This is the promised continuation to Folly. And hopefully better edited. This takes place at the very very very nascent beginnings of B:tVS ep. Passions. I don't own a single bit of it. I just wanted to throw them in a pool and see who needed the float-ies and which ones wanted to play splashie - splashie (occasionally with deadly intent) with each other. Again: love feed back and notes. Again: I have this arc mapped and it will be complete, but perhaps not as speedily as Folly as I want to develop this one further. And again: please enjoy ;)

B

t

V

S

1

SG-1 was together participating in an after mission report with Hammond when the alarms across the base started spinning: "Unscheduled Off-World Gate Activation"

All five exchanged glances, Hammond standing first, the four a partial second later.

"Was there anything missing that can't be covered in your after action reports?" Hammond asked.

Jack shook his head, Daniel answering, "No, no. That about covers it."

Hammond nodded, "Dismissed. Let's go see who's at our door-"

The five entered the control room, Walter announcing "It's SG-5's ID."

"They were on PX2-394, weren't they?" Daniel spoke up, the five ranging around the window overlooking the embarkation room. SG-5 spilled out of the blue event horizon at a run, clanging down the metal ramp deep inside the mountain, fleeing from something billions of light years away.

"They were" Walter confirmed, his voice level even if adrenaline was beginning to raise his heart rate.

Next flaming arrows rained after SG-5 into the embarkation room, Mann yelling "Down" as the team flattened themselves where ever they were, Mann dropping off the ramp on the left, rolling flat as he too cleared himself out of the trajectory path.

Walter shoved his palm over the control panel, the iris starting to close while Hammond yelled: "Close the iris! Close it now!"

The iris spun closed around the gate, its metal petals spiraling closed - and then seizing, remaining open at a circumference of a foot and shuddering as it ground to close the final distance. The five members of SG-5 wearily picked themselves up, gathering together before turning to look back at the iris, the electric blue of the event horizon shining eerily thru the eye left open in the center of the grinding shield. The soldiers guarding the gate also slowly lowered their weapons, carefully looking over SG-5 and the gate, at a momentarily loss...

Hammond hit the intercom, "SG-5, what's happened?"

Dixon turned, craning his head back and up to address the control room "No idea, Sir."

"Any immediate medical needed?" Hammond asked.

All five shook their heads, "No sir" Dixon responded.

"De-con, then with me. What exactly were you up to just before hostilities escalated?"

"Ballinsky was reading the rocks" Dixon reported, already heading for the double thick steel doors that connected the gate room the rest of the base.

Hammond turned to SG-1, his eyes settling on Jackson placidly - if it weren't for the tick of muscle connecting his jaw to his skull one might think Hammond was considering a piece of pleasing art - "That doesn't happen to be you're work, does it?"

Daniel nodded, "I think so."

Hammond looked down, then back to SG-1: "This takes immediate priority. Any idea why the iris isn't closing?"

Daniel glanced out the window, then back to the General, "No, Sir, none at all" as Carter shook her head and O'Neil and Teal'c regarded the General with blank facades.

"And the worm hole remains engage for 32 minutes?" Hammond asked with an eye still on the embarkation room.

"Correct, Sir" Carter responded.

Hammond hit the com again, "Stay sharp."

The soldiers guarding the room ranged out again, weapons down but ready, eyes backon the grinding diameter of the iris.

"Carter, want to see if you can solve whatever" Hammond waived his hand at the gate, "is causing that?"

Cater gave a sharp nod and was gone.

"Daniel" Hammond started, but Daniel was already nodding, moving for the door, "I'll get my work."

"I'll go with him, Sir" O'Neil offered, leaving with Hammond's nod.

Jack followed Daniel out into the hall, the pair moving at a jog as Hammond's voice broadcasted over the intercom "Siler to the control room".

"Does this have anything to do with what you brought to your friend from England who lives in California?" Jack asked.

"Most likely" Daniel agreed, pulling open the door to his office. An angry looking Muskie, frozen under a slim, weathered arch of a branch, glared at the doorway. Jack gave the thing a friendly waive while Daniel, ignoring the fish completely, headed for the drawers lining one of the walls of his office.

Jack closed the door to the office, giving them some privacy from the current crisis taking the attention of the base. Jack took Daniel's chair, watching as his friend quickly gather a light handful of papers from a folder. Daniel tapped the drawer shut with his heel as he walked to his desk, spreading out the papers across the table.

"This is it?" Jack asked, looking at the rubbings, then two sheets of paper, lines filled in notes written in two hands, and one of them Jack recognized as Daniel's cramped script.

"This is it" Daniel confirmed.

Jack squinted at the papers, and then at Daniel, "I barely even remember PX2-394."

"That's because we were only there for an hour" Daniel replied sourly.

Jack leaned back, looking at Daniel, "That was the one with the" Jack pointed his finger around the floor, and then his fingers wagging elaborately around Daniel's face "that caused the…"

Daniel glared, "Which is why SG-5 wore masks. You and Sam were effected too" Daniel reminded Jack.

"Is that why you only have four pages of rubbings?" Jack looked again at the desk.

Daniel nodded, "I took these from the markers around the gate. We never made it any further."

"Because the" Jack made another elaborate, finger wiggling gesture making Daniel frown.

"No wonder we lost at Charades."

Jack huffed, "How was I supposed to know Teal'c's mime was so evolved? I still can't believe Carter got Plan 9 from Outer Space."

"While we failed miserably."

"There's nothing wrong with my Marilyn Monroe" Jack defended.

Daniel paused to deliver a another look, then went back to gathering what it was he wanted.

"I got your John Wayne" Jack continued, "Maybe it's your fault you didn't get my Marilyn Monroe. Maybe you're the weak link in our duo."

"Jack, I don't think this is the time to rehash Charades strategies."

"So, what have you got on PX2-394?"

Daniel looked over the papers, gathering and tucking them in a manila folder, and headed for the door, "Not a lot, but enough to hopefully have a key to translate what ever Ballinsky brought back."

"Think it'll fix our gate?"

Daniel shrugged, "If it doesn't, maybe it will help us understand where we went wrong so we can go back, make friends, have them stop what ever they're doing without our side ordering a nuclear warhead thru."

Jack nodded, pulling open the door for Daniel, joining him in hall, the general bustle of the base accommodating the men's hurried pace as they headed for a conference room.

An hour later, Daniel, Cameron, and two other base linguists were all working on every detail Cameron Ballinsky could recall as well as everything he'd brought back. The wormhole was still engaged, and the iris was still seizing, grinding in an attempt to close with the diameter of a foot remaining open in the center.

There was a brief knock on the door, Teal'c entering the conference room with a handful of arrows, "Daniel Jackson, these are marked deliberately. Perhaps they have more significance than simple weapons." Teal'c opened his hand, spilling out the arrow that had rained into the embarkation room after SG-5.

The each linguist at the table carefully took one, studying and comparing the pictograms burnt into the wood as well as the guiding scales at the end of the shaft.

"I recognize one of mine. It's also in the rubbings I took off the side of the sunken amphitheater" Cameron shared.

"And not dedicated to one of the Egyptian Gods" Paul nodded, "So, this being some Goa'uld trick is unlikely."

"Well, that's the good news" Jack commented, watching Daniel work, Daniel's furrowed brow growing deeper, worrying Jack as Daniel remained immersed, "the bad news being that our Gate is out of commission until we fix this and we have 4 teams off world."

"The next team is not due back until Four Hundred Tomorrow. As per protocol, they will dial the Alpha site when they cannot connect here" Teal'c recited.

Jack nodded, meeting Teal'c's gaze, "Carter and Siler still can't close the Iris?"

Teal'c shook his head, "They are also unable to disengage the wormhole."

Jack made a displeased noise, his eyes going back to Daniel again. He clapped a hand on Daniel's shoulder, startling Daniel, grinning around the room congenially, "Daniel. I need you to help me with something."

Daniel looked up at Jack, his eyes a bit glazed behind his glasses, "Jack - "

Jack nodded, already hauling Daniel to his feet, "This is really important. Isn't it, Teal'c?"

Teal'c inclined his head, pulling open the door, the eyes in the room looking curiously between Daniel, Jack, and Teal'c at the door, and Daniel let himself be pushed out of the room, Teal'c shutting the door behind them.

Paul, Cameron and Ron all exchanged glances, looking to Daniel's empty seat. "Think Teal'c knows something?" Ron asked, the greenest of the group.

Paul shrugged, gathering back the papers he was working with, "Who knows when it comes to SG-1."

"But, Carter, she's at the Gate, with Siler" Ron pointed out.

"Not much longer" Paul murmured, "Not if O'Neil's got something up his sleeve."

"But we've got all the intel" Ballinsky gestured around the table.

Paul just snorted, going back to his work.

Teal'c lead the way to the nearest empty office, ducking in, flipping on the lights, making a pleased sound as Jack pushed Daniel in ahead of himself, closing the door. "Think Captain Straifort will mind us borrowing his office?" Jack posed rhetorically.

Daniel swatted away Jack, standing with his back to the corner, his hip at the desk, and this way he could keep an eye on both Teal'c and Jack, "Why am I here and not back there, translating?"

Jack folded his arms, rocking back to lean against the door, "I was just thinking, as brilliant as all our people are, maybe you can make a phone call to your friend who already read it."

Daniel raised a hand to adjust his glasses, then stopped, his hand almost there, and let if fall, "I've thought about that. I just can't see Hammond letting me take a field trip to California to visit a friend with classified documents. A bag full of projects is one things, but an active mission - like this-"

Jack shrugged, "We invite him here?"

Daniel shook his head "No. He'd never agree to it. He was very clear about that."

Jack tilted his head, "Why? He hiding something?"

Daniel grimaced, then grinned: "Jack, he worked with me on a dozen off-world translations. He didn't bat an eye when I told him no questions allowed. Ten to One he know's these aren't from Earth." Daniel dropped.

Jack thought a moment, considering; "He knows?"

"Languages, they grow, change, evolve" Daniel explained; "Rupert knows enough about language to know the ones we translated are no longer native to Earth" Daniel explained.

"But you didn't tell him?" was Jack's caveat.

Daniel's grin grew, "He never even asked. So, yes: I'm sure he's hiding things - but he let's us keep our secrets so I say let him have his."

Jack nodded, "K. Fair enough" Jack narrowed his eyes at Daniel- "What do you need to do this?"

"Everything."

Jack gave Daniel the look.

Daniel shoved his hands in his pockets, "Copies of everything- and definitely the arrows."

Jack exchanged a glance with Teal'c, Teal'c nodding, "I have set aside four of the arrows."

Daniel though a moment, then, "I guess its enough to start with."

"They have identical markings to the four I turned over to the room" Teal'c shared, Jack already moving away from the door, pulling it open, looking into the hall.

"You could have opened with that" Daniel groused. "Daniel, I have duplicates of the arrows" -he demonstrated for Teal'c as Jack moved the trio into the hall-

Jack waived his hand, to shush Daniel, "Hall's clear. Teal'c grab the copies, I'll get Carter and permission from Hammond. Danny, pack what you need."

"How are we going to get there?" Daniel asked, following Jack cautiously into the hall.

"I thought we might fly" Jack offered lightly, heading towards the control room. "Pack light" He threw over his shoulder.

Daniel looked at Teal'c, wary, "How light?"

Teal'c smiled, "Extremely. We are taking your fighting planes. I have been promised the controls the duration of the flight."

Daniel was grateful of the shower he'd had in De-Con. His hair might be at odd angles and fluffy - but he was clean and BO free - "I'll call Giles". He prayed the brash, beautiful brunette didn't answer - Cordelia - and would be no where to be found once they arrived. There was something about her that kept him regressing to a lanky, inept, gangly pre-teen that he loathed no matter how hard he fought -