“We’re good,” Danyel said, from just outside the reach of the expanding wormhole, and Teal’c nodded as well. He was dressed in Abydonian robes, too but he still carried his staff weapon.
“Jack?” Sam called again, and he shook himself.
“Yeah, ready. Dial the gate.”
He moved to join the others as the sailors dragged the reed sail out of the gate opening. Sethnakht raised his arm the moment it was clear, and Sam began pressing buttons. The first chevrons lit, the ring groaning as it turned. Danyel was watching it with something like hunger, and Jack moved closer to Teal’c.
“How’re you doing, Teal’c?”
The Jaffa slanted a glance at him. “I am well enough, O’Neill.”
He looked all right, but Jack had seen him look pretty much the same with a two-inch wide hole punched through his biceps. “OK,” he said, in a tone that he hoped conveyed, I’m trusting you.
The last chevron lit. The wormhole exploded with a whoosh, then stabilized to a shimmering pool. Sam hurried to join them, slinging a bundle over her shoulder.
“OK, kids,” Jack said. He couldn’t help being a little wary of the wormhole, no matter how often he’d heard Danyel talk about it, or how often he’d been told his other self had walked through its circle. Before, he’d done it in the jumper, and that was somehow different.
“OK,” Danyel said, and stepped into the blue light. Teal’c followed him, the event horizon swallowing him, and then Sam. Jack looked over his shoulder to see Hor-Aha lift his hand in blessing and farewell.
“The true gods protect you,” he called.
Jack lifted his own hand and snapped a salute, then turned to face the Stargate. He took a deep breath and stepped into its embrace.
Danyel and Teal’c had chosen good planets for their intermediate stops. The Stargate had been completely unguarded on two of them, and the third was attended only by an elderly woman, who collected a small silver ring that Teal’c had apparently brought for the purpose, and let them go on their way. This final gate was unguarded, too, just the great sweep of the ring gleaming in the cloudy moonlight, trees crowding dark around them. Teal’c concealed his staff weapon in the brush by the DHD, and Danyel entered the address for Abydos. The Stargate lit, driving back the shadows.
“Are we expecting guards?” Jack asked, looking at Teal’c. He’d asked before, but the Jaffa didn’t comment.
“There will be guards, O’Neill. But there will also be visitors. The prim’tah ceremony is a time for rejoicing, for families to gather. We should pass unnoticed.”
“Let’s go, then,” Jack said, and stepped into the wormhole.
He emerged in shadow, in a long hall of stone lit by a double row of Goa’uld braziers. There were Jaffa in armor at the base of the steps leading up to the gate platform, but they were fairly relaxed, for Jaffa, aiming staff weapons without actually charging them.
“Kree!” the leader shouted, and Danyel stepped hastily forward.
“We are here for the prim’tah of my sister’s son,” he said. “May we pass?”
The leader hesitated, but only for a moment. “Go, then. And hurry. The ceremonies have begun.”
“Thank you,” Danyel said, ducking his head, and Jack followed, resisting the urge to say something stupid, Sam scurrying at his elbow.
They came out of the temple into sunlight bright enough to make him blink, reflecting off pale sand and stone, the cloudless sky dazzling. The only spots of color were the clusters of sun-faded tents that lay beyond the twin obelisks that stood before the temple gate. Smoke rose from cooking fires, and Jack could hear laughter, and children’s voices raised in a sing-song chant.
“They are singing of the prim’tah,” Teal’c said, his expression unreadable, and Jack couldn’t repress a shudder.
“OK, Danyel, now what?” he asked, and Danyel looked over his shoulder.
“We find a quiet spot to put up our tent —”
“Oh, that’s what I’ve been carrying,” Sam said, not without irony.
“And then we go looking for the larvae,” Danyel finished. “Let’s try over there.”
Danyel negotiated a spot at the edge of a group of faded blue tents, not so close that they could easily be overheard, but close enough that at first glance they seemed to belong to that group, and they busied themselves setting up the tent and establishing their camp.
“We’ll go look for water,” Jack said, once the tent was up, and Danyel nodded.
“The public well should be just inside the temple,” he said. “They’ll probably keep the larvae somewhere nearby.”
“That was my thought,” Jack said, and reached down to haul Sam to her feet.
There was already a ragged line of men and women heading for the temple, most of them carrying water jars. Jack eased into the line, Sam at his side, both of them smiling blandly. There was a definite holiday feeling to the crowd, everyone relaxed and cheerful, and little groups of kids were playing between the tents. A ball knocked against his ankle, and he stopped it without thinking, A boy, maybe ten or so, stood looking embarrassed, and Jack kicked it back to him.
“Everybody’s so happy,” Sam said.
“It’s a big deal,” Jack said. The whole idea gave him the willies, but he kind of understood what it was supposed to mean to a Jaffa. And that was all the more reason to get a larva and get back to Earth so they could bury the Stargate again.
They made their way into the temple, paused for a moment as though they were enjoying the relative cool. Jack let his eyes rove around the shallow entrance hall. That tall doorway led to the Stargate; there were smaller doors as well, two to the left, and three on the right. There weren’t any Jaffa warriors in evidence, but that probably just meant that they were inside the chambers. He followed Sam to the well, held their jar while she ladled it full.
“Any ideas which one it is?” he asked, and she shrugged.
“We’ll have to get a closer look —”
A trumpet sounded, the flat dissonance of a ram’s horn, and suddenly everyone was scuttling back against the walls, leaving a wide path through the center of the hall. Jack copied them, pulling back until he and Sam were both flattened against a wall of carvings. The trumpet sounded again, louder this time, and a procession emerged from the middle of the right-hand doors. Two Jaffa warriors in full armor led the way, followed by the trumpeter, and then a quartet of women in tall headdresses. They were followed in turn by a pair of men who carried a golden box slung on a pole between them. It was faceted almost like a diamond, and each face was embossed with Ra’s symbol and a cartouche. Another pair of Jaffa warriors brought up the rear.
“I don’t have to know how to read Goa’uld to guess what’s in there,” Jack said, in Sam’s ear.
“And now we know where they’re kept,” she said.
“Yeah.” Jack wished he thought that did them more good. There were bound to be guards watching the larvae, and it looked like it was an awkward scramble from that room back through the hall and into the gate room. He wished he still had some demolition charges. Blowing up the DHD behind them was probably the best way to delay pursuit — but he didn’t, so they’d have to find something else. “Let’s go.”
By the time they reached the tent, the sun was nearing the horizon. Danyel had kindled a small fire, and was holding something that looked like a cross between a sponge and an ear of corn over the flames. Teal’c was reclining on one of the blankets, his face unreadable, and Sam dipped water for each of them.
“Please don’t tell me that’s dinner,” Jack said.
“I’ll have your share, then,” Danyel answered. “No, really, it’s very tasty. Sort of like, I don’t know, kettle corn, maybe.”
“Maybe,” Jack said. Danyel’s comparisons tended to be optimistic. “Well, we know where they keep the things.”
Danyel handed the stick to Sam, who gave it a dubious look, but kept it over the fire. Danyel smoothed a patch of sand, began drawing in it with a sma
ller stick. “OK, here’s the gate, and its hall. And here’s the entrance hall, with the well, and these are the side chambers —”
“That one,” Jack said, and pointed.
“Yeah.” Danyel kept drawing, adding lines that ran through the back of the temple, connecting the side chambers with the gate room through doors beside the gate. “OK, that’s what I would have — these rooms all connect, here, past the chamber with all the gate addresses, and we can get into the gate hall this way, maybe take the guard by surprise.”
“Assuming we haven’t already alerted them by shooting the guards that are watching the prim’tahs,” Jack said.
“There may not be any,” Danyel said. “There weren’t any on Chulak.”
“There were guards escorting the one we saw being taken out,” Sam said.
“I think that’s just an honor guard,” Danyel said. “More to emphasize the importance of the whole event than to protect the larva — I mean, what Jaffa is going to harm the symbiotes they need to survive?”
“Not everybody here’s a Jaffa,” Jack said.
‘Yes, but they’re not going to risk it, either,” Danyel said. “Look, after dark, Teal’c says things will quiet down a little. The families who’ve already gotten the prim’tah will be celebrating, and everyone else will be getting ready. We should be able to slip into the temple and get into the chamber where they’re keeping them — quietly neutralizing any guards that are there, if there are any.”
“See, ‘quietly neutralize’ just never works out that way,” Jack said.
Danyel ignored him, retracing one of the lines with his stick. “Then we take this back corridor into the gate hall, and that’s where we’ll probably have a fight. But if we can knock out the Jaffa quickly enough, we’ll have plenty of time to dial the gate. Once we’re through, we dial out again immediately, and keep moving until we can dial Earth.”
Jack pulled his watch out from under his robes. “OK, we need to wait until dark, that’s, what, another three hours?”
“Full dark, yeah, I’d say so.” Danyel nodded.
“That’ll be — OK, give it another couple of hours after that, just to let everybody get settled, and we’ll be right on schedule for Aset to open up the gate for us.”
“I do not think that will happen tonight, O’Neill.” Teal’c rolled to a sitting position, pointing out past the flap of the tent. Jack turned, to see a Goa’uld ship settling gently onto the tip of the pyramid behind the temple. An instant later, its noise washed over them, followed by a wave of cheers. People were emerging from their tents, shouting and pointing, and there was another blast of trumpets from the temple.
“Ra will preside over special ceremonies in the temple tonight,” Teal’c said, “and in the morning he will show his favor to certain of his warriors by himself being present at their sons’ prim’tah. The temple will be nearly empty then — but not tonight.”
“Crap,” Jack said. He closed his eyes for a second, calculating. “Twelve hours from now, that makes it about twenty-one hours before we can try. That’s cutting it really close.”
“It won’t be so bad,” Sam said. “And if Ra’s going to be in the temple all night — well, we don’t have a choice.”
The rams’ horns sounded from the temple steps again, and all around them people began to move, filing slowly toward the temple. Sam frowned.
“What’s this all about?”
Teal’c gave a thin smile. “We must welcome our god, Samantha Carter.”
“Crap,” Jack said again, and pushed himself to his feet. “I don’t suppose we can bring the kettle corn thing.”
“No, O’Neill,” Teal’c said.
Chapter Nine
The ram’s horn trumpet sounded again, closer this time, marking another procession of priests and Jaffa, and Jack glared out the opening of the tent. They had been going strong since sunrise, leaving them no opportunity to get into the temple, and his nerves were definitely beginning to fray.
“You know, if he blows that thing one more time, I’m going to —” He’d been trying to watch his language since Ellie was born, and finished, “stick it where the sun don’t shine.”
Teal’c tipped his head to one side, clearly about to ask for an explanation, and Danyel said, “Really, don’t ask.”
“Then I will not.” Teal’c settled back on his blanket, propping himself comfortably on one elbow. “This should be the last ceremony of the morning. Ra will speak to his people when the sun is at the zenith, and the temple will be quiet then.”
“That doesn’t leave us much time,” Sam said.
“The temple will begin to empty before Ra speaks,” Teal’c said. “If we are there when the trumpet sounds, it will be easy enough to conceal ourselves in the shadows. Few guards will remain.”
“That’ll work,” Jack said.
Danyel unwrapped the last of the rounds of bread and tore it into quarters. Jack took his share without eagerness, but he knew he’d need to eat. There wouldn’t be time later, and he’d need the calories. The others were doing the same, washing it down with the last of the water they’d brought from the well. Without turning, Jack flattened his hand against his blanket, feeling the container they’d readied for the larva. It would seal tight, protect the thing from damage, and, not incidentally, protect them from it, though both Danyel and Teal’c swore the symbiotes would be too young to take a host. Still, Jack thought, there was no point in taking chances.
They finished their meal, and Jack checked his watch again. “Time,” he said, softly, and the others began slowly getting to their feet. They would leave the tent behind, and Jack glanced quickly over it to be sure there was nothing that would betray its origin. He couldn’t see anything — the humans taken by the Goa’uld had brought their livestock with them, and an Egyptian goatskin tent was indistinguishable from an Abydonian one. He reached under his robe to be sure his zat was accessible.
“Everybody ready?” he asked, and the others nodded, Sam with a quick fierce smile. It still impressed him how well she’d taken to guerilla warfare. “Then let’s go.”
Teal’c was right, there were fewer people moving toward the temple. Jack checked the urge to hurry, trailed along behind a trio of chattering women. Sam tucked her arm into his, the pot for the larva cradled in her other arm; Danyel followed, apparently deep in conversation with Teal’c. The obelisks loomed ahead, and they started up the shallow steps, drawing aside to let a group of armored Jaffa hurry past them.
“Hopefully that’s a good sign,” Danyel said. He didn’t seem to expect an answer, and Jack ignored him, following the three women into the entrance hall. As they approached the well, Sam caught his sleeve. He turned to see her settle onto one of the stone blocks, fiddling with the strap of her shoe. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Teal’c melt into the shadows between the torches. Danyel leaned one shoulder against the wall, contriving to give the impression that he was part of a group waiting their turn at the well.
Then the trumpet sounded. Jack put a hand down, pulled Sam to her feet, and together they shuffled after the rest of the stragglers. As they passed the first shadowed alcove, they slipped inside, and a moment later Danyel and Teal’c joined them. The rest of Ra’s congregation filed past, and the sound of their footsteps died away. Jack waited a few seconds more, then peered cautiously out. The hall was empty as far as he could see, and he motioned for Danyel to take point. Danyel nodded, his zat unfolding, but in that instant there was the whine and the blazing light of transporter rings.
“Oh, crap,” Jack said under his breath, and waved frantically for everyone to stay put. The rings disgorged Jaffa, a good dozen of them, and then Ra himself, resplendent in cloth-of-gold. He wasn’t wearing the mask, and it looked as though he’d acquired a new host recently. His female attendants no longer supported him, just provided a decorative escort, though one cradled the heavy mask.
“What?” Danyel hissed, and Jack lifted his finger for silence.
“Ra,” he mouthed, and Danyel made a face, flattening himself against the stones.
Teal’c had his zat ready, the look on his face suggesting that he really wanted his staff weapon. So did Jack, for that matter, but nothing much short of claymores would even the odds. There had to be at least two dozen Jaffa out there now, plus the handmaidens and four or five guys in robes who were either minions or — worse and more likely — lesser Goa’uld in Ra’s service.
“What are they doing?” Sam said, very softly.
“Looks like they’re getting dressed for the ceremony,” Jack said, equally quietly. The handmaidens were fluttering around Ra, smoothing his robe and polishing his fingernails. The one with the mask stood on tiptoes, her eyes downcast, and Ra took his mask, turning it as though he was inspecting it for damage.
“Come on,” Danyel murmured. “You’re going to be late —”
Teal’c glared at him, and Danyel relapsed into silence. Jack refrained from looking at his watch. There was still time, plenty of time… He was lying to himself and knew it, his gut tightening. If they couldn’t get to the gate in time, Earth’s Stargate would be closed forever, or at least until sometime in the 1920s, which wouldn’t do them the slightest bit of good, either. Ra would have to leave before noon to preside over the ceremony, he told himself, and that left them about an hour to steal a larva and dial out again.
Then, finally, Ra lifted the mask, settling it onto his head. The handmaidens fussed again with his robe, drawing out the hem in luxurious folds. A trumpet sounded, and the Jaffa who seemed to be in charge of this group shouted something that started with “Jaffa, kree!” and at last the whole procession began to move. More trumpets sounded in the distance, and Jack felt his knees sag just a little. Still, he made himself wait until the last Jaffa was well out of sight before he checked his watch. The number made him wince, and he knew Sam saw.
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