Samantha Carter flinched when the wires she'd spliced spat sparks at
her and then wiped at the sweat that beaded her upper lip with the back
of her hand. She'd used Jackie's spoon, first to pry off the plate cover
for the force field controls, and then to trace each circuit. It had
been slow going, a matter of tedious trial and error. Too bad Anubis
hadn't built his facility according to the specs used in the Air
Force.
She smirked with the thought of an electrical inspector trying to
enforce those regs on the haughty System Lords and shook her head to
clear it. Then she smiled - she'd been spending too much time around
Jack to be channeling him like that.
Unfortunately, that uncharacteristically off-the-wall notion reminded
her of what she'd been trying to suppress - her worry that Jackie had
been gone for what seemed like hours - and presumably was in the company
of Jack O'Neill. She hoped that the child she'd grown to think of as her
own daughter was okay, that Jack was okay too. Her heart did a little
flutter at the thought of him and then her brain zinged onto a new track
to distract her from thinking too hard about his predicament.
Though she realized that she was considered to be too unimportant in
Baal's' scheme of things, it still rankled to be thought so unimportant
as to be virtually ignored by the powers that be. From her cell, she had
watched life at the facility on Tartarus pass her by, in fact Baal
himself had walked past a couple of times - the last time he'd seemed
preoccupied and had been surrounded by his Kull Warriors.
When the lights flickered slightly, she cocked her head while her
tongue probed the roof of her mouth as if the answer might be found
there. "No, that's not right,'" she muttered half to herself. "I'm not
working on that circuit - I'm sure of it." Her hands paused in mid-air
as she considered the problem. "So, why is it doing that?"
"Oh," her eyes lit as the lights flickered again and she nodded, "So
if I'm not doing it, then something . . . or someone else must be." Her
grin held a note of triumph. "And whatever it is can't be all bad if it
gets me out of here."
No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she felt a tremor
under her feet and the force field went down, which left her with a
decision to make - which way to go? Did she turn right toward Jack and
Jackie's cell - or to the left and possibly the control center?
She deliberated for only a second. While her heart tugged her toward
the right and her desired reunion with Jack and Jackie - Baal was there
too - or at least in the near vicinity. And it would do none of them any
good if she were to be immediately recaptured. Her love and respect for
Jack ratcheted up a notch, the man made these wrenching decisions on a
regular basis; making his gentle, caring attitude all the more precious
to her.
"Use your head, Samantha Jean - that's what you're good at. And Jack
is depending on you to pull a rabbit - or at least a solution to this
problem - out of your hat . . ." then she dimpled and ducked her head
with a self-conscious smile when a previous conversation came to mind.
"Or out of your butt as Jack had said," she murmured with a sly grin at
his quirky and irreverent sense of humor.
She still remembered how embarrassed he'd seemed when that little
jewel had come bumbling came out of his mouth - and he'd realized what
he'd said - and how it sounded. Sam had never let him forget that little
faux pas either; it was always good for getting that adorable blush he
so seldom exhibited.
"To the left it is," she murmured.
Once there she could better determine the reason for the electrical
power outages and possibly call for help. What's more, if she could also
sow a bit of electronic mayhem in the process, that wouldn't hurt
either. She grinned roguishly as she thought of the various ways she
could wreck havoc in Baal's neighborhood.
As she prowled the hallways, she took note that they were strangely
deserted, another piece to add to the puzzle. Sam also couldn't help but
wonder at the increasing strength of tremors in the floor and just how
they were all connected.
The hall opened into what looked to be the control center, it too was
empty. Her eyes lit with glee as she all but rubbed her hands together
and almost cackled with maniacal laughter. Sam was in her element now
and went straight to work as she deciphered the various signs and labels
on the nearest and largest console, determined to do the most extreme
damage possible as payback for this whole not so pleasurable cruise.
But first things first - they needed to find a way home. She still
nurtured the hope that someone - anyone - had been able to trace them to
Baal's stronghold, but the only way she would find that out was if she
was able to communicate with the outside.
After a moment's study, she pressed a button and was rewarded when
the view screen that overlooked the room flickered to life. Initially,
it crackled with static and showed only streaks of white on a black
background.
She bent over the microphone and began to speak, "Mayday, mayday.
This is Colonel Samantha Carter of the U.S. Air Force. We could use some
help down here, over."
She paused, still bent over the microphone as her eyes surveyed the
contents of the room. "Is there anybody out there, over?"
Suddenly, the static was replaced by a familiar figure. "This is
Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. Can we be of assistance to
you Colonel Carter?"
"Thor?" Sweet, Sam thought; who better to pry them from this mess.
"Thank god you're here. Baal is holding Jack and I prisoner on Tartarus.
How close are you?"
"We are nearby and aware of the . . . situation. However, we have
been unable to penetrate the shields that surround Baal's
stronghold."
"The shields? Hold on, I'll try to disable them from here."
A resonant voice announced that Sam was no longer alone in the
control room. "Stop her and bring her to me!"
Sam turned toward the voice and saw Anat, Baal's queen flanked by two
Kull Warriors. One strode her way, its fisted arm targeted on her. The
gesture reminded her all too well of when she'd been tracked by one just
like him after fleeing the devastation of the Alpha Site. A frisson of
irrational fear shivered along her spine. Then she'd been armed with the
prototype for the weapon that could disable and kill the
warrior-constructs. What she'd give for one of those right now, she
mused. Yet, if it hadn't been for Jack . . . Sam bit at her lip and
pushed down the beginnings of panic.
"Is there a problem?" Thor's voice asked from the view screen. Sam
jerked her head back to the Asgard, thankful for the distraction from
her memories of that narrow escape. With a toss of her head in the
direction of the Goa'uld queen, she replied. "You might say that."
"Foolish Asgard," muttered Anat angrily. "Silence him and remove the
meddler from my sight."
Sam shrugged and held her hands at shoulder height. The Warrior
shoved her aside and then pressed a button that caused the view screen
to go blank. She said nothing but her thoughts raced with the
implications of her discovery. Thor had tracked them to Baal's
stronghold and the probability that he had something to do with the
periodic power outages and tremors was extremely high.
"Bring the Tau'ri female to me," Anat commanded with a gesture.
Anat's eyes blazed with anger as she studied the jewel on the hand
device meaningfully. With no other choice at the moment, Sam complied
with the demand, but dragged her feet with the hope that Thor could do
something now that he knew what was going on.
When Sam stood in front of Anat, her eyes flashed golden and she
lifted her chin in a haughty smile, "Show honor to your goddess."
Sam's lips thinned with determination. "No." Her words were uttered
softy but belied the steely resolve behind them. "You're no goddess of
mine," contempt fairly dripped from her lips. "You're nothing but a
self-serving parasite that sucks the life out of its host before it
discards it for another victim."
The queen's scream of rage echoed through the room and out into the
corridor. She raised her hand and the jewel that nestled against her
palm glowed red as the queen's eyes. "You shall pay for your insolence,
wretched Tau'ri."
Its beam shot out and found Sam's forehead. Her face grimaced as she
fought the urge to collapse to her knees. "No. . . thanks," she gasped,
"I gave . . . at the . . . office . . . ugh!"
Unexpected tremors made Sam wonder if she was losing the battle to
keep to her feet, but when she focused her gaze on the queen, she saw
fear there. The punishing beam stopped and Sam staggered backwards. When
the room heaved again, she lost her balance and fell onto her butt.
Meanwhile in front of her, Anat reeled from side to side as she too
struggled to stay on her feet. The lights flickered and then went out
leaving the room bathed in a surreal reddish glow. Like an afterthought,
an echoing concussion slammed across the room that added to the
adrenaline that already pumped through Sam's system.
"Kill her!" Anat screamed to the Warriors whose arms immediately
stiffened as their fisted arms searched for their target.
Looking to Sam very much like the little battery-operated robots she
had played with in her childhood, the Warriors advanced. Only these
dimwitted toys sported real weapons - deadly ones -and this was anything
but a child's game.
She scuttled backwards putting something solid between her and them.
Pure energy hit the console next to her and she flinched away from the
debris that exploded from the point of impact.
At the rate they're going, I won't have to do a thing, she thought
with grim satisfaction. They'll shut the whole place down for me. With
that thought in mind, she skipped over to another console, followed by a
volley of energy bolts that slammed into the delicate controls above and
behind her.
Another daredevil dive to cover farther into the room drew more shots
and spread the destruction. Who needed weapons when the opposition could
be induced to do the job for her? With wicked delight Sam moved steadily
from one patch of shelter to another, trailing destruction with every
inch of distance traveled.
Unfortunately, the Goa'uld seemed to have come to the same
conclusion. "Stop, you fools. You're doing too much damage."
Sam snickered as the Warriors continued to fire at her. It took Anat
a fair amount of undignified yelling to get her 'minion's' attention,
but by that time, the control room was a smoking loss. Two life-size
robots froze in confusion at the stream of screamed commands that issued
from the Goa'uld queen as she literally jumped up and down in frenzied
anger.
If it had not been so deadly serious a situation, Sam knew she
would've been rolling on the floor with laughter, this was better than
any of Jack's precious 'Three Stooges' tapes.
Sam sobered up fast as the room shook again; causing pieces of
ceiling to thud to the floor around her. Flattened against the shelter
of a remaining console for protection, she worried whether whatever was
causing the tremors and concussions was getting closer.
"Attend me!" Anat's voice seemed tinged with fear, evidently she'd
had enough and if she were lucky, she would leave Sam to her own
devices.
When the mechanical clanking of their departure had died away, Sam
crawled away from the console that had protected her from the debris
that now littered the floor. The sound of approaching footsteps put her
on her guard as her eyes swept the entrances to the room.
A sudden high-pitched gasp for breath brought Sam out into the open.
If her suspicions were correct . . . She dared not call out for if she
were wrong, the consequences would be dire, not only for her, but also
for a certain small child who had stolen her heart and triggered her
usually suppressed maternal instinct.
That sort of thing did not go well with her usual job as physicist
and Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Nonetheless it was there,
and once she'd had the chance to meet with the girl in private, Sam had
felt as if she were her own daughter.
Come to think of it, given what she knew about the techniques used by
Baal's genetic specialists, Jackie was her daughter, in a sense. After
all, an egg taken by force from her own body had been used to create
Jackie along with her sisters.
In any case, Jackie had won her over from the start and Sam
considered her to be her daughter of the heart. 'Their daughter', welled
up briefly as a worried pang of pain ripped through her. Jack? Jackie
would know.
The blinking red emergency lights made it hard to differentiate
between actual figures and mere shadows, but the footsteps neared her
location. Sam eased out into the open and moved in a crouch toward the
sound.
"S - Sam?" The voice wavered and the footsteps stopped, though the
gasping breaths continued.
It had to be - only one person sounded like that - and like any
mother, her child's voice had imprinted itself on her mother's brain.
"Jackie, I'm here," Sam rushed toward the girl who immediately
wrapped her arms around Sam's neck and sobbed into her neck in seeming
relief. In reflex, Sam's hands roamed the skinny, shaking body assuring
her that her child was whole and unharmed.
"Shh," Sam sighed with relief when she found nothing and patted and
hugged the small head that nestled against her neck. "It's all right,
Jackie. I'm here." Without thought, she rocked herself and the child in
that ageless expression of comfort that a mother and child could
share.
"I was so scared, Sam," she hiccupped into her neck.
Sam gently pushed her away, enfolded her small hand in her larger
one, and led her to the console that she'd sheltered behind. Once there,
she coaxed the trembling girl onto her lap.
"Why were you scared, Jackie?"
"The - the man - I mean Baal; he was with me and Jack."
Sam's breath hitched in her throat as her heart hammered wildly. "You
were with Jack?"
Jackie's brown eyes looked somber as she nodded slowly. "Uh huh."
"Did you tell him?"
"About you and our secret?"
"Yes," Sam prodded her gently for an answer but was afraid to force
it given how scared she seemed.
"I did, and he scared me at first - I - I thought - I mean he
squeezed me so tight . . ."
"Did he hurt you?" Sam asked suspiciously.
With the eyes of a mother, her eyes raked up and down Jackie's slim
body, a body she already knew was unharmed, but searched for damage just
the same. Irrational anger sparked, if Jack had hurt her . . . The very
thought made her want to tear her lover limb-from-limb and it scared her
that she could even think of that.
"Only a little, but then he used a new word - sah-ree. He said it
meant he wished he hadn't hurt me." Jackie's voice held a hint of wonder
that anyone could conceive of such a thing about one such as her and
Sam's heart contracted painfully that her child - her daughter - had
been taught to believe she had no right to safety.
Jackie's words dragged her from the purely maternal reaction that
proved stronger than her deep and abiding love for Jack. She quivered in
reaction that she would ever think of harming Jackie's father; he would
never harm his child knowingly. There was no question of that.
Sam blinked tears from her eyes and giggled with relief as she looked
first at the ceiling and then back down at the trusting face that
watched her every move. She bit her lip in an attempt to rein in her joy
and then enfolded the child in a one-armed hug that Jackie tentatively
moved to copy.
"You see? He didn't want to hurt you." Sam released her hold and
looked into Jackie's face. "Where is Jack now?"
Jackie's face turned solemn and she pointed back down the hall where
she'd only recently emerged. "Back there - with Baal."
"How did you get away?"
"Jack hit the bad men and told me to run and find you. Then the
ceiling came down. It scared me but I kept running. I had to find you."
Sam's blood ran cold as her daughter's words sank in.
"Listen to me, Jackie. Did the ceiling fall on Jack?"
Jackie's voice sounded tiny and scared. "I think so," she piped, "but
it was hard to see while I was running." That hint of fear alerted her
to the fact that she squeezed the girl too tightly - just as Jack had
done - and she slowly relaxed and smiled away that fear in those beloved
eyes.
"You did the right thing, and you found me." Sam patted the child's
head and then cocked her head. "Do you want to go with me to find
Jack?"
Jackie paused and the indentation between her eyebrows deepened. "If
you come with me."
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Jackie." They stood and then
hand-in-hand, they stepped away from the console and started back down
the hall.
***
Jack's head bobbed against the armored back of the Kull Warrior that
had thrown him over his shoulder after he'd been none too gently dug out
of the cave-in. He blinked his eyes to rid them of the grit that seemed
to be in the very air he breathed. When he tried to swallow, the pain of
it nearly made him pass out again.
At one point, the Warrior jarred Jack against him so violently that
his nose banged against the armor plating. He grabbed it with one hand
and checked for blood. There was none, but it hurt.
"For crying out loud, watch it, will ya? You're doing more damage to
me now than the cave-in did."
"So the great Tau'ri O'Neill awakens," Baal said with a sneer.
"Yeah, what's it to ya?" Jack groused, his voice strange to even his
own ears. It must be the hanging upside-down, he thought. "You try
having a wall dropped on you and see how you do."
He winced, and wondered if there was any chest hair left from sheer
friction as he slipped and slid across the Warrior's not so smooth
armor.
"Need I remind you that I did - as you so quaintly put it - have a
wall dropped on me? And yet, I am the one walking while you, pitiful as
you are, are unable to do so."
"Well, you weren't the one that had the starring role in the Darth
Vader remake either," Jack muttered.''
"Whatever are you prattling on about?" Baal's confused expression -
seen at even the odd angle afforded him - gave Jack a sense of triumph.
Mentally he raised a finger, licked it, and chalked up a hash mark for
his side.
"You never watched Star Wars?"
When Baal didn't answer, Jack continued. "I'll take that as a no.
Well in the first movie, the bad guy, Darth Vader had invaded Princess
Leia's ship and - with just one hand mind you - was dangling a Freedom
Fighter by the neck - kind of like your goon was doing with me."
"Probably because the fighter talked too much," muttered Baal.
From the sound of his footsteps, Jack thought he'd lengthened his
stride, and his present mode of transportation - the Warrior - followed
suit. This awarded his side another hash mark. Jack grinned, and then
grimaced as that move pulled at something painfully.
"Hey, I resemble that remark," Jack shot back, doing his best to
prevent his nose from a repeat collision with the armored back. "So,
where we going?"
"Away," Baal answered.
"Away - well that's original." Jack rolled his eyes. "And where -
pray tell - would that be?"
Silence again, so Jack tried another tack. "So exactly why did you
dig me out, if I'm so pitiful?"
"You don't know?" Baal sounded amused - imagine that, Jack thought
with irony.
"Actually, I have a pretty good idea, but was wondering if you'd
'fess up'?" Jack smirked or tried to, which, he'd discovered was very
difficult to do from the upside-down position.
"I shall not deign to - as you say - 'fess up' anything to you,
foolish Tau'ri."
"Any idea what - or should I say who - is causing all this mess?"
When Baal didn't respond, he continued his verbal assault against the
Goa'uld. If nothing else, maybe he could talk the snakehead to death.
Certainly nothing else had worked so far
"What's the matter; did I touch a raw nerve there?" Then there was a
'somebody' out there giving the snakehead grief. Baal all but told him
who when he ignored the question. Well, didn't that just break his heart
. . . NOT!
"I am not affected by your foolish chatter, O'Neill." Baal replied
with haughty disdain.
Jack smirked at just how untrue that little lie was.
The Warrior stopped and dropped Jack like a sack of potatoes. O'Neill
luckily landed on a shoulder; even though the impact jarred lose a
galaxy of stars. He blinked them away as he propped himself up only to
be hoisted roughly to his feet by the same Warrior by a tug on his
arm.
When he looked around he whistled his disbelief. The room was a
shambles, huge chunks of the wall and ceiling had fallen and cracked one
sarcophagus' lid and the other had been completely flattened.
Jack turned his gaze to Baal, "You weren't planning on using those,
were you?"
Baal glared his answer and raised his hand device in mute warning.
"Ah ah," Jack smirked and waved his index finger in the Goa'uld's
direction. "Be nice, it's not as if you have a handy sarcophagus to dump
my body into anymore."
"I have more at our new location," Baal warned and his eyes flashed
golden.
"And that would be . . . where?" Jack kept the rubble between himself
and the glowering Goa'uld and stood with his arms crossed stubbornly
across his grimy, reddened bare chest.
Baal snapped his fingers. "Bring him!"
The Kull Warrior moved to grab his arm and Jack danced out of reach.
Then he turned and sprinted, his back bent in a crouch when a laser
blast scorched past his unprotected shoulder. He zigzagged, bare feet
sure on the floor, but continued his bid for freedom as a burst of
adrenaline added speed to his run.
"Stop him!"
Oh yeah, there was no doubt about it, Slime-Baal sounded pissed. The
snakehead probably couldn't do without his scintillating conversation,
Jack thought ruefully, though if he were honest with himself, he knew
exactly why Baal was going to the trouble to drag him along - and it had
nothing to do with his conversation skills - it was for his Ancient
genes and the things he could do because of them.
"Jack?" He recognized the voice and it came from ahead of him. It was
Sam!
A quick glance showed him the Warriors were in lumbering pursuit,
Baal was red-faced and shouting. But what turned his heart to ice was
the Warrior taking aim - only not at him!
"Sam," he puffed. "Get down!" And he pushed himself toward her,
afraid for her.
Jack heard the distinctive sound of weapon's discharge behind him;
saw Sam fall and what looked like a blur of shadow behind her, just as
the world winked out.
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