The Tegan Chronicles

Intuition and Lies 2

Tegan glanced around her, something was off. Sam was to her left, dirt streaked across her sweaty forehead. She could hear Daniel breathing behind her. Teal'c stepped on a twig and it gave way snapping loudly beneath his weight. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Col –" Her voice stuck in her throat like a ball of dry cotton. She crept forward, her fingers blanched in a death grip on her P-90. "Sir."

Jack heard the whisper and turned, "What?"

She hadn't thought past getting his attention. She couldn't tell him she had a bad feeling. You don't just turn around and go home because you have a bad feeling. She glanced sideways at Sam who was staring at her.

"What is it Kiser?"

"We've got to go back."

"Why?" He stopped whispering. They hadn't encountered any life forms. The planet was a densely populated jungle. The air was as thick as pea soup and hung on them like a second skin.

"There's a building over here sir." Sam pointed to the over grown entrance.

"That's why." Tegan shuddered.

"It's been abandoned for decades at least Kiser. Look at all those vines." He pointed at the overgrowth. "Teal'c use your staff weapon, see if you can clear the entrance."

She should have stopped him, it wouldn't be the first time she'd been insubordinate. The first time she was really insubordinate she ended up looking like ground beef. She shuddered.

"You ok?" Sam asked.

"I just…" She held her weapon tightly. "I've got a bad feeling."

"Perhaps it is a memory from one of the symbiotes." Teal'c suggested.

"I don't know. It's just there's a lead anvil in my stomach."

"What's our mission?" Jack asked.

"Search and retrieval sir."

"We didn't pick up any life signs within a fifteen mile range of the gate." Sam reminded.

"How far have we traveled?" Daniel adjusted his glasses.

"Five tops." Jack responded.

"Colonel?"

"What Kiser?"

"Let me go first."

"Carter's taking lead, she found it."

"Please be careful." Tegan begged as Sam checked her light.

Sam glanced back at her momentarily before stepping in.

Colonel O'Neill turned to Tegan before following. "I hope you're not waiting for an invitation."

"No sir." Tegan mopped the sweat from her forehead using the back of her arm.

It smelled dank and musty in the one room building. Something in the air made her want to gag.

"Woah." Jack pointed his light to a shelf. "Look familiar?"

"Which Goa'uld likes to tape its tortures?" Sam asked as Jack started in with the Jeopardy theme.

"Nirrti," Tegan hissed as she swept the room with the beam of her light. The only footprints in the dust were theirs. "I don't feel her sir."

"Could be old." Daniel reached up toward it.

"Don't!" Jack and Tegan warned in unison.

"It may be a breast trap."

"It's booby trap Teal'c." Jack corrected. "Not breast."

"Then how do we check it out?" Daniel looked like a kid who was just let loose in a candy store but told he couldn't buy anything.

"Kiser?" Jack aimed his light at her. "Still got that impending doom feeling?"

She nodded.

"Then we don't. We leave it here, and we head out."

"We can't just leave it here." Daniel argued. "It could contain just the information we need. I mean, maybe this one was never in the hands of a Goa'uld. Maybe it belonged to one of the ancients; it could have the location of the lost city on it. Better yet it could tell us how to defeat the Goa'uld once and for all."

Sam pulled Tegan aside and spoke in a low voice. "Is it Déjà Vu?"

"No." Tegan sighed. She knew what Sam was asking. "It's not a memory or… I don't feel like I've ever been here before."

"Maybe it's what you ate in the mess hall?" Jack grinned.

Tegan shot him a 'go to hell' look, but she was the one who'd spoken in a normal voice so he wasn't eavesdropping. She also didn't want to point out she'd skipped breakfast. She shook her head and turned away from Sam. "You're right; we can't not take it back based on an undigested piece of egg."

"Do I detect a hint of sarcasm, Major?"

"No sir." She really just wanted to get back to earth; to get back home and have a quiet dinner with Janet and Cassie.

Jack nodded to Daniel who reached up and pulled the device off the shelf.

"Think you could be wrong just once?" Jack asked as Tegan rolled on her side on the stone floor. She immediately realized the floor they'd been standing on was dirt, and this was harder, and slightly slimy.

"Why can't I ever just wake up in my own bed when stuff like this happens?" She groaned and pushed herself into a sitting position. "Anybody hurt?"

"We're fine," Daniel berated him self.

"Not your fault." Tegan picked up on his tone. "Where are we anyway?"

"You were only out sixty seconds longer than the rest of us Kiser."

"In other words, we haven't a clue." Sam stood looking out between the rusty metal bars making up the fourth wall of their imprisonment.

"If there's no one on the planet…"

"We could be stuck here." Jack nodded.

"Where are our weapons?" Tegan looked at Teal'c who was clamoring to his feet.

"It may be that whatever transported us here removed our weapons in the process."

"Great." Jack pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Our G.D.O.s are missing as well."

"Look, I said I was sorry." Daniel hit his head on the wall he was leaning against.

"I gave the order." Jack mumbled.

"I believe I hear someone approaching." Teal'c spoke again quieting the group.

The distinct sound of a small assembly of Jaffa in armor echoed down the corridor announcing their arrival. Tegan looked up as one of the Jaffa reached the door.

"Hek'tu." She jumped to her feet. "You do know she is dead, right?"

"Gods cannot be killed." The Jaffa responded.

"Great, here we go again." Jack stood.

"You'll come with us." He swung the door open and pointed his staff weapon at the group.