Title: Taken
Author: Laura Y
Email: mrdrdoc@hotmail.com
Category: Action/Adventure, Angst
Pairing: none
Spoilers: Solitudes, In The Line Of Duty, Shades of Grey, Chain Reaction, Jolinar's Memories/The Devil You Know, Entity
Season: 5
Rating: AO
Content Warnings: adult themes, language, rape, torture, violence,
Status: Completed
Summary: Sam is kidnapped.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. Not to be archived without permission of the author.
Author's notes: I started this story when the original spoilers for Desperate Measures came out...yes, that long ago! It was supposed to be done before DM aired, but time and moving halfway across the world conspired against me. It's finally done, though, and only because of the diligence and wonderful advice of Treena, the world's greatest beta-reader. And as always the encouragement (and patience) of the SWDC. You girls rock!
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During his many years as a soldier, Jack O'Neill had said and done many things that he would later regret. None, however, that would haunt him as much as one stray remark on a summer evening.
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"Geez, this is boring. What we need is a little action, Carter, something to liven this bunch up."
"Smile and nod, Colonel, smile and nod." Sam Carter murmured to her commanding officer as they made their way across a roomful of suits. They were in the dead center of a huge convention room filled wall to wall with politicians and top military brass. He'd been complaining about the reception since they'd first found out they had to go, and over the last couple of weeks she'd gotten pretty good at ignoring those references without missing anything important.
"Hey, you may like these events, but let me tell you, I'd rather be on P4G 731. Remember those plants that..."
"Sir, this is really not the time." Although she didn't like these events at all and agreed with him, one of them had to keep a clear head, or who knew what mischief her CO would get into.
"Where's the Head Cheese?"
"Sir?"
"The Prez, isn't he supposed to make an appearance?"
"Actually sir, I think he heard you'd be here and bowed out." Carter tried not to smile, but failed as O'Neill elbowed her in the side.
"I'll have you know, Carter, that we go way back, the two of us. He's helped us out a few times actually. If he knew we'd be here, he'd definitely come."
"Yes sir. I'm sure he would."
"Especially since he admires your brains so much."
"My brains."
"Oh yes, he told me so himself."
"Really."
"Would I pull your leg? About something like this?"
"Oh yes. Especially about something like this. Sir."
"Well, you may be right, but..." Jack paused and turned to look at Sam, who had stopped dead, and was looking around her like she was expecting Apophis to leap out from behind the punch bowl.
He moved back to where she was standing and quickly scanned the room for threats. "Carter? What's up?"
To his surprise, she grabbed his arm, digging her fingers into his biceps.
"Sir, we have a problem." She leaned in towards him and put her other hand on his opposite shoulder and moved her mouth up near his ear so that no one else could hear her. If he hadn't known better, he'd have thought she was hugging him, and had half an instant to enjoy the sensation before she killed any unprofessional thoughts with her next words.
"Colonel, there's a Goa'uld in this room."
Stunned, he pulled back to look at her face. He knew she'd never joke about something like that, and immediately quelled the urge to look around, knowing as well as anyone how easily the Goa'uld could play human.
"Which one?"
"I don't know...there are too many people. Somewhere to my left, but it's moved away now." She slowly let go of his arm and turned to face in the direction she'd last sensed it.
Jack casually looked over to Sam's left and the sight made him cold all over. Within about ten metres of them stood three Generals, two Senators and half a dozen Members of Congress. Not to mention the serving staff and 'invisible' security - the big guys with poorly concealed weapons - and various gophers and assistants.
"This is bad."
She couldn't keep the urgency out of her voice as she spoke his next thought aloud. "Colonel, we need to find it."
"Oh yeah. Carter, start a search of the room in the direction it went. I'll go tell Hammond and get the word out. Is there anything you need?" He laid his hand on her arm as she started to move away from him. Even though he knew that she was far from defenseless without a gun, it didn't stop him from being concerned about sending a member of his team after a Goa'uld alone and unarmed.
"A weapon. Backup. Teal'c at the very least. A few Tok'ra would be good, but they'd never get here in time. I'm going to start on the south wall and work in a standard grid search." She gave him a small smile and patted his hand as she moved away into the crowd. "Don't worry, sir, I'll be fine."
Jack smiled back and let his hand fall as she moved away. "I know you will, Major, just find him."
She nodded and he watched her move into the crowd, until he could no longer see her. He sighed, shook his head and went off to ruin several important peoples' evenings.
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Carter moved through the crowd like she would through the forest. This was like a forest, but a forest of people, not trees. Worse than trees, actually, since trees stood still. Mostly.
Her head came up as she sensed a vague impression to her right, and headed more in that direction. She kept scanning the area with her eyes, even knowing that her chances of spotting the Goa'uld that way were slim to none. She didn't think that it would 'come out' in the middle of a diplomatic function like this.
Sam tried to follow the vague sense she was feeling, but it always seemed to be just out of range. She didn't know exactly how close they had to be for her to sense them, but from previous experience she guessed that five metres was probably the maximum distance. However, a circle five metres in radius in a room like this held a very large number of people. And the further it was away from her, the more vague the direction.
Unfortunately, everyone in the room seemed to be in motion, so there was no way to just spot the moving target, either. Sam kept following her 'spider sense' as the Colonel had started to call it, and realized that her target was heading for the doors at the far end of the room. Her sense of urgency grew as she heard a commotion at the main doors, and turned to see the first wave of the President's secret service protection enter the room.
She scanned the room for O'Neill, and saw him standing next to General Hammond on a small dais in the middle of a knot of people, both of them looking out over the crowd. She stared at the Colonel for a second, willing him to look her way. As though he felt her eyes, he turned and looked directly at her across the room. She gestured to the rear doors with her head, and waited for his nod before turning away to follow her prey.
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"General, 9 o'clock, over by the rear doors." Jack didn't take his eyes off of Sam's head as he indicated her position for Hammond.
"I see her. We'll set up a room to coordinate from, and Teal'c should be here in minutes. Colonel, go assist Major Carter. I'll inform the President and any of the Joint Chiefs I can find." He hardly heard Jack's murmured, "Yes sir," before the other man was moving swiftly into the crowd. Hammond turned toward the biggest concentration of people and was about to head over to the President when a familiar voice greeting him caused him to pause.
"George, good to see you. Was that Colonel O'Neill running off?"
"General Ryan, just the man I wanted to see. If you would come with me sir, I have to tell you something."
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As she neared the doors, Carter passed by a fire door disguised as part of the wall. Suddenly she felt the presence of the Goa'uld strongly, and slowed as she passed the door, knowing that it was just on the other side as there was no one near enough to her be it. Sam glanced back to where the Colonel and General had been standing and saw only Hammond's back as he walked next to another General in the opposite direction.
In the instant that it took her to skim her gaze over the rest of the crowd between them, she came to a decision. Colonel O'Neill would be heading her way right now, and he knew which direction she'd gone. Her sense of the Goa'uld was fading fast, and she knew she had to get through the door before she lost it. She'd prop the door open and hope that he noticed it, but there was no way she was going to let a Goa'uld get away from her if she could help it.
Carter pushed the door open and moved quickly out so someone behind it couldn't ambush her. She scanned the immediate area, and realized that this was the loading bay for the kitchens. She had just enough time to take in the black van that was parked outside the alcove when a man stepped around the corner and pointed a familiar weapon at her.
"Major Carter, we had a feeling you'd show up." His lips curled in a menacing smile.
Sam's last thought as the zat blast hit her was that she and O'Neill were now even on the number of times they'd been shot.
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Jack moved quickly across the room without appearing to be in a hurry at all. Those years of black ops came in handy at the oddest times. Not looking around him, he kept his eyes on the blond head moving for the doors, but before he'd even gotten close, he knew it wasn't Carter. She had the same colour hair, and was about the same height, but even from the back he knew it wasn't her.
He slowed and scanned the area by the doors, and felt his anxiety level rise when he didn't immediately spot her. He stopped entirely and looked over everyone again, this time noticing the camouflaged door next to a big plant. He moved toward the door, somehow knowing she'd gone out it. By the time he reached the door he was almost jogging, and when he got there he pushed it open with such force that it slammed against the wall in the loading bay.
There was no one in sight, and he ran out to the access road and rounded the corner in time to see a black van turn onto the main street and roar away. He caught a quick glimpse of the man in the passenger seat who looked straight at Jack and threw him a mocking salute as the van sped away.
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O'Neill strode into the command room that had been set up and walked directly to General Hammond, right past the President without even a glance.
"Sir, we've got a situation."
"Colonel, what is it?"
"They've got her, sir. They've got Carter."
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Sam woke when her body hit the floor of the tiny room into which she'd been dumped, and groaned as she opened her eyes to see a malicious grin on the face of the man who had abducted her.
"Hope you're comfortable, you're gonna be here a while." He slid his eyes along her legs where her skirt had ridden up. She refused to give him the satisfaction of a reaction as she pulled herself up against the wall and looked around the small cell. He looked over his shoulder into the dark hallway where she could see the silhouettes of two more men and breathed in a low voice, "Too bad we don't have a little time to ourselves, sweet thing, but he's going to want you soon." Still getting no reaction from her, he glared at her and spun around to leave, slamming the door on the way out.
Sam took a deep breath; it was no use worrying about what was going to happen, better to use her energy figuring a way out of here. The room was almost bare, with only a bucket in the corner and a tap on one wall. No bed, no window, not even any bars on the door, just plain concrete and metal. Carter pushed herself to her feet, slowly since the zat blast had left her weak and a little shaky. Getting shot by one of those damn things was worse each time. You got used to the shock, but it took longer and longer to recover.
Musing over whether the zats caused long-term nerve damage, she walked around the room, going over each wall carefully, in search of anything that could help her. Before she'd gotten to the third wall, she heard steps outside the cell and moved behind the door, hoping that her captors weren't all that bright. The door opened, but no one entered. She heard a low laugh, and then a voice from the hall.
"Major Carter, please come out from behind the door." When she didn't immediately comply, he repeated his demand, adding, "I have a zat gun in my hand, Major. What do you think two blasts would do a person in such close succession?"
Sam sighed; it was an over-used strategy anyhow. She moved out from behind the door to see her abductor pointing a zat at her. There were lights set into the ceiling of the hallway, and now that her head was clear, Sam got a good look at her captor. He was blond and slightly built. She wasn't going to assume that he'd be easy to overpower, however, since she knew from experience that the same mistake had been made about her, to the consternation of several attackers.
There were two men who could have been on the cover of Steroids Monthly behind him. The one on the left was shorter than her and looked as wide as he was tall, one of those men who had to be muscle bound to make up for his lack of height. The one on the right was bald and easily the tallest man she'd ever seen. As muscled as Shorty, he was bigger than everyone else in the hall.
"Let's go." The man in charge gestured to his right with the zat. Although Carter realized that she shouldn't say anything, she also knew that 'name-rank-serial number' wasn't going to work with these guys.
She summoned a small derisive smile as she looked over them. "Think you three will be able to control me?" She could see his jaw clench, and realized that she'd hit a nerve. Her smile widened; someone else had made an assumption based on Skinny's size.
"I was told to get you Major, however, I was not told to bring you in pristine condition." He smiled back as he backhanded her across the face with the zat gun. Her head whipped to the side and she felt a sharp explosion of pain in her jaw. She turned her head back slowly and raised a hand to her lip, her fingers coming away bloody. He may have been small, but he was certainly strong.
"That make you feel better?"
The blond man continued to smile as he stepped back. "I think you've been spending far too much time with Jack O'Neill, Major." He gestured that she should precede him along the hallway. She took an instant to make eye contact with each of the bouncers. Neither looked at all sympathetic, and Shorty had his eyes fixed on her split lip and an expression on his face that she didn't want to contemplate. She made up her mind to stay closer to Baldy, at least he looked all business.
As Sam walked down the hall with the men behind her, she couldn't help but wonder what they'd been told that made someone feel that three armed men were needed to guard her. She felt an instant of satisfaction, which was quickly doused as she realized just how difficult escape would be from this place if they were always with her.
When she reached a doorway on her left, Sam felt the zat jab her sharply in the back and she turned into the room to see a man standing in shadows alone at the far end. The two big guys stayed outside and each took up a position to one side of the door. She was dismayed to realize that they were well trained, and likely wouldn't give her any chance to escape.
As soon as she entered the room, she recognized that the lone man was the Goa'uld she'd followed out of the reception. Carter felt her heart jolt; this Goa'uld was not the one she'd originally sensed, he'd been there only to lure her out of the room.
He moved out of the shadows to reveal his face and when he laughed, she knew that she'd been unable to hide her surprise.
"Recognize me, Major?" The altered voice gave her the creeps coming out of someone she'd known 'before'.
"Yes."
"This host was part of Colonel Maybourne's little off-world operation that your Colonel O'Neill shut down." He paused. "What, no questions? None of the infamous Samantha Carter curiosity?"
She was curious, but kept her face impassive. Sooner or later, the Goa'uld would tell her; she had yet to meet one that didn't brag as often as possible about his accomplishments.
"Ah, well. It's enough for now that we have you here. And here you will remain, for as long as I wish it." He threw his head back and laughed, sounding menacing as only the Goa'uld could. Sam barely stopped herself from shuddering. This was one situation that wasn't going to end easily or quickly.
This Goa'uld must be a lesser one than the first one she'd sensed. He'd lured her away so that she wouldn't expose the other one, since he obviously didn't care that she knew who he was. That could mean several things, but the worst-case scenario leaped to mind first. There were two of them on Earth; two Goa'ulds working together. And she'd been lured away from the reception so that she wouldn't expose the fact that at least one of them had infiltrated the U.S. Government at the highest level.
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"Doctor Jackson, I understand your frustration, but we're doing all we can right now." Hammond didn't even glance up from the message that had just been handed to him.
Ever since Daniel had arrived, he'd been frantically pacing the small room and antagonizing the General at ten-minute intervals. Teal'c was out in the main ballroom trying to find the Goa'uld that Carter had sensed; however, no one was holding out much hope, since they figured that he'd been the one to take her captive.
So Daniel had gone to Jack. The other man was standing very still in the back corner of the room, leaning on the wall, but with one look at his O'Neill's expression, the archaeologist had quickly left him to his thoughts.
With a sigh Daniel left Hammond's side and walked back over to his friend. "Jack." When he got no response he slowly reached out to nudge the other man's arm, unsure of how he might react. "Um, Jack, it's Daniel."
"I'm not blind, Daniel. You're standing right in front of me."
"Ah, yeah. You just looked a little zoned out there. You OK?" Daniel almost recoiled as Jack turned his head to look him in the eye. They said that you could see a person's heart in his eyes, but Daniel had never believed it.
Jack's voice was flat and hard as he stared at the younger man. "What do you think, Daniel?" He hadn't believed it until the moment that he looked into Jack's eyes and saw the blankness revealing that, when they'd stolen Sam, they'd stolen more than one woman. They'd taken his friend's soul.
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Jack O'Neill had a bad time when he'd returned from the stinking Iraqi prison where he'd lost four months of his life. Like the rest of the prisoners he'd suffered from flashbacks and nightmares, paralyzing anxiety attacks and violent moods swings, but he'd held on just tight enough that a diagnosis of PTSD hadn't gone on his record. Some of the others hadn't been so lucky and were in VA hospitals, at home like invalids or on the street, shells of their former selves.
But the worst of that hadn't been as bad as the last twelve hours, wondering...
Hammond had sent him home when it was clear that the Goa'uld had left the reception. It hadn't even been necessary to disturb the proceedings; they'd just put Teal'c near the President until he'd left. Virtually no one there had any idea that an enemy far greater than they could imagine had been strolling among them. They didn't know that an Air Force officer had been kidnapped right under their noses.
Jack had driven home in a fog. He didn't remember driving the route, but he'd arrived in one piece at his house. He didn't actually remember anything after he'd shoved Daniel out of his way when his friend had tried to take his keys and drive him home. He supposed he owed the other man an apology, but right now he couldn't bring himself to care. Right now, he couldn't imagine ever caring about anything again if they didn't find her safe and alive.
He'd tried to sleep, knowing that he'd be on the team that went after her. At the convention centre, he'd been able to cover his reaction with everyone but Daniel and Teal'c. And even if Hammond thought that he wasn't objective, good old George knew that it was far better to have Jack where he could keep an eye on him.
Who was he kidding; Hammond had to know that he was affected. When he'd been told to go home, the General had pulled him aside.
"Jack, I know that patience is not your strong suit, but for Major Carter's sake I need you to try. I realize that this avenue of investigation is not the fastest, but it's all we can do without going official and lighting a very large fire where everyone will see it."
"Yes, sir." His voice was flat, not carrying the usual tones of 'I'll follow that order, sir', and Hammond noticed.
"Jack..." He sighed, knowing that an order would only put his subordinate officer in the position of defying it, and he could guess just how long Jack would think before doing that. "Son, give it twenty four hours. If I don't have anything for you by then..." He trailed off and looked into the Colonel's eyes. He saw that Jack understood that he was being given an open rein, if he waited.
O'Neill had nodded and left, exchanging glances with Teal'c, whose outward appearance of calm did nothing to hide his tension from someone who knew him, and running into Daniel in the parking lot.
And now all he had to do was wait. Wait, and curse his mind for not forgetting what had happened to him in Iraq and the images it brought of what Carter could be suffering through right now.
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In his office at the SGC, General Hammond leaned back in his chair and rubbed a hand over his face, sighing. The last report had been the same as the first: they were getting nowhere. They'd relocated the search headquarters to the SGC after the reception had ended, at least the real search. There were still people out there looking for Major Carter, but everyone knew how futile an activity that was until they got some good intelligence.
That was the avenue they were pursuing at the SGC, with Jackson running for his office as soon as they'd arrived so that he could begin research on any other Goa'uld who may have been hiding on Earth for the last few millennia. Teal'c was assisting Daniel and they had sent word to the Tok'ra, so hopefully they'd have some assistance from that quarter soon.
He had been on the phone to numerous other high ranking officers and politicians, some of whom he'd rather not have given the time of day to, but he knew what was at stake. He sighed again and dropped his hands when he heard a familiar tap at the door. He glanced at his watch: 2 hours until his deadline to O'Neill ran out.
"Come in, Doctor." He tried to summon a smile as Janet Fraiser entered his office, but gave up when he saw that she wasn't going to buy it.
"Still no news, sir?" If he hadn't known her so well, he might have missed the small catch in her voice. He knew that she and Carter had become quite close: being two of the very few female officers on the base had started it, and after Cassie had come along, they'd become fast friends.
"I'm afraid not, Doctor. We're trying everything we can before we have to begin a public search, but we keep hitting dead ends." He immediately regretted his choice of phrase when he saw her wince. "I'm sure we'll have something soon." He saw her pause before answering, and knew that she was perfectly aware of what could be happening to her friend right now.
"Yes, sir." She bowed her head and turned to leave his office as though a huge weight rested on her shoulders.
"Doctor." She stopped and looked back at the General. "We'll get her back, Janet, anything less is unacceptable." He waited until she met his eyes and nodded before continuing, "Would you please send Teal'c up?"
She nodded again, not even bothering to wonder how he knew that she'd be going straight down to Daniel's office, where he and Teal'c had sequestered themselves for the last 18 hours.
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Jack felt his inner alarm clock go off as he lay on his bed staring at the ceiling. It was time. He was ready. He got up and grabbed the pack he'd set by the door, only barely noticing himself in the hall mirror as a dark figure that would disappear into the shadows in a heartbeat. He made one last check of his kit and wished again that he had a zat. The 9mm Glock would work fine, but there was a lot to be said for causing debilitating pain without the danger of bleeding to death.
The knock on the door didn't even startle him; he just moved silently to open it.
"O'Neill." The jaffa tilted his head in greeting.
"What are you doing here, Teal'c?"
"General Hammond believed that I would be of assistance to you." At Jack's steady look, he reached into the pack he carried. O'Neill eyed the zat his friend was holding up, and knew that Teal'c understood what was going to happen, and what he had to do.
"Let's go."
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Jack considered it a huge point in his friend's favour that Teal'c never once mentioned misgivings about this plan. He had to have them, since what O'Neill had come up with was the next thing to insane, but he didn't even raise an eyebrow when Jack told him what they were going to do.
One didn't often see the large jaffa upset, and anyone who didn't know him might never have guessed the depth of his turmoil. After nearly five years of almost constant companionship, however, Jack knew the signs. And after five years, he also knew that Teal'c held Sam Carter in the highest esteem, never believing that she was incapable of defending herself or her team. So if Teal'c was worried...
Forcing himself to focus on the task at hand, and trying not to think of things that might worry Teal'c, Jack looked through his night vision goggles at the large white house. The grounds were clear as far as he could see, but he swept the entire area again to be sure. If they were caught and stopped here, they'd have no chance at all of saving Carter.
The lawn looked like a huge expanse, and although it was large as far as lawns went, Jack knew that it was just his perception that made it loom so vastly in front of him. Since they couldn't just go in the front door, this open stretch was the worst part. Thankfully, in the name of class and the common civilian disregard for security, the residents had kept the lighting in the yard low. Should anyone happen to see them, in their black fatigues Jack and Teal'c would look like shadows moving towards the house.
He looked at the large, still man to his left and nodded. They'd decided on a plan of attack before they'd arrived, and as Teal'c nodded ack and moved out of the trees on the left side of the lawn, Jack moved just as noiselessly to the right, both with their zats drawn.
The reached the shelter of the house with no alarm raised, and Jack felt an instant of elation, he hadn't lost it after all, and he allowed himself to believe for a moment that they might just pull this off. He jerked his head towards the stairs to their side and followed Teal'c silently up them. The lock on the back door was a joke, and Jack marveled at the stupidity of the people who lived here and believed that they were safe. It was child's play to bypass the contacts of the armed security system on the door, and in seconds he and Teal'c were inside.
Jack moved unerringly for the hallway, Teal'c following confidently, even though he'd never been there before. Their night vision headsets gave them an advantage, but if they were stopped by any of the security people there, all they'd have to do to gain the upper hand would be to shine a flashlight at the intruders, and He and Teal'c would be blinded for a few seconds. Since he knew where they were headed, and there was plenty of ambient light from the large window in the foyer, they removed their goggles.
In under a minute, Jack and Teal'c were standing over their target, and with a small grimace, Teal'c discharged his zat into the sleeping figure on the left side of the king-size bed.
"Wha...?"
"Hello Senator. Don't worry, your wife will be fine, I just couldn't take the chance that she'd call the troops again. Now, if you wouldn't mind answering a few questions for me."
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In the interests of plausible deniability, O'Neill and Teal'c had decided ahead of time that they couldn't afford to kill or permanently maim either of the Kinseys. However, during his years in black ops, Jack had learned that there are many ways of causing pain and suffering without incurring permanent damage. Teal'c's years with Apophis had taught him the same lessons.
Nonetheless, both he and Teal'c were surprised at how easily Kinsey gave in once he realized that this time no one had seen them enter his house, and that there was no chance of a timely rescue. In fact, he capitulated as soon as Jack explained that Colonel O'Neill and his friend Teal'c were at that moment attending a dinner party at the residence of General Hammond. A party with numerous other people who would all be willing to testify to that fact in front of any sort of clandestine sub-committee that the Senator could convene.
Kinsey didn't actually know where Carter was being held, and he didn't know exactly why she'd been taken, but he knew something. Even with additional persuasion, all he could tell them was it had to do with her ability to use Goa'uld technology, and to sense the Goa'uld. All Jack could figure was that whoever was behind the kidnapping didn't trust Kinsey enough to give him vital information. O'Neill and Teal'c left with the name of a man who was deeply involved with the NID, their usual meeting place and hollow threats ringing in the air.
They had no doubt that when Kinsey recovered from the zat blast Teal'c had hit him with as they were leaving, he'd be on the phone to all of his secret friends, warning them about the crazy Colonel and his alien accomplice who'd attacked him. Neither one was worried about repercussions, but it would make it harder for them to gain access to this NID Colonel. They decided to wait for the shit to hit the fan, and staked out the meeting place, knowing that the NID were as paranoid as group they'd ever encountered, and would want to gather in person to discuss what should be done about him and Teal'c.
The name they'd been given was that of Colonel Colin Ferguson, an Army officer who'd been part of the illegal operation out of Nellis. Jack began to wish that he hadn't given the traitors a chance to come home and face court marshal, since some had obviously gotten off. He wondered why a rogue Colonel would be running an operation of this magnitude, and couldn't come up with an answer.
His mind cycled over the time he'd spent with the non-SGC team and he wondered if there had been something happening that he hadn't known about. Had there been something else going on there? He'd ensured that the Asgard had reclaimed and redistributed all of the stolen technology, and all of the renegades had come through the Gate rather than face Asgard punishment. What had he missed?
He shifted restlessly as his thoughts circled around and around. Jack O'Neill was fairly famous for his impatience around the base, but that was mainly for show, and to amuse his friends. During his earliest classified years with the Air Force, he'd been an exceptional field operative, able to wait in situations ranging from uncomfortable to atrocious as though he was sitting at the lake-shore fishing. This, though, was a situation unlike any he had ever encountered. He knew that every second was vital, and in the interests of maintaining his sanity couldn't afford to think of what might be happening as they waited in the dark, doing nothing.
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They wanted control of the Stargate. That much was clear. And under no circumstances could she allow that to happen. That was the thought that Carter held in her head. When she felt her mind begin to unravel from the effects of the hand device, she held that in her head.
They'd taken her back to her cell for a few hours, and roughed her up a little on the way. Against her best efforts, she'd fallen asleep, perhaps due to combined effects of the zat and the ribbon device, and they'd come to get her again only a few minutes after she'd woken.
Sam walked between the guards, with Shorty holding her arm so tightly it would have broken had she tried to pull away. On her other side, Baldy held her arm with a gentle touch that was laughable considering where he was taking her. She must have made some noise, because Skinny turned back to her.
"What's so funny?" Sam just smiled and shook her head, knowing that the irony of the situation would be missed completely by this guy. "You won't be laughing much longer, babe, he's good and mad now." With that he gave her a cruel grin and grabbed her jacket to propel her into the room; however, Shorty held on for just a second too long, causing her to be pulled off balance, and she stumbled. Slightly unsteady from the earlier rough treatment, she fell into the room, scraping her hands and knees on the rough stone floor, with the sound of the guards' laughter behind her.
She felt an instant of embarrassment, but then had to smile at herself. Embarrassed for tripping into a room where she was likely to be tortured to death. Irony seemed to be the theme of the day.
After 'introducing' himself as Fandu, the Goa'uld who held her began asking her questions again. He knew more about Earth's Stargate than most of the Goa'ulds they encountered since his host had had knowledge of the program. However, even if he'd thought to consult with his host's mind, the host had never been to the SGC, and had no knowledge of the computers, the iris codes or the layout of the base. Unfortunately, the Goa'uld also had a ribbon device, and he took great pleasure in using it on her as she refused to give him the answers he wanted.
During their training, all military operatives are taught simple meditative techniques that make it much easier to resist physical torture. The name-rank-serial number routine wasn't just to keep information from the enemy, it helped to keep the soldier focused and centred. However, with the alien technology of the hand device scrambling her brains, it was nearly impossible to reach any level of internal control, and she found herself resorting to the sarcastic replies normally used by her CO.
Sam ran out of witty retorts as his responses to them became stronger, and she almost passed out from the pain shooting through her skull. At some point, through a haze, she heard a chirping sound and watched as he pulled a communicator out of his pocket. She couldn't hear the other side of the conversation through the buzzing in her head that seemed to accompany the blinding agony, but whoever had called had upset him. Turning back around to her, he threw the communicator into the corner and hit her with a jolt of energy from the hand device, throwing her back against the wall, and knocking her out.
Unconscious, Carter was returned her to her cell, where she was dumped on the floor, and remained there in a heap. As she slowly regained awareness, she could hear voices outside the room. She knew that she should move, but her limbs seemed to have been detached from her central nervous system, and all she managed to do was push herself up so that she was in a semi-sitting position and had her back against the wall. As she looked at the door, she noticed that her vision kept graying out at the periphery, and figured that she had the beginnings of a concussion as well.
Sam had never felt so vulnerable in her life. Even on Netu, when Apophis had summoned her, she'd had the comfort of knowing that the others were there. They took such strength from each other; just the awareness that they were together gave them hope. And although they weren't together this time, Carter took hope from knowing that they knew she was missing, and that they had some idea of what they were up against. Her team wouldn't stop until they found her, since every member of SG-1 had adopted the Colonel's golden rule: no one gets left behind. She knew they were looking for her right now, and though she wouldn't want any of them to be in this situation, she couldn't help wish that the guys were with her.
The door opened and she could make out the words of an argument between the guards, and her blood chilled as she realized what they were fighting about.
"Look man, this is a bad idea. He said to leave her alone."
"Hey, what's he gonna do? He's gone for a while and he's gonna kill her anyways, so we might as well get to have a little fun first. If you don't want in, stay here and watch the door. Me and Lonzo are gonna have a piece of her before he scrambles her brains or just smashes them in."
The tall, bald guard shook his head and said, "It's your funeral buddy. I'm outta here." Turning away, he left his associates to their stupid idea; a piece of ass, no matter how choice, wasn't worth his life.
The door closed behind the two guards, and Sam felt a jolt of adrenaline hit her system as Skinny turned to Shorty and grinned knowingly. "You want her first, man? Nah, I forgot, you like to watch."
The buzz-cut, beefy guard grinned back and started to rub his crotch as the blond one unzipped his pants and strutted over to where Carter sat against the wall. She held her panic in check as Skinny kneeled down beside her, muttering about the lack of a bed. As he leaned forward and grabbed the back of her neck to pull him towards her, she struck out and smashed her elbow into his cheek. He fell back onto the floor, his legs apart and she drove her heel into his crotch, causing him to shriek and roll away from her, doubled over in pain.
Sam had enough time to scramble to her feet, since the other guard had also assumed that she was too weak to resist, and had leaned against the far wall for a good view. For an instant he stared at her in shock over his writhing and moaning companion, but he recovered quickly and moved across the room in two strides. Her vision swam and Carter realized that she was paying for getting up so fast as the muscle-bound guard slammed his fist into her stomach.
"You little bitch!" He blocked a shot she tried to get into his solar plexus, and she saw stars as he swung his other fist into her unbruised cheek. Sam knew that in her current condition she was not up to hand-to-hand combat, and allowed herself to fall as he followed through with a sharp jab that she deflected with her shoulder. She felt his boot graze her hair as she curled into a ball and rolled away when he aimed a kick at her head. She wasn't nearly as successful in avoiding the next kick, and she felt more than heard a crack in her side as a couple of her ribs gave way. Crying out in pain, she tried to move out of the way, but came up against the wall.
"Nowhere to go. There's nowhere else to go." His voice was almost singsong as he slowly lowered himself to the floor. Still sobbing from the shooting pain in her side, she saw with horror that he was more turned on than before. She clenched her teeth together, determined not to make another sound for his gratification.
As he pulled his penis out of his pants, Sam choked down her revulsion and shot a hand out to grab his balls, but he'd anticipated that and caught her arm, pinning both her hands to the floor above her head with one of his. He rested his weight on that hand as he moved himself over her, grinding her wrists into the floor.
She knew she'd have one last chance to knee him when he moved to part her legs, but before she could tense her muscles in preparation, she felt hands on her ankles, pulling her legs apart and she realized with shock that she'd forgotten about the other man in the room. She jerked at the hands holding her, but he'd gotten a good grip, and though he was small, his wiry muscles were strong. He'd recovered enough to help his fellow rapist, and looking into his icy blue eyes, she knew that he'd want a turn with her next, to pay her back for hurting him.
The bulky guard turned his head and grinned at his small friend, thanking him casually as though he'd just been handed a beer, and pushed her skirt all the way up to rip her underwear and nylons off. Sam couldn't stop a small sound from escaping as he forced himself violently into her. She turned her head to the wall and tried to focus on it, on anything but the horrible, searing pain between her legs.
Knowing that struggling only turned her attacker on more didn't make it any easier for Sam to try to remain still. Every cell in her body was screaming for her to fight back, and as she tried to concentrate on something other than the man grunting above her and shoving brutally in and out of her body, she felt his grip loosen on her wrists. He continued panting and began to thrust into her harder, and she couldn't stop herself from letting out a sob. She forced herself to go limp and as he finished and pulled out of her, his hand moved enough that there was just room for her to slip her right arm free.
Fury gave her strength as she smashed the heel of her hand into his nose, shattering several bones and driving fragments deep into his brain. He collapsed on top of her, and Carter cried out as her already broken ribs were crushed further. When his accomplice realized that something had happened, he let go of her ankles. She shoved at the dead man's weight but he was too heavy and she was in too much pain. The skinny guard grabbed his friend and pulled him over, gaping at the sight of his glassy eyes staring at the ceiling.
"Fucking bitch!" He screamed in anger and leapt up, stepping over his friend towards her as she drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around her head. He started to kick her torso, still screaming and swearing. One of her arms slipped from around her head, and he brought his foot down on her hand, crushing it. She realized that she could hear a low keening sound, and had an instant to realize that it was coming from her, before he landed a vicious kick to the back of her head and she lost consciousness.
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"O'Neill." Teal'c's voice jerked Jack back from the horror show of atrocities he'd begun imagining were happening to Carter as they waited in the dark for the shady NID meeting to assemble. He lifted his head, surprised to realize that he hadn't been paying attention. In the old days, he'd have been toast for losing his focus like that; thankfully, Teal'c was on the ball tonight. He gave his friend a nod of thanks as he turned to look out from behind the bushes. Teal'c acknowledged the nod with a tilt of his head; he understood.
Dressed all in black, a lone man entered the gazebo in the middle of the park. He pulled something from his overcoat and swept the structure for any listening devices. Satisfied that it was clean, he pocketed the detector and sat down to wait. It wasn't long before three more men, all similarly attired, joined him. The last one was Ferguson, and Jack made a promise to himself that this time the other man wasn't going to walk away, crawl maybe, but not walk.
Teal'c switched on an experimental piece of technology that he'd thought to bring. It was a bug of sorts, but of hybrid design. Carter had been developing it based on the broadcast capabilities of the Goa'uld long-range telecommunication devices. They'd planted a tiny naquada enhanced tele-ball in the gazebo when they'd arrived, and both men had been pleasantly surprised when it had gone undetected by the goon's scanner. He should have known that it wouldn't be found, Carter had designed it for just this sort of operation.
They began to listen to the conversation taking place, and Jack was taken aback when they heard the familiar cadence of a Goa'uld voice coming through the receiver.
"Which one is it?" He and Teal'c didn't have to worry about talking, since this version of the tele-ball had been configured as a one-way communication system.
"I do not know." The Colonel and his NID cronies had chosen a good spot for a meet. It was an isolated structure in the middle of an empty park field. The gazebo itself offered some cover, since the sides were a wood trellis. It was by no means bulletproof, but it had the effect of not allowing an observer to tell which person was which. In order to ensure that they wouldn't be seen, Jack and Teal'c had picked a spot a good distance from the gazebo, and were crouched behind the nearest concealing bushes. They both had their field binoculars but, in the dark and through the wood slats of the trellis, they couldn't see anything clearly.
The dialogue could have been scripted from a bad Hollywood feature, with all of them blaming each other for allowing O'Neill to witness Carter's abduction. It wasn't until the Goa'uld spoke that Jack realized which voice he hadn't yet heard join the conversation.
"It's Ferguson."
"Are you certain?"
"Well, he couldn't have kept his mouth closed this long if his life depended on it, so I'm guessing he's the one with the new accent."
They were both silent for a few minutes as the Goa'uld tried to reassure the humans that he had everything under control, and would soon have access to the Stargate.
"He has Major Carter."
"I'd say that's a solid bet."
The others wanted to know more, and the eavesdroppers could hear the familiar sound of an exasperated Goa'uld coming through the device in Teal'c's hand. Jack found himself waiting for the snakehead to pull out a ribbon device and blast the humans across the park, since that was what usually happened when they got ticked off. Instead the Goa'uld formerly known as Ferguson explained that he'd be a lot further along in his questioning of the subject if he had not been interrupted to attend this useless meeting.
Jack felt a jolt go straight through him as the Goa'uld's words sunk in. Without even realizing it, he'd shifted as though to launch himself from behind the bushes. It was only Teal'c's hand on his arm that kept him from revealing them, although it was doubtful that the men in the middle of the park would notice, as focused as they were on their own agenda.
"It's OK, Teal'c. I'm fine." He settled back on his heels, and felt the rage flow through him. Without being aware of it, with those last words, Ferguson had signed his death warrant.
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When the meeting broke up, all four of the men walked off in different directions, which made it easier for Teal'c and O'Neill to follow the Goa'uld without being seen. The men in black hadn't come to any solid conclusions, but both of the SG-1 members agreed that there had been a certain slant towards killing the entire team. These bad guys seemed to realize that would be the only way to get rid of the problem, and Ferguson, at the very least, knew that to kill Carter would bring the wrath of O'Neill, Jackson and Teal'c down on their heads.
They trailed the Goa'uld to his car, where a driver was waiting to take off as soon as he'd gotten in. Teal'c took aim at the car with another alien device that he'd removed from his pack, and Jack looked on curiously as a beam shot out from the end of it, and marked a small circle on the back bumper. Teal'c put that piece of technology away and removed another one, which looked like a palm computer.
"What...?"
"This is a tracking device that has been in development at the SGC. It uses naquada to place a radioactive signature on the vehicle, which is then traced with this detector. It can be used over very great distances, as opposed to the current technology in use on this planet."
"Carter?"
"Of course." Teal'c tilted the detector, which turned out not just to look like a palm computer, but had actually been created from one, and they watched as the signal moved farther away from them on a small grid.
Reassured that they wouldn't lose Ferguson's trail, the two men went back to the gazebo to retrieve the bug, and then to their vehicle.
"Which way?"
"He is traveling in the direction of the industrial section of the city."
"Warehouses."
Teal'c tilted his head in agreement, and Jack knew that he was also thinking about what an ideal place an empty warehouse was to keep and torture a kidnap victim. Their eyes met, and a silent communication passed between the two men, a pact to get Carter out, and heaven help anyone in their way. Jack turned the car on, and the large jaffa simply braced his feet on the floor as they sped towards the dot on the map as though the hounds of hell were chasing them.
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Jack had begun to believe that the Goa'uld had wised onto them, since when he reached the warehouse district, he didn't stop, but drove almost entirely out of the city limits. By the time they arrived at the location of the stationary dot on the detector, the car was gone, presumably inside one of the buildings, since Jack didn't think that 10-year-old Fords came equipped with the newest stealth package and cloaking abilities. He turned the headlights out and they coasted down the dark street looking for any activity that might indicate which warehouse was being used.
Seeing nothing overt, he parked the car and they sat for a moment looking at all the buildings in detail. Jack took the time to check his cell phone, but aside from a very large number of messages from Daniel, most of them marked 911, there was nothing. Ordinarily, he'd have returned those calls immediately, since even the excitable archaeologist wasn't prone to using the emergency code for anything other than a true and dire crisis. However, today he simply skipped over them, and turned the phone off again. There wasn't anything at the SGC that could be as important as what he and Teal'c were doing right now.
"You got any more Gould goodies in there?" Jack asked Teal'c, as the larger man reached for his pack from the back seat.
"I do not. I do have several Tau'ri grenades, however."
"Flash-bang?"
"And explosive."
"Good. Let's recon the area and meet back here in ten minutes to decide on a plan of attack."
"Very well."
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Inside the poorly lit building several hundred metres from where Jack and Teal'c were leaving their darkened car, the Goa'uld Fandu stood staring at the three bodies on the floor in front of him. Had he been asked to guess, he'd have picked the large male one as the one that was still alive. His former guard was lying with a small pool of blood under his head, his only injury a shattered nose, and his glassy eyes staring the ceiling.
The smaller man's body was leaning up against the wall, with his head at an angle that no one would mistake for something possible if he were alive. He was sitting exactly where he'd been thrown by the tremendously strong force of the hand device powered by a furious Goa'uld, and a large pool of blood was spreading underneath him, leaking from the mix of brains and bone that had once been the back of his skull.
The woman's form, on the other hand, was so bloodied and broken that it would have been impossible to tell that she was a woman if he hadn't known. She was still partly clothed and curled in a fetal position, facing the wall, as she had been when he'd walked in to see his employee raining a hail of brutal kicks down on her unconscious form.
He could see her face where her arm had slipped off her head, and it was so bruised and swollen as to be completely unrecognizable. The rest of her body hadn't had enough time to bruise, except for a large discolouration on her stomach that had apparently been inflicted at the beginning of the altercation that had left one man dead and the other almost insensate with rage.
Her left hand was a gory mass, her hair was matted to her skull with blood, her right leg was bent at an odd angle at her knee and he could see that she was bleeding from between her thighs. Her shallow breaths came in a loose rattle, which sounded agonizing even in her oblivious condition. And she was the one that lived.
The Goa'uld sighed to himself; this was going to set the program back. He didn't have a sarcophagus handy and he didn't even have a healing device at this facility. He could only hope that this damn woman would hold onto her pathetic human life long enough for him to heal her. He briefly considered taking her as a host, but she appeared to be too badly injured, and if it didn't work, he'd die along with her.
He had numerous other men guarding this facility, but he didn't think that any would freely stand around waiting to become a backup host if the woman died. Fandu also knew of Jolinar, and none of the Goa'uld had any idea of what would happen if one host were used for two symbiotes. The situation had never before been encountered, and he wasn't eager to be the first to find out.
He shook his head and turned to leave, motioning to the man behind him to close the door. He almost laughed out loud when the guard locked it; Major Carter wasn't going anywhere tonight. The third man who had been on her guard detail was waiting for him in the large interrogation room. Fandu appreciated that he wasn't blubbering and begging, and decided to give the man another chance.
He pulled a communicator out of his pocket and called his contact at Nellis Air Force Base to request a healing device. He sent the third guard down to the street to wait for the delivery, and as the man left, he sat down to make a few more calls.
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Nine minutes after he and O'Neill had separated, Teal'c was about to make his way back to the car when he saw an exceedingly bulky dark-haired man exit from a doorway about halfway down the building he was circling. He watched as the man turned and said something to another person, who was hidden from sight behind the door. He appeared to be carrying a gun under his jacket, and he looked very carefully around the area before he sat on a crate. There was nothing about him that indicated that he was working for a Goa'uld; however, the presence of a heavily muscled and armed man in this neighbourhood at this hour was certainly suspect.
Teal'c backed around a dumpster with his eyes on the waiting man, and when he was out of sight, turned and made his way to O'Neill and the car. He'd hoped that they'd be able to rescue Major Carter fairly easily, but this building was well guarded, and the entrance was positioned so that they couldn't approach it covertly. It also appeared that these men were well trained, and wouldn't be easy to take unaware. He could only hope that whatever they needed her alive for was important, and that she hadn't been injured too severely, as he was worried about what O'Neill might do when they found her.
The subject of Teal'c's thoughts was waiting at the car when he arrived, and raised his eyebrows when he saw the jaffa draw near. "What did you find?"
"I believe I have located the building in which Major Carter is being held." He told O'Neill about the door and the man sitting outside it.
"We can't afford to wait for this guy to leave."
"He appeared to be waiting for something, perhaps it will occur soon."
"Maybe. I'm going to call for some backup, just in case." Jack pulled his phone out and hit the second speed dial button.
"Daniel."
"Jack, what the hell is going on? Janet is frantic. *Hammond* is frantic. Where..."
"Daniel." Jack interrupted his friend, and his toneof voice must have caught the archaeologist's attention. "Listen carefully. We've found her." He continued talking over Daniel's exclamations, "Daniel. We're going to need some help."
"Where are you?" After Jack had briefed the younger man on the situation, given him a list of what to bring and given him directions, Daniel asked if he should tell Hammond.
"No. Get here ASAP, Daniel. We don't have time to wait. And...if she's there, have Fraiser standing by."
Daniel was silent as the implications of Jack's request sank in, and his voice was low with anger as he replied, "I'll be there, don't go in without me."
"Just hurry, Daniel."
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By the time Daniel arrived, Jack was just about ready to go in guns blazing and hope for the best. He'd sent Teal'c back to observe the waiting sentry with orders to return if anything changed. As Daniel got out of his car, Jack saw a second silhouette in the passenger seat, and was about to ask whom Daniel had brought when Janet Fraiser opened the door. He gave Daniel a withering look and was about to speak when he spoke up.
"Jack, do you honestly think I could have stopped her from coming?"
O'Neill sighed as he looked at the determined expression on the petite doctor's face. He knew it was stupid, but he'd been holding on to the thought that if Fraiser weren't there, Carter wouldn't need her. That had been why he hadn't asked Daniel to bring her outright, but if he was honest with himself he knew that by asking Daniel to speak to Fraiser at all, he'd asked for her to come. He nodded and turned back to the building, but not before catching the look of surprise on Daniel's face.
"Teal'c is watching a guard at the only entrance. There's another guy inside the door, and who knows how many more around the building. We're going to..." He broke off as he saw Teal'c's distinctive large form moving toward them in the shadows.
The jaffa greeted his three friends with a nod, and reported on what he had observed. "A car approached the door and the driver passed a box to the man on guard. He opened it to check the contents. It was a Goa'uld healing device." He paused as they absorbed the significance of that statement. "I then observed the lookout enter the building."
"Code?"
"Indeed. Easily mimicked."
"OK. Daniel, you bring the extra stuff?" At the other man's nod, he continued, "We obviously don't have time for finesse. I'm gonna take out that guy at the door and we're going straight in."
Daniel started to speak, but O'Neill cut him off with a raised hand. "I don't want to hear it, Daniel. There is no way that this place is as empty as it looks from here, so stay sharp. If you're in, you're in all the way, or stay out here." He was about to suggest that the doctor stay outside but took one look at her face and decided to keep his mouth shut.
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Jack approached the door alone, the others hiding behind Teal'c's dumpster. He gave the combination of five knocks that the jaffa had heard, and was hoping that the guard was either expecting someone else, or dumb enough to open the door without checking. Luckily, he was one or the other, and the massive young man inside the door didn't know what hit him when the zat went off.
Waving back to the others, O'Neill pushed the man out of the way and entered. He looked around the small, poorly lit area, which had a hallway leading off straight ahead, and a long stairway to the right. He figured that any prisoners would be kept on the second floor, where there would be rooms or offices. That would also be where the most resistance would be encountered.
He was just hitting the guard with a third zat blast when the others came in behind him. They watched as the body vanished, and Jack looked back to see Daniel's horrified gaze, perfectly matched by Janet Fraiser at his side. Teal'c looked impassive as usual; however, his look hid nothing, and Jack knew that he'd have done the same thing.
"Teal'c, you take downstairs. Daniel, Doc, with me. Shoot anything that moves. These guys are not gonna give us a second chance, understand?" He waited until he got reluctant nods from both of the doctors, and moved off up the stairs to his right, without looking to see if they followed. Teal'c silently entered the dark hallway that stretched straight in front of him, blending into the shadows.
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In the interrogation room, Fandu turned the healing device over in his hand, marveling at the technology that would allow him to bring a puny human back from the brink of death. It really was too bad that there wasn't a sarcophagus on this planet; he would have been able to resurrect his guards as well. It was also much less effort. He had never been skilled in the use of the healing device. It was not just a matter of being a Goa'uld; it took practice and an innate talent to heal well.
The ribbon device was another matter. He was a master at the use of the ribbon device, and had found the natural ability within himself early. He could bring a victim to the very precipice time and time again, without killing him. Or her. In this case, he was truly going to enjoy practicing his craft. He was going to stretch the boundaries. This infuriating woman had caused him to lose two of his best men and he was still no closer to accessing the Stargate. The other humans involved in this project were almost as irritating, but those he could put off until he could kill them with impunity. However, it was not for him to decide.
He was about to send the guard to fetch the woman when he heard the unique sound of a Goa'uld stun grenade discharging. The large guard moved for the door, before looking back to see what his employer wanted. Fandu nodded and sent the man out into the hallway. He was only a human, after all, and expendable.
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The stairway ended at a door that was unlocked, but there was no way to check and see who was on the other side without giving themselves away. Assuming that there would be a guard on this door, as well as one or more in the hallway, Jack threw a Goa'uld grenade through. After the blast, he moved through the door, followed closely by Daniel and Fraiser, and they fanned out along the hallway.
A movement at the corner of his eye caught Jack's attention as he was about to send Daniel down the hall in one direction, and he spun, bringing his silenced gun up in a smooth arc. The first bullet entered the man's forehead before the others even realized that he'd fired, and he was turning back to them almost before the second and third bullets had exited the man's throat and lodged in the wall behind him. He didn't look at their faces, knowing what censure he'd see there and not needing to be reminded of how others viewed the type of man he was. Instead, he moved his gaze over the hallway to focus on the two men lying unconscious by a door about halfway down the long hall.
"Daniel, find out where he came from. Don't get killed. Doc, with me." He started towards the unconscious men with the small woman close on his heels. They both spun as the heard a sound coming from the stairwell, weapons rising automatically. When they heard Teal'c's low voice, they both relaxed, and Jack indicated to the other man that he should stick with Daniel, searching the far end of the hall.
He and Fraiser turned back to their objective to see the two men stirring. Jack raised his zat and took aim, only to pause when Janet's hand landed on his arm. "Colonel."
"Don't get in my way today, Major."
"Sir, I don't think..."
"No, you don't. I didn't ask you to come here. If you have a problem with the way that I'm running this operation, you should have said something earlier, now is *not* the time to bring it up." The venom in his voice stunned her, and although she realized that it wasn't directed at her, she still felt a cold wave course through her body. She'd do just about anything not to have Jack O'Neill this mad at her. She flinched when he shook off her hand and hit both of the men three times with the zat.
They both knew what the two men had likely been guarding, and Fraiser knew that if she hadn't been watching for it, she'd have missed O'Neill's slight hesitation before he tried the door. There was not going to be anything good behind this door, and the possibilities ranged from a mildly roughed up and exceptionally pissed off Sam Carter to Jack O'Neill's worst nightmare.
When the door wouldn't open, Jack gave it a solid whack. It was thick steel and he wasn't going to be able to muscle it in, even with the amount of adrenaline he had flowing through his veins right then. He heard automatic weapons fire coming from a room at the other end of the hallway, but didn't even pause to check over his shoulder. His entire focus was on this door and how to get through it.
He took a look at the lock, and decided against trying to shoot it out, since the metal door and concrete wall frame would provide perfect surfaces for ricochets. He'd probably end up shooting the anxious doctor beside him, as she kept looking back towards where Daniel and Teal'c were fighting. Instead, Jack placed a small amount of magnesium wire in the lock and lit it on fire. The resulting explosion blew a small chunk out of the wall, and he was able to repeat the procedure to open the door.
He would never remember clearly what happened inside that room, but somehow he found himself kneeling next to the virtually lifeless body of his second in command, feeling as though someone had ripped a huge hole in his chest. He didn't notice her blood soaking though his pants as he tried to find a place to touch her that wasn't injured. He lightly placed his hand on her shoulder and turned her fully onto her back. Suddenly, he couldn't breathe, and his vision began to black out. He looked, anguished, over her shattered body to Fraiser, who had kneeled down on her other side, placing her weapons on the ground, and was checking Sam's pulse.
"Oh god..." The low moan coming from him was the most agonizing sound of pain the Doctor had ever heard. She'd have bet good money that he'd rarely made a sound that tormented, not even during his own incarceration and torture in Iraq. "Carter..." His raw agony filled the room like a presence. He laid his hand softly on her forehead, brushing her hair back, oblivious to the blood that smeared it.
He took a deep breath, and it was as though he became another person. When he looked up this time and met Fraiser's gaze, there was such a lack of emotion in his eyes that she was chilled again. Although the contact lasted only an instant, Janet could see the dangerous fury in him, and knew that the men he'd vanished outside were the lucky ones. And she had no doubt that if she hadn't been in the room when he'd found Carter, she'd never have guessed at the depth and intensity of his reaction.
"Colonel." Fraiser placed her smaller hand over his on Sam's hair. "Let me look after her now." And without saying a word, she gave him her complete approval for any actions he was going to take. After seeing what they'd done to her dear and wonderful friend, she'd even cheer him on.
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Jack stood and turned to the other two bodies in the room. Without realizing what he was going to do, he'd moved over to the big one with the shattered face. At the same time as he realized with a vicious pride that Carter had killed this man, he felt physically ill at what this bastard had done to her. He fired three bullets into the man's throat, and two more into his forehead.
He then moved over to the dead man against the wall and repeated the procedure. In the unlikely event of any sort of official questioning about the incident, he'd be able to say that he was ensuring that neither one was a Goa'uld, no matter that the actions gave him a ferocious satisfaction.
Fraiser looked up from her assessment of Sam's severe injuries and when she met his eyes, he saw a matching rage in her face, mixed with distress. They both knew that they needed to get her out of there, to the SGC infirmary where a Tok'ra would be available to begin to heal her.
Jack nodded shortly and went out to help Teal'c and Daniel clear the rest of the building. However, he couldn't stop himself from taking one more look at her battered body. He felt the bile rise in his throat and vowed to himself that only five people were going to leave this building alive tonight.
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The sound of gunfire drew him towards the other end of the hall, and he stopped only once, when he saw a man coming out of the door to the stairwell. The guard didn't even check both directions before running into the corridor; but he wouldn't live to regret it, as O'Neill's bullets caught him in the back of the head and neck, and he fell, still moving with his forward momentum. Jack didn't even pause to look at what would have been the man's face as he passed the body, and felt nothing, except the slightest bit of surprise that this Goa'uld had such morons guarding him.
He moved smoothly along the wall, past two locked doors, and decided to leave them until he was able to determine what kind of help the archaeologist and jaffa needed. The shots continued sporadically, and O'Neill stopped at the doorway into the room where they were shooting. He crouched and ducked his head around the frame quickly, taking in a scene of carnage.
Daniel lay on the ground, unconscious from a hit from the hand device, and bleeding from a gash on the side of his head. Teal'c was crouched behind an empty table at the far end of the room, bleeding from a bullet wound in his shoulder. The bodies of two men and a woman lay scattered to the sides of the battle. They had apparently been drawn there by the gunfire as he had, and two had been caught in the crossfire from the ribbon device. The second man was clearly dead, his torso riddled with bullet holes, a pool of blood spreading slowly beneath him.
In the instant that Jack took in the images, he also had time to see Ferguson standing over Daniel with the ribbon device, ready to blast him through the floor.
"Colonel O'Neill." The deep resonating voice of the Goa'uld still surprised Jack, even though he'd heard it in the park. "I was wondering when you'd arrive. This one doesn't usually travel far from you, does he?" He paused, and turned his head so that he was looking into the doorway. "You've already lost one member of you team, will you sacrifice another?"
"She's not dead yet, you bastard."
"Perhaps not, but she soon will be. You can do nothing for her. And I...well, I might be willing to heal her, but for a price." He smiled and his eyes flashed. "In fact..." He stopped speaking as a fleeting expression of fear crossed his face. That was the last thing Jack saw as the force from a hand device hit him from behind, throwing him across the room to land in a heap beside Teal'c.
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An insistent voice hissing in his ear and a sharp jabbing pain in his leg brought O'Neill around, and for one unaware second he didn't realize where he was or what had happened. His blissful ignorance didn't last long, however, as Daniel's frantic voice brought him back to the present.
"Jack. Jack, for god's sake, *wake up*."
As his vision cleared, Jack took a look around the room to gauge the futility of the situation. He was tied up against the wall beside Daniel, the source of the sharp pain. Teal'c was on Daniel's other side, slumped in his bonds and still bleeding from a second gunshot wound, this one in his chest. They were, as near as he could figure, totally screwed.
The good news was that Carter lay on the table in the middle of the room, and although he couldn't see her very well, it looked as though someone had used a healing device on her for the worst of her wounds and she was breathing more easily. Fraiser was nowhere to be seen, and he could only hope that she wasn't lying dead in the room where he'd left her with Sam, and had managed to hide or get away.
There were three other men in the room: a guard standing by the firmly closed door, an unfamiliar man with his back to the captives and Ferguson, who stood facing the newcomer.
Daniel had stopped hissing at Jack once he realized that the other man was awake, and now both listened to the conversation in the centre of the room. When the second man spoke, both conscious members of SG-1 tensed, and Daniel let out a small gasp as the second resonating voice joined the first.
"If you can not control your host at your age, Fandu, it may be time for me to find a new second."
"My lord, I can control him, it is only that this human has some affection for the woman. And it has been many years since I have taken a new host. Very few of us have your facility with the mind of the host."
"True enough. It will be a good exercise for you, then, to continue the torture of this human woman. You will overcome the reticence of the host."
"Yes, my lord. I am honored that you are allowing me this duty. But..."
"Yes?"
"Would it not be better, my lord, to question one of the other humans?"
"Fandu, after all the time you have spent with humans, and especially on this pathetic planet, have you learned nothing?" When Ferguson didn't reply, the second man continued. "I did not say that we would question her. In fact, the torture of this human female will be the means of our questioning the others. It will be much more effective to use her pain to convince one of them to talk."
"Of course, my lord, I should have seen. Your strategy is brilliant."
At this flattery, the second Goa'uld turned slightly, and this time even Jack couldn't stop his quick intake of breath. This new Goa'uld was also someone he had seen before, but not one of the soldiers from the renegade program. This man was someone he had seen at the social functions he and Carter had been obliged to attend as SGC representatives. When he wasn't going around kidnapping and torturing Air Force officers, this handsome young man had a second life as the son of the President of the United States.
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After seeing whom their new captor was, it took both Jackson and O'Neill a second to recover their thoughts. While they struggled to remain alert, he turned fully to face them, and noticed that both were conscious.
"Colonel O'Neill. Doctor Jackson. I see that you recognize this host. Allow me to introduce myself; I am Peshtat. Welcome to our humble facility. I'm afraid that Teal'c is in no condition to accept our hospitality." His resonant Goa'uld voice seemed strangely at odds with the conversational tone of his words. "We really didn't expect to have to deal with any of you, actually, so we didn't have time to set out guest quarters. I hope you don't mind that you'll have to remain here to watch as we convince the Major to tell us everything she knows about the Stargate."
When he got no reaction from either man, he turned to Fandu and nodded his head in Carter's direction. The subordinate Goa'uld moved over to the table where Carter lay beside an assortment of weapons, from a lethally sharp combat knife to a ribbon device. Peshtat joined him and, instead of choosing a Goa'uld weapon, lifted the knife and turned it over in his hands.
"It's strange, but you humans seem more afraid of these primitive weapons than our superior technology. Much more damage can be done with this," he touched the hand device, "but your pathetic human minds are so weak". He handed the knife to Ferguson and stepped back from the table so that he could watch both Fandu working on Sam and her teammates' reactions to it. With a slow nod of his head, he indicated that the other man should proceed.
Beside him, Jack felt Daniel begin to strain at his bonds, and knew that he wouldn't be able to stop the younger man from doing something to get himself killed. There was no way that Daniel would be able to witness the next minutes and remain mute.
Jack couldn't blame the archaeologist. Daniel didn't have his training or years of experience as a soldier and a POW. It was one thing to objectively decide he wasn't going to allow Carter's torment to have been in vain. It was another ballgame entirely to watch her undergo torture. Only the certain knowledge that Sam Carter would never forgive him for breaking training and giving the Goa'uld the Stargate kept him silent. Kept him from saving her from more suffering. And he knew, with just as much certainty that, whatever happened, he would never forgive himself for allowing her to endure one more moment of pain.
If they hadn't overheard the conversation between the two snakeheads, he'd never have guessed that the man about to rip out his heart was having difficulty controlling his host. He walked slowly around the table, looking Carter over. When he was in a position that allowed the other men in the room to see what he was about to do, he laid the knife against Carter's forearm, and drew it quickly down in a shallow arc to her wrist.
The sharp pain of the blade piercing her flesh brought Sam to consciousness, and she cried out, jerking away from the agony. The Goa'uld grabbed her bleeding wrist and made a second, deeper cut along side the first. Carter pulled against his restraining hand, but had so little strength left, she barely moved at all. He put the knife to her arm for a third cut, and this time he allowed his other hand to slip off her bloody arm when she tugged at it. When she felt him release her, she tried to move away, but didn't realize that she was on a table. The two Goa'ulds watched with small smiles on their faces as she rolled to the floor, putting her arms out to break her fall. She collapsed as half her weight landed on her still crushed left hand and let out another cry, which seemed to penetrate Jack's soul.
Knowing that the Goa'ulds were watching him and Daniel as much as they were enjoying Carter's distress, O'Neill just managed to remain still and not make a sound. He bit down on the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood, and felt his fingernails dig furrows into the palms of his hands.
The archaeologist, however, could not control himself and lunged at the President's son, calling out and causing both of Sam's tormentors to fully turn to them. The tears running down his face seemed strange in contrast to the fury written on his features.
"Stop!"
"Daniel." Jack's voice was thick with anguish, and inside he echoed Daniel's words to Sam's assailants.
"No! Jack, I can't let them do this! Stop, please!"
"Will you tell us what you know, Doctor Jackson? To spare your friend any more pain?"
"What. Anything. I'll tell you anything. What do you want to know?"
"Tell us about the security around the Stargate facility. How can it be bypassed? Where are the weaknesses?"
At that moment, her entire body tensed and Sam slowly lifted her head from where she lay in a heap on the floor and looked at Daniel. Her right eye was swollen almost completely shut and her bloody face was nearly unrecognizable. She tried to speak, but almost blacked out at the bolts of agony that shot through her head, managing only to mouth one word - 'no'.
"Doctor?"
"Sam. Oh god, Sam." Now the wealth of emotion in Daniel's voice mirrored the tears streaming down his face. Carter held his gaze, imploring him silently not to give in. As though she spoke out loud, he heard her ask him to hold his tongue. As though she projected the words into his mind, he could hear her asking him not to allow these men to best her, to win, and to respect her wishes, this one last time. She mouthed the word once more, and as he mimicked her out loud, he saw her frame relax, shuddering as her head fell to the floor again.
"No." Daniel leaned back on the wall, and stared at the floor in front of him. "No, I won't."
Peshtat's eyebrows shot up, as he had evidently been expecting Daniel to break down quickly when faced with having to witness his friend in this condition. He was beginning to realize that they had severely underestimated both this infuriating woman and her team.
Sam closed her eyes again, and then, through the red haze of pain, opened them and shifted her head slightly so that she was looking straight at Jack. Meeting her gaze, he took heart from the fact that she was still fighting. If it had been possible, he'd have given her his blood and taken her pain, but all he could do was meet her eyes and not look away, willing her his strength and giving her his silent support.
Carter kept her eyes on O'Neill's as she felt the guard and Fandu lift her from the floor. She lacked the strength even to struggle, concentrating on staying conscious as they threw her roughly to the flat surface with no regard as to how she lay. Not realizing that she had been healed slightly by the Goa'uld, Sam felt a moment of surprise that she wasn't dead.
She'd been injured before, both off-world and in combat on Earth, and she couldn't ever remember being so certain she was going to die. Even in Antarctica, on the verge of death, she'd only felt as though she was falling asleep. The sharpest pain she'd felt there hadn't been her physical injuries, but the knowledge that she had let her new CO down. Sam felt a similar anguish now, not that she'd let them down by dying, but that they would have to watch.
As he saw her eyes close, O'Neill realized that Carter was losing consciousness. Even though he knew it meant that she was very close to dying, he was glad that she would no longer feel the injuries that had been inflicted upon her. However, he did realize that the object of this exercise was not simply to torture Carter, but for them to watch her suffer, and was not surprised when Peshtat approached the table where she lay.
O'Neill bit down harder on his shredded cheek and felt his hands get slippery with his own blood when the Goa'uld picked up her uninjured right hand, and cradled it almost tenderly. It seemed absurd that after all she had been though, the thought of this bastard destroying Carter's beautiful hands was almost more than he could bear. Those capable hands that could build a naquadah reactor from spare parts. Those skilled hands that had patched him up on more than one occasion. Those delicate hands that could fire a P-90 as accurately as any soldier he'd ever served with. The need to close his eyes, to pretend that it wouldn't happen if he didn't watch was almost overwhelming.
With a swift movement, Peshtat took hold of Carter's little finger and pulled it sideways, snapping the joint, and wrenching her back from the brink of unconsciousness. This pain, sudden and sharp, focused all of the sensation in her body, and it was as if she could feel every cell: the table beneath her, the warmth of the hands that held her wrist, and the agony radiating over her whole body. She bit down on her tongue to try and stop herself from making any sound that would further hurt the others. She swallowed a mouthful of blood and tried to find the shadows inside her that had almost taken her under.
A quick movement in the corner of her eye caused her to look to the side, where Fandu was standing. Sam felt the fog clear from her brain, as she understood that it wasn't Fandu that was staring at her in shock, it was Ferguson. Even as Peshtat grabbed her next finger and prepared to break the joint, she watched him and saw his eyes drop to the table beside her.
Jack heard Sam's second finger break, and his soul was shredded just a little more by the small sound of anguish she couldn't withhold. He felt Daniel moving beside him, and realized with dismay that he'd somehow managed to work himself free of his bonds. Before he knew what was happening, Daniel had launched himself from his position next to Jack and had barrelled into the President's son, sending both of them crashing to the floor next to the table.
The Goa'uld's head hit the floor with a loud crack, and Daniel pummelled his face with such fury and strength that Jack wouldn't have been surprised to see the Goa'uld's skull crack open. He was drawing back his arm again when two loud shots rang out, and Jack glanced away from his friend to see the guard at the door with his gun drawn and pointing at the two men on the floor. He looked back at them in time to see Daniel slump to the ground next to the Goa'uld and as the alien pushed the other man over, Jack saw a spreading red mark in the front of Daniel's shirt and blood seeping from a wound on the side of his head.
The guard walked over and kicked Daniel's body out of the way as he leaned down to help his employer regain his feet. Jack stared at Daniel, trying to discern if he was still alive. Before an instant had passed, though, he heard a shriek of such horror and suffering that he felt the bottom drop out of his world.
When he looked to Carter to see what they'd done in retribution, he was stunned to see her half sitting up on the table with the ribbon device on her right hand, focused on the Goa'uld. While Daniel had attacked Peshtat, she had threaded it onto her less ruined hand and somehow managed to fit it over her swollen, broken fingers.
In the past, Carter had always had to concentrate, to will herself to be able to use the alien technology. To force her too analytical mind to overcome the 'how' of it and just use the inherent power that came with having been a host. Now, the walls had fallen and all the barriers were broken. She could feel the part of her that had been blended with Jolinar, almost as if the symbiote had come to life again within her. The power of all the Goa'uld, millennia of it, flowed through her body and into the hand device. The thread of energy reached from her outstretched hand, fueled by all the horror and pain of the last two days, into the Goa'uld's brain. He fell to his knees, still screaming in agony, and she swayed from the loss of the energy the alien technology was pulling from her broken and weakened body.
The guard lifted his gun and aimed it at Sam, but froze in shock as several silenced gunshots hit him in the back. He turned slowly to see the last face he ever would, and fell to the ground as Janet Fraiser moved out around the doorframe and shot him twice in the throat.
The Goa'uld's screams seemed to have jerked Fandu into control again, and as he moved toward Sam from behind, O'Neill and Fraiser both shouted to alert her. Janet raised the gun and fired, but the magazine was empty, and they didn't even hear the click of the hammer over Peshtat's screams as they watched Fandu approaching Sam from behind.
With her senses so alert, Sam could feel the Goa'uld, and swung her legs to the ground, almost collapsing and feeling the blackness close in around her as she landed on her dislocated knee. By sheer willpower she didn't pass out, and barely held herself upright against the table as she turned to throw a blast of power from the hand device at Fandu, flinging him into the wall. He hit the concrete wall with such force that the others heard his skull crack.
Fraiser moved over to O'Neill and freed him quickly. Jack made himself force down the nausea he felt as she used the knife that had cut open Sam's arm to slice through the ropes that held him. He shoved himself from the floor and threw off Janet's hands, pushing her toward where Daniel still lay in a heap, ignoring her cry of distress as she saw his condition.
Before he could reach Carter, she was turning back to Peshtat. When she'd turned the hand device from him, the Goa'uld had stopped screaming, and was curled on the ground, whimpering. As she twisted back around, her eyes fell on Daniel's body, and she cried out with a sound as anguished as though she had been physically hurt again.
Tearing her eyes from Daniel's still form, she looked at Jack, holding his gaze as she turned the ribbon device towards Peshtat. As she stared into her CO's eyes, she silently tried to apologize, to make him understand that it wasn't his fault. She took all of the responsibility for allowing Daniel to die, but her grief-stricken face belied the pure, unadulterated fury that flowed through her body.
Even through her imprisonment and torture, she'd had the solace of knowing her team was safe, that her team would make it. Seeing her friend bleeding on the ground, with Janet frantically trying to slow the flow of blood, she felt the last of her reserve fall away. Sam finally understood that to truly use the Goa'uld technology to its greatest effect, the user had to surrender completely. She had to relinquish any thoughts of good and evil and give herself up to the flow of power. She also knew that if she did this now, weakened as she was, it would likely be the last thing she ever did.
She looked towards the architect of this nightmare. The man who had caused her torment. The thing that had caused the people she loved to suffer. She felt the last of herself give in, and there was no more pain. There was only a clear purpose, and a rush of energy that filled her skin. She became the invisible force that was the 'how'. The energy that shot from her outstretched hand was unlike anything they'd seen before, bright yellow, and as fine as a laser beam. There was no time for the alien to scream, only a sharp crack, and O'Neill jerked back in shock as the head of the man who had been the President's son exploded, sending a mixture of blood, bone and brain matter into every corner of the room.
In the next instant, the flow of power stopped, and O'Neill rushed forward just in time to catch Carter as she collapsed in a boneless heap. He fell to his knees, not even noticing the sharp pain when he landed on the cement floor with her on top of him. As her head rolled loosely back against his arm, he searched frantically for a pulse, shouting for Fraiser when he realized that she wasn't breathing.
Janet left Daniel, whose bleeding seemed to have slowed, and kneeled down beside them. She felt for a pulse, and Jack felt his head swim as her shoulders slumped and she shook her head.
"Do something." Jack's voice sounded almost calm, until she looked into his face, and saw his burning eyes.
"I..."
"*Do* something." The lack of emotion in O'Neill's voice and on his face would have fooled her if she hadn't been in a similar situation with him when Sam had been taken over by the computer entity.
"Colonel. I...can't. Even with...even at the SGC, with all of the medical technology on Earth, all I'd be able to do is put her on life support. I can't...I *won't* do that against her wishes again."
In that moment Janet Fraiser saw what she'd only ever seen in the dead and dying. She saw the spark of life go out in Jack O'Neill's eyes. She understood that when Sam had given the last of her life to avenge Daniel's death, she'd taken this man with her. The cold, flat expression made a chill run through her, and she knew even as she mourned for her friend, she would always consider this as the death of not one, but two people.
"I made it out to call for help..." Her voice trailed off as she realized that he had completely shut her out, and she barely held back a sob as she watched him bend his head over Sam's still form.
"Daniel's alive." He scarcely moved, but she knew he'd heard her, and she moved back to the person whose injuries she could heal and left him to grieve.
It seemed to Jack as though years passed as he stared at Carter's face, seeing it not as it was now, but as beautiful as the day they'd met. However, in only minutes, footsteps reverberated on the stairway and in the hall outside the room. Keeping his head bent over Sam's, he silently tried to tell her all the things he should have said when she was alive. He didn't feel even the slightest amount of anxiety over who was about to arrive, looking up only as a swarm of people entered the room. Recognizing the SGC insignia on their uniforms, he turned back to the body of the woman who was cradled in his arms.
A hand fell on his shoulder, and he lashed out as more hands tried to pull Carter away from him, only calming when the familiar face of Jacob Carter entered his field of vision. It wasn't Jacob's voice he heard, however, and it took a moment for Selmak's words to penetrate his fog of grief.
"Colonel. Colonel O'Neill, you must release Major Carter if I am to try to heal her."
Jacob held up his hand, on which the healing device was already glowing. Jack shook his head slowly. "Selmak, she's..."
"I know, Colonel. I only have a short window in which this device will work. The only other option is a sarcophagus, and you know that we do not have one available."
Jack nodded silently, and relinquished his hold on Carter, gently lowering her to the ground in front of her father. He smoothed her bloody hair off her face and sat back on his heels to see if the Tok'ra could actually perform miracles.
From of the corner of his eye, Jack could see Fraiser fussing over Daniel and directing the other medical staff to release and evaluate Teal'c. A movement from Fraiser caused him to turn to look at her, and a tight smile crossed her face as she nodded to him, indicating that both of the other members of his team were going to live. A sharp gasp caused him to snap his head back around just in time to see Carter draw a deep breath, her back arching off the ground as she started to convulse.
He started to reach for her, but pulled his hand back just before he made contact, not knowing if his touch would interfere and make things worse. He looked helplessly at Jacob, who was beginning to show some strain.
Carter continued to shudder, and Jack felt as though it was his heart that was being restarted, his life force that was being revived. After what felt like eons, Carter's shaking seemed to slow, and it stopped just as the light from the healing device faded out and Jacob dropped his hands. The Tok'ra swayed as if he was in a strong gale, and sat back with a slight smile.
"Major Carter will survive." Selmak looked tiredly at Jack. "She is not completely healed, but she is alive. Your Doctor Fraiser can manage the rest of her physical injuries. My strength is gone, there is nothing more I can do now." He slowly lowered his head, and for the first time, Jacob Carter spoke.
"Oh god, Sam." Tears filled his eyes as he picked up the hand that still had the ribbon device on it. "My brave, beautiful girl. What have they done to you?" He looked up into Jack's eyes. "Did you get them all?"
"She..." Jack stopped and cleared his throat as the tears he'd been holding at bay threatened to fall. "Carter...got the ones that did...this."
A moment of unspoken communication passed between the men. Jacob opened his mouth to speak, but as another wave of fatigue washed over him, he passed the care of his daughter to the most important man in her life, moving away from Sam's side to lean up against the wall, and closed his eyes. "Look after her, Colonel, Selmak needs to rest."
His muscles crying out for him to hold her close to him again, Jack simply placed his hand on her forehead and stroked her hair back. She didn't look as though a healing device had been used on her. Her face was still virtually unrecognizable with bruising, and neither of her hands had been fixed. Blood still oozed from many of her smaller wounds. Selmak's efforts had brought her back to life, but she was far from healed.
Jack felt the cold fury rise within him again as his gaze moved over her still form. All of the people responsible for this nightmare were dead, but he couldn't help but wish again for some time alone with the Goa'uld who had orchestrated all of it. That she had been the one to kill the men who had caused her the most pain and suffering would help her through the psychological healing, but there would be no quick fix.
The two orderlies from the SGC who came to take Sam to the waiting ambulance had no idea at the inner turmoil of the implacable man kneeling at the injured Major's side. O'Neill looked up to catch Fraiser's eye and, when she simply looked away to focus on Daniel's wounds once more, he knew that they would never again refer to what had transpired in the small room where they'd found Carter.
He watched in silence as the medics placed her gently on the gurney. As he turned to follow them out of the room, knowing that Carter was going to live, he spared a glance for the other injured members of his team. The calm and unhurried manner of both Janet Fraiser and her assistants reassured him enough that he simply turned and left as the gurney carrying Carter was wheeled out of the room.
Fraiser looked up again just as he was leaving and knew that whatever happened, Sam would not have to go through it alone. She had her friends to see her through the healing process. In time, her injuries would mend, both the physical and the invisible, helped along with the support of her teammates.
SG-1 would heal, and would more than likely emerge from this nightmare stronger than ever. However, the blank expression on the Colonel's face as he followed Carter being wheeled away made her realize that Sam was not the only one who would suffer psychological wounds from what had happened over the last few days. And those ones wouldn't heal easily at all.
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In the darkened office a man sat alone, his face hidden in shadow.
He'd always believed that the benefits of the top secret Stargate program had outweighed the risks and the losses.
Until this morning, when he'd had to lie to his wife and tell her that their son and his secret service detail had been killed in a car accident while on their way to a ski resort in Aspen, Colorado.
Until this afternoon, when he'd gone to the classified base and been told that he couldn't see the body of his only child because of its condition.
He'd believed, until the moment he'd entered the infirmary and seen the battered face and body of the woman who had experienced hell at the hands of his offspring.
But then he'd looked around and seen the two men who'd almost given their lives for her.
And he'd looked into the eyes of the man who'd given his soul for her.
He'd listened to the press release and felt the weight of his office descend upon him as both his friends and enemies privately and publicly expressed their condolences for an accident that hadn't occurred. He hadn't been able to mask his grief at what he'd allowed to happen to his son, and it had been shown on international television as a man grieving for his child.
He wanted to rage and scream and shut the sub-floors of Cheyenne Mountain down. And yet, how could they give up now? After the losses they'd suffered. And all they'd had to give up. After coming so close to...what? He didn't even know how long his son had not been his son.
That the members of the SGC went through this same dilemma on an almost daily basis hadn't escaped him. He'd served in the Navy and thought that he knew how it was, but nothing on Earth had prepared him for the realization he had faced today.
He took one last deep breath and buried his personal feelings in the same place he'd been burying them since he'd entered public office. He would not allow this tragedy to destroy the most important project in the history of humankind. He would not allow the loss of his only son to be for nothing. And he would not minimize what the young Major had endured to assuage his grief.
They would go on. The Stargate program would go on. The people of his country and the entire planet would never know how close they had come to Armageddon again.
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THE END
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