The Barque of Heaven Read online

  Feeling adrift in the gray morass that churned all around them, he forced himself to remember the warmth of Abydos-the memory of sun on his skin and wide blue skies stretching to far horizons. He sighed and felt his nerves settle.

  Sam's on the right path. We'll get out of here. We'll get home....

  And then there would be decisions to be made, decisions that had been fermenting for some months. He shied away from thinking too much about what his future held. It felt as if he was betraying his commitment to Jack, Sam, Teal'c, and the general too, but change must come and it was something that he would have to face soon enough.

  We've explored so many worlds already and still no sign of them. One day the SGC's goals will be so focused on weapons and war there'll no longer be an opportunity to search for them.

  He stopped pacing, stood in the swirling mist and stared at his three teammates, his three friends.

  One day my path will take me away from you. I don't want that, butI know I'll do it. As long as it takes, as far as I have to go... I will keep looking for them.

  A stab of pain seared his heart at the thought of leaving them, of forgoing the security of one family to search for the lost shreds of another, of being out there alone amongst the Goa'uld-but that course had been charted in his fate two and a half years earlier and there was no denying it. That Jack or Sam or Teal'c could be hurt or, heaven forbid, killed when he wasn't there to help them....

  He shivered and walked on.

  The meditative peace of kel'no'reem faded as Teal'c returned to the conscious world. Silence hung close about him, thick and cloying. Denied the comforting chatter of his comrades, he was left with only the stirrings of his hated symbiote and in the unnatural silence, he could almost hear its evil radiating up from its womb.

  Teal'c shook himself and forced his mind to more constructive thoughts as Daniel Jackson emerged from the moonlit mist like a troubled wraith. Hands shoved deeply into pockets and head bent, he walked a circle around his team and the DHD, vanishing and reappearing in the darkness. Teal'c looked over at O'Neill, who was stretched out asleep, one hand curled possessively around his gun. Further away, Major Carter worked determinedly to ensure their exit from this benighted place. He found their presence comforting in a way he had rarely encountered from comrades in his many years. His trust in these three people had developed so quickly, to such a degree, that when faced with the choice of revealing the existence of his lost babes or using another, less meaningful memory to place at the testing altar, he had known deep in his soul that the memories of his children would be treasured and held safely by his friends. The mere mention of their names, so long unspoken, seemed to bring them closer to his heart now.

  Daniel Jackson emerged from the fog once more and stopped by Major Carter's side. That none of the three had pressed Teal'c for details of the children and their loss endeared them to him even more.

  A particularly thick drift of fog passed between him and the others, suddenly obscuring them and leaving Teal'c isolated. He frowned. A chill that had nothing to do with the fog ran over his skin. He felt... a presence, one so old and imbued with ill-intent that for a moment he froze, unable to defend himself or his team from the evil that he was certain would consume them all.

  As swiftly as it had come, the sensation passed and he sprang to his feet, weapon primed. He swung in a circle to meet this new foe and found nothing but swirling mist. Unsettled, he looked closely but could discern no threat. A faint puff of wind stirred the mist once more and revealed the dim outlines of the others.

  Teal'c straightened up and moved closer to his friends. He took up sentry position between O'Neill and the DHD and glared out into the fog.

  Four and a half hours she'd been at this and still nothing. Sam looked at the pile of crystals, tools and supplies at her feet; every nonessential component she could haul out of the DHD and scavenge from the equipment they carried had been examined, tinkered with, tried and failed to produce a jury rigged amplifier that would carry their voices with sufficient volume into the DHD and trigger the voice-activated device that would engage the Stargate.

  Seized with a sudden fit of pique she hurled a stone away into the shadows. It bounced once then disappeared, not even giving the satisfaction of a decent clatter.

  The silence was driving her batty.

  You'll never know what you'll miss until it's gone.

  Was she really so dependent on sound to keep her grounded? She focused on the memory of the jungle noise from the rainforest planet: the chaotic blend of bird and animal calls, the wind in the trees, the rush of water hurtling onto rocks at the base of the waterfall. So beautiful. Now, all there was were her own thoughts and the pulse of blood in her temples. She missed hearing her teammates' voices; even when sniping at each other it was noise, companionship. Comfort.

  She looked over at them again, something that seemed to be developing into a nervous habit, checking they were still here, that she wasn't alone in this dark, dank place. Teal'c had returned to sentry-duty, a barely visible shadow. The colonel had finally given up staring at them all and stretched out for a nap. She envied him that ability to drop off to sleep, whatever the surroundings. Daniel sat nearest her, his restless pacing abandoned. He had followed the colonel's lead and shaved. Now he was still, the notebook he had been writing in lying forgotten in his lap. He was staring at the scraps of moss on the rocks in front of him, his only movement the fingers restlessly rubbing his injured leg.

  They're all so trusting that I'll get them out of here. Nothing we have is sufficient to transmit a voice at the volume we need.

  It hadn't taken much effort to deduce the fog, or some element-natural or Goa'uld designed-in it, was causing the sound dampening effect. The way it had swept down from the cliffs the moment the sun's rays had vanished suggested it could be a common phenomenon on this planet-one Ra had exploited for his little game. Or it was just another of the dirty tricks set up by Ra for the Trial. If one were lucky enough to arrive during daylight there was presumably no problem dialing straight out. Be caught here after dark and here you stayed.

  With a lab full of equipment and enough time, Sam knew she would be able to isolate the cause of the sound dampening and find a truly ingenious way to engage the audio pickup, but here and now.... Despair threatened to swamp her but she angrily pushed it away. Focus, dammit. You need to come at it from a different direction.

  Her eyes fixed on Daniel-always the foil she needed to kick up new ideas. She crawled over to him and grabbed his arm, making him startle out of wherever his thoughts had taken him. He looked cold and miserable, with moisture dripping off his boonie and soaking into his collar. Sam grabbed his notebook, flipping past what looked like Ra's family tree and a sketch of Bes to a fresh page. She pulled his pen from his hand and scribbled quickly across the damp paper.

  `Nothing is working. The crystals, the radio -I even tried using the black filaments in the DHD nothing will transmit enough volume. '

  Daniel frowned over her words for a while, then wrote, `Could you reverse the audio pickup thingy in the DHD?'

  `Tried that no go. '

  `Head-butt DHD?'

  She let out a breath of laughter.

  `Don't tempt me!'

  She sighed and clawed a strand of damp hair off her neck. Her gaze drifted to the now cold stove by Daniel's pack. Heat disperses fog. But one small stove would not be enough to drive back the fog. She looked around them. Even before the mist had descended, she had seen nothing but rock and moss on the shelf they were confined to. Certainly nothing combustible.

  Daniel nudged her, silently querying the frown on her face. She took up his pen again. If we could generate enough heat we might be able to burn the fog away from the DHD.'

  Nodding, Daniel thought for a moment then crawled over to the colonel and shook him awake. Sam followed and Teal'c joined them as Colonel O'Neill read her words in the notebook Daniel showed him. The colonel pursed his lips in thought, then dragged his
pack up and pulled out three blocks of C4. Looking up at Teal'c he motioned for him to retrieve his own supply of the explosive, then rose to his feet and headed toward the DHD, leaving Sam and Daniel staring at each other in trepidation.

  Sam had an inkling of what the colonel intended. She climbed to her feet and with Daniel, walked to the DHD. The colonel and Teal'c were already laying the blocks of C4 in a tight circle. She gathered up her scattered equipment and shoved it into her pack and out of the way. Standing next to Daniel, they watched the colonel show Teal'c how to strip the Mylar covering off the blocks to reveal the explosive within. With the blocks set in position, Colonel O'Neill stepped back, clearly thinking his plan through. He looked at Daniel, still wrapped in his space blanket, and smiled, then pulled his own folded poncho from his tac vest and indicated to Sam and Teal'c to do likewise.

  Shaking out the poncho, the colonel pantomimed his plan: they would set fire to the C4 around the DHD, and using the ponchos and blanket to trap the resulting heat in the circle, bum off the fog and dial out. Sam nodded, impressed with the simplicity of the plan. It might just work. Daniel shrugged, willing to give anything a try. They returned to their gear and stowed what they had been using, dropping the packs and their weapons within easy reach.

  The colonel positioned them around the DHD with ponchos and blanket spread wide over their shoulders. Pausing for a moment, he then went to Daniel's pack, rummaged for a bit and came back with a bag of disposable face masks. He passed them out, making sure they each had one secured over nose and mouth. Sam knew how toxic the smoke from burning C4 could be.

  With everything set, Colonel O'Neill produced a lighter and began to ignite the blocks. Sam saw Daniel flinch a little and gave him a thumbs-up reassurance that there was no real danger of an explosion-as long as no-one tried to stamp out the fire. Once all the blocks were burning the colonel joined them outside the ring and raised his poncho.

  Like four enormous butterflies they made sweeping, scooping motions with their arms, producing enough draft with the material to stir the rising heat upward and around the DHD. Face averted from the fumes, Sam caught a vivid image of her teammates illuminated in the fires' glow: their bodies and faces burnished a stark red against the darkness behind. It was a strange, ethereal moment-one that would stand out in a career full of other-worldly exploits.

  Slowly, the fog began to thin until Sam realized she could see the others' features quite clearly. She caught the colonel's gaze and he nodded.

  He opened his mouth and seemed to bellow, "Can you hear me?"

  It was much softer than his usual loudness, but she could hear him. "Yes! Colonel, it's working!" she yelled.

  "Flap harder!" he hollered back. "Daniel, get that password ready."

  Daniel nodded and dropped the space blanket. Notebook in hand he stepped up to the DHD and dialed the address for the next planet. He hesitated, and with an indication from the colonel, slapped the activation crystal and shouted the password, "Uaau! "

  Time paused for one awful, suspenseful moment.

  The Stargate blossomed into life with a silent surge of light. It powered forward then backward through the ring, stirring the fog into mad swirls and leaving a clear hole both fore and aft as the event horizon settled into peaceful ripples.

  The colonel let out a whoop Sam could actually hear. Grabbing up her pack, poncho and weapon, she ran to the Stargate, the others hard on her heels, leaving the C4 to bum itself out. Inches away from the event horizon she paused, until her teammates flanked her on each side. With a quick glance to ensure they were all together, they stepped as one into the wormhole and were swept away.

  GATE EIGHT

  Bringer of Darkness

  am instantly regretted sucking in that first instinctive breath on exiting the wormhole; air that felt like liquid nitrogen filled her throat, freezing her tongue and making her teeth ache.

  "Mmph!"

  She clamped her mouth shut, but that just made her nose ache too. Cold-sub-zero, shrink-your-eyeballs kind of cold-hit her all over. And it was dark. Very dark. All too aware the glow of the wormhole made them a target easily seen for some distance, she brought her weapon up. The others slurped through the event horizon beside her and immediately set up a chorus of complaints.

  "Man, this is colder than a polar bear's ass."

  "Oh boy, this is too much." Daniel's hands were already back under his armpits. "Can't we go home now?"

  Even Teal'c looked daunted by the cold, but he braced himself and glanced enquiringly at Sam. "May I ask why you are smiling, Major Carter?"

  "I can hear you all again. I can hear me!"

  "Nice to hear your dulcet tones too, Carter."

  The wormhole whisked away to nothingness and left them standing in utter darkness.

  "Whoops."

  "Nuts." The colonel switched on his MP5's light. "Daniel, the flashlights are in your pack."

  "Uh, no they're not. I've got a pen light somewhere." Daniel's slightly darker outline could just be seen bending over.

  The colonel snapped open the cover of his chrono and the phosphorescent dial shone out like a tiny moon. "Yes, they are. I put them there."

  "I know, but I took them out to make room for one of the first aid kits because Sam ended up with two of them."

  "Carter?"

  "Um, I don't think I've got them, sir," she replied, also turning on her gun's light.

  "Well, how about we all just stand here in the dark and whistle then?" the colonel said acidly.

  "I believe I have them, O'Neill." Teal'c fished around in the duffle he carried and finally produced four flashlights.

  Daniel found his small, powerful pen light, switched it on and pointed it outward to find-trees.

  "That's a lot of trees." Sam peered past the glare at the forest of slim, straight trunks surrounding them in all directions.

  Daniel shone the beam on bare earth then up into stark, empty branches. Three more beams joined his to illuminate the ghostly limbs.

  "Everything's dead."

  "They could have been like this for hundreds of years," Sam said, her face wreathed in moisture condensing from her breath.

  "They probably died of the cold, like I'm about to," the colonel snapped. "Can we skip the nature tour and get on with it please?" He shook out his poncho and began refolding it.

  Teal'c straightened up from the moon-clock. "Eight hours, twenty-seven minutes."

  Sam tipped her face up and drank in the beautiful sight of a clear black sky studded with millions of bright stars. Out there in space not too far away blazed a nebula in green and gold glory.

  "No moon in sight."

  "None of the indicators are lit yet, Major Carter."

  "Daniel, go dial home."

  Daniel walked cautiously over to the DUD. This time there was no platform for the Stargate to rest on, merely a patch of ground. Nothing grew around either machine. There was a morbid quiet to this place, unsettling after the enforced silence of their last stop-over. Sam watched him stand for a moment, working out how to dial up without removing his hands from under his arms.

  "Anyone else feel a bit... off-balance?" Daniel asked.

  "Could be an inner ear thing from fog-world." Colonel O'Neill stuck a finger in his ear and gave it a good poke. "Place reminded me of all those old British black and white movies."

  "I think it's more likely this planet's gravity is lighter than what we're used to, sir," said Sam. "Actually, it's surprising we don't come across more planets with higher or lower gravity than the Earth norm."

  Teal'c grunted derisively. "The Goa'uld dislike the sensation of low gravity. It makes them irritable."

  The colonel let out a hoot. "Goa'uld are born irritable. How can you tell the difference?"

  Teal'c's face twitched in a slight smirk. "Higher gravity sends them to sleep. They therefore choose planets that have gravity similar to that of Earth."

  "Interesting," mused Sam, adding the information to her list of potential
weapons to use against their enemy. She watched Daniel punch in the address for Earth, one hand still tucked under the opposite arm and his right hand fisted inside his jacket sleeve. He was shivering already.

  As expected, the Stargate failed to open.

  "Right, before we do anything, I suggest we put on as many clothes as possible, or hypothermia's going to be a problem real soon."

  They followed the colonel's lead and pulled out all the spare clothing they had from their packs, which, considering they had kitted out for a three day mission and most of their gear was lost, was precious little. Teal'c frowned as Daniel pulled on a long-sleeve t-shirt and contemplated the remains of his only other spare: a shredded souvenir of the earlier Goa'uld attack. Teal'c leaned over, pulled the shirt out of Daniel's hand, and replaced it with his own long-sleeve tee.

  "You will be much warmer wearing this, Daniel Jackson."

  "Teal'c, no, you need it."

  "I do not. My symbiote will sustain my body temperature at acceptable levels. I know you are bothered by the cold."

  "Yeah, remind me again why you live in Colorado Springs, Daniel?" the colonel asked.

  Sam smiled in the darkness. One of the recent betting pools at the SGC had been about how many layers of clothing Doctor Jackson could arrive on base in and still be able to move.

  "I'm conducting an anthropological study into the effect of severe cold upon the higher reasoning function of males in the mature populace."

  Colonel O'Neill's grin soured and he glared at Daniel. "Here, Teal'c, you'll need this at least." He leaned over and yanked his woolly beanie down over the bald head.

  Teal'c's eyebrows disappeared into the hat, perhaps seeking out the promised warmth.

  "Thank you, O'Neill."