Revelations - part 7

Sorry about the delay -- computer trouble! Here's chapter 7. Hope you like it!


Sam became dimly aware of someone stroking her cheek, and whispering her name. Opening her eyes a crack, she managed to focus on Lauren's face above her own, smiling grimly.

"Ow." Sam muttered. She sat up slowly, and saw Daniel being poked awake by Jack on the other side of the cell. Tyler was leaning against a wall with his eyes closed, rubbing his temples.

"You OK?" Lauren asked her.

"Yeah, fine. Where are we?"

"Dunno. We all passed out this time, so we have no way of knowing where we are in relation to the 'gate. Jack's dead depressed about it."

Sam crawled over to the three men on the other side of the room, Lauren following. She stopped beside Tyler, and sat next to him, with Jack and Daniel in front of her. Lauren settled on her other side.

"You OK, Tyler?" Sam asked, touching the young man's arm to get his attention. He opened his eyes, and turned his head to look at her.

"Yeah, I'll live. Blacking out doesn't really agree with me."

"I know how you feel." Sam replied grimly. "Daniel?"

"I'm good." the archaeologist said a little more brightly than he felt.

Jack stood up suddenly. "Carter, a word?"

"Sure." she said, knowing exactly what this was going to be about. He ushered her over to the other side of the cell, and then, facing away from the others spoke in undertones.

"Look. I know I don't exactly out-rank you anymore, but, well, strictly speaking I'm the superior officer. Which means I call the shots."

Sam gave an exasperated sigh. "Have I ever challenged your authority?"

"No," Jack said slowly, "but I just need to know we're clear. This being the first time we've been off-world together since your promotion."

Sam looked him straight in the eye, and said something she'd been meaning to say ever since that promotion. "Sir, everyone knows you should have had one too. You've more than earned it, and if it wasn't for Kinsey picking holes in exactly the right places you would have got one as deserved."

Jack considered giving her a cold reply making it clear he didn't need her sympathy, but swallowed it. He couldn't be mean to Sam. He'd only hate himself for it, and she meant every word of it. He could always tell. Instead he gave her a small nod, and a shadow of a smile.

"Drop the 'sir', Carter."

Both of them spun round as a door somewhere could be heard grating open, and Shorter appeared at their cell's door. Jack marched right up to the bars, and looked down at him menacingly.

"You have made one BIG mistake buddy."

Shorter cocked his head. "Interesting. The reaction of one who is trapped, feeling vulnerable. Sparks different emotions in each." He commented, his eyes taking in each of them.

"What do you want?" asked Daniel, walking up to where Jack was standing. The alien regarded him for a moment before answering.

"The specimens should ask what is wanted of them? Now this I hadn't predicted!"

"What do you mean, 'specimens'?" demanded Sam.

"The quest for knowledge and understanding of the situation. They fear that which they do not understand." Shorter chirped, clearly enjoying avoiding their questions.

"Sir, may I make a suggestion?" Tyler asked Jack, standing. Jack gestured for the five of them to gather away from the bars.

"He obviously isn't interested in answering our questions, and he seems to enjoy annoying us and stirring emotions, so what better way to convince them we mean business than to ignore them? They lose their fuel for fun, and we look like much less interesting 'specimens'."

"That's all very well, Adam, but do we want to look uninteresting? Look what they did to SG2." Lauren reasoned.

"Yeah, Jack, she's right – I don't fancy having the wits knocked out of me when they lose interest." said Daniel.

"But Tyler has got a point," Sam added, "asking questions is getting us nowhere, and they don't appear to think us worthy of answers. They call us 'specimens' and treat us like lab rats. I'd say we were some kind of twisted experiment, and they're gonna push us as right to the edge to find out what makes us tick."

Jack looked miserably round at his team, finding that they too thought what Sam had said made sense. He had never in his life hoped so much that she was wrong. He glanced at Tyler.

"Any more bright ideas?" Tyler shrugged, and tried his best not to feel sheepish in front of his two superior officers, and Lauren. Oh yeah, and there was Daniel.

"So, what do we do now? Just sit around and wait for those two to experiment on us?" Daniel asked sarcastically. Sam and Jack disappeared in a flash of light.

"Never mind." Daniel muttered.


As usual, please please please review! I wanna know how I'm doing! My muse is going hungry!

Beka