The Trap
Chapter One – The Mission

By Arrietty


Casting his fishing line into the blue lake, Jack leaned back in his chair and gave a contented sigh. ‘This is the life,’ he mused. Reaching down, he picked up a bottle of beer from his cooler beside his chair. He thoughtfully ran his thumb through the beads of moisture that had coalesced on the surface. Lifting the bottle up to his mouth he took a swig, enjoying the feel of the cool liquid as it trickled down his parched throat.

‘Yep, this is definitely the life.’ Jack thought, taking another swig of the cool amber liquid. The rest of his team had no idea what they were missing out on.

Closing his eyes Jack relaxed, letting his surroundings wash calmly over him. He could hear the buzzing of a bee as it busily hovered over some wild flowers near the water’s edge. Birds were twittering in the trees and a mild breeze swished through the bulrushes on the lake. Hidden amongst the soothing sounds, came a scuff of gravel.

“Colonel O’Neill!” A voice shouted out behind him.

“About time you two introduced yourselves.” Jack gently placed his beer on the jetty as if it was fine china and then smoothly rose from his lounge chair ready to face and execute, if possible, those who dare to intrude on his peaceful solitude.

Standing on the bank, were two men in United States Air Force uniform. Immediately, Jack recognised who they were, Lieutenant Fredricks and Sergeant Adams.

“Lieutenant. Sergeant. What brings you to this corner of the universe?”

“Colonel O’Neill. General Hammond couldn’t reach you on your cell phone, so he sent us instead. He wondered if there was anything wrong, sir.”

Jack kept his inner feelings of annoyance hidden from these two men as he replied.

“No, there is nothing wrong with my phone. I won’t be a minute.” With that last statement, he stood up. While walking towards his cabin, he made sure that they wouldn’t follow him by holding up the palm of his hand towards them.

As soon as Jack walked into his cabin, he grabbed a bag from the closet and dumped it on the bed. Delving into the bag he pulled out his cell phone and switched it on. Whatever it was, it must be have been very important if General Hammond had sent someone to get hold of him. Pushing the necessary numbers, he held it to his ear.

“This is Colonel O’Neill. General Hammond, please.”

Yanking open drawers, he started to pull out clothes and toss them into the bag while he waited to be patched through, sensing his vacation was most definitely over.

“General. I hear you wanted to talk with me . . . I AM still on vacation . . . aren’t I?” he asked, knowing what the answer was going to be.

His facial expression changed of slight interest immediately to concern, as he listened intently to the voice at the other end of the line.

~*~

The following day, General Hammond walked into the briefing room and the cacophony of noise that met him from the very full table was almost overpowering. Apart from the two seats that he and Colonel O’Neill were to sit, all seats were taken. Five members of Tok’ra were down one side of the table and six Jaffa warriors were seated on the other side. They hadn’t even noticed him walk into the room, they were to busy trying to out argue each other by talking all at once. With a sigh, General Hammond stood at the head of the table. Just at that moment, Colonel O’Neill walked into the room, so Hammond took the opportunity to call a halt to the chaos.

“Ladies! Gentlemen! Please!” he announced firmly.

Still glowering at one another, the eleven aliens to Earth turned toward General Hammond. Colonel O’Neill stood beside him waiting for the General to be seated first.

General Hammond nodded at Jack to sit as he sat down and then pointedly looked at Anise and asked her to explain what had transpired.

As Anise started to explain their predicament, the symbiotic voice added to the foreboding feeling that had come over O’Neill.

“Two days ago, four of our operatives and twenty Jaffa warriors met on a planet for a conference and they have disappeared. We believe that the Jaffa were traitors and gave up our operatives to the enemy.”

“That’s a lie!” One of the Jaffa stood up and shouted at Anise.

Chairs fell with a loud crash as the Tok’ra stood up and glowered menacingly at the Jaffa.

“Hey!”

Turning, they all looked at the source of the shout.

“Hey, guys, calm down.” Jack moved his hands with a slowing down motion.

Slowly one by one, the visitors to Earth sat down.

General Hammond leaned forward in his seat and gesturing with one hand, he asked the obvious question.

“Why have you come here?”

“Because,” answered the Jaffa Rogan, “neither of our peoples trust each other, but we are willing to trust the Tau’ri to work in both our best interests.” Anise and her fellow Tok’ra members nodded in agreement to Rogan’s statement.

“What is it you want us to do?” Jack was curious.

This time Anise spoke.

“Find out what happened on the planet and who betrayed us.” As she said these last few words, she pointedly looked at the Jaffa.

“Very well,” Hammond stated. “I will take it under advisement.” Nodding to the occupants of the table, he and O’Neill stood up and left the briefing room.

~*~

General Hammond and Colonel O’Neill were busy discussing the situation in Hammond’s office. They knew that the right thing to do was to help them, but they had been bitten a few too many times in the past.

“This is ridiculous, General. They’ll get us to do their dirty work, we’ll get pummelled and they’ll just accept it as a casualty of war.” Jack rolled his eyes as he finished his sentence.

“Yes I know, Jack, but . . .” He let out a small sigh.

“I’ll have to take another team, Carter, Daniel and Teal’c aren’t due back for another three days.”

Hammond looked up at Jack and stared fixedly at him. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Jack nodded once. “Okay, Jack. You have a go. Take SG-6.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Jack walked down the corridor, he already began to feel like kicking himself, ‘why oh why do I always get sucked in?’ But he knew that if one of his or another SG team had disappeared like this, he too would have liked the help of the Tok’ra and the Jaffa. Annoyed that he couldn’t take his own team, he went to find the leader of SG-6 to brief them on the mission.

~*~

Later that day, it was a large team that walked through the wormhole at 1500 hours, consisting of twelve members. Colonel O’Neill was leading SG-6, four Jaffa and three Tok’ra.

Once they arrived on the planet, they moved swiftly into the dark green forest as they followed some recently made tracks.

Back at the SGC, Anise gave a farewell to General Hammond, thanking him profusely for his aid. As she stepped through the wormhole, twin smirks flitted across the faces of the two remaining Jaffa warriors, while they waited to return to their own planet. The trap had been set.

~*~

Daniel tied his bandana firmly around his head. He had just soaked it with some water, vainly trying to cool himself down, knowing full well that the respite would only be temporary. He picked up his notebook from the sandy floor and proceeded to transcribe some of the text that was written on the walls. Just then, Major Samantha Carter and Teal’c walked into the building, sighing with relief in the coolness of the shade.

“This is slightly better, Teal’c.”

“Indeed, Major Carter.” Teal’c returned with feeling to his voice.

Sam was surprised, as Teal’c usually was able to withstand quite extreme heat without complaining. Realising that he most probably wasn’t as resilient as he used to be, when he carried a larval symbiote, she refrained from making a comment. Instead, she handed him a canteen of water that they had left in the cool shade. Even so, it was lukewarm.

“How much longer, Daniel?” she asked, hoping he would say that he was nearly finished.

“Oh, Sam, Teal’c, Hello.” He had turned briefly around to acknowledge them and then he went back to what he had been doing.

“Daniel Jackson!” Teal’c spoke firmly.

Daniel immediately stopped what he was doing and turned around to face them again.

“Yes?”

“Do you have the time in which you will be finished translating this wall?”

“Um . . . well . . . . Most probably not in both our lifetimes, Teal’c.”

Sam rolled her eyes and then stepped forward.

“Daniel! We are due to report to the SGC in twenty-six hours. Any chance, that you will be finished by then? Um . . . make that twenty-four as it will take us two hours in this heat to get back to the gate.” The exasperation in her voice made it obvious that she had had enough of this hot, dry, sandy desert.

“You mean we have been here for six days already?” Daniel replied incredulously.

“Yes, Daniel. We . . . have.”

“And I thought we had left Jack back at home, this trip,” he answered sarcastically, turning his attention back to the wall.

Sam wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or not. Choosing not to think to hard about it, she decided to take it as a compliment. Ignoring Daniel, she settled down on a large stone block and pulled out a ration bar. Daniel, realising that she wasn’t going to take him up on his sarcasm, sat down beside her and also pulled out a ration bar. Sam pointedly looked at him, lifted her watch, tapped the face of it and said.

“Tick tock. Only twenty-three hours and forty-seven minutes left, Daniel and then we’re outta here.” Deciding if she was going to be accused of being like O’Neill, she would behave like him too.

Sam was feeling rather rebellious on this trip. The transcripts hadn’t revealed anything technical. Although extremely interesting to an archaeologist, there was absolutely nothing of interest to an astrophysicist, ‘yet’ she hopefully thought.

The colonel had managed to wheedle his way out of this mission, using the excuse that he hadn’t had any vacation time for three months straight. “I won’t be needed on this mission. It will be all ‘brain’ things. Teal’c and Carter’ll be enough to look out for Daniel.” Sam wasn’t quite sure if the colonel had convinced General Hammond or General Hammond had just let O’Neill think he had convinced him. She knew for sure that Daniel had requested for Colonel O’Neill ‘not’ be included on this mission, as it was all going to be strictly archaeology. Sam knew that secretly, Daniel didn’t want the colonel breathing down his neck trying to hurry him along. Sighing to herself, she realised that was exactly what she was doing now, breathing down Daniel’s neck.

Just then, her radio crackled into life.

“Major Carter, are you receiving?”

“Carter receiving.”

“Major Carter, this is General Hammond. You, Teal’c and Doctor Jackson are needed back at the SGC, ASAP.”

“We’re on our way, sir.”

With speed and precision, they packed up the base camp in only thirty-five minutes. Daniel was loath to leave the interesting text behind, but he knew that when General Hammond called, they had to go. Teal’c taking point, they started the long hot, dry, dusty march back to the Stargate.

~*~

The klaxon announced the warning as it reverberated all around the SGC complex.

“Incoming wormhole. It’s SG-1, sir,” Sergeant Davis reported to General Hammond.

“Open the iris.”

“Yes, sir.”

Three hot, dusty and tired team members walked through the gate and tramped down the ramp. By the time they had reached the bottom of the ramp, General Hammond was waiting for them.

“Major Carter, welcome home.”

“Sir! What has happened?”

“Please, come to the briefing room and I will fill you in.”

Still dusty, dirty and tired, the three members of SG-1 thankfully sat down on the soft chairs in the briefing room. Hammond started to speak seriously.

“Colonel O’Neill, with SG-6, plus Tok’ra and Jaffa went to a planet for negotiations. Apparently, according to the Tok’ra, there may be some problems. The Tok’ra are insisting that you, Major Carter, lead a team to find out what has happened. They just don’t seem to trust anyone else.” He finished this sentence with a tired sigh.

“What about my dad? Is he here?”

“Unfortunately, they were unable to recall him from a very important mission.”

Sam was disappointed, but knew that this sometimes happened and she would have to accept it.

“Have you heard from Jack at all?” Daniel asked.

The General shook his head slowly as he replied. “No, Doctor Jackson. We aren’t due to hear a report from Colonel O’Neill for several hours.” Shifting in his chair, he continued. “This mission is by request from the Tok’ra. Normally we wouldn’t be sending anyone at this time.”

Teal’c sat still, not saying a word, but taking it all in. He was anxious to get out on the field. Something about this mission made him feel uneasy. Something was very wrong.

Hammond broke into Teal’c’s thoughts. “Go get cleaned up and cleared by Doctor Fraiser and report back here,” he paused to look at his watch, “in two hours.”

“Yes, sir.” Sam answered, pushing her chair away from the table.

Three hours later, SG-1, plus SG-7 and SG-11 were standing ready to depart in the gate room. They were all fairly sure that Colonel O'Neill and SG-6 were all right, but the Tok’ra had received intel that something was wrong.

Deep down, Sam felt uneasy, but wasn’t quite able to pin down what it was. Anyway, she was fairly sure that they were okay, as they weren’t due to report in yet. She and the two teams were only going, because the Tok’ra had wanted them to.

With the words of ‘good luck’ from General Hammond ringing in her ears, she stepped into the vortex.

The Trap
Chapter Two – Sam’s Dilemma

By Arrietty


The wormhole deposited Sam onto a lush green planet. As always, the ride through the Stargate was an experience that she never tired of.

Quickly scanning the area for hostiles, she motioned Teal’c and Daniel forward. Leaving SG-11 to secure the Stargate, she nodded to the major that commanded SG-7 and made their way carefully through the long grass. Still silent, using hand signals, they moved stealthily towards the forest, Teal’c taking point as he followed tracks that led away from the Stargate.

A slight breeze from the west ruffled the hair on the back of Sam’s neck. It was warm and moist; sweat had already broken out on her skin in the clammy, humid atmosphere. A sense of uneasiness surrounded the teams as they continued on. The breeze shifted; thankfully bringing with it a cool crisp air that not only cleared the clammy air, but the sluggishness of their thinking. Their respite was brief as the distinct acrid smell of battle rode on the breeze.

It was when they broke through the line of trees, that they saw the smoke sitting like an early morning fog over the scene of destruction. The battle smell they had sensed earlier had now turned into a stench that filled their nostrils. While keeping a wary eye out for any trouble, they moved closer to the centre of the battle.

Turning to Major Harrington, Sam nodded. “We will need extra medical personnel here.”

“Sam!” Daniel called from his crouched position. “I think we are too late for that. They all seem to be dead.”

“Daniel Jackson is correct, Major Carter,” Teal’c answered motioning to the body he was kneeling next to. “Anyone who may have survived the initial attack seems to have been executed.”

Sam swallowed. “We will need some help to take home the dead, call up Major Freen. And we need the perimeter checked.

“Yes, ma’am.” Directing two of his men, Rogers and Dwight to sweep the area, Major Harrington switched on his radio to contact SG-11.

The two men swiftly turned towards the trees to reconnoitre the area. They were only too relieved to leave the carnage behind them, even if it was only for a little while.

“Sam,” called Daniel a few moments later.

Getting up from the body of a Jaffa that she had been checking, she walked over to Daniel.

“Aren’t these Lieutenants Green and Andrews?” he asked.

They were obviously dead. Nodding at Daniel, she bent down and checked for a pulse anyway. Sadness washed over her as she looked at the wasted young lives. The deep feeling of dread began to grow more intense. It was now confirmed that their people had been caught in this battle. Slowly, they found the missing members of the teams that had been off world. The stench of battle and death was overpowering. It permeated their hair, skin and clothing and they tried using bandanas to cover their nose and mouth, but it was useless as they couldn’t block out the smell.

More SG teams had been dispatched making the gruesome job go a little quicker. Daniel had been correct in his observation, everyone was dead. They began to wrap the bodies in bags and carry them back through the Stargate. They found nine of the missing team members. Sam felt a little hope begin to grow within her, as they searched the bodies and couldn’t find him. ‘Maybe he managed to get away.’

Teal’c was standing by a mound of bodies; this was clearly where the last of the warriors fell. He could see from the way the slain lay that they had died one after another. Looking to see where the staff blasts had come from, he walked through the carnage to one spot under another small pile of fallen Jaffa and he saw something. Suddenly, he began to pull the bodies away.

“O'Neill!” he called out hoarsely, clearly concerned, as he bent to the ground.

Sam ran.

All she could see was a military issue combat boot sticking out from under a dead Jaffa. With a grunt, Teal’c lifted the heavy body away from his fallen comrade.

Sam could hear someone calling for the med. team in the distance, as she knelt down beside the body of Colonel O'Neill. A staff weapon was clasped firmly in his hand. He had evidently gone down fighting. She could feel a sob slowly rise up into her throat and with all the strength she possessed, she managed to suppress all emotions, as her fingers moved towards his blood-covered neck. Her fingers shook as she placed them to the stubble covered skin. She could feel nothing . . . in desperation she moved her fingers slightly and pressed deeper into the flesh. There was a flutter - then a beat.

“He’s alive!” she announced, with relief.

The forty-minute journey back to the gate was fraught with tension as the med team worked hard to keep Colonel O’Neill alive. Twice they had to stop and get him breathing again.

They were only five minutes from the gate when they were attacked. The two orderlies that were carrying the stretcher were killed instantly by staff weapon blasts and Jack came crashing to the ground. Sam was immediately at his side as the others tried to fend off the Jaffa. Checking his pulse, she was reassured to still feel the faint rhythm of blood circulating through his body. More Jaffa came streaming out of hiding, firing staff weapons and zats with deadly accuracy. One by one, the members of the SGC were struck down. Sam was the last to feel the electrical charge as the blue light flowed over her.

~*~

Sam regained consciousness, her head ached and an overwhelming stench assaulted her senses. Coughing, she quickly sat up and looked around the dim interior. She was in a large room, a prison cell by the looks of it. Dirty straw was on the ground and to her dismay, she could see Teal’c and other members of the SGC along with some unknown prisoners chained up against the wall.

There were two other people lying on the straw beside her. One was Daniel, with relief she could see that he was breathing. The other was Colonel O’Neill. The colonel was awake, his eyes were watching her. He tried to speak, but just a croak came from the back of his throat.

Forgetting her aching head, Sam scrambled on all fours over to the colonel, pulling her bandana away from her face in the process. The whole time, his eyes tracked her movements. Reaching forward with her hand, she felt his pulse but it was weak. She looked briefly up at Teal’c, their eyes met. Teal’c quietly nodded at Sam and then closed his eyes in defeat. He knew that O’Neill was dying and there was nothing that he or anyone else could do about it.

“Cart . . . r.” Jack managed to rasp out. It was so quiet that only Sam heard him.

“Sir, hush, save your strength,” she whispered quietly, giving him a small smile.

Very quickly, she checked over his previous wounds. There seemed to be no change, but she noticed new injuries that were bleeding profusely. The blood had soaked through his clothing and onto the floor. Pushing the blood sodden straw away from his side to gain access to the source, she was shocked to see the extent of his injuries. It looked like he had been stabbed three times in his stomach area. Taking off her jacket, she rolled it up and packed it against the wound, hoping to staunch the flow of blood, knowing within her heart that this was futile.

“Sam.” Looking up at the colonel, she gave him another small smile. “Can’t breathe.” He choked as he spoke.

Quickly leaving his side, she moved up and knelt by his head. Sitting back against the wall, Sam raised his upper body with difficulty, pulling him up against her chest.

“Is that better?” she asked.

Nodding quietly, Jack started to cough. To her dismay, she saw blood dribble from the corner of his mouth. She knew it would not be long. While bending over him and wiping the blood away, she noticed a drop of water fall upon his cheek. As the second one landed, Sam realised that they were her tears falling. The anguish was welling up inside her. It was growing, expanding. So intense, she could barely suppress it as it lodged in the back of her throat. The ache was almost too much to handle. Though Sam was barely controlling her inner emotion, her tears were out of control as they flowed down her face.

She knelt there holding onto her commanding officer, cradling him like a child and silently weeping for him. The image almost touched the Jaffa guard as he glanced in through the bars of the cage that enclosed the prisoners. Any remorse was dashed in an instant, when he glanced up and made eye contact with Teal’c, whose piercing eyes did not conceal what his intentions were if he was free of the restraints.

How Teal’c knew the moment that Jack let his last breath go, no one would ever know, but just as Jack did, Teal’c let out a roar of anger and pulled at the chains that bound his wrists and ankles.

Sam ignored Teal’c. Bound up in her own pain, she fought the anguish that threatened to bubble out in any second. Reaching up with one hand, she closed Jack’s sightless eyes and then leaned her body back against the damp stonewall, still holding onto him as though he lived.


~*~

At first, Daniel couldn’t work out where he was. A loud shout had startled him awake. With a “wha . . . whe . . . argh,” he finished, when the sudden movement made his head spin. It was hard to see without his glasses, but he was able to make out who was chained up against the wall.

“Teal’c!” He quickly got up, staggered over and leaned against the wall beside him. “What happened?” Daniel moved away from the wall and tugged ineffectively at the chains that had been fastened securely into solid stone.

Teal’c raised his head from where he had let it hang. Turning slowly, he looked directly into Daniel’s eyes. Even with slightly fuzzy sight, Daniel knew that something was wrong.

Looking briefly at the other chained prisoners, he asked, “Where are the others, Jack and Sam?”

He watched as Teal’c’s eyes slid across from watching him to somewhere behind his left shoulder. Daniel spun around fast, balancing himself against the wall with one hand as a brief bout of light-headedness hit him. Apart from the other SGC members also chained to the far wall, he saw a crumpled heap of two people. In the dim light he noticed the striking blond head held close to the silver of his friend Jack. He was not moving, but Sam’s body was shaking slightly as she held him tightly.

Daniel was still a little wobbly, but he made it over to where they were. Kneeling down, he reached with his hand and felt for Jack’s pulse finding none. He watched transfixed as Sam drew in a deep shuddering breath and looked up at him. Blinking the unshed tears that hadn’t fallen away, she spoke quietly

“Daniel.”

Very carefully, she laid Jack’s head down onto her now bloodied jacket and stiffly climbed to her feet. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, leaving a smear of Jack’s blood across one cheek, she forced herself to take in the situation.

“Let’s see if we can free them.” She pointedly looked at Daniel who was still kneeling beside Jack’s body.

The situation was hopeless. Everyone apart from Sam and Daniel were firmly fixed to the wall. They had no food or water to quench their thirst.

Sam relied totally on her military training, forcing all her anguish down inside. However, while she and Daniel examined the lock on the door, she couldn’t help casting her eyes over towards the colonel. Hoping that she had been wrong and he wasn’t really dead.

Two large guards came into their cell, one had dark hair and he scowled. Sam mentally named him ‘Happy’. The other had no hair, immediately the name ‘Curly’ came to her mind. When Sam asked for food and water, Happy pushed her over onto the ground and stomped over towards Jack’s body. Bringing his leg back, he booted him in the side, right where he had been wounded. The sickening sound made the members of the SGC cringe. When the guard bent down and started to pull Jack along by his ankles, Sam launched herself at the man’s back.

“Leave him alone! Haven’t you done enough?” she yelled, pounding him on the head with her fists.

Daniel started to pull Sam off Happy’s back. “Sam, he’s dead, you can’t change anything.”

Curly took advantage of their inattention. He hit Daniel over the head with his staff weapon, pulled Sam off Happy and threw her to the ground. Swivelling his weapon around, he pointed it straight at Sam. It clicked and whirred as he charged it up ready to fire.

“Jaffa Kree!” Teal’c roared the order.

Curly stood still, wavering with indecision what he should do and what his anger dictated him to do. The moment of delay was enough to cool his raging anger and everyone heard the click as he powered down his weapon. Reaching down, he caught Sam roughly by her arm and dragged her over to the wall. With precision that showed years of practice, he shackled her to the wall with the others.

“Hey wait.” Daniel started to protest. “You don’t need to do . . .” Happy grabbed Daniel by both arms and twisting him around, he flung him to the wall so he faced out into the cell. “Oomph . . . that.” He too showed his expertise and shackled Daniel firmly to the wall.

A feeling of despair washed over Sam as the cell door clanged shut. She had watched the guards drag the colonel’s body over the step of the doorway, making his head thump hard onto the ground. She winced at the sound, her eyes following the trail of blood that smeared along the dirty floor of the cell. When she looked up again, they had gone, taking her colonel with them.

~*~

Fortunately, most of the rescue team had already gone through the gate to the SGC before they had been attacked. Five people had been killed when they were captured. Major Harrington had died immediately from a staff weapon blast as well as the two orderlies that were carrying the stretcher. A field Doctor was also beside the stretcher when she was killed by a double zat blast. Sam remembered one of the nurses taking a hit right in the middle of her back as she had tended to the fallen Doctor. Somehow Jack had managed to escape the staff blasts, but it hadn’t helped, he had died anyway. All that was left of the teams were Lieutenant Rogers and Sergeant Dwight, plus the remaining members of SG-1.

It was only an hour later that they came for Sam, dragging her protesting through the tunnels to another small room. Curly and Happy chained her to a large frame in the centre of the room by her wrists and ankles. Curly moved his face close to Sam’s and leered at her, then grinned maliciously.

Back in the cell, Teal’c showed no outward sign that the screams he could hear in the distance affected him. Daniel cringed visibly; he was still suffering from shock. He couldn’t believe that Jack was dead and now he was going to lose Sam too.

Rogers gritted his teeth and tried not to think what they were doing to the major, while Dwight couldn’t keep quiet.

“What are they doing to her?” He repeated this like a mantra, stirring himself up into a form of hysteria.

By the time he had reached to the tenth time of saying it, Teal’c had had enough. The words he spoke were polite, but the tone he used was not. “Sergeant Dwight, will you please be quiet.”

Suddenly, as quickly as it had started, the screaming stopped. A few moments later, Sam was dragged in by her feet and ankles and left on the dirty floor. The first prime stood still and surveyed the room, looking into everyone’s face. The only man that looked away was Sergeant Dwight. The first prime motioned to Curly and Happy to free Dwight. It was obvious he was terrified, but just as he walked through the doorway he drew in a deep breath and called out to the others.

“I will not let you down.”

They never saw him alive again.

Knowing there was nothing he could do for the sergeant; Daniel turned his attention to Sam. She was still alive, but unconscious. Her face was bruised and a small trickle of blood ran down her cheek from a split lip. From his restricted position on the wall, Daniel could not find any other obvious signs of injury.

“They probably used the pain stick.” Daniel spoke, breaking the silence that hung over the cell.

Lieutenant Rogers looked up at Daniel. “Is that very bad?”

“Well . . . put it this way, it doesn’t kill you, but when they use it, you wish it did.”

Making the ‘O’ shape with his mouth, Rogers nodded quietly before letting out a small sigh.

~*~

It must have been night-time when they heard the commotion outside their cell. It was hard to judge the correct time of day as there was no natural light. They could hear automatic weapon fire combined with staff weapons.

“They’ve come,” Rogers rasped out in his dry throat.

Sam had rolled over and was lying flat on her back. She bent her aching head up and listened intently to the sound of the battle.

“That doesn’t sound like our rifle fire.”

Propping herself up onto her elbow, she looked intently through the bars, hoping to see camouflage green. Knowing deep within herself, that this was no Earth team that had come to rescue them.

After the lock on the door had been blasted away, the person that she least expected to see, came marching into the holding cell area.

Jonas Quinn.

Four other men were with him. One of them was clutching his arm and blood was seeping out through his fingers.

Sam scrambled to her feet, clinging onto the bars as she was extremely unsteady on them. “Jonas. It’s good to see you.”

“You too, Sam. I just wish it was under better circumstances,” Jonas replied, quickly walking forward to support Sam as she had started to sway with weakness.

“I hope you have some more of that explosive so that we can release everyone,” she said quietly while looking around at her team.

“Yes, but I have something better.” With his usual grin, Jonas reached around into his pack with one hand and pulled out a large pair of bolt cutters.

“Doran!” Jonas called, handing them to the largest member of the group.

Doran nodded and moved toward Teal’c and promptly snapped through the chains as though they were made of soft modelling clay.

Sam looked at Jonas. “What are you doing here? I mean this is great you came, but why?”

“Well, actually, we didn’t come to rescue you. We had come to procure something that we heard was on this planet. Something that would help us in the fight against the Goa’uld. When we arrived, we heard that SG-1 had been captured.”

Smiling quietly, Sam chided Jonas. “I see you still like the adventure.”

“Where’s the colonel?” he asked, looking around the cell. “I heard that all of SG-1 had been captured.”

Immediately, Sam’s smile faded from her face. Before she could answer, Daniel spoke up.

“He’s dead.”

Jonas’ smile also disappeared. Knowing that they couldn’t take time to mourn; they had to leave the prison as soon as they were all free from their restraints.

Sam noticed many guards were lying dead on the ground, but luckily, she could see no Kelownan casualties.

Moving swiftly and silently, they made their way down through the tunnels. Sam looked back briefly to see the other non SGC prisoners silently move off in another direction. She wondered if they knew another way out.

“Where are you taking us, Jonas?”

“To get the weapon that we came for.”

“Why didn’t you ask us for help?” Sam was puzzled at all the secrecy.

Stopping briefly, he glanced down at the ground. Looking up at Sam, he answered, “I wanted to go on this expedition and if I had told you they would not have let me come.” Jonas looked at the ground again, embarrassed about his own people’s behaviour. “They don’t want you to know, because you would have made them share it with Tirania and Andari.”

Nodding with understanding, Sam motioned forwards with her arm. “Well it looks like we will know now.” She gave him a small smile.

They moved off quickly down the long passageways to the dark depths below.

The Trap
Chapter Three - Underground

By Arrietty


Hegron's fortress was hidden underground, nestled in the foothills of a large mountain. Among the scattered rocks covering the side of the mountain was a cave. Inside, the uneven and rough floor met sloping walls that ran into a high ceiling. There were no obvious seams or cracks to suggest an opening, but upon inspection, the faint outline of a metal ring set into the floor could be seen. It was the only way in or out of Hegron’s fortress.

Deep down, many metres below the hard rock floor, the heavy tramping of booted feet reverberated through the many tunnels. Stalactites hung low from the ceiling as the lime slowly dripped onto the waiting stalagmites, making it difficult to walk along the tunnels. Lights were fitted into the crevices high up into the walls. Further underground, a large naquadah generator pumped out the power to keep the tunnels and halls at an ambient temperature.

It was very easy to get lost in the labyrinth of tunnels. Fortunately, the main tunnels were easy to follow, having been worn down over many years from the passage of heavy feet. Right in the heart of the mountain was a large vaulted cavern where the steady dripping of water echoed around the vast space. Stalactites and stalagmites had formed into large glistening pillars that made traversing the cavern floor difficult. Hidden even further in the bowels of the mountain, rushing water could be heard as a large waterfall plunged into the underground river that ran through the heart of the mountain. The surrounding tunnels were slightly cooler than the others with the movement of moist air and a faint rumble of the waterfall could be heard.

Situated amongst the glistening pillars of the large cavern was a smoothed out space known as the Great Hall. The Goa’uld Hegron stood inside, talking quietly to two Jaffa warriors. Their foreheads were not graced with Hegron’s emblem, but one was of the Horus guards and the other was of Nirrti.

Raising their right arms across to thump their chests, they replied in unison, “Yes, my lord.”

The two Jaffa turned smartly on their heels and marched out of the large cavern.

A minor Goa’uld slowly walked up to Hegron and with his head bowed, stood patiently waiting for orders. Abruptly turning around, Hegron spoke quickly and harshly

“M’llan, bring me the Great Key.”

M’llan slowly raised his head and stared at Hegron, revealing the face of Jacob Carter.

“Yes, my lord,” he answered and quickly left the great cavern.

~*~

Jacob and Selmac knew that soon, Hegron would be able to work out how to access The Chamber. Every day, Hegron would ask for the Great Key, fit it into the lock and try to unlock the hidden chamber. Once he was in The Chamber, Jacob also realised that there would be no stopping Hegron from taking over the universe and destroying all that they hold that is good.

Jacob felt nervous walking around the complex. There was always a chance that some one might recognize him and blow his cover. He had been undercover for two months now and hopefully, he would be able to stay hidden until Hegron managed to get into The Chamber.

Moving into a small room, he pressed the correct buttons to the combination lock that secured the Great Key. Before pulling the vault door open, he heard the satisfying click and clunk as the lock was released. Reaching in, he pulled down a large wooden box. He found it quite heavy, but Selmac was able to help him lift it with ease.

Locking the door behind him, he hurried back the way he had come. Half of him was hoping that Hegron would manage to unlock The Chamber today, so he could destroy the mysterious item hidden within and the other half was hoping that he wouldn’t be able to open it. All the time knowing that, as soon as he had destroyed the hidden item, his death would be imminent. He usually didn’t go in for suicide missions, especially as he personally would like to live a bit longer. But this time, he believed he would have no choice and to be honest, he had not been aware of how fortified this fortress was until he arrived. There was slim chance that he could escape, but he would never be able to do it alone.

~*~

Jack was dreaming and it wasn’t pleasant. Baal had captured him and he was being tortured to death and revived in the sarcophagus. Over and over again, so many times that Jack had lost count. Daniel was there and so was Sam. Sam was there, she was there . . . with horror, his eyes flew open and he bolted upright, crashing his forehead into the lid of the sarcophagus. It hurt.

Oh, no . . . it wasn’t a dream. It was real. He hadn’t escaped; he was still there. Shutting his eyes, he fell back down onto the soft mattress that padded the bottom of the sarcophagus. Any second now, the lid was going to split open and Baal’s Jaffa would be there and it would begin again.

He was surrounded by the sickly familiar grinding noise as the offending lid slid open.

Jack O’Neill reluctantly opened his eyes not wanting the cycle to begin again. He was surprised to see an unfamiliar face peering at him from above.

“So, Colonel O’Neill, you decided to grace us with your presence.” Jack inwardly cringed as he heard the sneering tone of a Goa’uld voice. “You are quite a legend, I have heard a lot about you, Colonel O’Neill. I don’t care about the Tok’ra; it is the Tau’ri I want to know about now. And YOU will tell me, believe me, you will,” he repeated and then smirked as two Jaffa reached in and dragged O’Neill out of the sarcophagus. “Put him in the cell with the others and let him think about it.”

Not knowing what this Goa’uld wanted him to think about, O’Neill docilely went with the Jaffa. Even if he had tried to escape, he knew it was futile. While being guarded by six large Jaffa, it would be next to impossible to get away.

Jack was disappointed to see the cell he was thrown into was empty. He was so sure that the snakehead had said that he was to be put in with the others. But he couldn’t see anyone at first. Then he saw a form lying on the floor at the back of the prison cell. Walking cautiously over to it, he knelt down and turned over the body of Lieutenant Dwight. He had bruises on his face, but other than congealing blood pooled in his ear, there were no other marks that he could see.

Looking around his cell carefully, he searched in vain for any more members of the SGC. He dug through foul straw piled up in a corner, not caring where he stood with bare feet. Unable to find anyone else, he went back to Dwight. He carefully laid him on his back and searched him for anything that he could use. But like Jack, Dwight had been stripped of everything except his trousers and T-shirt. Sitting back on his heels Jack wondered as the Goa’uld had revived him; maybe, just maybe he would revive Dwight too. He immediately discounted that thought as he noticed the colour of Dwight’s skin. He probably had been dead for quite a while. If the snakehead had wanted to revive Dwight, he would have done so by now.

With a certainty that depressed him, he knew that this Goa’uld retrieving any information out of him was not going to be pretty.

It wasn't long before two Jaffa came into his cell. They were talking to each other in Goa'uld. Jack recognised a few words. 'Kek', he knew meant death. While one Jaffa pointed his staff weapon towards Jack, the other Jaffa bent down, grabbed Dwight's ankles and dragged his body out of the cell. As the cage door clanged behind them, the one that had been guarding Jack turned back towards him and said in English.

"We forgot one, but apparently you are not to join the dead ones yet."

Jack felt something lurch inside him as he heard the cruel words. One mentioned the word ‘Sholva’ and ‘Kek’ and laughed as they left. They were all dead, never to be revived again. Any hope that had dwelt within his heart had now been dashed by these two Jaffa. A great wave of anguish washed over him. No Sam, to come up with a brilliant idea to get him out of this mess. No SG-1, to once again get him out of this situation. Without bothering to see where he was sitting, he slumped down onto a pile of filthy straw. He closed his eyes as he leaned his head back against the cold, hard stonewall.

~*~

The scrape of the prison door opening awoke him. He couldn’t believe that he had actually slept. Standing cautiously, he watched as four heavily armed Jaffa stomped inside. What did they think he was going to do? Disarm four Jaffa warriors and make his escape in his weakened condition? Though the sarcophagus had repaired all his injuries, he had not been given any food and water since he had left Earth.

After being taken through a labyrinth of tunnels, he was led into a vast cavern. Jack could feel the anger rising within him, when he saw the evil Goa’uld standing in a clear space amongst the many pillars. Taking a deep breath, he walked as steadily as he could. The Jaffa guards clanking and clomping as they marched on either side of him.

After stopping in front of the Goa’uld, Jack waited with forced patience, knowing what would be next.

“Kneel before your god, Hegron,” the first prime commanded, but Jack still resisted even knowing what would happen. With the sound of metal hitting flesh as the staff weapon connected with the backs of his legs, O'Neill sank with a groan to his knees.

“So, Colonel O'Neill. The last of the famous SG-1, soon you will be no more. But first you WILL tell me all that you know.”

“Mom always said, never talk to strangers. And seeing as we’ve never met, you’re a stranger,” Jack quipped, looking up to meet Hegron in the eye.

“Jaffa!” he ordered.

Immediately, Jack was jabbed by a pain stick right in the middle of his chest. He fell over backwards to the floor screaming in agony. The all-encompassing pain lasted only a few seconds in reality, but seemed to go on forever. When they had stopped, Jack groaned and bit his tongue to prevent a sarcastic response.

“Jaffa!”

The pain stick was again thrust against Jack’s chest, this time lasting longer than the first.

“Jaffa!”

Jack tensed again, waiting for the pain to come. He jerked and arched his back against the floor. Bright golden yellow light spewed from his eyes and mouth as the nerves in his body were overloaded once again.

“Well, Colonel, would you like this to stop?” Hegron looked down at the writhing man. “Because it would be very easy, just tell me how to get through your defences on Earth.”

Jack could hear the Goa’uld talking, grasping bits and pieces as his hearing wavered. Knowing that Hegron wanted something that Jack was not going to give, he moved his head slowly to one side.

“All right, O'Neill, as you wish. Jaffa!”

Pain exploded throughout his body as a second pain stick touched his body and Jack O’Neill retreated.

Jack was walking down a corridor. It was very long with no end in sight. The dark brown walls were lined with a myriad of coloured doors that stood out in contrast to the dull wall. He reached the first one, it was orange. Opening the door he found himself in the cell where Baal had held him captive. He could see Daniel in there with him, trying to convince him that he too could ascend. Daniel and the room faded from view.

“Jaffa!”

Jack chose a red door this time. His son, Charlie was inside smiling at Jack. "Dad." Charlie delightfully cried out and began to run towards him with his arms open wide. Jack clutched at empty air as he reached out to hug his son.

“Jaffa!”

Jack opened the dark green door. It took him to his cabin beside the tranquil lake, in Northern Minnesota. He was seated on the dock. A fishing rod was firmly clasped in his hand, a cooler at his side. Attaching a worm onto the hook he cast the line, watching it sail over the crystal blue water and land with a plop, making ripples flow out from the float. The lake teemed with fish as they thrashed around fighting to get the bait. Feeling the pull of a bite, he reeled his line in.

“Nooooooooooo!” he screamed seeing larval Goa’uld’s hanging off the end of his line.

“O'Neill!”

He could feel someone roughly slapping him on the face forcing him to come around. Opening his eyes blearily, he tried to focus them onto the face of who was calling his name. He saw the gold emblem on the forehead, but with disappointment he found it was not Teal’c’s, but the first prime’s, of Hegron.

“JAFFA!”

Once again the blinding pain assaulted his whole being.

This time, it was a blue door in the corridor. He pulled it open took a step and ended up in the entry way of his home. As he made his way to the dining room, he saw Major Carter. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, she sat writing a letter at the dining room table.

Smiling, she looked up at him. “Hi, Jack.”

Leaving her seat, she walked towards him. As she came closer, he could see the room through her as if she was transparent. Her form then slowly dissolved from sight into nothingness.

With a cry of anguish, he called out Sam’s name. The room disappeared from view in a flash.

When Jack came to, he noticed that he was back in his cell. He made the mistake of taking a deep breath and ended up gagging. The smell was horrendous. It was a mixture of death and despair that only went to cement the fact that death was not far away.

Closing his eyes against the filth, all he could see was Sam leaning over him, tears rolling down her cheeks as he had struggled to breathe. Trying to shake the memory from his mind, he looked at the room once again. Going down that road of memories was not an option.

He had to try and escape. Jack knew that the airmen that had fought so valiantly at his side were all dead. He still couldn't get over the fact that he had still been alive when SG-1 had found him. Jack definitely remembered Sam, Teal'c and Daniel in the cell with him before. Not sure of how many other SGC personnel had been included in the search and rescue, he hoped that they had survived and made it back to the gate in time. Dragging himself into a standing position, he started to inspect the wall of his cell, hoping to find someway of escape.

Two hours later and several trips around his cell, Jack was still no closer to finding a way out. He had fruitlessly inspected every nook and cranny of the walls. Plopping himself down on the pile of disgusting straw, he let out an exhausted sigh. Fortunately, the last time they had returned him to the cell, they had given him some bread and water. It had given him some form of energy and had relieved the hunger that gnawed at his innards.

They came again, eventually. The clattering of boots marked their arrival. Jack raised his head when he heard the lock on his door being released. Two Jaffa stepped over the threshold making their way to him, while two others waited outside. They each grabbed an arm and he began to resist. Twisting and kicking trying to loosen their grip. A well placed swipe of a staff weapon behind Jack's ear ended his resistance.

Jack awoke to Hegron's insidious voice in his ear telling him that his life was worthless and that he was going to die. But before that happened, Jack was going to tell Hegron everything he wanted to know.

Realising that he had nothing to lose he couldn’t help giving back a caustic reply.

“Oh of course, I will tell you everything. Where to start? Well the sky is blue and the hills are green, but sometimes they look purple in the heat haz--”

Hegron’s response was simple.

“Jaffa!”

Jack writhed on the floor in pain as the yellow coloured energy blasted out of his mouth and eyes.

It stopped, the pain ebbing away.

“This is such a cliché! Can’t you Snakeheads think of anything new?”

Jack was well aware that he had gone too far this time; knowing that it would get worse.

But to his surprise, Hegron did not respond. Someone had entered the room and was speaking to him. The visitor felt familiar to Jack. A voice that he had heard before, someone that brought safety and security, someone that he liked. Lifting his head from the floor with difficulty, he turned it in the direction of both voices; peering through a pain filled haze. A rising hope began to travel through him, as he looked directly into the eyes of Jacob Carter. But Selmac spoke.

“Who is this, Lord Hegron?”

Walking around Jack’s prone body, he answered in a lazy drawl, “This is the Tau’ri leader known as Colonel O’Neill. He has resisted for three days, but not for much longer and then I will know all that he knows.” Looking up at Jacob, he gave a smirk as he finished his sentence. “Jaffa, take him away.”

Jacob watched as they grabbed Jack by his wrists and dragged him out of the hall down the corridor to his cell. He knew that the tunnel’s floor surface was not smooth. It was going to be a very painful journey.

~*~

Jacob found that one of the hardest parts to cope with during a mission was to see innocent people tortured and killed. As he pushed open the large wooden doors to the large cavern, he could hear the screaming of one of Hegron's latest victims and he was powerless to help them.

He managed to hide his shock and horror of seeing exactly who was being tortured. Even so, he found himself trembling with anger and sorrow at the sight of Jack's body convulsing on the floor. He cringed inwardly when he heard the familiar sarcastic comment come from Jack, knowing that Hegron would not appreciate it.

"Lord Hegron, I am at your service." Jacob quickly spoke to the Goa'uld, hoping to distract him.

Hegron looked away from Jack and went over to Jacob.

"M'llan. You have come."

"Who is this, Lord Hegron?"

“This is the Tau’ri leader known as Colonel O’Neill. He has resisted for three days, but not for much longer and then I will know all that he knows.” Looking up at the Jaffa he ordered. “Take him away.”

Glancing at Jacob he smirked. “Come, M’llan, we have business to attend to” and strode out of the hall. Jacob was extremely worried about Jack, but at this time he was unable to do anything for him.

Hegron led the way down another tunnel to a small cave, which had rough walls, hewn out of solid rock. Imbedded into the back of the cave was a large pyramid shaped door with a large star shaped hole in the middle of it. Hegron opened the heavy wooden box that now sat on Jacob’s outstretched arms. The power hungry Goa’uld then lifted a large cylinder shaped object that was made out of high grade naquadah, etched with hieroglyphics and strange markings. A smaller piece protruded out of the end of the cylinder. When Hegron lifted it up and fitted it into the star shaped hole in the door, it slid in perfectly, making a clunking sound as something locked inside. Hegron wasted no time and started to push the buttons on the door in a sequence, but nothing worked. Muttering under his breath, he started to punch in another sequence.

Hegron insisted on doing this himself. He could not risk anyone else getting into the locked door before him. For what was behind that door, was something that could make him the most powerful Goa’uld ever.

While Hegron busied himself trying to get through the door, Jacob carefully discussed a way to free Jack with Selmac.

A couple of hours later, Jacob lugged the heavy box back to the vault, another hopeless exercise. He was getting really fed up with taking this box to Hegron, who was unable to use it correctly.

Now, he had to get down to the cell and try to free Jack. He wondered who else was in the cell with him. Maybe Sam was down there. He knew that the cells were uninhabitable and the way that Hegron had been treating Jack, he was sure that he would not survive long. While he walked along the corridor to make his descent into the cells, two Jaffa approached him and spoke with him.

~*~

Meanwhile, Jack had recovered as best as he could after what Hegron had done to him. He had renewed hope, because now there was a chance that Jacob could get him out, but he also knew that he had to wait. Otherwise he could ruin any chance that Jacob had of staying covert. Once again, SG-1 came to the forefront of his mind. He missed them all but most of all he missed Sam. And now he had to inform Jacob that his daughter was dead.

Fortunately for Jack, Hegron left him alone that night. But he did hear someone else screaming down the tunnels. He found he could not sleep for fear that Jacob’s cover had been blown.

The Trap
Chapter Four – Night Sky

By Arrietty


During that long uncomfortable night, Jack heard weapon fire in the distance. At first he was sure that an SGC team had come to get him out, but as he listened to the sound, he recognised the whines of the staff weapons and zat guns. The report of what Jack guessed was the opposing side, sounded more like an old Gatling gun. It wasn’t long before the fighting stopped and the hallways of the cellblock fell eerily silent with only the occasional shout from the Jaffa.

Jack hadn’t a clue as to what time it was, but his body was telling him it was morning. Earlier, lying on the uncomfortable floor, after the fire fight, he came to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to be rescued. He knew how things worked. Hammond wouldn’t risk a team now. Too much time had passed. He heard the clank of the armour, moments before his cell opened. Six armed Jaffa marched into his cell looking rather annoyed.

“Tau’ri, come!” the leader of the group commanded.

Pain hindering his movements, Jack slowly started to stand, but it was not fast enough for the Jaffa as two of them reached forward and jerked him upright, dragging him from the cell.

“Hey! I can walk, you know,” Jack protested, trying to jerk his arms from their grasp.

The Jaffa stopped dragging him, but still held onto his arms firmly as they marched him along the dim tunnels.

Jack could not resist the smirk that crept across his face when he saw the angry Hegron pacing up and down on the raised dais. Whirling around, he stared hard at Jack.

“You!” He sneered. “Tell me. Who were those intruders?”

“Sorry, can’t help you there,” Jack said, not looking one bit sorry at all. In fact he was positively beaming. “Had a little trouble last night did you? Where’s that other snakehead that was here yesterday? You know Melon head.”

“Jaffa!” The fury in Hegron’s voice was very apparent in the order.

When the torture had stopped, Jack lay gasping for breath on the floor. He rubbed his burning chest, willing it to fill with air.

Hegron walked over to him and bent his head down close to Jack’s.

“He was a traitor, but he is dead now and I killed him with this.”

He finished the sentence with triumph and brought a long rifle around from behind his back and shoved it into Jack’s face. The muzzle was cold against the skin of his cheek. He knew that if Hegron pulled the trigger there wouldn’t be anything left to revive. The feeling of hope that had come with seeing Jacob the previous day had now turned into cold rage at the loss of a good friend.

Jack closed his eyes and waited for the shot, but nothing happened. He felt the muzzle move away from his face. Opening one eye, then the other, he could see Hegron talking to two men. ‘They must be Goa’uld’s’, Jack thought, not seeing an emblem on their foreheads. Whatever they had said to Hegron hadn’t made him any happier.

“Having a bad day, Hedgehog?”

Hegron spun around and loomed over Jack.

“My name is Hegron not Hedgehog and don’t push me too far, because if I kill you, there will be no way that I can bring you back. The intruders have destroyed the sarcophagus.

“Ooops!” Jack’s smile did not reach his eyes.

But it was enough to send Hegron off in a temper tantrum.

“Take him away. I will deal with him later,” he ordered his guards, his voice screeching in anger.

As Jack left the Great Hall, he lost heart. The only thing keeping him going was a chance to antagonise the snakehead. Of which he was quite proud and he wished that someone had been there to witness it. Letting his mind wander, he thought of Sam. At least Jacob never knew that his daughter was dead. ‘Or did he?’

Jack now knew that there was a good chance that Hegron would keep torturing, but not kill him. The rest of his life was not going to be much fun. The rifle had puzzled him. He hadn’t seen anything like it on Earth, or anywhere else for that matter. With stark awareness, he realised that no one knew he was here.

Every time Jack was taken to and from the Great Hall, he had to cross the bridge that expanded across the top of the waterfall. The desperate man had reached the bridge and could see the white foamy depths as the water crashed into the river below. Without even thinking twice, Jack pushed his way through the surprised guards and pitched himself over the bridge. The water was icy and was a shock to his body. Nearly taking an involuntary breath against the cold, he managed to stop himself in time as he plunged down deep into the pool below the pounding falls. Swimming under water, he moved away from where the light was shining through the water from the surface.

Without warning, something grabbed at Jack’s legs and yanked him down deeper into a swirling underwater channel. It was strong and no matter how hard he kicked, he could not break away as he was sucked down through a narrow opening on the riverbed.

What Jack wasn’t aware of was that the cavern had sluice gates fitted into the bottom of the pool to drain out any excess water. To stop him from escaping to the outside world, one of the Jaffa that was guarding him had run quickly as soon as Jack hit the water, to move the lever that opened the sluice gates.

Jack hardly felt the pain as his bare arms scraped along the rock walls of the opening. It was dark and he was running out of air. Just when he thought he couldn’t hold on any longer, he popped up into a swirling fast moving stream. Quickly, he gulped in some air, before he was pulled down into the cold depths of the torrent. The irregular sides of the stream buffeted him, leaving large bruises on his tired body. Every time he came up for air, he caught glimpses of a large well lit cavern.

Just in time, he drew in a breath before he found himself swept into an underwater cave. He couldn’t see anything each time he managed to gulp some air as it was pitch black. Jack recalled doing *black water rafting before. Once for fun and once when he was on a special ops assignment, but this was no fun, totally different. Crashing against unseen boulders and jagged bits of rock that jutted out from the side, with no protective gear or raft, pummelled his body mercilessly. Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, he felt his body crash into a large rock that jutted up out of the middle of the stream.

“Sam. I’m home!” he called out as he walked through the door of his house. Stepping into the dining room, he found her busy writing a letter.

“Hi, Jack,” she said as she got up from her seat and walked towards him. Reaching forward, she held him tight. “How did it go today?”

“Oh you know same old, same old. Dad said to say hi to you. He is hoping to get some leave in two weeks time.”

Sam’s face lit up with pleasure at the thought.

“Come, Jack I want to show you something.” Taking his hand, she led him outside. It was already dark, but Jack could make out the garden in the lights from the house. Breathing deeply, he could smell fresh cut grass.

“Look up, Jack. Look at that, isn’t it wonderful?” Jack looked up and could see millions of stars in the sky. They were so close together, not like Earth sky at all. But all clustered together as far as the eye could see.

“Yes, Sam. It is,” he answered. Turning his head to look at her, he found his neck hurt and he was now lying down on a cold hard surface. He couldn’t smell the grass. In fact, he couldn’t see it anymore.

“Sam! Sam!” Though he could only rasp out a whisper, the desperation was evident in his voice as he called for her.

He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain assaulted his shoulder and travelled down his arm. Sucking in a deep breath, another sharp pain dug into his chest. Laying his head back down, he looked up at the stars again. They were beautiful, like nothing he had ever seen before in his life. It was strange, even though he was outside and could see the night sky, he felt as though he was deep underground in an enclosed space. A big space though because he could hear the steady drip of water as it echoed around the area. This was unusual and he wondered where he was.

It was cold, very cold. Jack started to shiver and more pain spread throughout his body. Taking note of his injuries, he was quite certain that he had bruised or even broken some ribs. The shoulder wasn’t too much of a mystery as he had dislocated it before. Still mentally going over his injuries, he worked out that he had bashed his head too because he felt something warm trickling down his forehead to his hairline.

A deep, bone cold ache crept up from his feet to his knees. Very carefully he moved his legs and could hear the gentle lap of the disturbed water. Jack couldn’t remember drawing his broken, tired body out of the water, but he must have as he was lying on hard ground. Moving his feet again, he felt them bang against something hard. It felt like they were made out of rubber and felt numb, so he didn’t feel the cuts and grazes that he had sustained while being dragged around the tunnels. Rolling over carefully onto his side, he drew his legs up out of the freezing water.

Legs and feet momentarily forgotten, he gazed in wonder. The stars were in front of him; he was lying on his side and was staring straight at stars.

Raising his head again, he screwed up his face against the pain and propped himself up on his good elbow. Staring all around him as far as he could see, there were stars, overhead, to the right, to the left, behind him and in front. Then he could see them reflected in the still water of a vast lake. The stars looked like they were stuck on the walls of a great cavern. So he wasn’t outside the mountain, he was deep underground, surrounded by lots of little lights.

When he looked over to his left he saw a dark hole, there weren’t any stars there. ‘Maybe that is a way out.’ But the hole began to get bigger as slowly, group-by-group, the stars winked out. Then he saw a flickering light in the distance, which looked like torchlight. Then he heard footsteps on the hard rock. The lights were going out faster now as the sound increased. By the time the intruder had reached the cavern, all the lights had gone. The sound of the intruder’s boots echoed around the cavern.

Jack lay there quietly, trying to calm his rasping breaths. The intruder was a Jaffa and he had a flaming torch in one hand and a knife at his belt, but other than that no other weapon that Jack could see. The Jaffa didn’t see him, but walked straight up to a fissure in the rock wall. Jack could see by the light of the torch now, that it was indeed a cavern, bigger than he first thought. Reaching inside the fissure, the Jaffa withdrew something wrapped in cloth. Sticking the torch into the fissure to hold it there, he slowly removed the cloth. It was then that he noticed Jack. Quickly putting down the object he held, he cautiously crept up to Jack’s prone body. The Jaffa drew out his knife, taking no chances with the unknown intruder. Even so, he was not ready for Jack’s quick response as he grabbed the Jaffa’s wrist that gripped the knife.



* Black water rafting is similar to white water rafting, but is done through tunnels underground, with no lighting whatsoever. The idea is that you never know what is going to happen.

The Trap
Chapter Five – The Great Escape

By Arrietty


What remained of SG-1, plus Jonas and his team moved swiftly through the tunnels. Sam was amazed at the carnage that Jonas and his team had left behind. Sam eyed the five man team, noticing that one of the members that had been injured had already bound his arm and it didn’t seem to be bothering him. She recognised a good team here, one that she could rely on in a fight. In fact it was good to be able to relax and share the responsibility of getting them out.

‘Colonel O’Neill will get a kick out of seeing Jonas here.’ The thought had come unbidden to her mind, making her heart go cold as she remembered that Jack was no longer alive. Suppressing the tears that threatened to fall, she drew in a deep breath, mentally shaking the image of Jack’s death from her mind, before asking Jonas why he was here.

Jonas quickly filled Sam and the others in while they moved through the tunnels.

“We heard that Hegron had access to a powerful new weapon, that he was having trouble deciphering how to use it. We couldn’t let him get hold of it, or there would be no stopping him.”

“How did you find out?” Sam whispered back.

“Our archaeologists found ancient texts that gave us the address and detailed plans of this very old fortress and how to get to the weapon. We did not want it to come into the hands of any Goa’uld’s, so we came here to retrieve it.”

“Well, I am glad you did. By the way, how much of this underground fortress have you seen?”

“Not much yet, but we did find a sarcophagus. That was when we were caught and had to fight our way out. Unfortunately, the sarcophagus was destroyed in the fire fight.”

As soon as Sam heard the word sarcophagus, she looked up hopefully, ‘maybe Jack is all right after all’.

“What other prisoners have you seen?”

“We have been to all of the cells, there were two unfortunates in one cell and I believe one of yours in another, but he was quite dead. I think I remember him from the SGC. Dwight, was that his name?”

“Yes, it was,” Sam replied simply.

“But there weren’t any others, apart from the three in your cell with you.” Jonas continued walking along and then stopped in his tracks. Turning around he smiled broadly at Sam. “But there was one person I saw briefly. Your dad, Jacob Carter. I think he is deep undercover here as he seemed to be working for Hegron.”

Sam’s head shot up and stared intently at Jonas.

“Really?” She found herself smiling in return. This was great news.

Daniel quickly caught up to Sam and Jonas. “Did I hear correctly that Jacob is here?”

“Yes, Daniel you did.”

Daniel was pleased to see Sam smiling, even if it was only a sad smile.

Jonas continued with his narrative. “I have a feeling that Jacob is after the same thing that we are. So it looks like we are sharing it after all.” Jonas continued walking. He didn’t seem bothered by the fact that they were going to share the weapon and in fact he looked quite pleased at the prospect.

Teal’c, who had taken point, quickly stopped in his tracks and looked around him. Doran who was directly behind him, also quickly scanned the area for hostiles. They could just hear the echo of booted feet along one of the tunnels that led into theirs.

Immediately, they motioned the others into hiding. It wasn’t hard as there were many stalagmites to hide behind. Some of them were twice the height of a man and twice as wide. Some even reached to the ceiling where they had joined the stalactites in the middle. As they stood quietly behind the stalagmites and calmed their breathing, they could hear the steady plop of the drops of lime. The sound of the Jaffa was getting louder and louder as they drew near to the hidden group.

As the first of the Jaffa came into view, Sam managed to suppress the gasp that she nearly released. Her father, Jacob Carter, was leading the group. He carried a large heavy box in his arms and was flanked by six Jaffa. Keeping very quiet, they crouched down, trusting that they wouldn’t be found. Just then, Daniel who was behind a rather skinny stalagmite moved sideways so he couldn’t be seen, but slipped on the wet stone. Falling over he crashed to the ground, with a loud oomph.

Immediately, they sprang out from their hiding places shooting down the enemy, before they had a chance to react. Jacob dropped the box he was holding and pulled out a zat and aimed it at the first person he could see. Fortunately, he did not fire, realising his aim was directed at his daughter, Sam.

“Dad.” Sam quickly moved towards her dad and squeezed his shoulder, pulling him after her as they started to run down the tunnel.

“Sam . . .” Before he got to finish his sentence, a shot rang out and a bullet ricocheted off the rock beside her head. Jacob slumped to the ground at her feet. Hegron had turned up with more Jaffa.

“Teal’c,” she called. “Help me.”

Teal’c moved forward and lifted Jacob effortlessly into a fireman’s lift. Weapon fire was whistling past their heads as they ran down the tunnels. One of Jonas’ team members fell to the ground as Hegron expertly used one of the filched P-90’s. Suddenly, Hegron’s new-found P-90 ran out of ammunition. Without missing a beat, he threw it aside, picked up the fallen Kelownan's rifle and continued firing it with deadly accuracy, killing another member of Jonas' team.

After running across a small bridge that stretched over a thundering waterfall, they were able to get to safety by ducking down a narrow tunnel that was ill lit at first and then petered out into blackness. They stood quietly trying not to breathe too loud as they heard Hegron and his noisy Jaffa run passed the tunnel entrance. When it was quiet, Jonas and his two remaining team members promptly switched on their flashlights.

Sam moved up behind Teal’c and borrowing Jonas’ flashlight, quickly checked to see if her father was still alive. Sam was thankful to see that he was breathing. The wound on his head was only a graze, minor compared to what she first thought. Even so, it had been enough, especially after falling heavily onto the rocky ground, to knock him out.

Daniel had taken the flashlight off Doran to free up his hands, so he could carry the box that Jacob had been carrying. Knowing that they had no time to find out what was in the box now, they continued on down through the twisting tunnels. They were fully aware the only way out was up, but they had no choice, but to go down.

~*~

After several hours they stopped to take a break, slumping down onto the rock hard floor. Teal'c gently laid Jacob's still unconscious form down before joining the others. They sat still for a few minutes catching their breaths. Vernon, the field medic from Jonas's team, was the first to move, quickly seeing to any minor injuries they had sustained before checking on Jacob. Sam waved off Vernon as he started to tend to an abrasion on her head.

“Please, see to my Dad first. He should be awake by now.”

Vernon nodded and turned to Jacob and found he was still unconscious.

"Looks like he has some broken ribs and arm," Vernon commented. He pulled supplies from his pack and set to work. He splinted his arm and strapped his ribs to give some comfort.

"No wonder he is still out, Selmac must be healing him." Daniel commented.

After the short, but necessary stop, they carried on down through the narrow tunnel. At one stage, Teal’c had to put Jacob down, so he could squeeze through the gap, while Doran fed Jacob carefully through the gap to Teal’c.

Finally, they came to a large cavern. They found a large pool of still water that reflected the light from their flashlights. One lone flaming torch was wedged in a fissure in the rock face. The flame was beginning to go out as it was running out of fuel. On the ground beneath the torch, lay a body. It was clearly dead as a knife protruded from his chest. The sightless eyes of a Jaffa stared up at Daniel as he bent down to see who it was.

Sam leaned over Daniel’s shoulder and said quietly, “I wonder who killed him.”

The rest of team fanned out, raising their weapons in defence of the unseen foe.

Even though Sam had spoken quietly, her voice echoed around the large cavern, increasing in volume. When the sound stopped, she heard another voice echoing around after hers.

“Sam . . . Sam . . . Sam. . . Sam . . . am . . . am . . . am . . .” until it petered out to quiet.

Looking around at the others, looking shocked, she mouthed her next words.

“Who said that?”

They all in turn shook their heads. Then it came again.

“Sam . . . Sam . . . Sam. . . Sam . . . am . . . am . . . am . . .”

Quickly snatching Daniel’s flashlight off him, she walked to the water’s edge. She had seen a movement, very slight, but there had been a movement. Someone was there. She knelt down beside a body. The others couldn’t see who it was, but Sam knew who it was.

“Jack,” she whispered, so it wouldn’t echo around the cavern.

She was elated to see him alive, but his injuries were severe. His arm hung at an awkward angle and blood was matted in his hair and ran down the side of his face. She noticed that his T-shirt was in ribbons and the bottoms of his trousers were tattered. And where his boots and socks had gone, she had no idea. His feet were bloody and ragged, his boots long gone.

Twisting around to call Vernon, she found that all of the others were right behind her, peering over her shoulder and she hadn’t even heard them come up behind her. Turning back towards Jack, she smiled at him.

“Carter. Is that really you?” He closed his eyes briefly and then opened them again.

“Yes, sir, it is.” He let out a sigh of relief. She had called him ‘sir’, now he knew that he wasn’t dreaming anymore. His relief was short lived as he remembered Jacob. How was he going to tell her?

He was relieved of that duty for now as people moved around him, carrying him away from the water and settling him onto blankets. While someone checked over his injuries, he let his mind drift in the comfort of knowing that his team was now safe. The sound of them talking was gently lulling him to sleep. Hissing, Jack jerked his feet away.

“Easy, sir. It’s okay. Vernon’s just taking care of your feet.” Sam spoke calmly, placing her hand reassuringly onto his good shoulder. All semblance of sleep had disappeared now as he felt his feet being bandaged.

“Sir?” Opening his eyes, he looked up at Sam. “We need to set your dislocated shoulder.” Nodding faintly at Sam, he prepared himself for the pain that he knew would follow.

Vernon, with Sam’s help quickly reduced the joint. The pain was excruciating as the ball slipped into its socket, but the relief afterwards outweighed the initial pain.

Sam talked to Jack quietly while they checked over his injuries, handing the necessary items to Vernon as he worked. Thirty minutes later Vernon was finished and they started to remove the rest of the wet clothes from his shivering body.

Jack felt helpless as they dressed him in some of Jonas’ spare clothes, grimacing from the pain as they inadvertently touched his injuries. Afterwards wrapping him tightly in blankets to try and get some warmth back into his body. As the feeling began to come back into his body from the warmth, all the injuries came to life as they started to throb with pain.

He opened his eyes as someone spoke quietly to him.

“Jack, did you kill the Jaffa?” Daniel asked.

Jack quietly nodded his head at Daniel, unwilling to speak.

“How did you get down here?” he asked

Jack drew in a deep breath and promptly wished he hadn’t as he went into a fit of coughing. Daniel and Teal’c moved forward helping Jack into an upright position.

“I needed water . . . thirsty.” He spoke quietly after the fit subsided.

Leaning back against the hard smooth surface of the limestone walls, he let his eyelids fall shut. Sam had already filled him in on who was there, while fixing him up. He was relieved that Jacob was all right and was really pleased that Jonas was here, even though he wasn’t going to let him know that.

Sam shot a look across at her dad, then back at Jack. Earlier, Jacob had woken up, briefly assuring them that he would be up and around shortly and then had promptly fallen back to sleep.

Sam noticed how damp Jack’s head and shoulders were as he rested against the water soaked walls. She sat down beside him and gently pulled him across to lean on her, so he would stay dry. She was concerned that he was still shivering slightly, even though he was bundled up in most of the spare blankets and Jonas had heated up some kind of hot drink to give him. It smelt a bit like chocolate. Jack opened his eyes briefly, looked at Sam then shut them again and then fell into a troubled sleep.

It was five hours later and there wasn’t much change in Jack. He was now lying right across Sam. She was in a semi-reclining position, basically still trying to keep him warm. She had lost the feeling in one leg and one arm long ago and mildly wondered how severe the pins and needles were going to be when the feeling came back. Sam was more concerned about Jack, his breathing was laboured and he was still restless in his sleep. When Jack had woken briefly a couple of hours ago, he had had trouble speaking clearly. Vernon was concerned at how slow his pulse was and his skin was cool and clammy to the touch.

Sam noticed Vernon was talking heatedly with Jonas in whispers. The sound echoed around the cavern, but she could not make out what they were saying. She then noticed Jonas say something to Vernon and it looked like he was agreeing with something. Turning, Vernon quickly walked over to his pack and pulled out a small vial and came over to where she was sitting. Jonas followed more slowly and he didn’t look very happy.

“What’s going on?” she asked quietly.

Vernon hesitated for a second before speaking. “We have something that will enable Colonel O’Neill to walk unassisted. In fact he will be able to function normally, just like he would if he was well. Um . . . except he won’t be able to use his left arm still.”

Sam felt some hope. “Why didn’t you mention this bef-” She trailed off as she looked at Jonas’ thunderous face. “What are the side affects?” she quickly asked.

Jonas interrupted Vernon as he tried to speak. “The side affects can be severe. The worst one is death. One in a thousand can die if they take this drug.” He waited for the information to sink in, before he carried on. “And of course, that is with Kelownan’s I have no idea at all what it will do to humans from Earth.”

Jacob who was now awake and had been talking quietly with the rest of the group, stopped talking, stood up and walked over to see what was happening.

“How long does it last?” Jacob asked. By now the entire group had risen, followed Jacob and were listening to what Jonas had been saying.

Jonas gave a questioning look at Vernon to answer the question.

“Ten hours give or take an hour.”

“What happens when it wears off?” Sam wanted to know.

Jonas drew in a deep breath before replying. “This is why I do not recommend this course of action. Sometimes, well in fact most of the time, they go into cardiac arrest. If we give this to Colonel O’Neill, we have to make sure that we are back at the SGC at least seven or eight hours later. I am not sure that his body can take that amount of punishment.”

Sam spoke quietly. “I don’t think he will last much longer like this either. Not here anyway.”

Just then Jack opened his eyes. “I am here, ya know,” he stated quietly. “And I plan to go on for a bit longer, not dead yet.”

Sam was sure that she saw Jack’s eyes twinkle as he spoke. “Sorry, sir. Yes, sir.”

Jack groaned as he moved to sit up, but fell back heavily onto Sam, his strength failing. “So, Jonas, tell me more about this stuff.”

Jonas sat down beside Jack telling him more about the drug. Vernon would interrupt and dispute what Jonas had said, mainly because Jonas was not painting a pretty picture about this stimulant. It was apparent to everyone that he did not want Jack to use it at all.

“It is in its very early stages of trials and I would not recommend it unless it was an emergency.”

“And this isn’t an emergency?” Jack spoke back quite loudly, so it reverberated all around the cavern. “How long will it take to work?”

Jonas looked very displeased at the question. “Well if it doesn’t kill you first, within the first half hour after taking it.”

“And, how long before it wears off?”

“Anywhere between nine and eleven hours, approximately and it depends on lots of things. Well that is the point, we don’t know. Only a few Kelownans’ have used it.”

“You said that one in a thousand die of it.” Daniel accusingly stated.

Jonas shook his head. “Not me that was Vernon.” Turning his head he looked pointedly at Vernon to explain.

“Well…800 have used it and one died, but he had a bad heart and was over thirty-five years of age.”

“Exactly my point.” Jonas stated referring to the age.

Jack ignored Jonas and tried to sit up again, but just didn’t have the strength to do it. “Okay, Vernon, give it to me. I’m no use like this and it will help your little experiment too.”

“Sir?” Sam couldn’t stop herself from speaking as she didn’t want to see him die again. Jack looked up at her intently, telling her with his eyes to let this go. She gave a brief nod to him and helped him sit up.

Vernon had scuttled off and was heating something over his little camp stove.

“I hope it’s not that excuse for coffee that you gave me earlier.” He looked pointedly at Jonas.

Jonas grinned. “That was actually chocolate, well the closest to what we have on Kelowna.”

Jack rolled his eyes and gave a brief grin to Sam, who was now rubbing her arm and leg as the blood began to flow painfully back into her limbs. “You all right, Carter?” he asked.

“Yes, thank you, just getting the blood flowing again, sir.” All the time she spoke, she was smiling broadly at him and he smiled back in kind.

Just then, Vernon came across with a steaming cup of ‘chocolate’ as Jonas called it. In front of them all, he poured the vial into the cup and handed it to Jack.

“I have mixed it in with this as it tastes most vile.”

“Oh, so the drug will improve the taste of the drink then?” he asked hopefully.

Jonas was still not happy with what Jack was doing and neither was Daniel, but one – Jack O’Neill had out voted them. When Jack wanted his own way, he usually got it.

Once Jack had been handed the cup everyone, apart from Sam and Vernon moved away. They had to come up with a fail safe plan, before Jack was on his feet again. While they waited for the effect of the stimulant to work, they planned out between them the best way to retrieve the weapon and escape Hegron’s fortress.

Jack was having trouble getting the stimulant down, gagging on the foul tasting potion. But finally it was all gone and Vernon trotted off with the empty cup.

Teal’c approached Jack and held out his combats boots to him.

“You will need these, O’Neill.”

O’Neill stared at the boots for a moment, before replying to Teal’c’s offer.

“No offence, Teal’c, but won’t you need them?”

“You will need them more than I and he won’t be requiring his boots anymore.” Turning and looking pointedly at the dead Jaffa lying a little distance from them.

Jack nodded. “Thanks, T.”

Teal’c carefully put them down beside Jack and walked over to retrieve the boots for himself.

Sam picked up the combat boots and started to put them on Jack’s feet.

“Hey.” Shaking his head. “I can do that. Just wait a bit, okay?”

Placing the boots down by his feet, she nodded, smiled and sat up by him, patiently waiting for the stimulant to work. Vernon had said that they wouldn’t see any signs of it working for at least fifteen to twenty minutes. The rest were busy packing things up and checking their weapons.

“Carter?”

“Sir.”

“When I woke up here earlier, before you came, I saw stars, millions of stars all around me. Was I dreaming?”

Sam smiled. “No, sir you weren’t. They were glow-worms. They live in deep dark caverns on Earth too. The light attracts little insects and they have a sticky thread that hangs down below them. So when the insect flies towards the light they are then trapped by the sticky thread. It is a very clever trap really.”

“Oh.” He was silent for a little while and then spoke again. “How do you know this?”

“I saw them in New Zealand when I was down visiting some friends a long time ago. They have caves very much like this one down there with glow-worms. I recognised them when I saw the threads hanging down. Sound makes them put their lights out. I think it is a defence mechanism. It will take a long time of silence before they switch them on again.”

“The lights went out, when the Jaffa arrived earlier. That is how I knew he was coming as it got dark where he walked.”

“What happened when he came? Did he injure you further, actually,” as she suddenly seemed to realise something, “how did you get these injuries?”

Jack sat silent for a while, then very softly started to speak and related his tale.

“That snakehead, Hegron, revived me in the sarcophagus. Then he decided that he wanted to know everything about Earth etc. etc . . . When he told me that Jacob was dead, I just had to get out of there, I couldn’t stay any longer. Hegron led me to believe that you were all dead days ago; Jacob had been my one last hope. So I got away, I jumped into the river. Wow that was one wild ride, next time I want to wear safety gear and have a raft though.” He smiled. “Somehow or other I managed to pull myself up onto the bank down there and this Jaffa came in. Boy those guys make a lot of racket don’t they?” He asked rhetorically. “Anyway, he saw me and tried to kill me, it was. . .” he stopped speaking for awhile and Sam didn’t push him, just let him think about it before he continued.

‘Jack grabbed the Jaffa’s wrist that held the knife. His left arm useless to defend himself as the Jaffa gripped tightly around his throat slowly choking him. Jack found an inner strength and rolled the Jaffa over onto his back, while he banged the Jaffa’s knife welding hand against the rough rock. He could hear the bone crack in the knuckles as he smashed the arm to the ground. Immediately, he began to breathe freely as the Jaffa released the tight grip on his throat.

They then rolled over and over fighting to reach the knife that had fallen away from them. Both men were only able to use one arm as they rained blows upon each other. Finally, Jack managed to reach the knife and he quickly brought it up and plunged it into the chest of the Jaffa, killing him instantly. Jack lay still, gasping for breath, his whole body ached and sharp pains wracked his chest as he gulped in air. After a while, he found he was thirsty, he had to get some water into him. After tumbling down the waterfall and being pummelled in the stream, he never thought he would want to drink water again. He had to crawl to get back to the stream bank. Painfully pulling himself along with one bruised and bloodied hand, dragging his injured shoulder and trying to get a grip with his damaged feet on the rough ground. Finally, he reached the water and drank his fill. Then, the next thing he knew, he could hear Carter’s voice echoing around the cavern. At first he welcomed the sound and then a ghastly feeling came over him as he thought he was dreaming again.’

Shaking his head slightly to dispel these thoughts, Jack carried on speaking. “Well the Jaffa was getting something out of the rock face and then saw me and tried to kill me. There was a sort of scuffle and well . . . he lost.” He shrugged his one shoulder that wasn’t injured and smiled at Sam. “Have you found out what it was?”

“Yes, sir. It was a Goa’uld communication device. We don’t know who he was trying to contact yet, but we will soon.”

Jack nodded quietly and then started to look around him. Very slowly he started to sit up and began to stretch his back and limbs.

Vernon shot across the cavern when he saw Jack moving around. “No . . . No . . . No . . . No . . .! Colonel O’Neill, you mustn’t do that.”

“Why?” He looked pointedly at Vernon. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Yes . . . yes I know, but you still have muscle and tissue damage and if you use it, it could do irreparable harm.” Reaching forward he quickly bound up the arm so Jack couldn’t move it. “How does the rest of your body feel?” He asked smiling and nodding at the same time.

“Good,” came the reply. “In fact, this is excellent. I haven’t felt this good in ages.” He slowly stood up, started to sway and then promptly sat down again. “Erm . . . well, maybe not.” Then he glared at Sam who was hovering over him like a mother hen. Shooing her away with his good arm, he sat still for while and then stood up again and this time he was successful.

The Trap
Chapter Six - Hegron's Predicament

By Arrietty

Two Goa'uld's were quietly discussing their leader while standing out in the lime stone passageway. Every so often they could hear loud swearing coming from the chamber within. It drowned out the sound of the water as it steadily ran in rivulets down the walls flowing through any crevices it could find. Shaking their heads and muttering quietly, they slowly made their way down the tunnel.

Inside the chamber, Hegron had just kicked the wall and was rubbing his sore foot. He was so desperate that he was still trying to access the weapon without the Great Key. Hegron wasn't thinking clearly anymore. Leaving himself vulnerable to attack, he had sent all of his personal guard after the intruders and the Great Key. He was not going to let them get away with it. He had already listed the terrible torturous ways that the intruders were going to die and that the Jaffa would take their place, if they didn't find the intruders.

While Hegron was fuming and kicking the wall in The Chamber, Jack and the team were making their way slowly towards him. They were intent on retrieving the wonderful weapon that would rid them of the Goa'uld forever.

"So, Jacob! What is so wonderful about this weapon?"

Jacob and Jack looked a pair, each had an arm in a sling and they limped along side by side.

"To be honest, Jack. I just don't know. Hegron never said what it was; only that it would make him the most powerful Goa'uld ever. He never seemed to get any further than that, because he always went into maniacal laughter." Jacob rolled his eyes at Jack. "You've met him, you know what I mean."

"Yes that I have," he replied very precisely, with a serious look on his face.

"All we knew," Jacob continued. "Is that we couldn't allow him to get his hands on it, or it would be worse than Anubis."

They continued their whispered conversation while they stealthily worked their way through the tunnels. The group carefully turned another corner checking for Jaffa, finding none.

"O'Neill." Teal'c had just made his way back towards the group after scouting ahead. "The way is clear, there seems to be an absence of guards posted."

"Something smells fishy." Jack moved towards the front of the group limping and started to lead the way through the tunnels. "Which way, Jacob?"

"Through here, Jack." He directed with his good arm towards Jack's right.

Teal'c leaned closely to Sam, "I cannot smell any fish, Major Carter." Then he moved away from her with a slight smile on his face. Sam just smiled and slowly shook her head from side-to-side. It was easy to smile again, now she had all of her family with her.

It didn't take them long to find Hegron. They could hear the shouting and swearing as it echoed down through the tunnels.

Jack said over his shoulder to Jacob. "It sounds like we don't need your directions anymore, Jacob."

"Looks like he has finally lost it," Jacob stated. "But then he was always a little on the loopy side," he added.

As soon as they opened the door, one zat blast stopped Hegron's tirade instantly. Moving forward, Sam with Teal'c's help, lifted the key into the slot, just where Jacob directed. Jacob started pushing buttons, but nothing happened. He read the inscriptions on the wall beside the door again, but when he tried nothing happened.

"I'm missing something here. Daniel, can you find anything new or different in these writings to what I am doing?"

Daniel actually looked flabbergasted at all the writing that was on the walls. "This says nothing about the key and how to unlock it."

"I know, Daniel, but look here by the door; it says what to do here." The exasperation was becoming very apparent by the tone of Jacob's voice. Sam, Jack and Lieutenant Rogers, Vernon and Doran watched the entrances for guards that might come and investigate.

It was Jonas that found it. In very faint inscription along the bottom of the wall, below the key, were the final instructions on how to open the door. Jacob quickly punched in the correct sequence and with a click, a thud and a grinding sound, the door slowly swung inward. Teal'c lifted the key back out and laid it onto the floor. With flaming torches held high they crept into the Chamber.

The Chamber was octagonal, with high dark grey walls. Right in the centre of the room stood a smaller octagonal column and on this column sat a bright gold hand device. It was longer than the standard ones and long tendrils of fine gold thread hung from finger tips of the hand device down the sides of the column, like wisps of shiny hair.

Everyone was in the room except for Daniel and Jonas. They were both bent over the key, looking at the inscriptions written on it. With a grunt they lifted the key up onto its end. "Doctor Jackson, can you read this?"

"Actually, Jonas I think I can. This is the language of the Ancients." Peering through his glasses as Jonas held a torch beside him, he started to read the text, mouthing out the words as he came across ones he knew.

"Um . . . 'power' . . . 'great' . . . that's it . . . 'great power to he who wields this device.'" Looking up at Jonas, he grinned. "Help me turn it, I can't see this bit . . . thanks." He pulled the torch closer that Jonas was holding. "Err . . . can't see that word very well . . . oh yes I can 'night' . . . no. . . 'darkness' . . . 'caught' . . . no . . . 'evil' . . . um."

"Doctor Jackson, shouldn't we go in and find out what it is?"

"Yup! Sounds like a great idea." Sitting back onto his heels he stretched his neck. "It will be easier to read back at the SGC anyway." Something caught his eye; he bent down and looked intently at part of the inscription.

Jonas stood up, walked over and looked into the Chamber at what the others were doing. Jacob had picked up the device and they were all looking at it.

"Carter, do you think you could use this?" Jack queried.

Sam reached across to take the device from her father. Very carefully she touched the tendrils with the tip of her finger. "They are warm and they tingle." She looked questionably at her father. Who also touched it.

"Yes, they are." He smiled at Sam.

Sam then moved her hands forwards and started to slide the device onto her hand. Pulling it on with one hand.

"SAM! NO!" There was a shout from the doorway. "Don't, it's a trap."

Sam dropped it onto the pedestal like it burnt her, looking quickly at Jack before turning her attention to Daniel who had warned her. Daniel opened his mouth to speak, but blue lightening enveloped him and he crumpled to the floor.

"It is mine!" A voice bellowed loudly from the other room.

As soon as Daniel had been zatted, Jonas had ducked into the Chamber and was standing just inside. Hegron loomed in the doorway holding a zat in his hand.

"Move away from the pedestal or I will kill him." Promptly pointing his weapon at Daniel, who lay unconscious on the floor.

Jack nodded for everyone to do as Hegron said. Slowly they shuffled away from the pedestal towards the wall beside the doorway. Hegron didn't even wait to see if they were a safe distance away before he dashed across the small expanse of floor and grabbed the hand device and clutching it in one hand; he held it in the air.

"Mine! All mine!" he roared. "And you will be the first to die." He gloated.

In one motion he thrust his hand into the device and pointed it straight at Jack. Fire shot out the end of his hand and started to spiral up towards the ceiling. The tendrils of gold moved out from the device like the rays of the sun and sunk their ends into the hard stone floor. Hegron screamed with pain as the device clamped onto his hand and squeezed tightly.

"Quick, everyone out," Jack ordered.

Teal'c bent down and hefted Daniel into a fireman's lift, Jonas gazed longingly at the naquadah key as they left, but he knew it would be too heavy for them take with them. Running fast, they heard a rumble in the distance. They fell to the ground as the floor shook. Painfully they climbed to their feet and fled down the dark passageways.

They could hear a loud roar behind them and the force of the wind pushing them through the tunnels threatened to knock them over. Ducking in through a doorway into a small room, they managed to slam the solid metal door shut before the devastating force could blow them apart. Fortunately, there was another way out of the room as now the way they had come in was blocked. The metal door was welded to the frame from the intense heat of the fire.

Jacob led the way, no longer limping, as Selmac had healed his wounds. They travelled to the ring room via a back way, which Jacob had come across earlier while investigating the tunnels. There were no lights in the tunnel making the uneven steps treacherous to navigate. Their flashlights had been left in the Chamber when they fled the disaster. Doran held a torch up high, above Jacob's head to help him see the way. While Teal'c still carrying Daniel brought up the rear.

Every so often the ground shook and some of the fugitives lost their footing. Sam had noticed that Jack had fallen back a little way and was breathing hard. After a violent shake of the ground, he went down onto his side with a loud "oomph!" Sam bent down and helped him up off the ground, still supporting him as he was having difficulty with his feet. Unfortunately, Teal'c's boots were chaffing on the injured parts of his feet because they were a size larger than he was used to. Sam was also beginning to suspect that the new drug that Vernon had administered to Jack, was wearing off and it was way too early for that to happen.

It was a relief, when they arrived at the ring room. As Teal'c laid Daniel to the ground, he began to stir.

They all couldn't fit into the rings at once, so taking the sick ones first, they quickly ringed to the surface. As soon as they had all reached the mouth of the cave the ground was becoming more violent with tremors. The sound was horrendously loud as rocks and dirt shifted. Moving hastily outside, they started their descent.

"Did he put it on?" Daniel gasped out, as they ran down the side of the mountain.

"Yes, he did," Jack replied, equally gasping.

"Well, we better get off this planet then." They quickly looked at Daniel, apparently he knew more. "No time to explain, we need to go . . . now!"

They ran flat out, Teal'c was now helping Jack, while Sam helped her father, they were still limping from their injuries and Teal'c noted that Jack's energy was beginning to fail even more.

The ground shook again; they hurriedly looked behind them as they ran. Great bolts of yellow lightening were shooting out through the ground shining brightly against the late evening sky. The terrain they stood on trembled and moved beneath their feet. They kept running towards the gate. Jonas turned to Jack.

"We'll have to go to Langara, no GDO's right?"

"Right," came the short reply.

Sam couldn't believe that the gate could dial up so slowly, she watched with baited breath as the large circle ground its way through the dialling sequence.

"Look!" Vernon called out.

Turning, they saw what had once been a large mountain was now a cloud of smoke as the mountain slowly sank down into the ground. Large billows of smoke and ash were blasted up into the sky. The smell of burning rocks was strong as fiery rocks rained down around them. The taste of ash sat heavy in the back of their throats as the comforting kawoosh sound came behind them when the wormhole formed.

"Go now!" Jack ordered, physically pushing Sam towards the gate, the urgency of their safety giving him strength he did not believe he had left. Standing at the side of the gate, Jack waited until everyone except Teal'c was through. Then together they jumped through the gate, just as red hot boulders crashed into the base of the gate.

The Trap
Chapter Seven – Jack and Sam

By Arrietty

The area around the gate was pandemonium when they arrived at the other side. Jonas had gone through first to let them know that it was okay. The guards on his home world were still a little trigger happy. Even so everyone, including Jonas and Vernon were held at gun point and told not to move.

Sam watched helplessly as Jack exited the gate and immediately crumpled to the floor. In horror she saw his face pale and slowly turn greyer and greyer as he struggled to breathe. His shallow breathing rasped cruelly. Totally ignoring the guns trained on them, she and Vernon moved forwards to help. Jonas stepped in front of the soldiers to stop them from shooting.

“Wait!” he shouted the order. “This man needs help. Call a medical team, now!”

The soldiers hesitated, unsure if they should follow the order. But thankfully their CO walked into the room, echoing Jonas’ request.

“Sir, with your permission, I wish to get this man to his home planet.” Vernon had lifted Jack’s upper body to help him breathe. “From what you have told me, Jonas, they have better facilities there.”

Jonas looked at the commander, seeing if he would agree. With relief he saw the quick nod of permission. Jonas quickly retrieved the code so the iris would open and lost no time in dialling up Earth’s address.

The rest of the journey went in a blur for Sam. She was tired, hot, dirty and emotionally exhausted. The trip had been a little bit beyond her, losing Jack, getting him back and now maybe losing him again, had been the last straw on her emotions. Vaguely, she remembered watching as Janet and her team rushed Jack off to the infirmary.

One of the nurses took hold of her elbow and steered her towards the showers, where the warm water washed away all the dirt, but not the tiredness. She felt numb all the way through her body and mind. Debriefing was something that she dreaded because she couldn’t even speak, let alone give a report. The last thing she remembered was sitting on the wooden bench in the locker room, with a wet towel wrapped around her. The next thing, she was waking up to the sound of beeping just by her bed.

Sam could hear whispered voices around her. They sounded somewhat familiar, but it was hard to focus on any one voice. Eventually, she managed to pinpoint Janet’s soft tone.

“I’m sorry; we tried as hard as we could, but-”

Panicking, Sam called out “Janet!”

“Sam.” Sam listened to Janet’s clicking heels as she walked over to her bed. “You’re awake.” Sam felt her eyelids forced back and the usual penlight shone into her eyes.

“Jack? What’s happened to J . . . the colonel?” She quickly changed.

Janet spoke reassuringly. “He’s fine, look he is right here beside you.” Sam turned her head to where Janet was looking. She could see Jack sleeping peacefully. He was hooked up to oxygen and a heart monitor to watch his condition, but he seemed all right.

“But I heard you say that you tried. What did you mean?”

Janet smiled gently at Sam. “Oh I was trying to retrieve the properties of the drug that was used from Colonel O’Neill’s blood, but it must have broken down.”

Nodding quietly to Janet, she then asked another question. “What happened to me?”

“Sam you were just exhausted, your body shut down as it needed a rest. You have been asleep for ten hours since you came home.” Sam lay there looking and feeling stunned at the information.

“Where are the others, my dad?” she asked.

“They will be along soon; I have only just managed to get them out of here fifteen minutes ago.”

As soon as Janet had left the room, Sam disabled the drip in her arm and climbed out of bed and padded across to Jack. None of the nursing staff were around. Leaning over the bed she looked into the face of her commanding officer. He looked peaceful and free of pain as he slept. There weren’t any chairs nearby, so she sat carefully on the side of the bed. Her mind going over all that had happened to them in the past few days.


~*~

The mad rush down the mountain side had taken its toll on Jack’s body. He could feel the strength begin to ebb from his body. One minute he was full of energy and felt no pain and the next, he felt like a rag doll every step was like walking on red hot nails. He couldn’t even support himself, having to lean on someone to stay upright. Although his body was failing, thankfully his mind was still clear. Looking back, an explosion erupted from the mountain. Rocks and debris began to fall towards them. Adrenalin pumped itself through Jack, giving him the energy he needed. With a hard shove, he pushed Sam through the gate. Waiting until the others had gone through before following.

As he had reached to the other side, the last sight he saw was Sam’s distressed face as he slumped to the floor.

Dark dreams invaded his sleep as he drifted in and out of unconsciousness. Sam’s name often uttered from his lips.

Every time he went down the hallway, the doors changed colours. However hard he tried to avoid the wrong doors; he would still open doors that caused him immense grief. Finally, he reached the end of the hallway, there was one last door and it was blue. He had opened a blue door before, but had always caused him pain. Knowing that he had no choice, he slowly opened the door. Sam was sitting at a table, intently handwriting letters, tears were falling onto the page and she was talking to herself as she wrote. Jack could hear what she was saying, but the words made no sense to him. He walked quietly towards her and stood by her elbow. With a start she looked up at him, her eyes were tear filled and drops glistened on her cheeks as she gazed into his face.

“Jack,” she whispered. Slowly standing up, she reached forward and kissed him, holding him tight. He felt her arms surrounding him, making him feel safe. He wrapped his arms around her and felt her trembling as she cried into his shoulder.

“I thought I had lost you, Jack. I don’t ever want to feel that way again.” Moving her away from him, he looked into her eyes and gently kissed her. He spoke her name gently.

“Sam.”

Opening his eyes, he looked directly into two blue, tear filled ones that were mere inches away from his face. He spoke without thinking.

“Carter?”

Sam leapt back from the bed, her face blushed to a furious shade of red from embarrassment and she turned away and fled into the bathroom. By the time, she had slammed the door shut; Jack had come to his senses, but too late, he called to her.

“Sam.” Trying to rise from the bed, he fell back heavily onto the pillows as his strength eluded him. Closing his eyes to his stupidity, he sighed.

“Colonel. Are you all right?” Janet Fraiser had come into the room to find out why all the monitors were alarming.

Jack opened his eyes and looked at Janet; she was surprised at the stricken look that he gave her.

“Yes, I am, but I think you had better check on Carter.” Nodding with his head to where Sam had run to.

Janet frowned at Jack and refastened the pulse oximeter to his finger before turning on her heel and walking towards the bathroom, where Jack had indicated the whereabouts of Sam.

~*~

Sam’s mind had been fairly busy for a few hours with getting changed and checking on Daniel to see if he was okay. She had managed to push what had happened in the infirmary to the back of her mind, until General Hammond had requested her presence in his office.

‘Why oh why did I do that?’ She asked herself while she nervously walked down the corridor towards the elevator. Stopping briefly, she thought back over what had gone through her head. ‘What was I thinking? That was the problem, I was not thinking, I let my heart do the thinking instead.’ She sighed audibly and then started to move along to the elevator. Once she got to the door, she pushed the button and waited and found herself vividly remembering what had happened earlier in the infirmary.

After Sam had sat down on Jack’s bed, she had started to talk quietly, telling him how she had felt when she thought he had died. He had looked so at peace lying there asleep. All of a sudden her emotions bubbled to the surface, the dam had broken and all the repressed feelings burst out. Sobbing, she held him as he lay there asleep. Three days of anguish spilled over as she poured out her feelings. When the storm had died down, she had looked at him again, without even thinking clearly, she bent down and kissed him gently. His arms drew around her, holding her tightly back, pulling her closer to him. With heart racing, she pulled away from him and stared into his shocked face.

Closing her eyes to the memory of the colonel’s face, she leaned back against the wall of the elevator. She felt enclosed, trapped, this was it, she was in for a court martial. As she stepped out of the elevator the words ‘Carter’ coming from Jack, rang in her ears. With dread she walked down the corridor to General Hammond’s office and with a beating heart, she knocked on his door.

“Come.” The request sounded ominous to her.

Walking into the general’s office she quickly came to attention and saluted.

General Hammond sat in his chair looking most surprised at her formal behaviour. “Major?” he questioned.

“Reporting as ordered, sir.”

“At ease, Major Carter.” General Hammond was now becoming quite intrigued by this behaviour. Usually Major Carter though very respectful, was a little less ‘by-the-book’.

“Sit down, Major.” He spoke softly, hoping that she would bend a little.

Sam looked directly at General Hammond and realised that he was smiling at her. ‘He hasn’t said anything’. Sam thought. She smiled nervously back.

General Hammond started to speak. “Major Carter, we will have a small debriefing tomorrow. Doctor Jackson, Teal’c and Jonas Quinn have informed me of their parts in this mission. Jacob had to go back to the Tok’ra for a short visit, but he will be returning soon, of that, you will be pleased to hear, no doubt.”

“Yes, sir.” Sam smiled and nodded as she spoke.

“We won’t be able to have a full debriefing until Colonel O’Neill is completely recovered. I have been told that may take several weeks. So until then, SG-1 are on stand down. Take some leave, Major, from what Doctor Fraiser has told me, you have been through a lot this mission and you need some time out.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Debriefing at 1000 hours tomorrow. Dismissed.”

Standing up, she saluted and then left the room.

She was relieved that she hadn’t been reported, but was still puzzled by the fact. The colonel had obviously been displeased by her actions. Sighing to herself she wondered if she had completely ruined their friendship.

~*~

Meanwhile, Jack had collared Daniel and was trying to get some information out of him about Sam. After a while, he gave up as Daniel didn’t seem to know anything and had started to ask Jack some questions back, which were making him, feel exceedingly uncomfortable.

Giving up on that front, he changed the subject. “So, Daniel, how did you know that if Sam had put that doohickey on her hand it would have killed her?”

“It was a trap, Jack. The Ancients had planted that device as a trap for the Goa’uld. All the information on how to use the weapon was written in Goa’uld, but the warning was written in the Ancient language. Of which I can now read of course.” He smiled almost smugly as he said the last sentence.

“So . . ?” Jack waved a hand in the air, for Daniel to continue.

“What?”

“Well, what did it say? For crying out loud.”

“Oh that, sorry. Um . . . ’There is great power to he who wields this device, but beware the evil that it gives. Darkness will envelope the wielder and it will be his destruction.’ That is a loose translation, but gives the general idea. Then it went onto say that, ‘The trap has now been set.’ That was when I realised that the whole thing was a trap to ensnare the Goa’uld. The first bit of text would not stop a Goa’uld, only goad him on.”

Jack nodded, and then asked another question. “What happened to the communication ball?”

Just then Jonas walked into the infirmary.

“Hello, Colonel O’Neill. Are you feeling any better?”

“Hi, Jonas, fine thanks.”

Daniel turned and looked at Jonas. “Well actually Jonas can help you with that more because he and Jacob sorted that out.”

Jack turned his questioning gaze from Daniel to Jonas.

“It was Baal, he had a spy in Hegron’s fortress . . . well he did have a spy, before you killed him.”

“How do you know it was Baal?” Jack asked cautiously.

“Well.” Jonas shifted nervously under Jack’s piercing gaze. “Jacob and I looked into it and Baal’s face popped up.”

A smirk appeared on Jack’s face, as he realised what the consequences could be. “So Baal thinks we have the weapon and we destroyed Hegron with it. Sweet.”

“Yup.” Daniel agreed.

~*~

Jack was hobbling down the hallway as fast as his still sore feet would allow.

He had heard she was back and nothing was going to stop him from talking to her, nothing.

“Teal’c out of my way, please.”

“O’Neill you cannot enter.”

“Why not? Might I ask?” Jack was beginning to feel annoyed as well as hurt that Sam would not wish to see him so much, that she would use Teal’c to stop him.

Jack had tried phoning her the whole time he had been in the infirmary, but she had never returned his calls or contacted him in anyway. He knew she had gone home on leave, but it had been very hard for him to wait and not be able to salvage something.

“I have been instructed by Major Carter, that no one is to enter while she works on this project.”

Jack let out a sigh of relief. ‘She was working, that is why he couldn’t go in, not because she didn’t want to see him.’

“Hi, Jack.”

Jack replied with, “Hi, Daniel.” Leaving his mouth open as he watched Daniel waltz straight past Teal’c and enter Sam’s lab.

Looking at Teal’c with surprise, he pointed a finger in Daniel’s direction, receiving no response from Teal’c, started to follow Daniel into the lab. Once again, he found the way blocked by an immovable bulk. Teal’c.

Jack ran through all the possible scenarios of him trying to get passed Teal’c, but each one ended up with Jack in the infirmary. So he gave up on that idea and sat down on the floor in the corridor and waited. ‘She can’t stay in there indefinitely’ he hoped. Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long Sam popped her head out to speak to Teal’c.

“It’s okay now, Teal’c. Thanks for your help, we couldn’t be distracted and all it needed was the colonel to . . . Oh . . . hi, sir. Didn’t see you there.” Sam shuffled her feet and once again her face began to colour.

“Obviously.” Jack stated, as he carefully got to his feet. He still wasn’t back to normal in the injury department, so he still had difficulty with his movements. By the time he was standing, she had gone. This time, he followed her into the lab. Daniel was busy fiddling with some papers on the desktop and Sam had her head buried into one of her doohickeys, tightening and loosening a screw that obviously didn’t need seeing to. Even Jack could work that one out.

“Daniel, don’t you have something to do? Elsewhere?” He added, just in case Daniel didn’t get the message.

Jack looked nervously at Sam. She nodded to Daniel with a resigned sigh.

“Yup, just finished anyway, see ya later, Jack.” The word ‘Jack’ floated back from outside in the corridor as the door swung shut. Daniel had got the hint.

“So . . . what are you up to?” he asked, while leaning on one of the counters.

“Oh this and that.”

“Did you enjoy your leave?”

“No . . . not really,” Sam stated and then looked at him directly in the eyes.

“Where’d you go?” Jack ignored the difficult comment from Sam.

“I went to see my brother Mark and his family.”

“Ah, that explains it.”

“Explains what?”

“Why you never returned my calls.”

“Oh . . . I haven’t been home yet. I came straight here.” Sam looked down at what she was doing and then spoke softly. “I thought you were going to report me.”

“And why would I do that?”

Sam looked up smartly as his voice was quite close to where she was standing. “I don’t know.” Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke.

“I’m sorry, Sam. You know how-” He was interrupted by Sam’s finger placed on his lips. Smiling, he reached down and pulled her into his arms.


Epilogue

Jack idly watched a dragonfly buzz around some bulrushes near the lake’s edge. It was a warm summer’s day and he held his fishing rod in one hand while taking swigs of his cold beer held in his other. Letting out a contented sigh, he dropped the empty bottle into his fishing box beside his chair. The dragonfly, startled, buzzed off over the bulrushes and disappeared out of sight. There was a plop that disturbed the surface of the tranquil lake. The ripples of the lake increased in size as they flowed out from a float that bobbed in the water, which was attached to a fishing line. Jack smiled and let out another contented sigh and flicked his fishing line into the lake, so his float bobbed along side the other one.

“Hey.” A voice protested beside him. “Get your own bit of lake.”

Jack grinned and pulled out another bottle of beer from the cooler beside his chair. Looking across at his fishing partner, his grin got wider still as he tossed the beer over.

“Here, catch.”

“Thanks, Jack.”

“You’re welcome, Sam.”

Jack put his shades back on and gazed out over the lake, “Yes. This is the life” he murmured quietly to himself.


THE END



arrietty39@hotmail.com