By Arrietty
As O’Neill became conscious, he noticed a familiar smell, he wasn’t sure where he had smelt it before, but it wasn’t very pleasant. He groggily opened his eyes; the room was dimly lit by one sputtering torch, fixed to the side of a wall by a bracket. O’Neill quickly scanned the small room, he recognized it immediately, it was the cell he had come across earlier. He realised that he now had become that very ‘unfortunate person’.
There was no sign of Carter, he wasn’t sure if that was good news or not, she had been given a big hit from the hand-device and he was pretty sure that she was severely injured if not worse. O’Neill quickly dismissed that thought from his head. He knew if he was going to get out of here alive and also rescue Carter, he had to keep his emotions in check and keep a clear head. He carefully stood up and feeling dizzy, staggered to the door of the cell. Unsuccessfully he tried the handle. “Well you never know,” he muttered to himself. O’Neill carefully turned around and leant his back against the door and then slowly slid down onto the floor as everything went black once more.
Carter felt a tremendous amount of pain as the force of the hand device slammed into her body. She lay on the floor stunned, winded and unable to move. Slowly, her breathing became easier, but her body hurt. If her ribs weren’t broken before, they were now, plus some. Every time she drew a breath in or out, sharp pains wracked her chest and back. More pain shot through her body as two Jaffa came forward and roughly pulled her up by her arms and shoulders.
They dragged her through the long passageways into a dark room. They roughly clamped shackles onto her wrists then pulling her arms above her head and attached her by a chain to a large ring set into the low ceiling. Carter found it hard to stand as her toes only just reached the floor, but as soon as she rested her weight onto her wrists, pain shot through her body from the strain. She also found that she was extremely thirsty and desperately wanted a drink of water. Carter didn’t have any idea where Colonel O’Neill was, she remembered hearing the sickening thud of the shaft of a staff weapon hitting flesh, but didn’t know how badly he was hurt.
Major Carter waited in the dark, wondering if she was going to lose consciousness, she knew that if that happened she could die as the pressure on her broken ribs would maybe puncture her lungs. Sam began to wonder what was going to happen to her next, she found she didn’t have long to wait. Two Jaffa came in carrying torches and placed them into brackets set into the walls. There were now four torches, two set up either side of her as far as she could see, there wasn’t anything else in the room except a large machine, cylindrical in shape, set in front of her. It looked like an old fashioned cannon, but instead of black, the surface colour had a blue silvery sheen to it.
“Jaffa, Kree,” was announced from outside the room; the door opened and in stalked Tolgarth. He walked menacingly up to Major Carter and demanded.
“Why are you still alive? What Goa’uld was in you?”
Carter stared straight at him and looked into his eyes, just before they glowed she noticed that they were hazel in colour, she wondered briefly about the poor man/host that was suffering under Tolgarth and how long he had been a prisoner of this Goa’uld.
“I ask again, what Goa’uld was in you?” Tolgarth reached up his hand and grabbed her jaw in a painful grip.
Again Carter just ignored him, trying not to cry out with the pain. She had realised that Tolgarth did not know who she was and she did not want him to know. There was a large price on her head, so hopefully if she kept quiet and didn’t speak, he wouldn’t recognise that she was from Earth.
Tolgarth snorted, and then said, “You will regret not answering me Tau’ri.” But it was too late, he already knew who she was.
He turned and spoke to his Jaffa, Carter had known enough of Goa’uld to understand most of what Tolgarth had been saying and unfortunately she knew enough Goa’uld to understand what he was ordering his Jaffa to do to her.
Colonel O’Neill was jolted awake by a muted scream coming from another part of Tolgarth’s castle. He stood up and immediately regretted the movement as the dizziness seemed to be still there, but fortunately not as bad as before. Then he heard it again, a scream, it was louder this time, or maybe it seemed louder as now he was awake. The next time he heard the scream he knew whom it was coming from. Major Carter. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not, but each time he heard her cry out, the scream seemed more anguished and desperate. In spite of all of his training and self will, O’Neill found himself beginning to shake, his heart began to pound and his palms were sweating. He found himself once again, having to sit down. He felt helpless; he had no idea what they were doing to her. The only consolation he had was that maybe the others would hear her and get her out of there.
After a while it suddenly went quiet. O’Neill immediately stood up; the dizziness seemed to have gone. Adrenalin began to pump through his system as he heard the distinctive tramp of booted feet on the hard packed dirt corridor. They were coming for him, maybe he would see Carter now, part of him wanted to see her, but another part didn’t want to know.
The door to his cell clanked open. O’Neill had been waiting for them, using one of the metal buckets; he brought it down hard on the startled unprotected head of the leading Jaffa. With a groan the Jaffa collapsed onto the ground, before the other Jaffa had a chance to react, O’Neill had decked him with a right hook from his fist. Instantly O’Neill grabbed one of the fallen staff weapons and raced down the corridor towards where he had heard Carter. Uncharacteristically blinded by the fear of what may have happened to her, he raced around a corner and ran right smack into six Jaffa. O’Neill managed to knock down two Jaffa, before he was again knocked unconscious.
Jacob started to run on up the slope towards the light, he could hear Jaffa guards shouting behind him, there were so many corridors in this building it was hard to work out where the sounds were coming from. As he reached the outside he knew that Sam hadn’t come this way, there weren’t any footprints on the dust on the ground outside the entrance of the tunnel. Both he and Selmac weren’t sure what to do, should they go back into the maze, or carry on to the rendezvous point? They decided to carry on to the rendezvous point; it took them only two hours before they reached the place where they had agreed to meet if separated. As they arrived they could hear voices, so they cautiously crept up to where they could hear the voices coming from. Jacob/Selmac were very relieved to see that the voices belonged to Teal’c, Jonas and some of the missing Tok’ra.
“Hello! It’s only me. Where are the others?” Jacob asked as he stepped into the clearing.
Jonas turned around to face Jacob. “We thought they were with you, where’s Colonel O’Neill, Sam and the other Tok’ra?”
“I do not know Jonas, when Jack and I got down to the bottom of the staircase Telan, Kenar and Sam weren’t there. We split up to see if we could find them, I’m afraid that Tolgarth may have captured them.”
One of the Tok’ra stepped forward to Jacob/Selmac; he had been tending four of the Tok’ra who lay injured on the ground. “Selmac, we must get these men back home, or they will die, they need medical attention, their injuries are too severe for their symbiotes to heal them.”
Reluctantly Jacob nodded and agreed they had to be taken back. He turned to Teal’c and Jonas. “Will you help us carry them back? We will come back for the others.”
Teal’c and Jonas looked at each other; they didn’t want to leave half their team behind, recalling what O’Neill had always said. ‘We don’t leave anyone behind.’ But common sense took over and they decided that the best thing to do was to go back and get reinforcements as the two of them alone would not be able to overpower Tolgarth’s large army.
As they collected their gear, they wondered if they were making the correct decision. If they had known what was happening to Sam at that moment they would never have left.
O’Neill felt decidedly groggy, he found he was having difficulty in breathing, something was fastened across his mouth and his nose was partially blocked from a blood nose. He could also feel blood dripping down his face from his forehead. As he opened his eyes he took in his surroundings, everything looked fuzzy, he was propped up between two Jaffa and his hands were manacled together in front of him. Standing outside a door, he could hear a muffled voice coming from within the room. Suddenly the door burst open and a very angry Tolgarth stormed out of the room. He slammed the door behind him and stared at O’Neill. He spoke to one of the Jaffa, who then reached across and tore off the gag that covered O’Neill’s mouth. Tolgarth leant forward and spoke very quietly to Jack O’Neill in Goa’uld. Jack’s response was laced with sarcasm.
“Hey, how do you shave in the morning with that on?”
Tolgarth laughed. “Maybe you would like to find out Tau'ri,” he gloated speaking English.
“You, Tau'ri will give me the coordinates to your gate and the way in through your defences. Where are the others, the ones that were with you; the Tok’ra? You will give me their location.”
“I don’t think so buddy,” he gave a caustic reply.
Tolgarth backhanded O’Neill across the face. “Insolence will not get you anywhere, Tau’ri.”
Tolgarth gave an order to his Jaffa; the gag was fixed back onto O’Neill’s now bruised and bloodied mouth.
The door to the room was opened and the Jaffa dragged a resisting colonel into the room. It was dark; there were only a few torches on the walls. Before he had a chance to have a good look around, they roughly grabbed hold of his wrists and pulled his arms up towards the ceiling. The Jaffa then fastened O’Neill’s manacles to one of the many large metal rings set into the ceiling of the cell. O’Neill noticed that he could stand with his feet flat on the floor.
Tolgarth stood in the room and laughed. “You will tell me Tau’ri, I will be back and then you will tell me everything.” With that he laughed again and walked out of the room, the Jaffa going with him.
By now the fuzziness of O’Neill’s eyesight had begun to clear. He looked directly ahead of him, there was a large silver cylindrical object sitting on the floor, it looked a bit like a cannon. O’Neill thought of Carter, she would know what it was surely. He twisted himself around and looked over to his left, someone was hanging beside him…it was Carter. She was obviously unconscious as her head hung down over her chest, her breathing sounded wet and laboured. But at least she was breathing; as his eyes began to adjust to the light he noticed the blood that covered her uniform. O’Neill tried to get Carter’s attention, but he couldn’t make any sound, the gag that covered his mouth, seemed to soak up any noise that he would be able to make. He then tried to swing his body over to her, maybe touch Carter with his feet, but she was placed too far away to reach her.
O’Neill wasn’t certain how long it was before Carter began to stir, but he was sure it was nearly an hour since he had been left in the room. During that time he had been trying to ascertain what injuries Carter had. But it was very hard to see in the dim light, he thought that one of her lungs had been punctured, and also it looked like she had been whipped. Carter was wearing a black T-shirt; their jackets had been removed along with any weapons. The T-shirt looked like there were cuts along her stomach and when he twisted around and pulled back, he could see a lot more blood and cuts across her back. They must have hurt her bad. Anger was building up in O’Neill, he desperately wanted to help Carter and get her out of here. He also would like to get hold of Tolgarth and physically show him what he thought of him, preferably with a powerful weapon, but his bare hands would suffice.
Carter moaned and slowly raised her head. Shakily she pulled her feet up under her and stood up as straight as she could. Her hands and arms were now numb, unfortunately the rest of her wasn’t, the pain washed over her in waves. Carter let out another moan and opened her eyes; she looked directly up at Colonel O’Neill. She quickly scanned the room for anyone else and then spoke to O’Neill.
“Sir?” Her voice sounded raspy, from lack of water and the screaming. “Colonel, are you all right?” Her vision was still a little unclear and her head ached. O’Neill furiously nodded his head, once again unable to make any sound.
As Carter’s vision cleared she spoke urgently to her Commanding Officer.
“He wants to know how to get through the iris.”
The door opened with a clank and then a bang, four Jaffa marched in with Tolgarth behind them. Tolgarth walked up to O’Neill and painfully ripped the gag from his mouth. “I see you have reacquainted yourselves. You will now tell me what I want to know, or you too will suffer the same as your friend here.” O’Neill kept quiet, his eyes slid across to Carter, she looked terrified. ‘What did they do to her?’ he thought.
It didn’t take long for him to find out.
It is as he thought, they used a whip. The pain was a searing burning pain, across his back and front. Every so often, both Carter and himself were asked how to get pass Earth’s defences and the whereabouts of the Tok’ra. When neither of them answered, the Jaffa continued the torture. Soon O’Neill’s vision was turning red, blackening around the edges. He knew that he would soon lose consciousness, but he knew he could not let that happen as they may then start back on Carter. He was certain that she would not live through anymore of this. Just before he passed out they stopped. No more questions. No more beating. O’Neill slowly raised his head and looked directly at Tolgarth. O’Neill was angry, angry that someone could have done anything remotely like this to him and especially to Carter. With defiance he spoke to Tolgarth.
“You are wasting your time.”
Tolgarth just laughed. “I haven’t finished yet Tau’ri; this is nothing, just a few scratches.”
O’Neill looked over at Carter, she had tears in her eyes, and this shocked him as he hadn’t seen weakness like this in Carter before. He began to wonder what was in store for him; he knew it had to be something terrible, because of Carter’s reaction.
One of the Jaffa moved over to the gun shaped machine in the middle of the room and flipped a switch, the machine started to hum as it warmed up. O’Neill noticed that it was pointing at Carter, the Jaffa then slowly as it seemed to be heavy, moved it around, so it was pointing at O’Neill.
Tolgarth laughed. “Set it on the middle setting.”
Jack watched as the Jaffa moved a dial round, obviously they were starting him a lot higher than what they had used on Sam. Tolgarth laughed again. Then a force hit him, the pain was unbearable and he had never felt anything like it before, all the wounds from before screamed with increased pain. At first O’Neill had screwed up his eyes with the pain, but slowly he opened them. Through the pain he saw a blue light, fire out of the gun and wash over him just like a zat’nik’atel, his body jerked with the excruciating pain. Unlike the zat’nik’atel he didn’t lose consciousness, he would have liked to have though and then maybe the pain would stop. Tolgarth reached forwards to the machine and slowly turned the dial around. He was increasing the level of power. O’Neill could hear someone screaming he couldn’t work out who that was, at first he thought it was Carter, then he realised that it was himself.
The torture went on for quite a while. When it stopped, O’Neill hung by his wrists from the ceiling, with his head fallen forward onto his chest. Blood from his previous wounds was running down his back and soaking into his trousers. He was still conscious, but his breathing was laboured.
Tolgarth walked up to O’Neill and grabbed a fistful of his hair. As he yanked back his head, he stared straight into his face and demanded. “Tell me what I want to know, or one of you will die. As you now know, I have the means to make death a very painful one and it will be slow.” Tolgarth released O’Neill’s head and moved over to Carter. Major Carter was only just able to stand, with the loss of blood and the reduced amount of oxygen; she was getting weaker every moment. Tolgarth just stood there looking at Carter. He abruptly turned away from her and started to walk out of the room as he got to the door, he turned back to look at them and said. “You have until I return to decide who will die and who will live.” The door slammed behind him after he exited the room.
“Hey… Carter…I think he…is slightly annoyed,” gasped out O’Neill.
“Sir…are you all right?”
“Could be better Carter… what about you…did they…use that…thing on you?”
“Yes…Sir, we…have to come to a decision…it has to be me. I’m dying anyway…I …have internal injuries…that I don’t think even Janet…could fix.”
“No, Carter that will not happen, you heard him…it is a very painful way to die. I will not let that happen to you.”
“With respect…Sir…I…disagree…in my current condition…I couldn’t fight my way out of a paper bag…let alone…escape…and get away…you can…and…at…least…one… of…us…will…live.”
Through this entire last sentence Carter was having more difficulty breathing and her words were interspersed with her choking on her blood that was blocking her lungs. O’Neill knew that Carter was making sense, but he couldn’t let her suffer from that machine again. He also didn’t believe a word of what Tolgarth said and he was sure that the best thing for them would be that they were both dead. As Carter said she was dying anyway, though a horrible way to die, not as bad as what the machine could do.
O’Neill pulled rank on Carter. “You have no choice in this matter, Major.”
“Hah! Time is up Tau'ri, so who is it going to be?” Tolgarth demanded from the opened doorway.
O’Neill turned his head away from Carter and looked directly at Tolgarth. “Me.”
“Ah good Tau’ri, that is good, you will last longer, my fun would be over too quickly with her.”
Tolgarth turned to his Jaffa and gave them an order; by this time Carter seemed to have lost consciousness as she sagged in her restraints. The Jaffa moved over and unlocked her cuffs and dropped her down onto the ground. No sound came from her, except for the thud as her body hit the floor of the cell. Jack was relieved that she was not aware of what was happening. He stood firm and steady waiting for the machine to fire into him. Tolgarth moved over to the machine.
“One last time Tau’ri and you will live, where are the Tok’ra and tell me the defences of your planet?”
Jack defiantly stared back at Tolgarth, not speaking a word. A Jaffa moved forward and unlocked Jack’s handcuffs. He nearly fell over as his arms collapsed down to his sides, but one of the guards grabbed hold of him. The blood started rushing into his arms and hands, the pain was bad, but he knew it wasn’t as bad as it was going to get. With regret he looked over at the crumpled form of Sam, he hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye. Then as he heard the Goa’uld Tolgarth laugh (he was getting really sick of that laugh) he looked up at Tolgarth and with defiance took up his stance and waited to die.
Carter was feeling numb; the pain seemed to have gone away as she lay on the ground she seemed to not be able to move. She knew what was going to happen to the colonel and she had to stop it. Carter slowly dragged herself up onto her hands and knees; no one was watching her while she did this, as all eyes were on O’Neill. Carter wasn’t sure how she managed it, but she was standing, she staggered over to face Tolgarth and stood in between the gun and O’Neill.
“NO!” She shouted. ”You will kill me instead.”
“Sam, no,” came a quiet but firm voice from behind her, she carefully turned around and faced Colonel O’Neill.
“Sir, I can’t let you die.” By now tears were beginning to roll down her face.
“As you can’t seem to decide, you both shall die.” A triumphant voice boomed from behind the gun.
Tolgarth pressed down on the lever and blue light shot out of the gun, it hit into Carter’s back, slamming her into O’Neill. Both of them hit the far wall with a resounding smack. As the blue lightening washed over them, they were pinned together by the powerful force against the wall. Over the crackling electricity, you could barely hear their cries as they slowly sank down the wall to the ground.
The Goa’uld was all but hopping up and down with glee; he hadn’t enjoyed himself so much for a very long time. When he was sure that they were both dead, he switched off the machine. He walked over to the bodies. The blue light was still running up and down the bodies, their arms were clasped around each other. Their faces still showed the pain that they had endured as they had died. Tolgarth snorted and turned around with a flourish and strutted out of the room, leaving the Jaffa to clear away the bodies.