flickered, and shadows moved around the streets. Three moons
floated in the sky, one large and pale blue, one small and pure, bright
white, one a kind of squashed orange.
He remembered the mosaic, the final stillness of a ruined city,
and the moonlight shining down. Should've ordered him to bed, he
thought. The more he wants to know, the less they're going to want to
tell him. And this is a big place to search if he goes missing.
But in the morning, at 0700 sharp, Daniel was back, eyes vague
with weariness, and everything seemed perfectly normal.
Daniel's barhopping hadn't yielded a whole lot of information, it
appeared. As SG-1 had breakfast in the hotel common room - trestle
tables and benches, a lot of bright chattering people in colorful robes
and lace-up sandals, all of whom stared covertly - Daniel described
chatting up the locals. The more or less sober ones, anyway. He and
Teal'c hadn't been on their own after all; at least two of Acton's quiet
security detail had trailed them all night.
Carter in particular listened to Daniel's story of a fifth, lost world
intently. "And they didn't give you any details about what came
through the Stargate to cause the disaster?" she asked, and took a neat
bite of flatbread loaded with sliced olives. She'd politely refused the
lamb and rice wrapped in grape leaves, which Jack thought actually
tasted pretty fine. "Seems like it had to have been something pretty
frightening. Like a Goa'uld war party."
"I didn't get the sense it was something that... well, that simple,"
Daniel replied. He was wolfing down some kind of porridge that Jack
wouldn't have tried for money... but then, Daniel wasn't exactly
squeamish about new foods. "Not just a Goa'uld war party, if that
was part of it. It seemed like they were afraid of something worse
than that. These people understand war, I think they've had struggles
among their planets from time to time. You saw the walls..."
"Wondered about that," Jack said. He tried the flatbread. Not bad.
Maybe they should hijack the cooks and take them back to the SGC
commissary.
"Yeah, well, even this planet's got its own political divisions.
Seems like there are several different city-states that all want control
of the Stargate. This city - it's calledAclythos - has been in charge of
it for about fifty years, after the last war. But there's a couple of other
cities within a day's travel that use it, too, and have to pay for the
privilege. Apparently, travel through the Stargate is free for the local
citizens, but not for everybody else."
"So it's not a planetary government?" Carter asked.
"No. We'll probably only find a planetary government where the
Goa'uld have an active presence, or did. These worlds seem to have
been seeded by the Goa'uld, but they never got back around to asserting a claim. So... tribal politics as usual. The slaves broke up into
city-states, patterned a life after the one they'd had back home."
Teal'c said, "Yet this other unnamed world may still be under
Goa'uld control."
Jack looked around one more time - the calm diners, the ripple of
conversations going on, smiles and laughter. Busy servitors, looking
harassed and palming coins for tips. Chefs shouting to each other in
back rooms. Like the airport, it looked a lot like home, if you switched
out the wardrobe. And if the Goa'uld had a foothold on one of these planets, it was only a matter of time before they came calling here on
Chalcis, too, burning and destroying.
And after that, just a couple of steps on to Earth.
"Let's get moving," Jack said, and tugged his hat into place.
It was the general rule in the field; when the commander was done
eating, the team was done, too. Carter left her flatbread and olives;
Teal'c immediately abandoned his plate of fruit. Daniel scooped up
two hasty mouthfuls of his porridge, then a third while standing, and
was the last to leave the table.
Two guys in dark tunics got up from a seat in the
floated in the sky, one large and pale blue, one small and pure, bright
white, one a kind of squashed orange.
He remembered the mosaic, the final stillness of a ruined city,
and the moonlight shining down. Should've ordered him to bed, he
thought. The more he wants to know, the less they're going to want to
tell him. And this is a big place to search if he goes missing.
But in the morning, at 0700 sharp, Daniel was back, eyes vague
with weariness, and everything seemed perfectly normal.
Daniel's barhopping hadn't yielded a whole lot of information, it
appeared. As SG-1 had breakfast in the hotel common room - trestle
tables and benches, a lot of bright chattering people in colorful robes
and lace-up sandals, all of whom stared covertly - Daniel described
chatting up the locals. The more or less sober ones, anyway. He and
Teal'c hadn't been on their own after all; at least two of Acton's quiet
security detail had trailed them all night.
Carter in particular listened to Daniel's story of a fifth, lost world
intently. "And they didn't give you any details about what came
through the Stargate to cause the disaster?" she asked, and took a neat
bite of flatbread loaded with sliced olives. She'd politely refused the
lamb and rice wrapped in grape leaves, which Jack thought actually
tasted pretty fine. "Seems like it had to have been something pretty
frightening. Like a Goa'uld war party."
"I didn't get the sense it was something that... well, that simple,"
Daniel replied. He was wolfing down some kind of porridge that Jack
wouldn't have tried for money... but then, Daniel wasn't exactly
squeamish about new foods. "Not just a Goa'uld war party, if that
was part of it. It seemed like they were afraid of something worse
than that. These people understand war, I think they've had struggles
among their planets from time to time. You saw the walls..."
"Wondered about that," Jack said. He tried the flatbread. Not bad.
Maybe they should hijack the cooks and take them back to the SGC
commissary.
"Yeah, well, even this planet's got its own political divisions.
Seems like there are several different city-states that all want control
of the Stargate. This city - it's calledAclythos - has been in charge of
it for about fifty years, after the last war. But there's a couple of other
cities within a day's travel that use it, too, and have to pay for the
privilege. Apparently, travel through the Stargate is free for the local
citizens, but not for everybody else."
"So it's not a planetary government?" Carter asked.
"No. We'll probably only find a planetary government where the
Goa'uld have an active presence, or did. These worlds seem to have
been seeded by the Goa'uld, but they never got back around to asserting a claim. So... tribal politics as usual. The slaves broke up into
city-states, patterned a life after the one they'd had back home."
Teal'c said, "Yet this other unnamed world may still be under
Goa'uld control."
Jack looked around one more time - the calm diners, the ripple of
conversations going on, smiles and laughter. Busy servitors, looking
harassed and palming coins for tips. Chefs shouting to each other in
back rooms. Like the airport, it looked a lot like home, if you switched
out the wardrobe. And if the Goa'uld had a foothold on one of these planets, it was only a matter of time before they came calling here on
Chalcis, too, burning and destroying.
And after that, just a couple of steps on to Earth.
"Let's get moving," Jack said, and tugged his hat into place.
It was the general rule in the field; when the commander was done
eating, the team was done, too. Carter left her flatbread and olives;
Teal'c immediately abandoned his plate of fruit. Daniel scooped up
two hasty mouthfuls of his porridge, then a third while standing, and
was the last to leave the table.
Two guys in dark tunics got up from a seat in the
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