by Stargate
Eyes screwed shut, expecting any moment to be dragged down to a pummeling, suffocating death, Daniel clung on for dear life. Everything shook. The whole world was overtaken by thunder and destruction. Sha're. Her image slipped into his mind, as it so often did in times of stress, half a prayer and half a promise. He could almost taste her in the air. And he clung to her, fingers scraping against hard stone. Share...
Slowly the noise and shaking subsided, and she faded. Daniel choked up a lungful of rock dust and opened his eyes. Only a narrow frill of fractured stone remained, crumbling beneath their booted feet.
Jack coughed and spat out a mouthful of dirt. "You okay?"
"Been better." Desperate didn't begin to describe their situation. All around them the landing platform was funneling into the abyss. Like a black hole, only faster. At its lip he could see dirty, bleeding hands groping desperately as they tried to hold on. Another judder rippled through the structure and the fingers slipped, plunging with a desolate scream down into the depths. Turning away and holding tighter to the wall, Daniel tried not to imagine what was happening to the fallen man. Enemy or not, the Jaffa knew pain and fear just as he did.
"Don't move," Jack warned, shifting slightly until he had a better view of the ruin. On the far side of the chasm the roof was still intact. It might as well have been on the far side of the moon; reaching it was impossible.
On the plus side, they were both still alive. Panting, Daniel gasped, "Could be worse, right?"
Jack didn't answer. His attention was fixed on the horizon.
Daniel peered myopically at a black dot against the gray clouds. "Jack?"
"It's worse."
The death glider screamed toward her. Its weapons were firmly locked onto Daniel and the colonel, clinging helplessly to the remains of the fortress's wall.
"You sonofabitch!" Sam hissed, angling the huge staffweapon up to track the glider's path. Without sights she had to rely on instinct alone. But anger and adrenaline honed her vision, heightening her reflexes. A huge pulse of energy flashed through the staff weapon. The recoil skewed the weapon off its precarious perch, but her eyes never left the plasma bolt as it lanced across the sky and impacted perfectly on the glider's left wing. "Yes r'
Banking hard, the ship tried to pull up. But it was too badly damaged. A burst of random fire skimmed harmlessly out into the clouds as the glider rolled over onto its back. Then the engines stalled. For a nightmare moment Sam envisaged it plummeting into the roof, bringing down the whole structure.
It didn't happen.
One wing clipped the building, sparking as it screamed down the outside of the fortress behind O'Neill and Daniel. A plume of fire belched up into the air, marking the glider's death, and forcing the colonel and Daniel to bury their heads in their arms. Leaving the heavy weapon, Sam wiped sweat from her face and dashed across what remained of the roof. Her injured shoulder throbbed, but the pain was miles away, locked behind a wall of adrenaline.
Three Jaffa were trapped close to the stairs which she and the colonel had climbed. The rest were gone, swallowed by the collapsing building. Whatever - and whoever - lay beneath must also be dead. She felt a pulse of angry triumph, knowing that the whole obscene complex would soon be reduced to rubble.
As she reached the edge of the hole, she slowed. Beneath her feet, the ground was shifting like sand on the beach.
"Carter!" The yell came from across the collapsed roof. "Get back!"
Like hell. She needed a rope. Or a miracle. "Sir, I'm gonna try and get back into the complex and find something to-"
A groan shuddered through the building. Another section of roof cracked, tipped and slid down into the chasm, kicking up a cloud of choking dust. Beneath her feet the floor rippled and bucked. Hunkering down, she braced herself with a hand on the floor. It wasn't looking good.
"Sam!" Daniel's yell was desperate. "Get back! That whole section's going!"
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw what he meant. A large fissure had opened up behind her, running out on both sides and inching wider and wider with every second. She began to ease herself backwards. It couldn't end like this. Not like this! But her slight movement was too much. With a lurch, the roof began to move.
Panic seized her. She flung herself toward safety, but she couldn't get a grip. She couldn't hold on. She was sliding, falling... She screamed out her anger and terror. "NO!"
A shadow passed overhead. "Carter!" someone yelled frantically.
And then she was plunging toward death, alone in the dark.
The whole section fell away and Carter plummeted into the pit. Jack's heart dropped with her. "Carter!" he bellowed, making an involuntary, futile lunge forwards.
Daniel grabbed his vest and yanked him backward, face ashen. "Jack, you can't-"
Whap, whap, whap.
Goa'uld rings whipped down into the hole, then shot back up in a golden blur. Jack's head snapped up in parallel, heart pounding. A tel'tak loomed steadily above them.
"Teal'c?" Daniel only sounded half hopeful.
Maybe. Maybe not. Slowly the ship moved, its shadow passing over them, low enough that he could see the ring transporter hatch opening. Teal'c or trouble, Jack thought, as the rings stacked around them. Teal'c or trouble.
In a disoriented blink, he found himself standing in the tel'tak's hold, Daniel still clutching his vest. The first thing he saw was a comatose Jaffa and what seemed to be half the canopy of a glider. Then he heard a dry cough, spun on his heel and was knocked sideways by a giddying wave of relief. Carter sat propped up against a wall, pasty white and choking up dust. But alive. Very much alive. He sank down at her side, reaching for her shoulder and struggling for detachment. When he spoke, his voice was ragged. "Carter?"
She nodded, catching her breath, I'm fine. But it had been a close call. His hand tightened reflexively on her arm. Way too close.
"O'Neill, Daniel Jackson!" boomed a familiar voice. "Are you well?"
"Teal'c!" He stood up with an elated smile. "Great timing, buddy. You should-"An explosion rocked the ship. An explosion? He flung up his arms in exasperation. "Now what?"
Teal'c appeared in the doorway to the cockpit. "Come, O'Neill. I believe you would wish to witness this."
Curious, and a touch suspicious of the intensity in his friend's voice, Jack glanced over at Daniel, then Carter. Both looked blank. But Carter valiantly pushed herself to her feet and Daniel reached out a hand to steady her. With a shrug Jack cautiously made his way into the cockpit, the rest of his team trailing behind.
Another explosion knocked him off balance, and he braced himself against the wall. Outside orange tongues of fire swept up and licked at the windows, casting Teal'c's skin in bronze as he pointed through the flames. "There."
Warily moving to the window, Jack peered out. "Whoa." Below him an inferno burned in the pit of Baal's fortress, belching out flares of bright flame and black smoke. It looked like hell, and he should know. Even from this distance he could hear the roar, like a huge beast in pain. He felt a presence at his side and glanced over to see Carter standing with him. Her face was ashy beneath the dirt, but the edginess he'd seen in her before the battle had eased.
"Look," she murmured, drawing his attention back to the fortress. The rest of the landing platform was sagging, the rusted remains of death gliders sliding helplessly into the hellhole below. And then, with a violent quake, the entire roof gave way. The wall he and Daniel had clung to crumbled with it, sending up a plume of smoke and dust so thick and heavy that the whole ship was cloaked in swirling grayness.
He stared out into it, seeing nothing but memories of that place. Acid and daggers, hopelessness and fear; its stench had oozed from the very bones of the building. The smoke swirled, revealing patches of light and fire, the smoldering ruins of Baal's stronghold. The smoldering ruins of his nightmares.
"It's gone." Carter's voice was quietly triumphant.
He turned to look at her. She was still staring down at the infern
o beneath. "You okay?" he asked softly.
She offered him a faint smile, a flash of white through the dirt that covered her face. "Much better, sir."
He nodded. "Yeah. Me too."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ouncilor Tamar Damaris stood staring out at the ordered city below. She liked order; it was predictable and safe. Order never left anything to chance, never permitted the unforeseen. Never permitted surprises.
That was why she disliked these Tauri so much. They were without order, reckless and unpredictable. Their minds were undisciplined, their thoughts dangerous. And they brought the unexpected with them, as troublesome as flies on a summer evening.
A soft knock on her door announced the arrival of Commander Kenna, as requested. "Enter," she called, turning from the window as the door opened and the soldier stepped inside, shepherding the Tauri Ambassador before him.
The human's eyes fixed on her, strangely dark. O'Neill and the alien, Teal'c, had eyes of a similar shade. Damaris didn't like them, she preferred the clear-eyed gaze of her own people. These dark eyes were not trustworthy. "You may release his bonds, Commander."
Without question, Commander Kenna followed his orders and retreated to wait discreetly by the door. Damaris turned her attention on Crawford, who stood rubbing at his wrists.
"I hope this is the end of your charade, Councilor," he said at last. "We both know I'm innocent."
She nodded slightly. "Tell me, Ambassador, what were the blueprints to our technology doing in your..." She fumbled for the alien word.
"Laptop," Crawford supplied. "And I told you, it was a set-up. O'Neill must have put them there."
O'Neill. She had been right to suspect him; his aura on the sheh Yet had indicated his danger the moment he stepped through the device. "He is resourceful and deceptive," she mused aloud. "A dangerous combination. It is well he is no longer a concern."
Crawford took a step closer, bristling with ill-concealed anger. "No longer a concern? If that's the case, why am I the one charged with this crime and not him? He should be the one rotting in your jail - him and his team."
"We do not have jails, Ambassador, as you well know. And you must learn patience. When the time is right, your innocence will be proven." She offered him a smile, although it was forced. "In the meantime, you are free to enjoy the hospitality of Kinahhi."
He did not appear pleased by the prospect. "When will the time be right? I've already told Senator Kinsey that SG-1 are is of the way."
"And so they are," she assured him mildly. "No doubt they are endeavoring to use the technology to recover their missing colleagues from the planet trapped within the event horizon of a black hole."
Crawford nodded "Andwhat happens when they get back? Another triumph for SG-1! Kinsey won't like-"
"I can assure you," she smiled, "that their return is extremely unlikely."
To her surprise the Tauri man's face tightened. "What does that mean?"
She lifted her shoulders in a delicate shrug and decided to reveal no more. She had thought his stomach stronger. "Merely that the task they have set themselves is a difficult one. Do not fear. Should they succeed, will it not be apparent that they used our gravitational technology?"
Crawford's brow contracted in thought. "Yeah, I guess it will."
"At which point, you will be exonerated. O'Neill and his team will be ours, and Senator Kinsey will be satisfied."
"And if they don't come back? What happens to me then?"
She turned away from him to stare back out over the silent fortress of her city. "Do not fear, Ambassador, we have uses for you yet. Our alliance with the Tauri has only just begun."
It was quiet in the ship. The afterglow of escape left Daniel feeling washed out and weary and he sank to the floor of the cargo hold with a grateful sigh. Sam was already there, sitting cross-legged and re-dressing the wound on her shoulder. She was silent and pensive, miles away.
"Hey," he said after a moment. "How are you feeling?"
She glanced up, surprised. "Daniel. Hi. I- I'm just changing the dressing."
He nodded, but resisted asking how she'd been hurt. He had a good idea, born of vivid memories, and thought it better to respect her privacy. So he said nothing more, just unzipped his tac vest and shucked off its weight. It felt good to be free of the damn thing. Folding it up as best he could, he turned it into a makeshift pillow and slid down, stretching out and staring up at the low ceiling. If Sam wanted to talk, here he was. If she didn't, he was content to simply be. For a long time they sat in silence. He heard her fingers rustling in the med-kit, heard the soft swish of a zipper being closed, and was just teetering on the edge of sleep when she spoke.
"Daniel?" She sounded unusually hesitant. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." He blinked away weariness and propped himself up on an elbow so he could see her better. "What is it?"
She shook her head slightly, frowning down at the med-kit lying in her hands. For a moment he thought she was going to ask him to help dress her wound. But then she said, "Has the colonel ever told you anything about what happened to him down there? When Baal- you know."
Daniel shrank from the question. "Told? No. He, ah, doesn't want to talk about it."
"It's just..." She looked up. "That day at my house, when you said that Baal still used gravitational technology? How did you know?"
"I-" Damn. He sat up slowly, rubbing a hand over his chin and considered his answer. Did he have the right to tell her, or was this too much part of Jack's private world? Then again, she had firsthand knowledge; he wasn't giving away Jack's secrets. "I, um, I saw."
Her eyes widened. "Saw?"
Gesturing vaguely toward the ceiling, he said, "When I was... ascended."
"Oh God." She closed her eyes, fingers tightening over the med-kit in her lap. "Daniel, I'm so sorry. To have to see that-" Her jaw clamped shut, holding everything in.
Quietly he said, "I'm not the one who deserves your sympathy, Sam."
"Why not?" she asked through veiled lids. "I can't imagine having to watch anyone go through that. Especially not- Especially not a friend."
He was silent for a moment, battling his own demons. They refused to be silenced. "I didn't help him," he confessed. "I didn't stop it."
"Could you have?"
"I could have ended it. Made it so he didn't wake up again."
Her eyes flashed open. "You mean you could have killed him?" She sounded appalled, and he flinched.
"He wanted me to."
She shook her head vehemently. "No. You did the right thing." His astonishment must have shown, because she elaborated instantly. "He survived, Daniel. He's still here. And now thatplace," - she almost spat the word - "has gone. And we've won. He won."
You did the right thing. Until she spoke the words, Daniel hadn't known how much he needed to hear them. Heartrending as it had been to refuse to end Jack's suffering, it had been the right choice. If he'd given in to Jack's request, then his friend would be dead. Lost forever. Instead, he was still with them - battered and bruised, but still Jack. In the end, he'd won. Daniel opened his mouth to reply, but another voice spoke first.
"Who won what?"
Turning, he saw Jack standing in the doorway, eyeing them both with a look that growled, Drop it! He complied, opting for a transparent lie. "Sam was just telling me that Teal'c's been betting again. On the Canucks."
"And he won?"
A faint smile brightened Sam's face. "Stranger things have happened, sir."
"They have?" Jack sauntered into the hold. "Such as ...?"
She shrugged, considering. "Going back in time to 1969? Being stuck in Groundhog Day for over three months? Oh, and once I think you actually let me finish an entire report before interrupt-"
"Ah!" He stopped her with a wave of his hand and eased himself down onto the floor. "Point taken." His brief smile hid more than it revealed, and he turned to Daniel. "So, any luck?"
He stared, puzzled. "Luck?"
"With the thing."
"What thing?"
"You know."
"I do?"
"I believe," Teal'c's baritone rumbled from where he appeared in the doorway, "that O'Neill is referring to the power unit we sought."
"Oh!" In all the chaos, he'd forgotten to mention that he and Teal'c had found it! Dragging his tac vest onto his lap Daniel unzipped a pocket and pulled out the narrow steel cylinder. It was still glowing with a faint violet light. "This is it," said, holding it up for them to see. "This is what we came for."
Sam's face was suddenly bright and eager. She leaned closer and traced a finger down the smooth metal surface of the device. "Wow, it's so small."
"Well, you know what they say," Jack muttered. "It's how you use it that counts."
A smile and a hint of color touched Sam's face, but she ignored his words. "It's certainly not Goa'uld."
"No," Daniel agreed. "The markings are written in Ancient."
She nodded. "Makes sense. This technology is nothing the Goa'uld could have come up with. It's way too sophisticated."
"Question is, Carter," said Jack, "now we have the battery, do you know where to stick it?"
She smiled. "I shouldn't have too much trouble integrating it into the device, Sir" And then an expression ofpanic touched her face. "You do have it, right? The anti-gray device?"
Jack looked blank, jaw dropping open. What had happened to it after Sam had been taken? They hadn't
"It is in my pack, Major Carter," Teal'c assured her. "I have guarded it well."
Sam visibly relaxed. "Thanks, Teal'c."
He bowed his head in silent acknowledgement and turned to Jack. "O'Neill, we have left the planet's orbit. However, I require new coordinates. What is our next destination?"
Good question. They weren't exactly in the best shape to go after Henry Boyd and the rest of SG-10. But if they returned to Earth, Kinsey would be waiting to relieve Jack of command and then Boyd would never get home. They were between the proverbial rock and hard place. And they all knew it.
Daniel watched as Jack appraised his beat-up, exhausted team. Teal'c's silent nod spoke his immediate consent from where he stood, hands behind his back, in the doorway. Sam sat up a little straighter when Jack's gaze fell on her, despite her wan face and bloody shoulder. And then his eyes came to rest on Daniel. You still want to do this? he asked mutely. I understand if you don't. Daniel simply placed the power unit on the floor in front of him like an offering. When he looked up he said, "So?"
