Colonel Jack O’Neill meandered into the ruins with one purpose in mind: to find his scientists.

They’d gated to the planet—moon actually if you want to be specific about it and Jack didn’t really ever want to be that specific—earlier this morning much to his severe displeasure.

First, it was Monday and Mondays were never fun no matter what planet you were on.

Second, it was a scientific mission for crying out loud which just poured salt in his already gapping wound. He was on scientist-sitting duty and he didn’t like it. Granted, when there was actually something interesting to look at he didn’t mind as much, but he’d never ever let either Carter or Daniel know about that. Generally, he liked these types of missions as much as he enjoyed a good poke in the eye.

Daniel, in his ever-present exuberance, had bounded off into the sun rising a split second after he and Teal’c had given the all clear. Carter hadn’t been too far behind.

On a mission several weeks ago, Daniel had stumbled across some weird writings—go figure—that he was convinced could "change the face of the world as we know it." Yeah, you needed quotes for that kind of statement nowadays, especially when it came to Daniel. Lately, he was discovering one of those things at least once a week. Jack had yet to see one of them actually turn into something tangible, something that he could wrap his hands around—like a big honking new space weapon. Go figure.

After countless hours researching and several missed hockey games later, Daniel had finally burst into Hammond’s office on Thursday morning, his hair sticking up in all directions, his glasses askew, with several sheets of paper waving frantically about. At first, Jack had thought that Daniel was being attacked by some strange alien creature and had offered to assist Daniel in its demise with a well placed shot from his service revolver.

Daniel was not as accepting of Jack’s offer as he should have been.

Needless to say, the General had agreed to check out the planet—moon—that Daniel had discovered and a MALP had gone out several hours later to a set of gate coordinates that Jack was surprised actually worked. Sometimes Jack was convinced that Daniel had a gate address book hidden away in his office and when he needed to find a new planet to rave about he just whipped it out and let his fingers do the walking.

It would sure explain a lot.

Anyway, the MALP—unfortunately—had also indicated that this planet—moon, whatever the hell it was—was also high in certain materials, naquadah being the most predominant. Carter had nearly gone into a naquadah-induced orgasm when the initial results had been transmitted from the MALP. Secretly, Jack thought that it was only because of the fact that the General had been standing directly behind her that she managed to keep her composure.

So here he was on a Monday afternoon, walking through yet another ruined old city of some sort, trying to find his two scientists. He’d sent Teal’c on another perimeter search just so that he could say he was doing something.

When you really got down to it, he was bored, and he hated being bored, and his team always hated it when he was bored. But yet, he still managed to get bored on more than one occasion. Granted, his attention span was only slightly longer than an episode of the Simpsons, but that shouldn’t make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things—you know life, the universe, and everything.

Oh God, he was hanging around Daniel too much. He’d have to rectify that situation soon enough, but that was something for another day.

"Carter!" Jack bellowed, his voiced echoing strangely off of the stone buildings that surrounded him. Why use the radio all the time? Yelling was much more fun. "Daniel!"

"Uh, Jack," came Daniel’s reply through the radio clipped to his field vest. "We’re a little busy here."

"What are you doing, Daniel?" Jack replied, depressing the button on the side of his radio. Daniel knew how to suck the fun out of things.

"Working."

"What are you working on?"

"Translations of some ancient texts."

"And how’s that going for ya?"

"Good."

"Good."

There was a pause before Daniel spoke again. "You wanted something?"

"Yeah." Another long paused followed.

"Jack, we’re kind of in the middle of something here."

Jack’s face twisted with annoyance at Daniel’s tone, but he chose to ignore it. Continuing his stroll deeper into the ruined city, Jack’s eyes glazed over the buildings, a part of him wondering what kind of people could have lived here. "Where are you?"

"In the temple in the middle of the village square."

"Temple? Why is it always religion with you? Couldn’t it just be a nice mini-mart?"

"Jack," Daniel’s tone held a note of warning.

"I’ll be there in a minute and don’t touch anything. Temples have a nasty habit of going off at the wrong time."

"Jack, we’re translating text. Nothing’s going to happen."

"Yeah, like that’s ever true. I’ll be right there. O’Neill out."

The walk to the center of the village wasn’t far. In fact as soon as Jack turned the corner the temple was directly in his sights, rising up from the ground like a church spire. No wonder Daniel thought it was a temple. It looked like one.

Jack sighed and aimed himself toward the door on the lower right side. It was the only opening he could see from this vantagepoint and Jack knew just how much open doors in temples just beckoned for the young archeologist. It was an addiction of sorts, Daniel and his temples. It was as if the very presence of a temple could draw him from anywhere on a planet or moon, or whatever, singing its sweet siren song. Vaguely, Jack wondered just what that song might be.

Shaking his head to get rid of some of his more meandering thoughts, Jack sauntered through the town-square, his eyes constantly moving. Even though things had checked out earlier, didn’t mean that something else might come walking down one of the wide streets at any time. Better to be safe than sorry, he always said.

These villages liked green for some strange reason, Jack noted, absently realizing that most of the buildings that still had paint on them were a strange greenish color.

A yelp from the direction of the temple set Jack running at double speed, adrenaline coursing through his bloodstream, his right hand gripping his MP5 while his left latched itself onto his radio.

"Daniel?" Jack paused. "Carter?" Jack paused again, waiting for some kind of response. "Teal’c, something happened to Daniel and Carter and I’m not able to get hold of them. I’m checking it out."

"I understand, O’Neill. I will meet you at the temple immediately," Teal’c said, his voice somber and deep timbered.

Jack tried again to raise the two scientists on the radio, but got no reply. He shook his head, disgusted. They probably went and touched something again, he thought. They never listen. I warn them and they never listen. It’s not like this kind of thing never happens. Oh no, it happens all the time, but will they just listen to me for once in their lives? Oh, no.

Skidding to a halt just outside the door to the temple, Jack peered in trying to see into the darkness.

He saw nothing.

Taking a deep breath, Jack took a step inside, the coolness of the temple passage spilling over him. Grabbing his flashlight, he held it in his left hand bracing his MP5. At least now he could see.

The passage sloped downward, opening into a large room at the bottom, several hundred feet from the entrance. Daniel’s backpack was dropped in a heap toward the center of the room. Where Carter’s pack was was anyone’s guess.

There were several doors leading out of the main chamber and Jack headed toward the one on the far right, where he saw the most disturbances in the dirt-covered floor.

Cautiously making his way through the temple passages, a light up ahead drew him closer—that and the sound of voices. From where he was, Jack couldn’t make out any words, but he could tell that there was more than one person there.

Rounding the corner sharply, his MP5 at the ready, Daniel’s and Carter’s heads snapped up, their eyes widening as they caught sight of Jack’s weapon aimed in their direction.

"Jack?" Daniel started, but trailed off as Jack’s eyes swept the otherwise empty room.

"Daniel, just what the hell was that yell for and why didn’t you answer your radio? You’re going to give me gray hair before this day is through," Jack said, lowering his weapon.

"We found this passage," Daniel said gesturing wildly around, immediately forgetting that Jack had only moments ago had his weapon armed and pointing at his head.

Jack turned toward the Captain pointedly ignoring Daniel’s enthusiasm. "Carter, I thought you were the more responsible one in the group. Did you even think before you let him open the door?"

"Well, Sir," Carter began, running a hand through her short blonde hair. "From what Daniel can make out from the ancient writings, there is some kind of powerful weapon secreted in this temple for those who can decipher the writings."

"And you didn’t think that there might be some kind of trap protecting it from people like us? And why do you even think it’s still here?" The shortsightedness and optimism these scientists showed on a daily basis was absolutely astounding to him. Since when had one of these "secret weapons" ever been something that they’d be able to actually use?

"Well, Jack," Daniel began, taking a step closer to Jack. "The door was still sealed for one thing and besides, I thought you’d be happy if we were actually able to find some weapon."

Jack shook his head. "You know me and alien technology, but besides that…what were you thinking? Opening a sealed door in an alien temple on another planet on the other side of the universe. They obviously sealed it for a reason."

"It’s a moon, Jack."

"That doesn’t matter!" Jack growled. "Just answer the question."

"What question?" Daniel asked, his head tilted to the side, innocence etched into his features.

Jack spoke very quietly, enunciating every word. "Why do you think they sealed the door?"

"They apparently wanted to keep the weapon safe and secure."

"And that’s my point. To keep it safe and secure from people like us, Daniel. For once I would love for you to at least err on the side of caution."

"Well, we didn’t open this door yet," Daniel said, pointing behind him.

"And why is that?" Jack asked, already figuring on what Daniel’s answer would be.

"Honestly," Daniel said, looking away, a sheepish expression on his face. "We just hadn’t gotten to it yet."

"See!" Jack exclaimed, his voice echoing off of the stone walls.

"Well, now that you’re here can I open it?"

"You know how?"

"Of course."

"Did you even bother to check out the room?"

"There’s nothing here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Then you checked out the room."

Daniel paused. "Not exactly."

"What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?" Jack tried not to sigh, but the feeling was nearly too strong to ignore. The archeologist was starting to get on his nerves.

Daniel glanced quickly to Carter who was staying out of the conversation. "Well, we didn’t search the room from top to bottom. We kind of just started on the door."

"What? Why?" Jack’s brown eyes narrowed.

"Well, the texts outside said that the weapon was in the second room, that this was just the vestibule."

"The vestibule?"

"Yes, the vestibule."

"And that means what exactly?"

"That there’s nothing here."

This time Jack did sigh, a nice big one. It was either that or strangle an archeologist. It was a tough decision.

"Fine. Open the door, but let me check out the room."

"Fine, Jack," Daniel said, moving to the door he had indicated earlier. Stepping to the side, he shined his flashlight on the stones and then began to touch the individual blocks alongside the door jam in sequence. Jack positioned himself just to the left of the door; his MP5 aimed directly down the center. He was not about ready to take any chances. Carter was at Daniel’s right, helping him with the combination lock.How many scientists does it take to unlock a door? Oh, don’t get started with that now, Jack groaned to himself.

"Okay, Jack," Daniel said quietly. "One more."

"I’m ready. Go ahead."

As soon as Daniel touched the last stone, the wall, door, whatever slid upward and nothing happened.

Jack took a cautious step forward, his weapon at the ready, his flashlight scanning the area before him. Just as he took his last step, his feet crossing the line of the door jam Daniel yelled out.

"Wait, Jack! Wait!"

But it was too late.

As soon as his toe crossed over that invisible line, his body came into close contact with some kind of shield.

That shield was a little more advanced then some of the force shields that they had encountered before. This one was just a tad bit more forceful.

Maybe tad was too small a word.As his body was flung backward from the door, his feet leaving the ground and he flew back toward the solid stone wall, he reminded himself to do one thing when this was all over.

Throttle Daniel.

The flying through the air part of this really wasn’t bad. Kind of fun actually, Jack through as the wind rushed by his ears. He just had a slight problem with the sudden stop when his body crashed into the back wall—hard.

He didn’t even feel himself crumble to the ground.