Double-Dealing
A/N: Whoa, this is longer than I thought it would be. Alrighty, I know nothing about the nature of bombs so… I decided to pay homage to MacGyver instead and borrow some tidbits from that show! Eh… it wasn't what I hoped for, but I guess it'll have to do…
Disclaimer: SG-1 is not mine… blah blah blah… you know the rest!
Chapter Eight: And A Bomb Is Dropped
Altair began to feel uneasy with the crowd getting restless. He had stayed too long. There was going to be a riot soon. He was relieved that the Courtship Ceremony had been a failure, but he still wasn't safe until he got out of the castle walls.
He skillfully weaved in and out of the crowd, avoiding the random missiles of food and finding small spaces in between people to slip through. He was doing good on pace, maybe a little too fast—but he was sure he was getting close to getting out.
He finally saw the gate. The fastest way he saw to escape was to dash along the side of the red carpet. He took a deep breath and sprinted.
"Almost free," he said to himself.
The gates were right in front of him. He was running at full speed—
THUNK
He had hit something, presumably a wall. When his senses returned, he looked up to see a black masked face looking down at him. The man was garbed in the clothes of a guard.
"Relinquish your hood, sir," the man said.
He had a deep, intimidating voice.
Altair had no choice but to do as the man said. He took off his hood to reveal the distinctive scar on his right cheek.
"It is you, Altair of the Underground Merchants."
Altair glared at the guard.
"I have done nothing wrong. Let me be!"
He reasoned that the guard could take him physically, but there could be a chance that he could gain the upperhand. Unfortunately for Altair, he didn't know who he was up against.
"You will come with me," Teal'c ordered.
"I have done nothing wrong," Altair repeated.
"I will not ask you again," Teal'c said, "I will escort you out of the castle."
Before Altair could move to strike, Teal'c had swiftly pinned his arms behind his back. He struggled to move, but Teal'c's grasp was too strong.
"Let us go then," Altair angrily said.
Teal'c led him out the gate.
XXXX
Sam stood up suddenly.
"What's up Carter?"
"Sir, you see this platform," she said as she pointed to a small silver disk connected to two tubes, "is designed to topple over once the timer runs out. It's probably made of some type of substance that when another chemical, probably released from these tubes, fuses with it, a chemical reaction will occur. Well… and you know the rest."
"Yeah, kabloohie," Jack said.
"How can we stop it?" Daniel asked.
"If we can just find something to absorb the chemicals before they touch each other, I can do something about it," Sam replied.
All three began looking around for something, anything to use.
"How about this cloth?" Daniel suggested.
Sam felt it, "No, the chemical will absorb right through it."
"How about this beard?" Jack irritatingly said.
"We might be able to use this wood," Sam thought aloud.
"That's a spoon, Sam."
"Exactly, it could cup up the chemical as it falls from the tube!"
Jack raised his eyebrows, "Whoa there Carter, how are we gonna jam it in there?"
"Well, I'll just have to drill an opening right where the platform is," she said as she whipped out her small knife.
"Where'd you get that?"
"They gave one to each of us during breakfast," Daniel said. "Didn't you get one?"
"No… but I did manage to get this," Jack said as he whipped out what looked like a chocolate candy bar wrapped in clear cellophane.
Daniel rolled his eyes.
"I can't believe they'd arm the Prince and the Queen and leave the King defenseless…" Jack grumbled.
Meanwhile, Sam had managed to cut a hole big enough for the wooden spoon to fit through. She carefully positioned the spoon above the silver platform and made ready for the chemicals to flow out from the tubes.
"Time?" Jack asked.
"15 seconds… it's coming!" Carter shouted.
The green liquid chemical began to fill the two tubes as the silver platform had dropped to the bottom, just as Sam had predicted.
"How's the spoon working?" Jack asked as he began to unwrap the candy bar.
"It's doing fine sir—Oh no!"
Daniel and Jack jumped to her side and looked at what was going on.
"The spoon is filling up too fast," Sam said, "I didn't think it would need a lot of chemicals for the reaction to work. We need another spoon."
Daniel looked behind him to where they found their wooden spoon. There didn't seem to be another one.
"No luck," Daniel said.
"Looks like we'll have to jump from the balcony," Jack said as he was about to bite into the chocolate bar.
Suddenly, Sam snatched the bar from him.
"Carter! Don't go doing irrational things! We're not going to die," Jack barked.
Sam quickly took the spoon out and jammed the candy bar into the hole.
"Hold this," Sam ordered.
Daniel took the spoon right away.
The remaining green liquid spilled onto the chocolate. It wasn't absorbing the chemical. Amazingly, the chocolate was melting while the liquid was hardening on to it.
"What the hell is that?" Jack said incredulously.
"It seems that whatever this chocolate candy bar was made of has neutralized the explosive effects of the chemical," Sam responded, "At least, I think it's made of chocolate."
"Looks like you weren't defenseless after all Jack," Daniel said amusingly.
Jack shot him a glaring look. Before he could add a witty comment to the look, the doors burst open with a huffing and puffing Balibob tumbling in.
"I—have—come—to—save—you!" he said in between breaths.
"Yeah, great timing," Jack said, diverting his wittiness from Daniel to Balibob.
"We have got everything in control now," Sam said regally as she stood up from the bomb.
"Oh, thankfully you did! Now we can get back to the ceremony. It's a real emergency!" Balibob exclaimed.
"Like this wasn't!" Jack said angrily.
"C'mon, Jack. Once we get this over with, we'll be able to go back home," Daniel said to calm him down.
"Fine," Jack said as he flipped his beard back, "Let's go kids."
He stomped through the doors and headed downstairs to the main stage while the other three gracefully exited the balcony and followed him.
XXXX
Balibob rushed passed Jack and got to the main stage where King Zaffaloft, Queen Stoweek, and Princess Lyra waited patiently.
The crowd hushed when they saw Balibob come down.
"Please forgive us," Balibob said, "They have resolved their problem and will meet you now."
"No apology needed," King Zaffaloft replied.
Balibob turned to the crowd, "Presenting, your beloved king, King Ful'ardi with his enchanting queen, Queen Kukinis!"
Jack and Sam practically stumbled onto the stage.
They quickly bowed to the crowd and to the other royal couple.
"Greet them," Balibob hissed.
As Jack came up from his bow, he saw the other king and he had to blink a couple of times before saying anything. Sam had to do the same thing.
"G-Greetings King Zattalot!" Jack said in an overly fake voice.
"It's Zaffaloft, sir," Sam corrected.
"But he looks so much like Teal'c," Jack whispered back, "And she looks like—"
"Shau'nac," Sam finished.
King Zaffaloft obviously did not hear them and bowed back to the couple.
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you. Your kingdom has been hospitable to us," he said.
"I am pleased as well," Queen Stoweek said.
"I'm glad we've finally met," Sam said.
Balibob nudged her.
"I'm glad we've finally met," Sam said again.
The couple smiled at her.
"Now, we will present the young couple to each other!" Balibob proclaimed.
Daniel slowly crept onto the stage. When he was a kid, there was a very good reason why he stayed backstage when his elementary school put up a production—he had stage fright and it usual caused him to hiccup or worse.
"H-Hi there," Daniel said as he finally got to Jack and Sam.
"Are you okay Daniel?" Sam asked.
"This is Prince Narcassous," Balibob introduced him.
"I don't feel too well," Daniel uttered.
"Presenting… Princess Lyra!" Balibob said.
King Zaffaloft and Queen Stoweek stepped to the side and Princess Lyra stepped forward. All nausea left Daniel when he saw her. In fact, he felt like he could walk on clouds at the moment.
"Doesn't she look like…" Jack whispered to Sam.
"Sha're!" Daniel exclaimed.
A/N: Okay, so I didn't like the whole bomb part, but you get the point right? Okie dokie, I'll be off editing the next chapters!