Chapter 2

Back at the SGC, Dr. Daniel Jackson sat in his office concentrating with all of his might on the images brought back from the R7H-229, or what they called the graveyard planet. The planet itself wasn't desolate in fact it boasted some of the most beautiful forests he had ever seen, but the entire planet seemed to be covered in gravestones and other memorials.

He remembered some of them being extremely reminiscent of an Earth gravestone, simply saying a name and a date. However, some were more magnificent and implied an important demise. The one he was currently studying was one of the unique ones in more ways than one. For starters, he couldn't even begin to translate the writing, as hard as he might he couldn't find a single reference point. Another, the grave appeared to commemorate more than a single person or a family. All in all, especially given Superman's reveal, he was intrigued.

So far, the only thing he was able to do was conclude that the symbols did indeed look identical. What he really wanted now was to go back to that planet. Perhaps with the knowledge that this was some pillar to a far away planet or something along those lines he would be able to understand something. Maybe there was something he missed.

After another few hours of staring at the images and coming to the conclusion that he would not be able to get anything more out of it, he left his office and headed to General Landry in the hopes of getting permission to go back to the planet.

When he got there, he was surprised to see the rest of his team, all looking rather bored in civilian clothes.

"What are you guys doing here? I thought you were all investigating this Superman the more mainstream way?" Daniel asked, confused.

"Well, Daniel, we were," began Vala, "but it was so terribly boring. We went all the way – well we beamed there actually - to this great looking city, Metropolis, and started asking people things. Everyone would just go on and on about how great and noble and heroic Superman is. I wanted to puke!"

"It wasn't that bad." Carter explained, "but she is right about one thing, no one had any doubts. We talked to a lot of people who had either seen his saves or were saved and not one of them had a bad thing to say."

"Indeed." Teal'c said in confirmation with Sam's statement.

"You're quiet, Mitchell." Daniel asked, a little confused. The Colonel tended to be the loud mouth of the group. After he said that, the rest of the group chuckled a bit.

"Hey! My parents live in Kansas! I wanted to say hi. You guys didn't need me anyways." Cam told everyone.

"So, since you all forgot I was here, to recap – all five of you discovered nothing?" Landry surmised. Daniel simply frowned.

"Well I didn't say I found nothing." He replied with a slight attitude.

"Of course not. But had you found something, I'm sure we would have all known the second you walked in the door." Everyone more or less nodded in agreement and finally Daniel bowed his head in defeat.

After a moment to recover, Daniel came to the purpose of his trek to Landry's office, "Right well I did figure out one thing. I am almost 100% certain that Superman's symbol is the same as the symbol on the grave at that planet. While I can't deduce anything more from the images I figure it wouldn't hurt to take a trip back to the planet." Daniel closed his eyes after saying the last piece. He could practically see his team mates cringing at just the thought of heading back to a planet covered in tombstones. "I know guys it's a lame planet but what if it holds some answer to who or what this Superman fellow is?" While his team mates still looked displeased at the idea of going, they nevertheless nodded their heads in agreement.

"I'm going to have to agree with you," Landry began, "tomorrow at 0600 sharp you all depart for P – well I forgot the technical name, the graveyard planet." SG-1 nodded and headed out, either to prepare for the mission or get some rest.

Mitchell turned around as he heard the wormhole behind them close. To him, that moment felt like the real moment that the mission started. Sure, this planet sucked but for the young Lt. Colonel just being apart of this team was a dream come true. He did his best to appreciate every second of it, even the seconds when he was being shot at or whatnot. "Alright, where to Jackson?"

Jackson was looking at some sort of map he put together from a UAV sweep of the planet. After a few more moments of staring at it and looking around, he pointed towards a wooded area to the left. "I believe it's a couple of miles in that direction. As I recall, it was pretty easy to find last time almost like, we were supposed to find it, so I doubt it should be too hard." The rest of SG-1 nodded while Vala let out an audible groan.

Unfortunately for SG-1, the graveyard planet was already getting dark. Whereas the last time they visited the planet both suns were in opposite rotation and they had 24 hours of light, now they were more synchronous meaning there would be a period of darkness. Vala suggested going back but the rest agreed that they might as well get it over with.

They had been trekking in the dark for a little less than half an hour when Daniel started running towards something. The others looked at one another in question and finally Sam asked, "Did you find it?"

"I think so." Daniel replied. He came to an immediate halt at what appeared to be a huge monument. It was a giant cube which at first glance was about twice Daniel's height. The group looked in awe at the monument. After pausing for a moment to take in the magnitude of it, Jackson began to scan the stone with his flashlight and quickly came to what he was looking for. "It's right here." He pointed out the symbol with his light for the others to see. "No wonder I remember it, it's huge."

"So, I'll admit it, this thing is really impressive but what help is actually coming here going to do?" Cam asked, a little impatient. He really hated the idea of hanging out on a graveyard planet all night. Just as he finished asking, Daniel's face lit up with discovery.

"Sam! Come here. Look – see the tiny lettering under Superman's symbol," Daniel asked and Sam hurriedly jogged towards him. Her face too lit up in discovery.

"It's Asgard!" She exclaimed. Reaching forward, she touched the minuscule writing and almost immediately a piece of the monument fell off and onto the ground. "Oops." She said, while in reality she was incredibly confused as to how she could have damaged the extravagant piece.

"Sam, look at it. I think it was meant to come off." Daniel explained showing same the small cube that came off and the hole left by it.

"So what is it? Treasure?" Vala asked, for the first time actually excited by the trip.

"I don't know what it is." Daniel asked earnestly, "but I think we should really make a greater effort to get in contact with Thor." Daniel continued to scan and analyze the monument for a few minutes until finally he conceited it was unlikely he would be able to deduce anything else from the monument that night.

"Welcome back SG-1." Landry said with a distinctive frown on his face.

"Why is this the 2nd time in a row we've come back through the gate and there's been some news you've had to tell us." Cam asked.

"You tell me. All I know is Barrett just called to let us know he thinks he may be close to finding the last Ba'll clone on earth." Landry informed the group.

"Well, isn't that good news? Where is he?" Sam asked. She couldn't wait for the last Goa'uld who held any power to be completely eliminated.

"He's in Metropolis." Landry told them. They didn't need an explanation to know this was bad. Ba'll was doing what any Goa'uld would logically do – figure out how to exploit Superman for his own uses. "Obviously he hasn't succeeded in whatever he's trying to do since he appears to still be meak and worthless but we need to stop him before he finds a way to take the most powerful person ever to be seen and turn him into a weapon." Landry finished leaving SG-1 feeling anxious by the prospect. "Well, anyways how was the grave yard planet?"

"Actually, we found something," explained Jackson, "after we reached the monument I noticed the symbol and underneath it in tiny letters was something written in Asgard. I brought Sam over who touched it and some of the rock came off. We were going to take it back but we want to get your permission first since we don't know the primary language on it."

"Well, with Ba'll trying to find this guy I don't think we can afford not to follow the only lead we've got. However, being we don't know much of anything about this language or the people who wrote it I'm going to enact Level 1 Biohazard protocols." Landry finished and watched as SG-1 all nodded in agreement.