The Barque of Heaven Read online

  One of the thorny cacti appeared in his bouncing vision. He wrapped his arms over his face and threw his weight to one side, barely missing the deadly spikes, and yet his flight never slowed as his body slalomed over the ground, his breath battered out of his lungs.

  And then, just as suddenly as it began, it was over. He slid to a halt. The agonizing pull on his legs faded, but still they were bound and hurting. Dazed and choking on a mouth filled with dirt, Daniel was barely aware of the figure that loomed over him until he focused on crazed, glowing eyes staring out of an emaciated face that descended rapidly toward him.

  "Nghaah!" Panicked, Daniel flung his arms over his head once more and desperately tried to roll away from the Goa'uld, but his bound and battered body could do little more than curl in a defensive clench.

  A single, echoing shot rang out from somewhere behind him. The Goa'uld seemed to pause above him, a red splodge of blood welling in the center of its host's forehead. The mouth opened-then vanished entirely in a flash of fire from Teal'c's staff. An MP5 roared again, this time on full auto-fire, riddling the faceless corpse with bullets until it finally collapsed into a grotesque heap.

  Feet skidded in the dirt next to Daniel's head and a hand clamped onto his elbow.

  "No!" Daniel jerked and wrenched himself away.

  "Daniel-Daniel, it's me. You're okay, we got him." Jack's face swam in Daniel's vision. Blinking to clear his dust-filled eyes he rubbed his face, and found to his surprise that his glasses were still in place. He pulled them off, squinted at the body and grimaced. Teal'c's blast had obliterated the head Jack had drilled with his own single shot.

  "You're okay, Daniel. The guy's Swiss cheese." Jack looked briefly at the body. "Grilled Swiss cheese, actually. You're okay, buddy."

  "That's a matter of opinion," Daniel grunted. He sat up with Jack's help, scratched hands picking ineffectively at the thin metal cord wrapped three times around his legs, from upper thigh to calf. It was tautly embedded in his BDUs and cutting into his skin through the tough material.

  "Get this off me."

  Jack traced the end of the cord to a six-point barb, buried in the side pocket of Daniel's right pant leg. The razor points on the barb had shredded through the tape recorder in the pocket, but even that had not been enough to completely stop it from cutting into his skin.

  "Damn." Jack winced. He pulled out his battered multi tool and tried to angle in properly to cut the head from the cable, but the line was too tight and Daniel was having trouble holding still.

  "Will you quit wriggling?"

  "Jack, get it off." Daniel kept pulling at the line, hating the feeling of being bound even more than the sharp pain.

  "I will if you'll quit wriggling. Why's this thing so tight?"

  Finally, the wire cutter slipped around the cord and he sliced through it. The second it was freed, the end shot out of Jack's hand, whipped away from Daniel's legs so fast the momentum spun him face down into the dirt, and retracted out of sight with a hum like a thousand angry bees.

  "Gahh!" Daniel half-shouted, half-sobbed, as the metal scored a bloody trail around his legs. He buried his face in his clenched fists and muttered, "Jack, please don't help anymore."

  "Sorry, Daniel."

  "The area is secure, O'Neill." Teal'c towered over them. "However, we should not remain here. The sound of our weapons will draw the Goa'uld tracking us. Are you alright, Daniel Jackson?"

  "No. " Daniel coughed out. "Feels like my legs have been filleted." Gingerly, he rolled over, his boonie spilling its load of dirt down his neck. "What the hell was that thing?"

  "The way it retracted, I'd say some kind of spring-loaded crossbow." Sam knelt next to him, first aid kit in one hand. She surveyed the thin lines of blood seeping through Daniel's pants. "It might be easier to do this if you stand up, Daniel."

  "Sure. No problem."

  Daniel lay sprawled in the dirt looking up at them, trying to convince his muscles to get with the program.

  "Um...."

  Jack got to his feet, left hand clenched tight over a bloody cut from the retracting line and together with Teal'c, slowly pulled Daniel upright.

  "Oh." A dozen different aches made themselves known all down his back, arms and legs, while blood pounded in his ears in its rush to leave his thumping head. Dizzy, Daniel leaned into Teal'c's broad shoulders and closed his eyes.

  A misplaced breeze had his eyes open a minute later, finding to his chagrin that Sam had his pants down around his knees and in the covered light of her flashlight was gently pulling the material away from the bloody welts circling his legs.

  "Ouch. Well, it's messy, but I don't think it's cut too deep into the muscle, Daniel." She patted the bloody trail with sterile wipes. "The bleeding has slowed or stopped already in a lot of places. The worst is a long cut across the back of your left thigh. We'll have to keep an eye on that." She slathered on antibiotic cream and covered it with bandages. The rest she smeared liberally with the cream and sealed with spray-on bandage. "That's the best I can do at the moment, Daniel. We should get moving soon, before you stiffen up."

  "Thanks, Sam." Carefully, Daniel straightened up from Teal'c's support and retrieved his pants from her helping hands. His back felt like it had taken a pounding from a lunatic masseur. Sam presented two painkillers and he swallowed them gratefully.

  "Y'know, Daniel, it's a good thing you never do this up," Jack commented as he walked back to them, Daniel's retrieved vest and pack in hand. "You might have broken your back being dragged with this still on."

  Daniel grimaced at Jack and took the heavy pack from him.

  "Carter, you got any more of that cream?"

  "Yes, sir." She swiftly cleaned and dressed the cut on Jack's hand.

  "Okay. Let's move out. Stay sharp." Jack took the lead and picked up their former heading. Teal'c took possession of Daniel's pack and ushered him and Sam ahead. With a grateful nod, Daniel pulled on his vest and limped after Sam.

  They passed a short metal brace anchored in the ground behind a group of bushes, the severed cable dangling from the winch that had so rapidly dragged Daniel away. Giving it no more than a cursory look, the team pressed on through the sparse vegetation, keeping well clear of the lethal-looking cacti. Their formation was tighter now and they moved on, wary and silent.

  Daniel doggedly pushed on, ignoring the ache of his back and legs as Jack kept them going at a steady clip for another hour, until calling a rest-break in the concealment of a shallow wash. Jack took guard duty himself while Sam broke out their first meal since leaving the relative safety of water-world. Teal'c helped Daniel ease himself to the ground to sit gingerly on his wadded-up jacket. His legs were shaking, the lacerated skin and muscles burning an angry complaint at the constant exertion. His back prickled and ached, and he was not surprised when Teal'c knelt in concern at his side.

  "Daniel Jackson, I believe your back has sustained some injury. If you will permit me, I will attempt to assess the damage."

  Daniel managed a tired half-smile in acknowledgment. "Feels like I was attacked by a cheese grater." He pulled his t-shirt out from under his belt and sagged forward a little as Teal'c gently drew the shirt up.

  "How does it look?" he asked, head bowed, eyes three-quarters shut under the brim of his boonie.

  "Most painful," Teal'c replied. "You have sustained a number of bruises and grazes. I believe Doctor Fraiser's medicine would be beneficial."

  Sam crouched next to them and surveyed the damage. She grimaced and dug out a tube of analgesic cream from her pack, handed it over and returned to the meals-gulping her own quickly so she could relieve Jack.

  Daniel sat, half lulled to sleep as Teal'c's gentle warm hands massaged the cream into his abused back. When he finished, Teal'c carefully pulled Daniel's t-shirt down and left the tube by his side to tend the rest of the damage in privacy.

  "Mmmh, thanks Teal'c." He picked up the MRE Sam had left him and, eating slowly, his mind began to click into gear once
more, the problem of the riddle on the sphinx demanding to be solved. Almost imperceptibly at first, a light rain began to drift down around them.

  "Um, guys...?"

  "Yes, Daniel?"

  "It's raining."

  "Get out."

  Daniel stared at Jack through narrowed eyes. "We're sitting in a creek bed."

  "Yes, we are. A dry creek bed."

  "Meaning, where there's a creek bed there is at, at least occasionally, water," Sam filled in.

  "Judging by the number and depth of dry watercourses here, there may be some substantial flooding occurring on a regular basis," Teal'c added.

  "Could have happened centuries ago, T."

  "Or weeks ago," Daniel needled. "Flash-flooding can happen even when it's rained a hundred kilometers away."

  "Here's me without my rod," Jack conceded. He made a face at Daniel, warning duly noted.

  Patchy clouds scudding quickly over the two moons dropped the landscape into a dull gloom, broken by frequent bursts of light whenever the moons were revealed. Daniel nodded to Jack and returned to the riddle.

  "Okay, so the lines on the sphinx read;

  'By this shall I consume,

  By this shall I enter,

  By this shall emptiness be filled,

  By this will life be given'.

  I'm thinking they all refer to the mouth, so the clues should be hidden somewhere in the vicinity of the mouth of the sphinx?" Daniel looked up at Jack and Teal'c, hoping his guesswork was not so wild.

  Jack pulled a rueful shrug and got to his feet. "Sounds plausible to me, Daniel, and if that doesn't work, maybe a little C4 will shake things loose."

  "Oh, right. Good idea." Daniel grimaced, not missing the slight smile on Teal'c's face as he also rose.

  Despite the rain, the heat had not lessened and it created an unpleasant sauna effect. The hot, humid air made breathing more difficult and steamed his glasses up so much Daniel finally pulled them off and stowed them in his jacket pocket. He dragged out a spare t-shirt to provide his back with a little extra protection, before donning vest and pack once more. The weight rested sorely on the bruises, but he did his best to ignore the pain and fell into place as the team headed out again.

  Little more than half an hour later, they were huddled behind the last of the covering vegetation. Before them stretched a vast, dried mud-flat, possibly a remnant of a lakebed, its surface deeply cracked as the moisture had evaporated. In the distance was the Stargate, sitting on its pedestal; suspiciously alone. But it was where they needed to be and a sprint across open ground was the only way to get there. The patchy light would have to be cover enough.

  Fifteen minutes Jack held them crouched there, relentlessly scanning the terrain between their final hiding place and the Stargate. Nothing moved through the light drifts of rain. The Goa'uld, if they were lying in wait for them, were well hidden and seemingly patient now.

  Finally, Teal'c led the way out onto the cracked earth, keeping as low as possible, his camouflage BDUs blending him into the barren, gray terrain. The parched ground quickly crumbled under their feet. What had looked to be hard, baked clay was revealed to be only a thin crust that shattered under every step. The further they progressed, the softer the underlying soil became. Mixed with the rain and compounded by their weight, it soon turned to a viscous, cloying mud that stuck thickly to their boots, making each step a battle against suction that threatened to mire them forever.

  "Son of a bitch!"

  Jack glanced back, weighing the risks of retracing their path and trying a different route. It wasn't worth it-they were almost to the halfway point; to go back and maybe spend hours finding a way around could cost them their chance to get off this wretched planet.

  "Keep going," he panted, lurching sideways as his intended step was thwarted by the mud's grip. He pulled his leg out with an effort. This little predicament was going to cost them a lot of energy, to say nothing of leaving them exposed and unable to move quickly.

  Time dragged by with irritating slowness, the only sounds around them the constant squelch and suck of mud and grunts of effort from the four. Jack found old memories surfacing too. "Reminds me of a time in Germany."

  "You engaged in battle in such conditions as these, O'Neill?" Teal'c leant over and gave Daniel a supporting shove forward.

  "Of a kind." Jack's next step threatened to remove his boot completely. He backed up and tried a different angle. "Kawalsky, Feretti and I were coming back to base after a threeday leave-a little worse for wear. It was dark, we got lost, ended up in some farmer's turnip field."

  He shifted his grip on his weapon and reached back to grab Carter's arm, hauling her through the mud. Behind them, Daniel's silence indicated he was spending all his energy on just placing one foot in front of the other.

  "It was raining, real cats and dogs stuff. The field was freshly ploughed. We got so turned around we spent what seemed like hours wandering in circles, falling down. We were mud from head to foot." Jack alternated his gaze between searching for their elusive enemy and making sure his team kept close to him.

  Teal'c kept a hold on Daniel's arm, alternately steadying and supporting him. Daniel's face was set, grim and stubborn.

  "Eventually, the farmer's daughter came out to see what all the racket was, and there's Feretti sitting in the gloop, singing at the top of his voice. Nice lady. Hosed us down, dried us out and drove us to the base. Got us there five minutes before our leave expired." Jack smiled at the memory of the girl's enthusiastic farewell kisses.

  They were edging nearer and nearer to the end of the mudpan and gradually the footing became a little firmer. Everyone was heavily coated with muck from knees to feet, weighing them down with every step.

  Their luck held; there was no sign of their pursuers as the four finally stepped onto firm soil, three hundred meters away from the Stargate. They were all breathing and sweating hard, and Daniel looked to be staying on his feet by will power alone.

  "We must be even more cautious now, O'Neill." Teal'c scraped caked mud off the blunt end of his staff weapon. "The Goa'uld will not let us leave this place easily." He passed his canteen to Carter who swallowed gratefully.

  "That's what I'm afraid of." Jack offered some water to Daniel. "Teal'c, you and Carter head up to the sphinx, see if Daniel's theory about the riddle pans out."

  "Jack, I should go...." Daniel straightened slowly from the bent-over position he had slumped into.

  "Teal'c can read the lingo and I don't want you walking any further than you have to."

  "Well, guys, look for a symbol depicting a mouth. It'll probably be an elongated oval, kind of like a...." His hands gestured ineffectively.

  "Like a depiction of a mouth, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c quirked an eyebrow at him.

  "Yeah...."

  Jack grinned and turned to the other two. "We'll get the gear standing by and be ready to cover you. If you do find the address and stuff, try not to look like you've found it, okay?"

  "No jumping up and down, yelling Eureka. Got it, sir," Carter said, chiseling mud off her boots with her knife.

  "Get out of here." Jack waved them away.

  With the last box piled at the side of the Stargate, Daniel hunkered down with Jack in the cover of the steps, keeping an eye on Sam and Teal'c's now-tiny figures, toiling toward the sphinx in the distance. The rain had eased and drifted away. The air was a little cooler now, but they were both sweaty and sticky with dust and mud. Daniel found his gaze straying to the spot where the body of the dead woman lay, a flutter of cloth her only marker. Face impassive, he turned his head, searching for the Goa'uld still tracking them, yet time and again he found himself drawn back to the bleak patch of earth where she had died.

  Next to him, Jack shifted restlessly. Daniel glanced over, saw Jack's eyebrows rise in silent query. Daniel looked away, trying to marshal the emotions churning inside him. After slow minutes of silence, he finally gave them voice. "That could be Sha're, one day."

&nb
sp; "Yeah," Jack acknowledged quietly.

  No false platitudes, for which Daniel felt deeply grateful. Jack stayed quiet, letting Daniel feel his way through the tangled thoughts of his wife.

  "She's getting further and further away from me. The harder I search, the less trace of her I find. I thought when Apophis was taken by Sokar-whether he's alive or not-we would be able to track Amonet more easily, but she and Morel seem to have vanished. We ask for information about them on every planet we visit, so do the other teams, but...." He sighed and squinted into the shadows. "It's very limited. There are so many planets where they could be. I won't find them this way. I need to be nearer, move among the Goa'uld, infiltrate their societies, get closer to the System Lords somehow."

  Jack kept his attention fixed on the landscape around them, but Daniel's words had him stirring uneasily. "I'll have a word with Hammond when we get back, see if we can't get the Tok'ra to sniff around some of the Goa'uld lairs."

  A fleeting smile graced Daniel's face. "I think the Tok'ra have enough to cope with without looking for two lost Abydonians, but I'm sure Jacob would try."

  "But nothing. The Tok'ra have agreed to help us, so help they will." Jack watched through the binoculars as Teal'c and Sam disappeared behind the sphinx.

  "Jack, it's going to take more than a few people keeping an eye out for them. At that pace it could take decades before we stumble upon the right planet or the right contact. I feel-I need-to be doing more."

  "You want to leave the team?" Jack asked bluntly.

  "No. Yes. No. I don't know." Daniel rubbed his leg in frustration. "Maybe a leave of absence. I'm not sure."

  "And do what? Go out there on your own, no backup, no support, no friendly faces?"

  "Well, maybe I wouldn't have to. I could raise a bounty; get someone like Aris Boch to do the looking."

  "I get the impression Boch doesn't come cheap, Daniel."

  Daniel pulled a face and nodded. "It's worth a try, Jack."