Title: New Friends and Old
Author: Josephine
Rating: PG
Category: Action, Crossover, GenCodes: SG-1, Guests
Summary: SG-1 goes to Peru to look into a strange energy reading and crosses paths with another team of investigators.
A/N: For gategrrl at the Live Journal community tealcficathon. My most humble apologies for the lateness, and hope it meets your expectations. This occurs near the end of Season 2.
What she wanted: team moments and working together, offworld and no using Asgard tech or Ancient tech and ADVENTURE
What she didn't want: no H/C, no interteam pairings slash or het, no noncon
I'm afraid I didn't get them off world. :(
Beta'd by Cincoflex, without whom this would still be languishing on my hard drive.
Teal'c sighed as the Mi-8 helicopter shook around him and the other passengers in the old Russian craft. The updrafts around the Vilcanota Mountains were especially rough, and he only wished for this long journey from Colorado to Machu Picchu to be done with. Glancing over at his teammates, Teal'c had to suppress a smile; Sam looked slightly green around the gills, as did Daniel, while Jack enthusiastically polished off a Baby Ruth.
Daniel put away the folder with the latest readouts and analysis of the faint Goa'uld energy reading NORAD had found sitting above Machu Picchu in an elliptical geosynchronous orbit, making sure all of the papers made it into the pack sitting at his feet. His knee began to bounce, telegraphing all too clearly his eagerness to reach the city. Teal'c sighed again, there was still a train ride to Puente Ruinas, then a bus to Machu Picchu itself. The loss of ring transports or tel'taks had never been felt so keenly before. He wondered if there was time to kelnorim.
"All right campers," Jack muttered under his breath as they passed through the gate into Machu Picchu itself. After checking into the Lodge they had left immediately to reconnoiter the city. "Stay alert. You said wanted to start in the urban section, Daniel?"
"Yeah, I think that's the best place to begin, it's where the temples are…"
Teal'c and the others waited as Daniel looked around, squinting in the weak late morning sun. Threatening rain clouds covered the sky, but the guides had promised the rain would clear soon. Having gotten his bearings, Daniel took the lead, trailed by Sam, then Jack, Teal'c bringing up the rear. They tried to look like tourists for this leg of the mission; Daniel had been in charge of dressing them, however, so they came across more like down at the heels doctorate students than an average tourist. Teal'c felt it gave them an edge, their detailed examination of Machu Picchu would almost be expected.
What with Daniel concentrating on picking their way around the ruins, and Sam concentrating on the scanner in front of her, it wasn't surprising that it ended up being Teal'c who noticed the group of four young adults. The two boys and two girls' actions of looking at the ruins would have labeled them as just another bunch of tourists, excepting that they were dressed in a wholly inappropriate manner for trekking around the Andes: the blond boy wore a polyester outfit with an orange ascot, the red haired girl was in a purple mini dress and had a lime green scarf tied around her neck. The short brunette had on a cowl neck sweater, a miniskirt, and kneehighs. She kept removing her coke bottle glasses to wipe the humidity off them as she spoke to her tall, lanky companion, who was wearing bell bottoms and a baggy t-shirt.
Teal'c nudged Jack; when Jack shot him a puzzled glance, he jerked his head over to the group. One of Jack's eyebrows shot up, and the two soldiers kept one eye on the kids and the other on Daniel and Sam as they circled the crumbling walls.
"Eh, they're nothing," Jack finally said as SG-1 moved away from the other group. "Luggage got lost or somethin'." Teal'c nodded reluctantly, then frowned as a misshapen figure in a trench coat, fedora, and an obviously false moustache joined the kids. Was that a tail protruding from under the coat? Speculating the high altitude might be affecting him, Teal'c jogged to catch up to Jack.
"O'Neill, are you feeling… well?" Looking back over his shoulder, Teal'c thought to point out the strange man with the kids, but they were nowhere to be seen.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"
"It is of no consequence," Teal'c said; his words and the placid expression on his face must have convinced Jack, as he turned to Sam.
"Anything, Carter?"
Sam frowned at the scanner, fiddling with it before answering. "I'm getting readings from this direction, sir." Facing southwest, she glanced up at the ruins. "I'll have to take some scans from different points to be positive, though."
"Might be the Temple of the Sun," Daniel muttered to himself as he started down the street. Attempting to blend in, Teal'c listened with half an ear, then with growing interest to Daniel's rambling monologue on different speculations of why Machu Picchu was built – a getaway for Incan nobility, or perhaps where the Incan version of Vestal Virgins came for training. Teal'c began to wonder if there was any civilization anywhere that didn't have a belief in some kind of God.
The group picked their way around the walls, nodding politely at other tourists, getting roped in to take a photo of a honeymooning couple from Germany, until they stood on the opposite side of the Temple of the Sun. Sam slowly turned in a circle, coming to a stop facing the round, roofless structure.
"They're definitely coming from in there, sir." Slipping the scanner in a large pocket of her bush vest, Sam followed Daniel into the Temple. Teal'c and Jack stationed themselves in the open doorway, more to give warning than to stop anyone from coming in. Daniel and Sam examined the walls, trying to keep it casual for the few tourists that were in the room with them. Eventually they left, and Sam whipped out the scanner, holding it close to the large, curved stone that rose out of the floor like the scarred back of a surfacing whale.
"Much stronger here," she murmured, frowning again. "You said there're underground caverns, Daniel?"
"Yeah, there's one directly below us," he murmured back. "This is fascinating," Daniel added, more to himself.
Sam looked up to see Daniel's nimble fingers tracing some half familiar symbols near the bottom of the wall. Moving over to his side, she was stopped from examining them more closely by the sound of footsteps and Jack's voice calling out a greeting to a group of French tourists that soon entered the Temple. The two quickly stood and affected an interest in the view out of one of the windows. At least Sam did, Daniel began a monologue of how this window opened out upon the Gate of the Sun where the sun would shine through and cast a triangle of light during the summer solstice. He became quite animated, answering various questions in French that the tourists asked of him, before Sam had to elbow him in the ribs to get him to shut up so the other visitors would leave.
Eventually they did, but were replaced by the German honeymooners, then a gaggle of Japanese tourists. Sam sighed and rolled her eyes; getting Daniel's attention she jerked her head toward the door in the universal language for 'let's get out of here'. Daniel nodded, and followed her out, collecting Jack and Teal'c on the way.
"Well?" Jack asked as they made their way back through the ruins. Daniel merely shook his head and raised an index finger, the frown that meant he was furiously thinking clearly evident. Teal'c glanced over at Sam who just shrugged at Daniel's reticence. With no immediate threats evident, Teal'c allowed himself the luxury of admiring the varying greens of the moss and lichen against the weathered grey of the stone and pointing out to an appreciative Sam Forget-Me-Nots growing in sheltered spots. It was a short walk back to the Lodge, and soon the group was gathered in Jack and Teal'c's room.
"There was Goa'uld writing on the walls," Daniel said without preamble, shutting the door behind him.
Jack merely grunted as he flopped into one of the chairs by a window, but Sam frowned. "You're sure? I mean," she quickly added, "of course you're sure, but… you're sure? I don't remember reading anything in the briefing you gave us about Goa'uld type symbols being found here."
Teal'c, however, was not particularly surprised. "What did they say, DanielJackson?"
"The symbols are badly worn," Daniel acknowledged. "Bingham and the others after him most likely dismissed them as meaningless." Teal'c idly wondered if this Bingham was anything like the Budge Daniel derided so often, then quickly forgot about the explorer as Daniel continued. "I need to take a closer look, but from what I did see, they mention Inti, the Incan sun god, and a golden staff.
"It appears," Daniel said eagerly, "that they're telling the story of Manco Capac, the son of Inti, who was given a golden staff called 'Tapac-Yauri'. He was instructed to create a Temple of the Sun where the staff sank into the earth-- which ended up being Cusco-- after he had spent some time wandering through caves with his brothers and sisters."
"I have heard tales of a Goa'uld named Inti, but he was defeated long ago by Ra. Do you believe that the Goa'uld in orbit above is searching to this Tapac-Yauri? And if so, why here, at Machu Picchu, and not at Cusco?" Teal'c asked into the resultant silence, Jack sitting with his head fallen against the back of the chair and Sam with a slightly glazed look in her eyes.
Daniel opened his mouth, paused, shut it, then tried again. "Well, it could have been moved. For some reason our visitor up there thinks it's here. I would like to take a look at the Temple of the Sun in Cusco, see if there are any--
"So," Jack interjected, still sprawled in the chair. "What exactly is this Tupac Yore thing supposed to be anyway?"
"I don't know."
Teal'c bit back a smile as Jack cracked an eye open to glare at Daniel.
"Well," Daniel hurried on, pushing his hair out of his face, "I'm sure it's some kind of powerful artifact, or else whomever is up there wouldn't have risked coming all this way."
"I'm worried more about what is than what could be," Jack said, then looked over at Sam. "See if there's anything new intel on the ship. Something that size couldn't have come all this way—" he looked back over at Daniel, "on its own. There has to be a mothership parked on the dark side of the Moon or something. Speaking of moons, there isn't one tonight, so we'll sneak back in after it's quiet. Wake me when it's lunch time." Snagging the nearby ottoman, Jack put his feet up and closed his eyes.
Daniel frowned at Jack, then sighed, leaving with Sam to go back to their room—he to pour over the books he had brought and she to log into the SGC computers with her laptop.
Sitting on his bed, Teal'c gazed out the window to the mountains, wondering who could be searching for Inti's staff, and what powers the staff held. The false gods had been fond of their toys, he recalled, thinking of the Eyes of Ra and Horus, and a slew of other weapons. Teal'c realized this line of thinking was getting him nowhere, so after removing his boots, he placed a candle from his pack on the side table and lit it, composing himself for a proper kelnorim.
Slipping through the dark streets, zat at the ready, Teal'c unerringly lead the team to the section of Machu Picchu that Daniel had indicated held the entrances to the caverns under the city. Although the night vision goggles they all wore helped them navigate the maze of stone, in the hours before embarking on tonight's mission Teal'c had memorized the urban area so he could get them quickly in and out again if need be.
He froze, holding up a fist, then moved back into a small room; pressed against a wall they stopped, not breathing, as a guard slowly walked by. Waiting until the guard had passed, then a minute more, Teal'c slowly exited the chamber, placing his feet carefully as not to twist an ankle or send and errant pebble skittering across the stone road to alert others to their presence. A few more turns and they entered the chamber that held the stairs that descended into the caverns.
Daniel's friendly questioning of the hotel's concierge hadn't revealed anything about security within the caverns themselves, but the team still proceeded slowly, then more confidently as they went deeper underground. Teal'c paused, and let Sam take the lead with him, her scanner making soft beeps despite her attempts to muffle them.
"Carter?" Jack asked in an impatient whisper. "Anything?"
"We're definitely getting closer, sir," she replied. Whatever Sam was about to say next was cut off as once again Teal'c's fist went up.
"There are others here." Teal'c steadied himself against a wall, zat at the ready, Jack coming to stand on his other side. A soft glow began to grow at the intersection of their corridor and another; the team flipped up their goggles so they wouldn't be blinded.
As the light grew, so did the sound of voices-- Teal'c could discern a total of five, plus one that he couldn't quite understand. The approaching group reached the intersection and paused, Teal'c was intrigued but not surprised to see that it was the group of unsuitably attired youths he had noticed before. Glancing over at Jack for direction, Teal'c stayed where he was as Jack shook his head. With any luck the other group would turn the opposite direction.
"Which way did you say the strange noises have been coming from, Enrique?" It was the blond man, who seemed to be the leader.
"It is hard to say," Enrique answered, "There have been many strange happenings since I called you. We have not seen much, my brother and I, only brief glimpses of strange-headed beasts in grey armor. We thought we saw them go into a cavern-- Maco got there before I, and he said there was a noise like metal doors and a bright light. But when we entered, there was no one there, and we could not find any door they could have left from."
Teal'c stiffened. Jaffa, but whose? He and the rest of SG-1 waited as the group turned in their direction. Glancing over at Jack again, Teal'c wondered if this made a difference to him. If it were up to him, Teal'c would just as soon zat the group, and look for the Goa'uld on their own.
Enrique stopped suddenly, those in the back stumbling into the rest with a loud 'oof'.
"What's up?" A quavering voice asked, while a head with a mop of hair peeked out from behind.
"We're not alone," Enrique said in a whisper.
"The monsters?" the voice squeaked out.
Teal'c heard Jack sigh before he called out "We're not the monsters," and strolled toward the youths.
"Zoinks!" A brief scuffling was herd, with a strange sort of high-pitched whining mixed in.
"Shaggy! Scooby! Get back here!" A woman's voice called into the dark; as Teal'c and the team entered the circle of light, she continued. "They're not monsters!"
"What are you kids doing down here?" Jack asked. Teal'c and Jack evaluated the new group for a threat level. Teal'c could see no weapons on them, but looks were often deceiving. His grip on his zat tightened.
"We could ask the same of you," Enrique countered back, drawing back his thin shoulders in a poor attempt at authority.
"This room you saw the 'beasts' go into, can you show us?" Jack's tone was light, but the command was clear. Enrique wavered, glancing over at the blond, then they both nodded.
"This way."
"I'm Fred," the blond said as the two groups merged to walk down the corridor the way SG-1 had come. He, Jack, and Enrique were in front. "That's Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo. We're Mystery, Incorporated."
Teal'c nodded with the others at the red headed girl, the girl with glasses, the tall lanky guy, and surprisingly, a dog. Hiding a smile, he realized that this answered the mystery of the strange figure in the trench coat.
"Mystery, Inc, huh?" Jack replied, trying to look impressed. "I'm Jack, that's… Murray, Sam, and Daniel," he continued, pointing everyone out as they walked on, not glancing twice at the very large Great Dane trailing along behind them all.
"Did the government send you?" Enrique's voice was a mix of suspicion and hope, though the glance he cast over Jack was pure doubt.
"You could say that," Jack said cheerfully, adding nothing else. Enrique and Fred shared another concerned look, and Fred opened his mouth as to say something, but the somber mien of the team in all their black ops glory convinced him to quickly shut it.
"So this place close by or what?" Peering into what was basically a large niche cut into the stone, Jack spoke to Enrique but looked back at Carter who was trying to shield the scanner from a very curious Velma. Carter shrugged a shoulder, an apologetic frown creasing her forehead.
"Not much farther."
A few more twists and turns; Teal'c was trying to keep them all straight in his head in case something should go wrong, thankfully before it got totally confusing Enrique stopped.
"It was there," he whispered, indicating a doorway on the left, just inside the light's circle.
Behind Teal'c, Daniel made his way to the front, grunting an 'Excuse me' as he pushed past Daphne, who giggled softly. "We're rather deep in the caverns, aren't we?" he asked Enrique.
"Yes, this section was discovered quite recently."
"Sam?" Jack's voice brought her to the front, Teal'c staying by her side. Together they slowly approached the doorway, alert for any noise or movement. Outside the room, Teal'c heard Sam's soft sigh as she concentrated on the scanner. She glanced over at Jack, with hand motions she indicated that she and Teal'c were going to enter the room, but that she wanted the rest of them to stay where they were.
Jack nodded, and Teal'c led the way, his flashlight sweeping the room, his zat centimeters behind. The room was empty, and dust layered the floor, except in a faint circular outline that Teal'c made out only because he was looking for it. There seemed to be faint writing on the wall also, to Teal'c it appeared to be Goa'uld but he would leave the deciphering to Daniel.
Keeping alert for any activation of the rings or activity in the hall, Teal'c stayed by Sam as beginning by the door, she scanned the room.
"I think I found something," she said quickly, sticking her head partially out the doorway.
Jack looked at Daniel and jerked his head toward the door, flinging out his arm to stop Fred and Enrique from following Daniel. They started to protest, but Jack merely smiled and shook his head.
Teal'c stood by and watched as Daniel once more trailed his long fingers over the well-worn Goa'uld writing near the something that Sam had found.
"I think it's just the controls for the rings," Sam whispered to Daniel. He nodded, then pressed a panel just so; it slid back and away to reveal familiar glowing buttons.
"But where did the guards go to?" he whispered back. Sam shrugged and continued her circuit around the room, ignoring the disgruntled mutterings coming from Fred and Enrique. The room wasn't large, and in no time she was back standing net to Teal'c and Daniel.
"There's nothing else here." With her back to the doorway, Sam kept her voice low. "Whatever they came for must be in another location."
"In close proximity, however," Teal'c responded. "If not, the guards would have been noticed by more than this guide and his brother."
"Enrique," Daniel said as he stepped back into the hall. "Where were the beasts coming from when you saw them enter this room?"
Teal'c and Sam had followed Daniel, and Teal'c could see indecision cross Enrique's face. "It was further down the corridor, was it not?" Teal'c asked. Enrique slowly nodded, and once more the group made their way down the hall.
Stopping before a wide doorway with pilasters on the sides, Enrique looked at Jack and Daniel before taking a deep breath. "This room was discovered a few months ago, but the curators haven't told anyone because… they don't know what to make of it. It's very different from anything else here."
Teal'c, Daniel, and Sam walked into the room, pausing as they saw what had flummoxed the Machu Picchu caretakers. It was clearly Goa'uld, but done in a style by someone who had only read about but not seen Goa'uld décor. Pilasters, more ornamental than the ones in the corridor, lined the walls, with Goa'uld writing between. Where in modern strongholds these would have been cast into gold panels, here they were carved into the rock, with remnants of gold leaf peeling off the stone. Short, rough hewn columns were topped with beaten metal braziers and there were traces of smoke and soot up each pilaster. A massive stone table was in the middle of the room, with Goa'uld symbols carved into the edge of the top and gold on the base.
Daniel turned in a circle, trying to decide where to start reading, while Sam methodically began on the left and scanned the room clockwise. Teal'c noticed there were no other exits to the room, and grew concerned.
A low whistle caught his attention, and Teal'c looked back to see the members of Mystery, Inc peering through the doorway, their heads stacked on top of each other; Fred on top, the Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, all the way to the dog, Scooby, on the bottom. Teal'c glanced over at Jack who rolled his eyes, shrugged, and waved a hand to let them in.
"Jinkies!" Velma turned in place, a mirror image of Daniel as she tried to take it all in.
"This place gives me the creeps." Shaggy stayed in the doorway, Scooby cowering behind him. "What say we go back and get some of that ocopa left over from dinner? Man, that was good. What'd ya think, Scoob?"
"Uh huh!" Much to Teal'c astonishment, the dog seemed to understand what Shaggy said to him, as he perked up considerably and his long tongue flopped out to lick his lips.
Teal'c turned away from the group to face Jack. "I am concerned about our situation should the guard come back," he voice a low rumble. "As far as I can see, we would be trapped here, with no means of escape. We might be able to fight our way through, but with these civilians…"
Jack nodded. "Just what I was thinking. Ok, campers!" he said more loudly. "Enrique, I think you and your friends need to leave this to us. Frankly, if those 'beasts' come back I don't want you guys injured."
"Ringurd?" Scooby ducked behind Shaggy again.
"Injured," Jack confirmed, leveling a meaningful look on the dog. "Or even killed."
"That's it, I'm outta here!" Making a dash for it, Shaggy ran in place for a while before he realized Velma had a hold of his belt.
"We came here to help Enrique and we're not leaving until we figure out what's going on," Fred answered with his jaw set.
"Listen, kid." Draping an arm over Fred's shoulder and steering him to the door, Jack smiled, man-to-man, at the youth. "This isn't your run-of-the-mill bad guy in a rubber mask you're dealing with here. These guys are hard core. We've dealt with them before." Jack gestured, his arm waving the zat around; Teal'c frowned as he saw Fred and Shaggy's eyes follow it.
"Yeah, sure," Fred reluctantly agreed, clearly not happy with the situation, but unwilling to push it with Jack carrying what obviously looked like some kind of weapon on him. "Come on, gang, let's head back to the hotel."
Enrique and Velma grumbled a bit, but Teal'c drew himself up and the sight of him looming in the half-light was enough to send all six scurrying on their way. Stepping out into the corridor after Scooby, who characteristically trailed the group, Teal'c could hear Velma's strident voice chastising Shaggy.
"No, Shaggy, those did not look like the ray guns the aliens your parents supposedly met up with had. Your parents were hippies, Shaggy, it was a bad acid trip they confused with Star Wars…"
Something Teal'c couldn't pin down niggled away at his mind as he turned back to the team; he put it aside to concentrate at the matter at hand. He stood next to Jack while Sam and Daniel searched the room, Sam taking the walls, Daniel the table. However while Sam was busily scanning every square inch of stone, Daniel was merely staring at the table, his arms crossed, brows drawn together.
Teal'c abandoned Jack for Daniel, staring with him at the table. It was large, with a thick stone checker-boarded slab for a top in which Goa'uld had been carved into the vertical edge. Below was a smooth, gold leafed pedestal slightly smaller than the top; hanging from the bottom of the slab were uneven gold chains, with some links being thicker than the others.
"What do you see, DanielJackson?"
"These gold chains look like khipu. The Incans supposedly didn't have a written language, which I never believed, but they did have a system of knotted string that Incan scholars think represented numbers." Reaching out a hand, Daniel touched one of the larger links. "Some now think that they might be an early form of writing in a binary code of sorts. See," here he tugged on Teal'c's arm, pulling him up to the table. "The Goa'uld writing says to adhere to the instructions below to traverse the maze above and find the Ta'pac Tau'ri."
"Is it not supposed to be 'Yauri'?" Teal'c asked.
"That's what the legends say, language shifts could account for that," Daniel answered thoughtfully. "'Ta'pac Tau'ri' means 'Noble Human' in Goa'uld. Rather vague for a device of some sort. Anyway, so the khipu chains below tell… what?"
Teal'c examined the squares on the top of the slab. "It appears to be pieced together, DanielJackson. Perhaps these can be pushed down?"
"Hmmm." Daniel peered at the squares, then at the chains. "The paper I read said that the khipu looked to be in seven-bit code. Not my area of expertise. However— Sam!"
Sam's head jerked up from the scanner and she jogged over to Daniel, Jack close behind.
"D'you find something, Daniel?" he asked.
As Daniel explained his theory to Sam and Jack, Teal'c walked around the table counting squares and khipu. The chains circled the slab, one for each row and column. He reached his teammates just as Daniel was winding up.
Jack looked at the hanging chains, then at the squares on the table. "So why wouldn't each big link match with the square. Third link, third square?"
"Too simplistic," Sam said, shaking her head. "And look, some chains have more than one enlarged link, and none are as long as there are squares."
"Oh," said Jack after a moment. He stood there, then wandered over to stick his head out the door as Daniel and Sam started conferring.
"Can you figure it out?" Daniel asked, frowning slightly.
"Seven bit?" Sam glanced over at Daniel, who nodded. "Sure, but I'll need to use my fingers," she joked to him and Teal'c.
"Not tonight though, gang," Jack called from the door. "We haven't seen any sign of the Snakeheads, which means the longer we're here the bigger the chance we'll meet up with them. We'll come back in the morning and sneak down here."
Daniel frowned and opened his mouth to argue, but deciding against it, closed his mouth with a snap and half-heartedly trudged to the door.
"In the morning," Jack reassured him with a pat on the shoulder. Taking one last look around the chamber, Teal'c followed Sam out the door.
"This is taking forever," Sam griped, huddled against the stone as Teal'c stood serenely by. The ponchos they wore covered up their gear but didn't do much to counter the damp chill of the early morning air. She tried to appear inconspicuous, nodding to the scattered tourists that came by. "Why aren't these people asleep? Aren't they on vacation, for cryin' out loud?"
Before Teal'c could answer a loud commotion came from near by, followed quickly by Jack and Daniel coming around the corner. "Go!" Jack stage whispered, and Teal'c ducked down into the room that led to the caverns, pulling Sam along with him. The team made their way through the twisting tunnels until they were near the room that held the ring transport.
Slowly now they crept down the tunnel, stopping outside the room that held the stone table. There was no light shining from the room, so Jack indicated to Sam that on the count of three they would flank the door from the other side, then he and Teal'c would move in.
Sam nodded, and the maneuvers went as planned until Jack and Teal'c passed through the door. Clanging, thumping, muffled curses, a zat blast and a few 'Yoinks!' caused Sam and Daniel to look at each other in confusion then shine their lights in the room, staying low as they did so.
The scene before them was bizarre in the least: Jack was rump first in a barrel, arms and legs flailing over the rim, while Teal'c was covered in what seemed to be molasses and chicken feathers. The room was littered with tangles of rope, numerous small buckets, and a make shift springboard. Fred, Daphne, Enrique, and Velma were in a corner, a combination of chagrin and disappointment on their faces, while Shaggy and Scooby peered over their shoulders and between their legs.
Teal'c sighed, plucking feathers off his zat. A strangled sound caught his ear, and he glanced up to see Daniel and Sam holding each other up as they began to laugh. He said nothing, but strode over to Jack and yanked him out of the barrel as Jack continued to curse a blue streak.
"What the hell were you guys thinking?" Kicking the barrel aside, Jack stormed over to stand before Fred and Daphne. "You were dammed lucky it was us and not those monsters!"
Ignoring the still slightly hysterical Sam and Daniel and the raging Jack, Teal'c continued to pull feathers off himself, managing to remove a number of them before noticing the dog Scooby had come over to his side. Unsure of what he wanted, Teal'c was about to call the dog's owner when Scooby jumped up, placing his paws on Teal'c's shoulders, and then licked his face.
"Ralgarrorina ryrup!" Practicality barely won out over self-dignity, and Teal'c gave in, letting Scooby lick most of the syrup off his head and hands, then gladly took the wipes Sam gave him as his skin began to emerge from the sticky coating. Slightly cleaner, Teal'c turned his attention to Jack, who was glaring at Fred and Enrique, who were glaring right back, but without the power of being an ex Black Ops Air Force Colonel behind it.
"The Colonel finally agreed to let them come with us," Sam whispered to Teal'c as she and Daniel mopped at the heaviest deposits of syrup left on his clothes. Scooby looked longingly at Teal'c's boots. "Yeah, I know," Sam continued at Teal'c's low rumble of displeasure, "but they said they'd follow us anyway, and we don't have time to take them back up to the surface." Silently Teal'c held up his zat.
"Too risky." This time Daniel answered. "Besides, this time of day we should be able to get in and get out without meeting up with whoever's here." Teal'c sighed, and Sam shrugged as Jack walked over to them, clearly not a happy camper.
'"Ok, let's get this show on the road. Sam, Daniel, fire this baby up."
"Yes, sir." Sam went to work, indicating to Daniel and Teal'c which squares to push as Velma watched curiously on. The quartet made their way around the slab, never pressing the same block twice, Jack and the rest of the gang waiting intently. Finally they came to the last square and Teal'c stood back, giving way to Daniel, though he kept a firm grip on his zat.
"What'd you think's gonna happen, Daniel?" Jack's eyes swept the room as he tried to figure out from which way whatever was going to go down would go down.
"Logic would indicate the wall we're facing, if it is in fact a hidden door…" Everyone shuffled places to arrange themselves behind Daniel, who glanced over his shoulder with a resigned expression. Teal'c placed himself in the very back, on eye on the wall in front of the group, one eye on the wall at the rear, just in case.
Holding his breath, Daniel pushed the square down.
Nothing happened.
Seconds ticked by, people scattering slightly to look over the room, checking to see if something miniscule had happened that they had missed. Jack pushed his way to Daniel's side, hammering his fist on the sunken square.
"You sure you did this right –" The dull rasp of stone abrading stone cut Jack off and made everyone rush back to the huddled mass they were before.
"Wha- what's happing?" Shaggy asked, his knees wobbling under the weight of Scooby, who had jumped in his arms the moment the grinding had started.
"The table appears to be descending," Teal'c replied. Everyone turned from the walls they had been inspecting for the source of the sound to watch as the table did indeed drop into the floor. Daniel and Teal'c moved closer to peer into the dark cavity, the table dropping in sections to form steps leading to an archway cut into the bedrock.
"Jinkies!" Velma exclaimed again. Sam, standing nearby, glanced at her strangely then shrugged as none of Velma's compatriots seemed fazed at the bizarre exclamation.
Jack grunted, peering down. "Daniel, you're with me. Sam, T, you take the rear." Pausing, he looked at the members of Mystery Inc one by one. "If anything happens you are to do whatever I say. None of these—hijinks you pulled here, am I clear?"
"Perfectly," Fred answered for them, and one by one Jack led them deeper into the ruins.
In a cloaked tel'tak high in orbit above Machu Picchu, a light began to flash.
"Daniel?" Jack yanked on Daniel's sleeve, getting him moving again after Daniel once more became distracted by the glyphs covering the tunnel's walls.
"Jack, these could be important. They could tell us what we'll face when we find the Ta'pac Tau'ri."
Sighing, Jack cocked his head at Daniel. "And do they?"
"Well… no, not yet, but they do tell—" Daniel gave up as Jack turned and continued down the tunnel. An appeal to the rest of the group went nowhere and Daniel sighed also, trudging after Jack. "When we're done…"
"Yeah, you can use this stuff to earn another PhD. After the Air Force declassifies it in a hundred years," Jack snorted.
Trailing behind everyone, Teal'c had to deal with prodding Velma along as she too tried to examine the walls, dealing with Scooby's attempts to lick him every so often, and Shaggy peering intently at his face.
"What's that gold thing on your head?"
Teal'c leveled his most quelling glare on Shaggy. "I have no 'gold thing' on my head."
"Yeah you do, I can see part of it." He continued as Teal'c pulled the knit cap he wore further down. "It's a funky 'U' shape in two ovals, isn't it?"
Startled, wondering how this young man could know about his symbol, Teal'c was about to question him further when Daniel's excited voice echoed off the walls.
"There it is!"
Amazingly, to Teal'c's mind, Daniel remembered enough not to go rushing into the room, but stayed in the tunnel as Jack looked over what little he could see from the doorway. Sam made her way to their side and scanned the entrance, finally giving an all clear.
She led the way, sweeping for traps and technology, while Daniel made a beeline for the large rectangular pedestal in the center of the room and Teal'c, along with everyone else, merely stared at what they had found.
The cavern was not very large, but was decorated in a manner that would have put even Ra to shame. Or would have, twelve hundred years ago in Inti's heyday. Now the silk hangings were in tatters, the gold leaf flaking off the walls, the braziers tarnished and dull.
Daniel saw none of this, he was focused solely upon what looked to be a solid gold, oblong box about three feet long resting on the pedestal which had carvings on it similar to the table at the top of the stairs.
"Those are not Incan symbols," Enrique said as he looked over Daniel's shoulder.
"No, they're not," Daniel muttered, not giving in to Enrique's questioning glance. Eventually Enrique gave up and wandered back over to where Fred and Daphne were peering at the designs on a wall.
"The chest is putting out some low level readings, and the room is heavily shielded, sir," Sam informed Jack as she joined him and Teal'c, Scooby sitting between the men, alternately gazing adoringly up at Jack and down at Teal'c's syrup covered boots.
"Figured as much," Jack grumped. "Hey Daniel, what've we got?" he called out.
"Wha--?" Startled, Daniel looked up, peering over his glasses and pushing his hair out of his face. "It's fascinating, actually. We were right in that the Ta'pac Tau'ri was originally placed in Cusco, but about a thousand years ago it was moved here for safekeeping. Apparently—" Here Daniel turned back to the table and its carvings, "Inti himself hadn't been seen for quite awhile, but the priests tried to make the new resting place as much like the original, and even had Inti's son Manco Capac to help them." He turned to Jack, his pleased smile turning to a frown as Jack just stared at him.
"Ya think Manco was one of…" Jack waved his hand in the vicinity of his head.
"It would explain the shielding. I don't think mere priests would have been able to set that up," Sam answered softly.
"Wait just a darn minute," Velma said, coming closer. "Inti? Manco Capac? They're just legends, myths. They didn't really exist." One by one she looked at the team, none of whom met her eyes except Teal'c.
"They did indeed exist, Velma."
"Aw, Jeez, T, why'd ya have to go and say that?" Jack pulled off his cap and scrubbed roughly at his head. "You know we're gonna have to kill them now. I'm kidding!" he quickly added at the mass pandemonium that erupted at his words. Only Teal'c stood serenely by, ninety five percent sure Jack had been kidding. "You're not gonna die," Jack shouted into the fray.
"Nice going," Daniel muttered as Scooby and Shaggy ran around in circles, Velma and Enrique arguing stridently at Jack and Fred attempting to comfort Daphne.
"I said I was kidding!" Jack bellowed, finally shutting everyone up. "Daniel, can you figure out how to open that chest and get what's inside?"
"Yes, Daniel." A deep, resonant voice filled the room. Shaggy and Scooby dove behind the table as the rest of the group spun toward the door. The beasts that Enrique and his brother had seen before, ram's headed Jaffa with crackling tipped staff weapons, poured through the doorway, followed by a lean, wolfish human dressed in rich clothing, with close cropped hair and a sleek goatee. "We are very interested in what's inside."
No one spoke, no one moved for what seemed an eternity, they just stood, staring at the newcomer who smirked at them from his advantage. Teal'c frowned, recognizing the Jaffa.
"Ba'al, I presume," he finally said, his voice toneless.
"Indeed," replied Ba'al, the smirk still twisting his mouth. "And you must be the Shol'va. I have spent many a night laughing as Apophis railed against you." Ba'al's attention swung toward Daniel. "Only the knowledge that that he possessed Daniel's beloved and had impregnated her with his seed brought him any type of satisfaction."
"Easy Daniel," Jack said, throwing out an arm to hold Daniel back. Fury twisted Daniel's face, but Ba'al merely chuckled at the ineffectual bluster.
"So." Ba'al swept past the humans, eyeing the gold box as he circled the table. Catching sight of Shaggy and Scooby cringing against the wall, Ba'al curled his lip and flashed his eyes at them. His laughter echoed through the chamber as Scooby and Shaggy scrambled to cower behind Teal'c and Jack. Placing his hands on the table, he leaned over the box and looked at Daniel. "Let us cut to the chase. You will open the chest, we will take the Tapac Yauri, and if we are feeling generous, we may spare you."
Jack snorted. "What's with the 'we'? Got a mouse in you pocket? How 'bout this," he continued, not giving Ba'al a chance to answer. "We take the Ta'pac Tau'ri, we don't kill you, and you get the hell out of our solar system."
"Don't be a fool, O'Neill. We have a tel'tak in orbit, a hat'tak on the far side of your stunted moon, and an entire troop of Jaffa in the tunnel. There is no way you can escape. Open the chest."
Crossing his arms Daniel, stepped back from the table. "Do it yourself."
Ba'al contemplated him for a moment, the silence stretching on. "Inti was a genius at discovering and adapting technology," he finally said, casually. "He was also one of the most devious Goa'uld we've ever had the displeasure of knowing. We will not be the ones caught by one of his traps." Lifting his arm, Ba'al kept his eyes on Daniel as a continuous ribbon of light lanced out from a device on his left hand and struck Daphne in the forehead. She cried out, her face twisting in pain as she dropped to her knees.
A choked sound came from Fred, and he took two steps toward her, but Jack's hand on his collar and the surge of Jaffa toward him made the young man stop in his tracks. Daniel and Ba'al were locked in a match of wills that Daniel quickly broke.
"All right." Daniel moved toward the chest and Ba'al released Daphne, who collapsed into Fred's arms. Teal'c clenched his fist, an almost overwhelming desire to wipe the smirk of Ba'al's face flooding through him.
Instead he waited, along with everyone else, as Daniel studied the carvings on the table and the chest. Teal'c soon left off watching Daniel and instead surreptitiously studied Ba'al's Jaffa. The vast majority of them, including all of the ones in the chamber, wore helms and had them fully closed. Teal'c knew the helms were more for inspiring fear in backward cultures than providing any sort of protection-- besides which, while the helms had a heads up display in them, they made a Jaffa effectively blind at close quarter fighting. If Daniel was able to distract Ba'al with the Ta'pac Tau'ri, the rest of SG-1 might be able to overwhelm his Jaffa.
A glance at O'Neill let Teal'c know that he had been thinking along the same lines. So together they bided their time, running over possible scenarios until Daniel finally reached for the chest.
He simultaneously pressed four of the symbols on the front in turn, which caused three bolts to come out on either side. One by one he slid those back in: two on the left, one on the right, one on the left, then two on the right. A loud, metallic 'snikt' accompanied the last bolt, causing Scooby to whine.
Flexing his fingers, Daniel reached for the flat lid of the chest as a hungry look of anticipation crossed Ba'al's face. Slowly, inch by inch, Daniel lifted the lid off the chest. As soon as the lid had cleared the top, he sagged in relief and propped it against the pedestal's base. Both Ba'al and Daniel leaned over slightly to look into the chest, barely missing knocking heads.
This time the ancient myths were correct, the Ta'pac Tau'ri was indeed a gold staff; an intricately carved shaft topped by a disk with a stylized Incan face on it with rays emanating from the face, lying on a mottled brown and olive cloth. Daniel cocked his head, and noting this Teal'c looked closer, although he couldn't see the contents of the chest, he could discern a faint blue glow coming from it.
"Sam," Daniel said as he turned to her, "can you scan this for me?"
Ba'al held up his hand again, stopping her before Sam had a chance to move. "Have her do it," he said nodding at Velma who had furtively crept closer, trying to get a better look at the chest and what was in it.
"I don't know how to use one of those." Velma tried to protest, but Ba'al merely held up his left hand again and she quickly took the scanner from Sam and stood between Daniel and Ba'al. Ineffectually she stabbed at a few buttons, throwing a beseeching glance at Daniel until he took pity on her and showed her which ones would activate the device. It beeped, and Daniel nodded to himself; Teal'c suspected he had been anticipating the answer he had received.
"There's a stasis field of some kind, maybe the lid has some instruction on how to deactivate it –" But before Daniel could bend down to get the lid, Ba'al had growled in annoyance and grabbed Velma's elbow, thrusting her arm into the chest and drawing a startled "Oh!" from her.
"Take it," Ba'al demanded; although Velma shot him a look of loathing, she did as she was told, with the grip he had on her she could do no less. But before Velma had a chance to, she screamed and yanked her hand out, bringing along a large snake, fangs still sunk deep between the tendons of her hand.
It was the moment Teal'c and Jack had been waiting for, as the chamber erupted in mass chaos. They began zatting Jaffa as half the humans screamed and ran about, trying to get away from the venomous snake flailing from the end of Velma's arm as she attempted to shake it off. Ba'al shouted at his men in Goa'uld, directing them while at the same time searching for the chest that the snake had knocked off the pedestal in a desperate effort to release its fangs now stuck between the tendons in Velma's hand.
Still huddled in the corner, Shaggy and Scooby clutched at each other, their gibbering a low counter point to the screams and shouts bouncing off the stone walls. Not paying much attention to the specifics going on around them, they were surprised to see the Ta'pac Tau'ri, kicked by an inattentive Jaffa, skitter toward them and stop at Shaggy's feet. Without thinking, Shaggy reached out and shoved it behind them, then looked around for Daniel.
Daniel had just zatted a guard when something bounced off his cheek and fell to the floor. Picking it up he discovered it was a small lint covered cookie of sorts. Another one hit him on the forehead, and he looked up to see Shaggy gesturing for him to come over and Scooby pointing behind them. So he fired off a few blasts, hoping he wasn't shooting in the direction of any of his team and made a dash for the pair.
"We got it!" Shaggy told him, pulling the Ta'pac Tau'ri out and brandishing it triumphantly. Daniel grabbed it from him as he saw a murderous looking Ba'al sweeping down upon them. Hoping he had read the instructions correctly, Daniel closed his eyes and activated the staff.
A bright light blinded Teal'c, and he quickly moved to the side, crouching down, anticipating that Ba'al's Jaffa would begin shooting indiscriminatingly around the room. But there were no staff blasts, and as the light faded and Teal'c's vision returned he saw that this was because there were no Jaffa. Only empty armor and lone weapons lying on the ground where his misguided brethren had stood. Cautiously Teal'c peered down the corridor; it too was filled with armor and weapons.
"What have you done with our Jaffa!"
The deep, furious voice caused Teal'c to turn and see Ba'al, hand half raised, standing in front of Daniel who wielded the Ta'pac Tau'ri in front of him like a baseball bat. Sam was in the opposite corner, cradling a very ashen Velma who now had the severed head of a snake stuck in her hand. Daphne, pale but with a determined set to her jaw, and Enrique were on the other side of Sam, while Fred slowly crept closer to Ba'al, his hands clenched so tightly around the gold lid he was carrying that his knuckles were white. Jack was right behind Fred, clearly torn on whether to let him brain the Goa'uld or not.
"They're at Kheb," Daniel answered, getting to his feet, still brandishing the Ta'pac Tau'ri. "That's what this does. Sends worthy Jaffa to Kheb."
"You lie. Our Jaffa were not worthy. What has happened to them?" Ba'al lifted his hand and Daniel neatly swung the staff, the edge of the sun face intersecting with the red crystal in the device, causing it to shatter, along with the bones in Ba'al's wrist. A surprised look flitted across Daniel's face, and he smugly smiled for a moment.
Jack placed a hand on Fred's shoulder, frowning at the lid, and Fred sheepishly put it down as Jack moved past him to stand next to Ba'al. "Nice aim," he said to Daniel. "D'you really send them to Kheb? By the way, what is a Kheb?"
Keeping an eye on Ba'al who was concentrating on taking off the ruined device and examining his wrist, Teal'c flanked him, answering Jack's question. "Kheb is where a Jaffa's soul will dwell in the afterlife."
Ba'al snorted and just refrained from rolling his eyes. "If one believes in that sort of thing."
"And I take it you don't," Jack said.
"The planet itself is greatly feared by the System Lords," Teal'c interjected. "To go there is forbidden by them." All eyes turned to Ba'al who simply stared back.
"We do not believe you," he said to Daniel. "Why would Inti create such a device? "
"You get better results with a carrot than a stick?" Jack quipped. "Anyway," he continued, "Daniel's never wrong and they're better off there than with you, that's for dammed sure. Let's get outta here. Teal'c, keep your eye on the Ba'al. I'm sure the guys at Area 51 will be love getting their hands on him."
"What about Velma?" Everyone except Teal'c and Ba'al turned at Daphne's quavering voice. Velma's eyes were closed, her face paper white.
Sam and Jack's eyes met, and Sam shook her head. "Enrique says there's no antivenom at the hotel, and I think she'd be dead before we could get her to the nearest hospital."
"You have the healing device, do you not, Major Carter?"
"I do," Sam answered Teal'c, "but I'm not that good with it. If Velma's too far gone I won't be able to save her."
"You might not, but he would." Teal'c looked at Ba'al who continued to concentrate on his wrist, flexing the joint as finished healing.
Sam gently transferred Velma to Daphne, then slipped off her pack to dig around in it and pull out the Goa'uld healing device. Getting up, she offered it to Ba'al who pointedly ignored it.
"This can go down two ways," Jack said conversationally. "You can fix her, and we let you live. Or we can kill you now."
"Remaining here on this backward planet being poked and prodded by your 'scientists' is no way to live. I'd rather die. Release me and I will heal the woman."
Jack and Ba'al stared at one another, each taking the other's measure, before Jack nodded. "Yeah, awright."
Ba'al smirked again, and took the device from Sam, slipping it on as he made his way over to Velma. He reached down and tore the snake's head from her hand. She didn't react, and the wound barely bled, she was so far gone.
"This would be easier if you had a sarcophagus," Ba'al said idly, a warm orange light from his hand bathing Velma and Daphne's body.
Teal'c saw Daniel shudder, but no one answered Ba'al as he continued. Eventually the light faded, and he pulled off the device, tossing it to Sam as Velma's eyes fluttered open.
"She is healed. Now let us go."
"Jack, we can't just—he might know where Sha're is," Daniel pleaded with Jack.
"We made a deal Daniel. We keep our end of a bargain." Jack clearly didn't like it either, and Teal'c silently agreed, but as he said a deal was a deal.
Back down the tunnel they went; Jack and Sam took point, Ba'al and Teal'c behind them, followed by Daniel, who still clutched the Ta'pac Tau'ri, Mystery Inc tending to Velma, and Enrique.
"You at least have the Harcesis," Ba'al tossed over his shoulder to Daniel as they climbed the stairs to the chamber with the khipu chains.
"No we don't," Daniel automatically replied. Ba'al chuckled.
"Heru-ur didn't take the infant. He doesn't have the brains. I will tell you this, Daniel." Reaching the room with the rings, Ba'al walked onto the platform, spinning to face SG-1, his heavy robes swirling around him. "You will find your Sha're with Apophis. With the loss of the Harcesis, he will breed with her again. And to ensure that nothing happens to her, he never strays far from home."
"Why are you telling me this?" Daniel asked.
Teal'c saw Ba'al's eyes drop to the staff and watched his hands flex before the System Lord spoke. "We believe the saying goes 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'? Although that only goes so far." He sighed. "Life was so much more simpler before you meddling Tau'ri showed up again." The smirk was back, then gone with Ba'al as the rings lifted up and he disappeared in a flash of light.
Daniel sighed too, and turned away.
"So," Fred started, setting his fork down. His breakfast plate was empty, as was everyone else's, barring Shaggy and Scooby. They were making inroads on their third trip to the buffet, with no sign of slowing down. Even Teal'c had admitted defeat in keeping up with them. "Now what?"
"Now you go home, and you never tell anyone what you saw here." Jack sat back in his chair, stretching his legs out in front of him with a satisfied grunt.
Shaggy swallowed a bite of mango with an audible gulp. "I gotta tell my mom and dad you're not really aliens."
Teal'c frowned and leaned forward. "They cannot learn of this."
"Already do," Shaggy said around a mouthful of camu camus. "They met you guys on their way to Woodstock."
"Holy Hanna," Sam breathed, staring at the rest of the team before bursting into laughter.