The Cost of Honor

by Stargate

  But there was only one bastard he was interested in, if he was still here. If he was still alive. "Crawford?"

  His voice echoed around the sodden chamber, bouncing off the gray shadows of the murderous machine. There was no answer.

  "Crawford!" If he wasn't here, the odds of finding him were impossibly small. But Jack had a hunch; Crawford was a stay put and wait for the paperwork kinda guy. "Crawford!"

  A noise from far above. A rustle, the clank of metal on metal. Someone was moving. It was coming from the far side of the room, from what was now the top of the sheh fet. Cautiously, Jack edged along the wall. "Crawford?" His fingers itched for a weapon. Who knew who - or what - was hiding in here? One of the Outcast, untamed by Carter?

  Another movement, more determined this time. Then a face appeared through the wreckage of the machine, white in the insipid light, eyes wild with shock. Functioning only on the most basic level; surviving but not thinking. He'd been there. Over and over and over.... It stared at him, mouth moving silently, brow creased into a disbelieving frown. Jack stopped, head cocked. Even perched on the edge of reason, the face was unpleasant. Grim triumph made Jack smile.

  "You've creased your suit, Crawfish."

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  t sounded like the end of the world. Tortured metal screeched and falling masonry thundered as the vast structure snapped at the waist. Everyone fled, the battle forgotten, as the tower smashed down onto the landing platform.

  Sam saw Teal'c and Daniel to her right, sprinting and stumbling and running. Side by side, pace for pace. The air scalded her throat as her lungs screamed for air. But it was polluted with dirt and she coughed as she ran, head spinning. And through the noise and the chaos, she felt a scream. Heard it and felt it in her mind simultaneously. Pain and dismay, and huge loss. But no fear, just anger.

  She turned as dust clouds billowed around her, and saw a white face staring back at her with desperate eyes - trapped under a chunk of the tower. Eytan. "No!" In horror, she ran back to him. One arm was free and she dropped to her knees and seized his hand. "Eytan, it's okay. We'll get you out."

  Lies! It was impossible. Rubble was still raining down around them, the dust so thick she could barely see. She began lifting stones, pushing and shoving with her bare hands, but there was so much and -

  "Sam?" Her head shot around as Daniel emerged through the dust like a vision. "I heard you shout."

  Thank God! "He's trapped."

  Without comment, Daniel began to dig away at the debris. Then Teal'c was there too. He looked at her, at Eytan and at Daniel with a cool eye. "Did you not order us to stop for nothing, Major Carter?"

  "He just wants to go home, Teal'c. I can't... I promised him I'd help him go home."

  Teal'c touched Eytan's throat. "He will not live."

  Damn it. Damn him for saying it! Her gaze rested on Eytan's face and she could see blood now, welling up his torso. But he wasn't dead yet, and with one weak hand he seized hers, "Ba'bayith?" Going home?

  "Soon," she promised. But the lie burned her eyes with tears, the memory of his little girl, his wife, and his desperate desire to see them again raking her soul. "Soon." Gritting her teeth she lifted her eyes to Teal'c. He was watching her with steady compassion. "Go," she said firmly. "Get to the ship. I'll stay with him."

  Teal'c shook his head. "You cannot. You must-"

  "Wait." It was Daniel, his face smeared with dirt and dust, brow furrowed as he peered at her through the gloom. "Alvita Candra."

  "The Arxanti woman?"

  He nodded. "She can save him. If we can free him, she can save him."

  "He will not survive, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said sharply. "Even the Arxanti cannot raise the dead."

  An odd look crossed Daniel's face, but all he said was, "Trust me.

  Always. Sam glanced up at the ragged edge of the shattered tower that hung above them, flitting in and out of the smoke and dust like death waiting to pounce. "We should hurry."

  The Kinahhi gate-room had been turned into a makeshift triage station where Dr. Fraiser and her team made emergency assessments of the wounded men. As yet, Hammond hadn't authorized them to dial Earth. The Kinahhi might be waiting for that very opportunity to re-launch their attack, and take the fight right back to the SGC.

  As he slowly walked past the bodies of the ten men who'd died under his command, George Hammond forced himself to look at each of their faces, committing them to memory. At the other end of the line, Fraiser was kneeling close to Simon Wells, holding up a drip as she talked to him reassuringly. When she saw Hammond, she passed the drip to one of her staff and stood up. "He's lost a lot of blood," she said as she approached. "I'll need to evacuate him as soon as possible, sir. The others can wait, but Wells-"

  "When the rest of SG-13 report back we'll know more, Doctor."

  She nodded, and smiled slightly. "If I might say so, sir, it's good to have you back in command."

  "We're not back yet, Doctor," he cautioned. "But thank you."

  "When I saw what they'd been doing up on Level 17..." Fraiser shivered and her face darkened. "Sir, if Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter were treated in the same way here..." She trailed off bleakly.

  "What are you saying, Doctor?"

  "Sir, I don't honestly know if the men we found at the SGC will ever recover fully from what was done to their minds. And we can only assume that the device the Kinahhi were using here was bigger, perhaps more sophisticated." She paused. "You should be prepared, sir."

  He took a deep breath, mind returning to the day he'd last spoken to Jack O'Neill. He'd lost a friend that day and, in the many days since, had come to realize it was a loss he was unprepared to accept. He owed the man more trust than he'd been willing to give, battered and bruised as Hammond had felt by the plotting of Kinsey. If he never got to regain that friendship, that trust... "I'm not prepared to give up on them just yet, Doctor."

  "Me neither, sir."

  As Fraiser moved away, back to the patients who needed her, Colonel Dixon appeared in the doorway, climbing over the shattered Kinahhi weapon. Though frowning, he wasn't running like half the Kinahhi army was on his heels. Hammond took that as a good sign. But the Colonel's first words were far from reassuring.

  "Something's not right, sir," he reported as he strode across the gate-room. He cast a quick glance at Wells, before turning his attention back to Hammond. "There were about fifty men in the corridor," Dixon continued. "SG-2 and SG-3 are taking care of them, but given the size of this place..."

  The Kinahhi should have been throwing their entire military might against the incursion in the gate-room. Hadn't Damaris promised as much? "Something else must be going on," Hammond concluded. "Something bigger."

  Dixon snatched off his cap and wiped at his tired face. "SG 1, sir?"

  "Let's hope so, Colonel."

  The collapse of the tower, Teal'c observed, had ended the battle. Unlike Jaffa serving a Goa'uld master, the Kinahhi were not prepared to fight beyond reason. They were abandoning the sinking city like startled birds taking flight, their ships of all sizes and shapes lifting up and darkening the sky. So much the better.

  The body Teal carried slung over one shoulder weighed little, it was more skin and bone than flesh, but he picked his way across the slope with care. The angle made it difficult to walk bearing any burden - however light. Ahead of him Daniel Jackson was in discussion with Alvita Candra and around them gathered the remains of the Arxanti warriors. He sensed excitement in the air and several times saw people look as if in anticipation at him and the body he carried.

  Major Carter was not in sight. She had disappeared into the Kinahhi ship several minutes ago. As yet, it had not sprung to life.

  "Over here!" Daniel Jackson called.

  Teal'c lengthened his stride and lowered the skeletal body to the ground. "He is beyond aid, Daniel Jackson. He is dead."

  His friend just nodded. "Wait," he said, squatting down next to the body. "Just wait."

  Alvi
ta Candra dropped to her haunches at Daniel Jackson's side. From her pack she pulled the disc Fortes had used back in Arxantia. As she held it between her hands and closed her eyes a violet light began to bloom at its heart. The rest of the Arxanti gathered behind her, Atella among them, animated with expectation.

  Around the fringes of this group, hovered the Outcast. They paced and twitched, and watched. Teal'c wondered if they understood what they saw.

  Taking a deep breath, Alvita Candra held the disk over Eytan's crushed chest. The light of the remem spilled out onto the man's body. Slowly, the wound began to heal - just as Teal'c had seen his own injury heal. But the Arxanti woman did not stop once the flesh was reformed, instead she moved the device to Eytan's head. Her arm began to tremble, as if the disk had become impos sibly heavy, but she continued, murmuring in a language Teal'c could not comprehend.

  "A prayer," Daniel Jackson whispered, his eyes never leaving Eytan. "A prayer to her ancestors." Suddenly he looked up, head tilted to one side, as if he had heard something. Teal'c followed his gaze, but saw nothing but blowing dust. Daniel Jackson, however, stared hard and then-

  "Bayith!" The word was spoken strongly, a deep male voice. Teal'c turned back and saw, to his astonishment, that Eytan had been transformed. No longer a creature of nightmare, disfigured by torment beyond endurance, he stared up out of a robust Kinahhi face. And his eyes had lost their animal-like shine; they were haunted, but human. Very human.

  With a gasp, Alvita Candra sagged, caught in the arms of Daniel Jackson. "You've-" he breathed in astonishment. "You've... What have you done?"

  Weakly, Alvita Candra smiled. "As I promised, Daniel Jackson. I have saved him."

  "Saved him," his friend echoed. "Yes. Yes you really have..."

  Carefully, Teal'c offered Eytan his hand and helped him sit up. But the man's eyes were fixed entirely on Alvita Candra, their expression wide and worshipful. "Arxanti," he said in an awed voice, reaching out and touching her wild hair. "I have seen you in my dreams. You are a child of the Ancient Ones."

  A ripple of astonishment ruffled the men gathered behind Alvita Candra, and Eytan lifted his gaze to them. "I know you," he said. "I have seen the truth." And then he turned to Daniel Jackson and his eyes widened further. "You! You are the One."

  Daniel Jackson blinked. "I am?"

  "You showed us the truth, before the other destroyed the sheh fet. You showed us the truth about Arxantia and the Ancient Ones."

  "As the prophesy predicted," Alvita Candra said, rising tiredly to her feet. Atella reached out to steady her. "You showed the Kaw'ree the truth about us, Daniel Jackson - you showed it to all within the sheh fet - and now these people, these Outcast, will be the salvation of our people." She reached down and held out her hand to Eytan. He took it reverently and allowed her to raise him to his feet. "Together," she said, "we can change our world."

  Teal'c also stood, as did Daniel Jackson, glancing over his shoulder at the hovering Outcast. They were staring hungrily at Eytan.

  "Then you can do this for all of them?" Daniel Jackson said. "You can save all of the Outcast?"

  Alvita Candra bowed her head. "Not here. The remem does not have enough power. But in Arxantia..."

  "The healing device!" Daniel Jackson exclaimed. "Of course, you can-

  "Ah, guys?" The interruption came from Major Carter, who stood at the hatch of the Kinahhi transport. "We've got a problem, the-" She stopped dead, staring. "Eytan?"

  He turned, a long-forgotten smile tugging his lips. "Samantha Carter! I cannot-"

  Suddenly the city lurched, tilting so sharply that Teal'c lost his footing and landed hard on his back, sliding down the landing platform until he collided with the side of the ship below. Several of the Arxanti landed on top of him, and through the tangle of limbs he heard Daniel Jackson shouting, "We have to get outta here!"

  After a moment, Major Carter replied. Her voice sounded muffled and came from inside the ship, but her fear was clear as glass. "We can't! At this angle, the anti-gray device won't engage. We can't leave!"

  And then the whole city started to move downward, sinking fast beneath the waves.

  The Kinahhi had been right to flee. Tsapan, and all left within her, were lost.

  Jack shoved Crawford ahead of him as he waded down into the water. The angle was steeper now, the water rising higher. Almost up to Crawford's chest; he'd be swimming soon. But if they could just get out the way Jack had come in, he figured they'd have a chance. Get up to the landing platform, and if Carter had already left - which she damn well should have done - they could snag another ship and get the hell out of the city of the damned.

  "I can't..." Crawford's whimper drifted over the slap of water against the walls of the tunnel. "It's too cold, too deep..."

  "Shut up, and keep walking."

  But the man stopped, pressing his hands over his eyes. "I can't!"

  Goddamn it, was he crying?

  Jack grabbed Crawford's wrist, pulling one hand away from his face. It was too dark to make out his features. "Keep. Moving," he barked. "Or you'll die here."

  "Then let me!" Crawford spat. "Isn't that what you want?"

  Grabbing the man by the shoulder of his sodden jacket, Jack pushed him back into motion. "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't have come back."

  Crawford stumbled forward. "You don't give a damn about me, O'Neill."

  "True." The water was getting deeper now, the gradient of the path steeper. Soon they'd both be swimming.

  "Then why-"

  "Evidence."

  The laugh echoed wetly through the gloom. "You want me to clear your name?"

  "Something like that."

  "What makes you think I'd-"

  Everything lurched, the floor tilted up and out from beneath Jack's feet, and he went under, pushed up from the floor and shot back to the surface, treading water. After a moment, Crawford came up at his side, spluttering.

  "What's happening?"

  "Shh!" Jack could hear water gushing in, surging closer. His ears blocked suddenly, deaf with the building pressure differential. They were sinking. Fast.

  The tower of the Kaw'ree is the tallest, O'Neill! It will be the last to sink!

  "We have to go up," he yelled. "There has to be a way up the tower. A staircase, an elevator - anything."

  "You stupid bastard," Crawford screamed. "Don't you get it? We're going to die here! There's no point in-

  "Shut up and look." He swam to the wall, peering through the gloom, finger's tracing the rough surface. There had to be a way up, there had to be a stairway or a-

  A bone-crushing jolt shook the city, like a car wrecker on overdrive. Metal shrieked all around them, the noise thick enough to cut. Then, suddenly, it stopped and all he could hear was Crawford's shivering breaths. Jack wasn't breathing at all, waiting as the water level rose higher and higher. He raised a hand and the tips of his fingers brushed the ceiling. The water didn't stop rising.

  With the city virtually standing on end, Daniel thought it was all over. The Kinahhi ship lay on its side like a beached whale, its bow mere feet from the thrashing ocean. It could only be a matter of moments until the entire city turned upside down, taking them all with it. They hovered on the cusp, a whisper away from death.

  Through the window of the Kinahhi transport he saw the blurred shapes of Sam and Teal'c, both struggling to get the ship flying. But at that angle, the anti-gravity device simply couldn't engage. Daniel saw it, clear as day. Clear as the bright day that would be his last.

  From the doorway, Alvita Candra was calling to him - and to the remainder of the Outcast he'd come out to retrieve. Too frightened to move, they were clinging to the side of the sinking city like rats with no place to go. He knew how they felt. From up here, even without his glasses, he could see it all spread out before him. He could see the rainbow shimmer of Tsapan swallowed by dark waves, he could see the white froth of the ocean rearing up around them like Poseidon's white horses. And he knew that somewhere be
neath them, Jack was trapped. Jack was dying - perhaps he was already dead - and the rest of them wouldn't be long in following. Once the city toppled forward...

  Daniel held his breath. Everyone held their breath in that infinite moment of suspense. And then, with a groan and a shudder, the city started to fall. But not forward. Backward. They had a chance!

  Suddenly Jack was moving forward as the rising river in the corridor became a crashing wave, flipping him over and over along the hall. He hit the floor, tumbled again, then got his feet under him just as Crawford floundered past. Lightning fast, Jack reached out and grabbed the guy by the arm. Crawford's momentum almost knocked them both over again, but the flow was slow ing and Jack kept his feet as he hung onto the Ambassador.

  Coughing, Crawford swiped Jack's hands away. "What?" he gasped. "What happened...?"

  Jack could see it clearly in his mind's eye. "We hit the bottom," he said. "City righted itself." He glanced down at water, rapidly rising again. "And now it's filling up."

  Crawford spluttered. "We're under water? The whole city is under water?"

  « YUp

  "Oh God, oh God, we're going to die." Crawford began to sob. "We're going to die, we're going to-"

  "Never say die." Jack yanked him along the corridor. There had to be a way out, a way up.

  Crawford's doom-mongering continued, grating like fingernails on a chalkboard. "We're going to die, we're going to die!"

  "Seriously," Jack growled, "say that again, and I'll drown you myself"

  "Daniel Jackson!" Alvita Candra was screaming his name, the sound lost beneath the vast noise of Tsapan smashing into the sea.

  The impact jarred him into motion. "Come on!" he shouted at the terrified Outcast. "Run!"

  He snatched an arm and pulled while he slipped and slid toward the open door of the ship. Vast waves were swallowing the city beneath them, seconds away from swamping the landing platform. He staggered, dragging a shivering Outcast behind him, and suddenly heard the sound of engines firing!