What Fate Decrees - Part One

The vortex whooshed out from the stone ring, lighting up the darkness, casting the shadows out from the immediate area. Four people emerged from the light and walked down the steps, the vortex folded into itself and darkness reigned once more.

Lights shone across the blackness and with eerie flashes, glimpses of statues, armour and cobwebs became seen. A particularly hideous face loomed out beneath one of the beams, making the torch holder jump and exclaim. "Ack, the welcoming committee!"

The beams of light cast along the huge stonewall illuminated large lanterns hanging here and there.

"Seeing as we're here we might as well make it more homely." A lighter flickered and the lantern burst into life. "They don't make 'em like they used to," commented Jack O'Neill as he moved along the wall to light two more.

The group moved on as the light spread to show other exits in a very large room. On the opposite wall from the Stargate were several stone steps about ten feet across. They appeared to lead nowhere except up to a blank wall. At the bottom of the steps and to the right ran another low wall.

Teal'c stepped forward and leaned over to look behind low barrier. "O'Neill," he called.

Jack walked over to stand besides Teal'c. He saw a pit that appeared to go down about ten or twelve feet. At the bottom, dimly seen in the flickering light were the skeletal remains of humanoids.

"They all appear to have suffered the same fate," offered Teal'c.

"Ya think!" commented O'Neill as he leaned over to view what seemed to a large number of dusty remains, all of which seemed to have a large shaft of metal partially buried into their chest cavities or thereabouts.

"Way to go! I don't think," added O'Neill, looking hastily around to see if a projectile could be launched through any apertures. Relaxing slightly as he found nothing to warrant further investigation around the pit, he turned to his team and upon seeing Daniel already involved in blowing dust from a plinth to read what appeared to be heavy engraving, he gave his orders.

"Major, you and Teal'c take a look through one of those," he nodded at the exits "don't split up and don't touch – I'll stay with Daniel while he looks at his rocks."

"Artefacts," called a dusty Daniel.

Jack waved a hand his way "Whatever. And keep an eye out for any hidden traps. We don't want to end up like these poor devils." He grimaced at the pit. "Report back every fifteen minutes."

"We will, Colonel. We'll stay in touch," responded Carter, before turning to lead Teal'c towards the nearest passage.

xoxoxoxoxo

Carter kept her MP5 at the ready whilst training her flashlight as far forward as possible down the dark musty cobweb riddled passageway. As several layers of cobwebs amassed on her head and shoulders she had a sudden thought "Teal'c, do you think the webs are normal spiders' sized?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at her "Normal? Major Carter, what do you consider normal size?"

"Oh, not to worry Teal'c," replied Carter, not too sure if the Jaffa was trying to wind her up. She quickly moved forward, scanning above as well as in front as she walked. It wasn't that she was scared of spiders – it was just that the webs seemed awfully big…

xoxoxoxoxo

Back in the gate room Daniel started to mutter to himself, obviously getting excited as he moved on to another plinth to continue reading.

"Anything yet Daniel?" asked O'Neill, now bored with the room. He leaned over the pit once again, peering down at the remains, his neck prickling a warning.

Daniel's voice had him straightening again to look towards the other man, "Oh Jack, yes. It seems once a very large kingdom reigned here until, well. . . "There was a pause, then he continued. 'Actually, I'm not too sure how recently it fell. It seems visitors were welcomed here by the king himself; err, here in the throne room."

"Throne room?" echoed Jack "They could sure use an interior designer or something. Maybe it was a poor kingdom."

"Actually," began Daniel "it tells of great riches that the kingdom had and of the struggles to maintain their wealth against invaders from the ring."

"Yeah, I think there's some invader remains in that pit," snorted Jack.

Daniel moved further down to yet another plinth and began to dust it off. "Ah ha! I think I've found the magic word - abracadabra," he exclaimed and with a flourish, pressed a raised bar on the plinth "and behold!"

Jack swung round with alarm; gun at the ready to face the wall along the top of the steps as a shuddering rumble began. The wall began to rise up slowly.

"Daniel, what the!" he exclaimed as dust and cobwebs welled up and a larger gap appeared at the top of the steps. The air was now thick with dust, but the gleam of torch light reflecting off bright objects drew their attention immediately.

"Gold," coughed Daniel as a large altar appeared, shields, swords and huge platters glinting brilliantly.

"Whoa!" gasped Jack from his vantage point at the bottom of the steps.

Daniel bounded forward, passed Jack and up the steps, his eyes gleaming like a child at Christmas.

"Daniel. Don't touch." Jack warned out of habit as he started to slowly follow, looking around cautiously.

"Jack, this is incredible. This must have been untouched for hundreds of years."

"Still, don't touch."

Daniel turned to face a huge glittering throne, the cloth covering it still resplendent in glorious vivid colours. Although the archaeologist took it in it's beauty, his attention was firmly upon some symbols that had become visible with the light source. Totally unable to control his feet, he began walking towards the newest find.

Jack's internal danger alarm rang out loudly, and without taking the time to think he launched himself at Daniel calling a warning even as he moved. A whoosh of air signalled the launch of something from behind the throne as Jack barely managed to fling his own body between the throne and Daniel.

He felt the something hit with a thump, the force strong enough to propel both men backwards and down into the pit.

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When Daniel came around, he was disorientated, his glasses were gone and he realised with a sigh that a cut was bleeding profusely on his forehead. Trying to move, or at least to signal the others for help, he soon realised that he was pinned down by a heavy weight. It was a testament to his injury that it took him as long as it did to realise that the weight holding him down, was in fact his friend.

"Jack," he called and tried to shake him.

"Jack, wake up." he huffed, attempting to ease himself from beneath the large frame. The light was dim in the pit and having lost his glasses somewhere on his journey down. He moved a leg, feeling something hard beneath it, and it was only the sound of crunching glass mingling with the crunching of old bones that told him the location of his now useless glasses. Feeling slightly sick he continued to ease himself away from Jack.

A low groan emitted from the prone Colonel as Daniel tried again to free himself. "Sorry, Jack."

Knowing that he had to at least free an arm to reach his radio, Daniel attempted to move again.

"Come on Jack, I could do with a little help here," he complained, grunting with the effort. Eventually, he got himself free and struggled to sit upright as a wave of dizziness flooded through him. 'Radio?' he thought and reached for it, thankful to find it seemingly intact.

"Sam, Teal'c, come in." Letting go of the button he waited for a response, and was rewarded as a crackle of static accompanied Sam's voice.

"Daniel? Is everything ok? We heard rumbling, there's a lot of rising dust."

"Sam… I… um, we need your help." Another wave of dizziness stopped him and he put his head down for a moment.

"Stay where you are, we'll be right with you," called Sam, obviously having heard enough.

Daniel grimaced at her words, he certainly wasn't going anywhere He moved forward, leaning over to touch Jack, who he realised, still hadn't moved. "Jack," he called as he moved his hands down his jacket front to brush at himself. It wasn't until he did this that Daniel suddenly realised his hand had become wet – wet and sticky!

A wave of nausea hit him at the realisation that it was blood – a lot of blood. Taking a deep breath he let go of a cough as he realised there was far too much for it to be his blood. He scrambled forward on his knees to lean over Jack and started to feel his way gently along the inert figure. His vision blurred, not just from the loss of his glasses, but with the head injury and he had to rely on touch. He felt slowly up Jack's legs and past his waist to his backpack, finding nothing until his hand suddenly hit something hard. To his horror Daniel realised it was a metal shaft, about two feet of which was sticking out from Jack's pack. Startled, he sat back with a jerk. At the movement a groan came from his friend.

"Take it easy Jack. I'm sorry, don't move please," Daniel begged as he quickly swallowed the bile that was rising in his throat at his discovery and the realisation that the lance, or spear must have gone right through the other man's backpack and body to produce the blood on himself as he'd lay under Jack.

As gently as he could he put a hand under Jack's chest and felt around his chest. Just at the beginning of Jack's rib cage he felt what he had dreaded – metal and blood – a lot of blood!

At the intrusion Jack moaned softly, his breathing gasping. He began to twist about weakly as if trying to get up.

"Jack, don't move, you've got to stay still," called Daniel urgently, alarmed in case the movement made the injuries worse.

Daniel felt around his own shoulders to remove his backpack before he realised that he'd already taken it off. "Shit!" he called as a picture of it, sitting near the first plinth he'd examined, came to him. Jack was always complaining that Daniel dumped his pack just anywhere, and it seemed he had been proven correct.

Daniel looked around the pit in the dim light, finding the walls smooth and too high for him to climb alone.

"Sam, Teal'c, where are you?" he called into the radio.

"Right here, above you," Sam's voice came from above his head as a beam of light from a flashlight hit him in the face.

"Where's the Colonel?" she called down.

"Here, he's hurt Sam, badly."

xoxoxoxoxo