Bits & Pieces #15: The Serpent's Bite -- Part 1
Well, I didn't get this posted quite as quickly as I'd hoped, but here it is, and hopefully, the next part will go up in the next few days.
Title: Bits and Pieces: #15 The Serpent's Bite
Author: Pink Rabbit Productions
Part: 1
Spoilers: Politics, Within the Serpent's Grasp
Archive: The Pink Rabbit Consortium (www.altfic.com)
DISCLAIMER: It all belongs to assorted other folks (MGM, Gekko, Double Secret, Showtime, and possibly Santa Claus for all I know), or at least the characters, settings, situations, et al do. The actual arrangement of words is mine own, though God knows, if any of those entities were to opt to sue, I'd disavow them all in a New York second. There's definitely musing on matters of a sexual and romantic nature between females of the same genderish persuasion, so if this is a problem of age, maturity, intelligence, ability to deal, or anything else, please, do take a pass.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, this one has been on hiatus for awhile now. This part was first written a couple of years ago, and I never managed to finish the second part. However, I’m currently working on continuing the series, so I called on my friendly neighborhood beta reader (who is an angel) and got this tuned up (the unedited version has been up on the site for awhile). It’s cleaner and reads tighter, but no major changes. All previous notes about the concept behind the series stand.
SPECIAL THANKS: to ocean gazer, who also happens to be the most caffeinated and cheerful minion around.
ADDITIONAL AUTHOR'S NOTES: Silly me didn't notice that the order for first season eps listed on assorted webpages doesn't quite mesh with what's on the box my DVD set came in, sooooo, though I don't think it ever matters too much, in case anyone cares, I'm using the order on the DVD set.
The world below the Goa'uld mothership was quiet and beautiful, its chaos and difficulties invisible from such a distance. From this vantage point it was a symphony of blue, white and green, melded in swirling patterns against a star-swept, velvet black sky.
It was both the most beautiful and most horrifying thing the members of SG-1 had ever seen.
Jack O'Neill swallowed hard as he realized his team was completely out of options. That was Earth they were looking at and if Apophis had his way, it would be annihilated. And considering the armament headed toward their homeworld, the Goa’uld wasn’t likely to be disappointed. . "Captain Carter?" he croaked at last.
Carter's response was instant, since she knew perfectly well what he intended to ask. "Sir?"
"Were you able to put enough C-4 around the ship to make a dent?" It was the only hope he saw for stopping the attack force bearing down on their world.
Sam nodded, pushing aside her rising horror to make her tone as flat and practical as possible. "We placed charges where they should generate secondary explosions, so ... yes, sir, should make a helluva a dent." Hopefully enough to destroy the mothership, but if not, at least enough to make combat impossible.
She stared at the distant image of her home, a part of her shaking inside to think that its survival rested solely in their hands. For once, she found herself wishing she'd just stayed quietly ignorant of the Stargate project. She didn't want this much responsibility. No one could want this much responsibility.
"Thank you, Captain," her superior's clipped response cut off that thought, forcing Sam to play catch up for a second. As her brain revved back up, she mentally tested the situation from all angles and came up with....
A thought occurred to her and she started, "Given enough time, I might be able to figure out---"
O'Neill cut her off in his don't-go-there voice. "Negative." Far more practical than his second-in-command, he knew they couldn't take the risk. Not when the explosives were a certainty and the ship had to be stopped. He gestured toward the door which was all that stood between them and a phalanx of Jaffa. "We should expect some of their reinforcements through that door any second. Stand by to detonate your charges on my order."
She didn't argue, tamping down an instinctive impulse to try and find a way to fix things. The colonel was right. They didn't have time and it was too big a risk. "Yes, sir." She took a deep breath, steadying herself for what was to come. Facing the final moments of her life, she suddenly found herself grateful she'd sent that last email. Hopefully, Janet had found it and knew that their fight hadn't meant a damn thing, that she still ... cared very much ... and had done her best to see both Cass and Janet safe. She didn't want to die with the one person she---
She was yanked out of her silent musings by Daniel. "Wait," he snapped as he lunged around the end of the central command console, searching for something in his pockets.
Jack barely resisted the urge to curse under his breath, his tone harsh as he responded, "Daniel, if we don't stop them now, we may never stop them." They didn't have time for any more delays and certainly not one of the Egyptologist’s lectures on why they shouldn't do something that Jack knew perfectly well they should do, just because a few people might get killed. As far as he was concerned, if it was the enemy doing the dying, he was all for the idea. Daniel often saw things another way.
The Egyptologist's tone was impatient as he pulled the last of the readied explosives out of a pocket. "Yeah, I know that." He tacked the detonator under the edge of the main command console and activated it, then looked back at Jack. "Let's just make it as big a dent as possible, okay?"
The colonel ducked his head, silently acknowledging the fine edge of sarcasm directed his way.
Sam ignored the ongoing tension between the two men, too used to it to care. Also too close to dying to care. "Ready and awaiting your order, sir."
Taking a deep breath, Jack looked at his team, knowing they were all about to die. It would be as quick and painless as such things could be, he supposed, and they were doing it for all the right reasons. "Okay. And I suppose now is the time for me to say something profound." He thought about it for a moment, unable to come up with words that adequately expressed the love and respect he had for each of them. Nothing did the trick and he just wished he had a way of saving them as well their world.
Carter used the moment's pause to sink into herself, silently wishing well to the woman and child who had become her family. They'd be okay. They had to be. Chances were, they'd be back home, safe and sound in a couple of weeks. And if not, then they had supplies and were part of the best team Sam could put together. She just wished there was some way in hell she could see them one last time. A tiny shiver slid over her skin as the thought occurred unbidden that she also wished she hadn't left that night; that after their kiss, she'd done what every cell in her body had been screaming for, taken Janet's hand and simply drawn her back into the house, and into the bedroom. A momentary flash burned itself onto her mind's eye of their bodies twined together. She'd held Janet close and seen her in the showers, knew how pale and soft her skin was, had seen and felt the perfect curve of hip, breast, and thigh. It was so easy to imagine lying next to the other woman, totally lost in warm flesh. She was still shaken by the brief revelation when O'Neill spoke up again.
"Nothing comes to mind," he muttered disgustedly, oblivious to the way his second-in-command needed a moment to shake off her distraction. "Let's do it," he ordered Carter with a quick wave of his hand.
Sam nodded quickly, pulling out the master detonator, her hands shaking slightly as she began fumbling with the device.
"O'Neill," Teal'c interrupted, his attention directed toward the blocky shadow that had suddenly appeared in the window, "Apophis' ship approaches."
The huge, pyramidal structure floated gracefully into view. Intricate designs decorated the walls, making it look like some ancient building magically transported into space.
"We overheard him in the gateroom," Daniel quickly explained as they all watched the giant ship draw closer. "He said he'd rejoin Klorel once they came out of the shadows."
O'Neill paled several shades. He'd thought they were only dealing with one ship. Now, it looked like it was two. "Teal'c, if we can knock out this ship, will it stop them?"
The news wasn't good, and when delivered in Teal'c's ultra-serious monotone, it managed to sound even worse. "It will not. Apophis' mothership is equipped with defense shields; he will still be able to destroy your cities from high above."
Something hammered at the door to the command chamber, the sound enough to make them all jump. Obviously, someone knew they were there, which meant the Jaffa be preparing to retake control. That was not going to be a pretty fight.
His mind racing, Jack glanced at his second. "Tell me those C-4 charges are on an automatic timer."
Sam nodded, trying to ignore the sounds from the corridor just outside. "They're on an automatic timer," she confirmed.
Jack allowed himself a small sigh of relief. "Good.” Maybe they could find a way to get to the other ship and disable it while this one was blowing. "How long do we have?"
Sam winced, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer. "Twenty-four hours."
And he didn't. "Twenty-four hours?" the colonel demanded. His outrage was more frustration than anger, but it was still enough to make her defensive.
"At the time, sir, I thought we were still light-years away." In truth, thinking they still had a year before reaching Earth’s orbit, she would have made it more like forty-eight, but the max the timers allowed was twenty-four.
Another hard blow to the door made them all jump.
"Just a minute!" Jack shouted at their attackers in an explosion of frustration. He focused on his teammate. "Teal'c, work with me, buddy. Is there any other way out of here?" Maybe if they could--
Teal'c ended any hopes with a single, grimly uttered word. "None."
The doors to the command chamber started to slide open, the Jaffa warriors on the other side forcing the slotted panels apart.
O'Neill waved his team back from the doors. "All right, cover up." Time for a fight, whether they were ready for it or not.
Sam dove for cover as she heard Jack mutter, "This is turning out to be a bad day." Truer words had never been spoken.
Unfortunately, she had a bad feeling it was about to get even worse as the doors slid open another notch and the colonel opened fire. Quickly emptying the clip on his sidearm, he switched to one of the stolen Goa'uld hand weapons, while Sam fired her MP5, aiming for the widening crack between the door panels in hopes of taking out the Jaffa trying to get in.
She was still firing when a small metal globe arced through the door. It hit the floor, barely bouncing, and then a golden glow flashed outward, followed by a piercing whine.
Sam tried to hold on and remain conscious, but within seconds the floor came up and hit her and she knew no more. Her last thought as the blackness descended was a burst of gratitude that those closest to her were safe. She had no idea of the irony of the sentiment.
* * * * * *
Janet Fraiser's left calf threatened to cramp, so stressed was her position where she knelt on one knee, her sidearm up and trained on the man who stood several yards away. Makepeace’s MP5 was aimed her way and he had Cassie slung up in one arm, his hand clamped across her mouth to contain her screams. So much for the idea that the Beta team had been sent to a new Garden of Eden, completely safe and protected from their enemies. Somehow, there were Goa’uld here and she was apparently facing one of them.
"Put...the...gun...down," Robert Makepeace---or at least his body---ordered, the words coming in short, sharp syllables.
Janet shook her head slowly, bruised shoulders aching from the effort of keeping her weapon poised to fire. "Put Cassie down," she shot back, her voice just as hard as his. She couldn't back down, not at the risk of the child's life. She had no doubt that the moment she surrendered her weapon, they were both dead.
He shook his head, the faint gesture just barely visible in the dark. "Don't make me kill you, Doctor," he said, his voice softening ever so slightly, a tiny flicker of emotion in his voice.” She wondered if maybe the softly spoken sentence offered some small hint of the man trapped inside the body. Was he even now fighting to take back control? "You know I can."
"You'll make a hell of a lot of noise ... and it won't be easy to explain away," she countered, painfully aware of just how vulnerable both she and Cassie were.
"I don't think much explanation will be needed," he growled, any softness disappearing. "Now put the gun down." Cass was kicking wildly, her feet hammering into his back and hip, though he showed no sign of feeling the blows. "You have until the count of three."
Janet's finger tightened fractionally on the trigger as she fought to sight the weapon on his forehead, praying she could take him down with a single shot. Otherwise, this was all just an exercise in futility.
"One...."
It was unlikely that even a Goa'uld could rebound from trauma that massive, but she wouldn't get more than one chance. If she missed the first shot, she wouldn't have time for a second before he cut her down.
"Two...."
She started to fire, but Makepeace suddenly jerked to one side, moving so fast she couldn't track him reliably in the dark, and she held off. There was a glint of white and an explosion of furious profanities from the marine as she realized Cassie had managed to bite the hand across her mouth.
Still struggling wildly, the child clamped down hard enough to draw blood. Cursing, the colonel tried to yank his hand free, but the girl didn’t let go, her frantic effort gaining an extra moment or two.
Janet didn't stop to think or plan, just reacted, lunging at the man holding her adopted daughter while he was still distracted. She tackled him with all her might, the impact hard enough to jar her from head to toe and nearly unbalance him. Makepeace stumbled, but caught himself just in time, halting a near fall that would have sent them all tumbling.
Desperate to get Cassie clear, Janet hammered the butt of her pistol into his left shoulder---she didn't dare fire for fear of hitting the girl by accident. A grunt of pain signaled that she'd done some damage, but he didn't lose his grip on Cassie. He brought his right arm around, but in such close quarters the heavy machine gun was more of a hindrance than a help, buying Janet just enough time to slam the butt of her pistol into his shoulder again. The third time, he twisted into the blow, knocking her weapon away as he let go of his rifle to grab for her collar.
Her weapon gone, Janet hit him hard, her knuckles splitting as they collided with his jaw, then hit him again. Her panicked blows, coupled with Cassie's teeth embedded in his hand, were enough to disorient even the battle-hardened marine. Cursing, he used his grip on her collar to shake her with enough force to rattle her teeth, his chin impacting her forehead so hard it was a wonder there weren’t corresponding dents in her skull and his jaw. Seeing stars, her knees wobbled ever so slightly, but she didn't go down.
Bracing her forearm against his throat, Janet twisted, clawing at the arm wrapped around a still squirming Cassie, and tried to drive a knee into his groin. The blow was only a glancing one, but it was close enough to draw a grunt of pain and momentarily unbalance the big man. Digging her hand into the child's collar, Janet pulled hard and hammered his inner thigh a second time. This time he lost his grip.
"Run!" Janet ordered Cassie as she flung her free.
The girl hit the ground several feet away even as Janet threw her full weight into Makepeace again, purposely off-balancing them both. This time he wasn't braced firmly enough to remain standing. A brief sensation of falling and then they hit the ground, Makepeace on his back, Fraiser falling into his chest, her elbow jamming the marine in the jaw.
Far bigger and stronger with or without a Goa'uld's strength and moving a beat slower than normal, he rolled, tumbling her onto her back. Janet saw him rear up to grab for the knife on his belt and punched hard, using one of the maneuvers Teal'c had taught her to send him sprawling to the side. Not caring that he was a combat-trained officer twice her weight and God only knew how many times as strong, she rolled and scrambled after him, grabbing for her own knife as she moved, her entire focus on stopping her attacker. She was undoubtedly going to die, but she had to slow him down as much as possible. It was Cassie's only chance.
Fraiser collided with a moving mass of solid bone and muscle, tasting blood as his elbow slammed into the side of her face. In the scrambling, tumbling battle that followed, he used size and sheer muscle against her. He slammed her hard into the ground, but couldn't get a firm grip as she fought with adrenaline-driven desperation. She tried to bring the knife to bear, but a meaty fist wrapped around her hand, battering it against a nearby tree limb until taut muscles gave way and the weapon spilled from her fingers.
Muscles flexing with effort, Makepeace heaved her another several feet, letting gravity and rock-strewn earth do the battering for him. He followed, his fist tangling in the front collar of her jacket as he straddled slim hips.
He raised his other hand and moonlight glinted off a razor sharp blade---her dropped knife, she realized as she noted his was still sheathed on his belt. She tried to rear up, but the grip on her jacket was too tight, and she wasn't strong enough to throw him off. One quick slash with the blade and she was dead. The Goa’uld were more than strong enough to decapitate a human if they so chose.
Makepeace seemed to freeze, and she waited to see the gleam of alien eyes or hear the rumbly echo of a taunt offered in alien tones. She was still waiting when she realized that something hard and square-edged was pressing into her upper arm. Her dropped sidearm.
So close, yet so far.
Makepeace still hadn't moved, his expression unreadable in the faint light.
She had one slim chance and she took it, twisting wildly and grabbing for the weapon, rolling, and somehow breaking his hold on her jacket as she got her fingers around the pistol grip. Except the position put her half on her stomach, leaving her far more vulnerable. A hard hand grabbed her by the shoulder, shoving her face-down into the dirt as his body landed back on top of hers. Janet tried to wrench herself free, but he grabbed her hair, pulling her head back so hard she thought he meant to snap her neck. She saw the glitter of the blade out of the corner of her eye and expected to feel the kiss of tempered steel across her throat at any second. Lifting the pistol, she aimed blindly over her shoulder, finger already bearing down on the trigger when she suddenly became aware of a slight figure standing just to the side. Cassie had wrapped her hands around Makepeace's raised arm, and her voice filled the sudden silence.
"No! You can't!" Still pulling Makepeace's arm with one hand, Cassie pushed at the gun Janet had aimed blindly over her shoulder. "He's not a Goa'uld," she panted desperately, her voice hoarse and rough, leaving her guardian with the impression that she’d been trying to get them to hear her during the brief stint of combat. "Neither of you are Goa'uld."
Both adults froze. Hyped up from combat, sporting several new cuts and bruises, it took both of them a moment to comprehend the words.
"You're not Goa'uld," Cass said again when neither adult responded. She pulled harder at the limbs braced to kill, struggling to stop them from doing each other more harm. "Neither of you."
A moment of silence followed as both adults realized what she was saying.
"Cass, are you absolutely sure?" Janet whispered, still fighting the hand pulling at her arm, her finger on the trigger just short of releasing the hammer and sending a bullet crashing through the marine.
"As in one hundred percent, kid?" Makepeace added, also resisting the child's pressure to back off, his other hand still tight in Janet's hair.
Near tears, Cassie nodded emphatically. "You're not Goa'uld," she insisted, her voice cracking with terror. "You're both completely human. You've gotta believe me."
Makepeace didn't relax, but he did loosen his grip on Fraiser's hair fractionally, allowing her head to tip forward to a more natural angle, while she eased her finger ever so slightly off the trigger. The colonel leaned down, his mouth near the doctor's ear. "If you aren't a Goa'uld, why the hell were you running?"
She turned her head just enough to catch sight of her captor out of the corner of her eye. "Someone bumped against our tent and Cass sensed a Goa'uld--"
"So why the hell didn't you come to me?" he demanded angrily.
Trying to see him better, Janet felt the pressure on her scalp as she twisted her head a little farther to the side. "You were acting weird earlier ... and you'd been walking the perimeter of the camp alone ... the perfect target. I knew if you’d been taken over, you'd be after Cass. I was trying to get her clear before I did anything."
That pulled him up short. It made a certain amount of sense. "Johnson's dead," he said after a beat. "Whoever killed him was strong enough to snap his neck." He still didn't release his grip on the doctor's hair.
"And you think I did it?" Fraiser said incredulously. Johnson was even taller and heavier than Makepeace. There was no way in hell.
"If you were a Goa'uld, you could've," he pointed out logically. The parasitic aliens increased human strength exponentially. Tiny as she was, the doctor could easily have snapped the unsuspecting lieutenant's neck under those circumstances.
"But she's not," Cassie inserted, still trying to make the two adults see that they weren't enemies.
Makepeace glanced at the child, assessing her sincerity. She'd lost so much. Would she be willing to lie to save the woman who'd become her foster mother, even if she had been taken by one of the creatures? The kid might be desperate enough to think that there was still something of Fraiser in there. Certainly, she was smart enough to know that if Fraiser was a Goa'uld, he he almost had to kill her. They had no way of keeping an infected human captive, and no way of removing the creature under any circumstances.
The girl saw his doubt and hung more heavily on his arm, furiously trying to pull it back, though he scarcely noticed her added weight. "She's not," Cassie said again.
"You were alone at the edge of camp after everyone bedded down," he accused Fraiser quietly. "In the dark ... where it would have been easy to take you down ... and speaking of acting weird...." He was silent for a moment before he continued, "You were hiding something."
True enough, but not what he was afraid of. "I just needed to be alone for a few minutes," she denied the implication. "Things were kind of closing in, that's all. Hell, Martinez was with me most of the time."
"She's not a Goa'uld," Cassie added, a pleading note entering her voice. She tugged again. "You've gotta believe me." He flashed a sideways look at the child and slackened his grip ever so slightly.
Feeling him relax fractionally, Fraiser started to push up on one hand, only to find herself shoved back into the dirt, leaves and twigs pressing painfully into her skin, the smell of damp, loamy earth filling her nose.
A soft, pained grunt escaped her lips, followed by a hissed curse. "Dammit, if I was a Goa'uld, would I be on the bottom of this little confrontation?" she demanded.
It was a hell of a good point. If she was a Goa'uld, she could have snapped his neck while he was on patrol, not to mention flung him several feet and started breaking limbs for sport. Calmer now and seeing the logic of her argument, he abruptly released his grip on her hair.
Letting her head fall forward, Janet pushed up on her elbows and exhaled a low groan. Not so terrified now, it occurred to her that every single inch of her body hurt. Hell, even her hair hurt. She felt Makepeace shift so that less of his weight was bearing down on her and slowly lowered the pistol. She glanced back, noting the way the big man moved to one side, his face pale, a pained sigh escaping his lips, and relaxed another fraction. Somehow she couldn't imagine a Goa'uld being all that bothered by her attack, and he was definitely hurting.
He noticed her perusal and offered a lopsided smile. "You owe Teal'c a note of thanks," he groaned and reached up to wipe at a streak of blood where she'd clawed his face. "I didn't expect a couple of those moves." Flashing a glance at the child silently watching them, he resisted the urge to grab his crotch and moan, though he couldn't suppress a healthy flinch as he shifted to one knee so he was no longer straddling Janet’s hips.
Fraiser rolled to a sitting position. "Sorry about that," she apologized with a sympathetic wince, concluding he really wasn't a Goa'uld. A Goa'uld hurting like that would have torn her limb from limb for fun. They weren't a forgiving species.
He watched her holster her sidearm, then passed her knife back to her. "Under the circumstances, it's forgivable. It's not like you had much chance in this fight if you weren't a Goa'uld." He glanced at Cass again. "And you had the kid to protect." Forcing down any remaining shakiness, he pushed to his feet, looking around uneasily as he realized someone could have easily snuck up on them during the brief fight. Slinging his MP5 back around with one hand, he reached down with his other, offering Fraiser a hand up.
Stiff from the battering, she accepted his help and climbed to her feet with a low groan, then looked down, startled when a small hand snuck into her own.
" You okay?" Cass questioned worriedly.
Janet nodded, and gently ruffled the girl's hair with her other hand. "Yeah, just a little beat up." She traded apologetic looks with Makepeace as it occurred to both of them that they probably would have killed each other if not for the child's intervention. "You were very brave. Thank you."
Makepeace cleared his throat, his tone firmer than Fraiser’s as he rested a hand on the child's shoulder and leaned down into her line of sight. "But, kid, in the future, if the doc or I tell you to run, you run. Okay?" While everything had come out okay this time, he didn't want her to risk her life down the line somewhere.
Cassie offered a serious nod and didn't resist as Janet hugged her tightly to her side. She slipped her free arm around Janet's waist, unusually willing to accept a reassuring embrace after the scare they'd just had.
Keeping an arm around the child, the doctor looked back up at her superior. "What happened with Johnson?" she asked, hoping that maybe if they shared what they knew, they could come up with a likely suspect.
Makepeace shook his head. "Somebody got in behind him. There wasn't even any sign of a struggle. Whoever did it was strong as hell...." He trailed off momentarily. A Goa'uld would be more than strong enough. "I called Marks and Hanson ... told 'em to get up there to man the lookout." He nodded toward the lookout point. "I was just coming to get you to see if you could come up with any evidence about who it might be when I saw you and the kid and realized something strange was going on." He had decided to trust her, but he was still keeping a close eye on things. Trust, but verify. "So, what happened? How'd you know there was a Goa'uld?"
"He bumped the tent," Cassie answered for Janet, her voice small and serious. She let go of her death grip on her foster mother's waist, clutching her chest as though in pain. "The feeling ... it woke me up. It was a Goa'uld." They had tested her ability to sense them by exposing her to Teal'c until she knew that feeling all too well.
Makepeace frowned, absorbing the information, not liking the idea of one of the aliens wandering through the camp at will. "You sure?"
The girl nodded, her expression sad and knowing. "It was a Goa'uld," she said again.
The marine looked from the child to the woman holding her close, then back to the child. "Any idea who it might have been?"
Janet shook her head. "By the time I got out of the tent he, or she, was gone. And you're the only person I've seen since we left."
The marine considered his options for a moment, knowing he had to move quickly, but well aware that a decision made in haste might cost them all very dearly. "We need to keep the kid safe," he said at last. Without access to modern equipment, Cassandra offered the most reliable way they had of telling who was or wasn't a Goa'uld, so her safety had to be paramount. "But we've gotta figure out who it is. I think our best bet is to clear a couple of my men, then lock down the camp. We need to make sure your intruder didn't leave any little surprises ... then just go through everybody one by one."
Though uneasy with allowing Cassie to be that exposed and vulnerable, the doctor considered the suggestion. "But the Goa'uld may realize what Cass can do," she pointed out, afraid of making the child a target. "And so will everyone else." She'd come to realize the wisdom of the colonel's desire to keep her abilities secret and was very hesitant to risk giving up that information.
Makepeace understood her fears. "We need an excuse for you to have to check everyone in the camp ... say you've spotted some kind of local parasite or infection...."
She nodded to indicate that was possible.
"...then have the kid close." He reached out, resting a hand lightly on the doctor's shoulder. "I'll keep two men with you ... make sure you're both protected--"
"I don't give a damn about me," Janet snapped, instinctively tightening her hold on the child against her side. "I'm just afraid that--"
"I can do it," Cassie inserted, her voice small and soft. She looked up at the two adults. "That's why I'm here, right?" she whispered, her eyes huge and terrified. "General Hammond wouldn't have sent a kid otherwise." She was smart enough to understand the price of her survival.
Janet flinched and gently smoothed honey-colored hair back from the child's brow, but didn't argue.
"I'll make sure she's as safe as possible," Makepeace promised. "And you too. Realistically, if a Goa'uld sees you checking everyone in camp, you're the one who could become a target." He nodded in the direction of camp. "I'm gonna check in with the pickets--make sure everything's okay--and keep to the set schedule, so no one gets suspicious. Then I'll call Michaels and Everly and have them meet us here. If they're okay, we start working."
Janet nodded slowly, sinking into herself and holding on tightly to Cass while he stepped away a couple of feet to call the guards on duty. She looked down at the child pressed against her side, praying she was making the right decision.
Cass' head tipped upward, blue eyes gleaming in the moonlight. "He's not a Goa'uld," she said again, sensing that Janet was still having doubts. "It'll be okay."
The doctor offered a reassuring smile and continued brushing a hand lightly over the child's hair, but made sure her knife and sidearm were still undogged and cleared for use just in case. She tugged Cassie a little closer when the child started to pull back, ready to move fast if anything happened, while she tracked the colonel's conversation with one ear.
He'd barely started checking in with the team guarding the gate when she heard the first distant pop, the sound deep and quick, like the cork coming out of the world's biggest champagne bottle. And then what seemed like a dozen things happened at once. Makepeace's voice turned rough and impatient as he started demanding to know what was happening over his radio. It quickly became obvious from his tone that he wasn't getting any answers. Janet heard more of the same pops underlying his increasingly stressed voice, then on the third demand to know what was going on, felt the earth under her feet start to tremble. "Colonel," she hissed, her voice tight, one hand holding Cass to her side, the other gripping her sidearm with white-knuckled strength.
He held up a hand to silence her, his attention so focused on whatever he was, or wasn't, hearing that he didn't notice the low rumble boiling up through the ground.
"Colonel," she said again, her tone far sharper this time, her attention directed toward the ground.
"Doctor," he began impatiently, "I don't have time...."
It occurred to her as he was speaking that the distant pops had stopped, making way for an eerie silence that was totally at odds with the vibrations under her feet. An earthquake? No, she'd been through a couple before and this was completely different. Earthquakes didn't come with light displays, she thought as she saw the first flickering green glow rising up behind the trees, coming from somewhere near the gate.
Still focused on his radio, Makepeace didn't notice the hint of greenish light. "It's like something's interfering with the signal," he muttered as much to himself as to her.
"I'm guessing it has something to do with that, sir," she said, uncertain whether to be frightened or awed as the light gained in intensity, dancing and flickering across the treetops like St. Elmo's Fire.
He finally looked up, jaw momentarily dropping open. He closed it again to mutter a low curse.
"The ground," Cassie whispered, and Janet's jaw dropped as she felt what Cass had; an increasing vibration, enough now to shake the soft earth like planter's soil being tamped into place in a flower pot.
When the explosion came it was almost a relief, a release of building tension. It shook the ground, and sent a powerful blast of air through the trees, sending leaves and branches flying.
Tightening her hold on Cassie, Janet threw up her other arm to protect her face and braced herself to remain on her feet, while the child buried her face in her foster mother's hip to escape the flying debris.
Makepeace dug in his feet to keep from going down as he stared toward the gate with an expression of horror. Expecting a flash of fire in the sky, he was surprised when all he saw was the eerie, flickering green light. Regaining his equilibrium almost instantly, he spun toward Fraiser. "You've got a radio, right?" The words came as fast as he could form them.
She nodded quickly.
"Stay here. Keep the kid safe." He flashed another look toward the gate. "Keep your radio open. I'll send someone when I can. I gotta go." He didn't like leaving them alone like this, but it seemed better than dragging the child into God only knew what. He didn't wait for her to respond before he turned on his heel and took off at a run, heading straight toward the still rumbling explosions and glittering green lights.
Her instincts were torn, simultaneously telling her to protect the child pressed against her side and to run straight toward where her skills as a doctor were likely to be needed. She almost went, but Makepeace was right, Cassie needed to be protected. With a Goa'uld still among them, her importance was magnified a thousand-fold. She tightened her hold on the girl, her attention still focused on the distant lights. The explosions had died away, but the strange sparks of green fire continued to dance and play against the backdrop of a velvety night sky. "Come on," she said at last, pulling Cassie back and moving quickly up a nearby slope. Maybe if they found high enough ground she could see something and figure out what the hell was going on.
They hadn't gone very far when a nearby crackle brought Fraiser up short. She spun, drawing her pistol, searching the surrounding forest with frightened eyes, painfully aware of the way the trees seemed to take on a life of their own, closing in and forming a jagged and sharp-edged prison cell. "Who's there?" she demanded, hoping that Makepeace had sent one of his men along as additional protection.
Nothing.
She released her hold on Cassie's hand. The girl only shifted her grip, to cling tightly to Janet's side. She whispered her adopted mother's name, her voice sepulchrally soft.
"We'll be okay," the doctor breathed, and tugged the child with her as she started moving again. There's nothing there, she assured herself, just the wind in the trees and your own fears.
She wasn't that lucky.
* * * * * *
Title: Bits and Pieces: #15 The Serpent's Bite
Author: Pink Rabbit Productions
Part: 1
Spoilers: Politics, Within the Serpent's Grasp
Archive: The Pink Rabbit Consortium (www.altfic.com)
DISCLAIMER: It all belongs to assorted other folks (MGM, Gekko, Double Secret, Showtime, and possibly Santa Claus for all I know), or at least the characters, settings, situations, et al do. The actual arrangement of words is mine own, though God knows, if any of those entities were to opt to sue, I'd disavow them all in a New York second. There's definitely musing on matters of a sexual and romantic nature between females of the same genderish persuasion, so if this is a problem of age, maturity, intelligence, ability to deal, or anything else, please, do take a pass.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, this one has been on hiatus for awhile now. This part was first written a couple of years ago, and I never managed to finish the second part. However, I’m currently working on continuing the series, so I called on my friendly neighborhood beta reader (who is an angel) and got this tuned up (the unedited version has been up on the site for awhile). It’s cleaner and reads tighter, but no major changes. All previous notes about the concept behind the series stand.
SPECIAL THANKS: to ocean gazer, who also happens to be the most caffeinated and cheerful minion around.
ADDITIONAL AUTHOR'S NOTES: Silly me didn't notice that the order for first season eps listed on assorted webpages doesn't quite mesh with what's on the box my DVD set came in, sooooo, though I don't think it ever matters too much, in case anyone cares, I'm using the order on the DVD set.
The world below the Goa'uld mothership was quiet and beautiful, its chaos and difficulties invisible from such a distance. From this vantage point it was a symphony of blue, white and green, melded in swirling patterns against a star-swept, velvet black sky.
It was both the most beautiful and most horrifying thing the members of SG-1 had ever seen.
Jack O'Neill swallowed hard as he realized his team was completely out of options. That was Earth they were looking at and if Apophis had his way, it would be annihilated. And considering the armament headed toward their homeworld, the Goa’uld wasn’t likely to be disappointed. . "Captain Carter?" he croaked at last.
Carter's response was instant, since she knew perfectly well what he intended to ask. "Sir?"
"Were you able to put enough C-4 around the ship to make a dent?" It was the only hope he saw for stopping the attack force bearing down on their world.
Sam nodded, pushing aside her rising horror to make her tone as flat and practical as possible. "We placed charges where they should generate secondary explosions, so ... yes, sir, should make a helluva a dent." Hopefully enough to destroy the mothership, but if not, at least enough to make combat impossible.
She stared at the distant image of her home, a part of her shaking inside to think that its survival rested solely in their hands. For once, she found herself wishing she'd just stayed quietly ignorant of the Stargate project. She didn't want this much responsibility. No one could want this much responsibility.
"Thank you, Captain," her superior's clipped response cut off that thought, forcing Sam to play catch up for a second. As her brain revved back up, she mentally tested the situation from all angles and came up with....
A thought occurred to her and she started, "Given enough time, I might be able to figure out---"
O'Neill cut her off in his don't-go-there voice. "Negative." Far more practical than his second-in-command, he knew they couldn't take the risk. Not when the explosives were a certainty and the ship had to be stopped. He gestured toward the door which was all that stood between them and a phalanx of Jaffa. "We should expect some of their reinforcements through that door any second. Stand by to detonate your charges on my order."
She didn't argue, tamping down an instinctive impulse to try and find a way to fix things. The colonel was right. They didn't have time and it was too big a risk. "Yes, sir." She took a deep breath, steadying herself for what was to come. Facing the final moments of her life, she suddenly found herself grateful she'd sent that last email. Hopefully, Janet had found it and knew that their fight hadn't meant a damn thing, that she still ... cared very much ... and had done her best to see both Cass and Janet safe. She didn't want to die with the one person she---
She was yanked out of her silent musings by Daniel. "Wait," he snapped as he lunged around the end of the central command console, searching for something in his pockets.
Jack barely resisted the urge to curse under his breath, his tone harsh as he responded, "Daniel, if we don't stop them now, we may never stop them." They didn't have time for any more delays and certainly not one of the Egyptologist’s lectures on why they shouldn't do something that Jack knew perfectly well they should do, just because a few people might get killed. As far as he was concerned, if it was the enemy doing the dying, he was all for the idea. Daniel often saw things another way.
The Egyptologist's tone was impatient as he pulled the last of the readied explosives out of a pocket. "Yeah, I know that." He tacked the detonator under the edge of the main command console and activated it, then looked back at Jack. "Let's just make it as big a dent as possible, okay?"
The colonel ducked his head, silently acknowledging the fine edge of sarcasm directed his way.
Sam ignored the ongoing tension between the two men, too used to it to care. Also too close to dying to care. "Ready and awaiting your order, sir."
Taking a deep breath, Jack looked at his team, knowing they were all about to die. It would be as quick and painless as such things could be, he supposed, and they were doing it for all the right reasons. "Okay. And I suppose now is the time for me to say something profound." He thought about it for a moment, unable to come up with words that adequately expressed the love and respect he had for each of them. Nothing did the trick and he just wished he had a way of saving them as well their world.
Carter used the moment's pause to sink into herself, silently wishing well to the woman and child who had become her family. They'd be okay. They had to be. Chances were, they'd be back home, safe and sound in a couple of weeks. And if not, then they had supplies and were part of the best team Sam could put together. She just wished there was some way in hell she could see them one last time. A tiny shiver slid over her skin as the thought occurred unbidden that she also wished she hadn't left that night; that after their kiss, she'd done what every cell in her body had been screaming for, taken Janet's hand and simply drawn her back into the house, and into the bedroom. A momentary flash burned itself onto her mind's eye of their bodies twined together. She'd held Janet close and seen her in the showers, knew how pale and soft her skin was, had seen and felt the perfect curve of hip, breast, and thigh. It was so easy to imagine lying next to the other woman, totally lost in warm flesh. She was still shaken by the brief revelation when O'Neill spoke up again.
"Nothing comes to mind," he muttered disgustedly, oblivious to the way his second-in-command needed a moment to shake off her distraction. "Let's do it," he ordered Carter with a quick wave of his hand.
Sam nodded quickly, pulling out the master detonator, her hands shaking slightly as she began fumbling with the device.
"O'Neill," Teal'c interrupted, his attention directed toward the blocky shadow that had suddenly appeared in the window, "Apophis' ship approaches."
The huge, pyramidal structure floated gracefully into view. Intricate designs decorated the walls, making it look like some ancient building magically transported into space.
"We overheard him in the gateroom," Daniel quickly explained as they all watched the giant ship draw closer. "He said he'd rejoin Klorel once they came out of the shadows."
O'Neill paled several shades. He'd thought they were only dealing with one ship. Now, it looked like it was two. "Teal'c, if we can knock out this ship, will it stop them?"
The news wasn't good, and when delivered in Teal'c's ultra-serious monotone, it managed to sound even worse. "It will not. Apophis' mothership is equipped with defense shields; he will still be able to destroy your cities from high above."
Something hammered at the door to the command chamber, the sound enough to make them all jump. Obviously, someone knew they were there, which meant the Jaffa be preparing to retake control. That was not going to be a pretty fight.
His mind racing, Jack glanced at his second. "Tell me those C-4 charges are on an automatic timer."
Sam nodded, trying to ignore the sounds from the corridor just outside. "They're on an automatic timer," she confirmed.
Jack allowed himself a small sigh of relief. "Good.” Maybe they could find a way to get to the other ship and disable it while this one was blowing. "How long do we have?"
Sam winced, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer. "Twenty-four hours."
And he didn't. "Twenty-four hours?" the colonel demanded. His outrage was more frustration than anger, but it was still enough to make her defensive.
"At the time, sir, I thought we were still light-years away." In truth, thinking they still had a year before reaching Earth’s orbit, she would have made it more like forty-eight, but the max the timers allowed was twenty-four.
Another hard blow to the door made them all jump.
"Just a minute!" Jack shouted at their attackers in an explosion of frustration. He focused on his teammate. "Teal'c, work with me, buddy. Is there any other way out of here?" Maybe if they could--
Teal'c ended any hopes with a single, grimly uttered word. "None."
The doors to the command chamber started to slide open, the Jaffa warriors on the other side forcing the slotted panels apart.
O'Neill waved his team back from the doors. "All right, cover up." Time for a fight, whether they were ready for it or not.
Sam dove for cover as she heard Jack mutter, "This is turning out to be a bad day." Truer words had never been spoken.
Unfortunately, she had a bad feeling it was about to get even worse as the doors slid open another notch and the colonel opened fire. Quickly emptying the clip on his sidearm, he switched to one of the stolen Goa'uld hand weapons, while Sam fired her MP5, aiming for the widening crack between the door panels in hopes of taking out the Jaffa trying to get in.
She was still firing when a small metal globe arced through the door. It hit the floor, barely bouncing, and then a golden glow flashed outward, followed by a piercing whine.
Sam tried to hold on and remain conscious, but within seconds the floor came up and hit her and she knew no more. Her last thought as the blackness descended was a burst of gratitude that those closest to her were safe. She had no idea of the irony of the sentiment.
* * * * * *
Janet Fraiser's left calf threatened to cramp, so stressed was her position where she knelt on one knee, her sidearm up and trained on the man who stood several yards away. Makepeace’s MP5 was aimed her way and he had Cassie slung up in one arm, his hand clamped across her mouth to contain her screams. So much for the idea that the Beta team had been sent to a new Garden of Eden, completely safe and protected from their enemies. Somehow, there were Goa’uld here and she was apparently facing one of them.
"Put...the...gun...down," Robert Makepeace---or at least his body---ordered, the words coming in short, sharp syllables.
Janet shook her head slowly, bruised shoulders aching from the effort of keeping her weapon poised to fire. "Put Cassie down," she shot back, her voice just as hard as his. She couldn't back down, not at the risk of the child's life. She had no doubt that the moment she surrendered her weapon, they were both dead.
He shook his head, the faint gesture just barely visible in the dark. "Don't make me kill you, Doctor," he said, his voice softening ever so slightly, a tiny flicker of emotion in his voice.” She wondered if maybe the softly spoken sentence offered some small hint of the man trapped inside the body. Was he even now fighting to take back control? "You know I can."
"You'll make a hell of a lot of noise ... and it won't be easy to explain away," she countered, painfully aware of just how vulnerable both she and Cassie were.
"I don't think much explanation will be needed," he growled, any softness disappearing. "Now put the gun down." Cass was kicking wildly, her feet hammering into his back and hip, though he showed no sign of feeling the blows. "You have until the count of three."
Janet's finger tightened fractionally on the trigger as she fought to sight the weapon on his forehead, praying she could take him down with a single shot. Otherwise, this was all just an exercise in futility.
"One...."
It was unlikely that even a Goa'uld could rebound from trauma that massive, but she wouldn't get more than one chance. If she missed the first shot, she wouldn't have time for a second before he cut her down.
"Two...."
She started to fire, but Makepeace suddenly jerked to one side, moving so fast she couldn't track him reliably in the dark, and she held off. There was a glint of white and an explosion of furious profanities from the marine as she realized Cassie had managed to bite the hand across her mouth.
Still struggling wildly, the child clamped down hard enough to draw blood. Cursing, the colonel tried to yank his hand free, but the girl didn’t let go, her frantic effort gaining an extra moment or two.
Janet didn't stop to think or plan, just reacted, lunging at the man holding her adopted daughter while he was still distracted. She tackled him with all her might, the impact hard enough to jar her from head to toe and nearly unbalance him. Makepeace stumbled, but caught himself just in time, halting a near fall that would have sent them all tumbling.
Desperate to get Cassie clear, Janet hammered the butt of her pistol into his left shoulder---she didn't dare fire for fear of hitting the girl by accident. A grunt of pain signaled that she'd done some damage, but he didn't lose his grip on Cassie. He brought his right arm around, but in such close quarters the heavy machine gun was more of a hindrance than a help, buying Janet just enough time to slam the butt of her pistol into his shoulder again. The third time, he twisted into the blow, knocking her weapon away as he let go of his rifle to grab for her collar.
Her weapon gone, Janet hit him hard, her knuckles splitting as they collided with his jaw, then hit him again. Her panicked blows, coupled with Cassie's teeth embedded in his hand, were enough to disorient even the battle-hardened marine. Cursing, he used his grip on her collar to shake her with enough force to rattle her teeth, his chin impacting her forehead so hard it was a wonder there weren’t corresponding dents in her skull and his jaw. Seeing stars, her knees wobbled ever so slightly, but she didn't go down.
Bracing her forearm against his throat, Janet twisted, clawing at the arm wrapped around a still squirming Cassie, and tried to drive a knee into his groin. The blow was only a glancing one, but it was close enough to draw a grunt of pain and momentarily unbalance the big man. Digging her hand into the child's collar, Janet pulled hard and hammered his inner thigh a second time. This time he lost his grip.
"Run!" Janet ordered Cassie as she flung her free.
The girl hit the ground several feet away even as Janet threw her full weight into Makepeace again, purposely off-balancing them both. This time he wasn't braced firmly enough to remain standing. A brief sensation of falling and then they hit the ground, Makepeace on his back, Fraiser falling into his chest, her elbow jamming the marine in the jaw.
Far bigger and stronger with or without a Goa'uld's strength and moving a beat slower than normal, he rolled, tumbling her onto her back. Janet saw him rear up to grab for the knife on his belt and punched hard, using one of the maneuvers Teal'c had taught her to send him sprawling to the side. Not caring that he was a combat-trained officer twice her weight and God only knew how many times as strong, she rolled and scrambled after him, grabbing for her own knife as she moved, her entire focus on stopping her attacker. She was undoubtedly going to die, but she had to slow him down as much as possible. It was Cassie's only chance.
Fraiser collided with a moving mass of solid bone and muscle, tasting blood as his elbow slammed into the side of her face. In the scrambling, tumbling battle that followed, he used size and sheer muscle against her. He slammed her hard into the ground, but couldn't get a firm grip as she fought with adrenaline-driven desperation. She tried to bring the knife to bear, but a meaty fist wrapped around her hand, battering it against a nearby tree limb until taut muscles gave way and the weapon spilled from her fingers.
Muscles flexing with effort, Makepeace heaved her another several feet, letting gravity and rock-strewn earth do the battering for him. He followed, his fist tangling in the front collar of her jacket as he straddled slim hips.
He raised his other hand and moonlight glinted off a razor sharp blade---her dropped knife, she realized as she noted his was still sheathed on his belt. She tried to rear up, but the grip on her jacket was too tight, and she wasn't strong enough to throw him off. One quick slash with the blade and she was dead. The Goa’uld were more than strong enough to decapitate a human if they so chose.
Makepeace seemed to freeze, and she waited to see the gleam of alien eyes or hear the rumbly echo of a taunt offered in alien tones. She was still waiting when she realized that something hard and square-edged was pressing into her upper arm. Her dropped sidearm.
So close, yet so far.
Makepeace still hadn't moved, his expression unreadable in the faint light.
She had one slim chance and she took it, twisting wildly and grabbing for the weapon, rolling, and somehow breaking his hold on her jacket as she got her fingers around the pistol grip. Except the position put her half on her stomach, leaving her far more vulnerable. A hard hand grabbed her by the shoulder, shoving her face-down into the dirt as his body landed back on top of hers. Janet tried to wrench herself free, but he grabbed her hair, pulling her head back so hard she thought he meant to snap her neck. She saw the glitter of the blade out of the corner of her eye and expected to feel the kiss of tempered steel across her throat at any second. Lifting the pistol, she aimed blindly over her shoulder, finger already bearing down on the trigger when she suddenly became aware of a slight figure standing just to the side. Cassie had wrapped her hands around Makepeace's raised arm, and her voice filled the sudden silence.
"No! You can't!" Still pulling Makepeace's arm with one hand, Cassie pushed at the gun Janet had aimed blindly over her shoulder. "He's not a Goa'uld," she panted desperately, her voice hoarse and rough, leaving her guardian with the impression that she’d been trying to get them to hear her during the brief stint of combat. "Neither of you are Goa'uld."
Both adults froze. Hyped up from combat, sporting several new cuts and bruises, it took both of them a moment to comprehend the words.
"You're not Goa'uld," Cass said again when neither adult responded. She pulled harder at the limbs braced to kill, struggling to stop them from doing each other more harm. "Neither of you."
A moment of silence followed as both adults realized what she was saying.
"Cass, are you absolutely sure?" Janet whispered, still fighting the hand pulling at her arm, her finger on the trigger just short of releasing the hammer and sending a bullet crashing through the marine.
"As in one hundred percent, kid?" Makepeace added, also resisting the child's pressure to back off, his other hand still tight in Janet's hair.
Near tears, Cassie nodded emphatically. "You're not Goa'uld," she insisted, her voice cracking with terror. "You're both completely human. You've gotta believe me."
Makepeace didn't relax, but he did loosen his grip on Fraiser's hair fractionally, allowing her head to tip forward to a more natural angle, while she eased her finger ever so slightly off the trigger. The colonel leaned down, his mouth near the doctor's ear. "If you aren't a Goa'uld, why the hell were you running?"
She turned her head just enough to catch sight of her captor out of the corner of her eye. "Someone bumped against our tent and Cass sensed a Goa'uld--"
"So why the hell didn't you come to me?" he demanded angrily.
Trying to see him better, Janet felt the pressure on her scalp as she twisted her head a little farther to the side. "You were acting weird earlier ... and you'd been walking the perimeter of the camp alone ... the perfect target. I knew if you’d been taken over, you'd be after Cass. I was trying to get her clear before I did anything."
That pulled him up short. It made a certain amount of sense. "Johnson's dead," he said after a beat. "Whoever killed him was strong enough to snap his neck." He still didn't release his grip on the doctor's hair.
"And you think I did it?" Fraiser said incredulously. Johnson was even taller and heavier than Makepeace. There was no way in hell.
"If you were a Goa'uld, you could've," he pointed out logically. The parasitic aliens increased human strength exponentially. Tiny as she was, the doctor could easily have snapped the unsuspecting lieutenant's neck under those circumstances.
"But she's not," Cassie inserted, still trying to make the two adults see that they weren't enemies.
Makepeace glanced at the child, assessing her sincerity. She'd lost so much. Would she be willing to lie to save the woman who'd become her foster mother, even if she had been taken by one of the creatures? The kid might be desperate enough to think that there was still something of Fraiser in there. Certainly, she was smart enough to know that if Fraiser was a Goa'uld, he he almost had to kill her. They had no way of keeping an infected human captive, and no way of removing the creature under any circumstances.
The girl saw his doubt and hung more heavily on his arm, furiously trying to pull it back, though he scarcely noticed her added weight. "She's not," Cassie said again.
"You were alone at the edge of camp after everyone bedded down," he accused Fraiser quietly. "In the dark ... where it would have been easy to take you down ... and speaking of acting weird...." He was silent for a moment before he continued, "You were hiding something."
True enough, but not what he was afraid of. "I just needed to be alone for a few minutes," she denied the implication. "Things were kind of closing in, that's all. Hell, Martinez was with me most of the time."
"She's not a Goa'uld," Cassie added, a pleading note entering her voice. She tugged again. "You've gotta believe me." He flashed a sideways look at the child and slackened his grip ever so slightly.
Feeling him relax fractionally, Fraiser started to push up on one hand, only to find herself shoved back into the dirt, leaves and twigs pressing painfully into her skin, the smell of damp, loamy earth filling her nose.
A soft, pained grunt escaped her lips, followed by a hissed curse. "Dammit, if I was a Goa'uld, would I be on the bottom of this little confrontation?" she demanded.
It was a hell of a good point. If she was a Goa'uld, she could have snapped his neck while he was on patrol, not to mention flung him several feet and started breaking limbs for sport. Calmer now and seeing the logic of her argument, he abruptly released his grip on her hair.
Letting her head fall forward, Janet pushed up on her elbows and exhaled a low groan. Not so terrified now, it occurred to her that every single inch of her body hurt. Hell, even her hair hurt. She felt Makepeace shift so that less of his weight was bearing down on her and slowly lowered the pistol. She glanced back, noting the way the big man moved to one side, his face pale, a pained sigh escaping his lips, and relaxed another fraction. Somehow she couldn't imagine a Goa'uld being all that bothered by her attack, and he was definitely hurting.
He noticed her perusal and offered a lopsided smile. "You owe Teal'c a note of thanks," he groaned and reached up to wipe at a streak of blood where she'd clawed his face. "I didn't expect a couple of those moves." Flashing a glance at the child silently watching them, he resisted the urge to grab his crotch and moan, though he couldn't suppress a healthy flinch as he shifted to one knee so he was no longer straddling Janet’s hips.
Fraiser rolled to a sitting position. "Sorry about that," she apologized with a sympathetic wince, concluding he really wasn't a Goa'uld. A Goa'uld hurting like that would have torn her limb from limb for fun. They weren't a forgiving species.
He watched her holster her sidearm, then passed her knife back to her. "Under the circumstances, it's forgivable. It's not like you had much chance in this fight if you weren't a Goa'uld." He glanced at Cass again. "And you had the kid to protect." Forcing down any remaining shakiness, he pushed to his feet, looking around uneasily as he realized someone could have easily snuck up on them during the brief fight. Slinging his MP5 back around with one hand, he reached down with his other, offering Fraiser a hand up.
Stiff from the battering, she accepted his help and climbed to her feet with a low groan, then looked down, startled when a small hand snuck into her own.
" You okay?" Cass questioned worriedly.
Janet nodded, and gently ruffled the girl's hair with her other hand. "Yeah, just a little beat up." She traded apologetic looks with Makepeace as it occurred to both of them that they probably would have killed each other if not for the child's intervention. "You were very brave. Thank you."
Makepeace cleared his throat, his tone firmer than Fraiser’s as he rested a hand on the child's shoulder and leaned down into her line of sight. "But, kid, in the future, if the doc or I tell you to run, you run. Okay?" While everything had come out okay this time, he didn't want her to risk her life down the line somewhere.
Cassie offered a serious nod and didn't resist as Janet hugged her tightly to her side. She slipped her free arm around Janet's waist, unusually willing to accept a reassuring embrace after the scare they'd just had.
Keeping an arm around the child, the doctor looked back up at her superior. "What happened with Johnson?" she asked, hoping that maybe if they shared what they knew, they could come up with a likely suspect.
Makepeace shook his head. "Somebody got in behind him. There wasn't even any sign of a struggle. Whoever did it was strong as hell...." He trailed off momentarily. A Goa'uld would be more than strong enough. "I called Marks and Hanson ... told 'em to get up there to man the lookout." He nodded toward the lookout point. "I was just coming to get you to see if you could come up with any evidence about who it might be when I saw you and the kid and realized something strange was going on." He had decided to trust her, but he was still keeping a close eye on things. Trust, but verify. "So, what happened? How'd you know there was a Goa'uld?"
"He bumped the tent," Cassie answered for Janet, her voice small and serious. She let go of her death grip on her foster mother's waist, clutching her chest as though in pain. "The feeling ... it woke me up. It was a Goa'uld." They had tested her ability to sense them by exposing her to Teal'c until she knew that feeling all too well.
Makepeace frowned, absorbing the information, not liking the idea of one of the aliens wandering through the camp at will. "You sure?"
The girl nodded, her expression sad and knowing. "It was a Goa'uld," she said again.
The marine looked from the child to the woman holding her close, then back to the child. "Any idea who it might have been?"
Janet shook her head. "By the time I got out of the tent he, or she, was gone. And you're the only person I've seen since we left."
The marine considered his options for a moment, knowing he had to move quickly, but well aware that a decision made in haste might cost them all very dearly. "We need to keep the kid safe," he said at last. Without access to modern equipment, Cassandra offered the most reliable way they had of telling who was or wasn't a Goa'uld, so her safety had to be paramount. "But we've gotta figure out who it is. I think our best bet is to clear a couple of my men, then lock down the camp. We need to make sure your intruder didn't leave any little surprises ... then just go through everybody one by one."
Though uneasy with allowing Cassie to be that exposed and vulnerable, the doctor considered the suggestion. "But the Goa'uld may realize what Cass can do," she pointed out, afraid of making the child a target. "And so will everyone else." She'd come to realize the wisdom of the colonel's desire to keep her abilities secret and was very hesitant to risk giving up that information.
Makepeace understood her fears. "We need an excuse for you to have to check everyone in the camp ... say you've spotted some kind of local parasite or infection...."
She nodded to indicate that was possible.
"...then have the kid close." He reached out, resting a hand lightly on the doctor's shoulder. "I'll keep two men with you ... make sure you're both protected--"
"I don't give a damn about me," Janet snapped, instinctively tightening her hold on the child against her side. "I'm just afraid that--"
"I can do it," Cassie inserted, her voice small and soft. She looked up at the two adults. "That's why I'm here, right?" she whispered, her eyes huge and terrified. "General Hammond wouldn't have sent a kid otherwise." She was smart enough to understand the price of her survival.
Janet flinched and gently smoothed honey-colored hair back from the child's brow, but didn't argue.
"I'll make sure she's as safe as possible," Makepeace promised. "And you too. Realistically, if a Goa'uld sees you checking everyone in camp, you're the one who could become a target." He nodded in the direction of camp. "I'm gonna check in with the pickets--make sure everything's okay--and keep to the set schedule, so no one gets suspicious. Then I'll call Michaels and Everly and have them meet us here. If they're okay, we start working."
Janet nodded slowly, sinking into herself and holding on tightly to Cass while he stepped away a couple of feet to call the guards on duty. She looked down at the child pressed against her side, praying she was making the right decision.
Cass' head tipped upward, blue eyes gleaming in the moonlight. "He's not a Goa'uld," she said again, sensing that Janet was still having doubts. "It'll be okay."
The doctor offered a reassuring smile and continued brushing a hand lightly over the child's hair, but made sure her knife and sidearm were still undogged and cleared for use just in case. She tugged Cassie a little closer when the child started to pull back, ready to move fast if anything happened, while she tracked the colonel's conversation with one ear.
He'd barely started checking in with the team guarding the gate when she heard the first distant pop, the sound deep and quick, like the cork coming out of the world's biggest champagne bottle. And then what seemed like a dozen things happened at once. Makepeace's voice turned rough and impatient as he started demanding to know what was happening over his radio. It quickly became obvious from his tone that he wasn't getting any answers. Janet heard more of the same pops underlying his increasingly stressed voice, then on the third demand to know what was going on, felt the earth under her feet start to tremble. "Colonel," she hissed, her voice tight, one hand holding Cass to her side, the other gripping her sidearm with white-knuckled strength.
He held up a hand to silence her, his attention so focused on whatever he was, or wasn't, hearing that he didn't notice the low rumble boiling up through the ground.
"Colonel," she said again, her tone far sharper this time, her attention directed toward the ground.
"Doctor," he began impatiently, "I don't have time...."
It occurred to her as he was speaking that the distant pops had stopped, making way for an eerie silence that was totally at odds with the vibrations under her feet. An earthquake? No, she'd been through a couple before and this was completely different. Earthquakes didn't come with light displays, she thought as she saw the first flickering green glow rising up behind the trees, coming from somewhere near the gate.
Still focused on his radio, Makepeace didn't notice the hint of greenish light. "It's like something's interfering with the signal," he muttered as much to himself as to her.
"I'm guessing it has something to do with that, sir," she said, uncertain whether to be frightened or awed as the light gained in intensity, dancing and flickering across the treetops like St. Elmo's Fire.
He finally looked up, jaw momentarily dropping open. He closed it again to mutter a low curse.
"The ground," Cassie whispered, and Janet's jaw dropped as she felt what Cass had; an increasing vibration, enough now to shake the soft earth like planter's soil being tamped into place in a flower pot.
When the explosion came it was almost a relief, a release of building tension. It shook the ground, and sent a powerful blast of air through the trees, sending leaves and branches flying.
Tightening her hold on Cassie, Janet threw up her other arm to protect her face and braced herself to remain on her feet, while the child buried her face in her foster mother's hip to escape the flying debris.
Makepeace dug in his feet to keep from going down as he stared toward the gate with an expression of horror. Expecting a flash of fire in the sky, he was surprised when all he saw was the eerie, flickering green light. Regaining his equilibrium almost instantly, he spun toward Fraiser. "You've got a radio, right?" The words came as fast as he could form them.
She nodded quickly.
"Stay here. Keep the kid safe." He flashed another look toward the gate. "Keep your radio open. I'll send someone when I can. I gotta go." He didn't like leaving them alone like this, but it seemed better than dragging the child into God only knew what. He didn't wait for her to respond before he turned on his heel and took off at a run, heading straight toward the still rumbling explosions and glittering green lights.
Her instincts were torn, simultaneously telling her to protect the child pressed against her side and to run straight toward where her skills as a doctor were likely to be needed. She almost went, but Makepeace was right, Cassie needed to be protected. With a Goa'uld still among them, her importance was magnified a thousand-fold. She tightened her hold on the girl, her attention still focused on the distant lights. The explosions had died away, but the strange sparks of green fire continued to dance and play against the backdrop of a velvety night sky. "Come on," she said at last, pulling Cassie back and moving quickly up a nearby slope. Maybe if they found high enough ground she could see something and figure out what the hell was going on.
They hadn't gone very far when a nearby crackle brought Fraiser up short. She spun, drawing her pistol, searching the surrounding forest with frightened eyes, painfully aware of the way the trees seemed to take on a life of their own, closing in and forming a jagged and sharp-edged prison cell. "Who's there?" she demanded, hoping that Makepeace had sent one of his men along as additional protection.
Nothing.
She released her hold on Cassie's hand. The girl only shifted her grip, to cling tightly to Janet's side. She whispered her adopted mother's name, her voice sepulchrally soft.
"We'll be okay," the doctor breathed, and tugged the child with her as she started moving again. There's nothing there, she assured herself, just the wind in the trees and your own fears.
She wasn't that lucky.
* * * * * *