“I…” Daniel threw Jack a helpless look. “Sure. Of course we will, Elspeth.”
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
She looked at him closely for a moment, as if judging the honesty in his face, before she nodded in satisfaction and let his hand go. She glanced up at the sky, then back again. “I will pray that the gods will keep you safe,” she said. “And that they’ll guide you toward them and to safety.”
Next to him, Jack heard Teal’c take a breath to object, but silenced him with a hand on his arm. “Great, thank you,” he said. “You pray away.”
Elspeth nodded, gave Daniel one more long look, and then took to her heels and started running back toward the distant line of rocks that marked her home.
“Did you see the way she checked the sky?” Jack said to Teal’c.
“I did.”
“I thought I saw something earlier. Keep your eyes peeled, buddy.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow at the expression, but didn’t comment. Carter said nothing, still resolutely pissed off, but her disapproval of his plan — such as it was — radiated out in cold waves.
With a sigh, Jack glanced at the ridgeline. He figured they’d get a better view from there — both north and south — and then they could decide which path to take. “Let’s go,” he said.
“I don’t suppose we’ll be able to come back for her, will we?” Daniel said as they started walking. “I hate doing that, making promises I know I can’t keep.”
“You gave her hope,” Carter said. “That’s something. And who knows? We might be able to come back.”
If Daniel answered, Jack didn’t hear and they walked on in silence.
Maybe half an hour later, they were climbing up the rocky incline toward the ridge. Daniel was struggling and Carter had her hand on his arm, helping him along. Jack stopped halfway up and looked back along the valley. At the far end, beyond the entrance to the caves, it swept around and he realized it joined with the Stargate valley — the whole area looked like it had been glacial several millennia ago.
Although the air was dank and cold, the white sky was weirdly bright and Jack pulled on his sunglasses to cut the glare. And that’s when he saw it: a dark shape racing up the Stargate valley, banking right and streaking toward them, long and jagged like a dagger. And fast.
“Teal’c!”
Teal’c lifted his weapon, but the ship — whatever it was — was moving too damn fast. Then it climbed, almost vertical, and disappeared into the clouds.
“Okay,” Jack said, “that was no glider.”
“It was not,” Teal’c agreed. His eyes were still on the sky and he pointed. “There, look.”
O’Neill followed the line of his arm and saw it, another shape, swooping down through the clouds and then up again. “Huh,” he said. “That was a glider.”
“Indeed.”
They kept watching the sky and suddenly the clouds lit up, orange then blue, before two shapes dropped down out of the clouds, one on the tail of the other.
“It’s a dog fight,” Carter said.
“The ship in pursuit is certainly a Death Glider,” Teal’c said after a moment, his sharp eyes picking out what Jack’s couldn’t. “The other, I do not recognize.”
“Whoever he is,” Jack said, “the other guy’s in trouble.” There was a burst of weapons fire — definitely looked like a staff-cannon — and then the small ship was nose-diving, a trail of smoke streaming out behind. “He’s lost power.”
Jack winced as he watched the ship plummet toward the ground, but at the last moment its pilot managed to pull the nose up. Not enough to keep the bird in the air but enough to keep it from driving headfirst into the ground.
He heard the impact a few moments later and saw the curl of black smoke rising up on the far side of the ridgeline. Up above, the glider disappeared into the clouds and was gone.
“Let’s go,” he said, heading up to the top of the ridge. From there it was easy to see the crash site; it was about half a klick down into a valley on the other side. Despite the smoke hanging in the air, Jack couldn’t see a lot of fire and it looked like a sizeable portion of the fuselage had survived the impact. It wasn’t in pieces, at least, and for the first time in too long Jack felt a pulse of optimism. Maybe, at last, their luck was about to change.
“That is certainly not a Death Glider,” Teal’c said.
“Nope. But whatever it is,” he said, “it came out of the Stargate valley.” He risked a glance at Carter. “Think it might have a DHD on board?”