WORLD ENOUGH, AND TIME: AN ALTERNATE REALITY NOVEL BY BIBLIO
CHAPTER 11: HELIOPOLIS

CHAPTER  11: HELIOPOLIS

"Talk to me," Jack ordered.

"We're trying to connect what we've identified as the power source of the DHD directly to the gate, Sir," Carter reported. "We're about to run a test."

At her signal, Sgt. Brown carefully connected the last wire. Their faces brightened as the Stargate hummed and a chevron lit.

"You did it," Jack praised them.

The gate died.

"Carter?"

Carter sighed. "The element the gate is made up of absorbs energy directly, Sir. It's like a superconductor. Internal functions will convert and store that energy in capacitor-like reservoirs. But the inside wheel will only unlock and spin freely once there's enough reserve power."

This, for Jack, was the problem with scientists. They persisted in telling him what they knew, not what he needed to know or what he needed to do.

"Carter?"

"We can dial out manually, Sir," Brown interjected, wiser in Jack's ways. "The same way Professor Littlefield's team did back in '45."

"The gate works," Carter agreed. "We have the address. We can get home, Sir. We just need power."

"So," Jack shrugged easily. "When General Hammond dials in for a status report, we get him to send through a power generator."

"Or two," Brown said dryly.

"Or ten," Carter added, eyeing the Stargate doubtfully.

"Siler will know," Jack told them confidently. "He's the one who hooked the gate up to the mains at our end." Carter and Brown both frowned at him. "Right?"

"Right," Carter muttered, looking pouty and annoyed because he was taking away her pet science project.

"Daniel found a new toy." Jack smiled at the analogy. "Some fancy light show that might be the key to our existence or something."

"Really?" Carter perked up. "Does he need any help with it?"

"Yes. He needs you to see if it can be moved," Jack advised briskly.

"Sir?" Carter queried, taken aback.

Jack looked up meaningfully as dust showered down from one of the supporting columns nearby.

"We're taking it back with us."

"This is how you knew what this place was," Daniel suggested to Ernest, fingers deferentially skimming the outline of a well-known shape.

"Then you recognise it too."

"It's Othala, the Norse rune thought to represent the collection of numinous power and knowledge from past generations."

It fit, for Daniel Othala fit exactly. He felt the spiritual force of this place, its age and power, its importance. He felt it.

"And the gathering of clans to share a common interest." Ernest, standing at Daniel's shoulder, was as fascinated by the presence of these runes after fifty years as Daniel was after only as many minutes. "You know, there's more than just coincidence here," he told Daniel with masterly understatement. "But that means humans were here centuries, even eons ago."

"Not humans," Daniel corrected him. "Aliens. And they came to Earth." He touched the Othala rune again, looking reassuringly at the hesitant old man. "We learned this writing system from them, Ernest. Just as we learned Egyptian hieroglyphs and culture, the basis of what we always believed to be our civilisation, from aliens like these and like Ra."

"You've mentioned that name to me before," Ernest remembered.

"Ra was an alien, a parasitic alien who took a human as his host and then assumed the persona of the dominant god in order to enslave primitive man," Daniel explained.

Both thrilled and troubled, Daniel stared up at the elegant, frighteningly familiar angles of each sharply defined stroke on the glowing panel.

"And now this. Norse runes, Ernest. Othala, Dagaz, Mannaz, Sowilu... First the Egyptian pantheon and now the Norse, two distinct languages, two writing systems, two cultures, two direct links between ancient man and alien species."

He walked over to rest the fingertips of both hands on the very edge of the alien repository device. "And this."

He glanced around at Ernest, smiling a little.

"I don't know why I was so certain the symbols on the Stargate were from a different alien race than that of Ra," he said slowly, working it through in his mind. "The symbols represent constellations, at least that's what I recognised them as, but that alone isn't sufficient evidence. I spent a night isolated in Ra's pyramid ship, a long night, looking in every chamber, every distinct space I could find. I couldn't find those symbols, not on the walls or the doors or on any of the technology. Not anything like them."

Hungry for answers, he stared around the room slowly, absorbing each panel of text in turn.

"I insisted to the Air Force they were different languages, but the evidence – it really wasn't definitive," Daniel confessed.

"You felt it in your gut."

Daniel looked around in surprise as Jack came down the last few stairs into the chamber, Sam and Sgt. Brown trailing him discreetly. Jack was smiling.

"You're not mad?" Daniel wanted to know. He had a clear memory of Jack asking if he was bullshitting them, if he was getting back at the Air Force because Jack had brought him home through the Stargate. That was never the reason, but Daniel had pushed, had claimed his own certainty as sufficient evidence.

"I'm no scientist," Jack snorted as he leapt up onto the dais to join Daniel. "A gut feeling is good enough for me." He stood close, looking Daniel full in the eyes for a lingering moment, not mad at all. "And yours have this habit of paying off."

Sgt. Brown activated the scanner he'd used to identify the alien mineral on Ra's world, the same one the Stargate was constructed from. After a few tense seconds reading from his data screen, he gave a definite thumbs up. "This technology is made from the same material as the Stargate and the DHD," he confirmed for the record.

"Oh, my God!" Sam was craning up to stare so hard at the light display above them, she was in danger of falling off the dais. "This is..."

"Incredible, amazing, yadda, yadda," Jack sing-songed impatiently, cutting her off without compunction. "We've had all the hyperbole I can stand, Carter."

"It's – it's meaning of life stuff, Sam," Daniel said gently, respecting her wonder.

"Just so long as it's portable," Jack said matter-of-factly.

"Portable?" Daniel asked suspiciously.

"We're taking it with us," Sam told Daniel, her eyes shining.

"Er...no!" Protest was Daniel's absolute first instinct. "No! We have to study it in context. We have to – to look at it here! Right here! It was placed in this chamber for a reason!" he argued vehemently. "I mean, I've been filming, trying to get everything, but it's useless. It's not allowing for relative perspective and I have no way to capture the three-dimensional nature of the information."

"Look down," Ernest advised.

Daniel obeyed, seeing pitted, dully-gleaming metal... "Oh! Of course! You measured each element's distance from this central point." He tapped the repository device. "Degrees from zero around in a circle, and then the height of each element above the floor."

Jack opened his mouth.

"But the panels, the height and dimensions of this chamber," Daniel cut in to object before Jack could actually get a word out. "We need to preserve those." They needed to preserve it all! That was the point!

"I can take your video footage and Professor Littlefield's notes and computer model an exact replica," Sam suggested brightly, obviously thinking she was being helpful. "It shouldn't be too difficult to recreate this space physically back on base."

"We've got the whole of Cheyenne Mountain to play with," Jack blandly reminded Daniel.

"It really goes against all the principles of archaeology," Daniel whined, practically seeing his options closing.

"Suck it up," Jack advised Daniel kindly, patting him on the shoulder, fond and immovable.

"What if we can't move the pedestal?"

"I'll blast it out."

"Jack, that's not even funny."

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"We, er, we need to rig some kind of hoist," Sgt. Brown cautiously intervened, looking from Daniel to Jack with a suspicion of a grin. "Get it off this platform and up the stairs."

Daniel closed his eyes in acute pain. So much for the numinous power of eons and the awesome sense of spirituality saturating this place. It simply wasn't capable of standing up to good old-fashioned Air Force ingenuity.

"Look at it this way, Daniel," Jack advised, almost sounding reasonable if not for a certain...relish...in his expression. "If this thing has survived hundreds, if not thousands of years, plus this whole place falling down around it, it can survive a few hours of us."

Daniel wasn't sure he would survive a few hours of them.

"Going home."

When they looked at Ernest, they found he was smiling. He looked like a man who'd started to believe. He looked like he'd found hope.

Smart enough to know when he was thoroughly whipped, Daniel sighed pitifully, mourning his marshmallow spine. "Yes. Yes, we are, Ernest. We're going home."

Ernest flung his arms around Daniel and hugged him again.

Moonlight filtered down from the high windows, reflected back here and there from the mottled walls to silver Daniel's face and hair as he sat in darkness, staring at nothing and hearing only the ocean.

The frenetic activity in the chamber above, where Captain Carter, Brown and Sgt. Siler's tech team were powering up the Stargate, barely penetrated here.

"It's time," Jack told Daniel as he sat down beside him on the dais. "We're good to go."

"That's a strange expression," Daniel responded absently, his frustrated attention focused on the wall in front of him, the blank place where some of those alien words were supposed to be. "We're going." He shrugged. "I guess the good part is Ernest going with us."

"I know you wanted it..." Jack began.

"You ever been to Stonehenge?" Daniel interrupted.

"I've been to a pub near it."

"You didn't miss much."

"Okay, you've got me." Jack put up his hands in mock surrender. "That's not what I expected to hear from you."

"I went there. I was still a student." Daniel still wasn't looking at Jack but he sounded almost amused. "Just one of a thousand tourists who all seemed to be milling around at the same time, eating snacks and ice cream, posing for photos for their holiday albums. Five thousand years of history, all the weight of hope and faith and expectation, belief and prayer, reduced to that. A snapshot. It should have been more. I mean, it's such a powerful symbol and I'd wanted to see it forever. A circle of stone capturing the imagination, the soul, for all that time, hyperbole very definitely exhausted." Now, Daniel hitched around to look at Jack and his face was filled with wry humour. "You know what I remember most about Stonehenge?"

"I'm sensing a trap here, but hit me anyway," Jack generously invited him.

"The gift shop."

"Ouch!" Jack cringed sympathetically.

"This..." Daniel gestured at the blank panel, the glinting walls of the moonlit chamber. "I really wanted this."

"The meaning of life stuff?"

Daniel hitched that bit closer, his thigh warm against Jack's, and then a tentative hand, coming up to rest on Jack's arm.

"All these years, Ernest could have moved away from this place, gone somewhere safer, where food and water were easier, accessible," Daniel said quietly. "But he stayed right here, Jack, and it wasn't because he had any hope or expectation of rescue. He felt the power of this place." He hesitated fractionally, then relaxed, trusting. "I felt it too."

Jack was quiet, letting Daniel talk it through.

"We can measure and model and replicate, but it won't be this place. It won't be here."

"This stuff is important, wherever you look at it."

"I know," Daniel acknowledged quickly. "I do know that, Jack. I just wonder, though..." He chuckled, a soft, strangely sexy sound. "What's the point in seeking out strange new worlds?" he asked whimsically. "When as soon as we find them, we keep having to leave them behind?"

It's life, Jack wanted to say, but instead he hooked a firm hand around Daniel's head and pulled him into a strong, hard kiss, a literal taste of reality.

They were going out with more than they'd come in with this time, they were taking back potential. Technology, answers. More and better questions.

And, in Jack's eyes at least, one honest-to-god hero in the old man watching over the techs upstairs, wanting to know everything about the Stargate that had blighted his life all these years.

He guessed the process, the journey to the truth was important to Daniel and that was good, Jack wanted all good things for him, but simple answers, clear results, those would satisfy and Jack could live with that. He knew Daniel could too, and better than that, he would be safe.

"It's a tactical withdrawal." He held Daniel very close to him. "We've secured our objective but this world isn't closed to us. The gate isn't closed. We've got options now. Y'know?"

"I hate when you make sense," Daniel grumbled half-heartedly, failing to fend him off when he pulled him in for another swift, biting kiss.

They broke off at a muffled sound, both of them swinging around to listen acutely as dust slithered down the stairs and the chamber creaked horribly.

"Heliopolis," Daniel said ironically. "Mystical ancient source of all Ra's power."

Jack, hauling a resigned Daniel to his feet, decided to share a possible upside. "Look at it this way." He winked, pushing his luck. "At least there's no gift shop."

When they reached the main chamber, Siler's team had taken Carter, Brown and the toys through to Stargate Command. Kawalsky and Ferretti were poised in front of the gate, trying hard to look cool and nonchalant over the distressed whine of the generators, mostly for Ernest's sake. Huddled between the two of them, the old guy looked terrified.

Daniel, taking a last lingering look around him as Jack steered him efficiently over to the Stargate, did a stumbling double-take and shot back a filthy look. "You took the DHD too!" he snapped, outraged.

"What can I say?" Jack grinned. "I lied about the gift shop."

Shameless to the last, he shoved Daniel towards Ernest and let him work his magic, coaxing Ernest first to take his hand and then to let him take him through the Stargate. Ferretti was clearly shaking a mental pom-pom or two as he watched this talented performance, but Kawalsky looked pissed off at the universe.

"Lighten up," Jack advised him as they went up to the gate. "We won this one."

For a second, Kawalsky looked as if he were biting his tongue, then he shook it off, whatever this mood was. "Nah," he sneered. "I couldn't get a T-shirt."

Feeling pretty good about it all, Jack was grinning at the old, old joke as they went through.

Daniel kept an arm around Ernest's frail shoulders as he led him slowly down towards General Hammond, waiting with Dr. Fraiser at the foot of the gateroom ramp.

Overwhelmed by the noise and the people, and the simple fact of being home, Ernest cowered back against Daniel, close to tears.

"I'm General George Hammond, leader of this facility," Hammond introduced himself, putting out his hand. "On behalf of the United States Air Force, I'd like to welcome you home, Professor Littlefield." His broad smile reached his eyes. "It's an honour to meet you, Sir."

"You're a genuine hero in my book," Jack echoed him, coming down to stand at the general's side.

"Mine too," Kawalsky agreed, patting Ernest on the shoulder as he went past.

Hesitantly, Ernest reached out to accept Hammond's proffered handshake, looking bewildered as the general took his thin hand between both of his.

Janet smiled reassuringly at Ernest, taking her time about approaching him, her manner very soothing and friendly as she introduced herself and explained she would be examining him. It seemed the most natural thing in the world when she eased Ernest from the general and Daniel, tucked his arm in hers and began to lead him away, hinting gently that he might like to rest after a hot shower and a meal. What would he like? She would get him anything he wanted. Anything.

What he wanted was a hot dog. A dog with everything. Plus French fries.

"Man after my own heart," Jack observed expansively. Then he eyed the general demandingly, feeling he was owed something.

General Hammond appeared to agree, letting the arrogance go without comment. "You did a good job, Colonel."

"We brought souvenirs," Jack said complacently, smiling at their meaning of life stuff, already swarming with airmen taking readings and measurements at Carter's clear direction.

"We stole everything that wasn't nailed down," Daniel corrected him, sniffing.

"Goes against the grain," Jack elaborated for the general. "Or something."

"It goes against every archaeological principle." Daniel could speak for himself.

"Daniel wants to go back," Kawalsky interpreted.

"It used to be a pretty sweet place," Jack sort of agreed. "But it's seen better days. If we're going to do any sort of reconnaissance, our first priority has to be to get the Stargate out of that ruin and onto solid ground."

"Archaeologist," Daniel said, apparently to himself. "Like pilots and planes, we kind of go hand-in-hand with ruins." He scuffed a foot and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look authoritative and dignified, although he suspected from the assembled grins he was falling a tad short. "Ruins. For archaeologists, they're the point."

"No." Not entirely without sympathy for Daniel's position, Jack gestured meaningfully at the alien devices, which were all but obscured by technicians preparing them for transport elsewhere on base for intensive study. "Bottom line, Daniel. No bull," he said seriously. "They're the point. They're why you're here."

"I agree," General Hammond backed Jack up. "Gentlemen, Captain Carter, let's debrief." He led the team up to the briefing room, almost hiding an amused look as Daniel made a beeline for the coffee.

"Helps me think," Daniel explained as he slid into a chair between Jack and Sam.

"Professor Littlefield first," Hammond invited them, ignoring his own admitted priorities.

"He's been alone there for fifty years," Jack reported gravely.

"I think we can safely assume he's going to take some time to acclimate," Kawalsky agreed.

"Even Daniel scared him," Ferretti chose to share.

"Catherine will help," Daniel said serenely.

Hammond frowned. "I'm not sure..." he began.

"Unless we're planning to keep Ernest a prisoner here in the mountain, sooner or later, we're going to have to let him go home," Daniel explained fluently. "And home, for him, is Catherine."

"A mobile home," Jack muttered in the direction of the table-top.

"Colonel?" the general queried, not following the allusion.

"Jack is somewhat obliquely referring to a survival strategy he's welcome to judge after he's been completely alone for fifty years," Daniel said acidly. "Ernest imagined Catherine was with him," he explained non-judgementally. "As a coping mechanism, it helped keep him sane."

"The old guy is smart as a whip," Jack conceded.

"And we're going to need his help and his fifty years' worth of experience with the technology that has us all so excited," Daniel said pointedly. "I just happen to think that, entirely apart from it being the honourable, the compassionate thing to do, reuniting Ernest with Catherine is probably the only thing that's going to help him believe all of this is real."

"Are you sure the shock won't kill him?" Jack muttered, not quite under his breath.

"Dr. Langford is a tad on the assertive side," Kawalsky agreed reflectively.

"She scares me too," Ferretti admitted.

"I agree with Daniel," Sam said firmly. "Between them, Dr. Langford and Professor Littlefield have unparalleled expertise with the Stargate, the DHD and the repository device we brought back with us. Daniel is absolutely right to want them both on board."

"Littlefield knows the terrain of that world," Jack noted. "If we're going to be checking it out, and I assume we are, we'll want to go out armed with any Intel he can give us."

"Heliopolis," Daniel stated, leaning forward to rest his hands on the table, the tips of his fingers precisely touching. "With everything that was going on, I don't think any of us took the time to really absorb the implications of that."

"Dr. Jackson?" Hammond politely sought clarification.

"Heliopolis, the solar city of Egyptian myth."

"The traditional seat of Ra's power," Jack announced with calculated casualness, looking for and getting a reaction.

"Ra?" Kawalsky snapped.

"I don't have any answers, General," Daniel said seriously. "Only questions. Heliopolis served at some time in the past as a meeting place for four advanced alien races. It was where they learned to communicate with one another, to share ideas, philosophy, scientific concepts. The Egyptian hieroglyphs, the language associated with Ra, were not present at Heliopolis. Ernest had never seen glyphs or markings of that kind, and he had explored every part of the castle."

"That's something," Hammond remarked.

"But we can't ignore the mythology," Daniel argued. "Heliopolis is a physical place as real as Ra himself. Our myths aren't fairytales, General, they're history. One of the alien languages we found at Heliopolis is as familiar to me as any Egyptian hieroglyph." He looked Hammond full in the eyes. "We found Norse runes, Sir. Further proof of aliens assuming a god-like mantle in order to interact with ancient humans. More aliens influencing our language, our history and culture, our development as a species, a civilisation. The implications," Daniel stumbled, the enormity of it all suddenly overwhelming to him. "I scarcely know where to begin," he admitted frankly.

"If you didn’t find evidence of Ra's presence at Heliopolis, then what does that mean?" Sam wanted to know. "If the myth is so specific?"

"I can only speculate, but one thing we do know is that Ra's race was dying, that they searched the galaxy looking for ways to extend their lives." Daniel glanced around at them all. "It can't be coincidence the two worlds we can reach with our Stargate are linked with Ra. The world he was banished to after the rebellion on Earth was rich in the mineral used to construct the Stargate, the DHD and the repository device, plus all the weapons and technology he possessed. The other world was Heliopolis, centre for learning, theology, astronomy."

"You're suggesting Ra plundered Heliopolis," Sam recognised.

"I'm suggesting it was Heliopolis that led him here, to find humanity." Daniel smiled gratefully at Sam. "At least one of those alien races has visited here, interacted with humans on such an intimate level that we've absorbed elements of their language, their writing system, perhaps, in the Norse pantheon of gods, even some of their personalities. If information about our world is present in the repository?"

"Our primitive, defenceless world?" Jack added. "We must have seemed like an all-you-can-eat buffet of blissfully ignorant manpower and untapped natural resources."

"Heliopolis was the key to it." Daniel shifted self-consciously. "I have a - a gut-feeling," he said tentatively to the general, to the others.

"Good enough," Hammond unconsciously echoed Jack's confidence in Daniel.

"Because the gate-builders were there," Daniel felt compelled to explain himself. "The alien race who constructed the Stargate network. At one time, they were there, so I would argue it can’t be mere coincidence Heliopolis is particularly associated with the study of astronomy."

"Astronomy?" Intrigued, Sam sat up straighter, immediately wanting to know more.

"We didn't get that far in the book," Daniel struck a cautious note. "That's what that thing is, Sir," he told the general. "The device we brought back with us. It's a repository, a library of sorts, for the combined knowledge of those four alien races."

"If only we can read it," Jack interjected another dose of reality. "Dr. Littlefield couldn't, even after fifty years of doing absolutely nothing else but try."

"Dr. Littlefield didn't have Daniel," Ferretti spoke up loyally.

Sam looked across the table at him.

"Or Carter and all her little gizmos," Ferretti rapidly amended, with more prudence than valour.

"Something brought Ra from Heliopolis to Earth," Sam excitedly picked up where Daniel had left off as soon as Ferretti had been brought back into line. "And then took him from Earth to a world rich in the exact mineral used to construct the Stargates."

"So, somewhere within the repository, there must be a map of the Stargate network," Daniel promptly endorsed her deductions.

"Star charts."

"Addresses."

"Something we can use!"

"Permission to play, Sir?" Jack broke in, more sarcastic than indulgent.

"Permission," the general consented gravely, "most definitely granted."

"What about Catherine?" Daniel reminded them forcefully.

"If we have to do it, and I guess we do, I'd prefer to hand the old guy over to her on our turf," Jack decided. "In controlled circumstances."

"With the advantage of superior numbers?" Daniel asked sarcastically.

"And weapons," Jack agreed without a flicker.

Daniel curled his lip.

"Look at it this way," Jack invited the general to consider the bigger picture. "She'll owe us. Big time."

"Thank you," Hammond said meekly. "But I was convinced by Dr. Jackson's initial argument. Professor Littlefield is not our prisoner and after the great sacrifice he made in service of his country, we owe it to him now to do all in our power to help him live again in this community."

Daniel beamed at him and, taking a leaf from Jack's book on pragmatism, moved smoothly on to his next priority. "We're going to need to construct a room here on base to hold the repository, a room that's as close as possible in its dimensions to the original chamber on Heliopolis."

"I've collated all the data required to accomplish that, Sir," Sam reported to the general.

"I'll have Sgt. Siler assign a construction team immediately," Hammond agreed.

"Thank you," Daniel said serenely, his immediate needs satisfied. He was aware, and he was pretty sure Jack was aware, that once Catherine got over the shock of her reunion with Ernest, she would fully realise the implications of the Stargate going other places, and she would be categorically back where she belonged. She and Ernest both. "Tomorrow would be good. For the room to be finished, I mean."

Jack closed his eyes for a second or two, his face a picture. "You always have to push that little bit further, don't you?"

Loathe to disappoint, Daniel directed a cheerful look at the general. "Jack and I volunteer to bring Catherine back with us to Stargate Command."

"And may God have mercy on us all," Jack said formally.

"Catherine certainly won't," Daniel replied dulcetly.

"This is wrong," Daniel insisted stubbornly as Jack shoved him through their front-door and slammed it behind him. "Ernest..."

"Is sleeping like a baby, thanks to one of Doc Fraiser's happy pills."

"Sam..."

"Is playing with her computer modelling thingie and wanted everyone out of her hair. Especially you."

"Catherine..."

"Is not going to thank us for waking her at two-am, even if we do have the love of her life back from beyond the grave."

"Everyone is working!"

"Everyone except us," Jack grinned, propelling Daniel down the hallway. "We're home, having sex."

"I never thought I'd find anything as much fun as excavation," Daniel said darkly, abandoning the unequal struggle as Jack chose to bare some skin and smoulder sexily at him. "You're too...you," he complained, industriously applying himself to shedding excess clothing. He was quite proud this didn't involve any hopping on his part, except into bed.  

When Jack landed beside him, big and bad and bold, and wholly beautiful, Daniel rolled on top of him and kissed him very hard.  He thought himself unequal to expressing the force of their attraction, meeting the specific, magnetic pull of Jack's intense physicality, but he would try and try again to reach through to Jack, to touch as he was touched.  He could never stop.  Their connection felt physical to Daniel, overwhelming him, this new absolute of his life he was still learning he could put out his hand and touch.  Energy crackled, anticipation.

"Thank you," he whispered breathily, melting.

"Er, no, thank you," Jack muttered distractedly, reaching between them to take both their cocks into his capable, urgent hand and squeeze, just right, just...there.

If Daniel could've spoken, he would've said he was happy.

But he could only kiss and cling and moan and push. He shook all through with feeling, feeling for Jack, and looking down at a smile, into liquid eyes only he knew, he felt Jack was happy too.

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