A/N: I apologize in advance for the general mutilation of biblical archaeology that's to follow, and for the fact that of some of the Biblical information set forth later has been altered simply by its use in the fandom. Thanks to MaureenT, who's been a great help to me in reworking the section in question. For more explicit information on what I have altered from history in this chapter, please email me and I would be happy to discuss it with you.
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It was four days before Daniel opened his eyes; though to him, it didn't seem anywhere near as long. He found himself blinking up at the ceiling, absently wondering what he'd done to get landed in the Infirmary without his glasses this time.
Turning his head, a surprising sight met his eyes. Someone – Jack from the slouch – was snoring gently in a chair that was tipped precariously back against the wall.
A clicking sound caught his attention, and he turned his head again, feeling unaccountably tired. It made no sense to him – he'd been sleeping for . . . how long had he been asleep?
"Welcome back," came Janet's soothing voice, and he squinted at her, shifting. He started to push himself up, and motion burst into action in the corner of his eye. He froze uncertainly.
"You're awake!" Jack's voice held a wealth of warmth, and was heavily flavored with relief that he couldn't hide.
"Yes," Daniel replied in tired confusion.
"He's awake?" Sam poked her head around the curtain, and Teal'c followed. Janet placed Daniel's glasses gently on his nose, in time for him to see the diminutive doctor roll her eyes in exasperation.
"Yes," she told them, her sternness unable to mask the twinkle of joy shining from her face.
Daniel settled carefully back, sitting upright for the first time. He rubbed his eyes, and flushed when he realized that not only were all of his teammates staring at him, but that he had been shaved, and hadn't done it himself. He was also much cleaner than he remembered being before he fell asleep. He shifted uncomfortably at the embarrassing realization, and cleared his throat. "How long?"
"Four days," Janet told him softly.
He blinked at her. "Wh – what?"
Jack smiled at the familiar, endearing look of vulnerability that Daniel wore. It was an expression only his friends ever got to see, and one they hadn't seen for much too long. Hair rumpled from sleep, the bloodshot eyes and pallor were gone, dark circles having disappeared during the course of the archaeologist's forced rest. Shocked, alert blue eyes were the happiest sight Jack had seen in days. "You were really out of it," Jack murmured, almost to himself.
"Indeed," Teal'c intoned grimly. It was clear from voice and expression that the Jaffa was still contemplating dismemberment of Daniel's kidnappers. Jack had already cheerfully resolved to shoot on sight, but he didn't want to spoil this moment with thoughts of the inevitable murder and mayhem to come. There would be enough time for that later.
"Ah."
Janet took a good look at them, as they sat in comfortable silence just drinking in Daniel's awake, and somewhat confused and wary, presence. "Out," she told them firmly.
Protesting with all their might, SG-1 nevertheless found themselves briskly escorted beyond the Infirmary boundaries as Dr. Frasier examined Daniel. Their reward, which came thirty minutes later, was a fully ambulatory archaeologist, a little shaky on his pins but walking nonetheless. Janet was following him, eyeing the hand he had placed on the wall for no real reason, certainly not for either steadiness or support.
"Food," was her next command to the Colonel, and Jack snapped a smiling salute, before obeying with alacrity.
Daniel, eager himself to calm the rumblings of a stomach too long left empty, willingly followed them to the commissary. It was mostly empty. At this time of evening, most people that weren't off-world or working on an especially trying project had gone home. It was restful, and much more relaxing for SG-1 to sit, conversing lightly and watching carefully as Daniel nearly inhaled his food.
When the archaeologist finally sat back, with a satiated sigh, he had demolished three platefuls of today's dinner special – turkey, stuffing, gravy, corn, mashed potatoes, salad, and two large slices of pie. Jack watched in amusement as Daniel blinked sleepily, remnants of his earlier unconsciousness transformed into the need for true, restful sleep.
Sam pushed a cup of coffee over to him, and to Jack's relief, Daniel's eyes lit up and he reached reverently for the mug. It was a far cry from the glazed look of refusal that had met such an offering on the plane so many days ago. Glancing to the other members of his team, Jack found them exchanging happy glances.
Revived and refreshed, Jack began herding his team in the direction of the briefing room. A debriefing was necessary, and he was not the only one who wanted to know what had happened to their archaeologist.
Hammond had been informed as soon as Daniel had awoken, and scheduled a debriefing as soon as reasonably possible afterward. Daniel himself was well accustomed to the SGC's military policy, and was unsurprised to find himself sitting once more in the briefing room.
After the general entered, the archaeologist explained in detail what had happened, from the moment the car had picked up an extra, gun-toting passenger, to when he had been drugged in the clearing. Beyond that, his memories were excruciatingly clear, down to the smallest detail, and he merely skimmed, knowing that every nuance of what he could recall would be typed up and handed to Hammond within the week. His mind on what he had discovered, Daniel was unaware of the impact of his dispassionate words on the others in the room.
He told them of what little he had learned of the NID operation in Ain Ghazel, but caution prompted him to be almost silent on what he had deciphered while in the hands of the NID. He more than anyone knew how the drugs he had been given affected him, but he doubted that the others would have any faith in his ability while under such unknown influences.
So it was with surprise that he answered Sam's innocent, "What did you actually find out, Daniel?" She held out to him the paper covered with an indecipherable mishmash of symbols, letters, lines and dots.
Daniel sat up, taking the paper carefully, and scanned it quickly before turning it right-side up. He groped for a pen, his attention on the crumpled yellow page, and Jack slipped one into his searching fingers. Daniel glanced up and shot the other a smile, and Jack couldn't help but smile back. The archaeologist's attention veered sharply back to the tattered scrap then, and he began to translate the hodgepodge of symbols with surprising rapidity.
The scrambled jumble of markings he produced, however, elicited no more understanding from his team than had the first paper. Daniel sat back, eyes sweeping the paper in satisfaction.
"Um, Daniel?" Sam asked carefully. "What does it say?"
"Oh. Here," he pushed the paper toward her.
Sam grinned a little. "Daniel, it's not in English," she pointed out gently.
Daniel frowned at the paper, and then flushed a little. "Oops. Sorry." Busy translating the Arabic into English, he missed the worried glance Sam gave Jack, and the questioning look on the General's face.
Finally finished, he peered at the paper and nodded, satisfied.
General Hammond picked it up.
"In sight of the all-powerful, Lord all-seeing, Ba'al of the people. Ba'al.
Under the eyes of Ba'al, the eyes of the Lord who seeth all.
In his sight it is written. In his sight it shall be done.
Here sayeth the king unto his people.
By our lord Ba'al I have been commanded. It is the word of Ba'al that thus it shall be done.
Ba'al came to me, and said: 'Go to the high places, on the fourth day of the month of Nisan. In the month of Nisan, on the fourth day, all the people shall travel to the high places. Here, in the high places where the name of the Lord dwells, you shall offer up your sons and daughters. Each firstborn of your sons and daughters will be offered up to Ba'al in the high places. And they shall pass through fire, as a mlk sacrifice, to Ba'al.'
Ba'al came to me and spoke thus. 'This shall be law among your people. That they offer their children to me in the high places shall become law. I will bless beyond the thousandth generation those who uphold my law. But those who deny me, who do not offer their sons and daughters to me on the high places, shall be cursed; to the third and fourth generation they shall be cursed. And to their king will fall the harshest punishment of all.'
Thus the rulers who come after me are bound.
Should the law of Ba'al the all-seeing not be served by his people, you shall be cursed. Unto death and beyond he shall curse you; he shall curse you to be barren, to loose all your cattle and to dress in sackcloth. Like a mourner you shall be covered in ash, like the bereft, you will cut your skin and roll in the dust. Thus you shall be deprived of all, unto death and beyond. Thus shall Ba'al the all-seeing shall curse you, from his heavenly court. Thus, you shall be cursed."
Stunned silence crowded thickly into the corners of the room.
"Dr. Jackson," General Hammond said. They were all still staring at the general, who had read the words aloud with growing confusion. "What is this?"
Daniel pursed his lips, hands folded on the table in front of him. "From what I can tell, it's a bastardization of an ancient Mesopotamian treaty-text. The invocation of the god comes first, though typically more than one god would be named as witness to the treaty. It's usually followed by a short history of the reasons for the treaty's existence, but that seems to be omitted here. It follows the rest of the format, however, quite concisely, with the main body of the text outlining the details of the treaty, followed by the standard threats of renumeration should the treaty be broken."
Despite the situation, Jack would have sword that he saw a mischievous light in the linguists' eyes, as he answered the question without telling them anything. None of them knew quite what to say next.
Daniel took pity on them. "Honestly, I don't know. It was written in what I could tell was an obscure, ancient dialect of Goa'uld. It seems to be a treaty between a Goa'uld and the king of his people, in which the Goa'uld holds off destruction of the people in return for being given their children."
"As what? As hosts? Slaves?" Jack demanded.
Daniel frowned. "It's difficult to say."
"What do you mean by that?"
Blue eyes flashed in irritation. "Jack, the question you've asked is something that Biblical archaeologists have been debating for the last hundred and fifty years! Here. 'mlk sacrifice' is what was written in the text. One translation of that is 'offered up as a sacrifice to Molech' – the Mesopotamian god of death. So, yes, coupled with 'passing through fire', human sacrifice is implied. But this is a Goa'uld we're talking about; that type of human sacrifice serves them nothing. It could mean that the children are being offered up by their parents as slaves to this Goa'uld instead."
Sam glanced between the two, raising a brow at Teal'c. The Jaffa stared evenly back, unperturbed. Perhaps they needed to have a little of this out, then.
Daniel leaned back, spreading his hands. "I really don't know. This type of theological debating is not my strongest suit."
"Theology?" Sam jumped on the word. Usually, with Goa'uld, the term was 'mythology'.
Daniel tensed a little. "Yes. It would be."
"And why is that?" Hammond asked, warily.
Daniel didn't look at any of them. "Ba'al is a general term used in the Middle East during the Bronze and Iron Ages. It generally just means 'lord', but it has heavier connections to the sources of modern-day religions than any of the other Goa'uld we've faced. Ra and Apophis are remnants of religious traditions that have for the most part, fallen out of use in our world. Ba'al . . . came from a region and time period that has given rise to the three major religions which dominate on our planet today. In this case, 'theology' is simply the closest and most correct term applicable."
Sam winced, hating herself for the question that she felt she now had to ask. "What are the odds that -"
Anticipating her words, Daniel shook his head vehemently. "Practically nonexistent. The time period is all wrong, fortunately. There's no overlap whatsoever between even the extreme outlying dates for the projected coinage of these terms and the period of Stargate activity on Earth."
Sam sighed. Daniel gave her a terse half-smile. "But that's only half of it."
"What?" Sam gaped, blue eyes wide.
Teal'c raised an eyebrow.
"Daniel?" Jack pushed, gently, for something more.
The archaeologist shook his head. "That was the information on the first foot or so of the scroll I translated. There was more, at the bottom, which I thought might have been more important. General Hammond hasn't read it yet."
"Sir?" Jack asked, startled.
Hammond nodded. "Perhaps Dr. Jackson should read the rest."
Daniel took the yellow, lined paper and scanned down it until he reached the point where the general had halted.
"It's a scribe's note at the bottom," Daniel told them quietly. "The treaty isn't as important as what this implies. 'So told by the Sibyl of the Mount, in the sixth year of the rule of King Adrastos.
'When I encountered her, and asked her the truth of the tale, she was taken by the fury of the god. Her eyes flashed as bright bolts from Zeus; her voice was great and terrible as she cursed my lack of faith.
'I cried that I knew nothing of the people to the south, across the vast sea, where the land is hot and strange. I cried for mercy from her terrible wrath, and begged for understanding.
Then she told me of a journey I must make, bidding me to bury the words she had recounted, in a tongue terrible and strange to the ear. For the tale above was the reason for her flight, she said, though I understood it not.
But the oracle promised long life to me, and children aplenty, should I fulfill her task.'
Jack snorted at that, and Daniel kicked him lightly under the table. Jack grinned. Daniel continued without pausing.
'So I traveled to the land of the Phoenicians in the far south, across the great swells of ocean, past the land of Egypt. Many days and nights across the wasteland of water did I travel, and as more on food over a wasteland of sand, until I came to the place the Oracle told to me. There, I labored in the hot sun many days, entrusting my burden to the realm of Hades.
'I returned, no longer so young a man as before I left, but the words of the Sibyl are true to me.'
Daniel shoved his glasses up on his nose, staring at the document for a moment before putting it down once more. "The only thing that's given across the bottom is a Stargate address, along with a note that the Sibyl announced her intention to leave a few days after the scribe returned, and when he asked her of her destination, this was the answer she wrote in the sands."
"Dr. Jackson," Hammond entreated. "You must have an idea of the significance of all this."
"I do," Daniel admitted. He didn't look at any of them, his attention on the paper as he spoke. "You see, the treaty that's given is only a copy – a historical record incorporated into a much longer text, which was almost perfectly preserved. I can only assume that pieces of it were omitted, for the sake of brevity. It's almost impossible to date the paper according to the king's name that is given; records of rulers are patchy at best, given much of the unrest that occurred in Greece's early history."
He stopped fiddling with the paper, interlacing his fingers and stilling the motion of his hands on the desk – a sure sign that whatever he was about to propose stretched the bounds of believability. "The mixing of these cultures is somewhat misleading. There's evidence of a strong connection to the middle-eastern area of the Levant, in present day Israel, Pakistan, and Jordan, though the area itself is much larger than the borders of these countries. But the source itself is Greek, although it was apparently discovered in the Levant. I believe that whomever this Sibyl was -"
"A Goa'uld," Teal'c rumbled.
Daniel shook his head. "Whoever she was, took these notes with her when she left for the Stargate in Egypt, concealing them somewhere near the Dead Sea. But I believe she might have been a Tok'Ra."
"Tok'Ra?" Jack asked, a medley of emotions fighting for domination of his expression. Their alliance with the 'good' snakes was a two-edged sword more liable to draw their blood than that of their allies. The Tok'Ra were notoriously practiced at getting help while avoiding giving it.
Daniel nodded. "A spy, fleeing from Ba'al with information about his battle strategies."
"But Daniel," Sam interjected. "These documents are thousands of years old. Whatever Ba'al's strategy was must have been implemented or changed since then. This information must be incredibly outdated."
Daniel shrugged. "It may very well be. Two things make me think otherwise, however. The first is that the lifespan of a Goa'uld is generally much longer than ours, unless they have the good fortune to meet us."
Jack smirked smugly, and Sam grinned. A low mumble, that might have been the words, 'Dead false gods', could be heard from Teal'c's general direction.
"Long-term battle contingencies are unlikely to change; unless eliminated by another source or nullified, opposing powers remain an obstacle to be destroyed. And long-term for a Goa'uld stretches for thousands of years. The information might have changed significantly in that time, but other information, such as supply routes or sanctuary planets, would not have changed. Even if we can't use the information, it might be useful to the Jaffa, or at the very least give us a bargaining chip with the Tok'Ra."
"God knows we need that," Hammond muttered, but so lowly that it was clear he didn't intend anyone to overhear him. Daniel politely ignored the words.
"What's the second reason?" Jack asked him quietly.
Daniel hesitated a moment before blurting, "The NID. They seemed very certain that this information would be useful, even after I pointed out the problem of incongruence within the dating. Lt. Sanders was convinced that the information would be useful. Very convinced," Daniel murmured.
"Sir," Sam jumped in suddenly. "What are the odds that during the time when the NID had unlimited access to the second Stargate, they were able to forge an alternate alliance with the Tok'Ra?"
Hammond started, then his eyes grew hard. "Given the amount of time that went into our own Earth-Tok'Ra alliance, slim. But not impossible."
"The last time he was here, Dad mentioned that there was concern on the High Council about rogue elements within the Tok'Ra," Sam recalled. That had been weeks ago.
"It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots," Jack snarled.
"No, but the evidence is circumstantial and guesswork at best," Daniel cautioned reasonably.
They fell silent in the face of that truth. Hammond sighed, looking around the table at his premier team. Exhaustion laid claim to every face, though they all looked better than they had in weeks. He shook his head.
"Alright," Hammond ordered softly. "I don't think we can do any more about this tonight. Get some sleep; I want to see you all here at 0930 tomorrow morning."
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(gulps) Has it really been six months since I updated? (dodges rotten food, and a few random tools). I am really sorry about that. To be upfront and honest, I had planned this story to go in a direction that, quite literally, filled me with dread when I considered actually writing it. Nothing gives a good case of writer's block like knowing you've got to research and being reluctant to do it. After a serious look at the drawing board, I've returned to my original plan for this story. I'm crappy when it comes to trying to write riddles and be subtle anyway . . . .
With luck, now that I'm on break, I'll have a chance to work on this beast. Once again, my sincere apologies for the delay, and a great big THANK YOU to everyone who stuck with me, especially those who gave me a little kick to get me going again.