email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca
website: http://www.travellingone.com/
Summary: Unable to leave a deserted moon
island, SG-1
struggles to avoid becoming part of the island's ostensible
exhibition.
December 2008
The sun glared so
brightly they were at first forced to turn away,
heads bent towards their collars. Even Polaroid couldn't quite block
the initial dazzling brilliance of such near-blinding light.
“Ho-ly.”
“Wow.” A few moments of blinking away tears and squinting to bring his
eyes level, had Daniel shaking his head. “Didn't anticipate this.”
“And why the hell not?”
Shouldering the embarrassment of seemingly inadequate research, Sam
had no explanation, other than perhaps yesterday's weather had not been
so clear. “It's not so bad now, sir. Daniel." Teal'c didn't
appear
to be as bothered as the others, or at least, he wasn't complaining.
"Give it a minute.”
Sam's eyes were adjusting, but she'd also noticed an advancing diluted
effect due to the thin layer of cloud cover passing over, giving them
reprieve. Even on this moon, the sun's light and heat were astounding.
One eye squinting and the other closed, she lifted her face towards the
huge planet hovering above, a central discussion point of yesterday's
briefing room MALP viewings.
Now able to better see their surroundings, SG-1 tried to make sense of
them. MALP transmissions had shown this to be a populated moon…
according to assumptions, given the boats parked both on land and
by the lakeside, and the island in the distance. There
appeared to be objects on that piece of land, but nothing that - from
this distance - looked to be Goa'uld. At least, no pyramids. The
presence of water vessels, though, made a case for the development of a
culture beyond the subjugation imposed by that parasitic, domineering
race.
Behind them was a vast and grassy emptiness, save for a few
abandoned boats; in fact, this area itself looked to be a flat,
deserted island. Only about thirty meters of grass and sand separated
them from the shoreline, and Jack began to walk, the others following
unquestioningly.
Something already seemed odd about those boats.
“Rather Earth-like, no?” Or some of them, anyway. Jack strode to the
water's edge, peering down
at one of several small platforms that served as docks before testing
its strength. Scattered farther up the lake's edge were fishing boats
mostly, and sailboats, although nothing quite as modern as the present
day water transport of North America.
“Rather,” Daniel agreed. “But when you think about it, it isn't that
unlikely for water transportation to develop along similar lines among
different cultures. If you consider one normally starts with available
materials such as wood, then designs the structure that most easily
floats - ”
“Yes, fine. Why's that one called Prince S'?” Jack nodded towards a
large yacht about sixty feet away, then tilted his neck far enough into
the nearest boat to note the similar, albeit slightly old-fashioned,
workings of the interior. Not that not
unlikely. "And by the way, it's aluminum."
“I don't know.” Daniel stared for a moment, considering.
“Sir, I don't see any people to take us across.”
“Has to be people.”
“O'Neill,” Teal'c said simply, handing the binoculars to the team's CO.
“People,” Jack whistled, staring across at the small island. There was
something else, too. Something - or many things - reflecting the
sunlight, glinting back at him. With the sun's glare diminished through
the lens, Jack could see that those flashes of brilliance looked
something like - “And an airport.”
“What?” Carter held out her hands for a look, wiggling impatient
fingers.
“Don't believe me?” O'Neill shot back, handing over the lenses.
"Why are there boats on this side, with no one to man them?" Daniel
queried, eagerness dampened by impending frustration. “How do
we
get over there?”
“I think I can maneuver a cabin cruiser, Daniel.”
“Steal it?”
“Hey, for all we know they're here for public use, meant for anyone
arriving by stargate. No one to tell us not to.” Jack hefted himself up
into the cruiser and positioned himself behind the wheel, the others
half waiting for some alarm to sound, as they hesitantly joined him.
"Jack, I don't think joyriding on an alien planet is the best way to make new allies."
“Quit whining, Daniel, and explain this.”
Daniel stole a quick glance at the instrument panel Jack indicated,
paused, then bent down for a closer look. “Holy crap.”
“Get your own line. That one's mine.”
Without warning, the boat took off across the lake as four teammates
grabbed for support, Jack's hands not yet having touched the controls.
With poorly stifled consternation, he noted the dials were not even
fluctuating. By all normal standards, this vehicle was stationary.
_____
Most of the journey across the lake passed in silence, and while the
trip lasted about thirty minutes no one was paying too close attention
to the time. It was the island itself, now, that captured their
interest.
As they approached the docking poles, stuck in the mud and low water by
the shoreline, Jack had had enough of quiet scientists and theories
gone unvoiced. “Those are people, aren't they?” The
field a couple of hundred meters to their left seemed to be filled with
them. Human, people.
Daniel eyed them warily. “They're not moving.”
“Perhaps we cannot detect their movements from this distance, Daniel
Jackson.”
“Or.” Daniel blinked.
“Maybe they're all taking a mid-day nap,” Jack suggested, noting the
forms leaning against trees and boulders, some sitting, some standing.
They did look like people. They'd know more when they disembarked,
right about…
The boat seemed to halt abruptly of its own accord, remaining in place
without an anchor or rope. Nor had it been tied down at the opposite
side of the lake, either. Jack was pretty sure that wasn't normal
behaviour, for a boat. On any planet.
Teal'c helped Daniel and Sam onto the small platform by the shore. From
this vantage point they could see the two halves of the island well. To
their right, only steps away, was the approach into a field of rather
old-fashioned airplanes. To the left,
across a footbridge over a dividing ravine, was another field, flat and
empty save for a border of trees and some large gray rocks, against
which leaned the various clusters of people.
Unmoving.
“Why isn't anyone coming to greet us?” Jack asked suspiciously. It was
a rhetorical question; they could do nothing more than speculate, and
even that was next to ridiculous.
The Or, Daniel thought negatively, exchanging a
nervous
glance with Sam. “Let's go find out,” he suggested, watching his CO's
eyes for reaction to Plan A.
Jack just shrugged. “Watch your step. We'll watch your back.”
The four teammates crossed the ivy-covered footbridge and hesitated.
There seemed to be at least fifty people hanging out here, but none of
them rose to greet the visitors. As Daniel slowly moved closer, the
rest of SG-1 advancing with weapons held tightly to their chests, the
scene that had been so curious and full of potential suddenly turned
eerie and disturbing.
Daniel froze abruptly, stunned.
Every one of those humans, many dressed in clothing common to Earth,
was propped up against a support of some sort, their faces and
extremities replaced with a rubbery, semi-life-like substance. Each was
posed in a natural stance, giving the impression of being involved in
something moderately constructive; they were reading, writing,
eating, star-gazing, even silently whistling. Two were playing cards.
All
activities, though, were never-ending, infinite, the characters
motionless,
frozen in time.
“They're stuffed,” Jack emphatically professed,
lacking his usual exuberant sarcasm.
Daniel paled, and Carter's face was grim with horror, suspicion, and
questions.
“Their positions are most disturbing,” Teal'c announced. It looked as
though these non-people were in the midst of everyday activities, alive
and about to rise at any moment. Their eyes, made of shiny black
plastic… or something, seemed to be watching, their facial expressions
serene and peaceful.
Daniel continued to stare, mesmerized.
“Hey.” Jack waved his hand in front of his teammate's face. “You okay?”
Daniel nodded. “They're just so…” What, realistic? Unexpected and
inexplicable?
“Creepy?”
“That might be it.”
But it was Carter who finally began to voice the unexpected,
inexplicable, creepy connection. “Guys, you realize their clothes are
mostly from Earth.”
“I noticed.” How could he not, with that peppering of aviation and
naval gear… circa the 1940's or 50's. That was part of the creepy part.
Headgear and glasses obscured the full facial features of some.
Sam was perturbed. Nodding towards the landing field to their right,
she continued. “Those planes, Colonel. 1940s Venturas, 1970s Pipers...
and the fishing boats. I want to take a closer look at the… the
airport.”
“You've got a theory, Major?”
Sam nodded, glanced again at Daniel, but said no more. Her eyes asked
to go on another exploration.
“Go.”
Carter trotted off, the others following closely behind.
_____
Theories were beginning to gel in Jack's mind as well.
“Sir…” Sam looked as bewildered as a puppy lost in a storm.
“Spit it out, Carter.”
“These aircraft are from Earth. I recognize a few of them.” A few,
though, were like nothing they'd ever seen before.
“And?”
“And I think some - if not most - of these planes disappeared in the
Bermuda Triangle, Colonel.”
Jack stared at her, his expression unreadable. He'd seen that coming;
had tried unsuccessfully to ignore those pesky natterings in his head.
That would explain Knoxville, Tennessee
stamped on the cruiser's dash. He'd been hoping 'alternate reality',
some creation with fake boats with fake instrument panels and
fake
people. “No.”
“No?”
“No. They've been accounted for.”
“Not all of them, sir. Many cases are just speculation, and researchers
wouldn't be so quick to dismiss alternate theories if they knew what we
know.”
Daniel's fingers were distractedly playing with the handles of his
sunglasses, his uncovered eyes deep blue in this light. The thicker
cloud cover had settled in nicely, just covering the sun. “How did they
get here, Sam?”
“I don't know. Unless there's another stargate at the bottom of the
Atlantic, I'd guess that whatever electrical
anomalies affected these planes sent them through an astrophysical
vortex connecting Earth with… this moon. For all we know there might
be even more up there, on that planet,” she glanced towards the sky,
the planet above spookily staring down at them, watching their every
movement. Every now and then the cloud cover shifted, exposing
landmasses that seemed to loom even sharper and more defined than ever.
“Maybe some of the large ships that disappeared are up there as well. I
don't see them here.”
“Not just Earth's planes, though,” Jack observed. “What about those?” A
few bulky, unfamiliar machines took up space in the gravel lot.
“Meaning the phenomenon must occur elsewhere in the galaxy too,
Colonel. For some reason, everything ends up here.”
“So these people…” Daniel let his words trail off. The thought was too
bizarre to contemplate.
“Obviously not the real bodies of those who disappeared with the
crafts.” Sam retorted.
“What if these are the real bodies,” Daniel
interrupted,
“and someone found a way to preserve them? I mean, the Egyptian mummies
don't look like the actual people any longer, either.”
“Why do that?” Jack screwed up his face in disgust.
“As a memorial. Jack, I think this is a graveyard.”
“Or a wax museum.”
“Would not the passengers and pilots have been alive when they arrived
here?” Teal'c asked. “The aircraft do not appear to have been damaged.”
The team looked towards the field of propped, prepped, stuffed bodies.
The discrepancy between Teal'c's words and the bizarre sight was
disconcerting and disturbing, and cause for too many questions. Sam
forced an answer.
“Or the pass through a series of extreme time zones was too much for
the human
body to handle. Who knows how long it took? If we were in a wormhole
for, say, forty minutes, we might not come out alive at the other end
either.”
For the moment, this theory was deemed acceptable. No one wanted to
consider what had happened to these folks if they'd still been alive
upon arrival. They might have starved to death… but they looked so
complacent and calm. Maybe they'd just been taken up above, to that
planet, and lived full and happy lives.
“Well, unless you want to do an autopsy, Carter…?”
“No, sir.”
“Then I say we get the hell out of here.”
Three nods revealed no dissenters, and the team headed back into the
boat, Jack again doing nothing when the vessel began to push off.
One third of the way across the lake, however, the cruiser halted
abruptly and began to reverse.
“Jack?”
“I'm not doing that!”
Manipulating the controls was fruitless; the boat was backing up
towards the island, and there was nothing Jack could do to stop it.
___
They had no choice but to disembark, far from the side of the lake they
wanted to be on, far from the shore with the stargate.
“Now what?” There was a sharp edge to Jack's voice, tension showing in
the lines of his face.
Carter looked around. There were no more boats on this side of the
lake. “We could try one of the planes.”
“Right.” There was nothing to lose, for the team wasn't going anywhere
if this didn't work. It wasn't as though they could swim across.
“Jack, um…” Biting his lip, Daniel wasn't sure if he wanted to express
this unfounded concern. “What if they want pilots, for some reason that
isn't obvious at the moment, maybe some aviation program of their own?
What if this is a test for us? I mean, why else would they bring us
back here, unless they thought we'd try the planes and wanted to see
which of us could fly them? What if that's why they grabbed the planes
in the first place but left them here to rot? They don't need planes,
they need pilots.”
“They? Who?”
“It. Whatever brought those people here. How should I know?”
“Not rotting, by the way. And It, not who, brought
planes
here. Electromagnetic something or other. The people were
unintentional. It also brought boats, Daniel, and boats don't have
pilots.” Jack turned and strode towards a plane he was sure he could
fly. The team followed, when Jack turned and raised his hand. “Just me.
The rest of you stay here.”
“Colonel?”
“Just in case Daniel's right. If I make it across, think you can fly
one of these, Carter?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. You'll come over with the others while I call in to the SGC.”
With that, Jack settled himself into the cockpit and hoped he had
enough room to take off and land. This was basically an empty gravel
patch of a field, not an airport, with other planes in the way. There
was no runway, but for some
reason the grass bordering the area was clipped short. There must still
be caretakers around, somewhere.
“Um…” Daniel looked around uncomfortably.
“He's a good pilot,” Sam reassured them quietly. “He can do it.” Within
moments, the plane lifted and was heading across the lake.
“Uh, Sam? I didn't think planes could do that fifty years ago.”
“They couldn't. They still can't. That was way too easy.”
“Oh-oh.”
The plane had stopped mid-flight and was now reversing.
“I didn't think they could do that either.”
“That isn't possible!” Carter cried out in frustration. She glanced
briefly at her teammates; Daniel's face was taut, lips set in a firm
line. Teal'c was frowning.
The plane flew backwards, halted, hovered, then set itself down in the
same spot it had so recently vacated. Jack emerged slowly, his legs
unsteady.
“Well, that was… just…” he shook his head.
“What could have done that?” Daniel asked somberly. All eyes turned to
Carter.
“Nothing that I know of, Daniel. Colonel. I'm sorry. It
must be programmed, somehow.”
“By something that doesn't want us to return home.”
Daniel met Jack's
glare, knowing that was last thing his CO wanted to hear. Not an It, a
Who.
Suddenly, Daniel felt himself being pulled,
lifted, his feet
raised inches off the ground, as though an invisible rope was
levitating his body. “What the - ” Exclamation cut off in mid-stream,
the force dragged and propelled him past the airplanes and over the
gully, not stopping until it reached the macabre graveyard. Through
his panic and shock Daniel heard his friends calling his name, saw them
running, but he was powerless to halt or control his forward movement.
It had taken barely two minutes; then Daniel was set down near a
boulder and shoved to the ground by a huge, wide, unseen hand. Sitting
up seemingly under his own free will now but unable to stand, Daniel
watched his left arm being placed in his lap, his right knee being bent
upwards. Daniel forced his knee back down to the ground, only to have
it propped up once again, both arms now being manipulated into some
pseudo-natural, carefree pose. But carefree was the last thing Daniel
was feeling. A panic surged through him as his friends grabbed his
arms, pulling him to his feet, and the spell was broken. Daniel felt
the force fade, felt himself gaining abrupt control of his limbs. Arms
caught him as he stumbled.
“What the hell was that?” The angry voice behind the words belonged to
Jack, but the sentiment had been Daniel's own.
“I don't, I don't know.” Distraught, Daniel's voice wavered unsteadily.
“Something was moving me.” Something with intent. Something with a
purpose. Something that was not a haphazard, coincidental, quantum
physical anomaly. Something that wanted him to join the humanoid
display.
Far in the distance, a lone wolf howled.
“What the hell is - ”
“Oh my God.”
The men looked up at Carter's sudden exclamation, finding her eyes
focused behind them. Pivoting around to look, they watched, stunned, as
several of the human-like figures, singly and in succession, moved.
Repositioned, in slight, unobtrusive ways. An arm here, a leg or two
there, a body shift, a head turn. Gentle adjustments, but unmistakable.
“That's not possible.” Jack couldn't stop staring.
“One would think.”
“Ya think?”
“They're not alive,” Daniel insisted.
“No. They're not.” And by now they'd stopped shifting, remaining seated
or standing by their tree trunks or boulders. If the entire team hadn't
seen it, Jack was pretty certain they could have convinced him he'd
imagined the whole thing.
Daniel crossed his arms tightly against his chest, his mood somber. “It
wanted me.”
“What did?”
“I don't know.”
“Why would it?”
“I don't know.'
“We must leave this place at once,” Teal'c declared unnecessarily,
agitated, his normally placid, logical manner discarded.
“Do you know what this place is, Teal'c?” Jack questioned.
“I do not. However, should we remain here, I believe that we, too, will
come to an unfortunate end.” They all knew what he was looking at. With
his eyes Teal'c indicated the waxen, rubbery bodies.
Jack looked around at the uneasy faces of his teammates; he'd had the
creeps long ago, but this turn of events scared the crap out of him.
“If you have a way to leave, don't hold back.”
Daniel stepped away from them, looking up, backing a few steps into the
grassy field. “Hello?” he called into the sky, towards the planet
above. “What is it you want from us?”
A few silent moments passed, before he realized how intently and
curiously his friends were staring at him.
“Someone's around, Jack. I know it.”
“You do? And you know that how, exactly?”
“Because… this isn't a graveyard, Jack. It's a
showroom.
And those planes? They're someone's collection. Jack, this is a display
and someone's been collecting them for decades… and they're watching us
now, I guarantee it.”
“From up there?” Sam asked incredulously, peering through the muted
sunlight at the planet above. Now she could almost believe the thin,
filmy cloud cover had been placed there for their benefit, or was that
her imagination getting the better of her? She was letting this place
spook her, and Sam chastised herself, until she remembered what had
just been done to Daniel. If nothing else here was real, that force
certainly had been.
“Yes.”
The team lapsed into silence. So they were being watched, and played
with; that theory made more sense than an old aircraft flying
backwards, and taxidermed bodies shifting position of their own accord.
Daniel resumed talking to the sky, utilizing every language he knew. He
talked of exploring the galaxy, of having come to learn from new
cultures, to trade.
“How will we know if they understand?”
“Well, I'm hoping they'll let us go back to the gate. Or show
themselves. Talk to us.”
“Yeah, as long as one of those things doesn't start
talking,” Jack shuddered. “So should we try going back again now? See
if they understood you?” He looked to Daniel for an answer, then at
Carter. Sam
turned towards Teal'c, who was staring in turn at Jack.
“T?”
“All they could do is bring us back here again, right?” Daniel pondered
aloud, hoping to be reassured.
“Sir, so far they only touched Daniel, and those… people were shifted
individually. What if the equipment, or whatever they're using to
control the objects on this moon, can only affect one person or vehicle
at a time?”
Jack caught her drift. “Right, good thinking. I'll take a plane with
Daniel, you take another one with Teal'c.”
“I am able to fly one as well, O'Neill.”
“No offense, Teal'c, but if they fly themselves like mine did before,
so can Daniel. If not, it'll take more than a few minutes to show you
how to take off and land. Let's try not to separate ourselves more than
necessary.” Making sure his teammates were all on board, so to speak,
Jack headed for the small Cessna he'd previously used, while watching
Carter simultaneously settle into another, Teal'c in the single
passenger seat.
“Buckle up, Daniel. Ready, Major?” Realizing their radios were not
functioning in this place, whatever magnetic field was being employed
here interfering with transmission, Jack sat back and listened to the
engine come to life, silently wishing his other two teammates luck.
Suddenly, with no help from him, the plane lifted and took off across
the lower sky.
“So far so - ”
Both flights halted above the lake, and began to reverse.
“Ohh, crap.” So much for only one at a time.
“Jack? Sam's turning.”
As their small aircraft drifted backwards and lowered to its original
parking spot, Carter's plane took off in another direction completely,
then kept on going. As Jack and Daniel moodily disembarked, the second
plane grew smaller in the distance, finally disappearing.
“Damn it.” Two of his teammates were gone. “'All they can do is bring
us back here', right?” Jack growled out a repetition of Daniel's
earlier words.
“I'm sorry. I didn't know,” Daniel whispered.
“Not blaming you, Daniel.” Jack kicked out at the landing gear. This
place sucked.
“Maybe they're being taken to meet with someone,” Daniel suggested more
hopefully.
“If anyone was watching, and if they were listening, they know you're the one with
the languages. They took the wrong plane.”
At a loss for any further action, Jack rocked back on his heels and
watched the sky. Daniel again began talking to the looming planet,
trying each of his twenty-odd languages.
Five minutes later a spot appeared in the distance, then grew to become
Carter and Teal'c's ride. With rapidly increasing pulse the two men
watched it approach, land on the field, and slide back into its
original location. The men ran over as Carter and Teal'c disembarked.
“What was that all about?” Jack asked as nonchalantly as he could
manage, his features portraying his concern.
“Where did they take you?” Daniel piped in.
“What? No. No, I was flying that myself, Daniel. I wanted to see if I
could fly away from the stargate; nothing stopped
me. But when I turned it around to come back here I lost control.”
“So you can fly in the other direction.” Daniel paraphrased slowly.
“Yes.”
“What was out there?”
“There appeared to be more aircraft on other islands, O'Neill.”
“Larger ones, sir. And huge ships out in the water about twenty clicks
from here.”
“People?” Daniel inquired hesitantly.
“Nothing alive, Daniel.”
“Although there did appear to be more of these graveyards,” Teal'c
added, eliciting a muffled groan from Daniel's direction.
“Showrooms.”
“So we can head in the other direction. Ideas, anyone?”
But no one could come up with any useful reason to head farther away
from the stargate, and three teammates finally settled onto the ground
to think.
Daniel jumped to his feet. “No. This is what they want us to do. It's
what they all did.” He motioned briefly towards the
graveyard showroom. “We can't just sit here doing nothing.”
“I've been open for suggestions for the better part of a day, Daniel.”
“I don't know. I just… don't sit there. Just don't sit there like
that.” Daniel's distress moved his teammates to listen, and Carter,
then Jack, rose.
“We can't stand forever, Daniel,” Sam reminded him gently.
“What if I try to swim across?” Jack blurted out.
“You've got to be kidding."
“No, Colonel. It's too far.”
“Maybe not.” Turning to face the lake, Jack pondered the prospect. He
began walking.
“Jack! Don't.”
“I'm a strong swimmer, Daniel. I've done lakes before; it'll just take
a while, that's all. If they don't
want me to get there they'll just bring me back here, right?”
That's what Daniel had said last time, but for some reason he didn't
think Jack was making fun of him. “I don't know; can you swim
backwards?”
But nothing anyone could say could stop him, and Jack splashed into the
water. For a minute they watched him swim away from them.
Suddenly Jack went under.
“Colonel!”
Three sets of eyes stared in horror, waiting, but Jack didn't
resurface. Then three bodies flung themselves into the lake after
their CO.
It was Teal'c who reached the spot first where Jack had gone down.
Diving under, he pulled up a coughing, wheezing colonel, who shook
Teal'c away and swam the short distance back to shore.
As the four team members wrung out jackets and emptied soaked pockets,
Jack sat on the grass near the airfield, catching his breath and
steadying his composure. “It pushed me under.” His voice was haunted.
Now he knew exactly how Daniel had felt. Even that water hadn't felt
normal.
“What did?” If Jack had an answer -
“Something. Just shoved me down. I was fighting an invisible force, and
it knew what it was doing.”
And that, he knew, was the crux of the problem.
“That's what happened to me,” Daniel acknowledged. “Something's
manipulating us. Playing with us.”
Jack nodded. “So some spoiled kid up on that planet just got a new set
of toys for Christmas?”
“He'd be a pretty old kid by now, Jack, if he started his collection
around 1940.”
“Probably earlier,” Sam corrected. “Even Columbus noticed odd things
happening to his instruments in the Atlantic. That may have been the
beginning of this
planet's experimentation.”
“More likely there's a research unit up there studying us, or maybe
even a public viewing terminal. Something officially sanctioned and
accredited,” Daniel conjectured.
“So you don't think the first disappearances were accidental?” Jack
asked, knowing it was all hypothetical anyway. Better a logical
discussion than to sit… stand here becoming depressed and morose. Not
that that wasn't about to happen anyway.
“Maybe. But it's just as likely they were grabbing any and all vessels
and people they could from the zone right from the start. They may have
even created the magnetic forces in the first place, to be triggered
under certain weather conditions,” Sam theorized. “For study.”
“Or play,” Daniel muttered under his breath. He still felt as though
he'd been posed as a specimen in a showcase, a souvenir, someone's idea
of a perfect alien knickknack. Just like those planes, each with its
own particular place on the field, equidistant from all the rest. Like
pieces on a chess board, only none were being moved. Try to fly one out
of turn, however, and return to default setup.
The team jumped, as far away a lone wolf howled.
“Oh no.”
Maybe Daniel had spoken - or thought - too soon, but the bodies were
being shifted again. Knees lowered or raised, arms lifted and bent. And
still they looked like relaxed, if bored, participants at a Sunday
picnic.
This time it was Teal'c who was tossed into the wind for a journey to
the far side.
“Crap, not again!” As Jack rushed off with Carter and Daniel on his
heels, they could see Teal'c being positioned like a rag doll, anger
raging as he shouted, “I do not want this!”
“Teal'c!” Reaching him, the three teammates pulled him to his feet,
struggling against the gravitational force trying to keep him down.
This was worse than with Daniel; was it growing in strength, or had it
not anticipated their determination and body mass the first time
around? Suddenly the force cleared and Teal'c bounded to his feet,
shaken and upset.
“You okay?” Daniel asked empathetically.
Teal'c appeared and sounded rattled. “I do not care for this
manipulation.”
“Colonel…” Sam hesitated.
“Carter?" Jack snapped. "Spit it out."
“If they eventually get fed up with us, they can force us to do
anything they want.”
“So far they haven't.”
Daniel objected. “They tried to drown you, Jack.”
Jack cursed under his breath. “So, what, we're puppets?”
“So to speak.”
“Terrific.” Jack grunted, peering around, searching. For what? For an
idea? The sun was sinking, and he didn't want to know what would happen
if they tried to sleep. They couldn't stay awake, watching each other's
backs, forever.
The team shifted uneasily, knowing the direction of each other's
thoughts. Night was approaching, not a happy prospect. They were still
damp and uncomfortable. Should they
erect the tents, blocking whatever view they had of those mannequins?
Would they be even more vulnerable while asleep? Could any of them
intervene, if one of them was stolen during the night?
And most importantly, if they fell asleep, would they be able
to
wake up? No one knew how those people had died, if they were
even dead. Maybe they had been suffocated during
sleep, and had never known what lay ahead. Or
maybe those things were just replicas, and the true bodies
were up there on that planet. Maybe
they weren't even modeled after real people at all, but were just wax
representations of human-like figures in Earth's clothing. Then... what
had they wanted with Daniel and Teal'c?
“Uh… Jack.” The beginnings of an idea were forming in Daniel's mind, but this could be risky. Depending on the frame of mind of whoever or whatever was behind this, it could possibly get them killed. But the odds were that such an outcome would happen anyway.
“What?”
“What do people most fear about their prized collections?”
“Having them stolen?”
“Okay, second worst fear.”
“Having them burn up in a fire,” Sam contributed.
“Right.”
“So?”
“So, what if we set fire to them? Whoever is behind this will have no reason to want us to join a collection that no longer exists.”
“Or they might need us to start a new one,” Jack scowled.
“Yes, that's a possibility,” Daniel agreed. So was retaliation. An eye for an eye; start a fire and they could very well be tossed in.
“We might be caught in that fire, Daniel.” Sam reminded him. “We have no way to put it out and nowhere to go.”
“I was hoping they'd be distracted while we flew back to the gate.” Even though getting the planes to override any programming might be a long shot.
“Plan B, Daniel. Let's try for Plan A first.”
“I thought we did that with the airplanes.”
“I'm talking about Plan A and a half.”
“Oh, forgot about that one,” Daniel nodded, then turned his back on his team, not wanting them to see the despair in his face.
In the distance, a lone wolf howled.
A dark dusk had fallen; shadows crept across the living graveyard and the air had cooled down. Although the team remained in the airfield with the ghost planes, they could see well enough some of the bodies moving again, some ever so slightly and others nearly rising, propped against trees, and SG-1 knew that could very well be themselves come morning. The four team members had lapsed into silence, deep in personal musings, battling with internal demons and fears, and trying not to look across to the opposite field of moving puppets.
All Jack knew for certain was that they couldn't remain here. Nor could they take the planes out again, with the oncoming darkness; it was useless anyway. Caught between a rock and a hard place, they were choiceless. At best, they'd be caught here for weeks until they died of starvation. At worst, the SGC would send a rescue team, who'd then be stranded here along with them, more toys for that planet to play with. What would happen if they did try to damage the collections? Would they just be dealt with that much sooner? Jack cursed that they'd taken a boat across in the first place; he should have listened to Daniel.
“Daniel, put those things away.” Jack watched Daniel staring across at the graveyard through the binoculars in what little light remained, and he shuddered. How could the man look so closely at those faux humans, dressed so vividly in Earthly garments? Only a handful wore apparel seemingly foreign to SG-1's home planet, but it made little difference. They still spooked him.
Daniel had been engrossed in his own thoughts, and ignored Jack.
“O'Neill. How is it that we can be observed so readily?”
“I don't know. Honkin' big telescopes?” Jack shrugged. Did it matter? They were being watched. What could they do to attract the kind of attention they really needed?
“Or.” Daniel lowered the binoculars, his eyes still focused on one of the pseudo humans, leaning against a tree and seemingly staring back.
“Or?”
Daniel rose, trekking hesitantly towards the bridge.
“Hey. Don't.”
“What if their eyes are cameras or viewers? I mean, every time they shift, at least a few are looking our way. I've found it very disconcerting.”
Jack rose too, followed by Sam. Teal'c had not been sitting.
Slowly they followed Daniel into the macabre field.
Facing a seated figure and taking out his knife, Daniel inhaled deeply, disturbed by what he was about to do even though he knew these people were not real, or at least living. Their rubbery faces and staring black eyes were constant reminders that they were either modeled on real humans, or bodies stuffed after death. With a strong thrust, Daniel shoved his knife into the face above the eye socket.
“Oh!” He jumped back, his exclamation echoed by Sam, as the head caved in, crumpling.
“Bloody hell. They're inflated!” Jack hissed, along with the escaping air of the seated figure. The eye fell out of one socket, dropping onto the figure's chest and sliding to its lap, showing the tiny mechanism within. The thought of being watched by dozens of unseen eyes peering from some lab or museum up above filled him with rage. “Get the rest!”
As he and his teammates poised to attack four more of the pseudo humans, an agonized cry rose from behind him, and Jack swung around.
"Help me!”
Carter's voice rang out next. “Daniel!” She was slowly but determinedly stepping towards Daniel, her arms outstretched, reaching, but as she closed in her steps faltered. Daniel stood motionless… except for the knife in his hand, pointing at his own throat.
“Daniel!”
“I can't help it, Jack,” Daniel's panic-stricken voice wavered. “They're doing this.” His hand shook, closing in, the fight both outward and internal, and Daniel was losing.
As Daniel fought with his own arm, trying to release the knife in his tight, backwards grip, Jack rushed him, grabbing Daniel's fist, prying the weapon away. Suddenly, as if abandoning its task, the force released itself and Daniel's arm dropped to his side.
They stood in horror, a multitude of thoughts searing their brains, taking a moment to slow their breathing. If they were going to make an attempt at destroying this collection, make an impact and have their anger and annoyance heard, they were going to have to go about it differently. This way was proving far too dangerous.
Maybe if they shattered the windows and landing
gear of the planes instead, pelted them with gunfire and staff blasts…
Jack shook himself out of his reverie. “You okay?”
Daniel didn't respond. His features were haunted and distraught, and
his hands were trembling. Grasping Daniel's shoulder, Jack tried to
convey
comfort, but his own mind was racing. Once again, he doubted they'd
make it through the night.
To Jack's horror, what happened next was completely beyond his control.
With his left hand still on Daniel's shoulder, Jack turned his body
slightly towards his friend, knife in his fist. With his back to the
others, neither Sam nor Teal'c were in the position to react, until the
knife had plunged into Daniel's side. Then Jack let go.
“God. Oh, God.”
As the flash of agony shot through his body, Daniel collapsed, hands at
his side, fumbling with the blade's handle.
“Oh my God. Daniel, don't! Leave it in!” Sam fell to her knees beside
him, frantically pulling his hands away. “We have to secure it.”
“O'Neill!” Teal'c grabbed Jack from behind as Sam knelt by Daniel,
trying to calm her injured teammate and attend to the wound. Jack,
though, had already regained control of his hand and was staring at it
as though it was possessed. Shoving off from Teal'c and
dropping to his knees alongside Carter, he
gawked at the hilt protruding from Daniel's side, blood ringing its
edges. His own eyes were wild, body and brain functionally numb.
“Christ. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”
They knew he hadn't been in control, yet saying as much would prove
nothing and help no one. They were at the mercy of whoever ran this
moon museum, and they'd royally ticked someone off.
“How bad is it?” Jack silently begged Sam to negate what he already
knew, as she opened the med-kit and grabbed the gauze. He could see how
deeply the knife had penetrated and his shiver was involuntary. His
remorse wasn't.
“If we remove it he could bleed to death, sir. He likely has internal
injuries. What we have to do is pack bandages around the handle and
tape it firmly in place.” And hope to hell they could find a way out of
this mess, soon soon soon.
A humming sound drifted towards them and the teammates looked up.
Circling overhead was a UAV.
“Yes, General!” Jack breathed loudly, pressing the speak button on his
radio. “SGC, come in. This is Colonel O'Neill.”
There was no response.
“Sir, the EM energy has been disrupting signals ever since we got here.”
Teal'c added, “There will be no way for us to be retrieved from this
side of the lake.”
“They'll think of something,” Jack insisted, but as he watched, the UAV
stopped dead in the air, then descended onto the airfield and shifted
into place between two of the smaller airplanes.
“No… crap! Don't!” Jack screamed into the air as he felt an unwanted,
antagonistic force at his body once again, but fighting it resulted
only in frustration. The curses escalated, transforming shock into
fear; he had no control as he was lifted off the ground like a
snowflake in the wind, watching the same thing happen to Carter and
Teal'c, cries and pleas falling on deaf ears. As three teammates
drifted up and away in the direction of the lake, in the last light
all they saw was Daniel on his back, clutching at a knife and a wound
that Sam had had no time to protect, staring up at them in
all-consuming terror.
“What the hell are they doing?” Jack yelled to his teammates, his own
body drifting out now across the lake as Carter's and Teal'c's
followed mere meters away. But Jack was certain he already knew; this
was time for revenge, or disposal of thorns in an unknown alien's side.
They'd be dropped into the lake and far too easily shoved under, and
that would be that. No one to save them; no one to help Daniel as he
bled to death and became another inflated prop, entertainment or
research for a race they'd never understand. As for himself, Carter,
and Teal'c, they'd probably be dried off, scooped out, and placed next
to Daniel, a new collection replacing the one they'd tried to ruin. One
that could most likely be repaired anyway. Nothing had been gained at
the cost of their lives.
Guilt and anger flooded though him, overwhelming in its intensity. He'd let his team down, and left Daniel alone to bleed to death with a wound he himself had inflicted. If hell existed, he was about to make a personal, permanent visit, his final and everlasting mission.
But as the flight continued and land drew near, a
shred of rueful hope
took root. Jack couldn't see much in the darkness while floating on his
back, face turned to the sky, the only remaining light being reflected
off the
planet above, but he definitely felt land beneath him instead of water,
when he was set down and released. Within moments his two other
teammates had joined him.
“You two okay?” Jack asked bluntly, jumping to his feet and dusting
himself off self-consciously.
“Yes, sir.”
“Indeed.”
“What the hell was that about?”
“It seems they wish us to leave now, O'Neill.” The shadowy shape of the
stargate loomed ahead, silhouetted under the planet's misty light.
“What about Daniel?”
“I think they've claimed him, sir.” Sam's voice caught as she spoke;
she'd had a lot to ponder as she flew out of control across a wide,
open lake. “Maybe all of us together are too much trouble.”
“And they kept Daniel to replace that thing he damaged?” Jack scowled
angrily. Should've been him.
He'd trade places with Daniel in a heartbeat, if that was an option.
“Actually, sir, I think we gave them a new plane for their collection.
That might be why they're allowing any of us to leave.”
Jack froze. A trade? An unpiloted plane… something new for their study.
New and wild and wonderful. Jack stared at her, dumbfounded. Why hadn't
they all been sent back to the gate earlier, when Daniel had told them
SG-1 had come to learn and trade? Hadn't they understood him, believed
him? Had arriving through the gate, instead of in an airplane,
indicated they had nothing of interest to offer? “You two, get back
through the gate. Tell Hammond what's going on; if they want to trade,
get them another UAV; they still have one of our people. If they just
want to be rid of us because three of us are too much trouble, then
maybe we should get a whole hell of a lot more of us out here.”
“They might not want another UAV, sir. I didn't see doubles of anything
else out there.”
“So add something to it, Carter. Paint it pink. Just make it fast.”
“Yes sir.” While Sam was uncertain that another UAV would tempt them,
she also knew they'd never get across to the island again no matter how
many more airmen and soldiers arrived, and there was no Plan C. “What
about you, Colonel?”
“I'm staying with Daniel.” As ludicrous as that sounded, with no radio
contact, no light, and a great distance between them, Jack still knew
he wasn't going anywhere until he got Daniel home too. If SG-1 had been
trouble on the other side of the lake, just wait 'til those up above
got bored with him here.
“Sir?”
“I'll be fine. If they wanted me dead, I'd be lying on the lake bed
right now. Go. Daniel doesn't have much time." He knew he hadn't needed
to say those last words aloud; Carter knew well enough. Enough to know
she had to leave, with or without him, one way or another.
"It wasn't your fault, sir."
Like hell it wasn't. "I know. Go. Get out of here."
“I shall remain with you, O'Neill.”
“No. Two heads are better than one. Go figure this out, Teal'c, with
Hammond's help.” Jack wasn't going to voice his growing concern that
whoever stayed behind would be toyed with some more. Or that the gate
would never open a second time, if it even opened now. He just wanted
his team out of there,
ASAP.
_____
Daniel gasped as he tried to reach out for the med kit Sam had dropped
several feet away when the …wind… had lifted her, and now it lay there,
invitingly near, at the feet of a deflated headless mannequin, a
looming silhouette in the dark field. The planet above shed just enough
light to illuminate the black eyes of several dozen humanoid figures,
causing them to shine like those of animals on a hunt. Daniel had the
distinct feeling that before the night was done, he'd be one of them.
He tried to support the knife's handle tightly in a closed palm, but
the
position was unbearable; with each shudder it moved ever so slightly,
antagonizing the muscle and flesh inside him.
Giving up, he moaned and lay still, flat on the cold grass beneath. If
he closed his eyes, all he saw were jeering faces of fake people. If he
opened his eyes, he had the choice of looking directly at those faces
turned his way, eyes almost appearing to glow, or at the planet
hovering above menacingly, threatening to fall to the ground and crush
him.
The strangeness of the night, though, was not enough to overcome the
searing agony in his side.
All he was certain of was that his friends had been removed and
probably tossed into the lake. Wherever they were, Daniel knew for a
fact they would not be returned to him alive.
Renewed fear and anger lit him from within, and with one badly shaking
hand trying to keep the knife still, Daniel tried again to reach out
for the med kit. But once more, the harsh pain and dizziness forced him
to abandon the task. He was bleeding internally, and knew he wouldn't
make it until morning.
Far in the distance, a lone wolf howled.
As he lay there shivering, trembling, trying to keep his weak,
resisting hands in position to support the acutely tormenting knife,
Daniel felt as much as saw, in the darkness, the newly-beheaded
mannequin shifting to face him, the bizarre thought occurring to him
that it, they,
might somehow be able to move closer to surround his dying body. Heart
thudding and pain raging, Daniel forced himself not to pass out.
_____
Jack watched the planet, its enormous face doing nothing but blocking
out any stars that might have appeared in the night sky. The lake was
almost black, only silver strands of reflected light reminding him that
there was water out there, the scattered hulks of boats looking even
bigger as they shielded the glittering ripples.
“Daniel!” he shouted, hoping the night's echo would carry across the
lake. There were no other night sounds; the chance remained that
Daniel could hear him and know that he wasn't alone.
Right. Some comfort, a distant voice from the man who'd nearly killed him in the first place. Powerless to stop the attack from happening, both he and Daniel knew he was just as powerless to lend a hand now. Jack was certain if this planet didn't do him in, his guilt would. "I'm sorry, buddy," he whispered.
Far in the distance he heard a lone wolf howl,
and Jack knew the puppets had moved yet again.
“Stay away from him,” he raged at the night sky. “Leave him alone!”
He slumped onto the grassy shore, a cool wind at his face. Adrenaline
working to keep him awake after the exhausting, stressful day, all Jack
knew was that he had to think of something that would force the keepers
of this land to give up its hostage. But if he wanted to cause trouble
at this end, there was only the stargate.
Got nothing.
Nothing of a plan. Nothing to help Daniel. Nothing, nothing, and damn
well nothing. Those aliens knew he'd eventually have to turn tail and
retreat homeward. They'd been holding the upper hand since the team had
sauntered so nonchalantly through the wormhole early that morning.
He could still try setting fire to the boats, but dare he try? If stabbing a puppet had gotten Daniel knifed, then torching a boat might just spur them to burn him up as well.
“I'll leave him
behind over my dead body!” Jack yelled again into the
nothingness. Although, another dead body was most likely what they'd
prefer. Maybe that wasn't the best reasoning he could have used. “We
don't leave our people behind!” Well, wasn't that what everyone had
done decades ago? No one had come searching for those lost in the
showroom graveyard, had they. Again, maybe not the most plausible
argument. Except this time, his kind were using the stargate.
Speak of the devil's equipment…
The chevrons behind him began to clatter, and Jack shot to his feet.
Night may not be the best time to try to intimidate the locals with a
small army, but Daniel didn't have until morning. They'd think of
something; they all worked best under pressure.
The vortex exploded outward; seconds later it wasn't an army that burst though the open wormhole, but a giraffe-spotted brown and yellow UAV, equipped with small satellite dishes, fluorescent green and obvious on the outer hull. It shot forward and over the lake, circling the field, almost lost to sight save for the radiance of its patches, reflecting the planet's light. For a good ten minutes the wormhole remained open, but no one stepped through.
Suddenly the luminous patches plummeted and disappeared.
“What the hell?” Jack stood straighter, trying to see into the darkness on the other side. “It's gone down!” Maybe that was a good sign, though; maybe they'd accepted it as a trade for Daniel?
The shimmering wormhole flickered, and two shadows strode up beside him. The gate shut down, leaving the three teammates in temporary, absolute darkness, before their eyes adjusted to the planet's reflective light.
“I see you camouflaged it nicely.”
Carter flicked on a flashlight,
but she didn't smile. Jack frowned; something not so good was up. Might
it
just be the fact that the aliens had taken the second UAV, but did not
seem to be returning Daniel? Crap.
