MEN DOWN. SORRY JACK. IF WE JUST SWITCH LONGITUDE WITH THE LATITUDE WE'LL FIND THEM

~ ζ λ μ π γ χ ψ Γ Ξ ζ μ ~

ℷ

"Totally unexpected!"

"Yes Sir. Major Harper's Team were at the pyramid's east side ground level at the time, and Major Fielding's Team were at the StarGate on the south side, they both report calm weather, no wind."

"Harper I thought it blew down from the east, how could you and your Team not notice a passing hurricane?"

"Sir we didn't see or hear a thing. It wasn't until Colonel Carter radioed the alert that we even had a clue something was up. The whole time we were on P7X 377 it was real dry, hot any clammy."

"But no wind?"

"Not so much as a breeze General."

"O'Neill I think it rained from the north noreast."

"Jack that wind was truly torrential, it lasted two minutes at the most."

"Kansas style Sir. Picked them clear off the pyramid, they didn't stand a chance."

"They've both got fractures. Dunn's got a broken arm. One of thems got concussion. They're both battered and bruised, but they will be alright."

"Aw that's good news General. I'm very pleased to hear that Sir. I'll be going up to the infirmary to check on them right after the Debrief. They're good men but they just weren't quick enough in responding."

"No they weren't were they Able.. ..but we'll discuss that later."

"Yes Sir."

"Sir Sergeant Siler, he'd already left quarantine by the time we got there. How is he?"

"Well Colonel Sergeant Siler is doing just fine. He tells me hes shaken, but then.. ..he'll be back in tomorrow."

"Great. He did a very good job in getting us into the tunnels."

"Right. And we have nothing to go on?"

"Nothing O'Neill."

"No signs, traces, tracks?"

"Nothing O'Neill. There is no sign, no trace and no track. There were no clues to be had as to the whereabouts of the missing personnel."

"Yeah General, we followed the path to the very end. We were in there about two hours fifty. Theres nothing down there."

"Well Griff thats how its lookin'."

"Jack I'm really really sorry about this, em. I just don't understand it. It just doesn't make any sense."

"Daniel it was a good try okay. It was a good try, you checked it out, they're not there. That's all there is to it."

"Doctor Jackson you shouldn't feel so bad, at least you came up with a lead to begin with, and plus we discovered those shields, we didn't know about those did we General?"

"But we know now right Griff. That was a nice score."

"I know but.. ..its just.. ..I just need to look into it a bit more."

"Daniel we need to be moving on to other things now, we really don't have available time to devote to anything apart from tracking the missing down and extracting them."

"I realise that Sam but this is entirely to do with that. Em, Jack?"

"Carter.. ..bit more time?"

"Well since you are being unusually insistent Daniel, I don't see why not Sir, the fact of the matter remains he was actually right about the tunnels, they do exist."

"Excellent point. Right Daniel, you've got an itch, get it scratched, but don't dwell!"

"Okay Jack, okay."

"I will assist you Daniel Jackson, if that is acceptable Colonel Carter?"

"Err, it is for now Teal'c but as I say we need to move on pretty quickly."

"Indeed."

"With each hour that goes passed the missing personnel are sinking deeper into danger. They've been taken for a reason. We suspect they were meant to be infected, though this plan was obviously foiled when I escaped. The Nebulium know that they can not get away with infecting these people and placing them back into position, as they'd already done with the NID agents.

Given that, we then have to consider what other possible reason could they have to keep them alive, and also at what point do we give up searching for them. I can tell you I have no idea about the Nebulium power of reasoning but I do know I'm not prepared to give up on these missing people.

We're gonna need to come up with another plan. We've still not got the Crystal Skulls fired up which also rules out that floor plate at NID HQ. So I'm thinking we go back into the pyramid, and if this is the case then we go in the front door. You've got experience of 377 now so I'll be wanting all of your Teams in on the next Mission."

"Yes Sir!!"

"Okay its late, good work today people. By the way from what I've heard about the height of those tunnels I recommend that you and your Teams all head into the steam room before you hit the sack."

The Debrief was over. SG-1 stayed in the Briefing Room, there was more to be discussed. As the Alpha Team they were involved in all aspects of the Nebulium situation. Major Able of SG-17 would be facing a grilling from the General tomorrow early a.m. Everybody liked General O'Neill. Much like his predecessor he was a fair and understanding Commander, except for when it came to men down.

None of the Teams left the Base. Code Seventeen was in force and they were still at DEFCON Four and almost at DEFCON Three. Aliens had invaded Earth, more to the point they had attacked two government facilities. The SGC and the NID. Only The SGC had managed to contain and dissolve the attack.

Both The SGC and TIGETS were sure the Nebulium would have another go. The NID for various reasons, were no help whatsoever.

~ ζ λ μ π γ χ ψ Γ Ξ ζ μ ~

"Sir have we heard form my dad yet?"

"No Jacob's not been in touch, em, he will be. What have we got, say forty eight hours before this Hadad reaches Zippy's place. He'll be in touch, soon."

"Sir what does General Hammond say about it?"

"Well, hes scanning, scanning the airways.. ..spaceways. Thats all he can do at the moment Colonel. Hes sent that memo politely requesting that they don't enter our space."

"Politely Sir?"

"Well it's a memo, what do you expect."

"Short and sharp Jack."

"Oh yeah. If we would have had any luck today it would be a completely different ball game, we'd have something to negotiate with, the Gate address. Until we find Amerson, Davis and the others we're not going to be able to parley with the hellish Hadad.

On that, George is sending one of his people over. Daniel can you deal with him, Joe Begly, I know him actually, hes a good guy, he works with Davis."

"So does that mean he works for General Hammond?"

"One of his trusted."

"Oh. Okay."

"George said Trans Global just needs a presence here while we've got this missing people situation. Its em.. ..it just looks good for them that's all. Joe's a pretty decent guy, he'll be quite helpful."

"Sir in what way?"

"Well err.. ..theres not a lot he can do to help the missing, but we can put him on the diplomatic front with this Hadad carry on, he can relay directly back to Trans Global for us, a time saver Carter, anyway see when hes gets here, see where we're up to."

"Whens he due Jack?"

"Tomorrow a.m.. Err right, okay, you said you had some results for me?"

"Yes Sir. Svi, Mr Equalsee, Doctor, hes been on, hes done it, cracked it. We've not got the microscopy scanned images yet but hes let me have a written report. Obsidian Sir."

"Right.. ..am I gonna have to think about this or..?"

"No Sir. If you remember that the larger portion of the NID floor plaque is made of obsidian."

"Actually I do remember that Colonel thank you."

"Right well we've got the obsidian which we know can't work as a crystallo transport device. In the plaque its interlaced in the shceelite, for decoration purposes. The shceelite, under the right conditions can work as a crystallo transportation device in that it is crystal and it could support the special tektite inclusions necessary to direct transphasal energy patterns.

Whats Svi's found, Sir if you remember with the Skull, and I'm sure you do remember, we've got the crystal and within the crystal we've got these tiny, very tiny, amorphous moldovite molecules."

"Alright go on."

"We've got the same arrangement in the NID seal floor plaque."

"What you've found this moldovite?"

"No Sir we've got obsidian."

"Slow down Carter."

"Sir we've got an obsidian floor plaque, inlaid with shceelite, included with obsidian. We have the obsidian surrounds, then we have veins of shceelite and then inside the shceelite we have tiny, micro minuscule bits of obsidian. Sir this embedded obsidian is behaving in exactly the same way as the moldovite."

"So the floor plates a Nebulium crystallo-system?"

"I'd say so Sir, yes definitely."

"How definitely are you saying Carter?"

"Ninety nine point fabian Sir."

"Err, right. I need to get on to George. That's put things into perspective hasn't it. So the floor plates operated as a gateway, the missing people have been taken through the gateway. More than not the gateway has led to the pyramid?"

"Yes Sir I believe so."

"That would account for many inconsistencies O'Neill."

"It does tie things up Jack, they never left the building so.."

"Okay. Carter just write that ski bit down."

"Oh shceelite Sir."

"Yeah, I'll be talking to George, he needs to be clear about what I'm referring to. Can you get Walter to despatch a courier with a copy of Mr Equalsee's Report, for the attention of General Hammond only! Usual treatment."

"Top secret, yes Sir."

"Come to think of it those Trans Global people staking out the NID floor plate need to get wearing those airtight goggles."

~ ζ λ μ π γ χ ψ Γ Ξ ζ μ ~

"O'Neill the Asgard?"

"Nope. For that matter not even the Niflheim, not a word.. ..not even a memo."

"Sir I just can't understand that, especially Thor."

"Actually Carter it makes an awful lot of sense when you think about it. They obviously don't want to have to explain themselves to us, which of course hes gonna have to. Em, I know for a fact if we was in any imminent danger he'd be in touch quick enough. As it is they're just, well yeah like T said, they're avoiding us."

"Well I hope they don't avoid us for to long Jack."

"Yeah me too, I miss the little grey guy."

"Sir I was thinking about what my father was saying about the war on Nifla, and the ships."

"On it. On it Carter. You're thinking did they all get wasted aren't you?"

"Yes Sir that's what I'm thinking, because if they didn't, if theres one or two or more still around, it simply means that they're down and out of fuel. That's something we could probably address Sir."

"Well lets see, we're not err.. ..just put thoughts of Nebulium ships out of your mind for now Carter. That's something we won't be looking at until we've spoken to Thor. If there are ships hes gonna know it, and if he knows you have to ask the question why have they left them intact. Em, we'll see.. ..nice thought though."

"Oh yes Sir. They must be capable of extra deep space travel. Obviously light speed. Possibly a liquid propulsion with the effect of imparting quantum speeds. We could learn a lot Sir."

"Well we'll see. So what are we up against?"

"O'Neill the threat from the Nebulium remains undetermined."

"We've seen their shields Sir. They're powerful. They had a yellowish hint of colour."

"Yes they each displayed a saffron hue."

"Whats that about?"

"Sir I believe it may have something to do with the quality of the air on the other side of the force shields. They're electromagnetic and react with the air. We know the air in the cavern becomes toxic to us within a short period of time, my guess is that the yellow tinge is as a result of the hydrogen, helium content in the air."

"Are we thinking our people are on the other side of those shields."

"Jack err, we're not sure about that with having to breathe.. ..Sam?"

"No Sir I don't think so. Going off the coloration in the shields I think the atmosphere on the other side of those shields is the toxic atmosphere we encountered in the cavern. If there were people in there they wouldn't last long breathing that in."

"Colonel Carter you believe the tunnels we examined ran along side the inner cavern?"

"Near enough Teal'c."

"I do not believe the missing people are held in the cavern."

"I don't either."

"Could be in tunnels off there T, in this out of phase place."

"Yes."

"Jack those shields weren't on the map route. Teal'c detected them but they were off the path."

"I thought we thought they didn't know about the tunnels."

"The Nebulium do not know of these tunnels O'Neill."

"Well how come they've put shields up there?"

"Sir I don't think the shields are there because of the tunnels. Its probably a universal shield that extends the whole of I don't know, where ever its been set up for, maybe it covers the whole of the cavern."

"We've been in there, no shields."

"Not that part of the cavern. There must have been other parts, living quarters.. ..slave quarters, don't forget we found those skeletons."

"Gotcha. So the shields were erected to keep people in. The fact that it seals off parts of the tunnels is incidental since it probably covers the whole of that section of the pyramid."

"Yes Sir, its like when water bursts the river banks, even though we can't see them, all the little fox holes get flooded as well."

"Em, okay. Let me ask you another way. They have our people?"

"They do Jack."

"Against their will?"

"Yes Sir."

"So I imagine where ever the missing people are being kept, they're gonna need to be kept in because they'll be trying to get out?"

"Definitely Sir, yeah."

"And the way to keep them in would be.."

"A force shield O'Neill. A strong force shield."

"Yah. T did you have a go at the shield?"

"I did not. Colonel Carter felt it would announce our presence."

"I bet that place has got one heck of an echo."

"Indeed."

"We need to break past the force shield Sir?"

"We do. If we're to rescue the missing personnel, that's what we need to do."

"Sir I think there maybe a way."

"Come on then lets hear it."

"Sir I need to go to my lab, run some tests."

"Do tests Carter.. ..and Daniel, check your colours."

"O'Neill I would speak with you. Hadad!"

"Lets Talk T. Daniel, I don't want you to start all this no sleep business again, knock off until the morning."

"Jack its helping me.."

"Helping you what?"

"I don't know.. ..I don't have any other family."

"Daniel I get updates all day long, Nick's out of the woods now. Hes stable and all the doctors have assured me hes gonna make a full recovery, you know all this."

"I know, it's a big relief. Okay Jack, I'll just do a couple of hours and then knock off for the night."

"Good. And Daniel, hes not your only family, we're here."

"Indeed we are Daniel Jackson."

"And don't you forget that either Daniel."

If you knew him well enough you could tell his eyes had filled up with happy tears. He left the room and went up to his office. After the failed retrieval attempt Daniel intended to concentrate on nothing else, he refused to accept that his map was merely a bunch of coloured slab stones and as Jack put it, squiggly lines.

"Sir."

"Carter, same thing, its been a long day, don't add to it. Get some rest."

"Thanks Sir. Good night, Teal'c."

She left the room and went up to her lab.

~ ζ λ μ π γ χ ψ Γ Ξ ζ μ ~

"Nothing!"

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing at all. It was empty. But I'll tell you something George, we've discovered they've got shields capability."

"Good lord."

"Yep. Carter also reckons they might be capable of light speeds. Either that or they've got incredibly long life spans."

"Light speed and shields.. ..oh dear, this is not going to be an easy one Jack."

"Well going off up to now, I agree with you."

"And you're sure about the NID floor plate?"

"Yes Sir. You'll have a copy of the Technical Report on that by morning. We're going with obsidian and.. ..just let me get my paper, ah here it is, err shceelite and yeah more obsidian inside the shceelite, that's whats got the whole thing going."

"That would account for things Jack."

"Guess so, they've had a way in, they've had a way out, err.. ..yes."

"Is there any chance we could use that?"

"Nope. No chance at all. We've not got a flicker on the Skull yet George. We won't be able to get those things fired up for a while."

"How many more plaques like this do you think there are?"

"Well theres an awful lot of these floor plates around, the point is how many can constitute this crystallo-system arrangement. You've got Teams out checking haven't you?"

"We have Jack. Its quite a stretch actually. I've put some of the cleared NID people on it as well. That's underway, involves identifying the materials making up each plaque and if necessary taking samples for further analysis. From Colonel Carter's Crystal Lean Report, any plaque marked as potential will be covered by a thick sheet of glass."

"You mean what happened in the Smithsonian, Nick being contained in the glass cabinet?"

"That's it Jack. According to Colonel Carter the glass acted as a transmission barrier, nothing was able to travel beyond its containment."

"So placing a glass sheet over possible crystallo-systems will prevent anything travelling through?"

"That's what we're hoping. Colonel Carter was quite sure about this."

"The one in the NID headquarters?"

"No, like you said that one stays as it is until we have everyone back."

"It sounds like a big operation, nation wide?"

"Nation wide Jack. We've got no choice. We've brought other agencies in on this one."

"On what premiss?"

"We haven't actually given one. We've not come up with anything on that. They're all acting under orders."

"Probably the safest way for now.. ..if word of this got out.."

"That's what we thought."

"George hows the watch going down at NID HQ?"

"Up to now they've seen nobody."

"Oh by the way can you make sure all your men are issued with these goggles. I'll get Daniel to have a word with you about them. Hes made them airtight so the raw Nebulium can't infect through the eye cavity."

"That's very good thinking, I'll have each of the men issued with a pair. Whats he sealed them with?"

"I don't know but I'll get him to get back on to you straight away with that.

We've had two men down George on this mornings 377 Retrieval Mission. SG-17, Zimmerman and Dunn. They were blown off the pyramid, the outer structure. They were three storeys up with 1 and 2, trying to get into the tunnels. Both of them blown off, straight down to the ground."

"Good Grief, are they alright? Did they survive? Zimmerman's got two children. The enemy, the Nebulium, they have explosives?? Jack do we know how they launched?"

"Okay, they both survived and they'll be okay. They weren't blown up.. ..they were blown off! The wind George, swooped down from the north east and took them all by surprise. Carter said it was like a mini Kansas twister. Apparently Teal'c clocked it with only seconds to spare. Two of Able's men didn't react fast enough. They both lost their balance, their footing, and the wind lifted them clean off the mantel and dropped them meters away down on the ground."

"Oh, how are they?"

"Broken bones, fractures, concussion, they'll mend, they'll be okay, thank g_d."

"And you say they didn't turn anything up? Although learning about the shields was extremely fortunate, we've now got a guide line to attach to their technological capability."

"Well yeah that was a stroke of luck. Presumably the missing people will be held behind one of those things. Carter thinks she may have an idea of how we can bypass them."

"Without that Jack you won't be able to extract."

"I'm with you, we'll find a way George.. ..may involve C4 but we'll get at them."

"So the location they're being held in the pyramid, you can find that using Doctor Jackson's map?"

"Err.. ..no. That map led to, sand, a lot of sand. Nothing at all. Oh shields, sand and shields."

"So then Doctor Jackson's map, its not really a map at all?"

"Well it is to him, though its proven to be a map of different coloured stone slabs and squiggly lines leading nowhere. They found nothing.. ..at all. No life signs. No signs at all. "

"Where does that leave us then General?"

"Well George, em, where actually in the middle of a rethink. Carter's on the shields and Daniel's rearrangin' his squiggles."

"What do you think?"

"Hopeful. Carter's thinkings got us through shields before. And Daniel, well he can always be relied on to dig up something useful."

"A revisit?"

"ASAP, even if it means crashing the front door. George Teal'c's here with me right now, lets talk about Hadad."

~ ζ λ μ π γ χ ψ Γ Ξ ζ μ ~

In the darkness a sleeping man lay onto his back. In the near distance a knocking sound was tugging at his conscience. He didn't want to but he did.

"Doh. Whos that?"

The door opened wide. The corridor light poured in, it fell ten feet short of reaching his bed. That didn't much matter because he couldn't see it anyway. His eyes were firmly shut tight. And just then only the most crucial bits of information had the power to open them up.

"Its me."

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Oh, err, I did do. I did do but I'm awake now."

"Really? So I'm not having a nightmare then?"

"Come on Jack get up, its important."

"Daniel take my word for it, what I was doing was really important too."

"Oh come on Jack, I'm sorry I woke you up."

"No you're not."

"Okay.. ..I'm not, but get up anyway."

"No!"

It was no use. Oddish as it was, once you could actually hear somebody talking to you whilst you were still asleep, you were already awake. General O'Neill was now unwillingly awake, he was quite certain he had wanted to remain asleep. He didn't want to wake up right then but he did.

"Whats up Daniel?"

"Jack I found it."

"What?"

"I've found it Jack. I know where they are."

"What??"

"The tunnels, I've found them."

"Daniel am I still sleeping?"

"I don't think so. I'm awake.. ..so you must be too."

"But.. ..we.. ..we spoke about this the other day. This is exactly what you said when you woke me up yesterday and its not yesterday anymore."

"No its today, its just that I'm saying the same thing again."

"Oh, okay."

"Come on Jack, I need to show you this."

"Little bricks?"

"What?"

"Tiny little toy bricks?"

"Err, oh no, no. No tiny bricks today. Do you want some breakfast?"

"After I wake up."

"Okay. I'll go and get Sam. Teal'c's already down there."

"Okay. Is Sam sleeping?"

"Yeah. Are you coming down?"

"To the Briefing Room?"

"Yeah. Are you coming down?"

"After."

"After when?"

"Err.. ..after three minutes. Just let me have a little sleep, three minutes then I'll get up."

"Okay."

~ ζ λ μ π γ χ ψ Γ Ξ ζ μ ~

He had on his shades, not the scary mirror ones though. His eyes were fine now and his sight was pretty good, the same as before, no worse. Only his eyes were still being a tad slow to adjust to sharp contrasts. And the contrast of where he was now to where he'd been just minutes before was very very sharp indeed.

"Oh.. ..you're all here."

"Hi Sir."

"Good morning O'Neill."

"See Jack I told you."

"Did you, What?"

"I told you we'd be here."

"Yeah you did. And you told me you knew where they were."

"Yeah I did."

"But you told me the same thing yesterday so who could blame me for thinking I was dreaming."

"No Jack this is it, this is it. Come on sit down, this is it, you'll err.. ..do you want some coffee. I'll get you some coffee."

Daniel jumped up and ran down to the Control Room.

"Sir, this err, Sir I think he has, hes found it. Hes found the tunnels anyway but this makes a lot of sense, yeah."

"Indeed it does O'Neill. Daniel Jackson's theory of the tunnels within the P7X 377 pyramid is proving to be a feasible fact."

"Well that's what we need T, facts and feasible plans. Have we got a plan?"

"If you approve it Sir we've got a plan."

"Yes O'Neill, we have the same plan as yesterday but perhaps upon your approval of our new approach, todays execution of that plan will yield more positive results."

"Right then."

He shed an extra big yawn.

"Where is he?"

Yawns can be contagious as colonel Carter was demonstrating.

"Hes gone to get you some coffee General."

"Oh okay, that's err.. ..that's a nice plan."

"Sir how are your eyes?"

"I think they're fine Carter, they're err, a little bit sensitive that's all, especially when they're dragged out of a very pleasant sleep."

"Yes Sir, understandable."

"O'Neill your eyes are completely recovered?"

"Almost completely T, I reckon so, yeah. And I think I'll be completely recovered as soon as Thor gets in touch."

"Yes Sir, we're all counting on that."

"Okay, lets see."

Daniel came back into the Briefing Room from the Control Room stairs.

"Coffees on its way Jack."

"Okay. Take a seat Daniel."

"Okay.. ..I've found them. I know where I went wrong."

"Well perhaps it was those little bricks eh?"

"Ha, ha.. ..err, err.."

"Okay lets have it?"

"Right I know its pretty early but I've already spoken to Professor Heslop and hes confirmed what I've come up with."

"How nice."

"Its very nice Jack. Its very nice for us, its very nice for the missing people."

"Yeah, well make it very nice for me too, lets have it?"

"Jack you're Cauac the Canopic g_d of the southern heavens, traditionally your designated colour is yellow. I'm Kan Canopic g_d of the eastern skies. Traditionally my colour is red."

"Okay."

"Right now, going back a couple of thousand years there was some kind of reshuffle in the heavens, I won't go into it now but basically what we end up with is the fact that Cauac and Kan's position became interchangeable meaning that Cauac.. ..oh no I'm sorry I'm saying that wrong, no they, no you was still south and em, Dan, Kan was em, east but the colour designations were interchangeable so that you could quite easily, so that Cauac could quite easily be south but red and Kan was east but em.."

"Yellow Daniel?"

"Yes, yes yellow. Now as I say I spoke to Professor Heslop about an hour ago and he knows this legend and he knows the about the Canopic g_ds."

"Well he is an expert Daniel."

"Yes very expert Sam. He confirmed this interchanging of the colours."

"Err, yeah..?"

"Well given these new longitudes and latitudes its possible to track a whole different set of directions, making it evident that earlier on we were searching the wrong network of tunnels. Sam please."

Samantha stoked up the projector. It was running through the computer.

"Go ahead."

"Thanks. Jack this is what we've got already. This is the map as it stands. This is where we went. This is the err, you can see it clearly here, this is the third tier, sixtieth block along. Before Sergeant Siler moved it that was the white the north entrance, its on the north wall. It's the north entrance into the tunnels. We went into the tunnels here, what was it about?"

"Twenty paces Daniel Jackson."

"Yeah its twenty paces, but not big paces, yeah, anyway, twenty paces and then we went east, we took a left here, we went east, we went down, down, Sam."

"Yeah here it is."

She did something on the keyboards and the map lit up with a trail of arrows which mapped out the whole journey from start to finish. It was all in 3d and you could clearly see the descending arrows twisting and turning, right down below the pyramid structure and deep down, further down.

"Right okay, oh is that where the shields are?"

"Yes Sir. We marked them off on the map so I've updated the sim to show that."

"Yeah I can see. Daniel?"

"Right, well when we take into account this changing colour it actually changes everything Jack. It means instead of going east which was red, east was taken to be the red stone block, but if we now have south as the red slabs and east as the yellow slabs we get a whole different network of tunnels, Sam?"

Colonel Carter typed onto the keyboard again and new lines appeared in the schematics. It was a blue line running in a totally different direction. Twisting and turning just the same descending all the more but in a whole completely different direction. The blue line seemed to run a lot deeper towards the cavern and away from the pyramids outer structural skin.

"Oh, yeah, with you Daniel. And these tunnels are there?"

"We don't know that yet Jack, but the other tunnels were there. What I'm thinking now is that was just a pure mistake. Those other tunnels are there but theres probably lots of tunnels all over the place. The fact that we found those through mistake just meant that we were in the network and we were just.. ..taking the wrong turns basically."

"But you think that these are the right set of tunnels?"

"According to the map Jack, according to this new set of coordinates yeah, I'm pretty sure, in fact I'm.."

"O'Neill this latest mapping seems much more feasible in relation to taking us to quarters with in the pyramid which may well be occupied by the Nebulium. As you can see the previous set of tunnels runs along the outside wall of the pyramid however this revised mapping takes us further into the pyramid, perhaps not into the cavern, hopefully not into the cavern, but it does take us deeper into the structure itself indicating that rather than just running along the outside wall of the pyramid this network of tunnels seems to be actually proceeding in a purposeful direction."

"Yeah I'll go with that T. Yeah it does doesn't it. Just err.. ..right just hold on. Daniel lets just have some coffee, just let me think about this for a couple of minutes. Erm lets just have some coffee."

"Okay Jack. Daniel was very excited. He was very sure that this was the correct set of tunnels. Colonel Carter shared Teal'c' view that this new network of tunnels did indeed seem to take a more positive direction in relation to discovering some kind of area where the missing people could have been stowed."

"What do you think Jack?"

"Nothing yet, working on it, give me a minute."

It was all quiet in the Briefing Room. Many things needed to be considered. One issue in particular, troubling to the General, was this Nebulium enemy's unknown weapons capability. With current evidence of shields technology and news from Jacob Carter that they had turned a planet boring tool onto a population of Asgard, Niflheim, General O'Neill was greatly concerned. The safety of his people was of paramount importance. He had a lot to consider.

"Jack?"

"So what you're telling me then is last time, this morning, well yesterday morning, was just a very.. ..was an exceptionally dangerous and life threatening trial run?"

Silence

"Em, look Jack I can only say this is going to work and I myself will be going on the Mission."

"Like you did last time?"

"Yeah but.."

Silence

"No this time its going to work. Jack please trust me on this. I know I can make it work."

Dan's the man, he Kan Kan Kan. With a pen, a sword and a conscience thats broad, quiet contraire though a bit of a square. Daniel's a parable with an awful lot of flare. Colloquially attractive hes dependable and proactive.

"Daniel I do trust you. That's not the issue here, really isn't."

"Yeah, no, sorry about that Jack."

"Sir what is the issue?"

"Well for a start, or should we say stop, shields. Now we know they've got shields we can presume the missing people are going to be held behind one."

"I think that will be the case."

"Well we're not going to be able to just walk on through the shields are we?"

"Unlikely Sir."

"We are not O'Neill."

"So that's sorta putting paid to a successful stealth extraction. We need to find a way to bypass that obstacle and err, the other thing Carter, as I'm sure you'll have already thought about, is the weapons capability. They're going to have some kind of heavy weaponry."

"Yes Sir they are, I've thought about that."

"Yes O'Neill as have I. Most likely electrical energy based or ionic."

"Well thems the worries. Big concerns."

"O'Neill all of The SG Teams are trained to the highest possible standards."

"Yes they are, you all are. Its not so much that T, it's the terrain. You've got no err, from what I've seen of these tunnels you've got no cover, it's a worry."

"Indeed it is a worry O'Neill, however.."

"However T?"

"However these creatures are not experienced in battle."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because they have been confined to the pyramid for a very long period of time."

"I know T but we just can't assume, when it comes the safety of the Teams we can't make those assumptions."

"Yes, you are correct O'Neill, we can not."

"So as you can see it's a bit of a pickle."

"It is O'Neill."

"But Jack, the tunnels themselves, what do you think?"

"I think you've found them Daniel. I think you've done it again. I think err, yeah, I'll buy that, yeah, it looks right."

"Thanks."

"Look, is this the, Carter is this the outer wall.. ..the pyramid?"

"Yes Sir."

"And this is the tunnel?"

"Yes Sir."

"Well whats that, wait a minute, this is the north, and that's the front, so this must be the.."

"West O'Neill."

"Yeah. And this is the south, so the StarGate would be over there."

"Yes Sir."

"This line here seems to go awfully close to the edge, what would that be, that would be the south.. ..west. Is that south west?"

"Yes Sir."

"Well look at that."

"Yes Sir I'm looking."

"O'Neill we could do that."

"Do what, what are you talking about, Sir, Teal'c?"

"Look here how close this graph line here goes to here."

"Yes Sir that's the entrance, that's on the third tier."

"Yeah I know that Carter, but look down here on this revised map, this line is just as close to the edge."

"Yes Sir."

"So why can't we take out a brick down here?"

"Ah. Ah, make our own entrance?"

"Why not?"

"Hey Jack that's a really good idea."

"Make an entrance, this is ground level here isn't it?"

"Yeah Jack that's the ground. All this here, this is ground level here, yeah."

"So we could take out one of these slabs, I mean you said yourself that Siler, ha ha ha, look if hes working on ground level hes gonna be alright isn't he, hes not going to be able to injure himself is he."

"Good point Sir."

"O'Neill there is an alternative to this proposition."

"Go on."

"Major Griff secured all the wires on the third level, the entrance to the tunnels."

"Yeah."

"If you approve the plan we could again use those wires we could enter the tunnels by this already prepared entrance and we can then make our way through the tunnels from this position here, the sixtieth stone slab."

"Yeah?"

"Whilst we continue our journey Sergeant Siler, with back up, could then set about to remove this masonry block here so that upon our return we will have an exit at the ground position you suggest."

"Teal'c you're saying we get on with the Mission whilst Sergeant Siler's working on moving the stone?"

"Yes Colonel Carter, thereby eliminating any delay in having to wait for a new entrance to be produced."

"Yeah em, theres no harm in that, it would shorten the journey back wouldn't it?"

"Yeah it would Jack, that would knock off half an hour.. ..twenty minutes."

"Is that how long it takes to get down there?"

"Yes Sir. You've seen the footage we recorded, we're all bent over wading through sand, its very hot and theres a lot of turns involved."

"Would you rather knock the time off your forward journey or do you want to get on with it?"

"Sir I'd prefer it if we just got on with the task. We can go in on the third tier and come out, hopefully with the missing, on the ground south west position."

"Okay, write that into your plan then."

"Sir does that mean we've got a go?"

"Amber! You have an amber Carter. You're not going anywhere until we sort this shield bother out."

"I've been thinking, maybe the shields were installed not to imprison the slaves but to hold in the atmosphere. I'm sure that's what they're there for.

With the yellowish ting, its obvious on the other side of these shields theres a completely different atmosphere, than on this side, the tunnel side."

"So what you're saying is the shields were put in place to contain the atmosphere?"

"That would make much more sense O'Neill."

"Yeah it would wouldn't Teal'c. You're actually saying the slaves don't live in that atmosphere on the other side of the shields, they live somewhere else.. ..out off phase?"

"I believe so Daniel Jackson."

"So Carter you think where ever they used to keep the slaves, theres no shields there?"

"Yes Sir, no shields. In support of that we did discover some.. ..almost escapees, the skeletons near to the tunnels. They'd obviously made it out as far as the perimeter shield."

"You think that's the only shield?"

"Can't think of reasons why they're had other shields Sir."

"Okay, right, lets see what difference that makes.. ..none."

"Indeed it does O'Neill. It means we are free to navigate the tunnels without intoxication of a toxic atmosphere."

"Yeah you're right T, it makes a lot of difference, yeah, good, okay. So what we up against?"

"Shields Sir. I told you I had an idea about that."

"Yes you did?"

"General I've come up with something."

"Really?"

"Yes Sir really, in fact its in my lab right now, I can go and get it."

"Okay."

"Be back in a few."

"Okay."

~ ζ λ μ π γ χ ψ Γ Ξ ζ μ ~

"You've been building weapons Colonel?"

"Not exactly Sir."

"Sam what do you do with that, point it at the enemy and watch them flee in fear?"

"Very funny Daniel. Teal'c can you grab this please."

"I have it."

"Okay thanks."

Teal'c carefully placed the big gun on one of the seats in plain sight.

"Colonel Carter you have developed a new weapon?"

"Well not quite Teal'c. I don't think it's a weapon actually."

"But it is a Goa'uld cannon is it not?"

"Sort of. Sir this is what I've been working on, its not taken me long."

"Ha ha, I can see that. What have you done, stuck a fish spatula down the barrel of a Goa'uld cannon?"

"Not quite."

"But it does look like a fish slice Sam."

"What you gonna do, corner the cold fish and batter them with your spatula?"

"Nice idea Sir. Yes Teal'c it is a Goa'uld staff cannon, or it was. Its been completely modified, it's the mouldings, its not been modified, I've used the Goa'uld cannon mouldings from research. I'm using them purely as a support housing. Its whats inside that we're interested in."

"No fish?"

"No fish Sir."

"Whats inside?"

"Sir this unit as a whole is a, it's a.."

"Sam it looks like a ray gun?"

"Yeah that's good, I suppose you could call it a ray gun."

"Okay it's a ray gun. What do the rays actually do?"

"It's a gun and its going to shoot out a constant direct flow of rays, electromagnetic rays, it's a em.."

"Don't tell me, it's a magnet?"

"Yes Sir it's a magnet, a big magnet."

"Carter.. ..do you need to use Daniel's little toy bricks?"

"No Sir, its err, I'll get there.. ..okay maybe not a magnet but we are creating electromagnetic functions."

"Do tell?"

"Okay the Nebulium, they've got shields. Now judging by what we've learnt of this foe, their crystal method of transport, the type of atmosphere they use, the type of flight propulsion, the rock boring tool my father mentioned it seems they build their technology around electromagnetic waves. Theres a whole range of possibilities Sir, you've got gamma, x ray, microwave, they can all be quite lethal to us, as humans. They can also be extremely useful when used in controlled magnitudes."

"Right, yeah, okay, so Carter your gun?"

"I'm hoping to be able to go through the Nebulium force shields."

"With your spatula?"

"Yes Sir. That implement protruding from the point of the cannon is a metallic alloy of titanium, indium and tin. Have you heard of macroscopic quantum phenomenon?"

"No Carter I haven't.. ..heard of superconductivity though."

"Really Sir?"

"Don't just fish Carter."

"Apparently not General. This fish slice as you call it is our superconductor. What I'm doing is using superconductivity to create a giant diamagnetic field which will be capable of insinuating itself into the edge of the existing field, the Nebulium force shield, and repelling that field.

Using the principles of superconductivity what we can do is create conditions whereby electromagnetic forces repel each other. The effect will be that our superconductor bends the Nebulium shield in such a way that we should be able to pass through it."

They were all beginning to take the Colonel's contraption seriously. Daniel had paved the way with his revised map. They'd been waylaid by the Nebulium shields. The shields may be the only thing keeping them from rescuing the missing personnel.

"The force shields cancel each other out Sam?"

"Not really Daniel. If the repellency is stronger in one field than the other the field, the weaker side can be repelled, pushed more, manipulated."

"Sam you're going to repel the existing shield? Bend it back as if opening a door so we can get through?"

"That's the idea Daniel."

"So what you're saying is you go up to the Nebulium force shield, fire your ray gun at it and that pushes the shield out of place?"

"Well yes Sir. Yeah something em, pretty much like that, not exactly that but pretty much like that yeah. It should be able to work. What we'll be doing is cutting ourselves a vortex through the Nebulium force shield."

"You did all say those force shields were fairly strong."

"Yes Sir they are. It's a chance in a I don't know how many but it is a chance, it could work, it should work. According to physics it does work. I've not tested it on a large scale shield, obviously, but all the theory's in place Sir. All the principles have been adhered to, theres no reason why we can not bend that force shield back and em.."

"Get through the gap?"

"Yes Sir."

"So Sam you just turn that gun on and fire away presumably at the same spot until the hole gets bigger?"

"Well almost, this is why I've housed it in a unit such as this one. Its going to be hand held. Teal'c I'm hoping you'll do the honours."

"Indeed I will. I will!"

"That's great. Okay. There are a few other conditions that we need to build into the.. ..yeah."

"What conditions?"

"In the first place we have to bring the temperature down to almost zero."

"What one, two Celsius"

"No Sir, absolute zero, Kelvin."

"Ouch that's cold. Very nippy."

"Extremely."

"Okay now Sam, we'll be in hot, dry tunnels, how are we going to bring the temperature down?"

"Yeah Daniel crucial point, what I'll be doing is lowering the temperature of the corridor, the tunnel where we encounter the shield.. ..liquid helium."

"I see. Can that catch fire?"

"Sir its one of the inert gases."

"Very nice, yeah right, can it catch fire?"

"No Sir it shouldn't do."

"Colonel we're gonna have Teams down there, can it catch fire?"

"Yes Sir sorry, no fire Sir."

"And if it mixes with other stuff, you did say you thought there was hydrogen around there, on the other side of that shield, if it mixes with that?"

"Jack theres hydrogen all around us."

"Sure, Carter?"

"Em.. ..Sir I just need to think about that for a minute."

"Go on then have a think."

"Clear Sir, No fire."

"Sam how would that work, doesn't it smash everything it touches?"

"It does induce brittle conditions, we'll only be lowering the temperature of the spatula, the metal alloy. It's a Low-temperature superconductor and only displays its superconductivity properties at low absolute zero temperatures."

"Colonel Carter you bring down the temperature of the conductor in order that it may be able to super conduct?"

"Bingo. So the only thing coming into contact with the freezing cold helium will be the spatula device and the force shield we're going up against. Erm Teal'c just the same when you operate the gun you'll need to wear special gloves and arm sleaves."

"And make sure you do T otherwise your hands will drop off.. ..maybe even other things if you're really unlucky.. ..your toes for instance."

"Teal'c you'll be fine with the gloves."

"Indeed."

"I'm just saying T, watch your.. ..toes."

"Yerss O'Neill, I understand."

"We'll be running current through the alloy conductor. We'll fire, power everything off the naquadah cell taken from the Goa'uld staff cannon, it's a perfect power source for this operation because we need an uninterrupted strong power flow."

"Well Carter its erm.. ..we're not coming up with anything else here are we, and we think digging under, over, either side of the shield, it won't work?"

"O'Neill it is most likely the entire force shield will penetrate through the rock, through the stone slabs. It will not be possible to dig under it and discover an unshielded hole through which we could enter."

"Yeah, sure of course, what kind of a shield would it be if you could do that. Right then soo.. ..a lot of equipment, a lot of equipment. Err, you know what we spoke about with the CS gas?"

"Yes Sir. Use to disorientate the missing people."

"CS gas Jack??"

"No choice Daniel. If they're infected we need them disorientated. We're not having another Philips, Balinsky episode."

"Sir this time I'll put another Team on the Gate and move Medical, SG-8 further up. They'll be at the ground south west position whilst Sergeant Siler breaks open the new entrance for us. As before they'll have the helmet Griff devices at the ready."

"Carter the new entrance is here, now if this remapped route is as long as the one you did yesterday, what we're talking about an hour, fifty minutes whatever, track back to the exit. That's an awful long way for the effects of CS gas to last."

"Sir you think Medical should come in deep with the helmets?"

"Yeah, I do. I actually thought you would have done that on yesterday's Mission. They can trail behind. SG-8, they'll need to be inside six but have them the last unit before six. They can trail behind a little. I know theres going to be a lot of people in those tunnels but we don't won't flack off the people being rescued."

"O'Neill we will put Griff devices on everybody?"

"Shoot first T, ask questions later."

"Yes most advisable."

"Daniel you're quiet. What do you think, liquid helium, spatulas, bending shields.."

"No Jack its fine. I know a little bit about the research with super conduction. Super conductivity, macroscopic quantum phenomenon, is powerful stuff. Its used in Japan to carry trains, the maglev, magnetic levitation. They run trains along the tracks without the train touching the track itself, the train levitates along the track while its speeding along. Very cleaver."

"Colonel Carter is this the same idea, is this the method you intend to use?"

"Yeah Teal'c, that's the super conducting technology, using the repelling forces."

"You use one force to push against the other force, force shield?"

"Yep, only we make the balance of our force slightly stronger, which will give us the push edge, the repelling strength to bend the Nebulium shield."

"Carter, by the way, what about coming back. Presumably you're not gonna be able to keep this vortex open?"

"No Sir we'll repeat the process on the way back."

"You don't think they'll be any problems?"

"Well if the superconductor reaches its critical field it will become quenched, lose its super conductivity, its repelling ability."

"Sounds like a bit of mega problem to me Carter."

"Sam if that happens we won't be able to open up the force shield again?"

"Yeah. That's the problem, magnetism does destroy or quenches the super conducting properties, but providing we can line our conductor up correctly the reentrant effect will allow for the alloy to regain its super properties."

"How long will that take?"

"Unsure Sir."

"How will you line it up correctly."

"Erm.."

"So you could wind up stuck on the other side of the force shields for days."

"Even weeks Sam."

"The skeletons we discovered had remained contained by the force shields for many years."

"You see the problem here?"

Yes Sir. But I'm planning on taking a few backup alloy spatulas, super conductors."

"So if you can't align or it stops working you just use another spatula?"

"Yes Sir, there won't be a problem."

"Solved. So, em, how much liquid helium?"

"Negligible Sir, two canisters."

"Do we have it in stores?"

"Yes Sir. General do we have a green?"

"Yah.. ..green for go Carter. Go get 'em."

"Yes Sir."

"And take three canisters. What time is it?"

"Yeah sorry Jack, its still pretty early."

"Commencement?"

"Nine a.m. Sir."

"Okay. Not eight?"

"Eight a.m Sir."

"Good. The sooner the better. Right then SG-1, you're going to have to sit down and draw up the plan. Can you let me have your Mission Statement within the hour, we need to go over it."

"Yes Sir done. Daniel, Teal'c can you come up to research with me now and make certain this will be ready for go."

"Sure Sam."

"Yes."

"Carter why don't you get them to stick a carry strap on that thing. If you've got to drag it through all those low roofed tunnels, its not going to be easy."

"See to that now Sir, thanks. I'll let you have the Statement within forty five minutes."

"Okay, in that case I want you all back here an hour and a half from now, confirm the plan and run down retrieval Ops."

"Yes Sir."

"O'Neill."

"Jack thanks for having faith in my map."

"You betcha Daniel."

~ ψ җ Π Λ Φ π ∑ ≍ ∁ ℑ ~

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© Richard Dean Anderson all rights reserved June 2006