Event Horizon Part Nine – By Ladyholder

Reading Time:
16 Minutes

Art by Starkindler

“Janet, what have you got for us?” Daniel asked.

Jack twitched towards the babies before stepping back as Daniel slanted him a speaking glance. The babies were lying in a portable crib that the medical department had pulled out of some dusty storeroom, and he had to suppress a sneeze as a small waft of dust trickled down from some crevasse in the legs.

“Both babies are healthy, and in the weight range to be newborns,” Fraiser reported. She waved her hands at the crib and smiled. “We’re running the DNA tests on them to confirm if they’re humans from Earth or if they match Ma’chello.”

“What’s the ETA on that?” Hammond asked. He was smiling at the babies before looking over at Carter. “And have we got any information on the machine?”

“As Janet mentioned, the machine is from Ma’chello’s lab, sir,” Carter said. She tapped a sheaf of paper on a rolling table. “We don’t have a provenance for it outside of that. However, I made sure to keep everything we had on it when I started researching it.”

Hammond nodded. “Smart. Okay, what did you learn?”

“I wasn’t able to get access to the machine while I had it in my lab, sir,” Carter explained, “And I wasn’t able to get it to give me any information on itself until after Daniel and Colonel O’Neill pulled the babies out of it. Once the babies were out of the machine, Capt. Sheppard was able to get the machine to show an interface. Basically, the machine takes genetic samples from two parties and converts them into ovum and sperm before combining them and growing the resultant baby. The machine can gestate a maximum of three infants at a time.”

“Is there a third growing at this time?” Jack asked. He tried to remember if he had heard a third heartbeat when the machine had opened. He hadn’t heard anything from inside the machine until it had opened, so it was a legit concern.

“No. It doesn’t have enough power to gestate another zygote,” Carter explained. “The machine doesn’t use a ZPM, but a battery that I will be looking into. I don’t know if it can be recharged, but that’s one of the things I’ll be looking at. I’ll also be checking to see if there’s any way we can reproduce the technology for people here on Earth.”

“That would be very interesting,” Hammond said. “And life-changing.”

“It would be. If we can get it to work, I know that there’s a lot of people who would leap at the ability to use something like this to have children,” Daniel said softly. “Sam, did the machine say how long it had been running?”

“No,” Carter said with a shake of her head. “I’ll need someone who can access the Ancient tech to be next to the machine so I can access it. And even then, with the power being so low, I might burn through it before we get any answers.”

“Which is why you want to check to see if the battery can be recharged,” Jack surmised. When she nodded, he sighed. “I hate to be a killjoy, but would we even be able to spin tech like this off?”

“Maybe,” Fraiser said, stretching the word out slowly. “I have no idea what this machine has going for it, but I do know that there are teams here on Earth that are trying to put together an artificial womb. Most of the teams doing the research want to use them to allow premature babies to continue to develop or use them for infertile couples to be able to have biological children.”

“Not bad goals,” Daniel agreed. “Complete sidebar: Did everyone notice that Capt. Sheppard was able to hear the Ancient equipment?”

“I did,” Jack said with a nod before turning to look at Fraiser. “Have we started looking into why I can use the stuff?”

Fraiser nodded once. “We have, but I think we’re going to need to get a geneticist on staff to start checking into that.”

“Great,” Jack said. He tilted his head slightly to the side. “One of your nurses is on the way up here.”

“Excellent,” Fraiser said.

Jack let his senses spool out further until he hit Sheppard and McKay. “Sheppard, sitrep!”

“The last simulation has finished its run and Rodney’s reviewing the information. From the mutters, he’s happy with the results, and he’s making a to-do list,” Sheppard reported.

“If O’Neill’s listening in, let him know that the simulation shows that we’re going to be able to get Teal’c out of the gate. I’ve written the process down, and we’re going to head over to the Gateroom to start setting things up. Let Carter know,” McKay cut in. He sounded determined, and Jack nodded.

“Sheppard, let McKay know I’ll inform Carter, and she’s likely to head down to you soon,” Jack said. When Sheppard made an assenting noise, he turned his attention back to the conference room. “Carter, McKay states the simulation worked, and he’s going to start setting everything up.”

“Okay. So, I’m going to head down there as soon as Janet confirms the parentage of the kids,” Carter said with a nod.

“You’re clear,” Fraiser said. Carter glanced at Hammond and headed out when he gave her a nod. Fraiser had a folder open and was flipping back and forth between two pages. “Daniel, Colonel, you two are the parents of the twins.”

“I thought so,” Daniel said softly. He reached over and picked up one of the babies and handed them over to Jack before reaching into the crib to pick up the other. “Do we know if they have S&G genetics?”

“It looks like they have it, but we didn’t test for that. We strictly tested for paternity,” Fraiser explained.

“Right. Well, we can do that. Now we have to figure out how to explain them,’ Daniel said.

Jack nuzzled the baby in his arms and breathed in deeply, imprinting the scent of his child. “We’re going to need names, Danny.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s going to be a fun discussion,” Daniel mused. He handed the baby he was holding over to Jack when Jack held the baby he had been holding out. “Hey, sweetie. Janet, which one do I have now?”

“We wrapped both babies in white blankets, Daniel. I have no idea,” Fraiser said with a shrug.

“Right. Well, then. Jack? Do you want to name our little boy?” Daniel asked.

“Sure. Just make sure that whatever you name our little girl is something that a) I can pronounce, and b) something that isn’t going to get her teased,” Jack said easily. “And their last names?”

“O’Neill,” Daniel said firmly. “They’ll have your last name.”

“Okay,” Jack agreed after several seconds.

“Good. So, our little girl will be named Alessandra Meara,” Daniel decided.

“What does her name mean?” Jack asked.

“Alessandra is ‘defender of mankind’, and Meara is ‘merry, lively and happy’,” Daniel explained. “One Greek name and one Gaelic name.”

“And I can even pronounce them,” Jack said with a smile. He leaned over and took a deep breath of the baby’s scent. “Since I’ve got the little boy…” He looked up at Daniel and scowled in play. “You stole my idea of Alexander.”

Daniel shrugged once before smirking. “Sucks to be you.”

“Whatever,” Jack said with a grin. “Elijah Xavier. Elijah is Hebrew, and it means ‘the Lord is my God’, and Xavier is Basque and it means ‘new home’. Names a bit easier to say, and they flow decently.”

“Okay, we can generate the birth certificates with those names,” Fraiser said with a nod. She was busy writing down the names.

“Good,” Jack said. He smiled as he pressed a kiss to the head of the baby in his arms. “Okay, I’m going to go down and monitor the gate and make sure that Teal’c is okay when he’s spit out.”

“I’ll stay with the kids,” Daniel said.

“Sounds good,” Jack said before he got up to lay the baby he was holding back in the crib. “Start making some lists, so we know what we have to pick up.”

“Will do.”

“Okay, last connection is confirmed in place,” Rodney said. He looked over at Siler and nodded. “You and your men did an amazing job, Sarge.”

Siler’s smile was barely there, but Rodney could feel his pleasure at the compliment. “Thank you, sir. The plans you have for the stargate helped a lot.”

Rodney smiled. “Good to know.” He looked at Carter and waved at the iris. “We need to take that down.”

“Right.” She stared up at the gate before looking at Siler. “How long will that take, Siler?”

“About fifteen or twenty minutes, Major,” Siler confirmed. “I’ll get my people started on that.”

“Thanks, Siler,” Carter said. She watched as Siler called his men back into the Gateroom to start working on the iris. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, are you?” Rodney asked. He kept most of his attention on the computer monitoring the stargate as the engineers started taking the iris down.

“Yeah. I want him out of that damn thing, and then I want a nap,” Carter said. She slanted a sideways glance at him and sighed. “I felt better after I slept.”

“Same,” Rodney admitted. “Did you get some breakfast?”

“Yup. The colonel and Daniel picked me up before we went back to my lab,” Carter said. She took a deep breath and turned back to face the gate. “And you were right to call me out. It hurt to hear, but I think I needed it.”

Rodney decided not to press his luck and simply nodded.

The clang of the iris hitting the ramp snapped him out of his mental wanderings and he grunted in surprise as the structure didn’t bend. “As thin as it is, why isn’t that bending from the weight of itself?”

“Trinium,” Carter said shortly. “After this, I’ll pass you the information we have on it.”

“That’s great,” Rodney said with a smile before turning his attention back to the iris. “How hard is it to work with?”

“Hmmm…” Carter hummed softly before she shook her head. “I’m not the person to ask that question. I just know it works and can suggest that we use the material. Siler might be the best person to ask.”

“I’ll make an appointment with him,” Rodney decided as he watched Siler and his crew move the iris out of the way. When O’Neill walked in with John, he eyed the man carefully. There had always been an edge of melancholy to their Alpha, and it was reassuring to see that had been cleared from his emotional landscape. “O’Neill.”

“McKay. Carter. How’s it going?” O’Neill asked. He eyed the iris and tilted his head as he inspected it. “It always seems weird that it doesn’t bend. Anyway. Are you ready to try to pull Teal’c out?”

Rodney watched as Carter checked the computer and then took a deep breath. “Yes, sir.”

“McKay?”

“We’re as ready as we can be. Are we still under the 48-hour deadline?” Rodney asked.

“We are,” O’Neill confirmed.

“Right,” Rodney huffed. “Let’s get Teal’c out of the gate.”

Rodney watched as Carter went down the checklist they had assembled for this. Each point was confirmed, and she went on to the next smoothly. When she hit the end of it, she looked over at O’Neill. “We’re ready, sir.”

“Go for it, Carter,” O’Neill directed.

Carter stared up at the gate and hit the sequence to open the gate. Rodney resisted the urge to grab John’s hand as the gate started to fill with the wormhole. “Holy shit,” he breathed as he saw the reality of what he’d always thought to be theory happen in front of him. When Teal’c ran out of the gate, he smiled. They’d done it.

“Teal’c. Nice gun,” O’Neill said with a smirk. He waved towards the SP’s standing by. “Gonna let them have it?”

“Perhaps,” Teal’c rumbled as the wormhole vanished behind him. He glanced around the Gateroom and raised an eyebrow as he saw John. “Capt. Sheppard. I did not expect to see you here.” He turned back to O’Neill in question.

“Yeah, we’ve got stuff to discuss,” O’Neill confirmed. “Things got very interesting right after we went through the gate.”

“Indeed,” Teal’c said before he finished his walk down the ramp. Once his feet were on the concrete floor of the Gateroom, he shrugged out of the massive gun rig he’d been wearing and handed it over to two of the SF’s. “Let us go.”

“Right. Quick stop in Medical to let Fraiser know you’re okay and then we’ll go up to the conference room to debrief you,” O’Neill said. He escorted Teal’c out of the Gateroom and flashed Carter a speaking glance.

“Before we start assembling an After-Action Report, I want to make sure that the computer is recording the gate travel,” Rodney suggested. When Carter waved her hand at the computer, Rodney squatted down in front of it as she started inspecting the DHD for damage.

“Damn it,” Carter cursed as she opened the DHD.

“What?” John asked as he walked over to peer inside the ancient machine. “Is it supposed to look like that?”

“No, it’s not,” Carter said with a huff. She reached in and pulled out several shattered crystals. “I didn’t even hear this happen.”

“There were several small pops as the gate closed,” John reported. He reached in and pulled out several more crystals. “These are cracked as well.”

“Damn it,” Carter hissed before she accepted the crystals and held them up to the light. “I can’t see the cracks.”

“They’re microfractures, and I have no idea how you’d test for it, but they’re there,” John assured. “They’d need to be replaced before the DHD is used again.”

“Okay, those will be tested then,” Carter said with a sigh before she looked back into the guts of the DHD. “Are there any more crystals that are cracked?”

“I’ll check,” John said.

Rodney swapped out the portable memory that Carter had attached to the laptop and made sure that the laptop was ready to record several wormholes. “Carter, we’re ready to start recording regular traffic again.”

Carter popped up and stared at the gate before she turned around the stare up at the control room. “Harriman, let me get the DHD disconnected and then, once the Dialing Computer is back up, start dialing the Alpha Site to see if any of the Teams went there after their mission was completed.”

“Yes, Major!” Harriman called.

“Power’s off to the DHD,” John stated.

“I’m disconnecting the DHD from the gate,” Rodney said as he unhooked each cable from the stargate and set it aside. When he disconnected the last cable, the gate vibrated slightly. “DHD cables are disconnected. I’m going to connect the cables attached to the Dialing Computer now.”

“Sounds good,” Carter said as she coiled one of the cables attached to the DHD. “Sheppard, once I’ve got this tied up, we should move it to a corner so the path through is cleared.”

“Sounds good, ma’am,” John said. He offered up a large cable tie to her when she reached for it.

The last of the cleanup was completed quickly, and Harriman dialed an address without hesitation. When the wormhole splashed out, Rodney stared at it. “That’s amazing.”

“It really is,” Carter agreed. “I mean, I see it a lot, so it’s gotten to be my normal, but yeah. It’s amazing to see what most of the planet thinks of as science fiction be science fact.”

“Have you done the math on it?” John asked. He was staring at it with as much fascination as Rodney was, and Rodney could feel his curiosity burning within him. “What does it feel like to go through?”

“Yeah, I’ve got the math. I’ll send it to you,” Carter said with a grin. “And it’s cold the first few times. Once you get used to going through it, you no longer frost up.”

“Better than heating up,” Rodney agreed. He glanced up at the control room as the gate continued to stay open. “Is this normal?”

“Yeah,” Carter said. “I’m sure that the General is talking to Colonel Riley. He’s in command of the Alpha Site, and all the Teams know to head there if the Mountain is unavailable.”

“Smart,” John grunted before tilting his head to the side. “Major, the Colonel would like us to head up to the conference room.”

“Shall we?” Carter waved her hands towards the blast doors.

Rodney shot the wormhole a last glance before he turned to follow her. The sight had been amazing, and he wanted to see it again before they went back to Area 51.

John settled into a chair at the conference room table and glanced around the room. He could feel a subliminal hum moving through the complex, and he closed his eyes to figure out how he could ignore it. It wasn’t quite a teeth-rattling issue, but it sure moved him.

“John?”

“The gate has a very deep hum. It’s basically subliminal, but it caught my attention,” John said softly. “If we’re going to have anything to do with this place, I need to know how to deal with it.”

“You get used to it,” O’Neill informed him as he walked in with one of the babies in his arms. “I’ve basically stuffed the whole sensation into the same place I put the sound of an airplane.”

“Hmm,” John hummed as he worked to tuck the hum of the stargate away. It took almost a minute before the unease he’d been feeling faded away. “Better.”

“Great,” Rodney said. He slid a cup of coffee in front of him before turning his attention to O’Neill and Jackson. Both of them were holding a baby and looked utterly content. “So, I take it they’re yours?”

“They are,” Jackson confirmed.

Rodney grinned at them. “That’s great.”

“Sir, we’re going to need to take paternity leave,” O’Neill said to Hammond with a grin.

“We can give you eight weeks. When you get back, we’ll discuss what that means for your futures on SG-1,” Hammond agreed.

O’Neill’s smile dimmed slightly before he nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Right,” Hammond said with a sigh. “Now, we’ve gotten Teal’c out of the gate; we need to know the price we need to pay. Dr. Jackson, what did the Russians request for the use of their DHD?”

“Power,” Jackson said bluntly. “Russia is low on clean power, and they want something for their research sites that won’t stress out their electrical grid. Currently, they can’t go much beyond where they are now because the stress would crash whole swathes of the grid.”

“And we’ve got naquadah generators,” Hammond said after several seconds of thought. “Why did you offer power?”

“I wasn’t going to offer them weapons,” Jackson said. He sounded scandalized, and John had to suppress a smile at the expression that was stamped all over the man’s face. “Power seemed like a decent compromise on what they wanted.”

“So how are we going to share our naquadah generator tech with them?” O’Neill asked. “Carter is our current expert in the generators, and there’s no way we can send her out there. Our next best expert is Dr. Zelenka out at Area 51, and he’s got it in his contract with us that he can’t be sent into any of the former Soviet countries.”

“Sending any of our scientists to Russia sounds like a great way for them to get a hostage,” Rodney said. From the queasy feeling echoing down the bond, John could tell he wasn’t thrilled to be butting in. It always surprised John when Rodney got hit with a case of nerves because it was so rare. But this wasn’t a normal occasion, and he could understand why he was having issues. “What about bringing them here?”

“To the SGC or Area 51?” Hammond asked.

“Well, the SGC has a lot of secrets, and I’m doing my best to ignore the more interesting things I’m hearing, sir,” John said reluctantly. “I’m sure that if you let the Russians in here, they’ll send as many sentinels as they can so they can listen in on everything.”

“What’s to keep them from doing the same at Area 51?” O’Neill asked. He was slowly rocking the baby in his arms as the kid slept.

“Sir, we’ve got shields over all the interesting labs. It’s been put in over the last six months,” John explained. “Colonel Landry has been pushing for their installation since my pride got on base.”

O’Neill raised one eyebrow at that. “Interesting. Any idea why?”

“No sir,” John said promptly. If O’Neill hadn’t run into Landry’s issues with sentinels and guides, he would soon enough. It would be best if he didn’t cause him to prejudge the other officer.”

“Something to look into then. Are there lecture rooms that we can use to teach how to assemble a series of generators?” O’Neill asked.

“There are,” Rodney said.

Carter hummed softly as she leaned back in her chair before glancing at Rodney. “Do you think Zelenka could teach the class?”

“Only if you want them to blow themselves up when they try to build a generator when they get back in Russia,” Rodney said with a wince. “He’s not fond of anything Russian.”

“Right. Let’s not then,” Hammond said firmly. “We’ll invite the Russians over to teach them how to make their own generators, and Major Carter will teach them. Dr. McKay, would you be interested in learning this tech as well?”

“Yes,” Rodney said with a broad smile. “I would love to.”

“Okay, sounds good. Now. Let’s go over how we’re going to write up our reports on this event,” Hammond directed. He opened the folio he had in front of him and clicked his pen to access the ink. “From the beginning.”