Stargate Command Infirmary
Mitchell sat uncomfortably on one of the infirmary beds dressed in a hospital gown as Doctor Carolyn Lam née Landry, M.D. examined the diamonds that had mysteriously appeared on his buttocks.
Vala stood nearby, not-so-subtly trying to take a peek at the goods underneath Mitchell's gown. He glared back at her, clutching the gown to make sure she didn't get her own peek at the diamonds underneath, and more importantly the anatomy they were attached to.
"It's just a tattoo, Doc. Vala must have done it while I was asleep," Mitchell complained, trying to get away from the medical prodding.
"I did no such thing!" Vala objected. "If I had the opportunity to put a tattoo on your butt, I would have done much more than just tattoo you, and I would have made sure you knew about it. While it was happening," she clarified.
In Mitchell's opinion, Vala's defense did not inspire much confidence.
Doctor Lam rolled her eyes, both at her uncooperative patient and his lascivious onlooker. "I told you, Cam, it's not a tattoo. First of all, if you'd gotten a tattoo since your last examination, your skin would still be red and irritated."
"She could've used some Goa'uld device to make the tattoo without the irritation!"
"I assure you," said Vala, "if the Goa'uld had such a device, my skin would look much different than it does now."
"Second," Lam continued forcefully, "all tattoos ultimately result in pigment getting trapped within fibroblasts just below the dermis-epidermis boundary. Over the course of decades, the pigment migrates deeper into the dermis." She stood up and motioned for Mitchell to cover himself once again, to Vala's consternation. "The skin sample I took earlier has pigmentation from the surface of the epidermis all the way down, and as best as I can tell, it continues all the way to your muscle tissue. Hell, maybe even deeper than that. Your bloodwork is still being analyzed, but this is not a tattoo."
Vala folded her arms and smirked. "See? I told you this wasn't my fault."
Mitchell glared at her and said, "I'm still blaming you."
Just then, Teal'c walked into the infirmary. Tilting his head, he greeted Doctor Lam, who asked, "Is there something I can do for you, Teal'c? Have you run out of Tretonin?"
Tretonin was the drug used by many of the Free Jaffa to replace the juvenile Goa'uld symbiote they normally carried in a pouch in their bellies. The symbiote was just one more way the Goa'uld had subjugated the Jaffa, replacing their immune system. Tretonin replaced the need for the symbiote with a new dependence, but it was a dependence on a drug that could be synthesized fairly simply, and one which the SGC was happy to give to the Free Jaffa without compensation. The mere existence of the Free Jaffa Nation was compensation enough.
Teal'c smiled and shook his head, "No, DoctorLam, my supply of Tretonin should last me for several weeks yet. I have come to speak with you on another matter, if you are free?"
"Sure, I'm done with Mitchell here, at least until his bloodwork comes back. Colonel, you're off-duty until I figure out what's going on, but you don't need to stay here." Cameron nodded, grabbed his clothes, and tried to escape Vala's interest.
Fortunately, Teal'c's situation had captured her attention, and Mitchell got out of the infirmary clean. "What's up, Muscles?" she asked.
"Vala?" Doctor Lam stared at Vala pointedly, and tried to get the onlooker to leave without making it an order.
Teal'c lifted one hand to assuage the doctor. "It is okay, DoctorLam, I do not mind if she stays. I was performing Kelno'reem in my quarters when a peculiar floating sensation woke me. This was strange enough, as I do not normally experience such things while meditating. Stranger still, I felt an itching sensation after I awoke. When I removed my trousers to investigate the source of my irritation, I discovered an image of three pink butterflies imprinted on my skin, similar to my mark of Apophis prior to becoming First Prime."
Concerned, Doctor Lam said, "Show me." Teal'c calmly pulled one side of his pants down far enough to reveal the mark on his buttocks. "Hmm... this is suspiciously similar to what happened to Mitchell. I'm going to need a blood sample and a biopsy from the affected region before—"
Doctor Lam was interrupted by Daniel knocking on the doorframe to the infirmary entrance. "Bad time?" he asked, glancing to Teal'c and his half-removed pants.
Lam glanced at Teal'c and then back at Daniel. "Let me guess," she said, "you've got three colorful tattoo-like images on each buttock?"
Daniel nodded, "Red apples."
Carolyn sighed and said, "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it's a pandemic."
Vala looked thoughtful for a moment and said, "I'm pretty sure the quote goes, 'three times, it's enemy action.'"
"Yeah, well, as Chief Medical Officer, I'm not taking any chances," Lam said, as she crossed the room towards the big, red button on the wall near the door. "I'm calling it 'alien communicable disease' until I've got further information." With that, she punched the button, setting off the base alarm. All over the SGC, spinning red lights turned on, and a blaring klaxon began to sound.
"But the important thing is," said Vala, "it's not my fault."
Stargate Command General's Office
General Landry was not having a good day. The SGC's established procedures failed to catch a new contagion before it could spread, and to Landry it always seemed like his command was sitting under the Sword of Damocles; one false step, one escaped alien threat, and the International Oversight Advisory would have his head, not to mention the potential fate of all of his subordinates in the Stargate program.
"Give me the breakdown, Carolyn," said General Landry. His eyes kept glancing at the red telephone on his desk which only dialed one number. The base alarm lights were still flashing, but Landry had ordered the klaxon turned off, so that Doctor Lam and her team could hear themselves think while they worked on the problem.
"Around five percent of base personnel have been infected, including all members of SG-1 except for Vala Mal Doran." Doctor Lam held up a clipboard with her findings to read over her statistics. "So far, the only symptom has been the appearance of tattoo-like pigmentation, in the same location on all subjects. Many have a trio of identical or near-identical images, but that is not universally the case. Lieutenant Colonel Carter, for example, has a cloud with a rainbow-pattern lightning bolt.
"Bloodwork for many of the infected is still being processed, but I've already gotten back the results for my first few patients, and there's nothing in the bloodstream that our tests could find, no apparent cause to the changes. No viruses, no foreign bacteria, no nanites, nothing. Our samples don't even have exotic particles from the radiation emitted by the artifact. At least, nothing we could turn up. I've ordered full DNA workups, but that's going to take longer.
"We don't have enough isolation rooms for everyone displaying symptoms, so I've confined most of them to their quarters on base. Of course, nobody's leaving the base with the lockdown." Doctor Lam chewed on her lip and said, "Our best guess as to the source is the radiation being emitted by the artifact SG-1 brought back from PHK-519, and to that end Colonel Carter has requested that her isolation be moved to one of the labs, so that she can investigate it herself. That's pending your orders," she said, pointing to one of the papers on his desk. "That said, we've got more personnel showing symptoms than can be explained by direct exposure to radiation from the artifact, since the radiation is not escaping the artifact's containment."
"You don't think this could be another Prior plague, do you? Something planted on PHK-519 for us to find?" the general asked.
The Priors were the preachers of Origin, a religion devoted to worshipping the Ori, a group of beings that had ascended to a higher plane of existence. The Ori were the ones who had initially driven the Ancients, the group who had built the Stargates, to the Milky Way galaxy. Freedom of religion was all fine and dandy from General Landry's point of view, but the Priors tended to do things like raze towns if there was a single holdout against conversion, or burn heretics alive. And they had superhuman powers such as telekinesis, granted to them by the Ori directly, there was that too.
Doctor Lam crossed her arms and huffed, "It seems unlikely. There's no way the Priors could know exactly which planets we would send teams to, so it seems like a crapshoot of a plan. And according to SG-1's mission report, the artifact had apparently been on PHK-519 for longer than the Priors have been in this galaxy. If this radiation is the source, it's not a 'present' from our friendly neighborhood Priors.
"That said, this thing seems far more insidious than the PRIOR2 virus. At least with that plague we could use a Goa'uld healing device to temporarily relieve symptoms. I had Vala attempt to use the healing device on Mitchell, and if anything the image gained focus."
General Landry nodded and asked, "What procedures have you taken for protecting your team?"
"BSL-3 with hazmat suits while working directly with patients, and one of the tech guys has already come up with a radiation badge for the stuff the artifact was putting out. It might prove ultimately unnecessary, but I'm keeping them at BSL-3 just to be safe."
General Landry stood and walked around his desk before grasping the doctor's shoulders. "And how are you holding up, honey?" he asked softly.
Doctor Lam pulled herself out of his grip and growled, "Dad, how many times do I have to tell you to keep it professional?"
The general cleared his throat and said, "Sorry, doctor. What are the odds that this disease will spread beyond the base?"
"'Will?' General, if this is contagious and SG-1 represents our index case, I'm absolutely certain that it already has."
The Pentagon, Homeworld Command General's Office
Major General Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill (two L's) leaned back in his chair handling a stress ball. He, too, was not having a good day. On the computer monitor in front of him, Hank was video-conferencing with him over a secured satellite feed.
"Your daughter's right, Hank," Jack said, "this thing has already breached the SGC. We're doing our best to keep on top of things, but I doubt even the CIA's best information warfare guys can keep this bottled for very long."
Hank quirked an eyebrow on the screen. "CIA is involved?" he asked.
"Oh yeah," Jack nodded, squeezing his stress ball. "Hank, we've already got intel on at least one case for every continent. Dollars to donuts there are a bunch that we don't even know about. For all I know it's already spread to every country on the planet. On the other hand, our information suggests that the worldwide population of infected is much lower than what you've got in Cheyenne Mountain." Jack paused. "Haven't heard anything about Madagascar, though."
"How in the world could it have spread this fast? We haven't even had the artifact on Earth for two weeks!"
Jack shrugged. "Probably airborne. Or magic. And you know how I feel about clichés," O'Neill smirked.
"'Any sufficiently advanced technology...' Jack. It seems this isn't an Ori plot, but the artifact came from somewhere other than PHK-519. I've already sent a team there with orders to figure out anything they can about the alien visitors that brought the hat, and Carter has begun her own investigation into the radiation it's still emitting."
Major Paul Davis appeared in the window of General O'Neill's office door, and Jack waved him in while General Landry continued relaying status updates from the SGC, which had been quarantined once the existence of the contamination was made apparent. Davis walked up to O'Neill's desk briskly and passed the general a thick file folder. "An updated list of confirmed cases, and a compilation of our analysis so far," Davis whispered. The Pentagon liaison hesitated for a moment before adding, "Check page three, sir. About a quarter of the way down the page."
Jack nodded to the major, dismissing him, and flipped the file open, scanning down the third page as recommended. "Hank," Jack interrupted the other general. "Could you please tell Sam that Cassandra is now on our list of confirmed cases?" Cassandra had been a young girl discovered on another planet, the only survivor of a bacterial plague engineered by one of the Goa'uld System Lords. Janet Frasier, SGC's Chief Medical Officer at the time, ended up adopting the girl, and Carter had become her legal guardian after Janet's death four years ago. Of course, she was hardly a young girl any more; the fabricated birth certificate that the SGC had created for her put her at 23 years old today.
There was a brief silence on the line. "Sure thing, Jack."
Stargate Command Isolation Room 2
Doctor Lam had assigned the patients that had been the first to display symptoms to isolation rooms, with the remaining patients confined to quarters, with the exception of Carter, who was confined to her lab. As some of the first reported and the highest-profile cases on base, SG-1 was given the dubious privilege of being some of the few staying in isolation. Mitchell, Daniel, and Teal'c occupied Isolation Rooms 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
"Daniel, I'm bored!" Vala, of course, was neither confined to quarters nor stuck in an isolation room. As such, she had decided to pester one of her teammates using the intercom in the observation booth over the room.
"I feel oh so sorry for you, Vala," Daniel snarked without looking up from his book. "Not being infected by a potentially deadly, alien, unknown form of radiation. Woe is you!"
"But that's just it! You've got this exciting adventure!" Vala flailed her arms to emphasize her point. "I'm stuck out here, unable to help fix the problem, and unable to leave the base."
"Don't you normally watch television?" he asked.
Vala slumped into one of the chairs in the observation booth. "It's Tuesday. There's nothing good on Tuesday evenings."
Daniel grinned and said, "Well why don't you put all that... creative story-telling of yours to good use? Try writing something! I'm sure that will keep you busy for a few minutes, at least."
Vala spared him a withering glare. "Ha-ha, very funny. I'll have you know that I have an excellent attention span."
"Alternatively," said Daniel, glancing at his watch, "you could go to sleep. It's 2237 and if there's one thing I've learned over the years, no matter the malady, sleep generally helps." He placed a bookmark in the leather-bound volume he had been reading from, and placed the book on a tray table to the side of his bed. "See you in the morning, Vala."
"But Daniel...!" Vala whined.
"Goodnight, Vala!" Daniel shouted, as he hit a switch, turning out all of the lights in the room with the exception of the emergency illumination.
Stargate Command, Colonel Carter's Lab
"May first, 2007, 2200 hours. Examination log for artifact PHK-519-alpha," Carter spoke into a handheld voice recorder. The hat that SG-1 brought back from PHK-519 was inside a hazardous materials glove box rated for handling radioactive materials in Carter's lab, although she did not use any of the safety precautions being employed by Doctor Lam's team, as she was already displaying symptoms of the infection. Whatever it was. A number of sensors were attached to the glove box, feeding information into Carter's laptop on the table nearby. A plastic cage with a lab mouse shared the glove box with the hat, and several similar cages with other mice sat on tables around the room.
"The artifact is emitting an unknown form of non-ionizing radiation. When unshielded, the radiation was detectable as an EM signal from a range of several kilometers, but standard radiation shielding appears to be effective at halting the emissions. The artifact appears to be crafted of normal felt, thread, et cetera. Common, everyday materials. Unfortunately, destructive testing methods have not yet been authorized.
"Several mouse test subjects have been subjected to the radiation for varying periods of time, to no apparent effect so far." Sam sighed quietly before continuing, "Blood samples from each subject and control have been taken prior to exposure, during exposure, and immediately following removal from proximity to the artifact."
Carter turned the recorder off and sat with her chin in her hands, staring at the mouse inside the glove box. "What's going to happen to you, hmm?" she asked the mouse, neither expecting nor receiving any response. It had been nearly a week after SG-1's brief exposure to the hat before any visible symptoms appeared; hopefully the mice would produce something sooner, or there would be something detectable in the bloodwork before visible symptoms started popping up.
Then Carter could work on trying to figure out how the infection had spread to individuals that hadn't been directly exposed to the hat. None of the members of SG-1 or her test subjects had begun emitting the strange radiation; that was certain.
Stifling a yawn, Carter stood and stretched. "We'll see how you do with several hours' exposure more than your buddies," she said to the mouse. "Maybe time to the appearance of symptoms is related to exposure time." With that, she closed her laptop, putting it to sleep, and crawled over to the bed she'd set up in the corner of the lab. Sleeping near radioactive alien artifacts wasn't so bad, when you got to do rewarding work.
"Let's save the world, one more time," Sam mumbled to herself as she flicked off the lights.
Teal’c is becoming Fluttershy?! Why would you do that to him?
This is good. Please keep going.
I thought the staff forbade making additional Five Score stories years ago. Did they change that? Did I miss an announcement?
8327461 personally i find nothing wrong with the 5 score stories i really dont see the problem and i for one am curious why. do you know exactly?
8327461
For a period of time, there was a rule that new Five Score stories had to be 30k+ words at the time of submission, or complete. That rule has since been removed, although I do have >30k written already as a buffer so I can try to release new chapters on a schedule while I continue to write.
It was never the case that Five Score stories were outright forbidden, they just had a high bar for approval.
8327461
Well someone obviously approved it.
The people of Madagascar have immune systems of steel and prompt border control. If you haven't infected them by this point you'll need to start over.
8327511
Nonsense. This is clearly a "2 Score" story. Didn't you read the story title when you wrote it?
8327516
Oh god, don't even bring that up. Frigging Madagascar...
As a side note, when I tried playing that game I always tried to imitate the Ori plague, with maximum spread rate, and minimal symptoms, but unfortunately the game doesn't really have an incubation time, so it didn't really work out at all.
I am certainly following this story. There are lots of 5 score stories. There are a handful of crossover 5 score stories. There is currently one 5 score x Stargate story, ergo you get a uniqueness bonus. (Which can make any story somewhat interesting, purely because of the previously unseen ideas being used.)
8327461
There was a rule (since removed) that stories set in the five score universe had to be at least 30k words or have the protagonists ponified before publishing, whichever came first. The reason is that since the protagonists in these stories start human and turn to ponies gradually, many new stories were published that didn't actually have any ponies in them at the time of publishing. They were just human stories, and many of them were self-inserts. The staff was annoyed that so many stories were being published (and then never finished) without ponies in them that they made that rule. Since the number of five score stories has died down, the rule was since removed.
This.
I need there to be more of this.
There are so few good stargate crossovers on this site, this is like finding a gallon water after three months in the desert without so much as a drop previously.
8327510
It was because they, by definition, did not have ponies in them in the first few chapters. As I'm sure you know, non-pony stories aren't allowed, and I guess too many people must have uploaded and abandoned stories before they even got to the pony content. Seems the rule has since been relaxed a bit.
Hmm, it seems pony souls are displaced in this version of five score as well, but the trigger is an unknown. I have strange hunch that the hat being here as the transformation begins is entirely coincidental, as the radiation was shielded. Maybe. Or maybe the slight influx of magic is what triggered the change to their true forms? If it even is their true forms in this version.
Anyway, I am loving this so far!
Very good. The amount of secrecy in the original story never did make much sense to me.
8328181
That was one of the weaknesses of the original story, but there is a couple of variations that Lord of Dorkness made:
Dark Horse
and
One Pony's Curse Is Another Man's Blessing
Both of which are AUs to the original story, just like this story is an AU. And in each one of them, the curse is public, because keeping that secret is not only hard to believe, it also really limits what the stories can do. There is a lot better drama if the entire thing is public, as Lord of Dorkness' stories show.
8328363
Thanks so much for the links! I've been looking for other good Five Score pieces. :)
8328363
Dark Horse was also a major inspiration for me to write this story. I strongly recommend it!
Yay more Stargate stories. And amusing thusfar. And curious to see whether you are going the reincarnation angle or the something else angle. Especially given The Ancients.
Their borders closed a little bit after Starswirl brought the hat to PHK-519.
I loved Stargate a lot i am adding this to my tracking list, So far this seems really good
Two Score, Minus Two = 18... Hmm...
8329409
two score is 40
Welp, I'm keeping an eye on this! Hope to see more...
Well, this looks like it's going to be a tremendous amount of fun. Very interesting choices for who's becoming who as well. Eagerly looking forward to more.
*Breath in*
i.imgflip.com/1t84e5.jpg
*Breath out*
8329409
"Score" is twenty, which is why Five Score (5 * 20 = 100) Divided by Four (100 / 4 = 25) was used for the story in which everyone began their transformations on their 25th birthday. Discord was then punished by being transformed into a mundane horse for Five Score to the Power of Four (5 * 20 = 100, 100 ^ 4 = 100,000,000) years.
Two Score Minus Two is 38. Stargate fans ought to be able to suss out two reasons this number is relevant to SG-1.
8329613
Whoops. Math fail! Thanks!
I missed the boat on the whole "Five Score" bandwagon, but enjoyed Pandemic, which I gather has a similar premise. Since Stargate content is an itch I rarely get to scratch, I shall await further developments with eagerness. And blaming Vala is a perfectly rational
One possible plot hole, though: If naquadah in the blood from possession by a Goa'uld is the reason Vala is immune, Carter should be immune as well, due to her stint with the Tok'ra Jolinar. For that matter, O'neill has also had a Tok'ra in his head at this point.
Congratulations on the front-page feature!
Sixth place, so far. With the mature filter on, so be sure to nab yourself a screen-cap for posterity!
Good start, you have my interest. Characterization is pretty good.
Interesting start so far. Looking forward to more.
Teal'c as Fluttershy...
but seriously I question your choices. Yeah Cam as Rarity.
Sam = Twilight.
Val = Dash.
Teal'c = AJ
Jackson, could see as either Fluttershy or Pinkie pie.
8329782
That's not why Vala is not transforming.
8329866
Yeah, shagohad12 and I were hoping to have both this story and Shangri-La in the featured box at the same time on the 27th, unfortunately he posted his too early for them to be there simultaneously, but I did grab a screenshot. Two days featured (so far) is pretty good, too.
8330107
It's never too early for bad puns!
8330668
Half the fun of a Five Score story, IMO, is the opportunity to pit the pony against a different personality. In fact, Teal'c as Fluttershy was the biggest reason I wanted to do this crossover.
8330796
Fluttershy saying Indeed in Teal'cs' vpice.
I do hope they don't become just clones of ponies, at least not mentally. So shouldn't the hat make the mouse more intelligent? Equestrian mice are pretty smart apparently.
Ok, this is different enough to be interesting.
I like Stargate as well as MLP, so you have my attention.
The Monk
8330668
Actually, if you have a look at who's becoming what, the ponies they're becoming are exactly the OPPOSITE of their normal traits.
Cam: hates fashion, can't care less for what he wears = Rarity, who cares much more than most
Teal'c: huge alien warrior = Fluttershy, who's scared of (almost) everything
Daniel: intelligent scholar = Applejack, who ain't big on book learnin'
Sam: Again, a very technically-inclined learned person = Rainbow Dash, who rails on about 'Eggheads'. The only saving grace here is Sam's going to love to be able to fly without using an aircraft, you can put money on that.
So, if this trend follows, Twilight's clone is going to be someone who's not that good at learning things, and Pinkie Pie's recipient is probably going to be someone who is a real party-pooper.
Of course, that doesn't mean that the recipients of the cutie marks and new forms are going to have the personality of the originals. It's just that the cutie marks are following this trend, and most likely the forms behind them will. And what happens when the Ponies meet their look-alike/opposites? Chaos, confusion and hilarity ensues.
Just had a thought. Imagine Jack becoming Twilight?
8332575
I was thinking the exact same thing, it would be halarious to see Jack being a bookworm pony princess.
8333028
More like looking like a book-loving princess, but underneath, it's the same old Jack, which would really 'jack' around any other pony who knows Twilight, then meets him.
8332575
Honestly, between thumbing his nose at eldritch abominations and his sense of humor, I'd peg Jack as more of a fit for the element of Laughter...
8332569
Which, in light of this comment, makes sense. In which case, I'd put money on either Harriman, Mayborne, or Woolsey, depending on if he's left for Atlantis yet.
8334486
Mr. Woolsey takes command of Atlantis in 2008, this story is taking place in 2007. He visited Atlantis in 2006, but that was a temporary thing.
8334486
Woolsey for Pinkie Pie!
As for Maybourne, can you imagine him stuck as Maud?
I can imagine Teal'c as Flutter-guy, not Fluttershy, if his voice doesn't change.
This is the weirdest crossover. I love it. XD I can't wait for more.
Fu*CK Madagascar! Fu*CK it right up the ass!!!!!!!!
i want to see how every one reacts to the first time the mice start talking to Teal'c
This is a story where people get a very convenient butt tattoos? Sounds stupid.
10309147
This is a Five Score, Divided by Four spinoff, and the appearance of the cutie mark is the first step in the transformation process.