The Trap
Chapter Six – Hegron's Predicament
By Arrietty
Two Goa'uld's were quietly discussing their leader while standing out in the lime stone passageway. Every so often they could hear loud swearing coming from the chamber within. It drowned out the sound of the water as it steadily ran in rivulets down the walls flowing through any crevices it could find. Shaking their heads and muttering quietly, they slowly made their way down the tunnel.
Inside the chamber, Hegron had just kicked the wall and was rubbing his sore foot. He was so desperate that he was still trying to access the weapon without the Great Key. Hegron wasn't thinking clearly anymore. Leaving himself vulnerable to attack, he had sent all of his personal guard after the intruders and the Great Key. He was not going to let them get away with it. He had already listed the terrible torturous ways that the intruders were going to die and that the Jaffa would take their place, if they didn't find the intruders.
While Hegron was fuming and kicking the wall in The Chamber, Jack and the team were making their way slowly towards him. They were intent on retrieving the wonderful weapon that would rid them of the Goa'uld forever.
"So, Jacob! What is so wonderful about this weapon?"
Jacob and Jack looked a pair, each had an arm in a sling and they limped along side by side.
"To be honest, Jack. I just don't know. Hegron never said what it was; only that it would make him the most powerful Goa'uld ever. He never seemed to get any further than that, because he always went into maniacal laughter." Jacob rolled his eyes at Jack. "You've met him, you know what I mean."
"Yes that I have," he replied very precisely, with a serious look on his face.
"All we knew," Jacob continued. "Is that we couldn't allow him to get his hands on it, or it would be worse than Anubis."
They continued their whispered conversation while they stealthily worked their way through the tunnels. The group carefully turned another corner checking for Jaffa, finding none.
"O'Neill." Teal'c had just made his way back towards the group after scouting ahead. "The way is clear, there seems to be an absence of guards posted."
"Something smells fishy." Jack moved towards the front of the group limping and started to lead the way through the tunnels. "Which way, Jacob?"
"Through here, Jack." He directed with his good arm towards Jack's right.
Teal'c leaned closely to Sam, "I cannot smell any fish, Major Carter." Then he moved away from her with a slight smile on his face. Sam just smiled and slowly shook her head from side-to-side. It was easy to smile again, now she had all of her family with her.
It didn't take them long to find Hegron. They could hear the shouting and swearing as it echoed down through the tunnels.
Jack said over his shoulder to Jacob. "It sounds like we don't need your directions anymore, Jacob."
"Looks like he has finally lost it," Jacob stated. "But then he was always a little on the loopy side," he added.
As soon as they opened the door, one zat blast stopped Hegron's tirade instantly. Moving forward, Sam with Teal'c's help, lifted the key into the slot, just where Jacob directed. Jacob started pushing buttons, but nothing happened. He read the inscriptions on the wall beside the door again, but when he tried nothing happened.
"I'm missing something here. Daniel, can you find anything new or different in these writings to what I am doing?"
Daniel actually looked flabbergasted at all the writing that was on the walls. "This says nothing about the key and how to unlock it."
"I know, Daniel, but look here by the door; it says what to do here." The exasperation was becoming very apparent by the tone of Jacob's voice. Sam, Jack and Lieutenant Rogers, Vernon and Doran watched the entrances for guards that might come and investigate.
It was Jonas that found it. In very faint inscription along the bottom of the wall, below the key, were the final instructions on how to open the door. Jacob quickly punched in the correct sequence and with a click, a thud and a grinding sound, the door slowly swung inward. Teal'c lifted the key back out and laid it onto the floor. With flaming torches held high they crept into the Chamber.
The Chamber was octagonal, with high dark grey walls. Right in the centre of the room stood a smaller octagonal column and on this column sat a bright gold hand device. It was longer than the standard ones and long tendrils of fine gold thread hung from finger tips of the hand device down the sides of the column, like wisps of shiny hair.
Everyone was in the room except for Daniel and Jonas. They were both bent over the key, looking at the inscriptions written on it. With a grunt they lifted the key up onto its end. "Doctor Jackson, can you read this?"
"Actually, Jonas I think I can. This is the language of the Ancients." Peering through his glasses as Jonas held a torch beside him, he started to read the text, mouthing out the words as he came across ones he knew.
"Um . . . 'power' . . . 'great' . . . that's it . . . 'great power to he who wields this device.'" Looking up at Jonas, he grinned. "Help me turn it, I can't see this bit . . . thanks." He pulled the torch closer that Jonas was holding. "Err . . . can't see that word very well . . . oh yes I can 'night' . . . no. . . 'darkness' . . . 'caught' . . . no . . . 'evil' . . . um."
"Doctor Jackson, shouldn't we go in and find out what it is?"
"Yup! Sounds like a great idea." Sitting back onto his heels he stretched his neck. "It will be easier to read back at the SGC anyway." Something caught his eye; he bent down and looked intently at part of the inscription.
Jonas stood up, walked over and looked into the Chamber at what the others were doing. Jacob had picked up the device and they were all looking at it.
"Carter, do you think you could use this?" Jack queried.
Sam reached across to take the device from her father. Very carefully she touched the tendrils with the tip of her finger. "They are warm and they tingle." She looked questionably at her father. Who also touched it.
"Yes, they are." He smiled at Sam.
Sam then moved her hands forwards and started to slide the device onto her hand. Pulling it on with one hand.
"SAM! NO!" There was a shout from the doorway. "Don't, it's a trap."
Sam dropped it onto the pedestal like it burnt her, looking quickly at Jack before turning her attention to Daniel who had warned her. Daniel opened his mouth to speak, but blue lightening enveloped him and he crumpled to the floor.
"It is mine!" A voice bellowed loudly from the other room.
As soon as Daniel had been zatted, Jonas had ducked into the Chamber and was standing just inside. Hegron loomed in the doorway holding a zat in his hand.
"Move away from the pedestal or I will kill him." Promptly pointing his weapon at Daniel, who lay unconscious on the floor.
Jack nodded for everyone to do as Hegron said. Slowly they shuffled away from the pedestal towards the wall beside the doorway. Hegron didn't even wait to see if they were a safe distance away before he dashed across the small expanse of floor and grabbed the hand device and clutching it in one hand; he held it in the air.
"Mine! All mine!" he roared. "And you will be the first to die." He gloated.
In one motion he thrust his hand into the device and pointed it straight at Jack. Fire shot out the end of his hand and started to spiral up towards the ceiling. The tendrils of gold moved out from the device like the rays of the sun and sunk their ends into the hard stone floor. Hegron screamed with pain as the device clamped onto his hand and squeezed tightly.
"Quick, everyone out," Jack ordered.
Teal'c bent down and hefted Daniel into a fireman's lift, Jonas gazed longingly at the naquadah key as they left, but he knew it would be too heavy for them take with them. Running fast, they heard a rumble in the distance. They fell to the ground as the floor shook. Painfully they climbed to their feet and fled down the dark passageways.
They could hear a loud roar behind them and the force of the wind pushing them through the tunnels threatened to knock them over. Ducking in through a doorway into a small room, they managed to slam the solid metal door shut before the devastating force could blow them apart. Fortunately, there was another way out of the room as now the way they had come in was blocked. The metal door was welded to the frame from the intense heat of the fire.
Jacob led the way, no longer limping, as Selmac had healed his wounds. They travelled to the ring room via a back way, which Jacob had come across earlier while investigating the tunnels. There were no lights in the tunnel making the uneven steps treacherous to navigate. Their flashlights had been left in the Chamber when they fled the disaster. Doran held a torch up high, above Jacob's head to help him see the way. While Teal'c still carrying Daniel brought up the rear.
Every so often the ground shook and some of the fugitives lost their footing. Sam had noticed that Jack had fallen back a little way and was breathing hard. After a violent shake of the ground, he went down onto his side with a loud "oomph!" Sam bent down and helped him up off the ground, still supporting him as he was having difficulty with his feet. Unfortunately, Teal'c's boots were chaffing on the injured parts of his feet because they were a size larger than he was used to. Sam was also beginning to suspect that the new drug that Vernon had administered to Jack, was wearing off and it was way too early for that to happen.
It was a relief, when they arrived at the ring room. As Teal'c laid Daniel to the ground, he began to stir.
They all couldn't fit into the rings at once, so taking the sick ones first, they quickly ringed to the surface. As soon as they had all reached the mouth of the cave the ground was becoming more violent with tremors. The sound was horrendously loud as rocks and dirt shifted. Moving hastily outside, they started their descent.
"Did he put it on?" Daniel gasped out, as they ran down the side of the mountain.
"Yes, he did," Jack replied, equally gasping.
"Well, we better get off this planet then." They quickly looked at Daniel, apparently he knew more. "No time to explain, we need to go . . . now!"
They ran flat out, Teal'c was now helping Jack, while Sam helped her father, they were still limping from their injuries and Teal'c noted that Jack's energy was beginning to fail even more.
The ground shook again; they hurriedly looked behind them as they ran. Great bolts of yellow lightening were shooting out through the ground shining brightly against the late evening sky. The terrain they stood on trembled and moved beneath their feet. They kept running towards the gate. Jonas turned to Jack.
"We'll have to go to Langara, no GDO's right?"
"Right," came the short reply.
Sam couldn't believe that the gate could dial up so slowly, she watched with baited breath as the large circle ground its way through the dialling sequence.
"Look!" Vernon called out.
Turning, they saw what had once been a large mountain was now a cloud of smoke as the mountain slowly sank down into the ground. Large billows of smoke and ash were blasted up into the sky. The smell of burning rocks was strong as fiery rocks rained down around them. The taste of ash sat heavy in the back of their throats as the comforting kawoosh sound came behind them when the wormhole formed.
"Go now!" Jack ordered, physically pushing Sam towards the gate, the urgency of their safety giving him strength he did not believe he had left. Standing at the side of the gate, Jack waited until everyone except Teal'c was through. Then together they jumped through the gate, just as red hot boulders crashed into the base of the gate.