He saw Sha’re standing next to Apophis with her eyes glowing.
He saw a room full of people get up and walk out of his lecture.
He saw the Stargate for the first time.
He saw Jack, Sam, Kawalsky and Ferretti step through the Stargate on Abydos.
He saw Sha’re attacking him with a hand device.
And then he let out a massive sneeze, which only added to the ringing in his ears. A moment later, mucus-covered snow went into his mouth and up his nose — it felt as if he was being suffocated by a cold towel.
But the sneeze focused him. There had been a strangely muffled explosion — that was why his ears were ringing — just after Teal’c had gone through the Stargate. Now he was buried deeply in a drift of snow.
Desperately, he started digging his way out.
Luckily, the snow itself was soft and fluffy and easily pushed out of the way, so he soon was out of the pile, yanking a handkerchief out of his pocket. Staring down at it, he saw that it was soaking wet and therefore useless.
He had never liked the cold, as winter always kicked up his allergies. There were times when he thought that he pursued Egyptian studies in part because travelling to a hot desert land would be a palliative after growing up in New York, Chicago, and other areas that had significant winter weather.
Sighing, he wiped his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his thermal jacket and took a quick look around the island, only to find that it was incredibly blurry.
Of course his glasses had come off when he was snow covered. Squinting, he felt around before he finally located his wireframes, half buried. Brushing the snow off, he slid them on. The right arm was a bit bent, so they were at an angle on his head, but otherwise they were actually in decent shape. Thank heaven for small favors.
Now that he could see, he regarded his surroundings.
He saw Sam helping Jack to his feet. He saw the DHD. He saw snow falling from the sky.
He did not see the Stargate.
“Oh, this isn’t good.”
Sam looked up at his voice as she assisted Jack. “Daniel, you okay?”
“I’ve been better. What happened?”
“We think the Reetou explosive must have knocked the Stargate into the water.”
Daniel frowned. “That would be the icy water.”
Sam nodded.
Jack got to his feet, let out a yelp, and then sat back down on the snow. “Yeah, that ankle’s sprained.”
“Let me take a look, sir.” Sam knelt down beside him and rolled up Jack’s left pant leg.
“Carter, trust me, I know sprained ankles and what the difference is between it and a broken one.” Jack winced as Sam touched his ankle.
“Doesn’t feel broken, sir.”
“What did I just say?” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “So this is bad, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Sam said. “The wormhole would have absorbed some of the explosion, which is why we were able to survive the blast, but it was obviously still enough to knock the Stargate into the water. There’s no way we can retrieve the gate, and there may be no way for anyone to dial in.”
“The gate’s worked in water, before,” Daniel said.
But Sam shook her head. “Given that the SGC hasn’t dialed in, it’s a good bet the gate hit the bottom facing down, which is just like it being buried. And even if it’s facing upward and the DHD is still close enough to dial out, how would we get to it? We have no idea how deep the ocean is, or even if it’s swimmable, and anyway, by the time we got down there we’d probably freeze to — ”
Jack held up his hands. “All right, all right, the gate’s not an option. What about the rings?”
The ring controls were also buried in snow, so Daniel and Sam brushed them off — Daniel pausing twice more to sneeze — revealing that the controls were intact. But when Daniel entered the code Patel had given them, none of the controls lit up or made a sound.
“Let me guess,” Jack said with a sigh.
“The console’s dead, sir, yes.” Sam pulled out a multitool in order to pry open the casing.
Daniel sneezed again, then looked over at the collection of rafts moored on the small island. To his dismay, they were all damaged, some of them broken right in two. He couldn’t tell if it was from the exchange of fire with the Reetou or from the explosives on the gate — not that it really mattered all that much. “I don’t think these are an option.”
“Good news, sir,” Sam said. “I think I can fix this. The console didn’t take any physical damage, but the blast shook loose a lot of the crystals. I think I can get them all back in place.”
“Get to it, Major,” Jack said. “There was a whole village back there complete with food and shelter. And I’m betting Ramprasad has some Tok’ra goodies lying around that can help us get out of here.”
Daniel looked over at Jack. “Like what, exactly?”
“Any good covert op has an exit strategy, Daniel. And his wasn’t to let everyone get massacred by Reetou and go to the SGC, which means it might still be in place.” He sighed again. “Of course, that assumes that the Tok’ra can run a good covert op…”
Before Daniel could reply to that, Sam said, “We’ve got a bit of a problem, sir.” She had moved to the rear of the ring controls and was staring at the lower part of the back of the console. Daniel recalled that that was where spare parts were generally stored.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Of course we do.”
“There’s a hairline fracture in one of the crystals. Unfortunately, it turns out there was a part of the console that was damaged.”
Holding up both hands, Jack said, “Wait, don’t tell me, let me guess — the spot where they keep the backups?”
Sam nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Well, this sucks.” Jack sighed and looked around. “Any chance of repairing the rafts?”
Standing up, Sam said, “Maybe, sir. Certainly a better chance than we have of fixing the rings.”
As she went over to inspect the rafts, Daniel looked at Jack. “Teal’c went through the gate, right?”
“Right before the earth-shattering ka-boom, yeah.” Jack shook his head. “Carter?”
“It’s iffy, sir,” Sam said from where she was crouching by the rafts. “Based on the UAV’s flyover, it’s about a hundred miles from here to the coastline nearest to the Imphal settlement. Rowing by hand, it’d take us at least thirty-six hours to get there. I’m not entirely sure we can make any of these raft fragments seaworthy enough to last a day and a half.”
“Maybe not, but I’m completely sure that if we stay here with no rings, no Stargate, and best of all, no food, water, or bathrooms, we’re toast. Get to work. Daniel, give her a hand.”
“Uhm, sure,” Daniel said. He went back to the rafts, sneezed two more times, and then crouched down next to Sam. “So, uh, how do we do this?”
Sam smiled. “What, you weren’t a boy scout?”
Daniel just shot her a look, which was about all that the question deserved in response. “I couldn’t even do arts and crafts in summer camp. I just kept drawing hieroglyphics on construction paper and getting yelled at for not making an ashtray like all the other kids.”
“I drew constellations on mine.” Sam grinned for a moment, then got serious again. “All right, this piece here is almost big enough to fit all three of us, so what we need to do is attach a few smaller pieces to the perimeter.”
“Attach how, exactly?”
Sam blew out a breath. “Good question. Not in any way that would really be water tight.”
“So we’d be spending a day and a half sitting on the wet spot?”
“Water that’s literally freezing.” She stood up and turned to Jack. “Sir, I’m not sure that with the tools available we can do this. Unless…”
“Unless what, Major?” Jack prompted.
Daniel stared at Sam, waiting for her to pull a rabbit out of her hat.
“Well, sir,
we might be able to cram into the biggest piece left, but we will have to attach a rudder — that won’t need to be water tight. But sir, it’ll be a really tight fit, and with your sprained ankle — ”
“I’m willing to take the risk, Carter. Get to it before night falls.”
“Yes, sir. Come on, Daniel, we can cannibalize the ring controller for parts.”
Daniel had just been about to ask again what Sam would use to attach the rudder, but as usual, she was three steps ahead. “Good thing you’re here to think of this stuff.”
“Hey, the only reason why I know how to mess with a ring controller is because of you, Daniel. And look at all the other skills you’ve picked up over the past five years.”
“True. If I met the me that first went through the Stargate with Jack, I don’t think I’d recognize myself. I didn’t even know how to load a gun, much less shoot one. Although I did have to — shoot one, that is.”
“All right, let’s — ” Sam interrupted herself and looked up. “What’s that noise?”
Before Daniel could even say “What noise?” he heard it too. A low hum that sounded a lot like a ring transporter activating. But this one was inactive…
Looking up, Daniel saw four rings falling through the snow-filled sky right toward the pair of them. Before he could even think about moving, the rings dropped around him and Sam. There was a blinding flash, and then the rings rose back up.
From Daniel’s perspective, it didn’t feel as if anything had happened. But when the light dimmed, he found himself aboard a Goa’uld ship — probably a ha’tak — surrounded by a dozen Jaffa, who all had the same circular mark as the Thakka on their foreheads, albeit in black. Instead of the usual Jaffa armor, they wore robes in various light colors, similar to those worn by the Thuggees of India, complete with brightly colored sashes which held their zat’ni’katels. The main difference between these Jaffa and the Thuggees were the lack of turbans and the fact that they did wear metal armor underneath the robes. Said armor wasn’t as all-encompassing as the Horus Guard or Serpent Guard armor, but it still provided significant protection.
The dozen Jaffa were all pointing staff weapons at him and Sam. “Step out of the rings,” one of them said. “Move!”
Daniel shot Sam a quick glance. She gave a curt nod and moved toward the door, since the Jaffa gave no specific direction. Daniel followed her, figuring it was better to be near the exit.
A moment later the rings activated again, revealing Jack kneeling on the deck, P90 raised. But when he saw how many Jaffa surrounded him, he lowered his weapon; twelve against one were bad odds, even for Jack.
“On your feet!” the Jaffa barked.
“Kind of a problem, there.”
“His ankle’s sprained,” Daniel said quickly before the Jaffa could respond. “He can’t walk.”
With a laugh, the Jaffa spoke in Goa’uld: “The human is weak.” Then back in English, “Pick him up, then. Your presence is requested by the Mother Goddess.”
“Kali is here?” That surprised Daniel, since Patel’s report had indicated that Kali was leaving the mission to her First Prime. Then again, it wouldn’t be out of character for a Goa’uld to send a force of Jaffa through the Stargate to engage in a campaign and then come by ship to arrive in time to either bask in the glory of victory or punish any surviving Jaffa for failure.
Both Sam and Daniel helped Jack to his feet. Jack rested his arms on the backs of their respective necks and hopped along between them as they walked out of the ring transport room, led by six Jaffa and trailed by the other six.
“You are fortunate,” the lead Jaffa said. “Few are graced by the Mother Goddess’s presence.”
“I could’ve lived without the grace,” Jack muttered.
As they trudged through the corridors, Daniel noted that, while the basic design was the same as every other ha’tak they’d been on, there were subtle differences in decoration. The basic décor screamed “Egyptian,” for the most part, but Kali had taken on the persona of an Indian deity. Of course, Goa’uld technology mostly looked Egyptian in design, mainly because the most powerful of the System Lords were all of that region: Ra, Anubis, Apophis, Hathor, Bastet — they were all posing as gods from northeast Africa, so the primary design take, as it were, was also similar to artifacts found in that region.
One not-so-subtle difference was that the corridors of Kali’s ship were all lined with rugs decorated with intricate patterns that looked to Daniel like they’d been pilfered from the Taj Mahal. It had the dual effect of making the corridors more pleasant and also softening the sound of the Jaffa stomping through them. Daniel had to admire the sense in placing the carpets, since he’d lost track of the number of times they’d been able to hide from approaching Jaffa while in a Goa’uld stronghold simply because they could hear them coming a mile off.
Then again, as Jack had so astutely pointed out to the rebel Jaffa on Cal Mah, the Jaffa weren’t so much trained in warfare as they were in terror. Their job was to intimidate the masses into obeying. Using their stompy feet to pound through a corridor may have served as a warning to a trained Air Force team, but it’d be scary as hell to unarmed civilians who’d lived under a totalitarian state their whole lives.
As they walked, the deck seemed to shift and all three of them almost lost their footing.
Sam looked over at Jack and Daniel. “Hyperdrive.”
“Yeah, well,” Daniel muttered, “not much left for Kali on Imphal.”
Soon they were brought to the pel’tak and here all pretense of Egyptian décor was out the window. The ship’s bridge was covered in red and gold beaded curtains, more of the ornate carpets lined the floor, and translucent silk drapes covered all the available wall space. Kali’s throne was a flared chair of red velvet and gold lining. The woman herself, whom Daniel had last seen during the System Lord summit he’d infiltrated, wore the same lavish silk finery she wore at the summit, complete with headpiece, though she was not wearing the beaded face covering that she had favored during the meeting.
The throne itself had ornate writing at the base of it that looked to Daniel’s practiced eye like the Devanagari alphabet used to write Hindi, Sanskrit, and many other languages of central Asia. He was pretty certain that the inscription read, ‘the Mother Goddess protects.’
As they were turned to face Kali, the Goa’uld herself rested her hands on the flared arms of her throne and leaned forward, eyes glowing.
Like we need reminding of what she is, Daniel thought bitterly.
She looked at him first. “Daniel Jackson. When last we met, I thought you to be a slave of Lord Yu’s. You are to be commended on your ability to infiltrate a Goa’uld summit. Few would have dared to even consider such a course of action, and fewer still could do so and live. Well done.”
“Uhm, okay.” To anyone else, Daniel would have responded with gratitude, but he was damned if he’d thank a Goa’uld for anything. “Is that why we’re here?”
“Hardly. No, I have need of the services of the famous SG-1.”
Jack’s eyes went wide. “If we’re that famous, then you probably know that serving you snake-heads isn’t exactly something that we do.”
Kali turned to face Jack. “Perhaps not, but I believe you may find my terms — acceptable.”
“I doubt it.”
“We shall see.” Kali rose from her throne. “This attack on Imphal is but the latest indignity that the Reetou have visited upon my holdings. I had several scientists working on a method of detecting the Reetou that is more permanent than the transphasic eradication rods. The work was being performed on Anjar. Unfortunately, the base on Anjar was attacked by the Reetou, and both the work and the scientists doing the work were destroyed.”
Sam asked, “Did any of the work survive — was it backed up anywhere?”
“No,” Kali said with more reluctance than Daniel ever expected to hear from a Goa’uld. “For security reasons, the information was kept in that single secure location. O
r at least, what I was told was a secure location.”
“Well, that was bad planning,” Jack said.
Kali whirled on him, holding up her left arm. The hand device glowed, and a yellow light went from it to Jack’s head. To his credit, Jack didn’t flinch or cry out, though he did go rigid as sweat beaded on his brow.
Daniel tensed, and so did Sam, but the Jaffa behind them all activated their staff weapons at once, preventing them from helping Jack.
After only two seconds, Kali lowered her arm. Jack let out a long breath and closed his eyes. “God, I hate that…”
Ignoring him, Kali said, “What I wish from you is simple. I referred to you as famous, and one of the reasons for that fame is Major Samantha Carter. I have faith in your ability to come up with a manner of detecting the Reetou.”
Sam said nothing, but Daniel could see revulsion warring with flattery at being complimented by a Goa’uld. They usually went the ‘puny primitive humans’ route.
“In addition, Dr. Jackson, I require your assistance. I desire to negotiate a peace with the Reetou, but actual talks are impossible for me or any Goa’uld or Jaffa in my service due to the adverse effect the Reetou have on us. Therefore I wish you to be my voice.”
“Even if I was willing to do this — and I’m really, really not — why me?”
“You negotiated your world’s treaties with the Asgard and the Tok’ra, and you assisted in the negotiations with my fellow System Lords to make your world a planet protected by the Asgard.”
Jack said, “Never gonna happen. You might as well go ahead and kill us.”
Kali smiled in the manner of a predator about to eat its prey. “Oh, I will happily kill you, Colonel O’Neill. You see, while your subordinates are of great use to me, you are of absolutely none except as leverage. We are currently en route to Bangalore, one of my subject worlds. If your military training permits your team to allow their commanding officer to be killed, then when we arrive at Bangalore I will simply instruct my ha’tak to fire upon the surface and kill the Kali Kula who reside there.”
“I thought your duty was to protect the Kula,” Daniel said tightly.
STARGATE SG-1: Kali's Wrath (SG1-28) Page 5
