Going on a Bear Hunt by A Karswyll

Chapter 1: Dr Daniel Jackson

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.

. . .

Daniel rushed down the concrete corridor from his lab and narrowly missed his research assistant Nyan in the process. Haphazardly juggling a pile of stuffed folders and books his mind was on the briefing in six minutes as he took the elevator down nine floors. Bouncing into the briefing room he was relieved to see his team present but not General Hammond so he had time to set up his presentation and hopefully put his notes into better order.

The data projector was already up and running—the doing of a technician or Sam he assumed—so he just had to plug in the flash drive with his presentation on it into the laptop and in a few clicks had it up on screen. That done, Daniel finished putting the collection of photographs, papers, books, and field journal into better order before General Hammond made his appearance.

"Dr Jackson," Hammond stated as he took his seat at the head of the table. "As you arranged this briefing, why don't you begin?"

"Right, thanks," Daniel replied happily. He got out of his chair, dimmed the lights, and standing beside the screen brought up the first slide of his presentation. In the picture's foreground was a DHD and stretching out over the landscape far over the horizon was row upon row of standing stones of assorted shapes ranging in height from knee tall to a quarter taller than a man. "Well, as you know sixteen days ago we were scheduled to go to P3B-327 but SG-5 was the one to perform the exploration mission and make contact with the native population."

"Because you got a cold," Jack teased from the table.

Daniel was irritated by the interruption and wasn't afraid to show it as he narrowed his eyes at Jack. "Dr Fraiser diagnosed me with the onset of nasopharyngitis and restricted SG-1's off-world travel until the labs confirmed the virus had cleared my system."

"You got a cold Daniel," Jack repeated.

Daniel ignored Jack this time as well as the half smile Sam hid and the eyebrow Teal'c lifted, to continue, "P3B-237—called Aballo by the natives—had been marked for exploration because UAV survey of the planet revealed extensive megalithic alignments radiating out from the stargate platform. Megalithic constructions occurred in Europe between 5000 and 1200 BC and as Ra's domination of Earth ended in 3000 BC it is quite reasonable to assume the natives were transported from somewhere in Europe to Aballo sometime between 5000 and 3000 BC and continued to practice their megalithic tradition, which accounts for the extent of the megalithic alignments."

Daniel paused in his lecture to take a look at those he was addressing. General Hammond as usual looked politely interested and Sam looked expectant. Teal'c looked intrigued, but it was a toss-up between interest in Earth's history or P3B-237's history and Jack, well Jack was looking just plain mystified and he wondered where he had lost the man.

"Hold on," Jack pointed to the picture of row upon row of standing stones on the screen, "alignments? What are you talking about Daniel?"

Daniel suppressed a sigh at Jack's confusion and answered, "An alignment is a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones set at intervals along a common axis or series of axes. Alignments may be individual or grouped and three or more stones aligned constitute an alignment."

Jack frowned at him.

Daniel did sigh and resisted rolling his eyes. "A row of standing stones."

"Well, next time, just say that," Jack gave him an exasperated look.

"Doctor, if you would continue," Hammond intervened.

Giving the general a grateful nod, Daniel resumed speaking. "The natives, who call themselves Leode, carve selected stones in two distinctive ways. The first style is with curvilinear art—stones with circles, spirals, arcs, serpentine-forms, and dot-in-circles—and the oldest stones with this art also all have defaced areas of iconoclasm. The second tradition is runestones: that is stones with runic inscriptions. Curiously on Earth, the erection of runstones occurred between 700 and 1000 AD." Daniel saw the increased exasperation on Jack's face and jumped ahead in his presentation.

"Anyway, SG-5 reported that the Leode explained that their ancestors were captured by a ram-horned demon from Mittilagart and brought to Aballo one hundred seventy-seven generations ago. Then twenty generations ago a hero came to Aballo and rescued the Leode from their servitude to the ram-horned demon."

"Which means?" Jack crocked an eyebrow and waved a hand about.

"Mittilagart is one of the Old Norse variants for Earth which confirms they came from here. One hundred seventy-seven generations calculates to roughly 3300 BC, and then in about 600 AD—twenty generations ago—someone freed the Leode from goa'uld servitude."

"Do they, or we, know who the goa'uld was?" Sam looked interested.

"Thankfully, yes we do even though the Leode engaged in iconoclasm following the goa'uld's expulsion. The goa'uld's mark was recorded on the giant megalith erected to commemorate the goa'uld's downfall." Daniel began clicking through his presentation, bypassing some pictures showing stones with areas chiselled out, in search of the stone he had just mentioned. He stopped at a picture that detailed an area of a giant stone standing twice the height of a man—as indicated by the SG-5 commander Major Barlow in the frame—with runes painted red.

"I see the mark of the System Lord Camulus," Teal'c observed as his lips thinned.

"Right, it is Camulus's mark," Daniel cheerfully affirmed as he gestured to the mark in question carved into the rock amidst the straight bands of runic writing. "Now the reason that this mark was not defaced was because writing is sacred to the Leode because the hero was the one that gave writing to them. The runes themselves are called futhorc—the runic writing style that the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians used from between 400 and 1000 AD on Earth—which allowed me to translate the inscriptions that SG-5 recorded and explains the two distinctive art styles on the megaliths. The Leode carved circles and spirals under Camulus control as he probably banned literacy like Ra, and they carved runic inscriptions once freed by the hero."

"Does this hero have a name?" Jack tapped a finger tip against the tabletop.

"Yes," Daniel beamed at Jack in happiness at that question, "while the Leode simply carved the mark of Camulus and thus in the passing one hundred forty years lost his name, they wrote out the name of their hero: Arto-rig!"

Daniel wilted slightly when he saw that his grand announcement only earned him blank looks from Jack, Sam, and Teal'c and an expectant look from General Hammond. Drawing a breath he launched into his theory, "Arto-rig means 'bear-king' and is one of the etymological roots of the name Arthur. The Leode call P3B-237 'Aballo' which means 'apple' and it is one of the etymological roots of the word Avalon. According to the inscription, in the one hundred seventy-sixth generation the hero Arthur and maiden warriors came to Avalon, battled Camulus, and won the freedom of the Leode."

"Wait," Jack held up a hand, "you're saying that King Arthur freed those people? King Arthur of the Round Table? The guy whose wife screw—er, messed around on him?"

Daniel frowned at the crass summarization of the Arthurian legend but nodded. "I know it sounds crazy," he said as he turned the lights back up, moved to the table, and picked up one of the books he had brought to the briefing, "but everything just fits. The first mention of Arthur is in the 10th-century text Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales," Daniel hefted the now open book he was holding to indicate it was the book in question and then looking down he translated aloud: "'The Strife of Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut perished.'"

Daniel looked back up from the book to the interested faces of Sam, Teal'c and General Hammond and Jack's scepticism. "The Strife, or Battle, of Camlann is dated to 537 AD and the Leode method of measuring by generations is by no means precise, so while I have said 600 AD for Arthur's arrival, it most likely means the late 500s. On Earth, it is said that after the battle at Camlann that King Arthur was taken by four enchantresses to Avalon to recover from his wounds and would return at a later time to rule again. On Aballo, the inscriptions say that after battling Camulus, Arthur and four score of maiden warriors travelled south to a cave of healing and would return to rule again."

"A cave?" Jack muttered beneath his breath. "I thought it was Merlin that got stuck in a cave."

"Stuck?" Daniel was puzzled for a moment. "Oh, you mean his enchanted imprisonment by the Lady of the Lake. Different prisons are variously described: yes a cave, but also a large rock, an invisible tower, or a tree."

"Ha!" Jack looked smug. "Always knew trees were dangerous."

Sam leaned forward, elbowing her commander, and addressed Daniel. "Wow, when you put it like that Daniel that does sound quite coincidental."

"I agree," Hammond nodded even as his brow furrowed, "however, Dr Jackson, I fail to see the purpose of what you have just told us."

"Don't you see General? If Earth's Arthur and Aballo's Arthur are one and the same, it could be the greatest revelation since the discovery of the stargate! More, it could help us. Arthurian legend speaks of Excalibur, a sword that cuts steel and blinds enemies and a scabbard that heals and those aren't the only weapons associated with him." Daniel picked up the remote again and clicked back to the full picture of the giant stone with its red painted runes. "Arthur of P3B-237 fought a goa'uld system lord and won and then he did not leave P3B-237 but went south—there is no telling what technologies he had with him or what we might discover if we look for him."

. . .

Uh-uh! Grass!
Long wavy grass.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!

. . .

Daniel bounced through the wormhole to sunny P3B-237 and skipped down the platform steps, thrilled that General Hammond had agreed to a follow up exploration of P3B-237 by SG-1 to investigate his theory. Once his feet hit dirt, he stopped and just marvelled at the sight before him. The stargate was encircled by twelve giant stones of rough rectangular shape that matched the device in height. Outside the stone circle stood the magnificent runestone commemorating Arthur's victory over Camulus and stretching out east, rows of standing stones dominated the grassy landscape and disappeared over the horizon.

The megaliths near Carnac, France was the closest Earth came to supporting the same number of stones as this planet but even that was a piddling three thousand stones to the sixteen thousand stones that had been surveyed on P3B-237 with the UAV.

He would love to have time to catalogue and examine the landscape, but that was not the purpose of this visit. They were here to locate, and possibly visit, the cave that Arthur had travelled to. Behind him he heard the sound of his teammates tromping down the platform, and once Sam had checked the DHD and radioed a status report back to Earth, the wormhole shut down with its signature sound.

"Explain to me again how we're supposed to know which way south King Arthur went?" Jack stopped beside him to complain as he used a crooked thumb to point south. "South is a lot of ground to cover Daniel and on this planet leads straight into a mountain range."

Daniel looked in the cardinal direction Jack indicated. The south was visually dominated by mountains that surged to the sky and uniquely had no intervening foothills, simply running from wavy grasslands, to alpine forests on the mountainsides, to snowy peaks. It created a stunning vista.

"I have to agree with the Colonel, Daniel," Sam stopped on his other side with her UTD out and pointed south, free hand shading the small screen from the sunlight. "SG-5 didn't get any unusual energy readings while they were here, and I'm not either."

"Which is why, as I said earlier," Daniel explained, "that our first stop is in the Leode village to speak with Headman Bjorn about the runestone erected in memorial of his grandfather. SG-5 did not photograph the runestone well enough for a good translation but I could make out that on it Bjorn's grandfather tells of how he travelled south to the Cave of Artio."

"Who's Artio?" Jack asked. "I thought we were looking for King Arthur."

"Artio is a diminutive and related to other etymological sources of the name Arthur," Daniel explained. "SG-5 also mentioned that it is also the name that the Leode address the hero by."

"Well then, onward to speak with the head by all means." Jack gestured at the beaten path that led east towards the Leode village beyond the horizon. Putting his sunglasses on and adjusting the brim of his cap, he set off.

Daniel fell in line behind Jack, and Sam and Teal'c fell in line behind him. Daniel felt the team soon hit their stride as they left the stargate behind. Even weighed down with field packs and weapons, they made good progress over the easy terrain and moved a bit faster than if they were the ones performing initial recon into unknown territory. To either side of them the rows of stones ranging in height from three to nine feet and various widths and shapes, rectangles, rounded, and pillars, stood.

It was not long before they came upon more signs of habitation besides the forest of standing stones they walked among—grazing cows with belled collars. But not modern cows that one saw on Earth, but aurochs with lyre-shaped horns set at a forward angle and pale stripe down the spine, the greater than man-sized males with black coats and smaller females and calves with reddish coats.

"Well, those aren't something you see every day," Jack waved a hand at one of the aurochs grazing on the grasses amongst the stones as they walked passed.

"Cows Sir?" Sam sounded like she doubted their leader's intelligence and worried about offending.

"Rock art cows," Jack elaborated.

Daniel lifted an eyebrow in amazement and could not resist saying, "I'm surprised that you know aurochs feature in prehistoric artwork on Earth, like the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in France."

Jack opened his mouth to retort but to Daniel's surprise snapped it shut without saying anything as the man cast a scowling look over his shoulder and picked up the pace.

Walking further they encountered more aurochs and began seeing sheep and boy shepherds with their dogs. Most of the boys just watched them pass, but some waved and Daniel cheerfully waved back.

Daniel figured they had covered two klicks when SG-1 crested a small rise in the landscape and the megaliths petered out down the slope. They could see clearly the large collection of circular homes with conical thatched roofs that made up the Leode village near a river half a klick away. From here to the riverbank, and across the river for another klick, fields marked the landscape. Where the fields across the river ended, megalithic alignments rose up again and marched over the horizon once again.

Village in sight now, the distance and time to it passed quickly. When they reached its bustling boarders, SG-1 was enveloped by a small crowd of excited and curious Leode in their Bronze Age style clothing of long-sleeved tunics, trousers, and long skirts for the women. The natives swiftly conducted them to Bjorn's house upon learning they wished to speak with the headman.

The pace through the village did not give Daniel any time to examine the elaborate geometric artwork with stylised animal heads carved into the wooden walls of the homes. He found it quite fascinating that the Leode had at some time begun constructing their walls of wood and not wad-and-dab like traditional Earth Bronze Age homes and yet retained the circular shapes.

One of the Leode ducked through the cloth door into the headman's hut and re-emerged with a large man whose russet hair and beard was turning grey that appeared in his late eighties.

"Hail and welcome! I am Bjorn, headman here," the man greeted them with hand outstretched, grey eyes cheerful as he looked them over.

"Hello, I'm Daniel Jackson," Daniel responded as his hand was taken by Bjorn for a firm and enthusiastic shake. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Sam Carter, and Teal'c."

"Ah, brothers and sister of Major Barlow I see," Bjorn shook Jack, Sam, and Teal'c's hand in turn with cheerful enthusiasm. "What brings you to our village?"

Daniel launched passionately into detailing his interest in Leode history and the reason for SG-1's visit and was pleased that Bjorn seemed so happy with his fascination with the Leode cultural hero. Happy and willing to speak and share what he knew.

"You say you wish to see my grandfather's memorial so see it you shall and I shall do my best to do the tale justice," Bjorn declared. "It is unfortunate that our skald has gone to visit the village of his wife's family, for he would be able to speak with greater skill of Artio and the great deeds performed. But come, come."

Bjorn led the four of them from the village and Daniel made sure to walk beside the headman to ask the man about his grandfather as they walked back into the grassy forest of standing stones. Daniel learned that Bjorn had only been a boy when his grandfather had passed but recounted what memories he had with great fondness.

They walked for about fifteen minutes, passing plain and carved stones that were like large boulders or tapered pillars. They stopped before a squared off megalith that stood six feet tall and was marked on the south face by rows of futhorc writing crisply painted in red bound by curving runic bands ending in animal heads. Circular art had been absorbed back into the Leode artistic tradition some generations ago.

Daniel was so excited as he trailed his fingers over the runes that he began to read aloud immediately: "Stygur gaerdi kumbl pau aft Oyvind—"

Jack loudly cleared his throat and interrupted him.

"What?" Daniel frowned at Jack.

"I'm sure what you just said was fascinating, but do you think you could find out whatever you want to find out and then tell us?" he said pointedly.

"Ah, oh, alright," Daniel looked from Jack back to the inscribed megalith.

"Good. Well you do your stuff, we'll be... securing the perimeter," Jack declared. "Gotta watch out for those cows. Teal'c? You know anything about cows?"

"Nothing," Teal'c stated.

Jack gestured in a sweeping arch to indicate the surroundings and the two warriors retreated amongst the standing stones.

Daniel watched them leave and when he looked to Sam, his eyes caught hers and they shared a look of amusement. Looking from Sam to Bjorn he was further amused, and exasperated, by the perplexed look on the headman's face who had become another victim of Jack's skewed humour. "Sam?"

"I think they'll do fine taking care of the... perimeter, without me," Sam grinned. "Besides, I want to hear about this cave."

Daniel smiled happily as he turned back to the inscribed megalith and gestured Bjorn closer so they could talk. Then he launched into his first question, about the origin of the stone, and he and Sam were soon involved in deep conversation with Bjorn about the history of the stone and the history of the man it memorialised.

. . .

Swishy swashy!
Swishy swashy!
Swishy swashy!

. . .

SG-1 and Bjorn, fifty minutes later, were standing south-east of the 'gate in a different section of standing stones a good distance away from Bjorn's grandfather's memorial and the village. The megaliths here stood in higher grass not grazed by aurochs or sheep and were worn by age and time without even traces of pigment colouring the straight lined inscriptions.

"So, you're absolutely certain that this rock," Jack pointed to a pillar stone as tall as he, with a notch carved on its west side, "points the way to King Arthur."

"Absolutely," Daniel affirmed. "Take Callanish on the coast of Scotland's Isle of Lewis for example, its stones have notches and angles cut into many of them which creates sightlines used for astronomical alignments—"

"Daniel," Jack growled.

He adjusted his glasses. "The point is that like on Earth, the people here notched stones to create specific sightlines. Bjorn mentioned while we were translating the runestone that his grandfather had told him that the Cave had been found by finding a notched stone that did not point to the sun or moon. While talking with me and Sam, Bjorn realised that was not something that their skald speaks of when telling the tale."

"Aye," Bjorn nodded and sent his shaggy russet hair flying, "I am sorry to say that I had not realised it till this day. Many a young man has tried to find the Cave—from before and since my grandfather's time and only a few have succeeded. I myself never tried, but ah, it would have been a wondrous thing."

"And this stone," Daniel ran his finger along the edge of the notch, "Bjorn tells me is the only notched stone near the stargate—there are no other notched stones on this side of the river."

Jack looked doubtfully from him to the stone to Bjorn and back to him again.

Daniel could see that Jack was sceptical, in particular about the headman remembering now and not decades ago about a notched stone being the clue they needed. "Jack, I'm confident that this stone shows us the way. Bjorn also says that as far as he knows, this notch has no lunar or solar alignment and there is nothing significant about the area of the southern mountains it lines up with."

Jack this time looked at Sam and when she nodded, he sighed and grumbled, "Alright, we'll give it a try. Carter, get our bearing from the rock, and let's be on our way."

Daniel beamed happily at Jack as Sam set to work. Farewells were swiftly exchanged and SG-1 left Bjorn and the megalithic alignments behind and walked south into the open grassland. Teal'c led now with staff weapon at the ready, with himself and Sam flanking to visually cover more area, and Jack brought up the rear.

Daniel found himself listening to the rhythmic swishy swashy sound the team made in the knee high grasses as they walked, disturbing the insect life as they moved. Already warm and lightly perspiring from the warm sunlight and journey from the 'gate to the village and back to the 'gate again, he was grateful when a breeze began to blow in their faces from the south-east, coming over the mountains.

His eyes ranged over the grasses they walked through, to the green alpine forested sides of the mountains that were their destination. It took him some distance to realise that the grasses had inched up in height, first to his knees and then over his knees up his thighs, the swishy swashy sound louder now.

After noticing that, he found himself rubbing under his nose. From there the itchiness seemed to spread, from his nose, to his eyes that began to burn, and then to his throat. The itch in his throat was followed by noisy throat clearings and then one loud sneeze.

Daniel mentally groaned at the all too familiar symptoms affecting him—accustomed since childhood to the dreaded sensation of hay fever. Blinking against the burning of his eyes, that sneeze was followed by more sneezing and Daniel started searching his vest pockets for his handkerchief. He'd used it earlier and absentmindedly stuffed it away, so it wasn't in its usual pocket. Finding it, he blew his nose loudly.

Jack sighed with loud aggravation behind him. "Daniel, I thought the Doc said you were over your cold."

"I am—she did!" Daniel protested and then sneezed. "This isn't a—achoo!—cold."

"I think I have to agree with him Sir," Sam cast him a sympathetic look as she waved a hand at the grass they were walking in. "I think what Daniel's experiencing is his allergies—hay fever."

"Oh, for cryin' out loud," Jack exasperatedly exclaimed from behind. "Daniel, I thought you took stuff for that."

"I—achoo!—do, and I took it before we left," Daniel sniffled, handkerchief in one hand as he reached for his vest pocket that held his extra antihistamines. "But there must be something in this grass that's worse than usual."

"Do we need to return to the stargate DanielJackson?" Teal'c solicited from ahead.

"No, no," Daniel waved his handkerchief in the air and then blew his nose. "I should be fine if I take more antihistamines, thanks Teal'c."

Finding the packet of antihistamines, Daniel tucked his handkerchief into that pocket for the moment so he could use both hands to pop pills from the foil. Stepping forward he sneezed again and the pills flew out of his hands as the ground disappeared beneath his foot and he found himself flying headfirst.

Daniel felt like his face was the first thing to make contact with the ground as his team reacted in their distinctively vocal ways. After hitting the ground, he lay there for several painful seconds of surprise.

"Ow," Daniel moaned as he rolled over to sit up, unknown hands assisting with the bulky weight of his field pack. Upon sitting up he discovered that his helper was Sam. His hands went immediately to his watery eyes that were watering from pain as well now—from the frames of his glasses being shoved into his face—and pulled his glasses off.

"Daniel, are you okay?" Sam crouched beside him with half her face shadowed by her cap.

"Yeah," Daniel said, his voice muffled behind his hands as he rubbed at his face; hearing the swishy swashy sound of Jack or Teal'c moving in the long grass.

"Here, Daniel, stop that," Sam caught his hands and pulled them from his face. "Let me look."

Daniel squinted, watery eyed, at Sam and let her look him over. While his face hurt, nothing was excruciatingly painful so he figured he knew what her verdict was going to be.

"Well, the nose pieces of your glasses didn't cause bleeding but they did leave marks. You'll probably have bad bruises in a bit," Sam announced and let go of his hands.

Agreeing with a cautious head nod, Daniel sat up and still squinting through watery eyes, held up his glasses for examination. He looked at the slightly twisted frame and bent nose piece and then he sighed. First hay fever and now this and today had started out so good too.

Sneezing, he got his handkerchief and blew his nose—carefully—before reaching into the vest pocket that held his spare set of glasses. Casting a blurry look at the concave dip of grasses that he had fell within, having caught his foot on the lip of the hallow in the ground, he asked, "So, what is this anyway?"

Daniel looked up and saw Jack step down about a foot into the concave dip, take two steps to his side and then squatting down held out a small square of silver. Even without his glasses on yet, Daniel could tell Jack was holding his packet of antihistamines.

"Only you Daniel," Jack said with a crocked grin, "would manage to trip into a buffalo wallow."

Chapter 2: Teal'c

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.

. . .

Teal'c stood with the club end of his weapon on the edge of the shallow dip that was sixteen Tau'ri feet in diameter and one Tau'ri foot deep that O'Neill had called a buffalo wallow and had to agree with the man's statement: only DanielJackson would be the one to discover and trip in such a thing in this flat landscape!

DanielJackson put on his second pair of eyeglasses, accepted the packet of medicine O'Neill was holding out and reached for the canteen at his waist. Popping out and swallowing down two of the pills, he sneezed again while screwing back on the lid of his canteen. "A buffalo wallow? You think there are bison on this prairie?"

"Buffalo, bison," O'Neill stood up from his crouch, "who cares. It was just as likely made by cows."

MajorCarter frowned as she stood too and cast a look around. "Cows Sir? We only saw them in the standing stones and near the village—you think they come this far out?"

O'Neill gave a careless shrug as he stepped out of the buffalo wallow. "Those were the tame ones; there could be migrating wild herds. See anything Teal'c?"

"I do not O'Neill," Teal'c responded as he cast another measuring look over the landscape and its blowing grasses.

"You think the bison or aurochs are around?" DanielJackson cast an anxious look around.

Teal'c observed that DanielJackson's sight was obscured as much by his still watering eyes as by the tall grasses he remained seated amongst.

O'Neill shook his head. "Doubt it. The floor of this wallow is concave and the plants aren't any different from what's around us. I think it's been abandoned."

Teal'c paid closer attention to the vegetation and discerned that O'Neill was correct; there were no plants in the wallow that he did not see growing elsewhere in the vegetation they stood within. He filed the information away and would keep an eye out for further evidence of bovine impact on the land.

DanielJackson sneezed, then held out a hand and MajorCarter assisted him to his feet. Slapping his hands on his pants to brush off the crushed grasses and seeds on the fabric he was giving O'Neill a curious look. "How do you know that? About buffalo wallows?"

"Some neighbours in Minnesota were ranchers and I used to play in their pastures as a boy," O'Neill answered shortly. "You ready to go Daniel?"

"Yeah, we can go," DanielJackson nodded, sneezed, and blew his nose. "It takes ten to fifteen minutes for the antihistamines I just took to work and standing here in the grass or walking in the grass won't make any difference."

Teal'c looked at O'Neill. He was unable to read O'Neill's face with accuracy due to the sunglasses and shadowing cap the man wore but it was easy enough to discern that O'Neill wished him to take the lead once more. Inclining his head in acknowledgement, he did so.

Striding off through the grassland again on the bearing MajorCarter had given him, he kept a more knowledgeable eye out for features that could bring further injury to his less observant companions. He could see no trails used repeatedly by animals and no signs in the grass that a large animal or human had passed this way.

All he disturbed as he walked was the grasses and the droning insects—and those he kept close and wary attention of. Before BP6-3Q1 he had concerned himself little about insect bites, confident in his prim'ta's ability to heal him of all ills and injuries. BP6-3Q1's metamorphosis insect however had taught him that the most overlooked creatures could be the deadliest threat.

Movement ahead in the grass to the left caught his attention. He swung the oval-shaped head of his weapon in that direction and switched his gaze from scanning to focused. Teal'c was unsure if the vision of DanielJackson, who was flanking his left, had recovered sufficiently yet since the additional medical treatment as the man was still sneezing.

The same movement. Then a small rodent was visible.

Pleased it was not a threat he pointed his weapon forward and watch curiously. The rodent demonstrated impressive acrobatic skills as it balanced upright between two seed heavy stalks, one hind leg on each stalk with a prehensile furred tail wrapped around one stalk for additional balance. It was busy bending one of the seed heads towards it and its nimble forelimbs stripped seeds off the stalks and then stuffed the seeds into its cheek pouches.

Then, cheek pouches full or alarmed by their approach; the rodent dropped down the stalks and disappeared into the grass.

Teal'c pointed his weapon forward and returned his gaze to scanning the grassland as the grasses bent in the wind and rippled like waves.

Studying what lay ahead, Teal'c noticed that the horizon of the grassland that met the dark green of the alpine forest on the slopes of the mountains was a grassy horizon band and not a merging with the mountainous forest. To his experienced eye that meant that the flat perception of the grassland was false. Ahead either the grassland dropped down from a plateau or it had been carved away by a river.

In either case, he hoped it did not required special equipment they did not possess to scale. It would be most inconvenient having traveled this distance, to have to return to SGC to secure what was needed.

Soon enough, the grassy horizon band began to break up with rolls and dips as the grasslands rolled down into a river valley.

. . .

Uh-uh! A river!
A deep cold river.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!

. . .

Teal'c stood on a grass capped hill of the river valley with his companions and surveyed the vista before him. The grassy hill sloped gently downwards, merging with the trees, shrubs, and other plants full of bird life along the banks of the river that ran east to west. The river lay directly across the path they were on.

Directing his gaze to the other side of the river, the thick plant life along the river petered out along the rising slope of the river valley to grasslands once again. Beyond the grassy edge, the land south of the river and its valley began from the grassland to rise gently into alpine forested hills that covered the skirts of the mountains.

"That river looks pretty deep from up here," DanielJackson peered downward.

"I concur," Teal'c agreed.

"Well, as long as it doesn't take us too far off our bearing," MajorCarter said, "we can probably cross where ever it looks best to do so."

"Teal'c?" O'Neill prompted.

Teal'c looked along the river, searching for what appeared to be a suitable crossing point. After some consideration he inclined his head to the right. "There appears to be a shallower stretch of river to the west O'Neill."

"Westward-ho!" O'Neill waved a hand to the right.

Angling to the right, Teal'c took the lead again with his companions in their previous formation behind him. They cut down and across the gentle slope and encroached into the river valley, the grasses of the prairie giving way to trees and shrubs that blocked their view of the river once they were amongst the taller woody vegetation.

Navigate the tall trees with trunks of smooth pale bark marked with black as the spire-like branches adorned with leaves trembled with every breeze was easy. More effort was needed to push through the denser growing trees with narrow lance-shaped leaves as tall as he and lower shrubs growing closer to the riverbank requiring he hold his weapon close to his body to avoid it snagging on any of the reaching plants and branches.

Emerging at the edge of the river Teal'c carefully examined both sides of the river. Unfortunately the river was deeper than he had judged, as indicated by its deeply cut banks. The clarity of the water had deceived him as viewed from the distant hilly top of the river valley.

"Well, if this is shallower I hate to see what's deep," O'Neill quipped as he peered into the clear deep waters of the river. "Hey, careful there Carter. Don't you think you could wait to do that?"

Teal'c swiftly checked on the woman in question. He found her perched precariously on the edge of the bank with laboratory glassware in one hand about to dip the receptacle into the river water and field pack on the ground beside.

Holding her precarious pose MajorCarter tilted her head so that her face was not shadowed by her cap as she answered, "I figured Sir, while you decide if we're going upstream or downstream it was an opportune time to get a water sample."

"What about when we're actually crossing the river? Couldn't you do it then?"

"I could but then we'd be busy crossing and contamination would be more likely."

O'Neill huffed and waved a hand. "Fine, fine, you get your water sample now."

MajorCarter flashed a smile and dipped the laboratory glassware and her fingertips into the water and then yanked it about out with a yelp, "Ah!"

Teal'c immediately raised his weapon, as did O'Neill, in response to her alarm. Had she been attacked by an aquatic creature or was the water dangerous: perhaps acidic?

"Sam, what is it?" DanielJackson took some quick steps to where MajorCarter was crouched on the riverbank.

"Sorry, didn't mean to alarm you," MajorCarter looked sheepish as she shook her hand out with a grimace after placing a small bung in the mouth of the laboratory glassware, "it's just darn, that water's cold."

Teal'c took his alertness level down a notch, the oval-shaped head of his weapon dipping downward, upon learning that it had been a yelp of surprise at the water temperature.

Stowing the tube into her pack she looked up at O'Neill and said, "Sir, find a very, very shallow place to cross. If this river isn't glacier fed, it's definitely snow fed."

"It's really that cold?" DanielJackson wondered as he leaned over the bank to look into the river.

MajorCarter's sheepish look faded and she said with a touch of irritation, "Test it for yourself."

DanielJackson did just so, crouching down and sticking his hand into the water and then yanked it out with a loud, "Whoa! That's not cold Sam, that's icy!"

Looking vindicated MajorCarter snapped her pack back on and standing up, turned her gaze to O'Neill once again. "So Sir?"

"Well, as you two seem to be vetoing the ice bath today," O'Neill teased lightly, "I guess we'll have to find a shallow enough place to ford. Carter, you with me and we'll go upstream. Teal'c, you and Daniel go downstream. One klick max in either direction—and if someone doesn't find a good place before then, we'll confer about crossing where we can. Radio every three minutes or when you've found the spot."

"Why only one klick?" DanielJackson questioned.

"Because, depending which group finds the shallowest place the other group will have to walk double the distance to get there," O'Neill explained. "Nor do we want to be at this all day."

"Oh, right. Well, come on Teal'c," DanielJackson turned to the right and began heading downstream, "let's get moving."

Teal'c gave O'Neill a brisk nod and then fell into step behind DanielJackson who began to noisily push through the underbrush and plants along the riverbank. They found nowhere along the river that seemed fortuitous for a safe and shallow crossing. By means of the radio checks with O'Neill and MajorCarter they knew that the search upstream was also without positive results.

Their fortune turned however near the maximum distance O'Neill had allotted for travel. The river water lapped up the banks instead of undercutting it and multitude of rocks were visible in the clear water, some breaking the surface and had the water running with a merry sound.

"It appears we have found a place to ford DanielJackson," Teal'c observed the stretch of river with approval. Its deepest point appeared to reach the bottom of his knee.

DanielJackson's head bobbed in agreement as he lifted a hand to the radio on his vest and radioed their find to their other teammates. Discovery and message passed along, the archaeologist dropped his hand from the radio. "Well then, I guess we wait until they get here. Jack said it should take them fourteen or more minutes."

"Indeed," Teal'c inclined his head as he looked at the river that burbled happily as it ran over the rocks of the shallow stretch, the profusion of green plants and birds that flew about, and even the glimmer of fish in the crystal clear water. It was a pleasant place to wait.

. . .

Splash splosh!
Splash splosh!
Splash splosh!

. . .

Teal'c heard the approach of O'Neill and MajorCarter before they pushed through the trees and underbrush to join himself and DanielJackson. He had spent the time waiting on his feet in a relaxed state of alertness, surveying the surroundings for anything unusual or untoward but enjoying its tranquility. To pass the time DanielJackson had plopped himself down on the ground and started writing away in one of his many field journals; the scholar now packed the writing material away and climbed to his feet.

O'Neill gave an approving nod as he surveyed the shallow ford. "Good find guys. Definitely better than the waist-wader Carter and I found."

"Who shall proceed across first O'Neill?" Teal'c inquired.

"I'll go first," O'Neill announced and then took a step forward into the river with a loud splash splosh, water running over the top of his combat boot. "Well, here's to hoping this water's got no leeches."

Teal'c was in agreement with O'Neill on that matter. He had no desire to encounter or deal with the segmented worms that fed on the blood of other beings.

"Leeches shouldn't be a problem Sir with your clothes," MajorCarter called after O'Neill as the man forded forward.

"So you're telling me there are leeches in here?" O'Neill called back over his shoulder as he carefully progressed further into the river, the water now running over the top of the man's boots and soaking his pant legs. "Oy, you weren't kidding about the water being cold Carter. Now I'm really glad we didn't have to swim across!"

Teal'c observed MajorCarter and DanielJackson exchanged amused, and somewhat triumphant, looks because after all O'Neill had just affirmed their judgement of the river water's temperature.

"No Sir, Daniel and I weren't kidding. As for the leeches, I don't know Sir, but it's a possibility as they primarily live in freshwater on Earth, although they have been found in marine and terrestrial environments. Besides I thought you liked leeches."

"Like leeches?" O'Neill sounded incredulous as he reached the middle of the sparkling clear river, the water just at his knees. "Now where Carter, did you get a crazy idea like that?"

Teal'c cast an inquiring look at MajorCarter himself in reaction to that statement, and saw that DanielJackson was doing the same.

"Well, you like fishing don't you Sir?"

"Carter, what sort of stupid question is that?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow skyward as he remembered his recent excursion to O'Neill's forested retreat in the north of the man's country and engaging in the activity of fishing which seemed more to be acting as bait for blood drinking bugs than procuring fish. It was, as O'Neill's crass but succinct retort revealed, a redundant inquiry on the part of MajorCarter. Looking at the woman however who had her head lowered slightly with the brim of her cap acting as a shield, he could see a teasing smile tug at the corners of her mouth.

"Well, you like fishing so I figure you liked leeches for bait Sir."

"Night crawlers and worms only Major," O'Neill raised his voice to be heard over the distance as he stepped onto the far southern bank and turned to face them across the river. "I have to deal with enough blood suckers at work and those ones push needles! You next Carter!"

Teal'c already had an eye on MajorCarter and saw the subtle movements that betrayed the fact she squared her shoulders before stepping into the river with a light splash splosh. Her shorter height meant that at the deepest point of the ford the water rose over her knees and following almost exactly in the path that O'Neill had taken, she was able to ford the river at a quicker pace in comparison to their leader.

He watched MajorCarter join O'Neill on the southern riverbank and they held a brief conversation, too low to be heard over the distance and happily bubbling water of the ford, before O'Neill turned his attention back across the river.

"Okay Daniel, your turn!" O'Neill called out.

As the scholar crossed the ford Teal'c raised an eyebrow upwards again at the quick, hopping actions of DanielJackson accompanied by loud splash splosh noises; the man hopped forward and almost seemed to stand on one leg before hoping forward again. It was a most peculiar way to cross the river.

"What's the rush Daniel?" O'Neill asked.

"It's cold!" DanielJackson hopped forward quickly again.

"I know it is, but slow down and walk!" O'Neill said exasperated. "You keep hopping about and you're going to put your foot down wrong and take a dunking!"

"But it's c-cold!" DanielJackson protested again, a knee lifted high of the water as he stood briefly on one leg.

"Walk Daniel!" O'Neill ordered.

It was the commanding tone, the wobble that Teal'c observed as DanielJackson stood on one leg in the knee deep water, or both that had the scholar stop trying to hop across the river and walk the remaining distance to the south shore.

Teal'c hefted his weapon and stepped into the water as DanielJackson stepped onto the far bank. Even forewarned by the words and antics of his companions, when he stepped far enough into the river that the water was over the top of his combat boots, the icy bite of the water was painful against the skin of his legs as it soaked through his pants.

A second step and he canted his head to the side and looked upstream curiously. Did his ears deceive him? The water rushing through the ford and over the outcropping rocks sounded louder.

Two steps more and Teal'c knew without a doubt the river, dirty now and not sparkling clear, was running faster and was also running higher as the water surged to below his knees. He was not even a quarter across and the increasing current tugged strongly at his legs.

Looking to his companions on the far bank who looked at him with faces of worried realisation as a low roar was heard further upstream he had only moments to decide: risk joining them or retreat back to the north bank.

Something in his face must have betrayed him to O'Neill when he made his decision and took his first step knowing he had seconds, or less, to escape the flash flood that was bearing down on him.

"Damnit Teal'c! Get back!" O'Neill shouted.

Teal'c moved forward; fighting to keep his balance in the rushing icy water as it climbed up his legs. Another fighting step and the current nearly swept him off his feet and downstream, dirty water now above his waist. As the force began pummelling his abdominal pouch his prim'ta began to undulate unsettlingly.

He ignored the sensation and continued to fight his way across the flooding ford. In the centre of the river the water level was midway up his chest and a misstep now would be disastrous.

"Teal'c! Grab hold!"

Looking up at O'Neill's order, he saw MajorCarter tossing one of the ropes they carried off to his left to let the rushing water carry it to his side. Once it reached him, he wrapped the length of twisted fibres firmly around his left forearm and elbow. "I have the rope O'Neill!"

"Good!" O'Neill shouted.

The three humans on the southern bank took up the slack and working in concert with Teal'c's walking, began to reel him to the safety as he determinedly forded the flooded river. One last yank and he reached the riverbank. The hands of O'Neill and DanielJackson clamped onto his shoulders and he was hauled up the shore and out of the raging floodwaters to land on his hands and knees.

"Wow Teal'c, I'm surprised you didn't lose your staff weapon!" DanielJackson exclaimed.

His lungs heaving from exertion and his body dealing with the adrenaline cocktail in his bloodstream he felt no need to reply. He would be a very poor Jaffa if he let nothing less than death pry his ma'tok from his grip.

In his pouch his prim'ta was still undulating with agitation, its movements still invoking a nauseous sensation in his belly. Forcing down the nausea with swallows of air, he caught his breath and looked up into the angry and relieved face of his commander—sunglasses absent—and found brown eyes furiously boring into his gaze.

"Teal'c," O'Neill sucked in a breath of air, "you pull a stupid stunt like that again," the man sucked in another breath, "and I'll throw you back in myself!"

"I believe O'Neill; I shall save you the trouble and throw myself in," Teal'c declared staunchly.

O'Neill gave a weak laugh, more a sound of relief than amusement, as he slapped Teal'c's shoulder. "C'mon, let's get you into dry clothes and clean your gear off."

Teal'c nodded his agreement with that pleasant course of action and accepted the hand O'Neill held out to him, to assist him from all fours to stand upright.

Chapter 3: Major Samantha Carter

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.

. . .

Sam thought that had been too close for comfort as she wrung the last of the water out of the rope. It felt like her heartbeat was just getting back to normal. Casting a look at the river, she saw it looked normal again and the only sign of the flash flood was the still browned water.

Underbrush crackled and she looked from beneath her cap brim to see Teal'c push through the willow-like trees back to where the rest of the team was waiting. Teal'c was in dry clothes now and carrying his wet field pack in one hand and still dirty staff weapon in the other.

"You okay Teal'c?" Sam critically eyed Teal'c with concern. The first aid she could offer Teal'c as the designated medic was small considering his enhanced alien constitution, but she would do what she could—and what he would let her.

"I am fine MajorCarter." Teal'c set his field pack down beside the pile hers, the Colonel's, and Daniel's field packs made. Kneeling, he opened up the field pack he had just set down and pulled out the cleaning kit.

"None of the dirty water got into your pouch did it?"

Teal'c gave a single shake of his head. "My prim'ta is unharmed."

"Good." Sam was relieved as she packed the rope away.

Teal'c settled onto the ground in a lotus-position with his cleaning kit in front of him. With quick economical movements he began wiping down his staff weapon.

Finished restoring the contents of her pack to their proper order she asked, "Sir? What about Teal'c's pack? It's going to be wet for a while longer and if he starts carrying it now, he'll just get his dry shirt damp and dirty."

"No help for that Carter," the Colonel said a bit regretfully, "but damp is better than soaking wet at least, hey T?"

Teal'c inclined his head in agreement.

Sam watched as his hands wiped down his staff weapon and ended the cleaning by triggering open the oval-shaped head to check the naquadah capsule. Even she could see the capsule was fine and he set aside the staff weapon to wipe down his zat.

"All done Teal'c?" the Colonel asked as Teal'c began packing the cleaning kit back together.

"I am O'Neill."

"Let's get moving then," the Colonel stepped to the pile of field packs. Hefting up her pack, he promoted for her to present her back by twirling a finger around.

Sam pulled the strap of her P90 over her head and turned around as promoted. Feeling the pack against her back, she reached over her shoulder with one hand and helped him snap the clips of her pack into her vest.

"Good Carter?" he asked as he snapped the last clip into place and released his hold on the pack.

Sam gave a small shimmy of her back to check that it was sitting properly. It was, so she slung her P90 strap back over her head. "Good Sir."

Turning around, she bent down and hefted up the Colonel's field pack and helped clip it into place on his vest when he presented his back to her. Both hands still on the pack, she adjusted it and asked. "Sitting right Sir?"

The Colonel rolled his shoulders underneath the field pack, nodded, and slung the strap of his P90 back over his head.

She turned her attention to the other two, she saw that Daniel already had his field pack on and was just starting to help Teal'c with his. Stepping up beside the two men, she took the clips on one side of Teal'c and left the other to Daniel.

"All set?" the Colonel asked as he looked them over once everyone was geared up and then put his sunglasses back on. "Good. Carter, you lead and get us on the right bearing again."

"Yes Sir," Sam gave a brisk nod and took the lead as ordered. Daniel took the left side again, the Colonel the right where she had been, and Teal'c now in the rear.

Pushing through the densely growing willow-like trees and shrubs in the riparian zone, in a short time they were amongst the more widely spaced white and black marked trunks of the trembling aspen-like trees that covered the slopes of the river valley.

Just as Teal'c had taken them into the river valley at an angle, she took them up and out at an angle. It was much easier cutting across the river valley slope then climbing straight up even if it a bit longer.

After fifteen minutes and covering a klick of ground, they reached the crest of the river valley and the flat prairie that stretched out to the mountains ahead. At the top of the valley Sam dug her instrument out of a vest pocket, and holding her hand up to the brim of her cap for additional shade from the sunlight, orientated herself.

"South-east now Sir," Sam announced as she tucked the instrument back into her pocket and pointed south-east to the alpine forest covered slope of the mountain the notched standing stone among the megalithic alignments had aligned with.

The Colonel stepped up beside her muttering, "Zag and zig, zig and zag. One would think Ziggy was in charge of picking our direction."

"If it was Ziggy Sir, we'd be dealing with an ego the size of McKay's."

"What?"

Sam could tell he was giving her a blank look even with his eyes obscured by his sunglasses. Straight faced she answered, "Ziggy Sir, the artificial intelligence that runs the Project Quantum Leap."

The Colonel held up a finger. "Carter, I don't want to know anything about a project that involves the word quantum."

Daniel snorted behind them. "It's a TV show Jack."

"What?" the Colonel said again.

"Quantum Leap," Daniel answered as he moved up beside them, "it's a TV show and Ziggy is the name of a computer on it."

The Colonel wagged the finger he was still holding up at her. "Ah Carter, it is not fun to confuse your CO."

"Sir, no, Sir," Sam answered dutifully.

"That's better Major," the Colonel approved as he gave a nod for emphases. "Now, let's get going."

"Sir, yes, Sir," Sam answered as she stepped forward and passed him, and began walking through the knee high grass. Clear of his line of sight she let the grin she had been holding back split her face. It was so fun to confuse her CO.

. . .

Uh-uh! Mud!
Thick oozy mud.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!

. . .

Sam strode through the tall grass and knew the team was making good time over the relatively flat terrain. Soon they would soon be able to turn directly south again. The bright sun continued to shine, the heat of it relieved by the light breeze coming off the mountain that waved the grasses about like waves. The only life encountered, beyond the birds along the river valley, was the droning and buzzing insects they disturbed while walking and the bugs had yet to show any interest in them.

Her eyes of course were open for any aurochs or bison that made these grasslands their home, but beyond the one wallow that Daniel had the misfortune to trip into, had not seen any evidence of them.

Sam lifted her hand to block the sun in the sky and tilted her head to the side. They had been on the planet for over three hours now, covered thirteen klicks—well Daniel and Teal'c only eleven—and had come through the 'gate in the late morning and the sun was now at the apex of the sky. Peeling the Velcro on her watch back she checked the time and noted it was two hours short of noon back at SGC.

She stuck the Velcro back down and paused in mid-step. What had she just stepped on? Behind the men drew up short as well, alarmed and cautious because of her suddenly tense pose. Holding her P90 steady she bounced lightly in place. She wasn't positive, but the ground seemed a little springy underfoot.

"Problem Carter?" the Colonel warily asked from his holding position to her right.

"Hope not Sir." Sam took half a dozen more cautious steps forward and bounced again. Then she walked forward another half a dozen steps and bounced in place for the third time. Yep, the ground was definitely bouncing a little like it was spongy.

"Carter?" the Colonel prompted, his voice shifting from wary to curious.

Sam figured his tonal change was from watching her step-bounce routine. She took time to examine the terrain around as she mentally evaluated the situation and formulated an answer. Knee high grass grew thick and vibrant before them and covered the ground in a concealing blanket. Lifting her gaze up, she studied the elevation of the land and the mountains beyond.

"I think Sir," Sam finally spoke, "we're walking into a wet meadow—a semi-wetland meadow which is saturated with water throughout much of the year."

"Ah, from what do you think?" the Colonel asked.

"Well, it could be poor drainage or this area receives large amounts of water from rain or melted snow," Sam answered, looking over her right shoulder to him. "Also, considering the terrain, prairie into mountain, there could be something unique about the geography and water has been forced to the surface from an underground source."

"Okay," the Colonel nodded as he took in her answer, "do you think there is going to be any standing water present?"

"Doubtful. Standing water in wet meadows is usually only present for limited periods during the growing season and judging from the growth of the vegetation we have seen, this planet is well into its summer." Sam looked forward and resumed leading, feeling the ground grow progressively springy beneath her feet. Behind her she heard the men resume walking forward as well. In time, even Teal'c's usually silent tread was audible in the increasingly damp and squishy ground underneath their combat boots.

Sam also hoped that there were no standing pools for two reasons. One: as the depth would be unknown and tricky to judge it would be safest to skirt the area and that would take up more time to do. Two: they were not of interest to the local insect life and she did not want to discover if they were to the taste of P3B-237's mosquitoes.

Though she supposed the mosquitoes would make the Colonel feel at home if what he said about Minnesota was true.

A short time later, it looked like she would have to recant her earlier statement about the possibility of standing water being present was low considering it was summer. Intermingling now with the prairie grasses were small bunches of reeds that indicated the ground here was wet enough throughout the year to support the perennial reeds. The further they walked, the more reeds she saw in the grasses until she was seeing small pools or seeps of water in thinned out spots of vegetation.

Sam cast a critical look ahead but the thick grass and reed cover continued over the horizon and she could not see anything ahead that suggested there were larger open areas of water like a slough. No evidence of water fowl either.

The ground underfoot was getting even spongier though. Checking her back trail she saw that the ground did not spring back into place now as the imprint of her combat boot was left pressed into the ground and filled with water.

"Ah!"

The loud squawking yelp to her left had Sam twisting her torso as her heartbeat jumped in alarm to look at Daniel. He was giving them all a rather sheepish look as he gave his right leg a good yank, which the ground released with a muffled slurping pop.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to alarm you all," Daniel apologised abashed. "Boot got stuck there for a moment. Thought I was going to lose it."

A snort from her right had her turning to look at the Colonel to see the corners of his eyes crinkling up around the frame of his sunglasses and an amused quirk to his lips.

"Well, if you laced them up properly you won't have to worry about that," the Colonel chided.

"They are laced up properly," Daniel protested.

"Then why did you worry?" the Colonel needled. "These boots aren't like rubber boots—you can't lose them in mud."

Sam smiled as a childhood memory sparked at the Colonel's words. "That ever happened to you Sir?"

"What?" the Colonel turned his face towards her.

"Losing a boot while playing in the mud as a child?" Sam asked. "I remember one time in spring playing in the mud of the garden with Mark and one of my boots got so stuck that I had to wait for the garden to dry out to dig the boot out."

The Colonel chuckled. "And how did you get out if you had to wait for the garden to dry out?"

"Not sure really, I don't remember that part." Sam frowned as she tried to remember and then shrugged. "I probably walked out on my bare feet."

"Well," the Colonel grinned, "I never lost a boot like that but yeah, I've played in quite a few mud puddles in my time. You Daniel?"

"Not really," Daniel shook his head.

"I find that hard to believe," the Colonel interjected, "you digging in the dirt all the time."

"Dirt is not mud," Daniel said firmly. "And while yes, a few excavations in the States and South America got rained on, most of my work was done in Egypt as you well know."

"Sand, pah," the Colonel dismissed with a hand wave. "Come on, you mean to tell me you never played in the mud as a kid?"

"Okay, once or twice," Daniel confessed as he reached up and started to push his glasses further up his nose. As the nose pads touched the bruised area he winced in surprise, having evidently forgotten his injury for a time. "In the foster homes we did splash in mud puddles and make mud pies."

"Ha, I knew it," the Colonel crowed.

"You consumed mud as a child DanielJackson?" Teal'c inquired.

"What? No!" Daniel denied with a head shake. "It's a childhood pastime to make pies of mud."

Teal'c frowned. "Would it not be more productive to make a pie from nourishing sustenance?"

"For fun Teal'c, kids don't actually eat mud pies," the Colonel explained. "Kids just have fun making them and playing with them."

"I see," Teal'c answered.

Sam gave an amused shake of her head as she turned away from the men's banter to resume walking. Teal'c's tone of voice said quite clearly that he did not understand and was just putting up with the foolish foibles of Earth humans.

. . .

Squelch squerch!
Squelch squerch!
Squelch squerch!

. . .

Not long after Sam started leading the team forward again, the spongy squishy ground grew increasingly mucky underfoot and every step they made was accompanied by a distinctive squelch squerch sound. Reeds dominated the plants now and water beetles skittered on top of the water between the stalks as the symphony of frogs serenaded them.

"Daniel," Sam directed her voice over her left shoulder, "I don't remember mud being one of the trials Bjorn recounted when talking about his grandfather's adventure."

"There were trials?" the Colonel asked sharply. "You didn't mention there being trials Daniel."

"If you had stayed to listen instead of guarding against cows," Daniel chided, "you would have learned that Bjorn's grandfather mentioned overcoming trials, like the river we forded."

"So, they're not booby-trap trials? Just obstacles?" the Colonel questioned.

"Well, yes, obstacle might be a better choice of word. Bjorn's grandfather told of crossing a raging river, travelling through a mighty forest, and braving a fierce storm of snow," Daniel recounted. "That would explain why the tale doesn't have anything about mud in it Sam. The journey sounds like it took place in winter and this area would have been frozen."

"Then why was the river such a big deal?" the Colonel asked. "If it was winter, the river would have been frozen too."

"I don't know, maybe because the river is open during the winter?" Daniel suggested.

Sam opened her mouth to respond but snapped it shut as she went to take a step forward and found she couldn't. Shooting a disgruntled look down at her combat boots in the muddy ground, the water swirling a few inches below where her pants were tucked in, she jerked her left foot and confirmed, yep—it wouldn't budge.

Shifting her weight more to her right foot, and hoping it wouldn't get stuck in the mud too, she made a second attempt to yank her foot free. The mud held fast and she didn't feel the suction release one iota.

The squelch squerch sounds of the men's boots in the mud behind her grew louder as they tromped closer; still walking even though she had been forced to stop.

"What's up Carter?" the Colonel asked as he came up to her right shoulder.

"I'm stuck Sir," Sam was forced to admit, ducking her head in an attempt to hide her flush of embarrassment beneath the shadowing brim of her cap.

There was a long, delicate pause.

"Say that again Major?" the Colonel finally asked.

"I am stuck, Sir." Sam forced herself to repeat clearly through her mortification.

"Major, you're telling me that this big bad mud puddle decided to eat your boot?"

Cheeks still burning hot and eyes downcast, Sam nodded.

"Okay Carter, I expect this sort of thing from Daniel—" there was a strangled protest at the dig from the man in question at her left shoulder "—but not you Major."

She did not know how to respond to that so stayed silent in her humiliated misery.

"I know," the Colonel snapped the fingers of one hand together, "what we need are some bars of smelly yellow soap."

"Bars of smelly yellow soap Sir?" Her brow furrowed in puzzlement as she stared at the muddy ground. Trying to work out the teasing lilt to the last few words that meant the Colonel was referring to something but she was unable to deduce what.

"Yeah, Major, big bars of smelly yellow soap that would chase this mud puddle away," the Colonel teased.

The words of the children's picture book clicked and even embarrassed Sam couldn't resist responding to his teasing as she lifted her eyes to his finally. "Across the grass, over the fence, and never come back?"

"Exactly Major," the Colonel approved, "but seeing as we don't carry smelly yellow bars of soap I suppose we'll have to come up with Plan B."

"We always have to use Plan B Jack," Daniel objected.

"Not always," the Colonel cast a glance at Daniel, the same teasing lilt to his voice. "Sometimes we have to use Plan C through Z."

Sam straightened out her expression by the time the Colonel looked back at her, humiliating situation or not she always enjoyed his humour, and knew from the amused curve to his mouth that he knew somehow she was amused. Shifting his P90 to his other grip, he held out his closest forearm theatrically like a gentleman offering his arm to escort a lady.

"Here Carter, try again."

"Thank you Sir," Sam murmured quietly, adjusted her P90 against her chest, and closed a hand around his forearm. Gripping firmly, she tried using his arm for leverage while putting her left leg muscles into yanking on her stuck boot. The effort was as futile as the first three tries.

"Huh," the Colonel grunted.

Sam felt the muscles of his forearm that he had been using to brace her relax. She stopped trying to pull her boot free and lifted her gaze again to his face, mostly inscrutable because of the sunglasses he wore, but fine lines on his forehead were beginning to crease into a frown.

"Your boot really is stuck," the Colonel remarked and then the frown lines smoothed out as the corners of his mouth kicked up with amusement. "We goin' to have to wait for the ground to dry out to dig you out, like you did for your rubber boot as a kid?"

Sam reminded herself that rolling one's eyes at one's commander was technically insubordination. "Digging, or a shovel anyway, may help Sir."

"What?" the Colonel gave his patented puzzled frown at her. "How?"

"It is possible to use the shovel as a leverage to apply force to release the asymmetries of the intermolecular forces between the surface molecules—"

"Carter."

"Sorry Sir. Using a shovel as leverage may break the suction."

"See Major, simple words, simple concept. Teal'c, go help Daniel get his shovel out and then come here to help me."

Sam listened to Teal'c moving about behind her with loud mucky sounding footsteps. For as soft footed as Teal'c was, his weight was greater and had made his footfalls noisy in the mud and muck as he went to Daniel's side. The noisy steps halted and glancing to her left, Sam could see that Daniel and Teal'c were now side by side and Teal'c handed his staff weapon to Daniel to hold while retrieving an entrenching tool from Daniel's field pack.

Daniel handed the staff weapon back to Teal'c and accepted the folding shovel with a frown. "Jack, why do I have to be the one to dig?"

"Because that's your profession," the Colonel said glibly.

Sam suppressed a chuckle as she saw Daniel roll his eyes and knew it was probably because the archaeologist felt like he had walked right into that.

"Okay Teal'c, while Daniel works on loosening Carter's boot, we'll pull," the Colonel instructed as he shifted his forearm and directed her hand into the gloved palm of his.

Teal'c inclined his head, and manoeuvring around Daniel, came to stand before her like the Colonel was on her left side. He offered the hand that was not holding his staff weapon and Sam grabbed onto it with a friendly smile of thanks.

"Ready Daniel?" the Colonel asked.

Sam glanced down to her left foot and saw that Daniel had crouched down, careful to stay above the mucky water and had sunk his shovel into the mud almost parallel with her boot.

"Ready," Daniel answered has he pulled on the shovel handle like a leaver.

Sam looked back at the two men she was holding onto and squeezed their hands as a signal she was ready. Muscles bunched and strained and Sam tried again to yank her stuck foot from the mud. The straining was in vain again and her boot remained stuck fast.

"Enough," the Colonel barked with obvious annoyance as he relaxed his pulling.

Sam released a huffy breath of annoyance at the fourth failed attempt as Teal'c followed the Colonel's lead.

"What now Jack?" Daniel asked.

"Now, you and I switch places," the Colonel instructed as he pulled his hand from hers and began working on stripping off his gloves. Gloves off and tucked into a vest pocket, he moved around her to take Daniel's place.

"You think you can do better than me? Didn't you just say I was the professional?" Daniel taunted.

"One that needs to go back to dig school obviously," the Colonel snapped, moving his P90 to the side of his body as he crouched down on her left side and wiggled and pulled on the entrenchment tool in the mud.

Sam was disappointed that using the shovel hadn't worked and knew it was because the tool hadn't been able to get leverage in the mud. Once the Colonel yanked the tool from the mud, he stabbed it back into the muck an arm's length away, and to her surprise, started untying her bootlaces that were an inch or so above the mud.

"What are you doing Sir?" Sam looked down at him in puzzlement. It would be impossible to unlace her boot entirely, enveloped as it was in mud, to get her foot out so she had no idea what he was up to.

"Getting a better grip Major," the Colonel answered without looking up at her. Laces untied, he wedged his fingers between her boot and her leg in the front and back and gripped. "Okay, Daniel, Teal'c, ready?"

"Minute," Daniel hurried to stand in front of her and offer his hand for her to grab. "Okay, ready."

"Then pull," the Colonel ordered.

Sam once again pulled back on her teammate's hands as they pulled forward, straining her left leg at the same time in the attempt to pull her foot free. The Colonel at her foot pulling directly on her boot; the force alternating between hands in a jerking motion.

Squelch squerch!

The muck released her boot noisily and the sudden give of suction had her letting go of the boys' hands in surprise. Off balance, she stumbled forward a few steps before being caught and halted from a forward plunge by Teal'c.

"Are you alright MajorCarter?" he asked solicitously as he set her upright.

"Yes, I'm fine." Sam said gratefully, flushed from exertion. "Thanks guys."

"Wow," Daniel remarked, "what did you do Jack?"

"What we used to do as kids to get rubber boots free," the Colonel answered as he casually pulled the set-aside shovel from the ground and straightened up from his crouch. Stepping forward to stand where they were, he held the mud encrusted tool out to Daniel. "You wiggle the boot as much as pull."

"Thanks Sir," Sam expressed her gratitude again as she leaned over to lace up and retie the top of her boot, tucking her P90 against her body so it wouldn't swing forward on its strap.

"Don't fret it Major," the Colonel patted her on the shoulder in her leaned over position. "I'm going to milk this for a long time to come."

Chapter 4: Colonel Jack O'Neill

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.

. . .

Jack scanned the marshy terrain as his second finished lacing up her left boot and Daniel worked on cleaning off his shovel in the shallow dirty water. Even though he had, and would, tease Carter about getting stuck, he hoped that this mucky ground would not become a serious obstacle. He had no desire to try out this planet's version of mud baths—any planet's really, even Earth. After a godforsaken op in the cold, leech infested mud of a country that would remain nameless, not even some fancy spa could ever make mud look good again.

Jack got his fingerless gloves out of the vest pocket he had stashed them in and by the time he had finished putting them on and was holding his P90 comfortably again, the shovel was reasonably cleaned and back in Daniel's pack.

"Well," Jack clapped his hand onto Carter's shoulder a second time as she straightened up with colour still high on her face, "you in the lead again Major."

"Yes Sir," Carter bobbed her head and stepped forward past Daniel and Teal'c.

Jack felt one corner of his mouth twitch at the overtly relieved tone of her voice—typical of Carter to seek reprieve from mortification in work. He was tempted to say something to her about that, but held off because she would be expecting it in a way. Better to hold off and spring the teasing on her when she was not expecting it. Like in the weeks to come if a big bar of smelly yellow soap was to turn up in her locker...

He waved his hand at the two others and they fell back into step and their former formation behind Carter as the team resumed the march through the muck.

Jack wondered, as bugs skittered away and noisy frogs hopped out of his way, why he had not seen any shorebirds like the long billed snipes in the reed thick water. The thick reeds could explain why he wasn't seeing any waterfowl like ducks, but not why there weren't any birds going after the bugs. Ecologically diverse worlds like this were equally diverse in wildlife—unlike baked rocks masquerading as desert planets that made him question the intelligence of the Ancients for putting a stargate there.

Tromping forward and in checking their back trail periodically as part of his scanning pattern for threat assessment, he noticed that he could actually see into the river valley a bit. He hadn't noticed anything while walking, but it looked like the ground was rising which made sense considering their goal was the mountains.

In time the reeds became the long grasses again and the watery mucky ground changed to the firm footing of the grasslands. Looking over his shoulder again he saw the more vibrant green of the wet meadow amongst the prairie grasses now that he knew to look for it. He wasn't looking forward to slogging back through the mud on the way back to the 'gate. Carter's little mud incident could have been worse, much worse.

They had been walking in the grass a bit when Carter slowed her steps, cautiously approaching the edge of an elliptical area of beaten down grass about a hectare in size.

There were a few clumps of still standing grass in the beaten back area but not in any noticeable pattern. The area reminded him of something he had seen in Minnesota and when the breeze rustled dried stalks and flirted with a few snagged feathers, even though there were no birds present and engaged in their mating displays, Jack was pretty certain he knew what they were facing.

A UTD did its magical act and appeared in Carter's hand and after a moment she announced, "I'm getting no energy readings. Daniel, suggestions?"

Daniel took a few steps forward to stand beside Carter and peered at the disturbed area himself. "I'm not sure Sam. The disturbance of the ground could be recent, but it is known that some plants won't grow in disturbed soil so it could be that this disturbance was done a long time ago."

"Or," Jack stepped up beside the two as they puzzled together, "it's a prairie chicken lek."

Two pairs of blue eyes turned to look at him with bewilderment.

"Lek?" Daniel furrowed his brow. "Play?"

Jack frowned in turn as he pulled off his sunglasses and let them hang by their string. "Play? What are you talking about Daniel?"

"That's what you just said, lek, Swedish for 'play.'"

Jack shook his head. "No, a lek. You know, a booming ground."

Daniel continued to look at him in puzzlement and a quick look at Carter showed a similar mystified look on her face.

"Come on," Jack cajoled his science twins, "you two have to know what I'm talking about."

"I would agree with O'Neill," Teal'c stepped up to where they were clustered, "that this is an area for collective mating displays of poultry."

"Thank you! Why is it that he got that but you two didn't?" Jack waved an exasperated finger at Daniel and Carter. Carter ducked her head and apologised with a crisp "Sorry Sir" but Daniel still looked confused.

Jack huffed an exasperated sigh. Sometimes, Daniel's brain was too academic for his own good. "I don't know what lek means—or if it really means 'play' in Swahili—"

"Swedish—" Daniel corrected automatically.

Jack ignored the interjection as usual, "—but to me, lek means what Teal'c said: an area where male birds strut their stuff to attract the ladies."

"Oh, and why do you think this is a bird mating area?" Daniel asked as he looked the area over and insisted, "It could be an old settlement or recent campground you know."

"Because it looks like the one I saw at Bluestem Prairie Preserve and the feathers."

"What feathers?" Daniel sounded surprised.

Jack lifted his left hand from the top of his P90 and pointed near the edge where the beaten down grass gave way to the tallgrass prairie. There, snagged in a dried grass stalk was a small, pale downy feather with grey bands that flickered in the breeze. The sight of the feather rather effectively seemed to shut Daniel up.

Carter, after a moment of somewhat awkward silence on Daniel's part, tilted her head to the side curiously and asked, "Where's the Preserve you visited Sir?"

"Minnesota, near Fargo," Jack dropped his hand back onto his P90. A long way from his cabin but he had enjoyed the trip and exploring the unique corner of Minnesota that was not lakes or trees. Watching the booming courtship of the Greater Prairie Chicken males as they raised their ear-like feathers above their heads, inflated the orange sacs on the side of their throats, and stutter-stepped around had been quite a sight. He had though, expected more 'boom' considering the term and not the hooting moaning sound they had made instead.

"Is it safe for the birds Sir, if we walk across or do we have to go around?"

"Across should be fine," Jack answered with shrug of a shoulder. "It's only in the spring when they are actually congregating that you don't want to disturb them. The hens nest about a mile away from the leks anyway and considering we are about mid-summer, the eggs are all hatched and chicks fledged."

Carter nodded and set off in the lead again across the lek. Daniel quickly fell into step to the left and after exchanging a look with Teal'c, Jack slipped his sunglasses back on and took up flanking the right.

. . .

Uh-uh! A forest!
A big dark forest.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!

. . .

After covering over three quarters of a klick from the river valley the team was almost at the mountains. Jack took time in studying the mountains themselves, which like the Rock Mountains back home, were marked by fan-like strips on the slopes of younger growth that marked old debris flows from rock slides or avalanches. They were all solidly re-grown, which meant no avalanches in the past winter and he hopped all the debris slides he was seeing were from avalanches because that meant the underlying rock was solid and not prone to landslides. That still left mudslides that came from oversaturation but like landslides he could only hope the conditions weren't there.

Approaching the transition zone between the tallgrass prairie and the alpine forest that blanketed the side of the mountain Jack turned his attention to it. Here shrubs and short young pine trees beginning to encroach onto the prairie. Fire was the only thing that kept grasslands free of trees and judging by the depth and height of the shrubs and saplings it had been a few decades since this area had seen fire.

In minutes they penetrated through the short trees and bush and began marching upward among the mountainous pines at a thirty-five or so degree angle. Entering the forest they found themselves surrounded by old tall trees that revealed the forest was old growth. While the trees were not very big around, Jack would not have much difficulty circling the conifer trunks with his arms, the pines soared stories above their heads. In the distance were heard chirping birds and squirrels chattering away.

More or less stepping up at the constant angle, he could feel the pull of his back calf muscles, the annoyance of his heels pushing back into his boots, and knew at this steady angle by the end of the day he would feel the burn in his front thigh muscles. Jack did not mind, even somewhat enjoyed the well exercised feel—just as long as nothing happened with his knees.

Sweating more from the upward climb, the coolness that came from the dimness beneath the covering canopy did help a bit but he really missed the breeze that had kept them company in the grass and was now blocked by the towering trunks. Jack removed his sunglasses and tucked the shades into a pocket instead of letting them dangle from their string but kept his cap on. There was little sunlight and less growth on the pine needle littered floor.

Jack figured, as he looked the thinly barked trunks over, that the trees were lodgepole pine or some alien cousin. Those were the only pine trees that he knew shed their lower branches as they grew upwards and kept their leaf-needled branches for the sun receiving crowns.

As their boots half padded, half crunched over the needle bed, the almost nonexistent undergrowth was the only thing that pleased him about this bunch of trees as he kept the barrel of his P90 higher up than he had out in the open prairie.

Things hid themselves too easily in trees.

Things hid themselves not only down, or around, but worse in trees like these: up.

Part of the trouble with trees was also the mental balancing act of watching where one was stepping and watching for things around. Unless trained, people just watched where they were stepping so missed what was around, or watched what was around so had trouble with where they were stepping. Carter and Daniel of course had had to work at it in the beginning. Carter tended to watch her feet and doohickeys and Daniel tended to look around for things people left behind, but four years had—mostly—trained that out of them. Daniel slipped up occasionally but that happened more or less when he caught sight of something that said 'natives' or 'ruins.'

Jack took half an eye off his surroundings and peeling back the cover of his watch, checked the time. Three and a half hours on the planet and sadly, not lunch time yet. Too bad, he was getting hungry.

Reaching behind himself to the canteen that rode over his kidney he screwed off the cap and took a drink. Clipping the canteen back in its holster his steps slowed as he was just about to circle a tree in his path.

Taking a step back around, to put himself square with the trunk he tilted his head back, raised his hand to tilt back the brim of his cap as well, and squinted at the tree bark. Huh, Jack thought as he studied the thin bark of the pine tree that had old cut marks carved into the wood. It reminded him of the old tradition of high school sweethearts carving hearts with their initials inside.

The angular carvings echoed in shape the runes on the carved standing stones back at the 'gate was more than a foot above his head. That, as well as their old appearance, told him that a great deal of time had passed as the tree had grown since the date of carving—unless whoever, or whatever, had carved them was nearly eight feet tall.

Well, Jack hoped it was a sweetheart carving without the heart and not a warning that said 'Danger, Keep Out. Trespassers Will Be Very, Very Sorry.' Only one way to find out. "Hey, Daniel? C'mere would ya?"

"Yeah? What is it?" Daniel piped up and trotted closer.

Jack glanced back at Teal'c, who moved more to the left to cover the team's left flank now that Daniel was not paying attention to it. Carter also stopped moving forward, dropped back, and stood at the ready.

Daniel crowded the trunk peering upwards and Jack more than happily gave way to let the archaeologist do his thing.

"Oh, wow," Daniel sounded near breathless with fascination, his head craned back and hardly able to take his eyes off the carvings as his hands dug at various pockets for something, "arborglyphs! This is amazing—I never thought that we would find anything like this off-world!"

Jack tilted his head, looked up at the carvings and then at Daniel. "Arbor-what-ahs?"

"Arborglyphs!" Daniel repeated as he finally looked away from the carvings and down to his vest to actually locate whatever his hands were groping for. "In short, they're tree graffiti but really they're much more. I learned about them from an English archaeologist, Royce Osgood—no, that's wrong, Royce, Royce... Richard! That's it, Richard Osgood—about the inscriptions that World War I and II soldiers carved into tree trunks on their way to the battle fields."

Jack looked back up at the angular carvings with interest. "Really?"

"Yes, it's a very small field and relatively an unknown and unstudied one but in the past century or so, soldiers have carved their names or initials and usually where they were from and dates on tree trunks as they made their way through the countryside." Daniel took a few steps back from the trunk, held up the camera in his outstretched hands, and began taking pictures.

Jack took another step aside as Carter circled the trunk with an interested look on her face and peered at the carvings on the tree.

"Is that what this one is?" Carter looked from the carvings to Daniel.

"Or is it a warning that says: get out of our sacred grove or we shoot you full of holes?" Jack asked with a tense edge to his tone.

"No, sadly it isn't soldier graffiti Sam, nor is it a no trespassing sign Jack, what it is, is a signature recording that the person had been here." Daniel lowered the camera and peered at the LCD screen to study the captured image.

"Like 'Kilroy was here?'" Jack relaxed a bit at being told that just someone scratching their name onto a tree and not a warning of some sort as he cast a look around.

Daniel shook his head. "'Kilroy was here' was an interesting phenomena but it is not like the initials and signatures that people left to proclaim that they existed.'"

"What is a Kilroy?" Teal'c inquired.

"Kilroy," Daniel turned to the left and looked down the slope at Teal'c, "was an American popular cultural expression often seen in graffiti that started in World War II. The British and Australian equivalents of the phrase were drawings of Chad and Foo and there is evidence that they predate the American expression by twenty or more years in the historical record. There are also other names for the character from different cultures, like Clem and Sapo if I recall correctly."

"I thought it was from a Massachusetts guy?" Jack frowned.

Daniel turned towards him and spoke, "That too, as it is believed that the origin of the phrase in World War II was from a Massachusetts shipyard inspector named Kilroy and during that time the British drawing of Chad appeared with the American phrase to become the iconic graffiti known today."

Jack just nodded to show that he had listened.

Daniel lifted his hand and looked like he was going to push his glasses up but remembered the bruises and instead rubbed his chin as he turned from facing him back to facing Teal'c. "I'll show you the drawing when we get back home and better explain it with the references on hand."

Teal'c inclined his head graciously.

"So, then, this tree graffiti is like what early explorers carved on the Colorado Plataea and elsewhere?" Carter remarked.

Daniel nodded. "Very much so. Signature graffiti recording a visit happens all over the world and is usually carved, scratched, chipped or painted with proper pigments or whatever is handy like wet charcoal, a fire blackened stick, axle-grease from a wagon, or even the lead of a bullet."

Jack thought that was rather a waste of a bullet.

"This signature though," Daniel trapped the LCD screen of the camera, "'is accompanied by what is called a conventional blessing which is quite popular in some cultures and occurs in ninety percent of those culture's known graffiti. This one actually has two conventional blessings, preceding and following the signature and translated reads: 'May Vigfastr son of Asmundr be safe and sound in well-being.'"

"Okay, does this have anything to do with why we're here?" Jack asked.

"Actually, yes, I think so," Daniel answered. "Considering we're on the right path to finding the Cave of Artio and I understand the Leode have many tales about those that tried to find Arthur, though only a handful succeed like Bjorn's grandfather, I think Vigfastr was one of those searchers. I would have to speak with Bjorn again, or even the village's skald, to find out anything for sure though."

"Will this help us find Arthur and his cave?" Jack narrowed his question down.

"Ah, well..." Daniel trailed off.

Jack sighed. "Okay, I understand you want to play with your tree cuttings but we have a mission to finish. Carter, Teal'c, you see any more of these tell Daniel and we'll pause so he can take pictures but we don't stop long—just tell us if they say anything that we need to be worried about like a Stay Out sign—okay Daniel?"

Daniel looked at the carvings and then at Jack before giving a nod as he tucked the camera back away.

"Good!" Jack gave a satisfied nod of his own and readjusted the brim of his cap. He was pleased that Daniel was still more interested in the mission objective than wanting to play with the native scribbles they had stumbled across. "Let's get moving campers."

. . .

Stumble trip!
Stumble trip!
Stumble trip!

. . .

The team continued the march through the undergrowth-free forest more slowly now with greater vigilance, watching the trees themselves for evidence of humans as well as the forest itself for dangers. All they continued to hear beyond themselves were the birds high in the canopy above and squirrels chattering.

Daniel was the one who spotted the next bit of tree graffiti and after pausing for pictures and a quick confirmation that it was just a signature again, they continued on their way.

But, the second discovery had obviously sidetracked the archaeologist from focusing on the mission. Jack could tell that by the way the fall of Daniel's footsteps had changed, coming down wrong on a stick and hearing the snapping of the stick and the stumble trip sound of Daniel's feet. There were no plants on the forest floor, true, but there were sticks and branches that had come from above presenting the occasional obstacle.

"Pay attention Daniel, watch your step," Jack cautioned. "We don't need you taking a tumble down this mountain side."

"I will," Daniel answered. "I mean, I won't. That is, I will watch my step and won't fall."

"Good." Jack approved. He still shook his head over Daniel tripping into that buffalo wallow and doing a number on his nose and breaking his glasses. Only Daniel could have done such a thing.

A loud angry chattering from a tree trunk on his left had him jerking his head around in surprise. A squirrel with red fur was inching head first down a tree trunk with large bushy tail twitching madly—a giant squirrel.

Jack twitched an eyebrow at the size. Did all the animals on this planet come in size extra-large? First those cows that could spear him in the eye with their horns and now a squirrel that was the size of a fox back on Earth—a small fox, but a fox none the less.

Still chattering angrily the giant squirrel finally inched its way down the trunk to the forest floor, then shot across the ground, and dashed up the trunk of a neighbouring tree.

Well, Jack thought as he returned his attention to scanning the area around him, he did not want to run into anything that preyed on those giant squirrels considering they were small-fox size. Bypassing in an arms length of a tree, he let go of his P90 with his left hand and reaching out rapped his knuckles against the thin bark. No need to tempt fate with thoughts like those.

"O'Neill?" Teal'c rumbled from behind.

"Nothing," Jack answered over his shoulder.

"What?" Daniel piped up from the left.

"Nothing," Jack said louder to be heard clearly over the distance separating them.

"O'Neill reached out and punched the trunk of a tree," Teal'c answered.

Daniel scrunched up his face. "Punched a tree? Jack, what would you punch a tree for?"

"I said," Jack emphasised, "it was nothing. And I did not punch a tree."

"You did O'Neill," Teal'c asserted.

"No, I did not," Jack said forcefully.

"Well, Teal'c said you did so you must have," Daniel interjected.

Jack scowled, "Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not for cryin' out loud! What reason Daniel, would I have for punching a tree?"

"I don't know, but Teal'c said you did."

"Well, Teal'c's wrong," Jack huffed an annoyed breath. "I did not punch a tree. I knocked wood."

"Oh. Well, why didn't you just say so?"

"I did," Jack snapped.

"No you didn't."

"Yes, I did. You and Teal'c are the ones that insisted I was punching trees."

"Oh." Daniel pursed his lips. "Well, why are you knocking on wood?"

Jack let loose an aggravated groan. "I told you it's nothing."

"Well, it must be something otherwise you wouldn't have knocked on wood," Daniel persisted.

"If I tell you, will you shut up about it?" Jack growled.

"Of course, there's no need to be angry about it."

"On second thought, forget it. I'm not telling you." Jack turned his head away and resumed watching their right flank.

"Jack..." Daniel prompted.

"Why would one knock on wood DanielJackson?" Teal'c interrupted.

"Ah... 'knocking on wood,' or 'touch wood,' refers to the apotropaic tradition in Western folklore of literally knocking on or touching wood to avoid tempting fate following an observation, boast, or when speaking of one's own death or otherwise warding off bad luck when certain superstitious situations are encountered: like crossing paths with a black cat, walking under a ladder, or noticing that it is Friday the 13th," Daniel lectured. "Now in old English folklore—"

"Daniel?" Jack interrupted with saccharin sweetness as he looked over at Daniel again.

"Yes Jack?"

"Sir?" Carter interrupted from her place at point.

Jack swung his head around to face forward and peered up at Carter who was standing high on the slope above them. "What?"

"I think I found a den of some sort Sir."

Jack lengthened his stride to climb up the distance between himself and his second and mentally pushed his annoyance with Daniel aside, who, along with Teal'c trailed after him up the steep mountainside.

There, dug into the mountainside with a mound of packed down dirt in front, was the entrance of a den that was big enough for a person of Teal'c's size to get in easily. Carter was staying clear of it, P90 at the ready as she looked warily about.

He could see where her wariness was coming from as he held his finger closer to the safety of his P90. It didn't happen often, but wildlife attacks weren't something to laugh off with the threat of unknown poisons, venom, and just plain ol' physical injury. And either something very small had made a very big den or something very big was using a den just the right size. "Any tracks Major?"

Carter shook her head. "None that I can see Sir."

"Teal'c?" Jack prompted and motioned the Jaffa forward with a hand gesture. Between the two of them they were good at spotting tracks and figuring out what kind and size of animal made them. He and Teal'c moved up, closer to the den as Carter dropped back and they spent the next few minutes scrutinizing the ground.

"I see no sign O'Neill," Teal'c declared after a time.

"Yeah, me neither," Jack agreed. The ground was too smoothly packed out front with no recent rain to hold tracks, nor did the ground's bed of pine litter hold tracks, and it might be the den was abandoned. He stepped back and jerked, knocked off balance when the back of his legs slammed into an obstacle that had not been behind him before.

"Jack!" the Daniel-obstacle squawked in dismay.

He stumble tripped in an attempt to right himself but the Daniel-obstacle also moved, catching him square in the back of his knees and ass-over-teakettle he went.

Crap!

The rolling tumble down the steep mountainside was short and painful.

Ending when he smacked square into the trunk of a pine.

Jack gasped in breaths as he lay there. Half curled around the tree, hearing the frantic voices and rushing boot steps of his teammates as they hurried down the hill after him. His P90 was digging into his chest, his pack and canteen dug into him painfully and his legs and left wrist felt really banged up.

Daniel was the first to reach him, crowding close and babbling apologies frantically.

"Daniel? What the hell were you doing?" Jack demanded as he half rolled into a sitting up position to get out of his awkward twisted up position, careful with handling his P90 even as his fingertips checked the setting of the safety automatically. It was a God damn miracle that he hadn't pulled the trigger and shot himself with his own weapon.

"I'm sorry Jack, but I crouched down to check on a rock I saw and you backed up into me."

"Over you, you mean!" Jack wheezed and batted at Daniel's 'helping' hands. Shit! His left wrist screamed in pain at the motion and he jerked it back, cradled the limb close to his chest.

"Sir," Carter dropped to her knees on the other side of him next to the tree, her unclipped pack hitting the ground at the same time as she opened it to dig out a med kit. "You know the drill, where does it hurt?"

"Besides my pride Carter?" Jack shifted into a more comfortable upright position; stretching his legs out cautiously before him he pulled his P90 over his head—triple checked the safety—and set it aside. To his disbelief, besides the wrenching and the tumble, his legs did not really hurt and his knees were fine. Jack tilted his head back, causing his neck to twinge a bit at the craning, and saw Teal'c on the slope above. "Hey, Teal'c? Keep an eye on that den, would ya?"

"I shall O'Neill," Teal'c affirmed.

"Now, where's my cap?"

"On the other side of you Sir. How are your knees Sir? Your back?" Carter prompted as she set the med kit aside and started to relieve him of his pack.

Jack looked to his right and saw that his cap, having tumbled down the slope with him, was dirty but not damaged. Leaning forward a bit to assist Carter in getting his pack off, he rolled his shoulders when the weight was lifted. "Just my wrist."

Carter accepted the limb when he held it out to her, carefully easing off his fingerless gloves to reveal the reddened and swelling area. Then she started moving, stretching, and rotating the wrist gently saying, "Tell me what hurts Sir."

"Ah, yi, yi," Jack muttered through the pain. "All of it."

"Okay," Carter slipped her right hand under his hand to clasp further up his forearm. "Squeeze Sir and tell me how it feels. Does your strength feel normal?"

Jack did as instructed, wincing inside as the injury spasm and he was unable to grip her wrist very hard. Breathing out he answered, "Strength's down."

Carter took his wrist in both her hands again and with her right fingers pressed around his wrist, feeling the injured area. "What now Sir?"

"Besides pain?"

"No crackling feeling?"

Jack shook his head.

"Okay Sir," Carter lifted her right hand from his wrist and reached for the med kit, "it seems you have a bad Grade II sprain so I'm going to ice and then splint it."

"Can't you just wrap it?"

Carter gave him a severe look. "I could put it in a sling instead."

"No, no," Jack hated the thought of how it would interfere with his movements, "splint's fine."

"Thought so Sir." Carter looked from him to Daniel who was still hovering on his other side and Teal'c on the slope above. "Daniel? Teal'c? Why don't you two make lunch while I treat the Colonel."

Jack was glad the two men set about doing as instructed immediately. It kept Daniel from repeatedly apologising as the archaeologist hovered over him and meant they could have lunch because it was about time. He was hungry.

Chapter 5 – Dr Daniel Jackson

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.. . .

Daniel sat down and set about preparing lunch with Teal'c, digging out the necessary number of MRE packets from all their field packs—catching the one Sam tossed him from her pack—and was happy that there wasn't a grilled beefsteak meal amongst them. That meal choice was hated by all of them and he didn't get why it continued showing up in their field rations. The military should stick with pasta; those were at least half way decent and tasted like Chef Boyardee stuff.

He picked up the beef ravioli packet, tore open the seal, and pulled out the heater in its plastic bag and the cardboard box with the entree. Holding open the heater bag, he slipped in the entree, and from his canteen added the right amount of water to activate the heater. Tucking the heater bag with the entree pouch back into the cardboard box he propped it up against his boot. According to the instructions, the box was supposed to be held at a forty-five degree angle but it wasn't as if he could measure it, especially not when sitting on a forty degree hill.

Picking up a second packet, cheese tortellini, he repeated the steps he had just done for the first MRE and noted the time on his watch. As the two entrees heated up, Daniel glanced over at Jack and Sam.

He winced at the sight of Jack's left wrist resting on his leg wrapped in an instant cold pack. Thank God the wrist was the only injury and a moderate one at that. Just the thought of him being the reason Jack further, and seriously, injured his knees made Daniel feel ill.

Jack picked up his cap and after slapping it against his thigh a few times to brush off debris, set it on his head. "Lunch done yet?"

"The main course of the meals ready to eat need more time to cook O'Neill," Teal'c answered.

"MREs don't need to cook," Jack grumbled, "they're already cooked."

It was true that the food was precooked and designed to be eaten cold as well, but warming the food made it slightly more palatable. Daniel knew the remark was more about Jack being grumpy than an actual complaint—although complaining about MREs was a time honored tradition in itself. "Another minute at most. What do you want Jack?"

"What is there? No fake steak I hope."

Daniel named the two choices he had opened, and then Teal'c named the ones he had prepared. Considering it was his fault that Jack was injured, it was only fair that Jack got first choice at what to eat.

"Cheese tortellini," Jack chose.

Daniel nodded and checked his watch. Seeing the needed minimum two minutes had passed he picked up the cheese tortellini and pulled out the bag with the heater and entree. Carefully, he worked the hot entree out of the bag, put it aside, slipped the side dish in with the heater to heat up and stuck them all back in the cardboard box which he propped against his boot again.

Waiting a bit until the plastic pouch the entree was in wasn't so hot to the touch Daniel broke its contents up and worked them to the bottom so it would be easier to eat with the provided spoon. Tearing the entree open, he leaned over and passed it to Jack.

"Thanks," Jack accepted it with his right hand and half propped, half tucked it between his knees so that he could eat it one handed after being given the spoon; Sam on the other side ready to give a hand if needed.

"You're welcome," Daniel replied and picked up the beef ravioli and after setting up its side dish to heat, tucked into his own meal as Sam and Teal'c did the same.

The team ate lunch in relative silence, the most noise they made the crinkling of plastic, or tearing as they opened up something else to eat, and listen to the birds high in the canopy above and the occasional distant mad chatter of squirrels.

Daniel accepted the garbage Jack passed back to him and stuffed it all back in the big MRE bag that held everything to pack their refuse off the planet. Not only was it wise to not leave signs of their presence behind, it was not a good idea to litter off-world when you had no idea how that litter would react with the surrounding environment.

Taking a look at Jack again, Daniel tried apologising again, "Jack, I really am sor—"

"Enough already Daniel," Jack cut him off with an annoyed look from under the brim of his cap. "Just... just drop it already? Crap happens."

"Take these Sir," Sam interrupted as she thrust a hand at Jack with two pills.

Jack scowled. "I'm not taking any painkillers Carter."

"It's just a standard anti-inflammatory Sir to help keep the swelling down," Sam stated and patiently waited for the pills to be taken.

Jack made a face but took the two pills and dry swallowed them as Sam reached for his wrapped up wrist.

"I'll take the cold pack off now Sir."

Daniel reluctantly accepted that his apologies were not wanted and watched as Sam removed the cold pack, checked the wrist over again, and placing two flexible wire ladder splints around the injured area to support and restrain it, bandaged the lot. A few low words were exchanged that he could not hear even an arm's length away but could guess from Jack's grumpy tone that it was care instructions as Sam began packing up the med kit.

"Hey, Daniel," Jack jerked the thumb of his uninjured right hand at his unclipped field pack, "help me get this back on while Carter packs hers up?"

"Sure Jack," Daniel agreed readily and finished stuffing the garbage into his own pack. Shuffling across the pine litter to get closer, it was an easy task because of the hill and the fact that the unclipped pack was essentially still against Jack's back. Once the pack was securely in place Jack gave a curt nod of thanks and Daniel turned to getting his own back on.

Moments later the whole team was back on their feet again, armed, and took up the recon positions they had been in. With Jack's injured left wrist, it was the best positions they could take for it placed the injury in the covered zone. They set off back up the hill through the forest, detouring around the den they had discovered and investigated earlier, and Daniel returned to searching the pine trunks for any sign of tree graffiti or the Cave of Artio.

. . .Uh-uh! A snowstorm!
A swirling whirling snowstorm.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!. . .

Following lunch as the team marched through the tall pines, two more signature arborglyphs were spotted carved high into the thin bark.

Photographing the latest find, Daniel did his best to record a location with the datum point being the stargate as it was for all off-world discoveries. What he wouldn't give to be able to record precise coordinates, like with GPS, instead of writing general terms in his field journals about direction and distance from the datum. It was a chronic complaint of his department about cataloging off-world discoveries.

Then there was the issue of dating them. A dendrochronology drill to analyse the growth pattern of the tree-rings could be used to date the tree, but was useless at dating the graffiti because the age of the tree and the age of the graffiti were not related. Leode genealogy was probably his best bet at estimating an age and he wondered if he could wrangle a visit back to the village out of Jack on their way home.

Looking ahead again Daniel squinted a bit, wondering if his eyes were deceiving him or it really was getting brighter under the dim green canopy of the towering trees. Climbing more up the mountainside he was convinced after a time that there was more sunlight reaching them. The increased light puzzled Daniel because he knew that they had not travelled so far as to reach the mountain's tree line.

Maybe there had been some sort of forest fire that had burned a section of the forest and trees were still growing back in? Nothing looked charred or fire damaged to him however and still it continued to get lighter under the canopy as the team climbed. He couldn't recall seeing anything on the slope before they'd started climbing either and he'd looked, wary of debris flows that could have buried what they were looking for. That would be horrible, to come here and discover the cave was under a rockslide.

Then the tall trunks seemed to disappear ahead and sunlight poured down and encouraged the growth of plants and shrubs that the shady canopy had discouraged. Pushing through the unexpected undergrowth they halted on the ridge overlooking a weird channel-shaped scoop in the mountainside that went from left to right and not up and down like a valley. That explained at least why nothing about this wasn't visible from the bottom, being scooped out to give the illusion that the slope was continuous.

There were pine trees in the channel but it was not the stately towering trees that they had spent the last klick or so walking amongst but an area of mostly bare mountainside with short pine trees with branches growing towards the east.

And only towards the east.

"Carter, what does your doohickey have to say about this?" Jack prompted.

Sam got out her device and after a moment of studying the screen responded, "Nothing from the UTD Sir."

Daniel pensively rubbed his chin, finding what Sam was saying hard to believe. Something must have caused all these trees to grow like this, branches to the east like some field of natural tree flags amongst the bare rocks and patches of tough grasses growing between the rock crevasses. There was a crisp, fresh scent in the air that teased his nose, blown by the cool west wind that was present now that they were out in the open again.

"Sure about that?" Jack sounded doubtful. "No funky radiation to mutate trees?"

"All readings are normal Sir," Sam answered as she held the UTD up with the digital screen facing her commander.

Jack did not even bother squinting at it from beneath his cap, merely cast Sam a look that asked her if she was crazy enough to think he could understand it as he persisted, "No creepy chemicals?"

Daniel stopped trying to identify what the smell was now and cleared his throat. "The Leode are from Bronze Age Europe, they don't have advanced enough biological knowledge to engineer such chemicals."

"I wasn't thinking they did, but I know Camel-ass probably does," Jack retorted.

Daniel rubbed his forehead instead of smacking himself upside the head. Of course, just because Camulus had not been on the planet for about one thousand four hundred years didn't mean that the goa'uld hadn't left anything nasty behind that was still affecting the planet. They ran into problems like that all the time off-world... and even on Earth Daniel thought with a grimace, recalling the colossal fiasco that had ended with Osiris escaping from Earth in Sarah Gardner.

Daniel shook his head to rid himself of the depressing thoughts and focused on Camulus again. While the system lord styled himself as a god of war he was also associated with agricultural aspects in mythology so this distorted channel of pine trees could be his work or maybe even something from the battle with Arthur. That thought piqued his interest and Daniel started to look more intently at the flag-like trees and rocks before them.

"No weird energy field?" Jack persisted.

"No Sir," Sam responded, "all readings are normal."

"So, no radiation, chemicals, or energy fields," Jack ticked the points off on his fingers and frowned at the expanse of short flag-like pines in front of them. "I feel like I'm forgetting something. Teal'c, you know what I am forgetting?"

"I do not O'Neill."

"Darn," Jack muttered as the furrows of his frown deepened. "I'm thinking I should know something. Anyway, around or through Carter?"

"UTD says it's safe enough to proceed through Sir and," Sam waved a hand at the vast channel of flag-like pines that spread to the left and right out of their line of sight, "I can't hazard a guess at how much longer we would take finding our way around."

"Daniel? Teal'c? Around or through?" Jack asked.

"I am fine with either decision O'Neill," Teal'c answered.

"Through is fine with me," Daniel answered. "I wouldn't mind getting a closer look at the trees. There may be something that tells us amongst them about why they are growing like this."

"Point," Jack conceded. "Through it is. Carter, the moment that thing," he pointed at the UTD, "squawks about anything you let me know."

"Yes Sir," Sam gave a nod of understanding and took the lead over the ridge, boots clomping on the exposed rocks of the mountainside channel. The noise was a distinct change from the muffled tromping of boots over needle litter.

Daniel took up his position and studied the spread out pine trees they were climbing amongst. Where they a different type of pine than the tall forest ones which was why they had branches from base to crown? And why did those branches only grow on the east side? Besides being short and east growing branches they looked like normal pines to him.

Also puzzling was the exposure of the mountainside channel, no needle litter and only some shrubby grass vegetation growing amongst the cracks of the rocks. Walking amongst them nothing appeared odd, besides the trees and area itself in the midst of an otherwise healthy old growth forest, and he scrutinized the rocks for signs of petroglyphs or pictographs. Or runes—those would be the best and easy to translate verse interpreting rock engravings. Those were what Daniel hoped to find but he looked for anything really. Not just drawings or writing, but something that said humans had been here and done something, like signs that a spaceship had set down. All he saw was bare and lichen covered rock.

There was nothing but the trees and the west wind that whistled with increasing noise and strength through the branches that grew only to the east as they moved deeper amongst the short pines.

. . .Hoooo woooo!
Hoooo woooo!
Hoooo woooo!. . .

Daniel wandered more to the left the further they penetrated amongst the flag-like trees, searching for signs of anything and shortly there was a fair amount of distance between them all. The wind blew colder and stronger, no longer just rustling grasses and shaking needles, but rustling entire branches and then the short trees began to lean eastward under the wind.

"Sir!" Carter raised her voice to be heard as she turned around. "There's a low-pressure—"

She was cut off as the wind roared with a deafening hoooo woooo and slammed through the mountainside channel with enough force to almost drive Daniel to his knees. Overhead with a speed that astounded, the clear blue sky grew leaden as dark grey clouds blotted out the sun heralding that worse was to come.

Daniel held onto his glasses and raised his face to the sky. He flinched when he felt stinging drops of coldness that the wind drove into his face and as the stinging bites thickened, realised that it was snow. Within seconds it seemed the exposed rocks were all covered in a thick white blanket.

Daniel looked away from the sky and searching through the swirling curtain of snow, could just make out the distant forms of his teammates. Berating himself for straying so far from them, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Jack! Jack? Oh god... Sam! Teal'c!"

The wind whipped his words away and made it impossible to tell if they had heard him or were yelling back. Heart pumping fearfully, his chilled fingers fumbled with the button down flap holding his radio and pulling out the radio pressed it to his ear. Hissing and garbled words was all he was able to hear as the roaring of the snowstorm overwhelmed all other sound.

Shaking from cold and fear he stowed the radio back in its vest pocket and squinted hard through the snow that clung to his glasses and obscured his vision. Blinded by the white snow driving to the ground with his pounding heart in his throat, Daniel used his feet to feel his way over the rocks towards where he thought his team was.

Cupping his hands around his mouth again, he tried yelling again hoping against all logical reason that he would miraculously get their attention. "Jack! Sam! I'm over here! Teal'c!"

He had not made it more than a few shuffling steps through the pounding snow before he practically tripped over something. Groping with cold hands he figured out it was pine tree and knew as his heart clenched he would not be able to find anyone in this blinding whiteout.

Forcing himself to breathe through the panic he forced himself to focus: what was he supposed to do if caught in a snowstorm. Shelter, shelter was first. What else? Right, don't move fast. Taking another steadying breath he made himself remember exactly why Jack had told him 'slow and steady' won the race in winter survival.

'You move too fast,' the Jack in his head said, 'and you sweat. That forms a layer of ice between your skin and your clothes and even if you find shelter, you can still freeze to death.'

Hunkering down Daniel blindly groped his way around the stunted pine until he was on its branch full side, the east. Squirming underneath the meager branches near the ground and pushing snow up and around him, he curled up into a ball the best he could with his field pack taking the brunt of the high wind. Shivering, he tucked his cold hands into his armpits and did his best to conserve, and restore, his body heat as the snowstorm whirled around him.

Lying against the hard cold stone and listening to the hoooo woooo that overwhelmed everything except his frightened thoughts Daniel did the only thing he could: pray.

Nehes, nehes, nehes, nehes em hotep nehes em neferu. Awake, awake, awake, awake in peace lady of peace. Nebet hotepet, weben em hotep. Rise thou in peace, rise thou in beauty.

The first lines of the Abydosian benediction resonated in his mind and took him back to his sun baked home and the warm memories of his late wife and family. Focusing on his memories as he chanted the litany he had learned five years ago, Daniel ignored as best he could the high wind pounding the mountainside and snow burying him in his meager shelter in ever increasing inches.

In time he no longer shivered, the snow itself sheltering and warming him but as worry sat low in his gut he made sure to keep himself awake. He had to stay awake. That was another rule. Un-tucking one of his hands, he reached for his radio and toggled the switch. "Jack? Are you there? Sam? Where are you? Teal'c?"

Electronic hissing was his answer. Taking a breath, he kept himself awake by alternating prayers with conjugating declinations starting with the more ancient languages he knew, which was Ancient, and working his way forward into the more modern ones, like Middle English.

And every now and then, he tried the radio again.

He had circled back to Phoenician when he realised that in the passing of hours the roaring storm had quieted down to a more a whistling hoooo woooo. Stiffly uncurling himself, Daniel dug through the snow bank that had formed around him with fingers that protested bending. Breaking through and out, he squinted behind his glasses at what he saw. The mutated channel of pines had become a picturesque winter wonderland under a bright blue sky with heaps of snow burying the short trees—and nothing else.

Squinting against the sunlight that harshly reflected off the field of white Daniel frantically searched for signs of his team. There was nothing but mounds and piles of pristine snow and his heart threatened to choke him with his fear. Fumbling for his radio, his heart gave a strong jolt when a mound of snow to his right suddenly rose up and became Teal'c.

"Thank God, Teal'c!" Daniel exclaimed in pained relief as his startled heart dropped back into a more normal rhythm and he floundered through the knee high snow towards Teal'c. "How are you? Where are Sam and Jack?"

"I am well DanielJackson," Teal'c replied calmly and brushed the clinging snow off. "I am unaware of what has become of MajorCarter and O'Neill."

"Oh no, you don't think—" Daniel choked out as he cast a frantic look around, hating to even think let alone suggest that their two teammates had not survived the hours as they had.

Ahead of them, snow shook itself free of a small copse of pines and Sam stood up from underneath them in the knee high snow and holding her weapon firm gave herself a full body shake, scattering snow. Taking off her cap, she brushed off the snow clinging to it before setting it on her head. "Daniel? Teal'c? You guys okay?"

"We're fine Sam. Well, Teal'c's fine and I'm a little cold, but fine," Daniel called out in relief. "Do you know where Jack is?"

Sam shook her head and slogged through the snow to them.

Daniel paled at the answer. This did not make any sense, of them Jack had the most winter survival training and the most hands-on experience coming from living in northern Minnesota. Reaching for his radio, he toggled the switch and begged, "Jack where are you? Jack please respond."

The radio crackled in response and to his surprise—worked!

Jack's muffled and almost—echoing?—voice came over the line, "I remember about the trees now."

"What? Jack, what do trees have to do with a snowstorm?" Daniel stared blankly down at the radio in his vest pocket, wondering what the heck Jack was thinking, and waited for an answer. When none came, he realised that he had not pressed the radio toggle and did so and started to repeat his question. "Wha—akh!"

Daniel jumped when snow heaved upwards two steps to the east and Jack popped his head out of the snow. Relief that everyone was safe and sound and had survived that blistering snowstorm made Daniel light headed. He stayed where he was, not trusting his knees to keep him upright in the deep snow, as Jack used his right hand to lever himself up and out of the rocky crevasse of the mountainside that he had used as a sheltering trench.

"The trees," Jack treated the edge of the trench snow bank like a makeshift chair and sat down, bandaged left wrist propped on his weapon as he used his right hand to take off his cap and shake the snow off. "Crappy time to remember about the trees."

"I am pleased you are well O'Neill. What do you remember of the trees?"

Putting the cap back onto his head, Jack stabbed a finger at the mounds of snow that covered the stunted misshapen pines like cotton pillows. "It's called flagging, the way they're growing. Branches on the windward side are killed by constant winds from one direction and makes the trees look like flags."

"You mean this entire area gets this all the time?" Daniel swept his hands out to encompass their snowy surroundings.

"Appears so," Jack hoisted himself to his feet and tramped the two steps through the knee high snow to join them.

Daniel looked away from his team and squinted across the brilliantly reflective channel of snow capped pines and suddenly knew what that faint tantalising smell he had smelled earlier when they had first encountered the flag-like pines: it had been the crisp clean scent of snowmelt. Woodsman Jack it seemed was right, this section of the mountain was regularly pounded by high winds and storming snow.

Chapter 6: Teal'c

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.

. . .

Teal'c felt his heart rate fully resume its normal rate as his body finished emerging from the deep state of kelno'reem he had used to survive the snowstorm. He thought wistfully of the mild and relatively unchanging temperatures of Chulak as he felt the cold of the snow creep though his pants legs. Jaffa were meant for warm worlds for the false gods that enslaved them were not creatures that tolerated the cold well.

Narrowing his eyes against the sunlight harshly coming off the stark white blanket of snow, he shifted his grip on the staff of his weapon and turned his full attention to the discussion his Tau'ri companions were having about the failure of the radios to work in the midst of the snowstorm.

"Yes Daniel, snowstorms are one source of natural electromagnetic interference, along with rain particles, solar radiation, and the expected electric storms," MajorCarter explained. "Considering the strength of the storm I am not surprised our radios didn't work."

"What about the static I heard?" DanielJackson furrowed his brow.

"That probably came from your own radio, caused by the thermal agitation of electrons flowing through circuit resistance—"

"As fascination as this sounds campers," O'Neill cut the conversation off, "I want to get out of this snow before my feet freeze."

"Yes Sir."

"Sorry Jack."

"Good, then," O'Neill shifted his weapon and used his good hand to put on his sunglasses, "I'll break trail and you guys follow." He set off through the snow and now quiet, MajorCarter and DanielJackson fell into step behind.

Teal'c brought up the rear and was pleased that he had not been required to take the lead and make the path through the knee high snow.

Over the chill of the wind, crunching of snow beneath booted feet, and sibilant rubbing of cloth against cloth what became the most audible sound to Teal'c's superior hearing was the laboured breathing of those before him. Snow was another reason his kind eschewed cold worlds for it was not an easy substance to maneuver in, even if like humans one had contrivances like the large webbed-device that one strapped to the foot to walk over it or two long runners used to glide over it.

Avoiding the short mounds of snow covered pines they tramped a fairly straight path as they covered the three hundred Tau'ri yards to the edge of the channel of wind-shaped pines and its knee deep blanket of snow.

O'Neill halted just beyond where the snow met the plants growing in the sunlight and knocked boot against boot to shake off snow. "Carter, check our bearing would ya?"

"Yes Sir," she answered and got out her instruments.

Teal'c turned his attention upon the back trail. The view down the slope provided a clear view of the incongruous white channel in the midst of the mountainside's dark green forest with their trail suddenly appearing three quarters of the way from the south edge of the channel.

He wondered with the bright sun and warmth of the day how long it would take for the frozen precipitation to melt. Would it be gone on their return trip or would they have to make a path the rest of the way through? He set the thoughts aside to deal with on the return journey—there was no use as the Tau'ri said, of constructing a structure over a river when one did not need passage over the river.

"I have it Sir," MajorCarter announced.

Teal'c turned his attention back to his companions.

"Good," O'Neill nodded, "take the lead again and next time I hope your doohickey gives us more than a few seconds warning if this planet decides to dump another foot of snow on us. I know mountain weather can change fast, but that was just ridiculous."

She grimaced. "Sorry Sir, but the low-pressure front moved in so fast—"

"Carter," O'Neill cut her off, "I get it and I'm not blaming you or anything—okay, maybe my toes are—it's been a bit of a crazy mission so we just have to hope that the planet isn't going to dump another foot of snow on us or something any time soon."

MajorCarter squared her shoulders, nodded, and with universal tricorder device still in hand took the lead.

"Jack—" DanielJackson's tone was reproachful.

"Not interested in hearing it Daniel," O'Neill said sharply as he moved to take up the left flank position.

Teal'c watched the scholar sigh at their leader's tone before taking up the right flank. Lifting his ma'tok so the club end did not catch or tangle in the plants growing at the sunbathed edge of the channel he followed. Once amongst the tall towering trunks he resumed carrying his weapon in the traditional prepared stance.

They continued their climb upwards through the forest. Teal'c noted that DanielJackson kept close by, closer than when they had walked amongst the trees lower down the mountain's slope, and much closer than the scholar had been among the channel of wind-shaped pines.

Above the trees tops were rustled by the wind that blew over them and sneaked down as a soft breeze amongst the trunks. The birds added to the sounds of the forest with their chirping and the occasional harsh caw. A giant bushy-tailed tree rodent made itself known briefly as well with some mad chatter as a red flicking tail vanished around a trunk.

Ahead on the path boulders and rocky outcrops began protruding from the forest floor. They slowed down to navigate the obstacles, careful of a misstep that might turn an ankle and result in a hampering injury that would turn the journey back to the chappa'ai into a grueling marathon for all of them. An undertaking he did not wish to contemplate over the varying terrain they had encountered on this world.

. . .

Uh-uh! A cave!
A narrow gloomy cave.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!

. . .

Teal'c nimbly avoided the obstacles before him and watched their back trail as much as the path forward. Ahead MajorCarter paused in the midst of circling a boulder that was as tall as her waist and just as wide, as she checked the instrument she carried.

"I'm getting some faint energy readings Sir," MajorCarter reported as she waved the device in front of her in a sweeping motion.

Teal'c adjusted his grip on his weapon and looked their forest surroundings over more carefully.

"What kind of energy?" O'Neill questioned suspiciously.

"Too faint to tell at the moment Sir but they don't appear to be dangerous."

"Is it like anything you've seen before Sam?" DanielJackson asked eagerly.

She shook her head as she began to slowly turn around in a circle, sweeping the instrument out in front of her. "As I just said, they're too faint. I can't pick up a definite pattern from them—ah, the readings just dropped off the radar." MajorCarter turned back around and came to a halt. "Readings are back. Looks like whatever is producing them is ahead."

"Alright, everyone stay close and proceed with caution," O'Neill ordered.

Teal'c watched MajorCarter work around the boulder with instrument held out in front and DanielJackson and then O'Neill followed behind her and himself behind O'Neill. More boulders littered the path forward and they weaved their way amongst the large rocks that were increasing in size.

A tall pine tree that had long ago seeded itself in a crack and widened the crack to a rock splitting fracture aided them in their climb over a particularly large outcropping and on top they paused behind MajorCarter who had halted in the lead.

"Energy readings are steady now," she reported.

Teal'c looked up the forested slope and pondered what could be ahead. Was the one they were seeking the source of the energy signature? Or was Camulus responsible for it?

His eyes focused with sharp interest on one of the tilting boulders ahead that was covered with grey lichen. As the four of them worked around the trunks and boulders and drew closer to the stone in question, he knew that the stone was not marked by nature and drew it to his companion's attention. "DanielJackson, I believe I see a carving on this stone."

"Really? Where?" The scholar hurried to the stone and peered at it, his fingers tracing over the lichen covered mark, down the stem and over the bent parallel strokes coming off the top making it look like a misshapen F. "It's the Ansuz rune! In futhorc it represents the vowels o, a, and æ and is the first letter of Arthur. It must be here as a sign that the cave is close by!"

In a few moments the rune had been recorded by DanielJackson and the four were on their way again. Teal'c kept an eye on the boulders and rocky outcroppings, searching in particular the lichen that concealed marks on stone from searching eyes, as they manoeuvred amongst them.

Two more of the F's with bent strokes were found carved into stone, the second by himself and third by MajorCarter, and DanielJackson exclaimed over them all with the same enthusiasm. When the third rune was being photographed Teal'c found himself looking up the sloping mountain side through the towering trunks to a particularly large boulder with grey lichen creeping up the base that was taller and wider than himself.

He studied it and considered that the three runes had been carved about the same distances from each other and that specific boulder was the same approximate distance from the third rune.

MajorCarter," he called out to her and pointed to the boulder, "I believe it would be sensible to investigate that stone."

She nodded and after working further up the slope and circling around, disappeared from sight. Moments later her voice floated back down the mountainside, "Colonel! Daniel! Teal'c figured out where the cave is!"

"What?" DanielJackson popped up from crouching over the rune he was photographing.

Teal'c watched the human hurry up the slope to join MajorCarter who had reappeared back around the large boulder. Exchanging looks with O'Neill, he proceeded up the slope as well as the two disappeared around the stone and then DanielJackson's whoops of triumph were clearly heard.

"This is it! Artio's Cave!"

Circling around the boulder with O'Neill, Teal'c saw that it was not a boulder at all, but a rounded edge of an outcropping ruptured open by a large fracture that three men could easily walk abreast through. Along the triangular opening was a band of runes that DanielJackson was busy recording.

The gloomy cave entrance appeared natural to Teal'c as he studied it and he peered as far as he could into its dim interior. It appeared to be a rough passageway into the depths of the earth and not a large chamber.

"So what does it say?" O'Neill questioned.

"It's rather worn and I can't make out the end very well," the scholar ran his fingers over the worn lettering on the left of the cave entrance that he could reach, "but it roughly translates I think as 'Then Arto-rig came forth / the high of the heart. The warrior hardy / sounded the horn. And the killing of Camulus / thine own hearts was free.'"

"Not very... poetic," O'Neill remarked.

Teal'c concurred with the statement.

"Trust me, it sounds much better in Old Norse," DanielJackson reassured. "Rhyme and meter don't translate very well. But it is pretty comparable to the collection of Old Norse poems on Earth known as the Poetic Edda."

"Well, not my idea of a cave, but let's get out our lights and see if we can find Arthur," O'Neill ordered as he used his good hand to twist on his mounted tactical light.

Teal'c leaned his weapon against the stone and from his utility belt took out his handheld light. He secured it via the strap around his wrist so that he was free to use both hands to handle his weapon, turned the light on, and picked up his weapon again.

Once all lights were on, MajorCarter led the way into the cave entrance with weapon raised and DanielJackson behind her carrying his electric lantern by its handle. He and O'Neill then followed with their own weapons at the ready.

. . .

Tiptoe!
Tiptoe!
Tiptoe!
WHAT'S THAT?

. . .

There was no evidence of animal habitation of any sort and little litter from the forest a few steps beyond the entrance of the cave so their boots were soon on bare stone. The walls of the cave passageway were of a dark grey stone and naturally shaped. Some Tau'ri yards from the entryway, when the natural light from outside was dim and most the light came from the devices they carried, a peculiar white flickered on the walls ahead.

As they approached the flickering white with caution, Teal'c saw that there were large veins of crystalline white stone running through the rough dark grey stone and it gave the walls of the corridor an eerie cast.

When the darkness of the cave had swallowed them completely, and not even a pinprick of light was visible from the entrance behind them, DanielJackson hoisted the lantern he carried higher to further illuminate the walls of the cave passage. The sides of the passage were no longer rough, ragged and shaped by nature but scores of marks chiseled the walls. Teal'c noted as they progressed deeper that the air grew increasingly humid and stale as the passage began to turn and rise and fall noticeably.

"I wonder how much stone they took out of this to keep the passage the same width of the entrance," DanielJackson mused from ahead.

Teal'c watched how the light from their devices glittering off the white stone of the walls and gleaming dully off the grey stone, glistening back from moisture that had condensed on the passageway.

"Well, the quartz would have been easier to remove than the granite," MajorCarter remarked from point, "and with the way this passage is twisting and turning, I think they were following a vein."

"Nothing about the Leode suggest they are miners so this had to have been carved by Arthur's followers," DanielJackson ruminated.

To Teal'c the scoring of the chisel marks in the stone was like the work slaves did for their goa'uld masters but he conceded that many cultures with primitive tools created such things themselves.

"I thought you said Arthur had space guns?" O'Neill interjected.

"No, I did not. I said that Arthur had advanced technology especially when one looks at Earth's legends of King Arthur's weapons, Caledfwlch which was later called Excalibur, the dagger Carnwennan, and Rhongomyniad which was a—"

"Okay, space swords," O'Neill dismissed the issue. "But if he has such advanced tech, why was this carved out by hand? And why carve a passageway when they all talk about a cave?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow slightly. To possess weapons that were so powerful that they had names and yet for the followers to possess primitive tools did not speak well of the one they sought. That was the way of the goa'uld.

"Sir," MajorCarter interrupted, "the UTD is picking up traces of naquadah."

"Where from?" O'Neill questioned sharply.

"Nothing specific, so I don't think it's coming from the rock around us," she answered.

"Okay, stay on it Major."

"Yes Sir."

The interruption ended the conversation for the time and it was not long before Teal'c began to sense the naquadah that MajorCarter spoke of. He would not describe it as a 'weird feeling' as MajorCarter once had but perhaps that came from it being a sensation that he had lived with since his Age of Prata Ceremony more than seven decades ago.

The air of the corridor began to curiously grow less stale as they progressed deeper and there was less moisture on the rock. Ahead MajorCarter halted as their lights spilled forward into blackness as rock no longer closed around them. Their lights failed to illuminate more than a fraction of the cavernous space that Teal'c sensed they had walked within, but the floor ahead of them shone with bright colours from small coloured tiles that were laid out a few feet from the entrance of the passageway. He was more accustomed to seeing geometric patterns, and not images, formed with many small coloured tiles but that floors of this kind customarily concealed traps concerned him.

From what he could discern a large image of greater than life sized forms was encircled by a boarder depicting smaller groupings of warrior narratives. There was also an element of one of the centre larger than life sized figures—the largest pair of feet had the outer help raised up—that alarmed him even though he could not see the full figure or scene. It echoed too strongly scenes that he had grown up with.

"A mosaic!" DanielJackson exclaimed with pleasure as he hoisted his lantern as high as possible for the most illumination. "Would you just look at it? The colours are fantastic and—"

"Whoah, hold up there Daniel," O'Neill reached forward and took hold of the man's pack before he stepped past MajorCarter in his eagerness to examine the floor. "We don't want this to turn into scene straight out of The Last Crusade."

DanielJackson twisted his head around so it was plain to see his puzzled expression. "What are you talking about? There was no 'last' religious expeditionary war to restore Christian access to—"

"Indiana Jones," O'Neill clarified as he let go. "You know, that Name the God trap where the guy almost plunges to his death."

"That's ridiculous Jack," he made a face. "Not only are these mosaic tiles, that scene in the movie was with large irregular shaped stones with Roman script carved into them. And I can't believe you're comparing fiction to this!"

"I must concur with O'Neill," Teal'c announced before the two men could begin one of their heated discussions.

"What?" DanielJackson looked flabbergasted. "Not you too Teal'c? That's just a fictional movie!"

"I agree that the film is fictional. I concur with O'Neill that this floor must be approached with caution. Such floors are used to conceal much and are a great danger to the unknowing that dare tread upon them."

"You both think it's booby trapped?" DanielJackson shook his head. "I don't think it is. The Leode only talk about the dangers of getting to the Cave, not dangers inside of it."

"Never hurts to be too careful," O'Neill declared. "Teal'c, you feel up to giving this floor a go?"

Teal'c inclined his head and approached the edge of the mosaic floor with his weapon at the ready. Sweeping the beam of his light across the tiles he looked for any signs of wear by the passage of feet. There was none that he could discern, so he tiptoed forward, placing his foot down lightly in one of the border narratives and tested the tiles before placing his full weight down.

When nothing occurred, he tiptoed forward again. His light methodically sweeping around for signs of wear by other feet and to see as much of the image as possible—and what he was seeing worried him further. This was the art of the false gods. Was not these people's hero supposed to have defeated the goa'uld?

When he had tiptoed across a fair distance, O'Neill cautioned that he was following. After more time, in which he and O'Neill covered a fair bit but had not yet reached the end, DanielJackson impatiently announced that he was joining them. When nothing happened then either, O'Neill called MajorCarter onto the mosaic. Abruptly a hum like the engines of a ha'tak engaging vibrated through the air and Teal'c had to squint against the lights that flared up all over the cavern. They remained as they were, frozen in trepidation for some long moments as they waited with bated breath for something else to happen.

"That... is that good?" O'Neill worried from behind.

"I know not O'Neill. It sounded like a ha'tak powering up for flight," Teal'c answered as he looked around in the full light and could see fully the smiting scene that was the centre of the mosaic they were all standing upon. The cavernous space with the mosaic floor seemed to be an intermediate level, ramps leading to chamber openings a level above and he could see openings to chambers below with many passageways leading off to unknown destinations.

From far down one of the passageways leading off from the mosaic cavern there sounded a deep bellow that electrified the senses and caused his prim'ta to thrash in his pouch.

"What's that?" DanielJackson exclaimed wide-eyed as he stared down the passageway the sound had bellowed from.

"Not good," O'Neill answered shortly.

Teal'c agreed. Not good at all.

Chapter 7: Major Samantha Carter

One shiny wet nose!
Two big furry ears!
Two big googly eyes!
IT'S A BEAR!

. . .

Sam remained where she had frozen when the powering up hum and lights had surprised them into immobility with one boot on the tiles and the other on bare rock. The bellowing sound was gone but she thought the hair on the back of her neck was still standing on end.

The hum noise in connection with the lights she could understand, as the UTD reading had jumped with the energy surge, but what in the world had been the cause of that bellow?

"Maybe something somewhere fell?" Daniel offered hopefully.

"That did not sound like equipment crashing," the Colonel retorted. "It sounded like an animal."

"But how would an animal get way down here? There were no signs in the passageway." Daniel questioned.

"It could have found another way in," Sam spoke up. "The air is fresh down here so there have to be airshafts. It's possible that the lights turning on startled an animal and the caves amplified and distorted the sound into the bellow we heard."

The Colonel was giving her a long measuring look, it seemed he did not believe her theory any more than she did really, but Daniel was looking relieved.

"Well, we'll either find out more when we get further," the Colonel waved a hand at the ways out of the cavern, "or we won't. Daniel, the floor pictures tell you anything now that we can see it?"

Nothing diverted Daniel's attention like a question like that as the archaeologist looked down at the mosaic and promptly became absorbed by his work with camcorder in hand.

Sam watched as, headless of Teal'c and the Colonel's early cautioning and worry about booby traps, Daniel began to crisscross the mosaic. He nudged the other two men out the way at times as he sprouted on about the technicalities of mosaics, certain narration scenes of unidentifiable warriors battling each other and other things depicted, like the giant bear before a seated woman.

"Well, this is so strange!" Daniel declared as he stood in the middle of the mosaic's centre scene, camcorder lowered to the side and gestured about with his free hand. "It's a pharaonic smiting scene, see? The victor is holding the captive by the hair in one hand and holding a weapon to smite them in the other hand. Also the images are shown in profile which is typical of Egyptian art—well goa'uld art—but that's just it, it's goa'uld. Arthur banished the goa'uld from Aballo so why is this here? In his cave?"

"Could this be something Camulus had done?" Sam questioned as she looked the mosaic over, taking her foot off the boar being eaten by a bear just below the centre scene that had Daniel so puzzled. "The cave might have been Camulus's before it was Arthur's."

"Maybe but I don't know why Arthur would leave it here when he won. Though," Daniel rubbed his chin, "I can't really say for certain who the two are. Both are wearing similar outfits with the most distinctive differences being the breastplate decoration. The captive's breastplate I'm not seeing any identifying emblem in and it could just be a purely decorative design of elaborate circular artwork. The most strange though is the victor's breastplate. It has a zoomorphic head that I haven't seen in goa'uld art before, so I need to check it against my books to discover which animal is being depicted."

Sam looked the two breastplates over and agreed that the captive just sporting a decorative geometric pattern and the victor a stylistic creature's head as seen from above. "It's not a dragon head?"

Daniel shook his head. "One has to be really careful about identifying zoomorphic heads since they are not particularly realistically portrayed and strongly stylised. Plus, the above view instead of a profile view makes it even trickier."

"I thought you just said snake art is all in profile, like Egyptian art?" the Colonel interjected.

"That is true," Daniel agreed slowly as he studied the mosaic with an increasingly puzzled air, "Egyptian art has the head and lower body viewed in profile, with the eye and upper body viewed from the front. So that zoomorphic head as seen from above is an abnormality."

Sam waited for him to say anything more but when Daniel didn't and just started muttering under his breath as he began working over the mosaic again, she turned her attention to her UTD. She was far more interested in why the power had engaged and lighting turned on when it had and there was nothing in this room that suggested any answers.

A motion detection system was most likely, but then it became a question of what type of sensor system was in place. Neither acoustic, optical, or seismic systems fit unless there was a system time-delay... crossing the mosaic she made her way to the Colonel's side. "Sir? I'd like to venture deeper to see if I can find the light's power source. Finding it might help with figuring out if this cave is goa'uld or not."

The Colonel drummed the fingers of his good hand against the stock of his P90 but nodded. "You and Teal'c can go start looking. Leave a trail for you to find your way out—or us to find you if you if I manage to tear Daniel away from his floor picture anytime soon. Keep in radio contact."

"Yes Sir," Sam nodded and crossed over to Teal'c. "You heard what the Colonel said?"

"I did MajorCarter," Teal'c answered.

Sam held up her UTD a bit. "I'll take the lead if that's okay."

"It is acceptable," he agreed. "I shall take responsibility for leaving the route markers."

"Thanks," Sam flashed a smile and turned her attention to the carved out chambers and passageways leading away from the spacious mosaic cavern. The decision was now, if the UTD didn't assist, which way did they try to go? Down sounded like the best option, so she selected one of the downward passageways and took the roughly carved steps deeper into the cave system. The energy reading increased a decimal point so it looked like she'd made the right choice.

The lights system was more spaced out than it had been in the mosaic cavern and she used the tactical light on her P90 in the shadowy areas and to look into the levels that intruded onto each other in no discernible order and not one level on top of the other. Shining the light through an opening to a dimly lit lower level a few feet to her right the beam glanced over a black glimmer—unlike the white one of the quartz in the dark grey rock wall—and caught her attention.

Swinging the beam back around, she peered downward as she centred the light. Was that a shiny wet nose? A flicker of movement above and she swept the beam up where it illuminated the rounded edge of a furry ear.

It looked like she may have found the animal that the Colonel had suggested had made that bellowing sound, but what kind of animal was? Shifting the beam of her light again in an attempt to see the whole shape of the animal's head, the beam reflected back from the tarpetum lucidum of the big eyes and shone red.

The roar bellowed through the air and shook her to the bones.

Holy Hannah!

It was a bear!

. . .

Quick! Back through the cave! Tiptoe! Tiptoe! Tiptoe!
Back through the snowstorm! Hoooo woooo! Hoooo woooo!
Back through the forest! Stumble trip! Stumble trip! Stumble trip!

. . .

Hard on the heels of that realization was a worse one. She wasn't just getting the weird goa'uld sense from behind her where Teal'c was—but from the bear! Suddenly the natural red shine from her light turned into the golden eye-glow of a goa'uld. Another roaring bellow shook her bones and sent her heartbeat galloping.

The massive bear took two lopping strides forward. It reached the arched opening between the two levels and reared up. Its claws, longer than her hands, dug at the ledge as it growled and roared.

Sam jolted back as the bear madly began to claw its way up to her. Flipping the safety of her P90 off, she squeezed the trigger. The air filled with the sharp sound of automatic gunfire and pungent odor of hot copper and nitroglycerin.

A chest full of rounds sent the bear reeling back, where it collapsed.

"The ursidae appears dead," Teal'c announced from behind.

"Carter," the radios cackled, "what's happening?"

Sam breathed deep to calm her rapid heartbeat as she reached up and toggled the switch of her radio. "Goa'uld Sir."

"Crap," the Colonel swore and what he said next was more an aside and not addressed to her. "Daniel said there wouldn't be snakes here." A pause. "Carter, with all that roaring—was it in a Unas?"

"Bear Sir."

A long pause. "Say that again Major."

"The goa'uld was in a bear Sir," Sam enunciated.

"Get back here," the Colonel ordered, "now Major."

"Yes Sir," Sam answered and her hand dropped from her radio. Taking a firm grip on her P90 she looked over her shoulder at Teal'c who was still looking at the fallen form of the giant bear. "Come on Teal'c, let's go."

Teal'c gave a regal nod of his head and they swiftly backtracked, following the route marks he had made on the stone walls to make their way back to the mosaic cavern where the other two men where. As they entered the spacious cavern again a bellowing roar rumbled up from behind them and Sam instinctively checked over her shoulder as her heart jolted.

"You didn't manage to kill it?" the Colonel demanded.

"The ursidae appeared dead when we departed O'Neill," Teal'c answered.

"There could be others too Sir," Sam suggested as she gave another uneasy look over her shoulder.

"Do you believe that Carter?"

Sam gave an uneasy shrug.

"Right, we're leaving."

"Jack—"

"Stuff it Daniel," he snapped. "We've got a goa'uld in a bear—"

"Giant bear," Sam interjected.

"Giant? How big?"

Sam pictured the bear in her head with its massive body and disproportionately long legs and had to say, "Twice the size of any bear on Earth."

"Of course, everything else on this planet is giant sized, why not the bears?" the Colonel said sarcastically. "Look, Daniel, we've got a goa'uld in a bear and I don't want to be down here with some snaked bear when there is only one way in and out!"

"Indeed."

A deep bellowing roar rolled over them—closer now.

They all exchanged wide eyed looks and the Colonel yelled, "Go, go, go!"

Sam shot across the mosaic behind Daniel, with Teal'c and the Colonel behind her—tiptoeing over it forgone in the need for speed. Boots slapping against the stone floor they made their way back up through the cave tunnel that had lead them here as fast as possible. Emerging into the shaded light of the forest outside the triangular cave entrance Sam's eyes adjusted easily.

"Think it followed us?" Daniel peered down the dark tunnel.

A low bellow rumbled up from the depth of the tunnel.

"Yes," the Colonel said shortly. "Keep moving!"

Keeping up their trotting pace down the slope covered in towering tree trunks, they passed by the rocky outcroppings with the carved runes and in a short time were overlooking the snowy channel of wind scored pines. Their earlier trail, mostly melted now, from where the snowstorm had caught them three quarters through the channel to the forest edge were the only tracks to be seen.

"Teal'c, take the lead," the Colonel ordered as he checked their back trail.

Teal'c nodded and began making a path through the snow that the strong afternoon light had melted from knee deep to a few inches.

The deeper they moved into the channel the stronger the wind blew with its distinctive hooo wooo like it had before and threatened to blow Sam's cap off her head as it caught time and time again underneath the brim.

"Jack, do we have to keep moving so fast?" Daniel complained as he puffed behind her, the wind almost drowning his words out.

"Bears can exceed thirty miles per hour," Sam near shouted to be heard over the loud whistling of the wind, "and that's just regular bears Daniel. This one had legs up to my chest! I don't want to think of how fast it can go."

She didn't hear anything else from Daniel, but that was probably the fault of the noisy wind and she kept her head down the rest of the way. Climbing up the ridge between the channel and the forest, Sam looked around.

"Crap," the Colonel swore from behind.

Sam glanced over her shoulder at the Colonel, and seeing the direction he was looking in, she looked and caught sight of a dark brown shape just emerging far up the mountain slope above the snowy pine channel.

"How long can it chase us?" Daniel asked in a hushed voice.

"As long as it can walk," the Colonel said grimly. "Carter, is it the same bear?"

Sam got out her binoculars and took a look, carefully comparing what she remembered seeing in the cave against the bear just beginning to advance into the snowy channel with its stunted pines. "Markings look like they do Sir. Though I can't tell if it's a species things or distinct to an individual animal."

"Considering it's a giant bear on our back trail Major, we'll assume it's your snake-bear."

"Can we ambush it?" Daniel questioned.

"I'd like to think that would succeed but if it survived Carter..." the Colonel grimaced. "Enough of a breather, let's keep moving. Teal'c, pace us."

"I shall O'Neill," Teal'c responded to the order and took the lead again into the tall pine trees with their canopy towering overhead shading out the light and quieting the wind to a mere whisper.

Sam thought grimly of the klicks they had to cover ahead and the varying terrain that would challenge them and always pushing from behind, that giant goa'uld infested bear that had survived the rounds she had put into it and healed so fast. Her boots crushing the pine needles beneath her feet Sam was glad it was easier to move quickly down the forested slope of the mountainside but she was also more careful about how she stepped. They could not afford for anyone to stumble and trip down the slope now.

. . .

Back through the mud! Squelch squerch! Squelch squerch!
Back through the river! Splash splosh! Splash splosh! Splash splosh!
Back through the grass! Swishy swashy! Swishy swashy!

. . .

Leaving the forested mountain slope, there had been no visual sign of pursuit amongst the trees but the pine trunks reduced visibility and Sam didn't believe that the goa'uld would just stop following them. That was not the nature of the goa'uld. Especially one that had been angered by an attack.

It did not take long out in the direct sunlight to have Sam sweating even more as she lengthened her stride to match as Teal'c increased their pace once out of the forest.

Gradually the firm grassland turned damp and spongy underfoot and then gave way to soupy mud and frogs and water beetles as it had the first time. In half a klick they were back into the reedy wet meadow again. It was safer to travel back over terrain they knew than try to cut distance and time over unknown terrain.

Sam grimaced at the squelch squerch sound the mud made as it sucked and grabbed at her boots. She was extra careful to follow Teal'c's path so that there was not a repeat of the earlier mud puddle fiasco.

"I see it," Daniel hissed from behind.

Sam glanced over her shoulder and saw that the bear had emerged through the underbrush edging the treeline. Roughly half a klick away from the reeds and mud they were slogging through.

"Bear's don't have good eyesight right? Maybe it can't see us?" Daniel questioned hopefully.

"That's a myth Daniel. Bears don't have bad eyesight, they just hunt via scent." Sam answered as she looked forward again.

No one said anything to that and they kept to their steady trotting pace. Step by step the soupy mud of the wet meadow firmed up into grassland again and they reached the river valley.

Cutting down the slope, Sam made sure she did not trip down this one either as they wove between the deciduous trees and pushed through the bush; ducking the occasional branch that snapped back and tried to catch the unwary in the face.

Reaching the spot of the river where they had crossed, the clear water burbling over the few protruding rocks and no evidence of the flash flood that had almost swept Teal'c away hours ago. When the team was standing on the river edge, the Colonel gestured both her and Teal'c across the ford the same time. Her boots splash sploshed in the river as Sam picked her way across the cobbled bottom and she kept a sharp eye upstream. The icy water washed over the top of her boots and soaked her legs beneath her knees and Sam clenched her teeth against the urge to shiver.

Emerging onto the north bank with her teeth still clenched, Sam shifted her weight from foot to foot to chase away the chill of the water as the Colonel and Daniel forded the river. Her eyes on them as much as they were scanning the bush and tree covered slope behind them in search of a bear moving through the growth.

"Any sign?" the Colonel asked.

"Not yet Sir."

The Colonel looked over the far slope himself and then gave a hard look upstream. "Let's hope it doesn't know a short cut. Enough lollygagging, keep it moving."

Sam fell into stride with Teal'c again as he led the way up the northern slope out of the river valley. Pushing aside one of the lower bushes in her path, Sam paused as she heard a low roar from behind, back at the river. A look at her teammates showed curious looks on their faces as well—well curious, and in the case of the Colonel very wary. It wasn't a bear roar, that was for sure, she thought as she furrowed her brow and listened as it grew from a low roar to a roaring rush of water.

Another flash flood?

Picking up the pace, they emerged onto the northern ridge of the river valley and looked back. Sam saw a swath of the river's blue water was brown now and that it did look like another flash flood had swept downstream. That was very strange and she tucked the puzzle of two flash floods only hours apart away in her mind to puzzle over later. When they were safely back at SGC and didn't have a mad goa'uld hot on their trail.

"Daniel, is it safe for you to take more of your allergy stuff?" the Colonel asked.

Sam turned her attention from the river valley behind to the four and a half klicks of grassland ahead and the row of megalithic standing stones on the north horizon.

"Yes," Daniel nodded and dug out another foil packet of antihistamines to swallow two.

Sam saw that Teal'c only gave Daniel enough time to pock the packet before started forward at the steady trotting pace again. She kept her breathing as steady and deep as possible and listened as their steps made a rhythmic thudding noise as their boots hit the ground in close unison over the swishy swashy rustle of their strides through the long grass.

They hadn't covered half a klick when the bear was spotted on the flat prairie behind them. Soon it was evident that the animal's disproportionately long legs gave it a ground covering stride that gradually closed the distance between them bit by bit.

Sam marked in her mind when the team had jogged two klicks which left two and a half klicks to go. On the horizon the towering stones encircling the 'gate were becoming more defined and the sight invigorated her even as she felt the sweat begin to run in rivets.

Another klick of prairie covered and behind them the bear was getting closer, racking up the tension she was feeling even more. Glances at her teammates revealed that Daniel looked like she felt, the Colonel's square jaw was grimly set, and as Teal'c was in the lead she couldn't see his expression but he radiated his usual iron-clad calmness.

Three and a half klicks covered and then the Colonel yelled, "Drop and run for it!"

Sam's heart jolted at the words as she reflexively looked behind. The bear was no longer walking, but now moving rapidly towards them with a loping stride.

Her own stride hitched as her right hand fumbled a bit at releasing the clips of her field pack. She'd been prepared for the order since the standing stones had come into view. It was better to lose equipment than lose lives.

Before the pack had hit the ground, she was at a flat out run across the prairie to the 'gate.

Chapter 8: Colonel Jack O'Neill

Get to our front door.
Open the door.
Up the stairs.

. . .

Jack's boots pounded the ground as he ran the last klick full out; his pace checked only by his need to keep behind his team and guard their six against the giant bear loping up behind them. One of his quick shoulder checks revealed that the beast wasn't trying to overtake them—yet—and he concluded that it was playing with them. Either the snake was going to run them down as soon as they were near the 'gate or it intended to follow them through.

If it did try to follow, it was too bad for the snake that they had their own trick up the sleeve to play he thought with fierce satisfaction.

The massive pillars of stone around the 'gate were now just yards away from Teal'c who was in the lead. As soon as the Jaffa reached the first stone, he ducked around it and braced his staff weapon at the ready.

Jack was pleased that Daniel shot straight past Teal'c towards the DHD as Carter took cover around another stone with P90 braced to fire.

The first of the thunks of the 'gate chevrons engaging were drown out by an angry bellowing roar like they'd heard back in the mountain cave.

"Sir!" Carter shouted.

Crap! Jack didn't even check over his shoulder as he desperately grabbed more energy to run faster. He knew from the roar and Carter's shout that the bear was no longer loping but now running.

Reaching the circle of stones he dropped into a slide—feet first and butt down—that would make any baseball player proud and slid to the stone Teal'c was taking cover behind to give his teammates clear range to open fire on the bear.

Carter opened fire as the greater range of the P90 meant the roaring bear was in range for Carter before it was for Teal'c's staff weapon. As the bullets flew over Jack's head, he grabbed his P90, twisted onto his stomach, propped himself up on his elbows—thank God his baseball slide through the grass had crushed it down enough to see over—and opened fire at the giant bear charging down on them.

The blasted beast seemed to shrug off their bullets like annoying flies. Just their crappy luck. Either it had regenerative powers that would give an Unas a run for its money or this giant version of bear had some sort of bullet proof hide!

A hundred sixty yards now—

"We've got the go! Let's go! Let's go!" Daniel hollered at them from the 'gate.

Finally! Jack thought as he yelled back, "Get through Daniel! Carter! You next!"

"Yes Sir!"

Under the noise of his weapon and the bear's continuous roaring, behind him he heard the 'gate swallow Daniel. Her heard Carter moving by tracking the sound of her firing, which ceased as she passed through the stargate, and it was just him and Teal'c left.

Jack gathered himself. "Teal'c, I need to get back on my feet."

"I shall begin firing when the ursidae is in range," Teal'c affirmed.

Seventy yards—just in range of the staff weapon and Teal'c fired the first plasma bolt at the bear. A hit to the shoulder and the bear hitched, and then sounded even angrier as it roared and charged forward faster.

Jack paused firing as he heaved himself up into a crouch and opened fired again himself as he straightened upright. Then working in concert with Teal'c, they retreated backwards the seventeen yards from the inside of the stone circle to the stargate platform. His boot heel hit the first stone step of the platform and exchanging a glance with Teal'c, they ceased firing in unison and turning, raced up the steps and through the blue event horizon of the stargate.

. . .

Oh no!
We forgot to shut the door.
Back downstairs.

. . .

"Close the iris!" Jack yelled, squinting at the change from the bright sunlight of P3B-327 to the artificial lighting of the gateroom. The gateroom guards were at the ready and he was already breathing easier as he and Teal'c hustled down the ramp flanked by its pair of mounted M2 machine guns.

Behind him the iris started to spiral close and then—all the lights flickered, died, and they were plunged into darkness illuminated by the blue glow of the open stargate and the dim red glow of the base's emergency lights.

Damn! Jack swore as he spun around on the base of the ramp. A second later the base power switched over to the mountain's generators and the lights came back on. He saw that the iris had closed a fraction, covering only a hand span of the event horizon—enough to maybe trip someone coming through the open wormhole over, but not enough to stop a thing.

"I said: close that iris!" Jack bellowed as he flipped the safety of his P90 off again and backed up into the line of guards.

"I can't Sir," Harriman announced over the public announcement system. "That system is offline! Something must have happened when the power switched over!"

Of course something happened. It was Murphy's friggin' rule. "Carter!"

"On it Sir!"

Not soon enough for him as the nose and then muzzle of the giant bear protruded through the open stargate. Then the bear was halfway through the 'gate and why the hell wasn't that iris close? She just had to push a button!

"Manual control's not working Sir!" Carter barked frantically.

Shit. Murphy was really here to party.

"Open fire!" Hammond thundered on the public announcement system as the bear stepped fully onto the ramp and rose up, standing over thirteen feet tall with its roaring head level with the middle chevrons.

Jack opened fire and the gateroom filled with the thunderous roar of P90s and M2s rounds and the hot smell of copper jackets and gunpowder.

"Security to the gateroom! Security to the gateroom! Code nine! Code nine!" boomed through the base speakers.

The roaring from the bear died as finally, slowly, the bullet and plasma bolt riddled form of the giant beast slumped forward on the ramp in the hail of fire, blood running in rivets down the metal and pooling on the concrete floor.

"Cease fire!" Hammond barked.

Jack cautiously lowered the barrel of his P90 in the silence that was almost as deafening as the roaring fire of the guns had been.

"The ursidae appears dead," Teal'c announced off to the side.

"You said that before," Carter accused from behind him.

Jack snorted as he critically eyed the giant bear where it slumped. "The snake Carter?"

Carter stepped up to his left, zat gun out and in the active position. "Not sure Sir. I'm still sensing it though."

"I too can feel the presence of the goa'uld," Teal'c affirmed. "It should abandon the damaged host body soon."

"Look sharp!" Jack barked to the guards on duty. "That bear has a goa'uld in it. No one get near it until the snake shows itself!"

"Yessir!" was the chorus as the guards all stood tensely at the ready again.

Come on snake, Jack thought cynically, where are you and who were you going to try an' take?

"Sir!" the airman manning the mounted M2 to his left piped up, "I just saw something fall and get beneath the ramp!"

Jack jerked his head to the left, "Teal'c!"

Teal'c took his zat gun from its holster and circled the guards to the left.

Jack watched as Tea'c came up behind the guard on the M2 and after a few words and hand gestures from the airman, Teal'c eased in front of the machine gun and crouching down to see beneath the ramp covered by the dead bear, searched for what the airman had reported.

Teal'c looked at him and Jack saw that his teammate had seen the snake and wished to know to stun or terminate the goa'uld.

Jack thought it over. The only good snake was a dead snake in his mind, but the brass and scientists were always clamouring for more live snakes to study. Making his decision, he held up one finger.

Teal'c nodded and one quick zinging jolt from the zat stunned the snake.

"Excellent Sir, I can't wait till we can do some studies on it if we don't have to ship it directly to '51," Carter bounced. "The bear too Sir even though it's dead."

Jack gave Teal'c an approving nod as he listened to Carter with half an ear—typical scientist. He breathed out, relaxing muscles and became suddenly aware of his throbbing left wrist as his adrenaline high tampered off. He sighed, turned, and looked through the control room window to report, "Sir, the threat has been contained."

. . .

Shut the door.
Back upstairs.
Into the bedroom.

. . .

Hammond leaned forward to speak into the mic, "Good job people."

Jack gave a nod of his head and waited for what else General Hammond had to say.

"Welcome back SG-1," Hammond gave them a nod, "report to the infirmary and debriefing will commence at fifteen-hundred."

"Yes Sir," Jack answered as he waved his right hand. "Packs are three and a half klicks due south from the 'gate and it should be safe to retrieve them when the 'gate system is back up and running."

"That you Colonel," Hammond replied.

Jack nodded and turning to the armourer on duty passed off his P90 and Beretta and then followed Daniel through the crowd of SFs out the blast doors and down the tunnel corridor to the elevator. No way in hell he was taking the stairs after that ten klick marathon.

"Sergeant Siler and crew report to the gateroom. Sergeant Siler and crew report to the gateroom," issued over the announcement system. "Biological hazard containment team to the gateroom. Biological hazard containment team to the gateroom."

Ah, Jack thought as he stepped into the elevator car with his team, the fixers and the clean-up crew. He wondered as the car lifted up, if they would have to cut up the carcass of the dead bear to move it, as it probably weighed well over a thousand pounds, or if they would be able to get to the animal eggheads as it was—bullet riddled but intact.

The elevator doors slid open on Level 21, they exited, turned and travelled down the grey corridor, and crossed the threshold into Doc Fraiser's domain. As expected, the five foot two inch Napoleonic power-monger was awaiting their arrival and eyeing them severely as they walked towards her, her lips pursed in disapproval.

"Well," Fraiser greeted, "I see you've enjoyed the hospitality of the friendly natives on P3B-327 in the way only SG-1 can."

"Hey!" Jack protested. "It wasn't the natives! It was the bear." Well okay, the bear wasn't the reason Daniel had a bruised nose and he a twisted wrist, he blamed the planet for that, but it was at fault for their sweaty condition. And really, they weren't that bad. It wasn't like some missions they returned from with blood and bones showing!

"Bear?" Fraiser arched a sculpted brow.

"Well no," Carter contradicted him, "the bear wasn't the reason Daniel tripped and broke his glasses or the Colonel tripped and sprained his wrist, but yes, there was a bear and it did chase us back through the 'gate."

Fraiser looked intrigued as she signaled to her minions and triad them. Stepping up beside him, she herded him to a gurney. "So Colonel, Sam says you sprained your wrist?"

"Yeah, called it a second grade," Jack reluctantly admitted as he sat on the mattress and submitted with his usual fortitude—which was none—to the routine of the medical check. He endured having his temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure taken, as well as blood drawn and other stuff. Plus being subject to the Doc's endless questions about how he felt, what he had done, and how did it feel as Fraiser prodded his now unwrapped left wrist which was swollen twice the size it had been when he'd first injured it.

"Sam probably gave it the right diagnoses at the time Colonel and treated it well," Fraiser announced, "but it looks—and sounds—like you stressed it pretty bad on the way back, so I'm sending you to x-ray to check that it is only a sprain."

Jack blew out a noisy breath. He knew it. As if Fraiser's vampirism wasn't enough of a sign, she really did have it in for him.

. . .

Into the bed.
Under the covers.
We're not going on a bear hunt again.

. . .

Twelve minutes till fifteen-hundred and Jack stepped off the elevator and wandered down the corridor on Level 27, past the General's office, to the debriefing room. The door was propped open, signalling the room was empty, and so he entered and took the first seat on his left. He settled down with a relieved sigh into the large chair and propped his sprained wrist in its fresh bandage on the armrest.

Their blood work had come clean at the half hour mark and after being dismissed by Fraiser from the infirmary, even being handicapped with only one working hand—he'd been hobbled plenty of times like that throughout his career and knew all the tricks to manage—it hadn't taken him much time to shower and dress in fresh BDUs. That had left him with plenty of time to kick around the base unoccupied till the team's scheduled debriefing. So first he'd made inroads into the commissary's dessert bar and then he'd dozed the rest of the time away in his private quarters.

Ten minutes to debriefing and Carter entered, giving him a small smile as she held up an ice pack. "Here Sir, you forgot this in the locker room."

Jack made a face as he saw it was the very ice pack he had purposely left behind on the bench in the locker room. He accepted it and wrapping it around his wrist, begrudging, "Thanks Major."

"Welcome Sir," Carter returned breezily as she took her customary spot on his right.

Jack eyed his second suspiciously, that tone said things to him, but turned his attention from her when Teal'c arrived and seated himself on the other side of the table, directly across from Carter.

Two minutes to debriefing and Daniel hustled in and Jack raised an eyebrow at the paperwork the man was carrying. It looked like Daniel had more stuff than he had in the briefing for the mission; the man had definitely been a busy bookworm while Jack had been napping.

At precisely fifteen-hundred, the door connecting the briefing room and the General's office opened and Hammond entered. Taking his seat at the head of the table, Hammond looked them over and pleasantly said, "Well, SG-1, why don't we get this debriefing started."

"Yessir," Jack murmured in unison with his second. To ensure the debriefing was succinct—Daniel and Carter could run on all they wanted in their written reports—he started recounting their mission. As the meeting progressed and they described reaching the cave, he got a bit suspicious that Daniel wasn't running off at the mouth like he usually did, especially considering Daniel's bouncy enthusiasm before their departure.

"So, you did find Arthur's cave," Hammond summed when SG-1 paused in their recounting, "but were chased away before a search for technology was possible."

Jack, because he was paying close attention to the unusually subdued Daniel, caught the fleeting wince that crossed the archaeologist's face.

"About that General Hammond," Daniel spread out some eight by eleven photographs over the tabletop, "I was able to get some more research in during the time you gave us and I found out that... it wasn't totally... I..."

"Dr Jackson?" Hammond prompted in his kindly way.

Daniel blew out a breath and tapped a picture of the cave mosaic of the winner holding the loser by the hair. "I was able to compare the pattern of the breastplates of the smiting scene against my reference books and our goa'uld identification lexicon. The swirl designs of the defeated foe breastplate matches the armour pattern that Camulus is known to wear, confirming that it is Camulus. The pattern of the victor's breastplate is an overhead view of a stylised animal head that that my books mostly all agree, is of a bear."

Moving his hand Daniel tapped a second picture, the scene of a bear mauling a big pig. "That is supported by this scene which was directly beneath the smiting scene. Historically Camulus is symbolised as a wild boar and while no goa'uld of the Egyptian tradition is represented by the bear, there are many cultures that worship bears on Earth such as many North American ethnicities and North Eurasian ethnicities such as the Sami, the Nivkh, the Ainu, and the Finns and in Britain the Celtic Gaul."

"Celtic? Isn't Camulus a Celtic war god?" Carter clarified.

"He is, and the Celtic bear deities are the god Matunos, goddess Andarta, and the goddess..." here Daniel grimaced as his voice dropped an octave, "Artio."

"Artio?" Jack sat up in his chair and gave the archaeologist a hard look. He thought they had gone looking for King Arthur of the Round Table, the king with the space swords, not some obscure goa'uld. The man had even said that Artio was the native's nickname for their so called saviour.

Daniel cleared his throat. "Yes, Artio. She is a Celtic bear goddess and evidence of her worship on Earth has notably been found in Switzerland."

Jack drawled warningly, "Daniel."

Daniel winched. "It seems I was hasty in my association of the name Arto-rig with the name Arthur. While yes, the meaning of 'bear-king' is one of the etymological roots of the name Arthur it appears that in this case, Bear-King was a descriptive statement to describe the being who battled against Camulus." Daniel drew a breath and said, "Artio is derived from the word for bear, artos, in the Celtic Gaul language."

"Just peachy," Jack glowered at his teammate. "Let me guess, King Arthur isn't on the planet, was never there, and all that other stuff you sprouted off to us about in the briefing was just—just flukes!"

Daniel gave a reluctant nod as his gaze dropped and fixed on the tabletop.

Jack was incredulous. Daniel had just sent them on a wild goose chase because he fudged a translation and turned them into bear bait! Forget not letting Carter live down getting stuck in the mud, this was going to be immortalised in the Hall of Shame for Danny-boy. "Daniel—!"

"Colonel O'Neill," Hammond sternly cut him off.

Jack clamped down on the rest of the angry words waiting to spew forth and continued glowering at the younger man across the table.

"To confirm Dr Jackson, the earlier hypothesis that King Arthur of Earth was Arto-rig of P3B-237 has been disproved. Arto-rig has instead been positively identified as the goa'uld Artio," Hammond summed.

"Yes General," Daniel raised his gaze.

"Are there any theories about how Artio came to be on P3B-237?" Hammond questioned.

Jack snorted and muttered lowly, "I don't think I want to hear it considering his last theory almost got us eaten by a bear."

"Sir," Carter hissed in his ear as her elbow made firm contact with his ribs.

Great, Jack thought, both Hammond and Carter were on his case now. Giving his second a stern look, which did not faze her in the least, he schooled his expression so that at least he was no longer glowering.

"I do actually have a..." Daniel cleared his throat, "...suggestion, about that. The intelligence the Tok'ra have provided to us confirms that Aballo was once an insignificant planet of Camulus domain. Six hundred years ago however, reference to the planet stopped and the Tok'ra state that they assume the planet's metal mines were depleted as they had not been particularly rich in the first place. Six hundred years ago is also when the minor goa'uld Artio disappeared from the record and the Tok'ra state they have no conclusive evidence about what happened to Artio.

"That information and the material that we found on Aballo I would propose, suggests that Artio invaded Aballo six hundred years ago and succeeded in taking the planet from Camulus who it seemed had no vested interest in retaining ownership."

More coincidences Jack thought to himself unhappily. Whatever happened to good old solid facts?

"What about the writings, and the mosaic pictures? Why do they have Artio and Camulus's fighting each other?" Carter asked.

"It is common for goa'uld to depict themselves engaged in direct combat with greater foes even when it is just a small numbers of their foe's forces they meet in battle," Teal'c spoke.

"Right," Daniel nodded. "The battle between Camulus and Artio the Leode recount is probably symbolical; Artio probably ousted Camulus's forces that were on Aballo and not the system lord himself."

"Then what?" Jack asked.

"Then what, what?" Daniel looked confused.

"Artio kicked off Camulus's Jaffa, and then what happened? Why was he still there in that cave? Why didn't he try and take more planets?" Jack asked. "That's what they do, they never stop at just one planet. And why didn't he set himself up as the new god?"

"I... have no idea," Daniel confessed and rubbed his chin. "But, the Leode legend says that the cave was a healing cave, maybe Artio was injured in the battle against Camulus's forces and something happened afterwards that kept, or trapped, her in the cave."

"Like er, Hathor," Carter gave them an apologetic look for mentioning the goa'uld, "was locked in her sarcophagus."

Daniel gave small shudder at the mention but nodded. "If she was locked in, maybe she went into hibernation or something like the goa'uld in the Unas that was trapped in the Asgard maze on Cimmeria did. Something about our arrival might have... triggered something."

"Like the presence of my prim'ta engaged the Hammer of Thor," Teal'c compared.

"Or me now too," Carter interjected. "We know from Ma'chello that there are off-world technologies developed around symbiote physiology beyond the presence of naquadah."

"Yes, and unless we can return to Aballo and do a thorough investigation of the cave and its technologies it is all supposition," Daniel said.

Well, at least he was saying that now, that it were all theories, Jack begrudged, even if he was weaseling to get back to the planet again beyond just grabbing their dropped field packs. He wished that Daniel had kept his theories to himself the first time and not dragged them into something that was a total bust mission wise and ended up with the team off the off-world roster until Fraiser okayed his wrist.

"I will take the matter under consideration," Hammond said tactfully. "Are there further items of discussion?"

Jack ran over the mission in his head. "That's pretty much it Sir, we were only in the cave for a bit before Carter and Teal'c stumbled over the bear and then we were chased back down the mountain, across the river, and through the grass back to the 'gate." Jack shrugged. "We did a lot of running and not much else in the end."

"Very well," Hammond nodded, "I look forward to your full reports which I expect to be handed in—"

"Ah Sir," Jack held up his bandaged wrist in protest.

"—two days after Dr Fraiser clears Colonel O'Neill for full duty," Hammond concluded unperturbed as he rose from his seat. "Dismissed."

"Yes Sir," Jack responded as he pushed the chair away from the table and stood. Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel stood as well and the team headed for the door.

A knock on the briefing room door sounded and it opened to show a lab-coat wearing scientist in the archway. Jack did not recognize the man at all.

"General Sir?" the scientist intruded. "We've completed the preliminary evaluation of the ursidae specimen from P3B-237."

"Yes son?" Hammond prompted.

"The skeletal form is highly comparable to the extinct genus Arctodus simus," the scientist summed.

"Which means what?" Jack asked.

The scientist gave him a chastising look, "As I was about to continue, Arctodus simus in vernacular is called the short-faced or bulldog bear and existed in North America during the Pleistocene. It may have once been Earth's largest mammalian terrestrial carnivore and was abundant in what is now California."

Jack felt one of his eyebrows raise. So it hadn't just been a giant bear, but a giant cave bear. What was it with fossils and myths, like the Unas, having to chase them all the time? "Well Daniel," Jack slapped Daniel on the back with his good hand, "looks like you got yourself on the Fame board again. You found yourself a cave bear."

The scientist gave him a pinched look as he drew himself upright and said haughtily, "Ursus spealaeus, in vernacular the cave bear, was a genus of ursidae that existed in Europe during the Pleistocene—"

Jack brushed past the scientist standing in the door with a dismissing wave and made his way to the elevator. It was a giant bear and it had tried to eat them and that was all he needed to know. "So, kids, movie night? I'm thinking... The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams."

"What?" Daniel squawked.

"No," Carter disagreed cheerfully as they crowded into the elevator car, "it should be the actor version of The Jungle Book Sir. I don't remember Baloo making much of an appearance—no singing and dancing like Disney—but the villain does die because of a giant python."

"Good suggestion Carter. Teal'c?" Jack prompted.

"I believe the chronicle of The Bear would be most peaceful to conclude the day's duties with," Teal'c contributed.

Jack gave a satisfied grin at Daniel as the elevator doors closed. They'd run into a snake and gotten squat for weapons, but any day that ended with jokes and a movie night was a good day in his books.

-FINISHED