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A Prophecy of Shadows
"There is one whose jealousy and hatred eats at the very
soul.
They are yee naaldlooshii, a skinwalker, a dark witch.
They gain their power through ánt’į
Chapter 1
Sam frowned as she went through the data from the last five teams traveling through the 'gate.
"What the hell is that?" she muttered to herself as she looked at the small anomaly. Fingers flying over the keyboard, she pulled up the last month’s worth of missions. Sifting through the info, it didn’t take her long to find what appeared to be a pattern. Wanting to cover all the bases, she picked up the phone.
"Walter? It’s Sam. I need for you to do a diagnostics on the 'gate. Yes, right away. No, I’ll notify General O’Neill. Thanks."
Hanging up the receiver, her eyes focused on the heading that the anomaly fell under.
SG-7.
Two hours later they had convened in the briefing room. "Nothing came up on the diagnostics?" Jack asked.
"No, Sir," Walter replied. "Everything is within normal parameters."
Jack looked at Sam. "Does this burp show up every time they go through?"
Hiding a grin, she shook her head. "It’s a tiny spike in the electrical activity that only happened when SG-7 was going on or coming back from a mission, but it only occurred about sixty percent of the time. The blip didn’t happen with any other team, and current diagnostics as well as the last dozen checks have all been normal. According to the tests, the 'gate isn’t malfunctioning."
Jack was quiet for a moment, but all it took was one look for Sam to know what he was thinking. She turned to Walter. "Thanks for running the diagnostics, and pulling that info for me, Walter."
He nodded, knowing he was being dismissed so they could talk privately. "Not a problem. If there’s anything else you need, just let me know."
Hands clasped together, his mouth resting against his fingers, Jack raised his eyes and looked at Sam, voicing his suspicions with one word. "Jessie?"
Sam cocked her head sideways, her lips pressed together tightly as she weighed the possibility. "I don’t know. Janet had run all the required tests on her before she was cleared for active duty again. But, this blip didn’t start showing up until after the incident with Camulus and the battle on the Prometheus. And, if I hadn’t been specifically looking at the electrical data in correlation with distant solar flares, it might have never been noticed, the anomaly is so small."
"But it’s there."
Sam answered reluctantly. "Yes, Sir."
Jack nodded once, then stood. "Effective immediately, SG-7 is off rotation. I want the entire team to report to Doc Fraiser…give her the information you have, and tell her to go over them with a fine-toothed comb…twice. Understand?"
"Yes, Sir."
Jack stopped at the door, hesitated before turning back to her. "We can’t risk it, Sam," he said softly. "If there’s something there, we have to find out what it is."
"I know," she replied quietly. "I’ll go talk to Janet."
Sitting in a recliner in the infirmary, Jessie tugged at the array of electrodes Janet had attached to her.
"Are you sure you’re not doing a female version of Frankenstein here? All we’d need is Jacob’s Ladder, a little lightening, and some seriously electrified hair."
"Hey, what’s a little electricity among friends?"
Jessie gave the petite doctor a sideways glance. "You’re joking, right?"
Janet rolled her eyes. "Yes. I’m taking the electrical readings from you, not sending them to you."
She let out a sigh. "Is this really necessary?"
Janet checked the readout from the EEG electrodes. "Orders from General O’Neill. Cam, Spencer and Pisano have already completed their testing. So yes, it’s necessary. Plus, I’m just satisfying my curiosity after the discussion Sam and I had."
Jessie stretched, being careful not to dislodge the wires. "So, run that by me again, the nanite theory."
Making sure the computer was recording the readout, Janet sat down on the stool next to Jessie. "When Sam was working on the schematics for the Destroyer weapon, she was theorizing about the nanites’ programming, how they interfaced with the weapon, as well as how they protected you from injury." Janet looked up at the ceiling, trying to recall the description Sam had given. "She called them…carbon fiber nanotubes. They’re ten thousand times smaller than a human hair, five hundred times stronger than steel, and very flexible. Because of their small size, they have the ability to permeate human tissue on a cellular level, basically creating a full body armor."
"But Sam doesn’t have any idea how they ‘know’ what to do?"
Janet shook her head. "Beyond a possible artificial intelligence angle, no."
Jessie ran her finger along the armrest. "But you told me that when the weapon was destroyed, the nanites croaked, too."
"That’s what I believe, yes. The symbol from the godstick disappeared, and you were no longer giving off the energy signature from the nanites."
"So what are you looking for? Brain damage?"
Janet grinned. "I’m just making sure there aren’t any anomalies that I might have missed. Sam found the slight spikes in electrical readings when SG-7 went through the 'gate, and we’re trying to rule out that the spikes are coming from the team."
"You don’t think they’re…hiding…do you?"
Janet patted her arm in a motherly fashion. "That’s what I’m verifying. All the blood work and scans I did prior to this were negative. If any nanites were present, there should be some sort of electrical reading. I want to make sure your body’s naturally occurring electrical activity isn’t masking a diminished energy signature."
"Did the guys all check out okay?"
Janet adjusted the electrode on her left temple. "They’re fine. And there’s a good chance you’re fine, too. The 'gate uses a tremendous amount of energy, and there are times when unexplained blips appear. We have to make certain it’s nothing that will endanger anyone going through the 'gate. Sometimes there’s no explanation for the anomaly, and it fails to recur on its own."
Jessie sighed, then settled more comfortably into the recliner.
"Okay, Dr. Frankenstein. I’ll trust you…this time."
Janet gave Jessie a wry grin, shaking her head. "So, where’s Cam? I haven’t seen him today."
"He took the day off. He was going to catch a flight to Kansas and see his folks for the day."
"Well, that’s nice of him. Gotta love a guy who’s close to his parents."
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