06 - Siren Song by Jamie Duncan, Holly Scott - (ebook by Undead) Page A

hand.
    “Don’t feel so good, sir,” she gasped. When he pressed the canteen against
her arm she took it and allowed herself a small sip. It was mostly empty.
    “That makes two of us,” he said, giving her neck a pat.
    “Three of us,” Teal’c added.
    She raised her head and gave the Colonel a thin smile of apology. Aris was
still watching.
    “Better pick up the pace, doctor,” he suggested to Daniel, and finished the
last of the MRE.
     
    Daniel’s eyes were starting to throb with the force of the headache twisting through his brain. He pulled his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.
The intertwined glyphs had taken on a uniformity he couldn’t unravel, and they
marched behind his eyelids even when his eyes were closed. He was acutely aware
of his teammates a few feet away; his fingers twitched with sympathetic pain for
Jack’s injury. He would have to think faster, or make a convincing argument as
to why he hadn’t made more progress. Lying might work, if he knew what lie to
dish out or what Jack had in mind from this point forward. Options were
nonexistent, it seemed, but his perspective was limited to the wall, and the
Ancients’ warning, and his fear for his teammates.
    He squinted up at the silent message, then pressed his palms flat against the
cool metal. The glyphs were similar to the rongo rongo of Easter Island,
but it made no sense—Easter Island had been populated a mere 1500 years, a
drop in the bucket compared to the Ancients and the Goa’uld. He sighed.
Polynesian culture was not a specialty he’d ever cared to pursue in more than a
superficial way, and he had no reference tools at all to consult. “Maybe what’s
there developed independently on and offworld from something much older,” he
said out loud.
    “Talking to yourself?” Aris asked. Daniel slipped his glasses back on,
ignoring the twinge of pain that shot through his temples, and took a long look
at Aris’ face.
    “Sometimes it helps to solve a puzzle if I trace the parts out loud,” he
said, without any expectation that Aris would understand. “I need a few minutes
rest. To think it over.”
    “Rest standing up,” Aris said, and pointed to the wall. “Feel free to lean.”
    Daniel shifted his glance across the chamber, to Sam’s pale face, then to
Teal’c, whose eyes were closed. Finally he met Jack’s eyes. Somehow he was going
to have to find out if Jack had a plan to get them out of this. Even an attempt
at escape was better than nothing, and he knew at this point Jack’s focus was on
that and nothing else. To Aris, he said, “Just a few minutes.”
    “You humans are so needy,” Aris said, as he rose from his perch at Daniel’s
side. “It’s amazing you ever figured out the Stargate system in the first place.”
    “Yes, isn’t it,” Daniel said, pushing back a flare of personal irritation.
    Jack stood as they approached, his bandaged hand dangling at his side.
“Daniel?” he said, eyeing Aris. “Everything all right?”
    “Peachy,” Daniel said. Aris hovered right behind him. “I’m not making much
progress.” He glanced at Jack’s hand. “How’re you guys doing?”
    “The sooner we get out of here, the better,” Jack said, nodding toward
Teal’c, who sat sweaty and still in the corner. “I don’t like this place,” he
added, adding a tight smile to punctuate the understatement.
    “Is there anything I can do to help, Daniel?” Sam pushed up from the ground
and brushed her hands off on her BDUs.
    Jack shot her an annoyed look. “How about if you wait until I give you the
go-ahead, there, Carter?”
    “Just trying to help, sir,” she said, but the frown that creased her forehead
matched her clipped tone.
    “Guys?” Daniel said, looking from one to the other. The tension ratcheted up
tenfold as they stared at one another. “What’s going on?”
    “Carter here thinks she’s running her own show,” Jack said. “She’s been at it
all day.”
    “She has not.” From behind