The Weeping God

The mission to P3R-929 had gone sour almost as soon as they set foot on the rocky, red terrain. The Malp had indicated that the weather was sunny and warm and that there were no life signs in the immediate vicinity. As usual the Malp was wrong, it was partly cloudy and windy.

Despite the fact that the sun shone, the air had a slightly uncomfortable chill to it. And as usual the immediate vicinity was not uninhabited. They were roughly a quarter mile away from the gate when they were attacked. By the time SG1 realized what was happening the natives had circled round their flank effectively cutting them off from the gate.

An hour earlier, Daniel had wandered away from their group to investigate a small outcropping of 'rocks' just NE of their position. Daniel claimed it was the ruins of some sort of ancient structure that reminded him of Aztec architecture.

Initially, Teal'c had accompanied him to the pile of 'rocks' leaving O'Neill with Carter as she prepared to collect and catalog soil samples about 50 yards away.

"Teal'c this is amazing!" Daniel spoke in his quick manner when he tried to explain the importance of a find. "This seems to predate the Aztec civilization on earth by several hundred years..." his voice trailed off as he scribbled furiously in his field journal.

"Teal'c," O'Neill's voice crackled loud over the 2-way.

"O'Neill," Teal'c intoned in his dry, calm way.

"Hey, buddy can you help us down here for a minute, Carter found something. We need your help."

"Very well, O'Neill. Daniel Jackson –"he was cut off by Daniel.

"I heard T, I'll be alright," Daniel said without looking up. He was hunched over his writings mumbling to himself, intent on his own discovery. Teal'c wordlessly moved to rejoin O'Neill and Carter below the outcropping.

Alone now at his work of gently dusting off intricately detailed blocks of stone Daniel stopped. Lifting his head he gazed around him. Something wasn't quite right. He frowned. All along as he was working he could hear faint sounds of the planet around him. But now everything was deathly still. Even the wind has stopped.

'Like the calm before the storm' he mused coming up on one knee and looking in the direction he knew the others to be. He just barely saw the tip of Jack's cap as he walked the perimeter where Teal'c and Sam must have been busy with something on the ground.

"Jack?", Daniel called over the 2-way in a wary voice.

"Daniel."

"Jack…."

"Daniel." Jack waited another beat. "Were you just calling me to hear yourself talk or did you want something."

Impatiently, Daniel spoke through clenched teeth, the hairs on the back of his neck now standing up as if there was a tinge of something electric in the air. "Something's not right."

"What do you mean?" Jack was now alert, giving silent hand signals to Carter and Teal'c to take up defensive positions.

"It's too still-"

"-like the calm before the storm," Jack finished.

How does he do that, he seems to read my mind sometimes, Daniel thought. Shaking his head he looked back over to the southwest of their position towards the Stargate. His archaeological finds forgotten now, Daniel squinted against the sun shining high in the alien sky.

What was that? The sunlight glinted blindingly off of something metal. There was movement beyond that stand of trees- - "Jack! Behind you--" He never finished because at that moment a deafening roar blasted through the eerie silence as weapons fire erupted.

O'Neill, Teal'c and Carter dove for what cover they could and returned rapid fire. A quick assessment of the situation told O'Neill that they were cut off from the gate by ten, maybe fifteen hostiles. From the looks of it they were Jaffa with staff weapons. Was this a carefully laid ambush? How had this happened? The Malp said no lifeforms, for crying out loud!

"Daniel! Get to the gate if you can," Jack bellowed over the din of noise into the 2-way, "Tell Hammond to send reinforcements!" Then switching off his radio he tried to think of any tactical advantage they might have. Besides he didn't have time to argue with Daniel.

Jack, Carter and Teal'c each had 6 units of C4 each. Besides hand grenades. There was a good chance that they could hold their own until Daniel returned with the cavalry. "Carter! You see any way outta here?"

"No sir! They've surrounded us on three sides! The only way to go is up – back above us to Daniel's position! But there's no substantial cover from here to there."

She was right, there were no defendable positions from the rocky plateau where they were pinned down to the ancient building 50 yards above them where Daniel had taken refuge. They would be sitting ducks.

"O'Neill – These Jaffa wear a symbol I have not seen before. They most probably are in the service of a new system lord. One that the Tauri have not as yet encountered."

"Teal'c get to the point" Jack, hissed! Teal'c simply raised an eyebrow.

"They would not be familiar with the tactics and weaponry of the Tauri. I believe they could be rendered momentarily confused by a coordinated volley of grenades and C4 charges. But only for a few seconds."

"It may work, sir! It could be enough to buy us time to reach the structure. We could defend ourselves easily from there." Carter ducked as a staff blast disintegrated rock above them, raining small shards upon them. While they had been speaking the Jaffa had been slowly advancing closer to them. "Whatever we're gonna do, sir, we have to do it now!" Carter shouted.

"Jack! Jack! I can't leave you guys! Come in! Jack!" It was no use – he had switched off his radio. Probably to stop me from arguing with him about leaving! How does he do that? Jack could read Daniel as easily as Daniel could read Goa'uld symbols.The truth was, Jack was probably right. Their only chance was for one of them to get to the gate and send for reinforcements.

Below him, Daniel could see the now obvious armored Jaffa fanning out on the hillside below coming dangerously close to his friends. But they seemed to be holding their own – for now.

Frustrated, Daniel settled back out of sight against the ancient structure to try to think of how to get himself back to the gate and help his teammates. As he leaned back heavily against the flat stone wall his ears registered a barely audible click. With a short gasp he awkwardly plunged into the opening behind the wall which quickly closed itself up again, and Daniel Jackson was gone!

He was falling. For how long he couldn't be sure. This can't be good, he dully reasoned. The longer it takes to reach the ground - Suddenly he could feel himself spinning, bouncing off of solid stone.

With a sickening thud he pitched through the darkness against another stone wall, the breath knocked out of him. It took several long minutes for him to regain his breath again. Finally as his breathing eased slightly, Daniel opened his eyes. It was pitch black here, wherever here was.

He started to get up and immediately regretted the move. Apparently his shoulder had dislocated itself somewhere along the way down. The pain was excruciating. In the darkness he saw stars of pain through tightly closed eyelids. Again his breathing came rapidly and he thought he was going to pass out. No, he gasped to himself, I've got to get help!

Willing himself to stay focused, Daniel propped himself up against the wall and with his uninjured arm searched the front of his pack. He had learned a long time ago to pack the painkillers in the front of his pack for easy access.

Afraid to take anything stronger than Tylenol, Daniel saved the morphine for later. Right now he needed a clear head to find a way out. Quickly downing four pills, he shakily made it to his feet and thought about the morphine again. I can do this, he thought.

The sounds of the battle outside had disappeared and Daniel could faintly make out the outline of stone steps that he had the misfortune of falling down. Probably a good 30 feet he decided, the last twelve of those feet crumbling away. It's a wonder I didn't break my neck. No way am I getting back up that way.

Using his flashlight Daniel determined that he had fallen into a deep underground cavern. Probably a natural occurrence, but someone had added to it by extending a series of manmade tunnels leading off to, as of yet, unknown destinations. Shining his light down several of them didn't help because they were too long to determine how far they went or where they ended.

Deciding that the only way to find out was to pick one and follow it, Daniel chose the one heading roughly downhill and he hoped, back towards his friends. Moving a little unsteadily he made his way as quickly as possible through the tunnel.

Maybe there's another secret entrance somewhere near the Stargate, he reasoned. Here goes nothing.

"GO!" O'Neill screamed at Carter and Teal'c, taking up their rear. The ploy had worked, now they only had seconds to carry out the rest of the plan to get to the structure before the Jaffa recovered. Near as he could count they had taken out four or five, that left about eight hostiles to deal with. Not bad odds, he thought. We can take 'em.

As he made his way up the rocky terrain covering their six he wondered if Daniel had made any progress.

"Daniel Jackson is not here O'Neill."

"What?" O'Neill briefly turned his head to look at Teal'c. "He probably found a way to the gate." Good that meant reinforcements.

"I don't think so, sir!" Carter said pointing to something on the ground. "Something must have happened. His glasses." That wasn't a good sign. Daniel wouldn't go anywhere without his glasses. Mainly because he couldn't see without them. Not very well anyway.

"O'Neill. Something has indeed occurred here." Jack could see lines of concern etched on the Jaffa's brow. O'Neill winced and his belly did a back flip. Aw, Daniel! Where are you?

Daniel could feel himself getting weaker by the minute. Probably going into shock, he thought. Gotta keep it together just a little while longer, he lied to himself. Just until I get to the end of the tunnel then I can rest up a bit.

Stumbling suddenly Daniel fell hard on the rough earthen floor. Unable to brace himself fully his head struck hard against the rocky surface of the cavern. Crying out in pain and anger at himself for losing his footing he put out his good hand against the wall and felt something that made his blood run cold.

Daniel jerked back reflexively against the tunnel, forgetting his injured shoulder momentarily. He hastened to shine his light on the object. A leg! Not just a leg a whole body! As he shone the light upward at the figure he realized it wasn't moving.

From his vantage point on the floor Daniel could see that it was a very impressive statue of a man. A warrior from the way he seemed to be dressed. The man/statue was human in appearance. The hair was long and dark, the skin well tanned, and the body muscular although stiff to the touch.

The attired figure reminded the archaeologist of Earth's ancient Aztec people. So this definitely was a Goa'uld inhabited planet at one time. How else could the people have arrived here? He studied the figure carefully, the face was kind, almost sad. It definitely wasn't a mummy. It was too well preserved for that. They had visited other planets before where local works of art had seemed very lifelike indeed.

The man was young, Daniel thought, probably in his early 30's. It looked so real - had felt real when he touched it. Could this be a real person in some kind of suspended animation? Surely not, he reasoned. For that you would need sophisticated machinery, a power source, a capsule/container of some sort to hold the body and protect

it from the environment. There were no such things here. Only this very lifelike statue partially hidden in the tunnel wall.

Grunting loudly, Daniel hauled himself up to a standing position. He had wasted enough time. He needed to find a way to the gate. Dizziness and nausea assaulted him as his injured shoulder demanded his full attention. Not to mention that spill he took a moment ago had his head throbbing in time with his shoulder. He took a faltering step.

I've been in worse situations before, Daniel thought, I just have to keep going. There's got to be another way out of here.

Several yards down, Daniel came to a dead end. "No! This can't be it!" he cried out desperately, fighting off another wave of dizziness. Daniel stretched his hand out over the surface of the wall searching for any hidden levers.

Pressing and pulling on the rugged surface of the wall he suddenly realized he was drenched in sweat. He also hadn't noticed that the air was much thinner now that he was further back in the cavern.

Dropping to his knees, he was only dimly aware of strong arms cradling him and guiding him gently to the ground as his world completely blacked out.