"Teal'c?" Sam pulled the collar of her BDU jacket up higher around her neck as a gust of cold air blasted its way down the gully and on towards the tiny village. "What do you make of this?" she said pointing to softened score marks along the side walls.

Teal'c stopped his reconnoiter and looked up to where she was pointing. Eyes narrowing, he stepped closer to the nearest wall. "A waterline perhaps?"

"More like several… and over quite a length of time, I'd say." She walked across the rocky gully floor and up to the wall, reaching out and running a hand over the lowest water line. "I'm no geologist, but the rocks embedded in the wall don't look smooth enough for this to be even a semi-permanent watercourse."

"What are you suggesting, Major Carter?"

"I'm not sure," she mused, digging into the earth around a rock. "The soil is heavily compacted, which means it hasn't seen a lot of moisture. At least not recently."

"Did not the scan on this planet reveal traces of naquadah in the soil?"

"Sure did, Teal'c. That's the primary reason the SGC wanted to establish some sort of unilateral trade with the Otakai. Resonance scans revealed several deep veins of naquadah within easy reach of the Stargate, which would make transporting the ore fairly simple."

Teal'c nodded and turned his attention back to the wall. "Then perhaps this is not a watercourse at all, but a trail cut into the gully by the Goa'uld slaves who once mined this area."

"There was no evidence of Goa'uld activity on this planet."

"Not in recent times, no, but the co-ordinates to this world came from the Abydos cartouche, did they not?"

Sam conceded the point with a shrug. "There is that. Still, this gully doesn't feel man-made, and I'm fairly certain these marks are waterlines."

"You are suggesting this area has flooded at some point?"

Sam pointed up towards the gully ridge line. "At several points. See the difference in colors from yellows to dark browns?" Teal'c looked at where she was pointing and nodded. "I can't be sure but I think that difference determines the most recent flood activity to the earliest. The most recent being the deeper color."

"Does your theory come with the ability to determine when water last coursed here?"

"Ah, no… for that we'd definitely need a geologist."

Teal'c turned away from the wall and looked across at the village, about a hundred feet further down the gully. "I do not believe this information is of any use to Daniel Jackson."

"No," Sam agreed, "and I had no luck with the village chief. I'm pretty sure women don't play any governing role here."

"He would not listen to your council?"

"Didn't even bother to look me in the eye before summarily dismissing me. It's funny, though, because when we made first contact with these people, the chief was only too eager to talk with me, despite me not knowing what he was saying, but now…"

They made their way slowly back towards the village. Teal'c swept his gaze from one side of the gully to the other, making note of several clutches of Otakai warriors positioned along the thick scrub that lined the ridges. Sure that he'd calculated their strength and disposition; he turned his attention back towards the village. "I do not believe Chief Asmun showed indifference to you because you are female, Major Carter, but because he is unsure of his position in regards to Daniel Jackson."

"You think?"

"I do. I have heard whispers of dissension among the other village elders. They do not believe Daniel Jackson to be the god Asmun is purporting him to be."

Sam reached out and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him in close. Out of habit, she quickly scanned the area to make sure they were alone, despite also being aware of the Otakai hidden on the ridge. "Daniel is still trying to understand their language. Are you saying you can?"

"I cannot. However, the Otakai have several words that are replicated in the Goa'uld language. It is this commonality that leads me to believe these people are the descendents of slaves that once mined the naquadah here."

"Daniel knows this?"

"He does. The common words are few and could be an aberration of the language that has occurred through prolonged trade through the Stargate."

"Now, you're starting to sound like Daniel," Sam said with a warm smile.

"Daniel Jackson is a very good teacher."