by Anne
Disclaimer : The characters of Daniel Jackson, Jack O’Neill, Sam Carter, Teal’c, General Hammond, Janet Frasier, Apophis and anybody else you recognise from the SGC do not belong to me. Neither does the concept of the Stargate, SGC, and the Goa’uld and any thing else related to the series Stargate SG1. They belong to Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Products.
The characters of Methos (a.k.a. Adam Pierson), Joe Dawson, Connor MacLeod and Duncan MacLeod belong to Panzer/Davis, Rysher/Gaumont Television. So do the concepts of Immortality, the Game and the Watchers.
Likewise the characters of Adam Newman, Megabyte Damon, General William Damon, Ami Jackson, Jade Weston, Kevin Wilson or any names or events linked to the Tomorrow People TV series do not belong to me either. They are the property of Roger Damon Price, Thames/Tetra and ITV Television.
Thanks: To Caroline and Michele for letting me ‘borrow’ their explanation of why Tomorrow People can sense immortals.
Thanks also to Bev, Sarah and my Dad for their support and for lending an ear while I sorted through a few of the ideas. Big thanks to Kirstin for checking the grammar and spelling side of this story. Also to Nicole for her feedback as well.
A special thanks to my friend, John, for beta reading for me, and for all his input and support, while I was writing. If it weren’t for him, this story would probably be a lot shorter.
Telepathy is indicated by [ ]
Doctor Daniel Jackson bent down to grab his hat as the breeze lifted it off his head and deposited it on the ground. He’d taken it off to brush some dirt off the rim and had forgotten to fasten the draw cord securely when he had put it back on.
He looked around him and sighed. This planet, PX251, reminded him of what the garden of Eden must have looked like. Green grass, as far as the eye could see, the hills crowded with a canopy of trees, and blue sky without a cloud in the sky. In the distance he could hear running water, a sure sign that there must be a stream or a river nearby.
If he ignored the giant stone circle of the Stargate behind him, he could well imagine he was on Earth somewhere. He and the rest of SG1 had come to check out the planet after they had been informed by the Tok’ra that the Goa’uld named Apophis had been using this planet as a base for some of his more recent activities.
Obviously the information had been out of date, for as they soon realised whoever had been here was long gone. Daniel had volunteered to search the area near the Stargate, while the rest of the team, Colonel Jack O’Neill, Major Sam Carter, and Teal’c, went on a short scouting mission to check out the rest of the terrain.
The radio crackled, making him jump. “You still there, Daniel?” asked O’Neill. “Just making sure you’re not having a rest while the rest of us are slogging away out here.”
Daniel grinned and straightened his glasses before he replied. He could well imagine the expression on the older man’s face, and the twinkle in his eye as he asked the question. Jack O’Neill was well known through Stargate Command for his off the wall sense of humour. “Just going to have a look at the river, Jack. Maybe I might find some Goa’uld remains in there or something.”
“Yeah, right. Just be careful, okay. This place might look like Eden but remember every garden has its snakes.”
“I’ll try and keep that in mind. Jackson out.” O’Neill’s remark had brought him back down to Earth, or PX251, as the case was. He’d almost forgotten what they were there for, forgotten about the enemy they were fighting. The Goa’uld were aliens that looked like serpents, a parasitic race who inhabited other creatures whom they used as hosts. Once the host was taken over, the Goa’uld personality became dominant, the host themselves only able to take back control of their body when the alien became incapacitated. Daniel’s own wife, Sha're, had been taken as a host. He felt his emotions rising to the surface as he remembered. Daniel struggled to deal with those feelings of anger and loss every time he thought of her.
He walked along, heading toward the sound of running water, his mind deep in thought. Before he knew it, he was standing on the bank of a small river. The water itself looked very inviting, so inviting that he decided to sit on the grass along side for a while. It would give himself a chance to collect his thoughts, and pull himself together before he met up with the rest of SG1.
The radio crackled again. This time it was Samantha Carter. “We’re finished here, Daniel. Have you found anything at the river?”
“No, nothing here, as far as I can see anyway. Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll meet you at the Stargate.”
Daniel rose to his feet, and collected his gear. As he moved out, he didn’t see the half buried object by the side of the river. His foot connected with it, and before he knew what was happening, he was flying through the air. There was a loud splash as he landed in the water. At least the rest of the team isn’t here to see this, he thought to himself. It was times like this that he was all too aware that he was the only non-military person on the team.
“That’s a good look for you, Daniel,” said a familiar voice. O’Neill. Damm, he’d spoken too soon.
“We were heading back to the Stargate and decided to take the scenic, river route,” explained Carter. Her blue eyes were twinkling; she looked as though she was trying hard not to laugh. She reached out her hand to help him out of the water.
Teal’c was bending over, looking at the something at the edge of the riverbank. At least he wasn’t laughing like the others, thought Daniel to himself, but then Teal’c very rarely showed sign of emotion, of any kind. The big, dark Jaffa turned to O’Neill. “O’Neill, there appears to be something buried here. I surmise that this is what caused Daniel Jackson to fall into the river. His foot must have made contact with the object, thus causing him to loose his balance.”
“You mean, he tripped over it?”
“I believe that is what I just said, O’Neill.”
“Yeah, whatever. Can you dig it out so that we can have a look at it?”
It was a box, a small dark coloured box with a hinged lid. The main body of the box was covered in some sort of hieroglyphs. O’Neill opened it and peered inside. Carter opened her mouth to remind him that they didn’t know what they were dealing with, and shut it again. Whatever it was, it was too late now; the damage had been done. The story of Pandora’s Box came into her mind. She hoped that thought wasn’t an omen of some sort.
Inside the box were a small stone and a manuscript. The stone itself didn’t look as though it was anything unusual, but the manuscript was written in hieroglyphs, though they looked to be slightly different than those covering the box itself.
O’Neill looked at Daniel, who shook his head. “It’s not a language I’m familiar with. It could be some sort of Egyptian dialect, but not one I’ve come across before. We’d better get it back to the base and try and decipher it.”
Carter frowned. “I’d like to run some tests on the box as well, Colonel. It looks like some form of lead, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something more alien in its make up.”
“Do you think it could be naquadah, the stuff that’s in the Stargate?” asked O’Neill.
“Not sure, Colonel. As I said, I really need to run some tests.”
“Okay, kids, time to head back to Earth, then.” O’Neill sniffed, then commented to Daniel. “I think you’d better have a shower before we debrief. That river might look clean…” He paused, and grinned. “There’s definitely something rotten in the state of Denmark.”
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