Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own them. Just taking them out for a test drive.
A/N: see the end of this chapter, cuz I don't want to give anything away...
Summary/Episode Spoilers: See Chapter 1.
Chapter 3
I asked Claire to accompany me to the city and she accepted. We spent the day shopping for supplies for camp and souveniers to take back to our friends and families. I treated her to lunch in an outdoor café. We had a wonderful time.
I stopped the jeep on the last dune before we reached camp. The night was cool and the moon was full. I didn't think the setting could be more romantic. I leaned over to kiss her, but she stopped me. My ego bruised, I drove the rest of the way to camp in silence.
The next day, we were working in the pyramid. It was hot, hotter than it had ever been. We took a short water break, resting in the shade of the pyramid. I worked up the courage to ask Claire why she had rejected my advances.
She smiled, shyly, and then leaned over to kiss my cheek. "If I made it too easy," she said, "You'd lose interest too quickly." Then she slid of the rock we'd been resting on and went back to work.
I think I'm in love.
--From the journal of Dr. Melbourne Jackson
After breakfast, a vehicle came to take Daniel and Eve back to the site. When they reached the dig, several workers who had questions immediately confronted Eve. With an apologetic glance at Daniel, she followed them to the location in question.
Daniel went to his tent and picked up the notes he'd been working on for the last few days. With fresh eyes, the foreign symbols suddenly clicked into place. Sitting down at the table he wrote furiously in a notebook.
Eve found him just before the evening meal. "Daniel?" she said from outside the tent.
"Come in," he answered, not bothering to look up from his work.
Slipping into the tent, Eve walked over to the table. "Are you okay? No one has seen you all afternoon."
Daniel reached up and grabbed her hand. With a gentle tug, he pulled her into his lap. "Here, look at this." He showed her the notes.
"What is...oh," she stopped talking as she understood what she was seeing.
"Here, see," Daniel pointed to his notes. "Nuit, Egyptian goddess of the sky. She brought humans here from Earth thousands of years ago. Most likely it was after Ra found out that she had children by another Goa'uld, Geb I think."
Eve picked up the notepad, unconsciously leaning into Daniel's embrace. "But the people rebelled, they had help from the...what's that word?"
"I don't know, I think it's probably a name – the Vedrans. But I don't think it was your people."
"No, these were aliens. They built the tomb as a monument to the rebellion. The weapon they used is buried in the, the heart?"
"The heart, could be center. Have you seen anything down there that could be a weapon?"
"No, so far there's been nothing but corridors. I mean, I knew there had to be a chamber, something down there. Otherwise what would be the point?"
A stomach growled and Daniel and Eve looked at each other, unable to tell whose stomach it had been. "Dinner?" Daniel suggested.
"Yeah. Then we can go down and do some looking around."
"Alright. Up," he ordered, catching her hand as they walked to the dining tent.
Down in the tomb after a quick meal, Eve and Daniel explored the corridors, looking for signs of the weapon or a hidden room. They kept brushing arms and bumping elbows in the narrow hallways.
After an hour, they were both hot – the day's heat was trapped in the dark corridors – and frustrated. They couldn't find anything that would give them the information they were seeking.
Daniel let out a growl, "Nothing, there's nothing." He turned to face Eve.
She sighed, and rubbed at the back of her neck. "Just a little bit longer, I'm sure it's got to be around here somewhere."
Daniel took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. After he replaced his glasses, he went to stand behind Eve. He lightly rubbed her shoulders and neck.
As he read the wall above her head, Eve leaned back into the massage. Her warm body felt natural against his and it distracted him from the translation. He read as far down as the top of Eve's head, but the scent of her hair broke his concentration. He turned her around and before his rational mind could object, he lowered his mouth to hers.
After an initial, muffled protest, Eve melted against him. Her arms slipped around his waist, one hand pressed tight against the small of his back while the other roamed upwards.
When she sighed and parted her lips, Daniel groaned and deepened the kiss. He pushed Eve up against the wall. Tearing his lips from hers, he trailed kisses along her jaw and down her throat.
Eve leaned her head back against the wall to give him better access. When she did so, her head bumped into a raised symbol and the wall behind them slid open.
Too startled to catch their balance, Eve and Daniel tumbled through the doorway. For a moment they stared at each other, too dazed from the kiss to comprehend what had happened. Soon, though, their passion for each other was replaced by their curiosity. Daniel rolled off Eve and they scrambled to their feet.
The air was musty and stale. A console at the far end of the room glowed, casting an eerie, blue light across the floor. The walls were smooth and unadorned. A few steps brought them to the console.
They studied it in silence, each trying to translate the symbols that indicated the various buttons.
"Any ideas?" Eve asked.
Daniel shook his head. "None." The work lights in the hallway suddenly began to flicker and fade. "Did you bring a spare power pack?"
"No, I didn't think to do that," Eve confessed. "We'd better head up to the surface. We can grab some spares and some scanning equipment and come back down."
"Hmm," Daniel let his eyes wander around the room. He considered staying while Eve went to get the supplies, but the lights suddenly gave out and they were plunged into darkness save for the light of the console. "Well, I guess that means we better go now," he said.
He took Eve's hand and they felt their way out of the tomb and into the fresh night air. "I've got some power packs in my tent," Eve said, and without letting go of Daniel's hand walked in that direction.
Inside her tent, Daniel sat on her cot while she searched for the equipment they needed. When she turned around, ready to go, she saw that he'd lain down and was fast asleep. Eve set everything down as quietly as she could. Sitting next to him, she gently removed his glasses. Before she could rise, Daniel snaked an arm around her waist. Since she couldn't get up, she moved so that she was laying down next to him – her back to his front. Within minutes, she too was fast asleep.
The morning dawned bright and warm. Daniel slowly rose to wakefulness. He let out a contented sigh and snuggled closer to Eve. He nuzzled her neck until she groaned.
"Good morning," he said. Eve only grunted. And Jack thinks I'm bad in the morning, Daniel thought. "Wake up," he gave Eve what he thought was a gentle nudge.
Unfortunately, on the narrow cot, Daniel's nudge was enough to push Eve over the edge and onto the floor. While the landing did wake her up, she wasn't happy about it.
"Hey!" Eve sat up and glared at Daniel.
"Sleep well?" Daniel gave Eve his best innocent face.
Eve reached up, pulled the pillow out from under Daniel's head and hit him with it.
After breakfast, Daniel used a comlink to contact Jack.
"Daniel!" Jack exclaimed when he answered.
"Hey, Jack."
"What's up? I didn't expect to hear from you until later this week."
"Yeah, well I was hoping you could get a message to Sam for me."
"Daniel, I'm hurt. You didn't call to talk to me?"
Daniel sighed and slipped into the familiar game. "Hi, Jack. How are you?"
"Oh fine. It's been a typical mission. You and Carter run off and make new friends. You leave Teal'c and me to fend for ourselves." Jack sniffed dramatically. "So, what can I do for you?"
"We found a chamber in the tomb that has a console in it. I was kind of hoping that Sam could come and take a look at it."
"Well, I'll have to check with her secretary and see if she has any time available."
"Jack," Daniel let some of his exasperation be heard in his voice.
"Okay, okay," Jack said. "They let her out for lunch in about three hours. I'll check with her and see what she says."
"Thanks, Jack. I appreciate it." He moved to disconnect the 'link.
"Daniel wait, wait. I wanted to ask you..."
Daniel cringed, knowing what was coming.
"How are things with you and, what was her name, Eve?"
"Fine Jack, things are going fine."
"So, are you going to have to commute to work every morning or is she?"
"Ja-ack!"
"Well, have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Jack snickered as he cut-off the transmission.
Daniel met Eve outside the tomb. Ty was with her and they were both carrying scanning equipment.
"Morning, Ty," Daniel greeted. He flashed Eve a smile, which she blushingly returned.
Ty cleared his throat. "Morning, Doctor Jackson."
"Shall we?" Eve started down into the darkness.
They set up in the chamber, Ty broke out the scanning equipment and Eve walked around the room with her fingertips lightly brushing the walls. Daniel watched her for a few minutes.
She was intensely focused on her work, just like Virgil had warned him. However, she was also funny, generous and kind. In the past week, he'd seen her frustrated and elated, intense and distracted, frantic and serene. He loved working side-by-side with her, solving puzzles and sharing the joys and disappointments of archeology.
Eve paced the room, studying the walls for any clues. Her fingers brushed over a groove and she stopped. Focusing her light on the wall, she traced her fingers in the channel. It went up, just over her head, and took a ninety-degree turn. The entire thing cut a shallow square in the wall. There were no edges to get her fingers behind, so she couldn't pull it out. Running the palm of her hand over the middle of the square, she felt the slightly embossed pattern.
"Daniel?" Daniel walked to the far corner where Eve was standing. "Feel this," she took his hand and ran it over the pattern. "What do you think it is?"
Daniel frowned, the embossing was the same dark color as the walls, and he couldn't make it out. "Do you have any large pieces of paper?" he asked.
"Not down here, there might be some left over from when we sketched the diagram for the tomb."
Ty overheard their conversation. "I'm on it," he said and took off at a fast jog.
"Eve," Daniel started, taking her hand in his. She looked up into his eyes. "I," he paused, searching for the words. "I go home in a few days."
"I know," she looked down at her feet. "I wish you could stay, but..."
"But," he agreed. "I wish you could come to Earth, see where I live."
"I'd like that," she replied. "After we've finished here."
Daniel brought his hand up to brush her cheek. She leaned into his touch and as he rubbed his thumb just under her eye he thought he felt a tear. "Hey," he pulled her close.
The sound of a throat clearing had them stepping apart suddenly. "That was fast, Ty," Eve commented without looking up. "Oh!" she exclaimed when she did look up and saw that it was Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter. "Where's Ty?"
"Who?" Jack asked.
"One of Eve's assistants," Daniel explained. "He went topside to find some paper." Daniel took a glance at his watch. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you until after lunch."
"Yeah well, you know Carter," Jack shrugged.
"The engineer I was working with was called away – his wife is having a baby and she went into labor. When I got back to the apartment, the Colonel told me you called."
"Yeah. Yeah, come take a look at this," Daniel led her over to the console.
"Do you know what these symbols are?" Sam asked as she studied them.
"No, they don't match any of the text we've been able to translate."
Ty returned with the paper and handed it to Daniel. He left Sam at the console and he and Eve held the paper up to the embossed symbol and made a rubbing of it.
"I'm hungry," Jack announced to the silence.
"They should be serving lunch in the dining tent," Eve commented.
"Do they have pie?" Jack asked. "Seriously, though kids. What do you say, time for a lunch break?"
"I'm good."
"Me too."
"Me three."
Ty looked questioningly at Eve. "Go," she said. "Show the Colonel where he can get something to eat."
The younger man grinned; he'd been hungry for a couple of hours but didn't want to say anything. Ty and the Colonel left to find food.
When the rubbing was finished, Daniel studied it. "Hey! This matches one of the symbols on the console." He took it over to Sam and Eve followed.
Daniel pointed to the symbol it matched. "What do you think it does?" Sam asked.
"I don't know," he replied.
The three of them stood around the console, looking from the rubbing to the button. No one was willing to ask if they should push the button. Sam and Daniel knew from experience that anything could happen. Finally, Eve reached over and pushed the button.
"Eve!" Sam and Daniel both shouted.
The square panel slid out of the wall. White light spilled out of the opening. On a clear shelf were three large, brightly colored jewels.
When if seemed that nothing was going to explode, Sam and Daniel let out their breath. Daniel grabbed Eve by the arm. "Don't do that again," he warned. "You never know what might happen."
Eve shrugged free and gave him an irritated look. "If I hadn't we'd have been standing around trying to figure this out until the end of time."
"Well, what's done is done," Daniel said. "Sam, can you work the scanners?"
Sam picked up the small handheld device. "Yeah, not a problem." She used it to take readings on the gems. "They're emitting a low level of energy but they appear to be safe."
Eve was still irritated with Daniel for reprimanding her and stood on the opposite side of Sam as she and Daniel moved to observe their find. "Look," Daniel held out a finger, just above the jewels. "They're grooved like they should fit together."
Eve was studying the back of the wall panel, it was covered in writing. "Jewels...heart...overcome queen." She looked to Daniel for confirmation; he nodded. Eve pulled out her video recorder and took pictures of the panel so she could complete the translation later.
"I wonder if there are any more panels," Sam said.
"Well, now that we know what to look for, we should be able to find them," Daniel said. A search of the walls revealed no more panels. Just when they were about to give up, Daniel suddenly dropped to his knees on the floor and began running his hand over the smooth surface. "Here!" he said. "I've found something."
They found another, larger square groove cut in the floor. In the center another symbol was embossed. It took several pieces of paper to make the rubbing. They matched the symbol to one on the console.
"What do you think?" Daniel asked.
"Well," Sam said. "I think that the extra symbols are there as decoys. A sort of test to make sure that only the right people, or those smart enough to figure it out can open the panels. We've seen that kind of thing before."
"Thor's Hall," Daniel agreed and Sam nodded.
"Well," Eve said, impatiently. "Are we going to try it?"
Taking a deep breath, Daniel pushed the second button. The panel on the floor lifted, revealing more white light and the body of a sleeping woman.
The woman was dressed in a midnight blue gown accented with gold and silver stars. Her long, white hair pooled around her head. Her face was pale with only two spots of pink color on her cheeks.
"Nuit," Daniel said."
"Who?" Sam asked.
"The Goa'uld that brought humans to Vedra," Daniel answered.
"But there's no evidence of Goa'uld occupation here," Sam countered.
"We think she didn't last long," Eve said. "She would have encountered the Vedrans not long after arriving. They're the ones that would have done this. But they either didn't know how to send us back or chose not to."
Out of habit, Sam looked to Daniel for confirmation. He nodded.
"Whoa!" Jack returned to the room and was surprised by what he saw. "Daniel?"
"Hey, Jack," Daniel greeted.
"What did you touch?"
A/N:Chapter 3
I asked Claire to accompany me to the city and she accepted. We spent the day shopping for supplies for camp and souveniers to take back to our friends and families. I treated her to lunch in an outdoor café. We had a wonderful time.
I stopped the jeep on the last dune before we reached camp. The night was cool and the moon was full. I didn't think the setting could be more romantic. I leaned over to kiss her, but she stopped me. My ego bruised, I drove the rest of the way to camp in silence.
The next day, we were working in the pyramid. It was hot, hotter than it had ever been. We took a short water break, resting in the shade of the pyramid. I worked up the courage to ask Claire why she had rejected my advances.
She smiled, shyly, and then leaned over to kiss my cheek. "If I made it too easy," she said, "You'd lose interest too quickly." Then she slid of the rock we'd been resting on and went back to work.
I think I'm in love.
--From the journal of Dr. Melbourne Jackson
After breakfast, a vehicle came to take Daniel and Eve back to the site. When they reached the dig, several workers who had questions immediately confronted Eve. With an apologetic glance at Daniel, she followed them to the location in question.
Daniel went to his tent and picked up the notes he'd been working on for the last fewdays. With fresh eyes, the foreign symbols suddenly clicked into place. Sitting down at the table he wrote furiously in a notebook.
Eve found him just before the evening meal. "Daniel?" she said from outside the tent.
"Come in," he answered, not bothering to look up from his work.
Slipping into the tent, Eve walked over to the table. "Are you okay? No one has seen you all afternoon."
Daniel reached up and grabbed her hand. With a gentle tug, he pulled her into his lap. "Here, look at this." He showed her the notes.
"What is…oh," she stopped talking as she understood what she was seeing.
"Here, see," Daniel pointed to his notes. "Nuit, Egyptian goddess of the sky. She brought humans here from Earth thousands of years ago. Most likely it was after Ra found out that she had children by another Goa'uld, Geb I think."
Eve picked up the notepad, unconsciously leaning into Daniel's embrace. "But the people rebelled, they had help from the…what's that word?"
"I don't know, I think it's probably a name – the Vedrans. But I don't think it was your people."
"No, these were aliens. They built the tomb as a monument to the rebellion. The weapon they used is buried in the, the heart?"
"The heart, could be center. Have you seen anything down there that could be a weapon?"
"No, so far there's been nothing but corridors. I mean, I knew there had to be a chamber, something down there. Otherwise what would be the point?"
A stomach growled and Daniel and Eve looked at each other, unable to tell whose stomach it had been. "Dinner?" Daniel suggested.
"Yeah. Then we can go down and do some looking around."
"Alright. Up," he ordered, catching her hand as they walked to the dining tent.
Down in the tomb after a quick meal, Eve and Daniel explored the corridors, looking for signs of the weapon or a hidden room. They kept brushing arms and bumping elbows in the narrow hallways.
After an hour, they were both hot – the day's heat was trapped in the dark corridors – and frustrated. They couldn't find anything that would give them the information they were seeking.
Daniel let out a growl, "Nothing! There's nothing." He turned to face Eve.
She sighed, and rubbed at the back of her neck. "Just a little bit longer, I'm sure it's got to be around here somewhere."
Daniel took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. After he replaced his glasses, he went to stand behind Eve. He lightly rubbed her shoulders and neck. As he read the wall above her head, Eve leaned back into the massage. Her warm body felt natural against his and it distracted him from the translation. He read as far down as the top of Eve's head, but the scent of her hair broke his concentration. He turned her around and before his rational mind could object, he lowered his mouth to hers.
After an initial, muffled protest, Eve melted against him. Her arms slipped around his waist, one hand pressed tight against the small of his back while the other roamed up his back.
When she sighed and parted her lips, Daniel groaned and deepened the kiss. He pushed Eve up against the wall. Tearing his lips from hers, he trailed kisses along her jaw and down her throat. Eve leaned her head back against the wall to give him better access. When she did so, her head bumped into a raised symbol and the wall behind them slid open.
Too startled to catch their balance, Eve and Daniel tumbled through the doorway. For a moment they stared at each other, too dazed from the kiss to comprehend what had happened. Soon, though, their passion for each other was replaced by their curiosity. Daniel rolled off Eve and they scrambled to their feet.
The air was musty and stale. A console at the far end of the room glowed, casting an eerie, blue light across the floor. The walls were smooth and unadorned. A few steps brought them to the console. They studied it in silence, each trying to translate the symbols that indicated the various buttons.
"Any ideas?" Eve asked.
Daniel shook his head. "None." The work lights in the hallway suddenly began to flicker and fade. "Did you bring a spare power pack?"
"No, I didn't think to do that," Eve confessed. "We'd better head up to the surface. We can grab some spares and some scanning equipment and come back down."
"Hmm," Daniel let his eyes wander around the room. He considered staying while Eve went to get the supplies, but the lights suddenly gave out and they were plunged into darkness save for the light of the console. "Well, I guess that means we better go now," he said.
He took Eve's hand and they felt their way out of the tomb and into the fresh night air. "I've got some power packs in my tent," Eve said, and without letting go of Daniel's hand walked in that direction.
Inside her tent, Daniel sat on her cot while she searched for the equipment they needed. When she turned around, ready to go, she saw that he'd lain down and was fast asleep. Eve set everything down as quietly as she could. Sitting next to him, she gently removed his glasses. Before she could rise, Daniel snaked an arm around her waist. Since she couldn't get up, she moved so that she was laying down next to him – her back to his front. Within minutes, she too was fast asleep.
The morning dawned bright and warm. Daniel slowly rose to wakefulness. He let out a contented sigh and snuggled closer to Eve. He nuzzled her neck until she groaned. "Good morning," he said. Eve only grunted. And Jack thinks I'm bad in the morning, Daniel thought. "Wake up," he gave Eve what he thought was a gentle nudge.
Unfortunately, on the narrow cot, Daniel's nudge was enough to push Eve over the edge and onto the floor. While the landing did wake her up, she wasn't happy about it. "Hey!" Eve sat up and glared at Daniel.
"Sleep well?" Daniel gave Eve his best innocent face.
Eve reached up, pulled the pillow out from under Daniel's head and hit him with it.
After breakfast, Daniel used a comlink to contact Jack.
"Daniel!" Jack exclaimed when he answered.
"Hey, Jack."
"What's up? I didn't expect to hear from you until later this week."
"Yeah, well I was hoping you could get a message to Sam for me."
"Daniel, I'm hurt. You didn't call to talk to me?"
Daniel sighed and slipped into the familiar game. "Hi, Jack. How are you?"
"Oh fine. It's been a typical mission. You and Carter run off and make new friends. You leave Teal'c and me to fend for ourselves." Jack sniffed dramatically. "So, what can I do for you?"
"We found a chamber in the tomb that has a console in it. I was kind of hoping that Sam could come and take a look at it."
"Well, I'll have to check with her secretary and see if she has any time available."
"Jack," Daniel let some of his exasperation be heard in his voice.
"Okay, okay," Jack said. "They let her out for lunch in about three hours. I'll check with her and see what she says."
"Thanks, Jack. I appreciate it." He moved to disconnect the 'link.
"Daniel wait, wait. I wanted to ask you…"
Daniel cringed, knowing what was coming.
"How are things with you and, what was her name, Eve?"
"Fine Jack, things are going fine."
"So, are you going to have to commute to work every morning or is she?"
"Ja-ack!"
"Well, have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Jack snickered as he cut-off the transmission.
Daniel met Eve outside the tomb. Ty was with her and they were both carrying scanning equipment.
"Morning, Ty," Daniel greeted. He flashed Eve a smile, which she blushingly returned.
Ty cleared his throat. "Morning, Doctor Jackson."
"Shall we?" Eve started down into the darkness.
They set up in the chamber, Ty broke out the scanning equipment and Eve walked around the room with her fingertips lightly brushing the walls. Daniel watched her for a few minutes. She was intensely focused on her work, just like Virgil had warned him. However, she was also funny, generous and kind. In the past week, he'd seen her frustrated and elated, intense and distracted, frantic and serene. He loved working side-by-side with her, solving puzzles and sharing the joys and disappointments of archeology.
Eve paced the room, studying the walls for any clues. Her fingers brushed over a groove and she stopped. Focusing her light on the wall, she traced her fingers in the channel. It went up, just over her head, and took a ninety-degree turn. The entire thing cut a shallow square in the wall. There were no edges to get her fingers behind, so she couldn't pull it out. Running the palm of her hand over the middle of the square, she felt the slightly embossed pattern.
"Daniel?" Daniel walked to the far corner where Eve was standing. "Feel this," she took his hand and ran it over the pattern. "What do you think it is?"
Daniel frowned, the embossing was the same dark color as the walls, and he couldn't make it out. "Do you have any large pieces of paper?" he asked.
"Not down here, there might be some left over from when we sketched the diagram for the tomb."
Ty overheard their conversation. "I'm on it," he said and took off at a fast jog.
"Eve," Daniel started, taking her hand in his. She looked up into his eyes. "I," he paused, searching for the words. "I go home in a few days."
"I know," she looked down at her feet. "I wish you could stay, but…"
"But," he agreed. "I wish you could come to Earth, see where I live."
"I'd like that," she replied. "After we've finished here."
Daniel brought his hand up to brush her cheek. She leaned into his touch and as he rubbed his thumb just under her eye he thought he felt a tear. "Hey," he pulled her close.
The sound of a throat clearing had them stepping apart suddenly. "That was fast, Ty," Eve commented without looking up. "Oh!" she exclaimed when she did look up and saw that it was Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter. "Where's Ty?"
"Who?" Jack asked.
"One of Eve's assistants," Daniel explained. "He went topside to find some paper." Daniel took a glance at his watch. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you until after lunch."
"Yeah well, you know Carter," Jack shrugged.
"The engineer I was working with was called away – his wife is having a baby and she went into labor. When I got back to the room, the Colonel told me you called."
"Yeah. Yeah, come take a look at this," Daniel led her over to the console.
"Do you know what these symbols are?" Sam asked as she studied them.
"No, they don't match any of the text we've been able to translate."
Ty returned with the paper and handed it to Daniel. He left Sam at the console and he and Eve held the paper up to the embossed symbol and made a rubbing of it.
"I'm hungry," Jack announced to the silence.
"They should be serving lunch in the dining tent," Eve commented.
"Do they have pie?" Jack asked. "Seriously, though kids. What do you say, time for a lunch break?"
"I'm good."
"Me too."
"Me three."
Ty looked questioningly at Eve. "Go," she said. "Show the Colonel where he can get something to eat."
The younger man grinned; he'd been hungry for a couple of hours but didn't want to say anything. Ty and the Colonel left to find food.
When the rubbing was finished, Daniel studied it. "Hey! This matches one of the symbols on the console." He took it over to Sam and Eve followed.
Daniel pointed to the symbol it matched. "What do you think it does?" Sam asked.
"I don't know," he replied.
The three of them stood around the console, looking from the rubbing to the button. No one was willing to ask if they should push the button. Sam and Daniel knew from experience that anything could happen. Finally, Eve reached over and pushed the button.
"Eve!" Sam and Daniel both shouted.
The square panel slid out of the wall. White light spilled out of the opening. On a clear shelf were three large, brightly colored jewels. When if seemed that nothing was going to explode, Sam and Daniel let out their breath.
Daniel grabbed Eve by the arm. "Don't do that again," he warned. "You never know what might happen."
Eve shrugged free and gave him an irritated look. "If I hadn't, we'd have been standing around trying to figure this out until the end of time."
"Well, what's done is done," Daniel said. "Sam, can you work the scanners?"
Sam picked up the small handheld device. "Yeah, not a problem." She used it to take readings on the gems. "They're emitting a low level of energy but they appear to be safe."
Eve was still irritated with Daniel for reprimanding her and stood on the opposite side of Sam as she and Daniel moved to observe their find. "Look," Daniel held out a finger, just above the jewels. "They're grooved like they should fit together."
Eve was studying the back of the wall panel, it was covered in writing. "Jewels…heart…overcome queen." She looked to Daniel for confirmation; he nodded. Eve pulled out her video recorder and took pictures of the panel so she could complete the translation later.
"I wonder if there are any more panels," Sam said.
"Well, now that we know what to look for, we should be able to find them," Daniel said. A search of the walls revealed no more panels. Just when they were about to give up, Daniel suddenly dropped to his knees on the floor and began running his hand over the smooth surface. "Here!" he said. "I've found something."
They found another, larger square groove cut in the floor. In the center another symbol was embossed. It took several pieces of paper to make the rubbing. They matched the symbol to one on the console.
"What do you think?" Daniel asked.
"Well," Sam said. "I think that the extra symbols are there as decoys. A sort of test to make sure that only the right people, or those smart enough to figure it out can open the panels. We've seen that kind of thing before."
"Thor's Hall," Daniel agreed and Sam nodded.
"Well," Eve said, impatiently. "Are we going to try it?"
Taking a deep breath, Daniel pushed the second button. The panel on the floor lifted, revealing more white light and the body of a sleeping woman.
The woman was dressed in a midnight blue gown accented with gold and silver stars. Her long, white hair pooled around her head. Her face was pale with only two spots of pink color on her cheeks.
"Nuit," Daniel said."
"Who?" Sam asked.
"The Goa'uld that brought humans to Vedra," Daniel answered.
"But there's no evidence of Goa'uld occupation here," Sam countered.
"We think she didn't last long," Eve said. "She would have encountered the Vedrans not long after arriving. They're the ones that would have done this. But they either didn't know how to send us back or chose not to."
Out of habit, Sam looked to Daniel for confirmation. He nodded.
"Whoa!" Jack returned to the room and was surprised by what he saw. "Daniel?"
"Hey, Jack," Daniel greeted.
"What did you touch?"
A/N: This was my first kissing scene...how'd I do? Too much? Not enough?