STARGATE SG-1 29 Hall of the Two Truths (25 page)

The old man’s strength surprised him. Bra’tac was a formidable warrior, regardless of his age, but the force with which he brought his staff down upon Teal’c would have been impressive for a man half his years. Teal’c only just blocked it in time, the reverberation of the blow echoing clear to his shoulders. The attack pushed him back two steps, which were just enough to save him from having his feet swept out from under him by Bra’tac’s low swipe. Even so, it came close enough that Teal’c lost his balance and stumbled backward, nearly falling over uneven ground.

Bra’tac chuckled. “Teal’c, the great warrior. Perhaps you have left your fighting prowess back in the land of the living.”

Within Teal’c, fury replaced conscious thought and instinct took command. The staff weapon became one with him. It spun in his hands and sliced through the air, making contact with Bra’tac’s face. The secondary blow uppercut him from the opposite direction. The old man staggered back.

Muscle memory from countless hour of training and battle drove Teal’c forward. Parry. Strike. Sweep. Strike. Again and again, sometimes meeting the force of Bra’tac’s staff to block, but more frequently feeling the shudder of his weapon impacting solidly upon soft flesh. There was no mockery on the old man’s face now. Only sweat, streaking his dirt-stained face, mixed with trickles of blood from Teal’c’s successes — and perhaps, on occasion, the look of fear.

Bra’tac’s retaliating blows seemed inconsequential. Teal’c did not even feel them. Sweat burned in his own eyes but he would not wipe it away. The pain only served to drive him harder. This would end. Now.

With all the strength he could command, Teal’c brought down his staff hard upon Bra’tac’s neck. There was a sickening crunch and the Jaffa collapsed, his weapon falling from his grasp. Teal’c pinned him to the ground, his staff primed and aimed at Bra’tac’s chest. The old man was breathing heavily. Teal’c could hear his labored gasps from what had to be many broken ribs. Blood leaked from the corner of Bra’tac’s mouth and his skull cap had fallen off, revealing thin white hair beneath.

“Tell me how to open the gates,” Teal’c commanded. Their fighting had pushed them back toward the wall and the three gates now loomed before them.

Bra’tac spat out blood into the dirt and shook his head.

“No.”

“I have defeated you in battle. I have won the right to pass.”

Bra’tac coughed, attempting to laugh.

“You have won nothing, Teal’c, that you did not already possess. The way home lies before you and you still do not see.” He began to cough again, blood and spittle flying from his mouth. When he was done he closed his eyes and lay still, his breath shallow and rasping.

Knowing he would get no further answers, Teal’c retrieved his own staff from where it had fallen at Bra’tac’s side and returned to the gates. If indeed he had the knowledge to open them, he did not know what that knowledge was. Yet he did not doubt Bra’tac’s words, therefore he had to be missing something. Something that was right in front of him. The only thing he could see remained the out-of-sequence symbols which would, on a DHD, dial Chulak.

A DHD. Teal’c swirled around, scanning the nearby area for such a device. Perhaps the key to opening the gates did not lie within the gates themselves but with another device, just as the DHD was used to open the Stargate.

But he saw nothing. Merely the gruesome sentinels along the perimeter of the wall. And Rya’c, whom Tea’lc had nearly forgotten. There was no sign of anything that might be used to activate the doors.

He turned back and stared at the symbols again. There were two above the first gate, three above the second, and two above the third. Each familiar to him, except the middle one on the second gate. Were this the Stargate, he would presume it to be the symbol of the planet of origin. On a DHD it would simply be a matter of pressing them in the correct order.

Could it be that simple?

Teal’c walked back and forth in front of each doorway, studying them again. There was no way to scale the wall itself. It was smooth and seamless. He couldn’t even begin to find a handhold. How could he activate the symbols if he could not reach them?

From behind him he heard Bra’tac chuckle again. “So bold in battle, yet so hesitant now. Do you need your Tau’ri friends to help you help you understand?”

Teal’c felt his anger rise once more and tensed his grip on his staff. He would not allow Bra’tac to goad him into unwise action. And yet —

He looked at his staff weapon; and then again at the symbols.

It would take precision marksmanship to hit each one without damaging its neighbors. But it seemed the only reasonable solution. Casting aside the spare weapon, he took careful aim at the first symbol in the address for Chulak. Holding his breath, Teal’c fired.

The shot was perfect. The symbol shattered, bits of stone crumbling to the ground. He walked to the third gate, where the next symbol was and took aim again. It too vanished in a shower of dust and debris.

Teal’c hoped he was right about this. If nothing else, the silence from Bra’tac was encouraging. There was no mockery now.

Each symbol in their turn met a similar fate until only the unknown symbol remained. Lining up the staff, Teal’c adjusted his aim ever so slightly, glad to have his own weapon back in his hands. Without it, he doubted he would have been able to shoot with the necessary precision. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed off a shot at the final target.

The gate began to move almost at once. Dust rained down along the edges as it rose, kicking up a yellow cloud from the dirt below, momentarily concealing what lay behind.

As the great gate finally clanked to a halt, it revealed not a passageway, as Teal’c had expected, but an alcove. It was shallow and contained a single pedestal on which rested two objects.

Teal’c approached with caution. The objects were made of stone and identical in their teardrop shape. A center ridge bisected each along its length. One ridge was black, the other red. Teal’c picked up both devices. They were no larger than the palm of his hand.

A rumbling from within the wall shook more debris down from above.

“Father, look!” Rya’c was pointing at the pillar beside the left gate where a small panel had slid back to reveal a compartment. A similar one also opened beside the right gate. Within both was an indentation into which each of the stone keys would fit perfectly.

Now all the remained was to decide which key went where. Neither the gates nor their locks offered any clue.

“Does it really matter?” asked Rya’c when he saw Teal’c’s dilemma.

“I do not know. I cannot think that they have different colors for no reason.” He considered asking Bra’tac, but he did not think the answer would be of much use. The time had come to act, not think.

“The black one was on the side nearest the left gate. We will use it there. The red one we will try in the right gate.”

Rya’c nodded, his look trusting.

Taking the black key, Teal’c placed it in the indentation. With a click it settled into place. When nothing happened, he turned it clockwise until it stopped.

And still, nothing happened.

Perhaps he had the wrong key after all.

When Teal’c tried to reverse the process, however, the device would not move. Whatever he had done, it was locked into place.

There was no choice now but to try the other one. He took the red key and set it in place in the other panel, turning it counterclockwise until it too stopped.

It took a few seconds before the rumbling began and both gates began to rise. Through the churning, falling rubble, Teal’c could see that there was a passageway beyond each of these doors. The way in front of him was filled with an ominous dark red light. The tunnel in front of Rya’c was pitch black.

Above the din Teal’c heard a voice. Bra’tac was calling out to him. He turned and saw that the old man had pushed himself up on his elbows.

“You think you have won, Teal’c, but you have not. Life cannot exist without death to balance it.” His smile was triumphant. “One of you must choose death so that the other may live!”

This, then, was the old man’s final revelation. There would be no going back now, not if Rya’c were to live. Teal’c did not have to think twice. He would gladly suffer a thousand deaths to save his son. It was simply a matter of choosing the correct gate.

But which one? The path of total darkness seemed as though it would lead to oblivion, yet the other way was bathed in the color of blood, not the red warmth of a life-giving sun. Could he really send his son into something which seemed to him so vile?

No. Red was not the color of life. It was the color of danger. And death. As terrifying as it was, Rya’c would have to go through the black gate.

The ground was still trembling beneath them. Tremors shook even more dirt and stone off the wall and the gateway. Teal’c began to wonder whether the whole structure might collapse if they waited any longer. It was time to act.

He stumbled over to Rya’c and pointed at the opening of the black gate. “Go, my son! You must hurry!” He pushed the boy toward the opening.

A staff blast flew past Teal’c’s shoulder and blew apart a small section of the wall behind him. He wheeled, bringing his own weapon up, and saw Bra’tac was on his feet again.

“I am going with him,” Bra’tac called. “Get out of my way, Teal’c.”

“You are not,” shouted Teal’c, positioning himself between his old friend and his son. “You will not poison his mind with your falsehoods.”

“I have told you, Teal’c. They are not falsehoods. The Goa’uld are gods. You will learn this very, very soon.”

“Perhaps,” Teal’c replied, raising his voice above the quaking. “But even if I do discover that they are the divine rulers of the galaxy and the afterlife, I will still have one satisfaction — one which you shall never have.”

“And what is that?” sneered Bra’tac, so close now that their weapons were almost touching, tip for tip.

Teal’c could not help his smile. “I. Died. Free.”

The sound of both staff weapons activating at the same time rose above the clattering of falling rubble. Teal’c was faster. Bra’tac looked shocked for just a moment before he staggered back, startled by the wound just below his ribcage. Teal’c caught him before he hit the ground and eased him down.

“Send me through the black gate —” he pleaded.

Teal’c shook his head. “Master Bra’tac, I cannot. But it is not too late. Come with me through the red gate. We may find our final rest after all.”

The old man’s smile was bitter. “Alas, no. I think not.”

Teal’c felt Bra’tac shudder and then lay still. His hand, which Teal’c only just realized he held, went slack. Life had departed.

“Father —” Rya’c’s voice called urgently from behind him. Teal’c saw the massive stone doors had already begun to descend. There was very little time.

“You must go!” He had to raise his voice over the deafening din. “I will take the red gate, then you must take the black. It is the only way.”

The red gate was dropping swiftly. If he did not hurry, he would be shut out and Rya’c would be trapped here. Already the boy was waiting nervously at the edge of the black gate, like a runner anticipating the start of the race. Teal’c had to hurry.

The red passage shimmered ahead. He had no time to think about what he would find on the other side. He only knew he must make it there before the door blocked his way. He could not even spare a farewell glance at his son.

There was only a meter opening left. Teal’c slid his weapon through ahead of him and dove, headfirst, under the dropping gate. There was a peculiar sensation as the air around him rippled. For just a moment his eyes were seared with the brightness of the color that surrounded him, and then, with a sickening sense of weightlessness, Teal’c felt himself being ripped away.

“I SEE something — I think.” Daniel pointed at a single spot of flickering light which had caught his attention.

The old woman searched the dark distance for a few moments before she too saw it. “
We are nearly there, then
.”

“There? You mean the Hall of the Two Truths?” He hadn’t expected to simply come upon it out here in the middle of nowhere.

“
No. Beyond is the Hall. But first one must pass through the gate
.”

“And why do I have the feeling that’s not going to be as simple as it sounds.”

The old woman smirked. “
Is anything ever?
”

“Of course not.” Daniel sighed. He could see now that the distant light was a campfire. Behind it rose the dark shadow of a massive wall that ran in both directions, well beyond his sight.

“So what’s the secret for getting through the gate? I take it there are guards of some kind.” Daniel kept moving toward the firelight, picking up the pace a little. The sooner they got there, the sooner he hoped to have answers. Perhaps Sha’re was even waiting for him at the wall.

The old woman now seemed to have no trouble keeping up with his quickening steps. “
A Gatekeeper and a Guardian.
”

Now he remembered. In the underworld was a series of gates through which the deceased had to pass. The gates were guarded by any number of hideous creatures who demanded one speak the correct password or spell in order to enter. The
Book of the Dead
was supposed to confer upon the deceased all the pertinent information they needed to make it past each guardian.