Part 9
Disclaimers can be found in Part 0
***
It had taken an hour for Jack and Teal'c to make it all around the maze. Neither one found a hint of a way past the force field. Jack hoped that Daniel would have better news.
"Well Daniel?" asked Jack when he and Teal'c had rejoined their team mates.
"Uh, oh Jack," said Daniel altering the focus of his eyes to meet Jack's. "I take it you didn't find any break in the force field."
"Nothing, nada, nix, nil."
"Too bad," said Daniel. "But I'm not surprised."
Jack tilted his head to the right and raised his eyebrows. "Not surprised?"
"No. It actually kind of shows it here if you look," replied the young man. He led Jack and Teal'c further along the wall - almost halfway around the cavern. "We walked the wall before actually trying to decipher any of it. You can see here that it shows the maze complete with a kind of a haze over it. I'm assuming it's the force field."
"Really? Does it show how to get through it?" asked Jack.
"Well we haven't gotten that far. This just kind of caught my eye while we were walking," he explained as he led his two friends back where they had left Tatapesaah and Carter. "It seems to be an actual history of this world starting back to when these Protectors ..."
"Protectors?"
"Well, that's what I'm calling them. This is probably some sort of protection device. Anyway, it starts when the Protectors first came here and found Tatapesaah's people and the Goa'uld."
"So it is a Goa'uld planet?"
"Oh yes. Definitely. See - here." Daniel pointed to the wall. On it Jack could make out what looked like a perfect likeness of one of RA's Jaffa. "RA?" he asked.
"Looks like it. Why would RA transport native Americans. He couldn't pretend to be one of their gods and an Egyptian god at the same time, could he?"
"I think this world was populated after the Giza Gate was buried. RA needed more slaves, more hosts. He probably used the Arctic Gate to bring them here. It would have been easy for him to switch personae's. I mean there doesn't appear to be any law against it," said Daniel. "Teal'c?"
Teal'c had followed Daniel's explanation. "I am not aware of any System Lord who ever became another god."
"But it could happen, right?" asked Daniel.
"There would be difficulties."
"What sort of difficulties?" asked Jack.
"Well I suppose," interrupted Daniel, "that the System Lord would have to find some way to make himself and his Jaffa conform to the new belief. I mean if this was RA, then his Jaffa still used their Anubis Headdress while here. So he had to find some god that the Lacotia believed in that used the dog form."
"Makes sense," said Jack. "What else?"
"Heru'ur uses the same head dress as RA did. Possibly this is one of his worlds," suggested Teal'c.
"That's possible too, I suppose. I don't think it matters all that much. It's just kind of interesting is all," said Daniel.
Jack looked back and forth between the people gathered around: Daniel, Teal'c, Carter, and Tatapesaah. Tatapesaah, he could see, was trying desperately to understand all that was being said.
"Don't worry Chief," said Jack to Tatapesaah. "I get confused too when Daniel starts talking sometimes."
Tatapesaah smiled and Jack and nodded. "I can understand why, O'Neill."
"All right Daniel, we don't bother with finding out who this guy was. We just have confirmation that it was a Goa'uld. Right?" asked Jack.
"Yes, it was definitely a Goa'uld," answered Daniel.
"So now we have to figure out how this, whatever this is, works?" asked Jack waving his arm around the chamber.
"It's going to take awhile, Jack."
"Why?"
"Well this is a mural and some of the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but the majority are couched using whatever logic these people followed. Some of it isn't real clear," Daniel tried to explain.
Jack glanced over at Tatapesaah again and then at Carter. She nodded to him indicating her agreement with Daniel. "Okay. We have until the full moon. At least we think so since it was there in our dreams. How long until the full moon here?"
"By my calculations two days," answered Carter.
"Two days?" asked Daniel. "Sam, that isn't enough time."
"Well it's all the time you've got buddy-boy, so you'd better busy. In the meantime, I'm going to want an advance warning system set up at the Gate," said Jack. "Carter you stay here with Daniel. He can use your help. Teal'c, you and I are going to go start set up something at the Gate and also figure out some way to stave off anyone coming through before Daniel's finished."
"My people will help, O'Neill," said Tatapesaah. "Both in here and at your Gate."
"Thank you, Chief. We're going to need all the help we can get."
***
"Are you sure you want to do this, Colonel?" asked Hammond.
While Jack was setting up a relay of guards at the Gate, he had contacted the SGC to give them a status report on their mission.
"Sir, I think we have to do it," said Jack. "These people are relying on us, well Daniel and Carter anyway, to figure out a way to get their Goa'uld buster, if that's what it is, working again."
"And if it isn't ... a Goa'uld buster?" asked Hammond.
"Well, Sir. Then we figure out a way for these people to defend themselves or we leave and then have them bury that Gate and hope that whoever this is, they don't come in ships."
"All right Colonel. I'm leaving the decision in your hands. I trust your judgment."
"Thank you, Sir." Jack severed the worm hole and turned to Tatapesaah who had followed him to the Stargate. He had expressed a desire to see how it worked and Jack had also felt that he needed to tell him that if SG1 had to leave, they would need to bury the Gate. He wanted to be able to explain everything to him, and the long walk to the Stargate had given him that time.
Jack was developing a lot of respect for the Chief and his people and he hated the idea that his team might fail them. Damn the Goa'uld anyway. Why do they always pick on the innocents?
Walking to the Stargate and back to the village had taken most of the day. Jack had set up a relay of men on the path with one in the tree line at the location of the Stargate. These men would act as an advance warning system in case whoever had sent that first batch of Jaffa through sent more before the night of the full moon they had all seen in their dream.
Anxious to get back to the cavern to see if Daniel and Carter had made any headway into deciphering the murals, he picked up the pace shaving an hour off of their travel time.
When they got to the village, they found that Teal'c had been busy. Caves had hidden the Bursar from the Goa'uld who had visited that world. He had had the women of the tribe move supplies to the tunnel of the cave while the men were busy camouflaging the mound of rock that they had removed the entrance.
"Teal'c, this just might work," he said the big Jaffa who was surveying the work that was being done.
Teal'c bowed his head. "I believe so, also."
"Good thinking. I don't suppose you've heard from the two scientists, have you?" he asked changing the subject.
"No O'Neill. I have not."
"Didn't think so. I'm going inside," said Jack. Looking at the how the mound of rock no longer looked like a new excavation, he shook his head, "This is really good, you know that."
"Thank you, O'Neill. Tatapesaah's people are hard workers and grasped the idea right away."
Shaking his head again, he moved off into the coolness of the cave. Teal'c had also hidden the entrance and had, just in case it was found, rebuilt a portion of the cave-in. In case they did have to hide in the cave, they could finish filling in the section left open and it would look like it did when SG1 first found it.
"Amazing," he said.
***
Jack spotted Daniel with Carter and Witashaun about a quarter of the way around the cavern. Daniel was taking pictures of the walls with his ever present camera, a notebook tucked under one arm. Jack joined them after taking another look towards the center of the maze to see if there had been any change.
"Daniel?"
"Oh, hi Jack," greeted Daniel. "Got everything set up outside?"
"Yes, we do," answered Jack. "How's it going in here? Any progress?"
"Well, lots really, but no closer to the answer yet," replied Daniel. He swept his arm around the interior of the cavern. "There's still a lot to do."
Jack had followed Daniel's arm with his head, then shook it. "Daniel, couldn't you just start further in? You know, closer to where the instructions for this thing might be? Or maybe just, you know, skim through it until you get to the exciting parts?"
"Uh, no Jack. I can't," he said. "This thing is pictographic. Each picture represents a word of series of words. I've got to decipher what each picture means within it's relationship to the other pictures. Once I've got the basics down, the rest should go faster though."
Jack looked at Carter who merely nodded her agreement. "Well you do realize that after today, which is almost gone by the way, you only have one more day to figure this thing out?"
"Yes, Jack. I do and I'll get it done a lot faster if I'm not being interrupted," said Daniel who turned, let his camera hand from its strap, and take his notebook preparing to write something into it.
"Sir," said Carter, "What did General Hammond have to say?"
Jack continued to stare at Daniel for a moment, knowing he'd just been reprimanded by him. Realizing that Carter had interrupted the conversation to stave off one of his and Daniel's little discussions that usually ended up going no where, he turned to face her.
"General Hammond is trusting us to do what we think is best," he said. "We will have to decide sometime tomorrow how we're going to handle this. Teal'c has had some of the villages begin storing supplies in the tunnel and he's camouflaged it so that hopefully the Goa'uld won't find it."
"And Tatapesaah? How's he doing?" she asked.
"Well you know I'm really beginning to like the guy. He's back at the village now overseeing some of the things that they are doing there. I've explained our options to him if we don't get this thing solved," he said waving his arm, "and he took them well. I'm thinking the best thing to do would be to bury the Gate and he seemed to agree."
"You know, Sir. We could do it now ... bury the Gate. It would give us time to figure this thing out," she suggested.
"Yeah, I thought of that and I'm still considering it. I think we need to talk about that tonight."
***
Continued in Part 10
Disclaimers can be found in Part 0
***
It had taken an hour for Jack and Teal'c to make it all around the maze. Neither one found a hint of a way past the force field. Jack hoped that Daniel would have better news.
"Well Daniel?" asked Jack when he and Teal'c had rejoined their team mates.
"Uh, oh Jack," said Daniel altering the focus of his eyes to meet Jack's. "I take it you didn't find any break in the force field."
"Nothing, nada, nix, nil."
"Too bad," said Daniel. "But I'm not surprised."
Jack tilted his head to the right and raised his eyebrows. "Not surprised?"
"No. It actually kind of shows it here if you look," replied the young man. He led Jack and Teal'c further along the wall - almost halfway around the cavern. "We walked the wall before actually trying to decipher any of it. You can see here that it shows the maze complete with a kind of a haze over it. I'm assuming it's the force field."
"Really? Does it show how to get through it?" asked Jack.
"Well we haven't gotten that far. This just kind of caught my eye while we were walking," he explained as he led his two friends back where they had left Tatapesaah and Carter. "It seems to be an actual history of this world starting back to when these Protectors ..."
"Protectors?"
"Well, that's what I'm calling them. This is probably some sort of protection device. Anyway, it starts when the Protectors first came here and found Tatapesaah's people and the Goa'uld."
"So it is a Goa'uld planet?"
"Oh yes. Definitely. See - here." Daniel pointed to the wall. On it Jack could make out what looked like a perfect likeness of one of RA's Jaffa. "RA?" he asked.
"Looks like it. Why would RA transport native Americans. He couldn't pretend to be one of their gods and an Egyptian god at the same time, could he?"
"I think this world was populated after the Giza Gate was buried. RA needed more slaves, more hosts. He probably used the Arctic Gate to bring them here. It would have been easy for him to switch personae's. I mean there doesn't appear to be any law against it," said Daniel. "Teal'c?"
Teal'c had followed Daniel's explanation. "I am not aware of any System Lord who ever became another god."
"But it could happen, right?" asked Daniel.
"There would be difficulties."
"What sort of difficulties?" asked Jack.
"Well I suppose," interrupted Daniel, "that the System Lord would have to find some way to make himself and his Jaffa conform to the new belief. I mean if this was RA, then his Jaffa still used their Anubis Headdress while here. So he had to find some god that the Lacotia believed in that used the dog form."
"Makes sense," said Jack. "What else?"
"Heru'ur uses the same head dress as RA did. Possibly this is one of his worlds," suggested Teal'c.
"That's possible too, I suppose. I don't think it matters all that much. It's just kind of interesting is all," said Daniel.
Jack looked back and forth between the people gathered around: Daniel, Teal'c, Carter, and Tatapesaah. Tatapesaah, he could see, was trying desperately to understand all that was being said.
"Don't worry Chief," said Jack to Tatapesaah. "I get confused too when Daniel starts talking sometimes."
Tatapesaah smiled and Jack and nodded. "I can understand why, O'Neill."
"All right Daniel, we don't bother with finding out who this guy was. We just have confirmation that it was a Goa'uld. Right?" asked Jack.
"Yes, it was definitely a Goa'uld," answered Daniel.
"So now we have to figure out how this, whatever this is, works?" asked Jack waving his arm around the chamber.
"It's going to take awhile, Jack."
"Why?"
"Well this is a mural and some of the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but the majority are couched using whatever logic these people followed. Some of it isn't real clear," Daniel tried to explain.
Jack glanced over at Tatapesaah again and then at Carter. She nodded to him indicating her agreement with Daniel. "Okay. We have until the full moon. At least we think so since it was there in our dreams. How long until the full moon here?"
"By my calculations two days," answered Carter.
"Two days?" asked Daniel. "Sam, that isn't enough time."
"Well it's all the time you've got buddy-boy, so you'd better busy. In the meantime, I'm going to want an advance warning system set up at the Gate," said Jack. "Carter you stay here with Daniel. He can use your help. Teal'c, you and I are going to go start set up something at the Gate and also figure out some way to stave off anyone coming through before Daniel's finished."
"My people will help, O'Neill," said Tatapesaah. "Both in here and at your Gate."
"Thank you, Chief. We're going to need all the help we can get."
***
"Are you sure you want to do this, Colonel?" asked Hammond.
While Jack was setting up a relay of guards at the Gate, he had contacted the SGC to give them a status report on their mission.
"Sir, I think we have to do it," said Jack. "These people are relying on us, well Daniel and Carter anyway, to figure out a way to get their Goa'uld buster, if that's what it is, working again."
"And if it isn't ... a Goa'uld buster?" asked Hammond.
"Well, Sir. Then we figure out a way for these people to defend themselves or we leave and then have them bury that Gate and hope that whoever this is, they don't come in ships."
"All right Colonel. I'm leaving the decision in your hands. I trust your judgment."
"Thank you, Sir." Jack severed the worm hole and turned to Tatapesaah who had followed him to the Stargate. He had expressed a desire to see how it worked and Jack had also felt that he needed to tell him that if SG1 had to leave, they would need to bury the Gate. He wanted to be able to explain everything to him, and the long walk to the Stargate had given him that time.
Jack was developing a lot of respect for the Chief and his people and he hated the idea that his team might fail them. Damn the Goa'uld anyway. Why do they always pick on the innocents?
Walking to the Stargate and back to the village had taken most of the day. Jack had set up a relay of men on the path with one in the tree line at the location of the Stargate. These men would act as an advance warning system in case whoever had sent that first batch of Jaffa through sent more before the night of the full moon they had all seen in their dream.
Anxious to get back to the cavern to see if Daniel and Carter had made any headway into deciphering the murals, he picked up the pace shaving an hour off of their travel time.
When they got to the village, they found that Teal'c had been busy. Caves had hidden the Bursar from the Goa'uld who had visited that world. He had had the women of the tribe move supplies to the tunnel of the cave while the men were busy camouflaging the mound of rock that they had removed the entrance.
"Teal'c, this just might work," he said the big Jaffa who was surveying the work that was being done.
Teal'c bowed his head. "I believe so, also."
"Good thinking. I don't suppose you've heard from the two scientists, have you?" he asked changing the subject.
"No O'Neill. I have not."
"Didn't think so. I'm going inside," said Jack. Looking at the how the mound of rock no longer looked like a new excavation, he shook his head, "This is really good, you know that."
"Thank you, O'Neill. Tatapesaah's people are hard workers and grasped the idea right away."
Shaking his head again, he moved off into the coolness of the cave. Teal'c had also hidden the entrance and had, just in case it was found, rebuilt a portion of the cave-in. In case they did have to hide in the cave, they could finish filling in the section left open and it would look like it did when SG1 first found it.
"Amazing," he said.
***
Jack spotted Daniel with Carter and Witashaun about a quarter of the way around the cavern. Daniel was taking pictures of the walls with his ever present camera, a notebook tucked under one arm. Jack joined them after taking another look towards the center of the maze to see if there had been any change.
"Daniel?"
"Oh, hi Jack," greeted Daniel. "Got everything set up outside?"
"Yes, we do," answered Jack. "How's it going in here? Any progress?"
"Well, lots really, but no closer to the answer yet," replied Daniel. He swept his arm around the interior of the cavern. "There's still a lot to do."
Jack had followed Daniel's arm with his head, then shook it. "Daniel, couldn't you just start further in? You know, closer to where the instructions for this thing might be? Or maybe just, you know, skim through it until you get to the exciting parts?"
"Uh, no Jack. I can't," he said. "This thing is pictographic. Each picture represents a word of series of words. I've got to decipher what each picture means within it's relationship to the other pictures. Once I've got the basics down, the rest should go faster though."
Jack looked at Carter who merely nodded her agreement. "Well you do realize that after today, which is almost gone by the way, you only have one more day to figure this thing out?"
"Yes, Jack. I do and I'll get it done a lot faster if I'm not being interrupted," said Daniel who turned, let his camera hand from its strap, and take his notebook preparing to write something into it.
"Sir," said Carter, "What did General Hammond have to say?"
Jack continued to stare at Daniel for a moment, knowing he'd just been reprimanded by him. Realizing that Carter had interrupted the conversation to stave off one of his and Daniel's little discussions that usually ended up going no where, he turned to face her.
"General Hammond is trusting us to do what we think is best," he said. "We will have to decide sometime tomorrow how we're going to handle this. Teal'c has had some of the villages begin storing supplies in the tunnel and he's camouflaged it so that hopefully the Goa'uld won't find it."
"And Tatapesaah? How's he doing?" she asked.
"Well you know I'm really beginning to like the guy. He's back at the village now overseeing some of the things that they are doing there. I've explained our options to him if we don't get this thing solved," he said waving his arm, "and he took them well. I'm thinking the best thing to do would be to bury the Gate and he seemed to agree."
"You know, Sir. We could do it now ... bury the Gate. It would give us time to figure this thing out," she suggested.
"Yeah, I thought of that and I'm still considering it. I think we need to talk about that tonight."
***
Continued in Part 10