Chapter Text
When you traveled by Stargate, you never knew what kind of environment you were going to find yourself in. Sometimes it was a desert, or a glacier, or a forest. Occasionally it would be the inside of a building, or the middle of a town or bustling metropolis.
Today, as the MALP emerged from the event horizon onto another world hundreds of light years away, Colonel Jack O’Neill saw a bright blue sky and a landscape brimming with sunshine and trees - lots and lots of trees - in the images the trusty robot beamed back through the video monitors. He tried to imagine what it might be like on that other world, designated P4Y-868. Major Carter’s commentary helped paint the picture.
“The atmosphere is about 22 percent oxygen, 76 percent nitrogen, and two percent other gases. Ambient temperature is 85 degrees. Humidity is 82 percent.”
“Balmy,” said Jack. So today it would be a jungle. A very dense, hot, humid jungle. Swell.
The MALP’s camera panned slowly around the entire area. “Hold on, hold on, go back. What’s that?” said Daniel, pointing. Carter swiveled the camera back around.
“It appears to be archeological ruins, Daniel Jackson,” said Teal’c.
Daniel leaned forward toward the monitor. His face lit up like a Christmas tree. Jack rolled his eyes. Oh boy. Here we go. “Can you get a little closer? I-I’d like to see if I can determine what kind of architecture that is. It almost looks Roman, but I-I can’t quite make it out,” said Daniel. Excitement made his words speed up.
Carter manipulated the controls that advanced the robot. Then, boom: the machine stopped in its tracks. Just stopped, like it had run into an invisible brick wall before it had gone more than about five feet.
“What happened?” asked Jack.
Carter checked the readout. “I don’t know, sir. It looks like some sort of energy barrier or force field.”
“How far does this barrier extend, Major Carter?” inquired Teal’c.
Carter shrugged as if to say, let’s find out. She directed the MALP to make an exploratory circle. As she did, General Hammond stepped into the control room, hands clasped behind his back. “What have you found?” he asked.
“The MALP’s encountering some kind of energy field that goes all the way around the Stargate,” Carter reported.
“Is it natural or man-made?” the general inquired.
Carter shook her head. “I don’t know sir, but I’d like the chance to investigate. Even if it is some kind of natural phenomenon, it warrants further study. It may give us the means to construct our own defensive shielding.”
“There are also some ruins I’d like to check out, provided we can get past the energy barrier,” put in Daniel.
General Hammond paused, considering the video feed the MALP was still sending back. “Alright. You have a go, but proceed with extreme caution. If you can’t penetrate that barrier you are to return immediately. If I don’t hear from you within thirty minutes, I’ll send in an extraction team. Be ready to leave in half an hour.”
“Understood, sir,” came Jack’s reply. The ruins were nice, but this energy thing was much more interesting. Jack found himself pondering it as SG-1 suited up. Was it some part of the planet’s natural ecosystem, or some kind of technology they could get their hands on? Was it a defense system for the Stargate, like their iris? Did it stop everything from passing through, or only inanimate objects? Could they take it down with a little C4 or a couple of Claymores?
The passage of half an hour saw SG-1 on the ramp leading up to the Stargate with packs shouldered and weapons ready. “Chevron one encoded,” came the voice of Walter Harriman from the control room as the great circular ring began to spin. Before long SG-1 emerged, squinting, into the light of an alien sun.
Looking around, Jack took note of their surroundings. The landscape was flat with no hills or valleys. Jungle encircled the Stargate on three sides, though in the immediate vicinity around the ancient ring, only smaller plants and shrubs grew. Directly in front of the ‘gate was a more decent-sized clearing. To their right, a treeless stretch of land extended in a large ellipse. About two hundred feet or so away in this direction were the alien ruins, which were surrounded by more jungle.
Jack crossed over to where the MALP was at the edge of the mysterious energy barrier. He sent out a probing hand and received something like a static shock. His sharp eyes soon spotted a round grey object about a foot in diameter, kind of like one of those Goa’uld teleballs, but larger, and with stubby little antennae protruding from it and more multicolored flashing buttons and lights.
At that moment, six human-looking guys wearing jungle-colored camouflage emerged from hidden positions, their weapons trained on SG-1. “Who are you? What do you want?” one of them demanded.
Next to Jack, Daniel froze and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, then went into his standard, ‘we come in peace’ spiel. “We’re explorers from a planet called Earth. We came here to learn about your culture, your technology. In return we’d be willing to trade.”
The man and his companions looked at one another. Cautiously, they lowered the weapons they carried. “I’m Merone, First Guardian of the Circle of Stone. These are my contingent. You’re explorers, you say?”
“That’s right,” Jack confirmed, stepping forward before Daniel could reply. “And we’d really love it if you’d let us out of this thing so we could, you know, do some exploring. How ’bout it?” He raised his hands in a non-threatening gesture and flashed them a disarming smile.
The guards shared a round of nonverbal communication with hand and arm signals. Finally, Merone tapped some controls on the handheld device he was carrying. The air shimmered. A subtle hum Jack hadn’t realized he was hearing suddenly ceased.
“Welcome to Giara,” said the Guardian.
The ruins turned out to be an active dig site. With one of the Giaran Guardians acting as an escort, Jack, Teal’c, Carter and Daniel were led to the ancient structure once they had contacted General Hammond to let him know they were prepared to explore this world. Jack’s attempts to learn about the devices that produced the energy barrier around the Stargate were met with silence, but the Guardian was happy to talk about his people’s culture.
It wasn’t long before they reached the dig site where a small team of alien archeologists worked. As they approached, an older man with thinning grey hair looked up from directing two other figures squatting in the dirt.
“Professor Darius,” the Guardian called, “these folks are explorers who have come through the Circle of Stone. One claims to be an archeologist.”
“Doctor Daniel Jackson,” said Daniel coming forward with a warm smile and an outstretched hand. Daniel introduced the rest of SG-1 while the Guardian saluted and left to return to the Stargate.
“I’m Professor Trattorio Darius,” said the lead archeologist shaking Daniel’s hand. “I teach at the University.” The Giaran called to the other two people he was working with. “These are my assistants: Siarra —” a slender young woman with reddish hair stepped forward, “— and Elio.” A tall man with long, dark hair and dark eyes raised a hand in greeting, though he didn’t move from where he was, and soon returned to the digging he was doing. SG-1 learned that Siarra was an advanced archeology student studying under Professor Darius at the University while Elio was a licensed archeologist who worked for the professor.
“We’d love to give you and your team a hand, if you’ll let us,” offered Daniel eagerly. Jack eyed him with a frown. The archeologist had that look again, the one of barely-contained excitement.
“We would enjoy the company,” the professor responded.
Jack sighed in resignation. Great. Digging up a bunch of really old stuff. Just how Jack wanted to spend the morning. They’d have to find out about those shield devices later.
“When did you first discover these ruins? How old do you think they are? Do you know what the structure was built for?” Daniel and Professor Darius were soon in deep conversation.
“Daniel’s made a new friend,” Jack remarked, watching the linguist chatting animatedly with the other archeologist.
Carter smiled, both at Daniel’s excitement and Jack’s grumpiness at spending time in yet another set of alien ruins. Teal’c said nothing, but arched an inquisitive brow and followed Daniel and the Giaran educator deeper into the ruins.
“These are Goa’uld markings, but it’s an obscure dialect,” said Daniel, examining the walls at one end of the ruins.
“Indeed,” confirmed Teal’c. “These glyphs tell of Geb’s rise to power as a system lord and his annexation of this planet several thousand years ago. His Jaffa built this temple in tribute to his greatness.”
“Geb was an Egyptian god of the earth who was supposed to have the power of creating earthquakes,” explained Daniel.
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Ya don’t say.”
“Goa’uld? Jaffa?” asked Siarra with curiosity.
“Oh, you know: they’re a bunch of ugly, clichéd bad guys who think they’re the greatest beings in the universe,” said Jack.
“The Goa’uld are a race of power-hungry beings who exist within human hosts,” Teal’c explained. “They are served by Jaffa warriors. The Goa’uld possess extremely long lifespans and have been known to reside in sarcophagus among old ruins.”
The archeology student’s ignorance seemed to be a sign that the snakeheads probably hadn’t been to this neck of the woods in a while, Jack thought.
“You don’t think there are any of these… Goa’uld are hiding down there?” Professor Darius cast a nervous glance down the dark opening of a narrow staircase that descended deep underground.
“Probably not,” Jack assured. Still, he decided it wasn’t a bad idea to keep his weapon ready, just in case.
“I’ll know if there are,” added Carter. “It’s a long story, but I have the ability to sense them.”
Darius seemed appeased. Nevertheless, he moved off to where Elio was working at the far side of the crumbling structure instead of joining Daniel and SG-1 as they clicked on their flashlights and descended the stairs into the bowels of the ruins.
They continued in relative silence through a labyrinth of passageways. Every so often, Daniel’s voice would echo around the place, pointing out anything he deemed noteworthy and looking like his birthday had come early. Despite his earlier grumbling, Jack couldn’t begrudge the man an opportunity to do some exploring. After all, Daniel deserved a little time to play every now and then. The archeologist practically scurried down the passageways, babbling excitedly to Carter, who was directly behind him. Jack followed after Teal’c to cover their six. Though studying ancient ruins wasn’t his thing, he couldn’t help respecting Daniel’s enthusiasm.
* * *
Daniel shone his flashlight over the ancient stone walls of the Giaran temple, admiring the wealth of glyphs and pictures he found there. It was so easy to lose himself in the study of ancient structures and artifacts. This temple, built by ancient Jaffa, was covered in Goa’uld writing that documented history and myth, and hopefully contained information that would prove useful in their struggle against this powerful enemy.
The archeologist stopped suddenly, nearly causing Sam to crash into him. “What is it, Daniel?” she asked.
It was hidden so carefully Daniel had almost missed it in the dark: a single line of text in a completely different language, a language he hadn’t seen depicted in almost four years.
“Look at this!” he said excitedly. Jack came over to where Daniel and Sam were standing, adding the beams of their flashlights to Daniel’s. Jack squinted at the inscriptions, a confused look on his face. “I-I think this is the language of the Furlings,” Daniel explained. Jack mouthed a silent, ‘Ahh,’ and peered at the wall with new-found interest.
“There is additional text over here, Daniel Jackson,” came Teal’c’s voice from farther down the passage.
Daniel came to join him. “This is written in Ancient,” he reported. “And this is the Asgard language.”
“What does it say?” asked Sam.
“I don’t know what the Furling text says, but the Ancient part reads, ‘For the worthy, the quest ends in reward’, …and-and here, the Asgard part: ‘For the false, torment awaits’,” he answered. He kept walking further down the passage, past where Teal’c stood. “Here’s more, written in the Nox language. I can’t read much Nox, but from what I remember of some lessons with Lya and Anteaus, I think it says, ‘Beware the lust for power lest it consume you.’”
“What do you think it means?” asked Sam.
“I have no idea,” said Daniel. He continued on down the passage to see if there was any more text written in anything other than Goa’uld.
“What do you think the alliance of Four Races were doing in a Goa’uld temple?” Sam wondered.
“I don’t know, but it could be “meaning of life” stuff,” answered Daniel from farther down the passage. He had come to a dead end in the form of a tiled wall painted in gold and covered with writing, some of it graven into the stone, some painted on. He noted that all of it was written in Ancient. He paused and swept the beam of his flashlight around the area, then scanned the carved inscriptions with his hands, talking quietly to himself.
“I believe the labyrinth ends here, Daniel Jackson,” said Teal’c from behind.
“No, no, hold on… Think I’ve found something.” He consulted his notes to help him decipher the symbols, then depressed five of the carved tiles in succession, watching them sink a few inches into the wall at his touch. Nothing happened. He tried again with no results. An ominous rumble rippled through the cavern.
“Daniel?”
“Just a second.” The archeologist thought carefully, still mumbling to himself, then keyed in a final sequence.
This time, with the sound of grating stone on stone, a large door opened ponderously. Dust rose out of the chamber, making Daniel sneeze. He stepped cautiously forward, followed closely by Sam, Jack and Teal’c.
He found himself in a small, perfectly circular room with a number of diminutive artifacts set in alcoves around the chamber. He paused to examine an amulet here, a statue there. A rectangular stone tablet covered in carved Ancient glyphs also caught his attention. After a moment of indecision, he stowed it carefully in his bag.
“Hey, Daniel, what does this say?” called Jack from the entrance of the chamber. He was shining his light over the backside of one of the heavy stone doors. Daniel went back over to where Jack was standing and scanned the Ancient text.
“It’s a map,” he said. “This looks like a drawing with landmarks. If I’m reading this right, there’s also a set of latitude and longitude coordinates here, which I assume correspond to someplace on this planet. Jack, I think there are more of these artifacts,” he said with palpable excitement while he copied the map and the symbols into his notebook, helped by the illumination of the rest of his team’s flashlights.
“It’s like a scavenger hunt,” Sam remarked.
“Scavenger hunt?” inquired Teal’c.
While Jack explained the concept to Teal’c, Daniel turned his attention to the main attraction, located at the far side of the room. It was a polished, perfectly-symmetrical golden cube about four inches tall resting on a chest-high stone pedestal.
“Hello,” said Daniel softly to himself. He called over his shoulder to the rest of the team, “There’s some kind of artifact here.”
“Can you tell what it is?” asked Carter.
“Not without having a closer look,” said Daniel.
“Be careful, would ya?” cautioned O’Neill from behind. “This place gives me the creeps.”
Daniel acknowledged Jack’s words as he slowly approached the pedestal —
— and unexpectedly sank waist-deep in thick, slimy mud - part of a moat-like feature that circled the stone pedestal. The mud encased his legs like cement, trapping him tightly and drawing him under with alarming speed. Daniel was reminded of the portrayal of quicksand in old Hollywood movies where people actually sank all the way under - only, here was a real-live version.
Daniel knew better than to struggle, yet it didn’t seem to matter. He felt himself being dragged further and further down as if a hundred grabbing hands were pulling him into the viscous mud.
Daniel was up to his shoulders now. “Help!” he called out.
The rest of the team came rushing over. “Dammit Daniel!” Jack exclaimed. “Knew I didn’t like this place.” He and Teal’c seized Daniel’s arms and pulled with all their strength while Sam provided the rescuers light. Finally after much grunting and tugging, Daniel came free.
Sam handed him a towel to clean himself of the clinging substance as best he could. “You okay?” she asked. Daniel nodded.
“Next time, watch where you’re stepping,” Jack admonished.
Daniel didn’t think this was entirely fair. “Jack, stand right there,” he directed. “Do you see anything?”
Jack did as Daniel asked. He scratched his head in obvious puzzlement when he found he couldn’t see the dangerous pool unless he shone his light directly at it. It blended in perfectly with the rest of the ground. He shrugged, conceding the point to the linguist. He sniffed in Daniel’s direction, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “That is not a good smell.”
Daniel gave him a withering look, then a shrug of grudging agreement and an amused grin. Being malodorous was a small price to pay for not ending up at the bottom of that mud pool.
“If you intend to proceed, you should exercise extreme caution,” Teal’c advised while Daniel got to his feet.
“Caution… yup, got it,” Daniel quipped, and vaulted over the dangerous mud moat before anyone could stop him. He circled the cube-shaped artifact carefully, noting the way Jack was glaring and grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, “dammit, Daniel”. He shone his light over each of the artifact’s sides and found Ancient symbols etched upon the metallic surface of one of its faces.
As he removed the artifact from its resting place, a deep grinding sound filled the chamber. Then a ten-foot tall vicious-looking metallic spike erupted suddenly from the ground about a centimeter from his foot.