NOTE: Again a really quick turn around. I typed up a lot of what I hand wrote last night though. Towards the end where all the action was really hard to write so I would appreciate reviews on it. This was fun though.

I don't own Stargate… Life's not fair I know…

Chapter 6: Knock Knock

A few minutes later, Sam and Teal'c had made their way down the tunnel and the team was standing apprehensively around the golden sarcophagus.

"What do you think?" Sam quietly asked Cam. She was nervous, everyone was. All P-90s in the room were pointed at the sarcophagus and were not moving any time soon.

"Well," said Cam slowly, "I'm thinkin' we should check to see if anybody's home."

Sam moved her head in not so much a nod as an indication of reluctant acceptance. "I'd rather take it back to the base but there's no way we'll be able to get it out now; there's too much rubble in the opening of the tunnel."

"Wouldn't it be better to wait until we can clear it?" asked Vala.

"Well I'd rather not have this thing lying about when it could open at any moment." said Cam. "What d'ya think T?"

Teal'c paused for a moment and then inclined his head slightly. "I believe we should open it."

Cam reaffirmed his grip on his gun, took a deep breath and muttered to himself, "Okay, here we go." Slowly and carefully he reached out his left hand, his right ready to squeeze the trigger, a placed it on what appeared to be the opening mechanism of the sarcophagus. Again taking a deep breath he looked around himself.

Four heavily armed people and a golden sarcophagus in a dingy, underground room. It couldn't have been more than seven feet high. With no other source of light the torches threw flickering shadows over the walls and people.

With on last breath Cam turned the mechanism and took a step back as it opened. As the two cover-stones slid aside a brilliant white light erupted from the gap between them, throwing even more shadows over the room and blinding the team.

"Arr!" Cam cried, throwing his free arm across his eyes. He could hear similar cries of pain from three other points in the room, though one of them was more a grunt than a cry. Cam pulled his P-90 tight against his shoulder as he blinked the spots out of his vision. All his other senses were in over load. His finger instinctively hovered over the trigger, ready to fire at anything that moved but he was terrified of hitting one of his team.

Slowly all of them regained their sight and saw that, apart from the open sarcophagus, the only thing in the room that had changed was that the four of them were now very jumpy looking.

"Everyone okay?" Cam asked slowly and carefully, not relaxing his grip.

"I think so."

"I'm good."

"I am fine."

All of the team replied in the same cautious tone, as if they didn't quite believe what the others were saying. Not one of them took their eyes off the golden tomb. All being too far away to see over the lip of the sarcophagus they edged closer.

There was someone home.

There was a loud rattle as the team adjusted their weapons as one. There was a long pause.

Cam was getting fidgety so he spoke up, "Why isn't it getting up?"

Sam looked around nervously, "Should it be?"

Vala narrowed her eyes, "I think so." She edged a bit closer. The figure of a woman lay inside. "Not what I was expecting her to look like."

"No." Sam agreed, hanging onto the end of the word.

It was sprawled in the sarcophagus as if she was in the middle of a restless sleep. Her clothes were tousled, dirty and even ripped in places. One arm had fallen above her head and her hair – dark brown, almost black – had fallen over her face.

Vala tilted her head, "Is she even alive?"

"She should be." Said Sam with a slight grimace.

"I'll see if I can find a pulse." She stepped up to right beside the sarcophagus and gingerly reached inside…

"WAIT!"

Sam practically jumped back to her original spot at the sound of Cam's voice. She'd wrenched her hand up to her chest as if it had been scolded.

"Sorry," said Cam with a sheepish grin, "I just reckon that Jackson'd kill me if I don't get a picture of her in her 'original condition'." As he grabbed the camera off Teal'c he caught Sam and Vala rolling their eyes. "Hey guy's, this is serious." He quickly snapped a few pictures and picked up his gun again. "We don't know who this goa'uld is and we might be collecting vital information.'

Sam looked at the woman and tilted her head, "It…she might not be a goa'uld."

Vala scoffed, "Don't you think the lovely shinny sarcophagus is a bit of a hint?"

"One may use a sarcophagus and not be a goa'uld." challenged Teal'c.

Vala arched up, not prepared to let go of her opinion without a fight. "Well what do you think the possibilities of a human or…whatever getting their hands on their very own sarcophagus are? Huh?"

"It's possible." Put in Sam.

"Even if they did, and I'm not saying that they could, we know that those things have a negative affect on everyone and the thing in there could still be our enemy."

"People PLEASE!" Cam called over the raising voices. "We seem to have gotten a little off topic." Seeing that he had everyone's attention he lowered his voice to just above a whisper in a way that made all present hold their tongues and listen. "Now, our resident expert in this sort of thing isn't here. This means we have less intel than I would like. So, I suggest that we see if it," Vala gave a little proud smile, "is still alive so that we are not standing around here in the dark not knowing. Okay?"

Sam nodded as she looked around a bit sheepishly. She hadn't really done anything wrong but she shouldn't have encouraged Vala when she knew that she would bicker. Tentatively Sam reached down and brushed away the woman's hair. "I'll tell you what," she said quietly, "she looks sort of angry. More worried I guess."

Cam tapped his foot impatiently as he carefully aimed at the woman but away from Sam. "Carter…"

"I know." she said as she pressed her fingers against the woman's neck. "Well there's a pulse, it's slow though." Sam turned the woman's head from side to side. "I can't see any entry marks."

"That doesn't prove anything." Said Vala automatically.

"Vala…" said Cam warningly. "Carter, she's right."

Carter nodded again as she looked at the woman. Unfortunately she had taken her hand out of the sarcophagus. If she had still been feeling that pulse, she would have felt it steadily getting faster.

"Well," said Vala as she stepped up opposite Sam, "what do we do now?" Now that she knew defiantly the state of their discovery she was feeling a little more confident, even if it wasn't the desired outcome from her point of view. The same could be said for everyone else. Knuckles weren't quite as white against P-90s as they had been.

"I'll call for back up." said Cam, "See if we can't set up a more secure situation to take out guest back to base." As he said that he turned and started walking out to get to the gate.

"Are you sure that is wise?" asked Teal'c.

At that moment there was a crash and Cam had his gun up at the scene he'd spotted when he turned around to answer Teal'c.

Sam was crouched on the floor where she'd been extracting some lights but now had her gun up, desperately trying to get a clear shot. Her target was the preciously unconscious woman. The reason Cam, Sam nor Teal'c by this time couldn't immobilise her was because that crash had been Vala's weapon hitting the stone floor. The woman hand pulled her in front of her as a human shield. With on hand the woman had expertly yanked Vala's arms behind her back and had them well and truly immobilised, the other hand was clasped firmly around Vala's throat making her sputter and choke. The woman's thumb was firmly pressed against Vala's windpipe making the obvious statement of: "I can keep pressing and kill her."

"PUT HER DOWN!" yelled Cam.

Over Vala's shoulder he could see the woman's face. Her eyes were darting from one person to the other, trying to keep track of everyone in the room. In her face Cam could see the same expression that he'd seen in many a bad guy when they'd been backed into an inescapable corner: unbridled terror.

"Put her down," said Cam, trying to calm the very angry tone in his voice, "and maybe we don't shot you."

Light flared in the goa'uld's eyes and her distorted voice rand out as she covered up much of the fear with a booming command. "Who are you!?"

As soon as the last word escaped her lips a bolt of blue energy jumped from the zat in Teal'c's hand and hit Vala. The blue sparks travelled through her and into the woman in a flash. The two of them convulsed violently for a moment and then went limp,

Sam, being the closest, swooped in and caught Vala before she her head open and gently lowered her to the ground. In the same instant Cam went to the goa'uld, who had slumped over the side of the sarcophagus, and zip tied her hands securely behind her back. In the next few second he swiftly and expertly patted her down until he was 100% sure she didn't have any weapons.

"Teal'c, get it out of there."

The silent giant simply nodded and easily heaved her out and onto the floor where she fell like a sac of potatoes onto her side.

Cam then turned to Sam who was attending to Vala. "How is she?"

"Fine as any of us are after being hit by a zat." She took off her jacket and put it under Vala's head for a pillow. "Good thinking by the way, Teal'c."

Another nod.

"Arh, get those things away from me."

"Would you rather go back to being unconscious?" Sam put the smelling salts back in her pocket. "What now?"

"Now," said Cam, the anger rising in his voice again as he glared at the unconscious goa'uld lying at his feet, "now we get back to base and sort out this whole mess of a mission and we make sure that this," he gave her a rather unsympathetic kick, "is secure."

NOTE: Tee hee, Cam's really mad. Review pretty please.