Trilithons – Aengus
Major Carter lifted her head and cocked it, listening for something.
"Carter?" O'Neill asked, suddenly alert.
She glanced at him, then back out at the night. "I keep thinking I hear wailing," she said. "Very faintly when the wind gusts."
The campsite went silent as they tried to hear anything out of the ordinary.
There was the rustle of the wind in the leaves and the muted sounds of nocturnal creatures. A faint chirping of crickets and the distant croak of a frog in the distant river.
But nothing else.
"I can't hear anything," Daniel Jackson remarked at length.
O'Neill shrugged. "Got me there, Carter. Teal'c?"
"I sense nothing, Major Carter," Teal'c informed her regretfully.
She frowned a little and glanced out towards the darkness. Then she shook herself and gave a little smile. "I think I need some sleep."
"Don't forget, you're on the second watch."
The smile tugged one corner of her mouth sideways. "Don't forget to wake me, sir."
And she rose and slipped into the tent she shared with Daniel Jackson. There was the sound of the zipper being done up and then the rustling of her bedroll before...silence.
"Maybe I should take the second watch," Daniel Jackson offered. "You could just let her sleep and wake me up instead..."
O'Neill looked across the campfire at him. "Who was it who was Mr. Wrong-Side-Of-The-Bed this morning?"
"You."
O'Neill snorted. "Teal'c?"
"O'Neill is correct, Daniel Jackson. You were indeed grumpy this morning." Daniel Jackson had not been congenial until they reached the site when his enthusiasm for the translation of the stones had replaced his bad humour. He had been of a more positive frame of mind for the rest of the day – much to his team-mates' relief.
The site, while of considerable concern to the SGC, was fascinating to Teal'c in the same manner that it was fascinating to Daniel Jackson. This place had evidently been visited by the Goa'uld, yet not populated by them in spite of the presence of a Stargate on the planet.
He was still alert for possible signs of Goa'uld – if this planet had been known to them, then there was no guarantee that they wouldn't come back at some stage. But it was a pleasant change not to have to be as wary as usual. While a warrior was always ready for the fight, a warrior also appreciated the times when fighting was not necessary – and learned to enjoy them to the fullest extent.
"Daniel, just do your translations and go to sleep. Teal'c is on first watch, I'm on last. We'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Would I tell you if I wasn't?"
"You might."
"Guys," came a voice from the tent in tones of dry weariness, "If you're going to bicker, could you go back to the circle and do it? Some of us are trying to sleep."
"Bossy, Carter," O'Neill said, but without any heat in his voice.
"Sorry, Sam..." Daniel Jackson said over his shoulder before he turned back to the fire and lowered his voice. "Okay. But I'll do a watch tomorrow night and Sam gets to sleep."
"Hey, if you're going to be a sucker for punishment, don't let me stop you," O'Neill told him dryly. "And speaking of suckers for punishment, I'm going to turn in. My old bones aren't doing so well with the chill of this place."
A snort emitted from Daniel Jackson, "Your 'old bones' can beat the heck out of me six days a week, Jack. And the only reason it's not seven days a week is because on the seventh you're too tired to be bothered."
O'Neill reached out and clapped a hand on his team-mate's shoulder. "Aren't you the lucky one then?"
"Lucky," Daniel Jackson echoed, dryly. "Sure."
With a grunt, O'Neill hauled himself to his feet. "Be good guys, and don't stay up too late, Daniel. No point in being off-watch if you don't use it to your advantage."
"Do I get grounded if I don't get home before curfew?" It appeared that Daniel Jackson was in a good humour tonight.
"Don't push your luck, Daniel." O'Neill was in a good humour also. "'Night, guys." A minute later, they heard the rustle as he climbed into his tent.
Then it was just the silence of the hills and the crackle of the fire.
Daniel Jackson glanced Teal'c's way and shrugged good-naturedly before turning back to the notes he had resting on his lap and beginning his translations again.
Teal'c considered the night and the brilliance of the stars in the sky above them – a gleaming tapestry of multicoloured diamonds set in midnight blue velvet. He had been to the planets of many stars in his life as the First Prime of Apophis, seen many places and people. But there had never been the time or the space to contemplate the stars in the skies above him. He had never been encouraged to see the stars above him – simply because the Goa'uld didn't want their soldiers considering anything beyond the needs and conquest of their god.
His time on SG-1 had certainly changed that. O'Neill's interest in amateur astronomy had taught Teal'c to look at the stars. Daniel Jackson's view of life had introduced Teal'c to new cultures and new ways of doing things. Major Carter's knowledge and background in astrophysics had given Teal'c insight into how the pieces of the universe fit together – and his place in the midst of it.
Although he still had to keep alert for anything which could harm his friends, Teal'c welcomed the vigil of taking watch on many levels. It gave him time outside of kel no reem to simply be still and appreciate the beauty and wonder of the world around him. It provided him with a measure of solitude without loneliness; and gave him a warm feeling of being trusted.
Even after five years spent with his friends, there were times when Teal'c found himself amazed that these people trusted him. They had been through many things together, many battles against the Goa'uld and other enemies; and yet sometimes Teal'c felt the weight of his sins pressing down upon him. Not the sins for which he was reviled among the Goa'uld and the Jaffa, but the sins which he had committed against innocents in the name of his god.
Through Daniel Jackson and O'Neill, he had learned of the histories of Earth and the military regimes under which they had operated. He'd read the books on the Holocaust and seen the way the scientists and military leaders of Nazi Germany had been hunted down by such organisations as the United Nations. He had read up on the war tribunals and seen the punishments enacted on others who had destroyed the lives of innocents.
Teal'c had done many things of which he was not proud. He would live with the guilt of his actions on his conscience. His work on SG-1 was part of his atonement for the evil things he had done in his history – but he was well aware that he could never fully repay in good what he had done in evil.
And yet his friends trusted him, time and again. They understood that his loyalty was to them as individuals, not to the SGC as an organisation, nor even to Earth as a planet. They knew the other loyalties that bound him in honour and pride, and they accepted them – even if they didn't always agree with his actions.
Trust was a delicate and precious thing – and so Teal'c treasured the delicacy of his friends' faith and belief in him in actions both large and small.
Across from him, Daniel Jackson yawned in the midst of his translation. Technically, Teal'c should have been helping Daniel Jackson with the translation; however his team-mate had expressed a wish to attempt the translation without Teal'c's help. There were other pages of translation that Teal'c had been working through, but Daniel Jackson had wished to try these ones himself.
"I believe O'Neill was correct, Daniel Jackson. You should take your rest."
His team-mate gave him a look of reproof and shuffled some papers. "Teal'c, while you were Apophis' First Prime, did you ever hear about 'The Seven'?"
Teal'c searched back through his memory. "I did not, Daniel Jackson. Were they the Goa'uld who ruled this system?"
"I don't think it was this system, Teal'c. But I think it might have been a nearby system - a set of planets under a collective Goa'uld rule. They probably weren't big enough or powerful enough to be System Lords themselves, but they didn't want to serve another System Lord. So they formed their own...coalition, I guess." He looked down at the paper and frowned. "Were the Goa'uld in the habit of making...I don't know...sagas to the System Lords?"
Teal'c cast through his memories of both Apophis' court and what little he recalled of Cronus' court. "There have been some System Lords who wish to have songs of their exploits sung before their allies. Apophis was not one of them. Those who took on the personas of gods from Earth cultures rich in an oral tradition may have had these sagas, but neither Apophis nor his allies did."
"Uh-huh." Daniel Jackson scribbled a few notes in the margin of the page. "Tha-a-a-a-anks..." The yawn was impressively large. He cocked a wry smile at Teal'c. "I think I'll get some sleep."
"That would seem to be a wise decision, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c smiled slightly. "Sleep well."
"I will."
The tent was unzipped, then zipped up. There was the rustle of sleeping bags...then silence.
Teal'c sat back and attuned his senses to the sounds of the night so if there was any sound out of the ordinary, he would pick it up.
He heard nothing but the wind.
*
She approached the edge of the circle, curious yet hesitant.
Exquisite.
"Who are you?"
Yes, she'd always been one to ask questions. The legends claimed her the most beautiful woman ever born - as if that were the sum and total of her charms.
"A friend."
Her eyes stared back at him, judging him with the wariness he recalled. She'd never trusted easily, but her trust, once given, was invaluable.
"A friend?" Her eyes travelled over his form, taking stock of him. It was a warriors move, a fighter's careful reading of the situation, strengths and weaknesses. She was born of Fionn, indeed. "What are you doing here?"
"I have been here a long time." Waiting for her.
A frown touched her features, but she studied the stones instead, stepping forwards - almost to the edge of the circle, yet not quite. One hand lifted, hovered over the stone. "It's warm," she wondered, turning her gaze to him. "They're not warm during the day. I wonder if they store energy like batteries…"
He couldn't help a smile at her fascination with the stones, even as he stepped closer to the edge of the circle. "I could show you what they do." He was careful to keep the eagerness out of his voice. He didn't want to frighten her away.
She hesitated. Interest warred with caution.
Gently, he increased the intensity of his attraction. The others had called it 'glamour' and thought it unfair that he should have been gifted thus. And they had resented it and plotted to overthrow him - with one of his own vassals ambitious and complicit.
But he was indeed the son of his mother.
"Why are you here?" She glanced around, the sharp edges of her curiosity dulled by his glamour but still interested.
Interested in him.
"They accused me of a crime not mine and imprisoned me here."
"Who?" Then she frowned briefly as if a cloud of memory had drifted across the sky of her mind. "The others?"
For a moment, he did not know how she had known of the others. Then he remembered her companion attempting to translate the stones.
"The others." He smiled in confirmation.
"Where are they now?"
"Far away," he told her, assured of that fact. His exile had been long and lonely and he had craved companionship all that time. He had craved her presence.
"Who are you?"
The druids claimed that the knowledge of a name granted power. They were right and they were wrong. "They called me the Mac Og. But you will call me Aengus. And you are Etain."
She frowned, the glamour not yet strong enough to hold her from protest. "My name is not Etain."
He smiled gently at her rebuke. "It is now."
·
Exactly which planet Carter was on was questionable, but Jack knew it wasn't the one he, Teal'c, and Daniel were on. He had to repeat his question before he got any kind of response.
"Sorry, what, sir?" She blinked, almost like someone waking up.
"Is everything okay, Major?" Jack was feeling more indulgent than irritated with her vagueness, but he did need her to have her eyes and ears open. If they'd been on an unknown planet, then he would have been sharper - a lot sharper - with her. "You've been out of it all morning." He regarded her from his log and waited for the flood of revelation, which he knew perfectly well would never come. She wasn't that type. She especially wasn't that type when there was an audience – even an audience of three of her closest friends.
"Uh... Nothing, sir."
"You sure, Carter? You've been zoning in and out lately. If there's a problem..." He left it hanging, hoping she'd take him up on it – or take the hint. If this kind of behaviour went on for much longer, he was gonna have to chew her out. Not something that he enjoyed doing under any circumstances, but especially given that she was an excellent soldier most of the time.
"There's no problem, sir."
He hadn't really expected any other answer from her. But hey, he'd hoped that after their little chat of the other night she'd be a bit more willing to shoot straight with him. Not that she ever shot crooked, only that she was good at hiding behind masks. And so was he.
"Okay, then." He went back to his work on the astronomical calculations for the planet's sun and moons. He'd recruited her help for a few of them, but was slowly working through most of them himself. It gave him something to do other than sit around twiddling his thumbs and waiting for the sun to set and the stars to come out.
Based on the notes Captain Vang had taken during SG-9's stay here, and comparing it to the notes he'd taken since they'd arrived here, Jack had some calculations to work out so he could actually chart some of the more interesting points in the night sky instead of just looking at them.
Everyone on his team seemed happy enough with the stuff they had to do. It was nice to get away from the SGC on a 'milk-run' mission once in a while – although if they got another 'milk run' after this, then Jack might start getting offended.
Teal'c was slowly transcribing out the images taken by the video camera in the last couple of days. They went onto sheets of paper that Daniel was then translating and pondering over. And she was leaning back on her rolled up bedroll with a pen dangling from her mouth as she wrote out notes and theories regarding the energy readings they'd found in the stones.
At least the heads-up seemed to have worked. She was focusing on her work, not staring out into space. And if her hand paused occasionally in writing her notes, Jack pretended not to notice and got on with his own calculations and reading.
He'd read up on books about ancient astronomical techniques before they came here. Some had been from Daniel's library, others had been slipped from the archaeological department, still others had been taken from Jack's own book collection about astronomy - although his books and journals were more about modern techniques and discoveries than ancient ones.
Daniel had been unmerciful in his teasing regarding Jack's 'sudden' interest in artefacts - but truthfully, Jack had already known a lot of it before he started reading. The reading was mostly to refresh his memory.
There was a certain mysticism to the way ancient peoples had observed the rising and setting of the sun over the years, then developed huge stone calendars to measure the seasonal changes in a more concrete manner than checking whether the sun was out or whether there was a blizzard outside.
The cultures that had developed such measures of time usually involved rituals related to the sun - rising, setting, equinoxes and solstices. In particular, the Celtic people had placed great importance on the sun points in the calendar - although Jack personally doubted that the druids had been half of what was attributed to them with the whole new age thing coming along.
"Ah!" Daniel's exclamation interrupted his thoughts - interrupted all their thoughts. Without looking up, he continued, "I think I've found a name for this Goa'uld. They called him the Mac Og."
Jack frowned. "What kind of a name is 'the Mac Og'?"
"It's almost a title, Jack. 'Mac' means 'son of', and 'Og' is another name for the Dagda."
"And who exactly was this Dagda?"
"Uh...kind of the Zeus of the Irish pantheon, I guess. He was considered one of the greater gods and fathered a lot of children on a lot of different women."
Jack had a very limited idea of who Zeus was – mythology was Daniel's specialty, not his! But he understood the phrase 'fathered a lot of children on a lot of different women' well enough. "So, he got around?"
The phrase irked Daniel in its 'modernnness' as Jack had known it would. "Something like that."
"And this is one of his kids? Does he go by any other name apart from 'Son of Og'?"
"Aengus."
The two men turned to look at their team-mate, who'd come out of her daze. "What?"
"Aengus," she said, as if her non-sequitur was self-evident. "The Mac Og is also known as Aengus."
Jack blinked. "Didn't know you took an interest in Irish mythology, Carter."
Her embarrassment was palpable - and confusing. "Well, I don't, sir. I just...remember hearing it somewhere..."
"Aengus...Aengus..." Daniel glanced over at Teal'c. "No recollection of a Goa'uld by that name?"
"If he was one of these seven Goa'uld, Daniel Jackson, then it is unlikely that I would ever have heard of him. Apophis was unaware of their presence in this system."
"It's familiar...hang on..." Daniel 'spaced out' for a minute while Jack looked at Carter and Teal'c and shrugged his shoulders. "Aengus was the Irish god of love and youth. A male equivalent of Hathor, I guess."
"And exactly why did they imprison him?"
The pages of notes were flipped through, while Daniel muttered to himself. "I know I saw it here somewhere...somewhere... A-ha!" His brows went up, then descended down again. "Um, Teal'c, I don't know this word..." He clambered up to show Teal'c the page he'd been studying. "The one before it indicates that he stole something..."
Teal'c only took a second to identify the word. "It is the term for 'personal slave', Daniel Jackson."
"Personal slave..." Daniel started scribbling that down on the piece of paper. "Thanks, Teal'c. Okay...well, then, he stole a personal slave from one of his fellow Goa'uld Lords." One page of the pad was flipped over, "The Goa'uld in question took offence and tried to go to war, but...the others stopped him. I think. Or they channelled their efforts into something else."
Jack arched his brows. "Something else?"
"A rebellion against this Goa'uld. I think...I think they took one of his minor Goa'uld and supported him to overthrow him."
"And they buried him here."
"I guess so."
That worried Jack. The last thing they needed was a Goa'uld about the town. "You guess so?"
"I haven't translated it all, yet. But it does say that these stones contain the one known as the Mac Og, condemned for his theft of his brother's human servant..." Daniel squinted. "Etain." He frowned, deep in thought. "There are Irish legends about Aengus and Etain on Earth."
Jack had little interest in legends; he was more worried about the possible presence of a Goa'uld on the planet than any kind of mythology that Daniel might be into right now. "Daniel, I think that finding out if they left a Goa'uld wandering around this planet is a greater priority than trying to remember old legends. Right?"
"I thought we'd confirmed that there was no sign of Goa'uld presence."
"We did," Jack was undaunted by the question. Rule number one about leading a team: don't let their questions get to you. "But I'd like to be sure that our...Magog is dead and buried here, not just 'left here to rot'."
"They wouldn't have just left him here, Jack."
"Why...?" Jack suddenly realised why these 'seven' wouldn't have just left Magog to run around the planet – the presence of the Stargate. He raised a hand to head off his team reminding him what he'd briefly forgotten. "Never mind. So if the Goa'uld knew there was a Stargate on this planet, why'd they leave him here at all? Why not pick another planet?"
"Maybe they wanted him available for some reason." Daniel shrugged, unbothered.
"Here lies Magog. He wasn't a nice guy and we killed him and buried him here. You really don't want to follow in his footsteps." Jack caught the edge of Carter's brief smile and Daniel's glare at his levity. Daniel really needed to develop a sense of humour. "What?"
"You are most likely correct, O'Neill." Teal'c's pronouncement surprised them with his leap into the conversation. "The Goa'uld are vindictive to the point of gloating. They would not have passed up the chance to put his grave in a place where they could bring their vassals and show them the price of rebellion."
"But wasn't this guy his own mini System-Lord or something?"
"It is more than possible that they merely wished to bring him down for reasons of their own. Were he powerful and inclined to do his own thing then the other Goa'uld may have preferred someone more compliant in their power structure."
Carter had sat through all this, silent and contemplative. She was phasing out again, and Jack snapped his fingers at her. "Carter!"
She didn't move, didn't start, but her eyes immediately flickered to his. "Yes, sir?"
"You still with us?"
One corner of her mouth quirked. "Yes, sir."
"Don't have anything to add?"
She seemed to gather herself. "Well, the level of energy the stones were emitting this morning was significantly less than they were emitting last night. I..." she frowned and stared off into space. "I think they're batteries."
"Batteries for what?" Daniel asked immediately.
Her gaze stayed unfocused. "I don't know. Maybe... Osiris and Isis were kept in stasis jars – maybe what these Goa'uld did was the same kind of thing? It only took a tiny charge in the stasis jar to keep Isis frozen..."
"So...the circle is basically a giant stasis jar, holding a probably-still-live Goa'uld who's been more or less 'flash frozen'?" The back of Jack's neck started to crawl. Okay, so it had been crawling some from the moment they realised that this thing was a burial ground for a dead Goa'uld. Jack had just supposed the thing was dead – hopefully with the equivalent of a stake in its heart. To discover it was only sleeping the enchanted sleep of a hundred years was not a happy prospect.
"I wonder if we could dig him up and take him back to Earth," Daniel mused. He looked defensively back at his team-mates all of whom had turned to look at him with varying degrees of disbelief and revulsion. "He probably has a lot of information about the Goa'uld – if we could get him to hand it over..."
"Daniel, when have we ever known a Goa'uld to just hand something over?" Sometimes Jack simply didn't understand his team-mate. The only good Goa'uld was a dead one. Sure, the info would be nice, but they already had one Goa'uld running around on Earth – they didn't need a second one, even one under their control.
"Um...no. Unless they wanted something from us. Or were setting a trap."
"Exactly." Jack sighed and glanced around at the stones hemming them in. "So what else does all the rest of it," he waved a hand at the ancient carvings, "Tell us about Magog, Daniel?"
Daniel didn't even look up from his notes. "I'm still translating, Jack."
"Well, hurry up."
"I would if you'd stop interrupting me."
Jack caught Carter's eye and decided against prodding Daniel any further. While it was fun to prod his team-mate from time to time, too much could become too much.
Admittedly, Daniel bore the brunt of it since he provided all kinds of opportunities where Carter and Teal'c were out of the question. It wasn't fair to prod Carter since she technically couldn't hit back without crossing the lines of insubordination. Teal'c, on the other hand, was too solemn to make fun of. Or at least, he made you feel he was too solemn to make fun of.
Jack sighed and went back to his calculations.
"Sir, if the purpose of the stones was to set up a power-source for keeping this Goa'uld in stasis, then it may be that they just used the form of the circles without giving it any meaning."
"Huh?" It wasn't that he didn't understand any of the words she'd just said; he understood them all. It was just that in the context in which she'd used them, he couldn't make head or tail of what she meant.
"Sir, if the stones were set up as a battery by the Goa'uld, then they wouldn't have bothered with setting up the circle as the circles on Earth were set up – to mark the sun and moonrises at certain times of the year."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Sam," Daniel added from his log, "Putting the monolith together seems like too much work for the Goa'uld to be bothered with. It's more likely that some other race initially put up the circle of stones and the Goa'uld just used the energy-containing properties of the stone for their purposes."
"And all the writing on the stones?"
"Well, I imagine they carved that. Seeing as it's all about the Goa'uld imprisoned there." Daniel's tone of voice was about as dry as he could make it.
"Goa'uld graffiti?" Jack glanced at her to see if she smiled. Her mouth twitched slightly.
"If you want to call it that."
"So what it comes down to is that I still have to do these equations?"
"That sounds about right, Jack."
"Thanks, Daniel."
"No charge."
Jack rolled his eyes and went back to work.
An hour and several conversations later, Jack got up and stretched his legs. He surreptitiously massaged his butt since it had gone numb about thirty minutes ago, and stretched his arms a little. The calculations were done and the results gave him fairly good idea of where the planet presently was in the solar cycle. He'd check his calculations against tomorrow's sunrise and see how they did. And if Carter thought it necessary, she could look them over and see if he'd forgotten to transpose a ten into the next column.
The late afternoon sun was just above the western hills. In less than half an hour, it would vanish from view of the campsite and the shadows would slink low-bellied into the valley to make it their haven until the sun rose again.
Above them, the sky was darkening, taking on rosier, more vivid hues, and the clouds that had threatened earlier had fled to the horizon, leaving the arc of the heavens clear and the skies naked to his perusal.
It was all good.
Jack clapped his hands together, startling his team-mates from their reveries. "Well, sky's clear. Who's coming stargazing tonight?"
"I shall, O'Neill."
"Good man, Teal'c. Daniel?"
"Uh...well...um...okay." He could tell Daniel wanted to stick with his translations. But however reluctant the acceptance was, at least it was an acceptance instead of a dismissal.
"Excellent. Carter?"
"Yes, sir."
Even better. It would be the first time he'd managed to get them all to the stones to see the stars. Admittedly, it would cut down on his personal viewing time, but it would be worth it to show them the sights of the night sky. And he rarely got to show off his astronomical knowledge to his team-mates.
He clapped his hands together. "Great! Who's on dinner tonight?"
"You are, sir."
"Can't be."
"You are." Daniel looked positively gleeful.
"You assured Major Carter that it would be your turn this evening, O'Neill." Even Teal'c was smiling faintly at the corner he was in.
Drat.
Jack looked from face to face, hoping for a reprieve. He found none. With a deep sigh, he went over to their supplies and began rummaging through the packs for the next load of MREs.
Oh well, at least he'd finally gotten everyone stargazing tonight.
*
Continued in Trilithons Part Three - Etain
