Title: Rashna's Pots
Author: Eilidh17
Summary: Amid an off world disaster, Daniel learns a bit more about his Alteran heritage.
Authors Notes: Sequel to Tears of the Ancient. Knowledge of that story would help to understand this one. Inspired by the SGA episode Epiphany.
Rashna of the Pots – Part of the Tears of the Ancient
Colonel Jack O'Neill wiped his hand across his brow and then flicked it towards the ground in disgust, watching the droplets of sweat sizzle on the hot sand.
"What is it with temple ruins and dry hot planets?" he grumbled to no one in particular.
"Not temperate enough for you, Jack?"
Jack threw Daniel Jackson the dirtiest look he could muster, knowing full well that Daniel was revelling in the heat, having been born and raised, for a few years at least, in Egypt and then later living with his wife and her family on Abydos. The heat was Daniel's friend and Daniel was hardly raising a sweat. Jack, on the other hand, would take the cold of a Minnesota winter over this any day.
"Telemetry from the UAV indicated ruins three miles to the east of the gate, Colonel." Major Samantha Carter made her way over from the DHD, glancing occasionally at the diagnostic tool in her hand. "Given that the sun has only just risen here and it's already over 100 degrees, we should get going before it gets too hot to travel."
Jack groaned. 100 degrees already and it was only early morning. "Just how hot do you think it's going to get?" he complained, watching Daniel out of the corner of his eye.
"Well, sir, based on the previous MALP readings, I would say that the average mean temperature is going to hit around 150 degrees."
"Thanks, Carter; I knew you'd cheer me up. Okay, camels let make one with the desert and ride. Teal'c, you've got point, Carter, take our six, and Daniel and I will tag along and discuss the finer points of exploring ruins in more environmentally friendly locations with more trees."
"Camels, sir?"
"Yes, Carter, camels."
Daniel flicked his head in Jack's direction and raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I thought you hated trees?"
"Not as much as I hate the desert," Jack grumbled, pushing Daniel ahead.
-0-
"I do not believe that this building is currently being occupied," Teal'c announced as they stood before the crumbling stone structure.
"Really, Teal'c?" Jack pulled up the neck of his desert cammo shirt and ran it across his face. "What gave it away for you?"
Teal'c turned his formidable form away from O'Neill, hiding the slight smile that graced his normally stoic features. Years of serving side by side with the Tauri had taught him some of the finer points of sarcasm and yet he was constantly amazed at the ease with which O'Neill wielded such wit.
"Daniel," Jack warned, admonishing him with a raised finger not to wander far. "Carter, Teal'c, set up a perimeter and make sure there's nothing here that our boy can get himself in trouble with." Jack looked across at Daniel, and obviously waiting for his usual offended retort, arched an eyebrow at his distracted look.
-0-
Decayed and scattered, the ruins lay before Daniel, filling him with a sense of disappointment and frustration. What the weather hadn't claimed, the sands of time had. Two walls leaned drunkenly together, and remnants of the roof peeked lopsided from the rubble. Daniel sighed, and glancing at Jack, picked his way through the ruins.
"Anything you feel like sharing with the rest of the team, Daniel?" Jack asked, pleasantly enough, though his tone held a thin edge of impatience and Daniel thought he only barely managed not to roll his eyes.
Shaking his head at his friend's attempts to stall him, Daniel smiled thinly and replied, "Oh, I don't think so, Jack, but letting me get a bit closer might help."
"I think the only thing that would help here would be an engineering team but go ahead. Just be careful."
The smooth exterior wall was in stark contrast to its inner side. Whereas the outer wall had been worn down from countless centuries of exposure to the wind and sand, the interior was rough and pitted. In places, there were remnants of faded murals, and intricate writing, but exposure to the elements had left them impossible to decipher.
Stepping over fallen pieces of roof, Daniel made his way to the more sheltered second wall. Like its counterpart, there were signs of plasterwork and, squinting carefully, Daniel made out faded traces of color. Following the line of the plaster to the ground, he carefully brushed away sand from the base of the wall. A tedious task; Daniel worked with patience and diligence. For every handful of soil he removed, more tumbled back into the hole. Eventually, it seemed Jack couldn't stand watching him struggle, and handing Daniel a collapsible shovel from his back pack, said, "God, Daniel, dig the damn thing out! I can only work for another couple of years, have to retire before I'm ninety!"
Crouching down, and ignoring Jack's comments, Daniel continued his painstaking and careful excavations. With a cry of triumph, he edged closer to the wall, and brushing it carefully, stared at the barely readable text. "It's Ancient!" he cried, whirling around to face Jack, and running a hand through his sweat dampened hair, beamed with excitement
Hunkering down beside the breathless archeologist, Jack raised his sunglasses and squinted at the ancient text. "Okay, that's small, are you sure it's Ancient?"
"Oh yeah, no doubt about it." Daniel looked quickly at Jack to gauge how long his patience would last, and caressed the words almost lovingly. "It means House of the Enlightened. Something about remembrance…memoria." Shaking his head in disappointment, he added, "The text is badly faded."
"Oh, well, age and all. Why is it written so low on the wall?" Jack edged forward and stared at the wall above them, "Why not up here? Away from the elements a little."
"Good question." Daniel replied, warming to the subject. Subconsciously using his teacher's tone, he fiddled with his glasses and lectured, "The sand has pretty much swallowed up the temple, and what we can see is the upper section. Most civilizations built their places of worship above all other buildings, so it's fairly safe to assume that under the sand could be an ancient village. This section of writing is actually quite high up. We'd have to dig down further to see if there are any other writings left."
"Which, of course, you'd just love to do," Jack mused, patting Daniel fondly on the shoulder. "I'm worried about how much dirt we can displace before the structure tumbles down on us."
Jumping to his feet, and waving his hands under Jack's nose, Daniel pleaded, "What? Oh please! This place has been standing for God knows how long! I think it's safe to dig a bit further."
Jack groaned softly. He rose and took a few steps backward, casting a critical eye over the area. "Carter," he said softly, "are you picking up any energy readings at all?"
Patting her vest for her diagnostic device, Sam looked around and replied, "Nothing, sir. We would need to get a GPR in here to assess the area around the structure, but if the rest of Daniel's hypothetical village is as old as this temple, then I don't think there will be much left to find." She moved the device from one hand to the other and did a slow moving circle, all the time watching the small screen. "The only readings I'm getting are all atmospheric."
"And just what are those atmospheric readings telling you, Major? Keep it simple."
Attempting to hide her grin behind her hand, Sam tilted her head and replied in a light voice, "Yes, sir. We could be in for some windy weather, though."
"Okay." Standing still and scanning the horizon, Jack nodded his head. "Carter, Teal'c, set up camp. We're going to need the shelter real soon. Daniel, you can dig, but take it real slow, and when I say it's time to stop, I expect you to do just that."
"Jack, I'm an archeologist. We don't go any other speed except slow."
Jack rolled his eyes and walked away, muttering something about treading where angels dare.
Daniel smiled at his friend's departing back, and hearing his crusty comments, picked up his trowel, and continued digging.
-0-
The midday sun beat down, and wincing, Daniel frowned with the start of a headache. Meticulous digging had finally unearthed what looked like a blockaded doorway, and scrubbing his hands across his face, he knew he had found something exciting. He took his brush in his long fingers, and gently sweeping away the grains, smiled slowly. "At last! I knew it would be here."
Clambering to his feet, he searched for the Jack and called out, "Hey, I think we've got an entrance here." Gesturing towards the discolored blocks, he added, "These look more recent than the rest of the building. They're located below the line of script so they could be well be concealing a doorway."
"Okay, settle there, grasshopper, I'm coming." Strolling over to the ruins, Jack craned his neck and looked behind the wall. "There's nothing but sand on the other side, Daniel. Not much of a room."
"Stairs?" Daniel ran his hands over the discolored wall, pressing it very slightly.
"What are you doing?"
"Just testing the surface for any give."
"And that's a wise thing to do?"
"Probably not, but it feels pretty firm to me. I could use my chisel to try and work one of the blocks loose. It's worth seeing if there is anything behind it."
"It's not worth having the whole place land on our heads though," Jack countered.
Tapping the uppermost block with his chisel, Daniel replied quickly, "Maybe, sure, you're probably right. Look, if I start closest to the top, there should be less chance of bringing the whole wall down. We've come this far, Jack."
"Should? Should be less chance of bringing the wall down?"
"You can't resist the thrill of the find anymore than I can."
"True, but it's the thrill of dying that I'm not fond of."
Laughing softly, Daniel chose to ignore Jack's smart-ass reply, and ran the edge of the fine chisel around the outside edge of the uppermost block. It took some time but finally the compact soil that had been used to bond the blocks together came loose, and with cussing and unorthodox use of their military issue knives, Jack and Daniel maneuvred the top stone out whilst Teal'c gently guided it to the ground.
"Well, we're still here," Jack remarked, peering over Daniel's shoulder. "What can you see?"
Daniel shone his flashlight into the small space, coughing as dust flew around him. "It looks like another wall about three feet away." Wriggling, he tried to push his upper body through the hole but a firm hand dragged him back.
"Daniel, where ya going?"
"Jack! I think there must be stairs below us but there isn't enough room to get a good look. We need to remove another block to get a better view." Daniel refused to meet Jack's stern gaze. He knew Jack wouldn't be pleased.
The second block proved much easier to dislodge than the original and left them with a hole large enough for Daniel to squeeze his upper body through. Jack's firm hand never left his shoulder once and Daniel knew Jack was leaving nothing to chance.
"Stairs!" Daniel exclaimed, shining the flashlight downwards and away from the inner wall. "I can't see how far they go but they are fairly steep."
"Pull back, Daniel, we need to take a break and assess the situation before we go any further."
"Huh? Right, okay, sorry, Jack." The afternoon's activities, combined with the intense heat, had left him drained and tired, and Daniel was happy to take a rest.
-0-
Later that evening Jack relented and gave Daniel the last remaining hours of daylight to tackle the opening. Teal'c moved several of the large fallen blocks in an attempt to create a secondary barrier to support the first. With his gentle strokes, Daniel chiseled around several of the lower pieces, standing back to allow Teal'c and Jack to removed them. "Thanks, guys, this is a huge help!" Daniel said, grinning through his dirt encrusted face. Slowly the staircase revealed itself, allowing Daniel to shine his flashlight down into its depth.
"It must twist away at the bottom. All I can see is wall."
"So this is the point at which you tell me that we have to throw all caution to the wind and take our chances on the stairs."
"Well, Jack, we've made it this far."
"Of course," He sighed.
The staircase was narrow and they had to descend one at a time to navigate in the cramped conditions. Daniel took point and shone his flashlight into the black space ahead, trying to read any writings that might give him some more hints. The trek was less arduous than they first feared, and looking around in amazement, they found themselves in a small room.
Daniel's flashlight beam bounced off the walls and revealed dozens of small clay pots of various shapes and sizes, frozen in time. Shelving decayed over time had collapsed, and taken its precious cargo with it. Others were rubble but some were intact. Jack unclipped his pack, letting it fall to the floor and took out several light sticks, snapping and shaking them till a moderate fluorescent glow lit up the room.
"Wow!" Daniel said softly, looking at the rows of pots, "this is absolutely incredible, Jack." It was obvious, even in their current state that the pots had been meticulously decorated, and as far as he could see, no two pots were the same. Moving over to the nearest shelf, Daniel shone his flashlight closely at the little pots and smiled with delight. "God, who knew?"
Shining the light at one little clay pot with interest, he leaned forward and mouthed the words etched on the rim. A name? A vague memory tickled his mind but before he could remember more, it had gone. Peering inside the small pot, he saw small metal objects woven through wool or some kind of ribbon." "What's this?" he muttered under his breath. The metal was still intact, but the fibers had long disintegrated so just a few remnants remained.
"Daniel?" Jack's said, walking up to the mesmerized archeologist and slapping his back firmly, "still with me, buddy?"
Frowning at the hit and growling, "Yes, thank you for your concern, by the way." Daniel caressed the pot with care, and turning it around, added, "I think these are memorial urns. Definitely Ancient though."
Bouncing on the balls of his feet, looking anxious to leave the burial chamber, Jack asked, "How so?"
"Well, each pot has a name imprinted into the clay and the decorations on each one are different as well. Trinkets have been placed inside, which would seem to suggest that these were made to remember someone." Screwing his face into a thoughtful scowl, he said quietly, "I've seen something like this before but I can't quite place it."
Jack flicked on his own flashlight and held it in Daniel's direction. "So, this is a family crypt then?"
"No, not family, Jack." Daniel sighed and grappled to remember what bothered him. "I think these belong to the villagers that used to live here."
"Okay," Jack shuddered, looking longingly at the exit, "that's just creepy."
"No, these are of varying ages. Whatever happened to these people, it probably took place over a long period of time."
"Disease?"
"No, I'm thinking natural order of life."
"Birth, life, death, that sort of—" Jack's sentence was cut short when the floor tilted slightly.
"What the… Carter, Teal'c, come in." Jack slapped his radio and growled when static was all that could be heard. "Crap, what now? Daniel, pack it up, let's get the hell out of here." Jack shouldered his pack as Daniel ran towards the staircase.
TBC