Disclaimer: I don't own most of the characters here, just the Captain in the beginning and the people on P7X-617. Everything else and the show belongs to those who created it, MGM etc. etc.
A/N #1: The native language here I made up myself, but I used translators for Aramaic, Greek and Ancient Egyptian though the words I used are more Aramaic and Greek with a few Egyptian sprinkled here and there. Of course, all three languages have their own writing, so what I have in this story is the Latin text of those words. And a quick translation of what I have in this chapter:
- B'man ayt esi, hao ech at ayoa oi ora Who are you, that has come through the ring
A/N #2: Philae is a real place on earth; it's an island on the Nile River in Egypt.
A/N #3: Thanks so much for the reviews skullycandy12 and Amphytion. I greatly, greatly appreciate you taking the time to let me know what you think. And just to set the record straight, this is a pure Daniel/Sam ship fic as it says in the summary!
A/N #4: Please keep reviewing so I know if anyone's interested enough for me to continue posting this up! It's all written out, I'm just waiting for some lovely reviews for the readers out there!
Chapter Two
The Storm
The team stood at the bottom of the dune standing in a line, all of them holding their weapons close as the riders came to a halt ten feet in front of them, all but one of the men peering at the four curiously. The one man not so obviously inquisitive seemed to be the leader, his animal; which appeared to be an Arabian horse with camel-like feet; was taller than the others behind him.
Getting off of his animal, the man strode up to the team, searching for their leader.
Glancing at Jack briefly, Daniel stepped forward when the colonel inclined his head slightly and nodded respectfully. He was about to speak, when the man surprisingly beat him to it.
"B'man ayt esi, hao ech at ayoa oi ora?" the man asked in a rich, almost musical, deep voice.
"He asked who we are," Daniel said over his shoulder after a translating in his mind the language that the man was speaking; what he quickly identified as a form of Aramaic mixed with Ancient Greek.
"You speak the same language of the enslavers," the man said suddenly before Daniel could answer his question as he turned his head back.
"It's… we speak English, the language of our world, Earth," Daniel said, surprised. "Do you mean the Gou'ald by 'enslavers'?"
"They were men, and a few women with eyes that would glow," the man replied.
"Are they here still? Or do they ever come back through the Stargate?" Sam asked.
"They have not been on our planet since the time our ancestors were brought here," the man said. "They attempted to return a few years after, but they were driven away by The Ruler."
"The Ruler? You have a king?" Jack asked.
"No, I am the leader of my people," the man said. "I am Thorcamb. The Ruler was a sorcerer who died not too long after the… Gou'ald as you call them, tried to return."
"Except for now," a young man, barely seventeen said from his animal.
"Yes, we are plagued with the soul of him once more," Thorcamb said, looking displeased. "Why have you come to our home? You are here to join The Ruler, or to help us?"
"Neither actually," Jack said. When he saw Daniel shoot him a look he fell silent, seeing that Thorcamb seemed to be disappointed.
"Thorcamb, we haven't come to help," Daniel said as gently as he could. "I am Daniel Jackson, and this is Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter and Teal'c. We travel through a Stargate on our planet to explore and to try and find the Gou'ald and when we can find allies or new weapons to help us fight them and to try to learn all we can of people on other worlds. That is why we have come here."
"I see, you have come randomly to find these men with glowing eyes," Thorcamb said. "We have weapons, and I would be happy to ally ourselves with anyone against our ancestors' enslavers. But I cannot undertake such a decision myself; it requires the approval of the council. You are all welcome to come to our city until the matter has been decided."
"We'd be honored," Daniel said quickly. "How far is it to the city?"
"From here, half a day's ride," Thorcamb replied, gesturing to the men behind him. "You will need a mondary, I hope that will not be a problem."
"Yeah, that's fine. We do it all the time," Jack said absently, looking at the four animals that two men were bringing up to them.
"Jack, try not to insult them by lying to them," Daniel said with a small smile as the colonel hoisted himself up on the leather saddle a little awkwardly.
"I know, I just hope these things ride like horses," Jack said as the rest of the team got on the other three animals. "Okay, we're ready to go."
Back on his mondary, Thorcamb nodded and nudged it with his heels, motioning for SG-1 to ride after him. Once they were past the group of men, they turned to ride after their leader behind the team.
As they were riding, Daniel sensed something behind him, as if someone were watching. It was a weird feeling and was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He turned back and saw the sky behind the dune filling with what looked like reddish-brown smoke. He recognized it as the start of a sandstorm; he'd been through many before; but none had ever produced such an eerie feeling before and it worried him.
"You okay?" Sam asked, riding next to Daniel. She had noticed him turn his head and that he hadn't yet looked forward again. Turning her head in the same direction, she saw the start of the sandstorm, and it was as if she had been plunged into icy water. A chill enveloped her and though she tried to pass it off as a remnant of what had happened in the forest, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her. Shivering inwardly, she turned back after glancing to see that Daniel had turned his head back as well.
The group rode in silence for half the journey when suddenly Daniel spoke saying, "It's a beautiful planet," to try to ignore the sensation in his body that hadn't gone away in all the time they'd ridden.
"Yes, it has changed though, greatly, since the time of our ancestors," Thorcamb said, nodding to indicate his pleasure at Daniel's statement. "It used to be nothing but desert and sand dunes far taller than even the one you climbed. But the weather changed and now our planet is turning to forest."
"Amazing," Daniel said, a little absently. He was looking out around them and could see that Thorcamb was right. Though there were still sand dunes off to the horizon, they were few and far between as well as the red sand that constituted the dunes. There were more patches of forest like the one the Stargate was in. And supplying the nourishment for those forests were storm clouds. They were patchy though, only falling around the forests and the sand around the edges, green creeping outward from there. Above the group then was a clear cerulean blue sky, two suns shining down on them as they rode over desert sand.
"So where do you think these people were taken from?" Sam asked suddenly while Daniel was looking around.
"Well, the language Thorcamb spoke at first is a derivative of Aramaic," Daniel replied, noticing a patch of forest they were fast approaching. "But by their looks it seems like they're also Greek and Egyptian. It may be the Gou'ald had intended this to be a larger base for new slaves." He frowned and shook his head when he saw out of the corner of his eye that Thorcamb was nearing him.
"You are interested in the history of our people Da'niel?" Thorcamb asked, having heard him speak.
"Yes, it's very fascinating to me, especially since you have a mix of different cultures," Daniel replied.
"Yes, and you are correct in who we are descended from," Thorcamb said, smiling when Daniel looked surprised that he'd overheard him. "When we were first brought here, our ancestors were of three separate tribes according to our historians. The people of the Islands, the people of the Desert and the people of the Blue River. There was a period of unrest and war between these groups after our arrival. The confrontation was over who would rule over us all since our enslavers didn't return immediately. The fighting was fierce and lasted for five seasons until everything was ended."
"How, a treaty between the tribes?" Sam asked, having been listening to the leader.
"No, the leader of the people of the Islands was killed in battle, and soon after the people of the Blue River and the people of the Desert were joined together by the marriage of the leaders' son and daughter. The people of the Islands soon surrendered to the other to groups and negotiations for peace began. Ever since then the people have intermarried and there has been little unrest between us all."
"There's only your city?" Daniel asked.
"No, our people have grown over the years, and it has been necessary to establish other cities around our world," Thorcamb answered. "Where we go to now; Philae; is the first city our ancestors founded."
"How many cities are there in all?" Daniel asked.
"Nine, including Philae," Thorcamb replied. "We have maps of our world and of our cities that I have at the palace. It would give me great honor to show you, to help you learn as much as you wish to know of us, of our world."
"I'd be honored to learn Thorcamb," Daniel said sincerely, nodding his head, knowing that Jack would appreciate knowledge of the outlay of the planet and that there were more people; which meant more allies.
"Good," Thorcamb nodded. By then they'd reached the forest and he stopped his mondary, turning slightly in his saddle. He called out to the men behind him and then dismounted. "We require a rest for our animals before we continue on to the city."
"You know, I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this," Jack said as they followed the leader into the forest and the men followed behind them. "How do we even know that they're taking us into this city? Could be a trap."
"I do not believe so Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said. "The leader seems eager to become allies with us against the Gou'ald, though they are no longer a threat to this world."
"He's right," Daniel said. "Plus they didn't try to take away our weapons. You shouldn't be so paranoid," he finished with a brief smile.
"Oh for crying out loud, someone has to watch out for us on these missions," Jack replied. He shook his head and looked ahead where Thorcamb had stopped at a large pond. "You're right though Daniel, beautiful planet. If it has good fishing at that ocean we saw to the west it could be paradise."
By then the rest of the men had joined them and all the mondaries were drinking the clear water. It was peaceful and quiet in the forest, the only sound the low chatter of the men surrounding the pond, standing next to their animals. Daniel though was feeling still like someone was watching him, and it abruptly grew stronger; Sam feeling the same sensation too.
Almost instantly, Thorcamb whirled around as the sun seemed to disappear and the mondaries all raised their heads, neighing loudly in agitation, water dripping from their mouths. He shouted to the men just as the sun completely vanished behind a thick wall of sand and wind began to whip through the trees.
"What the hell is this?" Jack asked as the men started to run with their mondaries towards a small path.
"Da'niel, Colonel, we much take shelter!" Thorcamb yelled over the din of the wind and rustling trees. "It is the Ruler!"
Without another word, the SG-1 team took off behind Thorcamb, running as they pulled their mondaries along. Deeper in the foliage they could see that everyone was heading into an underground cave that had a door of tree bark that made it look like part of the tree above it. By then the wind was at a fierce gust and blowing from every direction, making running almost impossible. But Jack managed to get inside first; Teal'c hurrying after some men following the colonel and Daniel was quick to run behind the Jaffa. In the confusion, the three failed to notice that their teammate had fallen behind.
As the colonel had run into the shelter, Sam had heard the muffled sound of someone yelling for help. Though she knew she needed to get to the shelter, she broke off from the others and ran to her right in the direction of the voice.
"Help me! Please, I will be taken!" one of the men was yelling at the top of his lungs. His mondary had ran away from him instead of going to shelter as it had been trained to do and he'd gone after it, unable to let his animal possibly perish or get lost in the storm. When he'd caught up to it, the leather reins were wrapped up in a low tree branch, tangled. He had nothing to cut the thick leather, and he knew they were both doomed unless he left his animal; which he couldn't do. He yelled again though it was hopeless, and was surprised to see a form running to him, more so when he saw it was the woman of the four travelers.
"Wait! Easy!" Sam yelled when the man shouted rapidly in a mix of English and the other native language, something about being taken and The Ruler. "I'll get you out of here!"
"It is not safe! He will take us both! I must free my animal and we must run," the man yelled frantically as the storm strengthened and the sound of breaking branches cracked all around them.
"I'll set him loose and as soon as I do, take him and run back to that shelter!" Sam shouted as she pulled out her knife from its sheath. She held it against the reins and with a quick jerk up they were free. When the man grabbed the mondary and took off at that point she wasn't too far behind. But as they neared the shelter the sand thickened, the reddish grains blocking her view and she lost sight of the native in front of her.
Stopping, Sam felt a moment of fear as she quickly realized she had no idea which way she needed to go, but tried to push that away, not able to afford losing her control to panic. Without the man to guide her she was disoriented and everything around her was covered by swirling red sand. She took a step forward in the direction she'd been going, but the wind blew straight into her, knocking her backwards. A sudden gust pushed her slightly to the right and she yelled, "Hey! Help! Someone help!" on the off chance the native was near and could come back to help her.
Instead of hearing a voice in reply, Sam felt the hairs on her arms stand up and a crackle of electricity sounded behind her. Turning, she nearly screamed when she saw the outline of a hand in a wall of dense sand coming towards her, and she took off, trying to get away though she had no idea what direction she was going. The sand was thick around her and it was all that Sam could do not to run into a tree or branch as they suddenly appeared in her path. Her heart was pounding loud in her chest and ears and she was soon running out of breath; there was only so much farther she could run at that point.
Before she could worry about slowing down and stopping, Sam tripped over a tree root that she hadn't been able to see sticking up from the ground. She fell hard to the dirt around the tree, knocking the wind out of her and as soon as the initial shock from that disappeared, she felt excruciating pain from her ankle. Looking down, she could see that her foot was hanging limply from her leg and felt her mouth grow dry as nausea rushed over her. Trying not to scream, she flipped onto her back and saw that she had run out of time.
The last thing Sam knew before she was engulfed by the storm and unconsciousness was a deep, bellowed, "You are mine!" and the sight of an angry, evil face in the wall of sand rushing to meet her.
