The Drift

by Diane Dru Botsford

  O’Neill frowned upon his sharing the being’s words. “’All will be well,’ my ass. We’re like rats in somebody’s maze.”

  The ground began to tremble.

  “Sir,” warned Colonel Carter.

  “Rats, Carter! Anyone hungry? Maybe they’ll send us some cheese.”

  “If you don’t calm down,” admonished Daniel Jackson, “you’ll start off another earthquake.”

  “How is that possible?” Teal’c asked.

  “None of this is possible,” Colonel Carter said, “but we can’t deny the cause.” She pointed to O’Neill and then Weiyan Shi. “Or the effect.”

  O’Neill squeezed his eyes shut and sighed heavily. His face dropped to a blank visage, one Teal’c had seen many times in battle when concentration was paramount.

  A moment later, the tremors stopped.

  Worried for his friend, Teal’c asked, “Are you well, O’Neill?”

  “I’ll be fine.” He opened his eyes, raised his hands in mock surrender, and managed a small, unconvincing smile.

  “You have to stay calm, Jack,” advised Daniel Jackson. “Otherwise, we’ll — ”

  “I get it. It’s all an illusion. No need for a repeat, all right?” O’Neill dropped his arms to his sides.

  “Sir, if we’re going to do something — ”

  “Do?” O’Neill sighed heavily. “Do what? Walk around in circles while some ‘thing’ plays with our heads? Whatever the hell it meant, finding ‘the truth,’ was a load of crap. Pure, unadulterated crap.” He strode off several dozen paces and halted, his back to them.

  Weiyan Shi made to follow, but Teal’c stopped her.

  She shook her head. “Is he always so angry?”

  “This is one of his better days,” Daniel Jackson murmured.

  Teal’c knew his friend merely joked about O’Neill’s temperament. The two were as close as brothers — brothers who bickered like children, even though they would die if required. It was important Weiyan Shi understood this as well. “Given time, General O’Neill will come to terms with our situation. You will see.”

  Permitting his friend a moment’s respite, Teal’c turned his attention to their newly arranged surroundings.

  “It’s different, isn’t it?” asked Colonel Carter. “For one thing, that building’s gone.”

  “If it was truly ever here.” Teal’c looked out over their changed environment. The once flat, undistinguishable plains had been reformed into a valley with several hills marking its border. In the direction O’Neill had moved off, the steepest hill loomed. Its forward face was sheared off, revealing dark gray vertical striations within the rock’s face.

  There was a familiarity to the terrain, a sense that he been here before, although… As ‘here’ did not really exist, he found the matter all the more disturbing.

  He said as much to his companions.

  Daniel Jackson agreed. “You said that being wanted us to learn. Did it say what?”

  “It did not.” Teal’c searched his memory. “Though I must wonder why the being believes it necessary to continue changing our environment.”

  Weiyan Shi looked over her shoulder and Teal’c followed her gaze. She was watching O’Neill. He, in turn, was gazing upward toward the hill’s top. In his right hand, he flipped his lighter open and shut. It concerned Teal’c that his friend felt the need to distance himself. That was not his normal behavior. Nonetheless, he understood O’Neill’s need for a moment’s meditation. If he did not control his emotions, the ground could rip open once more.

  O’Neill must have felt eyes upon him because he turned back and frowned. “I’m going for a hike.”

  “Is that wise, O’Neill?”

  “Sir, one of us should go with you,” Colonel Carter said.

  “I’m just going to stretch my legs. Get a better look at our surroundings.” O’Neill pointed at the hill’s jagged peak. He then gestured toward Weiyan Shi. “Keep an eye on our guest.”

  With that, O’Neill headed toward the hill’s far side where there was a gentler slope. He began to climb.

  Weiyan Shi glanced back at Teal’c. No matter what O’Neill believed, Teal’c was certain the young woman had no part in their current circumstances. “Do you have a question?” he asked her.

  She inched forward. “You said this looks familiar.”

  “Well, kind of,” Daniel Jackson responded, “but none of this is real. It just looks — ”

  “Yet I have not been here before,” Weiyan Shi insisted. “The previous variation…” She gestured toward the hill behind them and then at those around the valley. “That was familiar. It looked very much like the Taklamakan Desert.”

  “Western China.” Daniel Jackson paused, peering out at the valley. “Weiyan, just how close was the similarity?”

  “Very,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. “My mother would take me there when I was very young. We would go to the desert’s most northwest region. There was nothing there.” She swallowed visibly. “I was very little. Six, maybe seven. I would complain. There was nothing to see or do, but she would insist we visit the place where she met my father.”

  “Did you not know your father?” Teal’c asked.

  Weiyan Shi shook her head. “He left my mother soon after she became pregnant, although…” She swallowed nervously. “We met once, after my genetic testing so that I might serve China. He said that he would soon be going very far away. To visit his ancestral home.”

  “It is a great honor to witness one’s ancestral home,” Teal’c replied, privately troubled that a father would forever abandon their child. “One day, when the Goa’uld are truly gone, I will visit Dakara to see the birthplace of the Jaffa.”

  “But you will return? To rejoin your friends and family?”

  He gazed down into her troubled face. “Of this I have no doubt.”

  “You make it sound like we’ll escape,” she said.

  Teal’c considered the being’s words of wisdom. Whether they were caught in the trap of some alien enemy or a planet of their imaginations, he knew the only truth that mattered.

  “Have faith, Weiyan Shi. SG-1 has never failed.”

  Climbing up the steep hill overlooking the shifted terrain should’ve knocked Jack out. Or at least, it should’ve made him thirsty. Or hungry.

  It didn’t do squat.

  As he sat down, swinging his legs out over the edge, he recognized that his main objective for the climb had pretty much failed, too. He was still pissed. Still ready to knock someone — or something — out for dicking around with them.

  He felt utterly, completely, pathetically useless.

  If they were rats in a maze, he was the king of the rats.

  “Come on, O’Neill,” he muttered to himself. “It’s not like a P90 would be much use against…”

  Against whatever was toying with them.

  With a sigh, he leaned back and pulled the Zippo from his pocket. His Zippo. Now that was a whole other piece to this insane puzzle. When Teal’c had been knocked unconscious, Jack had taken the chrome-plated lighter out. He’d almost told Carter about its mysterious appearance when his gut told him not to — they’d think he’d gone nuts.

  He turned the lighter over in his hand. The casing looked the same. Scratched up, a dent on the top. With a flip of his wrist, the cap swung back, making that oh-so-satisfying clink.

  He dropped it to his lap. Who was he kidding? The thing was a useless piece of junk. It wasn’t like a Zippo would help them escape. It was useless.

  He knew the feeling and he didn’t like it. There were gaps in his memory. Gaps waiting for answers that were in short supply.

  He scanned the valley floor. If he had to guess, he’d say that from the sun’s position, the local time appeared to be mid-afternoon. Waves of heat rippled against the far horizon, creating a mirage of water surrounding the immediate area.

  There really wasn’t much to see. Mostly barren dirt and a few rock
y hills along the perimeter. The area where the building had stood showed no signs of anything, not even a pebble out of place. To the right, a pile of rubble broke up the otherwise smooth ground. Which was odd, but probably didn’t mean anything.

  In fact, if he had to point to a landmark, the big sloping hill at around ten o’clock stood out like a sore thumb.

  And it looked damned familiar.

  Carter, T, Daniel — heck, even Weiyan at some point or another — had found something familiar in the changing landscapes. For him, not so much. Until now.

  It bugged him, not knowing where they were or how they’d got there, but what really bothered him was his own reaction to the situation. He needed to get a grip. He needed to stop acting like a green nugget barely out of training.

  He picked the Zippo back up, hefting its weight in his hand. What he really needed was a long, hard look at himself. A painful reassessment of just who he was and how he could still make a difference. Contribute. Make things better.

  And not just in their current situation. Hammond had told him his job wasn’t about tactics anymore, but strategy. Fair enough, but without tactics, any strategy on how to get out of this mess would be an utter waste of time.

  Hence the feeling of uselessness.

  Jack flipped open the Zippo again and thumbed the wheel. The flame sparked up. Surprised, he almost dropped the lighter over the edge. He blew out the flame and yanked out the inner tube. The bottom was dry as a bone. He sniffed the cotton, which would usually be soaked in fluid to light the wick. Nothing.

  Somebody was toying with them. Big time. More importantly, why with the lighter? It didn’t mean anything to anyone except him. Not since Skaara had died, ascended, taken off for the big dead-and-gone Ancients Club.

  He couldn’t deny that everything they’d seen ‘smelled’ of the Ancients — ascended beings or whatever-the-hell they liked to call themselves. The Ancient writing. A city definitely decorated by whoever set up the Antarctic outpost.

  Why in God’s name would any of those high-and-mighties be involved with these shenanigans?

  He slammed the inner tube back into the casing. He glanced down at the others at the bottom of the hill. Daniel was scribbling in the sand. Typical Daniel, always asking questions. Always trying to figure things out.

  Always strategizing.

  Jack climbed to his feet. He should be down there, helping. Maybe he was useless in the grand scheme of things, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make it easier for the others. He gazed at the valley floor one more time, taking note of the pile of rubble.

  Maybe it would help Daniel. Maybe it wouldn’t.

  But at least it beat doing nothing.

  Daniel sank down between Sam and Weiyan. “How long has Jack been gone?”

  Teal’c sat down as well, crossing his legs. “No more than fifteen minutes.”

  “So we wait.” Daniel noticed Weiyan was tracing a circle in the sand. “What’s that?”

  “I will spell out our names in Chinese.” Along the circle’s circumference, she drew arrows pointing outward from each of the four quarters. “Many years from now, perhaps someone will find a record of our existence here.”

  Sam frowned. “With the way this landscape keeps changing, I’d be surprised if your drawings last very long.”

  “But if something does remain, could it hurt our situation?” Weiyan drew another set of arrows around the circle, this time pointing inward. “Perhaps the next time everything changes, this will not.”

  “A guide of sorts.” Teal’c said.

  Weiyan mumbled something.

  “I beg your pardon?” Sam asked.

  She dashed a sleeve across her eyes. “’A man who does not know where he’s been cannot know where he’s going.’”

  “Sun Tzu,” Daniel commented.

  The girl dipped her head.

  “Weiyan…” Sam stepped toward her. “What happened in the chair? Why did you lose control?”

  Weiyan’s face paled. “It’s not my fault.”

  “No one’s blaming you.” Sam put a hand on her arm. “We just need to understand what happened. It might help us get home.”

  A recognizable vibration started up under Daniel’s feet. It was faint, but definitely there.

  “Weiyan Shi, you must calm yourself,” Teal’c said softly.

  The rumbling stopped.

  “Maybe the general’s right,” Sam said.

  Daniel poked a finger in the sandy dirt. “About what?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe we are just rats in some imaginary maze.”

  “I don’t know, Sam. It feels pretty real to me, although…” He glanced over his shoulder at the hill Jack had climbed. It was still there. Looking down at Weiyan’s drawing, he noted that the circle and arrows were still there, too. The tremor, slight as it had been, hadn’t erased the drawing.

  That’s when it struck him. “Maybe we can’t remember how we got here.” He shimmied back to give himself a wide space. “But we can remember what’s happened since we did!”

  “Of what do you speak, Daniel Jackson?”

  “Pedion Elysium.” When Sam and Teal’c both stared at him blankly, he traced a square in the dirt. The Goa’uld symbol for ‘ped.’ Beside it, he traced another symbol.

  “That's a glyph from the Stargate's DHD,” Sam said.

  Teal'c leaned over and studied the symbol Daniel had written. “Do you believe Pedion Elysium to be a gate address?”

  Daniel sat back on his heels and glanced at him. “It's possible, isn't it? I mean, we were able to translate Proclurash Taonas into a gate address by matching syllables to glyphs. Why wouldn't that reasoning work for other gate addresses?”

  “Proclurash Taonas was only six syllables, Daniel.” Sam pointed at the glyph in the sand. “Ped-i-on E-Ly-si-um.” She raised one finger and then another. “That's seven.”

  “There are seven glyphs in a full address,” Teal'c said.

  “Well, sure,” she said, crouching down beside Daniel, “but, Proclurash Taonas was an Ancient outpost, and from everything you've told us, Daniel, their language was similar to Latin.”

  Daniel drew an 'I' below the 'ped.' “It is, or was, but Pedion Elysium is from Greek mythology.”

  “Like Atlantis.”

  “Exactly. Since the glyphs on the DHD are based on Goa'uld symbols for constellations,” he drew a feather beside the 'I,' “and the Greeks borrowed some of the ancient Egyptian language to form their own… Teal'c, is this right?”

  “Almost,” the Jaffa said, bending down to trace a second feather beside the first. He then sat back, a bit unsteadily in Daniel's opinion.

  “You all right?”

  Teal'c frowned. “I am well, Daniel Jackson.” He pointed toward the feather in the sand. “This is the symbol of Ma'at, a minor Goa'uld who once arbitrated disagreements among the System Lords.

  “Cronus had her destroyed when she misjudged an argument between him and Ra. It was many years ago.” Teal'c gestured toward the double feather in the dirt. “The symbol of two feathers represents her scales of justice.”

  “Libra!” Daniel exclaimed. “In Greek mythology, the constellation of Libra was depicted as the scales of justice.” Beside the feathers, he drew another glyph.

  Sam shook her head. “Daniel, this is interesting, but I don't see how figuring out the coordinates for this place — ”

  “A place that is not even real,” Weiyan added.

  Daniel's glasses had slid down his nose. He pushed them back up, annoyed at the distraction. “If someone or something is holding us here, there's a reason they wanted us to see that city, the obelisk, and — ”

  “The name.” Sam raised her hands. “Okay, I get it. So two down, five to go. What about that one?” She pointed to the 'ON.'

  Sounding out the syllable, Teal'c leaned forward and drew a jagged line beside it. “In Goa'uld, the word means water.”

  “That's easy.” Daniel traced another glyph besi
des Teal'c's drawing.

  “Aquarius, the water pourer. In ancient Greek mythology, Aquarius was responsible for the Great Flood myth.”

  “China had its own floods,” Weiyan said softly. “My father spent much of our reunion reciting the legend of the great Emperor Yu and how he saved our people from extinction.”

  “Well, actually…”

  “Daniel,” Sam warned. “Stay on track.”

  “Indeed,” Teal'c added.

  “Sorry — sorry.” Daniel hurriedly wrote the remaining Goa'uld symbols beside each remaining syllable. A flowering reed for the 'E,' a prostrating feline animal for the 'LY,' a long line with two ovals in its center for the 'SI,' and a bird — somewhat similar to Earth's owl — for the 'UM.'

  He uncrossed his legs and shifted to kneeling in front of the symbols. “Some of this is going to be tough.” He paused for a moment, and then, next to the flowering reed drew another glyph.

  “How do you get the constellation Hydra from that?” Sam asked.

  “The Goa'uld symbol represents a reed.” He heard footsteps behind him, recognizing the long, easy gait as Jack's.

  Daniel pointed at the glyph. “Reeds grow in water and since Hydra was a mythological water serpent in Greek mythology — ”

  “There's something over by where the building used to be.” Jack stopped next to him. “Daniel, whatcha doing?”

  Daniel explained his idea.

  “Bit of a stretch, don't you think?”

  “Do you have any better ideas?” He looked up at Jack, noticing that the lines on his face seemed more pronounced.

  Jack cocked his head and studied the symbols in the dirt. “Maybe. Maybe not, but keep going.”

  “Not if you're going to argue about it.”

  O'Neill flattened his lips, but then his face relaxed. “I'm fine, Daniel, just… Work it out.” He pointed toward the Goa'uld symbol for 'LY. “Is that a lion?”

  “Of course, a lion!” Daniel drew another glyph beside the Goa'uld symbol.

  “Leo.”

  Sam gestured toward the long line with the two ovals in its center, the Goa'uld symbol for 'SI.' “What about that one?”