NOTE: Well that was a quick turn around. I'm trying to keep the chapter lengths a bit short. What do you guys think of that? This chapter could have been combined with the next one.

I don't own Stargate…dam it…

Chapter 5 - Inside

The four of them went inside through the gaping hole that must have once been an impressive entrance way. The heavy wooden doors lay rotten and splintered across the thresh hold. As they climbed over the ruined doors the team noticed a distinct drop in the temperature.

"Okay everyone," said Mitchell "let's get this secure." He shone the torch mounted on his P-90 around the dark chamber. A few of the thick wooden beams from the ceiling had fallen and the floor was littered with rubble but he was satisfied that it was stable. "Ech, what a mess." He kicked a lump of rock that rolled pathetically onto its side. To his surprise the entire keep was just one giant room. It could have been some sort of throne room, even though no actual throne had survived. There was only a raised platform at the end of the room.

There were three doorways leading out of the main chamber. The one off to the left was blocked by rubble and presumably lead to the collapsed section of the structure. Through an identical doorway to the right a stair case could be glimpsed and Cam assumed that it lead up to the two smaller towers. The third door was a bit of a mystery. It was a dark hole tucked in behind the raised platform and from what the team had seen outside it lead right into the cliff face.

Cam sent Sam and Teal'c to explore the towers while he took Vala to look through the door at the back of the hall. He didn't think that he'd be able to stand her complaints if she had to climb up and down two sets of stairs in this heat. The lack of Daniel had seen her overall mood take a downturn. She was unhappy and Cam was torn between giving Jackson the rest he needed and cheering up Vala for the sake of all of their sanity. He didn't blame her for it though. She was living on a planet that was completely alien to her, her husband was part of a holy crusade to convert a galaxy and only a month ago she had been reunited with her fully grown daughter and was visible shaken by the encounter.

"Well let's see what we've got her." said Vala without much attempt at enthusiasm as she set off down the tunnel that the doorway opened onto. Cam groaned and set off after her.

Boring into the mountainside, the tunnel had raw cut walls and sloped downwards. Every couple of meters Cam cracked and dropped a glow stick to light their way back.

Suddenly, from above them, there cam a deep rumbling. As dust shook from crevices in the ceiling both Mitchell and Vala looked at each other for a moment and then they both bolted back up the tunnel.

"Oh," Cam pulled up abruptly as stones started to rain down at the mouth of the tunnel in the distance, "not that way." He grabbed the back of Vala's vest and yanked her in the other direction, back down the tunnel.

Suddenly they came to a solid wall. A dead end. Vala turned to Cam and yelled over the deafening noise, "What did I say before we came in here!?"

"Yeah, not such a good time for 'I told you so'."

Slowly the rumbling died away and Cam clicked his radio, "Sam, Teal'c, you two okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine." came Sam's reply, "Sorry, that was us."

"What happened?"

Teal'c's deep voice came through the tiny speaker, "We were attempting to remove an item of interest from one of the towers when we discovered the structure to be unstable."

"Where are you guys now?"

Carter again, "We're in the main chamber. It seems to have held up." Mitchell suddenly saw the gleam of her torch from up the tunnel, "Some rocks have fallen in the entrance but you two'll be able to get out without any problem. We've got some stuff to show you."

"Well there're some very interesting things down here as well." said Vala from a few paces away where she had wandered to.

"Now what are you talk…" Cam's voice faded from his throat as he suddenly took in where they were. They hadn't come to so much a dead end as the back wall of a room at the end of the tunnel.

Vala's gun mounted torch was now pointed at a large object in the middle of the room that – along with making Cam marvel at the fact they hadn't run straight into it – reminded him of pictures he had seen in mission reports. "That's a…"

"A goa'uld sarcophagus." said Vala smoothly as she leaned an elbow on the golden surface, propping her chin in her hand and smiled.

After pausing for a moment of thought Cam clicked his radio again. "Carter, how sure are you that this place is stable?"

"As sure as I'll ever be. Why? What have you got down there?"

"A Goa'uld crypt, sarcophagus and all."