CONTROL ROOM APPRAISAL OF NINE CHEVRON INCIDENT WITH THE GENERAL AND HARRIMAN AND SILER AND BRIGHAM AND SG-1

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"Oh hi Colonel Carter."

"Walter."

Colonel Carter entered the Control Room via Level twenty-eight. With her was Sergeant Siler and two Logistics staff. They were on their way up to the General's offices.

They had all been in the Gate Room assessing the mechanical, micro re-calibration of the Iris. Although the Base was on a heightened state of alert, because of the utter necessity of a fully functioning Iris, this specific works order, which would take the Iris off line, was deemed necessary to ensure it would continue to function. A function which was crucially significant to the safety of The SGC. And for that matter, Earth.

The Team responsible for the maintenance of the StarGate included Master Sergeant Siler who dealt with the electrical, electronic and mechanical aspects. Master Sergeant Harriman who was responsible for the StarGate's soft operations. Lieutenant Hibbert from Logistics, he was responsible for the StarGate's hardware Jobs management. And Colonel Carter who essentially liased between the Maintenance Team of which she was Chief, and The SGC commander in Chief, who at this moment in time was in the Control Room with Daniel, Teal'c, Doctor Brigham, Master Sergeant Harriman and now Colonel Carter, Sergeant Siler, Lieutenant Hibbert and one of his staff. Along with Control Room personnel.

"Colonel, Doctor Carmichael and I have started work on the battery of tests you requested. In addition to that, SG-14 have undergone the normal end of Mission testing array. The results are in and they have each been given a clean bill of health."

"Can you give me anything Doctor?"

"I can but its probably not what you're looking for. They are all clear, everythings coming back clear Colonel. Are there doubts?"

"Can't say."

"Its alright Colonel Carter I do understand."

"No, no its not that Doctor Brigham, I really can't say. Not sure, but at least you've eliminated the usual suspects."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Having said that, it is always a relief and a pleasure to clear a patient though."

"Thanks Doctor. Sir I recommend we hold the men for observation."

"What hold them in the infirmary?"

"Yes Doctor Brigham. I would like for them to be confined for the.. ..for now. Sir its unprecedented. A whole new chapter of our StartGate history has just begun. General I really don't want to be pessimistic but I do think it might be best not to let them off Base.. ..just yet."

"That's fine by me Colonel, absolutely fine.. ..for now. To it."

"Thank you Sir."

"O'Neill I request that armed guards are posted in the infirmary."

"May I ask on what grounds? My patients have been given the all clear and no reasonable explanation for such measures has been put forward. Guns and hospitals are not a good mix Teal'c."

"Indeed so Doctor Brigham. However we are standing in readiness at DEFCON Four. One of our most senior officers has voiced grave concerns regarding the status of identified members of this facility. It should follow therefore that the necessary precautions are set in place until the situation is resolved."

"You're all correct! Colonel how about if we have SG-14 confined to their own private quarters, placed under a precautionary watch."

"Yes Sir that will do it."

"Indeed."

"General if I'm not needed I would like to return to my infirmary. We're working our way through Colonel Carter's request and considering the Colonel's priority stipulation I'd like to get back there ASAP. I appreciate the concerns you all have regarding the health of the men. General O'Neill, Colonel Carter, we'll be in a position to return a Report within twelve hours."

"Carry on Doctor."

"Thank you Brigham."

"General."

"Err, what time is the Gate scheduled to be fixed?"

"Its not actually broken Doctor Jackson. We were on our way to speak to General O'Neill about that very same matter."

"Yeah, Hibbert, em.. ..Siler?"

"Two hours forty Sir."

"Walter?"

"Fifty minutes General. Involves updating the secondary system as well, and they have to be done separately."

"Of course they do. Colonel?"

"Sir, if everything goes according to plan, No more than four hours tops."

"Not according to plan?"

"Sir that would only happen if the Iris's mechanical and electronic movements were not precisely synchronised with the soft pulse lead-time incorporated to compensate for the time it takes the operating gear to receive a signal from the Dialling console."

"Lead-time.. ..we are talking teeny weeny nanonuts?"

"Hopefully Sir, but if the Dialling computer is tasking a heavy load when we send the signal to close the Iris, that load could well cause a slight, micro minuscule delay. Given the purpose of the Iris.. ..without that compensating lead-time, it could mean the difference between something getting through.."

"Or not getting through?"

"Big yes! Not according to plan, Sir we'd have to redo the job, start to finish, in which case say eight hours."

"Gad damn, between the dog and the wolf. Whos out of town?"

"Sir 6 with 15, Belize. 11, 7, 9, 4s with 9, all on off world Missions. 19, 19s at the Alpha Site. 20 and 21, training at the Beta Site."

"Okay. Hibbert, Lieutenant, we'll do it this evening. Colonel, Gate Room defence Teams in the Gate Room as you work. And you're gonna have to call the rest of the combat Teams in, lets have them geared and at the ready."

"Taking no chances Sir?"

"None!"

"Sir I'll go and inform my men."

"Sure thing Hibbert."

"Colonel I'll come by your laboratory with the finished job sheet in about an hour."

"Thanks Lieutenant, be ready to go at twenty hundred hours. Sir eight?"

"Eights good. Good to go. Green!"

Lieutenant Hibbert and his assistant left the Control Room. Everyone else was huddled around the Dialling console.

"So Walter what have you found?"

"General it's a strange one, with a capital S. The Colonel and I have been through these readings time and time again. Theres nothing out of the ordinary. Which I'm sure Colonel Carter has told you, is extremely extraordinary."

"So Walter you say no difference for all the Nine Chevrons, its the same as the Seven Chevron readout?"

"Yes Sir that's right. That's actually the first thing Colonel Carter pointed out. The readings are exactly the same as the Seven Chevron worm.. ..readout. There was no increase in power consumption. There was no off world power drainage, no variation in amplitude ranges, everything, all exactly the same as a Seven Chevron wormhole."

"You would have thought it was more.. ..if it was gonna be the same as anything, you would have thought it would have been the same as Eight. An Eight Chevron Dial in."

"Yes you would Sir. I mean for a start off Eights closer to Nine. But you would also think so because what.. ..what we've taken to be a shared characteristic, that both Eight and Nine Dial sequences, both Eight and Nine Chevrons take you out of the galaxy.. ..so at least they've got that in common. So if anything, we would, even if only based on their shared, unique extra-galactic distancing vector protocol, have expected the Nine Chevron readout to be similar, though not identical, to the Eight Chevron readout. But as I say General, the readings are the same, exactly, as the Seven Dial in sequence. Strange Sir."

"Seems so."

"We're still working on it. Colonel Carter's building a theory but I'll take the back seat on that and em.. ..I think you've got the Debrief on that later in the day General. We'll have knocked these numbers into something intelligent by then Sir."

"Good work Harriman. Siler what have you got to say on your front?"

"Apart from the Iris reset, it was a smooth run Sir. Like Colonel Carter said earlier, its totally unprecedented, all in all the first Nine Chevron Dial in we've ever had went off without a hitch.

It's the very bottom Chevron, six o'clock position, well twenty five to seven really, anyway its actually out of view, the ramps in the way so you can't see it engaging from here, but just the same everything's in order Sir.

With us having this recalibration works order we've only just, within the last twenty four hours, completed a full StarGate hardware diagnostic, again everything's in order. Colonel Carter's since launched an entire baseline diagnostic and we'll have those stats back fairly soon, we've been monitoring the run, its all looking in order Sir. No accounting for the Nine Chevron lock, not on my side of the system. Hardware equipment is all clear General."

"All clear, um. Thanks Siler. Teal'c, answers, explanations. Can you shed any light on this, even a dim watt will do?"

"Only a dim and distant memory O'Neill. In the days of my youth there were vague rumours. As I grew I suspected it was nothing more than a tale with which to frighten young children into not exploring the D.H.D. device found on my home world. The tale implied that should ever a young child enter a Nine Chevroned wormhole he would be transformed into a cloud of smoke, never to be seem again."

"So don't go into a Nine Chevroned wormhole."

"Indeed."

"Teal'c were there stories about any of the other Chevrons?"

"No Daniel Jackson, not to my knowledge."

"That's interesting."

"Oh."

"Whats that Daniel?"

"Well the fact that there was no stories about the other Chevrons. Why would they target the Ninth Chevron, the last Chevron, to scare the children. Why use it to scare children with, especially given that technically the Jaffa don't even use the Ninth Chevron in their Dialling scheme."

"Yes Daniel why would they?"

"I don't know Jack, why would they?"

"Carter, why would they?"

"Sir, em.. ..em.."

"Perhaps because they believed the warning."

"What you mean your ancestors though you would turn into a cloud of smoke if you used the Ninth Chevron?"

"Yes."

"Um.. ..I see, em, um. Walter, SG-14 claim they didn't Dial Nine Chevrons. They say they only Dialled Seven Chevrons?"

"Sir can I speak off the record here?"

"Off the record Harriman, everyone. Go on."

"Sir I'm sure I'm not the only person here who believes the StarGate system is an exceptionally finely tuned piece of engineering. Its extremely unlikely that you could Dial an address for a set of co-ordinates, thereby invoking the specific parameters and protocols related to that particular Dial sequence, but in reality be fed back a completely different set of protocols with their governing parameters. Its the system Sir, it provides for micro variations but that's about it. Nothing close to flipping Chevron deployment."

"We've seen it before though where the Goa'uld have manipulated the calibrations."

"You're right on that score Doctor Jackson, we have seen that before, but that didn't actually tap into a whole new set of Dial sequence protocols. That was still dealing with the Seven Chevron wormhole. I mean with this, although not registered on our instruments, the Ninth lock will have invoked new parameters with their associated protocols.

As far as I'm concerned General O'Neill, the only way to get Nine Chevrons is to Dial them. I'm pretty certain its something that can't just kick in on its own. Not the way these em.. ..ancient aliens, not the way these ancient beings, em, Ancients, have engineered this system, you're not gonna get that Sir."

"So they didn't Dial a Seven Chevron address?"

"Sir I'm not saying they didn't."

"So they did Dial a Seven Chevron address?"

"I don't think so Sir."

"Anyone?"

"Well Jack I can't vouch for what they Dialled, but I can back up Sergeant Harriman and say the Ancients are extremely brilliant engineers. They wouldn't make a sloppy job. I don't think you can get crossover. Sam crossover, Dial the Seven and you get the Nine?"

"No Daniel, no Sir, no crossover. Not in our experience. Apart from which I'd say no anyway."

"Teal'c?"

"O'Neill, after thousands of years worth of experience in StarGate travel, if, if it were possible to program the D.H.D. to switch over to a Nine Chevron Dial sequence after having keyed in only Seven Chevrons, then the Goa'uld would most certainly have, by now, found a way to use that to their advantage. Perhaps in tricking their enemies or in some other way. But it is a facility that the Goa'uld would have exploited, were it possible."

"General, come to think of it, a couple of times you've needed to connect Generators up to the StarGate to carry out a direct Dial. Even then you still couldn't get to the Ninth Chevron without actually having Dialled it first. You also couldn't get to the Eighth Chevron if you only Dialled Seven, so.. ..theres no crossover from the hardware circuitry. But theres also no direct link to hardware activation without first engaging a particular Chevron, it won't just lock by accident, it has to be Dialled. And even then, only that particular Dialled Chevron will engage. And it will only engage providing the preceding Chevron has been engaged and locked before hand. Chevron One, Chevron two.. ..Chevron three.. and so on, as we all know.

Em, General Sir, the only way to lock the Ninth Chevron is to engage it, and the only way to do that is to Dial it, either manually or as we do, electronically. The power source, electric, nuclear.. ..fusion, naquadah, whatever, as long as its sufficient, has no bearing on the Dial sequencing."

"Well put. Point taken Siler. So basically what we have here, every which way, the Ninth Chevron wormhole our guys came through would have had to have been Dialled up?"

"Yes Sir, Dialled up."

"Anyone?"

No one but SG-14, presumably, could give an accurate account of events leading up to their arrival in the Gate Room. Nevertheless the consensus of opinion was unanimous. Dialled, engaged and locked, yes Sir! SG-14 returned through a Nine Chevroned wormhole and that wormhole had been Dialled up. A mightily essential detail it seems SG-14 were bent on concealing. Strange with one of Walter's capital S's.

"So we're getting your medical results back in twelve hours then Colonel?"

"Sir."

"What about a psyche evaluation?"

"Done it Sir, well not done it, ordered it."

"Good one. Good one Carter."

"Jack whats your take on all of this?"

"My take, my take on this historical misnomer, at this stage, dark and dismal Daniel. You could call it a bit of a giant headache."

"Yep."

"Yes O'Neill."

"No comment.. ..as yet."

"Oh its definitely worrying alright General."

"I agree with Colonel Carter, we can't comment until we process the baseline stats. But its all very strange."

"Okay then, err.. ..right lets get that work done as soon as we can. Twenty hundred. I don't.. ..don't take the Iris off line, lets not have the Iris off line without the alternative defence measures in place. Colonel, Siler's already run through a live last known reset, if the StarGate so much as vibrates scrap the job and reset immediately. Siler you did well on the timing with that one, you got it back on line PDQ."

"Thanks Sir."

"Check Sir."

"Splendid. Daniel I'll be getting on to TIGETS in about fifteen minutes. I think George would like to hear how Nick's doing so maybe you could join me."

"Thanks Jack. I'd like to tell him myself, thanks."

"I'll be em.. ..I've got a meeting later. Carter I'll be off Base at Eight o'clock, I'd appreciate a running commentary on the re-cal work."

"I'll see to that Sir. Will you be on sat or cell?"

"Cell Carter, I won't be going that far."

"Right Sir, on it."

"Thanks everyone, ciao! Err SG-1, hold up."

"Whats up Jack?"

"Really don't know.. ..as yet, but I'm convinced its serious. T while Carter's working on the Gate can you sort of check up on SG-14. Maybe not let them know eh. Daniel can you link up with Pierce, find out where they're up to, see what you can get. And friends, dear friends, will you please do me the honour of staying on Base with me until we get passed this."

"Absolutely General."

"With you Jack."

"O'Neill."

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