Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG-1 or the characters, I'm just borrowing them for a while for my story and I'm not making any money for it. This is all for fun so please don't sue folks :-)
AN/ In the first series of Stargate there many times when the dialogue refers to events that have happened outside of the episodes which we get to see. One of them is the events of P3X595. During the episode 'Emancipation' O'Neill refers to a time when Carter was pleased to see the team after drinking something that made her take off… we never find out what it was but by Carters reaction we know that it was embarrassing. All the cultural references come from internet research and are loosely based on Aboriginal Australian Dreamtime Mythologies. If they are incorrect then please remember this is only a work of fiction, and my intention was to write only a story, not to offend anyone.
P3X595
Colonel Jack O'Neill strode through the SGC corridor with the kind of look on his face that had every airman on the base ducking out of his way, hot on his heels was the only man who dared challenge him when he was in this mood; Daniel Jackson, the resident Archaeologist and only remaining civilian member of the SGC.
"Jack, we have to go back there!" he shouted after the Colonel running behind to catch up to him.
Ignoring Daniel's argument he continued stalking towards General Hammond's office. He was going to be in for an ass chewing when he got there and he wasn't looking forward to it. Unperturbed, the young Archaeologist continued to press his case.
"We should find out exactly what that stuff was, why the Goa'uld took them there in the first place, why they didn't go back – Jack this is all important if we're fighting the Goa'uld! Ask Sam, she agrees with me here – we have to find allies to fight with"
That got his attention, he stopped and turned so suddenly that Daniel almost ran into him.
"Oh yeah Daniel great idea! Let's just go ask Carter now shall we, see how keen she is to go back after they drugged her! We don't need those kinds of allies Daniel, we're not going back"
"But Jack…"
"Daniel damn it I said no! Hammonds orders! He's debriefing the President right now explaining how one of his officers on the SGC flagship team came back through the gate high when we were supposed to be looking for Alien technology."
The two men held each others gaze for a tense moment, Jack O'Neill's dark brown eyes turned almost black with irritation as Daniel's constant head-butting was starting to wear down what was left of his patience. Daniel only held his gaze tight lipped for the time being, although constantly frustrated with the military exploration policy he felt partly to blame for what had happened to their team mate. At Daniel's silence O'Neill's eyes softened a little before he continued towards the Generals office.
"You want to go back there Daniel, you make your case to the General"
48 hours earlier
Colonel Jack O'Neill emerged from the Stargate onto P3X595 and stepped out into the hazy sunlight of the worlds early morning. The Stargate was in a large clearing surrounded by lush tropical forest vegetation on all sites and what appeared to be a ruined temple near the tree line. It could almost be anywhere in the tropics on earth, but as he put on his sunglasses and looked up twin suns of the planets binary system shone in the sky casting a slightly bluish tint to the daylight.
It was the third set of viable co-ordinates produced by the program Captain Samantha Carter had written adjusting for interstellar drift opening up the vast network of Stargates across the galaxy, and the novelty of finding himself on an alien planet thousands of light years from Earth had not worn off. Not for him or the members of his team.
The young Air Force Captain responsible for the Stargate computer program stood in position to the right of the Stargate scanning the tree line, her P-90 at the ready. She was so young and eager to please that O'Neill almost found her amusing, despite his typical dislike of scientists, she was a good officer and he was warming to her presence on his team.
"Captain Carter, report"
"No sign of the Goa'uld Sir, by the looks of the place they haven't been here in a while"
O'Neill turned to his left where the stoic Jaffa warrior had mirrored Carter taking up position on the other side of the Stargate.
"Teal'c, do you agree with that assessment?"
"Indeed O'Neill, this planet appears to have been abandoned by the Goa'uld for some time"
Looking around and peeling back the Velcro on his watch cap O'Neill checked the time before making his way down the remaining steps away from the Stargate towards the Dial Home Device where the forth member of his team, Dr Daniel Jackson, was carefully examining the interface.
"You got the seventh symbol?"
"Yes, but what's fascinating is that those ruins over looks a little like one of the temples on Abydos but are so overgrown that the Goa'uld probably haven't been here for several hundred years, this planet may have been abandoned long ago"
O'Neill had been satisfied at 'Yes' and was busy scanning the nearby trees as Carter and Teal'c had done on their arrival. Trust Daniel to be interested in a stack of abandoned rocks. Nothing about this place suggested a hoard of Alien technology that they could use to fight the Goa'uld but he wasn't ready to dismiss the planet just yet.
"OK folks, we have 2 hours before SGC contact so that gives you 2 hours to either find something worth staying for or call this mission a bust and head home"
"Yes Sir"
Carter nodded sharply and pulled out a device for detecting energy signatures from her combat vest. Daniel Jackson however was less than pleased and registered his protest.
"2 hours? That's it?"
"That's right Daniel, if you want to stay longer then find something worth staying for"
"Like what Jack? These ruins alone make it worth staying longer, the inscriptions could tell us…"
"Tell us what Daniel? Look if there isn't anything written here that says, I don't know, 'big honking space gun' then we're out of here"
"But Jack…"
"2 hours Daniel! I suggest you get started and make the most of it"
Daniel bit his tongue as Teal'c and O'Neill took up defensive positions, he never could understand the military and the "get in, find the guns, get out" approach and instead made his way over to investigate the ruins near to the Stargate. On the walk over Carter caught up with Daniel and took the opportunity to smooth the difference in opinion. She had years of experience of taking orders whether she agreed with them or not while Daniel was new to the game.
"Don't take it personally; the Colonel is military and the first priority of our standing orders is to ascertain the threat and find technology to fight the Goa'uld. He's just following protocol"
"You're Military too Doctor, um… Captain"
"Please, call me Sam." She smiled over to the archaeologist keen for her new team mate to use her first name. "Yeah, I'm Military, but I'm also a scientist so I'm interested in ways to build new technologies, or learn from alien allies more advanced than us"
"So why can't Jack see that too? I thought after the first time on Abydos he'd be a little more receptive to other ideas but I guess he's not really changed much"
"He's following orders too Daniel. If you want to put your case forward, you have to choose the right moment. The Colonel will just shoot down any argument in the field because it's we're his responsibility and we have to do it his way. Trust me, it's a military thing"
Daniel nodded with a new perspective. He still disagreed with Jack's attitude but he understood that he had not exactly chosen the best moment to argue.
"Right. Thanks"
Plants and trees grew up through and around the broken temple and towered above as thought the ground had reclaimed the building and torn it down over the vast expanse of time. Carter scanned the area but after coming up with nothing of interest she turned her attention helping Daniel Jackson, who was busy translating a large Triptych that depicted imagery of what appeared to be a god and some constellations that Sam didn't recognise. They had become so engrossed in documenting and translating the text that O'Neill's voice over the radio made them both start with surprise.
"Carter, Daniel, Come in"
"This is Carter. Go ahead Sir"
"Found anything yet?"
"There are no energy signatures indicating Goa'uld technology but Daniel has found something, we're trying to translate a wall of text that may be important"
"How important?"
"Daniel thinks there may be a civilisation here that defeated the Goa'uld, we're not sure how yet"
"How long do you need?"
This was typical O'Neill, always the military mind only interested in the practicalities: is there anything we can use? How long until we can use it? Daniel knew that he would have to make these inscriptions interesting by putting them into a language Jack understood.
"Jack, this is going to take a day or so, I'd like to at least stay that long to finish the translation. It may be other structures nearby, some of those could contain information or technology that we can use"
After a pause, O'Neill's voice crackled over the radio once more.
"Alright, I'll send a message to the SGC. We'll camp tonight and report back tomorrow. O'Neill out"
After reporting to General Hammond and getting permission to extend their stay off world by another day, O'Neill returned to the site of the ruins. The small twin suns were dropping lower in the sky and it wouldn't be long before they needed to set up camp.
"OK folks, what have we got here that's worth spending a night camping instead of in a nice warm bed?"
Daniel furrowed his brow and looked at his watch, it seemed like they had arrived only a hour or so ago and yet they had been translating the text on the wall most of the day.
"From what we've managed to translate so far the Goa'uld came here around 30,000 years ago and brought people here as their slaves. There may be a civilisation on this planet that are their descendents. From the looks of things, they may have overthrown the Goa'uld, someone by the name of Namir'kun. At least I think he was a Goa'uld, it describes a lightening god who speaks with thunder as his voice. He rides storm cloud and throws lightning bolts to man and trees which I guess could be the hand device we've seen before." He paused a moment gesturing towards part of the Triptych that he had been translating
"It also mentions that he lives in a 'puddle', so that could be an oblique reference to the Stargate. Sam thinks that the constellations on that tablet may be linked to the Stargate like the cartouches on Abydos."
Resting one hand on his P-90, O'Neill waved the other at the ruins that surrounded them.
"So if there are people here what happened to them? I don't see any sign here Daniel, if there are then they should sack the housekeeping"
"Who knows Jack, I mean it's a big planet, they could be anywhere by now they may have moved away from the Stargate a long time ago. I don't think this building had much significance besides as a Goa'uld welcome mat; a kind of offering temple or meeting place"
"Teal'c does this Nama… what's his face, sound familiar to you?"
"It does not O'Neill"
Suddenly a noise caught Carter's attention and she raised her hand to motion for them to be quiet.
"Wait…"
Teal'c opened his staff weapon and readied his stance as O'Neill listened and looked around him with his P-90 ready, on hearing nothing he whispered to his Captain.
"Carter?"
She nodded quickly and indicated the direction the sound came from, O'Neill signalled his orders and carefully they moved towards the direction of the sound.
In front of them, a young boy lifted his head out from behind a fallen stone block then quickly ducked back again on seeing them head right towards him.
"It's a human boy, Sir"
Carter whispered with a hint of surprise in her voice. O'Neill nodded in agreement before signalling to proceed while he and Teal'c covered her.
"Hello? It's ok, we're not here to hurt you, we'd just like to talk"
"Ulanji!"
The cry came out from the other side of the ruin and followed by a blur as something flew towards Teal'c head. With lightening reactions, he hit the object to the floor and aimed his staff weapon towards the boy who had thrown it. In an instant, Daniel Jackson was beside Teal'c and pushed the weapon away from where it was aimed.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!"
Carefully Daniel walked out closer to the boy and picked up the object that he had thrown, examining it carefully.
"Jack, I think he's from Earth. This is a boomerang"
"Talk to him Daniel, find out about the Goa'uld"
"I doubt he'll understand, but I'll try" Daniel slowly took another step towards the boy and held out his hand "Hello, I'm Daniel Jackson"
He pointed to himself and repeated his name. The boy stepped out from behind the pillar where he had been hiding and regarded him carefully before pointing at Teal'c.
"Ulanji"
"Ulanji? What is Ulanji?"
Thoughts raced through Daniels mind as he tried to recall everything he had ever learned about South Pacific and Aboriginal Australian cultures, suddenly he remembered something.
"Of course! Ulanji, the snake spirit from Aboriginal mythology. The tattoo, he thinks Teal'c is a kind of snake spirit"
O'Neill was confused; once again, Daniel wasn't making any sense.
"Daniel? Is he from Earth?"
"Yes! Yes, Jack, do you realise what this means?"
"Tell me anyway"
"Ra was not the first Goa'uld to visit Earth," Teal'c stated blankly.
How or why that was significant wasn't really on O'Neill's mind right at that moment, all he could think of was how they were going to communicate with the scared child in front of them and make sense of the place.
"So can you talk to him or not?"
"Right, right um…"
Daniel stepped closer to the boy and took out a notebook to draw the chevron for Earth in the hope that the boy would understand. It took some time and after a bit of confusion the two were smiling and gesturing wildly with their hands to one another. O'Neill was getting impatient.
"Daniel?"
"Ah, sorry, I think he understands that we're not here to hurt him. I don't speak any native Australian but I remember a few words from the Dreamtime mythology and we seem to be communicating using the notebook. His people are nomadic and they have a village not far from here. I think he want's us to go with him to see some kind of Shaman or leader"
O'Neill raised his eyebrows not entirely sure how Daniel had made sense of their situation but was quietly impressed at the Archaeologist none the less.
"OK. Looks like we're off to see the Wizard"