Chapter 14

Osiris was awake. Cameron looked into the security isolation room from the observation window and saw not a scared woman but a viper ready to strike. 'How do you approach a cornered animal? Cautiously and with a zat'. The thought bounced around Cam's brain until his head spun. He had no idea how he was going to get this dangerous animal to talk but he was sure she was going to pull all sorts of stunts before even getting to the bragging part that he had read about in all the reports. Cameron had read every single one of SG-1 missions – a fact that clearly annoyed his team mates at times, but in the same respect it gave him a link a connection to them that he felt he could reach for when needed. Right now he needed their insights more than ever.

Being the 'new boy' in terms of command even after a couple of years could prove difficult. Right at this moment in time he was feeling some of the old nagging doubt that tended to follow him especially when Jack came to call or lead in times of crisis. It's not like he spoke about it to anyone but still it was there. SG-1 was a long standing team that had built very tight ties with one another. Some days he felt more of a follower than an actual team leader. How many times had he deferred to Sam or Daniel's judgement? Was he that scared to fill the infamous Jack O'Neill's shadow? His crossed arms were heavy as he continued to stare into that room. Cam sighed and shook his head as he looked on at their prisoner. He already knew the answer to that question and he had faith in his ability. Otherwise he would not still be leader of SG-1.

This woman in the cold grey isolation room was a keeper of secrets and the most manipulative Goa'uld next to Anubis. Sam had warned Cameron to watch himself as Osiris could play the Sarah innocence card well and he would not know the difference between host and Goa'uld until it was too late. Leaving the observation booth and nodding to the guard at the door of the Isolation room Cameron steeled himself. He was meeting a piece of SG-1 history and it was not a part he was particularly pleased to meet. He walked into the room and stood in front of the table saying nothing. There was a tension in the air that could be cut with a knife. Sarah, no Osiris's eyes just stared at him saying absolutely nothing. He walked in and sat down on the seat and just stared at Osiris. 'Time for the opening move' he thought. He sat there and just stared.

To Osiris is 'creature' that had walked into the room was nothing, less than nothing. The man had been watching the host for some time of that much he was certain. It was like feeling the presence of a gnat crawl across your skin. You can't always see it but you can feel it's there. When he entered the room and sat down Osiris noted that there was the arrogance in the manner of the man that went with the Tau'ri. He neither knew nothing about the man nor cared to know anything. His mission with the Tau'ri had been interrupted and he needed to get out of this small room to the Chappa'ai to complete it. He needed to get his host body to his Lord and his queen. The process of permanence needed to be completed. Osiris looked at the man in front of him and felt contempt. He'd not dealt with this one before and he hid the satisfaction knowing that he would be able to try and deceive him further. The plan was to live again and he would take great satisfaction in leading the young man further down the path of whatever assumptions he had. This should be an amusing diversion until he got free from Tau'ri hands.

Cameron was tired of this staring match. It was like playing chicken with a significantly more dangerous opponent. He decided to break the stalemate. "See here's what I've been thinkin' these last few moments. Why here and now? I'm guessin' that whilst you and I have been playin' chicken with our eyeballs, you've been thinkin' about ways in which to one up me and confuse me about what your grand plan is."

Osiris lifted Sarah's head haughtily. "Insolence! I assume you are going to tell me that I have no hope of getting out of here and you have come to gloat. Tau'ri arrogance has not changed in the last few years. Do not hope to get your friends back. Nothing of the host survives this time."

"Now I didn't say a word about anyone bein' missin'. An' here's me thinkin' you won't cooperate with us. So they would be alive at this moment in time. Damn that's trouble for you! You see if this is about resurrecting the dead by evidence of you rearing you're ugly genetic head then we have a chance to find out who else has been brought back." Osiris did not even try to hide the disgust on the face of Sarah. This 'man' had not even identified himself and in that way it was harder to manipulate the unknown. The thoughts about how to get around the slip he'd made to this thing in front of him was getting harder. Osiris tried to speak and found himself being cut off again by the unknown man. "See here's the bit I don't understand. For someone who is supposed to be a 'God' why didn't you see our interference and why can't you get out of this predicament? You'll have to know that whomever else in the pantheon of 'Gods' that has been resurrected are gonna figure out that you and whomever else you are workin' for is playin' them all for patsies. Now the big question is - are you gonna stick with the original partner or are you gonna go for the one with all the power. Now who will it be?"

Cameron didn't wait for an answer. He didn't want to hear it. He lifted himself up off the chair and walked out of the room and nodded at Sam who had been observing the whole scene via the camera on her laptop outside the isolation room. They hadn't initially wanted Osiris to be aware that members of the original SG-1 were involved in his capture until they'd gotten the Goa'uld shaken off it's usual 'I am a god therefore I can manipulate you' strategy until they were ready. "That's phase one. Wonder how old Ossie will react to phase two." Sam nodded and steeled herself. "Tag! I'm it!" she whispered to herself.

Bryan was falling. The lift journey since he arrived into the mountain seemed to go on forever. He narrowed his eyes at the general and the obvious fibbie type who seemed to follow the man like some oblivious puppy. They dumped him on level 20 with some burly guards with some whispered orders and without even a 'by your leave'. The Guards just nodded and took him away from the man who had wrecked his life. Bryan never liked small spaces but just when he thought it was bad enough in the elevator he found himself being dragged to a doctor by some big burly guards and shoved into an MRI machine. He was summarily told to hop onto the bed in front of him, asked a number of medical questions, all metal removed from him and then ordered to lie down and stay still by a rather imposing brown haired male doctor.

Bryan could feel the panic well up inside him as he was rolled into the enclosed space. The thump thump thump of the machine seemed to make him more nervous and he began to squirm. "Mr Wade that is enough! Now keep still we are nearly done!" The disembodied voice of an annoyed female doctor seemed to echo in the small chamber he was lying in. 'What was a doctor or an MRI machine doing inside a mountain?' came the voice inside his head. He calmed at the sound of this voice. It was one of reason and of sanity and he hadn't had that much in the last few months. Bryan had been hallucinating when he saw the little boy he was sure of it but something in his heart of hearts told him that he wasn't. Five minutes after the voice came floating through the speakers the thumping noise stopped and he was taken out of the medical room and they travelled up 4 floors to level 16. The corridor was long and curved and he now recognised that he was being treated as something other than a protected man. Bryan Wade was their prisoner.

Jack turned to Malcolm Barrett and they sauntered onto the MRI observation room where the medical staff usually sat. They both grabbed and seat and waited for the results they so desperately needed. They wanted to be sure Bryan was a Goa'uld they needed that certainty before they could go forward. However, it was the presence of the symbiote they weren't being shown on the screen. Alison the MRI technician was taking Bryans brain apart section by section and even using enhancements they still could not find the usual indicators of a symbiote being present. "It's as you can see sir the lighter soft tissue areas of the brain show no evidence of additional soft tissue that makes up a symbiotes body. It is often these areas along the brain stem and the cerebeullum – the areas of the brain that controls movement, etc. This is where the symbiote often attaches itself that often shows up in the brain MRI. There is, in this man's brain, a slow deterioration of the areas that are attached to the short term memory. He's got brain cancer sir. I don't think he's even aware of the affects yet sir." Jack sat back in his chair and shook his head and cursed softly. Malcolm was reflected his sentiments. "Ah crap! What a way to find out. Right, thank you Alison! Can you make sure Doctor Lam gets these results and ask her to meet me on level 16 in half an hour? I'm gonna just change into my BDU's and get outta this monkey suit. We need to nail down how the Goa'uld got our people and fast. I get the feeling time is not on our side here." Alison nodded and reached for the phone next to her desk. Jack raised his head and looked over to Malcolm. "Right d'ya think ya can get me some answers from this bozo before I lay him up with his diagnosis from our good doctor?" Malcolm feigned a hurt expression. "Like I told your delightful Colonel Carter I'm a master interrogator so I'm sure it's a possibility."

Jack snorted. "She's remembered enough to say that you still got nothing outta the last guy! In fact didn't he manage to get you to do some dirty work for him?" Malcolm scowled. He still wanted to forget what Ba'al managed to brainwash him into. He wasn't amused that the general had remembered. Jack continued "Yeah, well I'm still trying to forget you hit on my Carter one or twice! Although she did turn you down!"

"Yeah eventually!" Malcolm smirked with a mild victory.

Jack's face went into a scowl and Malcolm's smirk faltered. Jack coughed to hide the victorious laugh that had been building up his throat. Sam was definitely still a mild bone of contention between the two of them but now that things between her and Jack had gotten a little more permanent he was happy enough to banter about it with the man. "Okay I'll see you on level 16 in about half an hour." Malcolm nodded and head out the room. Jack's good humour left him as soon as Malcolm left. He looked at the man being escorted out of the room and scowled. He didn't want to waste time now. Daniel was counting on them and he wanted to never let him down. He lifted himself out of the seat, walked to the door of the observation room and left Alison to getting the results of the MRI compiled in peace. "Oh sir!" Alison called. "Yes?" Jack said the word slowly and deliberately. I think just found something. Jack's head whipped around. His heart stuttered mildly. "Alison? You know it's rude to keep a guy waiting. Especially one of senior rank!" Alison smirked. She knew the general was one who'd let her away with her attitude. "Well sir, ya think in these circumstances you'd give a girl a minute to confirm her findings and then make it worth her senior officers while." Jack held his hands up in surrender and grinned. Alison focused in on the arm portion of the MRI. There was a small dot on the image. "Sir this often wouldn't show on an MRI and I wasn't looking for it. I just began to review sections of the body to see if there was anything else to explain the changes physically but I can see something that almost looks like a small machine attached to the nerve in the arm." Jack squinted. "Where?" Alison double clicked on the section she was looking at. The image blew up and there was a single nanite attached to the nerve of the arm of one Bryan Wade. "Alison, get Doctor Lam down here now! I think we have a problem."

There was a rush of air as Sam stepped into the interrogation room. A cruel smile split the lips of Sarah Gardner's face and at once carter recognised the one in control of the host. She reached into her instincts. The ones attached to her time with Jolinar and naquadah in her bloodstream and she could sense no one there. There was effectively no Goa'uld. A shiver ran down Sam's spine and she lifted her head in the same gesture of contempt. "Major Samantha Carter part of SG-1"

"Actually that's Colonel! Get a new script would ya! Always the same lines" Sam kept her voice level and her expression hard. Osiris let the scowl on her face deepen. "My, my how times how changed."

Sam smirked "Mostly for the better. You are not around anymore. Osiris you are an echo of what once was. We no longer have to worry about false 'Gods' roaming the place. So by waking up again in this poor woman's body you thought – what? That when you got back to your 'dominions'" Sam put air quotes around the word "that your Jaffa would just fall down back to your will? Sorry! The Jaffa has had an education of sorts since you've gone to the other side of godhood and they no longer look to work for the goa'uld."

"Ah the lauded Tau'ri. Do you suppose that we all died when you thought we did? You must know by now that our failsafe is now active and Goa'uld have not died out. The question is have you figured out how we have returned? How are your senses Colonel Carter? Is the Naquada in your blood ringing at the very presence of me or my host? Your face tells me it is not." Osiris grinned again and her expression was smug. "I should think by now your blood should be buzzing at my very proximity to you." A knock came to the door and Cameron came in. His expression blank and his arms were placed behind his back. "Now y'all were probably thinkin' that we were here for a little chitchat and that you could spin us a yarn. Well ya know you were wrong." Cameron nodded to the guards in the room and they backed away from Osiris and as a small bleep came from Cameron's back. Osiris's eyes widened in shock as Cameron pulled up the Zat and fired. She collapsed in an instant. "Now we get this Ossie down to Carolyn. Let's get some questions answered". Sam nodded in agreement. "after the MRI the first question I want answered is how in all that's holy did they manage to ensure that someone like myself or Vala could not pick up the presence of the Goa'uld in their system. Second that to putting a call through to the Tok'ra. I'm starting to agree with Jack on this one. Time they started giving us some straight answers!"