Disclaimers in part 1.


1999 May 18, 1630 approx. Earth standard

They'd needed rest. The Colonel had known it. After nearly a full day out training – had that only been the day before? – and the rush of coming back, briefing, gearing up, through the gate, and on, they'd needed the rest, needed to be alert. So they'd slept until nearly what passed for noon on this wonderful little bit of real estate. Tried to call Daniel again and failed. And every second since then they'd been hacking through houseplants on steroids.

And now, Sam was picturing something drastic. Something uncomfortable. Not fatal. She'd never wish Colonel O'Neill dead, but . . . debilitating foot fungus. A twisted ankle. Even just a really bad need to take a leak, yeah, something like that would be a perfect excuse for a break. Not much. A few minutes would be enough. Just so she could stop hacking away at branches and saplings and vines and weeds and every other expression for green growing things she'd come up with in the interminable period since their rest that they'd been slashing away.

In the end, it was a cross street that saved the Colonel from horrible, imagined jock itch. His growled order sounded like music. "Take five, people. Carter, repeater time."

"Yessir." Perfect soldier, perfectly delivered, and thank God she didn't talk in her sleep. Shrugging her shoulders to resettle her pack, she moved into the area Teal'c had broken for them, looking up into a sky growing dark and clotted with clouds. She sighed and tried to find a place where she could sight down both streets, judging it by the towers lining what had once been a road. If they really were on SG-10's path out, they'd hit a repeater on their road. Maybe. If the sight-lines were clean. If not, if SG-10 had gotten creative with their repeaters . . . well. She'd rather maximize her chances.

It was shady in the middle of the street, hazy-bright on the side that was still in light and dim on the other. The dark holes of what must have been windows made her think of rotted teeth, empty eye sockets. And there were those clumps, swirling gray messes that had to be huge, plastered on the building sides. The Colonel was right. They looked just like hornet's nests. Even in the sick heat, a chill ran down her spine thinking of hornets that big.

Odors hung rank in the humid air. Sam smelled her own sweat soaking her clothes, smelled green things, old and new. The scent of flowers left dead in a vase. There had to be years of rotting plants on the ground. Scent of fresh sap, acrid and sharp from the cuts their machetes had made, and underlying it all, the ozone smell of approaching rain. Perfect. Just perfect. Sweat down the middle of her back and now she could look forward to getting drenched. Please, please, let Daniel be somewhere safe and sound, and maybe even dry.

The Colonel and Teal'c were prowling. The back of her neck prickled with their nerves and her own. Sam left one hand securely gripped on her MP-5, tugging the radio up with the other. "Airman Rossiter, come in . . ." The static was just as heavy as it had been last time she'd tried. Sam repeated the call, running through a mental checklist of reasons for them not to answer. Repeater knocked out. Check but they'd moved into what had to be a new area and there HAD been repeaters there for that first call. Channel changed. She flipped over to B and tried it again. "Rossiter. Daniel. Come in." Come on, come on . . . they might have the wrong channel too but they must be in a new area. She rubbed at the greasy sweat on her forehead, shifting foot to foot.

And saw something move out of the corner of her eye.

Oh hell oh fuck but it was fast! Behind her the Colonel shouted and Teal'c's staff weapon charged and she spun, letting the radio go to see something big and gray and shiny-spotted. Ugly and big, and Teal'c's staff was suddenly airborne, its bolt sizzling off into treetops. Teal'c himself was . . . smothered. She heard a hoarse scream and it took a second to understand it was Teal'c's voice. No clear shot, no safe way to shoot the bastard that had wrapped itself around her friend, goddamn it but there just wasn't a shot!

Sam circled, trying to get an angle, trying to see clear. Everything felt like it was moving so slowly, but so fast all at once, combat speed. Adrenaline speed. Lifting her feet high to keep from tripping over the vines, eyes trying to track both the narrow little patch they'd cleared and the looming green hell all at the same time. Trying to get a solid look at the writhing mass of man and thing that was Teal'c and the damned horror wrapped around him. She saw it in parts; a sleek, mottled head held at the end of Teal'c's straining, brown arm. A tail that made cruel, whistling sounds as it whipped through the air. Clawed hands, charcoal gray, digging into . . . Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Teal'c was screaming, now, twisting his body side to side as the thing slashed at his belly, trying to keep it from getting a good grip.

"Get off him!" The Colonel's voice, loud and sharp. She had an angle over Teal'c's shoulder, a shot at the head but something made her stop . . .

Colonel O'Neill came flying in from the side, slamming the metal barrel of his weapon into what had to be its face and it hissed. Like steam from a vent, it hissed and turned for just an instant. Sam took her shot, hitting the long, melon-shaped head, and Teal'c screamed again, ripping himself loose as it squealed, thrashed, reached out for him with red-stained claws. The Colonel wasn't in position to fire as it spun, coiled in and struck. Sam was tracking it, ready to fire again, but Teal'c was rolling, wrapped tight around his own middle and rolling blind and she had to move, jump sideways from him, as the Colonel hit it again, still shouting, "This way, asshole!"

Shit, shit, shit! It lunged at him, grabbed him in those hands and the jaw drove at his face. She could see it shove toward him! The Colonel slammed the barrel of his weapon into its maw and it squealed again, teeth gnashing at the metal. His forearm flexed, finger on the trigger but Teal'c was shouting, "No! NO!"

"Sir!"

"It is acid! Its blood burns!"

Oh crap! "Don't pull the trigger Sir!"

"Give me a better idea, Carter!" His voice was tension-high, arms straining to keep it out of his face.

"Teal'c, circle around it, get in close." Not sure, not sure, God help her but she thought she saw the staff thrown somewhere . . . YES! YES! Sam lunged for the staff, seeing Teal'c doing what she didn't think she could have done, doing what she asked and circling in. The things head wobbled, turned for an instant from the Colonel. And suddenly let him go to whirl on the Jaffa.

"Teal'c! DROP!" Screaming now as she got her hands around the staff, brought it up and to bear on the filthy thing. "DROP AND ROLL!"

Electric charge, just an instant's spark and then she fired. Charged and fired again. Hearing screams and knowing some of them weren't human, fired again and it was down, thank God above, wildly arching and spitting, making that hissing sound and a scream that felt like she should have blood dripping from her ears. Teal'c was clear and now the Colonel brought his weapon to bear. The familiar chatter of rapid fire drowned out any other sound. She'd never thought she'd find it sweet but she almost sobbed with relief as the thing on the ground thrashed and danced, then writhed more slowly, then finally fell still.

The ringing in her ears was so loud she wasn't sure he'd stopped firing for a second. Not until she registered that it wasn't moving, under either its own power or impact, anymore. To one side she saw Teal'c stagger up onto his feet, arms wrapped tight around himself, face haggard with pain. The Colonel stood panting, eyes darting from the thing on the ground to the jungle and back again. Carter slowly lowered the staff, looking around. Not really seeing anymore. Faintly, through the ringing she could just hear Colonel O'Neill. "Crap. Have I mentioned that I hate bugs?"

"I concur." Sam read Teal'c's lips, hearing the rumble of his reply faintly as her ears popped. She yawned.

"Bored, Major? So. What the hell is it?"

"Huh?" She looked at him, at the bug, at him, and snapped her mouth shut when she realized her jaw had been hanging. "Like you said. It's a bug." A big, ugly, mean bug.

The Colonel visibly sighed. "You're the scientist, Carter. So . . . do science! What can you tell me about it?"

He had to be joking. She studied his lined face, the one eyebrow arched in inquiry, and debated telling him that he needed a big can of Raid. In the end she toed the military line and played the "Dr. McCoy" card. "I'm not an entomologist, Sir. I'm an astrophysicist. This is . . . it's too big to be atomic and too little to be planetary. Daniel'd know more about bugs than I would."

The Colonel ran a hand over his grizzled hair. "That'd be fine except for two things. Daniel's not an entomologist either. And Daniel's not here either. You are. As far as I know there aren't any ant-o-mologists on any of the other SG teams. The only one we've got is probably dead or a snakehead right now. So that leaves you, Carter. You're my token scientist."

She blinked at him. She could feel the look on her face and knew it wasn't her best one by a long shot. It was the dumb blond one, the one she hated wearing, but there you go. She studied the bug again. It was ugly. It was big. It was . . . she frowned, thinking. "It was going after Teal'c."

"I know that, Carter. I don't need a scientist for that."

Teal'c, however, seemed to recognize what she was saying. "I believe that Major Carter may be commenting on the fact that it was distracted from a known danger. It was in combat with you, O'Neill, and it recognized you as a danger and it had wounded me, yet it turned from you to attack me."

She could see the wheels turning in the Colonel's head. Hell, she could feel the wheels turning in her own head. The Colonel poked a toe at the thing on the ground and glanced up at the Jaffa. "It was distracted by you."

"No." Sam shook her head. Looked up and saw the same realization in Teal'c's eyes. "It wasn't distracted by Teal'c. It was distracted by Junior. I think . . . I think it sensed and attacked the Goa'uld."

"It hates snakes?" Colonel O'Neill rocked back and forth on his feet and studied the scratches teeth had left on his weapon. "Cool."


TBC