Sam stepped through the event horizon, blinked and said "Wow."
Beside her, Daniel simply smiled. "Told you."
The MALP telemetry from P3X-287 had given the impression of a large cave, the walls of which were heavily frescoed, but it had failed to convey the immense size of the cavern housing the Gate. It had also failed to do justice to the detail and number of the frescoes, which stretched up the cavern's walls to the height of three or four stories.
"Must have a lot of time on their hands," observed Colonel O'Neill, smiling at the approaching welcome party, which seemed to consist of short, middle-aged men and women wearing colorful versions of the draped garments that Daniel called chitons. (During the mission briefing, there had been some heated discussion resulting from Colonel O'Neill's use of the term "toga" and while Sam sympathized with Daniel's position, she had been forced, under direct questioning, to admit that no, sir, she couldn't tell the difference, either.)
"Welcome, honored guests!" the stout man leading the party exclaimed. "I am called Bodhus. It is a privilege to welcome you to our world." He accompanied his welcome with a wide smile and an expansive gesture that fluttered the edge of his purple chiton.
"Bodhus, yes." Daniel advanced to meet the small assembly, "We're pleased to meet you. This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, Captain Samantha Carter, Teal'c," he indicated each of them in turn. "And I am Doctor Daniel Jackson; we spoke over the radio earlier."
"Indeed we did!" Bodhus agreed, gesturing toward the MALP, where it had stopped in the middle of the cavern. "Your people command a truly astonishing magic to send one's voice where one's self is not."
"Oh, it's not magic," Sam replied, coming up behind Daniel while Teal'c and the Colonel held back a few paces. "It's simply a matter of being able to send and receive various wave patterns that can--"
"Certainly," the woman beside Bodhus spoke sharply, "all magic seems a simple matter to those who have mastered it." She frowned. "But not all are capable of such mastery." She was shorter even than Bodhus, coming up just past Sam's elbow and she wore a length of her chiton looped over her head in a hood. Sam noted that she wore gray rather than the bright colors favored by the others.
Bodhus smiled at Sam and made a conciliatory gesture. "Hariteia represents the Accepted, our most learned and gifted elite." He smiled at the woman, who did not return his good humor, the turned back to Sam. "Perhaps you are an Accepted on your own world?" When Sam just looked vaguely baffled, he added, "You understand the secrets of your world's magic, yes?"
Before Sam could decide how to answer, Daniel was answering for her. "Captain Carter possesses a great deal of understanding of how our technology--what you would call magic--functions. But it's not necessary to understand technology in order to use it; I used the radio on our probe to speak to you through the wormhole, though I don't fully understand how it works."
Bodhus's smile broadened further. "Here it is so, also." He gestured widely at the cavern's distant ceiling, where several clusters of lights hung suspended, illuminating the frescoes on the walls. "Only the Accepted know the mysteries that give us our great lamps, yet all may read our history by their light."
"Speaking of your history..." Daniel began at once, and Sam smiled politely. He had talked of nothing but frescoes since seeing the MALP telemetry, so it didn't surprise Sam that he took this opportunity to begin firing off questions about the cavern, the designs, the paint, the symbolism, without appearing to give much thought to the implications of the initial exchange; Sam couldn't help feeling a little uneasy. She looked back at the woman Bodhus had called Hariteia and found the small woman returning her gaze coolly, her expression unreadable.
Daniel and Bodhus began moving toward the nearest cavern wall and at a nod from the Colonel, Teal'c followed, looking stoic--or possibly bored; after only a few months on the same team as the Jaffa, Sam found it difficult to tell. With a last glance at Hariteia, who had turned to speak to another member of the greeting party, Sam moved back to stand beside Colonel O'Neill.
"Captain?" The Colonel prompted, reading her uneasiness before she had spoken a word.
"I'm not sure, sir," she said after a moment, pursing her lips. "The preliminary energy readings indicated a pretty decent amount of technology, and they obviously have some kind of power source." She nodded at the lights high above. "But Bodhus seemed to think that both the lights and the MALP were a type of magic. And when I tried to explain radio waves, that woman in gray, Hariteia, cut me off in a hurry." Sam turned to look for the other woman again and found that she had been joined by a man who had not been a part of the original assembly. He wore hooded gray, as well, and they were speaking quiety to each other, looking from Teal'c and Daniel (still talking with a happily nodding Bodhus) to Sam and the Colonel.
"So the villagers are hiding something." Colonel O'Neill gave a small sigh of annoyance and gazed up at the lights overhead, then across at the small, gray-clad pair still conferring with one another. "Well, Daniel will be occupied for a while, if his All Frescoes All The Time presentation at the briefing was any indication. Why don't you..." he waved a hand vaguely, apparently waiting for her to fill in the rest of the order herself.
"Collect some mineral samples and take some more detailed energy readings?" Sam supplied.
"Yes." The Colonel nodded soberly, then added with a generous smile, "Collect. Read. Have fun. I'll be..." he seemed to be searching for a way to say 'standing around looking bored' without actually saying it. He finished half-heartedly with "...over there," and strolled away in the direction he had indicated. Sam grinned at his back and started toward the MALP to retrieve her sample kit.
"Captain Carter." A small woman in an orange chiton approached her, smiling. "I am called Menandi; I serve with Bodhus in the House of Governors. Your friend requested that Bodhus send someone to assist you and answer any questions you might have." She inclined her head toward Daniel, who was evidently fascinated by a section of fresco not too far away. "He said you would be particularly interested in our local magic."
"Thank you, Menandi, I'd love some help." Sam returned the other woman's smile, then cast a glance over her head at Daniel. He looked up from his study of the cavern wall and gave her a small grin. She gave him a slight nod and turned back to her kit, impressed. So Daniel's preoccupation with the frescoes had been as much diplomatic maneuvering as academic enthusiasm. He'd avoided hostilities with Hariteia and sent Sam someone who would hopefully prove a more willing source of information on the planet's r16;magic.r17;
"That's why we keep feeding him," said the Colonel, strolling by with his arms crossed over his MP-5. There was something very like paternal pride in his grin. Sam smiled and turned back to Menandi, who was waiting patiently.
"I'd like to take some samples of the nearby soil and rock; I'll be testing it for the presence of some specific ores and minerals."
Menandi nodded. "These caves and tunnels, which now house our city, were once a vast mine. Some sections are still worked for various ores; perhaps you would like to take your samples from a few of the closer mining sites?" She gestured toward one of the nearby exits from the cave.
"That would be perfect, actually." Sam turned toward the Colonel, who was watching her, and nodded in the direction Menandi had indicated, tapping her sample kit. The Colonel nodded, then strolled over to Teal'c and Daniel. As Sam slung the sample kit over her shoulder and followed Menandi out of the cave, Teal'c detached himself from the others and fell into step behind her.
The tunnel they entered had obviously not been designed to accommodate anyone over five and a half feet tall. Sam could feel her hair grazing the ceiling and instinctively ducked her head slightly. Beside her, Teal'c was somehow making the act of walking with his neck bent at almost a fifty-degree angle look dignified.
"What elements will you be looking for in your tests?" Menandi asked curiously. Sam couldn't help noticing that the smaller woman had no trouble walking through the tunnel, and was moving with much more grace and dispatch than Sam could manage, encumbered as she was with her kit and trying not to hit her head.
"Well, I'll test for a number of different ones, but I'm going to look for a significant concentration of an element called naquadah in particular." Sam paused to squeeze through a particularly narrow section of tunnel, then added "It's what the Stargate is made of."
"By 'Stargate' you mean the Ring in the chamber of histories." Menandi raised her eyebrows, making the statement a question. When Sam nodded, she continued, "Then I think you will find a great deal of this element at our first destination. We are very close to one of the sites where it is currently being mined."
Sam began to hear--or perhaps feel--very low vibrations through the tunnel walls. They grew steadily stronger as she and Teal'c followed Menandi down branching tunnels. "Menandi, if we find that your planet has enough naquadah for the purpose, do you think your House of Governors would be open to some kind of trade agreement with my planet?"
Menandi looked thoughtful for a moment, then replied "I suppose it would depend heavily on the decision of the Accepted. The use of this ore is restricted to them." Sam grimaced, thinking she could probably guess how Hariteia and the other Accepted would decide that question, but Menandi continued "It would also likely depend on what was offered in trade." She cocked her head over her shoulder at Sam, obviously curious.
"Well, we normally offer medicines as a primary trade item; most of the peoples we've encountered through the Stargate haven't advanced very far in the field of medicine."
"I think you will find that our planet is an exception," Menandi smiled a little apologetically. "The healing magic of the Accepted can cure any injury and almost any disease."
"I'm sure we could work out some other agreement, then." Sam tried to sound more confident than she felt. She glanced at Teal'c, who was giving her the enigmatic eyebrow-lift that seemed to be his response to almost everything. Sam took this one to mean that Teal'c had as many reservations about the Accepted and their abilities as Sam had herself.
The vibrations intensified as they followed Menandi around a corner and found that the tunnel ended in a heavy door.
"I would suggest taking your samples from the rock here." Menandi indicated the tunnel walls around the door. "I tested the rock and soil here a year ago myself, which led to this mining site's placement. I think you'll find...what was your phrase?" She grinned. "A 'significant concentration' of what you call naquadah."
"Shouldn't I take samples from inside the mine itself?" asked Sam, looking from Menandi to the door, which had no discernible latch or hinges.
"Only the Accepted are permitted to enter the mine," said Menandi, "but I believe there should be enough traces of the ore in this rock to serve your purposes." She looked keenly at Sam's sample kit, as if impatient to see inside it. "What methods do you use to ascertain the presence of the ore in soil and rock? The device the House of Governors uses was provided by the Accepted, and is much smaller than yours."
"Oh, this isn't actually a device for testing, it's a kit of all the equipment I might need for testing." She opened the kit and began setting out items, explaining their uses while watching Teal'c out of the corner of her eye. He was looking at the door behind her, face inscrutable as usual. Sam was halfway through an explanation of acid testing, and had just paused to let Menandi ask a question when Teal'c cut smoothly into the conversation.
"Am I to understand that the mining of naquadah is entirely under the purview of the Accepted?"
"Yes," Menandi replied, "they do allow some of the more skilled assistants in the House of Governors to use their testing equipment to evaluate new mining sites," she did not look up from the streak plate she was holding, but the small note of pride in her voice was unmistakable. "However, the operations of mining are carried out with the Accepted's magic, so naturally others are not permitted to enter the mine once it has been established."
"And the Accepted do not impose any labor connected with the mining on your people?" Teal'c's tone was of polite inquiry, but Sam could hear a slight edge under his words.
"No, the Accepted use magic to perform most forms of unskilled labor," Menandi replied, still more interested in the contents of Sam's kit than in the conversation. "It frees the workers that would otherwise be needed to pursue training with the guilds." She had put down the streak plate and was holding the magnets up for scrutiny, experimentally separating and joining them. Teal'c, seeming satisfied with her answer, subsided.
"Menandi," Sam hesitated, holding a tube full of the fine grit that covered the tunnel's floor. When the other woman only looked at her expectantly, she continued, "You said the Accepted could cure almost any disease. Does that mean there are diseases that they can't cure?"
"Only one," Menandi replied, handing Sam the magnets. "The wandering sorrow. Perhaps it cannot be cured because it is not a disease in the common way. It is..." she paused, seeming to search for the best choice of words, "an affliction, perhaps, of the heart and mind. One might even say a madness. It is not an illness like most others. There is no pain, no suffering of the body, only of the spirit." She touched one hand to her chest.
"But you call it a disease," Sam frowned. "If it doesn't affect people physically, what are its symptoms?" When Menandi cocked her head at the unfamiliar word, Sam clarified: "What does it do to the people who have it?"
"They become sad first," Menandi sobered a bit. "They grow more and more unhappy and they can rarely give a reason for their unhappiness. They begin to wander farther and farther from the city and eventually they take one of the tunnels to the planet's surface, where the air is harsh and the ground is covered with ice. Most never return."
"Do they just freeze to death, or do they continue to live on the surface?" asked Sam, perplexed.
"Most of them live the rest of their years on the surface, though life on the surface is difficult and sometimes dangerous. Some die for lack of proper food or heat or medicine, all things that they would have in abundance here in the city." Menandi gave a small sigh. "From time to time, attempts are made to convince them to come back or to at least accept food and clothing." She shrugged and her smile faded a little. "They will not accept anything from the city. They say they are exiles."
Sam was still debating asking another question when Teal'c spoke. "What reason do these exiles give for leaving the city and refusing aid?"
Menandi looked down at Sam's kit and shook her head. "No doubt their reasons seem sound to them in their own minds, but to those who are clear-minded and are not afflicted with their strange sadness, they make little sense." She looked up, shrugged again and gave Sam a resigned smile. "Forgive me, I am being foolish. My sister took the wandering sorrow a long time ago and my father also, only a year ago. It is difficult to see those dear to one's heart impose suffering upon themselves for no reason."
"I'm sorry," said Sam, because she didn't know what else to say.
Menandi shook her head as if dismissing the subject. "It is not something that should concern you. If you have gathered enough samples for your test, I suggest we move on, as it will be time for the evening meal soon."
She helped Sam pack her samples away and led the way back down the tunnel, followed by Teal'c. Sam paused just long enough to touch the fingers of one hand to the implacable mine door, feeling the vibrations of what had to be heavy machinery buzzing through the metal. Then she turned and caught up with Teal'c, her mind humming, and followed the small, orange-clad figure back toward the city.