Close your eyes, and let your memories embrace you.
A/N ~ Nothing but the plot is my own. Sadly. I have no idea where this story came from. It just popped into my head. Read and tell me whether you like it enough to continue or not, pretty please.
Another day scratched onto the wall. Another day spent on the cold hard floor of this cell. Another day on the other side of the galaxy from where she would rather be. (Granted, anywhere would be better than there.) Another day without rescue. One more scratch mark to join the hundreds of others, stretching across two feet of wall space where her head spent the majority of its time; time that is, when she wasn't in the torture chambers, of course. Once, the dry husk of a woman was a major in the United States Air Force, a renowned astrophysicist, much loved colleague of workers 28 floors under Cheyenne Mountain, and guardian to an adoring alien girl, nearly 20 years old by now.
Now all that remained was a semi-catatonic, tortured, glazed shell of the woman she once was. After all, she had been captured and held for nearly a year and a half. One year, six months, and seventeen days if you want to be exact. If her timing was right when she started her calendar, today would have been her birthday, the second in captivity.
If you had told Samantha Carter that she would be held captive and tortured for that long two years ago, she would have said that while it was defiantly possible to be captured in her line of work, and frequently did happen, her team would never have allowed her to be gone that long.
That team, SG-1, consisting of the three best friends she had probably ever had, would have said much the same thing, though some in more words than others. Teal'c, the stoic former First Prime of Apophis; Daniel Jackson, sweet and kind, the archeologist that had made her project work nearly ten years ago, and died several times in the teams time together; and Colonel Jack O'Neill, the CO that had at first so protested her addition to his team, but eventually came to value Samantha's military and scientific expertise.
'Sir, on your six!' came the call from somewhere on Col. O'Neill's left. He quickly ducked and spun around to shoot down the native attacking him with a Zat acquired from one of the team. Probably pacifist Daniel, who had the hardest time keeping track of his weapons.
'Thanks Carter' he shouted into the air for her general hearing. Teal'c and Daniel's radios had been broken, so most of SG-1's communications had not been as immediate as usual at a distance. Consequentially, the native solders had easily found the four members of SG-1 and been able to attack rather with little difficulty.
Finally after nearly an hour-long firefight, the visitors from Earth beat back the natives, with surprisingly little difficulty, considering the numbers that had attacked the four. A little too easily in Jack's opinion. They just suddenly retreated. Teal'c and Daniel quickly found Jack, which wasn't hard since he was in the middle of a meadow. 'Hey guys. Where's Carter? We should head back to the gate while those guys go back for reinforcements,' he said, already turning to walk towards the gate at the far end of the meadow.
'Was Major Carter not with you, Colonel O'Neill?' Teal'c questioned calmly.
'Yeah, I could swear I heard her over here Jack' Daniel added in.
'Nope. That's okay. I'll just call her on the radio.'
"Carter? We're ready to high tail it home. You ready?" There was a moment of silence. "Carter? Let's go! I don't want to miss the Simpson's episode tonight."
Still no reply. 'Let's head towards the gate, maybe she went there to keep the DHD secure.' Jack said to the rest of his team.
The three men did so, the only noises they made being occasional calls to their missing friend. By the time the guys arrived at the 'Gate and ascertained that the major was not there, Daniel was openly worried, Teal'c was... stoic, and Jack was secretly freaking out on the inside. Sam and Jack had recently semi-admitted their feelings after Sam's dad had died and he wasn't willing to lose her now. "Carter? Please respond! Come on Major. We need to head home. Carter?!?!" Next to him, Teal'c was bellowing Carters name out, with Daniel a bit more quietly next to him.
'Let's head back and look around a bit, guys.' Jack said to the others, only the slightest trace of worry in his voice.
'Indeed.' Came the predictable response from Teal'c. Five minutes later the three men of SG-1were combing the trees surrounding the area that the fight had occurred. Occasionally there was still a call of "Carter" to be heard ringing through the trees, and Jack continued to call on the radio, real worry showing in his voice now.
The group found no trace of Sam. After reporting back to the SGC, getting minor scrapes and bruises tended to, and amassing a massive search party with major firepower, (all volunteers of course), Colonel O'Neill headed back to the planet with the missing Major. Sadly, after nearly 36 straight hours of searching, and no results, the rescue party was called off and ordered home. There were other missions to be done, and the SGC could not afford the personnel and equipment used to find the scientist.
The three remaining members of SG-1 tried, separately and together, to plead with General Hammond, Samantha's godfather, to allow them to continue to search. However, even Hammond knew that the SGC's frontline team could not be spared any longer. Major Samantha Carter was officially declared Missing in Action, and all official attempts to find her were shut down. She would have been declared KIA, but with no evidence that she was harmed in any way, not even blood, Hammond decided to keep Jack on his side by leaving her as missing. Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c went back on rotation for missions, but they never gave up hope that one of the planets that they visited would have information about their lost teammate.
After spending a brief amount of time bound and gagged in a cave near the meadow while SG-1 was searching for her, Samantha was transferred to another planet all-together. To this day, she wasn't sure how she had been captured. Maybe the natives used some kind of tranquilizer on her shortly after she called out her warning to Jack. Maybe they just Zatted her, though that wasn't as likely because that left residual pain when the subject woke up. Whatever happened, it was very quick, and left the Major without any memory of how she ended up in the cave.
The planet Carter was transferred to was not all that technologically advanced, and if they weren't her captors, she might have given them some help with their failed experiments. The most interesting one she had seen through open doors on her way to or, when she wasn't unconscious, from the torture cell were the repeatedly failed attempts at making light bulbs.
Carter's weeks almost had a rhythm to them. Monday though Wednesday was torture, Thursday was a day of healing and sleep/unconsciousness, Friday and Saturday was more torture, Sunday healing, and repeat. Over and over, weeks and weeks, month after month. So similar, no rest. No rescue. Nights were shorter on this planet. And it was simply a planet. No name, no designation that Carter was aware of. There was a window in the Major's cell, albeit a small one, and on the rare occasion that she was awake at night, she tried to look for familiar stars and constellations, but the small square was not enough to see an entire constellation, let alone deduce where in the galaxy she was.
Each morning, however, just before the sun rose, no matter how out of it she should be, she would wake up, and see the one star that always seemed to be in view of her window, the brightest star she ever saw. And in that pre-dawn time, a voice seemed to come from the star, crying out, 'We'll find you.' Samantha supposed it was a silly dream, and maybe she was just imagining it, but that voice kept her sane, kept her resisting the questions of her torturers.
Tiredly, Major Samantha Carter, USAF, slowly, sadly, drew a picture of a birthday cake in the dirt on the floor of the cell near where she was laying, and with a sigh, blew it away. Maybe next year she would get her birthday wish. Her only wish. To be found so that she might go home.
A/N ~ Okay... so that ended a bit differently from what I was planning. I think I changed the last sentence probably 5 times at least. Tell me what you think. And a big cookie to the person that figures out where that last scene came from!