OWING SILENCE PART TWO BY BIBLIO

Slash:	Jack and Daniel involved in a loving and committed relationship, which usually involves sex.
Rating:	NC-17.
Category:	Action/Adventure.  Drama.  First Time.  Romance.
Season/Spoilers:	Season 5.
Synopsis:	Daniel has kept his silence for so long, he's not prepared for Jack to finally see him clearly.
Warnings:	Minor Character Death.  Violence.  Language.
Length:	615 Kb.  Download a printer-friendly PDF version of the story

“Good morning, Sir,” Sam called brightly.  “Had a good…“

“Don’t call it ‘weekend’, Carter,” Jack said sourly, dropping into step with her as they swung a left and headed for the briefing room.  “A weekend begins on Friday and ends when you shoot your alarm clock on Monday morning.  This is Sunday morning, a day I don’t get up until the crack of noon.”  He’d been hauled out of a bed enticingly full of sleepy and staggeringly still-horny Daniel Jackson at the crack of dawn.  All pleasant dreams of a lazy afternoon cuddled up with an affectionate archaeologist and a large friendly dog were indefinitely on hold, though Jack wanted to establish Daniel’s compatibility with man’s best friend at an early stage of being not just his C.O. but his S.O.  This was vital, as Jack’s plans for retirement were now focused exclusively on Daniel, a golden retriever and Minnesota.  His position on the mutt and Minnesota was flexible; his position on Daniel was not.

“Yes, Sir,” Sam agreed meekly, dropping her head to hide a very unprofessional grin.  The colonel was coming off like the king of the world this morning, positively reeking smug self-satisfaction.  She was nothing but glad he’d been having such a good time.  Nothing.  Whatever it was he’d been doing, which he obviously wasn’t going to tell her about.  He held the door for her, and she smiled thanks and headed in, seeing Teal’c already seated.  “Daniel?” she prompted.

Teal’c bowed to her graciously.  “DanielJackson is reviewing video footage from P4Y-890.  He will return shortly.”

“SG-4 are there,” Sam pointed out when the colonel’s blandly polite expression got slightly more polite, the sure sign of a man who didn’t know his p’s from his q’s.  “They’ve been testing the soil for mineral deposits.  They’ve found a new mineral unlike any we’ve ever found before, so the general authorised setting up a field lab.  The new model,” Sam added hopefully.  The colonel shrugged and continued to look bland as he strolled over and sat down at the briefing table.  Sam at least was emotionally invested in the field labs.  They meant bunks and hot water instead of tents.

Sam took her seat next to Teal’c and sighed.  Ice planets were the worst.  The team always took two tents, one command tent, one two-man pup, and she was always the pup.  Teal’c shared her tent, using it for kel’no’reem while she hung with Daniel, who always wound up with first watch on the unspoken understanding the colonel took second, and could gang up with Teal’c to make Daniel go to bed.  Plus, if Daniel was on first watch, the rest of them would often stay up and have a nice talk with him, which he always said defeated the object of a watch.  The colonel was prone to say they were watching.  They were watching Daniel.  Sam was absolutely convinced the colonel and Daniel enjoyed all the advantages of interlocking zips on those ice planets.

Shared body warmth was something she dreamed about when she was freezing her tush off in her supposedly thermal no low too low Air Force issue sleeping bag.  She tended to covet Daniel fiercely when the temperature dropped below zero, the only man she’d ever met who was sweet enough to sleep with a woman and just sleep.  Teal’c always took all the watches after completing his kel’no’reem, so he was no good for anti-freeze snuggling.  He was excellent company when she took last watch, though, and gave the colonel attitude for any hint of ‘ah, the little woman made breakfast’.

The three of them settled into companionable chitchat, the colonel idly asking about Teal’c’s latest foray into popular culture, a book on urban myths.  They were just getting into their stride about bodies in ventilation shafts when the general walked in.

“Good morning, SG-1,” Hammond said crisply, taking his seat.  He waited until the team had resumed theirs, and began the briefing.  “I apologise for the change in your schedule.  The survey team on P4Y-890 discovered ruins five kliks from base camp.  Initial survey suggests…“

“They are,” Daniel’s excited voice rang out from the doorway.  “This is definitely a site of the Ancients.”  He trotted over and slipped a tape into the VCR, snatching up the remote.

Sam grinned when the general’s indulgent affection for Daniel peeked out for a moment and then was sternly suppressed.

“Go on, Dr Jackson,” Hammond ordered.

“I didn’t have time to prepare a detailed presentation,” Daniel began, dropping into the chair next to Jack.

“Thank God for small mercies,” Jack observed chattily.  His dick was being a tad wayward, but nothing too noticeable.  More of a pleasant ache of anticipation, the kind that made him feel good to be alive.

Sam was a little surprised when Daniel flashed the colonel a quick smile instead of a scowl, but allowed herself to relax.  Everyone was in their best mood and on their best behaviour and it looked like the general was about to offer them, or at least Daniel, an all-inclusive off-world ‘ruins’ theme vacation.  She was pleased for Daniel, who rarely got time to be an archaeologist.  If Daniel didn’t need her, maybe she could…Oh, my.  Oh.  My.  Sam straightened up and took a good look at the video footage of dear old 890.  Vacation spot was right.  She had nothing that couldn’t wait.  Not a damn thing.  The planet seemed to be awash with majestic, leafy oaks and masses of wildflowers tumbling everywhere she looked.  Was that…it was!  That was quite definitely a lambent pool. The water looked warm.  And so handy for the ruins!

Daniel noticed Jack was peering ostentatiously at the footage, obviously searching for something.  “Jack?” he prompted.

“Just waiting for Mr. Tumnus to trot into shot,” Jack said innocently, trying not to think about swimming holes and naked Daniel.  They were going to that planet if he had to march his team up the ramp at gunpoint.  A happy, archaeologically fulfilled Daniel was a Daniel who might put out.  “Any sign of the White Witch?  Or ghouls?”

Sam gave up on P4Y-890 as a designation.  They were obviously doomed to an ongoing tag of lame jokes about Narnia.

“SG-4 have been operating at the base without incident for three months, colonel.  The planet is uninhabited,” Hammond informed him calmly.

“The degradation of the site, the presence of trees within the main chamber, the absence of a roof, etc, suggest a time frame of millennia since the site was occupied by the Ancients,” Daniel explained rapidly as he fast forwarded to the exciting part.

“Did we not determine that the address for this planet came from those downloaded into the dialling computer by Colonel O’Neill when he was afflicted with the knowledge of the Ancients?” Teal’c asked.

“Afflicted?” Jack queried.

“That’s right,” Sam agreed.  She sort of nodded at Teal’c when the colonel glared at her.  “I meant…“ Never mind.

“Dr Jackson, I’d like you to survey the site and report on any technological or cultural discoveries that may aid us…“

“In our fight against the Goa’uld.  Yes, Sir,” Daniel sing-songed rapidly, sighing.  He noticed that now the video footage was focusing on the ruins, even Sam had lost interest.  He turned hopefully to Jack.

Jack tried and failed utterly to withstand the wide-eyed appeal for enthusiasm.  “Could you just rewind that, Daniel.  I think I…er…“ He couldn’t think of anything, glaring Carter and Teal’c and their stupid-assed stupefaction down.  “I’m supervising that dig and you two will be wielding shovels, so pay attention,” he snapped.

Hammond grinned at them.  “I have another mission for Major Carter and Teal’c, Colonel.  Call it a strategic division of labour, if you will.  Biomedicine is interested in samples of soil and the local fauna.  SG-4 reported that inhaling the fragrance of a particular flowering bush induced mild euphoria.  We’d like it checked out.  There are photographs to aid you in identifying that particular bush, so use the appropriate biohazard precautions.”

“Doesn’t that take all the fun out of it?” Jack grumbled.

“Yes, Sir,” Sam acceded briskly, ignoring the colonel.  “We’re interested in?“

“Anything that looks interesting,” Jack suggested blandly.  “O-kaay.  So Carter and Teal’c pick flowers while I supervise the dig and you wield the shovel,” he told Daniel.

“It’s not a dig, it’s a survey, so no one wields a shovel,” Daniel said absently.  “You can help me out with the frottage,” he added demurely, eyes wide and innocent.  He observed with satisfaction that Jack looked as if he’d been stuffed.

Sam noted the colonel looked distinctly glazed about the eyes.  “Frottage is an art technique, Sir, it means rubbing,” she informed him kindly.  “Video footage doesn’t always have the level of detail you can get from a quality rubbing, particularly where light levels are poor.”  She beamed at Daniel.  “And Daniel is very skilled at frottage.”

“So I heard,” Jack agreed weakly.

“Well, bless their hearts!” Jack sang out.  Captain-forgotten-how-to-pronounce-his-name-already-P-something had set up camp for them, right down to the campfire.  “If there aren’t marshmallows to toast I’ll eat this P-90.”  He beamed expansively at his kids.  “Carter, Teal’c, box search?”

“Nothing to report, Sir,” Sam nodded.  “Sectors North and East clean as a whistle.”

“I concur.  There were no signs of enemy activity or an indigenous population in the sectors South and West,” Teal’c agreed.

“Cool,” Jack crowed.  “Park FRED and take a load off, kids.  The perimeter sensors are set and the morning excursion to the bulb fields departs in 3-0 mikes.”

“Sir,” Sam acknowledged, turning away to unpack her gear, slightly giddy at the fact she didn’t get a kennel this time.  She had a four-person tent with furniture all to herself and a safe distance from the colonel so she could sneak in some work on her laptop when he thought she was sleeping.  She also had every intention of checking out the pool once they’d tested the water for the usual biohazards and she’d set her own perimeter sensors.

Jack wandered over to check out the command tent-cum-honeymoon suite.  “Sweet,” he approved. They had a table, a light, a coupla chairs, and cots.  Jack gave one a little push.  Oh yeah.  He could do something with those.  Not an energetic something, but two guys together opened up a whole realm of subtle possibilities he’d never suspected.

Daniel ambled into the tent behind Jack in time to see the fond pat he gave the cot, and failed to suppress a blush.  He also failed to look suitably quelling when Jack shot him a hot, stripping look from distinctly bedroom eyes.  “Not off-world,” he whispered, glancing back edgily to where Sam was chattering brightly with Teal’c at the entrance to her tent.

“Absolutely,” Jack lied dulcetly.  If there were any signs his team faced anything but flowers and translating he’d be strong enough to fight temptation.  There weren’t so he wasn’t.  Wasn’t even going to try.  Anything coming through the gate had to get past SG-4 first and he could be out, up, and dressed in three minutes, tops.  He was confident the wide range of compelling arguments he could put out in favour of nasty off-world sex would melt Daniel’s spine and puddle his brain out his ears.  And after this mission, he would swear they would be good forever more.

He turned his chair so he could watch Daniel unpack his gear, a whole host of arcane implements and accoutrements, and hideously expensive artist’s supplies in neat waterproof rolls.  Daniel trotted past him with the laptop, then again with a pile of reference books, all neatly stacked on the table behind Jack, which meant they’d be fighting over who got to sit on whose lap come report writing time.

“I’m pleased SG-4 found a good campsite so close to the dig,” Daniel said brightly.

“I’m pleased it’s close to the pool myself,” Jack leered dreadfully.  “I hope Carter packed the pina coladas.”

“We won’t have time to sunbathe,” Daniel corrected firmly.  However appealing the prospect.

“Correction,” Jack smirked.  “You don’t.  I do.  Carter and Teal’c have the daisies covered and unless someone makes me a better offer – say frottage on a ceremonial altar or some such – I’ll be kicking back with my Playstation, catching some rays.”

“You’re supposed to be guarding me,” Daniel pointed out reasonably.

“Grab a P-90.  Guard yourself,” Jack said placidly.

“And assisting me by any and all means,” Daniel added firmly.  “Which was a direct order from Hammond if I recall correctly.   Something to do with the way you kept rewinding back to that shot of the pool.  Your body language was screaming pina coladas.”

“I refute that allegation completely,” Jack riposted.  “Carter?  You slip the techs a fifty and pack those sun lounges like I told you?” Jack added without changing tone or looking around.  It did certain people no harm whatsoever to know he was alert and could e.g. hear his 2IC sneaking up on them when they were having sex.

“Yes, Sir,” Sam agreed.  “And then Sergeant Siler took them right back off again.”  She grinned at Daniel, really glad for him that the colonel was still in his best mood.  Several days of pissy-in-the-tent-colonel was not a prospect anyone should have to face without tactical weapons.  “Sir, Teal’c and I are ready to ship out and look for samples.  With your permission?”

“You’re never alone with a bedside phone,” Jack said lightly.  “Radio check every 3-0 mikes, Major.  Go.”

“Yes, Sir,” Sam acknowledged.  She smiled warmly at Daniel.  “Have fun.”

“Bye, Sam.  See you tonight,” Daniel returned the smile.  “You too.”

“Stay frosty,” Jack ordered, grinning up at Carter, who looked pained.

“Sir, as a personal favour to me, please stop watching that movie,” Sam winced.

Jack jumped up and did his best to look wounded.  “Navy SEALS is a great movie,” he huffed.

“They use it at the Academy during the ‘Machismo Gets You Killed’ lecture,” Sam said tartly.

“They do every thing they can do wrong, but they do it with style,” Jack corrected, shooing Carter out the tent flap.   “And Michael Biehn is a great actor.”

“I like John Cusack,” Daniel said enthusiastically.

“What?” Jack snapped, letting Carter go in favour of worthier prey.

“John Cusack.  He’s a great actor,” Daniel said innocently, handing Jack a pack of reference books.  “I’ve seen all his movies, collected them on DVD.  ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’ is my favourite, but he’s wonderful in all of them.  He’s a Method actor, actually learned to kick box for a movie and he still keeps up the sport.  I’ve read a few articles,” he added gently, handing Jack a second bag of books, which he also took like a lamb.  Daniel picked up his three packs of equipment and strolled away from the camp.  “See you two tonight,” he called after Sam and Teal’c, “Have a good day!”

“And you also, DanielJackson,” Teal’c bowed and turned away, ushering Sam ahead of him with a courtly gesture.

Daniel headed off towards the dig site, absolutely confident Jack was right behind him, brooding over how he could discover if his lover of three orgasms had the hots for John Cusack.  Daniel decided to take a leaf out of Jack’s book and launch a full frontal assault.  “I’d do it with John, but I’d be thinking of you,” he murmured provocatively.

“I did it with you, but I was thinking of Kevin,” Jack grumbled sourly.

Daniel turned and grinned at Jack.  “Touché, O’Neill.”

“O’Neill?”  Jack brightened.  “Did you just call me darling?”

“No,” Daniel snapped, flushing.  Something like that.  He wasn’t good at pet names but Jack was calling him Danny so…“I called you asshole.”

“Studly Spacemonkey!  Muffin!  Baby!  Angel lips!  Sweet Cheeks!  Honey Thighs!” Jack carolled complacently.

“Drop dead, O’Neill.”

“Right backatcha, Jackson,” Jack added meaningfully.  “You could call me ‘Sir’ in bed,” he suggested hopefully.  “It’s a huge turn-on.”

“Not for me,” Daniel said coldly.

“Nasty sex if you do,” Jack wheedled.

“Very nasty sex if you do!” Daniel promised faithfully.

“I like this mission,” Jack announced ebulliently.  “A wood full of pretty trees and flowers, a prettier…“

“Don’t you dare!” Daniel hissed, outraged.

“Sky,” Jack lied.  “Just you, me and your ego arguing about sex.”

Daniel stopped in his tracks in the wood of pretty trees and pretty flowers beneath the prettier sky and gave Jack hell with his lovely eyes.  Jack smiled at Daniel, slow and evil.  Qualitatively, the most accurate adjective for Daniel was something like beautiful or drop-dead gorgeous but Jack wanted to live so…“Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas,” he said crisply.

“Up yours, O’Neill.”

“That’s what I was hoping, yes,” Jack called pleasantly.  Daniel jerked a step but didn’t slow down and didn’t look back.  Jack grinned.  His butt wasn’t saggy enough to compete with mouldy old ruins.  He pulled out his binoculars and checked the terrain ahead.  They were getting close to the site so it was time to let the colonel out to play a little more overtly than was necessitated by a walk in the park.  “Daniel,” he called.  “Wait up.”

Daniel recognised the play was out of Jack’s voice and obediently waited.  Jack wouldn’t be happy until he’d checked out the dig site, and possibly not even then if he wasn’t convinced it was defensible.  Daniel reached out for the bags and dropped into step behind Jack as he angled them obliquely towards the southeast corner of the site.  Daniel stared intently.  The structure began as a spiral of megaliths, the first at the eastern-most point of the site, the last at the base of a flight of stone steps that itself spiralled around the base of the structure until it was level with the platform at the apex.  It would be easy enough to measure the size of the platform, and Daniel estimated the height from the ground to the platform as roughly four stories.

It reminded Daniel a little of the Ancients site on P4X-639 - though that had been at ground level - but he wisely held his tongue.  Jack got twitchy every time he heard the word ‘loop’, in any context, like a Pavlovian response.  He peered up interestedly, cataloguing features.  The circumference of the platform was divided into eight equal segments, one walled, one open, the pattern beginning and ending with a walled segment to either side of the steps.  The open segments would give Jack excellent line of sight, so he should be happy, and in an emergency they could rappel down from the platform.  Plus the curve of the steps meant they held the high ground and could defend the platform for some time because attackers wouldn’t be able to come at them more than three at a time.

Daniel was wryly aware there had been a time when he wouldn’t have grasped the importance of any of that even when told, but he’d learned to look for the signs that the others did automatically.  He owed it to them to pay attention.  His life wasn’t the only one on the line out here.

“Check out the platform for me, willya?” Jack asked.  “I’ll head out and do the sweep.  If it looks hinky, radio in and haul ass.”

“Stay frosty,” Daniel agreed equably.

“Jackson,” Jack trilled, batting his eyes.

“Prick,” Daniel trilled, not.

As Jack moved out to perform a perimeter sweep of the site, Daniel headed up the steps, a little surprised that they weren’t more worn, the edges still crisp and defined.  It would make the long climb down a hell of a lot safer, but still, it was odd, as if the place wasn’t used much.  Perhaps it had a ceremonial or religious purpose, only used for high ceremonies but otherwise sacred.  There was no way to tell from the ground, but Daniel doubted he’d find any kind of dwelling for a priest or temple servitor.  Perhaps people travelled here for the ceremony and left afterwards.  It could be a shrine or grotto, a place for pilgrimage rather than worship.  The smoothness of the steps certainly argued that either usage was light, or the place wasn’t in use for long.  Possibly it was late epoch, when the Ancients were falling victim to the catastrophe that overtook them and had experimented dangerously and unavailingly with anything that could halt the disaster.

Daniel slowed his steps – he’d counted six hundred and sixty six and hoped that wasn’t an omen – as he reached the top and turned in to reach the platform proper.  A cursory inspection told him there were no people up here and no place for anyone to hide, but there were significant differences from the video footage SG-4 had sent back.  Daniel walked in cautiously, put the bags down near the entrance, unpacked the camera and stood for a moment processing what he could see, comparing it with what he remembered the video footage had shown.  There was no excuse for missing anything; even though the roof was intact, there was plenty of light from the open sectors.

There was no altar of any kind, and none of the usual panels of text on the walls, unlike the structure on P4X-639, which was covered with panel after panel of instructions for the time loop device.  That tallied with the video evidence.  What wasn’t shown on the video were the four towers, built on a subtle curve, about six feet tall, with a rough hewn crystal at the pinnacle, set at equidistant points around the inner circle, which was on the video.  The inner circle was – had been - his main point of interest in the site, since it was the sole source of text in the place.  Neither the towers nor the circle were of stone, rather they were constructed from some metal or alloy, though he’d never seen one with that sheen.  Its slickness reminded him of the skin of dolphins.  Daniel recalled the mineral SG-4 were searching for deposits, and wondered if this was the material it was cast into by some heat or chemical process.

Daniel hefted the camera and slowly panned to film the entire platform from this perspective; then he walked over to examine the metal inner circle and the towers.  He reached the first tower and ran his hands carefully over the surface.  For all its wet sheen, the metal was oddly depthless, not reflective, as if it was absorbing the light, and strangely, it seemed to be at blood temperature.  His hand felt neither heat nor coolness.  He had a feeling Sam wouldn’t be picking daisies for much longer.  Daniel followed the curve to the pinnacle and the crystal.  It looked like amethyst, but he doubted it was.  He paused and examined each of the other towers in turn.  Identical.  And each of the crystals was refracting light in a sector that was open, not walled.

Daniel reached for his radio.  “Jack?  Jack, come in.”

//Reading you, Daniel.  What do you need?//

“Jack, I need you up here.  I found something unexpected.  Still investigating, but there are four towers here that weren’t on the video.  I conclude there is some kind of Ancients technology here, and whatever it is, it’s still functional,” he told Jack seriously.

//I’m on my way.  Can you work on the translation?  I’ll take a looksee and get Carter and Teal’c back here.  Be with you in zero-five.  O’Neill out.//

Daniel picked up the camera to film the towers and the circle in slow sweeps that took in every detail of the text.  Teal’c could speak the language of the Ancients, as could Jack, so they were covered if the camera survived and they…um…didn’t.  Only when Daniel was sure he’d made a full record of the text did he head back over to slip the camera safely back into his pack, snatching his notebook in its place.  He headed back over to the circle and dropped to his knees to begin transcription.

He was absorbed in his task when a light footstep caught his attention and he spun, drawing his pistol, not relaxing until he heard Jack’s voice calling him.

“Hey,” Jack called as he rounded the top of the stairs onto the platform.  Daniel was on his knees in the middle of the platform, reading intently, scribbling into his notebook.  Jack ran a hand over one of the oddly curved towers.  “Damn.  You know what this reminds me of?  The alien spaceship in ‘The Abyss’.”

Daniel glanced up at him for a moment.  “What about the metal?  Have you ever seen anything like it?”

Jack swung around to face the tower, check it out.  He looked closer, waved an experimental hand.  “Shit.  No reflection.  Odd.”

“What do you make of this, Jack?” Daniel beckoned Jack down.

“A mess, probably.  No fair making me translate unless I get a lavish cut from your pay packet; cash or cheque acceptable,” Jack said cheerfully, dropping to his knees.  He read the phrase Daniel was tapping thoughtfully, read it again, made sure.  “Or for preference, payment in kind.”

“Speaking in tongues?  Your best language,” Daniel muttered absently.

Jack grinned.  “Dwelling Place?” he offered cautiously.

“That’s what I get,” Daniel agreed.  “Weary of liberty, man binds himself in chains of service and woe that take him far from his home.  When he has walked the Ways and duty is done, man at last lays down his burden.  Only then will he come to know himself again and return to the Dwelling Place.”  He leaned back, thinking furiously.  “Pilgrimage?  Journeyman?  Soldier?”

“Soldier fits.  Mercenaries, maybe,” Jack suggested.  “Walk the Ways?”

“The gate network, I’d imagine,” Daniel answered.

“Anything to suggest what these towers are for?” Jack prompted.

“The Ancients seem to ally technology closely with religion or ceremony.  It’s possible that the function of the towers is geared to performance of a specific ritual, which is of course lost to us, or to a specific set of circumstances, like atmospheric conditions or…I don’t know, Jack,” Daniel admitted, frustrated.  Pop archaeology, he thought bitterly.  Need to solve the mysteries of the universe?  Just gimme five.  By lunch at least.

“Well, if they just popped up by themselves, maybe they’ve been on battery recharge or something,” Jack suggested.  “SG-4 have only been here six weeks, and their focus is on the mineral survey.  They haven’t had a chance to take in the sights, and it’s what…early summer here?”

“Mid-summer,” Daniel corrected.  “The briefing report said the days were getting longer.  It’s possible this place is tied in to the summer solstice.  Solstice is derived from two words, sol meaning sun, and sistere meaning cause to stand still.  The Ancient Druids – and that’s the closest Earth equivalent I can find to the culture of the Ancients – celebrated a festival called Alban Heruin, the Light of the Shore.  It was celebrated at the apex of the light, the Longest Day, sometimes symbolised by the crowning of the Oak King, God of the waxing year, and at the crowning, the Oak King falls to his darker aspect, the Holly King, God of the waning year,” Daniel explained rapidly.  “These towers could be station stones, like the ones at Stonehenge, placed to point in the direction of the mid-summer sunrise.  In some structures a hole was placed in the roof to allow the noonday sun to shine down on a marker painted on the floor.”  He leaned over and tapped the crystal set into the centre of the metal disk.  Then he lay on his back and stared up at the roof.  There was a hole up there, dead centre.  He sat up again, biting his lip.  “I missed it, Jack.  I’m sorry.  There’s so much ambient light and I was so interested in the towers I…“

Jack reached out and cupped Daniel’s face gently for a moment.  “Forget it.  I think we should get Carter, she might be able to – you’ll excuse the expression –  shed light on this.”

Daniel looked intently up again at the roof as Jack futzed with the radio.

“Carter?  Carter, come in.  This is O’Neill, come in,” Jack requested.  His radio crackled and whined explosively, making him cringe away from the sound.  Daniel was flat on his back, staring up at the roof.  Jack glanced up, trying to trace the path of the light, but Daniel was right.  The open sectors pooled light right in the centre of the room, and the exact path of light from above must be difficult to trace.  “Danny, get outta there.  You’ll blind yourself if the sun does climb over that hole.  I’m gonna walk out onto the steps, see if I can raise Carter, get her and the big guy back here, and Captain P-whatever, find out when they shot that footage.”

Jack turned and strolled out onto the steps and tried his radio again.  The signal cleared a little as he walked down so he kept going, trying it every few steps.  About fifty steps down it hissed and crackled into life.  His repeated calls finally yielded Carter, and he ordered her to get her ass back here.  Then he tried Captain P-whatever, asked about when the footage was shot, which turned out to be yesterday.  Hammond had planned the biomedical sample mission for a few weeks hence, but let SG-1 field the mission now as a special treat for Daniel.  It would have been months if they hadn’t squeezed it into this window, hence the sacrifice of a Sunday off.

Jack decided for prudence’ sake a strategic withdrawal was in order until they’d passed noon and whatever it was that might happen either happened or it didn’t.   He turned and trotted back up the stairs, the trot turning into a dead run as he heard the unmistakeable hum of something powering up.

“Danny, get the fuck outta there now!” he hollered.  “Danny!”  Jack tore up the steps to find Daniel picking his way through blinding shafts of light refracting crazily from the crystals.  There was now a fifth column, dead centre, and the hum was rising.

“Danny?!” Jack had to holler as the low hum cranked up to an ear-popping whine.  He couldn’t work out why Daniel wasn’t booking but if he wasn’t it was because he couldn’t.  Jack stepped forward as Daniel glanced up and dropped flat on his face without warning as the light shafted right through where he’d been.  Jack saw it punch a hole neatly through Daniel’s flapping jacket, dove into a long forward roll, came up on his knees firing at the nearest crystal.  The bullets ricocheted as the whine became a scream and the light flared…

“The only comparable technology was the one the giant aliens used to teleport Nick to P7X-377,” Daniel explained apologetically as he surveyed the platform restlessly.  “And the process was reversed only because it wasn’t completed.  We are quite definitely somewhere else.”  Oh, yes, the landscape was completely different, it was dark, and it was bitter cold.  He shivered.

“I agree, Daniel,” Sam said soothingly.  “The device, so far as I could tell from the little time I had to observe, was designed to store energy and discharge when triggered by the presence of a human.  That’s how I got caught,” she added, embarrassed.  “Teal’c went in ahead of me to check it out while I radioed Captain Pstrongowksi, the signal was affected by the technology…“

“I know,” Jack said soothingly.  Both his kids were in a flat spin, trying to take the blame for getting them whacked half way across the galaxy to the winter wonderland, or three quarters of the way, or one planet over, who knew?  “Teal’c wasn’t affected by the Ancients’ archive device either,” Jack pointed out gently.  Carter looked stricken.  Daniel was stricken with sympathy.  Jack tightened his arms around both of them and thanked God for thermal blankets.  “So he wandered around no problemo and you sent him back to camp with the camera to playback Daniel’s footage on the laptop.  Excellent idea there Daniel,” Jack hugged Daniel into his side a little tighter.  “Teal’c can read the language of the Ancients and you gave him everything up to the fifth column rising up and getting zapped.  I’m sure the shot as the camera skidded across the platform had an epic Spielbergian quality.  So of course you,” Jack nudged Carter, “had no way to know the minute you crossed into the circle the device would trigger and here we all are, wherever the hell we are, one big, unhappy family,” he finished brightly as both his kids sighed and snuggled in a little closer.

He didn’t have to beat them up; they were both doing such a grand job on their own.  “We’ll take a looksee at first light, then Daniel?  I want you on that translation, and Carter?  I want you to try to figure out how this technology works, see if you can’t figure out a way to jump start it.”

“Yes, Sir,” Sam agreed fiercely.

Jack nodded approval.  There wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance she could figure it out if the fucker wouldn’t even put in an appearance until mid-summer, but she’d die trying.

“Of course,” Daniel said quietly.  He was fighting an almost irresistible urge to lay his head on Jack’s shoulder, particularly as Jack’s hand at his waist was in constant gentle motion, stroking and soothing.

Sam looked around at him suddenly, leaning out past Jack.

“This is warmer than my sleeping bag,” she confessed, grinning.

“Notice how Jack pulled rank so he gets toasty in the middle?” Daniel teased.  He was pleased when Sam’s soft chuckle sounded.

“Got a question for you, Daniel, a hypothetical,” Jack asked.  It was too frigging cold to sleep, and silence had both his kids fretting, so he was keeping them occupied.  “An officer, a sergeant who’s the driver and a trained mechanic, plus an Airman with field medical training are lost in the mountains in a blizzard.  You’re the officer.  Your jeep has broken down, it’s pitch dark, it’s twenty below freezing and you have one blanket.  What do you do?”   He grinned when Carter chuckled.  “No fair, Carter.  No cheating, Daniel has to work it out for himself or it doesn’t reveal anything about what kind of man – person…” he amended hastily after an lightning ‘accidental’ elbow strike from Carter. “He is under pressure, or what kind of leader he’d make.”

Daniel leaned around and stared at the pair of them incredulously.  “This is a trick question, right?”

“No,” Sam assured him.  “The Air Force, in fact all the branches concoct scenarios and ask you to problem solve.  They’re part of your ongoing leadership and psych evaluations.”

Jack sternly repressed an urge to ask Daniel what he would do if he were trapped in the Antarctic with a dying man and a Stargate that wouldn’t dial home.  He was pretty goddamned sure the answer would be ‘dial another address’ long before he come up with ‘take the DHD apart’.  “You answer and we critique.  The idea is to narrow down the options until you come up with the right solution, and to understand why,” Jack coaxed.

“Honestly,” Sam coaxed too.

“Okay,” Daniel said suspiciously.  “I still think there’s some joke I won’t get until you’ve got me good, given the answer is so obvious, but I’ll give it a try if it’ll shut Jack up.”

“So gracious in defeat,” Jack gushed, “And if it’s quote ‘obvious’ it’s the wrong answer,” he added smugly.

Daniel sighed.  It really was obvious.  “You put the blanket on the engine and then the two enlisted guys have sex with the officer in the back of the jeep.  That keeps them warm all night and the mechanic can fix the jeep and get them out of there  when it gets light.”  There was a long silence in response to that.  Daniel strained around and glared at Jack and Sam, who were both open mouthed in astonishment.  “Human nature being what it is, the enlisted men would want to nail the officer, and the officer is supposedly obligated to do whatever he has to in order to keep his – or her – men alive,” he added.

“And a good time was had by all,” Jack said witheringly.  He shook his head to clear it.

“If the officer was cute, probably,” Daniel said innocently.

“The regulations…“ Sam suggested tentatively.  She couldn’t believe she’d just heard that.  It had a certain dark je ne sais quoi that was terrifyingly logical.  Her mind quailed at the thought of presenting that to a class of cadets as a solution.

“Are you seriously suggesting an officer would let his men die from hypothermia because of some petty regulation?  If a man – or woman – can kill or die for their country why can’t they…“

“Yes, Daniel, we get the picture,” Jack interrupted hastily.  “And I don’t want you two reading anything into the fact I’m sitting here hugging the shit out of you in what is, technically, a bed.”

“Don’t worry, Jack,” Daniel said sweetly, “Your ass is safe with us.”

“Ain’t that the way,” Jack sighed pitifully, beaming when both the kids started to chuckle.

“Ah, Sir?” Sam crowded her voice with questioning innuendo.

“It’s my sidearm, Carter, I swear,” Jack whined.

“This one?” Daniel asked innocently, dangling his 9mm from a finger, right in front of Jack’s face.

“Ah, give me strength,” Jack complained as the chuckling segued into outright sniggering.  “I get marooned in the mountains with ‘he said she said’.”

“Sir, I…“

“Quiet,” Jack hissed.  “You hear that?”

Sam listened intently.

“Feet scuffing?” Daniel suggested.

Sam nodded, scooped up the P-90 and as point man, rose to her feet, heading over to the entrance to check it out.  The platform was identical to the one that had brought them here, so she cut straight across to avoid being seen by whoever was coming up the stairs.  It struck her that she could discern differing sets of footfalls and whoever was coming wasn’t exactly attempting to conceal their arrival.  It didn’t feel like an ambush, but they couldn’t afford to take chances.  She slipped into position on the right side of the door as the colonel took up his position on the left, Daniel sidling in behind her a moment later.  She shot him a quick, approving nod; he’d worked out for himself this afforded them maximum cover if they got into a firefight.  Daniel’s shrug was rueful but she let it go.

“Strangers!” a man’s voice called.  “Help is at hand.”

“Yeah?” Jack drawled, “That’s what they all say.”  He checked Carter and Daniel had good positions, then signalled Carter he was leaving cover.  Carter looped around in a wide arc and came up behind him, Daniel slipping into her position.  His eyes met Daniel’s intense ones for a moment, no more, as he moved out onto the top of the steps, glad they’d had plenty of time to accustom their vision to the darkness.  At least the spiral was a left-hand spiral so he got to stay in close to the side and anyone climbing had to walk on the outside to be able to plant their feet safely.

Jack could see flickers of light as the footsteps grew nearer.  Jack was braced and ready, accepting he was going to lose his night vision for a few precious seconds when a man trotted into view, clutching a flaming torch.  Jack saw a glint of metal at his shoulder, assumed sword, and a longbow strung across his chest.  He was distinctly out of breath, not quite as tall as Carter from what Jack could make out, and very relieved to see Jack.

“Stranger!  Help is at hand.  My name is Anwyl.  I am the Servitor of my Place.”

“Igor.  Igor O’Neill,” Jack said pleasantly, unable to resist.  He heard two identical tsks of irritation from behind him and grinned.  “Call me Jack,” he said firmly.  “Come with me, Anwyl.  Just you, okay?”

Anwyl nodded, turning to wave easily at the few men Jack could see on the steps behind him.  He trotted up the last few steps to reach Jack.  “I commend your caution, Jack.  We bring only help, food, blankets, and the way home, though it is my thought you have but my word for that,” he smiled.

Jack looked at him for a long moment and nodded slowly.  “I’ll take your word.”

“That is well, Jack, for it is not lightly given.”

“Coming in,” Jack called.  “Stand down.”  He led Anwyl onto the platform proper, Daniel and Carter joining up to wait for him.  “Anwyl, this is Daniel Jackson and Major Carter.”

“Greetings to you all,” Anwyl bowed.  “If you are named, you are strangers no longer, and I extend to you the hospitality of our Place.”

Daniel happily noted the use of ‘Place’ as he glanced at Sam.  “Major is a rank or title, Major Carter’s given name is…“

“Samantha,” Sam said firmly, smiling.

“A titled lady.  It is good.  It is in me now to think you may still be standing on your own two feet when Ginebra has done with you,” Anwyl chuckled at what was obviously a very good joke.

“Your society…your village…Place?” Daniel amended, “Is matriarchal?  Your village leader is a woman?”

Sam brightened when Anwyl nodded.  Gal in charge?  She liked these people already.

“Ay, and she is the oldest of us all, barring Tadhg, and he is her husband and has no fight left in him,” Anwyl owned, grinning.  “It used to be that always a woman it was who led us, but in time it was seen to be unfair to any man who might do the task better.  Ginebra was Chosen as Chieftain of Barre nigh on forty years past, and still we see none can take her place.  She makes much noise over the Ancient Ones taking young only those whom they love best, and fears she will live forever.”

“The Ancient Ones?” Daniel prompted, hoping for once to get a single fact about this elusive race he could actually verify.

“Ay.  Barrecis it was who guarded this Place.  It is said…“

“Excuse me,” Jack interrupted calmly.  “I’m sure this is all very interesting, and looking at Daniel’s face here, I can tell you he’s dying to know what is said but we have a few questions first.  What brought you up here, Anwyl?”

Daniel shrugged, acknowledging Jack’s point was fair.  He had to admit he was excited.  This was the first world where they’d found living inhabitants and Ancients technology.  Anwyl was as human as they were, which suggested that the ‘man’ of the inscription back on P4Y-890 was generic, a reference to mankind.  This place was possibly a safe haven.  He needed to verify if the teleportation device was the only way to reach the planet.

“Keir it was.  He guards the flocks at night and did see Belenos’ Leht…“ Anwyl began.

“The closest derivative is Old English, leht meaning light,” Daniel supplied quickly.  It seemed as if his association of the Ancients with the druidic tradition wasn’t as much of a reach as he’d thought.  The parallels with Ancient British culture and of the Ancients language with Latin suggested they’d shown as much interest in the potential of mankind as the Asgard or the Goa’uld.  Some of the races harvested man in an effort to enslave, others to protect.  It was possible that the Ancients had been driven from Earth by the arrival in force of the Goa’uld.  Certainly in their experience, the Asgard alone seemed to accept the necessity of war.

“And Belenos is a Celtic god, a God of the Ancient Britons, essentially the sun god, and his aspect is healer,” he added for Jack and Sam’s benefit.  “In Celtic mythology he’s associated with Beltane.  I’ve seen depictions where he’s battling a snake-limbed giant, wielding his symbolic radiating wheel as a shield.  Snake-limbed could be interpreted as symbolic representation of the parasitical nature of Goa’uld.”

Anwyl nodded.  “It is my thought the Leht has never come so before the Feast of Belenos, nor at night, not in living memory.  It was in me that whoever had come to us was in need.  It is many generations now since last friends joined us, and they numbered but a few.  Grania keeps the histories,” Anwyl supplied.  “My wife, and mistress of me had she her way,” he grumbled, not fooling anyone.  “The Feast came and passed, yet the friends stayed by.”

“That suggests the friends had a choice about leaving during the Feast,” Daniel interrupted.  He tabled a long talk with Grania about the British sun god Belenos for the moment Jack let him slip his leash.

Jack nodded at him approving, grinning.  “When is the Feast?” he asked hopefully.

“Belenos’ Day is Longest Day, four days hence,” Anwyl informed them, surprised.  “Was it not so whence you came?” He gestured at the platform.  “We were taught from earliest days to keep clear of Belenos’ Leht.  The Leht is safe to walk on every other day but longest.”

“That actually makes sense to me,” Jack mused.  “Bring the newbies in, get them acclimated, and leave after a few days with anyone who couldn’t hack it, knowing no one could get back here for a year.  It’s a safe house,” he shrugged.

“Yes, Sir,” Sam agreed.  “The platform – Belenos’ Leht – is easily defensible for a race as technologically advanced as the Ancients, and this type of technology…“

“Which I’d suggest is the later epoch technology, developed at a time when catastrophe was overtaking the Ancients and they were striving desperately to survive,” Daniel interjected.  “The gates aren’t tuned to reject the presence of Goa’uld.  It’s possible this teleportation device was an attempt to work around that, since the Goa’uld had already made naquadah based technologies their own.”

“You’re suggesting the Goa’uld had something to do with the catastrophe that overtook the Ancients?” Jack asked.  He nodded, answering his own question.  He could well believe it of the loveless parasitic bastards.

“The light…the Leht comes every year on the Longest Day?” Sam prompted Anwyl.

“Yes.”

“How long does the Leht last?” Sam asked.

“We were taught to stay clear until noon of the next day, when Belenos’ Leht would return to him.”

“The device will discharge harmlessly into the atmosphere if it isn’t used to power teleportation,” Sam clarified.  “It makes sense.  From what you described, Daniel, those crystals and the alloy in the teleportation platform capture and amplify solar power to an order of magnitude beyond anything we can replicate with our current level of technology.  It seems logical that the device would be on what is essentially a timer circuit.”

She glanced over at Anwyl’s simple homespun clothing.  Daniel had taught them to look for classic signs of subsistence societies and this was one of them, as well as Anwyl’s height, which was below the American average.  It had taken generations of good nutrition to promote the kind of growth that was the norm in their society.  Subsistence societies didn’t have that luxury.  “A constant influx of people would strain the resources of the community,” she added gently, not wanting to offend.

“So we spend a few days with these folks, wait for this baby to power up, watch the laser show from down below and beam back to where we started,” Jack clarified.  “Cool!”

“We’re assuming the device will return us to P4Y-890,” Sam amended.

“Glass half full, Carter,” Jack griped.

“You are most welcome,” Anwyl assured them.  “If you are in need of food, let us break bread together.  The nights are short, so it will soon be light enough to make our way safely down to the village.  We will rest, and eat.”  He bowed again and turned away to call his men.

“Good work, kids,” Jack praised.  “Concerns?” he asked, lowering his voice.

“About the people?  No, not if Anwyl is typical,” Daniel said at once.

“And I don’t think we’ll be seeing any Goa’uld,” Jack said dryly.

“If the device has worked like clockwork for millennia I don’t see why it should fail now,” Sam suggested, “But I am concerned there’s no way to test that it will take us back to the point of origin.  The device on P4Y-890 won’t function again for a year.  Other than that, there are still about eighteen hours when the device has enough energy stored to trigger and teleport any kind of rescue team.”

“It’s possible Hammond will send through a team, but as they have no way to know if they can get us back, I doubt he’d authorise it,” Jack reassured.  “There isn’t an Anwyl on the other side to confirm this thing goes off like Old Faithful.  They know it’s not a weapon, because it didn’t target Teal’c, but they don’t know anything else, and they won’t interfere with it until they’re sure we’re not coming back.  Relax.  It’ll be a long four days for the folks back home, but it is all we’re facing.”

“Sir,” Sam acknowledged reluctantly.

“As for us…” Jack drawled.  “Now, remember, as far as anyone knows, we’re a nice, normal family.”  He waited expectantly.  He got nothing.  The kids took that on the chin.  They were philistines, the pair of them.  Absolute philistines.  They needed to stay in more and watch TV.

When Anwyl and  his 'men' - who included two women, Sam was glad to see - returned, they all sat and ceremoniously broke bread, sharing SGC water and something mulled and potent which warmed her clear through to the bone.  The bread was fresh, though she’d rather have butter than salt, but the sharing of salt was tradition, a small thing but important to these people, so she chewed, swallowed and made a happy face just like the colonel and Daniel.  Sam leaned back against the wall, crossing her outstretched legs idly and watched the colonel, sitting at Daniel’s side.  The sky was slowly lightening, though the sun had yet to rise.  She could see everyone clearly and she rather thought the colonel had a very happy face.

He and Daniel were talking, low voiced, smiling at one another, Daniel remonstrating as Ja…as the colonel made some outrageous pronouncement that made Anwyl’s eyes widen, the colonel laughing softly, teasing.  The ease of intimacy they shared always made her ache.  Even for that short time when she’d been sure of him, she’d never been able to read him like Daniel could.  Every conversation was fraught with misunderstanding and miscommunication, yet Daniel could stop the colonel hard in his tracks with a word or a look, and the colonel took it, as often as not doing what Daniel wanted him to do.  He’d hand anyone else who dared to challenge him the way Daniel did his or her ass in a sling.  Daniel was the only one who never seemed to realise how dangerous a man the colonel was, how bad his reputation was in some quarters.  He was not a man you crossed, yet he allowed Daniel to order him around seemingly at will.

Sam knew the colonel would do anything for her except let her into his life.  He loved her, he’d said so, in so many words, but they’d never been intimate.  She smiled humourlessly.  They’d never had a conversation that wasn’t work related, she’d never been to his house for beer and pizza, she didn’t know him and he did not know her.  She’d wanted him, still did, but she was nothing if not a realist and there was no future for her in a man who was happy to keep her in a neat work-shaped box.  It happened in the military, intense partnerships developed, based on mutual dependence and absolute trust, and that she had in full measure.  She had all of him in the field, as did Teal’c.  He was totally committed to them.

It just hurt the more that the only one who made it home with him was Daniel.  It had always been that way between them.  Daniel always wanted the colonel, and the colonel would only confide in Daniel.  There was a limit to the trust he placed in Sam, and Teal’c, but no boundaries or barriers between the colonel and Daniel.

Daniel was the best friend Sam had ever had, the only man who’d never even seen gender as an issue.  She was still closer to Daniel than to Janet, loved Daniel in a way that spoke of family to her, the same way she loved Cassie, but she and Janet were getting closer with every day that passed.  Sam tried not to think it was because she didn’t have all of Daniel, there was always a part of him closed off from her only the colonel got to have.  She didn’t like labels, especially labels that seemed to fit.  Jealousy and insecurity were a pettiness that never touched Daniel, though they seemed to touch Sam and the colonel often enough.

Daniel looked up then and his smile lit his face when he saw she was looking at him.

Sam smiled back, wondering just who was competing for whose attention.  The colonel didn’t like to share, and she’d assumed, from arrogance or naïveté, that it was her he hadn’t wanted to share with Daniel.  Now, watching the colonel watch Daniel, so…so solicitous of him, she wasn’t sure.

The way the two of them had used their given names had put her in her place from day one, had put Daniel outside the command structure in a way she’d been reluctant to challenge.  The colonel’s little pissing contest in the Abydos gateroom fooled no one but Daniel, Sam least of all.  She’d realised the colonel was staking some kind of personal claim to Daniel, a claim he’d never revealed the details of to anyone.  Perhaps not even to Daniel himself.  Daniel was favoured, indulged, consulted, asked and allowed to disagree, to argue, and even to order in his way.  Right from the first mission, the colonel had ignored protocol.  If he gave Daniel an order, he said so.  Everything else was negotiable.

She had begun as Captain Doctor Carter, effectively distanced from Daniel by the stake the colonel had claimed, but despite that and Daniel’s innate shyness, she had persisted and to Daniel she had slowly become Sam.  He got personal with all of them when he got to know them, trusted them, let them be close.

The more she thought about it, the more convinced Sam was the colonel didn’t want to share Daniel with her.  For a man whose public persona was ebullient and outgoing, the colonel was in fact fairly damned exclusive.

Well, the sun was up, Anwyl was making tracks, and she wasn’t going to solve the mysteries of the universe or her friends any time soon.  Sam got to her feet, dropped into place between the two women in the team, and followed the colonel and Daniel out onto the steps.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” Jack roared approval.  “Woo!  Would you look at that!”  He gaped at the sheer drop from the edge of the steps.  They were high in the mountains.  Way up high.  Some of the peaks were above the snowline, but most were densely forested.  The sky was achingly clean and clear, bursting with colour streaking over the horizon.

“It’s beautiful,” Daniel said dreamily.  Magical, as the rising sun burned away the morning mists that shrouded the peaks.

“Talk about your actual vault of heaven,” Jack muttered.  “They get colour like that in L.A,” he announced to Anwyl, who looked bemused.  “But it’s from the smog.”

“One of our cities.  Places where many people live,” Daniel explained patiently.  He let Jack and Anwyl get ahead of him and tucked himself in behind them, as close to the inner wall as he could get without missing his footing.  Belenos’ Leth was perched on a sheer outcropping of rock that disappeared into the mists below, far, far below.  No wonder that vast flare of amethyst light had been seen from the village.

Nobody rushed as they picked their way down the steps, and conversation faltered as everyone concentrated on keeping their footing.  Daniel wasn’t the only one to heave a quick sigh of relief when they reached solid ground.  There was a narrow path ahead of them, picking its way along the ridge of the outcropping and disappearing between two jagged boulders.  Daniel could just make out the tops of trees beyond.  Daniel smiled a reassurance when Jack looked a quick question, and again when Sam caught up with him and murmured ‘okay?’  Okay, no; functional, yes.  Always.

Daniel smiled wryly as Anwyl led the way, Jack following, sandwiching Daniel between him and Sam, the rest of the Barre following behind, talking softly.  The villagers had named themselves Barre in honour of their defender, Barrecis, though he was as long gone as the rest of the Ancients.  The Barre were friendly, gently curious and shy for the most part.  Daniel wasn’t sure if Anwyl’s confidence came from his innate personality or the requirements of his position.  Ginebra was the Chieftain of the Barre, but Anwyl’s role was also one of authority.  He was responsible for the safety of the Barre, leading the bowmen and the hunt.  They hadn’t time to find out more than that but…Sam’s hand touched his shoulder gently.  Daniel turned carefully to find a very naughty twinkle.

“Don’t tell the colonel, but I’m kind of glad this happened,” Sam confessed in a whisper.  “I like these people.”

Daniel glanced at Jack.  “Me too.  How often do we get the chance to learn about another culture without military objectives getting in the way, or getting pulled back for a quote ‘strategic’ mission?  And we’re safe, too, so maybe Jack will ease up on the Mother Hen-ing and let us…“

“No, he won’t,” Jack interrupted pleasantly.  He glanced back over his shoulder and grinned as Daniel and Carter broke apart with a jerk.  “Kids, kids, just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I don’t understand,” Jack oozed sympathy.  The grin widened as he took in the stiff, resentful expressions of his anything BUT sweet love and his sour 2IC.  “You science brats are too easy.  Yes, you may meet and greet the people.  You will both have a good time, but you, Daniel, will not wander anywhere without me, and you, Carter will not climb back up here to play with your new toy without a handpicked escort and all the ammo you can carry.  Nobody pokes themselves in the ass with a sharp pointy thing for the hell of it,” Jack aimed his P-90 at the sword that hung from Anwyl’s back.  “Guarding flocks?  We’re not talking some chick in a frock with a crook.”

“We have not been raided in five cycles, Jack,” Anwyl said at once.  “It is in me to always be sure.”

“A man after my own heart,” Jack approved.  “You kicked ass?”

“We were victorious,” Anwyl said primly.

“They kicked ass,” Jack said smugly to Daniel and Carter.  The path broadened out when it cut between the two boulders bordering the outcropping, but it was a steep mother.  The trees were huge, clearly virgin forest.  Jack surveyed them gloomily.  He preferred nice leafy deciduous beauties to evergreens.  Ground vegetation was as sparse as the conversation as they picked their way down.

He glanced back to see Carter still looking like she was sucking a lemon.  Jack guessed they’d see just how appealing she found poking pointlessly round the platform with a climb like this to make both ways.

They climbed down in near silence until the path abruptly broadened and the gradient smoothed out.  Jack saw tracks leading off into the trees here and there and nodded in satisfaction.  Logging camps.  A soft glance directed over his shoulder brought Daniel to his side in just a few steps.

“Okay?” Jack asked gently.

“Still beating myself up, you mean?” Daniel asked ruefully.  “A little.”

“If the Ancients really were concerned about the Goa’uld, it would explain why the text was so cryptic.  You put it all together from very few clues, Daniel.  Be proud.  Don’t get lost in bad timing.  We had no way to know what that device was or what would trigger it.  These are nice folk, we’ll take no harm.”

“Teal’c, Janet and the general…“

“Will have a rough time but there’s nothing we can do about that,” Jack said sympathetically.  “So let it go.  Focus on what we can do, which is get to know these people and see if we can do anything for them before we go.  And ask lots of boring questions about rumours, myths and fairy tales.”  And he hoped to God they got to have some nice sex before he exploded.  Carter’s joke aside, if he and Daniel had been alone up there he wouldn’t have needed any prompting to work out the best way to keep warm.  And the most satisfying.  He shot Daniel a leer that made him chuckle, hoping the Barre built nice small houses with nice big beds so he and Daniel had to share and got to make love all night long.

Daniel stayed at his side, chattering happily about this and that, expecting Jack’s attention, which said as much about how their relationship had changed as the sex.  Jack made sure Daniel got it, dividing his time between memorising the path and surveying the terrain while he listened.  He seemed to ask the right questions in the right places if the way Daniel had gravitated comfortably to his side was anything to go by.  Hell, it wasn’t difficult.  Daniel was brimming over with interest, enthusiasm, ideas and wild speculations.  He had a light in his eyes Jack had seen when they were making love, which had given him an odd jolt of recognition then.  It was passion, pure and in Daniel’s case, never simple.  It reassured Jack to know Daniel’s attraction to him wasn’t just pragmatic in the sense he’d made his bed with Jack and had to lie in it.  He wanted Jack, and Jack was feeling generous, so Daniel was going to get him but good the minute they were alone.

The trees were thinning out as they walked.  Jack checked his watch.  They’d been descending for ninety minutes now.  The next bend they turned, the valley spread out before them.  It reminded him of a Scottish glen, a long valley, only one insertion point unless you picked your way through the mountains, a river running through it, tiny houses clustered at the riverside and dotted here and there on the valley floor.  Jack broke out his binoculars and heard a soft snuff of laughter from Daniel as he satisfied his voyeuristic tendencies.

The village seemed a decent size, bustling.  There were groves of woodland scattered around the village and along the valley floor, probably serving as windbreaks.  Every acre of flat land was in use for agriculture, whether as pasture land for animals or planted with some vegetable crop or other, plus the villagers had cut steps into the foothills over time and those strips had crops Jack recognised as wheat and corn.  Men and women were at work in the fields and in the village.  It seemed prosperous and busy, but they worked hard for it.  He handed the binoculars to Daniel, shaking his head over the little dance Daniel always did with glasses and lenses.

“Well?” he prompted, watching Carter round the bend ahead of them, deep in conversation with her two female escorts.

“They have hard winters,” Daniel judged.  “Probably cut off from the outside world for months at a time.  Those structures along the valley floor are large, much larger than the houses in the village, suggesting they’re used to pen the animals in winter.  Also the sheer number and diversity of crops would indicate built-in obsolescence; if one crop fails, others might survive.  The crops are stored in what look to be grain houses on the near side of the village.  They’re in the most defensible position, obviously.”

“Raids have been a concern in the past,” Jack agreed.  “All these trees and the houses are stone?  Wood burns more easily stone, and stone construction takes way more work than wood, suggesting the raids are brutal if defensible dwellings are a concern.”

“I think we’re looking at a village co-operative,” Daniel speculated.  “The Barre obviously own property, but the agricultural land appears common.  They all work for and share the crops and livestock.  I’ll have to get to know them to be sure, but I suspect their society is a mix of pragmatism and altruism.  Ginebra is old, yet she’s respected and still in a position of authority.  Likely we have extended families, with the old caring for the young while those who can work, do.”

“Frontier town,” Jack shrugged.

The rest of the walk down took another hour, which meant they were looking at a climb back up of around three hours.  Jack paused and pulled out his binoculars again, checked out the pass between the mountains at the far of the valley.  He nodded in satisfaction.  A decent sized tower and a long, low building suggested a sentry post and barracks, with what looked like a signal fire on a high earthen mound behind the tower.  Anwyl had a good defensible position, but he took no chances.  Maybe the weapons were primitive, but Anwyl was a smart guy who made the most of what he had.  Any attacking force that got into the valley could spread out and take everything in its path, so he was concentrating his limited firepower on the key point of vulnerability.

“Come, Jack,” Anwyl called.  “You will greet Ginebra, then you may eat and rest.”

“A man with a plan,” Jack called cheerfully, picking up the pace to fall into step with Daniel and Carter, deep in conversation about the capacity of the grain houses they were weaving their way through, peering interestedly at everything they passed.  Jack’s own interest was riveted on the river.  He got to make love and go fishing on SGC time?  Nah, it was too damn good to be true.  “You get much fishing?” he called out to Anwyl, who turned at once with hands as widespread as his grin.  “Oh, yeah!” Jack crowed.

“Oh, God,” Daniel groaned.  Sam jabbed him in the ribs as she made encouraging noises.  Whaa?  Oh!  A fishing Jack was a happy Jack, and a happy Jack was…

“I’m never gonna be that distracted,” Jack hooted.  “Anwyl, you’ll let me pick out a couple of good kids to ride shotgun with Carter every time she’s outta my sight?”

“Ay,” Anwyl glanced back and grinned at Sam.  “Ula and Una are the best bowmen among the Barre.  They are sisters, born at the same time and alike in every respect.  Such a thing has not been seen, but their mother is from the Weylyn and tells us it is most common there.”

“You take wives from outside the Barre?” Daniel prompted.  “Husbands?”  He was delighted when Anwyl nodded, noted Sam’s face light.  True equality of the sexes was rare enough on Earth, but the people the Ancients hid in the Dwelling Place seemed only to think of what was fair.  Maybe this kind of society floundered under the yoke of technology, but the Barre seemed comfortable to Daniel, easy in their ways.

“It is the Honey Moon, and the young ones go courting.  No raids near Longest Day, and no village will nay say a choice freely made.”

Daniel cringed when Jack stiffened.

“Honey Moon?” Jack snorted.

“Simply the full moon in June, Jack,” Daniel said repressively.  “When the villagers harvest honey from the hives.”

“Ay.”

“And go courting,” Jack amended gently.  Oh, yeah.  Yes, indeed.

“This happens every year?” Sam asked.  It certainly explained how they kept the gene pool viable if they married outside the village at will.

“Ay.  Barre stand host to the Great Fair each year, for all to celebrate Belenos’ Leth in His place,” Anwyl announced proudly.  “Our lads and lasses will stay by, Barre being much sought after by the young ones.  The living is good here.  It is not so in all the Places.   The traders will arrive on the morrow.  We grow and raise enough to trade, and the cloth woven by the Barre is second to none.”

Sam eyed the drab greens and browns and realised abruptly the Barre they’d seen so far were in their equivalent of cammos, of course.  She was annoyed with herself for making the same assumptions about the Barre that races like the Nox and Tollan made about them.

“It is a time of plenty,” Anwyl said simply as they walked into the village proper.

Daniel looked around with interest.  The houses varied in size, but not in style.  They were all stone, with flat roofs, heavy wooden doors and shutters inside the leaded windows, bearing out Jack’s supposition about needing to be defensible.  Small pieces of impure glass were also simpler to manufacture and cheaper to replace.  Some of the houses had two stories, some three or even four.  Depending on the size of the family?  It was certainly easier to build up than along.  Old women sat on stools in the doorways knitting or making lace, chattering among themselves, calling out to the children who tumbled in play through the dusty streets.  They returned smiles shyly and had the same curiosity as the Barre who’d led them down from the mountain.  Daniel glanced back, realised their escort had melted away.

The women and children were dressed in beautiful colours, especially a deep wine colour he saw again and again.  They had simple blouses beneath long, full skirts and laced bodices, rich with embroidery.  Everyone was barefoot in the sunshine, especially the children who seemed to be playing a complicated game of Hunt The Jack, dashing up to tug on his jacket then running away squealing in triumph when he pretended to be too slow to catch them.

Daniel shared a long, amused glance with Sam.  ‘Sucker’ they both mouthed at Jack’s back.

“I heard that,” Jack said crisply.  Two steps later he found himself with an armful of mischief and braids who was braver than the others and wanted a ride if he pleased.  He pleased, handed Daniel his P-90, daring him to make something of it, swooped down, scooped the little girl up and sat her on his shoulders.  Two steps after that he lost his cap, and two after that mischief was using his hair to steer.  “This kid is pushier than you are, Carter,” Jack grumbled unconvincingly.

“She has that from her Mother,” Anwyl admitted gloomily.

“She’s yours?” Sam choked.  The little girl hadn’t deigned to notice his presence.  She burst out laughing when a haughty sniff sounded from above the colonel’s head.

“There was a matter of Selma’s senta pie being without its senta,” Anwyl explained.  “And a little girl too full to eat her supper.”

“No correlation at all,” Sam said solemnly.  The little girl twisted around and winked at her, scenting an ally, making the colonel yelp.

“Ove,” the little girl said seriously.

“Sam,” Sam introduced herself gravely.  “And this is Daniel.”

“Hello, Ove,” Daniel grinned.

“Please, Sam, how do I make Jack go faster?” Ove demanded.

“Tell him where the rest of that senta pie is,” Daniel suggested.  “And just hold on tight.”

Sam choked and caved, giggling as Ove leaned in and shouted directions.  They had definitely had worse missions.  If it wasn’t for worrying about what Teal’c, Janet and the general were going through…

“Don’t believe him if he tells you his knees hurt, Ove,” Daniel called.  “He’s just lazy.”

“I get no respect,” Jack whined, grinning like a fiend where they couldn’t see him.  Ove kept up the pressure in a way that would have done any interrogation team proud, giving Jack a healthy respect for Anwyl, who had the nerve to pluck her off when they reached a hall at the centre of the village.  She was what?  Six?  God help the man who married that.  He was softened somewhat by the passionate kiss he got as payment, kissed her cheek soundly back, making her giggle, and sent her scooting off.  She walked a wide circle round Anwyl, nose in the air.  The kid had definite character.

Jack scoped the hall.  There were stools and tables set up outside it, and a row of old men talking and playing what looked like checkers, with cups of something dark and foamy dotted here and there.

“Ah, good ol' trustworthy beer. My love for you will never die,” Jack quoted his favourite philosopher with relish.  He nodded coolly to the old men who were quietly weighing them up and retrieved his P-90 from Daniel, who gave him a distinctly come hither look.  The day was just getting better and better.  Anwyl pushed open a heavy wooden door and led them into a long, narrow room set out with benches and a big, beautifully carved chair up on a dais at the far end.

Anwyl looked embarrassed.  “Ginebra despises infirmity, but cannot now stand for the whole of a council meeting.  Her curses are still ringing in Hueil’s ears for daring to…“ he gestured at the chair, wincing.

“Oh, joy,” Jack grumbled as they were led to a door at the back of the hall.  Anwyl knocked, and a sharp voice ordered them in.  Jack took in a painfully clean room with simple furniture, table and stools, another door leading out of the room, and the wizened old prune by the roaring fire.  “Jeez!  How old are you?” he demanded of the prune.  Anwyl gulped.

“I have more years than you have manners, boy,” the prune said coldly.  “Ginebra, Chieftain of the Barre.”

“Jack, commander of this team,” Jack snapped.

Ginebra nodded to them coolly.  “Sit you down.  You are tall for a fool.”

Jack froze halfway into his seat on the bench, glaring at Ginebra and wincing at Daniel’s foolhardiness in taking the place next to her.

Daniel sat on the settle next to Ginebra.  He turned to face her and smiled.  “I’m Daniel, and this is Samantha.”

Ginebra inclined her head graciously.  “Prettily spoken.  You at least have respect for those who’ve grown wise with the years.”

Jack jerked his head meaningfully at Daniel.  He had years too.  Ten years to be precise.  That had to count for something with the culture vulture, there.

“We’re travellers, brought here by Belenos’ Leth,” Daniel explained fluently.  “Anwyl has extended to us the hospitality of your village until we can return home on Longest Day.  I won’t insult you by offering payment.”

“It is rare to find a man who has as much wit in his head as tongue,” Ginebra observed, looking meaningfully at Jack.

“Jack is a warrior of great skill and low cunning,” Daniel said sweetly, smirking when he caught Jack out with the ‘low’ in cunning.

“He hides it well.”

Sam had great difficulty in not laughing out loud as the colonel bristled.

“We would like to learn about your culture, your ways,” Daniel asked hopefully.  “Though our time here is short.”

“And I would like permission to explore Belenos’ Leth if that’s okay?” Sam prompted.

“Will you then follow our ways?” Ginebra asked intently.

“If your ways don’t break our laws or take us against our conscience, we will,” Daniel said firmly.

Ginebra smiled for the first time.  “You have true wisdom for one so short in years.  You interest me, boy.  You may visit me again.”

“Thank you, I’d like that,” Daniel said warmly.

Ginebra turned again to Jack.  “I will not nay say Anwyl.  The hospitality of the Place is yours.  All are bound to aid and comfort, and none shall pass you by.  Welcome, friends.”

“Thank you,” Jack said gravely.  “We won’t abuse your hospitality.”

“Anwyl?” Ginebra prompted.  “Take our friends to the Way Place, and speak to Deoch and the others to see to their wants.”

“Every Place has such for the traveller or those in need,” Anwyl assured them.  “You are of the household of the Chieftain of Barre.  Any man who dares raise his hand against you will answer to the Chieftain for your honour and hers.”

Jack quirked an eyebrow, grinning when he caught the roguish look in Ginebra’s shrewd grey eyes.

“Ginebra was never defeated,” Anwyl said proudly.

“Low cunning?” Jack asked, grin widening when he caught the tiny, gloating nod.

“Good for you,” Sam said warmly.

“Are you a warrior, girl?” Ginebra asked, eyes glinting.

“And a scholar,” Daniel supplied, smiling at Sam.

“You may both ask what you will, all will answer freely.  Anwyl will see to it,” Ginebra offered graciously.  “Now go.  Eat and be rested.”

Anwyl respectfully led them out.  “It is rare Ginebra is so sweet in her ways,” he admired.  “It is my thought Deoch and the others will have beds made up and food on the table.  The Way Place is not large, for we do not have many travellers outside the Great Fair.  There is a small chamber for the lady, and another for you both if it is not your way to mind the sharing?”

“It is not our way to mind the sharing,” Jack said gravely, fighting full-on gloat mode.

Daniel rolled his eyes.  Could Jack make his intentions any more obvious, short of shouting them from the rooftops?  The minute his butt hit the sheets, Jack would be hitting his butt.

The Way Place turned out to be on the outskirts of the village, one of the smaller houses, but just as well maintained.  When Anwyl pushed open the door a squad of flustered old women was charging around setting the table, boiling kettles for hot water and making up beds.  Daniel noted with satisfaction they had a settle by the fire, as well as a table where he and Sam could write up their notes and observations.  The front door faced the fire, with a curtained doorway set into the wall to their left.  A flight of steps ran up the wall to their right to what was obviously the larger of the two chambers.

One of the old ladies scooted over and gently urged Sam towards the curtained doorway, so she let herself be drawn away and fell in lust the moment she laid eyes on the quilt draped over the four poster bed.  Textiles second to none, huh?  She stroked a reverent hand over the sweet colours singing together in a complex pattern of intertwining vines and flowers.  The quilt was truly a thing of beauty.  Some woman had stitched her life into this.

One swift, indulgent bounce confirmed the presence of feathers.  Sam slung her pack up onto the chest, carefully placing her P-90 into it, along with the rest of her weapons, before turning the key in the lock and slipping it into her pocket.  She hung up her jacket on one of the clothes pegs, and strolled back out.  “This is me,” she said cheerfully.  “Daniel?  Are your allergy meds up to date and up to sleeping on feathers?”

Daniel nodded emphatically as both Jack and Sam eyed him anxiously.  “Don’t worry, I won’t need CPR.”

Sam was sure she heard the colonel mutter shame, but lost interest she noticed the table was groaning with food.  Anwyl withdrew, along with the old dear who’d shown her the room, who said her name was Deoch, leaving them to the feast.  Sam sat down limply.  “Wow.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jack inhaled ecstatically.  His appetite had finally found the culture it deserved.  He sniffed and tasted and heaped his plate.  Smoked fish, which gave him a good feeling about the river, crisp fried meat that felt like it should be bacon even though it didn’t taste anything like bacon, or chicken for that matter.  Eggs and fried bread, plus fresh baked bread and cheese, with honey for drizzling.  There was some kind of herbal tea that had Daniel whining and sipping his cup of warm milk distastefully.  Creamy oatmeal-a-like.  Foamy ale to wash it all down.  Fabulous.  He’d just have time to digest and work up an appetite with Daniel before Deoch and the gals turned up with lunch.

Daniel left Sam with Jack and Jack with the last of the smoked fish in a sandwich and a lot of excuses about not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings by leaving anything, and headed off up the stairs.  When he reached the top he found the staircase turned on itself, rising up to a hatch in the roof.  Jack would be pleased.  He always liked to know there was a back way.

At the foot of the second flight of stairs was another curtain, and Daniel found himself in an open chamber when he lifted it aside.  There were pegs on the walls, a chest, large wooden bed set against the wall to his left, and a simple carved chair, and that was all the furniture in the room.   The foot of the bed was level with the doorway, there was another doorway in the wall next to it, roughly equivalent to where Sam’s room was below, also draped with a curtain.  When Daniel swept that back, he found a small metal bathtub, a couple of large water jars, and some large cloths, which presumably were the Barre equivalent of fluffy towels.  Daniel suspected the tub and the jars went down, rather than the water coming up, but it would give them all privacy for bathing.

“En suite, huh?” Jack said cheerfully, making Daniel jump.  “Bed!”  He reached out, grabbed Daniel’s shoulders and manoeuvred him around to the bed.  Then he pounced and started tearing off Daniel’s clothes.  Every time Daniel opened his mouth to protest, Jack leaned in, kissed him hard and got right back to stripping.  Daniel was down to his shorts and complete bewilderment in less than two minutes.  Jack shoved him sprawling on the bed and turned his attention to his own uniform.

“Sit rep,” Jack announced briskly.  “Carter is catching up on her beauty sleep, which is all I have in mind right now, I swear, so stop doing the Vestal Virgin because it’s turning me on.  She has plans for this afternoon.  She’s having lunch with Ula and Una, who are going to teach her how to use a longbow, and yeah, they’re the sweetest twins you’ve ever seen, then she’s going to harangue some guy named Hueil about irrigation and running water.  She’s just taken a look at the privy and is Not Happy, didn’t even laugh at my typhus in the can joke.”

Jack eyed Daniel, who seemed a trifle dazed by the rapid flow of information.  He nodded, satisfied, and went on.

“There’s no point doing anything but staying in bed having hot animal sex or going fishing because Ula and Una cracked up at the thought a grown woman couldn’t use a longbow, so they’re inviting the whole village along to view the lessons.  They’re taking a picnic and making a day of it.  Carter’s dying to show what a grown woman could do with a P-90 but is unfortunately way too mature to waste ammo like that.  Then we’re all invited to a party tonight, hosted by Ginebra in our honour, and apparently at everyone else’s expense.  Oh, and Anwyl said to tell you his Grania is beavering away at the histories as we speak so she can answer any questions you might have.  And if she’s anything like sweet little Ove, I for one wouldn’t mess with her.”

“Questions?” Jack asked tersely when Daniel just lay there gazing up at him in wide-eyed stupefaction.

“How about a quickie?”

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