Dinner Time
It was a very big light change coming out from their cell and into a lightly lit, white walled corridor. It was completely deserted, with the exception of SG-1 and four guards. Still squinting, Daniel made out that they were all big and bulky, carrying different sorts of whips. All the guards were quiet as they surrounded the squinting team-mates but then suddenly a loud and familiar laugh echoed through the silence, startling everyone slightly.
"It's great to see you three again!" the voice continued, and the three members turned to look at the broad-grinning face of Perka. Jack smiled weekly and Daniel did a half grimace, half smile. Something that could only be described as relief passed through Jack as the familiar face smiled at him. At least there was something here that seemed vaguely familiar. The other three guards were still glaring at them, but Perka continued in a happy voice.
"Jon and I were upgraded from Construction Workers to Slave Guards, so now we're here!" Sam suppressed a shudder at the mention of Jon and looked around to see if he was one of the other three guards. Luckily, he wasn't.
"It's great to see you too, Perka," Jack said in a strained voice, trying to stand a little taller.
"When they first told me that I was supervising three troublemakers to dinner, I was wondering if they were talking about you three. I guess they were!" Perka slapped Jack hard on the back with another laugh, causing both Jack and Sam to stumble forward. Jack bit down hard on his lip to keep from crying out and Sam watched him with a pained expression.
"Come on, it's time to leave," said one of the guards, and the four men started making their way down the hall, SG-1 stumbling to keep up so that they wouldn't bump into the two guards behind them. As they ventured down the corridor, all that they could see were doors with keypads beside them. The doors also had numbers on them, and they were slowly decreasing. The group finally stopped by a large white door that swung open. They stepped inside the door and into another corridor. But this corridor has glass walls. To the right was a large room with arm-chairs and tables, complete with an assortment of what looked like modern board games and such.
To the left was a smaller room with two doors. The door to the right was marked with the words 'Women' and the door to the left were marked with the words 'Men'. Both rooms on either side of the corridor were empty. Continuing, they reached another section of the corridor that also had glass walls. But this sight was much more startling. On the left side was a large dinning area with lush seats and large amounts of food. All around the tables sat more of these 'Slave Guards' with their whips and thick leather clothing.
To the left was also a large dinning hall, much larger then the other. But the sight that greeted them wasn't as amazing. All along wooden benches sat people, slaves to be exact. They all had the same outfits as SG-1 (minus Jack who had bloody fabric tied around his waist) and most of them looked scared. On the tables before them sat a wooden cup of water and a wooden plate with some sort of oatmeal looking liquid. The people were shovelling the food into their mouths as though they hadn't eaten for days. They probably hadn't, much like SG-1.
A girl, probably around nineteen, was suddenly dragged from her seat by one of the Slave Guards. She tried to fight him for a moment before he bent her arm painfully behind her back and she stopped struggling with a pained expression on her face. Taking the girl, the Slave Guard exited the Slave Dinning Hall and into the other room where the rest of the guards were eating. Most of them let out a cry of satisfaction as the guard dumped the girl on the lush bench and offered her some food. Carefully and with a scared expression, the girl reached our and grabbed an apple.
"They picked a good one today," Perka said with a smirk as he eyed the girl from a distance. Seeing the confused looks on SG-1's faces, he offered and explanation. "Every day, a lady is picked from the right dinning hall to dine with the Slave Guards. It is a real honour," Perka shrugged and took his eyes away from the girl. Sam watched as one of the guards pulled the young girl closer and started stroking her back. She had to look away in disgust. What kind of planet was this? Jack had a sudden troubled feeling as Perka eyed the girl in the Slave Guard's dinning hall. Glancing quickly at Sam, Jack knew that he would have to keep an eye on her. Sam usually did have the unfortunate luck of catching the attention of most men on foreign planets. The group stopped before the door that led to the dinning hall for the slaves.
"Well, you three haven't caused much trouble and I doubt that you will have any luck escaping, so we're going to let you go here. Now go sit on one of the benches and you will get food and water," Perka said, placing his hand of a scanner which opened the door. SG-1 were pushed inside.
"Well this is lovely, we can have a team dinner together," Jack said in a sarcastic voice as he eyed all the people.
"We should probably go sit down," Daniel said quietly, eyeing the Slave Guard who was guarding the door and glaring at them. Some colour had returned to Daniel's face and he no longer had the urge to throw up, something that he appreciated very much. The sight of people eating would have probably caused him to vomit if it wasn't for the fact that there was nothing left in his stomach to come up. Sam glanced around to find any possible escape route, but apparently the only door was the main entrance and exit to the dinning hall. But Sam doubted that they would be able to escape with Daniel and the Colonel in this condition. Jack was still leaning heavily on the Major, his arm around her shoulder for balance and her arm gingerly around his waist to steady him. If he hadn't been in so much pain, Jack would have enjoyed it. Sam led her two team mates toward the far corner where some seats were available and sat them down. A couple of people glanced at Jack and his bandaged side, but otherwise most people kept to their own space and food. A Slave Guard shoved three bowls and three glasses at the team-mates, stationing himself a couple of feet away from SG-1 but not far enough that he couldn't glare and keep an eye on them. All three of them glanced at the mush in the bowl and then at each other.
"We need to eat to keep our strengths up," Jack reminded them, grabbing a spoon and taking a large serving of the gruel. Sam picked at hers carefully before taking a smaller portion and Daniel just looked at it doubtingly.
"Taste's just like oatmeal," Jack gagged out as he struggled to swallow the vile food. It tasted like someone had mixed oatmeal and earwax together. Sam sighed before sticking her spoon in her mouth and swallowing quickly, ignoring the disgusting taste. They all needed food, especially if they wanted any chance to escape from this place. But Daniel didn't seem like he was very hungry. He sat with his spoon in his hand, hesitating over the bowl of food with a grimace on his face. He really did not want to start throwing up in front of everyone.
"It's actually very healthy for you. It gives you a lot of strength." Daniel looked up to see two piercing but gentle blue eyes studying him. It sent shudders down Daniel's back, eyes were not supposed to look so unnaturally beautiful. But it reminded him of something…or someone.
"I'm sure it does, it just doesn't look very appetizing," he replied, studying the girls shoulder length black hair that fell around her face like a curtain on a stage. "I'm Daniel by the way," he added, reaching out a hand across the table. The girl, who looked around the age of fifteen, stared at his hand blankly before looking up at him with a confused expression.
"I am Sara," she said hesitantly, also reaching out her arm, copying Daniel and lining their arms up next to each other. Realizing that she probably didn't know what a handshake was, Daniel smiled slightly at her before retrieving his hand. He shoved the spoon into the bowl of food and twirled it around for a moment.
"Eat." Sara said in a firm tone. He glanced at her before stuffing a spoonful in his mouth. He immediately regretted it. Struggling to keep the food down, he shut his mouth tightly and grabbed the cup, gulping down half of the contents. Sara grinned sheepishly at him before looking over at Sam and Jack who were also having trouble eating their meal.
"Are those your friends?" she asked curiously, her eyes once more flickering to Daniel. Seeing an opportunity to make a friend and to ask some questions and maybe get some answers, Daniel nodded.
"Yes, the blonde woman is Sam and the other guy is Jack. We're not from around here if you hadn't noticed."
"Not many of us are." Both of them paused.
"Do you know exactly where we are and why we're here," Daniel asked after the brief silence. Sara sighed, bringing her hands into her lap.
"All I know is that we are slaves being transported to Ralm where we are to be sold off." Daniel raised an eyebrow, glancing over at Sam and Jack who were still trying to eat. But he could see that they were also listening to the conversation.
"How are we being taken there? By plane, ship, or land?" he asked. Sara shrugged.
"I truly do not know." Daniel took another spoonful of the food and swallowed it. It actually wasn't so bad if you just ignored the taste. And if you were hungry enough. A bell sounded toward the front of the hall and suddenly there was a flurry of movement all around them.
"Dinner is over, it is time for us to return to our cells," Sara explained quickly before standing and hurrying to the door. Daniel gulped down the rest of the water before standing and helping Jack up on his feet.
"You guys have to go and escape," Jack grunted painfully as they started walking. Sam, who was once more supporting Jack, shook her head.
"Not without you sir, and if I'm correct, they will have guards stationed everywhere in this building or whatever it is." The team had to stop talking as they neared the door where three guards were positioned. Perka came toward them with a crooked grin on his face. He had a needle and vile in his hand.
"This will make you feel much better," he said without warning, grabbing Jack's shoulder and injecting the vile of liquid into his neck. The other two Slave Guards had quickly grabbed Sam and Daniel from behind and they were both now struggeling to get free. Jack swayed for a moment without any support and it looked like he was going to collapse to the ground. But relief grew in his face and he steadied himself.
"It won't heal the wound but it takes away the pain," Perka explained, grabbing O'Neill's arm tightly and leading him down the corridor with Sam and Daniel behind. They once more reached their cell, which was at the end of the corridor and they were roughly shoved inside. To their surprise, the room was now dimly lit with something that reminded them of moonlight. But of course there were no windows, just lights in the ceiling.
"Sir, you should lay down," Sam urged, still thinking about his wound.
"It's fine Carter, I can't feel any pain," Jack said with a grin, poking his side for emphasize.
"Yeah Jack, but you still shouldn't do that," Daniel added from where he was standing by the door. "Any way you can get this door open Sam?" Sam made her way over to where he was standing and observed the stone wall.
"Only if there was a control panel of some sort, which there isn't."
"Great…" Jack muttered, settling onto one of the metal beds. The cold was once more starting to settle in the room and Sam involuntarily rubbed her arms for warmth. "Why does it have to be so damn cold in cells?" Jack mumbled, eyeing Sam who was searching for one of the two blankets that had been in there before. Finding them, Sam handed one to Jack and one to Daniel. Jack refused. " I'm not cold, you take it." Sam hesitated for a moment before wrapping the blanket around her.
"30 minutes until lights out," said a rough voice outside their cell in the corridor.
"I guess we should get some sleep," Jack commented but no one made any move to lay down on the beds. Looking at his team, Jack once again felt the overwhelming guilt that he had gotten them stuck in this situation. He plastered on a small smile. "I'll take first watch."
A/N: I could go on rambling about different excuses to why this chapter is so late. But I won't, because I see myself as a cause rather than a victim. So, I'm sorry, and I hope you enjoy this chapter and I am working on the rest right now.