AN: Hey campers! This story is my pet project. I started it four years ago, but abandoned it shortly after. I took it off the metaphorical shelf a few months ago and now I'm determined to finish it! My inspiration is rooted in archeological, mythological and scientific fact - but I've applied a dramatic license (obviously!) I'm a very visual person, so be prepared for lots of wordy (but hopefully not superfluous) descriptions. There's also a lot of dialogue. As always, reviews are very much appreciated - they're the life force that keeps my brain engaged and my fingers typing! Freya x

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, but I promise to put them back where I found them. All rights belong to the owners. I've edited my own work, so all mistakes are mine.


He took in a lung full of musty air and used the sleeve of his uniform to wipe the moisture from his upper lip. He reached for the metal thermos protruding from the mouth of his backpack, and took a deep gulp of the cold liquid. He let a few of the precious drops trickle down the side of his mouth as he took in his alien surroundings. It was all so surreal. The years of intense studying, training and sacrifice had paid off. He was here - on his first off-world mission with the prestigious SG-1. He'd found himself a protege of Daniel Jackson after he'd boldly alerted the esteemed archaeologist to a piece of mistranslated ancient text. Dr Jackson had been impressed by his knowledge and gumption and had taken him under his wing. He puffed in disbelief as he recalled the catalytic event, and turned his focus back to his work. He glanced over his right shoulder and looked at the row of freshly dug holes. With each cavity he grew 100 feet closer to finishing his thorough, yet tedious examination of the room.

He heard the crunch of sand against military boots and cast his eyes to the newcomer.

"Hey, we're stopping for lunch." His colleague stated. "Are you coming?"

His stomach had been barking for a square meal, but his determination to finish the last few feet overrode his hunger.

"Nah, you go ahead."

His colleague pursed his lips and shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Your choice, man. Just don't work too hard. Jackson's going to get all the credit, you know."

He chuckled and shook his head as the other man left the room. He took another sip of water, before thrusting the near empty bottle into his bag. As his hand passed through the fabric opening, his skin grazed the outline of a familiar object. He craned his neck to check if he was alone. He could hear his fellow Stargate personnel laughing in the distance. He carefully wrapped his fingers around the item and extracted it from his pack. He placed it on the ground in front of him, then retrieved a second article. He released the heart of the article from its plastic cover - written in bold lettering it read 'Archeology Rocks.' He popped open the lid of the first item and placed the article inside. He carefully grasped the connected buds and inserted them into his ears. His index finger instinctively found the play button on his discman and the sounds of his favourite Pat Benetar song reverberated through his head. He hummed along to 'We Belong' as he continued his assault on the soil.

The first few layers flaked away easily, but he soon encountered some resistance. He stretched his fingers out to the tools of trade splayed across the ground next to him. He considered his options, before grasping his Marshalltown trowel. He changed his position to get more power behind his blow and brought the shovel down. The blade entered the compacted soil with force as the song reached its crescendo. The music blaring through his ears masked the cacophony of metal slicing through ceramic. He retrieved the shovel from the ground. He surveyed the puncture in the terrain and a slight disturbance in the grains caught his eyes. Narrowing his gaze, he leaned forward. The fragments began to part, faster and faster as if something or someone was slithering its way to the surface.

"What the…?" He muttered.

His hand dropped to the ZAT gun in his leg holster.

Omitting a high pitched squeal, the burrowing beast breached the earth's surface and launched itself towards him. It pierced his flesh and threw him onto his back. He writhed in pain as the creature attempted to meld with his person. After a few seconds of fruitless fighting, his body stiffened in defeat. As if by impulse, he shot up into a sitting position. A yellow light flashed behind his pupils. He picked up the trowel and commenced digging until he uncovered the broken canopic jar. He unholstered his ZAT gun and fired three times until the vase disappeared.

"Your death will be avenged, my love," he boomed.


The twin suns of PSX-256 hung in the mid-afternoon sky like two orange fireballs. The golden rays bounced off the crumbled ruins of the once majestic temple and stained the fine desert sand with deep, elongated shadows.

Colonel Jack O'Neill leaned lazily against a semi-collapsed wall on the outskirts of the ruins, willing for a cool breeze and a frosty Guinness. Beads of sweat were forming under the bill of his military issue cap and he repositioned it slightly to absorb the moisture.

"So, T...did you catch the game last night?" He lifted his gaze to Teal'c.

The proud Jaffa was standing rigidly by his side, his left hand positioned behind his back and his right hand clenched firmly around his staff weapon. A smile danced at the corner of the warrior's lips and he raised a thin eyebrow in response.

Jack knew the answer, but small talk seemed to be his only means of distraction from the unrelenting heat and his growing boredom. SG-1 and SG-3 had accompanied a small team of archaeologists and scientists to investigate the planet's ancient ruins and mineral deposits. A glorified babysitter was what he felt like, but he knew it was a necessary part of the job. So far, they hadn't unearthed anything significant – but Daniel remained optimistic, much to Jack's disappointment.

"Dr Jackson! Dr Jackson!"

Jack snapped to attention and his hands fell automatically to his weapon. He heard the familiar whirl of Teal'c's staff as they both turned to face the commotion.

"Dr Jackson! Dr Jackson!"

Senior Airman Lang burst forth from the labyrinth of stone pillars like a bat out of hell. Jack felt the dry air shift beneath his feet as the Airman sprinted by, still grasping his archaeologist's soft brush and a tiny chisel. He bolted through the flap of the canvas tent where Daniel was examining artifacts. Seconds later they both emerged and made a beeline for the dilapidated building.

Sensing there was no immediate danger, Jack instinctively relaxed.

"What do you 'spose Lang is on about? I think he left an impression in dust."

"I do not understand, O'Neill," Teal'c stated dryly.

Jack turned slowly to face Teal'c and furrowed his brow.

"You know, like the Roadrunner..?"

Teal'c glared at him blankly.

Jack blew out a puff of air and shook his head.

"Have I taught you nothing?" He exclaimed.

"Ah, Jack..? You might want to check this out," crackled Daniel from the radio in Jack's vest pocket.

Jack brought the radio to his mouth.

"...okay…" he reluctantly replied, "where are you?"

"Ah, we're deep in the temple ruins. I'll meet you out front. I think Airman Lang's found something," Daniel answered.

"Yeah, be there in a minute."

Jack licked his dry lips.

"Two to one odds its some worthless doovalacky."

"Indeed."


Jack was thankful his boots were ankle high as he and Teal'c scuffed their way through the alien dust towards the temple.

The colonnaded structure protruded from the rolling dunes like a sandstone behemoth breaking through the granulated surface and gently kissing the sky. Flanked on either side of the great pylon entrance was the statue of an Egyptian woman crowned with a vase. As they neared, the grandeur of the structure froze Jack in his steps. He took a moment to take it in.

"Wow," he whispered, hardly recognising his own voice. He wondered whether Daniel's sense of bewilderment was contagious.

Teal'c took a few more strides before turning around.

"Are you well, O'Neill?"

Jack's head jerked downwards to meet his friend's curious stare.

"Yeah," Jack exclaimed, "This place is huge!"

"Indeed."

"I assume you found it okay?" Daniel asked, materialising in the entryway.

"Ho hum," Jack muttered, "What have we got, Daniel?"

Jack and Teal'c followed Daniel into a large room that branched off into a warren of chambers, passages and staircases. The room was bordered by tall pillars and supported a ceiling adorned with painted stars.

"From what we can gather, this temple was built for Nut."

"Peanut or cashew?" Jack queried.

"Not nuts, Jack - Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the sky."

"My bad."

"Nut is thought to be one of the oldest Egyptian deities. She was the wife of Ra, and the sister and mistress of Geb, the god of Earth."

"That's cracko!" Jack commented.

Teal'c and Daniel scowled at him with unimpressed expressions.

"Get it? Nuts? Cracked? Wacko? Ah, forget you." He motioned the joke away with a flick of his wrist. "You guys have no sense of humour. Carter would have found that hilarious."

"Moving on..." Daniel urged.

He stopped them in the middle of the room to admire a granite statue.

"She's normally depicted in human form - as you can see here, usually with a jug of water on her head. She's also been associated with the image of a cow."

"As the story goes, she was cast out of Earth as punishment for dishonouring Ra," Daniel continued.

"I am familiar with this fable, Daniel Jackson. According to Jaffa legend, Ra was a strong ruler but feared being overthrown."

"Funny that," Jack murmured.

"When he discovered Nut was to have Geb's children, Ra became angry and decreed that she would not give birth any day of the year."

"The Earth tale is very similar," Daniel continued, "Nut approached Thoth, the god of wisdom, to assist her. Thoth devised a plan to gamble moonlight from Khonsu, the god of the moon and Ra's sworn enemy. Every time Khonsu lost, he gave more moonlight to Thoth. In the end, Thoth had acquired enough moonlight to manufacture 5 extra days. Back then, a calendar year was only 360 days long. Because these 5 days were in addition to the regular cycle, Nut was able to have her children. On each extra day, she gave birth. Ra was furious and separated Nut and Geb for all eternity."

Daniel lead Jack and Teal'c down one of the many burrows that coiled off the main foyer.

"The rest of Nut's story is unclear, which makes Lang's find even more exciting. It might help us piece together her fate after being exiled from Earth. Presumably, she ended up on this planet."

"You're assuming she was a snakehead?" Jack stated.

"I think it's hard to tell where the true myth of Nut ends and the story of the Goa'uld impersonating her begins. The very existence of this temple suggests the Goa'uld resided here at some point. There are no known Nut temples back on Earth."

"No known Nut's," Jack mused, "Try saying that 10 times quickly."

Daniel notacibly flinched, but continued, "We're presuming these chambers were Nut's quarters. We've already uncovered a few of her personal effects - nothing extraordinary - just a hair brush and a mirror. There's also some hieroglyphics I'm keen to translate."

"As much as I love hearing you wax lyrical about my favourite subspecies, why am I here?" Jack queried.

"Airman Lang found a box."

"Unless it somehow folds out into a big honking space gun, I don't see why I'd be interested."

"Well, it kinda looks out of place."

"...like me amongst these ancient ruins with a bunch of eggheads?"

Daniel ignored Jack's biting remark. "It doesn't look Egyptian, or G'oauld for that matter. It looks more...sciencey."

Jack raised his eyebrows with mild interest.

As they entered the chamber they were confronted by a graphic mural on the opposing wall. The painting depicted a naked woman arched on her toes and fingertips over four smaller human figures. Her body was blue like the sky and covered in constellations.

"Woah!" Jack stumbled backwards. "That's a bit more Nut then I needed to see!"

Daniel moved towards the wall and placed his right hand over the picture. "This is a very common illustration of Nut. This figure in the middle is Shu, the god of air, and also Nut's father. The figure reclining across the bottom is Geb. According to the Egyptians, the sun and moon would cross Nut's body during the day."

He made a sweeping gesture with his hand. "At dusk, she would swallow them to make way for the night and at dawn, she would give birth to them again."

The soft skin below Jack's left eye began to twitch in frustration. "So, what you're saying is this 'Nut' hooked-up with her brother and had some sort of digestive complaint that caused her to poop daylight?"

Daniel's hand dropped from the brickwork and he sighed in defeat. "Yeah, basically."

"Good. At least we've straightened that out." He averted his gaze from Daniel's.

"Lang, report!"

In the corner of the room, Airman Lang was crouched over a carefully excavated ditch. The Earth had been meticulously peeled back to reveal a square outline.

He raised his head to address Jack, "Sir, I picked up an anomaly when I…"

"Ah!" Jack raised a finger to silence the Airman, sensing a long-winded explanation. "Keep it short, Airman."

Daniel cleared his throat and threw his commanding officer a threatening look over the rim of his glasses.

"From what we can see," Daniel interrupted, " it appears to be made of wood - possibly cypress."

"...and..?" Jack prompted, raising his eyebrows and making impatient circles with his right hand.

Daniel huffed. "Well...that's all we know at this stage."

Despite his familiarity with Jack's demeanor, Daniel still found his impatience surprising at times. Daniel crouched down beside Airman Lang and returned his attention to the artifact.

"You're killing me, Daniel. You know how much I hate suspense."

Daniel reached for the edges of the box with gentle fingers. "Shut up, Jack. This is a delicate process."

The tension was palpable as Daniel slowly lifted the box from its sandy grave. Airman Lang inhaled sharply and Teal'c took a tentative step forward.

Jack breathed, rolling his eyes at the others. "Oh, brother."

Daniel lightly grazed his thumbs over the box's etched exterior. His jaw dropped slightly as he examined the cover. Scored into the centre of the timber top was a solid black dot surrounded by coloured concentric circles.

"This is truly amazing. I can't even begin to comprehend what it means!" Daniel blurted with barely controlled glee.

He brought the box to eye level and tilted it slightly. "Hm," he grunted inquisitively.

"Daniel..?" Jack questioned, a speck of annoyance in his voice.

"It feels uneven."

Jack shifted his stance and narrowed his eyes. "Uneven, Daniel?"

"Yes, Jack. Uneven, as in 'unbalanced,' 'irregular,' 'not level...'"

"Okay, okay!" Jack interjected, "Why do you think it's…" he let his eyes wander as he searched for the right word, "...disproportionate…?"

Teal'c, Daniel and Airman Lang gaped at Jack in mutual astonishment.

"Disproportionate, Jack?" Daniel queried.

"What?!" Jack voiced defensively, "I read...the dictionary."

"Ah huh...right," Daniel mused sarcastically.

"Anyway...back to 'Pandora's box'..?" Jack accentuated with air quotes.

"Right. Well, my guess is there's something inside."

"Naturally," Jack stated insipidly, "Do you think it's dangerous?"

"We can open it and find out?" Daniel suggested.

Jack shook his head and sighed. "I'm trying to make a risk assessment here, Daniel. For all we know, it could be another head sucky thing."

"I don't think so, Jack." Daniel wrinkled his face to move his spectacles further up the bridge of his nose. "Firstly, it's a tiny box. What harm ever came from opening a box?"

"Careful, Daniel." Jack raised his right forefinger and smirked. "You don't want to jinx us."

"Really, Jack? Since when have you been superstitious?"

"Daniel," Jack warned, "why don't you just pass that over here?"

Jack reached for the box and grabbed it roughly out of the archaeologist's hands.

"Gentle!" Daniel hissed, pushing his cupped hands below Jack's.

Jack cast a cautious eye over the object. His taut expression solidified as he took in the engraved cover.

"Teal'c, have you seen anything like this before?"

Teal'c edged stiffly towards Jack. "Indeed I have not," he frowned, "The subject matter is most unusual, O'Neill."

"So...can we open it?" Daniel interposed excitedly.

Jack rotated his head to look at the younger man standing by his elbow. "This isn't Christmas, Daniel," Jack snarled.

Daniel raised his hands apologetically and took a step backwards.

"I'm going to take this over to Carter. I want this properly stored and transported back to the SGC. We're going to follow procedure on this one, boys." He flashed them a devilish smile.

"...but, Sir..!" Airman Lang protested.

"No arguments, Airman. If you want to make it in this business, you have to follow orders."

Daniel's eyes widened in disbelief and he expelled an animated snort.

Ignoring Daniel, Jack turned to face Teal'c.

"T, make sure Indiana Jones makes it back to the Stargate." He waved vaguely in the direction of Daniel. "Airman Lang, I'm assuming you can take it from here?"

Airman Lang proudly puffed out his chest. "Yes, Sir!"

"I'll let Colonel Davies know we're heading back. SG3 can stay put for now. I'll grab Carter and meet you at the gate in 10," continued Jack.

Teal'c bowed his head in acknowledgement.

Jack turned on his heels in search of his second in command.


When Jack reached the scientist's tent, Sam was alone. He stood in the doorway and watched her with unguarded admiration. She sat hunched over a collapsible workbench with one leg tucked under her body and the other hovering inches above the ground, swaying rhythmically backwards and forwards. She was staring intently down her microscope. Jack felt a surge of jealousy for the microorganism that had her so hypnotised, and wished she'd look at him with the same level of intensity. He took a step forward and caught a whiff of her shampoo as the nearby rotating fan ruffled her tousled blonde locks. He closed his eyes and let the scent wash over him in a purely self-indulgent moment. He cleared his throat to alert the Major to his presence and bring himself out of his dream-like state. She spun in her chair to face him, her hand clasped dramatically over her heart.

She gasped. "Sir! You scared me!"

"Apologies, Carter. I didn't mean to interrupt...whatever you were doing."

She sighed deeply to recompose herself.

"Actually, Sir I was just analysing some mineral deposits…" She paused as Jack flinched. "It doesn't matter. What have you got there?" She pointed to the box held firmly in his grasp.

Jack held her warm gaze for a few more seconds before breaking it. "Right! Yes, it's some kind of box thing. Daniel thinks there's something inside. I thought we could wrap it up and take it back to the SGC. You could run some simulations, or something!" He beamed at her with all the fake enthusiasm for science he could muster.

A broad smile spread across her glossy lips and she nodded in agreement. "Sounds good, Sir. When do we leave?"

"We meet the boys at the gate in 10. The rest of the crew, including Airman Lang will stay behind. I think we have a potential space monkey junior on our hands!"

Stifling a laugh, Sam raised her eyebrows. "Really, Sir?"

Jack rose up on his toes. "Oh. Yeah." He exclaimed, accentuating each word.

She flashed him a toothy grin. "I can pack up my stuff and meet you there in 5, Sir?"

"You sure know the way to an old soldier's heart, Carter - punctuality! Oh, and can you put this somewhere safe?" He closed the distance between them and placed the box on the counter in front of her.

"Of course, Sir." She obliged, reaching for a lined suitcase.

"Thanks, Carter. You're the best." He placed a warm, calloused hand on her exposed forearm. Her heart pounded in her neck with his gentle, yet electrifying touch. Sam watched as he left the tent, relishing the way his BDUs hugged his muscular behind as he walked.