He heard the metallic clank as the dinosaurs closed the door after them. Only a few seconds later came a hiss of static and a voice through the radio.
"Come in, SG-1, this is SG-2, I repeat..."
Jack answered it instantly with an angry, "Not now, Lou!", but it was too late.
The door was opened again, and the commanding growl of the Goa'uld-dinosaur followed. He didn't recognize half the words, but it wasn't hard to deduce that it wanted their radios. Jack had figured that out too, and by the sound of his colorful reply, he wasn't too happy about it. He probably gave it away anyway. The dinos seemed to be really good at convincing people. Might have had something to do with all the teeth and claws.
Someone approached him with odd, clicking footfalls. He opened his eyes. It was one of the dinosaurs, its curved claws clicking against the stone floor as it walked. It had come to make sure they got all the radios. Well, Daniel wasn't going to put up a fight. He handed it out without a word.
The dinosaurs walked away. Clang, the door was closed and locked.
"Shit," Jack swore again. "Just when... Well. At least we know help's on the way. Somewhere. We just haven't got the slightest idea how far they are... Probably... ...near the gate... before..."
Jack went on speaking, but his voice was fading away. Or probably it was the other way around. Daniel was drifting, falling asleep... Sleeping felt like a very good idea. He'd go to sleep and wake up somewhere nice and warm, where breathing was easier and wouldn't hurt so much...
Sam's voice, calling his name, came from so near to him that he couldn't avoid hearing it. He forced his eyes to open and peered up at her worried face. She held a cool hand on his forehead.
"He's burning up--Sir, what exactly happened to you two? What's wrong with him?"
"The dinosaur tossed him," Jack started. Sam's blurry face took up a puzzled frown. Jack went on explaining it all, Daniel's rough landing, bruises and broken ribs, and what else, he didn't know, he said, and neither did Daniel. He mentioned pneumonia again, too, which did sound like a pretty good explanation to how Daniel felt at the moment. He'd had it before, though, as a kid, and it hadn't been anywhere near this bad.
Sam was doing her best at playing doctor, poking fingers at the worst possible spots in Daniel's injured side and commenting to the others. He wasn't really following it.
"I agree, sir--we can't really know... Recognizing and assessing internal injuries is hard even for trained medical staff... ...get help and fast..."
Daniel tried to ignore her, to fall asleep again. He thought he did, for a second there, but she wouldn't let him.
"Here--take these," she offered him a few pills and a sip of water from the canteen.
"Now, sir, I should probably take a look at your leg," Sam said, somewhere far above him. Looked like she was going to leave him be, now.
"If you must... Daniel!" Jack shouted at him, suddenly right next to him, shaking his good shoulder gently. "Don't go to sleep. I need you to stay with us until help gets here. Teal'c, keep him company, will ya?"
"Teal'c--maybe you should explain the story about the Goa'uld-dinosaurs," Sam suggested.
That caught Daniel's interest instantly, and he tried to concentrate on it. Was there a story of these dinosaurs? Something that would explain this odd, unlikely culture?
"Indeed. Now, are you listening to me, Daniel Jackson?"
Daniel nodded. He wouldn't risk wasting what precious little air he could get on speaking.
"I heard this story as a child, and never believed it to be true. Only when I first came across the creatures known as dinosaurs, I began to doubt that there might be something to it. What we saw in that hall below proved it once and for all. The story goes thus..."
Teal'c began recounting the tale, probably repeating it almost word for word as he had learned it in his childhood. It was elaborate, even though Daniel was sure Teal'c left out most of the praise to the Goa'uld that would originally have been there.
It was the story of a Goa'uld who had, long ago, found a world of dinosaurs and chosen the best of them all to be his host. Something in it rang awfully familiar to Daniel, but he just couldn't point a finger at it. Choosing the best... There was something about it that he needed to figure out.
The most curious thing was that the story gave no clue of what happened to this Goa'uldosaur later. Clearly something had left him on his own, isolated from other Goa'ulds, since no one knew of him these days. Of course, the ancient-looking dinosaur on the throne might not have been the Goa'uld of the stories at all, but one of his offspring.
Considering what he had seen on this world, in this temple that they had taken for ruins, made Daniel think that there was an air of degeneration, of decay, about it all. The throne and the few pieces of jewelry on the ruler had been the only hint of the usual lavish material culture of the Goa'uld. The growth of bushes on the ground level of the building clearly hinted of neglect.
Teal'c went on talking, wondering aloud how the dinosaurs might have come to exist on this world. His deep voice was so soothing...
Daniel only realized he'd been drifting towards sleep or unconsciousness again when he was pulled out of it by the sound of the cage door opening and closing.
Apparently someone had brought them food and drink, since soon after, Daniel heard Jack comment, "At least they aren't trying to starve us. And some of this stuff might actually be edible."
Daniel was definitely not going to eat anything. He was too much afraid he'd just end up choking on it.
Teal'c was surprised to see the dinosaurs' offerings. There was raw meat, which he could have expected, but some roasted meat as well, and even fruits and nuts. The tray also contained an old-looking, dented metallic pitcher and a set of goblets.
"Water, by the look and smell of it," Captain Carter declared. Now that they did not need to save their resources, she was quick to pour some of the liquid on a piece of cloth and place it on Daniel Jackson's forehead.
It was obvious that Daniel was not doing well. He had stayed silent all the way through Teal'c's story, except for his fast, raspy breathing. If Colonel O'Neill's guess was correct, and Teal'c had no reason to think it was not, then the backup had only just come through the Stargate. It meant that, even if they moved at full speed, it would take them up to ten hours to reach the ruins. They could only hope Daniel would hold on until then. At least Captain Carter had given him some antibiotics, which might help againstthe illness that had assailed him. But her worst fear was that he had other injuries they did not know of, and could not tend.
Teal'c noticed that another dinosaur was approaching their cage, stepping slowly and turning its head from side to side. It looked wary.
"So, T, what kind of dinos are these anyway? Except that they're Goa'ulds?" O'Neill asked.
"I am uncertain. The head resembles that of a species called Troodon, but otherwise they are too large, and their hands seem abnormally long for any dinosaurs I have read of."
"So, maybe they aren't of any species anyone could know," Captain Carter offered. "Maybe they've evolved. Become smarter, and developed the ability to use their hands, like our ancestors did, in the distant past."
"Perhaps so, although I have seen many dinosaurs here which have not evolved."
"Well, we can't know how long the Goa'uld have been here, can we? Maybe they've influenced the dinosaurs long enough that it actually brought on these changes."
The wary dinosaur had reached the door of their cage, but did not open it. As far as Teal'c could see, it did not even have the key. It stared at them with its large, intelligent eyes, and croaked a few words. Teal'c was certain it asked "Who are you," but before he could think of an answer, Daniel Jackson had suddenly sat up.
"Daniel-" he introduced himself, and added something in a croak similar to the dinosaurs. "It wants--to know--who we are," he explained to the others, seeming to force the words out with much difficulty.
The dinosaur spoke up again, and a faint attempt at a smile reached Daniel's face. "That's--his--name."
"Well, he'll always be Barney to me," O'Neill said. Barney was indeed much easier than the creature's true name, although it bore no resemblance to the purple dinosaur in the children's show.
Daniel Jackson spoke some more in the dinosaurian-Goa'uld-dialect, but the guttural words brought a fit of coughing on him. Colonel O'Neill, being unable to walk on his injured leg, crawled to Daniel's side to steady him.
Teal'c did not think he could speak the dinosaur's language well enough that it would understand. Its sounds were so unfamiliar to him, and he had no training in such matters. At least he understood it well enough. He could make out most of its answer to Daniel Jackson. It said that many of its kind were curious of SG-1--most of all, curious of how one of them could speak their language. And that some of them had begun to question their captivity. Teal'c told this to the others.
"Daniel, if you can--ask it what they're going to do with us," Jack suggested, a hand still held around his shoulders.
Daniel nodded, and addressed Barney again. Teal'c saw him frown at the dinosaur's reply. He picked up many words of it himself, and did not like what he heard. Whenthe dinosaur finished, Daniel's face seemed to light up with understanding and discovery.
"The ceremony! It's--remembrance of choosing!" he uttered, and lapsed into coughing again. This time, it sounded even worse--as if he could not breathe at all. As Colonel O'Neill coaxed him to fight it, Teal'c spoke up, adding his explanation to Daniel's words.
"It must be in the honor of the first time the Goa'uld arrived on this planet, when he chose this particular kind of dinosaur as his host. Apparently, this ceremony is more of a test or a race, where different beings are sent to the maze to compete. And I am certain that the winner is always of the same kind, and that the loser will be finished."
"Yeah--yes," Daniel gasped his agreement, and added one more word in the dinosaurian tongue.
Barney gave a long answer. First, itsaid that for the ceremony, they would be required to choose only one who would take part. Then it expressed its regret of their situation. If Teal'c got it all correctly, it said that it would help them if only it could. Finally, it said that it would return later, and walked away.