Daniel sat on one of the folding stools, stroking Maggie. "Well, girl, I guess I really screwed up - again. All those men are stuck here because I was so arrogant and I thought I could find the address home."
He decided he might as well see what had been packed into his vest back on Earth and he began rummaging through the pockets, not finding anything useful. As he tossed useless paraphernalia aside, Ferretti strolled over with his suitcase. Daniel was thinking that it was nice of the man to bring him his possessions, when the soldier began ranting at him and finally chucked the book-filled case at his head. Daniel did see something large coming toward his face and ducked in time.
Maggie jumped up and snarled at the man who had attacked her master. He was not a nice man and deserved to have a couple of dog-sized holes in his leg. She ran after him and managed to snag his pants between her jaws. Growling and snarling at him, she decided not to let him go until he'd apologized to Daniel.
"Maggie, release! Maggie, come!" Daniel heard the fracas and called his guide dog back.
Maggie released Ferretti on Daniel's command, but gave the man one more growl and a sharp bark, just to let him know that he couldn't mess with her Daniel.
"That dog's a menace! She should be shot!" Ferretti had to keep up an air of authority front of his men.
As soon as Daniel was sure that Ferretti was all right, he walked over and began retrieving his reference books from the sand dune. Maggie bounded up, hoping for a reward after defending him.
"Maggie, thanks for the thought, but don't ever attack anyone again unless I give you the command." Daniel scratched the German Shepherd behind her ears. "He wasn't really going to hurt me. He's just mad because I can't get him home like I promised." Daniel believed in his heart that he deserved the men's scorn.
He sat on the side of the dune and dug a doggy bone out for Maggie and a candy bar for himself. As he chewed on the chocolate goodness, he slipped his tinted binoculars over his eyes so he could examine the area in a little more detail. While he noted the books that were still scattered, he happened to see what looked to him like indentations in the wind rippled sand. Wondering what could cause those, he stood and grabbed Maggie's harness.
He followed the indentations, which were obvious even to him as footprints made by something huge, over the top of the dune and saw a large dark mass against the lighter tan of the sand. He heard snorting and bleating, rather like an Earth calf calling its mother. He also heard chewing, as though the animal were munching on something crispy.
Maggie whined a bit to let Daniel know that she wasn't sure about this large hairy animal. She'd much rather go back to the shade of the tarp or hide in a tent.
Daniel dropped her harness and made his way toward the animal, reassuring it that he was a friend and everything was okay. As he neared the beast, he held out his hand in an attempt to touch it, but it was more interested in the candy bar he held in his other hand.
"Want some of this?" Daniel broke off a large chunk and held it out. "Here you go. You like that?"
"I wouldn't feed that thing!"
Daniel looked up through his binoculars and saw O'Neill and a couple of other men pointing their weapons toward the beast.
He pointed to the animal's head, "It's got a harness! It's domesticated!" Just as Daniel reached to grab the harness to show O'Neill, the beast snorted and jerked his head away. Maggie came running, barking as she ran to her master's rescue for the third time that day.
Daniel stepped back as the alien beast took off running, startled by Maggie's barking, but he didn't see the lead rope as it ensnared his feet. The animal loped over the dunes, dragging the hapless archeologist behind, Maggie running after, barking frantically for the beast to stop, and then finally O'Neill and his men giving chase to the strange group.
Kawalsky offered his useful advice, "Let go of it!"
Yeah, would never have thought of that. Might work - if I was holding on! Daniel wondered if military men had any brains as he was being towed at high speed across the hot sand dunes by an alien animal that appeared to be a demented offspring of a horse, a camel and a hairy buffalo.
O'Neill and his men stopped their running pursuit as they watched Daniel disappear beyond the dunes yelling for help, while Maggie tried her best to catch up to him through the soft sands. The team continued following the tracks and finally found Jackson, passed out with the beast lapping his face. Maggie kept watch by Daniel's side, regarding the hairy monster closely to see if it was going to take a bite out of her Daniel.
O'Neill jogged up just as Daniel came to, sputtering and choking on the slimy gunk the animal had left on his face. Good. Nice to know I can find glue to adhere sand to my skin, if I ever had the sudden urge.
"You okay, Jackson?" O'Neill shook his head in disgust. Idiot is going to get himself killed – or us. He glanced up and saw an incredible scene. There was an enormous tent into which thousands of people were entering and leaving. He lifted his high powered binoculars up to his eyes and watched the human trails leading to outcroppings of rock structures. As he scanned the rocks, he could see that the people were mining by hand and carting away whatever mineral they had excavated in baskets.
Daniel reached over and grabbed the colonel's binoculars and looked through them. I've got to get some of these. He saw that a few people were beginning to turn toward them and point. He handed back the binoculars, slipped his own dark glasses over his eyes and grabbed Maggie's harness.
O'Neill led his small group of men down the slope of the dune toward the curious people below. He held his weapon up and pointed at them just as a precaution.
"All right, Jackson, you're on."
"Me?" Daniel had no idea what the colonel wanted.
"You're the linguist. Try to talk to 'em." Jack didn't think he should have had to explain that to Jackson. He really had no use for ineffective academics on a military mission.
Daniel commanded Maggie to stay, then walked forward slowly and raised his hand in greeting. "Hi." He approached the closest group of men and waited briefly.
One of the men spotted the necklace that Catherine had given him for luck. When he recognized the engraving on it, his eyes widened in terror and he yelled out something to the people. Everyone dropped down and bowed toward the group of Earth men, who looked back in perplexity.
"What the hell did you say to him?" O'Neill knew the civilian would screw this up.
"Nothing." Daniel was as baffled as the mission leader by the natives' response to his simple word of greeting.
The colonel decided he could do better and he moved away from Jackson and stopped in front of a teenaged boy. He leaned down and offered the boy his hand in friendship. The terrified young man looked up in fear and confusion, but sat up to receive O'Neill's hand.
It was too much for him and he sprang up yelling and ran from the Earthlings. He sprinted between the bowed forms of his fellow aliens, and headed back toward the exposed rock formation. O'Neill looked up to see another animal like the one that had dragged Jackson away, carrying a man back toward his team. The young man who had so suddenly left was walking along side of the beast, jabbering away a mile a minute to the man on top. The man climbed down from the beast and turned toward the strange men.
The colonel watched as a tall, regal man approached, obviously a man of respect and authority among his people. He spoke in a rich, deep voice, sweeping his arms in a gesture of welcome.
"I can't make it out." Daniel muttered. "It sounds familiar, a bit like Berber, maybe Chadic."
The alien leader gave a command and several women came forward, bearing vessels of water for their guests. One very beautiful native stopped in front of Daniel and offered him a drink. He took the pottery bowl and took a long drink. His throat was very dry from the sudden trip he'd been taken on across the dunes. He bowed slightly, handing back the bowl, "Um, thank you," and he smiled at her.
The man in the red robes stepped forward again and bowed. Daniel took a slight step forward and dug into his pocket, pulling out a 5th Avenue candy bar. The leader gazed at it suspiciously as Daniel tore off the wrapper and made a big production of smelling it with great satisfaction.
Daniel held it out toward the man and took another step forward. It was taken from his hand slowly and the man repeated the sniffing routine Daniel had done. Glancing from side to side, he hesitantly took a large bite of the candy. His expression slowly changed from one of caution to one of surprise and then joy as the taste of the unfamiliar chocolate melted on his tongue.
He looked around at his people and said, "Bu'nee. Bu'nee wai."
Kawalsky asked Daniel, "What's that mean?"
Daniel just shook his head. "I have no idea."
The alien man then bowed and made a welcoming gesture, indicating that the small group should follow him.
"He's inviting us to go with him."
Kawalsky asked, "How can you be sure?"
God, the military must suck independent reasoning from its men. Daniel exaggerated the alien's gesture. "Because, he's inviting us to go with him."
Lt. Brown responded, "Colonel, he's right. I took some readings on what they were mining back there. It's the same material as the Stargate."
O'Neill paused for a moment in thought. Turning back to Lt. Brown, he said, "Radio base camp. Tell them to keep that area secure until we get back."