Read STARGATE SG-1: Oceans of Dust for Free Online

ship? And why here?”
    “And why alone?” said Daniel. “You’ve got to admit, something doesn’t add up.”
    “Tau’ri!” Bra’tac snapped. “And Teal’c, have you spent too long among humans? Why would I bring you here for a
hasshaki
cargo scow?”
    “That was going to be my next question,” O’Neill felt slightly embarrassed. “So…”
    “Most Goa’uld starships are based on the designs of Ptah.” Teal’c’s voice was thoughtful. “Perhaps Sephotep was trying to improve on his works.”
    “A test flight?”
    “The fact that this vessel crashed so far from assistance would suggest that its range has been increased.”
    It was a possibility. If true, it made the downed vessel considerably more valuable, and not just to Earth. “Carter, how much do you know about Tel’taks?”
    “Enough to know if it’s been modified.”
    “Great. Let’s go have a look-see.” He began trudging towards the ship, head low against the wind, trying not to imagine vast machines drifting down towards him through the icy sky.
     
    As it turned out, O’Neill didn’t need Carter’s expertise to tell him that the Tel’tak had been altered. The outside of the vessel was very much like those he had seen before, although in somewhat poorer repair, but the interior structure had been heavily and obviously modified. The cockpit’s central instrumentation block had been fitted with a large, intricate control board that overlooked the two original consoles, and further inspection revealed that almost a quarter of the vessel’s cargo space was taken up by two massive equipment modules.
    The changes seemed very much a work in progress, with open panels and patched cables everywhere. Had the ship possessed any power at all, its interior would have been a riot of exposed and glowing systemry. At present, however, it was utterly inert, and with the forward viewports covered with rock and ice, Carter had to begin working by flashlight.
    With Daniel helping her, she quickly started pulling panels up and tugging at crystals. O’Neill watched the pair of them for a few minutes, trying not to waste too much time asking questions about what they were doing. After the initial search of the ship Teal’c had gone outside to talk privately to Bra’tac; although they could easily have slipped into pure Goa’uld, the two men must have decided that would be disrespectful to the Tau’ri, and just stepped back into the icy wind.
    O’Neill wondered if they really were immune to the freezing temperatures, or just much better at hiding its effects.
    After a while, he started to feel uncomfortably superfluous. He was no fool when it came to machinery: had the Tel’tak been an Earth machine, he could probably have stripped its engines down and rebuilt them in an afternoon. But Goa’uld technology was a very different matter, based around a system of crystalline control elements that looked, to O’Neill, like so much colored glass. Sam Carter was picking crystals out of their sockets, turning them, studying them, checking with Daniel on the exact translations of warning cartouches or identifying hieroglyphs, and gradually sorting out the Tel’tak’s wiring in her head. O’Neill might as well have been watching her sort Christmas baubles.
    He went outside, ducking through the ship’s open hatch and back out onto the plateau. Brat’tac had gone. Only Teal’c remained, standing like a dark statue against the pale, skittering sky.
    “Hey Teal’c.”
    “O’Neill.”
    “Where’s Bra’tac?”
    “He has returned to the refugees, to prepare them for the coming journey.”
    “I guess they’re not going to be too happy about having to pack up and leave again, huh.”
    “They will have expected it. Even before this vessel fell. A Jaffa who rebels against his gods is never at rest.”
    There wasn’t much O’Neill could say to that.
    A silence fell across the two men. Past the whine and whoop of the wind, O’Neill heard small stones