21 hours earlier
Stepping out from the gate into glorious sunshine, Sam pulled her sunglasses from an upper pocket of her protective vest and peered around the clearing, gun poised. There had been no visible signs of activity from the scans but you could never be too careful, SG-6 had already been to the planet previously, but as always they took precaution. After a quick sweep of the surrounding area and finding no sign of dangerous activity, she and Cameron had turned to Daniel and Lieutenant Parker for their Intel. Daniel had been on the last visit with SG-6 and had of course been highly interested in a small ruin they had discovered on the mission.
With Teal'c visiting Dakarra and with no higher important missions to bide their time General Landry had agreed to a short mission to P4X-897 for Daniel to gather more information. Sam sighed, as the two men led the way towards a dense tree line not far from the Stargate. Had it not been for Mitchell's enthusiasm of going off world, all the time, she may have been sitting idly at home relaxing for a short while. Cameron was still going through the adrenaline of travelling to different worlds. Ok so it was still a perk, but the idea of travelling off world to look at ancient ruins didn't hold much in the excitement department, well for Sam. Daniel had jumped, literally, at the chance of gating back to the planet. Gen. Landry had agreed to let Lt Parker accompany them as he had a soft spot of sorts for anything old and dusty. An almost kindred spirit for Daniel, as neither Sam nor Cameron shared his obsession for ruins.
She and Cameron had fell into step behind the two, and she found herself answering a series of questions about wormhole physics and theory. Rolling her eyes she side glanced Cameron, and wondered whether going into an in-depth tirade on the subject would make him quit asking questions. Cameron was always full of questions at times like these, and it got a little irritating after a while. It was almost like having Jonas back on the team, in the early months when he questioned everything about earth, humans and their ways.
The ruin was a good two hours walk away, but after a short ramble through the forest, they were soon back in the open air, the sun beating down on them and Sam decided that perhaps it wasn't such a bad way to spend the time. Cameron had gotten bored of the wormhole theory discussion and instead turned the conversation to Sg-1 and the teams past.
"So...favourite ever mission"
"S'cuse me?" asked Sam, taking in the view as they walked.
"What's your favourite ever mission you've been on"
Sam pondered on the question. Missions always had a habit of turning sour in one way or another, so none stuck in her mind as being favourably enjoyable. She pursed her lips and didn't answer, but Cameron jabbed her in the shoulder and pushed her playfully.
"Come on Sam, you gotta have a favourite"
"You mean between being chased by snakeheads, bugs, super warriors, tortured, kidnapped, becoming a tok'ra host against my will..."
"Yup," grinned Cameron "Between all of that, you gotta have a memorable occasion"
"Oh they are all memorable" replied Sam with a smile.
"Cut a guy a break here"
"Ok...well I guess the mission we were on, when my dad got received his symbiote, Selmak. That was memorable, and proved to be one of the happier occasions in the end"
"There ya see," nodded Cameron
Sam gave him a smile and gazed off into the distance one more, Cameron had a knack of smiling constantly, which also brought back memories of Jonas Quinn.
"What about you Jackson?" he asked to Daniel, who looked back, over his shoulder a moment at the two
"Oh I suppose waking up naked on a strange planet was one of the more memorable occasions for me...then there was the time I phase shifted and couldn't make contact with people...the time I was infected by a alien parasite and was locked up in a mental institution"
"Oh and the time we got sent back to 1969...that was a goodie" added Sam "Oh and my favourite, the time a Goa'uld queen took over the base by using a pheromone to brainwash all the men"
"Yes I seem to remember you and Janet enjoying reminding us of that as much as you could for a short time afterwards thank you Sam" replied Daniel over his shoulder.
Sam smiled over to Mitchell who was staring almost open mouthed. Lt Parker glanced over to Daniel with a grin, having heard of the missions and having met some grizzly bizarre experiences of his own with his tenure at SGC. He remembered the Hathor incident clearly having been one of the many men on the base to have gotten caught up in it.
"Guess you've still got some missions to read up on Cam" Sam grinned, returning a pat to his shoulder as they walked on.
Two hours later they came into sight of the ruin, it was based at the tip of a crevice and base of a large sloping rock face. Not exactly the gracious of spots to build a temple of sorts as it looked from the outside. However Daniel was just as eager to enter and study it.
"Ok Jackson, Parker go do your thing. Me and Carter will check out the area"
Daniel and Parker entered the temple as Cameron and Sam split off in opposite directions around the ruin. Sam followed the tree line, which lay close to the southside of the temple, finding nothing of particular interest or importance. She followed the perimeter of the temple, coming to the edge of the crevice as the ruin curved round onto its west face. She looked down into the crevice, rocks lay dishevelled down the cliff face and some of the west side wall looked as if it had at some point of another, succumbed to gravity and fallen on its merry way.
"Doesn't look to promising"
Looking up, she saw Cameron standing at the opposite side, looking down the crevice also.
"Nothing to report on this side," she said
"Negative here too" replied Cameron "Meet you east side again, there's no way anyone can pass this way, unless their going down"
Sam nodded and after another swift glance down the crevice, retreated back along the side of the ruin, emerging from the tree line to see Cameron heading for the entrance.
"Ten bucks says Jackson's already found something to take back with us"
Sam nodded and followed him into the ruin. Dust flittered down the walls as they walked through narrow hallway.
"Jackson?" said Mitchell in a raised voice, as the hallway opened up into a larger expanse. Neither Daniel nor Lt Parker were to be seen, doorways led into rooms off the main hall.
More dust fell from the ceiling as Cameron spoke and he held his tongue, instead listening for any sings of the two. Sam felt uneasy as they made their way towards one of the doorways; guns raised using their light to guide their way. A scuffling could be heard before Daniel's head appeared from the doorway.
"Hey guys," he said, frowning slightly as Cameron raised his gun higher at his appearance before sighing and lowering it once more "You gotta see this"
Exchanging mocking glances, Sam followed Daniel into another narrow hallway followed by Cameron. It opened up into a smaller room, with engravings on the wall; altars made from slabs of rock stood on the opposite side.
"Ok...I see it...what exactly are we looking at?" asked Cameron, shining his light over the eerie dwelling
"Well a temple of some sort, there are a few things I want to take back with me, there another room like this one on the opposite side with items. Parker's there now bagging some up"
"Ten bucks for me" muttered Cameron under his breath to Sam.
Sam smiled and tried to ignore him, raising her light to look over the walls of the temple.
"Do you recognise the writings?"
"Not exactly, I'm going to take some etchings, see what I can come up with"
"Well there's nothing of interest on the outer walls, no writings, no carvings or statues surrounding this place" replied Sam
"And it seems the west side face may have went on a little ride downhill" added Cameron
"Well this temple may have been here for hundreds of years, so it could be a case or rock erosion. That or possible landslide, minor quake unsettling the rocks that sort of thing. I'll take a look later, should be able to tell from the way the walls have broken away from the temple itself." Said Daniel, engrossing himself with one of the walls and its writing.
"Landslides? Minor quakes?" asked Cameron with a whisper to Sam
"Don't worry nothing showed up on the scans we made before gating in, and SG-6 made no reports on any kind of seismic activity either" replied Sam
"But it could happen?" said Cameron following Sam as they left Daniel in the small room back into the outer chamber.
"Cameron, your on a mission, we're Sg-1..." said Sam heading outside once more before muttering "Of course it could happen"