Title: Hammurabi's Code
Pairing: Jack O'Neill/Daniel Jackson, Teal'c/Samantha Carter
Rating: NC-17, please.
Spoilers: Beneath the Surface
Categories: m/m
Summary: SG-1 discovers a planet who's society was pulled off earth at the height of Mesopotamian development. The ruler of the world, King Hammurabi, is hiding something from them, and Jack must protect his team while finding out what that is.
Notes: co-written with Diana. 

- = - = -

Gate travel got under Jack's skin.

Not that Jack waxed philosophical very often, but even he knew that crossing through the Stargate into another world sometimes meant seeing things that could make the hair on the nape of his neck stand on end. He didn't have the million years of education that Daniel did, but he knew that when he saw something that made him shiver, he was seeing something great.

It didn't happen too often. Usually when they stepped out of Colorado and onto a planet millions of light years away, the only thing there to greet them were trees. Lots of trees. So many damn trees that it was like growing up in Minnesota again, only with... more trees. If that were even possible.

Nor was it too often that they found a planet like Abydos, covered in sand, and even less often that they encountered a planet that had a large human population that wasn't over run with Goa'uld. Even less likely than *that* would be to find a civilization straight out of text book Anthropology.

There was a first time for everything, Jack supposed.

"All right, kids. Remember, this is a meet and greet. Radios on 149.87; if we get separated I want everyone to stay in radio contact at all times. And Daniel, don't *touch* anything, for crying out loud."

He could almost hear Daniel's eyes roll, and turned to look at his ragtag bunch as the Stargate whooshed closed behind them. Or he would have, had Daniel not been salivating at the mouth, of course.

Hammond, God bless his shiny bald head, had taken one look at them when they'd gotten back from P3R-118 and made them undergo physical exams and psychiatric evals he masked as two weeks down time. After a planet like P3R-118, where they'd spent several weeks of their lives not knowing who they were and living a fantasy life as mining slaves beneath the domed world at Calder’s doing, it had been unreal coming home to the SGC. Jack had a sneaking suspicion Hammond had set up this mission on purpose. Nice and simple, meet the locals, set up trading rights for naquada and whatever else they had. Not unlike the first missions they'd gone on as SG1. Nothing too strenuous to strain the already strained relationship between them.

Their memories had returned.

Their sense of well being and team cohesion had not.

Jack swaggered, because that's all a man like Jack could do when cradling his P90 like a beloved woman to his chest, off the steps leading up to the Stargate. At Hammond's doing they were here following up on SG13's initial contact with the people of Menua. Goa'uld hadn't visited for centuries, the people were happy, the government was out of classic Mesopotamian civilization --oh, what? Jack listened to Daniel *some*times, you know -- and most importantly, they had technology the Government was very interested in. Oh, and all the culture crap, of course.

He wandered across the wide expanse of the room they'd gated into. Teal'c stood beside him, stiff and formal as always, and behind them both Carter and Daniel were making those orgasmic little coos of delight Jack had long since grown accustomed to.

It was nice to hear it again.

"Daniel, keep your hands to yourself until we can find out if anything is going to leap out of the wall and kill you." Because no, that actually wasn't an unknown occurrence. He could just *tell* that Daniel was getting into the "ooh, I have to touch this to make it real!" phase -- that came after the cooing, of course.

"Actually sir, we didn't pick up any energy signals when the MALP did its sweep. It's perfectly safe in here," Carter said, eyes sliding past Teal'c and the Colonel as if they weren't there. She had to admit, she could see why Daniel found this place overwhelming, if his glassy-eyed, hanging jawed expression had anything to say about it. The temple was absolutely exquisite.

Oh yes. Exquisite was one description. Absolutely damn amazing was another. Enough Work Here To Last Him Until the Day He Died worked too.

Every available surface inside of the temple was covered in Mesopotamian glyphs. Daniel's area of expertise dealt mainly with Ancient Egypt and other Near East Mediterranean civilizations, but he'd always had a special place in his heart for the Mesopotamian. He'd spent one extremely memorable summer in Iran with his friend Blair and their research colleague Dr. Mathis. A ghost of a smile crossed Daniel's face and he acted almost before he could stop himself. He bent and unsnapped his pack from his back, rooting through it the next moment for his... "Ahh."

The camera was on and the red light was blinking before his next breath.

Sam couldn't help it -- she grinned at his enthusiasm. It wasn't often her self-proclaimed little brother got this excited anymore, and she couldn't help nudging him with the elbow tucking her gun under her arm. "Don't waste all the battery in one sitting."

"Why?" Daniel glanced up, startled, and followed her gaze.

The camera was forgotten.

Daniel, as a man of world cultures, had been to and seen almost everything the world had to offer. He'd been on digs to China, Russia and Africa. He'd excavated in the Yucatan Peninsula, gone trekking through the jungles of Chile, played in almost every sea and gone sailing down the Nile. He'd been on every continent, save the south pole, and had seen and experienced more in his short life than most ever got to see.

And yet the view afforded to him right now was more stunning than anything he'd ever seen.

The view stretched out as far as the eye could see. Thousands of miles of farm land, dotted with animals and people tending the fields, stretched out at far as the horizon. An enormous forest, teeming with singing birds was nestled to the left, hugged the front and perimeter of what appeared to be a huge city wall. Mud clay houses stretched out from the wall to the top of the hill, where one of the most stunning castles he'd ever seen sat shining in the sparkling sunlight. The architecture was so strange that he didn't immediately recognize it -- a cross between Greek, Roman, and Mesopotamian styles, with columns and pillars and squat, level roofs.

An incredible view. The kind of view people could only dream of seeing in their lifetime.

A view that could only mean one thing.

Gripping the camera tight in his hand, Daniel stepped out of the wide entrance and down a handful of steps. Without seeing all of it, he knew where they were, and what they were standing on, and just why the Stargate was here.

They were on a ziggurat. An actual, standing, ziggurat.

Had Daniel been anyone but himself, he'd have done a jig of delight. So few ziggurats were still standing back on Earth that this was an archaeologists dream come true. It could answer so many things -- already had in fact! The Stargate was the center of worship for these people, standing at the top most level as a temple to the Gods. The sun shining down from the open ceiling was enough evidence for that, as were the ancient markings on the walls of the temple.

Daniel was already half-way through dictating a request to bring an anthropology team here when he stopped. This was too good to be true.

Way too good.

He curbed his enthusiasm, despite the fact that it was bursting at the seams, and sent a suspicious look at Jack.

"--but just because there's no energy signatures doesn't mean that Mr. Overzealous here won't trigger a few old-fashioned chop off your head booby traps," Jack was pointing out to Carter, but paused in the middle of his conversation to shake his head at Daniel. "Don't look at me." Of course he hadn't very loudly asked for this particular trip for Daniel, after that two-week captivity/vacation that SGC had enforced upon them. "Not like I knew this would be here... not that I know what this is, actually."

Teal'c stood by the door, staff weapon in hand as he peered out. There seemed to be no sign of recent activity in the entry area in front of their exit point, as though the place they were currently in had not been disturbed for quite some time. "It appears that we are alone, O'Neill," he reported. "There is no sign that anyone has come into, or out of, this facility in the recent past." He used his staff to poke at some of the light vegetation growing around the steps. "The plant life seems harmless."

Jack looked at his watch, and sighed. "Okay, Daniel. Knock yourself out. You've got a half hour here, and then we're taking a walk. Teal'c... just keep doing what you do best. Sam, check the gate symbols and make sure there's no unwelcome surprises there." He joined Teal'c at the door, watching him poke.

"As I seem to recall, the last time you set off the booby traps. If the natives hadn't come by to cut us out we'd still be hanging in that net," Daniel huffed. "And I need more than a half hour. I need a few hours, actually. Two. Minimum." Or a year. A year was good.

"You've got two minutes less than you did when you started whining. Move." He turned back to Teal'c. "Would you stop poking, T? You're makin' me nervous. What are you looking for?"

"A water source," Teal'c answered. "For vegetation to persist in an arid climate such as this, there would have to be a water source here, from this facility, because it is too far from the city. As I cannot find one, my first hypothesis would be that someone brings water from the city to care for the plants here."

Jack shot a look at Daniel. "Which means that we could be interrupted at any minute, so no, you don't get another half hour, and don't you but, Jaaaaaack, me," he said, mimicking Daniel's little whine.

Daniel glared at him, but didn't argue. This time. Mostly because he wanted to climb down the ziggurat and see the whole thing -- he'd had a theory about the amount of levels needed on a ziggurat for certain purposes he wanted proven true. Besides, if they didn't leave guns blazing and dodging bullets, he could whine and wheedle and guilt Jack into his two hours before they went home.

Pleased with this, he picked up his camera again and began to film.

"Sir, there doesn't seem to be any radio signals coming from the city. SG13 said they're very advanced, but unless they're using something other than radios to communicate, I'm afraid that we're not going to get anything from this," Sam said, and hooked a small machine she'd just been waving at Jack back onto her belt. From her vest pocket she pulled out a radiation reader and stepped out of the room onto the steps leading down what appeared to be a huge pyramid. She could feel Teal'c behind her, and his enormous presence was enough backup that she took three steps down to look around. Daniel certainly hadn't had any problem with it. "There seems to be a small path leading around the temple to the back door behind the gate. Likely used for the back draft of the wormhole itself, because there isn't a set of steps leading down, and I'm reading the normal wormhole radiation on the stones."

"That would not be an unusual construction," Teal'c agreed. "Many of the Gou'ald system lords have similar passages concealed in their ships, so that their bodies are not damaged by the radiation and they need not visit the sarcophagus before their scheduled time," he intoned.

"Don't wander too far, kids!" Jack called out, letting the gun straps on his chest and shoulder take most of the weight of his gun as his thumb stroked the side of his weapon. He stayed by the door, watching the entryway and every so often, looking back over his shoulder at Daniel.

Daniel listened with half an ear as Teal'c and Sam talked about radiation, yadda, the stuff that made Daniel's eyes cross. Of course, the stuff he loved made Sam's eyes cross too, but there was something about a colleague who knew what it was to work for a doctorate degree to bring them together. Or something. It was an idle thought in the stream of information he was currently cataloguing into the vast recess of his somewhat odd brain, letting his camera pick up the images as he picked up the meaning behind them.

Daniel had been trained in picking up patterns in the way words were set out on their medium, in seeing what others couldn't see. His eye had been trained by the best, and that best came in handy almost every time they stepped off world. Today was no exception. Within minutes of beginning his recording Daniel knew what he was looking at -- Semitic Cuneiform. And he also knew that something was amiss, because this was unlike any version of cuneiform he'd ever seen. "Jack?"

"Yeah?"

The slightly alarmed tone of Daniel's voice was enough to make Jack's grip on his gun tighten as he swung around entirely, taking a few steps closer to his teammate. "What is it? Teal'c! Carter!" He raised his voice when he yelled, and the tone of his voice clearly said, get your ass back here now.

Daniel shook his head and lowered the camera. He reached out and traced in the air, over the crumbling walls where the glyphs stood out beautifully. "Nothing to panic over... yet, anyway." He glanced up as Teal'c and Sam entered once again. "Teal'c, I need a hand, here. The walls are written in Semitic Cuneiform – the language of the Sumerian Mesopotamians, the first civilization on Earth. But this is unlike any cuneiform I've ever seen -- it looks like the Goa'uld dialect we found on Argos, but with subtle differences. Here..." he pointed to the wall, different area's he'd picked up were somehow... wrong. "And here. I'm only getting one in five symbols correct." He paused. "They're almost like hastily scrawled scribblings, like you'd find on bathroom walls."

Daniel glanced up just in time to see that go right over Teal'c's head, and smiled a little. "Graffiti, Teal'c."

Gou'ald. No matter how many times they found evidence of the Gou'ald on any given planet, Jack couldn't help it. His belly tensed and his grip tightened on his gun. "Teal'c, you and Junior see what you can help Daniel with. Translate everything you can, fast as you can, and let me know if you find anything that's going to be… messy. Carter, you and me are going back down those stairs and see what we find at the end of that passageway.

Teal'c gave a single nod. "There should be no danger, O'Neill; however, I would suggest caution. If the Gou'ald made this their home at any time, there could be hidden dangers."

"Yeah. Thanks for the newsflash, T. You work with Daniel. If we're gone for more than ten minutes without radioing in, don't wait and don't go looking for us. Dial home, and bring back a lot of firepower."

"Of course."

Jack looked at Daniel. "Translate fast."

"No... no," Daniel shook his head and squinted at the wall before him. "From what Colonel Dixon said, there weren't any Goa'uld here. And if this wall suggests what I think it's suggesting, then there's no reason to believe any Goa'uld have stayed. Teal'c, didn't you say this entire planetary sector had been abandoned by the Goa'uld some time ago?"

And secretly, Carter had her doubts about the Colonel climbing down the steep steps of what had to be at least a three story pyramid. Of course she didn't say it, because he was a capable man... Except the last time they'd had to trek a mountain trail just like this he'd bitched and moaned for two days after until he got to shoot something. That always made him feel better.

She wisely kept that to herself. "Sir, we can establish a perimeter while Teal'c and Daniel work."

Teal'c nodded. "Indeed, DanielJackson. The Gou'ald found that the humanoids in this sector were not of as hardy stock as the humans from your world, or other worlds they have enslaved. Thus these worlds were abandoned to develop as they saw fit, until they had evolved into worlds fit for slavery."

"How forward thinking of them." Jack still didn't like it. One little bit. "I just don't think the Gou'ald would leave their whole landing... pad... thing here, intact, if they didn't intend to come back to it some time soon. With our luck? Some point would be now. Humor me, guys. Watch it." He pulled the gun up a little higher, and nodded at Carter. "Let's go; I want to know as much about this place as we can find out before we move on to the city, since the 'Gate is here and this is where we're running to when we get our asses in trouble."

"Should that not be, if we get our asses in trouble, O'Neill?"

Jack shot Teal'c a sarcastic glance. "When has trouble ever been an if with us, T?"

"Indeed," was Teal'c's only reply.

- = - = - 

Daniel loved irony. Maybe it was because he was getting his two hours thanks to some Goa'uld under lord who still remained cheerfully nameless. Maybe it was because he was getting to record all of it for his Anthropologists back home, also thanks to said Goa'uld under lord. Maybe it was because Teal'c, once First Prime to Apophis, was on his knees beside him, wracking his impressive brains for the translations of certain symbols. Whatever it was it was damn funny, in that way that made him 'queasy to laugh cause over it wasn't really funny' kind of way.

He wiped the back of his hand over his nose, smudging his already smudged glasses further, and swept the bandana from his hair to rub over his face. The heat of the sun bearing down on them, despite the forming clouds over the forested area in the distance, did nothing to stop the almost overwhelming heat. He'd already stripped out of his jacket, but it wasn't helping.

He sighed deeply over the very little progress he and Teal'c had made, and frustrated, stood with his canteen and his radio. "Jack?"

"Yeah, I copy." Jack had one hand on his gun, and one hand on the radio as he motioned for Carter to stop, right on the safe side of the door. "What's the deal, Daniel? Over."

Teal'c said nothing as he stayed crouched in front of the column, working the symbols out in his head.

"Just checking in. Teal'c and I are trying, but the dialect seems to be a mixture of Goa'uld, Cuneiform and a code of some kind, written through the ideas of the symbols, not the symbols themselves. This is going to take longer than we expected, because to decipher the meaning behind the symbols we need to know more about the culture itself. And we're getting nothing from this."

Sam glanced up from the test-tube of soil sample she had in one hand and rose to her feet. She was standing next to the base of the pyramid, the grass spongy underfoot. Too spongy to yield anything but fertilizer, which Daniel would know the meaning of when he got down here. How they were going to get the Colonel back up this monstrosity was going to test all of their patience, she was sure.

"All right; I copy that. Pack everything up and get ready to move it out; we'll pass it through on the check-in and see if anyone at the SGC can make sense out of it while we work at the source." He heaved a huge sigh, and pushed himself up from where he'd been leaning against the wall, refusing to pant for breath. "Carter and I are gonna finish getting samples down here and we'll be back up in a few. Over."

"Don't bother, Jack. It's a steep climb; Teal'c and I can be down in about twenty minutes. Just give us a chance to get everything set here."

"Steep climb my ass," Jack growled. "Keep your butt right where it is and keep working on those symbols until we get back. Over." How dare he. Jack was not going to be coddled, and especially *not* by Daniel by-God Jackson. "Carter! Let's move!" he yelled out, a lot more sharply than he intended.

Vague insult to Jack's age for the day -- check. Daniel would have smiled, if he wasn't so frustrated with the inscription on the wall and the overbearing heat. He scrubbed over his face one more time, knew it was pointless arguing with Jack over the radio when he could save it for face-to-face fun, and crouched down beside Teal'c again.

"Do I understand from your conversation that O'Neill and Major Carter are returning?" Teal'c asked calmly, looking over at Daniel and watching impassively as he mopped his brow. "And here, if you will notice. The name of the under lord in question has been rubbed out entirely once again."

"Yeah, Jack and Sam are on their way back up." The way Daniel said it implied what he thought about that. At least it gave him another second to wipe at his face as he settled in next to his pristine team mate again. "I know. All we've come up with is that he's male, but that doesn't really narrow it down when you take into account the literally thousands of pagan gods the ancient worlds were ruled under. In this case literally." Daniel sighed again and glanced up under his wet bangs. "Like I told Jack, we have no idea where to put this information into context. I mean," Daniel pointed at a small symbol, two etched lines intersected in the middle with a small curve on each side. "That could mean sickle or knee cap. And here...  'His reign ruled as rock cakes'?"

No language had ever kicked his ass, and Daniel would be damned if this was where he'd start. However, unlike some big, tall, and gray haired men Daniel knew, he could accept help when it was given.

Teal'c looked around the room, where carvings in the same languages adorned nearly every column and wall in the place. "Perhaps we should, for the moment, cease concentrating on a specific translation and merely gather as much as we can for later study. As we translate more, the context will come with it." He pushed dust and dirt aside to reveal another layer of etched inscription. "It is more of the same. If we find the natives of this planet are friendly, they will be able to provide the context as well, and accurate translations."

"I've worked on languages like this before." There was a reason Daniel was one of 6 people on the planet who could read cuneiform, after all. Damn but this frustrated him. He loved every moment of it of course, but it frustrated him.

Much like Sam Carter, at the moment. Frustrated. They should have stayed at the bottom of the pyramid and waited for Daniel and Teal'c, just like they'd done a million other times, but there was something driving the Colonel. Of course, after spending a solid month underground on a hell hole planet thinking they were other people, anything would drive the Colonel to prove himself in the eyes of his teammates again. Or so Sam was hoping, because damn, these stairs were tough.

Jack was fairly certain he was going to have a heart attack before they got to the top of the stairs. "You... doing okay, Carter?" Jack asked, between slow, determined breaths that almost constricted his chest. Climbing and talking, while it might work for some archaeologists who were full of hot air, did not work for Jack. He just shook his head, and every time he started to get tired or pause for a break, he remembered Daniel's little crack. "Steep climb... my ass. Refreshing exercise!"

Yeah. A heart attack was just what the doctor ordered.

Sam's thought's were along the same line if her somewhat repressed glare was anything to say. "Doing... fine.... sir."

"Good!" he called out cheerfully, putting one hand on the wall and pulling himself up the last few steps. He all but exploded into the 'Gate room again, glaring at Daniel and Teal'c as they were crouched in front of the column. He wanted to lean against the wall and pant, but he didn't dare. The most he did was take his ball cap off and fan himself with it for a few moments, and then plopped it back on his head. "All right, Daniel. What'd you find out about our mystery Gou'ald pals here?" he said, and was damned proud of the fact that he was only slightly breathless.

Of course, he was breathing like a steam engine in and out of his nose, but that wasn't the point. The point was he'd made it.

"Nothing. Squat. Zilch."

"Ahh, there's my linguist."

Daniel glared, took a drink from his canteen, and wordlessly handed it to Jack as Sam collapsed onto the steps leading up to the gate and shucked out of her coat. Her breasts bounced attractively, but it was like looking at his sister. He turned and glared at Jack. "Like I told you on the radio, nothing. It's gibberish. It doesn't make any sense -- none of it. And if you say 'I knew it was just a pretty wall', so help me, Jack..."

Jack just smirked and chugged down several swallows of water before passing the canteen back. "Not everything is a mystery to be unraveled, grasshopper," he pointed out, back screaming and knee threatening to disown him if he didn't take weight off it.

Yeah? Screw it. He wasn't going to be leaning against the wall, and he pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket as he looked out the door. "You've been working on the walls and the columns, hmm?" Jack brushed more of the clinging sand and dust off the wall nearest the staircase, where Sam was currently dying. "Any ideas, Teal'c?"

Teal'c's eyebrow spoke volumes as it rose. "No, O'Neill. DanielJackson is correct. It is nonsense, with random symbols, including the name of the under lord, rubbed out with no discernible pattern."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I got that from Daniel. Do you have any ideas on why?"

"Yes, I do."

After an expectant pause, Jack rolled his eyes. "And would you like to share them with the class?"

Oh, here we go. Of course, coming from Teal'c Jack would take exactly what Daniel was saying at face value, but if Daniel himself said it, Jack would look at him like he was some New Age flake. Just like he always did. He pushed through anyway, answering while Teal'c remained silent. "We think there's some kind of code in the glyphs. At the moment they're random and meaningless."

Sam caught the expression on Daniel's face but she didn't say anything. It wasn't her place to meddle in the friendship of these two men -- they were worse than the Odd Couple. A few beers, a pizza, a hockey game and a documentary could bridge battlefields between the two of them without words. She just had a feeling that after the last few weeks, this was going to take more than pizza and beer. This was going to take a drunken Team night, which sadly she was resigned to. She'd already bought the Southern Comfort.

"Wow! T, you've learned a few new tricks! For a minute there, I was sure I heard Daniel answering for you!" Jack glared at the archaeologist with one hand on his hip. "Code and context we're not gonna find here if you've already admitted you don't know what the hell you're doing." Vicious little spike of satisfaction for the age poke. "Let's get ready and move out towards the city."

Teal'c knew, possibly better than Major Carter did, how the stress of the last few weeks had affected the rest of his teammates; however, the meditations and the healing trances of his symbiote had cleared his head of the need to snipe at his partners. He did not deign to answer Jack, instead just inclining his head slightly to watch.

Daniel's nostrils flared and his eyebrows lowered and creased. There had never been a language that Daniel hadn't figured out, and this wouldn't become the first. This was exactly what Jack did to him on Abydos the first time, not realizing that the answer to their questions might lie in the people, not in the structure itself.  Flat brained military hard ass. "Or perhaps I'll know what it is I'm looking at once I put it into context," Daniel said, and turned to get his things together and pack up to go.

Sam glanced at Teal'c, trading a knowing look with him, before turning back to the mouth of the pyramid temple and starting down the long, high steps.

Teal'c fell into step behind Major Carter, following closely behind her and staff at the ready until he could step around and in front of her. "Perhaps we should wait for O'Neill and DanielJackson," he suggested. They both glanced back.

"Or maybe we'll talk to the people over there who wrote it and possibly find out what the all-mighty context is," Jack groused. "Carter! Teal'c! Don't get too far ahead." He glared. "Move it, Daniel."

"Ahh, no," Sam said, and quickened her pace.

In his head, Daniel composed a lengthy response to those three little words full of delightful four-letter expletives and words even he wasn't entirely sure of the meaning of, but damn they sounded good. Ever since they'd come back from working in the mines and Jonah had become Jack with all the luggage attached, he'd been nearly insufferable. Daniel didn't know if it was because of his inability to protect them from what they'd endured or what, but whatever it was he needed to get over himself.

He stuffed his camera into his pack and through the straps on over his shoulders, connecting them swiftly as he'd done a million times before, and pushed his glasses further up his face before retying the bandana and sweeping past Jack to the entrance of the ziggurat. The excitement of discovery had been wiped out by Jack's argumentative attitude. The mission had become just like every other, and for a moment he missed that joy, that thrill in seeing something that completely backed his theories. He missed being young and being caught up in his discoveries, the pride in finding something wonderful to share with his colleagues. And for a moment, a flash of a moment, Daniel resented Jack, for taking that away from him just because he knew he could.

He had his ideas as he began to the steep climb down. He had a million questions to ask -- how the Goa'uld had come here, why the temple itself was in a state of disrepair, how natives had brought the 'Gate up to the top of the ziggurat. If they had the wheel yet. He pulled out his tape recorder from his vest pocket, made sure the tape inside was rewound to the beginning, and began to dictate into it. "My first impression of P2X-949 is that the population was brought here from Mesopotamia, as told from the Sumerian Cuneiform found in the temple atop a forty-story ziggurat, where the Stargate is located. The ziggurat is reminiscent of the step pyramids found in Mesoamerica, concluded from the rock receding at regular intervals and the patch-work notches made from zig-zagging ramps, which match the Pyramid of the Sun. That, and the vaguely Greek architecture of the palace may prove that these people were not brought through the Egyptian Stargate, but the Antarctic 'Gate, sometime after the Egyptian 'Gate was buried." Daniel climbed down a rather steep step, huffing for breath even as he talked. "Nevertheless, this state of disrepair of this ziggurat, and its lack of offerings, may indicate that whichever Goa'uld used this temple is either gone, or has left this area for another. The code may be a warning to those who use the Stargate. I'm not yet sure."

Jack's eyes glazed over. He couldn't help it. Every word that Daniel said went in one ear, resided briefly in his brain to make sure he heard it, then dribbled out the other side and took his brain cells with them.

Every. Damn. Time.

And he wouldn't give the little shit the satisfaction of hearing him grunt or groan as he hopped down the same steep step that Daniel just had, and covered it with, "Warning, huh? A bunch of nonsense gobildygook carved on the walls and covered in dust in a dialect that even Teal'c--a First Prime, remember?--has trouble reading. Yeah, that makes sense."

"Did I not just say this temple is old?" Daniel asked, arching a brow at him over his recorder. "I'm thinking in the thousands of years old, Jack. Teal'c is good, but it'd be like my asking you to read Middle English, put in patterns with no clear definition as to the meaning of the words and have you tell me why they're jumbled like that." His mind was already drifting. "The only thing I can come up with that might make any kind of sense is a code. A letter code. Taking certain highlighted letters from, let’s say, a note, and reading the hidden clue within the text itself. Only, instead of reading words, they're symbols that when put into a certain order make up an idea."

"Kind of like taking a sheet of paper with certain holes cut out of it, to reveal a secret message in a letter. With Wingdings." He shrugged. "We learned that trick back in boot camp. So essentially, you're missing that piece of paper."

"Essentially. My eyes aren't trained to read the message. It may look like gibberish to most, but certain people who came through the temple would be able to look at it and understand it. Codes in history are fairly common. Take the Christians during the end of the Roman empire, for example. Most were persecuted for their religion because it undermined the pagan gods and the emperor himself, who was a god on earth. When Christians met in public, they would draw the symbol of a fish on the nearest flat service with their right fingertip to symbolize their Christianity."

"Well, I didn't see any little fishies on that wall, so I can safely say we're not dealing with that," Jack said, barely able to keep from rolling his eyes. He made a show of patting down his pockets. "Must've left my secret Gou'ald decoder ring in my other pants."

Daniel grit his teeth. "I don't know how you walk straight, Jack. That chip on your shoulder must throw off your balance."

"Carrying my ass around on the other one usually balances it out."

"At least we're both clear that it belongs around your face."

"Careful, Daniel," Jack said with a big smile, happy to have spread the misery. "You're starting to sound... shrewish." He shook his finger at the archaeologist, and then turned back for a brief moment to make sure that nothing had slipped in behind them to damage the radio or the 'Gate.

And something struck him.

"You said this place was abandoned, right? No offerings, no gods, yadda yadda?"

Daniel glared, and glanced over his shoulder as he carefully climbed down another rock. "Generally, when a temple is no longer in use, there aren't any offerings, gods, servants, or slaves. And if it was in use, they'd have never let the steps get so bad."

"Okay, so... if the steps are bad, and there's nobody home... why are there lush, green plants around the doors and the bottom of the passageway, with no discernable water source? Doesn't that mean either someone lives there that we didn't find, and waters the vegetation, or someone makes the trek up here with water?"

"No, it means that there might be a complex system of underground irrigation, which with a society as advanced as these people are, would seem logical." Daniel huffed and crossed the five steps to the next level of the ziggurat. Up ahead, Sam and Teal'c were just passing onto the last level. "You climbed all of this, twice? Sometimes I worry for your sanity."

"Yeah, but wouldn't it make sense not to... y'know, waste your water at an abandoned temple when you're trying to grow enough food to provide for that?" Jack answered, gesturing towards the city as his feet hit the landing right behind Daniel and followed him to the next level of steps. "Don't worry about my sanity, Daniel. I know what I'm doing."

"That's what scares me," Daniel muttered, trooping down another three steps and turning the smallest bit to look up at the temple. He hated to admit it, but Jack was right. There was no reason the locals would waste water on the temple, especially with such a warm climate. Something was going on here, all the signs were pointing to -- caution is necessary, keep the gun close and your wits closer.

It was a little alarming, actually, because whenever they came to planets like this Daniel usually went home without his clothes.

He frowned at the thought, eyebrows doing calisthenics on his forehead as he thought about the implications of that.

"You're doing that... thing," Jack said, raising his index fingers and wiggling them around to mimic the dancing of Daniel's brows.

"What? Oh." Daniel pursed his lips, scrunched his brows, then arched them, then scrunched them, and plunked down the last step of the level. One level to go. And very likely 48 hours before he lost his clothes. He frowned again.

"Yeah. That thing." Jack kept wiggling his fingers. "Where it usually translates into but Jaaaaaaack, this couldn't possibly blow up in our faces like it does every other time my eyebrows do the rumba across my forehead," Jack mimicked in a Daniel-like whine.

"No... I was, uh, actually wondering if the jarheads are going to place bets on my state of attire again when we get home. And I wonder who started that?" Daniel asked, thumped down the last three steps of the ziggurat, and looked up again, panting in the heat of the day. Sam's jacket and shirt were wet to the breast line, and even Teal'c was beginning to look a little moist around the collar. Daniel was gathering sweat in places he hadn't known existed until he joined the SGC.

Before them the forest loomed, although on closer inspection, it was more jungle than forest. Wet and ripe, the air clung to them like vines clinging to bark, making it almost difficult to breathe. There were two paths cutting away into the jungle from the ziggurat -- one headed in a somewhat northeasterly route, the other south. Carter was already mapping it out when Jack and Daniel joined her and Teal'c.

"I think we should head down the southern path, sir," she said, looking up from her compass and rough sketch. "I mapped the terrain as Teal'c and I were coming down, and it seems like the southern route is easier than the north eastern, which takes us around the forest," Sam said, wiping her wrist over her forehead and leaving behind stringy blond strands of hair.

"Okay. That's going to be a bitch to climb back up when we have to check in." Jack ignored the question about who started the betting pool, and reminded himself to toss in fifty on no clothing next time they went out. "Which one's faster, Carter?"

Dammit. "North-eastern, sir. Not necessarily safer, from what I could see -- we have to pass through a bog of some kind."

"So, we've got a longer, but safer path, and a shorter but more dangerous one. I know which one I'd booby trap. We're going north-east." He tightened his grip on the P-90 in his hands. "Teal'c, you bring up the rear, and stay close. Carter, Daniel, you guys in the middle and Daniel? Don't get distracted. Eyes ahead, and if I tell you to duck, I want you belly down on the dirt, you hear me?"

Teal'c knew better than to suggest splitting up, especially when O'Neill seemed to be in a foul temper. "As you wish."

Sam actually saw the moment Daniel's blood boiled. Daniel, while being the weak link in their group, had always tried to pull his own weight. He'd saved them a thousand times and more, and could handle his pistol with ease. And besides that, she trusted Daniel with her life.

She gave the Colonel a cool look, nodded with a "Yes, sir," that was less than sweet, and turned on her heel to follow Teal'c through the underbrush.

Somehow, spreading the misery to the rest of his teammates made him feel so much better. There was an old saying in the army; if the boss ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

There was another old saying too. Nobody loves a jackass, and you're halfway there.

Jack shrugged, and tightened the straps on his pack and his gun, then adjusted the brim of his hat to keep the sun out of his eyes. "Let's go," he grunted, canteen heavy against his hip. He took it, drank from it, and handed it to Daniel. "Teal'c! Carter!" he yelled, raising his voice. "Head for the ground cover as soon as you can; the heat'll kill us if we hike through it all the way."

Daniel was so angry that he didn't take it. In fact, he didn't even look at Jack, and turned on his heel, marching after Sam with far more stomp in his step than normal. He hissed under his breath, none of it in English and none of it pretty.

Jack's easy stride caught up with him in steps, and he shoved the canteen in Daniel's face. "Drink slow before you dehydrate yourself. You're sweating like a mule from that climb."

Yes, dad. Would you also put sunscreen on my nose?  "I'm fine," he said, as calmly as was humanly possible, even if what was going on inside his head was less than.

"Yeah, and I'd like to keep you that way. Either you can stop acting like a five year old and drink, or I can sit on you, pour it down your throat, and then catch up to the others. Your call." He'd seen both Sam and Teal'c drinking on the way down, and in the temple, and he'd seen Daniel drink less than a mouthful, and in a sweating, humid climate like this, dehydration was going to happen fast.

As was Jack losing his head.

In fact, Daniel envisioned climbing all the way to the top of the temple again just to watch it roll all the way down.

It was a calming thought. At least a little. "What's with you, Jack? I'm a grown man, I think I know when I need to drink."

"You're a stubborn man, and you'll drink when I tell you to, or I'll send you back through the 'Gate because I'm not going to have anyone keel over on my team." Jack took another drink, and then held it back out again. "Now."

Did Jack just threaten him? At that Daniel stopped and turned, glaring as hard as he ever had at Jack. "I drank while I was in the temple with Teal'c. I don't need you nagging in my ear, Jack. Whatever has gotten into you, whatever guilt you've got over 118, whatever, get over it."

Oh. Complete wrong thing to say. "Oh, it's not a threat. I'll haul your stubborn ass over my shoulder if I have to, and that's a goddamned promise, from the Colonel to you." Deep breath. "If you want to stay a part of this team, you're going to do as you're told, for once in your fucking life, and we're all going to get out of this with our clothing, and hopefully our memories, intact. Do you understand me, Daniel?"

"For one, Colonel," Daniel said, voice climbing as he stopped to jerk a finger in Jack's face. "As a civilian consultant I hold the same rank as you and I'll be damned if you're going to use me as the scapegoat for your guilt by treating me like a child. It's obvious to everyone that you blame me in the first place for getting us trapped on 118. If you want me off the team, just say so."

Sam winced at the bellows coming from a yard or so behind them. Oh yeah. This had been coming. She glanced at Teal'c, winced again.

"I don't blame anyone for that, Daniel," Jack said heatedly. "And even if I did, despite the fact you do attract trouble like a black hole, I am the leader of this team, and I am responsible for anything that happens to it. And if you try to suggest one more time that you can put words in my mouth and speak for my motivations... don't. Because you don't know." Jack bit off the rest of the angry words. "Teal'c! Carter! Get back here with Daniel and don't let him out of your sight." He stalked the few yards ahead that Teal'c and Carter were, and yanked his gun strap over his head so that he was free to use it should the situation call for it. He didn't say a word to them as he stalked past, disappearing into the brush ahead of them, shoving loudly through the vegetation.

Daniel was a patient man. A calm man, most of the time. An impassioned man about his studies and his work. But there was something about Jack O'Neill that made Daniel, so gentle all the time, want to wring Jack's thick neck. Or throttle him. Or both. Not only had Jack embarrassed him in front of his colleagues, but then he'd demanded they watch him, like Daniel needed some kind of keeper!

Daniel took a deep breath, another, and couldn't look at Teal'c and Sam in the eye as they began walking again.

Teal'c, true to his word, did not drop his eyes from the back of Daniel's neck as they followed the rather loud, but very distinct path that Jack was leaving for them as they made their way up to the city. "DanielJackson, perhaps there is another hypothesis to explain the carvings in the temple."

Daniel took a deep breath and kept his eyes forward, even when Sam touched his elbow. "What's that, Teal'c?"

"There are some Gou'ald system lords, who when they abandon their holdings, do not wish for other Gou'ald to move into the deserted areas. They leave certain markers; territorial markers, you might call them, and traps for those who do not observe those markers," he continued, propelling himself alongside Daniel. "The walls and the columns that we are trying to translate may not be anything but a Gou'ald trap for another Gou'ald. For when the Gou'ald use an energy device to scan the walls in the attempt to translate it, the naquada hidden in the walls would be triggered to cause grievous harm to the Gou'ald in the near vicinity."

Daniel frowned sharply. He was still too angry to do anything but. "So basically it's a bomb. Set off to...what? React to the naquada in their technology?"

"That is correct," Teal'c agreed with a nod.

"There's only one flaw in that logic, Teal'c," Sam said. "Why doesn't the place go off when the Stargate opens?"

"Because the energy from the wormhole does not touch the walls directly. The chamber behind the Stargate draws off the radiation that could trigger the explosion, and the harmonic frequency of the Stargate's wormhole is most likely set as an exclusion in the detonator device built into the triggering mechanism," he answered.

It was just intriguing enough for Sam to bite into, and she chewed on it, mind racing as the plunged through the mucky forest on a mucky day with the heat beating on their heads, the bog coming up close, and the Colonel in one of the foulest moods she'd ever seen him in.

Welcome distraction.

Daniel saw enough logic in Teal'c deduction that he couldn't rule it out. In fact, it was seeming more plausible by the second, and the thought just made him all the more tired.

He unclipped his canteen from his hip and took a long drink.

Jack was doing the same thing, standing on the edge of the murky swamp. He took several measured swallows from the canteen before dropping it back against his hip, and studied the landscape. There were large rocks and what looked to be soft muddy projections in the dark water, and the rocks he could reach with his foot, he checked. They didn't wiggle, and gave every appearance of stability. "Teal'c!" he shouted, raising his voice. "Move faster! Looks like there might be a way to get through this thing!" He nudged one of the rocks again, wondering if it would be solid enough to handle the Jaffa's bigger bulk.

Like Mary Poppins, only with less turtles and more sludge. Or so Daniel thought, anyway. Which in itself was an odd thought, considering that he hadn't watched Mary Poppins since he was a kid, and hadn't even thought of it for more years than he liked to think about. Thinking. He liked to do that. The thinking, and the... "Oh."

Whoa boy, Sam was feeling light headed. She blinked to clear her eyes and cleared her throat the smallest bit, glancing at Daniel to see if --

She wasn't aware she'd lost her balance until she had to grab onto the nearest shrubby tree to stay standing.

Teal'c noticed immediately, because his hand was balancing Daniel so that he didn't fall over onto his ass. "O'Neill!" he barked gruffly, expecting an answer. "O'Neill!"

"T... T... take 'em... back away..." The fumes had hit him all of a sudden; one second he had been wiggling rocks over the bog and the next second, he was flat on his ass in the muck, blurry-eyed and lightheaded as he fought to see through the duplicates and triplicates that had appeared in his line of sight. "Teal'c!"

Too late. Too close to the source, Jack was out cold in the next second, passed out flat.

Go on to the next part