Fleeting Shadows
By Leoni Venter
Daniel Jackson sighed. SG1 was on stand down for two weeks' compulsory "shore leave" at Dr. Fraiser's insistence. It wasn't that he wasn't tired, beat up and sick to death of going through Stargates, getting injured, mind probed or shot ... it was just that he had no idea what to do during the two weeks. And it seemed that he was the only one with that problem. Sam had a mysterious date with someone in San Francisco. Teal'c had received permission to spend the time on PX3427, a nice quiet planet, doing a Jaffa thing, Daniel supposed. He did not know what Jack's plans were.
Daniel reached his apartment, let himself in and slouched onto the the couch, which immediately puffed out a cloud of dust, setting him sneezing. When he'd gotten control again, he surveyed the place through streaming eyes. It showed clearly that he was almost never there. Well, if he was to survive the next two weeks, he'd have to clean up first. Some minutes later, singing loudly over the hum of the vacuum cleaner, he almost didn't hear the doorbell ring. In fact, it must have rung for a while because when he opened the door on a very irate Jack, the first words were: "It's about time!"
"Um, sorry ... I was ..." he gestured towards the vacuum cleaner.
Jack looked him over, taking in the sloppy clothes, comfortable shoes and the doctor's mask hanging about his neck. "Don't tell me it's toxic in there," Jack quipped.
"Well, I can't breathe the air," Daniel smiled, stepping back and inviting Jack inside. "What's up?"
"Ah, nothing. Just playing delivery boy," Jack said nonchalantly. He placed the cardboard box he was holding on a table. "This arrived for you at SGC."
"Thanks." Daniel was surprised. He didn't think Jack would go to all that trouble just to bring him a package. He inspected it. It was sealed thoroughly and postmarks stated that it had been sent from Cairo.
"Well, are you going to open it?" Jack asked, making himself comfortable on Daniel's couch. Daniel could swear he looked like he had nothing else to do.
"Ok..."
Retrieving a pocket knife he cut the box open. Resting on top of some objects was an envelope with his name on. Opening it, he quickly scanned the message. "It's from Catherine," he told Jack, who'd gotten up again to have a look.
"Dear Daniel,
Ernest and I were just cleaning out my old office in the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, and we came across these oddments. I thought you'd like to see them.
Give Jack my regards,
Catherine."
"Nice," Jack commented. He started unpacking the box, curious. A piece of carved wood...
"Oh, that's a prayer stick of the Tambani tribe in mid Africa..."
A small stone tablet with hieroglyphs...
"Hey, that's ..."
A stone jar with a falcon's head as lid. Beautifully carved, and lined with gold...
"Wow," Jack said. Daniel put down the tablet and looked.
"That's a canopic jar. The ancient Egyptians put the entrails of a mummified person in that. The falcon's head is the symbol of Horus..."
"Yuck!"
Daniel smiled. Looking in the box he pulled out the final object: an old leather-bound journal, the kind that closed with a leather strap and buckle. The leather was dark and weather worn, though supple from frequent use. Two letters were stamped on the front cover: EC. Daniel opened the book to the first page. "Evelyn Carnahan..." he read on the inside cover. "I wonder..."
"What?" Jack asked. He was a bit miffed about the book. Daniel would now insist on reading the thing and that would mean that he, Jack, would have to leave... and he was already so bored that even Daniel seemed like good company.
'I have read dissertations by an Evelyn O'Connell," Daniel answered. "She actually made some observations about Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that started my own line of research..."
"That's real interesting," Jack said, hiding his sarcasm. "Ok, Daniel, don't you have anything exciting in here for me to look at?"
Daniel stared at him in amazement. It really looked like Jack was bored. "Let me guess ... you don't have anything to do during the next two weeks," he ventured.
Jack shook his head melodramatically. "I'm all out of ideas and pals..."
Daniel regarded him helplessly. How was he supposed to keep hyperactive Jack O'Neill occupied if he couldn't even keep himself busy? Inspiration hit. "Why don't you go rent a couple of videos, get some pizza and beer ... and we can figure out what to do with our holiday..."
It sounded a bit lame to Jack but that was Daniel, through and through. "Ok, Danny-boy," he said, grabbing his car keys.
Daniel didn't really notice as he was already turning the first page of the journal...
Half an hour later, Jack returned, precariously balancing two video tapes on a six pack of beer, and carrying a family sized pizza in the other hand. Luckily the door still stood open as he'd left it... He found Daniel sitting cross-legged on the couch, absorbed in reading that book! "Earth to Daniel, time to come back from never never land," Jack said in a sing-song voice.
"Oh, hi Jack," Daniel muttered distractedly. After a while he realized that Jack had not, after all, gone away, and he looked up completely. "Jack, this is really amazing..."
"Is that so?"
"It reads like a horror movie!" Daniel exclaimed. "Evie .. .Evelyn had actually come across a map of Hamunaptra..."
"Hamu-what?"
"Hamunaptra ... It's a legendary Egyptian city, where the Pharaohs had reputedly buried the wealth of Egypt!"
"Ooh, treasure!" Jack sighed mockingly.
"No, you don't understand! Imagine all the information it might contain about ancient Egypt. Maybe even about the Gua'uld..."
"Oh yeah, rocks," Jack remembered, knowing that would annoy Daniel no end.
Daniel was too excited to care. "The rest of the journal gets really strange, all about mummies coming back to life, and the ten plagues ... if I hadn't read her work, I'd have thought this was fiction," Daniel added.
"So, you think it's not?" Jack asked, a bit incredulously.
"I do think they really found it ... she even drew a map!" He leaned over to show it to Jack. "That's the cartouche of Seti 1, and that symbol there means Hamunaptra..."
Jack had a sudden suspicion about what would come next, and even though he was bored, it seemed a bit too much... so he tried to change the subject. "Here, have some pizza. I got us 'The Fugitive' and 'The Magnificent Seven' ... which one first?"
Daniel wasn't to be distracted so easily. "Jack, we've got two weeks ... wouldn't it be great if we could find it?"
"No," Jack answered around a mouthful of pizza.
"Can't we just..."
"No, choose a movie."
"Jack, please?"
"Oh, for crying out loud! You want to go treasure hunting?"
"Not treasure..."
"Ok."
"If we do find it..."
"I said, ok."
"You did? Oh... you did." Daniel seemed a bit surprised about his easy victory.
The videos were forgotten but the pizza and beer did their duty as the two planned their excursion far into the night.
Two days later they flew to Egypt on an army plane, after Daniel, with some support from Jack, had persuaded General Hammond that their "mission" could find valuable information about the Gua'uld. So they were fully equipped and had even somehow received permission from the Egyptian government to launch the search. After Jack had categorically refused to ride a camel, much to Daniel's amusement, they'd settled on hiring a truck. Stocking up on fuel and water took care of a morning but by afternoon they were on the way. Driving through the hot desert sun they decided to keep going through the night, if only to stop Jack's complaining about the heat.
Following Evelyn's descriptions, they came to a vast dusty plain just as the sky was graying towards dawn.
"Now what?" Jack asked as he stopped the truck.
"I don't really know. All she wrote was that they waited for dawn and was shown the way..." Daniel said, paging through the journal to try and find a better description.
"Whatever. It's still a few minutes, want some coffee?"
"Of course!" Daniel knew he needed to cut down on his coffee consumption but the chilly desert air made him decide to wait a while with that.
Jack poured two cups from a thermos, handed one to the archaeologist, and got out of the truck. Placing the cup carefully on the door step he did some stretching exercises. Then he took the cup, swallowed some coffee, and climbed up onto the roof of the truck, facing east. There he sat, banging the heels of his boots against the side of the truck. After a while Daniel joined him, and started pointing out various constellations and explaining their significance in Ancient Egyptian culture. Then he grew quiet as the sun quickly slipped over the horizon. Through shimmering heat waves they suddenly saw the sheer cliffs of a granite mesa appear. Then the sun rose completely and illuminated the rocks.
"Wow," they breathed almost simultaneously. Hopping off the truck they got in and set off over the plain. Getting closer, they could see that there were indeed ruins at the foot of the mountain, but they looked like they'd been flattened by an earthquake. Still, Daniel knew they could probably find lots of artifacts. Jack knew he'd be doing a lot of digging, and wondered why they hadn't brought a team of diggers along with them... Some hours later, with their camp set up, Jack left Daniel lovingly brushing clean an engraved rock, and started to wander off to see if there was anything more interesting around.
"Um, Jack..." Daniel called as he turned away.
"Yeah?"
"Just in case Evelyn wasn't exaggerating... don't touch any blue-gold scarabs you come across, ok?"
"That would be bad?"
"Very bad."
"Gotcha." With that, Jack hopped over a fallen pillar and disappeared from sight.
Daniel read the inscription on the rock. "Hamunaptra, city of the Dead." A sudden gust of wind howled through the ruins, sending shivers down his spine. Looking around suspiciously, he saw nothing out of the ordinary, and bent again to his task.
Jack rounded a corner and came across the tilted surface of an obvious doorway, engraved, as everything there, with hieroglyphs. "Now that looks interesting," he muttered to himself, and with some effort, he managed to push the door aside. A dark passage sloped downwards, walls covered with colorful images. "Wow," Jack exclaimed, impressed. Daniel would really like that. Whistling, he made his way back to the archeologist, still dusting off some rock. "Hey, Daniel, guess what I've found?"
Daniel looked up and squinted against the sun. Jack looked like he'd found the wealth of Egypt, so wide was his grin. "Um, I don't know. Gold?" he asked seriously.
"No! I found shade! Cool, dark shade ..." Jack exclaimed. "Oh, and some nice pictures for you to look at..."
"Where?"
"Over there... bring a flashlight," Jack said as Daniel leapt to his feet, dusty rock forgotten.
In no time at all Daniel managed to gather up flashlights, ropes, shovel, backpack and himself, and get relocated to the passage. At the door, he stopped to read the symbols, much to Jack's frustration. "Horus ... lord of time .. opened the corridor of time..." He trailed off. "That's funny."
"What's funny?"
"The word structure is a bit different." He began to read the symbols in the ancient Egyptian dialect. Finishing, he shook his head. "I don't know what the significance is."
"Oh well, let's go... the sun's killing me."
Flashlights ready, our intrepid explorers descended into the corridor. As they stepped over the threshold, the quality of the light suddenly changed, not enough to define it, but it made them pause. Seeing nothing noteworthy, they stepped on the next step. A low rumble sounded. The door behind them slammed shut, the walls began to glow with strange symbols.
"Daniel, what's happening?" Jack asked, trying not to sound anxious.
"Um, I'm not sure," Daniel started. He stopped abruptly when the step suddenly deposited them on the flat corridor floor.
"Daniel!?"
"I don't know, ok?" Daniel exclaimed as an invisible force took hold of them, dragged them deeper, around a corner and out through another doorway, where it dropped them to stare in wide-eyed wonder at the scene before them.
They were standing at the top end of a large underground chamber, brightly lit with torches. Various stone tables and other structures were scattered about the floor. People dressed in typical Ancient Egyptian costume were working at some task that Jack and Daniel could not identify. They stepped into the chamber hesitantly, not drawing much attention. Then a man carrying a spear noticed them and shouted a warning. Within seconds they were surrounded by guards with strange symbols tattooed on their cheekbones.
"Daniel, where did all these people come from?" Jack asked as the warriors drew closer.
"How should I know?" Daniel asked. He tried smiling nicely to them. Not much effect. "Um, hi, how are you?" he asked them. Confusion in their eyes told him that they hadn't understood a word. Well, maybe they spoke Arabic. He tried it. Nope. "Jack, I don't know what language to use," he said under his breath.
"For crying out loud! They're Egyptian, aren't they?"
"O...kay..."
He tried modern Egyptian. Nothing. Finally, he tried the dialect he'd learned on Abydos:
Greetings. I am Daniel, this is Colonel O'Neill...
Immediate response. Not very positive, though. The guards stepped even closer and looked, if possible, even more menacing.
The first one spoke: It means death to come in here!
"Oops," Daniel muttered.
"What? What?" Jack demanded.
"It means death to come in here," Daniel translated.
"Oh, great!"
Jack looked around for possible routes of escape. The chamber had only two exits: the door they'd entered by, and another at the opposite end. Then he noticed what was happening in between. Two men were holding down a third, dressed only in a loincloth, while a fourth held the captive's tongue pulled straight with clamps. Another man was approaching with a knife. The captive's eyes were wide with fear as he struggled vainly to free himself.
"Um, Daniel... what are they doing to that guy?" Jack asked, motioning with his eyes.
Daniel looked. His eyes grew wide and in his surprise he had to stutter for a moment before getting the words out. "Th... they are preparing to mummify that man alive!"
"This is ridiculous!" Jack exclaimed. Then the guards attacked. Jack didn't hesitate. He swung his automatic rifle into position and fired in quick succession. Their attackers went down. The noise of the shots rang like thunder, amplified by the cavern. The people in the room dropped everything and ran off in fright. Daniel still stood in shock as events, as usual, just took their course around him. Another person, equally shocked, stood in the center of the suddenly empty chamber, fatalistically awaiting whatever new horror to befall him.
"Come on, Daniel, you're up." Jack said as he nudged the stunned archaeologist forward.
"Oh, yeah.." Daniel stepped forward, palms held outward to show he was unarmed, as he spoke in the Abydonian dialect. Have no fear. We mean no harm.
The man's eyes widened. Then he fell to his knees before them. My lords, messengers of Ra, I am your servant...
Daniel translated for Jack, who immediately became irritated. "Oh, get up, get up... we're not from Ra..." He took the man by the arm and pulled him upright. Intense brown eyes met his and he remembered that the man could not understand him. "Oh, just tell him, will ya?" he asked Daniel.
Daniel translated. The man was becoming more and more relaxed, and when Daniel finished, he managed to almost look in control of the situation. He addressed Daniel. I am Imhotep, high priest of Ra. If you are not from him, then you have saved me by your own will. I am grateful.
Daniel started to translate but Imhotep stopped him. Speaking strange words he gestured and a golden light gathered around Daniel and Jack. Then the light moved over Imhotep and suddenly sank into him, disappearing. Imhotep smiled. Then he spoke, in English: "I have cast a spell enabling me to understand your speech."
"Cool," Jack muttered.
"A spell?" Daniel wondered. "That's ... that's fantastic... did you say your name was Imhotep?" he asked as he realized something. Evelyn had mentioned him in her journal.
"Yes, I am Imhotep, high priest of Ra," Imhotep answered. In spite of being bruised and wearing only rags, he managed to look imperial, his shaved head gleaming in the firelight.
Jack snorted. "You're a little behind the times," he muttered.
"What do you mean?" Imhotep asked, suspiciously.
"Ah, it's just that Ra is no god and that we killed him..." he trailed off as Daniel gripped his arm to stop him.
Imhotep, however, did not react the way Daniel had expected. He laughed. Then he bowed slightly. "It seems I owe you even more gratitude, then."
Relieved that the priest wasn't angry, Daniel was still confused about his reaction. "I'm sorry, I don't understand," he said.
"I have been trying to convince the Pharaoh for years that Ra would not return, that we do not need to make the sacrifices each year..."
"Whoa... the Pharaoh?" Jack interrupted. "I didn't know Egypt still has Pharaohs, did you, Daniel?"
"Um, Jack, I don't think we are where we think we are... What year is this?" Daniel asked the priest.
Imhotep smiled a sly smile as he answered. "It is the final year of the reign of Pharaoh Seti the First..."
"The final year? Is he retiring?" Jack asked sarcastically.
"No, Seti is dead. I killed him last week." He did not try to keep the satisfaction out of his voice.
"No wonder, " Daniel exclaimed. "We interrupted your punishment?"
"Yes."
"But why did you kill him?"
"I loved his mistress, Anck-su-namun... after we killed him she killed herself, and I have to resurrect her. I promised her I would," Imhotep explained. As he spoke, he paced like a caged tiger. "You have freed me to do so..."
"Wait a minute," Jack interrupted again. "Just how did we get here?"
"To answer that I would need to know where you came from," Imhotep explained.
"Um, we're from the future," Daniel said, aware of how corny that sounded. "Well, we entered a corridor back there, marked with the sign of Horus."
"You came through the corridor of time?!" Imhotep exclaimed. "What's it like, in the future?"
"Just really noisy," Jack answered quickly before Daniel could formulate a reply. "How do we get back?"
Before the priest could answer, they all heard the clattering of approaching feet, as the guards returned with reinforcements.
"This way!" Imhotep called, leading the way out the opposite door and into a confusing maze of tunnels.
As they ran, Daniel thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look, there was nothing but the stone wall. Shaking his head, he ran after Imhotep and Jack. After a few minutes the priest led them into a dead end. He triggered a hidden door which opened onto some comfortably furnished rooms. They entered and the door clicked shut behind them.
"These are my hidden rooms," Imhotep explained. "As high priest I had much authority, and I had these built. We will be safe here for a while, but the Med-jai will find us."
"The Med-jai?" Daniel asked.
"Pharaoh's bodyguards."
A shadow seemed to slip across a wall. Daniel just missed focusing on it, yet again. "What was that?" he asked, all the same.
"What was what?" Jack asked. He'd been looking at a golden sword mounted on the opposite wall.
"A shadow..."
Imhotep drew a shuddering breath. "The keepers of Hamunaptra," he said. "We must leave already. They are here." He opened the door. "Come, I will take you to the corridor of time." They ran through what seemed like miles of tunnels, pursued closer and closer by shadows, fleeting from torch to torch, whispering echoes filling the air, yet not there. At last they stood again at the entrance of the corridor. Imhotep looked them over for a second, then pointed down the steps. "Go! I will incant the spell. Go!"
"What about you?" Daniel asked as Jack started down.
"I know an escape," the priest answered.
Jack grabbed Daniel by an arm and pulled him down the steps with him. Above, Imhotep was saying the words that Daniel had read earlier. Behind him it grew darker as the shadows converged. Then the irresistible pull of the corridor took hold of them. The last they saw was the priest being grabbed by living hands and shadow alike. Then they were unceremoniously dumped into darkness onto sand.
"Now what?" Jack groaned as he felt for his flashlight. The bright beam cut through the darkness, illuminating broken columns, slipping over fallen rocks and vanishing into the distance.
"Hey, Daniel, ya think we've made it back to the future?" Jack quipped as Daniel also switched on a flashlight.
Daniel grinned at the phrase. "It looks a lot more like I'd expect it to..."
They gingerly made their way through the cavern and into a tunnel, which lead to another cavern. In the center of the floor lay an opened sarcophagus.
"Hey, Evelyn wrote of this!" Daniel remembered. Looking at the lid, he translated the inscription: "He who shall not be named."
"I guess he didn't make it, then," Jack said.
"No..." Daniel trailed off as a shadow seemed to move between them. "Jack, I think we should get out of here..."
"No argument from me!" Jack yelled as they ran back to the corridor, up the steps, where, after some panicked moments, they got the door open and stepped into bright sunlight. The shadow pursuing them subsided back into the darkness and the door slammed shut.
"I don't think they like us, Daniel," Jack said, wiping his brow.
Daniel looked a bit wistfully at the door. "I guess not."
"Well, that's settled. Can we go home now?"
"Whatever you say, Jack."
As they drove their truck away from the ruins, the wind moaned through the broken columns. Daniel, looking back, listened intently for a moment.
"That's funny," he muttered.
"What?"
"I thought I heard the wind say something..."
"So, what'd it say?"
"Death is only the beginning."
A shadow slipped through the rocks and followed the trail of the truck as it vanished towards the setting sun.
The end...
(c) Leoni Venter 1999 -2007
Disclaimer:
The characters of Daniel, Jack, Teal'c, Sam, Hammond and Fraiser belong to Showtime and Gekko Productions, as does SGC, Catherine and Ernest.
Imhotep and Anck-su-namun belong to Stephen Sommers.
I'm not making any money from them, and no copyright infringement is intended.
The story line and speculations belong to me.
Special Thanks:
For the five people who read this story and commented in the 7 years since it's been published! Thanks you guys, you make this writing thing worth it!