It was just a week after Daniel had finally told Sha're about his life on Earth that they were camping at the temple again. Daniel used the time to explore some more around the area, still searching for more buildings. A small group of the younger Abydonian men were keeping watch on the gate that Daniel had unburied in his attempt to connect to other planets.
He was just walking back into the main chamber, after having been told that another sandstorm was approaching, when he heard the Stargate begin its dialing sequence.
He pulled Sha're behind a pillar and signaled to Skaara's group to hide until they could see who was coming. No one had come through the gate since he'd reopened it.
He heard voices, but was too far away to distinguish what language was being spoken. Footsteps, slow and steady, approached the hiding place of several Abydonians and suddenly one of the younger men popped up, weapon pointed at the intruders. Daniel heard the repeated clicking of metal as gun safeties were clicked off. He realized that the intruders' weapons had the same sound. He pushed Sha're further back, slipped his binoculars over his eyes, and peered around the pillar.
O'Neill! He jumped out and shouted, "Cha'hari! Cha'hari. Lower your guns." He walked slowly forward as the Abydonians obeyed his request.
"Hello, Jack. Uh, welcome back." Daniel was glad to see O'Neill still alive. He had wondered if the officer's mental attitude had improved when he returned to Earth.
O'Neill began walking toward Daniel, but sauntered right past him to greet Skaara. Daniel was a bit flustered, but knew that Jack had become attached to his brother-in-law on his first visit to the desert planet.
Ferretti and Kawalsky exchanged greetings Daniel as Sha're slipped out from hiding.
Daniel gestured for her to come forward, "Sha're. Don't be shy." She walked over and slipped into a hug with her husband as O'Neill stepped forward with his arm outstretched. She remembered the Earth greeting Daniel had showed her and she pulled her arm from around her husband to grasp O'Neill's hand. It was very strange to touch a man she wasn't related to.
"So I figured it was only a matter of time before you had to tell the truth about us still being here." Daniel could feel Sha're trembling against his side. He suspected that she feared he would be going back to Earth. He tightened his grip and tried to reassure her.
O'Neill looked around at the armed Abydonians, "Why the militia? Something else come through?"
"No. We're just taking precautions. Why?" Daniel continued to rub small circles on Sha're's back, hoping that her trembling would stop.
They were interrupted by Captain Carter's exuberant exclamations about the dialing device. Daniel turned in her direction. Something about the voice was familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.
Jack rolled his eyes and interrupted her ramblings. "Captain."
She continued rambling, not hearing his call.
"Captain!" Jack nodded his head in Daniel's direction.
"Oh, right. Excuse me." Sam reluctantly turned away from the unknown technology. She grinned widely at Daniel. "Dr. Jackson, I presume. I'm Dr. Samantha Carter." She waited to see if he'd remember her. They hadn't seen each other since she was about fifteen when he left for UCLA.
"I thought you wanted to be called captain." Jack was frustrated with the woman. He believed that she was showing off for Daniel and wanted him to know that she was just as smart and as educated as he.
Sam turned to her CO, deflated. She'd been so excited to travel through the gate. She'd just seen a dialing device that she could barely wait to take apart and here was Daniel. A friend who'd helped her through the loss of her mother. Someone she never thought she'd see again.
"Sam? Major Carter's daughter?" Daniel extended his hand and she took it, not letting go.
"Yes, well, he's General Carter now. I wasn't sure you'd remember me." Sam glowed inside. She couldn't believe that he remembered her. She'd been just a kid and had had her first crush on him when she was twelve. He'd been so understanding and gentle with her. And it hadn't hurt that he'd been really, really cute!
Maggie peered around Daniel's side at this new woman who had her hand on her master. She sensed that Dr. Carter was the source of Sha're's tension and she was ready to defend her mistress almost as passionately as she would defend her master. She'd have to keep an eye on this new person.
Jack raised his eyebrows. This certainly complicates things. "You two know each other?"
Daniel responded, "Yeah. Her father and one of my foster fathers worked together and we met a couple of times as kids."
Sha're slowly appraised this Earth woman. Someone who'd known her husband during his youth. She turned into her husband's chest and pulled him closer to her, glaring at the beautiful woman. How could Daniel want me? I'm ordinary. But, she… She's incredible with the same sky-colored eyes as my Dan-yel and hair the color of the noonday sun.
"Ah! Well, then…" O'Neill shrugged. Daniel had been raised by an Air Force officer? Wow. That was unexpected.
"What's going on, Jack?" Daniel could feel Sha're tense in under his arm.
Jack explained what had happened back on the Earth base and Kawalsky mentioned that one of them looked like Ra.
"Well, they didn't come from here." Daniel wasn't sure what O'Neill's current mission was, but if it was anything like his last one, Abydos was in trouble. "I mean, the boys take shifts guarding it thirty-six hours a day – every day. We'd know if they came through here." Daniel's stomach clenched and he began rubbing Sha're on the shoulder, trying to comfort both of them.
"Well, they came from somewhere, Daniel. I'm going to have to look around."
"I think I can help you find out who it was, but it's going to have to wait until after the sandstorm's over." Daniel's hand tensed on his wife's shoulder. "We were about to have our evening meal. Why don't you join us?"
The two dozen Abydonians and Earthlings settled around the firepit to share a meal. As the meal was winding down, Skaara came with several bowls of a clear liquid to share with his friends. He passed one to O'Neill. "Drink."
"What's this?" Jack bent over the bowl and sniffed. The fumes almost singed his eyelashes off. "Moonshine?"
Skaara repeated the unfamiliar word. "Moonshine."
"Yeah. Moonshine. As in booze. Daniel, what are you teaching these kids?"
Sam sat next to her CO and grinned. She was glad to know he wasn't as stiff and unbending as he had seemed earlier.
Skaara laughted. "Try it." He grinned, knowing what was going to happen next.
Jack looked suspiciously at the innocuous looking liquid. "All right." He sniffed again. "Skaara's moonshine. I'll give it a little shot."
He tipped the bowl slightly between his lips and took the smallest possible sip while the Abydonians looked on in anticipation.
"Oh, god!" Jack spewed the offensive liquid out and began choking as everyone laughed. "Smooth, very smooth." Jack managed to whisper roughly.
"Moonshine!" Skaara was pleased to see his friend return safely from beyond the Stargate.
"Your little soldiers are all grown up, Colonel." Kawalsky grinned over his own bowl of moonshine.
"Yeah. I'm so proud." Jack voice still hadn't recovered from the abuse of the moonshine.
Sam snickered beside him and he turned to glare at her and passed the bowl her way.
Several minutes later Daniel turned the conversation back to the current mission. "So this…this man who looked like Ra. He must have come through another gate."
Sam and Jack both turned at the same time, "What other gate? The Stargate only goes here."
"I think you're wrong about that." Daniel handed his bowl to Sha're.
Sam shook her head decisively. "I…I was there. We ran hundreds of permutations." She knew with certainty that this was the only other gate. Daniel wasn't an astrophysicist. He was wrong.
"But you didn't have what you need."
"Daniel, what are you talking about?" Jack knew enough about Daniel not to dismiss what he said lightly.
Skaara came up behind Daniel. "Dan-yel, the storm has passed."
"I'll show you." He stood up, calling Maggie to his side. "Sha're, I'm taking Jack and his friends to see the vili tao an."
"Bonni whai?" She stood.
"I won't be long." He dropped a casual kiss on her forehead, but she wanted to show that Earth woman just who her Dan-yel belonged to and she pressed herself tightly against him, pulling him down for a tongue-thrusting, mind numbing kiss.
"I'm going with you, my Dan-yel." She wasn't letting that Earth woman alone with her husband.
Daniel's blood had not yet returned to his brain and he nodded through a hormone-induced fog. "Su…sure. Come." He cleared his throat and tried to think clearly. She hadn't done that to him in months and never before in public!
Jack, Sam and Kawalsky followed Daniel and Sha're out of the gate room.
Daniel explained how he'd found the building they were now entering. He turned to Sam, not sure how to address her, so he winged it. "Captain-Doctor, you're going to love this." He began lighting the oil lamps as the Earthlings swept the walls with their flashlights.
"Oh, my god! This is amazing! This is the archeological find of the century." Sam was entranced.
"Daniel, you got a change to translate this yet?" Jack continued walking and looking at the room.
"I think so."
"What's it say?"
"Well…it doesn't say anything. Actually, it's sort of a chart! More of a map." Daniel gestured to the golden walls.
"Of?" O'Neill remembered why he didn't like working with scientists. They were always leaving important information out and including useless details.
"Well, I haven't been able to analyze all of it. I mean…look at it. It would take my whole life."
"Well, Daniel, we don't have that long. What's it a map of?" He really just wanted to shake the dweeb until he got to the point.
"Well, the cartouches seem to be clearly separated into grouping. Each grouping is attached to others by a series of lines, and each grouping of glyphs contains a series of seven symbols, so you can see clearly where this is going, of course." Daniel grinned proudly.
Jack squinted, annoyed almost to the breaking point with the younger man. "Tell us anyway."
Daniel began pacing and gesturing to the walls, "All of the symbols are on the Stargate in the Abydos chamber. I've also managed to chart some of them in the Abydos sky, or at least pretty close." He turned back to O'Neill. "Jack, I think this is a map of a vast network of Stargates. Stargates that are - are all over the galaxy."
Maggie sat with Sha're watching her master. She recognized his excitement and figured they'd be here for a long time while he explored. She began peering into the corners, looking for a good place to take a nap.
Sam spoke from behind her CO. "Uh, I don't think that can be, Doctor."
Jack had forgotten she was with them and turned, slightly startled.
"Why not?"
"Well, because after Colonel O'Neill and his team came back, my team tried hundreds of symbol permutations using Earth as the point of origin, and it never worked."
"Well, I tried the same here and it didn't work either. But I figured the destinations I tried are either destroyed or...or buried, but some of them somewhere must still exist."
"I don't think so." Sam was positive she was correct. Science was black and white and what he was proposing just wasn't possible. A wormhole could only have two ends – in this case, between Earth and Abydos.
"Then where did your Ra look-alike come from?" Daniel had liked Sam as a kid, but he'd had enough dealings with "hard" scientists to know that they thought they had all the answers and were very reluctant to consider suggestions from the "soft" sciences.
Sam was rendered speechless as Colonel O'Neill turned and gave her a challenging look. She felt like sinking through the rock floor. She always had the answer.
Daniel continued, "I - I don't pretend to know anything about astrophysics, but couldn't the planets change? I mean, uh... drift apart or something like that to throw this map off?"
"I knew I'd like you." A scientific explanation! She could kick herself for not thinking of something that was high school level science.
"You mean I'm right?" Daniel was shocked. He wasn't kidding when he'd said he knew next to nothing about astrophysics.
"According to the expanding universe model, all bodies in the universe are constantly moving apart."
"So in the thousands of years since the Stargate was built…"
Sam finished his thought, "All the coordinates could have changed."
Jack began to feel as though he were on the sidelines of an intense, mental tennis match, his head revolving between the two excited doctors.
"But why does it still work between Abydos and Earth?" Daniel was completely at a loss here."
Sam was getting more excited by the minute. Daniel was still brilliant and still cute. Whoa! He's married and his wife is standing two feet away. "Abydos is probably the closest planet in the network to Earth. I mean, the closer they are, the less the difference in relative position due to expansion. The further away, the greater the difference. In a few thousand more years, it won't work between Earth and Abydos either."
Daniel licked his lips in his excitement. "Unless you can adjust for the displacement."
"Right. Now with this map as a base, that should be easy. All we have to do is correct for Doppler shift."
Kawalsky rocked back on his heels, grinning at O'Neill as the two soldiers watched the two scientists bounce their ideas off each other.
Sha're continued to watch this new woman very carefully. She did not like the way Daniel's face lit up as they conversed too rapidly for her to follow.
Sam could hardly wait to get back to Earth, in front of her computer. "Then I should be able to arrive at a computer model that will predict the adjustments necessary to get the Gate working again."
Kawalsky decided the two nerds could keep this up all day and he had no intention of listening to all that geek-speak. "Okay. So what did we just figure out?"
"Any civilization advanced enough to build this Gate network would be able to compensate for 50,000 years of stellar drift." Sam began scanning the walls in awe.
Jack followed her gaze with his eyes and understood. "So... the Stargate can go other places."
"The aliens could have come from anywhere." This was way better than NASA.
A/N: This is the last chapter that is written and beta'd. I do have part of the next one done and will try to get it ready by Monday. There are probably only two more chapters to go.