SG1-25 Hostile Ground(41)

“Easy there, big guy,” Jack said, not bothering to smother his own amusement. “This one looks dangerous.”

“Take no notice of her,” Aedan said, glancing between Elspeth and Teal’c with a shimmer of concern. “Elspeth believes in fairy tales.”

“Aedan,” she warned. “Don’t you —”

“It’s a myth!” he snapped. “The whole Dix thing is a myth. How could he still be alive? The war was generations ago.”

“The old gods can do anything.”

“Nonsense! Everyone knows the ‘old gods’ weren’t gods, they were just creatures from another world. And now they’re gone and they’re not coming back to save us. No one can save us.” Aiden snatched up his arrows from the floor and headed for one of the passageways branching off from the room. He stopped at the last moment, fixing Daniel and Jack with a serious look. “I don’t know where you’ve come from, but, trust me, it’s better to hide and live than to fight and die. That’s the reality of the world and anyone who thinks otherwise ends up dead.”



After Aedan had stormed out, it wasn’t long before Elspeth and the others started preparing to sleep. Sam was surprised when the colonel suggested they sleep back in the ‘cell’ until she realized that it had a door, which meant they could talk with a modicum of privacy.

So they dragged their kit inside, along with a straw pallet to help Daniel rest more comfortably, and made camp. Once they’d laid out their bedrolls Sam extinguished the lamp and groped her way back to her sleeping bag. It was almost pitch black, only the dimming firelight seeping around the door cutting the darkness. Crouching down, she misjudged her position and when she reached out for her bedroll, she hit a nose and part of a face instead.

“Ow! Carter!”

She snatched back her hand, wincing. “Sorry, sir.”

Expecting another sour complaint, she was amazed when he just said, “Nah, it was only my eye. I’ve got a spare.”

Bottling her surprise, not quite knowing how to respond, she found her sleeping bag in silence and crawled inside, pulling it up right under her chin against the chill of the cave. Away from the fire the damp stone seemed to be pressing in all around them. She shivered.

They were all quiet for a moment, lying close together in the darkness. Outside she could hear the muted sounds of their hosts settling down for the night, low voices and the rustle of their straw pallets. It was comforting, in a way, and she could feel herself start to unwind for the first time in days — maybe months. Aching muscles sank into the scant comfort of her bedroll, her eyes closing as sleep stole up on her. Next to her, Daniel yawned. None of them had slept much the night before and she felt safe here — the colonel hadn’t even bothered to set a watch.

“So… zombies, huh?”

Despite the tension stacked up between them, Sam smiled; the colonel sounded like a kid telling scary stories after lights-out at camp. “Whatever they are, sir, I think we can rule out the cast of Thriller.”

“It is most likely that they are Goa’uld,” Teal’c said.

“Flesh-eating snakeheads?” The colonel gave an exaggerated sigh. “Is it me, or is this whole situation CATFUed, Carter?”

“What?” Daniel said, puzzled. “Cat food?”

Sam snorted a laugh, mostly born of stress and exhaustion, and then found that she couldn’t stop.

The colonel didn’t laugh, but she could hear a smile in his voice when he said, “No giggling.”

And that made it worse, made it harder to stop laughing, and for a moment — a moment — it felt like old times, like things were normal again.

Shifting on his pallet, Daniel said, “Okay, what am I missing?”

“Carter? Care to translate for our linguist… ?”

It took her a couple of tries before she could get a grip on her giggles. “CATFU, Daniel,” she managed at last. “C.A.T.F.U. Completely and Totally, um, ‘Fouled’ Up.”

“Ah. Military humor. Ha ha.”

“Cat food,” Sam laughed again. “This situation is Whiskas, sir.”

Daniel chuckled and even the colonel huffed a quiet laugh. Silence fell for a while as their laughter subsided, a good silence, as if they were all enjoying the rare moment of camaraderie. It was probably the first time they’d laughed together since before Edora.

But eventually the moment passed and Daniel said, “You know, I think Teal’c might be right about the Goa’uld.”

“You think they’re flesh-eating snakes?”

“Well, no. I mean, I don’t know about the flesh-eating part, but I do know the term Amam.”