"Sam?"

"My name is Diana, Sir," she answered.

"Roman goddess of the hunt," Daniel supplied sotto voice.

This is so not a good idea, Jack thought.


CHAPTER TWO: SAM'S SABOTAGE

She certainly looked like a Goa'uld. Polished, highly made up and scantily dressed, Jack couldn't take his eyes off the Lieutenant Colonel. He had to keep reminding himself Samantha Carter, aka Diana, was a soldier under his command. With silky robes clinging to all her curves and stunning shades of luminous green accentuating the green of her contact lenses, she was a sight to behold. It was easy to forget this was Carter.

"Sir, I think Dad's right. If we're going to do this, I should get to it right away," Sam suggested, in her own voice.

"Carter, I'm not sure this is such a good idea," Jack said sincerely, discretely eyeing the plunging neckline of her robe, extending as it did clear down to her waist. "Hey, why can't Anise do this? She's a scientist, right?"

"Yes, she is Jack," Jacob replied, "and well known to the enemy."

"Well, make her up to look like … I don't know… an old woman. Putting some clothes on her ought to do the trick. They'll never know what hit them."

Jacob stifled a chortle and schooled his features before replying seriously. "Jack, Sam's the one best suited to this job whether you and I like it or not."

"And whether I like it or not, seems like the Prez agrees with you, Jacob. His exact words were, 'sounds like a plan, let's take it to them'. Always knew Hayes was a cowboy."

"I will accompany Colonel Carter as part of the extraction team," Teal'c announced as he entered the office, accompanied by Daniel Jackson.

"T., you know that wasn't part of the plan. We're sending SG4," Jack said in his best commanding tone. "You wouldn't exactly blend in with the native population."

"Colonel Carter may need my help, O'Neill," he protested.

"Thanks, Teal'c," Sam said, her voice now coming from an alien persona. "But General O'Neill is right, you're too recognizable. The marines can handle it. I'll be fine."

As Teal'c was still chafing from what he saw as rejection, Daniel thought to play what he hoped would be a deal breaker.

"Ef unt teilori fetc tok kee, Diana," Daniel said with feeling. After all, Sam couldn't speak Goa'uld. Surely they'd all know it was a fool hardy plan, once he reminded them of that simple fact.

"Ack tel nakackt tefaeloc tor!" the raven haired goddess replied defiantly.

"What was that?" Jack demanded, as his hands went up to his shoulders. He wanted to see if his General stars were still place. Shouldn't they have sent him a memo about that?

"Instantaneous translation, Sir, courtesy of the Tok'ra," Sam explained. "Sel'mac says it's right off the drawing board."

"Anise thought it would come in handy, Jack," Jacob volunteered. "Hey, we wanted it to be a surprise."

Jack took a deep breath and gazed at the ceiling for a moment. "Well, if Anise says it will help, must be so," he said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

"General, if I'm Goa'uld, I need to speak the language," Sam said as calmly as she could. Her commanding officer's misgivings about this mission were obvious. Since she'd always trusted his instincts implicitly, she was having difficulty maintaining her own positive thoughts about the assignment.

"Suppose so, Carter," Jack answered, fixing her with his eyes in a way he hadn't since her engagement to Pete. He had a very bad feeling about this.

"We need to get underway, Sir," Sam said. "From what Sel'mac says, there's likely to be more than one applicant for the research position and if Diana doesn't show up, someone else will be assigned."

"Okay, you have a go, Carter," Jack said tersely. "Fifteen minutes, I want SG4 in the air first. As it is they'll be two hours behind you," he said, glaring at Jacob and shaking his head."

"Jack, if SG4 arrives via stargate around the same time as Sam, the jig is up," the older man replied. "Cargo ship's a better way to go."

Jack simply nodded, knowing this was going down despite his personal feelings.

"Thank you, Sir," Sam said, turning briskly to exit the room. Jacob and the rest of SG1 followed close behind, escorting her to the gate room.

Jack decided to watch from the observation deck, allowing Jacob, Daniel and Teal'c to see her to the gate. "Godspeed, Sam", he murmured under his breath, hoping something or someone would watch over her when he could not.

OoOoOo

Sam was surprised to see how easy it was to infiltrate Anubis' inner circle. Of course, Lieutenant Colonel Carter had little appreciation of the exceptionally tantalizing, intimidating, totally Goa'uld impression made by her new alter ego. When she walked through the gate, the Kull warriors who met her immediately responded to her professed identity. It seems Jacob and Anise had done their homework in planting information about the scientific prowess of the little known Goa'uld, Diana.

In short order, she'd been brought before Anubis. The half-ascended Goa'uld, still smarting from his recent defeat at the hands of the Tauri, was delighted to see her.

Having retreated to Tartarus while he recovered strength and followers, Anubis was struggling to recoup his losses and solidify support. To his dismay, Ba'al had succeeded in removing some of his warriors while he was incapacitated. Although Anubis had managed to retrieve the warriors stolen from him, there had been significant losses and damage to the reanimation system itself. He needed someone of Diana's talents to reestablish his army and bring Ba'al and other pretenders to heel.

He had nothing to lose. If she didn't work out, he would simply dispose of her and find another. As a Goa'uld, she would understand his superiority. If she did not, he would find appropriate ways to demonstrate it.

Anubis was surprised to feel his host's body respond to Diana's physical appearance. He'd long ago banished those impulses as he'd chosen a higher plane of existence. Now the weakening of his ascended half left him vulnerable. And he would not have it. But the experience, brief as it was, offered him what he believed to be an insight into her power.

"Whom do you serve?" he demanded.

"Diana serves no master, my Lord Anubis," Sam replied with seeming indignation. "However, for the appropriate compensation I will place my knowledge and skills at your service for as long as they are required." Her eyes flashed, conveying the intended effect.

"So be it," Anubis bellowed. "Yet, know this. Betrayal will be met with swift retribution my dear, no matter your intoxicating appearance or talent."

"I understand. I would expect no less," she answered. "Now, how may I be of service?"

Anubis assigned two of his faithful servants to conduct Diana to the sequestered laboratory where the reanimation device patiently awaited repair. Despite her current precarious situation as a spy, Sam's scientific mind was awash with childlike glee at the opportunity to closely examine the process that had brought some version of life to the creatures currently spearheading the Goa'uld attack. To her surprise, her guides were more than happy to leave her alone with the device and all its accouterments. From what she could tell, they were simply relieved to have someone other than themselves to blame if the process continued to fail.

Over the next two days, Sam was in her element. Ignoring the fact that she looked like the most titillating member of a medieval harem, she pressed on in her usual tireless search for the answer to a puzzle that seemed just out of her reach: how to integrate the Tok'ra formula into the reanimation process, causing the most damage with the longest window of opportunity. Though certain the formula itself would disrupt the process, she was determined to find a way to sabotage as many of the already functioning Kull warriors as she could before her subterfuge was discovered.

After forty-eight spent almost exclusively in the dark, dingy laboratory, Sam had her first opportunity to work on an injured Kull warrior. As Jacob and Sel'mac had discovered during their masquerade as one of the Super Soldiers, more often than not, a warrior would need booster shots in order to sustain him over the course of his abbreviated life of service. That task had been assigned to Diana as well, and she intended to make use of the opportunity.

So it was that having turned down offers of help from assistants sent by Anubis, Sam tended to her first actual 'patient'. Now in order to restore the creature to proper operating condition (Sam refused the use the words 'good health') it was necessary to remove a section of the body armor shielding the soldier's breathing tube. Wishing she could slip into a pair of BDUs for this particularly gory exercise, Sam swallowed her pride and settled for a mock surgical mask tied around her mouth and nose to block out the acrid smell of the organic material lying beneath the armor. Once the breathing apparatus was exposed, Sam had the opportunity she'd been waiting for. In a split second, she'd instilled a minute amount of the Tok'ra formula in the creature's respiratory system. Without further ado, she'd reconnected the armor and sent the unsuspecting warrior on his way.

The beauty of Anise's formula was that when properly aerosolized, it was communicable. Though harmless to more conventional lifeforms, even the Goa'uld symbiotes themselves, this compound gradually but effectively neutralized the artificial energy that animated the Kull warriors in the first place. And, when one warrior was within fifty feet of another, the contagion was easily disseminated. Much like the common cold, or better yet, a virulent flu, the poison stood to ravage the ranks of the remaining Super Soldiers.

Within the next twenty-four hours, Sam was presented with another half dozen weakened warriors for treatment. Heartened by the thought that the more formula she planted, the more damage would be caused Sam continued her work. By the end of the third day, she decided it was time to sabotage the reanimation device itself. Having found what she believed to be the central mechanism of action, she was certain her actions would be effective. In any case, the next set of blank slate symbiotes were ready for blending tomorrow; they would find out soon enough whether their plot had been successful.

With less than eight hours sleep in the past seventy-two, Sam plotted her next moves. She'd had coded contact with the leader of SG4, Colonel Henderson. They were in position to act when needed, certain they would be able to spirit her away should their help be required. Sam wasn't so sure. Anubis would be beyond infuriated when he discovered her duplicity. Watching his callous treatment of human and Goa'uld servants over the past few days, she realized her chances, if discovered, would be slim at best.

OoOoOo

She'd nodded off for less than twenty minutes when awakened by forceful shaking and a loud demanding voice. Her eyes flashed in barely concealed fury, as she took in the visage of Altamont, one of Anubis' eunuchs.

"You must awaken. There are problems with the Kull warriors you attended," the small framed, wiry male Goa'uld announced. "One by one, they have ceased to function. Many of those around them have fallen ill as well. Anubis has just received word. If you can remedy the problem you must do so now. If not, you will surely forfeit your life."

Despite her fatigue, Sam pulled herself briskly to her feet, determined to assume the expected persona. "I believe I can find the source of the problem and remedy it to Anubis' satisfaction," she said. "Now leave me to my work."

As soon as Altamont had withdrawn, Sam signaled Colonel Henderson. Undoubtedly her time was up. Fortunately, as she checked her timepiece, the next reanimation process was already underway. With any luck, it would result in the deaths of several Goa'uld symbiotes and significantly delay Anubis' plans to repopulate his forces.

Anticipating Henderson's arrival in the space of fifteen minutes or less, Sam placed the finishing touches on the computer program which would cement the formula's negative impact on the device. Then, grabbing a hand device and a zat, she made her way to the rear door of the complex and exited as stealthily as she could.

Sure enough, before she'd traversed half the distance to the Stargate, she met up with SG4.

"Colonel, good to see you, looking so … well," Henderson said, at a loss for words. He'd been given the general specs of Carter's new appearance, but the reality was surprising to say the least.

"Mission accomplished, Colonel, let's get out of here," she replied. As they made to continue on toward the gate, Anubis' forces opened fire, literally out of nowhere. As she looked up, Sam caught sight of two Kull warriors who'd clearly been waiting in ambush, accompanied by three Jaffa.

"Henderson, the weapon, now!" She shouted. SG4 had smuggled in the prototype weapon Sam and Jacob had developed to put the Kull warriors out of commission.

As Sam engaged one of the Jaffa in hand-to-hand combat, Henderson effectively disabled the first Kull warrior. Energy spikes from the second Super Soldier continued to shower the combatants, eventually hitting and killing two member of SG4 and disabling Colonel Henderson. By then Sam had subdued the first Jaffa and zatted the other two.

Sam ran headlong towards Henderson, hoping to retrieve and use the weapon before the remaining warrior could kill her too. To her dismay, the weapon itself, along with Henderson, was taken out by yet another well placed energy hit. She'd been through this before. She was too tired to take this creature on a prolonged, tortuous hide-and-seek game through the woods of this planet. Pulling herself up to her full height, Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter stood at attention, prepared for what was to come.

TBC


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