Disclaimer: Don't own any characters from Stargate, or anything SG-1 related. Just the plot.

Summary: After a rather unpleasant visit to an alien planet, the team manage to get home, only to realize that they aren't quite done with that particular world. Eventual SJ.

Genre: General, drama, H/C, Romance

Warnings: Jack whump ahead.

Note: Not quite sure where this would take place in the series. There are references to other episodes, and Teal'c still has his symbiote.

Prime Subjects

I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.

--William Ernest Henley

ONE

Major Samantha Carter was roughly shoved back into the seemingly normal-looking room where she had been held prisoner for a few hours. Since she had apparently failed to give her captors what they wanted, they had all but decided she was no longer useful for the time being. Instead of the usual dusty, dank, and dark cellar-like confines that seemed to be the norm for prisons these days (no matter what planet you were on), SG-1 had been locked up in a rather nicely furnished building with just about all the blandness of an average hotel on Earth. Well, if you didn't include the invisible barriers blocking all exits and leaving no chance for escape.

The most disconcerting about all this, was that SG-1 was being held prisoner by a race that appeared half-beast and half-man. They reminded Daniel of the Unas, but didn't seem that they could be reasoned with. These creatures were more advanced than the Unas, a little more civilized in their own way, but still communicated to eachother with grunts and growls. Daniel had suggested they were somehow trying to mimic the buildings on Earth, judging by the appearance of the one they were being held in, but didn't quite understand what they'd done. He suggested it was some sort of experiment, or a way to study the inhabitants of Earth without actually being there.

Once Sam had finished glaring at the hulking, ox/human-hybrid guard that had tossed her back in the room, she turned to realize she was no longer alone. The Major was disturbed to find her CO, Colonel Jack O'Neill, curled up in the center of the floor and shaking. She hurried over, noticing the rips and tears in his clothes. "Colonel?" Sam called with concern, fear shimmering in her wide blue eyes. Carefully, she reached out and laid a hand upon his shoulder.

"Ack," Jack groaned, his eyes snapping open while he quickly rolled to his back with knees bent up, finding himself staring up at his 2IC. Squinting, Jack struggled to focus. "Carter?"

"Are you alright sir?" She questioned with concern, noticing that he'd mostly stopped trembling.

"They..drugged me with somethin'," Jack grumbled weakly, struggling to sit up.

Frowning slightly, Sam helped him up and led him toward the bed against the wall. She sat beside the Colonel, keeping an eye on him while she continued to try and figure out their situation. "Sir," she began after a few minutes, "I think Daniel was right, about this being some kind of experiment or something. It's almost like they're trying to study us,"

"Yeah," Jack grunted with a snort. "Jus' like a day at the zoo, except we're the exhibit."

Sam smiled faintly at the Colonel's casual sarcasm, something that always seemed to make her feel a little better when they were in a rough situation.

"Speaking of Daniel," Jack spoke up with a deep furrow between his brows. "Where is he? An' Teal'c, too?"

"I'm not sure sir," Sam admitted quietly, turning to face him. "But before now, I was in a room all by myself." A light-bulb seemed to go off inside her head, blue eyes brightening. "Maybe Teal'c and Daniel are sharing a room now too. I mean, if these aliens are trying to study us, maybe they figure they'll get more interaction with two in each room." She shrugged, watching Jack intently to see if he could be buying into her theory.

"Makes sense," he muttered lowly with a slight shrug. Again, Jack found himself thinking about zoo animals.

Sam studied Jack with concern. "Maybe you should rest sir," she suggested softly.

"Nah, I'm fine," the Colonel said dismissively, shaking his head and standing up. He shoved his hands in his pockets and began wandering around the room. There was a round wooden table in the center, with a pair of wooden chairs around it. A small door at the far end of the room lead into a bathroom with a toilet and sink that were metallic, and no shower or bath. Jack strode up to the main entrance into the room, cocking his head to the side and staring out across the hallway to see a flat grey wall. It looked as though they could walk right out, but he knew it wasn't the case. Deciding not to test the barrier at the moment, Jack did an about-face and returned to the bed where Carter still sat, watching him.

-

"I think I was right," Daniel exclaimed quietly as he leaned across the round wooden table where his roommate sat, unperplexed by his assessment of the situation. "They've got us on display of some sort, studying us," the excited archaeologist continued.

Teal'c just gave a slight nod of his head. "Indeed, it does appear that way Daniel Jackson." He folded his massive arms over the tabletop and briefly looked about the room. "But where are Major Carter and O'Neill?"

Scratching his chin momentarily, Daniel then adjusted his glasses. "Well, they must be in another room then." He shrugged, then stood as the semi-blurred form of one of their captors positioned himself just outside the door's barrier. "I need to try and communicate with them,"

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c called out in warning, following the determined man as he approached the barrier where the humanoid alien stood.

"Uh, excuse me," Daniel stopped about a foot from the barrier, waving a hand in gesture toward the man-beast that looked like a cross between a sabretooth tiger and a human. He noticed each of these guys was as big as, if not bigger than, Teal'c. They wore gladiator-esque armor, and appeared rather threatening. Daniel was surprised at the technology these creatures possessed. He couldn't help but wonder if there was more to this than it seemed. Could these creatures be slaves to the Goa'uld? Was it even possible? They bore no markings to prove it was so, but their attitudes were awfully familiar.

The beast-man grunted at Daniel, slightly baring his teeth as if annoyed.

"Riiiight," Daniel smiled hesitantly before gesturing toward himself and Teal'c. "We had uh..two others with us. I was uh..wondering...well.. Could you tell us what happened to them?"

"Ung," the guard released a grunt/growl before touching a bluish-green crystal on the upper left side of his chest plate. This caused a brief flicker in the barrier, followed by a soft whine of machinery. He reached in with a massive hand/paw, grabbing Daniel roughly by his shirt and tugging him through the doorway, hitting the crystal on his uniform once more, reactivating the barrier before Teal'c could follow.

-

Daniel found himself being led down a single long corridor with flat grey walls on either side, and no doors. However, there was a slight glow of light coming from a doorway up ahead, and he had to wonder if it was another room with a barrier blocking the way like the room he and Teal'c were being held in. Soon the linguist was proved wrong as he was pushed forth into the room once they arrived, only to see a big open space with a single throne at the far side of the room where another of the beast-men sat. Daniel guessed the one on the throne was their leader.

The sabretooth beast-man roughly held Daniel's shoulder and shook him slightly. "Margus rrg nuh Urgnak," he grunted toward the one on the throne.

Daniel's brows were furrowed slightly as he tried to figure out what they were saying. The one on the throne was bathed in a dim light, and he noted this man-beast looked much like a jaguar. He had a commanding presense and wore gold armor.

The leader lifted his chin and eyed Daniel with steady, slitted cat eyes. "Urgnak," he repeated what the other said, then waved a massive paw of dismissal. "Ruksha, grrn ruh Urgnak," came the low, throaty growl.

After he was lead from the room by the sabretooth beast-man, Daniel spoke, hesitant to do so in front of the leader. "Urgnak," he repeated what he'd heard several times, gaining the guard's attention. "Is that us? Humans? Are we...Urgnak?" Daniel tapped his chest, blue eyes staring questioningly at the guard holding his shoulder fiercely.

"Urgnak," the beast repeated with a sharp nod.

"Okay, I think I'm getting somewhere," Daniel murmured aloud to himself. He struggled against the barbarian's grip, futilely trying to get him to stop. "Wait, wait, wait... I need to know where the others are."

"Grrrar!"

"Yeah," Daniel winced slightly at the loud roar that reverberated in his ear. "You're probably telling me to shut up, but I need to know Jack and Sam are okay." He thought hard, trying to figure out a way to convey his concerns to the man-beast. "Urgnak, other Urgnak," He gestured toward himself, tapping his chest a few times before gesturing toward two invisible figures beside him in an attempt to show he meant 'others'.

With a hefty sigh, the sabretooth tugged Daniel down a different corridor.

He was finally jerked to a stop in front of a new barrier, and Daniel squinted to peer into the room, finding the blurred images of his friends sitting together on a bed against the wall. "Jack! Sam!" He called out, trying to gain their attention. When they both looked toward the doorway, recognition lit their faces and they stood, rushing over.

"Daniel?" Jack called out to him questioningly, noticing the burly sabre-man firmly gripping his friend's shoulder.

Sam stood by, looking on with concern, thinking their friend had gotten into some kind of trouble and was being led away for punishment.

"I'm okay," Daniel assured them both, eyes drifting hesitantly to the guard holding him. "I think I'm learning about their language. He seemed to understand when I asked about you guys, and I think this is his way of showing me you two are okay," The archaeologist shrugged when the sabre-man growled lowly.

"Yeah, he seems like a pal," Jack muttered with a sarcastic grimace.

Sam noticed the guard with Daniel wasn't the same one who had been dragging herself and the Colonel around. "Is Teal'c with you?" she asked suddenly, wanting to get all the information she could before he was taken away again.

"Uh-huh," Daniel nodded. "We're both okay," His brows furrowed when he suddenly realized Jack looked a bit off, and his clothes were torn. "Are you guys both alright?"

"I'm fine," Sam said quickly before gesturing toward Jack, "But they drugged the Colonel with something," she frowned uneasily.

"It's worn off," Jack muttered dismissively, waving a hand. "Just left me a little disoriented, that's all," He shrugged it off, looking up as the sabre-man started to take Daniel away. "Hang in there Danny, we'll figure a way outta this," he called out confidently as his friend was taken out of his sight.

Daniel waved, smiling faintly at Sam and Jack before he was gone.

Jack sighed and hung his head. The man-beast that had dragged him from his single room before tossing him in the one he'd ended up sharing with Carter had done more than just drug him, he'd beaten him pretty good. But that was something Jack would rather not admit just yet. He didn't want any of teammates to worry. Releasing another heavy sigh, he wearily dragged his feet off toward the round table in the center of the room to sit down.

Sam headed over to him, not yet taking a seat but resting one hand on the back of the opposite chair. She studied the Colonel guardedly. He appeared rather pale, making her suspicious of his condition and wondering if the alien drug somehow had weird effects on humans.

-

What seemed like hours later, SG-1 were all taken out of their rooms and herded to a fenced-in area outside the building they were locked up in. The fences out in the yard, which was eerily reminiscent of a prison yard, had visible barriers, but the team guessed they were reinforced by the same energy force-fields that kept them in their rooms.

Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c sat at one end of the yard on a metal bench while Jack wandered about the perimeter. Major Carter guessed that he was searching for any weak points in the fencing and/or barrier. Meanwhile, she and Daniel discussed their captors, tossing their theories back and forth. Teal'c just got up and stood with his hands clasped behind his back, keeping an eye on the pair of armed guards standing watch by the door to the building.

"The guards did not appear armed before now," Teal'c suddenly noted aloud.

Both Sam and Daniel looked to him, then squinted to peer at the guards in the distance. "They don't look like Goa'uld weapons, but sorta similar." Sam said, glancing at the Jaffa.

"Yeah," Daniel started with wide eyes as he peered at the weapons. "But they still look like they could do some pretty heavy damage all the same,"

"I agree," Sam nodded. "Whatever we do, we'd better be careful," She sought out the Colonel, still walking the perimeter of the yard. His movements seemed slow and slightly labored. Sam made a note to ask him about that once they were returned to their room, though she knew it would be a hard task getting him to admit anything. The rips in Jack's clothes led her to believe that the creature that took him earlier had roughed him up quite a bit as well as drugging him. He looked awful, and she was really worried.

-

Once they'd been brought back to their respective quarters, each pair was left with a set of trays on their center table. Hungry after not having eaten in several hours, Sam and Jack closed in on the food. It looked very similar to Earth food; chicken with a side of mashed potatos and peas, so they shrugged and dug in without a second thought.

Jack had barely taken a single bite before being grabbed roughly by the collar of his jacket and jerked backward out of the chair. "Hey!" he grumbled with annoyance, struggling against the grip as he managed a half-turn to see who had grabbed him.

Sam's eyes widened as she stared at the alien that had snatched the Colonel away from his meal. She made a move to stand, but he growled harshly at her and Jack was waving for her to stay put. This particular man-beast looked part aligator, with the scaled body and rows of sharp teeth to match. She had to wonder if this was the alien that had been involved in the Colonel's earlier rough treatment.

"Hey Scaleface, what's the big deal?" Jack grumbled, still struggling in the beast's grip. He was rewarded with a none-too-friendly smack in the head for his troubles. "Ack," he groaned, reaching up a hand to rub at his temple.

"Colonel!" Sam could feel her heart pounding fit to burst as Jack was dragged away, his eyes still telling her to let it go. She didn't want to. Something bad was about to happen to him, she knew it.

When Jack had gone, Sam found herself unable to complete her meal. She crawled onto the bed and sat leaning against the wall with her knees drawn close to her chest. Sick to her stomach with worry, she sat staring into space and chewing her bottom lip.

-

Just a little over an hour had passed before Jack was returned. Sam jumped to her feet with a gasp as the Colonel was tossed through the yeilding barrier, followed into the room by the gator-man that had taken him earlier.

Rolling and then staggering to his feet, Jack took this opportunity to attack. He lunged for the creature and football tackled him toward the doorway.

The huge gator-man fell back with surprise, then whipped his thick tail into the Colonel's side when the man pounced upon him, wailing with his fists.

Jack released a muffled cry of pain, holding his side as he fell to the ground.

Sam quickly went into action, spying the guard's fallen weapon. Diving for it quickly, she wrapped her hands around the short, staff-like weapon and pointed it at the creature.

"Shoot 'im!" Jack barked through clenched teeth, struggling to get back on his feet and away from the beast.

Quickly firing at the creature's chest, Sam was caught by surprise as the falling guard swung a hefty, clawed fist, backhanding her and knocking her limply to the ground. She'd hit her head hard on the floor and then knew no more.

"Carter!" The sight of Sam getting smacked by the gator-man was enough to get Jack on his feet again. In one swift move, he slid painfully on his knees to make a grab for the weapon as he realized the guard was still alive and getting up. As soon as he had the weapon in hand, Jack turned and discharged it directly into the alien's gut, causing the creature to release a garbled roar before falling.

Breathing heavily and nearly collapsing from his efforts and the beating he'd already sustained, Jack scrambled to his feet once more, ripping the bluish-green jewel from the guard's uniform before hurrying over to Sam. He knew this little scuffle would have alerted more guards, so he had to act fast. After hastily checking the Major's pulse, he lifted her gingerly into his arms and tapped the crystal, watching the barrier at the door flicker briefly before stepping through.

-

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