Although all seemed to be going well on the surface, Jack O'Neill was troubled by a sharp sense of foreboding that he couldn't explain or shake off. He glanced at Teal'C standing in the courtyard just outside the conference hall and noted that he also appeared tense and alert.
Samantha Carter approached Jack quietly, stopping when she was close enough to whisper to him.
"Sir, something's off."
"I know, Carter, I feel it too."
Jack's fingers tightened instinctively around his weapon.
The ambassador from Earth stood up at this point and leaned across the table to offer his hand to his counterpart, who at first seemed confused by the gesture but soon returned the handshake.
"Then it's settled," said the ambassador, "Earth will provide your government with stealth technology for your space fleet and you will permit Earth access to these four mining sites as well as assistance in the actual mining of the ore."
He pointed to a map spread out on the table between them. All members of both delegations stood up at this, looking satisfied with their new agreement.
Later, after nightfall, O'Neill was on watch on the outskirts of the small city, standing almost invisibly in the shadows of a building. Sam came from the direction of the town center slowly approaching his location, weapon ready, looking down each darkened alley as she progressed.
Jack stepped away from the shadows just enough for her to see him, and she changed course and went up to him.
"Carter?" Jack whispered. "It's too early to relieve me of watch. What's up?"
"I'm not sure, sir. There's something different about the people here compared to our last recon. And I sense something I can't explain, really. It's way too quiet. Creepy."
O'Neill nodded, remembering the friendly natives and almost constant party atmosphere they had enjoyed for the few days they had previously spent on the planet when they had first discovered P2X-400.
"So I thought I'd have a look around," Sam finished.
"See anything out of the ordinary?"
"Most of the homes seem unoccupied. Where is everybody?"
The city had pulsed with crowds and energy on their first visit.
Jack didn't answer, except to grasp her upper arm and pull her behind him, stepping back into the shadows as he did so.
A group of diplomats from the earlier negotiations strode into view, heading single-mindedly out of the village, not speaking or looking at each other, almost as if they were in a trance. Jack and Sam watched them go by with the disquieting confirmation that something was indeed not right here.
Jack looked at her as if to ask her opinion without words, and Sam immediately nodded in the affirmative. They cautiously tailed the group, staying far enough behind to stay out of sight and hearing, as the group led them down a dark roadway that led out into the heavily wooded countryside.
Jack gave Carter another look, as if to say, "Where could they possibly be going out here?"
Sam answered him by nodded her head in a pointing gesture.
Jack looked in the direction she was indicating, towards a clearing in the woods just ahead.
The members of the suspicious gang stopped in the middle of the clearing and began to disappear one by one as if they were walking through an invisible doorway, one from which just a sliver of unnatural light was escaping.
"Is that..." Sam started.
"A cloaked ship?" questioned Jack. "Why did they negotiate for stealth technology if they already have it?"
"Something's fishy here, sir."
"Carter, fall back to the village," Jack whispered decisively.
The two sneaked back they way they had come, only relaxing a little when they reached the village again.
"Let's find Daniel and Teal'C and SG6."
Jack looked grim.
The two SG teams sat together inside the house in which they had been given quarters listening gravely to Jack and Sam's disturbing report.
All of them had noticed the unusual silence around them in this city and the report from O'Neill and Carter only confirmed the unease they were already feeling.
"Colonel Matson, take your team over to the quarters of the Earth delegation and check it out. Report in every half hour. Daniel, Teal'C, check out the village, see if you can find any of the indigenous people around here and find out if they've seen anything out of the ordinary. Carter, you and I are going to check out that clearing again."
Splitting in three directions, they all moved out stealthily into the night.
"Matson to O'Neill, come in," Jack heard over his radio, an unnaturally loud sound in the quiet woods where he and Carter were surveilling the clearing beyond.
"O'Neill here, go ahead."
Jack gave Sam a grimace, both of them hoping they weren't being overheard by some unknown bad guys.
"The Earth delegation reports one of their members is missing. They want to talk to you."
"Roger, we're on our way," Jack acknowledged.
"Let's go, Carter," whispered Jack anxiously, and they slipped away from the clearing as quickly and quietly as they were able.
Reaching the first buildings along the city's edge, Jack and Sam stopped under an overhanging roof, sheltered from view, to make sure they weren't being followed.
They waited for several minutes, surveying in every direction, neither talking or moving, back to back so close that Sam allowed herself to be distracted just a little from their vigil to enjoy the warm sensation of being near him.
Jack looked down at her after a minute, tension creasing his forehead.
"Come on."
They continued on towards the quarters where Jack had sent Matson to guard the Earth contingent, encountering no other disturbances.
When they arrived at the diplomatic housing, Daniel came up to Jack and Sam.
"The members of our diplomatic corps are uneasy about the behavior of the planet's negotiators during the proceedings. Now there's a member of Earth's delegation missing."
Jack looked wearied. "Matson?" Jack motioned him over to the corner of the room and began to speak quietly, telling him of the strange goings-on he and Carter had witnessed.
"Until morning, keep everyone in this building. Everyone, got it? Teal'C and I will go see if we can find out what happened to this missing man."
Jack went over to stand with Daniel and Sam.
"We'll check in by radio at exactly 0200 Earth time by our watches. If you don't hear from us at that time, don't automatically trust that it's us the next time you see us."
"Sir?"
"You saw those guys out there, Carter. They looked like robots or zombies or something. Just question everything from here on out."
Jack readied his gear and Teal'C followed suit.
"We'll be in touch." Jack said as a goodbye.
Sam caught his eyes as he turned to leave and they exchanged a look of concern and trust.
"Take care of yourself, Colonel," Sam pleaded.
"You too, stay sharp."
Jack and Teal'C disappeared into the night.
At exactly 0200 Sam's radio crackled to life and the Colonel's voice came through loud and clear. Sam breathed a sigh of relief.
"Carter, we're about five minutes from your position in the city. We'll debrief when we get there."
"Roger, Colonel," Sam answered with a lightened heart. His voice sounded normal and strong.
They strode in the door a few minutes later, looking tired and damp with dew. Jack sat down on the nearest chair and noisily blew out his breath as Teal'C sat on the floor leaning against the wall. Both looked worried and concerned.
"What is it?" Sam questioned.
"We watched the entrance to the mine for two hours. There's a lot of activity going on there, and the entrance is well guarded. We need to figure out how to get in there."
"After you rest a few hours," Sam suggested, noticing their fatigue.
"I'll watch while you sleep."
She moved towards the doorway to stand watch.
"Alright. Wake me as soon as it's light."
Jack laid down on the bench by the wall and Teal'C sat with his back propped against the wall, both immediately closing their eyes.
As the light of the rising sun crept across the alien sky, Sam stepped outside the building they were housed in and surveyed the street in both directions. There was some movement now, as a few locals seemed to be up and about their business, but the streets were still ominously quiet.
One of the locals noticed Sam standing outside the entrance to the diplomatic housing and came hurrying over towards her, obviously wanting to talk to her. She gripped the weapon at her side but allowed him to approach. He was nervous, glancing all around and behind him as he cautiously neared her, fear and determination mixed on his countenance.
"Sir," Sam called behind her into the open doorway.
Jack was up in a split second and crossed the room to join Sam just outside. He took up a protective stance just behind her as the young villager reached them, by now clearly terrified.
"You are all in great danger," he told them. "You must return through the Stargate before it is too late, or the evil ones will conquer your planet too. They cannot be stopped."
"Come inside," Jack offered, after deciding the man didn't look dangerous on the surface at least.
"What are you talking about?"
"The invaders, they have taken over the bodies of our people. Some of us have managed to evade them, but they are finding us, one by one. The men you have been talking with from our city are no longer who they were before. They want the Stargate symbols to your planet."
"What's your name?" Jack asked him.
"I am Kel."
"What else can you tell us about these invaders?"
"They did not come through the Stargate; we monitor the Gate and you are the only planet from which anyone has come through the Gate in many cycles. I have been down to the mine where theyhave been taking my people. I can show you how to get there."
"I think I already know where it is, Kel. These invaders, have you seen them?"
"Yes, but they are not like us."
"How do you mean?"
"They are tall, and thin, like a snake. I didn't get a close view. I saw them from a distance and I was afraid of them."
"Let's get geared up and go see what's going on."
Jack drew Kel further in with a hand around his upper arm and shut the door.
It was only a few minutes before they were ready to go, but first Jack had decided to send the diplomatic delegation back to the SGC with two members of Colonel Matson's team as escort to explain the situation to Hammond.
Once he knew their people were safely back on Earth, Jack geared up and moved the team out towards the mine.
Kel claimed to know a way into the mines through a relatively unused passage so Jack was on point with the young man, while Matson brought up their six.
As they left the light of day and began to creep along the underground tunnel, the six SG personnel fell quiet. All felt a sense of mounting tension and anxiety as they drew closer to the occupied portion of the mine. Their hands were tight around their weapons and their hearts were pounding.
Kel stopped at a fork in the passageway and O'Neill signaled a stop to his team. The native boy seemed to be trying to decide his direction.
Suddenly making a decision, the group began moving forward again, down a path that was leading unmistakably lower. Noises began filtering through the quiet from up ahead. Again, O'Neill signaled a stop.
Jack then signaled for Matson and his boys, along with Teal'C, to stay behind in the passageway and keep it open.
Sam, Daniel, and Jack moved in behind Kel, who was moving faster now and was actually hard to keep up with. Jack fell back just enough to stay close to Sam and Daniel, unwilling to take even the slightest chance that they would be separated, and Kel slowed down as he noticed them dropping behind.
Just around the next turn, the way widened out and they came to a door blocking the path. Kel leaned down and removed a wedge of stone which he had placed there the last time he had come this way. Sticking his head out the other side, there was an expectant hush as he looked around.
He motioned them forward, but then immediately signalled them to step back.
As they huddled just behind the door, they all felt, rather than saw or heard, a presence move past on the other side.
Sam covered her mouth to keep from crying out, a look of distress on her face. Jack automatically shot out an arm to steady her, questioning her silently with his eyes.
Teal'C also seemed to be very disturbed.
Sam struggled to regain control over her mind and emotions as Jack held her arm, watching her sharply.
Frightened to the core of her being, all she wanted to do was bolt for the outside. She had sensed the being that had passed by very clearly, much as she could sense the Goa'uld, but there was something different here. She had felt her mind being pulled like a tide, especially the part once influenced by Jolinar.
The fact that nobody else but Teal'C seemed to have been affected in the same way confirmed her suspicion that her altered blood chemistry made her particularly vulnerable to this sinister race.
"Carter?" Jack ventured a soft whisper. "What happened?"
"I felt—it was like it was sucking at my mind, I can't explain it."
Sam was trembling, much to her frustration, and Jack could feel the shaking underneath his steadying hand.
"Kel, what's in there?"
"A large chamber, many tunnels, equipment of strange design, many aliens."
"Do you know anything about their spaceship?"
"No."
Jack left it at that, not ready to tell Kel anything that he and Carter had learned out in the field beyond the city when they had seen what they suspected was a cloaked ship.
"This mind sucking thing Carter felt- did you feel it?"
"Yes, a little, the last time I came here, and I was afraid and I went back to the city. I have been hiding there until today when I came to you."
"So they have some kind of mind control thing going on? Is that how they are controlling your people?"
"I think so, yes."
Jack turned his attention back to Sam. She was still shaky and seemed distant.
"Let's get you back to the city, Carter."
The team had almost made it back to the edge of the city when several of the people from the city stepped out of an alley into their path, staring blankly at them. Jack and his men instantly raised their weapons, but the group was not being actively hostile, resulting in a standoff as they assessed each other.
The group parted down the middle and an alien the likes of which Jack had never seen walked fluidly out of the crowd. Jack glanced anxiously at Sam, but so far she did not seem to be under any mind attack. He turned back to the eerie being now standing before him.
Jack heard the alien's words telepathically in his mind, all the while aware that nothing audible had been said.
"This world is ours now. You cannot stop us. We will find your world and it will also be ours."
The being seemed to change before their eyes and once again Sam was visibly affected, but no other of the team from Earth seemed at all distressed with the exception of Teal'C.
Jack reached down and pulled Sam behind him.
"Try to resist it," he urged, fearful for her.
Jack watched the alien's expression change from one of arrogance to confusion and then fear. He turned and fled, his zombie-like followers in his wake. Sam began to rally in his absence. She looked up then, exhaustion evident in her expression.
"You okay?"
"Yes, I am now," She replied.
"Carter, did you see that? Why were you and Teal'C the only ones of us affected?"
"Humans from Earth seem to be immune. I'm not completely human anymore, chemically speaking."
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"No," Sam admitted. "I feel...fuzzy, strange, hard to explain." She rubbed her forehead.
"I'm going after that alien and see what else he's vulnerable to," Jack said, patting his P90. "Matson, you and your team are with me. Teal'C, go with Carter back to Earth. You don't seem to be immune either. Daniel, you're with me."
Teal'C nodded wordlessly, still not himself after the recent encounter. He and Sam started back towards the city and the Stargate while Jack moved out with the rest of the men.
Teal'C and Sam said nothing to each other as they walked rapidly in the direction of the city. Sam began to get that strange feeling again and picked up her pace, not sure if she could retain control of her mind long enough to get to the Stargate.
Teal'C stopped suddenly, hanging his head and leaning his hands on his knees.
"Let's go, Teal'C," Sam urged fearfully.
He didn't respond.
"Teal'C!" she cried out.
He looked up then, a crazy light in his eyes which she had never seen before.
In two strides, he had reached her side and grabbed her arms, easily swinging her over his shoulder. He loped off in the direction of the mine, Sam screaming.
She tried to key her radio with her chin but only succeeded in clicking it a few times.
Her mind became increasingly clouded as they approached the alien outpost.
Jack signaled an all stop when he heard his com click on and off a few times, but nothing further.
"Sam? Teal'C?" He called.
Receiving no answer, he caught Daniel's eye, who had come over to him.
"What do you think that means?"
"I think we can assume they're in trouble."
Matson was deep in thought.
"O'Neill, I could send two of my men back to the city to see if Carter and Teal'C made it back safely."
"Do it. Everyone else- keep moving."
They were almost to the mine that the aliens were using as a base of operations, and Jack's fingers twitched on his gun.He couldn't wait to see how hard they were to take out.
Sam was a prisoner after Teal'C, completely in their power, had turned her over to the aliens. She tested the strength of the bars surrounding her, not expecting to find a weakness, but more from just needing to do something, anything.
She had a whopper of a headache, but was still under her own control.
Perhaps, she thought, her human physiology prevented her from being taken over completely, in spite of the chemicals in her blood that were obviously making her partially vulnerable.
She felt them approaching before she actually saw them, and the pain in her mind increased tenfold. The telepathic beings looked in on her as she sat against the back wall, obviously in great distress.
"Why do you resist?" She felt the question burn into her consciousness.
"Why do you make slaves of other beings?" She retorted.
"We offer a life without worry or want. Our subjects worship us because we can give them all that they need."
An alarm bell went off in Sam's head at the word 'worship.'
"You're no better than the Goa'uld, beings who also rob other races of free will and use them for their own ends."
"We are far superior to the Goa'uld. They are unable to resist us."
An enemy worse than the Goa'uld?
Sam felt sick inside.
"Let me go," she answered, figuring it was worth a shot.
Their response was the infliction of telepathic pain so great she soon passed out.
After a quick survey of the entrance, Jack and his team approached boldly, weapons held at the ready. Some of the native people under the control of the aliens were guarding the entrance.
"Zats," Jack ordered, unwilling to kill these people who weren't responsible for their actions.
Within minutes, they had incapacitated the guards and were inside the main entrance.
Jack left two men to guard the entryway, leaving Matson, Daniel and one other of Matson's team to venture further in.
Commotion up ahead prompted them to duck into the safety of a side tunnel. Several native humans came into view, lugging a cart of naquadah with them. They continued on towards the surface.
It would seem the aliens needed the planet's natural supply of naquadah, just like Earth.
But while Earth was trying to trade for it, these invading beings were boldly stealing the powerful element, along with the minds and bodies of the natives whose labor they needed in order to get the ore onto their spaceship.
The team moved out as soon as the miners were out of earshot, going further into the tunnel.
They found the central chamber just as Kel had described, and managed to slip in and take cover behind whatever was handy without being detected. They could hear the aliens and their captives alike in the busy cavern.
Jack thought he heard a familiar voice, and peeked cautiously over the top of the machine he was crouched behind to see Teal'C, working alongside the other captives.
Jack quickly pulled back down behind the cover of the machine.
Dumbfounded, his mind whirled as he tried adjust to what he had just seen and to piece together what must have happened for Teal'C for him to end up in the power of the telepathics.
Since Sam had been with him, he had to assume she was also in their power and in here somewhere.
This was suddenly now more than a search and destroy operation.
They had two compromised team members and a missing delegate, no doubt also imprisoned here, to rescue.
Matson scooted over next to Jack.
"What do you think?" Jack asked him in a whisper.
"Isn't that your Jaffa over there?"
"Yeah," Jack confirmed. "This could be a problem."
The two soon formulated a revised plan to concentrate on getting their people out first, and only then would they deal directly with the aliens. The advantage the Earthlings had was the natural barrier their minds seemed to have to the telepaths.
Jack was fairly certain that this had been an unpleasant surprise to the invaders in their earlier encounter. He figured if the aliens could read their minds at all, they would have already been located and captured.
He took this as evidence that the element of surprise was still on their side.
"So your second-" Matson conjectured.
"Is probably doing the zombie thing too here somewhere. Jackson and I will go down that passageway over there and see what we can find.
Matson, up on that ledge-" here he pointed, "-is a door that leads to an escape route. You and your boys go find it and provide cover for us when you see us coming your direction. Got it? That's our way out of here."
"Will do."
Matson signalled to his men and they crept furtively off, so good at staying in the shadows that not even Jack could follow them after a few feet. He felt better seeing the competency of Matson's team.
Maybe they had a chance of pulling this off after all.
"Daniel," Jack beckoned. "Keep your zat ready. We're gonna have to zat Carter and Teal'C, I think. We need to find that delegate too. Let's go."
It began to register in Sam's muddy brain that the cold dirt floor under her face was quite uncomfortable.
She sat up slowly, alone in her cell again, her head still pounding like a jackhammer was at work inside her skull. Her arms and feet were tied tightly and sitting up had required the skills of a contortionist. She crawled as best she could to the open bars at the front of her cell.
She could not feel the alien's presence right now, a source of comfort to her at least for the time being.
But she did hear something.
Sam held her breath and strained to hear the soft scraping noise again that had caught her attention, and was rewarded with the almost indiscernible sounds of a shuffle through dirt.
Before she had time to process what she was hearing, Jack and Daniel were standing right in front of her prison cell. Daniel was pointing his zat right at her with a 'don't even think about it' look.
"I don't think you're in any danger from me, Daniel," Sam said wearily as she indicated her tied limbs.
"Carter, are you okay? Are you...you?" Jack was quickly setting a silent explosive in the lock as he questioned her.
"Yes, I'm me. But Teal'C... isn't."
"We noticed."
Jack blew the door and was at Sam's side in a flash, as was Daniel, both cutting her bonds off as fast as they could. She stood up, stomping her feet a little, trying to get her circulation going again.
"We're going to try to get Teal'C separated from the others and zat him."
"What, so all three of us can try to drag him back?"
"Well what do you suggest?"
"I don't have a suggestion," Sam admitted sadly.
"Plan A it is then, c'mon, let's go." Jack surprised Sam by putting his hand on her back as if to escort her along.
"Were you worried about me?" Sam asked him privately as they waited for the all clear signal from Daniel, just ahead of them in the corridor.
Jack pulled his hand back as if suddenly realizing how familiar the gesture must look.
"A little," he allowed.
"You sure you're okay?" He asked, looking directly at her now, his dark eyes betraying how much he actually had worried about her.
"As long as we don't get too close to another of those things. They can't control me, but they can incapacitate me."
A wave of fearfulness shot through Jack upon hearing this, and suddenly he found his hand returning to her lower back.
"I'm going to take you up to the escape tunnel, where Matson is, then Danny and I'll find Teal'C. Go with him back to the city."
He gave her a look that allowed no argument, and they turned and headed towards the route that Kel had shown them earlier.
They had sneaked and slithered their way about halfway through the chamber when Teal'C and one of the aliens were suddenly before them, blocking their path.
Daniel immediately zatted Teal'C.
Jack was about to shoot the alien, as he was dying to see how effective their Earth guns were against this new enemy, when Sam cried out and fell to the ground, writhing in pain.
"Put away your weapons, or I will kill the woman."
Jack narrowed his eyes and opened fire.
The alien crumpled to the floor, very dead, much to Jack's satisfaction.
There was no sound coming from Sam's motionless body.
As Teal'C began to recover, his arms now tied by Daniel who was guarding him, Jack grabbed Sam and pulled her into his lap, scared to death over what he was going to find.
"Carter!"
"Sam! Please," Jack whispered, reflexively touching her hair with shaking fingers, willing her to open her eyes.
"Jack?" Daniel asked anxiously.
"I killed her," Jack said in a frozen tone, stunned.
"I killed her."