Sam was drowning.
Her mouth opened in a voiceless scream, and more of the swampy water slammed into her lungs and filled her throat, choking her until the thrashing of her limbs—because something had grabbed a hold of her arms and legs and had wrapped itself around her ribcage—and the terrifying press of the water was all she knew.
How had this happened?
Not even a minute ago she'd been following their guide—Deia Marous, the boy had called her, the old woman who was so shrunken and tired by age that she rode on his shoulders—across the swampland's path that they inhabitants of the planet had built, Colonel O'Neill and Daniel infront of her, and Teal'c behind, in his usual protective stance. She remembered hearing a sound in the dense rain-forest trees to her right, and a flicker of the light out of the corner of her eye...
...And then she was drowning.
There was no in between.
One moment she was alive and breathing and happy.
And now...
The thing wrapped around her chest squeezed tighter, and fire raced along her ribs in agony that wanted to choke the air from her soul.
Against her will, her mouth opened again, in a scream, in a cry, in a desperate gasp for the oxygen that wasn't there, and her lungs again filled themselves to the breaking point with the filthy stagnant water that filled the swamps of the planet whose name was never to be spoken.
Deia Marous used the wooden cane she carried to slam into the head of anyone that dared even mention the word planet in her vicinity. It would have been funny, if not for the bruise that had erupted on her cheek, and the knob on the back of her head.
She could feel it now, the blood that had long since dried, drifting away from her skin to mix with the murky depths, floating away in translucent strands of deep crimson against the impossibly dark green that met her sight when she dared to open her eyes.
But the water burned like acid, forcing her to keep herself blind and lost as she battled against the—what was it? Some sort of plant? Had she gotten tangled? Was it an animal? A squid? A snake?—thing that was keeping her trapped beneath the water that should have only been a foot deep.
But no, no, they'd been warned, hadn't they? Deia Marous has warned them, as she shook that damned cane threateningly at them. They came for the ones that talked about the planet. The world as a whole, she said, was holy to them. Anyone that dared breach the taboo disappeared before a day had passed.
She'd never said who 'they' were. Never even bothered to explain anything.
But she'd made sure to stay as far away from Sam as possible.
Jolinar! The word was a scream in her mind, desperate for an answer. But the symbiote didn't respond. Jolinar couldn't hear her.
The silence in her head was as deafening as the crush of water around her.
For all Sam knew, she was dead already.
Lights danced chaotically in the darkness behind her closed eyes, and the movement of her limbs was slowing. Weakness tugged at her bones, until she couldn't even find the strength to lift her arms in another desperate attempt to reach the surface swirling somewhere above her head.
The thing wrapped around her chest now the only thing keeping her in place, her arms drifted limply, and one last bubble of air found it way out of her lungs and into the green water that pressed down upon her.
Her mind struggled to piece together one final word against the fog rolling in on her, and she opened her eyes for one last glimpse of the water around her, as though hoping, by some miracle, that she would see her symbiote twisting through the murk, safe and alive to go on without her.
Jolinar…
But the darkness was absolute, and she could still feel the weight of the Tok'ra in the back of her mind.
They were going to die together.
If she'd been able to, she would have cried.
Martouf and Lantash would lose everything again, and they would lose them. Jack, and Daniel and Teal'c would refuse to go on without her. They wouldn't give up on rescuing her even if they knew it was pointless. They would keep going until they pulled her lifeless body from the swamp.
They all shared nightmares of drowning.
And now they would have another wreath to send through the wormhole. Another casket to lower into the ground. Another lost soul for the Tok'ra to mourn.
She faded to darkness not long afterward, her arms held out to the sides by the pull of the water, her head tilted toward the surface, eyes blank and staring.
On the surface, a single bubble of oxygen had clawed its way to the surface, where it rested amongst the algae and water plants, reflecting back the distraught and horror that painted the faces of everyone standing on the rickety wooden platform that carved what was supposed to have been a safe path through the treacherous mire.
The old woman who sat on the shoulders of a young boy crossed her arms over her chest, and kicked at his shoulder with her feet. "Let's go, Baiam." She growled in her raspy voice, "If these fools want to be taken as well, then let them."
The old woman didn't even flinch when Jack O'neill pulled his gun out and aimed it in her direction, and neither did the boy carrying her.
"Your weapons won't work anymore." She called over her shoulder as they began to walk away.
She'd warned them what would happen if they broke the taboo.
These people said they were explorers, that they wanted to learn.
Maybe now they actually would.
She'd lost a granddaughter to the Murk, and she would never forget it.
She had a feeling that these "explorers" would now be much more inclined to listen to what she had to tell them. They hadn't believed her about the Murk, and now one of them was gone.
She almost laughed at the irony, but settled for grinning widely as the 'team' dragged themselves along after her with hushed whispers and snarls of anger and disbelief.
No doubt, they'd finally noticed the soldiers that stood between them at the Ashna-ring. They weren't leaving the swamp until her people had answers.
But she would make sure they were sent back to wherever they had come from with an obol for their lost companion's soul.
They didn't want any more ghosts hanging around the Ashna-ring than they had already.
