Chapter Text
The second Sam stepped through the Stargate and took in the massive structure about half a klick away, she knew Daniel was going to be a very happy camper.
“Oh, wow,” the archaeologist breathed in uncontained wonder.
Yep, called it.
But even Sam had to admit, the architecture was impressive. The palatial building looked like something straight out of 1001 Arabian Nights – it looked like it was from that era, too, and had not seen a living soul since. No ramparts fluttered, the bulbous onion domes were stripped by age of any color they might have once had, and the crumbled ruins of a city between here and there were tomb-like.
“Well,” Jack sighed wearily, “at least it’s not a pyramid.”
Sam bit back a smile. It was a constant battle not revealing how much she truly enjoyed her CO’s sense of humor.
“We’re going to check it out, right?” Daniel asked as he looked expectantly at Jack.
“You just try and hold me back,” Jack answered sarcastically, but all the same he glanced past Daniel’s shoulder at Teal’c and gave a head tick that signaled the Jaffa to lead the way.
Teal’c nodded and set off for the palace at a dignified pace.
Daniel hurried down the steps after Teal’c, practically buzzing with excitement, but he didn’t attempt to cut in front of Teal’c. He had finally learned better than to dart ahead. The Jaffa was particularly good at noticing signs of danger, whereas Daniel obliviously stumbled right into it. It took his fair share of mishaps, but Daniel had learned to respect the reasons Jack had Teal’c take point.
There was still an impatient bounce to his step, though.
Sam watched after Daniel fondly. His curiosity often got them in trouble, but the truth was Sam loved that about Daniel. He’d been through so much, and still he could marvel at the universe. There was a purity to Daniel Jackson nothing could destroy, and heaven knows fate had sure as hell tried.
“They’re cute,” Jack said as he leaned in toward her. “That’s how they get you.”
“Sir?”
“Children.” Jack waved at Daniel as case in point. “It’s so you won’t strangle them, you know.” With that, he moved down the steps after the guys.
Safe with Jack’s back to her, Sam smiled to herself as she followed after her commanding officer.
The main thoroughfare of the city was a maze of rubble, turning their trek down a straight road serpentine. Sam took her cue from Teal’c at the head of the group. The Jaffa was alert but not tense, suggesting the city was as dead as it appeared. She let herself relax (as much as she ever did off-world) as they marched inexorably toward the Arabian palace.
Jack was a step in front of her, but when the path cleared up ahead to allow two to walk abreast, she lengthened her stride to walk beside him.
She realized he was humming.
Eyebrows climbing toward her hairline, Sam looked over at him.
“What?” he asked when he noticed her stare.
“Sir… are you humming?”
Jack paused a second and seemed to startle when he realized he had been. “Huh… guess I was.”
The notion itself had Sam fighting back a smile. That and the dead planet seemed unlikely to give them trouble, so her mood was pretty good. “What song? Because that didn’t sound like the Simpsons theme.”
Jack’s off-world soldier façade cracked with a tiny smile. “Prince Ali.”
Sam cocked her head when she didn’t recognize the title. “Is that from one of those operas you like?” Though the fact Jack O’Neill was a fan of opera music still seemed like the biggest mind-warp in history.
Jack snorted. “It’s from Aladdin, Carter.”
Sam didn’t react.
“The Disney movie?” he added expectantly.
Sam faltered a step as she mumbled, “Oh,” and let Jack pull ahead of her when the path bottlenecked with debris once more. Jack seemed glad to outpace the direction of their conversation.
Sam didn’t blame him. Sometimes she forgot that Jack had been a father in little ways… like knowing children’s movies that would have been popular when Charlie was alive. The sharp reminder made her heart twinge.
But she buried it post haste; Jack wouldn’t want to contend with the ghost of his dead son while on a mission. She didn’t really want to, either.
The team met no resistance on their trek through the dead city and reached the palace to find it foreboding. And impregnable. Whereas the other buildings in the city had been demolished and reduced to rubble, the palace was intact. Its great walls rose three stories up, sheer unmarred sandstone that dwarfed SG-1 as the team milled around in its shadow like ants trying to conquer a picnic basket.
Frustrating Daniel further, there were no windows and the only door – a large set of double-doors tall enough for an elephant to walk through – was bolted and chained shut.
“This looks like the only way in,” Daniel said as he stood before the barred entrance. The woodwork on the doors was exquisite, intricate designs carved into the aged lumber by a master artisan. Sam could practically hear Daniel’s inner voice wailing that the only way to get to the treasures inside might be to damage this treasure outside.
Jack craned his neck up toward the top of the palace and pondered the options. “Well, I suppose you could take a walk around and see if there’s another way in.”
Daniel huffed as he contemplated the sheer size of the palace (and how long it would take to circle it), shifted on his feet impatiently, then he headed off along the building’s front wall to do just that.
“Teal’c…” Jack said wearily, and it was enough for the Jaffa to nod and follow after Daniel. Keeping an eye on him, because dollars to doughnuts, the second he was out of sight he’d manage to find trouble.
Sam came up alongside the colonel and considered the enormous structure with him.
“Doesn’t really look Goa’uld, does it?” she mused. They mostly tended toward the Egyptian motif.
“Nope… then again, Lord Yu is as snakey as they come, and he rocks the Chinese thing.” Jack turned and surveyed the surrounding village. There was still no sign of life besides the visiting team, and Sam was both glad for that and creeped out by it.
“Wonder what happened here,” Jack thought aloud.
Sam shrugged. “Daniel can probably tell us once he gets inside.”
“No doubt.” Jack sized up the building again, squinting into the overcast sky unnecessarily, then turned a look toward Sam. “So, you want to bet on whether he’ll let us break down the doors or if he’ll try to shimmy up the wall like a monkey?”
Sam stifled a chuckle and turned her back to him just slightly to hide her amusement, masking the maneuver as a perimeter-check.
“My guess is he caves and lets us break in,” Jack said conversationally as he readjusted his P-90 across his chest. “He’s really embraced the ‘bull in the china shop’ method over the years. I like to think that’s my influence.”
Sam snorted. “If it is, sir, it’s probably just Daniel knowing you’ll only sit around for ten minutes, tops, without observable progress before you resort to drastic measures.”
Jack narrowed his eyes at her. “Major, are you calling me impatient?”
“I’m just saying, sir… with you breathing down his neck, Daniel has had to learn to speed up the innately time-consuming process of archaeology.” She knew all about that.
Jack cocked his head and peered shrewdly at her. “Like you’ve learned to make science ‘hurry up’?”
Sam smirked, not surprised he had caught her meaning. “Yes, sir.”
Jack waved off her allegations with a flippant gesture. “Bah! Say what you want, but you two both get your jobs done, done well, and done fast. If that’s my fault, then I’ll gladly take credit.”
“Yes, sir.”
Truth was, Jack knew how far he could push his people, and if something really could not be done any faster than it was already being done, he acceded to the experts. Maybe not happily, but he grudgingly gave his people the time they needed to get the job done (outside factors notwithstanding). It was part of what made him such a good commanding officer.
As the pair waited for the rest of their team to return, Sam found herself seeking science experiments (fiddling with her compass to determine if the planet had a magnetic pole) while Jack toed several rocks around the ground (into a shape that looked suspiciously like a fish).
When Daniel and Teal’c finally came around the opposite side of the huge building, Daniel was scowling.
“There’s no other way in,” Daniel said sourly when they rejoined their teammates. “It’s solid walls all the way around. Not even a rear entrance.”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to force our way in here,” Jack said as he gestured toward the doors.
Daniel looked pained at the thought and approached the double doors mournfully, laying his hands atop the artwork on the panels like he was apologizing in advance.
“Can’t we come back with a team to cut through the chain without damaging the doors?” Daniel asked.
“They’re just doors, Daniel. We don’t even know if there’s anything useful inside. You want to waste more manpower and time on potentially nothing?”
“It wouldn’t be locked up if there was nothing inside,” Daniel argued.
“Then let’s find out. Stand back.”
“But –”
Jack sighed in mounting annoyance.
Sam felt it best to step in. She went to Daniel’s side and touched his shoulder. “Come on, Daniel. Given the fact that this palace is untouched, I bet there’s some amazing stuff inside.” Certainly worth the sacrifice of a pair of (admittedly) beautiful doors.
Daniel looked over at her, considered her words, then nodded. “I sure hope so.” Then he stepped back from the doors. Sam retreated with him.
When they were clear, Jack turned Teal’c. “Teal’c?” he said and gestured meaningfully toward the doors.
The doors were solid, and it took several rounds of staff blasts to reduce the wood surrounding the lock to splinters. Beautiful craftsmanship went careening through the air in fragments and shards. Daniel all but whimpered as he watched Teal’c destroy the doors.
But he was also the first one to rush forward when the weapons fire stopped.
“Oh, wow!” he exclaimed when he’d poked his head through one of the sizeable holes. “You guys have to see this!”
Pulling apart the mangled door pieces until the lock lay useless on the ground, SG-1 pushed at what remained of the two great doors. They creaked and groaned in protest but slowly swung inward to allow the team through.
Daniel had good reason to be so excited. Inside was a wide, tiled foyer with rich tapestries and rugs to give the space a maroon and wine-red hue, but they were lost in the grandeur of the chamber directly opposite the doors.
A great room, like a theater, was filled with treasures. Fitting with the style of the building, the trinkets and goods within were of the same Arabian Knights motif, and obviously the palace had been the home of a sultan. Jewels and gold and silk abound. Opulent furniture, lush cushions, and tasseled curtains crowded every inch. Horses and camels and elephants of ebony, ivory, and marble stood in for the living beings that must have once reveled in the embarrassment of riches.
“Wonderful things!” Daniel breathed. He noticed Sam standing next to him, turned to look at her, and grinned, “Did you know that’s what Howard Carter said when he first poked his head inside the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922?” Daniel turned his eyes back to the glitter of rubies and gold. “He must have felt like this.”
“I can understand his amazement if that tomb was anything like this,” Sam agreed as she considered the room’s contents. She didn’t even have any frame of reference for appreciating their historical significance or value, and even she was impressed by the sight of all the objects.
“Damn.” Jack whistled as he took in the sprawl of priceless goods. “It’s a shame we’re not treasure-hunters.”
Daniel started toward the room of riches like a man entranced.
Right up until he collided with air and was knocked back. A thin, blue sheen rippled across the threshold to the treasure room in reaction to the collision.
“Ow, ow…” Daniel staggered back and cupped his nose. “Force field.”
“Ya think?” Jack asked as he came up alongside Daniel. He checked that the archaeologist wasn’t bleeding, then he surveyed the seemingly harmless space that he now knew held an energy barrier. “Now, that was Goa’uld.”
“Indeed,” Teal’c intoned as he also inspected the invisible line.
“Someone must have really wanted to protect their valuables,” Sam said thoughtfully as she studied the building with a new, scientific eye. Now that she knew an advanced technology was hidden amid the ancient finds, her interest was piqued. “Teal’c… do you see a ring platform in that treasure room anywhere?”
Teal’c peered into the room, but Sam had really asked to have her own observation verified. The treasure room was too cluttered with goods for a ring platform to have clearance. And if the Goa’uld who left the booty there had ringed out, it would have left circular evidence behind.
“I do not,” Teal’c finally answered.
Sam scanned the walls in the foyer from floor to ceiling, eyes searching for the telltale hint of advanced amid antique.
“Carter?”
“I’m just thinking, sir… if the Goa’uld set this shield then left through the front door, then there must be a control panel for the shield generator…” Sam trailed when she finally spotted it, a rectangular box on the wall that passed itself off as art, but Sam knew the dimensions of a force shield control panel.
Shouldering her weapon, she moved to the panel and easily opened it.
The glowing innards gave her the kind of thrill the artifacts had probably given Daniel.
Sam leaned down and scrutinized the control panel before making any attempts to touch it. The Goa’uld had burned them more than once with booby traps.
Jack came up beside her. “What’s the verdict, Major? Can you get the shield down?”
“I can, sir.” She turned to Jack and awaited the order.
Jack considered the treasure room, Daniel in his paroxysm of impatience to get inside, and turned back to Sam. “I don’t want to watch what will happen if we don’t. Like a June bug and a bug zapper.”
Sam almost smiled.
“Take it down, Major,” Jack ordered.
Sam nodded and turned back to the open panel.
The force field had clearly been designed with an uninformed palace staff in mind, because there was nothing complex about the interface. It wouldn’t have to be if the resident Goa’uld was the only one who knew how to use it.
In little time at all, Sam shuffled the correct crystals and the force field went full-intensity blue, held steady, then descended to the floor like a theater curtain falling.
Daniel was hurrying through to the treasures in the next heartbeat.
The rest of SG-1 followed at a more sedate pace while Daniel moved from item to item like a bee in a field of flowers. Sam angled toward a jeweled and engraved bowl and picked it up. “I think my Aunt Susan had one of these.”
“I doubt it,” Daniel commented absently as he studied a goblet.
Sam shrugged and put the bowl back. She would be the first to admit her knowledge of fine things was practically nonexistent. She could extol the virtues of a 429 engine, but precious metals and stones? Wrong girl.
Jack picked up a long bolt of silk, candy apple red and shimmering in the light. A shiver of blue raced along the red, and it made him frown. He looked up and exhaled, “Whoa.”
Sam went to his side and looked up. “Oh, wow.” A lattice-work of metal had been crafted in such a way that the entire ceiling right above the treasure room looked like the underground cavern of some fairytale world. A force field like the one that had blocked off the room stood between the elements and the interior of the palace, but somehow it had been programed to change colors. A full range of shades and hues swirled and drifted across the ceiling, like they were underwater beneath soapy bubbles throwing prisms.
“This chamber is most impressive,” Teal’c said.
“I’ll say.” Jack put the silk down on an obscene pile of wealth. “Daniel, any idea who this vault of goodies belonged to?”
Daniel was searching the items for anything that might contain identifying marks. “Not yet. Try to find anything that looks like it has writing on it.” Daniel spotted something that snared his interest. “Hello…”
Daniel picked up a lamp and studied it.
It was a dull thing compared to the other priceless treasures in the room. Tarnished and plain with a noticeable dent on one side. Sam wondered why it was even allowed in the same room with the rest of it.
Daniel’s eyebrows drew together and he peered closer at the lamp. “I think there’s writing on this, but it’s hard to make out.” He pulled one sleeve down over his hand and tried to rub the writing clean.
Sam was not expecting the tremor that suddenly shook the room. Silk swayed and curtains flapped and golden statues toppled on their sides. Sam nearly lost her footing and flung her arm out to catch herself on something. She ended up with a fistful of Jack’s jacket. He grabbed her arm to steady her even as he fought to stay on his feet himself.
Daniel stumbled back and tripped over a pillow on the floor. “Ah!” he yelped as he went down. The lamp flew out of his hand and somersaulted in the air.
It was enveloped in a great cloud of emerald green smoke before it hit the ground.
As abruptly as it had begun, the shaking stopped and the thick green smoke contracted into a dense column.
It surged, undulated, then split open violently and spit forth a beautiful woman in a richly embellished green diaphanous outfit. She stood with one leg bent and hips cocked, a pose that accentuated her curves. Her arms crossed over her chest like a pharaoh, hands resting lightly on opposing clavicles, and her head was dipped with eyes demurely closed. Her jet black hair was streaked with gold and silver, and when she lifted her eyes they were a penetrating, striking peridot.
The room settled and everyone on SG-1 gaped a moment at the fifth person suddenly in their midst.
Jack recovered first, offering a lilting, “Well, hello,” as he released his hold on Sam.
The woman turned her sultry eyes on Jack. She unfolded her arms slowly and considered the colonel with a palpable sensuality about her.
Daniel clamored to his feet and all but stumbled over to the woman. “Hello, hi! I’m Daniel Jackson.”
The woman raked her eyes slowly over Daniel, head to toe. After her slow assessment, the strange woman’s stern expression transformed and she smiled. She lifted one hand and danced her fingers down the side of Daniel’s face.
“What, uh… do you have a name?” Daniel asked.
“Jiniya,” the woman purred in answer.
“Jiniya… that’s good. That’s… well, I’m Daniel. Right, I already told you that.” He moved out of the woman’s touch and turned to his teammates. “That’s Teal’c, that’s Jack O’Neill, and that’s Sam Carter.”
Jiniya let her eyes leave Daniel to take in the rest of SG-1. When she took note of Teal’c, she frowned. Somehow, the room temperature seemed to drop ten degrees and a feeling like a thunderstorm pressed against Sam’s skin. “Jaffa.”
“He doesn’t serve the Goa’uld,” Daniel hurried to assure her. “He’s with us, and we are definitely not Goa’uld.”
Jiniya swept her eyes up Daniel’s body again. “No… you are most definitely not.” She reached again to touch him, almost tickling his chin like one would a cat.
Sam resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Looked like this was going to be another mission where a local woman got a massive crush on Daniel. Oh, yay.
Jiniya left Daniel’s side and approached Teal’c.
“You are called Teal’c.”
“I am.”
“But you do not serve the Goa’uld.”
“I do not.”
Jiniya cocked her head, considered Teal’c a moment, then she traced a cloying hand up his arm, starting at his hand then skirting up the sleeve of his jacket until her fingers came to rest against his neck. Somehow touching him seemed to convince her of his allegiance. She smiled. “Most unusual.”
She dropped her hand from Teal’c and turned to Jack and Sam. She smiled coquettishly and sashayed closer.
“Um… Daniel…” Sam spoke warily.
“It’s okay. I don’t think she means us any harm.”
Well, that seemed a bit premature. Sam cut a look toward Jack beside her. His eyebrows twitched in a way Sam knew meant ‘put up with it for now, but be on the look-out for any funny business’.
When Jiniya reached the pair of officers, she delicately cupped Sam’s face in one hand and looked into her eyes. The woman’s gaze that seemed to reach right into Sam’s soul. Sam felt strangely exposed, like the woman had stripped her naked without actually removing a stitch of her clothing.
Jiniya must have found something she liked in Sam’s eyes, because she smiled.
Without taking her hand from Sam’s face, Jiniya turned her head and reached for Jack in similar fashion.
“Now, hold on…” Jack began to protest.
“Jack, I think it’s just a greeting custom,” Daniel placated.
“What’s wrong with a handshake, huh?” Jiniya’s fingertips danced up the line of Jack’s jaw. “Okay, look, miss…”
Jiniya swept her thumb across his bottom lip, effectively shutting him up long enough for her to take a long, deep look into his eyes, as well.
She must have liked what she found there, too, because she brightened, flashing a smile that filled the room with an inexplicable sense of pleasure.
“I thank all of you for my freedom,” Jiniya said at last. She took one last second to cup Jack’s face, brushed a thumb over Sam’s lips the way she had Jack’s a second ago, then she dropped her hands and turned to address SG-1 as a group. “Your action shall not go unrewarded.”
Jiniya moved away from Jack and Sam a pace and held her arms out at her sides with palms up. It looked like some kind of ritual, maybe a prayer or blessing. Without warning, Jiniya arched her arms overhead and clapped her hands together. The sound cracked like thunder and exploded with an unforeseen power that filled the room with energy.
In the blink of an eye, SG-1 vanished from the treasure room.