Beyond the Iris: A Stargate Story

Chapter 18

Jack

We followed the map Arlin had so graciously provided us with. The Gate was to the west of our walking path and the sun started to set then to the south. There were three separate moons making their way into the sky at different points each. I turned around and saw Sam chatting with Teal'c about something, Daniel walking and inspecting the writing on the map, and my eyes were caught back to the horizon.

"How long have we been walking?"

"About an hour," Sam responded.

"In the same direction, correct?"

"Yeah, the caverns have a gate up here we'll have to take down to get into them if my translations are correct on this map. The written language seems to be based on a welsh alphabet..."

"Great," I cut him off before he went on rambling about consonant differences. "The man made bird nest is gone." I walked over to him and took a look at the map. There was a symbol in between the circle of the gate and the camp that I assumed was for the bird's nest marked as a giant line above the treetops with a platform. They turned to look and went back to the map.

"Maybe we walked farther than expected," Sam shrugged. We continued on as the trail became more and more untamed until finally we saw the lichen blanketed pillars notated on the map. A thick collection of trees shrouded the entrance and where boards should have been tacked up to keep people like us out, the wood was rotted off the nails.

"Well, shall we?" I pulled my head lamp out of the pack and turned it on, making my way into the dark.

Eleanor

The team hadn't been heard from for a week, and even though in their only report they suggested not to send in anyone until they came back due to the tensions between them and the groundskeeper, Hammond had put together a small team. That team included me. My first time off-world, and I wasn't sure why. He stated it was because I had a background in anthropology, and I was working alongside Daniel to find the time piece so I had direct knowledge of what we were looking for. I still felt woefully under prepared though.
I was thanking Teal'c internally for my strength training courses with him during workouts early mornings. The pack was like carrying a lead sack on my back. They handed me a small pistol to tuck into my hip holster and my eyes grew wide.

"What do I do with this?"

"Point, and shoot." General Hammond responded dryly. "But not until Major Nguyen tells you."

Dumbstruck I turned to the gate, and watched as they redialed it to open. The MALP had sent back a video of a clear wooded path for us this morning before we got suited up and ready to go out. Standing in front of the swirling blues of the wormhole I sucked in my breath, I'm not sure why. I knew that it would only last a second, that this wasn't some odd vacuum in space that would keep me in a suspended pool, but I still felt like I was going to drown. As if when I stepped in, I would be floating in an ocean clamoring for my life, clinging to something to pull me above the waters. No, it would just be like a walk through a front door. Sure, a door to another world, but a door nonetheless.
I stepped through the ring, eyes closed tight, and as I did I felt my feet walk again on a solid surface. I let out a breath, opened my eyes, and gasped in horror. The sounds of screaming echoed through my ears, children wailing and their guardians clinging onto them in fear. I looked around and saw my team, also standing next to me in absolute shock. The brightly colored carpeting, the symbols on the wall looked like pigmented rainbows and what I could only assume was an alphabet painted along the border of the large atrium. Tables were scattered around us hosting various puzzles and games. There was a water station across the room that had been knocked over in the commotion, liquid covering the floor and people drenched in the splatter huddled in a corner. I turned and as the gate shut behind me, and there was a woman in a green smock that had gone pale in the face trembling behind the gate. There was a glass fence that was placed around the gate as a perimeter, half of it disintegrated across where the flush had plumed out. There was no sign of any fatalities from the wormhole opening, at least we had that going for us in this mass of chaos.