triumvirate - chapter eight - the midnight organ fight
Jack silently knocks out the lone sentry standing guard at a small side entrance. He drags the unconscious man behind a collection of rocks and pulls the access card out of the man’s pocket. Nodding to Daniel and Sam, they run quietly to the door. They’re about to hit a rotation change and it should take the Hokari at least twenty minutes to realize that the man they just knocked out is missing. He checks around him in the open, frozen wasteland, seeing nothing but rocks and stars and the now-unoccupied watchtower. Stepping up to the door, he presses his ear against it, listening for any sign of life on the other side. He holds up his fist, hearing a voice. He waits until it recedes completely before stepping back again. Taking one last look at Sam and Daniel, he waits for their confirming nods.
He slides the access card through the electronic reader and the door opens inward with a simple click. Sam hurries through first and flattens against the wall, ensuring the hallway is clear. She blinks a few times, adjusting to the dim light; for a well-secured prison, the place is very poorly lit. The hallway’s clear and she motions to the others to follow her through as she makes her way to the junction ahead. Looking left, she immediately hides behind the corner, shaking her head. Three of them. She frowns; the easiest way to the cellblock they need is a staircase down that hallway.
There’s another staircase, Daniel thinks, down that way. He points to the hallway to the right. A left, a right and then a left, I think.
Jack nods. They’ll have to move quickly, in case the three in the other direction choose to turn around at an inopportune moment, but they can make it. But first thing’s first. Carter…
On it, sir. Sam frowns at a panel embedded in the wall and finally pries off the cover so she can access the controls underneath. She knows why the Hokari have separate detectors for each section - on the off-chance someone tries to pull exactly what they’re doing right now, any security guards won’t be completely in the dark just because the intruders pulled a single switch - but she can’t help but wonder if someone will notice the systematic blackouts of the detectors. She hopes that the guards responsible for monitoring the life signs detectors will be as bored and distracted as the ones they encountered outside. She pulls a green wire loose, then a yellow one and attaches the green wire to where the yellow used to be and the lights on the sensor blink off. We should be good for this section.
Jack walks quickly, leading Daniel and Sam down the hallway. He squints in the half-light of the hallway, suddenly reminded of the dirty, dark hallway that led them to Sam.
Can you think about something else please, sir?
Sorry, Carter. He tries to smile at her inside his head. He isn’t sure if it comes off comforting or creepy.
Left, Jack.
Jack stops at the corner and peers around it. He waits for a few moments to ensure that the odd shapes he sees aren’t going to spontaneously turn into people; the light in the next hallway is even worse. They’re in some sort of storage section, with chairs and boxes and assorted junk lining the hallways as if the Hokari don’t believe in closets. According to Venkati intelligence, most of this prison is actually empty, reserved only for traitors, terrorists and the worst offenders. They were warned not to assume that the low population would equate to lax guards or security measures; despite the easily-dispatched guards outside, he’s not willing to reconsider that particular warning just yet. Jack wonders why the Hokari went to all the trouble of building a huge prison on a planet at the edge of their solar system, one that didn’t even have any atmosphere until they put it there, if only to house a handful of people. Daniel starts to theorize an answer and Jack shakes his head.
Not really the time, Daniel.
Certain that the hallway’s clear both ways, he turns the corner and relaxes a little when Carter and Daniel follow him; they’re no longer in danger of being seen from behind.
It’s an easy trip to the stairs from there. Jack only has to knock out one Hokari while they’re waiting for Carter to disable the sensor in that hallway.
Unfortunately, the cellblock is entirely empty save for a man lying on his back in a corner cell, staring up at the ceiling. They’re supposed to be picking up a woman named Niké.
That was predictable.
Shut up, Daniel. He backs them up into the hallway after scanning the walls and finding several security cameras, their power lights blinking strong and red. If they haven’t been noticed on camera now, they will be the moment they walk into the block. Alright, new ideas.
We could ask him, Sam gestures to the man who’s pretending he hasn’t noticed his visitors.
Cameras, Carter.
They probably don’t have audio. We could talk from here. The block’s not large, three moderately-sized cells on each long side with a door in the middle of the two shorter sides. Sir, we need to find out where she is. If she’s not even supposed to be in this block, we can leave and tell them we tried and their intelligence was wrong. But if they’ve taken her somewhere else, we can try to get her out.
I knew this was a bad idea, Jack grumbles. But he nods. “Hey!” He whispers loudly. “You, in the corner.”
“Yes?” The man doesn’t move, but his and Jack’s words seem to echo louder than they should.
Daniel and Sam turn and check the hallway for footsteps they’re sure are coming, but find nothing.
“Was there someone else in here with you? A Venkati woman?”
“Why should I help you?” He stretches languidly, the sheets beneath him rustling roughly.
Oh, crap. They don’t need lights on the man’s skin to know that he’s Hokari. “I’ll let you out.” Jack waves his hand to silence Daniel and Sam, who are thinking very hard about how bad an idea that is.
The man sighs and crosses one ankle over the other. “No need,” he says, clearly at peace with his fate to live out a few years in this cell. “I would have nowhere to go and your Venkati friend would not take kindly to my presence. The offer is enough incentive to help. The guards took her; I believe to be interrogated about her plots. It is a room on the third floor. I suggest you follow the screaming.”
“Thank you,” Jack says and backs out of the doorway. Good to know they’re not all jerks. How do we get to the third floor? They’re on the first sublevel now.
Uh. Daniel jerks a thumb behind him in the general direction of the stairs.
Right. Let’s go.
Sam didn’t expect “follow the screaming” to be anything other than typical Hokari attitude, least of all good advice. It bothers her immensely to be proven wrong.
Through a small glass window in the door, she can see a green-skinned woman tied to a chair surrounded by four Hokari men. They don’t appear to be physically harming the woman, but the intensity on their faces and the screams coming out of her mouth certainly indicate that something unpleasant is going on. Sam shudders; a telepathic species as advanced as the Hokari must have become very efficient at extracting information they want.
Now what? We can’t just walk in there. Daniel’s surprised alarms haven’t gone off at their presence yet; he knows that they passed several security cameras in the stairwell and the guards they’ve knocked out have to have been discovered missing by now.
No. Sam frowns at the keypad on the door. Literally, they can’t. There’s no slot to slide the access card through and she suspects that a guard posted outside the building wouldn’t be granted access to this particular room anyway. From what she can tell, the room is unnecessarily large and a quick look upward through the window confirms her suspicions that it spans multiple stories, with guards positioned above as well.
We have enough C4, Jack muses, uncomfortable standing still where they are. It’s not exactly exposed and there are a myriad of hallways they could duck down if necessary, but the exit is a long way from here.
Sam blinks and turns away from the keypad. You want to blow up the building? She’s not opposed to the idea, just surprised he’s the one who suggested it.
A distraction, Carter. Enough to get us in there, grab her and get out.
With the last of the C4 charges set, Sam activates the timer and runs back through the network of hallways to the interrogation rooms. She ducks into an alcove, dodging two guards walking past. Five minutes, she warns Jack and Daniel and continues on her way. Finding a bare metal ladder exactly where she’s supposed to, she checks to make sure no one’s on top of it and begins to climb. She takes a deep breath when she no longer faces the brick wall the ladder was built into but instead the open air of the interrogation room, with Niké in the middle. The lights are bright in the room, but angled downward, intended to focus on prisoners and it’s dim at this height. Looking around, Sam sighs in relief that nobody’s spotted her yet and she’s far enough up in the shadows that if a guard looks in her direction, she’ll be mistaken for a fellow guard if she’s seen at all.
Daniel nods at Jack and leaves to take up his position by the opposite door. The hallway behind Jack had been surprisingly full of Hokari, all now dead or in the process of dying. Daniel’s still confused about how nobody would’ve noticed the eleven voices suddenly going silent - some only after thinking, probably very loudly, about how much that knife hurts - but he files it away along with the other things he doesn’t understand about telepathy and peers through the small window to take stock of the situation. After ensuring that nothing’s changed, he ducks back into the shadows, remaining hidden until he can get inside.
Jack looks upward and sees a shadow climbing up the exposed ladder. He holds his breath for a brief second before realizing that all interested eyes are focused away from her and on the chair in the middle of the room. Getting Daniel and Niké out won’t be a problem, but Carter’s a bit farther away. He tracks the metal labyrinth above, tracing her path of escape. Satisfied that she can easily walk across the bridge she’s climbing toward and meet up with another along the side, which leads to a ladder a few feet away from him, he settles his back against the wall and waits for the C4 to blow.
She climbs higher and the ladder ends at a catwalk. She spots guards on various parts of the catwalk around the room, but they’re far enough away that they won’t be able to identify her as an intruder unless they look too hard. Walking quickly - and not looking down - she makes her way across the catwalk so she has a clear view of the entire room and all of its exits. At this height, the walls disappear and she can see outside the room. She squints and makes out the shadow of Jack knocking out a guard by the door to the left. Confident she only witnessed that because she’s up so high, and that no one else at her level is paying attention, she casts a glance around her to make sure her immediate area is unoccupied, and then leans against a column, settling her P-90 comfortably in her arms. Ready.
Ready, Daniel thinks from his position on the opposite side of the room from Jack.
Ready, Jack thinks, stowing the unconscious guard out of sight.
Sam nods, even though the others can’t see her, and steadies herself. There are far more guards inside the room than they’d anticipated and she wonders just how much Niké knows if they’re going to this much effort to ensure she doesn’t escape on her own. Either that, Sam thinks to herself, or there really are only a handful of prisoners and the rest of the guards didn’t have anything to do. She checks her watch - one minute left.
“How did you get in here?” A gruff voice grumbles from out of Jack’s eyesight.
Jack turns abruptly to come face to face with quite possibly the largest being he’s ever seen. “I walked,” he says and ducks a blow to the head, bringing his gun up to hit the man in the back, simultaneously shoving his foot into one of the man’s knees, forcing him down. He cups the man’s chin with one hand and braces the other on his forehead and twists. The body immediately relaxes, slumping to the ground. Jack looks back through the window, checking on the location of Carter and Daniel, before dragging the man out of sight. He hopes that’s the end of the trail of guards coming his way.
The building begins to shake, at first a low rumble from below and gradually increasing to massive tremors as all of Sam’s C4 explodes. Daniel makes a mental note to talk to her about maybe cutting back next time as he jumps out of the way of several bricks falling down.
The last of the C4 blows and the whole building shakes and for one frightening second, Sam thinks she’s used too much and the building will collapse down on top of their heads before they have a chance to get out. She shrugs it off - she always thinks she used too much - and picks up her gun, ready to shoot at anyone left after the initial exodus, or anyone trying to grab Niké from her chair. The guards around her begin to shout to one another about what the hell just happened while others try any way they can to get down.
An alarm begins to wail, piercing through the cacophony of confusion and explosions. They all wince at the ear-splitting noise, extremely glad the alarm didn’t go off earlier.
Jack covers his head as several tiles come crashing down from the ceiling. He’s always thought Carter uses more C4 than necessary, but nothing’s ever fallen on top of them. Yet.
“You!” A guard shouts, coming toward Sam, finally noticing her intrusion. His footsteps are so heavy on the catwalk that the structure shakes and sways concerningly.
Sam turns at the voice and adrenaline surges through her body. She swings her gun around to aim at him, her cover completely blown. “Hi,” she says with a smirk, intending to shoot him before he gets too close, but someone grabs her from behind.
“You are not supposed to be here,” another voice rasps in her ear, eerily calm for being in a building that might collapse at any moment.
Sam struggles against the guard’s arms around her waist. He lifts her up and she takes the opportunity to lash out with her feet, kicking the other man solidly in the head. The blow causes him to stagger backward and she slams her elbow into the stomach of the man holding her. He abruptly lets go and she drops to the swaying floor of the catwalk. Grabbing hold of the railing with one hand for balance, Sam aims her zat with the other, shooting him in the head as he comes toward her. He stumbles with the shock of electrocution and falls over the rail into the chaos below.
“I will kill you,” the other man promises, blood trickling down his cheek from her kick.
Sam stands up and spares a glance downward to see that the room is emptying of guards like they thought it would, opening the doors from the inside and allowing Jack and Daniel entrance once the doors are clear. She thinks she catches a glance of Daniel untying Niké from her chair. She shoots the remaining guard with her zat; he doesn’t fall over the edge like the other, only slumping against the metal railing. She shoots him a second time.
Sam steps over the body to get a clearer shot at a man trying to attack Daniel. Even though most guards have left, running toward the explosions or to an exit, those that remain are calling for assistance, finally realizing their security has been breached. She holsters her zat and aims her P-90 at the back of the guard fighting Daniel, shooting as soon as she has a shot.
Thanks!
No problem.
You okay up there?
I am now. Focus on her. Colonel?
Shooting bad guys, Carter. Anytime you want to help with that…
Was a little busy, sir. She aims and takes out two men trying to make their way back into the room while Jack takes out another attempting to get past him. They need that exit open so they can get out.
Most of the guards turn and run out of the room, not noticing his presence as they respond to the alarm now echoing through the halls. Jack sends up a thank you for small favors. He positions himself inside the door, his back to the frame, and shoots anyone coming at him from either direction; there’s enough chaos and noise now that gunshots won’t be noticed.
Turning around, he finds himself surrounded by Hokari guards who look very convinced that he has something to do with the instability of their building. And while he didn’t technically set the C4 or the timer, he doesn’t think they’ll see it that way. He shoots one before they get too close.
Jack feels a gust of air at his back when the two behind him drop to the ground. Thanks, Carter. He shoots the other three in front of him.
“Finally,” Daniel mutters under his breath when it seems that the last of the guards are going to use the door closest to him as an exit. He dashes inside and immediately heads for Niké, aware that she’s looking more panicked by the moment and that there’s a very good chance that they’ll have to shoot their way out. “My name is Daniel,” he says when he reaches her, “I’m going to get you out of here.”
Niké nods and tries to lift her hands from their position behind her back to give him a better angle at slicing away the rope holding her to the chair.
Daniel makes quick work of the knots around Niké’s ankles. “Can you walk?” He helps her up.
“I think so. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he says, noticing that the building’s shaking even more now. Sam did say that there was a small chance the prison was wasn’t as structurally sound as she thought and it might come crashing down on top of them, but this doesn’t feel like an unsteady building: the rumbling seems to come at even intervals. “Let’s go.” He guides her across the room to Jack. “Sam?”
Jack nods upward at a familiar form rapidly climbing down a ladder. “Time to go,” he says with a sense of urgency.
Sam skips the last few steps of the ladder and jumps to the ground. The floor shakes with a telltale rumble indicating that a good chunk of the building has just collapsed. “That way,” she says confidently, pointing to a hallway that should lead them to a staircase and a quick exit.
When we get back, we’re going to have a chat about your explosives.
This was your idea, she scolds, waiting long enough at the door to the stairs to ensure that they aren’t being followed by anyone intent on shooting them.
The cold, dry air of the planet hits them like a wave.
There isn’t time to allow their lungs to adjust to the air so they sprint, stumbling over rocks, coughing as they struggle to get as far away from the now-doomed prison as possible.
At the sound of gunfire, Jack looks up from their path. “What the hell?” He stops suddenly, turning to look at the scene behind them.
The others stop a few steps later, following Jack’s gaze.
The prison is surrounded by three ships hovering in midair; one fires a final shot into the building, sending it into a crumbling pile of rubble, dust and flame. Green-skinned soldiers on the ground gun down stunned Hokari guards that never stood a chance of survival.
Sam turns to Niké, who’s rubbing her wrists and trying not to shiver. “What the hell is going on?” she demands of the girl, who doesn’t look a day over eighteen.
“Uh, guys?” Daniel says. “Maybe we can argue about this later.” He spies a cadre of Hokari guards coming around the other side of the ruins who probably won’t stop to consider who’s shooting their comrades before pulling the trigger at someone unfamiliar.
The anger welling up inside of Jack isn’t just his, he knows; he’s furious, but the three of them combined make him feel like he’s going to explode. They’re going to have to physically hold him back if they don’t want him to punch K’Tara when they return to the ship.
It’s a tense ride back to Earth. Sam and Daniel manage to convince Jack that physically assaulting the ship’s captain is not the best idea even though it’s one they’d both like to partake in. K’Tara silences any discussion on the topic of the slaughter at the prison and merely ensures that Niké is alright and that no sensitive information was lost.
Jai offers to remove the telepathy on the trip home, but the three of them instantly turn her down. The ship may be large enough to allow for seven people to each have their own space, but they don’t trust that anything they say won’t be overheard. And they don’t trust that anything that’s overheard won’t be used against them somehow.
Daniel sits quietly next to Sam in the briefing room while Jack yells at K’Tara. There were no survivors, either dying in the building collapse or at the point of a Venkati gun upon escaping. Ito had dialed in only moments ago to inform General Hammond that any negotiations regarding trade or alliances would be put on hold indefinitely, as they were officially at open war with the Venkati.
“You knew,” Daniel says softly when he senses a break in Jack’s tirade. He turns slightly in his chair to look at K’Tara. “You knew she wouldn’t be in her cell and we’d have to do something to clear the room to get to her.” He receives a blank look and a blink in response, which is all he needs to know the truth. “You knew they’d all be leaving and be easy to pick off.” Another blink, this time with a slight, almost imperceptible nod. He opens his mouth, but doesn’t have a clue what to say, so leans back in his chair in disbelief. If he weren’t so busy being angry that they were used to start a war, he’d be impressed with the amount of planning.
“Why?” Sam asks. “You have no resources, you have no way to win this. They’ll wipe you out.” She hopes that this was just a misguided attempt to get the Hokari to finally release their hold, but she knows it’s a false hope.
K’Tara merely shrugs and settles more comfortably into her chair. “We have allies. And perhaps it will do the Hokari well to recognize that they cannot treat others in this manner. Their children will know better.”
Daniel shakes his head. “History is written by the victors.”
“Maybe.”
General Hammond clears his throat from the head of the table. “We did what you asked. Now, kindly fix my people and get the hell off my planet.”
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