The Trap

Chapter Four – Night Sky

By Arrietty

During that long uncomfortable night, Jack heard weapon fire in the distance. At first he was sure that an SGC team had come to get him out, but as he listened to the sound, he recognised the whines of the staff weapons and zat guns. The report of what Jack guessed was the opposing side, sounded more like an old Gatling gun. It wasn't long before the fighting stopped and the hallways of the cellblock fell eerily silent with only the occasional shout from the Jaffa.

Jack hadn't a clue as to what time it was, but his body was telling him it was morning. Earlier, lying on the uncomfortable floor, after the fire fight, he came to the conclusion that he wasn't going to be rescued. He knew how things worked. Hammond wouldn't risk a team now. Too much time had passed. He heard the clank of the armour, moments before his cell opened. Six armed Jaffa marched into his cell looking rather annoyed.

"Tau'ri, come!" the leader of the group commanded.

Pain hindering his movements, Jack slowly started to stand, but it was not fast enough for the Jaffa as two of them reached forward and jerked him upright, dragging him from the cell.

"Hey! I can walk, you know," Jack protested, trying to jerk his arms from their grasp.

The Jaffa stopped dragging him, but still held onto his arms firmly as they marched him along the dim tunnels.

Jack could not resist the smirk that crept across his face when he saw the angry Hegron pacing up and down on the raised dais. Whirling around, he stared hard at Jack.

"You!" He sneered. "Tell me. Who were those intruders?"

"Sorry, can't help you there," Jack said, not looking one bit sorry at all. In fact he was positively beaming. "Had a little trouble last night did you? Where's that other snakehead that was here yesterday? You know Melon head."

"Jaffa!" The fury in Hegron's voice was very apparent in the order.

When the torture had stopped, Jack lay gasping for breath on the floor. He rubbed his burning chest, willing it to fill with air.

Hegron walked over to him and bent his head down close to Jack's.

"He was a traitor, but he is dead now and I killed him with this."

He finished the sentence with triumph and brought a long rifle around from behind his back and shoved it into Jack's face. The muzzle was cold against the skin of his cheek. He knew that if Hegron pulled the trigger there wouldn't be anything left to revive. The feeling of hope that had come with seeing Jacob the previous day had now turned into cold rage at the loss of a good friend.

Jack closed his eyes and waited for the shot, but nothing happened. He felt the muzzle move away from his face. Opening one eye, then the other, he could see Hegron talking to two men. 'They must be Goa'uld's', Jack thought, not seeing an emblem on their foreheads. Whatever they had said to Hegron hadn't made him any happier.

"Having a bad day, Hedgehog?"

Hegron spun around and loomed over Jack.

"My name is Hegron not Hedgehog and don't push me too far, because if I kill you, there will be no way that I can bring you back. The intruders have destroyed the sarcophagus.

"Ooops!" Jack's smile did not reach his eyes.

But it was enough to send Hegron off in a temper tantrum.

"Take him away. I will deal with him later," he ordered his guards, his voice screeching in anger.

As Jack left the Great Hall, he lost heart. The only thing keeping him going was a chance to antagonise the snakehead. Of which he was quite proud and he wished that someone had been there to witness it. Letting his mind wander, he thought of Sam. At least Jacob never knew that his daughter was dead. 'Or did he?'

Jack now knew that there was a good chance that Hegron would keep torturing, but not kill him. The rest of his life was not going to be much fun. The rifle had puzzled him. He hadn't seen anything like it on Earth, or anywhere else for that matter. With stark awareness, he realised that no one knew he was here.

Every time Jack was taken to and from the Great Hall, he had to cross the bridge that expanded across the top of the waterfall. The desperate man had reached the bridge and could see the white foamy depths as the water crashed into the river below. Without even thinking twice, Jack pushed his way through the surprised guards and pitched himself over the bridge. The water was icy and was a shock to his body. Nearly taking an involuntary breath against the cold, he managed to stop himself in time as he plunged down deep into the pool below the pounding falls. Swimming under water, he moved away from where the light was shining through the water from the surface.

Without warning, something grabbed at Jack's legs and yanked him down deeper into a swirling underwater channel. It was strong and no matter how hard he kicked, he could not break away as he was sucked down through a narrow opening on the riverbed.

What Jack wasn't aware of was that the cavern had sluice gates fitted into the bottom of the pool to drain out any excess water. To stop him from escaping to the outside world, one of the Jaffa that was guarding him had run quickly as soon as Jack hit the water, to move the lever that opened the sluice gates.

Jack hardly felt the pain as his bare arms scraped along the rock walls of the opening. It was dark and he was running out of air. Just when he thought he couldn't hold on any longer, he popped up into a swirling fast moving stream. Quickly, he gulped in some air, before he was pulled down into the cold depths of the torrent. The irregular sides of the stream buffeted him, leaving large bruises on his tired body. Every time he came up for air, he caught glimpses of a large well lit cavern.

Just in time, he drew in a breath before he found himself swept into an underwater cave. He couldn't see anything each time he managed to gulp some air as it was pitch black. Jack recalled doing black water rafting before. Once for fun and once when he was on a special ops assignment, but this was no fun, totally different. Crashing against unseen boulders and jagged bits of rock that jutted out from the side, with no protective gear or raft, pummelled his body mercilessly. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, he felt his body crash into a large rock that jutted up out of the middle of the stream.

"Sam. I'm home!" he called out as he walked through the door of his house. Stepping into the dining room, he found her busy writing a letter.

"Hi, Jack," she said as she got up from her seat and walked towards him. Reaching forward, she held him tight. "How did it go today?"

"Oh you know same old, same old. Dad said to say hi to you. He is hoping to get some leave in two weeks time."

Sam's face lit up with pleasure at the thought.

"Come, Jack I want to show you something." Taking his hand, she led him outside. It was already dark, but Jack could make out the garden in the lights from the house. Breathing deeply, he could smell fresh cut grass.

"Look up, Jack. Look at that, isn't it wonderful?" Jack looked up and could see millions of stars in the sky. They were so close together, not like Earth sky at all. But all clustered together as far as the eye could see.

"Yes, Sam. It is," he answered. Turning his head to look at her, he found his neck hurt and he was now lying down on a cold hard surface. He couldn't smell the grass. In fact, he couldn't see it anymore.

"Sam! Sam!" Though he could only rasp out a whisper, the desperation was evident in his voice as he called for her.

He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain assaulted his shoulder and travelled down his arm. Sucking in a deep breath, another sharp pain dug into his chest. Laying his head back down, he looked up at the stars again. They were beautiful, like nothing he had ever seen before in his life. It was strange, even though he was outside and could see the night sky, he felt as though he was deep underground in an enclosed space. A big space though because he could hear the steady drip of water as it echoed around the area. This was unusual and he wondered where he was.

It was cold, very cold. Jack started to shiver and more pain spread throughout his body. Taking note of his injuries, he was quite certain that he had bruised or even broken some ribs. The shoulder wasn't too much of a mystery as he had dislocated it before. Still mentally going over his injuries, he worked out that he had bashed his head too because he felt something warm trickling down his forehead to his hairline.

A deep, bone cold ache crept up from his feet to his knees. Very carefully he moved his legs and could hear the gentle lap of the disturbed water. Jack couldn't remember drawing his broken, tired body out of the water, but he must have as he was lying on hard ground. Moving his feet again, he felt them bang against something hard. It felt like they were made out of rubber and felt numb, so he didn't feel the cuts and grazes that he had sustained while being dragged around the tunnels. Rolling over carefully onto his side, he drew his legs up out of the freezing water.

Legs and feet momentarily forgotten, he gazed in wonder. The stars were in front of him; he was lying on his side and was staring straight at stars.

Raising his head again, he screwed up his face against the pain and propped himself up on his good elbow. Staring all around him as far as he could see, there were stars, overhead, to the right, to the left, behind him and in front. Then he could see them reflected in the still water of a vast lake. The stars looked like they were stuck on the walls of a great cavern. So he wasn't outside the mountain, he was deep underground, surrounded by lots of little lights.

When he looked over to his left he saw a dark hole, there weren't any stars there. 'Maybe that is a way out.' But the hole began to get bigger as slowly, group-by-group, the stars winked out. Then he saw a flickering light in the distance, which looked like torchlight. Then he heard footsteps on the hard rock. The lights were going out faster now as the sound increased. By the time the intruder had reached the cavern, all the lights had gone. The sound of the intruder's boots echoed around the cavern.

Jack lay there quietly, trying to calm his rasping breaths. The intruder was a Jaffa and he had a flaming torch in one hand and a knife at his belt, but other than that no other weapon that Jack could see. The Jaffa didn't see him, but walked straight up to a fissure in the rock wall. Jack could see by the light of the torch now, that it was indeed a cavern, bigger than he first thought. Reaching inside the fissure, the Jaffa withdrew something wrapped in cloth. Sticking the torch into the fissure to hold it there, he slowly removed the cloth. It was then that he noticed Jack. Quickly putting down the object he held, he cautiously crept up to Jack's prone body. The Jaffa drew out his knife, taking no chances with the unknown intruder. Even so, he was not ready for Jack's quick response as he grabbed the Jaffa's wrist that gripped the knife.

Black water rafting is similar to white water rafting, but is done through tunnels underground, with no lighting whatsoever. The idea is that you never know what is going to happen.