Chapter 10
Daniel, Carter, and Jack made their way to the library that night in order to seek out more information about where the Ancients had written the addresses, if they had in fact done so. They had casually scoped out the village, but hadn't found any Ancient writing on the walls of any of the buildings. They hadn't found any stone temples or secret passages, either. Though, Daniel was positive it existed some where nearby. They just had to do what they did best and not muck things up too badly. And they probably should find it quickly before reinforcements came because a bunch of SG units bounding into this village with Danh'ai as their leader wouldn't garner them any brownie points.
One thing SG-1 had discovered was that none of their radios was transmitting a frequency, because they couldn't talk to each other. That meant that they wouldn't be able to alert back up units. And they had tried. Fortunately, the SG teams all had microchip locators embedded under their skin, so it would be a cinch for back up to find them.
The plan was for Teal'c to sneak out of the village and down the hillside, avoid the zombies, and find the SG units in time and warn them about the zombies as well as Danh'ai. The only problem was that Danh'ai planned to keep them in the village and seemed very successful so far. Even Ba'al hadn't managed to get too far, and who wanted him around?
While Jack kept a look out, Daniel and Carter poured through the texts in the village's library. The texts were numerous and well cataloged. Daniel had been surprised how Earth-like the library had been organized; thankful too since he wouldn't waste time looking for things.
Carter and Daniel had been talking in muted tones, though there was no missing the excitement in their voices. Jack, on the other hand was having that gut feeling that something was about to happen, he just wasn't sure what.
These gut feelings were rarely ever wrong. He didn't like it. But until he had more to go on, he didn't risk interrupting the scientists. Time went on, he checked his watch. There was no noise in the village. He thought it should be a good thing. No noise meant that the village should be asleep. He hoped. He had an odd feeling that any moment now, Danh'ai and his people would come traipsing into the village with Teal'c and the SG teams in chains, but so far the coast on that was clear. Even if Teal'c was nearby, Jack knew he would never know it until he was meant to.
"Daniel, I found a map," Carter said.
Daniel moved next to Carter and studied the map. "This is remarkable. Look at all the detail. There's the Stargate, and here we are." He pointed to the points of interest on the map.
Jack appeared, not really caring about the map itself, but how it would help them find the addresses, help these people, and get off this damn planet. He pointed towards a weird drawing on the map. "What's that?"
Daniel grabbed the map, holding it closer. He grabbed his magnifier and studied the object Jack had pointed to. After a moment, he hurriedly grabbed a text, flipping pages, and then slammed his hand down. "Jack you're a genius! That has to be where the cartouche is. I found references of it all throughout-" he swiped his hand in an ark in reference to the heap of texts that were laying open in various places.
"Did you hear that, Carter? Daniel thinks I'm a genius." He had a slight smirk on his lips.
"You try to hide it well, Sir."
Hmmm, Jack thought. Though his lips didn't show it, the sparkle in his eyes gave away that he enjoyed the compliment and knew that his team knew him well enough to get his sarcasm and his playing dumb act.
"Okay, campers, should we head out to that little doohicky thing, then?"
"Not so fast, Jack. It'll take at least a days hike, so we're likely to be missed, and we can't contact Teal'c to let him know where we're going-"
"Oh, pssch," Jack replied with a wave of his hand.
"-and we'll have to avoid the wafu hai."
"The waffle hi?" Jack asked, confused. Or was he?
"The undead, Sir," Carter answered without missing a beat.
"Ah, yes. Let's not forget about them."
In the dark, Teal'c could see pretty well. He was crouched in some brush, as he had been for some time, listening and waiting.
It was a quiet night, quieter than the past few had been before they'd came upon the village. The wafu hai seemed to be thinning out if Teal'c's assessment was correct. Why that was, he couldn't be sure. They were either dying off or spreading out in their wandering. The moonshine glinted off the few he could see. When he'd listened to the sounds of quiet for long enough to learn their pattern, he pulled out his Zat'nik'tel and fired twice at each of the wafu hai in his range. Each collapsed.
After the round of Zat'nik'tel bursts, Teal'c deactivated the weapon and held his breath while listening for any unusual patterns in the silence that followed. He could detect no change.
He waited some more, his eyes focused on any movement out in the clearing. When time passed and he could sense no other presence, he moved away from the brush, and bent low, he ran alongside the hill towards the trees and the Stargate.
They didn't have much to pack, but for over a day's hike, they wanted to be prepared. Jack snuck around to gather food, splitting it between their packs when he got back to Carter's quarters. Zipping up the last pack, Jack said, "we'll leave in 20 minutes."
"I left Teal'c a note where he'll find it but the others won't," Daniel replied as he zippered his pack.
"Sir, it appears that our back-up have been spotted. There's talk of bringing them here." Carter said as she entered her quarters. She'd been making her rounds, checking to see who was out and about.
Jack nodded. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we can...leave." He walked to the door and opened it a crack. When he was satisfied, he motioned the others to follow. Silently but swiftly, they rounded the building and headed away from the village, towards the not too distant slope of the hill on the opposite side from which they had arrived.
Teal'c had seen a large party of men wearing the clothes of Danh'ai's villagers. Not the brightly woven fabric, but that of the same roughness and color of a bag of pig feed. As the clock was ticking more in favor of the night, Teal'c was not worried, but merely curious as to what these men were up to. He had yet to see the SG teams, but had seen an ariel bird fly overhead, and he assumed Danh'ai's people had seen it too.
He silently followed the group. At the edge of the woods, where the Stargate lay within, Danh'ai's men stopped and seemed to be arguing about entering the trees. Teal'c ducked under a low hanging branch and entered the woods ahead of the group, hoping to catch sight of an SG team before the others did. Where he entered, he ran swiftly, making no sounds. He listened for the sound of footfalls, snapping twigs, crunching leaves, but all was silent. He couldn't hear the moans and groans of the wafu hai either.
Where had the wafu hai gone? Something was definitely off. His emotions in check on the outside, on the inside, all Teal'c wanted to do was uncover Danh'ai's secret and expose the true face of the false god Vishnu to the people of Danh'ai's village. Then he wanted to safely return through the Chappa'ai with the remainder of SG-1. But he would never allow anyone else to see it, for a warrior trained in the art of great skill and cunning who showed weakness might as well be dead.
It was then that he heard a crackle of static on his radio. It sounded as if the radio was struggling to pick up a frequency. Teal'c turned the knob to change the frequency and he could hear a voice he recognized come through, though there was still a lot of static. Teal'c depressed the talk button. "Major Griff. This is Teal'c. Do you copy?"
A few seconds ticked by and then: "Teal'c. Griff. We've been trying to reach SG-1 on the radio for hours. Is everyone okay?"
"We are okay. There appears to be something on this planet blocking our signal. What is your location?"
A reply came through and Teal'c responded, "I am nearby. I will meet you."
"Copy." Griff answered, and though Teal'c did not hear it, there was a sigh of relief on the other end.
No path had been created on this side of the hill, so the downward approach was an obstacle for SG-1 and slowed their pace more than they cared for. Once they had reached the bottom without anyone stopping them, Carter pulled out the compass and they began to track their way to the location where they believed the Ancient cartouche to be located.
They had been walking for several minutes. Just as on the other side of the hill, the land was mostly flat with small valleys, but there was more growth here. Instead of dirt and rocks as the ground had been before, on this side, it was more of a meadow with trees and bushes, flowers, and wildlife. Some of the animals they saw looked similar to what they had on Earth, but were obviously a different breed or species. They also hadn't seen any of the wafu hai walking around, and that concerned them just as much as seeing them would concern them. The animals did not appear threatened, even by Daniel, Carter, and Jack, which was a bit curious. Most animals on Earth, such as rabbits and squirrels were used to people, but other animals would scurry away if approached. These animals grazed lazily, glanced at SG-1's presence, but did not move.
"I'm still getting that odd feeling, Carter. How about you?" Jack said after some silence.
"It does feel like we've landed on a different planet." Daniel answered.
Carter agreed. "It seems like this side gets more rainfall, which doesn't seem possible within such a relatively small area." Carter noted, going into science geek mode.
"Why live on top of the hill?" Jack asked, looking around.
"To protect themselves from that wafu hai, Jack." Daniel said.
"You don't believe that sacrificial baloney, do you Daniel?"
"No, Jack, but they do. Obviously, its a ploy on Danh'ai's part to keep his people working hard and loyal to him."
"What about this Vishnu god? You said he's known as the same thing on Earth, right? How's he play into this?" Jack asked as they continued.
"These people believe in their gods' existence just as our people did thousands of years ago. Danh'ai obviously uses their power and vengeful nature to influence his people to stay fearful, thus loyal."
"Fear of hunger can be pretty powerful," Carter mused. "If there's no rain, there are no crops," she continued, thinking about the rain barrel and how proud Freya had been at its fullness.
"So all we have to do is convince enough of them that Vishnu doesn't exist and that it'll rain whether or not they are self-sacrificing. Should be a piece of cake!" Jack retorted. "Speaking of cake..."
"I don't think they have cake here, Sir." Carter said, smirking slightly. As long as there was cake, the Colonel could get through anything, she thought.
"So, the sooner we can find this cartouche, prove that Vishnu doesn't exist, and get Danh'ai demoted, the sooner we can leave and get cake." Jack said, picking up the pace.
Daniel and Carter looked at each other and rolled their eyes with smiles on their lips. They quickened their pace to match Jacks. It sounded good to them too.
Teal'c met up with SG-2, while SG-3 remained behind guarding the 'Gate. Teal'c led them back towards the village while getting them caught up to speed on their current situation. At the mention of the wafu hai, several of the members of SG-2 raised their weapons a little higher.
They reached the path that lead to the village without encountering anyone, and Teal'c and SG-2 arrived at Carter's quarters without incident. Now appeared to be the time of day where all the villagers were inside for the evening meal. When no reply came after Teal'c's knock, Teal'c opened the door and entered. Major Griff entered last and closed the door behind him.
"Where's Colonel O'Neill?"
"I am unsure of their whereabouts." Teal'c responded, then noticing the strange arrangement of his backpack and spare BDU's, Teal'c walked over and examined the pile. From one of the zippered pockets of his pack, he pulled out a slip of paper with several symbols and a language that was not English. Teal'c stared at the paper for a moment and then handed it to Major Griff. "Daniel Jackson has left us a message."
Major Griff looked at the paper and the foreign writing and then looked up at Teal'c with a cocked eyebrow. He knew enough to know to be straightforward when it came to Teal'c. "What did Dr. Jackson say?"
"The remainder of SG-1 is currently in search of an Ancient cartouche, and that we are to expose Danh'ai's false beliefs to his people so that they may be free from him. And stop the Season of the Wake from continuing."
"That's all we gotta do?" Griff asked, glancing at his team warily.
Teal'c, not getting his sarcasm, responded with, "it will be a difficult challenge, Major Griff. It is one not to be taken lightly."
"Right."
TBC