Jack glanced over at Teal’c, who was back at the door with Hunter. “You see anything?”
“No,” Teal’c said quietly, though he held his staff weapon ready for use. “I have seen nothing, O’Neill.”
“That don’t mean they’re not coming,” Hunter cautioned. “They can be real quiet. We should go.”
Hunter’s unease was contagious, but Jack schooled himself to be patient. They’d found a map and if there was a DHD they’d find that too. Maybe, at last, their luck was changing; maybe they’d get home after all.
Turning the block over in his hand, he traced his thumb over the Earth symbol with a sudden, intent longing. It felt cool and smooth to the touch but he wasn’t expecting it to move beneath his thumb, for the symbol to slide slowly inward until it was flush with the rest of the cube’s surface. “Oops.”
Daniel looked up. “What ‘oops’?”
“Probably nothing,” he said, just at the moment a beam of white light shot up into the air and expanded into a giant holographic image of Earth. Then a female voice started talking — very loudly — in a singsong language he didn’t understand. The lightshow filled the room and, almost certainly, the corridor beyond.
“Sir, shut it off!” Carter said in alarm, staring at the screen. “They’re moving!”
He prodded at the block but nothing happened. “I’m trying!”
“What did you do?” Daniel asked, hurrying around the bank of computers.
“Nothing, I just —”
“O’Neill!” Teal’c shouted, backing into the lab in the face of a massive Amam. He opened fire immediately, but the staff blast just bounced off the thing as if it was shielded. It paused for a moment, head swiveling from side to side as it scanned the room, searching for something. Or someone, as it turned out. Its eyes fixed on Jack and it began to stalk toward him.
“Ah, okay,” he said, taking a step backward.
Carter got off a couple more shots, but they just ricocheted away, sending Teal’c diving for cover.
“Hold your fire!” Jack barked. The room was too small for a semiautomatic.
Slowly, he backed up. He was trapped at the back of the lab between the bank of computers and the bench. He looked around for a way out, but there was nothing. And the creature was bearing down fast.
“Sonofabitch,” Jack growled, pulling out his handgun. But the Amam slammed its hand down on his wrist and knocked the weapon from his fingers, sending a bolt of pain shooting up into his shoulder. “God…” That hurt.
Then the Amam seized his other wrist, holding it up close to its face as it stared at the block Jack was still clutching. The skewed, revolving image of Earth cast eerie shadows as it turned across the creature’s face, but it didn’t seem to notice as it gazed at the cube.
Behind it, over its shoulder, Jack could see the door was clear. The others could escape. He threw a look at Daniel who just shook his head in refusal. No.
So he glared at Carter instead, until she reluctantly nodded, grabbed Daniel’s arm and hissed something into his ear as she pulled him toward the door. She knew, as well as Jack did, that backup would be on its way. They only had a few seconds.
Sure enough, at that moment, Teal’c stepped out into the corridor and fired several times back the way they’d come. “Major Carter,” he yelled. “We must go.”
Hunter joined him, glancing the opposite way along the corridor. “Come on! It’s clear this way.”
The creature holding Jack turned its head, but it didn’t look concerned and its grip on Jack’s wrist tightened further. His fingers were starting to go numb.
Too late for subtlety he yelled, “Carter, get them outa here!”
“Sir…” She looked torn.
“Just go!” There was only one way this was ending for him. “Find a way home.”
Stricken, she turned, pushing Daniel ahead of her into the corridor as Teal’c covered their retreat.
The Amam didn’t follow, as Jack had hoped it might, it just turned back to him, studying him like a hungry man might study a juicy steak.
“I warn you,” he said. “I haven’t bathed in days. I’m not gonna taste any good.”
Ignoring him, the creature tightened its hold on Jack’s wrist. He spat out a pain-filled curse and the block dropped from his fingers. Its light died as soon as it left his hand and the Amam watched it fall to the floor with apparent fascination. Then it looked back at O’Neill, head cocked to one side in a curiously human gesture. “You are Lantean,” it said, forming the words precisely.