The Barque of Heaven Read online

  The woman collapsed on top of him, her dead weight pinning his arms and her dusty hair in his face. The fingers pressed bruisingly into his jaw went limp. Above him the shouts of his team were drowned out by a sickening reptilian squealing. Then the body was gone and he shot to his feet, fearfuelled adrenaline making it hard to focus on what was happening around him, and still that damnable noise....

  "Sir!" Carter's voice finally registered.

  "M'okay. Okay...."

  Carter was right in front of him, concern written plain on her face, one hand gripping his arm. Daniel was a pace behind her, horror making his eyes huge in the moonlight.

  "Jack, you're bleeding."

  He frowned at Daniel, not feeling anything amiss.

  "Sir." Gentler this time, Carter wiped something under his chin. It came away bloody. "I think the tail got you."

  His stomach flipped into knots and it was only by sheer will he didn't dump his last MRE on her boots. Finally the squealing penetrated once more. A few deep breaths brought him back to his senses. His eyes tracked to Teal'c, standing several feet away, one arm extended, fist wrapped like steel around the thrashing body of a Goa'uld.

  Heedless of the cuts the scaly body was inflicting on him, Teal'c met Jack's eyes. Slowly, deliberately, he squeezed his fist until the Goa'u1d hung lifeless. To make doubly certain of its death, he grasped the head in his other hand and a quick yank separated it from the body. Teal'c tossed the pieces to the ground in disgust. He accepted a medicated wipe from Daniel and fastidiously cleaned away the blue blood.

  Jack swallowed against a chill of revulsion that swept up his spine and over his scalp, standing every hair on end-a sense memory, perhaps, of that awful second awakening in Hathor's cryo-chamber. He shook off the images and snapped back into action, bringing his weapon up and joining his team in scanning the area for any further threat.

  Nothing stirred across the broken landscape apart from a swooping bird, catching insects on the fly in the night warmth. Jack left Teal'c and Carter on watch and turned to the woman's body. He grimaced as Daniel, already kneeling next to her, straightened her limbs and worn clothing.

  Daniel closed her staring eyes and brushed the tangled hair away from her face, revealing a young, once beautiful woman, clearly ravaged by deprivation. Softly he spoke a few words over her, the lilting Abydonian tones of his prayer doing much to sooth Jack's ruffled nerves.

  Finished, Daniel stood up and looked at Jack. "Are you okay?"

  "Yeah. Where the hell did she come from?"

  Daniel shook his head and it was Teal'c who answered. "Judging by the amount of dirt on her clothing, it is possible she concealed herself in one of these gullies, lying in wait for us.

  "She must have been trapped here for a long time, to be desperate enough to jump Jack like that," Daniel mused. "Which means she failed the test or couldn't find the address for the next planet."

  "I thought Goa'uld could survive four hundred years or so before needing a new host," Jack said, slapping the dirt from his clothing.

  "But the Goa'uld would need a new host body to escape this planet. One with nanocytes that would let it get through the 'gate before our time here expires," Daniel replied.

  "Swell. Move out and keep sharp." Jack settled his cap back on his head and wrapped his fingers around his MPS.

  Denied the time to bury her, Daniel bent and gently covered the woman's face with her tattered shawl, then fell in line behind Carter.

  The Goa'uld lay discarded in a torn, congealing heap.

  With the two moons lending ample light, the journey was completed in watchful silence. Viewed close-up, the object spotted by Daniel and Teal'c was revealed to be a sphinx statue, considerably smaller than the first one discovered on this mission, but still impressive; it crouched on a small hill, ram-headed face gazing at the now vanished sun.

  "This has been here a long time, centuries even. The material might not even be native to this area," murmured Daniel, running his fingers lightly over the faded red stone.

  "Ra certainly seemed to like his sphinxes," Sam commented.

  "In Ancient Egypt the sphinx was regarded as the living image of the sun god. I guess it's no wonder Ra took it as his physical representation, or if the carbon dating on the cover stone from our Stargate is anything to go by, Ra probably initiated the use of the sphinx to honor the sun god and the practice continued after the rebellion. In fact, the word sphinx is derived from an Ancient Egyptian formula that transliterates as Shesepankh, meaning living image of a god or king."

  Daniel paused beneath the finely carved face, camera rolling under its small spotlight, carefully scrutinizing the surface of the statue for any clue to its purpose. Sam shadowed him while Jack and Teal'c stood back, on guard.

  "Actually, given the Stargate was found at Giza, it's possible the Great Sphinx is a relic from Ra's time on Earth. Geologic evidence dates its construction somewhere between seven and ten thousand years ago, despite archaeological evidence to the contrary." Daniel snuck a look at his audience and felt quite gratified he still had the attention of two. Jack's focus was elsewhere; he had drifted further out to a higher rise, on recon.

  "Is not the head on the Great Sphinx a representation of one of the kings of the Old Kingdom, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked as he prowled around the base of said statue's smaller cousin.

  "Khafre, yes it is, Teal'c. But the head is noticeably out of scale with the body and shows none of the water erosion the rest of the structure does. Conceivably it could have been damaged in the uprising that ousted Ra from Earth, and Khafre came along a few thousand years later and had the image of his own head added on." Daniel tried to temper his enthusiasm as he reveled in this rare opportunity to voice his theories.

  "Wow," Sam smiled. "That will make quite a paper for your peers to digest one day."

  Daniel huffed a laugh. "I think my peers have just heard it, Sam."

  "So, any ideas on this?"

  "Yeah, a couple. There's a passage of text carved in the chest here, but it doesn't make much sense. What do you think this - "

  "Down!" Jack's cry was nearly drowned out by a highpitched whine. The soil around them erupted into geysers of dust and stone. A second explosion pelted Daniel and Sam with debris as they scrabbled desperately for cover behind the sphinx.

  "O'Neill! Two o'clock from your position," Teal'c's voice rang out, underscored by a withering stream of fire from his staff weapon. Daniel glimpsed several figures dodging through the gullies back toward the Stargate.

  Jack bounded down from the knoll where he was nicely exposed and dropped to one knee, firing burst after burst at their attackers. "How many?"

  "Three definite contacts, there may be more," Teal'c called back.

  Another round of fire drove the attackers into hiding. The resulting pause gave a brief opportunity to scope the terrain. Sam spat out a mouthful of grit, her weapon aiming in an arc over Daniel's head as he searched frantically in the loose earth for the precious camera, blown from his hand during the first attack. She turned, staring past the hindquarters of the sphinx and squeezed off a few rounds as movement caught her eye.

  "Got it!" Daniel grabbed the camera, thankfully still working. He switched it off and shoved it into a pocket.

  "Sir, we've got possibly two contacts in the rear."

  Jack switched his weapon's selector to single rounds and sent two shots down-slope at a head that rapidly vanished into cover. Daniel scrambled up behind Jack and Teal'c, pistol drawn.

  "Damn it, we're sitting ducks up here. Daniel, did you get anything off that statue?"

  "The only inscriptions on it were four lines of text, and some of them have been damaged. I'm hoping what's left will indicate where to find the 'gate address. I just have to piece it all together."

  "Do we need to stay here?"

  "No, I've got it all on disc, but the address could be concealed here. We may have to come back."

  "Okay. We're too exposed up here. There's scrub c
over in that gully; two hundred meters down, fifty left," Jack directed, waving his binoculars at a small patch of growth in one of the shallow creek-beds below.

  "Got it, sir," Sam called softly, covering their six.

  "I see it," Daniel echoed.

  "Teal'c, you've got the best range. Lay down some covering fire, then we'll bring you in. Daniel, behind me, then Carter. Go."

  Teal'c rose up and unleashed a rain of staff-fire at the figures below who were beginning to advance once more. Sam sent two rounds out over the hostile position in the rear and then they were up and running, bodies bent low as possible, past Teal'c and down the hill.

  They skidded and dodged, following Jack's mad dash to safety. It seemed like the longest distance they had ever run, but suddenly they were there, sliding feet first down an embankment and under the thorny bushes. Sam scrambled around and lay flat in the dirt, mirroring Jack's position a meter away, head barely above ground level. Daniel skidded past them and thumped into the earth, covering the opposite direction.

  "Ready, sir," Sam panted.

  Jack thumbed his radio. "Teal'c. Go on three."

  Upslope, Teal'c acknowledged by unleashing another storm of fire.

  "...three!"

  Jack and Sam rose and sprayed the area with bullets as Teal'c turned and sprinted down to them. Moments later, he was with them in a settling cloud of dust.

  "I believe there are five enemy, O'Neill: three in the gullies between ourselves and the Stargate and two coming in from the right behind the sphinx. They are using Goa'uld weap onry. "

  "Jaffa?" Jack searched intently through the dim light for any sign of movement.

  Teal'c considered for a moment. "I do not believe so. I saw no armor and their pattern of attack was not one a squad of Jaffa would employ."

  "You think maybe they're Goa'uld, stranded here by the Trial?" Sam asked.

  "I do, Major Carter, which means they will be particularly desperate to overcome us before our time here expires."

  "To take us as hosts," Daniel said flatly.

  "Indeed. We must be vigilant." Teal'c upholstered his zat and handed it to Daniel who accepted it with a nod, tucking the Beretta back in its holster.

  "What I want to know is why so many got stuck on this one planet," Jack said. "I'm really hoping it's not because the 'gate won't dial out at all."

  "Maybe they came through in a group and just missed the deadline." Sam shifted a little to clear her field of view.

  "Or they couldn't find the address," Daniel offered, the text from the sphinx lurking tantalizingly in his mind.

  "Well, they're between us and the 'gate, and our ammo is limited." Jack peered through his binoculars. "There's a stand of trees about a klick north of here. We make it there, then try to circle east; come up on the Stargate from the south. The more we keep moving, the harder it will be for them. If we get split up, RV point will be the gully with the dead Goa'uld. Daniel, can you work on the translation on the run?"

  "Yes," Daniel replied wryly, making a mental note to add that skill to his CV

  "Okay. Carter, take point."

  "Sir."

  Sam slid down the embankment, then turned and crawled through the shrubs up the opposite bank to settle next to Daniel. Ahead and slightly to the left, they could see the dark stand of trees, spindly and sparsely foliaged but offering bet ter cover than they presently had. The problem would be getting across nearly a kilometer of open, broken ground. Bright though the two moons were their light left deep shadows, offering cover but making the terrain particularly treacherous.

  She exchanged a nod with Daniel and led the way; keeping as low as possible. One hundred meters out, she found the first of a series of dry creek-beds, this time heading north-east. By following them as far as possible, then ducking up, over and down into the next, she led the team across the open ground until safety was only two dozen meters away.

  But, Daniel realized, safety was an illusory thing at best and as they headed into that final run, a nerve-jangling shriek filled the air, scant precursor to some kind of sonic blast that hit the ground, sending dirt and rocks flying everywhere. He dodged and ran full tilt after Sam, stumbling in the uncertain light while Jack and Teal'c sprayed return fire over their shoulders, more for effect than accuracy.

  "Incoming. Go, go, go!" Jack's bellow was lost under the shriek of another blast. He cut left into the cloud of debris, Teal'c a pace behind.

  Sam gained the tree line and plunged through, zigzagging a path around crooked branches, never slowing until two large bushes came into view. She slid feet first under one; Daniel followed suit into the other. Together they aimed past Jack and Teal'c, and delivered a barrage of covering fire until the two had angled to the right and slipped into concealment a short distance away.

  Noise and gun smoke eventually cleared, revealing nothing but settling dust. Daniel stifled a cough. Sweat trickled down his temple, carving a sticky trail through the grime on his face. Movement near the tree line revealed their hunters, advancing stealthily toward them.

  Sam opened the radio link and breathed, "Two contacts, one o'clock, my position."

  She counted to five then let rip a burst of rounds, tearing leaves and limbs from the trees. A heartbeat later, Daniel trig gered the zat, spitting blue fire in a steady stream, then they were up and off, crouching, running deeper into the forest, fire from Jack and Teal'c covering their retreat.

  On it went, in an ever wearying pattern-cover, fire, run, cover, fire, retreat, retreat-through sharp-leaved scrub that caught and tore at clothing and skin, stumbling in the shadows over uneven ground littered with rocks and dead branches. The moons arced higher in their journey but the heat of the past day barely dissipated: a stifling warmth that sucked the moisture from their mouths and left a salty coating of dried sweat and dust on their skin.

  Three and a half hours of this. Sam shook her head, eyes constantly searching for hostiles.

  The team took cover in a depression surrounded by bushes, each facing a different direction, harsh breathing the only sound in the still air. They had taken no fire for the past fortyfive minutes and had been moving steadily north-northeast. The trees were thinning out now, the forest reduced to disconnected clumps of vegetation. Time to change direction, before they were driven too far away from the Stargate. At least their kit was giving them ample camouflage this time, the desert camo BDUs blending in nicely with the terrain and at times even making it difficult to see each other.

  "Sit-rep," the colonel said quietly.

  "No more than five hostiles, sir."

  "I am unfamiliar with the explosive weapon they carry, but it appears they possess only two of them. The others are armed with zats and at least one ribbon device." Teal'c bore grazes along one bare arm from being thrown off his feet by one such concussive blast. "O'Neill," he twisted around, indicating a sparsely vegetated area to the east. "If we take this direction, we will be able to angle around past the Stargate and come up in the rear from the south."

  "Yeah," Colonel O'Neill nodded. "Whichever way we go I'm thinking they're going to hit us hard at the 'gate." He looked over each of them. "How's everyone doing?"

  "I am fine." Teal'c did look fine, too; dusty and sweaty, but raring to go.

  "I'm good sir," Sam said, attention not wavering from her watch over the terrain, but she could feel the weariness in her body. They were all starting to run a bit ragged after more than three days on the go-snatched sleep and infrequent meals were sapping their reserves.

  Dragging his gaze away from the inscription he'd copied, Daniel glanced sideways and shrugged. "Tired. Hungry. Really need to pee."

  Sam grimaced in empathy. They needed to shake the Goa'uld properly, get well ahead, retrieve their supplies, find the clues and get the hell out of here. "How are you doing with the translation?"

  "I've translated the symbols and aligned them into sentences. It looks like it's a riddle."

  "Goa'uld write riddles?"

  "Appare
ntly." Daniel fished out a packet of coffee candy and handed them out; even Teal'c took one.

  Sam drew a deep breath and rose as the colonel took point, leading his team down a dry gulch that angled away from the forest. For nearly another hour they continued on through the thinning scrub, stopping only for water, powerbars and carefully guarded personal breaks. The moons were reaching their zenith, still shining brightly despite a few clouds gathering in the sky. There was little movement to be seen apart from a few small animals darting through the undergrowth after insects, and one big fat ground bird that had nearly been shot, zatted and roasted with a staff blast before reflexes prevailed and it had waddled off on its own business.

  Of their pursuers there was no sighting, a fact that served only to make everyone more guarded. Changing direction once again, their southerly path led the team past clumps of cactus-like vegetation-some towering meters high and graced with vicious-looking thorns.

  Squinting in the uncertain light, Sam found the memory of the dead host's body returning to her, bringing with it un-needed thoughts of the terrors the woman must have suffered while possessed by the parasite. Questions about Jolinar-unasked and unwanted-rose from Sam's subconscious, but she shoved them away, back in the box where they belonged. She glanced at Daniel, wondering if the encounter with the Goa'uld had revived memories of his wife, but his face was unreadable in the shadows. She looked away, her eyes scouring the landscape for any threat, and tried to ignore the tiredness in her legs and the weight of the pack pulling at the muscles in her back.

  An odd buzz in the air gave only a second's warning, then Daniel stiffened as something wrapped around his legs with lightning speed. His feet were jerked out from under him, and with a choked cry, he was hauled away over the stony ground.

  GATE FOUR CONT'D

  "Nice Shootin' Tex"

  aniel!" He barely heard Sam's shout, overlaid by a volley from Teal'c's staff weapon, as he was yanked away at frightening speed. He scrabbled desperately at the ground, hands and nails tearing in futile attempts to slow his pace. Whatever was wound around his legs bit sharply into his skin through the BDUs. His pack and vest were torn from his body, his boonie dragging from his neck like a choking anchor.