Disclaimer: I own nothing… not even the computer I'm writing this on! I just like to play with the characters.
Spoilers: Anything up to and including Insiders. Specific episodes will be named if directly referenced.
A/N: This story starts two-thirds into "Insiders" and goes AU near the end of the episode. This chapter just sets up the circumstances, and will feature only the scenes that Sam was in until about the end of this chapter, when I really change things. My take on things is that Baal seemed far too interested in Sam… and so begins the story.
Containment had just been breached by one of the Baal clones. Sam walked carefully down the corridor with one of the SFs, directing him on where to go. They soon entered the room the Agent Barrett had been in. Kneeling down next to him, she checked to see if he was conscious. "Barrett!" she called, relieved somewhat when she heard him groan.
In pain and on the floor, Barrett managed to grind out, "Oh, Sam! He got away, he took my gun…"
"It's okay, we'll get you out of here," she assured him, then looked away and shook her head in dismay. 'How could he have been stupid enough to go in there with Baal, let alone take a loaded weapon?' she wondered as she helped him to his feet. "Come on," she told him, leading him out of the room.
They had barely left the room when she heard a voice call out, "Going somewhere?" Looking over her shoulder, her eyes confirmed what her ears had told her: Baal was there. 'Make that Baals,' she corrected mentally, noting that there were two in front of her, aiming zats at them. She and the SF were zatted quickly, followed by Agent Barrett when two more Baals rounded another corner.
"Put them with the others," one of the Baals ordered the others. Without question, the three Baals took the incapacitated trio away, leaving the fourth Baal with a smug look on his face.
Sam woke up on a cold floor, still aching from being zatted. She opened her eyes and grunted as she sat up, noting that her hands were restrained behind her. 'They must have some kind of surveillance in here,' she noted, because the door opened almost as soon as she sat up. Whirling around, she saw Baal standing there with a zat in one hand, tucking a security card into his pocket with the other.
"Get up," he told her with a gesture as he came towards her. "We don't have much time." She tried to get up, but it was difficult to do so with her arms behind her back. Besides which, she didn't really want to go with him. She quickly noted the number two on his clothing as he reached down and helped her to her feet. Entering the hallway, they were flanked by another armed Baal. Baal 2 continued to hold onto her arm as he led her through the corridor; unwilling to help him, she literally dragged her feet. He quickly grew frustrated at her, and expressed it as he slammed her back against the wall. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be, Colonel Carter. There are still hostages to think about, remember?" he hissed in her ear.
Her breath had been knocked out of her by the force of her impact, so she responded with a nod. 'Besides, he's not the one in charge. Whichever one has a big old '1' on his chest will know the whole plan. All I need to do is antagonize Number 1, find out his plan, and think up a way to foil it. Simple, right?' she thought to herself as Baal 2 began leading her down the hallway again. He stopped in front of one of the storage room doors and, releasing her arm, swiped the security card and opened the door.
As he grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her inside she noted that there were four other Baals in the room: three were armed, and raised their weapons as they looked towards the door. The fourth was sitting at a laptop. "Bring her," the one sitting at the computer commanded, rising from his seat. Number 2 turned her, put down his weapon, and undid her hands. When he was done, he grabbed her shoulder and picked up the gun again.
He slowly led her over to the computer, where she sat down in the vacated chair. She noticed the number 1 on the shirt of the Baal who had just vacated the seat. 'So he's in charge. What is he up to?' she wondered, looking at the computer screen. "The access code, please," Baal 1 requested.
It was phrased politely, but she knew Baal well enough to know that he wouldn't accept no for an answer. Taking another look at what was on the screen, other than the 'enter access code' box, she realized what he was up to. "You're trying to download the list of planets from the Ancient Database," she replied. "You want Merlin's weapon for yourselves," she continued with a wry smile. 'Why didn't I realize this sooner? They were planning to escape the whole time. But how do they expect to get out of here?' she wondered.
"A weapon capable of destroying not only the Ori, but the Ancients as well. I'd say that's a pretty valuable commodity," he responded quickly, a smug smirk on his face.
He noted that Sam shook her head. "I won't do it," she replied.
He had, of course, expected her to respond like that. He bent down and put his face next to her ear. "This would be an inappropriate time for heroics, Colonel," he told her in a low voice.
"Go ahead and kill me. It's only a matter of time before we regain control of this level. Good luck trying to figure out the code before then," she replied. The chances of him figuring out the code that quickly were equal to a snowball's chance in hell, and she knew it.
"I would never dream of killing you." Something about the tone in his voice made her look over at him, her blood running cold. There was something about the way he said it that seemed almost like a personal confession. "But I will kill the other hostages," he added, straightening himself. Crossing his arms he addressed the other Baals. "Start with Agent Barrett."
One of them, Number 7, loaded his gun and started towards the door. Sam paused, weighing her options carefully. 'They've probably locked out my codes by now. And there's still the chance that they'll retake this level before I could actually crack into it,' she mused to herself. "Wait." Baal 7 turned back towards her and Baal 1 looked down expectantly. Sighing she told them, "I'll do it."
Baal 1 smirked. "Good girl," he told her smugly. "You foolish Tau'ri always place the lives of others above your own," he told her confidently.
'I can't believe I'm doing this,' she told herself, typing in her access code. To her surprise it was immediately accepted. 'Shit! What are they doing, leaving a hostage with access to the database? Oh, I hope they have a plan that covers this,' she told herself.
"What are you waiting for? Start downloading!" he told her impatiently. She keyed in the commands required to start the download, then buried her face in her hands. "Having a bad day Colonel?" Baal 1 asked sarcastically.
She didn't bother to dignify him with a response. Instead, she lifted her head and watched as the download continued slowly. 'Bad day? I'm surrounded by Baals and he asks if I'm having a bad day? Of all the stupid questions…'
Baal 1 had begun pacing and the others had begun to fidget. "Why is this taking so long?" Baal 1 asked impatiently.
"It's a lot of information," she replied honestly. The ancient database in it's entirety comprised over half of the memory in the main computer.
Baal 1 stopped pacing. "You've done something to slow the download, haven't you?" he asked. In fact, he had expected her to do something of the sort.
She raised her eyebrows and replied, "I don't know what you're talking about." 'Other than the fact that it's being encrypted as it's downloaded, which does tend to slow things down,' she added to herself. Of course, if he ever managed to get off the base with it, it would only be a matter of time before he managed to decrypt it.
Baal 1 gave a short laugh. "Well, it doesn't matter. You can't stop us anyway," he told her. "Check the perimeter," he called out to his fellow clones. "They'll be coming soon." She watched nervously as the other Baals loaded their weapons and filed out into the hallway.
Just over a minute later Sam watched with dismay as the download finished, unstopped and presumably unnoticed by the rest of the SGC. She removed the drive and felt Baal grab her wrist. "I'll take that," he told her smugly.
"It won't do you any good They'll never let you off this base, even if you kill us all," she informed him, hoping that the worry she felt hadn't crept into her voice. There was a lot of information in the database that could easily be used against Earth, and she knew Baal wouldn't hesitate to do so.
With another short laugh, Baal countered her statement quickly. "Yes, that's what I wanted you to think, otherwise you never would have given me the code."
The statement brought the wheels that had been trying to form a plan to a grinding halt. "What are you talking about?" she asked softly.
He smiled smugly, leaning down close to her. "I knew they wouldn't negotiate… not even for you. Not with something like this at stake," he responded smoothly, as he put the drive containing the database into his pocket. "Fortunately, that's not the plan," he added as he pulled out a handgun and started towards the door.
She expected him to lock her in there. Somehow it seemed to fit that he would want to make sure that she couldn't tell anyone what little she knew. However, that's not what happened next. To her surprise she heard the distinctive sound of a zat being fired instead. She ducked but was still hit by part of it's discharge, rendering her unconscious. Baal 1 stepped back inside and slung her limp body over his shoulder. He then continued on his way towards the meeting place.
Soon the Baals were mostly together in one of the isolation rooms. Several had fallen to the symbiote poison that had been sent through the ventilation shafts in addition to the few who had been too injured in the firefight. Standing together in the center, Samantha Carter still slung over Baal 1's shoulder, they waited.
Cameron Mitchell ran into the room, P-90 pointed at them and ready to fire until he saw Sam's limp body. "You're too late, it's symbiote poison," Cam told them with conviction.
"You're the one who's too late," Baal 1 replied smoothly. Cameron watched in astonishment and anger as all of the Baals – and Sam – were beamed out of the room. Once they were all safely aboard their ship, Baal 1 moved closer to the Jaffa at the helm. "Get us out of here," he ordered in his dual-tone voice.