HIS
"Major Carter, how's the current situation with our... guest?"
Sam looked up and handed General Hammond the report for the previous hour as he approached.
"Pretty much as to be expected, sir. The Goaul'd captive we acquired from PX9452 has been less than cooperative so far."
"Colonel O'Neill and the others?"
"Still attempting an interrogation with an armed guard." She gestured to the SGC Debriefing Room door. "I was just heading back in there."
"Let's go."
Daniel sighed heavily and removed his glasses, rubbing his hands over his face. Without looking up he could sense the General and Sam entering the room and taking places around the oval table.
"Alright, Bastet." He made a show of checking his watch. "As it stands now, the Tok'ra are coming through the gate in less than an hour. And from what little I know about their interrogation methods... they're not as diplomatic as ours."
"I knew there was a reason I liked those guys."
Daniel gave Jack a withering glance but did not bother to dispute the overwhelming lie. Instead he folded his arms and regarded the Goual'd before him.
While the host was deceptively harmless in appearance, SG-1 had not been fooled when they had come across her in a male host on their latest mission nearly 10 hours prior. The planet, while lush and fertile, had apparently been one of the Goaul'd's naquaada-mining strongholds at one point, as Carter's probe had initially shown.
Hammond had only agreed to send SG-1 when an extensive search had proven the locale deserted. But upon Sg-1's arrival, a brief investigation of the abandoned city's ziggurat-like temple proved fairly interesting.
Inside the temple, had been a Goaul'd sarcophagus.
Inside the sarcophagus, had been Bastet.
They had taken her/him easily enough, since she had been void of so much as a ribbon device.
Sam and Teal'c had summarized that Bastet had been banished from the Goaul'd chain of planets for some crime or another.
Daniel had wanted to know for sure.
Flash ahead ten hours. All that they had been able to get out of the thing was its name, and the occasional gory death threat.
The worst part in Daniel's opinion was that beyond the thing's right shoulder, he had a perfect view of Jack's smug I-told-you-so expression.
Still, Daniel wasn't going to call it quits until the Tok'ra showed up. And what did Jack know about verbal interrogations anyway?
Sometimes, you learned things just by waiting things out and talking.
"So, tell us who you really are and what you were doing on that planet alone without a single Jaffa."
Bastet blinked, clearly nonplussed. "Or?" She/he boomed with the Goaul'd gravel tone.
"Or, we can make life really...really....really...really difficult for you."
Daniel smoothed his face into what he hoped was a threatening expression. But judging by Jack's sudden coughing fit, probably not.
Daniel clenched his jaw in intense irritation as he realized the bizarre vocal emissions coming from Bastet implied that the creature was amused as well.
"I have grown fond of you in such a short time, the one called Jackson." She/he boomed. "You make no allowances for your frailty and obvious inferiority."
Daniel's gazed ticked to Jack, who raised his eyebrows bemusedly and mouthed 'frailty?', but Bastet continued.
"When I have slaughtered your companions and scattered their remains across numerous galaxies..." She shifted her gaze to Teal'c and allowed her eyes to flash with intense hatred. The guard raised their weapons before she turned back to Daniel and smiled. "...I think I will consider sparing your pitiful existence, as it were. You amuse me. I may wish to keep you on as my Kaltre'c."
Daniel felt himself frown. That word... he'd forgotten it, but used to know it from his life on Abydos.
He turned to Teal'c with the question etched on all of his features.
Teal'c remained his typical expressionless self but for the arch of an eyebrow. As he faced Daniel he voiced, "Roughly translated, Kaltre'c means pet."
Daniel felt the blood rush to his face.
"Oh." He stated dumbly.
"Now, why would you want to go and do that?" Jack took his cue to chime in. "He's not even housebroken."
Daniel was about to tell him off when Bastet spoke again.
"You however, are not nearly as amusing, the one called O'Neill... though you yourself seem to think so. You will die a painful and excruciating death as befits a supposed warrior from your world. My Kaltre'c however, will live a long life in my worship as I see fit."
"That's not going to happen, Snakehead. You're not killing us and putting Danny on a leash. Get over it."
Jack leaned forward in his chair and put his feet back on the floor in a threatening manner.
Bastet cocked her masculine head.
"But indeed, it is. My Kaltre'c he will become, for your possessiveness has made me decide such. It is now my property, and once I see fit to inform the other gods of my new acquisition- they will not question it."
"Forget it."
"Ummm...... Jack?" Daniel erratically scratched behind his ear. "Can we get back to..."
"You must learn to accept sacrifices, the one called O'Neill. You, the Shol'va, and the female of your clan will be exterminated. The Kaltre'c and I will then proceed through the Chaapa'ai where he will proceed to worship me for many winters. If he pleases me... if not he will suffer your fate."
Jack got to his feet and came around the table, sticking his finger in Bastet's face.
"Don't even imagine that stuff in your twisted fantasies. You'd be dead before you could even lay a freakin' finger on him, and you know it!"
Bastet peered up at him with the most interest she had exhibited since they had first encountered her.
"Why?"
"Because he's mine!!"
Daniel dropped his pen.
Carter's eyes widened to the size of saucers.
Hammond's mouth formed a perfect 'O'.
Teal'c raised an eyebrow.
After what seemed like an eternity, Bastet tilted her head once more and let a form of a smile play across her male lips.
"Yours?" She intoned.
Jack gradually lowered his finger and rapped his fist absent-mindedly on the table.
After shifting his feet for a few moments, he stood as still as a statue.
Then without warning he turned on his heel and swiftly exited the room.
Jack hadn't gotten 20 paces from the Debriefing Room when he felt the presence behind him. The very last person he wanted to see, but he closed his eyes and stopped his stride nonetheless.
The individual who had left the room right behind him, now came to Jack's side.
For a moment there was an awkward silence, as if the other man were searching hard for the words.
After a beat he seemed to have found at least two.
"I'm yours?" Daniel stated.
Jack squeezed his eyes shut even tighter.
"Not a word, Daniel. Not even a syllable."
Taking a firm first step, Jack continued on without so much as a glance back.
Daniel watched Jack hurry his gate as if heading towards the event horizon itself.
But as the archeologist watched the Colonel speed through the hall as if his very life depended on it, Daniel Jackson knew one thing for certain.
Sometimes, you learned things just by waiting things out and talking.