STARGATE SG-1 29 Hall of the Two Truths (20 page)

Martouf was looking sorrowful. “Because you are my friend, Samantha, at my behest they have left you unjoined. I cannot, I’m afraid, say the same for the rest of your people.”

If she’d thought she’d felt stone cold before, she felt frigidly leaden now. The Colonel, Daniel, Teal’c —

Wait a minute.

“Teal’c can’t be used as a host. He’s Jaffa,” she pointed out, trying to quell the panic over the colonel’s and Daniel’s fate and grasping any straw she could find.

“But he carries a symbiote within,” explained Martouf. “The Jaffa, Shan’auc, might have been unsuccessful in converting her symbiote to the ways of the Tok’ra, but there are other means. When it reaches maturity, Teal’c’s symbiote will become one of them.”

“Like you.”

He shook his head. “I have told you, Anat is different. We live in harmony. But there are only a few on this world who share this belief. It is the others who dominate this planet.”

“NebtHet.” The woman’s presence was hard to forget. Martouf looked slightly surprised.

“You remember her.”

“Yeah. Kinda hard to forget someone who kills you,” she snapped.

“Again, I apologize. It seemed, at the time, the easiest way to convince you this was the afterlife.”

Sam’s anger was simmering again, along with an urgency to keep moving. If there was even the slimmest chance she could rescue the others before —

“How could you, of all people, even consider this?” she raged at him, needing to channel her fury toward something. And he deserved it. “The Martouf I knew would have died rather than allow others to be sacrificed for his own survival. In fact, the Martouf I knew did exactly that.”

He looked chastised, but also somewhat defiant. “And I have told you, I am Martouf — but also, not. It is the price I have had to pay. I do not say it is without regret.”

“Yeah.” She hoped her sarcasm cut deep. “I can
really
tell.”

Sam couldn’t stand to look at him any longer. She walked away, letting her anger carry her forward with great, long strides. Behind her, she heard him following again. If only he had been an imposter, she wouldn’t feel as nauseated as she did right now at the thought of what he’d become.

“So, now that I know,” she called over her shoulder. “What happens next? You can’t really expect me to stay here. And you of all people should know that there’s no way I’m going to just give up on the rest of my team.” It was time to turn her anger into something productive and start thinking of a plan.

“You must not attempt to rescue them, Samantha. You will only put yourself at risk.”

She huffed. “I thought you just told me I was protected.”

“You are as long as you willingly agree to remain. If you choose otherwise, I cannot assure your safety either.”

Funny how he had neglected to mention that before. “You mean they’ll use me as a host too.”

Martouf said nothing, but a quick glance behind her and the look on his face was all the answer she needed.

“So, you win either way, don’t you? Whether I stay willingly or become a host, you get to keep me around.” She shook her head, disgust squeezing her stomach yet again. “You know, it’s a shame you didn’t die back on Revanna. You’re a disgrace to the memory of the Martouf I knew.”

Her stride lengthened again as she picked up her pace, trying to put some distance between herself and this mockery of the man she had once known so well. There had to be a way out of this. No way was she just going to accept that she and the rest of her team were fated to be trapped here forever. What she needed was more information.

“What is it about this place that makes it impossible for these symbiotes to leave?”

She heard him sigh. “I do not pretend to completely understand it. But this planet has a very dense naquadah core. Over the millennia the properties of the naquadah have imbued the symbiotes with a very strong healing ability. But it has also become an integral part of their physiology. They need constant exposure to the properties of this naquadah to even exist.”

That was interesting. “I suppose it’s possible that the naquadah may have become integrated into the food chain, which in turn affected the symbiotes by virtue of their dependence upon the host’s physiology to sustain them.”

“As I said, I have no idea how it is that they have adapted this way, but the fact is, they have and it is what has prevented NebtHet’s people from ever leaving this place, even after they found the Stargate.”

She pulled up short and stared at him. “Wait — so there is a Stargate here?”

Martouf nodded. “Yes. Although there was not thought to be one when the Goa’uld banished their brethren to this place. It was only discovered years after their dependence upon the planet’s core had become irreversible.”

She had been so distracted by the revelation that there was a Stargate on the planet that Sam almost missed a slight movement in her periphery. She raised her hand to silence Martouf, and scanned the area until she saw it again. It was a fair distance from them, but moving quickly in their direction. At first Sam thought it might be a bird or an animal, but as its speed brought it closer she could see it was a man — a young man, little more than a boy, really. Perhaps about Rya’c’s age.

As soon as Martouf caught sight of him, he hurried forward to greet him.

“Ne’ban, what news? Why have you come here?” There was an urgency in Martouf’s voice. Almost a fear.

“I had to warn you.” The boy was nearly breathless. There was panic in his voice. “The plan has been altered. NebtHet has changed her mind. They are coming for her.” He turned and stared at Sam, wide-eyed. “They are coming for you now.”

HAVING spent a year on Abydos, Daniel thought he knew what ‘hot’ was. Obviously he’d been mistaken. He might have been fine had he not been carrying the old woman. The heat from her body held next to his only made the unbearable temperature even more unbearable. They were travelling much slower because of her, and Daniel knew they should have sought shelter at least an hour ago. But as there was no shelter, they’d kept moving toward what Sha’re promised would be a place of rest.

Daniel almost didn’t care. It had been a long time since he’d felt such absolute physical exhaustion. He was more stumbling than walking, his brain nearly numb from the effort of putting one foot in front of the other. And really, what was the point? If he was already dead, as Sha’re insisted, then dying again wasn’t going to be any worse. And if he wasn’t dead, well, dying would be a nice change of pace about now.

Sha’re had not allowed his slow speed to hold her back. His insistence at bringing the old woman with them had not gone over well and she had expressed her displeasure by making no concessions to the handmaid’s frailty. She was well ahead of them now, not quite a dot on the horizon but close enough. From time to time the terrain would rise and Daniel would lose sight of her as she disappeared over a ridge, but her footprints in the sand always kept him on track. He had called out to her a few times, asking her to wait, but either she was too far ahead to hear or she chose to ignore him. He wondered if she even cared whether he was still following her or not.

He was really leaning toward the ‘not’ part when he saw that she had stopped atop a distant hill and was waving at him. More than that, she was beckoning to him, urging him to come quickly.

Mustering what little energy he had left, Daniel did his best to walk faster. He hoped that her enthusiasm meant they’d finally reached somewhere they could stop and rest until dark.

Staggering up the last incline, he barely noticed what lay beyond. It was only after Sha’re had offered him her water skin and he’d drank gratefully that his eyes focused enough to see the river valley below. A line of demarcation between the vibrant green of the fertile flood plain and the barrenness of the desert was incredibly clear from their vantage point. And in the far distance, snaking through the midst of it, was the source river. If Daniel hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn he was looking at the Nile itself.

“There.” Sha’re pointed. The sun was so bright Daniel had to squint to see, but at last he could make out a dock at the river’s edge. A single barge was moored next to it, the only sign of civilization. “Hurry!” Sha’re cried, her voice high with panic. “They will leave without us!”

Daniel wasn’t sure he had any hurry left in him, but an unexpected cooling breeze off the distant water offered a promise that the worst of the trip was behind them. If nothing else, the thought of putting his burning feet in the cold, rushing current was incentive enough for one last push. He shifted the semi-conscious old woman in his arms for what he hoped was the final time and followed Sha’re down into the valley.

It was another half hour or so before they made it to the river bank and the waiting boat. It was a genuine Egyptian barque, long and narrow, with great sweeping lines to its prow and stern. In the midst, a single mast rose, its sail not yet set, although there were two figures standing attentively near it, ready to unfurl it at a moment’s notice. Daniel counted eight oarsman — bronze-skinned, bare-chested men with straight black hair who looked uncannily alike, seated in mirroring positions on either side of the boat, their oars raised and brought inside. At the bow another man stood facing forward, upstream. In the stern, his counterpart, the helmsman, held the shafts of two massive rudders by which to steer.

The remainder of the space was filled with seated people. They were packed like sardines, wedged tightly against one another in neat rows behind the mast. If it weren’t for the occasional stirring, Daniel would have mistaken them for statues, they sat so still. No one spoke a word.

The only person not on the boat was a man who waited for them on the dock. He was large — burly, actually. Daniel wouldn’t have been surprised to see a tattoo on one bicep. As it was, there was a gold band around his upper arm which looked like it would burst should the man put the muscle to any real use. Unlike the oarsman, his head was shaved and Daniel caught the glimmer of a gold earring in one ear. He showed his teeth to them as they approached and it took Daniel a moment to realize it was meant to be a smile.

“You arrive just in time,” he boomed, sweeping his arm toward the boat. “Hurry, please. We have two seats waiting.”

Daniel’s eyes scanned the barge and saw that there were, indeed, two small spaces still available amongst the already crowded passengers. There was only one slight problem.

There were three of them.

He looked down at the woman in his arms and it must have been only then that the man on the dock realized what he was carrying. A growl of disgust rumbled in his throat and he spat on the ground. “You can’t take
that
onboard,” he snarled. “Not on my boat.”

“Look, I realize it’s a tight squeeze, but I’ll hold her on my lap. She won’t take up any room, I promise.”

“I don’t care if there wasn’t a single other passenger. That
thing
still wouldn’t be getting on my boat,” the man sneered. “Consider yourself lucky I’m even letting you on after touching it.” He spat again.

Sha’re turned to him. “Dan’yel, please! This is the only boat that will take us to the Hall of the Two Truths. If we are left behind it will be a long and difficult journey on foot. I beg you. Do not let him leave without us.”

Her eyes, her voice, even the way she tilted her head — how could he not believe she was his Sha’re? And how could he not step onto that boat and sail with her, simply because she asked him to?

But Daniel didn’t move. He wasn’t even really sure why. He only knew it felt wrong.

Across the river, far in the distance, he could make out a thin line cut into the rising landscape. It was the continuation of the path they had been following. It would take twice as long, Sha’re had assured him, to go by foot. That thought alone was enough to make him give the boat a second glance.

But no. He hadn’t carried the old woman all this way only to discard her in this deserted place with no one to look after her.

“Could you at least ferry us to the other side?” He was about to offer some sort of payment when Daniel realized he had absolutely nothing with which to barter. His notebook was meaningless to anyone but himself and the food in the knapsack was never going to seal any deal.

“Dan’yel!” cried Sha’re, her voice nearly breaking with disappointment. The boatman merely growled.

“What do
you
think?”

Right. Pretty much as Daniel thought.

“Is there any other way to get across?” The river was wide here, but maybe further upstream it narrowed.

“There.” The boatman pointed into the rushes along the river’s edge. There was a small raft, half in and half out of the water. Further up on the shore Daniel could see a long pole.

It would have to do.

He turned to Sha’re.

“I want you to get on the boat and take it to the Hall.”

But she was already shaking her head. “No, Dan’yel. You must come with me. We must go together!”

“I can’t, Sha’re, I’m sorry. I’ve brought her this far. I can’t just abandon her now.”

Sha’re’s eyes flashed angrily.