Special thanks to quercus, Lady of Asheru, Lori and Lynn for beta, excellent suggestions, and kind support.
For Carol, Lynn and Margie, because it's officially all their fault.



"Making progress, are we?" Jack lounged against a steep white pillar and watched Daniel as he worked. The mellow sunshine of P4C-282 was a pleasant change from the dark interior of Cheyenne Mountain.

Daniel squinted up at him. "Trying to, yes."

"Am I distracting you?"

"What if I said yes?" It was a game they played, the game that kept Jack focused, kept him from becoming too bored while Daniel did his scientist-thing.

"Then I wouldn't tell you about my plans to start a vacation resort here."

"You never take vacations."

"Wrong-o, Dr. Jackson. That would be you - not me. Me, I take full advantage of my down-time."

"Yes, so you say. Except - you're the one who keeps us on active status 51 weeks of the year, barring medical stand-downs and possession by errant Goa'uld." Daniel blew dust away from the base of what might once have been an altar.

"True, true." Jack considered that, then said, "This is a vacation for you, isn't it? All...this." He gestured vaguely at the temple inscriptions.

"Sort of," Daniel said, surprised by the insight. Being away from the mountain, out in his element and doing what he loved, was very much like a vacation.

Since he'd had his first glimpse of P4C-282 through a grainy MALP transmission two days earlier, he had been fixated on exploring the crumbling temple. The ancient obelisk near the gate had sewn up the deal; the writing was reminiscent of the language of the Ancients, and Daniel was hooked. It hadn't been hard to convince Jack and General Hammond to let him get a better look at things, since the temple was only two klicks from the gate. No sign of any inhabitants nearby, either. He'd requested permission to visit the planet before Jack could even offer an opinion.  

Not that Jack's opinion would have mattered. This sort of thing was why they'd kept Daniel around for the past four years. Or so Daniel liked to tell himself, from time to time.

Jack would sometimes come and sit with Daniel as he worked. He would watch Daniel make sketches of the temples or the drawings gracing their ancient walls. Once in a while, he would ask a question, often something designed for maximum aggravation. Daniel could usually tell the difference between genuine curiosity and boredom.

Today Jack was much more like a bored sand flea, biting and nipping. Daniel missed it, when he was on digs with other teams, or when Jack was too busy to be bothered. This felt like home.

"So, what was this place, anyway?" Jack perched on one of the crumbling steps, P-90 slung across his lap, and lifted his face to the brilliant blue sky. "Some kind of bordello?"

"A few of these mosaics may appear a bit...risque...but I don't think they have anything to do with a sexual theme, per se."

"Can't judge a temple by its art?"

"Something like that. They appear to be depictions of idyllic activities, or pivotal moments in an average person's life. Not sure what that's all about, actually." Daniel carefully brushed caked-on dirt away from a weather-scarred inscription. "The architecture of the temple and out-buildings is reminiscent of ancient Greek structures, but it's not similar enough to what we've found on Earth for me to conclude that the builders were transplanted from that region. Also, there's the writing." He waved a brush at the carved inscription. "It doesn't really relate to any language I'm familiar with, but there are echoes - fragments, here and there - of something that might be derivative Greek."

"Not a whorehouse, then." Jack feigned disappointment. It made Daniel smile.

"Nothing quite so titillating, I'm afraid. Sorry." He traced one of the words with gentle fingers. "If I'm translating these symbols correctly, this word - etem - is like the Greek root word for truth, etym. However, I have no way of knowing if that's coincidental. I don't have any context yet."

"But you're working on that."

"Obviously." Daniel pointed to the wall with his brush. "There're a few Latin root words here too, I think, but that section of the wall is obliterated. Still, with time, I might be able to correlate what's left with known sources."

"What've you got, Carter?" Jack craned his neck to see Sam. She was crawling across a seam on the stone floor, passing various instruments over it.

"I'm not really sure, sir. I'm getting faint energy readings from this area, but I can't pinpoint the source. The readings fade in and out. It's been difficult to trace them." Sam began prying at the seam with her fingers, a token effort that ended with her sitting back on her heels, defeated. "It's sealed tightly shut, sir. Probably the only way we're getting in there is to blow it open."

"Wait - not yet," Daniel said quickly. He turned to catch Sam's eye. "I need a little more time to see if the symbols on the floor correspond with anything here on the intact walls." He glanced up at Jack, surprised by how fast the familiar anxiety still rose within him. It made him tired, this constant threat of premature destruction of potential sources of knowledge. Like cats and dogs in a sack, two diverse sets of goals could not always share the same space safely. "Jack? Are we in a hurry?"

"We're due to check in 24 hours from now, and we'll be headed home right after that unless we find a compelling reason to stay." At Daniel's look, Jack added, "Alien languages might compel you, Daniel, but they still don't compel the Pentagon unless they're tied to technology."

"We don't know yet that they're not," Daniel reminded him, but he acknowledged the truth of Jack's words with a curt nod. He didn't like it, but he'd grown used to the arguments about procuring technology, and to his own restless ambivalence about their objectives.

"Teal'c? Any of this look familiar to you?" Jack kicked at the seam on the floor with the heel of his boot.

"It does not. I have not encountered any ruins such as these on the worlds frequented by the Goa'uld."

"That makes sense," Daniel said. "This was one of the coordinates you entered into the computer while you still had the knowledge of the Ancients in your head, so it's probably a world the Goa'uld never visited." He began taking digital pictures of the walls. The colors of the mosaics had dimmed to faint remnants of their former beauty. The elements had taken a toll on what remained.

"All the more reason to get in there and see if whoever built this left anything behind," Jack said.

Daniel set down the camera. "It'll take me the rest of the day to record the data here. If I can't get a handle on the language by tomorrow morning, maybe we should try to see what's beneath the temple floor."

Jack sat forward and clapped his hands together. "Sounds like a plan. Tents up, campers. Then you can get back to playing with your new toys."

Daniel nodded at the pseudo-order and promptly ignored it. The symbols on the walls were calling to him. Every moment lost was a chance he might not figure them out.

At times, Daniel had to resist the urge to share too much with Jack, to talk endlessly about things he knew Jack had no interest in and would never understand. Jack tried hard to care, he really did, and he absorbed more information than anyone gave him credit for.

It had taken Daniel a while to realize the goading, the baiting, the goofy comments - all of it was a ploy, to see who would take him at face value, and who would delve deeper. It intrigued Daniel, the artless art of playing dumb. It was amazing how much more people would tell Jack that way, how much harder they would try to make themselves understood. There was a method to his madness.

He got to his feet and began to walk in a slow circle around the temple floor. Since the ceiling and two of the walls had fallen long ago, it was impossible to correlate the markings beneath his feet with anything else that might once have been above. He kept his eyes on the ground and followed the faint symbols.

At one time, there had been a magnificent, intricate circular pattern on the floor, and at its center, a small pedestal. He followed the lines with his eyes. They formed a maze of swirls and lilting curves, some etched deeply into the stone. With very little imagination, he could picture deep whorls of red and blue, vivid against firelight in the large room.

"Not inclined to help with setting up the camp you requested, there, Daniel?" Jack took the temple steps lightly, two at a time. He began stalking Daniel, following him around the circle.

"No, I'll be there in a minute. It's just..." He frowned. "This design seems very familiar to me."

"Don't get too attached to it. In the morning, it's toast."

"Yes, I know," Daniel said. Under normal circumstances, he would be annoyed at Jack's dismissive attitude, but standing there in the circle, he felt...weird. "Jack, do you sense anything unusual?"

"I sense an empty stomach. My own." Jack waited a beat, as Daniel knew he would, and then got serious. "Anything like - what?"

"I'm not exactly sure." Daniel closed his eyes. The feeling of something being off-kilter was stronger all of a sudden, right before it disappeared altogether.

"Daniel?"

"Whatever it was, it's gone." He opened his eyes to see Jack looking curiously at him. He shrugged.

"Good. Then let's set up camp."

Teal'c had already thrown up one tent without help, as was usually the case - straight to the task, no variation from tthe goal. Jack and Teal'c talked about the perimeter. Daniel gave Sam a hand with the second tent, which took all of two minutes, before they turned their attention to building the campfire.  

"You planning to keep working on the translations tonight?" Sam gave him a sideways glance as she fed tinder to the start of a fire. "I could hike back to the gate and pick up a couple lanterns from the MALP, so you'd have extra light."

"Thanks, but I don't think it's necessary," Daniel said. He made a circle of broken stones around the heap of grass and sticks. "I thought I'd take second watch; I can work by the fire, go over my notes that way."

She fed the fire a few small branches. "I know you feel rushed, Daniel, but maybe the general would let you bring a team back for field work. That would at least give you time to-"

"You know what will happen. Once we get back, they'll take the notes and the mission report and hand them over to SG-13, and they'll be the ones to come back. I won't get a shot at it." He smiled, wry resentment coming to bear as he added, "I think I might have trained my assistants a little too well."

"You'd have more time to work if this place was still inhabited," Sam said.

"Ironic, isn't it? Living people provide the excuse to stay and play with the dead languages."

Sam smiled. "I was thinking I might make some astronomical observations tonight, so I'll keep you company. Didn't you say you'd found a depiction of their solar system?"

"Yes, there are two references I've found. The clearest is on a tablet that was fixed to the altar. This planet has five moons, apparently, and it's the closest planet to their sun. I've been watching for the fifth moon to appear." He gestured at the four moons shimmering in the twilight sky above. For a time, they watched the stars becoming brighter as the daylight faded. "Do you think there's really anything beneath the temple floor?"

"There's definitely an energy-producing source," Sam said. "Whether it's anything we can use...I have my doubts. It might just be residual radiation."

"Sort of like the lights still on in the house once everyone has left," Daniel said. Sam nodded.

"What's for dinner?" Jack dropped a small bundle of wood next to Daniel.

"Uh, I'm not cooking," Daniel said.

"Forget it. Sir."

Teal'c only looked at Jack, one eyebrow twitching up.  

"Right," Jack said with a sigh. "So, MREs it is, then."

*****

Daniel dreamed.

More than that - he knew he was dreaming.

He sat at the table with the open book in front of him. Words gleamed from the pages; their gentle light was knowledge. It overwhelmed him. He moved his hand to close the book, but something caught his hand, held it in place.

"Seoh farah shem dera sha," said the woman beside him. She settled on the wooden bench and pulled the candle closer. He smiled; the woman was his mother. She was his teacher, the one who whispered soothing nursery rhymes in Latin and sang lullabies in French. He could still hear her repeating the words to him, phrases of love in languages he had just begun to know.

"Seoh farah shem dera sha," she said again, and swept her hand across the book. Daniel nodded to her and tried to concentrate. The words flickered on the page; symbols began to resolve into images. He looked closer, picking apart the structure of the language, breaking it down into its most basic elements.

"Sha; you," his mother said.

He looked at the page. "Sha. You," he repeated.

"Daniel."

"Yes, I'm...I see," he said, distracted.

"Daniel," the insistent voice repeated. His mother slipped away into the darkness. Daniel reached for the candle, but the flame winked out in an instant.

"No!" he cried, frustrated.

"Hey. Daniel. You all right?"

Daniel opened his eyes. Jack was there beside him, crouched against the curved wall of the tent. "Jack?"

"Helluva dream, there, Daniel. It's your watch."

"Damn." Frustrated, Daniel sat up and yanked on his jacket. "I almost had it."

"What?" Jack asked, as he passed the P-90 to Daniel and burrowed down into the warm sleeping bag Daniel had crawled out of.

"Nothing. It'll keep until tomorrow."

Jack's soft, instantaneous snores told him that Jack agreed wholeheartedly.

*****

Coffee. It was the sunrise, the signal of morning. It pulled Daniel back from the perimeter of the camp, got his blood moving again. He stretched idly and wondered who'd made it. Teal'c couldn't make coffee that wasn't half-solid; Jack's coffee tended to be bitter. Sam's specialty was strong coffee with that quaint burned-at-the-bottom taste.

Sam had a cup ready for him when he returned. "Thanks," he murmured. The remnants of the dream lingered with him and the frustrated feeling returned. He'd spent his few hours on watch trying to retrieve the bits and pieces his subconscious had deciphered, but they were slippery. He'd had no luck at all.

"So, what about all that talking you did in your sleep last night?" Jack gulped down his coffee and looked over at Daniel. So predictable, that Jack would start in before he'd even pried both eyes open.

"I dreamed of the language of the people who built this place. My subconscious mind was trying to translate for me, I suppose." At Jack's questioning look, Daniel shook his head. "It didn't work."

"This how you do your best translating?" Jack asked. "And here I was thinking it was your vast intellect."

"Actually, nothing quite like this has ever happened before." Daniel frowned. "I've dreamed in other languages - that tends to be the first sign that I've mastered the language - but never quite like this."

Sam spoke up from across the smoldering remnants of the campfire. "I had a dream about a woman speaking a strange language. I didn't recognize the words she was saying."

"Really?" Daniel set his cup down in the damp grass. "Do you remember any of it?"

"I don't think so. Not enough to string any words together."

"Teal'c?" Jack said, then caught himself. "Oh, right. You don't dream. Well, I didn't dream, either." Jack looked at Daniel. "It's interesting, but I don't see what it has to do with anything. Do you?"

"Not yet," Daniel admitted. "But why would Sam and I have the same dream?"

"I have no idea," Jack said, with a meaningful look first at Sam, and then Daniel. "But can we put the Freudian analysis on hold until we figure out a way to get underneath that temple floor?"

"Right," Daniel said. "I'll just get my notes..." He began to forage in his pack for the journal.

Back to business in the blink of an eye, it seemed. The camp was quickly packed up, all gear stowed. Daniel returned to frowning at the walls, and then his notes, in predictable order.

Jack waited. He hovered. He fidgeted.

Finally, Jack said, "Time's a'wastin', Daniel. Give me something to work with."

"I don't have it, Jack. I don't think I can solve this here."

"You took plenty of notes, right?"

"Yes." A question like that could mean only one thing, but Daniel was prepared for it. He'd long ago learned he couldn't preserve the remnants of the cultures he briefly came to know. "Go ahead."

"Teal'c," Jack said, "what do you think? A staff blast?"

With a critical eye, as practiced at evaluating targets as Daniel was at evaluating language, Teal'c studied the deep seams on the floor. "I cannot be sure of the thickness of this material, O'Neill. It may be that the weapon will not be effective."

"Give it your best shot," Jack said, and with a firm hand on Daniel's shoulder, signaled him to move out of range.

Teal'c raised the staff to waist level and fired without hesitation. Effortless, the way he used it; the scars born of that ease remained within, where they could not be seen.

The tip of the staff sizzled with energy as the blast burst forth, skipped across the stone and bounced harmlessly off its smooth surface. Jack ducked, but Daniel dove for cover as the ricochet flew past.

"That wasn't in the plan," Jack said, smiling ever so slightly, with a look at Daniel sprawled out on the ground.

"Are you injured, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c jogged a few steps toward him.

"I'm fine," Daniel said, since "fine" encompassed "cranky" and "bruised" and still left room for "watch where you aim that thing." He picked himself up off the ground and dusted off.

Sam scrambled out from behind her temporary cover. "Sir, I'm reading an increase in energy levels."

"What kind of energy, Carter?"

"It appears to be extremely low-level radiation, sir."

"Dangerous?" Jack asked.

"Not as far as I can tell." She watched the readings fluctuate, then said, "It may be some sort of response to the staff blast. The energy from the weapon might have activated some kind of mechanism."

"Any reason not to continue trying to get in there?"

Sam thought it over, eyes on her readings. "Obviously, the staff weapon won't work. I wouldn't recommend using it again anyway, sir. If energy from the blast did trigger the increased radiation, there could be an additional increase in output each time it's used. Conventional explosives would probably be the safest bet."

"Then let's get this show on the road and get out of here. Carter, lay some C4 along the seam."

"Yes, sir." She threw Daniel an apologetic glance and set to work.

Daniel retrieved his pack and began gathering up various odds and ends from the temple floor: a piece of pottery, a small stone tablet, some mosaic tiles. It felt like taking scraps from a flea market, the refuse of other lives, but the value was never apparent on first glance. A pressure was building in his chest, made of sorrow for lost knowledge.

"Daniel." Jack's tone was soft, urgent. Daniel turned and followed Jack's line of sight.

Teal'c stood motionless beside the far wall, hand outstretched, tracing one of the mosaic patterns over and over again. His lips were moving, but very little sound emerged; something like a low hum, or a name, indistinct.

"Teal'c?" Jack stepped forward, put a hand on Teal'c's arm. In response, Teal'c dropped his staff weapon to the ground. Jack shot a look at Daniel, one that told him to do something. "Teal'c, you with us?"

Teal'c began to pick at a cracked tile. Daniel moved closer to him, watching his movements with a growing alarm.

"Chulak," Teal'c said, as he traced the image in the tile with one finger. His face was full of shadows.  Daniel's eyes narrowed as he watched Teal'c touch the wall, and where Teal'c drew invisible patterns, he saw the faint outline of a child at play, surrounded by small animals.

"What do you see?" Daniel asked.

"Rya'c," Teal'c whispered, but Daniel couldn't tell if it was an answer, or a half-aware manifestation of Teal'c's private thoughts.  

Daniel caught Jack's eye. Jack mouthed words at him, without making a sound - "Snap him out of it!" After a moment's hesitation, Daniel shook Teal'c lightly, then harder, and said, "Teal'c. Teal'c!"

Teal'c moved; his head whipped around, and he fixed Daniel with a murderous stare, one that quickly softened and became confused. His eyes shifted back to the wall as he turned toward Jack.

"I am sorry, O'Neill. I...do not know what came over me." Teal'c looked stunned, as if he had been turned upside down and kicked. Daniel felt a strong pang of sympathy for him.

"What the hell just happened?" Jack demanded.

"I do not know. It was as if...as if I could hear Rya'c speaking to me, imploring me to free him, to free all of us. I was overwhelmed with the desire to be near him again." Teal'c bowed his head.

"We know you miss your son," Daniel said quietly.

"That is irrelevant. A warrior cannot be compromised by such feelings. He is in no danger," Teal'c said. His puzzled expression grew deeper. "I should not be preoccupied with his welfare in this way."

Jack patted Teal'c awkwardly on the back. "C'mon. Let's get back to work." Teal'c inclined his head and accepted the staff weapon Daniel offered him.

"Daniel," Jack said, as Teal'c moved away, "seriously. What was that?"

"It was odd, wasn't it?" Daniel stared after Teal'c, noting the stiff set of his shoulders as he approached Sam. "Maybe the energy generated by...whatever's down there...is affecting him somehow."

"Then how come I don't feel anything?"

"I'm not sure. I feel fine, too." Daniel looked over at Sam, who was handing a set of timers and C4 to Teal'c. "Sam seems fine. Maybe it's something that just works on the Goa'uld, or the Jaffa who carry them."

"Sweet," Jack said. "Then whatever it is, we need to get to it."

"Definitely. Just as soon as I gather up a few more artifacts."

"Whoa, Daniel. We don't have time for that. You'll have to make do with what you've got. I thought we covered this."

Brief anger flared within Daniel. Jack was the most stubborn, intractable...He took a deep breath as the frustration kicked in - arguments with Jack didn't do any good, never went anywhere. Tension lodged in his jaw, tightening it. He fished around in the pack and extracted the tablet he'd been examining an hour before. "Jack, you have to let me do my part of this job. Just this tablet alone contains so much information."

"We've been through this before, Daniel." Jack's tone was suddenly clipped, impatient, and Jack was looking around, looking at everything but Daniel. Step one in the disintegration of rational discussion. Daniel knew the scenario very well.

"I know, Jack, but - think of the chances we're losing. It's happened so many times. Not this time. Please."

Jack glanced at him; he wavered. Daniel could see it in his eyes. "What's on the tablet?" he asked, pointing his chin at the artifact.

"Information about cosmology. Details about their solar system, about their sun and the five moons."

Jack gave a little sideways shake of the head. "Four moons, you mean."

"No, five."

"Four."

"Five."

"Four. One, two, three, four." Jack stabbed a finger at the sky with each word, as if he could knock the proof from down from the heavens. The four moons of various sizes shone pale in the daytime sky, laughing at them.

Flakes of granite dusted away from the edges of the ancient tablet as Daniel shook it, a tactile illustration. "Jack, I've been working on this translation for two days, and there are five moons. It's clearly recorded here in the archaeological record. They took pains to ensure their cosmology was preserved."

"Look up, Daniel. I don't care what someone chiseled into a rock a couple millennia ago. There's four."

"Really. Well, for all you know, the fifth moon is hidden from view, or in a different orbit, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"And then again, maybe it does mean that exactly."

Daniel took another deep breath. His jaw ached; his heart was pounding. A tide of red anger slithered through his heart and into his mouth, controlling his words. "Jack, what the hell is wrong with you? You're the astronomy buff. You know damn well that fifth moon could be up there."

"No, I don't." Solid, stern, completely unmoved. Jack's eyes had gone dark. All the usual mischief was gone from them.

Daniel stared; Jack stared back. Jack was arguing for the sake of it, Daniel thought. He couldn't possibly believe a word he was saying. Daniel could sense it, just as he could feel his own reluctance to let this go. They were descending quickly into a place where the argument ceased to be playful and became something else, something tied to ego and winning and all sorts of things he didn't want to analyze. It had a familiar ring to it, as though they'd been through this before, as if he should know what was wrong.

"All right," Daniel said slowly. "Then explain why they would describe the fifth moon and its place in the order of things if it didn't exist."

"How should I know? Maybe something happened to it. Maybe something blew it the hell up. All I know is, it's not up there now. Maybe it did exist, but now it doesn't."  

"Jack, the fact that you can't see the fifth moon does not mean that you can take that as proof that it doesn't exist!" Daniel flung out a hand, as if to make an argument for which there were no words.

"I see four. Four it is."

"And I suppose that when it's a new moon on earth, there's no moon, as far as you're concerned?"

"That's different," Jack said sharply.

"How?"

"Because I know it's there. I've seen it," Jack said, in an oh-so-patient condescending tone.

"Oh, please!" Daniel said, indignant. He watched Jack for a moment through narrowed eyes, heart racing. "There's no point to this argument!"

"I agree. So let's say it's four and call it square."

"Five."

"Four."

"Five!" Daniel hadn't realized he was shouting until the word echoed off the walls, the floor; it reverberated around them.

"Are you trying to piss me off?" Jack asked slowly. His grip tightened on his P-90. It made the hair on Daniel's arms stand up.

"I'm wondering why an educated, well-traveled, supposedly intelligent man would become entrenched in a position that's ill-informed and obviously incorrect. One he knows is ridiculous. So yes, Jack. I suppose I'm trying to piss you off. Did that do it?" The words were like a frozen knife searing a path across bare, vulnerable skin.

Jack was silent; the tension between them was thick and electric. They stared at one another for a very long moment. Then Jack roused himself. "What the hell?" he asked, as much of himself as of Daniel.

Daniel looked away, trying to calm his feelings. He was close to the edge, out of control. He hadn't felt so completely out of control since... "PJ2-445," he said to himself, frowning. "Something...affecting us..."

Suddenly Jack said, "Let's get Carter's take on this."

"We need an intervention," Daniel muttered darkly.

"What was that?" Jack asked, in an ominous tone.

Daniel opened his mouth to say, yes, let's be rational, yes, this is not us, something is making us crazy, and instead he heard himself saying, "Nothing. Yes, get Sam. By all means. Let her tell you exactly what I've been trying to tell you, and reinforce to you that you're being deliberately obtuse about this, and then we'll-"

"You think I'm the stubborn one here?" Jack said it so coldly, so clearly, that Daniel could feel the chill snapping through him. "Well, let me tell you something, Daniel." He moved then, advancing toward Daniel with each word, as if to emphasize it. "You are a stubborn...pigheaded...you're a...you're..." His steps slowed; he faltered, and his eyes widened for a fraction of a second. In that moment, he reached out a hand, grasping at air, at Daniel - his fingers caught the edges of Daniel's jacket, then released it as though he'd been burned. "What the..."

"Wow," Daniel said softly, and stepped back a pace. Every instinct in his body seemed heightened; his senses were sharper than they had ever been. His heart was pounding, his adrenaline pumping, and he felt...alive. Feral. As though he were connected to everything around him.

Especially Jack.

"Jack...do you..."

"Yeah." They stared at one another, transfixed.

"Everything seems so...clear, suddenly." Daniel felt as though it were a tremendous effort to speak. His body was heavy, and his thoughts muddy, but his emotions...those were raging, brilliant and bright and completely out of his control. It was as if something had flayed open his chest and dragged his heart out into the light, and all his quiet confusion about so many things was suddenly uncomplicated. Clarity made him afraid.

He stepped back again, because Jack was looking at him with a strange sort of hunger and - oh, there was something Daniel recognized, and he wasn't ready for it, and neither was Jack.

Jack's head whipped around, as if he sensed something behind him Daniel couldn't see. He turned his back on Daniel, searching the immediate area, and turned a quick circle. "Carter?"

Daniel realized suddenly she wasn't in the vicinity. And neither was Teal'c. Alarm set everything else aside. "Jack-"

"Start heading for the gate," Jack said, all that vibrant emotion gone as the commander came out to do business. Daniel set off at a slow jog, with Jack backing up behind him, P-90 raised. He heard Jack key the mike, heard him say, "Carter, come in. Carter." Heard the long silence, then the mike keyed again. "Teal'c?"  And then - in a tone of frantic warning he rarely heard Jack use - "Daniel!"

He stopped in his tracks and began to turn, and the last thing he saw was -

--darkness.

*****

Daniel dreamed.

He knew he was dreaming, because he could hear a voice in the darkness. Not that he could make out the words; it sounded something like "shem sha", but he couldn't be sure.  

And there was an anvil on his chest, pressing him down. It weighed the breath from his body.

Not an anvil. Jack's hand. Pressing him down, keeping him from moving. Suddenly he realized why.

He wasn't dreaming anymore - maybe he never had been. He was flat on his back, aching everywhere, and Jack was talking to him. "Easy, Daniel. Don't try to get up."

"What-" He lifted his shoulders from the ground, and instantly the world began to retreat like water rushing down a tunnel. There was Jack's hand, warm against his chest, shoving him flat again.

"Didn't I just say to take it easy? Maybe now you'll listen." No anger, just exasperation. Daniel knew that was Jack at his most concerned.

"What the hell happened?" Daniel asked. He took a quick inventory of his own body. Aside from general aches and a splitting headache, he was good. Glasses were gone, though.

"Don't know. There was some kind of white light. That's the last thing I remember."

"Teal'c and Sam?"

"Not here. Weapons are gone, too. Radio's not working. When I woke up, it took me a couple minutes to get my bearings. I've gone over the room. There's no hidden chamber where they might be - at least, not that I can find."

Daniel smiled. "But you know they exist, because you've seen them." Jack snorted, and just like that, the tension was broken, the pointless argument forgotten.  "Did you find anything at all?"

"Nada. There's no windows and no door. Hell, I can't even find a seam to show where this place was slapped together."

Daniel gave sitting up another try, and this time, Jack encouraged the slow movement; the restraining hand moved to Daniel's back, supporting him. He licked his lips and tasted blood. With one hand, he dabbed at his mouth.

Jack said, "Nosebleed. Nothing else wrong with you that I can find."

"You been feeling me up in my unconscious state again? I thought we talked about that." The joke seemed daring, something he might not normally say. It surprised him. He wiped away the blood with the back of his hand.

Jack chuckled. "It's a necessary evil, Dr. Jackson." He raised his open hands. "My intentions were honorable."

Daniel took his own look around the room. The walls, floor, even the ceiling all seemed to be made of  seamless wood. There was a small brazier, which held a low fire, and a bench along the far wall. The only other object in the room was a conical stone atop a square slab. The whole place was no more than ten by ten. The ceiling looked just high enough to accommodate them if they stood up. "You tried breaking through the wall?"

"Yeah, and I nearly broke my ankle. Whatever it is, it may look like wood but it feels like concrete." Jack settled back against the wall. "Any theories?"

"Something was obviously bringing our emotions to the surface just before we blacked out. We haven't argued that way since..."

"Yesterday?"

"Longer than that," Daniel said. "There's arguments, and then there's bickering. We bicker."

"I find your dissection of the semantic differences charming, but beside the point."

Daniel smiled. Jack could certainly sling the three-dollar college words when he was of a mind to.

"I don't know what got into me," Jack said. A frown creased his forehead. "I know the fifth moon is there. I just couldn't let you win."

"Forget it." Daniel waved it away with one hand. "I think something was influencing us. I was trying to put it together out there, to tell you that this felt like what happened on PJ2-445." Jack gave him the blank look, until Daniel said, "The little naked guys, with the symbiotic plants?"

"Oh, right, right. The ones we almost managed to wipe out."

"This was something like that. Or similar to it, as though what I was feeling was completely out of my control."

"You're right," Jack said. "But this was...different."

"Different," Daniel said, on Jack's heels, just a fraction too late to complete his sentence. They nodded at each other in complete agreement. Daniel lifted his shoulders and rolled them slowly to ease the ache in his neck.  "Did you find any writing in the room?"

"Writing?" Jack frowned again. "These walls are a smooth as a newborn baby's butt. There's nothing."

"Hm," Daniel said, and scanned the room again anyway. His trained eye sought even the smallest shadow. The most easily overlooked details were often the ones that would yield the greatest benefit. He knew Jack would have been very careful to seek out any information, but his search parameters had been different. Cracks, seams, methods of escape. All very military, but not very informative.

"That fire doesn't put out any heat, by the way. Weird." Jack craned his neck to look at it, and for the first time, Daniel noticed dark bruises at the side of his throat.

"Jack?" he asked, and reached out instinctively to touch them. The moment his fingertips brushed against Jack's neck, Jack jumped half out of his skin. "Sorry," Daniel said, but didn't move his hand. He traced the bruises; Jack went very still, but allowed the touch.

"Bruised?"

Daniel nodded. His chest ached fiercely. "Badly."

"Throat's sore. I thought there might be..." Jack broke off in mid-thought. "Doesn't hurt, though."

"It looks like someone tried to strangle the life out of you." Daniel heard the quiet tone of his own voice, and was amazed, because it felt as though he were shockingly loud.

Jack fixed him with a look, and Daniel knew suddenly that Jack had gone over every inch of Daniel's body, looking for injuries. It made his chest ache again. "Think it came from falling into...wherever we are. I woke up against that rock over there. My head was hanging over like a chicken on the block."

"Mmm," Daniel said, distracted by the rock. He got up - slowly, since he didn't want to end up unconscious again - and went over to it. "This is interesting."

"Care to elaborate?"

"If this had been in the temple, I'd say it was connected to the circular pattern on the floor." His mind raced back over a thousand texts he'd read over the many years he'd been studying ancient cultures. "It reminds me of the omphalos at Delphi."

"Speak English." Daniel looked over at Jack, who added, "No, really. I'm not kidding. Translation, please."

"The omphalos was the center-stone at the Oracle of Delphi. In ancient times, the Greeks believed Delphi was the center of the universe, and they erected a conical stone like this one to mark that center. It was a sacred place."

"And that helps us how?"

"I have no idea. But it's interesting."

"Oh, definitely," Jack said. Frustration lent a supremely sarcastic edge to his words. "Would that be interesting in the 'I know what they want from us' way?"

"You're assuming there's a they. We don't know that yet."

"Someone had to put us here. Someone took our weapons."

"Or some technology. Wouldn't be the first time. Remember Thor's hammer."

"If that's the case, shouldn't we be getting some sort of...I don't know, instructions by now?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Daniel frowned and looked down at the omphalos.

Jack stood up. "I hate this part." At Daniel's questioning look, he said, "The waiting. Does it seem to you like we spend a lot of time doing this?"

"Sitting trapped in a tiny room with no windows?" Daniel watched the smile quirk up one corner of Jack's mouth as he added, "Deja vu, Jack?"

"Yeah. Pretty much."

A sudden wave of dizziness swept over Daniel and he pressed a hand to his eye socket, rubbing at the pain. At that moment, putting his eye out seemed like a good solution.

"Head hurt?" Jack's voice was soft with concern.

"Yes. I need my glasses. You didn't find them somewhere in here, did you?"

"Sorry."

Daniel sighed and patted himself down. "They didn't take anything from my pockets."

"Just weapons. My knives are gone. Your Beretta too. I still have safety matches and sunglasses, though."

"Those will come in handy. We can build a bigger fire and you can put your sunglasses on." They smiled at each other. Daniel added, "But without something to cook over the fire..."

"You have any food at all in those pockets?"

"A couple of candy bars. You?"

"Sunflower seeds. An energy bar. That's about it."

"Not much to go on." Daniel realized that he was thirsty. "I have my canteen; you?"

"Half-full."

Daniel stood for a moment, gathering his thoughts. Jack's frustration was palpable, like a third person in the room with them. Daniel dropped slowly to his knees in front of the stone and examined it. "This doesn't show any signs of age, but it must be at least as old as the temple. It looks as though it were just created yesterday."

"Maybe it was," Jack said.

Daniel reached out and placed his hands on either side of the stone. The rough surface vibrated beneath his fingertips. "Whatever it is, it's functioning," he said. "Come feel this."

"Seoh farah shem dera sha." To Daniel, it was as if the female voice had whispered directly in his ear.

"Did you hear that?" Daniel asked, at the same time Jack said, "What was that?"

"Seahwa terari mu-ay shem-sha."

"What the..." Jack turned his head, scanning for the source of the voice. He shot Daniel a look, one that clearly said "explain, and do it quick", but Daniel was busy concentrating. The words had a familiar sound, a dialect that was ringing bells somewhere in the back of his brain.

"I need to hear her speak again, to hear the consonants," Daniel murmured, then louder: "Hello? We, um. We don't understand you."

"Tre wedya tel-ish arn," the pleasant voice informed him. Pleasant, but devoid of emotion; it sent a shiver down Daniel's spine.

"Ring any bells?" Jack asked.

"I'm not sure," Daniel said, then added, "No. Not really. I think it might be some sort of recording. I'm not getting the sense they are actively listening to us, or answering me."

"Where's the rest of my team?" Jack said, voice rising slightly. There was no response. "I don't like this," he muttered.

Daniel slid down to the floor and pressed the heels of his hands against his closed eyes. "Looks like we're stuck, for the time being."

"No bright ideas? C'mon, Daniel. You're off your game."

"Apparently." Daniel's face throbbed. "I just need a few minutes to clear my head."

"Sure. Meanwhile, I'll entertain you with my theory."

"You have a theory?" Daniel said, surprised. It was enough to make him lift his head to see if Jack was serious.

"Yep. The C4 went off and blew us to hell."

"C4 can't go off prematurely."

"I didn't say it was a good theory. Your turn."

Daniel put his head back down. "I don't have one. There's nothing to go by, except - maybe - that this is some kind of oracle. And if that's the case, I don't know why we're here, or how to ask the oracle for help."

"So we're stuck."

Daniel didn't answer; there was nothing to say. He felt exhausted. Lulled by the silence, he let his mind drift away on the sounds of the strange words. Echoes of exotic languages carried him off to sleep.

****

Daniel dreamed.

He knew he was dreaming because his body was gone. Strictly speaking, he was non-corporeal, but definitions and structure didn't matter. He was too busy listening to the words of the beautiful woman in blue.

His mother again, he realized. She was smiling at him, reaching out her hands to him. He was struck by a twinge of regret, a sense of lost opportunities. Her lips moved; she was patiently repeating words to him, the way she had when she'd taught him bits of languages when he was a baby.

Seoh farah shem dera sha.

Daniel tried to speak, to tell her he didn't understand, but her expression told him to be silent and pay attention. He closed his eyes and let the language flow through him, like warm water, sweet and complicated and musical.

Seoh farah shem dera sha. Seoh farah shem dera sha. Seohfarashemderashaseohfarahshemderashaseoh farahshemderashayouhavecomeseekinganswersyouhavecomeseekinganswersyouhavecomeseekinganswers

You have come seeking answers.

"I understand," Daniel said.

"Understand what?" Jack's voice was rough with sleep. Daniel realized he was curled up against Jack's unyielding back.

"I had the strangest dream," he said, and rolled onto his back. "I dreamt I understood the language they've been using to try to communicate with us."

"More dreams?"

"Yes, but maybe - maybe it wasn't really a dream." Daniel frowned and sat up. There was a sense that things were all jumbled up inside his mind - strange phrases and consonants, vowels and an alphabet he had never seen, and yet he knew it intimately. His head began to swim and a small "oh" passed his lips before he could stomp it back.

"What is it?" Jack twisted around, half-sitting and half-laying. "Daniel?"

"Head hurts," Daniel said, through gritted teeth. It was an understatement. Even his gums ached.

Jack sat up, reached for him. Daniel allowed himself to be pulled back and submitted to Jack's fingers grinding deep into the muscles of his shoulders. "So tell me about this dream," Jack said, in an encouraging tone.

"I dreamed my mother was speaking to me. She wanted me to pay attention so I would understand." He fell silent as warmth from Jack's hands penetrated down to the source of the ache. "It was almost as though my dreaming mind was trying to teach me to translate the language. Maybe it's something about this place."

"Isn't this familiar," Jack said. Daniel frowned, not understanding, and Jack said, "You know - that whole 'download straight to the brain' trick the Ancients' thingamajig did to me. Trust me, it's not a good thing."

"Ah. This doesn't seem to be quite as extreme as that, although it might just be another form of the technology."

"Hope not, because I had a dream too," Jack said slowly, almost reluctantly, and his hands stilled on Daniel's shoulders.

"Really?" Daniel scooted sideways, to where he could see Jack's face. "What was it about? Did you dream of the language?"

"Not exactly, no." Jack's eyes were fixed to a point on the ground. When he looked up, his expression was unreadable. "Don't remember much. I was kneeling - which, in point of fact, I try to avoid doing whenever possible. Bad for the knees."

"Go on," Daniel said patiently.

"Some woman was talking to me. The only word I remember was Cairo. Now why would I dream about Cairo? I've never even been there."

"Cairo," Daniel said, and it snapped clear. "Cairo. Of course. Not Cairo, Jack, kairos. From the Greek. Time. More specifically, a moment in time."

"What?"

"Never mind," Daniel said. The spark of understanding was within him and he was anxious to try it out. "Just bear with me for a moment." He got to his feet and knelt again in front of the omphalos to curve his hands around its rough surface.

"Daniel," Jack said, but Daniel hushed him.

"It's all right," Daniel said, and listened.

"You have come seeking knowledge," the pleasant voice said.

Daniel grinned. "Yes we have," he answered, in a language he had acquired in his sleep. Jack blinked at him; the words were as foreign to him as they had been before their nap, and with effort, Daniel switched back to English. "She says we have come seeking knowledge," Daniel translated.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Jack said brightly. "Knowledge - great idea. Get it to tell us where the exit sign is."

Daniel began to concentrate again. In the alien language, he said, "We came to this place by accident. We need to leave here, to find our friends."

"Welcome to the santuaria," the voice went on, as though Daniel had not spoken. "Here all your questions will be answered."

"We don't, um. We don't have any questions," Daniel said. "We just need to find our friends, and then we will go."

"You have been carefully prepared, and now your journey has begun. Speak the truth of your hearts and you will find the answers you seek."

"Wait, prepared? We weren't prepared."

"Once you have learned the answer, your journey will be concluded."

"Uh-oh," Daniel murmured.

"Uh-oh? I hate it when you do that."

"Sorry," Daniel said. "I wasn't aware I said that out loud."

"Well, you did," Jack hissed. "So spit it out."

"This is an oracle. I suspected as much. Apparently this thing is automatic and it's programmed to give a certain set of responses. It thinks we were prepared in some way. Probably supplicants who came to the oracle had been told where to stand, what to bring, what to expect. We had none of that, so we sort of...fell into it."

"So what now?"

"I'm not sure. We're supposed to learn some sort of answer and then it will let us go."

"Ask it how," Jack urged, eyebrows raised to maximum height.

"We don't know what to do," Daniel said to the stone, hoping against hope the thing could understand more than basic responses. "We need to find our friends. How do we find the answer?"

"You will be reunited with the others when you have learned the answer."

"Was there a question?" Daniel asked, completely puzzled.

"You will be reunited with the others when you have learned the answer."

"Right," Daniel said. At Jack's look, he said, "It's speaking in riddles now. It says we'll be reunited with Sam and Teal'c when we know the answer. I'm guessing that means we have to ask a question first. Unfortunately, without some sort of preparation, I don't know how we can ask the right question."

"Oh, great." Jack grabbed the neck of his t-shirt and tugged it disgustedly. "Don't suppose it'd mind repeating the question, would it?"

"That might work, actually," Daniel said, and asked the oracle, "Could you tell us what the question is, please, so we can seek the-"

"The question is and has been. You will be reunited with the others-"

"-when we know the answer. I got that the first two times," Daniel said. "Not even a clue?"

The room fell silent.

"Guess not," Daniel said. His head was pounding. He winced and reached for the back of his neck, massaging tension away with his fingertips. "I have no idea what it wants, but... I think maybe I had things backwards. There's some sort of answer we're supposed to seek, in response to a question."

"You mean like, what would be better with a steak, baked potato or French fries?"

"No. Not exactly, no. I don't think generic questions will do."

"So let's try it anyway. This thing is what, a couple thousand years old? Maybe its programming is rusty." Jack cleared his throat. "So. Mary Ann, or Ginger?" Jack smirked a little. "It's something about those cut-offs. Gets me every time."

Daniel smiled. "I think the idea is that we are led to the question by the answer. Sort of the ancient equivalent of soul-searching."

"You're telling me this is the interstellar version of Jeopardy - right? The answer, and then the question."

"More or less."

"I should've known. Carter must be hating this." Jack paused, scratched at his eyebrow. His expression grew troubled.

"They're all right, Jack," Daniel said gently.

"I know. But I'm wondering how the hell they'll figure out what they're supposed to do. Lucky me, I've got the linguist."

"I think this thing communicates with the subconscious in our sleep. That's why you dreamed of specific words and phrases - it's why Sam dreamed of it the first night here. It teaches the mind when it's free of all its barriers - much like omens that came to the ancient Greeks in dreams. You would eventually learn the language without me. I just had a better start on it."

"Maybe so."

"In fact, if we sleep, more information might come to us." Daniel felt tired, a kind of tired he hadn't been since the days following Sha're's funeral. "This is a little draining." Jack was watching him. He was conscious of the scrutiny but his head hurt too much to pretend otherwise.

"Headache not getting any better?"

"Worse." Daniel closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Make you wish you'd gone for contacts this mission?"

"Vanity kills," Daniel said, and was rewarded with a snort from Jack.

"I'll be sure to add that to the list of approved weapons. Deadly in the right hands."

They were both quiet for a time. Daniel thought back over his dreams, looking for clues. There really hadn't been much at all, other than the language itself. If there had been anything else it was obliterated beneath his thirst for understanding of the words.

More than that, he had no idea how the soul-searching was supposed to work. Backpedaling from universal truths in order to find the right question sounded a little too time consuming for them, especially without food or water to sustain them for the duration. He was sure Jack had thought of that as well, because Jack was restless. It was his habit to fidget and sigh when he was impatient.

"Maybe we should try something serious," Jack said suddenly.

"Such as?"

"Well, if - for example - I say 'worst fear,' and then I answer it - wouldn't that fall into the soul-searching category?"

"Maybe," Daniel said. He was dubious for reasons he couldn't articulate. "Try it and see."

"Why does it always have to be me?" Jack complained. He crouched beside the stone, put his hands on it. "Whoa."

"Vibrating again?"

"Yep." Jack shifted a little, then said, "So, my worst fear is, uh." A deep indrawn breath, and then he added, "Not being useful."

After a moment, the omphalos began an audible humming; Jack paled, but kept his hands in place. The humming faded as the female voice told them, "You will be reunited with the others when you have learned the answer."

Daniel winced. "No good, Jack."

Jack sat down hard on the floor. "Figures. I'm over here baring my soul, and-"

"Is that really your worst fear?"

"What?" Jack looked up irritably and wiped his hands against his pants.

Daniel felt oddly shy about asking, but he repeated the question. "Your worst fear. Are you really afraid you won't be useful, someday?"

"It's already happened." Jack drew his knees up and hung his arms across them. His words were dispassionate; his eyes carried the weight of his pain. "When Charlie died. I couldn't do anything for him. I was no good to him."

Daniel nodded. Jack's sadness was tightly controlled, but he could still hear its eternal ghost in the quiet words. "You must feel that way as a commander, too."

"Yep. Often." Jack looked at the wall, then at Daniel, then at the wall again. "Could we not analyze me right at this moment?"

"Sorry." Daniel put his head down. It was easier than looking at Jack's annoyed expression.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm just not..." Jack sighed. "This isn't my thing, Daniel. I'm not good with the introspection."

Daniel nodded. "It's just...not what I expected."

"What did you expect?" Jack asked, after a moment.

"Maybe...I'm not sure. Not being able to make a decision, or...leaving someone behind."

"Faced those fears already." Jack rubbed at his face, and Daniel thought back over what he'd seen Jack do, what he'd done for Daniel - the way he'd chosen between horrible options countless times. He could only imagine what that must do to a man over the duration of a career.  

And of course, he knew what Jack looked like in the moments before he left someone behind. He could still remember the rough brush of Jack's gloved hand against his face, and sharp agony inside, deeper than the wounds on his body.

"You look tired again," Jack said. There was an undercurrent there, some subtle request to end the conversation.

"I feel like hell," Daniel said truthfully. "I just want to sleep."

"Guess that's out of our control, too. I should shake this off. So should you." Jack got to his feet. There was an abortive, automatic movement as his hands reached for the absent P-90 he was so accustomed to carrying. He startled Daniel with a rumbling growl as his hands dropped to his sides, useless, with nothing to occupy them. He began to pace off his frustration. Every step made Daniel more weary.

Pain lanced through Daniel's skull and made his eyeballs throb. "We should talk about-"

"I don't want to play twenty questions." Jack's body was like an aimed missile with no room to fly. "I don't want to figure out this fucking stone, I don't want to be analyzed, I just want the hell out of here." He erupted into a coiled ball of energy on the last three words, kicking at the solid walls, walls that refused to bend even an inch beneath the onslaught.

The rage dissipated as suddenly as it had come, simmering into nothingness the same way it had boiled over moments before. Jack flattened his palms against the wall and leaned there, facing the barrier that kept him contained.

Daniel pushed up from the floor and went to him. It felt awkward to reach for Jack, to feel such a need to touch him. His throat closed with the effort of not speaking. The need to offer comfort was strong, but he pulled his hand back slowly, sure it would be rebuffed. It just wasn't Jack's way.

"Daniel." The word sounded strangled, twisted out of shape.

Daniel couldn't tell if it was a request for reassurance, or a warning to back off. He risked it anyway, curled his hand around the back of Jack's neck where the short hairs were soft as velvet, and stroked his thumb across the tension there. Jack relaxed a tiny bit under the attention.

"We're going to figure this out," Daniel said, not at all sure he was telling the truth. Some part of him was confident that this was a puzzle he could solve, and a simple one at that, but he was having trouble focusing. He wasn't as alert as he should be. It was costing them valuable time.  

"Preferably before I lose it again," Jack said. His breathing had slowed to a normal rhythm. He seemed to be shifting inside his own skin.

Daniel pulled his hand away. "That's some temper you've got," he said.

Jack turned and slumped back against the wall. "Not like you've never seen it before."

"I think this is a shield of some kind," Daniel said. He pushed against the rock-hard wall to illustrate his point. "We might not even be inside a structure. We just think we are."

"If we can't leave, I don't see a difference," Jack said, and sat heavily on the ground.

Daniel pressed his own back to the wall and slid down it. They sat side by side until the peculiar lethargy overtook Daniel once again. "Sleepy," he said, and Jack nodded.

"Me too."

Daniel turned away from Jack and curled up on the floor in a tight huddle, arms wrapped around his body, head down. He would have given anything for a pillow, but his arm would have to do. He tucked his left arm beneath his head and closed his eyes.

After a moment, Jack moved behind him. He heard the scuffling noises, the re-arranging of limbs, and then Jack stretched out along his back, so close he could feel his body heat. Not quite touching, but near enough that it didn't matter.

They fell asleep that way, inches apart.

*****

Daniel dreamed.

He was in the temple with Jack beside him. He turned his head, smiled at Jack and received a smile in return. They were on their knees, surrounded by women of all ages in red. He was being given a chance to learn, to understand.

He bowed his head in response to a silent command. Next to him, Jack's body vibrated with energy, with heat. Daniel could almost feel his mind turning aside bits of information, making way for his heart's questions.

"How will I know the answer?" he asked. His voice sounded strange to his ears, too thin and eager.

"You were not properly prepared," came the reply. "We can give you only this: you must follow the path your heart has revealed to you, and there will you find the answer."

"But - don't I have to know the question?" Daniel felt a sensation of alarm mushrooming inside him.

"Your answer will lead you to the question," the voice told him. "It is a question well known to you. Tell your companion to stop struggling. In this way, the path may be revealed."

"But I-"

"The moment has passed," said the voice. "Now you must seek the answer once again. The question is and always has been. The answer is within you."

"Well, that tells me nothing," Daniel grumbled. He prodded dream-Jack with an elbow to the ribs. "Stop struggling."

"What?" Jack looked at him, perplexed, just as a red haze obscured Daniel's vision. Soft cloth enfolded him, carried him from the temple, and he gasped against it, pushed with his hands.

"Daniel!"

"Jack," he shouted, and tried to sit up, but Jack's arms were around him like bands of iron.

"What the hell?" Jack asked, without letting loose of him. "You trying to kick my ass in your sleep now?"

He relaxed into Jack's arms, one tiny bit at a time. "Did you dream anything?" he asked, heart pounding.

"Yeah. Sort of." Jack's heart was hammering. Daniel could feel it against his body. "You?"

"Oh, yes. Wow."

"What is it with this place, anyway? I haven't had dreams this vivid since..." Jack broke off suddenly, eyebrow raised. "Not important."

Daniel grabbed Jack's arm. "Jack, I think it's sentient, but it can't communicate with us unless we're unconscious. Or asleep."

"Do you understand a word they're saying in your dreams? Because it's not making any sense to me. I just get this...babbling...like insects droning in my head." Jack squeezed his eyes shut.

"I think I'm starting to understand," Daniel said. Jack's face lit with hope. "You can let me go now. I won't come up swinging."

"Oh. Sorry."

Daniel sat up and immediately missed the sensation of being bound by Jack's arms. Not the time for that, he told himself, and pushed it aside. "The oracle wants specific things from us. Not what it wants to hear, but confirmation that we've found the answers to our most significant questions. I think...I think it's like a lie detector, in a way. We have to tell it the truth."

"So how does it know if we give it what it wants?"

"I think this is tied in some way to what happened to us right before we were transported here."

"What, the argument?"

"No. The...the other. The...feelings."

"The what? The...oh." Jack's tone changed, and so did his demeanor; he pulled into himself. "Come on, Daniel. Don't you think there's, oh, just the slightest possibility that none of this is real? How can we know we're really feeling anything?" The hard edges of his tone grew even sharper as he said, "For all we know, we're being manipulated into saying things...feeling things...things we don't really believe. Things that aren't us."

Daniel discovered he was shaking; he flattened his palms against his thighs and went on. "This is active dreaming, Jack. The kind that takes place when the dreamer is self-aware of their dreams. Do you know how rare it is? Some cultures actively pursue the dream world; they believe it's more real than the world we live in daily."

"What does that have to do with anything? What are you trying to say?"

"I'm getting there," Daniel said softly. "The preparation that used to take place here had to have been extensive. It was probably a ritual of some kind, a cleansing of the body, maybe even religious instruction to ready the seeker to ask the questions that revealed their deepest desires. But there's no one here to do it now, so the technology tries to compensate by delivering information as portents in dreams."

"Preparation?" Jack asked half-heartedly.

"Yes. It had something to do with preparing the heart to ask questions. Emotions - true emotions -  were awakened and revealed, so the seeker of truth could find his way to the question. Don't you see?"

"No."

"Jack." Daniel shivered. "That's because you're trying not to see. You felt what I felt, up there. You felt it before we ever set foot on this planet." He caught Jack's gaze, held it. "I know it."

"Dammit, Daniel, you said it yourself. This thing is influencing us somehow. I don't like it." Jack was deadly quiet, but beneath the calm, Daniel knew they had entered Jack's personal no man's land, the place where emotions were churned up and unsettled in ways Jack would never allow.

"Well, you'd better get used to it quickly, if you really want to get the hell out of here." Daniel felt the tension bleeding out of him.

"I can't do this," Jack said. "There has to be another way."

"There's not." Simple, and direct.

They sat in silence, not looking at each other.

"I would never have said anything," Daniel said finally. "It would never have...I wouldn't have let it. Get in the way, I mean."

"I know," Jack said, his voice rough. "Neither would I."

"Would you have told me?" Daniel caught himself in the act of hoping and crushed it down. He searched for words and found he had lost the capacity to make sense.

Jack raised his head, fixed Daniel with a gaze so hungry and bare it took his breath away. "No. I wouldn't have acted on it, Daniel."

"You don't deny it, then." Daniel reached out, touched Jack's hand with just two fingers, to trace a path of sorrow down his skin.

"No." Jack moved quickly to catch Daniel's hand in his own, and they sat like that, unmoving.

Daniel stirred finally; Jack's grip tightened for just a moment, and then he let Daniel's hand go. Amazing how easily it slid from the clasp of Jack's fingers, as though it had never been there at all.

"What now?" Jack asked.

"I'm not exactly sure, but I do know we can't ask simple questions or reveal easy answers." Daniel had never been so uncertain of anything, and yet so sure, in his entire life. He watched Jack thinking, fascinated by the complicated chase of emotions across his face. Never had Jack seemed so unreachable to him, or been so easy to understand. "We have to seek out our most significant truths. In those answers are our questions. If we don't do that, we'll never go home."

"You're the one who always has the right language, or...the right words...something. I don't know. How am I supposed to do this?"

"The way you did it the first time you took me home," Daniel said. Memories washed sweetly through him, tempered by time and bitterness.

"Well, now, that was a little different, wasn't it?" Jack's face scrunched up in a kind of irritable surrender, and he said, "You're not going to hold this against me later, are you?"

A brief half-smile touched Daniel's lips. "Did you want the serious answer to that, or the one that comes printed on the t-shirt?"

"Funny. For this you get paid more than me? Where's the justice in that?" Jack grumbled.

Daniel could see the leader in Jack - the man who wanted out of the trap - battling with himself over the new cage he was about to enter.

Jack blew out a breath and settled his hands against the stone. "Like this?" he asked, carefully avoiding Daniel's eyes.

"That's it."

Jack's body tensed. He searched for words for a long moment before he pulled his hands away. "Can't," he said tersely, lips thinned into a straight line.

"Jack," Daniel chastised him, even as the disembodied voice began to speak to them. He listened to its clear, sweet words, and then said, "The oracle says you have come closer to the truth you seek, but wisdom lies in knowing the question. The answer is within you."

Frustration and reluctance radiated from Jack, waves of energy too powerful for Daniel to combat with words. "If it's so damned easy, why aren't you over here doing it?"

"It's the same thing, really. Isn't it?" Daniel said. He watched the slow realization sweep over Jack, even as he allowed his own heart to open, to take in the truth of it.

"Deepest desires, huh," Jack said, and gave Daniel a bitter little smile.

Daniel reached out, laid his hand on top of Jack's where it rested on the stone. He placed his other hand on the bare surface of the stone, and met Jack's eyes. "Say it," he urged, softly, and when Jack's gaze burned into him, he met it steadily.

"What I feel for Daniel....that's the question, right? Deepest desires." He looked at Daniel, and everything, absolutely everything in their wide universe was in this room, narrowed down to this tiny point in time, where truths could be spoken and yet remain hidden. "I might...well. I think I...if I had to give some kind of name to it...hell. Desire's the right word," Jack said, and Daniel shuddered; he couldn't look at Jack's face, for fear of what raw emotion might be reflected there.

Nothing happened.  

Daniel finally, reluctantly, removed his hand, and scanned the room for signs of an exit. "Huh," he said.

"Huh?" Jack stared at him. "That's the best you can do? What about your little theory? I'm naked over here."

"A little anticlimactic, wasn't it?" Daniel smiled to himself, and when he glanced up, Jack was breathing hard, almost as though he couldn't decide whether to go off or laugh out loud.

"Could we not talk about climaxes? Please?"

Daniel did laugh then, a quiet laugh, one filled with affection for Jack, who clearly had no idea what to do next. For that matter, Daniel didn't either.

"We're going to be trapped in here forever, aren't we?" Jack began digging in his pockets. Daniel admired his efficiency in completely changing the subject. "I was hungry when all this started, and right about now, I could eat a bear."

"Forever might be stretching it a little." Daniel was sure he looked as bemused as he felt. "Jack, aren't you...are you all right? You're taking this very well."

"Yeah, I'm fine. What, you thought I was going to try breaking my leg again? That wall's solid. I get it." Jack ripped the wrapper off an energy bar. He broke off half and offered it to Daniel, who took it and ate it in two bites. As he chewed, Jack said, "You thinking this over? Maybe we should change our approach."

"No, I'm pretty sure I've got this much of it right. I don't understand why it isn't working." A twinge of pain behind his eye reminded Daniel that the killer headache was still there, creeping along the insides of his skull. It had been all too easy to ignore it in the rush of excitement, of understanding, of...things he wasn't going to think about, ever again.

Jack swigged water from the canteen and offered it to Daniel, who declined with a wave of his hand.

"Maybe the stone lifts up," Daniel said absently. He began prying at it. "The mechanism might be under here, and we could-"

"Daniel, no." Jack caught Daniel's wrist, halting his efforts. "No offense, but you're not Carter, and my scientific know-how is pretty much nonexistent. If you break that thing, we never will get home."

"So at what point does it become an acceptable risk?"

"After we've tried everything else."

Daniel nodded. For the first time, doubt began to nag at him - maybe he wasn't going to get this, and they'd be stuck here for longer than he wanted to contemplate.

Jack hesitated beside him, and then Jack's hand was on the back of his neck, gentle but firm, and Daniel didn't need the urging. He lifted his face, expecting to be met with one of Jack's get-with-the-program pep talks, but there was something else in Jack's eyes. Daniel was starting to know a feeling that came with that look, a breathless kind of wanting, and he told himself it was the place, the oracle, the dreams...

...but none of that mattered when Jack drew him forward, too quickly for him to protest, and pushed apart his lips with a kiss, a bruising, claiming kind of a kiss, nothing soft or patient for Jack, just a ruthless, desperate taking.

Daniel caught a breath as Jack retreated, as his hands moved to frame Daniel's face, and then the kiss turned slow and tender. Jack's lips moved softly against his own for a moment more and then Jack pulled away. His thumb brushed over Daniel's cheek, across his wet lips, and then the touch was gone.

Daniel licked his lips. The moment hung between them, while Daniel's heart made room for this new kind of pleasure. "You, uh, trying to make a point?" Daniel asked quietly.

"Illustrating," Jack said, ever so seriously. "Maybe if the damn thing can't see it, it thinks it isn't there."

"Hm," Daniel said, and smiled down at the ground. "It didn't work."

"Didn't think it would," Jack said. "Sometimes, you take an opportunity when it comes to you."

They sat side by side for a while without talking. Daniel looked at the omphalos; Jack looked at Daniel.

Finally Jack said, "Maybe you should try it. You know. Putting your deepest desire out there."

"If it didn't work for you, why would it work for me?" Daniel said, a little too fast.

"Ah, I get it." Jack squinted at Daniel in the dim light. "Too intense for you, Daniel? It's all right when it's me, but you don't want to hang your ass out there?"

"It's not that, Jack."

"Well, what is it?" Jack sounded amused, which Daniel supposed was a plus, considering that he was partly right.

"I'm just afraid...what if we only get one shot at this?" Daniel sighed. "You took your chance, and if I try, and nothing happens..."

"I see your point," Jack said slowly. "So what you're saying is, we're screwed."

"I'm sleepy again," Daniel said. "That might be something in our favor, depending on how you look at things."

Jack lifted his arm, looped it casually around Daniel's shoulders. "Then shut up and go to sleep, and get us the hell out of here."

Daniel allowed Jack to yank him into a rough embrace. Face nestled against Jack's black t-shirt, he smiled, and then he slept.

*****

Daniel dreamed.

Right away, he knew he was with Jack, at the cabin - although it was a place he had never seen, and might never see. The sun was warm; the sky blue, and the droning buzz of insects made him think of something...it was a familiar hum.

"Take it."

"What?" He shifted on the lawn chair, sat up, and looked at Jack, who was offering him a worm - a live one. Daniel snatched his hand away with a little noise of surprise.

Jack grinned at him, one of the few honestly happy grins Daniel could ever remember seeing, as he yanked Daniel's hand open and dropped the worm into his palm. "Goes on the hook, Daniel. Don't let it slip away. I'm running out of bait."

"Jack..."

"Hm?"

Daniel considered what he had been about to say. "Nothing."

Jack took a sip from a nearly-empty bottle of beer and cast his line into the lake. "C'mere," he said, and crooked a finger at Daniel. "Or have you stopped taking my orders altogether now?"

"Orders?" Daniel said. "I never took your orders to begin with."

"Not at work you didn't." Jack latched onto the collar of his shirt, pulled him forward, and there was no more talking. Amazing how familiar this felt, and how right.

Except it wasn't. Not yet.

Daniel tried to concentrate. "This isn't real, is it?" he asked, mumbling against Jack's kiss, reluctant to give up the taste of it.

"You have the answer, but you have not yet asked the question," Jack said.

Not Jack.

Daniel woke with a start and inhaled a deep breath of surprise. He twisted to the side, looking for Jack. Jack stirred, restless, but didn't wake. His lips moved silently as he spoke to a figment of his dreams.

Daniel began to pick apart elements of the dream. It had been a wistful dream, filled with tangible happiness and a future he had never dared think about. He looked down at Jack, who stirred in his sleep as though restless beneath Daniel's intense scrutiny.

They were locked inside the cage they had fashioned for each other, with bars made of codes and careers and choices. Desire had no place in their world. It could only be pushed aside, turned to a fleeting thought of the way things might be if their lives were different, if they had taken different paths.

He thought of Jack touching him in the dream, teasing him, saying things this Jack sleeping beside him could never say. Maybe someday...

Daniel's mind raced. Someday. Things that were not possible now might not always be out of reach. He'd known it all along, but he'd replaced possibility and hope with the immediacy of desire. That was Jack's way, perhaps, but for Daniel...

It was not the same thing at all.

Daniel sat up, within arm's reach of the stone, and put his hands on it. "Shem serea eloah...emear shonah. Shem ara metra Jack," he whispered, and leaned forward, to rest his hot face on the cool stone. "What I'm willing to sacrifice to be in that cabin with Jack...that's where you're trying to lead me, isn't it? If I could, I'd choose to sacrifice desire...I'd trade what he can give me now, for a chance at what we could have. It's the only answer."

The omphalos hummed to life beneath his hands. "It is our honor to serve those who seek the truth," the oracle said.

There was a flash of light, and Daniel pitched forward as the omphalos dissolved beneath his hands.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, ribs banging against the edge of the raised pedestal where the stone had been a moment before.

"What the fuck?!" Jack exclaimed behind him, as he scrambled to his feet, wide awake. "Son of a..."

There was a thud, and Daniel rolled over, wincing as he felt a bumpy object beneath his back. They were outside, in the dark. Back in the temple, right where they had started, and their weapons were underneath Jack's ankles, where they'd been when he tripped over them. He stared at Jack, who was sprawled out on his back.

"I'll be damned," Daniel said, pleased with himself.

Jack hauled himself into a sitting position and yanked a P-90 toward him. His hands automatically went through the checks of the working parts of the weapon. "What did you do?" he asked, all brisk military commander. "And why'd you do it without talking it over with me?"

"Are we out?" Daniel demanded hotly. "Did I need your advice?"

Jack opened his mouth, then closed it, and grinned at him - just a little. "Good point. So. What did you do?"

Daniel opened his mouth to explain, to tell all of it, but what came out was entirely different. "I had a prophetic dream, and then I realized what we'd done wrong. Well, what I had done wrong."

"Which was?"

"I had to find my own answer, ask my own question; it was a little...different...than yours."

"So you did that, I take it."

"Yes. It worked."

"I see that." Jack gave him a sharp look - one Daniel was able to see just in time, as he put on his slightly broken glasses. "Don't suppose you want to tell me what your little Q-and-A was about, do you?"

Daniel looked at the ground, and out into the forest. "Another time."

Jack accepted that without comment, but said, "Hey. You could have waited until I finished my dream."

"You were dreaming?" Daniel found he was suddenly very interested - very - in what that dream might have been about..

"It was..." Jack broke off, slung the P-90 over his shoulder and stood. He offered Daniel a hand and hauled him up. "Let's just say it's not the kind of thing we talk about on a mission."

Daniel looked at him with perfect understanding, and smiled.

Jack keyed his mike. "Carter, come in. Carter, do you read me?" After a few seconds of silence, Jack tried hailing Teal'c, with no better results. "You think they're going through the same process we did?"

"Probably," Daniel said. "I don't think it would do any good to look for them. They could literally be anywhere."

"Let's try a standard search pattern anyway."

For the next hour, they criss-crossed the area near the temple, calling for their teammates. Daniel tried to walk, to shout, to not think. It wasn't easy. He suspected that from that point forward, many things he'd been able to set aside weren't going to go quietly to the back of his mind.

Jack was all business when they met back on the temple steps. "Nothing. You?"

"Nothing," Daniel confirmed.

"I'm going to eat something, before something else bizarre happens." Jack checked his watch. "We're about three hours overdue for check-in. Hammond won't send the cavalry for another twelve hours, but - just the same, after we eat, I'll hike back to the gate and check in, tell him we're coming back just as soon as Teal'c and Carter come back from...wherever."

"I'll go," Daniel offered. "I'm not hungry."

"How's the head?"

"Fine, actually." Daniel realized it at the same time he answered the question. "Maybe it was something about the omphalos."

"Or maybe you just have a hard head."

"Shouldn't take me longer than-" Daniel began, but there was another flash of light, and suddenly he was nearly standing on top of Sam.

"Holy-!" Sam jumped up, patted herself down, as if she couldn't quite believe it. She whirled, looked at Teal'c, who was standing like a statue beside Jack. "Sir!"

"Well, Carter. Welcome back. Hope your little adventure was as pleasant as ours was."

"It was not," Teal'c said indignantly, in an adamant way that made Daniel smile. "It was in fact quite unpleasant."

"Wasn't a picnic for us, either," Jack said, with a long, searching look at Carter, who seemed distinctly uncomfortable. "Care to share, kids?"

"No," Teal'c and Sam said, in unison.

"Hm," Jack said. He looked at Daniel, and Daniel felt his smile begin in answer to the look in Jack's eyes.

"O'Neill. I suggest we remove ourselves from this place immediately." Teal'c had never sounded so resolute.

"Best idea I've heard all day," Jack agreed. "We don't know what set this thing off to begin with, so be careful as you grab your gear. I don't want to take a chance on getting caught again." He tapped Daniel on the arm. "Don't go back up there for any more artifacts. Just grab the pack."

"Oh, don't worry," Daniel said. "I see your point."

Gathering up their gear took no time at all; they were highly motivated. Within five minutes, Jack's barked "Let's move!" had them headed back to the stargate, walking in pairs.

Halfway down the faint trail, Daniel stopped to take a last look at the temple. The planet would be declared off-limits for future missions. No one else from Earth would ever see it. The columns rose gray in the distance, half-concealed by trees, silhouetted against the murky sky. "It's a shame," he said, to no one in particular.

"Don't know about that," Jack said from behind his shoulder. "Some things just shouldn't be tampered with."

"Technically, we were the ones doing the tampering," Daniel said. "The oracle only did as it was programmed to do."

"Hell of a job it did, too. Should make for a fascinating mission report."

Daniel turned, drawn by the tone in Jack's voice, and found himself face to face with Jack. Their breath mingled in the chill night air, white puffs faintly visible in the darkness. Teal'c and Carter were ahead of them, far down the trail.

Jack lifted his hand and dropped it on Daniel's shoulder. Its warmth and weight anchored Daniel, until Jack moved again. A gentle touch, just the brush of Jack's thumb down his cheek, over his lips, and then it was gone. "Good thing that oracle was interested in my worst fear, don'tcha think? Otherwise, who knows how long we'd have been trapped in there."

Daniel nodded, caught Jack's eyes and held his gaze, until Jack broke away with a small smile.  He started down the path again. Daniel followed.

They trooped along in the moonlight beneath a sky filled with brilliant stars. None of them were exactly chatty on the average mission, but the thoughtful silence between them filled the night with its quiet weight.

"There's your fifth moon, Daniel," Sam said suddenly, as she came up beside the DHD. Daniel glanced at the horizon and saw the moon just above the landscape, peeking out half-formed.

"Wow," Daniel said. He stopped to take in the sight of the five moons aligned, glowing together overhead.

"It's beautiful," Sam said. There was a bit of awe in her tone.

"It was when we couldn't see it, too," Jack said, startling them all.

"Sir?" Sam gave him a bewildered look.

"Nothin'. Just that I never doubted it was there," Jack said, with a long look at Daniel. "Dial us home, Daniel."

End
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