Fic: Shopping Trip, part 3 of 3
Shopping Trip, part 3. (Continued from part 1 and part 2.)
"Six hours, now."
"I know."
"I'm sure they're okay. It's just... taking a while."
"Right, Carter."
Silence.
"Dad, do you think Heru'ur knows about the crystal credit transfer by now?"
"It's possible, Sam."
Silence.
"Anyone have anything to eat?"
"Sorry, sir."
"...I'm sorry too, Jack."
"Nah," Jack said. "We agreed to this. No blame to anyone but the sorry snakeheads who got us into this mess."
"Thank you."
"But when we get back to the SGC," Jack added, "you are so going to have to make up for this."
Silence.
***
"And twist that. Right. Okay, fingers in the depression - there - and let's see, now - okay. The ibis. Yeah."
Teal'c shifted his staff weapon under his arm and glanced at Daniel, who had both hands fully occupied. The fingers of his right hand were pressing hard against specific glyphs on the wall, while his left palm rested against a softly glowing crystal six inches above his head.
"I do not understand how Thoth expected a single person to solve this puzzle," he observed.
"I don't think a single person is supposed to be able to do this, Teal'c," Daniel said tiredly. "Forty-two books of Thoth, or four and two - two people working, using four hands."
"I see." Teal'c stooped to touch the ibis carved out of the wall a few inches above the floor. "What should I do now, Daniel Jackson?"
"Pull it outward," Daniel directed.
Teal'c grasped the edges of the carved relief, digging his fingers into the indentations around the edges, and pulled hard.
For a long, agonizing moment, it seemed as if nothing was going to happen. Then the dark hallway was suddenly filled with dancing motes of dust as the opposite wall rumbled upwards, revealing nothing but darkness beyond. The sudden exclamations from inside, however, made it clear that they'd finally achieved their goal.
"Everyone out," Daniel ordered breathlessly, twisting his head to peer over his shoulder. "The second Teal'c or I let go, that door is going to slam back into place."
Sam, Jack, and Jacob wasted no time in scrambling out of their prison. The moment they were clear, Daniel sagged back against the wall, dropping his hands wearily to his sides. Teal'c rose serenely to his feet as the opposite wall thundered shut again, resetting the trap for the next unwary visitor.
"Nice work," Jacob complimented Teal'c and Daniel. "Is everything all right? Is our cover blown?"
"Yes, it is. And no, it's not," grumbled Daniel. "At least, not yet. I hope. The cloaking device should be waiting in our rooms, so can we all leave right now?"
Sam, still blinking in the dim light, moved closer to Daniel and peered at him closely. "Daniel, are you all right?"
"I'm fine," he snapped. Belatedly, he tried to smooth his tousled hair. It was amazing how messy it looked, considering how short it was now.
"Daniel?" Jack singsonged. He gripped Daniel's shoulder, unmasked concern showing in his eyes. "What happened?"
"Nothing." Daniel wrenched away and stalked down the hall. "We're all together again, we've got the device, we've picked up lots of good intel. And we're leaving. Now."
Jacob frowned and went after him. Sam and Jack looked at each other, then pounced on Teal'c. "What happened to him?" Jack demanded.
Teal'c very slowly raised one eyebrow, then closed his helmet. Point made.
Sam backed away after that, figuring she could quietly get it out of Daniel over coffee, or possibly chocolate, back at the SGC. Jack, however, was used to ignoring "keep out" signals, particularly Daniel's. He allowed them five minutes of silent walking before trying again.
"C'mon, Daniel. Something's got you all upset. What's going on?"
Daniel stopped for a moment and glared. "I just pulled you all out of a very tight spot, Jack. You can show me some gratitude by shutting up, all right? And so help me, you're going to be on coffee duty for the next six weeks to make up for this!" He turned and stomped on.
Jack's Daniel radar was pinging loudly. He could see Daniel wasn't physically hurt, and anything else... Well, they could fix it later, once they were safely back on Earth. But that didn't mean a little extra pushing wouldn't work right now.
"So you're not hurt?" he prodded.
"I'm not!"
"Just really, really mad."
"Yes!"
"Why?"
It was a good thing that they'd actually reached their rooms by that point, because Daniel finally erupted. "We had to go and report to Sefik that we'd lost you, okay? Only we couldn't mention Jacob, because a Goa'uld getting lost would have been way too suspicious! So we could only laugh about the silly slaves, ha ha, who seem to have gotten lost somewhere, and does anyone have any idea where we can find them? And they figured that you'd probably triggered the security trap, and I had to jump through the most ridiculous hoops just to get the key to get you out!"
"Daniel Jackson needed to follow a series of reliefs that praised Thoth and Ma'at," Teal'c remarked to the room at large. "An accurate knowledge of the mythology proved essential."
Sam had managed to get a soothing hand on Daniel's ramrod back, and was rubbing his tense muscles in gentle circles. "I'm really glad you were able to get us out of there, Daniel," she murmured in his ear. "If Dad and the colonel hadn't killed each other soon, I would have probably killed them both."
Daniel snorted a reluctant laugh, and went to help Jacob retrieve the precious cloaking device for departure.
"Okay," Jack said to himself, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Daniel doesn't care about having to follow a mythological puzzle, so I'm guessing it was the hoops he was talking about...?" His voice trailed off, and he suddenly fixed his gaze on Daniel's still messy hair and rumpled robes. "Oh." Their pre-mission dressing session suddenly sprang into vivid significance. "Oh, no."
Teal'c, who had gathered Daniel's scrolls and notes together, inclined his head. "Indeed, O'Neill."
Jack winced, and wrapped his own robes a little more tightly around himself. "Six weeks of coffee and chocolate, I think. The good stuff."
Sam and Daniel had already left the room, carrying the device between them. Jacob, about to follow them, paused and turned.
He dipped his head, and his eyes flashed white even as Selmac favored them with a quirky grin. "Not just coffee and chocolate, Colonel," he advised. "Try teaching him the epithets I taught you. I think Doctor Jackson might appreciate the opportunity to try some of them right now."
Jack chuckled despite himself as he followed the others out into the hallway and headed for the Stargate. "Coffee, chocolate, and new swear words," he mused aloud. "Yeah. That should suit Daniel just fine."
As they hurried along as quickly as they dared, Jack found himself tensing. Too many hours had passed since Thoth had initiated the credit transfer. Heru'ur surely knew about it by now. If the alarm went up before they made it off-world...
They had just entered the atrium when the loudspeaker system activated. A booming voice rattled out a series of instructions, and the Jaffa scattered throughout the huge room were suddenly at full alert, staff weapons primed and ready. One group headed toward the exits, clearly planning to block them; a second group made their way directly to the DHD on its golden dais shoving several startled officials out of their way.
"That's it," Jacob muttered.
"What did they say?" Jack demanded, turning to Daniel.
Daniel's hands slowly closed into fists. "Lockdown," he said shortly. "ID check. Heru'ur must've called up to complain."
They backed against the wall for the pathetic cover it offered them. Jacob slipped his right hand into the pocket of his elaborate costume and pulled out his ribbon device. He began fitting his fingers into the caps, one by one.
"We can't shoot our way out of this!" Jack hissed at him furiously.
"I will not just surrender," Selmac spat back, his eyes glowing white with intensity.
Sam and Daniel still held the device between them. Teal'c eased in front of them, ready to defend them with his last breath.
"Wait a minute," Jack said suddenly. He was staring fixedly at the cloaking device. "Carter. Does that thing have batteries?"
Sam looked at him, startled, then glanced down at the cloaking device. "It's actually powered by naquadah, but - yes, sir," she amended hurriedly, seeing his expression. "Batteries included in purchase."
"What do you intend?" Teal'c asked over his shoulder. He was keeping a wary eye on Thoth's Jaffa, who were moving from one group of travelers to the next in their search for SG-1.
"You said it has to be tied into Goa'uld crystals to work," Jack pressed. "Would the ribbon device be enough?"
"Enough to what?" Selmac demanded.
"Enough to shield us," Daniel breathed. "Jack, that is so stupid that it's brilliant."
"Why, thank you, Daniel." Jack grabbed Jacob by the right wrist and shoved his ribbon-encased hand in Sam's direction. "See if you can power it up, Carter. And work fast."
"Yes, sir!" Sam blurted.
Daniel helped her set the cloaking device on the ground. Even as Jacob yanked the ribbon device off his hand, Sam opened the panel on the side of the device, praying that she remembered the schematics properly. If she spliced a power source to the wrong coupling, they'd be lucky if it only blew up in their faces.
"Hurry," Teal'c urged. "Thoth's Jaffa have worked their way nearly to our position."
"Hold... on... I'm nearly - there!" Sam shoved the crystal into place, then slammed the panel shut. She looked up. "It's now or never."
"Do it!" snapped Jacob and Jack at once.
Sam activated the device.
Seconds later, Thoth's Jaffa stomped right past them, as if they weren't there.
"Yes!" cheered Jack in a whisper, pumping his fist in victory. "Good work, Captain!"
"Shut up," Jacob ordered, his own voice barely audible. "Sound still travels."
"We're safe for now," Daniel murmured, "but we still need to get off-world."
"And this is only a makeshift job at best," Sam added softly. "I have no idea how long it's going to last."
"So we move. Now."
"We will require a diversion, O'Neill," Teal'c said calmly. "The warriors that guard the DHD will not abandon their posts lightly."
Jack's eyes lit up as he recalled their conversation the night before. "You said that if anyone starts up a fight here, everyone else piles onto him, right?"
Teal'c blinked, and then actually grinned. The effect was downright scary. "Indeed I did." He primed his staff weapon and aimed with precision, so that the ensuing blast seemed to come directly from the Jaffa standing a few meters away. One of the pillars near the DHD exploded, sending hot fragments showering over the startled guards. With a howl of fury, half the guards charged in the direction of the apparently guilty Jaffa, who was staring at his own staff weapon in bewilderment.
"Put some distance between us and the action," Jack instructed. "Carter, Daniel, take the device carefully. Don't jostle it and accidentally turn it off."
"We'll try not to, sir," Sam said, a slight barb in her voice. She and Daniel hoisted the cloaking device between them.
"Okay. Teal'c, you're on point. Get us to the DHD. Jacob, dial us up some place where there are no innocents to get hurt. I've got our six."
It was a little like playing an insane game of blind man's buff. The entire atrium had erupted into chaos, as the imposed neutrality of Thoth's planet vanished into a freewheeling scuffle between rival Jaffa, Thoth's guards, and frantic slaves. Constrained by the need to remain within the cloak's radius, they dodged their way through the melee, occasionally helping it along by tripping or shoving people who ventured too close.
Finally, they reached the DHD. Teal'c casually clubbed the one remaining guard into unconsciousness, then reached behind him to drag Jacob into position. "We must hurry," he said. "As soon as the Stargate activates, every person in this room will focus either on preventing escape or attempting to flee themselves."
"Let's get a move on, people," yelled Jack as he hustled his scientists onto the platform. The noise levels had reached epic proportions by now, and there was no point in trying to keep quiet. "Jacob, tell Selmac to think of a safe planet and dial us out now!"
Jacob was already slapping at the symbols, but Teal'c was right. As the chevrons began to light up, too many heads were turning in the direction of the Stargate and DHD.
"When the wormhole forms, forget the cloak and run," Jacob said urgently, even as he reached for the sixth symbol. "Sam, Daniel, just get through the Stargate. Keep your heads down."
"We can't leave it behind, after all this!" Sam protested, even as she started to hand it to Teal'c.
"We won't leave it behind! Selmac has enough strength to carry it and to run!" Jacob's hand slammed down on the central crystal. "Go!"
The wormhole billowed outward. Sam and Daniel were running even before it subsided.
Weapon blasts were aimed at the Stargate now, and Jack swallowed his stomach back down when he saw Sam and Daniel dive headfirst into the event horizon. Then Teal'c was grabbing his arm, and Jacob was running full tilt ahead of them, and they were ducking their heads as bolts of fire singed Jack's hair and they were leaping...
Cold and irrationality and the warped light of billions of stars...
And Jack found himself sprawled on a rocky patch of ground underneath a yellow sun.
The wormhole behind them winked out.
"Everyone in one piece?" Jack wheezed.
"I'm good, Jack."
"All right, sir."
"I am fine, O'Neill."
"Nice work," Jacob complimented them all. "But let's move to a different planet, just in case someone got the address off the DHD. Come on."
He tucked the cloaking device a little more securely under his arm, then trotted over to the DHD and started punching symbols again.
"So, where are we going?" Jack asked as he rose to his feet and dusted himself off. "Back to Tok'ra World?"
"I'm taking us to a neutral planet," Jacob said as he dialed. "We can both Gate home from there."
"And the cloaking device...?" Jack prodded.
Jacob's head dipped for a moment. "Colonel, I will do my best to encourage the Council to share this information with the Tau'ri," Selmac promised. "And certainly, we will share any intelligence that we are able to procure thanks to this new cloak."
"Right." Jack rolled his eyes. "I won't hold my breath."
Selmac's eyes flashed, and Jacob gave Jack a sympathetic look. "I'll see what I can do, Jack."
The Stargate kawhooshed, and the group went through. Jacob's neutral planet was a little too wet for Jack's tastes, as they seemed to have Gated into a thunderstorm.
"Go ahead," Jacob urged them, ignoring the rain spattering on his clothing. "Head on home. I'll catch the next wormhole out." He eyed the cannibalized ribbon device, still spliced into the cloak. "You can make it back via the Alpha Site, right?"
"It'll be fine, Dad, don't worry." Sam stepped close to her father and claimed a hug. "It was fun, wasn't it?"
"It was." Jacob smiled at her. "Hopefully, it won't be too long before we have the chance to work together again."
"Home," Daniel murmured plaintively. "No more contact lenses. Coffee."
"Underwear," Jack added cheerfully, then winced at the glare Daniel sent his way. Oops. He hastily stepped over to Jacob. "Keep us posted... Dad."
Jacob snorted at him, then turned to shake hands with Daniel and exchange respectful nods with Teal'c.
SG-1 stepped to the DHD, and Daniel started to dial. "So that's it," grumbled Jack. "We get dumped in a hole and... searched and shot at, but the Tok'ra go home with all the goodies."
"Er. Not exactly, sir," admitted Sam.
Jack raised his eyebrows at her. "Not exactly?"
"Well..." Sam shuffled her feet a little, but the gleam in her eyes suggested something other than embarrassment. "I might have picked up an item or two when we were on our way out. Sir."
"And I sort of forgot to return those scrolls the teachers loaned me," Daniel added casually as he pushed the fourth symbol. "They got packed up with the rest of our things. It'll make it a lot easier on our teams to have the proper syntax the next time we encounter one of these languages off-world."
Jack rocked back on his heels, grinning. "Excellent!" He turned to Teal'c. "How about you, T?"
Teal'c slanted a glance at him, then looked back at the Stargate. "I procured the recipe for Daniel Jackson's dolmodes," he conceded. "I believe you would call it an appropriate souvenir."
Jack swept his team with a fond look. Some Goa'uld doohickeys, decent intel, and lunch. What more did they need?
"That's my kids," he beamed. "Remind me to always take you with me when I'm shopping!"
end.
