Part III: A Simple Plan

The Servant Mind was humanoid, like a very old man; though his skin was so pale it appeared almost translucent. He watched the three humans approach him, his icy blue eyes seeming to take in every little detail.

"Well, well, well," his voice was as dry and raspy as old paper. "Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c. This is a…special honor."

"Do we know you?" Sam asked, narrowing her eyes.

"No, but I know everything about you. At least, everything Colonel O'Neill knows." He winked at Sam. "And I mean everything."

"Where is O'Neill?" Teal'c demanded.

The man chuckled. "You think I'll tell you? All in good time, my prizes, all in good time."

Sam scowled. "Prizes?"

"Oh yes," the old man clasped his veined hands together. "You won't believe how eager I am to add the knowledge of SG-1 to the repository of the paren. Perhaps I'll finally be able to wipe out those pesky, parasitic goa'uld!"

"Wait." Daniel held up his hand. "We want to destroy the goa'ulds as well…wouldn't it make more sense for you to join with us rather than just taking our knowledge?"

"I have no desire to ally the paren with a race as young and foolish as the tau'ri!" the man spat. "You're even less advanced than the goa'uld! My whole goal in bringing the paren to this galaxy was to bring its inhabitants under the New Celestial Order."

Sam was about to ask what exactly the New Celestial Order was, but Daniel opened his mouth first. "Wait, so you control the paren?"

The man nodded. "I do."

"So why did they call you the servant mind?

"Because," the man said heavily, "I am a servant...a servant to this creation. Do you realize how difficult it is to keep track of thousands of consciousnesses? To file away all the new knowledge? If I so much as get distracted for a second the disease will go crazy and destroy thousands. You yourselves saw what happened on that planet." He sighed. "But you are boring me, tau'ri. So…what to do with you?" he seemed to regard the three before him. "Teal'c, there is no hope of you being infected…so I think I may just offer you up to the system lords in exchange for something. I know how they long to see you again! Major Carter, much as I would like to have access to your amazing mind, I'm afraid the bacteria's natural defense system doesn't allow it to inhabit a being it failed to inhabit the first time, so I'm afraid I'll have to do away with you. But, Daniel Jackson. You. You will become one of us."

The two guards stepped up on either side of Sam and Teal'c. Without hearing the orders, they seemed to know what to do, and led them back to the storage room.

Teal'c looked over at Sam, who was sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest. "Do not worry, Major Carter," Teal'c said. "I do not think they will be able to destroy you."

Sam managed a weak smile. "Thanks Teal'c, but they've kinda got us out numbered." She suddenly frowned, then pointed to the corner of the room. "Hey, are those our BDU's?"

Teal'c walked over and examined the pile. "Indeed they are…though our weapons are missing."

There was a burst of static, and Hammonds voice. "SG-1, come in."

"General Hammond." Teal'c said, picking up the radio. "We are here."

"Thank God," Hammond said. "We've been trying to reach you."

Sam walked over and took the radio. "Daniel's been captured, Sir. I think he's going to be injected with the virus."

"I need to tell you something, Major, and we don't have much time before the wormhole closes itself, so I'll be brief. Dr. Fraiser's taken on the bacteria, but she did discover by pure accident that the bacteria is destroyed by a single shot from a zat gun."

Sam groaned. "It would be that simple!"

"That's what we all were thinking," Hammond said. "Anyway, the only thing with that is you must wait until the person is fully taken over, otherwise it has no effect."

"Thank you, sir," Sam replied. "Now at least we know what to do with the Colonel and Daniel once we get a hold of them. But sir-"

"We're approaching the 38 minute mark, Major, so I have to sign off."

"Sir, Teal'c and I are-" but the connection was dead. Sam let out a sigh. She had just set the radio down when the doors opened and there stood…Daniel and Jack.

"Speak of the devil." Sam said, turning and putting her hands on her hips.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "I do not remember you and General Hammond discussing any devils."

Sam shot him a look, then turned to Daniel and Jack. "What?"

"We bring words from the Servant Mind." They said in unison. "Jaffa, your system lord will be arriving shortly to collect you. Before then, you will witness your friend Major Carter killed at our hands. In the meantime we will be standing guard. Do not try to escape." They turned, and the doors closed.

"Wonderful." Sam said.

"I will not let them kill you." Teal'c folded his arms over his chest.

"It won't come to that," Sam assured him. "I've got a plan…though it's a rather simple one, and it probably won't work..."

"Colonel O'Neill would be proud of you."

Sam snorted and shook her head. "You're getting better at that."

"Guards!" Teal'c cried, pounding on the door. "Open the door!"

The door slid open, Daniel and Jack stared blankly at Teal'c. "What is it?"

"Something has happened to Major Carter." Teal'c said, pointing to where Sam lay on the floor.

Jack and Daniel went over to Sam and bent down. "She appears fine…" they said seconds before Sam knocked them both backwards, wrestling the zat gun out of Daniel's hands. Teal'c wrestled the zat away from Jack, then quickly fired at Daniel who was trying to get his weapon away from Sam.

Sam looked down at Jack. "I'm sorry, sir." She fired at Jack and he fell back. A second later he put his hands over his face.

"Holy crap, Carter!" he groaned. "Under any other circumstances I would so have you court-martialed for that!"

"I'm sorry, Sir." Sam said again. "It was the only way to kill the bacteria."

Daniel sat up, blinking. "So you guys figured it out?"

"Actually Janet worked it out, Hammond was able to contact us through the radios."

"Oh, right," Daniel nodded. "Hey, look, we've got a bit of a problem. I still remember some of the stuff we were ordered to do and what the Servant Mind was planning on doing…"

"Yeah, me too." Jack said, frowning and putting a hand to his head. "He's setting a trap for the system lords."

Sam looked surprised. "What?"

"Yeah, and Teal'c is the bait." Daniel said. "The servant mind is going to get a hold of all the system lords he can and tell them he's got Teal'c, and that they're welcome to him."

"So a bunch of the system lords come here," Jack put in. "And then…"

"He destroys them?" this was Sam.

"No," Daniel shook his head. "He gets some of his buddies to do that for him."

"His buddies?"

"You're not going to like this." Daniel closed his eyes, rubbing his temples as though trying to remember. "Ok, I'll start at the beginning of what I…learned."

Jack sat down and leaned against a box. "I'll let you handle this, Daniel."

"Thanks." Daniel opened his eyes a fraction to glare at Jack. "Ok. So. These paren are a really ancient race. Older then the goa'uld. And they're not exactly our neighbors."

"So, pretty much," Jack put in. "They were born a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."

"I thought you were going to let me handle this." Daniel said, annoyed. "Anyway, this galaxy that the paren are from…is from…whatever, is home to a load of other races obviously. And there's this one…called the Riven. Let's just say they're really smart, and really…"

"Evil." Jack suggested.

"Yeah. Evil."

"So, we're in the middle of this huge trap set for the system lords, which includes this powerful, ancient…evil…race that we've never seen before?" Sam asked.

"You got it, Carter." Jack said, sounding unperturbed.

"Well, sir," Sam turned to him. "How are we supposed to get back?"

"Simple." Jack said. "We take a couple of zats and shoot anyone who tries to get in our way. That way not only are we unstoppable, we also free a bunch of the people."

"That's so…simple." Sam said, gesturing vaguely in the air. "It sounds too easy."

Jack rolled his eyes. "And whose brilliant idea was it to fake sick and then attack us? Look, my idea will work. There's nothing worse than a bunch of paren infested people out there, and they can't do anything against us once we zap them."

"It just might work." Sam sighed. "It's just…"

"Just what?" Jack narrowed his eyes.

"Nothing, sir, nothing."

For the most part their plan worked, at least for the first part of the journey back to the stargate. But as SG-1 moved closer and closer to the Stargate, more and more of the paren-infected people massed around them, trying to force them back to the city. They were all chanting the word "Stop!" over and over again.

"God, can't they at least find something else to say?" Jack complained.

"Sir!" Sam called, trying to keep people off their back. "We only have two zat guns! We're not going to make it."

"I can see the stargate!" Jack said. "We're almost there!"

"Daniel, take the zat gun!" Sam cried. "Hurry!"

Jack frowned, half turning. "Carter? Carter!!"

Sam was being pulled away from the group by the people. She threw her zat gun and Daniel caught it. "Sir, get to the stargate! I'll come later!"

"No!" Jack cried. "We're not leaving you, Carter!" But Sam was gone, swept away by the tide of people. Jack swore loudly.

"Jack!" Daniel had made it to the DHD device and was dialing home with one hand while keeping the people back with the other. Jack caught up with him and quickly dialed the iris code.

"You two go." He said as Teal'c arrived at their side. "I'm going back for Carter."

"O'Neill, they will attempt to kill you." Teal'c said.

"Which is exactly what they'll do to Carter if I don't do something!" Jack shouted.

"I will not permit you." Teal'c said stolidly. "I believe we will be able to help Major Carter more if we return and bring help."

"Uhh, guys," Daniel said, firing his zat gun over and over. "I hate to break this up, but we don't exactly have time to argue about this."

"I –" Jack began, but was cut off as Teal'c grabbed him and dragged him back to the stargate.

"General, I want to go back there right now and get Carter!" Jack said angrily.

Hammond regarded him thoughtfully. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Jack. Not until we learn more about these Riven, or indeed the paren themselves."

Jack slammed his hands down on the table. "Carter's out there!"

"I know." Hammond nodded. "We're going to open a wormhole and try contacting her over the radio. Dismissed." Hammond went back down to the control room, but Jack remained in his seat, staring broodingly at the table.

"Is something wrong, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, walking over to stand behind Jack's chair.

"Yeah." Jack growled. "Carter risked her neck coming after me, and she didn't even know for sure I was in danger. Now I know she's about to be killed and I can't do a god damn thing!"

Daniel had been chewing on his lip thoughtfully, and when he spoke it was in a quiet tone. "I bet they won't kill her. They'll probably just use her to try and find where we went."

"Oh that makes me feel a lot better!" Jack cried.

"Major Carter is a strong warrior," Teal'c reasoned. "She will not be harmed easily."

"I hope you're right, Teal'c." Jack muttered. "I really hope you're right."

Hours passed. They weren't successful at contacting Sam over the radio so they opened the wormhole to get MALP telemetry, but saw nothing but hundreds of people milling around the stargate. Then they saw the Jaffa. They were able to get a close enough look to see that there were more then one system lords present. When they tried again a little later, Teal'c pointed to a figure moving through the crowd.

"That is neither jaffa nor system lord." He said.

Jack, peering over Teal'c's shoulder, frowned. "What is that?"

"I do not know." Teal'c replied.

"Zoom in on it." Hammond ordered.

It was tall, and wore black robes. When they caught sight of it's face, everyone gasped. It wasn't like anything they'd seen before. The only resemblance of a human face was the positioning of the eyes, nose and mouth. But it looked deformed, some gory hybrid of snake, horse and human.

"I bet that's a Riven." Daniel said. "And it doesn't look friendly."

"And Carter's stuck there with them?" Jack said, his eyes narrowed.

The Riven was approaching the MALP, and another soon joined it. They crouched down and peered at it, jabbering in some strange language. Then the first looked right in the camera and said. "Do you speak this language?"

Hammond frowned, leaning into the microphone. "Yes. Who is this?"

"I am Ghalak, high council member of the Riven. Am I correct in assuming I'm speaking with members of the tau'ri?"

"Yes you are," Hammond replied. "I am General Hammond of the United States Air Force. I believe you have one of my officers, Major Samantha Carter."

The two Riven seemed to consult with each other, then Ghalak turned back to the MALP. "Yes. We have her."

"I demand that you release her immediately!" Hammond said.

The Riven made a noise that must have been laughter, but sounded like nails on a chalkboard. "Release her? She belongs to us now."

Jack suddenly grabbed the microphone away from Hammond. "This is Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter's commanding officer. What the hell do you mean she belongs to you now?"

"The Servant Mind of this planet traded her to us in exchange for our help in disposing of the minor threat of the goa'uld system lords." The Riven said. "By the laws governing our confederation, she is property of Kharon, leader of the Riven."

"No!" Jack snarled. "She does not belong to you! And if you don't return Carter to us RIGHT NOW you will regret it."

The Riven made the laughing noise again. "You have no power over us. Shall I demonstrate? I will close the stargate, by my own power." He stood up, waved one hand, and the gate closed.

"Property?" Jack said. "Are they telling me that my second in command was just sold into slavery in a galaxy god knows how many light years away?"

"We must think of a way to retrieve her." Teal'c said.

"Yeah." Jack agreed. "And it ain't gonna be simple."

To Be Continued…