SG1-16 Four Dragons (4 page)

Daniel jumped from his chair, his mind already racing ahead to the books he’d need to pack for reference. “This is great. I’ll just collect — ”

“Not so fast.” Jack waved his fork. “Yes, SG-1 is going to P3Y… whatever. They’ve already found a ring platform, and if there’s one, there could be others, so SG-13 shouldn’t babysit the dig alone. Carter and Teal’c will watch their sixes.”

“Now hold on a second,” Daniel said as he snatched back the plate. “What about us?”

“Oh, we’re going, too. Give me that.”

Daniel surrendered the plate. “If we are going, I’ll need to grab my lexicon. Dr. Balinsky’s initial report seemed to indicate early pre-dynastic writing… Though it could be Xian — ”

“You won’t need it,” Jack said, his mouth full.

Not liking the sound of that, Daniel pulled the plate back. “You want to explain why?”

“Not really,” Jack said.

“I think I deserve an explanation.”

Jack dropped the fork and stared back at Daniel. “Fine. You want an explanation? You’ll be busy with… other things. My reason? I’m still not convinced you’re as mission-ready as you think you are.”

“What… what are you talking about?” Daniel stammered, not believing his ears. He turned toward Sam for support. “Only days ago, I covered your back when Sam and I planted explosives on Baal’s new ship.”

“That’s not the same thing,” Jack said, warning Sam off with a look.

“As what?”

“Just forget it,” Jack replied. “No ancient relics for you. Oh, sure, we’ll go. But you and I are going to find a nice secluded place to get in some target practice.”

“You want to explain to me why?”

“Trust me,” Jack replied, snatching the plate from his hands. “I have my reasons.”

Stunned, and more than a bit angry, Daniel watched Jack demolish his cake while silently planning to sneak in a few useful books on Xian dynasty language. Playing soldier wasn’t going to get in the way of what he wanted — needed — to do.

One way or another, Daniel would get a look at those ruins.

With or without Jack’s approval.

Chapter Two

PLANET DESIGNATION: P3Y-702

STATUS: SCIENCE MISSION SUPPORT/BACKUP

APPROX 1300 HRS LOCAL TIME

1 JUL 03/0830 HRS BASE TIME

Early the next morning, Daniel followed Jack, Sam, and Teal’c as they climbed down from a gate precariously close to a cliff’s edge and into the heart of SG-13’s recent find. From the sun’s position, the local time appeared to be mid afternoon. The climate was warmer than he’d expected. Waves of heat rippled against the far horizon, creating a mirage of water surrounding the immediate area.

The landscape itself was unremarkable, a few trees, but mostly barren dirt and a few rocky hills along the perimeter. One hill, though, stood out like a sore thumb, a three-story tall statue looming at its top. Colonel Dixon’s briefing mentioned the statue along with Balinsky’s discovery of four sets of human remains buried in graves beneath it. Daniel looked forward to reading the DNA test results though it’d be at least a week before those findings could provide any clues to age or origin.

An unburied ring platform sat near the valley’s entrance, but Daniel was far more interested in what lay beyond. Scattered across the terrain was a collection of ruins that would have made any expert on Ancient Chinese artifacts alternate between gasps of wonder and tearing their hair out.

From one roped off three-meter square to the next, dozens of S.G.C. science personnel called out their finds from shallow pits dug into the barren dirt as field assistants tagged, bagged and crated items. Shang dynasty ritual cauldrons, their silvered etchings blackened with age, competed for attention with gold plaques decorated with jeweled dragons, clearly from the later Han era. Zhou, Quin, Hsing… Name a dynasty from China’s earliest beginnings up to the Imperial era and someone had found something.

Daniel dragged himself by it all, following SG-1 as they made their way across the twenty-acre wide basin to check in with SG-13. Jack led the pace, plowing past each dig site with barely a head turn. Daniel knew any amount of begging would be a waste of time. Still, he couldn’t help but feel like a child in a bakery who’d just been told he could only eat vegetables. Adding insult to injury, meter-high obelisks covered in Ancient writing, lined the half dirt, half paved walkway.

And yet Jack was determined to make Daniel do target practice. Something he could easily do on Earth during downtime.

So why here? What was driving Jack to be so… so one-sighted?

They’d hiked over to Colonel Dixon’s position when a brown hand shot up from a pit to Daniel’s right, holding a bronze wine vessel with three prongs at its base. “Shang dynasty. Someone get a tagger over here.”

Daniel stopped, recognizing the voice.

“You’re a long way from Egypt, Jackson.” A broad smile and tangle of dreadlocks greeted him.

With a laugh, Daniel replied, “And you’re a long way from China.”

“A’true, but man, I could sure use your help,” said Kevin Hopkins, Daniel’s old roommate from Chicago. The China-Egypt joke had been born years ago when the two first declared their areas of interest, each trying to convince the other their specialty was the better. Tall, trim, the Jamaican’s waist-long plaits had made General Hammond pause before bringing him into the fold. Daniel had lobbied extra hard to get Kevin involved with the S.G.C.’s archaeological team.

An assistant came over to retrieve the find, but Kevin held her off. He handed the wine vessel to Daniel. “Take a look at the inside and tell me I’m not crazy.”

Daniel stole a glance at his teammates before taking the newly found object. Jack, Sam and Teal’c were conferring with Colonel Dixon while the rest of SG-13 headed toward a base camp set up by the north side of the dig. Daniel decided it wouldn’t hurt to take a moment to confer with his colleagues.

“Go on,” Kevin said, handing him the cup. “Take a look at the inscription.”

The battered bronze cup’s fluted bowl was still encrusted with dirt. Daniel pulled a small brush from a leg pocket of his BDUs and swept it clean. Most of the writing was worn off, but a few characters were still identifiable. Long thin lines in groups of two and three… No, that wasn’t possible.

“You realize this isn’t Shang writing, right?”

“It’s Xia, man. Do you believe it?” Kevin snatched the cup back. “What 2100 B.C. writing is doing in a drinking cup from a good thousand years later is beyond me.”

The archaeologist handed the cup over to the assistant with instructions to mark its location and then turned back. “Pity we can’t write a paper on it, huh? Oh, the woes of selling out to the military.”

“Without the military, you and I wouldn’t be here,” Daniel replied with a patient smile. Kevin knew the drill. He’d signed the non-disclosure statements.

“Too true. I hated writing papers anyway so I shouldn’t complain. The Pentagon only wants cold, hard facts.” He pulled a canteen off his belt and took a deep drink. After sticking the cap back in place, he laughed loudly, the sound oddly out of place in the alien environment. “At the end of the day, I suppose all we’ve done is trade out uniforms of khaki shirts and blue jeans for khaki BDUs.”

Daniel grinned, remembering endless months as a starving student, wearing the same old jeans worn thin from sand and sun as he dug alongside fellow doctorate students. He’d come a long way since then.

A long way and back.

Kevin jumped back into his pit. “The hardest part about all this is putting it into context. On Earth, a find like this has one meaning — ”

“But here it’s an entirely different matter.” Daniel eyed the nearest obelisk, its Ancient writing calling out to him to sit, decipher, and translate.

He looked back at Kevin who shook his head, clearly following his train of thought. “What a mishmash. We could sure use your help.”

Daniel sighed. What could he say?

My commanding officer has a bug up his ass and needs me to shoot targets thousands of light years from home
.

“I heard some strange stories about you this past year.”

“Need to know,” Daniel said, wiping away a trickle of sweat that had run down his forehead. Even if he could, his death, ascendency and then reappearance would have been a bit tough to explain. It really was all about context. “You work with the military now, you know how it is.”

“Sadly, I do. Though not as much as I’d like to.” Kevin stuck his trowel into the dirt.

Daniel sighed. “I’m guessing they gave you the Reader’s Digest version of the Stargate Program?”

“They did. Foolish, if you ask me. How can I make sense of all this,” Kevin said, waving his arms in the air, “without knowing everything else? Your General Hammond’s got hard ears.”

Daniel recognized the Jamaican phrase for stubborn. “No, he really hasn’t,” he replied emphatically. “He’s just cautious… with good reason. Trust me.”

Kevin flashed another smile. “Whatever, man. It’s their loss… Oh, if you get a chance, visit the grave site, it’s — ”

“Who’s the new sandbox buddy?”

It was Jack. Daniel winced when SG-1’s leader joined them by the pit. Ignoring the colonel’s social skills, or lack thereof, was never easy. Especially with someone like Kevin who had no patience for military mentalities. It was too bad Sam was heading off with Teal’c — probably to do a sweep of the area. As a fellow scientist, she would have been the perfect bridge between Kevin and the military.

Instead, Jack would have to do. Great.

Hopefully what Sam had said about Jack becoming more diplomatic would be true. Daniel took a deep breath and plunged in to introductions.

“Kevin and I wrote our doctoral theses together,” he explained.

Kevin laughed. “Many late nights of mac and cheese.”

“Without milk,” Daniel added. “We were so poor.”

“Poor, but eager!”

“So,” Jack said as he shifted his bulky pack to his right shoulder. “Find any weapons?”

Kevin visibly blanched. “Not yet, though with Daniel’s help — ”

“Not going to happen,” Jack replied curtly.

“Shouldn’t you let the experts…?”

Jack had turned away, dismissing Kevin like he would one of the airmen in the S.G.C.

No, Daniel realized. Jack wouldn’t be half as rude to an airman.

“Anyone mucking around up there?” Jack pointed up to where the statue and graves sat on top of the hill.

“Not at the moment, no.” Kevin shot Daniel a hard glance.

“Time to stop playing in the dirt, Daniel. Let’s go.” Jack gave Kevin a curt nod and walked off toward the hill.

“Typical military,” said Kevin as they watched Jack climb.

“He really isn’t that bad,” Daniel said as much to convince himself as Kevin. At least he’d get a look at that statue. Though how he could connect the dots between the Ancients and China remained a mystery.

Daniel jerked a thumb toward the hill. “I better go.”

Kevin glanced at Jack and then back at Daniel. “You all right, man?”

Good question. Out of context, sure. He was fine. He was better than fine, doing important work that needed to be done… just not at the moment.

* * *

Jack pushed back the catch on the portable black steel-armored target and the foot-wide round head flipped vertical. It was a sweet little setup. Perfect for what he had in mind. Reliable. Sturdy. The way things were meant to be.

As he secured the tripod leg stands into the dirt, Jack silently thanked Dixon’s preliminary mission report for giving him the head’s up. With the only trees in the area too close to the dig to use as target practice, this entire exercise would have been a waste of time if he hadn’t packed a portable target kit.

Half the S.G.C.’s Daniels-in-waiting were buzzing about the dig below, though what excited them was beyond Jack. What was the point if there were no weapons? In his mind, all P3Y-702 had turned out to be was a helluva lot of sand and dirt, busted up ruins, and then, more dirt.

Doesn’t matter. One way or another, Daniel’s so getting this drilled into his head. Otherwise…

Nope. He wouldn’t go there. Fishing once more through his pack, he pulled out a few clips, some brown-wrapped MREs, and an energy bar. He then yanked out a bandage, hefted it in his hands. Yeah, that would do it. Bound and determined to make this work, Jack would use what was available. Hell, improvisation was his middle name.

That and ‘sweating like a pig.’ With the target rigged, and all the suitable ‘tools’ laid out, Jack stripped off his tactical vest, chucked his jacket, and threw the vest back on. Circling that damned statute, Daniel didn’t seem to notice how hot it was. Setting up so close to such a distraction might have been a mistake. Jack had considered running this dog and pony show over by the gate, but the damn thing sat a bit too precariously on the edge of a cliff for comfort. On the upside, this was a nice, safe location for firing off a bunch of ammo since it was a good height up from base camp. Last thing they needed was for a shot to hit one of the archaeologists. Hammond would be pissed and the entire purpose of this exercise would’ve been lost.

Not that their current position was much better.

“Jack, this statue… and these graves… Do you have any idea how significant this is?” Daniel pulled off his glasses and closely examined the head-high, butt-ugly statue at the hill’s edge. All teeth, bulging jaw and eye ridges. Three nasty blades sticking out of its red clay spine. The thing almost looked like an iguana crossed with a dog sitting on its hind legs.

“Hey, you’ve seen one gnarly statue, you’ve seen them all.” Setting the fire control selector to single shot, Jack handed Daniel the loaded P90.

And was ignored, of course.

“It’s a
Zhenmushou
,” Daniel said, the academic coming on in full force. “A Chinese funerary beast. Probably set up here to protect these four graves. Some ancient Earth culture must have brought the tradition with them when they were brought here.”

Jack had a choice. Let Daniel get it out of his system… or shoot him.

Which would make this entire exercise a moot point. So he’d wait. Jack checked his watch. Thirty seconds should be more than fair.

“Obviously, ancient Chinese origins,” Daniel blathered on. “The question is… how far back? I’ll need to ask Kevin when we head down. And do the graves date from the same period? Balinsky said they should have some sort of carbon dating soon…”

Twenty seconds
.

“…But the Xian dynasty lettering would place this at 2200 B.C… But that’s impossible. Statues on Earth like these only date back to fourth century A.D. Still, the writing in that cup Kevin found was Xian, though the style was definitely Shang, but…”

Ten seconds
.

“…If the Ancients spent time here, anything is possible. Countless cultures used mythic animals as a way to ward off some aspect of death, be it evil spirits or death itself…”

Time’s up
.

“I swear to God,” Jack said, shoving the rifle at Daniel, “if you don’t take this, I’ll prove just how unreliable this Zen Moo Shoo statue is.”

“
Zhenmushou.
”

“Whatever.” Hell, at least he took the rifle.

Jack turned Daniel toward the target deliberately set up facing the opposite direction of the dig down below. “I’ll make it easy on you. Carter could nail this sucker at fifty yards, easy. Let’s start you at twenty.” He headed off toward the other side of the hill where their packs, along with lunch, gathered dust.

That is, until he realized Daniel wasn’t following.

Taking a deep breath, Jack turned back around. “What?”

Daniel stood there, his P90 dangling by his side. “You want to tell me what this is about? Sam and Teal’c are off hiking the perimeter. It’s just us.”

Like that made any difference to Jack.

“Daniel, so help me God, if you don’t start shooting, you can kiss your ever-loving future trips through the Stargate goodbye.”

Daniel’s eyes got as big as his glasses. Which was good.

It was about time he took this seriously. “You can’t do that.”

Jack counted to ten, breathed out through his nose, and then kept his voice as steady as he could. “Shoot the target, Daniel. Show me what you’re made of.”