Part One
The Legend of the Zirdins
Disclaimer: Nothing in the Stargate universe belongs to me.
AN: I haven't felt much like writing anything lately, but I thought I'd try to get back into this story and that would start the flow again. Happy Holidays.
Daniel couldn't take it any more. He spun around and punched Jack.
Jack staggered back, blood pouring from his nose.
Sam gasped.
Jack swiped at his nose then stepped forward. "Grab your gear," he ordered through clenched teeth. "Carter, you and Teal'c get everything packed up and home."
"But, sir-"
At the doorway, Jack paused long enough to say, "Carter! Just do it."
Sam looked down and muttered. "Yes, sir."
Daniel stood staring at the blood on his knuckles.
"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c said with quiet concern.
Daniel came back to reality and hastily gathered his gear.
"It's SG-1's IDC, sir," Sergeant Davis informed Hammond.
"Something else must have happened," Hammond said worried. "Get a medical team down here," he ordered as he left the control room.
By the time Daniel reached the gate, Jack was standing ramrod by the DHD, his nose no longer bleeding.
Daniel stopped a few feet away and looked nervously at him.
Without looking at Daniel, Jack pointed to the wormhole.
Daniel slowly walked past him, not daring to look at him directly. On the other side, he walked silently off the ramp and just stood there.
Jack followed and stood silently beside him.
"What happened?" General Hammond asked as Dr. Fraiser and two medics entered.
"We had a disagreement," O'Neill spat.
"Dr. Jackson?"
Daniel looked around the room, at Hammond, then at the ground and hugged himself.
Hammond waited a few more seconds, but it was clear he had gotten all the explanation he was going to get at this point.
"His nose is broken, sir," Janet informed Hammond.
"I coulda told you that," Jack snarled.
"Get him to the infirmary," Hammond ordered.
"Yes, sir." She nodded to one of the medics who took Jack's arm to lead him out.
"I don't need any help," Jack barked.
"Yes, sir." The medic kept his distance as he followed Jack out.
"What about you, Daniel?" Janet asked scanning him for injuries. "Daniel?" she prodded when he didn't answer.
Hammond studied the still unresponsive man. "Dr. Jackson?"
"He seems to be-." Janet stopped as she held up Daniel's hand and spotted the blood on his knuckles.
"Let's get him to the infirmary too," Hammond said noting the blood.
"I-I hit him," Daniel said quietly as Janet and another medic led him away.
"What the hell happened?" Hammond mused aloud as he followed.
"They're both highly agitated. Other than that and Colonel O'Neill's broken nose, they're fine," Janet explained.
Hammond studied the two men sitting on opposite beds. Jack was glaring at Daniel. Daniel looked both apologetic and worked up.
"What happened?" Hammond asked.
"He punched me!" Jack exploded standing and taking a step toward Daniel.
"You wouldn't listen to me," Daniel said defensively as he too stood.
"You weren't listening to me," Jack shouted.
Janet moved quickly between them. She held a hand in front of each of them hoping to stop them as they advanced on each other.
"You try taking orders from someone who never agrees with you!" Daniel shouted back.
"You try giving orders to someone who constantly defies you!"
"That's enough!" Janet yelled. Lowering her voice but not her hands, she continued. "There are other patients in here who do not need to be disturbed."
"He started it," Jack accused.
"What?!" Daniel almost shouted. "You-."
"Gentlemen!" Janet said sternly.
"I want to know what happened on that planet," General Hammond said.
Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Janet cut him off. "Sir, if I may. They need time to cool off before they can give you a coherent explanation."
"Agreed. Colonel, I know you have paper work to catch up on. And Dr. Jackson I'm sure you have something you need to be working on. We'll try this again in the briefing room in half an hour." He turned to leave.
"You're sending us to our rooms, sir?" Jack asked incredulously.
Hammond turned back. "If you're going to act like children, I'm going to treat you like children." He pivoted and left.
Thirty-three minutes later, an out of breath Daniel rushed into the briefing room with a book and slid into the chair across from Jack.
"You're late," Jack pointed out.
"What the hell happened?" Hammond demanded, giving Daniel a disapproving look.
"You already know about the missing personnel, sir," Jack said.
"Just start from the beginning," Hammond ordered.
"Yes, sir." Jack recounted the events leading to their unscheduled return without a single interruption from Daniel.
24 hours earlier
SG-1 stood in front of some ruins. They hadn't seen any people as of yet, and the ruins were their only discovery of anything so far. The other two teams hadn't reported anything either.
Thor had sent a message the day before with this planet's address. No explanation. Just the address, a symbol Daniel said represented Thor and another one that meant important. So there had to be something special about this planet. Apparently, the President agreed. It was bumped to the top of the list, and three teams were assigned for recon. Surely, if the Asgard had meant to warn us to stay away, they would have said so in the note. Unless, they didn't want anyone who might intercept the note to know that they were warning us. Hammond had acknowledged so, but said the Asgard could be trusted, and if they didn't want us on this planet, they would have found a way to say so.
So here we are. Only two hours exploring, and I'm already bored. He looked at his team. Teal'c was Teal'c. If he was bored, no one would know it. Carter and Daniel looked interested of course.
Why do the Asgard think this planet is so hot? Jack wondered. Technically, it is hot. He wiped sweat off the back of his neck. But I'm sure they weren't recommending a vacation spot. Come on, Thor in a Speedo? Jack shuddered. Now Mary Steenburgen in-
"Do we stop here or keep searching?" Sam asked.
Or Carter?
"Colonel?"
Jack sighed as he filed those images away for later. He'd need something to keep him busy when Daniel and Carter begged to explore longer. Well, ruins are better than nothing. "Ok, kids. Let's check it out."
"I don't know, Jack. The sign might say 'Keep Out.' or 'Danger'."
"Since when do you follow directions?" Jack joked. "We may have finally stumbled on something that might give us a clue as to what Thor wants us to find. Besides, most condemned buildings have warning signs in front of them. We'll just be extra careful. First sign of trouble, we leave. And nobody goes anywhere alone," he added looking pointedly at Daniel who was hovering in the doorway, already too engrossed to pay attention.
"This building must have been of great importance," Teal'c said with a twinge of awe.
"How do you figure?" Jack asked. "Daniel!"
"Sorry," Daniel muttered stepping back outside.
"Its immensity," Teal'c answered noting the dust raining from the doorway onto Daniel's bandana-covered head.
"Yeah, it was probably a gathering place," Daniel said. "Are we going in or what?"
"Let me guess, a religious gathering place," Jack said as he joined Daniel in the doorway and scanned the narrow entryway with his flashlight.
"It doesn't really look like any religious building I've ever seen."
"Well, what d'ya know?" Jack quipped stepping inside with Daniel hot on his heels. He purposely stopped so that Daniel ran into him.
Daniel sighed.
"What?" Jack asked innocently.
"It appears to be some sort of communal building," Teal'c said peering through the doorway on the other side of the entryway. There were doorways opening onto smaller rooms on either side of a very long corridor with stairs near the other end leading to a second floor.
"I think you're right, Teal'c." Daniel groaned as Teal'c put a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from going further.
"A commune, huh? So we should keep our eyes peeled for peace signs and pipes."
"I really hate it when you're bored," Daniel muttered.
Sam nodded her agreement as she pronounced, "Looks pretty safe, sir. No indication of an imminent cave-in."
"Ok, let's move out. Or move in," Jack added ignoring the groans that followed.
Two hours later
"SGs 9 and 11 found nothing of significance," Jack informed his team as he entered the largest room of the building. Other than a few broken benches against one wall and the writing covering the entire back wall, the room was bare. "Everybody's on the way here. Can you read any of this, Daniel?"
"I recognize a symbol here and there. But they're all different."
"What do you mean?" Jack settled himself on the dirt floor beside Sam, who was carefully arranging her samples.
"Well, this one looks like a derivation of Latin. This one might be Greek. This whole section looks like-"
"I get the picture. Is that gonna be a problem?'
Daniel looked at him incredulous that he didn't realize the obvious. Jack shrugged and spread his hands.
"Well, if I can't figure out which one language this is written in, I won't know how to properly translate it," Daniel said.
"Oh. Well, you'll figure it out. Hammond said we can take all the time we need."
"Thanks. I think."
"This symbol looks familiar," Teal'c said.
"Which one?" Daniel asked.
Teal'c pointed.
"It's not Goa'uld is it?" Daniel asked uncertainly.
"It is not."
"Then what is it?" Jack asked.
"I cannot recall."
"It'll come to you," Jack assured him.
When the other teams arrived, Jack sent SG-9 back to Earth. SG-11 would stay and work with Carter to make a thorough search for any hidden technologies in and around the building. Teal'c was helping Daniel organize the symbols they each recognized into groups based on the language they resembled. Jack busied himself by setting up camp.
"This is so frustrating," Daniel said reluctantly joining the others for dinner.
"Don't let it overwhelm you," Sam advised. "This building is huge. It'll take us a couple of days to get through it. More if we find something. When we find something," she revised at Jack's look. "So take your time."
"You can't hog Teal'c though," Jack said. "I need him to help me protect all you scientists." Jack wrinkled his nose and glanced around the group. "Damn. Teal'c, you and I are the only sane ones here."
Things were running smoothly so far this morning. So Jack was extremely nervous.
He made the rounds for the fifth time since breakfast. First, Carter and Captain Morris. They were two rooms down from the last place he'd left them and still hadn't found anything. Moving on to Captain Franklin and Drs. Peterson and Brown. They were huddled over something.
"Good timing, Colonel," Dr. Peterson said. "Could you take these to Dr. Jackson? This symbol matches one I saw on that wall earlier. It might help him."
"Sure," Jack said taking the rock – this one really was a rock or at least it looked like a rock – and other fragments the man handed him. "That's what I'm here for," he grumbled as he headed back to the main room.
"Hey, Danny, got some rocks for you to play with."
"Artifacts," Daniel corrected absently as he took the pile as if Jack were offering him a cold beer on a hot afternoon. "Actually, this one is a rock. Where'd you get these?"
"I knew it." Jack raised a victorious fist. "Franklin's group found 'em. Thought they might help. One of the symbols matches one on the wall."
"This one," Daniel said holding the rock up to the wall. "Teal'c, this is one of yours."
"Have you remembered where you saw these guys yet?"
"I have, O'Neill. Master Bra'tac once gave me a book containing many old Jaffa legends and the history of an ancient culture on Chulak."
"Really?" Jack asked genuinely interested.
"Indeed."
"So, this book…Do you still have it?"
"It is in my quarters at the SGC."
"Colonel O'Neill!" Dr. Peterson shouted over Jack's radio.
"What's up?" Jack asked.
"Brown's gone."
Jack, Teal'c and Daniel exchanged glances.
"Say again."
"Dr. Brown has disappeared, sir," Captain Franklin clarified.
"Where are you?"
"One room down from the one we found the artifacts in, sir."
"Stay where you are. We'll be there in a minute. Carter, did you copy that?"
"Yes, sir."
"You and Morris meet us there."