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

they needed to pursue. They couldn’t speak freely, at this point, and he had no
alternatives in mind. Jack might, but he’d have to wait for his opportunity to
arise. Jack was staring at Aris with a thinly veiled hatred, bold enough to make
Daniel clear his throat for attention. Even with that unspoken signal, it took
several more seconds for Jack to shift his gaze to Daniel. “I might be able to
help,” Daniel offered, not at all certain it was true.
    Without a word, Jack gestured up at the door with one hand, then dropped his
arm to his side in disgust. Tacit permission to proceed.
    All the way across the door, lines of glyphs repeated, dancing and taunting
Daniel. He traced them with his fingertips, waiting for them to tell him what he needed to know to identify them. Deep imprints,
stamped into metal, uniform and strong. It was a bold language. He followed the
line of symbols to the right, letting touch lead him.
    “There’s a mechanism here,” Sam said. She was scouting around on the right
edge of the door. “Maybe some way to open the door, with this.”
    “We’ve tried that,” Aris said. “If it ever worked, it doesn’t now.”
    Daniel’s fingers ran off the edge of his canvas and into something more
familiar. He pointed at the inscription in front of his face. “I don’t know what
the rest of this is, but that’s Ancient.”
    “Great,” Jack muttered.
    “Are you able to translate this, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked.
    “More or less.” Daniel turned to them. “It says, ‘He who is locked in here
shall die’.”
    “I’m guessing that means ‘do not open’,” Jack said.
    When Daniel met Jack’s eyes, he read the change of plan clearly: No more.
Shut up.
    Apparently Aris saw it too, because he growled, “I don’t need a genius
linguist to tell me that a locked door means ‘keep out’.” In one fluid movement
he rose and grabbed Jack by the wrist. The gun to the side of Jack’s head, he
twisted Jack’s arm behind him, straight out, and bent Jack’s wrist with his
thumb in the middle of his hand so that Jack’s fingers splayed and he sank to
his knees. Dexterously shifting his grip, he pinned a little finger and started
to bend it back. Jack winced once before his expression went stony.
    Daniel made his face settle into a determined but reasonable cast. “I’m
telling you what I see, that’s all.”
    “You have to see more than the obvious. Maybe the concept of the death of
thousands is too abstract for you. Maybe I need to put this in concrete terms.”
Aris pressed harder on Jack’s finger. “For instance, this finger is the morning
shift in the mine.” Jack’s expression didn’t change, but he hunched forward a
little more.
    Holding out a placating hand, Daniel licked his lips. From the corner of his
eye, he saw Sam and Teal’c were poised in a way that suggested they were already plotting their moves. “I get it,” Daniel told
Aris levelly. “I get the concept, believe me. I don’t need any demonstrations.”
The concept was all too clear, embodied by an empty planet that had once been
his home, and a people who no longer existed.
    “Daniel,” Jack warned through gritted teeth.
    “Jack.” He waved behind him at the door. “The Ancients, Jack.”
    “The Goa’uld, Daniel.” Jack clamped his teeth shut when Aris twisted
a little harder.
    “Start reading,” Aris ordered.
    “Don’t,” Jack said.
    “Start reading,” Aris repeated.
    “Jack-—”
    Aris twisted again, and even from where he stood Daniel could hear the pop of
Jack’s finger breaking. Opening his mouth wide, Jack let out a gasp that didn’t
become a shout. Then he locked his jaws again.
    Under Daniel’s feet, the floor lurched. He was aware of Sam yelling
something, of Teal’c pulling her back with a hand on her arm, but it suddenly
seemed like they were on television, separate, flattened, unreal. His ears
started ringing. He leaned his back heavily against the door and,