Ketchup - 3

Continuing 'The Story So Far'

N.B. This constitutes a SPOILER ZONE for any 'episode' you haven't already read.

Chaosium: part 1

SG-24, temporarily down to a team of four, were to revisit P7Y-329 (Grøntverden). Maxine suspected another plot against J. While Theo was further customizing their PATTs, Jack O'Neill appeared in the storage bay. He'd come to ask for the help of Theo and SG-24 in a rescue mission. Theo's unco-operativeness reminded Jack of Daniel, which led Theo to think Daniel needed rescuing.

On Grøntverden, SG-24 were beamed up on to Thor's new ship, Mjølnir, just before a large group of Bruxai would have found them. Jack briefed the team on the way to the Asgard planet, Gladsheim.

Lord Vladivayne, a semi-ascended Dwimmerling, along with his incestuously beloved sister, the Lady Viorica, had imprisoned a number of Archaioi, or ascended Furlings, at his home, Castel Albastru on a world called Negrulumea. The castle was partly original but had metal walls in the new parts, which could slide to change the lay-out.

Ascended beings could be captured by 'strange attractors' while in plasma form, hence the appeal for human help. The capture was known about because Ileana, one of the Archaioi delegation, left early. The Archaioi were telepaths, and told her what was going on. She managed to pass this on to her people back home before she, too, was caught.

Jack explained their options for entering the castle. Theo smelled a rat when a planet, which he took to be Gladsheim, turned out to be Earth. Maxine was flabbergasted when Jack said he couldn't tell her if her father was involved, "because it's classified." Then he admitted that Daniel was one of the captives.

In Earth orbit, Mjølnir picked up Ash, leading to Theo having a major hissy fit. Ash was not impressed by the perceived slight on his ability to look after himself. Jack pointed out that Ash wasn't there as a combatant, then gave him a minute but extremely powerful atto-computer from Sam. Thor gave Luc several tiny crossbows with strange looking hooks attached to what looked like fishing lines. On Gladsheim, J hit the co-ordinates, and the five drove through the 'Gate.

Chaosium: part 2

SG-24 drove out of the Sapphire 'Gate and on to the equally blue Castel Albastru. They parked their PATTs near a supposedly secret entrance, then had to carry all essential equipment, including all the little crossbows.

Inside the castle, Theo used TIGER to scout ahead. The team arrived in a huge cavern under the castle. It contained a mini-universe, within which were a number of three-dimensional fractal patterns.

Maxine noticed that one had eyes - Daniel's eyes. They all had eyes. Ash realized what he had to do; the fractals were mathematical equations and so could be downloaded into the atto-computer.

To do this, Luc had to fire the crossbow bolts into each fractal, the bolts being connected by ultra fine electric cables to jackplugs which could be plugged into the computer. Ash was annoyed with Theo for his lack of faith in The Geek.

Ash later became separated from the rest of the team and, having missed the warning about the sliding walls, was trapped by them, and Lord Vladivayne arrived. When the team realized that Ash was missing, they went back, but found a blue wall blocking their path.

Chaosium: part 3

Meanwhile, Ash and Vladivayne had been joined by Vlad's sister Lady Viorica, a.k.a. Bluebell. She had the hots for Ash, and persuaded her brother to let her 'play' with him. On the way to her tower, Ash realized she was partly in plasma form, which gave him an idea.

The wall, preventing the rest of the team from following Ash, slid back, and they ended up trapped between two moving walls. A black mist entered and coalesced into Vlad. He demanded the return of his stolen property, meaning the fractal Archaioi.

In the tower, Ash conned Bluebell into taking on a completely plasma form, then downloaded her into his attocomputer as a fractal. When Vlad and SG-24 arrived. Ash was again annoyed with Theo for not trusting The Geek.

Vlad noticed his sister was missing. Ash said he would never see her again unless he granted them safe passage back to the 'Gate. While Vlad didn't trust him to keep his end of the bargain, he did believe Ash's threat to condemn her to eternal oblivion alone.

When SG-24 had gone through the 'Gate, Ash released Bluebell. Back on Mjølnir, Ash released the people they'd rescued, including Daniel, after which, they were transported to Gladsheim.

Meanwhile, on Grøntverden, Thor had knocked out SG-24's would-be attackers and dumped them in a swamp on the opposite side of the planet. The AVCOP was destroyed by the sonic bomb.

Thor also helped to broker a trade deal with Chief Brockle the Fifth. After a serious epidemic, they would pay fifty per cent of their crops in exchange for help with the harvest. Later, despite their successful trade deal, Warren seemed more disappointed that their team of four had encountered no problems beyond the loss of the AVCOP.

And the Band Played On...: part 1

At their briefing, Lt. Eli Kern was welcomed back by the team. Bradfield was pleased to see that he was fitting in with SG-24. Their mission was to a Wild Card World of Polynesian origin. Theo was to investigate the viability of oil-mining there.

Instead of a Polynesian island, the team arrived on an apparently derelict spaceship with a Stargate on it. Theo suggested they could use a naquadah cell and dial out manually. He leaned against a computer consol, accidentally triggering a sound system. This played heavy rock music and couldn't be turned off.

J sent Luc and Eli to begin a search of the ship from the stern while the rest started searching from the control room. That group found a cabin filled with archives written in Romanian. Maxine found, and noted, a reference to Tobias King, plus a 'Gate address. Another reference was to Elijah Warren...

Then came the sound of the 'Gate activating. With Luc and Eli staying put, the rest returned to the control room. Five teenagers sprawled on the ramp. Once both groups realized that neither of them was Bruxan, information was exchanged.

The five were Aurel, Gavril - a nephew of Eneas, Stelian, Nandru and Ruby Tuesday. They'd fled Romania through the Fagaras 'Gate to escape the fate of Aurel's brother, Virgiliu. He'd been kidnapped by a Bruxans group, known as the Vampirii. They'd body-swapped him with a very rich old man. Virgiliu died soon after, aged nineteen.

They'd arrived at the Agora with few resources, and with no other option, had escaped in the ship they'd 'liberated' from the Agora's spaceship park. They'd named her Dignity, and lived there. The group now planned to return to the Agora to rescue Nandru's younger brother, Marku, from the slave market. He was being used as bait by the vampirii who intended to catch the other teenagers to sell for vast sums to rich sick old men for body-swapping.

Prompted by the repetitious playing of the Rolling Stones' song, Time is on My Side, Maxine realized she still had Grandfather Daniel's 'time loop' brooch, and with it, a plan. J, Theo and Maxine went to the Agora, taking Aurel, Gav and Stelian to identify both Marku and the two Vampirii, Ghenadie and his sidekick.

Using the time loop brooch, Maxine raided the two vampirii's money pouches, replacing their gold coins with jewellery from an adjacent stall. Then she closed the time loop and called for the Astunomia to arrest the thieves. Marku was then 'bought' by Aurel. As they approached the 'Gate, Aurel spotted three of Ghenadie's henchmen...

And the Band Played On...: part 2

Close to the 'Gate, Maxine opened a time loop, dialled the Dignity's 'Gate address. With the wormhole open, she closed the time loop and the rest sprinted through. One of Ghenadie's men grabbed Maxine's wrist as she dived through. The other two men chained hands and followed on.

On Dignity, Ruby shot the three vampirii with one of the Contra-Bruxai's ray guns. Before they woke up, Maxine suggested sending them to BP6-3Q1, the world where Teal'c was stung by a huge bug. As the rest were throwing the vampirii into 'Bug World,' Luc dragged Maxine off to see his discovery.

Maxine identified it as the Diabolikon. She hid it in her PATT and sorted out Aurel's share of her theft, while Luc fetched Eli.

Ruby made an unsubtle play for Luc. J asked, but didn't order, Eli not to mention the young people. Aurel dialled up the world S.G.-24 was supposed to, and the rest of the mission went successfully.

The debriefing focused solely on the official mission, so Maxine was spooked by receiving a summons to WPX at the end of it. Warren was suspiciously well informed about S.G.-24's visit to the Agora, so she didn't deny it, just put a plausible spin on it, and put him on the back foot by mentioning the Habakkuk.

At Ash's pad, Maxine told the rest about her grilling by Warren, then music started playing. Ash had bought a CD player and some CDs from a friend. The song made Maxine think Daniel was keeping an eye on the Dignity crew.