Chapter 13

They crouched in the tree line, studying the landscape around the tel'tak carefully. They had slowly followed the trees as far as they could and now they had come to the end of the road. If they wished to advance any further, they would have to break cover. O'Neill scanned the terrain again. It was like a killing ground - there was nowhere to hide. If any Jaffa saw them leave the trees, they would be shot down in seconds. They needed to be absolutely certain there would be no Jaffa in sight and then they would have to run to the ship without stopping.

Currently, approaching the tel'tak didn't seem like an option. Although the Jaffa weren't paying attention to the ship they had gutted, they were in view. The four were hidden in a copse of trees that was somewhat isolated from the main forest. The Jaffa were using the forest itself a little to the south and were often active along the tree line. Although they weren't that close, they were within visual range and if the team was spotted, they would never have enough time to search the ship for any power crystals that might have survived.

All they could do was wait and watch and hope the opportunity to reach the tel'tak would arise. The only other option was to abort the mission and accept they were trapped indefinitely on this world. And O'Neill wasn't ready to make that particular decision just yet.

Settling in a natural hollow, they paired off, taking it in turns to spy on the distant Jaffa while the other pair kept their location as protected as they could without giving their existence away. The hours passed by slowly and it was dark before Teal'c found the opportunity they had been waiting so patiently for.

"O'Neill" his deep voice was a barely audible rumble.

Without a word, O'Neill and Jacob joined them, scanning what they could see of the clearing in the gloomy starlight.

Carter gestured in the direction of the al'kesh to indicate the direction in which the Jaffa had gone. O'Neill stared around the area once more but could see no signs of movement or light sources to indicate anyone might be out there. Quickly, he gestured for the team to move out in their established pairs. Teal'c and Carter both nodded understanding and looked at each other.

Taking a deep breath and keeping low to the ground, Carter stepped out of the trees and charged for the burned-out tel'tak. Squaring his shoulders as he prepared himself, the Jaffa was only a step behind her as she ran.

Silent and tense, O'Neill and Jacob cocked their weapons, ready to lay down cover fire the minute something went wrong.

As she ran, Carter could feel her shoulder blades itching. All around her was empty space, the gloom made shadowy and dark by the veil of trees just beyond her vision. The silence was oppressive, broken only by the sound of her hitting the ground and the hiss of her breath as she tried to keep herself as silent as possible without sacrificing too much speed. Although she knew it was only Teal'c who dogged her steps, she had never felt so vulnerable. Any moment now, Dad's gonna start shouting and Jaffa are going to start firing before I can do anything. I'm gonna die out here on an alien world with a broken stargate without ever knowing what the Tok'ra were really looking for...

They skidded to a stop beside the doors to the tel'tak and Teal'c quickly began working on getting the crystals to respond to his commands. Then they were inside, the door hissing shut behind them, staring at each other in relief.

The moment didn't last long. Ever alert, Teal'c turned sharply, staff weapon at the ready, scanning his surroundings in case any Jaffa were inside. Taking no chances herself, Carter took in her surroundings quickly, not relaxing her guard.

Teal'c nodded to her, indicating he detected nothing amiss and began to studying the state the interior was in. From the outside, the ship hadn't looked too badly damaged. Inside, however, the walls were blackened and scorched. The interactive consoles had been ripped clean and pounded out of shape. Even the chairs had been ripped out and torn up.

"Major Carter, there appears to be less damage in the cargo areas," Teal'c observed from the doorway between the cargo hold and the control centre. Carter moved across towards him and studied the space. "Less equipment required to leave orbit and enter hyperspace," she replied and the Jaffa nodded in silent agreement.

"Do you believe there is anything we can salvage?" he asked instead.

Carter sighed. "It's not looking too good, is it?" she let her gun drop back against her torso and began taking a closer look at the computer. The hyperspace generator had been destroyed utterly, as had the navigation controls and ignition. She was about to give up when she noticed something that didn't look as badly damaged. Ruthlessly quashing the sense of hope she was starting to feel, she began removing the damaged crystal interface so she could get a better look.

"Major Carter, the crystals that control the ring platform appear to be undamaged." Teal'c observed, entering the room again.

"That's great, Teal'c." She held up an undamaged arrangement of crystals with a wry smile. "They didn't destroy the self-destruct technology either."

"Indeed." Teal'c raised an eyebrow at that. "Will these crystals provide enough energy to activate the Stargate?"

Carter frowned as she considered the comparative power of the crystals they had compiled. "Well" she mused. "Goa'uld crystal technology has a far more efficient energy storage capacity than anything we currently have on Earth. We did manage to get the Alpha Gate activated with two 6-cylinder multifuel 210-horsepowered turbo engines..."

One of Teal'c's eyebrows was rising. "I see"

Carter bit back a grin at his tone of voice. It was the tone he reserved for those times he regretted asking a question and preferred to end the conversation rather than admit he still didn't understand. "The answer's yes, Teal'c." she clarified.

"I do not see anything we can utilise to connect the crystals to the Stargate," he continued.

She sighed at his inquisitive expression. "Neither do I." She quickly packed the crystals away and gave the interior of the tel'tak one last look. There really wasn't anything they could use to connect the crystals up to the Stargate. Deciding that they needed to get what they had successfully salvaged back to safety first, she activated her radio. "Colonel, come in."

~Go ahead, Carter~

"We've got the crystals. We'll have to worry about how to transfer the energy to the gate when we get back, sir. There's nothing here we can use."

~Understood. There's no Jaffa outside, get back here~

"On our way, sir." She ended the communication and nodded to Teal'c. Taking a deep breath, she cautiously exited the tel'tak, the Jaffa close beside her. Pausing only to reseal the entrance, they quickly hurried back to the waiting pair and all four quickly slid off into the forest while the going was still clear.

It was dawn by the time they finally arrived back at the underground complex that had become their base camp. Carter quickly explained the crystals were all they had been able to salvage from the cargo ship.

"How are the glyphs coming?" Jacob asked the group that had remained behind.

Three Tok'ra and one Kelownan shared a series of frustrated glances. "There's nothing in these chambers to give us a reference for translating the glyphs on the gate." Quinn replied. "But we did realise something," he nodded to Anise, who held out the two amulets that had rested on the staff rising out of the golden dais in the sixth chamber.

"These amulets are made out of the same red quartzite material that forms the master control crystal in most DHDs," Anise continued. She placed them down on the ground in a line, the odd tower-shaped amulet lying above the distorted ankh. "This pattern corresponds to the unique indentation in the dais the Stargate lies upon."

"We think these amulets belong in that indentation on the dais." Quinn finished, glancing between O'Neill and Carter.

The four stared at the two amulets lying in on the ground in front of them. "You think these could be some kind of DHD master control crystal?" Jacob demanded.

Carter's eyes widened. "If that's true, that dais isn't a dais at all. It's a DHD!"

Quinn was nodding enthusiastically. "Some of the geometric glyphs in the circular indentations do correspond to matching glyphs on the Stargate itself," he agreed.

O'Neill was staring at them. "That plinth thing? A DHD? How?!"

Jacob was frowning. "I've never heard of any DHD that looked like that thing and neither has Selmak"

"I concur." Teal'c's voice was quiet.

Carter opened her mouth, then paused and looked at Quinn. The Kelownan spread his hands. "Unless we can translate the glyphs, it's useless to us anyway," he admitted.

"Those geometric shapes didn't look like any buttons I've ever seen. How would you key in the co-ordinates even if you did translate the glyphs?" Jacob wasn't looking at all convinced.

O'Neill shook himself. "So really this changes nothing," he interrupted as both Carter and Quinn started to speak. "Unless we get the glyphs translated, the whole gate is useless to us. If we do get the gate translated we don't know how to use the dais as a DHD so we'll be manually dialling anyway."

Anise nodded. "That is correct." She agreed. "These crystals are also cracked. If they are the master control crystal it is possible their damage is too great to use properly. In that case, we can attempt to connect the salvaged crystals to the master crystal. A much easier proposition than attempting to connect them directly to the Stargate itself. If the damage is not extensive then the Stargate already has the energy required to dial out and we will not need to concern ourselves with the salvaged crystals at all. We need to reinstall the master crystal. As soon as we know what co-ordinates to put in, we can depart."

"That's all, eh?" O'Neill said dryly.

Anise stared at him for several moments, her expression irritated. She said nothing however. This time even she knew it wasn't as simple as it sounded. She was the most experienced archaeologist in the chamber and had been on the planet longer than anyone else. In all that time, she had learned nothing that would help her translate the glyphs on the Stargate and even though it now seemed the dais on which the gate rested could be the missing DHD, it was nothing she had ever come across before. She was baffled as to how this unique Stargate could possibly function and for once in her life was too full of doubt to retaliate in the face of the Colonel's continued hostility towards her.

Looking around, she could see no answers in anyone's faces but she felt no pleasure in finally seeing SG-1 as confused as she. The situation was too serious for that. With a sigh, she leaned down and retrieved the two crystal amulets. All her instincts told her they were missing something. She just couldn't, for the life of her, see what that something was.