Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon (25 page)

"And what will you be doing?" Sam flung at him. Eseios chuckled.
So did some of the men surrounding them.

"Hunting," he said. "Hunting her."

There was a low, menacing growl of agreement. Sam looked over
at Daniel, who felt a frown grooving in his forehead.

"Vow that we have weapons, we may succeed." Eseios said, and
held up Jack's MP5 in one hand, strap dangling. "Show me how this
works."

"No." Sam's response was clipped, curt and immediate.

"If you don't, I will try anyway, and I may kill you." Eseios looked
at the weapon closely, decided the open muzzle must face out, and
aimed it straight at Sam. He was holding it wrong, but his hand was
dangerously close to the trigger mechanism. "So?"

"Don't," Daniel said.

"Shut up, Daniel!"

Eseios was reading the weapon like a blind man reads Braille, fingertips sliding over the bumps and protrusions. The selector switch -
Daniel couldn't remember. Was that safe position? Or firing? Eseios
worked it, then put it back carefully the way it had been.

He slowly found his way back to the trigger.

"You want our help," Daniel said, watching those hands get closer
to the right answer. "Don't you?"

"I don't require it."

"But you'd like our help. Even if we show you how to use those
weapons, they're complicated. Are you going to learn everything that
quickly? What about training? Are you going to remember that in the
moonlight?"

Eseios didn't look away from Sam, who was glaring at him like a
rabid animal. Daring him to shoot her.

"Eseios." Daniel put extra urgency into it, and got a glance. "We're
not going to tell you how to use them. But if you give them back to
us, we can fight for you. Right, Sam?" No answer. Her breath was
coming faster. "Sam? Captain?" Doctor probably wouldn't get him
anywhere, just now.

"Yes," she said. "We'll fight."

Eseios frowned. "Against the armies of the gods."

She smiled, with teeth. "It's what we do."

Eseios moved forward and pressed the muzzle against her throat.
"Then you'd better be good at it."

He took the nylon strap of the weapon and slung it over Sam's
head, let the MP5 hang heavy across her chest, then jammed the M9
into Daniel's hip holster the wrong way around. He looked up at the
blank bricked ceiling again. Daniel checked his watch.

Time, or very close to it.

"When do we feel..." It was an academic question, asked in a
dry, academic way, but he broke off when he realized nobody was
listening to him. Not even Sam, who had her head tilted back as well,
staring at nothing.

They were all doing it.

Maybe while they're doing that, I can get back to Jack and Teal'c,
make sure they're okay...

A cold sensation, like a very concentrated wind, prickled the skin
on the top of his head, and he couldn't help it, he looked up. The cold
spread down, moving over him with slow surety, and after the first
few seconds he closed his eyes to feel it more intensely. It was like...
like...

Like nothing he could even put a name to. Every nerve shivered
with interest, every tiny hair on his body trembled to attention.

He heard Sam let out a breath. A slow lover's sigh.

His heartbeat began to pick up speed and thud hollow as a drum.
He remembered nights on Abydos, firelight and moonlight sharp
enough to cut, Skaara's moonshine and the rhythm of drums as the
women danced... as Sha're danced, eyes shining and secret under
the veil...

He heard her voice whisper, Run, Dan'yel, and he didn't question
it. It was only an excuse to do what his blood and bone ached to do,
and he heard the others moving around him, smelled the warm odor
of flesh and blood and sweat.

His fingers brushed cloth. He opened his eyes as he gripped
Samantha Carter's wrist, and for a second they looked at each other,
into each other.

Then she pulled free and loped after Eseios and the Dark Company, and he ran with her.

Hunting.

do not think this is wise, O'Neill," Teal'c said.

"You know what? Probably right. And yet." Jack closed
his eyes and worked the thin strip of metal farther into the lock on
the gate. "Not going to let Carter and Daniel run around out there
alone."

Teal'c, leaning on the wall next to him, was facing out at the room
where the others, including Briseis, were sitting and talking. Quite the
tea party these people had going; Jack knew denial when he smelled
it, and the place reeked with it. They were having dinner. Seemed
like - not too surprisingly - the Dark Company folks had more supplies than Laonides' little starving band five or six neighborhoods
away. Spoils of war Eseios and friends were out there right now, hunting down more victims to donate to the cause.

Not with my people, they're not. Plus, even though he didn't think
Eseios and his group could figure out the MP5s and M9s in time to do
much damage with them, especially impaired by moon-crazy aggression, he'd brought advanced weapons into this thing. Whoever ended
up on the wrong end of them was his doing.

And he was worried - really worried - that when he found Daniel
and Carter, there might not be a whole lot of choices left. For any of
them.

He felt something catch in the lock, and concentrated on turning it.
The flexible strip bent rather than levered. Dammit.

"O'Neill," Teal'c warned, and Jack turned with the lockpick back
in his pocket and a welcoming, if ironic, smile on his lips.

Briseis had come calling. She was frowning at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Examining the fine craftsmanship." Jack reached out and rattled
the bars. "Good work. And hey, I know prisons."

"It is not a prison," she said. "It is safety. You should know this.
Have you not seen it? Seen the dead outside?"

"Trust me, it's a prison. Only difference is that instead of locking
up the violent offenders, you're locking up the victims. I'm thinking
cows in a pen. The cows may think it's for their protection, but hey,
we all love a good steak."

She looked mystified, decided to ignore his words and went back
to something she understood. "Eseios made the bars. He was a blacksmith, on Delphi."

"Are you not from Delphi, as well?" Teal'c asked.

"No. I was born on Sikyon. I came here with my father." Briseis
looked away, but her voice stayed strong and steady. "When he -
became violent, Eseios saved me. That was three Hunts ago. Since
then, he has built this protection for us, and in the days he and the
other members of his Company forage. They use what the gods have
granted to find more food, weapons, anything we can use. And they
protect us."

Sounded like Eseios was a heck of a guy, except that he ran around
killing people in the moonlight. Like Carter Like Daniel. "You know
a guy named Laonides?"

That got her sharp attention, and a frown. "How do you know of
him?"

"Spent the afternoon at his place."

Her eyes went wide. "Then you are fortunate indeed to live to tell
it. There is a creature on my home world - an insect that lives in a
hole, baits a trap and eats what falls into its web from ambush. Do
you know this?"

"Trap door spider. Yeah, got `em back home, too."

"This is Laonides. He baits his trap with starving children, and
preys on those who pity them. He poisons his visitors and steals from
the dead." She shuddered, and Jack saw the gooseflesh coming up on
her arms. "He came here twice, trying to treat with us. To trade food
for women."

That didn't make any sense. "Food? He didn't have any food."

"Of course he does. He hoards it for himself and his favorites,
starves the rest. He can always find helpless orphans, so he told my
husband. He takes them in, feeds them just enough to keep them
alive, and sends them out to forage for him and lead back victims. He
loses one or two children a month, at least. It is of no importance to him. They are tools, nothing more." She rubbed her bare arms with
her hands to drive away the chill. "He is an evil old man, Laonides.
Eseios would have killed him, but I couldn't bear it. There is enough
killing here. More than enough."

"Can't agree more," Jack said, and took a step toward her. She
instantly backed away. "Briseis. Look, I think you're doing the best
you can, but this can't last. You know that. Eseios said it before - the
hunters turn on each other. He's maintaining control for now, but for
how long?" He got an unwilling nod in return. "We need to go after
the source. End this once and for all."

"Kill the goddess," she said. "Yes. I heard you say as much, but
you don't know what it would take. Do you not think the Dark Company has tried? There were nearly fifty strong, the last time Eseios
took them to war against her; barely twenty returned. No. The best we
can do is make a life for ourselves, at as little cost as is possible."

"We have a saying back home; blessed are the peacemakers. Only
problem is, a situation like this, the peacemakers get their asses killed.
I'm sorry, Briseis, but you're wrong. Eseios is right. Fighting means
life. Otherwise, all you're doing is compromising with death."

She was silent, considering him.

"If you unlock this gate for me, my friend and I will go. And we
won't come back until Artemis is dead and you're free to make a life
for yourself, or go home."

"Home," she echoed softly. "I hardly remember what home is."

"Got to be better than this, right? Living in a cage half the time?
Having a husband who has to wash the blood away before he comes
to you?"

She looked past him at the locked bars, and said, "You don't know
what waits for you, or you would not ask this. And I would be a fool -
worse, a murderer - if I agreed. No. Wait the night, my friends. Wait
for morning, and speak with Eseios."

"My people may not have that long."

"That is the will of the gods, not yours." She turned to go. Jack
reached out and grabbed her arm; it was chilled and still textured with
gooseflesh.

"Briseis. You want to bring your kid into this world? With a father
who'll hold him by day and kill him by night?"

She turned, lips parted, eyes gone wide and blind. "How - "

"Good guess." He glanced down at her slightly swollen stomach. "Laonides told us he's the guy with the best track record on the
planet - he's stayed alive for four Hunts. What is that, a year? Maybe
two? What kind of odds does that give a baby?"

She twisted free, furious and blushing; probably some kind of
cultural taboo about feeling up pregnant women. Daniel would have
known. Dammit. Daniel's out there. Carter too. And the moon was
up.

"Talk to Eseios," she gritted out. "In the morning."

He could have grabbed her, taken the key, but she had three burly
guys standing by with knives and frankly, he didn't want to do it. She
was small and fragile and brave, and no matter how it came out, he
couldn't do it without hurting her.

They watched her walk away, and then Jack turned to Teal'c and
said, "Watch my back." The Jaffa nodded and settled himself again to
face the room, and Jack went to work on the door.