Nothing.
Carter stopped just ahead of him. “Sir?”
He turned back to her. “It’s too damn hot in here. I’m starting to see — ”
A cool breeze blew across his neck.
Just like it did in the maze, and then again on Yu’s terrace outside, right before the Jaffa attacked.
But they weren’t outside, Daniel was alive, and —
The breeze rushed by again.
Somehow, something or someone was trying to warn him.
“Carter, get down!”
A deep, wet growl erupted from the statues. Before Jack could swing his P90 over, the central figure leapt from the pedestal with lightning speed.
He shot it once, twice, three times. Used all the ammo he had left.
The thing kept on coming.
“Sir!”
The creature collided with Jack, throwing him face down to the ground, his rifle gouging into his stomach. Wet, sharp claws seized his arms. He tried to twist around, to see what had him pinned, but couldn’t budge. The creature weighed a ton. It jabbed a knee against his back and growled again.
Hoping to catch it off guard, he went limp. The pressure from the creature’s knee lightened up. Jack rounded his back and pushed up.
The knee came down again, hard. His rib cage would shatter if the thing put any more weight on him. He gasped for air, squirming to get free, but the creature tightened its grip on his arms. Jack’s skin burned as its claws began to dig in.
* * *
“O’Neill!” cried out Teal’c.
Daniel whipped his head up from the game board. In horror, he stared at the silenced com ball. The creature attacking Jack in front of the statues… Daniel quickly realized it wasn’t a
Zhenmushou
. Its ears were too low, its skin too mottled.
It was an Unas. A primeval specimen as far removed from his friend Chaka as modern man was from the Neanderthal. Unlike Chaka’s more pronounced horn ridge, this creature’s horns were abbreviated, shorter, though twice as many in number. Additional ridges ran along its jaw line, its arms, and its chest, emphasizing sheer bulk over any sort of evolved physicality.
Daniel tore his eyes away to glance at Yu. He saw the glint of expectation on the Goa’uld’s face, and knew.
Jack didn’t have a chance.
* * *
“Shoot the damn thing!”
“I’m out of ammo and the modified zat could disintegrate you as well as the beast.” Sam scanned the tunnel for something, anything to help fight against the creature as it held Colonel O’Neill to the ground.
“Shoot it — ”
With a howl, the Unas back-fisted him across the side of his face.
“Sir!”
“Do it, Carter,” he groaned.
The Unas raised a hand, a paw, whatever. She didn’t care. All she knew was that those claws would eventually rip the colonel’s back to shreds if she didn’t do something and do it fast.
Her hands fell to her utility belt. She had the modified zat and she had a knife.
They’d have to do.
She laid her P90 on the ground, aiming it directly at the Unas. The creature turned toward her, claws still raised. A grazed bullet wound on its forehead oozed green blood onto its horns. The rifle’s light coruscated within its dark primordial eyes.
Yanking the zat from her holster, Sam mustered up a healthy dose of bravado. “Hey, ugly. Watch this.”
She zatted the statues. An electric arc enveloped them into oblivion.
The Unas howled again, but it didn’t budge from the colonel’s back.
Damn it. “Not impressed, huh?” she yelled.
Swiping downward, the Unas ripped the back of the colonel’s vest open. He let out a strangled cry of pain.
“No!” Swallowing down her fear, Sam unsnapped the scabbard on her belt and pulled out her knife. There was no other choice. It was this or let the Unas kill Colonel O’Neill.
As the Unas raised its arm again, she dashed sideways. “Over here,” she called out, hoping to stop it from attacking the colonel again.
She got her wish. The creature dropped its arm and began to turn toward her.
At a dead run, she leapt onto its back and plunged her knife in. A gush of green blood splattered across her neck as the creature shuddered. It flailed its arms, trying to reach behind to knock her off. Dropping her zat to ground, she used both hands to hold on tight.
The Unas flung itself back and forth, but Sam kept a hold of the knife. As it turned around, she saw the colonel crawling toward the zat.
The Unas whirled halfway around again, blocking her view.
“Carter, I’ll get the zat. Jump off!”
She let go of the knife and, as she dropped, she tucked her legs in to roll out of the way. The Unas spun around and grabbed her right arm.
“Carter!”
It lifted her from the ground, sending excruciating pain down her shoulder and into her arm. She tried to kick out, but the Unas held her too far away from its body.
It jerked her higher and she felt her arm wrench out of its socket. A wave of nausea hit her. She forced herself to stay focused, to push past the pain. She kicked out again, her foot connecting with the creature’s chest. The Unas raised its head back and howled.
Then it threw her across the tunnel. As Sam’s head connected with the floor, she heard a crack.
* * *
The communications device made it abundantly clear that O’Neill could barely stand and Major Carter… She remained motionless, unable to protect even herself.
Teal’c had seen enough.
Something had to be done before his friends suffered more.
With his arms held tightly by the two Jaffa, he knew he’d have only one chance to break free. Lifting his left leg swiftly back, he brought it down to smash on the heel of Zheng’s booted foot. As the Jaffa stumbled forward, his grip on Teal’c’s arm’s loosened.
Teal’c wrested his arm free. Twisting sideways, he slammed his palm into the other Jaffa’s throat. Lao Dan staggered back, dropping his hold on Teal’c’s arm.
Zheng shot up and lunged for him, but Teal’c drew back and drove a fist at the Jaffa’s chin. Zheng collapsed where he stood. Finally free, Teal’c lunged forward to attack Lord Yu.
The telltale sign of an enabled
zat’nik’tel
froze him in his tracks. He spun around.
Oshu aimed a zat directly at the still unconscious Bra’tac. For one brief moment, Teal’c found himself wishing his former mentor still carried a symbiote so that he would recover more quickly.
“You must stop,” said Oshu, his voice a deathly calm. Teal’c met Daniel Jackson’s eyes, silently appealing for help. His friend’s face was dark with pain.
“Don’t do it, Teal’c. Jack wouldn’t want us to risk our lives.”
Lord Yu laughed. “Jack. An appropriately crude name for the mighty leader of your team. Should I have more faith in his ability to prevail than either of you?”
Rough hands shoved Teal’c to his knees. He spit at the Goa’uld. “You know nothing of faith.”
Oshu whirled toward him, his weapon raised. “Do not speak,
Sholvah
!”
Teal’c struggled beneath the weight of his captors, but he would not be silenced. “Or what? Your master is a coward who sends old men and vicious creatures to do his bidding. He has no honor.”
“Silence!” The Goa’uld’s eyes flashed white, the parasite within no doubt writhing in fury. As his eyes returned to normal, Lord Yu placed his palms upon his thighs.
He sighed. “Teal’c, your anger blinds you to the truth. My reasons for bringing all of you here are honorable. Of this you can be sure.”
Teal’c glanced at the communications device, at the Unas raising a P90 over its head as it loomed over a motionless Major Carter. The zat’nik’tel lay inert by her side. O’Neill threw his own P90, but the beast caught the rifle in its other hand.
And yet, Teal’c could do nothing. Nothing but speak what might be his last words, the only weapon he had left.
“You know nothing of honor. Not now, not ever. If you did, you would not have fallen back on your promise to attack Anubis at Vis Uban.”
The Goa’uld’s eyes flashed again. “Do not pretend to understand the dire nature of Anubis and his armies.”
“Oh, but I do understand,” Teal’c said with a deliberate smile. With one more thrust he would drive his point home. “I will die free, but you… You are weak and you are old. You will only live long enough for Anubis to find you. When he does, he will tear this fortress down around your ears.”
* * *
The Unas stood over Carter, swinging a P90 above its head. The light from the rifle splayed across the ceiling, lighting up the tunnel.
If the thing hit her, she’d be good as dead.
As far Jack was concerned, he would be, too.
Even if he figured out a way to escape.
Pushing aside the white-hot pain across his back, he pulled out his knife. Repeating Carter’s jump and plunge routine wouldn’t work, he knew that. The Unas was too damn strong. It’d throw him aside like a sack of potatoes. Instead, Jack shifted his weight on to his back leg, raised the knife above his head, and threw the blade at the creature.
A direct hit to the lower back.
The Unas dropped its arm, howling in pain. Both P90 flashlights were pointed downward now, lighting up the ground like a disco floor.
A glint of metal a few yards to Jack’s left got his attention. Carter’s knife.
He snatched it up and waved it at the Unas. “Get away from her, you bastard.”
The Unas turned toward him and growled again, the com ball light from above illuminating the two teeth jutting down from its slimy upper lip.
On the ground behind it, Carter groaned. A wave of relief washed through Jack. She might be in pain, but she was alive.
For the moment.
Without another thought, Jack flung the second knife at the Unas, aiming for his throat. It missed, skittering to the floor. With a snarl, the creature raised one of the P90s in the air, turned around and clubbed Carter in the side.
She screamed. The sound tore through Jack far worse than the Unas ever could.
“You sonuvabitch,” he yelled.
The creature turned around again to face him, its lips curled in what Jack would swear was a grin. A sick, twisted grin.
He clenched his fists, resenting the powerlessness he had to do anything to save Carter. To save any of his team. He’d screwed up big time. First with Daniel, then letting Teal’c and Bra’tac go off half-cocked, and now…
He swallowed down that thought, locked it in a room and threw away the key.
With a snarl, the Unas raised both P90s toward Jack, as if challenging him to come get them. If he had to throw himself at the creature to save Carter, he would, but he’d lived the past six years by refusing to give up and he wasn’t about to do so now. All he needed was a weapon, something he could use to turn the tide.
The Unas dropped its arms to its side, the rifle lights spilling over Carter gasping in pain…
And the zat on the floor next to her.
Getting to it would be impossible unless Jack could somehow get the Unas to move off. Distract it somehow.
A breeze wisped across his neck again. If it was Oma Desala, Daniel’s little guru was out of luck. Besides, he knew she wouldn’t interfere. It was too far below her pay grade. Daniel had tried and got kicked out of the Ascended Beings club.
Not that he wasn’t grateful for Oma’s whole Abydonian ascension bit, but…
Abydos.
Oma had ascended the whole damn planet.
Including Skaara.
Was it possible that he was there, even now?
Jack whipped out his… correction,
Skaara’s
old Zippo. “Hey, ugly, wanna see something?”
Clink.
The Zippo lit up, old reliable that it was. Jack waved it around, the flame sputtering, but staying true.
The Unas weaved its head back and forth, its eyes following the lighter.
Jack crouched down. “Okay, this is good. I’ve got your attention. Now lets try — ”
He tossed the lighter to the tunnel’s center. It skittered to a stop just beyond the com ball, the flame still going.
The Unas took a step toward the Zippo and stopped.
Jack raised his hands. “Go on. It’s all yours.”
With a grunt, it stomped over. Looked down at the flame and then nudged it with a foot. It began to reach down.
Jack dove for the zat, swung it up and fired.
The beast, the P90s and the com ball overhead all lit up in a blue blaze.
Then the tunnel darkened, except for the Zippo.
Its flame kept burning.
Chapter Sixteen
A groan echoed in the near black tunnel. “Sir?”
Carter.
Jack shoved the zat in his holster and grabbed the still lighted Zippo off the ground. He hurried to her side and kneeled over her, the cut skin along his back stretching tight with his movement. A painful souvenir thanks to a now disintegrated Unas. He bit off a gasp.
“Colonel, are you all right?”
“Am I all right? Let’s worry about you for a moment.” He held the lighter up to get a good look at the damage done by the thing. The Zippo didn’t make for the best lighting conditions, what with the way his damn hand shook. He tried to steady his hand as he examined her head to toe.
No luck. Too damn much adrenaline pumped through him.
He switched hands though it didn’t make a bit of difference, especially once he got a good look. She had a helluva gash across her forehead, the cut deep enough to show white flesh underneath. Her right arm was twisted at an odd angle and a thin sheen of sweat covered her very pale face. She had to be in a boatload of pain.
“Geez, Carter…” His throat closed shut, unable to say any more. He’d made a mess of things, from beginning to end, and now she was paying the price.
She tried to sit up, but he put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from moving. Lifting her good hand to her head, she inhaled sharply. “Hit my head… when I fell.”
Forcing his hand to simmer down, he held the lighter closer to her face. Her pupils were dilated though the lighter could have been the cause. No way to tell.
She grimaced, the muscles on her neck bunching up in effort. A moan escaped her and she fell limp. “I’m sorry, sir. I can’t move my right arm.”
“Major,” he said, pushing himself to speak, “if anyone’s owed an apology around here, it isn’t me.”
“Sir — ”
“Save your strength, Carter.” He sat back on his heels, trying to hoist up the old O’Neill bluster that had disintegrated right along with that damn Unas.
“Sir — ”
“We’ll get out here. We’ve dealt with worse.” A lie, but it sounded good.
With a wince, she shook her head. “Sir, my shoulder… You need to relocate it before it swells.”
“More pain,” he said, keeping his voice as upbeat as he could. “That’s exactly what I want to put you through.”
“Sir, please…”
Carter was right. He’d had enough first aid training to know exactly what had to be done.
He laid the lit Zippo on the ground next to her bad shoulder. “It’s going to hurt like hell.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Ready.”
That made one of them. Hurting Carter was definitely not on his to do list.
Before he could think about it any longer, Jack swung his leg over and straddled her waist with his knees. He shimmied back enough to lock her hips between his legs, and then carefully bent her bad arm up in a ninety degree angle.
She hissed.
Jack steeled himself for what had to come next. With his left hand cupping her bad shoulder and his right holding the arm, he said, “Push against my thigh with your good hand. It’ll help counterbalance what I need to do.”
As soon her palm pushed against him, he began to rotate her arm and shoulder inward toward her chest. At first, he couldn’t feel any movement. He pushed a bit further and the muscles responded.
Carter bit her lip, but didn’t scream. Jack wasn’t so sure he’d have been able to do the same if the situation was reversed. A good scream could do amazing things to cut off pain.
Nine broken bones and a few concussions had made him an expert on pain… and screams. Plenty of screams.
“Okay, here comes the fun part.” Making sure he had a firm grip on her upper arm, he changed directions, rotating her lower arm and shoulder outward. When he got past the ninety-degree angle, he felt a pop in her shoulder.
Carter blew out a long breath. “Better… Thank you, sir.”
Relieved, he sank down beside her and rubbed his hands over his face until he noticed the lighter was sputtering. It was running low on fuel.
As he fished in his pockets for his plastic flask containing extra lighter fluid, Carter reached over and picked up the Zippo.
“Skaara’s old lighter,” she said softly.
He pulled the flask out. Flipping open the fueling neck, he said, “I’m going to have to blow this out to refill it.”
“In the dark?”
Jack shrugged. “I’ve done it before. This lighter and I go way back, even before I knew there was a Skaara — ”
“I miss him, too, sir.” She handed him the lighter.
Jack blew out the flame. Though the tunnel darkened, he schooled his face into a perfect mask. It was a habit he’d developed over the years to keep himself from thinking things he knew led to no good, including and most particularly thoughts of those he’d lost along the way.
Or had he? That breeze business still had him puzzled. Was some Ascended Being hanging out, getting their kicks watching him go through nine kinds of hell?
“Is that why you carry the lighter, sir? To remind you of Skaara?”
“Amongst other reasons,” he said gruffly, pulling out the Zippo’s inner case. “It certainly saved our butts today.”
He unscrewed the bottom. Carter had fallen silent. Not good considering the fact that she might have a concussion.
Or worse.
“Don’t fall asleep on me,” he said into the dark.
“Sorry, sir. I was trying to decide what I should carry with me.”
“Carry with you?” Jack guided the flask neck into the fuel hole with his index finger.
“Like your lighter,” she replied softly. “A lot of soldiers go into combat with some sort of memento. Something they carry to help them remember important stuff… You know, like memories of family… or friends.”
“And what did you decide on?”
“I haven’t yet. But I will.”
He smiled into the darkness. “Keep that optimism airborne, Carter. We still need to get out of here.”
“No, sir.”
He tossed the empty flask aside. “Excuse me?”
“I’m too dizzy. I’ll only slow you down.”
“Carter…”
“Daniel, Teal’c, and Bra’tac need help, sir.”
“Not an option, Major.”
Not at all.
Jack slammed the lighter together, thumbed the wheel and poof! The flame licked up excess fuel along the casing.
He glanced over at Carter. She was right. She looked like hell.
Using her good arm, she pulled herself up to a sitting position. “Colonel, you’ve got to shut the emitter down.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you, but with what?” he asked skeptically. “A zat gun and a lighter?”
“Sounds like a plan, sir.” Though Carter grinned, it was a pale shadow of her usual full-on smile.
“Yeah, well… it’s only a plan if you’re there to tell me what to do. Come on, Major. On your feet.” With his free hand, Jack pulled her up.
She swayed a bit but managed to keep upright. She put a hand to her head. “I would kill for a couple of aspirin right now.”
“Get us out of here and I’ll buy you a whole bottle.” He raised the lighter higher. “Seriously, we can barely see five feet ahead. How am we supposed to find this emitter thing?”
“Follow the floor, sir.”
Holding the lighter low, he walked a few paces toward the tunnel’s center until the flame glinted off the silver snake. Beyond it, something small and metallic reflected back. His knife. He picked it up and returned to Carter’s side.
“If I get the zat, you get this.” He pressed the knife into her good hand. “Of course, if Yu’s Jaffa come storming in, you could always bite them on the hand. You’re good at that.”
She gave him a wider smile. Not by much, but it did the job.
* * *
At Carter’s suggestion, Jack cycled the lighter to conserve fuel. They’d walk fifty paces and he’d snap the lid closed. Shoulder-to-shoulder, they’d go another fifty paces and clink, he’d flip the flame back on again to check their bearings. They never strayed far from the silver-etched snake, but it was slow going. He could tell Carter was barely able to keep up.
At first, he kept up a running dialogue to help her keep focused. After a while, he got the sense that his babbling wasn’t doing her any good so he shut up. She was breathing harder than she should be, and twice she’d stopped and asked to be left behind.
Which was never going to happen.
After she brought it up the second time, Jack responded by taking the knife out of her hand, sticking it in her scabbard, and then slinging her good arm across his shoulders for support.
One foot after the other, they followed that damn snake on the ground. In the silence between Carter’s short breaths, Jack played out in his head the different hoops Yu had made his team jump through. Obviously, Huang had been in on it, but with their link to home zatted into oblivion, he had no way of knowing what the hell that was about, except that it bugged the crap out of him.
Just what the world needed, Goa’uld insiders crawling around a superpower like China.
Then there was the Jaffa welcoming party. How the hell did Yu’s little minions detect a cloaked ship? Next up, the maze, the ‘oh so fun’ electrified door panels, a fricking Unas that looked way too damn much like that statue of Daniel’s from 702. And com balls arranged just so along the way. Jack wasn’t sure yet how all the pieces fit together, though he was convinced they did.
The Zippo case started to burn his hand again which meant it was time for another round of walking like idiots in the dark. He checked down by his feet to make sure the silver snake line was still there, and shut the lid.
“Sir…”
“Forget it, Carter. We keep going.”
“Up ahead. Do you see it?”
Jack looked up from the floor. A yellow light pulsed faintly in the distance. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. It was still there.
Pay dirt.
He stuffed the lighter into his vest, secured his hold on Carter and hurried toward the light. As they got closer, the outline of an arch in the wall became visible. A few feet back from the actual doorway, he stopped and whispered, “Can you stand on your own?”
She nodded, and then winced again.
He pulled out the modified zat and listened. No voices. Hopefully, that meant none of Yu’s Jaffa buddies were hanging around inside. There was a definite pulsating hum coming from inside, though. Hopefully, it was the emitter.
With Carter right behind him, Jack stepped through the arch and into a cavern flooded with light. They were immediately greeted by Yu’s image plastered on a hulking com ball hovering right in front of them. He stopped and gave the Goa’uld the finger.
But Carter’s attention was elsewhere. “Holy Hannah.”
Jack followed her line of sight. At the center of the room stood a cylindrical tank as big as a house and twice as high. On top, a blazing yellow sphere of light spun on its axis. Pockets of gas rippled across its surface.
He squinted and looked away, his eyes teared from staring at the thing too long.
“Your emitter, I presume?”
“Yes, sir.” With her good arm, she pulled out her scanner and thumbed a few buttons, and then a few more buttons. “I can’t believe this.”
“Let me guess. No readings.”
“Sir, I think we’re looking at a miniature sun.”
* * *
“My lord!” Yu’s First Prime rushed up to the game table.
Daniel yanked his head up and glanced at the communications device as it showed Jack and a ragged, but very much alive Sam walk by with her scanner in hand. They were talking but the sound was off.
While Yu passively watched on, Daniel traded relieved glances with Teal’c. He turned back to the display.
The image rotated, tracking the two as they entered further into an overly bright cavern. The back of Jack’s vest was ripped open from when the Unas had attack, but there wasn’t any visible claw marks. Beyond them, Daniel could make out the outline of what appeared to be an enormous cylindrical tank, though its top and bottom were cut off from view. Bright yellow light pulsated toward the top of the metallic structure. Tubes ran down the tank’s sides, each carrying what looked like dense yellow plasma. Where the tubes ran down to, he couldn’t tell.
Sam and Jack headed toward the tank. Sam stumbled, and Jack immediately doubled back to her side. He put his arm around her and eased her to the ground, out of view of the communication device.
Daniel crossed his arms, unable to do anything but wait and watch.
“You are concerned for Major Carter,” Yu stated in a tone way too matter-of-fact.
“Of course I am! If you — ”
Yu waved his hand over the com device. The display changed to a bird’s eye view, looking down on Sam sitting on the ground, a hand to her head. Jack hovered over her.
“She is an intrinsic part of your team,” Yu said.
“Yes, she is.”
“What of the
sholvah,
Teal’c?”
Daniel did not reply, but glanced at his friend, who sat beside the unconscious Bra’tac, his face dark with rage.
On the communications device, Sam sat slouched over her scanner. Jack was nowhere in sight.
“And then there is O’Neill.” Yu ran a hand along the com device again and the image shifted to its earlier straight-on view of the mysterious cylindrical tank in the cavern’s center. As Jack’s booted feet echoed across the cavern, Daniel realized the sound had been turned up. Jack circled the tank, a zat gun in his hand. He disappeared behind it.
Hoping Jack could hear him, Daniel opened his mouth to call out.
“He cannot hear you,” Yu said. “I have only enabled the incoming sound.”
“Then why the show?” Daniel asked impatiently.
“You have demonstrated a familiarity with Sun Tzu’s writings. Can you name the five qualities of a leader?”
Though military minutiae had never been Daniel’s thing, he tried to remember the relevant passage from
The Art of War
. He came up empty.
“Sorry,” he said sarcastically. “Not my area of expertise.”
“A mistake on your part,” Yu said with a frown. “The success of the competitive unit depends on five qualities in its leader. Bravery is first and foremost. Of this, O’Neill’s reputation is well known amongst the System Lords.”