“He is here.”
“Before we go any further,” Jack began, and abruptly Daniel’s face appeared. He looked mostly unhurt — certainly unwithered, though there was a trail of blood along the edge of his jaw — and Jack allowed himself a small sigh of pure relief. “Daniel?”
“I’m ok, Jack.” Daniel adjusted his glasses, and someone pulled him away.
The queen took his place, her voice like ice. “As you see, I also have someone you might want.”
“Then let’s make a deal.” Jack spread his hands. “I give you your young queen and this guy, her blade, and you give me Dr. Jackson. And then you go your way, and we go ours.”
The queen showed teeth. “I will gladly make the exchange, human, but after that – I make no promises.”
“No deal.” Jack wanted to cross his fingers, but didn’t dare risk a betraying gesture. He let his voice soften just a little. “Look, we’re explorers, we just came to see what’s here, and we really don’t like what we’ve found. All we want is to go back where we came from and never have to deal with you people again.”
This time, Jack was fairly sure the queen’s expression was a smile. “You can hardly expect us to allow that. Too many of my people have been killed, we cannot allow you to run free.” She paused. “Show us your world, and we will agree to quarantine it. We will not Cull, but we will not allow you to leave it, either.”
“I can’t do that,” Jack said. “Ok, how about this? We make our trade, Dr. Jackson for your people, and then — you give us a grace period. Take your ship out of orbit, go into hyperspace and go somewhere else for — a month. We’ll be gone by then, and we won’t trouble you anymore.”
The queen considered him. “Three days.”
“What?”
“You can have three days’ grace. I will take my hive elsewhere for seventy-five of your hours, and then I will return. Anyone who remains is fair game, and, make no mistake, we will track down your homeworld, too.”
“Three days isn’t nearly enough time,” Jack said. “Ten days.”
“Five.” The queen cocked her head. “I will trade you Daniel Jackson and five days’ grace for the Young Queen and her blade.”
Jack nodded slowly. “It’s a deal. We’ll meet you in the field by the Stargate in two hours.”
“At sundown.”
Jack nodded again. “Sundown it is.” He reached out and pressed the button again, and to his relief the picture vanished.
“Daniel’s all right,” Carter said. There was a world of relief in her voice, and Jack reached up to pat her knee.
“Yeah.” He hauled himself up out of the uncomfortable pilot’s couch. “Come on, Carter, you didn’t really think he wouldn’t be?”
“I think we were all worried, sir.”
“Not me,” Jack lied. “Sheppard! I’ve made a deal with the Wraith queen.”
It took some persuasion to get the young queen and the male Wraith safely into separate boats — evidently the Wraith did not travel by water, Teal’c thought — but at last they were settled and a mixed team of Marines and Athosians began paddling across the lake. Neither Teyla nor Halling had been particularly happy about the details of O’Neill’s bargain with the Wraith, but both O’Neill and Sheppard had made a solid argument that the Wraith were most concerned with the Atlantis expedition. If they were gone, disappeared through the Stargate to some other world, and the Athosians scattered to the hills as they always did when the Wraith came to Cull, there was a good chance that the Wraith would be more interested in chasing the expedition than in destroying Athos. And we, too, can escape through the Stargate if we must, Teyla had pointed out, though Teal’c didn’t think Halling found the idea particularly attractive. But at least it had broken the stalemate, and was going to free Daniel Jackson.
They made their way slowly through the woods, each Wraith the target of at least four weapons at all times, and emerged at last into the grassy field surrounding the gate. The sun had dropped below the tops of the trees, and lay molten on the horizon. The air smelled of sun-warmed resin, and the grasses rippled in the gentle breeze. Teal’c lifted his head, scanning the cloudless sky for any sign of incoming Darts, and O’Neill lifted his hand.
“We’ll just wait right here.”
‘Here’ was a few meters into the field, where the trees behind them would make it hard for a Dart to use its Culling beam, or to approach unseen. Teal’c nodded his approval and Sheppard said, “Ford, take a couple of men and set up a perimeter. Make sure we’ve got a chance to take down any Darts that don’t play by the rules.”
“Yes, sir,” Ford answered, and waved men into position.
He and the surviving Marines seemed to be adjusting well to Sheppard’s resumption of command, Teal’c thought. Admittedly, the ones who were most loyal to Sumner’s regime had also been the ones to take more of the enzyme drug, and were currently under medical care, but he thought that most of them had begun to have doubts about Sumner’s fitness by the end.
The air was split by the thin shriek of an incoming Dart, and Teal’c lifted his P90.
“Hold your fire!” Sheppard yelled, and the Dart swept past a hundred feet above the treetops. It flung itself into a sharp turn, flashed back over the field, and disappeared into the sunset. Behind it, the air glowed and the Wraith appeared.
There were more than a dozen of them, several warriors controlling half a dozen drones, plus the Queen, scarlet hair flaming over a suit of black leather, and a trio of warriors who seemed to be her personal escort. A fourth warrior stood beside Daniel Jackson, feeding hand to his chest.
O’Neill rose to his feet, P90 slung but ready, and adjusted the brim of his cap. “Hi there! Glad you could make it.”
“O’Neill.” The queen rolled the word on her tongue as though she were examining its taste. “As you see, I have kept my part of our agreement.”
“And so have I.” O’Neill waved behind him, and Teal’c prodded the young queen to her feet. At his side, Carter did the same with Will, and together they marched the two Wraith forward, the young queen snarling aloud.
The older queen bared teeth herself at the sight. “Release them, and I will release Daniel Jackson.”
“Why don’t we do it the other way round?” O’Neill asked. “Send Daniel across, and I’ll let your people go.”
To Teal’c’s surprise, the queen laughed. “We could play that game all night. Look, there is distance between us. I will set your man walking, and you send my kin, and when each reaches their own, we will both retire.”
“All right,” O’Neill said. “Teal’c, Carter. Be ready.” He looked back at the Wraith queen. “I’ll count to three. On three they all start walking.”
The queen inclined her head. “Agreed.”
O’Neill held up one finger. “One. Two. Three.”
Teal’c leveled his P90. “Begin walking.”
The young queen snarled again, but did as she was told, the warrior trailing half a step behind. Across the field, the warrior gave Daniel a push, and he stumbled away into the grass. Teal’c heard the others cock their P90s, ready for whatever betrayal was to come, but Daniel and the released Wraith kept walking, silhouetted against the ring of the Stargate and the sun almost set behind it. Daniel passed the Wraith, ten yards between them, and Teal’c shifted position to keep the rest of the Wraith in his line of fire.
And then Daniel had passed the outermost of Sheppard’s men, crouched motionless and hidden in the long grass, and O’Neill reached out to drag him in. A Dart screamed in the distance, and the Marines rose from their hiding places, P90s ready.
“Hold your fire,” O’Neill shouted, and Sheppard echoed him.
The Dart flashed past, Culling beam shooting out only after it was well clear of the expedition. The Wraith on the ground disappeared, and a moment later the Dart had dwindled to a single bright point against the fading sky. Then that, too, was gone, and Teal’c allowed himself to relax at last.
“Daniel
Jackson! Are you unharmed?”
“Fine, yeah.” Daniel gave him an only slightly shaky smile.
“Well, obviously he wasn’t all that appetizing,” O’Neill said, and Carter laid a hand on Daniel’s shoulder.
“Good to see you back.”
“Thanks.” Daniel looked at O’Neill. “The problem is, the Wraith do keep humans as — well, some of them seem to be sort of like pets.”
“Wraith worshippers,” Sheppard said. “That’s what the Athosians call them — the Satedans, too. Needless to say, nobody much likes them.”
“I’m glad nobody decided to keep you as a pet,” O’Neill said, but the relief in his voice belied the sarcasm. “Let’s get back to the city and make sure the Wraith have kept their word.”
It was fully dark by the time they reached the other side of the lake, and a bonfire was burning in front of the mess hall, while various members of the expedition stood around it holding things on sticks over the flames. Jack frowned.
“Seems like it’s a bit premature to end the evacuation, Major. We don’t know that the Queen kept her word.”
“Yeah.” Sheppard lengthened his stride, and stopped abruptly as McKay came around the fire.
“Oh, there you are. The Wraith ship left orbit half an hour ago. It looks as though it jumped to hyperspace.”
Sheppard relaxed visibly, and Jack couldn’t help smiling just a little bit.
“You’re sure?” he asked, and McKay bridled.
“Of course I’m sure! And anyway Dr. Anderson confirmed it from the other camp.”
“Good enough for me,” Jack said, and left him sputtering.
It was warm in the mess hall, plenty of lamps burning on the long tables, and the atmosphere was more relaxed than it had been since they’d arrived. Not that they’d solved their biggest problem, Jack thought, but at this point they were probably entitled to celebrate anything that wasn’t a disaster. He accepted a cup of coffee from Dr. Kusanagi, glanced over his shoulder to be sure that the others were still there, still safe. It wasn’t rational, he knew, but it was still good to see them there, Daniel and Teal’c talking about something by the food line, Carter arguing with McKay by the door.
“This is an unprecedented achievement.” That was Teyla, appearing at his elbow so silently that she might as well have been beamed down from a Dart herself. “It is well to celebrate.”
“But it’s only temporary,” Jack said. Perversely, he felt compelled to point out the problems now that she’d praised them.
“Yes. But that is more than anyone has gained from the Wraith in living memory.”
“What will you — the Athosians — do?” Jack asked.
“It is not entirely decided. There are still many details to discuss. But — some of us will leave this world. It is a reasonable time for trading, in any case, and there will be many who will simply stay away that much longer, until they are sure it is safe to return. Others will go early to our winter grounds. We live more scattered there, and it will be harder for the Wraith to find us.” She shrugged. “Of course, we will not have our full stores, and I fear it will be a lean season before we can move back to the gate fields again. If some of your people were willing to accompany us and share the labor, it might be easier.”
“I expect Major Sheppard will want to keep the expedition together,” Jack said.
“And I am sure you will advise him to do so.”
“If he asks. Yes.”
Teyla smiled. “And then there are other worlds where we can live much as we do here. This would not be the first time that our people have left Athos for a generation, and come home again when the worst threat has passed.”
It was hard to imagine living like that, Jack thought. On the one hand, the ever-present threat of the Wraith, monsters out of your worst nightmare who were capable of wiping out entire populations literally overnight. On the other, the Stargate, escape to other worlds — not worlds where the Wraith didn’t come, there didn’t seem to be any of those from what the Athosians said, but at least ones where the threat was less. “What are you going to do?”
“I do not yet know. It depends a great deal on what others do — Charrin, Halling, even the expedition.” Her face changed, became abruptly serious. “But there is one thing that you must understand, General O’Neill. You — the expedition — must keep your promise. In five days, there must be no sign of any of you on Athos.”
Jack felt a chill run down his spine. In five days, yeah, they could get people into shelter, find an alpha site and set up camp there. The SGC knew how to do that, and he was confident Sheppard could manage it. But five days wasn’t nearly enough time to figure out how to use the ouroboros device to get them back to their proper timeline. That was asking too much even of Carter.
Teyla hurried on, as though she was trying to convince him. “There are many worlds where your people could live unnoticed. Or there are others, like Sateda, that would welcome them, and would be very glad to trade anything they had for the secrets of your rapid-fire weapons.”
“The problem is that we — my team, not Major Sheppard’s people — may need to stay in the city a little longer,” Jack said. “We’re not from this timeline. We came here by mistake, and our first goal has to be to get back to our proper time.”
“And can you not do that elsewhere?” Teyla tipped her head to one side.
“An Ancient device brought us here,” Jack said bluntly. “We’re going to need access to Ancient technology to get home. More than that — it looks as though there’s a version of the device, or maybe a terminal, here in the city.”
“I see.” Teyla’s face was grave.
“Problem?” Sheppard turned toward them, Daniel trailing in his wake.
“We were discussing what to do about getting us home,” Jack said. He looked back at Teyla. “Look, I’m perfectly willing to go away for a while, either up into the hills where we can help out with your people, or to the alpha site with Major Sheppard, but we’re going to need to come back here as soon as the Wraith are gone.”
“But they will not just go away,” Teyla said. “They will come and go and come again, not on any schedule, but as it strikes them. And if they find anyone in the city, then they will turn their full fury on this world, and destroy anyone who has chosen to stay. I am sorry, General O’Neill, but you are not worth that risk.”
“Hang on,” Sheppard said. “I don’t quite see the problem.”
“There’s a version of the device that brought us here in the city,” Jack said. “I’m not sure we can figure it out in five days.”
“Ok.” Sheppard nodded. “So you come on to the alpha site with us, and then come back when the Wraith are gone.”
“But the Wraith will not be gone,” Teyla said. “Not for a generation. You have already seen how persistent they can be, and this is nothing compared to what they will do if you break your word.”
“All right,” Sheppard said. “Obviously, we’re not going to camp in the city, or anywhere too close to it, and we’ll do everything we can to pass as ordinary Athosians. Will that make a difference?”
“Not enough of one,” Teyla said. “And I am not prepared — we cannot afford — to run that great a risk for you, Major Sheppard.”
She stalked away without waiting for an answer. Jack said, “Sorry about that, Major.”
Sheppard bit his lip. “It was coming. We were going to have to have it out sometime, better now than later, I guess. You’re sure this is the only place you’re going to find one of these devices?”
“It’s the only one we know of,” Jack said. “Except for one in the Milky Way, and that’s not exactly helpful under the circumstances.”
“No, not so much.” Sheppard rubbed his chin. “Maybe I can talk her into some kind of compromise.”
“The trouble is, she’s right,” Daniel said. “Sorry, Jack. The Wraith — my impression is that the Wraith are just about willing to write us off as too much trouble to kill, but only as l
ong as we disappear back to where we came from. And that’s only because the Queen has overruled at least one of her advisors. If we keep working in Emege’s ruins, eventually they’re going to catch us at it, and then — well, from their perspective, they’re going to have to do something about us.”
“So what do you suggest instead, that we just give up?” Jack glared at Daniel, who returned the glare with interest.
“No, of course not. I’m thinking we do one of two things — better still, both of them. First, see if Sam can’t figure out how to make the thing work in the five days we have left —”
“I’ll loan you all the personnel I can, within reason,” Sheppard said.
“Thanks,” Jack muttered.
Daniel went on as though neither man had spoken. “And, second, see if we can’t find the location of another device that we can gate to, and then try to get back home from there.” He paused. “Of course, the problem with that is that Janus’s devices are more likely to be in what used to be Ancient cities, which I gather are taboo throughout Pegasus? Because the Wraith don’t want anybody figuring out how to use any Ancient technology that might survive.”
“Why wouldn’t the lab be off on another world, like P6T-847?” Jack asked.
“Because that’s a lab Janus built after the Ancients had returned from Pegasus,” Daniel answered. “When he was in Pegasus, it looks as though he had the support of his fellow Ancients.”
“So it was before he became a fruitcake,” Jack said.
“He didn’t —” Daniel stopped. “Yeah, pretty much. At least that’s what it looks like.” He paused again. “Also, to go back to what I was saying before, it looked to me as though the Wraith in this hive had spent some time exploring Emege themselves. At least one of their scientists was interested in and collected Ancient artifacts.” He reached into his pocket. “One of which I helped myself to.”
He produced a thin piece of lavender crystal, flatter than a lot of the ones Jack had seen before, but marked with the same familiar patterns. Daniel held it out and Jack took it, looked warily from the incised surface to Daniel. “Ok…”
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