The Cost of Honor

by Stargate

  It laughed. Worse. I am the sheh fet, and you will hide nothing from me. With one impossibly long arm it reached down and curled skeletal fingers around the fabric of her shirt, lifting her up into the air and pulling her closer to the empty space that should have been its face. Tell me of O'Neill. Of the Mahr'bal.

  "There's nothing to tell," she spat.

  A single ivory finger, its nail blackened and decaying, pressed into the center of her forehead. You lie.

  "No. I-"

  A shattering blow threw her across the room so hard she felt herself splinter into a thousand tiny pieces...

  "Captain Samantha Carter reporting, Sir. "

  A bony claw dug into her shoulder blood seeped through her dress uniform.

  Show me, whispered a voice, darker and more frightening than death. Show me where he is...

  Stars shone brightly in the cold, black sky, a sliver of moon cutting like a blade and offering no light. A good night for battle, Teal'c thought, as he looked around at the shabby, malnourished men who had poured from their wretched dwellings, eager to strike a blow against their oppressors. He could see the hunger for retribution in their drawn faces, see the longing for justice burning bright in their eyes. But as he studied these men, some barely older than boys, others old before their time, he began to share O'Neill's view of the situation.

  This was no army.

  Next to him Daniel Jackson stood staring up at the crumbling buildings around them, lost in thought. And a little further off, O'Neill was in urgent discussion with Atella. Even from this distance, Teal'c could hear his conversation.

  "Weapons," O'Neill was saying, gesturing to the P90 he held in one hand. "Any kind of weapons?"

  Atella shook his head, but did not seem perturbed. He stooped and picked up a sizable chunk of stone. "This," he said, "is our weapon. Arxantia."

  O'Neill was shaking his head in frustration. "No. You don't get it. You can't- You can't throw stones at these people! They have guns. Lots of guns." He raked a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. "Just- Wait here."

  Teal'c clasped his hands behind his back, bracing himself as O'Neill stalked over to where he and Daniel Jackson stood waiting.

  "This is hopeless," O'Neill hissed. "They don't have any kind of weapon. Nothing! Not even bows and goddamn arrows."

  "So much for the terrorist theory then, huh?" Daniel said, not moving his gaze from the buildings above them.

  O'Neill scowled. Teal'c could see him weighing the odds, judging right and wrong. A Jaffa in service to the Goa'uld would not hesitate to use these people for their own defense, if for no other purpose than to mask their escape. But O'Neill was different. "It's going to be a slaughter," he said quietly. "We can't drag them into this."

  "What choice do we have?" Teal'c asked. "We are surrounded."

  O'Neill squinted out into the night, deliberately avoiding looking at either of them. "If I surrender-"

  "No," Daniel Jackson objected instantly. "Jack-"

  "It'll buy you guys some time," he insisted. "Get to the Cordon, find yourselves a ship, and get off this damn planet. Get back to the SGC and tell them what the hell is going on here."

  Such bravery, while typical of O'Neill, was impractical. "The Kinahhi know we are here, O'Neill. Your surrender will not prevent them from razing this settlement in order to find us."

  "I'm the one they want," he insisted. "I escaped and-"

  "Colonel O'Neill?" It was Atella. "Forgive the interruption, but... There is no need to fear. The Kinahhi can not harm us here."

  O'Neill appeared to be swallowing a reply, but Daniel Jackson spoke. "How do you know that, Atella?"

  He shrugged. "All the Arxanti know as much."

  "Yeah," O'Neill snapped, eyes scanning the dark horizon. "But I'm betting the Kinahhi don't."

  Atella smiled fiercely. "They soon will."

  "Jack, it's possible..." Daniel Jackson began, but at that moment Teal'c saw movement high up in the ruins.

  "O'Neill!" He barked, grabbing his friend's arm as a bolt of scarlet laser fire streaked through the night. The side of the building exploded, throwing them to the ground and scattering them with debris.

  "Damn it!" O'Neill growled. All around them the night sky erupted with streams of blood-red energy. "Too late."

  Atella stared up in shock. He had never seen such a thing, Teal'c surmised.

  "All will be well," he whispered to himself. "Arxantia will protect us."

  "Like hell," O'Neill cursed.

  Teal'c was inclined to agree.

  "Move in!" Commander Kenna gave the order, leading his men down into the shallow scoop of land. To his left, he heard the telltale whine of the alien weapon, and watched the dancing blue energy fell one of his men. The sensation had been unpleasant, he remembered, but not harmful. An odd kind of weapon. A civilized weapon... He shook the thought away and tightened his hold on his own shotgun. There was no room for sympathy or mercy; the life of his son was at stake and nothing in his world was more important.

  In the ruins now, he could see scurrying figures. Thin limbs, the hushed whispers of panic, as the Mahr'bal scuttled through their encampment. Hard to imagine these people having the intellect to plot the atrocity at Libnah that had massacred so many Kinahhi. But that had been a generation past. By the look of things, the Mahr'bal were now barely able to clothe themselves.

  Another blue flash lit up to his left, followed by the rattle of the Tauris' more lethal projectile weapons. Kenna turned toward the sound.

  A large pillar rose up before him, its surface smooth and less damaged than the rest of the city. Ducking behind it, he watched as his men tightened the noose around the settlement. There was no way out for O'Neill and his friends. As his soldiers moved past him, Kenna slid around the pillar to take the lead.

  Suddenly he became aware of a soft, violet light gleaming against the ruins all around him. The pillar where he'd stood was glowing.

  His men stopped, looking around in confusion.

  And then a scream of abject terror echoed through the night from the far side of the valley. "Edimmu!" someone shrieked. Edimmu!"

  The ghosts of the departed...

  "What the hell is going on?" Violet light washed the city, painting everyone in grisly shades of gray. And people were dying; their screams sounded like they were being ripped limb from limb. It made his skin crawl. "Daniel?"

  "Arxantia," Daniel breathed, awestruck.

  "What?"

  "The city," he replied, slowly standing to take it all in. "Atella was right. It's protecting them."

  Jack shifted until he was sitting with his back to the wall, his P90 at the ready. "How?"

  "I have no idea."

  A quiet sound to his right announced the arrival of Teal'c, his skin like ebony in the strange light and the brand of Apophis gleaming silver. "An invisible force is attacking the Kinahhi soldiers," he reported, dropping into a crouch next to Jack.

  "Invisible?" Jack sighed. "Sure, why not."

  Teal'c's face betrayed his disquiet. "I have witnessed several Kinahhi fall to the ground as if under attack, yet I could see no attacker. After some time, they become still."

  "Dead?"

  "I do not know."

  Invisible aliens? Wouldn't be the first time. "I don't like this," Jack decided. "What if-"

  Daniel suddenly stiffened. It was as if every muscle had contracted and only his eyes could move, growing wide and horrified. "Oh God..." The words crawled out of a throat tight with terror.

  "What?" Jack was on his feet, weapon leveled. At nothing. "What do you see?"

  Daniel was shaking, his face drained of color. "They're coming."

  "Who?" Jack couldn't see a damn thing. He did a slow threesixty, but there was nothing. Nothing! "Where?"

  "No!" Daniel screamed and staggered backward, hands flailing at his face. "No! What have they done to you? No!" He fell to the ground, writhing. "Sha're, don't!"

  Crap! "Teal'c!" Jack barked, trying to
pin down Daniel's thrashing body. "Cover us and-"

  "Heelksha." Teal'c whispered, voice hollow, eyes fixed straight ahead. His mouth dropped open in fear. "Na-ney!"

  "What?" Damn it! "Teal'c! Focus. Come on, there's nothing there."

  But Teal'c was backing up, trapped against the wall. "Na-ney!" He yelled, frantically trying to ward off something. "Na'noweia si'taia!"And then he was running, vaulting over the wall and fleeing through the ruins like the devil himself was on his tail.

  "Teal'c!"

  "No!" Daniel shrieked the word, back arching, eyes rolling. "No!"

  With a desperate glance at the darkness swallowing Teal'c, Jack abandoned his weapon and grabbed Daniel's shoulders, shaking him hard. "Wake up." Daniel's face was white, ghostly in the violet light of the city, his body rigid. "Wake up, damn it.," Jack hissed. "It's not real! Wake up!"

  Daniel's breathing was barely a ragged wheeze, his lips gray. And then he collapsed, like a puppet with its strings cut, blood trickling from his mouth.

  Oh God, tell me it wasn't real. Jack's fingers searched Daniel's throat for a pulse. Please...

  Flashes of imagery raced before her eyes. Snapshots. It was dark. Night. A ruined city. She saw Daniel, dead and bleeding. No! Teal'c, screaming in terror. Confusion, despair. She felt them. Were they her own feelings, or his?

  Then a face she didn't recognize, hollow-cheeked but triumphant. Mahr'bal. The name was spat out, vile and dripping with fear. But that was not all... there was another name buried beneath layers of time. Arxanti.

  Mortal enemy.

  "You're afraid of them," she realized, her voice echoing in the void of her mind. "You think they can destroy you."

  They have killed your friends.

  "I don't believe you," she whispered.

  Teal'c, back arched, and teeth bared. Ashen in the first light of dawn. Not dead, please not dead.

  "You're lying. This is all a lie!"

  He is Mahr'bal. O'Neill is Mahr'bal.

  "No."

  Are there more like him? How many? A sliver of fear sliced through her chest at the thought. But not her fear - it came from outside. From the vast, brutal mind that held her in a vise. Will they come to Kinahhi? Will they seek vengeance?

  "I don't know!" she shouted until her throat was raw. "I don't know who they are!"

  Her mind was being squeezed, ready to burst. The pressure and pain were enough to shred her sanity. Tell me!

  A scream ripped from her throat. "I don't know!"

  Then a fist, hard as iron, slammed into her head, and everything went black.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  he orange jumpsuit was a little tight across the chest, a little long in the leg, but other than that it did its job just fine. It hid the tac vest Hammond wore, hid the zat strapped to his leg, and, most important, made him invisible.

  He stood at the foot of the Stargate, in line behind Dave Dixon and the rest of SG-13, just to the right of Henry Boyd, Captain Watts and two dozen more volunteers - all dressed in the same prison garb. Behind him, in the control room, Kinsey was observing the first shipment of `prisoners' to Kinahhi. That Kinsey could consider trading human beings like chattel made Hammond's blood boil. His fingers curled at his side, and he deliberately flexed them.

  Without warning, the Stargate began to spin and the first chevron locked in place. From the corner of his eye, he saw movement; one of the Kinahhi soldiers lining the room was staring at him. There was something Hammond recognized in the man's eyes and he gave a slight nod. The Kinahhi looked away uneasily, shifting his hold on the weapon he carried. But Commander Kenna had worn the same expression of doubt many months back, when all this had started, and Hammond decided to take it as a hopeful sign.

  As instructed, the men in front put on a good show when the wormhole erupted into the room. No one was going to win an Oscar, but their `shock' was enough not to draw attention. The Kinahhi detached themselves from the wall and took up formation around them. "Proceed up the ramp," someone ordered, his speech heavily accented. "Do not be afraid, you will not be harmed."

  Like hell. The faces of the men Hammond had seen attached to the machine up on Level 17 were still fresh in his mind. It was time to put an end to this, and the Kinahhi were about to bite off a hell of a lot more than they could chew. As the line ahead shuffled forward, Hammond stepped up onto the ramp. Adrena line pumped hard, taking a decade from his shoulders and bringing a fierce smile to his lips. He tried his best to hide it, but it felt good to be going into action again. It felt good to be going after his people.

  He took a quick look at the intense face of the man who walked at his side. Henry Boyd had insisted on volunteering for the mission, determined to pay his debt to SG-1. Hammond understood him entirely.

  Godspeed, he said silently, encompassing his entire team in the prayer. And good hunting.

  In the first light of the desert dawn, Jack picked his way through the ruined city, scanning the dozens of sprawled bodies for the only one he cared about. Teal'c.

  A low groaning echoed across the sand, the sound of the survivors. If that was the right word. He saw some of them, crouched with their hands over their heads, rocking on their heels. A night of horror had stripped them of their sanity, leaving little behind.

  Sonofabitch. He tried not to think about Daniel, still out cold when he'd left him to the care of Atella. The kid had been mortified, shocked at what had happened. And confused. Jack could relate. He had no goddamn idea what was going on, or why he'd been the only member of SG-1 not to start shouting at thin air.

  "Are they gone?" Fingers grabbed at him from behind a large block of stone, catching in the sleeve of his shirt. "Are they gone?"

  "Yeah," he shook the hand off and backed up, trying to be gentle. Terrified, crazed eyes stared at him from a kid's face. "They're gone. You should..." Hell, what? "Go home," he said. "You should go home." He turned and kept on walking.

  "Are they gone?"

  Jack ignored the call and kept walking. He had to find Teal'c. What was left of him. Up ahead lay a body, dressed in the gray of the Kinahhi. Blood pooled under its head; the man must have fallen. Maybe bashed his own head in. Goddamn it, what kind of people would invent a weapon like this?

  The sun was getting warm, even this early, glaring off the sand and making it hard to see. Atella had given him a strip of cloth to wear around his head, bandana style, but he missed his cap. And his shades. Lifting a hand to cut the glare, he peered across the endless sea of ruins. Suddenly there was a hoarse cry.

  "O'Neill?"

  He spun around, and there, close to the dead Kinahhi, crouched Teal'c. He looked wild, but not crazy. Not vacant.

  "Hey buddy." Jack approached slowly. Teal'c held a large rock in one hand, red with drying blood. "What's up?"

  "I saw..." Teal'c stared for a moment at the dead man, oblivious to the rock in his hand. "I saw Heelksha."

  "Okay." That meant nothing. "I'm guessing.. .not a nice guy?"

  Teal'c's eyes were still fixed on the body before him. "The gods of the underworld."

  "Ah."

  "They were bent on my destruction."

  Jack blew out a breath and crouched a couple of feet away from Teal'c. "Yeah, about that. See, turns out there's some kind of. . hallucination device out here. It's a weapon. Makes you see things." He studied the dead man, and the rock in Teal'c's hand. "Drives you nuts."

  Teal'c's gaze wandered to the rock. He started, dropping it. With a dull thud it landed in the blood-damp sand. "I did not-"

  Jack winced. "It was a brutal night, T. I'm glad you're okay." He hoped.

  Staring at the body, Teal'c pushed himself to his feet. "I saw demons. Monsters." He looked over at Jack. "How is such a thing possible? I know these things do not exist, and yet-" He looked again at the bloody corpse. "Did I kill this man?"

  Rising slowly, Jack shrugged. "I don't know. But they came here to kill us, don't forget that." When Teal'c didn't move, Jack stepped closer. "Come on," he
said, "let's get back. Check on Daniel."

  Teal'c's head snapped around. "Was Daniel Jackson also affected?"

  "Oh yeah," Jack sighed. "He-"

  "You!" The voice came from behind, shaking with rage. Turning, Jack found himself staring over the muzzle of a gun into the wild-eyed gaze of Commander Kenna. "What have you done to my men?"

  Oh crap. Jack raised his hands. "It wasn't us," he said. "My people were affected too."

  Kenna was jittery, as if expecting the hordes of hell to come bearing down on him at any moment. "It is of no matter," he said, tightening his hold on the weapon. "No matter. You live, and you will come with me." He jerked the gun in Jack's direction. "Disarm."

  So not gonna happen. "I don't think so."

  Kenna took a step closer, eyes desperate. "Drop your weapon." He pressed the muzzle into Jack's chest. "I will kill you if you do not."

  Something moved behind the Commander. Like quicksilver the men of Arxanti were flitting through the ruins. Perhaps twenty of them. Sweet. "Here's an idea," Jack said. "You drop your weapon, and I'll persuade those guys not to kill you."

  Kenna didn't turn around. He was too good for that. But his eyes widened, his face fracturing in anguish as he looked past Jack. They had to be surrounded. The Commander lowered his weapon, defeated. There was something in the man's face, a flash of utter distress, that Jack found hauntingly familiar. He couldn't put his fingers on why, but it was enough to disturb him.

  He took Kenna's weapon and passed it back to Teal'c. The Arxanti were all around them now, in a large, rangy circle. From among their spindly figures, Atella watched through cold, hard eyes.

  "It's okay," Jack said. "Why don't you guys round up the rest of the Kinahhi? Can't leave them out here."

  Atella nodded, gesturing to his men. As silently as they had arrived, they slipped away into the growing heat of the day. Jack squinted up at the sun, still not far from the horizon but already hammering a hell of a lot of heat down onto the parched desert. "Let's get inside," he decided, nudging Kenna forward. The Commander stumbled, lost in misery.

  "Despite what you may believe," Teal'c said suddenly, addressing his remark to Kenna, "there is no need to fear the Arxanti - the Mahr'bal, as you name them. You and your men will not be harmed."