Stargate : SG1 : Weapon of the ancients

Chapter 1: Recruiting the kids

Colonel Jack O'Neill looked at the new faces sitting in front of him. 'Way to young', he thought to himself, he never liked being in the front of a large crowd of people, but it was orders, General Hammond's orders.

"So as you all know, I'm here to tell you about what your duties inside this facility, the SGC."

One kid put his hand up, and didn't wait for O'Neill to pick.

"Sir, is it true that you were one of the first people to go through the stargate?"

O'Neill sighed. "Too fast kid"

"Yes and no, but your jumping into this way too fast, kid"

The boy looked embarrassed

"Sorry, sir"

O'Neill continued

"As you all know, you were recruited directly from the academy to work in this facility that is hidden inside Cheyenne Mountain complex. The SGC. What we do here is above top secret. It is more classified than… the most classified thing"

"Sir, how can this be more classified than the most classified..."

"…..shut up. Now as you know 70 years ago, archaeologists in Egypt discovered an object in the desert…."

"Sir, we already know the history of the stargate…"

"…..shut up. Its standard procedure I have to tell you about it. Now as I was saying, at first they didn't know what the hell it was but after some hard research blah,blah,blah……"

There was a sound of someone clearing his throat. The recruits looked around, but O'Neill knew exactly who it had been and exactly where he was. A figure emerged from the dark corners of the room. He was young and wore glasses, his brown hair was untidy, and his eyes darting backwards and forwards surveying the group, and then finally turning his eyes to O'Neill. The recruits turned around and O'Neill could see the shocked expressions on some of their faces, the others, who had looks of confusion on their faces, obviously had no idea who this stranger was. They had not known that the he had been standing there, but of course O'Neill knew. His acute senses, that had saved his life so many times in the battlefield, had told him that Daniel had been standing there ever since they had started. One of the younglings, around nineteen, looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

"You're…you're….you're Daniel Jackson!!!"

Daniel smiled kindly at the boy.

O'Neill smirked, "Boy is he enjoying this."

Daniel looked up at O'Neill.

"Well, where were we Jack? Oh yeah, you were talking about the amount research that went into finding out what the object was." He smirked.

"Oh of course, that was his problem." O'Neill looked back at Daniel, unblinking. Finally he broke his gaze and turned back to the recruits.

"..As I was saying, lots of time was put into the research of the object, Dr. Daniel Jackson here, who practically led the whole thing (O'Neill turned to Daniel and smiled widely), was doing the bulk of the hard work. In other words this is the man that unlocked the secrets of the stargate"

Many of the recruits turned around again to look at Daniel. O'Neill knew that they had a new found respect for the man in the back of the classroom.

"Aww, come one Jack, you don't have to put it that way" Daniel went slightly red.

"Oh yes I do, after all if it wasn't for you, I would still be in retirement, living a happy life."

A bunch of the kids sniggered

Daniel kept smiling, but there was a glint of menace in his eyes

"Well, you should continue with your ramblings colonel O'Neill, while I go and study some ancient artifacts."

With that he left the room, closing the door with a thud behind him.

"Geez...it was only a joke… never mind"

"Well, as I was saying, eventually they found out a way to activate the object, and we have come a long way since then." O'Neill looked around at the recruits. One of the recruits, a tall blonde boy, who had a long pointed nose, lifted his hand.

"Oh god please no….please no." Hoping that it was not the one question he had been dreading, O'Neill pointed at the boy.

"Yes"

"Sir, what exactly is the stargate?"

Some of the know-it-alls looked at him in horror, but that horror was nothing to what was going on inside O'Neill's head.

"GODAMMIT!! WHY????WHY???WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THAT??"

"Well…um…yes…um…..well the stargate is a ……it's a …umm….."

"…..Its gate to other worlds"

O'Neill looked towards the door in surprise. Standing in its frame was a woman. In her late twenties, she was beautiful; she had short blonde hair, and was wearing SGC uniform. She was smiling at the recruit. 'How come I didn't hear her opening the door…never mind'

"Ah! Recruits may I introduce to you, Major Samantha Carter of SG1"

The recruits turned they're heads, but none turned back to O'Neill, until he cleared his throat.

"Thank you, sir." She smiled at O'Neill

"No problem"

"Sir, I just wanted to tell you that the general wants us to visit p2x-309 tomorrow at 06:00 hours, he also wants us to take our sunglasses and sun tan with us"

'Oh god just what I need, another damn mission, and at 6 o'clock in the morning?? I have a hard time getting up at 10 in the morning!!!.' O'Neill gulped

"That's a joke right?"

"Sir?"

"The sunglasses and sunscreen part?"

"Oh no sir! P2x 309 is right near a star that emits harmful infra red waves, which can damage your skin, ideally sunscreen wouldn't be enough because of the harmful effects of the rays and the…."

"….Carter!!!"

"Oh yes, sorry sir."

"Now scoot along so I can continue with my classes"

"Of course, sir"

She smiled and left the room, the door closed with a thud.

O'Neill walked through the corridor, the smell of tuna wafted towards him from the cafeteria, and his stomach ached. He hadn't had any food since an hour ago, and the scent was torturing him. He turned a corner and walked right into Carter.

"Oh sorry sir"

"Ah, don't worry about it"

"Actually, sir, I was searching for you"

"Searching? For me? And exactly why would you be searching for me?"

"Daniel wants to talk to you"

"Oh what is it now?"

"It's pretty important, sir, I recommend you…"

"…yeah, yeah fine whatever"

Carter turned around and O'Neill followed. 'What the hell does Daniel want with me? Oh well, Jack, whatever it is, prepare to be bored to death.'

They stopped in front of the elevator doors. O'Neill pressed the button and waited for the doors to slide open.

"So, sir, how's the fishing going?"

"Sorry?"

"Still no fish in the pond, sir?"

"Ah, yes. No"

"Oh"

"How's Pete doing?"

"Good, sir."

"Good."

The door slid open, revealing the metallic interior of the elevator and a bunch of people. They both entered. Carter pressed a button and the doors silently slid shut in front of them. The elevator began to rise up. O'Neill looked around at the familiar faces around him. 'God, this silence is awkward.' he shuffled his feet a bit and cleared his throat. Carter turned around and looked at him.

"So, Carter, what exactly did Daniel want to show me?"

"It's a surprise, sir." She smiled

"Carter, you know Daniel's idea of a surprise would be something extremely boring and time consuming."

"No sir, I'm sure you'll find this interesting"

"Right"

The door slid open and they stepped out. O'Neill followed carter along the way to Daniel's office. They turned right through the corridor and walked towards an open door at the end. Light was shining through the half open door. They could hear voices coming from inside. Carter it open and walked inside followed by O'Neill. The room was not spacious; it was cluttered with artifacts, some looked strangely alien, and others familiar. There were a number of stone tablets piled up carefully on one side of the room, on top of a table. Next to them was a large hourglass whose sand had long since collected in a neat pile at the bottom. There were two men sitting at either end of the table, neither could see each other because of hourglass, but they had been talking. One of them, the young man with the untidy hair, looked up from a piece of paper that he had been reading on his lap and smiled as the two entered. The other man, a tall, muscular man, with a strange golden tattoo on his forehead, had seemed to be staring at the hour glass, looked up as well. Daniel spoke first.

"Hello, Jack, I'm guessing Sam told you?"

"Yeah, she told me there was something that you wanted to show me, that's all."

Daniel looked at carter.

"Thank you for not giving away my surprise, Sam."

"Don't worry about it." She smiled

"So, what is it Daniel?" O'Neill was starting to get frustrated.

"Oh yes, hang on a sec." He stood up and walked to the other end of the room, and started to look through a pile of books. That was when the big, muscular man spoke.

"Hello O'Neill, it is good it see you again."

"Good to see you too, Teal'c, old buddy, how was your vacation on Chulak?"

"It was uneventful, O'Neill, but I was glad to see that R'yac was learning much under Bra'tac."

"Ah! Bra'tac! How's the old guy?"

"He is well, O'Neill."

"And I'm sure R'yac doing well."

"He is, O'Neill, thank you for asking."

"No problem." O'Neill gave Teal'c a huge grin, which Teal'c, only half heartedly returned.

"Ah! Here it is!" Daniel turned around from the pile of books, holding something that looked (O'Neill sighed) very, very boring. A tablet of sorts was clutched in his, dusty hands. Daniel walked back to his seat and sat down.

"This is an artifact that we found at p3x-567."

O'Neill looked at the tablet as memories started to flood back into his mind. They had discovered an ancient city on that planet. It had been abandoned thousands and thousands of years ago.

"Didn't you say that thing was…."

"…..um, yes a tablet with ancient writing on it, that's exactly what it is, I've been trying for a few days to decode what it says, and I've progressed a lot."

"Just get to the damn surprise Daniel."

"Um, yeah, well I've managed to figure out that the writing on this tablet is in fact..." Daniel looked very serious, "...instructions."

There was a silence. They were all looking at Daniel with blank expressions on their faces. O'Neill felt anger slowly rise up.

"BIG DEAL!! We've seen tons of tablets with instructions on them, what makes this so important, huh? You wasted 10 minutes of my life to tell me that an old block of stone has a bunch of instructions on it??" O'Neill turned to Carter.

"I told you! You said I'd like it! But no, you just had to go and…."

"..Jack!! Just listen to me; you haven't heard all of it." Daniel sounded hurt.

"Well, what?"

"The tablet doesn't have just any old instructions on it, its… instructions to something important."

"Something important?? Like what's for dinner?"

"No Jack I'm serious. The nature of the way these symbols were written tells me that this tablet is very important, more important than usual."

"Get on with it."

"It's supposed to be instructions on how to find an object. I don't know what it is, I still have to translate three quarters more of the tablet, but I think it's an object of immense power, some sort of weapon, maybe? I don't know like I said, I still have a lot to translate. "

"You're saying that this tablet tells us instructions on how to find a weapon?" Carter looked dumbfounded. Teal'c looked at her and nodded.

"Apparently it is something of great power; maybe we could use it to vanquish Anubis once and for all."

Anubis. The name rang like a bell in O'Neill's head. Anubis, a half ascended being, was a Goa'uld of immense power. He had once been a part of the goa'uld system lords, but his practices had been so vile that even a group as evil as the goa'uld system lords decided to get rid of him. He was then exiled, but eventually he tricked an ascended ancient called Oma-desala, into helping him ascend. After Oma realized her mistake she tried to correct it, she tried to descend him, but something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Now Anubis wore a black cloak and a transparent shield over his face to protect his body and keep it in place. His base was located on the planet Tartarus. His fortress, heavily fortified, but worst of all, he had the knowledge of the ancients, knowledge that he had gained as an ascended being.

"Yes, that would give us an advantage over Anubis." Carter replied.

"But he DOES have knowledge of the ancients, which probably means he already knows about the weapon" Daniel said.

"No, I doubt that. The ancients most likely forgot about the whole thing." O'Neill replied. Everyone looked at him.

"What?"

"If this weapon had been so powerful, I doubt the ancients would have forgotten about it." Carter speculated

"Maybe they stored it and forgot about it, because it was too powerful for them to handle." Daniel said looking back at the stone tablet.

" No, that's impossible, the ancients were a highly developed civilization, far superior to our own, I don't think they would be stupid enough to create something that they wouldn't be able to control, unless something had gone wrong, while building the actual weapon." Carter scoffed.

"You have a point, Major Carter." Teal'c interjected.

There was a slight rumbling noise. Everyone turned and looked at O'Neill.

"I told you I was hungry." He said apologetically, "and if you don't mind I'm going to go to the cafeteria and help myself to some apple pie, who's with me?"