Chapter 10

They reached the tunnel entrance quickly with Antalus as a guide. It lay at an angle on the hill above the valley, opposite the Stargate and Neja's palace. As Antalus had estimated, there were no guards near the gate guarding it.

Still, Teal'c and Carter put on their night vision once more and began securing the area just inside the entrance. It was pitch black to the naked eye, but the night vision brought out the details of the sloping tunnel. The walls were wet with condensation. Water droplets clung to the ceiling before finally falling to the heads of the travelers. Teal'c was slightly hunched over to avoid scraping his head against the ceiling. There was not much room to maneuver vertically, but the horizontal space gave just a bit more than elbowroom.

Carter thought the tunnel to be a death trap in many ways. One good blast, and three people would be dead, all lying in a row. However, there was not much choice in order to get inside Neja's complex without being detected.

She instructed Antalus to walk between her and the Jaffa so she could walk backwards and keep the rear clear of pursuing patrols. He kept a hand on her pack to guide her. They seemed to walk forever, stumbling over small inclines and recesses in the walkway until the path smoothed out and became a straight line.

The rumble of the overloading maltak rolled through the tunnel with every explosion. The closer they got, the louder the snap and thunder of the weapon became. To their advantage, it would mask their movement within the tunnel for short periods of time.

Sam's mind strayed back to the images of the ashen bodies outside the maltak. They were getting close to those bodies. She gave consideration to the fact that they were in a wet tunnel, underground, and not grounded in the least against electrical discharges.

"Antalus, how much further?" she asked.

"We are close," Antalus whispered, even though it was not necessary. The blasts from the maltak were ringing throughout the tunnel. In the distance could be heard the steady whine of the generator preparing to let loose with another emission.

Carter was glad. She was getting tired of walking backwards. "Okay, Teal'c, let's hold up here a second."

She turned around to face Antalus. He was clearly blind in the tunnel, his eyes straying to the general direction of her voice. "Antalus, I don't get it. When the maltak started to overload, why didn't your people just go through this tunnel and get out?"

"There was much panic. Neja had been asking us to build something far too dangerous to be even considered. When it began to malfunction, we had no idea what would happen. The workers believed it would be more dangerous to stay inside than to leave the confines of the control area. The blast caught them outside the shield, and they died."

Teal'c turned slightly toward Antalus. "You did not follow them?"

"No," Antalus replied in a small voice. "I stayed on the lower level, trying to shut the reactor down. I was closer to this tunnel than to the shield. After the first overload, I ran through here until I found the hills."

Carter could not control her anxiety concerning the risks they were taking as they approached the maltak, and she stated as much to old man. "Just how dangerous will it be when we get close enough?"

"The strikes are aimed primarily at the great ring. The matter stream appears to be attracted to it above the ground, so I should say we're quite safe down here."

"Matter stream?" Carter was alarmed. "I thought the maltak was like a lightning machine that could be used like a weapon in open wormholes?"

Antalus gave a surprised look in the eerie glow on the night vision. "Oh, no," he countered. "Neja tasked us with sending matter through to an origin and reintegrating it on the other side."

Carter concern grew. "So, you're saying Neja would be able to send weapons to the other side of a wormhole . . . upstream?"

"Oh, quite effectively. Troops, weapons – anything of relative size to the destination. You'll see once we get inside. It will be clearer to you, I promise."

She looked at Teal'c whose countenance mirrored her concern, even though his eyes were masked by the night vision goggles. This was news, big news. Once again, the Tok'ra had failed to mention the small details that would have made all the difference. She had to give the benefit of the doubt, though, that perhaps they did not really know the true purpose of the machine. Maybe Avedra would have come back with the details of the operation and warned them that they had been on the wrong track.

Then again, maybe they did know.

It crept into the corner of her consciousness that her father might have known, as well. A twinge of anger rose unexpectedly, even though she had no grounds for it. Someone was always in the know, and often it wasn't the SGC. It was a growing conflict for her to think that her father was withholding information that could help SG1 and its mission.

Carter sighed. There was a time and a place for everything. This was not it for deciphering the covert operations of the Tok'ra. That would have to come later. Now was the time to get to O'Neill and Jackson and get them home, hopefully with Avedra in tow.

"All right, let's get moving. We'll need all the time we can scrape together to figure out what to do."

The two men nodded, and Carter turned around to guard from the entrance of the tunnel. Together, they resumed their journey as they had been travelling for the previous twenty minutes. Their pace was slow but sure. Teal'c's led them through the dark until they came to the hatch above an embedded ladder in the wall of the tunnel.

"This is it!" Antalus whispered.

Carter scanned the hatch through the night vision. A heavy seal surrounded its edge, protecting the tunnel against potential cascades of whatever lay above it.

Teal'c stepped on to the ladder, climbing up the five rungs until he reached the hatch door. He reached out to the handle and broke the seal, gently pushing up on the door until light could be seen slipping around the edges.

Sam nodded for him to proceed. She raised her P90 to cover him as he climbed the ladder and into the facility above it, his staff weapon at the ready. She pulled Antalus behind her to shield him from any attack that might come from the lab. There was a tense moment of silence where she could sense no movement from Teal'c. Then he appeared in the hatchway, motioning for them to come up the ladder and into the lab he had secured.

She brought Antalus in front of her again and helped him up the ladder where Teal'c took hold and hauled the man to the next level. Then she climbed the ladder, accepting the Jaffa's helping hand in crossing the threshold of the escape route.

What Sam saw when she was finally upright took her breath away. She slipped off her goggles and stared in awe at her surroundings. The lab was not just a place of research. It was the heart of the maltak, guts of what she had been watching so intently from the hills. A wide cylindrical reactor shimmered in the center of the otherwise darkened room, glowing hot blue and white and pulsing with unimaginable power. She stood there, mesmerized by the cataclysmic reactions taking place within the chamber's walls in random patterns of unpredictable energy.

Antalus walked to the other side of the reactor to a control station. He called for them. Sam joined Teal'c at the man's beckoning.

The elder pointed to the screen at flashing red icons that dotted the outline of the maltak's structure. Even though the readout was in a language she didn't have a prayer of understanding, she knew the significance of flashing red things. Flashing red things were always bad.

"Let me guess," she said wincing, "that's not a good sign?"

Antalus shook his head. "No, our time here will be limited before this entire facility overloads."

Teal'c grimaced. "Is it not already overloading?"

The old man gave a small giggle of irony. "Oh, no. This is nothing compared to the final phase of the overload. At this point, the maltak is still venting excess power it generates. However, the control cycles that prevent it from building up are degrading. Once they are gone, the maltak will overload completely, destroying everything in this valley."

Carter shifted the straps on her pack. "You wouldn't happen to have an idea of when that will be, would you?"

Antalus frowned. "I wish I could say, but the control cycles are failing randomly. It could be days or only moments. I would have to run a diagnostic on each of them to give you an exact answer."

"How many are there?"

"More than I have time to examine," he answered knowingly. He pulled up a schematic of the control cycles and their status.

Sam shook her head. "I'm not even going to pretend I know what I'm looking at," she said, turning toward the reactor once more. "I wish we had more time and under different circumstances."

Antalus stepped to her side. "As do I, Samantha Carter," he comforted. "This place may have been built at Neja's beckoning and terror, but it was built with a heart for science and a desire to live. That's a much stronger power than anything you may see in that reactor."

She took one more look at the reactor, wanting and wishing for things that would probably never be. She then pulled her attention away from it and back toward recovering O'Neill and Jackson. "There's a level above this one?" she said, unconsciously looking up at the ceiling.

"Yes," Antalus affirmed. "The reactor spans both floors. The transfer stage is on the ground level."

She hated to continually ask questions, but there was no choice. "Transfer stage?"

"Where the object to be sent is dematerialized for travel," Antalus answered. "It may be worth your while to look at it before this place is no more."

Carter looked around the room. "Yeah, well, if we have time. Right now, we need to get to the Colonel and Daniel."

"Agreed," Teal'c rumbled.

Antalus nodded. "Of course. This way to the upper level," he said, motioning for them to follow to an adjacent door.

The stairwell curved up into the next level, spiraling around the reactor like a snake until it led to the ground floor of the maltak. Carter's senses were aware of the distinct lack of sound. It was disconcerting in a way. Sound meant the enemy could be heard. Libraries weren't this quiet. It gave her a sense of apprehension she could not quell.

Teal'c moved ahead, systematically securing the ground level of the facility that was not in the direct sight of Neja's guards. Carter and Antalus crouched down near a control panel as Teal'c cleared the corners of the upper lab. Outside, Carter could see movement. A freak wave of alarm passed through her that, if she could see them, they could see her and Antalus. She stayed very still, unsure of the limitations of their new environment. There was something altogether unsettling about infiltrating the heart of the enemy and basking in its weaponry with a hint of audacity. What they were about to do was ludicrous. Where they were was crazy. And she prayed to God it would work.

Teal'c motioned for Carter to approach an alcove that overlooked the compound. She carefully made her way across the lab to the spot where Teal'c sat on his haunches, taking care not to move too quickly or attract the attention of Neja's troops.

"I believe I have located Colonel O'Neill and Daniel Jackson," he said.

"Where?"

He handed a monocular to her. "At the base of the ship. There appear to be holding cells. I am certain I saw O'Neill."

She took a look for herself, patiently waiting for a head to appear where Teal'c had indicated. Sure enough, O'Neill's head popped up for an instant, then disappeared into the darkness behind the bars.

She returned the monocular to Teal'c. "On the bright side, we know where they are. Question is, how do we get them out of there?"

"I believe this is the time for the diversionary tactic."

Sam pondered Teal'c's idea and wished with earnest that there was another way. She didn't think Neja would let O'Neill and Jackson out any time soon. There was no choice. "Yeah, I think you're right. Any ideas?"

"We have sufficient quantities of C4 to create a distraction on the ridge. That will draw the guards away long enough for you to free O'Neill and Daniel Jackson."

What the hell, she thought, sounds like as good a plan as any. She opened her pack and pushed two clay bars of C4 over to him. "Go make some noise, and I'll see if I can get some C4 to those bars and get them out. I'll call you when we're on our way, and we can rendezvous and make a run for the ship."

The reactor flashed with a blinding, silent pulse with no warning, leaving spots dancing in front of Carter's eyes. When they dissipated enough for her to make out small details again, she looked for Antalus to make sure he was still in one piece.

"Dammit! Where's Antalus?" she hissed.

Teal'c looked about the room. "I will check the lower level. Remain here."

She stayed and waited, covering Teal'c as he approached the stairwell to the lower level. Minutes passed like days as she waited for him to return. When he did, he looked calm and unnerved that the old man had disappeared on them.

"Antalus is on the lower level attempting to repair the maltak's venting systems," he informed.

"Any luck?"

"None so far, but he is confident he can increase the amount of time before the reactor overloads."

She sighed. "That's all well and good, but we're not leaving him here," she said adamantly. "Neja will kill him the minute he's captured. He can go with you to the . . . "

Teal'c looked her eye to eye, a solid relay of emotion. "Major Carter, I believe Antalus has made his choice. He has chosen to help us rather than bend to Neja's power."

She stared at him, then looked away, realizing in total what Teal'c was saying. Another man would die for the SGC, a man she didn't even know yet one who was willing to give all and be all for the freedom of a people he had never met.

Time was ticking away as she glanced at her watch. She looked up at Teal'c, whose eyes were soft, not stoic. They were understanding yet persistent. She nodded, conceding that they needed Antalus to buy them some time to escape. "Head for the hills. I'll wait for your signal, then try to get to Daniel and Colonel O'Neill. Hopefully, Avedra's in the mix somewhere."

He picked up his staff weapon and bowed his head to her, casting his eyes downward at the end, as though he felt the same as she. "I will return for Antalus if it is possible."

She gave solemn nod. She knew he would be true to his word. If there was a way to save the old man, Teal'c would chance whatever it took to get to him. "Go," she said quietly.