Author's Note: Sorry this took so long, but I got stuck for ideas! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, it was great to hear what you thought!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Cheeky.
The Hunt for Babylon:
By cheekychaos
Chapter Ten:
Lara looked around the room, gazing at all the Ancient runes covering the walls. "Wow." She said.
"Impressive." Daniel agreed.
"But what does it mean?" Sam asked.
Lara flashed Sam an amused grin. "Why don't we find out?" she replied, walking into the room.
Daniel followed, his eyes roving the walls for clues. Sam looked instead to the barred doorway opposite the entrance. "Well, we know which way is out." She said. "But how do we open the gate?"
"That's the challenge, I imagine." Lara said from where she stood gazing at the left wall.
Daniel sighed. "And I suppose the answer would be somewhere in these runes, wouldn't it?" His tone made his words sound more like a statement than a question.
"Of course." Lara told him, her voice mixed with both amusement and frustration.
Sam walked over to the gate blocking the way out and examined it. The bars were firmly pressed into the rock at both the top and bottom of the gates. She supposed she could use C4 to blow through it easily enough, but knowing their luck with the Ancient's, it wouldn't work out the way they planned. She had to spare a smile though, when she thought of what the Colonel would say if he were here.
Sam was about to turn back to the two archaeologists, who were now muttering to each other in low voices and staring at a notebook, when something caught her eye. On either side of the door was a series of four buttons, each with a surrounding message of runes. Frustrated that she couldn't read Ancient and therefore, didn't know what the said, Sam wondered if this was a variation on the keypad puzzle they had seen earlier.
"Um, Daniel, you should see this." She called out.
Daniel walked over, Lara close on his heels. "See what?" he asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"These buttons." Sam said indicating either side of the door.
"What does it say?" Lara asked as Daniel walked forward, his gaze intent on the runes surrounding the buttons.
"We have to press the buttons in the correct order to open the gate." He said.
"Like a code?" Sam asked.
"Almost." Daniel explained. "See the symbols on the buttons? They match the symbols on each of the left and right walls."
Sam glanced at the walls and spotted what Daniel had before. "Yeah, I see." She replied. "So we just punch these in the order that they appear on the walls? That seems a little easy."
"I'll say." Lara agreed.
"Actually, it's a riddle." Daniel said. "Each of the symbols is next to a fragment of runes which tell a story. I think we need to put the story in order, and then we'll have the right series of symbols."
"Oh." Sam said. "Can you read them?"
Daniel grinned. "Yeah." He replied cheerfully. "But better than that, I recognize the story."
"Great." Sam smiled in relief.
"Need any help?" Lara asked.
"Um, not right now." Daniel said. "It's probably easier if I translate this on my own for now."
Lara nodded. "Fair enough." She said. "But if you do need help, just give me a yell."
"Okay." Daniel replied, already studying his notebook thoroughly.
Lara watched him for a moment, smiling softly to herself, before walking over to where Sam stood. Sam smiled slightly herself, as she noticed Lara's behaviour and couldn't help but tease her a little. "Like what you see?" she asked softly.
Lara looked surprised for a moment, before raising an eyebrow at Sam. "Yes, I do." She said bluntly.
Sam smiled. "You don't dance around, do you?"
"No." Lara agreed. "I've learnt that life is too short."
Sam shot Daniel a glance, but he was still engrossed in the translation. "Does Daniel know?" she asked, amused.
"You mean, that I like him?" Lara asked, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Sam laughed. "Aside from sounding a bit like junior high, yeah." She said.
"Well, I like to think he has some idea," Lara said. "But I was going to wait, as having a date in the middle of an intergalactic mission might be frowned upon."
Sam chuckled. "Sadly, that's true. Although some of us have tried."
Lara looked at her, as if to judge how serious she was, before letting out a loud laugh. "I forgot what it was like to be surrounded by a large bunch of cocky soldiers and pilots." She said. "Particularly as a woman."
Curious, Sam raised an eyebrow. "You've been surrounded by cocky pilots and soldiers before?"
"Oh, yes." Lara answered. "I was lucky enough to train with a few of them in return for a favour."
Sam nodded and smiled. "Well, you think that was bad? Try grouping the best of the best all together and then send them to other planets with pretty women on them." She said dryly.
Lara chuckled. "Let me guess? They acted like little boys in a candy store?"
"You have no idea." Sam replied dryly.
Lara looked as if she was about to reply when Daniel cleared his throat and walked over. "Okay, I think I've got it."
"Right." Lara said, getting her mind back on business.
"What do you need us to do, Daniel?" Sam asked.
"Um, punch in symbols, if you could." Daniel said. "If each one of you takes a side of the door, I'll read out the eight symbols in order."
"No problem." Lara said.
A moment later, the women had punched in the required symbols and were waiting breathlessly for the gate to open. A loud grumble passed through the room and Daniel let out a sigh of relief. Slowly, the bars disappeared into the floor and ceiling, revealing the way out.
"Brilliant." Lara said. "Let's go!"
The trio quickly walked through the door in front of them and into the room beyond. In contrast to the previous room, this one was bare with no writing on the walls. Instead a table sat in the middle of the room. Sam noticed a similar door and gate to the last room blocking the way out.
"So what's the challenge to solve in here?" she asked her two companions.
Daniel shrugged. "I don't know." He said.
Lara walked over to the table, as Sam went to examine the exit again. "No buttons or anything." She called.
"There's no need." Lara called back.
"What do you mean?" Daniel asked, walking over to stand behind her as Sam did the same.
The trio all looked at the table in front of them. "Oh." Daniel said.
Lara nodded. "It's a variant of chess, from what I can tell." She said. "Or at least its close enough."
"So to open the gate we have to check mate their king?" Sam guessed.
"Yes." Lara said. "I think."
"You think?" Daniel echoed, more amused than annoyed.
Lara shot him a sidelong glance. "Well, there are no guarantees for this sort of thing." She said.
Daniel tried to hide a smile. "Think you can manage it?" he asked.
"No problem." Lara replied.
Daniel and Sam walked around to stand at the side of the table, watching curiously as Lara reached out and moved a white game piece. Seemingly of its own accord, a black piece moved in retaliation. After watching for another minute or so, Daniel and Sam began to see the patterns that made up the game.
"She's good, isn't she?" Daniel asked Sam, a little absently as he watched the game.
Sam tried to hide a smile at her friends tone. "Yes, she is." She agreed.
Unfortunately, Daniel knew her too well and caught his friend's amusement. "What?" he said.
"Nothing." Sam gave him an innocent look – one that reminded Daniel of Jack at his most devious.
"You've been hanging around Jack too much." Daniel said. "There's nothing going on between me and Lady Croft."
"Not yet." Sam agreed.
"What do you mean by that?" Daniel asked.
"She means that as soon as I can get you back to Earth, I'm going to have my wicked way with you." Lara said, from where she was still moving pieces around the board.
Daniel blinked and then blushed. Sam chuckled. "Always straight to the point." She said.
Lara winked at her. "Always." She agreed.
Daniel opened and shut his mouth a few times before he found something to say. "Have your wicked way with me?" he repeated, a little dumbstruck.
Lara looked at him, her face serious. "Yes." She said.
Daniel smiled a little shyly. "Okay." He said.
Sam burst out into laughter. "Oh, the Colonel's going to be sorry he missed this!" she cried.
Lara, meanwhile, forced herself to break Daniel's gaze and focus back on the task at hand. She had to finish the challenge and find the lost city of Babylon, and she could do that if she was distracted. Narrowing her eyes, she moved another piece and felt a shot of elation run through her, when the black piece moved just where she wanted it to.
"Check mate." She said, moving her final piece.
The piece on the board, shimmered for a moment, before returning to their starting positions. Lara frowned a little, not sure what to expect, when the sound of grinding reached her ears. The gate was opening!
Grinning, she turned to look and found Sam already striding purposefully towards the opening. "Well done." Daniel said in her ear, causing a shiver to go down her spine.
Lara turned a little and found herself looking into his amused blue eyes. "Thank you." She said.
"Are you guys coming?" Sam called, breaking whatever it was that was keeping Daniel and Lara spellbound.
"Yeah!" Daniel called back, before the pair hurried over to where Sam was standing just inside the next room.
In this one, runes once again decorated the walls, but this time they looked different from before and there were gaps in between some of them. "Another story puzzle?" Lara asked.
"I don't think so." Daniel replied. "These symbols don't really appear to be letters or words."
Frowning, Sam walked forward until she was inches away from the wall. Running her fingers over the symbols, she wondered why she had such a sense of familiarity when she looked at them. Something nagged at her, but she couldn't figure out what it was.
"There are definite patterns." Lara observed, still studying the wall. "Are you sure this isn't some sort of dialect, Daniel?"
"Nothing I've ever come across." Daniel answered. "And the patterns are wrong for words. They don't flow right."
Sam blinked, suddenly realising what she was looking at. "Mathematics!" she cried excitedly. "The symbols aren't letters, they're numbers!"
"Of course!" Lara grinned.
"That works." Daniel agreed. "Any idea what they want us to do?"
"I'm not sure." Sam said, stepping close enough to the wall to trail her fingers over the symbols. "But there is something that's nagging me about them. Something familiar."
"Something you've come across before?" Lara asked.
"Yeah." Sam agreed. Then she blinked. And gaped. Suddenly she knew what she was looking at. "It's wormhole theory." She whispered.
"Wormhole theory?" Lara repeated. "O'Neill's right, they are way smarter than us."
She said the last in an attempted American accent and Daniel grinned at her. "Oh, yeah." He agreed. "But I'm still not sure they're smarter than Sam."
Sam blushed slightly, as she turned back to her companions. "There are gaps in the equation that I think we're supposed to fill in."
Lara and Daniel both nodded, before Sam turned back to consider the wall. Daniel rolled his shoulders a little, as if they were a little sore, and sat down on the paved ground. "Are your shoulders sore?" Lara asked as she sat down beside him.
"Just the left one." Daniel said. "I probably jerked it when you grabbed me."
Nodding, Lara shifted herself a little, until she was sitting half behind Daniel. "Sorry about that." She said softly, as her deft finders massaged the sore muscle.
Daniel blinked in surprise. "You saved my life!" He said. "You really don't need to apologise."
"I'm still sorry I hurt you." She replied softly.
"I'll heal." Daniel told her, turning so that he faced her. "I've hurt myself worse before. Just ask anyone in the infirmary."
The pair sat that way for a moment, before Lara blinked a few times and glanced away from Daniel's intent stare. "How does the shoulder feel now?" she asked.
Daniel rolled it experimentally. "Better." He said. "Thanks."
"No problem." Lara replied, before moving to stand.
Daniel grabbed her hand, stopping her and opened his mouth to say something, when a familiar grinding noise echoed out over the room. They both glanced over to see the gate was open and Sam was standing there with an amused smile on her face. "Later." Daniel whispered to Lara, before standing up and offering her his hand.
"Sorry to interrupt." Sam told them both. She grinned when neither of them met her eyes, but instead focused on the open door.
Walking through, the trio was surprised to find an almost empty room that contained only a lever in the centre of the floor and a set of wide ornate doors in the opposite wall. "What's with the lever?" Sam asked.
Lara sighed. "It needs to be pulled to open the doors." She explained.
"But?" Daniel said, judging by her sigh that there was more to the problem than that.
"My guess would be that the Colonel is going to find a similar room at the end of his path and that the two levers will have to be pulled at the same time." Lara said.
Sam shook her head. "They really didn't want anyone getting in, did they?"
Daniel smiled, although it was a little wryly. "I think it was more of a case of judging if you were worthy to get in, than actually stopping you."
"Well there's a comforting thought." Lara said dryly.
Reaching for her radio, Sam wondered how her CO was fairing with his tasks. "Sir?" she said. "Are you there?"
The radio crackled for a minute, before Jack's familiar voice drawled out an answer. "Yeah, I'm here." He said. "What is it, Carter?"
"Sir, we've found another lever like the one that opened the doors." Sam explained quickly.
There was another moment of static, before Jack dryly replied. "And it needs to be pulled at the same time as ours?"
"Yes, sir." Sam answered.
"Alright." Jack replied. "We're almost there. Give us a minute to get into position."
"Yes, sir." Sam said again.
About a minute later, Jack's voice echoed out from the radio once again. "Okay, on the count of three." He ordered. "1…2…3!"
Daniel, who had been standing next to the lever, pulled it as Jack said "3". Another grinding noise echoed around the room, before the doors opposite the trio swung open with a loud groan. Grinning in triumph, Sam, Daniel and Lara walked out into the sunshine beyond.
When the trio caught sight of the scene outside, they stopped and stared. They found themselves standing in a paved square, on the lower platform of a pyramid shaped building. Around them was a large city built of glimmering stone. Gardens could be seen everywhere and they filled the air with the scent of wildflowers. Above them, the sky shimmered with an occasional white tinge, as if there was something between them and the sky.
"Wow!" Daniel breathed, his heart pounding in excitement.
"Amazing." Sam agreed, still unable to entirely believe what she was seeing.
Lara took a step forward. "Welcome to Babylon." She said with a large grin.
To be continued…