Disclaimer: As usual, the characters and settings do not belong to us and we will try to do justice to their creators.
This is my translation of a fanfic written in French with my friend Marion and this is our first stargate fanfic, so please be indulgent…
We are eager for yours comments, you can contact us at marion.c@frisoo.freesurf.fr and egwene@caramail.com.
The action takes place sometime during season 5 (so Daniel is not « dead » yet).
Chapter 1Daniel et Jack were sitting in the mess having breakfast; they were discussing their last mission, on planet P5X 352, where they had discovered fascinating ruins, at least according to Daniel.
"I assure you, Jack, this is a major discovery!"
"I am not saying I don't believe you Daniel, but you have a slight tendency to say the exact same thing each time we find a rock with some inscription on it!
I just can't see why these ruins are so special."
"They are the proof that…"
Jack turned out of the conversation just as every time Daniel or Sam went in long and complicated explanations instead of keeping it to the bare essentials.
He broke into Daniel's speech.
"Do you think I should take some vacation?"
"What?" Daniel asked, as he didn't understand what could be the link between Jack's vacation and the Phoenician ruins he had been enthusiastically talking about for ten minutes.
"Vacation. I'm due for several days off, but I'm not quite sure."
"Why?"
"Simple, every time I take a single day off, the Asgards or the Goa'uld, or the Tok'ra find a good reason to get me back, something like *you have to save the world once more… bla bla bla."
"Well, the world looks all right for the time being, I think we will be able to do without you for a few days," Daniel answered without much conviction, he couldn't figure out where this sudden need of vacation had come from.
"Ah! That's exactly what you say each time!" He sipped his coffee.
"Maybe you should talk it over with General Hammond…"
Before Jack could answer, the alarm went off and the two SG1 members hurried to the gate room, wondering what could have triggered the alert.
When they arrived, Sam was already there, sitting in front of the control panel, trying to find out who was trying to get through the stargate.
General Hammond stood behind her and looked worried.
"No SG unit was scheduled to return today."
"I am receiving an identification code. It's the Tok'ra."
"Open the iris."
"Yes, sir."
Teal'c arrived as the sergeant was opening the iris.
"What's going on?"
"Our dear friends the Tok'ra have come to say hello. They are gonna be disappointed to learn we have no more mother ship to lend them," Jack answered bitterly before adding for Daniel: "I told you so!"
Daniel shrugged his shoulders in response and SG1 went down to the stargate to greet their Tok'ra visitor.
They were standing in front of the access ramp when a man walked through the gate. He moved to meet General Hammond.
"Good day, my name is Malek, " he said with his Tok'ra voice.
The General ordered his men to lower their weapons and welcome the newcomer.
They were all disappointed their visitor wasn't Jacob for they had not seen him in a long time and he was the only Tok'ra they all felt comfortable with.
"It's a great honor to finally meet you, Colonel O'Neill," he said, shaking hands with Jack.
"Yep. The feeling isn't mutual. And it's not going to improve when you tell us why you are here."
"Colonel!"
General Hammond didn't appreciate the attitude of his subaltern towards their Tok'ra allies, event if he knew there was nothing he could do about it.
"Maybe we could discuss this in a quieter place."
"Yes, sure, come with me, please," Sam offered, motioning for their guest to follow her.
They led their visitor to the briefing room. Once they were all seated, they looked up at Malek, inviting him to reveal the reasons for his presence.
"I don't quite know how to say this, but… Selmak has disappeared. I'm sorry, major."
The news was a shock to everybody, especially for Sam.
"What do you mean, disappeared? The Tok'ra can do many thinks, but they don't just disappear, that I know! " Jack had stood up without even knowing it. He sat back, asking Malek for explanations.
"We don't know much, Selmak was doing some research on planet Suban last week. He was supposed to come back two days ago, but we have not received any news from him. I went there myself to look for him, but the research site was empty and there was no sign of him on the planet."
"What kind of research?" Daniel was curious to know what could be so interesting on planet Suban.
Chapter 2"It's about a temple, built as a Goa'uld temple, but all the writings inside are in the Ancients' language. Selmak was supposed to translate them and to understand what had happened on that planet."
"And he was alone on such a mission?" the General asked.
"What General Hammond wants to know, is why you have left him alone on a rather insecure planet! Are you sure, it wasn't occupied by our favorite enemies?" Hammond glared at Jack.
"He went with three other Tok'ra. They have also disappeared."
"What are you expecting from us exactly? " Sam broke in.
"There are not enough of us to go and look for them. Besides, Selmak was the most able to translate the inscriptions but we think Dr Jackson has a good chance to succeed. We haven't found any notes that could help you."
"General, authorization to leave for a mission on Suban ?" Sam asked after getting up.
"First we have to send a probe and Malek will give us every information he can. Then I will give you my answer."
After having noted the coordinates of the planet, General Hammond went down and gave his orders to the officer in charge of the gate, then he came back to join SG1 who was listening with great attention to what Malek was explaining.
One hour later, the probe was sent and they were able to discover the first images.
Nobody appeared on the screen. On the right of the gate, there was the edge of a forest, in front there was a great green meadow, and on the left a huge lake. Behind the water, mountains could be seen and in the far background a pyramid.
The analyses showed that the planet was viable for humans.
After a brief moment of thought, the General gave his decision.
"All right SG1, you are leaving in two hours, your mission is to find out what happened to Jacob and the three other Tok'ras. Dismissed."
The four members of the team left to get ready without a word, after a nod in Malek's direction.
"Thank you General. Now with you permission I'm going back to inform them of your decision. We will make contact soon to keep in touch. If we have more information we will get it to you without delay."
Two hours later, Sam Daniel and Teal'c were standing in the gate room. Behind the glass, they could see General Hammond. Daniel was speaking with Teal'c about the major discoveries they were about to make. Sam was a little farther ahead, waiting for departure with visible impatience. At that point, the Colonel showed up.
"Ready for new adventures! Let's save the world once more!"
"Colonel, this is a search and rescue mission for someone important to us. I want to hear from you every 24 hours and you're supposed to come back in 5 days at the most. Good luck."
They formed a group around the robot that transported some equipment and food and waited for the gate to open. They walked through without a look for the men staying behind.
On the other side, they assumed battle positions and checked to see if the surroundings were secured. Once reassured, they put on their equipment and hid the robot. They left in the direction of the pyramid.
"This is going to be a two hours' walk, I think," Sam informed them.
"Stay alert, we don't know what to expect," Jack pointed out.
They left without a word, Teal'c in front, Daniel behind, watching everything intensively, the two soldiers closing the row.
Everything was calm, the weather was sunny, and a light wind blew. Some birds could be heard as they made their way through the large meadow.
The grass was very high, almost up to their chest. They were following a path, others had been that way recently.
At about one kilometer from the pyramid, Jack broke the silence.
"When we arrive there, we will inspect the place with caution. If everything is OK, Teal'c and Daniel will care for the translation while Sam and I will look at the surroundings. No time to waste."
Nobody had anything to add and the walk ended as it had started, in silence.
When they arrived, Daniel was already marveling at everything he was seeing but the three soldiers were on their guard.
"Come, Daniel. You will be able to get to work once we have made sure there are none of our snaky friends."
They entered the pyramid and what they saw made them stop.
Chapter 3In front of them, they saw a large and narrow corridor leading to the center of the pyramid, on each side large stone columns were supporting the building. There was no opening to let the light through and the gallery was quickly sinking into threatening darkness. Although the internal and external architecture was of Goa'uld facture, that pyramid didn't look like anything they knew. The columns' height and the corridor's length were far beyond what they could have imagined from the outside.
From the meadow, the pyramid appeared to be small and the members of SG1 had thought they would have visited it all in an hour at the most. But now they were inside, days or rather weeks seemed more like an appropriate evaluation. And each stone was covered with text in the Ancient's' language. There was no blank space left as far as they could see in the shadow.
When they got passed the initial amazement, Colonel O'Neill was the first to talk.
"Huh, Major, I don't quite remember, but, did Malek tell us about something like that?"
"No, I don't think so, sir."
"Another surprise gift from our friends the Tok'ra! Teal'c, can you see the end of the tunnel, or even the ceiling?"
"No, O'Neill, I cannot."
"It's surely several hundred meters long," Daniel said, as he was closing in the columns and the wall behind to examine the inscriptions.
"Daniel, stay here. We are still trying to find out what happened to Jacob and if we have to face a Goa'uld threat!" Jack infuriated. He admired Daniel's enthusiasm for his work but he would have sometimes liked him to be more careful when they arrived on a new planet.
"What? Yes, coming, Daniel answered, taking back his place between Teal'c and Sam.
"Do you have any idea on the purpose of this temple?" Sam asked curiously, she had also given an intrigued look to the inscriptions.
"Nope. You Teal'c?"
"I don't recognize that kind of temple, I have never seen its like. It is hard to guess its use, Daniel Jackson."
The four members of SG1 decided it would be wiser to do a reconnaissance of the whole pyramid and secure the place before getting interested in the inscriptions, so they walked in, following the only way, with only the light of the torches they had brought with them.
After an hour of striding in an anguishing half darkness, they hadn't gained anything, nothing allowed them to know if they were any closer to the center of the pyramid or if the corridor went on like this for many kilometers. The walls and columns were identical to the ones they had seen at the entrance of the temple, there was no special sign to offer them a mark point, nothing could help them make out different parts in the text.
"Jack, let's face the facts, we can't go on like that!" Daniel said, stopping.
The other members of the team came to a halt and turned to Jack.
"Daniel is right, Colonel, we have to make a camp at the entrance of the pyramid and start studying the text over there."
Teal'c nodded.
"Alright."
Jack followed the general opinion, even though he wasn't so sure about the absence of the Goa'uld.
It was getting obvious that continuing blindly would lead to nothing. And the whole team turned back. Once they had made a half turn, they could not see the door though which they had come in, but they had no doubt on the path to take because the corridor hadn't made any bend or fork and the exit was to be in front of them.
But, after another hour of walking, they were not any closer. And they did not seem to have made any progress because they could not see any light in front of them.
They stopped as Daniel wanted to catch his breath and have a sip of water.
"Maybe it's already night and we are not far, Sam offered.
Or maybe not. Thought she had not said it, her friends heard her doubts. And worry spread through the team.
"I don't get it. We have walked about an hour in one way, and then another hour in the opposite way but we have not come back to our starting point."
"Thanks Daniel for these useful details."
"No need to get upset, Jack. I have only a simple question, it may be stupid, but where are we?"
Chapter 4
"I have no idea, Daniel Jackson", Teal'c answered, with his usual calm, "but, whatever is happening to us might have happened to Jacob and the other Tok'ra."
"That would mean they are still within the walls of this infernal pyramid! So, in fact, they may not have been caught by the Goa'uld!"
"Maybe not, but this place is still very strange. It may be some kind of trap, or prison, or…"
"Don't you have any cheerful thoughts, Carter? Daniel, you could look if you understand something in what's written here. You keep a torch, we will switch the others off to save the batteries."
Daniel nodded to the colonel and turned to the nearest columns, he started to examine the writings. Sam joined him. Teal'c and Jack faced each a side of the corridor to check on the possible arriving of a Goa'uld or whoever else.
For nearly two hours, nobody spoke a word, the silence being broken from time to time by Daniel mumbling. He had taken out his notebook and was taking a lot of notes, checking on the papers he had brought about the Ancient language. Then he went across the passage and got interested in the column opposite to the one he had just been deciphering.
"You have read everything already?" the Colonel asked with surprise.
Daniel didn't bother to answer and went to the column on his left.
Sam and Jack watched him, looking questioningly at each other.
Teal'c turned to them, raised an eyebrow and them turned back to face the corridor and continue on his watch. Daniel was moving from a column to another, crouching or getting up, limiting his area of research to the six closest to their improvised camp. After fifteen minutes of this game, Jack lost his calm.
"Daniel, are you going to tell us what you have found?"
"That's extraordinary! If you only read one column you can't understand the text. In fact, instead of two words, there is sometimes a group of three signs like here and there. " He showed them two marks on one of the stones.
"They send us back to another part of the text. I think one of them indicates the stone we have to look at, one gives you the number of columns you have to count and one tells you if you must move over to the other side of the corridor."
"And I suppose you have found out the code…"
"Not yet, but I'm making progress." And he showed Jack a page from his notebook he had been writing on. Sam and Teal'c moved to get closer to them to have a look.
"You see, that sign means two, that one means one and that last is ahead. You can read it here," he explained as he was showing them a part of the text.
"How do you know if you have to move to the left or to the right? And is it the first number or the second that indicates the column?" Sam asked with interest.
"I don't know yet, I only have to try all the combinations to see where the text means something."
"Well, do it and let us know if you find something."
"I'll take back the watch, Colonel."
Daniel went back to his texts, Jack sat down, his back to a column as Teal'c and Sam watch each a side of the corridor.
Another hour went by in silence when suddenly.
"That's it! " the archeologist exclaimed.
Jack who had fallen asleep startled, Sam left her post to join Daniel.
"The three pieces of information are not always in the same order. The number for the column is either first and then you have to move to the left, or last and you move to the right, the number for the stone is always in the middle."
"So the last sign indicates if you have to change sides. If I understand correctly this one, I have to read the second stone on the first column to the left and the text goes on there," Sam marveled showing the first line on the stone in question.
"Almost. In fact, on each stone, there are just a few lines that give information. There are written in larger characters. Then you have to start here."
"And what did you understand from all this gibberish?"
"Well I haven't transcribed everything yet but it seems this place is some king of temporal trap for…"
"Excuse me Daniel Jackson, but we are going to have some company."
The members of SG1 made silence and they could hear the footsteps of someone coming in their direction. They were waiting with fear, looking towards what should have been the entrance of the pyramid. After five minutes, a shape appeared.