"Going on a Bear Hunt" Ch. 6 [novella, team, K+]

Chapter 6: Teal'c

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.

. . .

Teal'c felt his heart rate fully resume its normal rate as his body finished emerging from the deep state of kelno'reem he had used to survive the snowstorm. He thought wistfully of the mild and relatively unchanging temperatures of Chulak as he felt the cold of the snow creep though his pants legs. Jaffa were meant for warm worlds for the false gods that enslaved them were not creatures that tolerated the cold well.

Narrowing his eyes against the sunlight harshly coming off the stark white blanket of snow, he shifted his grip on the staff of his weapon and turned his full attention to the discussion his Tau'ri companions were having about the failure of the radios to work in the midst of the snowstorm.

"Yes Daniel, snowstorms are one source of natural electromagnetic interference, along with rain particles, solar radiation, and the expected electric storms," MajorCarter explained. "Considering the strength of the storm I am not surprised our radios didn't work."

"What about the static I heard?" DanielJackson furrowed his brow.

"That probably came from your own radio, caused by the thermal agitation of electrons flowing through circuit resistance—"

"As fascination as this sounds campers," O'Neill cut the conversation off, "I want to get out of this snow before my feet freeze."

"Yes Sir."

"Sorry Jack."

"Good, then," O'Neill shifted his weapon and used his good hand to put on his sunglasses, "I'll break trail and you guys follow." He set off through the snow and now quiet, MajorCarter and DanielJackson fell into step behind.

Teal'c brought up the rear and was pleased that he had not been required to take the lead and make the path through the knee high snow.

Over the chill of the wind, crunching of snow beneath booted feet, and sibilant rubbing of cloth against cloth what became the most audible sound to Teal'c's superior hearing was the laboured breathing of those before him. Snow was another reason his kind eschewed cold worlds for it was not an easy substance to maneuver in, even if like humans one had contrivances like the large webbed-device that one strapped to the foot to walk over it or two long runners used to glide over it.

Avoiding the short mounds of snow covered pines they tramped a fairly straight path as they covered the three hundred Tau'ri yards to the edge of the channel of wind-shaped pines and its knee deep blanket of snow.

O'Neill halted just beyond where the snow met the plants growing in the sunlight and knocked boot against boot to shake off snow. "Carter, check our bearing would ya?"

"Yes Sir," she answered and got out her instruments.

Teal'c turned his attention upon the back trail. The view down the slope provided a clear view of the incongruous white channel in the midst of the mountainside's dark green forest with their trail suddenly appearing three quarters of the way from the south edge of the channel.

He wondered with the bright sun and warmth of the day how long it would take for the frozen precipitation to melt. Would it be gone on their return trip or would they have to make a path the rest of the way through? He set the thoughts aside to deal with on the return journey—there was no use as the Tau'ri said, of constructing a structure over a river when one did not need passage over the river.

"I have it Sir," MajorCarter announced.

Teal'c turned his attention back to his companions.

"Good," O'Neill nodded, "take the lead again and next time I hope your doohickey gives us more than a few seconds warning if this planet decides to dump another foot of snow on us. I know mountain weather can change fast, but that was just ridiculous."

She grimaced. "Sorry Sir, but the low-pressure front moved in so fast—"

"Carter," O'Neill cut her off, "I get it and I'm not blaming you or anything—okay, maybe my toes are—it's been a bit of a crazy mission so we just have to hope that the planet isn't going to dump another foot of snow on us or something any time soon."

MajorCarter squared her shoulders, nodded, and with universal tricorder device still in hand took the lead.

"Jack—" DanielJackson's tone was reproachful.

"Not interested in hearing it Daniel," O'Neill said sharply as he moved to take up the left flank position.

Teal'c watched the scholar sigh at their leader's tone before taking up the right flank. Lifting his ma'tok so the club end did not catch or tangle in the plants growing at the sunbathed edge of the channel he followed. Once amongst the tall towering trunks he resumed carrying his weapon in the traditional prepared stance.

They continued their climb upwards through the forest. Teal'c noted that DanielJackson kept close by, closer than when they had walked amongst the trees lower down the mountain's slope, and much closer than the scholar had been among the channel of wind-shaped pines.

Above the trees tops were rustled by the wind that blew over them and sneaked down as a soft breeze amongst the trunks. The birds added to the sounds of the forest with their chirping and the occasional harsh caw. A giant bushy-tailed tree rodent made itself known briefly as well with some mad chatter as a red flicking tail vanished around a trunk.

Ahead on the path boulders and rocky outcrops began protruding from the forest floor. They slowed down to navigate the obstacles, careful of a misstep that might turn an ankle and result in a hampering injury that would turn the journey back to the chappa'ai into a grueling marathon for all of them. An undertaking he did not wish to contemplate over the varying terrain they had encountered on this world.

. . .

Uh-uh! A cave!
A narrow gloomy cave.
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!

. . .

Teal'c nimbly avoided the obstacles before him and watched their back trail as much as the path forward. Ahead MajorCarter paused in the midst of circling a boulder that was as tall as her waist and just as wide, as she checked the instrument she carried.

"I'm getting some faint energy readings Sir," MajorCarter reported as she waved the device in front of her in a sweeping motion.

Teal'c adjusted his grip on his weapon and looked their forest surroundings over more carefully.

"What kind of energy?" O'Neill questioned suspiciously.

"Too faint to tell at the moment Sir but they don't appear to be dangerous."

"Is it like anything you've seen before Sam?" DanielJackson asked eagerly.

She shook her head as she began to slowly turn around in a circle, sweeping the instrument out in front of her. "As I just said, they're too faint. I can't pick up a definite pattern from them—ah, the readings just dropped off the radar." MajorCarter turned back around and came to a halt. "Readings are back. Looks like whatever is producing them is ahead."

"Alright, everyone stay close and proceed with caution," O'Neill ordered.

Teal'c watched MajorCarter work around the boulder with instrument held out in front and DanielJackson and then O'Neill followed behind her and himself behind O'Neill. More boulders littered the path forward and they weaved their way amongst the large rocks that were increasing in size.

A tall pine tree that had long ago seeded itself in a crack and widened the crack to a rock splitting fracture aided them in their climb over a particularly large outcropping and on top they paused behind MajorCarter who had halted in the lead.

"Energy readings are steady now," she reported.

Teal'c looked up the forested slope and pondered what could be ahead. Was the one they were seeking the source of the energy signature? Or was Camulus responsible for it?

His eyes focused with sharp interest on one of the tilting boulders ahead that was covered with grey lichen. As the four of them worked around the trunks and boulders and drew closer to the stone in question, he knew that the stone was not marked by nature and drew it to his companion's attention. "DanielJackson, I believe I see a carving on this stone."

"Really? Where?" The scholar hurried to the stone and peered at it, his fingers tracing over the lichen covered mark, down the stem and over the bent parallel strokes coming off the top making it look like a misshapen F. "It's the Ansuz rune! In futhorc it represents the vowels o, a, and æ and is the first letter of Arthur. It must be here as a sign that the cave is close by!"

In a few moments the rune had been recorded by DanielJackson and the four were on their way again. Teal'c kept an eye on the boulders and rocky outcroppings, searching in particular the lichen that concealed marks on stone from searching eyes, as they manoeuvred amongst them.

Two more of the F's with bent strokes were found carved into stone, the second by himself and third by MajorCarter, and DanielJackson exclaimed over them all with the same enthusiasm. When the third rune was being photographed Teal'c found himself looking up the sloping mountain side through the towering trunks to a particularly large boulder with grey lichen creeping up the base that was taller and wider than himself.

He studied it and considered that the three runes had been carved about the same distances from each other and that specific boulder was the same approximate distance from the third rune.

MajorCarter," he called out to her and pointed to the boulder, "I believe it would be sensible to investigate that stone."

She nodded and after working further up the slope and circling around, disappeared from sight. Moments later her voice floated back down the mountainside, "Colonel! Daniel! Teal'c figured out where the cave is!"

"What?" DanielJackson popped up from crouching over the rune he was photographing.

Teal'c watched the human hurry up the slope to join MajorCarter who had reappeared back around the large boulder. Exchanging looks with O'Neill, he proceeded up the slope as well as the two disappeared around the stone and then DanielJackson's whoops of triumph were clearly heard.

"This is it! Artio's Cave!"

Circling around the boulder with O'Neill, Teal'c saw that it was not a boulder at all, but a rounded edge of an outcropping ruptured open by a large fracture that three men could easily walk abreast through. Along the triangular opening was a band of runes that DanielJackson was busy recording.

The gloomy cave entrance appeared natural to Teal'c as he studied it and he peered as far as he could into its dim interior. It appeared to be a rough passageway into the depths of the earth and not a large chamber.

"So what does it say?" O'Neill questioned.

"It's rather worn and I can't make out the end very well," the scholar ran his fingers over the worn lettering on the left of the cave entrance that he could reach, "but it roughly translates I think as 'Then Arto-rig came forth / the high of the heart. The warrior hardy / sounded the horn. And the killing of Camulus / thine own hearts was free.'"

"Not very... poetic," O'Neill remarked.

Teal'c concurred with the statement.

"Trust me, it sounds much better in Old Norse," DanielJackson reassured. "Rhyme and meter don't translate very well. But it is pretty comparable to the collection of Old Norse poems on Earth known as the Poetic Edda."

"Well, not my idea of a cave, but let's get out our lights and see if we can find Arthur," O'Neill ordered as he used his good hand to twist on his mounted tactical light.

Teal'c leaned his weapon against the stone and from his utility belt took out his handheld light. He secured it via the strap around his wrist so that he was free to use both hands to handle his weapon, turned the light on, and picked up his weapon again.

Once all lights were on, MajorCarter led the way into the cave entrance with weapon raised and DanielJackson behind her carrying his electric lantern by its handle. He and O'Neill then followed with their own weapons at the ready.

. . .

Tiptoe!
Tiptoe!
Tiptoe!
WHAT'S THAT?

. . .

There was no evidence of animal habitation of any sort and little litter from the forest a few steps beyond the entrance of the cave so their boots were soon on bare stone. The walls of the cave passageway were of a dark grey stone and naturally shaped. Some Tau'ri yards from the entryway, when the natural light from outside was dim and most the light came from the devices they carried, a peculiar white flickered on the walls ahead.

As they approached the flickering white with caution, Teal'c saw that there were large veins of crystalline white stone running through the rough dark grey stone and it gave the walls of the corridor an eerie cast.

When the darkness of the cave had swallowed them completely, and not even a pinprick of light was visible from the entrance behind them, DanielJackson hoisted the lantern he carried higher to further illuminate the walls of the cave passage. The sides of the passage were no longer rough, ragged and shaped by nature but scores of marks chiseled the walls. Teal'c noted as they progressed deeper that the air grew increasingly humid and stale as the passage began to turn and rise and fall noticeably.

"I wonder how much stone they took out of this to keep the passage the same width of the entrance," DanielJackson mused from ahead.

Teal'c watched how the light from their devices glittering off the white stone of the walls and gleaming dully off the grey stone, glistening back from moisture that had condensed on the passageway.

"Well, the quartz would have been easier to remove than the granite," MajorCarter remarked from point, "and with the way this passage is twisting and turning, I think they were following a vein."

"Nothing about the Leode suggest they are miners so this had to have been carved by Arthur's followers," DanielJackson ruminated.

To Teal'c the scoring of the chisel marks in the stone was like the work slaves did for their goa'uld masters but he conceded that many cultures with primitive tools created such things themselves.

"I thought you said Arthur had space guns?" O'Neill interjected.

"No, I did not. I said that Arthur had advanced technology especially when one looks at Earth's legends of King Arthur's weapons, Caledfwlch which was later called Excalibur, the dagger Carnwennan, and Rhongomyniad which was a—"

"Okay, space swords," O'Neill dismissed the issue. "But if he has such advanced tech, why was this carved out by hand? And why carve a passageway when they all talk about a cave?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow slightly. To possess weapons that were so powerful that they had names and yet for the followers to possess primitive tools did not speak well of the one they sought. That was the way of the goa'uld.

"Sir," MajorCarter interrupted, "the UTD is picking up traces of naquadah."

"Where from?" O'Neill questioned sharply.

"Nothing specific, so I don't think it's coming from the rock around us," she answered.

"Okay, stay on it Major."

"Yes Sir."

The interruption ended the conversation for the time and it was not long before Teal'c began to sense the naquadah that MajorCarter spoke of. He would not describe it as a 'weird feeling' as MajorCarter once had but perhaps that came from it being a sensation that he had lived with since his Age of Prata Ceremony more than seven decades ago.

The air of the corridor began to curiously grow less stale as they progressed deeper and there was less moisture on the rock. Ahead MajorCarter halted as their lights spilled forward into blackness as rock no longer closed around them. Their lights failed to illuminate more than a fraction of the cavernous space that Teal'c sensed they had walked within, but the floor ahead of them shone with bright colours from small coloured tiles that were laid out a few feet from the entrance of the passageway. He was more accustomed to seeing geometric patterns, and not images, formed with many small coloured tiles but that floors of this kind customarily concealed traps concerned him.

From what he could discern a large image of greater than life sized forms was encircled by a boarder depicting smaller groupings of warrior narratives. There was also an element of one of the centre larger than life sized figures—the largest pair of feet had the outer help raised up—that alarmed him even though he could not see the full figure or scene. It echoed too strongly scenes that he had grown up with.

"A mosaic!" DanielJackson exclaimed with pleasure as he hoisted his lantern as high as possible for the most illumination. "Would you just look at it? The colours are fantastic and—"

"Whoah, hold up there Daniel," O'Neill reached forward and took hold of the man's pack before he stepped past MajorCarter in his eagerness to examine the floor. "We don't want this to turn into scene straight out of The Last Crusade."

DanielJackson twisted his head around so it was plain to see his puzzled expression. "What are you talking about? There was no 'last' religious expeditionary war to restore Christian access to—"

"Indiana Jones," O'Neill clarified as he let go. "You know, that Name the God trap where the guy almost plunges to his death."

"That's ridiculous Jack," he made a face. "Not only are these mosaic tiles, that scene in the movie was with large irregular shaped stones with Roman script carved into them. And I can't believe you're comparing fiction to this!"

"I must concur with O'Neill," Teal'c announced before the two men could begin one of their heated discussions.

"What?" DanielJackson looked flabbergasted. "Not you too Teal'c? That's just a fictional movie!"

"I agree that the film is fictional. I concur with O'Neill that this floor must be approached with caution. Such floors are used to conceal much and are a great danger to the unknowing that dare tread upon them."

"You both think it's booby trapped?" DanielJackson shook his head. "I don't think it is. The Leode only talk about the dangers of getting to the Cave, not dangers inside of it."

"Never hurts to be too careful," O'Neill declared. "Teal'c, you feel up to giving this floor a go?"

Teal'c inclined his head and approached the edge of the mosaic floor with his weapon at the ready. Sweeping the beam of his light across the tiles he looked for any signs of wear by the passage of feet. There was none that he could discern, so he tiptoed forward, placing his foot down lightly in one of the border narratives and tested the tiles before placing his full weight down.

When nothing occurred, he tiptoed forward again. His light methodically sweeping around for signs of wear by other feet and to see as much of the image as possible—and what he was seeing worried him further. This was the art of the false gods. Was not these people's hero supposed to have defeated the goa'uld?

When he had tiptoed across a fair distance, O'Neill cautioned that he was following. After more time, in which he and O'Neill covered a fair bit but had not yet reached the end, DanielJackson impatiently announced that he was joining them. When nothing happened then either, O'Neill called MajorCarter onto the mosaic. Abruptly a hum like the engines of a ha'tak engaging vibrated through the air and Teal'c had to squint against the lights that flared up all over the cavern. They remained as they were, frozen in trepidation for some long moments as they waited with bated breath for something else to happen.

"That... is that good?" O'Neill worried from behind.

"I know not O'Neill. It sounded like a ha'tak powering up for flight," Teal'c answered as he looked around in the full light and could see fully the smiting scene that was the centre of the mosaic they were all standing upon. The cavernous space with the mosaic floor seemed to be an intermediate level, ramps leading to chamber openings a level above and he could see openings to chambers below with many passageways leading off to unknown destinations.

From far down one of the passageways leading off from the mosaic cavern there sounded a deep bellow that electrified the senses and caused his prim'ta to thrash in his pouch.

"What's that?" DanielJackson exclaimed wide-eyed as he stared down the passageway the sound had bellowed from.

"Not good," O'Neill answered shortly.

Teal'c agreed. Not good at all.