Title: A Source of Power - Chapter 7
Author: SG_Betty
Word count: 5,677
Genre: Gen, Action/Adventure, Team
Rating/Warning: PG-13, Violence
Spoilers: spoilers up to and including early Season 7
Disclaimer: While the situations and dialogue in this story are my own, all characters are wholly owned by Gekko Productions and MGM.
Thanks: It is impossible for me to thank Lokei enough for the enormous time and effort that she put into beta reading, advice, and encouragement. There simply aren't fine enough words. All I can say is thank you, Lokei, this story simply wouldn't exist without you!
Teal’c leaned against the column that he and O’Neill had hidden behind, waiting for the approach of their enemies. He focused on the explosives laid strategically across the next room, ignoring the pain of the burn covering a large part of his arm. He focused on his need to stay alert, on his desire to protect his friends, on his wish to destroy Am-Heh and the infested Unas. He would not be distracted. He would not weaken. He breathed deeply and pushed the pain to the back of his mind.
Jack shifted his gaze from the trap they had set to Teal’c. He couldn’t tell how the big guy was doing. To the Jaffa, severe injury meant an end to usefulness, and an end to life. It had to be hidden. Teal’c knew the team didn’t see it that way, but old habits die hard. Jack had no idea how he might be feeling right now. When Carter or Daniel was wounded, he had a pretty good idea how they were feeling, even when they felt obliged to minimize their condition. They would never hide an injury that endangered the team, but if nothing could be done about it, they would forge ahead, and try to keep anyone from worrying about them. But he didn’t get the birds on his shoulders for being a pretty face. He could read his people.
Sam looked behind her to the Colonel and Teal’c then back to Daniel. They all knew the Unas and Merire should have caught up with them by now. Her mind went back to a question there hadn’t been time to ask. “Daniel, I’ve been wondering something about Am-Heh. The Unas were the first hosts of the Goa’uld. We’ve seen a couple of them. Wouldn’t they be as old as Am-Heh? Maybe older?”
Daniel looked at her over his glasses. “Not necessarily. It might just mean that they didn’t want to use human hosts. The Unas are stronger and have better regenerative abilities. Some Goa’uld may prefer that, although most of them seem to find us, uh, prettier. Which is disturbing in all kinds of ways.”
“We’ve never heard of a Goa’uld in Am-Heh’s condition. That might mean that he is older than any of the other Goa’uld, or it might be something specific to Am-Heh. Some kind of genetic defect that even the sarcophagus can’t fix. I don’t think we’ll ever know, Sam.”
Daniel frowned as he looked into the room with the dead Jaffa and the explosives. He was getting really worried that Merire hadn’t shown up. He’d convinced Jack that this was a good plan. He couldn’t let Jack blow up those artifacts, he just… couldn’t, but he wouldn’t have suggested this as an alternative if he hadn’t been sure that it would work. Daniel listened carefully, hoping to hear the sound of approaching feet.
He heard something, but it wasn’t feet. It was the faint sound of moving stone. “Jack!” He spoke in a soft voice and pointed to the opposite side of the room. For a moment, nothing happened, and then a section of wall rose, revealing a hidden passage. Unas filled the room, their eyes flaring yellow. They were all blended, all possessed by the primitive goa’uld of their homeworld. Two of the Unas were dragging the giant Unas that had been the guards. Daniel couldn’t tell if they were both dead now, or just the one that Jack had killed. It wouldn’t matter if they were put in the sarcophagus. The Unas were followed by Merire. Daniel felt a surge of desperation. The Unas would find them any minute, and he would be responsible.
Merire moved into the room and near the columns that sheltered them. Daniel knew he had to fix this. The explosives were useless as long as the Unas were in the burial room. They’d be caught without ever having the chance to detonate the C-4.
Daniel leapt out from behind the column and stood behind Merire, his arm wrapped around the host’s neck. “Stay back!” He held the Beretta to Merire’s temple and the Unas halted their advance. He pulled the host backward toward the explosives. The Unas followed him toward the other room, as he had hoped.
He heard Sam call out his name. Her comprehension of his plan and the distress in her voice were clear. He couldn’t let it distract him; he couldn’t let it be important. He focused only on what he had to do. This had to work. There was no other way. Daniel reached the doorway and kept backing into the room. He was careful not to disturb any of the explosives hidden under the bodies of the dead Jaffa. And not to trip. That would end this fast and badly.
Jack was frowning ferociously as he watched Daniel put his damn stupid plan into action. He hated it when Daniel improvised. It always ended in a damn stupid plan like this one. The Unas were all following him into the room, so that was good, but there was Daniel, in the middle of a room full of C-4. He muttered to himself. “Daniel, if you make me blow up someplace around you again, so help me, C-4 will be the least of your problems. Damn it!”
Teal’c heard O’Neill, and while he wished that Daniel Jackson had not found it necessary to take this risk, he approved of his actions. This choice was necessary. Teal’c regretted that he had not been close enough to lead the Unas to their destruction himself.
Sam couldn’t see Daniel, now. The room had filled with Unas and her view was blocked. There were still a few of them on this side of the doorway, but most were inside with the C-4. With Daniel.
“Jack, now!”
Jack heard Daniel call over the sounds of the Unas. He heard Daniel, but he couldn’t see him. Daniel could be standing on top of a pile of explosives, for all he knew.
“Jack! Now!” Daniel’s voice had taken on a frantic tone.
Jack closed his eyes then looked at Carter and Teal’c. “Fire in the hole!” Jack detonated the explosives, starting with the one closest to them, than the pile in the center of the room, and lastly, the C-4 that was probably closest to Daniel. Crap.
As far as Daniel was concerned, this plan was the only option. Maybe it wasn’t his best one ever, but it was the only plan he had. When Daniel pulled Merire into their explosive rigged trap, the Unas had followed. That part of his plan had worked nicely, but by the time he reached the middle of the room, they started fanning out and trying to get behind him. That wasn’t helpful. Daniel pushed the gun into the temple of the host. “Tell them to drop back. Right now.”
“If you kill me, they will destroy you and restore me in the sarcophagus. You will die.”
“That would be important, if I cared.” Daniel dragged Merire back another few feet. It was a good thing the Goa’uld couldn’t read minds. Daniel cared. He cared a lot.
“I wouldn’t be so sure they’ll restore you, either. Maybe one of them would rather rule in your place. Even if they do, Am-Heh is too weak for your body to be restored from death. Am-Heh will go into the underworld without the strength of the gods and be lost forever.” Actually, Daniel had no idea if the sarcophagus would work or not. He hoped Merire didn’t know either. “Call them off now, or you die here. Your god dies here.”
Merire hesitated then waved the Unas back.
Daniel kept pulling the host backwards, ten feet, fifteen feet, while the Unas crept closer. He had no illusions about how long the Unas could be kept at bay. Eventually, they would swarm him, and he wouldn’t have a chance. As he drew closer to the door to the hieroglyph room, he decided it was time. The Unas were moving in. He wasn’t going to be able to wait any longer. He just had to hope that most of them were in the room. “Jack, now!”
The Unas seemed to take this as a cue. They moved forward quickly, trying to surround him and cut off his escape. “Jack! Now!” Daniel saw Unas moving in from either side, and launched himself backwards toward the door, holding Merire between him and the attacking Unas. The first charge went off, the second, the third. The force of the explosions sent Daniel flying through the door and into the stone floor, chunks of stone, shards of tile, and unmentionable detritus raining around him. He let go of the host as he hit. His ears were ringing and his vision darkened. He had been way to close to that last pile of C-4.
Jack looked into the room where he had just detonated the explosives. He couldn’t see anything, just a cloud of dust, debris, and things that were less pleasant, unless you like small pieces of Unas, long dead Jaffa, and symbiote. No movement. No Daniel.
He saw the remaining Unas powering their staff weapons. Some had been on the periphery of the explosion and had run back to the burial room. Some had never left. Jack took aim at the Unas nearest to their former guards and fired. He didn’t want to take any chances when it came to fighting those two again. He knew they had been lucky the last time. He didn’t want a repeat of the fight in the boat.
They stayed in the cover of the stone columns. Sam was firing her P-90 at the Unas closest to her that were encroaching on their position. She was thankful these didn’t have shields. It looked like only the two who fought on the pylons had shields. Merire hadn’t even had one. Was Merire still alive? Was Daniel? The blast from a staff weapon hit the column just over her head. She took aim at the Unas that had fired. The room was filled with the deadly fire of staff weapons and P-90’s, and the sounds of battle were loud in her ears.
Despite his damaged arm, Teal’c was fighting with a ferocity that was always most apparent when he battled the Goa’uld. The number of Unas steadily fighting was diminishing. Most had been destroyed by the C-4 in the trap to which Daniel Jackson had led them. Teal’c glanced at the dust filled room. He controlled his thoughts with great effort and turned back to the battle. He was Jaffa. He was free. He would destroy these Goa’uld that Daniel Jackson had given him the opportunity to fight. Teal’c raised his weapon and fired.
Jack looked around him. Carter and Teal’c were doing fine. No further injuries and they were down to the last four Unas. He saw a movement by the door and turned to see Amy’s host stagger into the room. His clothes were ragged, and soiled with debris from the explosion. Jack raised his P-90 to take the shot.
“Sir! Behind you!” An Unas had moved around the dais and was flanking the Colonel. Its staff weapon was raised and ready. Sam couldn’t take it out; the Colonel was in her line of fire.
Jack swung around and sent a burst of fire into the Unas. It dropped to the ground. Two others came forward and Jack took them down as well. One of their staff weapon blasts charred the paint on the column just above his head. He heard a sound from the door.
“Daniel!” Sam’s voice was filled with relief as she saw Daniel emerge from the dust filled room. He was bleeding from a cut on his head, and favoring one leg, but he was alive and in one piece.
Daniel didn’t hear Sam. He didn’t hear anything, except the ringing in his ears. He was focused on Merire. The host had reached the sarcophagus and the lid was closing. Daniel raised his Beretta from where he stood, the full length of the room between them, and fired a single shot. The lid was almost closed, but the bullet passed through the six inch gap that remained and hit Am-Heh’s host squarely between the eyes.
Jack let out a whistle. “Nice!”
Teal’c raised his staff weapon and blasted the controls of the sarcophagus, turning it into nothing more than a coffin. The false god was now truly dead.
The last remaining Unas had hidden itself behind a pillar across from them. It stepped out and aimed at Daniel.
He didn’t hear it move. He didn’t hear the staff weapon charging. And he didn’t hear Jack’s warning.
“Daniel! Get down!” Jack ran forward and shot at the Unas. The shells hit just as the weapon fired. The blast went wide; it missed Daniel by inches.
Daniel hadn’t heard any of that, but he saw the fire from the staff weapon race by him. His eyebrows rose as he looked from Jack to the dead Unas with surprise, and dawning relief. He smiled. “Thanks, Jack. Good timing.”
Sam moved to Daniel with a big grin. He gave her a broad smile in return. She tapped her ear and looked at him inquiringly. “Can you hear anything at all?”
Daniel shook his head. “I can’t hear you, Sam. It’s getting better though. The ringing isn’t as loud as it was before. I don’t think it’s permanent.”
Jack looked at his watch. “Much as I’d like to get out of here yesterday, it might take a while, and we haven’t eaten in almost eight hours. We’ll take a break, and then try the secret passage these guys used to get in here. Teal’c, do a quick check of the corridor, I’ll have a look around here. Let’s make sure that no one is playing hide and seek. Carter, go to the hieroglyph room with Daniel, he won’t be able to hear leftover Unas sneaking up on him. We’ll meet you there to eat. It’s the closest place that isn’t full of unappetizing dead Unas.” He turned to Daniel, mimed eating, pointed to the door.
Daniel looked pleased. “I’m starving. How long has it been since we ate?”
Jack rolled his eyes and watched his team leave the room from the room. He checked the sarcophagus room for hidden followers of Merire, but the only Unas to be found were dead ones. There was little to check in the room that had held the dead Jaffa. Nothing was in a big enough pieces to be alive. By the time he got to the hieroglyph room, Teal’c had already returned, having found no Unas lurking in the corridors, either.
They settled down to eat, but kept their backs to the wall and their eyes on the doors. This place had held so many surprises, it was difficult not to expect one now, even after defeating Am-Heh. The adrenalin that had rushed through them was fading, but they were a very long way from relaxed.
Daniel had picked up Teal’c’s pack again and helped him with his meal. Teal’c made gestures that Daniel interpreted as meaning that he was capable of dealing with his own MRE., but Daniel just smiled, shook his head, and continued. “I know you can do this Teal’c, but it’s easier not to, isn’t it? Let me return the favor. Now, Beef Enchiladas or Chicken with Thai Sauce?”
Teal’c recognized that Daniel Jackson would not be dissuaded, and pointed to the Beef Enchiladas. Daniel Jackson was not wrong. The mobility of his injured arm was not good. He had done further damage during the battle. It was difficult to accept the slow healing that came with his freedom from his symbiote, but it was a small price to pay. It was not unpleasant to allow Daniel Jackson to complete this task for him. He leaned back against the wall and let his tense muscles ease.
They ate quickly, driven by their desire to escape this place and get back to the Gate. Daniel was relieved to find that his hearing seemed to be returning more rapidly than he had expected. By the end of the meal, he could once again hear the voices of his teammates.
Sam pulled the wagered vanilla wafer and pound cake from her pack. She handed the wafer to Teal’c with a smile. “Sorry, Daniel. You lost.”
He shook his head. “No argument from me. I was completely wrong about Am-Heh. He was very much in residence. Well, his host was, and that turned out to be close enough.”
Still smiling, she passed the pound cake to the Colonel . “You found the ‘high tech do-dad’, Sir, so you win. It took a while longer than we expected, but there was no time limit in the bet. And nothing was said about the power source having to remain intact.”
Teal’c reached into his pocket awkwardly and retrieved the chocolate energy bar. “You shall not go without extra dessert, Daniel Jackson.” He passed it to the archeologist.
“Thanks, Teal’c! Are you sure you don’t want it?”
“I am completely sure, Daniel Jackson.”
Daniel pulled the wrapper off the energy bar. He didn’t understand why Teal’c didn’t like them. As they were drinking their coffee, Jack motioned the archeologist over to him.
“Daniel, we need to talk about your improvised plan. You know I hate it when you do stuff like that.”
“Sorry, Jack.” Daniel had a stubborn expression on his face. “But, someone had to get them into that room. Waiting by the sarcophagus was my plan. I got us trapped in there, so I had to fix things. It had to be done.”
“Consequences be damned, huh, Daniel?”
“And what would the consequence be if I hadn’t? We all get captured by the Unas and die together?” Daniel crossed his arms.
“So it was better for you to risk dying alone?” Jack frowned at him, willing him to understand what it was that he asked of his friends and teammates. “Better to make me risk killing you? Not better, Daniel. Not better at all. Didn’t we already have this conversation on the way into this place?”
Daniel’s gaze dropped away from Jack. “I was pretty sure I could do it without dying, Jack. That’s not something that’s on my list of things to do again any time soon...” Daniel focused on his sleeve and picked at something. “If there’d been time, I would have said something… tried to figure out something else. But there wasn’t, so….” Daniel looked at his other arm, and then down at his pants with a disconcerted expression. “Jack… I’m covered with… um, Unas…”
“Yes, Daniel. You are.” Jack gave him a wry smile. “Let that be a lesson to you.”
Carter had cleaned up the blood that had been running down Daniel’s face after the explosion, but between that, the dried blood from the shoulder wound, and the remnants of Unas, Daniel looked mighty gory. They all looked like extras from a horror movie. Smelled like it, too.
Jack actually agreed with him about his improvisation with Merire. In retrospect, it was the only solution. Daniel and Carter were the ones closest to the host, so it had to be one of them that took action.
Jack would never tell Daniel that. You just didn’t encourage Daniel to go off on his own and do something dangerous. The results were too unpredictable. That’s why he called him on it. Jack didn’t want Daniel to get the idea that he approved of that sort of thing. Even when he did. Sort of. Of course, he would have felt differently about it if Daniel had gotten himself killed. If he had killed Daniel. He gulped the last of his coffee and stood. “Let’s get out of here. It’s time to go home.”
They pulled on their packs. This time Jack took Teal’c’s. “My turn, Daniel. I wasn’t in the middle of an explosion.”
Teal’c began to object. “O’Neill -”
Jack raised a finger. “Aht! Privilege of command. I get to do what I want. Your arm will heal a lot faster if you don’t do stuff that you don’t have to, and we need you healed as soon as possible.” He threw the pack over his shoulder, and led them back through the disgusting room where the Unas has died, to the room that was now, truly, the burial place of Am-Heh.
The passage that opened off the new entrance into the burial room was narrower than the other corridors on the level. They were forced to travel in single file, with Jack leading and Sam bringing up the rear, their P-90’s held at the ready. While this passage was still lit, the lights were more spread out, making it much dimmer. After the first few feet, it began to incline sharply, switching back like a path up a mountain.
Jack tried to estimate how much height they had gained. He guessed that it was about 100 feet. That didn’t mean much, since they had no idea how deep the rings had taken them under the surface.
His legs were burning. The passage had been built for expedience, not comfort. Jack would bet that Am-Heh had never intended to use it himself. The pitch began to lessen, and the passage leveled out at a stone door set into the wall in front of them. They raised their weapons and Jack pushed the control that opened the door onto a large, but very crowded room. Carter and Daniel were drawn into it like moths to a light.
Tall shelves divided into niches lined the walls. They were filled with rolls of parchment, Goa’uld data crystals, data display devices, and books. Long tables filled the center of the room, covered with more of the materials, piled haphazardly with no sign of order. Books were stacked uncaringly wherever there was available space. Some had been knocked over and were strewn across the floor. The room was strangely free of dust for one that had clearly received so little care. There was an open arch opposite the door through which they had come. It was the only other exit to the room.
Daniel reached down to pick up a display device from one of the tables.
“Daniel! Bad idea!”
“Jack?” The archeologist’s eyebrows rose questioningly.
“Remember what happened last time you found one of those things?” Jack didn’t want to take even the smallest chance that Daniel, or any of them, might be infected with one of those crazy making anti-Goa’uld weapons again.
Daniel looked over the top of his glasses. “You know, I really doubt that Ma’chello has been here.”
“Just… humor me, okay? Read a book.” Jack waved his hand at the many books that were piles around them.
Daniel rolled his eyes, but moved his hand away from the data device and opened a book that sat next to it. “This is interesting...”
“Why? What’s it say?” Jack hoped it was about weapons. Big ones.
“I don’t know. That’s what’s interesting.” Daniel turned the page.
“Yes, I know that’s what I look for in my reading material.” Jack glanced at Carter and Teal’c. Neither seemed to be getting into any trouble.
Daniel picked up the book and flipped through it. “It doesn’t resemble any language or pictographic writing system that I’ve seen before. Interesting.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Oh. Well. That’s just fascinating, then. But not very useful.”
“You never know, Jack. We couldn’t read Ancient at first, but it turned out to be pretty useful. This might be, too.”
Jack didn’t have an answer for that so he went to see what Carter was doing.
Sam was reading the information from a data crystal. It was written in Goa’uld. She was relatively proficient, although she occasionally needed help from Teal’c or Daniel for the more obscure phrases.
“Interesting or useful, Carter?”
“Maybe both, sir. It seems to be a record of Am-Heh’s tribute of sacrifices from various worlds. It lists the number of people received, as well as some details about the planets. It also lists the gate addresses.” Sam pointed to an address on the screen.
“Useful! And interesting! You bring that one; we’ll send a team back for the rest of this stuff. We have to come back to get Daniel’s artifacts, anyway.”
“And to seal the underworld.” She looked down at the table and frowned.
Jack grimaced. “Yeah. We don’t want anyone else wandering in there by accident.”
“The people, sir? Am-Heh’s victims?”
“Yeah. Carter, about that -”
“I know sir. There are too many…” Sam looked back to him. “I was thinking, maybe a memorial before we seal the pyramid?”
“I think that can be arranged, Carter. And we’ll mark the building as a tomb. I’ll talk to Hammond.” That was a good idea. Jack didn’t want to be here for it, but it was a good idea.
“Thanks you, sir.” Sam put the crystal in a pocket on her vest, as well as two others that were lying nearby. It was tempting to fill her pack with as many as possible, but they needed to be catalogued according to placement in the room. It didn’t look like there was any order here, but she didn’t want to make that assumption. She’d learned that from Daniel. He kept meticulous records of where things were found and there were times when that had turned out to be important.
“You have five minutes, Carter.”
“Yes, sir.”
Daniel had moved over to the shelves where he was carefully unrolling scrolls of parchment. “We’re going to have to be very careful moving these, Jack. They should have decayed, well, millennia ago, but they’re perfectly preserved. I hope we can find out how…”
“You mean, they’ll turn to dust when we try to take them out of here?” Jack rested his arms on his P-90.
Daniel shook his head and looked at Jack. “No. They’re not just intact. They are perfectly preserved. They’re essentially new. We’ll need to move them and store them in a way that doesn’t start the degradation process. Ideally, we’ll be able to find out what’s kept them in this condition. We may find a link between this and preservation of the victims. This is an amazing find.”
“Just think of the commercial applications. Goa’uld Botox.” Jack grinned at the archeologist, then winced a little. That didn’t come out quite the way he meant it. But they’d found some good stuff and some gate addresses, some sciencey stuff for Carter, even some artifacts and books for Daniel. Everybody was walking out of here on their own steam. Things were really starting to look up.
Daniel ignored him and returned to examining a parchment. “Yes, because that would be so much more important than preserving ancient libraries.”
Jack waved a hand at the shelves. “Why do you think Am-Heh kept all this? He didn’t strike me as a big reader.”
“No, I’m not getting the sense that he collected first editions.” Daniel continued reading.
“So why? What is all this stuff?” Jack reached for a parchment.
“Don’t touch that, Jack.” Daniel looked up from the scroll. “From what little I’ve looked at, the part that I understood, anyway, it’s mostly records. The most interesting parts, well, sad-interesting, are about the worlds he went to for tribute. He recorded the history of his dealings with the people of each world. We may be able to extrapolate some interesting information.” Daniel rolled the parchment up again. “There’s also some information on various items and technologies that he stole. Sam will really like some of that.”
“She found some swell crystals with gate addresses on them. Addresses from the planets where Am-Heh took people. ”
“Oh. That’s… That’s really good.” Daniel frowned at the scroll.
“Anyway, Daniel, we need to go. I gave Carter five minutes, ten minutes ago. If there is anything that you can take out of here with out wrecking it, you can have one now. The rest are for later.” Daniel looked at him with an odd expression on his face. Kind of a cross between a smile and a frown. It was… wistful. Not a word that Jack generally had reason to pull out of his vocabulary, and not an expression that he’d seen on Daniel very often. Not for a long time, and that wasn’t counting the time Daniel had been ‘glowy’.
He looked down for a moment then put the parchment back on the shelf. “Thanks, Jack. But no. I better not. Unless I can take that data recorder?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I didn’t think so.”
“Safety first, Daniel. Let’s go then.” Jack headed toward the arch.
He passed Teal’c standing at a table and saw something he didn’t usually see. Teal’c reading a Big Book ‘O Goa’uld. “Wha’cha got there, Teal’c?”
“It is a record of the Jaffa who served Am-Heh, O’Neill.”
“Ah.” Teal’c didn’t look up from the book. Jack was starting to feel ignored.
“This is a thing that my people would value. A record of those lost. Their names are recorded as yet another sacrifice to Am-Heh. It was no such thing. My people will know that they died free.”
“Daniel says that we better not take the fragile stuff out of here yet. But I’ll do my best to make sure you get that when we do. I don’t see Hammond having a problem with that.”
Teal’c closed the book carefully and looked at O’Neill. “I would appreciate that greatly.”
“Ready to go?” He gestured to the arch in the wall.
“Indeed.”
“Okay, campers! Library’s closing, time to go home!” Jack passed through the arch.
As they left, Daniel took a last glance at the archive. In the middle of this monument to death, they had found something that might give a voice to the victims. They didn’t save any of them, but maybe they could tell their people what happened, that the Goa’uld who had taken them was dead. It was a small thing, but it was something. It was something Daniel had needed. He would have looked for Sha’re forever. He turned and left the room.
Through the arch was a smaller room. There was another ring platform on one side, and a large stone door on the other side. The door was a match of the one they had used to enter the pyramid, except that the hieroglyph were simpler and confined to a panel beside the door.
Daniel went to examine the panel.
“Sir, the rings probably go up to somewhere near Am-Heh’s throne room. We’ve climbed quite a way. I think the throne room must be in the top levels of the pyramid.”
“Which means we might be at ground level.” Daniel raised his eyes from the panel. “This looks pretty simple. I think it’s just a door, not a trap, or anything.”
“Go for it, Daniel.” Jack mentally crossed his fingers. He wanted out. He wanted his team out.
Daniel took a breath and pushed four of the glyphs. The heavy stone door rose, and the damp decay of the jungle wafted into the room.
“Yes! Thank you, Daniel! We are so out of here!”
The heat of the jungle hit them like a wall. They stepped out with greater relief than they had felt on stepping into the pyramid to escape it. The sounds of the jungle surrounded them. It was the sound of life. A light, warm rain fell through the trees above.
“How far to the Stargate, Carter?”
Sam scanned for the naquadah that would give away the location of the Stargate. “About a mile, Sir. That way.” She pointed to their left. Sam was enjoying the feel of the hot air against her face. She was enjoying the water dripping from the dense canopy of leaves overhead, and running down her neck. She had never been so glad to get outside.
Teal’c raised his face to the sky and let the moisture run across hid skin. He was free. His teammates were free, and they had destroyed Am-Heh and the Goa’uld who served him. Teal’c felt a profound sense of satisfaction.
“It’s kind of nice out.” Daniel’s glasses had fogged the minute they stepped outside. He took them off and wiped them on his shirt before replacing them. He discovered that he had merely smeared them, and tried again, purposely not thinking about what it might be that he was wiping off the lenses. He took a deep breath of the humid jungle air. It smelled good. A bit moldy, but good.
Jack waved them toward the Stargate and they started to make their way through the jungle. “So, Daniel, tell us about those parchments. Why should they have decayed?” Jack could tell that Daniel was exhausted, because he didn’t even question Jack’s interest. His eyes lit up and his hands moved in the air as he began to instruct them on the nature of parchment.
“Well, parchment was widely used before the use of paper became common. It’s made from stretched animal skins, mostly calfskin, sheepskin, or goatskin. Of course, this parchment might be something else. It’s different from leather in that it’s not tanned, but stretched, scraped, and dried under tension. They used large frames and -” Daniel continued his monologue on the origin, uses, and qualities of parchment as they pushed their way through the undergrowth.
Teal’c walked beside the archeologist and listened with every appearance of interest.
Sam looked at the Colonel. “Sir? You’re interested in parchment?”
“Nope. Not even a little bit." Jack grinned. “But it’s normal.” He gestured ahead at Daniel and Teal’c. “We’re alive. Daniel’s… here. He’s talking about some boring thing that you wouldn’t think Teal’c would give two hoots about, but he does. We’re on our way back to the Stargate, and we’re going home, mostly in one piece. It’s normal. I like normal. Normal is relaxing.”
She smiled, pushing a vine out of her way and kept trudging forward toward the Stargate. “Yes, sir. I like normal, too.”
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