The Barque of Heaven by Stargate

Author:Stargate
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781905586059
Publisher: Fandemonium Books
Published: 2008-01-25T05:00:00+00:00

GATE EIGHT

Bringer of Darkness

am instantly regretted sucking in that first instinctive breath on exiting the wormhole; air that felt like liquid nitrogen filled her throat, freezing her tongue and making her teeth ache.

"Mmph!"

She clamped her mouth shut, but that just made her nose ache too. Cold-sub-zero, shrink-your-eyeballs kind of cold-hit her all over. And it was dark. Very dark. All too aware the glow of the wormhole made them a target easily seen for some distance, she brought her weapon up. The others slurped through the event horizon beside her and immediately set up a chorus of complaints.

"Man, this is colder than a polar bear's ass."

"Oh boy, this is too much." Daniel's hands were already back under his armpits. "Can't we go home now?"

Even Teal'c looked daunted by the cold, but he braced himself and glanced enquiringly at Sam. "May I ask why you are smiling, Major Carter?"

"I can hear you all again. I can hear me!"

"Nice to hear your dulcet tones too, Carter."

The wormhole whisked away to nothingness and left them standing in utter darkness.

"Whoops."

"Nuts." The colonel switched on his MP5's light. "Daniel, the flashlights are in your pack."

"Uh, no they're not. I've got a pen light somewhere." Daniel's slightly darker outline could just be seen bending over.

The colonel snapped open the cover of his chrono and the phosphorescent dial shone out like a tiny moon. "Yes, they are. I put them there."

"I know, but I took them out to make room for one of the first aid kits because Sam ended up with two of them."

"Carter?"

"Um, I don't think I've got them, sir," she replied, also turning on her gun's light.

"Well, how about we all just stand here in the dark and whistle then?" the colonel said acidly.

"I believe I have them, O'Neill." Teal'c fished around in the duffle he carried and finally produced four flashlights.

Daniel found his small, powerful pen light, switched it on and pointed it outward to find-trees.

"That's a lot of trees." Sam peered past the glare at the forest of slim, straight trunks surrounding them in all directions.

Daniel shone the beam on bare earth then up into stark, empty branches. Three more beams joined his to illuminate the ghostly limbs.

"Everything's dead."

"They could have been like this for hundreds of years," Sam said, her face wreathed in moisture condensing from her breath.

"They probably died of the cold, like I'm about to," the colonel snapped. "Can we skip the nature tour and get on with it please?" He shook out his poncho and began refolding it.

Teal'c straightened up from the moon-clock. "Eight hours, twenty-seven minutes."

Sam tipped her face up and drank in the beautiful sight of a clear black sky studded with millions of bright stars. Out there in space not too far away blazed a nebula in green and gold glory.

"No moon in sight."

"None of the indicators are lit yet, Major Carter."

"Daniel, go dial home."

Daniel walked cautiously over to the DUD. This time there was no platform for the Stargate to rest on, merely a patch of ground.

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