Title: Theoretical Astromedicinal Biology

Chapter: 15

Authors: Kiki

A/N: I tried to put some logic into this…make them think….it is actually unbelievably hard to weave it into the story. People have said they've liked the technical detail and logical twists of this story, so I thought I'd throw some more into it! Big thanks to Bekki for betaing.

We're getting close to the end now!!

Timeline: Post-Lost City. Janet, Hammond, Jacob are where they belong…with us.

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Previously on Stargate SG1…

Suddenly, a large, abrupt force rippled through the ship. No one was prepared, but they all saw the smirk on the Jaffa's face and they all heard the massive hump of Jack's body hitting the hieroglyphic walls.

"Yes O'Neill. We are there."

The three men in the back quickly scrambled to look out the windows, squabbles forgotten. And there indeed, in front of them, lay the vast and white land of tundra. Antarctica. Below which, lay the cure of Cheh.

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And now…on Stargate SG1…

A/N: just a quick note. Try to imagine the voices and quirks of the characters. It was written with that as a main consideration, so it might make it a better read.

They all stared out at the vast…whiteness. Silence in the air matching the iciness of their surroundings.

"Where exactly did the thing say it was again?" Jack said, breaking the silence. All he could see was white, white—and white. He looked at the projection that Jacob had instructed to appear in front of them. It showed a map of Antarctica, flattened out, their ship marked as a blinking red dot.

"Um. It didn't." Daniel admitted, "Well look at it this way, we gotta start somewhere. I think we can safely eliminate a ring of 20 million square kilometres to begin with."

They all looked at him, oddly. "How'd you figure that?" Jacob asked.

"Well, if it's Summer where we are, then it's obviously Winter here in the southern hemisphere. In Winter, Antarctica increases by 20 million square kilometres, doubling its size." Daniel explained, "Now a race as advanced as the Ancients, would know that. And it wouldn't make sense for them to leave something behind only to have it disappear during the next season. And if it were, don't you think we would have found out by now?"

Jacob considered this for a moment, and then pressed a few buttons, and soon, the map of Antarctica was reduced by half. "Ok. Now what? Anyone else take geography?"

"What scanning capabilities does this ship possess?" Teal'c asked.

"Well I'm not sure what new things the Tok'ra have come up with since, but last time I checked there was infrared, ultraviolet and something a bit like the Lebrex-wave ground penetration technology that the Pentagon has got going at the moment."

Jack closed his eyes, and concentrated really hard. There was something in his mind. He knew something. Thor might have removed most of the knowledge, but he had to retain something. It wasn't an exact science, so he'd been told. After all, he had the ancient gene. He concentrated harder...and remembered— something about ice fish??.

"Try scanning it for UV radiation."

"But it'll be everywhere. Especially down here…Ozone hole and what not." Daniel pointed out.

"When I was captured by Ba'al, I overheard him discussing the use of UV radiation cores as a light source. And then I remembered something about UV causing mutations," Jack said quietly, remembering the pain he'd been inflicted with, "Maybe the Ancients were ahead of them. Look for a hot spot."

No one said anything as Jacob input the commands. Sure enough, more than a dozen spots of concentrated UV flared up on the projection, most of them in a patternised band. Daniel didn't feel the slightest inclination to jibe his friend as he normally would have. Time was precious, and where they'd failed this time, precious time had flown by. "I'm sorry, Jack."

But his friend ignored him, eyes hard and seeming to be concentrating very hard. Daniel frowned. What the hell is going on? He didn't doubt his friend's intelligence, never had. But there had to be limits. Not even Jack O'Neill could make exist something that wasn't there. But then, while the knowledge he'd gleaned from his ascension wasn't supposed to be retained, he still could recall fragments of the wealth of knowledge he'd had at his disposal. Could it be that Jack knew something else? Something that his sub-conscious mind had know all along, but only chosen this moment to reveal itself.

"Now use the ground-penetration filter and cross reference the results." Jack said, tensely, his head peering intently at the display in front of it, willing it to display only one positive result. Everyone else held their breath. They were all jolted out of their reveries as the image refreshed, and a lone green dot was left blinking on a backdrop of white.

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Yay…they've found it….next chapter should be up soon…provided my School Certificate exams aren't worse than I expect. But that was a regular science-geography lesson wasn't it? We're really close to the end now. Just wondering where to go from here. Trying to avoid clichés and stay original here!! Please leave your comments; I'd love to hear from you!