"Dr. DeBarr. Colonel Pendergast," my CO said into the phone, after I had been transferred several times.
"It's good to hear your voice sir. Enjoying a little time off?"
"It's been interesting. Let's just say when we have our officer meetings there will be tales to be told," he said chuckling. "How quick can I get my CMO down here?"
"Well in a few hours," I said, eying my already packed sea bag. "I just have to tell Dr. Lam and General Landry, and I will hitch a ride down."
"Sounds good. See you in a few," Colonel Pendergast said.
I packed the few things around my borrowed office and went to tell Lam about my move back to the Prometheus. Next I set out to General Landry's office, sad that I would be leaving yet again the SGC, and from under such a wonderful and capable leader.
"Enter!" he called. I pushed the door open and came in. "Ah, Dr. DeBarr, so you are heading back to the Prometheus, Pendergast tells me. I should have told him I wanted to just keep you."
I smiled at the General. "Thank you sir, but I don't have a replacement."
"Oh surely we can arrange that. Honestly, Major, we will miss you. Don't tell my daughter, but Carolyn has enjoyed your company and assistance in the infirmary, and it looks as if Colonel Mitchell has gotten used to having you around also," Landry said, sitting in his chair. "I really would like it if you transferred back to the SGC."
"Sir, you and I both know that you can order that. However I also know that you do not wish to leave the Prometheus without a Chief Medical Officer," I smiled
"So true. Well, how about I let you go back to your post, you think about it, and we discuss it later?"
"Sounds good, sir," I said, getting up. "It has been a pleasure to serve under your command." I gave him a salute and left his office, picking up my bag and leaving Cam a brief message as I left the SGC.
- - -
Three days later, Pendergast called me into the briefing room aboard the Prometheus, which was already surprisingly full, to sit in on a briefing of our next mission. I was pleased to see Colonel Sam Carter sitting with SG-1.
"Doctor DeBarr," Pendergast introduced me as I came in, weaving through the people to the empty chair around the table. "Ok people, we have a serious mission. It looks like the Ori are not content to go to planets and preach, they are now threatening our whole galaxy. Colonel," Pendergast said, handing the briefing over to Sam.
"Thank you Colonel. Yesterday a one of Baal's minor Goa'uld minions, Nerus, arrived at the SGC, claiming he had noticed an anomaly happening on Kallana, one of the planets he watches. We did some checking, and in fact there is an anomaly happening on the planet, which seems to be caused by a Prior.
"The Prior seems to be accessing the power of the Gate and holding it open, we think by using a black hole, and a 'bubble' of sorts is being formed," Sam said, glancing over her notes. "We need to get to the planet and then see if we can talk to the Prior."
"I hate to state the obvious," one of the technicians behind me started. "But talking has not helped from what I have read in the reports. What makes you think it will work now?"
"We want to give this Prior every opportunity to stand down," Daniel said, looking at the man. "He is a human, just a bit misguided, and we are not about to send a Naquadah enriched nuke to the planet with out giving him some options."
"Overtly generous in my opinion," Vala muttered next to me. I smiled at her as Pendergast dismissed us.
- - -
Daniel, Cam and Vala suited up in space suits, as our scanners detected some of Gerak's ships coming into orbit. I left the personnel who where suiting the team up, and headed onto the deck of the Prometheus.
"They are firing, sir," one of the technicians said.
"Send them a message telling them that we have a nuke and personnel on the ground," Pendergast said. He looked toward the screens and out to the planet. "Is the bubble getting any smaller?"
"No, in fact I would say it is a steady size," Sam responded. "We should wait to hear from Mitchell before we continue."
"Agreed."
We waited, personnel coming and going off the bridge, myself and a young woman looking over maps of the planet, trying to find any villages that where going to be next enveloped in the deadly gases that were held in by the bubble. I also was curious for Cam to report back how the Prior was doing, if he was experiencing any effects from the gaseous atmosphere he seemed to be creating. Gerak's ships stopped firing long enough for our team to plant the nuke and talk to the Prior, causing a small sigh of relief from those on the bridge.
I was hailed, saying that the team had ringed back on board, and I hurried to the ring platform, Sam beside me.
"So, what do you know of Vala?" Sam asked as we walked down the corridor.
"Well, she was the woman who managed to steal the Prometheus last year and trap Dr. Jackson. But we all know he prevailed." We grinned at each other. "She and Dr. Jackson, I'm sure you heard, were linked, and still are, so they can't go very far without the other in tow. It has annoyed Dr. Jackson to no end."
"I know. He would give me daily updates - sometimes as many as 15 messages - on his day," Sam said as we exited the elevator. "I hope for Daniel's sanity that the link will wear off soon."
"Well, Dr. Lam, Dr. Lee and I have been trying to find a marker to be able isolate and unlock the bond," I said, swiping my badge and entering the ring room. Looking at the three suited teammates, I said, "Well?"
"Well, the Prior is not budging. He is doing the will of the Ori, and can't really care that there are innocent people on Kallana that are dying." Daniel pulled off his gloves. "They should have known better type of logic," he said exasperated.
"Yup, and he looked rather cozy among all the gas," Cam said. "I guess that puts a dent in your theory, Bay."
"Not if you got a sample," I said. I held out my hand and he handed me a small vial of milky blue substance. "Give me a few minutes to analysis this and than I can give you an accurate destruction percentage." I left them standing in the hall as I took off for my lab.
- - -
The four of them were sitting around a table in the mess hall when I finished my calculations. "I swung by the bridge and found that the bubble is getting bigger, and Gerak is still firing on the planet. One of the techs has estimated that within a few minutes the whole planet could be enveloped," I said, sitting with a coffee cup in hand.
"I thought earlier you said we had a few hours?" Cam asked.
"I have been going over the calculations," Sam started. "And it looks like the fire power is not damaging the bubble - it's acting like a shield of sorts - and is actually causing it to slowly increase its rate of enveloping."
"Oh well that's not good," Vala whined. I agreed with her. After draining all our separate cups of coffee in one gulp, we all went to the bridge, hoping some new news would lift our spirits, or give us a new idea.
"Well, it looks like we have a bigger problem," Pendergast greeted us. "The planet has been enveloped, Gerak is still pounding away at the shield, but now there seems to be something coming from the surface," he pointed to the glass holograph screen in back of him. "They can explain it better."
Lieutenant Kins, the technician I was working with earlier, came over. "It seems we are looking at multiple, interlocking devices, coming from the planet surface," she said in a soft voice. "I do not see anything that would indicate that the Prior is making them."
"Well someone, or something, has to be making it," Cam said.
"It could be sent through the Gate," Sam suggested. "If the Ori are using a black hole to artificially keep the Gate open, it could be that they planned this long ago and had ready made devices to send through once the planet was enveloped. From what the calculations are indicating," she pointed to some sketches she made earlier, "it looks like Gerak helped speed it along."
"I never liked him," Vala interjected.
"You never met him," Daniel pointed out. "So what do we do now? What are the devices doing?"
"It looks like they are docking, or connecting to one another," Kins said. As we watched the screen, more and more small objects flew from the planet and into the space above its atmosphere.
"It looks like a circle," I muttered.
"Glad to know you know your geometric shapes," Vala quipped.
Daniel glared at her and I just shrugged. "What could it be? Besides a circle?" he asked, glancing at Vala and Sam.
"I'm scanning it. It looks like the pieces are being held together with some kind of magnetic force, and seems to draw the pieces from the surface. The good news is that the bubble that formed over the planet seems to be slowly shrinking. However it could be causing a collapse and become a black hole," Sam said, fingers furiously punching at the keyboard in front of the computer screen. "A black hole on both sides of a Gate is not a good thing."
"Is the Gate still open?" Cam asked.
"Yes," Sam said, studying the screen. "Oh."
We all asked 'what' at the same time. Sam looked at the screen, and pulled another screen up. "I can't believe it."
"I've seen this before," Vala said, pointing to the screen.
"Not now," Cam said, looking over Sam's shoulder.
"I think I know a way to stop it," Vala tried again.
"It's to complicated for the normal person," Kins said, rounding the four of us with a few printouts.
"Where have you seen this?" I asked, pulling Vala aside.
"It's drawing energy, the Gate is open and a Prior is down there dictating the show," Vala said, turning her eyes to me. "It's coming together in a circle and is bonding together with energy. It sounds like a humongous gate to me."
I looked at her. It made sense from what I knew of Gate physics, which really, was all theoretical anyway. "Let me run it by Sam."
"No, no. It's going to be too late, there is already only a few spots left," Vala said, pulling on my arm. "Let the brains do their thing, I'm going to do something."
And she took off, I called after her, as I stood in the doorway, but she was already around the corner. I looked over my shoulder to where Cam, Daniel and Sam where, Teal'c looking out the window, and then back down the hall. I took off after Vala. I came to the ring room and stopped. There in the middle of the floor lay a Jaffa, unmoving. I checked his vitals and breathed a sigh of relief; he was only stunned.
I called my medical staff to bring the Jaffa to the infirmary while I called the bridge. "Dr. Jackson; how is Dr. Jackson?"
"He seems to be ok, why Doctor," on of the Sergeants answered.
"Vala is gone, she must have taken one of the cloaked ships. What's the status of the outer space gate?"
"Something has just intercepted the last piece, causing the last piece not to connect," the Sergeant said. "I think you need to get down here, ma'am."
I hung up and, with a nurse in tow, ran back to the bridge. I�'m glad I work out everyday; even if I didn't, I would make up for the lack during every emergency. Daniel lay on the ground, a few people around him.
"He collapsed shortly after the Tel'tak went into the final slot and caused it to break apart," Sam said, kneeling beside Daniel. "Where is Vala?"
"In that final slot. Or was," I answered. She fell silent as she looked at me. The nurse and I loaded Daniel up and wheeled him to the infirmary. I hoped with every step that the link between him and Vala was finally severed.
- - -
"And what about Vala?" Daniel asked, hoarsely. "Where is she?"
"Well, Jackson, it looks like you are rid of her," Cam said, a smile on his face. I glanced at him and shook my head as I checked Daniel's chart.
"Where is she?" Daniel repeated.
"It appears she was in the Tel'tak that caused the supergate to break apart. We did find a matter stream leave the ship just before the explosion."
Daniel sighed and than smiled. "Well we did want to send the Ori a message!"
Babylon