“Yeah. And maybe not-so-old-gods, if Hunter’s right about this Dix character.”
Daniel nodded, mulling over the idea as they walked. “He seems to think that Hecate would help us — that the Amam are her enemy.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll believe that when I see it.”
“Could she be Tok’ra?”
Jack shook his head. “With her own Jaffa?”
“Okay,” he conceded. “But that doesn’t mean she won’t help us. It wouldn’t be the first time a Goa’uld has done a deal with their enemies when faced with a common threat.”
Jack grunted. “And that always ends so well…”
They lapsed into silence, Daniel still up ahead and Teal’c walking close to his shoulder with his staff weapon at the ready. They looked tense, but Jack didn’t feel any fear or hostility coming from the people around them — just curiosity.
Mostly there was a weary kind of resignation in the faces that watched them pass, and not a spark of hope anywhere. He wondered how long the people of his world had lived like this, in thrall to the Amam. A generation or two? More, perhaps.
A small child ran across their path and was snatched up by a young woman who might have been her mother or sister. Jack gave a tight smile, like he always did when there were kids around, but kept on walking. He couldn’t engage with these people, he had no way to help them. He couldn’t even help his own people.
He yawned — God, he really was tired — and scrubbed a hand over his eyes; it was getting harder to think straight.
“Sir?” Carter nudged his elbow and held out a power bar. “I’m guessing the Amam didn’t feed you?”
“Hey, I’m just glad they didn’t feed on me.” He glanced at the bar. “Have we got enough of these?”
“It’s yours, sir. We ate this morning.”
That was good enough for him, and after a couple of mouthfuls and a good sugar hit, he felt the weariness recede a few steps — not far, but enough. “There’s a lot of weird technology back in the ship,” he said between bites, throwing Carter a look. “Apparently it’s Ancient — capital A.”
“Really?” Daniel turned around again, fascinated as always by anything touching on the gate builders. “What kind of weird technology?”
Jack shrugged. “I don’t know — star charts, gizmos, all sorts. Crazy had me testing a ton of it.”
Daniel blinked. “Uh, ‘Crazy’?”
“My freaky friend.” He frowned, remembering something. “They don’t speak to each other,” he said. “You notice that?”
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “Actually I was wondering if they have some kind of telepathic ability, because their written language is literally unpronounceable.”
“Telepathy, huh?” Jack stuffed the rest of the power bar into his mouth. “Handy.” He chewed, swallowed, and said what was really on his mind. “So I’m thinking that where there’s Ancient stuff there has to be a way to open the gate… ?”
Daniel raised his eyebrows. “You want us to go back into the ship? Again?”
He opened his mouth to argue the point, but Carter got there first.
“Actually, sir,” she said, “it might not be as simple as finding a way to dial the gate anymore.”
He sighed. “I ask you, Carter — when is it ever simple?”
With a slight smile, she said, “Sir, I think we may have been transported a significant distance away from the Stargate.” She glanced at her watch. “The first night here, I reset my watch to 1800 hours at sunset — it’s arbitrary, I know, but I wanted to measure the planet’s day/night cycle. That night lasted sixteen and a half hours.”
“Wow,” Daniel said, his hand moving involuntarily to his side. “And I thought it just felt like forever.” Jack could still see the bloody splotch on Daniel’s jacket and felt a ghost of the fear that had dogged him since they’d arrived on this rock with Daniel practically bleeding out in front of him. The wound beneath the blood was healed and Daniel was fine now, but he’d been healed by an Amam and Jack had no idea what that might mean.
“The thing is, sir,” Carter continued, “last night the sun set at 1200 hours, by my watch, and when I measured the hours of darkness they only lasted twelve hours and twenty minutes.”
Jack frowned, he didn’t like where this was going at all. “So you’re saying we’re in a different time zone?”
“Yes sir.” She gave a small shrug. “I mean, there’s no telling exactly how far that would be on this planet — but on Earth it would equate to a couple thousand miles.”