Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or themes in this story that are affiliated with the television series Stargate Sg-1 or Stargate Atlantis or the movie Stargate. Or any other show…Witness if you will…squat (in reference to owning anything)
"It took you long enough." Daniel said, taking some of Jack's load. He had returned to the Tok'ra tunnels for extra weapons in case things got 'hairy'. Daniel and River had waited some time for him in a room across from the sarcophagus chamber, part of their plan to rescue Martouf.
"Long story." Jack replied for him. "Where's Rashol?" Daniel only shrugged, looking at his watch.
"He will come." River assured him. "We will know when to act." Suddenly, the hall came alive with staff-weapon fire and the clatter of armored bodies hitting the floor.
"Time to go. You wait here!" Jack said, edging towards the door. Daniel opened it enough for them to roll underneath and the two slid toward the sarcophagus chamber. Further down the hall, Rashol was shouting commands in Goa'uld while his subordinate jaffa cleaned up the mess made by the 'misfiring' staff weapon. The door to the sarcophagus chamber opened and several jaffa exited to see what was going on. Only one remained, and he was easily dispatched by Zat-fire.
"Now what?" Jack asked. Daniel looked to either side of him, wondering who Jack was talking to.
"You're asking me?"
"You've been through these things more times than anybody. How long is it gonna take?"
"Well I have no idea. Perception of time is one of the first things to go when your…" He couldn't find the word.
"Dead?" Jack filled in. "Oh…" The sarcophagus ceased glowing and began to open. Inside, Martouf' eyes glowed as he awoke from death once again. He blinked several times and pulled himself upward, feeling slightly dizzy.
"Colonel O'Neill, Dr. Jackson, what has transpired?" Martouf asked.
"We're getting out of here, the girl's waiting across the hall." Jack said, tossing him a Zat.
"I have been dead for several hours now, Colonel. In that light, perhaps you could be more specific."
"Oh, uh, about that… we've decided to take River with us." Daniel explained. "She's hidden, but that's not gonna last much longer." Martouf nodded and they edged toward the door. The jaffa were gone from the end of the hall, but their footfalls could be heard not far off.
"Oh dear…" Daniel whispered inaudibly. River's arms were being held behind her back by Heru-ur's first prime. But worse yet, Heru-ur was standing in the room with them, surrounded by his personal guard.
"Jaffa kree!" A jaffa stepped forward and grabbed Martouf, throwing him to his knees before Heru-ur. River was forced to join him. Luckily, Jack and Daniel were still cloaked. They moved to the edges of the room, avoiding the ends of hanging staff weapons.
"Interrogation seems to have become my most constant activity of late." Heru-ur was saying with a sour undertone. "Of course, you are on the opposite side of the interrogation this time."
"And I shall never be on your side of one again." River retorted quietly. If looks could kill, Heru-ur could kick the bucket any time now, Jack thought.
"Silence!" Heru-ur's first prime said, jamming his staff weapon into the back of her neck. Heru-ur smiled delightedly when she yelped in pain.
"What I cannot understand is why you would help the Tok'ra to escape. No doubt you care for him deeply, otherwise you would not have risked compromising our agreement. Explain yourself slave." He said, his voice changing from a dry amusement to outright, cold anger. When River did not move to answer, the first prime moved to hit her again, but Heru-ur stopped him.
"No, wait. She is not one to bend to torture, if it is performed on her…" River looked petrified at this statement. Moments later, they knew why. Heru-ur rose from his throne and descended on Martouf, his Goa'uld hand device activating on his outstretched arm.
"No!" River cried, rising to her feet; but a jaffa grabbed her and held her back. "Please. Stop this!"
"Tell me what I wish to know!" The gold stream connecting the hand device to Martouf glowed brighter by the second. Daniel looked to Jack for instruction.
"Alright that's enough!" Jack said, activating his staff weapon. He took out the jaffa holding Martouf and aimed for Heru-ur, but the blast just bounced off of his personal shield. Daniel, who had a Zat in each hand, shot the jaffa around the exits while Jack kept shooting at the others. But one of these aimed for the sound of the staff blasts and made a lucky shot into Jack's stomach, not only injuring him, but effectively destroying the invisibility device. Heru-ur recoiled slightly when he came into view on the floor.
"I'll be fine." He managed to get out when Daniel came to his side. He had shut his own device off; it was useless now that they had been exposed. "Lets get out of here, come on!"
River helped Martouf to his feet, and in turn he led her out of the door and through the maze-like hallways behind Daniel. He was holding Jack up as well as he could so he could hobble down the hallways. One turn after another led them straight into jaffa patrols, until one made them nearly collide with Rashol.
"Hurry!" Rashol said as he and Daniel took positions to carry Jack. "Another patrol is-" Staff-weapon fire finished his sentence.
"Down here!" Martouf said, pushing the others towards the entrance to the Tok'ra tunnels. River slid down first and the others followed
"What is this place?" She asked, not recognizing the feel of her surroundings.
"Uh, it's a tunnel system grown by the Tok'ra operative that found out about you. We should be safe here until Jacob finds us."
"Will he be alright?" River asked, referring to Jack. He was in a bad state. The staff blast was causing him severe pain. Martouf was trying to help by cleaning the wound.
"Alright, alright! Its clean now stop!" Jack yelled, grunting in pain and gritting his teeth.
"What now?" Daniel asked. Jack sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"We should wait here for now. Try to get Jacob on the phone. At least this way we don't run the risk of getting caught by a jaffa patrol." He said firmly. Daniel picked up the Tok'ra radio and tried to contact Jacob, calling out both his name and Selmak's, but there was no answer.
"Well, so much for that." Daniel sighed.
"Selmak will not have left unless there was no other alternative. He expected us to escape using a stolen cargo ship." Martouf pointed out.
"Yeah, well that's not an option now is it?" Jack replied scathingly.
"Well we have to do something, there's not enough isotope left to keep us all off the scanners for long…" Daniel paused for a moment. A jaffa's pounding boots could be heard very close. This pounding was followed by another sound, fainter but sharper; Daniel recognized the muffled human voice.
"…if you can hear me, please respond." Jacob said through the 'radio'. Daniel grabbed the Tok'ra communicator from the end of Jack's cot, knocking several MRE's to the ground.
"Jacob, it's Daniel! We're hiding out in the tunnels, but we're running out of the isotope that keeps us off the Goa'uld scanners."
"I'm in a cloaked cargo ship on the other side of the planet. Are you all okay?"
"Yeah…Jack's got a nasty hole in his side from a staff weapon, he's not doing so good…uh, anyway, we're just peachy here hiding for our lives, so what do you wanna to do?"
"First we have to get you out of those tunnels."
"What about the ring platform?"
"No, he can't get that close to the palace without the ship's energy signature setting off all the alarms." Martouf explained.
"You're gonna need to get out of there, far out of there."
"How far?" Jack said, dismayed.
"At least ten clicks, any less than that and the scanners will detect me the second I try to ring you up."
"Great…"
"And there's another problem, the tunnels only have the one exit. You'll have to get out from inside the palace. But even if you manage that, once you get outside there'll be jaffa patrols like white on a snowstorm between us." Daniel decided not to grace this with a reply.
"Daniel?"
"Yeah, ok, I guess we'll see you soon."
"Good luck. Out."