Darkness(CNP)
Chevron Nine Part 1: Prologue: “All the Darkness in the World”
“He's very lucky. A little bit more to the right, and the blast would have burned through his spinal column and severed the nerves,” Doctor Janet Frasier said. “He would have been paralyzed for the rest of his life. As it is, he should be up and around again in no time.”
“He will be pleased to hear that,” Teal'C said.
Janet nodded absently. She hated field medicine. Why must this always happen to Daniel? she thought. He was her friend, and it hurt her to see him in pain.
The man lying facedown on the stretcher before her stirred. “Sha'uri...?” he moaned.
Teal'C's face was a study in stoicism, as it always was when he was trying not to be emotionally affected by something. As for herself, Janet just wanted to cry. “I'm sorry,” she said, he voice catching in her throat. “She never arrived on Earth. I’m afraid-” She didn’t want to say it, but she had to. “I’m afraid she’s very probably dead, Daniel.”
“No...” Daniel Jackson whispered, a strange mixture of agony and hope in his eyes. Janet averted her gaze; it was too much to bear. “No, she isn't, she can't be. The Stargate... nine chevrons...” He lost consciousness again.
Janet felt cold. Had the Stargate dialed all nine chevrons? Had Sha'uri gone through? If so, why had she left Daniel here on Etrar, injured?
But if the Gate actually had dialed Earth... then where was she?
“We should go home,” Janet said to Major Samantha Carter.
Sam nodded. “I've had about enough of this place. How's Daniel?”
“Medically? Stable.”
Carter didn't like the way she'd put that, nor the look in the doctor's eyes. “But?”
Janet sighed. “He woke up asking about Sha'uri.”
Sam winced. “So you told him what happened.” At Janet's nod, she said, “Oh, man. To lose her twice... he'll never get over it.”
“She's not dead. I'll find her. I'll find her if it kills me.”
The two women turned at the sound of Daniel's soft, determined voice.
“If you start looking right now, it certainly will,” Frasier said sternly. “You shouldn't be on your feet.”
“I'm fine,” he said stubbornly. “Let's go.” As he turned toward the DHD to dial out, he stumbled slightly and let out a gasp of pain. Ignoring Frasier's admonitions, he entered the coordinates for Earth.
The inner ring of the Stargate spun, and each of the first six chevrons locked, glowing a dull red. It dialed the seventh chevron...
. . . and kept going until all nine chevrons engaged.
Sam stared in astonishment. “The DHD must be malfunctioning. Maybe it was damaged in the battle...”
“What are the odds it would actually connect?” Colonel Jack O’Neill muttered.
Energy crackled around the Gate, leaping across the opening in arcs from chevron to chevron. The wormhole that formed looked ragged, more like a storm-tossed sea than the usual calmly rippling pool. It flickered, unstable.
Carter examined the sensor readings from the M.A.L.P. - Mobile Analytical Laboratory Probe - that had arrived with Dr. Frasier. “The Stargate’s power levels are low, and dropping way too fast. It could either shut down or short out at any moment. It’s too risky to try to send anything through. Even if we just tried to send the M.A.L.P., the energy surge required for wormhole transit might blow up the Stargate.”
“But Sha’uri’s on the other side... !” Daniel stepped forward, but O’Neill caught his arm. Not realizing which arm the colonel had a hold of, Daniel tried to twist free, wrenching his wounded shoulder. The pain drove him to his knees.
“And where, exactly, do you think you’re going?” O’Neill demanded.
“After my wife,” Jackson gasped, returning to his feet.
O’Neill stared at him incredulously. “Over my dead body! Didn’t you hear what Carter just said?’
“Let me go,” Daniel pleaded, desperate. “Look at the Gate! I heard what Sam said. That wormhole’s going to collapse, and when it does, we’ll never be able to get to wherever it leads again. Jack, this could be my only chance t o find her!”
“I can’t let you take the risk, Daniel.”
“If she died going through that wormhole, then I will, too,” Jackson replied, despair clouding his blue eyes. “Then I won’t have to live with having lost her. Again.”
Something in the tone of Daniel’s voice left O’Neill stunned speechless, and he slowly released his grip on the younger man’s arm. With a wordless Thank you, Daniel turned and dove through the Stargate, only a moment before the event horizon dissolved and the Stargate died.
He found himself in a fantastic world.
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