Chapter 9
The old man slammed into Carter, sending both of them sprawling on the ground. After a brief moment of disorientation, the man scrambled to his feet and tried to run again. Carter grabbed hold of his tunic as she lay on her back.
"Hey! Wait a second!" she managed, holding tight to the fabric.
The man suddenly stopped struggling, prostrating himself on the ground. "Please," he said shakily, "have mercy on me, I beg of you. Kill me if you must, but please do not bring me before Lord Neja!"
Carter realized Teal'c was standing there. The old man must have seen the gold symbol imprinted on her friend's forehead and had assumed he was the enemy.
"There is no reason to fear me," Teal'c assured the man in gentle tones. "I am not as you think. We have come to do battle with the Goa'uld called Neja."
Sam sat up, feeling a stiffness developing in her shoulder. The man had hit into her like a linebacker on a tackling dummy. The old man was not buying Teal'c's explanation. He was still bowing down, trembling with fear.
"He's telling you the truth," she insisted. "We're here to fight Neja."
Seeing that the elderly man was not about to chance looking at a jaffa, Teal'c reached down and grasped the man by the arm. The man let out a small yelp of fear at the contact. Teal'c persisted, though, finally hauling him to his feet.
Then Carter got a good look at him. His hair was cut to the quick and snowy white. His beard was trim and formed to the shape of his slightly round face. Soft brown eyes were still afraid, not knowing if they were being deceived or not. Only when he turned his head to address Teal'c did she see the large gash near his temple.
"My lord," he stammered as he respectfully bowed his head to Teal'c again, "I do not understand who you are."
"We are from Earth, of the Tau'ri." For the moment, Teal'c gave up trying to keep the man from averting his eyes. "We seek any and all who will assist us in our fight against the Goa'uld."
Carter got to her feet. "Right now, we need to find our friends. Can you help us?"
The man turned to address her, although his head remained turned down in fear. "You seek the strangers captured by Lord Neja last night?"
"Captured?" Carter tried to keep her alarm from seeping into her voice.
The man's words came in a rushed explanation. "Yes, captured near the palace. They were taken inside, and that is the last I saw of their faces."
She lowered her rifle, trying to let the man relax. "Where would Neja take them?"
"To the holding cells, I am certain. Lord Neja was quite angry when he saw the ship entering his domain. He immediately dispatched patrols to capture those aboard it."
Carter sighed. It was frustrating when intuition was on the money in cases like this one.
The gash on the man's head caught her attention once more. It was deep and oozing. She looked beyond the man at Teal'c. "We need to find a place to rest and take care of his head. It's a pretty deep cut."
The man bravely looked up at her. "You are truly not of Neja's guards?" He was still painfully afraid.
Teal'c stepped closer. "As I said before, we are not."
The man seemed to ponder Teal'c's words. His breathing had calmed, though his shoulders were still taut with tension. "There is a cave in the hills. It is not far. There may still be provisions inside."
Carter looked at Teal'c. "It beats playing hide and seek out here," she offered.
"Indeed," Teal'c said quietly, lowering his staff weapon to a defensive position.
Together, they began hiking back up the hillside toward the lower set of cliffs. Not a word was spoken as they moved through the cover of the woods. When they reached the mouth of the cave, Carter and Teal'c put on the night vision goggles again and entered the cave cautiously. The ceiling was low, causing them to stoop as they progressed inside the hole. Not too far inside, the cave opened up into a high vault where they could fully stand. The air smelled of fresh soil, and the sound of water dripping echoed in the distance. Great stalagmites and stalactites formed a macabre set of teeth in the green glow of the night vision. She shivered at the sudden onslaught of cool air permeating the cave.
The cave curved away from the entrance. Teal'c and Carter systematically cleared the area as they moved forward among the rock formations. They came upon a clearing in the cave. In the corner, Carter spotted what looked like an old fire ring and some wooden boxes. The old man was following close behind her, clutching her backpack as a guide in the dark.
"Corners are clear, Teal'c," she said.
"The cave appears secure, Major Carter."
Carter kicked on the flashlight attached to her P90, sweeping the cave with the beam. She pointed it toward the fire ring, then at the wooden boxes stacked behind it. The old man let go of her pack and headed straight for the boxes.
"Providence is with us, my friends," he said excitedly. "They have not found this place in all these years!" He knelt down at the boxes and began opening them in the beam of Carter's light.
"Hey," she said, hearing a muffled echo of her voice bounce off the cave walls, "what's your name?"
The man stopped his rifling of the boxes and quickly returned to Carter and Teal'c. "Many apologies! Forgive me. It's just that it's been so long since I have been out of the rule of Neja." He took her hand in his, palm to palm, covering their hands with his right. The greeting had a ritualistic air about it. "I am called Antalus."
Carter nodded and accepted the form of the handshake as graciously as she could. Antalus extended the same action to Teal'c who, in turn bowed his head in acceptance of the custom.
"That's Teal'c, and I am Major Samantha Carter, United States Air Force."
"You have many names, Major Samantha Carter, United States Air Force!" Antalus exclaimed, never stuttering over a syllable in his recitation.
"Antalus is your full name?" she inquired.
"Oh, yes," he answered with a smile. "My people believe that the brevity of one's name lends itself to individuality." He returned to the boxes in the corner. "Come, let us check our supplies."
Carter moved closer to shed more light on Antalus' search. He was methodically going through the boxes, not tearing them apart as it had appeared earlier. He smiled with satisfaction as he pulled off one particular box lid. He pulled up a cylindrical object that was a muted red color. He said nothing but smiled again at Carter and Teal'c, as though he had found the big prize in a claw machine. He placed the object in the center of the fire ring and laid his hand on the side of the tube's shell.
The cylinder began to glow, emanating heat and light in the cave. When the glow was strong enough to light the cave, Carter flipped off the light on her rifle. She moved near Antalus and pulled one of the boxes over to use as a stool. Teal'c followed suit.
"Antalus, what is this place?" she asked.
Antalus stopped his inventory of the boxes once more. "Our home, if you will believe that. When we first started exploring this planet, this cave acted as our first shelter. This was before we established our settlement, of course."
"This isn't your home world?" Sam inquired. "We were told your people were indigenous to this planet."
He smiled fondly. "No, our home world is very far away from this place. We were explorers in a ship that danced among the stars."
"Where is your ship now? Is there anyone else who can help us?"
His smile quickly faded and was replaced by sadness. "We are all that remain of our ship's crew. When Neja arrived nearly five seasons ago, he destroyed the ship and those on it." Antalus looked to the ground and swallowed, as though struggling to control his emotions. "Those of use who had begun to establish our settlement were quickly subdued by his guards. We tried to fight them, but they were far better equipped for battle than we were. Those who were not killed during the invasion were enslaved to build weapons of war for him."
His eyes held were held in reverie with visions she could only imagine. She felt sorrow for him, having heard a story like his time and time again where the Goa'uld were involved. "I'm sorry, Antalus."
He looked at her once more, his spirits instantly lightening. "But now you bring hope that there is a way to defeat Neja. We are able to take action from these hills."
"Indeed we are, Antalus," Teal'c said. "There is much to be done. First, we must free our friends. If they are free, our chances for victory will be greatly increased."
Antalus shook his head, confused. "But I do not see how we can free them without returning to Neja's palace."
Carter looked at Teal'c. "He's right. We're going to have to find a way to flush them out of that palace or get close enough to them to make a run for it."
She jumped as her radio suddenly crackled to life. The comm was keyed two times. "Sierra Golfs One, Two and Three, uh, olly olly oxenfree." She checked her watch. It was O'Neill calling forty-six minutes too early.
The comm was keyed twice once more in two tiny clicks. "Sierra Golfs One, Two and Three, the cat's out of the bag, boys. Surrender yourselves to the first patrol you find or come on down to the fort. You have one hour or else Neja will kill a Beman girl he's holding hostage."
The transmission ended. They waited for any additional message, but none came. She looked at Teal'c, trying to decipher just what it was that O'Neill wanted them to do. Antalus, in the meantime, seemed more intrigued by the radio as a communication device than by the message it had just broadcasted.
O'Neill had been clear in his orders before they had separated. He would not go against those orders. No team leader would using the vernacular he spoke, she knew. "Sierra Golfs One, Two and Three?" she asked, thinking aloud.
"O'Neill is attempting to make us appear more formidable than we are," Teal'c offered.
"Well, that creates one small problem – we're not. We have one hour to do whatever it is we're going to do. I don't think he was kidding about Neja's threat to kill a girl. It was the only legitimate thing he said."
The old man agreed. "Neja is not known for innuendo. If he says the girl will die, then she will die."
Teal'c turned to Antalus again. "Is there no other way to infiltrate the palace without being detect by the patrols?"
Antalus thought for a moment then rubbed at his beard. "There is a tunnel that runs below the maltak, but it has always been heavily guarded to prevent escapes."
Sam sighed inwardly at the cultural divide that once again reared its ugly head. "Maltak?"
"The great weapon aimed at the ancient ring." He gave a curious look. "I don't suppose you know how the ring works, do you? It has been of great interest to my people since we arrived."
Sam stood. "As a matter of fact, yes, we do. I'll be happy to tell you all about it later, but right now we need to bandage the cut on your head and try to get to that tunnel."
Antalus dismissed her concern for his wound. "We have little time to worry about me! I will tend to it on the way with a boca stem if we pass by one."
On any other day, at any other time, Carter would have made detailed inquiries about the healing powers of a boca stem. This was neither the time nor the place to be a scientist. It was time to be a soldier and all that it entailed. "Where do we end up once we go through the tunnel?"
"It leads to the operations center of the maltak."
"Inside it? Isn't it overloading?"
"The command center is quite shielded. The generator it controls will not harm those inside the shield. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for those outside its protection." Antalus gave a somber look, and Carter knew why. The piles of ash around the maltak were evidence of what happened to those who were not afforded the protection of the shield.
"Okay," she said, a glimpse of a plan formulating in her head. "Antalus, what advantages will we have by going inside the maltak?"
"Several," he answered. "The two most important ones I can tell you are that objects may leave the shielding, but they cannot penetrate it."
"I don't follow. You mean the entire shell of the maltak is a shield?"
"Yes. The shielding was designed with warfare in mind. Once activated, objects such as discharged weapons and soldiers may pass through the protective shield to the outside. However, they may not come back inside once they have left."
"A one-way door," Carter said in summation.
"That may be a great tactical advantage to us if we can remain hidden," Teal'c noted.
Carter nodded. "Yeah, it would get us in close. Question is, what do we do once we're there? It didn't look like there were many places to hide inside."
"Oh, there are many good hiding places within the maltak!" Antalus promised. "We should be able to see all that goes on in the settlement from there."
Sam's confusion rose again. From the hills, they had seen nothing remotely resembling a settlement. All they saw was the palace and the maltak. "We didn't see any houses or buildings from the hills. Where do your people stay when they're not working outside?"
"It is all contained under Neja's palace. He told us he had it built around us to protect us. We knew, though, that it was to keep us under control and to keep us captive.'
Teal'c leaned the staff weapon against the wall. "We do not believe the palace to be heavily armed."
Antalus smiled with humor. "I am glad to hear that. The construction was so hasty and poor that it is unlikely the roof will hold the weight of weapons." He let out a soft giggle that was quickly brought under control.
Sam warmed her hands in the light of the cylinder. "What can we expect at the tunnel entrance?"
Antalus turned to search through more of the boxes. "Normally, I would say that it would be heavily guarded, but Neja transferred many of his guards to the hills to search for you. Not that he had that many guards in any case, you see. He lost some to the maltak's malfunction."
"So, how many are we talking total?" Sam asked, pulling out her canteen and taking a sip.
"At last count, Neja had sixty-six guards at his disposal. A squad of twelve was killed by the maltak, so that leaves fifty-four."
"And Teal'c and I killed two in the hills. That makes fifty-two."
Teal'c glanced at Carter. "At least half of those will remain to guard Neja in his palace."
"Okay," she continued, "so we count on two squads outside looking for us."
"One squad will create a perimeter around the compound," Teal'c added.
"And one splits into six pairs looking for us, like the two we killed," she finished taking another sip of water. "Makes the odds a little more fair." She shrugged at Teal'c sheepishly, quietly adding, "Sorta."
Teal'c raised a knowing brow, and a barely noticeable smirk formed on his lips. The man lived to do battle, but even he could appreciate the absurdity of what they were about to do. The odds were mounting against them. SG-1 had not been in the habit of leaving members behind, and it was doubtful Teal'c was ready to change that habit any more than Carter was.
She slipped her canteen back in the sleeve on her web belt again. "How far is it to the tunnel entrance, Antalus?"
He was still rummaging in the boxes, removing items from one box and consolidating them in another. "It is not far," he assured her. "We were quite close to it where you found me."
Carter watched his interest in the boxes intently. He appeared to be looking for something important but had not yet found it. "I don't suppose you have any weapons we could use in those boxes?"
"No," he answered, then stopped his search. He looked up at her with sadness again. "We were too shortsighted to think that peaceful explorers would need weapons of death to protect us. It was a costly error for my people." He waited for a moment then returned to the boxes again, as though to close the subject.
She wished she could comfort him, but there were an inadequate number of words to comfort a man who had apparently lost so much. Besides, there was not much time for such things if they were going to pull off an insane rescue mission. "We need to get going. There's not much time."
He nodded weakly. "Allow me to take a drink from the spring before we leave. My throat is rather dry."
Teal'c stood and picked up his staff weapon again. "You do not become ill from the water?"
Antalus gave a confused look. "Why would the springs be poisonous? They are nearly the only resource still pure since Neja took over this planet. He has us bring water from the mountain because of the run-off from the maltak. The water table in the valley has become contaminated with toxic waste produced by the generator." He found a cup in one of the boxes. "Only when there are heavy rains that cause standing water do we fear sickness. Then, the toxins rise up and cause an uncontrollable nausea. We have had many die from dehydration. Without the proper medicines to treat the sick, there is little we can do but help them to wait out their illness."
Teal'c looked as surprised as Sam felt. She felt shocked that such a key factor of their mission would be misrepresented. She filed away her suspicions in the back of her mind. There was no time to decipher the who or the why. That would have to be dealt with later when they were all back within the safety of the SGC. Even then, it would not be up to her to figure it all out. It would be up to General Hammond, maybe NID, maybe some other black ops organization.
She waited for Antalus to quench his thirst before they set out through the woods toward the tunnel. The sun was high and the temperature was rising. The humidity grew thick from the saturated soil that could hold no more water. Teal'c led the way, stopping every now and then to listen and track the movements of the patrols.
If Antalus was right, then Daniel and O'Neill might be in more trouble than just being prisoners. Avedra, she realized, might be in the same boat since he was not yet blended. The situation was going from bad to worse as the contemplated the possibilities. Finally, she decided it was better not to borrow trouble. She and Teal'c, and even Antalus, would deal with things as they happened, no matter what that could mean.
