*WARNING: Descriptions of drug use.
Note: I have never used drugs and therefore can only assume what a drug addiction is like. Please be kind, I tried to make it realistic . . .
WARNING: Language but not much. Sam doesn't swear in Stargate . . . I will try to keep it that way. But in reality people do swear. I'm sure the Goa'uld swear too, but I don't know how to use storks and wiggly lines (in other words, I don't speak Goa'uld).
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Two years earlier . . .
The tavern was typical as far as taverns went, or at the least akin to those taverns Carter had frequented regularly over the past thirteen months.
The air was heavy with the stench of many hot, sweaty bodies of all different races and alcohol. Outside raged a snow storm, an everyday occurrence on this planet. If it had not been for the presence of a special mineral in the soil, this planet would have been forgotten amongst the lengthy list of uninhabitable planets.
Prolific mining had made it a haven for miners, gamblers, prostitution, and drugs. One of those reasons was Carter, a human woman, had bartered her way there and now sat at a sticky, grimy table in the bar.
Formally military, she could see the dangers all around her, from the waitresses wearing daggers under the straps of their 'uniform', to the heavily armed gamblers and criminals packed into the bar, sitting down at the tables, drinking and doing business.
So too were the two male aliens sitting across from her at the table. She could not turn off her threat assessor, no more than she could turn off her own heart by the power of her mind. However, she could try and gulped down another couple mouthfuls of hideously strong alcohol.
The males, men for lack of better term, were whom she had come to see and they possessed something she vitally needed. They could ply her with as many drinks as they wanted, Carter would not budge. It was not alcohol she wanted.
"No," she slurred, her vision not quite blurry enough to obscure her vision, "the p90 for the stuff. Its fair and you know it."
"Your Tau'ri weapons are useless without ammunition." The ugly man to her right shook his head, his eyes plainly leering at her, "We have what you want. We say what is fair."
Carter sighed, her head buzzing far too much to argue and the need, the desperate need pushing her to offer them whatever they wanted, "Fine, then how much?"
The right man sniggered, "You know the price, pretty. One night."
Carter scoffed unblinking, far too used to propositions often aimed at her, "I'm not even your species."
Left man opened his mouth widely which could be taken as a grin, "We don't care."
The fidget in her fingers intensified. She needed it. Her eyes narrowed at them, "You don't eat the females afterwards, do you?"
The two of them laughed a barking sound much like dog. "Oh, pretty, we promise to be gentle."
The look of their faces told Carter that gentle wasn't what they had planned. But so what, with the fix swirling in her blood, she wouldn't feel much of what they'd do to her.
A tapping sound dropped her eyes and found her fingers drumming against the table.
"The craving, pretty? Better decide before we move on to someone else more needy."
Carter swallowed against the bitter burning vile suddenly in her throat. Up to this point she had always had the means to pay for her salvation other than with her body.
But she needed it. Desperately. And the p90 was all she had left. That and her body. She breathed in then looked back to the aliens, so much bigger than her, full of hard scales and muscle. Perhaps their ministrations would kill her? Would that be so bad? "Fine, but I get the fix first."
The man on the left reached over and placed a small pill on the table in front of her. A simple purple pill. Worth so much, needed so much.
Relief flooded her, and clumsily she wrestled it into her fingers, her mouth salivating, her heart pounding; oh how she needed it.
In a flash, a large hand grabbed her wrist tightly, instantly hurting her and Carter yelped.
"How the mighty have fallen," said a new voice over their table, deep and echoic.
"Hey! Fuck off!" Cried one of the men at the table, "This female's ours. We paid for her. Go get your own!"
Carter wonkily raised her eyes up to see the one who had her wrist, stopping her from gaining her sweet salvation. Through her blurry vision she could only make out a tall male, dark hair, and glowing eyes.
"This female is mine now," the intruder corrected them, his deep strange voice filled with conviction and warning.
"We've paid for her," the man warned, "She's ours."
Both the alien men stood and started to go for their weapons, however they had not noticed that the deep voiced intruder was not alone. Two shots of blue electricity flew at them and they slumped back down into their chairs.
Carter struggled feebly against the hold of the stranger, giving up to instead lean over the table to get her mouth to the pill still in her fingers. She was so close. Just a little closer!
But the dark intruder was quicker, pulling her wrist up so fast and hard, he heaved her out of her seat and held her there by her wrist.
"Let me go!" she bleated, still trying to climb onto the chair to stand up tall enough and get her mouth to the pill. Her feet got anchor on the seat of the chair and she lunged up.
Too late. The dark intruded yanked her out from the table, plucked the pill from her hand and threw her to one of the others standing guard behind him.
"Give it back!" she wailed, fighting hard against the grip of the guard who was holding her with two arms around her, holding her off the ground.
"I will not, Colonel."
Hot tears bled down her face and she clawed at her captors, trying in vain to find something solid to kick but her legs barely worked anymore, "Please. Whatever you want? Please, just let me have it."
The intruder stepped up to her and held the pill in front of her eyes, then dropped it to the floor, grinding it into the grunge and grim on the floor with the heel of his boot.
"No!" she screamed, cocking her elbow forward then hard back into the throat of the guard holding her. The guard almost let her go, but reaffirmed his hold quickly, coughing.
"Tsk tsk," he admonished easily. "How indeed the mighty have fallen. Come," he said to the guards, "I wish to leave this pathetic excuse for a planet as soon as possible."
They were carrying her now, walking towards the bar's exit with her tightly in the guards grasp. "Ba'al," she identified finally, her mind so sluggish but not without a certain amount of glee. "If you're here to kill me, then just get it over with. Kill me now. End it."
Ba'al chuckled, his voice softening away from the iconic symbiotic voice to his accented human voice, "I am not here to kill you, Colonel. How many times have I told you I would never dream of killing you?"
A short trip out in the freezing blizzard lead them to a well-guarded Tel'tak and within moments, Carter was strapped into a chair, shackled, and the ship broke through the atmosphere, heading towards the Ha'tak in orbit.
When the guards carried her onto the docking platform of the mother ship, they were met by another group, who took her and held her down onto a gurney until she was strapped down. "Why are you doing this? Ba'al? Just kill me!"
Ba'al however was not looking at her, speaking to one of the group who had met them on the platform, "I want her blood purified, her mind restored and the addiction cured. Check for any other diseases and injuries she may have picked up during her aimless wanderings of the galaxy. And I will not tolerate that smell. Wash her immediately."
Carter struggled against her restraints, "Ba'al!"
"Yes, my lord," the man, human looking apart from the orange hue of his skin, bowed his head and ushered the group to follow him.
"Doctor?" Ba'al called after them as they pushed her gurney towards the exit. "Check for sexual diseases too."
"You filthy bastard!" she raged from her prone position, fighting hard against the restraints, already being carted off to who knows where.
"I am not the filthy one, Colonel, selling myself for a simple fix."
Carter heard his words and whimpered. She nearly had that fix too. One more second and she would be in sweat oblivion. "Doctor? You're a doctor? Will you give me something? I'm in pain, so much pain."
The doctor did not answer her, and remained silent as they walked her gurney along the long corridors into the depths of Ba'al's ship. No matter what she offered, begged, or insulted, they did not speak to her.
"Ba'al!" she screamed, trying to break free of her bonds, feeling the shackles biting into her skin, "Ba'al! You better kill me because I will kill you! Doctor? Please, have mercy, I must have something. Give me-"
A sudden pinch to her arm and finally she reached sweet oblivion.