Chapter 11 ~ … Comes The Sting
"You ready for this?"
Leesia looked up from fastening her thigh harness, over at Daniel who was watching her closely while tugging on his tac-vest.
"I am not ready for the Honeymoon to be over," she smiled at him, cheekily, hoping that her own nervousness wouldn't show through. It was clear from his apprehensive expression that he was just as nervous as she was… maybe even more so.
A grin broke through the worried expression Daniel wore and he stepped over to his wife, wrapping his arms around her hips.
"There's still the ride home," he whispered promisingly behind her ear, tugging her body close to his own.
"You think the room can withstand it?" she asked, as she peered over his shoulder at the shambles they had left in their wake.
Daniel, briefly followed her gaze, taking in the sight of the room; The rumpled bed, the knocked over table, the clothes thrown haphazardly over the floor. There was no denying that this 'Honeymoon suit' had hosted plenty of action in the last few days.
"Guess we'll find out," he grinned, resisting the urge to kiss that milky neck so tantalizing close to his lips. They would be arriving at the planet any moment now and they didn't have time to get side tracked. No matter how great the appeal was.
"Shall we get this mission over with so we can on with that?" he asked, reluctently pulling back and shoving his wanton hands deep into his pockets before he could act on his temptation. "Sooner we get going, the sooner we get back."
"I like that plan," she said through a huge grin of her own, threading her arm through his they made their way to the Pel'tac where the others were waiting.
"As soon as we drop out of hyperspace engage the cloak," Sam told Teal'c, taking a seat beside him in the co-pilot chair. He nodded silently in response, his eyes glued to the viewport ahead.
With a jolt, the swirled blue of hyperspace vanished from view, replaced by a bright orange planet against the black background of space, growing slowly larger as they approached.
Sam immediately went to work, jabbing at the controls and a holographic image of the facility on the planets surface below them materialised instead over the viewport.
"Scanners are picking up life signs."
"Not a wasted trip then," Cam said, already slamming the ammo down into the top of his P90 getting ready for action. "Any way of telling what kind? Are we beaming into Super Soldier City Central or what?"
"The red dots would indicate the presence of a Symbiot," Sam told him. "But that could be Kull, Goa'uld or Jaffa. There's no way to determine which. And the blue, those without."
"Human?" Leesia asked, worriedly, eyeing up the much larger quantity of pale blue flashing dots. There was so many.
"More than likely, but there really is no way to tell from here precisely what each one is."
"Right then, that's our beam down point," Cam said, indicating a spot on the screen. "Stealth is the word boys and girls. Assess the situation, plant the C4 then get the hell out of dodge. Keep the engine running for us big guy." he added clapping Teal'c on the shoulder.
Leesia couldn't help but wish that Teal'c was coming with them on her first official mission as a full member of SG-1. She was nervous and wanted the calming and secure feeling she always gained from the Jaffa's presence. Unfortunately someone had to stay behind to keep control of the ship and prevent the autopilot from disengaging the cloaking device and revealing their position. She would have offered to stay behind herself, but while her ability had been able to control the autopilot and get them to the planet in the first place, she would be next to useless now it had done it's job. As Teal'c was the most qualified and experienced pilot of Goa'uld ships he was the best and most obvious choice.
Taking a steadying breath, she took up Osiris's altered hand device and stepped up with the other three ready to beam down. Daniel's hand came to the small of her back and was a comfort as she pressed down on the top button and seconds later the golden interior of the ship was replaced with blackness and the lingering stench of smoke.
"Why is it so dark?" Leesia asked, her voice little more than a whisper, yet sounding very loud to her in the still silence. Before the sentence had fully finished, three separate small beams of light lit up from around her, highlighting the faces of her companions and reminding her that she too had a touch in her kit. Cursing her own stupidity, she fished about her person until she found what she was looking for and a fourth beam joined the other three.
She froze, suddenly realising why none of the others had answered her question.
They had beamed right into the middle of a sea of Kull warriors.
…
"So," Mitchell barked the word out, craning his neck forward to try and view the newest member of his team around his raised arm. "what do you think of your first mission so far? Not what you expected?"
Wearing a look of complete disbelief, Leesia also leaned forward so she could see the Colonel and judge whether or not he was joking. She was trying to put on a brave face, but the fear in her soulful eyes was evident, even through her confusion, to the others in the cell.
Shackled to the wall beside her, Daniel interrupted on his wife's behalf when it became clear she was too stumped by the man's light-hearted question to actually answer it. "I dunno. Aside from these," he said giving his manacles a shake, making the chains rattle, "this is pretty much on par with our first mission."
"Yep," Sam agreed, picking up her cue, "dirty Goa'uld prison, people waiting to be chosen. If we could just get a friendly neighbourhood Jaffa to join our ranks and blast us out of here, I could definitely draw a parallel."
Daniel couldn't help the warm feeling that settled on him at that moment. That first fateful mission to Chulak he had only taken in hope of finding Sha'ra. He had been searching for his wife, stolen from him in the height of his happiness. That had been the start of the downward spiral, that lead to her implantation and subsequent death. It was a little comforting to know that this time round his love sat beside him, her slightly tumbling thigh pressed tight enough to his that he could feel her warmth through their clothes. "We'll be able to copy and paste the mission report." Daniel concluded Sam's evaluation with a nod and a small smile. "Although we'd have to edit the names, places and dates... And we'd have to mention the smell, that's definitely pungent enough to deserve a mention."
Mitchell viewed the others with a strong sense of pride. Their easy banter smothering the rising panic that would no doubt be overwhelming, especially for the unaccustomed former Ancient. It soothed them, bonded them and kept up their spirits. Oh, yeah he was on the right team! "Not satisfied with the accommodation, Jackson?"
"Frankly I expected better." Daniel stated, glad that the new CO was so quick to pick up the teams familiar ways. Making jokes in the face of danger was usually Jack's job, it was reassuring to see that the humour was still present even though Jack himself wasn't. "Five class facility, and not even one star accommodation. The room service is terrible and don't even get me started on the en suite …bucket. There's not even a chocolate on the pillow," he concluded with a small laugh.
"That's a good thing," Leesia said screwing her face up in a mock grimace.
Hiding a grin, pleased that Leesia was joining in with their banter, it would help ease off the panic, Daniel played along. "Why's that?"
"You know how little I care for chocolate."
"Yes, but I could have yours," he pointed out adamantly.
"Fight ya for it," Sam piped in.
Daniel laughed through his nose. "You'd be in for a battle, it is chocolate after all."
"And while you two were fighting, I am sure Cam would have eaten it," Leesia said, finally joining them with a small smile.
"Damn straight," Cam agreed, with a broad grin.
A silence stretched through the stillness of their prison. At least now it wasn't the pointed horror filled silence it had been before, now it wasn't as terrifying. There was comfort to be found in the desperation... That is until Leesia interrupted it, "We are certain the queen was killed?" The quiver in her voice was not quite masked, though it was clear she tried.
"Unless there's a way she could have survive a C4 explosion in her face," Sam said with confidence. "I think it's a pretty safe bet that she's dead."
"Well, that's something." Leesia stated with a relieved sounding sigh. It was something. Not much, but something. Whatever fate awaited them when their captors were ready, at least implantation wasn't on the schedule.
Seeing how scared Leesia was, Daniel didn't really want to voice the question that had been niggling at him since they beamed down, but he knew he really had to. They all needed to know. "What's been bugging me is what does Ba'al need humans for if he had no symbiotes?"
"What are you saying, Jackson? You think he has found a Queen?" Cam asked.
"No, I'm just thinking aloud. We know he's making Kulls, and making them differently somehow."
"How do we know that?"
"Well, it stands to reason. These ones act differently and seem to have a longer lifespan. Also the cloning equipment is destroyed and he hasn't rebuilt any of it."
"That we saw," Sam interrupted.
"That we saw," Daniel agreed with a nod. "We also haven't seen any of these humans that, according to the scanner, should be all over this place."
"You're assuming that they were human," Sam said. "The scanner only picks up the presence of a symbiote, or the lack of. They could be anything really."
The juddering clanging of many hard boots against a harder floor interrupted their talk, increasing in volume as they neared and moments later the sound of a heavy bolt being slid back. Each member of the new SG-1, minus their own missing Jaffa, turned door-wards. Two Jaffa came inside and framed the doorway, standing alert for their 'God'.
"The infamous SG-1," Ba'al sneered as he entered.
"Didn't know you were a fan, Bally," Mitchell mocked. "Tell you what, let us slip of these accessories and we'll do you an autograph."
The Goa'uld snorted out a humourless chuckle. "Where is the Shol'va?"
The question was met with three raised chinned and tight lipped looks of stubborn defiance from Sam, Mitchell and Daniel. Leesia kept her head bowed down, afraid her fear would show through and betray the teams gathered bravery. She wouldn't be the weak link. She refused to let them down.
"Well, you know how bad the traffic gets around here. I'm sure he'll be along any minute now." Cam replied, keeping up the act.
Ba'al looked down his nose at them, then addressed his Jaffa. "The two males." he ordered, jabbing his finger first at Cameron, then to Daniel.
"No." Leesia cried out, her fear all but forgotten, as the two Jaffa moved to follow their orders. She struggled to get her feet beneath her and quickly stood, her arms pulled back as she strained as far forward as the chains would allow. "Take me instead."
Arms folded across his robe-clad chest, Ba'al turned to face the interrupter for the first time. For the briefest of seconds he hesitated, a slight tilting of his head as his eyes studied her closely, before a knowing smile of mockery split his face. "You misunderstand." his dual voice scoffed. "There is no instead, only first, second and so on."
"Then take me first." Leesia demanded. She heard a wavered inhale behind her right shoulder and knew it was Daniel. He wasn't liking this idea. She knew he wouldn't, but she hoped he could see her thinking.
Here, shackled to the walls by metal cuffs, her ability was useless to them. But out of her chains, in the facility filled with Goa'uld technology, she had a chance.
While Ba'al tilted his head and pursed his lips as he contemplated her request, Leesia held her breath, hoping. "Very well." Ba'al agree with a slight nod, before turning to his Jaffa and barking. "Take her to examination!"
The Jaffa immediately jumped into action, crossing the small cell in wide stride and shoving her back so they could access her shackles. Out of the corner of her eye she met Daniel's pleadingly worried gaze. He was biting his lip. Whether in worry or to stop himself from speaking and giving away an emotional weakness to the enemy, she could only guess at. Most likely it was a mix of both and she tried to offer some comfort to him by look alone, as she was yanked forcibly from the cell.
Held tightly between two Jaffa, she tried to memorize the twists and turns as she was dragged through the hallways of the fortress-like laboratory. Looking out for any memorable details she could use like sign posts on route back to the others. But that was useless. Each corridor was identical to the last. Just when she thought she was going to lose track of how many turns, in which direction and in what order, the Jaffa jerked her to a halt.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a door slide open and immediately started 'feeling' for the technology within.
It was not familiar!
Why hadn't she considered this possibility? The Goa'uld were scavengers by nature. They stole technology from other races. But the thought that she would be faced with a technology she knew nothing about, and therefore not be able to influence, hadn't occurred to her.
She dared a peek at the dim interior of the room she had been taken to and her stomach turned. The word 'examination' echoed hauntingly through her mind, as her eyes fell on the solitary contraption in the centre of the room. She didn't know what Ba'al had meant by examination. Whether he meant it as interrogation or (God forbid)…medical, but she was about to find out. Whether she wanted to or not. Seven foot long, three wide, the apparatus could neither be described as a bed or a table. Framed with raised edges and headed with many dials. She had no intent to being laid out on that slab and the last precious drop of her forced bravery drained out of her.
She dug her heels in, throwing her weight backwards. "No! Please, please don't!" she begged the Jaffa pitifully, desperately trying to reverse their forward motion. "Please, please. Stop!"
They weren't even slowed by her efforts, nor moved by her pleading. They merely gripped her tighter, squeezing her biceps painfully and dragged her kicking and screaming into the room.
"No! Please! Daniel, HELP!" she cried out hysterically fearful, as she was lifted off the floor. She thrashed in their grip. "Daniel! Daniel! DAAANNNNIELLLLL!"
No sooner was she dumped upon it when the centre panel lit up and it felt like her limbs were suddenly lined with lead. Weighted down, she couldn't move a single muscle, or lift a finger. Even her panic breathing felt tight and heavy.
It was an uneasy and disturbingly familiar feeling, being laid out, immobile. But her scream caught in her throat in terror, as Ba'al followed them in and stared down at her. "Really Kabechet, this behaviour highly unladylike."
With no clue as to who the Goa'uld had mistaken her for, Leesia ignored him, keeping her lips firmly locked together and tried to take deep calming breaths, fighting to hold back the rising panic. She couldn't panic now. Not when the others needed her.
"Ingenious device is it not?" Ba'al gloated, stroking the edges of the slab affectionately. "Increases the gravity pull on the subject, rendering them completely…helpless." The way he added the last word and the twinkle in his eye as he said it, sent a fierce shiver down her spine. "Of course, reverse the settings and it can be used for much more pleasurable activates." A wicked grin added to the overall creep factor.
"Why have you come?"
Tight-lipped, Leesia returned his stare, concentrating on her breathing in an attempt to not cry in fear. Even if she had been in a fit state to use her voice she would not have answered that question.
Ba'al leaned over, resting his forearms on the side of the device, so his face was inches from hers.
"Your son is not here."
That got her undivided attention. Up until then her heart had been beating a tango against the inside of her ears, now it set up residence in the pit of her stomach.
Seeing the shift in his prisoner's demeanor, Ba'al smiled again. "Yes, I've read a great deal about you and your intriguing offspring here."
"I'm certain I have no idea what you are talking about," she choked out.
"Come, come, come, Princess. Let's not keep things from old friends."
From reading through the many mission reports, Leesia had been sure it was Lord Yu that had the mental problems, but now hearing Ba'al referring to her in way she didn't understand, she was not so sure anymore. Calling her 'Princess', saying they were 'old friends' and that name he had called her when he had first come in; 'Kebachet'? Yet he claimed to have read about her and knew about her son. It didn't make sense... 'Maybe insanity is more common among the Goa'uld then believed,' she pondered, 'after all even Daniel went more than mildly crazy after continued use of the sarcophagus.'
Of course a crazy Goa'uld made him all the more dangerous. "Friends, old or new, do not hold one another against their will," she stammered out, barely able to speak around the tightness gripping her throat.
"No," Ba'al agreed, "that's left to family I believe."
He pushed himself upright and, turning his back to her, started searching through SG-1's packs. "My, my, what have we here?" he said, holding aloft Osiris's hand-device, closely inspecting the alteration made to the back.
Leesia swallowed hard. Cloaked or not, if Ba'al pressed the button he would be beamed onto the ship. Teal'c would be taken by surprise. By an armed and evidently crazy Goa'uld nonetheless.
But then she reconsidered. That may give her the chance she needed to escape. She couldn't start using her abilities with him in the same room, but if he left... She may even have time to radio a warning to Teal'c if she could figure out the workings of this device quick enough.
"Try it," she challenged.
Ba'al snorted. "Some other time," he said with disinterest, tossing it back, then rounding to face her once again. "For now I have more... compelling matters."
Leesia screwed her eyes shut and tried to will her skin to stop crawling as the Goa'uld slowly drew the backs of his fingers down the side of her throat.
"My Lord, it is done as requested."
Ba'al's eyes thinned at the Jaffa's interruption. "Make yourself comfortable Princess," he said mockingly, running his fingers up over her cheek deliberately lightly. "I'll be back as soon as I have taken care of business."
Before he had fully left the room, Leesia was putting her plan into action. Sending out a wave to the device she was held onto, she felt through it, searching for it's power source… It was like trying to read in the dark. In desperation she started jabbing at parts in random, hoping to get lucky.
She gasped in shocked surprise as she suddenly lifted up off the device and started floating up into the air. Reversing the gravitational pull, hadn't been what she was hoping for, but maybe this could work. At least she could move.
Twisting, she managed to flip herself over so she was face down. Floundering in mid air she made a mental note to learn how to swim if they got out of this mess as she desperately tried to claw for the edge of the device. finally, she managed to hock her middle finger around the raised side and heaved herself over, falling heavily to the floor.
"Owww," she groaned, pausing for a second to catch a much needed breath, before pushing herself up and speeding over to where Ba'al had conveniently left their supplies. Unsurprisingly the guns and zats were missing, but the radios, packs and tac vest were all there. Choosing a vest at random, she quickly pulled it on, stuffed Osiris's hand device into one of the packs and slung it over her shoulder. Crossing to the doorway, she peeked both ways down the thankfully deserted corridor. Praying she could remember the route and wishing that she was armed, she crept out.
...
"Hello?"
Sam immediately stopped scraping away the mortar from around the bolt chaining her to the wall with her belt buckle at the sound of that voice. "Leesia? Is that you?" she called back in a hushed whisper.
The cell door swung open and Leesia hurried inside. "Oh thank heavens," she gasped out. "These doors all look alike, I was beginning to think I would never-" She froze mid-sentence as she stared in dreaded surprise around the cell.
Daniel and Cameron were nowhere to be seen.
"What happened?"
"After the Jaffa took you, Ba'al order them to be taken too." Sam told her, signaling her over and pulling the small explosive charge that she could use to free herself from the chains for the other woman's tac pocket. She didn't add that they had been left just long enough to hear Leesia's terrified screams before they'd both been zatted unconscious and carried from the cell.
"Why?" Leesia sighed morbidly, not really surprised that the Goa'uld had gone back on his word.
"Lets not wait to find out," Sam said, blowing the charge. "What do we have?"
"Supplies, no weapons," Leesia told her shaking her head, "but I did get the hand device."
"Right," Sam nodded. With no weapons recon was out, it was now solely search and rescue. At least escape wouldn't be an issue as long as Teal'c had kept the ship hidden.
Free of her chains, Sam lead Leesia to the doorway. "They were taken this way. Did you hear them pass you?"
"No."
"So they must be somewhere between here and where you were held."
Leesia nodded in agreement, following the more experienced woman down the quiet hallway.
Painstakingly slowly they search room after room, until finally they found them. While Leesia kept lookout Sam enter the chamber, quickly assessing them both. Lying unconscious on the same devices that Leesia had been held upon, both men appear uninjured at first glance. But not taking anything for granted, Sam quickly placed her first two fingers to Cam's pulse point.
"He's alive," she called over to Leesia, quickly darting over to Daniel. "They both are."
"The devices affect the gravitational pull. They will not be able to move," Leesia told her from the doorway.
Thinking fast, Sam made the decision. "Let's get out of here," she said, waving Leesia over and pulling the hand device out of the pack she wore. They could assess the situation once they were back on the ship.
Holding hands to form a link between the the two men, they activated the hand device and beamed back on board the ship.
The instant they were safe, Leesia dropped to her husband's side.
"Daniel?" she called over his immobile form, giving his shoulders a shake and then a firmer one when he didn't respond. Meanwhile Sam was giving Cam similar treatment beside her.
"Why won't they wake?"
"I don't know," Sam replied, "The effects of the zat blasts should have worn off long before now," she said shaking her head in confusion. "Damn it, wake up!"
Instantly both men's eye snapped open, staring fixed, unblinking at the ceiling above them.
"Okay, that's a little creepy," Sam spoke under her breath as her eyes tennised between the two of them. Neither man spoke nor moved a muscle.
"Maybe more than a little."
"Sam?" Leesia spoke up, her voice wavering as her lips trembled in fear, "There is something in his neck."
