Enlightened

 

 

by Travelling One

 

Email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca

Website: http://www.travellingone.com/ 

Related Episode: Prodigy

Season: 5

Summary: When SG-1 meets up with more of the energy-based life forms from the moon M4C-862, understanding them becomes a matter of life and death.

 

July 2007

 

---

 

Startled, Daniel squinted to observe more closely, not sure it had actually been real. In this bright sunlight, among rocky outcroppings surrounded by bushes and trees bathed in sunshine-dappled foliage, a small moving light could have been nothing more than some glare on his glasses, and voicing his curiosity would have made him look like a fool.

 

But no, it was definitely there, not there and there again, and Daniel's voice came out in thick fascination as he alerted whoever was within earshot.

 

"Guys?" Daniel reached out, unsure whether to touch it or stay back. "What is that?"

 

"Don't!" Dashing the few steps over to Daniel, Jack jerked his teammate's hand down roughly, the look on his face a mixture of trepidation and alarm. The mutterings under his breath sounded like swearing.

 

"You know what it is?" Caught off-guard, Daniel assumed his CO's response had been over-reaction to an unknown entity. "Alien firefly?" he half-joked.

 

"Bloody deadly firefly," Jack hissed, his fingers still tightened around Daniel's wrist.

 

And that puzzled Daniel even more, but he kept his hand down and out of the way, as Jack let go. The leader's complete attention was still on the little zipping light, radiating energy.

 

"You were not with us, Daniel Jackson. We have encountered these beings before."

 

"Beings?" The extent of Daniel's knowledge did not cover any good reason to be afraid of a tiny, sparkly little flying ball of light, however intent and curious it seemed. "It's… cute."

 

"Damn cute. Don't let it touch you. Turn around, slowly, everyone." But it was already too late; in the distance Jack could make out its friends and family approaching, or maybe the entire neighbourhood. A whole swarm of them, out searching for a stray baby? Or had they sent out a scout, to check up on the strangers? His mind was racing with plans that he knew wouldn't work, if this group turned out to be as unfriendly as those on the moon of M4C-862. SG-1 was too far from the gate this time. "What the hell are they doing here?"

 

"It's possible they're indigenous to more than one planet, Sir." Or moon, not that Carter much cared at that moment.

 

"It is also possible that they were brought here by others who came through the stargate." Teal'c suggested.

 

"How, in a jar?" They wouldn't have been able to come through freely, given the wormhole's electrical field. "Which would make them so not very pleased to see us," O'Neill reasoned. "Back to the gate, try to appear non-threatening."

 

"We weren't sure they were exhibiting vengeance last time, Sir. Their behaviour might have been due to the moon's orbit across the planet's magnetic pole."

 

"Didn't take the chance then, Carter, not taking it now."

 

"Um, guys? What's going on?" Daniel turned with the others, trying to ignore the pesky little light dancing above his shoulder, flitting around his ear. Curiosity warred with concern; if Jack was on edge, he trusted there was a good reason.

 

"Daniel, do you remember the mission Cadet Haley joined us on while you were with SG-11?" Sam knew Daniel hadn't attended their briefing, but they'd mentioned it a few times in his presence.

 

Although Daniel had not gone on that mission, he had little trouble recalling the welts on Jack's face after SG-1's return from M4C-862; that hushed-up incident in which Bill Thompson had died, and after which Dr. Hamilton had suddenly started to be nice to Jack. They'd said something about flying energy-based life forms… Daniel had pictured bugs, or something a bit bigger. A bunch of miniscule Oma Desalas, with threadlike tendrils of wispy stingers. He turned his head sharply towards Jack, picking up his pace. "These?" he asked, wide-eyed. At the time he'd been secretly, guiltily thankful not to have met those particular little aliens.

 

With only a vague nod of acknowledgement, refusing to conjure up a more vivid recollection of the bitter memory, Jack picked up speed. "Back to the gate, nice and calm." His voice was level and deceptively composed. If they didn't hurt these things, they should be okay, right?

 

Right. What sounded good in theory was not always the way things worked out. No sooner had SG-1 taken their first steps in retreat, than the swarm of lights flashed out in choreographed frenzy, rapidly blocking their path, the high-pitched buzzing growing louder and faster, piercing the air. Before the team had even made it to the next rocky incline, the little glowbugs had formed a semicircle around them, leaving only one direction in which to move - and it wasn't the direction of the stargate.

 

Testing their possibilities, Jack steered to his left…

 

… and the swarm of lights tightened around him.

 

"Sir - " Sam began nervously. "We don't want to make them angry. So far they haven't shown any signs of aggression."

 

Jack was well aware about making them angry; this time the zat solution wouldn't work, the stargate being too far for only a single shot's run. "I tend to call blocking our way an act of aggression, Major." But even with the words uttered, Jack knew there was no way through, past, or around, and other than standing in that spot all day, options were as plentiful as the hair on Teal'c's head. His skin crawled with the nearly physical memory of the painful attack by the gate that day, only the thought of his stranded teammates - and Teal'c's timely help - having infused him with enough energy to complete the gate's dialing sequence.

 

"They're trying to lead us somewhere, Jack." Daniel frowned, studiously observing the light show. The little things were fascinating, but it was Jack's prior injuries and a dead scientist that kept him apprehensive and cautious. Fearful, if he dared admit it to himself. He vaguely recalled the details of the team's solemn escape, briefly outlined by the others upon his return.

 

"Well, I don't want to go there."

 

"Sir, I don't think we have a choice."

 

The lights were hovering, closing in, darting and buzzing around the group but still showing no inclination to strike. Wary and tense, Jack took a tentative step in the direction his team had first been heading, the way out of this semi-circle of electrified marbles, and this time the little glowies kept to his rear, allowing passage. Slowly and reluctantly, SG-1 was forced to move back towards the bushier grasslands, away from the gate, the swarm of lights guiding the way from close behind. Very close behind, and SG-1 resigned themselves to the fact that their destination was no longer under their control.

 

"I am uncomfortable with this, O'Neill."

 

"Tell me about it."

 

Choiceless. Carter understood the look on the colonel's face, one of dread and determination; the minute he saw a way out he'd take it, but right now options were minimal.

 

And they were getting farther and farther from the gate, at the mercy of the lights, climbing along the rocky path to where the land eventually evened out. One way or another Jack knew they couldn't take any chance with these things; they were deadly when provoked, he'd seen it himself. Felt it himself, and it wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat or risk for his team. Chances were hopeful that this batch of glowing aliens had had no previous negative experiences with humans, and were indigenous to this planet. If not… if they could flit from one planet to another through space or had somehow been brought through the stargate, that meant they might have had contact with those of their species from 862 or even be them. So, what they wanted SG-1 for now was so much more than troubling. This smelled of a trap, an ambush… they were collectively acting upon some strategy, heading towards some destination, and that meant some sort of higher order thinking. Collective revenge was not something Jack put past them.

 

The team trudged on, involuntarily, for almost an hour, passing nothing but natural plant life, small grassy fields, dried muddy mounds, and rocky outcroppings; nothing that would give them any clue as to where they were being directed, or why.

 

And SG-1's uneasiness and desperation grew. Silence prevailed, each mired in his own thoughts, depressing thoughts that didn't include any viable means of escape.

 

"Sir, I can't imagine what they could want with us other than revenge."

 

She so didn't have to admit that. O'Neill scrunched up his face. "What happened to the orbit theory?" Not that he liked the thought any better that these creatures could be influenced by natural occurrences, with the potential to become violent at any moment. Either way they were still lethal weapons, unattached to any form of consciousness as he knew it.

 

"No moon, Sir."

 

"So they came from 862?" Why not just attack them on the spot, then? Why this game of Follow the Leader?

 

"Or collective consciousness."

 

"As in, transmitting ideas to each other? Interplanetary?" Jack didn't know if he bought that theory, not that it made a hell of a lot of difference.

 

"Well it wouldn't be the first time we've encountered non-verbal communication in a species." Sam had been thinking too much again, and couldn't get the singing flower people - or the Nox - out of her head. "They do have some sort of a bond, and as they're energy-based, I don't see why - "

 

"We get it, Carter."

 

"Yes, Sir."

 

SG-1 trod on in moody silence, looking for a way out at every turn, knowing it was hundreds against four. When one of them stopped, so did a large group of the lights. Nobody human was getting away from here.

 

The team marched on.

 

Suddenly, up ahead, the land came to an end.

 

"Whoa!" Jack pulled up abruptly, his teammates and the lights doing the same. Buzzing around, bouncing and hopping, zipping past and doubling back, the lights were the image of impatience. "No, sorry. Not going anywhere near a cliff." Looking around hurriedly, Jack could see no path leading away from there, other than the one they'd come in on. And that was a direction the lights weren't leaving open. Jack tried to ignore his stomach doing small cartwheels inside him, as his mind struggled futilely to create a Plan A.

 

The lights zipped closer now, right past their faces. Sam, Jack, and Teal'c turned and ducked, batting at them with their arms, but the lights didn't sting, didn't flit through anyone. Daniel stood his ground, watching helplessly as the lit molecules surrounded his friends, gently urging, now and then even landing and flitting off. There was something happening here that he couldn't put his finger on…

 

"They're leaving me alone," he exclaimed softly.

 

"And that would be because…" and Jack knew, but didn't really want to know. This was one time when he really would rather be wrong. Standing upright now, he used his arms only to protect his face, an action that was more comforting and reflexive, than helpful.

 

"I wasn't on the other planet with you. They don't know me."

 

And that answered one question.

 

"Terrific. So they what, want retribution by forcing us over a cliff? Holding a glowbug trial at the bottom of a canyon?" Could he send Daniel back to the gate for reinforcements? Would they let him go? And then what? Weapons would be useless, and anyone zatting these things would then be subject to attack themselves. But he'd be damned if he'd let those things push him or his team over that ledge. Over my dead body, he thought, which might prove more or less the way things turned out. He'd take them all on himself first, if he could find a way. Start zatting them, maybe, and have the whole fleet aim for him while the rest of his team ran. Sure, like they'd leave him.

 

"Let me go see what they want," Daniel offered, taking a few steps toward the cliff.

 

"Daniel!" Jack grabbed for his arm, but glowing orbs cut him off. "Stay the hell where you are."

 

"I don't think they mean to hurt me." The lights were trailing, giving Daniel a wide berth as he continued slowly on his way.

 

"Daniel!" Damn it. Jack clenched his fists tight as Daniel continued walking, right up to the edge of that cliff.

 

Which wasn't a cliff at all.

 

"Oh my God."

 

His team saw him stop, heard the exclamation, saw Daniel staring, saw the alien agitation that wasn't becoming more aggressive, that didn't seem to want to send him over the edge. And then Daniel turned around.

 

"You have to see this, guys."

_____

 

Daniel was back to staring at whatever lay before him.

 

Hesitantly - but trusting that Daniel hadn't been compromised by some sort of alien electrical mind control - Jack led the rest of the team towards Daniel, towards the cliff, keeping the energy balls in view as they went. The lights hovered, darted, and zipped excitedly, all around his archeologist. It made for a most disconcerting sight. Jack's stomach clenched tighter than his fingers.

 

As the team drew closer to the land's apparent end they approached even more cautiously, closing in on Daniel, nearing his side. And when they realized what he was looking at, they stopped in shock.

 

Down below, past a shallow slope in a wide gulley and stretching parallel to them for what seemed like miles along some ancient river bed, were thick transparent pipes, joined at junctions and reaching out at various angles, mostly upright and poking out of the ground like columns of some massive, modernistic Greek temple. A temple with no walls and no roof. Distant sections of piping were partly covered by soil and natural stone, their tips appearing from the ground like teeth of a giant comb, smokestacks of alien technology.

 

But what was most distracting, most disturbing, was that the pipes were all lit brightly from the inside… glowing, a glow that was fluctuating, pulsating, rippling. There was that muffled humming of electrical wires, barely audible but likely more pronounced from down below, coming from their interiors.

 

"What are we looking at, Carter?"

 

"I need to get a closer look, Sir."

 

"No… no, you don't, Sam." Daniel's incomprehension was clearing rapidly. "The lights…the energy balls… are inside all those pipes. That's what we're looking at."

 

"It's the lights lighting up the… lights?" There were billions of them. Looked like one solid mass.

 

"I believe Daniel Jackson is correct, O'Neill."

 

Jack's features registered confusion. "Why? That where they live? I thought they don't like glass jars."

 

"No, Jack, not when they're forced into one for experimentation and study. This seems more like something they've taken over - or built, like bees in a hive - and are using as a sort of nesting grounds."

 

"It's a nest?" Holy crap. Jack didn't want to know how many of those things they'd be dealing with if they wanted revenge on SG-1. Too many to make a difference, for it would hurt like hell and be just as deadly with barely a fraction of what they were looking at.

 

"If so, for what reason would these exhibit such agitation?"

 

"Because they can't get back in?" Daniel suggested.

  

"So why would they bring us here, Daniel?" Sam questioned her teammate, as if he had answers. "To help them rejoin the others?"

 

"Looks like it." Daniel shrugged optimistically. A much nicer thought than being repeatedly stung with low watt voltage. "Unless they're hoping we can build more. It does look unnaturally crowded in there."

 

Carter stared at him in dismay, hoping that was meant as a joke.

 

"So, not revenge?" Jack could deal with the new theory, for the sudden infusion of relief felt sweet, so sweet. "I don't get it, Daniel. Why didn't they bother you, back there?"

 

"I believe Daniel Jackson may have exhibited the least fear, O'Neill. Perhaps they sensed that he would be the one they could most easily guide."

 

"They singled out Daniel 'cause they thought he'd listen?" Jack gave his head a shake. Figures.

 

"Or they were just trying too hard with you three, and didn't realize they were upsetting you more that way." Daniel suggested, turning back to the pipes. "So how do we let them in?"

 

For a few moments the team pondered the situation, able to momentarily ignore the lights humming around them. Suddenly Sam inhaled deeply, her exclamation shattering the reverie. "Oh! I don't think that's it, Daniel. These pipes stretch for a long way... I think the lights are being used as a power source."

 

"What?"

 

"And you've decided this why?" Jack scowled at her, spurred by Daniel's look of incredulity.

 

"There's an incredible amount of power being generated in there, Colonel, and I don't think they're in there voluntarily, by the way this group is acting. You're right, Sir; the mass inside looks more like it wants to get out."

 

Daniel was slowly nodding, his brow creased in thought. "Sam's right. These would be down there flitting around, trying to show us they want to get in. But all they seem to want us to see are the ones crowded in there."

 

"So you're saying those are all trapped?" But there were trillions. Billions of trillions and whatever number followed that; Jack had never had the urge to count that high. "That the ones smacking into the pipes aren't just glad to see their relatives?" It did seem obvious now, his own head clearing from its initial surge of relief and optimism. Wishful thinking, too good to be true.

 

"And they want us to let them out." The implications of that not yet sinking in, Daniel's eyes seemed even wider than possible in the reflected light of the pipes. Had the piping not been so low in the gully, and the day so bright, SG-1 might have seen the glow well before they'd reached the edge of the embankment.

 

"Whoa, hold on. We don't even know who put them there. Or how."

 

"What's the difference? They're trapped! You said they care about each other, right, Sam?" Daniel turned in earnest to his comrade in science.

 

"They seemed to on 862."

 

"The difference, Daniel, is there could be a good reason for this."

 

"For sentient beings to be used like this, Jack? We haven't seen any signs of human life here, no buildings. Whoever did this must be long gone."

 

"And didn't think to free these buggers when they left?"

 

"Maybe they left in a hurry. Maybe they were taken by the Goa'uld," Daniel reasoned, not about to give up. "Maybe they did let them out, but a few were left behind. Over time they may have procreated to the point of, of… this. I mean, we don't know how quickly they do that."

 

"Perhaps the local populace placed them here not as a means of power, but for the safety of their own kind." Teal'c, too, was not about to forgive and forget. "This may well have served as a means of imprisonment."

 

"Yeah, so there's a thought." Imagine having to live with swarms of these things around.

 

"Or," Sam added, "they did use them for power, but left without freeing them because they knew the lights might come after them, the way they did to us. They never would have gotten away in time." She'd seen it for herself, and the vision of the colonel heading out into their midst, with barely minutes of safety time, would likely never fade. She'd been scared half to death for him, almost resentful for Cadet Haley's presence forcing her to disguise her anxiety. And all that over a simple misunderstanding and a single trapped light; what would they do with billions of their kind having been held hostage for decades and used as a power source? Centuries, even? That was a long time to build up hatred and hostility. Freeing them was not the first choice in her mind, either.

 

"Indeed. If we now attempt to abandon them, the ones that roam freely may choose to treat us adversely as well."

 

Jack huffed out a breath. "So, several billion trillion of these things chasing us. Give or take."

 

"So what do we do?" Options, in Daniel's mind, still had to exist, not that he could come up with anything at the moment. Leaving those beings in there was a heavy weight, and he wasn't certain he could happily leave them trapped and go home even if there was a way. But letting them out… he shuddered, trying not to envision the consequences. He didn't have a death wish.

 

"Wait here." Jack turned; his attempt to backtrack was an experiment undertaken without the consent of his team. But no sooner had he moved, then the lights grouped in a swift motion around him, increasing in their agitation and volume.

 

"Jack?" "Colonel!"

 

Jack paused, watching the lights settle, then took another step, away from his team and away from the sight of billions of glowing lights trapped in very wide transparent tubes.

 

The lights around him danced nervously, their humming uneven in pitch.

 

One more step forward, and two attacked.

 

"Ow!" Jack's hand flew to his face, and he swiveled around to protect himself further. Jumping to his aid, his teammates swatted and swung.

 

"Do not anger them further!" Teal'c roared, fearing an immediate attack.

 

But no more lights touched Jack. Instead, they drew in closer, crowding together in an attempt to force the team forward.

 

"Jack? I don't think - "

 

"Yeah, bad idea, but I had to know for sure," Jack rubbed at his cheek, which burned as if set aflame from inside. Déjà vu.

 

"Sir? Are you alright?"

 

"Terrific, Carter." Just great. Jack saw their choices narrowing to a pencil-thin line. More on the Daniel track, and that was about as certain as walking through a snake pit.

 

Daniel now knew firsthand what those things were capable of when antagonized; the stings on Jack's cheek were starting to redden and swell. "If we don't help them, they'll attack."

 

"Damned if we do, damned if we don't." If his team did help, the things might very well attack anyway, years of captivity by humans being a strong motivation for revenge. "You know, you've seen one human, you've seen them all." To those lights, all people probably looked alike. So… they knew pretty well what the 'damned if you don't' option looked like; the rest was still up in the air. The next sound deep in Jack's throat was a growl of disgust, one of involuntary surrender. "Let's find a way down there." And that was an order he knew he might regret for the rest of his potentially short life.

 

But finding a way down wasn't a problem they had to solve. The lights seemed to know the human trail down and were intent on guiding them, eager in their mission. It wasn't long before the team reached the bottom of a sloping, overgrown path into the shallow canyon. From this angle they could see that most of this section of piping had originally been buried underground, having likely been exposed after decades of inclement weather. It looked as though the open ravine had formed long after the piping had been placed, land eroded and wind-blown away, forming pockets of water-collecting rivulets. Dried mud had coagulated, resulting in small patches of clumpy mounds littering the indented, open areas.

 

And the lights were hovering, above the pipes, away from the heads of SG-1, in anticipation of what was to come.

 

"They seem excited," Daniel observed.

 

"Or bloodthirsty."

 

"We know they're sentient. They may also be intelligent," Sam said. "For energy-based life forms," she amended, intercepting the comment she saw coming from O'Neill. He closed his mouth.

 

Instead he scrunched up his face, wincing at the throb in his cheek. "So. Let's not keep them waiting any longer, kids." Or us. May as well get this over and done with. Not that he was in a great hurry to find out the fate of his team, but the suspense was doing no good to his blood pressure. If they were going to get out of this alive, he wanted to get on with it and go home. "And let's hope they're not just trying to get in." If his team had read this the wrong way, ending up destroying a species' home, every one of those alien creatures would have reason to retaliate. "Do we just smash this, or what?"

 

"They may look like glass, Sir, but they've probably lasted for hundreds of years. I doubt they're fragile." Carter grimaced, having to remind the others of one more thing. "And as these lights can go through solid objects, Colonel, the pipes must be electrified or they would have gotten out on their own." If they really wanted to.

 

"Ah. I knew that." Just forgot. Jack hesitated, avoiding anyone's eyes. "Well... good luck." What more was there to say? In a few more minutes, his friends might be dead.

 

He raised his gun.

 

"No!" Daniel's voice was dismayed. "What if that hurts them?"

 

"I think the only thing that could affect them is electricity," Carter reasoned. "And therefore the zats."

 

"We have to put a hole in this thing, Daniel. They know that. And we don't know for sure a bullet'll even go through a force field." He'd suggest C4, if he could be positive none of those critters would be injured in the blast.

 

"I doubt a bullet would be stopped by an electrified field, Sir; it shouldn't work like a shield."

 

"Take cover anyway. I don't want anyone getting in the way of ricochets."

 

"My staff weapon will likely suffice as well, O'Neill."

 

"Okay then, you start over there."

 

"Sir, the pipes might all be connected underground. We should aim at the same one."

 

"So we might not have to break into a couple hundred over the next few miles? Works for me." Although why Jack thought he preferred to face multiple trillions of these things from all the pipes combined rather than a few hundred thousand at one shot from a single pipe, was beyond him. Like it would make a difference? Just be over with faster; until they'd completed their task, he was willing to bet the lights wouldn't hurt them.

 

Carter faced the pipe with her rifle in hand. Assuming Daniel's Beretta wouldn't do much good unless he got too close for comfort, and because those pipes would be too hard to hit from a distance anyway, Jack positioned Daniel well out of the way. The lights were leaving Daniel alone, preferring to dance behind him and Teal'c.

 

"On three. One…. two…. Three."

 

They fired and dropped to the ground.

 

Waiting with his hands over his head, Jack felt no angry aliens zapping. He did hear Daniel's voice, and dared to look up.

 

The bullets had stuck halfway into the piping. The staff weapon blast? He squinted, rising. Teal'c was over there checking it out. Carter and Daniel were making their way to him, looking curious.

 

"Teal'c?" Any luck?

 

"O'Neill. The blast has created a deep pocket of melted material. I believe the substance to be weakened."

 

"Okay, try again." At this rate, it would take them a week to get through all those pipes if they weren't connected. They damn well weren't expected to find all the ones underground too, were they? Who knew what those light things wanted.

 

By the fourth blasts, large cracks had appeared throughout the targeted pipe, and with the next two volleys, one section finally gave way completely as it dropped diagonally to the ground from its broken end.

 

SG-1 jumped back and out of the way as streams of the lights swarmed through the broken joint. They kept coming, coming and coming, from deep underground, all the pipes seeming to empty consecutively all along the dry gulley, their interior glows dying out, as swarms of the lights rose and filled the sky like brilliant golden fireworks.

 

Noisy fireworks; not the thunderous booms of the pyrotechnic kind, but the buzzing of a gazillion soprano mosquitoes, until the air was full and Jack had to shout to be heard.

 

And still they kept coming, until the sky was so thick with brightness SG-1 had to shield their eyes. Jack squinted through his sunglasses.

 

"Let's move out while they're chatting with long-lost relatives and enjoying their freedom. Maybe they won't notice us leaving." Jack nodded his head in the direction of the path, and tugged at Daniel's sleeve while motioning to the others with his free hand.

 

SG-1 cautiously turned back, following the path up the bank, picking up the pace as they found their retreat unhampered.

 

Then Daniel looked back.

 

"Uh…Jack?" his voice wavered, calling attention to himself. "Turn around."

 

All of SG-1 turned to peer behind them. Billions of lights were following in their trail, keeping a steady marginal distance, not approaching, not interfering. A dust cloud of twelve katrillion quadrillion glowing mega molecules.

 

Jack's stomach lurched. "Let's hope they intend to keep that distance, all the way to the gate."

 

"You're sure they can't come through?" Daniel asked nervously, unconvinced. All he knew for sure was that Earth did not want them.

 

"Repels them," Jack was positive.

 

"Even if their numbers are more powerful electrically than the vortex itself?"

 

No one answered right away. Could that be how they'd come to this planet in the first place?

 

"I think so, Daniel. They're still individual entities," Carter theorized, hoping to hell she was right. Hoping the great mass didn't combine its energy into a single force.

 

"We'll go to another planet first just in case," Jack decided. "Not gonna take any chance on letting them through to Earth. Daniel, come up with somewhere uninhabited."

 

"Ow!" The anguished cry came from each member of SG-1 nearly simultaneously, and the bright enthusiasm of newly freed glow lights was the last thing they saw.

 

_____

 

"Daniel."

 

Daniel heard the almost-whisper, heard it in the silence of the surrounding stillness, and then felt the hand shaking him. "Daniel." Slightly louder this time, but not by much.

 

Not dead?

 

Ow. He lifted a shaking hand, trying to reach the affected spot on the back of his shoulder. "What was that?" Momentarily ignoring the sharp pain in his upper back, Daniel jerked into a semi-seated position, propped on his palms, opening his eyes to see Jack's concerned face peering over him. His glance edgily scanned over to Sam beside him, herself having roused just as suddenly, and Teal'c kneeling at her other side peering up at the people.

 

People?

 

It was then Daniel realized the interior darkness, the series of lanterns, his eyes finally focusing on the beings that held them. As his vision adjusted to the gloom and shadows, he became acutely aware of the crowd that ran several rows deep, the men and women becoming apparent in the murkiness, encircling SG-1, hovering over them. They seemed tall, from Daniel's vulnerable seated position at their feet. The mob was too thick to see much beyond the human bodies, all of whom were clothed only from the waist down in dull hanging folds of fabric.

 

All Daniel could tell for sure - judging by the uneven ceiling above and rock hard floor below - was that they were indoors, and if not for the lantern light, it might have been very, very dark.

 

"Can't tell you," Jack responded sincerely. "But it damn well hurt."

 

"Where are we?" Daniel inquired quietly, straightening his body into a complete sitting position.

 

"Your guess is as good as mine. Do you remember anything?"

 

"Starting to walk back to the gate." And that was it. "Something hit me in the back."

 

Same answer Jack had gotten from his other two team members. Same answer he'd given himself.

 

"Teal'c doesn't think we were attacked by the energy bugs. Neither do I."

 

"By what, then?" Daniel's head may by now have been cleared of its grogginess, but nothing was making any more sense than a minute ago. A spot right in the middle of his shoulder blades still prickled, stung, and itched simultaneously, and he tried shrugging his shoulders together to ease the lingering discomfort.

 

Jack recognized the sensation, and rubbed the area high on Daniel's back. "Them." He nodded towards the peculiarly hushed people.

 

"Why?"

 

"No idea. That's your job." Jack started to rise, and immediately found himself shoved back onto his butt on the hard ground by the quick movements of strangers and a short, blunt pole. "Hey!" Okay, so that had bought him some intel. These people weren't friendly. Or at least had a different version of how to show it. That would also explain why the team's packs, vests, and weapons were gone.

 

Almost as one, all around the circle the crowd moved one step closer, a narrowing of space that Jack would not have thought possible…

 

… and started spitting.

 

"What are they - !" Something landed on Daniel's hair.

 

"Crap!" mingled with worse swear words as dampness rained down on the four members of SG-1, who swiftly covered their heads with their jackets, lowering their faces into their knees, hands tucked into fists inside sleeve cuffs. Daniel sat cross-legged, bent over as low as he could manage, his jacket a tent over his head. The crowd shifted positions, the front row moving back and exchanging places with those behind, a continual regrouping pattern, each person in turn taking their aim.

 

"Damn it." Muffled curses came from underneath a jacket beside him, as Daniel tried to catch any sort of vocalizations from amongst the eerily silent crowd. Silent, that is, other than those undignified sound effects.

 

Daniel tucked his face still tighter into his chest, low to the knees, feeling the onslaught pelting down on the jacket he'd lifted up over his hair, his back, his arms and hands. He could still faintly hear Jack's muffled swearing, as he struggled to understand what SG-1 had done to cause this bizarre behaviour. But he knew. Were these the people who had trapped the lights? Had it taken them centuries to capture them all? To breed them in there? Had SG-1 destroyed their only power source? Did they have any idea that those lights were sentient, living beings?

 

"Why are you doing this?" he called out in many languages, hoping his voice wasn't as muted as it sounded to his own ears. But if anyone understood him, there was no such indication.

 

After what felt like long, dismal minutes the crowd backed off, the onslaught ceasing, leaving SG-1 to hesitantly extract themselves from soiled outer wear.

 

More swearing from beside him, as Daniel cautiously lifted his head to see what was happening. The crowd had retreated to positions against the walls, and all were staring at them. He could hear the rest of his team carefully removing their jackets, clothing that had covered their heads and faces, and Daniel swiftly did the same. Grabbing the dry inside of the jacket material and swiping it through his hair, he then wiped his pant legs and boots as best he could on the inner fabric, before gingerly folding it up from the inside out. Only then did he risk a look at Jack.

 

The man was a picture of disgust and fury, his face tightened into that hard rock of a mask that Daniel had come to associate with pure contempt. It was Teal'c who broke the tension.

 

"I believe these people are gravely upset. But they have chosen not to cause injury." And that, to Teal'c, was something to be studied, if not admired.

 

"For the moment." And then Jack cursed some more, his jacket tossed into a ball at the bare feet of the closest alien observer. He rubbed his hands through his hair, then wiped his palms on his tee shirt.

 

"Sir… their lanterns are filled with the energy beings."

 

"And?" Jack scowled in Carter's direction. Last thing he wanted to hear about was more of those goddamned bugs.

 

"And there are pipes sticking out of these walls." Which they could see a bit more clearly, now that the crowd had retreated to the edges of the large confines, its perimeter delineated by faint lantern light. A crowd that was still staring at SG-1 with glares that seemingly attempted to dismember.

 

"Get to the point, Major."

 

"Colonel, we have to assume we just destroyed these people's power supply."

 

Her teammates heard her words, their eyes flicking around the room, and knew them to be true. There were pipes, or columns - dark glass-like protrusions - sticking out from floor to ceiling and wending their way into a variety of large objects littering the walls of the room. Walls which looked ominously like the stone of natural caves. They not only were indoors, they were likely underground, if these were some of the pipes sticking up into the ravine.

 

SG-1's transgression seemed overwhelmingly clear.

 

"So," a moderately calmer Jack eyed yet more objects taking up space within the confines of the enclosed area. "Toasters, hair dryers…?"

 

"More or less, Sir."

 

"Maybe heating units, Jack, or cooking facilities. And, of course, lighting. We've thrown these people into darkness."

 

"Whole way of life then?"

 

"More or less." Daniel parroted. Yes, if these people had depended on the power from those pipes, then they were now cut off from any sort of life they had known before, living in this cavern. And were they living in a cavern because the lights were living outside? If so, they were now vulnerable to attack. SG-1 had depleted the only technology they had, and all these people had done was spit on them?

 

Jack was thinking along the same lines as Daniel. "They can't like us very much. Why the," he grimaced at his own impending words, "mild strangers-go-to-hell welcome?"

 

"Maybe they haven't decided how to handle this. They might still be in shock or denial," Daniel tried answering the lingering question. "Or maybe they just don't like violence."

 

"Keep the positive thoughts coming."

 

"What do we do, Sir?"

 

"No idea, Carter. We can't fix this."

 

"Would we, even if we could, Jack? Those lights were being confined against their will."

 

"Moot point, Daniel. It's irrelevant now." Would he have thought twice about releasing them, had he known the local inhabitants were still around? His team really hadn't had a choice.

 

"Sir, we could offer them a naquada generator."

 

Jack stared at Carter, a nodule of hope sifting through his pores. "Didn't think we brought one." Knew very well they hadn't.

 

"No, Sir. But if we could communicate with them, let them know what we have to offer…" She let the rest of the sentence fade away.

 

What she really meant was if Daniel could communicate with them, and three sets of eyes turned his way.

 

Daniel's mind was spinning. He'd tried all the languages he could think of during the spitting frenzy. Maybe he just hadn't been loud enough. "Well…" He nodded towards the pile of SG-1's belongings that the locals had confiscated, stacked along one side of the rugged, irregular room. Guns, packs, hats, vests. Nothing had been left in the pockets of their jackets; that had been clear when he'd used his as a sponge and discarded it. "If I can reach our flashlights, they might be curious as to how we get light out of them. We can take it from there."

 

Jack's hope leapt a notch. "I'll do it." No telling how far he'd get. He'd already been bounced back to his butt once. At least at the moment, however, the people were much farther back than they'd been before. He'd certainly see a pole coming, this time.

 

Which made little difference, for no sooner had he gone four steps towards the pile, than a pfft sound came from the shuffling locals. Jack felt a sharp burning pain in his thigh, and he was knocked to the floor with a gasp, face first.

 

"Jack!" Daniel stared at the small bright capsule-like object protruding halfway out of Jack's leg, fading until it was no longer visibly glowing. "What the hell is that?" Something inside him knew the answer, but his conscious mind refused to acknowledge its truth.

 

Carter was already at her CO's side, pulling the capsule, about three times the size of a gelled vitamin supplement, from his leg. She held it up in the light of the lanterns, already able to see it was completely empty save for the colonel's own drops of blood, a small hole in the sharp, narrow end where the contents had drained.

 

"I believe we have discovered another use for those glowing creatures," Teal'c stated.

 

"And now they're inside Jack?" Daniel asked ominously, his expression tight with disbelief and shock. What harm would that do inside a person? Jack had momentarily seemed to pass out, but was now grimacing, his face contorted with the reawakening of pain, his hands clenched into fists.

 

"Get it out!" He gasped, thrusting a fist towards the back of his leg, his eyes watering. "Get it out!"

 

Daniel reached a hand out to grasp Jack's, to pull it back to his side, his voice reassuringly calm. "It's out, Jack."

 

"Ah, crap," Jack complained through gritted teeth. "It's stinging like a bucket of bees."

 

"Still?" If those things were alive inside him, still active and stinging… but couldn't they go through solid objects? Why weren't they coming out? Not enough momentum?

 

"Fading now," Jack groaned, starting to breathe normally again. Give me a minute.

 

"So they die in there?" Daniel rationalized, horrified, his question rhetorical, unless Sam wanted to confirm his theory. "They must suffocate, or burn themselves out."

 

"Took my tissue with them," Jack scowled, trying to reach back again and rub his leg. At least they'd stayed localized, and hadn't run rampant through his body. If they couldn't get out, they probably couldn't travel too far.

 

"Let's have a look, Jack." There was already a small hole in the leg of Jack's pants; they could rip it slightly.

 

"I'm fine." Jack tried to turn over and sit up. There was nothing his team could do for him if he wasn't. He knew there was a fair-sized welt; he could feel it, both inside and out. Kind of like getting hit with a fastball at 95 miles an hour. No, worse… worse. Those batters all manage to limp to first base; Jack was pretty certain he couldn't quite stand, yet. He batted Daniel's hands away from his leg as Daniel eyed him with skepticism, holding his tongue. There was no point in arguing; they all knew there was nothing they could do at the moment.

 

"I'd say about six of those lights would fit into one of these. The more they squeeze in, the greater the concentration of energy," Sam was still examining the capsule, which appeared to be made of a thinner version of those pipes. The tingling in her fingers suggested this would have been electrified as well, although the sensation was fading. It would be the reason the lights could not have gotten out until the moment of entry, when the cap came off or dissolved at the narrow end. Maybe it only stayed electrified inside the projectile device.

 

Jack cleared his throat. Trying to feign nonchalance, he asked, "So how many of these would it take to kill, ya think?"

 

"From the number of wounds on Dr. Thompson, Sir, I'd say six or seven. But as these are more concentrated, and may cause more internal damage as the trapped lights try to get out, it might be half that. Or if one hit a vital area, like the throat or an artery, or the head - "

 

"So stay away from those damn weapons," Jack grated out an unnecessary warning. Everyone had already got the message. So much for non-violence.

 

"We do not know what the weapons look like, O'Neill."

 

"No, we don't. So keep a sharp eye out for everything in this place. If someone so much as scratches his nose, I want to know."

 

Aware that the locals had been watching them, Daniel directed his focus towards the group still sitting on the sidelines. It wasn't hard to catch their attention. "I'll try talking to them again." Daniel took a deep breath, and began in English, his voice a soft, steady, calming reassurance. This time, his hands free, he'd employ the aid of sign language. "Look, we just want our lights. Lights." He pointed towards the lamps hanging off poles in the wall. "Our lights," and he pointed again to the pile of supplies, then to himself. Still there was no response.

 

"You're doing well."

 

"Well, at least they're not spitting."

 

And Daniel had to admit that even spitting was better than live electrical power pellets shot into an artery.

 

"Lights. We have light." Daniel rose, making a tentative, hesitant move towards SG-1's belongings, gesturing again, slowly, carefully, hearing Jack's "Don't!" at the same moment a hand lifted in the sidelines, encompassed in a glove with a short narrow tube protruding from its center. Such a tiny weapon, and so easily concealed. Similar in design to known Goa'uld devices, and by no means primitive.

 

Daniel abruptly ceased his talking, and was pulled back down to the ground by the hands of friends. At least now they knew what to look out for.

 

"I don't know what else to do," Daniel sighed dejectedly. "We have to get to those flashlights."

 

"Not that way." The entry wound had stopped gnawing and bleeding, but the site still throbbed. Burned, almost. Through the fabric of his pants Jack could feel a large bump, the whole area tender to the touch. While those energy beings must have lost potency the minute they were released under his skin, they seemed to bounce around in there far too long before dying.

 

And so the team sat there, listening to the quiet hum of indiscernible voices, watching the hateful stares of the locals sitting around smoking something that smelled more vile than uplifting. Others stood around the now non-functional pipes, chanting as if in ceremony to the dead. In the background, women quietly sobbed. The voices of children might have been in there as well, bodies hidden in the shadows.

 

"They are mourning their misfortune."

 

"Those women seem to be at a loss as to what to do next," Sam observed.

 

"Maybe they think this is temporary, expecting their power to come back on. They might not realize those lights were living beings."

 

"Well they'll be waiting a long time," Jack chimed in. "And I don't intend to be here when they realize the truth."

 

"I believe they know the truth, Daniel Jackson. It is the reason we have been brought here."

 

"So what now?" Daniel turned to face Jack.

 

Nothing now, as it turned out. The opportunity to devise a plan was lost, as the men began to rise, first one and then more. As SG-1 braced themselves for another spitting ceremony, this time with no jackets for cover, they realized something else was happening. With many of those small palm weapons now revealed and pointed at the team, the men motioned for SG-1 to rise as well. That body language came across loud and clear.

 

Slowly complying, hoping for some nonexistent plan to suddenly materialize, SG-1 found themselves being herded into a tunnel, deeper and deeper, narrowing and growing darker as the locals fell into pairs behind them. Now with fewer lanterns lighting the way, it was hard for the team to discern the large metallic object looming up ahead in their path. But as they approached, they could see that it was glowing from the inside and a narrow doorway was waiting open in the rear. Or front, depending which direction it was facing.

 

"Crap. We're supposed to get into that?" Jack tried to stop, but was shoved from behind.

 

With an entire mob of angry locals behind them refusing them exit from this underground tunnel, SG-1 again found themselves choiceless. Pushed and prodded, fearing retribution from a weapon that sent light bugs burrowing into bodies with the sting of electrified barbed wire, they were forced to enter the oval-shaped contraption.

 

The door slammed shut behind them, locking them in. A sudden tilt indicated an incline as the thing began to move downhill.

 

"What the hell is this? Some sort of cable car?" They could feel themselves slowly descending, and Jack leaned into a wall so as not to lose his balance. He was jolted backwards into Daniel by a sharp electrical shock. "OW! Electrified." He shook out his arms.

 

Daniel stared in dismay. "Okay… so, don't touch the walls." Which made this vehicle even smaller.

 

The interior of this car was a six-by-eight foot oval, an egg standing on end, flattened on the bottom. Their eyes were guided to the long bent bar tacked to the ceiling, barely more than a foot over Teal'c's head; a bar filled with buzzing, vibrating lights, so densely packed that the movement was hardly visible. But they had no doubt what it was. Apparently the individual energy sources in this place had not been affected by the major power outage of the freedom train. Like the lanterns, these hadn't been connected to the main piping system.

 

"Colonel… I think we're descending into an old Goa'uld mine. Those people must inhabit the upper level." Carter's face was tight, her voice sharp.

 

"The Goa'uld used cable cars?"

 

"Well, unless it's a buried pyramid, it's a mine of some sort, Sir, and most of the planets we've come across were either mined by, or for, the Goa'uld."

 

"Maybe whoever harvested the lights built the cars, Jack. Who knows how long it's been or how the society developed after the Goa'uld left. Judging by all the pipes outside, the settlement must have been fairly large and this tunnel could go on for miles; this was probably their local transportation."

 

"Subway system?"

 

"I'd say so."

 

As the car slipped deeper into the underground passage, picking up speed, the tunnel became even darker, leaving behind all traces of the chamber above. The way ahead was lit only by the car's single power tube, hundreds of living lights within the mechanical equipment itself.

 

It was almost twenty minutes later that the car slowed abruptly and came to a stop, three teammates unsuccessfully trying not to bump into each other, as they kept their distance from the walls. Very little outside the vehicle was visible. Interior illumination showed the tunnel continuing up ahead, dipping downwards into a blanket of blackness, and the rock walls of a cave nearly touching the car on either side.

 

"That's it?" For a moment, no one responded to Jack's confusion. It belonged to them all. "Where's the next station?"

 

"Perhaps we are to be imprisoned here."

 

"No food? Water? So why not just kill us back there? The spitting, what was that about?"

 

"My guess, Jack, would be that they wanted to show their contempt before doing away with us. Quiet anger is far more effective than shouting, or a sudden arrow through the heart."

 

"So, what; the energy bullets were too fast-acting for them?" Jack scowled. "Or they just didn't want to watch? Not that I mind still being alive, don't get me wrong there."

 

Daniel sighed. "Killing us quickly does kind of detract from the punishment factor."

 

"Sir, I was thinking… " Sam paused.

 

The situation was too annoying, and Jack too irritable, for him to bother with a sarcastic comeback. "By all means, don't hold back."

 

"If this really did start off as part of a Goa'uld mine, and the cars were added later by some other race, there might be transport rings here somewhere."

 

"I like that line of thinking, Major."

 

"So, we need to get out and have a look around," Daniel nodded, futilely straining to scan through the upper windows of the egg.

 

"And we do that how? It's electrified."

 

"I might be able to find some way to short it out, Sir."

 

"The only light we have is in that tube," Jack needlessly reminded them. "Can't take it with us." Not that he was debating Daniel's idea, but the going would be difficult and more detailed suggestions would be helpful.

 

"O'Neill, if there is a ring transporter here, it would require a large alcove or chamber away from this narrow track. We would be able to feel along the walls for such a distinct area."

 

"Or it could be in a room at the end of the tunnel," Daniel added. "There might even be - as you said, Jack - another station coming up, more rooms and communities that they didn't want us to see. We could walk it."

 

"Ah, so more people to spit on us."

 

Sam squeezed between Jack and Teal'c, aiming for the door in the rear of the small car, the one through which they had been forced to enter. "We can't get there anyway, Daniel. There's not enough room to pass on either side of the car, nor on top. This is the only way out." She knelt down, examining the door latch, a simple lever and mooring, easy enough to use if this had been a public transportation vehicle. But there seemed to be no accessible interior wiring, from what she could see. The electrical field had to have been connected from the outside, and most likely, very quickly for the benefit of SG-1. She could use that to her advantage.

 

She had to force the door open, but without tools, her options were slim.

 

"And, let me be the one to ask, what if there are rings? Where would they take us?" Jack so didn't want to find himself on a Goa'uld ship, with real live snakeheads hanging around. He glanced at Sam on the floor, her nose inches from the door. "Careful, Carter."

 

"Hopefully up to the surface, Jack. We didn't see any sign of a Goa'uld ship in the air."

 

"We didn't see any sign of a subterranean species either, Daniel. But trust me, they're here."

 

"No… but the Jaffa formerly based on the surface may have wanted to keep an eye on the miners without getting dirty," Daniel cocked his head in thought, hoping his theory would pass without too much scrutiny. More likely the rings would have been the quickest way to get whatever they were mining out of the mine and into their ships for transport. Okay, so the rings might try to take them to a Goa'uld ship… and failing that, deposit them into space somewhere. "And," he added, "we may even have been brought down here with them. If the people here are too afraid of the light bugs to venture to the surface, they must have had some other way to transport us than by going outside where all those lights were flying around." Although, yet another unknown means of conveyance was ultimately possible. These people were full of surprises.

 

"Or another set of rings might just send us back up to the room those people had us in."

 

"It's better than staying down here, Jack."

 

"So why wouldn't they have just ringed us into the tunnel?" If there were rings.

 

"Because then we wouldn't be locked up. Or maybe they didn't want us to know about them."

 

Carter had removed her boot. That door had to open; simple survival fact. It might not even be locked from the other side, for all she knew.

 

Rising quickly, she reached up and slammed the boot down on the latching lever.

 

Sam's cry was shrill, piercing, as a sharp, brilliant zap of power flashed out, throwing her backwards into the colonel, both of them crashing the few remaining inches into the opposite wall. Light exploded around them, the little glowing drops bursting from the now open power module.

 

"Sam!" Daniel shouted, just before falling to the floor himself, hands wrapped around his head, an effort to avoid the lights now flinging themselves in panic around the little car. Scrunching his eyes tight, he waited breathlessly for the painful stinging of trapped, angry, razor-sharp aliens. Had that been a power surge? Overload of an electrical circuit? Or booby-trap, meant to release the deadly bugs if SG-1 attempted to leave? Was this the final retribution, and this cable car their coffin? Faster than dehydrating after all.

 

Instead of pain, Daniel heard the sound of groans coming from the floor nearby.

 

Opening his eyes slightly and turning his head, Daniel saw the last of the lights flicker into the distance, as total blackness enveloped them.

 

"Jack?"

 

For a moment there was only shuffling, the coal dark of the cabin's interior denying him sight.

 

"Carter?" The voice was low, but anxious, beside him.

 

"Sam?"

 

Just silence.

 

"Major Carter."

 

"Jack? You're okay?" Daniel moved, bumping into a crouching body. "Sorry. Where is she?"

 

"Here."

 

Daniel's hand was grabbed, and guided downwards. Coming into contact with Sam's prone body, he groped for her neck, finding Jack's other hand already there. The pulse was strong and entirely too fast. "She took quite a jolt, Jack."

 

"I know."

 

Daniel could sense Jack reaching for Sam's face, gently calling her name again. "We have to get help."

 

The pause seemed to span minutes. "Teal'c, stay here with Carter. Daniel and I will go search for rings. Barring that, we'll head back up to that room and try to deal with those people again."

 

"I think the lights were supposed to kill us. They weren't meant to get out. The people think we're dead."

 

"Then they'll be seeing ghosts. Teal'c?"

 

No one could see the dip of Teal'c's head, but they heard the soft, intent voice. "I will remain here, O'Neill."

 

Jack felt his way across the floor to the rear of the car, hesitantly stopping somewhere near the door. If those things had escaped, the vehicle should no longer be electrified. He reached up to the latch, a latch which had been rigged to release a flurry of deadly energy bugs, if tampered with. Was that what the spitting had been for? To buy time while someone set this up? Apparently those people hadn't counted on an electrical short. They hadn't counted on Carter risking electrocution to force that latch open.

 

He scowled, and gave it a try.

 

The door slid open freely.

 

"We're out, Daniel."

 

Daniel felt an arm on his own, and a slight tug in the opposite direction. With a hand on the back of Jack's t-shirt, he stepped cautiously out of the car.

 

"Okay, feel along this wall, I'll take the other side." Leaving Daniel with a supportive pat on the shoulder, Jack felt his way over to the opposite wall, just over six feet away. He began searching along its length for an opening, some sort of alcove or chamber, stepping carefully along the unseen trail. "Knew I should've brought the dog." The tunnel was narrow, only a couple of inches wider on either side than the car itself. The smooth canal in the center of the floor was obviously the track along which the vehicle functioned and guided itself. Luckily, all power was off.

 

The two men slowly trudged back uphill in the darkness, following the wall, Daniel lagging behind as he stopped to investigate with his fingers any gouges he thought could be markings or words, instructions of some sort. Wishful thinking. Inevitably they turned out to be nothing more than construction defects or other unintentional scratches.

 

It was only when his hands fell into a wide open space, his brain momentarily stunned at actually finding what they might be looking for, that he realized how far behind Jack he had fallen. "Jack? Found something." His voice rose shakily, excitement and hope getting the better of him.

 

"Where are you?" The question came from up ahead.

 

"Cross over and make your way back here. I've found an open area." Holding onto the wall's edge, Daniel reached out with his other arm, still finding no connecting wall.

 

"Stay where you are. Wait for me."

 

Within half a minute, Daniel heard shuffling a few feet away, and the footsteps stopped.

 

"I'm at the other end of the opening, Daniel."

 

"I'm going to crawl into it and check out the floor," Daniel stated.

 

"I'll follow the wall around the inside, see if there are any controls anywhere."

 

"Okay." On his hands and knees, Daniel slowly ventured into the perpetual blackness, his hands and fingers feeling the uneven ground in front of him, feeling for what, he didn't really know. Rings? Would they be covered up with dirt and stone chippings? Buried too deeply to find? Would the floor feel different, circular, at some point? If he bumped into the opposite wall, he'd reverse and try again. In the meantime, he could hear Jack sliding his hands around the enclosure.

 

"Ahh!" Daniel inhaled sharply. "Damn!" Daniel's arm sank into water, nearly toppling him headfirst before he caught onto an edge of something with his other hand, shoving himself backward.

 

"Daniel!" Jack was on the ground, shuffling towards the voice.

 

"Stop, Jack! There's a huge well of some sort."

 

"Found it." Carefully Jack crawled around the edge until he felt his teammate, and grabbed onto Daniel's ankle. "So no rings?"

 

"No rings. Not here, anyway. I guess the Jaffa or workers needed to drink… or something." What exactly was at the bottom of that pool he had no desire to find out. Could have been a disposal tub for dead workers, for all he knew.

 

And this place may have never even been used by the Goa'uld at all. That was just a guess on Sam's part. This could just as easily have been the town bathtub.

 

Feeling his way to Daniel's shoulder, Jack stood and helped his friend up while stepping back, assuring himself neither of them would plunge in head first. "Let's keep looking. If there's one alcove there could be more." And if not, eventually they'd find themselves back where they'd started, and face those people once more.

 

Letting go of Daniel only when they'd reached the relative safety of the outer walls of the tunnel, Jack made his way back across the track to the portion of wall he'd already covered. Once again, his speed was more rapid than Daniel's. "Daniel? Keep up."

 

"Trying, Jack. But if there's any writing here, I want to know."

 

"First priority right now is to get help for Carter." Hopefully she was awake and alert by now, but he had no way of knowing without their radios. And even so, they needed a way out. The only other option was to spend eternity in a small cable car stuck between subway stations, and that wasn't going to happen no matter what some angry alien locals thought. But in the back of Jack's mind, he knew that if Carter was okay, she and Teal'c would've been right behind them by now.

 

"Coming." But Daniel couldn't help stopping to check out one more set of engravings, hoping somewhere in here some slave had in desperation put instructions as to another way out. Secret passage, or something. Or maybe even a distance marker; descending in a moving vehicle was a lot easier than trudging blindly uphill, and Daniel wanted to know how much farther until they reached the landing where angry aliens awaited them. Although, he was pretty sure the aliens thought SG-1 was already dead. Moving too quickly, he might bypass that one significantly important piece of information -

 

A dim light came into view up ahead, rapidly getting brighter and larger, closer, and it was only when he heard Jack shout his name and saw the other man's silhouette jump across to his side of the tracks, did he realize it was another of those cable cars, speeding downhill towards them.

 

"Back down to the opening!" Jack hissed in his ear, one hand on Daniel's shoulder, pushing him on as they ran back down the incline, trying not to trip on the smooth canal of a track, feeling for the wall in the vague shadows cast by the oncoming car's interior light.

 

"Nearly there, Jack!"

 

"Go! Go!"

 

As Daniel threw himself into the opening, furtively trying to miss landing in the well, he heard a thud and a cry, another thud and a grunt. His stomach lurched, his heart threatening to access his throat. He felt the whooshing and brush of air as the vehicle rushed past the small chamber.

 

"Jack!"

 

Daniel lay on his side, leaning on an elbow, panting while his heart raced, listening for a sound, waiting for the reassurance of his friend.

 

Instead, he was jolted mercilessly by the sound of metal smashing metal, and the impact pulsed through the ground and shook debris off the walls of the endless corridor, reverberated through his body and screamed into his blood, the echoes gradually fading. Daniel closed his eyes, regaining control of his breath, as he prayed for the two friends left behind. Right now, he could only help Jack. If he could even do that much.

 

"Jack." Daniel felt his way back to the doorway, deathly afraid of what he might find, his stomach twisting. His hands felt Jack lying face downward, just inside the chamber, and Daniel's nerves were pounding to get out. That car had been only inches from the wall, not enough room to pass a person.

 

Jack was at least... as far as Daniel could tell so far... all in one piece.

 

"Jack?" His voice shook as his trembling hands groped around for a pulse, anything to tell him his team leader was still alive. The air of Jack's breath tickled his wrist, and he felt his eyes moistening with immediate, blessed relief.

 

"Ow!" Jack tried to push up on his palms, groaning as he fell just inches back onto the floor, his undamaged cheek to the stone. "Ah, God!" Gritting his teeth, he tried to inhale the pain.

 

"Stop, Jack! Don't move."

 

The anxious voice was just above him, the hands gently keeping him down.

 

"God. Ow. Daniel?"

 

"I'm here. Where are you hurt?"

 

"Give me a minute." Would take that long to trace the origin of the pain. As his body settled into a mere sharp throbbing, he managed, "You okay?"

 

"I'm fine, Jack. I think the car hit you."

 

"Good thinking," Jack groaned. "But I think it just rammed my foot. I may have got a bit too intimate with the floor in here though."

 

"I can't see you." There remained a wavering edge to the voice, one unable to disguise the fear and escalating panic. Jack wasn't asking to be helped up. "I can't see how badly you're hurt."

 

"Damn." Jack cursed, knowing they didn't need another man down. But while the arms he'd fallen on would be okay, and his stomach and chin would recover from the bruising, he knew that leg wasn't getting up on its own. "I think it's mostly my ankle. Or a bit higher." He didn't need to mention the knees.

 

"Meaning…?"

 

"Something's broken." Definitely broken. Through the pounding in his ears Jack heard a sigh, and hoped it was relief and not aggravation.

 

"Are you bleeding?"

 

Kinda. "Doubt it."

 

"Doubt it? Jack - "

 

"No, I'm not bleeding, Daniel," Jack lied. The broken bone above the ankle was from the impact; the wet pain in his shin was definitely from something rock-hard protruding beneath him. A sharp rock... yes, hopefully just a rock.

 

"I can't help you," Daniel repeated anxiously, trying to stay calm. "I can't see anything."

 

"I know, Daniel. Stop worrying, I'll be alright."

 

"Stay here. I'll continue up the track and get help."

 

"Alone? Like hell you will."

 

"There's no other choice, is there?"

 

"Help me back to the cable car. I'll take over from Teal'c and he can go with you."

 

"The cars crashed, Jack. Even if Teal'c's alright, we won't be able to get past the second car to reach him and Sam. They're trapped in there."

 

Crap.

 

Oh crap. Jack's insides went cold; he must have passed out after he'd been knocked down, for he hadn't heard any impact. "Those people knew we were on our way up, Daniel. And they'll know again. They'll send another car down to run you over." One you won't be able to avoid.

 

"Maybe." The voice was so quiet and calm, Jack knew Daniel was going one way or another, and there was nothing he could do to stop him.

 

"We don't need three of us injured, Daniel." Or maybe there were already three. If that car had smashed into the one with Sam and Teal'c… crap, they needed their radios. Radios that were sitting up top decorating a pile of accessories.

 

"What's the difference, Jack? If I don't try, we're all as good as dead."

 

Jack remained silent, and felt a clasp of his hand, another on his shoulder, and Daniel's voice was low and soft beside his ear.

 

"I'll get us out of here."

 

And then there was shuffling, and Jack knew Daniel had gone.

 

The words were too quiet, and too late. "Be careful, Daniel." For a while Jack lay still, mired in the wrongness of the moment, unable to dissipate the foreboding that drenched him with sweat and dread. He had no idea if Daniel would survive the angry mob of aliens. He had his doubts.

 

Slowly, painfully trying to shift position, Jack reached towards his leg in an attempt to feel the state of his shin and foot.

 

_____

 

Unless the crash had been meant to flatten all of them in the other car - in case the bugs hadn't done their job - Daniel knew they knew he was coming. He used the wall as a support, a guide, but no longer attempted to discern any writing, no longer tried to be stealthy or slow. If they were going to send another car, it would hit him. If not, they would be waiting for him when he reached the upper chamber. He knew that. What would happen when he got there was in no way predictable, although chances were it wouldn't be good. The uncertainty and need to help his teammates spurred him on, pushing consequences out of his mind. What would be, would be.

 

This time the dim light up ahead sent his nerves sinking, the anticipation of being crushed warring with the fear of leaving injured teammates to fend for themselves. And another crash would undoubtedly kill Teal'c and Sam if the first one hadn't already. This time, there was nowhere to run. Pushing himself as close to the wall as he could, Daniel closed his eyes and sucked in his breath, preparing for intense pain.

 

It didn't come.

 

Daring to look, Daniel pondered the light that was still the same distance away. Had the car stopped? Was it guided by motion, confused when his own forward movement had ceased?

 

Slowly Daniel took a few steps towards it, and then a few more. Only gradually did the light grow stronger, brighter, as he approached. It was with a flood of relief that Daniel realized what he was seeing; not the light from another oncoming vehicle, but the dim light from lanterns in the open room occupied by a crowd of tormented aliens.

 

He was almost there.

 

And then what?

 

_____

 

Unable to lever himself up, lacking the strength or determination to continue trying, Jack slowly pulled himself through the opening on his stomach, sucking up the pain of a dragging leg. His bruised left knee wouldn't even let him crawl. Waves of agony followed each movement, but he'd be damned if he would just lie in that alcove waiting for his last teammate to come up with a miracle. He had more important things to think about than a broken bone. The car had wrenched his foot as he'd turned, slammed him through the doorway onto the ground, and he'd allow himself later to consider the consequences. Right now, he had to find out if his other two teammates were still alive. The fact that no other car had yet come by to run him down also meant that Daniel was still okay, and that was the only positive thing he could console himself with at that moment. Three down and one to go wasn't something he cared to consider. But, unless the locals had suddenly gained a reasonable proclivity for compassion, Daniel wasn't in for an easy time. Jack wasn't even sure if he'd rather be in Daniel's position, or his own, right now.

 

On second thought…

 

With a frustrated, agonized groan, Jack lay back down on the track, knowing he'd have to postpone his plans. There was no way he could drag himself downhill, all that way. No; he'd be content if he could drag himself back into the alcove.

 

"Teal'c?" he shouted, just in case. The name echoed down the tunnel, but that was all.

 

Clenching his face involuntarily, he pulled himself back through the opening and out of the way of any more oncoming vehicles, then lay back to absorb the pain.

 

It had been at least a half hour since Daniel had left him. Hopefully that was a good sign, for he had no choice other than to wait for that miracle after all. Good luck, Daniel, he whispered. Counting on you.

 

_____

 

Daniel hesitantly stepped out into the room. All eyes were on him - or most, anyway. As he looked around, he could see some of the women still quietly weeping for a lost way of life, and he desperately wanted to explain.

 

His voice was quiet and reasonably calm as he pointed to the piles of SG-1's belongings. Vests in one pile, small contents of their packs in a second. Weapons in a third; he could see the radios and camera near the top. They thought those were weapons? Or had they grouped them together because of the metallic properties? "I need to show you something." Daniel took a step towards the third pile, hoping that's where the flashlights would be. Then another step, and one more.

 

The two shots hit him with a flare of electrified pain, directly in the back, and he dropped like a sodden sack. Dozens of razor blades seemed to be dashing madly through his veins, cutting him up from the inside.

 

He lay there, eyes squeezed shut, trying to get his breaths back under control. When the severity finally started to ease, Daniel agonizingly forced himself to his hands and knees, compelled himself to crawl another step towards the pile, towards the flashlight that had one chance in hell of convincing these people that he could help them. Maybe this time they would be curious to see why he was so persistent. Maybe they truly might want to know.

 

Or maybe not. The third shot hit him between the ribs, and down he went.

 

Fighting the need to pass out, forcing himself to persist, Daniel barely noticed whether he was still moving, dragging himself along. The stings felt even more powerful this time, radiating through to his chest, or maybe that was just the result of an already weakened state. But just a few more feet would bring him to the treasures of home, allow him to reach for the light and turn it on. Allow him to demonstrate that there was more than one way to access light and power and electrical energy. Just a few more feet. After that, he would be at the mercy of anyone who wanted to deal with him.

 

Daniel reached out. He could see one; a flashlight was at his fingertips, right among the other battery-powered devices. At his fingertips, he was touching it. Touching. All he had to do was flick that switch -

 

The shot blasted into his hand, and the flashlight rolled off the pile onto the floor, kicked far out of reach by a bare, unknown foot, as Daniel gave in and passed out.

 

The owner of the foot watched with his weapon still extended, watched until he was certain this pest would not get up, this destroyer of their world. They did not dare to keep him around, wreaking havoc with their lives. The tribe of four had brought nothing but disaster, had brought nothing that they could use, yet had taken everything.

 

They could not afford to waste their darts, for without being able to replenish, the skilled hunters would no longer be able to find meat for the clan. But, for their own safety, they must forfeit a few more. They had no choice. Perhaps later they would be able to figure out for themselves how to use the hunting tools of these invaders.

 

Six of the hunters stepped forward, aiming at the downed intruder. That ought to be plenty.

 

Daniel didn't awaken as the first shot hit him in the neck.

 

_____

 

Teal'c thought he may have heard his name, but there was nothing he could do other than listen. There was no way out of this cable car, what with the door crushed up against another vehicle now. Although the metallic walls had partly buckled in the crash, the transparent surfaces had not cracked. All he could hope was that the sound had been O'Neill or Daniel Jackson on their way back with aid, a hope that had little substance. His head injury would be healed by his symbiote, but Major Carter's injuries were uncertain. She had awoken before the crash but was once again unconscious. It greatly frustrated him to do nothing but bide time and wait.

Both Teal'c, trapped in his battered cable car, and Jack, in his vulnerable position on the alcove floor, were caught off guard by the sudden, unexpected flurry of lights.

 

From the ceiling of the tunnel they swarmed in, growing in thickness and intensity as the throng swiftly descended. Shifting Major Carter to lean against the wall, Teal'c shielded her body with his own, as the light beings swarmed into the cars, thousands of them.

 

_____

 

Ignoring the screaming pain in his lower body, Jack thrust himself up against the alcove wall, where he sat huddling, knowing he could do nothing more. As the light forms could penetrate solid objects such as people anyway, this final attempt at self-preservation had been painfully pointless.

 

But the rippling in Jack's gut was familiar; there had been a time in a submarine, trapped with Teal'c, when he'd felt exactly this. Jack cowered closer to the wall, wishing for electrified boundaries, and lowered his head. Not that such an action would help; multiple jolts to any other part of his body would be just as fatal, even through clothing.

 

Still, he kept his head down, waiting for the first of many deadly stings. Thoughts of his teammates raced through his mind. These lights would go after everyone, good guys and bad alike. All he could hope for now was that Carter and Teal'c were unconscious and wouldn't feel it happening. Daniel, though… Jack sent a silent prayer up to his friend. Daniel, as he, would die alone, and aware.

 

He was too far from the cable cars, didn't see the lights enter the power tubes, didn't see the two broken cars slowly moving uphill.

 

Moving in synchrony, keeping pace and gaining speed.

 

Swarms of lights were pressed against the power tubes, filling the vehicles, lighting the way ahead. Had Jack been looking he would have seen Teal'c with a bloody face, staring out the window, a dazed but conscious Carter leaning against his arm.

 

_____

 

"Daniel Jackson!"

 

Sam couldn't move the way Teal'c did, but the sight of Daniel lying there so still had her nearly able to suppress the pain in her ribs and chest and head as she limped towards them, her face painted with worry. Teal'c was already crouching by the archeologist, feeling for a pulse, examining something. Sam barely saw the last of the locals running, fleeing, hardly heard their screams. Barely took notice of the incredible brightness filling the cavern. She flopped to the floor with a grunt, swaying slightly. Her face grew even more solemn. "Teal'c?"

 

"He is alive." Teal'c held out five empty capsules, his eyes conveying more than words.

 

Sam stared for a moment, before speaking. "Where?"

 

"Here," Teal'c pointed to Daniel's neck, hand, and back. "And here. I cannot tell if there are more beneath him." Either way, removing them now would be futile.

 

Sam laid her hand on Daniel's head. "Daniel," she spoke his name softly. The archeologist was alive, but she had absolutely no idea what internal damage he had suffered. It wasn't as though she had any experience dealing with this.

 

"Major Carter." Teal'c was staring at the underground populace; a few were still running, shouting, tripping as they fumbled in their hurriedness, chased by swarms of little sentient lights.

 

Sam squinted into the glaring radiance. "They're fleeing, Teal'c."

 

"Indeed." Within moments the cavern was empty, dim once again, the only lights being those in the lanterns braced against the walls. Echoes of screaming faded into the distance.

 

"Do you think they'll come back for us?" Sam was still trying to awaken Daniel, her hand gently rubbing his cheek. It scared her to see him this way.

 

"I do not. There were sufficient number to come after us already, had they so intended."

 

Sufficient number; what an understatement. But Sam could do with the reassurance. "I guess they forge allegiances." And we released them. Rescued them. And they returned the favour.

 

"It so appears."

 

"Teal'c?" She asked hesitantly, afraid of the response. "Do you know what happened to the colonel?"

 

"I am almost certain I saw him in a recess beyond the main tunnel; I will go now to find him." Teal'c grabbed a flashlight. He was not sure why O'Neill would still be down there; perhaps he required reassurance that it was indeed safe to come out of hiding. Perhaps he was on his way up right now. Or perhaps something else had occurred, for why was Daniel Jackson here alone? "Remain with Daniel Jackson." Teal'c set off into the tunnel, and began to run.

 

Sam watched for a moment, then turned her attention back to the other injured member of her team. "Come on, Daniel," she soothed, stroking his hair. "Please wake up."

 

_____

 

"O'Neill."

 

"Teal'c? What's going on?" Jack knew how ragged that sounded, but the pain was dizzying. He blinked at the larger man crouching beside him, the sight of him beautiful in this ugly place, even with the blood-stained face. For Teal'c was talking, walking. Even the light shining on his leg did not go unnoticed; Teal'c had one of their flashlights, and that was a good sign in every respect. Stunned, Jack realized that the energy beings must have returned to help them. "Are you okay?"

 

Teal'c caught Jack staring, knew he might be a worrisome sight. "I have suffered a minor head injury. My symbiote is healing me." Teal'c had ripped Jack's pants leg, was studying the swelling and clotting blood.

 

"OW." Right; symbiote. Head injury? With Teal'c's knack for understatement, that was more likely to be a concussion than a scalp wound. At least he was mobile. "Carter?"

 

"Major Carter regained consciousness but appears to have a concussion and broken ribs. I believe she will be fine."

 

For the first time, Jack felt himself relaxing. At least the electric shock hadn't done permanent damage to her, nor the crash. "Where's Daniel?"

 

But Teal'c was observing the muddy well in the center of the otherwise empty chamber, seeing for himself that there were no rings. Transporting his team leader would have to be done by hand. He didn't think it wise, nor would O'Neill, to wait for help. "Daniel Jackson and Major Carter are in the chamber above. I must carry you back through the tunnel."

 

"Teal'c - "

 

Teal'c grunted and Jack followed suit, far more loudly, as Teal'c carefully tipped him over a shoulder. "Hold yourself steady and do not attempt conversation. I will move as quickly as I am able."

 

"Hey, watch where you put that hand."

 

"That would be difficult, O'Neill, as I must focus on the track ahead. Shall I aim the flashlight at your buttocks instead?"

 

'Uh, no, no. No, just don't jostle me too much."

 

"I will not, unless I am forced to continue speaking."

 

_____

 

An abundance of swear words and curses later, his jarred, injured foot nearly causing him to pass out more than once, Jack still knew that sending Teal'c back home for a wheelchair or stretcher and returning for him would take far more time than his own impatience would have allowed. He wanted to see what the hell had happened up there, although he pretty well figured he knew. Somehow, Daniel had made a deal with the locals, and now Carter was enthusiastically showing them how to use all those battery-operated gadgets in their packs. Sometimes he loved scientists. Specific ones, anyway.

 

When Teal'c finally placed him gently on the floor, Jack was not expecting to see Daniel lying unconscious in an empty room. The sight chilled him, sent a sudden surge of negative energy up through his body, adrenalin fighting his pain. With confused clarity he realized Teal'c had told him where Daniel was, but not how he was. It dawned on him, then, that Teal'c had done that intentionally, and he tossed the Jaffa a scathing look as he slid closer to his downed teammate. "What the hell happened?"

 

"Five pellets, Sir."

 

"He's alive?" Jack's nausea warred with his attempt at speech. Five?

 

Sam nodded, her features grim. Frightened, almost. "We don't know how long ago this happened, and he won't wake up."

 

"Crap. Where is everyone?" But this time, he was fairly certain he knew.

 

"The lights chased them out of here," was Sam's succinct reply. The colonel could make his own inferences.

 

Jack's vision shifted around the room, over to Sam, back to Daniel. He laid his fingers on Daniel's neck, checking for a pulse. "Carter… what you did - "

 

"There was no other way, Colonel. We had to get out of there."

 

"You could've been killed."

 

"Yes, Sir. But I took the chance that the electrified field wasn't very strong, as you hadn't been hurt too badly when you fell against the wall."

 

"Ah." Jack paused, shifting, looking up for a brief few moments, meeting her eyes. Right. She'd known. He almost smiled, before recalling the jolt she'd actually ended up taking. "Thanks."

 

Sam nodded.

 

Jack put two fingers back on Daniel's carotid, needing repeat confirmation that his friend was still breathing and pumping blood. They all knew the damage a couple dozen attacking lights could do, but only Jack understood the difference between the infernal internal damage and the external yet fatal attacks that Dr. Thompson had endured; he had experienced both. Even now Jack could feel residual pain where he had been hit on his leg. The surrounding tissue was numb, the center swollen and painful to the touch. Other leg than the one he had broken. Raised swelling had shown on Daniel's neck and hand by the time Sam and Teal'c had arrived; now, Jack lifted Daniel's shirt to see for himself what lay beneath.

 

The same large welts were apparent on his lower and upper back, dried blood capping the sites where three of the capsules had entered. Internally, they had no idea what was happening; hopefully, nothing had penetrated too deeply.

 

"I'm worried about the one in his neck." Jack didn't take his eyes from Daniel as he spoke, and Sam felt the concern radiating. All they knew was that Daniel wasn't awakening. "Teal'c. Are you okay to go to the gate and dial for help?" The direction taken by the locals should be the way out, or so they hoped. Certainly wasn't the way back into the mine. "Of the three of us, you're the only one fit to walk that far."

 

Teal'c gave a half nod. "I will not be long in bringing back help, O'Neill."

 

"Take the flashlight. Take two; give one to the locals if they try to stop you."

 

"I will run into no trouble." Teal'c grabbed another light and a GDO, and was gone in an instant, following the route indicated by fleeing locals and vengeful energy beings. No, he would run into no trouble; the inhabitants were too busy trying to save themselves.

 

As Teal'c disappeared, Jack lowered Daniel's shirt. "Daniel?" He gently urged once more, still receiving no reply.

 

Carter eyed the ripped pants and matching bandage around the colonel's lower leg and ankle, the scrapes on his chin, the lingering welts on his cheek, and turned towards the nearby pile of supplies. "I'll get the med kit, Sir."

 

Jack nodded distractedly, his attention on Daniel. You did good, kiddo. Now stay alive.

 

But as Sam lifted her head, trying to will her body to move, Jack remembered her discomfort. "Sorry, Carter. I'd do it myself if I could," he said softly. Placing his hand lightly on Daniel's shoulder, Jack shifted and groaned, noticing more aches than just in his lower leg. "Hit your head?"

 

Sam gave a slight nod. "It's alright, Sir. I can manage." She pushed herself off the ground, made it to her knees, and slid around to where she could see the med kit, on top of an empty pack, leaning against the wall. Remaining motionless for several seconds as her head cleared, waiting for the pains in her chest to subside, she gingerly stood up, carrying it back to her teammates.

 

"Carter? Why are you limping?"

 

"Ribs, Sir. Flung into the wall when we crashed."

 

Right. Teal'c had said that. "Great pair we are," Jack muttered. "Forget my leg, Carter. Take care of Daniel."

 

"I have no idea what to do for him, Sir."

 

"Got any anti-inflammatories or antihistamines in there?"

 

Carter nodded. "Only in tablet form though."

 

"Then I guess, just treat the entry sites."

 

_____

 

The lights were coming back.

 

It had been almost an hour since Teal'c had left. If this cave was connected to the canyon, it would take at least that long for him to have reached the gate. If anything had happened to him, it would be a while before they knew. Jack sighed, shifting his re-bandaged leg. Carter sat leaning against one of their now refilled packs, her eyes closed.

 

"Carter."

 

Sam looked up at the sound of the colonel's urgent whisper, saw him motioning.

 

The lights were hovering, just a few dozen, above the lanterns now. Carter sat up straighter and watched. "They want us to release them."

 

"Yeah. Got that."

 

Pressing her hands against her chest, she slowly rose. "Stay there, Sir. I'll do it."

 

Jack watched warily as she made her way over to the first lantern. He tried to convince himself his team hadn't been kept alive solely to accomplish this final task. Even so, he had to stop himself from halting her, from telling her to wait until help arrived. He honestly didn't know if the light beings would have that much patience. "Take your time, Carter. Drag it out as long as you can." Only for a second did he remove his eyes from her progress, as he placed a finger again on Daniel's carotid … just to make sure.

 

There were low voices in the room. Room. Pain in his back, in his head. All over.

 

Suddenly Daniel's eyes flew open, and in a brief surge of panic he atttempted to push himself up from the ground on his swollen hand, before realizing it was Jack who was there beside him. His nerves filling with pain from the effort, he failed in stifling a groan.

 

"Whoa! Stay put." Jack's hand on his back was firm and heavy, and Daniel sank back down, cheek to the floor, vision spinning, stomach lurching unsteadily. In spite of his friend's obvious discomfort, Jack couldn't stop a wistful smile, and he caught the fleeting relief in Carter's expression as well.

 

"How'd you get up here?" Daniel mumbled into the floor, eyes needing to remain closed. Sharp stabbing needles alternated with a more muted, all encompassing throbbing in his back, neck, and head. How long had he been lying there? Last he remembered, his teammates were trapped far below in a cable car wreck, and someone was pumping him with living shrapnel. This was better. "Thought I'd died."

 

"Right, like I'd let you do that."

 

Daniel heard more words as he drifted back to unconsciousness, but what they meant he was never going to remember.

 

_____

 

"Doc said the inflammation should ease up in a couple of days."

 

"So I heard." Daniel avoided Jack's sympathetic gaze.

 

"I know how it feels."

 

"I guess you do."

 

"Fine, screw the small talk. You've been grumpy since you woke up, and that was yesterday." Jack picked at his cake. He'd already eaten an hour ago, and had only come back to the commissary on Daniel's invitation, before going home to heal and recuperate. The guy obviously wanted to talk about something, even though he wasn't talking.

 

Daniel took a breath, and paused again. Fitting the spoon carefully into his bandaged hand and finally making eye contact, his words revealed the concern that had been playing on his mind. "They killed them all?"

 

"What?" That took a moment to work its way through Jack's comprehension.

 

"The lights killed them all?"

 

"We had no head count, and found only men. So, maybe not all." He knew Daniel had seen some of the bodies; his eyes had opened once on the way to the gate. Closed again either from exhaustion, pain, or horror, Jack hadn't been able to tell. His own shock and revulsion at the grotesque figures lying scattered about had obscured the rest of the journey to the gate. He couldn't even say how long it had taken them to arrive. SG-7 had carried the two litters; Carter had limped back on her own. Jack had found himself staring at the sky most of the way, trying to avoid seeing the scattered bodies. After the first glance he'd avoided looking at Carter, too. He didn't enjoy seeing that look on the face of any of his teammates.

 

"They didn't deserve that."

 

"The lights rescued us, you know."

 

"And wiped out an entire population!" Daniel's spoon banged back into his bowl more loudly than had been his intention. He grimaced apologetically.

 

"We don't know that, Daniel. But those people were enslaving them and using them for their own benefit. You know those things were sentient, whatever they were." Crap, it was usually Daniel talking like this. What the hell?

 

"Yes, they were using them. But maybe they didn't know what they were doing. They likely weren't the ones who'd put them in those pipes. It was just their way of life, handed down from some time long ago."

 

"Not so innocent, Daniel. They did know what they were doing. They were living underground to avoid the things, and had the place and all their devices electrified. They knew the lights would escape and attack them otherwise. They were playing with fire."

 

"No, they didn't, Jack. Those weren't people waiting to die, in that room."

 

Jack paused, considering Daniel's words. "So they thought the electrified barriers were still intact, Daniel. And they were still using the energy bugs to their advantage, regardless of whether or not they knew how the force fields worked."

 

"Humans on Earth use things too, Jack. Where would we be if cows and chickens suddenly developed the ability to sting us to death? What about birds, and hamsters, and all the other pets we keep caged up? The lights just happen to have been able to fight back."

 

Jack stared at Daniel, watching the other man avert his eyes again, playing with the spoon in his chicken noodle soup. Okay, so they all would be dead if animals had their revenge. "So they were a murderous species. Should we have left them in the piping system and lanterns?"

 

Daniel sighed. "No."

 

"Even if we'd known they'd go and do that?"

 

Looking up from his cooling soup, Daniel shook his head. "I don't know."

 

"They'd been trapped, possibly for hundreds of years."

 

Daniel was silent.

 

"You're bothered because you couldn't save them both this time."

 

Closing his eyes, Daniel sighed again. He knew Jack was right. This time the line had been indistinct, and he hadn't been able to do a damn thing.

 

His bandaged hand still hurt, his back and neck were stiff and tender. But those lights had known who the enemy was this time around; way smarter than they'd ever been given credit for, over the years. Who was to judge, just because they were small, nonverbal, and - at first glance - cute.

 

"Not much of a way to live, for either of them." Underground, or held hostage inside pipes. Was there that much of a difference?

 

"We freed them. They didn't have to kill."

 

"Self-protection. They didn't know the humans wouldn't recapture them, Daniel. Do we let terrorists just roam free?"

 

Again Daniel's eyes met Jack's, and they were filled with hurt. He nodded. "I understand."

 

"I know you do."

 

Daniel just nodded again, pressing his thumbs against his eyes. "How's your ankle?" He knew SG-1 would be without their team leader for a long while, and that sucked too. Thank goodness the surgery had gone well.

 

"Hasn't healed that much since you last asked. Don't change the subject." Jack kept his focus on Daniel as his friend's features gave in to weariness and resignation.

 

"You're right. I'm sorry we couldn't save everyone. I'm sorry I was unconscious when they were attacked. I'm sorry I couldn't get through to those people."

 

"It wouldn't have mattered, and you know it. The lights regrouped and were coming back one way or another. They knew the cave was no longer electrified."

 

"Maybe they came because the locals imprisoned us. They saw us shot and captured, after we'd freed them."

 

"You think they came to avenge us and not themselves?"

 

Daniel shrugged. "Yes. Maybe. Both."

 

Jack leaned back in his chair. "They saved your life, Daniel, showing up when they did. That gives them, oh, just a wee bit more warmth in my heart, at the moment, than those people."

 

Daniel furled his tongue over his lip, thinking. He knew he'd have done anything to escape being in confinement for an entire lifetime, not to mention confinement for his generations of offspring; he couldn't blame the energy bugs for what they'd done. To them, the locals had been no better than Goa'uld. It all came down to perspective.

 

"If some of those people did escape… or were allowed to, we need to help them. They might not even have to live underground any more."

 

"SG-3 is going back to set up a generator right by the gate. They'll have floodlights set up for three days. If anyone's around and curious enough to come by, they'll show them how to use the equipment. Beyond that, they can't risk a search. It's too dangerous, Daniel, with possibly two species out for revenge."

 

Daniel stared into his bowl. That would have to be good enough; he understood the risk SG-3 was taking just going back. For a moment he even understood Jack; too much thinking just left one more confused than ever. So he changed the subject, again. "For a minute I thought you were dead."

 

Jack stared, then realized to what Daniel was referring. "Back at ya."

 

Daniel nodded, his gaze shifting to the crutches on the floor and the leg propped on a chair, almost up to the knee in a cast. "Teal'c's signed it."

 

"And Carter. Your turn." Jack slipped the now ever-present markers from a pocket. Green, yellow, blue. "Go for it."

 

Hesitating only a moment, Daniel took the yellow marker into his bandaged hand and drew clumps of small yellow balls. Then taking the blue one, he gave them smiley faces.

 

"Original."

 

Daniel chuckled, drawing glasses on one. "Better than explaining to someone outside the mountain that they represent the billions of miniscule energy-based life forms we freed from forced slavery, from whose captors we were fleeing through an ancient alien mine on a distant planet when this happened to you. There, happy faces. We all came home alive." And with a bandaged hand he clumsily signed his name.

 

 

---

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Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of MGM, etc. I've written this story for entertainment purposes only.