Read STARGATE UNIVERSE: Air for Free Online

else in the room to appreciate his wit.
    Jackson was now standing in front of a big metal ring with a ramp leading up to it. “ Behind me is a Stargate. Found in Giza, Egypt in 1928, we now know it was originally built by an alien race who we call ‘the Ancients’, many millennia ago. Over the next few hours we’ll be touching on some of the things you need to know about this incredible technology and the universe of possibilities it has opened up for humanity .”
    The next few hours ? First spaceships and now alien artifacts? Eli began to wonder what he’d agreed to when he signed that paperwork. “Probably should have actually read it first,” he told himself.
    As the narrator went on, Eli’s attention became locked on the man’s explanations. The more he heard, the more he was sucked in. Jackson explained the nature of the 39 symbols around the curves of the Stargate, each representing constellations as seen from Earth, and how the device used a seven symbol address to open up an interstellar wormhole across the Milky Way, capable of sending people and objects hundreds of thousands of light-years in seconds. Forget the starships and hyperdrive; this was like a subway system for the whole galaxy.
    “ The first six symbols lock down a point in space ,” continued Jackson, who never once seemed to lose enthusiasm for his subject, “ while the seventh represents the point of origin .”
    On the screen the chevrons around the ring flashed orange-red and locked in place. Eli wasn’t sure what he thought would happen next, but it certainly wasn’t a thunderous whoosh of noise and an explosive plume of what first seemed like liquid silver. His eyes bugged. “Whoa.”
    “ An unstable energy vortex emerges from the gate and settles into the event horizon or ‘puddle’ as we like to call it ,” noted Jackson, with a grin. “ Later, it was discovered that using an eighth symbol would actually dial another galaxy, like the addition of the prefix numeral one to a long distance phone call .”
    Eli used his fingers to mime a phone at his ear. “Ring ring. Intergalactic Pizza, can I take your order, please?”
    Each time he thought he’d seen all the recordings had to offer, Doctor Daniel Jackson reappeared with something else to tell him, but after a while Eli began to feel beaten up by the sheer volume of information that was being thrown at him, without even a moment’s pause to process it. He was like a boxer, slammed one too many times around the head, only here it was mind-busting ideas and the general level of sheer you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me that was wearing him down.
    If crossing the gaps between galaxies wasn’t enough, Jackson was now talking about a ninth chevron that could take them still further, and some of the data Eli glimpsed on the screen seemed a lot like the code he’d cracked in the game. “ It is believed an unprecedented amount of power is required to reach the mysterious destination, ” said the scientist. “ Icarus Base was established on a planet discovered two years ago to have a uniquely powerful core made of a mineral called naquadria. The entire purpose of the project is to hopefully one day dial the nine chevron address found in the Ancient database. ”
    Eli rocked back in his seat and buried his hands in his pockets, still trying to process it all. His fingers touched the worn plastic of his cell phone and he drew it out and looked at it. The device was totally useless to him, but he hadn’t been able to leave it in his cabin, as if on some level holding on to the stupid thing was keeping him connected to Earth, and to his mother. He closed his eyes and sighed.
     
    Marion Wallace grabbed the phone off the kitchen wall after the second ring and held her breath. “Eli?”
    “ Hey, Mom. How are you? ”
    “Okay. Work was busy, as usual.” She stopped, catching herself before she launched into her regular daily round of bitching about her day at the Fine Dine and all the