There was not much for Teal'c and Captain Carter to do. They were still sitting in the room with the wall that separated them from the others. Teal'c had decided that shooting at it would do no good, as it had not helped with the outer door, which was made of the same type of stone.
The room was empty but for the two of them, the plants reaching up from the ground, and the carvings on the wall. It was darker than the other two rooms--Teal'c guessed that the sunlight from the outside did not have direct passage into this room, and the light that did come was from the surrounding rooms instead.
He had spent most of the twenty minutes gazing at the carved walls. They were intriguing, and he was certain Daniel Jackson would have found them extremely interesting. Of course, it was likely that there were such carvings in the other part of this building as well, and that Daniel had already seen them.
The writing was unlike anything Teal'c had ever seen, but the pictures had a disturbingly familiar feel about them. They reminded him of many scenes he had seen in different Goa'uld temples, the style and the situations depicted were similar, although all the characters seemed to be dinosaurs.
There was a throne scene of some sort, where a small Theropod dinosaur, possibly a Velociraptor or a Troodon, stood on a pedestal, high up on the wall. In front of it were gathered rows of similar beasts, a of them few significantly larger than it, possibly Tyrannosaurs, and some smaller ones, which might have been young ones. Under them, reaching all the way down to the floor, were dozens of other dinosaurs, most of them plant-eaters. The interpretation was clear: there was a lord who ruled all, then, some close to him, similar to him, possibly his offspring and his Jaffa, and then, underneath them, the common people, their slaves, their prey.
Teal'c had heard many age-old Jaffa legends that spoke of that time long, long ago, when the Goa'uld had not yet found humans and begun to use only them as hosts. SG-1 had already learned that one story was true, that of the Unas, the monster-like creatures that had been the very first hosts.
Here, Teal'c was beginning to believe they were at the root of another such story. It spoke of reptilian creatures that some ancient Goa'uld lord had found. There had been many different beasts of this type, out of which the Goa'uld had wished to choose the very best. In the end, he had chosen the most intelligent one, a small, agile beast, and taken his body. Then, of course, he had lived, flourished and ruled successfully until the end of time, as all Goa'uld lords did in such stories. When exactly this had happened, Teal'c did not know, and no story told what had come of the reptilian-hosted Goa'ulds, if they had actually existed.
Teal'c had already spoken of his interpretation of the wall with Captain Carter, and she had found it both plausible and very interesting. Still, it did not explain how the dinosaurs had originally come here. Teal'c did not even expect to learn that fact, since even the Goa'uld had apparently never found out. They had probably first met dinosaurs on this world instead of Earth. Old as the story might be, Teal'c didn't believe that it could be 65 million years old, or that any Goa'uld would have been around that long ago.
"All right, we can expect the SGC to call us anytime now... I wonder why the Colonel hasn't contacted us again," Captain Carter spoke up.
"I have been wondering that as well. Perhaps something unexpected has come up."
"I just hope they're doing all right."
"As do I."
"SG-1, do you copy?" the call came right on time, but the answer didn't.
"SG-1, this is the SGC, do you copy?"
Sam waited for Colonel O'Neill to respond, but he never did. Not one word from the others. She didn't like it.
"SGC to SG-1, please respond."
Finally, Sam replied herself.
"SGC, Carter here. We haven't heard from the others since your last call. Colonel, sir, do you copy? Sir? Daniel?"
Still, no answer. Nothing at all.
"What's happened to them?" Sam whispered, not to the radio, but to herself and Teal'c.
"Captain Carter? What is your status?"
"Nothing new here, sir, we still haven't moved from our place. I'm starting to think that we should, though. If something's happened to the others..."
"General Hammond?" Teal'c joined the conversation. "The last time we spoke to you, we found out that we are indeed in the same ruins with Colonel O'Neill and Daniel Jackson, separated by a thick wall. Still, it is my belief that there must be a connection between our side of the ruins and theirs."
"This is good news," Hammond replied. "You have checked your surroundings carefully?"
"We have, and all we've found are those stairs leading up. We're out of options here. With your permission, sir, I'd like to see what's up there."
"Permission granted, Captain. Do whatever you can to find the rest of your team, and to make sure that they're all right. We'll contact you again in one hour. Hopefully you will not fail to answer."
"We'll try not to, sir. Carter out."
Sam and Teal'c went back to the big hall, noted that the door out was still every bit as closed as before, and returned to the room with the stairs.
She glanced at him, and he nodded. Without any words, they began climbing the stairs. It was surprisingly hard work, since the stairs were so big, just like everything else here. They made their way up quickly nevertheless, driven by the the constant worry that Jack and Daniel might be in serious trouble in some other part of the ruins.
Jack hit the ground a lot earlier than he'd dared to hope.
For a while, all he could do was rest on the cold floor. He felt like he'd been caught in an avalanche. Bright spots were dancing in front of his eyes. His leg was abominable, and he'd hit his head on the way down. It was already starting to ache.
Slowly, he began to take in the surroundings. The floor felt like stone, no muddy soil on it, and definitely no plants. It was also completely dark, unless he'd taken far worse a blow than he thought he had and lost his sight. No, he didn't think that'd happened.
He fumbled for his flashlight, found it and turned it on. The startlingly bright light felt like a nail to the head, and he flicked it off quickly. It'd been on for long enough that he'd been able to spot Daniel, who was lying on his back some feet away from him.
As Jack crawled towards his friend, he picked up a really distressing sound. Daniel was gasping like a fish out of water. Jack wondered if he was even conscious.
"Daniel?"
The troubled answer came between gasps, "Ja-hhck?"
"I'm right here," Jack told him, groping ahead blindly, until his hand hit Daniel's head. He stroked his damp hair. "Right here. Take it easy."
Jack maneuvered his way closer, so that he could lift Daniel from the floor, to rest against him in a half-seated position. Hopefully it'd help his breathing a bit. Jack could feel how he was struggling.
"Remember what we talked about deep breaths, Daniel? In--and out. Concentrate--come on. In--and--out-"
Daniel gave no answer, but after a while, Jack felt him relax, and his breathing started to sound a bit more human.
"Sorry."
"Daniel, please. You don't need to apologize for being injured."
"No, I... I landed on my back--knocked the wind out of me--and I couldn't--I just panicked. Stupid."
"That's not stupid, all right? You're doing good."
"Not all right... Jack, that dinosaur--was a Goa'uld."
"What?"
"You didn't see? When we fell--the big one had glowy eyes."
Jack had thought that the dinosaurs seemed smart, and they'd definitely been acting as if they'd had a plan. That large one had clearly been giving orders to the others. Aside from that, he hadn't seen anything Goa'uld-ish about them, though.
"You sure about that?"
"Uh uh."
"Right. We need to tell the others... About all this stuff, anyway," Jack noted, and reached for his radio.
"Carter, Teal'c, do you copy?" he called, but got no answer. They waited, and waited. He tried again, but there was nothing, just silence, broken only by Daniel's labored breathing.
"Might be us," Daniel suggested. "We're underground. Something might be blocking the signal."
"Now that I think of it, the folks at home should've contacted us by now, too. Damn."
"Jack... Why's it this dark? Isn't it still day above?"
"It's not just you, if that's what you're wondering. It really is pitch-dark down here. I'll take a look around. You going to be OK?" Jack asked, as he began moving away from Daniel, easing him to lie on the floor again.
"Still breathing."
"Good. Keep it up."
Jack flicked on the flashlight, this time prepared for the blinding brightness. He shone the light towards where he figured the stairs would be. They were there, too, looking terribly uninviting now that he'd had such a close encounter with them.
He pointed the light upwards. Some daylight should've reached them from the hall above, no matter how deep they were. But the beam of his flashlight never reached that hall. There was something in between, a stone slab closing the stairway, level with this room's ceiling. They were trapped down here, in the darkness.