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Title: Eclipse
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Fandoms: Stargate SG-1, Pitch Black
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: SG-1 early Season 7; Scenery from "Pitch Black" (2000).
Summary: 14,000 words. The team steps through the Gate onto a world with three suns. It does not go well.
Notes: Part two of two. For part one, go here.
Act Four: Lights Out
"Damnit," Jack hissed, lowering his binoculars for a moment as he leaned back against the canyon wall opposite Sam and Daniel. "How much water you got over there, Carter?" he asked quietly, lifting his sunglasses to meet her eyes directly.
They'd been waiting at the mouth of the canyon for several hours already, watching to see what would happen. To their confusion, the first group of Shu's soldiers had done nothing but stake their prisoners out on long chains, several dozen yards in front of the Gate. None of the captives had their hands free, but all of them had had their feet untied before the Jaffa had retreated into guard positions around the Gate. Finally, as the red and amber suns neared the horizon again on the opposite side of the sky, the First Prime had arrived, accompanied by their Goa'uld overlord. Shu had immediately begun directing the men in assembling several pieces of technology Sam was unfamiliar with.
It had been a long, hot, dusty wait. Sam shook her canteen, glanced inquisitively at Daniel, then met the Colonel's gaze again with a frown. "A few hours' worth at normal rations. If we tried to retreat and wait them out? It could take days; I don't think we have enough."
Next to Jack, Teal'c stiffened abruptly and drew in a deep breath. "I do not believe that will be necessary, Major Carter," he said, staring intently at the equipment the Goa'uld was setting up. "If this is the world I now believe it to be, retreating from this position would be most unwise."
Daniel stirred. "What is it, Teal'c? Did you recognize something?"
Teal'c squared his jaw grimly and lowered the binoculars again, fixing Sam and then Daniel with a severe, intent expression. "Jaffa legend speaks of a world that knows darkness only once every score of years, inhabited by demonic creatures that roamed the night to feast on the flesh of the unwary. These rumors are often spoken of in connection to Netu; Bra'tac believed that they were old, inaccurate tales dating to a time before Sokar transformed that world with fire and poison to more closely simulate the mythical environment of Hell."
"Looking pretty accurate from here," Jack muttered. "So what are those doohickeys they're setting up that bother you so much?"
"The most accurate Tau'ri term for their function would be 'floodlight'," Teal'c said, glancing toward the setting suns. They still hovered several fingers' width above the horizon, but it would be no more than an hour before they dipped out of sight to make way for the blue sun again.
Sam swallowed through a suddenly dry throat. Why would anyone bring light to a planet that had it in abundance, unless they were expecting that to change? "Eclipse," she blurted, staring at Jack in sudden shock. "If the legends are right..."
"Those creatures, back there-- they attacked my flashlight," Daniel interrupted her, sounding horrified. "Look at the way the Jaffa are positioning those lamps-- they're set up for protection, like a fence, in a ring around the Gate."
"I think you're on to something there." Jack grimaced, lifting his binoculars again to watch the proceedings. "The way they staked out those prisoners, they're several yards outside of the ring of lamps-- they have just enough chain to stand up and run a few feet, but not enough to reach the light."
"That's barbaric," Daniel hissed, angrily.
"That's the Goa'uld for you," Jack countered, then glanced at Sam again. "Any way to tell how long it'll be until it happens, Carter?"
She shook her head. "If I had the data from the UAV, I might be able to tell, but without it?" She shrugged helplessly. "Soon, I'd guess, from the way they're setting things up."
"That's helpful," he replied sarcastically. "No chance of getting ourselves through the Gate before it happens, then."
"Probably not, sir."
"Damn it." He leaned back against the canyon wall again, thumping his head against the rock a few times. "If it's really that dangerous... we've got our flashlights and a couple of emergency flares, but the minute we light something up those Jaffa are going to see us, and I really don't like the odds. This is the last time I wish for a more interesting mission."
A sudden cacophony of Jaffa voices drew the team's attention; several of Shu's soldiers had lowered their staff weapons, pointing at the suns. Sam followed their gaze and saw--
"Holy Hannah," she breathed, as an impossibly huge, brownish arch began moving up the bowl of sky, inching upwards to meet the sinking suns.
"Is that--" Jack blurted, then fell silent, as a second curving arch joined the first.
Idly, in the tiny part of her mind not awestruck by the sight before her, Sam wondered what PM3-44G's diameter and rate of spin were, and calculated the probable size of those rings based on likely values. For rings they must be, and a gas giant to follow, if the eclipse was to last for any length of time--
"Dear God," Daniel said breathlessly, as the horizon seemed suddenly to bulge. An enormous, dark curve swelled above the rocky landscape, creeping inexorably upwards.
"It is upon us," Teal'c commented gravely.
For a moment, Sam almost forgot why they were on the planet on the first place, the desperate odds they faced against Shu's Jaffa and the nightmarish fate that Teal'c's legends assigned those who wandered in the dark. She'd seen her share of lunar and solar eclipses on Earth, watching them through pinholes in styrofoam cups as a child and through more sophisticated equipment when she was older. But this-- she'd never seen, never imagined anything so majestic. If she'd felt small earlier that day standing under a cage of long-dead bones, she felt positively miniscule now, faced with a such an unbelievable display of nature's might.
The bulge of the gas giant resolved itself into a partial sphere as it continued to rise relative to their position, its rings spearing outward at an angle to intersect the suns. As the first ring crossed the fiery golden point of the brighter sun, the light around them dimmed to a rusty red, as though shining through a pane of glass stained with old blood. Flashes of light flickered along the near edge of the gas giant's orb, a sparkling effect Sam recognized at once though she'd never before seen it on so large a scale.
"Baily's beads," she muttered, awed.
A few seconds later, the rings crossed the second sun as well, and the light dimmed further, casting sepia-toned shadows over everything and everyone. The Goa'uld barked several sharp commands in his dual-toned voice, and the ring of floodlamps abruptly lit up, creating a small island of brightness in an increasingly darkened landscape. No sooner had the lamps ignited, than a distant, alien series of whistling and screeching sounds began, echoing to the point that it was almost impossible to guess directionality. The creatures Daniel had encountered had made sounds that reminded Sam of sonar; in retrospect, that made perfect sense.
"They're blind," she said, a little louder, for the Colonel's ears. "The creatures-- they're blind. They use sonar to navigate. And with the light gone--"
"They're tasting their first breath of free air in two decades," Daniel said quietly, gazing back over his shoulder in the direction of the hedgehog-like mound they'd seen from afar.
The sounds grew louder, barreling in their direction at a frightening rate of speed, and Sam looked up just in time to see a flock of tiny, angular shapes flashing overhead in what little dim, brown daylight remained.
"They can fly?" Jack hissed, sounding indignant.
"They-- they must be hatchlings, babies," Daniel said. "Or maybe something different... they're much smaller than the creatures I caught a glimpse of earlier." He shifted next to Sam, rubbing stiffly at the arm and shoulder he'd bruised in that encounter.
The flight of hatchlings veered near the column of light the Goa'uld had created, then swerved abruptly away again, screeching loudly at the encounter before flashing away over the landscape in another direction. Over their noise, Sam could hear a set of more distinct, differently-pitched alien voices, calling out from the direction the hatchlings had first flown from. The adults, if that's what they were, weren't far behind.
Sam gulped, glancing back at the brown disk erasing the sky, and was treated to another show of Baily's beads as one of the suns finally escaped from the darkening rings for a few seconds only to be swallowed up by the gas giant itself. In its wake, absolute darkness spread across the face of the planet, sparing only the Jaffa encampment.
Night had fallen.
"Well, fuck," Jack muttered, viciously. Sam couldn't see him any longer; the cover he'd chosen to block the view of the enemy also shielded him from what little stray light pollution leaked their way, leaving him deep in a pool of shadows as black as ink. Sam had thought she'd seen darkness before, but she'd never seen anything like this. When she glanced over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of Daniel, she couldn't even see the hand he'd reached out toward her; when it landed on her arm, she flinched violently, her heart thudding in her chest with the force of her surprise.
"They will be here within moments," Teal'c rumbled, eliciting another jolt from Sam's fraught nerves.
"Do it, Jack," Daniel said urgently, his hand trembling a little on Sam's arm. "We haven't got a choice."
"I know, I know!" Jack hissed back. "Just-- be ready. All hell's going to break loose when they see us."
"Understood, sir." Sam tried to inject a note of calm in her voice, and wasn't quite sure she'd succeeded.
"Here goes nothing."
Sam turned her face away, bracing herself, and managed not to flinch when the actinic flash of a freshly-lit flare bloomed in the corner of her vision. A high-pitched scream sounded from behind them, and she turned sharply in time to see a strange shape retreating back up the canyon, a wide head flaring out to blunt points like that of a hammerhead shark above a mouth full of long, sharp teeth.
Rattling noises at the tops of the cliffs announced the presence of more of the creatures, and Sam shivered, wrenching her attention away from them toward the Jaffa camp from whence the more immediate danger was likely to come. She couldn't immediately see what they were doing beyond the row of lights, but the flash of staff energy blasting against the cliff above them was answer enough to her worries. Another creature screeched loudly as the blast detonated, sending a shower of rock fragments down over their heads, and somewhere between their position and the Goa'uld camp one of the prisoners began to scream.
"We're going to have to move," she blurted. "We don't have enough cover here. The Jaffa will be able to target us before we get anywhere near them, and we'll be exposed on all sides to the creatures if we leave the canyon."
"Fuck!" Jack hissed again, sounding as furious as she'd ever heard him. "We're going to have to retreat."
"To where?" Sam replied.
"We'll figure that out as we go. Just move! And for God's sake, stay in the light!"
Act Five: Chaos in the Dark
Sam bolted to her feet at Jack's order, ignoring the discomfort of limbs made stiff by long hours of sitting. She snagged Daniel's arm as she moved, assisting him to his feet, and realized only after he hissed in discomfort that she'd taken hold of his injured limb.
There wasn't time to be gentle. She let go his arm and shifted her hand to the small of his back, then dug in her heels and pushed. He stumbled forward, nearly tripping on Teal'c's heels, his profile lit starkly by the burning flare the Jaffa thrust ahead of them. Sam readied her P-90 as she ran, activating the attached flashlight and aiming it out into the darkness. She had no idea what minimum candlepower might be required to keep the swift-moving nightmares at a distance, and she didn't intend to be left in a position to find out.
Jack fell in behind her to cover the team's six. Sam heard a few echoing alien screams as the Colonel's P-90 spoke out in their defense, interspersed with war cries from angry Jaffa as Shu's soldiers reacted to their presence. Another staff blast blew past them, detonating on the canyon's floor and throwing up a cloud of dust that briefly captured the light of the flare like a cloud of fog caught in a car's highbeams.
Scuttling sounds from the tops of the cliffs confirmed the presence of more of the creatures, watching them from above. Sam clamped down on the seed of panic germinating in her chest and focused her entire being in the moment, on staying alive. It didn't matter that there was nowhere to retreat to, Jack would think of something, and even if he didn't, there would be another way out. There had to be. This was SG-1; they had survived worse odds than this.
A third blast slammed into the earth at their heels, knocking Jack off his feet. Sam heard him go down and turned to cover him, yelling for Teal'c as she did so. "Hold up! The Colonel's down!"
Teal'c either didn't hear her, or else the flare was starting to burn out, because its flickering light illuminated less of her surroundings with every passing second. She had no idea if they'd been running long enough for that to happen; her time-sense had evaporated with the flood of adrenaline in her system. All she could think of as the shadows swarmed back in around her and Jack was that they were not going to die this way. She fired past him as he got back up to his knees, briefly illuminating the cliffs with each muzzle flash, and yelled for her teammates again. "Teal'c! Daniel! Hold up! We need to stick together!"
There was a whisper of movement to the left. Sam turned and fired a burst at the sound, catching one of the aliens in mid-leap. Dark blood spattered the rocks around it; some of it splashed back on her face, but she hardly noticed as she poured another burst into the thing to make sure it was dead. As she fired, an echoing call sounded almost in her right ear-- it hadn't been alone. She swiveled back, heart pounding in fear, and heard another voice cry out: the Colonel's, astonished and in pain.
"Carter!" Jack had nearly made it back to his feet, but a clawed alien hand imbedded in his calf yanked him back down again. He curled sideways as he fell, aiming his P-90 at the attacker; a simultaneous burst from his weapon and Sam's nearly sawed the thing in half across the breastbone. It was the first time Sam had gotten a really good look at one; aside from the strangely shaped head and the greyish coloring, the thing reminded her of nothing so much as one of the velociraptors from the Jurassic Park films. Its skin started shriveling as it collapsed to the earth, and she realized that the light was growing brighter again. Teal'c had heard her after all.
She dropped one hand from her gun, reaching down to grab Jack by the back of his BDU jacket, and started dragging for all she was worth. He complained at the treatment, yelling out as his injured leg bounced over the ground, but she didn't stop until she was right up against the solid tower of strength that was Teal'c. Several more staff blasts shot into the canyon as she moved, but none came anywhere close; from the shrieks at each impact, Sam guessed the creatures were temporarily proving more of a distraction to the Jaffa than SG-1 was. But that couldn't last forever.
Daniel knelt at her side, tearing off a strip of his T-shirt to serve as a quick and dirty bandage around the Colonel's bleeding leg. Jack lurched to his feet almost before Daniel was finished, listing badly to one side but still more than capable of action. "We gotta find some cover!" he yelled, limping toward a large rock propped against one of the canyon's walls.
Sam moved automatically to cover him, firing at every sound she heard outside the shifting sphere of light holding the darkness back around the team. She had no idea what Jack was doing-- one rock could hardly provide them all cover-- but she was operating very much on an instinctive level now. See danger, kill danger; protect the team; follow the Colonel.
"T, buddy! Some help here!" Jack braced himself as best he could and leaned his shoulder into the rock, reaching into a vest pocket for another flare as he did so. Teal'c joined him, dropping the burning flare he'd been gingerly holding on the ground beside them, and together they shifted the heavy, man-height rock to one side. Where it had been, a narrow, gaping hole was revealed.
Jack ignited the second flare, tossing it into the cavern, then paused to check for hostile occupation. Nothing moved or shrieked, and after a few seconds Jack dove inside, P-90 at the ready.
"It's clear!" he called. "Daniel! Carter?"
"Right behind you," Daniel called, inching through the narrow opening carefully to protect his injured side. Teal'c stood next to the rock, guarding the way as Daniel disappeared from sight. Sam fired a few more rounds into the shadows, then followed.
The cave proved to be quite shallow, not connected up to the nearby warren of tunnels the creatures probably lived in. Sam moved out of the way as quickly as she could, intending to give Teal'c room to maneuver, and was baffled when he didn't immediately appear in the entryway.
"Teal'c?" she called, fearing for her friend's life.
"Keep them safe, Major Carter," he answered.
"Teal'c? You get your ass in here!" Jack yelled, indignant, as a rough scraping noise sounded outside the mouth of the small cavern.
Sam understood, belatedly, as the rock that had covered the opening settled back into place, blocking her view of the canyon. "Teal'c!" she screamed, beating on the back of the rock with one bare fist.
Her radio activated abruptly, and she started as Teal'c's deep voice sounded in her ear. "The Jaffa will look for those who caused the disruption," he said calmly. "O'Neill and Daniel Jackson are both wounded; there are too many of them for us to defeat as we are. I will lead them astray."
"Teal'c, you don't have to do this!" Daniel said desperately, activating his own radio. "The SGC knows where we're at, the rescue team will probably be here any time!"
Teal'c did not answer. Daniel drew in several harsh breaths, then backed into the cave wall, sliding down it until he was seated on the cool floor.
Jack sat down more carefully next to him, looking every bit his age in the flickering light of the flare. "Not after Shu's Jaffa blew up that last MALP," he said, quietly. "They won't come through until they're sure it's not suicide-- and since we were keeping radio silence at the time, they don't even know we're still alive."
"We can't just let him die out there!" Daniel objected, angry and near tears.
"T's tough. I'm sure he'll make it. How long can this eclipse last, anyway?" Jack said, in a transparent attempt to reassure the younger man.
Sam swallowed. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news-- but if this system is aligned the way I think it is, the night will last several more hours at the minimum. And if there's another gas giant on the other side, blocking the suns from the other direction..."
Jack dropped his head to his knees. "Really didn't want to hear that, Carter."
"Sorry, sir," she said, at a loss what to do next. She was beginning to shiver a little, partly due to the aftermath of the adrenaline rush but also from the rapidly dropping temperature in the cavern. She was abruptly grateful that they had worn the jackets with their desert camouflage BDU's, despite the earlier heat, and quickly moved to sit on the other side of Daniel to conserve warmth.
He'd taken his own jacket off much earlier in the day to tie around his waist, but with Sam's assistance he struggled carefully back into it. "How many more flares do we have?" he asked quietly, feeling in the pockets of his jacket and vest.
"I dunno. A couple," Jack said, glumly. "You and Carter should have one each, Teal'c's probably got one or two."
"And there was another in the bottom of my pack," Daniel mused. "Which, of course, you left out there--"
"Hey!" Jack objected. "I was in kind of a hurry, in case you hadn't noticed."
"I have mine," Sam spoke up, interrupting them. Much as their arguments usually amused her, now was not the time. "But I didn't pack any extra flares. I brought C4 instead."
"Which would be fine if we needed to blow ourselves up," Jack said, sourly. "Damn it."
They didn't have much in the way of emergency rations or first aid equipment, either; they hadn't really been expecting to stay on the planet very long, and now they were down Daniel's portion in addition to whatever Teal'c had been carrying. Was still carrying, Sam reminded herself. She wasn't going to assume Teal'c was dead until she had proof otherwise, no matter how poor the odds.
"We should probably do something about your leg, sir," she suggested. "Before this flare burns down." She did at least still have a standard emergency bandage in her vest, and it would be worth sacrificing a little of their remaining water rations to reduce the likelihood of infection.
He shifted a little, turning the injured calf toward the light, and grimaced. "Probably so," he said. "It doesn't look too bad, but it's still bleeding and it hurts like hell. I'd like to be able to run on it when we bust out of here."
She moved quickly to carry out her suggestion. The deep gouges where the claws had sunk into his leg really needed better medical care than she was able to give him-- stitches, for starters, and better pain medication than the aspirin Daniel had on him-- but she was at least able to wash the debris out and bind the wounds up tightly. He'd have a new set of scars, but no serious impairment. Provided they got off this planet alive.
The flare burned out just after she'd finished, casting the cave into darkness. The twin flashlights on Sam's and Jack's P-90's were the only relief in the oppressive blackness, and she knew even those would have to be turned off soon to conserve battery power. The idea made her stomach churn, but there was nothing else to be done save charge back out of the cavern and make Teal'c's sacrifice meaningless.
Better now than later. Sam switched the light off, then heard a faint click as the Colonel did likewise. A hand reached for hers; Daniel's, she was fairly sure, though she could no longer see to be certain. She grasped it thankfully, unnerved by the complete and total absence of light around her, and rested her head back against the wall of the cave.
When faint blue spots began appearing in front of her eyes a few minutes later, she thought at first that her eyes were beginning to make things up, starved for any kind of visual input. She blinked a few times, then sat up straighter, staring up at the ceiling of the cavern.
The hand wrapped around hers clutched tighter for a second. "Look," Daniel said, voice barely louder than a whisper. "Are those..."
"Bioluminscent slugs," she answered, as the light brightened further and the blobs of color took on form. Of course; light would be a better biological defense on this planet than the more usual spines or poison ever could be.
Somehow, in the dim bluish light given off by the tiny creatures, their situation didn't seem quite so bleak.
Act Six: Hope of Day
Time passed slowly as the three members of SG-1 stuck in the cave rested, sharing what little water and food they had left and waiting for another option to present itself. The glowing gastropods crawling across the ceiling provided enough light for them to make out each other's features, but they were all very aware that it was still pitch black outside. The hammering sounds of alien predators bashing their skulls against the rock blocking the cave mouth were proof enough that the eclipse was not yet over.
They hadn't heard from Teal'c since he had disappeared into the darkness. Sam suppressed the urge to try contacting him over the radio-- she had a feeling that he would have tried to transmit some sort of goodbye if he'd been caught, and if he hadn't, he could very well be hiding in a place where the slightest noise would betray his presence to the enemy. He was a master warrior; he would tell her to use her energy on more important concerns than worrying about him.
Even as she completed that thought, her radio came to life-- but to her surprise, it wasn't Teal'c on the other end. "Sam? Sam, can you hear me?"
The transmission was full of static, but she recognized the voice instantly. "Dad!" she exclaimed, keying her radio as she struggled to her feet. Her muscles were stiff and sore from over-exertion followed by too much sitting around, but she was too excited to care.
"Jacob?" the Colonel asked, disbelieving. "What are you doing here?"
"I knew you were still alive!" the Tok'ra answered, relief plain in his voice. "When the SGC contacted me and told me your team was missing, I looked up PM3-44G on the galactic map. You're practically next door to the Alpha Site, so I grabbed a tel'tac and flew on over. What's going on down there? I took out a squad of Jaffa by the Gate, but there's a lot of movement in the shadows and I'm still taking fire."
"There's some kind of deadly predator here that only comes out at night," Sam informed him, speaking quickly. "But night only falls here once every couple of decades. The Jaffa belong to a Goa'uld named Shu, who appears to be using the eclipse as a means of executing important prisoners. We were unable to take the Gate, and Daniel and the Colonel were injured, so we retreated to a cave for shelter. We're safe enough for the moment, but Teal'c's still out there; he was trying to lead the Jaffa away from us. Have you seen him?"
"No, no, I-- wait. I see a light; it looks like a flare--"
The radio fell silent. Sam exchanged glances with Jack, then began checking and reloading her P-90. Jack scrambled to his feet, leaning on the cave wall, then busied himself with the same chore. Daniel stood last, his brow creased with pain as he stretched bruised and strained muscles left too long untreated. He wasn't carrying a P-90 this trip, but he did have his handgun, which he quickly checked over. Sam handed him her flashlight, as his had been lost in the initial encounter with the alien predators, and he turned it on before bracing it against the gun. All of them seemed to be feeling the same urge to motion, their hopes for survival rekindled.
"Got him!" the radio announced suddenly, a triumphal note in Jacob's voice.
Sam closed her eyes briefly, immensely relieved.
"Thank you, Jacob," Jack said, emphatically. "Now-- I don't suppose you can fly that thing close enough to the canyon to pick us up from the bottom?"
"Sorry, Jack," Jacob answered, apologetically. "The rings won't reach down that far, not unless there's another set buried down there somewhere. You're going to have to come out of there first."
"I was afraid of that," Jack sighed. "Look-- just keep the Gate covered. How many Jaffa d'you think are still out there?"
"A dozen, at least," was the pessimistic answer.
"Damn. Just be ready to grab us the second we're clear, all right?"
"Will do, Jack." The transmission ended.
Without Teal'c's help, it was going to take all three of them to clear the cave mouth again. Sam took her flare out of her vest, holding it ready in her left hand, then braced her shoulder against the rock and waited for the others to join her. Once they were ready, Jack counted down from three and they all pushed as hard as they could.
The rock shifted slowly. As it moved, grinding loudly against the smaller rocks beneath it, Sam realized she hadn't heard the sounds of impatient aliens in several minutes at least; they might actually be able to pull this off without incurring any other serious injuries. The moment she could see clear to the outside, she lit the flare and tossed it out into the darkness.
She didn't hear any shrieking noises-- but she did hear several peculiar hissing sounds coming from the direction of the flare, as if droplets of water were striking a hot grill. The rock finished moving, and they emerged into the fitfully lit canyon to find it liberally splashed with blue blood and pieces of the creatures they'd been fleeing.
"They're killing each other!" Daniel said, aghast, gazing up into the air above them.
Sam swallowed hard, fighting nausea at the sight of disemboweled predators and severed limbs strewn willy-nilly across the canyon floor. She didn't want to look up; she already knew what she'd see, and she had a feeling the same process-- territorial fight or mating flight, most likely-- was responsible for most of the smaller bones they'd found earlier that day. Several more chunks of flesh fell into the space around them as they stood outside the cave mouth. "Let's get out of here," she said, plaintively.
Daniel took their last flare from his vest and tossed it toward the mouth of the canyon as hard as he could. Between its light and the one Sam had ignited, they'd be able to traverse most of the distance to the plain without stepping into deep shadow, while leaving their hands free for their weapons. He waited for Jack take point-- the Colonel couldn't quite run, but even with a leg wound he was moving faster than Daniel was currently able to-- and Sam took up the rear. If anything attacked them from behind, she'd be best able to take care of it.
They were halfway to the mouth of the canyon when both flares seemed to sputter, and chilled droplets of something began striking the top of Sam's head and sliding down her collar. Her sunburned skin stung under the onslaught, and one of her feet slipped as the dusty ground underfoot began turning to mud.
Daniel laughed, a bitter sound that held no mirth. "For who is Shu without Tefnut?" he said cryptically, and stumbled forward to slide his good arm under one of Jack's. Neither of them could afford to slip and go down at this stage of the game.
A trickle of cold liquid slid down Sam's cheek into the corner of her mouth, and she licked her lips automatically. Water. It was water-- if they'd been stuck here any longer, they might have been able to survive after all. Thank God they wouldn't have to, though.
It was just a little bit farther. Sam was almost convinced they were going to make it without complication, after all; but no sooner had she formed the thought, than a charge of blue lightning surged out of the darkness and nailed Jack. He went down like a sack of potatoes; Daniel only caught part of the charge, but he was unable to support Jack's weight in addition to his own and went down too, groaning in pain.
Sam fired at the source of the zat blast, furious at the interruption, and caught the Jaffa in the chest. He flung up his arms and fell forward into the light, and Sam caught the glint of a golden tattoo as he collapsed to the ground. It was Shu's First Prime. His master couldn't be far off.
"Teal'c!" she screamed into her radio. "Daniel and the Colonel are down! I need some help down here!"
"He's ringing down now," her Dad's voice answered, sounding concerned. "Are you okay, Sam?"
She didn't bother to answer. Of course she wasn't okay. She was tired, sunburnt, dripping with water, and the sole line of defense for her two wounded teammates in very hostile territory. How did he expect her to answer? She fired two more sustained bursts, targeting a pair of creatures swooping down on the little party, then sagged in relief as a brilliant column of light flashed down some distance away. Teal'c was coming.
He had to have some kind of portable Goa'uld lightsource with him; the guttering flares, which had been nearly extinguished by the rain, seemed dim in comparison. "Major Carter!" he called, staff leveled in front of him as he ran.
"We're here, Teal'c!" she answered, kneeling at Daniel's side to help the half-stunned archaeologist to his feet. There was no way she was going to be able to carry the Colonel, but if she could get Daniel moving, she had no doubt that Teal'c would be able to handle Jack.
A staff blast flew over her head; Sam flinched, then relaxed as she realized it was only Teal'c, defending them from a threat behind her. Then he was there, kneeling at her side, scooping Jack up and over his left shoulder. "We must hurry!" he said, urgently, staring intently into her eyes for a moment before turning and lurching back up the canyon.
Only then did she realize that he'd been wounded, too. A great rent crossed the back of his BDU jacket, and the T-shirt underneath was wet with blood. Whatever he'd been doing while they'd been holed up in the cavern, he'd been right in the thick of things.
She didn't bother to question his urgency. She was feeling pretty damned impatient to be off this rock herself. She finally got Daniel in an approximation of upright posture, and half-dragged, half-pushed him along as they stumbled the last little distance to safety.
Finally, finally, they were out from between the walls of the canyon and onto the rocky plain. Sam slipped and went to one knee, clutching heavily at Daniel to try and keep him from falling, too. Teal'c stepped close, carefully positioning Jack on his shoulder to keep all four members of the team in as tight a circle as possible.
"Dad!" she called into her radio. "Ring us up, we're clear!"
Jacob's tel'tac swung in overhead at her summons, gliding into a hover above the tight cluster of SG-1. A portal opened in the belly of the ship and the rings activated, slamming down around them. Sam had never been so glad to be caught in one of the Goa'uld transporters; one second, the team was bleeding into the mud of a hostile planet, and the next they were all safe, sprawled across the floor of the cargo vessel.
They weren't alone. A strange Jaffa, part of a chain still attached to one ankle, was laid out on a blanket against the wall nearest the cockpit. His eyes were closed, but his chest rose and fell; bandages were wrapped around one thigh, both arms, and a significant portion of his torso. Teal'c must have been in the middle of rescuing him when Jacob had arrived.
Speaking of-- where was her father? She got to her feet, helping Daniel move away from the rings. Teal'c lowered Jack to the ground along a section of wall opposite the wounded Jaffa, then went to the door separating the section they were in from the cockpit, anticipating her move. "All are aboard," he announced, clearly for Jacob's benefit.
"All right. I'll be over the Gate in thirty seconds," her Dad replied.
"Teal'c?" Sam asked, wrinkling her brow at him. "What's going on? Why aren't we getting out of here?"
"We must not allow this abomination to continue," her teammate announced, staring down at her with an impassive expression. "If we move quickly, we can disable the Stargate and prevent Shu from ever leaving this place or using it for such a purpose again."
Well. At least her choice of C4 over an extra flare was going to prove worthwhile in the end. "I'll do it, Teal'c," Sam told him. "I'm the only one not wounded." She helped Daniel settle himself against the wall next to Jack, then dropped her pack from her shoulders and dug in it to find the errant blocks of plastic explosive.
He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. "We will go together," he said, then stepped back into the circle of the rings, refusing to take no for an answer.
She followed him, holding her breath. Seconds later, they were back down on the surface, just in front of the Gate. Her eyes had just begun to adjust to the illumination aboard the tel'tac; everything outside the reach of Teal'c's light seemed impenetrably black and threatening. Fear curdled in her gut again; she thrust it aside and stooped quickly at the base of the Gate, positioning the blocks of C4 so that it would be blown over backward and hopefully buried in loose rock. Even if it weren't fully closed, anyone trying to Gate in from the other side in the future would fall right back into the wormhole and disintegrate into their constituent atoms.
Only seconds had passed by the time the last block was placed and the timers set. Sam lurched back to her feet and joined Teal'c again, standing close up against him as he toggled the radio to let Jacob know they were done. She didn't even notice that she was blocking the glow from his lightsource, trapping it between them, until her lower left side suddenly seemed to erupt in pain.
Her heartbeat faltered; a deep chill swept over her as time seemed to slow to a crawl. Teal'c's eyes widened, and he reached out with both arms, one pulling her against him, the other raising his staff weapon to aim behind her.
The rings came down before he could fire. Something shrieked and crunched behind her; then the rings went up again, snatching them back aboard the tel'tac.
"Samantha!" a deep voice seemed to call; several other voices were calling her name, as well. Sam found herself unable to answer them as she fell back into the dark.
Epilogue
Sam opened her eyes to the rhythmic beep of medical machines. She blinked up at the ceiling for a moment, disoriented, then winced and turned her head away as a spear of light jabbed into one eye. "Janet?" she blurted, sure at least of the identity of her tormentor.
"You had us worried there for awhile," the SGC's chief medical officer answered, warmly. "How do you feel?"
Sam blinked away the spots from her vision and thought about that for a minute, taking stock of the current state of her nerve endings. "Like I spent too long at the beach, then got stabbed in the back," she said hoarsely. She was starting to remember what had happened on PM3-44G; it seemed like one long nightmare, far removed from the crisp, clean world of the SGC's infirmary.
"The others?" she asked, wrinkling her brow as she gazed up at Janet.
Janet smiled and gestured off to Sam's left. Sam turned her head to look and that direction, and immediately spotted her teammates: one after the other, they were lined up in beds just like hers. Teal'c and the Colonel were asleep, but Daniel was awake and busily typing away at his laptop. When he spotted her, he gave a little wave and a bright grin, then dived back into whatever he was doing.
"Under the circumstances," Janet said, "the General is postponing your post-mission briefing until the four of you have recovered. It'll be a few days for you, I'm afraid, but I had Dr. Lee bring your laptop down, and if you're a good girl I'll let you have it in the morning."
Sam would have objected, but she was still feeling rather drowsy. She gave Janet a wan smile, then closed her eyes and settled back into the pillow. Later, she would see whether Daniel had managed to hang on to his camera, whether she could get hold of the scans from the tel'tac's sensors on the makeup of PM3-44G's system, and what had happened to the Jaffa that Teal'c had saved. For now, the mission data and reports could wait.
Grateful for the infirmary's bright lighting, she allowed herself to drift back toward sleep. She had a feeling she'd be sleeping with a night light for a long while to come.
"Good night, Sam," Janet said, gently patting her arm.
She fell into dreams of shadows driven away by the sun.
~fin~
~
stargate_xing & jedibuttercup)Title: Eclipse
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Fandoms: Stargate SG-1, Pitch Black
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: SG-1 early Season 7; Scenery from "Pitch Black" (2000).
Summary: 14,000 words. The team steps through the Gate onto a world with three suns. It does not go well.
Notes: Part two of two. For part one, go here.
Act Four: Lights Out
"Damnit," Jack hissed, lowering his binoculars for a moment as he leaned back against the canyon wall opposite Sam and Daniel. "How much water you got over there, Carter?" he asked quietly, lifting his sunglasses to meet her eyes directly.
They'd been waiting at the mouth of the canyon for several hours already, watching to see what would happen. To their confusion, the first group of Shu's soldiers had done nothing but stake their prisoners out on long chains, several dozen yards in front of the Gate. None of the captives had their hands free, but all of them had had their feet untied before the Jaffa had retreated into guard positions around the Gate. Finally, as the red and amber suns neared the horizon again on the opposite side of the sky, the First Prime had arrived, accompanied by their Goa'uld overlord. Shu had immediately begun directing the men in assembling several pieces of technology Sam was unfamiliar with.
It had been a long, hot, dusty wait. Sam shook her canteen, glanced inquisitively at Daniel, then met the Colonel's gaze again with a frown. "A few hours' worth at normal rations. If we tried to retreat and wait them out? It could take days; I don't think we have enough."
Next to Jack, Teal'c stiffened abruptly and drew in a deep breath. "I do not believe that will be necessary, Major Carter," he said, staring intently at the equipment the Goa'uld was setting up. "If this is the world I now believe it to be, retreating from this position would be most unwise."
Daniel stirred. "What is it, Teal'c? Did you recognize something?"
Teal'c squared his jaw grimly and lowered the binoculars again, fixing Sam and then Daniel with a severe, intent expression. "Jaffa legend speaks of a world that knows darkness only once every score of years, inhabited by demonic creatures that roamed the night to feast on the flesh of the unwary. These rumors are often spoken of in connection to Netu; Bra'tac believed that they were old, inaccurate tales dating to a time before Sokar transformed that world with fire and poison to more closely simulate the mythical environment of Hell."
"Looking pretty accurate from here," Jack muttered. "So what are those doohickeys they're setting up that bother you so much?"
"The most accurate Tau'ri term for their function would be 'floodlight'," Teal'c said, glancing toward the setting suns. They still hovered several fingers' width above the horizon, but it would be no more than an hour before they dipped out of sight to make way for the blue sun again.
Sam swallowed through a suddenly dry throat. Why would anyone bring light to a planet that had it in abundance, unless they were expecting that to change? "Eclipse," she blurted, staring at Jack in sudden shock. "If the legends are right..."
"Those creatures, back there-- they attacked my flashlight," Daniel interrupted her, sounding horrified. "Look at the way the Jaffa are positioning those lamps-- they're set up for protection, like a fence, in a ring around the Gate."
"I think you're on to something there." Jack grimaced, lifting his binoculars again to watch the proceedings. "The way they staked out those prisoners, they're several yards outside of the ring of lamps-- they have just enough chain to stand up and run a few feet, but not enough to reach the light."
"That's barbaric," Daniel hissed, angrily.
"That's the Goa'uld for you," Jack countered, then glanced at Sam again. "Any way to tell how long it'll be until it happens, Carter?"
She shook her head. "If I had the data from the UAV, I might be able to tell, but without it?" She shrugged helplessly. "Soon, I'd guess, from the way they're setting things up."
"That's helpful," he replied sarcastically. "No chance of getting ourselves through the Gate before it happens, then."
"Probably not, sir."
"Damn it." He leaned back against the canyon wall again, thumping his head against the rock a few times. "If it's really that dangerous... we've got our flashlights and a couple of emergency flares, but the minute we light something up those Jaffa are going to see us, and I really don't like the odds. This is the last time I wish for a more interesting mission."
A sudden cacophony of Jaffa voices drew the team's attention; several of Shu's soldiers had lowered their staff weapons, pointing at the suns. Sam followed their gaze and saw--
"Holy Hannah," she breathed, as an impossibly huge, brownish arch began moving up the bowl of sky, inching upwards to meet the sinking suns.
"Is that--" Jack blurted, then fell silent, as a second curving arch joined the first.
Idly, in the tiny part of her mind not awestruck by the sight before her, Sam wondered what PM3-44G's diameter and rate of spin were, and calculated the probable size of those rings based on likely values. For rings they must be, and a gas giant to follow, if the eclipse was to last for any length of time--
"Dear God," Daniel said breathlessly, as the horizon seemed suddenly to bulge. An enormous, dark curve swelled above the rocky landscape, creeping inexorably upwards.
"It is upon us," Teal'c commented gravely.
For a moment, Sam almost forgot why they were on the planet on the first place, the desperate odds they faced against Shu's Jaffa and the nightmarish fate that Teal'c's legends assigned those who wandered in the dark. She'd seen her share of lunar and solar eclipses on Earth, watching them through pinholes in styrofoam cups as a child and through more sophisticated equipment when she was older. But this-- she'd never seen, never imagined anything so majestic. If she'd felt small earlier that day standing under a cage of long-dead bones, she felt positively miniscule now, faced with a such an unbelievable display of nature's might.
The bulge of the gas giant resolved itself into a partial sphere as it continued to rise relative to their position, its rings spearing outward at an angle to intersect the suns. As the first ring crossed the fiery golden point of the brighter sun, the light around them dimmed to a rusty red, as though shining through a pane of glass stained with old blood. Flashes of light flickered along the near edge of the gas giant's orb, a sparkling effect Sam recognized at once though she'd never before seen it on so large a scale.
"Baily's beads," she muttered, awed.
A few seconds later, the rings crossed the second sun as well, and the light dimmed further, casting sepia-toned shadows over everything and everyone. The Goa'uld barked several sharp commands in his dual-toned voice, and the ring of floodlamps abruptly lit up, creating a small island of brightness in an increasingly darkened landscape. No sooner had the lamps ignited, than a distant, alien series of whistling and screeching sounds began, echoing to the point that it was almost impossible to guess directionality. The creatures Daniel had encountered had made sounds that reminded Sam of sonar; in retrospect, that made perfect sense.
"They're blind," she said, a little louder, for the Colonel's ears. "The creatures-- they're blind. They use sonar to navigate. And with the light gone--"
"They're tasting their first breath of free air in two decades," Daniel said quietly, gazing back over his shoulder in the direction of the hedgehog-like mound they'd seen from afar.
The sounds grew louder, barreling in their direction at a frightening rate of speed, and Sam looked up just in time to see a flock of tiny, angular shapes flashing overhead in what little dim, brown daylight remained.
"They can fly?" Jack hissed, sounding indignant.
"They-- they must be hatchlings, babies," Daniel said. "Or maybe something different... they're much smaller than the creatures I caught a glimpse of earlier." He shifted next to Sam, rubbing stiffly at the arm and shoulder he'd bruised in that encounter.
The flight of hatchlings veered near the column of light the Goa'uld had created, then swerved abruptly away again, screeching loudly at the encounter before flashing away over the landscape in another direction. Over their noise, Sam could hear a set of more distinct, differently-pitched alien voices, calling out from the direction the hatchlings had first flown from. The adults, if that's what they were, weren't far behind.
Sam gulped, glancing back at the brown disk erasing the sky, and was treated to another show of Baily's beads as one of the suns finally escaped from the darkening rings for a few seconds only to be swallowed up by the gas giant itself. In its wake, absolute darkness spread across the face of the planet, sparing only the Jaffa encampment.
Night had fallen.
"Well, fuck," Jack muttered, viciously. Sam couldn't see him any longer; the cover he'd chosen to block the view of the enemy also shielded him from what little stray light pollution leaked their way, leaving him deep in a pool of shadows as black as ink. Sam had thought she'd seen darkness before, but she'd never seen anything like this. When she glanced over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of Daniel, she couldn't even see the hand he'd reached out toward her; when it landed on her arm, she flinched violently, her heart thudding in her chest with the force of her surprise.
"They will be here within moments," Teal'c rumbled, eliciting another jolt from Sam's fraught nerves.
"Do it, Jack," Daniel said urgently, his hand trembling a little on Sam's arm. "We haven't got a choice."
"I know, I know!" Jack hissed back. "Just-- be ready. All hell's going to break loose when they see us."
"Understood, sir." Sam tried to inject a note of calm in her voice, and wasn't quite sure she'd succeeded.
"Here goes nothing."
Sam turned her face away, bracing herself, and managed not to flinch when the actinic flash of a freshly-lit flare bloomed in the corner of her vision. A high-pitched scream sounded from behind them, and she turned sharply in time to see a strange shape retreating back up the canyon, a wide head flaring out to blunt points like that of a hammerhead shark above a mouth full of long, sharp teeth.
Rattling noises at the tops of the cliffs announced the presence of more of the creatures, and Sam shivered, wrenching her attention away from them toward the Jaffa camp from whence the more immediate danger was likely to come. She couldn't immediately see what they were doing beyond the row of lights, but the flash of staff energy blasting against the cliff above them was answer enough to her worries. Another creature screeched loudly as the blast detonated, sending a shower of rock fragments down over their heads, and somewhere between their position and the Goa'uld camp one of the prisoners began to scream.
"We're going to have to move," she blurted. "We don't have enough cover here. The Jaffa will be able to target us before we get anywhere near them, and we'll be exposed on all sides to the creatures if we leave the canyon."
"Fuck!" Jack hissed again, sounding as furious as she'd ever heard him. "We're going to have to retreat."
"To where?" Sam replied.
"We'll figure that out as we go. Just move! And for God's sake, stay in the light!"
Act Five: Chaos in the Dark
Sam bolted to her feet at Jack's order, ignoring the discomfort of limbs made stiff by long hours of sitting. She snagged Daniel's arm as she moved, assisting him to his feet, and realized only after he hissed in discomfort that she'd taken hold of his injured limb.
There wasn't time to be gentle. She let go his arm and shifted her hand to the small of his back, then dug in her heels and pushed. He stumbled forward, nearly tripping on Teal'c's heels, his profile lit starkly by the burning flare the Jaffa thrust ahead of them. Sam readied her P-90 as she ran, activating the attached flashlight and aiming it out into the darkness. She had no idea what minimum candlepower might be required to keep the swift-moving nightmares at a distance, and she didn't intend to be left in a position to find out.
Jack fell in behind her to cover the team's six. Sam heard a few echoing alien screams as the Colonel's P-90 spoke out in their defense, interspersed with war cries from angry Jaffa as Shu's soldiers reacted to their presence. Another staff blast blew past them, detonating on the canyon's floor and throwing up a cloud of dust that briefly captured the light of the flare like a cloud of fog caught in a car's highbeams.
Scuttling sounds from the tops of the cliffs confirmed the presence of more of the creatures, watching them from above. Sam clamped down on the seed of panic germinating in her chest and focused her entire being in the moment, on staying alive. It didn't matter that there was nowhere to retreat to, Jack would think of something, and even if he didn't, there would be another way out. There had to be. This was SG-1; they had survived worse odds than this.
A third blast slammed into the earth at their heels, knocking Jack off his feet. Sam heard him go down and turned to cover him, yelling for Teal'c as she did so. "Hold up! The Colonel's down!"
Teal'c either didn't hear her, or else the flare was starting to burn out, because its flickering light illuminated less of her surroundings with every passing second. She had no idea if they'd been running long enough for that to happen; her time-sense had evaporated with the flood of adrenaline in her system. All she could think of as the shadows swarmed back in around her and Jack was that they were not going to die this way. She fired past him as he got back up to his knees, briefly illuminating the cliffs with each muzzle flash, and yelled for her teammates again. "Teal'c! Daniel! Hold up! We need to stick together!"
There was a whisper of movement to the left. Sam turned and fired a burst at the sound, catching one of the aliens in mid-leap. Dark blood spattered the rocks around it; some of it splashed back on her face, but she hardly noticed as she poured another burst into the thing to make sure it was dead. As she fired, an echoing call sounded almost in her right ear-- it hadn't been alone. She swiveled back, heart pounding in fear, and heard another voice cry out: the Colonel's, astonished and in pain.
"Carter!" Jack had nearly made it back to his feet, but a clawed alien hand imbedded in his calf yanked him back down again. He curled sideways as he fell, aiming his P-90 at the attacker; a simultaneous burst from his weapon and Sam's nearly sawed the thing in half across the breastbone. It was the first time Sam had gotten a really good look at one; aside from the strangely shaped head and the greyish coloring, the thing reminded her of nothing so much as one of the velociraptors from the Jurassic Park films. Its skin started shriveling as it collapsed to the earth, and she realized that the light was growing brighter again. Teal'c had heard her after all.
She dropped one hand from her gun, reaching down to grab Jack by the back of his BDU jacket, and started dragging for all she was worth. He complained at the treatment, yelling out as his injured leg bounced over the ground, but she didn't stop until she was right up against the solid tower of strength that was Teal'c. Several more staff blasts shot into the canyon as she moved, but none came anywhere close; from the shrieks at each impact, Sam guessed the creatures were temporarily proving more of a distraction to the Jaffa than SG-1 was. But that couldn't last forever.
Daniel knelt at her side, tearing off a strip of his T-shirt to serve as a quick and dirty bandage around the Colonel's bleeding leg. Jack lurched to his feet almost before Daniel was finished, listing badly to one side but still more than capable of action. "We gotta find some cover!" he yelled, limping toward a large rock propped against one of the canyon's walls.
Sam moved automatically to cover him, firing at every sound she heard outside the shifting sphere of light holding the darkness back around the team. She had no idea what Jack was doing-- one rock could hardly provide them all cover-- but she was operating very much on an instinctive level now. See danger, kill danger; protect the team; follow the Colonel.
"T, buddy! Some help here!" Jack braced himself as best he could and leaned his shoulder into the rock, reaching into a vest pocket for another flare as he did so. Teal'c joined him, dropping the burning flare he'd been gingerly holding on the ground beside them, and together they shifted the heavy, man-height rock to one side. Where it had been, a narrow, gaping hole was revealed.
Jack ignited the second flare, tossing it into the cavern, then paused to check for hostile occupation. Nothing moved or shrieked, and after a few seconds Jack dove inside, P-90 at the ready.
"It's clear!" he called. "Daniel! Carter?"
"Right behind you," Daniel called, inching through the narrow opening carefully to protect his injured side. Teal'c stood next to the rock, guarding the way as Daniel disappeared from sight. Sam fired a few more rounds into the shadows, then followed.
The cave proved to be quite shallow, not connected up to the nearby warren of tunnels the creatures probably lived in. Sam moved out of the way as quickly as she could, intending to give Teal'c room to maneuver, and was baffled when he didn't immediately appear in the entryway.
"Teal'c?" she called, fearing for her friend's life.
"Keep them safe, Major Carter," he answered.
"Teal'c? You get your ass in here!" Jack yelled, indignant, as a rough scraping noise sounded outside the mouth of the small cavern.
Sam understood, belatedly, as the rock that had covered the opening settled back into place, blocking her view of the canyon. "Teal'c!" she screamed, beating on the back of the rock with one bare fist.
Her radio activated abruptly, and she started as Teal'c's deep voice sounded in her ear. "The Jaffa will look for those who caused the disruption," he said calmly. "O'Neill and Daniel Jackson are both wounded; there are too many of them for us to defeat as we are. I will lead them astray."
"Teal'c, you don't have to do this!" Daniel said desperately, activating his own radio. "The SGC knows where we're at, the rescue team will probably be here any time!"
Teal'c did not answer. Daniel drew in several harsh breaths, then backed into the cave wall, sliding down it until he was seated on the cool floor.
Jack sat down more carefully next to him, looking every bit his age in the flickering light of the flare. "Not after Shu's Jaffa blew up that last MALP," he said, quietly. "They won't come through until they're sure it's not suicide-- and since we were keeping radio silence at the time, they don't even know we're still alive."
"We can't just let him die out there!" Daniel objected, angry and near tears.
"T's tough. I'm sure he'll make it. How long can this eclipse last, anyway?" Jack said, in a transparent attempt to reassure the younger man.
Sam swallowed. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news-- but if this system is aligned the way I think it is, the night will last several more hours at the minimum. And if there's another gas giant on the other side, blocking the suns from the other direction..."
Jack dropped his head to his knees. "Really didn't want to hear that, Carter."
"Sorry, sir," she said, at a loss what to do next. She was beginning to shiver a little, partly due to the aftermath of the adrenaline rush but also from the rapidly dropping temperature in the cavern. She was abruptly grateful that they had worn the jackets with their desert camouflage BDU's, despite the earlier heat, and quickly moved to sit on the other side of Daniel to conserve warmth.
He'd taken his own jacket off much earlier in the day to tie around his waist, but with Sam's assistance he struggled carefully back into it. "How many more flares do we have?" he asked quietly, feeling in the pockets of his jacket and vest.
"I dunno. A couple," Jack said, glumly. "You and Carter should have one each, Teal'c's probably got one or two."
"And there was another in the bottom of my pack," Daniel mused. "Which, of course, you left out there--"
"Hey!" Jack objected. "I was in kind of a hurry, in case you hadn't noticed."
"I have mine," Sam spoke up, interrupting them. Much as their arguments usually amused her, now was not the time. "But I didn't pack any extra flares. I brought C4 instead."
"Which would be fine if we needed to blow ourselves up," Jack said, sourly. "Damn it."
They didn't have much in the way of emergency rations or first aid equipment, either; they hadn't really been expecting to stay on the planet very long, and now they were down Daniel's portion in addition to whatever Teal'c had been carrying. Was still carrying, Sam reminded herself. She wasn't going to assume Teal'c was dead until she had proof otherwise, no matter how poor the odds.
"We should probably do something about your leg, sir," she suggested. "Before this flare burns down." She did at least still have a standard emergency bandage in her vest, and it would be worth sacrificing a little of their remaining water rations to reduce the likelihood of infection.
He shifted a little, turning the injured calf toward the light, and grimaced. "Probably so," he said. "It doesn't look too bad, but it's still bleeding and it hurts like hell. I'd like to be able to run on it when we bust out of here."
She moved quickly to carry out her suggestion. The deep gouges where the claws had sunk into his leg really needed better medical care than she was able to give him-- stitches, for starters, and better pain medication than the aspirin Daniel had on him-- but she was at least able to wash the debris out and bind the wounds up tightly. He'd have a new set of scars, but no serious impairment. Provided they got off this planet alive.
The flare burned out just after she'd finished, casting the cave into darkness. The twin flashlights on Sam's and Jack's P-90's were the only relief in the oppressive blackness, and she knew even those would have to be turned off soon to conserve battery power. The idea made her stomach churn, but there was nothing else to be done save charge back out of the cavern and make Teal'c's sacrifice meaningless.
Better now than later. Sam switched the light off, then heard a faint click as the Colonel did likewise. A hand reached for hers; Daniel's, she was fairly sure, though she could no longer see to be certain. She grasped it thankfully, unnerved by the complete and total absence of light around her, and rested her head back against the wall of the cave.
When faint blue spots began appearing in front of her eyes a few minutes later, she thought at first that her eyes were beginning to make things up, starved for any kind of visual input. She blinked a few times, then sat up straighter, staring up at the ceiling of the cavern.
The hand wrapped around hers clutched tighter for a second. "Look," Daniel said, voice barely louder than a whisper. "Are those..."
"Bioluminscent slugs," she answered, as the light brightened further and the blobs of color took on form. Of course; light would be a better biological defense on this planet than the more usual spines or poison ever could be.
Somehow, in the dim bluish light given off by the tiny creatures, their situation didn't seem quite so bleak.
Act Six: Hope of Day
Time passed slowly as the three members of SG-1 stuck in the cave rested, sharing what little water and food they had left and waiting for another option to present itself. The glowing gastropods crawling across the ceiling provided enough light for them to make out each other's features, but they were all very aware that it was still pitch black outside. The hammering sounds of alien predators bashing their skulls against the rock blocking the cave mouth were proof enough that the eclipse was not yet over.
They hadn't heard from Teal'c since he had disappeared into the darkness. Sam suppressed the urge to try contacting him over the radio-- she had a feeling that he would have tried to transmit some sort of goodbye if he'd been caught, and if he hadn't, he could very well be hiding in a place where the slightest noise would betray his presence to the enemy. He was a master warrior; he would tell her to use her energy on more important concerns than worrying about him.
Even as she completed that thought, her radio came to life-- but to her surprise, it wasn't Teal'c on the other end. "Sam? Sam, can you hear me?"
The transmission was full of static, but she recognized the voice instantly. "Dad!" she exclaimed, keying her radio as she struggled to her feet. Her muscles were stiff and sore from over-exertion followed by too much sitting around, but she was too excited to care.
"Jacob?" the Colonel asked, disbelieving. "What are you doing here?"
"I knew you were still alive!" the Tok'ra answered, relief plain in his voice. "When the SGC contacted me and told me your team was missing, I looked up PM3-44G on the galactic map. You're practically next door to the Alpha Site, so I grabbed a tel'tac and flew on over. What's going on down there? I took out a squad of Jaffa by the Gate, but there's a lot of movement in the shadows and I'm still taking fire."
"There's some kind of deadly predator here that only comes out at night," Sam informed him, speaking quickly. "But night only falls here once every couple of decades. The Jaffa belong to a Goa'uld named Shu, who appears to be using the eclipse as a means of executing important prisoners. We were unable to take the Gate, and Daniel and the Colonel were injured, so we retreated to a cave for shelter. We're safe enough for the moment, but Teal'c's still out there; he was trying to lead the Jaffa away from us. Have you seen him?"
"No, no, I-- wait. I see a light; it looks like a flare--"
The radio fell silent. Sam exchanged glances with Jack, then began checking and reloading her P-90. Jack scrambled to his feet, leaning on the cave wall, then busied himself with the same chore. Daniel stood last, his brow creased with pain as he stretched bruised and strained muscles left too long untreated. He wasn't carrying a P-90 this trip, but he did have his handgun, which he quickly checked over. Sam handed him her flashlight, as his had been lost in the initial encounter with the alien predators, and he turned it on before bracing it against the gun. All of them seemed to be feeling the same urge to motion, their hopes for survival rekindled.
"Got him!" the radio announced suddenly, a triumphal note in Jacob's voice.
Sam closed her eyes briefly, immensely relieved.
"Thank you, Jacob," Jack said, emphatically. "Now-- I don't suppose you can fly that thing close enough to the canyon to pick us up from the bottom?"
"Sorry, Jack," Jacob answered, apologetically. "The rings won't reach down that far, not unless there's another set buried down there somewhere. You're going to have to come out of there first."
"I was afraid of that," Jack sighed. "Look-- just keep the Gate covered. How many Jaffa d'you think are still out there?"
"A dozen, at least," was the pessimistic answer.
"Damn. Just be ready to grab us the second we're clear, all right?"
"Will do, Jack." The transmission ended.
Without Teal'c's help, it was going to take all three of them to clear the cave mouth again. Sam took her flare out of her vest, holding it ready in her left hand, then braced her shoulder against the rock and waited for the others to join her. Once they were ready, Jack counted down from three and they all pushed as hard as they could.
The rock shifted slowly. As it moved, grinding loudly against the smaller rocks beneath it, Sam realized she hadn't heard the sounds of impatient aliens in several minutes at least; they might actually be able to pull this off without incurring any other serious injuries. The moment she could see clear to the outside, she lit the flare and tossed it out into the darkness.
She didn't hear any shrieking noises-- but she did hear several peculiar hissing sounds coming from the direction of the flare, as if droplets of water were striking a hot grill. The rock finished moving, and they emerged into the fitfully lit canyon to find it liberally splashed with blue blood and pieces of the creatures they'd been fleeing.
"They're killing each other!" Daniel said, aghast, gazing up into the air above them.
Sam swallowed hard, fighting nausea at the sight of disemboweled predators and severed limbs strewn willy-nilly across the canyon floor. She didn't want to look up; she already knew what she'd see, and she had a feeling the same process-- territorial fight or mating flight, most likely-- was responsible for most of the smaller bones they'd found earlier that day. Several more chunks of flesh fell into the space around them as they stood outside the cave mouth. "Let's get out of here," she said, plaintively.
Daniel took their last flare from his vest and tossed it toward the mouth of the canyon as hard as he could. Between its light and the one Sam had ignited, they'd be able to traverse most of the distance to the plain without stepping into deep shadow, while leaving their hands free for their weapons. He waited for Jack take point-- the Colonel couldn't quite run, but even with a leg wound he was moving faster than Daniel was currently able to-- and Sam took up the rear. If anything attacked them from behind, she'd be best able to take care of it.
They were halfway to the mouth of the canyon when both flares seemed to sputter, and chilled droplets of something began striking the top of Sam's head and sliding down her collar. Her sunburned skin stung under the onslaught, and one of her feet slipped as the dusty ground underfoot began turning to mud.
Daniel laughed, a bitter sound that held no mirth. "For who is Shu without Tefnut?" he said cryptically, and stumbled forward to slide his good arm under one of Jack's. Neither of them could afford to slip and go down at this stage of the game.
A trickle of cold liquid slid down Sam's cheek into the corner of her mouth, and she licked her lips automatically. Water. It was water-- if they'd been stuck here any longer, they might have been able to survive after all. Thank God they wouldn't have to, though.
It was just a little bit farther. Sam was almost convinced they were going to make it without complication, after all; but no sooner had she formed the thought, than a charge of blue lightning surged out of the darkness and nailed Jack. He went down like a sack of potatoes; Daniel only caught part of the charge, but he was unable to support Jack's weight in addition to his own and went down too, groaning in pain.
Sam fired at the source of the zat blast, furious at the interruption, and caught the Jaffa in the chest. He flung up his arms and fell forward into the light, and Sam caught the glint of a golden tattoo as he collapsed to the ground. It was Shu's First Prime. His master couldn't be far off.
"Teal'c!" she screamed into her radio. "Daniel and the Colonel are down! I need some help down here!"
"He's ringing down now," her Dad's voice answered, sounding concerned. "Are you okay, Sam?"
She didn't bother to answer. Of course she wasn't okay. She was tired, sunburnt, dripping with water, and the sole line of defense for her two wounded teammates in very hostile territory. How did he expect her to answer? She fired two more sustained bursts, targeting a pair of creatures swooping down on the little party, then sagged in relief as a brilliant column of light flashed down some distance away. Teal'c was coming.
He had to have some kind of portable Goa'uld lightsource with him; the guttering flares, which had been nearly extinguished by the rain, seemed dim in comparison. "Major Carter!" he called, staff leveled in front of him as he ran.
"We're here, Teal'c!" she answered, kneeling at Daniel's side to help the half-stunned archaeologist to his feet. There was no way she was going to be able to carry the Colonel, but if she could get Daniel moving, she had no doubt that Teal'c would be able to handle Jack.
A staff blast flew over her head; Sam flinched, then relaxed as she realized it was only Teal'c, defending them from a threat behind her. Then he was there, kneeling at her side, scooping Jack up and over his left shoulder. "We must hurry!" he said, urgently, staring intently into her eyes for a moment before turning and lurching back up the canyon.
Only then did she realize that he'd been wounded, too. A great rent crossed the back of his BDU jacket, and the T-shirt underneath was wet with blood. Whatever he'd been doing while they'd been holed up in the cavern, he'd been right in the thick of things.
She didn't bother to question his urgency. She was feeling pretty damned impatient to be off this rock herself. She finally got Daniel in an approximation of upright posture, and half-dragged, half-pushed him along as they stumbled the last little distance to safety.
Finally, finally, they were out from between the walls of the canyon and onto the rocky plain. Sam slipped and went to one knee, clutching heavily at Daniel to try and keep him from falling, too. Teal'c stepped close, carefully positioning Jack on his shoulder to keep all four members of the team in as tight a circle as possible.
"Dad!" she called into her radio. "Ring us up, we're clear!"
Jacob's tel'tac swung in overhead at her summons, gliding into a hover above the tight cluster of SG-1. A portal opened in the belly of the ship and the rings activated, slamming down around them. Sam had never been so glad to be caught in one of the Goa'uld transporters; one second, the team was bleeding into the mud of a hostile planet, and the next they were all safe, sprawled across the floor of the cargo vessel.
They weren't alone. A strange Jaffa, part of a chain still attached to one ankle, was laid out on a blanket against the wall nearest the cockpit. His eyes were closed, but his chest rose and fell; bandages were wrapped around one thigh, both arms, and a significant portion of his torso. Teal'c must have been in the middle of rescuing him when Jacob had arrived.
Speaking of-- where was her father? She got to her feet, helping Daniel move away from the rings. Teal'c lowered Jack to the ground along a section of wall opposite the wounded Jaffa, then went to the door separating the section they were in from the cockpit, anticipating her move. "All are aboard," he announced, clearly for Jacob's benefit.
"All right. I'll be over the Gate in thirty seconds," her Dad replied.
"Teal'c?" Sam asked, wrinkling her brow at him. "What's going on? Why aren't we getting out of here?"
"We must not allow this abomination to continue," her teammate announced, staring down at her with an impassive expression. "If we move quickly, we can disable the Stargate and prevent Shu from ever leaving this place or using it for such a purpose again."
Well. At least her choice of C4 over an extra flare was going to prove worthwhile in the end. "I'll do it, Teal'c," Sam told him. "I'm the only one not wounded." She helped Daniel settle himself against the wall next to Jack, then dropped her pack from her shoulders and dug in it to find the errant blocks of plastic explosive.
He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. "We will go together," he said, then stepped back into the circle of the rings, refusing to take no for an answer.
She followed him, holding her breath. Seconds later, they were back down on the surface, just in front of the Gate. Her eyes had just begun to adjust to the illumination aboard the tel'tac; everything outside the reach of Teal'c's light seemed impenetrably black and threatening. Fear curdled in her gut again; she thrust it aside and stooped quickly at the base of the Gate, positioning the blocks of C4 so that it would be blown over backward and hopefully buried in loose rock. Even if it weren't fully closed, anyone trying to Gate in from the other side in the future would fall right back into the wormhole and disintegrate into their constituent atoms.
Only seconds had passed by the time the last block was placed and the timers set. Sam lurched back to her feet and joined Teal'c again, standing close up against him as he toggled the radio to let Jacob know they were done. She didn't even notice that she was blocking the glow from his lightsource, trapping it between them, until her lower left side suddenly seemed to erupt in pain.
Her heartbeat faltered; a deep chill swept over her as time seemed to slow to a crawl. Teal'c's eyes widened, and he reached out with both arms, one pulling her against him, the other raising his staff weapon to aim behind her.
The rings came down before he could fire. Something shrieked and crunched behind her; then the rings went up again, snatching them back aboard the tel'tac.
"Samantha!" a deep voice seemed to call; several other voices were calling her name, as well. Sam found herself unable to answer them as she fell back into the dark.
Epilogue
Sam opened her eyes to the rhythmic beep of medical machines. She blinked up at the ceiling for a moment, disoriented, then winced and turned her head away as a spear of light jabbed into one eye. "Janet?" she blurted, sure at least of the identity of her tormentor.
"You had us worried there for awhile," the SGC's chief medical officer answered, warmly. "How do you feel?"
Sam blinked away the spots from her vision and thought about that for a minute, taking stock of the current state of her nerve endings. "Like I spent too long at the beach, then got stabbed in the back," she said hoarsely. She was starting to remember what had happened on PM3-44G; it seemed like one long nightmare, far removed from the crisp, clean world of the SGC's infirmary.
"The others?" she asked, wrinkling her brow as she gazed up at Janet.
Janet smiled and gestured off to Sam's left. Sam turned her head to look and that direction, and immediately spotted her teammates: one after the other, they were lined up in beds just like hers. Teal'c and the Colonel were asleep, but Daniel was awake and busily typing away at his laptop. When he spotted her, he gave a little wave and a bright grin, then dived back into whatever he was doing.
"Under the circumstances," Janet said, "the General is postponing your post-mission briefing until the four of you have recovered. It'll be a few days for you, I'm afraid, but I had Dr. Lee bring your laptop down, and if you're a good girl I'll let you have it in the morning."
Sam would have objected, but she was still feeling rather drowsy. She gave Janet a wan smile, then closed her eyes and settled back into the pillow. Later, she would see whether Daniel had managed to hang on to his camera, whether she could get hold of the scans from the tel'tac's sensors on the makeup of PM3-44G's system, and what had happened to the Jaffa that Teal'c had saved. For now, the mission data and reports could wait.
Grateful for the infirmary's bright lighting, she allowed herself to drift back toward sleep. She had a feeling she'd be sleeping with a night light for a long while to come.
"Good night, Sam," Janet said, gently patting her arm.
She fell into dreams of shadows driven away by the sun.
~fin~
~
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-30 06:56 am (UTC)I Just keep wondering if it's set before, after or during pitchblack. I mean the other group could be on the other side of the plant having the same problem.
Doesn't it make you feel sorry for them. I mean they could have been ringed of all along.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-30 07:02 am (UTC)It's actually set before the movie. The core samples Fry finds in the movie are dated several hundred years from now, and I didn't want to complicate things by adding a time-travel element. All of the scenery I used should be recognizable if you've watched the movie recently, in fact; they come out of the 'Gate approximately where the mining camp was set up.
That's one reason I had them blow the 'Gate when they left, actually. By the time Riddick sets foot on PM3-44G, there will be no evidence it was ever there; it'll be buried deep in the soil. Which, yeah, too bad for the poor crashed folk. They might have mostly lived if they could have just 'Gated off instead of going back for power cells and getting caught in the dark. =)