By Arrietty
Chapter One
Day 1
Major Samantha Carter leant against the ruins. She felt totally surplus to requirements. This mission had been completely uneventful and there was no way that they had needed her expertise. ’Why on Earth did I volunteer?’ she asked herself. Her thoughts wandered over to the rest of her team, who were currently elsewhere. Teal’c had gone to visit Brat’ac and his son Rya’c. He had managed to take Jonas along with him as General Hammond had let him go. They thought it would be a good experience for him to have a break and also see how the Jaffa were living. Colonel O'Neill had muttered something about fishing. A small smile flitted across her face as she remembered the look he gave her when he mentioned what he was going to do.
But no, she had decided that going to this wet, cold and miserable planet would be much more fun. With a sigh, she started to walk the perimeter. Ever on guard against anything that might cause trouble. She had tried to help the scientists, but they had resented her intrusion on their experiments. Normally, she would be just as excited as the others about what they had found, but for some reason she couldn’t concentrate and anyway, they didn’t need her. With a horrible realisation, she found she was bored. Rolling her eyes in frustration, her thoughts went back to the colonel again, “this must be how he feels,” she muttered to herself. It had been five cold, wet, nasty and very damp days that they had been there. So far, the scientists had found some things, but not enough to pique Sam’s interest.
Looking at her watch for the fifth time in the last hour, she noticed that they only had three more hours to go before they were due to go back to the SGC. Most of the equipment had been packed up, ready to go, but that had only taken one hour, now she had to fill in the rest of the time. Yes, she decided that she had spent way too much time with Colonel O'Neill, as she was thinking way too much like him. Her attitude towards scientists had deteriorated with the weather.
There had been no warning. From out of nowhere, the death gliders swooped down on their small group. Sam immediately dove for cover and fired her weapon at the gliders, but to no avail. She watched, as many Jaffa warriors walked towards them from through the forest. They were totally surrounded. She recognised the insignia on their foreheads, as that of Baal. This was not good. Putting her weapon down in surrender, she watched helplessly as they were all rounded up into a group. She was the only woman out of six members of the team. For some reason the Jaffa didn’t take much notice of her, and ignored her as they tied up the scientists. One of the Jaffa came up to her and grabbed her arm and then she heard the familiar sound of the Stargate being activated. Just as she was pushed through the open wormhole, she saw the scientists fall to the ground as the remaining Jaffa killed them with their staff weapons. As soon as they were through the Stargate, she was thrown to the ground. Sam groggily climbed to her feet and backed away from the approaching Jaffa. Lifting up his zat’nik’atel, he fired the electric charge into her body.
Sam was hanging upside down and her head was banging against something very hard. Opening her eyes, she could see the rough trodden path below the Jaffa’s feet as he marched in long strides. Realising that she had been flung over the Jaffa’s shoulder, even though it was uncomfortable, she decided that playing possum was most probably the best idea. She also made a discovery, that Jaffa armour is extremely hard on the outside, especially if your face made contact with it at regular intervals.
It wasn’t long before her transport stopped and she was thrown, unceremoniously, onto the ground. Immediately, she regretted her decision to pretend to be unconscious. With a groan, she slowly stood up and took in her surroundings. She was with a small group of men and women, about twelve in number. Though the Jaffa were guarding them, they didn’t seem to take much notice. Sam, realising that they didn’t see her as a threat, took the opportunity to escape. Slipping quietly away into the dense forest, she found a place to hide, hoping that the Jaffa wouldn’t miss her.
Over the next several days, Sam managed to keep from getting captured by the many Jaffa that guarded the planet. She didn’t have her GDO anymore, so she knew that if she managed to get to the Stargate, she would not be able to gate directly to Earth. She had thought long about where she was going to go. The Alpha site would be the most sensible, but however hard she tried to, she could not get anywhere near the Stargate. On the first day, she had unsuccessfully penetrated the wall of guards patrolling the heavily guarded gate and only just succeeding in alluding capture. She thought it would be better to find food and shelter and wait them out. Maybe then she would finally get a chance to use the Stargate.
Due south just three hours walk from the Stargate, there was a small village. Sam spent the first night raiding the village for food and blankets. Taking only a little, so hopefully they wouldn’t notice things were gone. During the day, she had bunked down and slept in a small cave that she found up in the hills. Sam hoped that no one would find her - she had to sleep sometime.
It was on the morning of the sixth day, that she was captured. Sam had exhausted all of her supplies of food. So, for the second time, she ventured into the Village. Even though dawn had not broken yet, they had been lying in wait for her. Obviously, the food and blankets that she had stolen before had been missed.
Once captured, she was roughly pushed into a group of people. They all were speaking different languages and they looked like they were from different planets. Unfortunately, this time the guards kept a close eye on her. There was no opportunity for her to escape.
Sam was herded along with the other prisoners, towards a large compound. They were a motley crowd, their clothes all different colours. Some were bright and colourful, while others were dull, like her BDU’s.
The compound was large, with huts formed into rows. It reminded her of the POW camps that she had seen news footage of, from the Second World War. They were pushed forward into the back of a large crowd, by the guards. All the prisoners had been assembled for some reason that Sam was not aware of at first. Then she heard the crack of a whip, a split second before the sound of the sickening smack of it hitting flesh. Someone was being punished. She couldn’t see who it was, but she could see the poles that the prisoner was hanging from. Each wrist was attached by rope to the top of two large thick poles, stretching out the victim’s arms.
Slowly, she made her way through the crowd, until she came to a wire netting fence that separated her and her fellow prisoners from the compound. It was strange, there were quite a few people in the compound, but they consisted of old people and children. She saw a few pregnant women. One of them was propping up an obviously very sick man as they were made to witness this atrocity. Looking away from these people, her gaze moved over to the man that was being punished. By now he had obviously passed out, his head was hanging down onto his chest facing away from her. Even though this man was not feeling the pain, the guard carried on with his merciless beating. He was using a long bullwhip. It bit into the flesh. The blood had run down the prisoner’s back and had soaked into the pants he was wearing. His tunic had been left in a pile, just by his feet.
A Jaffa, who obviously was in charge of this compound, stood up and made an announcement. He spoke in Goa’uld, she only understood some of it, but it was enough to get the gist of what he was saying. Concentrating, she started to work out the words. Basically, he was saying that this man, the prisoner, had tried to escape and that if anyone tries to do this, they will be punished like this. Through the announcement the guard had ceased his beating, but as soon as the Jaffa had finished speaking, another guard had taken a bucket of water and thrown it over the prisoner to revive him. Once he was revived, the guard carried on with his beating.
Slowly, all of the heavily guarded prisoners that were outside the compound were moved through the gate. Once they were inside the compound, they were each handed a threadbare blanket. Further down the line, they were given a small bowl with a thin, grey looking gruel slopped into it and a small flat loaf of bread. Sam quickly tucked the bread into her jacket and zipped it up. Moving on slowly towards the huts, she was suddenly, grabbed on the arm by a guard.
“You. Come with me.”
Immediately, Sam thought the worst, but was relieved to see that all the new people were being taken into a long low shed. There, they were handed some clothes, which consisted of long pants and a tunic, with long sleeves. It was obviously the uniform for the prisoners. They were told to remove all their outer clothing, including any footwear. She was very loath to give up her boots, but she had no choice. Fortunately, she was able to keep her underwear and her T-shirt. ‘At least that would help a little, with keeping me reasonably warm’, she thought.
By the time she had come out of the hut, the beating of the prisoner had stopped. He was unconscious again. Sam did not go anywhere near the prisoner as she did not want to draw any attention to herself. A woman alone in a prison, where the men and women were not separated, was not good.
Moving quickly, she found a dry area, down beside one of the huts. She was hungry; she hadn’t eaten for two days. For the lack of a spoon, Sam drank the foul tasting gruel and scooped the sludge that had sunk to the bottom into her mouth, with her fingers. Feeling still slightly hungry, she resisted the temptation to eat the bread also. They had all been told that they wouldn’t receive any food until tomorrow night, after they had done a days work. Curling up tight, with her back to the wall and the blanket wrapped firmly around herself, she fell into a light sleep.
Sam felt a sharp pain in her side.
“Kree! Get up.”
A guard roughly pulled her up off the ground, waking her in the process. By the soreness of her ribs, she was quite sure she had been kicked.
“You can’t sleep there,” opening a door. “You can sleep in here.” He pushed her into the hut that she had been sleeping against and slammed the door shut behind her.
Cautiously, Sam moved through the sleeping bodies, until she found a clear spot. At least it was warmer inside. While she had been asleep, the sun had gone down and it had turned quite icy. Sam could hear murmuring from some of the other inmates. After a while, she could work out what they were saying.
“I tell you. He is going to die.”
“Good riddance,” someone replied gruffly.
“He’ll be dead by morning. With no water all day and with this cold, he won’t survive. Someone should cut him down.”
Another voice speaking slightly louder, questioned. “Do you feel sorry for him then?”
“No. No,” he quickly denied.
Sam shutting out the cruel words, started to drift off to sleep. With a sudden realisation, she opened her eyes with a start. Very carefully, Sam stood up. With her blanket securely wrapped around herself, she made her way through to the door. She had the food bowl clutched tightly in her hand. As soon as she was outside, she moved over to the tap and rinsed out her bowl and filled it with water.
Moving stealthily across the compound, she made her way towards the prisoner. She was relieved to see that he was still alive as she could see him moving slightly and could hear him moaning in pain. Fortunately, it was quite bright, as torches were erected all around the perimeter of the compound, so she could see his outline. She was surprised that the guards ignored her as she moved closer to the prisoner.
The light was glinting off the surface of the blood that coated his back. Every so often, he would push his body up while he tried to put his feet on the ground, but each time he tried, his legs gave way and he groaned as the weight pulled on his already bloodied bound wrists. As Sam got closer to him, her suspicions were becoming stronger. Trying to contain her emotions, she walked around one of the poles so she could see his face. One look at the top of his head, her fears were confirmed. It was Colonel O’Neill. ‘What is he doing here?’ she thought.
“Sir.” She spoke softly. Speaking a little louder, she spoke his name again. “Sir!” But there was no response. So she tried something else. “Jack!” Immediately, his head came up.
“Carter?” His voice rasped out. “Is that you?”
“Yes. I’m here. Come, drink this, you need it.”
“What are you doing in this hell hole?”
“It’s a long story, sir. Drink.”
Carefully holding the bowl to his mouth, she watched as he drank sparingly, remembering not to gulp it down. When he seemed to have had enough, she removed the bowl.
“Carter. Can you get me down from here?” With this question, Jack looked straight into her eyes. Sam was horrified to see how he looked. His cheeks were sunken in and he had dark marks under his eyes. His cheek was swollen and covered with clotted blood, as was his mouth. The half grown beard was stained dark which added to his ragged appearance. Sam had noticed that all the men had beards or half grown ones here.
“How long have you been here?” she asked.
“Five days, I think, maybe six. I don’t remember.”
Reaching up, Sam started to undo the knots that held one of his wrists in place. They had pulled tight and the blood soaking into the hemp had made them harder to undo. But, eventually, she managed to remove one rope. With a suddenness that she had not been prepared for, Jack’s body slammed into hers, as his arm fell from where it had been secured, making his body swivel around.
Holding him up, she asked, “Sir?”
Trying to stay conscious, Jack gasped out. “My arms have gone numb.”
“Lean on me,” she said unnecessarily as he was already was.
Reaching up to the other arm, she found this was more difficult, because she had to carry most of Jack’s weight as well. Also, she knew that as soon as his other arm was released, she would have to carry all of his weight and she wasn’t sure that she would be able to do that.
“Teal’c would come in handy about now,” she muttered under her breath. Hearing a quiet snort come from Jack, she knew that he had heard her.
Even though she was prepared this time for the increased weight, she still nearly fell over, as his dead weight fell onto her. Carefully holding him, trying her hardest not to press too hard on his ravaged back, she gently lowered Jack to the ground. He sat slumped over, hugging his arms to his chest.
“Argh.”
“What?”
“Pins and needles.”
Nodding in sympathy, Sam bent down and retrieved the blanket from where she had dropped it. Carefully, she laid it over Jack’s chest and legs, making sure that it didn’t touch his back. Lifting up his discarded tunic, she tied it around her waist by the arms. She crouched down and offered the bowl of water to Jack.
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
When he had finished drinking, Sam tipped the rest of the water onto the ground and placed the bowl inside her tunic. Removing the blanket from Jack’s shivering form; she then tossed it over one shoulder. Bending down again, she helped Jack up off the ground. Once again, being very careful not to damage his back any further, even so, she had to place an arm around his body to support him as he was extremely weak. They made their way slowly towards the nearest hut. Fortunately, it wasn’t the hut that Sam had been in previously, as she didn’t think that the three men that had been discussing Jack earlier would appreciate her bringing him into their hut.
Once they were inside the hut, she noticed that there were less people, which made it easier to find a space. Quickly laying the blanket onto the cold wooden floorboards, she then lowered Jack face down onto the blanket, using his tunic as a pillow.
“I’ll be back,” she whispered to Jack.
When Sam was outside, she refilled her bowl with water. Just before she moved back into the hut, a Jaffa guard approached her.
“Here.” He said gruffly, as he roughly pushed some clean rags into her free hand. Without another word, he turned away and walked off.
Sam, muttering “thank you”, went back into the hut.
By now Jack’s whole body was shivering uncontrollably. Chastising herself for not thinking of it before, she wrapped his feet and legs in the blanket and then started to wash away the blood. The whip marks had cut deep into his back, and his wrists were swollen and raw. After cleaning Jack’s wrists, she then wrapped them in some of the cloths that the guard had given her.
When she had cleaned the excess blood from Jack’s back, she was horrified to learn that they hadn’t been careful of his kidneys, as the lash marks were quite low down. Laying clean cloths onto his back, she then wrapped him up further with the blanket. Through all of this, he hadn’t made a sound. Each time she touched his back, he flinched, which was barely noticeable amongst his violent shivering. With a sigh, Sam laid down next to him, moving as close as she could without hurting him. Hoping that combining their body heat would keep them protected from the cold night.