Jack let out a long-held breath as the two of them walked out of the door, into the dark street, and he finally turned around and went back to bed.
Sleep was still a long time coming, but at least he had one less thing to worry about.
His watch - set to local time - read about 4 a.m. when he heard footsteps coming back, and a very small knock on the door. Jack got up and opened it, found Daniel standing outside, looking tired and discouraged and dusty.
He gestured him inside and shut the door.
"Nothing," Daniel said, before Jack even asked. "I showed Sha're's picture, described Apophis, Skaara, the Jaffa... Teal'c even came with me as a visual aid. If these people know anything, they're good liars. By the way, wine shops stay open all night around here. m case you're interested."
"Anything else?"
Daniel combed his shaggy hair back from his face. "Maybe. Seems the mosaic on the wall might have referred to a fifth planet in the Helos Confederacy, only everybody seems to agree it doesn't exist anymore."
"Blown up?"
"I'd have to get Dr. Carter's opinion on that, but I think planets don't usually blow up, outside of the movies. No, I think they made it disappear. Off limits. Forbidden... something bad happened there, and they want to forget about it, at least in terms of it actually having happened."
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 ago
ra - 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.
One of them unveiled and began punching an address into the machine.
"Daniel? Symbols?" Jack kept his voice soft, but the crack of command in it made Daniel jump and fumble with his pack. He got the video camera and held it out to the side, trying for a good angle. Chevrons lit up on the Stargate as the address locked in.
The one dialing hit the red ball on the DHD, and the Stargate activated, plasma boiling like water. When it settled into a shimmering pool, the veiled travelers began to walk up the steps. One or two faltered and had to be helped along by their fellows. The armed security detail didn't move, until one ripped off her veil and backed away. She turned to run, but spears clashed in front of her, forming a glittering fence.
"She's just a kid," Carter blurted in alarm. "Sir - "
"We don't know what's going on, Carter," he said flatly. "Hold your position."
He didn't like it, really didn't like it. The girl was crying. One of the others took off his veil and came back down a couple of steps to take her by the shoulders, then embrace
her. A man old enough to be her father, maybe. He put her veil back on and adjusted it, then his own, and led her by the hand up the steps.
"No bags," Daniel said softly.
"What?"
"They're not carrying any bags. No packs, no food... nothing. This isn't travel. They don't expect to need anything, where they're going."
One by one, they disappeared through the wormhole. The man led the girl through, still holding her hand tightly.
The one who'd dialed the gate, and the few left standing at the foot of the steps, removed their veils and dark robes as the wormhole disengaged with a snap and a flare.
Familiar faces underneath. "Acton," Daniel murmured. "And the rest of the town council... um... Jack...?"
The town council was turning in their direction. Acton's finger pointed at them.
"Think our diplomatic card's been pulled," Jack said. "Right. Time to go."
He led the way toward the Stargate, MP5 held at the ready across his chest, warm and lethal. Acton wasn't pointing at them any more, but his expression had gone dark and rigid.
"Tell him thanks for the hospitality, but we're due back home."
There was some back and forth, fluid syllables that sounded, on Acton's part, more than a little angry. Daniel gave it right back, short terse responses, and Jack watched his eyes begin to glitter.
"Apparently," Daniel finally said, in a flat, tense aside, "we shouldn't have seen that. Some kind of religious taboo."
So this wasn't going so well. Perversely, he felt himself relax. At least things were back to normal - trouble.
"Just dial the gate, Daniel," Jack said, and stepped in to face off with Acton. He'd been right, this guy wasn't just your average gladhanding politician. Acton had that dead-eyed stare of a man who'd fought and killed, and he didn't blink when Jack engaged him in a silent battle of wills.
Behind them, Daniel moved toward the DHD. One of the guards got in front of it, blocking his path. Jack brought his MP5 up in an unmistakably threatening way and pointed it right at Acton's chest.
"Go around him," he said flatly.
"Jack, he may not understand..."
"Oh, he understands," Jack said. Acton's eyes were burning with fury. "Just dial."
Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon Page 5
