Stargate SG-1: Trial by Fire: SG1-1

by Sabine C. Bauer

  "You might have told me that you speak English!"

  "Why bother when you speak Latin?" he asked, a trace of mirth warming a cool voice. "Besides, feigned ignorance is a useful tool."

  Indeed. O'Neill wielded it with commendable prowess.

  Resuming his scrutiny of SG-1, the man observed, "You're the ones Deodatus spoke of, aren't you? His team?"

  "Who?" snapped Major Carter.

  The Professor produced the horse-like noise she was so fond of. "Colonel O'Neill. It's what they call him. Deodatus."

  "That's the Latin form of his name. I bet he was thrilled." For the briefest of moments a smile ghosted across Daniel Jackson's face, then he sobered. "We need to talk."

  "Yes, we must. Please come with me."

  Over bunches of dried seaweed, driftwood, and crackling shingle Flavius led them to the stand of cedars that concealed the troops. These warriors were indeed ready for battle. They sat quietly, whetting swords and daggers already sharp, tightening bow strings, waiting for marching orders to come. The sense of anticipation hanging over them was so strong that they barely acknowledged the newcomers. Only two rose at their approach. These two, the Jaffa assumed, were leaders of other Phrygian settlements.

  The introductions were complicated and assumed a now familiar pattern. Assurances were given, the ring was produced, and Flavius added what he had learned; Deodatus held himself honored to call this Jaffa his friend. A secret surge of joy notwithstanding, Teal'c yearned for the simple faith the Tyreans had shown. It might have hastened matters.

  No sooner than everyone had settled in a circle on the ground, chary and out of earshot of the troops, a further difficulty arose. The elder of the two Phrygian commanders voiced his disapproval at the female presence.

  "Illa res naulieres non attingit."

  "Thirty-nine," Professor Kelly muttered glumly.

  "What?" muttered Major Carter.

  "Commodus, perhaps we should make an exception in this case," Flavius proposed. "She is a tribune and the deputy of Deodatus."

  "She's a woman!" bellowed Commodus. "How can she be a tribune?"

  Before anyone had an opportunity to elucidate or interfere, the Professor hopped to her feet, a short, rotund figure in ill-fitting robes. Fists propped on hips, she scowled at the Phrygian men.

  "Will you be reasonable? We've got more important things to do than sit here and discuss who can or can't do what. Now, I may not be much use for anything apart from digging around ruins, but that girl'll have the lot of you for breakfast if you don't watch it! Do you know who she is?" Evidently they did not and, judging from the expression on Professor Kelly's face, neither did she. Her confusion was short-lived, however. "She's an Amazon queen! Where I come from, whole armies are afraid of them!"

  Among incredulous stares she resumed her seat, still scowling. The Amazon queen groaned, barely audibly over the hiss of the surf, and Daniel Jackson shivered with suppressed laughter. Teal'c was happy to see it. Of their would-be allies, Commodus, the man who had objected to Major Carter's presence, was the first to regain his composure.

  "An Amazon, old woman? If she is an Amazon, then why does she still have both breasts? Don't they tear off the one so that they can draw their bows without impediment?"

  Blushing so fiercely that it was discernible even in the stark moonlight, Major Carter raised her P90. "Because we exchanged our bows for these. See this?"

  She pointed at the broken branch of a cedar, some ninety feet above their heads. Necks craned obligingly as the men looked for the target. Silhouetted by the triple moons, the branch swayed gently in the night wind. She did not bother to rise. In one smooth motion she unsafed her weapon, took aim, and fired a single round. Birds exploded from the tree, screeching and fluttering madly, and the branch snapped into the air. By some strange quirk of physics, the dry piece of wood tumbled directly into Commodus' lap.

  "Any more questions?" Major Carter enquired lightly.

  "Yes!" Flavius' face had drained of color. "If you have such weapons, why did you not stop the attack on our garrison? You could have prevented a hundred deaths!"

  Hostility and suspicion, which had never been wholly dispersed, condensed like a cloud of thunder waiting to erupt above the placid beach. Teal'c resisted an impulse to leap up and clasped his staff weapon a little tighter, realizing even so that they would not stand a chance should any of these men summon their troops to attack. He recalled his own failure in tracking the Temple Guards who had been dispatched to cause the avalanche, and he could relate to Flavius' outrage.

  "We didn't have all the facts," Daniel Jackson said quietly. "Without sufficient information we couldn't become involved, because we didn't know whether intervention would have been for the best. Right or wrong, sometimes it seems -" The young man's voice caught and dwindled to a raw whisper. "Sometimes it seems necessary not to act."

  He scrubbed a hand over his face as though to swipe away the turmoil of confusion and guilt these incongruous words had stirred once more. Major Carter glanced at him curiously and then shook her head, reining in her concern and reminding herself that queries would have to wait.

  "Look," she said. "One thing Daniel neglected to mention just now was that we didn't really feel all that charitable, seeing that you'd kidnapped our people. But we're here now. I can't blame you for not wanting to take us up on it, and I know it won't bring your people back, but we're here to help. And with or without you we're gonna try and get Colonel O'Neill... Deodatus... and Tertius and as many children as possible out of there before it's too late. With you it'll be easier, and we'll save more lives. We may even be able to arrange a peace between you and the Tyreans. It's up to you. So I suggest you drop the attitude, tell me what you've planned, and then we'll tell you what we know. After that we put both together and see where it gets us. Agreed?"

  The three Phrygians looked at each other, then at her. Finally, slowly, Flavius nodded.

  "Agreed."

  An excruciating three hours later, Major Samantha Carter AKA Queen of the Amazons hauled herself over the edge of the temple roof, still not knowing if that chauvinist fossil Commodus would do what he'd consented to do. The plan had largely been hers, which automatically rendered it suspect. She'd had COs like that. Oddly enough, past experience didn't make it any easier to stomach.

  "Screw him," she muttered.

  After all, you could hardly blame the guy. He lived in a society that actually believed in this kind of crap... Same as she.

  Sam grinned and pulled a black watch cap over her hair.

  Then she began crawling across the roof and toward the inner edge. Kelly had told them that she and the Colonel had spotted the Phrygians up here the night of the raid. A lesson to remember, especially as two of the moons still stood high enough to make life difficult. Sam's left elbow slipped in something soft and viscous, and an acrid stink assaulted her nose. Bird droppings. Great. The place was a guano farm! Another bit to remember. Should she develop an urge to run flat-out across the roof, she'd better watch her step, else she'd land flat on her face. Or the opposite end.

  Behind her she could hear muted scrabbling now. A group of fifteen Phrygian archers and Teal'c. No. No way she'd hear Teal'c - not unless he wanted her to. As a matter of fact, she'd have preferred to have him on the ground, but the risk of his being recognized was far too high. Besides, a staff weapon fired from an elevated position could work wonders for crowd control.

  And they'd need that. Holy cow!

  Her head mere inches over the parapet, she peered down into the courtyard. The place was packed, and more people were still pushing through the temple gate. Creeping through the forest, they'd seen the throngs of faithful milling up the road like fans flocking to a rock concert, but somehow she hadn't expected it to be that bad. Once the show got underway, collateral damage would be preprogrammed. But the alternative was abandoning the kids and Colonel O'Neill. Wonderful choice!

  She swore under her breath and kept watching, hoping sh
e'd be able to spot Daniel, who was down there with Flavius and the slightly less antediluvian Phrygian commander, all of them kitted out in Tyrean robes. Currently they were escorting Kelly, who'd volunteered to find Ayzebel. Hamilqart's wife had promised to mobilize a group of women who also had lost sons and to create as much chaos as possible once the curtain went up. Sam figured that the good Professor was ideally posted with them; Kelly on her own could create more chaos than a whole regiment of angry mothers. For the moment, however, she remained invisible, hidden under a veil they'd forced on her and blending in with a few hundred people also wearing cloaks and veils and headscarves.

  From the corner of her eye Sam noticed the archers fanning out along the parapet. Good. Then a presence, sleek and silent like a large jungle cat, settled next to her. She really hadn't heard him coming.

  "Hi, Teal'c," she whispered, smiling. "Everything okay?"

  "So far everything is proceeding as planned. Even the rogue elements." He pointed across the yawning gap of the courtyard and to the opposite roof.

  Barely visible against the dark wall of the forest, you could see shadows moving left and right of the tower. Commodus, with another thirty archers. Well, at least he was in position.

  "Have you seen O'Neill yet?" her friend asked next.

  If she didn't know him so well, she would have missed the distress in his voice. It mirrored her own, and she couldn't afford to dwell on it. The Colonel couldn't afford to have her dwell on it.

  "No. But it won't be long now."

  It couldn't be, provided her assumptions and the information she'd based them on were correct. Unlike the Purification, the children's `initiation' wasn't for public consumption, and for good reason. The populace might object to watching their kids die. In other words, the temple had to be cleared by sunrise, which was when the sacrifice was supposed to begin. Sunrise was in approximately two-and-a-half hours. They were cutting it fine... Or maybe Baal was stuck in a traffic jam...

  Commotion erupted below, and for a second Sam feared that Kelly had snapped into action without waiting for the starter's gun. In actual fact it was a gang of forty-odd acolytes, armed with torches, who formed a cordon and none too gently drove the crowd back from the front of the tower. The giant gates stood open, and Sam could see the statue inside, golden and malignant. In front of the steps an area of some fifty meters square had been cleared now, acolytes posted along the perimeter to prevent another invasion. She absently registered an oddity in the geometry of the pavement. The court was paved with honeycombed flagstones. The only exception were two round tiles, hardly more than a foot across and at about twelve meters distance from each other. Both were enclosed by a much wider, seamless ring of stone. It looked like a pair of pale eyes staring up at her. Kandaulo's eyes...

  he torch had burned down to a tired red glimmer. It didn't matter now. Jack hadn't slept a wink, and he heard them coming, despite Tertius' deafening snores. A broken nose could play hell on one's personal acoustics. But he had a feeling he'd have heard them even if they'd glided down the corridor four feet above the ground and wearing white sheets with eyeholes. Practice makes perfect.

  Four of them, counting the steps. Two to a man. You could hang between them like a sack of potatoes or a six-year-old on the way to the dentist, but it wouldn't work. If you didn't come willingly, they'd simply drag you to where you were going. They never talked, and they didn't care. For some reason it made you feel more helpless, more like a thing. Less than human. Some wind-up toy. Press the right buttons, and it screamed.

  His right hand developed a life of its own, fingers trailing over his chest, scouting for the odd spot of skin that would suddenly tingle and ache. Funny, that. No marks, no scars, just a memory of pain. Somehow the sarcophagus had left those nerve endings untouched. The fingers listened as his heartbeat raced away. Between two rapid thuds he realized that he wished Teal'c had come. A staff blast or five would have knocked a hole even into that wall, and they'd be long gone.

  And what about the kids?

  Loser!

  He rolled on his side, nearly falling off the stone bench, got up, and tiptoed over to Tertius. The snoring was deceptive. Above that Tyrean purple nose, the man's eyes flew open as soon as Jack touched him.

  "They're coming," mumbled Tertius. It wasn't a question.

  "Yeah."

  Bolts slid back and rattled. No quiet touch on a pane to shift the pull of gravity. Just bolts, sliding back and rattling. Homey, like Baal had discovered a foible for the quaint. Jack was still trying to decide if this improved the outlook when the door opened to reveal four men. Four. He'd known that. Two to one. All of them shorter than he, which surprised him. He'd instinctively anticipated the 6'8" Rent-A-Goon variety. Instead it was two Jaffa wannabes and two priests. The sourpuss he remembered from that kangaroo court on the island. His colleague was thin-faced, fat-bellied, and goggle-eyed, and looked as baffled as Jack felt.

  "May I ask you to come with us?" Goggle-Eyes enquired politely, smiling.

  Tertius cocked a sardonic eyebrow. In combination with the torchlight and the nose, it lent him the air of a wayward lesser demon who'd accidentally participated in a rodeo. "We'd be delighted," he said and stood.

  Delighted wouldn't have been Jack's choice of words, but who was he to argue? For a second he wondered what would have happened if Tertius had said, Sorry, guys, we're kinda busy right now.

  The politeness of the approach might have deteriorated a little. As it was, nobody even tied their hands. The priests led the way out of the cell, leaving the wannabes to herd them past other cells full of uneasy whispers, through barred gates, along moldy walls slick with green moisture after the rains, around dozens of corners, and finally to a confined set of stairs. He'd been here before. The stairs led to the western corner of the courtyard. From the top spilled a warm, unsteady glow and the rhubarb of excited voices. The audience were getting restive.

  "Do not be afraid," Goggle-Eyes said, almost kindly. "Examine your heart and soul, and you cannot fail to make the right decision."

  Goggle-Eyes seemed to think Jack was human. Things couldn't be afraid.

  The walls either side of the stairs were white, limestone scrubbed and tinted rosy by the light. The rhubarb grew louder with every step, and he wanted the quiet of his cabin. Behind him he could hear Tertius. Did Tertius like to fish? Did androids dream of electric sheep?

  What?

  Get a grip, O'Neill! You're losing it!

  He stopped briefly at the top of the staircase, blinking against the brightness of countless torches outside. Then his eyes adjusted, and he saw a phalanx of Temple Guards, ready to escort them. Beyond, an anonymous sea of faces. Purple-framed white faces, gaping eyes and mouths that breathed a communal sigh of anticipation. It briefly floated above the crowd and sank back into utter silence. Then the Guards started moving, some falling in behind him, separating him from Tertius and ushering him through a passage, cleared of people and lined by acolytes, towards the open space before the tower. Gaping eyes and mouths, stuck between rapture and greed, tracked his every step. Any second now they'd suck him in, swallow him alive.

  From somewhere among them, a familiar grating voice advised, "Chin up, duckie!"

  Peeking past the shoulders and pungent underarm aroma of two acolytes, Daniel watched Jack approach the arena. He seemed to walk on eggshells, and if he got any more tense, he'd shatter into pieces too small to find. Suddenly, and for no reason Daniel could detect, some of the tension sloughed off and there was a minute smile and a twitch, as though he'd meant to turn around and stopped himself at the last moment. A split-second later, some of the lilac and fuchsia mass opposite broke into flutters and settled down again. Ayzebel's women were over there. Kelly. It had to have been Kelly, unable to keep her mouth shut, as usual. For once Dr. Jackson felt profoundly grateful for the Professor's oral dysfunction.

  Jack looked more alert now, half-hooded eyes scanning the crowd, doing what training and experience demanded
he do, assessing the situation. He'd spot them, Daniel was almost certain of it. Directly behind the cordon of acolytes stood Flavius and the second Phrygian commander with twenty soldiers.

  It'd been a gamble, and one that had required an awful lot of persuasion. Strictly no caps, and the Phrygians hadn't liked that. Plus, there'd only been two spare robes to disguise the officers. The men had been forced to strip off their armor and rely on their own plain cloaks. As it turned out, they were in good company. The people who'd come down from the mountain villages wore similar outfits. Raising goats obviously didn't generate enough income to afford dyed linen or silk.

  The thought of Phoenician socio-economics, reassuringly bland, provided some sort of a mental breather. Jack was a mere ten feet away now, and it would be much better if all he saw was the wealth of emotion applicable to obsolete gross national product.

  Dark, searching eyes met Daniel's and lit up with a flash of relief Relief? Daniel was surprised enough to grin, the end result probably being on a par with Teal'c's early efforts. But Jack had moved on already, and behind him followed Tertius, studiously inspecting the flagstones for fear of giving his men away. The pair were surrounded by a contingent of ten Temple Guards.

  As far as Daniel could tell, these ten were the only ones out in the courtyard. Two more flanked the tower gates and the rest, sixty strong, were posted around the colonnade, currently minding the children in their cells. At the first sign of trouble they'd close off the court and trap everyone inside a killing ground. Diagonally across, at the eastern perimeter of the open space, Daniel picked out Hamilgart, engaged in crowd control, like the rest of the acolytes. On the man's face hung a chilling mix of fascination and pure terror. He knew the script, didn't he?

  If - no, when - push came to shove, it would be up to Flavius, Daniel, and the Phrygians to protect Jack and Tertius, at the same time hopefully luring the Guards under the arcade into the open, where they'd be targets for Sam and Teal'c and the archers. Daniel felt an urge to check if his team mates were in position and curbed it. Even a single glance could draw attention to the roof, largely because everyone else was mesmerized by the goings-on outside the tower.