Disclaimer: I don't own anything. We all know I'm far too dangerous to actually be allowed to run rampant with the characters.

Author's Note: The science actually came from an interview with Joseph Mallozzi on the Stargate Wiki. And the philosophy came from the Jesuits. Seriously. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Thank you to polrobin again for being an amazing beta.

Worlds Apart

"This had better be good."

From beside where Jack O'Neill stood in the Gate Room, Major Carter looked over and smiled mischievously. "Can't be, sir. They say there aren't even many trees."

"Yeah, well, this is the last time I let the Marines dictate where I go," he threatened. So SG-5 had come back a few days before with reports of massive amounts of Ancient writing on a rock. Who cared?

"Jack, this is an amazing find," a voice said from his other side. "If it really is Ancient, we could learn more about them. And the more exposure I get to their writing, the easier it will be to translate."

Oh, right. Daniel cared. Damn.

"Receiving MALP telemetry," Walter announced from the Control Room. "The gate appears to be clear, sir."

Jack glanced up to meet his CO's eyes. "SG-1, you have a go," General Hammond announced.

"Great." Grumbling under his breath, he led the way up the ramp.

~/~

"Wow."

Sam grinned at Daniel – for a linguist, sometimes he gave the best, most... concise descriptions. And this one was particularly apt; the valley stretched long and wide in front of the stargate, covered in a dense, scrubby grass and tiny purple wildflowers. SG-5 was right, there weren't many trees, and the ones that were there were squat and wide – evolved, she knew, to hold massive amounts of water in their trunks to survive the dry season.

The whole place reminded her of photos she'd seen of the outback, and the enormous, looming red rock in front of her did nothing to dispel that view.

"It's... it's like Uluru," Daniel managed. "Wow."

Colonel O'Neill raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Ayer's Rock, sir," Sam supplied.

"Ah." The look on his face belied his words – he had no idea what she was talking about.

"The monolith, sir? It's like the one in Australia."

"Oh, right."

She shot him a smile. "SG-5 said the inscriptions were on the mountain itself."

"Well, then, what are we waiting for, campers?" Jack asked, his personality as big as ever. "To Oz!"

~/~

Daniel hadn't even quite gotten to the cliff face when he dumped his pack and began rifling through it, emerging triumphant with his notebook and video camera. Jack wished that the man's excitement was even a little bit contagious, but no such luck. And as he glanced from down each side of the rock, its face carved into a smooth surface for about the first seven feet and covered with inscriptions as far either direction as the eye could see, he knew they were in for the long haul. It would take days – maybe longer – for Daniel to document everything.

Crap.

"You think they carved on the whole structure?" Carter asked him softly. "All the way around?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe." With his luck, yes.

"I wonder if he's noticed yet that sections are missing."

The words made him look again, and he saw what she meant – over the years, water had cut small rivers into the stone, taking out a vertical strip of the writing three or four inches wide in several places. Daniel was sure to notice soon – and complain about it. "Y'know, Carter, maybe we should do a perimeter sweep."

The grin she shot him said she knew exactly what he was up to. "Yes, sir."

"Daniel, Teal'c, we're gonna take a look around. Y'know, check for Jaffa, that kind of thing. And see how far this writing goes, I guess."

"Oh, that would be great!" the archaeologist exclaimed, not even looking up.

Jack ignored him. "Teal'c, keep an eye, huh?"

The alien gave a solemn nod. With a tilt of his own head, Jack prompted his second along the rough, rocky path that seemed to circle the monumental rock, falling in just behind her.

Sure enough, the writings stretched on... and on... and on. Yes, it would be days before he could get his crazy friend away from this place. And they had been walking for nearly half an hour, Daniel occasionally chattering in the radio and Carter obligingly carrying on the conversation – to save his own sanity, Jack thought, and he was grateful – when she suddenly stopped.

"This is... different."

Jack stepped back to get an overview – up close, it was all pretty much the same – and saw that she was right. Three large squares had been drawn in the stone that set off areas of the text. "Yeah? Let me guess – this is the important stuff? What does it say, 'start translating here?'"

"I have no idea, sir," she answered, her attention too focused on the cliff to really answer him. "It's not just writing. See these grooves? There's something else."

Carefully moving a little closer on the uneven trail, he squinted a little. The neatly carved squares were large, maybe five feet tall by three feet wide, and the center one seemed to contain inscriptions on a flat surface like the rest of the writings all around the massive rock. But the left and right squares contained hundreds of smaller squares, each with different symbols in them. It looked like someone had given a little kid an oversized chunk of grid paper. "What do you think they are?"

"The cuts are deep into the stone, sir, not superficial like the outlines are. I think they're.... I think they might be buttons?"

"One's missing," Jack told her.

Her gaze immediately moved to the direction his finger pointed, then shifted over to the other panel. "One's missing on each." Squatting down close to the wall to get a better view, she revised her statement. "Actually, I don't think it's missing at all. It's just... inset, and the stones next to it have... grooves. Like you'd use for drawers that don't have knobs? So maybe they don't push in. Maybe they come out."

"Wouldn't that be novel," he said dryly.

"I wonder what it does," she went on, ignoring him completely as she straightened back to her full height. "I mean, we've found some pretty neat Ancient devices before, but this... it's huge. Literally. It has to be important for them to choose this planet, this monolith, and then carve all these inscriptions."

"You think all the writing is about this thing?"

"I think it's very possible, sir."

She was in full geek mode, her gaze focused solely on the unidentifiable object in front of her. How she could really focus with her nose almost on top of it, Jack didn't know, but he let it go.

Until a hand came up from her side, and he thought with just a little bit of alarm that she was about to touch it.

"Carter, how many times have I told you not to-"

But he hit a rock in the path as he reached to knock away her hand and he tripped, failed to reclaim his balance, and stumbled into her from behind. Reflexively, he put out a hand to stop himself, and both of them fell hard into the engravings.

The moment their hands touched the wall, a bright light enveloped them.

Then everything went black.