Jack and Teal'c crept up to the Goa'uld base of operations at the temple, moving swiftly and silently. They crouched down against the wall, close to the entrance and listened intently for signs of guards. Sensing none, O'Neill waved two fingers forward and the two men surged as one through the entrance, weapons raised, Teal'c with a zat which would be much more effective at this close range than his customary staff weapon. Jack waved his M-16 around warily, proficiently, like a third arm, as though it were a part of him.
Teal'c led the way down the abandoned corridor, with Jack close behind. At the sound of clanking footsteps in front of them they slid down an empty side corridor and pressed themselves into the walls until the Jaffa patrol had passed. Jack had always wanted to laugh at the stupidity and laxity of Goa'uld security. It was so easy to sneak around these guys.
"Kree! Jaffa!"
Aw crap.
The rear guard had chanced to turn around and caught a glimpse of Teal'c. Jack couldn't see the Jaffa from his angle so it was good possibility they couldn't see him. He edged further away. Teal'c realized his strategy and positioned his body to shield Jack's, drawing the attention away from his leader. There were too many for a firefight at this range.
So much for plan A.
Teal'c was dragged away, fighting stubbornly and yet compliantly enough so they would not look for any others. Jack had to marvel at that. He stealthily followed the group down the hall, listening to their footsteps to guide him.
-----
Daniel was busy worrying.
Is that Greek? He asked himself, displacing the dirt beneath him and looking around cautiously.
He was done worrying.
-----
Jack scanned the empty hallway. This was a bad idea. This whole plan sucked. If he acted quickly Teal'c may be able to help since he wasn't physically restrained yet, but that would require him to make his own presence known which would bring even more Jaffa to fight. Or he could stick to the plan, strictly recon, and try to break them out later. By himself. But Daniel was bleeding out there. Need to take care of him, too. And there was no knowing what Carter and the other two teams were going through.
Scratch that recon idea, there were too many unknowns, which would generally imply he needed to do the recon. Ironic. He didn't know enough, so he had to act now.
Decision made, now how to do it. He'd have to get Teal'c free first, increase the odds. He was in no condition to do this on his own.
A scratching from the walls startled him and he jumped away from his useless hiding place. He silently cursed his skittishness, thinking he reacted like a frightened child who'd seen a snake. Or, rather, a Goa'uld. Now that would freak out more than kids. Heck, grown men could weep like babies at the sight of one of those beasties. So there was nothing to be embarrassed about. Except it wasn't a beastie, it was just a scratching at the walls.
At least he hadn't screamed.
He checked the area quickly for oncoming traffic and found none, so he stepped closer to the wall, placing his ear against it to listen. He could hear muffled voices, arguing perhaps. Then there was pounding and a distinctly female voice shouting and he smiled to himself. That was definitely Carter. Seems that he had found his captured companions.
Hoping there were no bad guys on the other side he found the door mechanism, braced his back against the wall, pulled out his zat and set it at the ready, then he opened the door. There was immediate silence on the other side. He crept forward…
…And found a fist flying towards his face, the zat shoved aside. He ducked and sprung forward to catch the arm and pulled its possessor into a head lock.
"This is how you greet your savior?" He shoved Colonel Ryan, the commander of SG-7 away from him, wincing slightly as he straightened up. "You kids ready to take a hike? General Hammond's gonna get a big laugh when we tell him I saved my rescuers. Makepeace, you all right?"
"I'll be fine."
"Then get your team out of here. Daniel's outside, he's been hit in the leg but he's hanging in there, find him and make your way back to the 'Gate. It should be guarded, so wait for my signal."
"Sir?" Carter stepped up to him, realizing that there was something wrong.
"I'm going after Teal'c. Carter, you're with me. We move now it won't be much of a fight. Ryan, I'm taking Silvers and Cavanagh with me, you're with Makepeace. I'm trusting you all to get Daniel out safely. Knock him out if you need to, but get him home. If we're not in contact in an hour…well, we've probably been captured and this cycle will repeat. I don't really care for that to happen. Don't draw too much attention to yourself, if you can avoid a fight, do it. Unless all hell breaks loose. Now get going."
"Colonel, Teal'c was hit, but we saw him get away." Carter began to explain, not knowing that he and Teal'c had already made contact.
"I know, Carter. He was with me when they got him. So if we hurry we can get him back before they do too much damage." He handed over his zat to Ryan and his 9mm to one of the Marines. "Move out."
Jack led his team one way, Ryan the other. Ryan and his team were met with no resistance, a surprisingly easy escape now that the Jaffa believed there was no more threat after Teal'c's capture.
From his position where he had unearthed a large tablet with Greek lettering, Daniel saw them emerge, unguarded. He wondered if it was a trap but he could see no Jaffa lying in wait. And they appeared to be looking for something. Probably him.
"Daniel Jackson." He heard a harsh but soft whisper call out for him.
He inched up warily from his hidden position and was immediately seen by Makepeace who was clutching an arm to his chest. The Marine nodded in his direction to Ryan and the man came over. Daniel gripped his Beretta but kept it hidden out of view. "Dr. Jackson, Colonel O'Neill ordered us back to the 'Gate. You're coming with us."
"What about my team?"
"Teal'c was captured. O'Neill and Carter went after him with two of my men. They'll be right behind us, but we need to move now."
Daniel glanced down at the tablet at his feet. He was torn by curiosity and common sense. The archaeologist in him needed to finish translating it, there were references to an enslaved people and some kind of disease or plague or war that decimated the population. This could be important in finding out what happened on this world and if maybe there was something here that would help their fight against the Goa'uld. The plague or whatever it was may have been a biological weapon used by or against the Goa'uld and the Jaffa. Plus, finding any historical references to Greek heritage was extremely rare and didn't quite fit with the timeline of the Goa'uld presence on Earth.
However, common sense and self-preservation, a personality trait encouraged in him through Jack and Teal'c's efforts, knew he should leave now and worry about returning later after the dust had settled.
And yet, the friend and teammate in him wanted to wait for the rest of his team.
"I have orders to knock you out if needed."
Okay, then that's decided. "Teal'c said the 'Gate is still guarded."
"We know. We're to wait for O'Neill and the others but we need to get there and do recon. You're with us, Dr. Jackson. Can you walk?"
"Sure, why not. Just a little blood loss and pain, no coffee or sleep. I'll be fine." He got to his feet, swaying a little.
"Fitzmorris, help Dr. Jackson."
Daniel handed over his Beretta to Ryan as Lieutenant Fitzmorris supported him under the arm, but he held onto his zat.
"Let's move out."
They made their way back to the Stargate.
-----
Carter followed O'Neill silently, Silvers and Cavanagh behind her. O'Neill held up his hand and they all stopped. Colonel O'Neill had the only weapon, and she watched, confused, as he handed her the M-16, pulling the strap over his head. She accepted it through reflex, still wondering why he would give it to her. He never gave up his weapon willingly.
A knife suddenly appeared in his hand, the comfort with which he wielded it reminding her that this man had served in special ops for good reason. He seemed at ease with their situation, practically unarmed in a Goa'uld stronghold, one of their own injured and captured. And all he had was his knife.
Now as a soldier, that was something to admire. She was constantly in awe of her CO. He had put himself on the line more times than she could count and somehow he always pulled through. As a leader and a fighter, she would be lucky to be even half as good. In the last year alone she had learned more from him about field operations than in her entire time at the Academy. She had been pretty cocky at first, she had always breezed through all her trials in school, and even in the Gulf. She didn't think he would be able to handle anything that she couldn't.
He had proved her wrong so many times. He wasn't a genius, he couldn't define a wormhole, let alone explain it, even in simple terms. But he was a mastermind at survival.
She saw it in Antarctica, when he had refused to give up hope, and even when it looked like his time was up he still fought for her, gave her all he could, gave her the strength to survive. He had faith in her when even she, with all her bravado and bragging and brains, didn't. And if he didn't, he put on a good enough show to believe him, such that she was ashamed of herself for lacking the same faith and devotion.
It was unnerving. She had always been the best, often better than her instructors, though she didn't make a big deal about it. She played her role, followed strictly the chain of command even when she felt she could do a better job than her superiors. She had never once felt that way under Colonel O'Neill's command. He let her do her thing, be the brains of the outfit, and more often than not, sided with her logic without question. And she felt proud to have that trust, even more so than she had ever felt from her own father. To gain O'Neill's respect was no simple thing.
From day one in the Air Force she felt she had something to prove as a woman. That was always her story. Carter's only a woman, she can't do that, don't let her do this. But that wasn't the Colonel's style. Everyone had walked into that first briefing before their first mission with their own expectations of how things would turn out and she was the guiltiest of all. She had blatantly accused her CO of being sexist, when he had been no such thing. Far from it.
Colonel O'Neill didn't seem to care that she was a woman. He made no great chivalrous acts, like offering to carry her things, or refusing her a chance to fight. If anything, he was more concerned by having a civilian on his team, though he made every effort possible to keep Daniel on their team. The Colonel tried to treat him like any other officer under his command, giving him just a little more leniency than the others, protecting him and defending his position on SG-1 to Hammond and Washington as strongly as he defended Teal'c. He tried to keep Daniel out of the action as much as possible, sending her in instead if given the choice. It made sense, of course, she was trained for combat but she had never expected someone as old-fashioned as the Colonel to put her in more danger than a man under his command, civilian or not.
For the first time in her career she wasn't the woman. She was just Carter, the brilliant scientist, and she loved that, even though the Colonel claimed to have no love for scientists. He never seemed to hold it against her, though. In fact, at first he seemed to ignore it and treated her like a soldier. Like anyone else under his command. He had immediately accepted Daniel, and she couldn't help but wonder what must have happened on that first mission to Abydos. The two men obviously trusted each other. And Teal'c. Well, he seemed to be a brother-in-arms, so like the Colonel in many ways, both suffering from great loss and following the code of the noble warrior.
She knew he would stop at nothing to get Teal'c back now.
They were moving again, running along the walls of the narrow hallways. The Colonel stopped so abruptly she nearly rammed into his backside. Fortunately, she was able to stop herself before performing an embarrassing tumble to avoid stepping on him. His hand came up to steady her, grasping her shoulder lightly. He motioned for them to stay put and keep silent then disappeared around the corner. After a few seconds she heard a muffled gasp, a clatter, then silence. A few seconds later and he reappeared, waving them out. She glanced around the corner and saw the prone form of a Jaffa guard sprawled along the ground. She didn't see any blood and she wondered if he was still alive. She didn't have time to check as the Colonel picked up the zat and they moved on.
They snuck up on another corridor and the Colonel crouched down and used the blade of his knife as a mirror. She could hear voices and foot scuffles, the clatter of armor. The Colonel was just getting a good look when a voice called out with the distinctive timbre of the Goa'uld in the deep, mechanical tone.
"So this is the shol'va, Teal'c? My master will be most pleased. Why have you come here, shol'va? Did you hope to turn others to your misguided cause?"
Colonel O'Neill withdrew the knife and signaled that there were five Jaffa/Goa'uld in the room, two holding Teal'c, the other two close to the door, and the Goa'uld himself. He wasn't waiting for more surprise reinforcements, she noted, as he began the countdown. They knew exactly what to do.
On cue, O'Neill dashed in first and took out the two closest guards with the zat, the two Jaffa crashing to the ground as Carter rushed in and aimed the M-16 at the startled Goa'uld. Teal'c, alerted by the noise, threw the guards off of him, grabbing hold of one and knocking him senseless while Silvers and Cavanagh grabbed the other one who was soon unconscious.
"Hey there, flashy dresser." Colonel O'Neill greeted the Goa'uld with the cheeky sarcasm which tended to go unappreciated by their kind. "If you don't mind we'll just take our good buddy Teal'c here and show ourselves out. You give us any trouble and, well, Carter here would be more than happy to give you some ventilation, free of charge."
Carter smiled happily, playing her part, waving the weapon slightly.
"Or maybe we ought to just bring you along. Those guys at Area 51 would love to get their hands on one of you snakeheads." As he spoke he disarmed all the Jaffa and distributed the zats among his team. "So who is it we have the honor of defeating today?" he asked Teal'c. "Would anybody mind if we just killed him?"
"He is a minor System Lord of little consequence, O'Neill. When we escape he will likely be sentenced to death. A slow, excruciatingly painful death."
"So is he a threat to Earth if we leave him alive? The planet seems unpopulated, I doubt he'd…" His voice cut off abruptly and in a blur of motion his arm flung out. Carter couldn't even see the knife until seconds later when the Goa'uld crashed to the floor, the knife handle protruding from his throat, his hand clutching a round metal ball tightly.
"Shock grenade." Teal'c confirmed, standing over the dead Goa'uld.
Colonel O'Neill walked up to the Goa'uld, kicked its feet to make sure it was dead, then harshly pulled out the blade, cleaned it on the smock of the dead alien and placed it back in its sheath at his hip. He groaned as he stood up and Carter handed him back his M-16 and armed herself with a zat.
"Daniel and the others are on their way to the 'Gate. What do you say we join them before the folks around here find out Papa Smurf is dead."
Carter cringed inwardly at the reference. The Goa'uld the Colonel had just killed was wearing a stunningly blue…dress with a red shawl. She'd never be able to even think of Smurfs again.
"Teal'c, you want to show us the way out?"
"Indeed." He stepped over the Jaffa at his feet and moved closer to the doorway, following Silvers and Cavanagh who were checking the corridor outside for hostiles.
TBC