Chapter One
The stargate – or whatever it was – was at least twelve feet tall, with thirty-nine glyphs engraved on the outer ring.
"What is that?" Daniel asked, awed.
Catherine smiled indulgently. "That, Dr Jackson, is your 'stargate'."
Briefing room
Daniel wasn't sure whether he should stand when General West entered the room, as O'Neill, Captain Carter and Major Kawalsky did, or if he should stay seated. However, as West did not even bother to glance in his direction, he needn't have worried.
"Have you finished selecting your team, Colonel?" He asked without preamble.
"Yeah, slight problem in that regard, General. Carter?"
Sam handed out copies of a thin file around the table. Inside his copy, Daniel found satellite photos, star-maps, and photos of the cover-stone from the stargate. "There's no way back, sir," she stated quite simply. "The symbols on the other side don't match the ones on our device… stargate."
"I am aware of that, Captain."
"Yes, sir. But with no evidence of a key on the other side, we have no way of deciphering the symbols or the order. These photos," she indicated the star-maps and satellite photos, "could eventually have enabled us to dial the address of the other gate… if we had about a million years to work on combinations. That's having a good knowledge of star constellations in our little corner of the galaxy. From the other side, we wouldn't even have this kind of data to work with."
"Which, apparently, is a big problem."
"Thank you, Colonel," West frowned. "What you're saying is, any trip to the other side would be strictly one way."
"Yes, sir. That's the most likely possibility."
"Actually, no it isn't."
West acknowledged Daniel for the first time since entering the room. "What do you mean?"
"Well, the gate on the other side seems to be in a place of honour. From what the images on the probe told us, it looks like it's inside a temple, or even more likely, a pyramid. Ancient Egyptian culture being what it was, they left a lot behind compared to other cultures in an around the same period." He took a few of the photos from Sam's file and held them up, indicating not the stargate which was the main feature of the stills, but the temple in which it was standing. "The infrastructure of the temple is intact, and from what I can tell, pretty well maintained. I imagine this place is still open and in regular use. And I'm willing to bet the only reason the gate hasn't been activated from the other side in the past two years is that they gave up trying centuries ago at least."
"You're sure they'd have some sort of written record of the symbols and order of alignment?" West pressed.
"Yes."
"What if there isn't?" Sam asked.
"Excuse me?"
"What if you're wrong? What if they don't have a written record? And there could be any number of reasons why they wouldn't. Cultural revolution, natural disaster…"
"I'm not wrong." Daniel cut her off. "I know it." Finding himself in a room filled with nothing but blank stares, Daniel was sharply reminded of his most recent lecture, right before the room blew up in his face. Steeling himself, he continued. "Look, you people hired me because you needed an expert on Ancient Egyptian culture, and as that expert, I can pretty much guarantee there will be a record of what a team will need if they don't wanna spend the rest of their lives on another planet filled with God-only-knows-what kind of people. It could be like the Dark Ages over there."
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Jack butted in, "but wasn't one of the defining points of the Dark Ages the destruction of historical artefacts and the suppression of old ways?"
The room was quiet for another brief moment. Then West asked "You're certain you'll be able to find what you need to bring the team back?"
"Yes. If the culture that built the stargate had been suppressed, they wouldn't have it in a place of honour. And that's clearly what this temple is. Even if all I find is the symbols, the rest will be easy. I mean, how many possible…"
"Seven hundred and twenty," Sam supplied. "Five thousand and forty if we don't know which one's the point of origin."
Kawalsky shifted uncomfortably. "How many possible combinations are there if we don't find the 'key' on the other side?"
For barely a second, Sam's eyes rolled upwards as if the answer were written behind them and she were trying to get a look at it. Then; Seventy-seven billion, one hundre…"
"A lot." Jack cut her off. He glanced at her. "Tell me you had that worked out before this meeting."
"Okay. But I'd be lying."
Jack stared at Sam, ruefully shaking his head. Kawalsky just looked stunned.
West looked at Daniel, sizing him up. Daniel had the sense of being sized up for a body-bag, and tried his best not to let it show that the whole time he'd been trying to talk over their heads and show them how good he was at his job, he'd been struggling like never before to keep his breakfast down.
"Very well." West agreed at last. "You're on the team."
"For cryin' out loud." Jack muttered under his breath. "Goddamn geek squad."
Jack's expression was sombre as he walked away from the briefing room and through an all but deserted corridor to an unmarked metal door. The SF on guard duty checked his ID before hitting the release button and waving him through.
As he had half-expected, West was waiting for him.
"What do you make of Jackson, Colonel?" He asked, his attention focused on the object in the centre of the room.
"He's a geek, sir." Jack responded immediately. "But, much as it pains me to admit it, he and Dr Langford might be right about us needing him."
"Do you think that he can be trusted?"
"He's signed the confidentiality agreement, so he's not going to talk – though I'd say he'd like to be able to tell people that he was right all along if he could."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know what you meant." Jack said quietly, his own eyes drawn to the object only a few had seen. "He won't go along with it if he figures it out, but I could say the same about Carter, Kawalsky, Ferretti – the whole team."
"Then it's your job to ensure that they don't."
Jack's face was set, his expression neutral when he responded. "Yes, sir."
The pair of them were silent for a moment before West gestured to the fossilized remains before them. "We can't afford to take any chances on this one. This is…a complicated issue."
"Are you afraid I won't be able to do what's necessary if this doesn't go well?"
Producing two cigars from his jacket pocket, he offered one to Jack, who shook his head silently. "You've always been able to do what was necessary, Jack," the general told his subordinate, cutting and lighting his stogie. "That's why I wanted you for this."
The room was quiet again as he puffed on the cigar. A heavy cloud of smoke, smelling ever-so-slightly of cloves, drifted slowly around, rising as it circled around the large black shape of what, according to images from several texts, a part-human, part-something-else Anubite jackal.
Daniel had felt too excited to even contemplate the idea of eating but Dr Langford had insisted, dragging Sam, who seemed to have the same idea, from her lab to join them for lunch.
At West's insistence, civilian involvement in the program was being minimized. It was now very much the concern of the US Air Force and Catherine was well aware of the fact that had it not been for her own and her family's history with the project, she would undoubtedly not even have been allowed to stay on the base long enough to see the team off on their mission.
Had she been a few years younger, she would have liked to go with them herself but she understood that it simply wasn't possible.
Once the three of them were sitting down at one of the tables in the commissary, eating what the menu insisted was spaghetti bolognaise, Catherine took a gold necklace out of her pocket and handed it to Sam.
"I wanted to give you something. This was found the same day as the stargate. It always brought me luck." She explained, closing the younger woman's fingers around it.
"Catherine, I… it's beautiful." Sam began. "But I couldn't wear it, not on a mission." She knew that Colonel O'Neill, Major Kawalsky and every other officer on the mission would never let her hear the end of it if she wore jewellery.
"May I see it?" Daniel asked, taking it from Sam's hand. "The Eye of Ra." He said immediately. "The sun god."
Perhaps you would like to wear it yourself, Doctor." Catherine suggested kindly.
"Oh, I couldn't…"
"Please." She insisted. "Just bring it back to me."
His team – even Jackson – were already assembled and waiting for him when he joined them.
Jack surveyed them briefly before gruffly asking "Does anyone want to say anything before we go?"
A sneeze from Jackson was the only response.
"Alright," Jack said. "Move out."
Kawalsky led the way, with Ferretti controlling the FRED, which trundled up the ramp next to them and the rest of the men followed them, one or two hesitating momentarily before stepping through.
From the control room, Catherine waved at Sam, smiling encouragingly.
She, Colonel O'Neill and Dr Jackson brought up the rear, the latter stopping dead in front of the stargate, staring at it for a few seconds before tentatively dipping his face into the event horizon.
A couple of seconds later, the archaeologist found himself going through the stargate somewhat faster than he had originally intended when a helpful 'nudge' from O'Neill's boot propelled him forward.
"Sir!" Sam was alarmed. "I don't think you should have done that. We don't know what kind of stress travelling through a wormhole puts on the human body…"
"He'll be fine." Jack said, unimpressed.
Sam would have argued but the gentle ripples in the shimmering blue puddle in front of her drew her attention. "You can actually see the fluctuations in the event horizon."
She was in two minds over whether or not she dared linger a few moments longer to observe what she was seeing when a hand landed on her shoulder and shoved her firmly forward.
Jack didn't even look back before marching through the stargate himself.
TBC.