A cross-over. I'm not saying but you'll guess soon enough. PG-ish in rating
Crowswork
Jim sighed and wiped the perspiration off his forehead. Blair had talked him into spending his vacation on an archeology dig.
"C'mon Jim." His friend had said. "It'll be fun... it'll be fresh air... there are fish in all the ponds around the area."
Jim suspected it had more to do with the lovely archeologist heading the expedition. Blair was off in the foothills with the Annie Logan right now. Jim had climbed a high ridge and was loving the view. Mountains rolled into foothills with towering trees shading deep blue lakes spotted with the occasional rustic cabin. It was a great area.
He sat in the shade of a pine and searched for Blair. He knew the general direction they were heading so he practiced ranging out with his sight and hearing. Soon he spotted movement and saw a deer running through the trees. Backtracking the animals path he heard Blair's voice faintly.
"Wow, did you see that deer?"
"Gorgeous." Annie gushed. "I'm so glad you came out here with us. It really means a lot to me." Jim closed his eyes and prepared to tune them out. He didn't need Sentinel abilities to see where this was heading.
"So the caverns are over here?"
Jim forgot his scruples about eavesdropping.
Blair plus caverns, equals trouble.
"We found them after a landslide. They'd been buried..." Annie paused as she caught her breath. "...buried deep for centuries."
"Bet the landslide was caused by the forest fires last year," Blair offered. "That ridge up there was burned pretty badly."
"You have to get down on your hands and knees for a bit, but then it gets tall enough to stand up."
"Lead the way." Jim could hear the smile in his friend's voice. Then could hear nothing at all. He found a path and started to run.
It took several minutes to find their tracks and the small oval shaped opening half buried in broken trees and dirt. "Sandburg!" Jim's jaw hurt and he forced his jaw to relax.
Then he looked around. The ground here was a few feet of top soil over solid bedrock. Something about the mound of dirt seemed odd -- out of place somehow.
Jim dropped to his knees and crawled inside the opening. He was relieved when it widened after a few yards and he could stand at last. "Sandburg?" He kept his voice low instinctively. It was totally dark but he could see every detail. The top of the cave was unnaturally smooth and rounded. It looked like a man-made tunnel.
He could hear Blair and Annie talking. The couple walked out of a side tunnel marveling over something, they'd found.
"It looks almost Egyptian." Blair had a flashlight in his right hand and a piece of pottery in the left. "I know the carbon dating of the other artifacts predates the Native American groups in this region."
"That's why I wanted you to see this." Annie gestured around them. "You did that paper on incongruous, cultures?"
Blair laughed. "Cultural incongruities. Artifacts from an ancient culture turning up thousands of miles from home? That paper?"
"We've only scratched the surface of this place." Annie looked around. "There is so much buried here and if word gets out too soon, they'll take it away from us."
"The tunnel's man-made." Jim said conversationally.
Both Blair and Annie jumped a foot as the voice came out of the dark.
"Jim!" Blair yelped. "That is not funny."
"What do you mean 'man-made'?" Annie raised her lantern and peered into the darkness. "Is that Jim?"
"Yeah, Annie."
"What do you..." She was interrupted by a rumble that seemed to radiate from the rocks around them.
"Get over here!" Jim shouted over the noise as he was hit by a rain of small pebbles. "There's another landslide. Hurry!"
Annie dropped her lantern and dove for the exit.
Blair turned to Jim. He seemed about to say something, then gave it up. "You better be right behind me." He dropped and scrambled through the narrow bottle-neck.
Jim started to follow. He could see Blair crawling toward daylight. Then he could see nothing. The tunnel collapsed as a huge rock slab slammed down inches from his face.
Jim retreated backwards into the main tunnel and tried to find cover. The rock walls of the tunnel split and water poured into several cracks. Jim ran through the cold, muddy torrent that already reached his knees. He climbed into the side tunnel Blair and Annie were exploring. It went straight for a dozen yards then canted upwards at a sharp angle.
Sandburg made it. Jim repeated to himself as he found or created handholds up the almost vertical wall. Sandburg will get help and find me. All I have to do is stay alive. Sandburg made it.
Jim kicked at the loose shale trying to get a foot-hold and the whole wall gave way. He tumbled into a high vaulted chamber and rolled up against something hard and metallic. He stood and gaped at the only thing inside the chamber.
"Well I'll be damned."
"He's not dead!" Blair stormed up to the rangers and police men. "We have to look some more."
"Believe me, Mr Sandburg. We won't stop looking for a fellow officer." The grimy-faced trooper patted him on the shoulder. "But if he was in the cave entrance when that rock ledge fell he could be dead."
"I'd know it." Blair whispered, mostly to himself. "I'd know if he were dead."
Jim's gaze pierced the almost total darkness. The thing was glowing. A tiny yellow light gave him all the illumination he needed. It was a ship of some sort, imbedded in the face of the sheer granite wall. There was broken stone around the part that still showed. It seemed to be oval shaped with a hatch on the end that opened from the top. It was dented and ajar and the light was coming from the inside.
Jim pulled down the hatch and was confronted by a tangle of wires hanging from the ceiling. There were seats in the front, partially crushed by rock. He'd seen some pretty advanced aircraft in his years in the military but this was like nothing on earth.
On earth.
"Hell!"
Jim edged inside the craft and looked at the ramshackle panels that lined the sides. There were several crumbling clay pots on the floor and scraps of fabric and leather. And a laptop. A nice, modern, very earthly laptop. Moldy and covered in dust it might be, but it was the latest model and couldn't be more than a couple of years old.
Jim opened it and found a single silver disk laying on the keypad. The laptop was totally dead so he didn't bother trying the disk. Instead he turned to the control panels -- if that's what they were -- and started flipping switches.
"Come on." He grumbled at the glowing light. "One of these has to be a radio."
There was a hum and a narrow slot slid open. "I wish Sandburg were here. He'd know what to do." Jim quirked his lips for a moment. The last thing he wished for was that Blair would be trapped in this hole.
He frowned at the slot then took the disk from the laptop. He dropped it inside and then cringed as the insides of the panel gave a rusty shriek. There was a round piece of glass balanced on upright near the slot. For a moment, it glowed then a picture formed slowly.
A very old man peered into whatever recorded the picture. "Don't tell me somebody found this? Go away. Danger. Forget you ever saw this. My name is... Darth Vader and I'm a really bad alien so you better run. Go. This space ship will self destruct in two minutes."
"Sorry, Darth. I'm stuck here for the duration." Jim looked at the apparently senile old codger closely. Pale blue eyes squinted out of a weathered face. He looked like he was a hundred years old.
"So... did you go?" The man asked peevishly. "Damn! I hope it's at least two-thousand and something. I'll be in big trouble if I change anything. Sam will... no, Sam's gone now. I have to remember that."
The old man leaned back and seemed ready to fall asleep. He absently rubbed his chest as he nodded wearily. "All gone now. Had to watch them all die twice now. Once in 2000 BC and well... both times around 2000 BC I guess. First time in Egypt... this Sam made us leave there. Took the jumper and headed out." 'Darth' picked up a smaller disc and looked at it.
Jim looked around and found several buried in dust. He held it between his thumb and forefinger and tipped it toward the light. It held an image of four people standing on a beach. The stunning blond caught his eye first. She was standing next to a rangy, silver haired man, a burly black man and a tall, serious looking younger man. Jim looked from the video image and the still one. It was a youthful version of the old man. The really crazy old man.
"I'm Daniel and that's all you need to know." Jim grinned at the querulous tone. "We came here on this ship and we agreed that we had to hide every trace of our presence. I know I shouldn't be talking but I'm all alone now and Jack always said I talked too much anyway."
"He and Sam hid the jumper in this cavern... set the whole thing up to collapse some time later this century. I won't be here." Daniel rubbed his left arm again and Jim could see that he was ill. "Spent a couple years on a Pacific Island till the Tsunami. Then Jack insisted on coming home... he even put fish in the lake. We built a cabin... had a pretty good life. Sam said we had to stay away from people. So we did."
"Did I tell you about Jack... man loved to fish. He was the first. He and Sam had almost thirty years together. T went next. The damn worm in his belly matured and he killed it b'fore it could take him over. Then it was just Samantha and I. We got pretty close these last years."
Jim looked at the image. That meant the blond was Sam... Samantha. The gray-haired man with his arm around her must be Jack. T must be the fierce looking man with the tattooed forehead. The one with a worm in his belly. Jim gulped at the thought.
"Buried my Sam about a week ago. Burned the cabin and moved in here. I figure I'll finish here. In a couple of decades, the timbers holding up the entrance will rot away and half the mountain will cave in on this ship and whatever's left of me. And that will be the end of SG1. Like I said, I watched them all die twice now and that's enough.
I hope we have a better chance four thousand years from now. Time to stop this foolishness, I suppose. It's the archeologist in me. Just have to leave some sort of record... maybe I'll do more later. I should probably erase it. Sam'll have my hide for doing this much." Daniel rubbed his left arm absently then stood up. "I think I'll go lay down now."
The old man disappeared and the screen went dark. Jim looked around but could find no trace of a body in the small ship.
"Gee, Danny. I wish you'd told me how to get out of here." Jim looked around. "I have a messed up mystery ship and a dead laptop. A lot of white wires -- maybe I can make a rope -- and a few photos of a group called SG1.
Jim felt a voice. That was strange in it's self. It felt like Blair but different too. 'Try,' it said. 'Think,' it whispered.
Jim leaned forward and rested his palms on the dusty console.
He thought, hard. Really hard. 'Get me out of here. The water is coming in and it's around my ankles already. Get Me Out Of Here!'
Nothing happened.
Jim looked around the empty ship. "I'm trying!"
Something like laughter brushed his ear. 'Think.'
"I'm thinking, too." Jim closed his eyes and concentrated on the odd feeling material under his finger tips. The metal seemed to warm to his touch and the raspy hum smoothed and became a purr of power. There was a burst of noise and even though his eyes were closed he saw a beam of light arc from the back of the craft.
'Go.' Jim felt the soft voice for only an instant before it was gone.
It must have taken a while because when Jim let go the icy water was almost to his waist. The little ship -- Jumper, Daniel had called it -- was dead.
Jim pushed the hatch down and jumped into the darkness. He searched for the spot where the beam of light had struck. He was almost swimming by the time he got to the far side of the cavern. The walls were crumbling as boulders the size of cars tumbled all around him. A glance back told him that the Jumper was completely flooded and almost buried.
The water was rising faster and Jim had to scramble up the crumbling wall. There it was. The tiny crack of light -- the tiny breath of fresh air -- his way out. He tore at the rocky soil and climbed toward the light. The makeshift tunnel collapsed behind him and around him but he kept climbing.
One of his hands broke through. He could feel the sun and wind. Dirt and powdery, rotted leaves filled his mouth and eyes and he couldn't breathe. "Blair." It was barely a whisper. A tree root trapped his shoulder and one arm and he couldn't move. "Chief."
"Mr. Sandburg!" He heard the voices as a distant buzz as he passed out. "Over here."
Blair ran through the underbrush toward the voices. The rangers were frantically digging with folding shovels and with their hands.
"Pull him out." One shouted, waving an oxygen mask. "Help me get this on him."
Blair arrived just as Jim's body -- "Oh God, Please, he's not dead" -- out of the ground. "Jim!" Blair dropped to his knees and help ease the broad shoulders to the ground.
"He's not breathing." The paramedic turned Jim's head and cleared his mouth.
Blair touched his friend's head. He could hear others arrive and felt them push him aside. But he could only concentrate on Jim. Was this what it was like? When Jim pulled him out of the fountain?
"Don't go Jim." Blair forced his voice to be calm. It was the voice Jim listened to best. "Don't let go. You can't leave me now. Jim! Breathe, now."
"We have a pulse." A female voice shouted. "Let's get him to the hospital."
Then they were gone. Blair had to steady himself for a moment before he could follow.
Blair talked until his voice was gone and then he whispered. Jim still didn't wake up. The doctors said things like coma, oxygen deprivation and possible brain damage. Blair didn't buy it. He knew first hand that Jim had extraordinary healing ability. A Sentinel Thing, as Simon called it.
Still, as days went by, he became more concerned. "Wake up. It's time."
He'd said it a thousand times but this time Jim's fingers moved. A slit of icy blue glared at him through dark lashes.
"Jim? Are you okay?"
"No," The voice was weak but the sarcastic tone was all Jim. Blair pressed the call button without looking away from the patient.
"You remember what happened?"
Jim closed his eyes and was silent for a long moment. "You and Annie... you didn't go into that cave did you?"
"Well... yeah."
"I followed you and the cave fell on me, didn't it?"
"Yeah." Blair whispered. "Is that all you remember?"
"You were telling me not to go somewhere."
"Glad you didn't." Blair sniffled and scuffed at his eyes as the room was invaded by doctors and nurses.
Blair reached into his pocket and took out the glass circle that he'd found in Jim's pocket. The photograph inside was almost holographic. He tipped it and studied the four people. He wondered if Jim remembered who they were? He wondered if he should ask but decided to wait for a while.
After all, they had plenty of time. Blair smiled and closed his eyes. All the time in the world.
The End