“We really could have just blown a hole in the crew compartment hull,” he said.
“I think that would affect its aerodynamic properties,” Sam said.
“Unfortunately, I think you're right.”
“There's just Keret left,” Sam said.
Jack frowned, leaning back on the rail, or maybe that was just the only expression he could manage at the moment. “Yeah, I've been thinking about that,” he said. “It might be a good idea to keep somebody aboard who knows how this thing works.”
“Do we really want a hostage?”
“Better than being hostages, right?” Jack shrugged. “Who knows, we might even be able to trade him to the High King for some really nice sheep.”
Sam couldn't repress a laugh. “Yeah, I think we can live without the sheep,” she said. “I think I can figure out how to fly this thing back the way we came. Probably. And I don't imagine Keret's going to be in the mood to help.”
“Maybe not, but I like having a fallback plan,” Jack said.
There was a sharp crackling from Sam's pocket, and both she and Jack stared at it for a moment before she pulled out her radio and thumbed it on. “Daniel? Teal'c? Do you read me? This is Major Carter.” She waited, and then shook her head. “Okay, nothing, but I'm definitely picking up a signal.”
Jack tilted his head a little to one side. “Have we seen anything to indicate that these people have radio?”
“Nothing, and if they did, I expect they'd be using it,” Sam said. “It would make a big difference in terms of coordinating the movements of these airships.”
“So that's our people out there.”
“Or at least their radio.” Sam gazed out over the rail, but there was nothing moving against the morning sky but a few swift clouds. “If we head back to the gate, we can come back with a rescue team and track them by their radio signal.”
“As soon as we can get home and then talk those yahoos back in the capital into letting us come back. And if there's a Goa'uld hanging out in the capital who would probably be pretty unhappy to learn that we're here⦔
“We might not get back very soon.” It was hard to drag her gaze away from the sky. “What did you have in mind?”
“You can track their radio signal too, right?”
“Sure, although if we're planning to be a rapidly-moving object trying to track another rapidly-moving object, some kind of bigger directional antenna would help. I should be able to rig that up easily enough, though,” Sam said.
Jack fished his sunglasses out of his pocket, made a show of cleaning fingerprints off them, and then put them on, adjusting them in the slanting sunlight. “Then we can go after Daniel and Teal'c.”
Sam wished she felt as confident. “Even assuming we can go after anybody in a ship we really don't know how to fly⦔
“If we can fly back to the capital, we can fly in another direction just as easily,” Jack said. “Right?”
“It probably depends on the winds,” Sam said. “But, okay, even granting that we can do that, what happens when we find them if they're on another airship that's just as big as this one but fully manned? I don't even know what kind of weapons these people use to fight ship-to-ship, but do we really want to find out?”
“If Daniel and Teal'c have their radios, they'll get in contact with us,” Jack said. “If not, we need to get close enough that we can figure out what their situation is. Keret said that the captain of the other ship was likely to run off chasing some kind of treasure. They'll have to tie up somewhere to check it out if they actually find it.”
“Keret said he didn't think the treasure really existed.”
“He could be right, but we haven't got much else to go on. And there's another thing. You haven't been able to pick up any radio transmissions from the MALP, have you? Or from anybody back at the gate?”
“There may not be anybody back at the gate, if Hammond was captured along with Daniel and Teal'c and we haven't been able to send a rescue team through yet.”
“Maybe,” Jack said. “Or maybe we're out of radio range of the gate. I think that's pretty likely. Which means that if we head back, we're going to give up any chance of getting in touch with Daniel and Teal'c.”
“All right,” Sam said after a moment. “What do we do first?”
“We get Keret put somewhere safe,” Jack said. “Then we get this thing back in the air and put some distance between us and the rest of these goons. And then you can rig up that antenna.”
I
t was tempting to dump Keret back in the compartment they'd been locked in and nail down the door
â
Sam wasn't sure whether she wanted to believe that impulse was Jolinar's or not
â
but they settled for putting him in the large cargo cage in the center of the middle deck. That way they could keep an eye on him and talk to him without having to open the door, although at the moment Keret wasn't making any visible efforts to escape.
“We could make a deal,” Keret said. “There must be something you want.”
“Some Percocet and a cheeseburger,” Jack said. “Oh, wait, did you mean things I want that I'm likely to get? I'd like to find my teammates.” He was sitting on a container near the cargo cage, taping his knee.
“Do you want me to help with that?” Sam asked.
“No offense, Carter, but I think I'll pass on your first aid for now.”
“None taken, I guess,” Sam said.
Keret shook his head. “How do you expect to take them back from Reba?” He'd made himself comfortable, stretched out on a pallet of sheepskins with his ankles crossed. Just looking at it was enough to make Sam wish she'd taken the opportunity to sleep when she had the chance.
“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Jack said.
“I might be able to negotiate their release. For a percentage of the fee, and of course getting my ship back.” His lazy expression didn't change, but his voice was sharp on the last words.
“I'll keep that in mind,” Jack said. “Let's get this show on the road.” He took the stairs to the upper deck deliberately, as Sam headed for the ones down to the engine room. She leaned toward the speaking tube once she reached the controls.
“I'm going to adjust the gravity drive for neutral buoyancy,” she said. “I think if I play around with the settings, I may be able to actually increase our top speed significantly, but I don't want to experiment while we're on the ground.”
“Fair enough,” Jack said. “Fire up the engines!”
“Actually, sir, I think that's a bad idea while we're on the ground, too,” Sam said. “Normally we'd be starting from a mooring mast, or from the rails that guide the airships in and out of the big hangars back in the capital. We're going to have to get airborne before we start up the propellers.”
“So, what, you turn down the gravity and we lift off like a kite?”
“Not so much turn down as, um, direct up,” Sam said. “You should probably hold onto something.”
“Oh, jeez, Carter⦔
Sam ignored him and slid one of the switches wired into the crystal array slowly from closed to nearly fully open. It spat sparks, and she yelped and sucked at her hand where one of them had scorched her. There was a moment when she wondered if the connection was shorting out, and then her stomach dropped. She bounced experimentally on the soles of her feet and had to grab for the table edge not to go flying. Only 0.25 G, if that.
She found a convenient handhold bolted to the side of the pillar
â
clearly she was not the first one to try this trick
â
and held on tight. “Here goes nothing,” she said, and pushed another switch open.
It was as if the room had suddenly pitched upside down. She was being pulled toward the ceiling, not violently but strongly enough that she had to twist in midair to hang onto her handhold and catch at the underside of a nearby bench for balance. A number of small objects were rattling across the underside of the deck above, although most things thankfully seemed to be bolted down.
“That's enough!” Jack shouted. She hoped that was his judgment of their altitude and not just disapproval at weird Goa'uld technology.
“All right!” she called, and then realized she couldn't reach the switch that needed to be flipped to return the direction of subjective gravity to something more normal. She gritted her teeth, hauling herself up, and finally managed to slide it back to its original position. The room flipped again, and she landed more or less on her feet.
“I'm going to fire up the engines!” she called.
“Can we not do that again?” Jack said after a minute.
“Yes, sir! If we try not to land again, sir!”
She began starting up the engines, hoping she wasn't neglecting some essential step in the start-up procedure. They started with a sputter that turned into a steady growl, and she glanced at the gas tanks that were presumably fueling them. They were nearly full, although she had no idea how long they were intended to last.
“One more bridge to cross when we come to it,” she muttered, and engaged the propeller. “All right! You should have steering!”
“We're away,” Jack said. “Come take a look.” He sounded more cheerful than Sam thought was called for under the circumstances.
“Yes, sir,” Sam said, and headed back up the stairs. On the deck above, she felt some of her normal weight returning. Keret considered her through the bars, and then shook his head.
“You must have ships like these at home, or else a lot of sheer dumb luck. You know messing around with the box of winds like that is dangerous, don't you?”
“Box of⦠oh, the gravity drive. The box with the crystals, the one that controls the ship's weight and which direction it⦠well, wants to fall?” Keret nodded grudgingly. “I've seen technology something like it before.”
“It's the gods' work,” Keret said. “You're no priestess.”
“Not hardly,” Sam said. The last thing she wanted was to talk about Jolinar. “We've captured a few Goa'uld ships, gliders. One of them had a partly-intact drive that we've been studying. I wouldn't have thought there was any way to safely interface it with the rest of your technology, though.”
Keret shrugged. “Sometimes ships do explode.”
“Right,” Sam said after a moment. “We'll try to avoid that.”
“Carter!” Jack called.
“Coming!”
The wind was chilly but no longer bitterly cold when she came out onto the upper deck. Sunlight slanted in from one side, illuminating half the deck, while the rest was shaded by the canopy above.
“Come take a look at this,” Jack said.
She came to his side at the rail and looked out. Her breath caught at the sight. They'd cleared the edge of the plateau, and were turning to follow the course of a wide gap between towering mountain peaks. Behind her, she could see the crewmen they'd left behind starting to make their way down a trail that wound down to the barely visible shapes of rooftops halfway down the hill.
Ahead of them, the sky opened up brilliant blue between the dark crags of stone. Higher up the mountains, sun glittered off snow carved into jagged points by the relentless wind. A flock of dark birds arrowed into sight and then slid by below them, unable to match their speed. Far below, the valley twisted and turned, following the shape of a river far below.
“It's beautiful,” she said.
“Isn't it?” He was smiling, his hands confident now on the controls.
“You really like flying, don't you?”
She expected a flip answer, but instead he nodded. “We cover a lot of ground in this job, but we don't get to spend a lot of time in the air.”
“I wanted to be a fighter pilot for a while,” she said. “Back when it seemed like they were going to lift the ban on women in combat positions any minute.” She shrugged. “By the time they decided women could fly combat missions, I'd already decided that science was a better bet.”