Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon (16 page)

Which put it still at least two days away, assuming they kept to the
same pace. Great. Jack really didn't want to do any more camping in Crazy Killer Theme Park, but he didn't see any way out of it.

Of course, some traitorous part of his brain whispered, maybe you
get there and all you find is some nice roomy marble tomb of a place,
and nothing to help you fix the DHD. Maybe it's a one-way trip, after
all.

That wasn't strategically useful, even if it might be true. He
rejected it and focused on the matter at hand.

"Getting dark," Carter noted. She'd been very quiet today, talking
in monosyllables when spoken to. He couldn't gauge her - was it just
that the little voice in her head was louder, and she was convinced this
was a waste of time? Or when it came down to brass tacks, did Captain Carter not have what it took to carry on in the face of overwhelming odds? No, he had better instincts than that. Carter was okay. She'd
hold together. If he'd ever misjudged anybody on that score, it had
been a geeky, sneezy scientist on a mission to Abydos... who'd ended
up saving his ass.

"Find us some shelter," Jack said, and took the opportunity to sit
down on a handy stone block that had once been part of somebody's
home, somebody's business. Daniel was, as usual, grubbing around
in the rubble. This time he came up with something that slithered
through his fingers almost like a living thing, and Jack felt that
instinctive tightening along his spine. Nope. Not a snake. This was
gold, where it caught the light.

"Necklace," Daniel said, and carried it over to sit next to Jack.
He bent his dusty head to examine it more closely. "God, it's beautiful. The artistry - these links are so small, they're almost invisible."
Jack's first impression had been right after all, it was in the shape of a
snake, with a thick triangular head and ruby eyes. Daniel's voice was
hushed and almost worshipful. "Here. Hold it."

Jack waved him off. "No offense, Daniel, but you've found about
a hundred trinkets so far. Doesn't the new ever wear off for you?"

Daniel, who'd taken off his glasses to examine the piece more
closely, looked up at Jack and gave him that little strange smile. "No,"
he said. "Jack, somebody made this. Not a factory, not a machine, a
human being. He had to smelt each of these tiny links and fit them
together, it must have taken months of backbreaking work. Then he
sold it to someone else, who put it around her neck and wore it... it may have been the only nice thing she ever owned. It may have been
a gift from a lover, or a husband, or a father... Jack, this is the history of people. Each of these things, they mean something. Touching
them... it's like touching all of human history."

Jack stared back at him for a second or two, then reached over
and took the necklace. He held it, feeling the weight of it, the cool
and almost living movement of the tiny links. The ruby eyes winked
at him. He wanted to see what Daniel saw, the magic that Daniel felt
holding these things. All he could think of was a Goa'uld, ready to
sink its evil little self into the back of his neck.

He managed a smile and handed it back. "Yeah," he said. "Pretty
fabulous."

Daniel beamed, and wandered over to show Teal'c his find.

That was when Jack felt they were being watched. Again.

He sat for a few seconds, then levered himself back to his feet and
made his way over to where Teal'c and Daniel were talking.

"Teal'c," he said, interrupting Daniel's monologue. "Take the side
street over on the right, circle back. We've got visitors. Daniel, don't
look. Just keep talking."

"About, ah, anything in particular?" Daniel asked.

"Don't suppose you know anything about hockey?" Dumb question. "Watch The Simpsons?"

"Um.. "

"Okay, talk about the snake."

Daniel launched into another voluble explanation, this time about
mining and cutting rubies, and Jack nodded wherever there was a
pause that looked like it might need a response. As he listened, he
casually turned them around so that he was facing back the way they'd
come. Daniel didn't even notice... or if he did, he played along well.
No sign of Teal'c. No sign of anything moving out in the rubble.

Could have imagined it. No, probably not, that sensation had saved
his life too many times to be just nerves.

He caught a flicker of movement off to the right. Daniel was saying, " - hand-polished the gems using sand cloths - " and then, blindingly fast, Teal'c was in the open and moving to attack. Jack grabbed
Daniel and threw him behind cover, brought up his MP5, and Teal'c
dived behind a thick nest of boulders and came out holding two strug gling figures.

After a couple of seconds, the faces clicked in. Teal'c had hold of
the brother and sister from Alsiros's party. The boy was fighting, but
that wasn't having much of an effect on Teal'c, who had hold of both
of them by the backs of their tunics like a couple of stray puppies. The
girl looked doe-eyed and scared to death.

Jack saw the intention in the boy's set face a second before he saw
the knife, and yelled, "Teal'c! Watch yourselfl" just before the boy
slashed with a familiar-looking bronze knife. He scored a shallow
scratch on Teal'c's tac vest.

With no memory of having moved, Jack was suddenly over the
pile of rubble between them and grabbing the kid, wrestling the knife
away with a quick, efficient turn of his wrist. The boy - Pylades? -
yelled out his rage and hatred, and struck blindly with fists; Jack got
him in a sleeper hold and took him down to his knees. The girl, by
contrast, was almost catatonic, tears streaming down her face.

"Teal'c? You okay?"

"I am uninjured, O'Neill," he said, and drew a finger across the
slice in his vest. "However, I am grateful for the warning."

Daniel joined them, sliding down the mound of rubble - damn,
that thing was tall, Jack hadn't realized it until then - and came to a
stumbling halt, looking from Jack and the boy to Teal'c and the girl.
"Pylades? Iphigenia?"

"Let her go!" Pylades yelled at Teal'c. Teal'c, after a raised eyebrow at Jack, released her. The girl dropped to her knees next to her
brother and put her arms around his neck. Jack let the boy loose, too,
and he wrapped Iphigenia in a protective hug. "I swear, I will kill any
who try to hurt her - "

"Easy," Jack said, and stowed the knife in his tac vest pocket to
show empty hands. "Nobody's hurting anybody. You okay? Both of
you?"

Pylades slowly, unwillingly nodded. "We ran," he said. "I hid her
here, when she couldn't run any farther. I was coming back for her
when I saw you."

"Don't leave me," Iphigenia whispered to him, and buried her face
in his chest. "Please don't leave me again!"

"I won't," he soothed her, and stroked her tangled brown hair. "It was the only way. You couldn't outrun them. But you're safe now."

"Safe from...?" Daniel asked. "Pylades, it's okay. You can trust us.
We're not going to hurt you, either of you. You'll be safe with us."

From the narrow set of the kid's brown eyes, he wasn't buying
it. Iphigenia, though, was; Jack could see it in the way she sneaked
glances at Daniel, color rising in her cheeks. Oh, great. Daniel seemed
to have that effect on the young, innocent ones. And just as clearly,
Daniel had absolutely no clue.

"Who was chasing you?" Jack asked. "Jaffa?" He gestured
at Teal'c, with an apologetic shrug in the man's direction. Teal'c
accepted it stoically.

"They were from Mycenae," Pylades said. "I did not know
them."

"How do you know they were from Mycenae?" Daniel asked.

Pylades frowned at the question. "It was obvious."

"From...?"

"They wore the colors."

Well, at least the bad guys were color-coded. That helped. "What
colors would those be?"

For answer, Pylades produced a scrap of fabric, bloodstained -
pale yellow. Jack rubbed his fingers on it, thinking, then handed it to
Daniel. "Look familiar?"

"It's like what the man this morning was wearing."

"So he was from Mycenae." And maybe Pylades had been the
killer. Damn. Nothing confusing about this, was there?

Daniel must have seen the thought passing over Jack's expression,
because he shook his head and gestured toward Pylades' tunic, which
was torn and grubby, but not bloody. "He'd be soaked, Jack. Like
Alsiros."

"Alsiros!" Iphigenia suddenly grabbed at Daniel's hands and held
them tight. "Is he alive?"

"He's fine," Daniel assured her, and gently extricated himself.
"He's, ah, praying. We left him food and water. He'll be all right."

Pylades and Iphigenia exchanged a look, and Jack saw the grim
light come back into Pylades' eyes.

"What?" he asked them.

Pylades focused on him, and said, "Alsiros killed two of us. He went mad. You should have slain him where you found him. I would
have, only..." He glanced at Iphigenia, who had tears in those big
brown eyes. "... Only my sister was so frightened. We ran, like the
rest. Then the men of Mycenae came after us."

So, bad guys not color coded. Not a help. "Daniel? What the hell
is going on?"

"I don't know. Pylades - before Alsiros went mad, did he say anything, do anything...?"

"He slept," Pylades said. "I kept watch. I saw him wake and stand,
looking at the moon, and then he took his knife and went to Kalman,
who was asleep. Before I could raise the alarm, he had stabbed him.
Not - not killed him. Kalman ran, and Alsiros - he ran after. We all
saw him - " He stopped, unable to go on. Jack realized suddenly just
how young the kid was. Strong, yeah, but nowhere near old enough
to handle something like this. "When Kalman was dead, Alsiros came
back. We ran, we all ran, but he caught Siria..."

"But he didn't say anything?" Daniel asked gently. "You're
sure?"

"He said... something about the moon. About running in the
moonlight. It didn't make any sense."

Jack had a sudden hot, vivid flash of the dream, of running in the
cold silver moonlight, hunters swift and fatal on his trail. He thought
he saw something in Daniel's eyes, too, but then the younger man
looked away.

"It's getting dark," his sister said. She was sitting, with Pylades, in
a deep shadow thrown by the walls; her disordered long hair glowed
orange in the setting sun. "We should - we should hide."

Pylades nodded. "We're safe now," he said. "Look at their weapons. They're fierce warriors. They will protect us now, and no one
can harm you."

Jack looked up just an instant before the rubble shifted; Carter
appeared at the top, face stained with sunset. Her eyes were unreadable as she looked down at them. "Found something, sir," she said.
"It's not great, but it's pretty defensible."

"Big enough for a couple of houseguests?"

"Don't see why not."

"Lead on, Captain," he said, and hoisted Pylades up by an elbow. Pylades kept hold of Iphigenia's hand, drawing her with him. "Kid.
Stay with us, right? Safety in numbers."

Pylades nodded.

Dinner was another round of MREs, washed down with tepid
water and - in Daniel's case - instant coffee. Pylades and Iphigenia
gamely tried everything. The Chili Mac went over gangbusters, along
with the fruit; Iphigenia nibbled on her oatmeal cookie and abandoned it, and Pylades ended up scarfing them both. Jack, drawing the
short straw, ended up with the Escalloped Potatoes and Ham, which
he'd always pretty much loathed. He tried to talk Teal'c into swapping, with no luck. Invoking command privilege over entrees seemed
a little petty.

Daniel, who didn't seem to notice or care what the hell it was he
was eating, was busily grilling Iphigenia about life on Sikyon. She
was shy, but eager to give him details about everything from hair
styles to shopping in the market; Daniel made copious notes. Pylades,
after watching with a brother's jealous care for a while, must have
decided that Daniel posed no threat to his baby sister's virtue; he
came to sit next to Carter instead.

"You are a woman," he said.

Carter's quick, vivid smile flashed for the first time in hours.
"Yeah, thanks for noticing."

"On Sikyon - women do not carry arms. Or fight. Men do that for
them." He sounded defensive about it, Jack thought. "It is not seemly.
Do not your men defend you?"

Jack choked down a grin. "Wanna field that one, Captain?"

"It's not quite that simple, Pylades. My people believe that anyone
should be free to choose their own path - men or women alike. If I'm
suited to be a fighter, then I can be a fighter. Although personally, I
admit I like flying." Pylades gave her an uncomprehending stare, as if
the word didn't translate. "Flying. In the air. In machines."

"Your words are foolish," Pylades said. "Men cannot fly. -
Women," he added belatedly.

"Well, they can with a little help."

"No one should wish to fly." Pylades shook his head, and pointedly
looked away to end the conversation.

"Who in their right mind doesn't like flying?" Jack asked, with a
quirk of his eyebrows.

"Army, Navy, and Marines, sir."

"And there's a reason they're not on my team, Captain. I believe I
did qualify it with right mind."

She gave him the smile, then. The uncomplicated approval of it
eased some of the tension that had accumulated in his guts. Maybe
she hadn't been acting odd, after all. Maybe that black spot on the
necklace had nothing to do with it - Daniel's was still pure white,
after all, and he'd been the one popping off shots and channeling Wild
Bill Hickok. "Any thoughts about tomorrow?" he asked her.

"I guess we have no choice but to keep heading for the Acropolis," she said. "Every other building we've seen has been gutted
or destroyed. The place is a complete ruin. The chances of finding
anything to help us get home in any of these wrecks is, well, pretty
small."

They were camped in one of those wrecks; this one, according to
Daniel's enthusiastic flood of explanation, had probably been a private home, and they were bedding down in what would have been a
front receiving room. It still had a roof and four walls. Jack wasn't
entirely happy with the open back door, which looked out on a dead,
dry garden and a broken fountain, not to mention a warren of other
partially destroyed rooms, but it was the best they'd found. Teal'c
was keeping watch at the back, Jack at the front, and they'd be taking
shifts through the night.