Chapter 2
"It's been two days Carter," Jack O'Neill snapped irritably.
"I'm aware of that, sir," Sam snapped back, trying to rub the tension out of her aching shoulders. "I'm doing everything I can think of."
Seeing the strain on her face, O'Neill bit back the hurtful words that crossed his mind, but he couldn't keep them totally out of his face.
Or maybe that's my own guilt talking, Sam thought to herself, reading an accusation that her best wasn't good enough into the expression. She knew O'Neill well enough to know that he was a man of action, one who got easily frustrated at having to sit around waiting for somebody else to do something, but that didn't take the sting out of being on the receiving end of his ire.
"Perhaps Major Carter needs to rest," suggested Teal'c evenly. "She has been working non stop since Daniel Jackson disappeared. I find that after a rest interval or a session of Kel Noreem, I am able to see things more clearly."
"Meditation's not what I need right now," Sam said miserably. "And there's no possible way I could sleep."
"I'm sure Dr. Fraiser could fix that," O'Neill responded.
"I don't want drugs clouding my mind," Sam argued.
Again, O'Neill held back the nasty retort that came to mind and rubbed his own aching eyes, reminding himself that Carter wasn't the only one who hadn't slept in almost three days. "Teal'c's right," he said. "None of us are thinking clearly now. Take three hours. I don't care if you lay there and stare at the ceiling," he said, raising his voice to cut off her objections. "None of us are doing Daniel any good right now. Dr. Benedetto is still working on his translations and should have more information for us in a few hours. That's an order, Carter."
"Yes, sir," Sam responded sharply, her own anger and frustration evident in how hard the notepad she had been holding hit the opposite wall, before she turned and stalked out toward the Stargate in the next room.
Daniel examined the city of Remana from a parapet at the top of the temple, admiring the architecture, so reminiscent of ancient Rome, yet with clear signs of innovation he was not accustomed to seeing in worlds dominated by the goa'uld. Most of the transplanted human civilizations they had found so far had shown little signs of progress in the hundreds or thousands of years since they had been abducted from Earth. Of course, on those planets their goa'uld oppressors had frowned on the innovation that fueled progress. After all, that would have required a freedom of thought and unbridled creativity that were anathema to the rule by fear and oppression at which the goa'uld excelled.
As in ancient Rome, creativity and innovation thrived here. Daniel's gaze was held by the graceful lines of a coliseum that had to be several miles away and yet seemed almost close enough to touch. It dwarfed all the other buildings around it, thrusting four stories of graceful columns and detailed statuary into the air as if they were weightless. And symbols of the god Janus were everywhere adorning signposts, doorways, gateways, even windows, as far as he could see. It seemed that anything that could even remotely be deemed an entrance was marked with the god's symbols.
"I see the symbols of Janus everywhere. What can you tell me about him?" he asked casually, as he tugged self-consciously at the toga Larinda had given him to wear, which had obviously been designed for someone much shorter.
"You promised to speak in your language. How else am I to learn it if you do not?" Larinda responded.
"I'm sorry," he said switching to English. "I've been reading some of the inscriptions on the buildings in your language so I lost track of which one I was using. It's amazing how quickly you're picking up English. I've never known anyone before who was so fluent after only two days."
She smiled at the compliment. "It has many similarities to our language, and I enjoy the challenge. How many languages do you know that it is so easy to confuse them?"
Daniel pondered the question a moment. "Including some of the dialects I've picked up in my travels, I'd say I can read somewhere between 40 and 45 and can speak around 30 with some fluency, and a few others not quite so fluently."
"That's very impressive," she responded.
He shrugged dismissively, "It's something that's always come naturally to me. I can't really take any credit for it. What about you?"
"I can read and speak all that is written in our texts, both old and new – most of my people know only the new. We have not had contact with another species for many, many centuries so there are not many variations to know."
"I'd like to see those texts some time if you don't mind. I'd like to learn as much as I can about your people while I'm here."
"Perhaps that can be arranged," she responded neutrally.
Daniel tried not to frown, having come to realize that she only used that tone of voice when she wanted to put him off without actually using the word 'no'. "I hope so. Anyway, we've gotten off topic," he said with forced cheerfulness. "You were going to tell me about Janus."
"He is our god. He protects us," Larinda responded uncomfortably. "What else is there to know?"
"You've actually seen him?" he asked, wondering how to tactfully ask if her god had glowing eyes and a funny voice.
"No. He has not visited us in human form in many, many years. But he still watches over us."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because he is our god. He would not desert us," she replied. Her eyes had grown troubled, so he didn't press, but she continued on her own. "I am his priestess, as was my mother before me, and I have served him faithfully since I was very young. It saddens me that he does not come in human form to us any longer, but it is my duty to ensure our people do not lose faith in him or falter in their worship."
"What would happen if they did?"
Aghast, she replied, "he would stop protecting us."
"What does he protect you from?"
She struggled with that one for a moment. How much could she safely tell this man about the specter that overshadowed their lives? How could she make him understand? In most ways that would matter to someone from another world, their lives had been peaceful and uneventful for a very long time. How did she explain that they didn't need Janus so much to protect them from outside influences as they needed him to save them from themselves. "Hunger, adversity, wars . . . those and all the other evils men visit upon one another," she finally responded. "We have not known them for many centuries."
Daniel couldn't help wondering if the things she described had disappeared because of Janus' arrival or since his departure, but resisted the impulse to voice that particular question.
"He also gave us the portal to protect us from those who would do us harm. Besides," she added, "I do not need to see him in the flesh to know he is with us every month in spirit at the Janalia."
"What is the Janalia?"
"It is a celebration held at the time of the new moon."
"Of course, the beginning of a new cycle."
"It is a time of renewal . . . and of change," she added, sadness creeping into her voice.
"I look forward to seeing it," he said. "I've always been interested in the ceremonies of other cultures. When is the next one?"
Her smile disappeared entirely. "It is too soon for you to be involved in such things. The next one is only two days away. You do not know enough about our ways yet to participate. Perhaps next month."
"I may not still be here next month," he responded.
She shifted uncomfortably beside him, deliberately looking over the city so as not to meet his eyes. "You could always come back for a visit," she responded too neutrally.
"That's true," Daniel responded just as neutrally, knowing she was holding something back, but also knowing he didn't dare push too hard. He needed to gain her trust in order to be allowed the freedom to explore the city, and asking questions that removed the smile from her delicate face or the light from her sparkling green eyes was not the way to do that. And once he had that freedom, he expected he would easily be able to find the answers he needed without her help.
"Okay, now that everyone's had some rest, let's go through it from the beginning one more time," General Hammond ordered.
It was unusual, and a clear sign of how serious the situation was, that the General was making an on site appearance, so Carter resisted the urge to groan out load. As usual, O'Neill was not so politic, "We've already been through it a hundred times, General."
"Then one more time isn't going to hurt you, is it Colonel?"
"No, sir," O'Neill responded glumly.
"I was under the console trying to figure out how to make it work, and Daniel was over at that wall looking at the inscriptions," Carter said.
"Okay," said the General. "Then get under the console, right where you were. Teal'c, you be Dr. Jackson."
Reluctantly, Carter stretched herself out under the console.
"Then what happened, Major?"
"I had asked Daniel for some help, but he'd gotten distracted by the inscriptions, so I snapped at him. He said something about maybe the instructions were in the inscriptions, and I said something like of course they'd be right there on the wall where everyone could see them. I started to come out from under the console, but he came over and handed me the tool I'd been trying to reach."
"Go ahead and do it," the General urged.
Following Carter's instructions, Teal'c walked over and leaned over as if picking up a tool and handing it to her. Carter focused on remembering what had happened next. "I told him to stand at the console and watch for any signs of activity while I worked. Nothing happened, then he made some kind of remark about the inscriptions over there being in Latin, and I made a joke about it all being Greek to me."
"That's a good one, Carter," O'Neill muttered under his breath, earning a glare from the General that caused him to close his mouth, set his face in a neutral expression and stand at attention.
"Then he said to remove the third crystal and I heard him moving around, then he handed me another crystal and said to put that one in. I asked how he knew what to do and he said the instructions really were on the wall, in Latin. When I put the crystal in, I could feel the console hum as it powered up, and I jumped up to look at it. A series of lights flashed across the face of it, then stopped.
"Where was Doctor Jackson then?"
"Over by that wall still looking at the inscriptions."
"You're sure he was still there when you got up?"
Carter thought about it and said, "yes, I'm absolutely sure."
"Then what happened?"
"I started to look at the console while I called the Colonel and Teal'c on the walkie-talkie. I was still looking at it when I asked Daniel to come over and help me with the symbols on it. When he didn't answer, I looked up and he was gone. The panel to the storage area he had gotten the crystal from was still open, but he wasn't there anymore."
"And what had you touched during that time?"
"That's just it, General. I hadn't touched anything. Unless my hand just passing over the console somehow caused this, I can't figure out what happened. And I haven't been able to make it happen again," she added in frustration.
"Then what was Dr. Jackson doing that could have caused this to happen?"
"I don't know, sir," she responded in frustration. "As far as I know, all he was doing was looking at inscriptions. I checked out the storage compartment where he got the crystal first thing to make sure there were no controls of any kind. From what I can see, it's just a storage area for extra supplies for the main console. I've checked for power signatures in the wall and found nothing. I've tried pressing the symbols randomly, and nothing."
"Is it possible that restoring the power to the console activated some kind of automatic system?"
"It's possible, but I can't figure out what kind. And, again, after the initial power up of the console, there were no flashing lights or sounds to indicate that anything was happening. If it is some kind of transport device, it's extremely quiet and efficient. We know the goa'uld use the ring transporters which make noise and have a visual effect, and even the Asgard beaming technology is detectable by a flash of light. Whatever this is, it's extremely advanced."
"Another plaything left behind by the Ancients?" O'Neill asked.
"Possibly," Carter responded. "But if it is, it may be just as hard to figure out as the stargates."
"You said you called Colonel O'Neill on your walkie talkie right before it happened?"
"Yes, sir."
"Have you tried that again."
"Not on it's own. I mean, we've been using the walkie-talkies in here since it happened without any effect, so I don't think it's the radio waves that triggered it." She turned thoughtful, "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to give that a closer look."
"Will you take me back to where you found me today?" Daniel asked patiently, as he unconsciously moved to adjust the ill-fitting toga again. He was much taller than most of the inhabitants of Remana and Larinda had been unable to find one that fit any better than the one she'd given him the day before. He had finally convinced her to bring him his own clothes, hoping they could be salvaged; but she had been right, they were ruined. And all of the pockets had been empty. He still wasn't sure whether that had happened during his trip through the portal or after, but he'd known better than to ask. He didn't need to be career military like Jack O'Neill to know that expressing doubts about the integrity of your hosts when you were alone and defenseless was not a recipe for a long and happy life.
The one bright spot had been that when he'd described his glasses and explained why he needed them, Larinda had conveniently found them and brought them to him. It gave him hope that other things might turn up once he had the freedom to look for them.
Larinda sighed heavily and tensed slightly beside him. He'd asked the question every day since he'd been strong enough to stand and each time been told he wasn't well enough yet for such a strenuous journey. It had not been as apparent a lie then as it would be now since it was obvious that he was fully recovered from his trip through the portal. She managed to keep her voice light and dispassionate, "I don't know why you're so anxious to go back there. It's just woods and grass. Nothing very interesting."
Feeling his patience starting to wear thin, especially since he'd not been allowed to leave the temple proper at all since his arrival, Daniel made an effort to hold his temper in check. "You know I want to figure out if I can find a way back."
"Back where?" she asked, perplexed.
"Back where I came from," he responded, the exasperation clear in his voice.
"But you can't go back, Daniel. It's not possible. Lord Janus sent you here for a reason. And even if you could go back, I don't know why you'd want to. Aren't you happy here?" She managed to bite back the words 'with me' that had almost tumbled out so carelessly. It wouldn't do for him to know how important his continued presence had become to her.
"Larinda, I've enjoyed your company, and what I've been able to see of your country from the temple, very much," the sarcasm had slipped in unplanned, but he felt some satisfaction as he saw her react to it. "But my friends are going to be very worried about me and they're going to be looking for me. If they manage to find their way through the portal, I need to leave them a message so they know where to find me." A thought suddenly struck him. "If the place where I arrived is so far away, how is it that you found me so quickly."
She'd known he was too smart to be deflected for long and had expected that question would come soon enough, but it still saddened her. "I told you, I'm a priestess of the temple."
"And what does that have to do with it?"
"Lord Janus signals the priestess whenever something is coming through the portal."
Daniel just stared at her. "And where exactly do you get this signal?"
"Come," she said resignedly. "I'll show you."