SG-13: Chapter 18 The Fish Have It

Chapter 18: The Fish Have It

Racked with pain and burning lungs, Isis and Corry laid perfectly still, neither one wanting to move. Breathing in the liquid had proven not to be dangerous, but it did prove to be extremely tiring.

Good ol' Dr. FG had managed to get all of the fluid, which hampered their ability to breath air, out of their lungs. But the constant coughing and puking had nearly cracked a rib, or so it felt like to Corry. And Jack didn't care about how it was just a twinge and would go away in a minute if Corry just laid still. To him and the others of the menagerie of people inside one head that he liked to call SGWA, it hurt like hell.

Hearing Isis groan and feeling her starting to move, Corry decided that it was time to get up.

"You know, that liquid makes you feel pretty funky FG. Are you sure it's not laced with some drug?" Isis asked as she held her head between her knees.

FG knelt down beside her. He pointed at Rei. "She didn't experience any of this because when she came out of the pool, she immediately got the stuff out of her system. You and Corry on the other hand decided to try and explain what you'd discovered. You nearly suffocated to death by doing that. It's going to take time to get the oxygen levels back up to where they should be in your blood stream."

Isis gave him a dirty look but found that within a few moments she could walk, talk and chew gum at the same time without being the least bit winded.

SG-13 slowly made their way into the watery substance and to the bottom of the pool. Once gathered there, they started through the maze of tunnels. It was nice to be able to breathe the fluid that filled the passageways but it made talking impossible thus making everyone rely on hand signals. The problem was that the liquid was thicker at the bottom and thinner at the top. This greatly slowed them down, but at least they found the source of the eerie blue light that illuminated the tunnels. Finding the alien equivalent of blue LCD lights concealed under slight outcroppings in the stone walls had helped to, visibly at least, calm some fears.

2 hours later...

Just when Isis was about to start seriously questioning her ability to lead over making the awful mistake of taking her entire team into this 'rats maze', she walked through a doorway. She expected it to be another empty chamber, a dead end. However this time she was wrong. She had found the exit chamber. Motioning for the team to stop as quickly as they could, she tucked back into the tunnel so she could better observe the room without being seen.

There were stairs directly in front her, about fifteen feet away. The walls went straight up but she noticed that the floor started to angle upward in a gentle slope. The lights inside the room were dim, or so it appeared to her, but it looked as if they were going to emerge inside a standard Goa'uld gold-cast walls style room.

She gave the signal to advance. Everyone cautiously started out of the tunnel and into the pool. One by one, everyone started to swim upwards toward the surface. Isis was thankful that they had taken special precautions and bagged their guns in special waterproof containers, some in resealable plastic bags.

Isis proceeded to grab one of the bags that contained her pistol. Without opening it, she had her hand on the trigger and ready to fire it at whoever may be waiting for them in the shadows.

Breaking the surface, guns in plastic bags at the ready, SG-13 emerged from their watery cocoon. Quickly scanning the area for unfriendlies, they hauled themselves out of the water using the sides of the pool just in case the stairs had sensors to alert the enemy to intruders.

Everyone hustled off into the shadows to make sure no one saw them enter the room. It was good that no one was there or else they would have heard a terrible racket as everyone started vomiting up the liquid in their lungs. Once that was done and everyone was back to breathing air with no problems, they quickly changed out of their wet clothes and grabbed the ones that had remained all nice and dry in their vacuum packed baggies. They had removed their shoes and stuck them in plastic bags also, thankful for once that the science department on Earth required so many samples to be brought back. Otherwise, they would all have had to wear wet clothes and rely on wet guns that probably would no longer work right, while trying to be covert in wet shoes.

Once changed, they started out of the room but couldn't find the button to open the door.

"Just start pressing your hand to the wall. The door is probably a fake wall or something like that." Rei said as rubbed her head, remembering the last time they had encountered this same problem.

"After a thorough investigation of the wall, I can say with reasonable certainty---THERE AIN'T NO BLOODY FAKE WALL!" FG shouted at Rei. He went to say something else but a sharp pain in his side told him that one more word and he wouldn't have to worry about finding an exit.

Corry started to remember something that Jack had said once. "Look for a snake-like figure on the walls." She started running her hands over all of the raised figures on the wall in front of her.

"Um Corry luv---you want to share with us why we're looking for a snake?" Odis asked even as she started to imitate Corry's movements.

"It's the key to getting out of here I think."

"You think? As in--you're not sure?" Irish was standing right behind Corry when she asked her the question, thus causing Corry to quickly turn around.

"Sorry, didn't hear you approach. Jack is saying that---oh let me tell it will ya'?" Irish correctly assumed that Jack was now talking to her.

"There was this one mission when SG-1 got stuck on Apophis' ship in a room with no doors. And Teal'c moved this thing that looked like a snake and it opened the door."

"But that was Apophis' ship and his guards wear snake head gear. We have no idea which Goa'uld we're up against here." Irish didn't believe that Apophis was the one who was responsible for this since he likes to gloat over his prisoners. He also liked to let it be known what and who he taken.

"So then what we're looking for is a symbol that moves, right?" Justin asked from the opposite corner.

"Yeah I guess so. Why?" Irish started walking towards him.

"I think I've found it." He said softly. Everyone immediately stopped their searching and went over to Justin. "Want me to try it?"

"Let us get ready first. Remember people---we've got eight people to find and then get the hell out of here, unnoticed IS preferred. I don't want anyone using the transporter rings unless absolutely necessary. I don't know how long we'll have before they figure out what's going on and then try to kill us all. That may mean coming back here and swimming back out the way we came. Use the radios when you have to, otherwise maintain radio silence. Good luck everyone. Let's move out." Isis said from the back of the pack.

Everyone took a deep breath and prepared to move out as Justin moved the figure symbol that he had found. A door suddenly appeared as the wall started to break apart. As soon as the opening was wide enough, SG-13 was gone and hunting for their lost teammates.