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Stargate Babylon
Chapter 2: Abydos
As Doctor Jackson stepped through the Stargate for one millisecond he could see out the other side of the watery event horizon, then a sense of falling came over him, travelling at extreme velocity along a path, stars going past him faster than he could keep track of, and bright lights, closer than the stars, flew past him. The path continued forward until a bright light finally flashed before his eyes, the next thing he knew he was tumbling down a flight of stone stairs, feeling like he had just been frozen stiff while walking through a blizzard, naked.
He was still woozy when he was roughly shaken back to equilibrium by Lieutenant Commander Kawalsky.
"Jackson, your alright it's over, stay with him Brown," he said to the expedition's medic.
"Yes sir. It's alright Doctor Jackson, just walk it off, it'll wear off in a minute or two." Just as he said that, Lieutenant Carter took off her helmet and puked her guts out in a nearby corner. "And if you feel like you're going to be sick please do it in a corner."
"I'll be alright, I don't think I'm gonna puke any time soon," said Daniel as he took in his surroundings, bathed in the light from the active Stargate. The members of the advance team were scanning the Gate room, while a team member had taken over for Carter and was manoeuvring the FREDs clear of the Stargate steps. The walls were almost completely barren, with just some decorative trim here and there, but there were no writings, pictographs, or anything like the cartouche found on Earth.
After she puked her guts out, Carter quickly pulled on a straw connected to a small water cantina built into her combat armour and sucked in a good mouthful of water and promptly spat it out to get the taste out of her mouth. "I really shouldn't have had that big lunch," she said to herself, quietly, remembering the full English breakfast she'd had that morning. She took several deep breaths and took another drink of water. She quickly noticed the pedestal in the room and got a closer look at it, and reached out to touch it, marvelling at the size of the thing.
"Amazing, this is what was missing from the original dig at Giza," she said as she ran her hands over the control pedestal and its raised buttons. "This is how they controlled it. It took us over two years and the most powerful supercomputer available to Earth Force to MacGuyver a system like this," she said as the rest of the expedition within earshot heard the giddiness in the young scientist's voice. "I mean, look how small it is..."
"Stargate expedition do you read us?" said General West over the expedition's radio channel.
"Yes sir, we read you five by five General," replied O'Neill.
"Good, we'll contact you in six hours, after that every twenty four hours on this frequency to receive reports from you. We'll be shutting down the Stargate in a moment so all I'll say is god's speed."
Then the gate shut down, cloaking everything in darkness, "Lights" ordered O'Neill turning on his flashlight built into his helmet, the troops followed suit giving off plenty of light to see.
"Alright, let's spread out, staggered advance, move," O'Neill ordered.
The expedition members walked softly out of the alien Gate room and into the only one passage way to follow, exploring the structure they were in.
They thoroughly reconnoitred the structure they were in, moving swiftly from chamber to chamber, but found nothing, just as the probe had shown. They did find a circular hatch on the ceiling just outside the alien gate room, but it gave off no energy readings so they kept on going, and watched their step for possible booby traps.
"Let's take a look outside, Ferretti on point," the Captain ordered. Lieutenant Ferretti's squad of Recon GROPOs moved forward, sweeping the area for any traps. They soon found themselves outside in the blistering heat of the planet's sun, the heat reflecting off the sandy dunes for miles around them. The first thing they saw outside were two tall spires at the other end of bowl shaped area around a boxlike structure they were standing in with a set of stone steps going down into the bowl. Ferretti and his squad swept the area and found not a soul in sight.
"Clear sir," he called over the radio.
"Alright, Doctor Jackson, Ambassador Sheridan, Kawalsky, Carter, you're with me, the rest of you continue searching the structure, I want to take a look outside."
The five of them stepped out of the building and began walking down the long stone steps, taking in the sights, or rather the lack thereof, just a pair of tall stone spires with pointed pyramidal tops and sand dunes, lots and lots of sand dunes. They continued up the slope of the bowl and turned around, seeing the entire structure where the Stargate was housed, a pyramid bigger than the Great Pyramids of Giza, its stone surface seemed to glisten in the sun, as if it was just recently built and not ravaged by time.
All five of them experienced their jaws dropping in astonishment at what they were seeing, an Ancient Egyptian style pyramid on an alien planet, hundreds of light years away from Earth, was the last thing any of them expected to see, except perhaps Doctor Jackson.
"I was right," said Doctor Jackson under his breath in silent triumph.
"Kawalsky, get that Eagle Eye ready for takeoff, I want that thing in the air inside of ten minutes and not a minute later. Carter, once it's up I want you to select the best spot in the area to drop the Tachyon Beacon."
"Yes sir. Aye sir," the two chorused and went to work putting together the UAV.
It had a two meter wing span and was three meters long, a simple turboprop at the rear with two downward slanted rear tails. In the nose and wing tips were placed various cameras and sensors, though the heat sensors would be almost useless in this environment, except perhaps at night. At its core was a hydrogen fuel cell, the largest they could fit into the UAV, and had enough fuel for a week's worth of flight time.
The Eagle Eye lifted off vertically on two smaller fan jets located beneath the wing roots, kicking up dust as it flew straight up, then its turboprop kicked in, sending it high into the air. Once it reached altitude it settled into a holding pattern and ran a self diagnostic, its progress monitored by Lieutenant Carter on a small combat laptop.
"The Eagle Eye is now at sixty-two hundred meters and in a holding pattern over the area," she reported.
"Good, begin scanning."
The Lieutenant nodded and got to work, setting the UAV on circular search pattern, the circle widening as it flew, sending invisible sensor beams out and scanning the region in the highest possible detail. As Lieutenant Carter searched for a good place to set up the Tachyon Beacon she made a discovery.
"Sir, you've got to take a look at this, Doctor Jackson, Ambassador, you too," she said as she relayed the images she got from the Eagle Eye's cameras to their HUD.
"An opencast mine being worked on by humans?" questioned Sheridan.
"And using pretty archaic tools by the looks of it," Doctor Jackson commented as he watched the locals labour.
"Can you tell what they are mining?" Captain O'Neill asked.
"They seem to be mining Q50, the Stargate element."
"Any sign of a refining facility?"
"No sir, in fact I'm not detecting any known form of advanced technology on this planet, Earth based or otherwise. The locals seem to be roughly the same level of development as the Ancient Egyptians were over three thousand years ago, maybe even more primitive."
"They could have been brought through the Stargate from Earth before it was buried, these could be their descendants," Daniel hypothesized.
"Possibly," replied Carter.
"Given enough time to study their language I should be able to speak with them fluently, as if I was a native speaker, if they speak anything like Ancient Egyptian," he said confidently.
"Alright, Carter, continue to look for a good spot to plant the beacon, after that set the Eagle Eye to monitor the locals, make sure that they don't get too close."
"Yes sir."
Another half hour of searching the Eagle Eye found the perfect spot, a mountain range just thirty five kilometres away.
"Sir, I suggest that we set up the beacon here, at the top of this mountain, it has free line of sight in almost every direction."
"Alright, drop it there and set the Eagle Eye to recon mode."
She nodded then commanded the Eagle Eye to drop its payload, a small bomb bay door underneath the fuselage opened and a meter long shaft dropped from it, its tipped end burrowing itself deeply into the side of the mountain. An antennae array popped out of its rear and began transmitting a Tachyon signal into Hyperspace.
"Beacon successfully deployed and transmitting," Carter reported then set the Eagle Eye to recon mode.
"Find anywhere with better cover?" Captain O'Neill asked.
"Yes sir. The area around the mountain where we planted the beacon seems very rocky which would give us better cover than out here in the open."
"Then that's where we'll go. Everyone saddle up, we've got a long march ahead of us. Ferretti, you and your squad stay here in the pyramid, keep an eye on the gate and to act as a relay between us and transmissions from Earth. Kawalsky, you will take the rest of the expedition and set up base camp, while Doctor Jackson and I will head out and take a closer look at the locals mining operation, and see if we can get some audio recordings so the we can study their language," O'Neill ordered.
"Aye sir," chorused the two officers.
Everyone got their gear on, the soldiers carrying both their essentials and weapons on and in their huge over sized back packs, while the FRED carried the stuff too heavy or too big to be carried by one person, while Ferretti and his squad of six men stayed behind in the pyramid and set up a small base camp inside the main entrance, right next to where the probe was parked.
They trekked across the desert for what seemed like days instead of hours, especially for the two civilians and Lieutenant Carter, the sun beating down upon them. Lucky for them that their skin suits regulated their body temperatures, making sure that they stayed cool the entire time and weren't going to suffer from heatstroke. An hour into the trek across the desert Doctor Jackson and Captain O'Neill broke off from the main group and headed for the opencast mine, leaving most of their personal packs on the FRED convoy as they made their way towards the camp site.
The two of them set off across the dunes at a fast pace, one that Doctor Jackson would have had trouble with keeping up if he were not wearing combat armour that did most of the work for him, but it still left him winded as they reached the mine a couple of hours later. They lay down on their bellies and Doctor Jackson extended a small parabolic microphone from his pack and aimed it at the people, being very careful not to be seen. He listened to the idle conversation of the miners, trying to decipher their language, though he was having a little difficulty.
"It could take a while before I am able to speak their language. It would go a lot faster if I could speak to them; try to ask them to teach me their language."
"Doctor Jackson our orders are to observe and report back only, not initiate contact. I'm sorry, but for now we'll just have to sit quiet and stay out of sight," said O'Neill.
Doctor Jackson merely nodded his head, disappointed that he would not be able to directly talk with a society of humans that could easily have walked out of ancient Egypt. He spotted through his binoculars a young woman among the miners, handing out water to the other miners. She was truly a breathtaking sight, long black curly hair, a beautiful face with dark eyes with depths he could just sink straight into. Captain O'Neill watched the spellbound Doctor then followed his gaze, catching sight of the young woman, and smiled. The young man certainly had taste.
"Eyes on the job, Doctor," he said smirking. This shook Daniel from his silent appreciation of the lady in his sights, and lost her in the sea of people, and he didn't even manage to record any of her speech, the parabolic microphone being pointed at the wrong direction at the time.
"Laugh it up Captain," he grumbled.
They continued to watch the mine, not quite sure how the inhabitants didn't suffer more from the heat, though they seem to work in almost never ending shifts. As night fell the tired and dirty workers began heading back to their city, the coolness of the night giving much needed relief to them. The two Earthers watched them leave, not making a single move or sound, trying to go unnoticed. As the last of the workers left they crawled on their bellies backwards until the mine was out of sight, then started walking towards their camp. Unbeknownst to them they were being followed.
The other members of the Stargate expedition had just finished setting up their camp when O'Neill and Jackson entered camp, a grouping of roughly forty tents in all, designed to be able to shrug off the worst that nature could throw at them, they were all a tan colour to blend in with the surrounding environment, Jackson noticed several soldiers were scrambling to get sets of protective camouflage tarpaulin over the FREDs. As O'Neill and his companion neared the main tent Lieutenants Carter and Kawalsky came up to them.
"How's it going campers?" O'Neill asked lightly.
"Sir, there's a sandstorm approaching, and by the looks of it a pretty bad one" reported Carter.
"Do we need to move to better shelter?" O'Neill queried.
"No sir, the tents can handle it, and the surrounding rock formation has given us some useful cover. It will also miss the Pyramid, but may compromise our communications with them. I passed our location and status to Ferretti's team with the Commanders permission."
"Good, has the camp been properly secured Kawalsky?"
"Yes sir, perimeter sensors are online and the sentry guns are in place."
"I didn't see any sentry guns on the way in," said Doctor Jackson, feeling a little bit nervous about such weaponry and not being able to see them.
"You wouldn't," Carter said as she pressed a few buttons on a keypad on her left forearm. A second later a PPG sentry gun popped out of the sand on a telescopic pole and swivelled around, its laser designator lit up a large boulder nearby.
"Now you see it," she keyed her keypad again. "Now you don't." It quickly retracted back into the sand, leaving no hint that it was ever there.
"Are those really necessary?" Doctor Jackson asked worriedly.
"Yes they really are necessary, we don't know what dangers there could be on this planet and it would be a shame if someone came in the middle of the night and slit our throats," retorted Kawalsky as he made a slashing gesture and sound across his neck, smiling at the look upon the civilian's face.
"I think I'll just head to my tent and listen to my recordings," he said, making a beeline for his tent.
"Nice way to scare him, you two," Captain O'Neill mock admonished.
"I just wanted to show off some of our toys, sir," she replied cutely. Kawalsky just grinned.
"Well make sure those things are programmed properly, I don't want to wake up with a hole in my chest from those things."
"Don't worry sir, I've made sure they recognize our IFFs, and they should hold out against the sand storm" said Carter.
They turned to head to the main tent when they saw a wall of sand approaching them on the horizon, and coming in much faster than they believed possible.
"Everyone, get in the tents, NOW!" bellowed O'Neill over the comlink.
Everyone scrambled inside, just seconds before the storm hit, buffeting the tents with both heavy wind and sand.
As the storm raged a dark and menacing creature watched over the camp, forced to dig in and wait out the storm. It had spotted these new humans when they had been setting up camp, but the creature was nocturnal by nature, so it didn't have the energy to go after them, and it had been so long since it had its last meal, almost six months. Its master had placed it under the care of one of its allies who had forbidden it from killing the humans other than enough to keep it alive and to terrify the slaves, which the creature found distasteful. There was so much food for the taking that if it were capable it would be drooling, and it was so happy that it had found these tasty little morsels before it went mad. Now it would be able to eat to its heart's content without having to fear punishment, but for now it would lay low, quietly studying its future prey.
In one of the tents the young archaeologist and the diplomat shared a tent and looked over what Doctor Jackson had recorded both visual and audio, thanks to the cameras built into their helmets.
"Fascinating isn't it, to find such an ancient culture so far away from Earth," said Doctor Jackson as the two watched the footage on a holographic monitor.
"Yes, and it will be quite a challenge," said David Sheridan. "I've met a dozen different races in my time, negotiated half a dozen different treaties, but this will certainly be a challenge."
"Why would this be a challenge?" Doctor Jackson asked. "They're human, and even with the language barrier, wouldn't that make them easier to read than an alien race?"
"All the other races I've negotiated with have been in regular contact with others, and by the time it reaches my level both sides have exchanged protocols. This is the closest I've had to a true First-Contact situation in years, where the wrong gesture or miscommunication can insult the other side or provoke hostilities. With fellow humans we can better read their emotional mood through micro-expressions, but politics teaches one to conceal their true thoughts beyond a mask. I brought some cards with me to pass the time, we'll start up a poker game in the mess tent with the others and I'll show you how to read people. I've found it's the best practice possible, and it helps to pass the time between meetings. Just be careful of people like Carter, who are smart enough to count cards, and O'Neill who has the Devil's Luck, I still owe him 5 credits from last time," Sheridan smiled.
The storm lasted for nearly twenty four hours, thankfully everyone had a full supply of water and MREs in their packs, enough to last for a week if they had to. Captain O'Neill made an inspection of the camp after the storm and found it to be a mess. The sands had blown in heavily during the storm, half burying the tents and gumming up the works on the FREDs, making it impossible until the sand was cleared from the machinery for them to move anywhere.
Radio chat with Ferretti confirmed that Earth had checked in as scheduled and no new orders were received. The report of an observed probable ancient human population raised quite a few eye-brows, but the General decided to wait for O'Neill's next check-in for more details before making a decision.
Luckily the Sentry guns were left relatively unscathed and a quick test of their telescopic poles and a quick burst of fire from each one confirmed them ready for action. The Captain spotted Lieutenant Carter working on the small laptop that controlled the Eagle Eye and walked over to her.
"Lieutenant, how did the Eagle Eye fare in the storm?" he asked.
"It didn't do too badly sir, I set it on a course that would take it over the sand storm so it escaped the worst of it," she answered.
"Good, you got it back to keeping an eye on the locals?"
"Yes sir, standard high altitude observation pattern."
"Very good, carry on Lieutenant."
The day was hot and long, and for the most part boring as all they did for most of the day was continue watching the locals mine and Doctor Jackson listened to their speech, trying to get a read on their language. O'Neill though had this nagging feeling that they were being watched all day, but there was nothing there, and not even when he checked the camp's perimeter scanners did he feel secure, he just couldn't shake that nagging feeling he had between his shoulder blades. Eighteen hours later, when the sun set on Abydos, everyone was back in their tents, except for two night guards to keep an eye on the perimeter, both in full armour with the internal heaters on, as the temperature had dropped to 5 degrees Celsius. Their suits kept their bodies warm, but the cold still seemed to seep into their gloves.
"I thought deserts were supposed to be warm all the time," said the first guard.
The second one, an Arab, said to him, "You would think so, but in the Sahara back on Earth the temperature drops even lower. The ground radiates the heat back up into the air as the sun sets, rapidly cooling as it rises. The thing to do is to dress warmly and hunker down."
They remained silent after that, waiting for their relief, until then they watched the surrounding area. It was a very clear and starry night, not a single cloud was in the sky, three full moons were out and they could even see a nebula in the night sky, unlike anything they had seen on Earth or any of her colonies.
As the two of them watched the night sky, the creature closed in on the camp. Stalking silently and stealthily and leaving no marks in the sand as it closed in until it was right on top of them, then without a sound it swiped the first guard with its clawed hand and ripped out his organs with barely a sound, just a thump alerted the second that something was wrong and he screamed as he sounded the alarm and activated the four sentry guns as he saw the creature. The only way you could describe it was that it had come straight from hell, its blacker than black skin, its long dark horns and its razor sharp teeth set in a powerful looking jaw was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.
"All merciful Allah," he exclaimed, then opened fire with his rifle on full auto, riddling the creature with painfully hot plasma, the sentry guns followed suit, and it retreated so quickly that the guard could barely keep up with it. Everyone heard the weapons fire and bolted out of their tents, weapons at the ready, and O'Neill saw the tail end of what he would later term as a 'Demon.'
"Can somebody please tell me what the hell that was?" the Captain asked angrily.
"Sir, that creature killed Petty Officer Davenport without a sound sir, the only reason I am alive right now sir was that I heard him hit the ground and saw that demon just in time," said a clearly hysterical Petty Officer.
"Sir, there's something odd here," said Kawalsky as he examined the ground in the direction of where the creature fled. "There are no tracks in the sand"
"How the hell is that possible, we all saw it Kawalsky," said O'Neill.
"Sir, I'm only telling you what I see here, and I don't see any tracks."
That was a chilling thought, a creature that was almost completely silent when it kills and leaves no footprints in sand?
"Alright, I want a rotating watch of four men guarding the camp in four hour shifts no one is to be alone on this planet. In the morning we will begin to hunt down this creature and kill it."
"Captain, if I may, why don't we talk to the locals, I've managed to decipher their language well enough to talk to them a little, maybe we could get some information on the creature from them?" Doctor Jackson asked.
The Captain though it over. "Alright Doctor, you, Sheridan, and I will tomorrow go have a little chat with the locals, assuming I get approval from Earth to make contact ahead of schedule. Doctor you will send the language files already recorded back to Earth for analysis and further translation when they next dial in."
"Thank you Captain," said Doctor Jackson as he walked back to his tent with a near bounce in his steps.
Captain O'Neill could only shake his head at the Doctor's giddiness and got a proper watch set up then went back to bed, though sleep would not come easily to the battle tested Special Ops man, for the image of that creature was still on his mind.