Chapter 7
The tunnels continued downward through a series of stone doors decorated in hieroglyphics and cavernous rooms before Anise finally reached her destination. Including the first door in the clearing, SG-1 counted six doors and five caverns before finally stopping in what appeared to be the sixth. In the subterranean darkness, they saw very little detail of their surroundings but there was more than enough for them to see the Egyptian feel to the decorations although it wasn't clear which Goa'uld had called this place home.
"Holy Hannah"
Upon coming to a stop in the cavern, the first well lit room of the entire underground complex they had come to, Jacob and O'Neill could do nothing but stare. The others entered slowly, also stunned and paused, looking around them in amazement.
By far the largest cavern they had come across yet, the room was clearly a ceremonial hall of some kind. The entrance was guarded by two great dogs, frozen in a pose of watchfulness. On the walls over them hung images of a five-pointed star and around their heads sat coiled cobras as though some kind of crown. Golden steps spread out from the centre of the hall, sweeping up to a dais upon which sat a great golden throne, carved with countless and nameless faces. On the wall, just behind the throne a large red disk enclosed by slim horns seemed to rise out of a rain of feathers. Far above this, near the top of the wall, two wings flared out from something that might have been a basket, their spreading, curling form looking extremely familiar to the spellbound new arrivals.
In front of the throne rose a single, slim pillar that ended in a dog's head and with two arms outstretched and at the base of the throne itself lay what appeared to be a footrest in the shape of a pig. In each of the pillar's outstretched arms, something rested, two necklaces it seemed, one in the shape of a barred pillar, the second in the shape of an ankh. Around the base of the dais stretched a design that could have been either a long, thick rope, or another serpent motif. It was hard to tell.
The side walls of the hall were no less decorated either, as numerous images of serpents in various poses appeared. Many seemed to be battling a humanoid figure but there were also cobras that seemed to be looking down on the battle from on high, cobras that spat fire, as the images on the outer doorway had depicted.
"It's amazing" Carter breathed, turning slowly. There was a breeze whipping through room, and it took her several moments to locate the window high up the northern wall, the light seeming to strike the centre of the red disk, making it glow like the sun.
"Imagine the cost of redecorating this place" O'Neill recovered and turned quickly to face the three Tok'ra who were watching them from the bottom of some steps that seemed to lead towards the single window far above them.
Anise stepped forward. "This is Sin and Ilithya," she said, gesturing to the male and female Tok'ra with her respectively.
O'Neill contemplated them for a moment, then looked at Anise. "This is Jonas Quinn" he introduced the Kelownan, then glanced at Quinn. "Anise. Her host is called Freya. You've read about her?"
"The armbands and the zatar'c incidents" Quinn nodded and noticed rest of SG-1 flinch.
Anise pursed her lips tightly at the references but nodded politely to him. "Doctor Jackson is not here?"
"He's busy" O'Neill said curtly, then abruptly changed the subject. Anise was the last person he wanted to discuss Jackson with. "So. You got lost?"
Anise tilted her head at him with a slightly disapproving twitch to her lips. "When we realised we could not use the Stargate to return, we expanded our search of Shambhala to make use of our time until the Tok'ra sent a ship for us. We came across this underground complex by accident and were exploring it when the earth began to shake. We thought it was an earthquake initially, until we returned to the surface and discovered it was a ha'tak taking off from one of the mountains to the north. The ha'tak seemed to have triggered a volcanic reaction so we took refuge from the worst of it. When it subsided, we returned here to continue studying."
"And you didn't think of making it obvious how to find you?" O'Neill asked sarcastically.
"If we had done that, the Jaffa would have found us" Ilithya responded evenly.
"Do you know which Goa'uld controls the Jaffa?" Carter asked.
"No. We were trying to avoid being detected by them" Ilithya's expression was bland.
Carter stared at her for a moment, started to speak and then paused, glancing at O'Neill. The Colonel rolled his eyes.
"Well, the good news is we have a ship" Quinn offered wryly. "Although the bad news is that the Jaffa have found it"
"Then you are as trapped as we" Sin observed gravely, and turned away to contemplate the walls apparently considering the conversation to be over.
O'Neill's eyes narrowed at his back, but Carter jumped in first. "What about the Stargate? Are you sure it can't be used?"
Anise nodded. "We did make an attempt to study it when we realised there were Jaffa arriving here but there is no means of activating it. We attempted a manual dial. It failed."
"It does not matter if the Stargate was functional" Ilithya interrupted. "We have not found a way to translate the symbols on the gate. Even with a DHD we would not know what co-ordinates to enter"
Carter frowned. "Sir, with your permission I'd like to have a look at the Stargate and see if we can find a way to activate it."
O'Neill nodded. "You and Jonas work on the Stargate. Teal'c, you and I are going to try and get a closer look at those Jaffa and our ship" he looked at Jacob expectantly.
The Tok'ra nodded. "I want to see why those Jaffa are here too" he glanced at Anise. "What have you discovered about this planet so far?"
The three Tok'ra looked at each other for a moment, then Sin nodded and turned to face Jacob. "The Stargate seems to be the oldest artefact on the planet, although the temple complex appears to be around two thousand years old. There's a strong similarity between the temple complex and Kheb, although we have found no art or writings from this complex. We speculate they concentrated on oral tradition instead. We have found evidence of communal living - furniture, utensils - particularly bowls. As well as that, we have found many examples of musical instruments, particularly wind instruments and percussion. Music seems to have been very important here."
"That doesn't sound like Kheb" Carter commented.
"Indeed. Kheb was a place of solitude and meditation. Words were spoken with the intent to teach, otherwise one made no sound" Teal'c agreed.
"What is Shambhala?" Quinn asked curiously.
"It is an ancient kingdom, a great centre of spiritual learning" Anise turned to him, apparently glad to no longer be concentrating on O'Neill. "It could be located by a chain of eight mountains surrounding a plateau. When looked at in the correct manner, the kingdom appears as an eight-petal lotus flower. In the centre of the kingdom lies the capital city, Kalapa and there is also a noted sun temple and moon temple."
"Seen from above, the land surrounding the Stargate does indeed appear to form an eight-petal lotus," Ilithya said softly.
"Where does... this fit in?" The Kelownan gestured to the hall they were standing in.
"Shambhala is linked to a subterranean civilisation known as Agartha" Sin said dryly. "We thought, at first, this was Agartha and the Goa'uld had claimed it for themselves"
"We discovered that was not this case. This complex is entire Goa'uld in origin" Ilithya concluded.
"And older than the temple complex near the Stargate" Sin added.
"We don't agree on that," Ilithya said quickly and Anise nodded in agreement with Ilithya.
"And this Goa'uld is... Apophis?" Quinn encouraged.
"We don't agree on that either" Sin shot Anise a look.
"I believe Apophis did not necessarily build this place," Anise said. "But he did claim it at some stage in its history. This complex is devoted to the serpent motif and only Apophis carried that symbol."
O'Neill pointed at the large disk on the wall behind the throne. "I've seen that before. On Ra."
Anise nodded. "That is indeed the sun disk"
"And those outstretched wings are the mark of Heru'Ur" Carter added, gesturing to the symbols that were pictured above the sun disk.
Anise nodded in agreement again. "But they are the only symbols representing Ra and Heru'Ur that we have found. Heru'Ur was Ra's son. It is possible this place was first the abode of Ra but at some later date became controlled by Apophis"
"Apophis and Ra were indeed great enemies" Teal'c said slowly. "But I do not recall any such location belonging to Apophis while I was First Prime. I also do not remember Bra'tac speaking of such a place when he was First Prime."
"This place has been abandoned for a long time. It might have been from a time long before you or Bra'tac were even born" Anise offered. "Being Jaffa gives you long life but you do not live as long as a Goa'uld."
"Do you know why the Goa'uld abandoned this place?" Selmak asked suddenly.
The three Tok'ra scientists glanced at each other then shook their heads. "Ra and Apophis are both dead but these halls have been abandoned for much longer than that." Ilithya mused. "We have seen nothing to explain why the Goa'uld left this place or why Jaffa have returned."
Selmak turned to O'Neill. "We should find out who those Jaffa serve. It might help answer our questions."
O'Neill nodded. "How many ways are there into this complex?"
"One that we have been able to find" Anise replied.
"Then we can defend this place if we have to" O'Neill nodded. He turned. "Jacob, Teal'c, you're with me. Carter, try and work out how to activate the gate from here until I get back and start rigging this place in case we bring back any uninvited guests"
"Yes sir" Carter said quietly.
"And you..." he glanced at the Tok'ra. "Stay out of trouble" and with that, he was gone.