Post by mal on Jan 7, 2011 11:52:59 GMT -5
Maxwell, dressed in mock local garb, moved from the temple down to the village. When he got there he was amazed at being able to speak the native language, ancient egyptian. Henrietta Daniels, the smuggler, had told them about that side effect of the gate. It imprinted upon gate users a template of common languages ... Goa'ould, ancient earth languages, etc. The gates would be quickly absorbing English and other modern earth languages and imparting it to other gate travellers.
Max felt a little cheated. He'd spent years becoming fluent in middle eastern languages. And the gate conveyed fluency in a handful of uses. NOT right.
The locals came out to meet him ... they didn't get many travellers. He explained he was from a far northern village, and had heard good things about their village.
Theirs was a typical village, though it was respected as the usual residence of Ra when his great flying pyramid came to Abados. Some 20 miles away was a great mining camp. The villages supplied the labor for the mines ... and he saw their reason.
Besides supplying worship and servants, they also supplied slaves for the mines. They were a breeding farm.
That explained the artesian well in the center of the village ... probably dug with a beam weapon of some sort, and he was told all the villages sported similar wells. Villages which fell out of favor had their water source destroyed.
The village they were in was exceptional in that there were TWO wells. One working and one non-functional. This struck Maxwell as odd, but not extremely so. Until later that evening, one of the teenaged males of the village ... he guessed him to be about 16 ... came back. He was thanking Maxwell for the trinkets he brought them.
Then he told a story ... about a friend who had offended a Jaffa running, and ... in a panic ... had climbed down the dry well to escape being killed. A perilous climb, but he'd found a hidden tomb. It had symbols on it ... written symbols and words were forbidden, except for the symbol of Ra himself.
The elders had forbidden speaking of it, but the boy seemed taken with Maxwell. Maxwell did not seem to hold Ra in great reverence ... and the boy was angry with Ra. His sister, a young woman of great beauty, had been taken by the 'god'.
The boy and his friends, enthused with Maxwell, showed him the temple. They were impressed beyond measure when Max produced portable lighting devices to hang from the necks while they climbed down the dark shaft.
And it WAS a perilous climb ... he estimaged them to be a couple hundred feet beneath the surface. Even in daylight, the opening above would have been a mere pinprick.
They came to the tomb entrance. Within was a stone sarcofigus ... and before it a great tablet, with a story written in heiroglypics. Max didn't pretend to understand what it said, but photographed it with digital camera. This also greatly impressed the youths.
What he DID recognize were hundreds of niches in the walls. Within each was a flat metallic disc of bronze about three inches in width. On one side as a symbol he could not decipher, but upon the other, in a circular formation, were stargate addresses.
Max became excited. MORE addresses. If he got these back to earth they could explore other planets besides Abados. But they were heavy ... he couldn't carry them all.
This was when the boy made a bargain with Maxwell. He and his friends would help carry the disks back to the stargate for Maxwell, but Max had to take them with him back to where he came from. And try to rescue his sister Sharae.
The intelligent boy had surmised that Maxwell was not from another village, but had come through the Chapa Ai. That he was an agent of another much more benevolent god than Ra. One who allowed men like Maxwell to serve him willingly.
Reluctantly, Maxwell agreed. They needed these addresses.
So, just before dawn, Maxwell and the youths carefully approached the temple. They were frightened ... the temple was forbidden to enter except when directed by the Jaffa. But no one was within.
He dialed home ... and radioed through. Stepping through heavily laden, and with six local boys, all handsome youths who were looking around incredulously. (Ra had the unhealthy and unattractive regularly 'culled' from the herd ... a breeding program of sorts).
"Look who came for dinner ..."
He looked back. They were building some sort of flip down metallic seal or plug for the gate. Further conversation with Henrietta had convinced them it was good to be able to STOP incoming visitors if need be. From now on they would require to tachyon radio in an identifying code to come back through.
Sensible enough.