Chapter Text
"I'm Hercules. I come from Greece."
HtLJ
"Have I mentioned to you that I hate surprises?"
Stargate SG-1
Damn the storm!
Hercules cursed steadily under his breath, a small corner of his mind grimly amused by the reaction he'd have gotten from Iolaus if his friend could have heard him. He needed to find shelter soon, a protected place where he could start a fire and tend to his partner's wounds. He shifted the body on his shoulder to a more comfortable position and shook his head to clear the water from his eyes. The storm raged around him, the rain falling in heavy sheets, obscuring his view of the path. He felt carefully for each footfall; he'd already slipped twice, almost dropping Iolaus when he'd tried to hurry.
He nearly missed the ruin for the heavy torrent of water. He had, in fact, trudged past it when a sudden calm abruptly and momentarily shut off the rain revealing the building to his left. He froze in disbelief, then hurried up the crumbling stone steps as the rain returned with renewed gusto. He shoved his free shoulder against the heavy slab door that hung askew blocking the entrance, easily pushing it aside.
He made his way through the dark interior; flashes of lightning briefly illuminating the small room, revealing enough debris to start a fire. He lowered Iolaus' unconscious form to the floor and propped him against a wall. A short time later he squatted in front of the fire, feeding it dry twigs and leaves. The small blaze grew steadily as he cautiously added larger pieces of wood. The fire lit the room with a growing warmth and he looked around for more fuel, gathering all he could find.
Unconscious and shivering, Iolaus huddled against the wall. Hercules lifted his friend and carried him to the fire, placing him as close to its warmth as he dared. He stripped off the soggy purple vest and spread it to dry over a jumble of broken statuary.
Gently he unwrapped the makeshift bandage and probed the knife wound in Iolaus' shoulder. The wound was neither deep nor in a life threatening location and the bleeding appeared to have stopped. Hercules sighed. He should clean and cover it with a fresh dressing, but since they'd lost their carry sacks in the fight he didn't have that luxury. He flipped the old bandage and re-wrapped it over the wound.
He shuddered as he recalled turning during the fight just in time to see the heavy club connect with the back of his friend's head. His heart had stopped when Iolaus dropped like a stone, a knife protruding from his shoulder. His memory of the rest of the fight was of a red haze of flying bodies at the end of which only he was left standing. Broken bodies had littered the small clearing around him, but all he could see was Iolaus' still form. He'd knelt and searched for a pulse and nearly wept with relief when he felt the erratic heartbeat beneath his fingers. He'd finished bandaging the knife wound just as the storm hit with all its fury and he'd had no choice but to gather his friend up and search for shelter.
Hercules cradled Iolaus' head in one large hand and probed with gentle fingers. He winced in sympathy at the size of the lump he found. The skin wasn't broken and Iolaus was alive and breathing, even if he was still unconscious. All Hercules could do now was keep him warm and dry.
He piled more wood and debris on the fire until it crackled cheerfully and then returned to sit next to his friend, leaning back against another chunk of broken marble. He positioned Iolaus so that he lay on his side facing the fire, his wounded shoulder away from the floor, his head resting on Hercules' thigh. A comforting hand on his friend's shoulder helped hold him in place. Hercules leaned his head back against the hard stone and wearily closed his eyes.
Hercules squinted against the bright sunlight shining on his face. Where was he? Were they in Corinth already? Why was his bed so hard? He turned his face away from the light and as he took in his surroundings the events of the previous night returned. He was alone in the small room. Where was Iolaus?
He surged to his feet, ready to search for his friend when the party in question came through the open doorway carrying an armload of wood and whistling cheerfully. Hercules crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.
"Hey Herc! Finally up?" Iolaus grinned. "And here I thought you always got up with the sunrise. Getting lazy in your old age, huh?"
Hercules snorted. "What are you doing?"
Iolaus dropped the pile of branches near the fire and shrugged. "Thought I'd gather some dry wood while I could. Looks like this is just a break in the storm. I figure it'll be better to stay here than try to find someplace else to shelter. I was getting kind of hungry, so I trapped some rabbits."
Hercules helped Iolaus build the fire up to a healthy blaze and then stepped back. "Want some help with those?" he asked, gesturing at the skinned rabbits Iolaus had placed on the clean broad leaves that he'd gathered.
"Nope. I was kinda hopin' for an edible breakfast this morning, not charred rabbit." He grinned when Hercules rolled his eyes.
"How's your head?"
Iolaus shrugged. "It hurts."
"I bet. Guess it's a good thing it's so hard."
Iolaus grunted. "I didn't get a good look at our attackers last night in the dark. How many of them were there and who were they? And why'd they attack us, d'ya think?"
Hercules looked away uncomfortably. "I'm not sure. I, ah, don't really remember much after you went down and then the storm hit and I had to find a place for us to get out of it and--"
"Herc?" He frowned slightly. "Whaddaya mean, 'you don't really remember?'"
Hercules ran his hand back through his hair. "I kind of...got mad when I saw one of them hit you with that club. I'm not sure about the rest of the fight, but I think a lot of them ran off right about then."
"I see." Iolaus pursed his lips, but didn't pursue the matter, much to Hercules' relief. "Any idea where we are?"
Hercules shook his head. "I'm pretty sure I stayed on the same path, but the rain was coming down so hard it's possible I took a turning. I was lucky to see this place at all."
"You know, the outside sort of reminds me of something, but I can't think what it is. Guess it'll come to me if it's important." Iolaus knelt down and began to spit the rabbits in preparation for roasting them over the fire.
The light was already dimming as the wind picked up, pushing dark clouds in front of the sun. Hercules noticed that Iolaus had gathered rushes, though how he'd found anything dry after all the rain was a mystery. He quickly bound several of them together and added a few stout branches to create makeshift torches. He stuck one into the fire and was satisfied when it started to burn slowly, putting out just enough light to be useful.
He glanced around the small room curiously. Something about it and the faded decorations and broken statues tugged at his memory. It was smaller inside than he thought it would be from his brief look at the building in the rain, but there was no door to indicate a chamber beyond this one. Maybe a trick of the lightning had made the ruin appear larger than it really was. He frowned and picked his way around the debris on the floor to the wall opposite the doorway to the outside.
Hercules ran his free hand lightly over the smooth stone until he found a minute seam. Using his fingertips he traced the seam down to the floor. "Huh."
"What?"
He glanced over his shoulder to find Iolaus watching him. The rabbits hung on a makeshift spit ready to be placed over the fire.
"I think there may be a hidden door here."
Iolaus nodded. "Makes sense. This place looks a lot bigger from the outside than the space this small room takes up." He stood and glanced down at the rabbits before crossing the room to Hercules' side. "Any idea how to open it?"
Hercules rubbed his chin. "Are we sure we should? Whoever built this went to a lot of trouble to conceal this door, if it is a door. Maybe we should just leave it alone."
Iolaus glanced at him and frowned. "You don't really mean that, do you? Look around. There's nothing here but broken statues and junk. Aren't you curious to find out what's on the other side? Unless you think maybe this is some kind of temple."
He shook his head slowly. "It doesn't look like any temple I'm familiar with."
"Maybe there's something on the other side of this that'll tell us who built it and why." Iolaus touched the wall with his palm. "I've never seen stonework like this, have you? It looks like one big slab, but how could that be?"
Hercules frowned and glanced around the room. "I don't know. It's different from the other walls, too."
"Well, we're never going to figure it out until we find a way to open the door," Iolaus said with a grin.
He watched for a moment as Iolaus ran his hands over the stone while he slowly walked towards the adjoining wall. He shrugged and mimicked his friend's movements, reaching the opposite corner without finding anything that would indicate a hidden trigger mechanism. He was about to start searching along the side wall when he heard a grating rumble.
"Got it! Hey Herc, look at this!" Iolaus had his hand pressed to a small square area that was slightly depressed into the wall. He removed his hand and the depressed area returned flush to the wall, effectively disappearing from sight.
The rumble was caused by a large rectangular slab of stone rising in the middle of the wall, opening a doorway into the chamber beyond. Hercules and Iolaus stood before the opening and watched the slab rise until it disappeared into the ceiling. They exchanged a wordless glance.
"What is this place?"
Hercules shook his head. "I don't know. I've never heard of anything like it."
They stepped into the chamber and Hercules placed his torch in an empty bracket attached to the wall next to the entrance. Fresh air entered rapidly through the open doorway, replacing the stale musty air inside. The room was large and, unlike the outer room, its contents were intact. Gilt decorations covered the walls and carved stone statues stood sentry, casting eerie shadows in the flickering torchlight.
Iolaus walked to the nearest wall to examine the drawings that covered it. Hercules stood still, his attention captured by the large object on a raised dais at the opposite end of the room.
"Herc," Iolaus said, a strange note in his voice, "I think I know what it is that's familiar about this place. This is like that writing we saw in Egypt. You know, the picture writing?"
"Iolaus." Hercules couldn't take his eyes off the object in front of him.
"Huh?" Iolaus asked absently, his attention still on the hieroglyphs.
"What do you think that is?" He pointed to the far end of the room.
Iolaus turned. "By the gods," he muttered and returned to Hercules' side. "You know what that looks like?"
"What?" Hercules frowned. He'd never seen anything like it. How could Iolaus know what it was?
"It looks like Xena's chakram." He cocked his head to the side and considered the metal ring. "You think maybe the people that built this place created the chakram too?"
Hercules' eyes widened. Iolaus was right. The thing did look something like her chakram, although the details weren't exactly the same. "I don't know," he said doubtfully. "I thought her chakram came from somewhere in India originally. If you're right about the Egyptian writing, then I doubt the chakram has anything to do with whatever that is."
"Yeah, but doesn't it kinda look like it's just waiting for a giant version of Xena to bend down and pick it up?" He grinned.
"That's all we need." Hercules snorted. "Isn't the normal-sized Xena we've already got more than enough?"
"I wonder what those symbols on it are," Iolaus said and started for the dais. He was part way up the steps when a sudden noise came from the object and one by one the triangular shapes spaced around the outer edge of the ring began to glow.
Hercules jumped forward and grabbed his vest, yanking him down the steps and all the way back to stand next to the opening to the outer room.
"What's it doing?" Iolaus asked as he absently adjusted his vest.
Hercules shook his head. "Whatever it is, I don't like it."
"Do you think we caused it by opening up this room?" He gestured at the doorway.
"Who knows? We're not getting any closer to it, though."
"Uh-huh." Iolaus put his hands on his hips and stared at the ring.
Ka-whoosh!
"Whoa!"
A rush of what appeared to be water flooded out of the center of the ring and then receded to form the bright blue surface of what looked, for all the world, like a placid lake. In the center of the ring. Standing straight upright and not spilling a drop onto the floor. Impossible, thought Hercules. That's just…wrong.
"Herc?" Iolaus asked, his voice unsteady. "What in Tartarus is that thing?!"
"I wish I knew," he answered grimly.
"Why isn't that water, or whatever it is, all over the floor?"
Hercules glanced down at Iolaus and noted that his partner had automatically assumed a fighting stance. As had he, he realized, and quickly scanned the room for potential threats. After a few moments he began to think that nothing further was going to happen. Iolaus' quick intake of breath snapped his attention back to the object on the dais. Four people walked out of the middle of the ring, through the strange water. They were dressed oddly and they were dry. The moment the fourth person stepped through the ring the blue surface vanished and the triangles went dark.
"You can take the big guy," Iolaus said quietly and jerked his chin at the large black man standing before the ring.
Hercules dismissed the man with the strange thing strapped to his face, but the other two were obviously acquainted with fighting. He sighed to himself as he noted that the smallest of the four was a woman. Great. Whoever they were they'd certainly come prepared for a fight if three of them were warriors. The strangers were talking to each other in an unfamiliar language.
"Oh, for cryin' out loud! Somebody up in the control room must have fumble fingers, 'cause this sure as hell ain't P4N738."
"Look at those statues!" Daniel Jackson glanced around the room with wide eyes. "And the hieroglyphs! This could be a major find, Jack. You might end up thanking whoever sent us here instead of chewing him out."
"Look on the bright side, Colonel," added Captain Carter with a small smile. "At least there aren't any trees here. Not that we can see, anyway."
"Great, Carter. But just where is here? OK campers, time to--"
"Colonel O'Neill."
"What is it, Teal'c?" Jack glanced at the large black man and raised an eyebrow.
"We are not alone." Teal'c inclined his head towards the far end of the room.
O'Neill and Carter automatically raised their weapons and turned to face the strangers. Daniel stared appraisingly at the two men standing by the open door. The big man didn't look happy and both men looked like they were ready for a fight.
"Daniel," Jack said quietly without taking his eyes from the men in the doorway, "ball's in your court."
"Right, Jack." Daniel adjusted his glasses and assumed the harmless look that the others had dubbed his 'first contact' expression. He slowly walked down the steps. Teal'c followed a discreet two steps behind, his presence a not-so-subtle hint of protection for which Daniel was grateful.
Daniel raised both hands palm up to show that he was unarmed. From the hieroglyphs on the walls the obvious language choice was Egyptian. Daniel tried as many variations on the language and accent as he could think of, including the dialect he'd learned on Abydos. A couple of times he thought he caught a flicker of something in the larger man's eyes, but nothing that indicated understanding. He sighed and launched into other languages, plowing his way through French, Italian and Spanish to no avail. Russian merely brought blank stares and he wasn't sure even a native of Berlin would recognize his attempt at German. He tried nearly all of the languages, living and dead, that he knew and was about ready to admit defeat when the two men suddenly spoke quietly to each other.
"Guess they must not be from around here," Iolaus said out of the side of his mouth.
"What gave it away?" Hercules replied, his gaze never leaving the strangers in front of them.
Daniel stared at them in shock. Greek. They were speaking Greek. An odd accent, but it was definitely Greek. He smiled and spoke in their language.
"You're Greek?" His smile widened when the two men gave a start at his words.
"Yes," the larger man said slowly.
"Wow. I thought at first that maybe you were Egyptian, what with the hieroglyphs and all." Daniel gestured at the wall.
The large man shook his head and said firmly, "No. We're Greek."
"See. I told you that was Egyptian writing." The smaller man grinned up at his large companion.
"Daniel?" Jack asked. "What did they say?"
"Huh?" Daniel looked back at him and flushed slightly. "Oh. They're Greek. They speak Greek."
Jack nodded slowly with a small smile. "Kinda figured they'd speak Greek if they are Greek. What else did they say?"
Daniel shrugged. "That's all so far."
Jack rolled his eyes and pointedly ignored a snicker coming from Carter's direction. "Who are they?"
"Oh. Sorry."
Daniel turned back to the two patiently waiting men. He noticed that most of the tension in their postures had vanished and the smaller man looked like he was trying not to laugh. Daniel stepped closer and held out his hand. "My name is Daniel Jackson."
"Iolaus," the blond said as he clasped Daniel's forearm. "And this is Hercules."
Daniel's eyes widened as he clasped forearms with the big man. "H-hercules?"
The others had followed Daniel all the way down the ramp and stood in a semi-circle behind him. Carter looked up with wide eyes at the taller of the two strangers.
"Daniel, did he just say that he's Hercules?"
Iolaus rolled his eyes and looked at his friend. "Great. We don't even know where these people are from, but she's heard of you. Figures." He shook his head, his disgust evident even to the three who didn't understand what he'd said.
Daniel turned to her. "Yeah, Sam, he said his name's Hercules. But he can't be the Hercules. I mean, that's impossible. It's probably just a cultural name preserved by the people who came to this world. I bet there's a lot of men here named Hercules, as well as Perseus and Theseus and other names that we'd recognize."
She nodded slowly, her gaze never leaving the big man.
"I dunno, Daniel. He sure looks big enough to be the Hercules." Jack raised an eyebrow and tried unsuccessfully to hide a grin.
Iolaus and Hercules exchanged a startled glance.
"Do you think they know Perseus and Theseus?" Iolaus asked in alarm.
"I hope not." Hercules grimaced. "All we need is for those two to get mixed up in whatever this is."
At their words Daniel's attention returned to the two Greeks. He blinked and shook his head, then gestured at his companions. "This is Jack O'Neill. Samantha Carter. And this is, um, Teal'c."
They clasped forearms with Jack and returned Teal'c's single nod of the head. Daniel tried not to smile when Iolaus took Sam's hand in both of his and kissed it slowly. Hercules merely rolled his eyes and elbowed the other man in the side before clasping her forearm.
"Find out where we are, Daniel." Jack raised his eyebrows.
Daniel nodded.
"Could you tell us where we are?"
"Greece." Hercules exchanged a puzzled glance with Iolaus.
"Okay," Daniel said slowly. He gazed briefly at the Egyptian hieroglyphs on the walls and then back at the two men. "Where on Greece are we?"
"Oh. Northwest of Corinth." Iolaus shrugged. "Maybe a few days walk."
Hercules nodded. "We were heading there when we were attacked and then a storm came up so we took shelter here in this ruin." He nodded his head at the now dormant ring. "What is that thing?"
Daniel worried his lower lip between his teeth and frowned. He held up a hand and turned to Jack.
"We're on Greece, or at least that's what they call their world. And we're north of a place they called Corinth. Uh, Jack?"
"Yes Daniel?"
"They want to know about the Stargate."
"What?" Jack frowned.
"They asked what it is. What should I tell them?"
The Colonel shrugged. "Tell them the truth. Or as much of the truth as you think they can handle."
Daniel turned back to the two Greeks. "You don't know what that is?" He pointed back to the Stargate.
"No."
"It isn't a vortex, is it?" Iolaus asked cautiously. "You know, like to an alternate reality?" He shot a concerned look at Hercules.
Daniel blinked. "Not exactly, but that's a very good guess. We call it a Stargate. It allows us to travel to other worlds far beyond our own. You might have heard it called a chappa'ai? Maybe you have legends of your people having been brought to this world from another place. Perhaps by gods or by beings called the Goa'uld?"
"That's a new one on me." Iolaus shrugged and looked up at Hercules. "How 'bout it, Herc? Your relatives ever talk about something like that?"
Hercules shook his head. "No."
Iolaus gestured at the room. "You know, this place has been sealed up for a really long time. The outer room is a mess and the structure looks like a ruin."
"Daniel?" Jack asked softly.
"They've never heard of the Stargate." Daniel glanced at the others. "And they don't seem to know any legends about the Goa'uld bringing them to this world. But they did ask if the Stargate was a vortex that opened onto an alternate reality."
"How..?" Sam shook her head. "Never mind. What now, Sir?"
Jack tipped his cap up, ran his hand through his hair and resettled the cap on his head. "Carter, find the DHD. I didn't see it when we first walked through the 'gate. Daniel, see if you can get some more information on the people here. Teal'c, stay with him. I'll check out the room. I'd like to make sure there aren't any nasty surprises lurking in the corners."
Daniel waited until Sam and Jack had moved off before turning back to the Greeks. "You said you were attacked. Who attacked you?"
Hercules shrugged. "It was dark and we didn't get a good look at them. Probably just some bandits."
"Bandits?" Daniel frowned. "How many were in your party? Are there others that might need help?"
Iolaus' lips twitched in amusement and he glanced at Hercules. "They may have heard of you, but they obviously haven't heard of you." He turned back to Daniel. "There were just the two of us."
"Oh." Daniel raised his eyebrows. "How many bandits? If you don't mind my asking." He noticed a faint blush on Hercules' face.
Iolaus grinned. "I don't know. Must have been what Herc, twenty or twenty-five of them? 'Course I didn't do a body count, what with being unconscious there at the end."
Hercules shifted his weight as if uncomfortable under Daniel's wide-eyed stare. "That's about right."
Daniel shook his head. "Twenty-five? And just the two of you? What kind of weapons did you use?" Maybe there was something of interest on this world for the SGC.
Hercules frowned and shook his head. "No weapons."
"No weapons?" Daniel was beginning to feel like a parrot. "Then how..?"
Hercules shrugged and raised his hands, curling them into fists.
"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c's voice rumbled from behind his shoulder.
"It's okay, Teal'c. I was just asking what weapons he used to fight off bandits last night." Daniel looked at Iolaus. "You said you were unconscious. You look all right now."
Iolaus rubbed his head. "Yeah. Back of my head's a bit tender where I got clubbed and I've got a headache, but aside from that, I'm okay."
"Headache?" Daniel dug his hand into a pocket of his fatigues and brought out a small tin. He opened it and shook out a couple of aspirin. "Here. Swallow these. They should help with your headache."
Iolaus examined the white pills in his hand dubiously. "If you say so. Thanks." He popped them in his mouth and swallowed, grimacing at the bitter taste.
"Sorry. I should have told you to wash them down with water."
Iolaus shrugged. "I've had worse."
"I can't believe you did that," Hercules frowned.
"What?"
"You just swallowed those things and you don't know what they are!"
"Herc--" Iolaus began.
"It's all right," Daniel interrupted. "I understand what you're saying. But really, the tablets will help his headache go away. They're safe. It's a medicine we use all the time."
Hercules sighed and glanced at Iolaus. "I just wish you'd stop doing things like that."
"Colonel!"
The urgency in Sam's voice caused them all to turn. She stood on the second step down from the Stargate, a frown on her face.
"What is it Carter?"
"I can't find any sign of the DHD, Sir. It's not next to the Stargate and it doesn't appear to be anywhere in the room."
Daniel hurried to her side. "It has to be here somewhere."
Sam shook her head. "If it is, it's got a pretty good disguise going. And there's another thing."
"What?"
"Have you looked at the Stargate? I mean really looked at it?"
Daniel frowned. "Why?"
Sam glanced over her shoulder at the 'gate looming behind her and said, "Because the symbols are all wrong."
"Whaddaya mean, wrong, Captain?" Jack asked as he and Teal'c joined them on the steps.
"I mean they're wrong, Sir. I don't see any of the symbols that are on the Stargates we're familiar with, do you?"
Daniel stepped up onto the dais and stared open-mouthed at the 'gate. "Oh god, Jack. She's right. This isn't like our Stargate at all."
"What does that mean?"
He turned and faced his three friends standing before him on the steps. "It means that the missing DHD isn't our biggest problem. Even if we find it, I don't know what coordinates to use to dial us home."
The silence stretched between them, rife with tension. Finally, Jack threw his arms up in the air.
"Great. Just when I thought this day couldn't get any worse." He shook his head. "Well, we won't know if you can't dial us home until we find the DHD, so we'll just wait until then to worry about it.
"What are we going to do if we can't find the DHD, Sir? Look at those torches. I doubt this world is much above the use of fire for energy. I don't think finding an alternate power source to free the superconductive ring on the Stargate like we did on Hadante is going to be feasible this time," Sam said softly. "And we're not on the world the SGC thinks they sent us to. They won't know to come looking for us here."
"We'll deal with that when we have to, Captain." Jack jerked his chin at the two Greeks. "For now, I think we better see if we can get some answers about this place from our new friends."