"She's lying," Sam snapped, after a moment's silence.
"I must agree with Colonel Carter," Teal'c stated, "I sense the presence of a symbiont."
"Or some form of Goa'uld," she stepped closer to Mery, determined to grab her if she so much as moved a couple of paces.
Mery rolled her eyes, "You people are so simple. Actually, that's what mother always said. The Tau'ri were simple."
"We captured you," Daniel answered, somewhat smugly.
She accorded him a mock bow, "Oh yes, a child, you captured a child, I'm sorry, well done."
Teal'c narrowed his eyes, "She does not behave in the manner one would expect from a Goa'uld."
"'She' is right here. And 'she' is not a Goa'uld. Technically," Mery shot him a sarcastic smile.
Sam shook her head, "Get her to the Infirmary. I want full scans, bloods, everything," she gave the girl a shove toward the nearest SF.
"'She' is also a princess," she glared back over her shoulder at Sam.
"Not here you're not. Get her out of here."
"Not a Goa'uld, yet you both say you can sense the presence of one. Doesn't have the voice, claims she's harsesis, acts like a petulant teenager…" Daniel frowned.
"She is in our custody. At present, we must assemble teams to retrieve O'Neill," Teal'c countered.
"Teal'c's right," Sam nodded, wearily running a hand through her hair, "You're sure you couldn't see him anywhere? Even just something the Jaffa tripped over?"
"No sight, no trace, no indignant yelling," the archaeologist replied.
She was almost frozen to her spot at the base of the ramp, "…We left him behind. We never leave people behind. We just left him…"
"His orders were to get Sat…Mery, whatever she claims to be called, back here. He would've ordered you to go if he could have."
"Doesn't make it right," she started to move off.
"Consider this, Colonel Carter," Teal'c tried to reassure her, "We have the daughter of Satra in our custody. If she is indeed harsesis and truly 'beloved' of Satra, she will know much of her mother's plans, from even before her birth. She may know many of Satra's strongholds."
"If we can get her to talk…"
"Doesn't seem like the kind of girl to keep quiet…" Daniel muttered.
"Let go of me!" Jason's voice rang out down the corridor.
"What the…"
"Let go!" he struggled against the solider that held him back. He caught Sam's gaze as they walked past, "Where's my dad?" he demanded.
She halted, and knew it was a mistake the moment she stopped, "I don't know," she answered honestly.
"You left him on whatever planet you just came back from!" he shouted.
"Your father chose to go on this mission, Jason," Daniel answered.
"You just left him behind! How many times has he sent people after you, gone after you? Huh? And you just leave him!" Jason glared at Sam, "She gets back here and suddenly its alright to abandon my dad on some planet and leave him to die!"
Sam shook her head sadly and sighed, before walking on.
"Its your fault! You hear me? Its your damn fault! Everything's screwed up here because of you!"
"Be silent, Jason O'Neill," Teal'c looked down at him, voice deadly low.
Daniel sighed, shooting a disappointed glance in his direction, "You never did know when to shut up, did you, Jason? You want to know something about that woman you just yelled at for no good reason? She saved your father's ass more times than anyone else around here. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. We all left that planet, we searched, and they were your father's orders," he turned away and headed after Sam.
Jason stopped struggling, settling for glaring after Daniel, furious.
"Your father would be most disappointed in your behaviour," Teal'c followed his team mates.
He shrugged the solider off him and turned to head back deeper into the base, hopefully find something he could kick the crap out of. He strangely wished Belle was there; she would let him rant and rave and not make it seem like he was crazy or out of line. Generally because she understood and really would hit home her thoughts on his behaviour when the time came. Jason was somewhat stunned to see the figures of Rei and Sa'rac a few metres away, having witnessed his whole outburst.
Shaking with fury, Rei stalked forward toward him, drawing her hand back and delivering a sharp slap that echoed round the room, "Don't you ever, ever, speak to my mother like that again!" she shouted, "You selfish, self absorbed, pathetic excuse for a human being!" she whirled back round and walked 'calmly' away, hands clenched into fists at her sides.
Sa'rac hesitated for a moment to observe the expression on his face, "I believe I would be correct in saying you deserved that. I would not follow her," this said, that was exactly what he did.
"Believe me, I got no intention of following her," Jason mumbled, bringing one hand up to his stinging face. He winced as his breathing began to slow down and the anger drained from him, another emotion creeping in instead. It felt suspiciously like shame.
He never really had sorted out in his mind which was worse; being shot or being hit by a staff blast. Though much complaining ensued after being shot with a zat, it was like falling over in the playground compared to the others. He supposed there was always the bullet to be removed if you were shot, but then, there was a pretty damn big wound if you were hit by a staff. Jack twitched, not opening his eyes. He still wasn't quite sure what was causing the pain in his back. If he'd been shot, maybe there would be nerve damage, a bullet lodged somewhere it shouldn't be, and he couldn't move. He moved his legs and decided that wasn't the case. Besides, Carter wouldn't have shot him. Right? And Daniel really had got better with the weapons deal over the years. Staff blast. Damned Jaffa. He swore, loudly.
"So whatever we have here does have a voice. Is definitely humanoid, but appears to be invisible…"
Jack looked up into the eyes of a woman with dark hair and eyes, who was clearly directing her words at him.
"Attempts to deactivate the device prove fruitless. However, the blood it sheds when it moves reveals its movements. For now. Perhaps until it is drained completely," she smiled cruelly, "I propose it deactivates the device itself."
"I propose you shove that proposal up your ass," he coughed.
She knelt beside him, now grinning, "It is most stupid to believe you have any form of power here. We can locate you, despite whatever it is you are using to remain 'hidden' and we know there was more than one of you. And considering my beloved child is now missing… You are of little value, even with any information you think will keep you alive. She has a greater chance of coming back to me than you have of 'leading' me to her, into what would most likely be a trap."
Jack rolled onto his back, arching in pain as he did so, locating the wound near the base of his spine, "I killed your father. We've got your daughter. And go ahead, shoot me. I've heard better speeches. Trust me, you want to keep me alive. And if you don't, hey, go for it. But you'll never get her back if I'm dead. Oh, and did I mention that they're so going to kick your sorry ass for this?" if he ignored the ache in his bones and blanked out everything he knew, he could pretend the past sixteen years hadn't happened, and yeah, they were so going to kick her ass, without question. They were a team. Nobody could stop them. At least, that was how it had often seemed.
Satra stood up, "Perhaps you will not be quite so defiant when you have lost more blood," she kicked out with a strike that was painfully accurate for a guess, "and when you realise that they don't know where to locate you. Sooner or later, you will have to deactivate that device. If only when you die," she wandered away, as if she had all the time in the world.
Jack stifled a string of curses, struggling to stay conscious as shooting pains ran up his spine, his wound refusing to be ignored. He noticed more blood seeping from it to form a pool around him as he blacked out.
She had sat in the empty briefing room for minutes on end, as Sa'rac tried to make conversation, clearly concerned. He even made several very derogatory remarks about Jason, that she wasn't sure were for her benefit or his own satisfaction. Jason. She wanted to throttle him. It was alright for him to say such things about, and to, her mother, and claim he was the injured party, when her world had been turned upside down in a day? Did it matter that his father had loved her mother, that she had returned his feelings? Had they acted on them? No. Apparently not. Was she going around, ranting and raving about his father? No. She had been dragged all the way to a new town, new school, and, oh, wait, new universe. He was just throwing a tantrum because his world didn't seem so perfect anymore. So what her mother had been in love with someone other than her father? So damn what? Rei was still trying to convince herself that none of it mattered as she mumbled an apology to Sa'rac and left the room. If she could just crush the physical attraction to felt toward Jason, everything would be just fine. Really. Everything. Just fine. Right.
"Who do we report to?" Sam sank down on the bench in the centre of their locker room.
"What do you mean?" Daniel questioned.
"Who do we go explain this to? Get new orders? Get permission to go back?"
Teal'c slowly looked back at her, shutting the door on his locker, a little confused.
"Sam, you're Jack's second in command," Daniel reminded her.
"I was. Not anymore," she replied.
"No, I mean, you are now."
"What?" Sam stared.
"You're in command. You have the rank and seniority-"
"Now I feel old."
"He trusts you. I can't believe he didn't tell you there was nobody else for you to report to."
"It would be most like O'Neill to 'forget' such a fact," Teal'c added.
She stood up, "…I can't run this place."
"You ran a department at the pentagon. More personnel than here," Daniel reminded her.
"Years ago."
"Once we have the intelligence from Merysatra, we will be able to put together a mission to retrieve O'Neill. Having nobody to report to but yourself with make this a great deal easier."
"…Well…not exactly…" Daniel began, "…But yeah, I suppose you're in charge. Essentially."
"…The President…"
"I suspect you're gonna have to call him…"
"Rei. Oh god, she's still here."
"Gonna have to do something about that…"
"Mery. The Infirmary."
"And her…"
"And Pete. Annika. Rob, Paul. I wont be home."
"…Them too…"
Sam sighed, "…Now I know why he hated being General so much…" she started for the door, "Right. Okay. The President. I've got a phone call to make."
"Rei!"
She had been wandering around the base aimlessly for quite a while, glad that nobody seemed to be 'guarding' her anymore. Maybe they'd forgotten. But she hadn't expected to hear Belle's voice echoing along the corridor. Rei frowned, "…I thought you went home, Belle," she caught sight of Harriet, clutching her sister's hand tightly, "Hi, Harriet."
"I did. But Harriet says there's something wrong, Dad's worried, or hurt, or concerned, I don't know. I didn't think they were going off-world, but she says they were fighting, and," Belle exhaled slowly, "Sorry, lot of things going on."
She frowned, "…But you were at home."
"Yeah, I had to beg our neighbours to watch the rest of the horde whilst I was gone."
"…So how do you know something's wrong?"
"Oh…" Belle paused, "…Well…"
"I just know," Harriet nodded solemnly.
"She can sense things. Only about our family or people she knows really well, but she's sorta…linked to them, I guess. She knows what they're feeling…or thinking, sometimes. Something happened to Mom when she was pregnant with her, it affected her," she explained.
"…Wow…I…er…I guess that can be a good thing."
"Sometimes," Belle sighed, "What's going on?"
"…Jason's dad didn't come back from wherever they went. But they brought some girl back with them…" Rei shook her head, "That's all I know."
"Shit," she winced as she looked down at Harriet, "Sorry."
"Let's go find Dad and Mama," her little sister started to tug her along.
"Coming along? You seem a little lost. We should find Jay, too."
"And Sa'rac."
"Sa'rac?"
"New friend."
"Sounds like a Jaffa name," Belle mused.
"I think he is…from what he told me. He's alien, I know that much," Rei started to follow her, "…I…about Jason…"
"Yeah?"
She paused, then shook her head, "Never mind."