Sticks and Stones – Chapter 34 - by Emma Nisbet (grnfield)
Sam and Lou started to crawl slowly along the passage, their way lit only by shafts of light entering the passage through the air vents in the rooms below. The shaft and it's connecting passageways were cramped and claustrophobic but luckily both Sam and Ferretti were small enough to crawl along them without too many problems. At one point, when they reached a particularly tight angle, Lou sent up a quick thank-you to the heavens for his small Italian genes - had he been as muscular as his team-mate Greg Bell then he'd have been in serious risk of getting stuck trying to get around some of the unyielding corners.
After what seemed like hours of crawling through the twisting and turning tunnels neither Sam nor Lou had a clue which way they were going but both realised that stopping was out of the question. They kept on crawling, hoping that they would soon spot a recognisable landmark in one of the rooms as they passed over them.
Once they had got their bearings they decided to head for the pel'tak. Sands and Davies were supposed to have been on their way there to position some C4 close to the crystals near the main control console and neither Sam nor Lou had heard from them since. The resulting explosion, on what was equivalently the bridge of the large ship, would have been the most crucial factor in the destruction of the Ha'tak. Even if none of the other packets of C4 went off this one would have single-handedly crippled the vessel, rendering it uncontrollable and leaving it open to attack by any other ships that happened to pass by. The ring transporter would obviously still be a viable escape route but the only place any escapees could go would be down to the planet below. Their only option after that would be to head for the gate which was, at present, still guarded by the contingent of Marines. Both the Colonel and the Major hoped against hope, that the explosive device had been successfully put in place but realised that neither of them had a way of verifying whether it had or not.
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A piercing alarm rendered the pair temporarily deaf as they crawled through the ducts serving the Jaffa sleeping quarters and Sam's heart plummeted as she immediately assumed Davies and Sands had been discovered. In the gloom of the tunnel she glanced at Lou and saw that, from the look on his face, he had obviously come to the same awful conclusion.
After a very short time they heard the rhythmic tramping of many Jaffa boots and the accompanying clanks and jangles that followed the large warriors wherever they went. Lying in their duct, Sam and Lou looked through an air vent, set into the ceiling of a corridor. As they passed underneath them, the pair counted the twenty-four Jaffa who had undoubtedly come up from the planet below.
Each of the warriors had their helmets retracted so their faces were on view and Sam noted that they appeared to look at ease - well as much at ease as could ever be said for the stoic faces of the enemy warriors. Looking at her watch she realised the two dozen warriors were right on time. Sam, Lou, Sands and Davies had spent much longer on the ship than they'd originally intended but Sam was buoyed by the fact that Teal'c and his men had obviously carried out their charade successfully and had not been discovered.
Not far past where Sam and Lou were hiding was a large pair of ornate doors. All twenty-four Jaffa passed through and the doors closed behind them, blocking them from view with a satisfying clunk.
Almost as soon as the doors closed a rumbling was felt throughout the ship. Sam gripped Lou's hand briefly as she realised the ship was preparing to lift off and assume it's nightly orbit around the planet. Ferretti gave her hand a gentle squeeze before setting off further down the passageway in an attempt to see exactly what the Jaffa had planned for the evening's entertainment.
They knew from their previous discussions with Teal'c that the Jaffa would have a suite of rooms in the Ha'tak purely for their own personal use. These rooms would be used for eating, sleeping and recreational purposes and the Goa'uld would never enter this part of the ship under any circumstances. Within these rooms the Jaffa were 'free' and equivalently off-duty; it was safe for them to bond with others in their unit and sparring matches and tournaments were common place. The Jaffa would remain within these rooms for the entire night and would not leave unless specifically summoned by their God.
Sam and Lou crept cautiously through the ducting above the Jaffa's main room. They headed for a large vent that was positioned roughly in the centre of the ceiling as this would enable them a clear view of the room below.
As they peered downwards their senses were almost overloaded with a riot of colours and odours. Large tables had been placed in the middle of the room and were piled high with food and drink of so many variations it almost made Sam's head spin with the decadence of it all. She saw that the shock she felt was also clear on Ferretti's facial features. Looking at the thin line of his tightly clenched lips she knew he was thinking the same thoughts that she was - the Jaffa were up here living the life of luxury with more food than they could conceivably eat over several nights while the Chamakans were being forced to sleep on the floor of a cold rocky valley with only one undersized meal of porridge to sustain them each day.
Neither Sam nor Lou could stomach the thought of seeing the Jaffa enjoying their meal while so many people were suffering on the planet below them. Neither Tau'ri had eaten in many hours but both felt nauseous at the thought of consuming anything at that time.
Silently they slunk back down the passage, only pausing once they cleared the Jaffa suite and reached the relative safety of the ducting above the corridor outside.
They stayed in the duct above the corridor for a while, verifying what Teal'c had told them before - that the Jaffa would remain in their rooms unless order out. When no movement was seen, and after a whispered discussion, Sam opened the nearest access hatch and Lou carefully lowered her down into the corridor. She grinned briefly to herself when she realised the stupidity of the Goa'uld - why had they had never thought of stealing CCTV technology from any of the many races that they had conquered?
Carefully she crept to the door behind which the two dozen large warriors were housed and swiftly deactivated the control panel. This would effectively lock the Jaffa inside the suite of rooms and therefore slow them down a great deal should the alarm be raised if Sam and Lou, or indeed Sands and Davies be discovered.
She returned to the hatch where she knew Lou was waiting in the ducting and after a bit of struggling and a few choice words they finally got Sam back up into the passageway. The two team-mates lay panting quietly in the duct and waited to get their breath back before setting off to find the other door to the Jaffa's rooms.
After a few false starts she and Lou managed to locate the far side of the Jaffa suite. They travelled quickly but quietly through the passages although by this time the Jaffa were far too worse for wear to care about a few random noises in the air vents above them.
It seemed the Jaffa had a vast supply of some type of seemingly alcoholic beverage and it looked like they were all very fond of it as well. Sam knew it couldn't actually be alcoholic because the symbiotes didn't react well to liquor so she wondered if this was gro'nak. Over the years Teal'c had regaled her with tales of when he had been in the service of Apophis and she remembered him mentioning a drink that allowed the Jaffa to become 'pleasantly inebriated' with no risk to the larval Goa'uld that they carried. Either way it couldn't be a bad thing that the Jaffa seemed to be under the influence of an intoxicating substance. Should they be called upon to fight then their ability would certainly be affected - this and the fact that the Jaffa were now effectively trapped with their quarters - were both good things in Sam's eyes.