*** This is a rough draft. I’ve had this idea growing in my head for awhile, and I’m going to use this journal as a place to put all my babbles and info about it. So what you read here might not make much sense. Once I get the first chapter finalized I will post it on fanfiction.net. I’ve never really liked crossover fics, so it’s incredibly ironic that I’m writing one. Still, I think you’ll find these two fandoms go well with each other… and I just couldn’t resist! Began writing 11/18/04. (In progress. ADDED TO: 11/19/04) ***
Chapter One: Arrival
Daniel Jackson sneezed explosively, then wiped his hand on his pants and sniffed, looking around with growing dismay at the wide variety of flora and fauna that covered the forest floor.
“Bless you,” Colonel Jack O’Neill muttered, passing by Daniel to check on the probe they had sent through the gate before them.
“Thanks,” Daniel returned, joining the Colonel beside the probe. But after a quick inspection of the machine O’Neill waved a hand dismissively.
“It’s fine,” he said. “Just a little tangled in the underbrush.”
Daniel nodded but said nothing in reply. He looked to the trees looming above him nervously, not sure he felt entirely comfortable in this forest. Things seemed too quiet. Of course, maybe this planet didn’t have birds… His gaze drifted right, focusing on the dark mountain range that rose sharply out of the earth only a few miles away. The peaks of the mountains reached far overhead, seeming to darken the sunlight, and Daniel wondered if he was the only one who thought the sky over the mountains seemed unnaturally dark. But then something else caught his eye.
“Hey, um, guys,” he said, moving over to peer more closely at the base of PT2571’s Stargate. “Come look at this.”
Jack was the first one to reach him, followed by Captain Samantha Carter and the Jaffa Tea’lc. They gathered around Daniel as he ran his free hand over the roughly hewn rock that held the Stargate upright. “This isn’t the Stargate’s original base,” he said, frowning. “This is just a boulder with a hacked out indentation for the gate to sit in.”
Tea’lc moved closer, glancing over the crude cradle with expert eyes. “It appears Daniel Jackson is correct,” the Jaffa confirmed, his voice low and deep. “This base appears too primitive to be either Gou’aold or the original makers’ technology. And it has no stairs.”
“So I noticed,” Colonel O’Neill commented, rubbing the bruised shoulder he had landed on after being spit rather unceremoniously from the gate. The lack of stairs had also been the reason for the probe’s rough tumble. “But what exactly does that mean, the fact that this isn’t the original base? I mean… is that bad?”
Daniel shrugged, turning around to face the Colonel. “It could mean a couple of things, actually. But most likely it means the gate has been moved from wherever it was originally to here. Although why they’d want to put it in a place like this is beyond me.” He looked again to the mountains behind them.
“Perhaps the original location became unreachable,” Tea’lc suggested. “Much like the second gate on Earth.”
Daniel nodded. “Well, that’s definitely a possibility. And they did bring the DHD here too, so…”
“Whoever moved it wanted to use it,” Captain Carter spoke up.
Daniel nodded again. “And the fact they took the time to cut out the rock… it couldn’t have been a quick decision. The moving of the Stargate had to have been planned ahead of time.” He craned his neck to look up at the tree branches above the gate. He pointed for the others to look as well. “And look at these branches. They’re big and reach right over the Stargate’s current position. It would be easy to make up some kind of pulley system here to lift the gate and set it into the rock base.”
“Uh huh,” Jack mused, obviously not quite following Daniel’s train of thought. “And this is all important because…?”
Daniel blinked. “Well because one of our primary objectives is to make contact with people of other planets, right?”
Jack tilted his head to one side impatiently. “Yah…”
“So…” Daniel gestured back at the Stargate and the boulder it sat in. “This set up suggests cooperative intelligence. Obviously they aren’t technologically advanced, but they seem to know what the Stargate does, and they moved it on purpose.”
Colonel O’Neill raised one eyebrow expectantly.
“There’s people here, Jack,” Daniel elaborated. “And they weren’t Goa’ould or they would have made a better base.”
“Ahhh. Well,” Jack sighed, “you could have just said that in the first place.”
Daniel looked to Captain Carter in exasperation, but she just smiled and shrugged.
“All right,” the Colonel said casually. “Since the inhabitants of planet PT2571 didn’t see it fit to send out a welcome party, I guess we’ll just have to go and find them.” He smiled wanely at the rest of his team. “We’ve got one hour before our first report back to SGC, let’s see if we can have something to say by then.” He turned and began to lead the way deeper into the woods. “This way, everyone. Keep your eyes and ears open, though. I don’t want to find out these people are hostile the hard way.”
The others fell into line behind the Colonel. Daniel motioned for Captain Carter to go ahead of him and she gave him a nod as she passed. He followed her and Tea’lc silently took up the rear. The four cautious visitors made their way as quietly as possible through the forest, weapons held at the ready and eyes constantly scanning their surroundings.
But the forest remained still.
***
Romestamo looked up from the old and weathered parchment on his desk at the knock at the door. He stood from his chair, drawing himself up to his full six feet, five inches, and sighed irritably. “Come in,” he said curtly.
The wooden door swung open to reveal Gurtog, Romestamo’s chief scout and consequently, practically the only Orc who had ever earned respect from the wizard. The tallish, broad shouldered creature bowed before the desk and then straightened, waiting for permission to speak.
Romestamo nodded, wondering what would bring Gurtog in before the scheduled report was due.
“My lord,” the Orc began, his gutteral voice forming the Westron words with ease but speaking fast. “The Ring of Power has come alive.”
Romestamo felt a shock of disbelief course through him, his spine stiffening and holding him rigid. His crystal blue eyes flashed at his subordinate as he asked the question, “How long ago was this?”
The Orc shifted uncomfortably. “Not long ago, my Lord. I came as soon as I saw it. But… there were… men… who came through it, my Lord. I believe they are the ones who brought it to life.”
“What? Men? But how would they…” Romestamo’s mind raced. These could be exactly the ones he had been looking for all these past years. They could be the answers to all his troubles, the key to his regaining power…
“Yes, my Lord,” Gurtog answered. “I counted four of them. But they were not like the Men of the West, nor like any other breed of Man I have seen.”
Romestamo peered at Gurtog curiously. “What do you mean?”
The Orc shifted again. “They wore strange armor, and carried weapons like I have never seen before.”
A sudden sense of urgency gripped the wizard. “Where are they now?” he asked eagerly. “I hope for your sake you did not leave them alone to wonder the forest…”
“No,” Gurtog assured him quickly. “No, my Lord. I left other scouts behind to track them. But I did not wish to act until I had informed you of their presence…”
Romestamo smiled. “Very good. This is indeed good news, Gurtog. I want you to go back out to the Ring of Power. Find these Men who you believed brought it to life and bring them to me. Use force to capture them if necessary, but I want them alive. The information they carry could be very, very useful to our cause.”
Gurtog nodded obediently and then, after bowing low to the wizard, the Orc turned on his heel and exited the room, closing the door behind him.
Romestamo eased back down into his chair, steepling his fingers on top of the parchment in front of him. A broad smile spread across his face as he looked down to the foreign symbols scrawled with ancient ink on the paper. They had been a maddening riddle to him for years. For years he had been so close and yet so far away.
But… if these newcomers were in fact who Gurtog thought them to be…
Romestamo’s smile widened even more, bearing his teeth in a feral grin. I will rule this world yet, he thought gleefully.
***
Leave a Reply