Feeling Alive
Feeling Alive
by Angel of Fire Muldy_SG1
Summary: Jack, Daniel & Teal'c are convinced that Sam's favourite singer is a Goa'uld, so they travel to Australia to find out!! Of course nothing goes as planned.
Category: Action/Adventure, Angst
Season: future Season
Pairing: Jack/Sam
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
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(s).
Archived on: 08/25/03
FEELING ALIVE
PROLOGUE
Colonel Jack O'Neill sat in front of his TV watching some man playing a guitar and singing some boring song about saving the world. He got up and walked over to his fridge, pulling the door open and getting out another beer. He was heading back to his TV when the phone rang. He groaned and turned around to pick it up.
"O'Neill," he said.
"Hi Jack, it's me," came Dr Daniel Jackson's familiar voice.
"Hi Daniel," Jack said.
"You doing anything interesting?" Daniel asked.
"No...why?" Jack replied.
"Ah, me and Teal'c just driving back from watching a movie and we're about to pass your house...mind if we drop by?" Daniel asked.
"That's fine..." Jack said. "See ya Daniel."
The minute he hung up the doorbell rang. Jack walked over and opened it, to find Daniel and Teal'c standing on his doorstep.
"Gee, you gave me a hell of a lot of warning," Jack said. "What movie did you see?"
"Star Wars," Teal'c said.
"Which one?" Jack asked.
"Attack of the Clones," Teal'c replied, smiling slightly. "It was my fourth time."
Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "You need a new obsession."
"Uh Jack, you gonna let us in?" Daniel asked.
"Oh, yeah, right," Jack said, stepping aside to let Daniel and Teal'c inside.
"You ever heard of a light switch?" Daniel asked, flicking the lights on inside.
Jack shielded his eyes. "Ow."
"What're you watching?" Teal'c asked, walking down the stairs to where his TV stood.
Teal'c stood there for a few moments staring at the singer, who was now a women singing in another language. Jack made his way to his fridge to get them both a beer.
"DanielJackson," Teal'c said.
Daniel looked up at him. "Yes Teal'c?"
"You should observe this..." Teal'c said.
Daniel walked over to Teal'c and stood next to him. The singer had changed again and was now a 30-something-year-old man was singing.
"What am I looking at?" Daniel asked.
"Keep watching," Teal'c said.
Daniel kept watching the man, who was surrounded by a bunch of back-up singing girls in skimpy outfits, walk around the stage singing. When he came to the chorus he stopped in the centre and Daniel froze.
"Jack!" he said.
"What?" Jack asked, handing Daniel a beer.
"Watch his eyes..." Daniel said, pointing at the singer.
Before Jack knew what he was looking for the singer's eyes glowed. A look of surprise spread across Jack's face, mimicking the expressions already plastered on Teal'c and Daniel's faces.
"He's a Goa'uld," Daniel stated the obvious.
Jack looked at him. "Ya think?"
CHAPTER ONE
"Are you trying to tell me that Jason Blank is a Goa'uld?" Major General George Hammond asked.
"Yes, sir," Jack said.
They all looked up as Major Samantha Carter entered the room. "What did I miss?" she asked, sitting down opposite Daniel and next to Jack.
"You know that singer, Jason Blank?" Jack asked her.
"Yeah, I love his new song..." Sam said. `Why?"
"You like his song?" Jack repeated.
"Colonel," Hammond said.
"Sam, he's a Goa'uld," Daniel said.
She looked over at him, surprised. "What? What makes you think that?"
"He has glowing eyes," Teal'c added.
"Are you sure that it wasn't special effects or something?" Sam asked. "It's quite possible to make someone's eyes glow using special effects."
"It looked quite real," Teal'c replied.
"Why would a Goa'uld be stupid enough to make his eyes glow in public?" Sam asked.
"It was on a video clip...it could've been special effects," Daniel said. "But it wasn't..."
Sam looked at her fellow-team members. They seemed so convinced that one her of her favourite singers was an alien. Her enemy.
"I don't believe you," she stated.
"That's why we're going to see his next concert...in Australia," Jack said.
"In Australia?" Sam repeated. "We're going all the way to Australia to find out if my favourite singer is an alien?"
"We go to other planets to find out if people are aliens..." Daniel added.
"He's a threat to national security," Hammond said. "We have to do something about him...you're my top officers."
"Off to see the wizard," Jack grinned. "The wonderful wizard of Oz."
Two days later the four of them stepped of a plane at Melbourne Airport in Australia.
"Oh...it's hot," Sam stated.
"Ya think?" Jack replied.
They had come from the middle of winter to the boiling hot weather of an Australian February. Teal'c didn't seem to feel the heat and Daniel had spent a year of his life living on Abydos and numerous years before that inhabiting places like Egypt.
But for both Jack and Sam it was a completely different environment.
They headed towards the luggage pick-up area and waited while watching loads of bags going round and round on the conveyer belt.
"This is boring," Jack stated.
"What hotel are we staying in?" Sam asked.
"Some place in the city, South Bank," Jack said. "Called Mountain Place."
"Mountain Place?" Daniel asked. "In the middle of the city? Last time I was in Melbourne there were no mountain's in the middle of the city...actually anywhere near the city."
"It's a name Daniel," Jack said.
"He's not a Goa'uld," Sam said, looking around to make sure no one could hear them.
"Carter, his eyes glowed!" Jack said.
She hadn't stopped defending her favourite singer throughout the whole flight, all fourteen hours of it.
"On a video clip...that could be special effects," Sam argued. "I don't see why we flew all the way out here just because of some special effect some singer did on his video clip."
"Carter you didn't see, it looked a hell of a lot like..." Jack stopped as a woman came and stood next to them, within ear shot, and gave him a funny look when he stopped halfway through his sentence. "...it looked a hell of a lot like George and Janet were kissing."
Daniel's head snapped around. "Please don't say anything like that again."
Jack grinned in his lopsided way and Teal'c raised an eyebrow. He pulled his baseball cap further down, in case anybody saw his forehead.
"Here they come," Sam said, pulling her bag off the conveyer belt.
The other three got their bags and they finally made it out the doors to the welcome area where at least a hundred people were standing, waiting for friends or relatives. There was no one to greet them, as far as anyone was concerned they weren't in Australia, they were off-world or something, but not in Australia. They walked out to get a taxi. There was taxi's lined up all along the outside of the building, all yellow with the same checked stripes on their sides.
Jack walked up to the nearest one. "I got four passengers who need to get to the city."
"Sure mate," the taxi driver said, jumping out and going to the boot of the car and opening it.
Jack dumped his bags in there and then the taxi driver took Daniel's stuff and put it in there, followed by Sam's and finally Teal'c's. It almost didn't fit. Teal'c climbed in the front seat and the other three squashed in the back.
"So where about are you heading?" the taxi driver asked.
"South Bank," Jack replied. "Mountain Place Hotel."
"Oh yeah, I know it," he said.
They sat in a sort of awkward silence, none of SG-1 wanted to risk revealing anything to the taxi driver, and none of them could think of a normal topic of conversation to have.
"Do you want the radio on?" the taxi driver asked after a few minutes of silence.
No one complained so he turned it on.
"You're listening to 101.9 Fox FM, the best new music," the ad for the station said.
The next song started playing.
"This is it!" Sam said, suddenly speaking up.
"This is what?" Daniel asked.
"The song," Sam said.
"Oh, the one we saw on TV the other night?" Daniel questioned.
"Well I don't know, I wasn't there...but this is Jason Blank's newest song," Sam said.
"And you like this song, why?" Jack questioned.
"I like the words," Sam said.
"I do not understand your liking of this song MajorCarter," Teal'c said.
"Whoa, you're a Major? As in military?" the taxi driver suddenly spoke up.
"Yeah..." Sam said, glaring at Teal'c.
"What branch?" the taxi driver asked.
"Air Force," she replied.
"So you're all US Air Force?" he continued questioning.
"Just me and Carter," Jack replied. "Murray and Daniel work with us, but they're not part of the military."
"So what're ya doing all the way out here in Australia?" the taxi driver asked.
"Classified," Sam replied, automatically.
"Cool," he said. "Always wanted to carry important passengers, most important people go to Sydney though, it kinda sucks."
"Oh we're not that important," Jack said.
"Not out saving the world then?" the taxi driver joked.
There was a pause.
"Saving the world gets so repetitive...we're just on holidays," Jack joked.
The awkward silence fell over the car again.
"So...Carter...what's this song called?" Jack asked.
"I'm not sure...the album's called Feeling Alive, I was going to buy it, but it only came out a couple of days ago in the US and I haven't really had the chance...and it doubt it'll be out in Australia yet," Sam said.
"It's called Forbidden," Daniel answered.
Jack and Sam both leaned over to stare at him.
"How do you know that?" Jack asked.
"I did my research before we came here," Daniel said.
The song finished and the radio announcer came back on. "That was Jason Blank with his new hit single, Forbidden. If you'd like to see Jason Blank live, for free, be at Chadstone Shopping Centre, the fashion capital, tomorrow at two pm! See you there!"
Not long after that they arrived at the hotel. They unpacked their stuff and Jack paid the taxi driver in Australian money. They dragged their stuff into the foyer of the hotel and Jack approached the desk, where a short, Asian man was standing.
"Hello, I'm Jack O'Neill, booked two rooms...one room for three people and one single," Jack said.
"Ah, yes, hold on," the man said, typing something into the computer. "Jack O'Neill yes?"
"Yeah," Jack said.
"Room 713 and 712, they're opposite each other," he handed over the key. "On the third floor swap to the other elevator, that should take you all the way up."
"Thank you," Jack said.
They dragged their bags up to their rooms and the three males unpacked in their room while Sam made herself home in her own. About half an hour after they'd arrived there was a knock on Sam's door.
"Come in," she said, from her position in a chair reading her science magazine.
"Hey Carter, wanna come down for dinner now?" Jack asked. "Daniel and Teal'c have already headed down."
"Yeah, sure...what's the time, sir?" she asked, putting down her magazine.
Jack looked at his watch. "Uh...3am."
"What time is that in Australia?" Sam asked, smiling.
He shrugged. "Around 8pm...dinner time."
Sam got up and walked to the door.
"You got a nice view," Jack stated, looking out her window.
"Yes, sir...I do don't I?" Sam said, looking out her window for the first time. "That's Flinders St Station."
"Nice station," Jack stated.
"I remember coming here once with my family when I was a kid, my Mom took me there and we took a train to some beach far away," Sam said.
Jack didn't reply. Sam had never mentioned her mother to him before, he didn't know what to say.
"I'm hungry," Sam said, breaking the silence. "Let's eat."
An hour later they were still sitting around the table laughing. Suddenly Daniel yawned.
"Gosh I'm tired," he said, looking at his watch. "It's 9pm, I guess it's safe to sleep now," he said.
"It's 4am by my watch," Jack said.
"I think you need to change the time on your watch Jack," Daniel said, yawning again. "OK I'm going to bed."
"I am going to..." Teal'c looked around to make sure no one was listening. "Kel'No'Reem."
"I'm going for a walk," Jack announced. "Going to see what there is to do along this bank."
"I'll come, sir," Sam said. "Just let me grab my jacket from upstairs."
Five minutes later she was back downstairs, having grabbed her jacket and a bag.
"OK, let's go," she said.
The two of them made their way down to the main bank of the river. They walked past a shopping centre where there was a whole lot of people eating out. Actually the whole bank seemed to be full of restaurants and caf's.
"Busy for a Thursday night," Jack commented.
"It's Friday, sir...remember we went forward in time," Sam replied.
"Ah, I see," Jack said. "Trust you to remember that."
Sam smiled and looked back out at the restaurant boats. "I wonder how much they cost."
"Probably hundreds of dollars," Jack smiled. "This is a nice change from going off-world isn't it?"
"It feels normal," Sam said.
"So this Jason Blank guy...why do you like his song so much?" Jack asked.
"I...I guess I can relate to the words of his song," Sam said.
"What kind of words?" Jack asked.
"Just...words," she said.
They kept walking, in silence. It was cold now, even though it had been extremely hot earlier that day, it had cooled off quickly since the sun had set, especially considering how unused to the heat they were.
"Hey, what's that?" Sam asked, nodding towards a large, white tent that was standing next to the road.
"Dunno," Jack shrugged. "Let's go see."
They walked closer to the tent.
"It's an ice-skating rink," Sam smiled widely. "They have ice-skating rinks in Australia...in this weather."
"How unusual," Jack said. "I haven't ice-skated for so long."
"Neither have I...basically stopped doing that kind of thing since I joined the SGC," Sam said.
"I haven't been ice-skating since..." Jack stopped. "Last time I went was with Charlie and Sarah."
"Oh," Sam said.
Suddenly, standing there in the dark, on the side of the river bank, staring at the lighted up ice-skating rink, Sam felt like she had to do something to comfort him. Without even thinking she slipped her hand into his and squeezed it, just in a friend comforting a friend way. He looked shocked and turned to face her.
"Just remember I'm here for you OK, sir?" she said, adding the `sir' after careful consideration.
"Thanks, Carter," he said.
She let go of his hand. "Let's go and see what those lights in the distance are...they look interesting."
"It's Crown Casino," a teenager butted in. "Sorry, I shouldn't be eavesdropping..."
"That's OK," Sam said. "What exactly are the lights?"
"They're fountains," the teenage girl said. "They have pretty cool stuff over at Crown, you should go check it out."
"Thanks," Jack said.
The girl disappeared into the ice-skating rink.
"Let's go and see, sir," Sam said.
"Sounds interesting," Jack said. "We'll go see it...and then tomorrow we're gonna go and see your favourite singer at Chadstone."
CHAPTER TWO
Sam woke the next morning to the sound of the radio playing in the background.
"Welcome to Saturday Morning Rove," the voice said.
Sam looked at the radio, debating whether or not to turn it off. She'd set the radio alarm to wake her up at 10am, so she could have a sleep in, she needed it to, after being so jet-lagged. Seventeen hours time difference was a lot.
"Just a reminder that Jason Blank will be playing at Chadstone this afternoon so if you'd all like to head down there to hear him play a few numbers from his new album, Feeling Alive, due to be released in Australia in a couple of weeks," a male voice said.
"Or you could just download it off the Internet," another male voice butted in.
Sam smiled and flicked the radio off, making herself get out of bed. The night before her and Jack hadn't even made it inside Crown Casino. They'd walked along the bank watching the light displays and then gotten so tired they'd turned around and headed back to the hotel. Sam never spent time alone with the Colonel. She went around to his house occasionally, but Daniel, Teal'c or Jonas were always there too, they barely ever had time alone.
That's a good thing, Sam reminded herself. After all he was her CO...even if sometimes she thought he meant a lot more to him than that.
Shaking those thoughts from her mind she got dressed quickly and headed out into the hallway, knocking on the door of the guys' room.
"Hmmm," came a loud groan from inside.
Sam opened the door cautiously. "Hello? Is it safe?"
There was no reply.
She walked in to find Jack and Daniel still fast asleep in their beds and Teal'c meditating on the floor in the corner. He opened his eyes and looked at Sam.
"Good morning MajorCarter," he said.
"Morning Teal'c..." Sam said.
"No, mom, I don't wanna go to school," Daniel moaned, rolling over.
Jack opened his eyes and looked at Daniel. "Please don't tell me he actually just said that..."
"He just said that, sir," Sam said.
"Hey Daniel, wakey, wakey," Jack said, not moving from his comfortable position lying in his bed.
Daniel sat up. "What?"
Jack and Sam both grinned and even Teal'c had a slight smile on his face.
"What?" Daniel repeated.
"I'm going to go and buy some breakfast from the nearest supermarket," Sam said.
"I will accompany MajorCarter," Teal'c said.
"To go supermarket shopping?" Sam asked, surprised.
"I have never been to a...supermarket," Teal'c replied.
"There's no supermarkets," Sam muttered.
"Should we ask for directions?" Teal'c asked.
They were standing on a road called Bourke St staring at an arcade full of teenagers out having a good time on their weekend.
"What is the purpose of those games?" Teal'c asked, nodding at two teenagers looking at a bunch of arrows on a screen and then stepping in the direction the arrows told them to.
"I have no idea," Sam said. "Haven't played a good shooting game for ages."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow and looked at her.
"Hey I grew up with nothing better to do on my weekend than hang out in arcades," Sam said.
"This does not appear to be getting us any closer to acquiring food," Teal'c said.
Sam turned around and caught the arm of a woman who was walking past them. "Excuse me, do you know if there is a supermarket around here?" Sam asked.
"You a tourist?" the woman, who had a very twangy accent asked.
"Uh, yeah," Sam replied, as if that mattered.
"Umm, well there's one on some street in that direction...a Coles...but if your just looking for something simple you might as well just pick a local 7 Eleven, a lot easier to find...dunno the city that well myself," the woman replied.
"Oh OK, thank you," Sam said.
"Welcome," the woman said, walking away.
"7 Eleven it is then," Sam said.
"Chadstone," Jack informed the taxi driver.
Sam jumped into the back seat of the taxi with way to much enthusiasm. Jack, who was sitting in the front seat, turned around and looked at her grinning face.
"Carter, you can't tell me that you're actually excited about this...are you?" he asked.
"Yes, sir, as much as I know you believe what you all believe, I think you're wrong and I'm just looking forward to a free concert!" Sam replied, grinning out the window.
They drove, pretty much in silence again, through the city and then onto the freeway...or tollway. Sam watched the buildings go past over the top of the large grey wall. She was actually looking forward to seeing Jason Blank. She hadn't seen a singer she liked in concert for so very long, probably since before she'd joined the Air Force, and now she was going to see her favourite singer...even if there was a slight possibility that he was a Goa'uld.
"That's a massive school," Daniel let out suddenly.
Sam looked to her left to see a large, actually an enormous school, with red brick buildings, or at least a glimpse of it before it disappeared behind the tall, grey wall again. There was another school sticking out on the other side of the freeway.
"Lots of big schools in this area," the taxi driver informed them. "So what're you going to Chadstone for?"
"Jason Blank concert," Jack almost groaned.
"Oh, my daughter listens to his music," the taxi driver said. "Who's the fan?" Sam grinned. "Me."
"Surprise," he replied.
He pulled off the freeway at Warrigal Rd and turned right. They came up to a shopping centre which seemed pretty big, not quite as big as some of the American malls though. They taxi dropped them off and Jack paid the bill.
"Ok now we gotta find this concert," Jack said.
"Can't be hard," Daniel replied.
"Just follow all the screaming girls," Sam grinned.
They headed inside, past a large newsagency, and down the escalator there. Sam couldn't hear any girls screaming yet.
"I don't think it's here," Sam said.
"Then we keep looking," Jack said, staring at his watch. "11:10pm...that makes it..."
"1:10pm," Sam replied. "That means we have fifty to find him."
A ground of teenage girls came running out of the Kmart to their right, holding newly bought scrap books and pens.
"I have a hunch," Daniel said. "Lets follow the girls with the blank paper and pens."
"Sound good," Jack said.
"I concur," Teal'c said.
"He's not a Goa'uld," Sam added.
They started to follow the girls with the autograph material. They reached an area with lots of little stalls and a Hoyts to their right. They walked past a CD store and Teal'c suddenly stopped.
"Teal'c?" Jack asked.
"Here is that game again," Teal'c stated.
There was no one playing on it this time.
"Let's try it," Sam said, digging in her pocket for some Australian money.
Jack looked at her in surprise. "You're not serious are you?"
"Teal'c gonna do it with me," Sam said. "Aren't ya Teal'c?"
Daniel started laughing. Teal'c raised an eyebrow at him.
"I have never participated in an arcade game...what is the point in these?" he asked.
"There is no point...but trust me Teal'c there are much better games inside the actual arcade," Jack said, pointing to an arcade less than 50m from where they were standing.
Teal'c decided to disregard this comment and stepped onto the "dance" machine. There were four arrows, one up, one right, one left and one down. The way the teenagers had been playing it that morning sort of showed that you had to press the panel with your feet when the arrow showed up on the screen. Sam put her money and Jack groaned.
"Carter, please?" Jack said. "This is embarrassing."
"O'Neill...I am attempting to learn about your culture," Teal'c said.
"This is not our culture...this is some stupid game teenagers play on," Jack said.
"Time to DDR," the machine said.
Sam pressed some buttons.
"Select song," the machine continued.
Sam pressed a random song and they started playing. Teal'c found it the most confusing game he had ever played. A crowd of teenagers started gathering around them. When they'd finished doing their song...which didn't take too long considering they failed...they got off the machine and two teenagers took over...and did it at 10 times the speed Sam and Teal'c had done it.
"I do not understand the purpose of that game," Teal'c said.
"That's because it's doesn't have one," Jack said.
"I have to admit that is the funniest thing I have ever seen," Daniel said.
"Carter," Jack said.
"Yes, sir?" she asked.
"Never...EVER...do that again," he warned. "Watching Teal'c playing games like that is...wrong...very wrong...did I mention not to do that ever again?"
Sam smiled. "Yes, sir."
Suddenly a large cheer erupted from their right. The four of them burst into a fast walk and rounded a corner to find a large, temporary stage, set up and a whole crowed of people milling around it.
"I think we found Jason," Daniel said.
They headed into the crowed and pushed their way relatively close to the front. It wasn't difficult...Jack, Daniel and Teal'c being three of only six or seven males there and most of the audience being teenage girls. Jason made his way onto the stage.
"I know it's early everyone, but just because you all decided to come so early I've decided to start early!" he announced.
Everyone cheered.
Jack looked at him. He looked pretty normal. Brown, spiky hair with blonde tips, brown eyes and slightly unshaven. Nothing special. But all the girls seemed to love him.
"Sir, you can't tell me he's a Goa'uld," Sam said, very quietly.
"Oh he's a Goa'uld," Jack said. "Anyone who can gain this many followers in such a short time is definitely a Goa'uld."
"Oh hold on, supposed to have an official start to this concert," he grinned and jogged off stage.
Jack rolled his eyes, not understand how Carter could possibly like this guy.
"And now everyone welcome our favourite God, Jason Blank!" the announcer said, as Jason reappeared on the stage.
Jack looked at Sam. "That just proved everything."
"I'm not gonna believe you till I get close enough to sense it," Sam replied.
The four of them stood in a row watching the singer talk for at least ten minutes, even though non of the girls in the audience cared, they were too busy watching his looks. Jack rolled his eyes and leaned over to Daniel.
"I really don't see what's so great about this guy," Jack said.
"You're just jealous," Daniel said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack asked.
A look of shock came over Daniel's face. "Oh...did I just say that?"
"Yes, Daniel, you did," Jack said.
Luckily they were cut off by a guitar starting to play. They both turned their attention to the stage to see Jason playing the guitar.
"Oh he's so multitalented," Sam said, from Jack's other side.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Jack said.
Sam ignored him and kept watching as Jason started singing.
I came into this world
I didn't have a clue
Didn't know what I'd ever do
I had no idea
What would come
What would pass me in my travels
But there was one thing
That I've learned
During these years
Flown through the stars
To places far away
But here on Earth is where
My heart will always stay
It belongs only to one
One person I have given
Everything that means anything
But that person is forbidden
He continued singing but Jack stopped listening. He looked at Sam. He suddenly understood her liking for this song. He didn't need to listen to the rest of the lyrics, he knew the feeling all too well. Forbidden love as it was called. Caring too much about someone he was never allowed to show feelings for. He winced. He shouldn't be thinking about Sam in that way, she was his second-in-command...
Suddenly she turned around and looked at him.
Oh crap, he thought. She's thinking the exact same thing.
Her eyes locked on his, and for a brief moment they both knew that the other knew how they felt about each other. For a glimpse of a moment they shared something. Then suddenly the song was over.
"Well he'd know all about travelling through the stars now wouldn't he," Daniel said to Jack.
He turned around to face Daniel. "How could a Goa'uld make up lyrics like that?"
"Singers don't write the lyrics, that's for song-writers," Sam said.
Jack avoided looking at Sam, instead he shifted his gaze back to the singer who was starting to sing his second song. "Ok we need someone to go backstage after the show and check him out."
Daniel and Teal'c both looked at Sam...Jack followed their lead, but more cautiously. He met her eyes again.
Damnit stop doing that, he thought.
"Why me?" Sam asked.
"Because if any of us went back stage it would be suspicious," Teal'c said.
"Exactly," Daniel and Jack both agreed.
"Ok, fine, I'm not complaining," she grinned and continued watching the concert.
It was another hour and a half before the concert was over. The four of them had found their way to a few seats that had been vacated during the course of the concert.
"Thanks for the great show!" Jason finally said as he walked off stage.
Another man, obviously an organiser of the even stood up. "OK there will signings out the back if you'd like to line up.
A whole group of screaming girls ran towards the back entrance. Daniel turned to tell Sam she'd better get in line, but she was already gone.
"I guess she's not complaining," Jack said.
Teal'c stood up. "I am going to find some food," he announced.
"I'm not hungry," Daniel said.
"Neither," Jack said.
Teal'c nodded and walked off. Daniel turned to face Jack.
"I saw that you know," Daniel said.
"Saw what?" Jack was playing dumb again.
"That look," Daniel said.
"Which look?"
"The `Oh I see why you like this song, I understand that feeling completely' look you shared with Sam when he started singing," Daniel said. "I'm not blind you know."
"There was no look," Jack replied.
"Jack..."
"Daniel...I'm warning you," Jack said.
Daniel shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "Well that was an unusual experience."
"What was?" Jack asked.
"A concert...I haven't been to one since...well actually I don't think I've ever been to one," Daniel said.
Jack stared at him. "You cannot ask me to believe you when you say you have never been to a concert of any kind!"
"No, I don't believe I ever have," Daniel said.
"I thought I'd educated you," Jack sighed.
"Oh look, Sam's going in," Daniel said.
Jack looked up to see Sam entering the signing room.
Sam stood inside the doorway, waiting for the girl in front of her to finish getting her book signed.
"Thanks!" the girl said, running out of the artificial stage.
Sam walked up to the desk where Jason Blank was sitting. He looked up, the smile disappearing from him face. A strange feeling came over Sam and she suddenly realised that she could sense his Goa'uld.
"You..." he said in a dark voice. "Goa'uld..."
Oh crap, was Sam's thought.
She hadn't thought about the fact that if she could sense him then he could sense her too.
"No, I'm not a Goa'uld," Sam whispered.
"Tok'ra!" he said, his eyes glowing and his voice turning Goa'uld like.
"Well no, not exactly," Sam said.
Jason jumped over the table and grabbed Sam, pulling out a zat from underneath his jacket and pointing it at her.
Outside Jack, Daniel and Teal'c (who now had a bucket of chips) saw the line of fans starting to run in all directions, screaming.
"I think that answers out question," Daniel said.
They all jumped up and started running towards the artificial stage. They swept aside the curtain to find Jason holding a zat to Sam's head and two security guards pointing guns at them.
"Hold it, don't shoot," Jack ordered.
"Who are you, yanky?" one of the security guards asked.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill, US Air Force," he said, flashing his badge and carefully reaching for his gun.
Suddenly Jason's head snapped around to look at them.
"JAFFA!" he shouted, keeping a good hold of Sam but moving the zat gun so it was pointed at Teal'c.
Suddenly Teal'c's eyes grew wide. "I know of you...you are Tutankhamen."
"Whoa, wasn't Tutankhamen a Pharaoh? Not a god?" Daniel asked.
"He never made the rank of a System Lord, that's why he is still hiding here on Earth," Teal'c snarled.
"And why are you here Jaffa?" Jason sneered. "Have you been banished from your people?"
"No...I have chosen to fight by the side of the Tau'ri because the Goa'uld are false gods," Teal'c said.
"Well watch your false god do this," Jason said.
He closed his eyes and was suddenly gone, taking Sam with him.
"Carter!" Jack shouted.
"How did he do that?" Daniel asked.
"Goa'uld device, like Hathor or Nirrti," Teal'c replied.
"How'd he get one of those if he's been living on Earth for thousands of years?" Daniel asked.
"Who cares?" Jack cut Teal'c off. "We need to find Carter...now!"
Jack ran out of the room, followed by Teal'c. Daniel turned to the two security guards.
"You're just gonna pretend you didn't hear any of this," he said to the two shocked Australian's.
They nodded and Daniel ran out, following Jack and Teal'c.
CHAPTER THREE
"What do you mean Major Carter has been kidnapped?" Hammond asked over the phone.
"The Goa'uld...Jason...Tutankhamen, whatever you wanna call him took Sam," Daniel said. "Just disappeared, kind of like Hathor...but it seemed different."
"So you don't have any idea where he is?" Hammond asked.
"No," Daniel replied, looking over at Jack, who had his eyes glued to the TV.
"OK, I'll have to report this to the president," Hammond said. "Good luck."
"Thanks General," Daniel hung up the phone.
After hours searching for Sam they'd given up and gone back to the hotel to inform the SGC of what had happened. Jack had been reluctant to stop the search, but Daniel and Teal'c had both insisted that they headed back to the hotel. It was already ten o'clock at night and Jack was watching the late night news.
"Today a mysterious even occurred at Chadstone Shopping Centre," the reporter said.
Daniel turned around to look at the TV and Teal'c appeared out of his bedroom.
They had to see what the press had on the situation.
"The popular English pop singer Jason Blank has mysteriously disappeared," the reporter continued.
"You could say that," Jack muttered.
The reporter continued further. "A woman has been reportedly taken along with Jason Blank, details are sketchy at the moment and the two security guards on duty say they saw nothing. Other witnesses say a woman in her thirties, blonde hair about 170cm tall and wearing a black leather jacket and jeans went to get an autograph and Mr Blank jumped over the counter and grabbed her. This is all anybody saw because they all ran out. The police are refusing to share anymore information with us but say if you know anything ring..."
Jack turned the TV off.
They sat in silence.
"O'Neill," Teal'c said.
"Yes Teal'c?" Jack replied, not turning away from the blank TV.
"Maybe we could assist the police search for MajorCarter," Teal'c suggested. "Like in movies."
"I wouldn't know where to start in this country," Jack said.
"Should we return to the scene of the crime?" Daniel asked.
Jack turned around to stare at him. "The scene of the crime? Daniel...it's a Goa'uld, and to make that worse it's a famous Goa'uld...he's not gonna return to a crowded shopping centre."
"Well...we've gotta start somewhere," Daniel said.
"Where would a Goa'uld go?" Teal'c asked.
"I don't know, you're the Jaffa, where would a Goa'uld go?" Daniel asked.
"I do not know DanielJackson, that is why I am asking you," Teal'c replied.
"Oh for crying out loud...trust us to pick the biggest, most empty country in the world for Carter to get kidnapped in," Jack said. "OK Daniel you ring the police, find out what they know...Teal'c, start thinking of places that a Goa'uld would use as a hiding place on Earth...and I'll...I'll go and speak to the press, find out what they've got."
"Jack I have a better idea...how about you find those security guards and talk to them," Daniel said. "They might know something we don't."
Jack nodded and stood up, walking out of the hotel room.
"Try finding the announcer person from the concert as well," Daniel shouted as he was leaving.
"Yeah, yeah," Jack shouted back, slamming the door.
Teal'c looked at Daniel who was searching through the phone book for the police number.
"DanielJackson," Teal'c said.
"Yes Teal'c?" Daniel said, looking up.
"Have you tried calling MajorCarter's cell phone?" Teal'c asked.
Daniel felt like his jaw could've dropped to the ground. "Why didn't we think of that?"
He started rummaging around in his things for his phone book. He found Sam's number and grabbed the hotel phone. He pressed 0 so it would let him dial outside of the hotel and then dialled Sam's number. Holding his breath he expected to hear the answer phone. Instead it started ringing.
Sitting against a bail of hay Sam looked around at the contents of the room. There wasn't much. There was a window that had had wood nailed over it so no one could get through it, but it let a small amount of light through from the main buildings. There were also so many gaps between the wooden planks that made up the walls so during the day it would be quite light. Two men were posted at the door, but they were too far away for her to sense if they were Goa'uld or just human bodyguards. She suddenly felt a vibration in her jacket pocket.
"Holy Hannah," she said, grabbing her pocket.
The Goa'uld hadn't tied her up, had just dumped her in the room. She fumbled for the phone she'd completely forgotten about, and sort of assumed had been taken off her along with her gun and ID, but she'd forgotten it had been in her inside pocket, harder to find. The guards weren't looking so she crawled along the ground behind the haystack.
"Hello?" she whispered.
"Sam!"
"Daniel!"
"Sam...where are you?" Daniel asked.
"I have no idea," Sam replied. "He drugged me."
"You still wanna believe he's innocent?" Daniel asked.
Sam looked up to see a few guards walking in her direction. "Crap, Daniel someone's coming."
She hung up the phone and shoved it back into her jacket pocket. She stood up from behind the hay bails and looked at the two guards.
"Yeah?" she asked. "Why am I here?"
"Cos you're a Goa'uld spy sent by the system lords to destroy Jason," the blonde guard said.
"A what spy? I've never heard of the...what did you call them? A Goold?" she played dumb.
"You know exactly what we're talking about," the other guard said, slapping her face and knocking her over.
She fell back onto the concrete ground. "Ow," she said quietly, a sharp, stabbing pain, jabbing through her wrist.
"You will tell us who sent you and why," the blonde guard said.
"I told you, I don't know what you're talking about. I happen to be a big fan of Jason Blank..." she felt another slap hit her face.
Sam looked up to see the face of the guard in the shadows. Something told her she wasn't going to get out of this soon.
Jack walked into the shopping centre and looked at the spot where the concert had been held. The big black stage was still there, rubbish lying everywhere and the chairs all knocked over. Yellow police tape surrounded the scene. All the shops were closed, and the one's that weren't closed yet were in the process of closing. Groups of teenagers were hanging around, whispering as they walked past the crime scene. A few went into the bowling alley, but most people seemed to be heading home.
Jack walked up to the police line and ducked under it. A young looking police man noticed him and walked over.
"Excuse me, sir, you can't come in here," he said.
"I'm a friend of the woman who was kidnapped today," Jack said, pulling out his Air Force ID.
The young cop looked at it. "US Air Force, Colonel Jack O'Neill. She was Air Force?"
"Yeah, a Major," Jack said. "Who's in charge here?"
"Umm..." the young cop looked around. "Probably Detective Harry Thompson."
He pointed to a man in a suit who would've been in his early forties, standing over near the stage.
"Thanks," Jack said, walking towards the man. "Detective Harry Thompson?"
"Who's asking?" the man asked.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill, US Air Force," Jack said, showing him his ID. "Are you in charge here?"
"Yeah, what's the yanks, let alone the yanky Air Force got to do with this in the first place?" Harry asked.
"The woman who got kidnapped was part of my team, we're here on holidays," Jack said. "I wanna help find her."
"Look, mate, we're trying as hard as we can, the best you can do to help is stay out of our way and if you leave a number we'll call you when we find more information," Harry said.
Jack stared at him. He couldn't exactly tell him that they were in Australia in the first place to track down Jason Blank to see if he was an alien from another planet.
"I wanna help," Jack repeated.
Harry looked at him for a minute. "She's a good friend of yours, huh?"
Jack nodded. "I can ring the President of the United States if you want me to prove who I am..."
"You know the President?" Harry asked. "Wow, that's impressive. I'll let you in, as long as you don't get in the way...just remember this is our investigation. I don't want yanks running all over the place within a day."
"Don't worry, we're undercover here, we'd prefer to not attract attention," Jack said.
"I thought you were on holidays," Harry looked at him surprised.
"I might've twisted the truth," Jack said.
"Yeah, well you better stop doing that, we need to know everything you can tell us," Harry said.
Jack opened his mouth to explain it was classified when his cell phone started ringing in his pocket. "Excuse me."
He walked away from the police, somewhere where he could talk privately. "O'Neill."
"Jack," Daniel's voice said.
"They've allowed me in on the investigation," Jack said. "After I sort of let slip I knew the President of the United States."
"I called Sam's cell," Daniel said.
"You did what?" Jack asked. "Did she answer? Is she ok?"
"She was fine when I rang, she doesn't know where she is but she had to go quickly," Daniel replied.
"What do you mean she was fine when she rang...should I tell the cops that you contacted her?" Jack asked.
"If you think we should..." Daniel said.
"Thanks Daniel," Jack said, hanging up his cell and turning to Harry. "She's got a cell phone on her."
Harry turned to the young cop Jack had talked to earlier. "She has a mobile, think you can set up a trace?"
Jack looked at him. "Is that wise?"
"We can but try," Harry replied.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jack looked up from his travel magazine to see Harry walking over to them. The few teenagers that had been hanging around the empty shopping centre were now gone and it was already 1am.
"We haven't been able to get through," Harry admitted, sitting down next to Jack on the seat.
"It's probably not safe to answer," Jack said, convincing himself more than anyone.
Harry seemed to study him for a long moment. Jack finally turned to look at him.
"What?" Jack asked.
"She's more than a second-in-command to you isn't she?" Harry stated, rather than asked.
"What?" Jack repeated, taking on a completely different tone.
Why was everyone suddenly asking him that? Was it that obvious? No, there was nothing to be obvious about. Right?
"Major Carter...she means a lot to you, doesn't she?" Harry repeated the question in a different form.
"We're good friends," Jack replied, looking back at his magazine.
"No, you're more than that, aren't ya mate?" Harry said.
Jack could've told him to mind his own business, or to leave him alone. But something about Harry told him he was trustworthy. Someone nice, who actually cared, wasn't just asking out of curiosity.
"It's complicated," Jack sighed.
"I understand," Harry said.
Jack looked at him. "You do?" he asked bluntly.
"I've been in forbidden love," Harry said.
Jack tried to ignore that statement, forbidden love wasn't exactly how he thought of his relationship with Sam. It was just different...right? It wasn't love...right?
"I've been in love with my best friend's wife since I was twenty-one," Harry admitted.
Jack looked at him. He was definitely a lot older than twenty-one now. Was he going to end up like that? Loosing Sam before he could ever...no, he couldn't be thinking like that. He had to find Sam and deal with that Tutankhamen Goa'uld.
"I don't know why I just told you that," Harry said, truthfully.
"Don't worry, Harry, I won't tell anyone!" Jack said, standing up, ready to leave.
"Do you love her?" Harry asked.
Jack stopped dead still. "I can't."
"But that doesn't mean you don't," Harry said. Jack knew he was right. No matter how hard he tried not to, the damage was done. He couldn't just stop feeling how he felt because he wasn't allowed to. Even if he wanted to - he could never stop...
"Yes," he whispered, walking away as fast as he could.
"Wait - Jack!" Harry called.
Jack turned around. "Yeah?"
"Get some sleep, we'll call you when we find something," Harry said.
Jack nodded and headed for the exit.
Sam's eyes clicked open and the roof came into view, even if it was a twisted and contorted version of it. "Ow..." she muttered.
She rolled over and looked around the room. It was empty and light was starting to seep through the cracks in the wooden barn. She'd been knocked unconscious for a few hours. She looked around to make sure no one could see her and reached into her pocket to pull out her cell phone.
It was gone.
So much for ringing Daniel again.
"For crying out loud..." she muttered, without realising what she had just said.
An image of Colonel O'Neill popped into her mind. Would she ever see him again? Of course she'd see him again. She had to stop thinking negative thoughts. She pulled herself up and walked slowly over to one of the cracks in the wall, peering through it to see her surroundings.
She seemed to be on top of a mountain...well more of a very big hill. She could see a view of a city and as far as she knew it was Melbourne. She didn't know Australia that well but she was pretty sure that she couldn't have been transported to any other big city within the time she'd been missing.
"What are you doing?" a man with an English accent asked her.
She spun around to see Jason Blank standing there, surrounded by buff looking men...probably some form of Jaffa.
"That's what I'd like to know...what am I doing here?" Sam replied.
"That's not what I asked you," Jason said, his eyes glowing.
Sam tried to act surprised. "How'd you that?"
"You know perfectly well how I do that," Jason said. "I can sense the Goa'uld in you."
"I don't have any gold in me," Sam replied.
Jason let out a laugh. "Don't think I'm going to fall for your `I have no idea what you're talking about' trick Sholvah!"
Sam gave up. "And what makes you think I'm a traitor?"
"So you do know what I'm talking about," Jason snarled. "Tok'ra. Yes that's right I did my research. Major Samantha Carter of the US Air Force, I know you were infested with the Tok'ra Jolinar and I know she died, leaving a protein marker in your system."
"How did you find that out?" Sam asked.
"You had ID in your pocket...although I knew who you were from the minute I saw you," Jason's eyes glowed again. "You are feared among the System Lords."
"I thought you were banished on Earth because you never reached the rank of the Systems Lords?" Sam questioned, hoping to get as much out of him as possible.
"I recently made contact with the god Osiris and I am taking orders from him," Jason grinned in a very sinister way.
"Last time I looked Osiris was in a female body," Sam retorted, only to be hit in the face again by one of the Jaffa.
"Jaffa Kree," Jason said, glaring at the Jaffa.
"Sorry my lord," the Jaffa said, stepping away again.
Sam opened her mouth to ask something else but Jason got in first.
"Enough questions from you sholvah," Jason said.
"Why are you holding me here?" Sam asked anyway.
The Jaffa who had hit her before moved forward but Jason held a hand out in front of him.
"So you can be my new queen," Jason grinned. "And when everyone sees you by my side I will once again return to the popular world and gain more followers! I am just waiting upon Osiris' arrival. She will carry with her a Goa'uld named Ankhesenamun, my wife."
Sam stared back at him. That was never a good sign.
Daniel looked up from the computer screen as Jack walked into the room, looking extremely tired after only three hours sleep.
"Morning," Daniel said.
Jack said something that sounded like "Morning" while he was yawning but it came out more like "Mawn."
Daniel turned back to his computer screen and kept scrolling down the screen.
"Found anything yet?" Jack asked, yawning again.
"Considering Tutankhamen was discovered in his tomb, Goa'uldless, I'm guessing that the Goa'uld inside of him left and took over another leader...probably Nerfertiti's father, Ay, who looked over boy king's burial and then took over afterwards. Both Tutankhamen and Ay married Ankhesenamun, which is what makes me think the Goa'uld Tutankhamen went into Ay afterwards. Although no one knows how Tutankhamen died in the first place..." Daniel said.
"Daniel," Jack cut him off.
"Yes Jack?" Daniel asked, still reading off the screen.
"That's nice, really...but how does it help us find Carter?" Jack asked.
"Well, it doesn't..." Daniel said.
"Well find something that does," Jack said, walking away.
Daniel looked at Teal'c who was sitting quietly nearby. Teal'c was staring at Jack's retreating back.
"He is worried," Teal'c stated.
"Yeah...poor Jack," Daniel said. "If anything happened to Sam..."
He left it hanging. They both knew quite well what would happen if something happened to Sam. They just had to pray that nothing would. Daniel turned back to his computer screen and continued reading in hope of finding something helpful.
CHAPTER FIVE
Janet Frasier walked into General Hammond's office after a long weekend without any contact from the SGC and then a restless day in the infirmary.
"Good morning, General," she said. "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes Doctor," Hammond said. "There's something I feel I should probably tell you...Major Carter has been kidnapped by a Goa'uld."
Janet's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "When? Which Goa'uld? Where?"
"In the early hours of this morning," Hammond informed her. "By Jason Blank, in Australia."
Janet looked at him in shock. "Australia? With all due respect, what on Earth are they doing there? Wait...Jason Blank's a Goa'uld?"
"Yes Doctor," Hammond said. "SG-1 went undercover to Australia to see if Jason Blank was really a Goa'uld, but things got a bit out of hand and Major Carter was kidnapped."
"Well sir, is there anything I can do?" Janet asked.
"Not at the moment," Hammond said. "I just thought you should know."
"Thank you, sir," Janet said.
"Major Carter," came a familiar voice.
Sam spun around to see Osiris smiling at her. The woman who had once been an archaeologist, Sarah Gardiner, who worked with Daniel had found out more about Ancient Egypt than she had ever imagined she would.
"Osiris," Sam acknowledged.
"I believe you know why I am here," Osiris almost whispered.
Sam didn't reply, just glared back at the Goa'uld. She knew exactly why Osiris was here, but she wasn't going to show that she was afraid. The truth was she was terrified - if the rest of SG-1 didn't find her soon there was an extremely high chance of her being made into Tutankhamen's queen.
"Why do you not answer me?" Osiris asked, stepping forward so she was extremely close to Sam.
"Why should I?" Sam replied.
"Because I am your god," Osiris' eyes glowed.
"You're a false god and no one's going to worship you!" Sam retorted.
"Silence," Osiris said, glaring at her. "I will return soon enough, then you will see who your god is!"
With that Osiris spun around and stormed out of the room. Sam watched her leave, a worried feeling starting to rise within her.
"Come on guys I know you can find me," Sam whispered to herself.
But there was a part of her saying that there was no way they could find her and her luck was about to run out. She looked out at the almost dark sky and wondered if she'd ever see that sky through her own eyes again.
"There's nothing here," Daniel took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.
He'd been sitting in front of the computer screen for hours and hours researching stuff about the Ancient Egyptian boy king. So long now that it was already dark. He had found nothing that would help him find Sam. Jack hadn't left his position in front of the TV for three hours. Daniel looked over to him.
"I can't find anything," he said.
"I heard you before," Jack said. "Where's Teal'c?" "He went to get the newspaper, see if there's anything in there that might help," Daniel said. "What about the local police? Heard back from them yet?"
"Nothing," Jack said. "We can't tell them much so they're not much help."
There was silence. The only noise being the news which was still going on in the background.
"Mysterious lights were seen over Mt Dandenong earlier this evening," the reported said.
Both Daniel and Jack were suddenly very interested in the TV.
"Locals said that early this evening strange lights were seen hovering over the Dandenong mountains. A strange beam then shot out from underneath the bright lights and the bright lights disappeared..."
They didn't even wait for the end of the news report. Daniel grabbed his jacket and Jack grabbed his gun. They ran out of the hotel room and met Teal'c in the foyer. He was standing with Harry and the young cop Jack had met the night before.
"Where are you going?" Harry asked.
"Come with us, we'll explain later," Jack said, running outside.
The five of them piled into the unmarked police four-wheel drive, no questions asked.
"Mt Dandenong," Jack told Harry.
Harry nodded and started driving in that direction. He figured that they obviously knew what they were doing and didn't bother asking any question...although Daniel could tell that they were curious. After about half an hour the young cop finally spoke up.
"What makes you think she's there?" he asked.
"I...uh..." Daniel turned to Jack who was sitting in the back of the four-wheel-drive.
"Look, there's not much we can tell you because it's classified, but Jason Blank belongs to a group of people that the US Air Force have been working against for seven or eight years now. We saw something on the news report that fits in with their MO," Jack said, he looked at the name badge on the young cop. "Now Darcy..."
"Steven Darcy," the cop replied.
"Steven..." Jack continued. "You might see some strange stuff tonight, but I want you to remember it's classified."
He looked to Harry who was in the drivers seat.
"You too," he said.
"Yeah, mate, I know what it's like working with the military," Harry replied. "But can you just tell me one thing?"
"What?" Jack asked.
"What is it that Jason Blank needs Major Carter for in the first place? He must have a reason for kidnapping her!" Harry said.
"That's what we'd like to know," Daniel replied.
"And exactly what we're on our way to find out," said Jack, returning his gaze to staring out the window.
"UNAUTHORISED GATE ACTIVATION," the voice of Walter Davis came over the loud speaker.
Janet, who was in the middle of a briefing with SG-12 and Hammond, looked around. Hammond's forehead creased and he started to make his way out of the briefing room. The rest of the group followed suit. They came up behind Walter Davis.
"It's the Tok'ra IDC, sir," Davis announced.
"Open the iris," Hammond said, making his way down into the gate room.
As Janet watched from the control room the iris opened and Jacob Carter appeared there. He didn't look like he was there on a friendly visit either. It looked like business. Standing next to him was another familiar face.
"Jonas," Janet whispered, suddenly knowing this was important and making her way down to the gate room.
Jonas Quinn, ex-member of SG-1, for once in his life didn't have a smile on his face. In fact he looked rather worried.
"Dr Frasier," Jonas greeted.
"Jonas," Janet returned the greeting. "General Carter..."
"We're here about Sam," Jacob said. "We have reason to believe that Osiris is here on Earth and ready to infest Sam with a Goa'uld."
"We have reason to believe you," Hammond said. "Right this way..."
"Are we there yet?" Daniel asked.
"Another twenty minutes or so," Steven replied.
Jack stared out the window at the almost dark sky. Stars were already starting to appear, some brighter than others. It was a different sky to the one he was used to of course, being in a different hemisphere...but he could still pick out some familiar places. He'd been out there so many times, been to so many of those stars, and the thing was hardly anyone on the planet knew about it. All of them, all the people on Earth, had come so close to destruction so many times, because of him and his team. But he knew they were out there doing the right thing.
They'd sacrificed so much of their own lives to do what they were doing. Teal'c had given up his family and his high position as a Jaffa, his wife had died because of it, his son growing up fatherless. Daniel had lost his wife to the Goa'uld, she had been one of them and then Teal'c had killed him. Sam...he stopped.
What had Sam lost? What had she given up?
He knew. The same thing he had given up.
But the question was - would they still have had to give it up if they had never been a part of the SGC? No...but then again they would never have met if it wasn't for the SGC and they wouldn't have had this thing to give up. But what if he never saw her again...what if something happened and he'd never had the chance to...
"Jack?" Daniel asked. "Did you just hear a word I said?"
"What?" Jack replied.
"I didn't think so..." Daniel sighed. "Never mind I was just thinking out loud..."
Just then Daniel's phone started ringing.
"Ankhesenamun, Tutankhamen's wife to relate it to Ancient Egyptian history you'd be familiar with, will be implanted into Sam," Jacob said.
"Sir, how can you be sure of these exact details?" Janet asked.
"We have an informant working for Osiris," Jacob replied.
"Well we'll have to warn the rest of SG-1," Hammond said.
"I'm afraid it might be too late," Jacob said.
Janet couldn't help but wonder why Jacob wasn't more upset by this. She knew the two of them hadn't had the best relationship in the world, but in the past couple of years they'd seemed to sort everything out pretty well. She put it down as Jacob being used to seeing this kind of thing every day.
"Not necessarily," Janet said. "Sir, permission to leave the briefing and call Dr Jackson?"
"Permission granted," Hammond said. "In fact I insist on it."
Janet stood up and ran out of the room, back to the infirmary. She dialled
Daniel's cell number, hoping he was within reception range.
"Daniel Jackson," he answered.
"Daniel!" Janet said. "Listen carefully."
"OK I'm listening," Daniel replied.
"About twenty minutes ago Jacob Carter and Jonas Quinn came through the `Gate and told us they knew Sam had been kidnapped. As you already know she's been kidnapped by Tutankhamen, or Jason Blank as you know him, but what you don't know is that he's contacted Osiris and they're planning to implant Sam with the Goa'uld Ankhesenamun, make her Tutankhamen's wife," Janet said in one breath.
"Oh," Daniel replied. "Of course...I should've seen that coming."
"Daniel?" Janet said.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"Good luck," she said.
"Thanks," Daniel said. "Gotta go."
"Bye," Janet said.
With that she hung up the phone and sighed. She couldn't let anything happen to Sam. Besides that fact that Cassie would murder her and she would loose her best friend, she'd have to face Colonel O'Neill, and that wasn't something she'd look forward to.
"Dr Frasier."
Janet spun around to find Jonas standing there. "Oh, Jonas...hi..."
"Janet," Jonas addressed her using her first name.
She looked up in surprise. "Yes?"
"We'll find her, don't worry," he said.
"I'm not..." Janet didn't bother lying. "I hope so, I hope we find her soon, and before anything happens to her."
Jonas took her hand and squeezed it. "Don't worry we will..."
CHAPTER SIX
"Yeah?" Daniel said.
Jack looked over at him suspiciously. He was pretty sure that whatever Daniel was being told was extremely important.
"Thanks...gotta go," he hung up the phone and stared at Jack.
"Daniel?" Jack asked.
"That wasn't good news," Daniel replied.
"Well?" Jack looked at him as if to say `You better spill now or else!' Daniel looked nervously at the two Aussie cops...how could he possibly explain it without them finding out.
"You remember Jolinar?" Daniel asked, wincing as he said it.
"You're not serious..." Jack said, almost as if asking him to tell him that what he had just said was a joke. "For crying out loud...can this thing drive any faster?"
Harry opened his mouth to reply when Jack cut him off.
"Who called?" Jack asked.
"Uh...Frasier," Daniel replied.
"What else did she say?" Jack asked. "And how do they know?"
"Jonas and Jacob came...from the other place...and apparently Jason contacted..." Daniel was desperately trying to think of ways to explain it without giving anything about the Goa'uld away to the two Aussies, "...contacted Sarah."
"Why?" Jack asked.
Daniel glanced nervously at Steven who was suddenly very curious.
"Oh..." Jack said, suddenly figuring out the connection between Osiris and the Jolinar experience. "Oh..."
"Yeah...oh..." Daniel replied.
"What the hell are you two on about?" Harry asked. "Look I don't care what sort of classified material you yanks are withholding from us...this is our investigation and we need to know all that we can."
"We can't tell you everything..." Jack said.
"Well you better damn well tell us something or I'm not driving any further!!" Harry said, pulling over and stopping the car. "Now spit..."
Nervous glances were exchanged between the three SG-1 members.
"Show `em Teal'c," Jack finally broke the silence.
Teal'c pulled off his baseball cap to reveal the shiny gold emblem on his forehead.
"So?" Harry asked. "That means nothing to me, mate."
"I am not of this Earth," Teal'c said.
Both Harry and Steven had on the most unbelieving faces that Daniel or Jack had ever seen.
"Look, we work on a top secret military base called the SGC," Jack started. "There's an object under the ground there called the `Stargate'. It can transport us to any other planet with a Stargate on it! This includes planets run by people called the Goa'uld. The Goa'uld pose as gods on multiple worlds to gain followers to do their dirty work. Earth used to be under the control of these Goa'uld back in the Egyptian days. They passed themselves off as Egyptian Gods, but Jason Blank has been inhabited by the Goa'uld Tutankhamen."
Steven and Harry's faces remained unbelieving.
"Look...I don't care if you believe us or not...but Carter is going to be infested with one of these Goa'uld and we're going to get there and stop it," Jack paused, "and if you're not gonna drive us there I'm gonna walk!"
Harry's expression changed slightly. "You're serious, aren't ya mate?"
Jack didn't even replied, he just stared at Harry, as if daring him not to believe. Harry sighed and turned back around, starting up the four-wheel-drive again.
"OK, keep talking...so what exactly is a Goa'uld?" Harry asked.
"Samantha Carter," Jason's voice came.
Sam looked up from her position on the floor. Jason, Osiris & a couple of Jaffa were standing, staring at her. Osiris was holding a familiar looking type of jar.
"You're going to implant me..." Sam stated, not asked.
"Ankhesenamun has chosen you as her new host," Osiris said.
"You know when I fell for the new pop singer I didn't actually wanna get married to him..." Sam spat out.
Jason stepped forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her up harshly. "Don't you mock me, Major."
This time Sam actually spat, right in Jason's eye. Then she kneed him somewhere painful and as he bent over made a break for it. She turned around and clambered up the hay bails behind her, up to the only window in the room.
"Get her!" Osiris shouted, but the Jaffa had already started scrambling up the hay bails behind her.
Sam reached the window and kicked plank boarding up the window with her foot. It was painful but it didn't matter, she was escaping. She jumped out the window onto the roof of the barn and clambered across it.
"Kree," a Jaffa shouted from behind her, knowing well that she knew exactly what that meant.
Sam stopped long enough to see the Jaffa had a zat pointed at her and then jumped off the roof onto the water tank...and went straight through it in the cold water. She swore and tried to pull herself back out of the water, only to see four Jaffa pointed zats at her from the roof and another ten or so pointed staff weapons at her from the ground below. She felt like she'd just sunk to the bottom of the tank. This didn't look like one mess she was going to get out of too quickly.
"So they're going to put one of those Goa'uld things into Major Carter's head?" Steven asked.
"Yes they're going to put one of those Goa'uld things in her head...but we're not gonna let that happen...right Harry?" Jack said.
The whole car fell into silence. Jack returned to staring out the window. It was completely dark now, the only light coming from the full moon above. They were starting the up journey now. If they didn't reach the cabin soon Jack knew it would be too late, and he wasn't going to let that happen, not to anyone...especially not to Sam.
"Jack?" Daniel asked, turning around and looking at him.
"Yes Daniel?" Jack replied.
"You OK?" Daniel asked.
"Yes Daniel, I'm fine," Jack replied, staring back out the window.
"You sure?" Daniel asked.
"Daniel!"
He didn't reply, but he stared at Jack. Jack avoided his gaze, staring back out the window at the lights in the distance which he knew were Melbourne's. It had started as such an innocent trip, trying to find out if Jason Blank was a Goa'uld or not, this was never supposed to happen - none of this was supposed to happen.
It was all his fault. He should've known better than to let Sam go in there by herself, he should've known that if Jason was a Goa'uld he would've sensed the naquadah in Sam's blood. But he hadn't thought of that, he hadn't known that this would all happen and now Sam was going to become a Goa'uld because of him.
"We're almost there," Harry announced.
Jason threw Sam back into the room. "How dare you defy your god."
"You're not my god - actually you've never been a god!" Sam replied. "You're a snake in the head of a teenage pop idol!"
Jason glared at her. "I like defiant women...you will make a good wife. Start the implantation."
Osiris opened the jar and Jason reached inside and took out a Goa'uld. Sam didn't remember Goa'uld being that big or nasty, although she hadn't seen one out of its host for a very long time. She winced as Jason brought the Goa'uld close to her face.
"You will join me by my side and together we shall take Earth to be ours and show those damn system lords what they really need to do to take over the galaxy," Jason stated.
"That's what you're still doing here? Trying to take over Earth as a stepping stone for overthrowing the system lords and then taking over the universe?" Sam asked.
"You're smarter than I thought," Jason said.
The Goa'uld started snaking its way around Sam's neck, not quite touching her skin yet. Sam pulled her head back, but Jason had a hold on her arm so she couldn't step away. She winced as it touched her skin...
"Hold it!" a familiar voice said from the door.
Everyone spun around, including Jason. He let go of the snake and it jumped into the back of her neck. In between the pain of the Goa'uld entering her body she could see Teal'c, Daniel, Jack and two men she didn't know aiming weapons at the Goa'uld. She shouted in pain and fell to the ground.
"Carter!" Jack shouted.
She could hear shooting but everything was becoming hazy. Suddenly someone dropped at her side.
"Carter..." she heard Jack say, quieter this time. "Fight it, come on you can fight it. We're gonna get you outta here."
But she knew as well as he did that there was no way to get the Goa'uld out of her system unless she was cryogenically frozen and there was no technology on Earth that could do that.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"No Carter, don't let go so easily," Jack said.
"Sir, I can't fight it..." Sam replied.
"Sam...please don't do this," he said, she could hear the desperation in his voice.
"Get out of here," Sam whispered and suddenly she didn't have control over her actions anymore.
Jack watched as Sam's eyes shut and opened again, glowing in the familiar Goa'uld-like way. Sam, who was no longer Sam, reached out and grabbed Jack around the neck.
"You will die for your insolence," she whispered.
"Well you don't take long to catch on..." Jack stopped because she was constricting his throat.
"Let him go," Daniel's voice came.
Sam could see Daniel aiming the gun at her, she knew he wouldn't shoot. She willed him to shoot. But she couldn't open her mouth, she couldn't tell Daniel that she would rather be shot dead than spend the rest of her life as a Goa'uld. She wasn't killing Jack, she could see she was killing Jack, and he was trying to pry her fingers away from his neck, and she wanted to stop it, but she had no control.
"Carter, let go," he managed to get out.
I can't, sir, she wanted to say...but she couldn't. She could still see Daniel pointed the gun at her. She wanted him to shoot.
"Jack?" Daniel asked.
"Don't do it, Daniel!" Jack ordered. "Don't shoot her."
"You will die, sholvah," Sam felt herself saying, as she tightened her grip around Jack's throat.
No! Sam thought. She tried as hard as she could to prevent the Goa'uld from strangling her CO, but this Goa'uld was strong, stronger than she remembered Jolinar being. Ankhesenamun had a tight hold over her, one she couldn't break through.
Jack couldn't even talk anymore.
"Jack, I have to do it," Daniel said.
She could see the look in Jack's eyes. He didn't want this to happen, he couldn't watch while Daniel shot Sam. But he didn't have a choice. She could see it in his eyes, he was trying to tell her everything in what could be their last moments. She knew what he was trying to tell her. She tried to return the message but she didn't know if he could see it. She felt the shot before she saw it happen and suddenly she was sprawled on the floor of the barn.
Jack leaned forward, took her head in his hands. She could see Daniel turning around and shooting the Jaffa that had just entered the building. But Ankhesenamun wouldn't look away from Jack, almost as if she knew this was the worst torture for both Sam and Jack.
"I know," he whispered. "I know, Sam...I'm sorry..."
Sam tried to reply, she tried to tell him she knew too, and that she was sorry too...but she couldn't. She couldn't move her mouth or her eyes or anything! She had no control over it. She was trapped. Her body was dying, but the Goa'uld in her mind was hiding something.
She watched as Jack stood up and stood next to Daniel, helping to kill the Goa'uld.
"We have to leave her, O'Neill," Teal'c said. "She's already been infested!"
"Teal'c I don't care!" Jack shouted. "I'm not leaving without her!"
"Jack, we have to!" Daniel shouted. "Trust me I don't want to but we have to leave her! She has more chance of surviving if we leave her here."
Jack stared at Daniel.
"We'll come back," Daniel said.
"No," Jack said. "I'm not leaving."
"Colonel," Sam said, as surprised as everyone else that she spoke. "Leave!"
Both Jack and Daniel spun around to face her. The pain in Jack's eyes was worse than Sam could've described. He didn't want to leave.
"Just leave damnit," Sam whispered.
She knew the only reason she could talk was because the Goa'uld was busy trying to heal her wounds.
"Carter..." Jack started.
"I know! Just leave me...Colonel please leave!" Sam said, pleading with her eyes as much as her words.
He stared back. The he suddenly turned around and walked out of the barn, followed closely by Daniel, Teal'c and the two Australians. Sam closed her eyes, praying she would die rather than be brought back to life. She didn't want this life. She couldn't stand living like this...
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sam opened her eyes to find herself staring at an opening sarcophagus. Well she hadn't opened her eyes, Ankhesenamun had opened them for her. Yet again Sam was trapped in her own body. It wasn't a new experience to her...but as many times as it happened it still wasn't something that got any better. In fact it got worse every time it happened.
"Welcome back Ankhesenamun, my love," she heard Jason say from outside the sarcophagus.
"Tutankhamen," Sam felt herself saying. "It is good to have a proper host again, to walk in the light of day rather than remaining in an enclosed jar with only my own mind for entertainment."
"Now we must return to the press, show them that you are in fact my wife and to stop them chasing after me. Then we may regain the power we had before this all happened," Jason said.
Ankhesenamun turned Sam's head to look to where Osiris was standing. "And what of her?"
"She is with us now," Jason whispered. "She will help us take over this planet, something the other system lords could never accomplish."
"What about the people of the SGC...they will return for this body," Ankhesenamun stated.
"Then they will die," Osiris spoke up for the first time. "And they will die the horrible deaths they deserve."
"Yes, sir," Jack said into the phone.
Daniel was watching him carefully. He knew that Jack couldn't be taking this well. In fact he couldn't believe he'd just shot Sam himself. He felt bad shooting Jaffa, let alone a friend who was like a sister to him. But she'd wanted him to, and the Goa'uld would save her, even if the Goa'uld itself couldn't manage to keep her alive, they would just put her in a sarcophagus and bring her back. At least he was pretty sure she'd live.
"General I'm not gonna leave her there..." Jack said. "Yes, sir, I know that...yes, sir."
He hung up the phone and turned to Daniel. Daniel raised his eyebrows in question. No one else in the room spoke. The five of them had returned to the hotel room they'd been staying in for the past couple of days.
"He wants us back at the SGC," Jack sighed.
Daniel blinked. "We're not leaving..." it was half a question, half a statement.
"Yes we are," Jack said. "Start packing."
"Jack, we can't just leave her..." Daniel said.
"Daniel you think I don't know that!?" Jack shouted. "But I have a direct order, and disobeying orders is not the best way to get help finding Sam."
Daniel was rather taken aback by Jack's use of Sam's first name. He never referred to her as "Sam" it was always "Carter" or "Major"...but never Sam. He was trying to show Daniel that as much as he cared about her there was nothing they could do for her at that exact moment.
"Jason Blank is due to start touring in the US in two weeks anyway," Jack muttered. "If he does that then Carter will be with him...we can nab her then."
"Wait, Jack...even if we get her back - we have no way of getting the Goa'uld out of her..." Daniel said.
"Then we'll find a way!" he shouted. "Now we've got a plane to catch in two hours so start packing."
With that he stormed out of the room, Daniel assumed he was heading to Sam's room to pack up her stuff.
"Uh...Dr Jackson," Harry asked.
"Call me Daniel," Daniel replied.
"Daniel..." he repeated his name. "What do we do?"
Daniel look at him. "Do some digging, see what you can find...but don't tell anyone about any of this - if anyone asks you weren't there. And there's no point telling everyone about the Goa'uld because they'll probably throw you into a mental asylum."
Steven smiled slightly. "Well I was seriously considering throwing you lot in one after you tried explaining that stuff to us in the car...but I guess you were right."
"Thank you for your assistance," Teal'c said.
"You're welcome, mate," Harry replied. "Never worked with an alien before."
Teal'c smiled slightly. "And you will probably never do so again."
"Well we better be off, the station will be getting suspicious by now," Harry said. "Come on Officer Darcy."
"Coming," Steven replied. "See ya...good luck finding Major Carter."
"Thanks," Daniel said.
Teal'c just nodded.
The two Australians left the hotel room, leaving Daniel & Teal'c standing in silence.
Jack stared out the window of Sam's hotel room, staring at Flinders St Station. He remembered standing here only a couple of days earlier, with Sam, staring out the exact same window. Now she was a Goa'uld. It was all his fault, if he'd gone in with her...or gotten to the mountain just a few minutes earlier he might've saved her. She might've been standing next to him at that exact moment, also staring out the window.
"I know! Just leave me...Colonel please leave!" the memory of her last words echoed through his head like it was a big, empty valley. How could he have left her? And now they were going back to the United States...away from where Sam was.
Or had been.
She was probably gone now - been ringed aboard Osiris' mother ship and put into one of those sarcophaguses. At least he hoped that was what happened. If she died he would never forgive himself, or Daniel for that matter. He couldn't believe Daniel had shot her...even if it was for the best.
She'll be fine, Jack told himself. She'll be alive. We'll find her and bring her back and then the Tok'ra can extract her and then everything will be back to normal.
Back to normal...
For the past couple of years normal had been ignoring his feelings for her, pretending that they didn't exist, to protect her more than anything. But now look where his feelings for her had gotten. He'd ignored them too much and now she was gone and he might never have the chance to...
Stop, he ordered himself.
He wasn't gonna let that happen. He wasn't going to lose someone else he loved, not another one. He'd lost too much in his life - Sam wasn't going to be the next thing he lost. Maybe he should just quite altogether, leave the SGC, then if something happened to Sam it wouldn't be his fault.
But if something happened he wouldn't be there to save her...and therefore it would be his fault anyway.
"Jack..." Daniel's voice came.
Jack didn't reply.
"I'm sorry...I didn't want to shoot her..." Daniel said, almost a whisper.
"I know, it's not your fault," Jack said. "I don't blame you...Sam would've wanted it."
He had to put on his warrior face, his military side and ignore the part of him that thought of Sam as much more than a second-in-command.
"When do we leave?" Daniel asked.
"Plane leaves in just under two hours...we'll have to leave soon," Jack replied.
Daniel nodded and left. Jack turned around to watch him leave. Then he bent down and started picking up Sam's things to put in her suitcase.
TWO DAYS LATER
Harry Thompson looked up at the television. It was all lies and he knew it, but he couldn't say anything to anyone. They were saying that the incident at Chadstone had been a personal matter between Jason Blank and his long-time girlfriend, American - Samantha Carter, and that it had now been resolved. Because of the stressful situation Jason was cancelling the rest of his Australian tour and delaying his American tour until later in the year. He looked at Steven with a couple of the other young cops who were sitting around discussing a case they'd been assigned to. Steven looked up at that point and noticed Harry staring at him. He excused himself from the group and walked over.
"Detective...we have to do something," Steven said.
"I agree," Harry said, switching the TV off. "We should go back up to the cabin at Mt Dandenong where this all happened and see if we can find anything."
Steven nodded. "When are you free?"
"I've got this afternoon off..." Harry said. "What about you?"
"Me too," Steven said. "I'll just cancel my plans to go out with the guys."
"Good," Harry said. "I need your help on this..."
"Yes, Detective," Steven said. "Can I get back..."
"Sure thing, mate," Harry said, returning half-heartedly to the case he was supposed to be working on.
Five hours later the two cops found themselves standing outside the same barn that they had seen things they couldn't explain only a few days before. It was deserted, that had been obvious before they had even reached the cabin and barn. There were no signs of it being lived in. It had obviously been a temporary headquarters for the Goa'uld.
"I'll take the barn, you search the house," Harry ordered.
Steven nodded and ran off towards the cabin to search it. Harry walked into the familiar looking barn and looked around. He could see where Major Carter had fallen to the ground, shot by Daniel, the blood had stained the hay beneath it. There were tumbled hay bails lying all over the ground. He wondered if anyone actually owned this property...they were in for a surprise when they came back to visit. There was still a dead Jaffa lying on the ground in the corner of the barn. Harry screwed up his nose. The least the Goa'uld could've done was clean up behind themselves. There was a window at the top of the hay bail pile that had been closed up with wood and broken again later...he guessed that was from Major Carter trying to escape.
"Detective!" he heard Steven's voice calling.
"Yeah, mate?" Harry asked, walking back out of the barn, there wasn't much to see in there.
"Look at this," Steven was waving a piece of paper in front of his face.
Harry took it from him. It had seven symbols written at the top and below that was something that looked like a `join-the-dots' game his sisters' kids would play. A whole bunch of circles joined together with lines...extremely straight lines. Below that was something that looks like Egyptian hieroglyphs.
"Do you know what any of this means?" Harry asked.
"This symbol was on a jacket that Daniel Jackson had lying on his bed," he said, pointing to the seventh symbol written across the top of the page. "But nothing else makes sense to me."
Just then Harry's mobile started ringing. He grabbed it out of his pocket and flicked it open. "Thompson," he said.
"Detective Thompson, we need you at Chapel St in ten minutes..." came his superiors voice.
"Parker...I'm at Mt Dandenong," Harry replied.
"What the hell? What are you doing up there?" Parker asked.
"Visiting my grandma..." Harry lied.
"You're grandmother died two years ago - I came with you to the funeral remember?" Parker replied. "I'm not stupid Thompson...you're supposed to be on call."
"Something came up," Harry winced, knowing he was in for it now.
"I thought you had the afternoon off..." Steven whispered.
"Who's there with you?" Parker asked.
"No one," Harry replied.
"No I heard someone, tell me who is there with you or else," Parker ordered.
Harry sighed, Parker had been looking for reasons to fire him since he'd first joined the Victorian Police. "Officer Steven Darcy."
"Dragging a decent officer into your troublesome ways are you?" Parker asked.
"No," Harry replied, then he decided he didn't wanna get Steven in trouble too so he changed his answer. "Yes..."
"Well which is it Thompson?" Parker barked. "Yes or no?"
"Look, mate, this isn't Darcy's fault, leave him out of it," Harry replied.
"This is the last straw, Thompson, you get you and your follower's asses back down to Melbourne now or I'll have both your jobs," and with that the phone call ended.
Harry flicked his phone closed and shoved it back into his pocket. "I'm going to the US."
"We're what?" Steven asked.
"We're not going anywhere...you're staying here to keep your job...I'm flying to the US to find Colonel O'Neill and give him this sheet...it's too important to talk over the phone or send in the mail...I'm not risking it," Harry said.
"I'm coming," Steven replied.
"No, mate I ain't letting you risk your job," Harry said.
"I don't care what you say, I'm just as much a part of this as you are!" Steven replied. "I'm coming."
Harry knew he wasn't going to stop him, so he gave up. "OK..."
Steven smiled.
"I hope you're not looking for a promotion," Harry smiled back.
"I don't care if I lose my job, this is more important," Steven said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jack played with the piece of paper lying on the briefing room table in front of him. Daniel was explaining the past week to General Hammond, while Teal'c stared...well Jack wasn't quite sure where he was staring. He was just being Teal'c like. Jack looked at the seat next to Daniel. It should've been Sam sitting there, but it wasn't, it was Jonas. Next to Jonas was Jacob Carter and across from Jacob, next to Teal'c sat Janet Frasier.
"That's everything," Daniel said, looking around at the table.
"Everything?" Hammond said.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's everything," Daniel said.
"Well I want you all to get some rest and I'll see you all back here tomorrow morning," Hammond said. "Dismissed."
They all stood up and waited as Hammond left the room. Without catching anyone's eye Jack turned around and walked out of the briefing room. He was pretty sure none of them would have the guts to follow him, although he knew quite well that `look' they'd all be sharing. That `should someone go after him?' look.
But he knew no one would come - at least not straight away. Then they would come in one by one and ask if he was OK...they always did that. Instead of heading to his office where he knew they would find him he made his way to the commissary. Everything reminded him of Sam, of how much danger she was in and how he was powerless to do anything.
He walked over to the food, even though he wasn't particularly hungry he figured he should probably eat something - he hadn't eaten more than a couple of pieces of food since they'd left Australia three days earlier. He picked up a cup of blue jello. He wasn't the biggest fan of blue jello, but Sam liked it so there had to be something good about it.
He took his jello over to the nearest table and sat down - alone. Normally he'd expect Sam to come up and talk about some scientific techno babble which he barely understood. Then he'd smile and say something nice and she'd laugh in her way and say something else complicated before disappearing to complete her experiment in her lab. But that wasn't going to happen - not today. Her smiling face, her small laugh, had disappeared from the SGC and it was an obvious difference.
Being a big secret, naturally everyone knew, and his feelings for Sam, also being a big secret, were also naturally known by everyone on base. Therefore everyone was avoiding him. He saw a few officers sitting in the corner of the room, eyeing him - but the minute he looked at them they looked away, pretending they hadn't been looking in the first place.
He decided it was smarter to watch his blue jello rather than any other people.
"Colonel...mind if I join you?" came the familiar voice of Janet Frasier.
He mumbled something that passed for a "yes" and Janet sat down, also with a blue jello.
"Sam liked blue jello," Janet said.
"She still does," Jack almost glared at her.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that," Janet replied. "I just...Colonel she's my best friend you know - I understand what you're going through."
"You didn't see her become a Goa'uld and then get shot all in five minutes!" Jack shot back.
The officers in the corner were all staring openly in their direction now.
"And what do you think you're staring at!?" Jack shouted at them.
They immediately stood up and left the commissary, not wanting to be shouted at by the second-in-command of the base. Jack turned back to his blue jello and tried to scrap the leftovers out of the bottom of the plastic cup.
"Sir...I'm sure we'll find her," Janet said.
"Yeah...yeah we will," Jack said.
"You should get some rest," Janet said.
"I'm fine, Doc," Jack replied. "The more I sleep the less time I have to figure out how to get Carter back."
"Colonel, I can order you to get sleep," Janet said.
"And I'll just disregard that order," Jack replied.
"Look, sir, there's nothing we can do till the morning when the Tok'ra operatives contact us with their information," Janet said. "What are you planning to do if you're not going to sleep?"
Jack looked at Janet. "I don't know...something."
He could see Janet was studying his face, trying to figure out what he was thinking. The truth was that he was trying to keep as straight a face as possible. If he let that straight face show what he was really feeling he knew he'd break down and he couldn't let that happen. He hadn't broken down when Daniel had disappeared, he hadn't broken down when he was trapped on Edora. The only time he had broken down was when Charlie...
"She didn't want to leave it in the room," Janet said.
"What?" Jack looked up.
"You know perfectly well what I just said," Janet replied.
"She told you that?" Jack asked.
"No...but I can see it, if it weren't for military regulations she wouldn't have left it in the room," Janet said.
"Oh," Jack replied.
Janet stood up. "Well I better go and get some sleep and I suggest you do the same Colonel."
"Doc..." he said.
"Yes, sir?" she turned around to face him.
"Thanks," he replied.
Janet smiled and walked out of the commissary...her clicking heels the only noise echoing throughout the room.
Ankhesenamun sat staring out the window of the spaceship. Osiris and Tutankhamen had gone to complete some of their own work and left her alone to think.
They're going to save me you know, you're going to die, Sam thought.
That's what you think young one, Ankhesenamun replied for the first time.
Sam was surprised. She'd been thinking mean things about the Goa'uld for hours now, but the Goa'uld had never replied. She could partially access Ankhesenamun's memories, but nothing was clear, it was all bits and pieces. She was pretty sure this would be the same for Ankhesenamun - only being able to access parts of Sam's memory.
We've killed System Lords, what makes you so special? Sam said.
They will not kill my host, that is what makes me so special, Ankhesenamun replied. You did not rescue any of the System Lords, you just destroyed them. They will not destroy this body, they care about you too much - especially this...O'Neill. Now be quiet, you are interrupting my thought patterns.
Fine, Sam thought, this time not projecting it so Ankhesenamun could hear her exact thoughts.
They had entered hyperspace. Sam had no idea where they were going, she just hoped that SG-1 either got her out of there or killed her. She didn't want to live life like this. She couldn't even look at what she wanted to look at, she couldn't control what she wanted to say. It was all happening automatically - as if it was something like her heart beating. She couldn't even chose when she wanted to breathe. She stared out at the pretty colours of hyperspace and wished that SG-1 would find her soon.
Jonas blinked and watched the Tok'ra explaining what basically seemed like a whole lot of nothing. He hadn't slept all night, he'd been worrying. Even though he'd only known Sam for a year or so she had been the only person to accept him properly into SG-1 straight away, now he felt like he owed that to her, he had to do something. He looked at Daniel who was sitting next to him. It felt extremely weird to be sitting next to someone he thought he'd killed only a year earlier, but was now sitting next to him in a briefing.
"So basically you don't know anything..." Jack said.
"Well we know..." the Tok'ra yet again launched himself into a whole lot of nothing.
Jack was about to open his mouth to say something again when an Airman ran into the room.
"Excuse me, General, sir, there are two men outside with Australian accents saying they know about the Stargate and want to see Colonel O'Neill," the airman announced.
Jack sat up in his chair slightly, and shot a worried look at Daniel.
"Tell them he's busy right now and lock them up in the visitors quarters," Hammond said, not looking happy.
"They say it's about Major Carter, sir," the airman continued.
"Actually sir, I think we should talk to them..." Daniel spoke up.
"Dr Jackson?" Hammond asked. "I thought you told us everything?"
"Oh yeah, well I might've left out a few minor details..." Daniel winced.
Now Jonas was curious.
"You told Australians about the SGC?" Hammond stood up, not looking happy.
"No, I told them about the SGC," Jack said, also standing up.
"Whatever for!?" Hammond asked.
"They're not gonna tell anyone - people would think they're crazy!" Jack shot back.
"This is a top-secret facility! You can't go around telling civilians in other countries about it!" Hammond said.
"Actually they're police officers..." Daniel interrupted.
"I don't care who they are, you can't do that!" Hammond was almost shouting.
"It was to help save Sam!" Jack shouted. "We didn't have a CHOICE!"
Everyone fell silent. The use of his second-in-command's first name sent shockwaves through the people in the room. No one dared to speak, not even Hammond, although he remained glaring at Jack. Jack glared back. He would do anything to save Sam, and the rest of the room knew it.
The airman coughed. "Should I send them in?"
Hammond paused for a moment. "Yes Airman, send them in!"
The Airman nodded and walked out. Hammond sat back down and Jack followed his lead. Still no one spoke. The Tok'ra cleared his throat and opened his mouth to start talking, but by then the two familiar looking Australians had entered the room.
"Harry...Steven..." Jack greeted. "Welcome to the SGC."
"Some welcome we've had too, mate," Harry said, staring at the guards that had come in behind them.
"We found something," Steven said, not wasting anytime.
"What is it?" Daniel asked.
"You tell me," Steven said, handing it to Daniel across the table. "We found it at the cabin up on Mt Dandenong."
"General, this is a gate address," Daniel said.
"What's the rest of it?" Jonas asked, looking over his shoulder.
"I'm not sure..." Daniel said.
"Let me see..." Jacob said.
Daniel handed him the piece of paper.
"This is a Tok'ra code..." Jacob said. "This is the gate address to where Osiris and Tutankhamen are heading! There's a Tok'ra among Osiris' ranks...why didn't I think of that?"
"You mean if we go to the planet we might be able to rescue Carter?" Jack asked.
"Maybe...but that's a big maybe," Jacob said.
CHAPTER NINE
Harry stared up at the large metal ring in front of him. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, anywhere in the world. Daniel was buckling up his equipment on his uniform and Teal'c stood, staring blankly ahead. Jonas and Jacob were talking quietly to each other.
Steven and Jack wandered into the room.
"You want us to go through that?" Steven burst out.
"Yeah, to another planet," Jack said.
Steven gawked at him. "Mad..."
Harry smiled slightly. "Mate, not that I'm complaining, but why on Earth are they sending me & Stevo through the...that thing?"
"The President won't allow Hammond to commit more troops to finding Sam, he thinks it's a suicide mission...so Hammond figured you two wouldn't mind tagging along," Jack smiled, knowing that would scare the two cops.
But Harry had known that that was a risked. Who cared? He was going to another planet and the journey across hundreds of thousands of light years was only going to take seconds.
"OK we all ready?" Jack asked.
Everyone nodded in turn, Steven still gawking at the `Gate. Jack looked up to where Hammond stood. The wheel in the `Gate started turning. Harry jumped back.
"What's it doing?" Harry asked.
"It's dialling the planet," Daniel said.
"Dialling...like a phone?" Steven wondered.
"Yeah, well, kinda," Daniel said. "A bit more expensive though."
They watched as the Stargate dialled seven chevrons and then a large blue wormhole was established. Both Harry and Steven jumped in surprise. Jack would've smiled at them, but his mind wasn't on happy thoughts at the time. He knew what Sam was going through - being unable to control your own body, it was the most horrible torture anyone could endure. And he'd been tortured plenty of times. He watched the MALP slowly make its way through the `Gate to the other side and waited impatiently for Hammond to give the all clear to go through.
"SG-1 you have a go," came the familiar command.
"Wait, sir," Janet said, running into the Gateroom fully dressed to go offworld. "Permission to join the team rescuing Major Carter?"
Hammond paused for a minute. "Permission granted..."
"Thanks, sir," Janet said.
Jack was the first up the ramp and through the even horizon. He was determined to get Sam back. Harry watched him and he knew exactly what was running through Jack's mind. He'd had the same thing when his best friend's wife had been kidnapped only three years earlier. But this was different...it was much worse and he knew it. Not only had Sam become a slave to an alien, but she was now considered a security risk. He knew that if worse came to worse she might not make it out alive.
And he didn't know if Jack could deal with that.
Harry started to make his way slowly up the ramp. He watched at Jacob, Jonas & Janet jumped through. He didn't know Jack all that well, in fact he'd known him just over a week, but he could tell about people straight away. Jack had something dark in his past, the death of someone special or the loss of a wife - something along those lines. And it haunted him - you could see it in his every move. The man covered it well by having developed a sense of humour revolving around sarcasm and dismissing nasty things as if they meant nothing - but he couldn't hide it. Harry could read Jack like a book.
He reached the event horizon and stared at it for a few moments. Steven stood next to him, both Teal'c and Daniel standing behind impatiently.
"Wow, we're really going to another planet..." Steven whispered.
Harry nodded and stepped through the event horizon. It wasn't exactly what he expected. He felt like he was being pulled and shoved in all directions until finally he came out the other side, extremely cold. Steven came out next to him.
"Well that was...interesting," Harry muttered.
They stepped aside to let Teal'c & Daniel through. The event horizon suddenly turned off behind them. Harry jumped and turned around. The entire blue puddle was gone. He walked forward and waved his hand where the wormhole had been only moments earlier.
"Hey, mate, its gone," he said.
No one listened, they were obviously used to this and had much more important things on their minds. Jack walked forward and looked around the trees. There was nothing unusual looking. In fact it looked exactly like Earth.
"Send the MALP back," Jack ordered.
Daniel went to a strange, rock-like object that had lots of symbols drawn on it and a large, orange dome in the middle. He pressed and few of the symbols and then the orange dome and the Stargate came into action. When it was connected again Daniel pressed a few buttons on an object attached to his arm and then sent the probe back through the wormhole. Harry and Steven watched with great interest at how easily these people acted around all these strange, alien objects.
"O'Neill," Teal'c said.
"Yes Teal'c?" Jack replied.
"There is a group of Jaffa hidden in that direction ready to ambush us as we head towards Osiris' ship," he informed him.
Harry was about to open his mouth and ask how he knew that but then he decided against it. Jack nodded and signalled to the group to followed him. They crept along the tree line in the opposite direction to which Teal'c had pointed. No one spoke yet they all seemed to know exactly what was going on. All except Harry and Steven. Suddenly they reached a clearing and in the middle of the clearing was an extremely large...pyramid.
"It's a Goa'uld Mothership," Daniel explained, seeing the confusion on their faces.
"As in Independence Day kind of Mothership?" Steven asked.
"More as in Darth Vader's Star Destroyer," Teal'c informed them.
Jonas, Daniel, Janet and Jacob all shot him a very strange look. Jack was still focused on the ship.
"Teal'c...how are we supposed to get in there?" Jack asked. "It's massive."
"I do not know O'Neill," Teal'c replied.
"Maybe we need a distraction," Jonas suggested. "Get the guards away from the entrance so you can make a run for it."
"Good idea Jonas, go ahead," Jack said.
Jonas blinked.
"Daniel you go with him," Jack ordered.
Daniel was about to open his mouth to complain, but then he realised that Jack was in no mood to be argued with. They both stood up and ran along the tree line around to the other side of the ship. Suddenly there was a lot of gun fire and shouting coming from that direction.
"OK, I'm going in," Jack whispered. "Teal'c you're with me, Jacob you go with Doc Frasier and you two stay here and warn us if anyone new comes near the ship."
Harry was about to complain and then realised that he had no idea how to navigate his way around the big spaceship anyway.
"Sure thing mate," he replied instead.
Jack threw him a radio. "Be careful."
Then he nodded to Jacob, Janet & Teal'c and the four of them set off across the clearing to the now vacant entrance to the ship.
Osiris stood by Ankhesenamun as they stared out the window of Goa'uld ship. Ankhesenamun could see Daniel and Jonas running through the tree line and knew exactly what they were doing.
"They're being a distraction," she turned to Osiris. "Send your guards after them and we will set up an ambush to meet the others as they enter the spaceship."
Osiris kept staring out the window, not even looking at Ankhesenamun. "You've been back in a host for less than a week and you are already bossing me around."
"I contain the knowledge of this host - I think I know better than anyone about these people and therefore have every right to tell you what should be done and what shouldn't!" Ankhesenamun raised her voice slightly, but remained calm.
"I just hope you have proper control over that host of yours," Osiris said, spinning around and walking out of the chamber, her white cloak billowing behind her. "We wouldn't want anything to go wrong."
With that she was gone. Ankhesenamun smiled slightly, it was all going as she had hoped it would.
"Daniel," Jonas shouted.
Daniel spun around to look at him. Jonas smiled and threw him a zat as the gun Daniel had been using had just been kicked across the ground and was out of reach. Daniel grabbed the zat out of the air and fired at the Jaffa that was about to shoot him with a staff blast.
"Thanks," Daniel said, ducking a staff weapon that had just been swung above his head.
"Welcome," said Jonas, doing the same thing.
Suddenly Jonas found himself weaponless. He looked across to see Daniel had also had the zat knocked out of his hand. He backed up against Jonas.
"This doesn't look good," Daniel whispered while looking around the circle of angry looking Jaffa.
"No...no it doesn't," Jonas replied.
"Jaffa Kree," the nearest Jaffa shouted right near Daniel's ear.
"Ow..." Daniel blurted out.
"Quiet human," the Jaffa said, pushing Daniel. "That way."
Daniel shot Jonas a knowing look as both of them were pushes by staff weapon ends towards the Goa'uld Mothership - they could only hope that the others had made it inside first.
Jack, Teal'c, Jacob and Janet entered the ship quite easily, meeting no resistance of any kind - which was planned and that was why Daniel and Jonas were running around outside trying not to get shot. Jack signalled go Jacob and Janet to take the corridor on the right and that he and Teal'c would go straight ahead.
They nodded and ran off down the corridor. They were only fifty metres or so down the empty hall when they heard familiar loud, banging noises. Jacob pulled Janet behind the large wall structure and waited. The Jaffa passed and they remained for a few seconds in utter and complete silence. After they were sure they were gone Janet let out her breath in a huge sigh.
Suddenly they were surrounded by at least forty Jaffa. Janet's eyes went wide. Jacob stepped back.
"What just happened?" Janet asked.
"I think we just got trapped in an ambush of some sort," Jacob replied.
Now they could only hope Jack and Teal'c could find Sam in time.
CHAPTER TEN
Jack looks around the hallway and signalled to Teal'c that it was safe. Teal'c ran forward and did the same thing. They continued this pattern till they came to a door. Jack nodded to Teal'c and they both disappeared behind the walls, just as a group of Jaffa marched past.
"That was close," Jack muttered.
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.
"Where's this room lead to?" Jack asked, nodding to the door.
"I do not know, O'Neill," Teal'c replied. "I have never been through it."
Jack grimaced and walked over to the door, pressing the open button and then getting his P-90 ready in case someone was on the other side ready for him. There were no guards in the room. Both him and Teal'c slipped through the doorway and closed it after themselves.
"OK now what?" Jack asked.
"This seems to be some kind of control room," Teal'c replied, walking over to a control panel of some sort near the window.
"Ya think?" Jack replied. "Well it's not gonna help us find Carter so lets get outta here."
Teal'c turned to face Jack. He opened his mouth to say something when an unexpected zat blast hit him from their right. Jack spun to his right and aimed his P-90 at the shadows.
"Who's there?" he demanded.
"You care too much about Major Carter," the familiar figure appeared out of the shadows.
"Carter we're gonna get you outta there," Jack blurted out.
Ankhesenamun laughed snidely. "You underestimate my hold over the Major...she cannot hear you."
"Yes she can," Jack replied. "I've been a snake once...I'll admit it was a Tok'ra, but a snake all the same - and I know she can hear me."
Ankhesenamun's eyes narrowed and then glowed. "You will never see your friend again...I will make sure of that. I will kill her before letting you have her back."
"And what do you gain from that?" Jack asked.
"Pleasure," Teal'c mumbled from the floor, standing up.
"Teal'c my old friend..." Ankhesenamun started.
"I am not your friend, neither am I yours...you are a false god inside the body of my true friend, MajorCarter," Teal'c replied.
"You care greatly for Major Carter as well...but in a different way to Colonel O'Neill," Ankhesenamun sneered. "She doesn't care about you in the same way Colonel."
Jack didn't blink, didn't react in any way. Just glared back at the Goa'uld.
"That is a lie," Teal'c replied.
"And how would you know Sholvah?" Ankhesenamun shot back.
"MajorCarter has opened up to myself only last year when O'Neill was trapped on a planet, I have also witnessed other events which prove otherwise," Teal'c said.
"Then why does the Colonel not react?" Ankhesenamun now had the image of pure evil written across her face.
"Because I know you're lying," Jack said, his voice quiet.
Ankhesenamun walked forward, only to have a staff weapon pointed at her by Teal'c and a P-90 from Jack's direction. She smiled again in her evil way and continued walking forwards.
"You will not hurt me," she said, walking straight up to Jack.
"And what makes you think that?" Jack asked.
"Because then you would hurt MajorCarter and I know you wouldn't want to do that," Ankhesenamun added.
Jack glared at her as she glared back at him. This was gonna be harder than he'd thought.
Jonas looked up as more Jaffa entered the room. With them they had Janet and Jacob.
"Daniel," Jonas said.
Daniel, who was in the cage next to him, turned around and looked in the direction of the door. "Oh great."
"Well I'm guessing the distraction worked," Jacob said as he was pushed into Jonas's cage.
"Obviously not well enough," Jonas added, then dropped his voice so it was almost a whisper. "What about Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill?"
"They're still out there," Janet replied, squatting down next to Daniel. "As far as we know."
"We were ambushed no more than a minute after we split up from them," Jacob added. "Have you tried radioing them?"
"Took our radios," Daniel said. "How bout yours?"
"Took mine," Jacob said.
"I still have mine, I hid it under my jacket before they could search me," Janet replied, pulling out her radio and eyeing the Jaffa guards suspiciously, but they were facing the other direction. Janet pressed the button. "Colonel?"
The four of them sat crowded around the radio, only the bars separate them into pairs, waiting for a reply. None came.
"Colonel O'Neill?" Jonas asked.
Still there was no reply.
They looked up at each other, worried.
"I hope they're OK," Daniel said.
"They will be," Jacob said firmly.
But the rest of them found that hard to believe.
"Colonel?" came Janet's voice through the radio, breaking the silence in the room.
Jack stared into the blue eyes which should've belonged to Sam Carter. Was she still in there? He couldn't tell. Her normally laughing, inquisitive eyes were replaced by a cold hard look that didn't belong to Sam. Suddenly it changed and for a moment he could see pain and suffering in her eyes before it returned back to the cold hard stare.
"Colonel O'Neill?" came Jonas's voice through the radio.
Jack moved to answer but Ankhesenamun stepped forward and grabbed the radio, throwing it on the ground and smashing it with her hand device. Then she turned the hand device upwards to use it on Jack.
"Ah ah, no you don't," Jack said, grabbing her wrist and twisting it behind her back. "You're coming with us."
"No, you will suffer for your insolence!" Ankhesenamun shouted.
"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say!" Jack said. "Teal'c grab that zat."
He pointed to the zat Ankhesenamun had dropped on the ground. Teal'c bent down and picked it up and aimed it at Sam. Jack cringed as the blast hit the Goa'uld and transferred slightly into his own body, but it wasn't enough to knock him out.
"Ouch," he said. "Come on lets get out of here."
Teal'c nodded, then pressed the button on his radio. "Doctor Frasier? Jonas Quinn?"
"Teal'c!" Daniel said.
"DanielJackson," Teal'c greeted. "We have MajorCarter."
"We're all in prison," Daniel replied.
"That is good to hear," Teal'c replied.
Jack looked at him in surprise. "Was that sarcasm?"
Teal'c smiled in his Jaffa way and didn't answer the question.
Daniel's voice came through the radio after a pause. "Was that sarcasm?"
"Indeed it was," Teal'c replied.
"Right...well that's not very...uh oh..."
The radio went dead. Jack shot a worried look at Teal'c. "That's not a good sign."
"It is not," Teal'c replied.
"Lets get Carter back to the SGC and we'll return with backup to rescue the others," Jack said.
Teal'c nodded in agreement and they set off down the hallway of the Mothership.
"Mate, I think they've forgotten us," Harry said.
"Maybe they're just busy," Steven said. "I mean they're talking to each other...maybe they don't need to hear from the lookouts..."
Harry looked at the radio. Daniel had been talking not so long ago, but it had cut out. He raised it to his mouth.
"Colonel O'Neill?" he asked.
"We're heading your way Harry," Jack replied. "Hold on a few seconds." Sure enough a few seconds later Jack and Teal'c appeared besides them. Jack had Sam/Ankhesenamun slung over his shoulders.
"Come on lets go!" he said.
"What about the others?" Harry asked, standing up and brushing himself off.
"We'll come back with backup, no point trying to get in there," Jack replied, running off in the direction of the Stargate.
Harry shot Steven a confused look but followed suit, Teal'c bringing up the tail.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Colonel I thought I made it clear that we were not going to commit more troops to this fiasco," Hammond said.
"General this is four good...one good officer, a good scientist, a friendly alien and a Tok'ra...I think that's worth committing troops to a rescue mission!" Jack shouted back.
"Look Colonel, I'll try the President one more time but I can almost certainly assure you that the answer will be no," Hammond said.
"Thank you sir," Jack said, turning around and walking out of the office.
He was on his way to the infirmary when he ran into Harry and Steven who were walking in the other direction.
"Colonel, there's a problem," Steven said.
"What?" Jack asked.
"They need Dr Frasier before they can decide whether they should attempt to extract the Goa'uld from Major Carter," Steven continued.
Jack glared at him, but reminded himself not to kill the messenger, it wasn't his fault. Actually it was his own fault, he shouldn't have left Janet behind, assuming that Hammond would let them return with back-up. The Pentagon and the government were starting to continuously complain that maybe the human loss that occurred at the SGC was too high.
"Never leave a team mate behind," Jack muttered. "We'll get her back don't worry."
If Sam remained a Goa'uld it would be his fault, because he had been so intent on getting her home safe that he hadn't thought through his rescue plan for the others.
"Thanks," Jack said, after a few moments of Harry and Steven just staring at him.
They both mumbled something and walked in the direction of the commissary. Jack made his way to the infirmary. Two nurses whispered something to each other as he entered the isolation room and approached the bed that Sam had been strapped to. It was the exact same room she had been confined to three years earlier when she had been taken over by an Entity from another planet. He sat down, thinking how he had sat here and watched a brain dead Sam he thought was going to die...because of him.
Now she might die for real...or worse - spend the rest of her life as a Goa'uld, and it was all his fault. He should've known not to let her go into that god damn signing room back in Australia, he should've shot Tutankhamen while he had the chance...he should've rescued Sam when they were in the Dandenongs!
Anything...there were so many moments when he could've saved her without having risked everyone elses lives and he hadn't...and now they were all gonna die because of him. Janet, Jacob, Jonas, Daniel and Sam! Some good his choices had done.
He'd done nothing but damage. He might as well leave.
There was movement out of the corner of his eyes. He looked up to see Ankhesenamun trying to sit up properly, but she was restrained.
"Let me out of these, I am your god," she whispered.
"Leave Carter," Jack ordered.
"Oh straight to the point, I like a man who's straight to the point," Ankhesenamun eyes glinted evilly.
"You leave her or die," Jack said.
"Colonel..." one of the nurses butted in.
He held up a finger to stop her. "Get General Hammond."
"I will not leave, you can not kill me for I am your god!" her eyes glowed.
Jack cringed. "Don't do that...it disturbs me."
Ankhesenamun smiled evilly. "Exactly."
Jack didn't reply, he just sat down on his stool and glared the alien inside of Sam's body. How had he let this happen? Again...Why was it always Sam? Why couldn't it be him? He hated the god damn snakes and he would never ever want anyone to go through the experience of being a host, least of all twice.
"You're never gonna save her," Ankhesenamun sneered.
"Oh we'll find a way...and if we can't we'll create a way!" Jack replied.
"You'll need Dr Frasier if you have any hope of doing so, and she'll be dead by now," Ankhesenamun said casually.
"Stop it, I know they're not dead," Jack replied, although to tell the truth he had no idea whether they were still alive.
Ankhesenamun grinned, but didn't say anything; she just stared at Jack, as if egging him on, asking him to blow up at her. But he didn't, he remained calm, at least on the outside, and glared straight back at her, his expression blank.
"Carter, can you hear me? I want you to know we're going to help you," Jack said. "Just remember that..."
"You're wasting your time," Jacob said
Jonas looked over at Daniel who was standing near the gate of the cage, trying to figure out a way to break out of the cage. Daniel looked up and glared at Jacob.
"Hey at least I'm trying to get us out of here!" Daniel replied.
"There's no point," Jacob said. "Their security will just take us straight back in here, we're better off waiting for the rescue team."
There was silence.
"What if there is no rescue team?" Janet spoke up.
"There'll be a rescue team," Jacob insisted.
"General, I think you know better than most of us how the military works - if the risk factor is too high they won't be sending in a rescue team," Janet replied.
After a moments consideration Jacob sighed. "You're right...Daniel keep trying."
Daniel sighed and turned back to trying to find a way out of the god damn confining state. Jonas sighed and closed his eyes, leaning against the wall yet again, listening carefully to any conversation exchanged, desperate for entertainment.
"Is it just the missions I'm on, or do SG-1 always end up locked in some kind of cage?" Jacob asked.
Janet smiled slightly. "I wouldn't know what goes on during missions, sir; all I know is they always manage to come back alive...well usually..." she looked in Daniel's direction, but he wasn't listening.
"I have to get out of here," Jacob said suddenly. "I can't let Sam stay a Goa'uld."
"It's OK sir, Colonel O'Neill is in control," Janet said. "I'm sure he'll find a way to save Sam."
"He will," Jacob said. "I just wish I could help."
"So do I, sir," Janet said.
"Jack's a good man," Jacob sighed, it wasn't a question, but not really a statement either.
Janet looked at him, slightly confused about where that comment had come from, but knowing exactly where he was going. "Yes he is."
"He loves her, doesn't he?" Jacob admitted.
Jonas opened his eyes and turned his head slightly for a better view, even Daniel stopped what he was doing and turned around.
No one replied.
They all knew it was true - but they were too scared to reply - afraid of Jacob's reaction if they said anything. Janet shuffled slightly in her seat against the wall next to Jacob.
"Yes he does," Daniel said. "That's why he won't let her stay a Goa'uld."
Jacob nodded in agreement.
"Carter, can you hear me? I want you to know we're going to help you," Jack said. "Just remember that..."
Sam wanted to reply, wanted to say that she knew and he didn't have to tell her. But she couldn't, she had no control at all over what Ankhesenamun said or did, she had absolutely no free will - the one thing that kept her happy in life was her free will, and her science projects, and now that was gone. She was staring straight into Jack's eyes - but he couldn't read her expression. She needed help, she just wanted to scream out and ask for...
"Help," she said.
Then she was gone again, back into Ankhesenamun's control. But she knew that would've given him hope....maybe the hope that he needed to get her out of this.
"Carter?" he jumped off his stool. "You there?"
Then she felt the evil grin return to her face, without her control. Jack saw it to, because his expression changed to one of determination.
"Colonel," a voice said from the door; General Hammond. "The President has authorized a rescue team to be sent to the planet where you rescued Major Carter from. Leaving ASAP."
"Yes, sir," Jack said, glancing once more in Sam's direction and then jogging out of the room to assemble a rescue team.
Sam watched after him and could only hope that he didn't fall for the trap she knew was there waiting for him.
"Something's wrong," Daniel said.
"What now?" Jacob asked.
"There's not enough security...we haven't been interrogated...this isn't normal for a Goa'uld - we must be bait," Daniel said.
"Bait for what?" Jonas asked.
"Well I dunno, the rescue team?" Daniel replied. "Who else could they possibly be holding a trap for?"
Just then, as if to contradict what Daniel had just "figured out", Osiris entered the room.
"What are the co-ordinates for Earth?" she asked.
"Or maybe not..." Daniel replied, backing away from the bars.
"Straight to the point," Jonas mumbled.
She shouted something in Goa'uld to one of her Jaffa, who opened the gate to Jacob & Janet's cage and pulled Janet out roughly by her shirt collar. Then shut the gate again so Jacob couldn't get out
"Daniel, you will tell me or I'll have your friend made into a Goa'uld," Osiris smiled evilly.
"Don't!" Janet said before the Jaffa covered her mouth.
Daniel looked at Janet. She was one of his best friends, he had spent so much time in the infirmary with her - he couldn't let her be turned into a Goa'uld. But he also couldn't allow Osiris to get the gate co-ordinates! He had to think fast.
"Sarah...don't make me choose," he said.
"I am not Sarah," Osiris almost laughed in his face.
Daniel glanced at Janet again. Jacob had made his way near to where the Jaffa was holding Janet. Janet shook her head at Daniel, telling him not to give out Earth's co-ordinates. He couldn't of course, that would go against all their training.
"Come on Sarah I know you're in there," Daniel said.
Just then Jason Blank/Tutankhamen entered the room. "Where is my wife?"
Osiris looked taken aback for a minute. "I...uh...we're trying to get her back right now. The humans from Earth have taken her away from us again."
"You let them take my wife!?" Tutankhamen's eyes glowed and his voice double in volume. "And you didn't tell me?"
As if a notice had been sent out that half the occupants of the ship were in the holding cell part another Jaffa ran into the room.
"Osiris, my goddess, the Chappa'ai has activated! The Tau'ri are returning!" he announced.
Tutankhamen glared once again at Osiris and then turned and swiftly made his way out of the room. The Jaffa holding Janet threw her back into her cell and looked at Osiris for instructions. She glared right at Daniel and stormed out after Tutankhamen, her Jaffa following close behind.
"I told you we were bait," Daniel mumbled to Jonas, looking over at Janet. "Are you OK?"
Janet nodded, Jacob helping her up from the ground. "I'm fine."
"Jack, Teal'c and whoever's with them are in trouble!" Daniel said.
The other three nodded.
"We have to do something," Janet said.
Jonas nodded in agreement. "But what?"
Janet grinned and pulled something out from under her coat. "I got this."
They all looked at the zat and a small smile spread across all three of their faces.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Harry sat in the commissary flicking crumbs off the table. Jack, Teal'c and two more SG teams had gone through the Stargate minutes before to rescue the others. He felt useless and decided he might as well head back to Australia. Not that he'd have a job left or anything. He looked up as a figure sat down opposite him.
It was Steven.
"G'day," Harry said. "Found anything useful to do?"
"Well...no not really," Steven replied. "I just came back from visiting Major Carter. I don't know what she was like before that thing entered her, but whatever that thing is...its evil! Very evil. I don't like being in that room."
They both fell into silence. Finally Harry broke it.
"This is all so strange...I mean, mate, last week we were in Australia, being normal cops, doing normal cop things...and well now look where we are. Mate we're on the other side of the world, in a top secret US Air Force base where they have a large stone ring that transports people to other planets and we're trying to rescue a woman from being invaded with an alien parasite as well as having people on another planet trying to save people there...its just weird," Harry stated.
Steven nodded. "I feel so un-useful. Isn't there anything we could be doing?"
"Yes there is," a voice said from behind Steven. Harry looked up at the same time Steven spun around.
Standing there was General Hammond.
"Yes, General?" Harry asked.
Hammond nodded slightly. "Check through the old archives, try and see if there is any way that we can save Major Carter...we already have SGC personnel checking through it all, but they've turned up empty handed. I thought maybe you could ad some fresh light to the situation."
Steven's eyebrows shot up so high in surprise that Harry was surprised they didn't pop off his forehead.
"Yes, sir," Steven replied.
"Where do we start?" Harry asked.
"This way, follow me," Hammond said.
Jack stepped through the gate only to find himself at the mercy of at least 100 Jaffa.
"Oh for crying out loud," he muttered. "Take cover and fire!"
The few men who had already come through the Stargate did so, and the rest who came through later caught on pretty much straight away.
"O'Neill, this does not look promising," Teal'c shouted over the deafening noise.
"We have to get them back Teal'c," Jack shouted. "I'm not leaving them behind...again..."
They continued firing. But it was no good, sooner or later one of them would be killed or injured. It was a loosing battle...
"Have I ever mentioned how much I don't really mind all those needles you poke in me?" Daniel said, his grin spreading wider.
"Yeah me neither!" Jonas replied.
"Hurry up before the Jaffa come back," Jacob said.
Janet nodded and aimed the zat at the gate. She shot three times and it disappeared. Then she repeated the task on Daniel and Jonas's cage.
"Let's go," Daniel said.
The four of them ran out of the cell into the hallway towards freedom.
"Colonel!" Major Shaw of SG-8 shouted. "I got an officer down! We should retreat back through the Stargate and get back-up!"
"And who's gonna volunteer to run down to the DHD?" Jack replied. "No Major you stay right there until I figure out what to do."
Major Shaw glared at Jack and continued firing at the Jaffa. They had significantly diminished the number of Jaffa in the field. Now instead of an impossibly big amount of 100, they only had around 80 to defeat.
"This is going nowhere O'Neill," Teal'c muttered.
"I know, I know!" Jack shouted. "But I'm getting them back, I'm not gonna leave them behind Teal'c!"
"We will be no use if we are dead..." Teal'c added.
"Well then at least we tried," Jack continued his shooting and Teal'c decided it was better to remain quiet and continued firing his Staff weapon into the crowds of Jaffa.
"Holy Hannah!" Jacob exclaimed. "Look at the Jaffa!"
Daniel just gawked and Jonas looked extremely surprised. Janet still had a look of determination on her face.
"Well they're trying to kill Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c and whatever reinforcements they have so we've gotta help them!" Janet said.
"How?" Daniel and Jonas both asked at the same time.
"I know," Jacob said, smiling slowly.
"There's gotta be thousands of missions in here..." Harry rubbed his eyes. "This will take all night."
"We could try and search..." Steven suggested.
"Mate, have you checked out how many search results you get for the word `Goa'uld'?" Harry replied.
"Well then try searching something more specific...like `Defeating the Goa'uld'!" Steven said.
Harry typed it in and waited for the search results. It blinked in his face
Search returned: 5901 files.
Harry sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"OK...then try searching `Methods of extracting Goa'uld from a human host'..." Steven said.
"You do it, mate," Harry said. "I give up."
Steven rolled his eyes and leaned over to the keyboard, typing in the phrase he had just suggested. It came up'
Search returned: 103 files
Steven smiled. "See...that's slightly easier now isn't it? Never give up."
"Yeah, yeah," Harry said. "Now what do we look for?"
Steven shrugged. "That's your department!"
Jack heard a sudden roar from above him. "Teal'c what on Earth is that?"
"It is not on Earth," Teal'c replied, smiling slightly.
"Teal'c this is not the time for jokes," Jack replied. "Aw crap, it's a glider."
"In fact it is two gliders," Teal'c replied.
"Everybody find cover from the gliders!" Jack ordered SG-8 and 11.
They all started running for cover. Except Major Shaw, who remained at the side of his fallen comrade.
"God damnit Major I gave you an order!" Jack shouted.
"I'm not leaving her side, sir," Shaw shouted back.
Jack suddenly understood. He looked at the wounded body on the ground. Captain Reid. She wasn't dead, she was still alive, but barely. Jack knew exactly the thoughts that were going through Major Shaw's mind. Jack nodded.
"I understand," he said. "Just, don't get killed, or you're not doing anyone any good."
Then Jack split, running for the tree line. But as he did so he noticed something strange. The Jaffa were running away from the gliders, which were now firing on them.
Then it hit Jack. It was the others...they'd somehow managed to escape and capture two gliders.
"Yes!" he whispered under his breath.
He ran to the tree line where Teal'c and the others were now hiding. "We're safe!"
"What do you mean we're safe?" a Lieutenant from SG-11 Jack didn't know the name of asked.
"Those gliders are being control by our friends not or enemies," Jack said. "Captain Linken I want you to dial up Earth, we're outta here!"
Jack started running back to Major Shaw and Captain Reid who were closer to the Stargate. The Jaffa were now completely distracted by the gliders who had killed, or scared off, most of them. All of SG-11 and the other two members of SG-8 headed back to the gate and started dialling Earth. One of the gliders landed nearby...pretty roughly too. Jack looked over as Janet and Daniel climbed out. They didn't say anything, but ran straight over to Jack.
"Daniel get over there and make sure that our code gets through...we're gonna have to make a quick exit," Jack pointed to the few remaining Jaffa that were still heading their way.
Daniel nodded, and Janet ran after him. Jack found Major Shaw and Captain Reid quickly.
"We're outta here," Jack said.
Shaw nodded. Jack bent down and helped Shaw pick up Captain Reid's almost lifeless body. But he could feel her breathing, so she was alive. They heard the familiar "swoosh" of the wormhole initiating and the shouts of the officers as they ran through. Jack and Shaw carried Reid between them to the steps and as they were running up the steps, just behind Daniel and Janet, the other glider landed in front of them. Jacob and Jonas jumped out and ran up the steps behind them.
"Go, go, go!!" Jacob shouted.
They all jumped through the Stargate and soon enough found themselves back in the familiar gate room.
"CLOSE THE IRIS!" Jack shouted.
"Medical team needed!" Janet shouted at the same time, but there was already one in the gate room.
The iris closed behind them and a medical team ran up to where Captain Reid had been laid on the ground. Jack gave Shaw a pat on the shoulder.
"She'll be fine," Jack said.
"I hope so," Shaw replied.
Jack nodded and headed down the ramp to where Daniel was standing.
"So since when can you fly a glider?" Jack asked.
"Jacob gave me a crash course," Daniel replied.
"Yes I saw that," Jack grinned.
General Hammond walked up to them. "What on Earth happened?"
"I think they were expecting us General...it's a long story, but we'll just say we ended up getting rescued by the prisoners," Jack replied.
Hammond looked slightly confused, but nodded anyway.
"Got it!" Steven said.
Harry looked over from his position in front of the other computer. They had decided that if they both checked files, Steven from the beginning and Harry from the end, they'd get through it quicker.
"Yeah?" Harry asked.
"There's this device on this planet...something about it can destroy a Goa'uld..." Steven said.
"What's it called?" Harry asked
Jack was walking back down the hall from the change room towards the infirmary when he heard running footsteps behind him.
"Colonel!" he heard someone shouting in an Australian accent.
He turned around to see Steven stop just behind him. "We found a way to get the Goa'uld out of Sam!"
"How?" Jack asked
"You have not," Ankhesenamun replied. "There is no way, I am a god."
"Oh get over yourself," Jack replied. "We know exactly how to get rid of you."
"Oh yeah? How?" Ankhesenamun asked.
"A little device called Thor's Hammer..." Jack smiled slightly. "Yes search Carter's memory banks...you'll find all you need to know right there."
Jack looked over at the guards to check they were ready to zat her if she made a break for it. Ankhesenamun's eyes glowed, but not to place fear in her companions...no this time it was because she'd found that memory and was suddenly very afraid.
"No you can't," Ankhesenamun said.
"Oh you bet we can!" Jack smiled even more.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"Where are you taking me?" Ankhesenamun ordered.
"You'll find out when you get there," Jack replied.
He had taken Harry and Steven's suggestion to General Hammond and within two hours it had all been approved and they were on their way. Jack looked back at Harry, Steven, Janet and Hammond who were standing in the control room watching. Jonas, Daniel and Teal'c were standing next to Jack and Ankhesenamun. This wasn't a high risk mission, they didn't need back-up.
The Goa'uld was being held between Teal'c and Jack, she was struggling to get out, but between the two of them and handcuffs they were managing to keep her in their grip. The gate swooshed open and they all turned their attention in the direction of the event horizon.
"SG-1, you have a go," Hammond said through the speaker.
Teal'c and Jack dragged Ankhesenamun up the ramp, with Daniel and Jonas walking next to them, looking rather useless. They stepped through the wormhole and out the other side.
"Colonel O'Neill," came the greeting from the familiar woman.
"Gerwyn!" Jack said. "It's nice to see you again."
"I only wish it were under better conditions," Gerwyn replied.
"Why isn't it working?" Daniel asked, nodding at the large structure in front of them.
Jack looked up at Thor's Hammer. "Yeah why isn't it working?"
"You are not standing close enough," Gerwyn replied. "Move forward."
"No!" Ankhesenamun replied.
They had been to the planet Cimmeria twice before, the first time they had destroyed the Thor's Hammer to save Teal'c who was trapped inside and the second time they had contacted Thor and he had rebuilt it with an exception made for Teal'c.
Jack and Teal'c pulled Ankhesenamun forward and the next thing they knew they were surrounded in a beam of light and transported far away from the gate. Gerwyn smiled at Daniel and Jonas who were left standing on the steps of the Stargate. "I believe we will have to walk to the cave of Thor's Hammer."
"Ah, yeah," Daniel said.
"How far is it?" Jonas asked.
"Not too far," Gerwyn smiled. "Come."
Jonas turned to Daniel.
"It's a fair hike," Daniel replied.
Jonas nodded and started after Gerwyn.
"No!" Ankhesenamun shouted again. "You will let me go immediately! My love will have your heads for this!"
"Have our heads?" Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "I am sure a Goa'uld can only enter one head at a time."
Jack didn't reply; he was disgusted that the thing in Sam's head was calling Tutankhamen "my love". He decided it was better to keep his mouth shut before he said something he shouldn't.
"You know what I mean!" Ankhesenamun's eyes glowed again.
"OK can you stop that...its getting old already!" Jack sighed.
It was almost over, he reminded himself. They only had to get her to the exit and then it was all over. They would have Major Samantha Carter back to normal.
"What of the Unas?" Teal'c asked.
"Thor didn't put another one of those things in here did he?" Jack asked.
"I do not know," Teal'c said.
While keeping an eye out for an Unas, or any other kind of creature, they made their way slowly towards the hammer shaped exit.
Jonas looked back down the hill they were climbing up. It stretched as far as he could see - that was a good sign, they'd come a long way already. He turned back around and looked up. That hill stretched for as far as he could see to.
"OK not such a good sign," he mumbled to himself.
"What?" Daniel asked.
"Nothing," Jonas replied. "Just thinking out loud."
"Oh," Daniel said. "Was open for some interesting conversation."
"Oh, yeah...so how's Earth?" Jonas asked.
"Ah yeah it's all good," Daniel said. "Until, you know, this happen and all."
"I see," Jonas said.
"How's Kelowna? Sorted out all your political problems yet?" Daniel asked.
"Most of them," Jonas replied.
They continued hiking in silence for about ten minutes.
"So you, uh, got a girlfriend or anything?" Daniel asked.
"Oh well, sort of," Jonas replied.
"Really?" Daniel asked. "What's her name?"
"Nevermind," Jonas turned red and looked away.
Daniel grinned.
"Except..." Jonas looked at Daniel. "Actually nevermind."
"No tell me!" Daniel said.
"No really it doesn't matter," Jonas said.
"You have a thing for Dr Frasier don't you?" Daniel asked.
Jonas looked shocked, and then turned more red. "Well I did...sort of...when I was on SG-1...but you know I don't...not now...well not really...maybe a little bit...but no not really. I have someone back home."
Daniel grinned again. "Good."
Jonas looked at him. "Wait...you have a thing for..."
"Dr Jackson, Mr Quinn, we are here!" Gerwyn interrupted.
Both of them hurried up the hill to where Gerwyn was standing, quite happy to leave the awkward conversation behind. They found themselves standing at the entrance to a cave.
"So what now?" Jonas asked.
"Now we wait," Gerwyn replied. "They will come soon enough."
"There," Jack said.
Ankhesenamun had given up struggling until this point, but suddenly she found renewed strength and tried to break free. "Let me go! I am your god."
"You know that line is getting so old," Jack said. "Almost clichd and I mean you know how I feel about those."
"O'Neill," Teal'c said. "This will be painful."
Jack narrowed his eyes slightly. "I know...I'm sorry Sam."
"LET ME GO!" Ankhesenamun shouted. "Right now! Let me leave this place, I will give your host back to you without harming her."
"You would not," Teal'c said.
"Good riddance," Jack said, shoving her into the doorway.
Suddenly Ankhesenamun was caught in the red light that looked so familiar. She started shrieking in pain and trying to escape. Jack cringed and looked away. He couldn't watch Sam be in so much pain. Suddenly the shrieking stopped and Jack looked back. Sam's limp body fell to the ground.
"Carter," Jack said, running to her side.
He pulled her face over so it was facing him.
"Carter are you OK?" he asked.
She coughed. "Fine...sir..."
Then she lapsed into a coughing fit. Jack smiled. She was OK.
"Come on Carter we're getting out of here!" he said, picking her up and carrying her out of the cave.
Daniel, Jonas and Gerwyn were standing outside waiting for them.
"Is she OK?" Daniel asked as they reached them.
"She's alive and Goa'uldless, that's all that counts," Jack said. "Come on lets get home, I think Frasier needs to take a good look at her."
Jack didn't miss the brief look shared between Daniel and Jonas and wondered what it was about, but figured he'd find out later.
"Colonel?" Sam asked.
"Yes, Carter?" Jack replied.
"Is she gone?" Sam asked.
"She's gone, forever," Jack replied.
Sam smiled slightly and fell unconscious again.
Janet, Jacob, Steven, Harry, Hammond and four nurses stood waiting in the control room as the `Gate started dialling again.
"INCOMING WORMHOLE," came the announcement from Walter Davies over the PA.
"SG-1," Janet said. "Permission to go down into the gate room, sir?" Hammond nodded. All eight occupants ran down into the gate room to greet SG-1 back. The wormhole engaged and the IDC came through. The iris opened. Janet wasn't keeping her hopes up. Even if the Goa'uld had been killed, she didn't know what kind of affect it would have on Sam.
Daniel, Jonas, Teal'c and finally Jack who was carrying Sam came through the gate.
"Is she OK?" Janet asked.
"She's unconscious, but I think she'll be fine," Jack said.
Janet smiled.
Two nurses ran in with a stretcher and carried Sam out to the infirmary. Hammond entered the gate room.
"Did all go to plan?" he asked.
"As always, sir," Jack said. "Permission to get some rest?"
"Granted," Hammond said.
Jack nodded and made his way out of the gate room.
Janet was about to follow when she noticed both Jonas and Daniel staring at her in a strange way. She raised her eyebrows at them in question and they both looked away.
Extremely confused she followed Jack out of the gate room and headed towards the infirmary.
EPILOGUE
"Evening all!" Jack said, sitting down at the table in between Daniel and Harry.
He shot a glance across at Sam who was smiling for the first time since they had rescued her from Ankhesenamun. She caught his eye and looked away quickly.
She knew that in the past couple of weeks they had come closer to revealing their true feelings for each other than they ever had before - but now she was safe she had to bury those feelings again. Jack knew she was thinking this, because it was the same thing he was thinking.
"About time," Jonas smiled as Teal'c sat down next to him.
Teal'c smiled slightly and grabbed the menu from in front of him.
"We already ordered," Daniel said. "Pizza for all."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "That is good then."
He replaced the menu.
"Carter, you feeling better?" Jack asked.
"Yes, sir," she replied.
"I still think she should be in bed resting," Janet replied. "But you know, there's no keeping her down."
Sam grinned. "I have work to do Janet."
"You've gone through a big ordeal Sam, I think you should be resting!" Janet said.
Sam opened her mouth to reply but Jack interrupted.
"I think Carter has a right to come out and party once in a while," Jack replied. "Especially after what she's just gone through."
Daniel raised his glass. "To Sam."
Everyone clinked glasses and laughed. Jack could see a flash of pain across Sam's face, but she hid it quickly. It was going to take a while for her to get past it. He wondered if anyone else had noticed - but they didn't seem to.
Separate conversations started out while they were waiting for their food.
Sam stared out over the mountains in the background. They were pretty, she'd never really noticed how pretty they were. Then again there were lots of things she'd taken for granted before now. She looked back at inside the restaurant. There were two other people standing outside, but they were far enough away not to be a problem.
She looked up at the starry sky, wondering if Jason Blank was still out there. Wondering if he'd ever return to Earth, try and track her down. She decided the damage they had done to their armies and Mothership they were pretty much guaranteed he'd stay away for a little while at least.
She shuddered at the thought of being a Goa'uld again. It had been worse this time. Jolinar had been friendly, nice...but Ankhesenamun had an evil feeling to her. She had made her cold inside, an empty feeling she had never felt before.
"Carter..." came another voice from behind her.
"Evening, sir," she replied.
"Why are you out here? Come inside where its warm and play pool," Jack said, leaning on the rail next to her.
"I'm not in the mood, sorry sir, you can go play," she replied.
"If you're staying, I'm staying," Jack replied.
They stood in silence, leaning on the railing and staring up at the mountains surrounding them.
"You know I meant what I said," Sam said quietly.
"When?" Jack asked.
"Before the Goa'uld..." she looked away. "Before...you know."
"Oh...then," Jack replied. "I remember...I meant it to."
Sam nodded, still avoiding his gaze.
"I'm glad you're safe," Jack said.
"Thank you," Sam said.
"For what?" Jack asked.
"Not giving up on me," Sam replied.
"Actually you should be thanking Harry and Steven, they found the way to save you," Jack said.
"I already have, sir," Sam said. "Now I'm thanking you."
"Well then, you're welcome," Jack said.
There was another silent pause.
"What about Tutankhamen?" Sam asked.
"If he comes back we'll kick his ass," Jack said.
Sam smiled and laughed briefly. "I'll take your word on that, Colonel."
"Oh it's a promise," Jack said.
"Lets go back inside," Sam said.
"Yasureyabetcah," Jack replied.
The two of them turned around and headed back into the busy restaurant to the
find the others.
*~*~THE END~*~*
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