Stargate Exile: Origin

Stargate Exile: Origin



Sam opened her eyes to the inky darkness of the Idlewyld night.  Something had woken her, but she wasn’t quite sure what.  She rubbed at her increasingly rounding stomach, but didn’t feel anyone kicking at her at the moment.  Jack was sound asleep next to her, so whatever it had been hadn’t been enough to disturb him.

Shrugging it off Sam closed her eyes again.  Before she could drift back to sleep a distant sound caught her full attention.  This time she sat up and listened carefully for the noise to repeat itself.  Even though she was greeted with silence she got out of bed anyway.

The whirr of a dialing Gate was something she was intimately familiar with.  However the sound didn’t have the right timing for someone to be dialing in or out, nor had there been the characteristic splash of the vortex.  As she walked through the halls the alcove lights turned on a soft glow to light her way.

Coming to the Gateroom she witnessed the Gate spin once again.  Standing at the DHD with his back to her Sam was unable to tell if it was Gabriel or Daniel who couldn’t sleep, or possibly both.  Stepping closer she saw that he had the programming mode of the DHD set on.  

“Samantha, if you’re trying to sneak up on me you need to stop using that lilac fragranced soap.”  Gabriel chuckled as he continued to work.

“What are you doing?”

Gabriel stopped his program for a moment to look at Sam.  He got that mischievous glitter in his eyes that always told her that it wasn’t Daniel that she was dealing with.

“Why?”  Gabriel smiled.  “Don’t trust me?”

“Not when you smile like that.”  Sam teased.  “Seriously, what is this?”

“It’s a program I’ve been working on for the past few months.  A gift of sorts.”

“A gift?”

“Daniel’s done so much for me, I wanted to do something for him.”

“None of that answers my question about what you’re doing.”

“You’ll see.”

Gabriel continued to press the glyphs on the DHD while the center orb glittered with a myriad of ever changing colours.  Every once in a while the Gate would make a slight turn, sometimes clockwise, sometimes back the other way.  

“Does Daniel know what you’re up to?”

“Nope, he’s sleeping.”

“You running around doesn’t wake him up?”

“Nope.”  

The Gate spun once again only this time the top Chevron locked down.  Gabriel continued with the program with a faster pace.  The look on his face told Sam that whatever he was up to he was almost finished with it.  

“Sam, close your eyes tight.  It’s about to get really bright in here.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

Shaking her head sadly Sam obediently closed her eyes.  Even with her eyes firmly shut she could feel the intensity of the light that suddenly bathed the Gateroom.  She brought her hands up to shield against the red glow that made it past her eyelids.  When the darkness returned Sam was almost reeling.  

“You might want to watch this.”  Gabriel said softly.

Opening her eyes Sam looked to where Gabriel was pointing on the DHD.  One of the glyph panels had turned to a smooth molten sliver.  The surface looked like an oil slick as it shifted.  Sam glanced at Gabriel in shock, but he was just staring at the DHD with a self satisfied smile.  

When Sam turned back she gasped as a new glyph raised itself up out of the mirror like surface.  Quickly looking up she saw that the same event was happening on the Gate itself.  Seconds later the bright silver dulled as the Naquadah cooled.  Gabriel reached out and traced the new glyph with his fingertips.

“Gabriel…what did you just do?”

“Recognize it?”

“It’s the Origin glyph for Abydos.”

“Not anymore.”  Gabriel beamed.  “Now it’s the fourth glyph in the Idlewyld Address.”

“What?”

“The physical symbol doesn’t mean anything, just the programming behind it.  Since Abydos isn’t using it anymore I replaced the glyph for Equuleus with the Origin symbol for Abydos.”

“Um…why?”

“Because I know that glyph is very special to Daniel.”

“But for this to work you would have to change the glyph for Equuleus on every single Gate and DHD.”

“I did.”

“What?!”

“Equuleus no longer can be found on any DHD or Stargate.”

“Gabriel!  What about all the worlds that have it in their Address?”

“They just need to use the Abydos symbol now…it’s in the same spot.”

“Don’t you think that’s going to confuse people?”

“If they can’t figure out the simple change, do we even want them Gate traveling?”

“Gabriel!”  Sam admonished again.

“Don’t worry I picked Equuleus because it isn’t in very many Addresses, it’s kinda like the ‘Q’ on a keyboard, it isn’t used very much.”

“If you wanted to put the Abydos symbol on the Gate why didn’t you just change Idlewyld’s origin?  Then you would have to have changed every Gate in the galaxy.”

“Because I wanted Daniel to be able to use the glyph to get home, not to leave.”  

Sam stared at Gabriel in disbelief.  He smiled shyly and Sam was forced to chuckle.

“Gabriel, how did you get to be so sweet?”

“The Ancients used to keep me in sugar water.”  

Sam shoved Gabriel’s shoulder playfully and they both laughed.  Gabriel stared up at the new glyph forever etched into the Stargate.  He seemed to become lost in thought.

“Gabriel?”

“Do you think he’ll like it?”

“He’ll love it.”


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