Carter stifled a cry of pain only to grunt the next instant when an elbow connected with her stomach.
With injured hands and no light, Sam was fighting clumsily, but fortunately her opponents did not seem to have near the level of training or experience that she did. The elbow to her stomach also told her where her nearest opponent was, and she struck out in that direction even as she doubled over. Her fist connected with something soft and she grabbed onto it, ignoring her burning palm. She forced her torso to straighten and shoved her hand upward. There was a satisfying crunch and a strangled cry—she must have broken the equivalent of his nose.
Sam grinned as she turned to fight another set of approaching footsteps. The darkness made her clumsy, but de-capacitated the alien with little trouble. Then she was grabbed from behind. Sam stomped down hard on a foot and when she felt its owner lean forward in response, she threw her head back, connecting with his face. They both stumbled backward and fell in a heap together, but Sam elbowed the face beneath her for good measure. She staggered to her feet ungracefully, fists out, listening for the next approach.
Silence.
The adrenaline left her body as soon as she knew the threat was over. Pushing past her fatigue, she located each of her three new captives, patted them down for weapons and restraints, and tied and gagged them all. When she was done, she leaned against the wall, exhausted.
Teal'c growled quietly at the console in front of him. He was having great difficulty in determining the proper means of engaging what he believed to be a transporter. In fact, he was beginning to doubt that it was a transporter at all. When O'Neill had inquired about his progress mere moments ago, he had admittedly answered more harshly than required, that the understanding of alien technology not of Goa'uld origin was Major Carter's specialty, not his.
O'Neill had said nothing, merely staring at him for a moment before turning back to the little girl he had brought with them. She had not spoken since they found her, only whimpered occasionally. Her quietness reminded Teal'c of Cassandra Fraiser, and it troubled him that she had been imprisoned in this place.
When the console continued to beep its refusal to work for him, Teal'c exited the program he was trying to navigate and started randomly opening files. He moved past the information given in the strange language, but paused when he came to what appeared to be a map of the facility they were in. Almost smiling, he called out to Daniel Jackson.
Daniel ignored Jack's skeptical demeanor and grinned like an idiot. Once he'd been able to make the captive alien soldier understand they wanted to know about the Stargate, and Teal'c had found the facility map, everything had started looking up. The soldier had scrolled through the map pages and pointed emphatically at what appeared to be the building's one and only exit to the planet's surface. Since they had gated into a forest before being transported to this miserable place, the Stargate was presumably somewhere beyond that exit.
Jack, of course, doubted the veracity of the intel, but Daniel was confident. The alien had been a clumsy soldier, a frightened prisoner, and an excited informant. Surely such a man would not risk his life giving them false information. And given that he was being escorted down the corridor by a fed-up Jaffa, his life was indeed in danger.
Daniel had gotten used to the dark, blurry world he now inhabited and walked with surprising ease. Jack had taken the lead; Teal'c the rear. After a few moments of talking quietly to the little girl Jack had found, she and Daniel had settled into the middle of the short column. Holding tightly to his hand, the girl tensed at any unexpected sound and flinched away from any perceived movement.
Daniel was staying alert himself, watching and listening for any signs of Sam. They checked every cell they passed but so far they had not found her. Daniel pushed down his anxiety about his teammate and concentrated on remaining perfectly calm for the sake of the little girl attached to his hand.
Jack was beginning to get really worried. They hadn't found Carter yet and the closer they got to the "exit" the less likely that blessed event would occur.
Other than not finding Carter, things had gone remarkably well since they'd left the control room, despite his doubts about their information, but he had really been hoping to run into his second in command before reaching the Stargate. Now he wondered if their escape had made things worse for her.
He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. If they didn't find Carter before they got to the Stargate, they'd call home for reinforcements. And flashlights. Or maybe night vision goggles. Those were always cool.
As they rounded yet another corner, Jack found himself face to face with yet another guard. Taken by surprise, the man hadn't even reached for his weapon when Jack shot him. The alien crumpled to the ground, revealing the wall of a dead end. With steel ladder rungs in it.
Jack looked upward and squinted, but he couldn't see anything. He glanced back at the others. The alien motioned for him to climb. Jack sighed and stuck his alien weapon in his belt. Without a word, he pulled himself up into the darkness.