STARGATE SG-1 29 Hall of the Two Truths (38 page)

“Carter.”

Sam looked up. The colonel had moved to what she’d taken for a darkened window at the back of the room. Only it wasn’t dark now. NebtHet waved her hand over a spot on the wall and illuminated what was behind.

Or more precisely, what was below. The window overlooked a vast underground bunker. It was huge, at least several thousand square feet. But that wasn’t the most impressive thing.

From their vantage point Sam could see dozens, maybe even hundreds, of artifacts in various sizes and shapes. Things she had never seen before and couldn’t comprehend just from looking at them. Thousands of years of collecting, from all across the galaxy, assembled in one location. It was incredible.

“Wow.” If she only had time to study even one of them…

But no. They had a job to do.

NebtHet moved her hand again and a doorway slid open beside the window, revealing a long flight of steps down to the storeroom.

The technology was even more impressive from below. Sam wished Daniel were with them, just so he could translate some of the writings. It would be nice to know what it was they were about to blow up.

“Carter…” The colonel nodded at an enormous golden box.

“A sarcophagus.” Sam couldn’t suppress a shudder.

“Well, that explains a lot.” He glanced ahead to see if NebtHet was out of earshot and lowered his voice. “I want you to know this is breaking my heart, Carter.”

Sam nodded, sympathetically. In all their years of exploration they hadn’t even scratched the surface of discovering usable technology, compared with what this room held. The potential benefits to science, medicine, defense, and their overall knowledge of the universe… It was mind-boggling.

Maybe there was another way. Maybe they could hide it. Or set up a defensive perimeter.

“Forget it, Carter.”

The colonel was shaking his head, as if he’d been reading her thoughts. He was right, though. There would be plenty of time later to regret what they’d done. She had to keep the bigger picture in mind. Preventing the Goa’uld from getting their hands on this was their first and only priority. Whatever NebtHet had planned, Sam hoped it would be powerful enough.

As soon as she saw it, she knew it was — or would be, if rigged the right way. And rigging it was something Sam knew how to do.

Next to her, the colonel pulled up short. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Yes, sir.” Sam looked at NebtHet. “Where did you get it?”

For once the Djedu looked abashed. “We have become experts at salvaging what others leave behind, Major. As to which planet, or when, I really couldn’t tell you. Am I correct in assuming that it will be sufficient?”

Sam looked at the naquadah reactor and frowned. “Actually, there’s a slight problem, sir.”

“Of course there is.” He sighed. “What now?”

She studied the device. “I can hotwire it to overload, but the timing mechanism is missing. There’s no way I can set it on a delay to give us enough time to get back to the Stargate. Once the overload starts, we’ll have about five minutes to get as far away as we can. But it won’t be enough.”

“Five minutes ought to give all of us enough time to get out of here.”

Sam shook her head. “If we were only blowing up the generator, then yes. But given all the unknown technology in here, there’s likely to be a number of secondary explosions, possibly even more powerful than the first. The shock waves may even reach the gate. I can’t say for sure.”

The colonel furrowed his brow, thinking. She knew what was going through his mind, because the same thing was going through hers. Someone was going to have to stay.

“Show me what to do,” NebtHet said.

They both turned and looked at her.

“I have lived for over three thousand years,” she said calmly. “And I have spent my entire life seeking enlightenment in the hope that someday I might achieve an immortality that did not depend on the use of technology.” NebtHet closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. “This day, I have come as close to understanding ascension as I have in the past three millennia and I see now that it is something neither I, nor any of my kind, will ever be able to achieve.” She looked between them, earnestly. “Please. Allow me to do this. Allow me to give you the opportunity to try to accomplish what I cannot. For what I have put you through to enable me to come to this understanding, let me pay this debt.”

It was the last thing Sam had expected to hear, the colonel either, going by his expression. Maybe there was more to NebtHet than they’d given her credit for. It didn’t excuse what she had done to them, but Sam could certainly see why the Djedu had followed her for all these years.

“Show her, Carter.”

Sam knew him too well not to recognize the unspoken regret in the colonel’s tone. NebtHet might have literally put them through Hell, but even in the colonel’s eyes she didn’t deserve this. There had to be another way.

“Sir, maybe I could —”

“We’re out of time, Major. Just prep the damn thing and let’s go.”

Sam wanted to argue, but she had no other option to offer. Pushing aside the part of her that already mourned this woman, she gave her attention to the reactor.

Sam’s heart sank when she opened the casing. The timing mechanism wasn’t the only thing missing. Someone had attempted to modify the device since it had left the possession of the SGC. Whatever it was they’d been trying to do, most likely hadn’t worked. The alterations were jumbled and confused. Nothing was at all where it should be.

“Oh boy,” she muttered under her breath.

“Something wrong, Carter?”

Sam looked up and met the colonel’s eyes. She’d been going to explain the problem, but changed her mind. “Nothing I can’t handle, sir,” she said instead, giving her attention back to the device.

Rewiring the reactor back to specs would take longer than they had. But she didn’t have to completely rewire it. She just had to fix it enough to blow it up.

Visualizing the wiring diagram in her mind, it only took Sam a few minutes to reroute what was needed to activate the overload. She left one wire unattached.

“Give us a ten minute start,” she told NebtHet as she passed her the lone wire. “It should be enough.” At least, she hoped so.

NebtHet looked at the wire in her hand and then up at the two of them.

“I have one favor,” she said, her eyes boring into the colonel. “When you see Jenmar — Jenmar a’Keyleb,” she amended. “Tell him… I forgive him.” Her look softened slightly. “And tell him that, someday, I hope he can forgive me as well.”

The colonel held NebtHet’s gaze for several seconds before he nodded. “I will.” For just a moment Sam thought she glimpsed a look of grudging admiration on his face before his standard, brusque detachment dropped into place. “Come on, Carter. Let’s go.”

They had only taken a few steps when the colonel stopped short and turned. “You know, NebtHet, this whole ascension thing…” The colonel paused for a moment, searching for the right words. “I’d say you’re a lot closer than you think.”

Before the Djedu could respond, he’d wheeled around and was striding toward the stairs, not looking back. Sam hurried to catch up, but not before she glimpsed the gratitude on NebtHet’s face. She wished the colonel had seen it.

By the time Sam got to the top of the stairs she was winded, and the pain in her side was worse. There wasn’t time to stop and catch her breath, but she couldn’t help it. The colonel was almost out the door of the building before he realized she wasn’t right behind him.

Sam swiftly dropped her hands from the doorframe she’d grabbed for support, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“You okay?” The colonel eyed her suspiciously.

She took as deep a breath as she could without wincing and nodded. “I’ll be fine.”

His eyes narrowed in skepticism and she waited for the accompanying reproof, but all he said was, “Come on. We gotta move,” and pushed out the door.

Good. Arguing over whether she was in good enough condition to beat the clock probably wasn’t a productive use of their time anyway.

When Sam stepped outside, he was waiting. As they retraced their route back toward the Hall, it was evident that the bombardment hadn’t abated in the least. If anything, the attacks had escalated. Only the area in the vicinity of the bunker was unaffected — of course. Aset would have told the Goa’uld where the Ancient technology was kept. They’d have been careful to avoid it.

There was a certain irony in the fact that the safest place in the whole compound was the one they themselves were about to destroy.

Breathing became more challenging the closer they got to the main part of the compound. What air she managed to take in made Sam’s lungs burn just that much more. The colonel had been pushing ahead at a steady jog, but stopped when he saw she’d fallen behind again. She hated that she was slowing them down, but each pounding step felt like a knife thrust into her side. Finally she had no choice but to stop.

Leaning over, Sam put her hands on her knees and coughed. Blood spattered on the ground.

That wasn’t good.

A pair of dusty, sandaled feet appeared in her range of vision. Looking up she saw the colonel’s eyes go to the bloody spittle at her feet.

“Sorry, sir. Go on ahead. I’ll catch up,” she promised, before he could say anything.

He scowled. “Yeah. I don’t think so. Come on.”

Reluctantly she let him pull the arm on her good side around his neck, as he had back in the maze. There was no point in protesting. He wouldn’t have listened anyway, and she didn’t have the breath left to argue.

“Let’s go.” He tried easing her into a moderate gait which, despite his care, still drove spears into her ribs. All of her concentration now was simply focused on not passing out. She was vaguely aware that they were approaching a large building. Was it the Hall already? The colonel’s voice seemed distant, fading. She heard him say ‘No time!’ and ‘Get out of here!’ and then, with a swift, sickening pull she went careening into a darkened doorway.

She heard a roaring. Part sound, part bone-rattling vibration, it thrummed through her just before the shock wave lifted her off her feet. For an eternity she couldn’t breathe as all the air was sucked away, and then, like a rag doll flung by a petulant child, she was hurled to the floor. Something heavy crashed into her and groaned a curse.

For one brief, excruciating moment every inch of her throbbed in agony. The space around her spun like a vortex as her vision narrowed. Without further protest, Sam slipped willingly into the darkness.

THE ATTACK hadn’t lessened any, as far as Daniel could tell, although it didn’t seem to be having much of an impact on the Duat version of the gate room. While debris and dust and the occasional small chunk of rock were dislodged by the nearby explosions, for the most part the room remained undamaged. He pointed this out to Teal’c.

“I do not believe the Goa’uld are targeting this building, Daniel Jackson. If the Stargate is damaged, they would have no way to send through their Jaffa warriors, who are no doubt waiting for the signal to proceed.”

Daniel looked involuntarily at the wavering event horizon of the Stargate, as if one of those warriors was about to emerge. But no. They wouldn’t come yet. The
ha’tak
was still hard at it. When the overhead attack stopped, that’s when they’d have to worry.

As if there wasn’t already enough to worry about.

At least the DHD was still intact. Somewhere in the back of his mind Daniel had harbored a fear that they’d get here only to find some chunk of ceiling had smashed the dialing device. Now all he had to do was dial out quicker than the Goa’uld could dial in. Sure. No pressure.

“I have the utmost confidence in your ability, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c assured him, as if sensing Daniel’s concern. He still had Aset firmly by the arm and was forcibly guiding her to a location away from the gate and out of the sightline of the address for the Alpha Site. Leave it to Teal’c to think of that.

Watching Aset gloat even now, Daniel found himself wondering what would become of her. He could only imagine the number of people who’d be interested in her if she was brought back to Earth. He’d be surprised if she ever saw sunlight again.

Once, that would have bothered him more than it did now, especially considering all the time they’d spent together crossing the desert. He wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’d developed a bond, but in the Hall of the Two Truths he had thought, for a while at least, that she had been sincere.

Obviously not.

They could, of course, simply leave her behind. If Sam and Jack were able to destroy the Ancient technology, she’d lose the only clout she had with whomever it was up there blasting the Djedu to extinction. Maybe justice would be better served if, when the gate shut down behind SG-1, she was still on this side of it.

So much for his so-called compassion.

Maybe he really had been hanging around Jack too much.

A particularly close hit brought down more bits of the ceiling and the chamber’s high windows rattled precariously. The bombardment was picking up pace. The explosions were nearly nonstop. Daniel couldn’t even imagine what it was like out there. Even through the thick walls of the structure he could hear cries and shouts. At this rate, when the Jaffa finally did make it through the gate, they wouldn’t have much left to do. The Djedu would be wiped out.