“Major Carter!” Teal'c called, and Sam looked up just in time to dodge a tumbling block of stone that could have flattened her. Even far up the slope, stones were showering down, the ancient buildings coming down like badly-built towers of blocks.
She climbed faster, finding a path between the ruins, entirely occupied for a while with the struggle to keep her footing and avoid loose rocks that were sliding downhill. Finally she reached a level patch of ground near the top of the ridge. It wasn't what she would have called safety, but the ground wasn't sliding under her feet and there wasn't anything higher to fall on her, so she stood her ground, turning to see what was happening below her.
The rumble of thunder had turned into a roar, as earth and stone slid and cracked. As she watched, the ravine widened into a gaping chasm, and then the stone below it began to slide, toppling out into space as if an enormous hand had chiseled it away from the mountain face. She saw the airship anchored low on the hillside twist in the rush of air, its canopy bright against the sky, and then tumble as the rocks it was anchored to tipped toward the gorge below.
“My ship!” Keret shouted, and took a couple of sliding steps downhill. The ship twisted in the air, its canopy billowing, and then an enormous chunk of tumbling rock struck it, smashing through its upper deck and ripping the canopy. The fabric flapped bright for another moment, and then burst into flames, one rising swirl of fire that blazed up and then plummeted out of sight.
“My ship,” Keret said again, numbly.
“I'm sorry,” Sam said. She really was, too; it had been a pretty ship.
“Okay,” Jack said. “I think we're going to need a different ride home.”
“That would be my ride,” Reba said, pointing upward. Jack followed her gaze to see another airship hovering at a cautious distance beyond the ridge, its banners flying in the wind. “Now are you willing to make a deal?”
Jack armed his zat. “How about, you get your people to pick us up, and I don't shoot you?” He knew it wasn't a good deal, and wished he had a better one to offer. Staying where they were seemed like a bad idea. It was already getting colder, and the ground under their feet was still shaking even as the new, much-abbreviated hillside below them began to settle.
“If you shoot me, they certainly won't pick you up,” Reba said calmly. “I might be willing to talk about that valuable reward your people were planning to pay for you, though.”
“I'm sure General Hammond would be happy to pay you for your trouble in taking us home safely,” Daniel said. “Especially if we made it clear to him that we'd been your guests rather than your prisoners.”
“I don't have guests,” Reba said.
“Your customers, then,” Daniel said. “You must have those.”
“From time to time.”
“See? This could all work out perfectly well for everybody,” Keret said.
“Not for you,” Reba said. “Have fun trying to walk home.”
“You wouldn't just leave me here,” Keret said.
“Well, you did try to kill her,” Daniel pointed out, which Jack didn't feel was the best thing to say at the moment to smooth things over. He was beginning to suspect that Daniel liked the woman more than he was ever likely to admit, which seemed about par for the course in terms of Daniel's taste.
“I stunned her,” Keret said. “As the result of a regrettable misunderstanding.”
Reba shook her head at him. “What, you tripped and your thunderbolt went off?”
“More like the regrettable misunderstanding where we had a plan to capture some valuable Tau'ri prisoners, and she ran off with two of them after I did most of the work.”
“If you think you can charm your way onto my ship⦔
“Then what?”
“You can keep trying,” Reba said.
“Excuse me?” Jack said, waving his zat wearily to get their attention. “We'd really like to go home now.”
“If I were really inclined to let bygones be bygones, I might show you the modifications to the box of winds that let us catch up to you,” Keret said.
“Why would you do that?”
Daniel threw up his hands. “Maybe because he doesn't want you to leave him on a cold and very dangerous mountainside?”
“Or because I'm a fundamentally helpful person,” Keret said.
“Who doesn't want to be left here to dry up and blow away,” Reba said. “I don't need a device of the Ancients to tell me that.”
“So let's all just click our heels together⦔ Jack began. He trailed off, listening. “Do you hear that?”
Daniel looked downhill in alarm. “Another landslide?”
“I don't think so,” Sam said, her face lighting. “I could be wrong, but⦔
“But you're not,” Jack said, shading his eyes with his hand to scan the sky. “That's a helicopter.”
He finally saw what he was looking for, the welcome shape of a Kiowa helicopter lowering toward the most level patch of ground its pilot could find, its rotors stirring up the dust from high above them. He extracted his sunglasses from his pocket, pleased to find them still in one piece, and slid them on.
“That would be our ride,” he said with satisfaction.
He was aware now of how tired he was, now that there seemed some chance of getting to sit back and let someone else handle their travel arrangements from here on out. The Kiowa was kitted out with external seating for transport, which wouldn't make for the most comfortable ride, but he wasn't about to hold out for first class seats.
They'd go back to the SGC, and Janet would lecture him about undoing all of her good work, and Carter would fall asleep in a chair until Daniel woke her up and offered to drive her home.
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Teal'c would go do whatever Teal'c did when he was off duty and tired
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watch TV, possibly, with an enormous tray from the mess hall at his elbow and no one asking him to shoot anyone or save the galaxy for a few hours.
And eventually he'd have to go home, and walk into his empty house where no one left their lunch on the kitchen counter. He'd gotten used to that, though. He wondered about the Ancients sometimes. How much time did you have to have on your hands to build an elaborate device to tell you what anybody with any sense already knew?
He looked over at Keret. “We will be boarding shortly. You coming?”
“On that thing?” Keret said. “I don't think so.”
“Besides, we would probably have to turn you over to the authorities when we got back to the Stargate,” Carter said.
“I think I'd rather be her prisoner,” Keret said, glancing at Reba.
“I'll bet.” Reba gave him a hard look, but it wasn't one that suggested she was actually planning to leave him behind. Not that Jack would have felt that unjust, but he wouldn't have felt very good about leaving anybody stranded alone up there. “You'd better have learned something useful from the Tau'ri.”
“You'd be amazed,” Keret said.
“I doubt that. I'm probably going to regret this.”
“No, you won't,” Keret said. He flashed them his wolf's grin. “No hard feelings?”
“Don't push your luck,” Jack said.
“If you ever seek a career other than piracy, consider rebelling against your false gods,” Teal'c said. “It would ultimately be more rewarding.”
“All that tribute,” Keret said. He looked thoughtful, although Jack was pretty sure he was imagining all that tribute going straight into his own pocket. On the other hand, nobody ever said you couldn't rebel against the Goa'uld unless your motives were pure.
“Good luck,” Daniel said to Reba. “I'm sorry it didn't work out the way you hoped.” Jack shot him a look. “All right, no, I'm not, particularly, but I'm sorry that you didn't get anything you wanted out of this.”
She shook her head, and then smiled a little. “You could pay me that ransom you promised me.”
“I'm not sure it would be very safe for you to collect it,” Daniel said.
“There's always some catch,” Reba said.
“Tell me about it.”
The helicopter was landing, sending dust and loose stones scattering down the hillside and drowning out all conversation for a moment. Jack motioned to the pilot to cut the rotors, and collected his team with a glance.
“Come on, kids,” he said. “Time to go.”
He began piecing his way across the uneven ground toward the helicopter. As he did, a small figure climbed down from the passenger door, and he recognized Janet as she started toward them, medical kit in hand.
“Watch your step!” Jack called.
“It's good to see you in one piece, Colonel!”
“More or less,” Daniel said.
“We need to get out of here,” Carter said. “This hillside's still unstable.”
“I am entirely in favor of that,” Jack said. “I'm pretty sure right now what we all want most is to go home.”
“No argument here,” Carter said.
“Indeed,” Teal'c said.
Daniel cast one reluctant glance back over what was probably a very archaeologically important crumbling hillside. Somewhere under all that fallen rock might be more records of an ancient civilization, but they weren't going to find them. And neither was anybody else. No more skeletons would be piling up down there, flies trapped in the honey of a device that made promises no one could keep.
“Daniel,” Jack said.
“I know,” Daniel said. “Let's go home.”
“S
o it wasn't a complete wash,” Daniel said. “At least I've got my notes on the one tablet we got our hands on, and I remember a fair amount of the inscription we found in the chamber with the device. Considering how little we know about Ancient, that probably counts as a significant discovery.”
“I'm glad to hear it,” Hammond said patiently. As far as he was concerned, the important thing was having SG-1 back safely. After a night's sleep and the chance to wash up, they looked slightly less like something the cat dragged in. Janet had firmly insisted that Jack use a cane for at least a few days, which Hammond noted he was using, if grudgingly. Sam and Daniel were both sporting some bruises, apparently having been nearly caught in a collapsing underground tunnel, but Hammond was well aware that it could have been worse.
“And we also destroyed the Ancient device. Which, before anyone points out that it was probably scientifically important, was also killing people,” Jack said.
“I'm not going to argue with that,” Hammond said. “On the diplomatic end of things, I'm afraid our trade negotiations with the High King's people have been called off for the foreseeable future.”
“It's a shame we won't get to try that excellent cheese,” Jack said.
Daniel frowned at him across the table. “Or get our hands on any of the other writings left by the Ancients.”
“It was probably all more philosophical stuff,” Jack said. “What is the sound of one hand clapping and all that.”
Teal'c raised an eyebrow. “How can one clap with one hand?”
“It's a kind of a⦔ Jack looked across the table for rescue. “Daniel?”
“It's a question that's not supposed to have a rational answer,” Daniel said. “The point is to meditate and let your intuition guide you.”
“More practically speaking, I'd like to take another look at that wrecked glider they've got down at Area 51,” Sam said. “Playing around with the drive on the airship has given me some ideas that might help on the X-301 project.”
“I'm glad to hear that, too,” Hammond said. “Since SG-1 is going to be on light duty while Colonel O'Neill recuperates, you should have plenty of time to go down and take a look.”
“Just find us a mission that doesn't require mountain climbing, and I'll be fine, sir,” Jack said.
“I think we'll wait until SG-1 is ready to handle whatever they might run into out there,” Hammond said.