Chapter 6 – Follow Me
After Jack tucked the errant white ribbon into his vest pocket, he let himself be led down the dark corridor; hand in hand with the little pixie named Grace. He couldn't stop himself from smiling as he watched her skip beside him and listened to her hum the refrain from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"; in fact, he had to stop himself from humming along with her! He fleetingly wondered where she had learned the song in the first place.
He was pulled from his musings when Grace stopped about 20 feet down the corridor from where he had met her and looked up at him expectantly. "What?" Jack asked, more than a little unnerved by her serious regard.
Grace let go of his hand and walked over to the wall, peering closely at the symbol she saw etched there; a symbol Jack was beginning to loath. It was the circle with a triangle formed in its midst…the same symbol that seemed to be the cause of all his problems. As Grace raised a small hand to touch the symbol, Jack reacted instantly. "Don't!" he shouted as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back against his legs. His heart beat wildly as he imagined this little girl plummeting through the floor just like Carter had. He looked down at the small face, ready to explain to her why she mustn't touch it and reassure her that he wasn't angry with her.
But rather than finding the child in tears and afraid, he was surprised to find her once again regarding him carefully; almost as if she were trying to figure out how to reassure him. Taking a deep breath, he stated calmly, "Grace, do not touch that symbol on the wall. It could be dangerous."
Grace blinked at him, then looked back at the symbol. Frowning, she looked back to Jack. "That is how my mommy disappeared. You must go and find her."
Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair before squatting down so that he was eye level with the little girl. He put both hands on her shoulders before explaining, "Look, we've already tried this. Daniel, Teal'c and I have tried pushing in the symbols both here and in the corridor where your mom…where Sam disappeared." He couldn't quite bring himself to refer to Sam as this child's mother…it just didn't seem…possible! "Besides, she disappeared in the other corridor – what makes you think I'll find a way to her in this one?"
"More than one path will lead you to your journey's end," she responded.
Jack stared at her open-mouthed for a moment before dropping his hands and muttering, "Oh great; another kid who talks in circles. Just what I need." He clearly remembered the boy Shifu and how he never understood a word the kid was saying. Jack stood, knees popping as he straightened to full height once again. "So, what exactly do you propose I do, little miss know-it-all?"
Grace gave him an impish grin, as if she had heard that term many times, before turning back to the wall. "The symbol is the same here on both sides of the wall, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Jack responded dryly. "But the one on the other side has five lines shooting out of the top."
"Like the rays of the sun?" Grace questioned innocently.
Jack narrowed his eyes at her. Her innocent act wasn't fooling him for a minute; she seemed to be leading him somewhere. "My mother told me a sun holds the most power of anything in the universe. She blew one up once, you know," she smiled proudly at Jack.
"Yeah, I know," he replied, wondering how the hell she knew about that incident…it had occurred over two years ago! He also wondered how she could be so damn smart at such a young age... before he remembered who her mother supposedly was.
"Power flows outward once it is released, just like the rays of a sun flow outward. If you follow those lines, you will reach what you seek," she replied cryptically.
"Oh, for crying out loud; maybe I should go and get Daniel," Jack stated even as he turned on his heel to do just that.
"No!" Grace cried, stopping him with a hand to his arm. "I can only stay if you are alone. You must find her before the first rays of the sun enter where she lies; otherwise, it might be too late."
"Too late for what?"
"For all of us," Grace whispered, her eyes filling with tears.
Jack carefully regarded this small girl. One minute, she acted like a child, the next someone with knowledge well beyond her years. He didn't know what to make of it; he only knew that he had to find Sam…and apparently soon. "Ok, Ok. I'll find her, Grace. But you've got to stop talking in circles and help me out here, all right? I'm not very good at this riddle stuff," he finished lamely.
Grace sniffed once, then nodded her head in agreement. Her stalwart attitude and refusal to let herself succumb to tears reminded Jack more and more of his 2IC. Grace led him to the opposite side of the corridor to the symbol that did not contain the rays. "Put your hand here," she said quietly. Her small hand indicated that he should touch the middle of the symbol.
Jack looked at her warily. "You do know this goes against my cardinal rule, don't you?" he asked. "Don't touch. It's a simple thing to remember. That's how Carter got us into this mess in the first place."
"Sometimes we are led to do things we don't understand," Grace answered. "Touch it; you will not be hurt."
"Famous last words," Jack grumbled under his breath. None the less, he placed his hand gently in the middle of the symbol and pressed lightly. He grimaced in expectation but nothing happened. Turning back to her, he said with a hint of exasperation, "See? I told you; we tried this already."
"This is not the end, only the beginning" stated the child, and Jack could have sworn it was Oma talking to him. "You must do exactly what my mother did, in the same order." She led him back to the other symbol and waited expectantly.
"All right," Jack sighed with resignation. "You want me to touch this one too, right?" he guessed.
"First you must trace each ray of sun, from the circle outward. Then press on the triangle," Grace explained.
"Wait a minute; if you know all this, why didn't you just do this and find your...find Carter…and show her the way out," Jack asked in a puzzled tone.
Grace shook her head sadly. "It wouldn't work for me. I am not…here yet." Jack's eyebrows rose at that comment. Time was relative, that much he knew from Carter's many lectures on the subject. But this? This didn't make a lick of sense to him. Rather than question her further, Jack let it go. He really didn't want to get into a philosophical discussion with an 8 year old…one she'd probably win anyway, he thought ruefully.
Jack moved to the symbol and slowly traced each of the five lines in order, from the symbol outward. As he did so, he wondered once again why he was listening to this child who had appeared from nowhere, but knew deep inside that he had no choice. When he had completed tracing the lines, under Grace's watchful eye, he pressed the inner circle. Not expecting anything to happen, but bracing himself just in case, Jack jumped back in surprise as the wall the symbol was etched on moved inward, revealing a stone stairway leading down into pitch darkness. "Whoa!" he stated in surprise.
Grace smiled crookedly as she peered around him to look down the steps. "Cool!"
Jack cocked his head at her in amusement, his lips quirking in an answering grin. "Yeah, cool." He stepped forward and peered with caution as he shined his light down the stairs. "But this isn't what happened to Carter. She fell through the floor; she didn't walk down a set of steps."
Grace just shrugged her shoulders. "Many streams lead into a river, some less smooth than others; let's go and see where it ends." Again, Jack marveled at how she could go from a little girl to a midget philosopher at the drop of a hat. Daniel would get a kick out of this one, he thought to himself.
As Grace moved to go past him down the stairs, Jack stopped her progress by grabbing at the back of her dress. "Hold on there, princess. I don't know what's down there and I'm not about to let you go down first, even if you aren't really here yet," he stated, his fingers making quotations marks in the air over the last three words. "Get behind me. We go down slowly and you stay behind me, got it?"
"Yes, sir," she mumbled in a disgruntled fashion, one that sounded much like Carter when he told her to stop working and go to bed. Shaking his head against that thought, Jack stepped in front of her and began his slow descent down the stone steps.
While some part of him knew that he should be alerting Daniel and Teal'c as to what was happening and get their assistance, an inner voice was telling him to just go with it for now. He knew without a doubt that he would be livid if one of his team members did what he was doing right now, but he couldn't seem to help himself. Something about this child made him follow where she led.
He felt Grace's hand on the back of his jacket as he made his way steadily down the stone steps, careful not to go too fast. He kept his light moving in a continuous sweep back and forth, its light cutting through the darkness ahead of them and revealing nothing more than stone walls and stone steps. The stairs, did however, spiral downward, turning in an ever widening arc that seemed to go on forever. "Man, my knees are so going to protest after this little adventure," Jack complained on their descent. The only response he received from his companion was a little giggle, which caused Jack to smile into the darkness.
Finally, they reached the bottom of the stairs and Jack stopped once they were both on even ground, shining his light cautiously while his other hand kept a firm grip on his weapon. From what he could ascertain, they were in another long, dark corridor. This one was not as wide as the ones in the upper level of the temple. In fact, he'd be surprised if two people could walk side by side down here. He glanced down at the small figure next to him; well, two adults couldn't at any rate.
"Well, kiddo, it looks like this passageway only heads in one direction. I guess that's the way we go, huh?" He looked down at her and saw her large, dark eyes gazing down the corridor, an unreadable expression on her face. "Hey, you don't need to be afraid. I'll be right with you all the way," he assured her.
Grace blinked into the darkness then looked up at him, a disgruntled look on her face. Straightening to her full height of 48 inches, she said, "I'm not scared. I haven't been afraid of the dark since I was two!"
Jack couldn't stop the snort of amusement that burst forth. Somehow or other, this had to be Carter's kid. He didn't know how or why, but he did know that much. "Come on then, Dorothy; off to find the wizard." Then he took her hand in his and proceeded down the dark, narrow corridor; hoping that it would lead him to Sam.