AN: OK. I'm a horrible person. I haven't updated in… let's see… well, months. I do have a little bit of an excuse though. See, I was in the middle of some major Real Life stuff. I moved out of my parents' house and into my own apartment in July, turned 20, and started my own business. I also discovered that said business is the best tree-killer I've ever encountered. Seriously. The paperwork is ridiculous. So, yeah, I've been kinda busy. Still, I am very sorry that I waited this long to get anything up. Also, since the last time I updated, I've become a full-blown Stargate Atlantis fan. And a John/Lizzie shipper. Yup. Sparky-ness rocks! (And so does Spanky-ness!) Not to mention that, for awhile there, I suddenly developed a new love for my old Star Trek: Voyager tapes. But don't worry; I'm over that. For now. ;) Hmm. Although there's a high probability that it was only because I didn't had any kind of cable at my new place for the first month-and-a-half. Which sucks. But as of the end of August, I have satellite! So I can watch Stargate!! I was taking over the office TV at my grandparents' house every Friday night until now, so I'm sure they'll be glad to have me out of their hair. Except, of course, for the fact that I also don't have internet here at the apartment. So I use their computer to check email/read stories/get spoilers every time I visit. (sigh) So… where was I? Oh, yes – apologizing for being such a slow updater. Here goes – my great, big, elaborate apology: (drumroll please)……. "I'm sorry."
Ta-da. Great, wasn't it? OK, seriously, just ignore all this stupid rambling and GET ON WITH THE STORY. You know you wanna. Go on. (pokes reader) Just GO already, will ya? (shoves reader in direction of story)
Previously:
"Where the hell is my daughter, Jack?"
The Colonel looked up at the senior Carter. "I don't know, Jacob. But I'll find her. I promise you, I'll find her. I'll find them both." Amidst the pain in his eyes, there was a steely determination. His jaw was set, his knuckles white from the grip he had on the arms of his chair.
They would get them back.
They had to.
They had to.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
TANGLED RELATIONS
Chapter 6: Lost
Sam leaned against Janet, drawing strength from her small-but-powerful form. The smaller woman had her knees pulled up to her chest to keep herself warm, her head resting on her best friend's shoulder.
They'd come to a short while after their capture, and were awake just long enough to realize that their weapons, radios, vests and jackets had been confiscated before they were dragged out of their cell to meet their captors. It was a group of a dozen or so men, all equipped with menacing expressions and overlarge egos. They had stated that the SG team had trespassed upon their land, and had broken one of their most sacred laws – that no one was to pass through the Great Ring. Sam had spoken up then, insisting that neither team had had any way of knowing that they were breaking any laws by coming through the Stargate. They had denied this, stating that their laws were well-known, and that anybody who ignored them must be punished. When Sam had tried to explain why they hadn't known the laws, both women were struck across the face, and they were dumped back into their cell, where they'd been ever since.
The Major now had what Janet assured her was a lovely-looking shiner across the right side of her jaw, while the doctor had a faint bruise beginning to appear on her left cheekbone.
Sam sighed in frustration as her thoughts continued to circle round and round in her mind, different scenarios and escape plans shuffling across her mind's eye like a slide show as she contemplated their situation. Both she and Janet were startled out of their musings when the door to their filthy little cell opened, and four men of considerable bulk lumbered in, each seizing one of the women's arms and guiding them firmly out of the room and down the corridor.
They were taken to another room, this one at least four times as large as their cell. The only contents of this room were two thick wooden benches, each with a set of shackles fastened securely to their surfaces, and a giant, throne-like chair set off to one side. Both women were secured in place, and then a heavyset, barrel-chested man entered the room, which seemed more likely to be a courtroom with every moment that passed. The man was presented with the throne-chair, in which he seated himself heavily. He stared down his squashed, pudgy nose at the pair of women, disdain obvious in his piggish features. His hair looked as if it was coated in some sort of oil or grease, and the effect was a comb-over look that reminded Sam of Donald Trump, which led to an absurd urge to giggle that she barely suppressed. Janet was evidently thinking along the same lines, because her face was tinged pink and her lips were pressed together tightly. Sam realized that it was quite probable that she'd spent too much time around the Colonel when he was faced with enemies. He'd always kept up a running commentary of their captors' looks, personality – or lack thereof – and other such trivial manners, if only to let off a little steam and keep the rest of his team distracted from whatever might lay ahead. It was only when she barely resisted a snarky, "So, what kinda product do ya use to make your hair do that?" that she was able to confirm her suspicions: yes, she had most certainly spent too much time around the Colonel. She wasn't, however, able to contain herself during the next urge, and blurted out, "So where're the Muscle Men from earlier?"
The man's already small eyes narrowed even further, and Janet sighed in exasperation.
"Sorry," Sam said cheerfully, not really sounding all that apologetic. "I think I might be channeling the Colonel."
"I'd say that's a pretty good—"
"SILENCE!!!"
Sam ignored the hairy eyeball The Donald was sending her. Instead, she gave him a look of practiced innocence. She was cuffed on the head for her efforts. Apparently, she needed a little more practice.
"Sam, will you stop antagonizing the big men with dangerous weapons, please?" Janet hissed.
"You stand accused of trespassing on our sacred grounds," The Donald said. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"We already told you that we had no idea that we were trespassing – we only came to rescue our team, who were attacked by your people, I might add. What's the going rate for murder here? Huh? 'Cause you killed at least one of our people. Why don't you untie me, so I can return the favor?"
Ignoring her last words, The Donald droned, "Everyone knows our laws. If they are not obeyed, then punishment is deserved. Death is an acceptable price to pay for the crime committed."
The two women exchanged horrified looks as they realized just how bad their situation was. Sam was the first to regain the use of her voice: "And what penalty is suitable for our 'crime'?"
The Donald sighed, as if bored, and replied, "A physical punishment will be satisfactory." He rose from his seat and turned to leave, waving a hand vaguely in their direction. "Take them away and prepare them."
"What sort of physical punishment are we talking about here?" Sam called after him. Her concern for her friend grew; Janet had never been tortured before. "Hey! I asked you a question!"
They were uncuffed, shoved out into the hallway, and led outside to a courtyard with a raised platform in the center. Spread out across this stage were five vertical wooden beams. Each had restraints dangling from the top, along with a pair of rings that protruded from the base of the beam. As they got closer, Sam could see that the rings were actually cuffs, designed to fasten around the ankles so that the legs of the prisoner would be rendered immobile. This was not good.
She and Janet were pinned against separate posts while their captors closed the rings around their ankles and locked their wrists together high above their heads. Sam panicked momentarily when she felt the dull side of a cold blade against her spine, underneath her shirt. A moment later, there was a rush of cool air against her back as the knife sliced up through her shirt. Oh, yeah. This definitely wasn't good.
From Janet's direction came a similar rrrriiip sound. This was followed by what sounded like surprised murmurs, but she couldn't tell what was going on. Then the soldiers backed off, and all she could hear were heavy footsteps and then silence.
And then, she felt something hit her back, and for a moment all she registered was the fleeting ghost sensation of whatever it was, but what came next was worse – much worse.
Fire tore through her back in a diagonal line from her right shoulder to her left hip, and she cried out.
The whipping continued, each lash leaving another burning trail across her back. She lost count at seventeen, her mind choosing instead to focus on the pain. Vaguely, between each strike of the whip on her own body, she could hear another whip hitting flesh several feet away. She twisted her head to peer over her shoulder, just in time to see Janet's body jerk. Despite the fact that every time she was struck, Sam inadvertently let out little whimpers and cries, Janet was utterly silent. The only outward sign of the extreme pain she was experiencing was a slight crinkling of the corners of her closed eyes as she winced. Above her head, her hands were clenched into tight fists, her knuckles white with the force she was exerting.
Where are you, Jack? she thought, holding on to the knowledge that he would come for her – and Janet – at any cost.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
"All right, ladies and gentlemen," Jack began, looking out over the small sea of faces spread out across the briefing room. Among them were Colonel MacKenzie and Commander Rabb, who were watching him, the former with more than a little worry evident in her expression. "This is a rescue mission, one we can not afford to screw up. These two officers are our best and brightest. We will bring them back." He looked down at the two Generals seated to either side of him. "General Carter's gonna lead SG-2 and SG-5; I'll be with SG-3 and SG-4; Teal'c will take Dr. Jackson and SG-6. We'll surround them and attack from multiple directions. Surprise is on our side here, so silence is a biggie." Here, he paused and shot a look at Daniel, whose eyes widened.
"Hey! I can be quiet!"
Despite the gravity of the situation, there were several chuckles around the room, and Daniel glared at Jack.
"As I was saying, silence is a biggie, but we wanna keep injuries and casualties to a minimum here. If either of the Majors find out that I let one of you fools get yourself killed out there while trying to rescue them, they'll kick my ass all the way to Ne'tu."
More soft chuckles; Mac and Harm exchanged confused looks, not understanding the joke.
"So, are we clear on everything? You've all got your orders, now let's get moving!"
"Yes, sir!" came at him in surround sound as chairs were pushed back and everyone beat feet to their respective locker rooms to change.
Less than ten minutes later, there were twenty-three people, himself included, lined up in the 'Gate room.
The technician fired up the 'Gate, and as the event horizon stabilized, Jack led the way up the ramp, shouting, "Let's move out!!"
I'm coming, Sam…
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
AN2: Finally! I got it written and posted! Thanks for reading, and for staying with me even through my frustratingly long absences. Also, I want to thank the anonymous reader who nominated this story for the 2006 Stargate Fan Awards. I was so surprised – I never thought my writing was worthy of such an honor, but apparently someone thinks different. Whoever you are, thank you. I only wish that I'd had the story somewhere near completion – one of the rules of the nominations is that you cannot have a story entered if it is not completed. So, with much regret, I had to pull out of the nominations, but I will always remember that someone out there liked my story as much as I do, if not more. So, thank you again!
AN3: I should probably tell you guys the other reason that my chapters are coming so slowly now… See, I've got this thing for vidding, and it's pretty much grabbed hold of my creative muses and held them hostage until I finish a vid. Because of this, I've put out four Atlantis music videos (on top of the three I already had for SG-1) in the past couple of weeks, three of which I did in the past week-and-a-half. In fact, the two most recent ones I just did this past weekend – two vids in three days! In other words, I've got a new distraction, one I've found myself quite unable to control. Not that I'm complaining. I'm totally loving the vids I'm making! In case anyone is interested, I'll be putting the link to my LiveJournal in my "homepage" link area on my author's page here at In my journal, there are links to my seven vids – like I said, three SG-1 and four Atlantis). There are also more on the way, but I felt that it might be nice to actually update this story after all this time!
AN4: Last one, I swear!! Um, I was wondering what you guys would think if I proposed the idea of writing a sort of 'companion' story to go along with this one… it would be for Atlantis, and would start by branching off of the SG-1 story, the same way the show did. Now, keep in mind, this is just an idea. I haven't decided anything for sure just yet; all I know is that I am currently in the middle of lots of Atlantis stories right now – only a few of which are anywhere near being ready to post – and I thought it might be neat to have one of them go along with this one… I'm not sure though. What do you guys think? Honestly? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this:)