Chapter 27: Recon and Discovery, Part 3

This is great-moving on to the next installment.!!

O-M-G I am loving this. The intrigue is fantastic. Beautifully written and created brother.

Great image and now I want to know 😸

Cool!

Larkin decided not to ask Fairbairn about the symbol, suspecting her training at the SGC wouldn’t have covered it either. Instead, he turned his attention to Helena. “Sister Helena, was this symbol mentioned during your NID training?”

“No, sir,” Helena replied. Then, catching sight of something metallic glinting faintly on the ground, she paused. “Actually… there’s something here. You might want to see this.” “Where are you?” Larkin asked.

“Approximately 200 meters due east from our initial position,” she answered.

“On our way,” Larkin confirmed. Within minutes, he and the rest of SG-24 reached Helena’s location—and stopped abruptly, astonished by what lay before them.

“That’s Goa’uld!” Larkin declared, his voice tinged with shock as he examined a second crate nearby. His suspicions were confirmed—it was unmistakably Goa’uld. His eyes caught a symbol etched on the top of the crate: a winged scarab beetle. He strained to recall his training at the Alpha Site during his early days in the SGC, but the symbol eluded him. “Recognize the symbol, Bjornson?” Larkin asked.

“No, sir. I don’t recall it from SGC training,” Bjornson admitted.

Larkin nodded thoughtfully, then spoke into his radio. “Fairbairn, Sister Helena, report in.” “Fairbairn here,” came the reply.

“Helena listening,” followed shortly after.

“Are you both examining crates?” Larkin asked. Both responded affirmatively.

“Do the crates have Goa’uld markings on the side?” Another affirmative.

“Is there a scarab symbol on top?” he asked.

“Yes, Colonel,” came their replies.

Inside, the dim light revealed crates stacked in clusters, filling the entire front chamber of the cave. On one side of the crates, faded inscriptions in Pre-Chaucer Middle English stood out. The sight intrigued Helena, who examined the markings closely.

“Split up and search the room,” Colonel Larkin ordered, his tone firm but composed. “Stay in radio contact. We’ll regroup here in ten minutes.” The team dispersed, each member heading in a different direction.

As Bjornson inspected the crates, his flashlight revealed something startling. The markings on one set of crates weren’t Middle English at all—they were Egyptian hieroglyphs.

“Colonel, come here,” Bjornson said over the radio. “You need to see this.”

“On my way,” Larkin replied promptly. He was at Bjornson’s side within moments, his own flashlight illuminating the hieroglyphs. His expression tightened in recognition.