Another Day, Another Planet
“And we bid you welcome to P-three-R-seven-seven-niner, where the weather is a balmy eighty-four degrees. Today’s special for our campers includes palm trees, a babbling brook, lots of weird grassy things and a honkin’ huge sheep.” Jack O’Neill broke off his travelogue to give the colossal statue nestled in the valley before them a quick glance over. He clapped his hands together and continued, “As an added bonus, the management is delighted to announce that the Tok’ra will not be joining us on this mission, thus ensuring three days of uninterrupted fun in the sun.”
Jack settled his shades over his eyes and snugged his cap firmly into place as he continued to scan the area around the Stargate. Teal’c was likewise on guard for potential hostiles. Carter maneuvered the loaded FRED down the platform steps and around Daniel, who was already filming the structures before them.
“I don’t remembering buying the monologue package for this trip,” Carter’s voice floated up to him.
“Regrettably it appears to be supplied free of charge, Major Carter,” Teal’c replied. “Whether one wishes it or not.”
Their colonel feigned wounded feelings and skipped down the stone steps. “Of particular interest is our collection of big ol’ moldy buildings, designed to capture the interest of any archaeologist worth his salt.” Jack clapped Daniel on the back with enough force to break into his archaeologist’s reverie.
Daniel lowered the camera slightly and his gaze flicked to Jack for a second before being dragged back to the wonders before him. “Wow,” he muttered.
“You’re welcome.” Jack loftily took the credit and launched back into tour-guide mode. “So, we trust you all enjoy your stay and remember – take your trash with you when you leave.” He waved his MP5 expansively at the surrounding landscape. “Fan out, people.”
SG-1 moved away and began to take a proper look around. Jack circled behind the Stargate and glanced through the ring at the V-shaped valley that widened from where he stood to stretch for nearly two kilometers. Scrubby bushes and mounds of tufted grass dotted the arid soil. To the right of the Stargate he noted the brown waters of a river meandering through palm trees and large rocks; a backup water supply was always welcome. Turning from the empty land behind the platform, his gaze settled on a wide stone causeway that led directly to where the colossal statue of the ram-headed beast crouched, impassively guarding the entrance to an equally massive, many-columned temple.
Behind the temple rose a familiar sight: an enormous pyramid, built of the same pale stone as the statue and temple, and large enough to serve as a landing platform for a Goa’uld mothership. Warm breezes wafted over the team, bringing the crisp, hot scent of desert sands from beyond the surrounding rocky hills. Tiny birds twittered and darted through the grasses along the river while larger hawk-like birds coasted on air currents high above. Nothing else stirred; there was no movement among the buildings, no Jaffa coming to challenge the intruders.
Teal’c halted fifty meters along the causeway, scanning the area and absorbing what he saw with practiced ease. “This place appears deserted, O’Neill,” he called out, voice carrying distinctly in the warm air.
“Clear, sir,” echoed Carter, a hundred meters off to the left.
O’Neill finished his own sweep. “Well, what do you know? Tok’ra intel that’s actually right for once. Okay kids, have at it. Teal’c, you and Daniel go check out that statue.” He grinned as Daniel, who had been impatiently inching sideways while waiting for the all-clear, took off up the causeway at a trot, Teal’c striding along behind.
Jack ambled over to the DHD, identified the lone unfamiliar glyph as the point of origin and dialed up the coordinates for Earth, the immediate check-in with Base now SOP since their little problem on Ernest’s world.
Seven symbols locked, Jack pressed the center crystal and – nothing. He frowned, quickly checking the symbols were correct. They were, the point of origin the only unfamiliar glyph, and the corresponding symbols were locked on the inner ring of the Stargate. After a few moments the glowing chevrons winked out.
He glared at the DHD and tried again, pressing each symbol firmly: Auriga, Cetus, Centaurus, Cancer, Scutum, Eridanus, Point-of-origin. The inner ring of the Stargate spun, chevrons clunked as they locked, and Jack leaned on the big red activation crystal with deliberate force. Nothing. He pressed again, this time with both hands, but the wormhole refused to establish. Once again the symbols winked out, leaving a cold foreboding to crawl up his spine.
Looking up, Carter’s name on his lips, Jack saw the major already headed toward him.
“Problem, sir?”
“Can’t open the wormhole, Carter,” he replied. “Chevrons are locking, but no cigar.”
Carter dropped her pack to the ground and whipped out a diagnostic tool. She popped the access panel on the DHD and hooked up to the crystals inside. “Power readings are all within acceptable parameters, sir.” She stowed the tool and rose. “Mind if I give it a try?”
O’Neill stepped back, uneasily scanning the area. “Please, prove me wrong, Carter.” He looked along the causeway to see Teal’c staring back at them, already alerted to trouble by the lack of activity at the Stargate.
Carter hit the symbols for the address to Earth, methodically pressing each panel and muttering its name. She depressed the activation crystal and got nothing. The chevrons around the Stargate glowed cheerily in the sunlight but the Stargate itself remained merely an empty ring. After a minute, the lights winked out and the DHD shut down.
“What’s the likelihood of this happening two missions in a row? If Aris Boch is lurking somewhere….” Jack swiped his cap from his head and scrubbed at his hair. He smacked the radio on his vest and barked, “Teal’c, Daniel, fall back to the ’gate. Wormhole’s not opening.”
Jack watched for a moment as Daniel and Teal’c turned and retraced their path along the stone causeway, then looked down to see Carter again on her knees with her head nearly inside the access panel.
“Anything, Carter?” He knew he should probably give her more than a minute to come up with a solution, but still….
“Hoo boy. Take a look at this, sir.” She sat back on her heels, her face scrunched up in a mix of worry and interest.
Casting another glance around the empty valley, Jack dropped to one knee and peered inside the DHD. His knowledge of the inner workings of the alien machines was enough to tell if one was in working condition or not. The usual set of crystals was present; their color and arrangement all as they should be. What was not usual was a spidery-fine network of filaments, concealed behind and attached to the control crystals. Alien and very out of place, they glittered blackly sinister in the sunlight.
“The DHD is accepting the coordinates we enter and they’re lighting up on the ’gate in the correct sequence, but my guess is this is stopping the wormhole from initiating,” Carter said.
“Whoa, what the hell is that?” Daniel’s voice floated over Jack’s shoulder as he and Teal’c arrived and bent to peer inside the DHD.
“Good question. Teal’c, you seen anything like this before?” Jack asked, twisting around to squint up through the sunlight at him.
“I have not, O’Neill.” Teal’c’s eyes tracked the path of the black tendrils. “They appear to be connected to the crystals that are responsible for controlling power and transmitting coordinates to the Stargate.”
“That can’t be good,” remarked Daniel.
“Indeed. It is not unknown for some Goa’uld to tamper with the DHDs for their own purposes.”
Jack straightened up and snapped open the cover of his chrono. Twenty minutes on-planet already. “Well, we’ve missed our check-in. The SGC should be dialing in any minute now. Carter, you’d better work out if you need any extra gear from home.”
“Yes, sir. The piece that was missing from the DHD on PJ6-877 is still here. I don’t think we can blame this on Aris Boch.” She bent her head back inside the pedestal and began to talk quietly with Teal’c about the placement of crystals.
Daniel moved to stand next to Jack. The valley spread out before them in silent majesty. Against an indigo sky, the limestone surface of the pyramid, buildings, statue and causeway gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight. A gold capstone on the pyramid blazed in an ostentatious display that impressed even Jack. Beside him, unable to examine these wonders closely while their present problem remained unresolved, Daniel pulled out his camera and began to film.
~
“And we bid you welcome to P-three-R-seven-seven-niner, where the weather is a balmy eighty-four degrees. Today’s special for our campers includes palm trees, a babbling brook, lots of weird grassy things and a honkin’ huge sheep.” Jack O’Neill broke off his travelogue to give the colossal statue nestled in the valley before them a quick glance over. He clapped his hands together and continued, “As an added bonus, the management is delighted to announce that the Tok’ra will not be joining us on this mission, thus ensuring three days of uninterrupted fun in the sun.”
Jack settled his shades over his eyes and snugged his cap firmly into place as he continued to scan the area around the Stargate. Teal’c was likewise on guard for potential hostiles. Carter maneuvered the loaded FRED down the platform steps and around Daniel, who was already filming the structures before them.
“I don’t remembering buying the monologue package for this trip,” Carter’s voice floated up to him.
“Regrettably it appears to be supplied free of charge, Major Carter,” Teal’c replied. “Whether one wishes it or not.”
Their colonel feigned wounded feelings and skipped down the stone steps. “Of particular interest is our collection of big ol’ moldy buildings, designed to capture the interest of any archaeologist worth his salt.” Jack clapped Daniel on the back with enough force to break into his archaeologist’s reverie.
Daniel lowered the camera slightly and his gaze flicked to Jack for a second before being dragged back to the wonders before him. “Wow,” he muttered.
“You’re welcome.” Jack loftily took the credit and launched back into tour-guide mode. “So, we trust you all enjoy your stay and remember – take your trash with you when you leave.” He waved his MP5 expansively at the surrounding landscape. “Fan out, people.”
SG-1 moved away and began to take a proper look around. Jack circled behind the Stargate and glanced through the ring at the V-shaped valley that widened from where he stood to stretch for nearly two kilometers. Scrubby bushes and mounds of tufted grass dotted the arid soil. To the right of the Stargate he noted the brown waters of a river meandering through palm trees and large rocks; a backup water supply was always welcome. Turning from the empty land behind the platform, his gaze settled on a wide stone causeway that led directly to where the colossal statue of the ram-headed beast crouched, impassively guarding the entrance to an equally massive, many-columned temple.
Behind the temple rose a familiar sight: an enormous pyramid, built of the same pale stone as the statue and temple, and large enough to serve as a landing platform for a Goa’uld mothership. Warm breezes wafted over the team, bringing the crisp, hot scent of desert sands from beyond the surrounding rocky hills. Tiny birds twittered and darted through the grasses along the river while larger hawk-like birds coasted on air currents high above. Nothing else stirred; there was no movement among the buildings, no Jaffa coming to challenge the intruders.
Teal’c halted fifty meters along the causeway, scanning the area and absorbing what he saw with practiced ease. “This place appears deserted, O’Neill,” he called out, voice carrying distinctly in the warm air.
“Clear, sir,” echoed Carter, a hundred meters off to the left.
O’Neill finished his own sweep. “Well, what do you know? Tok’ra intel that’s actually right for once. Okay kids, have at it. Teal’c, you and Daniel go check out that statue.” He grinned as Daniel, who had been impatiently inching sideways while waiting for the all-clear, took off up the causeway at a trot, Teal’c striding along behind.
Jack ambled over to the DHD, identified the lone unfamiliar glyph as the point of origin and dialed up the coordinates for Earth, the immediate check-in with Base now SOP since their little problem on Ernest’s world.
Seven symbols locked, Jack pressed the center crystal and – nothing. He frowned, quickly checking the symbols were correct. They were, the point of origin the only unfamiliar glyph, and the corresponding symbols were locked on the inner ring of the Stargate. After a few moments the glowing chevrons winked out.
He glared at the DHD and tried again, pressing each symbol firmly: Auriga, Cetus, Centaurus, Cancer, Scutum, Eridanus, Point-of-origin. The inner ring of the Stargate spun, chevrons clunked as they locked, and Jack leaned on the big red activation crystal with deliberate force. Nothing. He pressed again, this time with both hands, but the wormhole refused to establish. Once again the symbols winked out, leaving a cold foreboding to crawl up his spine.
Looking up, Carter’s name on his lips, Jack saw the major already headed toward him.
“Problem, sir?”
“Can’t open the wormhole, Carter,” he replied. “Chevrons are locking, but no cigar.”
Carter dropped her pack to the ground and whipped out a diagnostic tool. She popped the access panel on the DHD and hooked up to the crystals inside. “Power readings are all within acceptable parameters, sir.” She stowed the tool and rose. “Mind if I give it a try?”
O’Neill stepped back, uneasily scanning the area. “Please, prove me wrong, Carter.” He looked along the causeway to see Teal’c staring back at them, already alerted to trouble by the lack of activity at the Stargate.
Carter hit the symbols for the address to Earth, methodically pressing each panel and muttering its name. She depressed the activation crystal and got nothing. The chevrons around the Stargate glowed cheerily in the sunlight but the Stargate itself remained merely an empty ring. After a minute, the lights winked out and the DHD shut down.
“What’s the likelihood of this happening two missions in a row? If Aris Boch is lurking somewhere….” Jack swiped his cap from his head and scrubbed at his hair. He smacked the radio on his vest and barked, “Teal’c, Daniel, fall back to the ’gate. Wormhole’s not opening.”
Jack watched for a moment as Daniel and Teal’c turned and retraced their path along the stone causeway, then looked down to see Carter again on her knees with her head nearly inside the access panel.
“Anything, Carter?” He knew he should probably give her more than a minute to come up with a solution, but still….
“Hoo boy. Take a look at this, sir.” She sat back on her heels, her face scrunched up in a mix of worry and interest.
Casting another glance around the empty valley, Jack dropped to one knee and peered inside the DHD. His knowledge of the inner workings of the alien machines was enough to tell if one was in working condition or not. The usual set of crystals was present; their color and arrangement all as they should be. What was not usual was a spidery-fine network of filaments, concealed behind and attached to the control crystals. Alien and very out of place, they glittered blackly sinister in the sunlight.
“The DHD is accepting the coordinates we enter and they’re lighting up on the ’gate in the correct sequence, but my guess is this is stopping the wormhole from initiating,” Carter said.
“Whoa, what the hell is that?” Daniel’s voice floated over Jack’s shoulder as he and Teal’c arrived and bent to peer inside the DHD.
“Good question. Teal’c, you seen anything like this before?” Jack asked, twisting around to squint up through the sunlight at him.
“I have not, O’Neill.” Teal’c’s eyes tracked the path of the black tendrils. “They appear to be connected to the crystals that are responsible for controlling power and transmitting coordinates to the Stargate.”
“That can’t be good,” remarked Daniel.
“Indeed. It is not unknown for some Goa’uld to tamper with the DHDs for their own purposes.”
Jack straightened up and snapped open the cover of his chrono. Twenty minutes on-planet already. “Well, we’ve missed our check-in. The SGC should be dialing in any minute now. Carter, you’d better work out if you need any extra gear from home.”
“Yes, sir. The piece that was missing from the DHD on PJ6-877 is still here. I don’t think we can blame this on Aris Boch.” She bent her head back inside the pedestal and began to talk quietly with Teal’c about the placement of crystals.
Daniel moved to stand next to Jack. The valley spread out before them in silent majesty. Against an indigo sky, the limestone surface of the pyramid, buildings, statue and causeway gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight. A gold capstone on the pyramid blazed in an ostentatious display that impressed even Jack. Beside him, unable to examine these wonders closely while their present problem remained unresolved, Daniel pulled out his camera and began to film.
~
Five, six, seven chevrons locked – and no wormhole. Jack turned away from the silent valley to see Carter and Teal’c duck behind the DHD to worry at the controls once more. Six attempts to dial out and they were none the wiser. The Stargate shut down with a disappointed whine, then almost immediately the chevrons began to light up again with another attempt. They glowed brightly for close to a minute before winking out with a mocking snap.
Stranded.
No way out.
Jack stalked back to his team.
“Anything?”
Carter glanced up at him, squinting against the sun in her eyes. “Sir, it looks like the black filaments are disrupting the connection between the coordinate verification mechanism and the wormhole activators.”
Daniel appeared at Jack’s shoulder, shielding the glare from her face. “Is it just Earth’s address that it blocks? Maybe another address will get through.”
Jack shrugged and gestured with his MP5 at the DHD. “Go for it, Daniel.”
Pocketing his camera, Daniel stepped up, and after a moment’s thought dialed the coordinates for the Alpha site. Symbols lit, chevrons locked – but no gushing splash of event horizon answered his call.
He tried again, this time Cimmeria. Nothing.
Argos. Zip.
Oannes. Squat.
Orban. Diddly.
Planet of the Naked White Bald Guys. Bupkiss.
One last one. Nada.
“You dialed the address for Chulak, Daniel Jackson?” queried Teal’c.
“Chulak?” Jack echoed. “What, you think we need another challenge right now?”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on going through if it worked, Jack. I just thought maybe the DHD has been tampered with to recognize only Goa’uld worlds,” Daniel pointed out. “I guess not.”
Jack allowed him that and sighed in frustration.
“Perhaps if we were to dial the Stargate manually, we could bypass the mechanism on the DHD.” Teal’c’s suggestion broke through the strained silence.
“It’s worth a try, sir,” added Carter as she stood up.
Fifteen minutes of back-wrenching labor later they were no closer to an answer.
“I don’t get it, sir,” complained Carter as they all stood sweating in the sun. She accepted the canteen offered by Daniel and swallowed a long, cool drink of water. “If the filament is stopping the DHD from sending the coordinates to the ’gate, we should still be able to dial out manually. We’ve done it before without a DHD.”
Jack’s next question went unasked when the first chevron on the Stargate lit up with a reassuring clunk.
“Yes.” Long, determined strides had him in front of the MALP, ready to make contact with the base. The seventh chevron locked and the gush of the wormhole brought a sigh of relief from them all. Within seconds of the event horizon stabilizing, the camera on the MALP was tracking around, moved by unseen hands and accompanied by the welcome sound of General Hammond’s voice, issuing tinnily from the speaker.
“SG-1, this is Hammond, please respond.”
“SGC, this is SG one niner. We read you, General.”
“Colonel, you missed your first check-in. What’s your status?”
“We’ve got a bit of a technical hitch, sir. We’re secure, no hostiles, but there’s some kind of… thing attached to the DHD controls. It’s preventing us from opening the wormhole. Carter?” Jack motioned her forward and stepped aside.
Carter swiftly filled the general in on what they had discovered so far. “Also sir, there’s a box of tools in my lab marked ‘Off-world diagnostics’. Could you arrange for it to be sent through?”
“It’s on its way, Major. Colonel, apart from the equipment Major Carter has requested, is there anything else we can do from here?”
“We’re good for the moment, sir. We’ll have a look around the buildings here, see what we can turn up. If it looks like we’re going to have an extended stay, we’ll need extra supplies.”
The thought of spending days or weeks in this empty place didn’t exactly fill him with cheer, but things could be oh, so much worse. If all else failed they could get the Tok’ra to scare up a ship and come get them. Speaking of….
“Sir, this entire mission was the Tok’ra’s idea. They came up with the address, they asked us to head a mission to check out this place for some old base of Ra’s, and yet at the last minute they’re suddenly ‘unavoidably detained by political matters’ and it’s ‘don’t wait for us, we’ll catch up with you’.” Jack waved sarcastic quotation marks in the air as he spoke.
“Understood, Colonel. We’ll contact the Tok’ra and see if they can shed any light on the situation.” Jack could just picture the look on Hammond’s face. “Heads up, people. Sergeant Siler has Major Carter’s requisition.”
They moved back, unnecessarily, as a large plastic crate popped through the wormhole, propelled by a push along the grating of the SGC’s ramp to slide gently to a halt on the stone platform a whole world away.
“We’ll dial in again at 1400 hours and on the hour after that. Good luck. Hammond out.”
The Stargate disengaged, leaving the four looking at each other.
“You think the Tok’ra set us up, Jack?” asked Daniel.
“I’m just saying it’s a mighty big coincidence.”
“Well, they were right that this planet was once used by Ra,” Daniel countered. He turned, waving an arm at the looming statue. “That’s a Criosphinx. The ram’s head design is a typical feature of smaller sphinxes on Earth that were dedicated to Amun, or Ra. Also, there’s a design above the entrance to the temple that could well be a Wadjet – The Eye of Ra. I’ll have to get closer to be certain, though.”
Jack scowled, unwilling to give up his main suspect just yet. “Well, Miseanu said she and the rest of the Tok’ra would be joining us at 2000 hours. I’ll reserve judgment until then.” He looked over his team, glad once again that he had a wealth of knowledge and experience to call upon instead of a grunt of Marines.
“Carter, Teal’c – see what you can do about disconnecting that thing from the DHD. Daniel, let’s you and I take a walk and find out what’s so damn fascinating about this place.”
~
Stranded.
No way out.
Jack stalked back to his team.
“Anything?”
Carter glanced up at him, squinting against the sun in her eyes. “Sir, it looks like the black filaments are disrupting the connection between the coordinate verification mechanism and the wormhole activators.”
Daniel appeared at Jack’s shoulder, shielding the glare from her face. “Is it just Earth’s address that it blocks? Maybe another address will get through.”
Jack shrugged and gestured with his MP5 at the DHD. “Go for it, Daniel.”
Pocketing his camera, Daniel stepped up, and after a moment’s thought dialed the coordinates for the Alpha site. Symbols lit, chevrons locked – but no gushing splash of event horizon answered his call.
He tried again, this time Cimmeria. Nothing.
Argos. Zip.
Oannes. Squat.
Orban. Diddly.
Planet of the Naked White Bald Guys. Bupkiss.
One last one. Nada.
“You dialed the address for Chulak, Daniel Jackson?” queried Teal’c.
“Chulak?” Jack echoed. “What, you think we need another challenge right now?”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on going through if it worked, Jack. I just thought maybe the DHD has been tampered with to recognize only Goa’uld worlds,” Daniel pointed out. “I guess not.”
Jack allowed him that and sighed in frustration.
“Perhaps if we were to dial the Stargate manually, we could bypass the mechanism on the DHD.” Teal’c’s suggestion broke through the strained silence.
“It’s worth a try, sir,” added Carter as she stood up.
Fifteen minutes of back-wrenching labor later they were no closer to an answer.
“I don’t get it, sir,” complained Carter as they all stood sweating in the sun. She accepted the canteen offered by Daniel and swallowed a long, cool drink of water. “If the filament is stopping the DHD from sending the coordinates to the ’gate, we should still be able to dial out manually. We’ve done it before without a DHD.”
Jack’s next question went unasked when the first chevron on the Stargate lit up with a reassuring clunk.
“Yes.” Long, determined strides had him in front of the MALP, ready to make contact with the base. The seventh chevron locked and the gush of the wormhole brought a sigh of relief from them all. Within seconds of the event horizon stabilizing, the camera on the MALP was tracking around, moved by unseen hands and accompanied by the welcome sound of General Hammond’s voice, issuing tinnily from the speaker.
“SG-1, this is Hammond, please respond.”
“SGC, this is SG one niner. We read you, General.”
“Colonel, you missed your first check-in. What’s your status?”
“We’ve got a bit of a technical hitch, sir. We’re secure, no hostiles, but there’s some kind of… thing attached to the DHD controls. It’s preventing us from opening the wormhole. Carter?” Jack motioned her forward and stepped aside.
Carter swiftly filled the general in on what they had discovered so far. “Also sir, there’s a box of tools in my lab marked ‘Off-world diagnostics’. Could you arrange for it to be sent through?”
“It’s on its way, Major. Colonel, apart from the equipment Major Carter has requested, is there anything else we can do from here?”
“We’re good for the moment, sir. We’ll have a look around the buildings here, see what we can turn up. If it looks like we’re going to have an extended stay, we’ll need extra supplies.”
The thought of spending days or weeks in this empty place didn’t exactly fill him with cheer, but things could be oh, so much worse. If all else failed they could get the Tok’ra to scare up a ship and come get them. Speaking of….
“Sir, this entire mission was the Tok’ra’s idea. They came up with the address, they asked us to head a mission to check out this place for some old base of Ra’s, and yet at the last minute they’re suddenly ‘unavoidably detained by political matters’ and it’s ‘don’t wait for us, we’ll catch up with you’.” Jack waved sarcastic quotation marks in the air as he spoke.
“Understood, Colonel. We’ll contact the Tok’ra and see if they can shed any light on the situation.” Jack could just picture the look on Hammond’s face. “Heads up, people. Sergeant Siler has Major Carter’s requisition.”
They moved back, unnecessarily, as a large plastic crate popped through the wormhole, propelled by a push along the grating of the SGC’s ramp to slide gently to a halt on the stone platform a whole world away.
“We’ll dial in again at 1400 hours and on the hour after that. Good luck. Hammond out.”
The Stargate disengaged, leaving the four looking at each other.
“You think the Tok’ra set us up, Jack?” asked Daniel.
“I’m just saying it’s a mighty big coincidence.”
“Well, they were right that this planet was once used by Ra,” Daniel countered. He turned, waving an arm at the looming statue. “That’s a Criosphinx. The ram’s head design is a typical feature of smaller sphinxes on Earth that were dedicated to Amun, or Ra. Also, there’s a design above the entrance to the temple that could well be a Wadjet – The Eye of Ra. I’ll have to get closer to be certain, though.”
Jack scowled, unwilling to give up his main suspect just yet. “Well, Miseanu said she and the rest of the Tok’ra would be joining us at 2000 hours. I’ll reserve judgment until then.” He looked over his team, glad once again that he had a wealth of knowledge and experience to call upon instead of a grunt of Marines.
“Carter, Teal’c – see what you can do about disconnecting that thing from the DHD. Daniel, let’s you and I take a walk and find out what’s so damn fascinating about this place.”
~
The causeway led them directly to the statue. A fat, yellow sun beginning its afternoon descent glared hotly on the limestone structures before them. Daniel, reveling in the heat, had already shed his BDU jacket and Jack followed suit, rolling the jacket and clipping it on to the back of his vest as they both gazed up at the sphinx.
Ninety feet high into the sky it reared: the huge, powerful haunches and body of a lion coiled under the head of a ram; its wicked, curled horns tapered to razor fine points capped in gold and framed a fine-boned face that seemed more than passingly familiar.
“Is that…?” Jack cocked his head to one side, considering.
“Yes. Yes, I think it must be,” Daniel replied absently, transported in an instant back to the first time he had met Ra – haughtily majestic, surrounded by half-naked, scalp-locked children – himself overawed, impressionable and vindicated, and having the most amazing time of his life with a dangerous and unpredictable Jack by his side.
“Wonder how the kids are doing?” Jack mused fondly.
Daniel knew Jack was remembering his delight at finding the children had abandoned Ra and were wandering bewildered in the back corridors of the Abydos pyramid. The Abydonians had accepted the lost ones into their lives and homes like the precious gifts they were. “Probably still getting up to all sorts of mischief,” he said, quickly bringing the camera up to his eyes. “After a lifetime of total obedience to Ra, they really let loose once they felt safe. Kasuf and the elders used to shake their heads and bemoan the ‘shocking nature of youth’.” His voice was soft with memories and just a hint of sadness for his lost life in Nagada.
“Nice to know some things stay the same, no matter what planet you’re on.”
Goa’uld script filled Daniel’s viewfinder, translations automatically springing to his lips. “‘Kneel ye before Ra, mightiest of gods, all who come before him’.”
Jack made a face and walked on along the sphinx’s side. “As Teal’c would say, Dead False God.”
The causeway continued on from the rear of the sphinx – a hundred meters walk to a short wall enclosing the temple. Inside stood a forest of thick columns supporting a roof of massive stone slabs that soared high over their heads. Walls, columns, roof: all were heavily carved and painted in vivid reds, greens, blues and golds, the bright white of the stone barely managing to peep through in places. Dotted around outside the temple were small open-sided stone shelters, each consisting of a roof and four supporting pillars. In the background rose the pyramid, almost incandescent in the sunshine and dwarfing even the stunning height of the temple.
Jack winced as a reflected shaft of sunlight lanced through his glasses. He looked over at Daniel, his complaint dying as Daniel stared up, delight and awe spreading across his face, his mouth open, unable to find any words to express what he was feeling.
“Jack,” Daniel finally croaked out. “Do you see?”
“I’m seeing it, Daniel, I’m seeing it.” There was a beat of silence, then Jack sighed in defeat. “Okay, what am I seeing?”
Daniel drifted forward a couple of feet, arms gesturing expansively around him.
“Jack, this is Ancient Egypt. These buildings, the sphinx, the – the pyramid; this is how the temples and monuments in Egypt looked, thousands of years ago when they were first built.” He turned to flap a hand at the pyramid, its crown a blaze of light. “The limestone covering, the gold capstone – they’re the same features many of the great pyramids initially had, particularly at Giza… where the Stargate was found.” Daniel trailed off as yet more evidence of the Goa’uld’s interference in human history slammed home.
“The Abydos pyramid is brown,” Jack remarked, derailing Daniel’s train of thought.
Daniel stared at Jack. “Abydos was only ever home for slaves who worked the naquada mine. It was functional. This,” he turned back to the colorful glory quietly waiting before them, “it’s too decorative.” Brow creased in thought, he waggled a finger at him. “This is significant, Jack.”
Jack’s eyebrows rose skeptically. “Exactly how so?”
Daniel turned and began striding swiftly towards the temple, armed with camera, notebook and the eager anticipation of a puzzle to be solved. He called back over his shoulder, spurring Jack into a jog to catch him up.
“I have no idea.”
~
Ninety feet high into the sky it reared: the huge, powerful haunches and body of a lion coiled under the head of a ram; its wicked, curled horns tapered to razor fine points capped in gold and framed a fine-boned face that seemed more than passingly familiar.
“Is that…?” Jack cocked his head to one side, considering.
“Yes. Yes, I think it must be,” Daniel replied absently, transported in an instant back to the first time he had met Ra – haughtily majestic, surrounded by half-naked, scalp-locked children – himself overawed, impressionable and vindicated, and having the most amazing time of his life with a dangerous and unpredictable Jack by his side.
“Wonder how the kids are doing?” Jack mused fondly.
Daniel knew Jack was remembering his delight at finding the children had abandoned Ra and were wandering bewildered in the back corridors of the Abydos pyramid. The Abydonians had accepted the lost ones into their lives and homes like the precious gifts they were. “Probably still getting up to all sorts of mischief,” he said, quickly bringing the camera up to his eyes. “After a lifetime of total obedience to Ra, they really let loose once they felt safe. Kasuf and the elders used to shake their heads and bemoan the ‘shocking nature of youth’.” His voice was soft with memories and just a hint of sadness for his lost life in Nagada.
“Nice to know some things stay the same, no matter what planet you’re on.”
Goa’uld script filled Daniel’s viewfinder, translations automatically springing to his lips. “‘Kneel ye before Ra, mightiest of gods, all who come before him’.”
Jack made a face and walked on along the sphinx’s side. “As Teal’c would say, Dead False God.”
The causeway continued on from the rear of the sphinx – a hundred meters walk to a short wall enclosing the temple. Inside stood a forest of thick columns supporting a roof of massive stone slabs that soared high over their heads. Walls, columns, roof: all were heavily carved and painted in vivid reds, greens, blues and golds, the bright white of the stone barely managing to peep through in places. Dotted around outside the temple were small open-sided stone shelters, each consisting of a roof and four supporting pillars. In the background rose the pyramid, almost incandescent in the sunshine and dwarfing even the stunning height of the temple.
Jack winced as a reflected shaft of sunlight lanced through his glasses. He looked over at Daniel, his complaint dying as Daniel stared up, delight and awe spreading across his face, his mouth open, unable to find any words to express what he was feeling.
“Jack,” Daniel finally croaked out. “Do you see?”
“I’m seeing it, Daniel, I’m seeing it.” There was a beat of silence, then Jack sighed in defeat. “Okay, what am I seeing?”
Daniel drifted forward a couple of feet, arms gesturing expansively around him.
“Jack, this is Ancient Egypt. These buildings, the sphinx, the – the pyramid; this is how the temples and monuments in Egypt looked, thousands of years ago when they were first built.” He turned to flap a hand at the pyramid, its crown a blaze of light. “The limestone covering, the gold capstone – they’re the same features many of the great pyramids initially had, particularly at Giza… where the Stargate was found.” Daniel trailed off as yet more evidence of the Goa’uld’s interference in human history slammed home.
“The Abydos pyramid is brown,” Jack remarked, derailing Daniel’s train of thought.
Daniel stared at Jack. “Abydos was only ever home for slaves who worked the naquada mine. It was functional. This,” he turned back to the colorful glory quietly waiting before them, “it’s too decorative.” Brow creased in thought, he waggled a finger at him. “This is significant, Jack.”
Jack’s eyebrows rose skeptically. “Exactly how so?”
Daniel turned and began striding swiftly towards the temple, armed with camera, notebook and the eager anticipation of a puzzle to be solved. He called back over his shoulder, spurring Jack into a jog to catch him up.
“I have no idea.”
~
Teal’c paused in his fourth circuit of the perimeter around the Stargate platform, the silence heightened by the soft susurration of the foliage growing along the river bank, gently moving in the warm breeze. A pleasing place, were it not for the lack of a ready exit.
His eyes roamed over the Stargate, then focused through the ring on Major Carter’s legs stretched out in the dirt, the rest of her body obscured by the squat mushroom shape of the DHD, as she patiently disconnected the black filaments from the operating mechanism.
Teal’c brought his gaze back to the Stargate itself, standing silent and mysterious as it had surely done for many thousands of years. The gray naquada surface showed no sign of wear; harsh sun, sand-filled scouring winds, rain and even time itself had failed to tarnish its simple elegance. The inner track with its thirty-nine symbols nestled snugly in the outer ring, waiting for the next command to open itself to the universe beyond.
The chevrons gleamed under the bright sun, each as recognizable to Teal’c as old friends; a lifetime of using the Stargate network had brought familiarity and no little respect. He absently noted each glyph was correctly depicted. Nothing appeared untoward, except… tiny black filaments snaking out of the sand piled around the base where the ring disappeared into the platform’s support.
Teal’c dropped to one knee and gently brushed the sand away. Tendrils of black wound up out of the surface of the outer ring itself and led into an oval object melded onto the flat side of the Stargate.
Straightening, Teal’c reached for his radio. His open mouth closed as the speaker crackled to life with O’Neill’s voice.
“Major, Teal’c? Report.”
“Sir, I’m halfway through disconnecting the device on the DHD. Another twenty minutes and we should be able to give it another go,” Major Carter’s voice rang out, echoing slightly in the quiet air.
“Good job, Carter. T?”
“O’Neill, the Stargate perimeter is still secure. Also, I have just discovered another device attached to the Stargate itself.”
Major Carter popped her head up from behind the DHD. “Really?” She scrambled up and jogged over to him.
“Oh, swell,” sighed O’Neill. “Well, we’re heading to the temple. Check in every thirty minutes. Out.”
“Acknowledged, O’Neill.” Teal’c shifted aside to allow Major Carter access to their newest problem.
“Oh, boy.”
Teal’c acknowledged her look of exasperation and the two of them got down to work again.
~
Daniel led Jack, circling the temple cautiously. Built to the same gigantic proportions as the sphinx, it towered into the clear blue sky, rows of columns shouldering the burden of the thick slabs of granite forming the roof.
Behind the first building, a covered walkway led to a walled court. With a leap and scrabble they peered over the top of the wall to see inside. Amid exotic shrubs and tall palm trees stood five slender obelisks, all with markings etched deeply into their white stone and golden capstones. At the opposite end of the garden, another walkway led into an even larger building, this one with solid, bare walls. They dropped down and completed their circuit around the building.
“Before we go in, I want to recon that pyramid,” Jack said. “It looks deserted, but we need to check it out regardless.”
Reluctantly, Daniel pulled himself away from the beauty of the temple and followed Jack along the causeway to the pyramid. Although it seemed close by, its size made judging distance difficult, and it was a long, fifteen minute hike in the heat before they set foot on the ramp leading up to the only visible entrance. Fighting back a sense of déjà vu, he walked next to Jack, past the two obelisks standing sentinel at the foot of the ramp, up to the vast portico at the top which was flanked by two thick pylons. Stale, cool air drifted from the dark entrance.
They quietly edged through the opening and were enveloped by darkness. Pulling off their sunglasses, they peered into the shadows of a bare, pillared hall. Like Khufu’s pyramid on Earth and Abydos’s own, the stone walls bore no inscriptions. The first hall gave on to a second, then a third, until finally, they found themselves standing in a chamber.
The beams from their flashlights picked out the closed iris of a ring transporter on the ceiling, but nothing else. This room, too, was bare. For a brief moment, Daniel’s mind overlaid another scene – hand-woven curtains between the pillars, rumpled bedding behind them, smokeless fires burning cheerily, the scent of bread and meaty stews filling the air, the chatter of people, happy and at peace. But that had been another time, another world, and this room was just empty.
“Let’s go.” Jack looked at him for a moment, then headed back the way they had come.
Daniel nodded, pushing down the grief that threatened to surface inside him, and silently followed.
~
Back at the main entrance to the temple, Jack slowly led the way into the forest of stone, cool darkness once again swallowing them. The further they advanced down the central path, the more he felt the sense of immensity; the vast weight of stone above seemed to press him down to insignificance. Each column they passed revealed another avenue stretching away in broken shadows. Shafts of sunlight slanted down through small gaps between the rows, each ray illuminating the decorations on the pillars in brilliant flashes of light. Painted scenes of Ra crushing his enemies, being worshiped and feted by his adoring people wrapped each column, some figures reaching twenty feet high and still dwarfed by the overall height of the pillars that disappeared in the gloom some hundred feet above them.
Jack flipped on his flashlight and followed Daniel as he meandered around, his muttering loud in the stifled silence.
“Incredible…workmanship…outstanding… ‘Mighty is he’…obviously the written word is permitted here…‘great task’…‘will be proven’…oh, look at that!”
“Daniel?”
“Jack, this is – wow – a treasure trove of information about Ra.”
“Well, nice as that is, does it say why we’re stuck here?”
Daniel walked past him and plunged further into the darkness. “I’m sure we’ll find some answers, Jack. I’m going to have a look in the courtyard.”
Jack ambled along behind, always keeping Daniel in sight. For a moment Daniel’s body was silhouetted against the sunlight streaming through the open doorway, then he was out in the walled garden, staring up at the row of obelisks.
Daniel half-turned as Jack stopped beside him, unable to completely tear his eyes away from the beauty before him.
“The Ancient Egyptians believed the obelisk was a shaft of light sent from the sun god,” Daniel said quietly. He leaned backwards, trying to capture the fine details in the camera’s viewfinder.
“Yeah, I’ve always preferred Asterix, myself.” Jack pushed through the reedy grasses toward the covered walkway at the opposite end of the garden.
“Very funny.” Daniel caught up to him then fell behind once more, attention captivated by figures on the third obelisk.
Jack stepped into the second enclosed building, his footsteps echoing on the polished granite floor. No columns here, just a vast hall, empty but for an alabaster altar and a gilded throne set upon a platform at the rear. The flashlight’s beam played along the walls, chasing dust motes drifting in the still air. There were no carvings here, no drawings or pictothings, but ownership of the place was announced quite emphatically by the enormous golden Eye of Ra hanging above the throne.
Jack flipped it the bird and turned away. Rejoining Daniel in the courtyard, he said, “There’s nothing in there, just a big ol’ chair and an Eye of Ra thingy.”
“Really?” Daniel’s brow creased in thought.
“Got anything?”
“I think so.” Daniel tapped the carvings before him. “This mentions a test. There was something similar on the columns inside.” He broke off to stare at the plants bending gently in the breeze. “What does this remind you of?”
“Uhm,” Jack huffed and searched for inspiration. “Really bad falafel I had in Alexandria one time.”
“Jack. Think about it. We have a pyramid. We know the Goa’uld used pyramids to land Ha’tak ships. We have a sphinx guarding the way from the Stargate, loudly proclaiming this planet belongs to Ra. We have shelters and kiosks spread all over the place and we have a huge temple, just waiting for a lot of people to come and pay homage to their god.”
Daniel took a breath and gestured at the assortment of structures around them.
“There are no dwellings, no places for common folk to live and work. No kitchens, no food gardens, no pottery workshops; nothing to show people lived here. This – this is all temporary. It’s a fairground.”
“A fairground?”
“Well, maybe not a fairground but a place where some kind of significant event occurred. Ra and his people came, they did… whatever, and they left. Probably on a regular basis.”
“And this event could be linked to the Stargate not opening?”
“That’s what we’ll have to find out.”
Jack stepped back as Daniel dropped his pack to the ground and set to work.
~
As darkness swallowed the light and heat of the sun, Jack called for a meal break and debrief. They sat together along the top step of the Stargate platform, eating MREs and watching the sun be sucked below the horizon in a final, protesting blaze of fiery red. Jack set aside his empty meal container and attacked the packaging of his pound cake.
“Okay, kids, where are we at?” he asked.
“I have extended my perimeter patrols to the top of the hills on both sides of this valley, O’Neill.” Teal’c paused to squeeze more hot sauce onto his beef franks. “There is nothing to be seen in either direction, other than sand dunes. We appear to be secure here.”
“Good to know, Teal’c,” nodded Jack. “Carter?”
“Well, sir, I disconnected the filaments from the DHD, but without them the power supply completely disappears, both on the DHD and the Stargate. Reconnect them and the power flows through but no outgoing wormholes will form. Frankly, I’m stumped.” Carter glared at the cheese and crackers in her hands as she spoke.
“Could we get a wormhole going with an external power source?”
“Possibly. We don’t have anything with us that would come close to the wattage we need. The prototype naquada reactor back at the base might generate the required amount of energy, but it’s not fully tested yet. I think lightning is out too. We could ask the general to send through some truck batteries, but without an engine to keep them charged I don’t know how long they’ll last.”
“What about Teal’c’s little pal down here?” Jack disposed of his cake with economical bites and gestured at the small device almost hidden in the shadows at the base of the ring. Shaped in a half-oval of highly polished black stone, it was no more than ten inches wide.
Carter rose and walked around the ring to stand frowning down at the device. “This is even stranger than the device on the DHD, sir. I can’t detach the filaments connecting this to the Stargate at all; they’re sunk right into the material of the ring and I can’t cut through them. There are no writings of any kind, only nine gemstones inset along the outer rim, and eight of them are glowing.”
Daniel finished off his bean and rice burrito and moved to stand beside Sam for another close look. “What’s the panel in the center for?” he asked.
“Beats me, Daniel.”
“Think a little C4 would dislodge it?” Jack suggested.
Carter blanched and Daniel stared at him. “Well, it might be an idea to get a little more information before you start blowing stuff up, Jack.”
He shrugged, not discarding the option. “So, what have you got for us, Daniel?”
“Well, we have plenty of inscriptions to work with from the hall of pillars and the obelisks in the garden, but they’re all scattered fragments, not a continuing text as I would expect.”
“Do these passages give any information about what took place here, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked.
Daniel dug out his notebook. “Maybe, possibly… not. I’m not sure, actually.” He sped on before Jack could offer a comment. “For instance: ‘Mighty is the power of Ra.’ ‘He commands all before him.’ ‘On bended knee will supplicants come before the Greatness of Ra.’ ‘The Trial of the Moons will receive only he who is worthy.’ ‘Greatly will the successful one be welcomed by Ra.’ The phrase Trial of Moons is mentioned several times. I really need more information before I can make a proper assessment, but I’m sure there are more clues there. We’ll find the answer to this.”
“Daniel’s right, sir. With a little time we can work this out,” added Carter.
Jack swallowed a little gloat of pride in his team. How easy it was to keep up morale when they did it all for him.
“Perhaps there may not be as much time available as we would wish,” said Teal’c, squatting in front of the device on the Stargate.
Not counting Mr. Pessimism, of course.
“Teal’c?” Jack leaned over sideways to get a better view.
“Eight of the nine gems are illuminated. It would seem to indicate a countdown of some kind.”
“With one to go until – what?”
“Maybe it goes the other way, sir. Eight more to go before…,” Carter made a gesture halfway between uncertainty and something blowing up.
“Sweet.” Jack pulled a face. “The SGC is due to dial in any minute now, so….”
Right on cue, the Stargate churned to life once again and Jack moved to the MALP to give their report to Hammond.
“It sounds like this situation may take some time to resolve, Colonel,” Hammond said. “Quarter Master is assembling additional supplies, enough to see you through for a month. Also, SG2 is on standby in case you need extra manpower. We’ve had no reply from the Tok—”
The Stargate snapped off, aborting the general mid-sentence.
“What the hell?”
“Uh, I’ll check it out, sir.” Carter scrambled to the DHD and resumed rummaging through its innards.
“This might be coincidental, but the ’gate cut off at the same moment the sun disappeared.” Daniel gestured past the ring at the horizon and the fading glow from the now vanished sun. “I was watching it.”
The chevrons on the Stargate reactivated. Six, seven red crystals glowed brightly but the wormhole failed to engage. After a minute, they winked out, then sprang alight once again. To no avail.
“It would appear that we may indeed be stranded here,” Teal’c said with doom-like calm.
“Okay. Teal’c, you and Daniel head back to the temple, see what you can find. Carter, let’s see what we can do with this thing.”
~
Several hours later, Teal’c was strolling slowly through the temple, a powerful flashlight playing over the disjointed phrases and sudden declarations carved into and painted all over the pillars. As he passed, Daniel Jackson shifted restlessly inside a circle of battery-powered lamps, near the temple’s central row of columns. Many inscriptions, in the familiar dialect of the Goa’uld, praised the ‘god’ Ra, proclaiming his beneficence and majesty in a way only sycophantic priests desperate to gain the favor of their god could. This temple bore little resemblance to those erected in honor of Apophis, where the writings, praises, prayers and appeals began to the left of the entrance and ran continuously around the walls until they ended at the opposite side of the doorway.
The haphazard method of inscription here was confusing and causing no small problem to Daniel Jackson as he searched, translated and attempted to piece together a puzzle without knowing where or how many pieces there were.
“Huh.” Daniel rose and rubbed circulation back into his cramped legs.
“Have you discovered something, Daniel Jackson?”
Daniel waved his notebook at the inscriptions before him. “I don’t know whether it’s by design or not, but all of the useful information I’m finding is down around floor level. Everything above six or seven feet high is just the usual worship of Ra. Also, Ra seems to have used a greater percentage of Ancient Egyptian words mixed in with the higher-Goa’uld dialect than we’ve seen on Apophis’ worlds, or other Goa’uld worlds for that matter.”
“Is this significant?”
“Well, it seems to indicate his ties with Ancient Egypt were deeper, perhaps longer, than those of other System Lords. Which doesn’t really help us, per se. This however, does.”
Daniel Jackson lifted one of the lamps up close to a passage carved into the stone just above his head. Teal’c glided closer as his voice rose into the echoing darkness of the building.
“‘Go ye forth by set of the ninth new moon. Great shall be your journey. Great shall be your reward. With smiling eyes will Ra look down upon you as you complete your task.’ Actually I think ‘trial’ would be more accurate.” Daniel glanced over his shoulder. “Teal’c, do you recall hearing anything about a trial or test held by Ra? Did Apophis ever conduct anything that sounds like this?”
“The business of Ra’s domain was always strictly guarded. Those outside his rule were never privy to any of the workings within his court, Daniel Jackson. Nor did Apophis seek to test his followers. If they did not meet his expectations, they were… disposed of.”
“Oh. Well, there’s more.”
Teal’c followed Daniel as he stepped over the lamps and headed further into the gloom.
“Over here, where we’ve got Ra depicted in his solar boat or barque, sailing through the stars and smiting a mighty snake, it says, ‘Journeyers go forth to give humble service to Ra, Mighty God of the Sun’, and so on. Also, ‘Each solar year will see the Gate open once only to the worthy’. Similar passages are all over these pillars, Teal’c, referring to the Stargate only opening once each year.”
“The purpose of the mechanism inside the DHD,” Teal’c surmised.
“Yes.” An excited smile crept over Daniel’s face. “Which means there is a way to open the Stargate here.”
“O’Neill will not be happy to stay on this planet for an extended period of time.”
“No, no he won’t. Why don’t you tell him while I get back to… uh… you know?” Daniel flashed Teal’c an innocent smile and sidled back into the shadows.
Teal’c blinked in surprise at having been so neatly maneuvered by his young friend. He stood gazing ruefully at the column and the image of a serpent thrashing in its death throes at the hands of Ra, and offered up a prayer to the true gods that all Goa’uld might suffer the same fate.
Reaching for his radio, he announced, “O’Neill. It is I, Teal’c.”
~
Sam shared a grin with the colonel at Teal’c’s unique call sign. While he talked to Teal’c, she headed back to the Stargate for another look at the mysterious device attached to it. Immediately she saw that in the time they had been working on the DHD, the display on the device had altered.
The center panel now showed what looked like a quarter moon, risen above the flat base and moving up along the arch of the half-oval panel. She glanced up at the night sky and, sure enough, a moon had risen behind the pyramid – a thin quarter moon in the same relative position as that shown on the device. With foreboding, Sam noted the ninth gem on the device had begun to glow a pale green. Worse, after six more failed attempts, the SGC was still unable to establish an incoming wormhole, and at 2000 hours the chevrons had lit up again – presumably the Tok’ra attempting to keep their appointment. She sighed and gazed up at the stars: bright, unfamiliar constellations studding the deep velvet of the night sky, twinkling over their heads with utter disregard for their plight.
~
Nearly an hour later all four of them were searching the temple for some clue to open the Stargate. In the night sky, the moon was moving quickly toward its zenith, indicating a relatively short cycle. Another piece of the puzzle had been discovered – a passage carved into the lintel over the entrance to the throne room: ‘By the Grace of the Name of Ra will my journey begin.’
For ten minutes now, Daniel had been muttering to himself, the words floating out of the darkness as he examined the pillars.
“The name of Ra… name of Ra… Ra’s name… name… name… RA!”
Jack was on the verge of telling him to put a sock in it when Daniel suddenly shouted, “Of course! Jack!”
Jack swung around and was promptly blinded by the beam of Daniel’s madly swinging flashlight coursing across his face.
“What?”
“I know what the names are.” Daniel ran past him at full tilt, flinging explanations over his shoulder. “It’s obvious! Don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner, but they’re written right there on the statue in the Abydos cartouche room.”
He vanished into the obelisk garden and shot past Carter, with Jack and Teal’c hot on his heels. “Now I come to think about it, it was also on the Horus figure behind the ring device on Ra’s ship. I haven’t thought about that in ages, probably because he was trying to melt my brain at the time.”
Daniel skidded to a halt before the altar in the throne room.
“I sometimes wonder if he succeeded,” Jack muttered as he stalked after him.
Daniel glanced at his teammates ranged behind him, a small grin on his face. “Watch this.”
Dropping to his knees, Daniel flung out both arms and dramatically declared, “Praise to you, oh Ra, Great of power. Mightiest is Ra, Journeyer of the light, Lord of the sky, Lord of the netherworld, He who renews the earth, Dark one, Shining one, The One from the cauldron, The One who destroys his enemies. May you lead me to the ways of the sun.”
Silence covered the four like a suffocating blanket.
The sight of Daniel on his knees, praising the name of a Goa’uld, made Jack share a frown of unease with Teal’c.
Suddenly, a faint hum resounded from the direction of the altar.
“Listen.” Carter’s voice was hushed with expectation.
A beam of golden light shot up from the center of the altar, quickly spreading into the air above their heads. Diffused light coalesced into symbols – address glyphs. Seven of them.
“That’s it!”
“Somebody write them down,” Jack barked.
Teal’c was mouthing the names of the glyphs, as Daniel filmed the display while still on his knees. The light show snapped off, leaving them spot lit by their own flashlights.
“Okay, I got Mic and Sculptor,” Jack started.
“Andromeda and Triangulum,” added Carter.
“Gemini, Aquila,” Daniel said, reading from the display in the camera.
“The point of origin is a pyramid shape with a crescent moon above it,” finished Teal’c.
“Way to go Daniel.” Jack pulled Daniel to his feet and clapped him on the back. “I give you a ten for execution and eight for presentation.”
“Only eight?”
“A little too dramatic for my taste, but, hey.”
~
An hour later the moon was sinking rapidly toward the dark earth. Jack stood on the wall surrounding the courtyard, eyeing the horizon behind the pyramid where a silvery line foretold the sun’s imminent arrival. A chilly breeze plucked at his clothing, bringing alien scents of desert and emptiness.
He lowered himself to the ground and strode into the temple to round up his team.
“Okay, kids, gear up. Dawn’s breaking, and I want to be at the ’gate when the sun comes up and that countdown crystal thing runs out.”
Daniel and Carter were packed and ready to go, and they still looked fresh and alert despite working through the night. Teal’c helped Carter with her pack as Daniel quickly scrutinized one last pillar.
“It’s possible the SGC will be able to dial in during daylight, sir, though why, I can’t work out just yet.”
“I’m hoping so, Carter. Things could get a little tight if we have to start foraging for food.”
“You intend for us to remain on this planet, O’Neill?”
“Best scenario, T. Even if the SGC can’t get through to us again, they know where we are and I’m sure Hammond will get Jacob to scare up a ship and come get us eventually.”
“What about the address we found, Jack?” Daniel hefted his pack up and Jack helped clip it to his tac vest. “We’ve compared it to all of the ones we know by heart, and it doesn’t match any, even the hundreds Teal’c has used. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s not on record in the SGC’s database.”
“We’ll keep it in reserve, but if this planet is the jumping off point for some test of Ra’s, then I don’t think we want to be going anywhere the SGC can’t find us. Hammond’s expecting us to stay in our mission area, and here we’ll stay.”
“The Tok’ra sending us here now is pretty coincidental, isn’t it?” Daniel muttered as they followed Teal’c out of the temple and onto the causeway.
“My, what a suspicious mind you have, Doctor Jackson.” Jack couldn’t have agreed more with the direction of Daniel’s thoughts. He was looking forward to having a little chat with the Tok’ra operatives responsible for sending them here when SG-1 got back.
“We may find that we are able to connect to Earth from the Stargate on the planet to which this address leads, O’Neill,” Teal’c commented.
“Or we could end up in the middle of a planet full of not so friendly Jaffa,” Carter said, looking at the bright side.
“Charming,” Jack grunted. He glanced up at the sphinx as they passed by, avoiding its stone eyes that seemed to follow their progress.
“So, what could the purpose of this ‘test’ be?” Carter asked.
“Probably to select hosts,” Daniel said bleakly.
“All the more reason to stay right here,” Jack pointed out. “For now, we’ll establish camp by the ’gate; keep close in case we need to evacuate in a hurry.”
By the time they returned to the Stargate, the ninth gem on the device was glowing a solid green. As a further contingency plan, Jack swiftly copied the address found in the temple into a brief report and buried it at the base of the DHD, then scratched ‘SG-1’ onto a rock to point the way for any potential rescue team.
“The moon has set, O’Neill,” called Teal’c, standing on the Stargate platform and gazing through the ring at the now empty sky.
Long moments passed.
The sky behind the pyramid brightened swiftly from gray nothingness to a golden-hued pale blue. A flock of birds broke from cover near the river, making everyone jump. Then the sun itself became visible, slightly to the left of the pyramid and framed between the valley walls; it was enormous and brilliantly fierce. Rays of light streaked up into the sky, a trumpeting herald of the new day.
“Oh, wow. Guys, look at the pyramid,” Daniel uttered in awe.
Fire seemed to fill the capstone – a deep angry red-gold of refracted sunlight.
“I wonder if it’s hollow?” Carter stepped back a pace, marveling at the sight as Daniel captured it on camera. Teal’c moved down the steps to stand near them, all four mesmerized as fiery light shot out from the capstone, over the roof of the temple and wrapped around the head of the sphinx, infusing the eyes in its Ra-face with a menacing gem-like glow.
“Er…,” Daniel trailed off uneasily. “That’s not natural.”
“Yeah. Heads up, people,” Jack said, automatically bringing his weapon up. “Carter, why don’t you try dialing Earth one more time?”
“Yes, sir.” She hurried to the DHD and punched in Earth’s address. “No go, Colonel.”
A bone-shuddering tremor rippled through the ground under their feet. A split second later amid a deafening boom, a tall, slender pillar shot up out of the sand in front of the sphinx. Before the team’s astonished eyes another pillar exploded from the ground twenty feet away, followed by another and another, arcing in a circle around the Stargate and DHD and back to the sphinx.
There was a moment of silence – sand drifting back to earth and startled birds taking flight the only movement.
“Defensive positions,” Jack snapped out, dropping to one knee and raising his gun. Daniel and Teal’c spread out to flank him, while Carter went for the high ground, hunkering down by the MALP on the platform behind them. “Teal’c, you got any idea what this is?” His voice sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet.
Teal’c’s reply was drowned out by a snapping sizzle of electricity as an energy field popped up between each pillar, effectively corralling the team inside.
“These appear to be automated defensive posts, O’Neill.” Teal’c appeared at Jack’s side. He primed his staff weapon and crouched, alert and ready.
“Looks like my old buddy Ra didn’t want anyone changing their mind about going on this trial thing,” Jack replied as he eyed the pillars for weak spots.
Almost in response to Jack’s comment, something exploded up out of the ground only two feet away from him, showering dirt and grass everywhere. The dawn light glinted off a small mechanical orb as it soared into the air. A bright blue beam lanced out from it and swept over each of the team.
“I think we’ve just been painted, Colonel,” yelled Carter.
“I think you’re right, Major.”
Jack ratcheted the safety off his weapon, but the orb was already moving – faster than any of them could aim – zeroing in directly on Daniel.
“Daniel! Down!”
Daniel dived for cover behind the DHD, his pack shifting awkwardly over his shoulders as bullets from Jack’s gun zipped over him. His hand slapped at the back of his right leg as he was struck. “Ow.” He rolled to one side, trying to keep the fast-moving orb in sight.
“Daniel?”
“I’m okay,” he yelled, hand coming away bloodless from his leg. “I think.”
A squawk from behind the MALP announced Carter had been hit too. “Sir, whatever this is, I don’t think it’s a weapon,” she called out.
The orb whizzed over Jack’s head. He fired instinctively, but missed by a mile. “Son of a bitch!” A sharp stinging pain flared in his shoulder.
Jack spun in a three-sixty degree arc, unable to keep up with it as Teal’c was zapped in the butt. As fast as it had arrived, the orb disappeared back into the ground leaving only a puff of dust in its wake.
“What the hell was that all about?”
Teal’c leaned over and prodded at the small cut on Jack’s shoulder.
“See anything, T?”
“I cannot. The wound seems to be closing over.”
Jack shared an uneasy glance with Daniel.
“Creepy.” Daniel scratched uneasily at the gash in his thigh.
“These wounds may have been caused by the insertion of a tracking module,” Teal’c continued. “Such things are favored by the Goa’uld when hunting those they consider a threat to their rule. I believe we should leave this place, O’Neill.”
Jack scanned the buzzing force-field surrounding them. “I just wish we knew what we might be heading into, Teal’c. This whole setup sucks.”
An earthy chuffing sound drowned him out as more objects shot up into the air. Five, ten, dozens of them. Whirring up from the ground came scores of glittering, golden objects, slowing to hover with silent and malicious intent.
“Crap.” Jack stepped out in front of Daniel, weapon raised. “Now what?”
“They’re shaped like the Eye of Ra,” Daniel said, his gaze riveted to the menacing cluster.
As one, the miniature Eyes swarmed towards them, tiny objects launching from their centers.
“Scatter!” Jack bellowed.
Everyone dodged as small but powerful explosions ripped the ground at their heels. All around the space they were confined in dirt, rocks and burning grass erupted in choking clouds. Teal’c turned and launched stream after stream of staff-fire into the attackers, destroying many of them. Yet still they came, splitting like flocks of birds around the danger, reforming and hurtling after Jack and Daniel. Over their heads, Carter sent sprays of bullets into the flying Eyes, but it seemed for every one that fell, three more appeared.
Jack rolled to his feet, emptying his magazine at the closest mini-bombers. “Daniel, dial that address. Carter, get ready to send the MALP through.” He reloaded and fired again, coordinating with Teal’c to cover their teammates and their vital gear.
Carter loosed another burst at a group of Eyes targeting Daniel, then ducked to one side as the wormhole roared to life. As soon as it stabilized, she hit the controls on the MALP and sent the bulky machine lurching toward the Stargate.
Daniel dashed toward the FRED and slammed his hand on the controls. It jerked forward, churning steadily to the platform. He kept pace behind it, edging backwards and was only a few feet from the steps when another explosion nearby threw him to the ground. He rolled into a crouch, flinching from the concussion and the thunderous hammer of weapons’ fire over his head. Jack glanced at Daniel, saw he was up and moving, and continued firing.
Slowly, keeping pace with Teal’c, Jack fell back, the mini-bombers obviously herding them toward the Stargate. Spinning in a circle, trying to keep a bead on a particular group of attackers, he had an instant’s snapshot of Carter silhouetted against the blue of the event horizon. For a split-second she was there, then through the smoke Jack glimpsed the soles of her boots as she was thrown backward into the vortex. A billowing cloud of smoke and debris flew out from the MALP; charred and bent metal showing where one of the little bombs had scored a direct hit.
“Sam!” Daniel scrabbled up four steps through acrid smoke. Another bomb exploded on the edge of the platform, spraying him with stone shrapnel and sending him sliding back down the steps.
“Go, Daniel, go,” yelled Jack.
Daniel clawed his way up the rest of the steps. Three large strides and he flung himself headfirst into the rippling event horizon.
Teal’c fired a near-continuous stream of blasts at their attackers, he and Jack covering each other in their retreat up the steps. The FRED had reached the top of the platform but was stalled behind the smoldering MALP. Jack broke off the battle and threw his weight at the machine, pushing it far enough into the wormhole for the vortex to take it and suck it away, the FRED following along like a giant wind-up toy. He spun around and picked off several more Eyes heading toward them. All over the area in front of the Stargate the ground was littered with craters and burning, broken metal.
“Teal’c, go,” Jack croaked, smoke catching in his throat.
Teal’c backed into the Stargate, still firing until the event horizon swallowed him up. Jack threw himself sideways into the wormhole, then the cold grip of the vortex was spiriting him away to the unknown.
His eyes roamed over the Stargate, then focused through the ring on Major Carter’s legs stretched out in the dirt, the rest of her body obscured by the squat mushroom shape of the DHD, as she patiently disconnected the black filaments from the operating mechanism.
Teal’c brought his gaze back to the Stargate itself, standing silent and mysterious as it had surely done for many thousands of years. The gray naquada surface showed no sign of wear; harsh sun, sand-filled scouring winds, rain and even time itself had failed to tarnish its simple elegance. The inner track with its thirty-nine symbols nestled snugly in the outer ring, waiting for the next command to open itself to the universe beyond.
The chevrons gleamed under the bright sun, each as recognizable to Teal’c as old friends; a lifetime of using the Stargate network had brought familiarity and no little respect. He absently noted each glyph was correctly depicted. Nothing appeared untoward, except… tiny black filaments snaking out of the sand piled around the base where the ring disappeared into the platform’s support.
Teal’c dropped to one knee and gently brushed the sand away. Tendrils of black wound up out of the surface of the outer ring itself and led into an oval object melded onto the flat side of the Stargate.
Straightening, Teal’c reached for his radio. His open mouth closed as the speaker crackled to life with O’Neill’s voice.
“Major, Teal’c? Report.”
“Sir, I’m halfway through disconnecting the device on the DHD. Another twenty minutes and we should be able to give it another go,” Major Carter’s voice rang out, echoing slightly in the quiet air.
“Good job, Carter. T?”
“O’Neill, the Stargate perimeter is still secure. Also, I have just discovered another device attached to the Stargate itself.”
Major Carter popped her head up from behind the DHD. “Really?” She scrambled up and jogged over to him.
“Oh, swell,” sighed O’Neill. “Well, we’re heading to the temple. Check in every thirty minutes. Out.”
“Acknowledged, O’Neill.” Teal’c shifted aside to allow Major Carter access to their newest problem.
“Oh, boy.”
Teal’c acknowledged her look of exasperation and the two of them got down to work again.
~
Daniel led Jack, circling the temple cautiously. Built to the same gigantic proportions as the sphinx, it towered into the clear blue sky, rows of columns shouldering the burden of the thick slabs of granite forming the roof.
Behind the first building, a covered walkway led to a walled court. With a leap and scrabble they peered over the top of the wall to see inside. Amid exotic shrubs and tall palm trees stood five slender obelisks, all with markings etched deeply into their white stone and golden capstones. At the opposite end of the garden, another walkway led into an even larger building, this one with solid, bare walls. They dropped down and completed their circuit around the building.
“Before we go in, I want to recon that pyramid,” Jack said. “It looks deserted, but we need to check it out regardless.”
Reluctantly, Daniel pulled himself away from the beauty of the temple and followed Jack along the causeway to the pyramid. Although it seemed close by, its size made judging distance difficult, and it was a long, fifteen minute hike in the heat before they set foot on the ramp leading up to the only visible entrance. Fighting back a sense of déjà vu, he walked next to Jack, past the two obelisks standing sentinel at the foot of the ramp, up to the vast portico at the top which was flanked by two thick pylons. Stale, cool air drifted from the dark entrance.
They quietly edged through the opening and were enveloped by darkness. Pulling off their sunglasses, they peered into the shadows of a bare, pillared hall. Like Khufu’s pyramid on Earth and Abydos’s own, the stone walls bore no inscriptions. The first hall gave on to a second, then a third, until finally, they found themselves standing in a chamber.
The beams from their flashlights picked out the closed iris of a ring transporter on the ceiling, but nothing else. This room, too, was bare. For a brief moment, Daniel’s mind overlaid another scene – hand-woven curtains between the pillars, rumpled bedding behind them, smokeless fires burning cheerily, the scent of bread and meaty stews filling the air, the chatter of people, happy and at peace. But that had been another time, another world, and this room was just empty.
“Let’s go.” Jack looked at him for a moment, then headed back the way they had come.
Daniel nodded, pushing down the grief that threatened to surface inside him, and silently followed.
~
Back at the main entrance to the temple, Jack slowly led the way into the forest of stone, cool darkness once again swallowing them. The further they advanced down the central path, the more he felt the sense of immensity; the vast weight of stone above seemed to press him down to insignificance. Each column they passed revealed another avenue stretching away in broken shadows. Shafts of sunlight slanted down through small gaps between the rows, each ray illuminating the decorations on the pillars in brilliant flashes of light. Painted scenes of Ra crushing his enemies, being worshiped and feted by his adoring people wrapped each column, some figures reaching twenty feet high and still dwarfed by the overall height of the pillars that disappeared in the gloom some hundred feet above them.
Jack flipped on his flashlight and followed Daniel as he meandered around, his muttering loud in the stifled silence.
“Incredible…workmanship…outstanding… ‘Mighty is he’…obviously the written word is permitted here…‘great task’…‘will be proven’…oh, look at that!”
“Daniel?”
“Jack, this is – wow – a treasure trove of information about Ra.”
“Well, nice as that is, does it say why we’re stuck here?”
Daniel walked past him and plunged further into the darkness. “I’m sure we’ll find some answers, Jack. I’m going to have a look in the courtyard.”
Jack ambled along behind, always keeping Daniel in sight. For a moment Daniel’s body was silhouetted against the sunlight streaming through the open doorway, then he was out in the walled garden, staring up at the row of obelisks.
Daniel half-turned as Jack stopped beside him, unable to completely tear his eyes away from the beauty before him.
“The Ancient Egyptians believed the obelisk was a shaft of light sent from the sun god,” Daniel said quietly. He leaned backwards, trying to capture the fine details in the camera’s viewfinder.
“Yeah, I’ve always preferred Asterix, myself.” Jack pushed through the reedy grasses toward the covered walkway at the opposite end of the garden.
“Very funny.” Daniel caught up to him then fell behind once more, attention captivated by figures on the third obelisk.
Jack stepped into the second enclosed building, his footsteps echoing on the polished granite floor. No columns here, just a vast hall, empty but for an alabaster altar and a gilded throne set upon a platform at the rear. The flashlight’s beam played along the walls, chasing dust motes drifting in the still air. There were no carvings here, no drawings or pictothings, but ownership of the place was announced quite emphatically by the enormous golden Eye of Ra hanging above the throne.
Jack flipped it the bird and turned away. Rejoining Daniel in the courtyard, he said, “There’s nothing in there, just a big ol’ chair and an Eye of Ra thingy.”
“Really?” Daniel’s brow creased in thought.
“Got anything?”
“I think so.” Daniel tapped the carvings before him. “This mentions a test. There was something similar on the columns inside.” He broke off to stare at the plants bending gently in the breeze. “What does this remind you of?”
“Uhm,” Jack huffed and searched for inspiration. “Really bad falafel I had in Alexandria one time.”
“Jack. Think about it. We have a pyramid. We know the Goa’uld used pyramids to land Ha’tak ships. We have a sphinx guarding the way from the Stargate, loudly proclaiming this planet belongs to Ra. We have shelters and kiosks spread all over the place and we have a huge temple, just waiting for a lot of people to come and pay homage to their god.”
Daniel took a breath and gestured at the assortment of structures around them.
“There are no dwellings, no places for common folk to live and work. No kitchens, no food gardens, no pottery workshops; nothing to show people lived here. This – this is all temporary. It’s a fairground.”
“A fairground?”
“Well, maybe not a fairground but a place where some kind of significant event occurred. Ra and his people came, they did… whatever, and they left. Probably on a regular basis.”
“And this event could be linked to the Stargate not opening?”
“That’s what we’ll have to find out.”
Jack stepped back as Daniel dropped his pack to the ground and set to work.
~
As darkness swallowed the light and heat of the sun, Jack called for a meal break and debrief. They sat together along the top step of the Stargate platform, eating MREs and watching the sun be sucked below the horizon in a final, protesting blaze of fiery red. Jack set aside his empty meal container and attacked the packaging of his pound cake.
“Okay, kids, where are we at?” he asked.
“I have extended my perimeter patrols to the top of the hills on both sides of this valley, O’Neill.” Teal’c paused to squeeze more hot sauce onto his beef franks. “There is nothing to be seen in either direction, other than sand dunes. We appear to be secure here.”
“Good to know, Teal’c,” nodded Jack. “Carter?”
“Well, sir, I disconnected the filaments from the DHD, but without them the power supply completely disappears, both on the DHD and the Stargate. Reconnect them and the power flows through but no outgoing wormholes will form. Frankly, I’m stumped.” Carter glared at the cheese and crackers in her hands as she spoke.
“Could we get a wormhole going with an external power source?”
“Possibly. We don’t have anything with us that would come close to the wattage we need. The prototype naquada reactor back at the base might generate the required amount of energy, but it’s not fully tested yet. I think lightning is out too. We could ask the general to send through some truck batteries, but without an engine to keep them charged I don’t know how long they’ll last.”
“What about Teal’c’s little pal down here?” Jack disposed of his cake with economical bites and gestured at the small device almost hidden in the shadows at the base of the ring. Shaped in a half-oval of highly polished black stone, it was no more than ten inches wide.
Carter rose and walked around the ring to stand frowning down at the device. “This is even stranger than the device on the DHD, sir. I can’t detach the filaments connecting this to the Stargate at all; they’re sunk right into the material of the ring and I can’t cut through them. There are no writings of any kind, only nine gemstones inset along the outer rim, and eight of them are glowing.”
Daniel finished off his bean and rice burrito and moved to stand beside Sam for another close look. “What’s the panel in the center for?” he asked.
“Beats me, Daniel.”
“Think a little C4 would dislodge it?” Jack suggested.
Carter blanched and Daniel stared at him. “Well, it might be an idea to get a little more information before you start blowing stuff up, Jack.”
He shrugged, not discarding the option. “So, what have you got for us, Daniel?”
“Well, we have plenty of inscriptions to work with from the hall of pillars and the obelisks in the garden, but they’re all scattered fragments, not a continuing text as I would expect.”
“Do these passages give any information about what took place here, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked.
Daniel dug out his notebook. “Maybe, possibly… not. I’m not sure, actually.” He sped on before Jack could offer a comment. “For instance: ‘Mighty is the power of Ra.’ ‘He commands all before him.’ ‘On bended knee will supplicants come before the Greatness of Ra.’ ‘The Trial of the Moons will receive only he who is worthy.’ ‘Greatly will the successful one be welcomed by Ra.’ The phrase Trial of Moons is mentioned several times. I really need more information before I can make a proper assessment, but I’m sure there are more clues there. We’ll find the answer to this.”
“Daniel’s right, sir. With a little time we can work this out,” added Carter.
Jack swallowed a little gloat of pride in his team. How easy it was to keep up morale when they did it all for him.
“Perhaps there may not be as much time available as we would wish,” said Teal’c, squatting in front of the device on the Stargate.
Not counting Mr. Pessimism, of course.
“Teal’c?” Jack leaned over sideways to get a better view.
“Eight of the nine gems are illuminated. It would seem to indicate a countdown of some kind.”
“With one to go until – what?”
“Maybe it goes the other way, sir. Eight more to go before…,” Carter made a gesture halfway between uncertainty and something blowing up.
“Sweet.” Jack pulled a face. “The SGC is due to dial in any minute now, so….”
Right on cue, the Stargate churned to life once again and Jack moved to the MALP to give their report to Hammond.
“It sounds like this situation may take some time to resolve, Colonel,” Hammond said. “Quarter Master is assembling additional supplies, enough to see you through for a month. Also, SG2 is on standby in case you need extra manpower. We’ve had no reply from the Tok—”
The Stargate snapped off, aborting the general mid-sentence.
“What the hell?”
“Uh, I’ll check it out, sir.” Carter scrambled to the DHD and resumed rummaging through its innards.
“This might be coincidental, but the ’gate cut off at the same moment the sun disappeared.” Daniel gestured past the ring at the horizon and the fading glow from the now vanished sun. “I was watching it.”
The chevrons on the Stargate reactivated. Six, seven red crystals glowed brightly but the wormhole failed to engage. After a minute, they winked out, then sprang alight once again. To no avail.
“It would appear that we may indeed be stranded here,” Teal’c said with doom-like calm.
“Okay. Teal’c, you and Daniel head back to the temple, see what you can find. Carter, let’s see what we can do with this thing.”
~
Several hours later, Teal’c was strolling slowly through the temple, a powerful flashlight playing over the disjointed phrases and sudden declarations carved into and painted all over the pillars. As he passed, Daniel Jackson shifted restlessly inside a circle of battery-powered lamps, near the temple’s central row of columns. Many inscriptions, in the familiar dialect of the Goa’uld, praised the ‘god’ Ra, proclaiming his beneficence and majesty in a way only sycophantic priests desperate to gain the favor of their god could. This temple bore little resemblance to those erected in honor of Apophis, where the writings, praises, prayers and appeals began to the left of the entrance and ran continuously around the walls until they ended at the opposite side of the doorway.
The haphazard method of inscription here was confusing and causing no small problem to Daniel Jackson as he searched, translated and attempted to piece together a puzzle without knowing where or how many pieces there were.
“Huh.” Daniel rose and rubbed circulation back into his cramped legs.
“Have you discovered something, Daniel Jackson?”
Daniel waved his notebook at the inscriptions before him. “I don’t know whether it’s by design or not, but all of the useful information I’m finding is down around floor level. Everything above six or seven feet high is just the usual worship of Ra. Also, Ra seems to have used a greater percentage of Ancient Egyptian words mixed in with the higher-Goa’uld dialect than we’ve seen on Apophis’ worlds, or other Goa’uld worlds for that matter.”
“Is this significant?”
“Well, it seems to indicate his ties with Ancient Egypt were deeper, perhaps longer, than those of other System Lords. Which doesn’t really help us, per se. This however, does.”
Daniel Jackson lifted one of the lamps up close to a passage carved into the stone just above his head. Teal’c glided closer as his voice rose into the echoing darkness of the building.
“‘Go ye forth by set of the ninth new moon. Great shall be your journey. Great shall be your reward. With smiling eyes will Ra look down upon you as you complete your task.’ Actually I think ‘trial’ would be more accurate.” Daniel glanced over his shoulder. “Teal’c, do you recall hearing anything about a trial or test held by Ra? Did Apophis ever conduct anything that sounds like this?”
“The business of Ra’s domain was always strictly guarded. Those outside his rule were never privy to any of the workings within his court, Daniel Jackson. Nor did Apophis seek to test his followers. If they did not meet his expectations, they were… disposed of.”
“Oh. Well, there’s more.”
Teal’c followed Daniel as he stepped over the lamps and headed further into the gloom.
“Over here, where we’ve got Ra depicted in his solar boat or barque, sailing through the stars and smiting a mighty snake, it says, ‘Journeyers go forth to give humble service to Ra, Mighty God of the Sun’, and so on. Also, ‘Each solar year will see the Gate open once only to the worthy’. Similar passages are all over these pillars, Teal’c, referring to the Stargate only opening once each year.”
“The purpose of the mechanism inside the DHD,” Teal’c surmised.
“Yes.” An excited smile crept over Daniel’s face. “Which means there is a way to open the Stargate here.”
“O’Neill will not be happy to stay on this planet for an extended period of time.”
“No, no he won’t. Why don’t you tell him while I get back to… uh… you know?” Daniel flashed Teal’c an innocent smile and sidled back into the shadows.
Teal’c blinked in surprise at having been so neatly maneuvered by his young friend. He stood gazing ruefully at the column and the image of a serpent thrashing in its death throes at the hands of Ra, and offered up a prayer to the true gods that all Goa’uld might suffer the same fate.
Reaching for his radio, he announced, “O’Neill. It is I, Teal’c.”
~
Sam shared a grin with the colonel at Teal’c’s unique call sign. While he talked to Teal’c, she headed back to the Stargate for another look at the mysterious device attached to it. Immediately she saw that in the time they had been working on the DHD, the display on the device had altered.
The center panel now showed what looked like a quarter moon, risen above the flat base and moving up along the arch of the half-oval panel. She glanced up at the night sky and, sure enough, a moon had risen behind the pyramid – a thin quarter moon in the same relative position as that shown on the device. With foreboding, Sam noted the ninth gem on the device had begun to glow a pale green. Worse, after six more failed attempts, the SGC was still unable to establish an incoming wormhole, and at 2000 hours the chevrons had lit up again – presumably the Tok’ra attempting to keep their appointment. She sighed and gazed up at the stars: bright, unfamiliar constellations studding the deep velvet of the night sky, twinkling over their heads with utter disregard for their plight.
~
Nearly an hour later all four of them were searching the temple for some clue to open the Stargate. In the night sky, the moon was moving quickly toward its zenith, indicating a relatively short cycle. Another piece of the puzzle had been discovered – a passage carved into the lintel over the entrance to the throne room: ‘By the Grace of the Name of Ra will my journey begin.’
For ten minutes now, Daniel had been muttering to himself, the words floating out of the darkness as he examined the pillars.
“The name of Ra… name of Ra… Ra’s name… name… name… RA!”
Jack was on the verge of telling him to put a sock in it when Daniel suddenly shouted, “Of course! Jack!”
Jack swung around and was promptly blinded by the beam of Daniel’s madly swinging flashlight coursing across his face.
“What?”
“I know what the names are.” Daniel ran past him at full tilt, flinging explanations over his shoulder. “It’s obvious! Don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner, but they’re written right there on the statue in the Abydos cartouche room.”
He vanished into the obelisk garden and shot past Carter, with Jack and Teal’c hot on his heels. “Now I come to think about it, it was also on the Horus figure behind the ring device on Ra’s ship. I haven’t thought about that in ages, probably because he was trying to melt my brain at the time.”
Daniel skidded to a halt before the altar in the throne room.
“I sometimes wonder if he succeeded,” Jack muttered as he stalked after him.
Daniel glanced at his teammates ranged behind him, a small grin on his face. “Watch this.”
Dropping to his knees, Daniel flung out both arms and dramatically declared, “Praise to you, oh Ra, Great of power. Mightiest is Ra, Journeyer of the light, Lord of the sky, Lord of the netherworld, He who renews the earth, Dark one, Shining one, The One from the cauldron, The One who destroys his enemies. May you lead me to the ways of the sun.”
Silence covered the four like a suffocating blanket.
The sight of Daniel on his knees, praising the name of a Goa’uld, made Jack share a frown of unease with Teal’c.
Suddenly, a faint hum resounded from the direction of the altar.
“Listen.” Carter’s voice was hushed with expectation.
A beam of golden light shot up from the center of the altar, quickly spreading into the air above their heads. Diffused light coalesced into symbols – address glyphs. Seven of them.
“That’s it!”
“Somebody write them down,” Jack barked.
Teal’c was mouthing the names of the glyphs, as Daniel filmed the display while still on his knees. The light show snapped off, leaving them spot lit by their own flashlights.
“Okay, I got Mic and Sculptor,” Jack started.
“Andromeda and Triangulum,” added Carter.
“Gemini, Aquila,” Daniel said, reading from the display in the camera.
“The point of origin is a pyramid shape with a crescent moon above it,” finished Teal’c.
“Way to go Daniel.” Jack pulled Daniel to his feet and clapped him on the back. “I give you a ten for execution and eight for presentation.”
“Only eight?”
“A little too dramatic for my taste, but, hey.”
~
An hour later the moon was sinking rapidly toward the dark earth. Jack stood on the wall surrounding the courtyard, eyeing the horizon behind the pyramid where a silvery line foretold the sun’s imminent arrival. A chilly breeze plucked at his clothing, bringing alien scents of desert and emptiness.
He lowered himself to the ground and strode into the temple to round up his team.
“Okay, kids, gear up. Dawn’s breaking, and I want to be at the ’gate when the sun comes up and that countdown crystal thing runs out.”
Daniel and Carter were packed and ready to go, and they still looked fresh and alert despite working through the night. Teal’c helped Carter with her pack as Daniel quickly scrutinized one last pillar.
“It’s possible the SGC will be able to dial in during daylight, sir, though why, I can’t work out just yet.”
“I’m hoping so, Carter. Things could get a little tight if we have to start foraging for food.”
“You intend for us to remain on this planet, O’Neill?”
“Best scenario, T. Even if the SGC can’t get through to us again, they know where we are and I’m sure Hammond will get Jacob to scare up a ship and come get us eventually.”
“What about the address we found, Jack?” Daniel hefted his pack up and Jack helped clip it to his tac vest. “We’ve compared it to all of the ones we know by heart, and it doesn’t match any, even the hundreds Teal’c has used. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s not on record in the SGC’s database.”
“We’ll keep it in reserve, but if this planet is the jumping off point for some test of Ra’s, then I don’t think we want to be going anywhere the SGC can’t find us. Hammond’s expecting us to stay in our mission area, and here we’ll stay.”
“The Tok’ra sending us here now is pretty coincidental, isn’t it?” Daniel muttered as they followed Teal’c out of the temple and onto the causeway.
“My, what a suspicious mind you have, Doctor Jackson.” Jack couldn’t have agreed more with the direction of Daniel’s thoughts. He was looking forward to having a little chat with the Tok’ra operatives responsible for sending them here when SG-1 got back.
“We may find that we are able to connect to Earth from the Stargate on the planet to which this address leads, O’Neill,” Teal’c commented.
“Or we could end up in the middle of a planet full of not so friendly Jaffa,” Carter said, looking at the bright side.
“Charming,” Jack grunted. He glanced up at the sphinx as they passed by, avoiding its stone eyes that seemed to follow their progress.
“So, what could the purpose of this ‘test’ be?” Carter asked.
“Probably to select hosts,” Daniel said bleakly.
“All the more reason to stay right here,” Jack pointed out. “For now, we’ll establish camp by the ’gate; keep close in case we need to evacuate in a hurry.”
By the time they returned to the Stargate, the ninth gem on the device was glowing a solid green. As a further contingency plan, Jack swiftly copied the address found in the temple into a brief report and buried it at the base of the DHD, then scratched ‘SG-1’ onto a rock to point the way for any potential rescue team.
“The moon has set, O’Neill,” called Teal’c, standing on the Stargate platform and gazing through the ring at the now empty sky.
Long moments passed.
The sky behind the pyramid brightened swiftly from gray nothingness to a golden-hued pale blue. A flock of birds broke from cover near the river, making everyone jump. Then the sun itself became visible, slightly to the left of the pyramid and framed between the valley walls; it was enormous and brilliantly fierce. Rays of light streaked up into the sky, a trumpeting herald of the new day.
“Oh, wow. Guys, look at the pyramid,” Daniel uttered in awe.
Fire seemed to fill the capstone – a deep angry red-gold of refracted sunlight.
“I wonder if it’s hollow?” Carter stepped back a pace, marveling at the sight as Daniel captured it on camera. Teal’c moved down the steps to stand near them, all four mesmerized as fiery light shot out from the capstone, over the roof of the temple and wrapped around the head of the sphinx, infusing the eyes in its Ra-face with a menacing gem-like glow.
“Er…,” Daniel trailed off uneasily. “That’s not natural.”
“Yeah. Heads up, people,” Jack said, automatically bringing his weapon up. “Carter, why don’t you try dialing Earth one more time?”
“Yes, sir.” She hurried to the DHD and punched in Earth’s address. “No go, Colonel.”
A bone-shuddering tremor rippled through the ground under their feet. A split second later amid a deafening boom, a tall, slender pillar shot up out of the sand in front of the sphinx. Before the team’s astonished eyes another pillar exploded from the ground twenty feet away, followed by another and another, arcing in a circle around the Stargate and DHD and back to the sphinx.
There was a moment of silence – sand drifting back to earth and startled birds taking flight the only movement.
“Defensive positions,” Jack snapped out, dropping to one knee and raising his gun. Daniel and Teal’c spread out to flank him, while Carter went for the high ground, hunkering down by the MALP on the platform behind them. “Teal’c, you got any idea what this is?” His voice sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet.
Teal’c’s reply was drowned out by a snapping sizzle of electricity as an energy field popped up between each pillar, effectively corralling the team inside.
“These appear to be automated defensive posts, O’Neill.” Teal’c appeared at Jack’s side. He primed his staff weapon and crouched, alert and ready.
“Looks like my old buddy Ra didn’t want anyone changing their mind about going on this trial thing,” Jack replied as he eyed the pillars for weak spots.
Almost in response to Jack’s comment, something exploded up out of the ground only two feet away from him, showering dirt and grass everywhere. The dawn light glinted off a small mechanical orb as it soared into the air. A bright blue beam lanced out from it and swept over each of the team.
“I think we’ve just been painted, Colonel,” yelled Carter.
“I think you’re right, Major.”
Jack ratcheted the safety off his weapon, but the orb was already moving – faster than any of them could aim – zeroing in directly on Daniel.
“Daniel! Down!”
Daniel dived for cover behind the DHD, his pack shifting awkwardly over his shoulders as bullets from Jack’s gun zipped over him. His hand slapped at the back of his right leg as he was struck. “Ow.” He rolled to one side, trying to keep the fast-moving orb in sight.
“Daniel?”
“I’m okay,” he yelled, hand coming away bloodless from his leg. “I think.”
A squawk from behind the MALP announced Carter had been hit too. “Sir, whatever this is, I don’t think it’s a weapon,” she called out.
The orb whizzed over Jack’s head. He fired instinctively, but missed by a mile. “Son of a bitch!” A sharp stinging pain flared in his shoulder.
Jack spun in a three-sixty degree arc, unable to keep up with it as Teal’c was zapped in the butt. As fast as it had arrived, the orb disappeared back into the ground leaving only a puff of dust in its wake.
“What the hell was that all about?”
Teal’c leaned over and prodded at the small cut on Jack’s shoulder.
“See anything, T?”
“I cannot. The wound seems to be closing over.”
Jack shared an uneasy glance with Daniel.
“Creepy.” Daniel scratched uneasily at the gash in his thigh.
“These wounds may have been caused by the insertion of a tracking module,” Teal’c continued. “Such things are favored by the Goa’uld when hunting those they consider a threat to their rule. I believe we should leave this place, O’Neill.”
Jack scanned the buzzing force-field surrounding them. “I just wish we knew what we might be heading into, Teal’c. This whole setup sucks.”
An earthy chuffing sound drowned him out as more objects shot up into the air. Five, ten, dozens of them. Whirring up from the ground came scores of glittering, golden objects, slowing to hover with silent and malicious intent.
“Crap.” Jack stepped out in front of Daniel, weapon raised. “Now what?”
“They’re shaped like the Eye of Ra,” Daniel said, his gaze riveted to the menacing cluster.
As one, the miniature Eyes swarmed towards them, tiny objects launching from their centers.
“Scatter!” Jack bellowed.
Everyone dodged as small but powerful explosions ripped the ground at their heels. All around the space they were confined in dirt, rocks and burning grass erupted in choking clouds. Teal’c turned and launched stream after stream of staff-fire into the attackers, destroying many of them. Yet still they came, splitting like flocks of birds around the danger, reforming and hurtling after Jack and Daniel. Over their heads, Carter sent sprays of bullets into the flying Eyes, but it seemed for every one that fell, three more appeared.
Jack rolled to his feet, emptying his magazine at the closest mini-bombers. “Daniel, dial that address. Carter, get ready to send the MALP through.” He reloaded and fired again, coordinating with Teal’c to cover their teammates and their vital gear.
Carter loosed another burst at a group of Eyes targeting Daniel, then ducked to one side as the wormhole roared to life. As soon as it stabilized, she hit the controls on the MALP and sent the bulky machine lurching toward the Stargate.
Daniel dashed toward the FRED and slammed his hand on the controls. It jerked forward, churning steadily to the platform. He kept pace behind it, edging backwards and was only a few feet from the steps when another explosion nearby threw him to the ground. He rolled into a crouch, flinching from the concussion and the thunderous hammer of weapons’ fire over his head. Jack glanced at Daniel, saw he was up and moving, and continued firing.
Slowly, keeping pace with Teal’c, Jack fell back, the mini-bombers obviously herding them toward the Stargate. Spinning in a circle, trying to keep a bead on a particular group of attackers, he had an instant’s snapshot of Carter silhouetted against the blue of the event horizon. For a split-second she was there, then through the smoke Jack glimpsed the soles of her boots as she was thrown backward into the vortex. A billowing cloud of smoke and debris flew out from the MALP; charred and bent metal showing where one of the little bombs had scored a direct hit.
“Sam!” Daniel scrabbled up four steps through acrid smoke. Another bomb exploded on the edge of the platform, spraying him with stone shrapnel and sending him sliding back down the steps.
“Go, Daniel, go,” yelled Jack.
Daniel clawed his way up the rest of the steps. Three large strides and he flung himself headfirst into the rippling event horizon.
Teal’c fired a near-continuous stream of blasts at their attackers, he and Jack covering each other in their retreat up the steps. The FRED had reached the top of the platform but was stalled behind the smoldering MALP. Jack broke off the battle and threw his weight at the machine, pushing it far enough into the wormhole for the vortex to take it and suck it away, the FRED following along like a giant wind-up toy. He spun around and picked off several more Eyes heading toward them. All over the area in front of the Stargate the ground was littered with craters and burning, broken metal.
“Teal’c, go,” Jack croaked, smoke catching in his throat.
Teal’c backed into the Stargate, still firing until the event horizon swallowed him up. Jack threw himself sideways into the wormhole, then the cold grip of the vortex was spiriting him away to the unknown.
