“So are we.”
Cam, who of course hadn’t understood a word of all that, looked back testily. “Are we going or not?”
“We’re going,” Daniel said with what he hoped was the same tone of voice Jack had used to pry him off Abydos.
“All right,” Carter said. They had stopped again at the base of a stairwell, and it seemed as good a time as any to check supplies. “C4?”
Teal’c shook his head. “I have only two blocks, Colonel Carter.”
“I have seven,” Carter said, with satisfaction. “And detonators. We ought to be able to do something useful with that.”
“Hey, whoa,” Danyel said. For a second, he sounded so much like her Daniel that it was disorienting. He was older, browner — and a lot less clothed — but it was still hard not to treat him the way she would their Daniel. And, of course, they’d been the same person only five years ago, which was maybe even more confusing. “We’ve got to be careful what we blow up,” he said. “Ra’s got to be able to take off. We need him gone, not dead. Unfortunately.”
It was a very Daniel objection, and Carter nodded. “I was thinking weapons systems. Target them, and Ra can’t defend himself either, so that’s another reason for him to leave.”
“I’d expect them to be pretty well guarded,” Danyel said.
Teal’c cocked his head to one side. “I believe that if we were to target the power crystals that govern the power flow to the main weapons array, we would not only divert attention from the sarcophagi, but Ra will find it difficult to repair the damage quickly.”
“Pretty much what I was thinking,” Carter said. She rearranged the blocks of C4 in her pockets, putting them ready to hand, and slid a fresh magazine into her P90. “And explosives are the last thing Ra’s going to be expecting given how primitive the planet is.”
“Except that he is thinking about the Ancients,” Danyel pointed out.
“Who aren’t supposed to interfere,” Carter answered.
“And isn’t — aren’t those power crystals in the main engine compartment?” Danyel asked. “How are we going to get at them?”
“There weren’t as many Jaffa toward the stern,” Carter reminded him. “It looked as though Ra had most of them guarding his quarters. We’ll call this Plan A.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask about Plan B,” Danyel said.
“We blow up whatever looks interesting that’s a long way from the sarcophagi,” Carter said.
“It’s better than ‘retreat to the Stargate under fire,’” Danyel said.
“I believe that is generally Plan C,” Teal’c said.
The lowest decks of the ha’tak were quiet, only a handful of Jaffa guarding the obvious entry points. Carter worked her way around them — there were times when she felt as though she’d spent a good quarter of her professional life sneaking around Goa’uld motherships — and they came out at last onto the level just below the main engineering controls.
“There should be a ring platform on this level,” she said, and Teal’c nodded.
“I believe so — this way.”
The platform was unguarded. Not too surprising, Carter thought, considering that the receiving platform was in Ra’s palace, and line-of-sight beaming would just drop them outside the pyramid. Or maybe inside it, on the lowest level? That would be more useful. She studied the controls, not wanting to touch anything in case the system was being monitored. Yes, it should be possible to ring down into the pyramid itself, though there was no way to tell exactly what would be waiting for them. Plan D, she thought, and pointed to the nearest stairs.
“Let’s go.”
The upper corridors were still uncrowded, though there were more Jaffa in evidence, and once a couple of technicians hurried past, talking in low tones about hull integrity testing. The door to the engine compartment was open, light spilling out from the central towers, and Carter gestured for the others to take shelter in the cross corridor behind her. She leaned out carefully, made sure the main corridor was empty, then darted across to flatten herself against the wall beside the door. The hum of the machinery covered the noise as she armed her zat, and she waved for the others to take their places. Teal’c peered quickly into the compartment, then held up two fingers. Carter nodded, and checked her own side: three technicians in sight. She held up three fingers, waited for Teal’c’s nod, then pointed for Danyel to cover them. He nodded, and Carter turned her attention to the compartment.
“Go,” she said, softly, and together she and Teal’c stepped through the open doorway. She dropped the first of her targets before he knew what hit him; the second barely had time to turn before she shot him as well. The third was reaching for something, his own zat or a communicator, there was no telling which, but she brought him down before the device was in his hand. She heard staff blasts behind her, turned to see Teal’c stepping over the first body.
“We are secure, Colonel Carter,” he said.
She nodded, shoving her zat into her belt and reaching for the first block of C4 and its detonator. “Cover the door.”
She didn’t wait for his answer, made her way along the racks of crystals. Every ha’tak was just a little different, but finally she found the drawer she wanted, slid it out. She set the first block of C4 in place, set the timer for fifteen minutes, moved on to the fire control panel. Another block there, and another in the backup trays, and she turned back for the door.
“OK—”
“Colonel Carter!” Teal’c’s shout was punctuated by staff weapons fire. “We have Jaffa.”
Carter drew her zat. “We must have missed somebody.”
“Or they’re monitoring remotely,” Danyel said. He flattened himself against the wall inside the door as another zat blast ripped past him. “I hate to ask, but how long —?”
“Fifteen minutes,” Carter said. “Um, more like eight, now.”
“We cannot fight our way past them,” Teal’c said. His voice was unchanged, but Carter had long ago learned to read the tilt of his eyebrow, and recognized concern when she saw it. She slapped the door controls, sealing them in the compartment, then zatted the box. It exploded on the second shot: the Jaffa weren’t getting past that any time soon.
“This way,” she said, and saw Danyel’s face change from alarm to understanding.
“Access hatch,” he said, and Teal’c nodded.
“Indeed.”
Sure enough, there was a narrow tube-and-ladder leading down to the next level. Carter let herself slide down fast, landing in a crouch ready to cover them, but this corridor was empty, at least for the moment. Above them, alarms began to sound, the noise spreading. Danyel hit the floor beside her, and then Teal’c, and then there was the sharp crack of explosions as the timers went off.
“Well, as diversions go, that’s fairly impressive,” Danyel said, and Carter grinned.
“Thanks. I think it’s time for Plan D.”
“The rings?” Teal’c asked, and she nodded.
“Let’s go.”
Chapter Seventeen
It was nothing at all like Abydos, Daniel mused as they hurried along the road beside the Nile in the growing dawn. Not really. Abydos had revolved around the naquadah mines, the original reason that Ra had transported people from Earth against their will — people from this time and place, taken as slaves to endure backbreaking labor. Even after Ra’s death the mines had remained. There was no Nile on Abydos, no life giving water, and the only thing the Abydonians had to trade was naquadah. Better to trade their own work than to be slaves, but the mines were still the center of life.
Here it was the river. It was omnipresent, a whisper at the edge of consciousness. Even now, even in what Daniel could blithely term Early Dynastic Egypt, these people were much richer than the Abydonians had ever been. It was entirely different in ways that bothered Daniel like an itch he couldn’t scratch, almost Abydos sometimes and then not. He wondered if the other him felt the same way. Probably he’d had time to get used to i
t in eight years.
Daniel looked at Cam, still hurrying along the road. “You think we can bring them back with us?’
“Bring who back?” Cam’s thoughts were clearly still on the mission.
“The other us,” Daniel said. “I mean, he…I…got stuck here eight years ago for him…me. And the other us are from an alternate future, but they still don’t belong here. We could take them back with us.”
Cam looked at him sideways. “You think they want to come?”
“I probably do,” Daniel said. “The other me. I think he probably does.”
“And then what?” Cam asked. “Two of you around the SGC?”
“Why not? Stranger things have happened.”
“That’s true.” Cam lapsed into silence to consider what some of them had been. “If they want to,” he said at last.
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“I’m not,” Cam said.
They had managed to reach the sarcophagus level, but there were too many Jaffa on guard for them to venture any closer to the sarcophagi themselves. Or, rather, Vala thought, there were too many random Jaffa wandering the corridors. She didn’t doubt that General O’Neill, or this version of him, anyway, could take out the trio that seemed to be on permanent guard.
“We’ll have to wait for Colonel Carter’s diversion,” she said, and settled back into the ventilation duct where they had taken up their position. O’Neill had pulled the covering grate back into place, and through it they could see the entrance to the sarcophagus room as well as a long sweep of corridor.
“Let’s hope it’s a loud one,” O’Neill said.
Vala grinned. She’d been a little worried about him — he wasn’t a young man, and Ra’s interrogation had been harsh, but he seemed to have himself well in hand. And she’d known plenty of men like him, tough, wiry, indomitable. It was almost a pity he was so obviously taken.
She rummaged in her pockets, came up with a candy bar and held it out to him. “Want to split it?”
He started to wave it away, and then his eyes focused. “Is that —?”
Vala glanced at the wrapper. “Baby Ruth.” She would never understand the Tau’ri. “Do you want half?”
“Yeah, thanks.” He settled himself more comfortably against the conduit that ran the length of the vent, and stretched his leg, wincing slightly. Vala broke the bar in half and, after only a tiny struggle, gave him the larger piece. O’Neill took it, his eyes closing for a second in what looked like pure bliss. He saw her watching, and gave an almost sheepish smile.
“It’s sweets,” he said. “There just aren’t any. What there is, is flavored with honey, and — it’s just not the same.”
“Daniel says he missed coffee that way,” Vala said.
“Sam misses chocolate,” O’Neill said. He looked down at his empty hand. “I suppose I should have saved it for her.”
“I’ll never tell,” Vala said.
O’Neill grinned, and shifted his weight to peer out into the corridor. “How much longer do you think —?”
An alarm sounded in the distance, a two-toned wail, and then the same alarm sounded closer, and again closer still.
“Not much longer at all,” Vala said, and edged forward herself. The corridor was filled with running Jaffa, the air echoing with shouts of “kree!” but the movement was purposeful, and heading away from them. She hoped Carter knew just how much trouble she was getting, and watched the corridor empty.
“OK,” O’Neill said, after a long moment in which they could hear nothing but the alarm. “I’m opening the grate. You go first.”
Vala started to protest, then realized that she was younger, fresher, and wearing body armor. “All right,” she said, and O’Neill pulled the grating back and in. Vala dropped lightly into the corridor, turning quickly through a full circle, and was relieved to find it still empty. She signaled to O’Neill, who landed grimacing beside her.
The door of the sarcophagus room was open, and a single Jaffa stood in the gap, staring away from them toward the source of the alarm. O’Neill took four quick steps, closing the gap, and brought him down with one quick shots. He was through the door an instant later, quicker than Vala would have thought possible, dropped a second Jaffa in his tracks. She followed, slipping through as the door was closing, and brought down the last Jaffa herself.
“OK,” O’Neill said. He was breathing a little heavily, but seemed to be all right otherwise. “Four sarcophagi. Which one’s got the prize?”
Vala folded her zat and turned to the console, adjusting the display. Four people had gone into the sarcophagi, three Goa’uld — Tok’ra, really — and a human, and only two were left alive. Her breath caught, and then she saw that the human was one of them, and she was well on her way to being healed. The Tok’ra, though… So many of them carried genetic programming or even implanted devices intended to keep the System Lords from torturing information out of them. She looked over her shoulder to see O’Neill studying the controls of the furthest sarcophagus, and even as she opened her mouth to warn him, he put his hands on the controls. The lid split, the two halves spreading like wings, releasing light and a nasty smell. O’Neill drew back.
“Whoa, that’s — unpleasant.” He slapped at the controls, closing the lid again. “I thought these things were supposed to be infallible.”
Between the smell and O’Neill’s expression, Vala was glad she hadn’t seen what was in the sarcophagus. “They were Tok’ra,” she said, and somehow managed to keep her voice light. “They’ve developed ways to defeat the sarcophagi. And cheat the System Lords.” She looked at the screen again. “We want the two in the middle.”
O’Neill worked the controls of the one on the left, and the wings of the lid folded smoothly back. There was light, but no smell. The light faded, and a slight, dark-haired woman sat up, blinking hard.
“General O’Neill?”
She sounded doubtful, and Vala couldn’t blame her. Even by SGC standards, O’Neill was out of uniform. Carolyn turned her head, and her face relaxed a little.
“Vala! So SG-1’s here.”
“Of course,” Vala said, trying to sound like Cam. “We’ve come to rescue you.”
O’Neill offered his hand, and helped her out of the sarcophagus. “What about the other one?”
Vala was very tempted to say, oh, just leave him, but common sense prevailed. The Tok’ra knew too much to be left behind. “I suppose we’d better bring him.”
“Give me a zat first,” Carolyn said.
O’Neill grinned and produced one from somewhere — probably from one of the Jaffa, Vala thought. There was no place to hide a weapon in those skimpy shorts he was wearing. Carolyn took it, and touched the sarcophagus controls. For a moment, there was only the fading light, and then a slight, dark haired man sat up, one hand to his forehead.
“Marik,” Carolyn said. “I hope you have the mother of all headaches.”
“We both do,” the Tok’ra answered, with a grimace. “And I’m Leymac. Marik is still recovering.”
“Sounds like you earned it,” O’Neill said.
“Definitely,” Carolyn said.
“My friends here really aren’t very happy with you,” Vala said. “I suggest you come — meekly.”
“However you like, as long as we get out of here,” Leymac answered. “I don’t suppose I could have a weapon?”
“Absolutely not,” Vala said cheerfully. “Let’s go.”
They reached the ring platform before Ra’s Jaffa had fully worked out where they had gone, with time enough for Carter to study the controls and make fine adjustments. Teal’c was glad: their situation was precarious enough without beaming completely blind, and he felt almost relieved as the rings rose to surround them.
The rings drew away, and he realized that they were standing utterly exposed, the open platform not fifty meters from a team of Jaffa. They had their back to the platform, and seemingly hadn’t heard anything, but that luck wouldn’t last
long.
“Crap,” Carter said, and lifted her P90.
The odds were terrible, Teal’c thought, even with surprise on their side, but he readied his staff weapon, prepared to fight.
“Wait!” Danyel grabbed his arm, pointing, and Teal’c turned to see one of the Egyptians waving to them from the shelter of a pillar.
“Quickly,” Teal’c agreed, his staff weapon still lowered and ready, and they backed cautiously away until they reached the shadows between the pillars. Danyel said something quickly to the young — priest, perhaps, Teal’c thought, looking at the neat hands, the spotless linen. Or a scribe. But not a soldier.
“The Queen Mother has reactivated her old networks,” Danyel said. “They were told to watch for us. He has a way out.”
“Great,” Carter said, and moved out after them.
Teal’c followed more slowly, his eyes scanning the shadows. When he had been Apophis’s First Prime, he had arranged such deceptions himself, rebels and troublemakers lured into traps by apparent friends. But Danyel knew the man, and they had successfully driven Ra from Earth before. It was important to remember that, and not be deceived by the lack of technology.
It was unpleasant to be thinking like a First Prime again, to be racking his brains for memories of tricks and tactics. He had enjoyed that freedom as much as any, after the System Lords were defeated. There wasn’t much to be said for the Ori, but at least they weren’t Goa’uld.
The priest led them through the shadowed halls, talking quietly to Danyel the whole way. At the end of the maze, he let them out into the pre-dawn light. He had robes for them as well, and Teal’c and Carter swung them on, Carter wrinkling her nose at the smell of goats. Teal’c accepted his philosophically, and they made their way out of the palace compound.
“This way,” Danyel said, and pointed down the line of an irrigation ditch.
“I thought the road was back that way,” Carter said, but followed.
“It is,” Danyel said. “Irer said Ra posted Jaffa at a roadblock. We’re going to loop around and get behind it.”
STARGATE SG-1-23-22-Moebius Squared-s11 Page 15
