Chapter Seventeen

On board the Portable Field Station, Somerset

Ninian wakes with a start, something had caught his mind's eye, a rustling in the corner like the scurrying of a rat. Not a rat, a bird! The thought pushes all the sleep from his mind and he calls out for Aelix to help him. 'Quick! Quick, before it is too late!' Aelix rushes to his side and helps the Magus from the small bunk room he was resting in through to the main hub of the field station.

Agnes looks up in surprise as the pair arrive. 'Ninian! But you were just here, the rest of the team have followed you after the Naxen...'

'Not me! Some manifestation of Nixor's! We must call them back before it is too late! I will fly after them..'

'No! Wait Ninian, I can contact them by radio, I don't want to lose you two as well...' Agnes tries the communications radio but all she gets is static.

Teal'c, Tara and Kyna have no problem following the trail left by Gryst. It is almost too easy, leading them on a northerly course away from the cave and the gorge, up over the hills. Jack and Daniel follow behind trying to work out where the Naxen creature is going.

'It's the wrong direction for the gate, we're heading north...ish.' Jack stares at his compass for a second or two, trying to get the needle to stop violently spinning.

'Come on, we are going to lose them if we don't speed up.' Daniel glances nervously a the sky as the clouds seem to press down on them. They jog after the other three as rain starts to fall and then turns to a drizzly mist. Soon their visibility is down to a few paces in front.

'I think we've lost them..' Daniel stops jogging and takes a few deep breaths, removing his glasses and wiping the water from the lenses.

'Wait!... There can you hear that?' Jack picks up a shout in the distance. 'Thatta way. Let's go!' He starts off again, picking up speed without waiting for Daniel. Daniel tries to keep up but soon is left behind, the mist now blanketing all sound, the rain obscuring the landscape. Out of breath, Daniel sinks to his knees and tries his radio but all gets is static as the mist closes in on him, crushing the breath from his lungs.

Jack carries on in the direction of the call but soon finds himself wading into a bog, his boots caught in the cloying mud, the sharp reed grass offering no hand holds. The more he wades the deeper he gets and so he stops struggling and reaches for his radio, the static crackling loudly in the damp air.

Teal'c, Tara and Kyna run at a fast pace, hoping to outpace the Naxen and run him down. The ground slowly rises in front of them, climbing up to the brow of a hill. Behind them the mist rolls closer, sucking at their heels. Up in front Tara catches a glimpse of the Naxen on the brow of the hill and she sprints faster, leaping the last few feet in an effort to reach him. The ground falls away below her and in an instant she can see how they have been tricked into running a full circle over the hills back to the cliff of the gorge. There is a scream and blur of greyish scales as Gryst is swallowed by the flood water below and then she is falling out over the cliff.

Kyna screams 'No!' as Tara drops from view and, before Teal'c can react and as they skid to a stop at the cliff edge, she runs up over him in two bounds, diving out to grab Tara's outstretched hand. Instinctively Teal'c grabs Kyna's ankle as she hurtles over him, anchoring himself to the ground with his staff, his feet sliding on the wet ground as Kyna's fingers grasp Tara's wrist and they fall back to the cliff face, scraping painfully to a stop as Teal'c holds fast.

Agnes, Ninian and Aelix listen to the radio static with increasing alarm as no one responds to their messages. Aelix asks, 'Can we find them by where the noise is coming from?'

'That is brilliant Aelix!' Agnes jumps up and runs to the holographic map computers and opens up a new overlay with acoustic mapping. Within a couple of seconds two distinct locations appear on the map. Agnes wastes no time, uploading the coordinates into the sat nav of the field ops lorry and sprinting through to the cab. 'Better strap yourself into the seats back there!' She yells back at Ninian and Aelix. She stares at the controls for a moment or two, trying to familiarise herself with the dashboard, then starts up the engine and slams it into gear, putting her foot on the accelerator and sending the vehicle bucking and coughing across the rocky terrain, she slews the wheel and sets a course straight for the nearest hedge in a direct line towards the points on the sat nav. The truck bulldozers its way through the hedge and across the fields picking up speed as Agnes wrestles with the gears and Ninian and Aelix try and stay in their seats as the vehicle jumps and jolts. By the time they reach the first point on the map, the mist is clearing, revealing Daniel lying lifeless on the ground. Agnes, leaving the engine running, leaps out of the cab to his side, checking for a pulse and softly calling his name. Daniel is barely breathing, his pulse a whisper, his breath rattling as Agnes tries to wake him.

'It is an ill-wind, Agnes. He will recover as soon as the foul breath of Nixor lifts.' Ninian lays a hand gently on Daniel's shoulder. 'Sweet dreams.' The rattling in Daniel's chest eases and he seems to breath more evenly, the pallor on his skin returning. 'I suggest you and Aelix carry him into your mechanised vehicle and we find the next radio signal as quickly as we can.'

By the time they reach Jack, the mist has risen to reveal him stuck in a bog, the mud has risen to his chest. Ages backs up the lorry as close as she can without losing traction on the soggy ground and then she and Aelix search for a rope or chain they can use, finding a coiled length of climbing rope and attaching it firmly to the truck. 'Commander Jack, here, catch this and slip it under your arms!' Aelix expertly lassos Jack and he wearily pulls it over his head and arms. The mud seems to sense he is being rescued and Jack can feel his body being pulled further down, the mud creeping up over his chest towards his chin, beginning to solidify. 'You'd better hurry, this stuff isn't hanging around, it's setting like cement!'

Kyna feels as though her arm is about to be wrenched from it's socket but she refuses to let go, despite Tara commanding her to do it. 'This is madness Kyna, let me go, I command it as your Queen, Save yourself and Teal'c, I will take my chances on the rocks and water below.'

'No, my Queen! I am now a Valkyr guard, sworn to protect you, I will not let go!'

'If you two do not stop arguing, I will let go!' The stern voice of Teal'c filters down from the cliffs above. 'It is not helpful to consider how we may die, we must consider how we may save ourselves. Can you find a foothold on the cliff, Tara, Queen of Epona.'

Tara tries to reach out with her foot across the smooth surface of the rock, finding little to help her. As Tara moves she swings slightly and, despite her efforts, Kyna cries out in pain and Teal'c can feel his feet slip a little nearer to the crumbling cliff edge. He glances round but there is nothing to help, no tree, shrub or rock nearby. His feet slip again, despite bracing with all his strength against his staff, time is fast running out.

Back in the field ops lorry the rest of the team try the radio again but there is no static and no reply. They have no idea where Teal'c, Kyna and Tara are. 'Let me fly out and find them, the dragon's breath has lifted, I will be able to find them from the air.' Ninian is about to transform when the holographic map lights up with a huge acoustic reading a mile or so from where they are. 'That is not good!' Jack heads immediately for the cab, yelling over his shoulder,'Ma'Tok staff blast!'

At the moment the cliff edge crumbles away to nothing under his feet, Teal'c swings his Ma'Tok staff downwards towards the water below and, as the three of them plummet down the cliff face, he fires, sending an enormous ball of water up towards them, the surface exploding into a fountain of spray and blast shock wave, dissipating their fall just enough to let them dive into the water below without breaking their necks. First Teal'c, then Kyna and finally Tara surface as the flood waters settle back to flat calm after the explosion.