Orion’s thoughts were racing, and Sirius struggled to keep track while his own thoughts were swirling through his head.

The Gate was dead, Orion had told him, but Sirius didn’t know what that meant – how could a Gate be dead?

As in answer, Sirius got a brief vision of the Gate which he somehow knew to be a long time in the past. The structure was vastly different, the pillars were all connected by a matrix, a lattice of vines – except they weren’t vines, they were like electrical cables except biological, and some must have been damaged between the long-time-past and now. The image vanished almost before he had time to comprehend it.

That explains the malfunctions, Orion explained while Sirius was working through his confusion, I wonder what would happen if we powered it back on again…

Sirius felt his skin prickle as a surge of energy built up through his core, his body temperature rising rapidly like some sort of flash fever. He froze, eyes wide. For a moment he was back on the station again. Sick. Dying.

Snap out of it. You’re fine. He could hear Orion saying. We have important things to do.

Sirius shook his head to dispel the panic, but instead it just kind of settled into the background. Turn it on? How do we do that?

Don’t panic and do what I tell you. Orion told him.

“Sirius, are you alright?” Dr. Khorana asked, “You’re looking…off”.

Sirius glanced down at his hands. There was a subtle glow under his skin which he first thought was the glow from the monoliths until it grew even brighter than the ambient light. So bright the silhouettes of his bones could be seen through the skin. His nerves tingled with some sort of energy, like he’d grabbed a live wire. He could taste something metallic in his mouth.

“You’re…glowing…”, Dr. Khorana’s voice became a whisper, her expression of shock turning into one of wonder and maybe even fear.

Okay, focus. You need to discharge the energy into the Gate, just grab one of the cables, and I’ll flip the switches, Orion instructed.

Sirius turned to the nearest pillar. There was a low hum in his ears, which he couldn’t tell if it was coming from the pillar or from himself, it was just there. He reached towards the surface of it and the vines started to shift like they could sense him there, tendrils and offshoots reaching back to his outstretched hand. He stopped before they could make contact.

Don’t stop. Don’t panic. We don’t have all the time. You know this. Orion insisted.

Sirius shot a look at the doc. She’d moved closer, her face a mixture of fear, revulsion, and intrigue. She met his gaze with a start.

“You… You shouldn’t…touch that…I think…”, she said slowly, working the words out through her turmoil.

“You’re right”, Sirius said and grit his teeth and grabbed the vines.

When he made contact, they swarmed his hand like a pack of snakes and coiled tightly, trapping it in place. He shouted expecting pain, but instead his hand was engulfed in a sort of warmth. The vines slithered up his arm, stopping at his elbow. They were siphoning off the energy surge, he could feel the fever dissipating, that electric feeling subside.

Inside his head, Sirius could hear Orion debating which switches to flip and a brief memory that wasn’t his surfaced. Suddenly Sirius could visualize exactly how the Gate worked and exactly how to power it back on, which Orion carried out in what felt like an excited rush. The vines retracted and Sirius felt suddenly very unsteady. Without the energy he felt tired and lethargic, like coming off of a manic episode. As heavy as he’d felt in Earth gravity, he felt even heavier now. He leaned against the pillar and watched what was happening to the Henge.

The light from the pillar they had just ‘plugged into’ spread across the many vines onto the other pillars. It travelled from monolith to monolith, each retaining some light then spreading it to a neighboring structure. Soon, the entire outer ring was lit by the light which then spread inwards to the inner ring which lit just as fast.

“What’s going on? What did you do?”, Dr. Khorana asked, a note of panic in her voice.

“He told me to turn it on, so I did”, Sirius explained, “He wants to see what still works”.

“Who’s he?” she asked, “Who told you? And was that, what happened – the weird lights, you all glowing and stuff – how did you turn it on?”

“Orion told me to, and I really don’t know how to explain what’s going on”.

“Orion?” Solaris tilted her head in confusion, then shot a glance around the cavern, “But I don’t see anyone else here? When did they tell you? Is this why we found you here today?”

“We were uhhh…talking just now, he’s been with me since I got here, in my head – kind of”, Sirius tried to explain.

The look she gave told him that he’d just crossed whatever line she had set for suspending her disbelief. To her credit, He had thought they would reach that point much sooner.

“I knew it! You’re absolutely insane!”, Dr. Khorana hissed, her voice rising in volume with her frustration, “But somehow the Henge is reacting to you, and I want to know why!!” The last word echoed across the cavern.

“Don’t we all”, a voice said from behind Sirius.

He turned, pistol readied, and saw Murphy and a team of security contractors. All were armed. They’d caught up faster than he’d anticipated, or maybe more time had passed underground than he thought, his sense of time was being kinda weird lately.

We could have been out of here if you’d wasted less time.

Not helping, Sirius thought back. Still, Orion was probably right. They’d wasted time and now-

Now he was outgunned and stuck in a cavern which probably didn’t have another exit. Even holding Dr. Khorana hostage again wouldn’t guarantee a way out. Still, it would stall for time and maybe the Gate would finish doing whatever it was doing, which might throw off Murphy and his men enough for Sirius to find something to work with.

The doctor’s attention was on the newcomers. He grabbed her again and retreated to the center of the Henge, putting some distance between them and Murphy. Orion! Help me out here!

I may have found something to help us. Stall them, was all that he got from the alien.

“You know how this goes, Murphy!” Sirius shouted across the water.

“You finally remembered my name. How nice! But I’ve recently stopped giving a shit -apologies Dr. Khorana, but I’ve made my peace with the extra paperwork– neither of you get to leave here”, Murphy shouted back, then signaled to his men. They opened fire.

Sirius pushed Dr. Khorana, on her face was an expression of utter shock, behind one of the pillars of the inner circle.

“Stay here if you want to live”, he instructed, and she nodded and huddled behind the pillar.

He peered around; Murphy’s men were fanning out. Orion would need to hurry up, seven to one – Orion and Dr. Khorana didn’t count – weren’t great odds. He fired a few shots and managed to hit one of the contractors in the leg, one down – six to go. A volley of shots from them drove him behind the pillar where he checked the round counter on the gun – only ten shots left and he hadn’t picked up an extra magazine. If only he’d bothered to count before they had headed out. Orion hurry the fuck up!

He took careful aim and took out two of the contractors one right after another. He’d got a sight on a third but then his left leg was kicked out from under him and he fell. A bullet hole had been torn just above his knee; it went clean through but in his adrenaline rush he felt nothing. Still, this was bad.

“Fucking fuck!” he shouted then fired two rounds in the direction of the attacking squad. He lucked out with one of them, which dropped another of Murphy’s men. Now it was three to one, better odds, but he was hit, and he only had two bullets to spend per person.

“You’re hit!”, Dr. Khorana shouted and nearly broke cover trying to get closer.

“Get back to cover, I’ll be fine”, he hissed at her through gritted teeth between volleys of shots.

“Do you have a plan?” She asked over the din. In an odd moment of clarity, Sirius suddenly realized he had absolutely no idea what to do next, aside from giving them as much trouble killing him as possible. That was a shitty plan. And he felt bad about dragging the doc into this… In some ways of thinking, it could be a kindness to shoot her first. Do it right. Painlessly even.

Suddenly, a purple light flared and strobed, and the shooting stopped as everyone froze, uncertain what had caused it.

“I think this is the plan”, Sirius replied, feeling relief wash over him. Orion wasn’t completely useless after all.

Sorry for the delay, but this is our ride out, Orion explained as another flash of light flared, then grew until it obliterated everything from sight. Sirius had barely any time to ask where they were going before everything disappeared.

When he opened his eyes again, they were in a storage closet.