Author's Note: I don't own Stargate, only my OC's.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jack said nothing, just glared back at Lantesh. It remained that way for several moments. Both men staring at each other, waiting for the other to break first.
Finally Lantesh acquiesced to Jack. He bowed his head and Martouf took control. He laughed nervously at all hostility aimed at him. "Forgive Lantesh." He pled. "He is sometimes passionate in his opinions. We cannot and would not force you to do anything. But since we have not convinced you of the danger you face, may we see Apophis?"
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On the way to Apophis's room Daniel pulled me to the rear of the group to speak in relative privacy. "Did you find Skaara?"
I nodded.
"Then what…?"
"Dani." He opened his mouth but I didn't let his begin. "He's going through a lot and I think it would be wise to let him be for now."
"But you're his fiancé, if he was going to talk to anyone wouldn't it be you?" He grabbed my arm, stopping me and pulling me to the side of the hall while everyone else passed us by thus giving us a small amount of privacy.
"Am I anymore!?" I snapped, all the frustration and anger I'd been feeling came bubbling up. "We aren't the same people. I don't recognize him, hell I don't even recognize myself half the damn time. He became Klorel's host because of me. Skaara's life would have been better off without me in it." A thrill shot through me. The last sentence had just slipped out. Did I really feel that way? Yes. Yes I think I did. I should have left Abydos with Jack when he'd given me the chance and then stayed the hell away. I waited for Daniel to tell me I was wrong like he usually did, but he was silent. He just stared at me with his mouth open.
We had fallen behind the group. I brushed past Daniel and ran to catch up. That was it for our conversation. The door to the isolation room came up faster that I'd anticipated and if Daniel was going to say anything else he didn't have the time. In a way that was good, nothing could be said to make this any easier.
Janet walked right in and took the syringe of morphine that the head nurse offered and promptly injected it into Apophis's IV. He looked to have aged several years in the past few hours.
"What is that you are injecting into his body?" Martouf demanded.
"Morphine sulphate." She finished and tossed the dirty needle into the hazardous waste basket.
"To ease the pain." Sam clarified.
"Yes," He looked over Apophis's broken body, his eyes holding a barely perceptible amount of pity, "you said he had been tortured."
Janet took off her gloves and pressed two fingers to Apophis's neck to check his heart rate. "He's also experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the sarcophagus." When she was done she gently pressed a palm to his forehead to sooth his rapidly increasing struggles.
Apophis looked to be out of his mind, eyes roving all over the room without really seeing anything.
"But he is your enemy." Martouf snapped.
Janet raised her eyebrows at his tone. "He is my patient." She said pointedly.
"Amaunet." Apophis suddenly cried out.
"Apophis, hear me." Martouf shouted down at the fallen god.
"Amaunet! Klorel!"
"I would speak with you." Martouf pressed but Apophis wouldn't even look at him.
"Amaunet! My love!" Apophis reached out at nothing, his voice taking on a childlike whimper. And then he passed out.
Daniel flinched every time Apophis cried out for Amaunet again. I put my hand on his arm and squeezed gently to let him know I was there for him.
Suddenly the lights flared red and alarms rang.
"Unscheduled off world activation." The voice over the loud speaker announced.
"Expecting someone?" Jack turned expectantly to the Tok'ra.
Martouf's eyes narrowed. "No."
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We all took the quick way up the main elevator and made it to the control room just as the gate initiated.
As the rest of my team and the Tok'ra delegation ran up the steps into the control room I stopped at the bottom. From where I was standing I saw Skaara standing overlooking the gate with his arms crossed. His gaze was fixed on the iris spinning into place. I was grateful that he didn't see me as I came up the steps and then took my place on the opposite side of the room so out his sight line. This action felt at war with my instinct to go right to his side. I felt guilty. He needed his space, I was giving him that. I shouldn't be afraid to face him.
"Defense teams, stand by." The intercom ordered.
"Keep that iris closed." Hammond shouted as he came down from the spiral stairs that led to his office.
"Yes, sir." Sergeant Walter answered.
Objects started hitting the iris, at first it was barely noticeable but now they rang like a car crashing into a metal wall.
"Sokar has found you." Martouf's announced ominously.
The origin of the Devil, the real life Satan had found us. Well shit.
"How?" Jack asked. He glared at Martouf, daring him to say that it was the Tok'ra who told Sokar.
Martouf glared back. "His pilots saw your kind flee with Apophis through the Chappa'ai. Symbols for the Tau'ri are well known among the Goa'uld."
Again something hit the iris, only this time it shook the very ground we stood on.
"That iris will hold." Jack jabbed a finger in the iris's direction.
"It's a Trinium Titanium alloy just a few microns from the event horizon. It won't even allow matter to reintegrate." Sam announced to no one in particular, maybe just to ease her own nerves. This was a pretty powerful attack and the iris had been breached before.
Here's to hoping this wasn't another one of those times.
"Something is appearing." Teal'c pointed to a shimmering figure that was taking form at the iris.
"What?!" Sam took a seat and typed into the computer, checking out the feedback from the gate. "How is this possible?"
"The space between your metal barrier and the wormhole may be enough for particles of extremely high energy to reintegrate." Martouf leaned over Sam's shoulder to get a better view of the readout.
"Subatomic particles?" Sam asked.
"Yes."
Surprisingly I understood a good chunk of that. Being at the SGC and having Sam on my team was rubbing off on me. I would have smiled except for a red haze that was coalescing right in front of the iris into a deformed face.
"Are you saying he's firing a particle accelerator at the wormhole?" Sam's voice went up a pitch.
"Oh!" I shouted in alarm. All heads turned towards me and usually my face would be red with embarrassment, but not at this moment. "That's not good, right?" I leaned over on Sam's other side.
"No it's not." She shook her head, her worried gaze meeting mine. "We may be witnessing the decay of subatomic particles as they're being bombarded against the iris. Small enough to reintegrate but moving at nearly light velocity. If Sokar can modulate the particle stream enough to create an actual image… and if he can do that then theoretically he could modulate the stream to emit heat and with all that power aimed at the iris then…"
"He could melt through it." I finished for her.
I moved away from the computer console and ran my hands over my frowning face and up to pull at my strands of hair.
When I looked up I saw Skaara hovering back in forth where he was standing, then seemingly coming to a decision he started to walk towards me, his mouth open to speak. He nearly reached me, his hand held out to my hand still frantically tangled in my hair when a booming voice cut off all conversation in the control room. My arms dropped and we turned our gazes away from each other and out the window into the gate room.
"People of the Tau'ri." The image wavered and appeared again. "You have taken what is mine. For this, you will be destroyed."
Then the image cut off.
"Is that it?" I whispered. Where was this Goa'uld's demands and gloating?
"Ah, Sir." Sergeant Walter furiously clicked into this keyboard. "The iris is beginning to heat up.
Hammond clenched his jaw. "How long can they maintain this?" He asked Sam.
"The longest single Goa'uld attack against the iris was 38 minutes. We think that's the maximum a wormhole can be maintained before it collapses." Sam explained with the unspoken hope in her voice that this would be the same case.
"But then they could just dial us up, again and again until they get through." I muttered, pressing my thumbnail between my teeth while gazing at the reddening surface of the iris.
"I better get on the phone with the President." Hammond let out a long sigh. "This changes things."
"Martouf." I said. The Tok'ra was studying readouts of the gate's activity on a monitor. He when he heard me call to him he stood from the chair to turn his attention to me. "Can you help us?"
His expression was enough to answer the question. Martouf's eyes strayed to the gate and the rapidly reddening iris. "I know of no way."
His comment sucked all the energy out of the room leaving a hopeless void. Jack, yet again proving why he was one of the best leaders on the planet, recovered and began handing out orders. "All right. We have thirty-eight minutes to come up with a plan, Carter and Martouf. In the meantime, Erin, why don't you see what you can get out of Apophis. His neck's on the line here now, too." Jack's blue eyes slid over to where Skaara was standing beside me and then back to me. He cocked his head, waiting for an answer.
I shook my head, Skaara wasn't ready to face Apophis yet and I didn't see what benefit it would be to expose him to that pain when it was likely the fallen god would tell us nothing. The exchange was so subtle that we were the only two aware of it. "I'll let you know if he says anything." I told Jack and made my way to the stairs.
"I will accompany you." Teal'c announced and fallowed me down into the corridor.
Skaara stayed in the control room. Just as I was about to turn into the hall out of sight I looked back over my shoulder. He stood with his fists clenched at his sides, looking torn between following and running in the other direction.
When Teal'c and I walked into the elevator alone I knew what option he'd chosen. As we traveled up I couldn't help but think that was the first thing he should have done the second he laid eyes on me.