Chapter 20
The next morning the team was up with the sun. They had a light breakfast, courtesy of Lunasa, packed with their remaining rations and some food that Lunasa finally succeeded in pressing upon them, and began to say their goodbyes to their kind hostess.
"It's going to be very strange," Lunasa said, gazing at her new friends as they lined up by the door, smiling sadly with moist eyes. "Now that you're leaving I'll be the only one living here. It will be so…so quiet."
"Maybe ask one of your close friends to come live with you here. It is an awfully big house for one person," Sam suggested gently.
"Maybe I will."
"We should be back in a few days with supplies and help." Daniel said.
"Oh, but you haven't seen the last of me yet," Lunasa said, her countenance brightening. Jack almost thought he saw a familiar mischievous gleam in her eyes for a moment.
"I'm coming with you to see the circle of boulders for myself. If my people and I are going to defend it, we have to know exactly where it is."
"You are the leader of your people. It would be unwise to put yourself at risk." Teal'c reminded her.
"What risk? So long as we travel by day and are back inside the mountain pass by night we'll be safe. Besides," she looked down as she tried to hide her disappointment, "I can't send others of my people to go with you if I don't go myself. Though they seemed to trust my judgment and that what I have told them is true, they are still wary. A small group will accompany us so that I won't be returning to Xanthus alone."
From behind the door Lunasa retrieved a bag she had fashioned into a backpack, no doubt by using the team's packs as a model. It looked very heavy and was clearly filled with supplies and ready to go as if Lunasa had been ready for this for days.
Jack was readying himself to argue that she could not come, but then he saw the determination on her face. Stubbornness. Lauria's influence was showing in her sister. There would be no talking her out of it.
"Alright, alright!" Jack said, defeated but amused. "Let's get this show on the road."
As the party of five made its way along the main road through Xanthus, the citizens came out of their homes to watch. A few men carrying staves made of hard aged wood fell into place behind the procession as they went. By the time the party had reached the opening of the mountain pass, now made larger by the melting snow, an even dozen men had joined them, and others had followed to see them off.
"I thought she said 'a small group' was coming, not the whole damn town," Jack muttered to no one in particular.
At the mouth of the passage, Lunasa turned to address her people.
"My friends," she began in a clear carrying voice, "our visitors are about to lead me to the circle of standing stones, not so that we may hand it over to Zipacna, but rather so that we can keep it from him, destroying it if necessary." The people gathered around her looked shocked at this, but Lunasa pressed on. "We have learned how it works, and through it is not entirely clear what its purpose is, it is an awesome device, and it wouldn't do to allow Zipacna to use it for his own gain."
She paused as she gazed at the nervous faces around her, and then continued. "These people here, Colonel Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, Major Samantha Carter, and Teal'c," gesturing politely to each one behind her in turn, "are our friends. They have offered to return with help to protect us from Zipacna when he returns." Her features and voice hardened in an expression that her guests had not seen before, nor had expected from her. "I for one will not blame them if they choose not to do so after the welcome you have given them. You mistrust them and have not bothered to hide that fact from them or from me, but I do trust them." Her expression faded off and her usual kind face and gentle but strong voice returned. "Trust them as you have come to trust me.
"We shall return by midday tomorrow. Until then, take care, dear Xanthus."
Lunasa then turned back to SG-1. "Please, lead the way."
One by one the party climbed through the opening and into the mountain pass. Lunasa and her followers gazed in amazement at the walls, pressing their hands against it and feeling the warm resistance as it glowed brighter.
Traveling the tunnel was much faster this time than it had been for the team on their way to the city. Certain that with the gate buried and the only population of people having found to be at least moderately friendly, they felt no need to creep around the blind turns, weapons drawn and ready for an attack. Instead, they attempted to keep a light conversation going as they walked briskly along.
Jack, Daniel noticed, was continually sweeping the gravel floor in front of him with his eyes.
"What are you looking for, Jack?" he asked quietly, trying not to distract Sam and Lunasa away from their conversation, comparing the roles of women in their respective societies.
"What do you think I'm looking for, Daniel? I've had that knife since I was a kid! Even if I can't get the blade fixed the other doohickeys on it are still good!"
A few minutes later Daniel spotted the red handle and Jack reached down and grabbed it without stopping. Inspecting the bent blade, Jack murmured, "Oh, yeah, I think I know a guy in town who can fix this for me…. He owes me one anyway."
With Daniel's help Jack packed it down into the middle of his gear where it wouldn't damage anything.
The sun was high in a sky of wispy gray clouds when the group emerged at the other end of the pass. They ducked back inside to rest and eat a small lunch on the dry gravel and then continued on.
The snow was not nearly as deep as it had been melting ever since the day the team had arrived, but it was still not easy. The melted snow had made the earth below it muddy and slippery. By keeping closer to the trees along their path they avoided the softer ground to step on the great roots on the forest floor. Of course, they didn't try this until everyone had fallen at least once.
By late afternoon they found the clearing where the device stood, silent and solitary like a strange miniature Stonehenge in the dwindling snow. The lake remained several meters away, but unlike the last time the team had laid eyes on it, it was no longer frozen.
Lunasa gasped when she saw the circle of boulders. "All this time…all this time and it was only a little further away then we had looked!"
"Yes, don't you just hate when that happens?" Jack asked, smiling good-naturedly.
We're almost home.
As they neared the device, Daniel began unhitching his gear, eager to pull out his notes to figure out which hand print on the pillar was which according to the writing around each one.
"Daniel!" Jack called warningly.
"I know, I know! 'Don't touch anything!' At least not until I'm sure!"
"That's right!"
Lunasa followed her friends to the device, but her protectors from Xanthus hung back, as though fearing that something worthy of an evil beings attention must itself be evil.
Daniel was once again first to enter the perimeter of the circle, and when he did so the pillar came to life as before. When the light faded from the before plane surface the writing and the hand prints appeared.
Daniel paced around the pillar, looking from his notes to the writing as Lunasa continued to watch in wonder.
Sam, however had come up with a theory, and keeping her voice down to avoid disrupting Daniel's concentration, she explained.
"I think the boulders actually might serve as conductors for the energy field that the device used."
"How's that?" Jack asked, feigning denseness as usual. "Everything outside the circle changed, but we didn't."
"That's just it, sir. I think the energy field works to protect those within the device's circumference from the effects of…whatever it does…exactly…"
"You don't know yet?" Jack asked, eyebrows arched up in surprise.
"I'm hoping a second trip will help it to come to me."
"Ah."
"So, should my friends and I stand in the circle with you?" Lunasa asked, trying hard to follow Sam's line of reasoning.
"I don't think so. The energy output was enormous, but there was no sign of radiation and there was no damage done to the landscape…"
"If you don't call a foot of snow 'damage'." Jack interjected.
Sam smiled despite herself and went on. "You might be safer under the tree line, but we'll take care of the rest and come find you when it's over." Her smile faded as another thought came to mind. "I should warn you. There's a possibility that this won't work. Whatever powers this device could have a definite life span, and if it does this might not work, or something could go wrong in the middle of the process and, . . . well I don't know what would happen then."
Lunasa's concern was evident as she rested a comforting hand on Sam's arm and glancing at both Jack and Teal'c. "Then let me that you now for all you have done, even if you are unable to do anything more for us. If that is the case, I want you to know that I shall never blame you for anything that follows, and my people will remember you for your good will toward us." Tactfully ignoring the touched expressions on the faces of the warriors around her, she resumed watching Daniel, who seemed to have figured it out.
"This one," he said, pointing to the one on the side farthest from where the gate had once been, "is the one we need to use now. 'To take one to where he truly belongs.'" He moved around to the right of the pillar. "This one 'takes one to where he has not yet been.'" He moved around to the third and final side. "And this one is the one I touched before. 'To take one back to where he has already been.'"
Jack cleared his throat and shoved his focus back into place. "You're sure?" he asked, slightly suspicious. He wanted the gate, not a glacier, to show up.
"Sure my translations are right, yes. Sure that I know which side of the two left is the right one…maybe." Daniel grimaced.
"Maybe?" Jack rolled his eyes. This was the worst time for Daniel to be unsure. "Well, alright then. Lunasa, I suggest you and your people move back into the trees. We'll see you on the other side!"
Lunasa smiled quickly at each of them in turn, and then fled. Once her and her guard were watching them in amongst the trees, Jack turned back around and positioned himself inside the circle of boulders and Sam and Teal'c did the same.
"O.K. Daniel. You have my permission to touch it now." Jack said.
Daniel placed his hand in the correct print and found it to be a perfect match once again. Then the flash of white light blinded him and he knew no more.