Serpent's Vow

19: Cascade Failure

So this was the offending device responsible for this whole mess. It was smaller than Seto imagined it to be. It was slightly taller than he was but it was only wide enough for one person to stand directly in front of it. Maybe it was the fact he was more familiar with the big and grand that the relatively nondescript mirror almost seemed like a letdown. The frame was made of rough-hewn naquadah which he could feel now that he was close to it. But he couldn't for the life of him figure out what material the reflective surface was made of.

Standing in front of it was Dr. Jackson, Col. O'Neill, and-

He flinched and glared at the other person. He was male, about Dr. Jackson's height, brown hair cut in a style similar to Col. O'Neill's, and held himself at rest. Unlike the female disturbance Dr. Carter, this man was clearly military.

The reflection in the 'mirror' flashed and a sound like swords sharpening filled the room and suddenly the image on the reflection changed! Seto stopped abruptly in the hallway before entering the room and stared at the device dumbstruck. The scene reflected in the smooth surface was virtually identical to the corridor he and the two Carters stood in, except the corridor in the image was empty. There was just something innately wrong about looking in a mirror and not seeing yourself.

He shuddered unintentionally, habitually tugging his Shadows closer like a security blanket he would never admit to having.

"Hey! We did it!" Maj. Carter declared, stepping past Seto with a proud smile on her face.

The three men in the room jumped and turned with expressions of pleasant surprise. The male disturbance's face wasn't one Seto had seen on the base yet which was odd considering the similarities between Dr. Carter and Maj. Carter. Perhaps his counterpart simply wasn't here. Or maybe he was dead in this reality.

"What? Already?" Dr. Jackson asked, shifting the small leaf-shaped device in his hands so he could reach up and adjust his glasses.

"That was fast," the colonel said casually, seeming altogether completely unsurprised.

"Yeah," the major chirped. "All we have to do now is get it hooked up in your world," she nodded to her doppelganger, "and dial the Asgard homeworld."

Seto blinked and stared at the major. The Asgard homeworld?! That was possible? Their homeworld was in another galaxy. Since when could the Chappa'ai reach another galaxy? Even Ra hadn't been able to pull that off 5,000 years ago. He'd had to actually fly there the old-fashioned way. If Ra had been able to dial the Asgard's home galaxy...

Seto tried not to gulp at the terrible thought.

"It works?" the male disturbance said, eyebrows raised in interest.

Dr. Carter beamed and reached in front of Seto to flip a switch on the device. A stripe of green light the same shade as the glowing liquid naqadah turned on and the device hummed to life. Despite his misgivings, Seto was reluctantly impressed. It may be Asgardian by design but whatever, whoever actually put this thing together initially had to be gifted in electronics and engineering. For just a small hunk of metal and bare wires, it generated an astounding amount of raw power.

"Nice. Who's this?" the male disturbance said curiously, nodding to Seto.

Seto tilted his head and pointedly ignored him. "Dr. Jackson," he said, startling the archaeologist. "A word."

Handing over a small handheld device of non-Human design to the male disturbance with a muttered apology, Daniel hurried over to where Seto stood in the hallway.

"Wha-"

"I'll be gone before you get back," Seto said, cutting Daniel off before the archaeologist could speak. "I can't stay much longer. I have things that need to be done back home."