Colonel Parker stood beside the red-haired archaeologist, the two of them looking down at the crumbling half-wall before them. Several moments of silence passed before the Colonel asked bluntly, "So what about it, Balinksy?"
Balinsky looked from the wall to the Colonel. "It's a ring platform control panel." He said simply and incredulously, surprised at the question.
The Colonel turned his gaze from the wall to return the look. "I know that," he said impatiently, "so what?"
Balinsky blinked at the question and looked back to the wall. "Well, it goes somewhere."
Sighing at the answer, the Parker closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily. "Yeah, I figured as much. Where – does – it – go?" The exasperation in his voice was heavy as he spelled out the question loudly.
Turning back to the Colonel who was now looking at him with considerable hostility, Balinsky stuttered his answer, "Well, I…I'm not entirely sure…" watching Parker's expression dour even further, he added quickly, "…but that's the cool part!" For the life of him, he couldn't understand why no one else ever understood why these things were so exciting or important. He was forcibly reminded of when he tried to show Genreal O'Niell all of the great samples he brought back from P49-GN6.
The military man answered as if talking to a child, "Balinsky, I can't just call up Earth and tell the General 'we found a ring platform', he's going to want to know why it's significant. Does it go somewhere in particular, or is it just here to receive rings from ships?"
The other man shook his head quickly, "Oh no, it definitely goes somewhere." He smiled as he answered, then quickly added as he saw the Colonel's reaction to his answer. "Somewhere on this planet..." he paused, then added, "…I think…"
Drawing in his breath slowly, Parker barked, "Balinsky!"
Speaking even more rapidly, the archaeologist answered tensely, "Look, the second tablet that Vala found here talked about a 'place of great import' that held 'matter of great value' and given that the Ancients built the ring technology, and that these are ruins of the Ancients, and there's some writing there by the controls, and I haven't finished translating them yet, but so far…"
Sighing in relief, Colonel Parker looked squarely at the man, "So you think these rings will lead to this place that holds contents of great value."
Balinsky paused for a moment, thinking. After a moment's silence, he started nodding. "Uh…yeah, I think so. There's a good chance."
Chuckling and shaking his head incredulously, Parker replied, "See, that's all you had to say."
Blinking, the red-haired man looked stunned, "Really?"
"Uh, yeah," he answered matter-of-factly. He then keyed up his radio and said, "Becker, this is Parker." As he waited for a response, he explained, "You don't seem to realize, Balinksy, nobody knows what you're thinking. You've got to tell people what's going on and why you believe something is important, put it in terms that will be important to them. Context goes a long way." He laughed gently at Balinksy's befuddled expression and patted him on the shoulder.
"Go ahead, Colonel," Becker replied over the radio.
Parker was still grinning at the archaeologist as he asked into the radio, "Have you two knuckleheads been able to dial Earth, or am I going to have to walk over there and show you how a DHD works?"
The radio crackled to life in response, "We've been trying sir, but we can't connect."
The Colonel furrowed his brow and looked at his watch. "It's been longer than forty minutes," he said flatly into the radio.
"We know that, sir. Their connection should have closed out by now. Do you think something's wrong?" The voice on the radio sounded concerned, maybe even a little worried.
The Colonel paused for a moment, before keying up his radio again. He didn't like this, either the gate back on Earth was non-functional, or there was a second wormhole activated back-to-back with the last one. Either way, it probably meant that things were bad. "Don't even go there," he answered. "I imagine Syler is just running some kind of diagnostic or upgrading something. We're not scheduled to dial back in until tomorrow." He released his radio for a moment, thinking to himself. He then keyed up one more time, "Dial the Beta Site and let me know once the wormhole is up. We'll give them the update on what we've found. Maybe they know what the situation back on Earth is."
"Yes sir, dialing the Beta Site now," Parker's radio crackled back to life with Captain Becker's reply.
Nodding in satisfaction, he released the radio and turned back to Balinsky. "So, do you think you can make this thing work…?" He paused, then asked, "Actually, where are the rings that go with this?"
"Uhhmm," Balinsky looked surprised by the question and looked around. "They're probably buried somewhere around here..." He quickly added as he saw the Colonel again losing all patience, "but we can find them by just activating them, they should punch through anything that's covered them up…"
Sighing, the Colonel nodded. "Alright, let's just wait until we check in with the Beta site, then get Becker and Sanders over here. Then we can try activating them. After we've seen where the platform is, maybe we can go through after you've had a bit more time to research this thing."
Balinsky nodded eagerly and smiled at the plan, turning back to the wall to resume studying the writing next to the panel while Parker just shook his head. At that moment his radio came to life with Becker announcing that the wormhole had been established. The Colonel reached up to his radio to key it up, getting ready to explain the matter to the Beta Site commander. As he did, he wondered what they'd find once they went through the rings.
Colonel Mitchell stood beside Bra'tac, the two wordlessly watching the slow, continuous procession of stretchers pass through the Gate. Mitchell frowned as he looked about. This was now the second worm-hole established from Dakara to Earth. The first one had run out of time before they could finish transferring the worst of the wounded, and as this wormhole neared the end of its life, they were only now getting to a point where they could consider pausing. The next wormhole had been established from Earth to Dakara, allowing SG personnel to return with more medical supplies and stretchers. After the initial wave of wounded had been sorted out in the Gateroom, suddenly an influx of injured Jaffa came in pouring from the city outside and they quickly found it necessary to establish at least one more wormhole to Earth from Dakara. Dr. Lam had indicated she may even need a third.
The attacking Ha'tak had done considerable damage. Columns of smoke poured from countless buildings, and throughout the city many lay dead and many more were injured and helpless. Mitchell and Lam couldn't imagine turning them away, so they simply started expanding the triage efforts and started addressing the needs of the wounded from the city, sending those who needed the most care to Earth.
Colonel Carter and Teal'c came up to join the two by the DHD, both having only just finished helping the medical personnel and other SG teams sort out the worst of the wounded. The two stood wordlessly with the others, Sam shaking her head as she watched. "I can't believe how bad this is," she sighed.
Mitchell nodded, "They they knew what they were doing, whoever they were." He paused, looking about the room and over to the rows of dead enemy soldiers that lined the far wall in the Gateroom. "They brought in just enough force to take the Gateroom for about ten, maybe twenty minutes, long enough to secure the passage of troops from the other side of a wormhole."
Teal'c answered in agreement. "Indeed. It was a strategy of great cunning and risk that stood a good chance of success. Had we not happened to dial Dakara when we did, it was most likely that they would have succeeded."
Bra'tac grunted, answering, "Quite so, Teal'c. Since the Chap'ai was already in use, they were forced to fight with only what they had for longer than they had planned. As it was, we had almost lost the battle when you came through." The Mitchell nodded wordlessly as he remembered the frantic battle he observed after emerging from the wormhole. He drew in a deep breath as the wounded continued to pass by, one after another.
Silence settled over the four as they waited while the procession continued through the Gate. Sam looked over to the bottom of the steps where she saw Daniel still sitting with Vala. She noted that the two hadn't moved since they seated themselves there. Vala was curled up against Daniel, who held her protectively with his arm about her shoulders. Her head rested on his shoulder as she slept soundly, the exhaustion still painted heavily upon her face. She never even stirred at the explosive sounds of the last two wormholes opening. Any time Sam had looked over at the two for the past hour she had seen Daniel sitting quietly and patiently with Vala, looking at random empty places on the floor while lost in thought with a furrowed brow, or glancing down at the woman in his arms, sometimes smiling enigmatically.
Sam silently wondered what was going through Daniel's head. Did he care for Vala, or was he just helping someone in need? She had watched her friend live the life of a veritable hermit over these years since his wife was killed. Like the rest of them, Daniel had no real life outside of the Stargate Program. Aside from a brief reunion with Sarah after she was freed from Osiris, there hadn't been anyone in his life that Sam knew of. She cared deeply for her friend, whom she often regarded as a brother, and had long hoped that he could find some happiness after the terrible ending that befell his first love.
Even though she had only seen the two together for a short time, she could not help but believe that the two were right for each other. At the same time, however, she couldn't help but acknowledge what Teal'c and Cam had pointed out to her, that they did seem to be a little bit of oil and water. She was shocked to have seen proof of it so quickly after Vala's emotional return with the two sniping at each other during the briefing. Even more confusing, just a few minutes later Sam had run into the two in the hallway together, interrupting…she wasn't exactly sure what she had interrupted, but she had her own ideas. She grinned slightly and shook her head, continuing to watch them silently.
"Well, as soon as this wormhole is done, we should make our way to your facility," Mitchell's voice startled Sam out of her reverie as he spoke to Bra'tac. He added with finality, "There's not much more any of us can do here."
The elder Jaffa nodded as he heard the words spoken. "Again, I cannot thank you enough, Colonel Mitchell. As ever, the help from the Tau'ri has been instrumental in finding hope for the future of all Jaffa." He turned to smile respectfully at Cam, offering his hand to the human.
Mitchell took the offered arm in a Jaffa-style clasp, gripping firmly as he returned the look with a solemn nod. "We're glad to do it, Bra'tac. Both of our peoples are made stronger through such acts of friendship." Teal'c smiled to himself as he watched the two, nodding to himself. After they shook, Mitchell asked, "So I don't suppose your boys have had any luck in finding your prisoner from the Lucian Alliance?" During an earlier conversation, the Jaffa had explained to Cam that the reason they thought the Alliance was involved was due to a smuggler they captured. It turned out he was in the employ of the Alliance, and his ship had information in its databanks that didn't make sense until after the hatchery was attacked. The man had been held in captivity since, and Bra'tac had wanted the Tauri to help interrogate him, but in the chaos and damage from the attack on the city, the man had managed to escape.
"No," Bra'tac lamented, looking rather unhappy. "I only hope the man has not been able to find a ship with which he could escape. There was much confusion during the attack."
Mitchell nodded, "Well, we'll keep our fingers crossed. If you do find him, we'll be more than happy to help you get him to tell what he knows. Vala might be able to think of ways to get the right leverage that we couldn't, she used to deal with the Alliance, back in the day."
Just then, Walter's voice came over the collection of radios in the room, "T-minus three-minutes to worm-hole shutdown."
Mitchell reached up to key up his radio at that. "Walter, please be advised we're going to dial an alternate site after this worm-hole. You'll need to wait a good five minutes before you dial back in. SG-1 and I will be leaving to visit the Jaffa facility. Colonel Harris of SG-12 will be in charge of this site for the remainder of Base Code Gamma Omega operation."
The voice of General Landry responded over the radio, "We copy that, Colonel. Since you'll be incommunicado for the duration of that trip, I want you back on Earth in no more than four days. That should give you enough time to get there, do what you need to do, and return." During an earlier wormhole, it had been established that the site SG-1 was going to was on another planet 20 hours away from a Gate-networked sister planet in the same solar system. They learned that they would need to Gate to the first planet, walk for a couple of hours and then board a cargo ship to journey to the second planet.
"Yes sir," Mitchell replied, tapping Sam on the shoulder and pointing her to Daniel and Vala. "We'll be home in time for dinner, don't you fret."
Sam nodded wordlessly and walked over to the two at the foot of the dais, Daniel looking up at her expectantly. He had clearly overheard the conversation at the DHD. "How's she doing?" Sam asked gently, kneeling down in front of them.
Daniel grinned slightly, answering in a quiet voice, "Sleeping like a baby. I just hope she got enough rest for the next couple of hours." He started to rub her arm gently, trying to coax her into waking up. He turned away from Sam to bring his head near Vala's, whispering quietly to her.
Sam smiled sweetly at the sight of the two, saying nothing although her eyes spoke volumes. Daniel looked back up to Sam for a moment as Vala began to stir. "What?" He asked quietly, furrowing his brows as he suddenly started to feel self-conscious.
His friend shook her head in answer, "Oh, nothing…." The archaeologist looked at her over the rims of his glasses, raising an eyebrow. Sam smiled all the more at him, laughing quietly. Daniel pursed his lips as he fought off a grin, having difficulty resisting the contagious effects of Sam's good mood. Vala then murmured something quietly. The raven-haired woman breathed in deeply, stretched and then snuggled in closer to Daniel, shaking her head and murmuring again.
"Come on, Vala, you need to get up for a little while." Daniel answered her quietly in a whisper, apparently having heard what she had mumbled. He rubbed her arm more vigorously, and started rubbing the back of her hands that were resting upon his lap.
Vala sighed as she shook her head against his shoulder. "You were the one that wanted me to get some rest," she mumbled groggily, protesting with a pout. "I'm all comfortable here…"
"We need to get moving, Vala. It'll be just a few more hours before you can sleep all you want." Daniel looked up at Sam again, unable now to keep the smile off of his face. She smiled back at him, winking as she did.
Just then the wormhole dissipated and the sound of the DHD being dialed could be heard. Within moments, the wormhole exploded forth yet again, the blowback shooting out behind Daniel and Vala. Cam's voice then boomed over to them, "Come on you three, what's the hold up over there?"
At this, Carter sighed, regarding the other two sympathetically as Vala opened her eyes and glared over at the DHD. The blonde-haired Colonel stood, smiling at them one last time before she quietly walked over to join Teal'c and Cam as they approached the dais, making their way to the stacks of weapons set aside at the end of the battle. Vala sighed visibly, grumbling as she reluctantly sat up, her hands taking hold of Daniel's. She looked at him and smiled sweetly, saying quietly, "Thank you."
Daniel nodded at her, answering with a warm voice, "you're welcome." He returned the smile as he stood, looking into her eyes as he pulled her up with him. She wobbled a little as she lifted herself up, and he helped brace her for a moment until she had her footing. Daniel frowned inwardly as he saw her, though he tried to keep it from his face. She still looked just as exhausted, as if she hadn't gotten any rest at all.
Vala managed to read his expression and smiled, squeezing his hands. "Don't worry, Daniel." She winked. "That little cat-nap should sustain me for a while." She then released his hands and started over to where the SG teams' weapons had been laid in a pile. Daniel smiled slightly as he followed, quietly grabbing a P-90 along side of her as the rest of the team waited at the top of the dais to the gate. They joined the others wordlessly, the five of them then disappearing into the wormhole.
The station hung in the dark reaches of space. It was a system of disks and pylons, linked together by diagonal support beams. Surrounding it in near proximity was four Ha'tak, all floating perfectly motionless. The only lights to be seen were those that twinkled across the surfaces of the five objects and the pin-points of light of the distant stars, all light years away. Suddenly another Ha'tak emerged from hyperspace, the fading violet light of the closing window shimmering around it as it decelerated suddenly. Its vast tetrahedral shape then moved towards the station, coming to a stop outside of the ring of the other ships.
Within the vessel that had just arrived, a man sat at the Pel'tak with a dour expression. His dark eyes looked at the five vessels on main display with a glare as he watched another hyperspace window open and a cargo ship appeared, coming to a sudden halt nearby. The man ran his fingers through his jet-black hair, wiping the beads of perspiration into his thick mane. He frowned all the more as he watched the ship appear, his anger increasing visibly. "Hail him," the man ordered quietly, his voice thick with danger.
An underling at one of the consoles nodded wordlessly, moving his hand over the glowing controls. The main display suddenly sprang to life, the image of a gnarled and scarred face coming into view. The marred face frowned as he snarled, "So what do you want, Teranis?"
Teranis sat up the metal chair, bristling at the tone of the other. "I'm just wondering what you're going to tell our Mistress about your failure, Artix," he grinned sardonically, his eyes burning with hatred.
The man on the screen grinned at this, chuckling as he answered, "Firstly, she's your mistress, not mine. She's merely my employer of the day. Secondly, it is your failure. You signaled that you were ready – that meant that your men had established a wormhole to Dakara before I launched my attack on the Gateroom. It's you that had best be ready to explain." With that, the man disappeared from the display, laughing as he went.
The man in the chair uncharacteristically frowned deeply at this, growling in fury as he watched the display go dark. He smoldered in his chair, seething in his anger. Suddenly a beeping could be heard throughout the Pel'tak. The man at the console that sounded looked to his fellow at the other console, the two sharing troubled looks. He moved his hand over the controls, causing the beeping to silence. He paused, clearing his throat before announcing with a trembling voice, "She calls, milord."
Teranis swallowed tightly, his anger suddenly decaying into utter fear. He pulled himself up in his chair again, drawing in a deep breath before ordering, "On screen."
The members of SG-1 emerged through the Stargate on Kevlin Prime into a cavernous room that was filled with half a dozen Jaffa. At the base of the stairs was a rather tall Jaffa, looking up at the open Gate expectantly. Teal'c stepped forward going ahead of the team down the dais, approaching the other. "Tek'ma'tae Hak'tan," he called out as he closed the last steps between them. He offered his arm to the other as he added, "it has been far too long of a time since we last met."
Hak'tan clasped Teal'c's arm in greeting, and the two hugged briefly. "Tek'ma'tae Teal'c. I only wish it were under better circumstances." Hak'tan smiled at him, but then frowned as he saw Teal'c's expression. "What is wrong, my friend?"
Teal'c hesitated before answering. "The circumstances are much worse than you know. Dakara has just repelled an attack that was both serious in magnitude and significant in the damage it caused." He paused as Hak'tan gave him a horrified look. "A Ha'tak stationed itself above the Holy Mountain and fired down upon the new city. At the same time, enemy forces attempted to take possession of the Chap'ai, attempting to secure it for more to invade the city. It was only by sheer luck that the Tau'ri had already connected to Dakara when the attack began. My friends and I came through the Chap'ai, with a score of the Tau'ri's best warriors. It is through that alone that we were able to best them. After the threat on the ground was defeated, the enemy vessel left."
Hak'tan looked positively stunned at the news. "How is this possible, did the enemy best six of our own Ha'tak? Who was this enemy you speak of?"
Teal'c shook his head. "Our defensive ships were undone by sabotage. Reinforcements did not arrive until just after the enemy fled as cowards. As to who this new enemy is, we do not know. The warriors we fought were all human to a man. They possess new defenses as well, each wore body armor that would make a staff weapon useless. Beyond these things, we know nothing else of them."
Hak'tan looked troubled, the news upsetting him greatly. He paused, absorbing the information and then looked up at the rest of SG-1 where they had paused in descending the stairs. "I thank you all for coming; your help in this matter is greatly appreciated. It seems we continue to owe you more gratitude for your help. I must confess that many among us did not wish to involve outsiders, but Bra'tac and I both believed that we could only benefit from the help the Tau'ri could bring. It appears we were quite right to have asked for your help, else Dakara may have been lost."
"Ah, shucks, it was nothing, we're just glad to help out our friends," Mitchell replied with a good-natured grin. "As far as this little problem you've got, we'll do what we can. Can you tell us about what happened at your facility?"
Hak'tan nodded and turned, starting to walk briskly away from the Gate as he motioned for the rest to follow. "I can, but we should talk on the way," he looked back over his shoulder, speaking to SG-1 as they followed behind. "It is several hours on foot until we reach the ring-platform to take us to the cargo ships on this planet's moon. From there, it is another sixteen hours until we reach this planet's sister."
The group walked briskly through the room, leaving by the only exit to be seen. As they passed under its wide arch, they entered a stone hallway with a significant upward slope. The corridor appeared to be hewn out of solid rock. Shadows filled its length, cast from the lights hanging from the ceiling, about ten feet apart. The way stretched ahead of them as far as could be seen. As they entered the hallway, Vala paused, looking up at the endless stretch ahead of them. Her expression fell as she suddenly felt overwhelmed by the seemingly insurmountable height looming before her.
Daniel had walked on ahead with the rest of the group, but stopped once he realized Vala was no longer with them. She quickly flashed a brilliant smile at him just as he turned to look back at her. She strode briskly to catch up, quickly walking past him. "Come on, Daniel," she grinned, "no time to waste."
He quickly started moving again, catching up with her. "Are you going to be alright?" Daniel asked quietly.
Vala nodded, smiling at him still, although that felt like as much effort as the climb itself. "I'm doing just fantastic, darling. Don't you fret one bit," she said with a chipper tone as she winked at him. Daniel regarded her thoughtfully, not at all convinced by her act. He decided not to fight her about it, though. It seemed wiser to let her save her energy for the climb.
As they walked up the corridor, Mitchell looked around "This is some rather serious security you've got going on here, we must be a ways underground…" his voice echoed throughout the cavernous stretch of the hallway.
"Indeed," Hak'tan replied, "Our facilities here are to produce enough prim'tahs for many hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters to live. It is one of many such hatcheries scattered throughout the galaxy, though it is one of the largest."
Sam answered, "Hopefully in time we can help you retool these facilities so that they manufacture Tretonin rather than breed Goa'uld."
The Jaffa looked back at her and nodded, "We will welcome the time when we are free of our last dependence upon our former masters."
The group continued on in silence for a good twenty minutes, briskly walking up the sloping hallway. At the rear of the group, Daniel looked up the length of corridor before them and glanced left as he continued to watch Vala, concerned already for her. She had quickly given up her charade of cheerfulness and was now uncharacteristically silent. She stared at the ground as she trudged along with the rest of the group. Looking back ahead to Hak'tan, he called out, "So if you don't mind my asking, how long until we reach the surface?"
Looking back at Daniel and grinning, the Jaffa replied simply, "We don't."
Teal'c looked back over his shoulder and supplemented, "The surface of the planet is quite uninhabitable. The rings are at the end of this corridor which runs a good five of your miles."
Daniel blinked at the reply, surprised. "Wow." He furrowed his brow for a moment in thought. He looked over at Vala, more concerned than ever. If she the news of the magnitude of their climb bothered her at all, she did not show it.
There was a pause before Mitchell asked, "You know, this underground fortress you've got gives a lot of security for the gate, but what's to stop someone from just flying a ship in from anywhere and attacking your facility on the other planet?" Both Teal'c and Hak'tan looked back at this question, "…or is that exactly what happened already?"
The two Jaffa shared a glance before Hak'tan answered, "We do not know. We had thought such was impossible."
Sam tilted her head at hearing this, "Why's that?"
Teal'c answered, "This star system is deep inside of a nebula which prevents the formation of a hyperspace window. Ships can neither enter nor leave via hyperspace, and the nebula is many light years across."
"Good reason," She said simply, growing silent as the memories of her own experience with a nebula washed over her. She shuddered as she remembered the feeling of hopeless that had overwhelmed her while she had struggled to find an escape.
Mitchell asked further, "How did your cargo ships get here, then? Did you fly them in on sub-light engines?"
Hak'tan shook his head. "No, if we had, they would still be in transit. We brought the shuttlecraft here piece by piece through the Stargate and then through the rings, assembling them on the moon."
Mitchell blinked, "That must have taken some effort."
The Jaffa nodded, "It took many months to do so. Building the hatchery took another eight months. The facility was about to yield its first crops, which were sorely needed throughout the galaxy."
Cam tilted his head, answering, "Seems like suspicious timing. Is it possible you had a spy on the inside? How much do you trust your people?"
Hak'tan glared harshly at Mitchell at the question. "Every Jaffa here was hand picked by me. I can personally vouch for each of them and their honor."
Teal'c bristled as well, adding harshly, "I know these Jaffa as well, Colonel Mitchell. They are most trustworthy and would not do such a thing."
Mitchell nodded making an ease-off motion with his hands. "Easy guys, if we want to figure out what's going on we've got to look at all the angles. You have to admit, that's a pretty astounding coincidence, your hatchery is about to produce its first yield, and suddenly everything goes wrong." The Jaffa said nothing, but the dark look in his eyes suggested he had perhaps considered the possibility already. Mitchell waited for another moment before asking, "What did happen, anyway?"
Hak'tan paused before answering, "We do not know, exactly. We had received an urgent communication from Kevlin Minor. We could see in the sphere that there were explosions of some kind, but then the transmission was cut short."
Daniel asked, "Why haven't you visited the planet yet?"
Hak'tan answered over his shoulder, "Because we were waiting for you to arrive. There are only two cargo ships, and one is already on Kevlin Minor. We did not want to take the second until we were ready to depart."
The group continued on in silence for another few minutes before the hallway opened up into a room about the size of the Gateroom they just left. The room was a perfect dome, with numerous slits along the length of its perimeter. The arched doorways on either side of it had huge doors that opened out from the room. They continued walking briskly through it. Looking about the room curiously, Daniel asked, "What is this place?"
Mitchell answered first, replying, "I'd say it's a fortification of some kind." He reached over and playfully slapped Teal'c on the shoulder. "Am I right, big guy?"
The Jaffa looked over and grinned slightly at Cam. He nodded, "Indeed, Colonel Mitchell. The openings are from adjoining rooms that are always attended by a dozen Jaffa on each side. If an enemy were to enter through the Chap'ai and make it past the Gateroom, they would find these outer doors closed and locked. The doors they came in would close behind them, and the Jaffa guarding this place could fire at them through the arrays of openings."
Mitchell chuckled as he nodded while listening, looking around one last time before they exited the room. "Very medieval, guys. Do you also drop boiling oil on them from the ceiling?"
Teal'c and Hak'tan hesitated and then looked at one another at this, Teal'c raising his eyebrow as the other grinned slightly. Sam chuckled at this, nudging Cam, "I think you just gave them an idea."
He laughed at Sam's words. "Maybe I should charge a consulting fee."
The six continued on, sometimes idly chatting with one another. After another half hour they encountered another structure exactly like the first. "How many of these things have you got?" Mitchell asked, looking around again.
"They are positioned between each quarter of the hallway," Hak'tan answered.
Mitchell nodded, "Very impressive security indeed." He paused, looking about. "What've you got at the end, a castle?"
As they continued through the room, Daniel continued to keep an eye on Vala. He was more concerned than ever about her, but she said no word of complaint. While she was clearly dragging, she managed to keep up with the rest of them. More than once, Daniel considered asking the rest to stop and give her a break, but he always decided instead to respect her choice to push forward. He realized that if they stopped, it might be all the harder for Vala to start the walk again.
By the time they reached the third and final emplacement, everyone except the two Jaffa was breathing heavily and feeling fatigued. All talking had stopped shortly after the midway point, everyone just focused on moving forward so they could end this part of the journey. After the last half hour, they reached a small room that contained a ring platform in its center. The room was about twice as wide as the ring platform itself. The four humans walked into the center of the rings and sat down, exhausted. Teal'c simply walked into the rings and looked at his friends with a bemused expression. He didn't seem to be fatigued in the slightest.
Vala nearly collapsed when she reached the middle of the rings, Daniel catching her as she fell. "Daniel, I'm fine," she tried to protest, but again found herself without the strength to do anything but collapse against him. Daniel didn't say anything. He just sat with her, putting his arm about her as she leaned against him again with a sigh. Hak'tan made his way to the control panel for the rings. He punched in the code and then joined the rest in the center. The rings rose up and they all disappeared as the white light flashed about them, the rings falling back down into the platform.
The perfect silence was suddenly broken by rings bursting forth from the floor, the darkness fighting against the brief flash of white light from transporter. The rings then fell back down again and the room was still and dark once more but for only a heartbeat until four flashlights clicked on and started to cast about the room.
"Sure is musty down here," Colonel Parker remarked, shining his flashlight here and there, looking about the room they had appeared in. He held his P-90 at the ready, his finger tight upon the trigger. It made him nervous, just ringing into an unknown place. He half expected that once the rings rose up, that would be the end. He was glad to be alive, but was very nervous. Something about this place didn't sit right with him.
"Well, it's probably been quite a while since anyone came down here," Balinsky reminded him as he shone his light around. "It looks pretty empty," he remarked as he saw nothing but non-descript stone walls surrounding them.
"Yeah, sure looks that way," Parker answered as the four started to slowly spread out from the ring platform.
"Sir, there's a hallway over here," Captain Becker called out.
As he started to make his way over, the Colonel swung his flashlight around the room a few more times to make sure that was the only one available to them. He shone his light down the hallway, revealing a short bit of its length before the darkness enveloped it. "Well, I guess this is the way we go, then."
The four of them set out down the hallway, walking with great trepidation. Every several feet there were protrusions in the ceiling that looked like what must have been lights. "I was kinda hoping this place would just come to life once we got down here…" Balinsky muttered as he looked up at the ceiling.
"I thought you needed to have the right genes to make Ancient stuff work," Lieutenant Sanders replied.
"No, actually it's only the dangerous or important stuff that is restricted to the genetic identifier," Balinsky answered as they continued through the hallway. "Most everyday technology can be worked by pretty much anyone."
"Maybe the batteries are dead," Parker supplied, keeping his flashlight ahead of them as they made their way.
"Yeah, that's most likely," Balinsky replied with a disappointed tone. Whatever this place was, it would have been exceptional to have found another ZPM.
Suddenly the corridor opened up into a considerable sized room that was lined with computer terminals. The four of them paused at the entrance way and looked about as they shone their flashlights around the various consoles. "Okay, Balnisky, what is all this stuff, some kind of control room?" The Colonel furrowed his brow as he asked the question, suggesting the first thing that popped into his head.
"I'm not sure," the red-headed man replied as he studied the console nearest the doorway. "I don't really think so, for some reason…"
They slowly made their way into the room, spreading out as they went. After a few moments, Parker spoke up "Be careful, everyone. Even if we're alone in here, which is rather likely, there could be structural damage from the severe age of this place."
Just then, Captain Becker cried out, "Colonel!"
The cargo ship lifted off silently from the surface of the moon above Kevlin Prime and gracefully started to make its way through the atmosphere. Teal'c and Hak'tan sat at the cockpit talking while Sam, Cameron, Daniel, and Vala all made their way to the cargo hold, dragging their packs behind them and collapsing onto the surfaces created by the various crates spread throughout the room.
Vala groaned in pain as her body protested sorely the way she'd been treating it lately. She could never remember having been this tired, her skin was crawling and her gut was all twisted up in cramps. Having had that extremely long walk, though, she now felt wide awake. Daniel set his pack down and watched Vala collapse upon a platform of the boxes typically found in these ships. As she grimaced in pain and discomfort, he reached down to grab the blanket from his pack and walked over to her. "Here, stand up for just a second."
She looked over at him incredulously. "You've got to be joking," she said plainly.
"Look, I think you'll be more comfortable if you lay down on something softer than that container," he replied, offering up the blanket. Vala grunted at this, rolling off of the surface and half falling as she found her feet. Daniel spread the blanket out and then helped her climb back on top. She settled herself after a few minutes of fidgeting; in the meanwhile the archaeologist fished out her own blanket from her pack, giving it to her.
She looked at him and blinked, "Don't you want one?" she asked in a surprised voice, hesitating to take it.
He shook his head with a smile, "Nah, I'll be fine. This isn't the first time I've had to kill a lot of time on a cargo ship." He grinned at her expression as she took the blanket. He then walked back to his pack and pulled a few books out. Looking about for a place to sit, he found that Sam and Cam had already claimed the only other two surfaces of any sufficient size. The only other place left was the other half of the row of crates that Vala was resting on.
Seeing his conundrum, Vala grinned at him, "Don't worry Daniel, I won't bite." She paused as he turned to look at her, her grin widening, forcibly reminding Daniel of the Cheshire Cat, "at least, not unless you want me too…" she winked at him and noticed Sam watching the two of them with a smile while Daniel blinked wordlessly. The raven-haired alien felt mildly disappointed as he made no reply, hoping he'd maybe show more of the spirit that she caught a glimpse of back in the Gateroom. Perhaps he was just too tired, she reasoned. After all, he seems rather fresh at such things.
Daniel wordlessly moved to sit opposite where Vala was laying down on the stack of crates, stretching out his legs as far as he could. Their feet were almost touching, with just a little gap between them. He smiled at her. "Comfy?" he asked.
She fidgeted a little and then sighed. "Not really."
He frowned at this, looking about the room briefly, "Hm...well, as much as I wish I could do something to help, I don't see any pillows or anything." He looked back to her, "and you've already got both our blankets."
She smiled at him, winking. "Don't worry, it should do. I'm so exhausted that I could probably sleep for a week."
Daniel smiled in return and nodded, picking up one of his books. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Sam had stretched out and had closed her eyes, while Cam sat with his feet up and his back against a taller stack of crates, his hat pulled down low over his eyes. Daniel then focused on his book, wondering idly what Teal'c and Hak'tan were talking about in the cockpit. He quickly stopped wondering, however, as he became engrossed in the pages he was reading.
He sighed happily as he relaxed, the quiet hum of the cargo ship's sublight engines filling the hold with a soothing sound. He was glad for the down time after everything that had happened over the last eight hours. It had been an incredibly turbulent and intense ride from when Vala first showed to their tiff, his apology to her, then Dakara, and now this. Although exhausted, Daniel wanted to just read his book for a while and unwind, maybe even think about some of the things that were going on, some of the feelings that were swirling around inside of him. There was a full sixteen hours of mind-numbing travel ahead of them, he'd have plenty of opportunity to sleep.
The minutes ticked by as he tried to read, but it was a lost cause. He found himself continually thinking of Vala and trying to sort out his feelings for her. It didn't help that she was inches away from his feet and every few minutes she tossed and turned, sometimes tapping his foot. He glanced at her repeatedly over the top of his book, finding her this time to be lying on her side. Each time he had looked at her since they stopped talking, she was in a different position. It was frustrating. Not only did she keep nudging his foot, but he also just wanted her to be able to get the rest that she deserved after everything she'd been through. He just wasn't sure what else he could do for her.
He tried yet again to read his book, but then realized after several moments that she'd stopped fidgeting. He peeked over at her and saw her in the same position she was last in when he looked before. He couldn't see her face, however, and her breathing didn't quite seem as regular or even as it should have been if she was asleep. He frowned slightly, then whispered, "Vala? Are you asleep?"
"Yes, Daniel, I'm sound asleep right now," her voice was thick with sarcasm as she answered, turning to sit up and look at him.
The archaeologist suddenly felt like a fool. "I'm sorry, you were almost asleep and I ruined it, didn't I?" He regarded her sympathetically, expecting her to lash out at him.
Instead she simply sighed and shook her head. "No, I wasn't and no, you didn't. The fact is I can't seem to get comfortable enough to sleep." She ran the fingers of both hands through her hair, sighing again in intense frustration.
"I wish I could help you," he said sincerely, half closing his book as he watched her, empathizing with her.
She looked up at him at this, smiling from ear to ear. "Thanks for the offer, darling," she grinned, suddenly crawling over to him and cuddling up next to him.
"Uhm, what's this?" he asked, his brows knotting together. He was quite surprised at both what she did and how quickly she had managed to move. She had dragged both of the blankets with her, managing to lay the one down in a crumpled pile that she climbed on top of while pulling the other overtop of them both.
"Well, you said you wanted to help," she said with a slight whine to her voice, "and when you did I realized that I had slept so wonderfully when you let me snuggle up against you back on Dakara, that it was about the best thing you could do to help me." Daniel sputtered a bit, starting to protest, but then hesitated. He clamped his mouth shut and looked at her as she smiled up at him. "And don't you dare argue," she continued, "after all the grief you've been giving me about getting some rest..." She grinned at him, running a finger along the line of his jaw, "it's time to put your mouth where your money is, mister." She winked then, snuggling up to him happily as she rested her head on his shoulder and sighed with utter contentment.
Daniel couldn't help but chuckled at the last. Vala's smile soured a little as she asked, "What?"
Chuckling still, he answered, "It's 'put your money where your mouth is', not the other way around."
Vala blinked as she thought about it. "Oh. Well, don't give me too hard of a time, I've only been around your planet for a few months, and that was months ago to boot!"
The archaeologist chuckled as he gave up the fight and wrapped his arm about Vala, hugging her closer to him. She smiled from ear to ear again, snuggling up even more. "Well, I'll just have to be patient with you on that one too, I guess," he grinned in spite of himself. At that, Vala sighed happily yet again, though this time Daniel could tell she was already drifting off to sleep. He shook his head as he opened his book back up with his free hand, determined to get some reading done.
Within a few minutes, Sam grinned from ear to ear as she heard the book hit the floor. Cracking her eyelids open, she glanced over to look at the two. Daniel's arm that had held the book hung limply at his side, while his other arm was wrapped securely about Vala's waist. The raven-haired woman was curled up against the archaeologist, her leg draped over his. She had a look of utter contentment about her. Daniel's face looked peaceful too, though Sam could only see the half that wasn't resting upon Vala's head.
Carter sighed happily for her friend, her hopes for the two growing as she snuggled in under her own blanket. She suddenly found herself missing a certain grey-haired General. After dwelling on it for a few minutes, she consoled herself with the thought of when he was due to visit Colorado again. Within a few minutes, Cam started to snore, rather loudly. Soon the entire cargo hold was quiet, save for the hum of the engines and the periodic guttural noises emanating from Colonel Mitchell.