STARGATE SG-1 29 Hall of the Two Truths (2 page)

As if in answer, NebtHet felt a slight vibration beneath her feet. The inner ring of the chaapa’ai began to move and the lights around the perimeter came to life.

Finally.

Willing herself to be calm, NebtHet stood just out of reach of the blossoming wormhole and waited as a familiar robed figure stepped through the shimmering wall. Always difficult to read, Aset’s demeanor revealed nothing as she strode down the incline to where NebtHet waited.

“What news?” She kept the eagerness out of her voice. With Aset, a dispassionate discourse was usually the better approach.

Aset made no reply but simply withdrew a small leather pouch and dropped it in NebtHet’s hand. Within was a small green vial of liquid, their entire future in a slender tube of glass.

“He has done well.” NebtHet held it up to the light. As small as it was, its contents only filled the bottle halfway. “But is this enough?”

“Your novice claims it is.” Aset’s tone was matter-of-fact. “Only a drop or two per person is required. He said it was all he could procure. Any more and it would have been missed.”

“He must not jeopardize his place among the Tok’ra. It is vital, for our plan to work.” NebtHet returned the vial to its pouch and secured it in her pocket. “Is everything else proceeding, then? Has he secured the necessary position within their hierarchy?”

“So he assures me. Although some time will be needed to set events in motion.”

“Then we must prepare.” NebtHet took a deep breath. She felt oddly at peace. Gone was the restless anticipation. Determined purpose had taken its place. “After all these years, finally, the time has come.”

Aset sniffed. “You expect too much, NebtHet. Especially from these Tau’ri. They will not give you what you need.”

“I will not turn back from this course, Aset.” She had not devoted her entire life to the Djedu to accept failure now. Aset’s skepticism would not deter her. Nothing would. “This plan will go forward, with or without your approval. Our destiny awaits, and SG-1 will play their part — willingly or not.”

AS PLANETS went, P4C-679 was better than most. The climate was temperate, although if Sam had to guess by the size and nature of the coniferous trees that surrounded them, the region most likely spent at least half its solar year covered in snow. That it wasn’t winter now, she was grateful. She’d developed a bit of an aversion to bitterly cold conditions over the past few years. At least they wouldn’t be fighting the weather.

It had taken SG-1 the better part of an hour to reach the ruins. There hadn’t been much of a path — a sign that the Stargate wasn’t something that got much use here. If not for the previous trail cut by SG-16, Sam was sure they’d have taken more than a few wrong turns, even with the map the Tok’ra had provided.

The ruins themselves were not terribly impressive. She wondered how the Tok’ra scouts had even discovered them. The only parts of the original structure still standing were no higher than her waist, and the rest of it lay half-buried in the tall grasses that had long ago claimed the area. Daniel was going to be spending a lot of time crouching.

At the moment, though, he was simply standing in the midst of a large semi-circle of rubble, looking slightly confused.

“Daniel — is there a problem?” Sam trudged up the small hill to join him. The mass of the planet was undoubtedly greater than Earth’s. Everything seemed to weigh more here, including her kit.

Daniel was gazing off into the distance. “I thought the Tok’ra said there were settlements here — people.”

Colonel O’Neill answered before she could. “According to SG-16, the closest village is about ten klicks that-a-way.” He pointed in the direction of some small hills dotted with more cone-bearing trees.

“Really? Well that’s disappointing; I was hoping to meet some of them.”

The colonel took off his cap and slapped it against the side of his leg to knock off some dirt. “We didn’t come here to make new friends, Daniel.” Adjusting the cap back into place, he gave the brim an extra hard tug. Sam glanced at Daniel, hoping he’d pick up on the warning sign of the colonel’s irritability and let the matter drop.

“I know.” Daniel remained oblivious. “It’s just that sometimes there are local legends about ruins that often hold a grain of truth. It would have been helpful to ask someone from around here what they know about this place.”

“Yeah. Well. Looks like we’re fresh out of local tour guides this time around — which, for the record, is fine by me. So you’re on your own.”

“Not everyone lives in towns and villages, Jack.”

Sam tried to catch Daniel’s eye to warn him off, but he didn’t look her way.

“Maybe after you and Teal’c set up camp you could look around to see if you can find someone who lives nearby —” By then Daniel must have realized he’d crossed some invisible line and let the sentence fade away. “Or not,” he stammered slightly, answering his own question. He indicated the ruins behind him with a jerk of his thumb. “Why don’t I just —?”

“You do that,” the colonel shot back. “Carter — you too.” He motioned her toward where Daniel was unpacking his gear. “We’ve got forty-eight hours on Planet Pointless here. Make the most of it.”

“Yes, sir.” Sam dropped her pack to the ground and began unloading her own gear. From the corner of her eye she could see the colonel and Teal’c heading back to the campsite. Setting that up would keep the two of them occupied for a little while at least. The colonel was always happier having something to do. Waiting around for Daniel and her to assess the ruins for the next two days certainly wasn’t going to improve his mood. Maybe getting him to track down some locals wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.

Although, considering what had happened on K’tau, maybe it was. Things had been going smoothly so far — mission-wise, at least. She hadn’t infected this sun or doomed the planet to extinction, so keeping the colonel away from the indigenous population might be for the best. If they continued to avoid any major catastrophes, this mission might actually turn out to be a success.

What exactly defined ‘success’ in this case, however, Sam wasn’t entirely sure. The ruins had been brought to their attention by one of the Tok’ra, who believed them to have some connection to the Ancients. Daniel had confirmed this after SG-16’s recon photos, but aside from investigating a lone device that looked as though it might crumble at a mere touch, Sam doubted there was any more to be learned on-site than what the photographs had already revealed.

But General Hammond had insisted, and in spite of the colonel’s strenuous objection that their time would be better spent doing just about anything else, here they were.

Daniel already had his notebook out and was sketching a rough lay-out of the ruins. It didn’t take Sam long to locate what she was looking for. In the photographs, the domed apparatus appeared similar in size and shape to the one they had found on Earnest Littlefield’s planet. Now that she saw it in person, she was even more convinced that it had to be tangentially related. At least it wasn’t as fragile as it had seemed in the photos. What she had mistaken for decay was nothing more than some indigenous lichen that had attached itself to the surface.

Based on what Sam could see of Daniel’s sketch, the device was situated directly in the center of what once must have been a circular structure. Given its position, it was possible the building’s sole purpose had been to house it — whatever
it
was. Sam felt a momentary rush of excitement. If the device itself was the very reason the structure had existed, then maybe that was an indication of its importance. This might not be such a wild goose chase after all.

Not that she was ready to share her theory with the others. Yet. Better to err on the side of caution. The colonel would never let her live it down if it turned out to be nothing more than a glorified Ancient drink dispenser. One more thing to add to his list of her screw-ups lately.

Sam heard the whirr of the focusing lens to her right as Daniel began an in-depth photo-documentation of each piece of stone. She’d need to remind him to take detailed pictures of the device as well. In the meantime, she better get to work.

With only a brief glance in the direction of the colonel and Teal’c, Sam opened her toolkit and began.

“Damn it!”

Daniel looked up from the section of wall he’d been studying and blinked. Sam was venting her frustration over the device she’d been working on for — he checked his watch — wow, four hours. For the first time he realized that the sun had dropped considerably toward the horizon and the temperature was cooler than before.

“You okay?”

Sam was sitting back on her heels in front of the apparatus, staring at it. From his vantage point, Daniel could see she’d been working on a small tray of crystals. Their assorted colors caught the low-angled light of the sun, reflecting small rainbows on a nearby stone wall.

“There’s no reason this shouldn’t be working.” Her aggravation was evident. “Every crystal is in perfect shape. They’re all here. I’m even getting a power signature from them, which means they haven’t burned out. But I can’t get the damn thing to turn on.”

“Um, maybe that’s not a bad thing? I mean, since we really don’t know what it is yet —”

She stood up and dusted off her pants before joining him.

“I was hoping maybe you’d have a clue about that. Anything?”

Daniel rose to his feet and flipped back a few pages in his notebook.

“Actually — no. I mean, not yet,” he amended when he saw Sam’s brow furrow in disappointment. “However, this is really very interesting because what I’m finding here is not only Ancient, but a second set of writing as well.”

“A second set?”

“Yes. It’s much newer than the Ancient stuff. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably the indigenous language of the people who live here. It looks like a derivative of Akkadian writing, which evolved from the original Sumerian —” Sam was looking at him as if he were actually speaking it. Right. Keep it simple. “Point is,” he continued, “if I’m translating it properly — and there are subtle differences in the —” She had that blank look again. “Anyway, if I’m translating it right, it says ‘the ones who came before have blessed us with great power’ and they — the ones who came before — have given them the ability to make ‘the gods of the sky dance at our bidding.’” Daniel shrugged.

There were so many ways one could interpret that, he was going to need a whole lot more to put it into context.

“Whatcha got, kids? Anything worth writing home about?” Jack had come up behind Sam, startling her.“Daniel’s got a partial translation on some —” She looked to him for help.

“Akkadian derivative.”

“ — text he’s found.”

Daniel reread what he’d just translated for Sam. Jack looked only mildly interested.

“‘Great power,’ huh? So, we’re talking about that thing, I presume?” He turned to look pointedly at what Sam had been working on. “Guess that means it’s your turn, Carter.” Jack looked at Sam expectantly. Daniel saw her redden just a bit. Or maybe it was the evening sunlight.

Sam walked them both over to the device. The tray with the crystals was still open and she slid it shut.

“It should be working, sir. Everything on the inside checks out. All the controls up top seem to be intact. I can’t find any loose connections. But —” she pressed two or three of the panels on top without anything happening. “I’m at a loss as to what to do next.”

Jack didn’t seem very disappointed. Daniel had the sense he’d merely been humoring them.

“So, no ‘Idiot’s Guide to Ancient Devices’ included, I gather?” Jack’s back was to Sam, so he didn’t see her wince at his smart-ass remark.

“Sir.” There was a slight edge to her tone. “This is a very complex piece of technology and you can’t expect —”

Jack spun back around. “Oh relax, Carter. No one’s saying you couldn’t figure it out, given enough time.” He leaned on the device with exaggerated casualness. The panel under his hand sprung to life.

“How did you do that?” Sam hurried to look at the now glowing section. “What did you do?” she demanded, half-glaring at Jack, who’d pulled his hand away as if he’d touched a hot burner.

Sam pressed a different panel, but nothing happened. She tried a third. Still nothing.

“Sir, try another one.”

Jack looked skeptically at the device and then a bit suspiciously at Sam before he tentatively reached out and pressed a different square. It too lit up.

“I must have the magic touch,” he quipped with a sheepish half-grin

Sam, however, was not smiling. “Daniel, you try it.”

Obligingly, Daniel pressed one of the two remaining unlit panels. Nothing happened.

“Hey, at least we know it’s not just you, Carter.”

Daniel glimpsed Sam’s face before she turned away to check the readings on her scanner. Seriously, was Jack going out of his way to be an ass, or was he just being stupidly oblivious?

“Jack —”

There was a click. Jack had pressed yet another panel.

“Um, maybe we should quit while we’re ahead,” Daniel cautioned. “After all, we still don’t know what this thing does. I think we’ve learned that lesson enough times, don’t you?”