Stargate SG1 Fan Fiction ❯ Reel Of Light ❯ Swirly ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter one - Swirly

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only, it only exists to amuse me (and I am easily amused). I received no money for this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

 

Author's note: Shameless Mary-Sue *ducks and hides*

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It had been a long day and Kerry-Anne Ramsey was tired. She had been working hard at college and was ready to go home, but the day was not over. She still had two hours of her administration class left, she then had to go home and get ready for her psychology class later that evening. Tuesdays were busy days; long, boring, busy days.

The strip light above her head flickered on, off and then on again. That light never worked, but every week she and her friends would sit under it, it had a strange calming effect on them all; it actually helped them to concentrate whereas others were distracted by it. She looked up from her computer screen to see her friend Emma Kalmin. Kerry and Emma had known each other for only five months but already they were good friends.

 

Every Tuesday dinnertime the girls would stagger around the town, Big Macs in hand, giggling about nothing and everything. They would run the wrong way up escalators; eat Skittles, which sent Emma hyper; and just have fun. They were young, they could get away with doing crazy things and they knew it. Often it got them into trouble, but they didn't really care, they were young, free and in no danger.

As their eyes met over the classroom the two girls started to giggle, Emma, who had half a mouth full of orange juice, lurched forward in laughter. Both girls started to laugh, their eyes watering, their bodies shaking.

“What's so funny?” Their mutual friend Stacy Clunes called from around her computer screen.

“What's so funny?” The two girls laughed back. Nothing was funny about the question, but they were both so hyper it didn't matter. Stacy rolled her eyes.

 

She was the most sensible of the group, still fun to be around, but she was the grounding force. The one who told the others to run when Emma started fights in clubs, the one who explained to police that Emma wasn't on drugs, just a Skittle rush; Stacy was the one who kept them out of the trouble the three of them were always causing.

“Emma!” Stacy warned, aware that their tutor was only outside the room. “Kerry!”

Both girls started to calm themselves. “Sorry.” Kerry managed.

Their tutor walked in and sat at a large desk behind Emma. After taking out several folders filled with forms and essays she began to work.

Emma started to giggle.

“What?” Kerry whispered.

“I can't swallow my drink.” Emma chuckled.

Kerry started to giggle as well. “You're weird.” Kerry smiled. “Can't swallow, always falling over and taking to weird people.”

Emma's laughter grew. “I know! Help!”

Kerry lurched forward, clutching her sides. “Help I've fallen over, come and talk to me!”

“Have you fallen over Kerry?” Their tutor, Irene, asked. The two girls fell about laughing.

Kerry shook her head, unable to speak, and pointed at Emma.

“Did she trip you?” Irene half laughed, catching on to the girls joke. The two girls shook their heads and laughed. Anyone passing the classroom would have through they were mad, but those inside knew better.

It was not unknown for Emma to trip or fall over. She was sometimes clumsy, but good-natured. However, where others would try to play down falling over, Emma would announce it. It was also known that Emma seemed to attract people. Many times Kerry had had to drag Emma away from old ladies who had decided to talk to the hyper teen. Emma and Kerry were strange, people knew that. Strange things often happened to them, but they just took it in their stride and had fun.

“All right.” Irene stood up. “It's two thirty now, you can go for a fifteen minute break if you want.”

“I want.” Kerry smiled at Emma.

“Yeah.” Emma nodded back. “Me arse has gone numb sat here.”

As the rest of the small class filed out of the classroom the two girls stood waiting for Stacy.

“Come on.” Emma whined. “In fifteen minutes we can be at the shops and back.”

“I'm not going to the shops.” Stacy shook her head. Kerry and Emma often dragged Stacy into shops to look at the latest videos and CDs. “All you two ever look at is bloody Star Trek.” Stacy pointed to Kerry. “Or flipping Stargate.” Emma shifted as her favourite TV show was mentioned.

“Stargate SG-1, thank you very much!” Emma grinned and then started to whine again. “Come on.”

Stacy rolled her eyes, first in disgust and then again in mock protest. “Fine.”

“Come on.” Kerry was half way out of the door. “We've only got ten minutes.”

*****

“Carter! What the hell is that?”

Colonel Jack O'Neill yelled to his team mate Captain Sam Carter. She ran to find him in the dark room.

“I'm not sure Sir.” She replied truthfully. “It looks like some sort of vortex.”

“Well, it's a big swirly wormhole thing.” Jack shouted at Sam. “So it's pretty obvious that I know it's a vortex thingy, what sort though?”

“It could be anything Sir.” Sam stated, clearly protesting at being shouted at. “A time vortex; a space vortex, like the Stargates; anything Sir.”

“Where do you think it leads to?” Dr Daniel Jackson asked as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

“I don't know. I mean there's no way to find out without going through.” Sam shrugged.

“Forget that!” Jack remarked.

“Perhaps we should be more concerned with what may come through.” Teal'c calmly stated.

“Whatya saying Teal'c?” Jack half smiled.

“I am saying that we should prepare ourselves for what could be a Goa'uld trap.” Teal'c raised one eyebrow. “They have the technology to create an artificial vortex such as this.”

“O-K.” Jack turned to Teal'c. “You keep an eye on this thing while Carter, you poke around, see where it goes without going.”

“Yes Sir.” Carter nodded.

“I will do so O'Neill.” The large Jaffa nodded to Jack.

“Daniel!” Jack almost started.

“I know, get reading that text on the wall.” Daniel walked over to the ancient text they had found earlier. “It looks like it's an old form of English. Lots of Thees and Thous.”

“Thees and Thous.” Jack nodded, mocking Daniel without the scientist even noticing. “Nice.”

“It says here: `Thou shalt not touch the reel of light'.” Daniel squinted at the text. “They must have been talking about the vortex, reel is another word for, well, swirl.”

“So they thought it was a swirly thing too.” Jack nodded, satisfied he had got one over on the scientists in the group. “Sweet. What else does it say?”

“Well it goes on to say that many went through and didn't come back.” Daniel shifted, thinking about the ancient people who must lived on this planet; how many of them must have died, going through into the unknown. “So, Sam, don't go through.”

“Anything else Daniel?” Sam called from the mouth of the vortex.

“Yeah.” He called back. “It says here something about `Great Wonders' and that they come through the `reel of light'.”

“So things have come through?” Jack gripped his gun, uneasy with the thought.

“It looks that way.” Daniel looked over at him. “I wonder what wonders they were talking about.”

“Daniel you said that the text on the wall is an old form of English.” Sam walked over to her male companions. Daniel nodded. “From what you've read out it sounds a lot like Shakespeare, well that kinda of era anyway.”

“Whatya getting at Carter?” Jack took off his sunglasses and cocked his head at the Captain.

“Well, if they were speaking a form of English it's safe to assume that the Goa'uld haven't influenced these people.” Sam looked from Daniel to Jack and back. Both had blank faces. “Don't you see, this town was only destroyed a few years ago, by a natural disaster; a flood from the look of things.”

“I still don't see where you're going with this Sam.” Daniel looked at his friend.

“I believe Captain Carter is attempting to say that the Goa'uld have not visited this world in many years.” Teal'c chipped in calmly.

“Yes. That's it.” Sam smiled at Teal'c, he nodded his response. “And the Goa'uld didn't create the vortex, I think it's a naturally occurring phenomenon created by this planet's high concentration of radioactivity in the atmosphere. I think that, somehow, it was created when the Stargate was build here, without the Stargate there'd be no vortex.”

“How did you get all that from just looking at it?” Jack pointed at the vortex, exasperated by Sam's scientific ability.

“I took some readings Sir.” Sam smiled. “And, I also noticed a small trail of energy emanating from the vortex.” She pointed to a small line of white energy on the floor. It trailed around the bottom of the vortex and then snaked it's way across the room to the DHD.

“Bottom line Sir.” Sam looked up at Jack. “The Goa'uld didn't make this.”

“Right, I understand now.” Daniel nodded. “But we still don't know where it leads to.”

“Well read the wall Daniel.” Jack pointed to the place in question. “Now that I know no snake heads are going to show up we can take our time.”

*****

“Hurry up!” Stacy called to her friends. “We're going to be late.”

“No we're not!” Emma called back. “Irene won't be back on time anyway.”

“Well I'm going.” Stacy started to walk faster, she was going to be on time even if they weren't. She hated it when they got like this. Yes they could be fun, mad at times, but when they didn't want to work they pratted about, this was when she got annoyed with them. She actually wanted to get back to college, start working her way through her units and gain her NVQ qualification. Stacy turned to face the other two.

“Look, I'm going back.” She put her hands on her hips. “Are you coming?”

“I dunno.” Emma whined. “I'm tired...”

“I'm bored.” Kerry put in.

“And I'm hungry.” Emma started to grin.

Stacy rolled her eyes. “So what are you going to do this afternoon?”

“Well.” Emma began. “I was planning on drinking, eating and, ooh, swirly!”

“What?” Stacy called from up the road. She was used to Emma coming out with nonsense, but it appeared this time her friend had gone mad. “Swirly?”

“A big swirly thing.” Emma pointed round the corner.

“Emma!” Stacy called, sick of her friend's jokes. “I'm going now. Are you coming Kerry?”

But Kerry had begun to follow Emma round the corner to see the `swirly thing'. Stacy half growled and half sighed as she set off for college.

Meanwhile Kerry and Emma were quite content to stare at the `swirly thing' they had found. It was huge and round; like a giant floating whirlpool of purple energy. Every so often a small flash of lightening would streak across from the edge and disappear into the centre. Emma's jaw dropped.

“What is it?” Kerry managed to get out.

“I dunno.” Emma murmured. “Swirly.”

*****

“Sir, the vortex seems to have stabilised.” Sam called to Jack. He walked slowly over to look at the huge swirling mass. It looked no different.

“How do you know?” He squinted at Sam.

“I've been measuring its energy output. It was very high before, spiking all over the place.”

“And now?” Jack was impatient, he hated all this science stuff. Partly because he didn't understand it, but mainly because it bored the hell out of him.

“Well now it's levelled off Sir.” Sam smiled. “It's finished whatever it was doing and has settled down.”

“Oh.” Jack nodded, pretending to understand. “Woohoo.” He added sarcastically.

Sam cocked her head and smiled. She liked his little jokes about science, in a strange way it made her feel more important; knowing she had an intellectual advantage over her CO.

“Jack!” Daniel called from the wall he had been studying. “Come and look at this.”

“What now?” Jack murmured and wandered over to Daniel. Daniel pointed to an area of the wall covered in text.

“What?” Jack stared at the text.

“Well,” Daniel started, obviously excited. “this passage says that many of their people went though never to return.”

“Yeah.”

“Now we assumed that was because the vortex was like the Stargates. One way. So the people either couldn't get back, or they died going through because it was an incoming wormhole.” Daniel started to smile. “But this passage also says that many wondrous thing came through.”

“I don't understand Daniel.” Sam suddenly appeared to Daniel left, making Jack jump. “This doesn't mean that they aren't one way?”

“Yes.” Daniel nodded and pointed to a different passage. “But this passage tells the story of the people who went through and then came back years later. It says said that they had stayed where they ended up, by choice. They weren't stuck at all. It also says that the worlds they found through the reel of light were the almost same as this one, but different in subtle ways.”

“Whoa.” Jack cried out. “Time out.”

“What?” Daniel turned to Jack.

“You lost me back there. Does this mean that this isn't a Stargate thingy?”

“Sir.” Sam pointed to the vortex. “This means that this is nothing like the Stargates. This means it more like the...”

“Mirrors.” Daniel finished. “Jack, I think this vortex leads to alternate realities.”

*****

“Kerry?” Emma whispered. “What is it?”

“Swirly.” Kerry whispered back, quite seriously.

“Ooh.” Emma smiled. “It's pretty.”

Kerry laughed at Emma. “It looks like a wormhole. Like in Stargate or Star Trek.”

“Yep.” Emma nodded. “But it's only ickle. A baby one.”

“Might not be.” Kerry shook her head. “Might just be a midget wormhole.”

The two girls fell about laughing at the idea of a midget wormhole. The `wormhole' gave a small shudder and started to grow.

“Err, Kerry.” Emma grabbed Kerry's arm. “It doesn't like us calling it a midget, it's growing.”

“We should go.” Kerry half giggled.

“You're not kidding!” Emma tried to turn and run, but found that her legs would not move. “I can't move!” She cried.

“I can't either.” Kerry almost screamed. “What's going on?”

“I don't... Argh!” Emma screamed.

“What?” Kerry shouted, the intense white light of the `wormhole' which was slowly consuming them blinding her.

“I'm being pulled in!” Emma shouted as she disappeared into the `wormhole'.

Moments later Kerry followed, screaming and kicking, trying to get free of the strong hold the vortex had on her. Kerry screamed as she disappeared into the unknown.

With a loud `whoosh' the vortex disappeared, then everything was silent, only the traffic around the corner could be heard rushing by.

“Emma! Kerry!” Stacy came running down the road. “Irene says...” Stacy stopped mid sentence, she stared at the ground. Her friends' bags lay on the floor, smouldering and charred from the event horizon of the vortex. Stacy didn't utter a word or scream, she just turned and ran as fast as she could towards the college.

*****

Inside the `wormhole' Kerry couldn't feel her body, she couldn't see it either. All around her was white, with flashes of purple, yellow and red every few seconds. She could see what looked like a tunnel ahead, it was speeding towards her, stars on either side of it streaming past and turning into small white blurs. As Kerry entered the `tunnel' it twisted and turned. She was being thrown around and it felt as though she were being turned inside out and frozen. The pain and cold were too much; Kerry closed her large blue eyes and was thrown into unconsciousness, as she was thrown through the stars.

*****

The vortex began to rumble.

“Come on campers.” Jack yelled. “Time to go.”

“But Sir.” Sam began. “We have no idea what...”

“Time! To! Go!” Jack yelled at Sam. “OK Captain?”

“Yes Sir.” Sam nodded and started towards the Stargate. Suddenly the vortex started to shudder and spat out two figures.

“Sir!” Sam cried out as she started to run towards them. They were quite small and somewhat dishevelled.

“They're unconscious Sir.” Sam called over to a suspicious Jack.

“They're human.” Daniel called over from the taller of the two figures. “And female, I'd say late teens to early twenties.”

“How did they get here?” Jack stood over the taller, slimmer, female. She looked to be the younger of the two with scarily pale skin. She had short, bobbed, blonde hair, and a pair of glasses perched on the end of her nose; she looked strangely like Daniel.

He moved over to the shorter of the new arrivals, she had much shorter red hair styled high on her head. Her white trousers had ridden up her legs to look like shorts and her black top had a small tear. She had mascara smeared down her cheeks, blending in with her freckles and making her foundation run.

`She looks terrible with all that make up.' Thought Jack. `Mind you they both look terrible, like they've been dragged through a couple of hedges backwards.'

“Do we take them with us Sir?” Sam looked up at Jack from the eldest girl.

“They're badly hurt.” Daniel chipped in.

“We should help them O'Neill.” Teal'c finally spoke.

“Agreed.” Jack bent down and picked up the red haired girl, as Teal'c picked up the other. Slowly SG-1 made their way back to the Stargate.