The Barque of Heaven Page 17

  Carter curled up nearby, looking very pasty and three-quarters asleep. She didn't even stir when Teal'c's pack hit the ground with a thud and he slumped onto the cushion nearby.

  "Hey, wait!" Jack called to Stripey who was already on his way out the door. "Please, I need help here."

  The priest stopped and looked back at Jack. "As you carried the Eater here with you, so you carry the knowledge to defeat it." The man's eyes seemed to focus on something over Jack's shoulder for a moment then returned to Jack. "All you require is within your reach." He bowed and left the house.

  Jack glared after the man. At least the door remained open-they could leave whenever they wanted. He turned to stare at his team.

  Oh yeah, be up and at 'em any minute now

  Carter was groaning and making retching noises again. Jack grabbed a pottery bowl from a window-sill, dumped the fruit out of it and placed it strategically by her head. He grimaced as his strong, feisty, dependable second-in-command dragged her face over the bowl and resumed gagging and moaning.

  Jack backed away, his own stomach giving a sympathetic flip. He froze-suddenly convinced he was about to succumb as well. But then the sensation passed. He felt fine; better than he had even a day ago. He turned to Daniel and was somewhat relieved to see the flush had gone from his face. Crouching on the cushions, Jack prodded Daniel's shoulder.

  "Daniel? You awake?"

  Blue eyes peered up at him, unfocused and confused. Daniel seemed to be going paler by the second. Shivers wracked his body once again.

  "What can I do, Daniel? Tell me how to help you."

  Daniel closed his eyes and shook his head. "Can't. No cure. Just rest...." His eyelids slid shut then flickered open again. "Not real," he whispered.

  Not real? Seems pretty real tome, buddy.

  Jack repositioned the emergency blanket over Daniel's body, then shucked his jacket and added that too. Sighing, he turned to look at Teal'c and shock rippled through him at the sight; the Jaffa was gray-faced, covered in purple rash spots that seemed to be growing before his eyes.

  "Teal'c?"

  "O'Neill. I regret to inform you that I will be unable to complete the mission. I believe I am dying," Teal'c said matter-of-factly. Then his eyes rolled up in his head and he toppled backwards.

  `Jeez!" Jack leapt to catch him but only managed to crash to the ground under Teal'c's weight. It took all his strength to roll Teal'c over into the recovery position, where he lay unconscious, his breathing shallow.

  Jack sat on the plump cushions, surrounded by the ruin of his team. For one brief moment he allowed despair to creep past his defenses.

  He tended his teammates for over an hour, to no avail. An anti-nausea shot in Carter's butt did nothing to stem the pain ful dry heaves. Daniel's body swung between violent hot flashes and bone-shaking cold seizures. Nothing in their first aid kits made a difference. Teal'c recovered from his faint but remained in agony from the lurid purple rash and muscle-twisting cramps in every part of his body. All Jack could do was cover his skin in antibiotic cream and try to massage out the crippling cramps. The few times Teal'c became lucid, he moaned and muttered about dying and kept asking Jack to return his body to Chulak for a proper warrior's funeral.

  "Will you quit it already?" Jack finally snapped after the third such piteous request. "You're not dying."

  "I believe I am, O'Neill," Teal'c gasped out in the best Greta Garbo style. "This illness is said to be deadly if contracted after adolescence by one who does not carry a symbiote."

  "You mean it's a kid's disease?" Jack looked up from massaging Teal'c's right thigh.

  "It is. I suffered it in my childhood, however not as severely as now. Please give my staff weapon to Rya'c."

  "Oh, shut up, T. You're not dying." Jack looked over at Daniel who was once again sweating and tossing fitfully. "Daniel said something about Abydos, some kind of reaction he got to a plant. Not real. Teal'c, I don't think any of this is real. It has to be part of the Trial. And Stripey said I had what I needed to cure it."

  Jack got up and moved away from the groaning Jaffa, eyes searching every inch of the room, from the scattered contents of the first aid kits to the flowers hanging from the roof.

  "Why am I not sick? God knows we ate everything that wasn't nailed down on Jurassic World. If it came from there, why am I okay?"

  He pulled Carter's blanket over her hunched shoulders and kept prowling the room. He sniffed the dried flowers and briefly considered using them, but rejected the thought quickly. There was too much risk of poisoning his people further. Crossing to the window, Jack looked out at a peaceful twilight scene.

  Water birds swooped and soared over the estuary in the early evening light. Racks of fish lay drying in the open air. In the distance he could hear the shouts of children at play. Fishing nets hung over small white dinghies turned upside down on the riverbank, and further out where the estuary emptied into the sea a group of sail boats were heading home. He shook his head, idly plucking bell-shaped flowers from a creeper by the open window, and wondered about a Goa'uld who disposed of lives so casually and yet let these people thrive here. Had Ra forgotten them?

  He stared down at the flowers, turning his mind back to the problem at hand.

  And froze.

  He looked, really looked at the flowers: brilliant green, bellshaped flowers. The exact kind he had munched on for hours on tree-world. Had the others tried them?

  Jack practically leapt on Carter, rolling her face-up and smacking her cheek until she focused on him. "Carter! Carter, wake up, dammit."

  "Go `way." She batted weakly at him.

  Jack grabbed her jaw and shook her until she got both eyes open. "Major-look at me. Did you eat any of these flowers on the last planet? Major!" He shook her again and held the flowers three inches from her nose.

  She frowned and focused with difficulty. Thought for a while, then managed to say, "No, sir." Satisfied she had answered correctly, her eyes slid shut again.

  Jack let her go and sat back on his heels, thinking furiously. Was that it? There was nothing else in sight that might be a cure and at least he knew they caused no harm. He stripped handfuls of the flowers into his forage cap, then sat by Carter, methodically squeezing the nectar out of each one into an MRE spoon. When he had a full spoon's worth, he knelt over the major and shook her awake again.

  "Major, I want you to swallow this."

  Carter's eyes flinched shut.

  "C'mon, Major. That's an order, Carter. Open wide."

  From the look on her face she wasn't thinking nice thoughts about him, but he pinched her nose shut and when she gasped for air, he stuck the spoon in and smeared nectar all over her tongue. He clamped a hand over her mouth and watched with no little trepidation as she swallowed.

  For a moment he thought it wasn't working, then her tensed muscles relaxed and she blinked at him, surprise and relief sweeping across her face. Warily, he removed his hand and sat back.

  She sucked in a deep breath, then another. A disbelieving smile tweaked her mouth.

  "Carter?"

  "Sir, it worked. Oh, boy. Thank you." She sighed and sank back into the cushion. "It's gone."

  "Rest easy, Major." Jack gathered up his bundle of flowers and headed for the boys. Teal'c was moaning piteously and was quite a sight now-covered with purple pustules-but Jack knelt instead at Daniel's side, concerned more for the archaeologist. The wild swings in body temperature could only be tolerated by his system for so long before his organs suffered permanent damage. Daniel lay curled on his side, glassy eyes fixed on nothing, breathing in slow, short, tortured gasps.

  Jack quickly prepared another dose of nectar, then pulled Daniel up into his arms.

  "Wakey wakey, Daniel. This'll fix you up."

  He pried Daniel's jaw open and smeared the nectar on his tongue. As he automatically swallowed, Jack rubbed his throat, helping the nectar on its way.

  "That's it." Jack anxiously watched for any change in Daniel's condit
ion. "Heads up, Teal'c, you're next."

  Teal'c, lying flat on his back staring bleakly at the ceiling, merely rolled his head to look at Jack. "It is too late for me, O'Neill."

  "Oh, for crying out loud, you are not dying, Teal'c. Look at Carter-she's better already. You'll be fine in no time. Hey, have you heard of this `Eater' that Stripey mentioned?"

  "I have not. Major Carter!" Teal'c blinked at her in surprise as she carefully crawled over to him. "Are you well?"

  "Apart from feeling like every muscle in my stomach has the tensile strength of Jell-O, yeah, Teal'c, I'm feeling much better. You're looking colorful." She flopped next to Teal'c and surveyed the lurid rash.

  "He's got the Jaffa version of chickenpox," Jack said, trying not to smile. Now he knew his team was not in mortal danger, he could allow himself a moment to smile at one big bad Jaffa, moaning like a kid and covered in spectacular spots. He pressed a thermometer strip to Daniel's forehead and saw with relief that there was a marked improvement. Daniel wriggled a bit and opened his eyes.

  "Hey."

  "Hello."

  "How do you feel?"

  "Light. What's going on?"

  Jack quirked his eyebrows at the `light' but skipped over it. "Oh, you know; another day, another brush with death. Same old."

  "Oh. Sam okay?"

  "She's fine now. Teal'c will be too in a minute."

  Daniel grunted, his color starting to return as he began to warm up and relax. Jack settled him back onto the cushions and went to gather more flowers.

  Teal'c proved a more recalcitrant patient and Jack had to practically order him to open his mouth to get the nectar in. When he finally did, Jack grabbed his jaw to stop him closing it again.

  "Here comes the airplane!"

  Teal'c proved he could do that thing with his eyebrows even while lying down and Carter scuttled off to sit with Daniel and hide her giggles.

  A mere thirty minutes later, in the flickering light of candles dotted around the now darkened room, Jack was having a hard time believing any of them had been ill, let alone scaring him into thinking they were dying. Replenished with electrolyte and vitamin-packed drinks, his team were on their feet and getting ready to go.

  "I just don't think it was real, sir," Carter insisted.

  "Believe me, Carter, you were hurling like a world champion. That kid in The Exorcist had nothing on you." Jack was adamant.

  "The symptoms were real enough, sir, but I think this `Eater of Foulness' just mimics a disease that each person has already suffered. It must be something engineered by the Goa'uld, possibly even in the fruit we ate."

  "The last time I was really ill was on Abydos," Daniel added thoughtfully. "I was collecting thorn bushes for the mastages with Skaara and one of them scratched me. Apparently it was quite rare to have such a severe reaction, but I had the same symptoms as I had today."

  "Must have been scary," Jack grimaced, picturing Sha're trying to care for Daniel with no modem medicines.

  "Sha're did an amazing job, but she bawled Skaara out for days after I recovered."

  Carter nodded as parts of the puzzle started to make sense. "It must mimic the last major illness a person has had. Mine was salmonella poisoning from dinner in an army unit's mess in the Middle East. Teal'c, yours was a childhood illness?"

  "It was, Major Carter," Teal'c acknowledged, trying to regain his dignity but unable to stop scratching the healing rash on his body. "I believe we should leave this place, before we are afflicted once more."

  With that he turned and marched out of the hut, his grinning teammates right behind him.

  "We have to find that guy in the striped muumuu. He said something about making an offering to get the next address," Jack told them.

  "An offering? That doesn't sound good." Daniel frowned.

  They looked around the temple and, sure enough, sur rounded by a circle of burning torches, an alabaster altar stood before the gold-capped obelisk, ready and waiting to receive offerings to the sun god. The silent populace had vanished, but the cluster of priests remained and bustled over to greet them. Stripey gave them a gap-toothed smile and clapped his hands delightedly.

  "Well accomplished, good travelers. The Eater has been defeated. Now, come, come, make your offering to Ra and be on with your journey." He turned and pushed through the priests, headed for the open-air altar.

  "Oh, just a moment there, Mister, er, Priest." Jack strode after the man. "What kind of offering are we talking about?"

  Stripey stopped short, causing Jack to dodge to one side. "Ra demands an offering from the soul of each supplicant," he said, as if surprised they did not already know this.

  "And how exactly does one go about that?" Jack loomed over the shorter man, making a show of patting his weapon.

  "By sharing that which is most precious to each supplicant. A memory that will prove he is of good character and worthy of service to our Lord Ra."

  "That's it? A memory?"

  "Yes. Come, come." The priest trotted off again toward the altar.

  Jack looked at Daniel. "You buying this?"

  "Well, there aren't any bowls," Daniel contemplated.

  "What?"

  "No bowls for sacrificial blood to drain into, not that human sacrifice was ever a feature of the worship of Ra, so yeah, it's possible they just want to test our character."

  Jack shook his head and looked at Teal'c and Carter.

  "Our version of good character may be completely different to theirs, sir," Carter offered.

  "If we speak from the heart we shall be judged truly," Teal'c rumbled. "The Goa'uld prize fidelity and honesty in their slaves most highly. After all, a servant who cherishes duplicity or treachery would not be trusted within a System Lord's court."

  "Oh, don't get me started on the Goa'uld's sense of honor," Jack growled. "Okay, let's get this done. We only have an hour and fifty-eight minutes till ship-out time."

  They moved up to the altar and the priests fanned out in a circle around them. The waning moon, a cheery yellow disc, gleamed directly onto the obelisk, limning it in golden fire. An expectant silence settled around the four travelers as they stood before the altar.

  Jack slid a sidelong glance at the others. He knew he should go first, fearless leader and all, but opening himself up in front of total strangers? "Guess `Mary Jane behind the hay-shed' wouldn't cut it?" he mused.

  The silence dragged into throat-clearing, foot-shuffling minutes. Finally, Carter looked at him and he nodded at her to go ahead.

  She looked over at the priests, then pointedly faced her teammates. "Well, I guess my most precious memory is of my mother. She was a teacher and she used to show me all kinds of amazing science projects. She gave me a love for knowledge and understanding the unknown that I still have today and I treasure her memory for that." She dropped her head, face reddening. Daniel squeezed her shoulder.

  "Thank you, Carter." Jack realized he'd never heard her speak of her mother before. He glanced at the priests and saw them nodding in approval. Well, they were on the right track, at least.

  Jack tilted his head at Daniel and Teal'c to see if they wanted to go next. Teal'c was frowning and Daniel stared back at Jack, looking wide-eyed and defenseless.

  "Okay. Me next." Jack turned his back to the intruding priests and centered his focus on his team.

  his voice faded. Just do it, already. He looked at his team. He'd fought and bled side by side with them, argued with them-for them, died and explored the stars with them. Not many people had seen what they had seen. The glib story he'd been about to deliver faded on his lips and somehow the truth slipped out.

  "My... whole life changed the day my boy was born. I've never felt so scared, so proud, so weak or as strong as that first moment when he left his mother's body and lay in my hands. Everything I'd ever been, whatever I had planned to be, nothing mattered anymore. My whole life belonged to him and-I know nothing will surpass that moment."

  Jack looked down at his boots, awa
y from the understanding faces in front of him. He'd never spoken to them of Charlie before, except that one night, lost on another planet with a shaggy-haired archaeologist. He probably never would again.

  Eventually, he looked up at the carefully schooled expressions facing him. Daniel cast a furtive glance at Teal'c, then plunged in. "My most precious memory, surprisingly there are a lot to choose from but the one I call on most, is of my wife, my Sha're. Um, it was just an ordinary night in our home, in our bed. Sha're was never one to be short of words. She was always talking, singing, laughing, even shouting. But that night, she spoke to me in silence. She said everything in her heart and never uttered a word. And what she told me was that I was loved. Deeply, utterly, forever." He sucked in a long breath. "That is my most precious memory."

  Jack gave him a slight nod. Even though the four of them were standing apart, he could feel a bond weaving between them and he'd defy any snake-head to try and break it.

  That just left the big guy.

  Jack, Carter and Daniel all tuned out the muttering of the priests behind them and turned to Teal'c, who seemed to end his internal conversation and drew himself up to stand stiffly at attention. Quietly, he began to speak.

  "I hold most dear to me the memory of those I love. I have lived many years and have been blessed with the gift of a child... five times."

  Teal'c's voice died away as the faces of his friends filled with astonishment. Gently, he forged on.

  "Five times my chosen mates gave me a child: Nanith, first born and filled with laughter; Tak'arek, strong and quick of mind; little, sweet Shonni, with her mother's eyes; Maa'ti, always with a tale to tell. And Rya'c, who grows tall and strong and free. Four are lost to me, but all fill my heart with joy, every day."

  Dear God. Four.... Jack closed his eyes in empathy. How do you do it? Every day...? He opened his eyes and looked-really looked-at Teal'c and saw a glimpse of the inner strength of the man. For a moment, Jack was glad they had fallen into this trap of Ra's.