by Geonn Cannon
“Well… we don’t exactly have an asset within the Lucian Alliance. I wouldn’t necessarily call him an ally, either.”
“What would you call him?”
“Someone who is willing to listen to reason under the right circumstances.”
Landry said, “And you know where to find him?”
“Not exactly. But he has to be easier to find than Viaxeiro. After the Odyssey was captured by the Alliance, Vala worked with SG-12 to come up with a list of gate addresses that used to be Goa’uld strongholds but are turning into bases of operation for the Lucian Alliance. Uh, shipbuilding facilities turned into chop shops, weapons manufacturers turned into arms dealers, that sort of thing. Major Escher has been assembling a whole dossier on the Lucian Alliance since we first learned of their existence. I could check in with him to see if he knows the best place to start. I think it’s worth the effort of looking, sir. If Vala’s right about the prison’s reputation, then the man I’m thinking of will be able to point us in the right direction.”
“Don’t leave me in suspense, son. Who is this man?”
“Odai Ventrell.”
Landry’s smile faded. “The bounty hunter who took Colonel Mitchell and Vala hostage at his high school reunion?”
“The bounty hunter who was trying to collect on a bounty, but let us go when we gave him a better payday. He listened to reason. It wasn’t personal, it was just business. I think we have a good chance to convince him to help us.”
“Out of the goodness of his heart?” Landry said.
“We’ll negotiate. Find something he wants that we’re willing to give. I mean, this is Sam and Vala we’re talking about. He might ask for something big in return for his help, but considering what’s at risk…”
Landry considered it. “Violent?”
Daniel hesitated before answering. “To a degree. But when he took everyone hostage at the reunion, he didn’t kill them or threaten them.” He winced. “Well, he did threaten them. But when he thought Sam, Teal’c, and I were surrendering, he ordered us to come down unarmed. That indicates he wasn’t interested in a firefight. I think it’s a calculated risk.”
“As much as I hate to say it, I agree. We’re not going to find this prison if we only deal with nice people. This Ventrell sounds just gray enough for me to approve the mission. You’ll go with Mitchell. I want Teal’c to remain here, just this once.”
“You mean Carolyn wants him to stay.”
Landry held his hands out, helpless. “Who knew she could pull rank on me?”
Daniel smiled. “Jack used to have the same problem remembering that. Never get on the base doctor’s bad side.” He stood up. “I’ll go find Mitchell to let him know we’re shipping out. When is the next window?”
“We’ll squeeze you in as soon as you have a gate address. No need to make Colonel Carter and Vala wait any longer than necessary for their rescue.”
“Right. I’ll let Cam know.”
“Good luck.”
Daniel left the office and went to find Mitchell. He couldn’t help but feel they were bound for disaster. Sam could take care of herself, and Vala was savvy in her own way, but the odds were stacked against them. They were trying to break their friends out of Alcatraz with the added difficulty of not knowing where in the ocean Alcatraz was. They had their work cut out for them and it seemed like failure was all but guaranteed. There was only one thing he was absolutely sure about—he did not want to be the one who told Jack they’d lost Sam.
CHAPTER SEVEN
OTHER THAN the impromptu spacewalk, Sam and Vala’s transfer was rather mundane. Sam held to her promise not to make trouble. The men and women who had been charged with taking them from one place to the next were silent and businesslike. Sam and Vala remained bound, escorted from a ship to a Stargate, through a dark building to another ship, to a shuttle, to another planet where they were shoved through another Stargate. Now they were waiting through their longest stop, which also turned out to be their last, on what Sam had finally decided was a space station. A few members of the crew had ventured out while the rest stood guard.
Sam spent the whole time watching for an opportunity to present itself. All it would take was one lucky break. If she could overpower whoever was guarding her the next time they used a Stargate, she could punch in the address to a friendly world. It didn’t matter how twisted their trip got, she just needed seven glyphs and the smallest of openings.
But she couldn’t act. She couldn’t guarantee Vala would be able to escape with her in a situation like that, and she wasn’t going to abandon her.
Eventually they were taken from the station to another ship. She’d lost track of how long they’d been in transit when their latest captor strolled into the cabin where they’d been placed. Sam braced herself to be led out of the ship to another temple or cracked stone dais overgrown with weeds, but the man knelt in front of her and slid back a panel on her restraints. She watched as he punched in a code and the metal released its grip with a quiet puff of air. She pulled her hands free and flexed her fingers.
“So I guess this means we’ve arrived at our destination.”
“At last,” Vala said. She was lying on her back with her legs stretching up the wall, boots crossed at the ankles. She rolled to one side and sat up on her knees, holding out her arms to have her restraints taken off as well. “If I had to be marched up another stone dais to another Stargate, I was going to absolutely scream.”
The captain of their current ship came in. “You are now inhabitants of the prison Viaxeiro. Your safety is your own concern. The staff is only here to prevent escapes. You are not sentenced. You are here for the rest of your miserable lives. If another inhabitant decides to end your stay at the end of a blade, then that’s one less person to keep an eye on. They will most likely not harm you directly, but they will also not come to your aid. Do not expect them to.”
Sam said, “Sounds cozy.”
He pushed up his sleeve and checked a screen strapped to his forearm. “You are Vala Mal Doran and her apprentice, Fraiser. Correct?”
“That’s right,” Sam said.
He punched something on the screen and covered it with his sleeve again. He motioned to the henchman, who grabbed the shoulder of Sam’s jacket and shoved her toward the door. She stumbled slightly but managed to remain upright. Vala avoided the silent man’s hand, glaring at him as she followed Sam out of the room. The captain and his goon followed them to the open door of the vessel. This time they’d actually landed and, through the open door, Sam could see a stretch of sandy ground lit by an unnatural red-orange glow.
The captain stopped them on the ramp and looked back into the ship. “Clear?”
“We’re… oops! Spoke too soon. We’ve got one.”
“Hold one mo’, ladies. Can’t let you out yet. But you can enjoy the show.” He pointed outside. “Consider it a warning.”
At first Sam didn’t know what she was supposed to be looking at. Then she saw movement, a woman running full-speed toward the ship.
Sam leaned closer to Vala. “I thought this place was supposed to be escape-proof.”
“That’s the story, anyway.”
The captain asked his crewman, “How close do you figure they’ll let her get?”
“Not much further than this.”
The woman was close enough now that Sam could make out the details of her clothes. She was only about a hundred yards from the ramp when her foot came down on a dune and her entire body went rigid. She was frozen in place, arms tight to her chest, face frozen in pain as she seized. She didn’t even manage to scream before her body went limp. She collapsed in a heap, arms out to her sides, completely still.
“Sensors under the sand,” the captain explained. “Trip enough of ‘em while going the wrong direction, you get fried. Turns a life sentence into a death sentence.” He smiled at them. “My advice is to keep going forward until you hit the wall.”
Sam and Vala exchanged a look.
>
The captain said, “Welcome to Viaxeiro, your new home for the rest of your miserable thieving lives. Get the hell out of my ship.”
~#~
Sam distracted herself from despair by focusing on the specifics of where they were. The ship had dumped them on a large stretch of open land resembling a salt plain. The ground was flat and featureless, covered with a thin layer of minerals that crunched under their boots as they walked. She tried to spot the landmines that had killed the woman, but they were either buried deep or camouflaged. The sand seemed to shine due to the brightness of the glow overhead, and Sam wished she had goggles or some kind of eye protection to block some of the glare.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t been left with much of anything in the way of gear. It was the first time since being abducted they’d had a chance to take inventory, and it seemed as if they’d been stripped of all the weapons and gear they’d brought from the SGC. Sam was particularly worried about the loss of her GDO. Without it, even if they got to a Stargate, they wouldn’t be able to open the door to get through.
But there was no point thinking about that while they were still trapped. A few minutes earlier, they’d watched the vessel which delivered them rise off the surface. The sand kicked up by its launch covered up the dead prisoner’s body, effectively burying her. There had been a frisson of energy along the ship’s hull once it reached a certain altitude and then, in an instant, it was gone through the barrier. Sam could see a wall which looked manmade looming in the distance. With no other options, they began walking toward it.
“What did you call this again?” Vala asked, putting up her hair to get it off her neck. It wasn’t particularly hot, but they’d been walking long enough for her to sweat. “Plan-um? Planet-oid?”
“Planemo,” Sam said. “It’s a rogue planet. It was probably pushed out of its solar system by the gasses released by other planets forming around it. Once it’s free of the star’s gravity, it just drifts through the galaxy.” She tilted her head up to look at the sky. “There shouldn’t be anything to support life on this rock. Air, atmosphere, gravity: it all has to be manufactured somehow. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make this one habitable.”
As they got closer, Sam could see that there was definitely a wall cutting across the landscape. She estimated it ran for at least three miles in either direction before curving out of sight. It was broken into segments by large beehive-like structures. Wide tri-barreled guns poked out from each guard tower, aimed at the sky. The wall was only about seven feet high, more symbolic of a border than an actual barrier. A series of archways ran along its length, all but one of them bricked up or covered by iron latticework. When they were close enough to make out details of the structure, Sam could see small windows carved into the stone at regular intervals. A shrill whistle sounded, followed by a hollow boom deeper in the… prison? Structure? City? Sam wasn’t entirely sure what she was walking into, but she was prepared for anything.
“It’s enormous,” Vala said. “How are we ever going to find Tanis in a place like this?”
Sam looked at her. “Vala…”
“What? We’re still going to rescue her, right? That much hasn’t changed. And look, we’re here now!”
“Yes, if we have the chance, we’ll explore the possibility of freeing Tanis. But right now, our priority is getting ourselves out. If the opportunity arises before we can find her, we’re going to leave without her. Is that understood?”
Vala pushed her bottom lip out, arms crossed over her chest.
“Vala? I have to hear you say it’s understood.”
“Or what? You’ll leave me to rot in here, too?”
Sam closed her eyes and bit back a sigh. “We have no idea what we’re walking into here, Vala. We have no plan, no backup, and no idea how we’re going to get home. Until we can answer those questions, my priority is keeping the both of us alive. The welfare of Tanis Reynard isn’t even on the first page of my to-do list. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but that’s just the way it has to be.”
Vala pouted for another few steps. Finally she said, “Understood, Colonel.”
Sam knew the matter wasn’t settled, but Vala had surrendered the battle. That was good enough for the time being. She saw movement in one of the portholes carved next to the unbarred entrance. Seconds later she saw someone drop down to the ground on the other side of the wall. The woman’s shouting echoed off the buildings around her.
“New condemned! New condemned!”
Vala said, “Looks like they’re going to know we’re coming.”
“Maybe they’ll bring us a fruit basket. If Tanis is part of our welcoming party, we should try to be sure that she sees you first.”
“Why?”
Sam said, “It’s been a long time, but there’s a chance she’ll recognize me from our run-in. We weren’t exactly on the same side that day. She may hold a grudge.”
Vala nodded. “That’s true.”
A crowd had gathered by the time they passed through the opening in the wall. Fashion seemed to be vaguely uniform, with slight variances accounting for different worlds and cultures. One woman seemed to be wearing a toga underneath a handknit sweater, while another wore leather pants under a matching top with a series of straps crossing her shoulders. Sam scanned the crowd and noticed something else was uniform about their fellow condemned.
“Vala…”
“Mm-hmm?”
“Is this a women’s prison?”
Vala slowly looked at the women around them. “It would certainly seem to be, based on the evidence before us.”
Sam stepped in front of her. “You never mentioned that. Not in the briefing, not during the hours we spent being shuffled back and forth to get here. Not once did it come up.”
“Why is it important now?”
“It’s making me question why you insisted on meeting Tanis’s contact with me and none of the guys. It makes me wonder if you knew it was a trap all along.”
“I am offended at the implication — ”
Sam cut her off. “We’ll discuss this later.”
She faced forward again as a tall woman stepped through the gathered crowd. Her curly red hair was piled in a knot at the back of her head, several strands falling loose along the side of her face. She wore a bright orange blouse with a black Cossack collar. It was cinched at the waist with a black belt which held a sheathed knife. Two women approached with her, one on either side, dressed alike in black-and-orange uniforms. They eyed Sam and Vala carefully as the older woman bowed a greeting and spread her hands to indicate the city.
“Welcome to Viaxeiro. My name is Lokelani Kiir. Who might you be?”
“I’m Fraiser,” Sam said. “This is Vala.”
Lokelani looked at her with newfound interest. “We know of the great Vala Mal Doran. You have quite a following here.”
“A following, hmm?” Vala threw her shoulders back and lifted her chin as if posing for a painting. She smiled at Sam. “I have fans.”
Sam rolled her eyes.
Lokelani motioned for them to follow her. She turned and began to walk away without making sure they complied, but the uniformed women waited to bring up the rear. Sam caught up with her first, and Vala nodded and waved to the people she passed who were now whispering and smiling at her. Sam ignored her and focused on the layout of the city. It looked like a thousand other planets SG-1 had visited over the years, with blocks of apartments and small stone buildings she assumed were either stores or some other place of business. There were domestic touches like benches and plants growing from clay pots which indicated at least some of the women considered it a home instead of a cage. People came out onto rooftop balconies and stared down as they passed, eager for a glimpse of the newest arrivals.
“It looks like you don’t get a lot of new neighbors around here,” Sam said.
“Oh, it’s common enough,” Lokelani said. “But the novelty never really wears off. There are about a thousand of us here, g
ive or take. Older prisoners die off, the young and impetuous try to escape, and the number stays relatively the same. But we all remember when we were new. We remember how frightening it was to arrive in a place that is called inescapable, told this is where we’ll spend the rest of our lives. It helps to be greeted by a friendly face. We’ve made this world into something unique, a place where we can coexist with one another.”
Sam said, “What about the guards?”
“Oh, they’re around.” Lokelani pursed her lips and nodded her head to the right, indicating a man in an armored blue vest, sleeveless and snug at the throat. A helmet obscured most of his face, but he was clearly male. It was the first man Sam had seen since leaving the ship, and also the first person carrying a weapon. She didn’t recognize the design, but the object strapped to his wrist so that it rested against his palm was clearly intended to be used like a taser. He ignored them as they passed. “They tend not to interfere with us any more than they have to. Their purpose is to prevent escape attempts which, as I’m sure you can guess, aren’t very difficult to thwart.”
Sam said, “The shuttles always land out in that wide open space?”
Lokelani nodded. “No one could cross that distance without being seen, so no one could get to the shuttles before an alarm went up. A few have tried, but they all failed. Their punishment was swift and cruel. According to the lookouts, you saw what happens to anyone who tries to escape.”
“The landmines,” Sam said. “So the punishment for escape is instant death?”
“Not always. If an escapee is caught early enough, the guards can make examples out of them.”
“Okay. Message received.”
“So for the most part, the guards simply laze about until their shifts end. They don’t interfere with us unless they have to. That is why I established the Cai Thior.” She indicated the uniformed women who had silently flanked Sam and Vala. “They maintain order. Settle disputes. Ensure the safety of the condemned, although I don’t like thinking of them as such. We are neighbors and fellow citizens. We didn’t get the choice of where we ended up, but that’s no reason we should act like animals.”