STARGATE SG-1 29 Hall of the Two Truths (40 page)

Except for the unmistakable thrumming of the wormhole, the chamber fell into an uneasy silence as they waited. Teal’c tightened his grip on his staff, aiming carefully at the optimal height for incapacitating the first person to emerge from the Stargate.

A telltale ripple in the surface of the wormhole caused him to tense, his finger poised, ready to fire. But instead of the tattooed head of a Jaffa warrior, a familiar metallic shape appeared, pausing momentarily on the edge of the event horizon before continuing its slow, treaded descent down the stone ramp.

It was a MALP.

“Hold your fire!” O’Neill shouted.

Teal’c could almost feel his teammates heave a collective sigh of relief. Limping forward, O’Neill met the device as it rolled into the midst of the chamber and stopped.

“General, sir? I sure hope that’s you on the other end.” O’Neill leaned over and spoke into the camera mounted on the front. From the built-in speaker a welcome voice responded.

“
Colonel, I can’t tell you how good it is to see you’re in one piece.”
General Hammond’s Texas accent was indeed good to hear.

“Yes, sir. But we won’t be for long. We need you to shut down the gate, General, and let us dial out of here. This place is about to take the full brunt of some Goa’uld wrath and we’d rather not be here when it does.”

“
Understood, Colonel. Until we can sort this out, report back to P4C-679 and SG-3 will meet you there.
”

“Copy that, General.” O’Neill patted the MALP as if it were an old friend. “Glad to know you left the light on for us, sir.”

If General Hammond made a reply, no one heard it. The chamber exploded with falling debris and the Stargate went dark. The Goa’uld had scored a direct hit.

Teal’c ducked, as did the others, giving their backs to the shrapnel as a portion of the roof was obliterated. More screams and more cries came from the Djedu, and through the fog of smoke and dust Teal’c saw many bodies crushed beneath chunks of collapsing pillars.

The Goa’uld were no longer avoiding the Stargate. It had become their final target. Perhaps Aset had made good on her threat after all.

“Carter!” bellowed O’Neill. He had no need to say more. Major Carter scrambled through the haze of yellow dust to the DHD and began dialing. Teal’c did not realize he had been holding his breath in anticipation until the last chevron was locked into place. He exhaled with relief as the large plume shot out, instantly cleansing the air in its path. The way to the Stargate was clear.

“Go, go, go!” O’Neill shouted, making a waving motion with his arm. Daniel Jackson moved first, but not toward the Stargate. He ran, instead, to O’Neill, coughing as he gestured toward the Djedu who were still alive.

“Jack, we’ve got to take them with us.” He raised his voice above the escalating barrage of noise. With part of the roof gone, the whine of death gliders was relentless.

“They’re
Goa’ulds
, Daniel —” O’Neill roared back, disbelief on his face.

“I know, but —”

“They
kidnapped
us, Daniel!” O’Neill’s face became even harder in light of Daniel Jackson’s persistence.

“I know —”

“They put us through
hell
, Daniel.
Literally
—” O’Neill added, jabbing his finger for emphasis. Daniel Jackson, however, would not back down. Teal’c had seen this determination in him many times.

“I
know
all that, Jack!” he shouted back. “But they’re all going to be destroyed in a few minutes if we leave them behind.”

“Do I
look
like I care, Daniel?” O’Neill was growing red in the face. “If you want to invite them, fine. Invite them. But I am not holding that gate open a second longer than I have to.”

“Sir —” All eyes turned to Major Carter. She likewise had failed to comply with O’Neill’s order and instead was standing at the Stargate itself, her hand partially submerged within the wormhole.

Teal’c saw O’Neill comprehend.
She
was holding the gate open. Not just for SG-1, but for all of them. For a moment O’Neill hesitated, some struggle Teal’c could not decipher playing out across his face. Then he turned and faced the surviving Djedu, who had reformed into small groups amidst the ruins and their dead.

“Anyone who wants to get out of this place before those motherships blow us all to hell, get your asses over here now.”

Not one Djedu moved.

“You don’t understand,” Daniel Jackson implored. “If you stay here, you’re going to die.”

“Not die, Dr. Jackson.” Khemy, the Djedu who had portrayed Sha’re, stepped from the midst of the others. She was covered in dust, and in blood which did not appear to be her own. “We know our fate, and we do not believe it is death. Not anymore.”

Teal’c saw comprehension illuminate Daniel Jackson’s face. O’Neill, too, seemed to grasp the meaning of her words. He pulled Daniel Jackson by the arm.

“They’ve made their choice, Daniel. It’s time to go.”

For just a moment Daniel Jackson looked as if he might argue, but did not. With a nod of regret toward the Djedu, he allowed O’Neill to push him toward the Stargate where Major Carter still waited.

“Teal’c —” O’Neill called to him, as the other two entered the event horizon. “Time to go.”

Gazing out over the calm faces of the Djedu, Teal’c felt great compassion for them. Many Jaffa, after all, clung to the very same hope. And while he did not share their certainty of the future which awaited them, Teal’c could not help but admire their resolve. Behind Khemy he saw Aqti and Ahi, disheveled yet serene, even as the sound of weapons fired came menacingly closer.

“Teal’c?” There was added urgency in O’Neill’s voice. They were out of time.

With a final bow to those who remained behind, Teal’c stepped through the gate.

“ACCORDING to Dr. Fraiser, there’s trace evidence of the same residual markers in our brains as when we encountered the Reol.”

Major Carter’s report brought Hammond back to the topic at hand. For a moment he’d been more focused on how his people looked than on the debriefing. If he could have, he would have postponed all this for another twelve hours to give them a chance to rest up, but he knew it was better to get the full story while the details were still fresh in their minds. Not to mention that the Tok’ra had been demanding specifics about Jenmar almost from the moment SG-1 had returned to Earth. Normally he wouldn’t have danced to their insistent tune, but Hammond felt he owed Anise a favor, considering what she had done for him. Anything to keep her from getting into further trouble with the High Council.

All four members of SG-1 looked as though they could do with a good night’s sleep, at the very least. Something he’d insist on, in fact, once this meeting was over. Hammond wasn’t even sure Major Carter should be out of bed. By the way she was favoring her one side, he was pretty sure Dr. Fraiser would corral her back to the infirmary as soon as possible.

Sitting beside the major, Jack sat hunched over, his hands folded in front of him on the table. The colonel had been uncharacteristically subdued upon his return. Part of it, Hammond was sure, was simple fatigue. But he sensed there was more to it than that. Not that Jack would ever say. The best Hammond could hope for was to read between the lines once he got Jack’s final report. On the other hand, perhaps there were things he was better off not knowing.

Dr. Jackson was unusually quiet as well. According to Major Carter, he had been the one who’d tried to encourage the Djedu to return with them through the Stargate.

Knowing Dr. Jackson as he did, Hammond could only imagine that their refusal and subsequent deaths were weighing heavily on the man. As he understood it, the individual who had acted as Dr. Jackson’s guide on Duat had assumed the persona of Sha’re, and that had to have taken a toll as well. Little wonder he was sitting there, distracted, absently playing with the pen in his hand.

Of all of them, Teal’c seemed the least affected by what he had been through, but then Hammond didn’t find that surprising. Even so, he couldn’t help but think that the Jaffa looked unusually pensive. Teal’c’s description of his experience had been as brief and lacking in specifics as Jack’s. Studying his inscrutable expression, Hammond wondered if he’d ever get the full story at all.

From any of them.

“The Tok’ra have been working on developing a synthetic version of the Reol pheromone,” Major Carter was saying. “But as far as I know, it’s still in the testing phase.”

“Considering Jenmar’s involvement, I think it’s safe to say he may have had something to do with how the Djedu got their hands on it,” Dr. Jackson offered. “He must have been passing them information about us for quite some time, otherwise NebtHet would never have singled us out as her test subjects.”

“Lucky us,” muttered Jack, under his breath. Major Carter gave him a sympathetic glance.

“Well that explains how you all saw people you thought you knew,” Hammond said, thoughtfully. “But some of the other experiences you had… I’m not sure how to begin to understand those.”

“If I had to guess, sir, I’d say that most of what happened to us was made possible by the technology the Djedu had gathered over thousands of years.” Major Carter rallied a bit. “We’ve already seen devices that can affect weather and climate. And the Asgard have hologram technology that’s eons ahead of anything we’ve even begun to conceptualize. If the Djedu were collectors of anything and everything that the Ancients left behind, who knows what they may have discovered? We are talking about the people who built the Stargates, after all.”

“Well, it’s all gone now,” Jack pointed out.

“Are you certain all of it was destroyed?” Hammond looked from one to the other. In spite of what had happened to each of them personally, he also had to be concerned with the greater picture. “If whoever attacked Duat were to get their hands on even one piece of Ancient technology —”

Jack deferred to his second in command. “Carter?”

“We can’t be absolutely certain, no, sir. But when a naquada reactor overloads, it typically doesn’t leave much behind. I doubt the Goa’uld were able to salvage anything.”

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they walked away empty handed,” Dr. Jackson added, grimly. “Whatever Aset had already turned over to them, it must have been significant enough to pique their interest. Which is sort of a scary thought.”

“And do we have any idea who this Aset was working for?”

Dr. Jackson shook his head.

“According to the Tok’ra, it wasn’t any of the major System Lords. They’re all tied up elsewhere, duking it out amongst themselves now that Apophis is dead. No one has any idea who it might have been.”

Hammond looked at the only member of SG-1 who hadn’t spoken. “Teal’c, any thoughts on who we might have been dealing with here?”

“I have none, General Hammond. We saw no ground troops. There were no distinguishing markings on the death gliders. And unfortunately, I allowed Aset to escape before we could interrogate her further.”

Hammond should have known that, out of everything that had happened, that incident would disturb Teal’c the most.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Jack consoled him. “Chances are, she never made it off the planet anyway. Not that I’m sorry. If you ask me, she got what she deserved.”

“Have we tried dialing the address again, General?” Major Carter asked. “I know the chances are slim that there are survivors, but still —”

Hammond shook his head. “We did, Major. We couldn’t get a lock. We’re assuming that the gate was damaged or destroyed after you came through. I’m sorry.”

The major chewed on her lip and nodded.

“So the Djedu really are extinct now.” There was bitterness in Dr. Jackson’s voice.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” the colonel shot back.

“Jack, come on. It’s not like they were Goa’uld.”

“It’s
exactly
like they were Goa’ulds, Daniel! In fact, they
were
Goa’ulds. Dressing them up and pretending they had these lofty, spiritual goals doesn’t make what they did to us right. In fact, it makes it just that much worse. They
used
us for their own personal gain.” Jack’s eyes were blazing. “Sure, maybe it wasn’t to grab power from a bunch of other Goa’ulds, or to go out and conquer half the galaxy, but it was just as self-serving. And if you can sit there and tell me that you had a great time wandering through the desert with someone pretending to be your dead wife, then maybe Doc Fraiser better have another look at your head.”

The room fell deathly silent. Major Carter studied her hands. Teal’c was looking straight ahead through the window overlooking the gate room. The colonel and Dr. Jackson glared at one another across the table and Hammond could feel the tension in the room rise palpably. In the corner the SF sat up a little straighter, alert.

No one spoke for several very long seconds until Dr. Jackson heaved a huge sigh and leaned forward on his arms.