SG1-25 Hostile Ground(75)

“Why not?” asked Sam. “What happens at night?”

“The Snatchers come.”

“There is no safety in your home?” said Teal’c.

Hunter huffed a bitter laugh. “There ain’t no safety nowhere.”

“Then why do you remain there?”

He ignored the question, just fixed his gaze on the crackling flames, and said, “I’ll take you to Dix, but in the morning. In the daylight.”

“Hunter,” said Daniel, “our friend is back on the Amam ship. We can’t leave him there.”

“Going back’ll only get yourselves caught.”

“Maybe,” Daniel said, “but we don’t have a choice. We’d like to know if Dix can help us.”

“He will, but not in this. That’d put us all in harm’s way. Your friend… the Amam won’t hurt him none. You got time.”

“How much time?” Sam said. “How do you know they won’t hurt him?”

“’Cause your friend’s Lantean.”

“He’s what?”

“Lantean. The Snatchers won’t hurt him none, not till they’re done testing him.”

“Testing him?” said Daniel. “What do you mean?”

“Gods’ truth. There are those the Snatchers take from among their harvestings, and test with workings like the one O’Neill touched. If they’ve the gift to work such devices, then they’re taken to serve a purpose other than…” He swallowed and rubbed his hand over the center of his chest. Daniel saw Sam flinch, as if recalling the momentary pain she’d experienced.

“But to what end?” she asked. “What are they testing them for?”

“No one rightly knows. There’s camp-tales, though, but most of them are nonsense.”

“Tales?” said Daniel, unable to hide his interest.

Hunter sighed and rolled his eyes, as if being asked to recite a children’s story for the hundredth time. “There’re legends of a city that was once sunk beneath the ocean and lived in by a race of… I don’t know, some call ‘em gods. Seems that only the descendants of the gods — those of the Lantean blood — can restore the city and save us all.”

“But you don’t believe the legends.”

Hunter shrugged and threw some more kindling on the fire. “Don’t matter whether I believe it. What matters is that the Snatchers do. And so they search for Lantean blood, like that of O’Neill. Trust me, if he complies, then his fate’ll be better than any other.”

“Whatever that fate may be,” said Teal’c, “I am certain it is nothing good. The Goa’uld often select slaves to become their own personal attendants and treat them, for a time, as the Tau’ri may treat a cherished pet. They are still slaves however, and when their master becomes weary of them, or is displeased in anyway, the slave is dealt an unenviable punishment.”

As it always did, the memory of Sha’re was sudden, still painful after all this time, blessed by Apophis in the form of a symbiote in her head. He could almost see the unnatural flash of her eyes in the flames of the camp fire.

Sam pressed her lips into a thin line. “Trust me, Hunter, Colonel O’Neill is not someone who’ll ‘comply’ with the Amam’s wishes. And I sure as hell won’t be leaving him in their hands.”

“Nor I, Major Carter,” said Teal’c.

“You’re foolish to go back,” said Hunter. “It’s sure death.”

“Not really,” said Sam. “They can’t feed on me, remember?”

“The Snatchers have other ways of killing. You ain’t safe. Your leader man is.”

“We don’t leave our people behind, Hunter,” said Sam. “We’re going back for him.”

“Then we’re decided,” said Daniel. Not that there had never been any other option. “So when do we head back? First light?” But then he saw the grave expression on Sam’s face and realized she’d come up with another option — one he wasn’t going like very much.

“Not you, Daniel.”

“What?”

“Teal’c and I go back. You take my pack and go with Hunter.”

“Sam, no!” There was no way he was letting them go back there alone. The stakes were too high and the idea of the four of them scattered across this barren planet filled him with unease.

“Daniel, it’s the only way that makes sense. If we… if anything happens, you need to go find Dix and get a message home. You’re the one who’ll need to get help.”

The fact that she was right only deepened his dismay, because it would be all the more difficult to talk her out of it. “Then we all go to Dix,” he said. “We’re stronger together.”