Chapter 13: The Ruins
Ruins near crashed Al-Kesh, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)
A dozen creatures? As large as Adora? In her She-Ra form? Catra refrained from scoffing. She couldn't be overconfident. That way lay defeat. And death. But, still… "Creatures?" she asked.
"Looked like… some bear," O'Neill replied. "Just sleeker."
"Like a big cat, though without a tail," Teal'c added.
Had O'Neill hesitated to call it a cat because of her and Melog? Catra snorted. As if she'd take offence to that. "So, they've got us surrounded," she said. "Smart of them."
"That's typical pack predator behaviour," Daniel pointed out. "It's mostly instinct."
Melog growled. Goa'uld. One.
Catra tensed. "Melog's sensing a Goa'uld," she hissed.
"A Goa'uld? But we haven't…" Daniel trailed off. "So they did take an animal as host!" he blurted out.
That was obvious, of course.
"And they are the leader of a pack of man-sized predators. Amazon-sized, actually," O'Neill said, nodding at Adora.
Catra snorted at the mention of those mythical warrior-women from Earth. So much to tease Adora about.
Adora frowned. "What are they doing?"
"They're coming closer - they're using the ruins as cover," Entrapta said.
"Tell us before they get on the roof," O'Neill said. "They might attempt to draw our attention to the front, where we can see them, and sneak up on us from behind."
That would be a good tactic - there were no windows at the back. Catra looked up at the roof. It had several holes in it.
"Don't!" Adora hissed.
Catra rolled her eyes at her lover. "I can handle a creature or two." Especially with her shock-rod.
"Leave them to me. You go after the Goa'uld with Melog."
Catra blinked. That was actually a better plan than ambushing some creatures on the roof. But… "You're going to play distraction, right?"
Adora grinned at her. "Of course."
Catra gritted her teeth. It made sense, but she loathed it. Adora was risking herself again - or sacrificing herself.
"No one's rushing out without a plan!" O'Neill snapped.
"Just hurry up with the plan," Entrapta said. "They're almost here." Her hair pointed at the wall in the back.
"Oh for…" O'Neill clenched his teeth. "Adora, take them on the roof. We'll keep the front clear."
"And we're going to sneak out in the confusion and grab the leader," Catra said, patting Melog on the head.
Yes, they growled.
"Let's do it!" Adora jumped before she finished talking, straight through a hole in the roof, her shoulders knocking dirt and stone fragments loose as they pushed against the edges of the hole.
A moment later, a dozen creatures roared, and Entrapta yelled: "They're coming!"
Catra heard a dull noise followed by a screech - Adora had swatted or kicked one creature off the roof. Shaking her head, she looked at the hole herself, then jumped.
She had no problem fitting through the hole and easily landed on all fours on the roof, drawing her shock-rod at once. But Adora had the situation in hand - and one of the creatures, holding it at the neck while it tried to twist enough to reach her with its claws. Another jumped on the roof, claws the size of Catra's fingers digging into the stone as it turned to attack her.
Catra dashed forward, her own claws keeping her from slipping, and hit it with the shock-rod. The creature howled, froze for a moment, then collapsed.
"Catra!" Adora snapped, kicking another creature off the roof.
"I had to check if it worked," Catra defended herself.
Hunt.
Melog jumped off the roof.
Catra sighed and followed them. Behind her, shots rang out and the sounds of staff-weapon fire. And more howling. Well, she had a task to do. A snake to hunt down.
Melog was ahead, turning around the corner of the next hut, and Catra ran faster to catch up. Cover worked both ways, but Melog could sense the Goa'uld.
They weaved through the village, the sounds of fighting not lessening. The howling didn't stop either. That was how the Goa'uld led the others, Catra realised. That meant they were watching the fight.
She spotted the creature on the roof of the building at the edge of the village when they were about twenty yards away still. If they were fixated on the fighting, they could take them from behind by surprise.
Danger! Melog hissed.
Catra whirled. One of the creatures was pouncing on her, already in the air, claws out. Catra threw herself to the side, lashing out with her shock-rod but missing the creature as it flew past, crashing into the ground a yard away.
It quickly turned around, howling, but Catra was already moving towards it. Its claws dug into the earth, muscles twitching - Catra dropped to the ground, sliding the last yard as the creature jumped overhead. She rammed the rod straight up. This time, she didn't miss, and the creature collapsed in a heap behind her.
But the Goa'uld had watched - and was turning away. Trying to run. Melog was already racing toward it.
Catra cursed and gave chase.
Jack O'Neill fired a burst at the creature charging at the hut, catching it in mid-leap. The cat-thing roared and hit the dirt, rolling around with flailing limbs. Teal'c put a shot with his staff into it, and it fell silent. That was the third they had taken down so far.
The rest of the creatures withdrew back behind the huts around them. Smart. Too smart for Jack's taste. "Are we sure that those aren't Goa'uld?" he asked as he switched his magazine.
"I do not sense anything, Sir," Carter replied from the other side of the room.
That would have to do with the cat-detector away. "OK, we're currently holding the hut, but not doing any better…" he started to say.
"They're leaving!" Entrapta blurted out.
"What?" Jack turned to look down the street. He caught a shadow moving behind the huts. "Running north?"
"Yes!"
Damn. "They're after Catra!" Jack snapped. "We need to…"
Once more, he was interrupted.
"Catra!" Adora yelled. Then the hut shook a little, and dirt fell down from the roof - the amazon must have jumped off.
A moment later, he saw Adora land in the middle of the 'street' and running towards Catra's last known position.
Great.
"Should we move after them?" Teal'c asked.
"This might be a trap," Jack pointed out. "If we get caught in the open by those monsters…"
Daniel winced as Carter nodded in agreement.
"On the other hand, we just lost our roof cover," Jack went on. "If the creatures return, we can't keep them out." He looked at Teal'c. "You take point. Daniel, Entrapta, Carter - after him. I will bring up the rear."
Teal'c was already out and moving, not nearly as fast as he could run. Jack shooed Daniel and Entrata out, then nodded at Carter.
The dust thrown up by Adora was just settling when Jack left the hut, scanning left and right with his M4 at the ready. "The creatures are still headed north," Entrapta said.
"Good. Move it!"
Teal'c sped up a little, and they quickly passed the next huts. Jack caught a glimpse of Adora at the last hut - she was…
…throwing one of the creatures away. High enough so Jack didn't think the monster would survive the experience. "I bet she could out-mortar a mortar," he commented as they closed in on the last hut. He wasn't sure if he was joking.
"Catra!" Adora yelled again. Two creatures were on the ground next to her, Jack saw.
"We need to catch the Goa'uld!" That was Catra. But he couldn't see her from this spot.
Jack clenched his teeth.
Adora jumped over the hut, presumably after Catra, and more howling and growling followed.
Teal'c cleared the corner and raised his staff, firing before Jack reached him. A howling noise told him that Teal'c had hit one of the creatures.
"Carter, keep them safe!" Jack snapped before he turned the corner, keeping low.
Something moved in the bush to his right, and Jack almost put a burst into it. But he didn't know where the two cats on his side were.
The creature crashing through the bush was neither Catra nor Melog, and Jack fired another burst at it as he dived to the side.
The monster overshot, sliding a few yards from sheer momentum, and as it whirled, Carter put several rounds into it. It collapsed in a growing pool of blood.
Another ran out from the back of the hut, claws digging into the soil, but Jack stopped it with a burst to the head before it could close with them. A third tried to run, but Teal'c got it before it reached the next bush.
Jack stood as Teal'c passed him. "How many of them are left?"
"Uh… three! Not including the one Catra and Adora are chasing!" Entrapta replied.
Three? They could take three.
"One on the roof!" Entrapta yelled.
Jack whirled, raising his gun, as the monster jumped off the roof, straight at him. Jack's rounds went wide as he dived into a combat roll forward, barely avoiding the claws of the thing.
He came up with his M4 swinging around, but the monster was too fast. Instead of shooting it, Jack slammed the muzzle of his gun into the side of its head.
And that didn't stop it from crashing into him.
Jack tried to roll with the punch and pulled his legs in, kicking out as he hit the ground, and the creature flew past him - directly in the blast of Teal'c's staff.
That was… Jack hissed in pain, checking his chest. The claws had sliced through his vest and webbing and into his shoulder. It bled, but it wasn't very deep - it only hurt a little...
"Colonel!"
"Jack!"
"There are two left!" Jack snapped.
"One," Entrapta corrected him. "And it's running north."
Then Carter was opening his vest and pushing it away, revealing his wound. She winced.
"It's not bad," Jack told her. It didn't really hurt much.
Carter shook her head.
"Jack!" Daniel hissed. "I can see the bone!"
"What?" That made no sense. That would hurt a lot more.
Jack blinked. It didn't hurt at all, now. "Oh. My side's going numb."
"The claws must have some poison!" Carter spat through clenched teeth.
"Antidote!" Daniel snapped, patting his webbing down.
"I doubt it's a nerve gas," Jack told him. And if it wasn't, then the antidote would only make things worse.
"Adora!" Entrapta yelled. "Jack's hurt badly!"
A moment later, her voice, much, much louder, repeated her words.
Jack blinked again, then grinned. "That's a real handy thing…" He snorted, then coughed. Breathing got kind of harder…
"Adora! Jack's hurt badly!"
Adora clenched her teeth as she heard Entrapta's shout. The fleeing Goa'uld and his last creature were barely ahead of her - she could see them. She had almost caught up. But Entrapta wouldn't yell like this if Jack didn't need help right now.
"Go! We can handle them!" Catra passed her, Melog at her side.
Adora cursed under her breath. They were right. She loathed it - Catra was risking herself fighting two of those creatures, one of them a Goa'uld - but they were right.
"Don't get killed!" she yelled and turned around, running all-out back to the ruins.
The area was littered with the corpses of the creatures, many of them smoking - SG-1 had taken out a lot of them. But… there! Jack was on the ground, Carter kneeling with him and… kissing him? No, breathing into his mouth.
"He's been poisoned," Entrapta told her. "The claws of the creatures are coated with venom."
They were? Adora hadn't noticed. Then again, she hadn't let them scratch her. Her eyes widened, and she looked back over her shoulder. Catra didn't know about that!
"His body is shutting down," Carter gasped before breathing into Jack's mouth again.
"We've got an antidote, but we don't know if it'll help or make it worse," Daniel said.
"My scans are inconclusive - I've never encountered this kind of venom before," Entrapta added, biting her lower lip. "So…"
Adora nodded and pointed her sword at Jack. Then she closed her eyes and focused on her magic. Her power. Jack needed to be healed.
She opened her eyes again, and a wave of magic shot out from the tip of her sword and into Jack.
He tensed, gasping and choking, his eyes shooting open, while her magic worked on him. After a few seconds, she lowered her sword.
Jack gulped down air, panting and coughing. "That… that was…"
"Sir! Don't move!" Carter snapped. "You're hurt and poisoned."
"I don't feel hurt any more," Jack replied, blinking. He glanced at the bandage on his chest. "And I don't feel numb any more either."
"Sir!"
"Jack!"
But Jack pulled the bandage away, revealing smooth skin underneath it. "So that's magical healing. Wow."
Adora nodded. "I can heal people." And plants. And animals, probably.
"Thanks. I thought I was a goner." He smiled, then looked at Carter. "Kept me alive, huh?"
"I rendered first aid, but…" Carter tilted her head. "We were about to hit you with an antidote."
"Ah." Jack nodded.
Adora looked at Entrapta. "Any trace of the poison left?"
"Uh… not that I can tell. But I didn't notice the venom on their claws before."
Adra nodded. "I'll be back." She dashed away. Catra was still out there, alone with just Melog, fighting creatures with poisoned claws. If anything happened to her…
She ran through scraggly bushes, up a dune - there were tracks in the sand! Pawprints and Catra's footprints. From the crest of the dune, she could see a forest in the distance - and Catra fighting a creature. Damn!
Adora ran as fast as she could, down the slope, cursing at the sand slowing her down. Catra needed her help!
She panted as she reached the bottom of the dune, briefly losing sight of Catra, then sped up, sand getting thrown up with every step she took. She reached the next crest, and there was Catra, facing a creature trying to circle around her. Her shock-rod crackled, but the creature jumped back.
Adora snarled and charged with her sword. The creature saw her coming and whirled, trying to flee, but Adora threw her sword. The blade caught it in mid-jump, spearing its side, and the creature collapsed in the sand.
"Melog's gone after the Goa'uld!" Catra snapped.
Careful! They have poison on their claws!" Adora told her as she summoned her sword again.
"Really?" Catra scoffed. "This way."
"Jack almost died," Adora told her as they raced up the next dune, following Melog's tracks.
"I heard Entrapta yelling."
That wasn't the point! "Let me fight it!" Adora snapped.
"I've got the shock-rod! We need the Goa'uld alive!"
"I can take them alive!" Adora could!
"And what if you get poisoned? Who's going to heal you?" Catra snarled.
"I won't get poisoned."
"Neither will I!" Catra shot back.
They reached the crest of the next dune and stopped. The Goa'uld wasn't moving any more - it was standing in the sand, looking at… nothing?
"Oh!" Catra whispered. "Melog got it caught in an illusion."
Right. Melog could do that.
Catra grinned. "See? Easy!" She sauntered - sauntered! - down the slope, walking casually up to the Goa'uld, twirling her shock-rod.
Adora followed her, scowling. This was too easy.
Catra smirked at her. Then she stuck the creature in the side. Crackling electricity warped over the creature, and it howled.
But it didn't go down - it whirled, lashing out with its claws.
Catra jumped back, snarling, and dodged the swipe. "Want another one? Here!" She lunged, giving the creature another shock. "Tough bastard!"
This time, the creature went down, twitching and groaning. They had… It opened its mouth, and a small thing flew out of it - and at Catra.
Before Adora could react, Catra swatted at it with her free hand - and sliced it in half with her claws. "Damn," she spat, grimacing at the sight of a bisected snake in the sand.
"So much for catching them alive," Adora said.
"It was a reflex!" Catra defended herself. "I didn't expect the idiot to charge me like that!"
"Right!"
The Colonel was safe. Healed. Samantha Carter couldn't help staring at his chest. Instead of a gaping wound that exposed the bones beneath, there was only smooth skin covering muscles. She raised her hand, then lowered it. She wouldn't poke the skin like some… whatever.
"Amazing," Daniel whispered. "I mean, they told us about magical healing, but to see it like this…"
"We've seen Goa'uld healing devices before," the Colonel said. He was poking his chest, of course, and Sam couldn't help thinking that he looked a little shaken. "Remember Kendra?"
"But she required a Goa'uld Healing Device," Daniel replied. "This was just magic. Unless the sword is a healing device."
"You know of devices that can heal?" Entrapta stepped in front of Daniel and the Colonel, eyes shining. "Without magic?"
"Yessss?" The Colonel looked like he was facing down another dangerous creature.
"Fascinating! Where can we get them? It would revolutionise healthcare if we didn't need sorceresses any more for healing!"
"Well, from the Goa'uld, but I believe they are quite rare," Daniel told her. "And you need a high concentration of Naquadah in your blood to use them, or so we believe."
That was the common theory, Sam knew. If it was true, then she might be able to use such a device herself, after her possession. She wasn't quite sure if that was a good or bad thing - she was a scientist, not a doctor.
"Really?"
"The only one we saw using one was a former Goa'uld host," the Colonel said as he tried to close his shirt. Which Sam had cut off in her haste to save him.
"Oh. I wonder how that works. In any case, that shouldn't be a problem - we can insert Naquadah into people's bodies, can't we? In safe doses." Entrapta leaned forward with a smile.
"Well…" The Colonel grimaced and looked at Sam.
"We don't know if that is possible without a Goa'uld being present in the body, nor do we know what would be a safe dose," she explained.
"Then we'll have to find out!" Entrapta beamed at her. "This will be great!"
"We would have to find a Goa'uld with such a device, first," the Colonel said. "I doubt that anyone on this planet has such a device."
"Indeed." Teal'c nodded. "Absent a Goa'uld, such a mission would not have included such a device."
"Yeah, right. So, has anyone seen our resident magical girl?" The Colonel looked around as he pulled on his webbing. Or tried to. Sam had cut through that as well.
"Oh, let me fix that!" Entrapta's hair reached out and pulled the damaged webbing to her - and with it the Colonel.
"Hey!"
"It won't take long!" And the princess was wielding pliers and… was that a welding kit?
Sam took a step closer and watched while she reattached the torn webbing.
"There!"
"Uh, thanks." The Colonel looked bemused. "But honestly, where are Adora and Catra?"
"Oh!" Entrapta pulled out her main tool - Sam really had to copy that - and fiddled with it. "They're… coming back to us."
And there they were. Adora and Catra, and Melog. They looked unhurt, but Catra looked angry, and Adora looked… amused?
"Did the snake get away?" the Colonel asked.
"Not exactly," Adora replied, glancing at Catra.
Catra rolled her eyes. "They surprised me, and…" She held up her hand. A Goa'uld dangled from it. No, two halves of a Goa'uld dangled from her fingers.
"Ah." The Colonel nodded. "Better safe than sorry, trust me - you don't want a snake burrowing into you.
Sam shuddered at the memories that brought up.
"Would've still been great to capture one for interrogation," Catra said.
"They would've needed a host to communicate," Sam pointed out.
"We could've stuck them in an animal and made them write out answers," Catra replied. "Well, there should be other snakes on the planet, right? One per dead Jaffa?"
"Unless they fought amongst each other," Daniel told her. With a grimace, he added: "This one might have consumed the others."
"Ew." Catra and Adora made faces. Catra frowned at the corpse.
"Well, we can still find out information from a corpse!" Entrapta said.
Sam hoped she meant an autopsy. But with magic - and with Entrapta - it was hard to tell.
"Go wild," Catra said, handing the two parts over.
"Yes!" Entrapta's head bopped as she nodded.
"But maybe do that after we searched the tombs?" Daniel asked. "Searched for them, I mean."
"The dead won't move," Catra told him.
"But if there are more Goa'uld survivors on the planet, then they will now know of our presence here," Daniel retorted. "We should find the graveyard quickly. Before more of those creatures arrive."
That was a good argument.
"I'll have to preserve the corpse, though," Entrapta said. "Let's go back to the shuttle and put it in the freezer!"
"The freezer?" The Colonel asked with a grin. "Not some fancy magical stasis field?"
"Oh, no. Those require a sorcerer or sorceress to set up," Entrapta replied. "That's kinda bothersome if you don't have one with you."
"Ah, of course." The Colonel forced a smile on his face.
Sam couldn't help but grin at this - he should know better than to assume anything about the Etherians by now.
Crashed Al-Kesh, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)
Standing on the ramp of the shuttle, Catra fiddled with the sanitiser. Blood on her claws was the worst. If she forgot about it and retracted her claws, it would get all icky. And if she didn't, it dried, and she had to scrape it off her claws. Which was a pain with both claws out.
"Let me help." Adora reached out to her.
Catra turned away with a scowl. "I can clean myself up, thank you very much." She didn't need any help - this should be natural. She'd done it before, even once when she had hurt Adora, and… Not going there.
"Please!"
Perhaps she should start licking the claws clean. That would show Adora that she wasn't helpless.
"Let me do this for you." Adora grabbed her shoulder and gently turned her around.
Catra found herself staring at Adora's smiling face. So close to her own, and so… so… "Fine!" she spat, feeling herself blush a little as she thrust both claws and bottle into her lover's face.
Adora beamed at her and quickly started cleaning her claws.
Catra tried not to fidget too much. This reminded her of the time she had gotten her hand hurt in training, and Adora had sneaked a bottle of disinfectant to treat it.
She wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.
"There!"
Catra flexed her claws, cocking her head to inspect them, then retracted them and unsheathed them several times in a row. "Looks fine." She bared her fangs. "I can slice the next snake now."
"Catra!"
"I'm joking!" she said and nodded at the interior of the shuttle. "Did they store the corpse?"
"I think so." Adora frowned. "Didn't you hear them?"
She had been distracted. Catra shrugged. "I was focusing on watching you."
"Oh."
Now Adora was blushing as well.
"Alright! Now that the snake's on ice, let's go check the graveyard, so Daniel stops fidgeting."
"Jack!"
"What? You were fidgeting."
"We only have an approximative location," Catra heard Daniel complain as the others approached them. "We don't know if the tombs are there - or if there are tombs. Some cultures leave their dead for the carrion eaters."
Ew. That sounded gross.
"What's wrong, Catra?"
Catra turned to look at Adora. "Daniel just explained that some people leave their dead for the carrion eaters to dispose of."
"Ew!"
"It's actually a fascinating religious practice," Daniel explained as he stepped on the ramp. "And not any grosser than, say, mummification."
"Mummification?" Adora asked.
Daniel explained.
Ew. Those Earth people were weird.
"Anyway, we're going to fly to the location," Daniel said. "So…"
"Yeah, let's go," Catra said.
The flight didn't take long - a minute including take-off and landing - and soon they were looking at a hill.
"Well, there are empty spaces inside the hill, according to my scanner. So, either natural caves or tombs," Entrapta said.
"And they hid the entrance?" Adora asked.
"Probably to deter grave robbers, although that seems not quite effective if scanners still show the graves. And, of course, if the graves were meant to be found by their system lord, hiding the entrance without some hint or clue might be counter-productive," Daniel explained. "The closeness to the wreck would make it easy to find."
"Yeah, yeah. The question is: Can we find the entrance?" O'Neill asked.
"It should be here," Entrapta said, pointing ahead. "There's a tunnel behind the rock there."
Catra turned to Adora. "Well, get moving and lifting."
Adora pouted at her but started walking towards the rock. Catra followed her, together with the others.
The rock was double the size of her and didn't seem to have any convenient handholds - probably rolled in place with the help of a lever. Adora didn't bother with either - she reached around it, grabbed it somehow, and heaved.
She turned, took a step and dropped the rock on the ground, where it rolled a little to the side.
Catra was already looking at the tunnel opening she had revealed. It was rough - almost like a natural cave. But the walls and the ceiling were…
"They must have burned their way in. This wasn't drilled or built," Daniel said.
"Yeah. I didn't expect stonework after the mud huts," O'Neill commented. "But this must have cost a lot of power."
"Several staff weapons' worth," Teal'c confirmed.
"So…" O'Neill looked at them. "It was important."
"Yes." Daniel nodded.
"Not important enough to make nice walls with big hieroglyphs praising their lord, though," O'Neill went on.
Daniel blinked. "That might just be the entrance, trying to look natural."
"With a big rock in front of it. And people would still explore a natural cave. It's what we do." O'Neill shook his head.
Catra agreed with him. Who wouldn't explore a cave like this, natural or not? "So, it's trapped."
O'Neill grinned. "I think so. And I doubt it's a big round rock that Daniel can outrun."
"Jack!"
"You'd need a hat and a whip, anyway."
"Jack!"
Ah. Again a reference to the 'movie' they mentioned. "So… do we spring the trap, or do we try to find it and dismantle it?" Catra asked.
"I would suggest we do it the way that won't get us hurt," O'Neill replied with a toothy smile.
Of course, Adora just had to speak up. "Oh, I think I can take it."
Tombs, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)
Playing Indiana Jones. It wasn't the first time, it probably wouldn't be the last, but it wasn't funny and would never be. Jack O'Neill knew that. The snakes - the Jaffa, in this case - would have left some nasty surprises to deal with anyone entering whatever they had been hiding here who wasn't their master. And now Adora was talking tough.
"You might be wrong," Jack told her. "The Jaffa probably rigged this to defend against the Goa'uld you killed."
"Yes?" Adora looked as if she didn't get what that meant.
"It means that whatever measures they took, they planned to defend against a supernaturally tough creature that could keep coming at them as long as they survived to possess a new body," Carter explained.
"Resetting traps?" Daniel, of course, looked surprised. "How would they manage that? Without us detecting that, I mean."
Which was a good question. Jack looked at Carter.
"They could have found a way to shield the traps' power supplies. Or they might have used an Ancient Device. That is less likely, of course. And I doubt they would have anticipated magical sensors. But the most obvious solution is that they would have rigged a charge to destroy the entire facility in case of an unauthorised breach," Carter said.
That, at last, gave Adora pause. And made Catra scowl. "See?" the catwoman said. "Don't blindly charge in."
"I wasn't planning to!" Adora retorted. "But if anything goes wrong, I'm the one most likely to survive it."
"You're also the one most likely to heal people if something goes wrong," Catra shot back.
"Right. So how about we don't risk people at all?" Jack asked, looking at Entrapta.
"Oh! I can rig up a remote-controlled bot! That way, we don't risk anyone getting hurt!" The Princess beamed. "Though my scanners don't show any bomb big in the hill. No Naquadah. No reactor."
"Did you check for chemical charges?" Jack asked.
"Oh…" Entrapta pulled out her scanner thingie again. "Oh! There's some large space filled with a compound that would combust very easily."
"They've rigged the tomb to blow," Jack said.
"But what are they hiding in there if it doesn't have Naquadah?" Daniel shook his head. "Ancient Tech is based on that metal, isn't it?"
"Normally, yes," Carter told him. "But there's no indication that they had to use it for everything. Although if they didn't, the odds of anything surviving so long are… not very high."
"You can say 'zero', Carter," Jack said.
"There's always a chance, Sir."
He didn't sigh, but he smiled. "Yes. And we've found that out the hard way before. So… we need to find a way to defuse that bomb. Preferably without standing in front of the tunnel opening, which will channel the blast." He turned to Entrapta. "Show me the data, please."
To her credit, she didn't argue and showed him the setup with a portable holographic display. The geeks at Stargate Command would faint if offered such a device. Focus, Jack, he reminded himself. He wasn't a scientist, and he had no clue about Ancient Tech, but he knew a lot about explosives. And if Entrapta's magic scanner didn't pick up Naquadah or anything nuclear, then the Jaffa must have used chemical explosives to trap the tomb. Maybe even homebrewed from stuff available in the ship.
And Jack was quite familiar with those kinds of explosives. Had brewed up some of his own on some missions. He studied the plans, walking around the display. There was a thin wall between the explosives and the rest of the installation. The explosion would completely wreck the area. Might crack the hill too - Jack had seen what happened to underground armouries if something blew up. "We need to get a lot further away to be safe," he said. "Unless we want to risk getting crushed by flying debris the size of tanks."
"I can protect us against that," Adora said.
Catra elbowed her. "You don't have to because we'll be safe in the shuttle."
"And how do you disarm it?" Entrapta asked. "It looks like the trigger here is… oh… connected to the trigger there, and…"
"Interconnected triggers," Jack said. "Rigged to blow if anyone single one gets tampered with. But they're old. Might not work as planned any more."
"And the chemicals might have degraded," Carter added.
"Becoming inert - or unstable," Jack said. They would have to be very, very careful there. "You don't have a way to magically turn explosives into plants or so?"
"Uh…" Adora bit her lower lip. "I don't think so."
Pity. That would've been great.
"Then we need to take out all triggers simultaneously," Jack said.
"Oh! Multiple remote-controlled bots!" Entrapta beamed. "That should be a challenge. Although I suppose if I program them correctly, they can all execute a predetermined sequence of actions at the same time. Each would need their own code, of course, and the signal lag…"
"Since signal lag will be a factor, but the orders won't be time-critical," Carter cut in, "what about having synchronised clocks in each bot, so they can execute orders at the same time?"
"Obviously, yes! Though we might have to repurpose some scanners to synchronise the clocks. Perhaps if we use a crystal as the…"
Jack purposely tuned the technobabble out. It wasn't as if he would be able to follow it once the two women started discussing the nuts and bolts of the task. "Alright, folks - let's move to the shuttle for safety's sake," he said, clapping his hands.
As safe as you could be, at least, when Carter and Entrapta started building experimental tech.
"They're still at it."
Sitting on the shuttle's ramp, looking at the hill, Adora turned her head and looked at Catra as her lover joined her, handing over a cup of tea. "Thanks."
She took the cup in both hands and sipped. Almost too hot. Adora blew on the liquid.
Catra snorted and swallowed half her own cup.
"Cats are supposed to be more sensitive to heat."
Catra snorted as Daniel joined them, another cup of tea in his hand. "Cat's aren't supposed to do what they are supposed to do," she said.
"Touché," Daniel replied.
"'Touché'?" Adora tilted her head at him.
"It's an expression from fencing; it means you scored a point - touched your opponent," Daniel explained. "Fencing as, ah, a competitive sport, not the actual fighting."
Ah. Adora nodded. That made more sense than what she had thought the first time.
"So, what do you think the Jaffa hid in the tomb? If it's even a tomb."
"Well, there's no Naquadah - unless they found a way to shield it," Daniel said. "So, I doubt that there's a stasis pod containing another Goa'uld."
"And no Naquadah-based technology," Adora said.
"We shouldn't assume that they couldn't shield Naquadah," Catra said.
"The Goa'uld don't know about magic," Daniel objected. "How can you shield something against something that you don't even know exists, much less how it works?"
"By accident," Catra said. "Drove the instructors crazy if you did something that wrecked their plans while trying something else."
Adora snorted. "You mean: 'while appearing to try something else'," she corrected her lover.
Catra flashed her a toothy grin.
"Ah." Daniel nodded. "I had the impression that Horde training methods were rather rigid."
"The Horde's whole damn doctrine was rigid," Catra muttered. "We did a lot better when I started to mix things up."
"Yes." Adora pressed her lips together. She didn't want to talk about the Horde. "But if it's not Naquadah, what could it be? They were sent to recover Stargates, weren't they?"
"According to what we know, yes," Daniel said.
"They were recovering Stargates so that Horde Prime or the First Ones couldn't get them," Catra said. "Did anyone analyse what weapons shot the ship?"
"Sam - Captain Carter - said that the spectral analysis didn't match any known weapon systems," Daniel said.
"So they weren't shot at by other Goa'uld since we know their weapons thanks to you. And you guys got the data on Horde Prime weapons and Darla's weapons, meaning First Ones," Catra said. "That leaves…?"
"...unknown weapons," Adora replied.
"Or First Ones that we don't know yet," Catra added. "But yes, probably unknown weapons."
"A new species or culture, perhaps?" Daniel beamed.
Adora sighed and looked at Catra, who was not quite snarling.
"Did I miss something?" Daniel asked.
"You know what Horde Prime did to planets whose population resisted?" Catra asked.
And likely to planets that didn't resist.
Daniel blinked. "Oh. And since they were shooting at a Goa'uld ship, they would likely have resisted Horde Prime as well."
"Yes." Adora nodded. "If they took anything with the Stargate, it might be the last remnants of a destroyed planet. And they obviously didn't think that the Stargate was more important since they didn't hide it."
"They might not have been able to hide it. If they could hide a Stargate, then they can hide Naquadah from sensors, and all bets are off," Catra pointed out.
"Right." Adora nodded. "We'll find out once the others have the bots ready."
"It's actually more of a drone since they cannot make any decisions autonomously," Daniel said.
Adora snorted and shook her head. As if that difference mattered.
"Alright! We've got the bots all ready. Well, they are technically not bots since their programming isn't complex enough, so it's more like…"
"They are remote-controlled drones," Sam said.
Entrapta pouted for a moment, then nodded. "And we're going to send them inside to find and disable all bombs and other traps in the tomb!"
"Carefully," Jack said. "Very carefully."
"Yes," Daniel agreed. "We don't want to destroy whatever is hidden in this hill."
"We won't! We've found the traps already, thanks to our scanner!" Entrapta said. "Jack just has to defuse them all!"
"No pressure," Jack mumbled as he sat down at the screen that Sam and Entrapta had rigged up to control the bots. "The worst that can happen is that everything blows up."
"Including the planet," Teal'c commented, which earned him a nasty glare from Jack.
Adora didn't think it was funny either. You didn't joke about blowing up planets.
She blinked. Teal'c didn't joke as a rule, did he?