Chapter 8: Getting to Know You

Dawn poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot sitting on their camp stove, and went back to sit with the others who were eating their cold breakfasts in front of their tents. She held the mug in both hands to warm her fingers while she sat back down in her folding camp chair. "Okay, I managed to find a little something on some of these guys. It seems that they are military, but they aren't Army, they're Air Force. Colonel Jack O'Neill, and Major Samantha Carter are anyway. I managed to find them both listed as Air Force Academy alumni. They are currently assigned to a deep space radar telemetry project based in the NORAD complex under Cheyenne Mountain. I think that digging any deeper on them is going to require some Willow magic."

"Doesn't look like they're doing any deep space telemetry here," said Xander.

"Doesn't really make any sense for Colonel O'Neill to be assigned to a project like that, either," said Dawn. "He's Special Forces."

"And Carter?" asked Buffy.

"Her being involved in space radar makes a little more sense," said Dawn. "She's got a doctorate in astrophysics from Stanford. Had some papers published in theoretical physics: wormholes and stuff like that, but she hasn't published lately either. Doesn't explain why she's here though, or what they're doing with Dr. Jackson and the rest. A Special Forces colonel, an astrophysicist, and an archaeologist don't really go together."

"Sounds like the setup for a joke," said Xander. "A colonel, an astrophysicist and an archaeologist walk into a bar together…"

Buffy ignored Xander. "Have you heard back from Riley or Sam yet?"

"Nope. I have no idea where in the world they may be, or what they're doing. They may not be able to read their email right now."

"Anything on the others?"

"Dr. Daryl Hawley is a respected archaeologist, who took a leave of absence from Columbia University a couple of years ago, to conduct some 'private research'," said Dawn. "I couldn't find out much of anything about the others."

"And Murray?" asked Xander.

"Zilch, but just a first name isn't much to go on…if it's his first name, could be his last, if it's really his name at all. There is no town named 'Chulak' anywhere in Colorado…or anywhere else for that matter."

"You get anywhere with the keep away spell, Will?"

Willow reached into her jacket pocket, and pulled out four cloth pouches on leather thongs. She handed them out to the others. "Here, put these around your necks, and you should be fine."

Buffy put hers around her neck, and slipped the pouch down inside her jacket so it wouldn't show. "No idea why it doesn't seem to work on Murray, or Carter?"

"Nope. I've tried a couple of castings to see if I can get any sort of reading on them, to see why they're different, but so far, nada. Any more would require doing something they'd notice."

"Can you drop the spell slowly?" asked Buffy, "Since it doesn't really seem to be doing much good. Have it fade away, so it seems to them like they're just picking up some immunity from exposure, or something like that?"

"Yeah, I can do that," said Willow. "How long should it take?"

"I think twenty-four hours will be good enough…have it gone by this time tomorrow."

"Consider it done," said Willow.

"What are we going to do next?" asked Xander.

"I think that we should each take one of them, and keep an eye on them," said Buffy.

"Dibs on Dr. Jackson!" said Dawn.

Buffy frowned at her. "Dawn, we don't know what these guys are up to. Don't go getting yourself attached."

"I'm not," said Dawn, but she didn't sound very convincing. "I mean, he's the linguist, right? And I'm good with languages. It makes sense that I keep tabs on him."

"Alright," said Buffy. "And Willow can speak astrophysicist, so she'll take Carter. I think I want to keep an eye on Jack. Xander…"

"I'll take Murray. See if I can get him talking."

"Right," said Buffy. "Which leaves Giles to get chummy with Dr. Hawley, and the rest of the archaeologists."


The groups from the two camps met about half way to the dig. Giles rubbed an apparently stiff neck. "I'm getting too old for sleeping on the ground."

"Jack keeps saying the same thing," said Daniel.

"So, you guys do a lot of camping?" asked Dawn.

Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose. "He's, uh, he's been with me on quite a few expeditions to out of the way places."

"I didn't think you'd been doing much field work lately."

"Ah, well…mostly we've been visiting other…countries," said Daniel. "Observing their cultures, and such. Quite often the conditions are rather primitive."

"So, Dr. Jackson, we never really got the chance last night to discuss how much progress you have made here," said Giles.

"Yes, well, we're just beginning our preliminary survey. We have uncovered a couple of interesting items, but so far our most significant find seems to be that this site was deliberately buried, a few years ago." Daniel watched Giles carefully to see how he would react to that news.

Giles took a handkerchief from his pocket, and removed his glasses. He looked around, while he cleaned them. "Really? Why would someone do something like that?"

"We've been wondering that ourselves, Dr. Giles."


"No! No! No!" said Xander. "Greedo did not shoot first!"

"I have seen this movie several times, Xander Harris, and Greedo clearly shoots first, and misses."

"That's the Special Edition," said Xander. "In the real Star Wars Han just blasts Greedo before he can pull the trigger."

Murray stood for a second, considering. "That would make more sense. A warrior, such as Han Solo would not let his adversary take the first shot, and it would be impossible for Greedo to miss at such short range, with his weapon already drawn, and aimed."

"Exactly!" said Xander. "And with all the money they spent putting in a pointless CGI Jabba, they couldn't spare a couple of bucks to fix Obiwan's light saber?"

Dawn shook her head at them as they passed. At least Xander had found something to talk with Murray about. She wondered for a second if they shouldn't have brought Andrew along before she shoved that thought aside, and ducked under the flap into the lab tent. She saw Daniel sitting at a table, with his back to the entrance. He was intently studying the image on the laptop screen in front of him. Dawn walked up behind him, and looked at it over his shoulder. He didn't seem to notice she was there. He was looking at an enhanced image of some carvings that had been uncovered that morning.

"'And they shall rise up from under the ground, and devour all in their path,'" she read. She shuddered a bit. It reminded her of the 'from beneath you it devours' warnings they'd had about the First.

Daniel started, and looked around. "Oh! Dawn!" He looked at his computer screen, and then back at her. "You can read that?"

Dawn looked embarrassed. "Uh…yeah. I read Giles' paper, and his notes before we came here."

"But still," said Daniel. "Even with that as a base…I've spent an hour on this!"

"Uh…Giles says I have a real gift with languages," said Dawn. "I'm really good at picking them up…at least to read. I'm less good at speaking them."

"We aren't likely to run into anyone who speaks this language," said Daniel. "I don't think anyone has for a couple of thousand years. Still, that is quite a remarkable talent. It could take you far."

"So far, it's taken me to England," said Dawn. "Giles pulled some strings with some old friends. I'm starting in the linguistics program at Oxford in the fall."

Daniel brought up another image on his laptop screen. "Still, tell me what you think of this?"


The Scoobies were gathered in the girls' tent, discussing what they had learned that day. Willow had put wards around them, to keep anyone from eavesdropping, without them learning about it.

"Murray is…strange," said Xander. "He misses nine out of ten cultural references I make…but he has the Special Edition version of Star Wars committed to memory. He didn't seem to know that there was an earlier version."

"So…not human?" asked Buffy.

"I don't know," said Xander. "If he was a girl, I could ask him for a date, and if he accepted, we'd know for sure…but…it's almost like he's from another planet!"

"Pfft!" said Willow. "Like that could happen!"


SG-1 was in the lab tent, discussing what they had learned that day. Doug and Charlie were sitting outside, supposedly talking, but they were really there to make sure that the visitors didn't sneak up on them to eavesdrop.

"I don't know about the others," said Daniel, "but Dawn Summers is amazing!"

"A little young for you, don't ya think?" asked Jack.

"No!" said Daniel. He saw Sam's smirk. It was pretty obvious to everyone that the younger Summers girl was crushing on him. "No, I don't mean that!"

"What do you mean?" asked Jack.

"Her ability with languages is phenomenal!" said Daniel. "She read something in seconds, that I had spent an hour on."

"Could she have seen it ahead of time?" asked Sam. "Just pretended to read it there on the spot?"

"I thought of that," said Daniel, "so I showed her some other things. Some Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian. She can read the Sumerian as well as I can. She said she hadn't studied the others yet, but in the little time we had, she was making a really good start at Egyptian. I was tempted to show her some Goa'uld, see what she made of it."

"You didn't!" said Jack.

"No, Jack, I didn't, but I think that we should keep an eye on this girl. She could really be an asset to the SGC, once she graduates from university."


"What about Carter?" asked Buffy.

"Smart," said Willow, "but we knew that already. I tried talking to her about what she was doing here, but she was really closed mouth about it. Didn't want to talk about it. I tried talking computers with her, since that seems to be her thing here, and didn't get much. I couldn't really come right out and say I knew she was an Air Force Major with a PhD in astrophysics, and ask her what she thought of Hawkings' theories on time-space distortions around a black hole, or anything like that."


"Willow was trying to pump me for information," said Sam. "I think she knows more about us than we've told them. Some of her questions seemed to indicate that she knows I'm an astrophysicist…and she knows something about the field."

"I got the same impression from Buffy," said Jack. "Not that she knows anything about astrophysics, but that she knows about us. She seemed to be looking for information about my military background."

"I've been monitoring them, as well as I can with Willow hanging around," said Sam. "I haven't picked up any sort of radio transmissions from them. I don't know how they could have learned anything about us, since they've arrived here on the island."


"I heard from Riley," said Dawn. "Managed to have a little chat with him. He says that he's heard of Jack O'Neill, but never met him. O'Neill is legendary in Special Ops. Been involved in just about every hot spot in the world over the last twenty years, mostly top secret 'if he told you he'd have to kill you' type stuff."

"Could he be an Initiative guy that Riley doesn't know about?" asked Willow.

"Riley says 'no.' Apparently O'Neill was considered for command of the Initiative, but they were told they couldn't have him. He said that one of the guys on his team worked with O'Neill a couple of years ago. He couldn't say what O'Neill was involved in, but he did say it was 'not subterrestrials.' Everyone seems to agree that the 'Deep Space Radar Telemetry' story is a cover for something, but no one knows what. It could be that O'Neill got himself assigned to it to finish out his last few years before retiring, to flesh out his pension a bit, but he apparently came out of retirement to take the job."

"Curiouser and curiouser," said Buffy. "So, Giles, how are things going at the dig?"


"Dr. Hawley thinks he's found an entrance to the underground tunnels that the radar showed." Daniel pointed to a chart of the site. "It looks like it's sealed by a stone slab that they uncovered this afternoon. It sounds hollow when you tap on it."

"Any idea what's under it?" asked Jack.

"Well, there is this." Daniel brought up the image that he had been looking at when Dawn came into the lab. "'And they shall rise up from under the ground, and devour all in their path.' Sounds rather ominous."

"You think there could be something still alive down there, after thousands of years?" asked Sam.

"If their boat didn't really sink, something killed that British team twelve years ago," said Daniel.

"I guess we'll have our weapons ready, when we lift that slab," said Jack. "So…what do we tell the tourists?"