As they got to the landing, she quickly got her bearings. They were close to the lab she’d been working in, and, with a gesture for Bra’tac to follow, she led the way along the silent corridor.
But just as they approached the doorway to the lab, a Jaffa came through it. His eyes went wide with surprise before he yelled, “Kree!” and opened fire.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
P3X-418 — Colonel O’Neill and Teal’c
ONE OF the first things Teal’c learned while training under Master Bra’tac was that you could taste a victory in the wind.
It was not a perfect system, of course. There were times when victory seemed so sure he could taste it, only to have an unforeseen circumstance take it away.
But today, Teal’c could taste victory against Kali and against the Reetou. His plan had gone perfectly; he, the Thakka, and Captain Patel had reached Imphal without difficulty, and not only had they found O’Neill and Major Carter, but as an added bonus, Jacob Carter and Master Bra’tac were here as well.
Teal’c was sure that they would be victorious.
He and O’Neill slowly moved toward the tavern where they’d found Ramprasad. Teal’c noted that there were four Jaffa on guard, but at a distance.
Currently, the pair of them were crouched behind another structure that appeared to be a residence. O’Neill held up four fingers and whispered, “We’ve got four.”
In a similarly hushed tone, Teal’c said, “The Reetou must be present in the tavern.”
O’Neill activated the kara kesh he wore, which started to glow in the manner it did when a Goa’uld used it. “Stay close,” he whispered over the hum.
Teal’c inclined his head. Intellectually, the Jaffa knew that it would have made more sense for Teal’c himself to wear the modified hand device. But too often had he and other Jaffa been the victim of petty attacks by the Goa’uld, who used the kara kesh as a quick-and-dirty punishment for any slight, whether real or imagined. Even wearing a modified device would feel too much like a betrayal.
As ever, Teal’c was grateful for O’Neill’s perspicacity. He understood Teal’c’s discomfort without forcing him to speak it aloud. It was one of many reasons why he valued O’Neill so much as a fellow warrior and as a friend.
The four guards were at standing intervals, and Teal’c found himself disappointed in the training the Thakka had given his Jaffa. Roving guards would make the location more secure. On the other hand, no Goa’uld or Jaffa were present in the tavern, thanks to the Reetou, so perhaps Kali thought only a standing patrol was necessary. Indeed, she probably believed that the guards were primarily to keep Daniel Jackson and the other humans in, rather than to keep anyone out.
Teal’c would enjoy proving her wrong.
O’Neill held up three fingers, then two, then one, then clenched his fist.
Both of them leapt out from behind the dwelling and opened fire. Teal’c fired his ma’tok at the Jaffa closest to the door, while O’Neill aimed his P90 at the one to that Jaffa’s left.
Teal’c’s shot was true, and the Jaffa fell. O’Neill’s rounds clattered on the Jaffa’s armor, and several of his shots went wide and high.
“Damn hand device,” O’Neill muttered, and then fired again.
From behind him, Teal’c heard a voice cry, “Shol’va!”
Whirling around, he saw two more Jaffa exit the dwelling they’d been hiding behind.
And behind them was Kali.
“Please drop your weapons,” she said with a smile. “Or don’t, and allow my Jaffa to kill you. Either suits me.”
Teal’c glanced at O’Neill, though he knew what his response would be. Sure enough, O’Neill slowly unhooked his P90 from the strap and placed it on the snowy ground. Only then did Teal’c do likewise with his ma’tok.
Kali stepped forward. “I suspect, Colonel, that my first instinct to kill you was the proper one. I only truly needed Dr. Jackson and Major Carter. Letting you live has proven to be more trouble than it is worth.” She then regarded Teal’c with anger. “And you have turned my First Prime against me, which can be added to your already-impressive list of crimes against the gods, shol’va.”
Teal’c was surprised that Kali had such intelligence.
O’Neill voiced Teal’c’s thought. “And you know about that, how, exactly?”
Kali glanced at one of her Jaffa, who held up an Air Force radio.
That caused O’Neill to wince, and Teal’c recalled that Kali had taken all the equipment that his SG-1 teammates had brought to the planet initially — including their radios.
With a smile, Kali said, “Yaresh here was the one who heard you speaking with your Tau’ri masters when passing the room where we kept your equipment. He brought it to me and allowed me to hear. Your primitive communications device was unable to glean everything, but I heard enough to know what your plan would be — and that my First Prime had turned on me. I believe I shall make Yaresh the new Thakka, since the old one must now die. My Jaffa will take him and the Tau’ri accompanying him on my ha’tak, as well as Major Carter and Apophis’s other shol’va in the castle. And it is only a matter of time before we locate the Tok’ra Selmak.”
Teal’c felt his heart sink. He had tasted victory in the air, it was within their grasp. Yet now, Kali had removed it from him.
Kali walked toward O’Neill. “And now thanks to your Tok’ra friend, I no longer require Dr. Jackson’s services.” She reached for O’Neill’s left hand, but he pulled it back. “Please, Colonel, do not force me to remove the kara kesh from your corpse.”
O’Neill let out a long, exaggerated breath and removed the kara kesh himself, handing it to Kali.
“Excellent.” She handed the ribbon device to Yaresh. “You will protect your goddess from the Reetou, Yaresh. Serve me well in this, and you will indeed become the new Thakka.”
Yaresh bowed his head. “I live only to serve the Mother Goddess.”
Rolling his eyes, O’Neill muttered, “Oh, please.”
“Bring them,” Kali said, leading them to the tavern.
Teal’c moved forward, goaded on by Yaresh and the other Jaffa, who remained behind them with their ma’toks armed and ready. Kali led the way into the tavern, right past the two Jaffa corpses. Teal’c couldn’t help but notice that Kali gave not a thought to the lives of those two Jaffa, and he considered and rejected pointing that out to Yaresh and his comrade.
Now was not the time to attempt to recruit for the rebellion. Besides, Yaresh would probably just say that the two dead Jaffa were pleased to have died in service to their so-called Mother Goddess.
It made Teal’c ill. So much death, so much carnage. Indeed, he knew exactly how much death and carnage, as he himself had been the cause of so much of it over the decades. He remembered every death he had been responsible for in service of Apophis, from the first Jaffa he’d killed in battle to the civilians he had massacred in Apophis’s name. Even those who died due his inaction weighed on him, such as Sergeant Carol Weterings, the first Tau’ri Teal’c had ever met. She’d been taken from Cheyenne Mountain by Apophis as a possible host for Amaunet. Apophis’s bride rejected Weterings, and Apophis casually murdered her while Teal’c stood by, helpless to stop it.
All those lost souls weighed on Teal’c’s mind, and he knew that these two Jaffa, who senselessly lost their lives in service of a false god by the hand of Teal’c and his comrade, would do the same.
It was the burden he chose to bear when he joined O’Neill, Major Carter, and Daniel Jackson on Chulak. He did not regret that decision, but the sorrow never ended.
He knew it never would.
They entered the tavern, where Daniel Jackson sat at one of the tables, surrounded by six humans, three on either side of him, who were obviously servants of Kali. On the table in front of him was a pair of Goa’uld tablets, several more sheets of paper, and one small device that Teal’c did not recognize, though it appeared to be of Goa’uld design.
Upon Kali’s entrance, two
Reetou briefly became visible, standing opposite where Daniel Jackson sat. A series of clattering noises came from where they stood, and then the device Teal’c had not recognized uttered words in a mechanical tone: “What is the meaning of this interruption?”
Kali took a small bow. “Forgive me, noble adversary, but the time for intermediaries is past. I now have the means to continue these negotiations in person.”
The device then let loose with a series of noises that sounded much like the Reetou language.
The Reetou remained invisible, but Teal’c could hear their reply in their language, which the translator rendered as: “We must consult for a moment. This development was not what was negotiated.”
“Understood,” Kali said with another bow. “The technology that allows me to participate directly only just became available to me. Take all the time you need.”
Despite himself, Teal’c was impressed. Kali actually sounded humble and capitulating, two modes he had never seen a Goa’uld adopt except as a ruse. Of course, Kali’s politeness may also have been a ruse.
Daniel Jackson looked over at O’Neill and Teal’c. “Uh, hi, guys. What’s goin’ on?”
“Hi, Daniel. How’s things?”
“Oh, peachy until a second ago. Well, not peachy, but at least we were starting to have a dialogue. What’s this all about?”
O’Neill shrugged. “Just trying to rescue you.”
“Rescue me.”
“Yeah.”
“Not really going all that well, is it?”
“Not so much.”
The Reetou suddenly spoke again. “We have consulted, and agree to speak directly to the Goa’uld Kali rather than her emissary. The emissary is dismissed.”
“Excellent,” O’Neill said, “we’ll just head on back to the Stargate and go home.”
“Hardly.” Kali looked at Yaresh. “Put Dr. Jackson with his friends.”
O’Neill shook his head. “Coulda sworn you gave us your word that we’d be free to go once we did everything you asked us to do.”
“Had you done everything I asked you to do, Colonel, I would have.” Kali smiled sweetly. “But instead you attacked me and my Jaffa and have attempted to undermine my work.” Then she turned back to the Reetou — or, rather, where the Reetou were supposed to be, they remained out of sight — as Yaresh picked Daniel Jackson up from his chair and put him alongside O’Neill and Teal’c. “These three are part of a team known as SG-1, a group of soldiers from the Tau’ri. I believe you are familiar with them, as they thwarted your attempt to destroy Earth?”
It was a moment before the Reetou replied. “We are familiar with the people of Earth, yes.”
“Then, may I offer the three of them as prisoners for you to do with as you will in punishment for the Reetou deaths they caused? I am also on the verge of producing the fourth member of their team.”
The Reetou again hesitated before replying. “That is an acceptable offer, pending the conclusion of these negotiations.”
O’Neill visibly winced. Daniel Jackson let out a long sigh.
Teal’c frowned.
The taste of potential victory was growing bitter in his mouth.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
P3X-418 — Captain Patel and the Thakka
PATEL DUCKED and rolled as soon as the first syllable of “shol’va” came from the Jaffa’s lips. Not for the first time, she was grateful that the staff weapon took a couple of seconds to get into position, aim, arm, and fire. Had the Jaffa been carrying an Earth firearm, Patel would probably be dead with several bullets in her chest instead of rolling on the deck with staff weapon fire flying over her head.
She came up on her stomach and aimed and fired her P90 on automatic, which took out one of the Jaffa, while the Thakka fired with his own staff weapon to take out the other.
Shaking her head, Patel clambered to her feet. “Dammit, how’d they know about you?”
“I do not know.” The Thakka walked over to kneel beside the two corpses. “I am sorry, Haj. You were a good warrior. As were you, Torret.”
Patel appreciated what the Thakka was doing — these were his soldiers not that long ago — but there wasn’t time for this. Focus on the job while you’re doing it. Think about what it means after it’s done. “We have to move. If the Jaffa know you’ve turned, we’re not gonna be able to bluff our way out.”
The Thakka turned and looked up at Patel.
Wincing, Patel saw a hollowness in the Thakka’s eyes that she hadn’t seen before. When she first met him on this snowy world, he’d seemed devoted, and on the cargo ship as she and Teal’c wore him down, he was angry.
Now he was sad. Worse, he looked defeated.
In her best imitation of Major Lagdamen, she barked, “We don’t have time to mope, soldier. Move!”
He nodded. “Of course. The engine room.”
They moved quickly toward their destination. Miraculously, they encountered no Jaffa. She was worried that the Jaffa would be able to sneak up on them, since Kali was the only Goa’uld she knew of who carpeted her corridors.
She quickly placed C-4 in all the optimal places. They moved on to several other locations and were amazingly left alone.
This is going way too smoothly.
Just as she had that thought, they approached the bridge, to find four more Jaffa visible through the open hatch.
Dammit, I knew it was going too smoothly.
She looked over at the Thakka and shook her head. Putting C-4 in the pel’tak wasn’t absolutely necessary. While you could control all ship’s functions from the bridge, none of the actual critical systems were located there. The only reason to blow it up was to keep anyone on board from trying to accomplish anything like piloting or sending out a communiqué.
But that comparatively minor advantage wasn’t worth a four-against-two fight that they’d probably lose. They were lucky with the previous two Jaffa, and Patel stopped counting on luck being useful the day Captain Negassa was killed.
She tried to convey all that with the shaking of her head at the Thakka. Then she motioned for them to move away, toward the ring room.
Instead, the Thakka set his staff weapon against the bulkhead and touched several of the hieroglyphs on it. When he was done, he stood in the entryway to the bridge without actually going inside. The staff weapon remained out of his hands against the bulkhead.
What the hell is he doing?
He held up his arms. “Jaffa!”
All four Jaffa turned around. One raised his staff weapon. “Shol’va!”
“Please, my loyal Jaffa, hear me! I know you believe me to be a traitor to the Mother Goddess — and perhaps I am. But that is because my eyes have been opened to the fact that Kali is no goddess.”
Patel stayed out of sight, thinking that this was very much not the time to try a recruiting drive, but helpless to do anything.
Well, not completely helpless. She could just leave, head to the ring room and leave the Thakka to his boneheaded play.
But no, that wasn’t the mission. And besides, the Thakka had turned. He was one of the good guys now. Patel had seen the members of the Jaffa rebellion that they’d installed on the Alpha Site — the exposure of Kytano as Imhotep had been a devastating blow. Having the First Prime of a System Lord on their side would be a huge shot in the arm. More so if he brought some of his friends along.
So she stayed to the side of the entryway, P90 at the ready, hoping that the Thakka knew what the hell he was doing.
From the sounds of it, he wasn’t making much headway. One of the Jaffa said, “How dare you speak that way! I looked up to you, Thakka — the day you were chosen as the new First Prime, I was the first to cheer. Now I look upon you with disgust and shame.”
The Thakka still had his hands up. “Disgust and shame are indeed appropriate, my friend, but it should not be directed at me. The Goa’uld are all false gods, including the Mother Goddess herself. She is not all-knowing, not all-seeing. If she was, she would have
known I would betray her.”
“She did, shol’va! That is why she sent you on this fool’s errand to Imphal, to sacrifice you so a loyal First Prime could take your place.”
Patel rolled her eyes. She gave the Thakka an are we done here? look.
“A pity,” the Thakka said. “Let us hope she is all-knowing enough to save you.”
And then he lowered his outstretched right arm to touch one of the hieroglyphs, which shut the hatch.
He turned to Patel. “That will only keep them trapped in the pel’tak for a few minutes, and they will alert the other Jaffa to our presence.” Then he held up a hand, just as Patel was opening her mouth to object. “I realize it has made our position more precarious, but these are warriors I fought beside. Some of them I trained with, others I trained. I had to at least attempt to bring them to our side. I owed them that much respect.”
Patel’s argument died on her lips. “Fine. Let’s get to the ring room and blow this popsicle stand.”
“What is a popsicle?” the Thakka asked as he grabbed his staff weapon.
She laughed. Blow this popsicle stand was one of Lagdamen’s favorite phrases. She hadn’t even realized that she’d adopted it until the Thakka asked her the question. I guess he’s not the only one who owes respect to comrades.
As they jogged down the carpeted corridor, Patel said, “When we get back to Earth, I’ll show you, but basically they’re flavored ice.” At the Thakka’s dubious expression, she added, “They’re really yummy. Teal’c loves them.”
She actually had no idea what Teal’c’s feelings were on popsicles, but she figured that would help.
They made it to the ring room without incident
“Small favors,” Patel muttered, then added more loudly: “Guard the door.”
As she went inside, the Thakka shouted, “Kula!”
Before she could even respond, she saw him leap in front of her, as he had done the last time the pair of them were at a ring terminus, and just like the last time, he took weapons fire meant for her.
STARGATE SG-1: Kali's Wrath (SG1-28) Page 17