Part 2
SAM
It was wonderful to see him again. I plopped a light kiss on his forehead and turned back to the ring console in my office. After a few more keystrokes, we stepped into the closet and the rings transported us to the matching platform outside the future northwestern 'gates of the colony site. We stood several hundred yards from the closest hole in the ground or partially completed structure.
"Jack said he'd meet us at his 'office'. Come on. It's over this way." I lead us at a fast walk to the cluster of tents in the distance. With each step, our enthusiasm grew. I couldn't wait to see this new discovery. I could only imagine how excited an archeologist would be.
"Sam, Daniel, what took you so long?" Jack quipped as he stepped up to us. My love swept me into his arms and our lips met for our first kiss in almost a week. After the first moment of shock at his sudden move, one hand slid behind his neck and the other slipped around his waist to pull him closer. God, I'd missed him, the scent and feel of him, the strength and taste of him.
"How can I have become addicted to you in such a short time?" I asked between fevered kisses, only half-joking. "I may have to have Janet declare you a controlled substance." Jack chuckled appreciatively and kept right on with his assault on my senses and my lips.
After several minutes of tactfully leaving us alone, Daniel poked his head back into the tent. "Okay, you two. Get a room, will ya?"
"If only..." I breathed against Jack's lips, feeling his curve into a smile in return. Jack grudgingly pulled back and we both turned to face our friend, arms around each other.
"Okay, Ned Flanders, let's look at the images Captain Fredricks sent of their find. Then we can get the heck out of Dodge," said Jack.
We three huddled around Jack's laptop to view the digital images. The first showed what looked like a pile of stones, half-buried and partially obscured by vegetation. Jack and I exchanged looks doubtfully.
"Witness if you will… rocks," quipped Jack sarcastically.
The second was a close-up of the pile, revealing more detail. Pictures of single stones from various angles followed and the handiwork of intelligent beings was now plain. The face of each showed intricate carving, although much of it had worn away, and the pattern was impossible to determine from each piece alone. One or two had bits of ancient color in deep grooves.
I glanced at Daniel and saw the light of joy and anticipation in his eyes. He was in heaven with a new race and culture to study.
JACK
We hiked due westward, parallel to the river for about three miles until we looked down a gentle, tree dotted slope to a tiny lake. I looked at my companions and grinned at their expressions of peace, awe and delight. Time after time I'd witnessed this same reaction to this world we'd called Eden.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" I spoke and roused them from their reverie. Sam glanced my way and I saw intense tenderness in her azure eyes. It constantly amazed me that she'd given me her love. Our hands joined for a quick squeeze, after which I pointed to the right. "If we follow the shore north for a short way, we'll come to a stream by which the lake dumps into the river. It's only another four or so miles from there. Mostly up hill." I grinned, and Daniel and my desk-bound lady groaned.
"Jack, you couldn't have found some artifacts a little closer to civilization?" Daniel's acerbic quip started Sam and me laughing. It was like old times on SG-1. All that was missing was Teal'c.
TEAL'C
Drey'ac's symbiote was almost mature and she refused to accept one from another Jaffa. I shudder to think what might have happened had I not been here when this occurred.
"Wife," I harshly began my speech. Her face took on a hard stubbornness. It became apparent that ordering her, who alone had raised our son and born the shame of my betrayal of Apophis, would not be a wise act on my part. Sliding closer on the bench, I placed my hand on hers as it lay in her lap. "Drey'ac, my wife," I began again in a much more pleasing tone, "I do not wish you to die. If you will not take another's Goa'uld symbiote, I may have a temporary solution."
"Tell me what this unspoken solution is, my husband." Her tone was wary. Drey'ac had never been of an adventurous nature.
"While working with the Tau'ri, I have been to the world from which the Goa'uld sprang. I do not know if the primitive form of the parasite would serve to keep you alive, but I would happily procure one if you would accept it," I asked sincerely.
"Teal'c, I am not a small one needing to be told bedtime stories. Please do not treat me as such," she replied angrily. "A new prim'ta can only be obtained from the priests."
Dismayed, I answered, "You must believe me, Drey'ac. I speak the truth and genuinely do not wish you to die. I will take the one of the primitive symbiotes myself if it is the only way you will consent to taking a new prim'ta." My wife of decades searched my countenance as though she searched for the truth behind my words.
SAM
The day stayed sunny, but the temperature slowly dropped as the afternoon wore on. Our quick pace kept us warm as we wove across the steep hillsides and through the knife-blade valleys. Within a couple of hours, we were close to the site. Finally, we crested the last hill and stopped for a moment to gaze down as we had at the lake hours ago. The pocket valley seemed deserted, untouched.
"Jack, where did Captain Fredricks say she was?" Daniel asked, doubtfully.
"She and her group are at the higher, western end of the valley. She said to follow the brook up to a small waterfall. Someone will be there to meet us," the general answered, all business again. He stepped out and we followed, as always.
Deep in the narrowing vale, shadows reached for us as the sun sank in the west. Fortunately, the way was short from there and we reached the falls within 20 minutes. As we approached the pool below the spill of water, a man eagerly rushed toward us.
"Sir, ma'am, Doctor," Ivan Kovalev, George Masters' assistant, greeted us, smiling widely, and nodded to each in turn. "If you'll follow me, I'll take you to the camp where the captain and Doctor Masters are searching for more stones." Jack smirked at Daniel at the young student's choice of words. Daniel rolled his eyes and ignored Jack. I bit my lip to keep from laughing while watching their interaction.
"Lead on, Ivan," Jack quipped gladly. After walking several hours in the sun, it was getting cool standing under the shade of the large trees that took advantage of the abundant water.
By the time we'd covered the relatively short distance to the site of their discovery and happily divested ourselves of the heavy packs Jack provided, the sun was behind the mountains, leaving us in the twilight before full dark. We saw nothing of consequence that night.
DANIEL
I was quite pleasantly surprised to find that Captain Fredricks had preserved the site very well, thoroughly documenting everything on camera before moving anything. They moved only a few stones once Ivan recognized the carvings for what they were. Instead, the captain had directed the two geologists to search for more stones and had mapped several other possible locations. From their dinnertime descriptions, this could be a substantial site with outbuildings and an outer barricade of some kind.
If I hadn't been there for the changes in their relationship, I wouldn't recognize my two friends. Even after the better part of a year together, they were inseparable, touching constantly and managed to excuse themselves for the night about five minutes after dinner was over. Their tent was quite a way away from everyone else's, giving them plenty of privacy and us a buffer. As much as I loved my friends and was glad of their happiness together, nothing would make me less happy than to listen to them all night. Times like this always reminded me of how much I still missed Sha're, my lost wife. Rather than dwell on my loss, I glanced at Captain Fredricks, Kim, catching a smile as she gazed after the retreating pair.
"How could you work with them for five years if they were like this? I mean, didn't it drive you nuts with frustration?" she asked, grinning.
"Fortunately, they always maintained a perfectly professional relationship. Um, there was nothing acknowledged between them until…" I trailed off, not wanting to go there.
"Until…?" Kim prompted eagerly.
"I, uh…" I closed my eyes, and swallowed. "Until we went to the Dreaming World." I glanced at her saw that she wanted me to continue, her eyes soft as though knowing this was sensitive territory. At some level, I needed to talk about it.
"They, the people on the Dreaming World, gave us everything we'd ever desired. For Teal'c, he and his family were together and living on Chulak, free of the Goa'uld. My dream was to be together with my wife, Sha're, again." I drew a shuddering breath. She waited patiently. "For Sam and Jack, they were together, married, with three-year-old twins and deliriously happy. Well-meaning friends woke us from the dream too abruptly and it almost killed us. I certainly wanted to die, losing her all over again." My voice had sunk to a low mutter.
"It was hardest for them." I jerked my head in the direction of my friends. "They had to work side by side in a professional capacity after having so much together. I think if Sam and Jack hadn't finally managed to find each other again, it would have eventually killed them." I fell quiet and she discreetly let the silence replace our conversation.
Despite my excitement over the find, I was exhausted and fell asleep by the fire. Kim shook me awake and led me to a tent. I fell into the sleeping bag and knew nothing more until the delectable smell of coffee lifted my consciousness from a light, restful sleep filled with dreams of Sha're and a little boy with her smile.
JACK
The next morning I woke early feeling, despite only a couple of hours of sleep, incredibly relaxed and at peace. The body so casually draped over mine stirred, her hand skimming over my bare abdomen and hips.
"Keep that up, Sam, and we'll never get out of bed," I whispered in her ear, nipping the outer edge softly.
"Keep that up, Jack, and I'll never, ever let you leave me alone again," she purred back. I chuckled, planted a quick kiss on her lips and slipped my body free of the sleeping bags we'd zipped together the night before. I dressed quickly, while she watched me through hooded eyes.
As I moved quietly out of the tent, she called, "I'll be out shortly. Save me some coffee, huh, Jack?"
"Sure, sweetheart. See you in a few."
Usually the first up while in the field, I was surprised to see Ivan up and puttering about making coffee and oatmeal. I greeted him cordially and took the offered mug.
"Be right back. Someone needs this more than I do and, in this instance, colonel outranks general," I said, mock-seriously. He smiled and reached for another mug.
Returning moments later, followed by a happy Sam sipping her life's blood, I took my own mug from Ivan and sat by the fire. Just as we finished our coffee, a bedraggled Daniel crawled from his tent and grasped the cup Ivan offered as a drowning man clutches a life preserver.
"What's on the agenda for today, Dr. Jackson?" the young geologist asked.
"We examine the artifacts found so far, search for more and map the rest of the site. Um, Sam, what survey data do you have from the satellite?"
"I brought the remote comm device for the satellite so we can query it as much as necessary, plus I have some information on my tablet PC to get us started." Sam brought out the handheld doohickey and some memory cards, and then punched some buttons. I had to grin at her with her new toy. Just like a big kid. "I have a geological survey of the area immediately surrounding the find to a depth of 15 feet and a topo map of the valley. That should get you started, Daniel." She looked up and jumped back as he suddenly leaned over to wrap his arms around her.
"I have missed being in the field with you so much, Sam. No one is quite so well prepared or as innovative," Daniel said earnestly. She laughed and kissed him softly on the cheek. "Ya don't supposed they'd let you pull an Admiral Kirk, do you Jack?" he asked, half seriously.
"Yeah, like my knees would stand up to that kind of abuse, Danny," I replied. "I think my days of being on a front-line team are over." Somehow, I didn't mind either, especially after Sam turned my way with a huge smile just for me. I was the luckiest man in the universe.
SAM
Once Daniel was officially awake, he organized us into teams to clear and search the site. I figured it was pretty much to keep us out of his way while he studied and recorded the evidence. We hacked away at small trees and brush, hunting for more signs. Shortly after noon, Ivan found another portion of a wall, a corner that looked like it had been attached to a roof. Now that we knew better what to look for, other finds followed quickly and the map of the site started to form a picture.
What we'd called "anomalies" on the satellite scans now made sense in light of intelligent meddling with what we had assumed was natural. Daniel and I compared the digital scans with the map he was compiling. He grabbed the PC stylus and started sketching in on the screen the bits of ruins from his paper map.
"See here, Sam, and here?" He enthusiastically used the slender stylus to point out two more possible wall fragments and traced over them on the screen. "Extrapolating from these bits, we can almost make out the shape of two structures." We continued in this vein for several more hours, all the while the others brought us more bits and pieces of the puzzle. Daniel was almost giddy over a larger section of bas-relief that included carved glyphs around the rim.
"Given how much of this site is buried and is just now being uncovered by erosion; plus the wear patterns around the items we have found, I'd say it's been hundreds of millennia since people lived here, possibly longer," Daniel announced over dinner. "We've found no evidence so far linking this civilization to any known Earth-based culture. It may even be indigenous to Eden. General Hammond will definitely want to send a team to work this site."
"Do you think he'll assign you?" I asked, smiling, and reached my hand out to take his. "It'd be great to have you here."
"Well, he might if you two ask him…" Daniel flashed that boyish grin that always had so many of the SGC women swooning.
"I think that could be arranged. We should make it an early night so we get back to Eden Base tomorrow in time to talk with Hammond about what we've found here." Jack turned toward our tent and I fell into step with him.
Lowering my voice, I voiced the worry that had been running round and round my brain all evening, "Jack, we're going to need to go over the satellite data for the whole planet again. If there's even a chance that an indigenous species is still here, we may have to leave Eden."
JACK
Her words chilled me. I tried to put the idea of leaving our new home out of my head, but sleep was hard to find that night. For what seemed like hours, I felt Sam tossing around next to me, unable to sleep either. Finally, needing her touch, I reached out and pulled her into my arms. Her thrashing stilled almost immediately.
"Sam?"
"Hmm?" she mumbled half-asleep.
I held her close, her head under my chin and murmured into her soft hair, "Promise me something. If we have to leave, we will, but we'll stay together. I can take anything, starting over, making a new home, anything, if I still have you."
Sam raised her crystal blue eyes to meet mine and said seriously, "Why would I even consider leaving you? I love you, Jack, more than I ever thought possible. Not even having to leave Eden would change that. Flyboy, you are so stuck with me." I could almost make out her sweet smile in the dim light shed by Eden's larger moon.
"How I ever got so lucky, I'll never understand, but I'm not complaining."
DANIEL
For once, I was up before my companions. My excitement over this find made my blood sing. Something about the carving had spoken to me and I longed to study it further.
Ivan was already up even though the sun was not. With a simple "Good morning, Dr. Jackson," he handed me a cup of his excellent coffee. Thankfully, he was silent until I'd finished it and was ready to interact on a human level.
"What's on the agenda today, Dr. Jackson?" Ivan repeated himself. He sat beside me on a log lying conveniently beside the fire pit.
"Well, Sam, Jack and I will return to base to contact General Hammond. He'll decide if the SGC will investigate the find any further, given the budget, personnel constraints and existing priorities." I stifled a yawn and gratefully accepted more coffee. The younger man stood silently for a moment holding the coffee pot.
"What can I do while you're gone? Since we found the gypsum deposits the general wanted, Dr. Masters and I don't have anything pressing going right now. I don't think Masters would mind my staying here until you have an answer," he offered.
"Hey, that'd be great. Any information you can get from comparing the scans and the map I started would be a real help."
"Let me take a short bio-break and you can show me what you want me to do." Setting down the coffee pot, he headed for the small copse of trees that stood beyond one of the brushy areas we'd cleared yesterday, leaving only tufts of knee-high grass. I watched him retreat, my mind elsewhere, until his first scream, "Help!"
My eyes focused on his location and he seemed… fainter, washed out somehow in the early morning sunshine. "Ivan? What's happening? Ivan!"
I ran toward where he stood, yelling for the others. Behind us, I heard the noises of our companions emerging from their tents sleepily asking what was going on. Leaping over bushes and rocks, I ran as fast as my legs would take me toward Ivan. He seemed caught, frozen in a web of light flowing from below him. As I skidded around his position to face him, I could see Ivan still in the act of taking a step, one leg raised, arms swinging at his side. Only his eyes still moved, the brown orbs expressing his sheer terror at what was happening.
My hand reached for his, but it never got to its target. My objective was simply… gone.
"Daniel, what's all the yelling about?" Jack shouted as he and Sam pounded up to me. How could they have missed it?
"I-Ivan… h-he he's gone!"
"What do you mean, he's gone, Daniel?" Sam asked softly, sensing I was in a sort of shock. She took my trembling arm and led me back to the fire. We sat down on the log where Ivan and I had so recently sat together.
"He was w-w-was walking into the woods to take a leak, when he suddenly froze and dis-disappeared."
"Daniel, are you sure he didn't fall into a hole or something?"
"No! He was there, frozen, then he disappeared, wasn't there anymore, poof, gone. What more can I say?" I yelled back at Sam, angry at their lack of action. Ivan was gone and they stood there arguing with me.
"We're just trying to find out what happened to Ivan," Sam said reasonably. I looked up to see Jack, Dr. Masters and Kim standing near where Ivan vanished, Jack and Masters both talking. Kim glanced away, not paying attention to the two men and started searching the ground near them. She stooped to look closer at something and reached out her hand toward it.
"No!" I shouted. Not her, too. I ran toward her with Sam just behind me. The two other men spun to watch us. "Kim, don't touch it!" I tried, but it was too late. She stood and turned to me simultaneously, a disk in her left hand.
Nothing happened. When I got to where she stood, the captain was still there looking at me as if I was a crazy man.
"I… think that's what Ivan stepped on. Before he vanished, that is." We all glanced down at the disk in her hand. It was so innocuous looking - about six inches across, dark gray, with a lighter gray rim. Characters of an unfamiliar script ran around the disk, just inside the lighter ring and appeared to have been hand lettered.
Sam offered one of the storage bags I'd brought with me and Kim gingerly placed the hockey puck-shaped object in the padded pouch.
Jack spoke for the first time, "I don't think Hammond is going to have a problem assigning people to this project now."
Sam interjected, "Jack, we have to get some people up here right away to search for Ivan. If he disappeared here, he may re-appear anywhere – hurt, or worse." Jack nodded his agreement and stalked back to his tent to pack.
JACK
While Sam finished the packing we'd begun last night, I used my radio to call the colony site. "Major Gregory, this is O'Neill." The reception was scratchy, but readable. "We have a missing man and need a search party up here, ASAP."
"Yes, sir. Should I bring Brutus, sir?" Brutus was the ACE mascot, an overgrown puppy of uncertain pedigree.
"He any good at search and rescue?"
"Yes, sir. We used him for that on our last job."
"Good, bring him. Dr. Jackson, Colonel Carter and I will be returning as soon as we can. We'll probably meet you on the way. O'Neill out."
Continued in Part 3