From the Ruins

AN: Thanks for reading and reviewing. :}

Part Two

"Ok, status report," Jack said as they finished breakfast the next morning. "Do we know where the power's coming from yet?"

"Not yet, sir. However, I can say definitively that Teal'c was right. The energy level of the power has dropped off by 55% since I started monitoring it at 1700 hours yesterday. Now, I know that doesn't sound like much, but at that rate, all of these lights will likely be out in a day or two. As the lights go, this room and everything in it will start to decay."

"So, the power may eventually run out by itself?"

"It's possible. In here sooner than in the armory."

"This power has lasted for centuries yet within a few days of our arrival it's going to fail?" Daniel asked.

"Actually, I think your parents may have triggered the decrease in power and it's been continuing to decrease faster ever since."

"How?" Jack, Daniel and Teal'c asked.

"Did they mention any physiological problems when they entered the temple?"
"No."

"Ok, The Jacksons got through the force field, so obviously the power had already decreased enough to not affect humans by then. Daniel, you said this power has lasted for centuries?"

"Yes. This was Ra's temple. Kind of a hideaway temple, which made it easy to keep the armory a secret."

"Have you found out if your parents knew about the power," Jack said.

"Well, they didn't have any sophisticated instruments like Sam, but they did detect it yes. Although they couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from either. And they didn't try since that's not what they came here to do."

"Why did they come here anyway if the place was supposed to be cursed?" Jack asked.

"Curiosity?" Daniel guessed.

"Guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at Jack.

"This must be it," Daniel said with sudden realization. "Um, usually they took me along wherever they went. But there was this one time that they didn't. They said they were protecting me by leaving me behind. This is probably where they came."

Sam cleared her throat. "I suspected the power was old because it seems to have taken a long time to get as low as it is now even after the decrease was triggered."

"How did Daniel Jackson's parents trigger the decrease?" Teal'c asked.

"I haven't worked out all the details yet, and this is purely speculation at this point. The source is not in this room. The spread of power throughout this room is too uniform. There's no increase in one area that would indicate a source. However, in order for the power to reach this room, it has to be linked to the source."

"So, you're saying…what exactly?" Jack asked.

"There's something in here that controls the distribution of power in this room."

"Like a thermostat?" Daniel asked.

"That's a fair analogy."

"And my parents found it and…activated it?"

"More like adjusted it."

"So, we find this…thermostat and you can trace it to the source?"
"Yes, sir. The source will be somewhere near."

"Like a hidden room," Daniel concluded.

"Yeah," Sam agreed.

"Daniel?"
"I have no idea where a hidden room would be or what the thermostat would look like."

"Do you think the answer could be in the journals?"
"Possibly."

"How long?"

"Well, I need to finish reading them and translating the wall then combine all the information." He thought for a few seconds. "Today. Probably."

"How long 'til these lights go out?"
"I estimate either tomorrow night or the next morning."

"So, we don't need the generator just yet.  All right, let's try to stay out of Daniel's way.  Unless, one of you knows what this thermostat may look like or where the hidden room could be."

"Sorry, sir."

"I do not," Teal'c said.

"Good morning," Amon said brightly, entering the temple. "Did you sleep well? Did you find anything interesting?"

"Um," Jack started.

"We slept very well," Sam said smiling. "Thank you."

"Well, I will not keep you from your work. I just wanted to say hello and inform you that you will soon have new neighbors."

"Do you require assistance moving your settlement?" Teal'c asked.

"You would be willing to help?"
"Indeed. As long as I am not needed here." Teal'c looked at Daniel.

Daniel looked around the room. "Um, I guess if I need you I'll know where to find you."

Teal'c nodded and got up to follow Amon.

"What exactly does he think we're doing here?" Sam asked.

"Exploring this temple. Finishing what my parents started."

"What are the odds of his crew being so close by?" Jack asked suspiciously.

"Uh, I'm really not supposed to say anything," Daniel said. "But, apparently Amon has considerable influence. He was going to be in charge of this project anyway, but they weren't supposed to start for another four or five months."

"So, he's here to protect us from any of those 'disreputable' people?"

"Sort of."

"But he's really here early because he wanted an early start?"

"Something like that. He didn't tell me his 'official' reason."

"I can help them move too, sir," Sam offered. "I'll have to check my instruments periodically; but other than that there's really not much I can do here at the moment. Unless you want me to crawl around in the sand and feel the walls for a trap door; but I think Daniel's method is way more efficient."

"Sure, if you'd rather help a bunch of guys move," Jack said grinning. "I'll help too when I can, but I'd like to stay close to Daniel in case things start crumbling."

"I'll be fine, Jack."

"That shouldn't happen yet, sir."

"Still, I'll feel better staying where I can keep an eye on you."

***

"Dammit!"  Daniel flung his pad and pencil into the sand and began pacing.

"What's the matter?" Jack asked rushing into the temple.

Daniel growled and kicked a step. "Ow."  He sat down on the third step, and Jack sat down beside him.

"Daniel?"

"This is supposed to be easy. I haven't run across any symbols I don't know yet. I just can't seem to concentrate. I swear I've read the same section of wall at least five times, and I still have no idea what it says.  Jack, it's this place. It…"

"Reminds you of your parents and in turn Sha're. So you'd like to finish ASAP."

Startled, Daniel looked at Jack and nodded.

"I understand that. I do.  But, you can't let that get to you. It'll affect your work, and that's not going to get it done any faster.  In fact, that'll probably make it take longer."

"Thanks, Jack," Daniel said sarcastically. "You give one hell of a pep talk."

"I try." 

Daniel sighed and put his head in his hands.

"Try to get so into the zone that you forget where you are," Jack suggested.

"I've tried. I can't."

"Yes, you can. I've seen you do it way too many times without even trying."

"This is different."

"I know.  You'll just have to try harder."

"Yeah, I guess." 

"You've gotten spoiled by so much coming so easily to you."

Daniel looked up at Jack.  "Amon told me that once.  Right before he made me stop reading and go play with the few other children."  Daniel realized right away he shouldn't have added that last part.

"Good idea. You could use a break. You've been at this for hours."

"You two are way too much alike."

Jack laughed.  "I need to learn that word he used yesterday to get you to stop arguing and go to lunch."

Daniel grimaced.  "You noticed that, huh?"

"Yep. I'd like to be able to scare you like that."

Daniel raised his chin.  "He doesn't scare me."

"Oh, yeah?  Ok, I'll go find him and get him to teach me that word now," Jack said standing and walking toward the door.

"Jack?"  Daniel watched him leave the temple. "Jack!"  He jumped up and ran after him, forgetting all about the pain from kicking the step.

***

"Wow, those guys really know how to celebrate," Jack said entering the temple.

"Well, most of them have been out of work for a while," Daniel said from the floor.

"What's all this?" Jack indicated the pages arranged in a wide circle around Daniel and Teal'c. "Does this mean you've finished translating the walls?"

"It does, O'Neill."

"Learn anything interesting?"

"You mean anything you would find interesting?" Daniel smiled to let Jack know he was at least half joking.

"Considering I saw your interest meter overload as soon as you stepped in here, yeah."

"I believe this information is interesting as well," Teal'c said.

"Thank you, Teal'c, It's nice to know someone's appreciative."

"Hey, I'm appreciative too," Sam said standing, dusting herself off and crossing the room to join the rest of her team.

"Right. Sorry, Sam."

"And even if the Colonel isn't, Daniel, you're appreciative enough for both of you."

"With additional appreciation," Teal'c added.

"Yes, and it's quite a burden," Daniel said dramatically mopping his brow.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Ok, while I'm glad to see that you're all enjoying yourselves, you better have a damn good reason for leaving a perfectly fine party. Without telling me by the way," he added wagging a finger at his team.

"Well, you looked like you were fine," Daniel said.

"We didn't think you'd notice, sir."

"Besides, it was Tea'c's idea."

"It was your idea, Daniel Jackson."

"You know you guys could have invited me," Sam said with her hands on her hips.

Jack held up his hands for quiet. "Ok, kids. You can go back to joking around after you tell me what you've got."

"Spoilsport," Sam and Daniel said together.

"Imagine him wanting us to be serious," Daniel added.

"Daniel."

"Ok, ok. It seems Ra was trying to use the power to create weapons with eternal power."

 "Energizer bunnies. Cool. Was he successful?"

"I'm guessing he was."

"You're guessing?"
"Well, we've already established that such information wouldn't be written on the wall. At least not on the outside wall. As you can see, almost half of the lights are out now. And the walls are beginning to crumble." Daniel rose and went to a portion of the wall near the dark passages. "Now, I happened to be standing here when part of this wall peeled away."

"Of course," Jack muttered noticing the dust on Daniel's clothes and in his hair.

"I didn't notice anything at first, but when another portion peeled away it was unmistakable."

"More glyphs," Jack commented stepping over debris to better see what Daniel was pointing at. "What's it say?"

"Teal'c, Sam and I had to peel away a good bit of this part of the wall to find everything. I'll give you the Reader's Digest version."

"Thank you."

"Ra got a little restless just before the uprising that lead to the stargate being buried. He went on a long journey and managed to return without anyone knowing he was back.  During his journey, he discovered some sort of advanced power. He erected this temple to hide it in and modified it to create the force field. If he was able to do that, chances are he was able to modify the power for the weapons as well. He left some human slaves here to start forging weapons. He intended to test the weapons on Apophis. But once he left, because of the uprising he was never able to return."

"So, the slaves were trapped in here?"

"Yeah. And since no one knew about them, they probably ran out of supplies and starved to death."

"I don't see any remains. Or smell any."

"Well, Sam thinks that the slaves were actually trapped wherever the armory is."

"Our thermostat theory checks out, sir. This room is separate but linked to the power source." She moved to the other side of the room. She squatted and aimed her flashlight beam at a raised glyph near the base of the wall at the angle leading into one of the passages. "Daniel's parents were very thorough. Otherwise they would have missed it." She ran her finger along the wall around the glyph.

"You haven't touched it right?"

"No, sir."

"No, you haven't touched it or no you have?"

"I haven't, sir."

"Are you certain Daniel Jackson's parents did?"

"As certain as I can be without actually asking them. Sorry, Daniel. Or touching it myself."

"Let's hold off on that option for now. Daniel, your parents didn't mention touching it?"

"They copied it in the position its in relative to the ones around it, which they knew. They drew a circle around it indicating they'd like to investigate it further. Other than that, there's no reference to it."

"Ok, I've got two more questions then you guys can get back to joking around. One, can you use this glyph to locate the power source?"

"I'll have to modify my instruments first. That will take a few hours because I need to update and input the analysis of the energy-." Jack held up a hand. "Yes, sir."

"Good work, Major. Now my other question is why? Why would Ra write about this on his wall? Even if he covered it with another wall."

"Well, you know how arrogant the Goa'uld are," Daniel said.

"Oh yes."

"Ra would have wanted his exploits known even if it was to be his enemies who learned of them," Teal'c said.

"Great. Daniel. Teal'c. Nice work. You know, I think the party's still going on if you guys want to…"

"I should probably get the generator set up, sir."

"We won't need it 'til tomorrow right?"

"Probably not, but-"

"So, wait 'til in the morning. You guys have been working all day. You deserve some R and R. If you don't want to go back to the party, we can do something else."

"Like what?" Daniel asked hugging himself.

"I brought along a Star Wars puzzle, O'Neill."

Jack gestured to Teal'c. "There we go. A puzzle is nice and relaxing. What'd'ya say?"

Sam and Daniel shrugged.

"All right, Teal'c. Break out the puzzle." As Teal'c moved to get the puzzle and Sam announced she would make coffee, Jack approached Daniel. "What's up?"

"Huh?"

"You look a little distracted all of a sudden."

"Something feels off. I can't explain it. I just feel like something's…"

"Off? You don't think Carter's theory is right?"

"It's not that. I mean it makes sense. But it seems like we're missing something. Something that will tie everything together. I don't know. It's probably just a dumb feeling."

"Maybe you're just tired. I mean, you've been working on this one thing pretty much all day. Maybe you need some fresh air. We can go for a walk if you want."

"Maybe if I go over everything again I'll figure it out."

"Daniel, I think you need a little distance right now. Let your mind do something else for a while. Then you can come back to this stuff refreshed."

"Jack."

"Daniel."

"Jaack."

"Are you going to make me order you to relax?"

They stared at each other. Daniel made one last plea with his eyes. Jack shook his head.