The Ninth Symbol
Rush’s voice startled Hari.
“Yes, that is Earth. And you are on a spaceship. The Hammond.”
“It’s beautiful,” whispered Hari.
“We need your help, Hari. I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”
“My help? You have a spaceship. Your military is obviously much more advanced than anyone knows. What could you possibly need from me?” It would be a nightmare if anyone found out about her magic.
“Very few people in the world see the world as we do. See the math as we do. Where we’re going – we can help people. Learn about the universe in ways that will change the world.”
“Where are you going?” asked Hari.
“To another planet, over twenty light years from Earth.”
“You really want me for my math?” It was baffling to Hari. People always wanted her to kill things or to be a sacrificial lamb. No one wanted her mind.
Rush stepped forward. “You can learn more with me than in an out-of-date library.”
“Hey! I like that lib–”
“You don’t need to be homeless.”
Hari opened her mouth, then closed it. Homeless. She didn’t really think of herself as homeless. But was she?
Rush was so matter-of-fact he edged into brutal. “How long has it been? Since you’ve had a home?”
Hari’s brain felt staticky. Isn’t this the sort of thing people should know? An image of sleeping in a tent for the better part of a year on the run after Dumbledore died flashed in her mind.
“I was sixteen,” she said. “It’s safer. On my own.” Hari stared at Earth instead of Rush.
“Come with me,” insisted Rush. “Better math. Better shelter. A better future.”
The silence stretched.
“You’re really headed to another planet?”
Rush huffed out a laugh. “Yes.”
“Do you think it’ll be worth it?”
“Of course,” said Rush, with absolute certainty.
Hari stared at the clouds over an ocean for a minute, and then nodded.
“Do you have anyone you need to contact?” asked Rush.
Hari shook her head. “I don’t have anyone.”
Rush hid a wince and hated Hari a little for that pang of empathy. He knew what it was to be alone.
_______________________________________
Rush dumped Hari in a conference room in front of a projector.
“These videos will explain everything,” he said.
And then Rush left before Hari could protest.
Hari played the first video. And the second. And the third. She lost count, entranced. And worried.
A man named Dr. Jackson was standing in front of a large, circular object. He called it a stargate.
Astria Porta. The words jumped to Hari’s mind. That’s what it’s really called.
And that’s when Hari felt a pang of fear. How did she know that? She’d never seen the Astria Porta before – damnit, they call it a stargate – so why did she recognize it?
Dr. Jackson kept explaining things, like wormholes, spaceships, other planets… and to Hari it was like her first time on a broom. She knew this information. And she knew it wasn’t completely correct.
In the next video, Dr. Jackson was explaining the Dial Home Device. No, you idiots, you can’t make your own dialing device like that. You need to use the built-in protections. What happens if you dial a black hole? Hari’s mind raced. How do I know this?
Hari watched more videos.
_______________________________________
Rush was a liar. He said he wanted to work with Hari. He said Hari needed to join the project. But now that they were on a spaceship together, did he want anything to do with her? No. Absolutely not.
He stayed in a locked room and spoke to no one.
Hari wanted to talk to him about the planet they were flying toward. She wanted to learn as much as she could to explain why her brain knew more than she should.
Knowing things she shouldn’t always came at a painful price. She had known when Voldemort was happy or particularly murderous. She had known when he traveled outside of the country. She knew every fluctuation of his emotions as he ordered his minions around. She knew that his top right incisor was slightly angled and he liked to run his tongue over the edge when no one was nearby.
And now she knew what went into making a stargate. She knew how to mathematically describe the event horizon of a wormhole.
Hari was an old hand at suppressing the fear of her own brain and knowledge.
Months ago, she awoke naked and freezing in Antarctica. She didn’t know it was Antarctica at the time. All she had known was a frozen, beautiful, harsh land, she was alone, and she had no idea how she’d gotten there.
A few portkeys later convinced Hari she had landed in a different reality. She knew no one. She was alone.
Hermione would be thrilled if she could see Hari in a library, studying as much muggle math as she could. Hari had always loved Arithmancy, but it came so easily to her now. She devoured as much of the math section in the library as she could.
“We need your help, Hari. You’ll learn more with me, Hari,” she mocked under her breath, feeling incredibly stupid.
Each night, she dreamt of the Ancients. She watched them build stargates, design massive ships, and cure diseases. At some point, everyone in her dream would turn to golden forms of light and she’d wake up gasping.
_______________________________________
Finally, the spaceship arrived at a planet named Icarus.
“Errrr. You know that’s a bad name for a place, right?” Hari’s voice wasn’t half an octave higher than normal. Nope. Not at all. “It’s an especially bad name for an engineering project?”
A soldier at a computer terminal rolled his eyes and hit a button. Hari was beamed to the planet.
Well… it didn’t make her want to throw up like apparition could.
A soldier who looked to be in charge stepped forward and Rush took the opportunity to walk away. The soldier looked at a man who beamed down alongside Hari and Rush.
“Senator. It is my honor to welcome you to Icarus Base.”
Hari took a step back. Politicians. Ugh.
The two men shook hands. “Colonel. This is my executive assistant, Chloe. She's also my daughter.”
A younger soldier ran up to the Colonel’s side but stayed silent.
The Colonel turned his attention to Hari.
“You must be the…”
“Math person? That’s what they tell me.” Hari shrugged. This guy was good looking and had a great smile. It was on the polite side. Hari wondered what he looked like while belly laughing. “Sorry, sir, I didn’t catch your name.”
“I’m Colonel Young.”
“I’m Hari. It’s a pleasure.”
Colonel Young gestured to the young soldier at his side. “This is Lieutenant Scott. He’s been assigned to you, Miss Black.”
Well…the Colonel definitely had prior information about her. And thought she needed a babysitter. Which was probably a good rule for letting mathematicians wander around an active military base. A military base that seemed to be carved into a cliffside.
“Should we go inside?” interrupted Rush.
Finally. The elusive git speaks.
Hari was going to corner him at some point.
_______________________________________
Hari didn’t corner him. Rush peeled off with all of the official-looking people while Lieutenant Scott showed Hari the stargate.
The hair on her neck raised. Hari had the strangest urge to modify a portkey spell, cast it on the Astria Porta – stargate, Hari – and activate it. Hari blinked. Where did that come from?
“Incredible,” muttered Hari.
“Yeah, it is. It's weird how fast you can start to take something like this for granted,” said Scott.
He looked young to be carrying so many weapons.
“So if the Stargate can instantly transport you to another planet, why did we fly here on a spaceship?”
“It's something to do with how this one's tied into the plane of the power. Apparently it's been modified to only dial out because incoming wormholes are too dangerous. You're the genius –- you could probably tell me better.”
Hari huffed. “All I did was solve a puzzle.”
“Well, you figured out something Doctor Rush has been trying to figure out for months,” said Scott. “Which, by the way, a lot of people were glad to see.”
Scott ushered Hari toward the back of the gate room where Rush, the senator, and a lot of brass were chatting.
Rush looked like he was lecturing to students. “Now, as you know, up until now, we have been unable to channel the precise amount of power necessary to unlock the Stargate's ninth and final chevron. However, thanks to some ingenuity from young Miss Black here, that problem has finally been solved.”
“We've heard that before,” said Colonel Young.
“This time we're sure,” said Rush.
“That's what I figured out?” asked Hari.
Rush finally spared her a glance. “I embedded the mathematical problem we had to solve into the game. I then engineered your solution into a practical, workable application.”
“What say we get on with it?” demanded the senator.
Ugh. Politicians.
“Absolutely,” said Rush. “Sergeant Riley?”
A soldier near Rush typed on a computer. The stargate began to spin.
“Chevron one encoded,” said Riley.
“Sir?” Rush gestured the officials out of the way of the stargate.
Hari was alarmed. “We're dialing now?”
“A test –- to see if we can make a connection,” said Rush.
“Chevron two encoded,” said Riley.
“But we haven’t checked your implementation.”
“I checked my implementation.”
Hari caught Colonel Young’s gaze and frowned.
“Chevron three encoded.”
Colonel Young said, “If we make a connection, we’ll send an automated reconnaissance drone and we'll see what's on the other side.”
The senator broke in. “And then they'll go? The exploration team?”
“No,” said Rush. “First they close down again, assess the data we receive and then, perhaps, send the Away Team.”
The gate continued to spin. Each time a new chevron was encoded, Hari twitched. When Dumbledore and Voldemort dueled, the air felt charged and heavy with magic; this felt similar. Smart people didn’t stand still when they felt something like that…they ran in the opposite direction. Hari sighed. She’d never been good at running.
“Chevron nine encoded.”
The ground shook. Sparks flew from the gate.
“Wh-what's going on?” asked Chloe.
“I don't know,” said Scott. “We never got this far before.”
“Chevron nine ... will not lock.”
Alarms sounded. Red lights flashed. The ground shook harder, causing a mug to fall off of a desk.
“We matched the power requirements down to the E.M.U. It must work.” Rush was distraught and surprised.
“Power levels in the Gate capacitors are going into the red,” said Riley.
“Shut it down,” ordered Young.
“No, wait, wait, wait!” Rush tried to get in the way.
“Shut it down now.” said Young.
The lights on the gate shut off and the ground stopped shaking.
“It should have worked.” Rush sounded lost.
“Well, it didn't,” said Young, “and drawing power from the planet's core–”
“Dangerous?” huffed Rush. “Yes, I'm aware of that.”
Young narrowed his eyes. “Regardless of what's been spent or what's at stake, my first priority is to ensure the safety of the people on this base.”
“Of course,” said Rush. His tone was polite, almost subservient, and he looked at the senator instead of Colonel Young. “Hari? We'd best run through your equations again.”
Hari raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “And your implementation.”
“Excuse me,” said Rush, walking toward a computer.
Everyone was staring at her, unimpressed.
“Does anyone else ever feel like kicking General O’Neill in the family jewels?” asked Hari, sotto voce.
Colonel Young barked out a laugh and patted her shoulder.
_______________________________________
“There’s nothing wrong with my implementation!” growled Rush.
Hari threw her hands above her head. “And there’s nothing wrong with my math.”
“There obviously–”
“What assumptions are you making?” interrupted Hari.
“I told you, there’s nothing wrong with my–”
“Outside of your implementation or my math. What is there?”
That shut Rush up for a minute. “The address.”
“The gate address? The nine symbols?” asked Hari.
“Yes.”
“Ok. Where did you get the nine symbols from?”
“An Ancient database.”
“Can I see them? In the database?”
Rush scowled, pointed at Riley, and then turned his back to scribble on a white board.
Hari walked toward Riley, who looked a bit terrified.
“Errr… may you please show me…” Hari stopped talking. The poor guy looked more than a bit terrified.
Honestly. Rush wasn’t that bad. It’s not like he went around murdering people like Voldemort. He was just a bit of a git.
Riley fiddled with his computer and pulled up a screen of information.
“Rush?”
“I’m busy, Hari.”
Hari ignored that. “There are only eight symbols.”
“Yes.”
No other information was forthcoming. Git.
“Where did you get the ninth symbol from?”
Rush sighed like he regretted his life choices. “The last symbol is always the location of the wormhole’s initialization location.”
“Riiight,” said Hari. “Dr. Jackson said that dialing within our galaxy requires seven symbols – six for the destination and one for the starting point.”
Rush didn’t deign to respond.
“So…” continued Hari, “when dialing from Earth, the last symbol is Earth’s symbol.”
“Yeah,” whispered Riley.
“What about when dialing another galaxy?” asked Hari.
Rush’s tone was biting. “Same thing.”
“Seven symbols for the destination and one for the starting location?” asked Hari.
“Yes.”
“But is the starting location the symbol for the starting planet or the starting galaxy?”
“The planet,” scathed Rush. “Always the planet.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m–”
“How many planets have you dialed another galaxy from?” asked Hari.
Rush sighed again. “I know of Earth and Atlantis.”
“Earth was the Ancient’s original home in the galaxy. And Atlantis was the Ancient’s original home in the Pegasus galaxy,” said Hari.
“And?”
“And…” Hari kind of wanted to jinx him. “What if dialing farther required the symbol for the galaxy the wormhole started in?”
“But we’re on this planet. It doesn’t make sense to use a different origin symbol.”
“Confirmation bias,” said Hari.
“What?” Rush looked like he wanted to strangle her.
“You don’t have a large enough sample size for dialing more than seven chevrons to know if the last symbol is for the planet or something else.”
Rush tapped his notepad.
“Come on, Dr. Rush. Just try it.” wheedled Hari.
Hari startled when Colonel Young’s voice joined the conversation. “How’s it coming?”
“Errr. Hi, Colonel Young.” Hari fidgeted. “Can we dial again? I have an idea.”
He eyed her for a minute and then switched to Rush, who threw a marker at the dry erase board.
Colonel Young reached for his radio. “Young to Telford and Scott. Be advised. We’re going to make another attempt in the gate room.”
Ten minutes later, most of the official-looking people from the first dialing attempt were back, staring at Rush.
“I doubt this will work,” said Rush.
“We’ll know more,” said Hari.
“What should I–” Riley started.
Rush pushed him out of the way and typed furiously on a keyboard.
The gate started to spin. No one counted out loud this time. The hairs at the base of Hari’s neck rose. Her skin started to itch. She wanted to get closer to the Astria Porta – stargate, Hari.
She knew this was right.
Rush watched a monitor.
Apparently Riley couldn’t stand the silence. “The ninth chevron…”
“It’s working!” Rush laughed.
For a brief moment, Hari was transfixed by how a true smile transformed Rush.
And then it felt like all of the energy in the world was rushing by her skin, through her skin. A blue circular bubble flew from the stargate in a wave and then retracted. It was so much more than what she expected from Dr. Jackson’s videos. Hari felt like she’d found a missing limb.
“A stable wormhole has been established.” Rush was gleeful.
The senator looked poleaxed. Colonel Young patted Telford’s back rather strongly.
Hari turned toward Rush and wrapped him in a bear hug and squeezed. “We did it!”
Rush froze.
“Lieutenant Scott, deploy the reconnaissance drone,” said Young.
Slowly, Rush moved one arm and awkwardly patted Hari’s back. “There, there.”
Hari burst out laughing but stepped back. She looked at the wormhole. “It’s beautiful.”
“Congratulations, Dr. Rush, Ms. Black,” said Young. He sounded so matter of fact and serious.
“Do you need the stuffing hugged out of you, too?” asked Hari.
Young blinked. “I’m fine,” he said, deadpan. But Hari saw his lip twitch.
The gate room became a beehive of activity. A stream of scientists popped in, and many people in uniform found a reason to poke their heads in.
It looked like Rush was trying to become one with a computer monitor.
“Colonel.” Rush waved Young over to his station. “It appears to be an interior room of a facility. No windows. And…yes. The air is non-toxic for humans.”
“Excellent. Let’s–”
BOOM.
The room shook.
Everyone was silent.
“What was that?” asked Chloe.
Young’s radio clicked. “This is Young.”
BOOM.
The floor shook harder. Dust fell from the ceiling.
Young toggled something on his radio. “The base is under attack. All non-combative personnel, report to your designated areas; everyone else to your battle stations. This is not a drill.”
It was like someone kicked a beehive while Hari was inside of it. She stepped closer to Rush as everyone ran in different directions. His eyes were still glued to a monitor.
Hari had been in battles before. But this was different. Something shifted under her feet. She wanted to get out, out, out. Minutes passed.
“Dr. Rush? I’m reading a dangerous energy spike.” Riley sounded scared.
Rush peered over Riley’s shoulder.
“If this bombardment continues, the radioactive core will go critical,” said Rush.
“The planet…the planet is going to explode?” Hari really wanted to run far away.
“Yes.”
Hari looked at the ground under her feet. Ground that wouldn’t exist soon if the attack wasn’t stopped.
The radio crackled. “Icarus base, Telford. We can't hold 'em back.”
“Sergeant Riley!” yelled Young through the radio. “Dial the stargate to Earth!”
Riley moved to a keyboard, but Rush pushed him out of the way.
“Wait!” yelled Rush. He grabbed a radio. “Colonel Young. The stargate is still connected to the ninth chevron address.”
“Shut it down, Rush!” growled Young.
“If I do, we may not be able to dial again. The planet’s core is unstable,” said Rush. He was fiddling with a notebook.
“Unstable?”
“A chain reaction has started. The planet will explode.”
Young didn’t respond for several seconds. Hari imagined him cursing viciously.
“Are you sure, Rush?”
“As sure as I can be. I don’t want to stick around and find out if I’m right.”
How could Rush sound so sarcastic at a time like this? It was fairly impressive.
The radio crackled again. “Lieutenant Scott. Lead an evacuation to the ninth chevron address. Grab as much of the expedition equipment as possible.”
“Yes, sir,” came the radio’s response.
Civilians were streaming in, picking up bags and containers of supplies.
Lieutenant Scott sprinted into the gate room and toward the wormhole. “Once I'm through, follow one at a time on a three count,” he shouted.
The floor was shaking more every second.
The civilians rushed through the wormhole, most certainly not waiting for a three count.
Rush ran through the gate without a glance back.
The room was emptying, and chunks of debris were falling from the ceiling. Hari grabbed a few bags of supplies and then subtly levitated a few cartons through. No one saw in the chaos.
Then, Hari stepped through the stargate.