A Source of Power - Chapter 6
Title: A Source of Power - Chapter 6
Author: SG_Betty
Word count: 5,233
Genre: Gen, Action/Adventure, Team
Rating/Warning: PG-13, Violence
Spoilers: spoilers up to and including early Season 7
Disclaimer: While the situations and dialogue in this story are my own, all characters are wholly owned by Gekko Productions and MGM.
Thanks: It is impossible for me to thank Lokei enough for the enormous time and effort that she put into beta reading, advice, and encouragement. There simply aren't fine enough words. All I can say is thank you, Lokei, this story simply wouldn't exist without you!
Jack was first aware of the pounding in his head. Then he felt a cold stone floor pressing into his face. He tried to pull his hands under him to push himself up. That was when he realized that he couldn’t get them apart. Jack forced his eyes open. His hands were bound with a thick rope that was tied to a large metal ring in the floor. The rope was barely long enough to allow him to pull himself into a kneeling position. It seemed very secure, but Jack threw his weight against it, just the same. No luck. Unas weren’t pretty, but they were competent.
Jack assessed the condition of his team. Daniel was tied to a ring to his right and was moving; he tried to bring his hands to his head, only to find them bound. Carter was waking up. She was tied to a ring to his left, and was about as with it as Daniel. Almost, but not quite conscious. Teal’c was already kneeling and testing his rope, on the other side of Carter.
Jack looked away from his team and checked out their location. There were plenty of exits, two behind them leading into what looked like more passages, and two behind a raised dais in front of them. On the dais was an opulent gilt throne. More gilt covered the walls and columns. The Goa’uld sure liked their tacky gold decorating schemes. There was no sign of the Unas or Amy’s host.
Daniel groaned as he pulled himself to his knees. They took his glasses. Why did they take his glasses? Just petty cruelty, probably. It’s not like it really mattered if he could see when they tried to kill him. Or maybe they thought he would break the lenses and use the glass to cut the rope. Actually, they had a point, there. He might have tried that.
Daniel looked around him, nearsightedly. He could see Jack, but without much definition. It was hard to read his expression. Sam was pretty fuzzy, but still recognizable as Sam. Teal’c was more of a blurry Teal’c shape. It wasn’t like he was blind without his glasses, things were just irritatingly indistinct, and headaches were guaranteed. Of course, the headache from the stun grenade was using all those pain receptors, so that was a moot point. He could make out something about twenty feet ahead of them. A throne of some kind? It was just within his I-can-sort-of-see-that range. Reading from any distance would be a big problem. Okay, impossible. He hoped he wouldn’t miss something important. “Everybody okay?”
“As much as can be expected.” Sam got her feet under her in a low crouch as she took in her surroundings. They were all awake, which meant they were all okay for now. She looked for their packs and weapons, but didn’t see them in the room. Not that they could have gotten to them anyway, unless they were ridiculously close. Too bad Am-Heh, or Merire, wasn’t stupid as well as crazy. Then again, he had the Goa’uld Unas. They wouldn’t have let that happen, no matter how much she might wish it.
Teal’c was relieved that the rest of the team were unharmed, but the situation was dire. They were helpless in the hands of their enemy. “I am well, Daniel Jackson.” At least Daniel Jackson and O’Neill were no longer injured. He could not predict what might occur next. This situation was unheard of, even unthinkable. He had no idea what it would mean. The idea that a Tauri, and not a Goa’uld, created the trial they endured was perplexing. It was disturbing to think that a host would feel such loyalty to his captor as to torment his own kind in this manner.
“I’m fine too, Daniel.” Jack looked at Daniel. No glasses. He wasn’t quite sure how much Daniel could see without them these days, but he didn’t think Daniel wore them just for fun, even after the whole ascension thing. It didn’t seem to hinder him much when he had to do without, but that might be a matter of reckless determination. If Daniel thought he had no choice but to jump off a cliff, he would do it, whether he could see the bottom, or not. Might even be easier without the glasses. “You okay? And do you have any more ideas about this host, and what’s going on here?”
“I’m good. Well, not good, exactly, but I’m in one piece.” He blinked and tried to make his eyes focus. It didn’t work. “I do have an idea, but you won’t like it.” Daniel spread his hands as much as the rope would allow and moved them toward Jack.
Jack watched Daniel trying to gesture with tied hands. Could the man speak without moving his hands? It would have been kind of funny, if the situation wasn’t so bad and he wasn’t so damn mad at himself for leading them into this.
“Merire has an elaborate burial chamber made specifically for Am-Heh, complete with sarcophagus. He had us reenact the journey of the gods on Ra’s barque, taking the place of the gods who made the journey.”
Daniel paused and looked at the team. “And he was reciting a very specific utterance to us when he said we would all die. ‘Am-Heh is the bull of heaven who rages in his heart, who lives on the being of every god, who eats their entrails when they come, their bodies full of magic from the Isle of Flame.’ That’s not a good sign. In ancient Egypt, the chanting of this utterance was supposed to make the pharaoh as strong as the gods as he passes through the underworld, and ensure his eternal life. Merire might be interpreting it a bit differently…” Daniel frowned at the rope that tied his hands “Uh, that particular one is often called the cannibal utterance.”
Jack squeezed his eyes shut. “Daniel, tell me you aren’t saying what I’m hearing you saying.”
“Sorry, Jack. I think he’s going to eat us and I don’t know if he plans on killing us first. There’s not exactly a precedent for this.”
Jack brought his bound hands up to his face and smacked them against his forehead. “Gah!”
“Sir, what difference does it make? We have to get away before… he does whatever he plans, no matter what that is...” Her voice drifted off as too many possibilities occurred to her. Sam shook herself, literally. She had to stay grounded and not let her imagination run away with her. It was important to think about getting away, not cannibalism. Definitely not cannibalism. She shifted into the kneeling position that the others had adopted.
“It just makes a difference, all right? I mean, c’mon, Carter! Especially that entrails thing.”
“Sir!”
“O’Neill, I do not believe this speculation to be productive.” Teal’c gave him a quelling stare.
Jack sighed. “Fine. Sorry. Daniel, what’s the deal with all this afterlife stuff? He’s got a sarcophagus.”
“That part’s… Uh…, I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with Am-Heh not seeming to be around. I’m just guessing. I really have no idea.”
They were interrupted as Merire entered the room, followed by the two huge Goa’uld Unas carrying staff weapons. Jack noticed that they still wore their personal shields. That would make things more difficult.
The host settled himself on the throne and smiled at them happily. “You have done well. You have brought Ra safely through the night. No others have completed this journey. You are truly of the Gods and full of great magic. You will have the honor of restoring the God, Am-Heh, to eternal life, as Osiris was restored by Isis.”
Jack started to reply, but Daniel cut him off with a sharp glance.
Daniel bowed his head to the host. “We are deeply honored. May we know what afflicts the god?”
Merire shook his head sadly. “He was old before the existence of our kind. He was old before the existence of Ra, and speaks to me no longer. My life is spent within the sarcophagus to maintain him. I did not know what to do to serve Am-Heh when he ceased to act through me. He gave me no instructions.”
His eyes took on a fanatical intensity. “Then I realized that he must be reborn as Osiris was reborn, and that I had the knowledge to do this. I have lost count of the years I have waited to restore him. Finally, the journey of the barque has been completed. You have succeeded and proven yourselves worthy. Your flesh shall sustain him on his journey through the underworld and into renewed life. He will be greater than the other gods. Your power will become the power of Am-Heh.”
Daniel raised his hands. “We would like to make this sacrifice with honor. May we be untied?”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow. He greatly appreciated the skills of Daniel Jackson.
Again, Merire shook his head. “I am sorry, but the rituals must be observed. You must be bound when your throats are cut and your bodies drained of blood.” He gave Daniel a friendly smile. “Do not fear. You will be honored by all when I consume your flesh for the good of the God.”
Jack raised his hands, ignoring Daniel’s frown and the shake of his head. “Excuse me. Who are the ‘all’ who will be honoring us? I just see you and two Unas. Are there others here?”
Merire's kohl lined eyes grew wide. “You saw them when you passed through the great pyramid. They are the multitude brought here by Am-Heh. They are preserved for all eternity, worshiping him forever; the inhabitants of this underworld. The Ka of each is preserved and the Ba roams the domain of Am-Heh.”
Sam’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, wow.” She was starting to wonder Merire had been driven insane by contact with Am-Heh, or had been heading that way all on his own.
His frowned deepened as his mood shifted. He glared at them, hatred in his eyes. “But you destroyed the energy that preserves them. You have destroyed them all!” Suddenly he was as enraged as he had been when he had first captured them. “You will die for what you have done. Your power will be taken from you to feed Am-Heh. You must die quickly while those of the underworld may still enjoy their revenge and the rebirth of our God.” Merire motioned to the Unas.
Jack raised his eyebrows. “And it’s back to bat poop crazy.” He turned to Daniel. “Not so surprising what with him sharing his head with a nut job and living in a sarcophagus.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow in return. Things had been going pretty well until Jack decided he had to talk. Still, they found out why Am-Heh had all the bodies. No… Why Merire thought Am-Heh had all the bodies. They probably weren’t the same thing. And they found out that Merire planned a ritual slaughter. That wouldn’t happen in a throne room. It might give them a chance to escape.
The Unas activated their weapons.
Daniel reassessed his ideas about the ritual slaughter and throne rooms. This didn’t seem promising at all.
The Unas moved into place on either side of the team. One aimed at Daniel, the other at Teal’c.
The ropes were too short to leave any room to maneuver or attack. Teal’c glared at the Unas nearest to him, despising the cowardice of his actions. Sam looked to the Colonel, hoping to see a last minute plan that he didn’t have. Daniel gave Jack a look that was one of regret that they would die this way, and a goodbye. Jack looked at each, cursing himself for letting them down.
The weapons were abruptly lowered as the Unas fired, freeing them from the metal rings with blasts that were far too close for comfort, but leaving their hands tied. They fired again at the ropes holding Sam and Jack.
“Sadistic bastards!” Jack leapt up and found a staff weapon aimed directly at him. He gritted his teeth and moved back into line with his team. They had all jumped to their feet and were being help in place by the weapons of the Unas.
One of the Goa’uld Unas smiled, baring sharp teeth, and motioned them to the passage on the right hand side of the dais. They moved forward in single file, hearts racing with anticipated death, eyes searching for an opportunity to fight back, or escape. The Unas followed, weapons trained on their backs.
They headed into the corridor and Daniel saw a fuzzy indication of hieroglyphs on the walls. He wished once again for his glasses. Knowing what they said might have been helpful. He kept thinking, trying to anticipate what would come next, and where they might be going. Merire seemed to have combined elements of the ritual sacrifice of cattle and the execution of captured prisoners to create his cannibalism ritual. Was there something he might be able to use in that, some factor that would give them an advantage? He couldn’t think of anything, but he kept trying.
As they passed the dais, Jack eyed the host, calculated the odds of getting to him and using him as a hostage. He was forced to abandon the idea. Merire was just too far away. If the Unas didn’t pick him off on the platform before he got to the host, they would certainly be able to kill everyone else. An escape plan that only he survived was worse than none.
Sam kept her eyes open for anything she might use as a weapon, anything that might give them a fighting chance, but right now, there was nothing. She felt a twinge of doubt then rejected it. They’d escaped worse situations than this, with much more impossible odds. There were only two Goa’uld Unas and an incapacitated host to fight. That was nothing. She was letting the thought of cannibalism unnerve her. She really wished the Colonel hadn’t been quite so graphic.
Teal’c was the last in their line, the one who was closest to the Goa’uld Unas. He knew that if the opportunity came, he would be the one to strike the first blow against their captors. He held himself ready, his eyes on his teammates, and alert to any sign that the time was right.
The Unas herded them through a doorway at the end of the corridor. They were back in the ring room where they had been trapped. The door they had just passed through had been the nearest exit to be blocked by a stone slab.
Jack saw their packs open and in a pile on the other side of the room. Their weapons and a few items from the packs were scattered nearby; the med kit, a GDO… He saw Daniel’s glasses tossed carelessly on the pile. That was good. Daniel could shoot much better when he could see. The statue of Ra had been removed and was leaning against the wall, a few feet away. Then he saw what was piled next to the statue. Daniel’s ‘very sharp knives’. The knives that could get through a personal shield.
Sam knew this was where they would make their stand. She saw the weapons and the ring platform and knew they would have no better chance. She wondered if Daniel could see where they were and was anticipating this, or if he would be taken by surprise. No, the Colonel would find a way to warn him.
Teal’c saw O’Neill glance at the packs. He knew this was the moment he had been anticipating. He kept his eye on O’Neill and waited.
Jack stumbled and let Daniel bump into him. He spoke quietly. “This is it, Daniel. The packs are about thirty feet to your right. Your glasses are near the top. The weapons are a couple of feet behind them”
Daniel nodded and got ready to run to the packs. He’d seen the blurry mound of khaki, and thought that might be the case, but he would never have found his glasses without some idea of where to look.
When Teal’c saw O’Neill stumble, he launched himself backward into the Goa’uld on his right. He wrestled for control of the staff weapon, hindered by the rope around his hands, as the second Goa’uld Unas prepared to fire.
Jack struggled to grab one of the knives and ran to join Teal’c. He knew there was only one chance. If he missed, Teal’c was dead. He drove it into the spine of the Unas, just below the skull. His blow was awkward, but had all his strength behind it. The Unas dropped its weapon and screamed, collapsing to the ground as it died, along with the Goa’uld inside.
The Unas wrestling with Teal’c was firing the staff weapon as they struggled for control. Random blasts shot through the room unpredictably. Daniel ducked low and ran for the packs. He had no idea which way the weapon might be pointing. He felt a flash of heat and smelled burnt cloth as he ran, but couldn’t dodge since he didn’t know which direction might be better. He just kept moving toward the packs.
Sam ran for the knives. She picked up a knife handle between her fingers and ran toward Teal’c, dodging the staff blasts as she went. She had to get the weapon to him. He was still unarmed and wouldn’t be able to fight the shielded Unas without a knife, even if he managed to get the staff weapon away from it.
Daniel could hear staff blasts firing across the room. He didn’t know where they were going, but he didn’t smell his clothes burning, so he guessed it wasn’t near him. Daniel leaned closer in, to the distance where he could do without glasses. He let his hands help him look, bound though they were. No glasses. Then he found them, just to the right of where he had been looking. Daniel grabbed the glasses and shoved them on his face just in time to duck, as a blast from the staff weapon went over his head. Seeing was good.
Jack tried to get behind the Unas and kill it as he had the first, but it was moving too much. The knife might go right past its neck and hit Teal’c, especially since it was so hard to maneuver with his hands tied. He settled for hitting it in the shoulder. Maybe Teal’c could get that staff weapon away from it with the distraction.
Daniel looked toward the fighting and saw Jack driving a knife into the shoulder of one of the Unas, just as Sam arrived. It was pretty crowded around the Unas with Teal’c, Sam, and Jack surrounding it. Daniel didn’t think there was enough room for him to do much good. He slid over to the knives and picked one up by the blade, inching it down to rope around his wrists. He began sawing through it carefully. “Ow! Still sharp.” Daniel kept cutting with the small movements his fingers would allow until he was free. He went back to the packs in a crouch, holstered his Beretta, and started throwing things into the packs haphazardly.
The Unas dropped the weapon, but after that, things didn’t go quite as Jack planned. It backhanded Teal’c twice, once knocking him off balance, the second time into a wall. Jack heard the crack as Teal’c’s skull hit. The Unas turned from Teal’c to face him. As it wrapped both clawed hands around his neck, Jack tried to go for the stomach, but the knife was at the wrong angle and he couldn’t adjust it with his hands tied. He was more likely to disembowel himself than hit the Unas and that wasn’t part of the plan. He gasped for air as it tightened its hands around his neck, smiling with sharp teeth.
“Teal’c!” Sam saw him hit the wall. He pushed himself off the floor and up. She held the knife to his wrists and cut the rope as quickly as she could, then handed him the knife. This was taking to long. She needed to get another knife and help the Colonel.
Teal’c cut the ropes that held her then ran to strike the Unas. He saw Major Carter go back to the knives. Her hands were now free to fight. He was aimed for the spine, to kill the symbiote as O’Neill had, but the Unas moved closer to O’Neill just as his blow fell. The blade dug into its back, close to the spine, but not close enough, or high enough.
Sam got back to the Colonel and Teal’c in time to see the blade go into its back. The Unas shrieked and let go of the Colonel, who was holding his throat and gasping for air. It swung toward them in a rage. She couldn’t reach the spine anymore, so she drove the knife into its chest then ripped it free.
The Unas gave a bellow of pain, and finding itself outnumbered and gravely wounded, roared and tore itself away from them. It drove them back with slashes of its claws, and ran from the room, dragging the dead Unas behind it.
Teal’c cut O’Neill’s bonds then retrieved his own staff weapon from the pile by the packs. He did not trust the weapons of the Unas. He also collected the knives. They had proved useful weapons, if inefficient.
Sam and Jack both grabbed their P-90’s and clipped them to their vests. They check their ammunition and added extra clips to their pockets.
Daniel was fastening the last pack when he heard a sound from the walkway and looked up. “Guys? Something’s coming.” Then he heard a grinding sound from the direction of the door and saw the stone slab that had trapped them earlier rise from the floor. It was matched by the one at the other exit. “This could be going better.”
Daniel pulled the packs onto the ring platform. He didn’t need to ask. It was the only way out: down, back the way they came, away from the Stargate. He drew his weapon.
A large number of Unas poured onto the walkway and aimed into the room below. They were followed by Merire, who was laughing and talking to himself “Kill them now. Kill them! Their throats may be cut and their bodies drained of blood as easily after death as before, if not as well.”
“Damn it, where’d they come from? Let’s go! We’re fish in a barrel down here.” Jack sprayed fire from his P-90 across the walkway. The shield was still in place. Blasts began to strike all around them. Jack saw one narrowly miss the ring control panel, and Carter, who had moved to the controls. Another went so close to his head that it left the smell of burnt hair behind it.
They ran for the platform. Daniel had to get there in a dive to avoid the fire when two Unas targeted him at the same time. Jack and Teal’c reached the platform without being hit, but as they moved to the center, one of the blasts came too close and Teal’c staggered. Sam joined them and they returned to the place from which they had worked so hard to escape.
As the rings receded, Teal’c fell to his knees. He shifted his weapon to his left hand and used it to climb to his feet.
“Teal’c! You’re hit.” Sam winced as she saw the charred flesh on his upper right arm. Even with the healing of his symbiote, that was not a trivial wound.
“I will heal, Major Carter, as I always do.”
Sam didn’t doubt that, but she could hear the pain in his voice. Teal'c didn't have the rapid healing provided by a symbiote anymore. There was nothing she could do for him, with her limited medical skills and supplies. A burn wound like that would do better left open to the air than covered.
“Get your gear, folks, they’ll be right behind us. There probably aren’t any other rings, so be can’t blow these.” Jack figured that if there was another way out, Merire and the Unas wouldn’t have been waiting for them up top. Merire had known just where to trap them and that they’d come to him. There had been no need to come after them on the lower level. Of course, they hadn’t anticipated the destruction of their power source.
Jack grabbed his pack and glanced at Teal’c. The blast wound would have incapacitated any of the rest of them, but Teal’c seemed to be holding his own. He’d have to, for the time being.
Daniel pulled on his pack and threw Teal’c’s over his shoulder. He gave the Jaffa a nod and a worried smile, moving away from the platform. He wasn’t going to give Teal’c a chance to argue with him about this.
They ran out of the storage room and down the corridor. When they reached the Egyptian artifact room, Jack stopped and looked back at the door they had come through. He grimaced and rubbed his face with one hand. He looked at Daniel, his hand still obscuring his mouth and regret in his eyes. “Daniel.”
A look of horror crossed Daniel’s face, the expression quickly replaced by anger and determination. “No! Not here! Why here, Jack?”
Jack gritted his teeth. They didn’t have time for this. “Daniel, we can’t risk damaging the rings. If we set a trap in the hall, they’ll be too spread out, and the ceiling might collapse, trapping us down here. And if we let them get past this room, they’ll reach the corridor junction and spread out through the level. This is our one shot to take them all out at once.” Daniel was still wearing his ‘line in the sand’ expression. Damn it.
Daniel was shaking his head. “No. We can’t do that.”
Teal’c was frowning as he looked around the room. He did not wish to destroy these things, these works of the Tauri who had driven Ra from their world. He did not wish to bring Daniel Jackson the pain that their destruction would cause. If O’Neill believed it to be necessary, he would do so, but with great regret.
Sam looked at the unimaginable treasure of history that surrounded them, and at the two men arguing. If the Colonel thought this was their best chance of survival, they would be at an impasse. Neither man would back down. And they were running out of time.
Jack was losing his temper. “Daniel, that’s the best idea I have. If we don’t do something, they’ll catch up with us while we’re talking, and we’ll be stuck here with no cover except your statues. I don’t come up with these things just to piss you off, you know!” He took a step toward Daniel. “If you don’t like it, give me an alternative, otherwise, we have to go ahead.”
Daniel scowled and stared into space for a moment. Then his eyebrows rose and he turned back to Jack. “The sarcophagus! Merire pretty much lives in it. He has to be incredibly addicted. He won’t be able to go much longer without using it and, with us on the loose down here, he’ll take most of his Unas with him. We can set the trap in the room with the dead Jaffa. It might not take out as many as a trap here would, but-”
Jack slapped him on the shoulder. “But it’s good enough. Let’s go.”
As they ran from the room and into the next passage, Jack felt a sense of relief that was greater than he would ever admit, even to himself. He and Daniel had forgiven each other for lots of things over the years, but blowing up that room would have crossed a whole new line. Daniel would never have gotten over that. And Jack would have done it, no question.
They turned down the corridor leading to the room that was now filled with dead symbiotes, as well as dead Jaffa, at a full run. They had lost time in the artifact room, and they all knew that the Unas, and Merire, would not be far behind. They had to work quickly, or they would end up in a fire fight, badly outnumbered, and without the advantages that strategy might bring.
Teal’c was keeping up with them. He would have allowed himself to do no less, but every member of the team knew how much pain was caused by a staff weapon wound, and urged him on, silently.
They reached their goal and Jack threw off his pack to get the remote detonators that would finally work. “Daniel, get Teal’c’s C-4 out of his pack.” Teal’c was carrying as much as he and Daniel had been. Theirs had been used in the first passage, and in the room with the electro-magnetic power source. “Carter, how much are you carrying?” She carried less on missions like this to make room for the extra medical supplies.
“Six, sir.” She took off her pack and retrieved the C-4.
That made eighteen bricks, altogether. “Space them out across the room. Three piles of six, spaced out on the path to the sarcophagus.” Jack hoped that wasn’t too much. He wanted large enough explosions to take out the whole group, but not to bring down the ceiling. Luckily the room was large enough, and high enough, that he didn’t think that would be a problem. He hoped that wouldn’t be a problem. He took three detonators from his pack and started attaching them to the C-4 that Carter and Daniel had placed.
Teal’c stood watch over the entrance to the room, his face stiff with pain, as he guarded against the pursuers that were sure to be on their way.
“This must be a record.” Sam looked at the piles of C-4. “I don’t think we’ve ever used this much C-4 on one mission before.”
Jack attached the last detonator, moved the C-4 under the corpse of a Jaffa, and stood. “A record for SG-1. Usually, we’re blowing up things like Hataks that just need a little nudge in the right direction. My personal record is a little higher… Let’s get into the sarcophagus room and take cover.”
They moved into Am-Heh’s burial room and took cover behind the huge columns, Daniel and Sam behind one, and Jack and Teal’c behind another. Closing the door would have been safer, but wouldn’t have allowed them to see when to detonate the C-4, or how many, if any, of their pursuers might escape the blasts.
Jack looked around the column into the room rigged with explosives. “No sign of pursuit. They should have caught up with us by now.”
Daniel frowned. “I was sure that Merire would be desperate to get to the sarcophagus.”
“This is a good plan, Daniel. It should work, unless Am-Heh has another sarcophagus stashed away, and that’s not likely. They always seem to have just one of the damned things. All we can do is wait. And hope there aren’t any surprises.”
Go to Chapter 7
Back to Chapter 5
Author: SG_Betty
Word count: 5,233
Genre: Gen, Action/Adventure, Team
Rating/Warning: PG-13, Violence
Spoilers: spoilers up to and including early Season 7
Disclaimer: While the situations and dialogue in this story are my own, all characters are wholly owned by Gekko Productions and MGM.
Thanks: It is impossible for me to thank Lokei enough for the enormous time and effort that she put into beta reading, advice, and encouragement. There simply aren't fine enough words. All I can say is thank you, Lokei, this story simply wouldn't exist without you!
Jack was first aware of the pounding in his head. Then he felt a cold stone floor pressing into his face. He tried to pull his hands under him to push himself up. That was when he realized that he couldn’t get them apart. Jack forced his eyes open. His hands were bound with a thick rope that was tied to a large metal ring in the floor. The rope was barely long enough to allow him to pull himself into a kneeling position. It seemed very secure, but Jack threw his weight against it, just the same. No luck. Unas weren’t pretty, but they were competent.
Jack assessed the condition of his team. Daniel was tied to a ring to his right and was moving; he tried to bring his hands to his head, only to find them bound. Carter was waking up. She was tied to a ring to his left, and was about as with it as Daniel. Almost, but not quite conscious. Teal’c was already kneeling and testing his rope, on the other side of Carter.
Jack looked away from his team and checked out their location. There were plenty of exits, two behind them leading into what looked like more passages, and two behind a raised dais in front of them. On the dais was an opulent gilt throne. More gilt covered the walls and columns. The Goa’uld sure liked their tacky gold decorating schemes. There was no sign of the Unas or Amy’s host.
Daniel groaned as he pulled himself to his knees. They took his glasses. Why did they take his glasses? Just petty cruelty, probably. It’s not like it really mattered if he could see when they tried to kill him. Or maybe they thought he would break the lenses and use the glass to cut the rope. Actually, they had a point, there. He might have tried that.
Daniel looked around him, nearsightedly. He could see Jack, but without much definition. It was hard to read his expression. Sam was pretty fuzzy, but still recognizable as Sam. Teal’c was more of a blurry Teal’c shape. It wasn’t like he was blind without his glasses, things were just irritatingly indistinct, and headaches were guaranteed. Of course, the headache from the stun grenade was using all those pain receptors, so that was a moot point. He could make out something about twenty feet ahead of them. A throne of some kind? It was just within his I-can-sort-of-see-that range. Reading from any distance would be a big problem. Okay, impossible. He hoped he wouldn’t miss something important. “Everybody okay?”
“As much as can be expected.” Sam got her feet under her in a low crouch as she took in her surroundings. They were all awake, which meant they were all okay for now. She looked for their packs and weapons, but didn’t see them in the room. Not that they could have gotten to them anyway, unless they were ridiculously close. Too bad Am-Heh, or Merire, wasn’t stupid as well as crazy. Then again, he had the Goa’uld Unas. They wouldn’t have let that happen, no matter how much she might wish it.
Teal’c was relieved that the rest of the team were unharmed, but the situation was dire. They were helpless in the hands of their enemy. “I am well, Daniel Jackson.” At least Daniel Jackson and O’Neill were no longer injured. He could not predict what might occur next. This situation was unheard of, even unthinkable. He had no idea what it would mean. The idea that a Tauri, and not a Goa’uld, created the trial they endured was perplexing. It was disturbing to think that a host would feel such loyalty to his captor as to torment his own kind in this manner.
“I’m fine too, Daniel.” Jack looked at Daniel. No glasses. He wasn’t quite sure how much Daniel could see without them these days, but he didn’t think Daniel wore them just for fun, even after the whole ascension thing. It didn’t seem to hinder him much when he had to do without, but that might be a matter of reckless determination. If Daniel thought he had no choice but to jump off a cliff, he would do it, whether he could see the bottom, or not. Might even be easier without the glasses. “You okay? And do you have any more ideas about this host, and what’s going on here?”
“I’m good. Well, not good, exactly, but I’m in one piece.” He blinked and tried to make his eyes focus. It didn’t work. “I do have an idea, but you won’t like it.” Daniel spread his hands as much as the rope would allow and moved them toward Jack.
Jack watched Daniel trying to gesture with tied hands. Could the man speak without moving his hands? It would have been kind of funny, if the situation wasn’t so bad and he wasn’t so damn mad at himself for leading them into this.
“Merire has an elaborate burial chamber made specifically for Am-Heh, complete with sarcophagus. He had us reenact the journey of the gods on Ra’s barque, taking the place of the gods who made the journey.”
Daniel paused and looked at the team. “And he was reciting a very specific utterance to us when he said we would all die. ‘Am-Heh is the bull of heaven who rages in his heart, who lives on the being of every god, who eats their entrails when they come, their bodies full of magic from the Isle of Flame.’ That’s not a good sign. In ancient Egypt, the chanting of this utterance was supposed to make the pharaoh as strong as the gods as he passes through the underworld, and ensure his eternal life. Merire might be interpreting it a bit differently…” Daniel frowned at the rope that tied his hands “Uh, that particular one is often called the cannibal utterance.”
Jack squeezed his eyes shut. “Daniel, tell me you aren’t saying what I’m hearing you saying.”
“Sorry, Jack. I think he’s going to eat us and I don’t know if he plans on killing us first. There’s not exactly a precedent for this.”
Jack brought his bound hands up to his face and smacked them against his forehead. “Gah!”
“Sir, what difference does it make? We have to get away before… he does whatever he plans, no matter what that is...” Her voice drifted off as too many possibilities occurred to her. Sam shook herself, literally. She had to stay grounded and not let her imagination run away with her. It was important to think about getting away, not cannibalism. Definitely not cannibalism. She shifted into the kneeling position that the others had adopted.
“It just makes a difference, all right? I mean, c’mon, Carter! Especially that entrails thing.”
“Sir!”
“O’Neill, I do not believe this speculation to be productive.” Teal’c gave him a quelling stare.
Jack sighed. “Fine. Sorry. Daniel, what’s the deal with all this afterlife stuff? He’s got a sarcophagus.”
“That part’s… Uh…, I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with Am-Heh not seeming to be around. I’m just guessing. I really have no idea.”
They were interrupted as Merire entered the room, followed by the two huge Goa’uld Unas carrying staff weapons. Jack noticed that they still wore their personal shields. That would make things more difficult.
The host settled himself on the throne and smiled at them happily. “You have done well. You have brought Ra safely through the night. No others have completed this journey. You are truly of the Gods and full of great magic. You will have the honor of restoring the God, Am-Heh, to eternal life, as Osiris was restored by Isis.”
Jack started to reply, but Daniel cut him off with a sharp glance.
Daniel bowed his head to the host. “We are deeply honored. May we know what afflicts the god?”
Merire shook his head sadly. “He was old before the existence of our kind. He was old before the existence of Ra, and speaks to me no longer. My life is spent within the sarcophagus to maintain him. I did not know what to do to serve Am-Heh when he ceased to act through me. He gave me no instructions.”
His eyes took on a fanatical intensity. “Then I realized that he must be reborn as Osiris was reborn, and that I had the knowledge to do this. I have lost count of the years I have waited to restore him. Finally, the journey of the barque has been completed. You have succeeded and proven yourselves worthy. Your flesh shall sustain him on his journey through the underworld and into renewed life. He will be greater than the other gods. Your power will become the power of Am-Heh.”
Daniel raised his hands. “We would like to make this sacrifice with honor. May we be untied?”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow. He greatly appreciated the skills of Daniel Jackson.
Again, Merire shook his head. “I am sorry, but the rituals must be observed. You must be bound when your throats are cut and your bodies drained of blood.” He gave Daniel a friendly smile. “Do not fear. You will be honored by all when I consume your flesh for the good of the God.”
Jack raised his hands, ignoring Daniel’s frown and the shake of his head. “Excuse me. Who are the ‘all’ who will be honoring us? I just see you and two Unas. Are there others here?”
Merire's kohl lined eyes grew wide. “You saw them when you passed through the great pyramid. They are the multitude brought here by Am-Heh. They are preserved for all eternity, worshiping him forever; the inhabitants of this underworld. The Ka of each is preserved and the Ba roams the domain of Am-Heh.”
Sam’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, wow.” She was starting to wonder Merire had been driven insane by contact with Am-Heh, or had been heading that way all on his own.
His frowned deepened as his mood shifted. He glared at them, hatred in his eyes. “But you destroyed the energy that preserves them. You have destroyed them all!” Suddenly he was as enraged as he had been when he had first captured them. “You will die for what you have done. Your power will be taken from you to feed Am-Heh. You must die quickly while those of the underworld may still enjoy their revenge and the rebirth of our God.” Merire motioned to the Unas.
Jack raised his eyebrows. “And it’s back to bat poop crazy.” He turned to Daniel. “Not so surprising what with him sharing his head with a nut job and living in a sarcophagus.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow in return. Things had been going pretty well until Jack decided he had to talk. Still, they found out why Am-Heh had all the bodies. No… Why Merire thought Am-Heh had all the bodies. They probably weren’t the same thing. And they found out that Merire planned a ritual slaughter. That wouldn’t happen in a throne room. It might give them a chance to escape.
The Unas activated their weapons.
Daniel reassessed his ideas about the ritual slaughter and throne rooms. This didn’t seem promising at all.
The Unas moved into place on either side of the team. One aimed at Daniel, the other at Teal’c.
The ropes were too short to leave any room to maneuver or attack. Teal’c glared at the Unas nearest to him, despising the cowardice of his actions. Sam looked to the Colonel, hoping to see a last minute plan that he didn’t have. Daniel gave Jack a look that was one of regret that they would die this way, and a goodbye. Jack looked at each, cursing himself for letting them down.
The weapons were abruptly lowered as the Unas fired, freeing them from the metal rings with blasts that were far too close for comfort, but leaving their hands tied. They fired again at the ropes holding Sam and Jack.
“Sadistic bastards!” Jack leapt up and found a staff weapon aimed directly at him. He gritted his teeth and moved back into line with his team. They had all jumped to their feet and were being help in place by the weapons of the Unas.
One of the Goa’uld Unas smiled, baring sharp teeth, and motioned them to the passage on the right hand side of the dais. They moved forward in single file, hearts racing with anticipated death, eyes searching for an opportunity to fight back, or escape. The Unas followed, weapons trained on their backs.
They headed into the corridor and Daniel saw a fuzzy indication of hieroglyphs on the walls. He wished once again for his glasses. Knowing what they said might have been helpful. He kept thinking, trying to anticipate what would come next, and where they might be going. Merire seemed to have combined elements of the ritual sacrifice of cattle and the execution of captured prisoners to create his cannibalism ritual. Was there something he might be able to use in that, some factor that would give them an advantage? He couldn’t think of anything, but he kept trying.
As they passed the dais, Jack eyed the host, calculated the odds of getting to him and using him as a hostage. He was forced to abandon the idea. Merire was just too far away. If the Unas didn’t pick him off on the platform before he got to the host, they would certainly be able to kill everyone else. An escape plan that only he survived was worse than none.
Sam kept her eyes open for anything she might use as a weapon, anything that might give them a fighting chance, but right now, there was nothing. She felt a twinge of doubt then rejected it. They’d escaped worse situations than this, with much more impossible odds. There were only two Goa’uld Unas and an incapacitated host to fight. That was nothing. She was letting the thought of cannibalism unnerve her. She really wished the Colonel hadn’t been quite so graphic.
Teal’c was the last in their line, the one who was closest to the Goa’uld Unas. He knew that if the opportunity came, he would be the one to strike the first blow against their captors. He held himself ready, his eyes on his teammates, and alert to any sign that the time was right.
The Unas herded them through a doorway at the end of the corridor. They were back in the ring room where they had been trapped. The door they had just passed through had been the nearest exit to be blocked by a stone slab.
Jack saw their packs open and in a pile on the other side of the room. Their weapons and a few items from the packs were scattered nearby; the med kit, a GDO… He saw Daniel’s glasses tossed carelessly on the pile. That was good. Daniel could shoot much better when he could see. The statue of Ra had been removed and was leaning against the wall, a few feet away. Then he saw what was piled next to the statue. Daniel’s ‘very sharp knives’. The knives that could get through a personal shield.
Sam knew this was where they would make their stand. She saw the weapons and the ring platform and knew they would have no better chance. She wondered if Daniel could see where they were and was anticipating this, or if he would be taken by surprise. No, the Colonel would find a way to warn him.
Teal’c saw O’Neill glance at the packs. He knew this was the moment he had been anticipating. He kept his eye on O’Neill and waited.
Jack stumbled and let Daniel bump into him. He spoke quietly. “This is it, Daniel. The packs are about thirty feet to your right. Your glasses are near the top. The weapons are a couple of feet behind them”
Daniel nodded and got ready to run to the packs. He’d seen the blurry mound of khaki, and thought that might be the case, but he would never have found his glasses without some idea of where to look.
When Teal’c saw O’Neill stumble, he launched himself backward into the Goa’uld on his right. He wrestled for control of the staff weapon, hindered by the rope around his hands, as the second Goa’uld Unas prepared to fire.
Jack struggled to grab one of the knives and ran to join Teal’c. He knew there was only one chance. If he missed, Teal’c was dead. He drove it into the spine of the Unas, just below the skull. His blow was awkward, but had all his strength behind it. The Unas dropped its weapon and screamed, collapsing to the ground as it died, along with the Goa’uld inside.
The Unas wrestling with Teal’c was firing the staff weapon as they struggled for control. Random blasts shot through the room unpredictably. Daniel ducked low and ran for the packs. He had no idea which way the weapon might be pointing. He felt a flash of heat and smelled burnt cloth as he ran, but couldn’t dodge since he didn’t know which direction might be better. He just kept moving toward the packs.
Sam ran for the knives. She picked up a knife handle between her fingers and ran toward Teal’c, dodging the staff blasts as she went. She had to get the weapon to him. He was still unarmed and wouldn’t be able to fight the shielded Unas without a knife, even if he managed to get the staff weapon away from it.
Daniel could hear staff blasts firing across the room. He didn’t know where they were going, but he didn’t smell his clothes burning, so he guessed it wasn’t near him. Daniel leaned closer in, to the distance where he could do without glasses. He let his hands help him look, bound though they were. No glasses. Then he found them, just to the right of where he had been looking. Daniel grabbed the glasses and shoved them on his face just in time to duck, as a blast from the staff weapon went over his head. Seeing was good.
Jack tried to get behind the Unas and kill it as he had the first, but it was moving too much. The knife might go right past its neck and hit Teal’c, especially since it was so hard to maneuver with his hands tied. He settled for hitting it in the shoulder. Maybe Teal’c could get that staff weapon away from it with the distraction.
Daniel looked toward the fighting and saw Jack driving a knife into the shoulder of one of the Unas, just as Sam arrived. It was pretty crowded around the Unas with Teal’c, Sam, and Jack surrounding it. Daniel didn’t think there was enough room for him to do much good. He slid over to the knives and picked one up by the blade, inching it down to rope around his wrists. He began sawing through it carefully. “Ow! Still sharp.” Daniel kept cutting with the small movements his fingers would allow until he was free. He went back to the packs in a crouch, holstered his Beretta, and started throwing things into the packs haphazardly.
The Unas dropped the weapon, but after that, things didn’t go quite as Jack planned. It backhanded Teal’c twice, once knocking him off balance, the second time into a wall. Jack heard the crack as Teal’c’s skull hit. The Unas turned from Teal’c to face him. As it wrapped both clawed hands around his neck, Jack tried to go for the stomach, but the knife was at the wrong angle and he couldn’t adjust it with his hands tied. He was more likely to disembowel himself than hit the Unas and that wasn’t part of the plan. He gasped for air as it tightened its hands around his neck, smiling with sharp teeth.
“Teal’c!” Sam saw him hit the wall. He pushed himself off the floor and up. She held the knife to his wrists and cut the rope as quickly as she could, then handed him the knife. This was taking to long. She needed to get another knife and help the Colonel.
Teal’c cut the ropes that held her then ran to strike the Unas. He saw Major Carter go back to the knives. Her hands were now free to fight. He was aimed for the spine, to kill the symbiote as O’Neill had, but the Unas moved closer to O’Neill just as his blow fell. The blade dug into its back, close to the spine, but not close enough, or high enough.
Sam got back to the Colonel and Teal’c in time to see the blade go into its back. The Unas shrieked and let go of the Colonel, who was holding his throat and gasping for air. It swung toward them in a rage. She couldn’t reach the spine anymore, so she drove the knife into its chest then ripped it free.
The Unas gave a bellow of pain, and finding itself outnumbered and gravely wounded, roared and tore itself away from them. It drove them back with slashes of its claws, and ran from the room, dragging the dead Unas behind it.
Teal’c cut O’Neill’s bonds then retrieved his own staff weapon from the pile by the packs. He did not trust the weapons of the Unas. He also collected the knives. They had proved useful weapons, if inefficient.
Sam and Jack both grabbed their P-90’s and clipped them to their vests. They check their ammunition and added extra clips to their pockets.
Daniel was fastening the last pack when he heard a sound from the walkway and looked up. “Guys? Something’s coming.” Then he heard a grinding sound from the direction of the door and saw the stone slab that had trapped them earlier rise from the floor. It was matched by the one at the other exit. “This could be going better.”
Daniel pulled the packs onto the ring platform. He didn’t need to ask. It was the only way out: down, back the way they came, away from the Stargate. He drew his weapon.
A large number of Unas poured onto the walkway and aimed into the room below. They were followed by Merire, who was laughing and talking to himself “Kill them now. Kill them! Their throats may be cut and their bodies drained of blood as easily after death as before, if not as well.”
“Damn it, where’d they come from? Let’s go! We’re fish in a barrel down here.” Jack sprayed fire from his P-90 across the walkway. The shield was still in place. Blasts began to strike all around them. Jack saw one narrowly miss the ring control panel, and Carter, who had moved to the controls. Another went so close to his head that it left the smell of burnt hair behind it.
They ran for the platform. Daniel had to get there in a dive to avoid the fire when two Unas targeted him at the same time. Jack and Teal’c reached the platform without being hit, but as they moved to the center, one of the blasts came too close and Teal’c staggered. Sam joined them and they returned to the place from which they had worked so hard to escape.
As the rings receded, Teal’c fell to his knees. He shifted his weapon to his left hand and used it to climb to his feet.
“Teal’c! You’re hit.” Sam winced as she saw the charred flesh on his upper right arm. Even with the healing of his symbiote, that was not a trivial wound.
“I will heal, Major Carter, as I always do.”
Sam didn’t doubt that, but she could hear the pain in his voice. Teal'c didn't have the rapid healing provided by a symbiote anymore. There was nothing she could do for him, with her limited medical skills and supplies. A burn wound like that would do better left open to the air than covered.
“Get your gear, folks, they’ll be right behind us. There probably aren’t any other rings, so be can’t blow these.” Jack figured that if there was another way out, Merire and the Unas wouldn’t have been waiting for them up top. Merire had known just where to trap them and that they’d come to him. There had been no need to come after them on the lower level. Of course, they hadn’t anticipated the destruction of their power source.
Jack grabbed his pack and glanced at Teal’c. The blast wound would have incapacitated any of the rest of them, but Teal’c seemed to be holding his own. He’d have to, for the time being.
Daniel pulled on his pack and threw Teal’c’s over his shoulder. He gave the Jaffa a nod and a worried smile, moving away from the platform. He wasn’t going to give Teal’c a chance to argue with him about this.
They ran out of the storage room and down the corridor. When they reached the Egyptian artifact room, Jack stopped and looked back at the door they had come through. He grimaced and rubbed his face with one hand. He looked at Daniel, his hand still obscuring his mouth and regret in his eyes. “Daniel.”
A look of horror crossed Daniel’s face, the expression quickly replaced by anger and determination. “No! Not here! Why here, Jack?”
Jack gritted his teeth. They didn’t have time for this. “Daniel, we can’t risk damaging the rings. If we set a trap in the hall, they’ll be too spread out, and the ceiling might collapse, trapping us down here. And if we let them get past this room, they’ll reach the corridor junction and spread out through the level. This is our one shot to take them all out at once.” Daniel was still wearing his ‘line in the sand’ expression. Damn it.
Daniel was shaking his head. “No. We can’t do that.”
Teal’c was frowning as he looked around the room. He did not wish to destroy these things, these works of the Tauri who had driven Ra from their world. He did not wish to bring Daniel Jackson the pain that their destruction would cause. If O’Neill believed it to be necessary, he would do so, but with great regret.
Sam looked at the unimaginable treasure of history that surrounded them, and at the two men arguing. If the Colonel thought this was their best chance of survival, they would be at an impasse. Neither man would back down. And they were running out of time.
Jack was losing his temper. “Daniel, that’s the best idea I have. If we don’t do something, they’ll catch up with us while we’re talking, and we’ll be stuck here with no cover except your statues. I don’t come up with these things just to piss you off, you know!” He took a step toward Daniel. “If you don’t like it, give me an alternative, otherwise, we have to go ahead.”
Daniel scowled and stared into space for a moment. Then his eyebrows rose and he turned back to Jack. “The sarcophagus! Merire pretty much lives in it. He has to be incredibly addicted. He won’t be able to go much longer without using it and, with us on the loose down here, he’ll take most of his Unas with him. We can set the trap in the room with the dead Jaffa. It might not take out as many as a trap here would, but-”
Jack slapped him on the shoulder. “But it’s good enough. Let’s go.”
As they ran from the room and into the next passage, Jack felt a sense of relief that was greater than he would ever admit, even to himself. He and Daniel had forgiven each other for lots of things over the years, but blowing up that room would have crossed a whole new line. Daniel would never have gotten over that. And Jack would have done it, no question.
They turned down the corridor leading to the room that was now filled with dead symbiotes, as well as dead Jaffa, at a full run. They had lost time in the artifact room, and they all knew that the Unas, and Merire, would not be far behind. They had to work quickly, or they would end up in a fire fight, badly outnumbered, and without the advantages that strategy might bring.
Teal’c was keeping up with them. He would have allowed himself to do no less, but every member of the team knew how much pain was caused by a staff weapon wound, and urged him on, silently.
They reached their goal and Jack threw off his pack to get the remote detonators that would finally work. “Daniel, get Teal’c’s C-4 out of his pack.” Teal’c was carrying as much as he and Daniel had been. Theirs had been used in the first passage, and in the room with the electro-magnetic power source. “Carter, how much are you carrying?” She carried less on missions like this to make room for the extra medical supplies.
“Six, sir.” She took off her pack and retrieved the C-4.
That made eighteen bricks, altogether. “Space them out across the room. Three piles of six, spaced out on the path to the sarcophagus.” Jack hoped that wasn’t too much. He wanted large enough explosions to take out the whole group, but not to bring down the ceiling. Luckily the room was large enough, and high enough, that he didn’t think that would be a problem. He hoped that wouldn’t be a problem. He took three detonators from his pack and started attaching them to the C-4 that Carter and Daniel had placed.
Teal’c stood watch over the entrance to the room, his face stiff with pain, as he guarded against the pursuers that were sure to be on their way.
“This must be a record.” Sam looked at the piles of C-4. “I don’t think we’ve ever used this much C-4 on one mission before.”
Jack attached the last detonator, moved the C-4 under the corpse of a Jaffa, and stood. “A record for SG-1. Usually, we’re blowing up things like Hataks that just need a little nudge in the right direction. My personal record is a little higher… Let’s get into the sarcophagus room and take cover.”
They moved into Am-Heh’s burial room and took cover behind the huge columns, Daniel and Sam behind one, and Jack and Teal’c behind another. Closing the door would have been safer, but wouldn’t have allowed them to see when to detonate the C-4, or how many, if any, of their pursuers might escape the blasts.
Jack looked around the column into the room rigged with explosives. “No sign of pursuit. They should have caught up with us by now.”
Daniel frowned. “I was sure that Merire would be desperate to get to the sarcophagus.”
“This is a good plan, Daniel. It should work, unless Am-Heh has another sarcophagus stashed away, and that’s not likely. They always seem to have just one of the damned things. All we can do is wait. And hope there aren’t any surprises.”
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