[Stargate: Fiction] "Escape Attempts" [SG-22, G]
Title: Escape Attempts
Prompt: writerverse challenge #04 phase 11 table of doom, prompt #11 ‘for our lives’ (science-fiction, 1k+ words)
Word Count: 3,625
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: Stargate SG-1 ( SG-22, original characters)
Warnings: minor violence
Summary: SG teams don’t always work so well together.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
Escape Attempts
Jason woke to the low buzz of the kind of headache that meant he’d been knocked out by a ‘zat gun. He suppressed a groan as he heard other people moving around nearby, and Gryff’s voice said, “SG-22, report.”
“Ow,” said Toby, from somewhere to Jason’s left. “I think they just recharged their stunners.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jason agreed. He pushed himself, carefully, into a sitting position. “Levi, you okay?”
The sociologist didn’t move. “If I refuse to believe we’re in another naquadah mine, does that mean it’s not true?”
“No,” said Gryff, bluntly. “SG-19, what’s your status?”
“SG-19, all accounted for,” said Lieutenant Forest. His team- Master Sergeant Valdez, Staff Sergeant Duquesne and Lance Corporal O’Roarke- were all Marines, assigned to accompany SG-22 to P4X-1127 to participate in the local Festival of Strength. Only, they hadn’t made it a mile from the ‘gate before they’d been ambushed and captured by enemy Jaffa.
Speaking of which…
Jason heard the clank of metal armor and hauled himself to his feet, just as three Jaffa guards appeared. As usual, Gryff had positioned herself closest to the entrance of the small cavern where they’d been dumped, and she offered the guards her fakest smile.
“I was beginning to think we’d never get any service,” she said, lightly. “And there are eight of us, so we’ll need two rooms, at least, although perhaps three would be-”
The lead Jaffa- not a First Prime, his forehead symbol was black- struck out with the butt of his staff weapon, hitting Gryff in the ribs. She let out an involuntary huff of pain, but stayed upright.
“Silence, human,” the Jaffa snapped. “You are now the slaves of the Great Lord Fons.”
“The Fonz?” repeated Jason. “From Happy Days?”
“Maybe he’ll teach us how to do that thing with the juke box,” Gryff suggested, which earned her another hit, as she was the only one in striking distance.
“You will work for the glory of Lord Fons,” said the Jaffa. “Or you will die.”
“Is there some sort of System Lord-approved ‘welcome to my naquadah mine’ speech?” asked Gryff. “Because that is the exact same-”
The third hit made her double over, Toby’s hand under her elbow. Jason made sure he was next to Levi, as they followed the Jaffa, with SG-19 bringing up the rear. This mine looked just like the dozens (was it really ‘dozens’, plural?) of other mines that his team had been thrown into in the last few years. The littlest things could sometimes make their escape much easier, though, and Jason kept his eyes open.
They were led to a long tunnel, low enough that Jason could feel bits of protruding ceiling brush his regulation haircut, and one of the Jaffa gave Gryff a shove toward a rack of tools.
“Work, or die,” he growled, and all of the guards left, nodding to the two they had passed at the tunnel entrance.
Gryff grabbed a medieval-looking pickaxe and held it out to Forest. “You heard the man, lieutenant.”
He scowled. “Permission to speak freely?”
She took another pickaxe for herself. “While we work. Levi, hand out the rest of the tools.”
The sociologist shot her a grateful look- even after months of experience at mining naquadah, he still wasn’t accustomed to that kind of labor, and it would give him a few extra minutes of rest before he had to start really working.
“Captain,” said Forest. “With respect, my team could have handled those guards, even without weapons.”
“Probably so,” Gryff agreed. “But then what? We don’t know how deep this mine is, how many prisoners, how many Jaffa, how Lord Fonzerelli treats troublemakers, if we can access the stargate- if we’re even on the same planet anymore.”
Forest paused, then nodded. “I see your point.”
“Exactly. So, work just hard enough not to be noticed and keep a look out. We compare intel at chow time.”
“No more talking, humans!” called one of the guards, and the other primed his staff weapon.
The two team leaders fell silent and got back to work.
Jason had been in at least two dozen alien mines, but there were only so many ways you could dig out super-dense rock with hand tools, so they tended to have something of an overall standard procedure. This one, at least, had tracks for the mine carts, which was a technological advancement that not many forced-labor mines could boast. Even with the carts, it was still grueling work. The mine was hot and humid, which made the dirt they chipped away from the naquadah turn into mud that clung to their skin, and Jason sagged in relieve when he heard the low gong that announced the end of the work day.
“You okay?” he asked Levi, as the guards led them out of the single mine entrance, and the other man nodded tiredly.
This mine turned out to be shallow- only a slight incline brought them out onto the surface, which was even hotter and more humid than it had been underground. It opened into a clearing in the surrounding jungle, where a large open-sided tent was set up, a cooking fire at one end and uneven rows of ground covers at the other. Over the treetops, Jason could make out the curve of the stargate a hundred yards away.
There were about a dozen guards, all armed Jaffa warriors, and about three dozen prisoners, not counting the two Earth teams.
Jason grabbed a wooden bowl from the box by the cook pot and joined the chow line, looking over his team. They were all tired and grimy- even Gryff, who wore sweaters in the middle of July, had broken a sweat- but SG-19 still looked tense.
“We won’t go tonight,” said Gryff, when they had each contributed their reports. Toby had focused on the mine’s layout, Levi had talked with some of the other miners, and Jason had watched the movements of the guards, while Gryff made herself enough of nuisance that nobody noticed them doing it. SG-19 added a few details they’d spotted, like the sturdier ten the guards were using for headquarters and the winding path off into the jungle.
Valdez, SG-19’s second-in-command, frowned. “If we find an opportunity to escape, we should take it,” he said. “We might not get a second chance.”
“It’s not that easy,” Toby said.
Gryff nodded. “We haven’t been gone long enough for our iris codes to be locked out, but it’ll be easier if we can get some of our gear back.”
“And if we get some sleep,” said Toby, collecting the empty bowls to return them, while the others arranged the ground covers.
“You’re not setting a watch?” asked Forest, surprised, then belatedly added, “Ma’am?”
“A watch isn’t necessary, lieutenant,” said Gryff. “They want to work us to death, not just kill us.”
Around them, the torches were being extinguished, and flaps brought down on the sides of the tent.
“Good night, gentlemen,” said Gryff, stretching out on the ground cover, the way the other miners were doing.
The rest of her team followed, but SG-19 took a few tense minutes to settle in. Jason was too tired to notice- he curled up between Gryff and Levi and was almost instantly asleep.
He woke, while it was still dark, to the sound of weapons fire.
Gryff was already on her feet, reaching for a weapon she didn’t have, and Jason scrambled after her, Toby and Levi not far behind. Jason had only just realized that they four members of SG-19 were missing, when they weren’t- Jaffa guards were dragging them back into the clearing, Valdez and O’Roarke unconscious, Duquesne limping badly and Forest sporting at least a black eye.
“Gryff, don’t-“ Toby began, but she was already striding out of the tent and putting herself in the guards’ path.
“Unhand my men,” she snapped, in her best parade-ground bark. She didn’t use it often, but it was impressive. Usually.
The Jaffa dropped Valdez, O’Roarke and Duquesne, who collapsed onto the ground, but the one holding Forest’s arms shook him roughly. “This one says he’s their leader.”
“He answers to me,” said Gryff.
The guard smiled, cruelly. “Then this pathetic attempt to escape is your responsibility.”
“Yes.”
Gryff took a deep breath, but made no attempt to dodge the backhanded blow that struck her in the side of the head. She fell, hands and knees hitting the dirt, and the guard used his staff weapon to knock her flat, adding two more solid hits before she collapsed, wheezing.
“Know your place, human,” he spat. “Transgress again and you will look upon these blows with fondness.”
The guards left, and Jason crouched at Gryff’s side. “Sir?”
“Oh, that’ll bruise,” she breathed. “SG-19?”
“Still alive,” said Toby. He was their unit’s de-facto medic, and he had already started checking them over. “Nobody’s broken any bones.”
“We should get them back to the tent,” said Gryff, and he nodded. “Lieutenant Forest?”
He moved stiffly, but helped lift one of his unconscious teammates. “Yes, ma’am.”
“You are aware that ‘tonight’ is generally the period of darkness following the daylights hours in which that word in said?” she asked, her voice low. “I seem to recall saying that we wouldn’t be leaving tonight.”
He hesitated, then took a deep breath, wincing. “Yes, ma’am, you did. But the guards all retired to their headquarters tent, and there was a chance to make an escape.”
“I see,” she said. “Just your team?”
“With respect, ma’am,” said Forest. “There was an opportunity, and we took it.”
“And you failed,” said Gryff, bluntly. “And now your team is injured.”
“It was a necessary risk. I didn’t think-” He stopped, jaw clenched.
“Oh, no,” said Gryff. “Let’s hear it, lieutenant. Off the record, if it’ll make you feel better.”
“All right,” he agreed. They laid Valdez and O’Roarke on the ground cover they had claimed, and Toby stayed with them. “Ma’am, I have nothing but respect for female officers. You take the same risks as anyone else, coming out here. And I’ve found that having women along can be invaluable when dealing with indigenous populations. But, ma’am, this now a purely military mission. I’m sorry to say it, but I feel you might not be entirely objective about the risks that will be necessary.”
“Objective,” Gryff repeated calmly, and Jason winced- Forest would have no idea, but that was her most dangerous tone of voice. “Thank you for your honesty, lieutenant. Now, try to get some more sleep before dawn.”
Forest scowled, then sighed, and laid down beside his team without another word.
They had barely fallen asleep when the gong roused them again, and the prisoners were marched back into the mine. Valdez and O’Roarke seemed fine, once they woke up, and all of them worked steadily, sneaking breaks when they could, adding a new layer of grime to the one they hadn’t had a chance to wash off yet.
“You’ve got a little something, right here,” joked Levi, rubbing a thumb along his own nose as he passed Jason a cup of brackish water.
“Funny,” he drawled, knowing there probably wasn’t a single clean spot on his face, then he frowned. “Hey, what’re SG-19-”
There was a sudden commotion from the far side of the tunnel. Jason caught a blur of SGC-green as a pile of equipment suddenly toppled. A mine cart went down next, sending chunks of raw naquadah skidding across the ground, and a moment later, a staff weapon went off, striking the ceiling and adding a cloud of dust to the melee.
The rest of the miners scrambled away from the scuffle, but SG-22 pushed forward. O’Roarke was unconscious again, along with two of the guards, but the rest of his team were on their knees, staff weapons aimed at their backs.
“What’s going on?” Gryff demanded.
“Your men did not learn their place, human,” said the head Jaffa guard. “Perhaps they will learn from the example I make of you.”
“Sir..!” Jason protested, but she raised a fist, sharply, in the signal for him to stop.
The Jaffa sneered. “Lord Fons will deal with you himself,” he said. “Bring her.”
Their watches had been taken along with their other gear, so Jason had no way of knowing how long Gryff had been gone. It felt like forever, and all three members of his team kept glancing at the cavern entrance, even as they went back to mining naquadah.
Finally, the guards returned, dragging Gryff between them. They tossed her, unceremoniously, into the middle of the mine tunnel, and left again. Jason managed to catch her, relieved to feel Gryff’s pulse under his fingers, and eased them both to the ground. Toby knelt beside them, checking their CO for injuries.
“Nothing seems broken,” he said, which was about as much as they could hope for- Gryff’s nose was still bleeding, and so was her lip. Ugly purple bruises were forming along her bare arms, and probably a few places her clothing hid, but her eyes were focused, and she gripped Jason’s shoulder to pull herself to her feet.
“I’m fine, Jase,” she said, softly, then straightened. “Lieutenant Forest.”
The Marine straightened, apparently automatically. “Ma’am?”
“You and I are going to have a conversation, and you are not going to like it,” she said. Her voice was a little slurred, from her split lip, but as sharp as ever. “We can do it in private, if you’d prefer.”
To his credit, Forest stood his ground. “No, ma’am, if it’s all the same to you.”
“I realize that I didn’t explicitly order you not to escape, lieutenant, and perhaps that was an oversight on my part. But I did have a reasonable assumption, as ranking officer of this mission, that you wouldn’t take potentially fatal risks without my permission.”
“With respect, ma’am-”
“Is it?” Gryff interrupted. “Because I’m not seeing it, lieutenant. Even without a direct order, I believe I made it clear that we would wait before attempting escape.”
“Ma’am, we have a duty to escape, so that we can continue serving in the fight against the Goa’uld.”
“A duty,” she repeated. “You have a duty to follow orders. Mine.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Forest, through gritted teeth. “Unless and until I believe that your orders are counter to our mission objective.”
“Mission? Lieutenant, our mission was over the minute we got stunned and transported here. As of that moment, we were on our own, and as the ranking officer, it was my responsibility to reevaluate our priorities. Did it occur to you, lieutenant, that this is hardly the first time my team has faced this situation? That my plan for our escape- and the escape of other innocents- has been significantly hindered by my having to take beatings meant for you?”
Forest had the decency to wince at that, but he stayed silent.
Gryff snorted. “I’ve met officers like you, lieutenant, more than you’d believe. It’s not that there are women as officers. I believe you really don’t have a problem with that. As long as we serve as secretaries, or quartermasters, or other safe, unmanly jobs, right? I’m sure you believe I broke, when Fonz tortured me. That I was a disgrace to my uniform, that I started sobbing like a little girl.”
“I…” Forest began.
“Because that is exactly what I did,” said Gryff.
Jason frowned, along with the rest of the men. “What?”
“Like a little girl,” she repeated. “Sobbing uncontrollably, in a pathetic heap on the floor- right on top of the pile of gear he had in a corner.”
“Nice,” said Toby, smiling, and their CO smiled back.
“So, lieutenant, would you have managed to hide a GDO in your bra?”
The other Marine turned slightly pink, under all the grime. “No, ma’am, I would not.”
“But there is the fact,” Gryff continued, her smile fading, “that the Jaffa now expect us to attempt escape, and will be watching for it. I am still in command here, lieutenant, and I am ordering you not to take any action, of any kind, on your own initiative. Am I understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Forest snapped.
“Am I clear?” repeated Gryff, to the rest of his team, and they chorused their agreement. “Get back to work.”
SG-19 picked up their shovels again and moved off, but SG-22 closed ranks around their commander.
“Nice trick with the GDO,” said Toby. “You got anything else in there?”
Gryff grinned, lopsidedly. “You shouldn’t ask a lady that.”
“Not asking a lady, I’m asking you.”
“Oh, nice,” she said, dryly. “And, no, sorry. Even with all the flailing and crying, I didn’t have much time to stash anything.”
“So, tonight?” Jason asked.
“The guards’ tent,” put in Levi, suddenly. “At night, they’re all there. We could, I don’t know, set fire to it-”
“I do the cooking,” said a voice, suddenly. A man rested his shovel beside them, tired but determined. “I have the means to make fire.”
“Yeah?” Gryff asked, falsely casual. “You’d help us?”
“To escape this place?” the man replied. “Gladly.”
“It will be risky,” Gryff said. “We have no weapons, no supplies. But if you can get us a distraction, and we can get people to the stargate, we can get you all off this planet.”
“There are others who will help,” the man said. “We will follow you.”
He turned away without another word, deliberately crossing to avoid Forest and SG-19.
“Sir?” Jason prompted.
Gryff raised her pickaxe, wincing as she pulled sore muscles. “We go tonight,” she said.
Her bruises had turned a nasty shade of purple by the time the end-of-shift gong rang, and this time, Jason let Gryff pass him half of her gruel, complaining about her split lip, before they turned in for the night.
The planet’s single moon had just risen above the trees when Gryff touched his shoulder. Jason rose silently, poking Levi in turn, and found the man they’d spoken to earlier standing beside his CO.
“You’re with him, gunny,” said Gryff. “We need weapons.”
He nodded. “Understood.”
The other prisoner had a piece of flint and steel, and together they crept toward the guards’ tent. It was a tense few moments until the thick fabric of the tent caught fire, and Jason took up position just outside the entrance. There was sudden shouting from inside, and a single Jaffa darted through- Jason grabbed his staff weapon and fired before the guard even registered his presence, then continued shooting as more guards emerged.
He grabbed up the fallen staff weapons as the rest of the Jaffa finally wrenched open a wall of the tent, and they made a hasty retreat.
“Sir!” he called. “Trouble!”
Gryff caught the staff weapon he tossed her, and took up position at the edge of the trail to the ‘gate. Jason handed off weapons to more of their fellow prisoners, and they laid down cover fire while Toby and Levi raced for the ‘gate.
“Most of the guards are dead now,” said Forest. Surprisingly, he carried a P90, and a standard-issue pack. “Valdez snagged these from the burning tent.”
“Well done,” said Gryff, taking the radio he held out. “Is there another? Good, get it to the ‘gate, and take as many of these people with you as you can.”
More than half of the prisoners followed SG-19 down the path, and Gryff gave the signal for her fighters to begin to fall back.
“Gryff!” yelled Levi, over the radio. “The ‘gate’s open, bring them through!”
“Fall back!” Gryff called. “Everyone, fall back!”
Jason and Duquesne led the tumble back toward the ‘gate, with Forest, Valdez and O’Roarke in the middle, and Gryff bringing up the rear. Nearly all of the now-former-miners were already through, and the two teams followed, until Jason and Gryff were the only ones left.
“That’s everyone, sir!” Jase called.
She fired another shot at the few guards still approaching, and started backwards toward the ‘gate. Jason could already feel the tiny tug as he started through the wormhole when a staff weapon blast flashed between them. He grabbed the waistband of Gryff’s BDU pants and fell backwards through to the SGC Gate Room.
“Shut down the ‘gate!” Jason and Gryff yelled, in unison, as they hit the ramp, and the wormhole shut off into sudden, ringing silence.
The whole bunch of them where bundled off to the infirmary- Gryff was the worst off, by far, but they were all pretty beat up- and Dr. Fraiser had sharp words for everyone. Jason took his stitches without complaining, sent Levi off to get some sleep, and silently agreed with Toby to take the first watch of not letting Gryff sneak out of the infirmary before she was really okay.
Which was why he was slumped in the chair beside her bed when Forest came to stand on its other side, wearing a clean uniform. “Captain Gryffydd?”
“Lieutenant Forest?” she said.
“Ma’am,” he began, sounding awkward. “General Hammond has asked for a preliminary debriefing on our mission. Is there anything you would like me to relate?”
Gryff paused, taking a deep breath and trying not to jar the staff weapon burn on her thigh. “No, lieutenant,” she said, slowly. “You should make your report to the general, and I’ll make mine.”
“Understood, ma’am,” he said, and left.
“We’re not going to take any missions with SG-19 again, are we, sir?” Jason asked, without opening his eyes.
Gryff didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised that he was awake. “Some people’s minds just can’t be changed, Jase,” she said. “Get some sleep.”
Jason let out a long breath. “Yes, sir.”
THE END
Current Mood:
tired
Prompt: writerverse challenge #04 phase 11 table of doom, prompt #11 ‘for our lives’ (science-fiction, 1k+ words)
Word Count: 3,625
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: Stargate SG-1 ( SG-22, original characters)
Warnings: minor violence
Summary: SG teams don’t always work so well together.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_library
Escape Attempts
Jason woke to the low buzz of the kind of headache that meant he’d been knocked out by a ‘zat gun. He suppressed a groan as he heard other people moving around nearby, and Gryff’s voice said, “SG-22, report.”
“Ow,” said Toby, from somewhere to Jason’s left. “I think they just recharged their stunners.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jason agreed. He pushed himself, carefully, into a sitting position. “Levi, you okay?”
The sociologist didn’t move. “If I refuse to believe we’re in another naquadah mine, does that mean it’s not true?”
“No,” said Gryff, bluntly. “SG-19, what’s your status?”
“SG-19, all accounted for,” said Lieutenant Forest. His team- Master Sergeant Valdez, Staff Sergeant Duquesne and Lance Corporal O’Roarke- were all Marines, assigned to accompany SG-22 to P4X-1127 to participate in the local Festival of Strength. Only, they hadn’t made it a mile from the ‘gate before they’d been ambushed and captured by enemy Jaffa.
Speaking of which…
Jason heard the clank of metal armor and hauled himself to his feet, just as three Jaffa guards appeared. As usual, Gryff had positioned herself closest to the entrance of the small cavern where they’d been dumped, and she offered the guards her fakest smile.
“I was beginning to think we’d never get any service,” she said, lightly. “And there are eight of us, so we’ll need two rooms, at least, although perhaps three would be-”
The lead Jaffa- not a First Prime, his forehead symbol was black- struck out with the butt of his staff weapon, hitting Gryff in the ribs. She let out an involuntary huff of pain, but stayed upright.
“Silence, human,” the Jaffa snapped. “You are now the slaves of the Great Lord Fons.”
“The Fonz?” repeated Jason. “From Happy Days?”
“Maybe he’ll teach us how to do that thing with the juke box,” Gryff suggested, which earned her another hit, as she was the only one in striking distance.
“You will work for the glory of Lord Fons,” said the Jaffa. “Or you will die.”
“Is there some sort of System Lord-approved ‘welcome to my naquadah mine’ speech?” asked Gryff. “Because that is the exact same-”
The third hit made her double over, Toby’s hand under her elbow. Jason made sure he was next to Levi, as they followed the Jaffa, with SG-19 bringing up the rear. This mine looked just like the dozens (was it really ‘dozens’, plural?) of other mines that his team had been thrown into in the last few years. The littlest things could sometimes make their escape much easier, though, and Jason kept his eyes open.
They were led to a long tunnel, low enough that Jason could feel bits of protruding ceiling brush his regulation haircut, and one of the Jaffa gave Gryff a shove toward a rack of tools.
“Work, or die,” he growled, and all of the guards left, nodding to the two they had passed at the tunnel entrance.
Gryff grabbed a medieval-looking pickaxe and held it out to Forest. “You heard the man, lieutenant.”
He scowled. “Permission to speak freely?”
She took another pickaxe for herself. “While we work. Levi, hand out the rest of the tools.”
The sociologist shot her a grateful look- even after months of experience at mining naquadah, he still wasn’t accustomed to that kind of labor, and it would give him a few extra minutes of rest before he had to start really working.
“Captain,” said Forest. “With respect, my team could have handled those guards, even without weapons.”
“Probably so,” Gryff agreed. “But then what? We don’t know how deep this mine is, how many prisoners, how many Jaffa, how Lord Fonzerelli treats troublemakers, if we can access the stargate- if we’re even on the same planet anymore.”
Forest paused, then nodded. “I see your point.”
“Exactly. So, work just hard enough not to be noticed and keep a look out. We compare intel at chow time.”
“No more talking, humans!” called one of the guards, and the other primed his staff weapon.
The two team leaders fell silent and got back to work.
Jason had been in at least two dozen alien mines, but there were only so many ways you could dig out super-dense rock with hand tools, so they tended to have something of an overall standard procedure. This one, at least, had tracks for the mine carts, which was a technological advancement that not many forced-labor mines could boast. Even with the carts, it was still grueling work. The mine was hot and humid, which made the dirt they chipped away from the naquadah turn into mud that clung to their skin, and Jason sagged in relieve when he heard the low gong that announced the end of the work day.
“You okay?” he asked Levi, as the guards led them out of the single mine entrance, and the other man nodded tiredly.
This mine turned out to be shallow- only a slight incline brought them out onto the surface, which was even hotter and more humid than it had been underground. It opened into a clearing in the surrounding jungle, where a large open-sided tent was set up, a cooking fire at one end and uneven rows of ground covers at the other. Over the treetops, Jason could make out the curve of the stargate a hundred yards away.
There were about a dozen guards, all armed Jaffa warriors, and about three dozen prisoners, not counting the two Earth teams.
Jason grabbed a wooden bowl from the box by the cook pot and joined the chow line, looking over his team. They were all tired and grimy- even Gryff, who wore sweaters in the middle of July, had broken a sweat- but SG-19 still looked tense.
“We won’t go tonight,” said Gryff, when they had each contributed their reports. Toby had focused on the mine’s layout, Levi had talked with some of the other miners, and Jason had watched the movements of the guards, while Gryff made herself enough of nuisance that nobody noticed them doing it. SG-19 added a few details they’d spotted, like the sturdier ten the guards were using for headquarters and the winding path off into the jungle.
Valdez, SG-19’s second-in-command, frowned. “If we find an opportunity to escape, we should take it,” he said. “We might not get a second chance.”
“It’s not that easy,” Toby said.
Gryff nodded. “We haven’t been gone long enough for our iris codes to be locked out, but it’ll be easier if we can get some of our gear back.”
“And if we get some sleep,” said Toby, collecting the empty bowls to return them, while the others arranged the ground covers.
“You’re not setting a watch?” asked Forest, surprised, then belatedly added, “Ma’am?”
“A watch isn’t necessary, lieutenant,” said Gryff. “They want to work us to death, not just kill us.”
Around them, the torches were being extinguished, and flaps brought down on the sides of the tent.
“Good night, gentlemen,” said Gryff, stretching out on the ground cover, the way the other miners were doing.
The rest of her team followed, but SG-19 took a few tense minutes to settle in. Jason was too tired to notice- he curled up between Gryff and Levi and was almost instantly asleep.
He woke, while it was still dark, to the sound of weapons fire.
Gryff was already on her feet, reaching for a weapon she didn’t have, and Jason scrambled after her, Toby and Levi not far behind. Jason had only just realized that they four members of SG-19 were missing, when they weren’t- Jaffa guards were dragging them back into the clearing, Valdez and O’Roarke unconscious, Duquesne limping badly and Forest sporting at least a black eye.
“Gryff, don’t-“ Toby began, but she was already striding out of the tent and putting herself in the guards’ path.
“Unhand my men,” she snapped, in her best parade-ground bark. She didn’t use it often, but it was impressive. Usually.
The Jaffa dropped Valdez, O’Roarke and Duquesne, who collapsed onto the ground, but the one holding Forest’s arms shook him roughly. “This one says he’s their leader.”
“He answers to me,” said Gryff.
The guard smiled, cruelly. “Then this pathetic attempt to escape is your responsibility.”
“Yes.”
Gryff took a deep breath, but made no attempt to dodge the backhanded blow that struck her in the side of the head. She fell, hands and knees hitting the dirt, and the guard used his staff weapon to knock her flat, adding two more solid hits before she collapsed, wheezing.
“Know your place, human,” he spat. “Transgress again and you will look upon these blows with fondness.”
The guards left, and Jason crouched at Gryff’s side. “Sir?”
“Oh, that’ll bruise,” she breathed. “SG-19?”
“Still alive,” said Toby. He was their unit’s de-facto medic, and he had already started checking them over. “Nobody’s broken any bones.”
“We should get them back to the tent,” said Gryff, and he nodded. “Lieutenant Forest?”
He moved stiffly, but helped lift one of his unconscious teammates. “Yes, ma’am.”
“You are aware that ‘tonight’ is generally the period of darkness following the daylights hours in which that word in said?” she asked, her voice low. “I seem to recall saying that we wouldn’t be leaving tonight.”
He hesitated, then took a deep breath, wincing. “Yes, ma’am, you did. But the guards all retired to their headquarters tent, and there was a chance to make an escape.”
“I see,” she said. “Just your team?”
“With respect, ma’am,” said Forest. “There was an opportunity, and we took it.”
“And you failed,” said Gryff, bluntly. “And now your team is injured.”
“It was a necessary risk. I didn’t think-” He stopped, jaw clenched.
“Oh, no,” said Gryff. “Let’s hear it, lieutenant. Off the record, if it’ll make you feel better.”
“All right,” he agreed. They laid Valdez and O’Roarke on the ground cover they had claimed, and Toby stayed with them. “Ma’am, I have nothing but respect for female officers. You take the same risks as anyone else, coming out here. And I’ve found that having women along can be invaluable when dealing with indigenous populations. But, ma’am, this now a purely military mission. I’m sorry to say it, but I feel you might not be entirely objective about the risks that will be necessary.”
“Objective,” Gryff repeated calmly, and Jason winced- Forest would have no idea, but that was her most dangerous tone of voice. “Thank you for your honesty, lieutenant. Now, try to get some more sleep before dawn.”
Forest scowled, then sighed, and laid down beside his team without another word.
They had barely fallen asleep when the gong roused them again, and the prisoners were marched back into the mine. Valdez and O’Roarke seemed fine, once they woke up, and all of them worked steadily, sneaking breaks when they could, adding a new layer of grime to the one they hadn’t had a chance to wash off yet.
“You’ve got a little something, right here,” joked Levi, rubbing a thumb along his own nose as he passed Jason a cup of brackish water.
“Funny,” he drawled, knowing there probably wasn’t a single clean spot on his face, then he frowned. “Hey, what’re SG-19-”
There was a sudden commotion from the far side of the tunnel. Jason caught a blur of SGC-green as a pile of equipment suddenly toppled. A mine cart went down next, sending chunks of raw naquadah skidding across the ground, and a moment later, a staff weapon went off, striking the ceiling and adding a cloud of dust to the melee.
The rest of the miners scrambled away from the scuffle, but SG-22 pushed forward. O’Roarke was unconscious again, along with two of the guards, but the rest of his team were on their knees, staff weapons aimed at their backs.
“What’s going on?” Gryff demanded.
“Your men did not learn their place, human,” said the head Jaffa guard. “Perhaps they will learn from the example I make of you.”
“Sir..!” Jason protested, but she raised a fist, sharply, in the signal for him to stop.
The Jaffa sneered. “Lord Fons will deal with you himself,” he said. “Bring her.”
Their watches had been taken along with their other gear, so Jason had no way of knowing how long Gryff had been gone. It felt like forever, and all three members of his team kept glancing at the cavern entrance, even as they went back to mining naquadah.
Finally, the guards returned, dragging Gryff between them. They tossed her, unceremoniously, into the middle of the mine tunnel, and left again. Jason managed to catch her, relieved to feel Gryff’s pulse under his fingers, and eased them both to the ground. Toby knelt beside them, checking their CO for injuries.
“Nothing seems broken,” he said, which was about as much as they could hope for- Gryff’s nose was still bleeding, and so was her lip. Ugly purple bruises were forming along her bare arms, and probably a few places her clothing hid, but her eyes were focused, and she gripped Jason’s shoulder to pull herself to her feet.
“I’m fine, Jase,” she said, softly, then straightened. “Lieutenant Forest.”
The Marine straightened, apparently automatically. “Ma’am?”
“You and I are going to have a conversation, and you are not going to like it,” she said. Her voice was a little slurred, from her split lip, but as sharp as ever. “We can do it in private, if you’d prefer.”
To his credit, Forest stood his ground. “No, ma’am, if it’s all the same to you.”
“I realize that I didn’t explicitly order you not to escape, lieutenant, and perhaps that was an oversight on my part. But I did have a reasonable assumption, as ranking officer of this mission, that you wouldn’t take potentially fatal risks without my permission.”
“With respect, ma’am-”
“Is it?” Gryff interrupted. “Because I’m not seeing it, lieutenant. Even without a direct order, I believe I made it clear that we would wait before attempting escape.”
“Ma’am, we have a duty to escape, so that we can continue serving in the fight against the Goa’uld.”
“A duty,” she repeated. “You have a duty to follow orders. Mine.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Forest, through gritted teeth. “Unless and until I believe that your orders are counter to our mission objective.”
“Mission? Lieutenant, our mission was over the minute we got stunned and transported here. As of that moment, we were on our own, and as the ranking officer, it was my responsibility to reevaluate our priorities. Did it occur to you, lieutenant, that this is hardly the first time my team has faced this situation? That my plan for our escape- and the escape of other innocents- has been significantly hindered by my having to take beatings meant for you?”
Forest had the decency to wince at that, but he stayed silent.
Gryff snorted. “I’ve met officers like you, lieutenant, more than you’d believe. It’s not that there are women as officers. I believe you really don’t have a problem with that. As long as we serve as secretaries, or quartermasters, or other safe, unmanly jobs, right? I’m sure you believe I broke, when Fonz tortured me. That I was a disgrace to my uniform, that I started sobbing like a little girl.”
“I…” Forest began.
“Because that is exactly what I did,” said Gryff.
Jason frowned, along with the rest of the men. “What?”
“Like a little girl,” she repeated. “Sobbing uncontrollably, in a pathetic heap on the floor- right on top of the pile of gear he had in a corner.”
“Nice,” said Toby, smiling, and their CO smiled back.
“So, lieutenant, would you have managed to hide a GDO in your bra?”
The other Marine turned slightly pink, under all the grime. “No, ma’am, I would not.”
“But there is the fact,” Gryff continued, her smile fading, “that the Jaffa now expect us to attempt escape, and will be watching for it. I am still in command here, lieutenant, and I am ordering you not to take any action, of any kind, on your own initiative. Am I understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Forest snapped.
“Am I clear?” repeated Gryff, to the rest of his team, and they chorused their agreement. “Get back to work.”
SG-19 picked up their shovels again and moved off, but SG-22 closed ranks around their commander.
“Nice trick with the GDO,” said Toby. “You got anything else in there?”
Gryff grinned, lopsidedly. “You shouldn’t ask a lady that.”
“Not asking a lady, I’m asking you.”
“Oh, nice,” she said, dryly. “And, no, sorry. Even with all the flailing and crying, I didn’t have much time to stash anything.”
“So, tonight?” Jason asked.
“The guards’ tent,” put in Levi, suddenly. “At night, they’re all there. We could, I don’t know, set fire to it-”
“I do the cooking,” said a voice, suddenly. A man rested his shovel beside them, tired but determined. “I have the means to make fire.”
“Yeah?” Gryff asked, falsely casual. “You’d help us?”
“To escape this place?” the man replied. “Gladly.”
“It will be risky,” Gryff said. “We have no weapons, no supplies. But if you can get us a distraction, and we can get people to the stargate, we can get you all off this planet.”
“There are others who will help,” the man said. “We will follow you.”
He turned away without another word, deliberately crossing to avoid Forest and SG-19.
“Sir?” Jason prompted.
Gryff raised her pickaxe, wincing as she pulled sore muscles. “We go tonight,” she said.
Her bruises had turned a nasty shade of purple by the time the end-of-shift gong rang, and this time, Jason let Gryff pass him half of her gruel, complaining about her split lip, before they turned in for the night.
The planet’s single moon had just risen above the trees when Gryff touched his shoulder. Jason rose silently, poking Levi in turn, and found the man they’d spoken to earlier standing beside his CO.
“You’re with him, gunny,” said Gryff. “We need weapons.”
He nodded. “Understood.”
The other prisoner had a piece of flint and steel, and together they crept toward the guards’ tent. It was a tense few moments until the thick fabric of the tent caught fire, and Jason took up position just outside the entrance. There was sudden shouting from inside, and a single Jaffa darted through- Jason grabbed his staff weapon and fired before the guard even registered his presence, then continued shooting as more guards emerged.
He grabbed up the fallen staff weapons as the rest of the Jaffa finally wrenched open a wall of the tent, and they made a hasty retreat.
“Sir!” he called. “Trouble!”
Gryff caught the staff weapon he tossed her, and took up position at the edge of the trail to the ‘gate. Jason handed off weapons to more of their fellow prisoners, and they laid down cover fire while Toby and Levi raced for the ‘gate.
“Most of the guards are dead now,” said Forest. Surprisingly, he carried a P90, and a standard-issue pack. “Valdez snagged these from the burning tent.”
“Well done,” said Gryff, taking the radio he held out. “Is there another? Good, get it to the ‘gate, and take as many of these people with you as you can.”
More than half of the prisoners followed SG-19 down the path, and Gryff gave the signal for her fighters to begin to fall back.
“Gryff!” yelled Levi, over the radio. “The ‘gate’s open, bring them through!”
“Fall back!” Gryff called. “Everyone, fall back!”
Jason and Duquesne led the tumble back toward the ‘gate, with Forest, Valdez and O’Roarke in the middle, and Gryff bringing up the rear. Nearly all of the now-former-miners were already through, and the two teams followed, until Jason and Gryff were the only ones left.
“That’s everyone, sir!” Jase called.
She fired another shot at the few guards still approaching, and started backwards toward the ‘gate. Jason could already feel the tiny tug as he started through the wormhole when a staff weapon blast flashed between them. He grabbed the waistband of Gryff’s BDU pants and fell backwards through to the SGC Gate Room.
“Shut down the ‘gate!” Jason and Gryff yelled, in unison, as they hit the ramp, and the wormhole shut off into sudden, ringing silence.
The whole bunch of them where bundled off to the infirmary- Gryff was the worst off, by far, but they were all pretty beat up- and Dr. Fraiser had sharp words for everyone. Jason took his stitches without complaining, sent Levi off to get some sleep, and silently agreed with Toby to take the first watch of not letting Gryff sneak out of the infirmary before she was really okay.
Which was why he was slumped in the chair beside her bed when Forest came to stand on its other side, wearing a clean uniform. “Captain Gryffydd?”
“Lieutenant Forest?” she said.
“Ma’am,” he began, sounding awkward. “General Hammond has asked for a preliminary debriefing on our mission. Is there anything you would like me to relate?”
Gryff paused, taking a deep breath and trying not to jar the staff weapon burn on her thigh. “No, lieutenant,” she said, slowly. “You should make your report to the general, and I’ll make mine.”
“Understood, ma’am,” he said, and left.
“We’re not going to take any missions with SG-19 again, are we, sir?” Jason asked, without opening his eyes.
Gryff didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised that he was awake. “Some people’s minds just can’t be changed, Jase,” she said. “Get some sleep.”
Jason let out a long breath. “Yes, sir.”
THE END
Current Mood:
tired