Chapter 11 - Flight
P4A-121
Madrelan Quon'yl
May 9, 2001
Jack heard her approach before she even spoke, but only turned around after she did.
"Am I disturbing?"
His response was a careless shrug, a casual invitation. "Not really. Just taking some time out."
In the old days, he would have taken a few minutes alone somewhere just before a mission, burning through half a dozen cigarettes as he pulled a fine-toothed comb through every conceivable scenario and its potential ramifications. Such periods of solitude were harder to come by since he'd joined the SGC and quit smoking altogether, but that life now looked distant enough for those old habits to unconsciously return.
Kynal sat down next to him on an abandoned concrete bench some tunnels away from their living quarters.
"The gathering is in five minutes in the other direction."
He twisted his fingers restlessly, wishing he had some nicotine in his system. "Yeah, I know."
"Nervous?"
He shot her a well-practiced, innocent look. "Who, me?"
Kynal shook her head in amusement at his deflection. "I'm surprised you found this place. It is seldom used, but I come here sometimes."
"So I'm sitting in your seat?"
She eyed him with curiosity and fondness. "I still cannot believe that you have offered to re-home all of us. You have my endless gratitude."
All he did was to give her was a small smile in return, an action that prompted her to lean in closer and place a light, chaste kiss on his cheek.
Jack turned in surprise, only to freeze when their lips met softly.
Her fingers lingered on the side of his face, trailing down the chiselled line of his jaw, then curled away from him. He pulled away abruptly, her delicate touch of affection causing a deep burn in his chest when all he could feel was the sudden, despairing loss of another woman who looked like her.
Resolutely, he looked away, refusing to meet her eyes. Looking at anything other than her look of hurt surprise.
Was it just a simple, uncomplicated display of gratitude on her part? Or did it have more to do with the life-changing event that was about to take place, a desperate desire for human contact when there was every possibility they didn't live through it?
There and then, he decided that it must have been just a physical expression of thanks, an outpouring of emotions that were simply too close to the surface for words.
Yet, to dismiss her advances as a by-product of the extraordinary circumstances in which they found themselves seemed somehow…belittling. And unfair.
Kynal saw his hesitation and gave him a small smile. "Jack, it's nothing."
But it clearly wasn't.
"Kynal…I…there is something…I-" He tried and failed, helplessly wordless when it came to those for whom he cared more than he was supposed to.
The blonde shook her head and got to her feet, resolutely refusing to meet his eyes. "It's alright, Jack. See you in the last briefing."
Her receding footsteps caused Jack to shut his eyes in consternation at the awkwardness of the situation. He doubtlessly admired all that she was – a capable, compassionate, brave survivor of unspeakable horrors – and it helped that she was so very easy on the eyes. And despite the imbecilic denseness that made up part of the front he had going for him in the SGC, he still hadn't suspected a damned thing about any interest she seemed to have in him up until a minute ago.
Was it merely attraction on her part? Or something that…ran somewhat deeper?
Jack didn't know, nor did he want to begin to guess. How could his inadequate feelings match hers when he was still spending time in purgatory paying for the thing he'd developed for his untouchable and unattainable second IC?
And if it was what he thought he knew she was seeking, he didn't think he could give it to her.
At least not yet. Not until he could think of Carter and Faxon in the same sentence without wanting to bolt or throw up.
Sighing, Jack stood and walked in the same direction Kynal went a few minutes earlier. There was no way he could have ever satisfactorily explained the complicated mess he was in and all the baggage that he lugged around.
Right now, his loyalty and his friendship had to be sufficient recompense for his own gratitude to her.
The few, quiet conversations stuttered to a halt when he entered the meeting place just as Ferdan stood to address his small audience. There were only four others who were going to do this with him, just as he'd requested – four of the resistance leaders who would set their plan in motion, pull his team out and gate to Earth.
"Jack."
He turned to Ferdan, returned the greeting and took his place next to Sorel, studiously avoiding Kynal's knowing gaze.
"Today is the day we earn our freedom." The leader's quiet voice was at odds with the weighty significance of his words. "In the twenty years that we have spent working to build the Dalbar'ash in order to eliminate the Aschen presence on this world, we never expected to enjoy the fruits of our labour with the rest of our people. Colonel Jack O'Neill has changed all of that," Ferdan paused and looked at Jack directly. "Above all, we want to say thank you. Even though we might still lose our lives while running to freedom. Because you have given us the chance to live. And I think I speak for the Dalbar'ash when I say that we are in your debt."
A dull flush crept up his neck as Jack felt the congratulatory claps on his back that Sorel and Hedin were giving him, uncomfortable with the messianic label that they were placing on him. Yet their confidence in turn buoyed his flagging spirits and for the first time since he found himself brokenly volunteering for the covert mission, Jack felt like he could breathe again.
He'd gotten his men home every time. This wasn't going to be any different. The group that was going through the gate just simply got a little bigger.
A small, silver button-like object was pressed into his palm. He raised his eyebrows at the coin-like device, casually flipped it twice, then looked enquiringly at the person who gave it to him.
Kynal.
But her face was serious, revealing nothing of what had transpired between them.
"The communication device is attuned to your voices. The pulses it radiates ensure that the device calibrates itself to the electrical activity in your brain. It also senses the pressure variations that the ear receives," she said for his benefit. "You only need speak and we will all hear."
Jack gave his a slight prod, briefly examined its flat, smooth surface, then stuck it to his inner shirt and gave it a pat for good measure.
A small, holographic map of the tunnel network appeared, framed against the dark wall like snakelike trails of red and yellow printed on a board game.
"Sorel and Hedin will accompany the Colonel to rescue his teammates using this route through the west curve into the great forest," Kynal said, her finger tracing a slight 'V' shape around the translucent hologram of the facility, the trail lighting up blue at her touch.
"The prisoners are kept in a separate building that is on the other side of the portal, on the opposite side of the town that you saw," Sorel added. "The tunnels will lead only part way there. We will be in plain sight for some distance."
"Timing is key," Kynal went on. "The cells are less tightly guarded than the experimental facility, which would be to your advantage. Ferdan and I will attempt to penetrate the Aschen facility by the northern entrance and introduce an influx of negative Cuperlon into the vent. The vent's instability will reach its maximum by the thirty-minute mark, which would then destroy the Aschen facility." She gestured to the portions of the tunnels marked in red. "These parts are going to be completely destroyed in the blast. The only route that remains for Ferdan and I to the portal would be by the south of the Aschen town. Sorel, Hedin, Jack and his team will be coming from the north by the forest."
"It is indeed a delicate situation," Ferdan said, "The Aschen will be warned about the vent's instability after a certain amount of Cuperlon has been injected into it. Kynal and I will do our best to alter the sensors that are built into their delivery systems so that the early warning does not occur. We do not want to risk the chance of the Aschen guards and doctors coming early, discovering our subterfuge and halting the whole process of overloading."
A distant beep came from an unknown source in the room, effectively ending the briefing.
"It's time," Hedin said solemnly, gesturing to wall chronometer.
"Before we go," Kynal interrupted hastily, glancing at the chronometer in mild annoyance. "You will be given a combination of several weapons that we favour. The stun-weapon, the armoured-vest and a sensory bomb that disorients the enemy."
"Are we all clear on this?" Hedin asked.
An eager chorus of affirmatives followed his question.
"Then we are ready," Ferdan sombrely announced. "May we all live to see many more days."
They took to the tunnels shortly, armed merely with stun weapons modified with a shoot-to-kill switch and protected by a thin layer of a polymer-fabric that Hedin swore was more than sufficient against the Aschen lasers beams.
"We're making good progress," Hedin noted satisfactorily. "The paths will fork in about a hundred metres."
Jack followed quietly, unconsciously adjusting his grip on the stun weapon, learning the feel of its weight in his hand. Then, like a muffled ring that started in his head and moved to his ear, Kynal's hushed voice came though on a soft cackle of static.
"Approaching the northern entrance."
"Roger that," he replied unthinkingly, seeing the puzzled looks flash across Sorel's and Hedin's faces.
He stopped short for a minute, their bewilderment registering on him. "Right," Jack tried again with a shrug. "That means, 'your message is understood and received'. Just an expression we have."
Without waiting for their response, he rounded the corner in a near-sprint and melded into the shadows, taking the right fork of the path. Not long more, he urged himself, despite the lingering tiredness that hadn't seemed to fully gone away since the days he'd been prodded and poked to no end.
The path was straight, then curved a hard right and went on for what seemed like miles.
"Just up ahead."
"I see it."
The flight of steps that led upwards was rough and patchy in places, the unstable earth that once supported it having already crumbled in the upper rungs.
Jack went first, his steps quick and sure, reaching the top step just as Ferdan and Kynal reported their steady progress towards the north entrance. A tentative push of the top caused it to tilt upwards on its lever, sending a shower of dust into his face despite his best efforts to turn away and hold his breath. When the dust finally settled, he hefted himself up, got his footing and immediately reached down to pull the rest up.
The tunnel led to a dead end, the pungent stench of chemical and human waste wafting over in a noxious cloud of wispy grey smoke tendrils.
The faint sounds of voices trickled through several floors of grilled ceilings as dim light filtered through.
Hedin tossed a cloth covering to all of them, then gestured down the corridor. "We are now directly below the cells. We have to go this way, and then up three levels. Your friends are there."
"The waste generators must be near," Sorel noted grimly, pulling a cloth cover over his mouth and nose.
"You don't say," Jack muttered, hurriedly doing the same, then picked up his pace, knowing not to underestimate the sheer distances that the expansive tunnel network actually covered.
Ferdan's voice cut through their stealthy movements. "Reaching the Aschen core delivery systems. Preparation of Cuperlon has begun."
They soldiered on, taking the flight of stairs at the other end of the long corridor, stopping short when approaching footsteps beckoned.
The quiet whine of a stun weapon discharge echoed down the stairwell. An Aschen guard fell a second later, his body noiselessly caught by Sorel and promptly tossed aside.
"There will be more of-."
Guards poured into the corridor, armed with rapid-pulse laser weapons.
"Shit," Jack cursed, hitting the ground hard as he ducked and rolled over.
The bad guys always came at the most crucial bits, he thought scathingly as he raised his own weapon and fired, gaining momentum as the energy beams brought them down.
Two down. Seven more.
His blood sang in his veins at the adrenaline rush. From the corner of his eye, Sorel and Hedin were doing the same, their sharpness and swiftness proving their advantage over the smaller, less-prepared Aschen guards. Dimly, he thought he heard Kynal's panicked whispers over the communication link.
The crossfire was over in thirty seconds, not that it surprised him.
The resistance had indeed trained well for this.
Jack turned instinctively to look at his temporary team, feeling the strange sense of freedom and constraint in not having to give any orders this time.
"They probably have a transmitter that helps keep a personnel count," Hedin said, turning to wait for Sorel who was already giving Ferdan and Kynal their situation report. "We must move on."
Jack nodded in acknowledgement. The way to the cells was still paved with obstacles.
Ferdan's voice came through as they ran up to the first level. "Completing injection of negative Cuperlon particles." Two seconds later, he spoke again, "Uploading a computational bypass that prevents early detection."
Damn, they've done it. And he was still two floors away from hauling his team out.
The moment of distraction proved costly. An Aschen laser beam sliced through the air and burnt through Hedin's right leg, his agonised cry drifting far up enough to alert the guards on the other floors.
In an instant, Jack and Sorel had pulled him over to a corner. "You'll stay partially hidden here."
Jack didn't think twice. He stood up, flung a smoke bomb through the air and ducked back in the corner as it detonated with a flash of light. Black, heavy smoke filled the level in the next second, making their eyes water instantly.
"Go…now," Hedin panted through gritted teeth, slowly trying to manoeuvre himself into a sitting position against the wall.
"Jack, There's no time. I must stay with him. You have to go," Sorel urged, crouching beside him fallen comrade and looking over his injuries.
"No one gets left behind," Jack retorted in reply.
Hedin was already shaking his head, the pain obvious on his face. "There is no way out for us."
What was it with these people and their fatalistic way of looking at things? A quick glance behind and ahead told Jack that the way was clear; it was a window of opportunity that he intuitively knew that he wasn't ever going to get again.
But they were right. He had to go.
"I'll be back. Don't do anything funny." Jack warned and took off, using the force of his momentum to take him up the stairwell, crouching only when he reached the last flight of steps that led up the third level.
Slowly, he flattened himself as best as he could against the steps, inching upward to take a cautious look around.
Stationary globes of laser pulse weapons were aimed directly at the prisoners' cells, controlled by a circuit board that was a few paces away from the last cell door nearest to him. Two Aschen guards stood at the end of the row of cells, their electronic access devices forming obvious creases in the side pockets of their tunics.
Kynal's voice came through quietly, briefly interrupting Jack's perusal of his surroundings. "Twenty-five minutes to vent rupture. Ferdan and I will only leave the facility at the ten-minute mark."
The clock was ticking down. Jack ran a suitable course of action through his mind, repeating it for good measure.
"Jack, you must hurry," Sorel said over the link. "Hedin is not doing well."
"No pressure, O'Neill," he muttered to himself, then whipped around to aim his stun weapon at the control panel.
Jack fired thrice, taking advantage of the burst of smoke and the shattered electrical circuits to launch himself from the bottom step and onto the floor of the third level cells.
The heavy rattle of bodies pressed against metal reached his ears.
"O'Neill!"
"Sir!"
A grin formed on his face upon hearing their voices.
Then he ran through the smoke, towards source of the voices as he dodged the Aschen weapons fire. He rolled and righted himself, discharging several blasts of his own weapon.
The guards crumpled silently to the floor. Too easy, a suspicious voice in his mind said.
How many more were there?
Jack decided that he didn't want to find out. He grabbed the electronic access devices from the guards' singed tunics and stole a glance at his watch. Twenty minutes to vent rupture, and ticking rapidly down. Then he straightened back up, holding the devices against the doors and heard the satisfying click of the release mechanism resonate through the hallway.
"C'mon, boys."
His team scrambled through the threshold, smelling like crap from a mile away. "Fragrant," Jack couldn't help but mutter, knowing he probably didn't look or smell any better.
A heavy clap fell across his back.
"O'Neill." He turned to see Teal'c nod of wordless gratitude.
Gesturing curtly for them to hurry their asses up, he spoke into his communication link. "I've got them. But I'll go back for Sorel and Hedin."
"Sir, who are y-"
"Later," Jack interrupted, tossing the spare resistance weapons that he'd strapped to his leg to the rest of them and made an impatient gesture for them to follow him down the flight of stairs. "Cover me."
Thankfully, Hedin was still conscious when they found him.
"Sorel, Hedin, meet the folks." The introduction was casual and brief. "Folks, they're part of the Aschen resistance. But explanations can wait. Time to leave Kansas."
A large rumble shook the foundations of the building, breaking the exchange of pleasantries. They hadn't moved several paces when another tremor, stronger than the previous one, followed in the next moment.
"Jack, fifteen minutes to vent rupture," Ferdan spoke tersely into the link. "If you have your team, you need to go now. The critical, irreversible stage has been reached. Kynal and I are leaving the facility."
The next seism made them lose their footing, the shock wave coming from deep within the planet's epicentre, spreading outwards like a blast wave of a detonating nuclear bomb. Then the ground rolled and cracked, spraying disintegrating concrete in all directions.
The sound of the planet tearing open was immense, an inhuman groan of pain that rattled Jack more than he thought it would.
He strained to right himself. Around him, the team was struggling to do the same, like sailors on a stricken boat in rough seas.
"C'mon! Go! Go!"
"The route to the forest would have been rendered unstable because of the vent's rapid expansion!"
The guy obviously never got a copy of his rulebook. "Don't quote me the odds now, Hedin!" Jack snapped with a clenched jaw. "I'm not busting you guys out only to get my ass blown up!"
Sorel was shouting above the din. "We barely have enough time to reach the portal, Jack! Hedin can't walk!"
In response, Teal'c lifted the injured man over his shoulders easily. "I believe I can run with him."
Jack's rejoinder was curt and impatient. "Great. Let's go!"
Retracing their routes underground part of the way wasn't as easy as it had been earlier when the overloaded vent deep under the planet was starting to compromise soil stability.
The temperatures were rising uncomfortably.
"Left fork, Colonel," Sorel yelled as parts of the tunnels started to crumble, venting steam. "It will lead you out into the forest to the back of the portal."
"Eleven minutes, Jack."
Jack scowled ferociously and concentrated instead on the narrowing pathway that had been carved out beneath the frozen forest ground. He was breathing harshly in the intensifying heat, the thudding of his accelerating heartbeat loud in his own ears.
"Over here!"
The small door creaked open with their combined effort, the sudden harsh blast of cold wind in their faces both a relief and an unpleasant reminder of the conditions in which they needed to operate for the next few minutes. Between the howling winds and the towering trees that stretched for miles, it was damn near impossible to make any sort of educated guess where they were supposed to be headed.
But Sorel was already holding up a positioning device, its faint beeps signalling the exact direction they were to take.
The trudge through the foot-high snow deposits was ponderous and excruciating, the increasingly frequent rumbles from deep within fissuring the frozen ground on which they stood.
"Six minutes!" Kynal's earlier composure seemed to have been gone from her voice. Even through the noise, the bleakness of her own situation was plainly audible. "I've lost Ferdan."
"What?" The agonised whisper from Hedin carried through to his ears.
Not allowing her grief to take over, Jack spoke immediately into the communication link. "Kynal, you've got to listen. We're nearly there. You need to come to the gate now!"
"I can't, Jack, Ferdan is…" Her last word was lost on a ragged sob and absorbed by the loud rumble from the planet's core.
The sharp, stinging pain he felt for her was quickly replaced by cool determination. The time for tears would come later.
"Yes, you can," Jack spoke deliberately and calmly into his link, his voice hard and harsh above the elements. "Kynal, you are going to join us now and that's a damn order. I'm ordering you to do it." He pulled the commander-card on her when he'd no right to, all in the blind hope that she'd respond to the resistance's ranking protocol.
Whatever it took.
In that millisecond of silence that followed, he was truly afraid that she'd given it all up.
"Four minutes to rupture. It will take me about three minutes to get to you." Kynal's voice, shaky but resolute, came over the link.
Jack heaved a silent sigh of relief, but didn't break his stride as he ran and stumbled along with his team towards the gate. "Good. See you there."
"I see it, Sir!" Turner yelled.
His heart leapt at the sight. In the distance, slightly dusted with a layer of ice and snow, a grey ring stood stubbornly upright in the gale force winds, an unmistakable symbol of their freedom.
Closing the last few metres to the platform, Jack swiped impatiently at his watch.
One minute.
Kynal was nowhere in sight.
Fuck.
Fifty seconds.
They were flat out of time.
"Turner, dial P5K-112," he barked over the sonic boom of the collapsing town square. "We're gonna make a few hops before dialling the Alpha Site and then back to Earth!"
"Yes, Sir!"
Glancing up to the spinning Stargate, he saw chevron six locking, then cast anxious eyes over the disintegrating landscape.
Twenty seconds.
Come on, Kynal! Where the fuck are you?
Just as he was about to turn away, a running figure came into sight, stumbling as the ground rattled and shook. She righted herself as quickly as she could, dodging the cracks that streaked across the icy ground.
Chevron seven lit and engaged.
The wormhole flared to life with a roar, its familiar blue puddle beckoning invitingly.
"Kynal!" Jack yelled in relief as he motioned the others through. He risked a few steps back to grab her arm, pushing her into the blue puddle, readying to step through himself when a prolonged tectonic shift threw him to the ground.
The ground trembled for what seemed like the last time, the stress of the vent diagonally tearing the Aschen town apart from east to west. A roiling sea of lava spilled over parts of the fissure, colouring the ground orange and black, releasing a loud hiss of steam as superheated rock met ice.
Sprawled ungainly at an uncomfortable angle and choking in the haze, Jack scrambled to haul himself upright and up onto the platform, keeping his watering eyes only on the gleaming, blue ripples of the wormhole.
Just a bit more…
O'Neill, focus!
His tiring legs finally closed the distance and he flung himself in after her, barely missing the fracture in the ground that, in the next second, widened to swallow everything in its gaping, fiery jaws.