SG-13: Chapter 17 Staircase To Nowhere

Chapter 17: Staircase To Nowhere

Stealth looked up and sighed. "I sure hope there's a faster way to the surface than this staircase." He estimated that they had already descended at least 20 stories down into the interior of the planet. And it had been just one long, dark staircase. No doors, just a smooth wall, and no lights at all. It was easy to see that this passageway had been abandoned for quite some time.

"We have the locating device that Aldwin gave us. If we need to get out quick, we'll just use the transporter rings." Jen reminded everyone as she used her flashlight to see around her, trying to find anything that might indicate a booby-trap.

It had been tedious work and everyone was getting tired. Having to wait as every stair was checked and cleared before they could proceed was making tempers flare. It didn't help any when they realized that the temperature was increasing as they descended. It was now registering at 85 degrees.

"Isis, you better have a look at this." Irish called out.

Isis stood up from her resting spot on the previous flight of stairs and climbed down to where Irish was standing. "Well--isn't that special!" She sighed. "How the hell do I let you talk me into these things?" She looked at Irish standing in mid air, suspended between the stair case they were on, and the one the next flight down. She walked out to her.

Isis stared at Irish's feet and then at her own. She knelt down and rubbed her hand along the floor. "Huh. Whataya know--a painted floor." Soon the rest of the team started onto the floor, stepping carefully.

Jen stared at the floor in wonder. "Now who would go and paint the floor to look like the stairs continued down?"

"Why is exactly what I want to know." Stealth was searching the walls for any signs of motion detectors or traps.

Rei leaned against a wall and disappeared through it. Wulfbane dove after her, weapon at the ready. The others soon followed. They discovered that the particular wall Rei had leaned against was a projected image that hid a dimly lit room. Fearing that they had been discovered, they quickly fanned out and searched the room.

"This just keeps getting more and more weird." Odis commented as she checked out one of the corners, paying close attention to the walls, floor and ceiling.

The only thing of interest in the room was a pool situated directly in the center of it. Stairs led down into, what appeared to be, a very deep pool that only measured approximately eight feet by eight feet.

After thoroughly searching the hidden room, the team was convinced that the room was deserted. In fact, the room looked like it hadn't seen any activity for quite a while, perhaps years. Slowly, everyone made their way over to the pool.

"What do you make of this Wulf?" Isis asked as she pointed at the pool.

Wulf took off his cap and scratched his head. "It could be a trap. May not be water at all but an acid of some sort."

"I don't like how it's lit from below. It looks ominous." Jen looked up to see shocked faces staring at her. "I can say big words. I am smart ya know. Don't look so shocked." Jen rolled her eyes.

Stealth pulled his pack off and took out his yellow nylon rope and flashlight. "Well, there's one way to be certain." He knotted the rope around the flashlight and switched it on. "Anyone want to take bets on how deep it is before I do the honors?" He looked around and waggled his eyebrows at Irish.

"Stealth...just drop the damn thing in there already." Banshee snapped. She was getting tired of doing nothing.

"No need to get ugly about it sheesh! For that remark, you get to help." Stealth made sure he had the end of the rope securely in Banshee's hand and then tossed the flashlight into the pool where it quickly started to sink, taking the rope down with it.

"That was a waterproof flashlight, right?" Banshee asked.

"Of course it was! You think I'm an idiot or something?" He realized what he had said when they all started to chuckle. "No comments from the peanut gallery." He pointed at everyone.

Wulf brought the conversation back on course, "So far so good. The rope hasn't melted and the flashlight is still shining brightly. Perhaps it is just water after all."

Odis had already scooped up two test tubes full of water with her tongs. She had dropped a liquid into one tube and now dropped part of a tablet into the other. She smiled as the tablet started to fizzle. "It's water."

"I've never seen that test before, how can you be sure it's water?" Franks walked over and looked at the fizzling tablet.

"Alka-Seltzer fizzles in water." Odis smiled cheesily at him. "Plus, while you all were busy debating whether or not there's an idiot in our midst, I ran the other test . Any more questions?" Tossing out the water, she repacked her equipment.

Stealth and Banshee had pulled the flashlight back up and were counting off the marks to see how deep the pool went. "We count 20 feet Isis." Banshee said as she stuck her hand in the water. "And it's warm too--definitely heated."

Scratching her blond, but still showing a light pink cast to it head, Isis looked around the room. "Did we check to see if there were any more secret openings in this room?"

"Yes we did and the answer is no. At least, not that we can find." Wulf replied. "Maybe this is all this is? A secret room with only one way in or out."

"But why paint the floor to look like the stairs continued down? And why have a fake wall? There's got to be something here that we're just not seeing." Parker said and then started to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Irish asked as she grabbed his sleeve.

"To check the other walls in the staircase. There might be other rooms like this one." He looked at her, waiting for her to let him go.

She released his arm. "I suggest we spread out and check the staircase again. Go up a few floors and see if there are more of these rooms."

"Good idea. Let's go people." Isis headed left, walking through the wall.

"That is such a neat trick. Makes me wish I had my camera--let Hollywood try to make it more realistic than that." Justin laughed as he headed out of the room beside Jen and FG.

"Oh lovely, we're stuck in a maze and you want the rights to sell it. Remind me to leave you off of my Christmas list next year." FG scowled and walked through the wall.

"What's up with him?" Justin asked Jen.

"Civilians." Jen snorted and followed him out.

Franks shook with silent laughter.

An Hour Later...

They searched for another hour but no other room or doorway was found. The team had gathered back in the room with the pool and was trying to enjoy their lunch of MREs.

"So what do we do now? Quit?" Corry asked. "Hell no we don't quit! We make a door if we have to but we don't quit!" Corry's "Jack" alter ego yelled back at her. It was something that would scare a person if they weren't used to it. At least the personalities were starting to get used to their new body, although Corry would swear she heard "Jack" singing "LALALALALA" loudly whenever she went to shower. What bothered her the most was when "Jack" and "Data" would argue with each other while she was trying to pay attention to a briefing or trying to sleep. She and "Austen" had clicked fairly easily, both being female--and both finding "Jack" annoyingly handsome.

By this time, SG-13 had grown accustomed to this and no longer eyed Corry as if her head had suddenly sprouted horns or something. But the idea of blasting their way through had them sitting up to listen to her idea--and secretly, they all liked to watch her argue with herself. It was among their favorite ways to spend down time.

"We can't blast a hole in the wall Jack! They'll hear that and then we're all sunk." Austen argued back.

"They will not Austen! Look at this place! It's been deserted for who knows how long. They don't have anyone in this area or else they would have discovered us by now."

"Excuse me Colonel, but the location of the enemy forces is not known at the present time."

"Shut up Data!"

"I was only trying to point out the flaw in your..."

"I said shut up."

"Or what Jack? You'll go haunting a body-less android who's just pointing out the flaws in your plan?" Austen cracked.

"Then you tell me what we should do about this if you're so smart Austen. See if I help you out of a jam next time."

While this was going on, Irish was looking down into the pool. "You know..."

"Well I don't want your help getting out of any jams because we only get in them when you speak up!"

"You are so lucky you don't have a body right now. I've never hit a woman but you're giving me plenty of reasons to..."

A sharp whistle stopped the one person show and brought everyone's attention to Irish. "As I had begun to say, the pool must have a tunnel in it somewhere. It's lit but I can't see any lights on the walls or floor of the pool. I say we send some people down to investigate."

Isis liked the idea, and would have instantly volunteered to do it herself except for one slight problem--she hated walking around in wet boots if she didn't have to. "Rei and Parker--in ya go."

Rei, lover of water and swimming, grinned at being chosen to go and had her boots off in no time. She too hated to walk around in soggy boots. Parker quickly joined Rei at the pool and they slowly slid into the water. Taking a deep breath, they submerged and swam to the bottom of the pool. Rei stopped swimming half way down and looked at the wall. She swam closer to the wall and lightly touched it. The wall quickly slid aside and an air bubble escaped through the opening, rising towards the top of the pool. Something was floating out of the newly found chamber.

Terror gripped Rei as she started to swim backwards, away from the opening. A huge tentacle came out of the opening, followed by another, and another, and another. It looked like a huge octopus but it was black. So black that it seemed to be absorbing all the light. Rei was starting to panic. She had forgotten about Parker below her as she tried to swim up to the surface. The creature reached a tentacle out towards her. She screamed and started gulping water into her lungs as she tried to breathe, panic totally consuming her.

She saw something streaking down towards the monster. A part of her brain realized that her teammates above her had seen this creature and were shooting their guns at it. Several shots hit their target and the monster emitted a primal cry of pain that echoed painfully in her ear. It started oozing what she thought was its version of blood as it tried to retreat down to the bottom of the pool. Rei became painfully aware that Parker was directly in its path.

Ignoring her own safety, she tried to grab a hold of it. It slipped out of her grasp and raced by Parker, who had heard the cry it gave when it was injured and was coming up to help Rei while also trying to stay out of view as the creature swam towards a wall and disappeared. He grabbed hold of her and helped her make her way up to the surface. SG-13 was ready for her and as soon as she was within reaching distance, they grabbed her arms and quickly dragged her out of the pool. Stealth helped Parker out and they looked over at the ruckus going on.

Rei was on her hands and knees coughing violently, fluid coming up out of her lungs with each cough. FG was patting her on the back, encouraging her to get it all out.

Corry on the other hand, was looking at the water. Deciding to test a theory, Corry jumped into the water. Isis quickly spun to see what was going on in the pool and started to order Corry out of the water when her head disappeared below the surface. Isis was furious. She ran over to the pool and watched with disbelief as it appeared Corry was trying to purposefully drown herself. She jumped in after her and was quite shocked to find Corry smiling when she reached her.

Corry took a deep breath, much to Isis' horror. However, Corry smiled even wider and took another deep breath. Then did it again. And again. Finally, Isis caught on. She blew out the air in her lungs and took some of the water into them. As her mind began to realize that she was breathing, she too started to smile. She pointed to the surface and they made their way to the top.