Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis - Far Horizons (18 page)

In her spare time, Carter also finished constructing the prototype for a temporal waveform modulator. Her military training forced her to give it a designation, and she went with TWM-1.

When she got to the top of the mountain, she saw that O’Neill was not only upright, but also staring angrily at a spot where there wasn’t anything she could see.

“Why is O’Neill staring at the air?” Teal’c asked her.

And then Carter saw it. Or, rather, didn’t see it. “Where’s Thor’s pod?”

“Perhaps it moved through the field into the same time stream that we occupy.”

Carter shook her head. “It hasn’t been long enough. The antigrav units on that pod kept it slow-moving for Thor’s health. It can’t have moved to the force shield in the time since we’ve gone through. Besides, if it had gone through, the colonel would’ve chased it.”

“Indeed.” Teal’c raised his eyebrow. “Perhaps the Asgard were able to locate Thor and transport him to their ship.”

“And not take the colonel?” Carter sighed. “Well, let’s test the TWM-1, and then maybe we can ask him.”

She fired the converted sonic pistol at the force shield, and then picked up the test object: her safety goggles.

The goggles bounced off the force shield just as the bullets had that first time. “Dammit.”

She tried the three other settings on the TWM-1, but none of them worked. The sonic pistol’s design was only for four settings, and changing that wasn’t really practical.

Carter frowned. “I thought I found the right range of wave modulations to make this work.” She stared at O’Neill, still standing with his mouth open in a look of grumpiness. “Maybe I have the time ratios wrong. I need to get back and try another —”

Her musing was interrupted by the ground shaking beneath her feet.

“What the hell — ?”

She lost her footing, but Teal’c reached out to grab her arm and steady her, but then another quake hit, twice as rough as the first.

Pulling out her binoculars, Carter glanced down at the city to find that the machine’s lights had gone dark.

“I don’t believe it! Some idiot turned the machine off!” And she had a pretty good idea who the idiot in question was.

Another quake, and this time Carter and Teal’c both fell to the ground. Luckily, they were high enough up on the mountain that there was very little danger of anything falling on their heads.

That was the final quake, and Carter again peered through her binoculars. The machine’s lights were coming back on.

“C’mon, Teal’c, we have to get down there.”

“Indeed.”

By the time they finished the long trek down the mountain, the peace officers and medical personnel had things mostly under control. They still provided assistance, Teal’c’s strength and observational ability and Carter’s field medical training proving beneficial.

Carter finally made it to the science institute after nightfall. Nardah was there drinking something alcoholic. “Carter, where the hell’ve you been?”

“I told you I was —”

Nardah waved her off, her brief moment of anger burned to ashes. “Right, right, up the mountain, testing your new toy. Sorry, it’s been a bad day. We had a power outage. Apparently, Ain saw that we had reduced the power needs for the machine, so he had the council authorize less power for the machine overall. But he got the figures wrong — of course — and it took too much away. So the machine shut down.” After gulping down some of her drink, Nardah added, “The good news is, Ain has his proof now that the machine is vital. With any luck, he’ll recommend that we keep the machine going.”

“With any luck. Have any more of that?”

Smiling, Nardah poured another glass of the drink, which Carter recalled was named
yeriz
.

Then a buzzing noise interrupted them. Nardah put a communications device to her throat. “Yes?”

“Tan Nardah, this is Officer Ham Solvig. I’m afraid that we have some bad news. I believe you were searching for Councillor Ain Anred?”

“Yes, I was concerned about his wellbeing.”

That surprised Carter — but then, something bad happening to the councillor would probably translate to something bad happening to the science institute.

“His wellbeing is quite poor, I’m afraid,” Ham said. “He’s dead.”

Carter’s second time experiencing an inquest was more exciting than the last, but it also made her realize how much better boring was in the grand scheme of things.

One councillor testified: “According to Councillor Ain’s reports, the staff at the science institute was abusive toward him. More than once, he felt that his life was in danger.”

An aid to the council, who wore a topknot, but one that was much shorter than those of the councillors: “I reviewed Councillor Ain’s figures, and they were enough to cause the machine to shut down from lack of power. The councillor told me that they were the figures provided by Tan Nardah and the alien woman. I believe that Tan Nardah and her colleagues deliberately had Ain be responsible for the temporary deactivation of the machine so they could make him look foolish.”

Nardah muttered to Carter in the gallery, “No, the universe made him look foolish.”

Carter snorted in agreement.

The testimony continued in that vein, with only Nardah herself providing the truth. “The figures we supplied to the councillor were correct and would not have shut down the machine. But while I’m sure that Ain Anred had many virtues, a head for mathematics was not one of them. He barely understood the principles that Sam Carter and I laid out for him. It’s not a surprise that he got the numbers wrong. Councillors, I am sorry for what has happened, but it was an accident. And this accident has also proven just how necessary the machine is.”

After all the testimony was taken, Councillor Ren said, “The council will deliberate, and take into full consideration the testimony given today, as well as the allegations of manipulation of data. We will render the rulings of this inquest tomorrow.”

The crowd filed out of the government building, and as soon as they got outside, Nardah turned to Carter and Teal’c. “How close are you to getting through to the ring?”

After glancing at Teal’c, Carter said, “I’ve readjusted the TWM-1 to four new possible waveforms. I think it stands a good chance of working this time.”

“Then go — get up to the mountain at first light and go through. Because I can guarantee that, based on Ren’s tone, the council is
not
going to be favorable toward us.”

Carter hesitated. “Nardah, we can’t just —”

“Yes, you
can
go. You
need
to go. This isn’t your world, and this isn’t your fight, it’s mine. I appreciate the help you’ve given me, but I think this last incident will bring a lot of our good work to an end.”

“Nardah, I —”

“No, Carter. No goodbyes. I’ve already said goodbye to my brother unwillingly, I won’t do it for the pair of you. Just
go
.”

The next morning, Carter and Teal’c put on the fatigues that they’d been wearing when they’d boarded the
Beliskner
. Neither of them had said they were going to do it, and Carter wasn’t surprised that Teal’c was thinking the same thing as her. They also made sure to grab plenty of food and drink, in case they did make it through. “O’Neill will, I suspect prefer these to boysenberries,” Teal’c said.

“Indeed,” Carter said with a smile.

As they reached the plateau on the mountain, Carter saw that O’Neill hadn’t changed position, but he had closed his mouth.

She tried the first setting, tossed the goggles. Nothing.

Then the second setting.

On the third setting, the goggles flew through, but hovered in midair as soon as they crossed the event horizon.

And then the ground started to shake, far more violently. The very rock of the mountain started to split apart, and Carter and Teal’c both fell to the ground.

Teal’c shouted over the din of the quaking earth. “We must go through, Major Carter!”

Her first thought was of Nardah and Xirale, but her next was that she didn’t want to die on this time-displaced mountain, and the quakes were getting more intense, no doubt in response to the lessened influence of the machine.

So she dove toward the plateau at the same time that Teal’c did.

This time, her shoulder roll was perfect.

“
There
you are!” O’Neill cried. “First Teal’c disappears, then you disappear, Carter, then the Asgard come and take Thor away, then you come back.” He frowned. “What happened to your hair?”

Carter blew out a breath. “It’s a long story, sir.” She glanced over at Teal’c.

However, the Jaffa was staring at Carter’s hands. “Where is the TWM-1?”

“The what?” O’Neill asked, legitimately confused.

Glancing around the clearing, Carter saw no sign of it. “Dammit, I must’ve dropped it on the other side! I was hoping to go back, but without the TWM-1…”

“Might it still be on the other side?”

“With those quakes? There’s no guarantee it’ll still be there, and besides, it’s been
years
now.”

His hands at his temples as if to stave off a headache, O’Neill asked, “Will someone
please
tell me what the hell’s going on? Teal’c, why do you have a soul-patch?”

“As Major Carter said, O’Neill, it is a long story.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of time,” O’Neill snapped. “I’d kinda like to hear it.”

“Yeah,
we
have plenty of time.” Carter glanced back at the mountain with a heavy heart.

For each of the next six days, SG-1 continued to dial Earth, only to have the wormhole fail to engage. In the interim they also used some rocks on the plateau to create a makeshift staircase so they could approach the Stargate without clambering up the bottom of the circle.

By the fifth day, Carter was fully convinced that the SGC
hadn’t
read her instructions on the computer, or didn’t look for them until it was too late.

Over that time, Carter noted that the topography of the ground around them changed subtly.

And then, six days after Carter and Teal’c returned, there was a glow around the perimeter of the plateau. Suddenly, two women were standing on the other side of the force shield.

“We did it!” one woman cried.

“They’re still here,” the other said.

“You’ve been here for a week?” the first woman said. “We thought the ring was a portal to another world. Shouldn’t you have left by now?”

“Uhm,” O’Neill said.

“I don’t know, sir,” Carter said, genuinely confused. It should have been the better part of a century since they were in the city.

“You two must be Samcarter and Talc?” the second woman said. “Wow, I really thought you’d be taller.”

Carter frowned. “Who are you?”

“I’m Ellasan, and this is Freygar. We’re scientists, and I have to say it’s a great honor to meet you, Samcarter. When we found the records of your work in the ruins of the old city, specifically of the TWM-1, it was the breakthrough we were looking for. We finally were able to work out a way to stabilize the planet.”

“Stabilize — You mean the whole planet is on the same time stream now?”

Ellasan nodded. “Yes! Oh, I’m so glad you’re still here. We have to go back and report our findings, but we’d love to stay in touch with you now that we can reach the ring.”

Freygar started moving back to the mountain. “We will be back soon. Please don’t go anywhere.”

O’Neill stared down at Carter. “You look sad, Carter. You do realize that those two women just saved their planet from likely destruction thanks in part from your notes, right?”

“I guess, it’s just…” She trailed off.

Teal’c came to her rescue. “Ellasan mentioned the ruins of the old city. That can only mean that the city in which we resided has been destroyed.”

Carter added, “Which means that Nardah and Xirale are dead. And the city was probably destroyed right after we came back through here because the council turned the machine off.” She shook her head. “Such a waste.”

O’Neill put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s been, what, a hundred years or so since you left? Good chance those two would’ve been dead by now no matter what.”

“I suppose, sir.”

“Look at it this way, thanks to you two, SG-1 has saved two planets in one week.”

“Assuming,” Teal’c said, “that we did succeed in our mission. It is possible that we have been unable to dial Earth because your homeworld has been destroyed.”

“Thanks, Teal’c,” O’Neill said with a sigh. “Nice job helping me with the cheering up.”

Ellasan and Freyga did return, and Carter’s hypothesis was confirmed: the council had shut off the machine, and the resultant earthquakes destroyed the city. The geologic disasters spread to other parts of the world, and they traced it to this mountain. Finding Carter’s research in the ruins led to them understanding the temporal disturbance. They used Carter’s notes on time dilation, on the Stargate’s solar-flare-related time travel capability, and on the quantum mirror that all accompanied the TWM-1 specs to help guide them in the right direction toward bringing the planet back into temporal alignment. It helped that they’d been doing their own experiments with temporal physics, as well.

All this meant that P4X-234 now moved at the same speed through time as the rest of the galaxy.

“We’ll have to send a team back at some point,” Carter said, “and try to find out what it was that slowed time down on the planet in the first place. It’s got to be technological, but we were never able to find the source.”

“Some other time, Carter,” O’Neill said. “Right now, it’s time to futilely dial the gate again.”

Just as he had four times a day every day since arriving at P4X-234, O’Neill dialed the six chevrons that corresponded to Earth and the seventh chevron that was the symbol for P4X-234, the point of origin.

But this time, the wormhole engaged. Carter almost didn’t believe it when she saw it. She fumbled for her GDO to transmit SG-1’s identification code so they would open the iris.

“About time,” O’Neill said. “I could use a shower.”

With feeling, Teal’c said, “Indeed.”

Carter smiled, and the three of them walked up the makeshift rock staircase and through the gate.

As soon as they materialized on the ramp, greeted by General Hammond, Daniel Jackson, and a bunch of airmen, O’Neill said without preamble, “Well, it’s about time!”