18
He was taken to a room that was decorated in the same gold as the corridors, however that's where the similarity stopped, the furnishings were soft, almost feminine, silks and satins covered the couch and bed, a huge metal grid stretched across one wall, and the figure of Ba'al was sprawled in a chair, he nodded to the Jaffa and Mark was taken towards the grid, they let him go and walked away, Ba'al touched something on his arm and suddenly he was being held upright against the wall as if gravity had shifted.
Ba'al stood looking at him, "There are several things I wish to know, I have a feeling that you will be more forthcoming than the other one" he said, he picked up a knife and held it out towards Mark.
Mark just looked at him, he didn't know anything that could be helpful, hell he didn't even know the iris codes! Ba'al let go of the knife and it plunged into Marks thigh, he cried out in pain.
He was no solider, he had not spent his adult life being hurt, and he definitely wasn't ready for the pain that came his way. When Ba'al picked up a bottle and squirted some liquid at him the pain was so intense that he passed out, the last thing he heard was a disgusted growl from his tormentor.
He woke in the cell, Jon was leaning over him, trying to get him to sit upright.
"Come on, you will feel better if you get up" he said from long experience, Mark propped himself up against the wall, he immediately felt his leg and stomach where the acid had hit, nothing, not pain, no scars.
"Sarcophagus" he said "you must have died, they put you in there to bring you back so he can do it again."
"And you went through this how many times?" he asked the youth
"Too many… enough trips to the machine and you get bad withdrawal afterwards… listen is there any reason for him to torture you? Do you actually know anything?" Mark shook his head, "OK we will try and get him to concentrate on me, I can stand it better than you can" Mark felt guilty, no matter that this was the clone of a 50 odd year old General, he was a boy!
"No! Don't even think it… Mark I have had special training to resist torture, and like I said, I've done it all before, you won't last in there!" he was right, when Jon had returned there were five or six holes in his clothes, at least three from the acid, Mark hadn't survived one!
He felt like a coward, but he really didn't want to face Ba'al again.
Suddenly the lights flickered and the floor lurched beneath their feet. "I hope that's the old man and not the kids" Jon said calmly, he moved the bench from against the wall and removed the panel… Mark realised that even if Jon could get in the shaft, he never could, he wasn't exactly a small man in girth.
But Jon had no intention of going in, he came out carrying weapons, he strapped a handgun and holster to his leg, pulled out a black jacket with pockets all over and strapped it on and clipped an machine gun to a strap over his shoulder, he shoved similar equipment at Mark, who did his best to copy him, but got hopelessly tangled.
Jon was helping him fasten his jacket when the door opened and two Jaffa came in, without pause the youth swung the huge black gun into his hands and blasted away at the aliens, they fell dead in the doorway, he finished helping Mark get armed calmly and then while he held the door Jon pulled the bodies inside.
Mark looked at the dead men, he had seen his first violent death not long ago, but strangely he felt no nausea this time, just a regret that they had to die.
"Look," Jon held up his machine gun "this is a P-90, you want this switch "he put his fingers on it "on this setting, that will keep firing as long as you pull the trigger, make sure you don't pull it unless you are pointing at the enemy" Mark wasn't sure he wanted to pull it at all! "Aim in their general direction, hopefully the bullets will hit someone, if not it will at least make them duck" Mark nodded, the sounds of feet running towards them grew louder, and as a party of Jaffa rounded a corner they started to fall.
"WIZARD!" Jon shouted
"OZ" came the reply and the automatic fire turned into single shots as the two converging parties tried not to hit friends with their fire. Marks sister came around the corner, every inch a solider, she had safety goggles on and held her gun with ease, she continued firing at a cross corridor and Jon went up beside her and they both fired. Mark decided not to risk it and he ducked in behind them, watching the other 2 directions that enemies could come at them. Jaffa rounded a corner into the corridor to the fighters left and he shouted a warning, Jon and Sam turned as one and fired into the oncoming warriors, killing them all.
"Where are the kids?" Sam asked
"In the ventilation system" Jon told her, "they got us these weapons and were working on C4 last I heard" Sam looked at him in surprise, but evidently decided not to question his sanity, she nodded and headed down the cross corridor she had been firing into as she had found them.
"Engines this way" she explained
"Ba'al?" Jon asked
"Jack is seeing to him" she told him, Daniel and Wells came around the corner from the direction Sam had come from and Mark found himself surrounded by armed guards as they held him in the middle of the pack.
After fighting their way to the engine room they found 5 of the children there, Jonathan was swearing in a manner that would make a drill sergeant blush and Sam looked at Jon, who lowered his head.
"Mom come on, we can't bleeding reach high enough to place the damn explosive" Janet said, throwing a charged block of the explosive at her mother. Sam, Daniel and Jon split up and grabbed the charges placing them from long familiarity where they would do the most damage.
"Where are George, Jacob and Danielle?" Sam asked, having noted which were present.
"The boys are detonating the armoury, Danielle is in the hanger taking out everything but the Tel'tak that brought is here" Sam shook her head, Mark could close his eyes and forget the people talking were under three feet high, so he knew how she felt.
"You lot should have stayed with Jon and your Uncle Mark" she said her voice showing how worried she was.
"And you shouldn't have gone after Apophis, or gone back for dad when Hathor had him… are we going to play the blame game?" Jonathan said, Sam shook her head and picked up two of the kids, Mark grabbed another two and Jon picked up his namesake.
"OK out of here, we have 7 minutes" Sam told her party and Wells and Daniel took point as they exited the room.
Wells held his fist up, everyone stopped, well Mark stopped because he walked into Daniel, but everyone else knew what to do, after a few seconds he pointed along the corridor and everyone turned into it, quietly.
"Can you hold on?" Jon whispered to Jonathan and received a nod, he placed the child on Marks back so he had both hands free and moved up to the front of the party.
They rounded a corner and some of the tension in Jons back relaxed, backing towards them were Jack and Teal'c, Balinsky was nowhere to be seen.
"Jack?" Sam asked, a shake of his head was the reply, Balinsky wasn't coming.
"Where is he dad?" Janet asked
"Back up the corridor" he answered, the children looked at each other.
"Go get him, there's a sarcophagus next to the docking bay" the party moved back along the path the others had come down and found Balinskys body, Jack and Jon lifted him and Teal'c put him over his shoulder in a firemans lift.
Everyone turned and ran back down towards the bay, George and Jacob appeared as they rounded a corner, where from God only knew and detonations could be heard several corridors over.
They ran into the docking bay, then the men…except Mark… went out again as Sam and he loaded the kids into the Tel'tak.
Danielle was stood on the pilots chair, a bag with C4 at the side. "Mom" she said "I couldn't reach the top level of the hanger. Those ships could come after us" she pointed at the ships hovering above them, Sam grabbed the bag and left the ship, climbing up to the higher level using a ladder, she lowered the vessels and attached the explosive blocks to the exhaust systems of each, by the time she had finished the men were arriving, a now alive but still injured Balinsky amongst them.
He slumped in the corner and Jon shouted for the kids… it took them only a minute to surround him and for him to sit up as good as new, the kids didn't even need to rest afterwards!
"Ba'al?" Sam asked her husband
"Another clone" he said "I cut his throat, there was no symbiote"
"Then it's not over?" she asked
"He is the one who put the price on our heads," Jack said "he gloated right before I killed him, but God knows if we can persuade the Lucian Alliance of it, I don't know where the Kassa crop is and they may just try again to get it, their market will be severely diminished if they lose a load of addicts to withdrawal"
"So… it's not over?" she repeated, he smiled at her slightly and pulled her into a hug.
"Hey look at it this way, love, if they do capture us, the kids can come and rescue us" he was obviously joking
"Yeahsureyabetchya" the kids said in chorus
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