Andrea knew one of the group would catch up to her.
She had provided no explanation, just directions to follow her.
Sure enough, not even 30 seconds later , she heard someone catching up to her.
She hoped it was the male with the sexy accent...wait...she didn't care who it was...much.
She turned to see Daniel, and quickly looked back up the path.
Yes!
Wait, by was she acting like an adolescent?
She was 29 for goodness sake.
""Hello,"" Daniel had caught up. ""I never got your name.""
She smiled slightly, ""Andrea.""
""Andrea, I like it,"" he paused, picking his words carefully. ""These ruins, how far do they go? Have you translated any of the carvings on them?""
They had reached the towers marking the entrance and exit to the ruins.
""This is the end of the ruins, but on the other side of the gate there are more ruins for about 800 walking foot paces,"" she replied.
They had stopped, waiting for the rest of the teams to catch up.
Once they had Andrea said, ""Daniel, please tell your friend Teal'C, to cover his forehead symbol. I mean no disrespect, but we are approaching the community and the people fear nothing more than the Gou'ld.""
When he had translated Teal'C nodded his head and began rummaging in his pack for the hat he always carried with him for this exact purpose.
After Teal'C had his black beanie firmly on his head, and after Andrea had commented that she would like one of these 'beanies', they set of toward the community.
After awhile SG-1 realized that they were being lead into what looked like a series of rock formations.
Daniel gave a gasp of recognition and surprise.
"They live here. They live in these caves," he exclaimed with a look of fascination on his face.
He looked back to see the bewildered looks from his team.
"Let me explain," he paused. "I can tell from their language that these people descended from the Anasazi and Mogollon American Indian tribes on Earth. When these two tribes had merged at around 1000 A.D. they went to live in the canyons in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah where they literally carved caves into the canyon walls. This," he waved his arm in the general direction of the rock formations, "is what these people have done."
They had just walked in between two canyon walls when the team looked up to see the caves in the walls that Daniel had spoken of.
Little and big heads were poking out from some of the caves to watch their odd procession.
Andrea stopped next to a canyon wall and pointed to something carved into it.
A ladder.
O'Neill groaned.
""We have to climb?"" Daniel asked Andrea.
""Yes. I am taking you somewhere where we can talk privately.""
Andrea turned to the cliff wall and began the 35 foot climb.
Daniel followed suit shouting back at his team, "Come on guys."
Carter quickly followed Daniel up the wall.
O'Neill looked at Teal'C with a grimace.
"Well, you heard him, go on."
"Are you coming O'Neill?"
"Yeah yeah," he sighed.
Teal'C started climbing, and with great reluctance O'Neill followed.
When they reached the top they realized they were on another pathway that had been carved out of the rock wall.
"Great, just great," O'Neill muttered.
After a few minutes of walking and climbing they reached a larger cave with a larger opening than the others.
SG-1 walked in to find this cave that looked eerily like Daniel's workroom when he was in the thralls of researching something.
Books, pamphlets, journals, and posters were scattered throughout the room.
In the middle of the cave/room was a small carved rock table and stool.
Along the back wall was a bench carved into the wall.
Books were scattered here too.
Andrea rushed to clear the bench
""Please, sit down.""
Daniel gestured to the bench.
As SG-1 sat down Andrea was trying to organize her papers, but to no avail.
She turned around after awhile, looking at her hands and sitting on the stool.
""I need to tell you how our people got to be here,"" she started. ""Our people are not originally from this planet.""
""I figured that out from your language. Your people are originally from earth, where we,"" he gestured to SG-1, ""live.""
She sighed, ""Yes, we are originally from your planet, but we only just arrived on this planet.""
Daniel looked confused.
""Our people lived on a planet called Verena. It was ruled by a Gou'ld system lord Our people, who lived in a hot environment on earth, were selected to be slaves on Verena because it was a dry and desolate planet. We lived in slavery for around 600 planet revolutions. Then a marvelous thing happened. Our people had an uprising. The Gou'ld system lord left our planet. We lived in peace for another 200 planet revolutions.
She paused, giving Daniel time to translate.
The Gou'ld came back to our planet, Verena, 22 revolutions ago. Our people had just discovered the gate a few years before this. We had our top men and women of science working on figuring out how to work it. We tried hundreds of combinations of the symbols. We had discovered only one address that worked by the time the Gou'ld had returned to Verena. When the scientists found out that the Gou'ld were invading the city, they escaped with their families through the gate to the only known address...here.""
Andrea took a deep breath like she had let go of a huge burden.
Daniel translated.
"Did they ever go back to Verena?" Carter asked.
"I don't know, but I don't think she has finished yet."
Daniel turned back to Andrea with a patient look on his face.
"'We've tried to go home. The scientists had found out Verena's address before leaving, but it still didn't work. It won't work. It still won't work."" She ended with a deep breath of exasperation.
"'What won't work?"'
"'The dialing machine, it won't work.""
""It won't work?"" He looked confused. ""Does it not have enough power?""
Andrea looked like she was trying to think of an easy way to explain.
She suddenly turned around and went rustling through her papers and journals.
This gave Daniel time to explain what she had said.
"The DHD is the problem they can't leave?" Carter asked like she was fearing what the answer would be.
"Apparently," Daniel said.
Andrea turned around and handed Daniel two pieces of parchment.
The first looked like an intricate drawing of a standard DHD.
""This is the dialing machine on Verena,"" Andrea said.
Daniel handed the drawing to Carter sitting to his left and translated.
He glanced at the second piece of parchment and blinked a few times.
"'And this is the DHD on this planet,"" Andrea mumbled forlornly.
Carter passed the first sheet of parchment to O'Neill and Teal'C on her left and leaned over the paper Daniel was transfixed with.
It seemed like another drawing of and ordinary DHD, but after a second glance she gasped.
Carter squinted and pointed to the slight difference in the drawing from the first.
"What is that?"
"I don't know. She says this is the DHD on this planet."
A look of recognition appeared on Carter's face.
"It can't be," Carter whispered.
A few seconds of silence went by before O'Neill spoke.
"Carter, just say it," O'Neill said through slightly clenched teeth.
She looked up, glanced at O'Neill, back at the drawing, took a deep breath, and began, "When I was blended with Jolinar I not only received her bad and good memories, but also her general knowledge. I remember someone telling her about a planet that they had visited by ship. It was a type of prison planet, like the one we visited to save my father, but this was supposed to be abandoned. It was said to have been used by an ancient race, but definitely not the Gou'ld."
"The only ruins on this planet are of the Ancients," Daniel added helpfully.
"So, this planet was a prison planet for the Ancients?" O'Neill asked, trying to keep up.
"But there's a problem," Carter said, grimacing.
O'Neill sighed. "There always is. Spit it out Carter."
"It was said that you would need a key of some degree to get off this prison planet. It was a precaution so that the prisoners could not escape the planet even if they escaped their prison cells."
Daniel filled in Andrea on what was being said.
"'We came to that conclusion when we first got here. We have searched the hills and caves for 22 years and found nothing. We can not get off this planet. If the key was here, we would have found it. Unless you and your friends have a solution, you are stuck here too.""
Daniel translated and silence befell the cave/room.
Well, O'Neill thought, he deserved a vacation now and then.
