sg_betty

Title: A Source of Power - Chapter 1
Author: SG_Betty
Word count: 4,774
Genre: Gen, Action/Adventure, Team
Rating/Warning: PG-13, Violence
Spoilers: spoilers up to and including early Season 7
Disclaimer: While the situations and dialogue in this story are my own, all characters are wholly owned by Gekko Productions and MGM.
Thanks: It is impossible for me to thank Lokei enough for the enormous time and effort that she put into beta reading, advice, and encouragement. There simply aren't fine enough words. All I can say is thank you, Lokei, this story simply wouldn't exist without you!





Sam Carter emerged from the dense canopy of brush, waving off a buzzing insect, and wiping the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. The back of her shirt was sticking to her skin in an unpleasant way, but there was nothing she could do about that. "Hi Teal'c. How's it going Daniel?" Sam nodded to the archeologist who was crouched next to a huge stone door covered with ancient writing, and the Jaffa who stood guard over his work.

Daniel turned toward Sam and gave her a rare open smile. "Really good, Sam! I was just telling Teal'c that there does seem to be a connection between this pyramid and the ruins on P3C-589 where we found that cache of artifacts.” Daniel removed his glasses and wiped the sweat from his eyes that had escaped from his sodden bandana. “Where's Jack?"

"It's 1400 hours. The Colonel went back to the gate to check in with General Hammond. Will we be getting in this afternoon?" Sam hoped the answer was yes; it had to be cooler inside the pyramid.

"I think so, but I’m not sure…” He pointed to a section near the base of the stone. “There's a cipher in this line, but I still trying to figure it out." Daniel turned back to the row of glyphs and focused his attention, long fingers arched over the shapes and a frown of concentration. Sam and Teal’c might as well have disappeared.

Sam found herself smiling as she watched him. Daniel had been back for a few months now, but it still seemed like a miracle. Ascension seemed like death to those who had been left behind.

Teal'c leaned toward her. His contentment was obvious, even in the terrible heat. "Major Carter, it gives me immense pleasure to see Daniel Jackson enjoying his work."

"I know what you mean, Teal'c. I never thought I'd see this...” A burst of static came from the radio on her shoulder.

"Hey kids! Are we going to be here while? Inquiring minds want to know." The Colonel's voice was muffled; the signal was poor. "And what's up with the radios, Carter? More of your solar flares?"

Carter leaned into her radio. "My flares, Sir?"

"Yeah, Carter. It's always solar flares... interference this, time travel that...”

"None as far as I know, sir. I’m not sure what’s causing this. There are some unusual readings coming from the pyramid, but they're not particularly strong. The planet does have a more intense magnetic field than we usually encounter, and magnetic fields can break down radio waves."

Daniel grabbed his radio. "Hey Jack, I discovered a cipher in the hieroglyphs. I think I'm just about there."

"Okay, campers! I’ll pass that on and be back in a minute.” The radio gave one for last burst of static and was silent.

Daniel smiled wryly and turned back to the stone. “The gate’s so close; it doesn’t matter if the radios work. We could just yell.” He went over the glyphs again, looking for inconsistencies. There were six glyphs whose meaning wasn’t standard in their context, so he paid special attention to confirming the determinative glyphs near them. The frown lifted, replaced by satisfaction.

"Okaaay. I think I've got it." Daniel stood and scanned the glyphs above for those corresponding to the instructions in the cipher. He pressed six of them in rapid succession then moved away from the entrance.

There was a deep rumble, a shaking in the earth as the heavy stone slowly began to rise. Moldy, wet soil and rotting pieces of jungle plants fell away from the stone as it rose. A narrow corridor was revealed stretching into the darkness

Jack O'Neill appeared behind them. "Way to go, Daniel!" Jack pulled off his hat and ran a hand through sweaty hair then jammed his cap on again. “Let’s have a look-see.”

Sam was scanning the opening. “Sir, the energy signature is much stronger now. There is also an increase in the overall amount of electro-magnetic radiation. We’re going to have a problem with radio transmission.”

“Is it dangerous, Carter? Should we be breaking out the tinfoil hats?”

Daniel looked from Jack to Sam, listening intently for her answer.

“No, sir. This type of electro-magnetic radiation is non-ionizing and shouldn’t present any problem. I’ll keep an eye on things, but this shouldn’t have any effect on us, unless the levels rise dramatically.” She smiled reassuringly at Daniel, who nodded sharply and returned to his examination of the open door.

“This isn’t just leakage from the pyramid, though.” Sam moved away from the door and frowned at the readings displayed on her scanner. “Levels have gone up in the entire area.” She turned back to the Colonel. “It’s not a weapon, sir. It isn’t that type of energy.”

Jack thumbed a button on his radio causing an impenetrable burst of static. Out of commission; it looked like his communication with the SGC would be his last one until they returned. That gave him an unpleasant thought. “Carter, if this energy is breaking down our radio waves, won’t it stop the GDO’s from working, too?”

“Yes, sir. I’m afraid it will. As long as the energy readings are this high, we won’t be able to return directly to the SGC.”

Jack didn’t like the idea of going into the pyramid without working radios, but the Pentagon was getting antsy about expense versus results again. “Okay, we’ll turn out the lights when we leave. It’s always good to conserve energy. If we can’t turn it off, we’ll head to the Alpha site. What do you think it is, Carter?”

“It may be a new kind of power source, or a major installation of some kind. Whatever it is, I think they may have found an efficient way to use magnetic fields to generate large amounts of power.”

Jack raised his eyebrows and said “Now that sounds promising. Let’s go have a look.”

“I have read that pyramids are able to focus magnetic fields causing fruit to remain fresh and razor blades to stay sharp forever.” Teal’c eyed the pyramid.

Daniel shook his head and smiled. “Tabloids, Teal’c?”

“Indeed.”

They pulled out their flashlights and entered the pyramid. They all stopped for a moment, involuntarily, as they savored the dry, cool air of the interior.

Sam took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Wow. What a relief!”

Daniel’s flashlight played across the surface of the walls. “The Goa’uld usually inhabit fairly temperate planets. I wonder if this one was chosen specifically because the climate is so inhospitable… It would reduce the chances of discovery.” He continued down the narrow passage. “Here’s something,” Daniel said quietly.

Jack moved toward Daniel, recognizing the sound of a not very happy archeologist. “What kind of something?”

“Something that could be bad...” Daniel said slowly. He held the flashlight up so the others could see what he had found. The figure he had arrived at was holding what was clearly a symbiote. A bound captive knelt before him. Two helmed Jaffa were pictured behind the prisoner. “The Jaffa are wearing helmets resembling the hunting hounds of ancient Egypt.” Daniel paused and turned to the team. “Greyhounds.” He pointed to the figure holding the symbiote. “This is Am-Heh.”

“You could have just said ‘dogs’. So, what made Amy extra bad?” Jack raised his flashlight to Daniel’s, further illuminating the mural.

“Am-Heh was a god of the underworld, known as the Devourer of Millions.” He pointed to more bound figures of sacrificial victims shown lying on the ground. “He was sometimes confused with Ammit who, in the weighing of the soul after death, devoured those made heavy by sin, and -”

“Daniel. Moving along.” Jack’s eyebrows climbed and he rolled his hand forward.

“Okay, then. I’ll sum it up. Am-Heh was a different god of the underworld who was feared, not worshipped. He had a great hunger for human flesh; a desire for sacrifice. It was said that he could only be controlled by Ra.”

“Who is dead, so if Amy’s still around…”

“We might be looking at something pretty ugly.” Daniel’s mouth tightened.

“Teal’c? What do you know about this guy? He sounds a bit like Sokar. Will he have the same kind of resources?” Jack asked. Teal’c often had information about obscure Goa’uld that the rest of them didn’t and it was a darned good thing sometimes.

“I know only that he was a minor Goa’uld, but could have been more, had he desired it.” Teal’c answered. “He was greatly feared, but never had the large armies of Sokar. Am-Heh was said to care for nothing but sacrifices and was uninterested in wielding power other than to achieve the deaths he desired. Both Tauri and Jaffa suffered at his hands. I have heard nothing of him since I was a child, O’Neill. Even then, it was in stories related by old warriors. Perhaps he has not survived.”

There was a hopeful note in Teal’c’s voice that really made Jack hope the same. He turned to Sam who was looking at the mural with interest. “Carter, what about those energy readings? Anything new?”

“No, sir. Except for the spike when we opened the door, they’ve remained stable.”

Daniel moved away from the mural and shone his light on the floor of the corridor. “Jack, that entrance hadn’t been used for a long time and there are no footprints but our own. If Am-Heh is alive, I don’t think he’s here.”

Jack led them up the dark passage, the flashlight beams just reaching the T-intersection at the end. “I’m going to hold you to that, Daniel.” He wagged a finger. “No delicious MRE dessert if you’re wrong.”

Daniel looked over his glasses at Jack, eyebrows raised. “While I’m not especially looking forward to that vanilla wafer with my meatloaf, I hope I’m right too.”

They reached the intersection. Then new corridor was much wider, close to 12 feet across. Daniel examined the walls again. “There is a glyph with a cylindrical marking on the passage to each side. I don’t recognize it, but it would seem to indicate that both directions lead to the same type of facility.”

Jack gave his second in command an inquiring look. “Carter?”

She scanned for fluctuations in the energy signature in both directions. “No difference, sir.”

Jack scanned the passage in both directions, the light barely penetrating the gloom. “Okay, I chose left. If there’s no high tech doodad, you can have my pound cake, Daniel.”

Teal’c raised an eyebrow and began down the left branch of the corridor, his staff weapon at the ready. “If you are both wrong in your assumptions, I shall collect both desserts, for you will have forfeited these small wagers.” he said with a sternness that belied his expression.

Sam gave a snort and asked “Why do you get them, Teal’c?”

There was a hint of a smile on his face. “Because you were surprisingly slow to claim them, Major Carter.”

As they moved into the corridor, Teal’c’s thoughts returned to the explorations of the previous year, when Jonas Quinn had been on the team, and when they had thought Daniel Jackson dead. Jonas Quinn was a good man, an honorable man, who helped them achieve great victories. But this was the team that he had left Chulak to join, a team with Daniel Jackson, who had returned to them, and who made foolish bets with O’Neill. Somehow victory felt closer.

This corridor was as dark and dusty as the last. The murals of the entry walls had given way to smooth bare stone. There were no intersecting passages as it led them deeper into the pyramid and further from the exit. Eventually they came to another great stone door, a twin to the entrance stone through which they had gained access. It, too, was covered with ancient glyphs.

Jack grimaced. “Great. Just…great! Couldn’t just one of these ever have a doorknob? Daniel?” He gestured toward the door and stepped back to make way for the archeologist.

Daniel ran his hands over the glyphs looking for irregularities or unseen mechanisms. This took quite a while, and Jack was shifting impatiently by the time he spoke. “This seems to be a cipher in the same form as the one on the entrance stone. I can’t find any structural anomalies other than the movable glyphs. There is one slight…problem.” He frowned and turned toward them. “The entrance stone had one relatively clear solution. This one has two equally likely choices. It may have been the equivalent of a password.” He lifted his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose before replacing them.

Sam’s face mirrored his concern. “So you’re saying there’s a fifty percent chance that this will be a trap.”

“Yes. Unless the two choices that I dismissed as red herrings weren’t, in which case, it’s a seventy five percent chance.” His frown deepened “But I’m pretty confident that they were. Red herrings, that is. So I’m going with fifty percent. I think the choices are determined by the position of the sun, though. There’s a reference to Ra. Anyway, I have a good idea… I, uh, think you guys better move back some. Quite a bit, actually.”

Jack slipped his pack from his shoulders. “Daniel, I’m not letting you take a 50-50 shot at survival. That is absolutely not going to happen! It’s time for C-4.”

“We can’t just blow this up, Jack! We don’t know what’s behind it!” Daniel crossed his arms. “If there are artifacts that are as easily damaged as -”

“Daniel, No!”

Sam broke in to what would clearly become a heated debate. “Sir, the ceilings here are quite high and the walls appear to be thick enough to tolerate the blast, but I can’t say with any certainty that an explosion won’t cause a collapse in this passage.”

“Well, we’ll find out. Daniel is not going to play archeology roulette.” He took out six blocks of C-4 and placed it next to the stone door in two piles. He looked at the door for a moment then reached into his pack for another two blocks.

Daniel threw a hand in the air in frustration and stalked away from the door. Jack’s willingness to blow things up without regard for the consequences infuriated him. He thought of delicate artifacts and technology like those they had discovered on P3C-589. He thought of them tumbling from shelves and shattering, flung from their places with concussive force and destroyed.

Teal’c laid a hand on his shoulder and regarded him gravely. “Daniel Jackson. I, too, do not wish you to take this risk. You have just returned to us. I am unwilling to see you jeopardize your life in this manner. No object is worth your loss.”

Sam watched hopefully. She couldn’t bear to see Daniel to take such a gamble. She had believed him dead, mourned him, and missed him every day. Sam knew the Colonel O’Neill and Teal’c had too, even if the Colonel had never been willing to talk about it.

Daniel looked Teal’c and saw the depth of his worry. He dropped his eyes to his feet and shifted uncomfortably. The tension in his stance ebbed away. Finally, Daniel looked back at the door and sighed. He shoved his hands in his pockets and frowned at the ground, avoiding the sight of the C-4 being readied.

Jack looked up at his team from where he crouched. “Move back fifty feet; I want us well out of the action.” He was attaching the detonator when Carter interrupted him.

“Sir? The detonator won’t work. The -”

“Doh!” Jack smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Magnetic whatsit. Right. I guess I’ll have to do this the old fashioned way. That’s so much less fun!” Jack put the detonator back in his pack, took out a fifty foot detonation cord, and attached it to the C-4. He passed his pack to Teal’c and ran the cord down the passage.

They hunkered down against a wall, backs to the demolition as Jack lit the detonator cord; the explosion was almost instantaneous. Tremors shook the stone around them as dust and pulverized rock filled the air.

As the dust settled, much of it on the team, Sam straightened. “Enough C-4, Sir?” She pushed herself to her feet.

“There’s never enough C-4, Carter.”

Jack shouldered his pack and they headed back up the passage to inspect the damage. The stone door was now an opening. Where they might have expected the remains of the door to have landed, there was only a large rectangular hole in the floor. The trap had been opened along with the door. A chasm now stretched 20 feet long, extending from the doorframe. On each side, it ended in a smooth edge, 7 inches from the walls.

Jack picked up a piece of debris from the floor and dropped it over the side. There was no sound of it hitting the bottom of the shaft. His look to Daniel was full of meaning. “You were right about that trap.”

Teal’c and Sam were also watching Daniel. Teal’c’s expression was troubled as he thought of the risk that had very nearly been taken. Sam was trying to replace the vision in her mind’s eye of Daniel tumbling endlessly into the shaft. They shared a look that was both relieved and dismayed.

Daniel felt a little queasy. He wasn’t thinking about what might have happened, he was thinking about what was going to happen. There was no place to attach ropes, so that wasn’t an option. Crossing twenty feet on that seven inch projection was the only way into the room and the drop was…infinite. Not imaginary-infinite like the one on Cimmeria. Real, rock-falling-forever infinite. Smooth walls on both sides; no help there. To make matters worse, the doorframe was narrower than the shaft, so it was going to be a tricky getting around it into the room.

The room… He lifted his flashlight away from the shaft and shone it through the newly created opening. At the furthest reaches of the beam of light, he could see the looming form of some kind of equipment, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Curiosity warred with anxiety.

Jack waved for their attention. “All right kids, we need to talk about this. It’s time for a plan. Carter, can we shut off the power or whatever from here?”

“No sir, not in any way that I know of.”

“What about the readings? Any chance that the GDO’s and radios will work?”

Sam glanced at the scanner. “Sorry, sir, no change.”

“Then we head to the Alpha site. This is just too risky.”

“Sir, we could really use a power source of this magnitude.”

Jack knew the Pentagon would agree with her.

“Jack, if there is a connection between this place and the ruins on P3C-589, there might be artifacts and technology that we can’t pass up.” Curiosity was winning the battle. Daniel was willing to cross this chasm for what he thought might be on the other side.

Jack shook his head. He didn’t like it, but Carter and Daniel were right. There was too much potential here to ignore. If they went back now, Hammond would be left to explain it to people who wouldn’t think ‘it was dangerous’ was a good reason to turn back. In their eyes, ‘dangerous’ was why SG-1 got paid. “There’s nowhere to attach ropes and we don’t have a grappling hook. Ideas?” He looked at each of the members of his team.

Teal’c just raised an eyebrow and glanced at a ledge.

Sam shook her head again. “No, sir. There’s nothing to tie off on here, not even a wall sconce, and nothing over the ledges to clip onto. We could rope ourselves together, but without being tied off in some way, that might not be a good idea. The floor is too smooth to provide enough traction to prevent everyone from going over the edge if…”

“If one of us falls.” Daniel shifted uncomfortably. “Well, if I fall, I’d rather not take the rest of you with me.”

“Nobody’s going to fall. That’s an order!” Jack looked at the gap and gauged the weight of his pack. “Teal’c, if we lightened these packs down to the bare essentials, do you think that you can throw them across that pit?”

Teal’c inclined his head. “I believe that it will be possible, O’Neill.”

“Okay, leave the sleeping bags, extra clothes, and anything else that you don’t think you’ll absolutely need. Then we’ll assess the weight and see if we need to leave anything else.”

They removed everything from their packs that made things more comfortable, but was not truly necessary. Daniel’s pile also included a number of reference books, which he held for several moments before placing them on the pile by which he knelt.

Jack noticed the archeologist’s internal struggle. “We’ll come back for our stuff, Daniel. You’re not leaving them forever.” He raised an eyebrow. “Now, was that all the books?”

Daniel sighed and straightened the abandoned and valued books. “Yes, Jack. That’s all the books.”

“Okay, then.” Jack gave Teal’c a questioning look.

Teal’c lifted Daniel’s pack experimentally. “The weight is acceptable.” Teal’c kept the pack in hand and approached the pit. He swung it back and then forward, allowing both momentum and his strength to carry it across the chasm. He repeated this with the other three packs.

Jack motioned Daniel to the right ledge, while he moved to the left. “Daniel and I will go across first. Sam and Teal’c give us some light; we’ll do the same for you from the other side.” Jack didn’t want Daniel to have too much time to think about this. That would make it worse for him. “Back to the wall and eyes up, Daniel.” Jack instructed. “Slow and steady. Ready?”

Daniel nodded silently and approached the chasm. On Jack’s nod, he stepped sideways onto the narrow projection, keeping his back up against the wall. His flashlight was in his left hand, his right was free to grab the doorframe and swing himself around it when he got there. He knew Jack had given him the right side on purpose, so he could use his stronger hand. It would be more difficult for Jack. He’d have to use his left, or turn on the ledge.

Daniel’s feet extended almost halfway over the edge, giving him the unnerving feeling that his position was already insecure. He tried to turn his toes sideways, to face forward toward the doorframe, but that pushed his right hip away from the wall, throwing him off balance. Okay, that wasn’t good. He briefly considered turning his toes to either side like a ballerina, but rejected the idea. Daniel was pretty sure he didn’t bend that way. He would just have to ignore the fact that half of his feet were hanging out over a chasm. He took a deep breath and stepped sideways again, and saw Jack making his way across the ledge on the other side.

Jack watched Daniel’s progress while doing the same. Inch by inch, they crossed open chasm. Daniel was a little on the pale side but was plugging away. He never lacked for guts; self preservation, yes, guts, no. They were almost halfway across when Jack’s foot slipped on a rock cast there by the explosion. And he started to fall.

“Jack!” Daniel watched with horror as his teammate struggle to regain his footing on the narrow space. Jack flailed and dropped his flashlight, but regained his balance. Daniel watched the flashlight bounce on the edge before slipping into the shaft and falling indefinitely. He found himself riveted by its drop.

Jack took a deep breath, willing his heart to slow down. He glanced over at Sam and Teal’c. They looked almost as shaken as he felt, and had moved closer to the edge in an instinctive, futile urge to help. Another deep breath… That had been too close. No more thinking about that. Then he looked at Daniel. Jack didn’t like what he was seeing there. From what he had heard, Daniel had done fine in a similar situation to rescue Gairwyn – well, he’d fallen, actually, but that hadn’t been his fault. There was no one to rescue here. It looked like he was thinking about this more than was good for him. “Daniel… Daniel, look at me. Keep your eyes up, okay?”

Daniel was nodding at him, but still looking after the flashlight.

“Daniel! Focus, here!”

Daniel wrenched his gaze away from the path of the flashlight. “Yes… Yes, good idea...” He met Jack’s eyes and forced a smile. “What do you say we get off these ledges?”

“You bet, Daniel.”

Daniel nodded and they both continued inching sideways for what seemed like an eternity, finally reaching the opening that had been a door. He grabbed the frame and swung himself into the room, launching himself forward with a desperate urge to get away from the pit. His momentum kept him moving and he narrowly avoided landing in an ungainly sprawl on the floor.

Jack followed seconds later, just slightly more gracefully. They moved back toward the edge where the door had been.

Sam was waving her flashlight. “Sir…” She tossed it across the 20 foot gap to Jack, replacing the lost one.

Teal’c threw his staff weapon to Daniel. It hurtled across the chasm like a spear and Daniel caught it out of the air.

A wry smile crossed Jack’s face. Daniel had come a long way since SG-1’s first years. He was always athletic and capable, but he’d lacked confidence in his ability. No one doubted his ability now, not even Daniel.

Daniel passed the weapon to Jack, and then stood ready to give Sam a hand getting around the protruding frame. Her shorter reach would make getting into the room more challenging. The extra risk weighed on him as the sight of that flashlight tumbling replayed itself in his mind.

They trained their lights on the ledges as Teal’c and Sam began to cross.

Sam watched Teal’c crossing on the other side; it kept her from looking down. He had an uncanny grace, as always. He was in complete control of his body and gave no sign that the lethal drop bothered him in any way. She knew it might. When they had been forced to parachute into a remote location in Siberia, Teal’c had been appalled by the notion. He had ‘not believed it wise’. Eventually, the colonel had resorted to pushing him out of the plane. And yet, Daniel had jumped, even with his fear of heights. Sam thought it might have been the parachute that bothered Teal’c, more than the height.

Sam was not so sanguine, in appearance or reality, but her smaller size served her well in this instance. Luckily, she didn’t share Daniel’s aversion to heights, so her mind wasn’t working against her. Crossing the ledge was still very unnerving, even with her military training. Sam steadied her thoughts and kept moving, one sideways motion after another. She focused on Teal’c’s grace rather than the drop at her feet. She was only partially successful.

There were no close calls for either of them. As Sam neared the outcropping, Daniel motioned his intent to help her around it. When she nodded, he grabbed her wrist and pulled as she leapt for the room.

Teal’c reached the doorframe and swung himself inside with light, compact movements. He made Jack and Daniel’s efforts look incredibly clumsy. He took his staff weapon from Jack and handed his flashlight to Sam, before grasping the weapon with both hands, ready for use. “Let us proceed.”

Daniel felt a deep sense of relief that they were all together on the far side of the chasm. He took a breath and let it out slowly. “I really, really hope there’s a better way out of here.” He turned his flashlight on the nearest equipment. The light didn’t reach more than twenty feet, illuminating a bank of monitors of some kind. There were innumerable, large pieces of equipment extending deep into the room, and beyond the range of sight. The room seemed impossibly large.

Sam smiled ruefully. “Oh, you’re not the only one, Daniel. Believe me. Now what do we have here?”

Daniel looked somewhat bemused as he took in the rows of equipment looming before them. “Something different. And, you know, that’s not always a good thing.”



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