City of the Gods Read online

  "I know what you're going to say, Major, but the safety of our people comes first." Hammond's eyes narrowed in on Dabruzzi. "How long will it take to recover Peterson and MacDougall?" Glancing at Carter in acknowledgment, he added, "And the FREDs?"

  "Six, maybe eight hours. We'd already decamped. I can finish packing the FREDs and get them to the `gate in about the same time as it'll take for a medevac team to recover the men. General, if we wait until after the blizzard, even assuming Peterson and MacDougall will be okay, trying to get them to the `gate through snowdrifts could be a hell of a lot more dangerous than if we retrieve them now."

  "My thoughts exactly!" Jack began tapping his pen on the table with an impatient staccato. "General, if we leave soon, we can be back before dark."

  "I'm aware of that, Colonel." Hammond's tone was just brusque enough to remind Jack who was in charge. "All right," he added after a moment. "The medevac team will leave immediately to recover the men. Colonel O'Neill, you and Major Carter retrieve the FREDs."

  Daniel lifted his finger. "Ah, General -

  "Dr Jackson, I believe you and Teal'c are booked on a flight to Mexico?"

  "Well, there's always tomorrow," Daniel replied, his eyebrows raised dismissively.

  "It doesn't take four people to drive two FREDs, Dr Jackson."

  Dabruzzi nodded and stood. "Thank you, General."

  "You're not going anywhere, Dr Dabruzzi," said Hammond. "You're injured."

  The big volcanologist touched his cheek. "That? It's just a scratch. General, I have to accept responsibility for what happened. Despite the...ah...intense pressure from the Pentagon to source naquadah, it was my job to advise on the safety of the operation. I should have recommended an evacuation last night."

  Hammond pushed his chair back. "I understand how you feel, but I want you to report back to the Infirmary."

  Jack had also noticed Dabruzzi's fingers. They were in need of some serious manicuring, preferably after the frostbite on one of them had been treated. He wondered how the volcanologist had hidden it from Fraiser's eagle eyes; a skill like that could be invalu able. He also saw the self-recrimination in the man's face. Scientist or not, he was beginning to like this guy.

  Hammond's glower turned to him and Carter. "Then, when you get back, I don't want to see the two of you anywhere near this facility until the New Year. Is that clear?"

  CHAPTER TWO

  aniel stood beside Teal'c, and stared down through the control room window at the Stargate. It had only just shut down behind Jack, Sam and the medevac team when it began dialing in again. Hammond had ordered the iris closed, and the titanium leaves slid together with a greasy metallic clunk.

  "Wormhole stabilized," said Sergeant Harriman.

  "You think they're coming back?" Daniel tried to keep the concern from his voice.

  "No one else is scheduled to return today," replied Hammond.

  "Something's coming through, but I can't get a fix on it." Harriman shook his head. "It's not a traveler. But it's not a radio transmission, either, sir."

  The tension in the control room mounted. Then a white-haired old man in a slightly crumpled gray suit walked through the closed iris. "Nick?" Daniel blinked in surprise.

  "Dr Jackson?" Hammond turned to Daniel, perplexed "Can you see something?"

  SFAs poured into the `gate room, weapons aimed at the top of the ramp. Nicholas Ballard hesitated, and then looked up into the control room. His arctic blue eyes lit in recognition and he smiled.

  "Someone," replied Daniel. "Uhm, it's my grandfather! Remember how he was the only one who could see or hear me after I was phase shifted on P7X-377?"

  "Because he'd used the crystal skull."

  "Sir," said Sergeant Harriman. "I've double checked. The incoming wormhole originated from P7X-377."

  "Since Sam and Jack are the only other ones besides me who've used the skull," Daniel stared at his grandfather, "I guess I'm the only one here who can see him."

  "Stand down," Hammond ordered the SFAs.

  Daniel bounded down the stairs and into the `gate room. "Nick! I was just..." He motioned in the direction of his office. "Talking about you and... What are you doing here? Why didn't you use the IDC we gave you?"

  "No time!" Nick replied in short, clipped tones. "Ah," he added when General Hammond and Teal'c walked into the `gate room. "It is good to see you again."

  Eying the ramp quizzically, Hammond said, "Dr Jackson?"

  "They can't see or hear you, Nick," Daniel said to his grandfather.

  "Of course." Nick nodded dismissively. "Where is the crystal skull, the one that I found in Belize?"

  Surprised by the request, Daniel replied, "It's still at the Smithsonian. Why?"

  "And the Paris and British skulls?"

  While Nick's skull was unique because of its hinged jaw, two similar skulls were kept in the Trocadero Museum in France and London's Museum of Mankind. "After we left you on P7X-377," said Daniel, "we contacted the curators - "

  "You told them about the giant aliens?" Nick's bushy white eyebrows arched in surprise.

  "Uhm, not exactly." Daniel winced and ran his hand across the back of his neck, hoping Nick wouldn't take this the wrong way. "We said that under the right circumstances, the skulls could ...ah, produce vivid hallucinations. They've been removed from display and locked away."

  Nick shook his head worriedly. "Then someone has discovered a fourth skull."

  "Fourth?" Daniel frowned.

  "Did you not read my notes on skull lore?" Before Daniel could reply, Nick waved his hand dismissively. "That does not matter now. What is important is that you find and stop whoever has the fourth skull from trying to use it again."

  "Again? Why? What happened?"

  "The skull that I found had been kept by Mayan priests inside the Pyramid temple of the Feathered Serpent, in Belize."

  "The feathered serpent was also known as Quetzalcoatl."

  Nick nodded impatiently. `But the mercenaries who brought the Paris and British skulls to Europe in 1891 did not come from Belize. They came from Mexico, having purchased the skulls from grave robbers who desecrated two tombs beneath the Temple of Tonatui, in the City of the Gods."

  An icy chill of apprehension gripped Daniel. Tonatui was the Aztec sun god. His temple had been mounted on top of the Pyramid of the Sun, the largest of the step pyramids at Teotihuacan - a name that literally translated meant the `City of the Gods'. "Wodeski! He called me less than an hour ago."

  The crepe-paper skin across Nick's brow furrowed, and his hands balled into angry fists. "Wodeski!" he said venomously. "That old fool. I should have known."

  Daniel figured it was best not to remind his grandfather that he had at least a decade on the professor. Instead, he said, "Wodeski's team recently found a third, undesecrated tomb, beneath the Pyramid of the Sun. And he wants to see your notes from Belize."

  "Then it is he who has found the fourth skull. You have to stop him, Daniel!" Nick raised his hands and gestured imploringly. "If he tries to use it again, he could cause the Pyramid to collapse, just like the temple in Belize was destroyed when I used the skull that I found there."

  "What makes you think Wodeski's tried once?"

  "I was working on some translations when the power began to build, and then it just... stopped." Nick turned to General Hammond, his tone urgent as he said, "You must send me back immediately. If Stanislaw succeeds, I have to see where he is taken."

  Confused, Daniel said, "Won't he end up inside the pyramid on P7X-377?"

  "It is a transport network. He will be taken to another planet." Nick shook his head adamantly. "There is no time to explain, Daniel. You must stop Stanislaw."

  "General," Daniel said to Hammond, "Nick has to go back straight away. He - "

  Hammond nodded. "I got most of it, Dr Jackson. You can fill in the details later. Sergeant?" he called to Harriman in the control room.

  "Sir?"

  "Dial up P7X-377."

  "Yes, sir."
>
  The `gate began rotating almost immediately.

  "Nick," said Daniel. "I'll come and see you when we've found Wodeski."

  The backwash from the unstable vortex shot out and snapped into place. Nick smiled briefly. "I always like that part." But then his voice dropped warningly. "Daniel, be very careful. Remember the Australopithecine incident? Stanislaw has become obsessed with clearing his name and making a great archeological discovery."

  "The discovery of a written language at Teotihuacan alone will elevate him to the ranks of Howard Carter."

  Nick walked up the ramp and paused in front of the event horizon. "Perhaps. But finding a road to other worlds... My madness came from my obsession, Daniel. Stanislaw's comes from a much darker place. Whatever happens, you must not trust him."

  The `gate shut down, and Daniel conveyed what Nick had said to Hammond and Teal'c.

  "What do you suggest we do?" asked the General.

  Daniel frowned. "We have to inform the Mexican government, and get them to detain Wodeski."

  "That means involving the Pentagon and State Department," Hammond replied. "Senator Kinsey's recent investigation into the loss ofAmbassador Faxon -"

  "Sam had no choice!" Daniel blurted angrily. "The Aschen would have wiped us out with that bioweapon!"

  "I'm fully aware of that, Dr Jackson, but the situation with Washington is somewhat delicate at the moment. I'd prefer this handled quickly and quietly, preferably without involving anyone outside the SGC. You say the professor is expecting you?"

  "Yes, but that doesn't mean he'll wait before trying to use the skull again. He'd enjoy having me fly all the way down there, only to tell me he didn't need Nick's notes after all. More importantly, the Pyramid of the Sun is a major tourist attraction. Every day, hun dreds, sometimes thousands climb the steps to the top. If Wodeski uses the skull - "

  "It could collapse the pyramid and kill a lot of people." Hammond pursed his lips.

  "Popocatepetl volcano is nearby," Daniel added thoughtfully. "When I booked the flight, they warned me it's on high alert. The pyramid was built directly over a four-chambered lava tunnel. Excavation has always been a problem because the entire valley is honeycombed with caves and faults."

  The General looked up. "I can still pull a few strings. I'll talk to Dr Dabruzzi and the USGS. Maybe we can get them to issue a warning that the site is in danger."

  A wave of relief washed over Daniel. Since the skull only worked when correctly positioned inside the pyramid, the closure would stop Wodeski from attempting to use it. He glanced at his watch. If he and Teal'c left now, they could still make the flight to Mexico City.

  Jack stood in front of the `gate on M4D-376 and looked around. The eldritch mountainscape should have been beautiful, but the pulsating clouds over the volcano created a sense of sinister anticipation. Shuddering, he pulled the fur-lined hood of his white parka up over his head. He no longer noticed the brief cold of `gate travel. The desultory snowfall was just fine, too. Hell, he liked snow. But the chill in his gut was not inspired by cold. "Is now a good time to mention my volcanophobia?"

  Beside him, Carter also pulled her hood on. "I thought you liked them."

  "After our little vacation on Oannes, and then Netu? What is it about moons?"

  "Well, the gravitational pull of the gas giant - "

  "Ah!" he cut her off. "Just ...don't start, Carter."

  "Yes, sir."

  Jack's mouth tightened in annoyance. Not because Carter's reply was a little more crisp than usual, but because of the forbidding terrain. He scanned the U-shaped valley with binoculars. The medevac team had left ahead of them and had already reached the cutting in the western escarpment. The main camp was on the eastern side of the valley. Jack focused on the dam and lake at the northern end. Now he understood why the team had dubbed it, `Frying Pan' Lake. While much of it was hidden behind a gorge, what he could see was capped with vapor curls dancing across the boiling surface. The cliffs surrounding the lake were barren except for a handful of trees clinging to rocky outcrops. Enormous in diameter, the trees grew most abundantly around weirdly shaped ice towers - fumaroles, Dabruzzi called them. Venting yet more gas and steam, the fumaroles looked like frozen volcanoes in miniature. He turned and surveyed the southern end of the valley. A bunch of rocks and gravel were piled up at the far end.

  "According to the survey report," said Carter, "behind that moraine is a three hundred foot drop into the next valley. That's where the Goa'uld had their mining operation."

  "Why would the Goa'uld have mined a valley three hundred feet below where they set up the `gate?" He tucked the field glasses away Looking up at the lake, Carter replied, "Maybe they began up there?"

  Gusts of wind sent tendrils of vapor cascading down the face of the dam. "And busted a water main?"

  Carter smiled. "The rest of the moon is much the same. Ice and snowcapped mountains separated by interstitial glaciers, or geothermally active valleys covered in low clouds. Wow, look at that!" She pointed over his shoulder.

  Jack turned. A coal-black flume of ash belched from the volcano's tom throat, forcing aside a mass of gray snow clouds. Some seconds later, a disarmingly loud crescendo, like the rumble of a freight train, rolled across the brooding landscape. "I'd prefer not to," he murmured, and stepped onto the long ramp. It was bad enough seeing it through the MALP, but here the sense of malevolence was almost suffocating. "A little too Mordorish for my taste."

  "Mordorish? " Carter shot him an incredulous look. "I thought you didn't like science fiction."

  "Someone gave Teal'c a couple of tickets. He asked me to go with him."

  "And you agreed?"

  Jack shrugged and kept walking. "It's Christmas."

  The ground, normally coveredwith the ash from the volcano, was carpeted in a soft layer of cotton-ball white. The cinders beneath the snow crunched under their boots like dead insects. Another rumble rolled across the valley.

  "If the eccentric orbit ever decays significantly," said Carter, "this moon could turn into another Tollan."

  More ash disgorged from the mountain. "Please, Carter, I'd rather not be reminded."

  "What about the volcanoes on lo?"

  Jack felt her gaze. "That's different - Jupiter's moons are at the other end of a telescope. A celestial telescope."

  Between reading up on lo and Dabruzzi's briefing, Jack knew that the cherry-red glow over the volcano and the ever-present rumbling meant the lava inside the crater was sloshing around, doing its thing, not bothering anyone. The lava lake and geothermal activity acted like release valves on a pressure cooker. The effects were spectacular but not normally dangerous, although SG-10 might disagree with him on that. And no matter how much he tried to rationalize it, his instincts weren't agreeing, either.

  At the bottom of the ramp, Jack paused, squinted at the baleful clouds, and then pulled out his sunglasses. They added an artificial darkness to the already dismal atmosphere, but the snow glare was intense. "All right," he conceded. "It's those damned memories from Oannes. And don't tell me they're not bugging you, too, especially after Netu."

  A look of disgust crossed Carter's face. Whether it was from real or implanted memories, or the second-hand memories she'd inherited from Jolinar, he couldn't be sure. Come to think of it, she seemed to be losing some of her natural chirpiness of late. Seeing one too many friends die tended to do that. The last few months had been particularly hard on her, with the loss of Orlan and Narim, and Kinsey's witch-hunt after she'd been forced to leave Joe Faxon on Volian.

  He put the thought aside and peered up at the lava cliffs. They looked like gigantic, multi-layered mud cakes with the chocolate oozing out everywhere. Dollops of creamy snow added to the illusion. Jack noticed an emerald-green shadow about fifty feet up an ice wall, just behind a huge tree. "There's a cave up there." The moon might not have any Goa'uld, or hostile natives with pointy sticks and bad attitudes, but you never knew when you might need cover.

  "You hear that
?" Carter adjusted her grip on her P90.

  "Which particular that?" There was so much grumbling going on; the entire place sounded like it had a bad case of Montezuma's revenge. Smelled like it, too.

  Carter started to reply when the gurgling abruptly resolved itself into a geyser shooting almost fifty feet into the air.

  "Lots of naquadah, huh," he mumbled, moving out of range of the spray.

  "It was Dabruzzi who theorized that naquadah might be deposited like geothermal gold." She stepped around a slippery looking patch of ice. "It builds up as a precipitate in the underground fracture zones of geyser fields, just like the white scaly build-up of calcium inside old kettles. That's probably why the Goa'uld abandoned the moon fifty years ago. The naquadah ran out and they had no idea that all they had to do was find another old geyser field and start digging."

  Something about that didn't add up. "Couldn't they just sense the stuff?"

  "I think getting to it was more the problem. In most places it's covered by thick basalt. You'd have to know exactly where to dig."

  Another rumble shook the ground. "Yes, well," Jack said, picking up the pace. "Let's not dally, shall we?"

  At the camp, a sugar frosting of snow sprinkled the containers stacked near the FREDs. Lights were on inside two of the cabins. Jack glanced up at the darkening clouds, then at his barometer. "Pressure's dropping."

  Pulling off her pack, Carter said, "I'll disconnect their naquadah generator."

  The place reminded Jack of McMurdo, at least what he could recall of it through a haze of morphine. He remembered Carter though, refusing to let him die alone in the ice cave. Still, Antarctica hadn't been a wasted trip. They'd picked up a nice new Stargate, and he'd added another destination to his ever-growing list of least desirable vacation spots. He rubbed his nose but the rotten egg stench of hydrogen sulfide wouldn't budge. This place was definitely going on the list.

  It took most of the afternoon to finish packing and loading everything. A final check inside Dabruzzi's hut revealed an open instrument case under the bed. Jack pulled out the case, smirked, then closed the lid and tucked it under his arm. The only surprise was that it was almost full.