Day One

Mitchell's honest opinion was that the gate room on the other side wasn't particularly exciting. It was small, so small that it made the stargate look like a huge, menacing thing. After all, once it would open, the vortex would fill most of the room and vaporize everything it encountered. The room was lit by a soft white glow radiating from the ceiling. At the far end of the room, which was actually quite near, was the DHD, and behind it, the opening to some other place, hopefully more interesting than this.

Jackson lead the way to the doorway and through it, and was the first to spell out loud what everyone thought.

"This certainly wasn't on the platter!"

The room was slightly larger than the one with the gate, and different in shape. The walls consisted of twelve open doorways leading into each direction, and thin corner columns between them. But what caught everyone's attention was the large thing that stood on a low pedestal in the middle of the room. It looked like a rectangular slab of ice, partially transparent and shimmering. It had no frames except on one side, which was lined by a silvery casing. Mitchell had never seen anything like it before. Not that it was a surprise, though. After all, this place was supposed to be filled with stuff unlike anything they had ever seen.

"This device looks vaguely familiar," Teal'c noted.

"I think so too, Teal'c. It's a bit like the quantum mirror we found from P3R-233 -- though it's clearly not identical, and it's considerably bigger," Carter said.

Jackson had already found something else of interest. Around the device were several tables filled with smaller things. Some of them were silver platters and plates similar to the ones they had found at Avalon, while others were, again, not like anything Mitchell had ever seen. He moved over to Jackson's side, to take a closer look.

Carter, on the other hand, concentrated on the large device. "The quantum mirror's made of naquada, but I don't think this is -- the material looks all wrong. And... wow! The amount of energy that's stored in here is just incredible," she muttered, as she knelt down to examine its foot and the pedestal.

"I think there's a ZPM set into the base of it!" Carter added, reaching to try and pull it out.

Jackson was holding a silvery-black something he had picked up.

Mitchell glanced at the things on the table, and grabbed one of the plates.

The heavy sound of stone grating against stone snapped SG-1 out of their eager exploration. With speed that took them by surprise, large slabs of dark stone slid down to cover each of the twelve doorways.

Teal'c rushed to the nearest door, already too low for anyone to try and escape through it, and stuck his staff weapon under it. It didn't slow down the inevitably closing door at all. Instead, the staff snapped neatly in half, and the part that remained under the falling stone was crushed into tiny pieces.

The three other members of the team gazed at Teal'c, each with a dumbstruck and somewhat guilty expression. Each of them was touching something.

"I will not ask which one of you caused this, for that would be difficult to tell, and irrelevant in the current situation."

"Don't we ever learn?" Daniel remarked sarcastically.

Teal'c was right. Maybe it was Sam trying to get the ZPM out that had closed the doors, or maybe Mitchell had pressed a button on the plate, or then maybe Daniel had done something with this, whatever it was he was holding. It looked like a large antique belt buckle, except it was made of a silvery material like the plates and platters, with black decorations that might or might not be used to control whatever this was. So far, he hadn't been able to turn it on. Or maybe he had, but he just hadn't noticed it, and that had been the reason why the doors had closed. He couldn't know for sure.

Daniel dropped the artifact on the table and turned to face the walls. As he looked, rows of text began to form in the previously smooth stone surfaces, as if carved by invisible, impossibly fast-working chisels, accompanied by a silent, scraping sound, much like sand blown against stone.

In less than a minute, each of the twelve door slabs was carved with a different kind of text in a different alphabet. He recognized some of them right away, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, a heavily modified, yet Latin-based script that had been used to write the language of the nomadic people on P4T-3G6, the modern alphabet but a language that he wasn't certain of, and one text in Ancient. That was the one most likely to tell how they could reopen the doors, so he decided to look at it first.

"All right... I think this is just what we need," he said to the others. "It says that the room has been sealed to protect everyone and everything from the great power... No, wait, not power, it's... Energy, I think that's it. From the great energy of the -- this is a word I've never seen before..." he said. There was some stone dust on the text, and he reached to brush it off.

As his hand touched the stone, there was a blinding flash of light, a searing pain climbed up his arm, and the jolt tossed him away from the wall. He lost consciousness before he hit the ground.

Jackson fell down right at Carter's feet, and she crouched instantly down to check him.

"Rule one from now on! No touching! Hands off everything alien!" Mitchell yelled, as he ran closer. So far, every time someone had touched something in this room, things had taken a turn for the worse. Just how bad this was exactly, he couldn't be sure, before Carter told him.

"He's stopped breathing. Pulse is erratic," she said, and without wasting more time, started mouth to mouth.

Teal'c had knelt next to Jackson as well, his usually placid face showing open concern. Mitchell stayed a few steps away, with the oddest feeling that he was an outsider. SG-1 had encountered numerous emergency situations of several kinds out in the field, but never before under in this composition, and under his command. Of course he was worried for Jackson, as one of the team, and as a friend, but Teal'c and Carter had over eight years of common history with him. It would take a long time for Mitchell to become as close to them, if it happened at all.

It wouldn't simply end here, he didn't believe that for one second.

"Come on, Daniel..." he muttered, instinctively using Jackson's first name.

Carter paused to check Jackson's breathing again. This time, she cast a relieved smile in Mitchell's direction, a smile he was quick to return.

A few seconds later, Jackson's eyes opened wide. "God... What was that?" he gasped.

"It seemed like a powerful electric shock," Teal'c suggested.

"How're you feeling, Daniel?" Carter asked.

"Sam, I'm... My hand... I don't think I can move my fingers. I can't even feel them." The way he said it suggested that it probably hurt like hell, too, but he just didn't want to say that.

As Carter turned to take a look, Mitchell followed her gaze. The tips of Jackson's fingers were burned black, and the rest of the hand was red and swollen, seeping blood. He tried to raise his hand so he could see it for himself, but Carter pressed it down at the elbow.

"Daniel, just take it easy. It doesn't look good, but I'm sure doctor Lam will be able to fix it once we get back. In the mean time, you'll have to do with my bandaging and pain medication."

Mitchell grimaced. Once they got back. Getting back might depend largely on Jackson, since he was the only one who was able to read the texts on the walls. He just really didn't want to start kicking and dragging Jackson to work again. They were not in a hurry. With the standard rations they had, they'd last a few days in here. Or maybe the way out would have nothing at all to do with the writings. Mitchell would do his best to figure that out. If there was another way out, he'd find it.

Apparently, Jackson didn't need anyone to tell him what to do. Despite the fact that he kept biting his teeth together, grimacing and occasionally grunting all the way through Carter's bandaging the burned skin of his hand, he started struggling to get up as soon as she was done. Both Teal'c and Carter tried to restrain him.

"Sam, Teal'c," Jackson resisted. "That Ancient text's important. It might just be the only thing that'll tell us how to get out. I've got to finish reading it! Please."

Mitchell frowned, but he did agree with Jackson. "I'm sorry, guys, but I think he really should finish the translation."

"That may indeed be true," Teal'c said, and since Sam nodded as well, the two of them helped Jackson up.

"Just stay far from that wall. Only go close enough that he can read the text," Mitchell added.

Standing up made Daniel feel light-headed, and he had the sickening feeling that his heart kept skipping beats. His hand was on fire. Sam hadn't even allowed him to look at it properly, so it had to be bad. Really bad. Third degree burns, most likely. Now it was entirely covered in bandages. So much for taking notes while translating, he'd certainly not be able to hold a pen.

"All right," Daniel turned his attention to the text. Nothing like an all-important translation to take his thoughts away from all the discomfort. "So, yes. Just like I thought. We've been sealed in to protect everyone from the great power of the -- something -- an unknown word -- that may be released in... tests, or tries, I think it means experiments. We're caught in an Ancient isolation lab."

"Is that all there is?" Teal'c asked.

"No, it goes on. It says that once the experiments are concluded and it is safe to leave the room, one must simply touch the walls from first to last. Of course, there's a warning at the end: 'Beware, you who come with the wrong intentions, lacking the wisdom and knowledge that is required.' Apparently, that was my problem. Didn't have enough wisdom and knowledge."

"You simply touched the wrong wall," Sam said. "So, the Ancient text can't be the first one... From first to last -- I guess that means putting them in chronological order, and some of the other texts has to be older than it. So, it's a puzzle, and we've just got to figure out the right order?"

"...and if we don't get it right, then the walls will electrocute us, squish or something equally unpleasant," Mitchell grimaced.

"Yeah..." Daniel breathed, hanging his head. "And not that I'd like to sound depressing, but I'm not sure I can translate all of them. I think -- and I'm not even sure -- that that one over there is in Polish, and this here is a form of Brahmi script unfamiliar to me -- and there are a few texts written in scripts I don't think I've met before. Translating them without any idea of context is, well, as much as I hate to say it, pretty much impossible."

"Still, Daniel, you don't actually need to translate them all completely, do you? We just need to know the order, so can't you deduce which one came first?" Sam tried to sound encouraging.

"Maybe. But I can't be certain. Take this hieroglyphic text, for example. Now, I recognized it right away as the Great Hymn to the Aten from the 18th dynasty, a well known text. But had I not known the alphabet well enough to read it and recognize the text... The hieroglyphic writing was in use for thousands of years. Just knowing that this is something written in ancient Egyptian would not be enough to place it chronologically among the texts. And all I can say about that Brahmi text is that such a script was used sometime between 5th century BC and 4th century AD... And that's talking about a script that I can recognize, unlike several others."

"Jackson, you can figure this out. You're the best there is for a job like this," Mitchell told him. "Just rest a while before you get to work, and take your time, we're not in a hurry."

Daniel sighed and sat down on the floor. Sam offered him a blanket, though he wasn't feeling particularly cold.

"Sam... I really don't think I can translate it all," he told her. "In the end, it might come down to trial and error... Just trying to touch the walls in some possible order, hoping that it's the right one, and that no one gets killed if it's not."