He had no idea how long it would take to reach the other side of the world. He figured it'd take a few hours, even allowing for a polar or sub-orbital course. This ship could probably exceed mach 3, but since this was an exploration effort, they'd want to go slow enough that they could actually see what they were flying over.

He made a mental note of Kasper's comment about the First Ones' city.

He also kept looking at Asherrra... trying hard not to stare, but still trying to get used to the fact that she was an alien... a feline humanoid. Naturally he'd seen such representations on TV and the movies, but that was all fiction. THIS... was real.

He spent the first hour of the flight roaming through the ship. It was his first starship!

Vasandra was in her glory now--flying! She took the ship up to 10,000 feet and set a course around the planet's equator. The ship had sensors that she thought would pick up anything unusual, but she wasn't really sure what the Goa'uld might consider 'unusual'... or worth their attention. So she watched the viewscreen, shifting the course a bit if something caught her eye.

"So, Wilhelm," she said to the new team member when he found his way to the pel'tak, "how are your observation skills? Any thoughts on what we should be looking for?"

No sooner had Vasandra asked Wilhelm about his observation skills that both of them spot something even as the ship's sensors register it.

It's a stonehenge... tall standing stones in a circle with lintels spanning across each pair.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 221):

In response to both the pinging from the sensors at finding something, as well as the reaction of the others in the pel'tak, Kaspar gives the henge a looking over.

"Hmmm." Kaspar hums, holding his pipe with his right hand as he puffs on it, "I do not recall any mention of the use of stone henges in Ancient architecture *puff* though, they would make an excellent place to put a Goa'uld Ring Transporter, wouldn't they *puff* Oh, what is that Celtic Goa'uld fellow's name? *puff*puff* Ah, yes! Camulus, that's it."

Kaspar turns to Vasandra, "Captain, I think it may be productive to have that young Miss Asherrra come up here and take a look at this *puff* would you be so kind as to page her to come up here? *puff* Perhaps this is something she has seen before."



Kaspar turns back to the screen to observe the image of the henge again, but after a few moments of silence, turns back to Vasandra, removing his pipe as he does.

"Captain Tourmaline, I asked you to page Asherrra up to the pel'tak, please." Kaspar repeats himself, "Vasandra, are you alright? Do you hear me?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:36, Tue 14 Aug 2018.

"I am rrright herrre, Majorrr," Asherrra responds.

"I am not awarrre of any such strrructurrre within the spherrre of the Firrrst City. I have not even such in the Arrrchives."

In reply to Asherrra (msg # 223):

"Hmmm.  So, Asherra, your people have no record of such structures in the information the Ancients left with you." Kaspar confirms, "From what I have read in the SGC database on the Ancients -- and I admit my studies are by no means complete, yet -- I have not read of the Ancients using any such structures in the places we've been, so far.  With the exception of the realm of this Camulus fellow; the Goa'uld System Lord who has adopted a Celtic divine persona."

"So, short of acquiring direct, empirical evidence to the contrary, we can theorize that there is a good chance that this may not be of Ancient construction, but is rather likely to be of Goa'uld origin, with a slightly less chance of being of a completely unknown origin, which just coincidentally looks like a classic Celtic stone henge."

"It only appears to be similar, but it is not," Freyda spoke up.

"The original Stonehenge, if, in fact, it was original, was constructed with concentric circles. I see no evidence of that here. Nor is it anything known to have been built by the Goa'uld."

"You have uncovered much about the Ancients that was not known to us. I would not rule out the Ancients having built it. There were factions that did not agree with each other."

In reply to Freyda (msg # 225):

"When I suspected it might be of Goa'uld or some unknown origin, I was intrigued." Kaspar says to Freyda, "But, my dear Freyda, if there is a chance that it might be of Ancient origin, I am excited by the possibility."

"Captain Tourmaline, would you mind terribly if we interrupted your, ah, test flight of this ha'tak, and landed for just a little while, to take a look around that interesting looking henge?"

---

OOC: have we travelled far enough away from the naquada mine site that it's night time, locally, or are we still in the day-side of the planet?  Vasandra had said she was flying around the equator, but hadn't specified if she was heading towards the dawn or twilight terminator.  Also, I don't remember, but I think that "today" is the day after we mined the naquada.  I think.  We had time to rest and recuperate after spending a few hours of mining...or maybe it's just later that day, and we just took some down time after the work at the mine but before we made our scheduled report to SGC.  I dunno.

While the ha'tak's sensors are quite good, it was preferred to inspect the planet visually, so Vasandra flew toward the 'west', on the premise that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.. But, yes, this was a day later, after everyone had a chance to rest.

At Kaspar's direction, Vasandra steers the craft towards the henge, spots a clearing that will handle the ship's size, and sets the ship down about 100 yards from the henge.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 227):

"Excellent piloting, Vasandra, thank you." Kaspar says, frowning at the console of the pel'tak, and after a few moments, hesitatingly reaching out and pressing a button.  He is rewarded with a click that echoes through out the ship.

"Ha!" Kaspar exclaims in success - and his voice is repeated all over, "Baczność! Każdy wyposaży ... Ah! Sorry.  Attention! Everyone please kit up.  We are going to investigate a possible Ancient site.  The ha'tak will be located very close, so supplies for an extended wilderness stay -- camping gear and such -- shouldn't be needed.  Everyone gear up and assemble in the gate room in twenty minutes, please.  Gorski, out."

Kaspar shuts down the intercom, then turns to Vasandra, "Thank you, Captain. Finish shutting down the ship, and I'll see you in the gate room in twenty."

Kaspar started to turn away, then paused and turned back, leaning closer to Vasandra to whisper in her ear,

Having only set of clothes with her, and those the BDUs she'd been wearing two days' straight, Hilda had gladly riffled through the Dragon Lord's wardrobe for substitutes. Hence, she'd been seen wearing fine silk robes and slippers stitched with depictions of oriental dragons. The Cimmerian, raised in a poor wooden hut on a rustic farm, did not hesitate to help herself to the Goa'uld's luxuries and riches, which she'd earned and paid the iron price for.

But as Kaspar's call came over the speakers, she was both annoyed to leave the luxury and glad to have something to do again, because she'd been getting very bored. Her old Tau'ri clothes were clean now, after going through a washing machine she'd found. Unhurried, she dressed and armoured up, before going down to the Gate Room.

After Vasandra shuts down the ha'tak, the group heads down to the gate room, where Gavan removes a crystal from the DHD. There's no way to disable the gate to keep anyone from coming through, but if the DHD isn't working, then they can't dial back out.

Then the group goes down the hall to the cargo door, opens it, and exits out.

The henge is clearly visible only a hundred yards away.

Hilda leads the way over to the henge.

Up close, you can see that the stones do not appear to be weathered in any way... no chips or cracks or marks on the stone, though there are a few weeds growing up from the cracks between lintels.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 230):

Kaspar approaches the ring of stones carefully, mentally comparing them to everything he knows about the English Stonehenge.

"Be careful, please." Kaspar admonishes everyone, "This may look harmless, but there is a chance it's of Ancient origin.  That stuff tends to pop out and surprise folks."

"No power signatures were detected by the ha'tak's sensors as we came in, so -- Freyda, Gavin?  Any of your equipment detecting anything, now that we're here?"

"Everyone be on the look-out for symbols or inscriptions, and please, please -- nobody step inside the ring of stones until we've looked around the outside, first!"

---

OOC: As an Anthropologist, Kaspar has the Knowledge to know what the Celts built Stonehenge out of, but the closest thing he has to a skill that will let him confirm if these are actual Sarsen stone is (maybe) Appraise.  So, just in case...
Kaspar Radoslaw Gorski rolled 20 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 17.  IDing (guessing) composition of the stone using Appraise Skill.

Approaching the henge, Hilda looked upon the standing stones with awe, at once impressed by the grand scale of the megaliths and disturbed by their otherworldly aspect. The Norse Cimmerians raised runestones, but they were single megaliths inscribed with runes meant to be read. This was far bigger, and far more mysterious.

'Ancient?' she echoed Kaspar's warning. 'It's not that old.'

She looked again at the ring of standing stones. 'So what do they do?' she wondered.

Freyda did not have the complex and powerful sensors of an Asgard ship, and most of what she did have was oriented to biology, but she turned her personal sensor upon the stones.

"You are correct, Major," Freyda informs Kaspar. "These are, indeed, of Ancient construction, perhaps even before the Asgard encountered the Ancients."

"It is a ring transporter... the largest I have every encountered. Given the size, this might well have been a cargo transporter. You could easily transport the stargate via this ring."

"Of course, I am not sure how you would get the gate into ring."

Vasandra remained aboard the ship as security, and was startled when the gate activated.

She quickly picked up the radio signal from SGC, though.

She listened to the report. And request.

She then moved down to the open hatch so she could radio to Kaspar.

"Vasandra to Major Gorski. I've just received a communication from General Hammond. It seems there's been a development."

"He's sending two new people through the gate... from SG-X3. I reported our situation. He's also sending a crew through for the ha'tak. He wants me to bring it back to Earth. Wilhelm will be joining me, so he's got the replacement for Wilhelm."

"He wants you to finish exploring this Stonehenge that you found, and then return through the gate on the ship."

"He also suggested that Asherrra be given a means to contact Earth, and if the First Ones want to dig up their gate, then they can contact us."

"The alternative is if Asherrra returns through the gate with you, it might be a long time before we can return her to her home."

'Slaves.' said Hilda knowingly. 'Always slaves.' She wasn't at all surprised to hear the henge was a ring transporter though; she'd grown up in the shadow of Thor's Hammer and had been a slave in the construction of pyramids for the landing of Goa'uld spaceships after all.

Then Hilda overheard the relayed commands from Vasandra with surprise. 'More people?' she remarked, bemused by all the comings and goings. She hoped there'd be less argument this time. But at least they had a promise of returning to Midgard now.

'Tell him to send one of those little boxes with the naked people on the top, like they sent us. It's weird, but it'll work.'


OOC:
https://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Sagan_Institute_Box
This message was last edited by the player at 01:26, Wed 12 Sept 2018.

As Sarah and Lucky step through the wormhole, it takes about 8 seconds for them to traverse the distance back to the globular cluster.

They reappear on a ramp in front of the receiving stargate currently standing upright in the cargo bay of a ha'tak.

Two people are waiting for them: a purple-skinned humanoid female and a 'normal-looking' human male. The man is dressed in typical SGC black t-shirt, OD-green BDU pants, and an OD-green tactical vest. The woman appears to be dressed in form-fitting jumpsuit.

"Greetings! Welcome to X2U-238!" Wilhelm greets Sarah and Lucky.

"I'm Wilhelm Ashcraft, heavy-handed bodyguard for the team. Well, former heavy-handed bodyguard, as I believe Lucky is my replacement, just as I was Rajip's for all of two hours or so."

"This is Vasandra... from Ta-Netjer. She's our designated driver for this... starship."

Sarah steps out of the gate and steps to the side so that Lucky, following her, doesn't bump into her.   She'd gone first as she'd seen Lucky's previous trip!  On being welcomed to the ship, she smiles. "Well, thank you Wilhelm.  Sadly I'm not Lucky... give you'll be leaving."  She sighs dramatically, "But I'm sure you and Vasandra will make it home in good time."

Lucky stepped through the stargate portal witha shake of his head, sputtering something under his breath before smiling as they were greeted. He shook his head slightly as Sarah commented she was not him, then turned his attention to Wilhelm, "Gunnery Sgt. Lucas Wheeler. Hopefully I don't have to be too heavy handed on security detail. Nice to meet you booooo....," he trailed off as he turned to Vasandra. Though the fact she had purple skin was a bit of a surprise, it was what Wilhelm said registering that gave him pause, "... did he say starship?" he asked nervously quick while pointing to the other man, "He did say starship, didn't he? As in in space starship? Holy crap!" He looked at Sarah with a nervous smile , then at the others, "Sorry."

"Hello," Vasandra spoke up. "Yes, this is a starship in that it is capable of traveling between stars."

"The Goa'uld have been doing it so long, though, that it is just another ship to them."

"The others are already outside looking over the Stonehenge. Feel free to join them. This is a cargo bay, and outside is the hallway to the cargo ramp."

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

"Oh, we're on the ground? Ohkay." It was hard for Lucky to hide his disappointment. He still looked around in wonder, with childlike amazement. "Do they put Stargates on ships alot?" He asked, then looked at Sarah, "I know, we have to get going. But this is way cooler than a mountain full of dwarves on ice." He smiled at Vasandra and Wilhelm again, "Sorry, I'm still new at this."

Vasandra frowns a bit at Lucky's comment. Did not Hammond brief these new people?

Perhaps not. Perhaps Hammond was in a hurry to get these people re-assigned.

"There is a stargate on this world, or so we have been told. It was buried by the Ancients to protect the First Ones, even though there is an Ancient defense system."

"This stargate was being brought to this world to make the mining of naquadah more efficient. One Dragonlord sabotaged the ship, which belonged to a different Dragonlord. The original owner was eaten by a slime creature. Then we came along and disrupted the second Dragonlord's plan and killed him. Now the ship and the stargate are ours by right of conquest."

"Sorry. The General briefed us," Lucky said, rubbing the back of his head as he looked around the room again, still amazed, ", but this is just a little overwhelming. Talking about there being ships is one thing. Being on one it totally different, even if just parked on the ground."

He looked at Sarah, "Ready to get to work?"