Sam and Vala made their way down winding streets in one of the most derelict cities Sam had ever seen. She knew there were places on Earth that were bad. But this was breathtaking in its level of decay. The stench was overwhelming, rising in the heat from garbage and debris piled high in doorways and alleyways. The occupants of the city were a hopeless looking, shapeless mass of broken humanity, shuffling aimlessly along or sitting listlessly on doorsteps.

Sam and Vala were moving purposefully towards a blocky fortress rising imposingly at the edge of the slum. Sam wondered how much of the poverty and abuse surrounding them was a direct result of Ar'Loc's presence here.

They passed one final huddled clump of beings to get to a side door in the fortress that they had been told to go to. It was guarded by a pair of Jaffa still in the heavy armor of Dedun's army, lacking only the heavy headdress but still wearing the stylistic lion tattoos on their foreheads. They were armed with zats, which Sam recognized. Hanging from their belts was a long curled whip with an electronic handle. Vala eyed the whip with barely controlled contempt and shot Sam a warning look.

Then the look melted out of her eyes and she affected an expression of vapid cheerfulness that did absolutely nothing to hide her natural sexiness. Sam had watched Vala change colors like a chameleon before but this time it was almost devastating. Sam would have sworn she'd never met this woman at all.

"Hi there," she waved and smiled. "I have a gift for his Majestic Eminence the First Prime Ar'Loc from his brother Jaffa, Maf'ra of Drachnom."

Two sets of leering eyes swept the women. "Oh I just bet you do," one of the guards said.

"It's some kind of expensive art carving," Vala said, bringing the small package out from the inside of her sleeve.

"Fine," the other guard said, "Wait here."

Vala and Sam waited, looking and acting nervous and uncertain while one of the guards took out a lethal serrated knife and split open the box and then the fluffy packing material until he got to the marble statue inside. He examined it carefully for hidden compartments and ran a scanner over it looking for any kind of electronic signal.

Sam whispered cautiously to Vala, "What are those whips?"

"They're called neron whips. You might want to avoid anything that would make them use those," Vala whispered back.

"Are they survivable?" Sam asked.

"Yes," Vala answered, sounding grim, "You'll just wish they weren't."

Sam swallowed a little.

"All right," the guard said, handing the open box and the statue back to Vala, "In you go."

Vala looked as if she had attempted a step backwards. "C-Can't we just leave it with you?"

"Oh, no, it's a rule. All gifts are to be hand delivered by the bearer, especially when the bearers look like the two of you."

The door swung open at some unseen signal and two more guards waited inside.

"Take them to Ar'Loc."

Sam and Vala stepped inside the fortress, between two more massive Jaffa. The door snapped closed with a decisive bang, shutting out the sunlight and plunging them into almost complete darkness.

The inside of the fortress matched its dull and forbidding exterior. The interior was dark and dank and composed of twisting, rough-floored corridors lit by flickering torches. Sam didn't bother trying to keep track of the route as their two-guard escort took them deeper into the fortress. She doubted Vala was bothering with it either. Instead, they were both concentrating on assessing the overall defense structure and increasing the level of fear showing in their body language.

They reached the main audience chamber at last, to find a large, high-ceilinged room dominated by gloom, stench and general repulsiveness. Ar'loc was seated on a throne and a raised dais, surrounded by other Jaffa and women who appeared to be serving as slaves. He was huge, dark-haired and bronze skinned.

"So what have we here?" He asked, "A gift from Maf'ra?"

"Yes, You Magnificent Eminence," Vala answered, with a quaver in her hushed voice as she glanced around nervously.

Sam was doing the same thing, but they were evaluating the defensive capabilities of the room. There was ports in the walls that were most likely weapons, and a handful of guards. That appeared to be it.

"Bring it here, both of you."

Sam and Vala both stepped forward hesitantly. At some point they both knew there was going to be some kind of test to see if they were really the helpless slaves they appeared to be. It came when they had only taken three steps. Two guards unleashed their whips and with casual flicks of their wrist sent them snaking towards Sam and Vala.

Sam gasped and held up her hands uselessly in front of her face – fighting the instinctive urge to dodge or duck or roll or do anything to stop the weapon from touching her. To her great relief the whip cracked centimeters short of her face. A sizzle of energy bit the air between them.

"Your Eminence!" Vala cried, "Please what have we-"

The answer came from the guards in the form of another flick of their wrists. This time the whips connected.

The lash curled around Sam's legs and yanked her off her feet. She went down screaming in a way that was not at all role-playing. The whip's current arced agonizingly through her body. She clawed at it, screaming again as it burned her fingertips. She started to shout Stop and changed it to, "No, please. Please."

Beside her Vala was sobbing and begging.

"Defend yourself!" One of the guards laughed, tossing a pistol onto the floor beside her.

Sam got it and fought against the pain, forcing her fingers to fumble as if she had never held a weapon in her life. She clenched her teeth and fought her own training. The pistol was probably useless, just another prop in Ar'loc's sadistic trap; but if she swiveled on one hip and swung her legs around hard enough she would pop the whip's control shaft out of her attacker's hand.

But if she did that – if she showed any sign of combat training at all – she would probably die.

She got a grip on the pistol and tried to bring it to bear on her assailant, shaking uncontrollably and sobbing like a child. She sagged and let the weapon drop from her fingers. Then she toppled over as if she had fainted.

Mercifully the current shut off. Trying not to pant she heard the current in the other whip shut off and Vala crashed to the floor beside her. She could hear Vala panting and risked glancing at her.

Through gritted teeth Vala hissed at her, "Stay down."

"Why?" Sam barely opened her teeth to speak.

"You look like you want to murder someone," Vala warned.

"I do," Sam growled.

"Don't come up until you don't!"

From above them, conversationally, Ar'loc said, "That was a lesson. Now that you know the whip's power, I safely assume you don't want to experience it again."

Vala pushed up on her elbow. "No!" She gasped, "No! Please no. We'll do anything. Just don't…don't-" The words came out mangled, barely recognizable in her sobs.

Rough hands reached down and untangled the whips from around the women's legs. Vala got a hand around Sam's arm and they struggled to their feet, swaying together for a moment. There was another brief flare of warning in Vala's eyes and Sam remembered in time to look frightened out of her mind instead of spitting mad. They both took a moment to make sure their legs were really working and then let them buckle so that they collapsed again to the floor.

Guards seized them both and hauled them up. Wobbling and trembling, Vala and Sam stood, staring at the floor and holding hands.

"You both belong to me now," Ar'loc's voice boomed, imperiously. ""Your lives are mine. If you please me you will survive. If you don't please me then there will be neron whips on full charge wrapped around you for the remainder of your short and miserable existence. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes, sir," Vala whimpered. When Sam didn't answer, Vala dug her fingernails into Sam's palm.

Sam bit back a gasp of surprise, turned it into a sob and looked at the floor with her shoulders hunched in the helpless display of a beaten animal.

"Good." He waved a hand at the guards, "Take them to the slave master," he said, dismissively, "Tell him to do with them whatever he wants."

(0)