Woe to thee - part one

[ansostuff]

The first few chapters of this story is a revised repost. I suggest you read the author's notes before starting on the story, especially if you think you've read parts of this before. I'll be posting the seven first chapters now, as they are the chapters that previously has been up. From next week I'll post chapters that never have been up before. Having read the old version of these chapters before or not, I suggest you start at the beginning when reading.

Title: Woe to Thee

Author: Anso

Characters: Daniel, Sam, Jack and Teal’c. Gen. Hammond, Thor, Janet Fraiser and others also appear.

Rating: G, gen

Category: Adventure, h/c

Timeline: Early season 7 with references to a lot of episodes throughout the series.

Summery: A difficult translation turns out to be a game of hide and seek and sends SG-1 on a hunt across the galaxy. Will they find what they seek? Also, this is the Science Twins in “geek mode”.

A/N: Not mine, I’m just borrowing. Humble gratitude and appreciation to the creators are hereby sent. An enormous amount of gratitude and thanks goes to my beta Rosie who has given me invaluable help in keeping my head on straight while wrestling with the monster this little bunny turned out to be. And then she did it all over again when I revised the whole story. I also should thank Fignewton. Her honest reviews to the first posting of the first few chapters were very much appreciated. I apologize for taking the first parts of the story down, however it was necessary. Lastly, to those of you who read the first few chapters the first time they were posted, you might want to start over again. There are some major changes. My apologies for the inconvenience this may cause. I hope you enjoy!

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PART ONE

Daniel emptied the last of his cold coffee into the sink on his work bench. As it ran down the drain, the bitter, black liquid removed the last signs of his painstakingly meticulous cleaning of the artifact sitting in front of him on the desk, a task that had taken all morning. The cylindrical, rod-like thing had been covered in dirt and was full of the tiniest creases that were impossible to make out with the naked eye, and a magnifying glass didn’t do much good either. It was one of SG-13’s finds. Cameron Balinsky, SG-13’s archaeologist, hadn’t had time to get started on it and had asked Daniel if he wanted to give it a try.

SG-13 had gated to an empty desert world where all they’d found was some ruins that were so old that they were crumpled to dust and any excavation or even exploration was highly dangerous, if possible at all. Daniel had reluctantly conceded to this fact when Hammond had called him to the control room to persuade the enthusiastic man--very reminiscent of Daniel himself, he thought ruefully--not to attempt any form of excavation or close-up recon of the ruins. As far as they knew there was nothing significant to find in the ruins, and both the UAV and the MALP had shown no signs of anything even remotely giving off life-signs within a 50 mile radius of the Gate - which was also about as far as it was possible to get on the small planet. Daniel would have liked for Balinsky to be able to explore the ruins, he’d even like to do it himself, but that was something that might come later, once they found significant evidence of civilization or technology. Sadly, Daniel thought with a sigh, the mere fact of very old ruins alone often weren’t good enough a reason to excavate in SGC’s book. Daniel had learned to live with the fact, but Balinsky was new and still had to learn to live with the compromises and concessions he’d have to make in order to be able to work on an SG-unit.

Now Daniel had not only cleaned the cylindrical object thoroughly, but also tried to figure out what it was for, oh, the last four hours without getting anywhere. Perhaps Sam could help? He picked up the receiver on his phone and dialled her extension.

“Hey, Sam,” Daniel said before she even could answer.

“Dr. Jackson?” Bill Lee’s confused voice answered.

“Hey, Bill. It’s Daniel. Listen, is Sam there?”

“Yeah, hold on a sec.”

“Hey, Daniel,” Sam answered a few seconds later. “What’s up?”

“I’ve got something I want you to take a look at.”

“Okay. What is it?”

“I don’t know. It’s something Balinsky and his team brought back, and I’m stumped trying to figure it out. There are some markings on it but I think I need your help to get them scanned into the computer so I can get started on them. The script is too tiny to be read with the naked eye, but it’s definitely a writing of some kind. The markings resemble hieroglyphic writing, but it doesn’t appear to be of Goa’uld origin. I can’t say for sure. I need to have it magnified to be even remotely certain about what kind of writing this is. Also,”

“Daniel,” Sam patiently interrupted.

“Sorry, Sam. I do need your help to scan it and I think you should hook it up to some of your doodads and see if it holds the ultimate answer to Life, the Universe and Everything:”

“Doodads, Daniel? Life, the Universe and Everything?” She laughed. “The colonel is a terrible influence on you, you know.”

“Yeah,” Daniel answered with a fond smile for both his team mates. “I know. Are you busy or can I bring it down to you?”

“That’s okay. I’ll be in my lab,” Sam answered, smiling to herself. It was true. She always loved the chance of sitting down together with Daniel to uncover the truth about, well, Life, the Universe and Everything, just the two of them. It’d been a while since they’d done that. SG-1’s mission schedule was often hectic and they’d had back to back missions for the last few weeks now, something that gave them little time to work on anything else but the work directly related to the missions they were going on.

“Thanks, Sam. I’m on my way.” Daniel hung up and gathered his notes, the curious object and a few reference books in his hands. His back felt stiff and achy from sitting at his desk all day and the walk to Sam’s lab would do him good, he figured. Clicking off the lights and shutting the door, he walked towards the stairs that would take him one floor down to her lab. If they got this done quickly, Daniel decided a trip to the gym and a good run on the treadmill or a work out with Teal’c might be the next post on his agenda. That’d loosen up his strained muscles for sure.

&&&&&

“So, what do you think?” Daniel stood watching as Sam had scanned the outside of the object for him. As she worked, he kept busy trying to figure out what kind of writing the cylinder was covered in, but before he had a magnification of the writing, just seeing the scanned surface wasn’t of much help. Instead he watched while Sam subjected the cylindrical object to various scanners. Balinsky had given it to him before he’d had a chance to do even preliminary testing, and thus it hadn’t been scanned for neither dangers or for reference before he’d cleaned it and Sam now was doing the tactical scanning.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Sam sat back. “As far as I can figure it’s not emitting any form of energy. There’s no apparent way to open it so I don’t think it contains ay form of technology. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before. I’ve a feeling there’s more to this than just a nice round object with tiny writing on though. It feels advanced somehow. There’s something about the material it’s made of… I don’t know, perhaps clay? I have to take some samples and test them.” She shook the object slightly, before gently knocking on it with her knuckles. “It doesn’t appear to be hollow, so I don’t think it’s a container either.” Putting it down again, she added. “You said you thought the markings was writing. Perhaps it’s a scroll of some kind.”

“Mmm… what?” Looking up from his studying of the computer screen, Daniel gave Sam a confused look. “You think it’s a scroll?” Daniel started pacing, thinking aloud. “That doesn’t make sense. The markings are on the outside, not the inside. You think that instead of being a rolled-up piece of paper like our scrolls are, the people who made this wrote what they wanted to say onto the surface on it? But why make it so difficult to read?” Daniel asked, thinking out loud more than expecting Sam to answer his questions.

“I don’t know. Maybe this thing contains some kind of secret and the people who made it didn’t want anyone to know?” Sam guessed.

“Maybe,” Daniel agreed, still focused on why the writing was so small. If there was a secret hidden within the text he had to be able to read it before he tried to figure out what the secret was. “It’s impossible to manually write that small.”

“I don’t know,” Sam said, “maybe their eyes are different from ours?”

Daniel nodded. “Could be. Okay, so, we’re going on the assumption that the race that wrote this is extinct, but was more advanced than us and have left this behind. Why would they do that?”

Sam shrugged. “That’s your department, Daniel.”

“I know.” Daniel sighed, stretched and rubbed his aching back.

“Is your back bothering you?” Sam asked concerned, stepping in front of him to stop his pacing.

“I’ve probably pulled a muscle or something,” Daniel admitted.

“You sure?” Sam wasn’t entirely sold on the idea and looked him over sceptically.

“I’m sure,” Daniel insisted.

Not sensing anything else wrong, Sam believed him. “Okay. But you know I give a mean shoulder rub, so if you need anything, just ask?” Sam patted him gently on the shoulder, squeezing a little to emphasize her point.

“Thanks, Sam. I know you do.” Daniel smiled.

“Listen, why don’t we take a break? I could do with some coffee and your stomach’s been rumbling since you got here.”

“I could eat.” Daniel agreed and rolled his shoulders. Putting his hands on his back he stretched mightily, which eased the ache. Now that Sam mentioned it, he was hungry. Starving, actually. “Just a sec, let’s call Jack and Teal’c and see if they’re up to some—” he was about to say lunch, but realised it was 1800 and dinner was a more appropriate term, “food.”

&&&&&

Daniel ate with gusto, listening as Sam discussed the cylindrical artifact with Teal’c without any of them getting the wiser, but after finishing only half of the chicken casserole on his plate he put his cutlery to the side and started tearing a roll into pieces without eating them. A wave of queasiness came over him and the piece of cheesecake that had appealed to him before he started eating made his stomach turn when he now looked at it. He pushed it towards to Jack. “You want this?”

“Daniel?” Jack asked gently, looking at Daniel with concern. His friend had eaten like he’d not seen food in a week, but the sudden paleness of his face told Jack that something was up. Still, he accepted the cake with only a quirk of his eyebrow. Daniel raised his own eyebrow in response and shrugged, ducking his head a little and picking up his water taking a few small sips. Jack thought Daniel looked tired.

“Guess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought,” Daniel said with a hint of a smile.

“Are you unwell, DanielJackson?” Teal’c asked. He’d clearly watched the silent conversation between his friends.

“T’s right,” Jack said. “You do look a little green. You feeling okay?”

“I’m fine. I exaggerated how hungry I was, that’s all. Listen, I’ve got to go. Sam, can I leave the artifact with you for a few hours? I’ve promised to help Dr. Lee with some translation and I’ve been putting it off, so I’d better go do that now when I remember. It won’t take long.”

“Sure,” Sam smiled. “I want to do some more tests on it anyway.”

“Thanks, I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” Daniel said, heading back to his office. The translation he needed to do had been lying in his inbox for two days and he was excited to get started with it. The translation he had promised to do was really interesting. There was something about the language in it that reminded him of the tiny writing on the artifact now In Sam’s lab. If he could translate this first, perhaps it would be easier to translate the other artifact. It was just a matter of finding a point of reference, and neither the scroll nor the tablet now sitting in front of him was anything he’d seen before. The language was hieroglyphic in nature, but many languages they’d seen were based on symbols and pictographs instead of symbols for each letter like the Latin alphabet. Now, if he only could find the right reference point…

It was a few hours later when his phone rang.

"Daniel Jackson," Daniel put the finishing touches on the translation and picked the heavy tome off the ringing phone and snatched the receiver before the caller decided to hang up on him.

"Hey, Daniel. You've got to see this." Sam's excitement was coming through loud and clear.

"Yeah? What did you find?" Daniel was already standing, taking the tablet with him, along with his notes. He’d need to study them together.

"There’s something inside the cylinder. It is a containment vessel after all."

“What do you mean inside it? Did you manage to open it? I thought you said it wasn’t hollow.”

“Just get down here, Daniel,” Sam interrupted.

“Okay, I’m on my way.” Getting to his feet, Daniel realised the ache in his back was gone and the queasiness was down to the slightest churning. Perhaps he’d make that trip to the gym tonight after all?

&&&&&

"According to the mission file there was nothing on P1N-552 that indicated that the cylinder was a container of some sort," Sam said. "You saw the telemetry. There was no indication of any civilization on that planet at all."

"I know. The only thing they found aside from this thing and some crumpled ruins,” he tapped the edge of the opened cylinder, “were some strange readings on the soil samples, but the geologists haven’t cracked what it is yet. Maybe you should look at that as well?”

“Maybe, but let’s focus on this for now,” Sam said. “Look!”

“There’s a scroll inside it!” Daniel excitedly leaned over the bench to have a closer look. “How come the scanners didn’t pick up on this?”

“The surface of that container must be extremely dense if it doesn’t let any form of rays penetrate the outer hull. I did a CT, MRI, x-ray, you name it – nothing. There were no visible lid or hatches of any kind, but when I hooked it up to the computer, the thing just sprung open and revealed this scroll," Sam indicated the fragile-looking rolled up paper-like substance that was lying in one of the halves of the opened device.

"It clearly must have had some significant meaning to the people on P1N-552 since they sealed it off like that," Daniel mused as he bent closer to look at the scroll. “But why go to such lengths to hide the scroll when there’s writing on the surface? I need to get started on translating the writing. It looks similar to the tablet from P3M-789 that Bill wanted me to translate.” Daniel looked at Sam, eagerly studying the opened cylinder and the paper inside it. “I've never seen paper quite like that, thought. Have you?"

"No," Sam agreed. “I wanted to take a sample, but it looks so fragile, so I didn’t dare touch it. I thought I’d wait for you for that.”

Daniel nodded. “That’s okay.” After looking at the thing for a few moments he turned to Sam again. “How did you open it?”

“It just sprung open when I hooked it up to the computer. It must have reacted to an EM pulse, but I don’t know what kind because there was no other equipment on that emits energy aside from the computer itself.”

"Isn't that too easy?" Daniel asked, rubbing his back distractedly.

“Easy? What do you mean?”

"If the slightest EM pulse can open it, what’s the point in making it so difficult to open by hand?”

“I can’t say, Daniel.”

“On the other hand,” Daniel continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “Perhaps the writing on the surface is a combination key that’ll unlock it. There was no evidence of any technology on that planet, Sam, but they had to have something that emitted EM pulses since this opens. It’s not carved; the writing is too neat for that. It’s made by some sort of machinery."

"That’s likely,” Sam added eagerly, “also, it might respond only to a specific frequency. Maybe it doesn’t even belong to the race that made it. Perhaps it ended up on P1N-552 some other way. Maybe someone took it and placed it there, or maybe it was lost and someone is looking for it?”

"Yes, that’s possible. Or like we talked about earlier, it was purposefully left behind for some reason. This is really just a lot of guesswork, Sam. I have to study this parchment or whatever it is before we jump to any conclusions," Daniel said. "I'm afraid of moving it, though. Can we roll the entire table into the airlock lab on 17?"

"Sure," Sam started unhooking the leads from the cylinder. As soon as she did, it snapped shut, hiding its seams and the scroll completely again.

Daniel took the now closed cylinder off the table and started to study it more closely, shaking his head when he couldn’t open it.

"Do you have something portable that emits the same form of energy as made it open?” Daniel asked.

“There’s a computer in the lab, isn’t there?”

“Not in the lab itself, but in the outer room there is,” Daniel answered. To his joy the SGC had after several years managed to build a lab where the scientists could work in a completely protected environment to study ancient artifacts that were sensible to light, heat and air. “If it’s as fragile as it looks you can open it in the outer room. That way I won’t have to carry the scroll far.” Daniel smiled. “Let’s just hope it won’t snap shut when I take it out of the container.”

&&&&&

Daniel hung his blue Air Force issue jacket on the chair by the computer in the outer room and put a white lab coat and cotton gloves on. Sam hooked the cylinder up to the computer again, and Daniel watched as it smoothly revealed the scroll. After photographing it, he lifted the scroll out of the cylinder excruciatingly slowly and carried it over to the work bench inside the protected lab. The cylinder stayed open, revealing a smooth surface where the scroll had lain.

"Thanks, Sam," Daniel smiled before shutting the airlock between the protected room he was in and the outer lab. This was going to be fun. It was so rarely that he got to get down to the nitty-gritty lab work of archaeology and unravel an old scroll like this.

Satisfied that the nausea and back pain were completely gone, Daniel pulled a stool on rollers over to the table and settled down to study the scroll. Putting on the headpiece that both allowed him to dictate his finds and talk to the people outside the protected room, Daniel happily set to work.

First he cut off minuscule samples of the paper for Sam to study. He then photographed the scroll from all sides. Taking a pair of tweezers he very gently started to tease back the edge of the rolled up paper. It unrolled much more easily than he’d thought and despite the fragile appearance of it, it didn’t break into a thousand shards as soon as he touched it. Either it wasn’t as old as it looked or, Daniel mused, it was just as likely that it was well preserved because the cylinder it’d been contained in was air tight. Immediately writing appeared, and Daniel gave a small sigh of relief. Unlike the cylinder, the scroll was handwritten and the script was legible with the naked eye. He would not need to scan it to be able to read it. Daniel immediately saw that it looked like the tablet he’d tried to translate earlier in the evening. There must be some connection between P3M-789 and P1N-552. The reports he’d read on P3M-789 had shown the remnants of an advanced civilization that for centuries had managed to avoid the Goa’uld but that had been destroyed by a Goa’uld within the last few centuries and now taken as slaves or hosts or just fled. The team that’d gated there had never really found out. Perhaps this was the civilization that for some time resided on P1N-552 and left the scroll behind?

Sam was still standing in the outer room, looking at him, and Daniel straightened up and keyed the intercom. “It looks like it’s covered in writing. It’s no problem unrolling it so it shouldn’t be a problem translating once I figure out the writing. Could you print out the scanned outside, since you’re there anyway? The writing inside the scroll looks similar to the one on the outside, but I need the enhanced copies to make sure.”

Sam gave him the thumbs up and went over to the computer. After she was done she put the paper through the slot in the airlock. While she’d been working on the print outs, Daniel had put the test tubes with the paper in the lock and she now took those with her.

“I’ll take this back to the lab with me, and come back when I’ve done some preliminary testing, Daniel. We can scan the scroll then.”

“Sure. Thanks for your help,” Daniel said, completely engrossed in unrolling the paper-like scroll.

&&&&&

Sam hummed to herself as she waited for the elevator to take her up to level 17 and Daniel’s lab. It was now past midnight and she didn’t meet anyone as she walked her way through the hallways. The paper had shown some anomalies and was clearly alien. It wasn’t quite like papyrus or cellulose-based paper, but there were many forms of writing material, and she was sure she’d figure out what it was eventually. If it was as resilient as Daniel had suggested, it might prove useful for long-term storage of paper copies. Walking past the various labs, she noted that she and Daniel weren’t alone in working late. Light shone from several rooms and she greeted SG-22’s geologist as she passed her work bench. “Hey, Clara. Have you seen the soil samples from P1N-552? SG-13’s last mission?”

“Major Carter,” she greeted. “No, I haven’t. They should be around here though. Haven’t they been analyzed yet?”

“Not as far as I could see.”

“I’ll go see if I can round them up for you then,” Clara said.

“Wait, if they haven’t been started on, would you mind doing a prelim? I’m in the airlock lab at the end of the corridor with Dr. Jackson.”

“Sure, Major.”

&&&&&

“Hey, Daniel, I’ve got Clara Clarkson to start on the soil samples, and I’ve done a prelim of the paper.” Sam walked into the outer lab, looking for her friend, finding him bent over the unrolled document on the table in the middle of the room, completely engrossed in his work. “Did you manage to translate some of the text yet?”

“Hey, Sam. Yes, I think I recognize a few of the hieroglyphics. There’s a connection with the translation Dr. Lee wanted me to do. I think the two planets are somehow connected.”

“You said hieroglyphics. You didn’t mean hieroglyphs?”

“No, I meant hieroglyphics,” Daniel answered tiredly, stretching. Taking off his glasses, he rubbed his eyes.

“Okay. And what is the difference?” Sam patiently asked.

“Hieroglyphs are the written form of Egyptian, or rather, is one way to write Egyptian. But many languages use hieroglyph-like symbols. They’re called hieroglyphics.”

“I see. So the scroll isn’t written in Egyptian or any language based on Ancient Egyptian?”

“Actually it is. The root is there since the people who made up the language decided to use hieroglyphs as bases for their words, but the relation to Goa’uld or even Egyptian is pretty remote.”

“You said you recognised some of the words?”

“Not words, symbols, and yeah, there are a combination of symbols near the beginning of the text that might be translated into ‘be warned’ or ‘woe to thee’.”

“’Woe to thee’?” Sam said, chuckling. “That sounds… ominous and not exactly specific.”

“I know,” Daniel smiled. “It’s not a lot to go on.”

“What do you think it means?” Sam sat down on the chair by the desk in the outer room, dividing her attention between the screen in front of her that displayed real time footage of what presently was on the bench in the airlock lab, and Daniel.

“I don’t know. It could be anything.” Daniel said wearily. He shifted his position so he leaned a bit more forward, feeling tired and drained. Perhaps it was time to call it a night, he thought, realising how late it was.

“Isn’t it obvious that it’s a warning left behind by those who last lived on the planet?” Sam asked.

“Not necessarily. I have a theory though,” Daniel winced in pain as his stomach cramped viciously, the nausea having reappeared.

“Hey, are you sure you’re okay? You’re looking green again. Are you going to be sick?” Sam was at her feet, opening the door to the airlock.

Daniel took a few deep breaths. “Nah, don’t think so. I think I’m just tired.” Grateful that he wasn’t going to throw up, Daniel got to his feet as well.

“Get some sleep,” Sam said, once Daniel had come out into the outer room.

“Thanks. I think I will.” Daniel took off his gloves and lab coat. He’d catch a few hours of sleep in his quarters and get back up here to continue in the morning. He said good night to Sam and each went to their on-base quarters. However much he’d like to go home and sleep in his own bed, Daniel felt much too tired to go through the motions of changing into civilian clothing and drive home. “You get some sleep too.”

“Night, Daniel,” Sam said squeezing his arm. “We’ll continue with this in the morning.”

“Night. Thanks for your help,” Daniel said, not being able to stifle a yawn.

Part two