Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG-1, or any of the characters.
Chapter ten! Now I'm in the double digits! Sorry that it took me so long to update, I'm just so busy with school everything else in my life. Anyway, here goes the next chapter.
Samantha Carter's point of view:
It was late. She'd been driving for hours all over town, looking for Maria and Selmak. She was frustrated, and was ready to drive as fast as she could to the base. If she couldn't find Maria and Selmak by herself, she knew that she'd be able to get plenty of help from the same people who were looking for Selmak.
Several moments later she gave up, and was about to follow her instinct to go to the base when she looked at her gas gage. She'd driven for so long that she'd almost completely drained her tank of gas. There was no way she could make it to the base without stopping to refuel. Cars do not run on willpower, she thought, pulling into the closest gas station, not even looking at the prices.
As she stood by her car, waiting for it to refuel, she saw two teenage boys exiting the gas station convenient store. They were talking loudly, and Samantha couldn't help overhearing what they said. And what she heard filled her with dread, fear, and disgust.
"On Monday, that Maria Carter is gonna wish she'd never been born! As soon as school's over, she's dead. I'm gonna pound her until her own sister won't recognize her!" He threatened.
"Yeah," the other guy added. "I'll bet she's nothing without that fish thing! That thing practically tore my arm off," he complained. "Carter's got a sister?"
"Yeah, and she is fine. If she were younger, I'd make her my girlfriend." Samantha noticed that their words were slurred. They must've been drunk.
Samantha yanked the gas cord out of her car, more disgusted than she'd been in years. These jerks had hurt Maria? Why? And what the second guy said about the "snake thing" only confirmed her fears about Selmak. And it only made it worse was that two civilians like them had seen him. Samantha knew that they were bound to tell others soon enough. She had to stop them, and find out what they knew about Maria and Selmak. And if they didn't tell her what she wanted to know, she'd make a citizens arrest, and drag them down to the police.
Paying as quickly as the machine would let her, she got in her car and roared up in front of the boys just as they were about to leave the parking lot. Before they could so much start to step around the car, she rolled down the window.
"I heard what you just said about Maria," Samantha had to work extremely hard to keep her anger in check. "Where is she? What did you do to her? What did you mean by "fish thing"? Tell me, right now, before I make a citizen's arrest on assault charges for what you did to my sister!" She tried to sound commanding.
"I'd like to see you try," the first guy said. "Dude, this is Carter's sister."
"Yeah? You were right, she is fine." The two boys didn't take her seriously, probably because they were drunk, and full of themselves to boot. Samantha's anger and disgust was growing, while her patience was wearing dangerously thin. She ground her teeth together in an effort to control herself.
"Tell me! Or else!" Samantha knew that sounded lame, but it was all she could think to say.
"Or else, what?" The second boy sneered.
Samantha had no choice but to repeat her earlier threat of making a citizen's arrest on assault charges, which, just as before, only earned her taunts from the two self-centered, half-drunk jocks in front of her.
She didn't have time for this. Maria and Selmak had even less time. She'd known ever since she'd met Orlan that the NID had her house wired and bugged. They were bound to know about Maria and Selmak- it would be a miracle if they didn't. Sam just knew they'd be after Selmak- Maria too. They'd probably find an excuse to take her too. And Sam wasn't about to let either Selmak or Maria be locked up.
Just as the boys started to walk away, she shoved the car door open and shot out, having no other alternative than physical force. At the sound of her approach, the boys turned, surprised.
She had them both by the collar before they could do anything, and dragged both of them, who were cursing, kicking and struggling, behind the gas station store, where and empty and abandoned lot was.
Using her level three hand- to-hand combat knowledge, she slammed them both against the wall. They struggled, but it was no use.
"Tell me!" She ordered them. "Or you'll get a hell of a lot worse than this!" When they hesitated to answer, she raised her knee threateningly, like she was about to hit the older boy where it hurt.
"Wait! I'll tell you, I swear!" The older boy relented, and began to explain so fast that Sam almost couldn't understand what he was saying. But Sam got the gist of it.
Maria had, apparently, stood up to them for some reason. So they had chased her all the way home- and then past it to the woods. It was after that that they couldn't find her- but found Selmak. Or, the "fish thing" according to the boy. It would have been funny had it been at any other time, she thought.
Anyway, they tried to capture Selmak, but then Maria had shown herself, an told them to leave the fish thing alone. The older boy told her that when he'd gone after Maria again, Selmak had bitten his ankle, then bit the other's arm. Sam glanced at the younger boy- who flinched. She could see the x-shaped mark on his arm and she almost smirked.
After that, to her anger, the older guy told her that he'd kicked Maria twice, and then they'd run away, leaving Maria and the "fish thing" behind.
"That's all we know- I swear!" He finished quickly.
Sam's anger and disgust remained, but she was a little relieved. They didn't know who Selmak was.
She had to let them go, so she dropped them. But before she let them run away, she'd given the older boy a hard knee in the chest, punched the younger one where Selmak had bitten him, and then happily knocked their heads together. For once, she didn't care if anyone found out what she'd done.
"Cowards!" She called as they ran off. "Leave my sister alone from now on!" Then she ran back to her car, started the engine, and left the gas station as fast as the speed limit would allow. She had to get back to the base, then realized it would be much faster for the others to do something if she called General Hammond. He would order an unarmed search for Maria and Selmak.
Taking out her cell-phone, she called the base, and the person who answered got General Hammond for her.
"What is it Captain? Everything okay? How's your sister?" The General, as usual, sounded calm and concerned.
"Well, Sir, that's exactly the problem. Maria is gone, and I know that Selmak is with her. I'm on my way to the SGC." She waited to let that sink into the General's head.
"What?" He sounded disbelieving. "Maria found Selmak? How? And where? Do you know where she could be going?"
"It's a long story, Sir. I'll tell you what I know." She told him about sensing the naqueda in Maria's room, the fish tank, what the teenage boys had told her- leaving out the part where she beat them to a pulp- and everything she could think of.
As soon as she had finished explaining, General Hammond came up with a plan.
"Captain Carter, you do realize that your father is the very first person I have to tell this too?"
"Yes Sir," she answered, beginning to worry about what her father's reaction would be. General Hammond continued.
"Any idea as to how he'll react to the news of his youngest daughter gone, and apparently with Selmak?"
"I know he'll be worried, Sir, and he'll probably demand to leave the SGC to join the search," she guessed as best she could. She could clearly picture her father arguing with General Hammond loudly in his office.
"That's what I thought," he answered. "I'll bring in the search teams, brief them, and send them out to search all the main roads and towns nearest to the SGC. We can search outside the perimeter of the mountains now, since a civilian is involved. We'll find them, Captain, and soon." He sounded like he was trying to reassure her.
They were interrupted by the sound of another telephone ringing.
"It's the President," General Hammond explained. Sam knew that she'd be on hold for a minute. She could hear the General's voice in the background, but couldn't make anything out. Eventually, Sam heard the General end the phone call from the president, and he got back on the phone he'd been talking to her on. Sam resumed the conversation before the General could say anything.
"Sir? What about the NID? Do they know?" She had to ask.
General Hammond sighed. "I just got a call from the President," he said, stating the obvious. "He warned me that the NID does know about Selmak, and Maria. They're searching for them as we speak."
Then the NID already had a head start. Sam's heart sank.
"We have to find them first, Sir. We both know that they'll find some excuse to take Selmak and Maria away to who-knows-where and-" she choked up. Sam's voice had been steadily rising as she got more and more upset. Her vision was blurry with unshed tears. She couldn't cry, she thought, not now. Not when General Hammond could hear. This wasn't like her, she thought, wiping her face on her sleeve.
"It's alright, Captain." General Hammond's voice was gentle. "We will find them before they do. And if we don't, you have permission to call me a liar."
His joke was enough to make her crack a smile. After that, General Hammond was silent for awhile. Sam finally spoke.
"Sir, as I said, I'm on my way to the SGC. Go ahead and tell my father and everyone else. I'll be there in time to help brief the search teams."
"Good. Keep your eyes peeled on the way, Captain. I'll see you in the briefing room."
"Yes Sir," she answered. With that, they both hung up. Sam pocketed her cell phone. She drove on, scanning the road and the woods around it as she did, but seeing no sign of Maria or Selmak. She bit her lip in frustration, and sped up even more.
See? I didn't give up. In the next chapter, they'll be even more action, I promise. Please keep reviewing. As I've said before, they keep me going. :) Thanks for reading so far!