The United States Air Force starship Odyssey slowly lifted itself out of the construction cradle - what would have been a "dry-dock" to an ocean-going vessel. She had been going through several weeks of repairs and refits after SG-1 had returned her to Earth with her Asgard upgrades inside of her. Some members of the BC-303 construction team hadn't wanted to let her go - they wanted to strip out all the advanced technology the Asgard, shortly before they'd sacrificed their world to stop the Ori vessels from pursuing Odyssey, had installed on her. General Hammond and the President had overruled them, but had let them use the Asgard matter replication technology to create a data storage device with complete schematics on all the technology aboard the ship. The scientists had made gleeful comments about designing this technology into a new starship design, and Colonel Davidson was ordered to go into orbit and use the Asgard sensors to scan Earth for any more hidden Ancient - or Goa'uld - technology.

Which is why SG-1 was aboard when the ship's sensors detected a massive energy surge and subspace bubble in Bolivia.

Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter looked over towards where Davidson and Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell stood, staring at the map indicating where the phenomena was detected. "I'm not sure what it is, sir. It's almost like the field effect of a Stargate, but I'm not detecting sufficient amounts of naquidah to explain the intensity of the reading. It's almost like someone plugged a naquidah battery into a primitive version of the gate."

Daniel Jackson looked up from another panel. "It looks like the reading is coming from some ruins up in the mountains - I've never seen these before but I've read some papers recently that speculated that the city of Tiwanaku is in that area."

Mitchell looked back at the archaeologist. "And you are just mentioning this now because...?"

Daniel shrugged. "There haven't been any indications that any aliens had anything to do with the site."

Mitchell glanced back at the screen. "Until now."

Daniel shook his head. "Cam, even though I'm the resident expert on the Goa'uld and the Ancients doesn't mean I can't be interested in plain-vanilla no-aliens-exist human history. At the very least I occasionally catch what can lead us to something interesting to the SGC."

The icon on the map blinked and changed. Carter looked up. "Whatever it was, it's gone. I'm reading two life signs down there, both human." She shook her head. "There were four, but two of them only appeared while the field was in place and faded in and out."

Davidson grimaced. "Probably sensor ghosts, then."

Carter looked doubtful but didn't say anything.

Mitchell glanced at the Odyssey's captain. "Either way, sir, we should probably check this out."

Davidson thought for a moment, then nodded. "Gear up. I'll inform General Landry."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lady Lara Croft, Countess of Abbingdon, stared down at the semi-conscious form of her former friend, Amanda Evert, even as the sights of her USP Match pistol came up and settled on her head. For a moment, she wanted to do nothing more than let her finger slowly squeeze that trigger, and let the .45 caliber bullet finish the job.

But she couldn't do it. Whatever else her faults, Lara Croft was not a cold-blooded killer. "From this moment, your every breath is a gift from me," she hissed, then retrieved Excalibur from the ground. She heard Zip ask her if she was okay, and she gave a soothing reply, and asked him to set up an appointment so she could do further research upon her return to England, but her heart wasn't really in it. She walked back to the zip line she'd used to get to the pedestal, then hesitated, looking back at the now-ruined portal.

Avalon? Time travel? It was all a bit much for her to get, but a woman who'd faced down live tyrannosaurs figured she could handle a little bit of a causality loop. She sighed, wondering if she had done the right thing - if her mother really was in Avalon, if she'd survived the intervening years, if -

Her thoughts were cut short by yet another astonishing event - a stream of light appeared from overhead, and five people in what appeared to be some sort of paramilitary uniform appeared in its midst. Three men - one military, judging by his stance and appearance, the second one a civilian, yet not unaccustomed to weapons, by the way he was holding his, and one tall, muscular black man with some sort of gold imprint on his forehead, also quite militaristic in apparent attitude, and a streak of white in his short, curly black hair. The other two were women, one blond, and one brunette. The blond one also struck Lara as military, and all of them were wearing similar uniforms, tactical vests, and all carried submachine guns. Lara's mental weapons catalog identified them as Fabrique Nationale P90s even as the three military types leveled their weapons at her. The other man and woman simply turned to face her, their P90s ready but not aimed. By reflex, Lara brought both USPs up and aimed them at the group, ready to dive for cover if they went into a firefight.

Mitchell told himself not to be distracted by this woman's appearance or clothing - both of which were distracting in the extreme. Still, he decided, having two matching pistols aimed steadily at SG-1 had a wonderful focusing effect. "Easy..." he said, though how someone was supposed to take having weapons aimed at them "easy" was something he never understood. "We're not going to shoot you unless you make us."

Lara raised an eyebrow. "Really? And just who are you to be offering not to shoot me?"

Man, even her accent's hot! Mitchell kept his P90 sighted in, though. "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, US Air Force, ma'am. Like I said, we're not here to shoot anyone. We're just... visiting."

Lara shook her head. "Sorry, flyboy, but that won't float. Given the portal - which has been ruined, by the way - and your rather dramatic entrance, plus the fact that the US Air Force isn't given to invading sovereign countries on a whim, I'd say there's more to this than 'just visiting.' And despite evidence to the contrary," she continued, nodding at the various bodies and bullet holes scattered about, "I'm not some crazy killer woman. So why don't you just stop aiming your guns at me, I'll stop aiming my guns at you, and we can start sharing the truth here."

Teal'c glanced at Cam. "I believe she is telling the truth, Colonel Mitchell," he said softly.

Mitchell hesitated for a second, glancing at Carter. When she gave a small shrug, Mitchell nodded. "Okay." SG-1 let their P90s dangle by their chest harnesses, and Lara holstered her USPs. "Like I said, I'm Colonel Cam Mitchell. This is Colonel Carter, also US Air Force, Doctor Daniel Jackson, Vala Maldoran, and Teal'c." Mitchell gestured at each team member as he made the introductions. "And you are...?"

Lara smiled. "Lara Croft, Countess Abbingdon."

Jackson started in surprise, then looked Lara over more closely. "You were the one that discovered the Atlantean Scion a few years back? The pendant that was supposedly used to destroy Atlantis?"

Lara sniffed. "No supposedly about it. And yes, I'm she."

Carter looked at Jackson. "'Destroy Atlantis'? But..."

Mitchell cut them off. "Not now."

Lara was also openly studying Jackson. "Now I know why that name sounded so familiar. You're that Egyptologist that disappeared about eleven or twelve years ago. You kept saying something about the pyramids being used as landing pads for alien ships."

Jackson gave her the sheepish grin he'd worked so hard to perfect after coming back from Abydos ten years ago. "That was a long time ago."

Lara shook her head. "I don't mean to be rude, but I can't say I'm surprised you'd dropped off the map after that one. But how did you end up working with the US Air Force?"

Before anyone could come up with a reply, Vala spoke up from where she'd wandered off, inspecting a fallen boulder. "Daniel...?" she called.

Daniel hurried over, looking a bit relieved to be interrupted. "What's up?"

Vala traced the sigil cut into the stone. "There are six stones like this scattered about, and so far both of the ones I've checked have had symbols carved into them."

Daniel looked at the glyph, shaking his head. "I don't see... wait."

Mitchell joined the two. "What've you got, Danny-boy?"

Jackson simply grunted as he saw whatever Vala had seen, then jumped up and ran over to the next stone. He knelt by it, inspecting it, then pulled out his notebook.

Mitchell followed, exasperated. "Daniel!" Vala, Teal'c, Sam, and an obviously confused Lara followed along as Daniel went from stone to stone, making rubbings of the glyphs.

Mitchell grabbed him. "Jackson! What the hell has a bee in your bonnet?"

Daniel opened up his notebook and showed Mitchell the glyph rubbings. "I can't believe we didn't see this sooner, but it shouldn't be surprising to find the references here, given that even the ancient Egyptians recognized the importance of the address-"

Mitchell held up a hand to forestall the machine-gun bombardment of an explanation. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Slow down, breathe, and explain in as few sentences as possible."

Daniel did so, bringing his excitement under control. "Whoever built this place obviously had knowledge of the Stargate. Between the readings in orbit and the similarity of this site to the way gates and DHDs are positioned off-world, they must have seen the Egyptian Stargate and constructed this site around a particular purpose."

Carter interrupted this time. "But what about the glyphs?"

Daniel started flipping through the notebook, then put two pages side-by-side. One was one of the rubbings, the other was an old reference on the design of the DHDs. "Look! The glyphs on the rocks here are gate symbols! Ignore the embellishments and extraneous markings and it's obvious!"

Lara shook her head. "This site was supposed to be used to transport someone to Avalon. I don't see how Egypt figures into this."

SG-1, having forgotten the British noblewoman was there, looked abashedly at each other. Mitchell shrugged. "Ma'am, you might want to sit down - you're about to get the crash course on Stargate 101."

TO BE CONTINUED