Travelers

Chapter 41 - The Story of Earth

Jacob watched as the small orb rose back into the sky. He had proclaimed Malacandra under protection and that they shouldn't return. It felt good to be the Defender of Malacandra. It was yet another title he had now. The fallen star, the Archer, a true gryffindor, Renegade, Radian, Traveler-2, and now the Defender of Malacandra. Many of those titles were actually bestowed by himself. Richard and Ransom soon joined the rest of the group, and they had to explain to Ransom that they were travelers from a galaxy far, far away. They told him they could bring him back to earth faster than the orb itself could possibly return, though Jacob wasn't sure how landing on Earth would go over. Evidently Ransom was like minded in thinking this way.

"Bringing me to Earth would not end well for you, travelers. You see, Earth is not exactly welcome to visitors from beyond its own atmosphere," Ransom noted, echoing Jacob's thought. They soon reached their own ship and Jacob decided to try something. He pulled Cat aside as everyone boarded.

"Hey, do you think this ship is able to run a scan for power sources or maybe life signs?" he asked.

"I can rig something up."

"You're the best, Cat. Tell me when you get the results back from the scan."

"I will, but it might take a minute. Go talk to Mal about your plan, whatever it is. Probably as crazy as every other one," She noted with a bit of a laugh.

"Oh trust me. It's crazier." He laughed with her and then moved to the bridge as he felt the ship start to move. It was weird being on a ship in the atmosphere. You felt the artificial gravity created for the ship when in space, but you also felt the pull of the planet's gravity. He explained that he didn't want to leave the planet just yet to Mal, and he told her about the scan he was having Cat run.

"What are we looking for, exactly?" Cat asked, popped her head into the bridge. "I ran two different scans and got two slightly different results. There are lots of groups of life forms scattered across the planet, but the nearest one isn't far off. I gave you the coordinates on the dash, Mal." She paused for a breath before continuing. "The power sources however, I only found one easily identified power source. It's a good way off from the nearest clump of life, but it's the only one I can find."

Jacob was almost certain he knew what the power source was, but he didn't like guessing until he knew he was right. They would stop at the village of Hrossa first to drop of Ransom. He would enjoy life with the Hrossa, much like he had in the book. Then they would investigate the power source.

They landed only a little way off from the Hrossa village and pointed Ransom in the way of the village after giving him some spare materials to live off of if he somehow managed to get lost between the village and their landing site. They all waved him goodbye as they took off and glided over the surface quickly coming to the source of power. They landed about a football field length away from the source. As he stepped off the ramp he knew he had been right about what the power source was. Before them in the middle of a field of Malacandra's grass was a large metal circle. On it was carved intricate symbols, and a small console with matching symbols sat a few paces in front of it. Jacob knew what it was. It was a stargate.

He was surprised to have found a stargate, as they had only traveled into things in books before. He knew the stargate was from an older television show, and it allowed one to dial in coordinates of six notable constellations and a galaxy of origin to create a seven symbol address of a planet with another stargate. He had watched all ten seasons of the original show, SG-1, not to mention the two spin offs, Atlantis and Universe. It was about time he put that knowledge to the test. He walked up to podium like dialing device and pressed seven symbols, the address for Earth, as the others watched him confused. When the ring began to spin and mechanisms on the side encoded with the coordinates, Jacob hoped he had remembered the coordinates correctly. If he hadn't, this would be anti-climactic. The last chevron, the name for the mechanisms on the side that recorded the symbols, shifted down over the last symbol and a large burst of what looked like blue water burst forth from the stargate, settling into a blue puddle where the gate stood. He turned to the others, who all looked amazed. He had forgotten to explain.