The floor buckled as George scrambled for cover. He dove for the computer table. As he slipped underneath, another jolt pushed upwards. His head smacked against the metal underside and then he dropped like a ton of rocks. To his right, computer monitors crashed to the ground, their screens shattering upon impact.
Wall panels rattled. Ice from the ceiling pelted the ground. A scream from the outer chamber pierced the tremor, but unless George wanted to get himself killed, there was nothing he could do until the tremor ended. The airmen and marines assigned to the outpost would protect the civilians and diplomats until this was over.
If it was ever over. The last time George had been in an earthquake was during basic training at Vandenberg. The Air Force base had shook for a moment or two, but this latest tremor just kept on coming with no end in sight.
Round after round of ice and snow dumped onto the force field covering the hole in the ground. Each time another round hit, the energy field glowed and sparked.
Behind all that snow, he got a glimpse of Dr. Lee. Head tucked in, the scientist belly-hugged the Mark IIs as if his life depended on it. George scrambled from under the table to help — the damage those naquadah generators could cause would make the earthquake seem like a picnic.
He’d made it half way toward Lee when the quake stopped. A light dusting of ice and snow fell on his face and he wiped it off. Lee still clutched the Mark IIs.
Threading his way through the broken equipment scattered across the ground, George knelt beside the scientist and laid a hand on his back. “It’s over, son.”
“You’re sure?” came the muffled reply.
“You’re the scientist. You tell me.”
Lee lifted his head, his glasses fogged up. No doubt he must have been breathing pretty hard. His face was as white as the now snow-covered force field.
“General Hammond!” Ambassador Duebel stormed through the archway, his clothes dusty and torn.
Behind Duebel were the other two diplomats — Juarez and Zhu. The Chinese ambassador sported a wide bandage across the left side of her face, thanks to a chunk of rock that had gone flying when the floor first caved in.
George cursed silently. Someone needed to keep these people out of the room. Where had Simmons had disappeared to? He’d lost sight of the lieutenant when the latest quake hit.
As the diplomats drew near, George deliberately ignored them. Instead, he pulled Lee up from the ground and patted his shoulder. After a few words of encouragement, the scientist hurried out, shouting for replacement equipment and a clean-up detail. Lee may not be military, but he understood the need for order.
And the need for haste. George privately hoped Jack and the others had weathered the trembler intact, but there was no way to know. Though the snow had melted off the force field, it was still intact and murky as mud.
Ambassador Zhu crept up to the hole before he could stop her. She knelt, reaching out a hand toward the force field.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” he warned.
She snapped back her hand.
Duebel side-stepped, blocking George’s view of the Chinese ambassador. “We demand to know your plan.”
George stopped just short of scowling. “Plan?”
“Yes, General Hammond.” Spit flew from Juarez’s mouth. The Argentine ambassador wiped a hand across his face and then stabbed a finger at the force field. “Your brilliant military’s plan to destroy the outpost before it destroys us.”
George counted to three and then responded as blandly as he could. “Ambassadors, I’m not going to sit here and quibble over what the military is and isn’t responsible for… Not now. Not when our focus should be on shutting down that device and then mounting a rescue effort.”
“Forget your rescue efforts!” Juarez flung a hand toward the force field. “Esperanza Base was destroyed! Fifty-five people, including ten families and two school teachers, all gone!”
George was taken aback. The Argentine Base was over 2,400 miles away, located at the very tip of the Peninsula on Antarctica’s far other side.
Fifty-five people. No wonder Juarez was beside himself. George gave his condolences. “We’re doing everything we can, short of — ”
“Really, General,” said Duebel, “you’re doing nothing of the sort.” He toed the broken monitor at his feet. “Scientific study isn’t enough. Please do not misunderstand, I fully recognize the lengths General to which O’Neill and his team have gone in order to protect this world in the past, but there’s more at stake now. First, Scott Base and now Esperanza. Something needs to be done.”
“What of China’s stations?” Ambassador Zhu called out. “Have there been any reports?”
“Not yet, no.” Juarez’ eyes narrowed. “At least, not of your official bases.”
Zhu returned to gazing at the force field, ignoring the obvious dig at what everyone involved with the Antarctic region already knew. George had heard reports that the Chinese were building several stations up on Dome Argus, but what they wanted up on the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau wasn’t his current priority.
Stopping the quakes and retrieving his people was what mattered. If they could access the floor down below by altering that force field, it was entirely possible to take care of both problems in one fell swoop.
Dr. Lee reentered, leading a pack of airmen carrying replacement monitors. Simmons brought up the rear. He rejoined Ambassador Zhu by the hole and gave her a polite nod.
She rewarded him with the faintest of frowns.
“You must destroy the outpost,” Duebel stated, “before more earthquakes tear apart the entire continent.”
“I wish it were that simple, Ambassador.” George shook his head. “We’re dealing with technology we’ve barely begun to understand. We need more time.”
“This isn’t about the earthquakes,” Juarez shouted, his face bright red with anger. “You’re more concerned with rescuing your people than the several thousand spread across this continent. With one phone call, I could contact the UN Secretary-General and the IOA Chair. They would demand your president — ”
“Leave him be,” Zhu announced.
“Excuse me?” Juarez whirled toward the Chinese Ambassador, his mouth agape.
“Quing…” Duebel strode over to Zhu’s side. “I know the young woman trapped below is — ”
“You know nothing.” Zhu rose from her position by the hole’s edge. She turned toward George and though he expected to see a measure of the anger exhibited by the other two ambassadors, he instead saw what could only be described as genuine concern.
“I want you to destroy the outpost,” Juarez repeated. “That is the only way to stop the earthquakes.”
Zhu took a menacing step toward him. “And I want you to cease speaking an endless loop of gibberish.”
“Who do you think you are?” Juarez sputtered.
“China’s ambassador to this region.” Zhu raised her chin in defiance. “We must allow General Hammond and his people the opportunity to — ”
“Be careful which side you align with,” warned Duebel.
Zhu shrugged. “At the moment, I am aligned with the truth. These people have had far longer to study this technology than we. Yes, there have been losses, and yes,” she faced George, a pinched smile on her face, “there have been promises left unfulfilled, but we must recognize the greater picture or…”
Bowing her head, the ambassador turned away.
Duebel and Juarez spun on their heels and stormed out. By the hole’s edge, Zhu gave Simmons an acknowledging nod. Grateful for the reprieve, George thanked her for the support.
“Do not thank me just yet.”
Flailing white tendrils strained against the gaping rip above the building. As Sam watched the phenomenon, she raced through possible explanations, examining and tossing aside each idea as it cropped up. A black hole? No, she’d feel its gravitational force. Some sort of reverse effect on the aurora? That didn’t make any sense, either. And why the more gold-colored aurora? Gold usually meant a higher energy charge, but again, why?
The black maw widened further, pulling at the cluster of tendrils. The tendrils shrunk, a final flash of white illuminated the sky, and the phenomenon disappeared.
A gasp. Sam glanced to her left. Weiyan’s mouth hung open in a perfect O.
“What the hell was that?” General O’Neill asked.
The ground rumbled again. Nothing threatening — at least, not yet — but it was enough to scatter a few errant pebbles.
“Carter?”
“Sir, I really can’t say.” She wiped the sweat from her forehead. The sun had come back out in full force. “Not without a way to measure what we’re seeing.”
She’d kill for a scanner, a spectrometer, heck, even a pair of binoculars.
“Take a guess.”
“What we’re seeing just isn’t possible, sir.”
“And yet, there it is. So?”
Sam shrugged. “Without having a way to quantify what kind of energy — ”
“In other words…” He pressed his lips together.
“I really don’t know.” She frowned, hating to let him and the others down.
“It’s all right, Carter,” he said, giving her an assuring tap on the shoulder. “Nice to know even you can get stumped by the impossible.”
“What do we do now?” Weiyan asked. “I want to go home.”
The earlier rumbling died off and Sam’s stomach unclenched in relief. One geophysical problem was bad enough.
“We can’t stay like this much longer, Jack.”
“I agree with Daniel Jackson,” said Teal’c. “Even I cannot sustain myself in this heat for more than a few hours.”
Daniel wiped his brow. “We have no supplies, no — ”
“But we do have a shelter.” General O’Neill raised two fingers and pointed toward the building. “And I’ll bet anything that’s the key to this whole mishegas.”
“Wait a minute,” Daniel said. “Shouldn’t we — ?”
“What? Sit here and wait for that thing to come back?”
Daniel frowned. “I don’t think it was a ‘thing,’ Jack.”
Teal’c mimicked Daniel’s frown, only more pronounced. “Do you still believe it was an ascended being?”
“I don’t know.”
The general shrugged. “Sure looked ascended-y to me. Let’s move out.” He headed off at a slow lope toward the building with Teal’c at his side, and Daniel close behind.
Sam turned around to make sure Weiyan was ready to follow. She gave the girl an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, it’s not much more than a half a mile — ”
An ear-splitting crack reverberated to Sam’s right. As Weiyan jerked her hands up to cover her face, Sam whipped back around toward the men. The building rippled, but at first she thought it was a trick of the heat. A mirage.
The rumbling intensified and she realized the ripples were pushing outward, toward the general and the others. Another boom shook the ground.
The building began to crack in two under the pressure of the massive turbulence. Several hundred feet off to the left and right of the building, hills erupted from the ground. Fountains of dirt sprayed from all sides. Sam watched in horror as all three men stumbled backward.
“Sir!”
Daniel fell. General O’Neill and Teal’c grabbed hold of his elbows and lifted him up, never missing a step as they ran like hell toward Sam and Weiyan.
Weiyan.
She’d curled up into a ball, her arms over her head.
Two hundred feet away, another hill savagely erupted.
“Get her up,” the general shouted over the rumbling.
Sam dragged Weiyan to her feet. “We need to run. Fast!”
Weiyan’s eyes rounded in fear. “I will try.”
She didn’t move.
“Go! Go!” shouted General O’Neill, darting ahead with Daniel and Teal’c close behind.
“Please, Weiyan.” Sam took hold of her hand. “This whole area’s unstable. We need to put as much distance — ”
The general doubled-back. “We have to go, Colonel!”
An ear-splitting blast exploded behind them. Sam scooped the girl over her shoulder, fireman-style, and ran as fast and as far away from the eruption as possible.
“Wait!” Daniel pointed back the way they’d come.
The tremors had stopped. Panting from the exertion, she turned toward the building.
It was gone. The newly erupted hills surrounding the area were still there, but the ground had settled down. The air had become suddenly still.
The tundra-like grasses from earlier were gone except for a few tufts on the newborn hills. Where the building had once been was now a flat plain of pale, lifeless dirt.
“That’s impossible.” Sam set Weiyan down. “Land just can’t change. Not this fast.”
“We must retrace our steps, O’Neill. We must find our original point of entry onto this world.”
“I’m all for that, T.” General O’Neill spread out his arms and turned around full circle, “But unless your spidey-senses have a clue about which direction to go, we’re screwed.”
“That’s the one part of this whole puzzle that’s still foggy,” Daniel said. “I remember the Ancient outpost. I remember falling through the floor. Then next thing I knew — ”
“We were here,” the general said. “Coming out of the Stargate. Thing is, I don’t remember stepping through one to begin with, let alone why.” He turned toward Weiyan. “Or how you got here, for that matter.”
A low rumble started up. Sam hoped it was just an aftershock, not another full on quake.
“I had told you that I don’t know.” Weiyan had backed away from the general, shaking her head vehemently.
The vibration intensified. Not by much, but enough to jostle the dirt at their feet.
Sam tensed, ready to run. Her vision darkened. She put a hand up over her eyes, convinced it was fatigue.
“Colonel Carter.”
Sam dropped her hand. Teal’c pointed toward the horizon. The sun had dropped dramatically, hanging low over where the building had once stood.
“General!” Sam directed his attention toward the setting sun.
“Yeah, I see it.” His voice had gone flat, his eyes never leaving Weiyan.
The ground continued to rumble. Low, like a wounded animal growling its warning to keep away.
But that wasn’t possible. The planet wasn’t alive.
Or was it?
General O’Neill ignored the escalating tremors, or he didn’t care. As he stepped closer to Weiyan, Sam watched him clench his fists, straining to keep his anger in check.
“You did something to the chair,” he said.
“I don’t know…” Weiyan’s hands shot up, covering her face.
“That’s bullshit.”
“Jack, leave her alone.” Daniel grabbed the general’s arm.
The ground kept shaking.
“Sir, we should get ready to — ”
“You were there, Daniel! She deliberately slammed down on one of the gel packs.” General O’Neill wrenched his arm free. “You heard her. The only way we’re getting out of here is the way we came. Either she tells us what she did or we’re screw — ”
Another boom echoed across the plains, or canyon, or… Sam couldn’t even decide what to call it anymore. The geography kept changing.
Planets don’t change that fast.
“Who are you?” the general demanded.
The ground shifted beneath them. Sam staggered forward, but Teal’c stopped her fall. The rumbling deepened. It was nearer. Stronger than before.
“General…” She rechecked the horizon. Swirling dust covered the sun, leaving only a red-tinged corona visible.
“O’Neill!”
Fifty meters to their left, the ground cracked open. A splitting maw widening with each passing moment.
“Jack?”
The fissure lengthened, heading in their direction.
“Run!”
Teal’c remembered running. Hills thrusting upwards. Dirt and rocks flying through the air. A sudden pain against his left temple, and then…
Nothing.
He stirred into awareness, greeted only by darkness. Within the black, a sense of heat without sun. Peace. Ease.
The pain was gone.
No. That was impossible. He must wake up. His friends would require his assistance. They were stuck —
He tried to open his eyes, but could not. It was as if a great weight held him in place, refusing to allow him to awaken. He struggled against the unseen restraint.
A golden-white ribbon of light danced across his vision, hovering just beyond his reach. “Why do you hold me here?” he demanded.
The ribboned light flowed nearer. “Wait. Learn,” a voice said in the dark. “All will be well.”
The voice had spoken in Goa’uld. Of this, he was most certain. Cold fury welled up within him. If a Goa’uld was responsible —
Calm washed over him. A silent assurance his former oppressors were not responsible, and yet… He must know the truth.
“If all is well, why do you hold us here?”
The light dimmed its brightness, becoming only a single rope-like strand. “If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”
“You speak in riddles.”
“There are no riddles. Only events to unfold.”
Teal’c imagined himself raising an eyebrow in response. “Which events do you speak of?”
The ribboned light winked out.
Clink. Snap.
Metal against metal. A familiar sound. Teal’c strained to find its source, but the darkness would not release him.
Clink.
A feather’s touch circled his emblem and he found himself free to open his eyes. At first, the sunlight was too strong. His lids fluttered as they adjusted to the brightness.
Snap.
“Come on, big guy.” O’Neill’s voice urged. “Rise and shine.”
Teal’c opened his eyes to find his friend and Weiyan Shi kneeling beside him. The trainee’s hand lay gently on his forehead. Behind O’Neill stood Daniel Jackson and Colonel Carter, their relieved smiles most gratifying.
O’Neill waved his lighter at Teal’c. “About time you came back to the living.”
“We thought we lost you for a moment there,” said Daniel Jackson.
Teal’c raised a hand to his left temple.
“Easy, Teal’c,” warned Colonel Carter. “We may be in some kind of illusion, but still… You took quite a blow.”
He felt no cut or abrasion where the rock had hit. There was no pain. “I am well.”
“Can you sit up?” Weiyan Shi glanced over at O’Neill who gave an approving nod. A hesitant grin spread over the young woman’s face. “You were very brave,” she said to O’Neill. “Teal’c might have died if — ” Her voice broke.
“Nah,” O’Neill drawled. “Can’t knock this guy down for long.” He grinned. “Trust me, I’ve tried.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow at O’Neill.
“What?” his Tau’ri brother asked.
“You have made peace.”
“And you made us worried sick. Well, not me, but Daniel and Carter were going nuts.” O’Neill sternly glanced up at the remainder of SG-1 who rewarded him with matching smiles.
Weiyan Shi grabbed hold of Teal’c’s arm and though she was far smaller, she had the strength to assist him as he stood up. He privately berated himself. He shouldn’t feel so weary. With a brief nod of thanks, he found his balance and then proceeded to recount what had happened while unconscious.
O’Neill frowned upon his sharing the being’s words. “’All will be well,’ my ass. We’re like rats in somebody’s maze.”
The ground began to tremble.
“Sir,” warned Colonel Carter.
“Rats, Carter! Anyone hungry? Maybe they’ll send us some cheese.”
“If you don’t calm down,” admonished Daniel Jackson, “you’ll start off another earthquake.”
“How is that possible?” Teal’c asked.
“None of this is possible,” Colonel Carter said, “but we can’t deny the cause.” She pointed to O’Neill and then Weiyan Shi. “Or the effect.”
O’Neill squeezed his eyes shut and sighed heavily. His face dropped to a blank visage, one Teal’c had seen many times in battle when concentration was paramount.
A moment later, the tremors stopped.
Worried for his friend, Teal’c asked, “Are you well, O’Neill?”
“I’ll be fine.” He opened his eyes, raised his hands in mock surrender, and managed a small, unconvincing smile.
“You have to stay calm, Jack,” advised Daniel Jackson. “Otherwise, we’ll — ”
“I get it. It’s all an illusion. No need for a repeat, all right?” O’Neill dropped his arms to his sides.
“Sir, if we’re going to do something — ”
“Do?” O’Neill sighed heavily. “Do what? Walk around in circles while some ‘thing’ plays with our heads? Whatever the hell it meant, finding ‘the truth,’ was a load of crap. Pure, unadulterated crap.” He strode off several dozen paces and halted, his back to them.
Weiyan Shi made to follow, but Teal’c stopped her.
She shook her head. “Is he always so angry?”
“This is one of his better days,” Daniel Jackson murmured.
Teal’c knew his friend merely joked about O’Neill’s temperament. The two were as close as brothers — brothers who bickered like children, even though they would die if required. It was important Weiyan Shi understood this as well. “Given time, General O’Neill will come to terms with our situation. You will see.”
Permitting his friend a moment’s respite, Teal’c turned his attention to their newly arranged surroundings.
“It’s different, isn’t it?” asked Colonel Carter. “For one thing, that building’s gone.”
“If it was truly ever here.” Teal’c looked out over their changed environment. The once flat, undistinguishable plains had been reformed into a valley with several hills marking its border. In the direction O’Neill had moved off, the steepest hill loomed. Its forward face was sheared off, revealing dark gray vertical striations within the rock’s face.
There was a familiarity to the terrain, a sense that he been here before, although… As ‘here’ did not really exist, he found the matter all the more disturbing.
He said as much to his companions.
Daniel Jackson agreed. “You said that being wanted us to learn. Did it say what?”
“It did not.” Teal’c searched his memory. “Though I must wonder why the being believes it necessary to continue changing our environment.”
Weiyan Shi looked over her shoulder and Teal’c followed her gaze. She was watching O’Neill. He, in turn, was gazing upward toward the hill’s top. In his right hand, he flipped his lighter open and shut. It concerned Teal’c that his friend felt the need to distance himself. That was not his normal behavior. Nonetheless, he understood O’Neill’s need for a moment’s meditation. If he did not control his emotions, the ground could rip open once more.
O’Neill must have felt eyes upon him because he turned back and frowned. “I’m going for a hike.”
“Is that wise, O’Neill?”
“Sir, one of us should go with you,” Colonel Carter said.
“I’m just going to stretch my legs. Get a better look at our surroundings.” O’Neill pointed at the hill’s jagged peak. He then gestured toward Weiyan Shi. “Keep an eye on our guest.”
With that, O’Neill headed toward the hill’s far side where there was a gentler slope. He began to climb.
Weiyan Shi glanced back at Teal’c. No matter what O’Neill believed, Teal’c was certain the young woman had no part in their current circumstances. “Do you have a question?” he asked her.
She inched forward. “You said this looks familiar.”
“Well, kind of,” Daniel Jackson responded, “but none of this is real. It just looks — ”
“Yet I have not been here before,” Weiyan Shi insisted. “The previous variation…” She gestured toward the hill behind them and then at those around the valley. “That was familiar. It looked very much like the Taklamakan Desert.”
“Western China.” Daniel Jackson paused, peering out at the valley. “Weiyan, just how close was the similarity?”
“Very,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. “My mother would take me there when I was very young. We would go to the desert’s most northwest region. There was nothing there.” She swallowed visibly. “I was very little. Six, maybe seven. I would complain. There was nothing to see or do, but she would insist we visit the place where she met my father.”
“Did you not know your father?” Teal’c asked.
Weiyan Shi shook her head. “He left my mother soon after she became pregnant, although…” She swallowed nervously. “We met once, after my genetic testing so that I might serve China. He said that he would soon be going very far away. To visit his ancestral home.”
“It is a great honor to witness one’s ancestral home,” Teal’c replied, privately troubled that a father would forever abandon their child. “One day, when the Goa’uld are truly gone, I will visit Dakara to see the birthplace of the Jaffa.”
“But you will return? To rejoin your friends and family?”
He gazed down into her troubled face. “Of this I have no doubt.”
“You make it sound like we’ll escape,” she said.
Teal’c considered the being’s words of wisdom. Whether they were caught in the trap of some alien enemy or a planet of their imaginations, he knew the only truth that mattered.
“Have faith, Weiyan Shi. SG-1 has never failed.”
Climbing up the steep hill overlooking the shifted terrain should’ve knocked Jack out. Or at least, it should’ve made him thirsty. Or hungry.
It didn’t do squat.
As he sat down, swinging his legs out over the edge, he recognized that his main objective for the climb had pretty much failed, too. He was still pissed. Still ready to knock someone — or something — out for dicking around with them.
He felt utterly, completely, pathetically useless.
If they were rats in a maze, he was the king of the rats.
“Come on, O’Neill,” he muttered to himself. “It’s not like a P90 would be much use against…”
Against whatever was toying with them.
With a sigh, he leaned back and pulled the Zippo from his pocket. His Zippo. Now that was a whole other piece to this insane puzzle. When Teal’c had been knocked unconscious, Jack had taken the chrome-plated lighter out. He’d almost told Carter about its mysterious appearance when his gut told him not to — they’d think he’d gone nuts.
He turned the lighter over in his hand. The casing looked the same. Scratched up, a dent on the top. With a flip of his wrist, the cap swung back, making that oh-so-satisfying clink.
He dropped it to his lap. Who was he kidding? The thing was a useless piece of junk. It wasn’t like a Zippo would help them escape. It was useless.
He knew the feeling and he didn’t like it. There were gaps in his memory. Gaps waiting for answers that were in short supply.
He scanned the valley floor. If he had to guess, he’d say that from the sun’s position, the local time appeared to be mid-afternoon. Waves of heat rippled against the far horizon, creating a mirage of water surrounding the immediate area.
There really wasn’t much to see. Mostly barren dirt and a few rocky hills along the perimeter. The area where the building had stood showed no signs of anything, not even a pebble out of place. To the right, a pile of rubble broke up the otherwise smooth ground. Which was odd, but probably didn’t mean anything.
In fact, if he had to point to a landmark, the big sloping hill at around ten o’clock stood out like a sore thumb.
And it looked damned familiar.
Carter, T, Daniel — heck, even Weiyan at some point or another — had found something familiar in the changing landscapes. For him, not so much. Until now.
It bugged him, not knowing where they were or how they’d got there, but what really bothered him was his own reaction to the situation. He needed to get a grip. He needed to stop acting like a green nugget barely out of training.
He picked the Zippo back up, hefting its weight in his hand. What he really needed was a long, hard look at himself. A painful reassessment of just who he was and how he could still make a difference. Contribute. Make things better.
And not just in their current situation. Hammond had told him his job wasn’t about tactics anymore, but strategy. Fair enough, but without tactics, any strategy on how to get out of this mess would be an utter waste of time.
Hence the feeling of uselessness.
Jack flipped open the Zippo again and thumbed the wheel. The flame sparked up. Surprised, he almost dropped the lighter over the edge. He blew out the flame and yanked out the inner tube. The bottom was dry as a bone. He sniffed the cotton, which would usually be soaked in fluid to light the wick. Nothing.
Somebody was toying with them. Big time. More importantly, why with the lighter? It didn’t mean anything to anyone except him. Not since Skaara had died, ascended, taken off for the big dead-and-gone Ancients Club.
He couldn’t deny that everything they’d seen ‘smelled’ of the Ancients — ascended beings or whatever-the-hell they liked to call themselves. The Ancient writing. A city definitely decorated by whoever set up the Antarctic outpost.
Why in God’s name would any of those high-and-mighties be involved with these shenanigans?
He slammed the inner tube back into the casing. He glanced down at the others at the bottom of the hill. Daniel was scribbling in the sand. Typical Daniel, always asking questions. Always trying to figure things out.
Always strategizing.
Jack climbed to his feet. He should be down there, helping. Maybe he was useless in the grand scheme of things, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make it easier for the others. He gazed at the valley floor one more time, taking note of the pile of rubble.
Maybe it would help Daniel. Maybe it wouldn’t.
But at least it beat doing nothing.
Daniel sank down between Sam and Weiyan. “How long has Jack been gone?”
Teal’c sat down as well, crossing his legs. “No more than fifteen minutes.”
“So we wait.” Daniel noticed Weiyan was tracing a circle in the sand. “What’s that?”
“I will spell out our names in Chinese.” Along the circle’s circumference, she drew arrows pointing outward from each of the four quarters. “Many years from now, perhaps someone will find a record of our existence here.”
Sam frowned. “With the way this landscape keeps changing, I’d be surprised if your drawings last very long.”
“But if something does remain, could it hurt our situation?” Weiyan drew another set of arrows around the circle, this time pointing inward. “Perhaps the next time everything changes, this will not.”
“A guide of sorts.” Teal’c said.
Weiyan mumbled something.
“I beg your pardon?” Sam asked.
She dashed a sleeve across her eyes. “’A man who does not know where he’s been cannot know where he’s going.’”
“Sun Tzu,” Daniel commented.
The girl dipped her head.
“Weiyan…” Sam stepped toward her. “What happened in the chair? Why did you lose control?”
Weiyan’s face paled. “It’s not my fault.”
“No one’s blaming you.” Sam put a hand on her arm. “We just need to understand what happened. It might help us get home.”
A recognizable vibration started up under Daniel’s feet. It was faint, but definitely there.
“Weiyan Shi, you must calm yourself,” Teal’c said softly.
The rumbling stopped.
“Maybe the general’s right,” Sam said.
Daniel poked a finger in the sandy dirt. “About what?”
She shrugged. “Maybe we are just rats in some imaginary maze.”
“I don’t know, Sam. It feels pretty real to me, although…” He glanced over his shoulder at the hill Jack had climbed. It was still there. Looking down at Weiyan’s drawing, he noted that the circle and arrows were still there, too. The tremor, slight as it had been, hadn’t erased the drawing.
That’s when it struck him. “Maybe we can’t remember how we got here.” He shimmied back to give himself a wide space. “But we can remember what’s happened since we did!”
“Of what do you speak, Daniel Jackson?”
“Pedion Elysium.” When Sam and Teal’c both stared at him blankly, he traced a square in the dirt. The Goa’uld symbol for ‘ped.’ Beside it, he traced another symbol.
“That's a glyph from the Stargate's DHD,” Sam said.
Teal'c leaned over and studied the symbol Daniel had written. “Do you believe Pedion Elysium to be a gate address?”
Daniel sat back on his heels and glanced at him. “It's possible, isn't it? I mean, we were able to translate Proclurash Taonas into a gate address by matching syllables to glyphs. Why wouldn't that reasoning work for other gate addresses?”
“Proclurash Taonas was only six syllables, Daniel.” Sam pointed at the glyph in the sand. “Ped-i-on E-Ly-si-um.” She raised one finger and then another. “That's seven.”
“There are seven glyphs in a full address,” Teal'c said.
“Well, sure,” she said, crouching down beside Daniel, “but, Proclurash Taonas was an Ancient outpost, and from everything you've told us, Daniel, their language was similar to Latin.”
Daniel drew an 'I' below the 'ped.' “It is, or was, but Pedion Elysium is from Greek mythology.”
“Like Atlantis.”
“Exactly. Since the glyphs on the DHD are based on Goa'uld symbols for constellations,” he drew a feather beside the 'I,' “and the Greeks borrowed some of the ancient Egyptian language to form their own… Teal'c, is this right?”
“Almost,” the Jaffa said, bending down to trace a second feather beside the first. He then sat back, a bit unsteadily in Daniel's opinion.
“You all right?”
Teal'c frowned. “I am well, Daniel Jackson.” He pointed toward the feather in the sand. “This is the symbol of Ma'at, a minor Goa'uld who once arbitrated disagreements among the System Lords.
“Cronus had her destroyed when she misjudged an argument between him and Ra. It was many years ago.” Teal'c gestured toward the double feather in the dirt. “The symbol of two feathers represents her scales of justice.”
“Libra!” Daniel exclaimed. “In Greek mythology, the constellation of Libra was depicted as the scales of justice.” Beside the feathers, he drew another glyph.
Sam shook her head. “Daniel, this is interesting, but I don't see how figuring out the coordinates for this place — ”
“A place that is not even real,” Weiyan added.
Daniel's glasses had slid down his nose. He pushed them back up, annoyed at the distraction. “If someone or something is holding us here, there's a reason they wanted us to see that city, the obelisk, and — ”
“The name.” Sam raised her hands. “Okay, I get it. So two down, five to go. What about that one?” She pointed to the 'ON.'
Sounding out the syllable, Teal'c leaned forward and drew a jagged line beside it. “In Goa'uld, the word means water.”
“That's easy.” Daniel traced another glyph besides Teal'c's drawing.
“Aquarius, the water pourer. In ancient Greek mythology, Aquarius was responsible for the Great Flood myth.”
“China had its own floods,” Weiyan said softly. “My father spent much of our reunion reciting the legend of the great Emperor Yu and how he saved our people from extinction.”
“Well, actually…”
“Daniel,” Sam warned. “Stay on track.”
“Indeed,” Teal'c added.
“Sorry — sorry.” Daniel hurriedly wrote the remaining Goa'uld symbols beside each remaining syllable. A flowering reed for the 'E,' a prostrating feline animal for the 'LY,' a long line with two ovals in its center for the 'SI,' and a bird — somewhat similar to Earth's owl — for the 'UM.'
He uncrossed his legs and shifted to kneeling in front of the symbols. “Some of this is going to be tough.” He paused for a moment, and then, next to the flowering reed drew another glyph.
“How do you get the constellation Hydra from that?” Sam asked.
“The Goa'uld symbol represents a reed.” He heard footsteps behind him, recognizing the long, easy gait as Jack's.
Daniel pointed at the glyph. “Reeds grow in water and since Hydra was a mythological water serpent in Greek mythology — ”
“There's something over by where the building used to be.” Jack stopped next to him. “Daniel, whatcha doing?”
Daniel explained his idea.
“Bit of a stretch, don't you think?”
“Do you have any better ideas?” He looked up at Jack, noticing that the lines on his face seemed more pronounced.
Jack cocked his head and studied the symbols in the dirt. “Maybe. Maybe not, but keep going.”
“Not if you're going to argue about it.”
O'Neill flattened his lips, but then his face relaxed. “I'm fine, Daniel, just… Work it out.” He pointed toward the Goa'uld symbol for 'LY. “Is that a lion?”
“Of course, a lion!” Daniel drew another glyph beside the Goa'uld symbol.
“Leo.”
Sam gestured toward the long line with the two ovals in its center, the Goa'uld symbol for 'SI.' “What about that one?”
“I honestly don't know,” Daniel admitted. “It's similar to the middle Egyptian hieroglyphic for the letter 'S,' but — ”
“Terra,” Jack said, his voice distant. Flat.
Daniel glanced up again. Jack stared down at the sixth symbol, but his eyes had glazed over, as if he —
“Jack?!” Daniel leapt to his feet.
“Are you well, O'Neill?”
Jack continued to stare at the ground, his gaze blank, his features slack. It was if he was possessed. If Daniel didn't know better, he'd swear Jack had reverted to his time as a vessel for the Ancient's knowledge.
A shudder ran across Jack's face. “Planeta Terra,” he said.
“The planet Earth? How — ”
Jack knelt down in the sand, one hand stretched out toward the symbols. He stuck a finger in the sand and drew a symbol.
The symbol for Earth.
“Planeta Terra.”
Jack felt his knees press into the ground. He felt the dirt scratch his index finger as he drew the Earth symbol. He even sensed his mouth open and shut, repeating the words, “Planeta Terra.”
But he had no damn idea why.
“Jack?” Daniel's voice. Far off. On the other side of a tunnel.
He was like a man on a runaway train. Out of control, no way to get off. No way to know where it went next. In a sense, the entire experience since falling through the Ancient outpost into — who knew where — was one giant exercise in control, and the lack thereof. He had to control his temper, but now? He had to let go of what? His head? Let some slimy alien jump in and play with his brains?
His finger lifted from the Earth symbol, dropped down to scratch another glyph beneath — right beside what looked like a really bad rendition of the owl on those potato chip bags, except without the glasses. He drew the last glyph.
“Aquila,” his mouth said.
“Of course,” Daniel's distant voice replied. “The eagle that belonged to Zeus, the Greek god.”
“Sir, you did it.” Carter's voice now. “A definite gate address.”
Whoever controlled Jack's actions allowed him to study the seven glyphs.
“General O'Neill!” A hand shook his elbow. “Oh, please wake up.”
“I don't know if that's a good idea, Weiyan.” Daniel again, being Daniel. Worrying.
Somebody better worry. Jack couldn't feel his legs. His entire body became stiff, unmovable.
“Something's wrong,” the Chinese girl cried out. Jack hated the Chinese. Well, not all of them. Just those scum suckers who'd made his life a living hell during Black Ops missions in the eighties, and then when SG-1 had to rescue Daniel from Yu.
That had not been fun.
“We need to help him.”
The hand shook his arm. Smaller, weaker, but it did the job. Jack could feel himself keel over, slowly — as if gravity pulled him sideways — until his face smacked against the dirt. It hurt like hell, but he felt it!
“The building has returned,” Teal'c announced.
Feeling like himself again, Jack stood up. Weiyan kept hold of his arm. “It's okay, thanks,” he told her, gently prying her fingers off his arm. He suddenly felt like an ass for being such a bastard to this kid.
“I am glad you are awake again,” Weiyan said with a smile.
He returned the gesture. “Yeah, that was a hoot. What's going on, kids?”
Teal'c pointed in the opposite direction to the hill Jack had climbed earlier. That butt-ugly squat building was back. Closer this time, maybe three hundred feet away. Standing next to it was most positively, absolutely, a person.
“Stay here,” he ordered. “I'm going to go have a talk with our host.”
“Hold on, Jack. This gate address? It's familiar.”
“So?” He glanced down at Daniel. “Last time I checked — right before I became the second coming of The Exorcist — there wasn't any gate.”
“I think we've been here before. Okay, not here-here, because this isn’t really a place, but some other time. On a mission.”
“And yet, you have no idea what it means.”
Daniel scowled as only Daniel could do — rude yet Jack recognized that he meant well underneath it all.
“Don’t you think there’s a reason we worked this out?” Daniel asked.
Jack squinted, barely able to make out the alien standing beside the building. He thought of him — or her — as an alien, because really? What else could it be, popping in and out like that? The alien wore a bleached-white cape, the cloth flapping against a breeze that had kicked up. A bit of dust swirled on the valley floor around the building. The alien didn’t budge, but it did seem to be —
“Is it waving at us?”
“It appears so,” Teal’c confirmed.
Jack stepped around the graffiti he’d help scribble in the dirt. “Well, whoever it is, they have some explaining to do.”
“Hold on,” Daniel said. “I think we should go with you. In case you have a — ”
“What? A relapse? A good, long look at what senility has in store?” He stabbed a finger at the glyphs scrawled out in the dirt. “Stay here and figure out what that address is about.”
Daniel frowned, but Jack ignored it. He nodded curtly at Carter, Teal’c and the trainee kid and headed off toward the building. He resisted the urge to run, knowing he needed to keep his adrenaline in check. Keep his temper under a tight lid. So instead, he focused on putting one foot in front of the other, shoving his frustrations as far down as they would go.
The ground trembled. Slightly, but most definitely there.
One foot, then the other. No anger, no frustration.
Just the truth, please, with a side of ‘get us the hell out of here.’
The ground kept on shaking, but he kept on going. He switched from watching his feet to looking up at the building. The alien had stopped waving. In fact, it wasn’t even there anymore.
“Damn it.” Jack doubled his pace. If he could outrun the alien, creature, or whatever it was that held them in this godforsaken place, then maybe, just maybe —
With a loud crack, the ground split open barely ten feet ahead of him.
He stopped. Calmed himself down. Deep breaths. Relax.
Get a grip, O’Neill.
Another tremor hit and the crack widened. Was it trying to block his way?
It was an illusion. He knew that. He took another step forward.
The illusion widened. Hell, the illusion became a damn deep chasm. He stepped to the left, intending to go around, but the ground rumbled again. Within seconds, the crack widened, stretching off in each direction as far as he could see.
He stopped just short of its edge and peered down into a bottomless, jagged tear in the ground. He kicked a pebble over the edge and it dropped. He listened for the sound of it hitting bottom.
The sound never came.
At least the tremors stopped. That’s something.
“General!”
Jack whipped around. Carter and the rest were rushing toward him. “I thought I told everyone to stay back.”
“Whoa!” Daniel got there first, halting a few feet back from the chasm’s edge. “I think someone’s trying to tell you something.”
Teal’c came up on his other side, with Weiyan right behind him. “Whomever that someone is, Daniel Jackson, they are no longer present.”
Carter leaned over the edge and Jack restrained himself from pulling her back. “Sir, I hate to ask, but…”
He shook his head. “I swear on my single pair of stars that I wasn’t pissed.”
“Pissed?” Weiyan asked. She hovered behind Teal’c. Jack couldn’t blame her. He’d hide behind the big guy, too, if he had any sense. This entire experience was getting too damned —
The ground shook again.
“Come on…” Now the thing was reading his thoughts!
“Everyone, get back,” Carter yelled over the rumble.
Jack didn’t argue. He reversed course, away from the craggy pit of nothing. That is, until he noticed that the crack was shrinking.
Moments later, the gap sealed up, the ground no different than before.
Weiyan slipped out from behind Teal’c. “How is that possible?”
She took a step forward. Nothing happened. She took another step and the ground rumbled.
Jack joined SG-1 in rushing forward to stop her.
The tremor stopped.
Jack glanced as his team. “Take another step.”
They did. Nothing happened. Urging Weiyan on, Jack led the others in taking several more steps. They walked right over where the ground had cracked open earlier.
A few more paces and Jack held up his fist, the signal for everyone to stop.
This was getting ridiculous.
“All right, fine!” he yelled toward the abandoned building. “I get it!”
“Oh, no. No, no, no,” Weiyan called out from behind him.
“It’s all right.” He kept his eyes peeled, hoping the alien would make another appearance. “Piece of cake. We’ll all go together.”
“No, you don’t understand,” the girl sobbed.
Jack turned around to find Weiyan jerking down on her zippered fleece. “What the hell?”
She’d yanked up her pullover. Underneath, her entire lower stomach was covered in blood.
The ground rumbled.