Chapter 11

A/N: Happy Valenship to everyone at Gateworld! I've added an extra snippet just for you!

"This is incredible!" Daniel exclaimed. In all his years going on off world missions, he had never seen so much Ancient writing, let alone all in the one place. Carter too, was stunned by the complexity of the few pieces of technology around her. Jack glanced at his two team mates and shook his head. "Kid in a candy store," he muttered.

Sam, hearing him gave him a mocking glare which he returned with a wide grin.

"Did you have something to say, sir?" she teased.

"Not at all, Dorothy," he replied, his eyes as intent on her as hers were on the room full of doohickeys.

"So, what do you think?" Harry asked, showing off his hoard. "Jack!"

Jack shook his head back into the realm of non-fantasy. "What?

"Worth the trip?"

"Oh, I don't know about that, Maybourne," Jack said, wandering around the cavern.

"How'd you find this place, anyway?" Carter asked, inspecting the control panel on one of the devices.

"Easy," Harry said, "Simple town, remember? I just asked the villagers if there were any places they avoided. They said there was a cavern just outside the Emerald City that no one had entered in many generations."

"Uh oh," Daniel said, tracing one of the walls of the cavern with his finger.

"Daniel?" asked Jack. Daniel never 'uh oh'ed for no reason.

"Maybourne," Daniel said, turning to the 'Wizard.' "Just how long ago were these people ravaged by the Goa'uld?"

Maybourne shrugged. "Not sure. A century ago?" he guessed. "They never kept written records after the attack, so I could only guess. None of the Ozzians were alive for the attack, so it was a generation ago, at the least."

"Why do you ask, Daniel Jackson?" asked Teal'c.

"Because I think the 'Wizard' is going to need his hot air balloon fairly soon," Daniel explained.

"What?" asked Harry.

Daniel sighed. "Did you know that there are other writings in here than Ancient?" Daniel asked.

"Of course," he answered. "There's a wall of Goa'uld hieroglyphs over there," he said, pointing to a wall. "And some other stuff around there that I couldn't translate," he said, pointing to the wall Daniel was currently studying.

"It's a variant of Malaysian or even possibly Indonesian," Daniel said. "Which of course, explains the Ozzian vocabulary. Asoka is the name of an Indonesian flower. Burungia is fairly close to the Indonesian word for bird. Ozzian names, Dedi, Rini, Sajiwara, they're all South East Asian."

"Is there a point to this, Daniel?" Jack asked; he had stopped listening a while ago.

"Yes Jack," he said excitedly. "This wall talks of a rebellion against the Goa'uld. It isn't quite clear who ruled here. I think whatever Goa'uld was here first discovered the Ancient artifacts and was too egotistical to keep it a secret. Dozens of System Lords have battled over this planet. Apophis, Sokar, the Greek Goddess Hera, Yu..."

"Me?" asked Harry

"Uh!" Jack quacked. "No puns, Maybourne. Yu?"

"Daniel?" Maybourne asked.

"Shut up," Jack snapped.

"Yu," confirmed Daniel. "He was one of the last Goa'uld here. He handed the planet over to his bride at the time, Kausalya."

"Never heard of her," Jack said, unintelligently.

"Well, firstly, it's a him," said Daniel, receiving looks of confusion, distaste and humour from his companions. "The name comes from the Ancient Indonesian Ramayana. It's a popular legend with puppets. But that doesn't necessarily mean that she was a he…or vice versa. He might have had a female host or she might have had a male host. It doesn't really matter. Anyway, Kausalya was Yu's bride at the time and he gave her this planet in exchange for power. Apparently Kausalya was a threat to the System Lords, so Yu traded this planet for most of her infantry and supplies."

"Why?" Jack interrupted.

"I assume because he wanted more power and she wanted to study the Ancient stash," Daniel answered, distractedly. "She ruled here for a few centuries before the rebellion. When it got too heated, she tried to wipe out the entire population so that the other System Lords would think there was nothing worth coming back to."

"Why has she not returned to retrieve the Ancient devices?" Teal'c asked.

"I don't know," Daniel said. "Bahasa Indonesia isn't one of my most proficient languages. The wall says something about a power the Goa'uld couldn't fight against, a stranger with the power to makan waktu. Directly, that means 'eat time.'"

"Eat time?" Sam asked, looking over at Jack and knowing exactly what he would be picturing.

"Perhaps it refers to the same Ancient who left the time machine on Harry Maybourne's home planet," Teal'c offered.

"It's possible," Sam agreed. "The positioning of the two planets is incredibly close. I wouldn't be surprised if you could even dial this gate without a DHD."

Harry nodded. "That's where I found this gate address," he said. "It was hidden around the temple of old."

"Pada tahun tiga ribu dua, orang Tanah Tua Berkelahi dengan Kausalya, yang bohon. Banyak adik dan kakak meninggal. Akan tetapi, ketika kami pikir Kausalya akan menang, kami menyelamatkan oleh orang yang tua sekali! Dia pergi ke dunia kami naik Mesin yang makan waktu."Daniel read.

"Ah, I see," Jack drawled.

"Oh, sorry," said Daniel, turning his attention back to his team.

"Uh, the script is crude Indonesian. It says, 'In the year 3002, the people of the Land Of Old fought against Kausalya, the liar. Many brothers and sisters died. However, when they thought Kausalya would win, they were saved by a very ancient man. He came to the planet in a machine that eats time.'"

"The time machine you found in the forest?" Harry asked.

"I think so," said Daniel.

"How did he drive back the Goa'uld?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Daniel said. "This makes no sense. Why would an Ancient meddle in our plane of existence?"

"No idea," Jack answered.

"But he didn't even help them. Not really. He came during the middle of the battle, drove Kausalya's army away and then left the people with nothing. He didn't help them rebuild or anything."

"So?"

"So…" Daniel repeated. "It doesn't make sense, Jack. If he wanted to help them, why did he only do half the job?"

"Maybe it wasn't the people he was protecting," Sam said.

"Of what are you thinking, Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked.

"Well, he has a time machine. He obviously came forward in time to this place for a reason. What if he drove back Kausalya in order to protect something else?"

"Like…"

"Like this cavern?" Carter suggested. "The devices inside of it?"

"Or a woman," said Maybourne.

SG-1 turned to look at him. His face was alight with understanding.

"That would be unlikely," Teal'c said.

"No, I'm sure of it," Harry said, excitedly. He gathered them around him and sat down, his legs crossed and his palms facing the ceiling, the same way Dedi had done the day before. "There's an old fairy tale in the villages about Oz's two moons, Pramana, the wise one, and Ika, the pure. It is said that Ika was once a village girl, daughter of a wealthy blacksmith. Pramana watched her from the heavens and fell in love with her. One day, a war plagued the earth and Ika was killed. Pramana descended from the cosmos and tried to seek revenge on Pramana's murderer. Legend says there was a flash of light, and Pramana was sent back to the sky before he could kill him. He took Ika with him to live in the heavens, where they stand guard over the earth as the two moons, showing their light in dark times."

Harry stood up again, looking around the group. "So what do you think?"

"I think it's a long shot," Jack said.

"But possible," Sam said. "We know that Ancients can take human form. We've seen it," she said, looking significantly to Daniel, who nodded, remembering how he himself, had retaken human form after bring ascended. "We also know that it's possible for Ancients to have feelings for mortals…" she trailed off.

"Orlin," Jack followed.

"Yes sir," she answered. "It would explain why this Ancient didn't help the people. Ika was the only one he cared about."

"The legend makes sense too. Pramana was sent back to sky. Undoubtedly, the rest of the Ancients figured out what he was doing and tried to stop him from meddling in our plane of existence," Daniel said, spitting out the words at such a velocity that anyone who had not heard him do so for the last eight years would have missed every word he said.

"This was all about a girl?" Jack asked.

"That would seem apparent, O'Neill," Teal'c said.

Jack shook his head. "Didn't Shakespeare teach anyone anything? Lovers from separate sides of the watering hole are just bad news!"

"I find it unlikely that such tales would be told on this planet, O'Neill," said Teal'c, helpfully.

"I know, T, I was being…"

"Uh oh," Daniel interrupted.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud, Daniel, what now?"

Daniel was now crouched up against one of the walls written in Goa'uld.

"Ah," sighed Maybourne as he approached Daniel. "Yes, I thought you'd say that."

"You've read this wall?" Daniel asked, accusingly.

"Yes, I have. I thought it was an empty threat," he said, lamely.

Daniel shook his head.

"What?" asked Jack. Daniel sighed in frustration.

"While Maybourne was busy playing king…again," he said scathingly, "He didn't find it important to mention to his people or to us that the Goa'uld would be coming back."

"They haven't left for good?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Hardly," said Daniel. "According to this, Kausalya left a couple of spies stationed on the planet after she was drawn back by the Ancient. They attempted to bring an end to any further rebellion against the Goa'uld. Even though they failed and were killed, they did record the time of Kausalya's next visit so that any Goa'uld who tried to take over this planet would know that it was in Kausalya's domain."

Jack groaned. "No, Daniel, don't tell me…"

Daniel shook his head. "Sorry Jack, I know how much you hate clichéd coincidences, but…"

Jack swore loudly, his brash tone echoing throughout the caves.

"Kausalya's coming."