Happy Birthday FC! Since you said this is your favorite of my fics, here it is!
To everyone else, welcome to Oralindie's fic Starborn! This is my...fourth published fic. This is a crossover of Andre Norton and Marcedys Lackey's Half-Blood Chronicles and Stargate SG-1. Hopefully, this fic will write itself faster than all my others, reviews will help it update faster #hint hint# R & R!
Disclaimer: Do I really have to go through this? Ok, for the record, I own nothing! #sob#
Chapter 1
Jack's chair gave a soft 'thump' as he fell into it. He sighed as he looked at the mountain of paperwork on his desk; he suddenly had to move as his huff threatened to blow all the papers onto the floor. Carefully balancing the stack, Jack groaned internally; you go on vacation for one week, and when you get back you have double the amount of work to do. Were they trying to get him to stay on base 24/7?
Jack skillfully moved four of the piles to the floor so he could have some space to work, even though he just wanted to have a lovely little bonfire in his office at the moment. Those reports would be great to pile up high, then watch come crashing down in a big tower of flame. Jack had a mental image of him cuddling next to Carter in front of an identical fire, lost on some unknown planet, staring into her sapphire blue eyes. The picture was ruined with Dr. Daniel Jackson's sudden intrusion into Jack's office.
Daniel smiled happily as he saw the pile that had collected in General O'Neill's office. "How was your vacation, Jack?" Daniel joyfully asked, adding yet another thick mission report to the pile.
Jack glared, "Fine Daniel; how was PX6-507? You still look a little wet."
Daniel frowned in response, remembering the flash flood that had shown up out of no where, almost drowning all of SG-1. They had barely made it to the 'gate, luckily it had been on a hill and not in a valley. "Ya, swimming is my favorite pastime," Daniel retorted, deciding that saying anything more would not be a good idea with Jack's current attitude toward any paper-bringers.
Sergeant Walter walked in, relieving some of the tension and giving both men something else to think about. Jack turned to look at him, giving a 'yes? What do you want?' look.
"Sir, I have the MALP telemetries. There is a list of potential planets in the back." With that, Walter plopped the file onto Jack's desk and hurried down the hall, wanting to get back to his post as soon as possible.
Daniel's eyes sparkled with glee at the sight of more papers. In his best fake-cheerful voice he said, "Have fun!" and was out the door a second later.
Jack silently cursed him and turned toward his desk, trying not to imagine the long and dreadful hours ahead.
General O'Neil stood in the Dialing room, regretfully watching SG-1 below him. He missed going off-world, missed the excitement of a new, unknown planet to explore. He sighed internally and watched the three as they turned toward the 'gate and then walked through. A few seconds later, he heard Carter's voice crackle over the radio, "All clear, sir. We appear to be in some sort of gigantic cavern; not sure how far to the entrance. We'll check in in six hours. Carter out."
"Alright Col. SGC out."
With that, the stargate shut down, and the 'gate room darkened.
Giving yet another mental sigh, O'Neill turned and headed toward the mess hall; at least they had Jell-O today.
Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c stepped through the 'gate and found themselves in a dark cave. The only light source came from the 'gate, and that was barely enough to see the rock wall behind them. The rest of the cave was shrouded in darkness.
Carter snapped down her night-vision goggles, which revealed a large cavern, not a cave. The ceiling right above them rose a good 100 ft, and was two or three times that at the center. Even with the goggles, it was difficult to make out the other end of the cavern, which had to be a least a mile away. However, she thought she could see a small opening on the opposite side. Looking around, the only objects in the cave were some rather large stalagmites and stalactites; nothing that immediately popped out as being dangerous, so she reported back with confidence.
"All clear, sir. We appear to be in some sort of gigantic cavern; not sure how far to the entrance. We'll check in in six hours. Carter out."
She heard O'Neill respond, "Alright Col. SGC out."
With his last words echoing in their ears, the stargate shut off, leaving the cavern in a blanket of blackness. A few seconds later, she heard another 'click' and the profound "Whoa!" from Daniel as he looked up and around for the first time.
Sam smirked, and turned around to look at Teal'c who was studying the structure of the cave. As usual, he gave no signs of any emotion, just an unreadable blank face. She sighed and turned toward the huge cavern, "Well, I guess we should start heading for that opening." She saw Daniel's nod and heard Teal'c's, "Indeed".
Daniel double checked the DHD to make sure nothing was wrong with it, and then they all started the hike across the smooth granite floor. From what Sam's goggles allowed her to see, this place had once been well used, the floor, as noted earlier, was worn smooth from all the traffic, and all of the major debris was pushed off to the sides. She could see some shiny metallic piles alongside the fallen rocks, and made a mental note to check it out when they reached the far side. Daniel's voice interrupted her quiet observations.
"Amazing, this cavern seems to have been a meeting place, or a home or something at one point; I mean, look, everything is neatly moved aside to make room in the middle, the floor is worn down from continues use, and then there's all those bits of metal around the edge." He paused and thought for a second. "But look at it now; there are no signs of life here in besides what is left over from the previous occupants; no bats, rats, large hunters…nothing."
"Indeed, Daniel Jackson. It appears to have been many years since anyone, or anything, has come here."
That last part made a shiver run down Sam's spine. She was starting to get a bad feeling about this place. It didn't help that no matter what, no sound they made echoed like it was supposed to; the cave was eerily silent.
They reached the other side of the cavern about fifteen minutes after they had started out. What Sam had thought was a small outlet in the cave turned out to be a tunnel about 75 feet tall. They all hesitated as they started through the tunnel but, oddly enough, the tunnel wasn't as strange as the cavern. Somehow it seemed more natural than the gigantic cave, and the smooth stone walls seemed almost welcoming. She decided to continue traveling into the tunnel to see if they could find an exit, and find out what the surface of the planet looked like.
Sam checked her watch; they had been on this world for about 40 minutes. They had walked almost two miles since entering the cave, stopping occasionally for Daniel to look at something, so she decided to let them take a break and get out the water. Daniel sat on a nearby rock and Sam and Teal'c did the same, Sam bringing out a small battery lamp and taking off her goggles. Now that the whole world wasn't a few different shades of green, she could tell what everything actually looked like. She gazed at the walls that surrounded her; they were a blue-gray, with pale purple veins running through. Although Sam thought it was rather pretty, Daniel seemed fascinated, "Look at this!" he practically squealed with glee. "Look at this purple color, it appears to be some form of writing," he squinted as he tried to make it out. Sam was shocked by this, but as she looked closer, she could see the difference; the purple lines branched and connected, leaving spaces and straight lines. The actual symbols appeared flowing and graceful, yet somehow, rushed, like the person doing this had done it as fast as possible.
As she contemplated this, and Daniel gazed with wonder, Teal'c was busy watching a small white spot in the distance that appeared to glow. "Daniel Jackson, Colonel Carter, I believe we are near the entrance." Sam and Daniel looked in the direction the Jaffa was indicating and quickly started to pack. While Daniel thought the writing was a fantastic find, he could look more closely on the way back, since this place was starting to really creep him out and he wanted to get out as soon as possible.
Two minutes later they were packed and off, walking at a brisk pace toward the light. As they got closer, the light rapidly got bigger, a little too rapidly. They judged they were half way there when they heard voices, and not voices that were off in the distance. They picked up pace, only to run into a wall, a distinct, "What was that?" coming from the other side. Daniel thought a moment. Wait a second, how are we hearing voices on the other side of a solid rock wall? Wait, what if it wasn't solid?
"Keman, Alara, can you get through any faster? I want to know what is on the other side of that wall."
Before Sam could motion, Daniel and Teal'c had their weapons out, ready for whatever came through. A few seconds later, the whole wall melted away, leaving them standing in front of a small group of people; four people to be precise. You couldn't exactly call them human; they all had cat-like green eyes, and pointed ears. But they apparently didn't like being on the receiving end of a zat.
Before Daniel, Sam, or Teal'c could react, two of the…beings…blurred slightly, and suddenly the weapons in SG-1's hands were violently thrown onto the floor. Teal'c's staff lay about ten feet away, and Daniel and Sam's zats were the same distance away in the opposite direction, so that it was not even worth trying to get them back.
One of the beings, a man with brown hair, looked closer at them and spoke in surprise, "What the…hey, they're human!" Sam and Daniel just gave them an odd look, while Teal'c raised an eyebrow. The man's look suddenly darkened. "How'd you get in there? There's no other way out," He turned to a young, red haired woman. "Are they dragons?"
She turned toward him, "No, and I can't sense any glamories on them; they're human alright. But I've never seen them before, and they don't have collars." At this SG-1 started to back away a little, and all of them unconsciously reached for the P-90s strapped in holsters on their legs. Thoughts were rushing through Sam's head. Collars? What the hell do they mean by that? And what do they mean by dragon, is it some sort of code? She turned to the team's archeologist and linguist. "Daniel?"
Daniel was brought back to his senses when his name was spoken, "Wha- oh, ya," facing the odd group before him, he started his standard 'We Come in Peace' speech, "Hi, my name is Dr. Daniel Jackson, this is Col. Samantha Carter, and this is Teal'c. We came through the Stargate, ummm…. Chapa'ii?"
The four people looked at him, then at Sam and Teal'c in turn. The second woman there was the first to react to that. "What do you mean 'Stargate'?" She turned to the man who had not yet spoken. "Keman, do you think they mean the Portal?" After that the people stayed silent, occasionally shaking their heads, or darting their eyes from one person to the next, as if reading each other's thoughts. After a couple minutes, the red haired woman stepped forward and spoke to Daniel in an authoritive tone. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to come with us."
Sam reacted to that immediately. "What do you mean, 'come with us'? We don't even know your names let alone your intentions. For one thing, how did you get through that wall? It was solid rock, but I don't see any equipment here! And then that whole…blurring thing, what was that?"
The woman gave Sam an apprehensive look. "I can't talk right now, we don't know who you are or who sent you here, let alone where you came from and how you got in here. As far as we can tell, this cave has no exits, except this one, and this has only been here a couple minutes. We won't harm you, we just want to know how you got in here without magic."
Sam looked at the woman, and then turned to Daniel, who rose his eyebrows and shrugged. She turned back and smiled, "Can we talk for just a second? Thanks." SG-1 quickly walked out of range of the group's hearing and turned their backs to them. Daniel was the first to speak, "I think that we should go back, this is just a bit too odd. It sounds like the planet is run by the Goa'uld…you know, the whole 'magic' thing?"
Sam nodded, "Yeah, I get an odd feeling from them, almost like they have a Goa'uld in them; but it's a much stronger feeling than normal, it's kinda creeping me out."
Teal'c nodded, "Indeed, there is something off about this." All of the team nodding in agreement, they slowly walked back to the group, their boots silent on the smooth floor. Sam stood in front of Teal'c and Daniel as she addressed the group; all of their cat-eyes were on her, making a small shiver run down her back, "Sorry, but we can't stay, we have to get going. Maybe we'll come back and talk later." With that she turned around and all three headed back toward the 'Gate. They walked as fast as possible, while trying to look like they weren't in a hurry; it wasn't a very easy thing to do. They had gone about fifteen feet when the man with brown hair shouted at them, "STOP!"
All of SG-1 turned around, guns pointed at the four people behind them. Sam spoke first, "What? We aren't going to cause you any trouble; we're just leaving."
The red haired woman spoke, it seemed she was the leader of this group, "Leaving? Where to? There isn't any way out. You're using magic, and we can't let you."
Sam seemed to be getting a little agitated, "Ok, listen, there is no such thing as magic. No matter what your gods tell you; magic does not exist. Period. And because magic doesn't exist, we can't use it to travel; ok? We use technology, machines, to travel, not magic." Sam looked the woman straight in the eye as she said this, trying to drill it into her mind be sheer willpower.
The redhead determinedly held Sam's gaze, not flinching or weakening through any of it. Daniel seemed concerned, he didn't want to wait all day for this to end; and knowing Sam, it wouldn't end 'till the other woman gave in. He sighed, why did they always get the missions with uncooperative people? Grabbing the stubborn woman's shoulder he said, "Sam, we should just go now." She broke the gaze and looked Daniel in the eye, "Fine," was all she managed to say. Turning back around, SG-1 quickly walked back toward the 'gate, leaving their fallen weapons behind.
"Alara, Keman, stop them!" Knowing that this was defiantly not good, all three humans started to run down the tunnel, only looking behind them to make sure every member of SG-1 was accounted for. The sound of an inhuman yell was lost in the pound of their hearts beating into their eardrums. It seemed like an eternity before they reached the cavern, and even longer before the Stargate came into sight.
"Daniel, dial the 'gate!"
Daniel rushed to the DHD and started to dial the familiar address. Sam got ready to put in her code, and Teal'c came up behind them, gun at the ready for any followers that decided to take them on. There was an earsplitting roar second before the 'swoosh' of the Stargate activating. Sam's fingers found the correct keys from years of practice, even though she was looking toward the noise. She had only just pushed the last digit when her whole body froze. There was a…creature, beast, monster flying toward them at neck breaking speeds. "Colonel Carter!" Sam broke out of her daze, and didn't give the thing another thought, all she needed to do was get Daniel and Teal'c through the 'gate.
The next few minutes seemed to move in slow motion; she heard a shot as Teal'c fired his gun, and she pulled her own gun out to help him while Daniel ran toward the 'gate. Both she and Teal'c backed toward the 'gate as they fired, knowing that it was a smooth surface and nothing was there to trip over. She heard it before she saw it; the sound of a liquid rushing in to fill in every available space. Turning her head, she saw a wall of rock form between SG-1 and the 'gate, the rock moving like water as it came up from the floor below. Then a hand seemed to seize her mind, squeezing it. She fought with all she could, but in the end, the intruder won and her mind gave way, slipping into the painless existence of unconsciousness.
If anyone is confused, or wants an overview of either original storyline, email me (see bio) If you find any mistakes, tell me and I'll try to fix them with the next upload. Please review,and any suggestions would make me and my muses very happy!