The rings snapped down around Teal'c, whisking him into the center of the maze. Swearing horribly, Jack took down the last attackers with his most direct and brutal moves. He left them groaning and twitching as he sprinted towards the sealed entrance where Daniel and Sam were huddled next to an open panel.
"They got him," he snapped, skidding to a halt. "How do we get him out?"
"Working on it, sir," Sam said distractedly, her fingers flying over her makeshift wiring. "Daniel, try it now!"
Daniel slapped a palm against a dull purple crystal. Sam snatched her hand back with a yelp, but the ornate door slid ponderously open.
Jack started forward, but Sam grabbed his sleeve. "Sir, you can't just run in there blindly," she warned.
"Teal'c is stuck in there!" Jack hissed. "Without his staff weapon!"
Daniel's face spasmed. "You don't think... No. He'll be all right. He's got his knife." The fear for Teal'c didn't show in his voice, but Jack could see it in his eyes.
"Yes, Daniel, he does. And I'd bet Teal'c against a dozen men any day, but he's facing a minotaur this time!"
"You still can't go in there without guidance, sir," Sam repeated urgently. "It'll take too long and Daniel says some of the dead ends are booby trapped."
Jack slapped a frustrated hand on the barrel of his MP5. "Then find me a path!" he ordered. "And do it fast."
Daniel's hands sketched helpless patterns in the air. "Jack, it's not as if they've got directions to the Labyrinth printed on the -"
"Actually, I think they might," Sam interrupted. "Look at this, Daniel!" She jabbed a finger at the twisted bit of metal lying on the pebbled ground. It was the cover they'd pried off the panel to hotwire the Labyrinth's entrance. The back of the cover was covered with spidery hieroglyphics in a language that looked to the untrained eye like random chicken scratches, but Daniel's eyes brightened as he dropped to his knees next to the cover, forcing the bent metal back into shape so he could read it properly.
"Okay. Okay," he muttered. "This is - oh, this is not okay."
"Daniel?" Jack rapped. "Teal'c is on a time limit here!"
"Just... okay, wait." He looked up at them, face set, and his words tripped over themselves in his haste. "Jack, this isn't exactly precise. You'll have to keep in touch with us on the radio while I translate this and - Sam, you'll have to convert Ancient Greek measurements into modern-day ones on the fly if we're going to -"
"We're going to," Jack said firmly. "Keep your radio on, Carter. I'm heading in now."
"First right," Daniel called after him as Jack strode forward. "Take the first right and then..."
His voice suddenly cut off as Jack crossed the threshold. Alarmed, Jack whirled around and spotted the faint shimmer of a force field that had sprung up in the entranceway. He poked it with a careful finger, and his hand passed through easily enough. He could see Daniel and Sam, still see Daniel's mouth moving and his hands waving, but he couldn't hear them at all.
Just sound cut off, then?
"Sir?"
Jack allowed himself the luxury of a single sigh of relief as Sam's voice crackled over the radio. "I can't hear you through the door, Captain, but it looks like radio transmissions are still working."
"Good. That's... good, sir." There was a moment's pause, and he watched her confer with Daniel. Then the radio crackled again. "Daniel says you should take that first right, and then walk..." There was another hesitation, and he saw her tip her head back momentarily as she made some rapid calculations. "...seventeen meters, sir, ignoring any side passages. Then you'll be faced by two identical arches. Take the left one and..."
Jack headed deeper into the Labyrinth, Sam's voice riding in his earpiece like an angel on his shoulder, whispering confident instructions without a hint of the strain Jack knew she must be feeling. Consciously shutting down his own sense of direction, he placed his trust in the two team members collaborating to get him to the center, knowing they were just as eager to get to their fourth teammate on time.
Twelve meters forward, and duck under a low lintel to backtrack nine meters before turning into a new corridor heading seventy degrees westward, and follow this new path for twenty-six meters before turning south through the third door in the passage...
The crawling minutes made Jack's skin itch, and his fingers gripped the handle of his MP5 a little more tightly. He followed the radioed instructions and tried to run faster. Teal'c had been trapped with the minotaur for way too long.
He heard it before he saw it: an angry rumble that quickly resolved itself into furious roars. The passageway opened wider, and Jack was sprinting now, his goal finally in sight. Gasping breaths, growls and hisses, the scrabble of claws and the thud of blows. There it was, only a dozen meters away!
But even as he accelerated, the calm voice in his ear suddenly rose in panic. "Sir! If there's a straight path ahead of you, don't take it!" He could hear Daniel's voice in the background, almost shrill as he shouted something muffled at Sam. "You have to take the side passage to your right - there's a trap directly ahead of you!"
Jack was close enough now to actually glimpse the tumbled figures locked together in the center, Teal'c grappling with knife and fists as something truly monstrous clawed at him. The urge to bolt forward and empty his clip in the beast's hide was almost overwhelming.
But he trusted his team.
Even when it was almost unbearable.
With no breath to spare to hiss the curse on the tip of his tongue, Jack threw himself into the narrow passageway to his right. It bent sharply leftward after only a few paces and sloped slightly upwards. It was taking him to the center, all right, even if those extra precious seconds might prove deadly to Teal'c.
There!
Jack burst into the center of the maze, already bringing his rifle to bear.
"Teal'c!" he yelled over the noise of the battle.
There was a sudden extra flurry of movement, and the two grappling figures broke apart, the minotaur howling with rage as it clutched at the dripping wound on its right shoulder.
Jack's finger tightened on the trigger... but then he hesitated. The creature - and he had a half-second to note that it looked more like an Unas on steroids than a half-man half-bull, no matter what Daniel said - was still backing away, angry but wary.
There was time to do this right.
"Teal'c!" he shouted again, and as Teal'c looked up, Jack threw the MP5 at him.
Teal'c caught it one-handed, whipped it into position, and fired a barrage of bullets directly at the minotaur. The creature staggered backwards, swayed, and collapsed.
The echoes died away. Everything was suddenly very quiet.
Jack eyed his teammate. Teal'c's chest heaved for breath, and his left hand shook a little as he wiped away some of the blood and sweat that stained his forehead. But his eyes were calm, and he gave Jack that little bow of the head in acknowledgement.
Oh, yeah. Teal'c was going to be fine.
Sam's voice was anxious in his ear, and Jack hastily thumbed the button of his radio. "Teal'c's all right, Captain. And the minotaur is dead. You and Daniel did good work." He glanced over at Teal'c and added with a twisted smile, "So did you."
Sam sounded relieved, but she maintained her professionalism as she reported, "Daniel says there should be ring controls there, sir. Do you want to look for them, or would you prefer that we talk you back out through the maze?"
Teal'c glanced at the walls and nodded at an ornate mosaic that depicted the minotaur messily devouring a screaming victim. Jack followed his gaze and spotted what Teal'c had already seen: the eyes of the minotaur in the mosaic were actually crystals.
"We've got controls," Jack told Sam. "No more booby traps to worry about?"
"Daniel says no, sir."
"How about our oh-so-helpful pals out there?"
Daniel's voice chimed in, sounding almost wolfishly cheerful. "Oh, they tried to argue."
Never come between a captain and an archeologist trying to save their colonel and Jaffa, Jack decided. It wasn't good for the health.
But he only said, "Teal'c and I should be showing up in the next minute or so. Stand by."
He clicked off the radio and looked at Teal'c more carefully. Some of that blood might be the minotaur's, but too much was Teal'c's for his comfort.
"You gonna make it?" he asked.
Teal'c stepped forward, a little more slowly than Jack would have liked, but he seemed steady enough. "I will," he said.
"Great." Jack stopped himself from clapping Teal'c on the shoulder, and settled for a more gentle pat. "Come on, big guy. Let's go home."
Heliopolis Main Archive
A Stargate: SG-1 Fanfiction Site
Ten for the Team
by Fig NewtonKapitel Bemerkung:
Happy birthday, Rigel! And thanks to Aurora Novarum for the quick beta.
It will take flawless teamwork to navigate the Labyrinth and save a teammate's life. Luckily, SG-1 is good at that kind of thing.
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