Read Online SG1-15 The Power Behind the Throne by Steven Savile - Free Book Online

right, of course. Staring at the sky for even a few moments would be enough to damage their unprotected retinas irreparably. Even with the UV protection of the visor it hurt to look at the sky for more than a few moments at a time. She forced herself to look down at her feet. The earth was scorched black, the dirt like a fine dusting of charcoal scattered over the ground. Heat seared up through the soles of her boots. Sam took two more steps away from the gate and turned to look back at it. Black hills lined up on the horizon, too far away for them to possibly reach before the heat tore through their suits and burned them up.
    “Nice place,” she said.
    Fissures ran red through the black earth where the rock beneath had smelted down to its core components.
    “Okay, let’s try and do this quickly. Send the drone up, let’s see if we can find the needle in this flaming haystack.”
    It was easier said than done; the drone went up but even before it had climbed a dozen feet above their heads the fire wormed its way through the cracks in its shell, undermining its integrity. It began to smoke as its internal wirings melted, and by the time it was one hundred feet above them it was a ball of flame.
    Sam shook her head. “Nothing. The drone burned up before it registered any signs of life.”
    “See the world through the old man’s eyes,” Daniel said.
    “What?”
    “It was something Selina Ros said:
see the world through the old man’s eyes
. She said she hoped it would make sense to us when we came through the gate. Nyren Var’s last transmission suggested she had located the Mujina in a subterranean grotto. I’m guessing that looking through the old man’s eyes is how we’re going to find our way down into the caves.”
    “Makes sense,” Jack said. Then a moment later, “No, really, it does. I’d have preferred a GPS reference, but turn left at the old man’s nose works for me. So can anyone see an old man?”
    Sam scanned the horizon. There was nothing, no one. She had been doing nothing but look for the few minutes since they stepped through the gate. It was unlike any place she had visited. The reader from the drone registered nothing, not a single sign of life beyond their own biometrics. There was no way anything could survive in this place. It wasn’t a prison. It was an execution chamber. The Ancients had banished the Mujina here knowing full well it could not possibly survive for any length of time — they had as good as murdered the creature but without getting their hands dirty. Yet it had survived, which meant there had to be signs — it needed food, water, shelter, and it left behind feces and other waste. Nothing could exist without leaving a trace, a sign that it had been there, so that was what they had to be looking for: signs.
    “So much for that idea,” Jack said. “Anyone else?”
    She looked back at the gate and then down the steps toward the DHD. There had to be some sort of clue. The Tok’ra agent had found the creature, of that they were certain. There was no other reasonable explanation why she’d been forced to flee the planet. She had found the Mujina and the Goa’uld had in turn found her. Question was, had the Goa’uld found the creature or was it still hiding amid the fire and brimstone?
    Sam shook her head. It took her a moment to realize that the gesture couldn’t be seen through the tinted visor. “Maybe,” she said over the comms channel.
    “Good, because I don’t need to work on my tan.”
    “If we were trapped here what’s the first thing we’d have to do?” she asked Jack.
    “Find shelter, somewhere out of the heat,” Daniel said.
    Sam nodded again. “Exactly. Now, let’s extrapolate that onto a longer scale. Let’s assume the creature has a similar basic physiognomy its going to have some fundamental needs, like water, food and a toilet.”
    Jack looked at her then, “Don’t tell me you want to do a scan for crap?”
    “It’s not as stupid as it