Chapter Fourteen
"Sir...this is ridiculous.."
"Carter?"
"Are the restraints really necessary?"
"Yes." Jack and Daniel answered in unison.
Sam made a noise of disgusted frustration and gave Gabriel a helpless look. He smiled brightly at her and just shrugged. They all stood in the Gateroom making the last preparations before stepping through to Anshar's ship. Currently they were waiting for the MALP to give them the 'All Clear'.
They had let Gabriel change out of the white scrubs and into a pair of green fatigues and a black shirt so that he wouldn't be such an obvious target. However he still wore the Naquadah chains.
"Sir, Gabriel saved my life." Sam tried again.
"He's also been slinking around the Galaxy in a corpse." Jack replied matter-of-factly. "Come to think of it, I don't even know why we're letting Zombie-boy come with us at all."
"He's the only one who can unlock the sarcophagus." Sam pointed out.
"Okay, and why are we letting you come?" Jack asked Sam.
"She's the only one who can get the ship running again." Gabriel answered.
"Right." Jack rolled his eyes and then turned them on Daniel. "How about you...what's your excuse for joining on this insane suicide mission?"
Daniel did not grace Jack with a verbal answer, he just narrowed his eyes in irritation.
"Fair enough." Jack replied to Daniel's glare. "Of course Teal'c doesn't even know we're going... Why am I coming?"
"You insisted." Daniel grumbled.
"That sounds like me. I just wanted to make sure I had everybody's motivation straight." Jack turned to Gabriel. "What exactly are we facing here?"
"Well, Sam killed one of the Jaffa, I got about a dozen trying to get her out...so I'd say that leaves around two hundred extremely annoyed Jaffa."
"Only two hundred?"
"Why so few?" Daniel asked.
"Most of Anshar's male warriors and all of his female Jaffa were slaughtered as part of his exile. So he has no good way of replacing them."
"Does that mean the Jaffa he has are thousands of years old?" Sam asked in shock.
"Yes."
"How is that possible?" Jack asked. "I mean I know Jaffa have long life spans, but not that long."
"Did I ever mention that Anshar is a brilliant chemist?"
"No." Daniel growled.
"He has developed many drugs, one of which halts the maturation process of symbiots."
"Giving his Jaffa a kind of immortality." Sam guessed.
"That's right."
"So...what you're saying it that we are dealing with two hundred Jaffa with several thousand years worth of experience." Jack pointed out.
"Basically."
"Sounds like fun." Jack sighed.
The intercom above crackled and Siler informed the team that the Gateroom on the far end seemed to be clear. Jack took one last look around, double checked his weapon and started up the ramp.
Daniel started to follow him, but suddenly stopped and turned to face Gabriel. Sam watched as Daniel's spiteful expression degraded into one of sorrowful guilt. He took a breath to say something.
"Let's go, people." Jack called.
Daniel jerked at the sound of Jack's voice as though he'd been woken from a dream. He still had his mouth open to say something, but now he seemed to think better of it. Turning away he followed Jack up the ramp and disappeared with him through the Event Horizon.
Gabriel and Sam walked up the ramp together however when they reached the Horizon Sam put her hand on Gabriel's shoulder to stop him from stepping through. He turned his emerald eyes on her, not even trying to hide the adoration he held for her. It made her uncomfortable to have him looking at her like a love sick puppy, but she pushed that feeling aside.
"Gabriel, I'm sorry."
"There is nothing to be sorry for, Samantha." Gabriel replied with a mirthless smile.
"We shouldn't be treating you like this."
"Daniel and Jack are only doing what they feel is best."
"How can you be so understanding?"
"I have a lot of experience seeing things through other people's eyes and if I was them I wouldn't trust me either."
"You've done nothing wrong."
"It's not what I've done...it's what I'm capable of that scares them. Not to mention that they both feel it is only a matter of time before I lose my self restraint and take you by force."
"If you were going to do that you would have done so a long time ago."
"That doesn't make them any less protective of you...I am a Goa'uld after all."
Sam took a breath to argue Gabriel's last point, but he did not give her the chance. Stepping through the Event Horizon he vanished with the others. Sam hesitated to follow for a moment. She hadn't really had time to process her first nightmarish encounter with Anshar and she wasn't sure she could handle another one if they failed and were captured again.
"We won't fail." Sam said firmly to herself and stepped through the Gate.
On the other side Jack and Daniel were making sure the immediate area was secure. Gabriel was looking around with his brow knitted in thought. Jack turned around and smiled at Sam. As much as Jack had grumbled about this mission it was painfully obvious that he was thrilled to be out in the field again.
"What took you so long?" He teased.
"I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque." Sam chuckled.
Jack chuckled and Daniel rolled his eyes. Sam was surprised to see that out of the three men it was Gabriel that suddenly seemed most on edge. He still had his face locked in a look of concern. When he started sniffing at the air Sam began to share that concern. Something wasn't right.
"Gabriel?" Sam asked.
"Something's wrong." Gabriel said echoing her thoughts. "They got the power Crystal working again."
"Is that so surprising?" Jack asked. "I mean after all this is their ship."
"Sir, if the power is working then their sensors are working. Which means they would have been alerted when the Gate was activated and we sent the MALP through."
"That was nearly ten minutes ago." Gabriel added. "And yet..."
"There's no welcoming comity." Daniel finished.
"Doesn't anyone else smell that?" Jack suddenly asked.
"I do." Gabriel answered.
"What is it?" Daniel asked, his sense of smell having been dulled over the years by allergies.
"Ozone." Sam replied.
"Which means there's been a Staff weapon fight here recently." Jack concluded.
"It can't be left over from when Sam and I escaped, that was days ago."
"Do you think another Goa'uld noticed that this ship was dead in the water and boarded it?" Sam suggested.
"That seems unlikely." Gabriel replied. "We are in the middle of nowhere right now. In fact, why haven't they moved if they have power?"
"Well, Kids. We can sit around and guess all day long. But the only way to actually find out is to go out there. So let's go and stick to the plan until something else comes up."
Daniel nodded and peeked out into the corridor to make sure it was still clear. Jack checked his weapon and went to leave. Sam looked to Gabriel and could see that he was nervous.
"Sir?" Sam called.
"Carter?" Jack asked as he turned back around.
"We have to take Gabriel's restraints off." Sam practically demanded.
"We do?"
"With the power on we've lost our advantage, it is very likely that they've set up an ambush. If we get caught in a fight Gabriel is going to be defenseless. Not to mention it will be harder to move about quietly."
Jack eyed Gabriel suspiciously for a moment. Gabriel shifted his weight causing the chains to rattle noisily. Jack sighed and looked to Daniel.
"Daniel?"
"Sam's right." Daniel admitted.
"I know," Jack grumbled "I hate it when that happens."
"You must have a lot of hate in your life." Gabriel pointed out with an innocent smile.
"Don't get me started." Jack sighed.
"I'm sure Daniel's just as bad." Gabriel added.
"If not worse." Jack chuckled.
Sam breathed a sigh of relief as everyone, Daniel included, seemed to relax a little. Jack took a tiny key out of his breast pocket and used it to free Gabriel. Rubbing at his wrists Gabriel turned to Sam.
"Thank you."
"Consider yourself on probation," Jack said seriously "make one false step and I will not hesitate to shoot you."
"I will tread very carefully."
"Okay, guys," Sam said "are we ready?"
"It's hard to be ready for the unknown, Sam." Daniel smiled.
"Yeah, it's kinda like preparing for death." Jack added. "I mean how does one 'prepare' for such a thing?"
"Daniel's probably the best person to answer that." Sam noted.
"I find it's best to just wing it."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Jack nodded and then stepped into the corridor. "Come on, Team...time to 'wing it'."