A/N:  The Antikythera device is real, as is the basic idea of what it does. Beyond that, I got creative.

 

*****  Chapter 6  *****

"Antikythera!"

Sam mumbled something under her breath about hyperactive archeologists, and slowly set down the soldering iron. Daniel's expression was both apologetic and excited, a combination that only he could manage to pull off successfully.

"Sorry, Sam."

"Uh huh," she said, switching off a nearby piece of equipment with a tolerant half smile. "Now. Antique… what?"

"Not antique," he corrected patiently. "Antikythera."

"Okay," she answered, wondering if he actually expected her to know what he was talking about. "Who's Antikythera?"

"Not who. What."

She blew out an exasperated breath. "Okay, then. What is Antikythera?"

"It's a…" he struggled for the right words. "A calendar. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"You don't understand. It's more than just a calendar." Daniel's enthusiasm bubbled over again. "I remembered reading something about a device that looked a little like what we found on Dakara. Took me a day and a half to find the reference, but I finally did!"

Sam raised her hands in self defense. "Slow down, will you?"

"I'll show you." He pointed at her computer. "May I?"

She turned back to her soldering iron. "Help yourself."

"This'll only take a sec."

Sighing, she placed the tool back on its stand and set her project to one side. It didn't look like she'd be working on it again for a while.

"There!" he said triumphantly.

Daniel had pulled up a web page that showed several images of what appeared to be a rather complex gear-driven mechanism. "I see, but I still don't understand," she said.

"These are line drawings of a device divers found off the coast of an island called Antikythera in 1901."

"That explains the name."

Daniel barely spared her a glance before rushing on with his explanation. "Anyway, the theory is that the ancient Greeks used the Antikythera device to predict the movements of the moon and the sun against a static background of stars."

"You're joking, right? This is way beyond any technology they would have had at the time."

"I know! I know! That's what made it all so exciting! It threw everything we thought we knew about ancient Greek engineering out the window!"

Sam moved closer to get a better look. There were pictures of the device as it had looked when it was found, covered in calcium deposits and badly fragmented. She glanced briefly at them, and then turned her attention to the line drawings that showed the internal design of the mechanism. She let out a low whistle.

"How many gears are there?"

"Thirty-two."

"And you're sure about the age?"

He nodded.

Fascinated, she spent a few more minutes examining the images before straightening and looking over at Daniel. "I'm guessing you think this is what that device on Dakara is for?"

"Yes!" Daniel ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. He glanced over at the computer screen again. "I mean, it makes sense, except…"

"Except?"

"Well, I couldn't see the inside, so I can't be absolutely sure. I've translated most of the figures on the cliff face, and they pretty much match what we're seeing here, except that the ones on Dakara aren't in Greek."

"What language are they in?"

"Ancient. Which isn't so surprising, considering."

"So it's a sort of high tech calendar?"

"Well, I'm not sure of all the details yet, but basically, yes. At least – I think it does the same thing the original Antikythera device did."

"I'm sorry, Daniel, but this just doesn't make any sense. Why would they build a calendar into the side of a cliff?"

"What if there's more behind what we saw?"

"Inside, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"Did you see anything that made you think there might be?"

"I'm working on that, but there are still some symbols that I haven't been able to translate. It makes sense, though, doesn't it?"

"Seems to," she said, "so now what?"

"Now we wait for SG-7 to come back. Then we beg for a chance to go play."

"Daniel," Sam grinned. "I like the way you think."

***** Chapter 7 *****

Several days later, Daniel sat at his desk, head bent over an enlarged digital image of the Dakaran device. His gaze skipped from the image to his notes and then back again. Frowning slightly, he picked up his pencil and circled a section, then examined it with a magnifying glass. He was so completely absorbed in his work that when Jack cleared his throat behind him, he jumped.

"Jack."

"Daniel."

The air between them was instantly heavy with the weight of things unsaid. Jack cleared his throat again.

"Need a glass of water?" Daniel's voice was mildly sardonic.

"No." Jack waved a hand. "I'm good."

"Right." Daniel pushed his glasses back into place. "Did you need something?"

Jack winced slightly. "Still mad, huh?"

"Mad?" Daniel asked. "About what?" He wasn't about to make this easy.

"Remember…" Jack was obviously wishing he were anywhere else. "That thing?"

"If by ‘that thing' you're referring to the way you handled the news of your retirement," Daniel said, "then no. I'm not mad." He flipped a book closed with rather more force than strictly necessary. "Irritated as hell, maybe. But not mad."

Jack shifted uncomfortably. "Look, Daniel, I…" The gate activation warning sounded, an effective, if ill-timed interruption. "Damn it!" He waved a hand in the direction of Daniel's phone. "May I?"

"Knock yourself out." Daniel's voice was just a shade too emphatic, and Jack gave him a sharp look before he reached to pick up the handset.

"O'Neill."

There was a brief silence, and then: "Yeah. I'll be right there."

He hung up and looked over at Daniel. "Seven's back."

"It's about time." Daniel got up from his chair, closing his laptop as he stood.

"Daniel…"

Something about the tone of Jack's voice made Daniel look over at him, meeting his eyes for the first time in days. "What?"

Jack sighed. "For what it's worth… I'm sorry."

Jack O'Neill didn't apologize easily, but it wasn't because he didn't have regrets. It was just that he kept his feelings deeply buried out of a hard learned sense of self-preservation. To actually voice an apology was to take a huge emotional risk, and Daniel well knew how difficult that was for his friend.

"Yeah. Well…" Daniel shifted his feet. "Why did you leave like that, anyway?"

"Can we not talk about that right now?"

"Right." Daniel knew better than to push too hard. This was hardly the time for a meaningful conversation. Still… "Have you talked to Sam yet?"

Jack winced. "Can we not talk about that either?"

Daniel smiled. Sam was angry. Seriously angry. And apparently Jack knew it. What he wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.

*****  Chapter 8  *****

There was an inevitable delay while SG-7 was debriefed and cleared through medical, so it was early the next morning before the teams could meet to discuss the results of the survey.

Jack waited until everybody was seated, then got straight to the point. "So, Reynolds," he said. "What's the scoop?"

"I'm no geologist," Reynolds answered, indicating one of his team members. "Solomon here's the man you want."

"Solomon?" Sam nearly choked on her coffee. "As in ‘The Wise'?"

Across from her, the young lieutenant glared briefly at his CO before turning to Sam. "Nickname, ma'am."

Beside her, Daniel covered a snicker with a cough, hastily rearranging the papers in front of him in an attempt to cover his amusement. Sam felt her own lips twitch dangerously. "So, Lieutenant…"

"Soldarini, Ma'am." The young man's eyes twinkled at his own expense.

She nodded. "What did you find out?"

"Dakara is similar to Earth in many ways," he said, punching up an image on the view screen. "Including the fact that its crust appears to be composed of an ever shifting array of tectonic plates." The image rotated and pulled apart, showing a group of six tectonic plates arranged like the pieces of a child's jigsaw puzzle.

"Is this thing Daniel and Carter found sitting on the edge of one of those plates?" Jack asked.

"Not exactly, Sir." Soldarini touched a few keys on the keyboard and a new image appeared on the screen. It was a high altitude aerial view of Dakara, probably taken by the crew on the Prometheus.

"You see here?" He pointed at a line of mountains that ran along the northern edge of the main continent. "And here?" He pointed to another, this one along the southern edge. He tapped a few more keys and the image magnified to reveal towering mountains the likes of which didn't exist on earth. "These are convergent plate boundaries, and they're caused, at least in these cases, by one tectonic plate sliding underneath another one."

Sam glanced at Jack just as he decided he'd had enough. "You're trying to tell me that a mountain range thousands of miles away from this device almost shook Daniel off the edge of a cliff?"

Soldarini shook his head. "Theoretically, it's possible, Sir. But no, I don't think it was the case this time. Nobody reported feeling the tremor except the members of SG-1. I was just getting to that."

"Then get there already."

Sam ducked her head to hide a smile. Some things never changed. Soldarini, new to the SGC and not used to Jack's ways, looked flustered.

"I was just going to say that it was doubtful the convergent zones and respective fault lines were the cause of the quake SG-1 experienced."

"Well why didn't you just say that, then?" Jack grumbled.

Soldarini, thoroughly deflated, took his seat.

"So?" Jack asked. "What exactly did happen, then?"

When an answer didn't appear to be immediately forthcoming, Jack turned to the team's CO. "Reynolds?"

Reynolds exchanged an uncomfortable look with his teammates before answering. "We don't exactly know, Sir."

"You don't know?"

Reynolds shook his head.

Jack sighed. "Seventy-two hours of off-world reconnaissance with nothing to show for it. The number crunchers are gonna love that news."

"Actually, Sir, that's not entirely true."

"Oh?" Jack sounded skeptical, but he dropped his pen, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his arms. "Do tell."

Reynolds turned to Sam. "Didn't you say the Jaffa were interested in starting an agricultural community on Dakara?"

"Actually," Sam corrected, "Teal'c said it. But that's what they hope, yes."

Jack leaned forward abruptly. "Farming? On Dakara? Big rocks, hot sun, suffocating quantities of red dust…  That Dakara?"

Sam nodded.

"You have got to be joking."

"Actually, she's not," Daniel said. "The Jaffa have found written records that support its existence thousands of years ago."

Jack shook his head. "Wow," he said under his breath. "That's some drought."

"Anyway," Reynolds said, "our reconnaissance did find proof of what might once have been a fertile valley." He stood, moving over to the keyboard and punching up another image. He pointed. "Here."

Daniel studied the image for a moment. "That's not far from the device."

Reynolds nodded. "About thirty clicks as the crow flies."

For a few seconds the only sound in the room was that of Jack's pen drumming a restless rhythm on his notepad.

"Tell me this," he finally said, directing his words to Soldarini again. "Can you guarantee that there are no fault lines near the location of this device?"

"Guarantee as in a hundred percent, Sir?"

Jack nodded.

"No, Sir. It would take years of research to gather enough data to prove that."

"Fine, then. How sure are you?"

"Sir?"

The pen dropped back to the table with a sharp click. "I mean," Jack said with exaggerated patience. "Are we talking a fifty-fifty chance? Seventy-five twenty-five? What?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say there's about an eighty percent chance the area's safe."

Jack had the pen back in his hands now, and he rolled it back and forth between his palms while he considered the options. Finally, he turned back to Daniel.

"How important is this thing, anyway?"

"Without getting a closer look at it, I couldn't really say," said Daniel.

"Sir," said Sam, "I'd really like to get a look at it myself. From the pictures Daniel brought back, it looks like something the Ancients might have created, which means that it's probably a highly advanced piece of alien technology."

"And you just can't wait to get your hands on it," Jack said.

"With all due respect, Sir… Yes." She knew she'd let too much attitude slip into her voice when he looked sharply at her. She dropped her gaze back to her notes. This was neither the time nor the place to provoke a confrontation.

Several seconds passed, and then he finally sighed his capitulation. "You've got forty-eight hours."

Sam swallowed her relief. Forty-eight hours off world, away from Jack, with a new device to distract her. There really was a god.

"But I want Teal'c at the site with you," Jack said, pointing a warning finger at his former teammates. "And no heroics. If that rock so much as twitches, the deal's off."

 

Continue to Part 4

 

 

JAG Stand Alone Stories

JAG Episode Reaction Pieces

Beauty and the Beast Collection

Stargate SG-1 Collection

X-Files Collection

Home

 

Feedback always welcome.