#4 in the Life's Little Problems Series
Color Outside the Lines
A Little!Danny fic by: Maj. Cliffhanger
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Part 28
Jack looked up even as Landry left, glancing from Danny to Sam. "Uh, Carter--"
"--You want to go help Mitchell and Teal'c, don't you?" Danny decided, hugging Jack's legs a little tighter.
He glanced back down into those crystal blue eyes that - as always - saw too much. They weren't the only ones.
"Uh, sir--"
"--It would only be for a few hours," he quickly defended the idea before she could shoot it down. "'Just tag along with the extraction team to see what's going on. I'll come back when they dial in to report back." He lifted his hand in a sloppy imitation of a boy scout pledge. Was it two fingers or three? Damn! He quickly dropped his hand as he suddenly realized he sounded like a school boy trying to wheedle the car keys out of his mother!
She frowned. Oh, but he hated it when she frowned!
"It's not like I need your permission, Carter," he decided - then gave the words a mental wince. There'd been no need to pull rank like that.
"No, sir..." she agreed, but she obviously wasn't happy.
"It's just like the last time I was invisible. 'Came in rather handy back then as I remember," he argued - wincing visibly this time as he glanced over to where Jason was sitting with those very big ears...
Ah heck, the kid was already in so deep they might as well issue him an SG-1 cadet badge!
He dismissed the thought to be dealt with later and hurried on. "In fact it's better than last time! I'm out of phase, not just invisible, so I can't get hurt; and, if this is a Prior attack of some sort, I'll be able to sneak in and get intel no one else can."
It was Carter's turn to wince as she reluctantly acknowledged his words. "You won't be able to convey that intel, sir."
True enough, but he'd figure out something. "Carter, I hand picked Mitchell to lead SG-1 when I left here." Okay, so he was exaggerating that one a bit. It was more Mitchell's decision than his and SG-1 had pretty much disbanded at that point anyway, so ... but Sam would know the truth behind his words! "And Teal'c...." Yeah, he didn't need to explain that one. "I need to find out what's happening. Even if there's nothing I can do."
He was suddenly struck by how Daniel must have felt watching Ba'al torture and kill him over and over....
He quickly dismissed that thought too. Unlike Daniel, he wasn't hamstrung by the almighty Ascended-being rule book. He didn't need to sit back and watch his friends suffer if - and it was a BIG if! - they'd been captured or something. No, he'd do something. He wasn't sure what, but it would be something! He couldn't just sit here twiddling his thumbs while Danny tried to figure-- He glanced down at the journal he was still holding.
...Still holding!
Cool.
He used it to gently knock the top of Danny's head. "Here," he offered it to the boy who blinked at him in surprise. "Maybe this will help you figure that out." He waved a hand at the inverted triangular glowy... whatever the hell kind of display that was hanging over the Ancient whatchamacallit that had caused all this to begin with. "At least I don't have to turn pages for you anymore."
The kid automatically let go of his leg to take the book and Jack turned for the door.
"Sir!" Carter called out before he'd taken even one step.
He sighed and turned back to her. "I'll be back before you know it, Mom!" He couldn't resist the little dig - at himself as well as her.
Whatever protest she'd been about to offer, she apparently reconsidered. She closed her mouth and nodded. "Be careful, sir," she said simply.
With a nod of his own, he paused to ruffle Danny's hair. The irritated flinch was better than the worried look the boy was throwing him. "You two behave!" he warned, glancing up to include Jason in the admonition as well. "Carter's too young for you two to be giving her gray hair, got it?"
Winning a pair of impish grins and a roll of the eyes from Carter, he spun on his heel and made good his escape before the lovely Miss-Know-It-All thought of a good reason why he couldn't!
* * *
O-zone. At least that was what his friends among the Tauri would call the scent which had suddenly caused him to pause in mid-stride. There was no name for it among his people, though it was well known to all Jaffa. It was the smell caused by a staff weapon discharge.
He continued forward silently, all his senses on alert. No movement, no sound ... but now he detected a second oder. The stench of death and charred flesh.
There!
The sole of a booted foot protruding from behind a tree. He hurried forward, knowing what he would find, yet hoping he was wrong.
The young Sodan warrior.
The boy was little more than chel'tee with the down of childhood still upon his cheeks. The leather armor he wore was clearly not his own, and yet he'd had the courage to offer himself as bait so those he sought to protect might escape. As was the case with many in the village, the youth had been shot in his symbiote pouch.
He'd fallen while facing his enemy as a true warrior should.
Teal'c did not have to check to know the symbiote was dead. Instead, he held his hand over the young man's mouth and nose, hoping to detect the faintest trace of life yet within him....
There was nothing.
A faint sound instantly brought his head up; a scavenger perhaps, but he doubted it. His instincts told him it was Volnek.
Teal'c carefully scanned the area while bringing his weapon up, searching the surroundings with all of his senses. Was it possible that Volnek's Sodan cloak had been modified, masking him from even those who wore the same? Such would explain--
A shifting of leaf litter; the snap of a dry twig....
He was diving aside even as pain seared his left arm, rolling away to come up in a crouch with his weapon ready. The ha'sak had attacked him from behind! He did not hesitate to return fire, registering even as he did that something was very wrong with Volnek.
The SAW M249 was not normally considered a weapon of accuracy amongst the Tauri, but Teal'c had no difficulty controlling it. Bullets riddled the other man's leather armor, piercing flesh and bone and forcing him back even before he must eventually fall. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Ignoring his own pain, Teal'c rose to eye the body. He must search it he knew in hopes of discovering the missing crystal to the Eye of the Gods, and yet.... Something was not right.
That had been too easy.
He frowned as he approached the other, realizing that Volnek's face was more than pale. There was evidence of decay! It was the face of someone who had been dead for several days, not mere moments. His leather armor clearly evinced where the bullets has struck him - as well as an older staff blast which should have killed him.
Yet there was no blood.
Dead white eyes suddenly snapped open, parchment like lips drew back to reveal half-rotten teeth-- Teal'c was moving even before the horror that had once been a man lifted his weapon to fire. The undead orak offered an inhuman growl as Teal'c quickly ran for the trees, knowing he had no chance against such a monster on his own.
Energy blasts cut the air past shoulders and hips, missing him by mere inches - but miss him they did. He continued sprinting into the forest, choosing the path of least resistance. That which might pursue did not move quickly. He headed north, away from the village - and the last known direction of the fleeing women and children. His trail was clear but he did not attempt to disguise it. Not yet. He must outdistance the evil that hunted him, then obliterate his trail before heading back to the Sodan village and he must do it quickly.
He had to get back to warn the others of the exact nature of the threat they faced. Together, they would devise a way to defeat it before any more lost their lives.