feet. Their feet had been broken and bound in the ancient Chinese style meant to keep women from running away.
A style not used in China for quite some time. Daniel thought back on his time as Yu’s captive a year ago and couldn’t remember seeing any of the women’s feet bound in that way.
Not that he’d seen more than two or three and only during his time in the lower levels of the fortress. No woman ever made an appearance in Yu’s throne room. He wasn’t even sure Yu had a Goa’uld queen. His Dragon Guard certainly didn’t need them, being cloned by Ancient technology.
“Yu’s slaves?” Jack asked.
“They can’t see you,” Daniel said. To prove his point, he walked right through the Jaffa guard. “This is… Odd.”
“Odd doesn’t quite sum it up.” Jack waved an arm through one of the women.
Teal’c raised a hand, fingers spread wide, and swept it through the Jaffa guard. “If these are holographic projections, should there not be some visual — ”
“After effect?” Jack headed toward the Al’kesh’s ramp.
“Like a light trail or something?” asked Daniel.
“Or something is right. “ Jack peered up the gantry. “Teal’c, come on.”
As Teal’c turned to follow, Daniel noticed him grimace as if he was in pain. Then he shook his head slightly, put back his shoulders, and strode toward the ramp.
“You’re wasting your time!”
“Since when has that stopped me?” He approached the ramp, stepped up —
And fell flat on his face.
Biting his tongue, Daniel turned away.
“Go ahead, say it,” Jack grumbled. “Say ‘I told you so.’”
“Those weren’t exactly the words I had in mind.”
“Head’s up,” Jack warned as a single cargo ship flew across the small valley and headed toward the grass-covered hill.
“What’s going on there?”
Daniel pointed toward the large mass of people heading toward the hill. “Maybe if we get closer. Where’s — ?”
“I am here.” Teal’c walked closer. Actually, stumbled was more like it.
Daniel took a worried glanced at Teal’c and the sweat beading on his forehead. His skin had turned a gray brown.
Jack shook his head, a silent command to stay silent. There were times to listen to Jack and there were times to ignore him. Daniel chose the latter.
“Teal’c, are you feeling all right?”
Teal’c proudly lifted his chin. “I am well, Daniel Jackson.”
“Back at ya,” Jack said with a smirk. His way of saying, score one — tied on the ‘I told you so’ front.
Daniel ignored him. “You don’t look so good. Maybe you should rest, head back to Sam and Weiyan.”
“I will rest when we are free of this dilemma.”
Another warning glare from Jack, and Daniel let it go. But not without promising himself to keep an eye on Teal’c.
The cargo ship set down on the hilltop. As its bay doors open, the crowd of soldiers and civilians dropped to their knees in prostration.
“How come they’re not making more noise?” Jack asked.
“Perhaps they are, O’Neill, and we simply cannot hear them.”
A figure emerged, but the hill was too far off to see anything other than a blur. Daniel assumed it was Lord Yu. As if on cue, the crowd rose, turned around, and headed back to their ships.
A rippling wave streaked across the valley and the ships disappeared. As did the people.
“What the hell?” Jack whirled around. He pointed toward the building that continued to exist through every vision.
Or nightmare.
A solitary Jaffa strode toward them. He didn’t slow down as he neared, obviously unaware of their presence. He was Asian, young, and shorter than Yu’s other Jaffa—no more than five-foot-nine. There was a quiet confidence about him as he walked. An inner strength.
An all too familiar strength. As the Jaffa drew closer, Daniel was unsurprised by his gray woolen cloak, cinched off to the side with a jade broach. Cropped black hair, green-flecked black eyes, and a square jaw. The sun glinted off the gold tattoo on his high forehead.
Jack jerked a thumb toward the Jaffa as he walked past, unaware of his audience. “Isn’t that…?”
“Oshu,” Teal’c stated flatly. “Lord Yu’s current First Prime and lead Dragon Guard. He is not Jaffa. None of Yu’s Dragon Guard carries symbiotes. They are clones.”
“Sonuvabitch.” Jack face darkened with rage as he watched Oshu draw closer. “Hallucination, ghost or whatever, that bastard’s grand-clone gave us enough trouble last year that I’d like to ring all their necks.”
“You mean Ambassador Huang,” Daniel said. “Didn’t the Chinese — ”
The First Prime stopped beside them, seemingly unaware of their presence. He stared off toward the mysterious building.
“Guys, I’m not sure that’s Oshu.” Daniel approached the Dragon Guard for a better look. “He looks like him, but — ”
“And again, I ask… There’s a but?”
Ignoring Jack, Daniel stepped up to the Dragon Guard. A jagged white scar stretched across the man’s chin. “Whoever this is, it isn’t Oshu. That scar’s old.”
The air rippled again and the First Prime disappeared.
“And I repeat,” Jack glowered, “what the hell?”
Before Daniel could answer, a multi-color wash of light rippled across the valley like a shockwave. It crashed against the cliff at the far end, surged up the craggy, exposed rock, and then dissipated as it breached the summit.
A Stargate materialized on the cliff-top.
Jack took a few steps toward the cliff and then stopped. He turned back toward Daniel. “Too good to be true, I assume.” A kawoosh erupted from the gate. As its event horizon settled down into a reflective puddle, more Jaffa exited, carrying large cargo containers. They descended the hillside.
Another wave of light streaked across the valley.
“Is this making anyone else dizzy?” Jack asked.
“It is disorientating, O’Neill.” Teal’c took a step forward, or rather, he tried. Halfway through his stride, he stumbled backwards. “Something prevents my forward movement.”
Jack stretched out his palm. It flattened against the air, as if he was miming touching a wall. “Well, that’s… Cute.”
As Daniel raised his hand to try the same thing, high-curved stone walls sprung up around them. Walls that he could see right through. Phantom carpenter-slaves joined a roof to the sides. He turned back toward the ever-present building. On top a newly built addition to its left, two Jaffa spread copper sheets over a turret-shaped frame.
“They’re building Lord Yu a fortress,” he whispered in awe.
“That’s nice, Daniel,” said Jack, “but we’ve been on Yu’s home world, and this ain’t it. No trees, no mountains, no snow.”
“I don’t know,” Daniel admitted. “Clearly, this is — ”
A warm breeze blew across the back of his head. “Did anyone else feel that?”
“You felt it, too?” Jack raised a hand to his neck.
“As did I,” Teal’c said. “Though why is unclear.”
Because it is so clear it takes a long time to realize it.
Daniel shivered, remembering Oma Desala’s words. “Guys, I’m pretty convinced there’s an ascended being here, somewhere.”
Jack’s eyes widened. “They’re responsible for all this?”
“I don’t know, Jack. None of this is making any sense.”
Teal’c gestured toward the translucent building’s interior. “Yu’s Dragon Guard.”
Four men strode down a perpendicular hallway lined with Jaffa. The guards dressed in Jaffa armor, but their cloaks were different colors. The First Prime still wore his gray one, while another wore a red, another blue, and the fourth wore green.
Daniel could see enough of their faces through the transparent walls to recognize the similarities to the four men he’d met last year. The guard with the red cloak had longer hair and the green-cloaked guard didn’t have a beard, but otherwise, they were identical.
As they turned right and headed toward the end of the complex, time-lapsed images unveiled the completion of Yu’s fortress. Tapestries and scrolls appeared on the walls. Furniture materialized. Lit braziers erupted to life. The Dragon Guards stopped at the hall’s far end. Though it had to be at least fifty yards away, Daniel made out the high stone doors leading into the old building. They pushed on the doors, but nothing happened. They began to pound on the doors.
Daniel watched them, feeling as if Oma was in turn watching him. Why? To see what he’d do? There was something iconic about the images. Four Dragons. The Ancient building.
The four men broke into two groups, each pulling at a door. The doors started to crack open, slowly. As if they hadn’t been used for centuries. Perhaps even millennia.
Lord Yu’s words crashed down on Daniel. He remembered. He remembered it all. How the Goa’uld’s original Dragon Guards died, and more importantly, where they’d died.
Blue light streamed out of the doors’ ever-widening gap.
“My God, Jack. This is Kunlun. Pedion Elysium is Kunlun!”
“Kun who?”
“The planet Yu lived on before moving to his current planet. This is P3Y-702. The same place Yu captured me from last year!”
Daniel surged forward, pounding the invisible wall with his fists. He knew what would happen. He knew how this would end… And it would end badly. “We have to stop them!”
Jack pulled him back. “Daniel, you’re the one who pointed out that none of this is real, remember?”
Daniel wrenched himself free. “Then why show this to us? Why would Oma do that?”
“You really believe this is Oma?”
“Who else could it be, Jack? Maybe she thinks we can help change the past somehow, maybe — ”
With a thunderous boom, a brilliant light blasted from the doors. An eerie glow radiated outward, swathing the Dragon Guards in its blue pall.
“We’re too late.” Daniel forced himself to keep watching, even though he knew what would happen next.
Within moments, the four guards collapsed.
“Are they…?”
“Yes, Jack.” Daniel turned away, sickened. “They’re dead.”
“Were dead. This happened a long time ago.”
“Yeah.” Daniel sighed. “I guess I finally understand firsthand what Oma meant.” He glanced at Teal’c. “You tried to tell me, too.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow. “To what do you refer?”
“You mean her whole candlelight-is-fire bit?” Jack asked.
“No.” Daniel rubbed his eyes. “More like, no matter what I do — whether it’s Tegalus, or here, or anywhere — I can’t fix others’ mistakes.”
“Welcome to the club.” Jack squeezed his shoulder. “I’d offer you a t-shirt, but we’re fresh out.”