Jack O’Neill bit back a laugh, wincing in sympathy. “Okay, that’s gonna bruise,” he muttered as he offered Daniel a hand up.

“You might’ve warned me,” Daniel grumbled, clasping his hand around Jack’s wrist and letting the colonel haul him back upright.

“I would have, but ya didn’t give me a chance. Little optical illusion going on with the floors in here; I only saw the step just before you fell off it.”

“Sir?” Carter’s voice called from a nearby passageway.

“In here, Carter. Just mind your…” That was all O’Neill managed before Carter went sprawling, and he winced again. So did Daniel. “Step,” he finished lamely.

“I know, I just found it.” Carter picked herself up, dusting herself off before either of the two men could move.

“It’s like some kind of funhouse in here.” Daniel shone his flashlight around the interior of the room they were in. “Just without the fun part,” he added, as Teal’c, entering through a different door, abruptly lurched downwards, but somehow managed to remain on his feet. Superior Jaffa reflexes, obviously.

“The floor is not as level as it would appear,” Teal’c commented, looking back at the door he’d entered by, and the step he’d all but fallen down.

“It’s not just in the doorways,” O’Neill warned. “Seems there are steps where no steps need to be. Daniel already found one, so if we intend to go any further, we’ll have to tread carefully.”

“Maybe we’d be better off if we kept close to the wall,” Carter suggested.

“Maybe.” Turning to the nearest wall, O’Neill took one step towards it and vanished. “OW!”

“Jack? Are you okay?” Leaning forward, Daniel peered over the edge of the floor to where Jack was picking himself up off the bottom of a tiled channel that cut across the room.

“Fine.” O’Neill rubbed his arm. “What’s a few bruises among friends?”

“Need a hand getting out?”

“No, think I’ll stay down here, see where this leads. Might be safer than up there. With any luck I’m already down as far as I can go. There’s a door at the end.”

Feeling his way with the end of his staff weapon, Teal’c guided Carter across the floor to where Daniel was standing. “It might be wise not to become separated again, O’Neill. We will join you.”

“You do that. I’d like to get outta here in one piece.”


The End