Who: John and Sam What: All I want for Christmas… Where: Sam’s house When: Mid December Rating: Low Status: Complete
Sam had called John over for some secret reason but whatever it was she sounded excited. After rubbing his gloved hands together, he knocked on her front door and waited for her to answer. Maybe it had something to do with the equations she’d shown to him before, there wasn’t much else apart from science that got Sam that excited.
Sam hadn’t been able to believe it for a while but no matter how hard she pinched herself or how much she rubbed her eyes the fact remained that there was a stargate in her back garden. She’d called John instantly, rushing to the door she flung it open and grabbed his hand, “You aren’t going to believe this”
“Woah!” John exclaimed as Sam dragged him through her house. “What’s going on Sam?” he laughed, amused by her enthusiasm.
“I woke up and it was in the garden, the dialling device too” Sam said excitedly before opening the door to the garden and revealing the Stargate, “It’s the wormhole device I told you about, the gate to other worlds and it’s here. For real”
“The wha…?” John asked as she pulled him out into the garden. “Woah!” he exclaimed as he gazed up at the giant grey ring. “Holy shit Sam, what did you do?” he looked at her with a wry grin.
“Well I wished on a star” Sam said, “Apparently around here that really works” she grinned, “So wanna see if it works and go on an adventure?” she asked almost giddily.
"Am I the Jiminy Cricket to your Pinnochio then?" John joked. "Of course! How do we know where we're going? What makes it...go?" He asked.
“You can be my conscience if you like” she grinned, before explaining the basics of the gate, “So basically I was thinking we should dial somewhere that in my dreams I know is safe and not likely to kill us”
“Why not? Sounds like fun,” John grinned before listening intently to her explanation of the device. “So dial an...address on here,” he pointed at the DHD, looking at her to make sure he was using the right words. “I like the idea of coming back and doing it again, so a planet that’s not likely to kill us is a definite go,” he teased. “Do they have names? People who live on them?” he shook his head and looked back at the Stargate. “Are we seriously going to to go to another planet?” he asked in amazement. It didn’t seem possible.
Sam grinned as John seemed to be in agreement to having some fun, “Yeah that’s about it” she nodded, “If it works I mean it may not. They have name though we refer to them as P4F-221 and the kind and some of them do have inhabitants, though of course I have no idea if they will when we go through or if we only get the gate and empty planets”
“Wait, that’s a point,” John held his hand out. “How do we know that these planets are going to exhibit the same environments as in your Dreams? They could be vastly different. And what about getting back? I assume we’d need another...dialling device to operate the gate?” he wasn’t sure why he was being so cautious, maybe it was all the snow they’d been having and everything with Sharon.
“Yeah. We do. You’re right” Sam sighed, “In the dreams we send through a MALP - a Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe. Which checked everything before we went through” she deflated somewhat, “I guess we won’t be going adventuring then”
"No no, give me me a second," John considered, mind reeling at the options. "We can jerry - rig something using our mobile phones or something? We could tether the phones together on their own network and send one through. It should work but we might lose one of our phones if it's not a planet we can go to. What do you think?" He turned to look at her, a bright gleam of innovation in his eyes.
Sam brightened as she thought about his idea, “Yes” she nodded, “Yes that could work. I actually have a couple of phones we could use. Whenever I get a new one I keep my old one just in case, let me get them and we can use them” she said with a smile before running inside to fetch them.
“Great! I’m sure we can figure out how to bluetooth or network them together and have the camera’s transmit from one to the other,” John said, mostly to himself, already fishing his own phone out of his pocket. He started working on a couple of ideas while Sam was away getting the phones. “How many did you find?” he asked when Sam came back.
“Five actually, I think a few might be Elizabeth’s she changed her phone a lot with the UN work she was doing” Which was going in Sam and John’s favour now. “Have you worked out a way to network them?” she asked hopefully.
“I think so…” John replied distractedly typing a few things in on his phone. “There’s an app here which turns one phone’s camera on but lets you control it with another. Just the sort of thing we need,” he smiled proudly. “Now, let’s see which phone can also download the app,” he reached out for one, turned it on and started downloading the app. “Can we take drinks and stuff with us? How long are you thinking of staying out there?” he asked, continuing to tap away on the phone.. “That’s great” Sam nodded, “Yeah I’ll put together some supplies to take with us. We shouldn’t stay gone too long, don’t wanna get stuck on some random planet right? I’ll put some kind of bag around the phones too so they won’t smash on impact” she added her mind ticking over.
“Ok, you do that while I finish this and we should be ready to go in a few minutes,” John said brightly before stopping what he was doing and looking at Sam. “Are we seriously going to go to another planet today?” he asked, still not quite believing that he was saying it.
“Great okay” Sam said stopping to grin at him before getting everything ready, “We seriously are. Hopefully anyway”
John shook his head as she dashed away. It took him a few more minutes to configure the phones to work together, but finally it was done. Slipping the phones into his pocket, he stepped up to the massive stone ring. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt he had to touch it, make sure it was real and not just some shared delusion of two people desperate to see the stars. He ran his fingers over the cool carved surface of the Stargate, feeling in some primitive way connected to the inanimate object.
Sam returned with the supplies they’d need in a backpack and a protective clear case for the phone so it wouldn’t break on the other side but they would be able to see things. “Okay are we ready for me to dial the first set of coordinates?” she asked excitedly.
John turned to her, a huge grin on his face. “Absolutely!”