Never, and I mean never, schedule a house renovation at the same time they remodel your place of work. It sucks o.O
Anyhoo, here you go. Sorry for the wait.
Stargate, the universe, and it's characters belong to MGM and not me. I'm just playing in the sandbox a bit
...
Sam woke during the still time of the night right before dawn. There was no apparent lightening of the sky yet, but she had found that the brittle feeling of the air was the same no matter what planet she was on. She wondered immediately what had woken her, and scanned what she could see of the surrounding area. The river moved sluggishly below their ledge with almost no ripples, and the far riverbank was quiet. There wasn't even the slightest breeze to stir the leaves.
What had woken her?
A slight shifting at her back answered that a moment later. Falling into old habits, she and Daniel had settled down propped up back to back, facing up and down the river. It was a mutual comfort in this strange place to have a warm, familiar presence at your back, a comfort Sam was glad for. Vala, also needing the reassurance, had fallen asleep pressed up against both of them, her head resting on Sam's thigh. Their hiding place was so defensible and inaccessible that the three of them had slept soundly, too tired to set up much of a watch. But, as Sam felt more movement at her back, evidently uninterrupted sleep came with its own problems.
Daniel grunted slightly and muttered to himself in a language Sam recognized as Abydonian, his movements becoming more deliberate and unsettled. Years of sharing a tent with her friend had made her acutely sensitive to when he was caught in a nightmare, and, trying not to disturb Vala, reached her hand back to gently wake him. She kept her movements slow, as Vala wasn't the only one it was unwise to startle awake. It only took her running her hand through his hair a few times for him to still, and she knew he was awake. It never took much. He reached up and caught her hand as her fingers brushed his hair a last time and gave it a gentle squeeze in thanks.
"Daniel?" It was time to broach the subject they had been avoiding till now.
"Hmm?"
"Do you think Cam and Teal'c are alright?"
She felt him sigh. "I want to think so. The iris closed pretty fast behind us, and they were down at the bottom of the ramp. If the 'gate on this side sent any kind of signal, Walter would have caught it in enough time to hit the emergency shut down button. Right? I mean, didn't you program that into the system?"
"Yes. But it only works if the barrier on the destination gate is tied in to the DHD or the 'gate itself. If it is powered by a separate computer or function, there would be no signal."
Daniel swallowed hard. "Then we'll deal with that when we get ourselves out of this mess. I can't, I won't believe those two went down like that. Not yet."
And that, Sam thought, is the end of that discussion. Daniel didn't like to talk about things that he couldn't do anything about. They sat in silence for a while, watching the sky lighten above the far rim of the valley. "We really should get moving," Sam finally said with a sigh. "We can't forget we're on a deadline here. And I doubt we've seen everything our gracious host has to throw at us."
"I know I can't wait. How about you?"
Sam smiled at his attempt at levity. He was going on his second morning without caffeine, so she supposed it was all he could manage at the moment. Sam rubbed Vala's shoulder lightly, and she groaned. A very un-amused gray eye squinted up at her.
"You know, I blame you guys and the nice cushy bed you gave me for how sore I am right now. I used to be able to sleep anywhere, but now I'm just spoiled. No good for my former line of work, I hope you know." Vala wasn't a morning person.
Just like a certain archeologist Sam knew. "And that's a bad thing?"
Vala glared at Daniel grumpily. "You've certainly found my skills useful on more than one occasion."
With all of them awake, they got up and got moving, accompanied by more good natured early morning bitching. After eating a quick meal and making a token effort to wash up, they were nearly ready to head out just as the sun peeked over the ridge. Sam helped Daniel clip his pack into place, then went to assist Vala. As Vala returned the favor, Daniel walked over to the rope they had left hanging after their decent the night before. He grabbed it and, wrapping it securely around his fist, gave it a tug. He looked at Sam and she nodded in agreement. Leaping up, he began to haul himself hand over hand up the line. A titter from Vala made her glance over. Her friend was watching Daniel intently, or, at least the parts of him that we still visible as he disappeared up the bank. Sam raised her eyebrow, and Vala gave her a saucy and completely unrepentant grin back. Sam rolled her eyes and waited for Daniel's all clear.
About the time he should have made it to the top of the bank the sand and rocks raining down on them stopped. But, instead of the expected call from above, all the two women heard was a low growl and a loud yelp of surprise. A moment later, a pair of black boots once again appeared above their heads, followed by kicking legs. It was apparent that Daniel was coming back down a lot faster than he went up. In fact, he was descending so fast he was in danger of overshooting the ledge completely. Sam sprang forward and grabbed his feet, guiding him until he was on solid ground once again. He bent over for a moment, catching his breath.
"Well," he panted. "We're not going that way."
"You mean it got loose already?" Vala wailed.
"No, no this is a different one."
"How can you tell?"
"The fact that this one is bigger."
Sam felt her jaw drop. "Bigger? The last one was the size of a small pony. How big do these things get? Are you sure?"
"The size of a large pony apparently. And yes I'm sure, it damn near took my head off. I'm beginning to think the one we had fun with yesterday was young. Makes sense to test us with an inexperienced animal, then hit us with the older ones later."
"That's just great. So much for wondering what else we're going to have to deal with. Now what?" Vala's tone was light, but her stance said she didn't like where this was going. Sam saw her eyes dart toward the river.
Daniel looked around at her, brows knitted. "Vala, I don't think we've asked you this. Can you swim?"
Sam watched Vala's face fall. "Not what I'd really call a good swimmer," she hedged. "But I do float well."
The corners of Daniel's mouth twitched. "Sam and I can help you float across then. It's the only way. I just hope these hounds are sinkers."
They used the still anchored rope to slide down the steep bank to the river. It wasn't fast here, but Sam knew that meant it was pretty deep. How deep was another question.
Vala was slightly ashen as she looked at the slowly rolling water. Daniel squeezed her shoulder as he took his glasses off, folded them one handed, and tucked them in a pocket. "Don't worry. Just hold onto me and I'll get you across. Sam will be right there. We won't let anything happen, okay?"
Vala nodded firmly, grabbed the buddy handle on Daniel's tac vest in a white knuckled grip and they both slid into the water, Sam right behind. The current was strong, but not fast, and Sam had no trouble fighting it. For someone who had lived in deserts most of his life, Daniel was a strong swimmer, and was powering himself and Vala toward the far shore at a good clip. Vala was trying to help, but as Sam pulled abreast of them, she saw that the normally fearless ex-thief's eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
"Vala," Sam panted. "How are you holding up?"
"Oh I'm just dandy. Really."
"I'd be just dandy if you'd stop jabbing me in the side with your knee. Really."
"Oh! Sorry Daniel."
Daniel huffed, then shot Sam a squinty eyed look when she chuckled.
The river was only about forty feet across at this point, and they reached the other side a few minutes later. As they lay on the grassy verge catching their breath, they looked back across to the place they had spent the night. Above the sheltered ledge, a huge ebon form was sitting, watching them. Daniel was right, this one was quite a bit bigger in both height and mass and its pupil-less yellow eyes gazed at them calmly and intelligently, which spooked Sam a lot more than the snarling and growling had. After a few seconds, it got up and began to lope down river. A second inky shadow melted out of the brush and joined It, and soon both animals were out of sight. She and Daniel shared a grim look. This whole business was going pear shaped in a hurry.
"They're going to find a place to cross. There might be a ford miles down river, or it might be just around the bend. We need to get some distance from here before they come back," Sam said. Daniel nodded in agreement and began making his way away from the river. Vala followed dutifully with a resigned sigh. Sam followed her teammates at as fast a pace as the tangled vegetation would allow, not even pausing to wring out their wet clothes. It took a few minutes of bushwhacking before they struck a game trail of sorts, and they could pick up their pace to a fast trot.
As her muscles relaxed into the familiar rhythm of running, her brain began to work over their situation. They were going in the direction they needed to, and glancing up at the steadily looming cliff, she saw they were only about ten miles from their objective. Normally covering ten miles in a day would have been no problem for them. Covering ten miles with giant dogs on their trail was another thing entirely. She didn't know what they would do when the animals inevitably caught up with them. Sure, the tree thing would work, but they would get no closer to their goal if they were sitting on their butts in a tree all day. They would have to find a way to eliminate the threat, she just wasn't sure how yet. The shields were the issue. Impervious to gunfire and energy weapons, they were making her think outside the box. Luckily, she had a knack for that.
And, lucky for her, the teammate who also had a knack for that was running just ahead of her. Coming up with ideas was always so much easier when she had Daniel to bounce things off of. Her methodical reasoning had always combined well with his intuitive leaps. She could tell by the mechanical way he was moving that his brain was in overdrive as well.
They had covered a few miles before Vala signaled that she needed a rest, her shorter legs having reached their limit. They came up to a break in the trees caused by two of the forest giants having fallen sometime in the not so distant past. Judging by the charred wood, one had been struck by lightning, and had taken its neighbor with it. The two trunks formed a crude shelter of sorts, a place to get out of the sun and with a solid wall of wood at their backs. Nothing could get at them from behind. Another plus was a very climbable tree nearby.
They sat and shared out water and power bars, trying to cool off a bit before they had to get moving again. A few minutes into their rest stop, Vala lifted her head and sniffed the air, her nose wrinkling. "What is that smell? Smells like Daniel's car on a hot day. I hear something too."
As she said that, Sam realized that she too had been vaguely aware of an odor to the air. And, she had to admit, it did smell like Daniel's poor old jeep, which he refused to get rid of despite its terminal oil leak and Cam making fun of it all the time. Poking their heads around the tree trunks cautiously, they looked to see what was causing the odor.
"There, "Daniel said, pointing to a wisp of smoke or steam coming over the top of some bushes nearby.
Making there way cautiously over, keeping an eye on the brush for ebon shapes, they soon found themselves at the edge of a very deep sinkhole. A bit of the edge broke off and tumbled down as they got closer, making them halt a good way from the lip. At first it seemed to be filled partway with very stagnant water. An oily sheen rippled across the surface. Then a fat bubble slowly formed on the surface and popped with a loud "plop" releasing a puff of gas, and Sam realized it wasn't the water that was oily. "It's an oil seep. That's crude oil, with a film of water resting on top. They must be naturally occurring on this planet."
Daniel snorted with mirth. "We could all make enough money to retire if we could only tell people about it. Although, the IOA might still be interested in this find, despite the fact that it isn't naquadah."
Vala perked up. "It's just like this show I watched where this slightly primitive family finds this oil stuff on their property and moves to a snobby city where their neighbors act like they don't like them." She peered over the edge of the seep curiously.
Daniel rolled his eyes and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the fragile rim. "It's official. You are watching too much TV. And would you get away from there before you fall in. Anything that lands in there isn't coming out again." Daniel stiffened, his eyebrows scrunching together in thought.
Sam turned to him as the preverbal light bulb went on in her head. "I've got-"
"an idea." Daniel finished.
...
" Where does it say in the SGC manual on rescues that the rescuers get captured?"
Teal'c, sitting in the corner of their sparsely furnished cell meditating, didn't respond. Not that Cam expected him to. He had been getting a little repetitive over the several hours they had been in here. They had been firmly herded to a side entrance by several of the huge guard dogs, where they had been met by an equally huge man who had divested them of their weapons and all their equipment right down to their wrist watches. There had been no sense in resisting, not with all those teeth around. They had been pushed through a series of hallways with cages and holding pens on each side until they had been unceremoniously shoved through a small door into this room.
Unfortunately, it had taken them all of two minutes to figure out that there was no way out. The door and walls were seamless, with no visible electronics or controls. There were two cots and a wash basin and that was it. White walls. Very boring, kinda like the VIP rooms back at base, only worse. And no windows to let them know what time of day it was. According to Cam's internal clock, they had been in here at least six hours, which was five hours and fifty nine minutes too long by his reckoning, especially given that he still didn't know what was happening to the rest of his team.
What was odd about this whole thing was that no one had talked to them at all. It was a little unnerving. Cam was used to bad guys that monologue at you for a while before telling you exactly what they had in store for you. It seemed to be the order of business in both the big wide universe and bad movies. But the human that had escorted them to this room had said not a word. And the dogs hadn't been saying much either. Teal'c was under the impression that the burly human had been a servant of some kind, and they hadn't met the guy who was running things around here yet.
Well, all he could say was that someone better talk to them soon, 'cause the silence was starting to make him go a little nuts. Not that Teal'c wasn't a stimulating conversationalist, mind you.
He was on the verge of talking to himself again when, for the first time, his wish was granted and something happened. A large screen dropped soundlessly from the ceiling, making Cam jump in a less than dignified manner and bringing Teal'c out of his meditation and to his feet.
"Now we're talking. Time to get some answers." Cam stood in front of the screen. But no gloating head appeared, rather a moment of static followed by three split images, each containing a picture of green jungle. "What the-? Did we order the subscription to the nature channel?" Teal'c merely gave an eloquent shrug, seemingly as mystified as he was.
As they watched, the images began to change, as if connecting to different cameras. Trees, bushes, more trees, a river, almost as if someone was clicking the buttons on a remote, looking for a channel. And suddenly, there they were, the most beautiful thing Cam had seen in awhile, which was strange considering the scene on the left side of the screen was showing an interesting view of what appeared to be Sam and Jackson's backsides.
Jackson was laying on his stomach with the top half of his body disappearing over the edge of some kind of pit in the ground from which eerie looking wisps of gas trickled sporadically. Sam was crouched next to him on her hands and knees, occasionally gesturing or pointing as she talked. Cam was wishing this entertainment center of theirs had sound, 'cause as usual when dealing with his two brilliant teammates, he had absolutely no idea what they were up to. Vala was the only one facing the camera as she stood over the two scientists, covering them. At one point, she seemed to look right at him, then her eyes slid away as she scanned her surroundings.
At least she looked like she was alright, Cam thought. And, from what little he could see of them, Sam and Jackson looked fine too. A great weight slid off his shoulders at that. While he had been confident that his three lost people could handle anything the galaxy sent them, you never knew. Shit happened. Especially to them.
With nothing else to do, he and Teal'c sat down on one of the cots and watched their friends. It was a little odd seeing the same things happening from three different angles, but he was getting used to it. Teal'c appeared to be having no problems, but he also watched way more TV than he did. Come to think of it, Vala watched a lot of television too. Something about it obviously appealed more to aliens than some earthlings. He didn't watch much except sports, and he wasn't sure Jackson even owned a TV.
Sam stood up after awhile, followed by Jackson, both dusting their hands off against their decidedly grubby pants. All three of them looked like they were on day six of basic training, but they were obviously in one piece. He just wished there was some way to tell them he and Teal'c were here, alive and well.
Now things were getting busy on the screen. Sam had cut several branches off of a particularly thick bush and, after stomping on them a few times for some reason, was sweeping the ground around the pit and a ways off camera, as if erasing any evidence of their presence. Then Daniel reappeared, sans shirt. "Damn," Cam thought to himself. "Wish I could get a copy of this video. I could sell it to all the nurses back at the SGC and make a fortune."
Jackson was dragging the shirt on the ground in a definite path near the rim of the hole. He did this until he reached Sam and Vala's position and, after shaking it off a few times, put the now very dirty garment back on. They edged away and disappeared from sight.
Cam shook his head. These were people with a plan, he just wished he knew why the plan was necessary. The were setting a trap for something, and he had the suspicion it was for some of those big black mutts. Is that what this was? Some kind of insane hunt?
For the next half hour or so, nothing happened. Cam's short attention span was getting tired of watching a scene in which the only thing interesting that happened was the occasional puff of steam or something wafting up from the ground. He began to speculate what might be down in that hole. Probably some kind of volcanic phenomenon, like a geyser. Or maybe a tar pit or something. He had visited LA as a kid and had gone to La Brea, and the gas emanating from the hole kind of reminded him of that.
An intake of breath from Teal'c brought his attention back to the screen. One of the huge dog-things was making its way slowly into the camera's view. Its nose was plastered to the ground, following the scent trail laid down by Jackson. Cam was starting to get a pretty good idea of the plan when the animal appeared squarely in the center view. It lifted its head and looked around a few times, then went back to its tracking. Or, it would have if a small explosion didn't make the ground collapse under its feet to send it plunging down into the pit, and suddenly Cam knew what Jackson had been doing hanging up to his armpits in that hole. He must have been planting a small C4 charge down there. Very clever.
Sprays of thick looking goop and scummy water flew into the air as the creature presumably thrashed, but a few minutes later, all was still. A few minutes after that, his three teammates emerged from wherever they had been hiding and cautiously inched over to peer down at their victim. The looks of relief were evidence that the animal was probably dead.
Then things went horribly wrong. A gout of flame erupted from the hole, caused by some residual explosive or the electronics on the animals harness, igniting the gas. Sam and Daniel backed up hastily out of one frame, and in the next could be seen making their way away from the inferno, batting thick smoke from their faces, unaware that Vala wasn't with them any more. Cam cursed when he saw Vala standing frozen, staring at the flames with a deer in headlights look. He could tell she was shaking by the way the muzzle of her gun was bouncing around.
"Dammit, she told me that she was over that whole fire thing. I should have known better, but she gave me the puppy dog eyes when I pressed the issue, and like an idiot I dropped it."
"Vala Mal Doran will not easily admit a weakness, but being burned alive would leave a very lasting scar on ones psyche. She is adept at hiding her fears."
"That girl is adept at hiding a lot of things," Cam muttered. "Come on princess! Get out of there! Oh Shit!"
His shout of encouragement turned to one of horror as a second dog came out of nowhere and launched itself at the woman. At the last second Vala shook herself out of her daze as her instincts took over and she took two big steps to the side. The charging animal checked itself before it overshot its target, and, denied the throat hold it seemed to have been going for, instead went low and closed its jaws on her thigh just above her knee, biting down hard.
Vala was pulled off her feet as her face paled from the pain, and the dog loosed its grip on her leg to finish her, but the feisty woman was not one to go down without a fight. She pulled a knife from somewhere and buried it in the side of the dog's neck, the angry snarl on her face easily equal to the one on her attacker.
"Good girl!" As if she could hear him, she ripped the knife out with a spray of dark blood and slammed it into the black chest above her, slicing through one of the straps on its harness.
The huge animal reared back, mouth open in a soundless yowl, and Vala took the opportunity to try to pull herself out from between its paws. Cam could see the blood soaking the pant leg around her knee, and how stiffly the joint was moving. He could also see how precariously close to the edge of the pit all this was all happening. He was having disturbing visions of the ground collapsing, sending both of them down, when motion from another camera caught his attention. The black blur in one frame turned out to be one Dr. Jackson bursting out of the trees in another.
Cam didn't know how much one of these mutts weighed, but in its off balance and distracted state it was no match for 200 pounds of fast moving, determined archeologist. Jackson hit the animal like a linebacker, shoulder landing low in the area right behind its last rib. Cam swore he saw the dog's feet leave the ground from the force of the blow. It whipped its head around and scored a thin line down Daniel's bicep with a fang, but the gesture was a last gasp. The animal scrabbled futilely at the edge of the still smoking pit for an agonizing second before losing its balance and toppling in to join it's companion in death.
Cam couldn't help letting out a whoop of excitement, as if his football team had just scored a touchdown. "That's my wingman!" he yelled, slapping Teal'c on the shoulder in his exuberance. The stoic Jaffa had one of his rare grins plastered on his face as he watched Jackson scoop Vala off the ground and move off into the trees, Sam following and covering their sixes. Cam couldn't wipe the smile from his face. Some of the other team leaders got a little tired of his bragging, but he'd say it over and over. He had a great team.
His smile did fade however, when, instead of another camera picking up his people's movements, the screen went to fuzz. "Hey! Who's got the remote? I need to see how this ends." He didn't know how badly Vala was hurt, and he still didn't know just where the three of them were in the valley below. His exploration of the screen was fruitless. Damn, no buttons.
He was about to employ the tried and true method of getting a TV to do what you wanted, namely whacking it, when the fuzz cleared and Cam and Teal'c found themselves being studied by the wizened face of an older human. He was strong featured, and had probably once been considered handsome, but now his skin sagged on his face, and his eyebrows could be used as dust mops. He narrowed watery brown eyes as he studied them.
"I'm beginning to believe what some of my contacts have been telling me. You Tau'ri are a troublesome lot." His eyes went to Teal'c "Not to mention Jaffa."
Cam shrugged insolently. It's not like he hadn't heard that before. "We try."
"Since you are dressed similarly, I'm correct in assuming you know those three? They have now cost me two of my best hunters, and disposed of one of my promising youngsters somehow. As much as I enjoy a challenge, if it's always going to be this expensive, I'm going to have to block your address from my gate."
"Might be a good idea. Of course, we have other ways of getting here, like the two of us did. Our ship will be coming back to check on us soon. Handy things, battle cruisers. You ever met an Asguard? I loved those little guys, God rest them. Gave us all sorts of cool stuff, some which go boom when you hit things with them. I would be willing to forget all that if you give me back the rest of my team and take us to the gate. This could end all nice and peaceful like. What do you say?"
The man had the grace to look somewhat confused as Cam rattled on, but then he smirked. "I do believe you're bluffing. There is no way to penetrate the barrier I have around the valley. There is nowhere for you to go. When your friends fall to my hunters, and fall they will, it will be your turn. We will see how confident you are then. Goodbye for now." And with that the screen went blank and slid out of sight in the ceiling.
Cam looked at Teal'c. "That's what I get for wanting to hear some monologing. We need to get out there. I didn't like the look of Vala's leg. That's going to handicap them when more of those mutts go after them. Any ideas?"
"None. This room has no obvious weaknesses. If someone like the servant we encountered before were to open the door, we might be able to overpower him somehow, but if he is accompanied by more of the creatures, it would be unwise to try without our weapons." Teal'c was about to say more when, in one of those eerie coincidences, the door slid open. Cam had just enough time to get into a combat ready stance when all rational thought left him.
Cam had seen some pretty weird stuff since starting this gig. But he decided that nothing in recent history freaked him out more than the sight of one of the great black dog things sitting calmly outside the door, its paw pressed against the release button.
...
TBC