Stargate SG1 - Roswell (14 page)

“Haven't you ever read—” Daniel stopped himself. “No, of course you haven't. Jack, it's okay. Howard won't tell anyone about us. At least, not in so many words.”

Jack's expression was hard to read in the darkness, but Daniel felt the subtle shifting in his stance. While he might not understand what Daniel was telling him, he'd run with it. He made no attempt to stop Howard taking a step up the ramp and openly gaping at Loki.

“Mr. Lowell was right, then. Mars really does have life!”

“We're not from Mars,” Daniel corrected. “We're from...” He couldn't believe he was about to say this, but he could only be guided by what he knew from Lovecraft's writings, and so it seemed the only safe thing
to
say. “How about we call it Planet
X?”

“Daniel.” Sam sounded unconvinced. “Are you certain about this?”

“If not—” Vala held up her hand and displayed the ribbon device— “quick little zap and the problem's fixed.”

“That won't be necessary,” Daniel assured them.

Jack studied the kid for a moment longer and then shrugged. “Hope you know what you're doing.” He stepped onto the ramp, pushed past the still complaining Loki and headed into the jumper. “Carter, what's our status?”

“We may be in more trouble than I first thought, sir.”

“There's a surprise. Can you be just a
little
more specific?”

Sam went inside to retrieve her laptop and opened it on top of the time machine. “The relay from the power modules to the jumper's drive system is burned out, presumably from one of the explosions. I'm not even certain how you managed to land.”

“Carter—General Carter,” Jack amended, “said the shields were designed to protect the jumper against explosions during time travel.”

“Ah, yes,” Vala put in. “But that was only against any explosion resulting from our arrival in a spatial-temporal coordinate where matter preexisted. And if you'll recall, while the dampeners could definitely do with some tweaking, the shields functioned quite adequately when we had that little mix up with An's ship.” She flashed a suitably deferential smile at Loki. “And your ship, too, I imagine. An
was
on board, wasn't he?”

The Asgard refrained from answering but as much as it was possible to read any Asgard's expression, he seemed to be pro-cessing that information.

Nodding, Sam said, “Okay, that makes sense. The shields were also operational when we jumped to 1908 and hit the Ha'tak. It was the subsequent explosion that must have burned out the relay. There are additional problems, but my biggest concern at the moment is this.” She gestured to the time machine.

Jack tapped it. “A little on the crispy side. How soon before you
can fix it?”

“Sir, I don't think I can, not without replacement parts unavailable in this era.” Sam crouched and opened a panel in the side. “They've only just started using vacuum tubes in 1908. Actually, it was Lee De Forest who—”At Jack's cleared throat, she abandoned the explanation and stood. “I think I can
get the drive system operational so we can fly the jumper somewhere safer, but assuming Kvasir installed the Asgard equipment—”

“Nope. You did.”

“You
are the pilot of this Ancient ship?” Loki's eyes zeroed in on Sam.

Responding automatically, Sam shook her head. “No, that would be General O'Neill. Sir, can you try turning on the cloak?”

Until that moment, Daniel would have said it was impossible for an Asgard's eyes to turn beady, but that's exactly what Loki's now did as he thoughtfully redirected his gaze to Jack. “Then you carry the same genetic code as the Ancients.”

“Don't
even think about it,” Jack warned, heading for the pilot's seat.

Wincing at her slip, Sam exchanged a look with Daniel. “Sorry, sir.”

“Vala,” Jack called over his shoulder, “can that thing on your hand rearrange an Asgard's memory? Preferably into something that looks like the scrambled eggs they serve in the Commissary?”

“I'd be more than happy to give it a try, General,” Vala volunteered cheerfully.

“In which case,” Loki informed them with a petulant scowl, “I will be unable to repair this temporal device in order for you to return me to my time and my ship.”

Daniel half expected him to cross his arms or stamp his little gray foot, but instead, without any further invitation, Loki opened the blackened panel of the time machine and peered inside.

Pulling a mud-coated flashlight from his pocket, Daniel switched it on and held it out to Loki, hoping it might serve as something of a peace offering. “Here.”

“That is insulting,” the Asgard replied.

“It's the eyes,” Sam mouthed to Daniel over his head.

From the cockpit, Jack announced, “I got nothing.”

“Damn.” Sam shook her head. “I was afraid of that.” Before Daniel could ask her to elaborate, she turned to Loki. “You know about the destruction of the Ha'tak over Tunguska, don't you?”

Loki limped past Daniel to the cockpit and opened a panel in the Asgard transport. “One of our scout ships detected an anomalous temporal distortion field inside the lead Ha'tak. The damaged ship exploded moments before impacting with Earth. Believing they were under attack, the remainder of the Goa'uld fleet left. The power supply module is damaged.” He looked up at Sam. “You should have allowed Kvasir to install this device. In your ignorance, several critical errors have been made. However, I can modify some existing components to effect temporary repairs to the temporal device.”

“Really?” Sam went forward and peered inside. “Are you certain?”

Loki looked up and blinked at her.

“Sorry, silly question.”

“As my ship was not destroyed, why did you bring me aboard yours?”

“To save your life, of course,” Vala told him, before anybody else could offer an explanation. “I mean, you were critically injured and we couldn't just leave you there now, could
\
we?”

Daniel was seriously beginning to question how she'd ever made it as a con artist because her lies were so amazingly transparent. Loki, however, didn't seem to notice.

Pointing inside the machine, Vala added, “Why don't you try—”

“Given the physical damage to my body, my ship's automated medical systems -would have transferred my consciousness to a clone.” Loki evidently didn't care much for any explanation offered by the inferior beings who'd captured him. Limping back to the cargo bay, he pointed to the open control panel with leads still attached to Sam's laptop. “I will require those crystals.”

“Or,” Vala said, “you could try—”

Sam shook her head. “We'll need those to fly the jumper. We can't risk using the time machine on the ground.”

“This temporal device is configured to be utilized only with this ship, therefore your statement is redundant. However, other crystals could be used as a temporary measure to relay power to the drive pods. If you could find them.”

An enthusiastic voice piped up from the shadows. “There's a fine collection of crystals on display at the university museum.”

Daniel had almost forgotten this entire exchange was being witnessed—more likely being burned into the imagination of—H.P. Lovecraft. “You mean Brown University?”

“Why, yes. You've heard of it? Even in the future?”

“I never mentioned we were from the future,” Daniel said.

The kid smiled. “But you speak of a temporal device that is broken, Mr. Jackson. Your little gray friend here might be from Planet
X,
but, since you were uncertain this was 1908, I suspect you and your companions are from the distant future.”

Jack glanced over his shoulder at the lad and then shrugged. “Smart kid.”

“Did you want me to take you to the university? It's only a few blocks from here.”

“Okay, well—” Daniel patted Howard on the shoulder— “we'll keep it in mind, but these crystals we need aren't the sort of crystals you're talking about.”

“Still, they might have—”

“What we need is a tetravalent metalloid,” Sam said, cutting off Vala. “And a large piece of—”

“Silicon!” Howard declared. When Sam stared at him in surprise, he added with a self-deprecating smile, “I... I'm really rather good at chemistry, ma'am. By the sound of it, to repair your time machine, you'll need something that has chemical properties between those of metals and nonmetals—”

“To act as a temporary bridge.” Sam's eyes lit up with the possibilities, while Jack's began glazing over. “The purer the better. It would probably only last a few minutes, but if we had something like quartz, or better, a biogenic silica—”

“Biogenic silica? Then that's easy! We have biogenic silicas here on Earth. The most common is called opal.”

Sam was trying not to smile. “Opal?”

“Who'd have thought?” Jack said, shaking his head. He turned to Sam. “You see,
he
has a four letter word for it. Why can't you use more four letter words, Carter?”

Sam muttered something that sounded like, “muon”, but Jack chose not to hear.

Howard seemed quite excited by the fact that he was actually helping this sorry-looking bunch of stranded time travelers and their passenger from Planet
X.
“There are opal bearing rocks in the university's gem collection.”

Loki pulled flat crystal from the guts of the time machine and stared at it. “I believe something of that nature would be suitable for the drive system.”

Vala tapped the time machine. “Y'know what might work better—”

Ignoring her, Jack addressed their visitor. “Kid, are you saying you know where you can get your hands on this stuff?”

Daniel had the distinct impression smiles hadn't come readily to Howard in recent times, but right now, the lad was positively beaming. Taking a tentative step closer to peer at Sam's computer, his eyes almost as large as the Asgard's, he said, “I can show you the building, but it's locked and guarded, I'm afraid. It's quite a valuable collection, you know.”

Before Vala could so much as utter a sound, Daniel raised a warning finger. “Ah!”

“Never crossed my mind,” she declared, with a wounded look. “But since nobody here seems to be willing to tap into my vast knowledge of this ship's systems, you might as well take me along.” Crossing her arms she sent him a challenging look. “After all, this is the one area of my expertise you're willing to trust, isn't it?”

Giving Vala permission to burgle anything was a bad idea. Daniel
knew
it was a bad idea but— “She probably has a point, Jack.”

“You sure you're up to this, Vala?” Sam said. “You were passed out, not so long ago.”

Daniel frowned, just a little bit guilty for not remembering that himself, but the truth was, Vala had a knack for self-preservation, and right now, she probably was in better shape than any of them. Certainly she wasn't suffering the after affects of those damned golf balls from Bayou.