Chapter 13

Sometime later Sam stuck her head out of the cave entrance. It had finally been decided that eight hands would be more efficient in removing the moss-like plant than four, so she had left Daniel to fetch her CO and Teal'c. She found the two hardened warriors just where she had left them, sitting on logs by the mouth of the cave around a small fire.

"Sir, Daniel and I have found something."

"Already? Its been, what, thirty minutes?" Jack said in a tone of mock impatience, attempting to consult his still broken wrist watch. "Whatcha got?"

"We think we've found more writing, but it's covered with a thick layer of some kind of moss-type plant. What we've managed to uncover so far looks different from the rest, but Daniel says he can't be sure until we've gotten all the moss out of the way."

"Of course…alright, Major, lead the way."

Five minutes later Jack stood staring at the moss-covered wall, trying not to think too hard about what the very enthusiastic Daniel was trying to tell him.

"This line here," Daniel pointed to the deep vertical groove he and Carter had found which ran from the ceiling to the floor, "looks like it's a divider separating all the writing before it - which I can't translate to sensible English - from whatever is covered here. The fascinating thing is that the writing that we've uncovered so far looks like the language of the Ancients!"

With the mention of the Ancients, Jack's drifting mind snapped back into focus. "The Ancients, did you say? All right! You see, to me that's good news because, aside from their gadgets nearly killing me once and trapping me and Teal'c another time, they seem to be pretty good guys. You can read it, right?"

"Yes. Since so many of the cultures we have run into seem to have Latin as a root, I've started bringing my dictionary along. Between that and the notes I have from when you and Teal'c helped me…"

Daniel paused a second, trying not to laugh as Jack cringed and Teal'c tried to appear nonplused, while Daniel struggled not to think too much about how the fate of Earth and the other planets trapped in the time loop had been dependant on translations made by the two men standing in front of him. It was a very scary idea…one he was sure he had been forced to think about every time a new loop had begun…

Daniel finally broke the odd silence. "I should have everything I need, though it will take time for me to translate it all. I have a feeling there's a lot under here." He turned to look at the fuzzy green wall as he said this.

Jack bounced on the balls of his feet, rolling his eyes. "Here comes a 'but'."

Daniel eyed Jack over his shoulder. The light of Jack's flash light bouncing off of Daniel's glasses, obscuring his blue eyes, but Jack knew that he was getting the 'are you going to let me finish now?' look. "This moss stuff has to go first…all of it."

"Not a problem." Jack dug around in the vest pockets of his tack vest until he found his lighter. "We'll just burn it off."

Carter and Daniel exchanged a knowing look. Their prediction of Jack's reaction had been bang on.

"We thought you might think of that, sir." Sam moved to stand beside her CO, holding a small scanner in her hand and attempting to show him the readings. "So I took the liberty of scanning the material that makes up this rock formation. As you can see, there are minute traces of naquadah, as well as at least three other unidentifiable minerals here."

All Jack saw was a tiny screen covered with numbers and weights, none of which he truly cared to comprehend, but he nodded all the same, knowing that Carter would explain everything in the simplest terms for him any second now. It was becoming second nature to her.

"Basically, sir, I have no way of knowing what will happen if we start a fire of that scale in here. Torches obviously haven't caused any problems, but the heat created from burning this plant could cause a chain reaction and collapse the tunnel, maybe even bring down the whole mountain side."

"Surely you do not plan to uncover this wall only with our bare hands?" Teal'c asked, feeling slightly apprehensive as his flashlight panned along the huge green wall, but of course no apprehension was to be heard in his steady booming voice.

Jack's eyebrows shot up as he watched Daniel and Sam wince. "Oooh no! You've got to be kidding! Do you guys realize how long it will take us to do that?"

"If we all work together…well, it will still take a while…" Daniel said, and then seeing the exasperation on Jack's face he said hurriedly, "I heard one of Lunasa's visitors say that mourning for Lauria will last for three more days. After that I'm sure the citizens would be willing to help us….That is if they don't still think we had something to do with the avalanche…"

Carter opened her mouth to back Daniel up, but Jack beat her to it.

"Lemme guess. We don't really have another choice, do we?"

"No, sir."

Jack sighed dramatically, feeling like the best thing for him to do would be to bang his head on the wall a few times and he would wake up in his bed at home. He managed to resist the urge, and started peeling off his vest and pack, setting them on the floor against the rough opposite wall. Teal'c grudgingly followed suit.

"Alright then, let's get to work!"