Anarchy was good, Jack thought, as he fought the urge to sit down and pass out. His eyes were dry and burning from the fine ash and soot in the air. Overhead, death gliders continued their circular patterns over the city, laying down cover fire. Jack backed up instinctively, squinting into the sun to see if they had now become one of the many targets, but the ships soared by without nearing their position. “How many people do you have contributing to this little rebellion?” he asked, looking at Aadi.
The kid looked scared to death, but his father’s hand on his shoulder made him taller, and he lifted his chin. “I don’t know. Bren was the one who planned it. She always said there were many who would help, once they believed they could win.”
“Looks like they believe it now,” Jack said. He stared down at the destruction being wrought in the name of freedom. He’d seen it, been in the middle of it, what seemed like a thousand times, and the weariness in his body was the heaviest exhaustion he could ever remember. He shook it off and took a quick inventory. Carter looked dead on her feet, but she was alert. He could see it in her eyes, the burden of command and decision-making, still active in her quick, assessing glances. Teal’c had looked better, and Jack suspected he was going to hear that Teal’c had taken a few knocks of his own, but it wouldn’t come up until Fraiser had her hands on him. Daniel was worst off. Jack didn’t even want to look at the back of his throat. The idea of the wound there made his teeth clench. They had to get the hell off this world, and if they couldn’t find a way in the middle of a full-fledged rebellion, they didn’t deserve their hard-to-kill reputation any longer.
“Sir,” Carter said. “Brenneka told me there are only a few thousand of her people left. They’re no match for a mothership full of troops.”
“Never underestimate my people, Major.” Aris was watching the sky, and a calculated look, full of satisfaction, had come over his face. “This has been a long time coming.”
“They’re expecting you to bring weapons to their rescue,” Carter said. The anger in her tone made Jack turn to look at her. She was shaking, not much, but enough that Jack could see it. Delayed shock, Jack guessed, but she knew he was watching her, and she got herself under control. She was a hell of a leader.
“They know by now it’s not going to happen,” Aris said, gesturing at the valley beneath them, which still trembled with aftershocks from the deep-ground collapse below. “But they’re still fighting, aren’t they?”
A stab of pain shot up through Jack’s arm, direct from the abused fingers of his hand, but he ignored it. Beside him, Daniel had slumped at Teal’c’s feet, but now he groaned and sat up, his eyes more focused than they had been since they’d left the library. Jack took a long, assessing look at him, at the way his body was shaking, and said to Aris, “We don’t have time to stand around debating. Point us the way to the Stargate and we’ll be out of your hair.”
“We do not have our GDOs,” Teal’c said.
Jack turned to look at Carter, whose expression caught his irritation and flung it right back. “We haven’t exactly been in control of what equipment we had access to, sir.”
“Well, we can gate to the alpha site,” Jack said, but Aris was already shaking his head.
“You won’t get through the Stargate,” Aris said. “That’s the only thing on this rock valuable enough to put a guard on.”
“You could hide with us,” Aadi offered quietly. He rested his fingers on Carter’s sleeve. “I know our kin would be willing to shelter you here, for as long as it takes.”
“Thank you, Aadi,” she told him, curling her fingers over his. She gave him a small, genuine smile, not the kind that was PR. “But you have your own people to worry about, and we have injured.”
Jack didn’t especially like being lumped into that category, but her assessment was accurate.
“We could help care for them,” Aadi said, returning Carter’s smile. Under other circumstances, Jack would have been grateful for any help at all, but now, accepting it would involve staying. He was turning to Plan C, which involved going by any means necessary.
Aris angled his head up to look at the clouds. “Yu’s coming. By then most of us will be in the mountains, if we have any luck at all. You can hide there as well as anywhere.”
“Thanks, but we’ll find our own way,” Jack said. No more caves and tunnels. When he got home, he was going to sleep in the backyard and stay inside the mountain only long enough to get to nice, quiet, grassy worlds. He nudged Teal’c. “What are the odds we can steal one of those cargo ships?”
“About the same as getting to the Stargate,” Aris answered, though he hadn’t been asked. “You people aren’t equipped.”
Jack’s annoyance flared again, fueled by his sense of urgency. “You have a better suggestion?”
Aris stroked his son’s hair, once, twice. Aadi looked up at him, and Jack saw a spark of adoration in the boy’s eyes. So he didn’t hate his father, after all. Like most teenagers, he’d only thought he did. “A trade,” Aris said. “A fair bargain.”
“Really,” Jack said, his eyes narrowed. “Maybe you’ve noticed we don’t have anything to trade with?”
Aris held up his free hand, warding off Jack’s skepticism. “My word is good on over two thousand planets, Colonel. I didn’t get that kind of reputation by cheating my trading partners.”
“Whatever,” Jack said. He’d already run out of both patience and time, and if Aris was playing some kind of game, he wasn’t in the mood. He hadn’t completely made up his mind to leave Aris alive when they ditched his planet. “Get to the point.”
“You gave me this,” Aris said, resting his hands on his son’s shoulders. He glanced over at Teal’c, then at Sam, and nodded. Jack had a strong sense of déjà vu. “I’ll give you my ship.”
“Just like that?” Carter asked. Jack was happy to hear that she was as skeptical as he was. He’d trained her well, clearly. “How do we know it’s not a trick?”
“Major Carter, I could already have shot you where you stand. I could have killed you all. Yet here you are.” Aris regarded them all with an amused expression, as though they were simple to even have asked the question.
“So you’re not being generous, then,” Jack said. Aris met his eyes for a long moment.
“Hardly. What would be in it for me?”
“Perhaps you and your son should come with us,” Teal’c said, making the question sound like an imperative. Jack shot him a look, but Teal’c studiously ignored him. The last thing Jack wanted was Aris Boch in his way. He wanted Aris Boch on his side even less.
“I’m afraid not. Chances are you won’t make it off this planet, and I have other concerns now.” Aadi pressed back against Aris, who dropped an arm over his chest to pull him close. “You’d better hurry. Don’t forget, Yu is on his way.”
“Yu, Yu, Yu,” Jack muttered. He’d put that issue on the back burner and let it boil dry. It was like he’d left half his brain down there in that cave of a library.
“Your race’s resistance to the Goa’uld…if we could isolate the source of it, think of the benefits to all the races enslaved by them.” Carter leaned forward to lend emphasis to her persuasion. Aris looked diffidently at her. “I thought it was the roshna,” she went on, “but Brenneka told me so much about the Nitori. It might be genetic. Your people could help humans all over the galaxy, if we could just—”
“If I would leave my people to help yours,” Aris said. “Not going to happen, Major. Come back and visit us sometime. If we’re still here, we’ll be happy to help you with your little science project.” He moved his hand to his blaster. “My son and I have plans for the Goa’uld.”
“Those plans wouldn’t include going back down to that vault, would they?” Jack asked. The thought made his skin crawl, and the look on Daniel’s face told him he didn’t like the idea much, either.
Aris’s smile was completely not reassuring. “Not your problem, Colonel. Now get off my planet before I have to shoot you.”
“Password,” Daniel croaked, and Jack looked down at him, concerned by the way saying even one word made him choke and gasp.
“Barokna,” Aris said, in answer to the question.
Daniel raised his eyebrows, and Jack asked what he was probably thinking. “The same as the old ship?”
“No reason to change what works,” Aris said. He stepped back, pulling Aadi with him. “Here’s hoping you’re as good a pilot as I am, Colonel. Though I doubt it.”
“Here’s hoping you manage to live past sunset,” Jack said. For Aadi’s sake, he left the sarcasm out of it, though he was pretty sure Aris heard it anyway. The twisted smile on Aris’s face confirmed it.
“My people are resourceful, Colonel. And so am I.” Already Aris was backing away from them, but Aadi pulled away, stared at Carter for a moment and then Teal’c, as if he wanted to come to them.
“Thank you, Aadi,” Teal’c said, and inclined his head. Carter smiled again.
“Aadi,” Aris said, a tone of command in his voice. The boy’s eyes turned glassy with unshed tears, but he nodded his head at Teal’c and retreated to his father’s side.
Jack stared up at the ship behind them. With any luck, he might still remember how to fly her. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said, helping Teal’c pull Daniel to his feet.
The password worked like a charm, and once they were all aboard, Teal’c slid smoothly into the pilot’s seat, displacing Jack without so much as a request for permission. Jack had some vague thoughts about protesting, but the sharp twinges from his finger stabbed the idea of that right out of his head. Fondling that bug-eye of a control was not going to be easy, so he sat down to play navigator and contented himself with watching the black, disgusting landscape fall away beneath them as they climbed along the rock face and out of the valley.
Behind his shoulder, Carter leaned closer and sucked in a breath at the sight of dead rebels and Jaffa scattered in the streets.
“Better to die free,” Teal’c said, in what was always his last word on the subject. No need for Jack to say he agreed. They all did, though it was a damn waste to have to wipe out half a planet’s people to get to it.
“Carter,” Jack said. “Find us someplace to go. Someplace close, with a ‘gate.” Daniel was curled up against the wall behind him, and for all Jack knew he could be bleeding to death. Nothing they could do about it but hurry.
“Yes, sir,” she said. The pressure on the back of his chair eased when she straightened and went to the center console. A moment later she said, “Sir, there’s a ha’tak headed straight for this planet. It’ll enter orbit in less than three minutes.”
“It is undoubtedly Yu’s ha’tak,” Teal’c said, maneuvering them through the last fading blue of planetary atmosphere and out into the yawning darkness of space. Jack scanned the star field. Death gliders and cargo ships swarmed around them. They fit in perfectly.
“Let’s just ignore it and get out of here,” Jack said. “They won’t notice us.”
“Sir,” Carter said, and before she even said another word he’d heard the entire argument in her tone. “From orbit, that mothership can wipe out entire cities. The revolution will be over before it’s even begun.”
“They expected it, Carter.” Jack swiveled in the seat to face her. “They knew he was coming.”
“No, Aris knew. And he knew he couldn’t stop Yu. Especially not without a ship.” She met his gaze steadily.
“Oh, come on,” Jack said, annoyed. “Don’t make this out to be a sob story for these people. After what he did to us?”
“There are more lives at stake here than that of Aris Boch,” Teal’c said, though he wasn’t looking at Jack. “We gave those who assisted us our assurance we would aid them in winning their freedom. Now we have abandoned them to lose it again.”
“You know how this game is played, Teal’c,” Jack said.
He swung back around. Now the mothership had come into view, a faint speck ahead, but growing. In the foreground was a black shadow that blocked out the stars. A second ha’tak already in orbit. As it began to rotate, the central pyramid became a narrow wedge of light.
“I know only that we made a promise in order to secure your freedom,” Teal’c said, and now he did turn his head so Jack could see the look of determination on his face.
Jack sighed. “We don’t have any weapons. What the hell are we supposed to do, ring over and take them on one by one? Look at us,” he said, gesturing widely to include all his walking wounded.
“This vessel is heavily armed,” Teal’c said.
“I thought cargo ships didn’t carry weapons,” Carter said.
“In general, they do not. However, this one does.”
“Why wouldn’t it?” Jack muttered. “Considering who owned it last.”
“Sir,” Carter said, pointing at the mothership that was now looming beyond the nearer one. Teal’c maneuvered around to get a closer look. The ship slowed, then assumed orbit.
“It is moving into position to bombard the surface of the planet,” Teal’c said. “If we are to act, we must act quickly.”
“Can we even do enough damage to make this worthwhile?” Jack asked.
Teal’c glanced back at Daniel, obviously weighing ‘worthwhile’ with ‘promised’, and nodded once. “I believe we can.”
Jack looked at Carter, whose silence gave agreement. Then he raised his hand, capitulating. “Do it. But make it good, Teal’c. I want to be home in time for dinner.”
That tiny ghost of a smile that passed for a grin appeared, then Teal’c gave all his concentration to finding a point of vulnerability on the nearer ship. Both ha’taks glowed on the view screen in front of them.
“They have not raised their shields,” Teal’c said. “They do not expect attack from other ships.”
“Well, at least there’s that,” Jack said, and leaned back to watch the show. Nothing else to do now but play it out.