-- Chapter 2 --

I managed to break away from the 'be careful, Daniel' chorus of my teammates and make it to my office to pack for my trip to PK4-808. I was touched by their concern but could hardly keep from rolling my eyes at them.

They were worried over nothing.

One thing that did have me worried was last night's nightmare. It had been about my meeting with Fanren, the snivelling little weasel who had sold Sam to Cronus's First Prime. I would have killed Fanren with my bare hands if it meant getting Sam back. At the time, it had seemed a perfectly reasonable response. I'd have done the same for Jack or Teal'c. I was sure of it.

But what did that make me? Fighting my way through waves of an attacking enemy was one thing. But Fanren had been unarmed. And I'd barely given him a chance to answer our questions before deciding that shooting him might make for a more persuasive argument.

Yet every minute he wasted meant one more minute for Sam to change hands again. One more minute for her to slip out of our reach. No, I'd definitely have done the same if it had been Jack or Teal'c that'd been missing. Definitely.

Still, I had to deal with my actions. The remembered rage and desperation had me waking up in a cold sweat last night. I didn't explain the reason for my nightmare to Sam, but she was kind enough to listen to my confusing and probably circular ramblings and then talk me back to sleep.

Truth be told, I missed Sam's company. Which was silly because I saw her every day. But I missed her. Actually, I was starting to worry that I was getting more comfort from her than she was from me. It was supposed to be the other way around.

Shaking my head, I pulled a new notebook off my bookshelf and stuffed it into my pack with the rest of my gear. That was the last of it. I headed for the lockers to change and made it to the gate room with a whole minute to spare. Then, just moments later, I was standing on the surface of another planet. I knew I'd never get tired of that.

"The ruins are down there." Jankowicz gestured to the remains of a village at the base of a mountain not far from the stargate.

"You can see the vault from here too." Julie leaned close to me, pointing over my shoulder. "There, in the hillside." She smiled broadly as we started on our way. "I'm so excited to finally be able to work on a project one-on-one with you."

I ducked my head. "Yeah, you, uh, you mentioned that." She wasn't the only person on my staff that I hadn't worked with individually, but she was the only one to make such a big deal about it. My embarrassment distracted me from where I was walking. I stumbled a bit on a loose stone.

"Hey," said Jankowicz. "I promised Colonel O'Neill I'd have you back without so much as a bruise, remember?" He gave me a good natured grin. "He'll rip me limb from limb if I don't make good on that, so watch your step, okay? For my sake?"

I forced a chuckle, adding another mental note to kill Jack to my list, and we walked the rest of the way to the ruins. Large boulders were scattered throughout the remains of the village, several nestled in the centre of what used to be sizable structures. The other two members of SG-8, Colonel Edward Haswell and Lieutenant Tom McCallum, were waiting for us.

"Hey, Tom!" said Jankowicz with a broad grin. "How'd those soil samples go?"

McCallum gave a tight smile. "Super, Major, thanks for your concern."

"No problems then?"

The Lieutenant shook his head, still wearing that humourless smile. "Not a one."

"Enough, you two." Colonel Haswell's voice was firm, but his expression was amused. "Julie, we found something over here while you were gone." He gestured for her to follow as he headed for one of the buildings that had been flattened by a huge boulder.

"Oh, and Conrad?" Haswell called over his shoulder. "You owe me twenty."

Jankowicz groaned loudly, rolling his head around his shoulders, and then set off at a jog to catch up with Haswell and Julie.

Puzzled, I turned to McCallum, who sighed.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"Major Jankowicz seems to find it amusing to superglue the lids on my soil sample containers. I imagine the bet was about whether or not I'd be prepared for him to try it again." He smirked. "I was."

"Are they always like that?"

"Yup."

"That must be fun."

He snorted. "Yup."

"So how do you stand it?"

"I don't have much choice. They're my superior officers."

Poor guy. Suddenly, I felt very lucky that being a civilian meant mouthing off at Jack didn't get me court martialled.

"It's not so bad," he said with a shrug. "Every other week, I swap out his uniform for one that's half a size smaller than the previous one. He's convinced he's gaining weight. In another few weeks, I plan to replace it with one that's six sizes too large. Just to see what happens."

That made me laugh. "Nice. I'll have to try that on Jack. Get him back for messing with my coffee."

"Just don't mention it was my idea." McCallum grinned at me.

"Deal."

"The vault's just over here."

I followed McCallum to the picturesque hillside and was immediately impressed with both the advanced nature of the control panel and door, as well as the artistry of the buttons. Shrugging off my pack, I pulled out my notebook and a pencil to begin sketching it.

It didn't take long to realise that the code required to unlock the vault wasn't something the builders had intended to be much of a puzzle. I suspected the vault had been accessible to the entire literate population. Julie was probably right that it contained the remaining treasures of their culture. All we had to do was learn more about the society that'd once lived on this planet.

"Doctor Jackson!"

Turning, I saw Julie approaching. Haswell and Jankowicz followed her, carrying a tablet between them. I stifled a sigh. They'd have to show me where they had found it later.

They set the tablet on the ground next to me. I skimmed the writing. It was similar to Sumerian cuneiform.

"What do you think?" asked Julie.

"This is interesting." I pointed first to an image of a mace and then to one near a broken corner that looked like part of a dog's head. "The mace has been used to represent Ninurta from Ancient Mesopotamia. And the dog's head is the standard depiction of his wife Gau, also known as Gula."

"How is that significant?" Julie asked, moving closer.

Jankowicz and McCallum chuckled a little, and I smiled at them. Always nice to meet people eager to learn about different cultures.

"Ninurta and Gula were the patron gods of Sirpurla, one of the oldest cities in Sumer. It's possible that the people who used to live here were taken from that region of Earth somewhere around the twenty-first century BC."

"You can learn all that about a society from a single tablet?" Julie looked up at me with wide eyes. "That's incredible."

I smiled at her. "It isn't, really. You just have to know what to look for."

Julie showed me the monument she'd been translating. The language was the same as the one on the tablet.

"They had a rough time," she said. "All the fish in the lake died, an earthquake caused a rock slide that destroyed a lot of the buildings in the village, and a disease wiped out the population."

She pointed to a number of lines of text on one side of the monument. "They were pretty superstitious too. Though with that much bad luck, maybe they had reason to be. They seemed to believe that the disasters were related to each other. They blamed a monster they called Asag for pretty much everything. Even the earthquake."

I narrowed my eyes, studying the text she was indicating. "What if all those events really were related?"

"How can an earthquake make people sick?"

I turned back to look at the mountain that towered over the village. A theory was brewing. "What if it wasn't actually a quake? What if it was an underground eruption?"

Jankowicz followed my gaze. "Eruption as in...volcano?"

"It could explain everything. The tremor, the dead fish, even the deaths. If the lake was their main source of water and an eruption caused it to become contaminated..." I looked back at the members of SG-8. "Maybe it wasn't a disease; maybe they were poisoned by their drinking water."

"Wait," said Colonel Haswell. "You're saying that thing's a volcano?"

"Well, maybe."

Julie gave a weak laugh. "Maybe we should go home."

I turned back to the monument. "You guys have been here for two days. Have you felt any tremors, seen any steam blasts or ground swelling?"

One by one, the four of them shook their heads.

I nodded. "The chance of it erupting during the short time we're here has to be negligible. And we're barely half a click from the stargate." Haswell was frowning at me. "I mean, it's your call, but as long as we don't drink any of the local water, I really don't think it's a problem."

Haswell seemed to think about it, but after a moment, he nodded.

"If I'm right about this, it could help us get into the vault. In Sumerian legend, Ninurta was the one who defeated Asag. And Gula was known as a healing goddess. Their symbols are all on the control panel."

Julie leaned closer, her arm brushing against mine. "Your ability to know what a culture was like based on such limited evidence is just amazing. I'm learning so much just by being around you."

I managed a slight smile and inched away as politely as I could. Invasion of my personal space wasn't a problem with my teammates, but I barely knew this woman.

Haswell cleared his throat. "Do you think Ninurta and Gula were the Goa'uld that brought these people here?"

"Could be."

It took several hours of studying the tablets, monument, and control panel, not to mention stopping for lunch, since Jankowicz insisted that Jack would want me to eat, but we eventually got the vault open. The heavy stone door slid aside slowly, rumbling as some small stones and dust fell from the ceiling inside.

The vault was large and filled with a number of metal-framed shelves, some standing, some toppled over. All were empty.

"Think someone else got here first," I said, kneeling with one knee on the ground just inside the door to examine a broken artefact half-buried in dust. "Oh, here's something." Ceramic, by the look of it. A jar, perhaps, or maybe a vase.

When no one responded, I looked over my shoulder to where Julie and the rest of her team stood in the doorway to the vault. She seemed to be staring intently at something behind my feet. I shifted slightly in my crouch to see what it was but found nothing.

Frowning, I turned back to her. "Julie?"

She jumped as if I startled her. "I'm sorry. What?"

McCallum snorted loudly. Jankowicz punched him in the shoulder. Haswell covered his mouth with one hand, cleared his throat, and turned away. Julie seemed to be blushing. Clearly, I had just missed something funny.

Haswell, Jankowicz, and McCallum began scouting the rest of the vault. It wasn't enormous, and it had definitely been looted a long time ago. I was disappointed. Solving the puzzle of the vault only to find it empty was quite anticlimactic, but there were probably still a few artefacts scattered around that could teach me something.

Julie crouched next to me as I brushed the dust away from the piece near my feet. "You know, I've read all of your published papers," she said.

I forced a laugh. Only one other person I knew had done that. "Did you have insomnia or something?"

"They were fascinating! I was completely blown away by your theories on the orthographic development of hieroglyphic and hieratic script. I know because of the secrecy of the Stargate Program, you can't prove anything right now, but the very fact that you predicted it before you heard about the stargate is just—" She placed her hand on my arm. "The way you see into things is incredible."

"I, uh..." I shifted uncomfortably. This was getting weird. Sarah had said something quite similar many years ago after we'd first met. I looked at Julie out of the corner of my eye. My discomfort increased exponentially as I realised her gaze was freely roaming over my chest and arms. Oh boy. Was that what her teammates had been snickering about all day long?

Strangely, the first question that popped into my head about her actions was what Sam would think about it. That was unexpected. Though the answer was obvious; she'd laugh and tease me. As would Jack. Without mercy. Which was why it would never be mentioned.

"There's a body over here," said McCallum from one corner of the vault, jolting me out of my thoughts.

We all gathered around for a look. Whoever it was had died a long time ago. The body was desiccated to the point of mummification, but in otherwise perfect condition.

Haswell quickly examined it. "He doesn't have any injuries that I can see. It's like he's just sitting there, waiting for something."

McCallum glanced at the open doorway. "Do you think someone locked him in here to die?"

"It's possible," I said. "Maybe he was one of the people who looted the vault, and the others decided not to share."

Jankowicz nudged McCallum with his elbow. "Better watch it, Tom, or we'll lock you in here when we leave."

"That's funny every time, sir."

I returned my attention to the pottery I'd found while the others kept exploring the room.

"Hey," said Julie from a far corner near Haswell. "I think there's more to the vault."

She reached for a control panel next to something that looked like it might be a door leading to a deeper section of the vault. My eyes flew to the mummified tenant. Oh, no. "Wait!"

But I was too late. She pressed a button on the panel. The stone door behind me slammed shut, plunging us into darkness. Its movement caused a violent tremor that shook the entire structure. Rocks of all sizes began raining down from the ceiling.

"Get down!" I heard Haswell order just before Julie screamed.

A nightmarish crash ripped through the darkness, accompanied by a strangled cry that abruptly cut off.

"Take cover!" someone shouted through the din.

There was a squawk of pain from somewhere as I tried to make myself as small a target for the falling stones as possible. A sharp blow to the back of my head told me that I'd failed. I heard myself grunt, and I stumbled to one side, catching myself on what must have been one of the intact shelving units.

It wobbled as I lost track of which way was up. Gravity soon reminded me, and I hit the ground, pulling the metal shelf down on top of me.

And then everything was quiet.

--------------------------------

My head throbbed. I could hear noises around me. Voices.

"I don't care if it's an order, sir. You need it more than I do, and as team medic, I outrank you in medical matters."

"That's bull and you know it, Tom."

"Yeah? You'll have to look it up when we get home. But right now, I'm the one with the needle. So do as I say and hold still." There was a short pause before he continued, "It'll just take a few minutes, okay?"

Something heavy lay over my back, making it hard to breathe. I coughed and inhaled a lungful of dust, which caused me to cough some more. My face was in the dirt.

"Julie, that you?" asked the same voice. McCallum. That was McCallum's voice.

I pried my eyes open to see the beam of a flashlight sweep across the dark vault.

"No." Julie's voice was quiet and muffled, but it sounded like she was crying. "I thought it was you."

The flashlight beam swept back and forth a few times. "Doctor Jackson? Where are you?" said Jankowicz.

"Is he okay?" Julie sounded desperate now.

I managed a quiet groan and tried to sit up. The thing on top of me shifted only slightly. "I'm here," I said. "What happened?"

"Hang on," said McCallum. "I'm coming." There was a grunt of pain, and then, "No, Major. You stay there. I can handle this."

After a lot of scrambling sounds that made me imagine him doing some elaborate, ritualistic dance to get from one end of the vault to the other, McCallum finally arrived next to me. He shone his flashlight in my eyes, which did nothing for the monster of a headache that was pulsing through my frontal lobe.

"Are you hurt?"

I gave my limbs a series of test twitches. Aside from some general aches and what felt like a whole lot of bruises, I was pretty sure I was alright. "Hit my head, I think. But otherwise, I'm okay."

"Oh, thank God," I heard Julie say from somewhere in the darkness.

"Let's see if we can get this thing off of you." McCallum braced his shoulder against the side of the shelving unit and pushed it up a few inches. I dragged myself out from under it and sat up slowly.

"Easy." McCallum put one hand firmly on my arm. "Take it easy."

I pulled my glasses off my face and tried to straighten the frames. One of the lenses was cracked. One of these days, I'd go on a mission that didn't destroy my glasses. I put them back on. At least they could still be of some use.

Suddenly, there was a bright light in my eyes again. I grimaced and turned away.

"Sorry, sir. I just have to see if you're alright. You've been unconscious for a while."

"Yeah, well, trust me," I grumbled. Another beam of light was coming from near a wall. I shielded my eyes as I looked into it. "Jankowicz?"

A bubble of laughter came from the light. "Hey there, Doc!"

"Is he okay?" I asked McCallum.

"His leg is broken, but I just gave him a shot of morphine. He's better than okay right now."

I squinted at McCallum. He was now holding the flashlight under one arm while he cradled the other against his body. "Are you okay?"

"My wrist is broken."

I winced in sympathy. Looked like I got off easy with just a bump on the head and broken glasses. "Julie? Haswell?"

"I'm here," said Julie, her voice still muffled. I turned to the sound but couldn't see much in the darkness of the vault.

"She's alright," said McCallum, handing me his flashlight. "Just trapped for the moment. Much like all of us."

I shone the flashlight in the direction of Julie's voice. A shock of red hair poking out from under a large flat stone slab caught my attention. "Julie? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm just—" The hair moved slightly as she sniffed. "I'm stuck."

"And Haswell?"

McCallum shook his head, then nodded to the far corner. "We thought you were, um..."

I shone my light in the direction he indicated and saw a huge stone slab, even bigger than the one that had Julie trapped, lying flat on the ground. Oh God. Was Haswell—?

I squeezed my eyes closed, fighting against the flood of memories that threatened to overwhelm me. With several deep breaths, I managed to bring myself to the present.

"It should be me," Julie was saying. "He pushed me out of the way. It should be—" A sob came out from beneath her stone. "This is all my fault."

"Julie, everything's going to be okay," said McCallum.

She uttered a harsh and humourless laugh. "Tell that to Ed."

"The Colonel died protecting his team. He'd have been okay with that."

The only response was another sniffle.

I shone the light on McCallum's arm. It looked bad. "I'll help you with that. Where's your kit?"

He shook his head. "I used the only remaining shot of morphine on Major Jankowicz. The others were destroyed in the collapse."

"It's nice," said Jankowicz with a broad grin. "You should try it."

"Well, we can at least get it immobilised," I said.

With the supplies in McCallum's first aid kit, I splinted his injury and helped him into a sling. Then, since Jankowicz seemed sufficiently blurred, we stabilised his leg as well. Janet could set the bones properly once we got back home.

I got to my feet, wobbling slightly, and fumbled the flashlight. It fell onto the dusty floor with a soft thud, so I leaned down to pick it up. Apparently, I moved too quickly. I was overcome with nausea and dizziness. With one hand against the wall, I swallowed hard, refusing to get sick in such an enclosed space.

"Are you alright, sir?" asked McCallum.

"I'm fine," I told him. Or make that I told both of him. Seeing double wasn't quite fine, but I was certainly better off than Colonel Haswell. I refused to look at the dark puddle that was oozing out from under the stone slab where he lay.

We had to get out of this place. Involuntarily, I glanced at our mummified companion. Most likely a looter who got greedy and found that the vault had quickly become his tomb. That probably meant that there was no way to open the door from the inside. And that meant we were really screwed. Still, we had to try.

I had a light source and archaeological training, two things I doubted our friendly neighbourhood looter had had. I also had a head that was throbbing so hard I thought it might explode any minute, so I figured I could use some help.

"Okay, Julie," I said. "Time to get you out of there."

"I can't," she whimpered. "I'm stuck."

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it," Jankowicz said loudly, waving his arms in the air. "And I can move the world!" He snorted and grinned. "Fulcrum's a funny word. Ful-crum." Abruptly, his grin disappeared, and his arms dropped to his sides. "Hey, I'm tired."

McCallum made his way over to Jankowicz's side. He crouched next to his teammate and patted him on the shoulder with his good hand. "Why don't you take a little nap then, okay buddy?"

"M'kay," said Jankowicz. He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, snickering again. "Fulcrum," he mumbled.

Archimedes. It was an idea. We needed a lever. A bit of poking around the piles of rubble in the vault turned up a broken shelf. I managed to free a four-foot long metal bar from its frame. It seemed strong enough for the task. Next, I found a stone with a notch in one side that could be the perfect fulcrum. After setting it up near the side of the slab that had Julie trapped, I jammed the bar into the space between the two stones.

The impact from that movement graciously provided me with another wonderful wave of nausea. I leaned on the bar to keep from falling over. It poked painfully at my stomach, doing nothing for my nausea, so I pushed off it again with a groan.

"I'm fine," I snapped before anyone could ask. Concussed and getting grumpier by the minute, but I'd be fine once Janet worked her magic in the infirmary. Which was where we'd all be going just as soon as we got the damned door open.

"Okay, McCallum, be ready to help her out when I get this up." It was time to do this. "Ready?" I asked them.

"Yeah."

"I'm ready."

With a deep breath, I laid all my weight on the lever, inching the stone slab up. I sighed with relief as McCallum helped Julie scramble out from under the massive rock. It wouldn't bring Haswell back, but at least the rest of us were more or less safe. Well, assuming we could get out of this vault.

As I began to slowly ease the stone back down, the lever in my hands slipped out of its notch. The slab slammed to the ground, sending a shudder through the entire structure.

Before I had a chance to cry a warning, stones again began raining from the ceiling. Not really in the market for a second blow to the head, I bent over, trying to avoid being hit. It was useless. A particularly large and hard rock bounced off of my back, and I heard myself cry out as it sent me sprawling forward. There was a sharp pain in my gut, and I collapsed to the ground on my side.

I gasped but couldn't seem to draw a deeper breath. Every attempt caused shooting pain through my abdomen. Slowly, I came to the realisation that something was very wrong. Though that much was obvious. We were trapped in a vault, Colonel Haswell was dead, and nearly everyone else was injured.

But there was more than that. I just couldn't figure out what it was.

"Everyone okay?" asked McCallum.

"Oh, God!" A beam of light bounced toward me and Julie appeared, kneeling on the ground at my side. "Don't move, Doctor Jackson."

I looked up into her face and saw panic there. Uh oh.

"Just hang on," she said. "Tom! Help!"

The edges of my vision were growing progressively darker, and as much as I tried to fight it, I knew I was going to lose the battle to retain consciousness.

"Sir?" McCallum's voice echoed vaguely in my head. "I think he's going into shock. Cover him with your jacket. Try to keep him warm."

"Listen to me, Doctor Jackson. Daniel, stay with me," came Julie's voice. "No, don't try to pull it out. Th–that would be very bad. You have to hang on. Don't pull it out."

Pull what out? Gasping for breath, I looked down to where my hands were still wrapped around the bar I had used as a lever. Through the darkness that was quickly encroaching on my vision, and in the dim light from Julie's flashlight, the metal glinted slightly between my fingers. My eyes followed the metallic sheen until it disappeared into my abdomen.

Oh yeah. Definitely not fine.

To be continued...
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