Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon (18 page)

Carter was out, but starting to stir. Jack stared at her for a second,
remembering the bright silver shine of her eyes, the fluid ferocity of
the way she'd run, the coldly calculating way she'd sighted down the
MP5 at a helpless captive.

"Teal'c," he said, feeling exhausted to the bone. "Do Carter, too."

Teal'c pulled the zip-cuffs tight around the black-robed murderer's
wrists and looked up, plainly doubtful. "O'Neill?"

"That's an order."

Teal'c pulled another set from his vest, flipped Carter over on her
face, and fastened her hands behind her back. She woke up halfway
through the procedure and started fighting him, fierce and focused;
Teal'c added ankle cuffs, stood and dumped Carter unceremoniously
over one broad shoulder.

Daniel was up on his own, pale but still in control. He even managed a faint, scared smile, and said, "She's not going to forget that."

"Hope not," Jack said somberly. "Let's all live to regret it."

Some of the tension in Jack's guts eased when they found Pylades
and Iphigenia still in the shelter, safe and sound, along with the supplies. Pylades had a sharp-edged stone scavenged from a pile in the
comer, and looked determined to beat the fool out of anybody who
came in without authorization. Jack talked him down and got Daniel
settled in one comer as Teal'c gently deposited the still-struggling
Carter in another. She was eerily quiet, breathing fast, eyes shining,
but saying nothing at all. She devoted all her strength to the zip-ties.

"She will injure herself," Teal'c said, frowning. It looked likely; she was already rubbing her wrists raw on the plastic. "Do you not
have some medicine that will calm her?"

Jack nodded and dug in Carter's pack for the first aid kit. There
were self-contained shots of painkillers and sedatives; he went for the
sedatives, promising himself a celebratory morphine shot later, in the
safety of the SGC. He sliced open her BDU sleeve to reach bare skin
on her arm. She hissed when the shot went in, thrashed even harder,
then began to weaken and go still.

When her eyes closed, Jack patted her on the shoulder and nodded
Teal'c back to door sentry duty. Then he went over to Daniel.

"Hey," he said. Daniel was sitting with his head in his hands,
elbows propped on his knees; he didn't look up. "Okay, you're the
scientist. Enlighten me. What the hell is going on?"

"She's - " Daniel dry-washed his face with his hands, then looked
surprised and sickened at the blood still smeared on his fingers. Jack
tossed him a wet-nap; Daniel wiped his face and hands and went for
a second towelette, then a third. When he reached for a fourth, Jack
cut him off, knowing post-traumatic obsession when he saw it. Daniel
settled back, newly clean hands limp in his lap.

Daniel drew in a deep breath and finished, "I think she's
infected."

"Infected?"

"Yeah... if I think of a better term, I'll let you know." Daniel's
hand covered his own collar. "Dark spot, getting bigger. I think it's
some kind of indicator. It shows who's been compromised."

"So... black marks show the hunters," Jack said. "As opposed to
the hunted."

"Yeah." A dry laugh, without much humor in it. "Artemis is the
goddess of the hunt. One of the most famous Greek myths was about
a hunter, Actaeon, who saw her bathing. She turned him into a stag
and had his own hunting hounds tear him to pieces."

"So she's a charmer."

"Apparently." Daniel rested his head back against the wall; he was
still sweating, hair clinging to his face in dark jagged points. Without
his glasses, he looked incredibly young and way too vulnerable. "I
think the collars are receivers. We're all being broadcast a message;
some of us receive it, some don't. Those who do become the hunters. Otherwise..."

"Otherwise, we run."

Daniel's eyes flashed open. His pupils were still unnaturally
dilated. "Yes. The dream. You remember?"

"I remember running." He remembered more than that, but there
was no point in dwelling on it.

"Running." Daniel's voice was dry, devoid of emotion. "Yes."

He dreaded asking. "You?"

That strange, defeated smile. Daniel let his hand fall away from the
moonstone, and in the glow of the camp stove, Jack saw the slender
crescent of black cutting into the white. "Oh, I'm running, too," Daniel said. "With Sam."

Daniel was becoming a hunter.

here was no question of Daniel taking a watch, obviously. Teal'c
stayed vigilant at the door, facing out. Carter slept the sleep of
the wickedly stoned, over in the comer, and so far as Jack could tell
Iphigenia and her brother followed suit after about an hour or so.

And Jack was getting tired. He'd been running on the ragged edge
before the dust-up; the fading adrenaline was taking the rest of his
energy with it. Sleeping wasn't an option. After a silent debate, he
checked the medical kit for stimulants, palmed a couple and downed
them with instant coffee.

"Sure you want to do that?" Daniel asked quietly. He wasn't sleeping, either. And, from what Jack could tell, wasn't likely to.

"No offense, Daniel, but I don't think either of us wants you awake
with access to a sidearm, and by the way - " Jack held out his hand
and snapped his fingers. Daniel sighed and pulled his weapon, offered
it butt first. "Thanks."

Daniel silently followed with the k-bar knife as well. No reluctance. The momentary burst of violence Jack had seen outside in the
moonlight seemed to be totally gone.

"Thanks," he said after a few moments, very quietly. "I don't
know - I don't think I can fight this thing."

"Yes you can."

"Jack..."

"Yes you can, Daniel. I know you."

"No, you don't. You used to know me, a couple of days worth,
about a year ago. But you don't know me now."

"Bullshit. You're the most stubborn man I ever met, including
me."

"No." Daniel banged his head against the wall behind him, eyes
closed again. "Look, I admit, I don't know Sam very well, but I know
that if character meant anything, well, she wouldn't be drugged and
cuffed in the comer."

"I didn't say you had character. I said you were stubborn."

"Ah." Daniel raised one finger. "Point taken."

"Just rest, okay?"

"No."

"Daniel -

"I don't want to dream."

No arguing with that. Jack settled back against the wall, faced the
exit, watching the silent moonlit night. People were probably dying
out there, somewhere in the ruins. Hunters hunting, victims running.

Hunters like Daniel. Hunters like Carter.

Victims like him. Teal'c. The kids in the comer.

Jack waited for the stimulants to kick in, staring out at the unchanging scenery, and heard the light, fast rhythm of Daniel's breathing
start to slow. Should have given him some drugs, too. Except there
weren't all that many, and Jack knew he might need them later, if
things got worse.

"O'Neill," said Teal'c softly from across the room. "I will keep
watch. You should rest."

"Can't watch two doors at once," Jack pointed out. "I'm good.
Better living through chemistry."

"I did not enjoy harming Captain Carter."

"Good. But if it makes you feel any better, Daniel's the one who
clocked her."

"Clocked...?"

"Knocked her out, Teal'c."

"Daniel Jackson is a formidable warrior," Teal'c conceded. "I did
not know he had such strength and speed."

"He usually doesn't," Jack said. "Just part of the fun on Adventure
Planet." He leaned at a better angle against the wall, the better to prop
his head up and give his neck muscles a much-needed rest. "Look.
If he's right, this thing may have delayed onset, so we need to watch
each other just as much as we watch them, right? Stay alert for any
signs of... weird behavior."

"Such as a tendency to violence." Teal'c was quiet for a minute or
so, then asked, "How will we then recognize a difference?"

"Teal'c! Was that a joke?"

"I do not believe it was, O'Neill."

Jack snorted and cut his eyes toward Daniel. Yep, the man was
napping, head down. Too bad. He'd have liked to have had a witness
to that; it had to be a landmark occasion.

"Do you believe we will survive this?" Teal'c asked.

"Hell yes. This is just another Goa'uld. We've kicked their bony
butts before. There wasn't enough of Ra left to fill one of those
canopic jars Daniel likes so much. By the time we finish here, Teal'c,
this goddess is going to wish she'd never heard of Earth."

"I do not believe she has heard of Earth."

"Figure of speech."

Teal'c turned back to motionless vigilance. Jack shuffled around,
sighed, and finally stood to stretch. "Change places," he said. Teal'c
rose and settled in by the front. "Back in five."

"I do not think it is wise to explore at this time."

"Not exploring, Teal'c. Finding the facilities." No comprehension
on Teal'c's face, until Jack took the explanation out of euphemisms
and into gestures; at that point, the Jaffa simply nodded and resumed
his watch.

Jack stepped out into the moonlight.

Instant chill. There was a surge of adrenaline - maybe from the
stimulants, but he didn't think so - that left him with a slight unsteadiness. He limped around the shattered wooden corpse of what looked
like some kind of couch. The fountain in the center had a recessed
cracked pool with a thin scum of water left in the bottom; Jack unbuttoned his fly and watered the concrete, feeling a hell of a lot more
exposed than usual, and finished with a mental promise to cut down
on the coffee. As he was fastening up his trousers again, he heard -
felt - something shift behind him.

Air.

He turned fast, bringing up the MP5 with a rattle of metal, and
found himself facing...

... a goddess.

He wasn't prepared for her to be pretty, although he'd known all
along the Goa'uld liked pretty hosts - witness Ra, and Apophis, and
Sha're. But she was... beautiful. A heart-shaped face, wide brown
eyes, curling brown hair piled in a complicated arrangement on top
of her head and fastened with a silver crescent moon diadem. Tall as Captain Carter, long strong legs exposed by the short white tunic she
wore.

The only thing that didn't fit the Greek image was the metal brace
on her left arm. He'd seen that before, on Apophis. Definitely Goa'uld
manufacture.

"Kneel," she said, and her eyes did the white flash thing.

Kiss my ass, he was about to snap back, but then his knees went
out from under him and he went down hard, and no matter how much
he wanted to give her the benefit of his acid disbelief, he couldn't get
the words to come out of his mouth. He raised one hand and fumbled
with the collar, tugging at it.

"You waste your time," she murmured, and reached out to trail
cool white fingers over his, over the collar, over his sweating skin.
"You are not of my worlds, stranger. How do you come here? Who
offers you as tribute to Artemis?"