Hammond tried again, using very small words. “Where are my people?” He could see two small airships steaming away at a furious pace in different directions, the sun gleaming off their brass fittings. Both were too far away already for him to make out the tiny figures moving on their decks. “I take it you think they're aboard those pirate ships, or whatever they may be.”
“They are the ships of pirates, wicked men who prey upon the righteous, and your servants have surely been taken aboard as prisoners,” Walat said. “We will hear from the men who have done this soon enough. I am sure they will be eager to begin negotiating for your servants' timely and safe return.”
“You mean ransom,” Hammond said. “Is that what all this was about?”
Walat nodded. “It is fortunate that they were not able to capture a more valuable person.”
“My team is valuable to me, and I want them back,” Hammond said firmly. “I suggest you send some of your airships after those pirates rather than waiting around for them to send us a ransom note.”
“I am sure their demands will not be unreasonable,” Walat said. “This is a common enough misfortune.”
“And you didn't feel you should mention that?” Hammond scowled at Walat, all too aware that he wasn't making any headway by simply making demands. “All right,” he said after a moment. “What kind of a message are we supposed to get?”
“They will send word to us through one of the villages when one of our grain ships stops to collect the harvest,” the High King said. “We will tell you of their demands when we hear of them.” He looked around. “Where are the tablets?”
“They're gone,” Walat said. “The pirates must have thought they were of some value if the Tau'ri desired them so greatly.”
“Then send for some other token for the Great General of the Tau'ri,” the High King said. “The tablets from near the Hall of Bulls that Dr. Jackson first took an interest in.” He glanced back mildly at Hammond. “Will those serve?”
“I'm sorry,” Hammond said as calmly as he could. “I don't think we can discuss any kind of trade agreement until my people are returned.”
The High King shrugged. “Very well,” he said. “Then you will want to return through the Stargate in the mean time. Walat, have the things brought by the Tau'ri carried down from the guesthouse and loaded aboard theÂ
Ram of the Sun
.”
“Wait just a minute,” Hammond said. “I'm not about to just pack up and go home until I find out what's happened to my team.”
“It may be some time,” the High King said. “These men will wait to send their demands to us until they reach some safe harbor, and by then it will be the time of the Festival.” He shook his head. “We will hear nothing from them while the Festival is under way. It is a time of worship and celebration when matters of commerce are put aside.”
“With all due respect, Your Majesty, that's unacceptable,” Hammond said. “If it's going to take a considerable length of time for them to make any demands, we're going to have to conduct some kind of search for them. You must understand that.”
“We will search,” the High King said. “But we are unlikely to find them. These men are skilled at hiding their craft within ravines and narrow passes. And tonight we must return our airships to the palace for the beginning of the Festival.”
“We can bring our own aircraft through the gate if need be,” Hammond said. “Even if your people will be busy celebrating this festival tomorrow, that doesn't mean we can't keep looking.”
“That is impossible,” Walat said, glancing at the High King as if unsure whether to add something more. “You must leave before the Festival.”
“And why exactly is that?” Hammond asked, his voice rising in frustration.
It was the High King who answered. “Because at the Festival the goddess Asherah will come among us so that we may worship her at her temples and provide her with our offerings,” he said. “She has no interest in the trade agreements we have made in her absence, but if she sees the Great General of the Tau'ri standing here among us, I fear that she will be inspired to ask for you as one of our tribute gifts.”
“Obviously that's not acceptable either,” Hammond said after a moment.
“It was never our intent. We would have returned you to the Stargate well before she arrived.”
“You might have told us about this before now.”
“As you might have told us that your servants planned to carry weapons onto our sacred ground during the ceremony,” the High King said. “But perfect trust is a rare thing even between trading partners. Don't you think?”
Hammond let out a frustrated breath, for the moment unable to think of a suitable reply.
J
ack opened his eyes, immediately aware of several things: he was in a dark, small room with a metal floor, he could feel some kind of mechanical vibration through the floor and the wall to his back, and he ached from head to foot. The last wasn't surprising for having been zatted, although his right knee protested when he moved it.
“Sir?” Carter said, close by. She was sitting against the opposite wall of the little room, which was really more of a large box. He could only just make out her outline in the dim light that was filtering in from some kind of hatch in the ceiling.
“This can't be good,” he said.
“We were captured by pirates, sir,” she said. “I think they're planning on holding us for ransom.”
“I knew it wasn't going to be good.” He glanced up at the hatch overhead.
“Locked,” Carter said. “Or else there's something heavy over it. This wall has some small holes punched in it, and I do mean small
â
I can't get my fingers through. But I think enough air's getting in that we'll be able to breathe.”
“Considerate of them,” Jack said. “What about Daniel and Teal'c?”
“I saw Daniel go down,” Carter said. “I think he was just stunned. I don't know what happened to Teal'c. They might be on the other pirate ship. Apparently Keret
â
that's the captain of this ship
â
is working with someone else, someone he doesn't entirely trust.”
“Funny how pirates can be untrustworthy.” Jack stretched his leg experimentally, and was glad it was too dark for Carter to see him wince. He thought he could smell blood over the more pervasive smell of sweat, and frowned. “You all right?”
“Just got a bloody nose,” Carter said. “I don't think it's broken.”
“I bet I should see the other guy.”
“I wish. In this case the other guy was the canopy of the airship. You missed the part where they basically threw us off a cliff.”
“And that's the best part,” Jack said. “I'm definitely asking for my money back.”
He couldn't see if she was smiling or not, but he suspected she was. “So now what?”
Jack felt for his pistol and was unsurprised to find it gone. He was equally unsurprised if slightly more disappointed that they'd apparently found his knife too, as well as most of the contents of his pockets. They'd left him his boots, though, which could be useful. “Did they leave you with anything?”
“You mean that seems useful for breaking out of here?”
“I mean anything besides your clothes.”
“No,” Carter said after what sounded like a brief exploration of her own pockets. “No, wait, I have a pencil. And a piece of paper. I think it's the receipt from when I stopped for breakfast on the way to work before we started this mission.”
“What'd you get?”
“An Egg McMuffin.”
“A fine choice.”
“I'm glad you approve,” Carter said. “How about you?”
He'd been doing his own inventory as they talked. “I have some duct tape.” He frowned. “They took my sunglasses. And my hat.”
“Actually I think you lost your hat when you were falling off the cliff,” Carter said.
“And my sunglasses?”
“No, Keret took those. He seems to like them.”
Jack shook his head. “Got any more bad news?”
“Only questions,” Carter said. “Where do you suppose they got the zats?”
“The Goa'uld who runs this place?”
“I can't imagine she'd have a reason to arm these guys. But maybe some of her Jaffa are dealing arms on the side.”
“That's a hell of a risk,” Jack said. “And given that this place doesn't have any actual resources that are interesting to anybody but archaeology geeks, why would they take it?”
“I don't know,” Carter said. “Why
would
somebody be that interested in making a deal with these people when they clearly don't have much to offer in return?”
That sounded pointed. He chose not to take up the thrown gauntlet. “I can't see the Jaffa being interested in some old stone tablets, so⦠I don't know. We need more information.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What did you tell them?”
“Very little,” Carter said. “We didn't exactly have a long conversation, just âyou're my prisoners and you're worth a lot to me' and then he threw us down here.”
“So we'll probably have company soon. Hard to ransom someone if you don't know what they're worth to who.”
“There's something to look forward to,” Carter said. The note of unease in her voice was faint enough that he thought someone who didn't know her well would have missed it completely.
“Daniel and Teal'c are probably already looking for us,” Jack said. “We just need to sit tight and wait for the chance to improve the situation.” He hadn't expected to need to tell her that; after two and a half years in the field, she knew it well enough.
“Right,” Carter said, and he could hear her taking deep breaths, calming herself down. He nodded approvingly, although he knew she probably couldn't see it.
“You did say you wanted to get a closer look at the airships,” he said.
“There is that,” she said, and it was more like what he expected from her that she sounded like that might actually make it all worthwhile.
D
aniel opened his eyes, blinking in the dim light. Next to his head was a fold of fabric, which turned out to be part of a stack of bolts of heavy woven cloth when he managed to focus on it more clearly. He was still wearing his glasses, and they seemed to be unbroken, which was a good thing. He looked past the bolts of cloth and saw bars. Probably not such a good thing.
“Daniel Jackson. Are you injured?”
Teal'c. That was a good thing, except in the sense that if he was in a cell of some kind, and Teal'c was in it with him, then Teal'c wouldn't be arriving to rescue him. Which was more of a bad thing.
He abandoned that particular exercise in mental arithmetic and sat up. Everything seemed to work properly. “I'm fine,” he said, although he felt that he'd acquired a new collection of bruises. “You?”
“I am uninjured,” Teal'c said.
“What happened?”
“I believe we have been captured by the men who attacked the ceremony,” Teal'c said.
“Great,” Daniel said, getting to his feet. “I saw Jack go down, I don't know about Sam
â”
“She was still fighting when I was rendered unconscious,” Teal'c said. “I have heard nothing so far that suggests that they are also prisoners aboard this vessel.”
Once on his feet, Daniel could see that the barred walls formed three sides of some kind of large cell or cage. The fourth was a wall of solid metal. Most of the space was filled by bolts of cloth and sacks that might be filled with grain. There was a door in the wall opposite the solid one, fitted with a large and complicated-looking lock.
He hadn't thought until Teal'c spoke that they might be on a vessel, but when he thought about it he could hear the drone of what might be propellers, and feel a faint vibration under him that suggested some kind of engine in use somewhere nearby. There was no sensation of motion, but there wouldn't be unless they happened to be accelerating or turning.