Author's Notes:
I had just seen Meridian and was feeling more than a bit upset; to meet a kid with a name meaning 'life' was not a coincidence ...
Here you will find the results of a little mental-health session playing with hieroglyphs at the British Museum. I don't know Stargate too well, but when I get a character sitting in my head talking with me (I got ascended Daniel who kept hovering about in the Great Court) I listen to what they are saying ... I always meet lots of young people when I am in the Egyptian Galleries and I usually end up helping with their homework rather than my own stuff ... That day I met a young lady called Zoe and we wrote out her name both in phonetic hieroglyphs and as an ankh, the sign for 'life'. I have to point out I only borrowed her name and dress for this story though, she was very healthy and not ill at all I am glad to say.
o0O O0o
"There now, steady love, so few come and don't go
Will you, won't you, be the one I'll always know
When I'm losing my control, the city spins around
You're the only one who knows, you slow it down"
The Fray – Look After You
o0O O0o
Where Jack came from in Minnesota they would call it raining cats and dogs. Here in England he wasn't sure what they called it but he was sure they were more used to it than he was. Wasn't it always supposed to be raining here though?
It had certainly been grey and wet all the way from the Airbase at RAF Lakenheath where he had spent most of last night remnicing with old buddies at a reunion. They were based with 48th Fighter Wing, also known as the Statue Liberty Wing, and he'd gone up in one of their F15s yesterday and was quite impressed. He had drunk too much if he admitted it too, he was getting too old for this. At least the journey today, in a chauffeured car put on to get to where he was going next, had given him time to sober up, eat a couple of power bars and catch a nap. Today he had to address a bunch of archaeologists, of all things, at a conference in London.
o0O O0o
After Daniel had done his thing with Oma Desala Jack had spoken to General Hammond and requested that SG1 be kept on active duty. He had hoped the rest of his team would be able to work through what they were feeling and the continuity would help. He was wrong.
Major Carter he found had taken it the worst, not saying anything but looking at him with eyes that told of grief and a sense of betrayal. In moments alone she would voice those feelings and Jack would walk away. Teal'c was silent as ever, but obviously watching the Colonel and from that Jack could tell the Jaffa was preoccupied. This was not good. In the end he'd grudgingly gone and spoken to General Hammond saying that he was concerned the attitude of his two team members could possibly affect their ability function as a team. The General was sympathetic but due to the heavy workload unable to suggest much. He told everyone they had to spend time with the base's psychologists, and this was mandatory. He also told Jack they could have a week down-time but that was all. It was the best he could offer .
So, Sam was ensconced in her lab and Teal'c had gone off-world to see his family in the Land of Light. Jack had shaken the dust of his feet at the first opportunity and rather than heading for his cabin in the woods had jumped on a transport heading for Washington and ultimately the Airbase in Suffolk in the UK. He was happy to be able to catch up with friends, to affirm his contact with life. The work with the SGC kept him busy and unable to do to reunions as often as he would like.
He also had another job to do. At the request of General Hammond he was to speak to he World Egyptology Congress which this year was basing itself in London. They had yet to be given the, carefully sanitised, reason for the USAF being involved with the events surrounding at Daniel's Professor's death. Jack was going to give them official cock and bull story and was taking some of Daniel's notes on the artefacts from the Steward Expedition as an offering of good will. Tonight he would take a plane out of Heathrow and would be back on duty at the SGC tomorrow. It had been nice to have a break.
o0O O0o
'Welcome to London Colonel!' said the man with the very British accent who had opened the car door. Jack woke from his nap to find his ride had driven out of the London traffic into the forecourt of a very large imposing building. This must be the British Museum. He was moved out of the rain, carrying his coat and bags, to under what looked rather like a larger version of the portico of the Greek temple they had found on P1X-373 recently.
'I'm David Harrison,' the museum guy told him as he was hurried through the museum entrance and then out into an area which was much larger and lighter and obviously at the centre of the building.
'Nice to meet you, then,' Jack said prepared to do the diplomacy thing as he had to, and then, 'wow ...' It was like an open square in here, vast and wide with something was keeping the rain off them. When he looked up he saw a high glass roof made of lots of interlocking glass panes above them.
'Nice isn't it?' Harris said looking pleased that their museum had made an impact this early, 'impressive what you can do with an area that once held library stacks hmm?'
Jack turned round with a crease of misunderstanding on his face. 'What d'ya mean?' he said looking back at the plaza which was obviously the centre of the museum and had information desks and, as he looked further, cafes at the back.
'Before the British Library moved up the road to Euston this is where we used to store the books,' the man told him smiling, 'in the 1990s we ripped all that out and replaced it with this in time for the Millennium. The reading room is still here of course, that's the round structure in the middle,' he nodded in its direction. ' We couldn't knock that down could we as people want to come here and see where Marx wrote Das Kapital ...' he added.
The look on the man's face told Jack that he was heading into the territory of British irony. The Colonel realised he was probably about to be saved however when someone else, a woman who moved busily across the courtyard to join them. She wore little nerd glasses and reminded him a little of of High Councillor Travell from Tollana.
'Colonel O'Neill, I'm Professor Lucy Barrett,' she said, using titles Jack noticed. He could have told you she was a nit-picker from her body language and having a military man around the place probably had thrown her off kilter - she was trying to prove it hadn't though. Less like Councillor Travell than he thought then ... She extended her hand and he took it recognising her name as that of of his liaison here, the organiser of the conference.
'Nice to meet ya,' he said as he spotted Harris had picked up his bags and coat.
'David will put your things in my office,' the Professor, told him, 'my secretary will can look after then and they will be safe there. The opening address is about to start, if you would like to follow me,' she said.
Jack raised a hand to stop things. 'Sure, I just need something out of there if you don't mind,' he said bending down to retrieve the case that Harris had just placed back on the floor. He took out the slip case holding Daniel's notes and returned the bag to the other man. Then he headed off following the professor, carrying the notes held to his chest in front of him. He probably wouldn't need them until later but no-one was going to look after them for him.
o0O O0o
An hour and a half later the conference broke for coffee and Colonel O'Neill was desperately feeling the need for escape. Being here in his Dress Blues in the middle of this geek crowd full of woolly pullovers and cord pants was making him feel most uncomfortable. He had managed to shake Professor Barrett thankfully and it was Harris who was looking after him again now.
'Uh, David, Buddy,' Jack said conversationally as they made their way to join the drinks queue, 'I though as I'm not needed for the next session I'd get some air ...'
The museum guy looked at him brightly. 'I could get someone to show you around if you like,' he offered looking sympathetic. He was sure the Air Force Colonel was very likely to be having problems with the subjects he found fascinating. The officer was being most polite to put up with all this waiting. Jack waved his hands and shook his head.
'Its okay, but thanks, ' he replied, 'ya know, I'm a big boy now. I'm not gonna to go far and I'm sure I can find my way back here by the time I'm needed.'
The museum guy nodded and smiled was almost immediately set upon by another of the guests asking questions. Jack made good his escape. He got himself upstairs out of the subterranean lecture hall (which the last speaker had told them had been created in more ex-library stack space under the Reading Room) and went to go buy himself a bottle of water from the cafe in the Great Court.
Nice here isn't it, Jack? the cheerful voice in his head told him as he sat down for a moment and taking a swig looking about him. It was very quiet today, midweek in February, with not so many tourists around.
'Yes, Daniel, I suppose it is,' he said nodding to himself. Since the archaeologist had gone all glowy he'd been having these conversations with himself in his head. It wasn't Daniel of course, but he supposed it was his way of keeping his friend close to him. The younger man would have loved to be here, begging to accompany Jack on his trip so he could spend the day looking at the exhibits and talk with his peers. 'I just can't keep comparing this architecture to the stuff some of the planets we've visited though,' Jack added looking around at the marble walls and polished floor, 'or stop myself wondering if that attendant over there,' it was the one who is giving him an evil look, 'is gonna suddenly get glowing eyes and start talking in Gou' ald.'
The voice in his head chuckled. You're going to have to do better than that, Jack ... it said goading.
O'Neill nodded and got up, 'Okay then Daniel, how about this then, Buddy?' he hunted about in his head to find some Egyptian poetry to quote. That was another way of keeping his friend near to him as Daniel had read poetry to him on their nights together at his house. He may have been a seasoned soldier but hearing this lover reading the old words did something to Jack ... Suddenly he realised he had begun walking and his feet were taking him where he was going in this museum all by themselves ... Somehow he had ended up in the Egyptian Gallery ... now how had he worked out where that was?
"I have heard the words of Imhotep and Hordedef whose sayings are so told: " he quoted, " what of their places? Their walls have fallen; their their places are no more, like those who have never were. None returns form there to tell their conditions, to tell of their state, to reassure us, until we attain the place where they have gone."
You can stop being so depressive this minute, Jack, the Daniel in his head said, but he could hear a smile, I am impressed with your grasp of the matter, and then, with a stronger warning voice, no that's boring, leave that alone.
Jack was standing, with several other tourists, in front of a glass case with a large stone in it. You could see by the care that the museum folks had put into displaying it, and protecting it, that it was important. It was made of granite, had several lines languages engraved on it, one of them was quite clearly in hieroglyphs.
'But its the Rosetta Stone, Daniel,' Jack said smiling, knowing the answer he always got when they were talking about it.
Yes Jack, I know, I really do. I'm very thankful to M. Champollion for using it to finally decipher hieroglyphs but its boring, its a tax return, now move along. Jack could almost see Daniel standing there gesticulating. That made him smile.
So he moved along, wondering if he should start quoting Shelley but settled on, "My lover is on the other side, a stretch of water is between us both and a crocodile waits on the sand bank. But when I go down to the water I tread upon the waves, and the water is like land to my feet. It is their love which makes me strong ..."
Thank you, that's better, now why don't you go have a sit down? Daniel told him.
o0O O0o
By sitting by himself in the Egyptian Gallery museum Jack felt very calm and focussed. He was resting comfortably on a display plinth that presumably at one time held a statue. Now it was empty and provided room for the weary traveller. It was almost dream-like, as if he'd come back from a mission and Janet Frasier had given him something to make him relax. He breathed out and breathed in again. He took a swig from his water bottle and hugged the folder holding Daniel's notes as it sat on his knees.
It was very, very quiet in here with only a few tourists moving through and the thickness of the museum walls cutting out the sound of the city outside.
As he looked at the wall in front of him the piece of stone placed there came into focus. He knew exactly what it was, there were everywhere in museums and Daniel had explained about them more than enough. It was a funerary offering stele, a formula written out in hieroglyphs to provision the soul of the deceased in the afterlife. On it Jack could see a picture of a dead princess sitting in front of an offering table piled high with food. Underneath he saw the hieroglyphs for the things she would need:
"An offering which the king gives," his mind reminded him, " to Osiris ."
Everyone who was dead in Egypt became Osiris, male or female, Jack.
'I know, Daniel,' his mind offered.
Okay, carry on then ...
"Osiris, Lord of Busiris, Great God, Lord of Abydos. That he may give a voice offering in bread, beer, beef, fowl, alabaster, linen and incense. All things good and pure on which a god lives. For the spirit of the revered one ..."
Good, I'm glad you aren't forgetting what I taught you, Jack.
Colonel O'Neill was about to answer that he would never forget anything Daniel Jackson had taught him but he didn't. He just sat there quietly for a while longer, thinking. When he came to himself again he realised there was someone sitting next to him. How long they had they been here or how they had got there without him noticing he did not know.
He turned to see who had joined him on his museum plinth and to his surprise, and slight confusion, found a young girl there. Small for her age, the kid couldn't have been more than nine or ten. She sitting with a drawing pad on her knees and coloured pencils in one hand.
'Hi,' she said brightly looking up from her art and then returning to it. She had with a halo of short fair hair and a bright pink hair band to match her dress. Jack noticed she was drawing very clear and very intricate hieroglyphs on her paper, and that it looked like a version of the offering on the wall in front of her.
'Hey,' he said smiling, 'uh,' his eyes scanned the gallery seeing no one there, well apart from the obligatory museum attendant. 'Shouldn't you be with your mom and dad?' he asked.
The girl shook her head. 'Its okay, really,' she replied, 'my mom's with the conference, she works at the museum, and she knows I'm here,' she said in an American accent. Obviously her mother was one of the many of his country folk who had settled on this side of the Atlantic ...
The kid looked over at the attendant who was sitting in a chair by the door. She gave a wave with a wiggle of fingers and the older lady sitting there smiled back and nodded. Jack was pleased to see at least someone was watching the girl and the attendant had a kind smile too. What he didn't know was that she was usually based in the Egyptian gallery and was amused to see Dr Harmond''s daughter had turned up again. She knew their conference was expecting a USAF Colonel today, but she had not expected to see him here with their young Egyptologist. Mind you, that little one did always seem to find the visitors who needed someone and to get them talking. It did her old heart good to see things like this and she settled in to watch the miracle unfold once more.
'I'm Zoe,' the girl said to the man sitting beside her on the museum plinth, not looking up from her drawing.
Her name is Greek. It's their version of Eve, it means life, Jack, Daniel's voice in his head said.
'What's your name, Sir?' the voice said again. The smile was back too and young Zoe was looking up, her curiosity showing now, she was taking in the uniform of the man sitting next to her.
'Um, its Colonel O'Neill,' the older man responded, 'I'm from the American Airforce, you can call me Jack,' he added. 'Are you having a day out of school to be with your mom, Zoe?' he asked.
'No,' the kid said shaking her head again. She was concentrating, colouring in the food on the picture piled on the offering table in front of the figure on her drawing. Come to think of it Jack thought that didn't look like a dead Egyptian person, just a young girl's drawing of one of her friends.
'I'm not at school coz I got sick, Jack,' Zoe said, her head still down. 'I was in hospital, and then the doctors made me better. This is Becca,' she said pointing to the girl in the drawing she was making, 'she didn't make it ...'
'I'm sorry,' Jack said. He was beginning to put two and two together now. This girls hair was so short because she must have had chemotherapy. 'You had something like leukaemia didn't you?' he asked.
'Yeah,' Zoe said, 'I had AML, I'm better now, in remission, the doctors say I can go back to school after Easter,' she added matter of factly. That wasn't that far away now Jack realised, obviously her mother was bringing her daugher to the museum to get her out and about.
'That's good,' he replied.
He noticed the kid was drawing on her pad again,and talking while she was doing it. 'Becca wasn't an Egyptian so I'm drawing things she liked, her favourite teddy and her iPod,' she said. Now Jack realised what she was doing, an Offering Formula for her friend. The young Egpytologist pointed to the hieroglyphs she was writing underneath the figure she had drawn. 'This his her name spelled in Egyptian; a leg for B, a reed leaf for I as they didn't have vowels, a basket for K and a vulture for AH. It says BIKA but its the nearest I can get,' Zoe said nodding her head sagely.
'When did you learn to do that?' Jack asked, he wished Daniel was here to see this, and felt his heart squeeze when he thought that. The Egyptologist would have have loved taking with this kid.
'I learnt in hospital,' Zoe said matter of factly again and not looking up, 'someone came to teach me.'
'Your drawing is very good,' Jack had to admit, 'I had a friend who liked writing in hieroglyphs. He would have liked to have met you too, Zoe,' he said voicing his thoughts.
'You had a friend?' Zoe's head came up confused at the past tense in his sentence. Jack felt he was being considered closely again. 'What happened?' she asked.
'Uh,' O'Neill said, trying to work out a simple way of putting everything that had happened into words. 'He got sick too, the doctor's couldn't help him, so he didn't make it either,' the said feeling the hurt of it as he said it. It was a sad irony too, he thought, that that day had ended up with his Egyptologist swathed in bandages just like the mummies he studied.
Zoe was nodding her head, 'The reason I am doing this drawing,' she said, 'is that the Egyptians thought that so long as a person's name was remembered, and spoken, they would live on forever in the afterlife. I want that for Becca,' she said.
'That's good,' Jack said, 'its good to remember people even if they are gone ...'
The young girl beside him nodded and carried on working, concentrating on what she was doing not looking up. O'Neill realised he had more company as David Harris, the guy looking after him, was walking up to where the two of them were sitting.
'Colonel, I see you've met our youngest Egyptologist,' he said with a smile on his face, 'this is Doctor Harmond's daughter, that was the lady who did the introduction you listened to when you were in the Lecture Theatre.'
'Yeah?' Jack said recognising the family resemblance to the woman Harris had just mentioned. He also realised where he had heard the name too, Daniel always talked of a Jill Harmond who studied with him. He had told she had married but still worked under her maiden name. 'Zoe was teaching me something really interesting about Ancient Egypt,' he told the museum guy as he got up, his knees creaking a little as he did so, 'do you want me to do my stuff now?'
'Professor Barrett is waiting for you as the lecture before is about to finish, so yes,' he was told.
'Okay then, I'm with you,' Jack nodded and turned back to Zoe. 'You gonna be here for a little while longer sweetheart?' he asked.
The girl in the pink dress nodded. 'Mom said she would meet me here after you do your talk,' she told him, 'she said she was looking forward to it and that they didn't get American Air Force Colonels talking at Egyptology conferences very often,' she said repeating the adult's words in the way children do, not understanding totally about their impact. Jack chuckled, at that.
'In that case, if you don't mind, I'll come say good-bye and meet your mom before I go to catch my plane,' he suggested.
The young girl looked up and smiled, 'I'd like that,' she said and nodding, then she went back to her drawing concentrating hard.
Harris and Jack walked off together and while the museum administrator was smiling to himself and thinking Zoe had done it again theAir Force Colonel was thinking something completely different. He felt the need for one last quotation, only this was one from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, as Daniel would tell him, the guide to the afterlife which all Egyptians were buried with.
"O you who open up the way, who act as guides to the roads to perfect souls in the House of Osiris,
Open the way for him. May he enter the House of Osiris with boldness, and may he come forth therefrom in peace.
May there be no opposition made to him. May he enter and go forth as he wishes.
May his commands be performed in the House of Osiris, may his words travel with you."
I hope so, Jack came that voice in his head again.
o0O O0o
When the Colonel had gone Zoe looked up from her drawing and and saw her other friend had arrived back. He was sitting under the item she was copying her hieroglyphs from and had his back against the wall. She also noticed he was wearing what he always wore, that white cable sweater and the light brown pants. He must like those clothes. He looked tired she thought, and his eyes looked a little wet too today, like when Becca had died ...
'Hi,' she said to her friend to tell him she knew he was there.
'Hey,' the man said brightly and got up to come and sit next to her. 'Thank you for that,' he said putting his hand on the girl's arm, 'I appreciate what you tried to do for me, Zoe.'
'Its okay,' the girl replied, 'you came to me when I needed someone, and he misses you, you know ...' she continued.
The man sitting next to her nodded sadly, 'I miss him too,' he said.
'Well ,why don't you go tell him that?' Zoe said, not sitting up but turning her head to give him a hard look. Adults were such difficult people to understand, even this one who understood her better than most.
That got a sigh out of her companion, 'You know its not that simple, there are rules .. I can't go round ...'
Zoe got a little cross then and cut in. 'Look Daniel, you can come be with me any time,' she said, 'Jack is here for only a little while and he's going to give his talk using your notes. Just go be there for him will you? rules or not,'
'Okay, I'll be back later,' the man said nodding and with another sigh he got up to go.
o0O O0o
Over in her corner of the Egyptian gallery the museum attendant saw Dr Harmond's daughter, alone since the Airforce Colonel had left, talking to herself for a moment. She sounded as if she was having an argument. Then the girl settled down to carry on with what she was doing and worked away quietly again. Suddenly he lights in the gallery flickered on and off, that was the second time it had happened that morning. There was that cold draft again too.
The attendant tutted to herself and made a mental note. When she was relieved at lunchtime she would go to speak to the electricians and get them to fix the problem. She would also find out who had left a door open. It was too cold to do that in February and they needed telling that..
o0O O0o
'Ladies and Gentlemen I would like to thank you all for inviting me here,' Jack O'Neill said standing at the podium in the lecture hall. He looked out over the sea of faces. 'Its not often that an Air Force Colonel gets to address a whole room of archaeologists. I would also like to thank you for your patience too. As you will understand it takes the sort of organisation I work for a long time to get all its paperwork together,' he said.
The people in the auditorium laughed, warmed by the good humour of their guest, and Jack carried on encouraged.
It was odd, he thought. Before he had felt very out of place here at the museum this morning. Now for some reason he felt all was right with his world and he was at ease. There was another strange feeling in this room with him too, as if there was someone familiar standing at the back watching him ... He looked up from his notes and scanned the audience and didn't recognise any faces. When the air conditioning gave a wild blast and the people on the stage with him looked round strangely he knew exactly what was going on though.
Hi, Jack ...
So he had come to have a look at the museum and its old relics after all ... Jack gave the air disturbance a mental wave and smiled at the confused conference organisers.
-- Fin --