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.
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