Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon (8 page)

Jack sat down on the bed. "Goa'uld?"

"Maybe. Something came through the Stargate there, anyway. And
a lot of people died. I couldn't get anybody to tell me how many, but
it must have been thousands."

"Any talk about how they defeated it?"

"That's just it," Daniel said. He took off his glasses and rubbed
his eyes impatiently, as if getting tired was a disappointment. "I don't
think they did defeat it. I think they treated it like an infection, and
sealed it off. Removed it from their Gate addresses. See no evil, hear
no evil..."

"... get killed by the evil you're ignoring," Jack finished sourly.
"I'm liking this less the more I hear."

"It's possible this fifth world is where the Goa'uld have their
stronghold. It could be the place Apophis went when he escaped
Chulak."

It was a very long shot. As much as Jack hated that skinny, glowing-eyed bastard and wanted to rip him in half, he wasn't going to
drag an untested team into an unknown, obviously hostile situation
on the strength of one of Daniel's wild-ass guesses.

Well. Not yet, anyway. It'd be nice to come back from their maiden
voyage without smoking holes in their new BDUs.

"We'll go back," he said. "Report to General Hammond, grab
some coffee, catch some sleep. You didn't get a Gate address for
Planet It-Is-Forbidden, right?"

Daniel shook his head mutely.

"Then it might be a moot point. We couldn't get there if we wanted
to.,,

"I could keep trying. Somebody has to know something."

"T-minus three hours to departure," Jack said. "You're worn out.
Get some rest, Daniel."

Daniel gave him that level, unflinching stare Jack remembered so
well from Abydos. "Was that an order?"

"Would you listen if it was?"

Daniel blinked. "Maybe."

Well, that was new. Jack shrugged, leaving it up to him, and as
Daniel turned to go, said, "Keep the radio on, will ya?"

Daniel's footsteps didn't turn toward his room. Jack listened to
them thumping back down the stairs, and went to the window to look
out. Moonlight bathed the town. Here and there, lanterns glowed
and flickered, and shadows moved around the streets. Three moons
floated in the sky, one large and pale blue, one small and pure, bright
white, one a kind of squashed orange.

He remembered the mosaic, the final stillness of a ruined city,
and the moonlight shining down. Should've ordered him to bed, he
thought. The more he wants to know, the less they're going to want to
tell him. And this is a big place to search if he goes missing.

But in the morning, at 0700 sharp, Daniel was back, eyes vague
with weariness, and everything seemed perfectly normal.

Daniel's barhopping hadn't yielded a whole lot of information, it
appeared. As SG-1 had breakfast in the hotel common room - trestle
tables and benches, a lot of bright chattering people in colorful robes
and lace-up sandals, all of whom stared covertly - Daniel described
chatting up the locals. The more or less sober ones, anyway. He and
Teal'c hadn't been on their own after all; at least two of Acton's quiet
security detail had trailed them all night.

Carter in particular listened to Daniel's story of a fifth, lost world
intently. "And they didn't give you any details about what came
through the Stargate to cause the disaster?" she asked, and took a neat
bite of flatbread loaded with sliced olives. She'd politely refused the
lamb and rice wrapped in grape leaves, which Jack thought actually
tasted pretty fine. "Seems like it had to have been something pretty
frightening. Like a Goa'uld war party."

"I didn't get the sense it was something that... well, that simple,"
Daniel replied. He was wolfing down some kind of porridge that Jack
wouldn't have tried for money... but then, Daniel wasn't exactly
squeamish about new foods. "Not just a Goa'uld war party, if that
was part of it. It seemed like they were afraid of something worse
than that. These people understand war, I think they've had struggles
among their planets from time to time. You saw the walls..."

"Wondered about that," Jack said. He tried the flatbread. Not bad.
Maybe they should hijack the cooks and take them back to the SGC
commissary.

"Yeah, well, even this planet's got its own political divisions.
Seems like there are several different city-states that all want control
of the Stargate. This city - it's calledAclythos - has been in charge of
it for about fifty years, after the last war. But there's a couple of other
cities within a day's travel that use it, too, and have to pay for the
privilege. Apparently, travel through the Stargate is free for the local
citizens, but not for everybody else."

"So it's not a planetary government?" Carter asked.

"No. We'll probably only find a planetary government where the
Goa'uld have an active presence, or did. These worlds seem to have
been seeded by the Goa'uld, but they never got back around to asserting a claim. So... tribal politics as usual. The slaves broke up into
city-states, patterned a life after the one they'd had back home."

Teal'c said, "Yet this other unnamed world may still be under
Goa'uld control."

Jack looked around one more time - the calm diners, the ripple of
conversations going on, smiles and laughter. Busy servitors, looking
harassed and palming coins for tips. Chefs shouting to each other in
back rooms. Like the airport, it looked a lot like home, if you switched
out the wardrobe. And if the Goa'uld had a foothold on one of these planets, it was only a matter of time before they came calling here on
Chalcis, too, burning and destroying.

And after that, just a couple of steps on to Earth.

"Let's get moving," Jack said, and tugged his hat into place.

It was the general rule in the field; when the commander was done
eating, the team was done, too. Carter left her flatbread and olives;
Teal'c immediately abandoned his plate of fruit. Daniel scooped up
two hasty mouthfuls of his porridge, then a third while standing, and
was the last to leave the table.

Two guys in dark tunics got up from a seat in the comer of the
room and followed SG-1 out. Jack noted them, exchanged looks
with Carter and Teal'c and nodded slightly toward their new friends.
"Teal'c. Watch our six."

Culture shock. Teal'c looked at him with a blankly inquiring look,
one eyebrow threatening to shoot up. Daniel looked just as clueless.
"There are not six of us, O'Neill," Teal'c said. He managed to say it
as if he wasn't calling his CO a lunatic. Probably how he'd survived
Apophis all these years.

Carter smothered a grin. "Guys," she said, and described a clock
with her hands. "Twelve o'clock is in front, six o'clock is behind.
Watch our six means - "

"Behinds," Jack finished in exasperation. "Watch our behinds."

"Ah, Jack, you do know our watches are digital now..."

He sighed. "Shut up, Daniel."

Outside, the big square - the agora - was again bustling with people moving, only this time the flow was all in one direction. Toward
the Acropolis at the crown of the hill.

"Jack?" Daniel pointed. "Think we should have a look?" He took
a couple of steps in that direction. Almost immediately, their darktunic-wearing minders looked worried. One of them scurried off fast,
probably for backup; the other came up to Daniel and stepped in his
way.

"Not a linguist, but I'm guessing that means no," Jack said. "Invitation only up at the temple."

"Maybe that means we should go," Carter put in.

"Or shouldn't," Daniel said. "Maybe it's a religious taboo. No foreigners allowed."

Jack didn't like that idea. "And maybe these fine folks have been
yanking our chain. Let's find out."

He stepped forward, and sure enough, the security guy wasn't
quite sure how much force he was allowed to use. Or, Jack thought,
having been on that side of the problem a time or two, whether he
had enough authority to stop them no matter what. Jack pushed past
him, walking across the courtyard through the misting breeze of the
fountain.

"Maybe it's a morning religious observance?" Carter asked. "Sunrise service?"

"Well... maybe." Daniel didn't sound convinced, and Jack could
see why; this crowd didn't have the bored, comfortable look of people
coming to church. Lots of people, tightly clustered. Parents and children alike, everybody very quiet.

"Funeral?" Jack guessed.

"Something serious," Daniel replied. "Sacrificial rites? I don't
know. The Greeks weren't known for anything too extreme in their
rituals, except for Tauris - Euripides wrote about human sacrifice in
honor ofArtemis in Tauris. She was their patron deity."

"Who's the patron deity in these parts?" Better safe than sorry
...

Daniel gestured at a massive, gorgeously carved marble statue of
a dignified man, seated on a throne marked with seashells and sea
creatures. Surprisingly, it was painted - the robes were saffron, the
flowing hair black. Dark eyes that seemed to follow everybody who
walked by. He was shown holding a trident.

"Poseidon," Daniel said. "God of the sea."

"And Artemis is...?"

"Goddess of the hunt and the moon. Sister of Apollo, god of the
sun and medicine. She's also an aspect of the triple-faced goddess:
Artemis, Hera, Hecate. Maiden, mother, crone."

Moon. Moonlight. A shattered city in still white light.

Over at the Acropolis, a priest draped in white with a cloth over
his head held up a scroll and showed it to the assembled crowd. Jack
stopped, watching, as the man unrolled it and read something out.

"What's he saying?"

"Hard to catch." Daniel stepped forward, as if an extra foot or so
might make the difference. "Sounds like... something about paying tribute... and the safety of the city. Maybe a draft for the local militia."

The priest handed over the scroll to an attendant and was brought a
huge silver bowl on a tripod, and a silver baton. Another priest tipped
a bag full of tiles into the bowl.

The silver baton was put to use stirring the tiles.

"Daniel?"

"I'm not sure. Lottery?"

"I'm guessing it's not Powerball."

Jack put his hand on the butt of his MP5, reading the tension in
the crowd. They were very, very quiet as a tile was drawn and held
up to be read.

The priest said something. One word.

"I don't know," Daniel said before Jack could ask. "A name,
maybe. A clan? A family?"

A sigh went through the crowd. Most of them turned to go, hurrying away, clutching the hands of their children.

A small knot of people stayed, clinging together.

"Sir," Carter said quietly. "We really should get going, if we want
to stay on schedule."

Jack watched for a few seconds more. The knot of people left made
some kind of group decision. An old man kissed the foreheads of two
adults, a man and a woman, and knelt to embrace his grandkids.

Then he went up the steps to the temple.

"No human sacrifice, huh?" he said. "Right."

He'd be really happy to get out of here, feather beds or not.

The walk back to the Stargate took longer than expected, because
Daniel kept stopping to take video and rubbings of inscriptions, until
Jack's temper flared and he flatly ordered him to stay on the road and
keep up. Carter wasn't looking too approving of Daniel's distraction,
either. Her eyes stayed focused on the slowly-approaching bulk of the
Stargate airport, except when they moved for fast glances behind, at
the security detail trailing them.

"Sir?" She moved up next to him and fell in with his loose-limbed
stride. "Are you sure they're going to let us leave?"

"Oh, pretty sure that they won't be able to stop us," Jack said. "Not with the weapons we've seen so far. But I don't think it'll come to
that. These folks seem like the diplomacy-first types. Probably they'll
just fuss a little and want us to wait for the official kiss-off. By the
time they get their act together, we'll be back home."

Daniel cleared his throat. "Shouldn't we -

"No, Daniel."

"You don't know what I was going to say."

"And yet... still no."

The airport wasn't exactly bustling early in the morning. Even the
taxi stand was empty. Jack led the way through the big gates - which
were open - into an empty expanse of courtyard. The bar where
they'd sipped alien daiquiris was shuttered and locked. The desks all
stood unoccupied. The only sound was the flapping of canvas in the
breeze, and the distant heartbeat of the sea.

The Stargate sat silent in the morning light, looking like a particularly impressive piece of round alien sculpture in the middle of all of
these sharp right angles.

Despite the lack of travelers, there was plenty of security on duty,
Jack noticed. Twenty or more. They were standing at the steps of the
`gate, armed with spears.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said. "It appears that those who followed us have
summoned assistance."

How? No radios on any of these guys... Jack gave up wondering,
because it didn't matter. The fact was that the security detail behind
them had swelled to five. When added to the uniformed guys standing in front of the Stargate, that presented bad odds if you didn't want
to mow people down with automatic weapons, which would kind of
spoil the generally positive diplomatic tone they'd achieved.

"Jack," Daniel murmured, and jerked his chin toward a doorway
in the wall that was opening near the Stargate. The door was painted
jet black, and the ones coming out of it were in black, too - head to
toe, covered in veils that drifted in the morning breeze. Very ceremonial stuff. The first one out carried some kind of smoking brazier on a
chain. The second one carried flowers.

He was reminded, again, of funerals.

"Sir, maybe all this isn't for us," Carter said. "Maybe the extra
security's for these people."

"Who are...?"

Nobody on SG-1 answered Jack's question. They all paused,
watching, as the procession came to a stop at the foot of the steps and
the Dial Home Device.