Title: Road of Wisdom
Summary: Sam Carter has always tried to protect her younger brother Daniel from her work at the SGC, but when he's exposed to the jars of Osiris and Isis she has no choice but to involve him with the Stargate, or risk losing him.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Mainly Jack/Daniel, even if it's fairly mild. Sub pairings of Jack/Sam, Pete/Sam and Daniel/Sarah do show up randomly.
Author's Notes: My first Stargate SG-1 fic. I work fairly hard to get the details of the Stargate world correct but the small things slip by, and for that I ask forgiveness. Also, this story begins in Stargate's fourth season, in the episode The Curse, however I reserve the right to change anything to suit my plot.
Author's warnings: Not beta'd
Chapter One: Isis and Osiris
Major Samantha Carter walked the short distance from her car to the front door of the house her family owned. She tucked the car keys into the palm of her hand and smoothed down the front of her dress blues. The porch light was on, and through the misty glass of the front door's side windows she could see lights on in the foyer and more further into the house. Small wrinkles creased on her forehead. Lights weren't supposed to be on when the family was away.
The alarm system was deactivated, she noted when the front door swung open silently, but more frightening the door wasn't looked either. There wasn't any sign of forced entry or evidence of intruders, but none the less she retrieved a small handgun from a foyer closet in a silent and very deadly fashion.
Prowling through the house she took a quick inventory. Nothing seemed out of place. The pictures lining the walls were, interestingly enough, dusted and the age old wooden furniture and antiques were polished and shined. Mark's gifts, Daniel's awards and their father's metals were displayed proudly through the family room, living room and den. The carpets seemed to have been washed and the floors were waxed, causing Sam a bit of a headache on the whole matter.
The sound of metal against wood brought her to the back of the house, and to the kitchen. Rounding the corner with her gun held to her chest she spotted her younger brother, clearly oblivious to the world. The younger man was busy chopping away at vegetables, humming lightly and listening to something or another via his headphones. With his back turned to the doorway, Sam couldn't help but be thankful she was the one to stumble upon her brother. Daniel wasn't always the safest individual, even when he meant to be.
Daniel was the baby of the Carter children, and in Sam's opinion still very naive. She wasn't doubting his mind, because he certainly had proven himself on a genius level many decades ago. She merely questioned his common sense. Daniel missed a lot of the smaller things, forgetting to lock the front door being a prime example, and she worried it would get him into trouble one day. Daniel was grown man, she often reasoned with herself, but some part of her, probably the older sibling part, wanted to shield him and protect him. Unfortunately neither her job, or Daniel's allowed for her codling very often.
"Daniel," She tapped his shoulder lightly, conscious of the large cutting knife in her brother's hands, and his ability to jump quite high when surprised and brought out of his own world.
Instead he calmly set the knife down and turned slowly, pulling the headphones from his ear to rest around his neck. His eyes lit at the sight of his sister.
"Sammy!" He threw his arms around her neck, pulling her in for a hug and taking advantage of the slight height difference. She had always teased him growing up he'd never be taller than her.
"Hey, Danny," She greeted setting the gun down on the kitchen top. "What are you doing back? I thought you were in Syria for another two weeks. The college didn't pull your grant, did they? You and Sarah worked pretty hard for it, last I recall."
Daniel shook his head and returned to cutting up broccoli. "No, no." He gestured for her to pass him the zucchini. "I got a call from Dr. David Jordan about a week ago."
"Your old archeology professor?"
"Yeah, that's him."
Daniel's glasses slipped down his nose. "Anyway, the Syrian government was less than thrilled to have us hanging around and were becoming somewhat violent, when Dr. Jordan called and said he'd come into possession of a crate filled with Egyptian artifacts from the Steward Expedition. Apparently not only did Dr. Jordan identify and translate the Egyptian hieroglyphics, but another set of symbols appeared on many of the items." He turned from the vegetables to add them to the stew, and then back to his sister who was looking at him with intense eyes. He had never seen her pay such attention to him when speaking, aside from the one, and only one time, when he had presented his theory of the purpose of the Egyptian pyramids. He hadn't published his theory based on her reaction alone.
"What sort of symbols?" Sam asked.
"All he could say was they were nothing he'd ever seen before. He and Steven cross referenced them to every known language, and when that came up empty he compared the symbols to any other drawings or similar symbols in the archeology database. Needless to say he came up empty on all accounts and wants Sarah and I back to help him decipher the symbols, he even had the items shipped here first, hoping we'd be able to help him shed some light on this recent mystery. Hopefully we'll come up with something. Even the university was willing to extend a grant towards this project."
Daniel sighed happily. "So Sarah and I are going to meet him at the university tomorrow before everything is shipped to Chicago for further study. If everything goes well we'll have enough to keep us busy for months."
She picked the gun up and left the kitchen, calling back, "Daniel, you need to be more careful. You have to remember to lock the door. There are thousands of dollars worth of artifacts in here and anyone could waltz in."
She returned to find Daniel mimicking her childishly.
"Honestly, Sam, are you my mother or my sister?"
"Apparently I'm your keeper."
From there Sam left to shower and change while Daniel finished dinner. It was when they sat down to eat that they spoke again.
"I didn't expect you home," Daniel confessed. "Sometimes you don't come home for weeks and months."
Sam nodded, sprinkling salt into her soup.
"How's dad? Mark called yesterday and I couldn't tell him where you or dad were. He's worried too, even if he won't say it"
"Dad and I don't--" Sam began.
"Don't what?" Daniel said. "Don't work together? One day dad's in the hospital dying, and then the next he suddenly vanishes off the face of the world, but you don't manage to shed a tear. That's crap, Sammy, and you know it. I don't know what you're doing up at Cheyenne Mountain with dad, but you've got Mark and I worried now. We know you're involved with something big that even family obviously doesn't have clearance to know about ."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Daniel, my work in deep space radar telemetry is very big. The Air Force depends on my work and contributions to the program. However dad and I don't work together. Dad isn't even at the mountain."
Daniel peered at her with startling blue eyes. "Yes, Sam, and I'm Ra."
She chuckled and scooped up a spoon full of soup, enjoying her brother's cooking. "So are you going to be unreachable for the next week or so?"
"Hmm?" Daniel looked up through his long bangs and Sam felt a surge of protectiveness.
"You have been known to get wrapped up in your work, especially when you're this excited."
"You can reach me in Chicago if there's a problem, but other then that I suppose it will be rather difficult to communicate. What about you?"
Daniel watched a number of emotions flicker through his sister's face. Finally that famous mask settled over her beautiful features. It was a mask Daniel recognized all to well, and his sister only put it on when she about to hide something.
"I have to get back to the base tomorrow morning, and I'll be gone a while."
"You're always gone a while, Sam. You and Dad have been going and leaving forever. Mark and I never know where you are, or what you're doing, and we can't take anything you say for face value. You wonder why Mark just left one day. You and Dad are in your own world far too often."
She emptied her soup bowl and tore a piece of fresh baked bread in half.
"So are you Daniel. I've hardly spent any time with you since the university started sending you halfway around the world for most of the year."
"Ah," He poked his spoon at her. "The difference is you always know exactly what I'm doing and how to reach me if there's an emergency. That's where our jobs set us apart, along with national security, I'm assuming." He caught her eyes with his own. "I understand, Sam, it's classified, and I get it. Your job is important to you. It's important enough for you to lie to your family, and if you think that's the best course of action, I'll back you. I'll buy your deep space radar telemetry."
Sam nodded. "Thanks Daniel."
Dinner passed quickly after that, and each sibling retired to his or her respective place in the house. No further words were shared between the two of them on any subject and neither seemed able to sleep that night.
In the morning Daniel walked the long second floor hallway from his room to his sister's and paused in front of her door.
"Sammy?" Daniel allowed his knuckles to brush the surface of his older sister's open door, alerting her to his presence. She was busy fussing over something or another on one of her many book shelves and turned to face him with a smile.
"Hey, what can I do for you?"
He crossed his arms in a familiar pose. "I'm getting ready to head out, okay? Sarah is supposed to be here soon to take me to the university. I just wanted to pop in and say goodbye," a goofy grin shined towards her. "For a while at least."
Sam let her hands drop from the task of rearranging her physics books. "Sure. Take care of yourself, okay?" She pulled the tall man in for a brief but loving hug. "Don't over work yourself." She raised an accusing eyebrow at the sudden feigned look of innocence that crossed Daniel's face. "I love you, Danny." A kiss pressed on his temple accompanied the previous hug and she scooted him off down the hall. "Be off with you. Go gaggle over your artifacts and Sarah."
Instantly Daniel whipped around, a bright red flush over his face. "Samantha!" He launched himself back over to her place in the doorway. "What are you?" He asked. "A teenager?"
"Only if it makes you blush, Danny."
"Don't," He hissed playfully. "Unless you want me to start on the issue of one, Colonel Jonathan O'Neill. Oh, oh, now who's blushing?"
Sam shined, teeth sparkling in her wide smile.
"I knew it," Daniel nearly shirked. "I knew it."
"Out of here! Go, Daniel! Who's the teenager?"
Sam pushed her brother forcefully down the stairs, enduring his heavy laughter, and she couldn't deny how good it felt to hear him laugh.
"Why won't you bring him home?" Daniel asked, gathering up his bags which contained all his research work and notes. "You let me meet that Doctor McKay you were seeing."
The Major thrust her brother's final notebook out in front of him and flashed him the look. "It's against regulations, first of all," She said pointedly, her face dropping into a deeper shade of red. She fumbled for words only for a second. "And secondly, it's none of your business, Dr. Carter."
A honk from outside the house signaled Sarah was waiting.
"Daniel," Sam said, a pale and sober look on her face. "Really promise me you'll be careful." Her mind flashed back to the ancient Egyptian artifacts Daniel had been raving about the previous night. If there was even a chance the other symbols were Goa'uld in origin, she didn't want Daniel to take any chances. She had lost many good friends while dealing with those snakes and she'd be damned if she lost her baby brother.
Daniel offered her a final smile and tucked his bags under one arm. "Don't get yourself blown up with that deep space radar telemetry," He added at the door. "I'm looking forward to meeting Jack. How's Friday for you. Bring him home, Sammy, I'll cook for him."
"In your dreams, little brother," Sam said, closing the door after him. She watched him climb into his past lover's car and then he was gone, speeding off towards the nearby university.
Sam made quick work of the rest of her morning, packing up all essential materials, checking the house, and setting the alarm system. She wasn't quite sure the next time she'd be home.
It took a good twenty five minutes to reach the Cheyenne Mountain Complex on the slick and icy morning roads. Parking in her regular spot she pied the Colonel's truck, along with Major Ferretti's pretty baby blue classic Chevy. Double checking her watch she deduced she wasn't late, and they were merely early, or maybe they hadn't left at all.
She greeted various people along the trek to her office, but she caught sight of neither Lou or Jack. She expected the Colonel was probably in a meeting with General Hammond. Lou was almost always hanging around her lab or someone else's, wanting to tinker with some alien technology, and Teal'c was most certainly either still in his room or the gym. They were all probably taking the morning to catch up on overdue reports before they shipped out to P3X-429 later that afternoon.
Settling down in front her computer, Sam cracked her knuckled lightly and touched the power button. She instantly recalled the massive paper work and reports expected in by the end of the week, and promptly groaned.
"Hey, Sam."
Lou's bright face popped in her door way.
"Hey, Lou," She greeted back to the man she found insanely lovable.
He invited himself in and plopped down in a chair across from Sam. "Say, where'd you go last night? The Colonel was looking for you." Sam shot him a confused look and Lou continued, "I guess he just figured you'd be here. You know you don't always go home and--" He stopped abruptly at the death glare she was shooting at him. "Yes, well," He chuckled nervously.
"I'm sorry, Lou," She apologized, "I've got Danny on the brain."
The male Major frowned and sat up a bit more. "Your sweet kid brother?"
Sam nodded.
"Is he in trouble?"
"Not exactly," Sam said. "He was back from an archeological dig last night and he told me about some artifacts his mentor had found. Daniel and Dr. Jordan are fascinated by a set of symbols on the artifacts and I'm worried they might be Goa'uld."
Lou settled back. "That might be a problem, but hey, if he's your brother I'm sure he's got common sense in abundance."
Sam nearly snorted. "Daniel? Common sense? My brother wouldn't know common sense if it bit him in the butt. Daniel's entirely too naïve to danger, which doesn't help considering he seems to have a giant target on his back."
"You gonna give him some credit, Sam?"
"Yes, Yes," She allowed. "I understand he's a grown man, and he has been in and out of hostile territory in the Middle East and Asia, but--"
"But he's your little brother and you want to take care of him," Lou cut in. "I understand, you just want to protect the kid, especially from something as nasty as the Goa'uld."
Sam's eyes caught the silver framed photograph on the edge of her desk and she found herself inwardly smiling. The picture of herself, Daniel, Mark, their father and mother covered in sand at a beach in California never failed to evoke a feeling of warmth in her heart. In that picture things were good. Her mother was still alive, her father wasn't a host to a Tok'ra, Mark wasn't so distanced and Daniel was without the terrible inner demons he not so secretly carried.
God, she wanted to believe Daniel would be okay in life. He was a grown man, fully capable of taking care of himself and everyone else around him. He held the family together after their mother's death. He took care of the house bills, and anything the family needed. He was a kind soul, a thousand times older than her own, and wiser than anyone else she had ever met.
But sometimes when she looked at him she still saw that small eight year old boy, clutching his glasses to his chest and wiping at his eyes with the small palm of his hand. She'd always remember the first vision of her new little brother, so scared looking and so sad, huddled in his new father's arms. She'd always know the pain that pierced from his eyes into her own and caused her to cling to Mark for Daniel's first few months.
How could have Daniel been through so much in so few years, she remembered asking herself early in life. What child needed to watch his parents die in front of him, and then deal with an asinine grandfather who wouldn't grant him the chance to become adopted? Did he need to hear the hateful things the old man often said? It was a miracle in itself, and the persistency of her mother and father, that the man finally released his rights to Daniel Jackson, and her brother Daniel Carter came to live with them.
No, no, she told herself. Daniel wasn't nearly as fragile as she perceived him to be. He had survived the death of his parents, the constant bullying in school, then the death of his second mother, the apparent death of his second father, the harsh world of the academia and a distant brother and sister. If he was going to break, it would have already happened and that only left strength to his soft appearance. Daniel was a fighter and he most certainly could take care of himself.
Sam leaned back in her chair. "I'm sure it's nothing." She reassured herself. "I mean what are the chances he'll run across something dangerous? Most of his artifacts are thousands of years old, how could they hurt him? He'll be okay." Liar, liar, liar, her mind taunted her. With Daniel, Murphy's Law tended to happen a little too often, and his line of good luck was bound to run out sooner or later.
The feeling of unease in her stomach was growing. Lines creased in her forehead and her fingers inched towards the phone on her desk. She didn't want to interfere with something her brother had his heart so set on, but she was also worried he'd run across something dangerous. One call to the right person would be all it took to get the objects removed from Dr. Jordan and Daniel's hands, but could she justify such an action with a suspicion?
Finally Sam decided she would wait it out. She'd let Daniel have his fun, but certainly she'd alert her superiors and someone would be checking in on the archeologists. They just couldn't take the chance. She couldn't take the chance with Daniel's life.
Across the way, some distance, Doctor Daniel Carter peered over the work table, observing the ancient objects with Doctor Jordan, and Doctor Steven Rayner.
His mouth opened in amazement and his fingers itched to touch it all at once. Everything was in perfect condition, preserved and intact; an archeologist's wet dream.
"Is that what I think it is?" Daniel asked, pointing to an artifact on the table.
Doctor Jordan's eyes widened with pleasure. "Ah, you've found my favorite." He reached down with delicate hands to lift the artifact. "This is the Isis Jar." The older doctor ran his fingers across the foreign symbols on the beautiful canopic jar. "It was in a crate that was mislabeled, they only just got it to me today."
"What's fantastic," Steven told Daniel, "is that it matches another jar we found in the first crate."
"What other jar?" Daniel bounced anxiously on his feet.
Doctor Jordan looked over his shoulder. "Sarah should be bringing it along shortly, I sent her down to get it with a few other pieces from the crate."
"Do we have any idea what's inside the jar?" Daniel accepted the jar into his own hands and turned it carefully, noting all the markings. "This isn't just a regular canopic jar."
Steven nodded. "That's right. The Steward expedition log notes that these two jars were found without sarcophaguses, which is baffling."
"Here we are," Sarah announced, entering the room with an almost identical jar. "This is the Osiris Jar." She presented it forward so Daniel's eyes could study it.
"This is amazing. Both jars seem to be perfectly persevered with some sort of seal, much too advanced for Egyptian technology at the time. I've never seen anything like this before. Do we have any idea what is inside these jars? Do you realize what this means to Egyptologists and archeologists alike? These jars and this writing could revolutionize current thinking and proposed ideas."
Doctor Jordan laughed. "I certainly think so." He set a hand down on his favorite student's shoulder. "We'll be getting the test results back on these jars and other artifacts tomorrow, including a carbon-dating analysis, then we'll really see how old these are."
"And from there we can have a guess at the other markings," Steven interjected. "After that we can figure out what's inside."
Bright-eyed and excited Doctor Jordan and his assistants began examining each artifact piece by piece, more thoroughly that before.