Disclaimer: I own no part of Stargate SG1 or its Characters and I receive no profit from this story.

Chapter 11

Daniel

"I asked you a question. What are you doing on my property?"

I raised my hands to the middle-aged woman with wild, untamed dark curls holding a shotgun to my forehead, her eyes intensely studying me and Sam as we sat on the ground.

"Uh....Um...Sorry. We didn't know this was your property." I began, praying it would appease her anger.

"Well, now you do. So you better get lost." She responded testily, gesturing with her gun towards the woods.

"Wait, please." I appealed to her. "My name is Dr. Daniel Jackson and this is Captain Samantha Carter." I pointed to Sam. "We need help. We didn't know we were trespassing, honestly. We were kidnapped and we escaped from this compound not that far from here and we ran all night and...and uh, uh. " My head was feeling too foggy for me to think straight and I knew I was babbling. By the look she was giving me, she had to think I was some kind of lunatic.

"Kidnapped, eh? That's a new one."

"Please, you got to believe us. Daniel here is hurt. We need to get him to a hospital and I am an officer in the Air Force and need to get in contact with my superiors ASAP, it's a matter of national security." Sam tried to convince her.

"You're hurt?" The woman asked, looking me over. Truth was, even after resting, I still felt like crap. My head and back was just as sore as ever except now, I was feeling chills and an achy fever on top of that. If I looked half as bad as I felt, then it wouldn't take much for the woman to see that Sam was telling the truth.

"Please." Sam pleaded.

The woman's features softened ever so slightly, but she kept her weapon trained on me and Sam.

"Alright. I'll take you to my cabin, but try any thing funny and you'll be eating lead, got it?"

Sam and I nodded and the woman waved her gun at us in a gesture to stand. Sam came up quickly, but I found myself having difficulty trying to stand and as I did the world tilted a bit. I shook off the dizziness, but felt Sam wordlessly slip an arm around my waist to provide me with some stability. I gave her a grateful grin as the woman pointed towards the woods.

"My place is about a half-mile that way." She took off and lead the way while Sam and I continued on behind her at a slower pace. Each step was a painful reminder of how much abuse my body had been through the last couple of days. I really wasn't used to this type of physical exersion. My idea of exercise before all of this had been to take the stairs leading up to my apartment on the fourth floor instead of the elevator. Sure, I've been on a few digs before in the desert that had been physically demanding, but in the last couple of years those had been few and far between. Most of the time I would spend hours confined to a desk only getting up every once in a while to get coffee or to stretch out the kinks from being hunched over a book or artifact that needed study. Certainly nothing compared to this.

Thankfully, the woman had been right and it had only been about a fifteen minute walk to her little 'cabin' as she called it. 'Shack' may have been a better term for her place, but it was shelter and if she had water, I would consider it akin to a palace. Even then, I was exhausted and sweaty by the time we got there.

Without a word, the woman walked up the steps to the door and held it open for us as we caught up to her. Sam once again helped me to climb the three steps that lead up to the door and we entered the cabin.

"You can put him on the bed." The woman suggested curtly to Sam, who walked with me over to the only bed in the one-room hovel. It may have not been the Ritz-Carlton, or even a Motel-Six, but that simple feather mattress was the best thing I had laid on in days. I turned to my uninjured side and was surprised when I felt a cold hand land on my forehead.

"He's got a fever." The woman pointed out to Sam matter-of-factly. "How long ago was he injured?"

"Hard to say, maybe 10-13 hours ago?" Sam replied.

The woman came to my side and lifted my shirt, pulling off the t-shirt that had served as a bandage.

"Ah!" I hissed as she poked and prodded at the wound. "Is it really necessary to poke it?" I asked.

"Do you want my help or not?" The woman came back.

"Sorry." I apologized

"The wound is infected." She continued "How did you do this?"

"He landed on some glass. It went in rather deep." Sam informed her for me.

"I'll say. There's a good chance you might still have some embedded in there, but what you need are antibiotics and a doctor, none of which I have around here."

"Do you have a phone nearby?" Sam asked "If I could just get a hold of...."

"Does it look like I have a phone? I haven't needed one in years."

"What about the nearest town?" I asked "How far is it from here?"

"The nearest town is a day's hike east of here. I usually go into town once a month for supplies, but I don't have a vehicle, we'd have to hoof it and I don't think that's such a good idea in your current state. Now, I have a radio around here somewhere, but it hasn't worked in years..."

"Perhaps I could take a look at it. I'm pretty good with electronics." Sam suggested.

"Knock yourself out. I think it's in that closet behind you."

Sam turned and went to the closet, beginning her search for the radio. The woman turned back to me and I tried to give her a thankful smile.

"Thanks for helping us. What is your name?" I asked wanting to get on the woman's good side.

"Marlene." She introduced herself. "I apologize if I've been a little short with you. I don't get a whole lot of visitors out here and when I do it's usually teenagers, getting lost while trying to find a place to drink and screw. But you two are certainly...different."

"Thanks, Marlene...I think." That finally seemed to do the trick and Marlene cracked a half-smile, brightening her otherwise dour features. She grabbed a first aid kit and took out a roll of gauze and some tape then went to her kitchen and wet a washcloth with some alcohol. Coming back, she sat opposite me on the bed and cleaned the wound with the wet cloth. I bit down on my tongue as the liquid burned into the open wound.

"So, you're some kind of Doctor?" She asked as she worked. "Obviously, it's not a medical one." She groused as she finished then pressed the gauze into my back and taped it up.

"Yeah, not so much." I agreed. "I'm an archaeologist. You seem to know something about medicine though, are you a nurse?" I asked.

"No." Marlene answered. "I've been a veterinary assistant for many years and I saw all kinds of injuries to animals and humans aren't all that different to treat than them." She sighed sadly before going on. "When my husband got sick I used to be his nurse of sorts... until he died."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I consoled her. " So, that's why you're out here by yourself?...." I could feel Marlene stiffen and I felt as though I should kick myself for asking such a personal question too soon. "Sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I was just curious."

"It's okay. Ya see, my husband and I moved put here 'bout twenty years ago. He was a researcher and I was his assistant."

"What were you researching?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"The black bear population in the area. We were following one particular family for several generations."

"Bears? There are bears out here?" I asked, once again grateful for the shelter.

"Of course." She smiled "But they'll usually leave you alone if you leave them alone. Unless you stumble into a mother's den. Then you you can kiss your ass good-bye."

"Right......so..you said your husband was sick?"

"Yeah, he died about three years ago from colon cancer." She replied with a distant look in her eyes. "Died right there on that bed you're laying on. Didn't want to be hooked up to machines and pumped full of medicine in the end-This was his favorite place on earth and after he passed, I vowed to continue his research and I have no intention on ever leaving."

"Leave? Why, did someone try to get you leave?"

"A few months ago, I got a visit from a man that wanted to buy my property; All 50 acres of it, but I wasn't about to sell. A few days later, the property next to mine was purchased from 'Old Jim'- he was this old hermit that never left the forest and his family owned at least 150 acres out here for generations. I never believed he would ever sell his land, but it turned out he had died in his sleep and just a few days later the land was bought up. Not long after that, is when that compound went up"

"How long has it been there?"

"Not that long, really. Just a couple of months. I'm not sure what goes on there... In fact, I wasn't all that surprised when you two said you escaped from that compound. I've had my suspicions about that place for a long time and I figured it was some kind of cult."

I nodded and shivered from an oncoming chill. As if sensing my discomfort, Marlene got up and joined Sam at the closet, pulling down a large afghan then draping it over my body.

"Thanks." I told her and she nodded. That's when Sam's voice cut across the room.

"I found the radio. It's a little beat up, but I think I can fix it." She said confidently as she she turned it over in her hands, then sighed resignedly when the bottom fell out to the floor and a mess of wires sprung from the opening."But, it might take me some time." She groused.

Marlene got up from my side and turned to Sam, pulling her to the corner. Even though I knew she was trying to keep her voice low in order to keep me from overhearing their conversation, I could still hear every word she spoke.

"You might want to hurry it up. Your friend's infection is pretty bad. If he doesn't get help soon, he could become septic and after that..."

Sam nodded, understanding.

I understood as well, but I was too tired to be as worried as I probably should have been and was asleep soon after that.

Jack

"You need me?" I asked Ba'al in disbelief, crossing my arms across my chest. "As if I would ever help you with anything."

"Yes, Colonel. I need your help." He replied. "Obviously not for your intellectual prowess, but for something far more basic."

"Such as..?"

"Your genes."

"My genes?"

"Yes. I was going to explain this to you earlier before you and your friends decided to break out and foil at least half of my plans."

"Sorry to be such a pain in the ass." I stated, not sorry at all. "What's so special about my genes anyway?"

"In order to fully explain this to you, I'm going to need you to come out of that sarcophagus and follow me. I have something very interesting to show you that you may find....important."

I eyed Ba'al suspiciously.

"Come, Colonel." He spoke venemously. "Remember, I still hold all of the cards here. You and your friends may have killed two of my Jaffa, but I still have one left and he's more than capable of beheading you with his bare hands and that is a death that not even the sarcophagus can bring you back from, so I suggest you come with me now."

As if to make his point clear, his last remaining Jaffa entered the room looking none too pleased about the fate that had befallen his two fellow goons.

Without much of a choice in the matter, I climbed out of the coffin-like doohicky and followed Ba'al out of the room with the big guy taking up the rear to ensure I wouldn't try to run for it. We made our way through several corridors and came to a lab labeled 'Advanced Genetics' above the door. Ba'al walked in and several scientists looked up from their desks and microscopes.

"Please leave everyone, I require some privacy." The scientists merely nodded and filed out of the lab, leaving me with Ba'al and his giant Jaffa

"My employees are not privy to the full extent of my enterprises here. Most of them are only here because they believe that they are working on the cutting edge of genetic research. I have given them access to my knowledge in genetic manipulation that I acquired from the Asgard." Ba'al explained.

"Asgard?" I asked already confused enough as it was.

"Yes, another race of beings you have yet to meet and I intend for you to never do so. But that is beside the point. From the Asgard I learned much about genetics and I am a result of such knowledge since I am myself a clone of the original Ba'al."

"Yeah, I got that already." I pointed out and he narrowed his eyes at me.

"You should also know that there is another race of beings that once occupied Earth many millenia before either humans developed here. They were known as the 'Ancients'."

"'Ancients'? Now there's a clever name."

"Yes, Colonel. How very witty of you to notice." He sighed with a roll of his eyes, but continued on. "These Ancients possessed technology far greater than anything you or I or any Goa'uld can even imagine."

"Yep, sounds like I know what you want to do tonight, Brain: try to take over the world."

Ba'al was unimpressed by my cartoon allusion and continued his explanation with an irritated sigh.

"On this planet, there is a weapon left by the Ancients of such power and magnitude that the one that controls it could very well rule not only this world, but the entire galaxy."

"Of course, I should have known, the world is never enough, is it?. So, let me guess...You want this weapon?"

"Indeed, Colonel. There's just one problem. The technology that was left behind by the Ancients can only be used by the Ancients or those that possess their highly evolved genes. My scientists have worked tirelessly to find a way to manipulate the human genome in a way that mimics this gene, even with Asgard techniques and knowledge, human technology at this point in time is too severely limited to be completely successful. So, I am forced to seek out those few people on Earth that possess in their DNA this Ancient gene and you Colonel are one of those lucky few." Ba'al grinned at me smugly.

"Wish I'd had this kind of luck with the lottery instead." I complained sarcastically, but Ba'al was not amused. "Ya know there's not a snowball's chance in hell that I'm going to help you get a hold of this weapon."

"I knew you would never agree to help me, Colonel. That's why I took measures to ensure your cooperation."

"What kind of measures?"

"Follow me." Ba'al motioned with his hand and began walking across the lab, coming to a set of double doors which he pushed against and strolled through. I followed reluctantly, prodded along by the Jaffa behind me. He stopped once he reached a plain and windowless, steel door.

"Before I show you what I have behind this door, O'Neill. I want you to understand with crystal clarity that I have the power over life and death here and that which I have given, I can so easily take away."

"Just show me already, will ya?" I asked, growing annoyed with his superior attitude. I couldn't wait to kill him again.

Ba'al entered a code into the lock on the door and he opened it beckoning me to enter the room with him. I stepped inside and stopped cold in my tracks, the blood draining from my face in shock at the sight. I felt dizzy immediately and my heart began to pound.

The room was decorated in bright colors and along the walls, drawings of constellations and of a family with three people holding hands were hung up at various angles. In one corner was a bed and in the other was a desk and at this desk a young boy sat, coloring a picture. Tears sprang to my eyes involuntarily. I wanted to run across the room, but I was paralyzed by fear.

Hearing us enter, the boy looked up at us and dropped his crayon in surprise then smiled brightly, running across the distance of the room in just a few of his short strides. As my legs gave out, I fell to my knees.

"Dad!" He shouted as he sprang into my arms and I held him to me tight, feeling his small heart beating wildly against my chest. I stroked his head and hair in disbelief.

"Oh my God." I whispered into his neck as I let the tears roll down my face. "Charlie."

TBC.....