Giles hung up his phone. A week had gone by since they had first heard from Dr. Jackson, and he'd had no luck. "No one I've contacted seems to know anything about any new discoveries in Latvia," he told Buffy. "That was an acquaintance in the archaeology department at the University of Riga. He knows nothing about any recent finds in Latvia, or anywhere else around the Baltic."
"So, this Daniel Jackson guy lied about where he found those inscriptions," said Buffy. "Could he have uncovered the same temple that was found in 92?"
"It doesn't seem likely," said Giles. "We left wards on the area that will encourage anyone who goes near it to…uh…look elsewhere."
"Encourage how?" asked Buffy.
"Nothing overt," said Giles. "They will just have a feeling that they are in the wrong place, and an urge to go someplace else. And if that doesn't work, there were also alarm spells left at the site, to notify us if it was disturbed."
"'Us' being the old blown up Watchers' Council," said Buffy. "Who gets notified now?"
"The alarm would have activated a crystal that was stored in the Council's vault, in the basement of the building," said Giles. "We managed to recover most of what was stored down there. I've spoken with Robson, to make sure that we did recover it. He tells me that the crystal is intact, and appears to be functioning."
Jack watched the helicopter that had brought them to the island as it disappeared into the overcast sky. He slowly turned around, surveying the bleak landscape. Grey sky, grey ocean, grey rocks. Lots of grey, accented by brilliant green vegetation that hugged the ground. Nothing stood up to face the bitterly cold wind blowing in off the sea. He turned back to face the rest of SG-1, and the four man archaeological team that had come with them. "Let's get this stuff all moved to some place more sheltered to set up our camp."
Major Carter consulted a hand-held GPS unit, and a topographic map of the island that had been created for them from the satellite images. She pointed downhill. "The temple is that way." She pointed out a flat stretch of land on her map, which would be sheltered from the wind by an outcrop of rock. "Here looks like a good place to make camp, Sir."
"Okay campers!" called out Jack to the others. "Let's get moving! We don't have a lot of daylight left, and we don't want to be pitching tents in the dark!"
Everyone shouldered their packs, and they picked up the cases of equipment that they had brought. Jack and Teal'c took the long case that had their weapons in it. They were supposed to be a civilian archaeological expedition, so they weren't openly carrying weapons. Even though the island appeared to be completely deserted, it did get some visitors from time to time. There was some sort of rare bird that nested here, and the island attracted bird watchers, but it was the wrong season for them, and the only place on the island where you could land a boat was four kilometers to the south. Everyone was dressed in mostly civilian clothes, and while much of their gear was clearly military in origin, it was the sort that could be picked up in an Army Surplus store, and was often used by people who spent long periods camping professionally.
It took two trips to get everything moved to the camp site that Sam had picked out for them. They pitched their tents with the efficiency given by years of practice setting up camp on strange worlds, and they ate their evening meal of MREs at about the time that the invisible sun would be setting behind the clouds.
Daniel and the other archaeologists didn't want to wait until morning before going to look at the temple site. It was only the discipline instilled in them from working for the SGC that made them wait until after their camp was set up, and they had eaten. They decided to take advantage of the long northern twilight to go have their first look at it. They set out after they had finished cleaning up after dinner. Jack and Teal'c went along—more out of a desire to get the lay of the land than any burning archaeological curiosity—while Sam stayed back at the camp to set up their communications equipment, and check in with the SGC.
Their satellite images had shown the buried remains of the temple on a wind swept headland a couple of hundred meters from where they had made their camp. As they approached the site Teal'c could see clear evidence that an ancient structure had once stood there in the regular pattern of ridges and depressions in the ground. He couldn't understand why the site had gone undiscovered for so long. This island was remote, but it still got several visitors every year. Surely someone would have taken an interest in the buried ruin.
He also didn't understand why Daniel Jackson and the other scientists just walked right past the obvious ruins, and started to search a flat stretch of ground about fifty meters away from them. "Daniel Jackson, why are you looking here?"
"This is where the satellite showed the ruins to be," said Daniel.
Teal'c consulted his GPS unit. "The coordinates for the ruins shown in the images are over there." He pointed back the way they had come.
Daniel barely glanced in the direction that Teal'c pointed. "That's not the right spot."
"That is the position you marked on our maps," said Teal'c
"It can't be," said Daniel.
Colonel O'Neill came back from making a wide circle around the area. "Is there a problem?"
"No problem," said Daniel.
"Dr. Jackson and the others are looking in the wrong place," said Teal'c.
Jack glanced around. "You sure? It all looks pretty much the same to me."
Teal'c handed his GPS unit, and his map to Colonel O'Neill. "As you can see, we are fifty meters north of the position indicated on the map."
Jack looked at the GPS, and the map. "He's right," he told Daniel. "You should be looking over there." He pointed south, but a strange look passed over his face. Despite the gathering darkness, Teal'c saw Colonel O'Neill's pupils contract. "That's not the right place." He shook his head. "This can't be right." He looked at the GPS unit again, and the map. "This clearly says that we are fifty meters north of where we should be." He looked back south. "But that's not the right place."
"How do you know that is not the right place?" asked Teal'c.
"I just know it," said Jack.
Daniel took the map and the GPS unit. He examined them both carefully. He removed his own GPS unit from a pocket, and compared the position shown on it with the position given by Teal'c's. They agreed to three decimal places. "This is very strange. You're right…on the map we're in the wrong place, but when I look at it…" He looked back at the buried ruin. "That place feels wrong."
Major Carter appeared out of the gloom. "Why's everyone over here?" she asked. "Shouldn't you all be over there?" she pointed to the ruin.
"You think we belong over there?" asked Jack.
"That's the place marked on the map, Sir," said Sam.
"It doesn't feel wrong to you?" asked Jack.
"No Sir…should it?"
"Perhaps there is some sort of field being emitted by an alien device, intended to keep people away," said Teal'c. "I am immune because I am Jaffa, and Major Carter is unaffected because of Jolinar."
"That's possible," said Daniel. "But how are we supposed to excavate it if we can't get near it?"
"You walked near the site on your way here," said Teal'c. "So you can clearly get near it."
"You're right," said Daniel. He started to walk back the way they had come, but he started to veer to the side.
"Stop, Daniel Jackson!" ordered Teal'c. "It is to your right."
Daniel turned to the right, and started walking again. It took some more directions from Teal'c to get him to the right spot, but he was soon standing in the center of the buried ruin. He looked at the ground around him.
"What do you see?" asked Jack.
"Despite an almost overwhelming feeling that I shouldn't be here, I see clear signs that there is something here," said Daniel. "It has been buried for a long time…" He looked around some more. "Strange…"
"What now?" asked Jack.
"If this place was excavated by the British twelve years ago…there should still be some sign of it, but I don't see any. Maybe this is the wrong place."
"Even if this isn't the place the Brits found…I think we need to take a closer look at it," said Jack. "But it can wait until morning. It's getting too dark to start now."
