Chapter 22

"Snow?"

"People living in the ruins?"

"Are you sure Dr. Fraiser found nothing wrong with you?"

After insisting on absolutely no questions until they were done, SG-1 gave a full account of their activities over the eight days they were missing to General Hammond, Jacob, and Dr. Janet Frasier, who now looked at them as if they had just sprouted feathers.

"There was indeed snow after we touched the device; yes, there were in fact people inhabiting the ruins; and yes, Dr. Fraiser has cleared each of us." Teal'c said, looking back and forth from George to Jacob, answering their questions in turn.

"Teal'c, Teal'c, Teal'c," Jack shook his head sadly from across the briefing room table, "You have yet to understand the art of rhetorical questions."

Teal'c merely looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow.

"He's right, sir." Janet put in. "I ran every test imaginable and they all came back clean, with the exception of one. Each of them was wearing an odd brown tunic under their uniforms. I had it analyzed and…well, it's not something you could find at the local mall, to say the least."

"We got those from Lunasa." Sam explained. "They kept us warm enough the whole time we were there."

"Who's Lunasa?" George demanded. Hearing one of his teams come back from a mission with a story about snow that didn't exist and people whose only proof of existence was a strange shirt was not his idea of fun.

"Wait a minute. Are you saying that the whole time you were looking for us, there was never any snow on the ground and you never found any people?" Daniel asked, incredulous.

"No," Jacob answered without hesitation, but he still looked at the team as through something was growing out of their noses.

"How is that possible?" Sam asked, thinking aloud. "How can an entire population that is there for eight days be undetectable before and during those days except to us?"

"Perhaps the device affected us in such a way that we could find them, but they are otherwise hidden. It is possible that there is a shield over the city that prevented us from detecting their presence," Teal'c suggested.

"I suppose Zippy probably wouldn't have wanted his little project to be found," Jack commented with a mental picture of some rival Goa'uld blowing Zipacna's ship out of the sky…but this time with Zipacna actually in it…

Sam shook her head as if trying to make a missing piece of the puzzle in her mind fall into place. "I don't think it had any effect on us, Teal'c. Not physically. It was more like the device created an energy bubble around us, and it affected only what was outside of it."

Now it was Jack's turn to shake his head, but it was to clear his mind of the confusion that Sam often caused. "The point is, General, we promised the people that we would come back to help them. They were nice to us, but they're worried Zippy's going to come back. Besides that they need humanitarian aid."

"Also it is definitely not a good idea to let Zipacna or any other Goa'uld have control over this device," Sam added. "Even if the population never tells him what it does and how it works, the power source is immense and if he can remove it he could do some really serious damage with it."

"Request permission to return to the planet with aid." Jack said, turning to George.

"You don't even know if you're going to find those people again!" Jacob exclaimed, confused and annoyed by their persistence in believing in a population of people that he never saw.

"They couldn't have just disappeared! We at least have to try!" Daniel said, just as confused as Jacob but still full of conviction that what they were asking for was the right course of action.

George considered for a moment while those at the table watched him apprehensively. "Alright. You'll ship out again tomorrow at 0900 hours, but SG-3 is going with you to watch the gate while you go to the city, and you are not, under any circumstances, not to touch that device again. Is that clear?"

A chorus of "yes sir"'s was heard, though two of the voices were distinctly disappointed, and it would only take one guess to figure out who.

"Good. Now I want all of you to go and get a good night's sleep. Dismissed."

That night Jack, Sam, and Daniel decided to take up their usual room in the barracks while Teal'c returned to his quarters to kel no reem. There was no point in going home, and they were all exhausted from the long trek back from Xanthus to the gate. Jack, however, had his work cut out for him.

After leaving the looker room and grabbing the cloths they had each become accustomed to having hidden in the bottom of their lockers for times such as these, Daniel attempted to give them the slip and escape to his office, where he would no doubt work until he fell asleep at his desk.

"Oh no you don't Danny boy! You're not going anywhere near that office of yours tonight, got it?"

"But Jack…"

"Daniel." Jack gave him the ''no'-is-not-an-option-this-time' glare and Daniel's shoulders sagged visibly in defeat.

Sam used a nearby washroom to change, and when she came back her CO ordered her to "watch Daniel like a hawk. I'll be right back."

After ordering a night duty SF near Daniel's office not to let the archeologist go in on pain of death, he came back to the barracks smiling to himself, knowing that even if Daniel got away after he fell asleep, the workaholic wouldn't get far before having to come back.

The next morning found Daniel sound asleep in the bunk above Jack's. With a little prodding and many longing calls for coffee, they changed back into uniforms and met Teal'c in the commissary for breakfast. They ate quickly with little conversation and then geared up for yet another trip through the gate.

After bringing up the M.A.L.P. to make sure that the situation had not changed, the team went through and expertly exited on the other side.

As they passed the device that had caused them so many problems on their first visit, giving it a wide berth, Jack and Teal'c eyed it warily, as though wondering if it might go off without warning. Daniel and Sam, however, looked at it will eyes full of sheer curiosity. Sam was itching to take it apart, piece by piece, and find out how it generated its immense power. Daniel wanted more than anything to have a closer look at the come-again go-again symbols on the pillar and figure out exactly what the cryptic messages meant.

But between the direct order from General Hammond and the vibes they were both getting off of Teal'c and Jack, neither dared to say a word and had to be satisfied with looking at it from a distance.

Their march to Xanthus felt far too long, even though they could see the outer rim of buildings about half way along the mountain pass. They heard no sounds, no voices save for the strange birds that sat in the branches overhead, trilling their warnings to their fellows.

The moment the team entered the valley as twilight settled over the mountain peaks, they knew something was wrong. It didn't feel the same. Looking around them with frowns on their faces, they realized that it didn't look remotely the same, either.

Instead of the mini metropolis they had left only the day before, there now stood a vast ruin of a once glorious city. Instead of flat plains once used to grow desperately needed crops, there were only rough fields of tall wild grasses and shrubs.

"What the hell…" Jack muttered, voicing the confusion they were all feeling.

"It's like no one's been here for decades…"

"…just like what the U.A.V. found…" Sam finished Daniel's thought.

"Is that not impossible?" Teal'c asked, eyeing the tall weeds that they were standing in.

"Um, yeah…" Jack struggled to work out Teal'c's wording and then corrected himself. "I mean, it is impossible! Or at least I thought it was! So back to my previous comment: What the hell is going on here?"

Teal'c continued to look around at their surroundings while Sam and Daniel shrugged.

"You don't think Zipacna…" Daniel started slowly, fearing the worst.

"There are no signs of battle, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c observed.

"The city looks more like it's fallen apart by itself and nothing can explain that and all this plant growth except the passage of time…a whole lot of it." Sam pointed out.

Suddenly, Jack saw a revelation cross Daniel's face, and the linguist was marching steadily down the main road of Xanthus.

"What?" Jack shouted after his friend. But he hadn't really expected an answer, so it came as no surprise when he didn't get one. Jack had seen that look before, and he knew that the only way he was going to find out 'what' was to follow Daniel to wherever he was headed.

I HATE when he does this!

After passing the crumbling building that had been the home of Lunasa and the team's lodging for the extent of their visit to Xanthus, now missing its roof and all it's woodwork and been reduced to dust, right down to the tables and chairs that had been inside, it became fairly obvious where Daniel was leading them.

"Why are we going back to the cavern, Daniel?" Sam asked after finally catching up with him.

"I think I know what's been going on, but I need another look at those Ancient translations first…"

Something in Daniel's voice told her that she just needed to be patient and let him do his thing again…at least more patient than her CO was going to be. She could hear Jack's muttering behind her. Sam knew well enough to realize that even though he was once again annoyed by Daniel's typical behavior, he was just as confused as the rest of them and wanted to find what had happened to the people of Xanthus.

When they finally reached the cavern's mouth, Daniel dropped his pack to the ground and dug out his notes and his flashlight as his friends wordlessly followed suit. The archeologist then led them far back into the depths of the tunnel, farther than they had been before. The moss that they had worked so hard to remove was taking hold again, and had managed to overtake large portions of the wall.

Daniel ran the light of his flashlight along the wall as if looking for a specific portion of text, or maybe a bookmark. Finally he stopped and turned to the wall, starring.

"Daniel!" Jack's thin patience was getting thinner by the second.

"Shh, just…one minute!" Daniel countered without turning, index finger raised.

Minutes passed while Teal'c kept a wary eye on the faint light that could bee seen form the opening of the cavern, and Sam sat against the rough wall watching Jack shuffle around, waiting.

Finally Daniel turned around with a glazed look in his blue eyes, realization dawning.

Jack stopped his fidgeting and said, "If you don't explain what we came here for right now I'll…"

"We're in the record!" Daniel cut Jack off and was greeted by a stunned silence. "It says here, 'four strangers came to the city after encountering the…' something I can't translate… 'and were led to the history. They taught the inhabitants the workings of the…' same word, no equivalent… 'and used it again, never to return…'"

"DanielJackson? Were not these writings made many centuries ago?" Teal'c asked.

"Yes, at least I thought they were, but I think I understand now."

Daniel turned toward Sam and Jack. Jack braced himself for whatever Daniel was about to explain…it was sure to be a dosey.

"Assuming that the word I can't translate here is the mystery race's word for the device, I think that we may be dealing with some kind of…time travel device…"

"Ah nah not again!" Jack groaned, looking at Teal'c. "Will it ever stop?"

"The descriptions of the different functions make sense now." Daniel continued, ignoring Jack's complaining. "One 'takes one back to where he has already been.' That must mean that it takes you backward in time. Another 'takes one to where he has not yet been.' That might mean going into the future. The last, 'To take one to where he truly belongs,'… maybe this race of aliens thought of a way to track what they thought was the natural progression of time…"

"Hang on," Sam spoke up, "you're saying that the device by the gate has a similar purpose to the time looping device on P4X639?"

"Only this one actually worked, and it doesn't involve the gate. You said that boulders might be conductors for an energy field, and the field keeps us safe while it changes everything outside of it, right?" Sam nodded, so Daniel decided to run with the idea. "Is it possible that the device is really making a… a bubble around us, and taking us through time?"

"Yeah, I suppose…there certainly was enough energy output to create a time inversion. But how it was able to do it without using the Stargate to create the time inversion outside of subspace…"

"Does that mean we have finally solved the question of whether it took us somewhere or not?" Jack asked rather sarcastically. "Looks like both or you were right. It did move us, but in time, not on the planet."

"Then the eight days that we were here, that time was part of this world's past?" Teal'c asked, trying to follow.

"Yes, I think so," Daniel said with a nod.

"So that means Lunasa and her people are long gone, right?" Sam guessed sadly. She had looked forward to seeing the young leader again.

"Daniel? Does this…record… say what happened to them after we left?" Jack asked quietly. He prayed he wouldn't regret asking if there was.

Daniel went back to the wall and moved just past where he had been reading before. Some moss covered to top of the column, but it was easily removed and he began to translate it, reading it aloud as he worked.

"'The Goa'uld returned some time after the strangers left, and demanded knowledge of the…' still can't pronounce that… 'The people refused and the Goa'uld attacked…Few were harmed as the people… used the knowledge the strangers had given them of the…' it's really starting to bug me that I can't read that!... 'to go where they had not yet been!' They used the device to escape and went into the future because if us!" Daniel said, triumphant.

"So why aren't they here now?" Sam asked, the weight that had settled in her heart now lifted.

"Let's see…" Daniel moved to the next column of text and began to translate it to them. "'The people then found the gateway' which is probably the Stargate, 'but were unable to work it…'"

"It's possible that when the device was used, the inner ring of the gate locked down." Sam hypothesized. "The DHD can keep track of stellar drift, but not if it doesn't know how much time has…or hasn't passed…"

"Hey, wait a second!" Jack burst out suddenly. "Are you saying that even if we'd gotten to the gate while we were back…" Jack's gears seemed to jam up so Daniel gave him a hand.

"In the planet's past?"

"Yeah, back there…we wouldn't have been able to gate home anyway?"

"No sir, I doubt it would have worked."

Jack just shook his head. The plan of just getting to the gate and dialing home had never failed so miserably before.

"What did they do next?" he asked Daniel with the air of a kid wanting to know how his bed time story was going to end.

"'After some time they used the…' damn it!... 'to return to where they truly belonged,' so they must have gone back to their own time… 'The Goa'uld had planted a gateway while they had searched for the missing people, but never returned through it or retrieved it… The people made the gateway open, and left through it to their home world!' They must have had a gate after all!"

"How could they have known the symbols? Teal'c inquired.

"Well they could have been well known constellations and they just needed the right order, or the address could have been a part of their written history, but when they lost the gate the real meaning of the sequence was lost too. Once they saw the symbols on the gate and the DHD it wouldn't have taken them long to figure it out…well long enough…it took me two weeks, anyway…" Daniel added modestly, shrugging.

"Lunasa did say that they didn't really want to leave Xanthus, but I bet if they realized that they could use the gate to go home, they'd have done it." Sam commented.

"How then did the gate get to its current position of the Goa'uld did not put it there?" Teal'c wondered aloud.

Daniel tore the moss from the bottom of the column and read, "'We,' meaning the mystery race, 'replaced the gateway to be near the...'" he sighed, exasperated as he hit the untranslatable word once more, "'so that the enemies of the gods would one day find it.'"

"That's probably us verses the Gould…. So…that's it?" Jack asked cautiously.

"Well the record goes on for quite a while," Daniel answered, lighting the last few meters of script with if flashlight.

"Though judging by how much there is left in the record, how old the city looked then, and how old it seems now, I'd guess that the record probably ended some 200 years ago." Sam added as Daniel nodded concurrently.

"I'd really better read…"

"Another time perhaps," Jack smiled, taking Daniel by the shoulders and firmly steering him away from the back of the cavern.