Chapter 27: Sought out by Trouble
Tamil Farlong eased back on her stool at the bar of the Sunken Flagon, sipping on the cinnamon ale one of the patrons had bought her. Tamil never turned down an offer of a free drink or meal from her growing throng of fans. She didn't tell them (or remind them) that as Duncan's kin, by way of being adopted by Daeghun, she could get any drink or any dish for free. The bard was glad for every silver or copper they tossed her foster uncle's way.
As the bard from West Harbor took a swig of the spicy brew, there was an abrupt hush to all noise in the busy tavern. Curious, Tamil turned away from the bar to face the common hall, and caught sight of what had caused the abrupt silence. A man stood in the inn's main entryway dressed in a crisp blue uniform with the emblem of an ornate arcane eye emblazoned in white on the chest of his tunic. The sign of Neverwinter, and the garb of one of the Neverwinter Nine.
Despite herself, Tamil felt slightly intimidated. Here was a man who had the ear of Lord Nasher Algondar, Lord of Neverwinter. Nasher was king in all but title, and under his direction the Nine had authority to do virtually anything. There were laws and procedures that both Nasher and the Nine followed, but it was still intimidating to know someone with that much power was standing in the doorway.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Tamil asked, assuming her role as an officer in the City Watch. She had not yet informed Captain Brelaina of her decision not to renew her employment with the Watch after her current duties were up. Perhaps the Nine were interested in recruiting her for one of their special squads of soldiers.
The knight of Neverwinter fixed his attention on Tamil, his business clearly concerning her. "I am Sir Nevalle of the Nine. I am here because you have been accused of a crime."
"What crime?" Tamil immediately responded, a serious tone to her voice.
"You've been accused of slaughtering a village just over the Luskan border. Have you ever heard of Ember?"
There was a moment of shock where she could say nothing at all.
"Ember? I passed through it, didn't slaughter it." Tamil gestured towards Casavir, Neeshka, and Bishop. "We were actually ambushed by an enemy there, but as far as I recall none of the villagers were hurt in the battle. They stayed out of it. When we left, everything was fine. Who is making this accusation?"
"Torio Claven. The ambassador for Luskan," Sir Nevalle said with obvious disdain. "Look, I have no intention of turning over a loyal member of the Watch to Luskan. But, unfortunately, according to our treaty, we have to turn anyone in our city accused of a heinous capital offense against Luskan over to them."
Tamil Farlong's eyes went even wider. "But I'm innocent! And they're enemies of Neverwinter!"
There was a sudden unrest in the inn. A number of the Flagon regulars, mostly docks workers and local sailors, stood up and drew weapons. "You won't be takin' Tamil anywhere, boy-o!" one of the bolder ones called out. "You'll be havin' to go through all of us if you wants to take her in. An' I don't care if yer the friggin Lord o' Neverwinter hiself!" There were many cries of assent and even more of the inn's patrons stood up to confront Nevalle.
Tamil's friends were among those prepared to fight for the bard. Neeshka was at the front of the crowd, looking fiercely protective of her friend and former rescuer. The stout form of Khelgar Ironfist, decked out in his best armor and brandishing his axe interposed itself between the member of the Nine and the bard. Elanee was quick to stand behind Tamil, though without drawing a weapon.
However, not all of the adventurers appeared prepared to jump to her defense. Casavir was hanging back, looking incredibly uncomfortable with a dark frown on his face. Bishop was sitting at a table drinking a beer, callously aware of what was going on and making a show of not caring. Grobnar was clearly excited, and started to gush about how exciting this was all becoming, though it was unclear where he was going to fit into it.
Tamil raised her hand and made a piercing whistle, quieting the crowd in the inn. "Sir Nevalle did not come here with a troop of men," she noted aloud, pointing it out for those who had not yet registered the fact. "He could have come with a squad of soldiers, or flanked by wizards from the Many-Starred Cloaks." Several people in the room blanched at mention of the famed magician's guild and began to back down. Having settled the crowd, Tamil continued, "I will go with Sir Nevalle peacefully." There were murmurs of discontent from those still standing. "But I will remember this support," she concluded warmly and turned to flash her supporters a smile.
A much relieved Nevalle forestalled the bard's surrender. He explained that his real purpose in coming to the inn was not to arrest her, but to inform Tamil of the accusation and suggest a course of action to prevent being extradited. In Luskan, any commoner accused of a serious crime and brought to their "justice" system was automatically considered guilty. Only by participating in a ghastly gladiatorial sport, their Prisoner's Carnival, could a person be spared—if they survived the macabre contest. Considering Tamil's extraordinary service to the City Watch, Lord Nasher had approved a plan forwarded by Captain Brelaina, to have Tamil become part of the Neverwinter nobility. Nobles were not subject to extradition, and she would at least be afforded a fair trial in Neverwinter's courts.
With that, Sir Nevalle took his leave, with a final comment about sending a "friend" to help out with preparing Tamil's defense. A few minutes later, the friend showed up. A very unsettled looking wizard entered to offer his services. The elven wizard and shopkeeper, Sand, had come to help mount a legal defense.
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"Unscheduled Off-world Activation!" came the announcement over the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base intercom.
Dozens of Marines quickly filed into the Gate Room to join the current compliment of guards in the there and immediately trained their weapons on the center of the gate. General Hammond arrived a few seconds after the announcement, his office located near the gate specifically so that he could oversee any incoming activity. Jack O'Neill and Dr. Samantha Carter, both recently reinstated to active duty, were also quick to arrive. As members of an active SG team, it was one of their duties to be present if they were on the base during such an occurrence.
"Where's Jackson?" General Hammond asked his team mates.
"Still playing around with that magic bag we got from Neverwinter. Testing out the limits of how much it can carry, etc. He was putting my DVD collection in last I saw."
"DVD collection?" Sam asked.
"He said something about needing something small and thin for testing numeric limits and retrieval something or other."
Sam nodded. "He might be right. It may be that the magical function has a finite amount of memory for storing the virtual addresses of items stored within the pocket dimension, but an infinite expansion of space to store the items. If that's true, the question is if that is a safety feature in response to a limitation of the dimensional space, a limitation of the dweomer used to—"
"Sam."
"Yes, sir," Sam smiled as she let Jack cut her off, knowing the colonel's lack of patience with technical jargon.
When the seventh chevron locked, the wormhole exploded outward as it usually did, looking like an explosion of water which was then sucked back inwards. As there was no incoming signal to show who was coming, the general ordered the iris closed. The near impenetrable metal shields closed over the gate.
"Nothing sir. Nothing is coming through," the technician monitoring gate activity reported.
Suddenly, black energy swirled around the circumference of the gate in lightning-like tendrils and an odd black mist began floating directly through the iris, as if it wasn't even there.
"CODE BLACK!" General Hammond ordered. Sirens began going off all over the base.
"What is that?" Sam asked with wide eyes.
"That," the general explained as the base began going into lockdown, large steel doors coming down to block corridors, "was what happened the day you disappeared."
A burst of hellish fire erupted directly through the iris, emerging from the black mist. "And that is what happened the day you came back!" he added, gesturing to the fire.
Three spikes of earth from the hells burst up through the ramp in front of the Stargate. In the center of the unnatural spikes, a ball of fire blazed into being. Then from within the center of that fire, the sound of a deep, rasping voice called out.
"Jonathan Jack O'Neill. Samantha Carter. Daniel Jackson. Teal'c. Your time here is finished and the bargain that brought you here now demands your recall."
Jack began, "Oh, I don't like that sound of—"
One second Jack and Sam were standing beside General Hammond in the Operations Room, the next they were standing in the middle of the ball of hellfire down in front of the Stargate, joined by a shocked Daniel Jackson and Teal'c. The fire did not burn, though it was extremely disconcerting for everyone who saw it.
"—that."
Which was the last word any of them could say before they were once again swallowed up into the hells.
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SG-1 emerged from the portal with smoke pouring off of their uniforms as an explosion went off around them, the portal they emerged through blasted by hellfire. The four fell to the hard ground, rolling away from the center of the portal they had come through. When they stood up, they were in a familiar room, ancient symbols decorating walls and doors in the large chamber. There were a number of corpses around them.
Luckily, this time none of the corpses were moving.
"Cage." Daniel said simply, pointing out the metal cage in the corner of the room.
Samantha Carter looked at the metal container with its door hanging open. "Yeah, I remember that. Lots of fond memories."
"And I remember these guys," Jack looked at the dead githyanki scattered over the room. "I think I shot that one." Jack paused and turned to Sam. "Mm, Carter, aren't the Stargate wormhole thingies supposed to be a one way trip?" She nodded, so he continued. "Then, how is it that the gate dialed in, but we were transported out?"
"Actually, sir," Dr. Carter answered, "the wormholes themselves don't have any sort of direction at all, not in the sense we are used to thinking of, anyway. But the gates only work one way because the sending gate always converts matter into a form that won't be destroyed by the conditions of the wormhole, while the receiving gate translates that energy back into its physical form."
"So, then why did we end up going into an outgoing wormhole?
"Well, not that I completely understand it yet, but what actually came through the portal was a sort of piece of the hells, and we were summoned into it. We didn't need to be converted into energy or reintegrated on the other side because what went through the gate was part of another dimension, not our physical forms."
"Okay, then if when we normally travel through the gate our bodies are converted into energy, then how do we see the wormhole? I mean, our eyes get converted too, right?"
"Good question. My guess is that when we are converted into energy, we enter a state similar to that of an ascended being. We aren't actually seeing the gate with our eyes, but through whatever senses—"
"You've just got an answer for everything, don't you," Jack cut her off, regretting asking the question in the first place. She just gave him a bemused smile and shrug.
Daniel examined one of the corpses. "Judging by the degree of decomposition here, I'd guess we've been gone just about a week. No serious time difference between our two universes, apparently." Daniel took a look at the githyanki portal they had just returned through. The curving spikes that formed the portal had all been ripped apart, the strange metal they were composed of twisted and warped in places. "Looks like we won't be able to use that portal to go back this time, assuming we can find another devil and have it decide to tell us its true name."
Jack noticed Teal'c standing still and looking upwards as if he were staring at the ceiling. The four of them had travelled through gates between worlds so often that by now they took it for granted that everything would be fine. Seeing his friend standing like that, though, Jack felt a moment of concern. "Teal'c?"
"I am fine, Colonel O'Neill. I am just feeling a renewed connection to Tyr," the former Jaffa informed his friend.
"Well, that will come in handy. Especially since we didn't prepare any equipment for this trip." Jack had noted they were once again stranded on a dangerous planet, but none of them were carrying any weapons at all.
"Oh, wait," Daniel said. Then he produced the magic bag he had been carrying when the group was summoned into the portal. "I was still testing out the limits of the magic bag when we were all suddenly pulled back here. This bag has tremendous military and commercial applications. Profits from this could quite possibly fund the Stargate program if we were able to produce mass quantities of these bags and sell them. You see, so far as I have been able to discover, there is no weight or mass limit to what you can put in it. In fact, the bag actually reduces the physical weight of the objects placed within by sixty percent. Anything you can fit through the top of the bag is stored within, well beyond the volume of the outer dimensions of the bag. There is, however, a limit on the number of items you can put in it."
"Daniel, this isn't the time for show and tell," Jack interrupted again, already weary of long explantations.
Daniel held up one finger, signaling to wait, that he was coming to his point. "Interestingly, a single individual round for a firearm," Daniel pulled out a 9mm round from the bag, "counts as much against the limit as a full ammunition clip." The archaeologist pulled a magazine for a P90 from the pouch. "And even more interestingly, a P90 with a full magazine counts as much as one with no magazine." The archaeologist pulled the weapons from the bad and handed one of the weapons to Jack, the other to Sam.
"You didn't happen to put a 9mm or a zat gun in there did you?" Jack asked hopefully.
Daniel pulled out an M9 and a zat'nik'tel for each member of SG-1. He then pulled out Teal'c's ma'tok staff weapon, the weapon being clearly longer than the height of the bag. "Here you go, big guy," Daniel said to the former Jaffa as he tossed the weapon to Teal'c.
"Daniel, all that stuff has to weigh a ton. Even with a sixty percent reduction in weight, how can you manage to carry it all?" Sam asked with a curious look on her face.
"I've been working out," he deadpanned. The other members of the group looked at Daniel dubiously. "Okay," Daniel conceded, "I emptied several containers worth of helium into the bag. It seems no matter how much helium I put in, it only counts as one item. But I have to put it all in at one time and the helium leaks out of the bag at the same rate it would leak out of a normal bag of this material." Daniel set the bag down on the ground. "In about five minutes it's going to be too heavy for me to lift."
Over the next few minutes, SG-1 went over all the items Daniel had placed within the bag. There were 140 items in total. Daniel explained that there were 142 "memory slots" and he had taken an item out before he was summoned into the gateway. The last slot was taken up by the helium.
Going through the inventory, there were several books on ancient cultures in various languages, clearly taken from Daniel's collection. There were also dozens of DVDs, plastic containers, and food items in various stages of being cut or eaten, as well as boxes of MREs. There were also a few other items which were clearly part of Daniel's attempt to understand the limitations of the magic bag and not really useful.
"Great, Daniel. How are we supposed to play these DVDs? Or is there some magic spell that will do that?" Jack asked.
"First of all," Daniel said pulling another object out of the bag, "there is another laptop. As long as the power cord is plugged into the computer, the computer and adapter take up one slot. But if it's unplugged, it takes up two," Daniel said with a smirk. "Secondly, we did leave a lot of equipment behind at the inn. Hopefully, we'll be able to get it back.
"But you're going to love this, Jack," Daniel continued as he pulled another of the 140 items out of the bag. "I brought an LCD projector. All we need is some popcorn and we can have an SG-1 movie night while back at the inn."
Among the inventory was a full case of 5.7x28mm ammunition for the FN P90 automatic weapons (the entire case only counted as a single item). Daniel also pulled out additional uniforms, explaining that the bag tracked each piece of clothing separately even when part of a set, and even if placed into the bag bound together. Then he pulled out Kevlar vests, which counted as a single clothing item each, despite including ceramic pieces that fit within it and multiple detachable parts.
The last things Daniel pulled out were all of the magical items they had brought with them to Stargate Command, minus the potions which had been taken for analysis. Daniel had determined that magical items took up the same amount of slots as non-magical ones. With a final explanation that 10 small identical items, such as grenades, placed into the bag at the same time counted as one slot, while some smaller items, such as batteries, could be placed into the magic bag in groups of 99.
Daniel had a slightly smug, satisfied look on his face as he looked at Colonel O'Neill.
Jack took a look in the now empty bag. "What, no kitchen sink?"
After gearing up in the body armor and loading their weapons, the group was set to head back out through the now abandoned githyanki base. Teal'c took the magic bag, which had once again become too heavy for Daniel to carry now that all the equipment was back in and the helium had been leaked out and then released.
"Well, we're stuck here again. At least this time, we have an idea what we're in for," Daniel remarked.
"Yeah, could be worse," Sam remarked.
"Well," Jack said with wry smile, slipping on the magical headband that allowed him to speak the common tongue, "let's see if we can find Tamil and go say hi. Should be a surprise."
.
Tamil turned in her City Watch cloak to Captain Brelaina with a slight sadness. True, the position had been a means to an end, and not her choice of career, but she had felt proud wearing the uniform. It had meant something to be a symbol of order, administering the laws of this powerful city. She had intended to quit the position in a few days, but now that she was forced to hand it over, suspended until she either proved her innocence at the trial or got executed, she was reluctant to let the position go.
"This is only temporary, Lieutenant," Brelaina commented. "I'm certain that you are innocent of what you are accused. The trial will prove this."
"Thank you, Captain. And thanks for recommending that Nasher allow me to be made a squire to avoid this Luskan trap."
"No thanks are necessary. I dare say Marshal Cormick was even more vocal in your defense. I had never seen his face turn red from anger before, but it certainly did when he was saying how wrong it was that Luskan would accuse you of anything like that." The City Watch captain sighed. "But be careful, Lieutenant. Not everyone knows what an honorable woman you are and will believe the lies that are being told. Some citizens may try to take the law into their own hands."
"Thank you, Captain. I understand. I'll be back tomorrow to formally accept the oath and swear my allegiance to Neverwinter."
With that, Tamil Farlong stepped out of the headquarters of the City Watch in the Merchant Quarter and started down the cobbled streets of Neverwinter towards the bridge that would take her over Neverwinter River and back to the docks. It was because her mind was so preoccupied with these events that she didn't notice as several people stepped out of the shadows to follow her. As Tamil stepped onto the bridge between the city sections, even more gathered together. Captain Brelaina's words were more true than she knew.
It didn't take Tamil long to realize she was being followed by a small mob. She hurried her steps, hoping to make it to the other side before they got to her. It would not do for her, a woman accused of slaughtering a village, to be seen with the blood of Neverwinter citizens on her sword. And she didn't exactly like these odds, either. She felt alone without her friends to back her up.
Just as she was approaching the end of the bridge, she noticed another group approaching from the other side. It was an ambush They spread out along the bridge to prevent her from sprinting around her. Tamil heard the sudden charge of the mob coming from the Merchant Quarter side.
"HALT!" Tamil yelled out. Her voice carried with a powerful weight, and the mob on both sides came to a standstill. "Look, there is no need for this to come to bloodshed"
"Oh, I disagree," came a rough, menacing voice. "You've been trouble in these parts for far too long."
Tamil recognized the sound of that voice. It was one of the thugs who had been arrested and later released. The bard realized that part of this mob consisted of criminals, probably in league with the Shadow Thieves. They were taking advantage of her vulnerability.
"My brother lived in Ember!" came another voice, this one less menacing, but far more passionate and angry. "You slaughtered my brother without any cause. So, don't tell me there's no need for bloodshed, when your hands are already covered in it!"
Tamil turned to face the speaker. "That is not true. I don't know what you have heard, but I did not kill your brother or anyone else in that town." Tamil tried to put as much heart and sincerity into her tone as she could. If she could get those out for revenge to rethink their actions, perhaps there was a chance for a peaceful resolution.
The thugs would have none of that. "SHE'S LYING!" They yelled and started to charge at her, pulling knives and short swords out to attack.
In an instant, Tamil had her sword in hand, its sonic energy blazing around the blade. But the girl from West Harbor had no heart for butchering these people. Some of them, she knew, were just innocent folk who had lost someone they loved.
Without warning, there were several bursts of a familiar metallic ringing energy. The lightning like power crackled around several of the charging assailants, who fell to the ground in pain before losing consciousness. Everyone froze in place and looked back in the direction of the Merchant Quarter where four people stood tall in the camouflaged uniforms of the forces of Earth, holding black weapons that had the appearance of striking snakes pointed at the mob.
"Hi there," came Jack O'Neill's voice in a friendly tone. The calm with which he greeted everyone was a perfect counterpoint to the powerful effect of the weapons that had just disabled six attackers. "What's going on here?"
"Jack!" Tamil yelled out.
"Heya, Tamil. Wanna explain what's going on here?"
The small mob of attackers quickly parted as SG-1 approached and let them through to join up with Tamil. They hadn't broken and run yet, but they had no stomach to fight without an overwhelming numerical advantage, especially an enemy with powerful weapons.
"I've been accused of murder," Tamil explained. "Some of these people are here for revenge because they believe the lie," Tamil said loudly, so attackers could hear. "But others are criminals here to take advantage of the situation."
"I see," Jack said to Tamil then turned to address the rest of the crowd. After warning them that SG-1 would not allow them to hurt their friend and admonishing them to let the law handle things, Jack lowered his zat. The mob broke up, several running away.
As the five began to walk back to the Sunken Flagon, Tamil's curiosity got the better of her. "I'm so glad to see you all again. But what happened? Weren't you all supposed to get home?"
Daniel answered, "Well, we did get home. But then just yesterday we were suddenly brought back here."
The bard found that odd. "How? Why?"
Jack shrugged his shoulders. "No idea. But let's get back to the Flagon, we've got something to show you. Hope your uncle didn't destroy all of our stuff."
Tamil smiled, "No way I'd let him do that. Way to valuable on the black market."
Daniel interrupted the banter, "Now what's this about you being accused of a murder?"
"I have no idea why they're saying I did this, but now that you guys are back, I feel a lot better."
Despite themselves, each member of SG-1 couldn't help but thinking, "Me too."