Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon (6 page)

Jack felt his eyebrows twitch. "You can read the inscriptions,
Teal'c?"

"I can."

"You, ah, didn't want to mention this?"

Teal'c looked, very faintly, surprised. "Can you not also read the
inscriptions, O'Neill?"

"Pretend I can't. Just tell me in the future if you've got something,
okay?"

"I will do so."

"So, do they say anything we need to know?" His eyes flicked
toward Daniel, including him in the question. Mistake. Naturally,
Teal'c and Daniel started talking over each other.

"I do not believe there is anything of significance to the - "

"Most of the inscriptions are histories about the founders of the
city and the laws they - "

Jack held up a hand. "So, no, then. Captain Carter?"

"Sir."

"Stay alert."

Like she hadn't been already. She gave him a brief, warm smile.
"Yes Sir."

Right about then, one of Acton's retainers bowed stiffly toward
them and launched into an explanation that Daniel interpreted to
mean follow me. Which, Jack had already assumed.

They crossed the big open square. Leader and Head Cheese that
Acton was, nobody talked to him, but plenty of townsfolk, including
some of the women, drifted over to mutter questions to his retainers.

"The gossip mill's running," Jack said. Daniel nodded. "Hope
they're telling everybody what good friends we're going to be."

"Actually, they're saying we seem to be lost. They're making
themselves out to be generous and charitable to some pretty dumb
strangers."

"Whatever works. Makes you wonder if it's an election year...
You'll let me know if they say we're on our way to getting our heads
removed, right?"

"Right." Daniel's tone was only a little ironic. "I think I get the
priorities."

According to Daniel, the building they entered was called the bouleterion; it was where Acton had his offices, and the town council
did their business. Built a little like the massive Acropolis farther
up the hill, it was majestic but small, with some grubbiness around
the corners of the polished marble and some chips out of the steps.
A couple of guys in short tunics were scrubbing at stains with thick
brushes, paying no attention to the higher-ups who stood around try ing to look important. No armed guards looming, which boded well
for the general stability of the government; Jack exchanged nods with
some startled functionaries as they were led into a large atrium with a
garden in the center, where some people were obviously sitting down
to a lunch they carried in striped cloth bags.

SG-1 was shown into a big open room with padded benches, black
and white tiles on the floor, and an absolutely stunning mosaic running all along the walls. All four sides. Daniel immediately went to
the far right, next to the door, and began studying it, putting his video
camera to use.

Acton's retainers, talking excitedly, left them to their own
devices.

"So there's no king here, right?" Jack asked.

"What?" Daniel was barely listening.

"No king...?"

"Athens was the cradle of democracy, Jack. It's possible they might
have one, but everything I've seen points to an Athenian society. Oh,
except the women," Daniel added, as an afterthought.

"What about the women?" Carter asked. "They looked pretty normal to me."

"Exactly... yes, for the kind of society we're used to in the modem
Western world back home. What I mean is, they're walking around
outside, unescorted. Greeks were pretty conservative about that kind
of thing. Women were absolute rulers in their own homes, but outside - well, they didn't go outside that much. Men ran the world." He
shrugged. "This seems to be more like a Roman system, socially. Lots
of freedom... Wow, look at that." His attention was arrested by the
mosaic. He bent closer, practically putting his nose on it.

Carter was interested, and came closer. "Wow, what?"

"This is unbelievable. It must have taken years to complete -
matching the colors - the technique is more advanced than anything
we've uncovered in digs on Earth in the period, it's more like the
work being done in Byzantium nearly a thousand years later..."

Jack wasn't about to get up and go join the gawk patrol. He sat,
stretched his booted feet out at a comfortable angle and said, "It tells
a story, right?" Because there was a Stargate, and blood, and people
dying, and Jack was intensely interested in that part.

Daniel nodded. "Yes, definitely."

"Fact or fiction?"

Daniel finished his filming, and backed off to sit down next to him.
Carter was crouched down, examining a section that showed men
and women running in terror, wide-eyed, their hair streaming loose
behind them, as others chased behind. The woman in the foreground
looked almost insane with fear, clutching a baby in her arms as she
ran. The city, in that section, was on fire.

"Can't tell," Daniel admitted. "In the beginning, it looks like a
prosperous city, maybe this one... certainly Greek. Then there's some
kind of event - see, the Stargate activating - and then..."

He stopped, got up, and went to examine a section of the wall. He
reached out and touched it, smoothed his fingers slowly over the tile,
and then stepped back, frowning.

"Daniel?"

"That's strange. It's been changed," Daniel said. "Somebody
revised this. There's a section missing. They tried hard to match it,
but they couldn't quite do it."

The section was a close-up of flowers, trees, peaceful streets.

"How can you tell?"

"The colors are different," Daniel replied absently. "And look, the
pieces are larger, a little clumsy... whoever did this wasn't as accomplished as the one who completed the mosaic in the first place. Maybe a
repair... no, it doesn't make sense. They removed part of the story"

"Revisionist history," Carter said. "Funny they only took out the
one part. The rest of it looks pretty dire."

"But they took out the part that tells us what caused it," Daniel
said. "See... peaceful city, then the Stargate activates... then peaceful
city again... then the first trouble. A fire. The city fathers meeting,
more fires, maybe riots... "

He stopped, frowning even deeper. Careful, Daniel, your face will
freeze like that, Jack thought, but he followed the archaeologist's stare
to the specific portion of the mosaic, and felt a familiar shiver race
down his spine.

"Teal'c," Daniel said, and got very close to the image. "Take a
look."

He pointed at the single tiny figure, almost hidden in the chaos of the smoke, fire, and fallen bodies of the dead.

Teal'c bent over to look, then straightened so suddenly Jack practically heard the snap.

"Jaffa," he said. "The Goa'uld were here, once."

Carter joined them at the wall. "But we knew that, right? These
people must originally have been brought here by the Goa'uld. Maybe
this is a record of them being relocated to this planet. Or, maybe it's a
record of their native city on Earth."

"Maybe," Daniel said doubtfully. He went back to the part of the
wall where the restoration had been done, dragging fingertips over the
tile as if he could read the secrets underneath. "But then why change
it?"

Jack swept the rest of the wall with a long look. Fire, destruction,
riots... people dying... and then, at the end of the wall, a crumbled,
deserted place, with the Stargate serene and quiet. The light was different on that section.

Moonlight.

It should have looked peaceful, but it didn't. Trouble lurking
right around the comer, right off the edge of the picture, waiting to
pounce.

It occurred to him what was bugging him about that particular section of wall. "I don't think that's a record of these folks being taken
from Earth," he said, and got up to walk over to it and touch his fingers to the moon.

Then the other moon.

The doors at the far end opened with a sudden metallic chunk, and
Jack turned fast to face them. Two fancy-dressed men stood there, and
one of them offered some explanation with a polite smile, spreading
his hands wide.

"Time to go?" Jack guessed. Daniel nodded and hitched his pack
together, carefully storing the video camera, and SG-1 followed their
guides into the next room.

Acton must have had one hell of a staff, because Jack thought
General Hammond himself, with all of the resources of the SGC,
might have had trouble pulling together a full meeting like this on
a few minutes' notice. There were at least a dozen important-looking guys sitting behind a table, looking grave and composed, and fresh flowers in vases scattered around the room. These were the
city fathers, Jack presumed; they had the sleek, well-fed look of
men in control of their lives. Acton - still incongruously wearing
the sunglasses - was standing at his place in the center of the table,
and he gestured gracefully at four straight-backed chairs that had
been placed in front.

The place was large, with windows opening onto gardens on one
side, a sea view on the other. The twittering of birds and the steady
dull pulse of the surf was the only sound. Besides the thump of the
door shutting behind SG-1.

Jack resisted the urge to look behind him, pasted on a smile, and
inclined his head to Acton. Who inclined right back. "Daniel? All
right to sit down?"

"Ali... your guess is as good as mine."

What the hell, his knee had a twinge anyway. As soon as they
sat, Acton settled as well, looking satisfied. Apparently, the first
hurdle had gone well.

Some servant-type guys in short togas - chitons - circulated,
filling glass goblets for the council, and offering some to SG-1;
Jack conferred briefly with Daniel and decided they'd better accept
and sip. Turned out to be wine, thin and vinegary. Jack drank as
much as he figured was polite, then set it aside. A servitor whisked
the glass away.

Without orders, Daniel launched into a variation on the hello
we're peaceful explorers speech again, which Jack was content to
allow. He was watching Acton, who was watching him. No fool,
this guy, despite the eye shadow and fancy curls. A cold political
mind behind all that pampering.

Acton had something to say, after Daniel was finished. It took
a while.

"He says that they're pleased to receive a delegation from
another world," Daniel said. "Ah, it sounds like he thinks we're
applying to join the Helos Confederacy or something."

"He's posturing for his guys," Jack read. "Making us look like
we're paying him court."

"So what do I say?"

"Change the subject. Ask him if he knows about the Goa'uld."

Daniel engaged in some lively discussion, so lively he seemed
to forget about translation until Jack waved his hand for his attention. The town council was joining in, whispering to each other,
asking Acton questions. While Acton answered, Daniel said, "He
says they don't know anything about the Goa'uld, except as distant
legends. From the beginning of the city. He's probably not lying;
we haven't seen any sign of the Goa'uld around here."

"Except in the mosaic," Carter reminded him.

"Except in the revised mosaic," Jack said. "Not too sure I'm
buying the party line on this one." He was reading Acton's body
language, what there was of it. That was proving difficult. Different
cultures, different rules. But he thought the man looked guarded.

The town council had continued to babble amongst itself, and
now Acton spoke again.

"He wants to hear about our world," Daniel said. "Jack...?"

"Sure," Jack said. "Medical advances, food, trade, what nice
folks we are. That kind of stuff. Let's keep this on the U.N. peaceand-love level. I'm not ready to get married just yet."

Daniel set about painting a picture of Earth that, while true, wasn't
entirely complete, and Jack sat back and watched Acton. This guy
had some battle scars. Not just a politician. There were walls around
this city for a reason. If they'd been ceremonial, they'd have been a
whole lot shorter, not to mention thinner. This place had been built
for defense, and that meant there were people dying to get inside.

Jack thought back to the airport, the civilized, polite curiosity, and
wondered if Chalcis might be the top of the food chain, in terms of
cultural and economic power. If the other Helos Confederacy planets
weren't so well off, maybe there had been reason to fortify some
time in the past. Or, hell, last week. Or maybe there had been an
army of Jaffa coming out of that Stargate, set so conveniently outside
of the city walls, once upon a time.... In the murals, the Stargate had
been inside of a town, and the town had been destroyed. Maybe these
people had learned something from that.

The rest of the diplomacy consisted of smiling and nodding,
and was pretty much as boring as Jack expected for the rest of the
afternoon.