We're back to action in this chapter! I've had so much fun reading your reviews. :0D I appreciate the time it takes to write them and the supportive thoughts behind them. Thanks for all the well-wishes. I'm feeling much better and am back to a regular writing schedule... well, as regular as it can be as a single working mother. I'm grateful you all are here to read what I write. I don't know what I'd do without this community of readers. You keep me inspired and disciplined. Thanks so much!
Enough with the sappy stuff! On with the oh so minor whump (I promise major stuff in the future, wink). I'm breaking you in slow this time. Hope you have fun.
Warning! Never go in againtht a thitheelian when death ith on the line.
Once the Twilight
Chapter Five
"Teal'c, turn that thing off!" Jack pointed to the flashing alarm. Its noise was enough to scramble his brain. It figured that things wouldn't go right, he thought. The team should walk around with a disclaimer pinned to their vests: The Murphy Squad.
Teal'c flipped a switch that blessedly cut the sound out of the alarm. "The nearest Ha'tak has locked onto us with its weapons," he said. "It is charging to fire."
"Carter?" Jack spun around to face his second. She was already ahead of him and on her way to the cargo bay.
"The shields won't hold, sir," she called back without turning to look. "Our only hope is to get the cloak back online. Hailey, I may need your help."
Jack followed the young lieutenant into the cargo bay and watched Carter try to pry the plating from the control panel at the back. He hoped she had some miracle to pull out of her pocket. His experience told him that when luck failed, it was a good thing to have a Carter nearby.
His hope faltered a bit, though, when he saw the damage that had been done to the panel… no doubt the explosion they'd heard earlier. It was blackened like a starburst around the edges of the metal hatch. Carter and Hailey were trying to pull the plate off, but it didn't want to budge.
The ship took a sudden dip and they all fought to stay on their feet. A loud crash sounded from the roof.
Carter pulled her field knife from the sheath attached to her belt and tried to pry the panel off with it. She slid the blade in far enough that it stuck up like a lever. She stepped back and nodded to Hailey, who hit the top of the knife with a hammer she'd taken from the tool kit nearby.
The panel seemed to move slightly.
Another blast hit the roof and sent the girls tumbling. Jack was able to grab onto the door frame to keep from falling, but he felt Teal'c's evasive maneuvers all the way through his gut. He wished he hadn't eaten that second ration for dinner.
Carter and Hailey pushed themselves back up and went back to the knife that was still sticking up out of the panel. Carter took the hammer from Hailey. Just as she brought it down hard on the knife, Jack felt a presence behind him. He turned to see Galek enter the room.
"How can I help?" he asked.
Jack pushed aside the instant flare of anger he felt at the sight of the man and shook his head. "There's nothing either of us can really do. Teal'c's the pilot and the ladies are the brains." He gestured to Carter, who with one last swing sent the metal panel falling with a crash to the floor. "And… the brawn."
Galek's brow furrowed.
Carter knelt and tested the drawer with her fingers. Jack could tell it was hot by her reaction. She pulled the hem of her shirt out of her BDU pants and used the cloth like an oven mitt to protect her hand as she grabbed onto the drawer and pulled it out.
Even from the doorway, Jack could tell by the busted crystals that the cloak was a goner.
Carter turned to him, her face alight with frustration. "I can't help from here," she said.
Jack pursed his lips and turned to go back to the flight deck. "Get our gear," he said over his shoulder.
"Sir," she answered. He heard her begin to dig through their things and then the rasp of an unfastened zipper. "Galek, she said, "make yourself useful." Galek caught the pack she threw him just as Jack passed.
"Teal'c!" he called out. "Get us through that atmosphere as quickly as you can. We need to get away from those Ha'tak cannons and I want some atmosphere to breathe in case of a hull breach."
Teal'c nodded and took the Tel'tak into a dive. Jack grabbed onto the central control panel to keep from falling. He heard their stuff slide in the cargo hold.
"What's the plan, Jack?" Daniel asked from the co-pilot's seat.
Jack raised his eyebrow. "Don't get dead."
Daniel nodded and glanced back out the window, eyes wide, as they narrowly missed a collision with a charging death glider. "I like that plan." When they'd cleared the ship, he looked back up at Jack. "Any idea how we're going to do that?"
"What? Do I have to do everything?" Jack asked
Jack peeked over Teal'c's shoulder. Dozens of little blue dots came together on the edge of a round screen, all moving in the same direction. "Are those headed here?"
Teal'c gave a small nod. "They are."
"Thought so."
Teal'c was forced to pull up out of his dive and take a wild turn right.
Jack felt his stomach flip again. "We're feeling this quite a bit, Teal'c."
"The inertial dampeners were damaged in the collision," Teal'c said. "If we are to escape, it will not be without discomfort." An Al'kesh appeared in front of them. Teal'c banked quickly.
Jack had to grab on to the back of Teal'c's chair to keep from being dragged sideways. He heard the cargo slide into the bulkhead behind him.
"Carter!" Jack yelled. "This is gonna be rough! Get your butt up here!" He had to fight the images of the cargo smashing into her and Hailey and sandwiching them against the wall.
The ship took another dive and Jack felt his feet leave the floor. The bulkhead behind him took another hit.
"Carter!"
"Here, sir!" Carter said. She used the doorway to pull herself into the cockpit as Teal'c took them through another maneuver. She kicked a large duffel in front of her, their vests strung on top of it. Once they'd leveled a bit, Hailey followed dragging more gear. Galek carried their firearms.
"We got as much as we could, sir!" Carter yelled over the engines. "It was like dodging a charging rhino back there!"
"Teal'c! Get us down to the surface!"
An explosion rocked the ship. The right side of the control panel exploded in a myriad of sparks and fire. Daniel let out a yelp and threw himself out of the seat. He landed hard on the floor and crawled on his hands and knees to get away from the fire.
"The Ha'tak has fired upon us," Teal'c said as he fought for control. "It was not a direct hit."
"Galek! Get the extinguisher!" Carter shouted. She pointed toward a small black case near his feet.
He turned and opened it. He pulled out the extinguisher and threw it to Carter. She caught it and sprayed the fire.
Jack turned back to the window. The blue atmosphere was turning to orange as they began their entry.
A second explosion shook the ship. Jack felt himself thrown forward. He flew over Teal'c's shoulder and onto the control panel. He heard the shouts of his team as they, too, were tossed about. He looked up in time to see through the doorway that a fire had sprouted inside the cargo bay.
The window at his back was hot, but the inertia held him firm. He was stuck until they leveled off. He met Teal'c's uncertain eyes for a moment before the Jaffa turned his attention back to controlling the Tel'tak's decent.
Carter pulled herself up by the back of the now empty and very charred co-pilot's seat. "Are you okay, sir?" she asked.
He narrowed his eyes and flashed her a sarcastic okay sign with his fingers. "Peachy, Major!" he growled.
She nodded and turned back to face the room. The gear she'd pushed into the room had slid against the right wall. She went to it, leaning into the steep angle. She threw Daniel and Hailey their vests. Jack's and Teal'c's landed in the chair beside them along with their weapons and packs.
Finally, he felt the ship leveling off. The temperature at his back cooled considerably. He glanced behind him and saw the cocoon of grey storm clouds and the darkness of night. They'd made it through re-entry.
"We are not alone, O'Neill," Teal's said as if to tell him not to relax just yet.
Jack nodded and extracted himself from the panel. The screen in front of Teal'c revealed at least six blips in close proximity directly behind them.
As if on cue, they again took fire. This time, the left wall bubbled inward near Carter.
"Carter! Move!" Jack shouted.
Carter took one look at the wall and her eyes grew wide. She threw herself to the floor just before the wall burst. Instantly, a gale of ice-cold wind filled the cockpit.
Jack felt the air sucked from his lungs.
Teal'c took the ship into another sharp turn. Jack landed hard on his backside. His eyes fell on Carter; she lay splayed against the floor, hair slicked back by the wind, dangerously close to the gaping hole in the hull. She squirmed forward incrementally, fighting for every inch of safety, but made little headway. Galek reached forward, he himself spread out on his belly, and grasped one of her hands. He pulled until she was clear of danger. Jack closed his eyes in relief even as he fought to drag the thin air into his lungs.
"I… can't breathe!" Hailey said from somewhere out of Jack's line of sight.
"I will attempt to get us lower," Teal'c answered.
The ship took another dive. A big dive. Jack turned his body so his feet faced downward. Time seemed to stretch into forever as gravity pulled at him. Their bags and cases slid to the front of the ship and crashed against the panels.
The ship leveled off again and Jack took a deep breath. The air passed through his lungs much more easily. He pushed up to his knees.
The rest of his team was doing the same.
"We have successfully entered the planet's troposphere," Teal'c said. "Four death gliders still follow."
"We cannot land in our originally intended location," Galek said. "They cannot be allowed to discover the entrance to the mine."
Another direct hit rocked the Tel'tak. The orange orb in Teal'c's hands shook. His brow furrowed. "I do not believe that will be a problem," he said. "I have lost lateral steering."
Jack felt his stomach leap into his throat. He knew what that meant. There was going to be only one way down.
"We're going to crash?" Hailey asked. Her face was a mix of fear and control.
The hull above them groaned.
Carter shook her head. "I don't think we'll last long enough to crash." She moved quickly to the nearest escape pod, attached to the right inner hull. She pushed a button and the sarcophagus-like silhouette split down the middle. It opened up to reveal a small space, large enough to stand up in and not much else.
"Uh, Sam," Daniel said. "There are only four of those. Last I counted, there were six of us."
Carter nodded and stepped to the next pod and opened it. Another blast hit; she grabbed the pod's sides to remain upright. "We'll have to pair up."
"Is that safe?" Hailey asked.
"You wanna stay, you're welcome to it," Jack told her. He stepped past her toward one of the pods.
Another explosion tossed the Tel'tak; a loud boom issued from the rear heartbeats later. A fireball shot through the open door between the cargo hold and the cockpit.
Daniel raced forward and pushed the control to close the door.
The engines let out a loud scream and the ship took a dive. Another shot sent the panel in front of Teal'c into fits. It lit up like fireworks in an explosion that made Teal'c jump out of his chair to avoid being hit. "We must leave," he said.
"Will these things be safe ejecting this close to the ground?" Daniel asked.
Teal'c opened the one closest to the bulkhead door. "It will be a rough landing," he said. Jack had a feeling it would be a lot worse than that.
The pull of the wind through the broken hull wasn't nearly as strong as it had been. It blew Carter's short hair as she stepped past it to open the last pod. She'd already strapped her pack to her back.
"Teal'c," Jack said, "you and Daniel will take the solo flights."
Carter shook her head. "No one gets a solo flight, sir." She gestured to the still closed pod in front of her. "This one's not working. It must have been damaged when the hull opened up."
Jack looked at the gaping hole she pointed at and frowned. "Then Teal'c, you're with Hailey." He paused for a second, regretting his next decision already. "Carter," he said, "you're with Galek. Daniel, you're with me." He knew Carter wouldn't argue. But that didn't make him feel any better about subjecting her to the tight quarters she'd have to share on the ride down with Galek. There was no other choice, though. Out of all of them, Carter needed to see the machine. Galek could guide her to it. They needed to stick together.
Carter nodded matter-of-factly and moved to the pod ejection control on a pedestal panel a few steps behind the cockpit seats. "I'll set all pods to eject in ten seconds."
Jack grabbed Daniel by the sleeve and pulled him to their pod. They had to step in sideways to fit. Jack ended up with a face full of brown hair. "This is gonna be fun," he mumbled. "But at least you're wearing that aftershave I like."
"I always aim to please, Jack," Daniel said dryly.
Jack leaned out to make sure the others were nestled snugly inside their pods. The ship shook again and he thought he heard a section of the rear plating separate from the hull. Another boom from the cargo hold rocked them and he felt the Tel'tak dip and spin. He started to fall to the floor but Daniel grabbed him and pulled him back into the pod just before its doors closed around him. Almost immediately, the pod shot away from the ship. He felt the pull of gravity even as the sound of a large explosion rang out. He knew if he had a window, he'd see that their Tel'tak had turned into a fireball. Panic rose in his chest. Had the others made it out in time?
"I know I heard at least one other pod eject," Daniel said, worry clouding his voice. It shook as the pod jostled through some turbulence.
"Yeah," Jack said. What else could he say?
He closed his eyes and turned his concern inward. He knew they'd ejected too close to the ground. He only hoped their landing wouldn't be as rough as he thought it was going to be.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
A loud banging sound woke her. Sam groaned and tried to roll over, but found that she had no room. She was laying on something soft, but she couldn't make it or anything else out through the darkness.
She closed her eyes and fought down nausea. Her head was pounding. She tried to reach up a hand to it, but her fingers encountered something hard in the way. Palms out, she tested the surface.
The pod. She was in a Tel'tak's escape pod. The harrowing escape from their doomed ship and their very rough landing on the planet below all came back to her. She forced herself to relax and ignore the pain in her head. She slowly tested her legs and her arms. She felt a twinge in the shoulder she'd jarred up in the ship, but it was nothing she couldn't live with.
She felt the soft cushion of flesh beneath her and shivered as she remembered who was with her.
She closed her eyes and felt herself rise and fall slightly with each breath Galek took. That meant the pod must be lying on its side.
Twisting slightly, she jabbed her elbow back roughly into the stomach of her travel-mate.
Galek grunted, but didn't stir.
"Galek," she said.
She'd rather be trapped in here with anyone but him. Even Rodney McKay.
She pushed aside her annoyance and tried again. "Galek." She brought back her elbow more roughly. "Wake up."
"Great," she muttered when Galek barely stirred at her prodding. "I thought you were supposed to be some tough warrior." She shifted her hips and tried to reach the button that would open the door. It was on the other side of the compartment, behind her, next to Galek's left shoulder. It was an awkward stretch.
"You know," she said, "this would be a lot easier if you weren't napping."
Finally, her finger found the button and she pressed it. The doors stuttered and she felt a small bit of panic that they wouldn't open. Then, the doors slid apart and she was hit by a blast of freezing cold air. She sucked in her breath and closed her eyes against the wind that rushed into the pod.
Beneath her, Galek stirred.
A fallen tree branch scratched her forehead and she realized it must have been the banging against the pod's doors that had awoken her.
She reached out with both hands and pulled herself up. She tried to look around, but there wasn't any light. The clouds covered the moonlight so that it was barely able to peek through. She could just see the silhouette of a nearby tree.
Sam pulled herself out and over the side and rolled onto the uneven ground. The pod had embedded itself into the soft dirt, the top half laying across a couple of tossed boulders. She stooped for a moment to get her bearings, disheartened by the fact that the ground seemed to tilt beneath her. Gently, she reached up to the sorest spot on her head and felt the stickiness of blood at the edge of her hairline. She frowned.
A moan from inside the pod reaffirmed that Galek would be conscious soon. For a second, she entertained the thought of leaving him there. But she knew that wasn't an option. She needed him to show her to the entrance to the mine. She cursed and shrugged out of her pack. She grabbed her P90 from where it was clipped to her vest and switched on the flashlight.
The sudden brightness from the beam blinded her momentarily, but then she was able to see that the pod had landed inside the shelter of the trees. They were thick, so she guessed the pod had made it to the foot of the mountain range. There was really nothing else to see. All was quiet aside from the whistle of the wind and the sway of the branches around them.
It may not stay that way for long, though. There had been several ships on their tail in the air. If they'd seen where her pod landed, their pilots would have called it in by now. There would be Jaffa out looking.
She aimed the light into the pod and rested it on Galek's face. He threw up his arm to shield his eyes. "The light is too bright."
"Is it?" she asked and aimed it closer to his eyes. "So sorry."
He sat up and glared at her under his shielding arm. She rolled her eyes and moved the light to the side. She could make out a line of blood that had dripped from his temple down the side of his face. It was in the same relative location as her own injury. A glance into the pod showed her the interior had been dented in near their heads. Either they'd been fired upon or the damage had occurred in the crash. Either way, she guessed Galek didn't feel any better than she did.
She moved back when he reached up to pull himself out of the pod.
Once he'd emerged and gotten his bearings, his eyes fell to her and the weapon she instinctively held on him. He raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.
She shrugged innocently. "Habit," she said. "The bad guy gets the business end."
He sighed. "I am not a bad man." He adjusted his pack's shoulder straps.
It was her turn to look skeptical. "All evidence to the contrary."
"Have I not been civil to you and your people since I found you? Have I not helped you?"
She nodded. "You need us. I don't for a second confuse necessity for kindness." She bent to pick her pack up and shrugged it on. "So," she said, changing the subject. "You're here to be my guide. Do you know where we are?"
She shined the light in a circle around them again so he could get a view.
He frowned in the shadows and looked up to the cloudy sky. "It would be easier if I could see the stars," he said.
"The ground seems to slant downward slightly this way," Sam said, indicating a direction perpendicular to their pod's length.
Galek nodded. "That would be west," he said. "We need to travel up the mountainside." He indicated the other direction. "East."
Sam nodded and took a step in that direction.
Galek's arm shot out to block her way. "What are you doing?"
She glared at his arm where it touched her. His commanding posture reminded her too much of the last time they'd gone walking together. "I'm headed to the mine. That's where my team will go to meet with us."
"A woman walks several paces behind a man," he said.
She should have known. "Are you sure you want me at your back?" She waved the muzzle of her P90 at him.
"I understand your dislike for me, but it is of no benefit to us."
"Oh, I'd say 'dislike' doesn't even come close to describing my feelings toward you," she said.
"Regardless," he said. "If I must take care of you for the time being, it would be best if we can be civil."
She frowned. "You know, Galek, you have in one short conversation managed to remind me oh so clearly exactly why I have spent the last seven days avoiding your company." She took a step closer to him and shined the flashlight so she could get a clearer view of his features. "But, you're right, and civil is something I can do. I'm pretty good at it, actually."
He nodded, but didn't change the serious expression on his face.
"I just have one thing I'd like to get off my chest before we go on. I've been holding it back ever since I saw you at the SGC and I think it needs to be put out there if we're going to continue on in any sort of partnership."
"What do you have to say?"
"Just this," she said. And she punched him in the face. Her knuckles popped a bit, but she had the satisfaction of watching him lose his footing and fall to the ground. She knew if he'd been expecting it, she'd never have knocked him over, but that didn't make the experience any less fulfilling. She smiled down at him and wanted to laugh at the sour expression he wore. "Just worry about taking care of yourself. I'm good."
She shook her hand out and lifted her P90 in front of her. She stepped over his legs and moved deeper into the tree-line.
I have to admit, I got quite a bit of satisfaction writing that last bit. :0) Chapter six is in the works! Hope you enjoyed. You know I love the reviews, so if you find the time... :0)