Another quake slammed through the outpost. George yanked Ambassador Zhu away from the hole as a new wave of snow and ice plummeted from the ceiling. Shielding Zhu with his body, he took the brunt of it, ice and snow pelting his back. The vibrations intensified. He quickly scanned the room to make sure Lee and Simmons were safe. Lee had grabbed on to the Mark IIs while the lieutenant stayed by the hole, hanging on to a nearby column.
“Simmons, get back from there,” he yelled over the thunderous roar, but the lieutenant didn’t budge. He kept looking down in that damn hole.
Another jolt. George fell sideways, his head smacking against the floor. As he struggled into a kneeling position, he could only hope the force field protected Jack and SG-1 down below. At this rate, the outpost would be torn to pieces.
And the planet, too, if they didn’t shut the damn thing off.
The tremor stopped, only to be replaced by loud hissing and popping sounds emanating from the force field. George glanced over at Zhu. She seemed none the worse for wear. Dr. Lee had risen to his feet, double-checking the straps on the Mark IIs.
“General, I can see them!” Simmons pointed down at the hole.
George scrambled to his feet and raced over to the force field. It was as clear as glass. Down below, a motionless Jack laid next to Weiyan Shi on top of a glowing circular platform the size of a Hummer. Backlit trellised panels glowed underneath. Sprawled around the outer edges were Colonel Carter, Teal’c and Dr. Jackson, forming a semi-circle around the other two. Or more specifically, around Weiyan. She’d fallen exactly center.
A control crystal protruded from her lower stomach. Or rather, the remains of one. Larger than a DHD controller, the red crystal was charred black.
“There should be more blood,” Dr. Lee observed.
Zhu’s ashen face made George wince. Normally, he’d ask Lee to be less clinical, and more sensitive to the fact that civilians were about, but he needed the scientist to focus on getting them out, not playing diplomat.
He’d have to do that himself.
Zhu sucked in a sharp breath. “Is she…? Are they…?”
Weiyan’s hand slid across her stomach, coming to rest just beside the burned out crystal.
“There!” Simmons pointed toward Colonel Carter. Her left arm raised a few inches and then dropped back down. As if she was trying to pull something.
“How is that possible?” Zhu asked, bending down beside the hole. “Why are they all unconscious?”
“I’m not sure.” Lee rubbed his beard. “I mean, I have a theory, but — ”
“Spit it out, Doctor.”
“It could be a side effect of the photonic energy emitting from the device, or — ”
George raised a hand to stop the doctor’s preamble. “You’d said the device derives its energy from the sun. Why would it keep them unconscious?”
“Hold on, let me show you.” Lee ran over to his computer table. He lifted up a toolkit and grabbed a pad of yellow paper. “See now, why couldn’t I find this earlier?”
“Perhaps the pad had disappeared,” Simmons whispered.
George gave the lieutenant a stern look. “Doctor, please.”
“Sorry!” Lee rejoined them, pulling a pen out of his coat pocket. He drew a fair facsimile of the platform below.
“Photons are pure energy. They register as both particle and waves.” He drew a series of waves emanating out from the center. “If General O’Neill and the others were knocked unconscious from their fall, they might be susceptible to Mu-waves. Electromagnetic oscillations that can affect neuron activity in their brains, forcing them to stay unconscious.”
“Can these Mu-waves hurt them?” George asked.
Lee shrugged. “I don’t really know that much about the physiological affect, but I’d bet they’re having some pretty wild dreams.”
“What about Weiyan?” Simmons asked. “Why isn’t she bleeding?”
George looked back down at the six-sided crystal sticking out of her stomach. A horrific sight to say the least. “Does that crystal have something to do with it?”
Lee shook his head. “If the crystal was lit up, then yes, maybe. But it’s broken which could be why the device is behaving this way.”
George watched Samantha Carter’s hand tighten into a ball. “How much time do we have, Doctor?”
Lee ran over to his computer and tapped a few keys. “The sun rises in less than eighteen hours.”
“I need to contact Major Davis.” George glanced out the archway leading to the main area. Two airmen were carrying a civilian on a stretcher toward the elevator. Against the far wall, another airman was speaking on the radio, requesting a med-evac chopper.
“Sir?” Simmons hurried to his side. “I took the liberty of contacting the major before the latest tremor. He’s still busy helping with recovery efforts at McMurdo.”
“I almost envy him,” George replied. At least someone was doing something constructive. He turned back toward the chair and it occurred to him that maybe there was something to be done here, too. “It’s time for a new approach, Doctor.”
“Sir?”
He turned to Simmons. “How many trainees are still here?
“At least five.” The lieutenant gestured toward the archway leading to the outer chamber. “Should I — ?”
“Whoa, General. Wait a minute.” Lee’s head shot up. “Putting an untrained person with the ATA gene into that chair is what got us into this mess.”
“And it might be the only way out at this point. If we don’t take the risk, we could lose much more than General O’Neill and SG-1.”
“We could lose the world.” Lee slid out from behind his computer. “I’ll go find out which trainees are still here.” As Lee hurried out, George dropped his gaze to the comatose General O’Neill. If the stakes weren’t so high, he’d be amused by his protégé’s uncharacteristically still form. Jack was a ball of energy, never not-moving. Even during briefings, he’d fidget with a pen, a coffee cup, or even a button on his BDUs.
The president had once referred to Jack as a living spin-top, never happy unless in motion. George snorted, remembering the man’s recent promotion ceremony. President Hayes had pinned the stars on himself. He’d said it was like trying to shoot a moving target.
But now, Jack lay motionless. If the frown lines on his face weren’t deeper than normal, George would’ve believed him dead.
He prayed it wouldn’t come down to that.
Footsteps announced Dr. Lee’s return. To George’s dismay, only two trainees followed him in. Ryan Hall, the retired army vet, and Sgt. Miguel Helado, the young Argentine whose arrogance was enough to convince George they were doomed before the soldier even got in the chair.
He strode up to the two trainees and stuck out his hand. “I cannot thank you enough for being willing to help.”
Hall gripped his hand and pumped it hard. “Happy to, General. Just tell us what to do.”
George turned to Helado to do likewise. “You too, son. It’s appreciated.”
The Argentine didn’t take his hand. “I do this to save my own country, sir, not yours.”
Though taken aback, George held his tongue.
Lee coughed. “He’s right in a way, General. If we don’t get the device turned off soon, Argentina and Australia will — ”
“Thank you, Doctor.” He gestured toward the chair. “Let’s get this underway, all right?”
“First try shutting the device down.” Lee escorted Helado around the hole to the back of the chair. “If that doesn’t work, try moving the force field downward, away from the top of the device so we can deactivate it ourselves.”
Helado’s face turned white as he walked across the wooden board leading to the chair and sat down. The seatback lit up. “Now what?”
Lee returned to his monitors. “Concentrate on the device. Try to shut it off.”
Helado closed his eyes and the chair back reclined into the active position. His face scrunched up, he sucked in a breath…
Nothing happened.
“Concentrate on the force field,” Simmons offered. “You want to bend it downwards, away from the control crystal.”
Helado’s eyes popped open. He glanced left and then right. “What was that?”
Lee shrugged. “I didn’t feel anything.”
Hall rubbed his arms. “I felt it, too.”
“Like a wind. A breeze, yes?” Helado shivered.
“General,” Zhu said, her voice impatient.
George skirted around the hole until he was as close to the chair as possible. “Sgt. Helado, if you could just focus?”
“Sí. Of course.” Helado’s eyes closed again.
The platform rattled. The back’s illuminated panels flickered. The floor shook, not as intensely as before, but bad enough to topple over a decorative panel by the archway.
“Watch out!” Simmons yelled.
Helado jumped from the chair just before a chunk of ice fell on its seat. More ice and snow tumbled down from the ceiling as Helado ran across the wooden plank and took cover by the Mark IIs with Lee.
“Get back!” George yelled.
A shudder ran across the floor. Zhu and Hall crouched a few feet away from the hole, their arms covering their heads. Simmons was back at his default position, holding on to a column by the hole. Ice and snow smashed into the force field, immediately disintegrating into a burst of rising steam.
“Evacuate the room!” George shouted over the din.
Hall and Helado dashed out, but Zhu crouched lower, staying put. “I am not leaving!”
A final shake and the tremors stopped.
George exhaled, his breath turning to wispy fog in the cold room. Glancing back down at his unconscious people, he could only hope that whatever had them in its grip was also keeping them warm enough to escape hypothermia. Lying still like that for so long couldn’t be good.
Simmons seemed no worse for wear. Not a hair out of place. “Earthquakes and sub-zero temperatures seem to agree with you, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.” Simmons managed a faint grin. “I was raised in a very warm climate, but I like the cold. Would you like me to see if any coffee survived that last round?”
“You read my mind. Thanks.”
As the young man hurried from the room, Zhu wiped a hand across her eyes. “We have failed. Weiyan will die and — ”
“Not true,” George said. “We just haven’t succeeded yet.”
“That’s the real irony in all this,” Lee said. “If Colonel Carter was here, she’d have the device shut down in no time.”
George glanced at Samantha Carter’s still form. Her hands no longer twitched, though her brow was creased. Whatever was going on in the colonel’s brilliant head, it was clear she, too, was struggling to figure it all out.
“What happens now?” Ambassador Zhu asked, more to the force field than to anyone else.
The scuffle of footsteps announced someone else had entered the room. “I have spoken with the UN Secretary-General and he has agreed.”
George whirled toward the voice.
Ambassador Duebel glared back at him. “Destroy the outpost now or I will arrange to have it done myself.”
Once Sam managed to get Weiyan to lie down, she probed the girl’s abdomen. She used her palm to scrape back the blood pooling around Weiyan’s belly button, around her hips, up high around her ribcage. There had to be a good pint, at least.
“This makes no sense,” she reported to the others. “There’s no incision, no cuts, not even a bruise.”
“I don’t feel anything.” Weiyan laid a hand onto her bare stomach. “It doesn’t hurt, but,” sucking in a breath, she lifted her hand, the fingers coated in the viscous stuff. “No, no. I cannot bleed like this. Not now.”
The girl was panting, clearly terrified.
“You’ve got to breathe slower,” Sam told her gently.
“I will try.”
“It’s going to be okay.” She took off her pullover. The fleece was made to wick away moisture in cold weather, she couldn’t ask for better material to blot up the blood.
“Any chance at an explanation?” The general knelt down beside them, his eyes narrowed in concern. “I thought we’d decided this was all imaginary.”
“I can’t explain it, sir.” The fleece soaked full of blood, and yet, still more seeped out around Weiyan’s navel.
The general handed over his pullover. “Teal’c’s earlier knock to the head didn’t leave any wounds, so what gives? None of this is real.”
Weiyan’s breathing had calmed down from massive hyperventilation to ragged whimpers. Daniel crouched beside her. “We know there are some similarities between here and the real world. Weiyan’s…”
“Go ahead,” Weiyan sobbed. “Say it. I lost my temper.”
“It happens.” Daniel squeezed her elbow. “Just ask Jack.”
“Watch yourself,” General O’Neill half-warned, half joked.
“Is anyone thirsty?” Sam asked. “Or even hungry?”
“No, which is strange enough, but if we’re gonna talk about imaginary versus real, we should probably talk about this.” The general pulled out his Zippo.
“Skaara’s lighter,” Daniel said. “I thought you packed it away in that cigar box of yours after — ”
“After we pulled your ass out of Lord Yu’s little fortress last year? Yeah, I did.” The general flipped the lighter open and thumbed the wheel. The flame sputtered to life. “Cute trick, huh? No lighter fluid.” He snapped the lid shut.
“O’Neill, if you did not carry the lighter with you to Antarctica — ”
“Good question, T.” He stuffed it back in his pocket. “Part of me thinks we’re dealing with Skaara, or another of Daniel’s ascended buddies.”
Daniel shook his head. “They don’t interfere. Not like this.”
“You can’t be sure, Daniel.” Sam wiped up the last of the blood on Weiyan’s stomach. The bleeding had stopped. “You can’t even remember why you left them.”
“Or why they kicked your sorry ass out.”
“You’re right,” Daniel said. “I don’t know, but this just doesn’t seem like something they’d do.”
Sam pulled down Weiyan’s shirt to cover her stomach. “I just don’t see how any of this is possible. We’re here, but we’re not — ”
“Yes, but when Weiyan got angry while in the chair,” Daniel said, “a quake happened.”
“Subsequent earthquakes have directly tied into General O’Neill’s and Weiyan’s emotions,” Teal’c added.
“True,” Sam said. “But if this is all imaginary, then where are we really? For all we know, we’re still at the outpost.”
“And if no one there can get to us,” Daniel said, “Weiyan could be injured. It could have happened when we fell.”
“No!” Weiyan bolted up from the ground. “I don’t feel any pain. I am well, I tell you.” She clenched her fists. “I am well. Please,” her voice lowered, “do not let me die.”
“No one’s dying.” General O’Neill gathered Weiyan in his arms and held her as she cried.
Sam glanced up at him, surprised though warmed by his gesture. Then, a chill ran up her spine. A reminder of the impossibility of their situation. She hated to be the one to break his moment’s kindness, but it had to be done. “Sir — ”
“Leave it alone, Carter.” He gave Weiyan a brief bear hug and then stepped back. “We’re getting out of here. Trust me.” He tugged down on his shirt. “We’ve got a good record of getting out of far worse things that this, don’t we, people?”
“General O’Neill is correct,” Teal’c said. “We have indeed escaped from far more challenging situations.”
“Even holographic ones,” Daniel added. “Look at what happened with the Gamekeeper.”
The general scowled. “Do we have to?”
“That was different, sir.” Sam shook her head. “We experienced yours and Daniel’s memories over and over again, but we weren’t hurt.”
“So… This isn’t a hologram?”
“I don’t think so, sir.” Sam pointed toward the building at the far end of the basin. “Otherwise, would that structure be here through every permutation?”
“And why the city?” Daniel asked. “Or, more importantly, why give us clues like that obelisk? Or Jack having a sudden bout of speaking Ancient?”
General O’Neill turned toward Daniel, “You’re convinced that Peda-lite Elysium — ”
“Pedion.”
“Whatever.” General O’Neill waved his hands. “You really think that’s a gate address?”
“Sir, you were the one to fill in the last few syllables.” She met his grim gaze with one of her own. Twice before, Sam had watched the Ancient Repository take over his brain and had always felt unsettled when it happened, as if the general would slip away and never come back.
Frowning, he turned toward the building across the valley floor. “I still feel like we’re rats in somebody’s maze.”
“Or children with a puzzle,” Teal’c commented.
“I am bleeding again!” Weiyan pressed a hand against her stomach.
Sam pushed Weiyan’s hand out of the way and pulled up her pullover. A blotch of blood oozed from her otherwise healthy skin. “How do you feel?”
“Sleepy.” Weiyan glanced at the general and then sniffled back a sob. “I will try to be brave.”
Sam grasped her hand. “Good, that’ll help, but if we don’t stop the bleeding soon, you could lose too much.” She made to pull her hand free, but —
Weiyan grabbed hold with her other hand. “I must confess.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I am — I am a hemophiliac.”
Sam gasped. “That’s impossible. How did you get on the trainee program if — ?”
“I cannot tell you why I was accepted, Colonel Carter. Only that my bleeding,” she touched her stomach, “is serious!”
Sam exchanged a look with General O’Neill. If Weiyan lost much more blood she would die, and all the assurances in the world wouldn’t make a difference. “Sir,” Sam said, “we need to figure a way out of here. Soon.”
He nodded. “I’m going to take Daniel and scope out the area. See if we can figure out a way off this rock.”
“You can’t do that, sir. Whatever’s controlling this environment wants us to stay together.”
“I am willing to journey with you, General.” Weiyan placed a hand on her forehead.
“Yeah.” General O’Neill shuffled his feet. “I don’t think that’s such a hot idea. Teal’c?” He jerked his chin toward the ground.
“You must conserve your strength.” Placing an arm on her elbow, Teal’c eased Weiyan down to the ground. “When we do find a means of escape, we will undoubtedly need your help.”
“Teal’c’s right.” Sam scooped up the general’s pullover and used it to wipe Weiyan’s stomach. “The bleeding’s stopped again. What I don’t understand is why this started all of a sudden. There’s no wound.”
Weiyan dropped her gaze. “Earlier I noticed my stomach was damp, but thought it only sweat.”
Teal’c lowered himself to the ground beside her. “Whoever has placed us here is most cruel.”
General O’Neill grunted. “Just once I’d like us to meet a technologically advanced race bent on being nice.”
“Don’t forget the Tollan, sir.” As soon as Sam mentioned their former allies, she regretted it. Thanks to the Goa’uld, they were all dead.
Shoving the thought aside, Sam patted Weiyan’s shoulder. “Stay put. You’ll bleed less.” She nodded at Teal’c who had taken up residence beside the young girl.
“I will assist her if needed.”
Satisfied, Sam joined General O’Neill and Daniel a few feet away.
“That guy keeps popping in and out,” the general said. “What the hell is that about?”
“We don’t even know if it is a guy,” Daniel said.
“Guy. Girl. What does it matter?”
“The general’s right, Daniel.” Sam shaded her eyes to scan the building in the distance. The sun’s lack of movement alone was a clear indicator that they weren’t in a natural environment. “The one thing we do know is that whoever it is, they want us to go forward together.”
“Maybe.” The general shifted his stance forty-five degrees to the right of the building. “But what about sideways?”
“What good will that do?” Daniel asked.
The general nodded toward the building’s far right. “I saw some rubble earlier. While on top of that hill.”
“Rubble.” Sam raised an eyebrow, unsure where the general was going with this.
“That’s right, Colonel, rubble.” He draped an arm around Daniel. “And we all know how archaeologists love rubble.”
Daniel glanced at her and then General O’Neill. “And you think where there’s rubble, there might be something else to explain — ?”
“How the hell to get out of here? Yes, Daniel. What do you think, Carter?”
Sam exhaled, relieved to try something and even more, relieved to see the general back in a constructive frame of mind. “I’m game. Daniel?”
“I’m always up for rubble,” Daniel said. “What about Weiyan? Should we take her with us?”
Sam thought about that for a moment. “I’ll stay behind.”
“Negative, Colonel. We might need you.”
“Sir, if you’re right, and if heading on a diagonal from the building doesn’t cause another seismic event, we could try this in phases. You two go first. If you find anything you deem worth securing a new position for, signal us. I’ll cross, then Teal’c can bring Weiyan.”
“Works for me.” General O’Neill clapped his hands together. “Let’s move out.” He raised two fingers in the air and then pointed toward their destination.
With a parting lift of an eyebrow, Daniel followed.
The two men trudged forward, or rather, sideways. Sam couldn’t help but wonder what had spurred General O’Neill into action and dare she admit it, a better mood.
Twenty feet. Thirty feet. She held her breath, steeling herself for another tremor.
Fifty feet. General O’Neill turned around and waved.
Relieved, Sam waved back.
“Rats in a maze, Daniel.”
“Jack, I don’t think that’s what this is all about.” Topsoil spilled from Daniel’s fingers. So far, he’d recovered a few marble shards, several large splinters of polished wood, and a three-foot wide granite pedestal — the same stone that had held the obelisk.
If they were inside some kind of holographic projection, someone was going to a lot of trouble to spare no detail.
“You’re right about one thing,” Daniel said. “Rubble pretty much describes what we have here.” Without any tools, he had to dig with his hands. It was slow, tedious work. He used his fingertips as a brush, sweeping back one area, and then the next. Sure, he could just plunge in and hope for the best, but if he broke something — a bit of stone, or something that could be a clue — he’d regret it.
“I’d kill for a pair of sunglasses,” Jack muttered, standing a few feet away.
“You could help me sift through this.”
“You’re the archaeologist, not me.”
Daniel lifted his head, the relentless sunlight near blinding him. “Do you want to find a way out of here or not?”
“Someone needs to stand guard.”
“Against what? Another earthquake?” Daniel jabbed a finger toward another small mound of dirt, bits of marble, and granite. “Tell me the big bad general isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.”
“Big bad, my ass.” Jack sank down beside the other mound and grabbed a handful of dirt.
“Careful,” Daniel warned. “Go slowly. We don’t want to miss anything.” He demonstrated how to sift through the dirt.
“Hey, if it gets us out of here, I’ll pick this apart speck by speck.” Jack got the hang of it pretty quick — which should have surprised Daniel, but it didn’t. When motivated, Jack had a knack for picking up skills if the need arose.
After watching him excavate for a few moments, Daniel returned to his own efforts. Eventually, the loose dirt he’d brushed aside gave way to more firmly packed soil.
And a definite chunk of granite.
“Found something.” He carefully swept away the soil packed around a three-inch wide, foot-long vertical piece of smooth granite. “This looks like a piece of the obelisk!”
Flipping it over, he noticed blocky indentations along the back. He brushed away the embedded dirt and there they were, the letters P and E. The first two Ancient letters for the word Pedion.
“That’s good, right?” Jack took the granite chunk from his hands.
“Maybe. I’m not sure what we can do with it, though. We already know the planet’s name. We need the rest of the obelisk if we’re going to make any sense out of this.”
“If you found that, we’ll find the rest and you’ll figure it out,” Jack muttered. He returned to his work with the topsoil.
Something had been eating at Jack earlier. That much was clear to Daniel. Feigning nonchalance, he cleared away more dirt from the immediate area. “So, what’s going on with you, anyway?”
“Digging like a kid in a sandbox. Wanting to ring the neck of whoever decided to treat us like lab rats.”
“We’re not rats.”
“Oh, sure, you say that now.” Jack shrugged. “But hey, we’re trapped somewhere and need to get out. Same old, same old.”
“That’s not what I mean.” Daniel deliberately kept his focus on digging. “You’ve been acting wonky since we left the SGC for Antarctica, and now — ”
“Wonky?”
“Yes, wonky… Ah!” Daniel found another chunk of granite. The letters D and E. He placed it next to the first piece.
“Sweet.” Jack handed over a matching piece of granite, this time a good four inches wide and twice as long. The Ancient block-style letters for L, Y and S.
Daniel laid the granite down beside the others. He looked toward Jack, hoping to pick up their conversation where it’d left off, but Jack had returned to digging silently, a clear sign that he wasn’t interested in talking. With a sigh, Daniel carried on sifting dirt.
Finally, Jack spoke. “Since when did ‘wonky’ become part of your vocabulary?”
“Don’t change the subject. Something’s eating you.”
“Actually, I think that is the subject.” Jack waggled a dirt-covered finger toward him. “You’ve changed these last few years.”
“I’ve changed?”
“Yeah, you have.” Jack attacked a new mound, no longer being careful. “Since coming back from Oma-land. For one thing,” he tossed a handful of dirt aside, “you’re snarkier.”
“And that’s bad, how?”
“I’m not saying it’s bad, just…” Jack shrugged. “Be careful. You’ll get yourself in trouble.”
Daniel snorted. “This from the king of snark.” And that’s when it hit him. “You’re changing the subject again.”
“What do you want me to say? I’m getting tired of — ”
“This is about what happened on Tegalus, isn’t it?”
Jack single-mindedly tore into a new mound. “I can distinctly remember telling you on the plane that — ”
“You think it’s my fault the Caledonians launched the missile strike. That’s what’s bothering you.”
“Trust me, Daniel, those jerks had it coming.” Jack flashed him a tight grin. “As far as I’m concerned, you can get caught up in all the civil wars you want. Just do me a favor and get together with Teal’c. Maybe the two of you could schedule your mishaps a little further apart.” He plunged his hands back into the dirt. “Bring Carter while you’re at it.”
Tegalus. Teal’c’s near-death experience in the virtual chair. Sam’s capture and torture by the Replicator Fifth…
Daniel rocked back on his heels. “You don’t blame me,” he realized aloud. “You blame yourself. You think you could — ”
“Found another piece.” Jack tossed over a fist-sized rock.
With a shake of his head, Daniel uncovered the letter I. He laid the granite piece down beside the others. “We’ve been at this for, what?”
“Twenty minutes, I guess.” Jack waved his wrist in the air. “No watch. Which is really annoying, by the way.”
Daniel shook his head. “I don’t mean the digging. I mean the Stargate Program. We’ve been at this a really long time. The losses, the near misses — ”
“It’s all part of the job.”
“Maybe being a general’s your problem. You’ve drifted away from who you — ”
“Daniel…” Jack’s voice took on that warning tone, the one that said ‘stop pushing.’ He shoved both hands into the hole he’d pulled the last stone from. His shoulders jerked a few times until he fell back on his rear, another large chunk of granite in his hands.
Daniel wiped the thick dirt off Jack’s latest find, discovering the final letters U and M. The Ancients’ version of an M always surprised him, looking more like a blocky Y.
“There are benefits to being a general, you know.” Jack wiped his hands on his pants. “Best parking space in the lot. Well, next to the NORAD commander, that is. Plus, I get to eat great commissary food, sit back — ”
“Not here, Jack. You can’t sit things out while we’re trying to figure out how to get off this world.”
“You don’t think I know that?”
Daniel laid the last piece down beside the others. “What I think doesn’t matter.”
“Stop trying to play shrink. You’re not very good at it.” Jack jerked his chin toward the obelisk fragments. “I don’t think we’re going to find anymore chunks of this stuff.”
“This doesn’t make sense. On the original obelisk, there was writing here.” Daniel pointed to an empty area below the middle letters. “Where did it go?”
“Does it say Pedion Elysium?”
“You’ve had the Ancients’ knowledge downloaded into your head, you were forced to learn the language yourself to get out of that time loop, and you still can’t read Ancient?” He traced the first few letters and sounded out the pronunciation slowly for Jack to follow along.
“Stop!” Jack put his hands over his ears. “There’s only so much information this brain can handle at once, and Ancient just isn’t high on my list of priorities.”
Daniel fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Yes, then. It says Pedion Elysium.”
“Which clearly someone, or something, wants us to see. The question is, why?”
“You think the being that talked to Teal’c — this alien — is playing a game with us?”
“Yeah, and this,” Jack waved a hand at the granite pieces, “is a clue to that game.”
“Maybe it isn’t a game.” Daniel stared at the words. He’d managed to work out a gate address — thanks to Jack’s odd little Ancient Repository relapse — but so far, he couldn’t figure out why that address was important. “Could the alien be trying to tell us something? Something we need to know, but for whatever reason, the being has to be sneaky about telling us?”
“Sneaky?” Jack snorted. “That’s a snarky word if ever I heard one.”
“Maybe it is, but unless you can tap into any last shreds of the Ancient Repository like you did earlier — ”
“Did not.”
“Did so.” Daniel deliberately glared at Jack. “This is important. We need to know the significance of this name or — ”
“We’ll go on being rats in a maze.”
Teal’c stretched his legs out. Fatigue washed over him, a moment’s weariness he allowed in hopes that like a wave it would crest and become no more. He sought inward for his strength, believing he had only to grasp —
A hand pressed against his knee. “You all right?”
Teal’c opened his eyes and forced himself to smile at Colonel Carter. “I am simply performing a moment’s kelno’reem.”
“Kelnor-what?” asked the young girl sitting beside him.
“Kelno’reem. A meditative practice to steady the mind.”
“I thought you didn’t do that anymore.” Colonel Carter’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “At least, not since your symbiote was removed.”
Teal’c knew he should speak the truth to his friend, but as there was nothing she or anyone else could do, he said nothing.
Fortunately, Colonel Carter had more pressing issues to attend to. Weiyan Shi no longer bled, but she could no longer stand, either. She had paled considerably. A sheen of sweat covered her forehead and her lips were pale. Teal’c exchanged worried looks with his teammate, aware that each hour that passed diminished the chances of her survival.
“I wish to go home,” Weiyan Shi whispered. She reached out her hand to him.
Under other circumstances, Teal’c would not lie, but this young woman — barely more than a child — required comfort. As if she was his own, he took her hand, pressed it firmly in assurance. “Even now O’Neill and Daniel Jackson seek a means of escape.”
“That’s right,” Colonel Carter said. “We do this all the time. Get into trouble, figure it out, jump back through the Stargate, and — ”
“But General O’Neill said that without a Stargate, we have no means of escape.”
Teal’c squeezed the girl’s hand. “You do not know General O’Neill as we do. He often jokes in impossible situations.”
“It’s a deflection thing,” said Colonel Carter. “The general’s just trying to keep things light so everyone can focus.”
Weiyan Shi coughed. “He has not joked very much in my presence.”
“He just needs to get to know you.” Colonel Carter lifted a hand above her brow and looked further into the valley.
Gently releasing Weiyan Shi’s hand, Teal’c followed her line of sight toward the location of Daniel Jackson’s and O’Neill’s dig. The two men appeared to be pulling items from the ground. “Perhaps they have found something of value.”
“I wish we had radios,” Colonel Carter said wistfully.
As did Teal’c. Nonetheless, they needed to know if any progress had been made. “I will attend to Weiyan Shi while you confer with the others.”
“And risk having the ground crack open again?” asked Colonel Carter. “I don’t know, Teal’c. We’d agreed to wait for a signal from the general.”
“As O’Neill and Daniel Jackson were able to proceed, perhaps the being which keeps us here will allow you to do the same.”
“All right. I’ll talk to the guys and if they’ve found anything, I’ll signal you to join us.” With one last reassuring smile for Weiyan Shi, Colonel Carter headed toward the others. Teal’c watched as she carefully repeated their steps, moving on a diagonal to the building’s right. Assured that she would not come to any harm, he looked back at Weiyan Shi. The girl had curled up on her side, her eyes closed. Her chest rose and fell in a somewhat steady rhythm.
Teal’c closed his own eyes again. Striving for a moment’s balance, he inhaled deeply. He could not perform a deep level of kelno’reem now that his symbiote had been removed. That said, he could still assert some level of control over the rhythm of his heart, the temperature of his body, and even the tumultuous nature of his mind when necessary.
He exhaled forcefully, expelling worn breath out through his nostrils. He inhaled once more, allowing the warm air of their surroundings to fill his lungs. He looked inward, imagining the air mixing with his blood.
“You fool the others,” Weiyan Shi said by his side, “but I can see that you aren’t well.”
Teal’c bowed his head. “Admittedly.”
“You aren’t human, are you?” Weiyan Shi pushed up to a seated position. “You speak English like the Americans, but you use different words, as if — ” She sucked in a short breath.
“Are you in pain, Weiyan Shi?”
Pressing her lips together, the girl nodded curtly.
“Should I retrieve Colonel Carter?” He began to rise.
Weiyan Shi grabbed his leg. “Please, stay with me. I’ll be all right. I’m just tired. Like you.” She tugged at his pant leg. “I’ll try to feel better, ok?”
“You use the word ‘try’ very often.”
“Isn’t that important? We should always try to do what is asked of us.” This last she recited as if from a child’s nursery rhyme.
Crossing his legs, Teal’c pointed this out.
“My mother taught me to always try. You sound like my father. Or at least, the one time I spoke with him. He didn’t believe in trying. He said one must simply do what needs to be done.” Weiyan Shi lay down, resting her head upon her clasped hands.
“Your father sounds like he is a wise man.”
“Was,” she mumbled. Her eyes closed.
Teal’c followed suit. He dropped his chin toward his chest, breathed in, and —
“Will General O’Neill be angry if I ask where you’re from?”
He peered once more at this curious young woman and considered her question. In the end, the responsibility for her knowledge was her own, and given their current circumstances, it would be unjust not to give her at least some sense of the truth.
“I am from Chulak.”
Her eyes widened. “Chulak. Is that far from here?”
“As we have no means of knowing where ‘here’ is, I can only say that it is far from Earth.”
She coughed again, the sound worrisome. “You’re the first alien I’ve ever met.”
“My ancestors were of Earth.”
“Does that mean we’re related?”
“I do not know.” Teal’c had never considered that possibility. If the Jaffa had indeed evolved from the Tau’ri, those who walked upon Earth now could be his distant kin. Was it possible that this was yet another reason for his affinity to O’Neill, Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter? The idea gave him comfort.
A sudden boom across the sky cast aside his musings. The sound was familiar, though certainly out of place. He bolted to his feet, listening. Dizziness threatened to overcome him, but he pushed it aside.
“It wasn’t me,” Weiyan Shi said. “I am not angry. General O’Neill must have lost his — ”
Teal’c shot up a fist to signal silence. Though short-lived, the sound reverberated across the valley, the vibrations rippling through the air long after the initial boom had dissipated. He strained to hear confirmation of what he feared.
He did not have long to wait. A high-pitched whine, that of a ship slowing as it entered the upper atmosphere, emanated from the skies above. Moments later, a Goa’uld mothership appeared from behind the clouds and began its descent.
“How is this possible?”
“What is it?” Weiyan Shi cried out.
“An enemy you should have no wish to meet. Can you run?” He grabbed her arm and lifted her up. The effort was difficult, but adrenaline now coursed through him, casting aside his fatigue. Another glimpse at the ship confirmed that it drew closer, no more than a half-mile away.
“I — I will try.” Weiyan Shi stepped forward, stumbled, and fell to the ground.
“No, Weiyan Shi. We will not try.” He swept her up into his arms. “We will do.”
He ran to join the others.
“Orders, sir?”
Jack watched the Goa’uld mothership descend at break-neck speed, headed right toward them. At its current trajectory, it would set down smack between them and the building. Too close for comfort.
“O’Neill!” Teal’c ran toward them, Weiyan slung over his shoulder. He set her down beside Carter. “We must take cover!”
Too hard to believe.
“Jack! Shouldn’t we do something?” Daniel jumped up from their little — and now insignificant — pile of granite letters.
Too impossible.
“General, we must hide!” pleaded Weiyan.
“From what?” He yanked the Zippo out of his pocket. Flipped the lid back. Thumbed the wheel. The flame came to life. Nice and neat.
Sunlight bounced off the incoming mothership’s black metallic hull. Its pyramidal edges looked sharp enough to cut anything in two as it entered the lower atmosphere.
Jack waved a hand over the lighter’s flame. Nothing. Nada. Not even the littlest bit of heat. “Yeah, that tears it.” He snapped the lighter shut and exchanged a glance with Daniel.
“You do not believe it is real,” Teal’c observed.
Jack stuck the lighter back in his pocket. “I think that’s been pretty well established. How much longer do you think we have before that thing lands?”
“Ten, perhaps fifteen minutes.”
“Carter, am I crazy?”
She raised her eyes upwards and frowned. “No, sir. I don’t think you are, but — ”
“Yes! You are all crazy!” shouted Weiyan.
Jack whirled toward the girl, ready to calm her down. When he saw her digging a hole in the ground, he realized it would take more than just a few words.
Cupping her hands, Weiyan was scooping back armfuls of dirt. Her hair had half-tumbled from its ponytail, hanging around her face in a disheveled mess. The sandy soil covered her blood-soaked shirt as she frantically dug like her life depended on it.
Weiyan was right, in a sense. Their lives did depend on what happened next, but not necessarily in the way she believed.
“Whatcha doing?” he asked as calmly as he could.
“What you will not. We must dig a hole. Hide. Protect ourselves.”
“Weiyan Shi.” Teal’c bent down beside her and grabbed her wrists. “What you see is not real.”
Weiyan yanked her arms loose. “You cannot be certain. What if they harm us? We will be killed.”
A shadow passed over them. The ship was coming in for landing. Jack had to fight every instinct that screamed out to help the girl dig that hole.
“We must hurry or we will die!” Weiyan kept on digging. She worked fast, creating a hole at least two feet deep.
“Jack, you’re sure — ?”
“I’m sure, Daniel,” he roared over the mothership’s entry rockets. “Sure as I’ve ever been. But somebody needs to stop that girl before she hurts herself.”
Weiyan jumped in and curled up in a ball. Satisfied that she couldn’t get into any more trouble, Jack returned his focus to the incoming ship. Not for the first time, he wished he had his scope.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder at Weiyan and then back at Jack. “I don’t get it.”
Jack snorted. “Welcome to the party.”
“That’s not what I mean. Why aren’t we experiencing another earthquake? She’s panicked. You’ve got to be feeling at least a bit anxious. Although, you’ve become awfully calm about all this.”
“Don’t let the bravado fool you. Seeing that ship is akin to a dog hearing a whistle.”
The ship touched down in front of the building. Jack noticed there were no portholes like those he’d seen on Cronus’s and Apophis’s motherships. He held his breath as the ground rumbled from the impact, the sound too similar to the earlier quakes for his taste. The pyramid’s primary hull retracted upwards, revealing a multi-tiered base with lit panels underneath.
“That ship’s taken some serious damage,” said Carter.
Scorch marks streaked across the side facing them, but the thing Jack noticed the most was the lack of an outer frame. It was like the pyramid had lost half its mass.
“There’s something off about the ship, T. Something’s missing.”
“That is not a ha’tak class ship, O’Neill. It is far older.”
Jack studied the ship’s pyramid shape again. Then it hit him. The thing was a dead ringer for Ra’s ship. A shudder went through him. “God, tell me that isn’t Ra. With all the crazy-assed backwards things we’ve experienced, that’d be — ”
“I do not believe it is, O’Neill.” Teal’c pointed toward the ship’s apex. “The sigil is missing. I have seen it many times as Apophis’ First Prime in battle against Ra’s fleet.”
“Then who the hell is it?”
“I cannot say.”
A horrific grinding noise erupted from the pyramid’s side. Squinting against the sunlight, Jack could make out a series of gantries opening up along the pyramid’s base. As the doors slid upwards, swarms of armored Jaffa poured out of the ship.
There had to be at least a thousand of them, broken into four battalions, each group stomping off in a different direction. If his gut was wrong, and these bastards were real, there was a good chance this would become SG-1’s last stand.
The Jaffa would make toast of them in minutes.
He shoved aside the maudlin thought. That pity-fest had ended hours ago.
A battalion headed directly toward them, led by a Jaffa wearing a red cloak instead of the typical dark gray. His silver tattoo glinted in the sunlight, but he was still too far away for Jack to make out his forehead marking.
Carter tensed beside him. “What if you’re wrong, sir?”
“If I’m right, those Jaffa are just phantoms. Figments.”
Daniel leaned forward to get a better view. “We should be able to figure out whose phantoms they are pretty soon.”
“O’Neill,” said Teal’c. “If they are phantoms, should we not approach them for a closer look?”
“Let’s first see how this phantom parade plays out.”
The lead Jaffa stormed toward them, backed up by enough metallic stomping from his horde to make Jack’s trigger finger itch. Without a rifle, all he could do was stand and watch.
And pray like a priest he was right.
Another fifty feet to go. The Jaffa didn’t miss a beat as they neared. Further evidence for Jack that they weren’t real. They weren’t there.
Carter widened her stance, balling her fists as if it would do any good.
It wouldn’t, but he sure liked knowing she had his back.
Twenty feet to go.
Teal’c stepped up to his other side with a fierce snarl of a smile. He always did like a good fight.
Ten. The lead Jaffa and his cronies kept marching toward them, their matching tattoos clear as day.
“That’s Lord Yu’s sigil!” Daniel said.
The Jaffa kept on marching.
Right through SG-1.