Part Two

Sam closed the large codex, shutting her eyes wearily. Three hours of reading and she had barely managed to scratch the surface of the works lined up on shelves stretching to just below the high ceiling.

Damn, what she wouldn't give for a cup of coffee!

Fascinating though they were, she was beginning to wish it were Daniel who had been ordered to continue investigations in the library, rather than her. She blinked, seeing the bright sunshine through the window above the main entrance. It was a lovely day. At least, she thought it was—she had barely seen a few minutes of it. She glanced at her watch. Lunchtime. Teal'c and Daniel were probably sitting at some equivalent of the local outdoor café, lapping up the sun, and the Colonel….

Sam pursed her lips, frowning as she thought of the morning. Now that had been a shock. She wanted to give the Colonel the benefit of the doubt, but the glimpse of the naked servant still asleep in his bed, had almost had her questioning his command.

Almost.

No. She stood, easing the stiffness out of her legs. She trusted the Colonel. He had proven over and over that he was an honourable man. Daniel had explained the reason for his actions, but she had seen nothing to confirm the Colonel's suspicions, nothing to indicate that these people were anything other than they appeared—pleasant and friendly. So far. That didn't mean it wasn't there to find.

Sam headed for the door, the lure of daylight too much for her.

"Captain, can I be of assistance?"

Setztuml's cheerful round face peered up at her enquiringly. The library assistant looked like a beach ball, his colourfully stripped robe wrapped tightly over his rotund body. Sam couldn't help smiling.

"I was going to take a walk outside. I thought I'd go look at the market Colonel O'Neill mentioned yesterday, and buy something to eat." She paused, considering her next words, but decided to continue. "Would you like to join me? You could show me the best food stalls."

"I would enjoy that very much, Captain." Setztunl managed to look both pleased and disappointed at the same time. "But I was wanting to show you this." He held out a very old, surprisingly small codex, its cover crumbling at the edges. "It is one of our most precious works, and I just obtained permission for you to read it. I'm afraid it must be back in the temple three cycles before sunset. Perhaps, I could send for some food, and we could go over it together?"

Sam moved closer, lured by the scent of old parchment and time. The little librarian opened the volume, turning the thick pages, giving her tantalising glimpses of star charts and gods riding winged serpents across the dark void of the sky. Sunlight forgotten, she followed the man back to her table, already caught up in the thrill of discovery.

xoxoxoxoxo

"Carter! We were wondering where you were." Colonel O'Neill made his annoyance at her tardiness obvious by looking pointedly at his watch. "Now that you're here, we'll begin."

"Sorry, sir." Sam slid into a chair beside Daniel, grabbing a handful of nuts from the bowl in the center of the table as she did so. "I got involved in my research and forgot the time."

"I hope it was valuable research then, Captain." Jack couldn't help replying with a shortness he knew Carter didn't deserve. His instincts were screaming at him that there was danger surrounding them, yet none of his team seemed to believe him, treating his concerns as if they were minor. There was an undercurrent here, as if something was hidden, as if something was building—to what he didn't know.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and took a sip of the water Hetah had poured for him before he sent her from the room.

"Let's get on with this shall we? Teal'c—check the corridor." He waited until the Jaffa had given the all clear before beginning. "Teal'c, you start."

The Jaffa nodded. "I accompanied Daniel Jackson to several sites around the city. At all times we were accompanied by three guides and guarded by four soldiers."

"What?" Daniel interrupted, frowning. "I didn't see any soldiers."

"They were not intending to be seen. Never the less, they were there."

The Colonel held up his hand as Daniel trying to speak again. "Go on, Teal'c."

"Several times the route we took was longer than necessary. I can only speculate that this was to prevent us from seeing something the authorities did not wish us to see."

"Maybe it was because the road didn't go straight. Maybe the path was blocked by something, like a building." Daniel jumped in, obviously irritated.

"Daniel, please! You'll get your chance to give your report. Don't interrupt again." The Colonel glared at the other man, angered by his stubbornness.

"Perhaps the detours were necessary." Teal'c continued. "However, I do not believe this to be the case. For example, we skirted the temple several times, yet came no closer than four blocks from it. I noted what appeared to be a large number of people heading for the building, and yet we were kept well away."

Daniel opened his mouth, but shut it again at a look from Jack.

"There were many more soldiers than citizens on the streets, all heavily armed, and I did not see a single child. In fact, there seemed to be very few inhabitants of this city, despite its large size."

"Your conclusions?"

"The city is suffering the effects of a severe famine and is under martial law. The authorities are attempting to prevent us from seeing this, for reasons I have yet to ascertain."

Colonel O'Neill nodded. "That fits in with what we saw yesterday in the market. Daniel—your turn."

"I don't see how you can come to that conclusion." Daniel folded his arms, and sat back, his whole posture defensive. "I didn't see any evidence of it. The lack of children on the street could be easily explained by them being in school. At no time during the meeting of the landowners did the subject of famine come up, and as for the temple…" He looked slightly apologetic. "I'm sorry, Teal'c, but they are quite within their rights to stop us from going anywhere near it. We are outsiders. They know nothing about our beliefs or customs. Let's face it, we wouldn't let some aliens just walk into one of our cathedrals without making sure they weren't going to do anything disrespectful, would we? Maybe they're just checking us out, getting to know us better, and having Teal'c try to force his way into the temple is not the best way to get them to trust us."

"Okay, so we have two completely different interpretations of what's going on." Jack shifted in his chair, trying to ease the tension from his muscles, but not succeeding. "Carter, do you have anything that could shed some light on the problem?"

Sam hastily finished the mouthful of nuts she was chewing, washing them down with some of the juice from the jug on the table. "Yes, sir, I think I do. It seems like the old religious beliefs of the Aztecs have changed over the years. They still worship the gods—I found references to Xipe Totec, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and several others—but the practice of human sacrifice died out centuries ago. According to a document I was given permission to view, they now use a technique that's described as a sort of dream reading. The High Priest, rather than killing a person, now sends his energy to the gods. I assume that's what the people were doing at the temple. It seems quite harmless and in fact, it's an honor to be chosen to do it. This time of year is when the earth goddess, Teteoinnan, is worshipped to ensure a good harvest."

"And you're saying that none of this involves human sacrifice, Carter? None of that cutting out of hearts and eating them stuff?"

Sam shook her head, laughing at the Colonel's words. "No, sir. They've moved on from that. I don't think we need to worry. I did find some fascinating references to the early years of their civilisation though, and I don't doubt the Goa'uld played a major role in their religion, but there is no record of the gods visiting for hundreds of years, and the old practices have died out."

"See, Jack. I told you there was nothing to worry about." Daniel smiled at Sam, showing his pleasure at her confirmation of his conclusions. "Now maybe I can get back to the library tomorrow? I'd love to look at these documents Sam found."

"I wish I could take the credit, but it was Setztunl that showed them to me. I don't know how much I would have found without his assistance, there is just so much to go through."

"With my help we can get through a lot more."

"That would be great. You can handle the cultural side, and I can get back to the astronomical records. I found some very interesting references to travel between stars. I think there could be some gate coordinates hidden amongst the information, maybe ones we haven't recorded before. I'll show you tomorrow." Carter stopped, and turned to the Colonel, looking embarrassed. "That's if it's okay with you, sir?"

"I'm not sure…"

"Oh, come on, Jack. We'll be careful. It's not like we're doing anything dangerous, and we'll keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

"You did not tell us what you did today, O'Neill." Teal'c broke into Daniel's words.

Jack thought for a second. What had he done? It seemed that the day had gone by in the blink of an eye.

"I talked with the Grand Chihuahua, but we didn't get a lot of negotiating done. He had some meetings, so he left me with the generals again. They were pretty closed mouthed about things. We mainly compared training notes—they have very rigorous standards, made me glad I didn't go through their boot camp."

Truth be told, Jack knew he had been given the run around whenever he asked awkward questions, but there had been little he could do about it, and had hoped for more information from his team. Perhaps his instincts were wrong for once, perhaps there was nothing more here in the city than first appeared.

"Okay, Carter, you and Daniel can play together tomorrow." He raised a finger. "But keep your eyes and ears open. Don't take anything at face value. Okay?"

xoxoxoxoxo

She hadn't believed him really. Everything seemed so above board and open. Looking back, it was obvious to Sam that Setztunl had carefully manoeuvred her into looking at the codices he wanted her to see, away from any that might expose the truth. She had thought she was better trained than that, that she had learnt enough from the Colonel to not blindly accept what she was shown.

Obviously not.

And now she wouldn't have the chance to learn anything more from him.

xoxoxoxoxo