“Colonel, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“You’ve got a better idea?” From another pocket, he retrieved a detonator and jammed it into the plasticized block. “Teal’c’s in trouble. Daniel’s in trouble. Hell, everyone’s in trouble and we’re holding the cards. Give me another option.”
Carter looked back at the doors. “Sir, if you set that off, the explosive could trigger a cascading effect when combined with photonic energy. It’s a pretty safe bet the result could be catastrophic.”
“Are you sure?” The C4 itched in his hands, begging to do its job. Jack would like nothing more than to oblige. He’d had enough of playing cat-and-mouse with Yu and his minions.
Carter shook her head. “There’s no way to be sure, although…”
She fell silent, staring at the door.
“Well? What?”
“Don’t you see it?” She pointed at the shapes sliding back and forth. “Triangles, rectangles, trapezoids. I don’t think these are merely decorations.”
Jack glanced back at the com ball. Daniel looked like hell warmed over. They needed to get to him before there was nothing left to get.
Still… Carter was right. Their best chance at breaking out of this snake nest was shutting down the emitter. Otherwise, the chances of ending up zatted into oblivion were too high.
He checked his watch. “Five minutes.”
“Sir?”
Jack felt Yu’s eyes follow him as he walked underneath the com ball. “You’ve got five minutes to figure out how to get in there.”
He sat down on the bottom step, the C4 still in his hand. “So help me god, Carter. If I have to, I’ll blow those doors, even if it’s the last thing I ever do.” He glared up at the com ball. “Enough of Yu’s games already.”
* * *
Not for the first time, Daniel wondered if he’d been telepathic when he was ascended. A trick like that would come in handy, especially now as he watched Sam through the communications device. Those colored shapes represented one of the oldest Chinese puzzle games in Earth’s history.
He glanced at his captor. “Those patterns on the doors, those are tanagrams, aren’t they? To solve the puzzle, you have to form a specific shape with all seven pieces.”
“With no overlapping,” Yu said, looking up from the display. “I am disappointed in your great Colonel O’Neill. He gives up too easily.”
Daniel kept his mouth shut. He knew Jack well enough to know he’d never figure it out. But Sam would. She could do this kind of thing in her sleep. Jack would sit back, let her solve the thing and then he’d push on to the next step.
Whatever complaints Daniel might have about Jack, he knew his friend, and even with their recent arguments, he still very much considered Jack a close one. Daniel knew Jack would never give up. If he did, he wouldn’t be here, trying to rescue Daniel. What didn’t make sense, though, was why Yu put up a complex puzzle outside a set of doors in his own fortress. Why go to the trouble?
Yu turned back to the
Wéiqí
board. He plunked down a black stone in the center. Glimpsing at the board, Daniel realized the Goa’uld was only one stone away from capturing a dragon.
Not that it mattered. He looked back at the com device.
Come on, Sam.
“Play,” ordered Yu.
Daniel watched as Sam walked back and forth, the tanagrams continuing to slide across. Granted, Yu had a near obsession with anything of Chinese origins, but why put something so complex in such a remote place? It wasn’t like Yu went down there. At least, he hadn’t in the past few days while Daniel had been held prisoner.
Unless… he didn’t have those puzzles installed for himself, but for someone else.
“Do as I say, human. Play your move.”
Daniel picked up his third dragon, its heavily lidded red eyes staring off into some distant point. Looking back at the display, he noticed four
Zhenmushou
statues affixed above the door panels. They looked exactly like the gargantuan version found on P3Y-702… right next to those graves.
The statue he’d shot at when Jack pushed him too hard.
There’d been four graves, actually. Did Yu have something to do with those graves or was that simply a coincidence?
Daniel placed his dragon on the center of the board, next to its cousin. He turned back to the display. Sam had stopped in front of the far right panel, and yet…
Yu wasn’t watching. He was caught up in the game, a definite frown on his face. It was as if he was disappointed in what was happening — or not happening — on the display.
That’s when Daniel realized what this, all of this, was about. “You’re disappointed in Colonel O’Neill.”
“He does not even try to solve the puzzle!” The Goa’uld waved a hand dismissively at the communications device. He dropped a stone down next to Daniel’s third dragon.
“You expected him to find it, didn’t you? That’s what all this is about.”
“Play your next move.”
“You wanted them to find those doors,” Daniel pushed. “You wanted Jack, you wanted all of us to come here. For some reason. Some purpose.”
“Play!” Yu’s eyes flashed in warning.
“My god… I’m your bait, aren’t I?”
“Be mindful of your dragons,” Yu warned. “In another few moves, they will have all been taken.”
“Why?” Daniel demanded. “What was so important that you — ?”
The doors burst open and Oshu stormed in. He bowed hastily.
The Goa’uld regarded his First Prime bitterly. “You dare interrupt?”
“My lord. We have captured the
sholvah
.”
Daniel whipped around to see Teal’c and Bra’tac marched in by the rest of Yu’s Royal Guard. He exchanged glances with them both. As much as he was happy to see them, it was clear they’d gone through a lot to reach him. Teal’c’s lower lip was split in two, and Bra’tac was in worse shape. His chain mail skirt had been torn, his cape ripped, and his left eye was swollen shut.
“Daniel Jackson,” said Teal’c. “It is good to see you.”
“Uh… you too.” He gestured toward the display of Sam standing in front of the tanagram doors.
Teal’c’s eyes widened.
“Bow before Lord Yu,” Zheng ordered.
Teal’c and Bra’tac threw back their shoulders in defiance. Zheng spun around and kicked the backs of their knees in quick succession.
The two rebel Jaffa crumbled to the ground.
“Hold!” Yu rose from his seat. “Bring them to me.”
The Royal Guard complied, dumping them both on the other side of the game board. Daniel fought the urge to help them, knowing Zheng would snap him in two if he dared try.
Yu grabbed Bra’tac’s collar. “The System Lords have your teachings to thank for all the troubles we have met at the hands of the Tau’ri and your little Jaffa Rebellion.”
Bra’tac lifted his chin. “I do not fear you.”
“No, I do not believe you do. For it is said the soldier’s disposition is to offer resistance when surrounded, to fight hard when he cannot help himself — ”
Just as Daniel recognized that Yu was again quoting
The Art of War
, Teal’c lunged for the Goa’uld’s throat.
Yu’s ribbon device hand flung upward, blasting both rebels across the room. They hit the far wall with a thud and fell to the floor. Teal’c immediately sat up, but beside him, Bra’tac lay still.
Daniel prayed he was only unconscious.
Before Teal’c could get to his feet, Zheng kicked his back, felling him once more.
With a satisfied grunt, Yu sat down. He picked up his bowl of stones and dropped down another stone onto the board. “Teal’c, your teacher may have taught you much, but know this…”
From the center of the board, Yu snatched up two of Daniel’s dragons. “It is equally important for the warrior to obey promptly when fallen in danger. To do otherwise will gain him nothing.”
The Goa’uld tossed the carved jade pieces into his bowl. Daniel couldn’t care less. Not about the game, not about any of it.
Now that he knew he’d been used by Yu, used as bait to get Jack there — for whatever reason — Daniel felt a pang of guilt. If he’d just allowed Jack to have his moment on P3Y-702, if he hadn’t stormed off like a petty, self-centered idiot, none of this would be happening. Yu never would have captured him and Jack and Sam, Teal’c and Bra’tac… They’d be safe and unharmed.
Watching Jack and Sam on the display, he tried hard to stay hopeful.
It was far from easy, knowing he’d placed his friends in jeopardy.
* * *
Refusing to give Yu’s image on the com ball even a moment’s glance, Jack flipped open his watch cover. Five minutes had passed and Carter still hadn’t figure out the door panels. She just stood there, watching the shapes slide back and forth like a canted kaleidoscope. It was a meaningless exercise as far as he was concerned.
The hell with it. If Carter couldn’t figure it out, no one could.
He climbed to his feet. “Time’s up.”
Keeping her back to the com ball, she gestured for him to join her. Jack did so, raising an eyebrow in her direction. “Carter?”
“Sir,” she whispered. “I think there’s a pattern to how these shapes go together. If it works — ”
“I get it.” He stuck the C4 back in a vest pocket. “Be ready to jump before old Yu realizes we’re on to him.” He raised his rifle. “Ready when you are, Major.”
Raising her left hand, Carter stepped over to the far left panel. A yard-wide blue square slid by. She laid her palm on it. The square froze in place.
He flashed her a smile. “Nice!”
“Just getting started, sir.” A green triangle made its way over. As it bumped against the square, she tapped it.
A shower of sparks erupted.
Jack yanked her back. “You all right?”
Carter rubbed her hand. “I think so, sir.”
He grabbed her palm. It was red where she’d taken a hit. “So much for that idea.”
“I’m fine, sir. Really.” She stepped over to the far left panel again. “There are a couple of other possible permutations I’d like to try. Maybe it’s a case of placing all the same shapes together in the same panel.”
He stepped back. “Permutate away, Major. But no more shocks, ok?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’d say take your time, but at this rate, Yu’s Jaffa will be breathing down our necks any moment.”
With a nod, Carter fixed her eyes on the panel. The blue square was still locked in place. Brow scrunched up, she raised her palm up and waited.
A red square slid over. She put out her hand…
A bolt of electricity shot out from the square, enveloping Carter’s arm in a spidery web of heat.
“Carter!”
* * *
Daniel tore his eyes away from the communications device as Jack yanked Sam away from the panel. She was standing, but Daniel wasn’t sure how much more she could take. There was no way to tell from the display exactly how strong the current was that ran from the tanagrams. Their backs still to the display, they spoke too softly for him to hear them.
Held in place by Zheng and Lao Dan, Teal’c glowered at Yu under hooded eyes. Daniel recognized that look. If his Jaffa friend got free, even for a moment, Yu’s neck would be snapped in two.
And Bra’tac was still unconscious. Even more reason for Teal’c to want to do damage.
Daniel forced himself to look back at the display. Sam was trying a third time with Jack hovering next to her, ready to pull her out.
Next to him, a seemingly disinterested Yu turned away from the com device and plunked down a stone in the bottom quadrant, next to the first dragon Daniel had played. The Goa’uld scooped up the jade piece and tossed it in the enameled bowl with the others.
On the display, Sam raised her hand, reaching for a smaller grey triangle this time. Though Daniel knew tanagrams didn’t work that way, and knew what was to come, watching her get shocked a third time was still hard.
Yu stuck the fourth dragon in Daniel’s hand. “He will conquer who has learnt the artifice of deviation. Such is the art of maneuvering.”
Daniel clutched the dragon, half-tempted to throw it across the room. On the display, Sam took another shock.
He couldn’t let her do it again.
“Please… you’ve got to stop this,” he begged Yu. “Stop hurting my friends. Stop throwing quotes out from a world you can’t possibly care about.”
The Goa’uld’s eyes lit up. “Never question my loyalties.”
“Your loyalties?” Daniel threw the dragon to the floor. “Since when are the Goa’uld loyal to anyone or anything, but themselves?”
“Pick up your dragon, Daniel Jackson. It is your last opportunity.”
“Last opportunity for what?”
“Play,” Yu warned, the boom in his parasitic voice deep and rumbling. “Play or I shall find a better method to motivate you.”
Daniel blew out a shaky breath. “And if I win?”
Yu bowed his head. “The game ends.” He waved a hand over the communications device and the image of Sam standing in front of the tanagram panels fell silent.
Daniel picked up the dragon. If the only way to end this nightmare was to win the game, he’d do it, though with three dragons gone, and half his pieces lost to Yu already, he didn’t have a clue as to how.
* * *
“That’s enough, Carter. Stand back.”
The colonel wouldn’t get any argument from Sam. Both of her hands had suffered enough electrical burns to make her leery of trying any more variations. Stepping back from the panels, she looked at the com ball.
Teal’c was there. With Daniel and Yu.
“Sir,” she whispered, tilting her head toward the image.
He glanced up. “Great. Wonderful. Terrific.”
He turned back toward the panels and ripped open a velcro vest pocket. “Where the hell’s Bra’tac?” he whispered.
Sam took another peek. “I don’t see him, sir, though that doesn’t mean he’s not outside of the image’s display.”
Positioning her back to the com ball once again, she watched as Colonel O’Neill jabbed the detonator into the block of C4.
“We’ll take cover up on the next flight of stairs,” he whispered. “Ready on my mark.”
As Sam stepped away, the colonel looked back and forth at the panels. “Where the hell do I put this thing without getting Yu’s idea of shock treatment?”
She pointed at the original blue square still locked into place. “That’s probably your safest bet, sir.”