Author's Note:
This story was originally written in 2001. It is set in Season 4 approximately.
Disclaimer: This story is for entertainment purposes only, no money exchanged hands. Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions.
Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson crawled along as quietly as they could on the high rock ledge. They were communicating only with hand signals now, since the tunnel they had been travelling through and the cavern it opened up into carried sound remarkably well. In fact that is how they had found it. They had heard voices coming from an opening in the mountainside. Silence seemed the easiest way to conceal their presence since the area was infested with a large number of Jaffa.
Sam looked around the room carefully, staying as far back in the shadows as she could. 'Yes, there they were.' She could see the people they sought. Teal'c was lying with his back against a wall, his legs stretched out straight in front of him. Something seemed wrong about his position. Sam took out her field binoculars for a better view. She focus on his legs 'yeah, definitely broken.' She looked at Teal'c's face trying to get an indication of his level of pain. Sam could tell by his eyes that the pain must be intense.
She switched her focus to the other two occupants. Master Bra'tac didn't look much better than Teal'c. One of his legs appeared to be at a funny angle and by the way he was holding his arm, it was probably broken as well.
Finally her gaze rested on O'Neill. He appeared to have all his limbs intact, but hadn't survived unscathed considering the look of the wound on his head. Blood streaked a good portion of the left side of his face and he didn't seem to be conscious.
She handed her binoculars to Daniel who took a quick survey of the situation himself, before handing them back nodding. Sam had counted four Jaffa guards in the cavern with the prisoners, plus countless others just outside in the corridors. Too many to handle with a non-movable team. This was going to require some thought. The original O'Neill-type plan of shooting their way out wasn't going to work, because of the condition of her teammates. It was all too obvious that the Goa'uld in charge had enjoyed himself at SG-1's expense.
She indicated to Daniel with a shake of her head that they should head back the way they came. Again being as quiet as possible so the guards wouldn't notice the two small creeping humans. They needed a place where they could talk and think, and most importantly come up with a plan B.
When Daniel and Sam had gotten far enough away from the mountain's tunnels and caverns, and the numerous Jaffa, they stopped to try to come up with a solution. They had taken shelter in one of the many abandon buildings left on the planet's surface. There were remnants of the previous owner's lives scattered all around them.
This particular building looked like an old factory of some kind. The machinery from an 'age gone by' sat idle, gathering dust. Sam estimated from its appearance that the technology was equivalent to the mid 20th century Earth's. She could only assume that the Goa'uld had come and carted off the inhabitants or just destroyed them as potential threats. Major Carter gave a shiver when she realized how similar this society was to Earth, and how easily the Goa'uld had destroyed them.
Daniel was the first to speak.
"We're in trouble…" he said in a slightly depressed tone.
"Now there's the understatement of the year," she answered in an equally downtrodden voice. She glared a little at him for saying it out loud. 'Okay, Carter, get it together. The situation isn't hopeless…close, but not hopeless.' She took a deep calming breath.
"Okay, what's our situation?" Hoping to trigger some more positive thoughts by their stating the obvious. She started off. "We can't rescue them out the front…too many Jaffa."
"…and we can't have them crawl out the tunnels because they can't …ah…crawl…right now," Daniel said, continuing the thought. From what they saw in the caverns, not one of their friends was going to make it out under their own power.
"…And we can't go through the gate for reinforcements…unless we can get the Jaffa to leave," she finished.
They had looked into this possibility earlier, only to find the gate heavily guarded by at least 30 Jaffa. Sam guessed that the Goa'uld had placed the guard after SG-1's presence was discovered. The Major wasn't sure whether this was to ensure the prisoners didn't escape or to prevent a rescue, either way it was a problem. Luckily the Goa'uld thought they had all the SGC personnel captured so there were no search parties that they needed to avoid, at least not yet.
Her teammate brought that point out into the open with his next remark.
"…And once we do get them out, how do we transport them to the gate…without getting caught?"
'Well, at least he hadn't said "if we get them out"' thought Sam, although she knew that Daniel was not one to quit, even when the situation looked hopeless. He had proven that often enough.
"So…where does that leave us?"
A silence fell over the room as neither person spoke. They both sat and contemplated possible solutions to this impossible situation.
The archeologist's gaze fell on the discarded equipment as he thought. There were machines of all shapes and sizes, carts, shelves, and tools whose purpose he could only guess, and would have liked to try if the situation wasn't so dire. 'Carts' a strange look came over his face as he stared at their wheels, and then at the long flat side of the wooden shelves.
He got up and went over for a closer look, playing with the wheels of an upended discarded cart. 'They still worked…'
Carter, observing her co-worker and wondering what was fascinating that clever mind of his, got up to follow him over to the spot.
"Daniel?"
He turned to look at her, a small smile beginning to form on his lips.
"Sam…Did you ever have to ride around on those little scooter boards in PE when you were a kid?"
A light was beginning to dawn for Sam as to where Daniel was going.
"…you know the kind that you lay on your stomach with your feet up and push around with your hands?"
"Yes."
A smile starting to form on her face as well as she followed his train of thought.
"Do you think you can build some?"
His eyebrows raising and his voice taking on a hopeful tone as he asked, indicating the discarded cart and other machinery. The Major's smile deepen. Suddenly the world seemed a whole lot brighter place than it had a few minutes before.
*** to be continued ***
