Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 120

Chapter 120 - Secrets of the Past - Part 1

“So I pressed the access point, the statue opened up to show off the treasure inside, and then everything went dark.” Rayla finished, leaving Jack to stare at the young Elf for a moment before turning to Daniel with a questioning look in his eyes.

“I made sure nobody touched anything after that.” The Archeologist offered apologetically.

“Nobody should have been touching anything, period.” Jack said, turning a glare to the Elf that made her hunch into herself in a way that left him feeling like an absolute heel. “Especially if a mysterious voice is telling you to do so.”

He took a purposeful breath before letting out an exasperated sigh. “But what’s done is done, so I gotta ask, is there any chance that voice you heard mentioned some way of turning this whole power drain thing off?”

Rayla shook her head apologetically. “Sorry.” She seemed to perk up slightly. “But Eventus is always telling me about how his people can be obsessed with the overdramatic. So I bet if I take the pendant and put it on the whole thing will stop cause it doesn’t need the dramatic darkness anymore.”

The fact that Jack took a moment to consider that reasoning as a real possibility was a scathing remark on the general craziness that had all but taken over his life since joining the Stargate program. 

“We’ll consider that plan D.” He offered dryly, turning to the other two that were part of this particular mess. “What about you two? Any suggestions?”

“I assume we can’t just beam it out?” Daniel asked.

“Nope.” Jack confirmed. “The Prometheus can’t get a lock on anything within the field.”

“Can’t you just move it out of the city the old fashion way?” Vala inquired idly as she glanced over at the museum. “I mean, if you can’t find someone I do know how to drive a getaway wagon. And sail a getaway boat.”

“That can be plan F.” Jack said, mentally adding the idea to his list. 

Vala frowned at him. “What happened to plan E?”

“I’m leaving room for it.” Jack said simply. “Unless you want to explain to the President why we literally have to cart an energy draining statue through parts of DC.”

“That was rhetorical by the way.” He added in when it looked like she was seriously considering it.

His phone chose that moment to vibrate in his pocket, so Jack held up a hand to forestall any more questions as he pulled it out.

“O’Neill here.”

“It's a hologram, sir.” Carter's voice echoed out from the phone's speaker.

“A hologram?” Jack repeated to be sure he heard her right.

“Yes, sir.” Carter confirmed. “Looks like a woman, about five foot eight, dark hair, early to mid thirties, wearing a sort of flowy white dress, and giving a speech on repeat in what sounds like Ancient.”

“You sure it’s a message?” Jack asked, thinking back to their first encounter with Thor. “No secret society of hidden Ancients or something like that?”

“It’s looped three times so far and hasn’t responded to any verbal queries.” Carter answered. “So while I can’t say with a hundred percent certainty until we hunt down the generating mechanism, at this point I’d say it’s a safe bet it’s just a message.”

Jack nodded to himself, trusting that Carter would be able to handle things from there. “All right, take a recording of the full loop and then see if you can shut the whole thing down.”

There was a moment of silence on the line before Carter spoke again. “Ah, sir, I think we’re going to want you and Daniel here for this.”

Glancing over at the Archeologist Jack couldn’t help the slight frown that found its way onto his lips as he tried to work out just what might require both of them. “This one of those things we shouldn’t talk about outside one of the SGC’s secure rooms?”

“I can’t say for sure, sir.” Carter answered. “But I’m currently leaning towards yes.”

“I’ll have the Prometheus beam us over.” Jack said, moving to end the call only to pause as a worrying thought hit. “Since Rayla’s the one who turned it on, you think there’s any chance she might be the only one who can turn it off?”

“Maybe?” Carter admitted uncertainly. “Encounters on Atlantis show certain technologies can bind to personal access only upon activation. And while our scientists have had some success in resetting access afterwards, it’s nowhere near a sure thing.”

That wasn’t what Jack had wanted to hear, but at least there didn’t seem to be any immediate danger in the temple, so he didn’t feel quite so guilty about having to bring the young Elf with.

“We’ll be there in five.”

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Jack blinked his eyes a few times so they could adjust to the sudden change from daylight to artificially lit night. Looking around, he quickly spotted Carter in the middle of setting up a tripod and a few meters away from her a semi-transparent Roman looking woman that he guessed was the hologram.

“Wow.” Rayla muttered as she glanced around the ruined temple around them. “This place really didn’t hold up too well.”

“It’s over two thousand years old!” Daniel griped in a tone that had Jack holding back a chuckle.

“And?” Rayla asked, cocking her head at the Archeologist in obvious confusion.

“That’s a long time.” Daniel explained patiently.

“Is it though?” Vala inquired idly. “I mean, I’ve stayed in palaces older than that.”

“The Goa’uld don’t count.” Daniel said, holding up a finger to stop Rayla when she opened her mouth to say something. “The Ancients don’t either.”

“Girls.” Jack interjected, pointing over at the hologram to cut off what he was sure would be a rather extensive discussion about archeological considerations. “Immediate issues first.”

With that he walked over to Carter, noting as he did the soft drone of Ancient words seemingly streaming out of the hologram’s mouth.

“So, Carter.” He began once the other three joined him by the tripod. “What’s so important you thought we needed to be here to hear it?” 

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Author’s Notes: This was originally supposed to be just a single part, but it kept ballooning so I’m separating it into three.