Chapter 9

Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter would soon, in O'Neill's words, spend the afternoon schmoozing with the head man.

Daniel and Teal'c were having fun translating the ancient monuments a good 5 clicks from the village.

Well Daniel was supposedly having fun. Teal'c was probably standing guard in the blazing heat and supposedly helping out with the filming and translations and, Jack hoped, not bored out of his mind. With Daniel a few miles away under Teal's watchful eye, Jack didn't have much to do except make nice with the natives while Daniel studied their ancestral treasures. Daniel planned to spend the heat of the day making accurate reproductions of and translating the stelae in the deep shade after a ritual was performed. While Jack and Sam were to spend it in the headman's cabin sipping a refreshing tea that had spent the morning in an cool spring. Jack had toyed with the idea of leaving Teal'c here with Carter but the more he thought about it the happier he was with his final choice. He was sure Teal'c would do Daniel no bodily harm, Teal'c was so much better tuning Daniel's nattering out that he was.

Carter had only just been allowed to go off world. Jack was sure her leg was still hurting but she refused to acknowledge it. She was ready to get back into the fray. Being hunted by the Kull Super Soldier had unnerved her and she needed to prove to herself and to her team that she was not weak. He suspected she was a bit annoyed that he had opted for this milk run for her first mission back. In the field she hated to be treated as anything less than a combat soldier.

Earlier in the day after Daniel and Teal'c left with the shaman, Jack could see Carter begin to relax as the small children tugged on her hands, climbed on her lap and touched her silky blonde hair. He envied those little children.

O'Neill sat as well on the narrow bench occupied by Samantha Carter surrounded by her fan club, a gaggle of little children. He had noticed she moved a little one off her freshly healed leg to the other. He kept another little one from climbing aboard that leg and bounced the small boy on his own dodgy knee.

"How you doing, Carter? Having fun?"

She gave him a dazzling smile. "Yes Sir."

"I hate to take you away from you fan club but the headman wants to have tea."

He didn't not look overwhelmed with the prospect.

"Maybe they'll have cake." she responded with a smile. This was a good day O'Neill thought.

At this a young woman came and tried to gather up the children for their afternoon nap. It was like herding cats. They trailed behind the colonel and his major.

"Tomorrow morning, sir, I'd like to do some testing of a theory I've wanted to explore. We could do it on the way to meet up with Daniel and Teal'c." Sam said as they stroll toward the headman's hut.

Sam was well aware O'Neill was coddling her and she was going to take advantage of his good nature to get some science done.

She bite her bottom lip knowing that if she did things just right in the next few minutes she would get permission, not that he usually refused her anything. She needed to word this just right, simplify if you will, not because he was dumb, no, it was that he grew bored so easily.

"You see, sir, there is this theory of telluric currents. Running under a planets surface are electrical fields caused by geomagnetic current."

O'Neill's eye were beginning to glaze over already. "Magnets, you say."

"Well, sir, on Earth these currents are mapped by geophysicists to study subsurface structures and a possible use is to locate ore deposits."

"Finding naquadah and trinium here?"

"Possibly. And the funny thing is..."

"Funny?"

"Well, sir, megaliths are often found along these lines, sometimes called ley line."
"Daniel's rocks?"

"Yes sir! And also many spots held sacred on Earth by civilization after civilization are found were these lines converge. The theory is some people can actually sense the electromagnetic currents."

O'Neill, his head cocked to the side, looked at her skeptically. "What, they get all... tingly? Or mystical?"

She laughed "We could find out tomorrow, sir."

O'Neill had to smile and give in of course.

Then it occurred to him. "Tomorrow? Not tomorrow, they have another half day out there. And it's a long walk and it's hot." he whined.

"We could meet them half way. And I really like to get some data." Sam bargained.

"Should we bring dowsing rods?"

She glared while still smiling, she was talented at keeping her commander in line.

"The reception was rather crackly when Teal'c checked in. Could your magnetic... ah" He waved his fingers around.

"Electromagnetic currents." Carter supplied.

"Yea those. Could they be causing the static?"

"More than likely, we'll find out more tomorrow."

"How early did you want to set out?"

"Around three"

"In the afternoon?"

"Ah, no..."

"A.M.! 0300!"

Sam gave a hopeful smile. "It's cooler then."

"Geez Carter. How about 0430?"

"Yes, sir." Sam got just what she wanted with the colonel thinking he got what he wanted too.

He might object but he always gave her what she asked for.

One of the women, even while smiling broadly at the friendly strangers, brooked no disobedience from the little ones or from their ineffectual minder. She sent them off to their lunch and naps as was their custom during the heat of the day. She then lead the officers to her hut for a meal and conversation with their headman, her elderly father.

The first sound that roused O'Neill from his daydream of wooded hillsides, a cool mountain stream and the lovely Samantha Carter was the loud pounding of a mailed fist nearly splintering the cottage door. Shouting voices ordered the inhabitants to immediately come outdoors to the village center and assemble there.

Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter had been sitting at a low table sipping tea listening to the village elder prattle on about the beauty of his village, the health and strength of his people, the fertility of their fields and the clear sweet water that they drew from their many wells. When the old man went on about the powerful draft animals that supplied power to the mills and plows, O'Neill looked out the window at the scrawny donkeys in the dry dust field and let him mind wonder. He continued to smile, tried to look interested and nodded his head but his heart was 'in the highlands, a-chasing the deer' (with his apologies to Robbie Burns). Sam had no doubt the colonel's mind was elsewhere while the headman spoke, someone had to pay him attention and it fell to her.

The old man's question "Is this lovely woman your mate O'Neill?" brought Jack slightly out of his fog, his eyes, dreamily and quite inappropriately, tracked over to Carter but before he could open his mouth to answer all hell broke loose.

The sound of a ship landing, Jaffa deploying.

Then came the pounding.

And the shouting.

And the screaming.