Chapter 5
The creature dropped his hand and ran off into the jungle before Daniel had time to react. He stood there for a minute, trying to reconcile what had just happened with what little he knew of these beings. They had all assumed they were being attacked when they first ran into the creatures after walking through the Stargate, but Daniel now wondered whether they had misread their intentions.
He shook himself from his thoughts and turned to find his team several feet upriver. He jogged to catch up to them. "Jack."
Their leader spun around to face him, glancing over his shoulder. "Daniel," he stated with a furrowed brow, perturbed that the archeologist hadn't been keeping up with the rest of the group. "Where have you been?"
"I ran into one of those creatures." The three other members of SG-1 immediately raised their weapons and began scouring the jungle. Daniel held his hands up in a placating gesture. "Wait...just...wait a minute. It didn't hurt me. I think it just wanted to talk to me."
Jack raised his eyebrows. "It wanted to talk?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, not talk exactly. It...it touched my head." Daniel closed his eyes, realizing how crazy his next statement was going to sound. "I heard it speak to me - in my mind."
Jack's initial reaction was to question the scientist's sanity. But it then occurred to him that he'd seen much stranger things over the past four years. He took a deep breath. "So what did it say?"
"It asked me for help. Then it just...ran off." The military man looked down at the ground and shook his head. "Look, Jack, I think these things are in some kind of danger."
He glanced up. "And that's a bad thing?"
Daniel nodded. "Yeah, I think it is."
"I think he's right, sir," Sam interrupted. "I can't explain how I know it; I just...do."
Jack squinted into the distance, thinking. After a moment, he let out a long sigh, then addressed the group, his mind apparently made up. "Alright. Daniel, Teal'c, I want you to get to the Stargate and let the SGC know what's going on here. Tell them to send us some backup. Do you think you can find the 'gate?"
"Um..." Daniel faltered.
"We can," replied Teal'c without hesitation.
"Okay. In the meantime Carter and I will try to figure out what Sukumar and his buddies are up to."
A thought occurred to Daniel. "If we run across the creatures, maybe I can get more information."
"Negative," Jack replied immediately.
"Jack, I don't think they're dangerous."
Jack attempted to reign in his frustration; he had never grown accustomed to having his orders questioned, not even by Daniel. He addressed the archeologist directly. "You can't know that, Daniel. So don't even think about trying to engage them. Got it?"
Daniel gave Jack a nod, recognizing that their leader's tone indicated that he was not going to be persuaded.
"Good," Jack barked, knowing full well that just because Daniel had stopped arguing didn't mean he intended to comply. "And Daniel," he said, his tone softening considerably, "be careful." He looked meaningfully at Teal'c, who nodded his silent understanding that he was to keep the younger man out of trouble.
As they turned to leave, Daniel looked at the two military members of SG-1. "You, too."
oOoOoOo
After Daniel and Teal'c took off into the heart of the jungle, Jack and Sam continued upriver after Sukumar and the others, stopping at the body of the priest that had been left on the river bank. They knelt down on either side of the corpse.
Sam examined the body closely, though it wasn't difficult to determine the cause of death. "Looks like his neck is broken," she said.
Jack frowned down at the corpse. "Yeah, well, it also looks like they might not have a sarcophagus after all."
"Sir?"
Jack glanced up at his Second and gestured to the body. "They've left him here. You'd think they would've taken him back to their sarcophagus to revive him."
She furrowed her brow. "So if the Fountain isn't a sarcophagus, what is it?"
Jack stood and motioned with his head in the direction the Beiminians had traveled. "Let's go find out."
They moved quickly and carefully upriver, slowing only when they suddenly came upon Sukumar and the others, who were talking outside of a small, stone pyramid.
Jack studied the pyramid. Something about it was strangely familiar. It was made of the same gray, porous stone as the fortress in which they'd been staying, and the triangular structure was stepped, rather than smooth. Still, Jack couldn't shake the feeling that it was Goa'uld in origin.
The pyramid sat directly on top of the river, straddling it. The water flowed from an opening in the front, with enough room on either side to allow a person to enter the structure by walking alongside the water. In fact, that was exactly the manner in which Sukumar and his friends walked into the building, as Jack and Sam watched from the cover of the jungle.
Jack motioned for Sam to follow him. Crouching low, they made their way to the back of the pyramid. Surprisingly, there was no water flowing into the structure as might be expected.
"The river must originate from a spring inside the pyramid," Jack whispered in Sam's ear.
She nodded. "How do we get in?" she whispered back.
"Back door." Jack pointed to a small opening halfway up the structure. Sam nodded again, and Jack began climbing the steps toward the entry, with Sam right behind him.
oOoOoOo
Daniel and Teal'c had been walking for almost an hour when all of sudden they heard a large number of birds squawking then taking flight, as if startled. After that, the jungle went completely still. They stopped walking and looked around, scanning the area, including the canopy, carefully.
All at once, several pairs of red eyes emerged from the foliage.
"Uh, Teal'c..." began Daniel.
"I see them DanielJackson," the Jaffa replied quietly.
Daniel turned in a slow circle. They were surrounded. "I don't think we should fight them."
"I agree. It would be unwise to engage this many in battle."
They continued to stare at the beings for several minutes. Finally, one stepped toward the clearing in which they were standing. Daniel recognized him as the same creature who had touched his head before. Slowly, the being approached Daniel and lifted his hand. Teal'c immediately raised his staff weapon and pointed it at the creature's chest.
"It's okay," Daniel said to Jaffa, gently pushing the staff weapon toward the ground.
The creature touched Daniel's head with his hand, and Teal'c resisted the urge to blast him on the spot. Daniel closed his eyes and furrowed his brow but didn't give any further indication that the thing was troubling him in any way.
After a long while, the creature dropped his hand, and Daniel looked up at Teal'c. "They want to take us to meet someone."
oOoOoOo
Jack grabbed Sam's arm and helped her up the last large step of the pyramid. Balancing on the narrow ledge, he twisted his body around to look inside the opening. Firelight from the torches kept most of the interior in darkness, and fortunately, the jungle had reclaimed a part of the structure, including the space beside what Jack decided must be a window. There would be just enough room for Sam and him to stand on the small ledge inside, under cover of some of the foliage that had crept up the interior walls.
As quietly as possible, they eased into position and knelt down, taking in the view below. In center of the structure, a spring bubbled up from the ground into a small pool from which the river flowed out the front of the pyramid. But the features that drew Jack and Sam's attention were two man-made chambers, standing upright in the back of the pool. They were completely clear, made of glass or some other transparent substance, and cylindrical in shape - just large enough to hold a human, Sam thought with some degree of discomfort. They were capped by a metal disk, from which piping ran down into the water and up over the chambers into the rock behind the pool.
Four robed priests were busy fiddling with what could only be described as a control panel of some sort, twisting dials and, it appeared to Sam, taking readings. The entire scene was completely incongruent with the location and would have looked more appropriate on the deck of a spaceship than in an ancient temple. On closer inspection, Sam determined that the contraption was undoubtedly Goa'uld in design.
Once again, she got an uneasy feeling.
From the far side of the pyramid, two of the men who had been with Sukumar were dragging a younger man between them. He was naked and had been severely beaten, and Sam wondered if he was unconscious. But as soon as they pulled him toward the water, he cried out and began to struggle. Sam gasped when he looked up and she saw his face. It was the same servant who had given her the warning on the beach.
The men began wading into the pool, and the servant thrashed even harder. One of the glass chambers opened, and the men forced the servant inside. By now, he was pleading with the men to let him go, but they paid him little attention. One of the priests hit a button, and seemingly from nowhere, restraints wrapped around his wrists and ankles, binding him firmly to the rear of the chamber. The men backed up and the glass chamber closed, sealing the servant inside.
Although she couldn't hear him, Sam could tell that the servant was yelling at the men and breathing rapidly. His eyes darted all around him, and she likewise felt a rising sense of panic as she watched, as though she were living through the experience herself.
One of the other men who had been with Sukumar emerged from behind the priests and walked straight into the pool, letting the robe he was wearing fall to floor. He entered the second chamber, and the door was closed by the priests. Instead of panicking, however, he appeared to welcome the enclosure.
The priests hit yet another switch, and the chamber holding the servant began to fill with water. By now, the man was screaming, and Sam felt herself hyperventilating, as the water rose up his legs, then his torso, finally climbing up his neck and covering his face.
Sam gasped as she felt strong arms enclose her from behind, and she started to resist, until she realized that it was Jack who was holding her. "Shhhh, Carter. It's okay," he whispered in her ear.
She turned toward him, burying her face in his neck. "It's just like my dream," she sobbed. "We have to save him."
He held her tighter. "I'm sorry, Sam."
At that moment, a bright light filled the pyramid, and Sam knew what she'd see before she turned around. As the light faded, the water began draining from the servant's chamber into the one holding the other man. Where the young servant had been before, a withered body, deathly pale and drained of energy remained. His face seemed to melt off his skull, as his red eyes stared lifelessly ahead.
By now, the second chamber had filled with the water from the first, and as the priest twisted a dial, another bright light engulfed the man inside. When the light faded and the water receded this time, though, the man in the chamber seemed invigorated, his hair fuller, skin smoother, and eyes brighter.
He let himself out and gestured toward the other chamber. With the flip of a switch, the first chamber opened, and the body of the servant fell face forward into the pool and was swept out of the pyramid on the current of the river.
Jack motioned with his head and crawled quietly back outside of the window. Sam followed, a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. When they made it to the ground, she looked up at her commanding officer, disgust and fear written clearly on her features. "They're turning their own people into monsters!" she whispered fiercely. "And for what? So they can retain their youth?"
Jack placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her directly in the eye. "We'll stop them, Carter. I promise."
"I think not," came a cold voice from behind them. Jack and Sam spun around to see Sukumar and his men emerging from the jungle, each holding a zat that was pointed at the two officers. "You were warned not to travel to the Fountain unaccompanied, that such an action is forbidden," he said, indicating for the others to relieve them of their weapons.
"I believe that you were also warned that the punishment for a violation of our laws," he paused and turned an evil smile on Jack, "is death."
TBC...
A/N - I hate to leave you here, but unfortunately I have quite a bit of traveling coming up in an area of the world where internet access can be spotty. I will try to post as often as I can, but it may be awhile before I get to the next chapter. I promise, though, to post the remainder of the story as quickly as I can after I get back!
As always, thanks for reading, and I'd love to know what you think of the chapter. :)