Downtime Mysteries

The Phoenix


"Jack, what kind of thing is it you're looking for?" Sam enquired, the plane 10 minutes away from the landing strip in Egypt.

"It's called the Phoenix, ever heard of it?" he replied adjusting the controls slightly.

"Yeah," she answered slightly confused, "It's the mythical creature that dies in a fire and is reborn from the ashes."

"Yeah that's thing." He said sceptical of his own thoughts, "Well, the Phoenix is said to give great strength and healing powers to the owner and where have we seen that before?" leading Sam to the same conclusion he made last night.

"The Goa'uld," she spoke softly.

"Yup, near as I can tell this Phoenix is some sort of artificial snake."

"Could we use it?" said Sam, her eyes alight with a burning curiosity, a look Jack was all too familiar with the prospect of some new fiddly piece of technology.

"I don't think so, plus I'm sure it would have the same sort of side effects as the sarcophagus."

"Your right." The light of her eyes dimming slightly.

'Apparently it was a gift from Ra to a pharaoh in the early 3rd dynasty, not sure which one but it was around this time in history that the Phoenix was first mentioned. Now," he said turning to Sam, signalling the importance of what he was about to say, "the interesting thing about the 3rd dynasty is the rein of King Khufu and later his brother Khaefre. Between them they ruled over Egypt for 106 years. During their rein they had all temples shut down and had the people of Egypt worship them as their only god."

"Defiantly the Goa'uld M.O." added Sam almost able to read his mind, seeing clearly where it was going.

"Exactly what I thought," said Jack smiling in approval, "So I think that Khufu found the Phoenix and worked out how to use it. Thing is, I don't think Ra would just hand all that power over to a potential host. So it might have been some kind of experiment, the whole Hock'tar deal. Anyway the story goes that the Phoenix did the whole dying thing every 4 years, so I'm thinking this is some kind of reset or collection of the data gained."

"Yeah," Sam interrupted, thinking out loud, "the Goa'uld would need to collect it somehow, and I don't think the power source would be terribly efficient. An artificial 'snake' would also explain why, they managed to rule for so long."

"Yeah, I think Khufu and Khaefre were still taking orders from Ra despite the fact they told everyone else they were the only god they where also the first committed pyramid builders - Khufu himself instructed the building of the great pyramid."

"Right, so what happened to the Phoenix after Khaefre died?"

"Well nothing for about a hundred years, but then their was this Snefru, the first ruler of the 4th dynasty, history says he was a pretty decent guy, it looks like he might have found it but by then it had been abandoned by Ra and no longer worked, vague 'glyphs on his own pyramid, called The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur, say he had hidden it somewhere away from the Kings of the South, in case their more powerful magicians could work out the mysteries of the Phoenix and re-awaken it. Greeks, Romans and Arabs went searching for it, desperate to have the power and the strength it was said to have." He finished bringing the tale to an open end which he wholly intended to fill-in in the next week.

"And now we're going after it?" said Sam sceptically.

"Nope," he said finally turning to the controls with the ground now firmly in sight, "We are going to find it. And we're not going back without it, I've never not completed a mission and I'm not going to start now."

Conversation was near impossible as the breaking system of the jet took over and the engines roared desperately trying to slow the plane before they hit the end of the runway.

"What did I miss?" came the sleepy voice from behind them.

"Not much just explaining to Sam here what I do on my time off." He said grinning.

"Fascinating." She said sarcastically.

"Hey it's more exciting than your doo'hickies any day." He exclaimed, while parking the jet amongst Bowing 777's and the odd bi-plane.

"Right kids," said Jack looking between the younger partners in his quest, "let's get out of here."

Jack and Sam left the jet and made for the city of Cairo by bus, leaving Marcus to tie up loose ends at the airport saying he'd meet them at the hotel in the city.


The bus trundled through the bustling city they went pulling up to a relatively small and insignificant hotel, but inside it was luxuriously decorated in rich colours.

"Wow." Said Sam completely shocked at the stark contrast between outside and in.

"Not as nice as a little cabin in Minnesota but it works." he said grinning.

Turning to the man behind the counter he said something fluently in Arabic, as if he were speaking English.

Sam stood still, staring at her CO.

Jack grinned at her reaction, walking behind her, he whispered something in her ear, once again in Arabic, surprising her further still.

The concierge, unfortunately, over heard whatever he had said, finding it very funny he ended up doubling over with laughter, only one knock-knock joke from being on the floor.

Immediately Jack muttered something causing the man to instantly straighten up and turn his cheeks red. A man stood stoically next to them ready to carry their luggage, obviously awaiting his orders before he approached any further.

Jack continued a conversation for sometime between the two men getting slightly frustrated at some point but the concierge seemed to smooth that over very quickly.

"Sam?" Said Jack, pulling her back to reality making her over come her shock.

"Yeah," she replied looking deep into his smiling eyes for answers. "Uh when did you learn to speak Arabic?"

"Just before I met you actually, I find I helps if you can actually talk to people about the stuff your trying to find." Twinkle still evident in his eyes, "We need to go and meet up with Jeff now.'" He said heading towards the door of the hotel and out on to the busy street. It was only now she noticed that he had shrugged on a leather jacket while she was in her trance.

"Jack, you ever heard of Indiana Jones?" she giggled catching up to him.

"Yup, just wait 'til you see my hat!" He grinned proudly.