Disclaimer: See prologue.
Author's note: I'm going to try to post something on this at least once a week, usually more. Reviews will help this process, I promise. ^_^
Three weeks earlier...
PX3-983 hadn't seemed like a dangerous world, but SG-1 had known better than to take that for granted. They came through the wormhole ready for action, but there was still an air of routine to their actions. They had done this so often that readiness was routine, and they were rarely surprised so close to the Gate because of that. Daniel wanted to check out a temple that the UAV had spotted in the distance, and that had been the only real thing of interest that either the MALP or the UAV had discovered, so there were no objections.
The climate and foliage were similar to the Pacific Northwest in fall. The surrounding raingorest was as cold as its tropical cousins were warm. The greenery, which was much blue-er than Earth vegitation, generally had three edges rather than two, like the feathers that fletched an arrow. There were no flat-leaved plants, including the grasses. It would have been very interesting, if not for the rain that could be seen sweeping through the trees like a broom across a hardwood floor. They barely beat the rain to the temple, in fact.
Jack looked out at the rain in disgust. "Well, it looks like we're stuck here for a while. Daniel, Teal'c, go ahead and look around while Carter and I set up camp." They nodded and set out.
There were torches lining the walls, and after making sure that the sconces weren't hidden triggers, Daniel took one off the wall and lit it with the cigarrette lighter that was a part of his standard equipment. The material was modern enough that it didn't crumbe to dust, but old enough that it caught easily, burning brightly in the darkness of the temple. He lit another torch with his and handed it to Teal'c, and they continued to light those on the walls as they moved further in.
Looking around, Daniel was immediately in his element. "It looks like this is a Temple of Demeter, the Greek goddess of firtility and the harvest. I wonder if that was the Goa'uld who originally brought humans to this place."
Teal'c said, "I have never heard of a system lord with this name."
"Well, she might have been calling herself Ceres, as well. That's what the Romans called her. Or the humans here might have originally worshiped her before they were taken from Earth." They continued toward the interior, finding several of the things one would expect in a moderately sized temple somewhere in Ancient Greece, like Damascus or Corinth. There were prayer rooms for the devotees, as well as a central alter which would have been draped with either a fur or a cloth and piled high with the first offerings of the harvest. She was primarily the goddess of grain, but Demeter controlled the weather and was sought out to bless a marriage with firtility, so there were cerimonies all through the growing season. In the winter, it was thought best to leave her alone, as everyone knew that she mourned her daughter, Persephone's, absence, since she was bound to remain with Hades during that time, but in the other three seasons of the year, Demeter's temples were usually a place of sober celebration.
Then they found something different. There was another chamber in the very back of the temple, a circular marble room. The surounding wall was covered from floor to ceiling with an illustrated story. There was another alter here, this one made of naquada, with a crystal pedestal behind it.
Wanting to take the room one thing at a time, and knowing that the story on the walls probably provided an explanation, Daniel imediately got to work on translating the carvings. He rambled as he worked, the whole story coming out as he translated it in his head. "The Goddess Demeter came to this place to escape the destruction of the gods, and here she met the false gods who had been the cause of that destruction. It was because of them that people no longer wished to believe in the gods, that they were looking for something else to believe in. She watched them and knew that they were evil, that the people who served them did so out of fear for their lives and not out of devotion or choice. She stood against the evil ones, making a great winter storm and freezing all of them to death when they had sent their servants away. Her storm came so quickly that they were frozen in place, and she shattered them all with a great wind.
"But when the servants returned, it was discovered that one of their number had not been allowed to leave with the others, the wife of their leader, and she had been gravid with his first child. It sorrowed Demeter greatly that she had made this mistake, and she offered the man a gift. If he could care for it alone, she would give him a new child to replace the one that was lost. He agreed, and she instructed them on how it could be done. They built a temple with an alter made of the godstone."
Daniel was three quarters of the way around the room, still making sketches of the beautiful relief carvings that depicted the story, when Jack and Sam made their way into the room finally. Daniel told them what he'd discovered so far, then got into a conversation with Sam on who or what Demeter could really have been, while Jack took a look around himself. He didn't notice it when he stepped on a carving in the floor, but the results were quickly obvious.
Jack was suddenly surrounded by a soft white light, blueish against the red of the torch flames. Then a small orb of pure energy touched first him and then every other person in the chamber. A voice came out of nowhere, soft and feminine, warm and inviting. It said, "In honor of those who were lost to you, accept this gift, then live your life in whatever peace you may find."
The orb came back to Jack, hovering in front of his face for a while, as though looking him in the eye. Jack stared at it in wonder, and said, "Hi." It bobbled a bit, a sound coming from it like, well, a giggle, then it zipped around his body once, finally coming to rest at his abdomen, where it sank into his body painlessly. A feeling of pleasure suddenly suffused him, one so intense that when it passed, he just said "Woah," and then passed out.
