CHAPTER ELEVEN - Recollection

Sarah slept fitfully, her dreams full of pulsing white light. She woke irritable. Already having endured one night's poor sleep on Dornalis, she'd been counting on getting some real rest before they continued the pursuit of Daniel, Colonel Carter, and the others.

She finally gave up and pulled herself out of bed. It was still about five in the morning, but as she padded through the chilly gray hallways towards the showers she met up with quite a number of SGC personnel. Daily life on the base always got an early start. She remembered that much from her brief stay just after being freed from Osiris.

As soon as the hot water hit her body, she began to relax. She let it run until the shower was full of steam and all of her skin was nice and warm before she reached for the shampoo bottle. By that time she was humming softly under her breath. She smiled at a memory that flitted through her head. She used to hum like that when she and Daniel had worked together late into the night in Doctor Jordan's office. Sometimes it would bother him and the struggle to decide whether or not to say anything to her had been amusing to watch. Then there were the times when she might as well not have been in the room.

She was rinsing her hair out and still thinking of the old days when the elusive piece of information she'd been trying to snatch from her memory suddenly dropped into place so sharply she was surprised it wasn't accompanied by a clunking sound. For a moment her hands froze and she stood frozen in shock, heedless of the soapy water streaming down from the top of her head into her gaping mouth. Then she spit and spewed, suddenly spurred into action by more than just the unpleasant taste of shampoo.

Sarah finished her shower, dried off, dressed, and was out the door with such haste that she almost forgot her visitor's badge and had to dart back into the locker room to get it. She didn't even bother going back to her quarters so she probably looked pretty silly showing up in the command center in her pyjamas.

"Is General O'Neill here?" she asked the SF on guard.

He nodded. "Yes, ma'am. He usually doesn't leave the base when one of the teams is unaccounted for. Especially—" he began, the seemed to think better of it and closed his mouth.

Especially when it's SG-1, Sarah finished the thought in her head. Aloud, she asked, "May I speak with him? It's very important."

"Of course, go right on in. Teal'c's already in there, though."

"Oh, that's even better," she assured him, and hurried on into the conference room. She darted through the quiet conference room towards General O'Neill's office. Already she could see the two men inside through the window. She stepped up to it and knocked briskly on the glass causing them both to look up from their conversation. Something in Sarah's face must have conveyed her urgency, for the General's own expression became piqued and he waved her right in.

"Doctor Gardner, you're up early."

"I'm sorry to disturb you General, but I've just remembered something. Something very important and I came straightaway to tell you."

He frowned a little, pondering. "Something to do with Osiris?"

Sarah, a little winded from her hasty trip here, nodded. "And Anat. And Ba'al."

He raised his eyebrows. "Do tell."

"Back when the Goa'uld still ruled on Earth, Anat invented a device. It was a composite invention, a culmination of her life's work research into the human mind and various ways it could be influenced: hypnosis, subliminal messaging, suggested behavior, all manner of physical stimuli. She succeeded in inventing this brainwashing device – a prototype – that could successfully rewrite the loyalties of entire legions of enemy Jaffa in an instant."

"Sounds promising. And disturbing," General O'Neill remarked. "Please, continue. How did it work?"

"It wasn't very big," she said. "Another variant of the hand-device, but it emitted white light in these blinding pulsing flashes that would implant the mind with whatever she chose. It was a very dangerous breakthrough, one that could turn the tide of virtually any battle in Anat's favor. At the time she was nothing really more than one of Ba'al's favorite underlings, but suddenly she had the power to vault into System Lord status and beyond."

"Let me guess? The others didn't take to well to this scenario?"

Sarah shook her head. "Not in the least. They managed to overcome her before she had too many Jaffa at her disposal. Before that happened she destroyed the prototype and all her research to keep any rival Goa'uld from taking advantage of her knowledge."

"And somebody decided that knowledge was worth getting back," General O'Neill murmured. He leaned back in his big chair and rocked back and forth slightly, deep in thought.

"With the Jaffa rebellion gaining more momentum with each passing month, it is unsurprising that the Goa'uld would feel the revival this technology to be worth the risk," Teal'c observed. He couldn't keep a little bit of smugness from slipping onto his face.

"If your intelligence is right about Baal being behind the Goa'uld infiltration of the Trust," Sarah said to General O'Neill, "then I'm more than willing to believe it's him pulling the strings here."

"Oh, that's not a stretch, believe me," he replied, and ceased his swaying. "Okay, well, this is all very enlightening, but do any of your memories tell you where Anat might have set up her new mad scientist lab?"

Sarah's elation punctured somewhat. "I'm sorry, General, no. But I'll keep trying." Something else occurred to her. "You're right about her needing to establish research somewhere, though. The technology was never perfected, and so far it looks as though she still hasn't gotten it right."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, we've seen it for ourselves," she said. "It's initially very effective but the effects are not permanent. In order to keep her fighting force's loyalties from reverting, she's going to have to keep them all close on hand and use the technology on them repeatedly. My guess is it isn't going to be easy to keep an unusually large army of Jaffa a secret for very long."

"In the meantime, we can warn the leaders of the rebellion to spread the word about this new technology," Teal'c said, "and perhaps prevent the entrapment of more Jaffa."

General O'Neill pointed a strong finger at Teal'c. "Yes! And if we know what to expect, we may be able to use that to our advantage. Doctor Gardner, I don't suppose Osiris ever saw this device. Would you be able to tell us exactly what it looks like?"

Again, Sarah was forced to shake her head. "I'm sorry, no."

"Oh well. Hand device is a good start. Okay, let's spread the word to the others. You guys have got to be back on Dornalis in a few hours. Between now and then I'd like to come up with a plan the Jaffa might be able to help us put in place to get the upper hand with this gal. I'll call a conference for oh-six-thirty." He stood to his feet and glanced at Sarah. "You might want to change your clothes before then, Doctor." His eyes took in her pyjamas amusedly. "I'm all about the business casual, but some of the Tok'ra can be pretty stiff-upper-lip. They might not take you seriously." He rolled his eyes with a slight smile.

Sarah laughed. "At once, sir. Thank you."

In the heat of the day, Jonas and Amelia did their best to rest in their hideaway. It wasn't easy. What with the heat— sticky and stifling even underground – and the constant worry that Anat's Jaffa would track them here, it was a very long, tense, and dull morning.

Jonas went above long enough to make an attempt at covering their tracks and came back down. Together he and Amelia leaned up against the dirt wall of the cellar, close to the green-tinted patch of sunlight on the floor and tried to relax. They talked about everything and nothing for three hours, catching up on two years gone, carefully dancing around the obvious issue of what had happened earlier. The chatter helped Jonas to keep his mind off of the kiss, at least in part. It was impossible to forget it entirely. But he didn't want to dwell on it, how it had felt like coming home and taking something that didn't belong to him all at the same time.

Eventually, Amelia dozed off, but Jonas was too restless to do likewise. He left the hiding place long enough to find some food and came back quickly, afraid she'd wake to find him gone. He needn't have worried. It was several hours before she woke, giving him plenty of time to study her face and think carefully about his plans to keep her safe. Unfortunately, that also left him alone with a whole lot of time to spare for thinking about the Tok'ra in his head.

Malek had tried his best to fade into the background, but it wasn't easy for him. His feelings for Amelia and the circumstances the three of them now found themselves in gave certain thoughts a predilection to rise to the surface. Jonas wasn't sure how to deal with it, really. It was a really weird feeling to be jealous of one's self. A circle of thoughts chased itself over and over in Jonas's head. Malek envied Jonas. Jonas reciprocated this envy with a resentment that was difficult to articulate. He could find no dishonor in his rival's conduct. He could neither fault Malek for loving Amelia nor accuse him of stepping over the bounds of respect for her feelings. Furthermore, Malek had saved Jonas's life. There was absolutely no quarter for resentment.

And yet he wanted to be free of Malek more than words could possibly describe. Sam had been right. This wasn't something anyone should go through without the comfort of knowing the choice had been voluntary. Jonas was trying to decide if what he knew now would have changed his choice, and yet even if he had known about Malek's feelings, he could not possibly have imagined how affecting they would be.

He thought back to General O'Neill's disastrous encounter with a Tok'ra host over two years ago. In the weeks following that incident, Jack had been uncharacteristically withdrawn. It had taken a lot of patience, support, and coaxing from his team to get him to unwind again and even then he had never been willing to discuss the experience in depth. Jonas had not really understood it until now.

It was exactly the good traits in Malek that terrified Jonas. He thought of the kiss Malek and Amelia had shared in that meadow on Enna, mere days before Jonas had taken a similar daring step. He thought of how she'd begun to respond, her enjoyment in the gesture, Malek's happiness in the moment, and it was driven home to him just how precious a thing it was for love to be requited.

Malek had also made it perfectly clear to Jonas over the course of the last twenty hours that if he were the one so blessed, he would not be squandering the situation on a flimsy excuse like differing home planets. This not-so-subtle disdain did not, admittedly, do much to quell Jonas's resentment, but he was helpless to argue. The biggest question, then, was what did he do about it?

First thing, get her out of here. Keep her safe. Keep her alive. Then think about it.

When Amelia finally woke, the sun-patch was tilted in the opposite direction and the shade of green matched the late afternoon. "Good morning," said Jonas quietly with a smile as she sat up. He reached for one of the hard, melon-like fruits he'd picked up off the forest floor and whacked it against the nearby stone staircase. It split perfectly down the middle revealing the dark blue flesh inside. "Breakfast," he offered, smiling. "It's pretty good. Just sugar, really, but thick. It'll keep your mind off your stomach."

"Thanks," she said. "A favorite of Aledar's?" she asked, accepting it.

"Not so much, but it was the closest on hand. There's a lot better out there, believe me. I guess one of the advantages to growing up in a rainforest."

Amelia was attempting to scoop out some of the fruit with her fingers and not doing very well. Frowning, she took the half over to the staircase and whacked it again. Her blow wasn't quite as true as Jonas's but she did manage to split it enough to have two more manageable pieces, which she began eating like cantaloupe. Then to Jonas's surprise, she gave a happy sigh.

"What?" he asked, smiling despite his bemusement.

"Well, it may be just sugar," she said, "but it's been about ten days since I've had something sweet. What they fed us on the ha'tak wasn't exactly what you'd call sumptuous. And of course last night they didn't feed us at all."

"Yeah," he said. He'd eaten himself several hours ago while Amelia was still asleep.

"You know what's really stupid, though?" Amelia continued. Her fingers and mouth were getting a little bit stained.

"What's that?" Jonas asked, trying not to laugh.

"What I really want, more than anything else right now, is a clean pair of underwear."

Jonas couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. Amelia adopted a defensive expression. "What?" she asked. "It's true. I've been wearing the same clothes for almost ten days now. I've been in tunnels, outer space, a palace, a dungeon, a rain forest, a river and now a really musty root cellar. I'm still not completely dry, by the way," she added. "When I get home, I will never take clean underwear for granted again."

Jonas chuckled quietly, still looking at her blue-stained fingers. They put him in mind of something else. "How is your hand?" he asked. He remembered her crying with relief on the cold floor of the ha'tak cell, forcing her to open her curled fingers and hating the Goa'uld for what they had done to her. Then he remembered wrapping her fingers and holding her until she slept.

Amelia swallowed. "They still hurt," she confessed, looking at her fingertips forlornly. "But I've been pretty distracted the last couple of days, so that helps to keep my mind off it." She looked at him and gave a brave smile. Then she said, "So when are we leaving?"

"As soon as you're finished eating," he said.

It was a long trek back to the fortress, longer for the fact that Jonas chose their path carefully and in a very roundabout fashion. The palace of every Goa'uld system lord Jonas had ever heard of had secret escape tunnels. You just had to know how and where to find them. Jonas was banking on the fact that Anat had been too preoccupied to bother finding the escape routes of Bubastis, which were better hidden than some.

"I really wish we had a flashlight or a torch," he said when they finally found the shoulder-high obsidian stone that marked the entrance to the tunnel Jonas had in mind. Dusk was falling, and in the distance the silhouette of the fortress was very far away indeed.

"Why?" Amelia asked.

"Well, the tunnel has natural ventilation, or did, but no light source of its own beyond what little could get through the camouflage. It'll be dark soon. You're not claustrophobic, are you?" he asked, turning a glance to her, concerned. "The tunnel is fairly narrow."

Slowly, she shook her head. "I've never had to navigate a long, narrow tunnel in the dark so maybe I don't know, but I think I'll be all right."

"Okay," he said. Then he crouched down by the base of the stone, searching around with his fingertips, looking for the hidden catch he knew had to be there somewhere. This would be a day wasted if he couldn't figure it out. "This kind of reminds me of the obelisk back on P3X-651," he said, looking up at her, "only smaller."

She smiled. "And rounder. But I never got to see the obelisk for myself, remember?"

"Oh, that's right. And then—" Jonas grunted slightly as his fingers brushed over a promising swell in the rock and he pressed in closer to get a better grip on it, "—the Jaffa had to go and blow it up. Pity. There!"

With a creak of long-stagnant mechanics, a panel at the base of the device opened up revealing a key pad for a ring platform. "Well, this is it," he observed. Frowning, he looked around. "Stand… there," he said, pointing at a patch of ground about two meters to Amelia's left. "That's where they are, I think." She complied, and when she was in place, turned and looked at him expectantly.

Jonas pushed the common sequence on the keypad and was rewarded by the familiar sounds of rings preparing to transport. He sprung up, and darted to Amelia's side. As the rings launched out of the ground to surround them, Jonas seized Amelia's hand and turned them both so that they were firmly facing the direction of the fortress. Then the rings snatched them out of sight and underground.

"Well," said Jonas aloud to the blanketing darkness, "if our goddess Anat is any kind of efficient, she'll probably pick up on that ring activation sooner or later. Best to move as fast as we can."

"Okay," said Amelia. Her fingers were tight on his.

"Stay close," he said softly. He reached out cautiously until he found the tunnel wall, which was only a couple of steps away, careful to keep facing the right direction. Then, using the wall as a guide, he began the slow progress toward Bubastis.

"What was the purpose of this thing, anyway?" Amelia asked. "I mean, I know you said it was an escape tunnel, but an escape to what, exactly? If the stargate is where we're going—"

"She kept a tel'tak hidden out in some caves in the river valley."

"And you don't think it would still be there?"

"I know it isn't."

"How?"

"Malek and Aledar used it to escape from this planet when they first met." If it hadn't been dark, he would have grinned at her.

"Okay then. And did they use this tunnel too?"

"Yeah, except they had torches."

"Lucky them."

They made their way down the tunnel, maintaining an acceptable balance between caution and speed, and the further they went, the more Jonas discouraged conversation. The stone tunnels would carry their voices quite a way.

After what seemed like hours of walking, Jonas began to see the faint haze of light in the distance that signaled the end of the tunnel and their passage into the fortress of Bubastis. Getting here had been the easy part. Reaching the stargate and getting through it would be quite a bit trickier, despite his reassurances to Amelia. Anat had a surplus of Jaffa and Jonas and Amelia were known escapees with no weapons.

Indeed, a little prioritization would not be out of line. With that thought, Jonas pulled himself together and started to put together a plan.

A/N: I got a huge kick out of writing a British character's POV, just so I could spell pyjamas. I think I made a whole LJ entry on the subject at the time. LOL

Only one more scene to write for this story. Yay!!

Did I ever mention how much I love feedback?

Saché