Sara sat in the office, waiting for Hammond to finish his phone conversation. She was still trying to understand everything she’d been told, when the General had asked to have a quick conversation with her.
“I’m sorry about that,” Hammond said as he turned back to her.
“Your granddaughters are very lucky to have you in their lives,” Sara smiled slightly sadly.
“They love Jack,” Hammond told her.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Sara smiled a little brighter before turning serious, “Now, why did you want to talk to me?”
“Colonel O’Neill mentioned that you were a trained counsellor,” Hammond moved straight to the point, “And suggested that it could be very helpful to have you on staff.”
“Are you offering me a job?” Sara asked, quite taken aback.
“Precisely.”
“General, I’m trained to counsel people who have lost their child,” Sara told him, “I don’t know what I could do here.”
“The SG teams see things and go through situations that no one on Earth is qualified to deal with,” Hammond explained, “Ever since Jack mentioned you were a counsellor, I have been thinking that since we’re out there, we should start training people to deal with what the SG teams go through.”
“And you want me to do that?” Sara looked intrigued.
“If you think you can,” Hammond told her, “I’ll give you as much time as you need to think it over. Dr Fraiser insists that you stay on base just now; so as soon as you’ve made your decision, just let me know.”
Sara nodded and walked with her escort back to the infirmary.
Claire sat with her youngest daughter in Daniel’s office, going through some of the SGC’s findings from the past few years. Janet had spoken with Hammond and got things for them both to work on, to keep their minds occupied while they waited for SG1 to report back.
“Mom, this is so incredible,” Kelly breathed, “I mean, almost everything I’ve learned is wrong.”
Claire smiled, “I know. You have to remember, I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have.”
“We’ve got this to do,” Kelly mused, “What about Elizabeth?”
“She’s either flirting with the young man she refers to as her shadow,” Claire laughed, “Or she’s talking someone’s ear off.”
“Maria would probably be mapping the base,” Kelly whispered, “Before drawing up plans how to use the space better.”
Claire laughed, hugging her youngest daughter, “She’ll get the chance to do that. Daniel will get her back.”
“You have a lot of faith in him,” Kelly said as she turned back to the reports.
“I do but I also have faith in his friends,” Claire smiled, turning her youngest back to look at her, “Nothing but positive thinking.”
Kelly smiled back, that was one of her mother’s favourite sayings back when they were children.
“Positive thinking,” Kelly repeated with a firm nod.
*********************************************
Daniel slid out of the duct and sighed, “It’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic.”
“Well?” Jack asked, the instant Daniel returned to the ship.
“They’re together and both seem fine,” Daniel reported, “But…”
“But?” Sam asked.
“I think Steven’s been killed at least once,” Daniel grimaced.
“What makes you think that?” Jack asked.
“He had a hole in his shirt that was surrounded by dried blood,” Daniel explained, “It looked horribly familiar.”
“Teal’c and I have an idea to get them out,” Sam spoke up.
“What is it?” Jack asked.
“Well, basically…” Sam went on to detail the plan as both Daniel and Jack stared at her.
“Are you kidding me?” Jack yelled.
“It’s the best idea we’ve got,” Sam told him.
“Then I have to remember to tell Hammond that the standard of our plans has slipped,” Jack grimaced, “A lot.”
“Sir, it’s the best idea we have,” Sam reminded him, “Look, they don’t have Jaffa but they do have a sarcophagus. We have to remove the booby traps before we can get them out and it’ll be easier to have a distraction inside.”
Daniel sighed, “I agree with Sam.”
“Fine,” Jack rolled his eyes, “But for the record, this plan sucks.”
“Thanks for this,” Elizabeth said to Janet.
“No problem,” Janet smiled.
“I thought you were going with them?” Elizabeth asked.
“Originally Colonel O’Neill suggested I go,” Janet shrugged, “But it was soon decided the Teltac would be too small,” Janet explained before changing the subject, “So, where did you get your first aid training?”
“When I started College I was to do a report on an activity with positive effects,” Elizabeth explained with a roll of her eyes, “Maria suggested first aid; she’d done a course back in school. She wanted to be a doctor for a while after that.”
“I take it she changed her mind,” Janet mused.
“Thankfully,” Elizabeth said, “I mean can you imagine Maria as a doctor with her bedside manner. ‘You’re not sick, stop malingering’.”
Janet laughed, “How long since you’ve had a refresher course?”
“Couple of years now,” Elizabeth shrugged, “Work keeps me busy. I thought this would be a great idea, since I can’t actually do anything else here and I need to keep busy.”
“They’ll get Maria back,” Janet told Elizabeth.
“Sam has already given me this pep talk,” Elizabeth laughed slightly.
“Then I’ll remind you that Sam happens to be a genius,” Janet said, “Like your brother.”
“Is Daniel really ‘that’ smart?” Elizabeth asked sceptically.
“Oh yeah,” Janet grinned, she glanced up to see Sara returning, “How did your meeting go?”
“I’ve been offered a job,” Sara told them still a little stunned.
“What as?” Elizabeth asked.
“A counsellor,” Sara replied, “And to set up a program to train more.”
“It’s about time,” Janet told her, “Are you going to accept?”
Sara sat down heavily on the nearby bed, “I don’t know. This is all so much to take in.”
“I know what you mean,” Elizabeth sympathised, “But I think it’s a pretty great idea.”
“In some ways it is,” Sara said, “In some ways it isn’t.”
“List them,” Elizabeth told her, “See if the ways it is, outweigh the ways it isn’t.”
“Is that how you make your decisions?” Janet asked.
“More than once,” Elizabeth laughed, “Considering the state of my love life, it really explains a lot.”
Sara laughed, “Okay, let’s see what the good points of me staying here are.”
Maria sat, tapping her pencil against the floor until Steven grabbed it away.
“You’re driving me insane,” he told her.
“It’s been over an hour,” she said, “What’s taking so long?”
“Give them time, Maria,” Steven soothed, “Daniel will get us out of here.”
“Since when have you become his biggest fan?” Maria snapped.
“Since I’ve known him longer than you,” Steven reminded her, “And I know Daniel keeps his word. Even if it is crazy.”
Maria sighed, “I want to go home. I want to see my mother and sisters and I want my life to go back the way it was.”
“I know,” Steven sympathised, “But when we get home everything has changed.”
“How?”
“Well from what I’ve seen Daniel’s right,” Steven’s eyes started to sparkle, “Archaeology will be changed forever.”
“Stop right there,” Maria told him, “That’s a familiar glint in your eyes. Kelly gets it a lot and so has Mom lately.”
“It’s called passion for our work,” Steven laughed.
“I’d call it insanely obsessed,” Maria grinned back at him.
Steven smiled, “Then you’re just the same about your work.”
“I am not,” Maria argued back.
“Maria just before all this started, I saw you on the campus looking at buildings,” he reminded her, “You get that glint.”
Maria opened her mouth to argue back before smiling at him, “Thank you.”
“For?”
“Taking my mind off it for a few minutes,” she squeezed his arm, “It won’t work again.”
Before Steven could answer the door opened. Daniel and Jack walked in, Jack’s arm was bound up in a sling; they were followed by Osiris who was holding a weapon on them.
“Company,” Osiris sneered at them, “Keep working.”
Maria waited until the door closed behind their captor before she turned to her brother and his friend.
“Well, this rescue sucks.”
*********************************************
“We just received a message from the Tok’ra,” Hammond told Claire when she walked into his office.
“And?” Claire asked hopefully.
“They’ve found them,” Hammond told her, “And apparently they have a plan to get them out.”
“That’s good isn’t it?” Claire said, confused by the expression on Hammond’s face.
“It’s just,” he smiled slightly; “Their plans have a habit of being very convoluted and bizarre. Trust me, Claire; Daniel is not going to leave without his sister.”
“I know,” Claire sighed, “I just hate waiting.”
“Welcome to my world,” Hammond told her.
“Teal’c,” Sam called, “Have you found the right crystal.”
“I have,” Teal’c handed her it, “Have you got everything you need.”
Sam, who by now had a screwdriver held in her mouth, nodded, before she opened her laptop and connected her computer to the Goa’uld computer.
“And I’m in,” she grinned, “Okay, they’re with Maria and Steven but this may take a little longer than we thought.”
“It is that difficult?” Teal’c asked.
“Just very complex,” Sam frowned, “I’d better get started.”
Daniel quickly hugged Maria, making sure as discreetly as possible there were no scars at her neck or blood soaked holes in her clothes.
“I’m fine, Daniel,” she told him, hugging him back.
“Steven?” Daniel turned to the other man.
Steven nodded, “Yeah, more or less.”
“I can see,” Daniel nodded down at the hole in the shirt, “Staff blast? Sarcophagus?”
Steven nodded.
“I’ve been there,” Daniel told him, “Look, Sam and Teal’c are working on getting us out. We’re not here by accident.”
“I was wondering about that,” Maria said caustically.
“Just so you know,” Jack told her, “I didn’t want to go with this plan.”
Maria suddenly laughed, “Well that makes me feel so much better, Jack.”
“Sam’s good,” Daniel told her, “She and Teal’c know what they’re doing.”
Steven nodded, “Sure. Then we wait some more?”
Jack rolled his eyes, “We wait.”
*********************************************
Isis pouted as Osiris stood at the controls to the base.
“Surely I can torture one of them now,” she said, pacing the otherwise empty room.
Osiris turned to her, “Not yet my love. The other two know about the Chappa-aii and I want all the information I can get from them.”
“What about the other man?” Isis slid her hand around his neck, gently kissing along his jaw, “He is of no further use to us, is he?”
Turning, Osiris kissed his queen, admiring the body of the host she’d taken, so different from her last one yet still as beautiful.
“My Queen,” Osiris murmured as they parted, “The girl cares for him but I am sure she cares for her brother’s life also,” he gently held her face, his fingers stroking her skin gently, “I make him a gift to you.”
A slow vicious smile spread across her face as she curtsied slowly to her Pharaoh.
“I have some interesting plans for him,” Isis said, “You will enjoy them.”
“I’m sure I shall,” Osiris kissed her hand, “Go and enjoy yourself my love.”
Isis bowed her head once more very slightly to him before she swept out of the room, heading along the corridor to where the prisoners were.
“My Queen,” Osiris called after her, “Do not kill him too quickly. I promised him a slow painful death this time.”
He heard her laughter echoing back towards him as he returned to his work.
Maria was pacing the room, much to the annoyance of the other three but none of them moved to stop her.
“What happened to your arm?” Maria turned to Jack who was sitting, tapping a spare pencil against his knee.
Jack laughed, “This was due to Carter.”
“Sam?” Maria frowned, “What did she do?”
Before he could answer the door opened and Isis walked in, her eyes glowing brightly.
“Sarah,” Daniel whispered, aching that someone else he cared for had been taken by the Gould.
“Sarah no longer exists,” Isis reminded him, “I am Isis, Queen of Osiris and your Goddess. Bow before me.”
Jack started to laugh bouncing to his feet, his arms crossed under the sling.
“You dare laugh at me?” Isis sneered.
“Yep,” Jack grinned, pulling out a zat and firing at her.
Sarah fell crying out in pain as Daniel and Steven dropped to her side.
“Knock me out,” Sarah whispered, “Don’t let her hurt you. Don’t let me hurt you.”
“I’m sorry, Sarah,” Daniel whispered back, taking the sedative Jack handed him, “We’ll try get you out too.”
“You were right, Daniel,” Sarah murmured as she slipped into unconsciousness, “It’s so amazing that you were right.”
Daniel grimaced, resting Sarah back on the ground turning to his friend, “Jack?”
“Tie her up,” Jack ordered, tossing him some twine from the sling.
“Have you got the kitchen sink in there?” Maria asked.
“Didn’t think bringing it would be appropriate,” Jack grinned at her, “Daniel, let’s go.”
“But,” Steven protested.
“We can’t save her,” Daniel told him, “We can save you and Maria. Please, Steven understand. We have a chance to survive this.”
“Steven,” Maria took his hand, her dark eyes catching his, “Please, please let’s go.”
Sadly, Steven nodded and followed Jack and Daniel out, Maria at his side; taking one last look at his friend, he joined them in the corridor outside the cell.
“Do you have the traps deactivated yet?” Teal’c asked.
Sam frowned, “No, this is much more complicated than I anticipated. They’re going to have to disconnect the shields from inside.”
“O’Neill,” Teal’c called over the communicator.
“What’s up, T?” Jack asked.
“Major Carter is unable to deactivate all the traps,” Teal’c explained, “She needs more time than we have. You must deactivate the shields from within the complex itself.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know, first where they would be?” Jack asked, “And also how the hell do we do it?”
“Daniel should be able to read and work the controls,” Sam reminded him, “As for where they are, Teal’c and I are rejoining Dad. We can direct you using the map from the Teltac.”
“Okay, Carter,” Jack agreed, “Get back to Dad and call us back when you know where everything is.”
“Yes, sir,” Sam answered as she started to disconnect her computer.
They had stopped in a small storage room while Jack decided what to do next.
“Daniel,” Maria said softly, “What’s actually going on?”
Daniel sighed but before he could say anything, Maria cut him off, “And if you say you can’t explain, I swear I will take that thing Jack used to shoot Sarah, or Isis or whoever she was and I’ll shoot you both.”
“Maria,” Jack said, “We don’t have time for the full story. Just for the moment, understand that your father is under the control of a parasite. We’ll give you the full story on the way home but first we have to get on our way home.”
He held her gaze for a few moments before she nodded, “Sure.”
Jack smiled at her and squeezed her shoulder before turning back to Daniel, “We need to get you to the control room but we also need to get Osiris out of there.
“Well, I’m open to ideas,” Daniel replied.
“Haven’t we just tied up Isis,” Steven said, “Who is his Queen.”
“I’m beginning to like him,” Jack told Daniel.
Daniel rolled his eyes, “Do you think you could get Osiris out of the room, Jack?”
Jack laughed, “Have you met me?”
“Unfortunately,” Daniel murmured.
“Maria go with Daniel,” Jack told her, “Steven, you’re with me.”
“Be careful,” Maria told them.
*********************************************
Hammond looked up as Sara O’Neill knocked on his door.
“What can I do for you?” Hammond asked as she took the seat he offered.
Sara smiled, “I have been thinking a lot about your offer. Although I still don’t feel I’m the right person for this, I’m going to accept.”
Hammond smiled, “That’s wonderful.
“I don’t know how I’m going to work this,” Sara laughed, “But Dr Fraiser has offered to help me get this started up.”
“Well,” Hammond told her, “As soon as SG1 arrive back, we can seriously discuss this.”
“Any word from them?” Sara asked; worry for the young woman who’d rented a room, as well as Jack filled her.
“Several hours ago,” Hammond replied, “They had a plan, we’ll hear from them soon.”
“Are you sure?” Sara couldn’t help but blurt out.
Hammond smiled, “I just look forward to the briefing so I can find out all the details of their latest plan.”
“What exactly are we doing?” Steven asked as he followed Jack through the corridors.
“Planting some C4,” Jack explained, “We can’t let them get off this planet.”
Steven grimaced, “So we’re just leaving Sarah.”
“Look,” Jack stopped and turned to him, “If I could save her, I would. But I have to make a choice and getting you two out of here alive is my top priority.”
Steven wanted to say more but knew that Jack was right so just nodded instead.
“I know this sucks,” Jack told him, “Daniel knows this sucks, in fact Daniel knows better than anyone.”
“Then we should do this,” Steven said.
“Good man,” Jack murmured, taking the lead again.
Daniel peeked out from the storage room, watching as Osiris stalked through the corridors. Maria was nervously bouncing behind him, as they waited until it was clear. Finally, Daniel motioned for her to follow him.
“You seem really comfortable doing this for an archaeologist,” she mentioned as they crept through the corridors.
“I’ve been doing it for so many years now,” Daniel sighed, “I’ll explain once we’re on our way home.”
Maria nodded, stopping in amazement as they stepped into the small control room. She stared at the control panel, “Daniel, where exactly are we?”
“A planet quite a way from Earth,” Daniel replied, “Don’t worry, we have a way to get us home pretty quickly.”
“Another planet?” Maria gasped, “Are you…You must think…”
“Just try and breathe, Maria,” Daniel squeezed her shoulder, “It gets easier to deal with after a while.”
Turning back to the controls, Daniel worked to find the controls for the shields. Once he deactivated them he grinned, “Got it,” he said turning back to his sister, “We can…” Daniel trailed off as Maria dived over beside him.
“Aren’t you so clever,” Osiris smiled maliciously, aiming a staff weapon at them from the door, “Let’s see if you can find your way out of dying.”
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