He nodded and smiled at his comrade, "Thanks for coming out here again Teal'c."
The Jaffa nodded and then added, "I should be able to return in two weeks time."
And Daniel silently nodded his acknowledgement as the two men returned their gazes to the excavation tableau before them.
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Chapter 3
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Three Weeks Later
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They had reached the closed doors to the throne room.
A dozen armed SGC Special Forces were arrayed behind Daniel and Teal'c as they moved to open the doors. Everyone else had been sent forty miles away to the nearest city. The graduate students, research assistants, cooks, and other support staff had been given the day off. Just in case.
...
Three days later and the doors were still not open. The graduate students and other support staff had been told to wait for notification before returning to the site.
The doors would not open.
And they were all frustrated.
Especially the Special Forces soldiers.
Initially on high alert and with full senses crackling, the soldiers now watched with jaundiced eyes as Daniel and Teal'c attempted to figure out how to open the doors.
"A little C4 would take care of that problem, Professor," the Special Forces CO offered sarcastically... and hopefully. Colonel Rothson's unit was comprised of special forces currently assigned to the SGC; however, both Rothson and his men had all been assigned to the SGC within the past year and none of them ever had been offworld. They only knew what to expect from briefings, reports, special SGC-conducted classes, video images, artifacts, and tales related to them from other SGC members.
Daniel rolled his eyes, "No thank you, Colonel," he muttered irritably. He wished he could send the soldiers back to their accommodations in town. But that was 40 miles away and if they did figure out how to get the doors open, he would have to wait for the soldiers to return before they could enter the room.
He sighed in frustration. The scientist inside of him disagreed with the required military presence. What he'd seen in his years on SG-1 however, made him realize the necessity of Colonel Rothson and his men. Goa'uld might not rule the galaxy anymore, but they were still a dangerous threat. Not something to be dismissed.
---------------
Two more days passed before he figured it out. A special locking mechanism, with special controls. Some sort of doomsday-type of lockdown. And it had taken two people to get the door opened. Daniel on one side of the large double doors, and Teal'c on the other. Fifteen feet from each other, they operated a sequence of controls, some in concert and some in sequence with each other.
And then etched lines in the door faces lit up.
The soldiers sprang to attention. Weapons were readied.
All eyes watched the doors slide apart.
Everyone waited.
Silently.
Nothing moved.
No sounds came from the throne room.
Colonel Rothson gave his men hand signals and his soldiers rolled into the throne room as if there were hostiles holding hostages.
Daniel and Teal'c waited out of sight, weapons drawn and on either side of the now open doorway.
"Clear."
"Clear."
"All Clear, Colonel"
A few more minutes passed as the soldiers policed the area.
"Allright Professor, looks like the room is all clear," Rothson's voice was getting closer to the two men outside the room. Teal'c nodded at Daniel and the two men stepped into the doorway.
Yup. Standard Goa'uld Ostentatious, Daniel thought to himself. Glancing at the soldiers however, he was amused to see the shocked and stunned looks. This room was in almost pristine shape and condition. A definitive contrast to the rest of the pyramid. All of the other rooms and passageways had been devastated by battle, looting and or time.
This room, however, had been specially constructed and sealed... and protected. Protected from the battle apparently.
But there were bones.
There were bones even here.
Even here, people had died.
But not in battle?
Because the room did not show evidence of a conflict.
The urns, statues... the throne... ... were not damaged.
No, this room looked like it was awaiting its owner's return.
Well, except for the several sets of bones on the floor.
Some people had been shut away in here.
To die of....?
Wounds incurred elsewhere? Crawled in here to die?
To die of... ?
Starvation? Holed up away from the insurgents?
To die of...?
...
"Colonel, please tell your men again not to touch anything," Daniel asked.
"No problem, Professor. My men know the rules," the soldier responded evenly. "And I'd like to remind you, and your staff, not to -open- anything without letting us know first."
Daniel rolled his eyes again and glanced at Teal'c before responding, "Yes, Colonel. Don't worry, I know the dangers here. I'm the reason you and your men are here."
The military man did not flinch or give ground, he simply nodded and stepped over to join a few of his men on one side of the room.
Daniel glanced at the soldiers scattered around the room. He had been the one to request their presence. He knew of the dangers possible if they were to naively open some seemingly-innocuous urn or jar. He didn't want his excavation turning into one of those mysterious 'legends' in the archeological world because they'd been unlucky enough to encounter and release a trapped Goa'uld.
He'd actually requested the armed alert of the special forces on seven other occasions during the expedition's excavations. Each time they'd been ready to enter a new region of the temple with unexplored rooms, he'd asked the soldiers to sweep the rooms first. Until they'd reached this room, he was fairly certain that his archeological staff had thought he was slightly nuts. And the desolate ruins that they'd found each time reinforced their opinions of his sanity (or lack thereof).
Until they'd reached this room. And this room was so different... so opulent, that everyone was just staring. Daniel and Teal'c were the only two in the room who'd seen this type of display before.
...
And over on the left hand side of the room was the biggest possibility for their expedition encountering a Goa'uld. Because over on the left hand side of the room... was a sarcophagus. Apparently intact.
He hadn't known that there would be one here, but they hadn't seen one in any of the other rooms... and he figured that if there was a sarcophagus in this pyramid, then this was the most likely room left of those they had yet to explore.
Daniel and Teal'c quickly moved around the room, checking it over and looking for anything that appeared dangerous. But all they found were dirt, dust, bones... and some smudges... stains?... brown lines and areas of denser dust...? Puzzling, but something that could be studied later. For now, however, not finding anything conspicuous or overtly threatening, the two converged near the sarcophagus.
"It appears intact," Teal'c observed as the two men scanned the outside of the Goa'uld technology.
"Mmmm....," Daniel responded distractedly. There were more of the brown stains and smudges. Peering closely at it, Daniel could only make out that it looked like... regions of dense dust or dirt. Again, he pulled himself away from the smudges and began scanning the inscriptions on the top while Teal'c moved over to study the controls.
A few minutes later, Daniel looked up from his studies and met Teal'c's gaze and the Jaffa nodded affirmatively. "Colonel?" Daniel called Rothson over.
"Professor?" the soldier returned as he joined the two men next to the gaudy coffin.
"Colonel, we are ready to try opening the sarcophagus," and Daniel waved his arm towards the ostentatious box.
The Special Forces officer nodded his understanding and called his men over and then arranged them around the sarcophagus with overlapping fields of fire. All of these soldiers were SGC trained and were aware of the Goa'uld – even if they hadn't met one personally yet. When he was satisfied with his configuration, the Colonel turned back to Daniel, "When you are ready, Professor."
Daniel stepped over next to Teal'c. The two men had their own weapons drawn. Teal'c had opted for a zat'nik'atel and Daniel had chosen a P-90. He had no desire to lose a battle with a pissed off Goa'uld who'd been trapped for 3500 years. Of course... almost all Goa'uld acted pissed off most all the time anyway...
He took a breath before moving forward.
This was it.
Where the reality of the past decade of his life stomped on his newfound quiet.
Where the Goa'uld presence came back full force into his quiet, scientific archeological explorations. He loved unearthing the past and deciphering the mysteries from the fragments left behind.
He did -not- like meeting historical supervillians in the flesh... or in the symbiote.
He'd just as soon run carbon dating on pottery shards and bones.
He enjoyed the intellectual puzzle, he liked the archeological detective work.
Archeological Sherlock Holmes.
He did not enjoy hand-to-hand combat with galactic evil.
Taking another slow breath he glanced over the personnel in the room one more time and then turned to meet Teal'c's gaze again. The Jaffa was waiting patiently and met his eyes knowingly.
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======== End Chapter 3 =========
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