SG-1

They had been living in ancient Egypt for one week and already it had been the longest week of General Jack O'Neill's life. He'd been stranded before, in Iraq, on Edora, and on that damned Furling utopia planet with Maybourne. All of those times though he had a goal, something to work towards, escape. There was nothing to escape from here though. Carter had specifically told him to do nothing.

He considered for what was probably the 10,000th time that week simply ordering her and the rest of SG-1 to take back the jumper so they could get the hell out of here. The only thing keeping him from doing it was that Carter was probably right about the whole not messing with the timeline thing. She usually was. Plus, he was also fairly sure this would be one of those extremely rare instances where she'd simply refuse to comply. Didn't mean he had to like it though. And he sure as hell would never admit it.

"O'Neill" said a voice behind him and he turned to see Teal'c striding across the sand. He had been standing outside a small village waiting for Daniel to finish cavorting with the locals. He had suggested rather indelicately that it might be better if the General did not accompany him, and that was just fine by Jack.

"What's up T?" he asked.

"Daniel Jackson believes that he has identified the location of the tomb where we might place the ZPM."

"Oh great," said Jack as sarcastically as possible, "this will be, what, the fourth tomb that we've tried? I'm starting to feel like a grave robber."

Teal'c tilted his head, "do you not believe this plan of Daniel Jackson and Colonel Carter's will work?"

"No Teal'c," Jack said, "I'm sure it's a great plan, our future selves will be so pleased. They get to sit around, drink beer and watch the Simpsons while we get… sand." He gestured to the desert in front of them.

"I have heard Daniel Jackson say on occasion that the Ancient Egyptians were quite proficient at brewing ale. Perhaps some can be procured for you O'Neill." Teal'c said after a while.

While it did nothing to alleviate his bad mood, Jack was still touched by his friend's thoughtfulness.

"Thanks Teal'c," he said, clapping him on the shoulder, "but I doubt it would be the same."

Teal'c inclined his head slightly in response.

Jack sighed. "Alright," he said, "let's go see Daniel's tomb."

Several hours of trudging through the sand later and they finally located the cave where the villagers had told Daniel the tomb might be located. He ran his hand over a series of hieroglyphs painted on the rocks. "This might be it!" he said excitedly.

"You said that about the last one Daniel," said Jack, arms crossed.

"Well, believe it or not Jack it's not easy to find a tomb now from only knowing where it will be in 5,000 years." Daniel said without turning around.

"Speaking of that, don't we have plenty of time to get this thing hidden, what's the rush?"

"We have to record a message for our future selves Sir," Carter said in the tone of voice she used when she had already explained something to him once before, "in case the future has been altered. And the batteries on our camera aren't going to last forever."

"Ah, no naquadah generators about then?"

"Fraid not Sir," she said smiling and pulling out a flashlight to shine on the wall for Daniel.

"This is definitely it!" Daniel said as he finished reading. Jack raised his eyebrows at him. "Okay I'm 90% sure this is it. Maybe 75%. But the point is we're running out of time. I say we unblock the entrance, and once we're in I'll know for sure."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Jack grumbled.

It took another hour of moving heavy rocks away from the entrance of the cave before they had a hold large enough to peer through.

"You think they'd make it easier for people to get into these things!" said Jack rubbing his shoulder.

"Sam, can I have the light?" Daniel said, ignoring Jack and sticking his head into the entrance.

As Sam pushed forward to shine the light in, Jack murmured to Teal'c, "hope a scorpion doesn't jump on his face."

"Yes!" said Daniel sounding triumphant, head still inside the cave. "I recognize some of these items from the excavation reports. This is it!"

Once they were inside they set up their flashlights to have enough light to film by. As Sam and Daniel discussed the best place to hide the ZPM Jack wandered around.

"Jack," don't touch anything!" Daniel called over to him.

"I'm not touching anything Daniel!" he yelled back, setting down the pot he had just picked up.

"Are you ready to begin?" Teal'c asked, holding up the camera.

"Yeah, said Daniel, taking a deep breath. "Okay, uh, my name is Doctor Daniel Jackson. I'm part of a team called SG-1, and we have just traveled back in time 5,000 years."

By the time they had finished recording their message, sealed the camera in a canopic jar and re-buried the entrance to the tomb, the sun was setting over the sand as they headed back towards the village they came from.

"So what's the plan now?" Jack asked, voicing the question they had all been thinking.

"Well, I've been thinking about that," said Daniel. "That village we were in was pretty secluded. Maybe we could live on the outskirts, start a farm or something. It'll be hard until you guys learn Ancient Egyptian but..."

"Daniel," Jack interrupted, "much as I want to sail the Nile, build a pyramid and generally walk like an Egyptian, I wouldn't call that a plan."

"Well what would you call a plan Jack?" Daniel stopped walking and turned to face him.

"Hopefully kick starting this whole rebellion thing you were talking about so we can get the hell out of here."

"You know we can't do that Sir!" The bulb in her flashlight suddenly flickered and went out. "Damn!" She said banging it on her hand. "Was hoping these would last longer but I guess it's for the best. We really need to destroy all our modern gear and weapons."

"Excuse me?" Jack said.

"We can't just keep carrying them around in case a local finds them or worse a future archaeologist."

"Carter, if you think I'm going to wander around under Ra's nose unarmed..."

Teal's held up a hand and they all fell silent. "What is it?" Jack whispered. Then they all heard it too, faint screams and the unmistakable sound of staff weapons firing.

"The village!" Daniel said and he and Jack took off across the dunes.

"Sir, wait!" hissed Sam. But she knew he had no intention of stopping, so she sighed and ran after him.