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. 

- = - = - 

It rained.

The harsh heat was done baking the ground for another day. Neb had smiled on His children once again and the crop was plentiful, the children healthy, and business prosperous. Not only that, but the last of the soldiers had returned from the south, where his Generals had put down an uprising from the barbarians last season and stayed to reap the prosperity of Menua. For all intents and purposes, Hammurabi should be celebrating with his people, where outside the palace walls there was much rejoicing and singing, despite the light rainfall that had broken the spell of heat that had gripped the earlier hours. Instead, he sat on his throne and, as his daughter had so cheerfully put it, brooded.

Hammurabi was not an educated man. He was for the people -- he was of the people, born a penniless farmer who had grown to power when the last dynasty had been overthrown. Even now, nearly thirty years later, the peace and prosperity he had brought his people still existed in the smiles of healthy children, bountiful crops, and community feeling among his people.

In one fell swoop, all he had worked to bring his people had been put in jeopardy.

The four of them were sleeping off the effects of the Black Swamp. The woman, with the hair of lightest straw and flawless skin. The dark skinned alien soldier. The young man, as beautiful as the woman. And their leader, for it was obvious to see the wise man, with white hair and war-ravaged body, could only be the leader. Strangers, who wore strange clothes and spoke a strange language and were not --

Hammurabi clenched his eyes and shifted his head. He could not think of it anymore, and yet, he knew he would not sleep until they had awoken and told him who they were, so he could send them away again.

For only he knew where they had come from. And the mere thought that... that those people were coming back through the Great Ring filled him with a sort of primal terror he hadn't felt since he'd been a child.

He rose from his throne, his great robe swinging around his legs, and left the empty room.

==========

Teal'c was awake. He had been awake since they'd crossed into the citadel, out of the soft raindrops that had helped to bring him back to consciousness. But he had remained still and quiet, so as not to be separated from the rest of the team.

Vaguely disquieted because he had been affected as well as the Tau'ri he traveled with, Teal'c wondered how long it would take DanielJackson to come up with the solution; that the bog fumes had been responsible for rendering them all unconscious.

He had carefully mapped, in his head, the route that they had taken through the lush jungle to the swamp, and felt confident that he could return when night fell and it was time to radio back to the SGC. They had been carried through the doors of the city and hurried through dark corridors, moved in what Teal'c thought to be almost complete secrecy.

He sat up now, looking around once to catalogue their surroundings. They were not in a prison cell, and there was only a single door barring their exit.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck me."

Jack groaned as he opened his eyes. His eyelashes felt like they were stuck together with silly putty, and his mouth had tasted better on maneuvers where he didn't see a toothbrush for weeks. He rolled over on stiff muscles to look for the rest of his team. If he had to get up and move around, he was really going to kill somebody.

Thank God he didn't have to. Carter was on the bed in the room, Daniel was on the long couch, and Jack himself was laid carefully on a stack of soft cushions. Teal'c was already on his feet, and for a moment, Jack really resented the Jaffa his symbiote. "Hey, T. Gimmie a hand up, and check on Carter."

Teal'c said nothing until he took Jack's hand and pulled him to unsteady feet. "We are in a private room in the citadel that we observed from the temple. We were brought in secrecy, so I would assume our presence here is not welcome by the ruler."

Jack winced as Teal'c's rumble cut through his head like a knife. "Yeah... let's worry about that after we make sure the others are in the land of the living." He perched on the side of the couch beside Daniel, and carefully took his glasses off. He tucked them in Daniel's shirt pocket, and gently slapped Daniel's cheek with his fingertips. "Hey. Daniel. C'mon. Wake up, sport."

Daniel's eyelashes fluttered, but he didn't wake on the first tap, or the second. By the third he heard Jack calling his name and he groaned. Five more minutes. Or coffee. One or the--

Oh.

He blinked his eyes open wide, saw Jack's big mug above him, and said, "Well, that was fun."

Oh, thank God. Daniel was alive. Jack's relief flitted through his eyes, and he gave Daniel a smile as he hauled the younger man up to sitting. "Slow... head in your hands, Daniel, and don't throw up." He rubbed his hand between Daniel's shoulder blades gently. "Only you'd find that fun."

"First comes the puking, then the clothes removal," Daniel groaned, and did as Jack told him, putting his face in his hands. For once he was thankful for the short military cut he'd gotten at the beginning of the year -- he felt hot and feverish all over. "What just happened?"

"The bog that Carter saw," Jack said succinctly. "The swamp gasses from it got all of us--even Teal'c." He fell silent when Teal'c's shadow fell over them. "T?"

"Major Carter is alive, but she is still deeply unconscious," he explained, and then half-turned, so that the pile of her things in the corner of the room, within arm's reach of the bed, could be seen. "Her equipment seems to have been removed but not disturbed, and she has been made comfortable. I would guess that our... captors? Hosts? believe that she will be unconscious for some time to come and provided as best they could for that eventuality."

And didn't that just thrill Jack no end. "Okay." He stayed sitting beside Daniel, hand still rubbing his back. "Take your time, Daniel. Get your feet under you." He looked around, and saw that his backpack, as well as Daniel's, had been taken off and placed at the foot of their respective couch. "All our stuff looks like it's here, even the weapons," Jack answered, indicating his gun and Teal'c's staff. "Either they don't know what they are, or they're advanced enough to not be afraid of them. Neither one makes me feel all happy inside."

Daniel rubbed a hand over his face, realized his glasses were missing, and patted his jacket pockets for them. He pulled them out of the top breast and stuck them on his nose, blinking owlishly through them until his eyes focused. Slowly, as slowly as he possibly could actually, he climbed to shaky feet and got his first glance around. He recognized it immediately as Mesopotamian, from the artwork on the low, plain tables to the design on the cloth of the strangely shaped couches and bed posts of the single bed in the room.

Huh.

- = - = - 

"My Lord, they have awoken."

And so it began.

Hammurabi set the cup of rich sheep's milk down and dismissed the officer with a hand. Around the dining table, his daughter and his two sons looked up at him. "Continue, and good day, my sons. Daughter, I will send word if I am going to be tardy to our evening offering," he said, and with a kiss to her forehead of his daughter, he swept from the room.

He had not slept. Great dark circles lay bruised in his face, making his handsome profile seem older beyond his years. His worry was too great, his fear too sharp, for his children and for his people both. Though Hammurabi put little usefulness behind prophecies given by the local Seers, he was just superstitious enough to feel this one down in a deep, secret place.

This would take great skill, indeed.

He reached the door of the room where the men and woman had been sleeping, and heard their voices from within. Their tongue was not of the parasites -- it was similar to his own. He frowned, dismissed the soldiers standing before the door with his eyes, and knocked twice before entering.

Jack's head jerked up at the knock, and he had just enough time to get to his feet in front of Daniel, and noticed out of the corner of his eye that Teal'c was standing in front of the foot of Sam's bed, feet parted and staff resting butt-first on the floor as he stood like an impervious statue.

He looked over the man that had come into the room, noting the swirling robes, the hard lines to his face, and the age that seemed close to his own, and wished that he'd picked up the zat from his backpack before he got to his feet. Instead, he just crossed his arms over his chest as he stared down the new arrival. "Hi there."

A greeting. "Salvemenua," Hammurabi said, and inclined his head carefully.

"Salvemenua," Daniel murmured to himself, stepping out from around Jack. "Strange... Salve is Greek for 'hello'. Jack, I'm not sure these people are Mesopotamian... at least, not entirely. I think these people were brought here after Alexander's invasion of Persia."

"Yes, you are correct," Hammurabi said, and couldn't help a bit of amusement when the young one jumped.

"Oh, I...uh, I'm sorry! Hello, I'm Daniel Jackson. We're peaceful explorers, from a planet called Earth," Daniel said.

"Many proclaim peace. Not all mean what they say."

"... and they just happen to speak our English?" Jack looked over his shoulder. "Waitaminute. How in the hell did you make the jump from speaking Greek to not being Messypotmen to Alexander??"

Daniel rolled his eyes. And tried not to cry. "Mesopotamian, Jack," he said with a huge sigh.

Jack just threw up his hands. "That's what I just said." He turned back to the new arrival. "I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, that's Teal'c, and the one on the bed is Major Samantha Carter. We're not here to do anything but explore. We came through the--"

"Chappa'ai," Teal'c said helpfully.

"Chappy-I," Jack repeated, blithely mangling the pronunciation. "The Stargate, in the temple up there."

Hammurabi wouldn't tip his hand just yet, and merely inclined his head to both. "You were affected by the bogs. Quid agis?"

"Quid...uh, oh, 'how are you doing?'. Well, we're fine, thank you for helping us. Our friend though..." Daniel glanced over his shoulder at Carter.

"She will awaken within a night. Females often have harder times with the toxic fumes than men," Hammurabi said, and tipped his head to the leader once more. "Colonel Jack O'Neill, you and your troop please enjoy our hospitality with a morning meal. It will be brought to you in the adjoining room."

"Hospitality... that means you're not going to kill us in our sleep, right?" He could feel Daniel's glare between his shoulder blades. "Just clearing that up." He was a little irked that this man didn't give them his name. "I'm sorry, we can't keep going 'hey you.' You got a name? Or a title? Or something?"

"I am King Hammurabi. You were brought to my kingdom from the temple bogs last night, when two playing boys found your bodies. I apologize if you would have rather remained outside, but in your conditions I feared for your health." And the safety of my people. "The temperatures drop in the night, only to rebuild in the day, during this time of year."

Daniel hadn't heard any of it. He made the connection instantly, and his eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch.

Jack was tuned into his teammates. The name clicked in his brain, and he knew, he just knew that Daniel was about to have a joygasm back there because the hamster in Daniel's head was screaming around the wheel like a maniac. "Well, thank you, your Highness. We appreciate your thoughtfulness in bringing us indoors. We didn't know about the temperatures dropping so quickly." He pushed Daniel to sit on the couch again, and sat beside him. "Can you tell us about the bogs? What happened?"

Hammurabi watched the men sit thoughtfully. "The bogs are an added protection for our city, from invaders from the west."

Uh uh. Daniel wasn't buying that for a second. Something was going on here, and he let himself be pushed and cajoled because his mind was too filled with questions to worry about the state of affairs of his limbs. "Ah, I don't mean to offend, but are we prisoners?"

Clever boy. Hammurabi reminded himself to keep an eye on this one. "Non. Not prisoners. My guests. You are free to roam the palace as you choose until I am able to discern if you mean my people harm or not."

"What, exactly, are the bogs protection from?" Teal'c asked, from his position at the foot of Sam's bed. "They are quite strong fumes, as I am not usually affected by things such as that at all, and if you are at risk here, perhaps we can offer advisement on how to deal with this particular... situation." He had seen the man called Hammurabi give them all a once-over, hesitating at the gold seal on his forehead, and he was certain this man knew what it meant. He would have to speak to O'Neill immediately, as soon as the king had departed.

"We're not here to hurt anybody!" Jack protested, and groaned as he leaned back.

"And yet, as one leader to another, are you not making sure I am no threat to your people?" Hammurabi asked, arching a single brow up into the tufts of his white hair. His eyes shifted to the Jaffa. "The bogs do not effect my people, only foreigners such as yourselves. A...safeguard, if you will."

If Jack wasn't careful, he knew that a few more years of dealing with Daniel Jackson was going to have his hair exactly that shade of white.

"All right, you've got me there, but I'm not quite stupid either." Jack shook off the lightly restraining hand that Daniel put on his shoulder. "You left us our packs, our guns, and our zats, so obviously you're not afraid of our weapons or our technology. I'm tryin' to figure out exactly what threat four off worlders could pose to you and your city," Jack continued.

No, he wouldn't see it, would he? Hammurabi eyed him, charmed by the straightforward way he fished for information, and smiled. "You mentioned you were explorers, correct?"

Daniel nodded, his expression carefully contained. "Peaceful explorers. From Earth."

"Then you are welcome to Menua, Daniel Jackson, Colonel Jack O'Neill, Teal'c. All you wish to learn will be at your disposal -- I will send for the most learned of our historians and scientists."

"That would be... wonderful, thank you!" Daniel said, excited despite himself. "We'd also like to form an alliance, and possibly trade information and technology with your people."

"There is an old saying in the lowlands. 'The man who does not watch as he feeds the donkey has only four fingers'," Hammurabi said.

"Down, boy," Jack said, putting his hands on Daniel's shoulders and pushing him back down. "Poker face, remember?" Lost fucking cause, and he turned back around to Hammurabi. "We're not gonna bite anybody's fingers off, Hammy," he said, taking his ball cap off and readjusting the fit as he put it back on. "We're just here to take a look around, find out what the scribblings in the temple mean, and see if you and your people are willing to keep communication established with us."

"You are free to look as much as you wish. If Major Samantha Carter doesn't wake within a few hours, please send one of your guards for me and I will call the physician." Hammurabi gave them a courtesy bow, then one for the Jaffa, and left, carefully closing the door behind himself.

As soon as the door closed Daniel turned to Jack, Jack turned to Daniel, and they said in unison, "He's hiding something."

"And I believe I know what that something is, DanielJackson," Teal'c intoned, as soon as the door was closed. "Hammurabi knows what a Jaffa is; I believe he recognized the mark of First Prime and while he may not know that it is Apophis' symbol, he does know that it is Gou'ald. And that is why he is not sure how to treat us; he is not certain if we are Gou'ald emissaries or what we say we are--Tau'ri travelers."

Daniel nodded. "I agree. He's a very intelligent man, and seemed to have a lot of respect for Jack as the leader. You may be able to get more out of him, Jack, if you talk to him alone."

"Alone." As in, without the rest of the team? Not going to happen. At least, not this mission. That's what had gotten them in trouble the *last* time, Jack agreeing to go out into the hallway with Administrator Caulder and leaving the rest of the team wide open for attack. "Yeah, but that's not going to happen until Carter's back in the land of the living and I'm a lot more comfortable with the situation than I am now." He grunted again, and settled back on the couch.

Daniel frowned the smallest bit but nodded and rubbed his face. He was feeling oddly light headed and shaky -- an almost after-thought reminded him that Hammurabi had mentioned an antidote. "Are either of you feeling strange?"

"Headache that won't go away," Jack grunted from his comfortable recline against the wall. His eyes were closed, but he was listening to everything going on around him.

Teal'c inclined his head, and paused a moment as he took inventory of himself. "I do not believe that I am suffering the after-effects that you and O'Neill seem to be suffering," he answered, after a moment. "Perhaps my symbiote offers a small measure of protection or curative against it."

"Super." Daniel rubbed his face and focused his thoughts. "Look, before I go find what passes for a shower here, I need you to know that Hammurabi was heralded as the greatest ruler of Mesopotamia for the rules he created that governed the city. Most notably, 'an eye for an eye'."

"So he's the one that did that," Jack said dryly. "Must have been one of those many laws he wrote down on the massive stone tablets in his court that comprised the first written set of real laws known to mankind."

Daniel did a double take, stared, and then with a mutter, turned to what passed for the bathroom with a, "And all these years he pretended to be ignoring me."

Jack watched Daniel departing with a rather large smirk on his face, and turned to Teal'c, still grinning. "I love doing that to him."

"Indeed," Teal'c intoned, eyebrow elevating.

- = - = -

After a dinner of what passed for some kind of meat and squash-like vegetables, the three of them returned to their rooms with a plate of food for Sam in case she should wake up during the night. They took watch -- Daniel took the first, Jack the second, and Teal'c the third, as he only needed a few hours of Kel-no-reem to sustain him.

It was very early morning, now -- the moons were receding behind the horizon and the sun was rising in the southeast. Within the small room the cool air of the night still clung to the furniture and the floor, and it was that cold shudder sliding up under his clothes that woke Daniel up.

He blinked in the dark room, the familiar sound of Jack snoring and Teal'c breathing broken only by the soft twittering of a bird in the tree outside of their rooms, and the soft, huffing sound of his own breath as Daniel woke up. He grunted low in his throat and pushed the book that had been on his chest onto his pack again, sleepily adjusting his glasses where they'd been smushed against a couch cushion. With a long, hard stretch and popping joints Daniel sat up like a hundred year old man, working the kinks out of his neck.

Another yawn accompanied him to the bathroom.... or, well, the sort-of bathroom. The strange shaped chamber pot sat in its own closet, strangely enough with indoor plumbing. Daniel had used toilets in lots of places and in lots of different ways, but this one topped the cake. The toilet itself was a figure 8 -- one side for urine, the other for... otther stuff. At least it flushed away on its own.

He brushed his teeth in the free-standing basin in the wall, washed his face, scrubbed his neck and pits, and thought that would last until they could inquire about a shower. Or a river.

Daniel moving around woke Jack up.

Maybe it was just his subconscious telling him that Daniel moving without supervision was never a good thing, but Jack was completely awake in an instant. The sun hadn't even come up yet, and this was what his drill sergeant had once referred to as the ass-crack of dawn.

Everything he had ached from the hike up and down the ziggurat yesterday, and his P90 -- picked up during his watch and taken to bed with him -- was poking him uncomfortably in the leg. He put it down on the bed beside him, resting one hand on the butt as he dragged the other one over his face and through his hair. His dog-tags jingled reassuringly, he could still hear Daniel moving around in the bathroom, and both Sam and Teal'c seemed to be quietly resting, but there.

That made Jack feel much better, having all his teammates accounted for, and he grunted as he pushed himself to his feet.

He'd give a limb and a few extra organs for coffee, and he figured Daniel had to be in worse shape than him. He pawed through the backpack until he came up with several little freeze-dried packets, and dumped one of them in the metallic pitcher of drinking water that was sitting on the table. He picked the pitcher up, and started looking around for a place to heat it up.

Daniel had a nose for coffee. Even ice cold and unmade, it smelled like heaven, and his nose brought him out of the bathroom, still tugging his shirt on and sniffing. He grunted at Jack in a 'good morning', just about all Jack was going to get today, and slumped back on the couch with a low groan.

Which was echoed from the bed.

He looked up instantly, the three of them did really, as Sam finally moved around on the bed. She'd been out cold since yesterday, after all.

"Ow," she croaked.

Jack gave a return grunt, and stuck his head into the room beside them, separated by only a curtain.

Could have cheered when he found a fire built in a stone fireplace there, and Jack carried the coffee pitcher into the other room and settled it by the fire, waiting for it to get hot.

Then he heard Sam stirring, and left the pitcher unattended in the empty room, hurrying back through and grunting as he banged his knee against the door in his haste. "Hey, Carter. Welcome back."

Teal'c rose to his feet, and moved out of the way so that O'Neill and DanielJackson could take his place at the side of the bed. "Good morning, Major Carter."

"Ow," she said again. Daniel helped her sit, and had he not she wasn't sure she could have found the energy to do it on her own. She held a palm to her head and peaked up with one eye. "What happened?"

"You've been out for... er, well, all night," Daniel said, voice sleep-rough with the need for coffee. "The fumes from the bogs."

"Ow," Sam muttered, and kept herself balanced on one hand. She threw her long legs over the side and heaved a sigh as her vision cleared. "Where are we?"

"We are inside the palace at the center of the citadel we saw from the temple," Teal'c answered.

Jack nodded. "Yeah, and apparently, King Hammurabi likes us; we're not prisoners, anyway, he's said we can look around, and we're not in a jail cell or anything else. We're about to ask about breakfast, and I'm making coffee in the other room if you want a cup," he added with a little grin.

"Hammurabi?"

"The greatest king Babylon ever knew," Daniel nodded. "I don't think he's the same -- if he was a Goa'uld, Teal'c would have known. Possibly a family name. We are essentially prisoners here until they decide if we're a threat or not. And I hate to pick up Jack's the-glass-is-half-empty hat, but something's not right about this place."

Sam nodded sharply. She'd felt the same thing since they arrived, and she would have given that more thought if she didn't suddenly find herself with sea legs. Her knees refused to hold her weight and she slumped, right into Teal'c and the Colonel, with Daniel's strong hands grabbing her from the back. "Holy Hannah, I feel like I've been on an all-nighter."

Jack did a double-take at Daniel's agreement with him, but he was concentrating his attention on not letting Sam fall to the floor. He caught her as she slumped, and he started guiding her back to the bed. "Okay, that's it. Hammy said we could call for a doctor, and we're gonna call for one. Teal'c, you're gonna stay here with Sam and Daniel, and all three of you are going to get checked out. I'm going to take my gear, and I'm going back to the Stargate. Because if I don't call in by..." Jack looked at his watch. "...two hours from now, Hammond's going to be sending a rescue team through here and the last thing we need is for another team to get caught by the swamp gasses."

He looked at Sam. "Coffee in the other room. Breakfast will be coming; the food's good. We had it last night, and we can call for breakfast whenever." He turned the glare to Daniel. "Listen to what they say. If you think it's going to hurt Carter, yourself, or Teal'c, decline it. I'll be back." He turned to pick up his gear, and checked to make sure his mask was still inside, and pulled it out. "This should protect me, and if I'm not back, radio me."

"Ah, Jack. Hammurabi said we can't leave the premises. Walking back out to the temple would seem to me like leaving the premises," Daniel said, and arched a brow at him thoughtfully. He was annoyed, and needed coffee. So what if he was being a smart ass? "I think...we need to talk to Hammurabi about it."

"And sir, you're moving kind of stiffly. Teal'c... did your Goa'uld symbiote protect you?"

Teal'c shook his head. "I am surprised to admit it did not. I was not unconscious as long as the three of you, but it did render me and my symbiote temporarily unconscious."

"And I think I've done enough talking, and I'm gonna do what I have to do to protect my team," Jack answered, just as snippily. He glared at Carter over his shoulder. "You stay out of it, Carter. You're not awake enough to know how I'm moving." He glared harder. "Yeah, see? Not even Junior's safe around here. And since T's not equipped with the Mach 2 provisions and I am, that means I'm going back to the temple instead of him, and he's staying here to baby sit you two and make sure you're here when I get back, all right?" Glares all around.

Daniel's eyebrows furrowed darkly again. "No, it's not all right. I don't know when it is that we all downgraded to ten year olds, but there was once a time when you actually listened to what I said. And I'm saying this, Jack. Leaving the premises is dangerous -- Hammurabi hasn't given us a reason to believe he's lied about anything he's said. You could be killed, or worse, you could fall down the ziggurat in the state you're in." The mere thought was enough to send a cold chill of horror down Daniel's spine. "I'm fine and Teal'c looks pretty healthy to me. Let me go find Hammurabi, and then if you're still hell bent on leaving and he agrees, you can. We're here on a trading mission, Jack."

"I never listen to what you say," Jack growled, picking up his cap. "And fine. We'll go find Hammurabi. Teal'c, stay with Carter, and call me if anything happens!" Jack slung the strap of the P-90 over his shoulder, and then with his free hand, made little shooing motions towards the door. "Well? C'mon, Daniel, let's go! I don't have all day."

I never listen to what you say.  Well that wasn't news. Daniel rolled his eyes behind Jack's back, tugged on his boots and jacket, and pulled his vest on afterward. After making sure his pistol was loaded and in his holster he joined Jack and together they stepped out of the door.

And nearly collided with a bent, frail old woman carrying a massive tray of food.

Daniel reached forward at the same time she almost fell and grabbed the edge of the tray with one hand and the small of her back with the other. She was old, older than his grandfather would be today -- at least in her seventies, if not more. She looked like she should be knitting something pretty with her feet up and a cat on her lap, not carrying things much too heavy for her. "Here, let me -- hey, hey, it's all right," he said, hopefully soothingly, as the woman shook and squeaked a few words in Latin.

"Watch it!" Jack jumped backwards, dropping his gun and grabbing the other end of the tray to prevent it from spilling all over him and the floor. The dishes on the tray rattled loudly as Jack steadied it, and started walking backwards, leading them in with him. "What's your name? Daniel? You understand what she's saying?"

"Not a word," he said, as the frantic old woman chattered like a nervous bird. "She's speaking too fast. Uh... Mea culpa," he said, hoping to ease her fear, or whatever it was she was worried about. "My fault. It's alright," he said, and handed off the tray to Jack for the table beside the couches in their room.

"Never thought I'd see the day when not only do you say it's your fault, but you admit not knowing something." Jack easily balanced the tray on the table, and then turned back to the frail little woman. "IT'S OKAY!" he said slowly, and loudly.

Because that always worked in making people who didn't speak English understand.

"Never thought I'd see the day when you acted like an arrogant spring chicken with a domination complex," Daniel shot back without looking at him, only smiling at the woman to get her, hopefully, to calm. he pushed some of their gear aside and let her sit, where she burst into tears into a hanky.

Oh boy.

"You could have your ass kicked, you know," Jack growled, and then took another big step back when the woman burst into tears. "Um... okay. Daniel? You get to deal with the crying lady speaking Latin, because out of the four of us, chances are you're the only one gonna understand a word she says." He bodily dragged Jackson over to stand in front of him.

Daniel was too compassionate a man not to comfort her, even if he was no good with the comforting. At least she was slowing down as he awkwardly patted her shoulder, sniffling into her hanky before peeking up with moist brown eyes the same shade as her dark hair.

"I apologize," she sniffled, voice heavily accented with both culture and tears. "I cry in front of you, this is bad. I very sorry."

"Oh! English! Well, that's progress." Jack smiled at her from around Daniel's shoulder. "It's quite all right, ma'am. We don't mind the crying." Slight cough. "Anyway, what were you doing trying to carry a tray that's twice too big for ya?" He went into the other room and knelt by the fire. He cursed when he touched the handle of the pot and it nearly burned him, but he wrapped a bandana around his hand and then picked it up, and poured one of the tin cups full of coffee and held it out to the woman. "Here, this'll make you feel better."

She sniffled again and rose quickly, shaking her head both to the hospitality and the cup. "No, no. I Yilenna. I servant, to serve. King and Lord grant me this honor -- I disrespect you and King and Lord." She bowed fretfully a dozen times, backing up towards the door as she went.

Jack followed. "No, wait a second now. You're not disrespecting anybody." He frowned, at Daniel, over his shoulder. "We don't like servitude as a general rule. It's okay. Come on, sit down, have something to drink. Get your feet back under you."

"No, no, I go, I go. Food, for the morning meal, eat, healthy for visitors, no spice." Her wild eyes moved from the two enormous men to the mountain of a dark skinned man and the large female. "I bring healer? Yes. I bring healer. Healer come. Lord come?"

Daniel didn't like this. He didn't like it one bit. Hammurabi hadn't given them an excuse to distrust him, but the more he saw the more he didn't like. This woman was a slave -- a terrorized one at that. "We would like you to say, Yilenna. And yes, we would like to speak to, uh, King Hammurabi."

"King no available. Lord and Prince available."

Jack gave a nod. "Yes, we'd like the healer to come and look over our friends." He gave Daniel a look over the woman's head. They'd just had a fight on the last planet they'd been to about the abolishment of slave labor, and considering the outcome of it, he was very, very reluctant to start that same battle again. However... "Yilenna... please. We'd like for you to eat with us. Tell us about this place, about the king and about the Prince we're going to be speaking to today. It would be our honor if you stayed with us."

And yet the old woman paled so profoundly that Daniel found himself holding her frail arm again, and minutely shaking his head at Jack. She was as terrified as a mouse at being asked to stay with them.

"All right, all right. How about just asking the Healer to come look at our friends and then taking Daniel and me here to see whomever's in charge today?" Jack asked, changing tactics and sitting the cup of coffee down on the table by her elbow.

"Yes, I do, yes," she said, turned a look at the huge dark man who hadn't moved and was only studying her. She squealed in fear and dashed out, her skirts thumping around her bare brown feet.

Daniel blinked after her and turned surprised eyes at Jack, then up at Teal'c and Sam on the raised floor where the bed was. "Huh."

"Anyone else disturbed by this? Or am I just being cranky?" Jack asked. He picked up the coffee cup and drank from it, and then put his down long enough to pour one for Daniel, and passed it over, then one for Sam. "Here you go."

Teal'c nodded. "You are not the only one disturbed, O'Neill. However, unlike our last mission, it does not seem that the entire populace of the planet is enslaved to serve one particular class. There seems to be free people as well as those who serve, and the simple ones are merely frightened of strangers."

"Show of hands of all the people disturbed by the little old grandmother that was just in here and terrified out of her wits." Jack raised his hand. After a moment, Teal'c did too.

Daniel blinked, pursed his lips, then nodded and rose his hand a little before carefully lowering it. "Very strange," he murmured, and shook his head slightly. "Maybe she wants us to follow her," he said, and stepped out the door behind her without another look back.

"Oh, crap." Jack was shouting back over his shoulder. "Stay with Carter! We'll be back!" He was sprinting to catch up with Daniel, boots pounding down the hallway. "Daniel! Halt, goddammit!"

Halt? Daniel had to crack a grin at that, glancing over his shoulder without slowing his pace. He could just see the swish of skirts ahead, the loud sniffling. "Yilenna, wait!"

Jack picked up his pace at the acknowledgment, and nearly had to stop himself from shooting Daniel in the kneecap. The thought was entirely too appealing, and Jack promised himself he'd do it later as his own knee whined in protest.

Yeah? Shut the fuck up. You're not that old.  "Daniel, I'm going to kill you!" he shouted, double-timing down the corridor to close the distance between them. He didn't clamp his hand on Daniel's shoulder, because he knew if he did, he'd be doing the kid grievous bodily harm. "You do NOT just take off like that, dammit!"

Daniel wasn't paying him any mind. "Yilenna!"

The old woman paused in her flight and burst into tears all over again, all aflutter with nervous energy no woman her age should still possess. She twisted her hands in her aprons and sniffled noisily, her wrinkles moving every which way as she turned and looked at them both. "I bring healer! No punish, I bring healer!"

Jack was breathing heavily as he caught up to Daniel and the elderly woman. "Yilenna, please. We're not going to punish you. We're just going with you so you can take us to the guy in charge, remember?" No woman who looked to be twice his age should be able to outrun him, dammit. "We're not gonna hurt you."

"I bring, I bring," she sniffled again, weeping piteously as she turned and kept walking, brisk on little legs, further into the palace.

Daniel frowned at the poor old lady. Everything in him was telling him to help her at least, but every time he got closer than five feet of her she squealed and motioned him away, falling into hysterics once more. He glanced up at Jack, as if Jack hadn't just been yelling he'd kill him, and muttered, "Have I got something growing out of my face?"

Yep. Your ass.  But Jack didn't say it. "Look, you're not helping matters any. You're just getting her more and more wound up, and hopefully, when she brings the doctor and whomever else she's gonna bring, we can get some more answers when they get here. Until then? We go back to the room and wait."

Daniel shook his head, watching the old woman. She was stumbling now in her haste, her feet fast on the shiny marble floor, and if he didn't know any better he'd say she was getting nervous. Scared. Something was up, and he conveyed it with a glance at her and then at Jack and back again.

The palace was just as marvelous as Daniel had imagined it would be. The foyer was all marble and white gold, shining brightly in the morning sun coming in through the huge open windows. But it wasn't the marble that made him stop and stare. It was the river flowing right through it.

He'd known of palaces building their homes around trees and gardens, especially in ancient Rome. But this...this was just amazing. It was the perfect mesh of splendor and nature that made him catch a breath as he looked over the crashing waterfall, full of large flowers and soft green ivy. The river chased itself down the center of the foyer and out of the enormous, open entrance, where a thin gauze draped beautifully over the entrance served as a type of door, or net, to keep the insects out.

They followed her out the door, where she swept it open and dashed out into the huge field of green . Grass for as far as he could see and the forest, thick and imposing, circling all of it. The river fed an enormous sea, where boats were already cruising for their daily catch.

And then the thundering started.

Loud at first, then louder, and louder still, and Daniel actually took a step back against the gauze curtains as a stampede of what looked like horses came racing out of the forest. Enormous hounds, as tall as Carter, bounded before them, chasing a small creature that was as fast as lightening as it tore across the grass. A hunt, which was near its end. The horses ran, shots were fired from immense crossbows that looked at least thirty pounds apiece by the enormous men, and finally one of the lead hounds, a beautiful white and brown creature, leapt and attacked. When his master called it away, the animal was dead.

Oh boy.

The four men dismounted, laughing with pleasure. Enormous men, much bigger than Daniel had expected, but that could be because they were sun brown and built like slick eels, all muscles and lean features. And arrogant. Oh-so-arrogant. The tallest one, wearing a fine golden and feathered chest piece, stood taller than the others, prouder. Without even knowing Daniel knew the guy was the Prince, the one next in line for the throne, and if the slightly overexcited younger one running around him was any indication, he was the younger brother.

The other men were a mystery, though, until Yilenna burst into tears all over again, sobbing hysterically and waving her hanky in the air to catch their attention.

Yilenna's sobbing cries broke Lin's euphoric mood over catching the small deer. He'd heard the woman sob no less than a million times -- in joy, in fear, in boredom. The woman cried on the drop of a hat, but it did not mean he loved her any less. Even at the cost of being teased he broke away from his brother and his friends to comfort her, and it was only when he saw past her hanky that he spotted the two foreigners his father had warned him of.

Or, rather, he spotted the dark haired beauty.

Lin would never be a studious man, unlike his brother, but he knew enough practicality and common sense to be a good king, like his father was. In that he knew himself, down from the root to the top, all over and inside out. He knew his emotions, his heart, and his mind, and freely admitted his weaknesses when they were called on. Matters of the heart had never been a failing to him, but a game of which possible spouses suited and which bored him silly.

In so, he had never believed in love at first sight. But from the moment he looked at that odd face, with the pieces of iron and glass before his eyes, the ruby red lips, the soft, short brown hair and the beautiful body, Lin was taken. Inside out, over and through, all noise stopped but for... the sight of him.

He had to know more.

It was with effort that his eyes moved back to his old nursemaid, who was crying all the more hysterically if that were possible. "Yilenna, what has happened?"

"The female, she is ill, she woke ill, she will die and the King and Lord will punish!"

Lin laughed softly which only got her screaming through her tears, and took her flailing, handkerchief-ed hand in his, pressing it to his sweating chest. "Shhh, now, love." He glanced over his shoulder at his friends and brother, horsing around as always. They would tease him at Yilenna's expense later. "Oneh, go with Yilenna to see about the female."

Oneh blinked, the laughter dying from his lips, dripping in sweat and spotted with blood from their sport. "The f-female!"

"Yes. You are a healer in training, are you not?"

"The white haired female?!"

Lin's smile was mischievous. "Has it truly been so long that you can no longer identify them -- Aye!" he yelled as Yilenna smacked him on the chest and burst into heavier tears. He sighed, wrapping an arm around her, and called to his brother, "Come, Daphon!"

Daphon turned to his horse, and fed the creature a small handful of sweet treats in reward for the fine ride and the finer hunt. Though he hadn't the killshot today, he had many to his record, and this day's sport had been entirely enjoyable.

Or had been until the crying Yilenna showed herself in the court.

Like his brother, he would love Yilenna to her dying day, which he hoped would be a long day from now.

But oh, the tears. The tears he could live without. He gave the reins of his horse to the young boy who worked in the stables, and gave terse orders for it to be fed and watered well, then curried and rested for the next day's hunt. The crossbow fell easily across his chest, the quiver on his back still half full of arrows, and he crossed the green towards Lin and the others.

The newcomers.

He knew, as soon as he saw the young one, that Lin would be smitten. There was no way he wouldn't be; Daphon himself acknowledged the handsome young man as he drew close, and he kissed Yilenna quietly on the forehead. "Calm yourself, Yi," he said softly. "No one is going to harm you." He bristled at the elder newcomer, hair graying like Yilenna's but obviously younger. "Lin," he greeted, coming to stand beside his brother. The female interested him more than these others, but he wouldn't begrudge Lin his sport, if it came down to that. "I heard you are sending Oneh to the woman?"

"Indeed," Lin said, and glanced back with a short, hard whistle that sent the dogs scurrying down the hill towards their home, a stable of their very own to sleep and rest with the females of their species. The horses were led away by the young stable hands, and Oneh was halfway across the field now, surely muttering. Lin grinned at his younger brother and tucked Yilenna under his sweaty arm to her horror, if her squeals were anything to say about it. She gave him a solid thump across the ribs, winding him, and stomped away and back towards the house, yelling and sobbing and carrying on as normal.

Lin couldn't help a smile as he walked up the path, sauntering really, his eyes glued on the young beautiful stallion. The look Daphon had given him was enough to ensure his brother knew where this would go, and it pleased Lin enormously to be read so easily. He stepped up to them, aware of his state of undress, the roaring of the waterfall quiet behind the thickened material guarding the sporting entrance of the grand palace where they lived. He wore little more than the dark skirt of the hunt and his chest piece, signifying his station.

He was incredibly pleased when the beautiful man bowed the smallest bit to him, as if unsure of what to do. His eyes, intelligent pools of blue, sparkled with interest behind those strange circles on his face.

Daniel merely glanced at Jack through the corner of his eye and bowed as the young men stepped up to them. Smelling ripe, like horse and leather and sweat all at once, and Daniel found himself realizing it wasn't an unappealing scent. Just real, like the young men on Abydos had been. The men of Abydos were unique, but these two men were unlike anything Daniel had seen. He wasn't gay or anything, but even he had to acknowledge the fact that two outrageously half naked men had just stopped in front of them. 'Adonis' didn't quite cover them. "Ah.. . Salve," he said.

"Down, Daniel. Roll in the tongue and stop drooling." Jack wasn't stupid enough to miss the fact that this man in the bird feathers was the chief, ruler, prince, or otherwise noted Being In Charge, but he also wasn't about to take his eyes off the big man with the big weapon strapped to his chest, and Jack really, really wished he'd brought the zat with him too, instead of just the gun. Call him paranoid, but he didn't like the thought of being out-gunned. Especially when Daniel was entirely too preoccupied with the setting, the architecture, and pretty much anything but the big man with the big bow and arrow.

Daphon watched his brother with amusement, because he could just imagine what his brother was thinking about the young one bending before him. The elder did not bend at all, no show of respect coming from him, and Daphon frowned. Either stupid, or determined, Daphon realized that out of the four off worlders, this man and the dark-skinned Jaffa were the two forces to be reckoned with. "Lin, be careful of the elder," he said in their own tongue. "He does not show respect and he comes into your presence armed."

Daniel blinked, turned his head, and spoke in Latin. "You have nothing to fear from Jack. He is my leader and is responsible for the safety of his team members. We do not mean any shows of disrespect."

Lin's eyes brightened, delighted, and he laughed out loud. He reverted to their language, his second, and the one they used when trading with other cultures. "My father told me you were interesting. I am Linelos, Lord Prince of Menua. This is my brother, Prince Daphon."

"Oh, sorry. Uh... I'm Daniel Jackson. This is Colonel Jack O'Neill."

"Such long names," Lin said, glancing to the older graying man before back to Daniel with pleasure. "My father told me you were a great scholar. Would you care to see the palace?"

"Yes!" Pause. "Oh... wait. We needed to find your father."

"For?"

"We, uh, need to go back to the temple where we came from."

Lin laughed again. "Surely you learned your lesson! The bogs will not permit such a passage."

"Yeah, we've heard. Now that we know about the bogs, we have masks that'll let us pass through, without the fumes affecting us. At least that's what we hope. Because if we don't get back to the temple, there's going to be a lot of people coming through there with a lot of these things," he said, holding up the gun, "Looking for us because we didn't check in and tell them we're all right. To check in, we have to be at the Stargate. The... chappa'ai," he said, trying to pronounce the Gou'ald word properly.

"The... chappa'ai? Surely you do not mean the Great Ring?" Daphon asked curiously. He waited for the answer, because he knew that anyone who came through the Great Ring would be powerful, for the operation of the Ring had been lost to Daphon's people for many generations now. They would be strong allies to have in their corner, when the time came to fight Nebuchudnezzar. "The bogs will not permit the passage back to the temple," he said, echoing his brother. "They have been protecting our city for many years from threats coming from the temple and the lands beyond." He looked at Lin, raising an eyebrow at the mention of the Ring.

The meaning was not lost on him, and Lin turned his eyes from the beautiful man to the old, weather beaten one. Handsome in his own right, in a different way. Too dominant for Lin's tastes. "My father said you were peaceful. Your people would come looking for you?" At the young one's nod Lin nodded, frowning slightly. "The boys of the village know a short cut through the forest that will return you safely to the Great Ring."

"Could you... show us?"

"Indeed, yes we can. It will be a great adventure for the morning," Lin said, all delight again, despite the intelligence in his eyes as he regarded both men. "My friend, a healer, will care for your woman while we are away. It is a long journey, but if all goes well, we will return by evening. Are you well equipped for the day?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah." He rippled his shoulders to show off his backpack. "We'll have to stop by the rooms and check on Carter before we leave--five minute detour, and tell Teal'c what's going on." He was firm on that.

Daphon just listened to the elder man, dictating terms to them as though he were the one in charge.

Powerful allies, yes, if they could be convinced and won over to the Cause. "We will supply food and fresh water for the journey for the four of us," Daphon concluded. "As our Prince, I cannot allow Lin to leave the castle without a guard, and I will fill that position." He dared the newcomers to make an issue of it. "We must hurry, though, if we wish to be back by nightfall, because the trek is long and the climb harder."

Jack just barely bit back the sarcasm. "Yeah, we know. We climbed it. We know what it's like and how far it is."

"No offense to you, Jack O'Neill, but you were unconscious for most of it last time," Lin teased, giving him a helplessly charming smile.

Daniel couldn't help a small smile, glancing up under his lashes as he shrugged a shoulder. "Let's get going, then."

- = - = -

go on to the next part