Stargate Hastings
Chapter Eight: Eighteen months ago
Stargate chamber, Abydos.
The Stargate activated with a whoosh, then a short time after that Donald McCain came flying out of the pool of energy, that had formed in the centre of the device. The box that he was carrying flew out of his hand, slid across the smooth black stone surface and stopped just before the top step of the stairway, that lead down from the raised platform that this worlds Stargate was sat upon. The man himself had tumbled into a role and was now flat on his back. He quickly jumped to his feet, then started checking the immediate vicinity and was pleased when he heard no sound of alarm or people rushing in his direction.
First he threw the stones that he had bought with him in his pocket from earth, back through the pool of energy he had just exited. It was a test to see if he could pass back through the gate, if they made the connection from their end or if he would have to activate it from this end, as he had been told would most likely be the case. He opened the clips that allowed him to remove the lid off of the radio box, they had given him and turned the crank that would build up the electric charge it needed to be able to send and receive signals. He then sent the transmission that would inform Earth of his safe arrival and that he had met zero resistance on this end. Once he had received the confirmation of his transmission, he started scouting out the building he was in. The pedestal he had spotted when he had first scanned the room and had reported its presence to the people back home.
His orders were to check the symbols on the pedestal and if they matched those on the device back on earth, that he had been burning into his memory, by drawing and redrawing them repeatedly for the past six months. He would then use the symbols that they had used to get him here to try to make the connection back to earth's Stargate. The only symbol that was not on this device's pedestal, was the one he had been instructed to input last. So he substituted that symbol with the one that was on this device, then pressed the centre of the panel. The Stargate made a noise but it was not the one that meant the gateway had opened.
Instead of a vortex of energy that had accompanied the device being activated on earth, there was nothing. Rachael had told them that it would not work but they had all agreed that it would not hurt to try. His next job was to scout out the building he was in thoroughly and if there was any people around hide, until he could make his escape. With that in mind he looked for the source of the light, that now his eyes had adjusted from the gate shutting down, was dimly shining through from somewhere. It did not take him long to find it, he had guessed right that it would lead to the outside. He made a quick inspection of the area outside of the stone building that the Stargate was housed in.
When he looked out and could see nothing but sand for as far as the eye could see. He thought to himself, that at least they had got the desert part right. He walked to the end of the sandstone ramp that lead down to two obelisks and beyond them into the desert. So he could get a good view of the building he had exited and was pleased to see, that with the height of the ceilings inside of the structure, it seemed like it had only one level for him to search and less chance that anybody was home. When his attention was drawn to the huge pyramid behind the structure, it completely took his breath away. He had seen pictures of the great pyramid in Egypt, with its cover stones all but gone from its surface but what was in front of his eyes now, looked brand new and the sun, no suns he now realised, rays shone brightly off of the smooth surface of the amazing structure.
He didn't want to hang about outside in the open, so went back inside to scout out the building and commit the layout of the place to memory. It wasn't a difficult task, the whole thing consisted of the chamber the Stargate was housed in, two large corridors that lead down dead ends, that were connected to that chamber and a main entrance hall. That hall had huge pillars running down both sides of it. He did notice a circular hole in the ceiling of the corridor that linked the entrance hall to the Stargate chamber. He had no idea what it was but the circle was split up into triangles, that looked like they could possibly separate to reveal something else behind them.
He spent an hour committing the layout of the building to memory and the same time making it look as if he hadn't been there. He had enough water to last ten days and enough of the protein cubes they had given him, to last three weeks. The cubes he was told, contained all of the proteins and vitamins his body would need and he would only need to mix them with hot water to consume them. They tasted nice with a hint of beef to the flavour and they gave him all the energy he needed, only his stomach always felt empty. To heat them up, he used a steel cup and a small fold down frame for the cup to sit on. Combined with a candle that filled a round tin, that he was told would burn hotter than the average candle but would also last far longer. He had another candle that would burn brighter, only was not under a lid that could slide off, instead it was attached via an hinge and had a reflective surface, turning it into a lamp.
His first priority was to find a water supply, which meant searching the desert without being seen. He took the radio box and buried it along with the small rucksack, that contained the implements he would need to keep a diary of his time here and sketch down anything that would increase their knowledge of the Stargate or the false gods that made use of them. Down in the corner on the left hand side of the ramp, that led from the building that housed the Stargate and headed off into the unknown.
Before he reached the top of the dune, the latest in a long line of dunes he had been traversing. Since deciding that the odds of finding civilisation, would be better if he headed in the direction the ramp was facing. He heard a crashing sound like slate or thick glass smashing and raised voices in the distance.
He edged his way to the top of the dune and got out the binoculars from his robe pocket. They were small, with limited peripheral vision but they were coated in a paint that would not reflect the suns and had extended lens covers that prevented sunrays from reflecting off of them. He could barely make out the people down near the circular tent, with his naked eye. So figured that if he stayed low and kept is eye on the other directions frequently, he could stay out of sight from his current position. He studied the people in the tent through his binoculars, for short periods each time, always weary to keep his eye on his surroundings.
The sound of breaking glass that he had heard, was coming from a jet black substance that two men were each using a long handled hammer to smash. They would shout something as they moved away from one pile of the black substance, to the next and then a group of young men and women would swarm around it picking out small pieces from the rubble and throwing them into a separate pile. They would then throw any large pieces of the obsidian rock into a fresh pile, that a line of very tired looking people were filling up. Those people would then sit-down under the massive tents canopy for five or ten minutes, before heading back in the direction, the line of men and women were coming from.
He panned up along the line of people to see a cliff face, that on first glance was made of the obsidian the people were mining, but on closer inspection was a slightly different colour. There were ladders that spanned the cliff face and he could see that they went down into the ground and by the looks of the people that were headed towards the tent, those ladders would have gone deep. He decided to carry on under the assumption, that whatever they were mining down there, was the substance that half of his and the team that would arrive a year and a half from now's, mission consisted of. The other half was gathering enough intelligence on the aliens and finding a safe place for the team, for when they arrived.
He had learned as much as he needed to here, now he had the mine as a new land mark and with a good fix on the direction he would need to travel, in order to return to the pyramid. He decided to see in which direction, the people who did not return to the mine headed in. With his binoculars he was able to keep his distance, he followed two men heading to his left and soon came across the city these people lived in. The clothes they had given him, were perfect for hiding in the desert but he would never be able to convince anyone that he was from this world. He decided to stay clear of the city and spend the next few days circling it at a distance. If it came to the point he had no other choice, he would have to make a covert raid on the city for supplies. He would prefer it if he did not have to go down that route but he was going to have to at least, steal some new clothes anyway.
The two suns in the sky became three suns and the heat would become unbearable. He would pitch his one man tent and use that time to rest and drink. The water he was rationing well but when the first two sandstorms had hit him, he had struggled to get his tent set up in time but he had soon learned to spot the signs of the impending storms. On his third day there he had spotted one of the beasts of burden, that were used by the people of this world and it was the ugliest beast, he had ever seen in his life. A young man was guiding the thing, he looked at least eighteen years old. He witnessed the man petting the alien animal, so he figured they were not predatory creatures. Although he had seen many a dog turn at his masters command and would proceed with caution, regarding the slightly bigger than a cow sized animals.
He concluded that it would be his best chance for finding water, as livestock would need a watering hole of some kind. After following the young man for less than an hour, he stopped at what looked like a pile of sand coloured rocks. On closer inspection through his binoculars, he could see the beast was lapping at the rocks with its tongue. Got ya, he thought to himself. All he had to do now was wait until they had moved far enough away, from what he was hoping, was some kind of fresh water spring or well. The thing was in the middle of nowhere, so as long as he was careful, he could resupply with water whenever he needed to. When he was able to get a closer look at the rocks, it was clear to see that they were not a natural formation but instead were man made.
He pulled some of the sand away from the base of the rocks, to reveal that there was some kind of mortar between those stones and that they went deep down. He made a guess that there was water below ground and that the stones went down far enough to create a dam, that would force the water up. It was then released out of the gaps in the stones and reabsorbed back into the rocks, probably to continue it's original course. He refilled the small containers that slotted tighly into the pockets of his robe. Those pockets were positioned in an even pattern throughout the robes lining, and made it feel like his robes were slightly heavier. The discomfort was minimal and if he stuck to a balanced order, in which he emptied the tube like containers, his robes would not be weighed down to either side.
With his first problem solved, he needed to solve the next one that would rapidly be approaching, a steady food supply. He still had over two weeks until it became a real problem but he needed food or to be more precise, meat. He could stand the solitude, the mission was keeping his mind occupied but his stomach could not take the lack of solid, real food. He had also learned to use the rising and setting of two of the suns as a compass, as the one he had bought with him was useless and would just keep spinning at different speeds, depending on where he was. The third sun never moved from its position in the sky.
On his fifth day he had found a rock formation, that stood about five feet in height and was far enough from the city and any of the places that the cities inhabitants, travelled to or from. To set up as his home base. When he had first seen the place he would be calling home for awhile, it just looked like any of the other outcroppings of rock, that where scattered around the desert. Only on closer inspection, he had found a gap that allowed him to enter into a cavern, that was underneath the otherwise ordinary looking rocks. After clearing away the sand that had built up from the storms, he found himself in an underground opening that was around fifteen yards in length and half that in width.
There was a beam of light shining through from the other end of the underground cavern, that illuminated it enough for him see that no animal of any kind, had made the place its home and when he reached the second opening, he found it to be roughly the same as the one he had entered through. He just needed to clear the sand away and would then have an alternative exit, if anyone was to stumble across either entrance. Both were well hidden from a distance but anyone who inspected the rock formation properly, would be able to find them once they had been cleared.
It was a risk but he decided that when he would sleep, he would refill both entryways. Leaving only a small vent at both ends, to allow oxygen to pass through. Meaning he would have to dig himself out of one end, if the other was stumbled across.
What he had first thought were small outcropping's of rock, as they were coloured much the same as the stone and the sand that was everywhere on this world but were actually roots. Roots for what he did not know but they were all around his new home and he had heard the brains back at the base, talk about how a world would need vegetation to have an atmosphere, that mammals could survive in. He figured he had probably just found the reason he could breathe on this planet. He also experimented with the root, by chopping it into small pieces and boiling it in the small steel cup, he had been using to boil the protein cubes, he had been given to sustain him. They tasted very sweet but he felt no ill effects from them and when mixed with a small amount of one of the cubes, actually tasted really good. It wasn't meat but it was a start.
So with a water supply that he could access safely, a new food supply that took only a couple of days to regrow and a base to start operating from. He retrieved the rucksack from where he had buried the radio box and began his mission proper. He figured the best place to steal some appropriate clothes, would be from a property that was separate from the city itself. He decided the way he had found water, would be the way he would find such a place. The logic he had used when devising his plan, was that livestock and the smells that came with them. Would probably be kept as far away as possible from the general population.
So he returned to the watering hole that had been his salvation once already and waited. The first day no one came at all to water their animals but on the second day, the same young man and the ugly beast who had been his saviours before, arrived. He was a good distance away and it would be impossible for the man to see him, from this far. So he waited for them to leave and then followed him in the same way he had before. The watering hole was pretty far away from the city, so it took the man and his beast sometime to arrive at their home but when they did it was everything he had hoped for. It was still close to the city but far enough away, to not have a lot of foot traffic around the area.
There was a ramshackle homestead, that was built out of what looked like the same stone as his own new home and not far but far enough away to lessen the smell the animals gave off, he saw what must have been the stables that the animals were homed in. There were three stables and he could see the feet of one of the animals in two of them. The empty stall belonged to the one, the young man was leading towards it. He did reconnaissance on the property over the next few days, until he was sure he knew how many people lived there, what those peoples routines were and if there were any set times, that the place would be empty or be barely occupied.
There were four people who actually lived there. The young man he had followed, another man who looked of a similar age, a boy who looked no older than ten years old and an older looking big set man, who always had a smile on his face. There were three other men who would visit the homestead and it was these men who would make his job more difficult. They did have a certain pattern to their visits but would also show up at random times as well. He decided the risk of being discovered was too great and that stealth and the fact no one knew he was here or were looking for him, were the biggest things he had going in his favour. He did know though, that if he was to find the symbols he would need to return home, he would need to make contact with the locals at some point. Five thousand years was a long time but the people who were stolen from earth, must have dreamed of either returning one day and have made a record of the symbols needed for their ancestors to, if they could not.
He didn't want to think about never being able to return home himself. So repeatedly told himself that, that assumption was one based on the evidence and not the very shaky foundation's, that it was actually built upon. For all he knew, the slaves that were bought to this world, never even seen the symbols that would return them to the Earth. Mr Hastings had assured him that some of the men who had stirred the pot of rebellion on earth, were on Abydos at the time of the uprising and that they would have known the correct symbols, for the return journey home. He also assured him that they would have made some kind of permanent record, of those symbols.
He decided instead to concentrate on following the older man, when he would hitch one of the trailers up to his animal and leave for hours at a time. The mans home was situated on the opposite side of Nagada, than that of the pyramid and his only way home. Each day he would head out in the direction that led away from Nagada and five or six hours later would return with a full cart. He hadn't yet been able to find out what the man was collecting on his journeys, because his cargo would always be covered up, for protection from the sandstorms. Donald assumed that it was food for the city of Nagada but in truth, he had no idea what it really was.
The more he watched the old man, the more he felt that he was his best chance of making contact with these people. Donald had always been a good reader of people, his mother would often tell him, that he had gotten it from her. The read he was getting from the old man, was of someone who would help a man in trouble, if he could. All Donald needed to decide now, was where he was going to make his presence known to the man and how he was going to do it, while leaving himself a means of escape, if the man reacted in an hostile way. He did not want to but if he had to, he would kill the man and dispose of the body. The alarm would definitely be raised but there was a chance, that a local could be accused of the mans murder and still leave his presence undetected.
When he had followed the man each day, he would only follow him so far, as the dunes would level out and become more of a flat track. This limited his ability to stay out of site, so he would hunker down and wait for the man to make his return journey. They were still far enough away from Nagada to allow him time to act, if the mans intentions seemed to be anything other than those, of a man who wanted to give aid. So after watching him for a few days, he left anything that could mark him as an alien from another world back at base and lay in wait for the man to return.
He was positioned about two miles out from the city and when he spotted the man heading back this way, he waited for the right moment and staggered over the dune he had been laying in wait behind. The old ones were the best ones for a reason, so he decided on the wandering fool. As he caught the mans eye, he stumbled and went rolling down the dune towards him. How the man reacted in this moment, would tell him all he needed to know.
The man started speaking words in his own language and checking in all directions, to see if anyone else was around. He gave Donald some water, then picked him up, like he was a small child and placed him on the cart. What the man did next, gave Donald hope. He covered him over so that he would not be out in the open and then tapped his cheeks, to wake him. When Donald opened his eyes slightly, the man had his finger to his mouth, in the universal gesture for telling someone to stay quiet.
Usually the man would deliver his shipment straight to the city, before heading back to his home. Only today he went back to his home first and when they arrived, the man came up to him and started saying some words. When Donald did not move, he indicated for him to get off of the trailer and to stay low. The entire time he was doing this, his eyes were scanning in all directions. When they entered the mans home, there were two people there. The young man he had first followed to find water and the young boy he had seen around the place.
The old man started speaking quietly but very quickly, to the two of them and then guided him into another room. When he entered the room the two younger males were moving a cot away from the wall and then the old man squatted down and removed a stone slab from the floor. When he did this, a hole was revealed to be underneath the slab. The man started climbing down and then popped his head back up and made a come this way gesture, with his hand. The room that had been roughly carved out of the bedrock underneath the mans home, was not very big but its size was not what caught his attention. It was the beautiful young girl, who was bathed in the dim glow of an oil lamp, that drew his eye.
The man started talking to the young girl and making a gesture with his hands, that Donald could only assume meant speech and shaking his head. After doing this, he started repeating the words "Chappa'ai, Chappa'ai". The old man then turned back to him and started making the same gesture to indicate words coming from his mouth, then pointed at him and shook his head. He indicated that he knew what the man meant, that he understood that Donald could not understand his words. When he did this he pointed at the young girl and then made the same hand gesture again. He kept pointing at the girl and back to him, whilst repeating the hand gesture.
When Donald indicated to him that he understood, that the man wanted him to learn their language from the girl. He started talking with the girl, he could not understand them but he knew that she was reluctant, to be left down there alone with the stranger. This suspicion was confirmed, when the man popped his head up through the hole in the ceiling they had just entered the underground basement through. "Nasseef". He heard the man call and shortly after that, the young boy descended the ladder into the room. He then left the three of them alone, with only the dim light from the oil burner lighting the small room.
The girl seemed more shy, than she was scared of the strange man before her and her brother was fascinated by him. He just kept staring at him with an inquisitive smile on his face. Donald decided the best way to start, would be by introducing himself he looked to each of them in turn and then pointed at the boy "Nasseef" and then pointed to himself and said "Donald". He then pointed to the girl and asked "You?".
The girl shook her head and attempted to hide her face from him. The boy seeing this started talking very fast to her but she still shook her head and pointed at what must have been her little brother. The boy aimed an exasperated hand gesture towards her and turned to face him. He pointed to himself and said "Nasseef" and then pointed at Donald and said "Don ul" and finally to his sister and said "Meera". Well it was a start, he thought to himself.
It took him a few weeks to learn enough of their words, to have a basic conversation with them. The young boy Nasseef, had been invaluable. He had learned the English equivalent to each word Donald had learned from him, with an enthusiasm not being shown by his sister. She had not said a single word to him, in the first two weeks that he was there. After the second day, she no longer complained about being left alone with him but when they were alone together, he felt more solitary than he had been, when he was actually alone in the desert.
He could not blame the girl, from what he had been able to understand from Nasseef. Their father Hassif, believed that his daughters beauty was a curse and that when she was still a small child and she became sick. He had told everyone that she had died and that she had been down here ever since. Her father and brothers would hide her on there carts sometimes and once they were far from Nagada, she would walk under the suns with them but this was very rare.
The first time she had spoken to him, had been after they were left alone, just after the first real conversation he had been able to have with Nasseef. It was not a detailed discussion on philosophy or anything like that but they had actually spoken to each other, without having to explain a single word to the other. Donald had sat there feeling really smug with himself. When she said "Don ul". In the same way that all of the members of her family did. He had decided it was just their accent and stopped trying to correct them. He had even begun to like the way, they said his name.
Her speaking at all took him by surprise, so when he answered her, it was tentatively. "Meera, you can understand me?". He asked.
She gave him a shy smile, then replied "I listen, I learn". When she said this, her smile grew wider.
"Why speak now, not before?" he asked.
She thought about how to say the words, in the strange tongue she had been secretly learning. "I not know you, my father not know you. Was a fraid". She struggled with the last word but the others were clearer, than if her younger brother had spoken them.
She was speaking sense, the girl had no idea who he was and her father had been foolish to take him in, as he had. Donald even thought to himself, that he would have been willing to kill the man, if it had come to that. When Hassif came down and realised they were now on speaking terms, he made it very clear for Donald to see. That he wished them to become even closer and used their word for son, whenever he would have a limited conversation with him. The girl was beautiful and over time they became closer but he had resisted at first.
He had been with the family for over a month before he did succumb. They were both asked to come up to the main house, where a small feast had been laid out on the floor. Hassif had told them that they had a small amount of time and should enjoy themselves. Nasseef was there, the man he had first followed, who's name was Ma'tuff and the brother who was a little younger than him who's name was Kaar. The three men who would arrive at random times were Hassif's three eldest sons. Hassif junior, Nebu and Darrik. The other two Mastadge as he learned they were called, that were stabled here belonged to Hassif Jr and his third son Darrik. Ma'tuff and Kaar tended them when they were stabled.
When Donald realised what was happening, instead of putting a stop to it. He turned to his prospective bride and asked "Is this what you want?". She simply leaned in and they kissed for the first time. They ate the feast, with Hassif junior constantly going outside, to be sure no one would interrupt them and discover the two people who would normally be safely out of site. After they went back to their little hole under the house and spent their first night as man and wife. He even took her to his home in the desert, for a few weeks as a sort of honeymoon. He was probably going to have to move her there permanently, if she became pregnant. He would rather his child be born underground out in the desert, rather than where they were, already underground and also under the constant threat of being found.
Finding the symbols to get home, he was still finding very difficult. Every time he would start drawing them in the sand on the floor, no matter who it was, they would tell him no and he knew that it was a law, none would break. Even his wife would tell him no and would not even talk about it. He thought to himself that this Ra character, must have done something terrible to these people, for them to fear the act of even drawing a picture.
His Hopes of finding a way home were slowly slipping away but another hope was growing in the shape of his wife's belly. Before it would become difficult for her to travel, they moved permanently back to his former home and with the help of Meera's family turned their small little hole in the ground into a home. They had assured him that no one travels this far out and that the cave he had found, was probably made by the people that had just had enough of being a slave and decided to take their chances in the desert. It did not happen very often but it had happened in the past, they had assured him.
Him and Meera were very happy together and with a six months or so pregnant wife, the day he was supposed to report in, was fast approaching. He had a fair amount to report, much of it confirming what they already knew. Ra or his people had not shown up yet and that a shipment of the mineral was sent through the gate, every few months and that the people would never go near the pyramid or the Chappa'ai, as they called the Stargate, for any other reason. One had recently been sent, so there should not be a problem as far the mission was concerned.
He still hadn't found the way home and was trying to come up with a good way of saying he had no idea how to find them or if they were even here anyway. His wife he was definitely not going to tell them about, her family yes but not her. They would not understand and could refuse to let her through if he did find a way home. They were building the frame for the shield door when he left and he did not want him and his wife and child to be the one to test if it worked.
It would take him a day to get there report in and get back here at least, so he had asked Hassif he could stay with his daughter for a day or at least keep an eye on her, while he was gone. He had agreed but had asked him lots of questions, about where he was going. Donald still had not outright told them who he was, as much for their own protection, than because he felt it vital for mission security. What they did not know they could not lie about or to be precise, get caught in that lie.
On the day he was to leave for the Stargate, Nasseef was the one who arrived to stay with Meera. He asked why his father didn't come as he had told him he would, with the boy just saying that he had to work. He had told Donald that he was free that day, before he had asked him but he just assumed he had been asked to cover a friend. So he gave his wife a kiss and headed off in the direction of the great pyramid. He was alone, so it would be easy for him to reach the gate in time, for when they make the connection from Earth. He only hoped after all he had achieved, it would not be ruined by him getting caught now.
