This chapter should have been posted ages ago...sorry guys. Enjoy.
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The Carters set to work on the panel, arguing back and forth with the sort of techno-babble none of the others had a prayer of understanding.
Daniel and Jack pulled their guns, automatically aiming them at the door as they waited. Jim raised an eyebrow.
"You expecting trouble from dead people?"
Blair, however, was staring at Daniel.
"Danny? You brought a military-issue pistol on a dig?" he asked, his voice both shocked and disappointed. Daniel looked like he didn't know what to say.
"Oh, for – Blair, the last time Danny went on a dig, he was captured by Honduran rebels, starved and tortured for three days. Wouldn't you?" Jack said, his tone biting.
Blair's blue eyes widened in shock. He knew Daniel had been getting into trouble, but...
Daniel sighed. "It's true." He pulled down his shirt collar, revealing the scar Blair had drawn attention to two nights before. "That's when I got this."
"Oh, Danny."
"And to answer your question, Ellison, yes, we are." Jack continued. "That would be one of those things that if anyone outside of this group were to ask you about, you would completely forget. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Colonel." Jim said with a smirk. Jack narrowed his eyes.
"I don't remember ever telling you my rank, detective."
Jim shrugged. "I did my research." He drew his own gun. "So are we expecting mummies? Zombies?"
"Worse." Daniel said. "Gods."
Jack groaned. "You had to say it, didn't you? Couldn't let the opening pass you by?"
Blair's eyes threatened to pop out of his skull.
"I didn't bring my gun." he said quietly. Daniel thought for a second, then tossed him his own pistol. He reached back and drew his zat.
Jack groaned again. Jim's eyes narrowed.
"The hell is that?"
Daniel shot him a look. "Government secret. Your tax dollars at work."
At that moment the door slid open with a mechanical whine.
Jim and Blair exchanged looks. Millennia-old temple doors did not open with a mechanical anything.
Jim automatically moved towards the door, his own pistol in hand, letting his sight adjust to the darkness inside.
"Whoa there, Jimbo. I'd better take point." Jack said quickly. But Daniel put a hand on his arm.
"Let him go, Jack. He can see in there." His voice was very quiet, but Jim whipped his head around and stared at him.
Jacob raised an eyebrow. "And hear from there, apparently."
Jim cursed himself under his breath. He was giving himself away.
Blair was at his side immediately, the pistol held loosely but comfortably in his hand.
"It's alright, Jim," he said soothingly, whispering. "Daniel guessed. And I don't think any of them are gonna tell."
"Military, Sandburg."
"Jim, do you see the crazy space-gun Danny's got? Did you notice the glowing control panel and mechanical door? We are getting into some deep shit here, and we've got to trust each other."
He said that last part a little louder, so the rest could hear. Daniel threw Jack a look that said see? and smiled at them, motioning the Sentinel on.
"Go on. See if you can find a light switch."
"In a Mayan temple?"
Daniel rolled his eyes expressively.
"Oh. Right." Jim took a deep breath and opened his senses, listening and looking for anything out of the ordinary. He heard a slight buzzing from the panel, and a softer hum from a spot over...there.
He took a few steps in and pressed his hand against the wall, feeling for the vibration. Right where it was strongest, his hands encountered a raised carving, a hieroglyph or something else esoteric that he didn't recognize. Remembering what Jack had asked Jacob earlier, he gave it a little twist.
Bright light flooded the room, nearly blinding him. He yelled and covered his eyes, but Blair was already right there, talking his dials down. When he could see again, he looked around.
Daniel, Jack and the Carters were stepping gingerly into the room, very deliberately not touching anything. Daniel and Blair were looking around with wide eyes.
"Oh, wow."
The room was octagonal. On each wall, with the exception of the wall the door was in, was an ancient Egyptian depiction of a goddess. The paintings were large and vividly colored – what the ones in Egypt must have looked like before years of sand wore at their beauty. Underneath each painting was eight lines of text in different forms, with the exception of the wall opposite the door, which had only one line of hieroglyphs and one of cuneiform.
Daniel spotted this immediately, and went to investigate.
"Isis." he said. "That's Isis. And this line says...Tiamat?"
"Her other name." Jacob said. "She was known as Tiamat before she was Isis."
Sam's eyes widened. "Daniel, you don't think this – "
Daniel wasn't listening. He moved to the wall to his right.
"Hathor." he said, his voice carrying venom. Jack gave a little huff behind him.
Daniel placed a finger on the line of cuneiform above her Heiroglyphic name. "Ishtar. The Mesopotamian goddess of love." He moved the finger down the line. "Japanese – Uzume. Celtic – Brighid. Greek – Aphrodite. Roman – Venus. Hindu – Sariswati. And..." He stopped, at a line of Quechua.
Jim came up behind him. "Ixchel."
"Of course." Blair breathed. "It's all Hathor's names. Daniel, this definitely proves...oh, you don't care, do you."
"Blair, I had proof I was right seven years ago. I had my reasons for not going to the public." Daniel sighed, looking around for names he recognized.
"Bastet. Niirti. Amateratsu. Kali. And...That's Nephthys. Any of her names ringing a bell, Jacob?"
The older man nodded. "Inanna. Hathor's sister."
Sam looked thoughtful. "Which explains why they were the only two mentioned on the outside of the pyramid."
"Does it? I think it might have to do with – Jacob, was Inanna a queen?"
"Yes. She was mother to Bastet and Kali. Hathor spawned Niirti and Amateratsu. Hathor and Inanna were Isis's children."
"One big, happy family of psycho bitches, huh?" Jack asked.
"Actually," Blair said, adjusting his glasses, "most of these goddesses were considered benign, even loved. Even Kali was somewhat of a just goddess – only Nirrti was really considered an evil goddess, especially if she was also called Hecate like it says here – "
Jack snorted. "Believe me, none of them were just or good. Fortunately, they're all dead." He thought for a second. "They are all dead, aren't they?"
Daniel didn't take his eyes off the writing. "Well, Hathor, Isis and Nirrti certainly are. I think Kali and Bastet were betrayed and murdered by Anubis..." Jacob nodded, confirming Daniels' thought.
"Amateratsu is...accounted for." Jacob said. Which Jack took to mean she was out there, somewhere, making trouble.
"And Inanna?" Sam asked. Jacob sighed.
"Supposedly imprisoned at the same time Hathor was."
"Possibly here?" Jack said in alarm.
Daniel answered in the same distracted tone he always used when he was in a ruin. "Well, considering Hathor was found in a Mayan pyramid..."
"Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA." Blair said, throwing his hands up. "I know I'm not supposed to ask questions, but CHRIST do I have a lot of them! Jacob can read cuniform? There are only like seven people in the WORLD who can read cuniform! Why are you talking about all these goddesses as if they exist? Why does Jacob know about them? How can they be dead!"
Jim raised an eyebrow. "Besides all that academic stuff, I would love to know how this obviously ancient Mayan temple has a mechanical door and electric lighting."
Daniel, Sam, and Jack shot each other looks. Jack gave Daniel a resigned eye-roll and a nod.
Daniel took a deep breath.
"To make a very long story extremely short: aliens exist, and thousands of years ago they lived on earth posing as gods."