Thor watched with
ill-concealed satisfaction as the asteroid neared its target. Suddenly,
his view screen filled with the face of Baal. The Goa'uld did not look
pleased, though Thor supposed he could not blame him.
"What is the meaning of your attack?"
"Attack?" Thor blinked several times in ostensible indignation.
"I do not know what you mean."
"Do you mean to say that
you had nothing whatsoever to do with the asteroid that even now
threatens the safety of my world?"
"Precisely," Thor nodded
and drummed his long fingers restlessly on the arm of his command chair.
"I am willing to offer any assistance in the evacuation of your world -
should you require it."
"Bah!" Baal looked like
he had bitten into something sour. "You meddle in things that were best
left alone." Then his image winked out.
Knowing Baal - and those
of his kind - as he did, Thor continued to study the view screen. As
expected, Baal's response was not long in coming. A lance of energy
emanated from the surface of Tartarus, speared the asteroid and lingered
there, until the point of impact glowed. Then the targeted asteroid
exploded and rained jagged hunks of itself in an expanding arc of
destruction.
Thor flinched as several
collided with his vessel's shield and disintegrated on contact. His long
thin fingers flew over his console as he located the remaining pieces of
the asteroid and plotted their courses. Then he paused and blinked, one
gray finger tapping the arm of his command chair in thought. Instead of
one large asteroid, Baal now had several smaller rocks that would impact
various sections of his stronghold.
As a consequence, the
total destruction of the shield generator - the one thing that prevented
the rescue of O'Neill and Carter - was not assured. Moreover, their
safety and that of the beings that inhabited Tartarus, was
questionable.
His forehead creased in
thought as he monitored the objects that would soon rain destruction
down upon Baal's stronghold. Its resemblance to the opening shot of a
game of pool was vivid in Thor's memory. What seemed to be a confused
mass of spinning and whirling chunks of pulverized gravel was in reality
a gigantic puzzle with each piece having its own trajectory and impact
point that could be readily plotted. According to his calculations, the
first stones would cause little damage due to their smaller size.
However, the larger ones would begin their assault within two hours.
His command console
beeped for attention and Thor answered it. According to his instruments,
the vessel that carried the Asgard specialist had just left hyperspace.
He opened up a communications link.
"This is Thor onboard the 'Daniel Jackson'."
Thor's view screen showed
another Asgard, this one smaller in stature. Unlike Thor's impassive
facial features, this one's was animated to the extreme. As he watched
the Asgard bob up and down Thor reflected that he felt old, or at the
very least, tired whenever he had the occasion to be around the Asgard
who had made it his life's work to study the physiology and emulate the
mannerisms of the Tau'ri in general and O'Neill in particular.
"Howdy Thor, it's me,
Ernie, back at cha from the medical research vessel, 'Janet Fraiser'. I
came a' running as soon as you called. What kind of mess has Jack gotten
into this time for crying out loud? "
What passed for a smirk
was plastered on the Asgard specialist's face. To Thor it was a truly
hideous expression, but had always caused O'Neill to grin with pride.
The Supreme Commander of
the Asgard Fleet sighed but was determined that this would not 'get his
goat.' Mentally he made a note to review just what a 'goat' was and why
anyone would want to appropriate his.
"I am glad to see that
you arrived, Eir. It is - as O'Neill would say - a long story." Thor
rubbed his forehead and wondered if the headache that always accompanied
the exuberant Eir's visits would continue to grow in intensity.
***
'But Sam calls me Jackie.'
The awe Jack felt was
unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. Like a lamp switched on in
a pitch-dark room, it revealed a world of wonder that was Sam.
She lived.
This child of his, that
he could not deny, had told him in those few words. Only Sam would see -
and know - to call her that.
Without any
consideration, but to hold a living being, he scooped up this precious
messenger and hugged her tightly; giddy - yes giddy - with the joy that
his heart's reason for existence still breathed.
Tears that he'd refused
to shed while he'd mourned her death were released to celebrate her life
as well as the joy this child he'd never desired had given him.
Sam was alive.
But joy is always
short-lived and the thin warm body that stiffened and shuddered in his
arms brought him back to reality. Though he kicked and screamed defiance
at the need, nonetheless, he returned to the harsh grim reality that he
and this child must deal - and -live with.
But Sam was alive.
Carefully, he loosened
his hold on the girl to settle her across his leg, his arm hooked behind
her. Leaning into the wall at his back, he ducked his head to look into
her face. What he saw there he'd seen before and he mentally kicked
himself for it. Fear . . . of him . . . and of what he might do to
her.
"Hey, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm not hurting you . . . am I?"
He petted her head and
watched as an eye peeked open to reveal a beautiful brown eye that
peered at him in question.
"Come on now. Are you okay?"
The other eye popped open
and in a flurry of arms and legs she pushed against his chest, tumbled
onto the floor and scrabbled out of reach. That wasn't the smartest
thing you've ever done O'Neill, he remonstrated with himself. You went
ahead and scared the crap out of the poor thing. God knows she looks
like she's already been through the mill and now she's convinced you
just tried to squeeze her to death.
As he watched, she
stuffed her fingers into her mouth and turned the whimper that
threatened to escape into a muffled squeak. Taking a defensive position,
she pushed herself as far back into the corner as possible. Her reaction
made Jack's heart ache to see it, only experience could teach her
that.
He held out both hands,
palm up. "Listen, Jackie. I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that when
you told me about Sam - well I guess I got a little carried away." He
smiled and tried to look harmless - though embarrassment and shame was a
far more accurate description of his current feelings. He also felt more
than a touch of anger, which he pushed down deep, at anyone who could
mistreat a child so that they responded like that.
Jackie didn't look like
she bought the harmless act - smart girl - so he tried another avenue of
approach. He changed the subject to something safe, something she felt
more comfortable with.
"How is Sam? I mean, is she okay?"
The fingers remained
covering her mouth and above them were impossibly large dark eyes. She
nodded slowly and Jack let out a breath of relief.
"When I heard those shots
after Baal took you away. . ." he swallowed hard as the despair of those
endless moments revisited him. "I thought she was dead."
"The man who laughs too
much . . ." Jackie paused, her fingers of that same hand now twirled a
piece of her reddish-brown hair around them, "I mean Baal . . . wanted
you to think that. Sam said so." Her last statement was colored by a
stubborn insistence - defiant.
"Sam's a pretty smart
person, and if she told you that, then it's probably true. She's pretty
smart about things like that," Jack reassured her, proud to see that the
O'Neill genes stood strong in this victim of his own defiance.
"Sam said my name is our secret."
"Okay, I can keep a secret."
"It's against the rules
to have a different name," she held up the underside of her brand-marred
forearm to illustrate her point, and that increased Jack's retribution
quotient that he would personally insist be paid in full by a certain
smarmy snakehead who had a thing for black.
"And there are
consequences when you break the rules," she continued somberly, her dark
eyes huge in a thin face. Those eyes were old and held a depth that only
those who had seen too much too soon contained.
"Consequences?"
"Uh huh," she nodded.
"Bad things happen when you break the rules."
Jack nodded his
understanding, his face solemn. "I understand. It'll be our secret."
"Can you come closer?"
Jack paused and noted how Jackie's fingers abandoned the twisted strand
of hair and flew back to her mouth. "You don't have to, but I figured if
I'm supposed to be teaching you stuff, then we should sit close
together, that's all."
Jackie's head tilted to
one side but she remained where she was. He brooded on the situation and
decided that he didn't blame her. After all, here he was, insisting that
he was harmless with dried blood flaking off his hands and arms;
notwithstanding that they were in a place where the only constant in her
life was cruel treatment at the hands of others.
"Okay, you can stay there
if you want. But I want to tell you I'm sorry for scaring you
earlier."
"Sar-ree?" Her face
screwed up in puzzlement, like. . . Nope not going there he thought and
Jack quashed the image of the young eyes of his son, who'd died too
young. Instead, he concentrated on the living - the here and now - and
opened his heart in earnest apology.
"Yeah, I'm sorry if I hurt you."
"I don't understand."
"What?"
"What is . . . sar-ree?"
Her expressive lips twisted around the unfamiliar word.
"You don't know what sorry means?"
Jack paused to collect
his thoughts while he considered the implications of her statement. He
realized it meant that she'd been mistreated on a regular basis -
treated like an object - like a thing with no rights whatsoever.
Therefore she had no expectation that she would be treated any better by
anyone, to include him. It was a miracle that Sam had won Jackie's
trust. His love for the woman expanded something he hadn't thought
possible.
"Oh, well I suppose it
means that I wish I hadn't hurt you - or even scared you. No one should
hurt you because, well, they just shouldn't. You're just a kid and kids
shouldn't be hurt - none of them."
"Oh." Then she cocked her head. "Why?"
"Why?" Jack paused to
consider her question. "Because I said so, and it's not right to go
around hurting kids like you. You don't like it, do you?"
"No, but it happens
anyway." Her tone asked how anyone could be so dense as to even consider
anything else. After all, she had lived with that reality every second
of her short life.
"That doesn’t make it
right though," Jack frowned and then turned it into a smirk when he
realized belatedly that Jackie might think he was mad at her. "Listen, I
don't want anybody to hurt you - Baal included."
Jackie's eyes widened
with disbelief and her palms rested on her hips. "And just how are you
going to stop him?"
Jack's eyebrows knitted
together. "I'll do whatever I have to do to stop him. You have my word
on it."
A deep-throated chuckle
drew the attention of the cell's occupants and Jack cursed himself for
being so lax as to not notice they had a visitor.
"Don't you have better
things to do than to spy on other people's conversations?" Jack spat,
standing to face Baal.
Out of the corner of his
eye, he could see Jackie squirm upright, trying to ooze through the wall
- terrified. Without thought, Jack moved to shield her from the
Goa'uld's gaze. Soft rapid footsteps told him whose hands clutched his
thighs tightly. Soft hair tickled his hand as her small head peeked out
from behind.
"Even one such as this
knows the power of her god, foolish Tau'ri. You waste your time making
promises that you cannot keep."
"Why should you care?
What's the matter? Do you get your jollies by picking on kids who can't
fight back?"
"Insolence! Why do you
persist in provoking my ire when you have so little to gain - and so
much to lose?" Baal's eyes flickered between Jack and the thin form he
knew huddled behind the meager protection of his legs.
"Why don't you pick on
somebody your own size?" Jack's eyes flashed dangerously as his chin
lifted as if to take a hit.
"I?" Baal chuckled and
fingered his goatee as if in thought. "No, I have not - as yet - harmed
a hair on her head. However, my specialists have expressed a desire for
a test subject for some of their more dangerous experiments . . ." he
left the sentence unfinished but the threat implied was clear, as was
his evident pleasure at the whole idea.
Jack opened his mouth to
retort and his words died unsaid as the lights flickered ominously. Even
more worrying was Baal's reaction. He frowned and turned off the force
field.
"Attend me," Baal was
once again flanked by multiple Kull Warriors. Then he turned to the
occupants in the cell and gestured with impatience. "Come with me. We
have little time."
The lights blinked off
and stayed that way, the only light came from the flashing emergency
lights. In the distance Jack heard explosions. His eyes narrowed and he
crossed his arms across his chest stubbornly, in unconscious imitation
of Jackie's earlier pose. "What's going on?"
"Fool, there is no time for explanations! Come with me, now!"
Baal's eyes flashed
golden. Behind Jack a whimper, quickly stifled, emanated from the child,
nearly forgotten in this latest crisis.
In response to her
distress Jack crouched and ducked his head toward Jackie careful to keep
himself between her and Baal. Then he nodded and stood. "Uh, could you
hold on a minute? The kid here needs to use the facilities."
Baal scowled. "Very well, but be quick about it!"
With his hand firmly on
her shoulder, Jack shepherded Jackie toward the corner that contained
the bucket. Then he bent down and whispered. "Go along with me on this,
okay?"
Jackie nodded and sat on
the bucket. Under cover of brushing her hair out of her eyes, he
continued. "Something's gone wrong and it's got Dirt-Baal's panties in a
wad. So here's what I want you to do. When I give you the word, I want
you to take off running and find Sam."
She nodded and then
replied with a question of her own. "But what about you?"
"I'll be fine. Just find Sam. Got it?"
Then Jack straightened
and turned to face outwards, a human shield to ensure Jackie's privacy.
"Kids, ya gotta love 'em." He pasted an innocent smile on his face.
Her hand in his signaled
that she was finished and he smiled down at her with encouragement and
winked. "You ready to go?"
Jackie's dark brown eyes looked solemnly up at him. Yes, I am."
Jack stepped forward,
Jackie firmly pressed against him, as far from Baal as possible. The
emergency lighting in the hall winked slower. Something was terribly
wrong. And he just hoped that whoever was in the process of upsetting
Baal's applecart were friendly to the Tau'ri.
Baal was in a hurry,
already preceding them along the hall with unaccustomed haste, his Kull
Warriors - all but one - formed a protective box around his haughty dark
figure. The last Warrior stood dead center of the corridor; Jack slowed
his pace allowing the others to widen the distance. One Warrior he might
be able to handle - with an big honkin' emphasis on the might. Those
Warriors weren't like Jaffa and if he remembered correctly - and he had
the sinking feeling that he did - their punch packed a wallop.
As he and Jackie cleared
the threshold of the cell, Jack squeezed her hand before dropping
it.
"Run!" He yelled and flung himself at their lone escort.
It was like he'd hit a
brick wall, if they made brick walls with hands that is. Brick hands
closed over his throat and hauled him bodily off the floor, to where his
bare toes could find no purchase. His hands groped and clutched at the
Warrior but its fingers dug relentlessly deeper, cutting off his air and
forcing his head back.
Dimly, he heard Baal's
roar, "Stop her!" and what sounded like a series of explosions.
Fiercely, he clung to the
arm that choked him as sweat trickled down his naked back. He could feel
the air disturb the hair on his legs as he kicked instinctively due to
the lack of oxygen.
Jack knew the other
Warriors were moving, headed for Jackie. He couldn't hear the
pitter-patter of her footsteps, but knew that she ran as fast as her
skinny little legs could move. He had to do something. She was depending
on him. And he'd promised he would protect her no matter what - that was
a promise he'd keep - even if it killed him.
He fixed his graying
vision on the Warrior, only an arm's length from him. Not that far
really - a piece of cake. Come on, Jack. With a mighty effort he
momentarily hung himself to use his hand to pry at the brick-like
fingers that threatened to break his neck.
Only when he perceived
that the roaring in his ears wasn't the vain pumping of his heart, but
something else, did a sudden clarity show him the wall as it exploded
toward him. An unexpected close encounter of the eyeball-to-eyeball kind
with the Kull Warrior was his last memory as they both slammed into the
opposite wall, followed by chunks of debris that rained down upon them
both, burying them from sight.
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