AUTHOR'S NOTES: This story is set in season 7 before the death of Janet Fraiser. It wasoriginally rated M due to an implied non-consensual sexual encounter involving a main character but has been downgraded to T based on input I've received. There is also a sequel called "Unity" also available on this site. Many thanks to my wonderful betas, Cathy and Matt, for their feedback, patience and friendship throughout the writing process. I couldn't have done it without their love and support. Any and all feedback would be gratefully accepted and much appreciated.

STARGATE: SG 1
Faces

Chapter 1

Dr. Daniel Jackson looked up from the inscriptions he'd been studying, trying to tear his mind from the fascinating puzzle they presented. "What was that, Sam?" he asked distractedly, glancing over to where the blonde, blue-eyed Air Force major, who also happened to be one of the most brilliant scientists he'd ever met, was half-hidden under a large alien console on the other side of the room.

Samantha Carter gave him a look of pure exasperation as she shimmied out from underneath the console. "Earth to Daniel. You're supposed to be helping me here. You can get back to the inscriptions when we're done."

"I thought they might help us figure out what's wrong," Daniel responded absently. "And we're not on Earth," he added as an afterthought.

Sam shook her head and tried not to laugh. Daniel was an exceptionally gifted archaeologist and linguist, but when he was immersed in one of his linguistic puzzles, it was almost impossible to get him to focus on anything else. "Okay, I'm sure you're right. After all, why wouldn't they put the instructions right there on the wall where anyone could see them?"

"You never know," Daniel muttered defensively as he tore himself from the writing on the wall to lean over, grab the tool Sam had been struggling to reach and hand it to her.

"Thanks," she responded. "Now stand in front of the console and let me know if anything happens."

Daniel obediently set himself in front of the console and looked for any sign of movement, flashing lights, or anything else to indicate that Sam's tinkering had had the desired effect of bringing the alien contraption back to life. After several minutes with no success, his attention wandered to the wall behind the console, which was also covered in ancient scribblings. They were all the more interesting when he realized he could read them. The console forgotten, he pushed his glasses up on his nose as he leaned closer to the wall, his fingers lightly brushing across the symbols as he absorbed the ancient text.

"Daniel!" Sam's exasperated voice finally broke through his concentration.

"Sam, the writing over here is different, it's a form of Latin!"

"Yeah, well, it's all Greek to me," she responded irritably. "I thought you were going to help me here."

"Um, just a minute. Okay, pull out the third crystal from the right." His hand continued to move along the wall until finally his searching fingers found the latch he'd been looking for and a hidden panel snapped open. He picked up a medium sized bluish green crystal from the storage compartment, leaned over the console and handed it to the astounded scientist.

"How . . .?"

"You were right. The instructions are right there on the wall. In a dialect of Latin."

"Latin? You weren't kidding about that?"

"Nope. Wait, what's this?" he muttered, his attention diverted by a particular symbol on the wall.

Sam snapped the crystal into place and heard a satisfying hum as the console came to life. Excited, she jumped up and watched as colored lights blinked on and off on the console face. "It's working!" she said to Daniel, glancing up to see him still deeply absorbed in the alien writing. "Colonel, Teal'c, it's working," she reported into her walkie-talkie as she turned her attention back to the console. "Daniel, come over here and help me with these symbols on the console so we can figure out what this thing is supposed to do."

She looked up in exasperation when he didn't respond, then stood and stared with dismay at the empty space where Daniel had been standing only a moment before. Colonel Jack O'Neill strode into the room, with the fourth member of their team, the Jaffa warrior Teal'c, at his heels.

"Sir, we have a problem," she reported.

General George Hammond was having a very bad day. Anytime one of his people from Stargate Command was missing it was a bad day, but Daniel Jackson and the other members of SG 1 had become almost like family to him. Somehow no matter how bad the trouble was that they got themselves into, they always seemed to be able to pull a miracle out of their hats and survive, but Hammond knew that luck had to run out some day. 'Please don't let it be today,' he prayed silently as he glared at a very glum Jack O'Neill on the viewscreen.

"He just disappeared?" Hammond asked. "And how exactly do you explain that, Colonel?"

Major Samantha Carter's strained features appeared at the edge of the screen, and the General stifled the tug of sympathy that pulled at his heart at the worry in her eyes. "We're not sure, sir. One minute, he was standing there looking at some symbols he said were in Latin while I was working on the console, and the next minute I looked up and he was just . . . gone."

"Have you determined what the device is yet, Major? Is it some kind of transporter?"

"I'm not sure, sir. It could be. It would certainly make sense considering there's nothing else on this moon but the two room complex housing the stargate and the console room. It's possible it could be some kind of interplanetary transfer station between the two types of transport systems. But if this is a transport device, I have no idea how it works or where it's destination point could be. As you know, our initial sweeps verified the information we received from the To'kra that this entire system is uninhabited."

"I'll see if the To'kra can free up a ship to help us start scanning the nearby planets for Dr. Jackson. Will you be able to figure out how the device works in case they aren't able to send a ship right away?"

"I don't know, sir. I'm not even sure at this point how the device was activated in the first place. Other than the initial hum and flicker of lights when the console first came back on-line, I didn't see or hear anything that would indicate any type of activity had occurred. Daniel just wasn't there anymore."

"What else can we do to help you down here?"

"Can you send us somebody who can read ancient Latin?" Carter responded.

Daniel came awake slowly, the fog enveloping his brain stubbornly refusing to lift and every bone and muscle in his body aching. He moaned softly and instantly regretted it as even that slight effort sent fresh tendrils of pain through his chest. He heard a soft voice but at first couldn't understand what it was saying. Slowly the words began to make sense and he realized they were in the same dialect of Latin he had been reading earlier.

"Try to lie still for a few minutes," the soft, sympathetic female voice said. "The trip can be quite unsettling if you haven't been properly prepared for it, as you obviously haven't been. You'll feel better soon."

Daniel concentrated on his breathing and realized it was becoming easier and less painful. He started to open his eyes, but the light was too much and they burned in protest, so he quickly closed them again. He concentrated on his other senses the feel of grass under his hand, the sound of birds calling in the distance, the smell of flowers. Then there was the sensation of a hand on his forehead and he jumped reflexively at the contact, sending fresh waves of pain throughout his body.

"I'm sorry," the soft voice said gently. "I didn't mean to startle you. Some who come through the portal become feverish. I need to see if that is happening to you."

He opened his mouth, trying to form words, but they wouldn't come. The thoughts were there where am I, what happened to me, who are you but they stubbornly refused to form themselves into coherent sentences. He briefly wondered if he'd been hit by a zat, but he couldn't remember his body ever feeling this bad after a zat blast.

Daniel concentrated on his breathing again and on the feel of the cool hand that was still on his forehead. And without realizing it was happening, he drifted back into sleep.

To Samantha Carter the Latin expert, Dr. Angelo Benedetto, looked like a man who had found his own personal nirvana. He had been scouring the writings on the wall, muttering excitedly under his breath while scribbling on his pad for two hours now and her patience was wearing thin. "Have you found anything helpful, Doctor?"

"Helpful?" he asked distractedly. "Helpful! This is amazing! It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It's Latin, but no form of Latin I have ever seen before. The dialect is something totally new."

"But you can read it, right?" Carter snapped irritably.

"Read it? Of course, I can read it," the linguist responded indignantly. "Well, most of it anyway. There are a few words that don't seem to make sense in their context and some of it is rather technical. It would be very helpful to have Dr. Jackson here, but we'll be able to figure it all out eventually."

"Did I just hear the word 'eventually'," Jack O'Neill barked as he stalked into the room, his grip tightening unconsciously on the assault rifle in his hands. "Daniel's missing and I want him found now, so I better not hear the word 'eventually' from anybody in this room again."

O'Neill's sharp tone had torn the linguist's concentration from the writing on the wall and the assault rifle that appeared to be pointed straight at him brought his full attention to the angry Air Force Colonel. "This is outrageous!" the man stammered. "I'm here to help, Colonel, and I don't appreciate being threatened. I'm going as fast as I can."

"What . . . ," O'Neill started to say, then realized where his weapon was pointing and lowered it.

"Look, Doctor, we're all tense," Samantha Carter chimed in. "Until we figure out exactly what happened to Daniel, we can't be sure it won't happen to someone else. We really need some answers here. What have you discovered so far?"

"Most of the writing appears to be about the Roman God, Janus. He represents beginnings that's why January was named for him. He was also the god of gates or doors since you had to emerge through a gate or door before entering a new place – or embarking on a new journey or a new beginning."

"That could be important," Sam remarked. "It could be an indication that there's some kind of portal or door here."

"Or it may simply refer to the Stargate," Teal'c interposed.

"But then why would the writing be in here instead of out in the other room by the gate itself?" Carter responded.

"As I was saying," Benedetto interrupted, "this section here appears to have been written later than the rest. You can see that the writing is different and when you look closer you can see where a new panel was actually placed over the existing text -- I hope we can take it down at some point and see the original writing. That would be most extraordinary."

Carter cleared her throat, bringing the linguist back on track. "Oh, yes. Anyway, as I was saying, the writing on the panel appears to be instructions for maintaining and operating the console. It's all rather technical, which makes it difficult to decipher without a knowledge of the engineering principles involved. I'm doing the best I can considering my limited knowledge in that area."

"Maybe I can help with that," Carter suggested.

"Well, try to figure out what this thing is and what exactly it does before we activate it again," O'Neill snapped and strode out of the room.

Daniel slowly came back to consciousness, pulled from the gentle caress of sleep by the droning of voices. At first they seemed impossibly far away, but slowly the sounds came into focus.

". . . here. We have no idea who he is or what he's doing here. You could be endangering us all."

"As a priestess of the temple, it is my duty to care for those whom Lord Janus sends through the portal to us. I cannot simply ignore my obligations."

"You're being ridiculous, Larinda. How can you be so sure Janus sent him? He is the first to come through the portal in a very, very long time. And it's obvious from his condition that he wasn't properly prepared for the journey. Wouldn't Janus have prepared him if he truly were sending him to be our salvation? No, Janus abandoned us to our fate many generations ago. There is no reason to believe he would bother to intercede now."

"Lord Janus has not abandoned us! You should not speak such sacrilege. It should be clear by the fact that this one is fully human that he has answered our prayers. And who else would have the power to send him? With all the years you've spent tinkering in the temple, have you ever been able to make the portal work?"

"All of this is irrelevant," the man's voice continued heatedly. "What will happen after the Janalia when you are no longer here to watch over him? Do you really believe Lysandra will be so nurturing?"

"I'll deal with that problem when the time comes," the woman shot back just as heatedly. "I am a direct descendant of Lord Janus, just as you are. You know there are ways around it."

"If Lysandra chooses to cooperate. Do you really believe she will?"

Daniel's eyes finally opened to the sight of a man and woman arguing several feet from where he lay. Both wore clothing reminiscent of the Augustan and Julian eras of first century Rome on Earth. The man's red toga was shorter than usual and had a more tailored look, and he wore matching pants under it, while the woman had a light blue jacket over her flowing white dress. What little he could see of the room was nondescript. Blank walls with no windows or artwork a hospital, or perhaps a prison. He moved his hand tentatively and was relieved when the action caused no pain. He tried to open his mouth to speak but it was dry and all he could force out was a small sound.

The woman turned to him immediately and rushed over to the bed. She touched his forehead and smiled at him. Turning to her companion she reported, "The fever has broken. This discussion may now be moot. He should be able to answer our questions soon." Turning back to Daniel, she gently lifted his head from the pillow with one hand while bringing a cup of what appeared to be water to his parched lips with the other. "Drink this. It'll help you feel better."

The warmth and reassurance in her voice stilled the small voice of caution in his head and Daniel drank gratefully from the cup. The water was cool and refreshing. After finishing it, he cleared his throat and was relieved when he opened his mouth to speak and real words came out. "Where am I? How did I get here?"

The man looked at him with alarm and the woman simply looked perplexed. "What was that he said," the man asked. "I didn't recognize any of the words."

"I don't know," she responded. "Perhaps he needs a few more minutes to adjust. His brain may still be a bit addled from the fever. It was very high."

Cursing himself silently for having forgotten they weren't speaking English, Daniel searched his mind for the proper words. Latin was a necessary language for any archaeologist, but this dialect was difficult, especially since he'd only heard it actually spoken in the few words exchanged by the man and woman in the room. Finally, he found the words he wanted and tried again. "Where am I? How did I get here?"

Relief washed across the woman's face. The man still looked concerned, but much of the tension seemed to leave him as well. "See, I told you he only needed a few minutes to adjust," the woman admonished her companion, before turning back to Daniel. "I am Larinda, priestess of the temple of the great and mighty god Janus who sees and knows all. This is Consul Octavius, one of the leaders of our people. Our country is called Remana. What is your name?"

"Daniel. Daniel Jackson."

"Daniel Jackson," she repeated thoughtfully. I have never heard such a name before. Where do you come from, Daniel Jackson, and why did Lord Janus send you to us?"

"I come from a place called Earth, although that's not where I was when I ended up here. I'm an explorer, a scientist I study ancient civilizations. I was visiting ruins at another place, a deserted place whose name I do not know. Then I woke up here. I don't remember how I got here or who might have sent me. One minute I was looking at some writing on a wall and the next I woke up here."

"Then Lord Janus did not send you," the man said evenly, satisfaction evident in his voice.

"Janus," Daniel repeated, trying to place the name in the huge catalog of Earth and alien mythology locked in his brain. "I know that name."

"Then you have met him," the woman responded hopefully.

"No, I don't think so. It's something I remember from my studies." He rubbed his head, which was beginning to ache with the strain. "Janus, Janus. Roman god of beginnings. The month of January was named for him. Something to do with gates or portals. Well, that would fit, wouldn't it," he added absently. Shaking his head to clear it, he continued, "He was usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions or four faces directed to the four compass points. They would be used on guideposts or signposts as a blessing to travelers beginning a new journey."

"You have heard of him then," Larinda said with relief. "I told you he has not forsaken us," she directed to Octavius. "Even though you did not meet him, he must have sent you to us, perhaps as a sign to those who have lost their faith." She sent another meaningful look toward Octavius, whose jaw tightened at the dig.

"I don't think so," Daniel said. "Sam and I were working . . . Sam! Did anyone else come through the portal with me?"

"No. There was no one else," Larinda responded. "Who is this Sam of whom you speak?"

"A . . . fellow explorer, a friend," he responded. "I have to find her. She'll be worried about me."

"I see," Larinda responded. "She is special to you."

"Special? I suppose. Oh, you mean special. No, no. Just a friend. Um," he asked with sudden discomfort as he shifted on the bed and realized he was naked under the blanket, "you wouldn't happen to know what happened to my clothes would you?"

"They were . . . damaged during your trip through the portal," she responded. "I will get you something appropriate to wear while you are here."

"Was there anything else with me when I came through," Daniel asked carefully, thinking how comforting a gun, a zat, a knife or even his notebook or recorder would be right now.

"Nothing of any importance," she responded neutrally and smiled comfortingly at him. "The portal is designed to protect us from intruders and those who wish to do us harm. Those who are not properly prepared for the journey may find it unpleasant and distressful and may find that they've . . . misplaced some items during the trip."

Daniel noticed her careful choice of words but, remembering that the Asgard had technology that was able to strip weapons during transport, decided not to call her on it just yet.

Looking into his intense blue eyes, Larinda knew he didn't believe her, but was not concerned about it. Instead she felt great relief, for she knew in her heart that her god had sent this man to her in order to save their people.