Part 31 (1/2)

”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?”