Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon (32 page)

... and Daniel heard, in the silence after, the soft metallic sound of
a collar coming open. Then another. And a third.

He saw fear blaze hot in her eyes.

Her fear turned to hatred, lightning-quick, and she ignited the hand
device against his skull.

He screamed. Fire ripped through him, then acid-tipped needles,
and he knew it was going to kill him this time, rip everything inside
of him into bloody shreds. One second. Two. Three. A million years of pain.

And then it stopped, and he opened his eyes to see Iphigenia
scrambling backwards as Teal'c lunged. His collar dropped free as
he moved; she dodged him and ran around the sarcophagus, only to
be blocked by the two Dark Company men, who were coming out of
their stupor, too.

Iphigenia - no, Artemis - held out her hand threateningly, staring
at them in rising panic. Three staff weapons leveling on her now, and
Daniel rolled painfully to his feet and pointed the Beretta, too.

She had nowhere to run.

"You will go from this place," she said, clinging to some shreds of
haughty dignity. "I will permit you to leave."

"Surrender or die," Teal'c said. "Choose."

The soft, pretty face convulsed in fury, and she shouted the words
back in a voice so distorted Daniel had trouble understanding them.
"No! No, I will not! I rule this world!"

Two more shadows loomed at the door, both bearing MP5s. Jack
and Sam, looking out of breath. They took up firing positions with
smooth precision, and Jack's gaze darted fast to Daniel. "Hey. You
okay?"

"Okay," he said. It was about all he could manage. His head felt as
if he'd been pounded with a mallet. He was sure his nose was bleeding. "Artemis - has Iphigenia."

"I figured," Jack said. His eyes were bitter and furious. "Breaking
news, Artie. Your Jaffa are toast. You don't control these people anymore. You can thank Captain Carter here for that..."

"I will chase you, and it will be a daylight hunt such as this city
has never seen, my Jaffa will run you down and I will strip the skin
from your bodies while you scream... I will slaughter these rebellious
helots and demand tribute! I will rule here!"

"Over my dead body," Jack said. "Go ahead. Try it."

She raised her hand, and Teal'c broke from cover, sliding on the
slick marble floor feet first to slam into her knee-high from behind.
She collapsed with a surprised squeak, and he rolled her over, on
her face, and pinned her down with one huge hand on her back. She
thrashed and screamed furiously, clawing at the floor, and Daniel
moved to kneel at her side to pull the device off of her arm.

He handed it to Jack, who took it between a thumb and forefinger
like a dead rat, turned, and tossed it to Sam. She examined it for a few
seconds, then shoved it in a pocket of her vest.

"Iphigenia!" Daniel looked up to see Pylades in the doorway -
bruised, leaning on the support of a confiscated staff weapon, backed
by what looked like more of the Dark Company. "What are you
doing? What have you done to my sister?"

Daniel slowly got to his feet and went to meet him. "I'm sorry," he
said. "Artemis -Artemis took her. We were too late."

Pylades pushed past him and knelt down, stroking Artemis's
brown hair; she was still struggling against Teal'c's hold, screaming
like a wild thing. Harsh, keening screams of madness. "Hush, sister - Iphigenia - don't - it's all right, it will be all right now..." The
boy looked pleadingly at Daniel, tears in his eyes. "Can the evil be
cast out of her?"

"No," Daniel said, and hated himself for it. "I'm sorry. I wish I
could say she'd be all right, but - she's been possessed by the goddess. Artemis. We don't know how to take it out again."

"No. No, my sister is Iphigenia, she is good and kind and gentle - she saw that we would live, she is a Seer, she saw it, this can't
betrue - "

Teal'c said, "She will live for as long as the Goa'uld within her
wishes. But she will not be your sister."

"But I have to take her home! I promised I would take her home.
My father - my father said I was to protect her - " His voice went thin
and dry. "Protect her."

"You did." Jack put a hand on the boy's shoulder and squeezed.
"You tried."

Artemis screamed and fought the floor, pinned in place by Teal'c's
strength.

"Sir?" Carter asked. She was back at the door, facing out at an
angle, watching their backs, but she risked wide-eyed glances toward
them. "What are we going to do with her?"

Daniel made it a question. "Take her back... ?"

"Not taking this back to Earth, Daniel. She's too dangerous."

Pylades looked up. "She is my sister, I will take her home, we will
care for her there -"

"Pylades, this isn't your sister. This is a Goa'uld - a god." Jack's
face spasmed in dislike when he said it. "She'll kill anybody she gets
her hands on. She may pretend to be your sister until she gets what
she wants, but she'll kill and keep on killing, and sooner or later,
you're going to have to deal with her as she is, not as you remember
her."

"You mean you want to kill her."

Nobody seemed to want to answer that. Daniel realized the pistol was still in his sweaty hand. He slid it back into the holster and
scrubbed his palm convulsively against his trouser leg.

Jack sighed. "Carter. Give her a shot, strongest thing you've got.
See if you can knock her out."

Carter darted over, took out the medkit and selected from the colorcoded array; she pressed the hypo against the girl's arm, and within a
few seconds Artemis stopped screaming and writhing. She didn't stop
talking, though. Her words came slow and deliberate, but they still
came, promising death and destruction and tortures that Daniel had
only read about in historical texts. Teal'c hauled her up and pinned
her hands behind her. Artemis lolled her head drunkenly to one side,
and under the maenad's veil of hair her eyes were glassy and sharp,
Goa'uld.

And then they slowly slid closed, and she collapsed limp in Teal'c's
arms.

"The Goa'uld will resist your drugs," Teal'c said. "There is not
much time."

Daniel felt a lurch that might have been horror, might have been
hope; the two were getting strangely mixed, here. "The sarcophagus,"
he blurted. "What if we put her in the sarcophagus? It's where Ra
slept. Maybe..."

"Teal'c?" Jack interrupted. "Can she get out of it?"

"If the mechanism is disabled, she will not be able to open the
device from the inside."

"And she'll sleep while she's inside, right?"

Teal'c studied the girl and didn't answer. Daniel felt cold crawl up
his spine. What if she stays awake? What if it's just one long, unending imprisonment in the dark... ?

Jack read him like a book. "Daniel," he said quietly. "It's this or..." Or a bullet, he meant.

Daniel closed his eyes and nodded.

Teal'c pressed the button to open the sarcophagus.

"Oh God," Daniel murmured. Artemis was whispering in slow but
rising words. "She's waking up."

"I gave her enough to put down a horse, sir," Sam said. "Another
dose - I don't know. It could kill her anyway."

Jack mutely shook his head, staring at the sarcophagus. The wings
grated open.

Teal'c laid the girl's slender body down in the brightly lit interior.

"No!" Pylades lunged forward as the wings began to close. "No,
you can't, she's alive, my sister is alive - the evil must come out of
her! I can't just abandon her... !"

Jack grabbed him from behind and held him still.

Just before the wings closed, Artemis's eyes snapped open, and
pulsed with Goa'uld fire, and she fastened a hating stare on Daniel.

She said, "If you would find your wife, look in the gardens. I have
seen her there." An evil, malicious smile. It didn't belong on the face
of a child.

He took a step back, shocked, and then the sarcophagus sealed
over her.

Teal'c pressed buttons until they glowed a steady red. "It is locked,
O'Neill."

Pylades put his hand on the living tomb of his sister, and wept.

Daniel turned, heading for the exit; he heard Jack call his name but
ignored it. Sam held out a hand to stop him. He moved around her and
hit the door at a run.

Dead Jaffa in the throne room, nothing moving. He kept going.

"Daniel!" Sam caught up with him and grabbed at his shoulder to
yank him to a stop. "Where the hell are you going?"

"You heard. Sha're could be here - "

"No. Daniel, no."

He broke free and kept moving. Sam activated her radio; whatever
Jack said, Daniel guessed the end of it was an order to stay on his trail
and keep him from getting killed. He supposed there might still be
Jaffa around. He didn't particularly care.

The next room held three living people, all dressed in black robes, wandering around looking stunned. Raw red marks on their necks
where collars had been. Daniel paused next to a window and saw that
there were torches out there in the dark, groups moving toward the
Acropolis.

Coming to destroy their gods.

They ran into the Dark Company on the way. "Daniel!" It wasn't
Sam's voice this time; he turned and was caught up in a bruising
strongman's hug, and Eseios smacked him on the back hard enough
to bruise a rib. "You live. And your friends?"

"So far," he agreed. The man was grinning. His people were behind
him, or at least most of them; many were holding the hands of their
wives, their children, their lovers. Briseis had come, too. She stepped
forward to fold Daniel in a much gentler embrace.

"Artemis?" she asked.

"Won't be hurting you any more," Daniel said. "You're free. You
can go home now."

"You see?" She smiled luminously at him. "Your plan was not
stupid. I believed in you."

Eseios looked put out.

"No, it was stupid," Daniel said seriously. "It just worked... do
you know where the gardens would be?"

"Gardens," Eseios repeated, and exchanged a look with one of his
men. "Adaios went that way. He will show you. But Daniel - "

"Thanks." He extended his hand. Eseios took it and pulled him
into another hug and back slap.

He followed the Dark Company soldier out of the room, Sam
shadowing his heels. They went through several rooms, these looking
abandoned; treasures in every one, but Daniel kept his eyes straight
forward, on the back of his guide.

I have seen your wife in the garden. Artemis had pretended to be
Sha're. She must have seen her...

The Dark Company soldier - Adaios? - stopped and turned to
them. "I went no farther," he said. "You should not, either. This is a
place the gods have deserted"

He walked away, and Daniel moved to the door. It was shut, but
the handle moved smoothly in his hand...

The stench hit him first. He choked and covered his mouth and nose, and behind him he heard Sam do the same.

Garden. Maybe it had been a garden, once. All that grew here now
were the dead, piles of them, stacks of decaying flesh and disarticulated bone.

"Oh God," Sam whispered, and grabbed his shoulder. "No, Daniel. Stop."

I have seen your wife in the garden.

He turned and looked at her, and whatever was in his face, she let
go. Her eyes glittered with tears for a second, and then she blinked
and was Captain Carter again, cool and military and professional.

"All right," she said. "We'll look."

They weren't alone for long. Eseios came, and Briseis, and the
Dark Company. Pylades, still pale with grief for his lost sister. A flood
of people Daniel didn't know, and a few he recognized. Alsiros, still
stained with old blood, trembling and pale. Two others from that
doomed Sikyon group. Each took Sha're's picture in hand and looked
at it, then murmured prayers and moved away to look into the dead
faces. Cries echoed through the still-beautiful marble of the building,
as friends or lovers or family found their lost ones.

"Let me see," a rough voice said, and Daniel looked up, numbed,
to see an old man standing in front of him, hand extended. He studied
Sha're's picture for a moment, then showed it to the women and children gathered around him. At least twenty of them. He'd brought his
whole refugee camp, at least those enough strong enough to walk.

"Laonides," he said.

"Daniel. Like me, you are a survivor." Laonides looked pleased
with himself. He gestured for the children clustered nearby to look
at the corpses; Daniel felt a surge of misery, and reached out to grab
him by the robe.

"No. Take them out of here."

"These children? They have seen worse."

"I don't care." Daniel focused on the man's eyes. "You're a survivor. If you want to survive five minutes more, you'll take them away
from here. Right now."

Laonides studied him, face settling into a frown, and nodded. He
clapped his hands and told them to leave the garden, and the women
and children hurried to obey him. Eseios was watching. He and Laonides exchanged a flat look that sparked like crossed swords.

"Still the hunter, aren't you?" Laonides said to Daniel. "Artemis
chose better than any of us like to admit."

"My friend told you to get out." Eseios walked toward him. "Bring
your women and children to my camp at dawn."

"And if I don't?"

"Then Daniel is right: you won't survive this Hunt." He showed
teeth. "And I am a hunter, old man. Black stone or no. Make no mistake about it."

Laonides bowed slightly, and walked away. He stopped to look at
a corpse with dark hair near the bottom of a pile of bodies, moved her
hair and shrugged.

"One woman is very like another," he said, and looked at Daniel
directly. "Call her gone, boy, and move on. You can't spend your life
staring at the dead."

Sam's hand on his shoulder was all that kept him from going for
Laonides' throat, but then the gray misery closed in again, and there
were bodies to move.