Chapter 10
The next morning the team awoke refreshed and optimistic that things would start to go their way. Things did seem to be looking up. The weather outside was noticeably warmer and the snow which had stood a foot deep now looked to be about ten inches and melting. They took turns washing quickly with the freezing water from the well, and then found Lunasa and Lauria at the table of the downstairs room where they all ate a breakfast of some kind of porridge.
After asking how everyone had slept, Lunasa said, "You'll need to put on another layer of clothing. I have some extra tunics here." She presented them with four shirts made of the same dense brown fiber that she and the other inhabitants of the city wore. They looked rather small
"I don't think I'm going to fit in that," Jack said, not exactly sounding genuinely disappointed. "No, really. I've got this…" he looked down at his stomach region and his non-existent bulge.
Lunasa smiled, amused, the first true smile they had seen from her while her sister chuckled silently over her shoulder. "I promise you, Colonel, these will fit each of you. The fabric is warm and thick, but very flexible. My sister has to go to market to get more supplies, but I will take you to the caves where we found the writings."
"Actually, I intend to visit Haylar. Many know that he is keeping far more goods for himself than he needs, so I hope to get a better deal from him than if I went to the market," Lauria answered, giving her sister a rather sly grin.
Lunasa smiled back, but her eyes were filled will concern mixed with disapproval. "Do be careful. We must keep harmony among our people in order to survive."
"Who said anything about disturbing the harmony? I only said that I will get a better trade from him." Still grinning mischievously, Lauria grabbed her coat and hat from their place on a peg next to the door, and with a large cloth bag in hand, left.
"I like that girl," Jack said, smiling shamelessly.
After the team had gone back upstairs to grab the rest of their gear and put on their new shirts – which were surprisingly stretchy and fit each of them well – they followed Lunasa as she led them out of the city. It was a long walk, and it was obvious that the other inhabitants of the city were still very curious about them. They stared openly from windows and doorways, and those they passed stopped to watch them go by, but they did not seem as nervous as when the team had first arrived.
"They seem to be getting used to us," Jack commented casually.
"Yes, you'll have to forgive us for our nervousness of yesterday," Lunasa replied over her shoulder. "Our first thought when you arrived was that you were emissaries of Zipacna, coming to demand the location of the circle of stones and its purpose. Of course we don't have these things, so naturally we feared for our lives. Now that you've been here a night and we aren't in obvious danger, everyone here is calmer."
As they continued their walk, the buildings began to dwindle and large snow covered fields were seen that stretched into the foot of the surrounding mountain range.
"Where exactly is this cave, Lunasa?" Daniel inquired.
"On the far side of the valley at the base of these mountains, opposite the pass that you traveled through to reach Xanthus."
"That makes sense," Daniel mused. When Lunasa looked at him curiously he said, "Probably whatever race was here before you arrived either built the 'circle of stones' or were studying it. They probably wouldn't have wanted intruders to find their work, so it makes sense that they put the city between it and the only entrance to the valley…though why they would work so far away from the device itself and leave it unprotected, I haven't got a clue."
"Well let's just focus on figuring out how to work it, ok?" Jack asked in an attempt to remind the arrant archeologist of the reason they where there.
The party entered the fields and followed a path of well-trodden snow.
"This path is well traveled." Teal'c commented. "How many of your people know where this cave is and what is in it?"
"Since we have found them many people and I have gone there to try and decipher what the writings mean, with very little success." Lunasa answered, looking rather hopeless. "I had hoped some of the elders that where brought here with us would know, but those that survived the journey here did not know what to make of it."
Moments later they arrived at the entrance of the caves. A few people were milling about, and a fire was lit nearby. Lunasa grabbed a torch and went to light it but Jack stopped her.
"Better save that for a rainy day. We won't need it."
"But you can't see in the dark…ah!" She gasped in amazement as Jack and his team pulled out their battery-powered heavy duty torch lights and lit them, carefully aiming away from her and the others about so as not to blind them.
"Lead the way."
The opening of the cave was very wide with a ceiling twelve feet high and almost perfectly squared off, suggesting that it was man-made, not natural. Instead of being constructed of the run of the mill brown rock or clay, the walls were carved from a black stone identical to the obsidian-like material that made up the mysterious device. The team lit Lunasa's path as she led them a few meters beyond the mouth of the cavern and then stopped, turning to face a huge section of the stone wall which at first glance seemed completely smooth like glass, but actually was covered in embossed writing; writing that looked rather familiar. In the middle of the text was a square foot devoted to a simple sketch of the device itself.
"This is where the writings begin," Lunasa explained. "It continues as it goes deeper under the mountain."
Jack pointed his light down the cavern's length and whistled. The end of the cavern could just barely be seen, lit by a circle of light in the center of a hole of pitch black, and it was many meters away.
"Looks like you've got your work cut out for you Daniel. Literally."
Daniel stared and blinked for a moment, daunted, and then managed to shake himself out of it long enough to ask, "How much of this have you been able to translate?"
"Very little, I'm afraid," Lunasa answered, concern etched into her youthful features. The stress and pressure of leadership was starting to take its toll. "We've been concentrating on this first section because of the picture of the circle of stones, and we've only glanced at the rest. The problem is that none of it makes sense."
"This is definitely the same as what was on the pillar," Daniel said as his blue eyes swept over the wall, the beam from his light struggling to keep up with them. "Which means this is going to take a while…I'm going to go have a look at the rest of this first th…"
He broke off in mid-word as a loud rumbling noise reached them.
Before Jack could even ask, Sam was already giving him the answer. "It can't be an earthquake, sir. The U.A.V. or M.A.L.P. would have been able to detect the potential for seismic activity, but the scans came back negative."
Lunasa went charging out of the cave with SG-1 hot on her tail. She stopped outside and scanned the valley, tensing. A great white cloud was hovering at the foot of the mountains in the distance to the right.
"Oh my God." Sam said, eyes wide. "Avalanche."