Free SG1-15 The Power Behind the Throne by Steven Savile Page B

bigger meaning, some plan to it all, this would be it.”
    “You think the Mujina made this place?”
    “Someone did,” Daniel said. “And it’s amazing, isn’t it?”
    “It’s nuts is what it is,” Jack said, trying to take it all in.
    “It’s so human, think about it, the mind on the verge of madness takes refuge in order and patterns, and what greater pattern is there than the one that gives order to the universe?” Daniel sounded like he was quoting one of his books.
    “It is the secret of creation,” Sam agreed. “Everything from bacteria through to plant life, mineral compositions, even something as random as beauty, has its roots in the symmetry of patterns. Break anything down to a quantum level and the pattern becomes obvious.”
    “But this? A church? Seriously?”
    “Why not, Jack?” Daniel’s smile became infectious as his enthusiasm for the idea increased. “Imagine yourself in the creature’s place, ripped from your home, and transported here to rot. You’re bound to ask why? And isn’t that the fundamental question all religions ask of their deities? Why? It all comes down to how you interpret the notion of god. Listen and tell me this isn’t a religious experience.”
    Daniel took a small device from the depths of his suit. It took Jack a moment to realize it was nothing more scientific than a long metal pin. Daniel bent it, fashioning a U out of the pin. Holding it lightly between thumb and forefinger, like a makeshift tuning fork. Daniel tapped it gently off the wall. Despite being muffled by his helmet O’Neill heard the note hang softly in the cavernous space. Then Daniel set the end of the tuning fork against the crystal wall and the nature of the harmonic changed completely as it became the longest and loudest single note he had ever heard. Each facet of the crystal wall played its part, absorbing the sound and then amplifying it all around him, the glass walls coming together to carry the note to a crescendo. The fragile sound hung there for what seemed like eternity and then it was simply gone.
    “Acoustics like that can’t be accidental. Listen to it, Jack…’”
    Jack gave him a flat look. “I prefer the Stones.”
    “Funny.”
    “I try.” He glanced at Sam. “Carter, is this thing here or not?”
    She ran the scanner’s routines again and this time she nodded.
    “Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Jack said, with a grin. “Come out, come out, where ever you are.”
    “O’Neill?”
    “Teal’c?”
    “I do not know. Something is not right.”
    “Your Spidey sense tingling, huh?”
    Teal’c said nothing, but studied their surroundings for a moment, then turned back to face him. “The Goa’uld are said to be hunting this Mujina, but I have not seen any sign of Goa’uld presence on this world. This concerns me greatly, O’Neill.”
    “Smells like a trap, you mean?” The same thing had been bothering him. Everything was just a little bit too convenient for his liking. “I’m right there with you, Big Guy. It stinks to high heaven. The idea of trusting the Tok’ra gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
    “There are dangers hidden here, O’Neill. Shadows. The Goa’uld are aware that we will come looking for the creature.”
    “And knowing that, they’ll be waiting for us. You’re preaching to the choir, Teal’c. It’s a big old game of cosmic chess and they’re at least three moves ahead. Which means we have to be careful.”
    Jack moved toward one of the larger pillars in the center of the vast chamber. It was covered with crude pictograms etched into the crystalline surface. He took one look at them and gave up trying to decipher what they were supposed to mean. He wasn’t interested. Right then, something else entirely had captured his attention. A sound. It was instantly familiar but utterly out of place in the half-light. Jack moved around the pillar slowly, as though playing some peculiar game of hide and seek as he followed the sound to its