Chapter 13
Next Morning
Sam tugged off the t-shirt and shimmied into her dress and out of the hut to attend to business while Daniel and Jack put on their clothes.
"How did you get pants?" Daniel asked accusingly at Jack.
"How do you know how to wrap that...skirt?" Jack shot back.
"It's a kilt or if you're technical - a schenti."
"It's amazing they haven't progressed further than this after...how many thousand years."
"No need when Pharaoh provides all." Daniel said.
"A state of perfection."
"Yeah"
"Well at least some have progressed beyond skirts." O'Neill said as he tugged up his ill fitting pants. "Yes, a great technological advancement pants."
Daniel tossed Jack a fruit much like an orange with a thicker tougher rind. "Breakfast."
Jack pulled out his K-bar to peel it and gave a piece to Daniel and to Carter as she returned to the hut.
"You have a knife? Where did you get that knife? We got here with the clothes on our back."
"It was in my pack." Jack said. "The Jaffa that tossed me out of the Tel'tak said...ah...Obi Wan said we were incompetent and would perish without certain implements."
"OBI WAN!"
"Yeah, I think that's what they called him. Unusual name don't ya think." Jack managed to say this all with a straight face.
"Jack, that's from Star Wars. What the hell do you do when it's on? Don't you ever pay attention?" Daniel was working himself into a lather.
O'Neill winked at Carter, who herself was having a hard time not laughing.
Jack reached into the backpack and tossed Daniel a white bundle of cloth. "You might want these under your skirt."
"Underwear? Where did you get this?"
"Obi Wan, aka Teal'c. Didn't see him but it had to be him that got the pack for us. He's got something up his sleeve but I don't know what."
They were all dressed and ready to join the rest of the village for the morning meal when Daniel stopped them.
"Did I tell you the headman offered to find me a wife?" Daniel said.
"That's getting to be a habit."
"Yeah, well he was thinking you might not show up."
"I thought you said you told him..." Jack could feel Sam scowling at them.
"Yeah, about that...Look Tab'ba has his eyes on Sam, so you have to stake your claim."
Sam glared at both of them muttering under her breath "stake your claim". If looks could kill both Jack and Daniel would be pushing up daisies.
"Daniel, I've been warned but..." O'Neill winced and looked at both of them and asked "How do I play this?"
"Dominant or affectionate, you mean? Tab'ba mostly ignores his wives in public except to order them around. And they walk behind him, not by his side."
Finally Sam spoke up "Well we're not from around here." And she walked out of the hut. "You coming, husband." It wasn't a question.
O'Neill glanced at Daniel and hunched his shoulders and followed her out.
Tab'ba made a show of bringing the village water and the food ration.
"We have been blessed by the gods through his priests. We have water for our crops, we have food for our people and our friends have been returned to us. I have brought this to you so that our village may flourish."
Daniel was gifted with his own hut larger than the small one he and Sam had been sharing. It seemed silly for him to have the larger one and Jack and Sam share the tiny one so he suggested they switch. This upset Tab'ba's sense of priority so he tried to evict his mother-in-law and give her dwelling to Daniel. He begged off. In fact the old woman scared him. He told Jack that if he moved into her home he would have to be careful about what he ate for the rest of his life here.
Daniel remembered the bag of amulets and spells, which were actually crudely carved shards of semi precious stones and exercise lessons on scraps of papyrus. As a peace offering he gave the bag to the old woman, and she was truly pleased. She withdrew a scrap of papyrus inked in red and gave it to Daniel.
"What does it say?" O'Neill asked.
Daniel stared a moment and said "Your tongue is Thoth."*
Jack looked as if he wanted Daniel to expand on that.
"It's a compliment."
The old woman, looking only at Jack and Sam, reached in the bag and withdrew two more slips. She handed one to Daniel and pointed her chin toward Jack and then the second and gesture toward Sam.
Jack looked at the paper and handed it back to Daniel and said "It's all Greek to me."
Daniel translated "I rule the lotus pond."**
They all laughed. Daniel added while laughing "It means you're a heron."
"Excellent at catching fish, I'll have you know. How about Carter's?"
Sam handed hers to Daniel and he smiled and said "The Morning star...beautiful star of gold."***
"Well she got that right." Jack said as Sam colored.
The old woman motioned to Daniel again and handed him another piece of papyrus. He couldn't tell to whom the message was for.
"Well Daniel, what does this one say?" O'Neill asked.
Daniel was still for a minute, looking from the scrap of paper to the old woman and back to Jack and Sam.
"It says "The doors of the sky are open for you,
the gates of the heavens open for you."****
All three thought the same thing - the Stargate.
*Coffin Texts, Spell 761
**Coffin Texts, Spell 292
***Coffin Texts, Spell 722
****Coffin Texts, Spell 492
