Chapter 4

Janet Frasier continued to scream as the creature carried her away from her in-ground prison. The thing around her middle squeezed her, and her breath and her scream were both cut off. As soon as her screaming subsided however, the creature loosened its grip again. Still in her moment of panic, Janet let out another scream. Because let's face face it, snakes freaked her out...and this was one giant reason to freak. The creature compressed around her once more, squeezing her silent. The gigantic clamp around her torso relaxed a second time when she was quiet. Janet was a fast learner...she didn't scream a third time. Instead, she watched the strange orange sky above her as it whizzed by overhead, and tried to catch her breath.

What the hell is happening? Is this what happened to you Sam? Am I going to get to go home or end up like Markinson and Brinks? Dr. Frasier couldn't see anything but the air and the clouds, which to her human eyes looked like a thunderstorm that had erupted in the middle of the prettiest sunset. The clouds were a queer gray, and very, very thick. They were rimmed with the fire bright color of the orange, almost like a sun was being eclipsed by their weight. Janet noticed a fine mist all around her. Not exactly rain, but almost.

From the way she was confined within the coils of the giant snake-like creature, Janet couldn't get a look around her. She couldn't really even move her head all that much. She quickly surmised that if these aliens wanted her dead, they could have easily instructed their giant pet Boa to crush her. She didn't know if the giant thing wrapped around her preferred a carnivorous diet, but she didn't want to find out. Other than the occasional jostle, Janet didn't feel much of the motion that the being made as it traveled along to wherever it was headed. She did know that it moved very, very fast. Then, without warning, the coils unraveled and Janet rolled onto the ground. It was an uncomfortable landing, but not nearly as painful as she remembered the dump into the hole had been. She got wearily to her feet. She noticed the creature's own feet too close to her for comfort and jumped back a step. Each foot had three "toes" with long blue claws at the ends. There were no legs, only the feet attached to the body. Janet quickly counted five of them; two in front, two in the middle, one in back that could have been in the same spot as a tail. She followed the feet up the line of the smooth black body. There were no scales. There were no lines in the smooth skin at all. She traced the slick skin up the line of the snake's neck, and as she did, she looked up to where the head of the gigantic black snake was. The mercurial substance showed her own face far below, that was all. There were no teeth this time, and Janet was grateful.

Thank you for small favors, I'll take all I can get.

Also reflected in the snake's face was a rust -red colored building. Frasier turned to look behind her at a very large archway that peaked about twenty or thirty feet above her head. She heard the swishing sound of the snake retreating, but when she turned to see where it was going, the thing had already vanished. As the small doctor stood trying to see any trace of the snake, she briefly studied the landscape. Mountainous and forested were all she could come up with. Strange trees with dark colored bark and lavender leaves, taller than any ever seen on Earth, covered deep, rolling hills. Despite the strange glow of the orange sky, Janet could see for miles. The air sizzled with a smell like sulfur and cinnamon, but it was not at all unpleasant. In fact, Janet's stomach gurgled at her in an instant hunger. Placing a hand over her middle, she turned back around to face the arched doorway. As she watched, the archway opened without a sound, and a hallway was lit in front of her. Strange silvery light sconces hung on the rust-colored walls. Other than herself, the entryway appeared empty. No one stood guard. No one was there to take her prisoner and shove her down the dark hallway. Hse half expected the blue-lightning streak of a zat to come flying at her from out of the darkness, but that didn't happen either. The bohemoths that she had been dragged to the pit by weren't anywhere in sight. She debated whether or not to try and make a break for it. She took one step into the doorway, and then turned to go back out again. She was going to run in any direction as long as it was away from this place.

"OH! Hahaha! Well how did you get back here so fast?" Janet was startled by the sudden appearance of the huge black reptile. She had to laugh again in spite of her thudding heart. She felt like a kid who'd been caught coloring on the wall with a permanent marker, and knew how upset her parents would be when they found out. It was like the thing had known what Dr. Frasier had been about to do. "You sure are a quick fella!" She smiled broadly, a mostly unconscious gesture. The shiny head leaned down to peer right into Janet's face. Her reflection stared back at her in amazement. "What? What is it huh?" She started talking to it as if it could understand what she was saying. It couldn't be helped, really. Janet assumed the good in every living thing, human or not, before she ever assumed the bad. And since the snake had not hurt her, Janet meant no ill-will towards the being. Slowly, she reached her shaky hands, palms out, towards the smooth black skin.

"You're something else, you know that?" her hands moved closer. Frasier was petrified, but intrigued despite herself. The thing stood still, the mirror-head still staring with its lone silver eye/face. "Are you going to let me touch you? Are you huh?" Janet spoke with the voice of a woman trying to coax a wild animal to come to her and eat from her hand. She moved very slowly. A vision splashed across her mind of General Hammond handing her discharge paperwork from the Airforce because she was minus an arm...or two. Gently, with both hands, she reached out and touched the side of the thing's neck. It was wet and rubbery, like the slick inner tube of the tractor tire that she had gone down the river with as a kid. "Hey there, you're not so bad eh? Not so bad at all."

If this isn't a dream or a concussion, I'll eat my stethoscope. Just what I need... a giant pet snake that could swallow me like a Tylenol.

She stroked the creature's neck gently with her hands. As she did, the smell of sun-heated dead fish drifted off of the animal in revolting waves. The hunger in her belly left as quickly as it had come.

"Guess I can't run anywhere with you standing guard, right?" Janet continued to pet the reptile gently. It was huge. She guessed it was equal to at least three lengths of her own body in diameter alone. As if the snake knew what she was saying, it quickly recoiled its head from Janet's hands and the mirror-face was suddenly pushing her from behind. She saw with a quiet dismay, that the creature was nudging her into the long dark hallway after all. Okay so a nudge actually put her through the archway about twenty-five feet.

"Well alright. If you insist." And insist it did. Another gentle bump from behind put her farther down the strange corridor. "Ok fella, I'm going I'm going." Janet said as her feet slid across the gravel floor of the hallway. "I guess it would be pretty silly to try and find the gate when I have none of my equipment or my team mates with me anyway." Thinking about her fallen commrades who were left to rot back at her previous place of imprisonment brought Janet somberly back to the moment. Again she heard that swishing sound as the snake retreated. Or so she thought. Turning around quickly, she was expecting it to be gone. Instead, that mirror-face was still staring at her...this time, with its rows of razor sharp teeth bared in a hideous parody of a smile, and that jelly substance oozing from between those silver lips. Janet jumped back involuntarily. The snake had not retreated after all. Friendly or not, the thing still scared the hell out of her. Her heart pounded hard within her chest, and she could feel her feet sweat in her boots. As Janet continued to stare at the clear jelly dripping off of the snake's strange chrome-plated fangs, she heard a sound come from behind her, deep inside the building. Then another, closer this time. She turned again to try and see into the darkness, but didn't have much luck. Her head was aching terribly, and she couldn't seem to get her eyes to focus.

Afraid of having the alien reptile at her back, Dr. Frasier glanced back over her shoulder. The light at the archway was the only thing she could see. Now, certain that she would not try and escape, her gigantic friend was gone. But most certainly not forgotten. The small woman had no doubts as to whether the creature would come back if she thought about running away another time. She didn't know how it would know, but she did know that she didn't want to piss it off.

"Well, thanks for not having me for lunch anyway fella." she sighed as she turned to walk into the dark recesses of the alien structure. Even a creepy, giant dinosaur friend was better than no friend at all. Her stomach rumbled again. She really was hungry...and everything hurt. The silver light sconces seemed to go on for an eternity. Janet had no idea how far, or how long she walked. The walk was a straight one as far as Janet could tell. No curves or bends, just rusty, dirty floors and walls. It was also blazing hot, and that smell of a matchbook full of cinnamon sticks was back.

What I wouldn't give for a glass of Chardonnay and a shower right about now. On the other hand, A labotomy and a T-bone steak would probably be in order too. Or how 'bout just a my watch and a GDO? Is that too much to ask for?

Just as Janet finished that thought, she felt and heard a rumble coming from somewhere in front of her. There was no way to determine the direction of the sound, only that it was getting louder by the second. Frasier froze. The sound reminded her of a time when she was sixteen and her high school sweetheart had taken her skiing. An avalanche had washed out the entire intermediate level slope, and people had been trapped for hours. It sounded ominously similar to what she was hearing now. Sweat began to bead in small, hidden realms of her body. The fight or flight response seized her, and all at once her vision cleared, as her pupils dialated to what she was certain was max capacity. She closed her eyes anyway. Her muscles bunched, but Janet could do nothing but cover her ears as the sound became deafening. She dropped to her knees in agony, and she could feel the vibrations of the sound in her back teeth. All she could do was kneel on the dirt floor. She couldn't even scream. She had no cohearent thought processes, everything was being drowned out by the sound. And then...the sound suddenly stopped. The ringing in Janet's ears did not. This time as the doctor opened her eyes again, they quickly adjusted to let in all possible light. She dropped her hands away from her ears, and as she did, she could feel movement.

"Now what?" she said aloud. Whoever was listening (and she was positive that someone was) answered her query with alacrity. The floor split and dissappeared right around where Janet was kneeling. All at once, and all around her, a silent light shone up through the ground. Because her eyes were adjusted for the darkness, the doctor was momentarily blinded. She felt herself falling.

Not falling, descending. She thought, and tried to look around herself. She was right. She was on a platform that was taking her below the ground, like a crude and primative elavator. It was moving swiftly. The shaft going down into the ground was a tight fit, and it too seemed to go down forever. There was only the light from below to help her see. No sconces to light her way this time, and that cinnamon smell was getting heavy and cloying. Janet stood up on her feet, but didn't dare move anything else. She wanted to reach out and touch the walls as she dropped because they were so close, but that vision of losing her hands again appeared in her mind. When the elevator hit bottom, Janet wasn't ready for it. There was no slowing down, only stopping. The strength of the impact was monumental.

With the crunching sound of rock on rock, came the crunching sound of Dr. Frasier's ankles as they both snapped from the force. It was like she had jumped from a twelve story building and landed flat on her feet. When her ankles exploded, she toppled onto herself like a pile of laundry being thrown into a corner. She felt her knees pop next, and then a searing river of fire flew up her thighs and to her hips and pelvis as the bones broke there too. The pain and tears were immediate, and this time she bellowed in misery, yellow spots began to swim in front of her eyes.

"HELP MEEE! PLEASE SOMEBODY HEEELLLLP! She wailed and cried, but she couldn't move. Never before had she known such pain.

A new doorway opened somewhere behind her, and Janet continued to cry. Even her survival training and medical training had not prepared her for the tortuous agony of so many broken places in her body all at once. She lay on the floor weeping, folded in half like a ragdoll quite literally with her head between her knees. She could feel her flesh begin to swell around her ruined joints.

I'm gonna lose it, I can't keep it together much longer. Oh please please please someone... The yellow spots were beginning to turn gray like the clouds had been outside, and then they began to consume her vision. Her body's natural painkiller, that all too welcome haven of unconsciousness wouldn't come. Instead, Janet's adrenaline system still seemed to be firing. Sweat ran off of her in rivers now. Taking several quick ragged breaths, she placed her hands on the ground beside her rear end and pushed her upper body so that she was sitting up.

"AAAARRRGGAHH!" Another scream followed by rapid breathing as she put her hands behind her now, and leaned back on them. As she did that, her upper half now hung out into another entryway. This place, with a soft light that was coming from everywhere and from nowhere, led away from the elevator. Janet looked up and around her.

"HELLO?" She yelled and breathed. "ANYONE HOME? I KNOW YOU'RE THERE! WELL IF YOU WERE TRYING TO KEEP ME FROM ESCAPING, YOU DID ONE HELL OF A JOB!" Janet had to stop yelling and just blow out hard, raspy breaths. Nausea threatened to overcome her, both from the pain and from the smell. The sulfur was stronger down here. She squeezed her eyes shut

and a picture of Cassie floated through her mind.

I love you baby. I'll see you soon, I just have to get through this.

Janet opened her eyes again, and standing above her staring down, was one of the bohemoth warriors that had dragged her to the pit and thrown her in. At least it sort of resembled him anyway. Janet had only seen the back of him, but she thought from the way he was dressed that more than likely she was looking at the same species. And somehow, she knew it was a male. He appeared to be wearing some clothing like pants over his lower half. She was getting tired of things sneaking up on her. The sweat continued to roll over her body, and her heart gave a small startled pounce in her chest, but Janet's supply of adrenaline was waning fast, and she didn't have the energy to be afraid of the alien creature behind her.

"Excuse me, hello." Breathing heavily and speaking softly, she continued. "Can you help me..." more quick breaths. "...please?" The alien continued to stare down at Janet. She could see from her position on the floor that he was about the heighth of an average human, but very broad and wide. He had what appeared to be two torsos, but only one head between them, and his musculature pattern suggested it was only one body. His skin was a pale orange, almost a human skin tone, and as smooth as the skin of the snake had been up on the surface.

"Listen...if you can understand me. Both of my legs are broken. All the way broken." Her heavy respirations filled the space. "I can't walk, but I'll go anywhere you want if you'll just help me. I need to find my friends, one of them is in trouble."

Maybe the creature did understand her. It unfolded two arms...no...two tentacles from around its chest. They were each at least five feet in length when they were spread wide. This is what had made the alien look so broad. Janet saw that there were mini-tentacles, like fingers at the ends of the arms, and there were too many to count. They reminded her of spaghetti noodles. It reached down with its arms and slid one underneath Janets legs, and placed the other behind her back.

"OW OW OW JESUS WEPT! THAT HURTS!" The doctor squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her teeth together, hissing through her teeth as the alien lifted her up. She could literally feel the bones in her pelvis grind together. After he picked her up, she opened her eyes again to look at his face. Two long slits ran from the middle where a nose could have been, to the top and back over his head. He had no hair on his smooth skin, but he did have two eyes. There were no irises or pupils, only they were one and the same. And they were exactly like the silvery mercury in the snakes face had been. In fact, Janet could see her reflection in them. The alien's mouth was a small pucker, like it was permanently whistling, and four enormous ears protruded from the sides of its head.

"Thank you." The good doctor whispered to him as she stared at herself in the alien's eyes. She was on the verge of passing out again. It's ears flapped at her as she spoke, and it's eyelids blinked from the sides of his eyes instead of from the top and bottom. That creeped Janet out a little and she came back around.

"You're welcome."

Janet wasn't sure what she was hearing. She craned her neck around, looking away from the alien, and all she saw was the tiny elevator shaft and the light, but sterile looking walls.

"Did you say something?" Janet turned her head back around to look again at the alien holding her in it's arms. It turned with her and began to move into the building which seemed to be made of light.

"I am truly saddened by your injuries. I will take you to Meeghal and he will perform the healing ritual."

As she realized the words were appearing in her mind, she watched the puckered lips of the alien, and they didn't move.

"How did you do that?" she asked him? "You can understand me?" Janet's mind flashed back to her conversation in the pit with Markinson before he died. She remembered him saying something about the aliens asking for the iris codes. Of course they could understand her. And what was this healing ritual? Why hadn't they performed it on Brinks and Markinson? Maybe they had. Maybe that was what caused them to die.

"The healing ritual was not the cause of your companions' deaths. They suffered death because they could not be healed." The voice in her head sounded forced and robotic, and it was giving her the heebie jeebies.

"Why not? And what makes you think this..." she gasped in pain as the alien stepped down into a recessed room, and turned left through another door. "...this ritual will work on me?" she spoke again through clenched teeth.

"Your companions could not be healed because of the law. They were not allowed in the healing chambers."

"What? Why? What makes them different? I'm human like they are...uh..Ow WATCH IT!" Janet didn't mean to bellow, but the alien shifted her in his arms to go through a third and final door. He looked down at her and flinched when she screamed, side-blinking at her in a way that almost made the good doctor feel a little guilty. Not quite though. Pain, and the loss of her team-mates still had Janet on the offensive.

"Why can you take me to the healing chambers and you couldn't take my team?" The creature wouldn't look at her, he just kept walking, and she was starting to wish he would have just put her out of her misery instead of carrying her all this way. Her ankles hurt the worst because they were dangling. Her hips and pelvis hurt almost as equally because of the way she was seated in her new friend's arms. And that's what he was, right? A friend? He hadn't killed her...yet.

"I mean you no harm."

"Sure you don't. Because if you meant me any harm, you wouldn't have to carry my crumpled body right now after rudely dumping me onto the floor of your elevator from God knows how many stories up. If you meant me any harm, you wouldn't have sent that giant snake to collect me from a dirt-hole prison in the ground where I watched one of my team members die. If you meant me any harm, you wouldn't have had to drag me and my team-mates half-way across your planet after you blinded us when we came through your Stargate. And finally, if you really didn't mean me any harm, I wouldn't have had to come to your planet in the first place because you people kidnapped my best friend." Janet's mind and her voice dripped with the sarcasm and frustration that she felt.

The alien did not communicate further. Instead, Janet felt herself being lowered down onto something that felt like her old waterbed, only it didn't move under her weight. Instead, the bed seemed to envelope her form in a type of protective gel.

"AAAARRGGH! AHHAHH!" Pain made it impossible for a silent transfer, and the doctor let out another loud growl. She didn't realize she was still crying. As she looked around her, she noticed that indeed, she was in some sort of chamber. It reminded her of the infirmary back at the SGC. Strange pieces of equipment with lights and tubes hung from the ceiling, which was very high. Other "beds" were placed directly below the tubes and machines. She saw that the beds had outer casings which were made out of a metal material, and in the middle of each casing, was a bright blue substance that was so clear and so bright, Janet had a hard time looking away. It looked like the clearest blue water that she had ever seen, in a pool lit up with a thousand little underwater lights.

Looking straight above her now, she saw an identical piece of hanging equipment above her own bed. The walls and ceiling were a pale color that Janet had no Earth name for, a cross between lavender, baby blue and a soft aqua. She took all of this into memory in mere seconds, trying to memorize as many details as possible about her surroundings. Survival training 101. She could do nothing but lie on the bed and try and get her breathing and tears under control. A soft whooshing sound came from her right, and the wall opened up. Behind a shimmery band of liquid that reminded Janet of the bubble solution used to entertain children, there stood four more of the aliens like the one who had brought her to this room. They were all different heights and each had his own unique skin color, but the shapes of their bodies, and the features on their strange faces were all the same. The one who had brought her in and put her down onto the bed stood staring at the others of his kind. All at once, they bowed to him, and he returned the gesture.

It's an observation window. Just like we have at the SGC! Janet was fascinated in spite of her pain and plight. Her medical and science background was second nature to her and she couldn't help but to compare these creatures and their level of technology to that of Earth's own. The alien who had carried her turned back and looked down at her again. He had his tentacle arms wrapped back around himself, like he did when he had first come upon Frasier at the elevator.

"Meeghal will see to you now, and then you shall have your inquiries satisfied."

"Wait..." Janet reached out her right hand, and as she did, it brushed the leg of the alien still standing beside of her. It stepped back out of range. Janet didn't seem to notice. "Inquiries? You mean questions? Yes! I...OH!.." she winced as a bolt of pain shot across her hips. "I only have one question...ok maybe two."

"After the ritual, your inquiries will be satisfied." Her new friend said again.

Janet ignored him.

"What's your name?" Always trying to find a compassionate way to communicate with someone, Janet never failed to learn the name of a new acquaintance. She was terrific with names, it was one of her gifts. This time she would make no exception, but all she heard in her mind were little clicking sounds; he didn't understand her. She tried a different approach.

"What do you call yourself? I am Doctor Janet Frasier, of the planet Earth. I am from the Tau'ri."

More clicks in her mind. Janet waited. The pain in her knees and ankles throbbed with her heartbeat. Appearently, it was a big deal around here to give out your name to a visitor from another planet. After a few moments, the entity "spoke" again.

"I am called Sootaal of the Mor'ei, and you were caught trespassing through the Chappa'i on the planet Che'ctala, Tau'ri. If it was not the most sacred of our laws not to harm you, death would have come to you very quickly."

"Well first, let me thank you for that particular law, and second, the Mor'ei didn't exactly put up a "no trespassing" sign on this side of the Stargate for the rest of the galaxy to see, now did you? And we were only trespassing in the first place because YOU kidnapped another Tau'ri and scrambled her brains! Where are they anyway? Where are the others like me, from Earth?" Janet had a sudden fear that SG-1 might already be dead like Brinks and Markinson. She didn't know what had happened to them after she and her team were ambushed at the gate. The raw, rich pain in her legs threatened to overwhelm Janet as she got angrier, and she had to grind her teeth together again and hold her breath to get the pain to ease a bit.

Sootaal looked at his bretheren behind the obs window, and side-blinked his strange silvery eyes. Janet heard the clicking in her head again. It was just as annoying as being put on hold by an automatic messaging service with a credit card company. Finally, Sootaal picked up the phone again.

"We have no knowledge of any other Tau'ri visiting Che'ctala prior to your own arrival."

"What?" The surprise was perfectly clear in Janet's mind and in her voice as she picked her head up to look hard at Sootaal.

"We have no knowledge..." Sootaal was cut off by the doctor.

"I KNOW what you said, and I am telling you, that my friends came through that Stargate a whole day and a half before me, and then they needed my help because I am a doctor. My friend Major Carter was taken from her own team when they came through that gate, and she was blinded in the same manner as you blinded me!"

More clicks in her mind. This time, the clicks had a shocked flavor to them. Sootaal continued to stare and and chat telepathically with his alien pals, as Janet waited in pain and silence. Sootaal turned back to her and spoke within her mind once more.

"Your Tau'ri companions are not here among the Mor'ei. After the healing ritual, your inquiries will be investigated."

Janet closed her eyes as Sootaal left her side. A purring sound fluttered aound her. She had to fight off the panic that swam in her chest making her heart earn it's paycheck yet again. She and her team had heard Colonel O'Neill on the radio when they stepped through the gate. They had been through the gate long enough for the Colonel to rattle off Sam's condition, and for the event horizon to collapse into the orange-gray darkness when the light blinded them. So where was Sg-1? Before she could open her eyes again, Janet felt a warm flood of a sensation wash over her entire body, and there was no more pain. At last, a welcome sleep was trying to take her. She pulled her eyelids open one last time.

"Where is SG-1?" Janet's whisper was heard amongst every Mor'ei. They understood every word, and their communication with each other reached out far across the land. As the good doctor fled eagerly into an induced state of unconsciousness, a wormhole engaged the Stargate on Che'ctala, and a UAV stamped with the U.S. Airforce symbol came flying through. It was shot down immediately after it lifted off into the beautiful orange and gray sky. Soon after, the Stargate was dark once again.