Work Text:
Entering the cave, not particularly getting her hopes up but wanting to see what this was about anyways, Yasmine felt a huge adrenaline spike course through her when she saw what was on the walls. She knew this! This was her element. Egyptian pictograms and hieroglyphs covered the entire narrow passage inside the cave. Yasmine stepped closer, gasping, shining the torch light onto the depictions, muttering under her breath what they would mean, how they would sound spoken.
Or rather, how she thought they would sound, since it wasn't like even Egyptologists weren't still fighting amongst themselves about pronunciation. Either way, she was so focused on what was on the wall that she barely paid attention of the two people behind her until Heva said a word that sounded very similar to what Yasmine had just read on the wall. With wide eyes, she turned around to Heva and her brother, careful to not get the torch too close to them.
"What did you say? Do you understand this?" Yasmine asked, both incredulous and excited. Heva frowned a little but nodded, talking fast with Jayci and then pointing towards the wall, repeating the word.
Yasmine nodded, repeating what it would be for her, understanding the word, as it only sounded marginally different. Excitedly, she pointed towards another symbol on the wall, saying it how she thought it should be. This time Jayci answered, again saying it just a little differently. With every new symbol on the wall and every new word, Yasmine started to understand the language, to see how it indeed was different from ancient Egyptian but also similar enough to identify it as the root language.
There were many differences in vowel placement and many words were barely recognizable, which was why she hadn't recognized the language at first. Especially since everyone here was obviously talking very fast and with their own individual inflections, so Yasmine hadn't even been able to make out one word. But now, with Jayci and Heva being very eager to communicate and talking a lot slower, pointing at things on the wall, explaining things to Yasmine, she realized this was indeed the language she had studied her entire life, just several thousand years of lingual drift later.
Sitting down on the ground in front of one of the most prominent drawings on the wall, Yasmine was fascinated to learn about the history of this planet, a history neither Heva nor Jayci knew in detail, since they could not read what was written on the wall, could only go by the pictures. From what Yasmine could gather now that she at least marginally understood them, reading and writing had been forbidden, outlawed by Ra.
This place had been here from the beginning of this world, someone back then defying Ra and documenting what had happened. It was a forbidden place now, one that barely anyone went to, but Jayci told her that children had been using this place as a dare and a place to play their version of hide and seek for generations, without really knowing what it was. The fact that it was forbidden to go here only added to the appeal.
That made Yasmine chuckle, because yes, these were indeed humans, clearly, even when they had been removed from Earth many many many generations ago. Or at least that was what the wall said, to Yasmine's surprise. Even when she had been convinced her entire life that aliens had used the pyramids as landing platforms, that there was just too much evidence in ancient Egyptian findings that pointed towards the existence of materials and beings not existing on Earth otherwise, to have proof like this was something completely different.
Even when these people were clearly humanoid, they could have evolved here. But together with the ostensible existence of the Stargate and the fact that they had come here through it (here being Abydos, a planet far away from Earth) it seemed pretty clear that what was outlined on the walls was a lot more than just a run of the mill creation myth. That this was how these people's world had indeed begun, or at least their lives on this planet.
That Ra was an alien from a race that was dying. That he and others from his race had come to Earth and found people there. That he had taken over one of those people and had declared himself the ruler of Earth. The sun god. Ra. At that point, Ra had taken many humans through the Stargate to this planet as slaves, to mine a very special ore that didn't exist on Earth. But something had happened on Earth after that. A rebellion. An uprising.
Even when he claimed to be a god, the people had driven him and his army out, had buried the Stargate to make sure Ra could never return. Though Yasmine wasn't necessarily sure why Ra hadn't returned in a ship, seeing that it was clear that he had used one to get to Earth. But maybe he hadn't wanted to. He had been content with ruling the workers on this planet, outlawing reading and writing to make sure that what happened on Earth wouldn't happen here.
But someone had documented this. Someone had defied Ra all those millennia ago. And even when this place had been forbidden, when Ra's strategy of outlawing reading and writing had succeeded, it had still been preserved. It was still here. With a start, Yasmine realized that this meant that what she had been looking for, something that documented which Stargate symbols to use to get back home, might also be here.
Excited, she tried to convey that to Heva and Jayci, pointing at the picture of the Stargate and the symbols on the wall. Both of them nodded eagerly, clearly knowing those symbols. After all, they were what had prompted this excursion in the first place, Heva adding the sun above the pyramid to what Yasmine had drawn in the sand, making the Stargate symbol for Earth. Leading the way deeper into the cave, or rather, now that Yasmine had more time to look around, not a cave at all but some sort of ancient structure, most likely a temple, Yasmine gasped excitedly and practically skipped forward when she saw a tablet with those exact symbols.
Dusting the tablet off, her heart fell when she realized that the seventh symbol was missing. No, no, where was it? It looked like it had broken off from the tablet. It had to be here somewhere. She had to find it. Frantically searching the ground, she was barely aware of Heva and Jayci watching her, probably confused by what she was doing. Finally, she did find the tablet, but the symbol was worn off.
"Damn it," Yasmine exclaimed, not one for swearing generally, but feeling desperate right now. She thought this was it, that they could get home. Heva crouched next to her, asking if she was alright. Trying to smile even despite her disappointment, Yasmine nodded. "I am, I just. I thought there would be another symbol here." She showed the tablet and the one that had worn off to Heva, trying to convey in the language she still only spoke rudimentarily that she needed another symbol.
Heva frowned, turning over her shoulder to Jayci, who came closer. They spoke rapidly with each other for a moment, so fast that Yasmine couldn't understand it. Then Heva took a stick, Jayci also crouching now and looking excited. Yasmine had no idea what they were about to do, but when Heva drew a pyramid, she thought it was just the symbol she had drawn before.
Except, with Jayci's commentary to guide her, even though she huffed at him, Heva drew something else around the pyramid. Three circles above it. Yasmine realized they were meant to represent the three moons of this planet and tried to convey as much, Heva nodding and smiling. Then she pointed at the symbol. It took a moment of Yasmine going through all the symbols on the Stargate here, but she realized that this did look familiar.
She took the stick from Heva and connected the moons with lines, which earned Heva a look from Jayci that clearly conveyed 'I told you so' and made Heva roll her eyes. Yasmine laughed, excited again.
"That's it! That's the seventh symbol! We're going home!" Yasmine exclaimed, but was only met with blank stares. Right. She tried to tell the two that this was the way they could go home. At first she thought she hadn't managed it when both of them looked sad about that, not in any way as excited as Yasmine herself was. Then Heva asked why she wasn't staying and she realized that they had understood but didn't want her to leave.
Which was a shock for Yasmine. She couldn't even find the words to say anything about it, just told them she had to find Colonel Masters to tell her about this place. While they all walked out of the cave, Yasmine thought about it. About staying. She felt confused all of a sudden. Being here, especially now that she had realized that she could communicate, that she could speak a language she had studied her whole life with people for whom it was living, real, sounded suddenly very enticing.
Shaking her head, she just followed the other two out into the camp, not wanting to think about this too much. Of course she would go back home. She had to. She couldn't stay here, on another planet, just because this was a life long dream come true. Couldn't she? Coming out of the cave and seeing Colonel Masters and the others clearly already looking for her, Major Turner holding up her arms and rolling her eyes in a very clear gesture, she decided to shelve these thoughts.
She would revisit them whenever it was possible. Maybe. Hopefully.