Chapter 38
The chamber was dark and musty. The only light was what little filtered in through the hole where the door had once been. Teal'c glanced around him. The chamber was small but he immediately saw a set of narrow stairs going down. He moved to the head of the stairs and looked down to see they descended into total darkness.
Daniel pulled a flashlight from his belt and shone it around the room. There were no markings or anything other than natural stone. He glanced down at the floor. "Look. There are footprints in here."
Carter knelt down to examine the prints. "These are just like the ones outside. They appear humanoid." She stood back up and glanced at Jolinar. "I guess someone beat us to him."
"We must be sure he is not here," Jolinar replied.
Sam nodded to Teal'c.
Teal'c pulled out his own flashlight and began down the stairs. Daniel, Jolinar, and then Carter fell into step behind him. The stairs were narrow and some were crumbling, forcing them to move cautiously.
Sam noticed the deeper they went the less musty the air became. The stairs moved steadily downward at nearly a sixty degree angle. She wondered how deep they were going.
"Jolinar," Carter said, "why exactly did Amun-Re leave?"
"Well, we aren't positive. What little we know suggests that he is quite old. Just before he left it seems he had fought a long and arduous campaign. I'm not sure against whom. We believe he wanted a rest to rejuvenate himself after so long." She gestured vaguely to the stone walls on either side of them. "I wouldn't exactly call this place relaxing."
"I don't know. Doesn't sound like a conqueror to just run off and leave his empire," Carter said uncertainly.
"Do you know anything about him before he went into stasis?" Daniel asked.
She nodded. "I know a little. We discovered some ruins on a few scattered planets with ancient texts that referred to him. Every planet we discovered with any mention of him had been completely irradiated long ago, and the Stargates removed," she replied. "It seemed the Goa'Uld wished to erase any proof that Amun-Re had ever been. The evidence suggested the planets had belonged to Amun-Re, and the Goa'Uld destroyed them after he left."
Daniel considered this thoughtfully, taping his fingers against the stock of his P-90 as he mulled it over. The tapping sound echoed eerily in the cramped stairwell. Teal'c stopped and turned to glare at Daniel.
"Sorry bout that," Daniel said sheepishly.
Teal'c nodded and continued on.
"So," Daniel began, "why would they destroy them? Wouldn't they just take his planets over?"
Jolinar nodded her head uncertainly. "We're not exactly sure. From what little we gathered from the texts it seems the inhabitants of those planets were fiercely loyal to him. One text even hinted that he had taken a human, not a Goa'Uld, as his mate. It is possible the other Goa'Uld considered it too much trouble to try and conquer the planets."
All of them stopped in their tracks and turned to Jolinar.
Teal'c pushed Daniel aside gently but firmly and locked Jolinar with a dubious stare. "No Goa'Uld would take a human as a mate. Humans are but slaves to them, vessels to be used and discarded," Teal'c stated firmly.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go with Teal'c on this one," Carter said apologetically.
Jolinar shrugged. "I didn't say I believed it. I'm just saying that is what we learned. Blame Daniel. He translated the texts."
Daniel frowned. "Why does everyone always blame me? It's like blaming Galileo for showing proof the Earth moves around the Sun. Which, consequently he was blamed for that and spent the rest of his life under house arrest, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, don't blame me because my future self properly translated a document," he said excitedly.
Sam tried to stifle a laugh and shook her head in amusement. "That's our Daniel."
"Who's Galileo?" Jolinar asked curiously.
Daniel groaned heavily. "Dear God, what kind of planet are we trying to save!"
"It was just a question," Jolinar grumbled diffidently.
Sam gestured for Teal'c to keep going. They continued on in silence for several minutes.
"Is that all you learned?" Daniel asked finally.
Jolinar was silent.
"Ok, I'm sorry, Jolinar," he said, caving.
Jolinar smiled to herself, and answered him smugly. "No, of course not. The texts speak of Amun-Re as a relentless conqueror but a fair ruler. The texts say it was Amun-Re who kept the wickedness and decadence of the other gods in check," she said, her voice dripping with mockery at such a thought. "We found one text written after Amun-Re's departure. It spoke of the destruction the Goa'Uld unleashed on his former protectorates, and it declared that one day Amun-Re would return to punish the gods for their transgressions."
Daniel was fascinated. If any of this was true it opened an entirely new chapter in the history of the Goa'Uld. "Do you believe any of that?"
Jolinar gave a cold and mirthless chuckle. "Amun-Re took from Vani what it needed most. I believe nothing except that he is the culmination of the Goa'Uld's corruption."
Teal'c stopped suddenly and Daniel bumped into him. Teal'c gave him a glare and then pointed ahead of them with his flashlight. They could see the stairs finally came to an end in a small room with an open archway at the opposite end. There was light coming from the archway. The four of them stepped into the room. Carter motioned to Teal'c and they took up positions on either side of the archway. They scanned the room from their positions while Daniel and Jolinar stood by the stairs.
Sam glanced over at Daniel and gave him a big grin. "I think this is what you were expecting, Daniel."
"I do not see any signs of life, Colonel Carter," Teal'c stated, scanning the room intently.
Carter motioned to him, and the two of them moved into the room. Daniel and Jolinar followed. Daniel tried not to let out a whistle when he walked through the archway into a pyramid shaped room.
"Wow," he said breathlessly.
"Indeed," Teal'c said.
The room had to be nearly three hundred feet across, and the apex of the pyramid towered nearly that same distance above them. The walls and floor of the room were of opaque glass and every inch was covered in a script that resembled Solari, from the floor to the tip of the pyramid. The script was etched in red upon the surface of the glass and gave off a slight glow. A large brazier stood in each of the four corners of the room and burned with a blue flame that gave off no smoke.
In the center of the room was a sarcophagus of clear glass. Three other sarcophagi, each about forty feet from the main one, were placed around the central one in such a way as to form a uniform triangle with the main sarcophagus at its exact center.
"Never have I seen such a place," Teal'c said, gazing around in wonder.
Carter moved forward slowly and the others followed. They passed one of the outer sarcophagi, which was made of a silver metal and resembled a Goa'Uld sarcophagus. A single line of script marked the top of each sarcophagus.
"Daniel," Carter said, gesturing to the script.
Daniel leaned over the sarcophagus and studied the writing. "This looks Solari."
"What?" Jolinar asked in shock and move quickly up beside Daniel. She studied the writing. "It is similar to Solari, an old dialect perhaps. It says 'Adrion, The Fourth.' That means absolutely nothing to me."
Daniel nodded in agreement. "I've never heard the name."
They moved on to the central sarcophagus and could see that someone lay within. Jolinar approached it and looked at the body. It was a young man dressed in simple grays. "This is Amun-Re," she said softly, venomously. If he truly was here then she could not explain her visions.
The other three gathered around the sarcophagus.
"Amun-Re, Sovereign of the Gods, Forgotten of the….," Jolinar leaned closer. "Damn, the last word's been scratched out."
"Now what?" Carter asked, looking around curiously.
"We destroy him," Jolinar said coldly.
Daniel scowled at her and crossed his arms. "Let's not be hasty. He might have information or some use."
The blue armor retreated from Jolinar's head and she glanced at Daniel, menace shining in her eyes and shook her head. She touched the top of the sarcophagus and it quickly dissipated like a mist. She frowned. "He's dead."
"Maybe he's still in stasis," Carter suggested.
Jolinar pointed to a small blue bruise on his neck.
"What is that?" Teal'c asked.
Jolinar sighed. "That is a blast from an advanced Trien weapon."
"How can you be certain?" Teal'c asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It leaves a unique energy trace behind. The blast generally kills instantly, and any person killed by it cannot be revived by a sarcophagus or anything else that we know of," she said. She turned her back on the sarcophagus and leaned against it, thinking. Why would the Trien kill him?
"Maybe he took another host," Carter offered.
Jolinar nodded and turned around. That was possible. She placed her hand just above Amun-Re's head and a beam of blue light emanated from her palm and moved rapidly back and forth across his face. The blue light stopped, and she frowned in dismay. "No, he is in there. We need to take him with us back to the SGC. When Doctor Frasier removes the symbiote I can positively identify it. Amun-Re resembles no other Goa'Uld. We believe he may be a species otherwise extinct."
"Well, you could've mentioned that sooner," Daniel said.
Jolinar gave a low moan, as if in pain, and twined her fingers in her hair. "I do not understand! It makes no sense for the Trien to kill him, and my visions… I… I don't know what's going on," she said, despair and fear on her face. Her face felt suddenly cold.
"Jolinar, are you ok?" Carter asked. Her voice was soft with concern.
Jolinar removed her fingers from her hair. Her hands were wet. She was sweating. Things were unraveling for her. She collapsed to the ground and her body shook violently.
"Temporal seizures!" Carter said as she dropped to her knees beside Jolinar. She grabbed Jolinar's hand, holding it firmly. Jolinar was telling the truth. Carter reached out a hand and stroked her daughter's hair soothingly. Jolinar looked at her, but Sam couldn't tell if she was really aware of what was going on. "Hang on, Jolinar. I'm here."
"Teal'c, can you carry her? Daniel and I will grab Amun-Re," Carter said quickly, glancing up at the Jaffa.
Teal'c nodded and slung the strap of his P-90 over his shoulder. He came over and knelt by Jolinar. Her tremors were subsiding but she seemed to be on the verge of unconsciousness.
Teal'c frowned and looked into Carter's face. His own face softened for a moment. "She does not look well, Colonel Carter. We cannot prevent her death."
Sam bit her lip and nodded.
"Let's get her out of here," Daniel said gently, laying a hand on Sam's shoulder.