Relativity

by Stargate

  The alien shook its crested head in an exaggerated parody of a human motion and offered the device to Jade. His meaning was clear.

  “No.” She held up her hands. “I’ll get out the way you got in, through the air ducts. And if that path’s blocked, I’ll take the secondary route.”

  Ite-kh’s sensory palps twitched as the sound of heavy boot steps echoed along the passageway. They had little time to waste talking, but the alien would not do as she wished. Finally, Jade drew herself up and tapped into the same hard-edged manner that made her father the unquestioned leader that he was. “I am the ranking operative on this mission. I’m making it a direct order. Now go!”

  The alien rocked on his legs and chittered; it was the Re’tu’s equivalent of a resigned sigh. He brought up one claw and made another human gesture— a salute— and then threw himself down the corridor, directly toward the approaching soldiers. He was going to waylay them, giving her a chance to get a head start on the SGC’s security forces.

  Jade swallowed hard and broke into a run, heading in the opposite direction.

  Teal’c felt the enemy coming before he saw it. His teeth bared in a snarl and he spun in place, bring the fluted shape of the Tok’ra weapon in his grip to bear. The TER’s scanning emitter cone hummed with energy, but he didn’t need it. The Re’tu was naked, perceptible to normal sight, and that placed the creature on a level battleground with the Jaffa warrior.

  Here was the unseen enemy that had been pulling at his thoughts; here was the ghost rendered visible. Teal’c understood perfectly now. These creatures resonated at a different phase from normal matter, giving them the gift of concealment— but their ability also disturbed the delicate metabolisms of Goa’uld symbiotes. When the Re’tu had last crossed swords with the Tau’ri, Teal’c had still been carrying one of the immature serpentine parasites within him, and each time he came close to the spider-creatures, the symbiote’s revulsion forced a wave of crippling nausea upon him. Since then, the Jaffa had been freed from his Goa’uld burden and survived thanks to the serum known as tretonin; but clearly some element of the Goa’uld’s genetic reaction remained with him. The disquiet, the nagging unease, the sickening agitation— all of it had been caused by this thing, hiding in plain sight. The Re’tu had been here all along, was most likely to have been either the guardian of or the bomber itself. How it had got into the SGC was a question he would answer after he had defeated it.

  He heard Sergeant Albrectsen make an incredulous noise, a sound that was half in surprise, half a nervous laugh, as the airman saw the insectoid scrambling along the sheer vertical wall as easily as they moved along the floor. It rattled its mandibles— perhaps as some kind of battle cry— and opened fire.

  The Jaffa was already moving, throwing himself aside as the flashing darts of energy ripped through the air where he had been standing. Shooting the TER one-handed, Teal’c bracketed the alien. “Shoot to wound only!” he roared, as the rest of Everitt’s team opened up on the creature.

  “Aim for the legs?” cried the lieutenant. “The damn thing’s got six of ‘em!”

  The Re’tu caught a glancing round as a bullet scored a gouge in its abdomen, and in return it pumped a direct hit into Airman Walker, the stunning discharge wreathing him in green-tinted lightning. The alien leapt from one wall of the corridor to another, bouncing back and forth over their heads. Teal’c led his target and he was rewarded by a piercing screech from the intruder as a bolt from the TER creased its chitinous torso. The Re’tu stumbled but kept purchase.

  Teal’c’s fingers tightened around the weapon’s pistol grip; at full discharge, the Tok’ra energy gun would have slain the alien instantly, but the Jaffa had deliberately dialed down the lethality. His orders were to capture, not to kill.

  Albrechtsen was at Walker’s side, dragging the insensate man to his feet. Everitt and another soldier, Boyce, flanked Teal’c as he went after the Re’tu. The arachnid spat and hissed at them before slamming itself into a set of elevator doors at the end of the corridor. Claws drawing sparks from the metal, the alien ripped the doors open to reveal the dark shaft inside. All three men fired, but the intruder undulated and thrust itself through the meter-wide hole it had made, grasping on to the elevator cable and swarming upwards.

  Boyce gingerly aimed a flashlight into the gash torn in the doors. “I can’t believe what I just saw! How did something that big get through a hole that small?”

  “Just like a spider,” panted the lieutenant. “Like those hairy little creeps that come up the bathroom drain…” He threw an apologetic look at the Jaffa. “You were right, sir. Sorry I doubted you—”

  But the expression of stony fury on Teal’c face silenced him. The Jaffa spoke a clipped sentence into his radio. “The Re’tu is in elevator shaft three. Moving up.”

  The SGC security control center was dominated by a wall of color monitors feeding live images from surveillance cameras located all through the base, in corridors and rooms on every tier. Sergeant Siler looked up from over the shoulder of one of the technicians as Jack blew into the room. He was still in the process of loading a P90 submachine gun he’d appropriated from an airman in the corridor. O’Neill wasted no time with a preamble. “What have we got?”

  Siler pointed at one of the screens. “Teal’c engaged the Re’tu at intersection D-6-2-Echo, sir. Target was hit but is still mobile. Major Duarte and his team have locked off the shaft it entered. That bug’s got nowhere to go.”

  Jack saw the Jaffa flash past, racing up a set of steel stairs. “What about Wells?”

  At a nod from the sergeant, the technician working the console brought up another image on the central screen. “Moving towards air processing, colonel. There.” The man pointed and Jack saw a figure moving swiftly and carefully toward the camera’s location. The dark-haired woman still had her white lab coat on, and as she came closer to the monitor, he got another look at her.

  She seemed relatively unremarkable; just an ordinary person, pretty even, in a nondescript kind of way. At least, that was how it seemed at first glance. Again, Jack felt an odd moment of dislocation when he studied the woman’s face, just as he had when he caught a glimpse of her in the gate-room. Even though he was sure he’d never seen this person before, O’Neill couldn’t escape the sensation that he knew her.

  He frowned and forced the reaction from his thoughts. The colonel took his radio and raised it to his lips. “Carter, come in.”

  “Here, sir,” The major’s reply was crisp.

  “Wells is heading your way. You know what to do.”

  “Roger that. We’ll be ready.”

  Siler leaned forward to stare at the monitor. “What’s happening?”

  Jack glanced up. The woman looked right into the eye of the camera and for one brief second O’Neill thought she was actually going to speak. He saw a nerve jump in her cheek, and without warning the monitor flickered and became a featureless rain of gray static.

  “She shoot it out?” said Siler. “I didn’t see a weapon…”

  “Negative,” said the technician, “The camera just went down. I’m losing feeds from all over that tier. Looks like electromagnetic interference…”

  “Damn it.” Jack spoke into the radio again. “Carter! We’ve lost video down there, do you read? Sam!”

  His only reply was the hissing of a jammed channel.

  In the planning stages of the mission at the Holdfast they had discussed the possibility of an abort with the same level of reticence that someone might use for talking about a terminal illness. None of them had wanted to consider what the end result of a catastrophe would be, not at this stage, not on this of all missions. Failure was not an option; they could gauge it only in degrees of success.

  At the final pre-operational briefing, the three of them sat in the incongruous setting of Tyke’s living room, Jade across the dining table from the Commander as he used the holos of the SGC to reiterate how and where the device was to be placed for ma
ximum effect. She had seen the reluctance in the old man’s eyes, the subtle war between father and senior officer taking place behind the lined face. He did not want her to go, but he had no choice. None of them did.

  No choice. If felt as if Jade’s entire life could be summed up with those two words; and now they had driven her to this, on the run and under the guns of people who in other times would have been her friends, her comrades.

  She used the implant to secrete a neurotransmitter to damp down her building migraine headache and let the device’s crude dampening field run as strongly as it could. She had little need for stealth now. Only escape was of importance. Jade descended the shallow steel steps to the accessway leading to the air processor vents.

  There were three armed people waiting for her.

  Carter stepped out of her cover with the P90 submachine gun firm against her shoulder, sighting down the length of the stubby weapon. She hadn’t had the chance to pick up a zat gun on the way down; if she had, she would have shot first and asked questions later.

  “Hands in the air. No sudden moves,” she demanded.

  “Of course. I should have assumed you would cover this escape route.” The woman held her arms up at chest level, palms out and fingers spread. “I have no weapons, Major Carter.”

  Sam’s eyes narrowed at the spy’s unwelcome familiarity. “Get on your knees, lace your fingers together and place them on the back of your head.”

  “Major, please.” The woman took a slow step forward. “There’s no need for this. We can resolve this peacefully.”

  “Stand still!” Sam barked, the command loud in the confined corridor. Carter didn’t often get to use her ‘officer voice’ but she did it now, and in a way that made it clear she was not willing to accept anything but immediate compliance. “I don’t know who you are or what you’re trying to do here, but your little game of hide and seek is over.”

  The intruder’s shoulders sagged, and when she spoke again the weariness in her voice sounded almost genuine. “You’re right, Samantha. It is a game… But if I told you what the prize was, you’d never believe me.” Her hands moved a little and Carter saw something strange, a peculiar discoloration on her fingertips that hadn’t been there moments before.

  “What is that—” began one of the soldiers at her side.

  Sam’s finger tightened reflexively on the P90’s trigger as the woman turned her hand in a sharp wave. A mist of glittering silver vapor flashed into the air and Carter recoiled. Before she could fire a shot, the spray jetted towards her, shifting and moving through the air like a swarm of tiny mites. The woman was running, doubling back and away as the mist went straight for Sam’s gun and attacked it.

  The composite plastics and metals of the weapon disintegrated, crumbling apart into dust. Carter instinctively threw the gun away, and as it hit the floor it shattered like glass, scattering components and unfired ammunition. She gasped, clutching her hand, but found her flesh untouched. Only the cuff of her uniform and her wristwatch were damaged, the inert materials becoming powdery like the weapon. With horror, Sam watched the steel staircase buckle and melt like hot wax, preventing them from giving pursuit.

  The major backed off as the haze began to fade slowly away, leaving odd striations in the walls and the floor. “Gotta be… Nanomachines,” she said under her breath, her keen reasoning finding a explanation, “they only targeted inorganic matter…”

  The airman at her side gestured with his walkie-talkie. “Major! I’ve got comms back on line.”

  Carter snatched it from his grip. “Colonel O’Neill. Wells was driven off but we cannot give chase. She’s moving back into the base proper, sir.”

  “I read you,” came the reply. “Teal’c has her spider-boyfriend corralled in the elevator shafts and the base is locked down.”

  “Sir, we’re not dealing with an amateur here. She’ll have another escape route.”

  “Oh yeah,” he agreed grimly, “and I reckon I know what it is.”

  O’Neill turned to Siler. “Where’s General Hammond and Vice President Pain-in-the-ass?”

  “Secure conference room on level six.” The sergeant pointed at another monitor, and on it Jack saw the room with the large oval table, and the mass of people crowded into it.

  He spotted Daniel and Hammond standing together as Kinsey gesticulated and shouted. That the man was extremely annoyed by the current situation was obvious, and it almost made all the effort worth it. Jack was glad the video feed didn’t have an audio component; he had no doubt his name was being taken in vain. “Keep them in there and out of trouble until we have our pest problem resolved.” He made for the door.

  “Sir, where are you going?” asked the sergeant.

  He hefted his SMG. “Playing a hunch, Siler. The way my week’s been going, I’m about due for a win, don’tcha think?”

  “Where?” snarled the Jaffa, as he ran from the stairwell to the elevator bank. The Tau’ri officer shot Teal’c a nervous glance and pointed through the open doors of a lift; the car was empty. The major pointed again, this time at the elevator car’s floor.

  “The car’s blocking the shaft,” he said in a low voice, as if he did not want to alert the intruder. “That thing’s scrabbling around, trying to get past it.”

  Teal’c nodded. He could hear scraping noises and the sounds of chitin on metal as the Re’tu probed the shaft for an escape route. “It cannot be allowed to flee,” he said flatly. The Jaffa snapped a fresh stick of ammunition into his weapon.

  “Look out!” cried one of the airman, as a scythe-like claw punctured the floor of the elevator car with a screech of steel. Dents in the walls of the lift appeared in rapid succession, moving up the side of the car as something impacted them from inside the shaft.

  “It’s trying to get on to the roof of the car!” snapped Major Duarte. “It’ll have a clear path up to the NORAD levels…”

  “No,” Teal’c bounded into the waiting elevator and punched open the hatch in the roof. He heard the Re’tu screech as he gripped the edges of the space and threw himself up through it.

  The lift car rocked on its suspension as the big man rolled on to the roof and came to his feet. There was only the scattered light of level markers ranging away up the narrow shaft above, but the dimness was enough for Teal’c to see the shiny mass of the insectoid. It spat at him, angry to see the Jaffa again, angry to be distracted once more.

  The alien brought up its weapon, but Teal’c was ready. He released a short, full-auto burst from his gun and a tongue of flame back-lit the two combatants for a brief instant. The Re’tu ducked away, but the shots ripped into the alien’s boxy brass weapon, sending it spiraling away down the shaft. With a grinding roar, the insectoid vaulted around the central cable pinion and slammed four of its legs into his chest. Teal’c lost balance and slipped to the edge of the car, for one long moment dangling over the dark abyss. With a grunt of effort he rolled back and smashed the alien’s head with the butt of the P90.

  The Re’tu punched blindly and struck him in the gut. Teal’c recovered his footing before the creature could hit him with another of its limbs, but it was as if he were fighting three men at once. The arachnid was a whirl of chitin, each talon threatening to cut him open if it struck him wrongly. The Jaffa fired again, bullets glowing as they ricocheted off the concrete walls of the shaft.

  It made a crackling noise in its torso and came at him, ignoring a glancing gunshot wound, and Teal’c staggered back as the Re’tu snapped the P90 in two with a twin pile driver punch. His foot touched empty air where the roof hatch was open and the Jaffa felt himself drop.

  Teal’c skull rang as he collided with an a-frame. Colors and light exploded behind his eyes.

  It was a strain for her to force out a last swarm of nanites. The processors and micromanufactories inside the hollows of Jade’s bones were almost bled dry from making the cloud she deployed against Major Carter, and the jamming field that baffled the security cameras. She was close to
running on empty, the mass of her implant throbbing with heat at the back of her skull. The rest of her hardware was still back in her quarters on the upper levels, hidden in her gear bag along with a couple of refill vials of raw nanofluid. She could have used them now; but instead Jade was back to operating on a human level, without all the enhancements that gave her an edge.

  The cloud dutifully deconstructed the molecular bonds on the tempered steel bolts holding the panel before her in place and it slid off its mounting. Jade pulled herself out of the dank, dirty conduit and dropped silently to the floor, the nanites dissipating harmlessly around her.

  She glanced up. Following the maintenance crawlway had deposited her in the rearmost corner of the embarkation chamber. The conduit, sealed shut since the SGC had taken possession of Cheyenne Mountain’s lower levels in the 1990s, was a forgotten piece of the base’s Cold War-era infrastructure. As such, it was the perfect last-ditch route to reach the Stargate undetected.

  Jade grimaced and threw off her white jacket. The lab coat’s color was more drab gray now, dirtied by wading through years of accumulated dirt, filth and insect colonies inside the crawlway. Her skin itched and she felt the sudden and very ordinary need for a hot shower. Jade pushed the desire aside. She still had one more barrier to cross before she could let her guard down.

  The woman fished in her pocket and removed an object that appeared on the surface to be a commonplace stick of lip balm. Discarding the case, Jade removed a slim rod from inside and twisted it. A compact microwave transmitter of Tok’ra origin, the rod also contained an extremely large memory buffer that currently held a few million lines of dense computer code. Moving slowly, careful to keep to the edges of the vision envelopes of the gate-room’s security cameras, Jade moved around and under the massive clamps holding up the Earth gate. From beneath the supports of the embarkation ramp, she aimed the rod’s emitter tip in the direction of the control room beyond, to where she knew the SGC’s dialing computer was located. Jade pressed a tiny stud and the device went warm in her grip.