Chapter 10
There was no time to talk to him the next morning and, if the truth were told, she doubted she would have been able to carry on an intelligent conversation anyway. Whatever they were going to say to each other next was going to have to wait until after she got back from Dakara. In the meantime, she had a mission to accomplish, and no matter how jumbled, confused, and upside down her personal life was at the moment, that had to come first.
Something of her mood must have communicated itself to her friends, because on the hike out to the site, Daniel dropped back to walk beside her.
"You okay?" He asked, concern clear in his eyes.
She glanced over at him, unsure of how much to say. Then again, Daniel was her friend, and a pretty insightful guy. "Jack stopped by last night."
Daniel raised an eyebrow. "As in stopped by your house?"
"Yeah."
"I see."
Sam almost wanted to laugh at that – would have if she hadn't been so muddled just now. He probably did see, all too clearly.
"And," Daniel was choosing his words carefully, picking his way through a potential minefield. "What did he have to say?"
She shrugged. "Mostly that he was sorry." It wasn't what he'd said that had Sam so edgy. It was more what he'd done, but she wasn't yet ready to talk about that part.
"Really." Daniel sounded pleasantly surprised, and she looked over at him. "He apologized to me, too."
"Wow," was all Sam could think of to say in answer to that.
They were both quiet for a few minutes as they considered the implications of Jack O'Neill apologizing not just once, but twice on the same day.
"Was that it, then?" Daniel said at least. "Just dropped in, said he was sorry, and left?"
"Mostly." She so was not going to go into details.
"Odd timing, that." He spoke under his breath, almost inaudibly.
"Excuse me?"
"Well…" He hesitated. "It's just that…" Then rushing ahead in typical Daniel fashion, "Why didn't he just come to your lab? Why the trip to your house?"
Sam ducked her head, pretending an intense interest in the dusty landscape in a desperate attempt to hide the blush she felt creeping up the back of her neck. She sensed him watching her, could almost feel the sudden intensity of his gaze, but she remained stubbornly silent.
Several minutes passed before he said anything else. Then, "So, did you?"
She blinked. She'd lost track of the conversation. "Did I what?"
"Did you forgive him?"
"Oh." She kicked a rock out of her way. "I guess so."
"You guess so."
"Well… Yeah. I mean, what's not to forgive?" Other than that kiss, which was a conversation for another time – like in a hundred years or so.
"That's good."
She smiled at him. "Yes," she said. "It is."
It was mid afternoon by the time the three of them stood at the edge of the cliff once again. The scene had remained undisturbed since their last visit, and it didn't take long for Daniel to rappel down the cliff face. Sam settled on her stomach again to watch the descent. She signaled Teal'c when Daniel had arrived safely on the ledge, then watched him drop his pack and take out his brush and a small pick.
"Daniel!" She called good-naturedly, "No button pushing!"
He grinned up at her. "Not to worry. I leave the truly insane work to you."
She laughed at that and rolled back to a sitting position, watching Teal'c while he secured Daniel's belay line.
"So, Teal'c," she said conversationally.
He tied off the line and turned to her, eyebrow raised in interest.
"How goes the nation making business?"
He smiled slightly and tilted his head. "It is not without its difficulties, Colonel Carter."
"No," she said. "I imagine it isn't."
Teal'c sat down with his back to the rock, turning his face up to the sun. For now, there was nothing to do but wait for Daniel to figure something out.
"How's Bra'tac?"
"He is well."
"Ry'ac?"
"He is also well."
Sam gave up. One of these days she'd learn not to try to engage Teal'c in small talk. She took a drink from her canteen, recapped the bottle, and leaned back against the rocks, closing her eyes. She'd not slept well the night before, and the warmth of the sun, combined with a light breeze and Teal'c's calm presence relaxed her into a light doze.
Sometime later, she was startled into full wakefulness by a sudden shaking of the ground beneath her. Stones rattled off the edge of the cliff, and Teal'c, instantly alert, grabbed Daniel's belay rope. Sam scooted to the edge of the cliff on hands and knees, keeping her center of gravity as low to the ground as she could.
"Daniel!" she shouted. "Are you all right?"
The tremor stopped, but when Daniel didn't answer right away she started to worry. "Daniel!"
She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally heard his voice on her radio.
"Yeah, Sam. I'm fine," he said, then, excitedly, "You've got to see this!"
Sam keyed her own radio. "Daniel, what the hell just happened?"
"Oh." There was a guilty pause. "Umm... Yeah. That was sort of my fault."
"Your fault?" Sam and Teal'c exchanged a puzzled glance. Daniel caused an earthquake? She hadn't known he'd learned that from the Ancients.
"Well, actually, it was the device."
"Daniel," Sam said, a note of warning in her voice. "Did you push buttons?"
"No!"
His response was way too quick, and his next words confirmed her suspicions.
"Well," he said, guilt tinging the edges of his voice. "Yes. One."
Sam rolled her eyes. Jack would have expected that. He never would have let Daniel loose down there alone.
"We were right, Sam!" So much for guilt. The excitement was back in force. "There's a panel here that opens!"
Lovely. Aladdin and the Forty Thieves, here we come. She only hoped he hadn't tried telling the thing to 'open sesame.' She shot a questioning glance at Teal'c and received his slight nod in reply.
Sam keyed her radio. "Daniel? I'm coming down."
"Great!" He was excited again. "You really need to see this!"
Sam pulled the extra harness and rope out of her pack and buckled herself in. "You sure you're okay with this, Teal'c? If there's another tremor…"
"I will be fine, Colonel Carter."
"But with both of us down there?" Left unspoken was her concern that he wouldn't be able to haul them up quickly enough or, worse, that he'd be forced to choose between the two of them.
Teal'c didn't bother answering her. Instead, he merely continued making preparations to support her trip down the cliff.
"Teal'c. If anything happens… I want you to pull Daniel up first."
He looked at her calmly. "Colonel Carter. If another earthquake should occur, I will pull both of you up together."
Oh. Yeah. He probably could do that. She turned her attention to getting down the rock wall without mishap.
On closer inspection, the outside of the device did indeed look like a doorway or portal of some sort. She glanced briefly at the simple mechanism on the outer wall. It was very similar to the one Daniel had shown her on the Internet, albeit in significantly better condition. Below the mechanism was a circular inset with a series of switches arranged much like the slices of a pie. The markings on the switches were meaningless to Sam, but Daniel had obviously figured out how to use them to open the door.
Once activated, the door itself had apparently slid down into the side of the cliff, explaining the tremor she and Teal'c had felt. The resulting opening was barely big enough to squeeze through.
"Daniel?" Sam called quietly, peering into the darkness. "You in there someplace?"
"Here, Sam. It's safe. Come on in."
She stepped inside and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. A cloud of dust drifted down from the ceiling, and she blinked, peering through the haze.
"What've you got, Daniel?"
"Over here."
The floor of the alcove was smooth, she noticed, and level as well, so the area had most likely been hand crafted for its purpose. Able to see better now, she moved across to where Daniel stood looking at an entire wall of switches, knobs, and dials with a befuddling array of symbols inscribed above and below each one.
He reached out to touch one of the symbols, and Sam caught his arm, visions of disaster cascading through her mind. "Daniel. Don't."
"Sam…"
"No. We don't even know what it is yet."
"Sam…"
"I mean it, Daniel. Let me run some tests first."
"Sam will you just shut up for a minute?"
She dropped her hand, startled by his vehemence.
"Sorry," he said. "It's just… They're stone!" He lightly traced the outer edges of one of the switches, then another, and when he finally turned back to meet her eyes again his sparkled with excitement. "The entire thing has been carved right out of the side of the cliff!"
"Are you sure?" She asked. "The technology required to do that would be…"
"Incredibly advanced, I know." He threw her a teasing look, and for a split second she was tempted to stick her tongue out at him.
"Exactly," she said instead. "If whoever built this was that advanced…"
"Ancient, you mean?"
"Yeah. Maybe. Anyway, if they were that advanced, we need to be very sure of what we're doing before we start messing around."
"Agreed."
"Give me a few minutes to get some readings. I can at least find out if there's any kind of energy source here." She pulled off the pack she'd brought down with her and rummaged inside for some of her tools.
"While you work on that, I'll see if I can figure out any of these symbols."
The two of them, long used to working together in unusual conditions, slipped easily into a comfortable silence punctuated now and again by a comment from one or the other about something they'd found. Every fifteen minutes one of them would check in with Teal'c, but beyond that their concentration was focused entirely on their work. Nearly three hours passed before they felt they had even a vague idea of what the device did.
"We're sure about this, right?" Sam said. "They desperately need it, but if we're wrong…"
"I know." Daniel nodded. "There's always the possibility that we've spent all this time chasing a dead end, but we won't know for sure until we try."
"I agree." Sam put away her voltmeter. "It bothers me that I'm not getting any energy readings in here."
"Is it possible that it somehow generates its own power?" Daniel asked.
"It's possible, but it'd still need something to kick start it." She stood up and turned back to him. "The same way a car won't start if it has a dead battery."
"Maybe there's a way to start it manually? You know, like how they used to crank start cars in the old days."
Sam considered that, and then studied the panels again.
"Wait a minute. Let me see your notes."
Daniel handed them over and waited patiently while she compared what he'd written to the dizzying array of switches on the large panel. When she finally spoke again, there was excitement in her voice. "I think you're right, Daniel. I think if I do things in exactly the right order…"
"It'll start?"
"Either that or it'll self destruct. There's only one way to find out."
Daniel wasn't entirely sure he liked the sound of that. "Check with Teal'c. See what he wants to do."
She nodded and keyed her radio. "Teal'c, I think we may have good news."
"I am listening, Colonel Carter." His voice bounced hollowly off the walls of the small room.
"As near as we can tell, this device controls an underground water source of some kind. If we can get it turned on, we think you'll be able to successfully irrigate several thousand kilometers of farmland."
"That is good news indeed," Teal'c said. "Are you able to activate the device?"
Sam looked at Daniel, who shrugged. "Maybe," she said. "We're going to try."
"I await news of your success with great anticipation."
"So." Sam said, turning to Daniel. "You should probably head back up." She didn't see any reason for both of them to risk their necks in this venture.
"You go. I can handle this."
She shook her head. "No way. I need to do this in exactly the right order, or else…"
"Sam…" There was worry in his dark eyes.
"Daniel. Don't make me make it an order."
He sighed in resignation. "Teal'c," he said into his radio. "I'm coming up."
Teal'c's calm voice answered immediately. "I am ready, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel moved back to the entrance and checked to see that his harness was still secure. "Be careful, Sam," he said.
She smiled reassuringly. "See you in a few minutes."
With a last glance her way, Daniel signaled Teal'c that he was coming up.
