SG1-25 Hostile Ground(103)

Whatever this place was, it was nothing like any Goa’uld lair SG-1 had previously encountered. Another difference, of course, was that their previous incursions into System Lord territory had usually been covert. Allowing themselves to be led into the HQ of a First Prime could rank as one of the stupidest moves they’d ever made.

But despite her misgivings, Sam knew that they had no choice. According to the colonel, time was not a commodity they had in great store. Something big was happening. She knew better than to press him for information — the way things stood, she wasn’t on the need-to-know list — but his word was enough. They needed a way home and they needed it now.

And there was something else that nagged at Sam, one thought that kept repeating in the back of her mind like the line of a tune she’d heard on the radio, seemingly pointless but persistent nonetheless. Something that told her to think about the light.

Sixteen hours thirty and twelve hours twenty. Sixteen. Twelve.

“Teal’c, do you remember how long we walked for that first day here?”

A sudden crash from above sent a shower of debris down on Sam’s head. When she looked up, she was alarmed to see Teal’c hanging by one arm from a rung that dangled precariously from the wall. She grabbed his foot to help him find purchase on the ladder again and thanked whatever Jaffa workout had given him his upper body strength.

“You guys ok up there?” called the colonel from somewhere below.

“We’re good, sir.”

“Teal’c?”

“I am fine, O’Neill. The ladder however has seen better days.”

“Yeah, Hunter. Would it kill this Dix guy to get an elevator put in?”

“A what?” Their guide’s voice was even further away, the echoes of the shaft making the distance between them difficult to gauge.

“Nothing,” grumbled the colonel. “Just… are we nearly there yet?”

“We’ve a way to go yet, O’Neill,” answered Hunter. “Dix’s chamber’s real deep underground.”

It made sense, thought Sam, in more ways than one. If this was the hideout of the resistance against the Amam, the last thing the alien creatures would expect would be to have it beneath their very noses. Hiding in plain sight was a common insurgent tactic. By the same token, caution was still a watchword and having the base so deep underground would ensure that the Amam didn’t stumble on it during one of their hunts. Obviously, though, it hadn’t been built by the Goa’uld, but rather adopted for their own purposes.

The colonel’s chain of thought had clearly followed the same path as her own. “So what exactly is this place, Hunter? Some kind of mine?”

“Your what, Colonel?”

“Huh? No, I mean a mine. An underground mine.”

“I don’t get your meanin’. We’re too deep to plant explosives.”

“No, not a mine! I mean–”

“Jack, I think we can assume that the people of this planet have no mining industry. I’ve yet to see anything that would indicate they have any economy based on production and–”

“Daniel?”

“Yeah?”

“I just meant that this is a really deep hole.”

There was a beat of silence and then, “Yeah.”

Sam pressed her lips together to keep from laughing and kept climbing down.

After what seemed like another age, she heard booted feet hitting rock and a few seconds later a light shone up the shaft. “Careful, Carter,” said the colonel. “Ground’s a little uneven down here.”

Moments later, she stepped from the ladder into the circle of illumination cast by his flashlight and tried to shake the ache from her arms and shoulders. They had reached a small chamber slightly larger than the shaft down which they had just climbed.

“Where now?” asked the colonel.

Hunter nodded towards a nearby wall that had collapsed in on itself, forming a large hole. “Through there. I can’t go no further.”

Sam frowned and peered through the hole. The passage beyond was dark and rubble-filled, just another rotten place on this rotten world. “But, Hunter,” she said, “you said you’d take us to Dix.”

“Yeah, Hunter,” said the colonel, peering through the hole. “Jesus, it’s like a war zone down here… Which, I realize, it probably is.”

“I ain’t Inner Circle,” said Hunter. “From here, you go shadow.”

“Shadow?” said Daniel.

“Yup,” said Hunter. “Means you go alone.” He glanced at each of their faces and Sam guessed he was seeing the same reluctance on each. “Don’t worry,” he said, swinging himself back on to the ladder. “Follow the red. Follow the red and they’ll find you.”