Returned Chapter Nine: Lost

I am so sorry for the insanely long wait. Late this summer we went through a death in the family and we’ve only really just stopped dealing with the fallout. But I’ll be back writing now and I’ve had time to plan out the plot so you have much to look forward to!

Big special thanks to HAZMOT for her thoughtful PM. hugs

When Daniel opened his eyes the ceiling was familiar; the infirmary.

No one was there this time. He stood up and winced when something pulled in his neck.

Neck. Strangling. VALA!

He started to run towards the gate room.

Daniel found the gate room in shambles. Sparks were flying unchecked and wires trailed over the floor like vines cut from a tree. His foot skidded out from under him. He looked down.

Blood.

The world spun for a moment but he fought it down. There would be time for it later…

…Maybe…

…Probably not.

“Daniel!”

He turned to see Sam just coming through the door.

“Hi. What’s going on?”

“You’ve been out a few hours. We’ve started repairs but once again they’re going to take a while without outside help from our allies…”

“…that we can’t contact,” Daniel finished for her, staring at the ruined mess of the gate room.

“Yeah.” She shrugged, her characteristic yeah, we are that screwed shrug.

They stared at the wreckage for a moment, contemplating more months of repairs so soon after they’d been completed the last time.

“Come on. Landry wanted to see us after you woke up.”

---

The room was silent, its occupants still as they stared vacantly in different directions, no chatter or squirming like usual. Landry was on the phone in the other room with the door shut; oppressive. Everything felt like a horror movie.

He came out and sat down, staring at all of them.

“Any clues?”

“Rather the lack thereof sir.” Sam glanced over the readouts in her hands.

“The airman they… tore apart suffered no ill effects. You’d never know anything had happened to him with any scan we know of. We were unable to tell where the aliens left to this time, but we know they came from the same galaxy Vala gated to during her first escape.”

“It wasn’t an escape attempt. They called her.”

Heads turned to look at Daniel who was rubbing at his eyes, seeming distracted.

“What do you mean by that?”

“She wasn’t just randomly trying to get out. And if she’d been in control at the time that guard wouldn’t still be in the infirmary. They sent a signal to the microchip and told her to come.”

“But why? What can they possibly want with Vala?”

“You heard them. We make such lovely pets. I saw her eyes when she attacked me. She’s completely blank. Either they’re suppressing her or they’ve destroyed her soul as they like to call it. Either way they wanted control of her.”

“How could they do that, though? It would take technology…”

“We saw how small and powerful their tech was already. They could be using nanos or even particles. The really interesting thing that I was getting at is that our new scanners, the ones put in to prevent anymore invisible infiltrators or attacks, managed to get a reading on the aliens before they fried.”

Sam paused staring at her file on the table.

“Well?” Mitchell finally asked.

“Those scanners scanned every wavelength, energy, every thing you can think of. We got nothing. They might as well not have even been there.”

“What about what they did to the gate?”

“We got nothing from that either. The second it shifted to red it was like it didn’t exist anymore. Either they have a completely new type of energy or I don’t know. I have nothing to work with here.”

“So… what you’re saying is that we have no way to detect them.”

“Yep. Unless we find something I’ve missed, I have nothing to go on. And there doesn’t seem to be a way to defend from them.”

The horror movie silence was back. Daniel stood and walked to the window, his back to the rest of them.

“So we’re losing this before we’ve begun, aren’t we?”