In The Shadow Of Lilith 1
That Old Hinky Feeling
by Jase
URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asj/jase/ifyoul01.php
Summary: Not Supplied
Info: This is a drabble that has become too fun to write. It's gotten a life of it's own
A friend of mine likes Vampires and SG-1 Cam/Dan slash. Even though Twilight has me cringing under my desk, here's a story with teeth in it. I have taken liberties with various relationship situations
One more "routine mission", the last bits of SG-1 sweeping up the last crumbs of the Goa'uld Empire, checking out the planets they hadn't had time to before. Well, he and Daniel were called SG-1, simply because no one wanted to retire that jersey number just yet.
Sam had moved on to Area 51, and they all stood up at the wedding, saying how beautiful she was and wasn't it about time she married Jack. Cam had to carry Daniel back to his room like a potato sack slung over his shoulder, staggering himself a bit from abusing a bottle of SoCo a little harder than usual. Vala was there, with Tomin which in a way doubled the blow, because Cam knew that his "friend with benefits" had begun to love her. The final "loss" of Jack put poor Daniel in a world of hurt. Teal'c, amazingly, brought Thilana and bemusedly caught the bridal bouquet. Possible happy ending there or so Mitchell hoped. The big guy more than earned one.
So there they were, Jackson and Mitchell, the Butch and Sundance of Stargate Command, picking over the ruins of yet another civilization. Mitchell didn't mind the babysitting so much anymore. Past few years there had been an ugly buzzing in his legs and he had taken one body slam too many in the line of duty. The nerves in his back were getting fragile; but he'd rather be caught dead than flying a desk. So there he and his fragile back were, standing guard over a group of goggle eyed Marines who would suck in their guts if they thought he was downwind, and a pack of Dr. Danny wanna be's falling over themselves trying to impress the guy who (as far as they were concerned) singlehandedly invented the Stargate Program.
Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but as he stood there at the mouth of the temple complex, Cameron Mitchell felt sixteen different types of old. The temple itself, all dead black stone and uglier than a hogs behind did nothing to improve the mood.
In the recon phase, the UAV flyby showed no sign of humanoid habitation in a 70 klick area around the gate, but the Marines did an enthusiastic perimeter check anyway. Both Daniel and Cam trusted the words "piece of cake" about as far as they could hammer throw a HumVee, so they approved, but the scientists put up a fair amount of bitching at the delay. At least until they heard the two SG-1 members discussing a horrendous tree ferret attack on a surveillance mission, "just like this", the Doctor and the Colonel intoned gravely, in unison, looking grim. The geek squad got religion real fast after that.
The only building was the temple, a monolith that one of the science team described as "Greco-Roman-ish." The stone was local, like black marble that ate the light, with no windows or wide doorways. The interior was a pitch black mausoleum, with plenty of large iron craters for fire pits.
In the center was an ivory colored statue that Cam first thought was marble also but tests revealed it was made of bones. It was at least two stories tall, and each bone was dovetailed to fit the other in a seamless manner. Further analysis showed the bones were human, and Cameron did his best not to look at the thing. It portrayed a woman, standing tall, in a sweeping gown that fell in pleats, her hands outstretched in almost an Egyptian pose. When Cam pointed that out to Daniel, the archeological acolytes shot him glances of barely concealed amusement that did not escape Daniel's notice...and ire.
"Well, yes... it is, sort of." Jackson stood shoulder to shoulder with him, completely ignoring the jaws dropping, and studying the statue raptly.
"She reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor, in 'Cleopatra', it's obvious she isn't Egyptian, more like, Anglo."
"Well that's it exactly. Like Hollywood, Roman and Greek civilization were more comfortable with iconic figures representing the gods that resembled their own ethnicity."
"Yeah, like the picture of a blonde Jesus hangin in my grandma's setting room."
Jackson looked at him a moment, "A blonde??..." then shook his head sharply as if to rid it of gnats."Yes...same principal...but this." Jackson gestured one handedly at the statue, then crossed his arms over his chest, brow furrowed as he puzzled. "It doesn't make any sense..."
"How so?" Cam stood with his thumbs hooked into his web belt, settling the P-90 into the cradle of his arm. Daniel was in full throttle archeologist mode, dissecting a centuries old problem with a broke down fighter jock as a sounding board. The two of them were oblivious to the rest of the group, as both hard ass space Marines and the academics they were contemptuously babysitting edged closer to listen, not only to learn more about their surroundings, but in the revelation that their disparity did not mean they could not work together without respect.
"First...there's the language. It's not Egyptian, it's a variation of Assyrian, and look *pointing* the scorpion on her girdle."
"That's a girdle?"
Sigh, "Yes in medieval times that would be considered a girdle."
"Looks more like a...really long belt." Head tipped to the side.
"It's called a girdle. ANYWAY. The ancient Mesopotamian night demon..."
"Wait..I thought you said Assyrian."
Sigh. Slower "Yesss...I did but the Gou'ald were notorious for adapting deities for their purposes. *pause* or we adapted them..." Jackson trailed off, staring at the statue until Cam bumped him with an elbow.
"Ancient Mesopotamian night demons...?"
"Oh. Yes. Right...a lilitu or Lilith.."
Interrupting... "The first wife of Adam."... Pause... "Don't look at me like that Jackson."
"What is it with you and Jack and playing dumb? Is it just to...to...annoy me... or what?"
"Yes."... Pause... "Lilith?"
Deep sigh.
"A lilitu demon or Lillith would not be portrayed like this. *hands gesturing to the black basalt temple* "They were night demons, so, whatever Gou'ald was worshipped here..."
Daniel suddenly folded his arms, hugging himself, and staring perturbedly at the statue.
"Jaaack-son? ...What."
"Lamashtu? But that's Summerian. That would account for the scorpion, but ... "Daniel turned to Cam, completely disturbed."I can't get an accurate fix on the mythology."
Before Mitchell could tell him that it was ok, Jackson walked swiftly forward, waving him closer to the statue and fumbling with a flash light, then shining the beam into the statue's face."It could be she is an amalgam of various night stalker or succubae stylized deities."
The ivoried bones gave her a striated look, but her lips and hands were stained a deep brown, as was the scorpion that sat on the "girdle" over the statues pubic region, its claws pointed upward as though hugging her mons, the stinger curved wickedly outward like an impossibly curved strap-on with a spiked end. The brown stains streaked down the pleated skirt that was carved to look as though it clung to the statues thighs. For a sick moment Mitchell wondered if they were trying to depict the "goddess" having a period.
"Look at her mouth. See..." Jackson wiggled the beam across her darkened lips then, irritated and very much NOT liking being that close to the statue, Mitchell took it away from him with a scowl, and then leaned forward, his keen blue eyes focusing.
"Fangs?? She's got a scorpion on her g-string, and fangs. What *is* all that brown stuff."
Daniel's voice came flat as doom. "Bloodstains. From the few bones I found, they used to hang sacrifices off the scorpions tail. Children mostly."
Slowly Mitchell turned his head to look at Jackson's face, to see if the Doctor's expression was as impassive as his voice.
"Then collect the blood and 'feed' it to the statue. That fits with the whole ...motif." Jackson gestured at the temple again, and his expression was that of a man who is weary of seeing horror in the universe. "Lamia was Greco-Roman, like the building and dress style, killed children and sucked blood."
"Whaat? We talkin Anne Rice here?"
In the silence while Jackson nodded, one of the space Marines made a break for the temple peristyle, and blew his lunch all over the wall.
****
They'd spent the day in that tomb and except for the fragments of bones they found stuffed in ceremonial urns as offerings to the Gou'ald; there was no sign of people. No writing on the inside of the temple, and alcoves with sculpted marble couch looking things that one of the nervous scientists said were stylized feasting couches. At this they all sort of paused and stared from the couches to the statue and back.
Mitchell noticed that the lieutenant ...Gavins...Lt. Gavins had initiated a buddy system. Every single Marine had his or own scientist to watch over. The rest patrolled in pairs nervously around the temple or stood watch.
An amused musing that his hovering over Jackson may have inspired it as the right thing to do made his lips twitch. He wondered what they'd all think if they knew that his solicitations went beyond the two of them just being the last of SG-1.
He strolled casually over to where Jackson was glaring at the ugly statue as though it had insulted his mother, and caught the exchange of dimpled grins between a scientist and her female Marine guard. His uncertain double take had the scientist stifling a giggle and the Marine snapping to attention as her cheeks and his ears turned red, suddenly unsure of how "on the down low" his relationship with Jackson was. He gave a curt nod and picked up the pace.
"Nothing." It had been Daniel's mantra for the past 20 minutes. "A major center of worship, yet all they seemed to have done is ..."gesturing at the scorpion and grimacing.
"So, we pull out of here, and do a spiral sweep pattern around the temple looking for...whatever."
Daniel stared at him with out of place blue-eyed mischief, "Sometimes, you're so much more than a heroic profile and a juicy pension." walking away to a group of scientists, Jackson shot back over his shoulder. "Sometimes."
Cam choked back a guffaw at their old joke, and flashed thumbs up to Jackson's smarty pants grin before he hunted down Gavins to tell him the new move order.
By mutual agreement, they removed all the lighting and the small field generator from the temple, the thought of being in the temple after dark was a subtle source of anxiety, and while everyone was carrying things out, Daniel was hunkered down next to the stone slab in front of the statue with a magnifying glass and an LED penlight.
"Jackson." Mitchell looked around; to make sure they weren't overheard.
"Hmmmmm?" Daniel was nearly nose to nose with the faint markings he thought might be cuneiform on a slab at the base of the altar like projection in front of the statue, although the area was damaged and if this was 360 BC cuneiform, being a common form of writing in the Assyrian /Sumerian cultures would fit in with the supposed mythology the goddess was based upon, however so would Akkadian but this statue was obviously...*NUDGE*
"OH..sorry...what." with a stiffness that Cam could relate to, Daniel unfolded from his crouch.
"Do you think it's wise...staying on this planet after dark? I mean, sure, we've seen no signs of a civilization but, still, the UAV only scoped the place out in daylight." He pulled off his cover and scuffed a hand through his hair, the silver in it glinting in the pale light that filtered in. Daniel found himself distracted by the gleaming for a moment then,
"You mean gate back to Earth? What reason would we give? That we all got a case of the...*Hands gyrating* heebie jeebies? No, I think we'd need something a bit more solid than that." Daniel looked around, brow furrowed. "But for what it's worth...let's make camp as close to the gate as we can."
The temple was empty, and dark. Even though a cold shudder went down his back, Cam smiled, and caught Daniel's face in his hand then leaned in to steal a kiss. The look of sheer exasperation on Daniel's face was worth it. He strode jauntily towards the exit, with Jackson muttering under his breath as he followed.
No one really wanted to camp in the shelter of the temple to begin with, but after Daniel's revelation about the vampiric nature of a Lamia, they happily followed Cam's order to set up tents in a clearing much closer to the gate, despite the trek back.
"I so do not like the exposure here." Cam muttered to the very young looking lieutenant.
"Sir, we do have a perimeter set up, anti-personnel mines in a staggered W pattern surround the camp and we are dug in..." Mitchell held up a hand.
"Yes, I can see the fire points just fine. One question though."
"Sir?"
"How much garlic are we packing?" Cam stared at the tip of the black temple that could be seen, just barely through the spooky oak looking trees. The lieutenant beside him said nothing, but just wet his lips and glanced towards the setting sun. Cam mentally kicked himself for working the man up.
"Look, Gavins, we keep a close watch on. Spotters with night vision goggles, someone posted at the DHD at all times ready to phone home. Lots of light." Gavins was nodding, and staring at Cam's profile.
"Sir?"
"Yes Gavins?"
"Have you...have you ever watched the movie 'Pitch Black?'"
Cam held the man's gaze a moment. "It's our job, as leaders, not to fire imaginations up and get everyone wound so tight they shoot themselves in the foot. We are taking precautions. The gate is right here, and we ALL are trained enough to handle any contingency..IF we keep our heads and not get riled up about the boogey man. Is that understood, Lieutenant?"
"Yes Sir!"
"All right. Go remind your troops that they're Marines, and to act like they have their balls with them, even if they weren't' born with any to begin with. Chow in an hour. Then we start to bed down. Well, GIT Marine."
Mitchell took a deep breath; he was going to take a nap while there was still daylight. He *had* seen 'Pitch Black', four times.
****
A voice nearby. "No..I said..Let me wake him lieutenant." Irritated voice. Jackson. He used one finger to push back the brim of his blue bdu cap and looked blearily up.
"I'm awake. Stop fighting over me." He'd fallen asleep propped against a carry crate, fully dressed with his weapon on his lap. Discretely he flexed his legs, they were still asleep, and were going to feel like hell when the tingles set in. By the violet look to the sky, the sun had just gone down and the first stars were winking shyly.
"Well? Anything to report Gavin?" He made no move to stand, and ignored Jackson's compressed lips, furrowed brow intent stare.
"Watch rotation has been set up sir, all fire points are manned and equipped."
"Very good Lieutenant, I'll be along shortly, after I have a word with Doctor Jackson." He casually returned the lieutenant's salute and Jackson waited until the young Marine was out of earshot before saying.
"Your legs."
Mitchell grimaced in disgust. "Fell asleep, dead as logs." He shifted where he sat and felt the warm flood returning feeling wash to his toes. Gently he bounced his legs on the ground.
"You call in to the SGC about how hinky everyone's feeling?"
Daniel's eyes darted around what he could see of the camp then down at Mitchell coaxing his legs back to life. "Yes. General Tottington was on the desk." It was part of the new bureaucracy that allied commanders would take shifts at the SGC, and for both Mitchell and Jackson, along with many other of the survivors of the first off world missions, it was the signal to get out. Tottington wasn't a bad sort, just...new.
"He left it up to us." Jackson sounded worried, and Mitchell hissed as his legs came back to life.
"Anyone watching? Help me up." He reached out a hand and Jackson hauled him to his feet. "Uncle Leroy's house looking good right about now?"
"Oh!Yes. I'm still not sure about the alpaca farm though."
Months ago, Cam had casually talked about renovating his bachelor Uncle's house that sat in the wooded end of their farm property, and retiring there. His folks were getting on in years and his younger brother was too busy off saving souls to come help their parents, much less visit. Cam always wondered why Uncle Leroy never got married, now, he knew. He mentioned to Daniel that there was plenty of room for two, and that his mother was contemplating starting an alpaca ranch. Mitchell had been quite surprised to learn that Daniel, having spent time in Peru knew a thing or three about the creatures.
"How are your bunch doing?" Mitchell nodded towards the huddled scientists with his chin.
Deep sigh. "Nervous as virgin mail order brides."
Cam snorted at that."You do have a way with words."
"I should, I am a linguist." That smug bon mot brought another snort from Cam, who had occasion once or twice to comment on Daniel's skilled tongue.
They looked out at the camp, listening to loon- like cries in the distance, with Cam leaning heavily on the packing crate.
"Penny for em Jackson."
"I can't help but feel...that I'm...I'm *missing* something here. Something important. The statue, the lack of any habitation. And for some damned reason, my mind keeps coming back to those scratches on the base of the plinth. There was a slab set into the side of it. With scratches all around."
"Like an acess panel?"
Daniel turned to him slapping one palm against the other in a familiar Arabic gesture of exclamation.
"EXACTLY!"
A Marine jumped at the noise, looking around, then settling back down at his post.
"That's exactly what it reminded me of, only there are no markings or handles. Like it was pried out by force." Daniel slumped onto the crates. "Why didn't I see that before."
Mitchell was picking one foot up then the other, working out the kinks in his heavy feeling legs.
"Because you're not omnipotent or all seeing, despite what people tell you." Mitchell ignored Daniel scratching the side of his nose with his middle finger. "Sometimes you try too hard to be what everyone expects of you Daniel. The Great and Powerful Oz."
Jackson shot him a look that said 'Oh Puh-leeze' and opened his mouth to reply, Mitchell cut him off.
"No. You do. You're going to end up dying in the saddle Jackson. Because you don't know when to quit living up to other people's expectations. Hell, Daniel, you don't know when to quit. Period."
"Umm hmm...and this gem of wisdom is coming from a man who ALMOST didn't make it on this mission because he was challenged to a race by a Marine half his age and damn near killed himself winning?"
Mitchell grinned at him, "Yes. And that should bother you even more. *You're* supposedly the brains of this dynamic duo." Limping slightly, Mitchell started to move around to the sentries. Daniel knew he would be up all night, keeping them steady and watching the night for dangers.
Daniel took his turn sleeping, or trying to. Insomnia had plagued him for most of his life.
