COMMUNICATION STONES: An advanced technology devised by Alteran scientists, which connects
the minds of two people across vast distances through subspace – enabling long-range communication
that can span multiple galaxies.
In some cases this results in the stones’ users sharing one another’s thoughts.
But the stones can also be used to temporarily trade bodies, transmitting a person’s entire
consciousness into another body with a single touch of an activated stone.
The communication stone operates in two modes.
By themselves two stones will link the minds of their users across great distances, allowing
them to passively share one another’s thoughts and experiences.
When used with a communication terminal, the stones allow users to exchange their conscious
minds with one another’s bodies (though not to access that person’s memories).
The stones are pocket-sized, smooth and uniform in appearance, with markings that suggest
to a curious user that they are manufactured.
They are black or bluish in color, and have runes or other ancient markings etched into the surface.
Stones have an active and an inactive state.
An inactive stone is activated simply by making physical contact.
Although the stones must be initialized by someone who possesses the Ancient gene, after
that they can be used by anyone.
Even as a connection is made, without the terminal there is no physical sensation or
indication from the stone itself that anything has happened.
Typically the stones are paired with one another in sets of two, so that the user of one stone
will always be connected with the user of its partner – no matter where they are in the universe.
Because the terminal maintains the link through subspace, in this mode the link has no known
limit in the distance it can traverse.
This allows for instantaneous transit of a person’s consciousness between planets,
or even across multiple galaxies.
The user retains an ongoing mental connection even when no longer in contact with the stone
– although closer proximity to the stone appears to strengthen the connection.
This was the case when Colonel Jack O’Neill inadvertently linked with an Indiana barber,
Joe Spencer, who had picked up an alien stone, originally found on an archaeological dig,
that had eventually made its way to a garage sale.
Spencer experienced O’Neill’s memories when the Colonel wrote out his mission reports
while on the base, near to the base archives, where a stone was stored.
Spencer himself tended to carry around his stone as a source of inspiration for writing
his stories about Stargate Command ... and O’Neill, in turn, experienced the relaxing
visions of Joe’s daily routine and his Thursday night bowling league.
The Alterans originally developed the mental communication technology millions of years
ago – before they emigrated to the Milky Way Galaxy.
The oldest evidence of the communication terminal appears on a shelf in the secret lab
of the scientist Amelius.
Among his other inventions was a mind-manipulation device called the Ark of Truth, and –
based on concept sketches – perhaps even the Stargates themselves.
When the Alterans departed their homeworld they left behind at least one of the communication terminals.
Over countless millennia this artifact was passed down by those who were sympathetic
with the Alterans – as a resistance movement gradually formed against their intellectual
adversaries, the Ori.
SG-1 first encountered the stones on P3R-233 – a planet whose inhabitants had collected
various artifacts from planets across the galaxy (including the Quantum Mirror).
A single stone was among the artifacts brought back to Stargate Command for cataloging and study.
But without a terminal device, they had no indication that the stones were in fact an
active piece of advanced technology.
A terminal was eventually discovered on Earth, in a secret vault hidden by the Ancient Merlin
inside a cave beneath Glastonbury, England.
Daniel Jackson recognized that the row of recessed spaces around the terminal are the
same size as the communication stones.
He and Vala Mal Doran tested the compatibility of the devices, each placing a stone into a slot.
In a matter of moments they found themselves occupying the bodies of two villagers
in the Ori home galaxy.
Harrid and Sallis were historians, and had come into possession of communication stones
that evidently were paired with the Glastonbury terminal.
This allowed Daniel and Vala to move freely through their town, and to learn about the
Ori, their values, and their hostile intentions toward the people of the Milky Way Galaxy.
But Harrid and Sallis did not occupy their bodies in turn.
Instead their conscious minds may have been temporarily suppressed,
as Daniel and Vala’s bodies lied unconscious back on Earth.
The reasons for this one-way communication are unknown.
The fact that Daniel and Vala were bonded at the time with kor mak bracelets may have
interfered with a bi-directional transference of consciousness.
Perhaps the stones Harrid and Sallis possessed were paired with the terminal itself but not
with the stones Daniel and Vala were using.
Or, it may be simply because Harrid and Sallis had stones that were millions of years older,
and either made to work differently or no longer fully functional.
When the communication terminal is activated, the large blue crystal at the top illuminates.
The device draws its power directly from subspace, and also utilizes subspace
to make its mental connection.
The terminal’s external surface lacks any evident controls for safely deactivating the
connection, and the stones cannot be physically pried loose.
With Daniel and Vala’s lives on the line, Stargate Command was forced to destroy the
terminal in order to break the link.
Unfortunately, their meddling on the Alteran home world had left Harrid and Sallis with
a death sentence at the hands of the Ori’s zealous followers.
Communication stone technology also made its way to the Pegasus Galaxy, where the Ancients
also lived thousands of years ago.
As recently as 10,000 years ago the Lantean scientist Janus was working
with communication stone technology.
After the expedition from Earth discovered his secret lab inside Atlantis,
Dr. Jennifer Keller came into contact with one of the stones, inadvertently activating it.
Some weeks later a thief named Neeva Casol broke into a village’s collection of artifacts
on a nondescript planet.
Looking to steal some valuables, she too found a collection of communication stones,
as well as a terminal device.
She activated it – and Neeva and Keller were instantly linked,
now possessing one another’s body.
Keller was captured and nearly executed by Neeva’s enemies.
But the Atlantis team managed to sever the connection and return her to her own body
by locating and, again, destroying the terminal.
Because the stones are easy to operate across vast distances, eventually Earth’s Homeworld
Command began utilizing the technology for off-world operations – or at least equipping
some installations, such as Icarus Base, with stones that could serve as an emergency backup.
On Icarus these stones were retrieved by Colonel Everett Young when the base came under attack
by the Lucian Alliance.
He brought a case with several stones, as well as a portable communications terminal
built by Earth engineers, when he went through the Stargate to the distant Ancient vessel Destiny.
The availability of the stones on board Destiny allowed for its new crew of scientists, soldiers,
and civilians to stay in communication with Earth – both Homeworld Command,
and also their loved ones.
Crewmembers were permitted to use the stones on a rotating schedule, giving them an opportunity
to leave the dark confines of the ship and visit home for a few hours or days.
Many family members were briefed on the top-secret mission, so that when their loved one returned
home in the body of a stranger they would know who they were actually talking to.
To accommodate this, Homeworld Command designated personnel to continuously man the communication
stone terminal on their end – so that whenever someone from Destiny needed to report in,
or was scheduled for some R&R, someone was connected to the stones and ready to trade places.
The Earth-made terminal has more accessible controls, allowing a connection to be quickly
disabled and the stones reset to an inactive state.
If the stones are not reset after use, however, it will leave the last user vulnerable to
a new connection by another stone.
This oversight permitted an alien antagonist to take control of Lt. Vanessa James, using
her body to sabotage the Destiny.
Using another person’s body to visit loved ones also raised immediate ethical issues.
Was a person who was using the stones permitted to engage in intimate relations with a partner?
to use recreational drugs, or get drunk, or over-eat?
Homeworld Command implemented a loose policy, under which those who volunteered their bodies
for Destiny’s crew signed forms more or less surrendering their privacy
and granting carte blanche. But the ethical issues remained – and were sharpened
when Colonel Young discovered firsthand that his friend, Colonel David Telford,
was having an affair with his wife. Using a stone also carries other serious risks.
If one person is killed during the link, both users will die.
In one instance, however, this left the other person’s mind floating free of any body,
unconscious and untethered for weeks or months, until it was drawn to the body of another
person who was using a communication stone.
Finally, using the stones on a regular basis on board Destiny also revealed two limitations
to the intergalactic mental link.
While the connection could be enabled both in F.T.L. flight and in normal space,
the ship’s transition between the two causes a disruption.
Users’ conscious minds are instantly returned to their own bodies,
though only for a few seconds.
Then the link is automatically restored again – typically leaving the users disoriented.
In one case, however, these precious seconds permitted Destiny to send a message back to
Earth so that a Lucian Alliance bomb could be disarmed.
The stones’ second limitation is certainly to be expected.
If a person steps through the Stargate while occupying another’s body, the process of
demolecularization and transition through the wormhole will also disrupt the connection.
In these cases the link is permanently severed, until the stones are used again.
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