Chapter 9
"Watch out!" Mulder yelled. He was the last one in their line as they proceeded with caution down the corridors. When he cried out he was warning Scully, who was directly in front of him, and Teal'c, who was in front of her, of the rock that had dislodged from the ceiling and was crashing down towards them. Rushing up, he grabbed Scully by the waist and flung her into a nearby room as Teal'c jumped in just ahead of them. They all just barely missed being hit by the plummeting debris.
"Thanks," Scully said as she looked past Mulder's shoulder at the rocks that nearly had hit her.
"No problem," he replied as he got up, brushing a bit of the dust that had fallen from his shirt. He looked up and saw, among a lot of fallen rock and debris, various crates and chests scattered about as well as some strange looking equipment that the use of was a mystery to him. "What is this room?" Mulder asked.
"I believe this is another Tok'ra lab," Teal'c said as he scanned the room.
A noise heard just then with a slight movement and a grunt of pain made them all jump. They all looked to the area where the noise had come from and saw a woman pinned beneath a huge rock. Teal'c was closest and as Mulder and Scully were making their way over to her, Teal'c had lifted and removed the very heavy rock from the woman's chest.
"Teal'c?" She said weakly. It was a voice of a symbiote so this must be a Tok'ra woman.
"Yes, it is I, Anise. Are your injuries great?" Teal'c asked.
"Yes, I'm afraid that I will not be able to keep Freya alive much longer. I am fine, but I am losing my host," she said with great pain and a hint of guilt and sorrow.
"What would you like us to do?" Mulder asked.
"There is nothing that can be done. You must leave me and take as many Kull disrupters as you can to the gate room. That is where the rest of the Tok'ra are fighting off the Kull warriors coming through."
"There are Kull warriors coming through the gate?" Teal'c asked with more than a little alarm.
"Yes, I was on my way to meet Jacob when he stopped me and told me to get the weapons. The other's had one or two, but we don't carry them around with us so they probably are not putting up much of a fight right now."
"Wait, Kull warriors?" Scully asked.
"They are a genetically engineered warrior by Anubis, another Goa'uld, and nothing but a Kull disrupter is capable of bringing them down thanks to the advanced shielding that they wear," Teal'c quickly explained. "We must get these weapons to the Tok'ra as quickly as possible," he said as he picked up a nearby crate that contained several of the weapons with in it.
"Wait," Mulder said. "What about her?" he asked, indicating Anise.
"There is noting that you can do for me. I cannot save my host and I will die along with her," she said weakly.
"Is there nothing that we can do to prevent this? If there is no way to save your host, couldn't you take a new one?" Mulder asked.
"Yes, I could. But there is no one for me to go to. I cannot survive more than a few minutes outside of a host."
"Couldn't you go to one of us?" Mulder persisted.
"Mulder!" Scully exclaimed.
"No, I'm serious Scully. Think about it. By taking a Tok'ra symbiote we could instantly learn all the things about the universe that we have been searching for."
"But you would be sharing your body with another being, a being that you know little to nothing about. That is a huge risk," Scully said to him.
"If you are truly willing to do this, I assure you that if it is something that you are not willing to live with, I would leave you for another host. Even if another host could not be found, I would rather die than be blended with an unwilling host," Anise told Mulder.
"If this is what you are going to do, you must act now," Teal'c said.
Mulder looked to Scully, trying to make her understand that this was really a good idea. "I really think I should do this Scully."
"Mulder… I…" but she knew there was no point. He had made up his mind and there was no changing it. "Alright. If you think that you must."
He nodded to her and turned back to Anise to ask, "What do I do?"
"Kiss me," she said.
"Excuse me!" said Scully.
"Well, not really kiss. I just need your mouth close enough to my host's so that I may transfer from her to you."
"Alright," said Mulder who now sounded a little less sure then he did a moment ago. He knelt down beside her and leaned over as if to kiss her. The Symbiote slipped out of Freya's mouth and right into Mulder's. He jumped at the sudden sensation of the symbiote entering his mouth and then the back of his throat.
"Mulder!" Scully cried as she ran to him, grabbing him by the shoulders and looking directly into his eyes. There was a brief flash of light in his eyes and then he went limp for a moment.
"Mulder, Mulder are you alright?" Scully asked frantically.
He straightened and looked up at her again. "Yeah, Scully," he said. "I'm great. She's here in my head but she says that she is still too weak from keeping Freya alive to be able to speak for a while. I'll have to speak for both of us she says."
"Anise?" a very weak voice came from Freya.
Mulder went back to her side, "She's here. She is very sad to have to leave you," he told her.
Freya smiled weakly and said, "I know. Thank you Mr. Mulder, for taking care of her. She was a great companion and I hope she will be for you as well," and then she laid her head back and exhaled for a final time. A tear was rolling down Mulder's face as his symbiote watched her former host die through his eyes.
Gently reaching down, Mulder pushed Freya's eyes closed and whispered, "Goodbye old friend."
"Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, we must hurry," Teal'c said from behind them.
"Yes, we must," Mulder said standing up quickly and helping Scully to her feet. "The Tok'ra are going to be in great need for these weapons if there are any left by now." He bent down and took the only four weapons that were in a nearby crate out and handed two to Scully. "Here. These are all that there is besides the box that you have Teal'c. Now, let's hurry."
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The air was getting pretty thin in the tomb-like space that Jack and Sam were trapped in. "Hey…" Jack nearly whispered into his radio. "Hey, you guys mind picking up the pace. We're running out of air in here."
"Sorry Jack, we're going as fast as we can," Daniel radioed back.
"Alright, just… hurry it up." Setting his radio down again, Jack decided that any more talking was only going to limit the amount of air they had left.
They laid there for some time, hoping to here distant Zat fire approaching but no sound reached them. Finally, after some time of silence had passed, Sam whispered, "General?"
"I thought we were conserving air?"
"Sir, we're not going to make it," she said.
"Now Carter, don't go there. We're gonna get out of here if you stop wasting our air."
"Sir?" There was no reply. "Jack," she whispered.
"Carter, we're going to be fine…"
"No, we're not. Even if they make it to us in time, where are we going to go? The Stargate has Jaffa pouring out of it, the surface is crawling with more Jaffa and gliders, and the Tok'ra have no transport ships right now."
"We'll think of something. We always do."
"Not this time sir. Now please, just let me say what I want to tell you before we run out of air."
"Carter I don't want to h…"
"Jack, shut up. I have to tell you… I, love you, sir," she stammered.
Uncomfortable silence swallowed their cavern once again. All that could be heard was their combined labored breathing for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Jack whispered, "I know. And you know that I love you too. Now, be quite so that we might make it out of here."
"Yes sir…"
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"Jack?" Daniel radioed. There was no answer. "Jack, I think we're almost there. If you can still here me, hang in there. We'll have you out soon."
"I hope they're alright," Sara said as she took aim at yet another rock. Her arms were beginning to ach from all of the firing that she had been going through over what felt like hours, though really it was probably closer to three quarters of an hour. She was right, adding her, Daniel, and Greg to the firing squad had made it go much faster than even she could have predicted.
They all pressed on as fast as they could go. Firing fast and quickly, hoping they didn't cause another cave in with their efforts, which would effectively sign the two Air Force officer's death warrants. Suddenly, Daniel stopped and raised his hand, signaling the other to do so as well. He stood for a second, listening.
"Daniel, we can't wait. They are dying in there," Sara said.
Daniel waved his hand to silence her. Then, he heard what had made him stop. It was sounds of a weapon being fired. It was an energy weapon and it had a very rapid fire sequence. The only weapon that he knew that sounded like that was a weapon from the Kull warriors.
"Oh, not good," he whispered. He ran back to the tunnel that they had started their excavation from and looked around the side.
He watched for a second as Grissom came up behind him asking, "What is it?"
"Shh," he said, bringing his finger to his lips. He watched for a moment longer before he saw blasts from that same weapon hitting the wall at the end of the tunnel. A second later, Jacob came half running, half stumbling around the corner towards where they were.
It didn't take long for Daniel to see what it was he was running from. Just a few steps behind him, a Kull warrior also rounded the corner, coming after Jacob. "Oh, definitely not good," Daniel said as he turned back to Grissom and included Sara and Greg in his address. "Alright, you three. Find some cover. Try to hide yourselves as best as possible. We're about to get company from someone that you are not going to want to meet."
"What about them?" Greg asked, pointing at the wall they had been working at a moment ago.
"Oh believe me, right now they are better off then we are. Unless you can get as well hidden as they are right now, we might not live to save them." This got all three CSI's scrambling for a hiding place among the rubble as Daniel turned back to see how close the warrior was getting.
By now another warrior rounded the corner and was making its way down the corridor. The first warrior raised his weapon to Jacob as he ran. Not thinking, Daniel rushed out from behind the new tunnel that they had made and ran the few paces to where Jacob was stumbling. The warrior, fired upon them right as Daniel had reached Jacob and pushed them both to the ground, avoiding the blasts.
"Come on!" Daniel yelled as he hauled Jacob up and dragged him into the tunnel he had just run from. Just as they were crossing the threshold, the warrior fired once again, catching Jacob in the shoulder.
"Erh," he said as he fell on top of Daniel, just inside of the room.
Getting up, Daniel grabbed Jacob and hauled him up once again, nearly dragging him to the back of the room to try and find cover. Looking around, he found that there was no where left to hide. Grissom and Sara were crouched within a small pocket in the stone that Daniel suspected they may have blasted just for hiding. He couldn't see Greg anywhere, but guess that he probably did the same.
"Danny, there's no where to go," Jacob said as Daniel allowed him to collapse against the back wall. The heavy footfalls of the warriors were approaching; there was no time to make a hiding place and even if there was, the warriors had seen them enter and wouldn't stop until they were found.
Daniel looked down to where Grissom and Sara were and said to them, "After they leave, get Jack and Sam out!" Then bending down, he pulled Jacob up once again and helped him to walk a few steps closer to the opening of the tunnel, trying to get the warriors to think that they were the only ones in the room and to leave after they had taken care of him and Jacob.
And so, when the warriors rounder the corner, all that they saw were Daniel with Jacob leaning heavily on his shoulder, standing halfway between them and the back of the tunnel. Slowly, both warriors brought their arms up, aiming their weapons upon the two men. Daniel closed his eyes and turned his head, preparing to receive the blast.
He heard a weapon fire, but felt nothing hit him. Opening his eyes he saw the second warrior staggering as a second weapon's fire could be heard and a blue blast dispersed over its armor. The first turned around and watched as his partner fell. Forgetting about the two men that he had been about to kill, it turned back with its weapon raised to find the new attacker.
It walked right out into the outside tunnel and looked in the direction the blast had come from. A moment later, another blast came and hit it squarely in the chest. The first shot was quickly followed by two more, bringing the warrior to the ground.
It only took a moment longer before Teal'c ran into the room, stepping over the two bodies, with the FBI agents closely following him.
"Teal'c!" Daniel exclaimed. "I have never been so happy to see you!"
"I am glad to see you as well Daniel Jackson," said Teal'c.
"Thanks a lot for that Teal'c," said Jacob. "I thought for sure we were finished."
"Yeah, me too," Daniel agreed as he carefully helped Jacob to a sitting position on the floor. "Grissom, Sara, Greg!" Daniel called as he made his way to the back of their tunnel. "Let's get going, we gotta get them out of there!"
The three CSI's crawled from their hiding places and quickly took up their positions to begin firing upon the rock once again. As they started, Teal'c asked Daniel, "Who are you attempting to get out?"
"Jack and Sam and trapped behind this wall of rock and they are either out of air or nearly out. They are too close to the rocks to use the crystals so we have been using the Zats to disintegrate the rock."
"I see," said Teal'c, pulling out his own Zat gun also taking up a place to fire upon the rocks.
"Agent Mulder," Jacob said, waving Mulder over to him. As Mulder came over, Jacob started to hand him his Zat and then pulled back as he got closer. Quickly, Jacob changed from about to hand the Zat to Mulder, to aiming it at him. "Who are you?" he asked menacingly.
A brief flash showed in Mulder's eyes as Anise spoke through him saying, "Selmak, it's Anise. Freya was dying and this man offered me his body."
Quickly, Jacob lowered his weapon as Selmak spoke through him saying, "Anise, I am sorry to hear that. Please, help them get Jacob's daughter out," as he once again offered Mulder the Zat.
Taking it, Mulder joined the others in bringing down the wall.