The Slumbering Place in the Stars (gen) R
For the spook_me ficathon. I cheated a bit, because I started this fic about 3 years ago and posted the very beginning, but I never finished it. Until now. Muahahahaaaa!
My prompts were "insect", "shapeshifter" and "alone in the dark". Which... this has some loose hints at all three. I really wanted to do a smutty shapeshifter story, but I couldn't make my mind move beyond the werewolf thing, and just... ehh.
The Slumbering Place in the Stars
(A Lovecraftian style story)
By Jennghis Kahn
Pairing- Oh, a little of everyone, but it’s a genfic.
Genre- Horror
Rating- R for violence.
A/N- Because I like HP Lovecraft and there’s too many similarities between his mythology and that of Stargate. Plus, I’ve always wanted to write a horror story. The stuff based on the Cthulhu mythos is from my own knowledge and a few websites I used to check my facts. It’s mostly based on the version of the mythos added to by August Derleth.
Summary- "In the depths, the great old one slumbers. The powerful one. The great priest. The dreamer of dreams waits for the stars to align." But it was all just myth written by a strange old man. Wasn’t it?
^^^^^^^^
PTX-666. Nice. The planet even looked ominous. The stone steps they walked down from the gate were covered in a slippery green algae. The various stone ruins amassed around were the same. In any direction they looked, they could see banks of mist and fog in the distance. The air was fetid and heavy, full of vapor and water that held no warmth. By the time they'd walked ten paces from the gate, Daniel had pulled a frown and never stopped.
"Pleasant,” Jack muttered.
"It is not, O'Neill,” Teal’c insisted, drawing a look from the Colonel that would have frozen anyone else.
"I'm not picking up any radio signals, sir." Sam turned slowly in a circle, a small device in her hands. "It could just be the mist... "
"Keep checking, Carter. He was supposed to be here already." Jack motioned them forward; stopping when only two of his three team members began moving. "Daniel. Now would be good for us."
The archeologist was hunched down on his heels, his fingers trying to clear moss and algae from the glyphs carved into a stonewall. His fingernails were green with the effort. "Jack. This is very strange."
Jack's eyes narrowed. He didn't want to hear 'strange'. He motioned Sam and Teal'c back to him and walked to Daniel's side. "What do you have?"
"It's a mixture of Arabic, ancient Sumerian and Egyptian hieroglyphs."
Jack waited but when no further explanation was forthcoming, he shifted impatiently. "And that's bad?"
"I don't know about bad, but it's certainly unusual. And it definitely proves an Earth presence here."
"Can you read it?"
"Umm...” Daniel sighed. "Something about 'great old ones' and... " He leaned closer to one part and shook his head. "I think it's the name of this world, but I can't quite translate it."
"Well, let's have a look around." Jack ordered.
"In the depths, the great old one slumbers." Daniel squinted at the wall. "The powerful one. The great priest. The dreamer of dreams waits for the stars to align."
"A Goa'uld?" Sam asked him. “I thought the Tok’ra we’re meeting said the threat here wasn’t Goa’uld.”
"No," Teal'c answered before Daniel could open his mouth. "No Goa'uld would allow himself to be called ‘old’."
Daniel nodded in agreement. "This isn't Goa'uld-like. This is different. This has a strong edge of human myth to it." He tilted his head. “Something about it is familiar…”
“So, let’s check around. See what we find.”
There were several well-worn paths leading away from the gate in the same general direction. As they walked, the sound of lapping water flowed in from their right. Misty tendrils floated above the sound and through the branches of huge trees. The air was drenched with a wet, musty smell.
“It’s almost primordial,” Daniel commented quietly. His words seemed to die as they left his mouth, carried off and hidden in the fog.
++
The town was full of narrow stone streets and only a few dozen wooden buildings. It was surrounded a circular market place with a large well in the center. Even here there was the constant din of rolling waves. In the late morning the fog had still not burned away. It hid the sky and poured in from the west between the buildings, roiling down the streets. The brine in the air had aged the wooden planks that sided the buildings, leaving them cracked and splintered and dull gray.
Jack led his team into the middle of it.
There were people walking among the shops, but the place was eerily silent. They could hear the muffled, repeated clanging of a warning bell from the west, signaling landfall to the ships at sea.
“Looks like a real party town,” Jack muttered dryly. A passing man wearing a big, black hat held Jack’s gaze with steady, resentful eyes. Jack smiled at him. “Hi.” The man did not reply and moved on. Jack glanced back at Carter. “Happy bunch.”
Sam lifted her eyebrows in agreement, and he watched her hug her rifle a little closer. He wanted her alert and didn’t think she was unduly jumpy, so he said nothing to calm her.
They walked slowly around the small courtyard, and Jack carefully watched the townspeople while trying not to appear dangerous. The people in the market place had all stopped and stared openly at them.
“Daniel?” Jack jerked his head toward one small group of grim villagers.
Daniel licked his lips nervously-they all felt the unease-and then approached the small group. The people regarded him suspiciously. He tried to smile. “Hello. We’re friendly. Do you speak our language? Can you understand me?”
They only stared at him with no indication of hearing or understanding.
Daniel tried again. “We’re looking for someone who was going to meet us here. Is there another stranger in town?”
One of the group, a woman, started chanting softly, her eyes burning and hard as she stared at Daniel. Behind him, Sam and Teal’c exchanged an uneasy glance.
One of the men pointed toward a taller building nearly obscured in the mist coming from the sea. “If the one you seek is here, he will be at the hotel.”
“Thank you.” Daniel started to say more but the group turned and walked away. He turned to look at the rest of SG-1. “Well… that was odd.”
“Yeah, that was a little more than ‘odd’, Daniel.” Jack’s eyebrows were pulled low over his eyes as he glanced around. “Are you sure this Tok’ra is kosher?”
Daniel blinked and pursed his lips. “Well, I mean, I think so. He’s given us good information before, and his message has rung true so far. This definitely doesn’t have a Goa’uld-ish feeling to it. If there’s something else here that he’s concerned about, we really need to check it out. He said it could have dire consequences for Earth.”
“Yeah,” Jack argued sardonically. “It’s just that our experiences with the Tok’ra seem to always end up with them being not so worried about Earth and much more worried about themselves.”
Teal’c lifted his head and gazed at Jack. “They do not have strength of numbers, O’Neill. They must guard their resources carefully.”
Jack eyed him. “Et tu, big guy?”
Teal’c narrowed his eyes and peered at Jack intensely. Jack cleared his throat and turned back to Daniel. “Okay, we’ve got one day here, so let’s find this guy and get out. This place is giving me the creeps.”
“Not to mention it’s plain uncomfortable,” Sam added, craning her neck in irritation against the damp ripstop cloth of her jacket.
“Tell me about it,” Daniel said wryly as he pulled his glasses off and wiped at them with a corner of his sleeve. When he put them on again they were smudged and beaded with condensation.
++
From the steps of the hotel they could finally see the edge of the sea across a wide shore. The fog seemed less dense here, which made little sense but could hardly be argued when it was right in front of their faces. The hotel was old and dark and several of the windows were boarded over with salted, brown planks. The whole town reeked of wet wood.
The lobby was covered in a thick layer of dust half turned to grime and grease. Candles on the front desk had dripped their wax down the front and onto the floor.
A man in a thick woolen suit suddenly appeared behind it from a door to the side.
“Howdy,” Jack called.
The man said nothing but fixed them with a steely gaze. Jack sighed and motioned to Daniel.
Daniel moved forward once again. “Excuse me, but we’re here to meet a man and we’re wondering if you’ve seen him.”
“I have not,” the man replied firmly and sharply.
Daniel hesitated a moment in surprise. “Uhh… I haven’t even described him to you yet.”
The man simply stared at him.
Daniel cleared his throat nervously. “So… he’s about my height, bald, blue eyes.”
The man stared and then finally spoke. “As I have said, I have not seen him.”
Daniel stared back and then gave a faint smile with a nod. “Okay. Right. Thanks.”
The man didn’t react or reply. He simply watched them.
Daniel turned and gave Jack a look. What the hell?
Jack replied with a shrug. How the hell do I know? “I guess he’s not here yet.”
“What do you want to do, sir?” Carter shifted her rifle on its clips.
Jack thought for a moment. “Well,” he said quietly. “We have 24 hours until we need to check-in. Let’s get comfortable.” He looked pointedly at Daniel. “You still got that local currency this guy sent you?”
Daniel nodded and dug into his coat pocket to produce the coins. He dropped them in Jack’s palm.
Jack stepped up to the desk and dropped a few of them down onto the wood top. “We’ll take a room,” he told the man cheerfully.
The clerk stared unblinkingly at him but the corners of his mouth turned down. “I told you I have not seen this man you are searching for.”
“Yeah, we got that. We’ll wait.”
The clerk shifted uneasily. “How long will you wait?”
Jack shrugged. “Until he gets here.”
The clerk chewed his top lip. “I see.”
With great dramatic flair, he turned to pluck a pen from the table behind him. Then he leaned down over the guest registry and blew a great huff of air out, sending dust up from the pages in a great cloud. Jack blinked rapidly and waved at the swirling soot. The clerk slapped the pen down in front of him with a menacing glare.
Jack stared back, the humor gone from his eyes, and then picked it up to sign the registry.
++
The room was amazingly clear of dust. The furniture was old and the walls were stained, but the general state of the room was neat and clean. A simple bed, a desk and a table with a washing basin lined the walls.
They plunked their packs down on the floor, and Jack sat heavily in the desk chair with a hard exhalation. “I gave up retirement for this,” he muttered, pulling his cap off to run his fingers through his short brown hair.
“Tanner seemed very worried about this place,” Daniel said, glancing around the room. “Even for a Tok’ra.”
Sam sank down to sit on the bed, wrists resting on the butt of her rifle. “I thought he was already here in the town when you got the message from him, Daniel.”
Daniel glanced warily at her. “So did I.”
“Do you think he could be in trouble?” Teal’c asked.
Daniel shrugged. “Maybe he had to leave suddenly.”
Jack leaned down, elbows on knees, and peered up at Daniel. “Then why not leave a message? He’s here. Maybe he’s drunk in a bar somewhere.”
Daniel shot him a look that said not bloody likely.
“O’Neill.” Teal’c’s voice was quiet and serious. He stood at the window looking out.
Jack got up immediately and went to him, followed by Sam and Daniel. The window overlooked the small courtyard in the center of town. As they looked down, several of the townspeople stood below staring up.
Jack narrowed his eyes, waiting, but the people didn’t move. They stood there, faces shadowed, heads tilted up toward the window.
Jack waved at them, but they didn’t react.
“Well,” he said. “Now I’m really creeped out.”
++
By the time they got down to the courtyard, the people were gone. Jack and Teal’c walked lazily around the well and peered into the shops, but the streets were strangely empty now. The fog was finally lifting as well. By Jack’s watch it was late afternoon, although no sign of the sun could be found. He stood on one narrow, cobblestone street and watched the mist slide over the surface. It moved languorously, slithering from side to side toward the sea.
Apparently there was nothing about this town that wasn’t fucking odd.
He’d asked a few people about Tanner and was met with either stone-faced silence, cryptic mumblings or flat denial. The bad feeling in his gut that had started the moment they’d stepped through the gate was only intensifying. He was debating about whether to stay the night. It suddenly didn’t seem like such a great idea.
“O’Neill.” Teal’c approached him from the right, fresh from his own exploration of the town. Normally Jack would have let Daniel do the interacting with the locals, but some instincts just wouldn’t be suppressed. There was something wrong here, and he’d left the archeologist in the room with Carter and the gear.
Provided they stayed there, of course. Both of them had a nasty habit of wandering away and getting into trouble. Well, Daniel more than Carter. Carter had her own special brand of irritating where she touched ‘bad’ things causing them to explode or do unnatural things, like turn everyone into dogs. Or something.
“Any luck?” he asked Teal’c. He half hoped there’d been no sign as then he’d feel fairly confident about just getting the hell out of there.
Teal’c frowned. “I spoke to a fisherman who claims he saw Tanner two days ago.”
Crap. Jack lifted his brows. “And? Where is he now?”
Teal’c drew his brows down over his eyes. “I do not know. The man was inebriated and difficult to understand. He said Tanner went into the sea.”
Jack was startled. “Into the sea?”
Teal’c nodded. “The man pointed toward the sea and said that the stranger went with the Deep Ones.”
Jack blinked at him. “Ah. What, is that alien for 'he sleeps with the fishes'?”
Teal’c looked contemplative. “I believe that phrase might infer actual death, O'Neill. There is no way for humans to acquire oxygen beneath the water,” he stated firmly.
Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly, turning to scan the street. “Thanks, Teal'c. Okay, well, let’s go check out the beach and then get back to the room. It’s getting dark pretty quickly.”
++
“Uhmm, our friends are back again.” Daniel’s voice held that strange mix of calmness and alarm that more often signaled the latter. He looked away from his post at the window to where Jack and Sam knelt on the floor over a pile of their collected gear.
“What?” Jack climbed wincingly to his feet and went to the window. He leaned in to look out the same crack in the shutter that Daniel had been peering through. The darkness glowed green, casting the town in an strange light. It was an effect of the planet’s moonlight reflecting off the huge quantities of mist pouring off the oceans, according to Carter.
Jack looked down the several floors to the ground below. As had happened twice already over the past three hours, there were several of the odd townspeople standing motionless in the night, staring up at their window. “Don’t these people ever sleep?”
“Maybe they’re nocturnal,” Daniel said. “There’s certainly more of them now then when we first arrived.”
Jack pulled back from the window and glanced at him. “But what’s with the staring?”
“Well, we’re outsiders, sir,” Sam offered, stuffing a rolled rain poncho back into her pack.
Jack met her gaze. “This isn’t ‘stranger’ staring. This is freaky, zombie-like staring.”
“I concur,” Teal’c said from his chair next to the door. “These people are not normal.”
Jack waved a hand at the Jaffa. “See? Thank you.”
Daniel leaned back against the wall next to the window and shook his head. “We can’t hold all of the cultures we meet out here to Earth’s standards of behavior, Jack. What’s rude to us may not be to them.”
“How about our standard of death, Daniel?” Jack’s voice turned sarcastic. “Can we hold them to Earth’s standard of that?”
Daniel furrowed his brow and folded his arms over his chest. “Well… death does seems a bit rude, yes.” There was just a hint of answering sarcasm to his voice that made Jack narrow his eyes.
“It is a little creepy,” Sam admitted, meeting Daniel’s eyes.
He held her look for a long moment and then shrugged. “So what do you want to do?”
“Get the hell out of here. Early tomorrow,” Jack stated. “We’ve found nothing useful here and these-” He motioned towards the window. “-People, will barely talk to us. Somehow I doubt they have anything valuable to share about Tanner or anything else.”
++
Sam opened her eyes into darkness a few hours later unsure of what had awakened her. It had been difficult to fall asleep to begin with. Strange noises and the ever-present humidity of the misty environment made them all uncomfortable.
There was a motion of shadow across the meager light coming in from their shuttered window. She turned her head to look at it. The light settled back into stillness. She felt the hair on her arms rise. Again and again she’d caught a flicker out of the corner of her eye, as if something sought to sneak up on her, only to turn her head and find nothing. Similarly, she'd found Teal'c and Jack doing the same. Something was there, just outside of their vision.
A soft noise that didn't belong in the room made her muscles tighten painfully as she froze. She felt the hardwood floor suddenly unyielding below her bedroll. Her eyes rolled to the left, finding the Colonel in his own bedroll, eyes closed and chest rising slowly and rhythmically. Teal'c was likewise on the other side of him.
The soft click came again.
She looked at the door to their room. There was nothing at first, and then she watched as the doorknob slowly began turning to the left. When it reached the end of it's turn, it held, and there was a long pause and then a creak as someone leaned on the door. The lock held, and then the knob rotated right again and repeated the process. She watched it with a hand on her rifle, her mouth gone dry.
When she rose silently to her knees, she saw Daniel sitting shadowed and shirtless on the bed with their gear, his turn for watch. His pistol was in his hand and his eyes were glued to the moving doorknob and didn't wander even as he whispered to her, "They don't have any weapons that I've seen. Why would they do this?"
She shook her head and didn't answer, instead crawling quietly to the Colonel's bedroll and touching him lightly on the shoulder.
"Sir." She kept her voice barely audible.
He woke immediately; his eyes so black in the darkness that he almost seemed supernatural himself. "Carter?"
"The door."
His eyes shifted to the door, and he rose quickly, pulling his P-90 from beside him. "Teal'c?"
"I see, O'Neill." Teal'c was a large, dark shadow already moving gracefully to the left of the door, his staff weapon in his hands.
"Daniel. Stay there but get down," Jack ordered in a soft voice, adding hand signals out of habit.
Daniel crouched low on the bed and watched the door. The knob rotated slowly back to the left. He could almost imagine the wooden slab pulsing with some unseen force behind it, bulging inward as some creature tried to force it open.
Teal'c reached for the doorknob, his hand pausing beside it as it turned. Sam and Jack raised their weapons.
When the knob reached the apex of its turn, Teal'c wrapped his hand around it carefully. He yanked the door open and pulled it wide, bringing his staff weapon up and hearing Daniel's sharp exhalation.
There was no one there.
"What the...?" Jack muttered and moved warily to the doorway.
"Sir...” Sam warned him to be careful.
He moved first to one side of the door and then the other, peering as far down the hallway outside of the room as he could without stepping across the threshold. Finally, he peered slowly around the doorframe in both directions. He pulled back and closed the door, swallowing hard.
"It's empty."
"This is most disturbing, O'Neill," Teal'c rumbled quietly, and Jack couldn't agree with him more. Or at least, not until Daniel piped up from beside the window again.
"They're back again. And they've brought some more friends."
++
A semi-circle of red-robed priests stood beneath the window. They held small identical books open to the hooded shadows of their faces. Random townspeople stood motionless behind them.
"Okay. That's a little strange," Daniel whispered absently as the rest of SG-1 crowded in beside him.
"A cult?" Sam asked softly beside his ear.
His mouth tugged into a frown. "There is kind of a hive mind type of feeling here."
"Like we experienced on P3X-289?" Teal'c asked.
"Yes, but those people were open to interaction and didn't hide their connections to the computer links."
"No weird chanting or breaking and entering there either," Jack stated grimly, ignoring the glances thrown his way by Daniel and Sam.
"This climate is so puzzling...” Daniel muttered quietly, bringing his fingers up to trace the patterns of water drops on the glass. "This isn't a comfortable place for humans to live. It's much too wet. It feels like you're drowning if you breathe in too deeply."
"Maybe they aren't human," Sam offered, but Daniel gave her a glance that told her he was way ahead of her.
“I don’t give a crap what they are,” Jack suddenly stated, turning away from the window. “Either way, we’re out of here. Now. Get your gear together.”
“Yes sir.” Sam began rolling her sleeping bag up quickly. Teal’c said nothing, but he sat in the desk chair to tie his boots, his eyes glancing warily at the door from time to time.
Daniel traced a path through the condensation that had formed on the inside of the window, brows furrowed in thought.
“Daniel, now.” Jack prodded him in the shoulder, in no mood to hang around and listen to arguments.
Daniel suddenly frowned at the window and bent down close. He raised his glasses and squinted. “What is that?”
“What?” Jack asked uneasily. From the other side of the bed, Sam sat up on her knees and watched.
Daniel suddenly huffed out a warm breath across the glass. Briefly a few letters appeared and then slowly faded.
“Were those words?” Sam asked excitedly, rising quickly and joining him at the window.
Daniel huffed again, moving his head from one side of the window to the other. The words appeared again. “It’s a message!” Daniel exclaimed, glancing at Jack.
Jack pulled a face. “What? I do the same thing in the mirror at home when I’m shaving. Write my name or… other things.”
“Do you write it in Ancient?” Daniel threw back. He breathed on the window again, not waiting for an answer.
“Well,.. No,” Jack shrugged, answering anyway. He leaned in next to his two scientists to peer at the words in the mist. “What’s it say?”
Daniel breathed a few more times and then sat back on his heels, pursing his lips. Sam squeezed his shoulder. “Daniel?”
He glanced absently at them. “’Seven ahead, two right,’” he said. “And the Tok’ra symbol meaning important information or danger. It’s a warning of sorts. To pay attention and heed his words.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “Like… Kree?”
Daniel shot him a sardonic look. “Yes. Like Kree.”
“Seven ahead, two right. Is that a combination of some sort? A warning to some trap? What is it?” Sam looked to Daniel for a reply.
Daniel hesitated, thinking, his eyes sweeping the room. “I wonder…” He stood and put his back to the window and then took seven even steps directly away from it. At the end of the line, he turned right and glanced down. The wooden slats of the floor were old and weary. Dirt and age filled each crack in between them, sealing them tightly, except…
He knelt down next to one plank that had dark edges, the dust disturbed from the edges. “Sam!” He motioned for her to come quickly.
She dropped beside him as he tried to use his fingernails to pry the wooden board free. “Wait,” she urged, reaching down to pull the ka-bar knife from her belt. With Jack looming over her from behind, she slid the blade into the area around the edges of the board and tilted it upward. The plank creaked and then popped up easily. Daniel pried it the rest of the way out.
There was black space beneath the board, and Jack tapped his shoulder with a small flashlight. Daniel took it and aimed the light into the hole. “Something’s down there…”
He started to reach down, hesitating when Jack suddenly barked out a sharp, “Be careful!”
He pulled up something covered in cloth and wrapped in cord.
“What is it?” Jack demanded immediately.
Daniel ignored him and slid to sit on the floor, back against the wall, cradling the package on his lap. He handed the flashlight to Sam, and she knelt next to his legs, aiming the light for him, peering at it curiously.
Daniel unwound the cord and set it aside, and then he peeled the cloth away. He shook it out as it came free, revealing it to be a shirt with lacing at the collar and dark stains along the front. He exchanged wary glances with Sam.
“It looks like blood,” she said quietly.
He nodded in agreement, swallowing hard. Inside the package were two books. One was a simple bound journal. It was small and worn and wound tight with leather cord. The other was bigger and ancient, it’s soft cover an odd brown color and texture. It was also bound, but by a black silk ribbon that was wound repeatedly around the girth. Daniel traced the odd cover and then jerked his hand away.
“Daniel?” Sam leaned down to eye him carefully.
He grimaced. “It’s… warm.”
She reached out and placed her fingertips on the book. It felt… warm and moist and distinctly repulsive. She jerked her hand back and wiped it against her pants. “Holy…”
Daniel set it aside, rubbing his fingertips together in discomfort once it was gone. He unwound the journal, and a folded paper fell from inside onto his lap. He plucked it up and opened it, reading silently for a few minutes.
“Well?” Jack asked after he hadn’t said anything in a while.
Daniel glanced up. “It’s Tanner’s. He was in this room. It’s a warning, I think.”
“Read it,” Jack ordered.
Daniel cleared his throat and read:
I’m afraid my time is short now. Once they realized I had discovered their plans, they began moving quickly. I’m cut off from the stargate and have no way of communicating for help. I fear the Tau’ri I am to meet will soon discover the same fate in their future. The Goa’uld pale next to the danger of the Great Old Ones.
These people know exactly what they are bringing through the gate and into this galaxy. They know and they rejoice. How this knowledge has survived all this time is a mystery. The Elder Times of Earth were a very different thing from today. The Tok’ra and the Goa’uld were yet unborn when this evil was ruling the stars.
By disguising myself as a Tok’ra I had hoped to keep this evil buried and trapped forever, but I have failed. The walls of R’yleh crumble, and along with them Cthulhu’s prison. Killing the legends was impossible, and when the Goa’uld took the ancient Tau’ri from Earth, they took the elder legends with them. The knowledge survived and bided its time.
As the Tau’ri were seeded from the stars, so they then seeded the universe with the power of these memories.
I will hide this in my room and pray to my gods that SG-1 is as resourceful as legends tell.
Daniel Jackson. If you find this, know that I am gone and there is no help for it. I will be the lucky one if these people succeed with their evil designs. I am known as Tanner among the Tok’ra, but among my people, the Elder Gods, I am Bast. I have written everything I have discovered in my journal. The other book is to be destroyed if you're able. It is that infernal evil, the mythology of the Great Old Ones. The Necronomicon.
Stop them. You must stop Cthulhu, or your life, your whole galaxy, is lost.
There is howling beyond the door now. Goodbye.
Daniel glanced up and licked his lips nervously. "Well, that's interesting." The rest of SG-1 stared at him and each other in silence. Daniel thumbed through the journal, reading, until Jack lost patience.
"What does it mean?" Jack demanded.
Daniel hesitated, and then looked up nervously. "It means that Tanner is dead, or incapacitated in some way. He wasn't a real Tok'ra."
"And?" Jack began pulling his TAC vest on.
Daniel swallowed. "There was a 20th century horror writer named H.P. Lovecraft. He's well known for creating a whole universe of bad things based around an evil god named Cthulhu. According to Tanner-- I mean Bast-- those stories are actually true."
Sam clicked the flashlight off. "Did you ever read the stories?"
Daniel sighed. "Ahh, a few of them, during my teenage angst years. Otherwise, not really. Not enough to know what we're facing here."
Jack tossed him his TAC vest. "Well, you don't have time to read right now. We're leaving."
++
The robed priests were gone by the time they reached the street. The town was silent and dark, lit only by a few archaic street lanterns and a muted moon in a cloud-filled sky. The ever-present fog rolled along the streets.
Jack waved Teal'c out into the open and then followed. When they'd cleared the courtyard, he motioned for Sam and Daniel.
"You think this could be a trap?" Daniel whispered.
"Yes," Jack answered sharply. "I think this whole thing smells rather trappish actually."
"Jack, we really do need to investigate what's happening in this town."
"No," Jack growled. "What we need to do is get to the stargate and get the hell out of here."
"Sir, we really do--" Sam started in on him as well.
"Carter!" Jack cut her off with a glare. "We're getting out of here. Period. Now, stay with Daniel and follow me."
She might have rolled her eyes a bit, he couldn't really tell. He fixed them both with a steady glare to make sure they got the point, and then he motioned to Teal'c to bring up the rear and they set off across the courtyard.
They weren't even out of town when Jack thought he saw something from the corner of his eye. It wasn't an unusual thing on this planet, and he'd been resisting the impulse to whirl around at every slight movement in his peripheral vision. He slowed his walk, focusing in that direction without turning his head. When the movement came again, a white flash, he snapped his head around, eyes scanning the darkness.
A shape ducked back behind the corner of a dilapidated boathouse.
Jack held his fist up, stopping the team, and he lowered himself slowly to one knee. A glance behind told him the rest had followed his lead. He motioned toward the barn. Look there. Be alert.
There was a flicker of shadow from the same corner. Jack squinted into the darkness. They weren't equipped with night vision for this mission. He was about to take Carter and go explore when he heard a soft sound behind them, followed by a gasp that sounded like Daniel.
He whirled around and found four shapes approaching in the night from behind. He thought they were humans in some sort of weird costumes at first. And then he realized that their slick, scaled skin was real. That their heads were rounded and flat, like fish, their eyes bulging, gills rippling from the sides of their necks. The whiteness of their smooth bellies glowed eerily in the fog. Their webbed hands reached out as they drew closer.
"What the hell?" Jack's heart jumped in his chest. The fish people hesitated just out of reach, tilting their heads to peer at SG-1 with first one rolling eyeball and then the other. Teal'c had turned to brandish his staff weapon, and Jack glanced around and found more of the shapes approaching from different directions. "What the hell are these things, Daniel?"
"How should I know?" Daniel had his pistol up and was back to back with Sam, helping to guard their flanks.
"Sir...?" Carter's voice was a question, asking for permission as she swatted at webbed fingers with the barrel of her rifle.
"Steady, Carter."
"O'Neill!' Teal'c called across her head. "Perhaps these are the Deep Ones the villager spoke of. The ones that took Tanner into the sea."
The fish people began making sounds, a guttural squabbling sound, thick and wet. The air seemed to whistle through their gills. They weren't attacking yet though, and Jack was hesitant to shoot lest it drive them into a frenzy and set them to violence.
"Who are you?" Daniel suddenly asked them.
"Daniel!"
"It can't hurt!" Daniel glanced at him, helplessly.
The decision was made when one of the beasts got its claws into Carter's vest. Teal'c sent a shot into the fish beast's side, and it went down. Jack prepared for a battle, but the rest of the beings suddenly fell back. The hovered there, out of reach, and squabbled in their wet voices. At least they were fallible. Jack glanced at the path ahead, trying to discover an escape. The squabbling behind them got louder. He turned back.
They shifted nervously in a pack, obviously angry. Some would try to approach, only to be driven back by Teal'c's glare and the sound of the staff weapon being primed.
"Hold your fire unless they get too close!" Jack ordered. "We're going to try and move toward the gate."
"Sir!" Carter's voice was excited, startled.
He glanced at her and found her staring down. He looked down and found the fog growing dense around their feet. It swirled in around them, heavy and cold, and in seconds it was to their knees. "What the?" Jack swallowed his fear. This was not like anything they'd come across before. Not all at once like this. He shuffled his feet around on the ground, trying to feel anything beneath. Behind him, the staff weapon fired again.
Suddenly Daniel let out a yelp and flailed his arms.
"Daniel!" Jack stepped toward him and then stopped short. Thin, white tendrils slithered up Daniel's legs, winding around his knees and thighs and then pulling tight. Daniel gasped and started to fall forward. He was stopped as another tendril suddenly shot out of the fog and wrapped thickly around his neck, pulling his body backwards.
"Daniel!" Sam raised her rifle but her shot was blocked by Daniel himself.
"Your knife, Carter!" Jack reached for his, charging toward Daniel, dimly aware that Teal'c was firing regularly now. The tendrils jerked Daniel onto his back then wrenched him onto his side. Daniel gave a choking cough, his fingers clawing at the tendrils around his neck. Jack dove down and grabbed his pack just as he was being pulled away. Whatever the thing was, it was incredibly strong. It was all Jack could do to hold on while Carter knelt beside him and chopped at the tendril around Daniel's neck with her knife. After 5 or 6 good whacks the tendril fell away and Daniel took in a gasping breath.
Then more tendrils came out of the fog and wrapped around his arms, snaked around his waist and his chest. Jack grabbed Daniel's pack in an iron grip and tried to hug him around the chest, but with one terrific jolt, Daniel was gone, his pack loose in Jack's hands. They watched his boots disappear into the fog as he was dragged along the ground with incredible speed. He cried out, the sound moving away from them quickly and then fading into the forest.
"Daniel!" Carter shouted, her voice nearly cracking with intensity. She rose and darted forward to go after him, and Jack had to grab her pack to keep her in place. "Carter, stay put! That's an order!" He turned to look for Teal'c. "Teal'c!" he barked.
The fish people had surrounded the Jaffa and were swarming over him, too close now for Teal'c to fire his staff weapon. He made no noise, but was forced bodily backward, further into their midst. Jack let go of Carter's pack, trusting her to stay put and he brought his rifle up, firing at the feet of the fish people, trying to make them back off. Beside him, Sam raised her own and started picking off beasts toward the outskirts of the mob. They fell, wounded, and crawled away, back toward the sea.
Instead of scattering, they forced Teal'c faster, separating him from Jack and Sam. Jack fired again. In a rush of movement, Teal'c went down underneath their onslaught, and they quickly dragged him away toward the beach.
"No!" Jack started after them, reaching out to grab Carter's sleeve and drag her with him. "Teal'c!"
The squabbling faded as quickly as Daniel's cry had. In moments, the area was silent.
Jack craned his head around, searching wildly, dragging Carter along by the sleeve. There just wasn't anything. Even tracks were obscured by the fog. He came to a stop, turning around in a circle, listening in the darkness. All he heard was Carter breathing hard beside him. "Shit!" he swore, his fingers curling in tighter on Carter's sleeve, keeping her close. "Shit!"
++
Sam swung her pack down to the ground and yanked it open, pulling out anything unnecessary: BDU's, sleeping bag, anything disposable. She replaced them with Daniel's journals, his archeological tools, the books they’d found in the room. When she strapped the pack back on, Jack was waiting for her. He motioned her toward him, rifle ready as he scanned the night.
"Teal'c first," he told her when she was standing in front of him. "Then Daniel."
She nodded her understanding, her face and jaw tight.
She was watching his eyes carefully, and Jack realized he had to tamp down his own frustration and fear. She was experienced, but she was still young. Both she and Daniel were, and they'd rarely seen him flustered. He didn't have the scientific brilliance or the alien strength and knowledge that made this team special. He had the strategy and the backbone and the willingness to take the responsibility from their shoulders. He kept them together when forces would pull them apart.
He put his hand over Carter's trembling hands, stilling them. "Sam..." He used her first name. It was rare enough to really get her attention. She took a deep breath and looked up into his eyes. He held her gaze steadily. "Settle down. They'll both come home with us."
She hesitated, holding his gaze with wide eyes, and then she let out a long, slow breath. She nodded. "Yes sir," she said softly, and there was faith in her eyes. It was enough.
He led her in the same direction the fish people had disappeared with Teal'c. It was back into the town again, and Jack had to grit his teeth to keep from swearing out loud. He glanced behind for Carter every few moments, worried that he'd turn and find her boots sliding away into the mist, just like Daniel. He was worried about Daniel. Those tendrils that grabbed him hadn't seemed concerned about life or death. Daniel could fight a fair battle when motivated, but those... whatever they were, had pinned his arms and legs with ease.
Teal'c at least had a fighting chance. He hoped.
In front of them, a dark shadow suddenly materialized in the mist. Jack halted, thrusting a hand back to grab Carter's sleeve again. She stopped behind him and silently lifted her rifle, zeroing in on the shadow.
Jack licked his lips and curled his finger around the trigger. The shadow grew darker and larger. It rushed rapidly closer. Jack heard Sam take a quick, shallow breath, and the creak of her vest as the clips ground against her rifle.
The shadow burst from the mist, hurtling toward them, and Jack jerked backward, raising his rifle.
"Colonel!" Sam's hand grabbed his wrist, twisting it and pulling his aim down.
Teal'c stopped in front of them, bending at the waist to balance his staff weapon against his knees while he panted for breath.
"Teal'c!" Jack grabbed the Jaffa by the back of the head affectionately, a grin on his face. "Jesus. We thought you were..." He trailed away and settled for just rubbing the man's bald head.
Teal'c looked up at him with one raised brow. "They attempted to pull me into the sea. I resisted."
"You got away!" Sam squeezed his shoulder, and he inclined his head toward her.
"I did. I believe they allowed me to escape, but I do not know what their reason might have been."
"Who cares," Jack said. "We're not asking any questions. Let's get Daniel and get out of here."
"In what direction did they take Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.
Jack turned to the north and pointed. "There. They--" He broke off, startled, as his gaze fell on Daniel standing just outside the dark line of the forest. He blinked. "Daniel?"
"Daniel!" Sam called to him. She started to run forward, but was stopped by Jack's hand.
Daniel stood there, unmoving, watching them.
"What's the matter with him?" Sam asked softly.
Daniel suddenly smiled at them and waved for them to come toward him.
"Be alert," Jack reminded the others. He started forward, motioning for Carter to follow him and Teal'c to bring up the rear. As they approached, Daniel turned and disappeared into the forest.
"Daniel!" Jack called to him. There was no answer, and as they reached the place he'd been standing, they saw him again, a quarter click away in a moonlit clearing. He watched them and waved again. Follow me. Then he turned and walked into the darkness.
"Daniel!" Sam shouted. She started forward, and Jack had to hold her back again.
"Carter, slow it down. This isn't sitting well with me."
She turned to give him a frustrated glance. "Well, what choice do we have, sir? We still have to check it out."
Jack inclined his head in agreement. True. "Okay, but I'm on point."
She dropped back and let him move ahead of her. He walked carefully toward the last place Daniel had stood. The woods around them were quiet and softly lit by the moon. The mist was mysteriously thin here.
They soon came to another, smaller clearing on the edge of a thick pocket of pines. Daniel stood on a small mound, smiling. He waved at them as they stopped a short distance away.
Jack raised his fist, keeping Teal'c and Sam in place. He studied Daniel. "Daniel?"
Daniel smiled and motioned more vigorously at them.
Jack narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you speak?"
Daniel paused and then smiled and motioned at his neck. He waved them over again.
Jack slowly raised his rifle. “Who are you?”
Daniel gave him a confused look.
Jack steeled his gaze. "Who are you?" he demanded again.
"Come this way!" Sam suddenly cut in, waving to Daniel.
Daniel's face wavered with irritation. He motioned again for them to approach.
"Sir..." Sam's voice was laced with wariness.
Jack agreed. He brought the rifle up and tucked his cheek against the stock, looking down the sights toward Daniel's head. "I'll ask you one more time. Who are you?"
Daniel’s face fell into a malevolent glare, and his form shifted before their eyes. He grew several inches and dark hair flowed out from his head. His eyes became black, his skin golden and his clothes faded into a flowing robe of crimson. The new man glared at them in the darkness, hatred seeming to radiate from him in waves. “Nyarlathotep,” he replied in a low, heavily accented, dangerous voice. He gave them a dark glare. “You are too late. The Dreamer awakens and soon he will rule Earth again.”
Jack tightened his finger down on the trigger of his rifle. “You aren’t even near Earth, buddy.”
Nyarlathotop gave him an odd look, as if he couldn’t decide if Jack had a brain or not. “You opened the door yourself, did you not? You have cast the gate wide, and Cthulhu will cross. He will take his rightful place.”
"Right," Jack replied casually.
Nyarlathotep tilted his head slightly and then smiled. "Where is Earth now? What are the symbols?"
Jack huffed out a laugh. "Now, that's not even trying." He raised his rifle. "Where's Daniel?"
“You have chosen your own fate.” Nyarlathotop turned and twisted and seemed to fade into the fog.
Jack shot once, low. There was nothing there. He walked slowly forward, rifle still poised in front of his face. There was no sign of the man’s passing. Jack lowered the rifle and scanned the forest. Ahead there was a glint of white. He glanced back at Sam and Teal’c and motioned them forward.
++
In the middle of another small clearing there was a huge tree. It’s branches arched overhead, shutting out the stars. It had a wide, tall trunk, and it shaded the clearing well. No weeds or grass grew beneath its foliage. White cotton seemed to be draped from its lowest branches.
Jack frowned at it and poked it curiously with the barrel of his rifle. When he drew the gun back, the white gauze stuck to the metal. He grimaced.
“Sir,” Carter came up beside him and pointed. “There’s something hanging on the other side.”
Jack followed her finger and saw more of the white stuff, densely packed into an oblong ball, hanging 6 feet off the ground. It swung gently from side to side. He narrowed his eyes. “Why am I suddenly picturing gigantic spiders?”
Carter made a distressing sound, and he found it aptly proper.
“I will check it out, O’Neill,” Teal’c said softly. Jack wasn’t going to argue.
Teal’c crept quietly into the clearing under the branches and moved tentatively forward. Sam stepped forward too, going down to one knee so she could take a steady shot if he got in trouble.
Whiteness floated in Jack’s vision. He blinked at it, confused, his mind struggling to understand what he was seeing. For the briefest of moments he thought it had started to snow or that the fog had suddenly sunk down into the forest. Then he heard Teal’c start to shout, the sound cut-off violently with a click. Beside Jack, Sam suddenly gasped and her body rose up next to him. He thought she was standing up, but she kept going, and suddenly he saw that the whiteness was the gauzy strands. They had floated down and wrapped around both Teal’c’s and Sam’s throats and then jerked them back up.
They were being hanged.
Teal’c’s arms and back flexed with muscle, hard and rigid, as he fought to rip the gauze apart. It was obviously much stronger than it looked. Sam’s boots flailed in front of Jack, and he darted forward, grabbing her ankles and lifting her up, trying to ease the chokehold. Instead, the gauze lifted her higher.
“Carter!” He rose up on his toes and yanked her knife from her belt. She thrust a hand down toward him, and he placed it, hilt-first, into her fingers. She sawed at the gauze above her head.
Teal’c already had his out, but even now, more strands were floating down, attaching themselves to his arms, his chest, his legs.
Jack heard Sam take a whistling breath behind him. He pointed the barrel of his rifle up and fired, fully-automatic, spraying the branches with bullets.
Leaves showered down around him, and then something struck his shoulder, knocking him sideways. Teal’c fell to the ground and rose up on his knees immediately, hands clawing at the gauze and clearing it from his body. Jack fired again, and Sam fell this time. She fell forward onto the ground, gasping for breath.
More objects fell, hitting the dirt with wet, meaty thuds; some of them still moving. Jack toed the one that hit him in the shoulder. It was the size of a beach ball, and it had wings and lots of legs. The one at his feet bled yellow and curled in on itself. Jack stepped rapidly back.
He knelt down next to Carter. “Okay?”
She glanced at him with surprised eyes. “Yeah,” she said absently. She brought a piece of the gauze up and rubbed it between her fingers. “What is this stuff?”
He touched it as it drifted down from her hand. It felt sticky and wire-thin and strong. “Webbing?”
Teal’c joined them, and Jack glanced up at him. “You okay?”
Teal’c nodded. “I am. Thanks to you, O’Neill.”
Jack shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. You ever seen anything like this before?”
Teal’c gave him an intense gaze. “I have not.”
“Ow,” Carter rubbed at her neck. “It’s starting to burn a little bit.”
Jack glanced at Teal’c, and he inclined his head. “It burns me as well. Not as fire, but it irritates as acid.”
Jack swung his pack down and pulled the quickie med kit from a side pocket, handing them both an anti-septic wipe. He waited as they cleaned their skin off. “Better?”
“Indeed,” Teal’c confirmed.
Sam nodded. “Yes sir. I wonder if it’s some sort of digestive enzyme?”
Jack winced a bit at that, and then glanced over to where the heavy ball of gauze swung slowly in the wind. As he watched, the webbing seemed to fluctuate before his eyes, then it jumped a bit as something inside struggled. Jack shot to his feet. “Teal’c! Help me!”
He ran to the ball of gauze, his knife already out. In seconds, Teal’c had joined him and they hacked at the thick webbing, ripping it off in layers. As the weight of the wrapping came off, the form struggled more, and then they could hear a human voice coming through, wordless and desperate.
Jack ripped the last layer of gauze away from Daniel’s face. Daniel took a breath and then struggled strongly, his voice a frustrated growl.
“Daniel, calm down. We’ve got you.”
Teal’c lifted Carter up to cut the cord above the bundle, and Jack grabbed Daniel as he fell. Daniel stared up at him, a little wildly. “Jack! Watch out!”
Jack put a hand on his chest, holding him down. “We know, Daniel. Already met them. Hold still while we get this crap off of you.” He felt a shudder go through Daniel’s body, and he slid his hand up to the man’s shoulder, gripping him warmly. “Take it easy.”
Teal’c ripped out a piece of his jacket and used it to scrape the webbing off of Daniel’s skin and clothing. Sam followed with a few anti-septic wipes, cleaning the acid away. Daniel’s face was slightly red and streaked, the enzymes already doing their thing.
He sat up as he became free, his desperation calming. “Jesus…” He rubbed at his face, taking deep breaths.
Sam knelt beside him, keeping her rifle ready, her eyes shifting to watch the trees around them. She squeezed his shoulder. “You scared the hell out of us.”
Daniel glanced at her with wide eyes. “Sorry.”
She patted him and stood to keep guard with Teal’c. Jack looked Daniel over. “How do you feel?”
Daniel met his gaze and then nodded. “Okay. I think I’m fine.”
Jack paused and then sat back on his heels. “Good. Can you get up? The sooner we’re out of here, the happier I’ll be.”
“Yes,” Daniel answered emphatically. “I’ve never agreed with you more.”
Jack lifted one eyebrow. “Huh, and all it took were some giant flying spiders who wanted to eat you.”
Daniel flashed him a mordant glare, and Jack managed a smile, trying to put him at ease. If Daniel was flashing the long-suffering looks, he was fine.
“Let’s go,” Jack ordered. “Now.”
++
The red-robed priests surrounded the gate.
Jack knelt down behind a stand of brush and studied the situation. The priests stood in a circle, hands raised, their monotonous chanting drifting toward SG-1 on the fog. The gate itself was on a raised stone platform, above the mist swirling along the ground. It was activated, the blue shimmer of the active wormhole creating a supernatural effect as it illuminated the fog into a wavering wall.
“What’s that coming out of the gate?” Carter whispered from beside him.
Jack squinted at the gate. At first he thought the long tendrils were just mist, floating along the platform, and then he realized what they really were.
Daniel beat him to it. “I think they’re tentacles!” His hoarse whisper was incredulous.
Jack glanced at him. “What are they doing, calling a giant space squid?”
Daniel licked his lips and sat back, glancing between him and Sam. “Cthulhu is a huge creature, supposedly. With tentacles on his head, and a scaly body. I think he might also have wings. There was a picture in the journal, but I didn’t have time to study it.”
Jack felt completely at a loss. What the hell was all of this?
“We’ve got to find a way to shut the gate down and then dial home,” Sam said.
Jack studied the situation again. That was going to be a problem. He glanced at Sam. “How do we shut the gate down on them?”
Sam thought about it. “Well, we don’t want to do anything too severe, or we’ll never be able to dial out again.”
“Yes, and so?” Jack urged her on.
She bit her bottom lip. “Well, maybe we could short it out, like a fuse. Get it to reset.”
“Can you do that?”
She blinked at him. “Sure.”
“Do it.”
She pulled her pack off and started rummaging through. “I’ll need an energy source. Teal’c’s staff weapon should do it. You’ll need to distract the priests long enough for me to dig around in the DHD.” She glanced up then as Jack stared at her, one eyebrow high “Um, I mean, if you think that’s a good plan, sir…”
Jack sighed and grumbled, “It’s as good as anything else.” He glanced at Teal’c. “T, give your staff weapon to Daniel and take Carter’s rifle.”
Teal’c did immediately as he was told, handing the staff weapon to Daniel and accepting Sam’s rifle. She handed over an extra clip as well. Jack turned to Daniel. “Can you watch her back with that thing while she gets set up?”
Daniel nodded. “I’ve still got my pistol too, although my glasses disappeared during my little ride. I can’t see very clearly.”
Jack hesitated at that. “Don’t shoot anything unless you know what it is. It could be me or Teal’c.”
Daniel nodded.
Jack ejected the clip from his rifle and replaced it with a full one. “And don’t dial Earth when you get that far. Dial the Alpha Site. I don’t want them seeing Earth’s address and coming through next week.”
Sam nodded. “Yes sir.” She’d been steadily working as he talked, and when he glanced down he saw a strange contraption made of tape, a fork and a bullet shell.
“This better work, Carter. Something tells me we’re screwed if this thing makes it through the gate.”
Sam gave him a solemn look. “I’ll make it work, sir.”
He nodded. He liked that sort of talk. “Okay. Let’s go, Teal’c.”
++
Sam watched them go. The priests didn’t even turn as Jack and Teal’c strolled up. They simply went on with their chanting. It wasn’t until Jack spoke, his voice carrying across the clearing to them, that there was some hesitation in the chants, a lowering of hands. One of the priests walked up to the stone platform, turning to face Jack and Teal’c, his form morphing as he went, into a tall, dark, lean man.
Nyarlathotep.
“Who is that?” Daniel demanded, glancing at her.
She shook her head. “I couldn’t repeat the name if my life depended on it, Daniel. Nai yar something.”
“He’s a shape-shifter.” Daniel stared and talked absently. “The thousand-formed Nyarlathotep.”
“Yes, that’s it!” Sam smiled at him.
Daniel gave her a grim look in return. “We have to stop them soon, Sam.”
She picked up her conductor and motioned at him. They crept forward through the brush.
++
The shooting started soon after.
Nyarlathotep stood on the platform and shouted into the sky. Occasionally he looked down again to stare balefully at Jack and Teal’c. The priests ignored them, carrying on in their chanting with renewed vigor.
When Jack saw flashes of light start to form and wink around Nyarlathotep, he started shooting. The bullets passed harmlessly through the Great Priest, and the tentacles of Cthulhu rose up and battered the air behind him. A few of the thicker tentacles snaked out into the midst of the priests, heedlessly slapping them to the ground.
“Teal’c! Aim for the thing coming through the gate!”
Teal’c adjusted his fire to the tentacles, dodging as more of them charged through the gate and zeroed in on him. The air was full of the flailing arms of Cthulhu now, and Nyarlathotep stood safely in their midst, his chants rising above all the others.
Jack glanced toward the DHD and saw Carter shoulder-deep in the console, Daniel standing over her, staff-weapon in hand, eyes wide as he watched the battle.
“O’Neill!” Teal’c’s voice was urgent, uneasy.
Jack looked back and saw it. A great eye, half the size of the gate itself suddenly bulging out of the event horizon. It was cold and analytical, wide with understanding as it rolled from side to side, seeing all. A big scaly lid slid down over it and up again. It was an immense beast, bending over to look through the keyhole of another world. Its immigration would take days, maybe weeks, as it slid its gigantic body little by little through the stargate. Before it, and all around the great eye, insects flew into the world. Tiny starfish slithered through and onto the platform. They clung to the gate itself and to Nyarlathotep’s legs.
Jack staggered back, hardly believing his eyes. Teal’c was unloading a spray of fire into Cthulhu’s great eye, and it was having no effect.
“Carter!” Jack shouted for all he was worth.
She glanced up, saw the eye, and he saw her own eyes go wide. Daniel put a comforting hand on her shoulder and stepped in front of her, aiming the staff weapon toward the gate. He fired, and the eye blinked then rolled toward him. The tentacles swerved in the air and rushed toward him.
Jack ran that direction, firing. He could see the bullets digging into the scaly flesh, ripping it up, grinding it, but it was of little use. The tentacles were too thick to dismember, and Cthulhu didn’t seem to feel pain.
One of the flailing arms caught him in the hip and he went down, rolling over, and he tried not to shoot himself as he tumbled. Teal’c was right behind him, grabbing his arm, heaving him to his feet again, and they ran for the DHD. Sam was grabbing Daniel’s belt from behind, pulling him back as Jack fired point-blank into the largest tentacle closing in.
It swept toward him and he ducked. Then he jumped up and fired again. He and Teal’c dodged and fired, trying to draw the giant’s attention.
Carter jumped up and away from the DHD, shouting to Daniel. Jack heard the staff-weapon firing again, and then suddenly the wormhole flickered. Nyarlathotep turned toward them and screamed.
Jack jumped back, reaching out to drag Teal’c with him. “Get back!”
The tentacles dragged at the priests and raced for Jack’s feet. Jack turned and ran, shoving Teal’c toward Sam and Daniel, feeling the tentacles bump against his ankles and his knees, scrabbling for any sort of hold.
The wormhole flickered again, and then it suddenly shut down, disappearing. There was a sickening, wet, tearing sound, and then… silence.
Jack turned, rifle raised, to view the scene.
The gate was closed. The priests and Nyarlathotep were gone. At his feet, a severed tentacle twitched randomly.
Jack kicked it away. He looked at Daniel. “Dial it up, Daniel. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
++
It was a week later when Daniel suddenly burst through the doors of the Control room, the journal in his hands. “General!”
General Hammond looked up in surprise at the outburst. Beside him, Sam rose from her chair, and Jack turned from the window.
“Daniel?”
Daniel motioned at the journal. “Jack! I found something. It’s bad!”
Jack eyed the book in his hands. “Don’t tell me, the giant space squid reassembled the gate after we blew it up.”
Daniel blinked at him. “No.” He flipped the book open and started dragging his finger along the words. “This says that the Elder Gods imprisoned Cthulhu in R’yleh along with servants and his own spawn.”
“His own spawn?” Jack folded his arms across his chest and lifted a brow.
“Yes!” Daniel glanced back and forth between him and Sam. “Cthulhu used to rule Earth long before it was even named. The Elder Gods imprisoned him in R’yleh, killing all the old evil and allowing the Ancient Ones to escape mortal form, along with space and time. The Goa’uld came afterward.”
Behind them the klaxons started blaring as an incoming wormhole established in the gate.
“And?” Jack glanced back at the gate.
Daniel grabbed his arm, jerking him back around. “I just translated the last of the journal this morning. It told me the location of R’yleh.”
Jack stared at him. “Where is it?”
Daniel took a deep breath, eyes tracking to the iris-covered gate behind him. “The iris won’t stop him!”
Jack grabbed his shoulders. “Daniel, where is it?”
Daniel watched with wide eyes as the iris on the gate bulged suddenly outward. “Too late!”
Jack whirled around, breath hissing inward as he stared at the gate. “What…”
Daniel dropped the journal, his voice falling to a whisper. “It’s beneath the Pacific Ocean, Jack. He never left.”
~end~
Next up- The OT3 ficathon...
My prompts were "insect", "shapeshifter" and "alone in the dark". Which... this has some loose hints at all three. I really wanted to do a smutty shapeshifter story, but I couldn't make my mind move beyond the werewolf thing, and just... ehh.
The Slumbering Place in the Stars
(A Lovecraftian style story)
By Jennghis Kahn
Pairing- Oh, a little of everyone, but it’s a genfic.
Genre- Horror
Rating- R for violence.
A/N- Because I like HP Lovecraft and there’s too many similarities between his mythology and that of Stargate. Plus, I’ve always wanted to write a horror story. The stuff based on the Cthulhu mythos is from my own knowledge and a few websites I used to check my facts. It’s mostly based on the version of the mythos added to by August Derleth.
Summary- "In the depths, the great old one slumbers. The powerful one. The great priest. The dreamer of dreams waits for the stars to align." But it was all just myth written by a strange old man. Wasn’t it?
^^^^^^^^
PTX-666. Nice. The planet even looked ominous. The stone steps they walked down from the gate were covered in a slippery green algae. The various stone ruins amassed around were the same. In any direction they looked, they could see banks of mist and fog in the distance. The air was fetid and heavy, full of vapor and water that held no warmth. By the time they'd walked ten paces from the gate, Daniel had pulled a frown and never stopped.
"Pleasant,” Jack muttered.
"It is not, O'Neill,” Teal’c insisted, drawing a look from the Colonel that would have frozen anyone else.
"I'm not picking up any radio signals, sir." Sam turned slowly in a circle, a small device in her hands. "It could just be the mist... "
"Keep checking, Carter. He was supposed to be here already." Jack motioned them forward; stopping when only two of his three team members began moving. "Daniel. Now would be good for us."
The archeologist was hunched down on his heels, his fingers trying to clear moss and algae from the glyphs carved into a stonewall. His fingernails were green with the effort. "Jack. This is very strange."
Jack's eyes narrowed. He didn't want to hear 'strange'. He motioned Sam and Teal'c back to him and walked to Daniel's side. "What do you have?"
"It's a mixture of Arabic, ancient Sumerian and Egyptian hieroglyphs."
Jack waited but when no further explanation was forthcoming, he shifted impatiently. "And that's bad?"
"I don't know about bad, but it's certainly unusual. And it definitely proves an Earth presence here."
"Can you read it?"
"Umm...” Daniel sighed. "Something about 'great old ones' and... " He leaned closer to one part and shook his head. "I think it's the name of this world, but I can't quite translate it."
"Well, let's have a look around." Jack ordered.
"In the depths, the great old one slumbers." Daniel squinted at the wall. "The powerful one. The great priest. The dreamer of dreams waits for the stars to align."
"A Goa'uld?" Sam asked him. “I thought the Tok’ra we’re meeting said the threat here wasn’t Goa’uld.”
"No," Teal'c answered before Daniel could open his mouth. "No Goa'uld would allow himself to be called ‘old’."
Daniel nodded in agreement. "This isn't Goa'uld-like. This is different. This has a strong edge of human myth to it." He tilted his head. “Something about it is familiar…”
“So, let’s check around. See what we find.”
There were several well-worn paths leading away from the gate in the same general direction. As they walked, the sound of lapping water flowed in from their right. Misty tendrils floated above the sound and through the branches of huge trees. The air was drenched with a wet, musty smell.
“It’s almost primordial,” Daniel commented quietly. His words seemed to die as they left his mouth, carried off and hidden in the fog.
++
The town was full of narrow stone streets and only a few dozen wooden buildings. It was surrounded a circular market place with a large well in the center. Even here there was the constant din of rolling waves. In the late morning the fog had still not burned away. It hid the sky and poured in from the west between the buildings, roiling down the streets. The brine in the air had aged the wooden planks that sided the buildings, leaving them cracked and splintered and dull gray.
Jack led his team into the middle of it.
There were people walking among the shops, but the place was eerily silent. They could hear the muffled, repeated clanging of a warning bell from the west, signaling landfall to the ships at sea.
“Looks like a real party town,” Jack muttered dryly. A passing man wearing a big, black hat held Jack’s gaze with steady, resentful eyes. Jack smiled at him. “Hi.” The man did not reply and moved on. Jack glanced back at Carter. “Happy bunch.”
Sam lifted her eyebrows in agreement, and he watched her hug her rifle a little closer. He wanted her alert and didn’t think she was unduly jumpy, so he said nothing to calm her.
They walked slowly around the small courtyard, and Jack carefully watched the townspeople while trying not to appear dangerous. The people in the market place had all stopped and stared openly at them.
“Daniel?” Jack jerked his head toward one small group of grim villagers.
Daniel licked his lips nervously-they all felt the unease-and then approached the small group. The people regarded him suspiciously. He tried to smile. “Hello. We’re friendly. Do you speak our language? Can you understand me?”
They only stared at him with no indication of hearing or understanding.
Daniel tried again. “We’re looking for someone who was going to meet us here. Is there another stranger in town?”
One of the group, a woman, started chanting softly, her eyes burning and hard as she stared at Daniel. Behind him, Sam and Teal’c exchanged an uneasy glance.
One of the men pointed toward a taller building nearly obscured in the mist coming from the sea. “If the one you seek is here, he will be at the hotel.”
“Thank you.” Daniel started to say more but the group turned and walked away. He turned to look at the rest of SG-1. “Well… that was odd.”
“Yeah, that was a little more than ‘odd’, Daniel.” Jack’s eyebrows were pulled low over his eyes as he glanced around. “Are you sure this Tok’ra is kosher?”
Daniel blinked and pursed his lips. “Well, I mean, I think so. He’s given us good information before, and his message has rung true so far. This definitely doesn’t have a Goa’uld-ish feeling to it. If there’s something else here that he’s concerned about, we really need to check it out. He said it could have dire consequences for Earth.”
“Yeah,” Jack argued sardonically. “It’s just that our experiences with the Tok’ra seem to always end up with them being not so worried about Earth and much more worried about themselves.”
Teal’c lifted his head and gazed at Jack. “They do not have strength of numbers, O’Neill. They must guard their resources carefully.”
Jack eyed him. “Et tu, big guy?”
Teal’c narrowed his eyes and peered at Jack intensely. Jack cleared his throat and turned back to Daniel. “Okay, we’ve got one day here, so let’s find this guy and get out. This place is giving me the creeps.”
“Not to mention it’s plain uncomfortable,” Sam added, craning her neck in irritation against the damp ripstop cloth of her jacket.
“Tell me about it,” Daniel said wryly as he pulled his glasses off and wiped at them with a corner of his sleeve. When he put them on again they were smudged and beaded with condensation.
++
From the steps of the hotel they could finally see the edge of the sea across a wide shore. The fog seemed less dense here, which made little sense but could hardly be argued when it was right in front of their faces. The hotel was old and dark and several of the windows were boarded over with salted, brown planks. The whole town reeked of wet wood.
The lobby was covered in a thick layer of dust half turned to grime and grease. Candles on the front desk had dripped their wax down the front and onto the floor.
A man in a thick woolen suit suddenly appeared behind it from a door to the side.
“Howdy,” Jack called.
The man said nothing but fixed them with a steely gaze. Jack sighed and motioned to Daniel.
Daniel moved forward once again. “Excuse me, but we’re here to meet a man and we’re wondering if you’ve seen him.”
“I have not,” the man replied firmly and sharply.
Daniel hesitated a moment in surprise. “Uhh… I haven’t even described him to you yet.”
The man simply stared at him.
Daniel cleared his throat nervously. “So… he’s about my height, bald, blue eyes.”
The man stared and then finally spoke. “As I have said, I have not seen him.”
Daniel stared back and then gave a faint smile with a nod. “Okay. Right. Thanks.”
The man didn’t react or reply. He simply watched them.
Daniel turned and gave Jack a look. What the hell?
Jack replied with a shrug. How the hell do I know? “I guess he’s not here yet.”
“What do you want to do, sir?” Carter shifted her rifle on its clips.
Jack thought for a moment. “Well,” he said quietly. “We have 24 hours until we need to check-in. Let’s get comfortable.” He looked pointedly at Daniel. “You still got that local currency this guy sent you?”
Daniel nodded and dug into his coat pocket to produce the coins. He dropped them in Jack’s palm.
Jack stepped up to the desk and dropped a few of them down onto the wood top. “We’ll take a room,” he told the man cheerfully.
The clerk stared unblinkingly at him but the corners of his mouth turned down. “I told you I have not seen this man you are searching for.”
“Yeah, we got that. We’ll wait.”
The clerk shifted uneasily. “How long will you wait?”
Jack shrugged. “Until he gets here.”
The clerk chewed his top lip. “I see.”
With great dramatic flair, he turned to pluck a pen from the table behind him. Then he leaned down over the guest registry and blew a great huff of air out, sending dust up from the pages in a great cloud. Jack blinked rapidly and waved at the swirling soot. The clerk slapped the pen down in front of him with a menacing glare.
Jack stared back, the humor gone from his eyes, and then picked it up to sign the registry.
++
The room was amazingly clear of dust. The furniture was old and the walls were stained, but the general state of the room was neat and clean. A simple bed, a desk and a table with a washing basin lined the walls.
They plunked their packs down on the floor, and Jack sat heavily in the desk chair with a hard exhalation. “I gave up retirement for this,” he muttered, pulling his cap off to run his fingers through his short brown hair.
“Tanner seemed very worried about this place,” Daniel said, glancing around the room. “Even for a Tok’ra.”
Sam sank down to sit on the bed, wrists resting on the butt of her rifle. “I thought he was already here in the town when you got the message from him, Daniel.”
Daniel glanced warily at her. “So did I.”
“Do you think he could be in trouble?” Teal’c asked.
Daniel shrugged. “Maybe he had to leave suddenly.”
Jack leaned down, elbows on knees, and peered up at Daniel. “Then why not leave a message? He’s here. Maybe he’s drunk in a bar somewhere.”
Daniel shot him a look that said not bloody likely.
“O’Neill.” Teal’c’s voice was quiet and serious. He stood at the window looking out.
Jack got up immediately and went to him, followed by Sam and Daniel. The window overlooked the small courtyard in the center of town. As they looked down, several of the townspeople stood below staring up.
Jack narrowed his eyes, waiting, but the people didn’t move. They stood there, faces shadowed, heads tilted up toward the window.
Jack waved at them, but they didn’t react.
“Well,” he said. “Now I’m really creeped out.”
++
By the time they got down to the courtyard, the people were gone. Jack and Teal’c walked lazily around the well and peered into the shops, but the streets were strangely empty now. The fog was finally lifting as well. By Jack’s watch it was late afternoon, although no sign of the sun could be found. He stood on one narrow, cobblestone street and watched the mist slide over the surface. It moved languorously, slithering from side to side toward the sea.
Apparently there was nothing about this town that wasn’t fucking odd.
He’d asked a few people about Tanner and was met with either stone-faced silence, cryptic mumblings or flat denial. The bad feeling in his gut that had started the moment they’d stepped through the gate was only intensifying. He was debating about whether to stay the night. It suddenly didn’t seem like such a great idea.
“O’Neill.” Teal’c approached him from the right, fresh from his own exploration of the town. Normally Jack would have let Daniel do the interacting with the locals, but some instincts just wouldn’t be suppressed. There was something wrong here, and he’d left the archeologist in the room with Carter and the gear.
Provided they stayed there, of course. Both of them had a nasty habit of wandering away and getting into trouble. Well, Daniel more than Carter. Carter had her own special brand of irritating where she touched ‘bad’ things causing them to explode or do unnatural things, like turn everyone into dogs. Or something.
“Any luck?” he asked Teal’c. He half hoped there’d been no sign as then he’d feel fairly confident about just getting the hell out of there.
Teal’c frowned. “I spoke to a fisherman who claims he saw Tanner two days ago.”
Crap. Jack lifted his brows. “And? Where is he now?”
Teal’c drew his brows down over his eyes. “I do not know. The man was inebriated and difficult to understand. He said Tanner went into the sea.”
Jack was startled. “Into the sea?”
Teal’c nodded. “The man pointed toward the sea and said that the stranger went with the Deep Ones.”
Jack blinked at him. “Ah. What, is that alien for 'he sleeps with the fishes'?”
Teal’c looked contemplative. “I believe that phrase might infer actual death, O'Neill. There is no way for humans to acquire oxygen beneath the water,” he stated firmly.
Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly, turning to scan the street. “Thanks, Teal'c. Okay, well, let’s go check out the beach and then get back to the room. It’s getting dark pretty quickly.”
++
“Uhmm, our friends are back again.” Daniel’s voice held that strange mix of calmness and alarm that more often signaled the latter. He looked away from his post at the window to where Jack and Sam knelt on the floor over a pile of their collected gear.
“What?” Jack climbed wincingly to his feet and went to the window. He leaned in to look out the same crack in the shutter that Daniel had been peering through. The darkness glowed green, casting the town in an strange light. It was an effect of the planet’s moonlight reflecting off the huge quantities of mist pouring off the oceans, according to Carter.
Jack looked down the several floors to the ground below. As had happened twice already over the past three hours, there were several of the odd townspeople standing motionless in the night, staring up at their window. “Don’t these people ever sleep?”
“Maybe they’re nocturnal,” Daniel said. “There’s certainly more of them now then when we first arrived.”
Jack pulled back from the window and glanced at him. “But what’s with the staring?”
“Well, we’re outsiders, sir,” Sam offered, stuffing a rolled rain poncho back into her pack.
Jack met her gaze. “This isn’t ‘stranger’ staring. This is freaky, zombie-like staring.”
“I concur,” Teal’c said from his chair next to the door. “These people are not normal.”
Jack waved a hand at the Jaffa. “See? Thank you.”
Daniel leaned back against the wall next to the window and shook his head. “We can’t hold all of the cultures we meet out here to Earth’s standards of behavior, Jack. What’s rude to us may not be to them.”
“How about our standard of death, Daniel?” Jack’s voice turned sarcastic. “Can we hold them to Earth’s standard of that?”
Daniel furrowed his brow and folded his arms over his chest. “Well… death does seems a bit rude, yes.” There was just a hint of answering sarcasm to his voice that made Jack narrow his eyes.
“It is a little creepy,” Sam admitted, meeting Daniel’s eyes.
He held her look for a long moment and then shrugged. “So what do you want to do?”
“Get the hell out of here. Early tomorrow,” Jack stated. “We’ve found nothing useful here and these-” He motioned towards the window. “-People, will barely talk to us. Somehow I doubt they have anything valuable to share about Tanner or anything else.”
++
Sam opened her eyes into darkness a few hours later unsure of what had awakened her. It had been difficult to fall asleep to begin with. Strange noises and the ever-present humidity of the misty environment made them all uncomfortable.
There was a motion of shadow across the meager light coming in from their shuttered window. She turned her head to look at it. The light settled back into stillness. She felt the hair on her arms rise. Again and again she’d caught a flicker out of the corner of her eye, as if something sought to sneak up on her, only to turn her head and find nothing. Similarly, she'd found Teal'c and Jack doing the same. Something was there, just outside of their vision.
A soft noise that didn't belong in the room made her muscles tighten painfully as she froze. She felt the hardwood floor suddenly unyielding below her bedroll. Her eyes rolled to the left, finding the Colonel in his own bedroll, eyes closed and chest rising slowly and rhythmically. Teal'c was likewise on the other side of him.
The soft click came again.
She looked at the door to their room. There was nothing at first, and then she watched as the doorknob slowly began turning to the left. When it reached the end of it's turn, it held, and there was a long pause and then a creak as someone leaned on the door. The lock held, and then the knob rotated right again and repeated the process. She watched it with a hand on her rifle, her mouth gone dry.
When she rose silently to her knees, she saw Daniel sitting shadowed and shirtless on the bed with their gear, his turn for watch. His pistol was in his hand and his eyes were glued to the moving doorknob and didn't wander even as he whispered to her, "They don't have any weapons that I've seen. Why would they do this?"
She shook her head and didn't answer, instead crawling quietly to the Colonel's bedroll and touching him lightly on the shoulder.
"Sir." She kept her voice barely audible.
He woke immediately; his eyes so black in the darkness that he almost seemed supernatural himself. "Carter?"
"The door."
His eyes shifted to the door, and he rose quickly, pulling his P-90 from beside him. "Teal'c?"
"I see, O'Neill." Teal'c was a large, dark shadow already moving gracefully to the left of the door, his staff weapon in his hands.
"Daniel. Stay there but get down," Jack ordered in a soft voice, adding hand signals out of habit.
Daniel crouched low on the bed and watched the door. The knob rotated slowly back to the left. He could almost imagine the wooden slab pulsing with some unseen force behind it, bulging inward as some creature tried to force it open.
Teal'c reached for the doorknob, his hand pausing beside it as it turned. Sam and Jack raised their weapons.
When the knob reached the apex of its turn, Teal'c wrapped his hand around it carefully. He yanked the door open and pulled it wide, bringing his staff weapon up and hearing Daniel's sharp exhalation.
There was no one there.
"What the...?" Jack muttered and moved warily to the doorway.
"Sir...” Sam warned him to be careful.
He moved first to one side of the door and then the other, peering as far down the hallway outside of the room as he could without stepping across the threshold. Finally, he peered slowly around the doorframe in both directions. He pulled back and closed the door, swallowing hard.
"It's empty."
"This is most disturbing, O'Neill," Teal'c rumbled quietly, and Jack couldn't agree with him more. Or at least, not until Daniel piped up from beside the window again.
"They're back again. And they've brought some more friends."
++
A semi-circle of red-robed priests stood beneath the window. They held small identical books open to the hooded shadows of their faces. Random townspeople stood motionless behind them.
"Okay. That's a little strange," Daniel whispered absently as the rest of SG-1 crowded in beside him.
"A cult?" Sam asked softly beside his ear.
His mouth tugged into a frown. "There is kind of a hive mind type of feeling here."
"Like we experienced on P3X-289?" Teal'c asked.
"Yes, but those people were open to interaction and didn't hide their connections to the computer links."
"No weird chanting or breaking and entering there either," Jack stated grimly, ignoring the glances thrown his way by Daniel and Sam.
"This climate is so puzzling...” Daniel muttered quietly, bringing his fingers up to trace the patterns of water drops on the glass. "This isn't a comfortable place for humans to live. It's much too wet. It feels like you're drowning if you breathe in too deeply."
"Maybe they aren't human," Sam offered, but Daniel gave her a glance that told her he was way ahead of her.
“I don’t give a crap what they are,” Jack suddenly stated, turning away from the window. “Either way, we’re out of here. Now. Get your gear together.”
“Yes sir.” Sam began rolling her sleeping bag up quickly. Teal’c said nothing, but he sat in the desk chair to tie his boots, his eyes glancing warily at the door from time to time.
Daniel traced a path through the condensation that had formed on the inside of the window, brows furrowed in thought.
“Daniel, now.” Jack prodded him in the shoulder, in no mood to hang around and listen to arguments.
Daniel suddenly frowned at the window and bent down close. He raised his glasses and squinted. “What is that?”
“What?” Jack asked uneasily. From the other side of the bed, Sam sat up on her knees and watched.
Daniel suddenly huffed out a warm breath across the glass. Briefly a few letters appeared and then slowly faded.
“Were those words?” Sam asked excitedly, rising quickly and joining him at the window.
Daniel huffed again, moving his head from one side of the window to the other. The words appeared again. “It’s a message!” Daniel exclaimed, glancing at Jack.
Jack pulled a face. “What? I do the same thing in the mirror at home when I’m shaving. Write my name or… other things.”
“Do you write it in Ancient?” Daniel threw back. He breathed on the window again, not waiting for an answer.
“Well,.. No,” Jack shrugged, answering anyway. He leaned in next to his two scientists to peer at the words in the mist. “What’s it say?”
Daniel breathed a few more times and then sat back on his heels, pursing his lips. Sam squeezed his shoulder. “Daniel?”
He glanced absently at them. “’Seven ahead, two right,’” he said. “And the Tok’ra symbol meaning important information or danger. It’s a warning of sorts. To pay attention and heed his words.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “Like… Kree?”
Daniel shot him a sardonic look. “Yes. Like Kree.”
“Seven ahead, two right. Is that a combination of some sort? A warning to some trap? What is it?” Sam looked to Daniel for a reply.
Daniel hesitated, thinking, his eyes sweeping the room. “I wonder…” He stood and put his back to the window and then took seven even steps directly away from it. At the end of the line, he turned right and glanced down. The wooden slats of the floor were old and weary. Dirt and age filled each crack in between them, sealing them tightly, except…
He knelt down next to one plank that had dark edges, the dust disturbed from the edges. “Sam!” He motioned for her to come quickly.
She dropped beside him as he tried to use his fingernails to pry the wooden board free. “Wait,” she urged, reaching down to pull the ka-bar knife from her belt. With Jack looming over her from behind, she slid the blade into the area around the edges of the board and tilted it upward. The plank creaked and then popped up easily. Daniel pried it the rest of the way out.
There was black space beneath the board, and Jack tapped his shoulder with a small flashlight. Daniel took it and aimed the light into the hole. “Something’s down there…”
He started to reach down, hesitating when Jack suddenly barked out a sharp, “Be careful!”
He pulled up something covered in cloth and wrapped in cord.
“What is it?” Jack demanded immediately.
Daniel ignored him and slid to sit on the floor, back against the wall, cradling the package on his lap. He handed the flashlight to Sam, and she knelt next to his legs, aiming the light for him, peering at it curiously.
Daniel unwound the cord and set it aside, and then he peeled the cloth away. He shook it out as it came free, revealing it to be a shirt with lacing at the collar and dark stains along the front. He exchanged wary glances with Sam.
“It looks like blood,” she said quietly.
He nodded in agreement, swallowing hard. Inside the package were two books. One was a simple bound journal. It was small and worn and wound tight with leather cord. The other was bigger and ancient, it’s soft cover an odd brown color and texture. It was also bound, but by a black silk ribbon that was wound repeatedly around the girth. Daniel traced the odd cover and then jerked his hand away.
“Daniel?” Sam leaned down to eye him carefully.
He grimaced. “It’s… warm.”
She reached out and placed her fingertips on the book. It felt… warm and moist and distinctly repulsive. She jerked her hand back and wiped it against her pants. “Holy…”
Daniel set it aside, rubbing his fingertips together in discomfort once it was gone. He unwound the journal, and a folded paper fell from inside onto his lap. He plucked it up and opened it, reading silently for a few minutes.
“Well?” Jack asked after he hadn’t said anything in a while.
Daniel glanced up. “It’s Tanner’s. He was in this room. It’s a warning, I think.”
“Read it,” Jack ordered.
Daniel cleared his throat and read:
I’m afraid my time is short now. Once they realized I had discovered their plans, they began moving quickly. I’m cut off from the stargate and have no way of communicating for help. I fear the Tau’ri I am to meet will soon discover the same fate in their future. The Goa’uld pale next to the danger of the Great Old Ones.
These people know exactly what they are bringing through the gate and into this galaxy. They know and they rejoice. How this knowledge has survived all this time is a mystery. The Elder Times of Earth were a very different thing from today. The Tok’ra and the Goa’uld were yet unborn when this evil was ruling the stars.
By disguising myself as a Tok’ra I had hoped to keep this evil buried and trapped forever, but I have failed. The walls of R’yleh crumble, and along with them Cthulhu’s prison. Killing the legends was impossible, and when the Goa’uld took the ancient Tau’ri from Earth, they took the elder legends with them. The knowledge survived and bided its time.
As the Tau’ri were seeded from the stars, so they then seeded the universe with the power of these memories.
I will hide this in my room and pray to my gods that SG-1 is as resourceful as legends tell.
Daniel Jackson. If you find this, know that I am gone and there is no help for it. I will be the lucky one if these people succeed with their evil designs. I am known as Tanner among the Tok’ra, but among my people, the Elder Gods, I am Bast. I have written everything I have discovered in my journal. The other book is to be destroyed if you're able. It is that infernal evil, the mythology of the Great Old Ones. The Necronomicon.
Stop them. You must stop Cthulhu, or your life, your whole galaxy, is lost.
There is howling beyond the door now. Goodbye.
Daniel glanced up and licked his lips nervously. "Well, that's interesting." The rest of SG-1 stared at him and each other in silence. Daniel thumbed through the journal, reading, until Jack lost patience.
"What does it mean?" Jack demanded.
Daniel hesitated, and then looked up nervously. "It means that Tanner is dead, or incapacitated in some way. He wasn't a real Tok'ra."
"And?" Jack began pulling his TAC vest on.
Daniel swallowed. "There was a 20th century horror writer named H.P. Lovecraft. He's well known for creating a whole universe of bad things based around an evil god named Cthulhu. According to Tanner-- I mean Bast-- those stories are actually true."
Sam clicked the flashlight off. "Did you ever read the stories?"
Daniel sighed. "Ahh, a few of them, during my teenage angst years. Otherwise, not really. Not enough to know what we're facing here."
Jack tossed him his TAC vest. "Well, you don't have time to read right now. We're leaving."
++
The robed priests were gone by the time they reached the street. The town was silent and dark, lit only by a few archaic street lanterns and a muted moon in a cloud-filled sky. The ever-present fog rolled along the streets.
Jack waved Teal'c out into the open and then followed. When they'd cleared the courtyard, he motioned for Sam and Daniel.
"You think this could be a trap?" Daniel whispered.
"Yes," Jack answered sharply. "I think this whole thing smells rather trappish actually."
"Jack, we really do need to investigate what's happening in this town."
"No," Jack growled. "What we need to do is get to the stargate and get the hell out of here."
"Sir, we really do--" Sam started in on him as well.
"Carter!" Jack cut her off with a glare. "We're getting out of here. Period. Now, stay with Daniel and follow me."
She might have rolled her eyes a bit, he couldn't really tell. He fixed them both with a steady glare to make sure they got the point, and then he motioned to Teal'c to bring up the rear and they set off across the courtyard.
They weren't even out of town when Jack thought he saw something from the corner of his eye. It wasn't an unusual thing on this planet, and he'd been resisting the impulse to whirl around at every slight movement in his peripheral vision. He slowed his walk, focusing in that direction without turning his head. When the movement came again, a white flash, he snapped his head around, eyes scanning the darkness.
A shape ducked back behind the corner of a dilapidated boathouse.
Jack held his fist up, stopping the team, and he lowered himself slowly to one knee. A glance behind told him the rest had followed his lead. He motioned toward the barn. Look there. Be alert.
There was a flicker of shadow from the same corner. Jack squinted into the darkness. They weren't equipped with night vision for this mission. He was about to take Carter and go explore when he heard a soft sound behind them, followed by a gasp that sounded like Daniel.
He whirled around and found four shapes approaching in the night from behind. He thought they were humans in some sort of weird costumes at first. And then he realized that their slick, scaled skin was real. That their heads were rounded and flat, like fish, their eyes bulging, gills rippling from the sides of their necks. The whiteness of their smooth bellies glowed eerily in the fog. Their webbed hands reached out as they drew closer.
"What the hell?" Jack's heart jumped in his chest. The fish people hesitated just out of reach, tilting their heads to peer at SG-1 with first one rolling eyeball and then the other. Teal'c had turned to brandish his staff weapon, and Jack glanced around and found more of the shapes approaching from different directions. "What the hell are these things, Daniel?"
"How should I know?" Daniel had his pistol up and was back to back with Sam, helping to guard their flanks.
"Sir...?" Carter's voice was a question, asking for permission as she swatted at webbed fingers with the barrel of her rifle.
"Steady, Carter."
"O'Neill!' Teal'c called across her head. "Perhaps these are the Deep Ones the villager spoke of. The ones that took Tanner into the sea."
The fish people began making sounds, a guttural squabbling sound, thick and wet. The air seemed to whistle through their gills. They weren't attacking yet though, and Jack was hesitant to shoot lest it drive them into a frenzy and set them to violence.
"Who are you?" Daniel suddenly asked them.
"Daniel!"
"It can't hurt!" Daniel glanced at him, helplessly.
The decision was made when one of the beasts got its claws into Carter's vest. Teal'c sent a shot into the fish beast's side, and it went down. Jack prepared for a battle, but the rest of the beings suddenly fell back. The hovered there, out of reach, and squabbled in their wet voices. At least they were fallible. Jack glanced at the path ahead, trying to discover an escape. The squabbling behind them got louder. He turned back.
They shifted nervously in a pack, obviously angry. Some would try to approach, only to be driven back by Teal'c's glare and the sound of the staff weapon being primed.
"Hold your fire unless they get too close!" Jack ordered. "We're going to try and move toward the gate."
"Sir!" Carter's voice was excited, startled.
He glanced at her and found her staring down. He looked down and found the fog growing dense around their feet. It swirled in around them, heavy and cold, and in seconds it was to their knees. "What the?" Jack swallowed his fear. This was not like anything they'd come across before. Not all at once like this. He shuffled his feet around on the ground, trying to feel anything beneath. Behind him, the staff weapon fired again.
Suddenly Daniel let out a yelp and flailed his arms.
"Daniel!" Jack stepped toward him and then stopped short. Thin, white tendrils slithered up Daniel's legs, winding around his knees and thighs and then pulling tight. Daniel gasped and started to fall forward. He was stopped as another tendril suddenly shot out of the fog and wrapped thickly around his neck, pulling his body backwards.
"Daniel!" Sam raised her rifle but her shot was blocked by Daniel himself.
"Your knife, Carter!" Jack reached for his, charging toward Daniel, dimly aware that Teal'c was firing regularly now. The tendrils jerked Daniel onto his back then wrenched him onto his side. Daniel gave a choking cough, his fingers clawing at the tendrils around his neck. Jack dove down and grabbed his pack just as he was being pulled away. Whatever the thing was, it was incredibly strong. It was all Jack could do to hold on while Carter knelt beside him and chopped at the tendril around Daniel's neck with her knife. After 5 or 6 good whacks the tendril fell away and Daniel took in a gasping breath.
Then more tendrils came out of the fog and wrapped around his arms, snaked around his waist and his chest. Jack grabbed Daniel's pack in an iron grip and tried to hug him around the chest, but with one terrific jolt, Daniel was gone, his pack loose in Jack's hands. They watched his boots disappear into the fog as he was dragged along the ground with incredible speed. He cried out, the sound moving away from them quickly and then fading into the forest.
"Daniel!" Carter shouted, her voice nearly cracking with intensity. She rose and darted forward to go after him, and Jack had to grab her pack to keep her in place. "Carter, stay put! That's an order!" He turned to look for Teal'c. "Teal'c!" he barked.
The fish people had surrounded the Jaffa and were swarming over him, too close now for Teal'c to fire his staff weapon. He made no noise, but was forced bodily backward, further into their midst. Jack let go of Carter's pack, trusting her to stay put and he brought his rifle up, firing at the feet of the fish people, trying to make them back off. Beside him, Sam raised her own and started picking off beasts toward the outskirts of the mob. They fell, wounded, and crawled away, back toward the sea.
Instead of scattering, they forced Teal'c faster, separating him from Jack and Sam. Jack fired again. In a rush of movement, Teal'c went down underneath their onslaught, and they quickly dragged him away toward the beach.
"No!" Jack started after them, reaching out to grab Carter's sleeve and drag her with him. "Teal'c!"
The squabbling faded as quickly as Daniel's cry had. In moments, the area was silent.
Jack craned his head around, searching wildly, dragging Carter along by the sleeve. There just wasn't anything. Even tracks were obscured by the fog. He came to a stop, turning around in a circle, listening in the darkness. All he heard was Carter breathing hard beside him. "Shit!" he swore, his fingers curling in tighter on Carter's sleeve, keeping her close. "Shit!"
++
Sam swung her pack down to the ground and yanked it open, pulling out anything unnecessary: BDU's, sleeping bag, anything disposable. She replaced them with Daniel's journals, his archeological tools, the books they’d found in the room. When she strapped the pack back on, Jack was waiting for her. He motioned her toward him, rifle ready as he scanned the night.
"Teal'c first," he told her when she was standing in front of him. "Then Daniel."
She nodded her understanding, her face and jaw tight.
She was watching his eyes carefully, and Jack realized he had to tamp down his own frustration and fear. She was experienced, but she was still young. Both she and Daniel were, and they'd rarely seen him flustered. He didn't have the scientific brilliance or the alien strength and knowledge that made this team special. He had the strategy and the backbone and the willingness to take the responsibility from their shoulders. He kept them together when forces would pull them apart.
He put his hand over Carter's trembling hands, stilling them. "Sam..." He used her first name. It was rare enough to really get her attention. She took a deep breath and looked up into his eyes. He held her gaze steadily. "Settle down. They'll both come home with us."
She hesitated, holding his gaze with wide eyes, and then she let out a long, slow breath. She nodded. "Yes sir," she said softly, and there was faith in her eyes. It was enough.
He led her in the same direction the fish people had disappeared with Teal'c. It was back into the town again, and Jack had to grit his teeth to keep from swearing out loud. He glanced behind for Carter every few moments, worried that he'd turn and find her boots sliding away into the mist, just like Daniel. He was worried about Daniel. Those tendrils that grabbed him hadn't seemed concerned about life or death. Daniel could fight a fair battle when motivated, but those... whatever they were, had pinned his arms and legs with ease.
Teal'c at least had a fighting chance. He hoped.
In front of them, a dark shadow suddenly materialized in the mist. Jack halted, thrusting a hand back to grab Carter's sleeve again. She stopped behind him and silently lifted her rifle, zeroing in on the shadow.
Jack licked his lips and curled his finger around the trigger. The shadow grew darker and larger. It rushed rapidly closer. Jack heard Sam take a quick, shallow breath, and the creak of her vest as the clips ground against her rifle.
The shadow burst from the mist, hurtling toward them, and Jack jerked backward, raising his rifle.
"Colonel!" Sam's hand grabbed his wrist, twisting it and pulling his aim down.
Teal'c stopped in front of them, bending at the waist to balance his staff weapon against his knees while he panted for breath.
"Teal'c!" Jack grabbed the Jaffa by the back of the head affectionately, a grin on his face. "Jesus. We thought you were..." He trailed away and settled for just rubbing the man's bald head.
Teal'c looked up at him with one raised brow. "They attempted to pull me into the sea. I resisted."
"You got away!" Sam squeezed his shoulder, and he inclined his head toward her.
"I did. I believe they allowed me to escape, but I do not know what their reason might have been."
"Who cares," Jack said. "We're not asking any questions. Let's get Daniel and get out of here."
"In what direction did they take Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.
Jack turned to the north and pointed. "There. They--" He broke off, startled, as his gaze fell on Daniel standing just outside the dark line of the forest. He blinked. "Daniel?"
"Daniel!" Sam called to him. She started to run forward, but was stopped by Jack's hand.
Daniel stood there, unmoving, watching them.
"What's the matter with him?" Sam asked softly.
Daniel suddenly smiled at them and waved for them to come toward him.
"Be alert," Jack reminded the others. He started forward, motioning for Carter to follow him and Teal'c to bring up the rear. As they approached, Daniel turned and disappeared into the forest.
"Daniel!" Jack called to him. There was no answer, and as they reached the place he'd been standing, they saw him again, a quarter click away in a moonlit clearing. He watched them and waved again. Follow me. Then he turned and walked into the darkness.
"Daniel!" Sam shouted. She started forward, and Jack had to hold her back again.
"Carter, slow it down. This isn't sitting well with me."
She turned to give him a frustrated glance. "Well, what choice do we have, sir? We still have to check it out."
Jack inclined his head in agreement. True. "Okay, but I'm on point."
She dropped back and let him move ahead of her. He walked carefully toward the last place Daniel had stood. The woods around them were quiet and softly lit by the moon. The mist was mysteriously thin here.
They soon came to another, smaller clearing on the edge of a thick pocket of pines. Daniel stood on a small mound, smiling. He waved at them as they stopped a short distance away.
Jack raised his fist, keeping Teal'c and Sam in place. He studied Daniel. "Daniel?"
Daniel smiled and motioned more vigorously at them.
Jack narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you speak?"
Daniel paused and then smiled and motioned at his neck. He waved them over again.
Jack slowly raised his rifle. “Who are you?”
Daniel gave him a confused look.
Jack steeled his gaze. "Who are you?" he demanded again.
"Come this way!" Sam suddenly cut in, waving to Daniel.
Daniel's face wavered with irritation. He motioned again for them to approach.
"Sir..." Sam's voice was laced with wariness.
Jack agreed. He brought the rifle up and tucked his cheek against the stock, looking down the sights toward Daniel's head. "I'll ask you one more time. Who are you?"
Daniel’s face fell into a malevolent glare, and his form shifted before their eyes. He grew several inches and dark hair flowed out from his head. His eyes became black, his skin golden and his clothes faded into a flowing robe of crimson. The new man glared at them in the darkness, hatred seeming to radiate from him in waves. “Nyarlathotep,” he replied in a low, heavily accented, dangerous voice. He gave them a dark glare. “You are too late. The Dreamer awakens and soon he will rule Earth again.”
Jack tightened his finger down on the trigger of his rifle. “You aren’t even near Earth, buddy.”
Nyarlathotop gave him an odd look, as if he couldn’t decide if Jack had a brain or not. “You opened the door yourself, did you not? You have cast the gate wide, and Cthulhu will cross. He will take his rightful place.”
"Right," Jack replied casually.
Nyarlathotep tilted his head slightly and then smiled. "Where is Earth now? What are the symbols?"
Jack huffed out a laugh. "Now, that's not even trying." He raised his rifle. "Where's Daniel?"
“You have chosen your own fate.” Nyarlathotop turned and twisted and seemed to fade into the fog.
Jack shot once, low. There was nothing there. He walked slowly forward, rifle still poised in front of his face. There was no sign of the man’s passing. Jack lowered the rifle and scanned the forest. Ahead there was a glint of white. He glanced back at Sam and Teal’c and motioned them forward.
++
In the middle of another small clearing there was a huge tree. It’s branches arched overhead, shutting out the stars. It had a wide, tall trunk, and it shaded the clearing well. No weeds or grass grew beneath its foliage. White cotton seemed to be draped from its lowest branches.
Jack frowned at it and poked it curiously with the barrel of his rifle. When he drew the gun back, the white gauze stuck to the metal. He grimaced.
“Sir,” Carter came up beside him and pointed. “There’s something hanging on the other side.”
Jack followed her finger and saw more of the white stuff, densely packed into an oblong ball, hanging 6 feet off the ground. It swung gently from side to side. He narrowed his eyes. “Why am I suddenly picturing gigantic spiders?”
Carter made a distressing sound, and he found it aptly proper.
“I will check it out, O’Neill,” Teal’c said softly. Jack wasn’t going to argue.
Teal’c crept quietly into the clearing under the branches and moved tentatively forward. Sam stepped forward too, going down to one knee so she could take a steady shot if he got in trouble.
Whiteness floated in Jack’s vision. He blinked at it, confused, his mind struggling to understand what he was seeing. For the briefest of moments he thought it had started to snow or that the fog had suddenly sunk down into the forest. Then he heard Teal’c start to shout, the sound cut-off violently with a click. Beside Jack, Sam suddenly gasped and her body rose up next to him. He thought she was standing up, but she kept going, and suddenly he saw that the whiteness was the gauzy strands. They had floated down and wrapped around both Teal’c’s and Sam’s throats and then jerked them back up.
They were being hanged.
Teal’c’s arms and back flexed with muscle, hard and rigid, as he fought to rip the gauze apart. It was obviously much stronger than it looked. Sam’s boots flailed in front of Jack, and he darted forward, grabbing her ankles and lifting her up, trying to ease the chokehold. Instead, the gauze lifted her higher.
“Carter!” He rose up on his toes and yanked her knife from her belt. She thrust a hand down toward him, and he placed it, hilt-first, into her fingers. She sawed at the gauze above her head.
Teal’c already had his out, but even now, more strands were floating down, attaching themselves to his arms, his chest, his legs.
Jack heard Sam take a whistling breath behind him. He pointed the barrel of his rifle up and fired, fully-automatic, spraying the branches with bullets.
Leaves showered down around him, and then something struck his shoulder, knocking him sideways. Teal’c fell to the ground and rose up on his knees immediately, hands clawing at the gauze and clearing it from his body. Jack fired again, and Sam fell this time. She fell forward onto the ground, gasping for breath.
More objects fell, hitting the dirt with wet, meaty thuds; some of them still moving. Jack toed the one that hit him in the shoulder. It was the size of a beach ball, and it had wings and lots of legs. The one at his feet bled yellow and curled in on itself. Jack stepped rapidly back.
He knelt down next to Carter. “Okay?”
She glanced at him with surprised eyes. “Yeah,” she said absently. She brought a piece of the gauze up and rubbed it between her fingers. “What is this stuff?”
He touched it as it drifted down from her hand. It felt sticky and wire-thin and strong. “Webbing?”
Teal’c joined them, and Jack glanced up at him. “You okay?”
Teal’c nodded. “I am. Thanks to you, O’Neill.”
Jack shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. You ever seen anything like this before?”
Teal’c gave him an intense gaze. “I have not.”
“Ow,” Carter rubbed at her neck. “It’s starting to burn a little bit.”
Jack glanced at Teal’c, and he inclined his head. “It burns me as well. Not as fire, but it irritates as acid.”
Jack swung his pack down and pulled the quickie med kit from a side pocket, handing them both an anti-septic wipe. He waited as they cleaned their skin off. “Better?”
“Indeed,” Teal’c confirmed.
Sam nodded. “Yes sir. I wonder if it’s some sort of digestive enzyme?”
Jack winced a bit at that, and then glanced over to where the heavy ball of gauze swung slowly in the wind. As he watched, the webbing seemed to fluctuate before his eyes, then it jumped a bit as something inside struggled. Jack shot to his feet. “Teal’c! Help me!”
He ran to the ball of gauze, his knife already out. In seconds, Teal’c had joined him and they hacked at the thick webbing, ripping it off in layers. As the weight of the wrapping came off, the form struggled more, and then they could hear a human voice coming through, wordless and desperate.
Jack ripped the last layer of gauze away from Daniel’s face. Daniel took a breath and then struggled strongly, his voice a frustrated growl.
“Daniel, calm down. We’ve got you.”
Teal’c lifted Carter up to cut the cord above the bundle, and Jack grabbed Daniel as he fell. Daniel stared up at him, a little wildly. “Jack! Watch out!”
Jack put a hand on his chest, holding him down. “We know, Daniel. Already met them. Hold still while we get this crap off of you.” He felt a shudder go through Daniel’s body, and he slid his hand up to the man’s shoulder, gripping him warmly. “Take it easy.”
Teal’c ripped out a piece of his jacket and used it to scrape the webbing off of Daniel’s skin and clothing. Sam followed with a few anti-septic wipes, cleaning the acid away. Daniel’s face was slightly red and streaked, the enzymes already doing their thing.
He sat up as he became free, his desperation calming. “Jesus…” He rubbed at his face, taking deep breaths.
Sam knelt beside him, keeping her rifle ready, her eyes shifting to watch the trees around them. She squeezed his shoulder. “You scared the hell out of us.”
Daniel glanced at her with wide eyes. “Sorry.”
She patted him and stood to keep guard with Teal’c. Jack looked Daniel over. “How do you feel?”
Daniel met his gaze and then nodded. “Okay. I think I’m fine.”
Jack paused and then sat back on his heels. “Good. Can you get up? The sooner we’re out of here, the happier I’ll be.”
“Yes,” Daniel answered emphatically. “I’ve never agreed with you more.”
Jack lifted one eyebrow. “Huh, and all it took were some giant flying spiders who wanted to eat you.”
Daniel flashed him a mordant glare, and Jack managed a smile, trying to put him at ease. If Daniel was flashing the long-suffering looks, he was fine.
“Let’s go,” Jack ordered. “Now.”
++
The red-robed priests surrounded the gate.
Jack knelt down behind a stand of brush and studied the situation. The priests stood in a circle, hands raised, their monotonous chanting drifting toward SG-1 on the fog. The gate itself was on a raised stone platform, above the mist swirling along the ground. It was activated, the blue shimmer of the active wormhole creating a supernatural effect as it illuminated the fog into a wavering wall.
“What’s that coming out of the gate?” Carter whispered from beside him.
Jack squinted at the gate. At first he thought the long tendrils were just mist, floating along the platform, and then he realized what they really were.
Daniel beat him to it. “I think they’re tentacles!” His hoarse whisper was incredulous.
Jack glanced at him. “What are they doing, calling a giant space squid?”
Daniel licked his lips and sat back, glancing between him and Sam. “Cthulhu is a huge creature, supposedly. With tentacles on his head, and a scaly body. I think he might also have wings. There was a picture in the journal, but I didn’t have time to study it.”
Jack felt completely at a loss. What the hell was all of this?
“We’ve got to find a way to shut the gate down and then dial home,” Sam said.
Jack studied the situation again. That was going to be a problem. He glanced at Sam. “How do we shut the gate down on them?”
Sam thought about it. “Well, we don’t want to do anything too severe, or we’ll never be able to dial out again.”
“Yes, and so?” Jack urged her on.
She bit her bottom lip. “Well, maybe we could short it out, like a fuse. Get it to reset.”
“Can you do that?”
She blinked at him. “Sure.”
“Do it.”
She pulled her pack off and started rummaging through. “I’ll need an energy source. Teal’c’s staff weapon should do it. You’ll need to distract the priests long enough for me to dig around in the DHD.” She glanced up then as Jack stared at her, one eyebrow high “Um, I mean, if you think that’s a good plan, sir…”
Jack sighed and grumbled, “It’s as good as anything else.” He glanced at Teal’c. “T, give your staff weapon to Daniel and take Carter’s rifle.”
Teal’c did immediately as he was told, handing the staff weapon to Daniel and accepting Sam’s rifle. She handed over an extra clip as well. Jack turned to Daniel. “Can you watch her back with that thing while she gets set up?”
Daniel nodded. “I’ve still got my pistol too, although my glasses disappeared during my little ride. I can’t see very clearly.”
Jack hesitated at that. “Don’t shoot anything unless you know what it is. It could be me or Teal’c.”
Daniel nodded.
Jack ejected the clip from his rifle and replaced it with a full one. “And don’t dial Earth when you get that far. Dial the Alpha Site. I don’t want them seeing Earth’s address and coming through next week.”
Sam nodded. “Yes sir.” She’d been steadily working as he talked, and when he glanced down he saw a strange contraption made of tape, a fork and a bullet shell.
“This better work, Carter. Something tells me we’re screwed if this thing makes it through the gate.”
Sam gave him a solemn look. “I’ll make it work, sir.”
He nodded. He liked that sort of talk. “Okay. Let’s go, Teal’c.”
++
Sam watched them go. The priests didn’t even turn as Jack and Teal’c strolled up. They simply went on with their chanting. It wasn’t until Jack spoke, his voice carrying across the clearing to them, that there was some hesitation in the chants, a lowering of hands. One of the priests walked up to the stone platform, turning to face Jack and Teal’c, his form morphing as he went, into a tall, dark, lean man.
Nyarlathotep.
“Who is that?” Daniel demanded, glancing at her.
She shook her head. “I couldn’t repeat the name if my life depended on it, Daniel. Nai yar something.”
“He’s a shape-shifter.” Daniel stared and talked absently. “The thousand-formed Nyarlathotep.”
“Yes, that’s it!” Sam smiled at him.
Daniel gave her a grim look in return. “We have to stop them soon, Sam.”
She picked up her conductor and motioned at him. They crept forward through the brush.
++
The shooting started soon after.
Nyarlathotep stood on the platform and shouted into the sky. Occasionally he looked down again to stare balefully at Jack and Teal’c. The priests ignored them, carrying on in their chanting with renewed vigor.
When Jack saw flashes of light start to form and wink around Nyarlathotep, he started shooting. The bullets passed harmlessly through the Great Priest, and the tentacles of Cthulhu rose up and battered the air behind him. A few of the thicker tentacles snaked out into the midst of the priests, heedlessly slapping them to the ground.
“Teal’c! Aim for the thing coming through the gate!”
Teal’c adjusted his fire to the tentacles, dodging as more of them charged through the gate and zeroed in on him. The air was full of the flailing arms of Cthulhu now, and Nyarlathotep stood safely in their midst, his chants rising above all the others.
Jack glanced toward the DHD and saw Carter shoulder-deep in the console, Daniel standing over her, staff-weapon in hand, eyes wide as he watched the battle.
“O’Neill!” Teal’c’s voice was urgent, uneasy.
Jack looked back and saw it. A great eye, half the size of the gate itself suddenly bulging out of the event horizon. It was cold and analytical, wide with understanding as it rolled from side to side, seeing all. A big scaly lid slid down over it and up again. It was an immense beast, bending over to look through the keyhole of another world. Its immigration would take days, maybe weeks, as it slid its gigantic body little by little through the stargate. Before it, and all around the great eye, insects flew into the world. Tiny starfish slithered through and onto the platform. They clung to the gate itself and to Nyarlathotep’s legs.
Jack staggered back, hardly believing his eyes. Teal’c was unloading a spray of fire into Cthulhu’s great eye, and it was having no effect.
“Carter!” Jack shouted for all he was worth.
She glanced up, saw the eye, and he saw her own eyes go wide. Daniel put a comforting hand on her shoulder and stepped in front of her, aiming the staff weapon toward the gate. He fired, and the eye blinked then rolled toward him. The tentacles swerved in the air and rushed toward him.
Jack ran that direction, firing. He could see the bullets digging into the scaly flesh, ripping it up, grinding it, but it was of little use. The tentacles were too thick to dismember, and Cthulhu didn’t seem to feel pain.
One of the flailing arms caught him in the hip and he went down, rolling over, and he tried not to shoot himself as he tumbled. Teal’c was right behind him, grabbing his arm, heaving him to his feet again, and they ran for the DHD. Sam was grabbing Daniel’s belt from behind, pulling him back as Jack fired point-blank into the largest tentacle closing in.
It swept toward him and he ducked. Then he jumped up and fired again. He and Teal’c dodged and fired, trying to draw the giant’s attention.
Carter jumped up and away from the DHD, shouting to Daniel. Jack heard the staff-weapon firing again, and then suddenly the wormhole flickered. Nyarlathotep turned toward them and screamed.
Jack jumped back, reaching out to drag Teal’c with him. “Get back!”
The tentacles dragged at the priests and raced for Jack’s feet. Jack turned and ran, shoving Teal’c toward Sam and Daniel, feeling the tentacles bump against his ankles and his knees, scrabbling for any sort of hold.
The wormhole flickered again, and then it suddenly shut down, disappearing. There was a sickening, wet, tearing sound, and then… silence.
Jack turned, rifle raised, to view the scene.
The gate was closed. The priests and Nyarlathotep were gone. At his feet, a severed tentacle twitched randomly.
Jack kicked it away. He looked at Daniel. “Dial it up, Daniel. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
++
It was a week later when Daniel suddenly burst through the doors of the Control room, the journal in his hands. “General!”
General Hammond looked up in surprise at the outburst. Beside him, Sam rose from her chair, and Jack turned from the window.
“Daniel?”
Daniel motioned at the journal. “Jack! I found something. It’s bad!”
Jack eyed the book in his hands. “Don’t tell me, the giant space squid reassembled the gate after we blew it up.”
Daniel blinked at him. “No.” He flipped the book open and started dragging his finger along the words. “This says that the Elder Gods imprisoned Cthulhu in R’yleh along with servants and his own spawn.”
“His own spawn?” Jack folded his arms across his chest and lifted a brow.
“Yes!” Daniel glanced back and forth between him and Sam. “Cthulhu used to rule Earth long before it was even named. The Elder Gods imprisoned him in R’yleh, killing all the old evil and allowing the Ancient Ones to escape mortal form, along with space and time. The Goa’uld came afterward.”
Behind them the klaxons started blaring as an incoming wormhole established in the gate.
“And?” Jack glanced back at the gate.
Daniel grabbed his arm, jerking him back around. “I just translated the last of the journal this morning. It told me the location of R’yleh.”
Jack stared at him. “Where is it?”
Daniel took a deep breath, eyes tracking to the iris-covered gate behind him. “The iris won’t stop him!”
Jack grabbed his shoulders. “Daniel, where is it?”
Daniel watched with wide eyes as the iris on the gate bulged suddenly outward. “Too late!”
Jack whirled around, breath hissing inward as he stared at the gate. “What…”
Daniel dropped the journal, his voice falling to a whisper. “It’s beneath the Pacific Ocean, Jack. He never left.”
~end~
Next up- The OT3 ficathon...