Chapter 7
Carter and Teal'c lay nestled under a canopy of low plants, hidden from view as the rain continued to fall in a steady rhythm. The bulk of the storm had passed, leaving ambient flashes of light behind the valley's hills. They had witnessed the lightning strike the teardrop and the aftermath. Several of the patrol units they had been dodging suddenly headed back to the palace to assist in bringing the overloading weapons complex under control.
She had noticed Teal'c taking several surreptitious looks at her hand. Blood had begun to seep through the bandages where the cliff had cut deep into the flesh parts of her fingers. She flexed the swelled fingers, wincing slightly at how they ached with the action.
"Are you certain you are able to continue, Major Carter?" Teal'c asked quietly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered. "I don't think they're broken. A few stitches, maybe, when we get back."
"Have you been observing the activities around the palace?" he asked, bringing the topic back to business. The two had not been able to converse much while avoiding the patrols.
She looked down in the valley below. "That storm really did some damage. Looks like they're scrambling to keep the weapons complex from blowing up."
The teardrop pulsed with blue light again as she looked on, then an arc of energy shot out toward the Stargate some fifty meters away from it. Carter was mesmerized, not only with the physics of what was happening, but also by the color of the energy. Soothing blue hues gave the arc a false image of beauty. The truth of its nature was that it was most deadly.
The arc was not randomly striking the gate, she found after having watched it for the twelfth time as they rested under the brush. Rather, it was symmetrical and aimed toward where the event horizon would have been had an address been dialed. Carter could only guess that the targeting systems in the teardrop had been destroyed, sending the emission off course and allowing it to strike the gate instead of pass through the ring. What she would give to get a look inside the complex at the guts of the thing.
"Wow, that's some toy," she said with a hint of admiration, reiterating O'Neill's colloquialism.
"Is it not possible the emissions from the overload have damaged the gate? Perhaps Neja's ability to use the gate has been compromised."
"I'd say there's a chance it's damaged something given the power of that thing, but there's no way we can tell if the DHD's been fried. Gates were built to last."
Teal'c paused a moment, concerned. "I have seen no sign of Daniel Jackson or Colonel O'Neill."
"Neither have I," she admitted, shaking her head. She shared his concern with equal depth. "But we're still pretty high up," she offered. "We need to get down closer. We might see where they are, then." She checked her watch. "The work crews should be coming out soon. We'll look for Avedra while we're at it."
"The patrols appear to have returned to the palace."
"Let's hope so. I get the bad feeling that Neja knows we're here. Too many of them in the hills here to be just coincidence."
"I agree, Major Carter. We must remain diligent in our steps."
The skies to the east were beginning to lighten, signifying the impending sunrise. To the west, stars began to become visible in the waning night sky. While it was still raining, the storm was moving on. Carter and Teal'c would lose the advantage the rain had been providing in masking their sound soon.
"Ready?" she asked, putting away the binoculars again.
"Indeed," he said with a conviction she took comfort in as they prepared to move out. The man was always ready for a fight. Just the same, he was also patient in his strategies. SG-1, as a whole, was, which was why the Jaffa fit in so well with O'Neill and the rest of the team. They were patient hunters, awaiting their quarry when it was in view.
Teal'c let the cover of the brush first, followed a few steps later by Carter. Their movement down the mountainside was staggered, never giving any lurking patrols the opportunity to kill them both in one fell swoop.
Carter could not deny the fatigue she was feeling. Every muscle ached, and her hand throbbed each time her pulse rose with their travel. Fortunately, the FN/P90 – 4 she carried hooked to a harness around her torso. At least she could let her good hand rest as they moved. If she had to, she could bring the weapon to the ready with her bad hand. She was sure of that. She could do a lot of things when the Goa'uld threatened. They all could. They had done extraordinary things when most said it was impossible. She decided this would be another time they would do it, finding Avedra and all of them going home in one piece, the most extraordinary act of all.
Teal'c suddenly bent on one knee and took cover, motioning for Carter to do the same. At first, there was no sound, just the remains of the rain and a light breeze. Then she heard it. The clanking boots of the patrol approached. There were fewer guards this time, two to be exact.
Carter pressed close to the tree shielding her, trying to minimize her target area. She kept her eyes trained on the two approaching guards with the glowing red eyes of their raised helmets, praying they would turn direction and not notice the two intruders hiding on their watch. She quietly brought her P90 up to the ready, ignoring the pain in her fingers as she cradled the barrel in her left hand.
She glanced over to check on Teal'c position only to find him gone. Then she spotted him in the dim light, withdrawing his field knife from its sheath on his equipment vest. Carter followed his lead and installed a silencer on her P90. The takedown needed to be silent and without flash in the early dawn light. Teal'c's staff weapon and zatniketel would have been loud and bright and would have brought more patrols without a doubt.
She waited until she saw Teal'c move in silently behind the two guards. His arm wrapped around the head smaller guard, thrusting the knife between the folds of the soft gray armor. In that moment, Carter stood and fired off several rounds dead center at the lead guard. The bullets hit with soft thumps and tiny sparks as they pierced the guard's armor, bringing him to the ground with a soft groan.
"We must hide the bodies," Teal'c said, and began dragging his kill to a patch of standing fern-like plants.
Carter stood there a moment, staring at the man she had killed just moments earlier. How many times have I done that, she asked herself. For all intents and purposes, the man was human. The larva inside him was the enemy, yet they had killed the host time and time again.
She knelt down and depressed the helmet release near the neck of the armor. The serpent head peeled back and retracted into the shoulder fitting. The man inside was young, his mouth slack and slightly open. His eyes stared ahead, lifeless and unseeing. The skullcap he wore reflected the first rays of dawn as it rose over the mountain.
She stared at him for a while, her thoughts flooded with so many memories. Jolinar's consciousness invaded again, added to the pictures in her mind. These images, though, brought back the reasons Earth and the Tok'ra and all the allies were fighting the Goa'uld. Memories of torture were vivid, the sheer evil acts of the system lords impressed upon the helpless. The memories belonged to her, as well, not just Jolinar. So much pain, so much suffering . . . and not enough bullets to bring it to an end once and for all.
Then Teal'c was standing above her again, effectively stopping the waves of images.
"Major Carter, I must hide his body," he said, although she could detect the concern in his voice at her actions.
She nodded and stood back up, giving Teal'c room to step in and hoist the man up by the arms. Carter checked the ammunition in her P90, sure that she had not fired off more than ten rounds. The magazine was nearly full, only eight rounds spent. Teal'c finished camouflaging the bodies and returned to her side. She anticipated him saying something, questioning again if she was able to continue, but he was silent. He merely nodded that it was time to go again.
They continued down the hill, all the more cautious now that the sun was on the rise. The rain had vanished, as well. They were losing their nighttime advantages one by one with each passing hour.
The terrain changed quickly as they approached the lower altitudes. The thicker vegetation gave them more hiding places when a patrol would pass by. It also made for more difficult travel. Trails had been cut through but were unwise to travel on since the patrols used them.
They came upon another set of cliffs. This time, they found a decent observation point where they could look down on the valley in great detail. Carter withdrew the binoculars again and peered down at the complex.
"It's still overloading," she said. The blue pulsing was still visible even in daylight. With that, another arc burst forth toward the gate. This time, though, no one scrambled to get out of the way. No one even dare go near the complex for fear of the power inside. For the first time, she could see the area around the complex.
Or, rather, what was left of them.
Piles of ash lay all around the front of teardrop, reminding Carter instantly of Hiroshima and the instantaneous death brought about by the atomic bomb. People that were unaware had been reduced to carbon ash by the teardrop. A chill went up her spine when she considered the possibilities of what would happen to a place such as the SGC if it were hit.
"There appear to be no workers out today," Teal'c noted.
"Definitely not in our favor," Carter answered, still surveying the scene through the binoculars. She then handed them to Teal'c. "If they aren't out, that means Avedra isn't out. The Colonel and Daniel are going to have a hard time rescuing someone who isn't there."
Teal'c put the binoculars down. A serious look was on his face, more so than usual. "There is something peculiar about the palace."
Sam's ears perked. "What about it?"
"There is a lack of protection around its perimeter. There are key areas not guarded by any patrols."
"Well, maybe they're staying out of the way of the complex and that overload."
He handed the binoculars back to her. "Look, at the top of the palace. There are no weapons."
Carter could see it even without the binoculars once Teal'c pointed it out to her. "Well, that explains why we were able to land here without a problem."
"Precisely," Teal'c answered grimly. "If there were weapons in place, we would have been destroyed entering the atmosphere by long-range assault cannons."
"Good point." She checked her watch. "We have to get a lead on Colonel O'Neill and Daniel. We're running out of time to get back to the rendezvous."
"I agree. I suggest we move in closer in the event they need assistance."
She was about to answer when the teardrop cracked loudly as another bolt of energy cut through the air. Carter's heart thumped with surprise every time it happened. The complex pulsated again, as though a breathing monster gasping for air. It would then sleep for a few minutes, only to reawaken and fire off another burst of hot light.
Carter watched it for one more blast before she and Teal'c set out for a closer look at the palace and the weapons complex.
The sun was rising fast in the morning sky by the time they reached the next hiding post. The guards were all but gone now, making travelling much easier in the wake of the night's explosions. As they lay on the ground watching and waiting, a twig snapped. Carter and Teal'c froze. Teal'c's keen senses honed in on the direction of the sound.
He rose silently, motioning for Carter to split off and circle around the other way. They would trap whoever it was between them and once again make the kill quick and silent. Her P90 was still fitted with its silencer in case just such a need arose.
There was no clear line of sight to the target. Standing vegetation with large leaves blocked her view. She had completely lost track of Teal'c, but she could hear the rustling sounds of someone working through the vegetation thirty feet in front of her.
Her inner senses told her there was no threat. Why would the guards be walking off the trails? Jaffa were strategic in their moves, sometimes dangerously predictable. This movement, though, was haphazard and frantic. She could hear the fight the person was having with the vines on the ground.
Carter moved in quickly and carefully. Her finger curled around the trigger of her rifle. She started on an intersecting course to the north. She would see who or what it was that was making all the noise in a matter of a few steps.
She moved in quickly and took up a kneeling position in the path of the oncoming individual. She brought her P90 up to the ready, easing her finger off the trigger for the moment until she was sure she would have to fire off a round.
But she would not fire off a round at all – not at an old man in a torn tunic running for his life.
